23 Jul

IO N IPT SC R SU B

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

One dead, 15 hurt in Farwaniya blaze

No: 15158

SHAABAN 22, 1432 AH

Obama sees ‘momentum’ for debt deal

China on the verge of historic sweep

150 Fils

48 5Oslo 15 bomb kills 7, rips up PM office

Terror hits Norway • Gunman shoots down scores

Max 47º Min 33º

OSLO: Smoke pours from a building in the centre of Oslo yesterday following an explosion that tore open several buildings including the prime minister’s office. (Left) A young victim is helped in the centre of Oslo yesterday after the blast. — AP OSLO: Terrorism ravaged long-peaceful Norway yesterday when a bomb ripped open buildings including the prime minister’s office and a man dressed as a police officer opened fire at a nearby island youth camp. At least seven people were killed and 15 injured in the bomb blast, the nation’s worst attack since World War II. Police Inspector Bjoern Erik Sem-Jacobsen said a suspect in the shooting has been arrested. He said the gunman, who was dressed as a police officer, pulled out a gun and started firing into the crowd of youths. An eyewitness told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he saw 20 to 25 bodies at the youth camp where a gunman dressed in a police uniform opened fire.

Andre Scheie said he saw bodies on the shore of the Utoya island where the youth wing of the Labor Party was holding a summer camp for hundreds of youths.

Scheie said: “There are very many dead by the shore ... there are about 20-25 dead.” He also said he saw dead people in the water.

Acting Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim told broadcaster NRK that investigators suspect the

two attacks are linked.

A square in Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, was covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings, which house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway’s leading newspapers. Most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise where Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his administration work were shattered.

Stoltenberg said he had called a crisis meeting of his government for later in the evening after the deadly bombings and shootings that have shaken the capital.

“Several ministers are going to meet this evening,” Stoltenberg said. He would also be meeting the leaders of the main political parties today, he added.

Stoltenberg was working at home yesterday and was unharmed, according to senior adviser Oivind Ostang. Public broadcaster NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris. An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB said the building shook from the blast and all employees were evacuated. Down in the

street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.

Oslo police said the explosion was caused by “one or more” bombs, but declined to speculate on who was behind the attack. They later sealed off the nearby offices of broadcaster TV 2 after discovering a suspicious package. At Utoya, an island outside Oslo, a gunman dressed in a police uniform opened fire at a Labor Party youth camp, shooting several youths, party spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl told The Associated Press.

“There has been an incident where a man dressed in a police uniform started shooting among the youngsters on the island. This created a panic situation where people started to swim from the island” to escape, he said. Dahl said unconfirmed reports said five people were hit. The explosion occurred at 3:30 p.m.

(1330 GMT), as Ole Tommy Pedersen stood at a bus stop 100 meters (yards) away. “I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later,” Pedersen told AP. The United States quickly condemned the bombing, and the US Embassy in Norway warned Americans to avoid down-

town Oslo.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton called the violence “despicable.” There has been no confirmation of any US casualties, she said. The US has offered help to Norwegian authorities, but there has been no specific request for assistance, she said.

The attacks come as Norway grapples with a homegrown terror plot linked to Al-Qaeda.

Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges. Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country.

The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar - the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam - made to various news media, including American network NBC. Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) six years ago. Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons that triggered protests in Muslim countries. — AP

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

NA committee to discuss health insurance shortly KUWAIT: The parliamentary health committee is set to discuss a range of topics, including the introduction of a bill on providing health insurance for Kuwaiti citizens during meetings to be held during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.

Speaking on Thursday, committee rapporteur MP Saleh Ashour, who protested recently that the passage of the draft health insurance law had been “prolonged” by government inaction, said that the government “was supposed to provide updates since the last information [it] provided, which was that the law was still being discussed at the Fatwa and Legislation Department.”

On a separate issue, another MP Ali Al-Deqbasi, who is also the Speaker of the Arab Parliament, commended His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah’s “quick initiative” in donating $10 million towards helping those affected by the current “miserable situation” in Somalia, as well as sending two planes filled with humanitarian aid items for them.

On another issue, MP Musallam Al-Barrak has lauded Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah’s move to send the five leukemia-stricken children of Kuwaiti woman Shaikha Al-Mutairi and her Bedoon husband to France for urgent medical treatment. Al-Mutairi’s plea for help to obtain medical treatment for her remaining children, after five of the couple’s children died of the same disease, has touched hearts across the nation. The couple had been unable to access medical help for the children through the government’s overseas medical treatment program previously due to her husband’s stateless status, with the heartbroken mother saying last week that she was considering divorcing her husband simply in order to obtain treatment for them in order to save their lives. Speaking about the issue, Al-Barrak condemned the cabinet for its failure to enforce the disability rights legislation passed by parliament a year ago, saying that the couple’s children would have been eligible for treatment under the terms of this legislation had it been endorsed.

On another subject, Al-Barrak submitted a number of parliamentary questions to education minister Ahmad Al-Mulaifi about the recent collapse of the roof of a kindergarten in Hawally, which was closed for the summer. He demanded copies of a number of documents, including a photocopy of the contract between the education ministry and the company contracted to carry out maintenance at the facility. Meanwhile, on a separate matter, MP Mikhled Al-Azmi submitted a number of parliamentary questions to Minister of Public Works Dr. Fadhil Safar concerning the delays in reopening the Mishref sewage works. Amongst the questions he put to Safar, who is also the Minister of Municipality Affairs, Al-Azmi asked about the reasons behind the Ministry of Public Works’ failure to complete the scheduled repairs and maintenance work at the plant on schedule.—Agencies

Kuwait embassy in Japan marks 50 years of diplomatic ties Japan a pioneer in recognition of Kuwait TOKYO: The Kuwaiti Embassy held a symposium entitled “Kuwait and diplomatic ties with Japan” as part of its celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Kuwait’s Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi hosted and addressed the symposium, which was attended by a number of leading Japanese figures representing the various political social and economic fields.

In his address at the event, Ambassador Al-Otaibi first talked about the history and establishment of the state of Kuwait, and its relations with the dominant countries of the time. He lauded the distinguished Kuwaiti leadership, which had ensured that the country avoided becoming embroiled in any

regional and international conflicts. The diplomat also discussed era of independence, the approval of the constitution and Kuwait’s democratic life and parliamentary elections, as well as the current renaissance in the fields of health, economy, education and foreign policy.

Japan was a pioneer in the official recognition of the state of Kuwait following its independence on December 8, 1961, said the ambassador, adding that since then the bilateral ties between the two nations have developed at a remarkable rate and have been enhanced by the exchange of visits between senior officials and the signing of various agreements.

Japan was also a great supporter of

Kuwaiti sovereignty during the Iraqi invasion, recollected the senior diplomat, supporting Kuwait’s rights by making vital contributions to the liberation war of 1991. This was previously affirmed by His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah, who offered Japan five million barrels of oil following the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, the diplomat stated. The audience at the event also enjoyed a performance by a skilled player of the oud - an oriental musical instrument after which memorial gifts were distributed to the audience. The seminar also featured a competition on general information about Kuwait, with the winners being presented with prizes. —KUNA

TOKYO: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Japan Abdurahman Al-Otaibi in a group photo with guests at the celebration. — KUNA

Kuwait FM ends UK visit LONDON: Kuwait’s Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah yesterday concluded his visit to Britain after participating in the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. During the trip, Sheikh Dr Mohammad also met with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Sheikh Mohammad was seen off at London’s Luton Airport by acting ChargE d’Affaires Hassan Zaman.

During his visit Dr Mohammad held talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague here over security of the Arabian Gulf, situation in Iraq following US forces’ withdrawal, Libya and the Palestinian issue. The talks were “very constructive” and dealt with urgent issues that needed discussion and consultations between Kuwait and Britain, Sheikh Dr Mohammad told KUNA and Kuwait TV after the meeting. He said they have particularly discussed security of the Arabian Gulf region, the situation in Iraq after the American forces’ withdrawal by end of this year, and need of having continuous consultations between UN Security Council (UNSC) permanent members and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in that regard. Sheikh Dr. Mohammad called on importance of preserving security and stability of Iraq, and to have progressive political process based on respecting human rights, international laws and having good relations with neighboring countries.

“The talks also dealt with terrorist threats affecting the political process in Iraq specially by so-called ‘Hezbollah Iraq’ terrorist organization whose (militants’) hands are stained with blood of Iraqis, and had committed many crimes against the Iraqi people and is launching threats against the State of Kuwait now,” he said.

The Kuwaiti top diplomat underscored that terrorist organizations should be prevented from using the Iraqi territories as a launch pad for their acts against regional security, and the security and stability of the Gulf countries in particular.

“Talks touched upon the ‘Ramadan Fund’ which was set to alle-

LONDON: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Al-Sabah pictured with British Foreign Minister William Hague at the event. — KUNA viate humanitarian suffering of the Libyan people either inside Libya or in refugee camps in neighboring countries,” he said. He meanwhile said they have also discussed coordination of cooperation between the six GCC countries and Britain on sidelines of the forthcoming UN General Assembly (UNGA) meetings, due next September. He hoped Britain would support the declaration of the independent Palestinian state. Sheikh Dr. Mohammad said the resolution of the Palestinian issue should be in line with the international legitimacy. He said he agreed with Hague to meet against on the fringe of the UNGA meetings to discuss security of the Gulf and peace in the Middle East. —KUNA

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New university in six months Capacity not to exceed 3,000 students KUWAIT: The education minister is reportedly close to enforcing a decision which would provide a solution, at least temporarily, to Kuwait University’s current overcapacity problem.

The latest proposed solution would see a second state university established within the next six months, using KU’s facilities during the afternoon and evening hours when the university has closed.

According to one Ministry of Education (MoE) insider, however Education Minister Ahmad Al-Mulaifi does not believe that a new university could begin delivering classes until the 2012-13 academic year, although he believes that the financial and infrastructure facilities are already in place to achieve this, whilst the only remaining stipulation blocking the realization of this proposed solution is the passing of a decree to form independent administrative and financial structures for such a body. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the education ministry insider speculated that the projected capacity of the new university would not exceed 3,000 students, and would be restricted to specialties in the fields of science, business and Information Technology.

The news was released after a press conference held by a group of parents whose nine daughters, all exceptional students, were denied the chance of enrolling at KU’s Faculty of Medicine for their second year of medical studies, despite achieving outstanding results in the qualifying tests. The parents said at the conference, which took place at the National Assembly (parliament) building, that the pretexts given by the university’s administrators, which focused on lack of capacity, were not viable, given the outstanding academic results achieved by all nine of the girls. One local political bloc has

TATAOUINE: Kuwaiti delegation provides relief aid to Libyan refugees in Tunisia. — KUNA

Kuwait provides aid to Libyan refugees TATAOUINE: A delegation of the Kuwaiti joint committee for relief aid yesterday participated in distributing aid to Libyan refugees living in makeshift camps in Tunisia’s border areas.

Delegation head Abdulrahman Terkait told KUNA that the distributed aid included food, medicine and baby milk. “This aid is meant to help alleviate the suffering of these refugees and provide them with some of their basic needs,” he said.

Al-Terkait said the aid brought smiles to the grim faces of some of the 7,000 Libyan families who fled their homes fearing violence since the start of the unrest. The Libyan officials working in the field of relief and many of the refugees expressed deep gratitude and appreciation to the Kuwaiti leadership and people for supporting them in their plight.

Al-Terkait reiterated that the State of Kuwait is keen to support those affected by wars and disasters worldwide and provide them with aid. The delegation, which included Al-Terkait, who is representing the Zakat House, as well as Ahmed Azmi and Jarrah Al-Suet, arrived here earlier to provide aid worth $250,000 to refugees in south Tunisia.

This aid was distributed under the supervision of the Embassy of Kuwait in Tunisia and the joint relief committee, in cooperation and coordination with local and international relief organizations, particularly the Tunisia Red Crescent Society’s relief committee and the Libyan relief organization operating here. — KUNA

suggested that the best way of resolving the overcapacity crisis at KU would be to cancel the ban on coeducation introduced previously there. Khalid Al-Khalid, the Secretary General of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), stated that the university’s administration had been forced to provide separate classes for

male and female students ever since the ban was introduced, overwhelming the university’s already strained capacity. He demanded that the government lift the ban in order “to give an opportunity to all high school graduates to pursue higher education.” —Agencies

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Kuwait’s ISPs in for hard times Telecom regulatory body to usher in sweeping changes KUWAIT: Fixed-line telephone services in Kuwait are currently owned by the state; this may be set to change, however, according to recent statements by government officials, with the establishment of an independent regulatory agency for the communications sector also being considered. Both of these changes would dramatically affect the country’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which have recently been subject to criticism from local internet users for their decision to implement “fair access” policies.

The Kuwait Times reported early last month that Ministry of Communications (MoC) Undersecretary Abdulmohsin Hassan Al-Mazidi said that the government has plans to “overhaul” the communications sector within the next two years. These comments came as Al-Mazidi was attending the 10th Arab Telecom and Internet Forum, a meeting of government officials and private sector participants that was held in Beirut on June 3 and 4. AlMazidi explained that, as part of Kuwait’s move to become a regional financial and commercial centre, the government would give the private sector a larger role in the communications, postal and transport sectors.

His comments followed an announcement made in November 2010 by Mohammed Al-Busairi, the then-minister of communications, that the government intended to privatize the provision of fixed-line telephone services. According to news reports, he said that this policy shift would be “in line with what is happening all over the world, including in the GCC countries.”

Regulation Alongside the privatization efforts, there is the possibility that an independent regulatory agency will be created. Al-Mazidi alluded to this in his June

An Internet user surfs the net. announcement, saying that the government has plans to create a communication and internet authority to support the sector.

some concern regarding the pricing of internet services, calling on the MoC to license additional ISPs. In addition to pricing concerns,

‘As part of Kuwait’s move to become a regional financial and commercial center, the government will give the private sector a larger role in the communications, postal and transport sectors.’

Indeed, the establishment of a regulator would open the way for additional ISPs to enter the market. The MoC ceased issuing licenses to new ISPs last November, pending the establishment of a sector authority, with the new entrants expected to augment the level of competition in the ISP market.

Al-Mazidi recently expressed

Kuwait’s ISPs have come under increased public scrutiny following their decision to enforce fair access policies. The Kuwait Times reported on June 7 that all four major local ISPs (FASTtelco, Gulfnet, KEMS and Qualitynet) now have such rules in place and that they are being enforced. This type of policy establishes a bandwidth cap - a daily download limit

New ISP for Kuwait KUWAIT: A new Internet services provider (ISP) will launch operations in Kuwait shortly, joining the existing three companies which have recently come in for criticism over their monopoly on Internet services, said a Ministry of Communications (MoC) insider on Tuesday.

The MoC is already unhappy at the lack of Internet-related legislation, which leaves the ministry unable to control prices as it would like or to collect unpaid debts incurred by these companies, said the insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleging that the three existing ISPs already owe the ministry around

KD5 million. Meanwhile, the acting Minister of Communications is set to investigate a mysterious two-hour suspension of Kuwait-based Twitter-users’ access to the social networking site on Tuesday morning, during which many lost all their previous posts, as well as a number of ‘followers.’

In an interview with a local daily, Salem Al-Othaina, the acting Communications Minister and Minister of Electricity and Water, vowed to find out what happened to cause the two-hour ‘Twitter-crash,’ as well as promising to eliminate all obstacles that threaten public freedom. — Al-Watan

for each user, which, if exceeded, triggers a reduction in connection speed by 75 percent for the remainder of the 24-hour period.

This rule applies to all users, including those who have paid for unlimited internet access.

Although the transfer of data continues without limit, however, it occurs at slower speeds until the end of the 24-hour period.

The daily download limit can vary depending on the ISP and the speed of a user’s internet connection. For example, a KEMS customer with a contract for a 1 MBps connection cannot download more than 1.7GB per day.

This allowance increases with the connection speed, reaching 7.9GB for an 8 MBps connection.

Gulfnet and Qualitynet have comparable usage caps, while FASTtelco had not posted its daily download limits at the time of publication.

The customer as king ISPs have justified their deci-

sion by saying that it will guarantee equal access to all users, preventing abuses by a minority that affect the services of all. Gulfnet states on its website that the intent of the policy is to “provide the optimum internet experience to all customers”.

In fact, it is not unusual for an ISP to have a fair access policy.

Customers typically share an internet connection that can become congested if some users are engaged in data-intensive activities, such as downloading movies.

ISPs can track individual usage patterns and notify people who are considered ‘heavy users,’ sometimes suggesting that large files be downloaded at non-peak usage times. However, these rules are not necessarily consistently enforced. It is clear from the response of internet users in Kuwait that this type of rule is indeed now in effect, prompting speculation over why local ISPs have acted now and largely in concert.

The MoC has not commented on the issue, but the Kuwait Times reported recently that the ISPs have come under pressure from the ministry. The implementation of such rules affords the government the opportunity to continue services to the largest number of customers without having to upgrade internet infrastructure.

However, limiting usage is only a temporary solution to a possible capacity shortage. In the long run, greater investment in the sector and associated infrastructure could see a return to free access. However, with the government in control of the fixed lines, ISPs currently remain constrained by the MoC’s investment decisions. The move, therefore, to privatize the fixed-line market could well expand and improve the provision of internet services.

— The Oxford Business Group

Food safety committee to extend Japanese import ban KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality’s food safety committee recommended that the ban on food imports from Japan be extended given the continuing concern over potential radiation contamination following the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant there earlier this year.

Committee chairman Mohammed Ghazi Al-Otaibi said that during its seventh meeting since its establishment, the committee had issued a number of recommendations. As well as proposing the continuation of the import ban on Japanese foodstuffs, the committee also

recommended that the existing bans on importing Canadian beef, he revealed, as well as fresh or frozen American poultry, also be extended.

Al-Otaibi further revealed that the committee has recommended that representatives of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) should monitor the issuing of ministerial decrees in order to lift a ban on the import of vegetables from Spain, including spinach, cucumbers, lettuce, fresh and frozen tomatoes and their derivatives, which was previously imposed over fears of infection with E Coli bacteria. — KUNA

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Five and a half working hours for Ramadan KUWAIT: Civil servants employed by 22 state bodies will see their working hours cut to five-and-ahalf hours per day during the Ramadan period, when they will start at 8:30 am and finish at 1:00 pm. Staff in some departments will be able to work from 9 am to 1:30 pm depending on the nature of their work.

KUWAIT: Firefighters fighting the massive blaze at an apartment block in Farwaniya yesterday. — Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

One dead, 15 hurt in Farwaniya blaze

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: One person died and another 15 were injured in a massive blaze at an apartment block in Farwaniya yesterday, which started on the fourth floor and quickly spread to the fifth. Firefighters from the local station, as well as others from Ardiya, Shuhada and the Technical Rescue Center, rushed to the scene, rescuing over 100 people trapped by the blaze before extinguishing it. Despite their rapid reaction, the firefighters arrived too late to save one resident, who was overcome by the thick smoke, dying before they arrived. The injured, including one firefighter, were taken to hospital, while the body of the dead victim was removed for autopsy. An investigation is underway to determine how the fire started.

In a separate incident, firefighters from Jahra and Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh quickly put out a blaze that broke out early yesterday morning in a 3,000 square-meter lumber storage building at Amghara Scrapyard. Thankfully, nobody was injured in the fire.

Canoodling couple caught Following a tip-off from an informant, police arrested an Asian man and his girlfriend in a compromising situation at his home in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh. The couple face charges of adultery and extramarital sex.

Salhiya mugging An Asian man was assaulted and mugged in Salhiya by three young Arabs in Kuwaiti national dress who claimed to be detectives. The thugs got away with all the money in the man’s possession, KD6. A hunt is underway for the culprits.

Missing teen A worried Lebanese father told officers at Rumaithiya police station that his young teenage daughter had been missing for three days, disappearing after telling her parents she was going out. Police are hunting for the girl.

Bootlegger busted An Asian bootlegger was caught red-handed in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh with 40 bottles of homemade liquor which he was planning to sell. He was referred to the relevant authorities for further action.

Smart card IDs to Bedoons KUWAIT: The government body set up to resolve the problems facing Kuwait’s Bedoon (stateless) population is set to issue new ‘smart card’-style ID cards to Kuwait’s bedoon people. Speaking on Thursday, Saleh Fadhala, the chairman of the Central System for Remedying the Status of Illegal Residents (CSRSIR), said that the new generation cards were produced in such a way that they could not be counterfeited. He added that the CSRSIR has already established a sub-committee to study cases in which Bedoon people have been found to possess forged passports, which is working closely with the concerned authorities to prepare a full report on the issue. — Al-Anba

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) released details of the new work schedules for Ramadan on Thursday, with staff at most of the ministries and major state bodies being affected, including the ministries of commerce, education, Awqaf, justice, public works, communications and information, as well as those working for the Public

Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources, Kuwait Municipality, the Customs Department and the Savings and Credit Bank.

Working hours are generally changed at Ramadan since Muslims are compelled to fast between dawn and dusk during this holy month. — Al-Qabas

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‘Do the Write Thing’ Kids unite against violence WASHINGTON: The Kuwait-America Foundation (KAF) recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and the 15th anniversary of the National Campaign to Stop Violence by honoring the ‘Do the Write Thing Challenge 2011 National Student Ambassadors.’

The Foundation held a reception under the motto ‘Prevail,’ honoring 50 Student Ambassadors, known as “the young ambassadors for peace,” who were invited to Washington DC to share their experiences and talk about their commitment to doing the right thing. The inspirational youngsters aim to “use the power of written words” to make change and to show that “against the odds, they prevail.”

During the reception, KAF Chairman Dr Hassan Al-Ibrahim said, “This year is very special as I call it the year of celebrations; we started with the first celebration which is the 20th anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation, and the second celebration is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the KAF, while the third celebration is the 15th anniversary of ‘Do the Write Thing.’”

Plans for growth “We are extremely happy that the program is fully developed and we look forward to more expansion,” he continued, adding, “We are covering almost 28 cities across the US this year, and we have 50 winners,.”

Dr Al-Ibrahim explained that the KAF “focuses on peace, as peace for us

is extremely important. Peace starts in the schools, in the community, in the neighborhood, then we try to take it to the rest of the world.”

He revealed that the student winners were selected through a committee of judges, where they go through a long process that lasts a whole year. He added that the best essays written on violence, how to stop violence, personal encounters with violence are selected and then the foundation invites 50 winners with their parents and teachers to come to Washington DC. “This program is a gift from the Kuwaiti children to the American children; the whole idea of the foundation is a grassroots relationship, especially with the relationship between the Kuwaiti and the US being very strong,” he remarked. “My message on this occasion is peace; I wish that peace would take hold in neighborhoods, schools, and between countries and across the whole world.”

The distinguished figure stressed, “What we need in the Arab world right now is peace. We have been deprived of peace in the Arab world because of the Palestinian issue and we hope that one day this issue will be resolved so that peace is spread all across the Middle East.” He added, “Peace is also very important for our development.”

Senator Scott Brown, the keynote speaker at the reception, said he was invited to come and talk to the kids about his life story which coincides

with the publication of his autobiographical memoir, ‘Against All Odds.’

“I had a lot of interesting times growing up, a lot of challenges and they felt that I would be a good person to tell the kids some of my life experiences and challenge them to continue to work hard and do better and be better and make a difference in the world,” he explained.

On the subject of his autobiography, Senator Brown said that he was “in trouble a lot growing up and in a lot of abusive situations that I was able to work through and as a result of these experiences they made me the person that I am today.” He said that his message to the kids attending the event was that “sometimes it only takes one or two people in your life to make a difference.”

He went on, “Sometimes it takes just a little attention in some of those young people’s lives especially to make a difference and I was fortunate to have that type of involvement in my life at a time when I needed it.”

Combating violence Another high-level speaker at the event, Kuwait’s Ambassador to the US Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah, stressed the importance of the program, which is sponsored by the foundation and the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington. “This program started 15 years ago with 10 cities, while today it covers 28 cities, so in 15 years it has grown threefold, “ he

revealed. On the reasons behind Kuwait’s support for the program, Sheikh Salem said that this came about “because we as a country were subject to brutality and violence when we were invaded by Iraq and, of course, those that came to our aid were the Americans. So we thought it would be a good idea for us to support a grassroots cause here in America that is against violence and one that highlights the ills of violence.”

He went on, “This program, I think, is very important and very beneficial because it makes all these young people talk about the violence they encountered in their communities, homes, schools and in their streets and sort of vent about it a bit, which is exactly what we want them to do.”

The ambassador pointed out that “violence could be against a person, against a country; in our case, it was against the whole country and now we are trying to give back by supporting this program.”

The ‘Do the Write Thing’ program has proved successful in reducing violence in schools and communities across the US. Since its inception, it is estimated that about 1.2 million students have participated in the ‘Challenge,’ whilst more than 400,000 have accepted the challenge by making a written personal commitment not to engage in violence and by writing about the causes of and solutions to violence. — KUNA

MPs condemn imams’ suspension over criticism of Syrian regime

Book Fair visitors hail NCCAL’s (National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters) measures.

MOI’s Summer activities KUWAIT: As part of the Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) summer activities for former and current MoI employees’ children and those of martyrs, the youngsters visited the Gulf Bank headquarters on Wednesday morning. They were received on their visit by the bank’s Assistant

Manager for Human Resources Suleiman Bu Haimed, the Currency Department Manager Hamad Al-Najjar, and the Personal Accounts Manager Jenan AlBanhan. The program of activities is organized by the MoI’s PR and Moral Guidance Department.

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs (MAIA) has suspended two imams for violating the law which prohibits any mention of the unrest in Arab countries during sermons. The suspensions came after the clerics recently made critical statements against Syria’s regime.

According to a MAIA insider, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Minister of Housing Affairs Mohammad Al-Numas passed a decree to suspend Kuwaiti imam Nabil Al-Awadhi for four months only hours after suspending an expatriate Arab imam at a Jahra mosque, reportedly after they condemned figures in the Syrian regime during a sermon. Reports indicate that the first suspension followed an official complaint from staff at the Syrian embassy, who demanded that punitive measures be taken against the imam.

Islamist MPs were quick to comment on the issue, with Dr. Walid Al-Tabtabaei condemning the suspension, which he said was based on information provided through “spying on the part of Syria’s embassy at Kuwait’s mosques”. Dr. Al-Tabtabaei, along with fellow MPs Drs. Faisal Al-Mislem and Ali Al-Omair, in later statements, demanded that the ministry clarifies whether or not the

suspensions came about as the result of pressure from the Syrian embassy.

MAIA Assistant Undersecretary for Mosques Affairs Walid Al-Shuwaib said in a press release issued on Thursday that the imam at the Mohammad Al-Ayar mosque in Al-Jahra, who had actually been filling in for the mosque’s permanent cleric, was suspended indefinitely for “mentioning the name of the president of an Arab country for three straight weeks.”

As well as penalizing any comment on conflicts between antigovernment protestors and regimes in Arab countries, local regulations are also very strict on naming presidents or senior state figures.

MP Mohammad Hayef was also critical of the suspensions, insisting that the MAIA needs to “provide details about suspending an imam for committing to his duty in praying for God’s mercy for the persecuted people of Syria.”

Fellow parliamentarian Jamaan AlHarbish also rebuked the ministry over the suspensions, particularly since they were carried out, he said, “for criticizing the hideous crimes committed by the Baath regime [against the people of Syria].” — Agencies

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Egypt protesters refuse to quit Tahrir Square

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James Murdoch faces calls for police probe

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From Cuba, Chavez governs via Twitter

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Somali militants vow to block aid workers Nearly 800,000 children at risk of dying

MOGADISHU: A Somali woman sits with her children as they are treated in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia yesterday. Drought and lack of food is forcing people to migrate to seek aid and medical help, with some thousands of people arriving in Mogadishu over the past two weeks. — AP MOGADISHU: An al-Qaeda-linked militant group has said it will not allow banned aid organizations to return, meaning only a handful of agencies will be able to respond to the worsening famine in southern Somalia. Meanwhile, the UN children’s agency - one of the few groups that does operate in the area - said yesterday that nearly 800,000 children are at risk of dying without urgent assistance. The UN says it fears tens of thousands of people already have died in Somalia’s famine, which has prompted Somalis to walk for days in hopes of reaching a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya.

“UNICEF is using every means possible to reach every child,” said Elhadj As Sy, a regional director for UNICEF. “Every life must count and we cannot afford to lose more lives to this crisis.”

The spokesman for the militant group Al-Shabab, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, said late Thursday that aid agencies the group previously banned are still barred. A statement

from Rage earlier this month had said that the group wanted to open talks with aid groups to facilitate their return.

Some groups, like UNICEF and Save The Children, operate in militant- controlled areas of Somalia. But other groups, like the UN’s World Food Program and Mercy Corps, are banned. Rage also called the UN’s declaration of famine in parts of Somalia politically motivated and “pure propaganda.” Somalia’s prolonged drought devolved into famine in part because neither the Somali government nor many aid agencies can fully operate in areas of southern Somalia controlled by Al- Shabab. The World Food Program said yesterday it will begin providing food for 175,000 people in the Gedo region of southwest Somalia and to 40,000 people in the Afgoye corridor northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

The UN food agency also plans airlifts of aid to Mogadishu, WFP spokeswoman Emilia Casella told reporters

in Geneva. On Wednesday, the UN declared a famine in the Bakool and Lower Shabele regions of southern Somalia, greatly raising the profile of what has been a steadily worsening food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

The global body estimates that more 11 million people in East Africa are affected by the drought, with 3.7 million in Somalia among the worsthit because of the ongoing civil war in the country.

WHO’s representative for Somalia warned yesterday that the conditions for declaring a famine are expected to be reached soon in two further parts of southern Somalia - Juba and Bay. Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said waiting until people cross into neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya would mean many Somali women and children starving to death before they reach the safety of camps there. Already malnutrition rates among new arrivals in Ethiopia are among the worst ever seen, UN officials said. — AP

Saudi plans anti-terror law, says Amnesty JEDDAH: Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia of planning a crackdown on public dissent with new anti-terror legislation that it said was a cover to stop further prodemocracy protests in the absolute monarchy. The Draft Penal Law for Terrorism Crimes and Financing Terrorism, published by Amnesty on its website, would allow extended detentions without charge or trial and impose a minimum 10 year jail sentence on anyone who questions the integrity of the king or crown prince.

Apart from small protests in the oil-producing east that ended with some arrests, Saudi Arabia has not seen the kind of mass street upheaval of Bahrain and other coun-

tries in the region since Tunisians ousted former president Zine AlAbidine Ben Ali in January. Ben Ali is in exile in Saudi Arabia.

“This draft law poses a serious threat to freedom of expression in the Kingdom in the name of preventing terrorism. If passed it would pave the way for even the smallest acts of peaceful dissent to be branded terrorism,” Amnesty said in a statement. A justice ministry official said he had no comment and a Shura Council spokesman Mohammed Almohanna said he was not aware of the draft. Activists say thousands are held in Saudi prisons without charge or access to lawyers, despite a law that limits detention without trial to six months. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Egypt protesters refuse to quit Tahrir Square ‘People are the red line’ BENGHAZI: Libyans carry a coffin during the funerals of rebel-fighters killed by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the rebel-held town of Benghazi yesterday. —AP

Libya rebel casualties rise in battle for Zliten TRIPOLI: Sixteen rebel fighters have been killed and another 126 wounded in two days of fierce fighting for control of Zliten, the last coastal city between insurgentheld Misrata and the capital, rebels said yesterday.

The news came amid reports that rebels had infiltrated Tripoli and as strongman Muammar Gaddafi again ruled out talks with them-even as they boast gains in the east and in the west-saying theirs is a “lost cause.” And in Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged the rebel National Transitional Council to start preparing for a “new political era,” in a meeting with senior NTC figure Mahmud Jibril.

“Sixteen of our fighters have fallen as martyrs and 126 more have been wounded in fighting with loyalist troops in Zliten,” said a rebel statement, with clashes said to be particularly heavy in the suburb of Souk al-Thulatha.

The insurgents have been trying for several weeks to take Zliten, 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the capital. An AFP correspondent who was among a group of foreign journalists taken on an escorted tour of Zliten, reported loud explosions on Thursday on the front line just to the east. Columns of smoke were clearly visible from the town, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of rebel-held Misrata. In Zliten’s hospital, journalists were shown around four wards in which a dozen people were receiving treatment for injuries they said they sustained in NATO-led air strikes targeting loyalist positions.

One member of the medical staff, Fraj Jamal, claimed 80 civilians had been wounded in NATO-led strikes on Thursday. The rebels say they have chased the bulk of Kadhafi’s forces from Brega in the east and are poised for advances towards the capital from Misrata and their other western enclave in the Nafusa Mountains, southwest of Tripoli. The Nafusa campaign is focused on taking Asabah, gateway to the garrison town of Gharyan on the highway north into Tripoli. An AFP correspondent embedded with rebels in Bir Ayad, in the plains below the mountains, said heavy winds on Thursday night and yesterday brought exchanges of rocket fire to a halt. — AFP

CAIRO: Hundreds of Egyptians braved scorching heat yesterday to demonstrate against the ruling military council, refusing to dismantle a protest camp they had set up two weeks ago in central Cairo.

“Down, down with the rule of the military,” they chanted after performing Friday prayers in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February.

“We, the people are the red line,” they added. They kept up their protests despite a cabinet reshuffle this week and official promises of faster reforms.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, in a speech after his new cabinet was sworn in on Thursday, promised to set up an anti-corruption body and work to scrap a 30-year-old emergency law.

He also said the interior minister would appoint a human rights adviser, and that human rights and civil society groups would have access to prisons to monitor prisoners’ rights.

But activists said the moves were not sufficient. “We are continuing the sit-in because the families of the martyrs have demands that have not been met yet,” said Shadi Ghazali Harb from the Youth Coalition.

“The July 8 protests were triggered by the pending demands of families who are angry with the slow pace of prosecution of those who killed protesters,” he added. Harb said the Youth Coalition was forming a committee to meet the interior and justice ministries to press the demands of families of the 840 Egyptians killed in the anti-Mubarak revolt.

Their demands include putting officers charged with shooting demonstrators into “protective custody so they would not intimidate the families of martyrs” and appointing a new prosecution team to swiftly look into

CAIRO: Egyptians chant slogans and hold posters of Omar Abdel Rahman, imprisoned in the United States, during a demonstration calling for his release in front of the US embassy in Cairo. —AP outstanding cases of killings of protesters. Activists, mainly representing secular, liberal and leftist groups, have been camping in Tahrir Square since July 8, after a court decided to release on bail 10 policemen charged with killing demonstrators in the Suez Canal city of Suez in January. About 300 people held a separate rally in another part of Cairo in support of the military council, calling for “stability” and an end to protests in Egypt.

Islamist groups, including the oncebanned Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups who advocate adherence to early Islamic teachings, plan to hold a rally in Cairo on July 29 to press for a return to stability in Egypt.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, hundreds of demonstrators chanted “Oh Tantawi, make a decision, either you are with us or you will also be tried.”

Hundreds also chanted: “With our soul and with our blood, we redeem

Saudi king appoints son as deputy FM

Iran president pushing for nukes: Report VIENNA: An intelligence assessment says Iran’s president wants to shed the nation’s secrecy and forge ahead openly with developing nuclear weapons but is opposed by the clerical leadership.

The assessment shared with The Associated Press says Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is worried about international reaction to such a move.

That view, from a nation with traditionally reliable intelligence from the region, cannot be confirmed and contrasts with assessments by other countries. These view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as relatively moderate on the nuclear issue compared to Khamenei.

They converge, however in noting that recent political divisions between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei have spilled over to encompass Iran’s nuclear activities to a greater degree than before. — AP

the revolution” in a rally held after Friday prayers.

“Everyone who was martyred in Tahrir Square is my brother,” said Adel Mohamed, a 31-year-old car parts salesman who said he started out as an opponent of the Jan. 25 uprising against Mubarak and then became a strong supporter.

Holding a placard reading “I hear the cry of a martyr asking where are my rights”, Mohamed said he plans to stay in Tahrir Square until all demands are met.

“We will be here even after Ramadan,” he said, referring to the Muslim fasting month which starts in August. Among the marchers was Farouq Ali Mohammed Sherif, 73, a businessman who said he had been unjustly jailed under Mubarak.

“I came to Tahrir to demand justice, not for myself but for all the young people in Egypt,” he said. “And I won’t leave until justice is done.” — Reuters

SANAA: Yemenis attend a pro-government rally yesterday, in Sanaa to show support for their president.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia for more than a month after being wounded in a bomb attack on his palace. — AFP

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah appointed his son Abdul-Aziz to the post of deputy foreign minister yesterday, in a move that appears to strengthen the king’s hand in Saudi foreign policy amid jostling for positions among senior princes.

The state news agency said the move was part of a series of appointments made by the king, who is in his 80s.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil exporter and home to Islam’s holiest sites, is facing a succession struggle as senior princes in the absolute monarchy manoeuvre to secure their power bases.

King Abdullah and his half-brother Crown Prince Sultan, the country’s defense minister who is also in his 80s, and have spent time abroad to treat health problems in recent years. Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal has occupied the post since 1975 but has difficulty speaking in public due to illness. Friday’s appointment places the king’s son in pole position to take over the portfolio, which some analysts had previously speculated could go to Saud al-Faisal’s brother Turki, former intelligence chief.

Abdullah has tried to push back the influence of powerful clerics in Saudi Arabia since ascending the throne in 2005. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Last suspect extradited to UN war crimes tribunal Hadzic arrives at detention unit in The Hague

LILONGWE: A truck loaded with people drives past kids outside the village of Lilongwe. Malawians use 2 wheel transports (bicycles) to travel around due to fuel shortages. Frustrated drivers queue at the slightest rumor that a tanker will arrive to offload petrol, which will be rationed and sold out within hours. — AFP

Mass funeral for Malawi protesters President says ‘running out of patience’ BLANTYRE/LILONGWE: Seven Malawians killed in anti-government riots this week were buried in a mass grave yesterday as President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened to stamp out any further protests against his rule. At least 18 people have been killed and 200 arrested in unprecedented protests against Mutharika, with soldiers firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds calling for an end to what they say is autocratic rule.

Mutharika, a former World Bank economist first elected in 2004 who critics say is ruining the country’s meager economy, said he was running out of patience with the protesters.

“If you go back to the streets, I will smoke you out. Enough is enough,” he said at a police graduation ceremony in Zomba, Malawi’s former capital. “Have the demonstrations brought the much-sought after fuel and forex?” Shops were closed and troops patrolled streets in major urban areas although the police and military presence in southern commercial centre Blantyre has been reduced and vehicles were returning to roads and many citizens planned to attend funerals for those killed in the clashes.

Colby Mkupa, a civil servant, waiting for hours in a queue for petrol in Lilongwe called for Mutharika to go before elections planned for 2014. “He will destroy this country. This bunch of doctors, they’ve completely failed,” he said. The United States and Britain condemned violence by Malawi authorities and their crackdown on private radio stations trying to report on the violence.

“In light of continued rioting and rumors of retaliation, we urge restraint from both sides,” the US embassy in Pretoria said in a statement. Protesters have given an Aug. 16 deadline to Mutharika to meet them and discuss their demands, promising a bigger rallies if he fails to meet their call.

Such unrest is almost unheard of in Malawi, ruled for decades after independence in 1964 by the iron-fisted Hastings Banda, and echoes popular uprisings that have engulfed north Africa and the Middle East over the last seven months.

Health ministry spokesman Henry Chimbali confirmed 10 deaths in the northern cities of Karonga and Mzuzu, where protesters angry at chronic fuel shortages and Mutharika’s rule ransacked his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) offices on Wednesday.

Eight others died in the capital, Lilongwe, and Blantyre.

The crackdown in the former British colony is likely to intensify public anger against Mutharika, and could destroy his already troubled relationship with donors who keep his government afloat.

Mutharika has presided over six years of high-paced but aid-funded growth, and the sheen came off earlier this year when he became embroiled in a diplomatic row with Britain, Malawi’s biggest donor, over a leaked embassy cable that referred to him as “autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.

The cable led to the expulsion of Britain’s ambassador to Lilongwe, and in response, Britain expelled Malawi’s representative in London and suspended aid worth $550 million over the next four years. — Reuters

THE HAGUE: The last Balkan war-crimes suspect was extradited to the UN tribunal yesterday for prosecution after being allowed a last-minute visit with his ailing mother.

Goran Hadzic, 53, is accused of atrocities stemming from Croatia’s 1991-95 war, including the leveling of Vukovar and the massacre of some 200 Croat prisoners of war after the devastation of the town on the Danube. Nabbing Hadzic has been hailed as the symbolic closure of a horrific chapter in Balkan history and an important step toward the former pariah state of Serbia joining the European Union.

A convoy of police vehicles drove Hadzic from Rotterdam airport to the UN detention facility at a Dutch prison outside The Hague, where he was to be given a medical examination and a copy of the 14-count indictment against him.

Hadzic will be summoned before UN judge O-Gon Kwon of South Korea, the tribunal’s president, within a few days and asked to plead to each charge relating to the murder of hundreds of nonSerbs, mass persecution, and expulsion of tens of thousands of people from Croatia’s Krajina region.

Before leaving Belgrade aboard a Cessna aircraft, Hadzic was escorted to his family home in Novi Sad, about an hour from the Serb capital. The Serb convoy stopped in the northern city and a heavy police presence blocked the streets near the home where Hadzic went in to see his 86-year-old mother Milena, who is said to be bedridden and suffering from dementia.

Other relatives visited Hadzic in his prison cell earlier yesterday. Earlier in the day, Serb Justice Minister Snezana Malovic signed the extradition order for the former rebel Serb leader of a breakaway section of Croatia. Hadzic did not contest his extradition. He was arrested on Wednesday after seven years on the run, discovered by Serbian agents who

NOVI SAD: Goran Hadzic (background second right) arrives at the house where he lived before he went hiding in 2004, in Novi Sad, Serbia, yesterday. (Inset) Borislava Mitrovic (Front) and her daughter Milica Mitrovic, relatives of war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic, enter the Special court for war crimes in Belgrade. —AP had followed a money trail that began in December when Hadzic’s aides tried to sell a Modigliani painting.

Hadzic’s detention followed that of former Bosnian Serb Gen Ratko Mladic on genocide charges nearly two months ago. Mladic also was granted a personal request after his arrest, and was allowed to visit his daughter’s grave hours before he was sent to the Hague. Serbia for years had faced accusations that it was not doing enough to capture war criminals. The issue had stalled its efforts to join the EU and the country now hopes to formally become a candidate for membership this year.

“This act completed the most difficult chapter in the cooperation with The Hague tribunal,” Malovic said. “We have

fulfilled our biggest obligations.” Also Friday, Mladic was assigned a lawyer to represent him against charges of genocide. The tribunal named Branko Lukic, an attorney from Serbia who was lead counsel in four other cases before the UN court, to lead Mladic’s defense. It had denied Mladic’s first choice, Milos Saljic, because he spoke neither English nor French, the tribunal’s two official languages.

Mladic told the court he cannot pay for another lawyer. The tribunal said Lukic will take on the case while the registrar assesses whether the court should pay his fees or whether Mladic can bear at least some of the cost. Jovana Gec from Belgrade and Vanessa Gera from Poland contributed to this report. — AP

Georgia frees photographers in spy case

TBILISI: Georgian journalists meet Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II (left) in Tbilisi late on Thursday, asking for help to free their colleagues. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer Irakly Gedenidze, European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) photographer Zurab Kurtsikidze and Foreign Ministry press centre photographer Giorgi Abdaladze have been charged with collecting confidential material on Georgia’s pro-Western leadership that was allegedly sent to military intelligence officers from arch-rival Russia. — AFP

TBILISI: A Georgian court yesterday handed suspended sentences of up to four years to four photographers on charges of spying for Russia, with the judge dramatically freeing all the accused in the courtroom. The court said that the accused accepted the evidence against them and admitted their guilt but under a plea bargain, announced by prosecutors earlier, received only suspended sentences.

“The convicted can now be freed from the courtroom,” said judge Zviad Esebua. There were emotional scenes as the accused left the dock and joined their supporters on the court benches, an AFP correspondent reported. Some of their colleagues burst into tears and embraced them. The sudden release of the photographers brought a dramatic end to the high-profile spy case which has sparked daily protests in the former Soviet state. The accused, who include President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer, confessed to obtaining confidential data from state agencies that was passed to Russian military intelligence, according to testimony released by the authorities. Presidential photographer Irakli Gedenidze, foreign ministry photographer Giorgi Abdaladze and European Pressphoto Agency employee Zurab Kurtsikidze were detained in overnight raids earlier this month, when police said they found secret documents including minutes of high-level meetings stored on computers. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

James Murdoch faces calls for police probe Media heir has questions to answer: Cameron

OSLO: In this video image taken from television, smoke is seen billowing from a damaged building as debris is strewn across the street after an explosion in Oslo yesterday.—AP

Congo troops blamed for mass rape: UN GENEVA: Congolese government troops carried out mass rapes in a remote part of eastern Congo over the New Year period, according to witnesses and victims cited in a United Nations report released yesterday. Investigators found at least 47 women were subjected to rape and other sexual assaults from Dec 31, 2010, to Jan 1, 2011 in an isolated and mountainous area of North Kivu province, the UN’s human rights office said. The victims, aged between 16 and 65, included pregnant women, and some were raped in front of their children, the report said. The incident occurred when 100 soldiers had attacked the villages of Bushani and Kalambahiro with whips, machetes and rifles, accusing the inhabitants of supporting enemy forces. Investigators were unable to interview some of the rape victims because most of the villagers have fled to the nearby forest or other towns, fearing another attack. Others refused to give evidence because they feared reprisals, the UN said. “Considering the evidence gathered, the number of victims of this attack could be significantly higher,” the report said. Armed groups in Congo have frequently used rape as a tool of war against perceived enemy supporters. The region has been wracked by violence since Rwanda’s 1994 genocide spilled conflict across the border.

A study published in the American Journal of Public Health in last month concluded that more than 1,000 women are raped in Congo every day. The study based on a government health survey found the highest frequency of rape was in North Kivu province, where 67 women per 1,000 had been raped at least once. —AP

Nurse questioned over British hospital deaths LONDON: British police questioned a nurse on suspicion of murder for a third day yesterday after the deaths of five hospital patients, as officers widened their investigations into contaminated saline solution.

Officers have until 9:05 pm (2005 GMT) yadterday to quiz Rebecca Leighton, 27, before they have to release or charge her, or apply for more time. Leighton was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of murder over the deaths of three patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, outside Manchester in northwest England.

Police confirmed Thursday they were linking two further deaths to the investigation. Derek Weaver, 83, died earlier that day while the second patient, an 84-year-old woman, died on July 14. The Manchester Evening News reported that all deaths at the hospital since the first one on July 7 were now being investigated by the coroner, more than 50 cases in total, and all future deaths would be referred to him. Officers believe someone deliberately tampered with a batch of saline, contaminating it with insulin. Ten other patients at the hospital have been affected, including a 41year-old man, who is in critical condition.

British newspapers have painted a picture of Leighton as a party girl, with reports saying she described herself on her Facebook page as a “happy go lucky kinda gal”. Describing her job as a nurse, she says: “god it hard work x”. In another posting, she reportedly wrote: “I hate nights-can’t wait for the weekend.” —AFP

LONDON: A British lawmaker referred James Murdoch to police yesterday over claims of misleading parliament on the phone-hacking scandal as Prime Minister David Cameron said the media heir had “questions to answer”.

Tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s son, and chairman of its British newspaper division News International, has been challenged over evidence he gave denying he knew that hacking was widespread at the shuttered News of the World.

The development put the spotlight back on the Murdochs just as the scandal seemed to be spreading to other British newspapers, having already dragged in the police and politicians, even embroiling Cameron himself.

During a tense appearance alongside his father at parliament’s media committee on Tuesday, the 38-year-old Murdoch denied all knowledge of an email suggesting the problem went beyond one rogue reporter before authorizing a payout to a victim.

But Colin Myler, the former editor of the Sunday tabloid, and Tom Crone, News International’s ex-legal manager, broke ranks on Thursday to say James Murdoch’s recollection of events in 2008 was a “mistake”.

Tom Watson, a Labour member of the committee and a long-time critic of News International, said their challenge to Murdoch was “the most significant moment of two years of investigation”.

“This morning I am going to refer the matter to Sue Akers, the head of Operation Weeting (the phone hacking investigation) at the Metropolitan Police,” Watson said yesterday.

Watson said Murdoch had “failed to report a crime to the police” and also “bought the silence of Gordon Taylor”, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Taylor received a reported £700,000 (now 790,000 euros, $1.14 billion) after

LONDON: Offices of News International are seen through fencing in London yesterday.—AP he brought a damages claim against the News of the World. A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed it had received a letter from Watson. “It is being considered,” the spokesman told AFP. James Murdoch has denied giving misleading testimony. “I stand by my testimony to the select committee,” he said late Thursday. News International said he did not immediately have any further comment. Cameron-who has himself been under pressure over his decision to hire former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, later arrested over allegations of phone hacking and bribing police-added to the pressure on the younger Murdoch.

“Clearly James Murdoch has got questions to answer in parliament and I am sure that he will do that. And clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up,” Cameron said.

“That has to be done by the management of that company. In the end the management of a company must be an issue for the shareholders of that company.”

The chairman of the parliamentary committee, John Whittingdale, also said he would be seeking answers from James Murdoch. “We shall certainly be asking him to address the conflict” between his account and those of Crone and Myler, the Conservative lawmaker told AFP. In a statement late Thursday, Myler, who lost his job when the News of the World closed earlier this month, and Crone, who resigned last week, said they had informed James Murdoch of the email before he authorised the settlement. “We would like to point out that James Murdoch’s recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the... litigation was mistaken,” they said. — AFP

Belgian parties seek way out of impasse BRUSSELS: Belgium’s feuding politicians agreed yesterday to launch coalition talks to end a year-long political crisis which has tested the unity of a nation split between Dutch

and French speakers. The overnight announcement followed an unusually somber warning from King Albert II, who said the deadlock threatened the country’s eco-

LIBRAMONT: Walloon Minister of Agriculture and Infrastructure Benoit Lutgen (left), Walloon Minister-President Rudy Demotte (center), and Walloon Minister of Budget, Finance, Employment, Sports and Formation Andre Antoine talk with members of the press during their visit to the famous Agricultural Fair in Libramont yesterday.—AFP

nomic and social well-being with negative repercussions for the European project as a whole. The head of the francophone Socialists and favorite to become prime minister, Elio di Rupo, announced early Friday that four Flemish and four French-speaking parties were willing to begin talks to form a government. Joelle Milquet, head of the centrist francophone CDH party, called it a “historic” step as the nation marked 405 days without a government following legislative elections in June 2010. The breakthrough was reached after the Christian Democratic CD&V in Flanders decided to break ranks with the Dutch-speaking region’s biggest party, the separatist N-VA, and join coalition talks that will start in mid-August. “For the first time, we have an agreement to enter into negotiations and for the first time the CD&V accepts to participate without the NVA,” Milquet said. Support from the Christian Democrats, led by caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme, is crucial for any hope of forming a coalition that needs a two-thirds majority in parliament to pass reforms for Belgium’s future. — AFP

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INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

From Cuba, Chavez governs via Twitter President undergoes treatment in Havana

GUATEMALA: Masked men install a banner at the entrance of the Castanas neighborhood in Guatemala City on Thursday. Residents organized armed groups to patrol the streets and control the neighborhood entrance due to the insecurity and extortion threats. —AP

1 killed, 30 hurt in NY Bus-tractor-trailer crash WATERLOO: A bus carrying 52 passengers across central New York early yesterday was pulling back onto a highway when it was struck in the rear by a tractor-trailer, touching off a fiery crash that demolished both vehicles, killed the truck driver and injured about 30 people, state police said.

State Police Trooper Mark O’Donnell said many of the injuries were minor, though two people were taken to the hospital by helicopter with serious injuries. Truck driver Timothy Hume, 59, of Michigan was killed.

O’Donnell said passing motorists, including a soldier from Fort Drum, helped some passengers off the bus. The crash happened about 1:30 a.m. local time in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90, at the northern edge of the Finger Lakes region. Both vehicles caught fire after the crash.

Video taken after the crash shows the charred, skeletal remains of the bus, which had been painted white with what appears to be a red horse logo. Bare wheel hubs gleam in the early light, the rubber tires burned off. The demolished truck, which is behind the bus, is barely recognizable as a vehicle.

Waterloo is midway between Syracuse and Rochester.

Seven people were taken to a hospital in Rochester. Three were released, one was in satisfactory condition, two were still under evaluation and one was being transferred to another hospital.

The crash follows one on Sunday that killed 2 people and injured 35 others about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of yesterday’s crash scene. In that tour bus accident, police said it appears a tire blowout caused the bus to veer off the road and flip over. On Tuesday, a car sideswiped a van full of Amish farmers only about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away, pushing the van under a tractor and killing five of the farmers.

So far this year, 32 people have been killed and 323 injured in 17 tour bus accidents, according to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. That’s more than in all of 2010, when there 30 killed and 272 injured in 28 crashes.

Tour bus industry safety has drawn heightened attention since the March 12 crash of a bus returning to New York City’s Chinatown after an overnight excursion to a Connecticut casino. Fifteen people were killed when the bus flipped onto its side and struck a pole, peeling off its roof. A passenger has said the driver fell asleep; the driver has said he was alert and well-rested. That crash is being investigated by state police and the National Transportation Safety Board. State Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald said there have been about 3,000 surprise bus inspections throughout the state since the March crash. During that period, 304 drivers and 238 buses have been taken off the road. The state does 160,000 bus inspections every year. — AP

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is using Twitter as a tool to govern remotely while he undergoes cancer treatment in Cuba. In about 50 messages this week on his “chavezcandanga” account, he has approved money for a Caracas trash collection project, praised plans for a new park and cheered on the national soccer team.

Chavez hasn’t mentioned anything about his chemotherapy but has alluded to his personal battle time and again, as he did in one tweet to a supporter on Tuesday: “We’re moving along here, brother! With God and the Virgin!” Most of his messages have had the tone of a patriotic father figure connecting with his public.

Chavez boasts more than 1.8 million followers, and his messages also regularly pop up on the screen on state television in Venezuela.

A leader who knows well how to choose his sound bites, Chavez has used Twitter to remain in the news at home even as he is out of pocket and not making his usual appearances on television.

He did just that Thursday morning in a flurry of messages when he complained about a referee’s call during Venezuela’s soccer match against Paraguay at the Copa America tournament in Argentina. Chavez said he had been watching alongside Fidel Castro, and they both agreed it was a bad call.

“In my modest opinion... THEY ROBBED US OF THE VICTORY GOAL! And I hope that with this I’m not offending anybody!” one of the messages said. Chavez then turned to plans to create a park named after Simon Bolivar in a portion of a military airfield: “Bolivar Park is a true gift of the Bolivarian Revolution for our beautiful Caracas!!” Seven hours later, Chavez was back saying he had met with Fidel and Raul Castro, along with Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa. “What a beautiful meeting we’ve had this afternoon,” the mes-

HAVANA: (From left) Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s President Raul Castro are seen during a meeting in an unknown location in Havana on Thursday. —AP sage said, adding they finished by equivalent of more than $25 million singing the Venezuelan song “Alma for a new trash collection company in Llanera.” A photo of their meeting Caracas, $51 million for a state govappeared in state media, while the ernment and $37 million for the president’s Twitter account early yes- organization Frente Francisco de terday offered an update for support- Miranda, which promotes efforts to ers: “Good morning, Living World! ... transform Venezuela into a socialist And this Will to Live, what it does is state.

Turning to international affairs, grow inside me!”

His account has also started circu- Chavez directed a message to lating a hashtag slogan “Viviremos- Mexican leader Felipe Calderon, sayYVenceremos,” or “We will live and ing: “Hey President Calderon, my be victorious,” which has become a friend, I thank you for your good sort of meeting place for Chavistas to wishes.” The 56-year-old Chavez chat and post get-well messages. underwent surgery in Cuba on June Chavez has said he has a team of 20 to remove a cancerous tumor. He aides of who help manage his pres- hasn’t said what type of cancer has ence on Twitter, including tracking been diagnosed or specified where messages from people who write to exactly it was located, saying only him with various requests for help. that it was in his pelvic region. He Yet the tweets are presented, says chemotherapy is necessary to regardless of who may be typing ensure cancer cells don’t reappear.

On Twitter, his only references to them into the box, as coming directly his treatment have been vague and from Chavez.

In other messages this week, he filled with optimistic slogans. As he greeted Cabinet ministers and touted signed off one night, the message a public housing construction pro- read: “From here, closing another day gram. He said he had approved the of this Battle for Life.” — AP

Ecuador jails, fines oppn newspaper figures

OAK FOREST: Officials work the scene of a crash between a Metra train and a car in Oak Forest, Illinois on Thursday. The train partially derailed in an accident with the car, killing two people and injuring several others, authorities said. —AP

QUITO: Ecuador imprisoned three directors and a former columnist at an opposition newspaper, as well as fining them and the paper $40 million for libeling the president, prompting widespread condemnation on Thursday from rights groups. President Rafael Correa sued the El Universo newspaper over an article in February about a September police mutiny in which rebellious officers took Correa hostage at a hospital for hours until he was rescued by army commandos. A judge ruled the paper libeled Correa by saying he ordered those soldiers to open fire without warning on civilians who were in the hospital at the time. Correa denied that, and late on Wednesday he praised the judge’s verdict, which sentenced the four men to three years in prison. “This sets a precedent that will help them to think a thousand times before using proxies to damage people’s reputations,” Correa told reporters after the judgment. — AP

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INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

US opens new embassy in Malta VALLETTA: The United States has moved its embassy in Malta from a cramped apartment on the outskirts of the capital city Valletta to a new $125 million (?88.5 million) state-of-the art complex in a rural area in the center of the island.

The move was intended for embassy officials to have bigger offices and a better working environment, but it was also deemed necessary for security purposes. An embassy press statement at the inauguration last week said that since the 1999 enactment of the Secure Embassy Construction and Counter-terrorism Act, the US State Department has moved 24,000 people to safer facilities.

This includes the new embassy in Ta’ Qali, built on 10 acres (4 hectares) of land away from the main road in Floriana, just outside the gateway to Valletta. The embassy’s No 2 official Richard M. Mills hosted the inauguration ceremony on July 15, which was attended by Malta’s President George Abela and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi. A terrace just outside the embassy atrium was named after former US Ambassador Douglas Kmiec, who resigned in April after the publication of a report by the US State Department’s Office of Inspector General that claimed the diplomat had been spending too much time writing and speaking about his Catholic faith. Washington is still to nominate his successor.

In an article in the local media printed after the inauguration, Kmiec said that the new structure “of sufficiently ample size and personnel is justified because it is reasonable to anticipate Malta’s own willingness to become an even more prominent ‘partner for peace.’” The embassy is “worth every single Lincoln penny,” he said. Mills said the new embassy is proof of the importance the United States gives to its diplomatic relations with Malta, a member of the European Union since 2004.

One of Europe’s tiniest and southernmost states, Malta has been in the spotlight as unrest in North Africa in the spring sent thousands of migrants toward Europe. The United States has taken about 600 of the refugees who landed in Malta through a resettlement program, giving some relief to the island nation that has been seeking permanent homes for the migrants. —AP

US hopes Cuba will free jailed American HAVANA: A senior US diplomat said Washington hopes an American government contractor imprisoned in Cuba will be released, even as the Maryland native was making a final appeal Friday to have his 15-year prison sentence be reduced or dismissed. Alan Gross has been held since his arrest in December 2009, accused of bringing satellite and other communication equipment into the country illegally. He has acknowledged he was working on a USAID-funded democracy program, but says he meant no harm to the government and was only trying to help the island’s small Jewish community.

Cuba considers the $20 million-a-year programs a threat to its sovereignty and has used the case to expose what it sees as Washington’s long history of meddling in its internal affairs.

Julissa Reynoso, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told The Associated Press the United States was following the case closely.

“We hope that Alan Gross is released,” she said. Gross’ Cuban attorney, Nuris Pinero, arrived at the Supreme Court yesterday morning and said before going inside that the tribunal would be hearing oral arguments from the defense.

There was no sign of Gross himself, but representatives of the US Interests Section, which Washington maintains in Havana instead of an embassy, were also at the court. A decision in the case is expected in coming weeks. While US officials have said they do not anticipate Gross’ conviction being overturned outright, there is hope that the end of the legal process might clear the way for his release on humanitarian grounds. Gross has lost 100 pounds in jail, and several of his family members are suffering from serious illnesses.

Cuban officials have said privately they are sympathetic to humanitarian appeals, but would not consider them until Cuba’s Supreme Court weighs in. Gross’ arrest sparked debate in Washington over the efficacy of the democracy programs, which are passionately supported by several Cuban-American politicians.— AP

US wilts as heat wave spreads eastward Brownouts in NYC as power use spikes NEW YORK: Americans withered under yet another day of searing sun yesterday as a heat wave spread in earnest into the urban core of the Northeast, while excessive heat warnings stretched from the heartland to the East Coast.

Temperatures were forecast near or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) yesterday and into the weekend. The high temperatures and smothering humidity will force up the heat indexes. Washington’s 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 Celsius) could seem like 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.6 Celsius).

It’s enough to test the patience of a saint. Taking her morning walk with temperatures already soaring near 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), Sister Elizabeth Ann Hughes of St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia offered her simple strategy - go out only when it’s relatively cool and stay in the air conditioning when it’s not.

In New York, people looking to beat the heat were thwarted by warnings urging them to avoid city waterways after a wastewater treatment plant disabled by fire began spewing millions of gallons (liters) of raw sewage into the Hudson River. Officials cautioned against swimming and bathing at city beaches, especially for people with medical conditions.

Beesham Nanan, 53, was drinking coffee in an air-conditioned fast-food restaurant before starting his shift as a limo driver. He often has to drive clients to their destinations and then wait in the car. He tries to park somewhere where he can turn the car’s air conditioning on, but it’s risky. “You’re not supposed to have the engine on in the city,” Nanan said. “It’s a big fine.”

Across the US, emergency room visits were way up, according to public health

CHRIS LYNCH: Pax, an English bull dog, pit bull mix, creates a wave as he charges into Sabbathday Lake to retrieve a stick while playing with his owner, Chris Lynch, in New Gloucester, Maine, on Thursday. The heat wave that has gripped much of the nation arrived in Maine on Thursday.—AP officials, mainly because of people suffering from heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The weather is suspected of contributing to a number of deaths nationwide. At least six more fatalities were reported Thursday, including a Michigan restaurant cook who suffered a heart attack after being sent home from his job and a teenage boy who drowned while swimming at summer camp in the same state.

In Chicago Thursday night, hundreds of children and more than a few adults cavorted in a shallow pool of the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

A Pittsburgh man slipped as he worked on the roof of his cousin’s home on Thursday and found himself stuck for nearly two hours because of the hot tar he’d been using. Lamont Robinson said the slick tar kept him from climbing to safety after he slipped. He said he was

“baking like a turkey” before his rescue.

In Connecticut, a dozen Girl Scouts were treated for heat-related problems at a scout camp. None of the girls required hospitalization, but New Fairfield First Selectman John Hodge says they spent Thursday night in the camp’s cafeteria after workers brought in industrial fans to help cool them off.

Philadelphia’s public schools canceled summer classes Thursday and Friday, while Allentown to the north waived fees at its public pools. Special dangers can come at night, experts warn, if the temperatures don’t cool enough to provide relief. While the current heat wave has recorded 12 all-time daily highs so far this month, it also has registered 98 all-time overnight highs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported at a briefing on Thursday. —AP

Pentagon set to end of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ WASHINGTON: Seven months after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the Pentagon is set to announce that it will officially end the ban on gays openly serving in the military, a US official told AFP on Thursday.

On December 18, the Senate voted to repeal the controversial law, which since 1993 has required those in the military to conceal their homosexuality or risk being discharged.

After the new law was passed repealing the ban, Pentagon officials had requested time to prepare military troops for the arrival of openly homosexual soldiers. The certification signals that President Barack Obama, US Defense

Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen have officially confirmed that the military is prepared.

If the certification takes place, as expected, the ban will cease after 60 days. Over the course of the past seven months, the Pentagon has produced new manuals and prepared military forces for the change.

The subject has been an object of passionate debate in US society with the intervention of such celebrities as Lady Gaga, who is in favor of abolishing the ban.

But certain elected officials, especially Republicans and some highranking army officials, fear it will effect the military’s performance on

the battlefield. The new law was voted on in December after a Pentagon study showed that 70% of 115,000 service members and 44,000 of their spouses surveyed were in favor of allowing gays to openly serve in the military.

Former soldiers and gay rights groups have fought for years to overturn the ban, which was introduced in 1993 as a compromise after military chiefs rejected a bid by former president Bill Clinton to open the doors to gay soldiers.

Since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was adopted in 1993, an estimated 17,000 service members have been kicked out of the military under the rule. — AFP

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INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

China, US play down tensions NUSA DUA, Indonesia: The United States and China moved to repair strained ties yesterday, saying tensions over the South China Sea were easing with new conduct guidelines between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, meeting at Asia’s biggest security conference, appeared eager to ensure the dispute over the oil and gas-rich waters did not become another source of friction between the world’s largest economy and the second-largest.

“I want to commend China and ASEAN for working so closely together to include implementation guidelines for the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea,” Clinton said at the meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. China acquiesced to the new guidelines on Thursday after almost a decade of deadlock, in what may have been an attempt to mollify ASEAN enough to take the topic off the table before Clinton’s arrival.

China, Taiwan, and four ASEAN members-the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam-all claim territory in the South China Sea and Washington has irritated Beijing by declaring it also has a national interest at stake in ensuring freedom of navigation and trade.

China says it has had undisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea since ancient times, and is adamant about not involving other parties to help resolve the matter.

China has also accused the United States of triggering tension in the region by holding naval drills, and President Barack Obama’s meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama last week has added further strains.

Foreign minister Yang, hosting Clinton for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN security forum, said the South China Sea guidelines would “go a long way to maintaining peace and stability and good neighborliness in the region”. — Reuters

Grave-digging, riots at Australia centER SYDNEY: Inmates at Australia’s Christmas Island immigration centre buried themselves in shallow graves in a symbolic gesture, a spokesman representing them said yesterday, as riots erupted for a third night.

Immigration officials said there had been “another significant incident” involving up to 100 detainees at the remote island facility, but there were varying accounts of the latest protests among the asylum seekers.

Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul said some were digging shallow graves and burying themselves up to their necks in a show of their growing desperation. “Asylum seekers in the Green compound have dug shallow graves in the courtyard of their compound,” said Rintoul, who keeps in regular telephone contact with detainees at the centre.

“Some asylum seekers have already staged mock burials and buried themselves up to their necks in a symbolic protest that detention is killing their bodies and their minds.”

A police spokeswoman told AFP that “the detainees used improvised weapons and lit a number of fires in a number of locations within the centre.” There was “cause to deploy a range of use of force options, including less-lethal munitions,” she added, confirming tear gas, flash grenades and “bean bag” bullets were fired to quell the unrest.

It is the third consecutive night the centre has been rocked by violence and fires as detainees protest against delays in processing. An immigration spokesman refused to comment, saying “there’s been all sorts of claims made by all sorts of people”. “We wouldn’t be going into those details,” he said.

“All we are saying is that there’s been some unrest.” Rintoul said police had raided the centre’s compounds early Friday searching for the protest’s ringleaders and some detainees had been beaten or dragged away, presumably to the maximum-security unit.

The police spokeswoman said the force “strongly denies any mistreatment of any detainees” and had not received any official complaints. The immigration department could not immediately confirm that anyone had been moved and said it did not “generally go into details of operational things like that.” — AFP

North, S Korea hold ‘constructive’ talks Rivals meet in ‘cordial atmosphere’ NUSA DUA, Indonesia: The nuclear envoys of South and North Korea held talks in a cordial atmosphere in Indonesia yesterday, and said they would work to resume the stalled sixparty dialogue for nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula.

The meeting, which lasted about two hours, was the first high-level contact between the two Koreas since the last round of the six-way nuclear disarmament talks in 2008, and a step forward in the diplomatic effort to resume negotiations. The United States and Japan, also participants in the six-party dialogue, have said North and South Korea must establish some rapport before those talks can resume.

“We agreed to continue to make joint efforts in the process of negotiations for denuclearisation,” South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac told reporters after the talks on the sidelines of an Asian security conference on the island of Bali.

“We agreed to make joint efforts to set conditions to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible. I had very constructive and useful conversations with my counterpart.”

Ri Yong-ho, North Korea’s vice foreign minister who handles nuclear diplomacy, was smiling as he said: “(We) met as part of efforts to resume six-party talks as soon as possible.”

South Korea, the United States and China, which hosts the six-way forum, have agreed on a three-stage process for envoys from Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington to meet first before the negotiations can resume. Japan and Russia make up the rest of the participants.

North Korea walked away from the

BALI: East Asia Summit ministers attend the Retreat Session of East Asia Summit Consultation on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial meetings in Nusa Dua on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali yesterday.—AFP six-way nuclear talks more than two dialogue,” he added. “There should be years ago, but last year called for their progress.”Tensions rose to the highest resumption.A US official in Bali, who did level in years when a South Korean navy want to be quoted by name, said earlier ship was sunk last year in a torpedo it was the “most consequential” meeting attack killing 46 sailors. South Korea blamed the North, but Pyongyang between the two sides in some time.

“It will take some time to understand denied any role. The North shelled a and fully digest what has gone on South Korean island in November.

South Korea has demanded some between the North and South.” Japan said renewed talks were important for expression of regret from Pyongyang about the attacks as indication that the the region.

“North Korea is a destabilising factor North is serious about reducing tensions in the region,” Satoru Satoh, Japanese and working to bring stability to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, told Korean peninsula.

North Korea’s two nuclear tests in the reporters. He said the international community needed to remain engaged with past five years rattled the region. They Pyongyang but added: “The North- triggered international sanctions against South dialogue should move forward Pyongyang believed to be squeezing its before the six-party talks.” “We are not already troubled economy by cutting off satisfied with dialogue for the sake of a lucrative arms trade. — Reuters

China bus blaze kills 41 BEIJING: A fire on an overcrowded bus carrying flammable materials killed 41 passengers in central China yesterday, state television reported, in one of the country’s worst road accidents this year.

The double-decker bus was taking people to southern Hunan province when it caught fire early yesterday morning on a highway, China Central Television (CCTV)

said, adding the cause of the disaster is still being investigated. Five passengers and the driver were pulled alive from the overnight bus, which was reportedly only designed to carry 35 passengers but had 47 people on board.

CCTV said there were “flammable materials” on board, but did not provide further details. A police officer told Xinhua

XINYANG: Chinese police investigate the burnt wreckage of a double-decker bus after the bus was carrying hazardous goods and caught fire on a highway in Xinyang, in north China’s Henan province yesterday.—AFP

the fire raged for two hours and completely destroyed the bodies of the victims, who would only be identified after authorities carried out DNA tests on the charred corpses. Photos of the tragedy showed the bus had been completely destroyed by the blaze, leaving only a burnt-out shell.

The report said the survivors, one of whom was very seriously injured, have been rushed to hospital. A government spokesman in Xinyang, where the accident occurred, told AFP there was no confirmed death toll. The police and fire departments in the city both refused to comment. China’s roads are among the world’s most dangerous, with traffic and safety laws widely flouted. Drivers looking to maximise profits often load their buses with too many passengers, sometimes triggering deadly incidents.

In 2010, more than 65,200 people died in road accidents-around 178 fatalities a day-according to official statistics. This year has also seen several high-profile road accidents. In March, at least three people died and up to 80 were injured when a bus driver in the northwestern region of Xinjiang lost control of the vehicle and collided with a passing passenger train. —AFP

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INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

India eyes new anti-graft law this year, says Sibal MP Singh grilled in ‘cash-for-votes’ scam

JAFFNA: Ethnic Sri Lankan Tamil men look on near a wall pasted with election propaganda of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling Party (left) in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, yesterday. —AP

Sri Lanka appeals for minority Tamil votes KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka: Minority Tamil candidates hope a weekend election in their heartland in northern Sri Lanka will give them a mandate to demand self-determination. But Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition has campaigned with unexpected zeal for the local council races in today’s vote. Their aim is a victory that would blunt calls for an international war crimes investigation and vindication of the harsh tactics that killed thousands of Tamil civilians in this area in the final months of its quarter-century civil war.

The Tamil regions in the island’s north and east account for 26 of the 65 races being decided. The area once controlled by the Tamil Tigers rebel group is now a base for the former rebel proxy Tamil National Alliance. — AP

NEW DELHI: A long-awaited anti-corruption bill aimed at tackling endemic graft in India will be introduced in the next session of the parliament beginning August 1, a top minister said yesterday.

Kapil Sibal, the telecom minister who has overseen the drafting of the new legislation, said the so-called Lokpal bill was ready after changes suggested by other political parties were incorporated. “The government is committed to placing it in the monsoon session of the parliament. The prime minister had made a promise and we will ensure that it is delivered,” Sibal told reporters.

“Changes have been made to reflect the concern of other parties. We are hopeful that the bill given to the parliament will be passed with unanimity,” he added.

Sibal said he and other ministers were against bringing the prime minister under the purview of the independent ombudsman who will be created by the law and will have powers to investi-

gate corruption. “Our recommendation is that the prime minister should be excluded from the Lokpal bill,” he said.

“The final decision on this will be taken by the cabinet next week.”

A string of graft scandals has stirred widespread public anger in India and badly dented confidence in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government. In April, veteran anti-graft campaigner Anna Hazare went on hunger strike for 98 hours to force Singh to allow him and other activists to sit on the drafting committee for the new law.

Anti-corruption bills have been introduced in the lower house of parliament eight times, most recently in 2001. But each time-with one exception in 1985, when the bill was withdrawn-parliament was dissolved before the bill could be passed.

Meanwhile, a member of Indian Parliament’s Upper House ‘Rajya Sabha’ was yesterday grilled by the Delhi Police in connection with his role in the infamous ‘cash-for-votes’ scam which hit

Bangladesh floods kill 6, displace thousands DHAKA: Floods triggered by monsoon rains in southern Bangladesh have killed 6 people, displaced more than 10,000 and washed away shrimp farms close to the Bay of Bengal, authorities said yesterday. The region’s Matamuhuri and Bakhkhali rivers overflowed after five days of heavy rain and inundated about 200 villages, chief government administrator Zainul Bari said.

The displaced have taken shelter in school buildings in the flood-hit district of Cox’s Bazar, he said. He said flood waters damaged shrimp farms and paddy crops in the affected areas. Bari said government relief workers are handing dried food and clean drinking water to the displaced. Also yesterday another government official Shafiq Mia said six flood-related deaths have been reported in the area, 296 kilometers (185 miles) south of Dhaka. — AP

GAUHATI: A farmer Rabin Timong, 35, catches fish in his flooded paddy field near the Pobitora wild life sanctuary, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) east of Gauhati, India. Most parts of the sanctuary which is a habitat of the rare one-horned rhinoceros are submerged due to monsoon floods, according to wildlife department officials. —AP

the country in 2008. In the scam a plot was hatched by the Treasury benches in the Parliament to offer cash to a few Opposition MPs in return of their votes during the voting over the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal which was being debated upon. In addition, it was alleged that the MP, Amar Singh, played a key role in approaching the Opposition MPs, arranging the money, and sending the same to the MPs. The Opposition MPs, however, took the money inside the Parliament while the debate over the Civil Nuclear deal was on, and alleged that the Treasury Benches had made a bid to buy their votes. It also sparked off one of the biggest scams that hit the Indian Parliament.

The Delhi police had summoned Amar Singh after he was named by two accused who have already been arrested- as the alleged ‘mastermind’ of the entire operation to buy votes to save the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government during the 2008 trust vote. — Agencies

Doubts cloud NATO’s Afghanistan handover

MUMBAI: Police personnel produce three of the five Islamic militants of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) allegedly involved in serial blasts in various parts of the country, at a press conference in Mumbai, India. The shadowy domestic terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM), which sprang out of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India and Indian officials said, was linked to Pakistani extremists, appears to be emerging as prime suspect in the July 13, 2011 triple bombing in Mumbai. —AP

11 killed in Karachi KARACHI: At least 11 people were killed and 15 others were wounded in a fresh wave of violence in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, officials said yesterday.

Last week Pakistan ordered hundreds of extra paramilitary policemen onto the streets of the Arabian Sea port to try to quell the violence. Political and ethnic violence in Karachi is blamed on supporters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), based among the Urdu-speaking majority, and the rival Awami National Party (ANP), which represents based migrant Pashtuns from the northwest.

“At least 11 people were killed and 15 others were wounded since last night,” home ministry official Sharafuddin Memon told AFP, but declined to comment whether they were ethnically-motivated killings.

Local police officials confirmed the

death toll but did not give details.

The MQM last month quit the coalitions led by the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that govern the country and the southern province of Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital.

The ANP remains part of both coalitions. The previous wave of violence erupted after provincial minister Zulfiqar Mirza, from the PPP, criticised the MQM and its exiled leader Altaf Hussain.

Mirza later apologized for remarks that he said were his “personal opinion” and from London, Hussain asked his supporters to “end their peaceful protest and go back to their homes”.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says 490 people were killed in targeted killings in Karachi in the first half of the year, compared to 748 for the whole of 2010, which was the worst since 1995. — AFP

KABUL: Grave doubts over the ability of Afghanistan’s fledgling security forces to beat back the Taleban are weighing on a transition from NATO control taking place in seven parts of the country this week. With foreign troops starting to leave ahead of a full combat drawdown by 2015, the spotlight is keenly focused on building up the national army and police forces, which officials say are rapidly improving in quality and number. But experts say worrying problems persist, with high levels of attrition and illiteracy, cronyism and fears of infiltration by insurgents within the ranks.

The United States alone has spent $27.8 billion on their development since 2002 and Western officials in Kabul predict it could be up to a decade before Afghanistan can pay for its own defense. But as foreign aid starts to recede, there are fears over how the Afghan forces will be funded.

A Pentagon war report in April said a shortage of 700 international trainers was also hampering efforts. It said that about three-quarters of army units are judged “effective” when backed by advisers or assistance from coalition troops, but not one army or police unit is deemed able to operate independently. The first major operation carried out by Afghan forces, last August led to a Taleban ambush in which several soldiers died in a remote area of eastern Laghman province. Official figures number Afghan security forces at 300,000, moving towards a target strength of 370,000 by 2014.

But the report said for every 10 recruits, six soldiers quit. In the rural town of Marjah in the volatile southern province of Helmand, army commander Major Hanifullah Shinwari in May admitted that 155 of his 650 soldiers had gone home or were on vacation. “Maybe some of them don’t come back,” he said.

“Two days ago four soldiers ran away. I think they’re scared.”

In nearby Sangin, the deadliest district for US marines fighting in the war-ravaged region, local commander Captain Ahmad last month said he had only 72 of the 140 men he should be leading. In a bid to overcome absenteeism, NATO has raised the pay and initiated regular rotation on the front line.

At handover ceremonies being held across the country this week, the head of the national transition authority, Ashraf Ghani, struck a confident note, saying the forces had seen “enormous change”.

“For the seven locations which have been selected... we’re completely confident that the Afghan army will have the capability,” he told reporters in the eastern town of Mehtar Lam on Tuesday. “We started from nothing in 2002. Progress (within the Afghan army) between 2002 and 2011 is truly impressive,” said a Western military official speaking on condition of anonymity. — AFP

Business Greece welcomes EU ‘life jacket’

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Microsoft Windows fizzles over PC fears

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ME fuel oil inflows to East Asia set to fall

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Brent up near $118 on Europe debt plan

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

CHANGCHUN: In this photo, a model poses next to a Cadillac CTS Coupe decorated with some 380,000 Swarovski crystals displayed at an auto expo yesterday. The car has been sold to a local Chinese for 68,000 yuan ($103,454), according to the car dealer. — AP

White House sees ‘momentum’ for debt deal US public opinion favors compromise on deficit WASHINGTON: The White House has said it sees “momentum” toward a deal to avert a disastrous early next month debt default, but denied media reports that a compromise with top lawmakers may be imminent. President Barack Obama huddled for nearly two hours late Thursday at the White House with top Senate and House Democrats unsettled by news accounts he was close to a broad agreement with Republican House Speaker John Boehner. “We believe there is momentum behind the idea of a balanced approach to a significant agreement,” spokesman Jay Carney told reporters with time running short before an August 2 deadline to raise the $14.3 trillion US debt ceiling.

But Carney rejected a New York Times report, citing anonymous congressional officials, that said aides to Obama had started informing key lawmakers that a deal was in the works with Boehner. “There is no deal. We are not close to a deal,” said the spokesman. “There is no progress to report, but we continue to work on getting the most significant deficit-reduction package possible.” The Times said the accord would include cuts to government health and retirement benefits programs dear to Democrats as well as new revenues-a blend in line with how the White House has previously defined a “balanced” deal generated through closing loopholes and ending tax breaks.

Such an agreement would likely anger Democrats who pledged to protect the US social safety net as well as Republicans who vowed to oppose increasing revenues, endangering its prospects for passage in the divided Congress. “The

decisions we’ve got to make right now are tough ones, and nobody likes them. I mean it’s always easier to give people more benefits and cut their taxes than it is to raise more revenue and reduce benefits,” the president told National Public Radio (NPR) in an interview to be broadcast yesterday. The National Journal, a publication that covers US politics, said the White House and top House Republican leaders were discussing a 10-year, $3-trillion plan to cut the deficit while raising the debt ceiling.

A senior Democratic aide later described media reports of a looming deal as overblown and said it would take another few days to hammer out a compromise from three deficit-cutting options he described as small, medium, and large. Boehner’s office also denied The New York Times’ report, with spokesman Michael Steel saying that “while we are keeping the lines of communication open, there is no ‘deal’ and no progress to report.” Washington hit its debt ceiling on May 16 and has used spending and accounting adjustments, as well as higher-thanexpected tax receipts, to pay its bills and continue operating normally. But it can only do so until August 2.

Finance and business leaders have warned failure to raise the US debt ceiling by then would send shock waves through the world economy, while Obama has predicted a default would trigger economic “Armageddon.” Word of a deal came after Boehner told reporters that he had braced his restive Republican majority in the House of Representatives for the possibility of having to support a potentially difficult compro-

mise. Boehner acknowledged that some Republicans would reject any debt-ceiling deal with Obama and his Democratic allies, “but I do not believe that would be anywhere close to the majority.”

“It would be irresponsible” for Congress and the White House “not to be looking at backup strategies for how to solve this problem,” the speaker added. With time running short, the US Senate was expected to kill, in a procedural vote yesterday, a House-passed Republican plan calling for steep cuts and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced US budget as the price for a debt ceiling increase. Several Democrats fumed over reports that an emerging agreement may not include tax concessions from the rich.

When “we heard these reports of these mega-trillion-dollar cuts with no revenues, it was like Mount Vesuvius.... Many of us were volcanic,” the Washington Post quoted Senator Barbara Mikulski as saying. But White House Budget Director Jacob Lew, who faced angry Democrats in a closed-door meeting Thursday, denied such a deal was in the works. “We’ve been clear revenues have to be part of any agreement,” Lew said. Obama again praised a plan, crafted by a “Gang of Six” Republican and Democratic senators, to cut the deficit by nearly $4 trillion dollars while ending some tax breaks as a sign of cross-party cooperation. And lawmakers were discussing a plan crafted by Senate leaders that would let the president raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion in three increments through 2012 with just Democratic votes. — AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

India clears $7.2bn BP-Reliance contract

ATHENS: Women look at discounted shoes through a window shop yesterday. — AFP

Greece welcomes EU ‘life jacket’

Second bailout to reduce Greek debt by 24% of GDP ATHENS: Greece said a second bailout had bought it breathing space and pledged no let-up in its drive to cut a still-mountainous debt which economists expect to force a deeper restructuring in the future. An emergency summit of leaders of the 17-nation currency area agreed a second rescue package on Thursday with an extra 109 billion euros ($157 billion) of government money, plus a contribution by private sector bondholders estimated to total as much as 50 billion euros by mid-2014. The leaders also made detailed provisions for limiting the damage if, as seems likely, credit rating agencies declare Greece to be in temporary default-the first such event in the 12-year history of the euro.

“There is a great breath of relief for the Greek economy and this will gradually pass on to the real economy,” Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters yesterday. “But by no means, does this mean we can relax our efforts.” Doubts remain about whether the plan went far enough to assure not only Greece’s debt sustainability but that of Ireland, Portugal and other debt-burdened nations. The package yielded “more than expected but not enough to make us sleep comfortably”, Barclays economists said. They were disappointed that European leaders did not agree to expand a euro zone rescue fund.

Among other steps, the leaders agreed on Thursday to ease terms on bailout loans to Greece, Ireland and Portugal; maturities will be extended to 15 years from 7.5 and interest cut to around 3.5 percent from 4.5-5.8 percent now. But if market conditions deteriorate and a larger European economy-Italy, for example-struggles to shoulder its debt burden, the rescue fund could be quickly wiped out. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said measures agreed at the summit, the fifth this year on the crisis, would reduce Greece’s debt by 24 percentage points of gross domestic product from about 150 percent today.

That still leaves a colossal debt for an economy deep in recession which does not have the option of a competitive devaluation.

What is more, the figures are based on what analysts say are optimistic projections for growth and returns from a sweeping privatization program. “Our estimates suggest that Greek debt/GDP ratios will fall around 25 percentage points over 5 years as a result of these measures but will still be a whopping 120 percent in 2016 even assuming that the full 50 billion euros of privatization measures are implemented,” analysts at JP Morgan said in a note. “We therefore believe that spreads will widen again as short covering dissipates and reality

sinks in.” The euro brushed close to a two-week high, prices for Greek, Irish and Portuguese bonds jumped and the cost of insuring their debt tumbled yesterday.

But traders said expectations of a larger restructuring down the road were undimmed. The European leaders’ promise of a “Marshall Plan” of European public investment to help revive the Greek economy, may help, though details were thin.

Default looms The ratings agencies may come out at any time with their likely verdict of default since banks and insurers are likely to write down the value of Greek bonds by around 20 percent, with more losses maybe to follow. “We have long thought that the most likely outcome for Greek bondholders would be that they would take a small haircut first followed by a larger one at a later date. To give Greece a fighting chance they probably need a write down close to 65 percent,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution. Under the bailout of Greece, which supplements a 110 billion euro rescue plan by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May last year, banks and insurers will voluntarily swap their Greek bonds for longer maturities at lower interest rates to help Athens.

The region’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, will be allowed to buy bonds in the secondary market if the ECB deems that necessary to fight the crisis. It can also for the first time give states precautionary credit lines before they are shut out of credit markets, and lend governments money to recapitalize banks-both moves which Germany blocked earlier this year. The expanded EFSF role is designed to prevent bigger euro zone states such as Spain and Italy from being excluded from markets because of fears of a weaker country defaulting. The Institute of International Finance, which led talks for the private sector, said their actions would help reduce Greece’s 340 billion euro debt pile by 13.5 billion euros.

Derivatives body ISDA told Reuters that the plan would not trigger a “credit event” and payment of credit default swaps contracts-a form of insurance against default-because it was voluntary. The summit accord was based on a common position crafted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sarkozy in late night talks in Berlin on Wednesday with ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet. The ECB relented and signaled it was willing to let Greece default temporarily under the plan, although Trichet told reporters he did not want to prejudge whether that would occur. — Reuters

NEW DELHI: India has cleared a $7.2billion deal for Reliance Industries Ltd to sell a major stake in two dozen of its oil and gas blocks to Britain’s BP, Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy said yesterday. “We have approved the deal between RIL and BP today,” Reddy told reporters after a cabinet meeting in New Delhi. Under the agreement, announced in February, BP will buy a 30 percent stake in 23 of Reliance’s oil and gas blocks, including India’s largest gas field KG-D6, for $7.2 billion.

It also envisages a performance payment of up to $1.8 billion if the tie-up leads to the development of commercial discoveries. The oil ministry had already given its support to the partnership, one of the largest foreign investments in India. “Since this deal was huge, we thought it was better to get it approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs,” Reddy said. “We took a positive decision,” he added.

Reliance, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, hopes BP’s deepwater drilling expertise will increase output from the KG-D6 field, which has dropped to about 50 million cubic meters a day from 60 million in June last year. BP, meanwhile, will benefit from access to new hydrocarbon resources

and markets. Such access has become especially important given the political upheaval in the oil-rich Middle East and north Africa, and a moratorium imposed by Washington on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of last year’s massive oil spill.

Reliance is the operator in all the 23 blocks while Canadian Niko Resources and Britain’s Hardy Oil have a minority 10 per cent interest in a few. Nineteen of the blocks lie off India’s east coast, while the others are inland in the northeastern state of Assam and the western state of Gujarat. Reliance and BP will also form a 50:50 joint venture for the sourcing and marketing of gas in India.

BP already operates oil and gas blocks in India and has a huge lubricant business, besides a solar power venture with the giant Tata group.Late last month, India’s government gave longawaited clearance to the multi-billiondollar sale of British oil explorer Cairn Energy’s Indian oilfields to Londonlisted mining group Vedanta Resources. That approval, nearly a year after the sale was initially announced, came with the key rider that Cairn India’s new owner must share the oilfields’ royalty burden, currently borne in full by India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. — AFP

MILAN: People wait for trains at the railways station yesterday on a day of transport strike. Italian commuters and tourists scrambled yesterday to negotiate a hodgepodge of bus, subway and train cancellations to get to their destinations during a one-day nationwide transport strike. — AP

India and Turkey offset weak Europe for Vodafone LONDON: Vodafone reassured nervy investors yesterday with results showing faster-growing markets such as India and Turkey helping the world’s largest mobile company to withstand tough trading and regulation in Europe. Sector analysts had been braced for a slew of bad results from European telecom companies, as regulatory changes eat into margins and consumers struggle, but they had looked to Vodafone and Telenor to shine due to their presence in the fast-growing emerging markets.

Telenor did just that earlier this week.

“We have made a good start to the year, reporting robust results despite challenging macroeconomic conditions across southern European economies and the impact of cuts to mobile termination rates,” Vodafone Chief Executive

Vittorio Colao said.

With our broad geographical mix and improving market positions, we are well placed for the rest of the financial year.” Shares in the group were up 1.5 percent in mid-morning trading.

Vodafone posted first-quarter organic service revenue growth of 1.5 percent, down from the 2.5 percent growth recorded in the previous quarter but marginally ahead of a Reuters poll. The overall performance was pulled lower by the 1.3 percent fall in European organic service revenue, which had accelerated from the fourth quarter, as Spain particularly dragged on its fortunes. Germany however remained resilient, as did Italy and Britain, which analysts suggested could be bad news for rival Telefonica . — Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

ME fuel oil inflows to East Asia set to fall SINGAPORE: Middle East fuel oil supplies into East Asia for next month are expected to fall drastically from high levels of the past two months, keeping the market strong amid easing demand from China, traders said yesterday. So far, only 400,000-450,000 tons of cargoes from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait have been fixed for August arrival, down from more than 1 million tons for each of the last six months, Reuters data show.

The tighter inflows were primarily due to less supplies from Iran, which had curtailed spot offers for July- and August-loading barrels due to disruptions to its domestic natural gas supplies. “The lack of Iranian cargoes have also affected the Middle East players, who then need to find replacement barrels from other suppliers in the region and that has resulted in less cargoes coming East,” a Singaporebased Western trader said. “We can’t compete for the cargoes if the Middle East-based guys want it because of the freight advantage that they have, and

so far, they have taken almost all the sell tenders.”

Reflecting this, four of the last six offerings from Saudi Arabia have been awarded to Middle East players. The latest was ExxonMobil’s regular high-viscosity offering from Yanbu-the 90,000-tonne lot, for Aug. 4-6 loading from the joint-venture Samref refinery, was sold to Bakri at a discount of $24.00-$25.00 a ton to Singapore spot quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Saudi Aramco also sold three rare low-viscosity, low-density parcels of 90,000 tons each, all for lifting between second-half this month and early next month from Rabigh, to players with operations in the Middle East. Supplies from Kuwait have also been at below average volumes since June-arrival, with no more than a single 80,000-tonne parcel seen for each of the past two months, while no fixture has been seen for next month-arrival as yet.

The lower volumes are mainly due to Kuwait Petroleum Co (KPC) diverting some of its already-limited spot supplies to Pakistan, where demand has

been very strong. More supplies are expected from the region, mainly from Saudi Arabia, which is expected to offer at least another five August-loading cargoes, totaling 450,000-500,000 tons, in line with its average monthly supply volumes of 500,000600,000 tons, traders said.

Low demand, low-supply scenario The uncertainty is how much of these volumes will flow into East Asia, with the Middle East market progressively strengthening, supported by strong demand from Pakistan and the Fujairah marine fuels market in the United Arab Emirates. “It depends on how much volumes the Middle East guys want. We can only take cargoes that they are not interested in, due to the freight factor,” another trader said. “There are also quite a few players who have options both sides, like Vitol, Shell and Trafigura, and they have the flexibility to swing the cargoes eastwards if economics in the Middle East change.” — Reuters

Microsoft Windows fizzles over PC fears Shares close to unchanged in post-market trading

GAYDON: Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron looks at an experimental car built by apprentices at Jaguar Land Rover’s research and development and corporate headquarters yesterday. — AFP

Murdoch links ready to overshadow Sky results LONDON: BSkyB’s complicated relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and whether son James should remain as chairman will likely dominate the firm’s solid financial results due next week. Investors who saw their shares fall over 20 percent at one point this month after a phone-hacking scandal scuppered News Corp’s BSkyB takeover bid, will want to see some indication of a future return of capital to boost the value of the company. However, a buyback of shares or special dividend would draw attention to News Corp’s near 40 percent ownership of the British pay-TV operator at a time when a criminal scandal has engulfed Murdoch’s empire and hammered the family reputation.

“It will be a tough decision for the board,” said Panmure Gordon’s Alex DeGroote, one of the first financial analysts to stress the increasing chances that the bid would fall apart. “At a time when BSkyB should be hypersensitive about the links to News Corp, both a special dividend and the chairman’s position are pertinent.” The 38-year-old James Murdoch took over as non-executive chairman of BSkyB in late 2007 after a highly successful four years as the company’s chief executive, transforming the group from a pure-play TV operator to one that also offered broadband and telephony.

Several shareholders have told Reuters they are supportive of James as chairman but will want to discuss the situation.

“Our focus is how BSkyB moves forward,” a top 20 BSkyB shareholder told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “We’ve got this on a watching brief, because if something dramatic happens then we’ll need to have conversations with them.

“We’re not pushing for anything as far as James Murdoch going or anything like that, but it will be a topic of conversation when we do talk to them. Our concern will be to make sure the business is structured sufficiently well to drive it through to make sure the perceived valuation and forthcoming revenues that we anticipate are protected.”— Reuters

SEATTLE: Sales of Microsoft Corp’s flagship Windows software disappointed for the third straight quarter, taking the gloss off better-than-expected earnings that were aided by an unusually low tax rate. The results failed to excite a market already wary about growth prospects for the company and PC industry as netbook sales give way to tablets. The stock was flat in after-hours trading. “All eyes are on Windows and how they are ultimately going to extend this franchise in the future, as the PC business continues to lose share to the tablets,” said Josh Olson, technology analyst at money manager Edward Jones. “Microsoft is really a show-me story in terms of its ability to extend its core flagship products to these new growth platforms.”

On Wednesday, chipmaker Intel Corp warned that PC sales will not be as strong as it had expected this year. Microsoft is expected to enter the tablet market in earnest next year with the launch of its next operating system- code-named Windows 8 — which will be compatible with the lowpower chips designed by ARM Holdings favored by tablet and mobile phone makers.

Despite the Windows dip, Microsoft managed to ease past Wall Street’s earnings estimates, helped by strong sales of its Office software and Xbox game console, as well as a dramatic drop in its tax bill. The world’s largest software maker follows Google Inc, Apple Inc and International Business Machines Corp in reporting surprisingly good results as technology spending holds up relatively well in an uncertain economy.

Big beat The Redmond, Washington-based company on Thursday posted net profit of $5.87 billion, or 69 cents per share, up from $4.52 billion, or 51 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. That easily beat Wall Street’s average estimate of 58 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Microsoft has beaten the average profit estimate for each of the last nine quarters. Microsoft was helped by an unusually low tax rate of 7 percent in the quarter, which cut its tax bill by

MOUNTAIN VIEW: In this file photo, Microsoft Window7 products are shown for sale. — AP more than $1 billion from the year before, which last month rolled out online versions to $445 million. The company, which gets of its popular Office suite of programs such most of its revenue from overseas, said the as Outlook, SharePoint and Excel, was the savings were due to a one-time tax gain and company’s biggest seller in the quarter, more business flowing through its regional racking up a 7 percent increase in sales to centers in the low-tax jurisdictions of $5.8 billion. The server and tools business, Ireland, Singapore and Puerto Rico. which sells software used by datacenters-an Sales rose 8 percent to $17.37 billion, essential building block of cloud computahead of analysts’ average estimate of ing-posted a 12 percent increase in sales to $17.23 billion, boosted chiefly by sales of $4.6 billion.

Office, Xbox and server software behind The entertainment and devices unit, Microsoft’s push into Internet-centric, or which sells the company’s video game and “cloud” computing. Microsoft shares fluctu- phone products, posted a 30 percent ated after the results were announced in increase in sales to $1.5 billion, mostly due after-hours trading, settling close to their to the popularity of the Xbox and the new closing price of $27.09 on Nasdaq. The stock hands-free gaming Kinect add-on. Sales at is up 8 percent over the past 12 months, the Windows unit fell 0.8 percent to $4.7 compared to a 30 percent rise in the Nasdaq billion. PC sales grew only 2.3 percent in composite index. The shares are stuck at a the second quarter, according to tech level first hit in 1998, adjusted for stock research firm Gartner, well below earlier splits. “These numbers are good. The ques- projections, as economic uncertainty tion is, what will make Microsoft break this hangs over consumers and Apple’s iPad range in which it is stuck, between $25 and and other tablets eat into the market. $28?” said Trip Chowdhry, managing direc- Microsoft’s perennial money-losing online tor at Global Equities Research. “I don’t see services unit, which runs the Bing search these numbers giving an indication that the engine and MSN Internet portal, posted a stock is going to break away.”

16.5 percent increase in sales to $662 million, but its loss widened to $728 million Office, Xbox star from a loss of $688 million a year ago, as Spending by businesses on technology Microsoft continues to pour money into has generally outstripped cash-strapped attacking Google. The unit has now lost consumers since the worldwide economic almost $6.5 billion in the last three fiscal downturn. Microsoft’s business division, years. — Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Struggling Indian economy battles to end tightening Growth rates expected to be around 8%

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani gold scavenger searches through dirt for gold at a gold market. When the sun sets and shops close, Pakistan’s gold scavengers spring to life, sifting through dirt and sewers for precious dust particles they can turn to profit. It is a painstaking, filthy job reserved for those dreaming of a rags-to-riches fortune in one of the poorest countries in Asia more noted for AlQaeda and bombs than social mobility. — AFP

Indonesia coal steams ahead as economy booms JAKARTA: Indonesia can’t get enough power to feed its booming economy and fortunately for Mochamad Sofyan, investors are lining up to invest billions of dollars in the country’s growing green power sector. Sofyan, head of the new and renewable energy division at state utility PLN, is busier than ever as an increasing number of foreign and local firms file into his office looking to invest in geothermal, hydro and biomass power projects. Solar is also gaining interest. Government programs to speed investment in power projects, easier regulations and rapid economic growth are lures. Around a third of Indonesia’s 240 million people are without power supply, and projections are for generation capacity to nearly triple by 2020 to meet a severe power shortage. Rising investment in green power as well as coal and gas is part of a surge in foreign direct investment, up 21 percent on the year in the second quarter of 2011. “If I had enough time, I would be meeting investors every day,” Sofyan said in an interview at his office in south Jakarta, where a white board listed his many appointments. Two years ago, he received just two visits a month. Now, investors from the United States, Japan, Europe, South Korea and China line up for an appointment, he said.

Investors in green power include Itochu , Sumitomo and Marubeni of Japan, and Britain’s International Power.

Earlier this month, the Indonesian government said French firms would invest about $2 billion in geothermal projects. Indonesia has pledged to cut the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, in part through boosting green power. It has plenty of clean energy bubbling away under the surface. The archipelago, along the Pacific Ring of Fire, is brimming with volcanoes and super-heated water that can be pumped from deep wells to drive steam turbines.

Coal still king At present, about 12 percent of Indonesia’s total energy mix comes from geothermal and hydro. By 2019, that is projected to grow to 18 percent, PLN says. Coal will remain as the top energy source, rising to about 60 percent of the energy mix by 2019 from less than 50 percent now. The challenge is vast. As of 2010, Indonesia’s generation capacity was 30,000 megawatts. For neighboring Australia, with a tenth of the population, it is 51,000 MW. Two fast-track power programs, each totaling 10,000 MW, have helped propel investment because of a government guarantee that PLN, the top power producer and sole distributor, will buy the electricity. The second and latest program focuses on green power, with about half of the capacity set to come from renewables. Other investments are going ahead outside the program as well. —Reuters

MUMBAI: India is nearing the end of its credit tightening cycle, as 10 interest rate increases since March 2010 exact a toll on growth in a once-roaring economy, making Tuesday’s expected rate rise potentially the last for the near future. Growth rates are still expected to be around 8 percent, which means India is not heading for a sharp slowdown even if the road ahead is filled with speed-bumps and the country’s economic engines are not firing on all pistons. However, recent industrial output and manufacturing data was the worst in nine months, car sales are skidding and loan demand is slowing, even as the central bank readies yet another increase in interest rates.

India’s dream of annual growth of 10 percent appears increasingly distant. The rate increases have been needed to fight persistent inflation, which is running about 9 percent and some economists predict a return to double-digits. “We haven’t seen, or are at the very early stage of seeing the lagged effects of all the interest rate hikes,” said Credit Suisse economist Robert Prior-Wandesforde in Singapore. “That’s only just started, and I think that’s going to deal a much heavier blow to growth as we go forward,” said Prior-Wandesforde, whose forecasts for Indian growth of 7.5 percent this fiscal year and next are among the lowest.

Quite a drop A Reuters poll of more than 20 economists forecast growth in the fiscal year that ends in March 2012 will be 7.9 percent, quite a drop from last year’s 8.5 percent. But the crowd is sanguine about prospects for the year that ends in March 2013, forecasting a growth rate of 8.4 percent. This year, sluggish investment due to rising rates and government paralysis in the wake of corruption scandals has slowed the building of additional capacity, which in turn has added to inflationary pressures on the supply side of the manufacturing sector.

All in all, the onus of arresting doubledigit price rises has been left entirely to the Reserve Bank of India, which has managed to rein in credit growth and the stock of cash in the banking system but with unintended consequences.

Car sales in India, which jumped 30 percent in the year through March, grew by just 1.6 percent in June, their slowest in two years, as higher interest rates and more expensive diesel and petrol deterred buyers. Loan growth has cooled to below 21 percent on an annual basis after reaching 25 percent at the end of 2010, with further slowdown expected as credit becomes more costly.

Manufacturing surveys indicate further slackening in demand and therefore production.

Even at an 8 percent pace, India will be the second fastest economy in Asia, but it needs to grow quickly in order to raise living standards and create jobs for a surging working age population. There is no sign at all of a possible plunge in growth to a “hard landing”, which is technically difficult to define but conceptually would mean India couldn’t generate the number of new jobs needed for its young population or the revenue gains the government

KOLKATA: In this file picture, an Indian man washes a white Ambassador car at the roadside. The iconic Ambassador car is one of the rare survivors of Indian life from before the radical financial reforms that began to transform the country 20 years ago this week. — AFP requires to contain its fiscal deficit.

Vicious cycle That would spawn a vicious cycle of more government borrowing and higher yields, possibly monetary easing and therefore inflation. India is cushioned from a precipitous fall in growth by an absence of major asset bubbles. Mumbai stocks are among the world’s worst performers in 2011, down about 10 percent this year, and property prices have been sluggish for months. Also, demand is expected to remain robust, thanks to rising rural incomes that are less sensitive to interest rates.

Some analysts have worried China could have a hard landing. But its data showing annual growth of 9.5 percent in the second quarter, compared to 9.7 percent the previous quarter, have doused fears. For India, there are different views about what would constitute a hard landing. At the upper end, HDFC Bank Chief Economist Abheek Barua characterizes it as growth below 7.5 percent for a fiscal year. Other economists see hard landing as growth below 7 percent or around 6 percent.

For Credit Suisse, it would mean consecutive quarters of growth of 5 percent or below, an outcome that would be disastrous for the government. With New Delhi only recently showing fiscal discipline with last month’s long-delayed 9 percent increase in diesel prices, and capacity bottlenecks slow to clear as big projects and reforms stall, fighting inflation has been left to the central bank.

“Unfortunately what has happened in India is that fiscal policy is almost oblivious to inflation,” said Samiran Chakraborty, chief economist at Standard Chartered in Mumbai.

“All the burden has come to rest on interest rate policy, which is a pretty blunt instrument,” he said. The wholesale price index (WPI) rose 9.44 percent in June after the diesel increase began to take effect. Amid expectations that infla-

tion will stay high the rest of 2011, the central bank has little choice but to raise rates again at its July 26 review. All 23 analysts polled by Reuters expect the key policy rate to be raised 25 basis points that day to 7.75 percent. Eleven expect that following Tuesday’s meeting, there will be one more 25 basis point rise in 2011, but nine see the Reserve Bank of India keeping rates unchanged after July 26.

Hitting bottom?

Despite the series of policy rate increases, real interest rates in India are near zero, with the one-year deposit rate at around 9 percent-roughly in line with inflation-compared with the central bank’s benchmark repo rate of 7.5 percent, a level economists expect to top out at 8 percent. There is a prospect that a government on the back foot over its handling of corruption, inflation, and now security after the July 13 bomb attacks in Mumbai, may push through measures to stimulate investment that would drive growth and address supply shortages.

In this optimistic view, Indian growth is bottoming, and long-delayed projects such as POSCO’s $12 billion steel plant are poised to move forward, providing a shot of investment-driven stimulus. The recent reassignment of Jairam Ramesh, who as head of the environment ministry held up approvals of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, to the rural development ministry, was seen as a pro-investment move. New Delhi is also believed to be moving closer to enabling foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, a politically difficult step aimed at improving supply chains and curbing inflation in a country where 30 percent of produce rots before it gets to market. “I think the government has finally woken up to the fact that things are looking fairly difficult, at least on the industrial economic front,” said HDFC Bank’s Barua. — Reuters

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BUSINESS SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Myanmar currency crunch leaves exporters crippled High food, fuel prices test new govt YANGON: Promises of economic development and pro-business reforms from Myanmar’s new civilian government ring hollow for entrepreneur Tin Maung, a fisheries exporter whose once-thriving firm is now on the brink of bankruptcy.

Myanmar’s kyat currency has appreciated 20 percent in the past year, more than any other Asian currency that Reuters monitors daily, squeezing traders and exporters like Tin Muang, who are struggling to break even as inflation pushes up costs and the new government does nothing to tame the currency’s rise. The strong kyat and high food and fuel prices are a major test for the four-month-old government, not just economically, but politically, and analysts warn its failure to tackle bread-and-butter issues may anger the public and lead to its downfall.

The biggest and bloodiest uprisings against military rule, in 1988 and 2007 were sparked by discontent over soaring inflation and fuel prices respectively, and former government officials say more of the same could be on the way. “It’s a political time bomb for the government,” said a retired senior government official. “It was livelihood issues, not a thirst for democracy that pushed people onto the street before and things couldn’t be worse now.” Dollars are pouring into Myanmar’s fragile and largely opaque economy, with foreign investors keen to tap its vast resources and visiting traders buying up gemstones. But most of that money ends up lining the pockets of cronies of the military dictators who controlled the country for decades.

The government’s inaction over the kyat’s strength and rising food costs is alarming exporters, farmers and employees earning dollar-pegged salaries.

Businesses are closing, salaries are cut and jobs are being lost as production costs rise. Exporters who hoped for better times are hurting badly, with the kyat currently trading at around 785 to the dollar on the black market-which covers nearly all transactions-compared with more than 1,000 a year ago. “We’re in a real dilemma. We’re fighting a losing battle because of the soaring costs,” said Tin Muang, 42, who reckons more than

YANGON: Passengers sit in a car of a circular train. — AP 20 farms and processing plants in the up state assets and property in a mass fisheries sector alone have closed in pre-election sell-off last year. Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar’s econorecent months.

“We’ve had to sell all we were breed- my at Australia’s Macquarie University, ing in the local market at low prices. It said another major contributor to the will have a very negative impact on our kyat’s strength was sales of illicit opium traditional export market.” The govern- and methamphetamine, of which ment has made no public acknowledge- Myanmar is one of the world’s biggest ment of its currency crisis and its cut in producers.

Intervention unlikely export tax from 10 to 7 percent, effective Drug money was converted into kyat this month, is a measure seen as too little, too late. “I don’t think the govern- to pay opium growers and workers in ment is much interested in the worsen- illegal drug factories, he said. The rest ing situation with the kyat,” said a retired was laundered through banks and busicommerce ministry official, who request- nesses or put into Myanmar’s booming real estate market, with transactions paid ed anonymity.

“They seem complacent and focused in kyat. The lack of reliable data or transon the huge proceeds from gems empo- parency in Myanmar’s economy and banking system allows Burmese riums and foreign investment.”

Private economists point to the dol- tycoons-many of whom are targeted by lar’s weakness as the main driver of the Western sanctions due to their alliances kyat’s appreciation but say many other with former junta leaders-to continue to factors have come into play, including boost their wealth.

Economists see no signs that policy increased inflows from timber and energy exports, mainly to China and makers with a history of fiscal mismanThailand, which is boosting demand for agement will take any action to interkyat. Gems such as jade, rubies and sap- vene in the currency. “In other counphires worth $5.7 billion were sold at tries, the central banks normally interthree emporiums in the past eight vene, but we can’t expect this sort of months alone. Dollar inflows also thing to happen here,” said Maw Than, a increased with the repatriation of funds retired rector of Yangon’s Institute of held offshore by wealthy Burmese to buy Economics. — Reuters

Qantas pilots commence rare industrial action SYDNEY: Pilots on international routes for Australian airline Qantas yesterday began their first industrial action in 45 years with unauthorized in-flight announcements telling passengers about their dispute. Some 1,700 long-haul pilots voted earlier this month to take their first action since 1966 following stalled contract negotiations, holding out the possibility of a two-day strike as a last resort.

Passengers on flights yesterday were to hear pilots urging them to back their campaign to keep the airline Australian.

“We are proud of our profession and our airline and trust you will support us in keeping Qantas pilots in Qantas aircraft and ensuring our great iconic airline remains uniquely Australian,” the message says. Pilots have been negotiating new wages and conditions with Qantas for months and want a new clause in their contracts to stop the airline from potentially outsourcing pilots to cheaper bases in Asia. The aim of the announcement is not to argue any point to passengers, it is to gently remind them that Qantas pilots are currently fighting to stay in the cockpit of Qantas flights,” said association vice president Richard Woodward.

“Quite simply, Qantas passengers do not want to see their Australian Qantas pilots replaced on Qantas flights with outsourced alternatives working to Asian conditions and standards. “We hope that this action spreads awareness of what management is up to and puts pressure on them to reconsider.” The union has also launched billboards in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, declaring: “When you board a Qantas flight, you expect a Qantas pilot.”

Qantas has rejected the claims about outsourcing and said it was disappointed passengers would be disturbed.

“Passengers want pilots to provide updates over the PA system on the arrival time, the weather at their destination and important safety information,” spokesman Luke Enright said.

“They don’t want to hear scripted complaints from the pilots’ union about a dispute with management.” While admitting that its international business is unprofitable and needs to be restructured, Qantas said the pilot demands would drive up airfares, cost jobs and make Qantas unprofitable. Qantas is also in dispute with its engineers in a protracted dispute about wages and conditions. — AFP

Australia trade bonanza surpasses 140-year peak SYDNEY: Australia’s export prices jumped past expectations last quarter as insatiable Asian demand for coal and iron ore provided powerful support to incomes, employment and investment in the resource-rich country. Yesterday’s data showed export prices climbed 6.0 percent in the three months to June, handily beating forecasts and a second straight quarter of hefty gains. Prices were up 10.5 percent on June last year, far outstripping import prices which were down 1.0 percent on the year.

The terms of trade, or the ratio of export to import prices, looked to have climbed 5.3 percent in the second quarter to the highest since records began in 1870 and double the average for the whole of the 1990s. “With much of the recent disappointing data flow reflecting subdued domestic demand conditions, the delivery of the trade price numbers is a welcome reminder of the big picture,” said Ben Jarman, an economist at JPMorgan. “A structural shift in global relative prices is underway, one which advantages countries with commodity endowments.”

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has estimated that for every year the terms of trade stays at such stratospheric levels,

it is worth a staggering 12 to 15 percent of the country’s A$1.3 trillion of annual economic output. This A$150-200 billion in extra income shows up in profits, wages and employment and is fuelling massive investment as miners scramble to meet demand from China and India. Mining giant BHP Billiton looks to be on track for annual profits of $21 billion, helping fund a spending binge of $80 billion over the coming five years.

All of which is a major reason the central bank remains upbeat on the long-term outlook for Australia even as a high local dollar and consumer caution cause pain for some sectors like retailing and manufacturing. “Members considered that the continuing strong economic performance of Asian economies meant that the medium-term outlook for the Australian economy remained strong,” minutes of the RBA July board meeting showed this week.

Sky-high commodity prices have helped lift the local dollar to 29-year peaks against its US counterpart, making many imports cheaper from cars to computers, clothes and phones.

However, even the currency could not completely offset a surge in the price of oil, one of the few commodities Australia does not produce in volume. — Reuters

SYDNEY: A billboard featuring the message “When you board a Qantas flight, you expect a Qantas pilot”, erected as part of an Australian and International Pilots Association awareness building effort is displayed. — AFP

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BUSINESS

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

easyJet boosted by biz travel uplift LONDON: British low-cost airline easyJet raised full-year guidance when reporting strong growth in third-quarter revenue after it attracted more business travelers, sending its shares up 15 percent. The Luton, southern England-based airline said yesterday revenue for the three months to end-June grew 23 percent to 935 million pounds ($1.5 billion), also boosted by growing passenger and ancillary revenues.

The budget carrier, which acted last year to lure more corporate passengers, said the number of business travelers flying with it jumped a fifth during the quarter, and the outlook was positive-it has already sold around three quarters of the

seats for its summer flights.

Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said that, assuming normal conditions and a 10-12 percent return on capital employed, it expected a full-year pretax profit of 200230 million pounds, at current fuel and exchange rates. easyJet said it carried 14.4 million passengers in the June quarter, up 17.3 percent. Its load factor-a measure of how well it sells available seats-rose 0.2 percentage point to 86.3 percent.

The company had been expected to report a 2010/11 pretax profit of 184 million pounds based on estimates in a 160268 million range, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Societe Generale

analyst Jonathan Wober, who has a ‘buy’ recommendation on easyJet shares, said that with the mid-point of the carrier’s forecast range well above the market consensus: “On our current forecasts, the stock looks good value”. Shares in easyJet, which had fallen a quarter in value this year, were 15 percent up at 359.7 pence by 0830 GMT, a two-week high valuing the business at around 1.5 billion pounds. Despite a recent rebound in economy class travel, rising fuel prices continue to cause trouble for the industry and could wipe out airline profitability in 2011, hindering the industry’s recovery, industry body IATA has said.

Brent up near $118 on Europe debt plan Weak economic data from China weighs on sentiment LONDON: Oil rose to just under $118 yesterday as Europe’s latest attempts to resolve the debt crisis and signs of progress on a US deficit reduction deal offset weak economic data from the world’s second-largest oil consumer, China. The International Energy Agency’s decision not to release more oil from emergency reserves also supported prices.

“It’s a combination of better sentiment, a weaker dollar, less risk aversion and some positive news on the economic front,” said Eugen Weinberg, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

The Brent futures contract for September was up 39 cents at $117.90 a barrel by 1019 GMT, off an earlier high of $118.35. US crude was up 37 cents at $99.50 a barrel. On Thursday an emergency summit of leaders of the euro zone pledged a second bailout of Greece.

This comprised an extra 109 billion euros ($157 billion) of government money, plus a contribution by private sector bondholders estimated to total as much as 50 billion euros by mid2014. “The preliminary solution presented in Brussels yesterday is bringing some calm to the market,” said Weinberg. “Risk appetite is coming back after the decision to help Greece.”

However, data showing that Chinese manufacturing had contracted in July made some analysts and traders cautious. Commodity markets are focused on the economy of China as a major source of future demand growth.

“Chinese oil demand is really slowing

NEW YORK: In this photo, specialist William Krumm works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. — AP down, and the PMI was not encouraging at all. Fundamentals appear to be relatively weak,” said Christophe Barret, global analyst at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank. China’s apparent oil demand gained only 1 percent from a year earlier to 8.99 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, the slowest growth in more than two years, Reuters calculations from official data showed.

To refocus on fundamentals Barret said the oil price rise could reverse once the market refocuses on oil fundamentals. “Now the euro zone debt plan is out, we will get more assessment on what is happening in the oil market rather than what is hap-

pening elsewhere,” he said.

Christopher Bellew, an oil trader at Jefferies Bache, described the small uptick as a sideways move. “Even the euphoria over the postponement of the Greek default wasn’t enough to get it above $120. And for the last three weeks it hasn’t been below $115 either.” But Commerzbank’s Weinberg said the market would be supported today partly for technical reasons.

“WTI is near the $100 level and Brent is near $120, so we could expect some speculative buying on the prospect of an outbreak,” he said. Brent is biased to rise to $120.82 a barrel, while US crude has an upside target of $101.53 a barrel, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. — Reuters

CaixaBank sees profits soar MADRID: CaixaBank, formed as the retail arm of Spanish banking giant La Caixa this month, posted first-half net profits of 833 million euros ($1.2 billion) yesterday, up 11 percent from comparable figures. On the Madrid stock market, Caixabank shares rose 4.10 percent to 4.39 euros, in a market that was up 1.89 percent on the eurozone debt deal reached in Brussels Thursday.

In just the second quarter, the bank posted profits of 533 million euros, or a rise of 57 percent Net interest

income-the difference between interest paid out on deposits and interest earned on lending-was 742 million euros for the second quarter, down 17 percent from the previous year. Over the six-month period, it also dropped 17 percent to 1.543 billion euros. La Caixa, the biggest savings bank operation in Spain with more than 28,000 employees and 5,300 branches, ploughed its entire retail banking operation into CaixaBank, which was listed on the stock market on July 1. — AFP

Fuel cost rises tend to weigh more on price-sensitive flights used by tourists and individual travelers. EasyJet said it would look to forward buy up to 85 percent of its fuel requirements for the coming 12 months and around two thirds of its 12-24 month requirements.

The carrier said it had hedged threequarters of its fuel requirements at $812 per metric tonne until its fiscal year-end.

Earlier this month easyJet’s largest shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, said he wants to force a shareholder vote over the airline’s plans to by new aircraft from Airbus, resuming a long-running dispute with the company he founded. — Reuters

Borders Group wins bankruptcy approval NEW YORK: Borders Group won bankruptcy court approval Thursday to liquidate its 40-year-old business, effectively spelling the end for the second-largest US book retailer. As many as 35 of the company’s stores could continue to operate as bookstores in some form if a last-minute agreement with Books-A-Million, the nation’s third-biggest bookstore chain, can be reached.

Borders attorney Andrew Glenn said in court the two sides were still talking, but no agreement had been reached. The potential deal could save as many as 1,500 of Borders’ nearly 11,000 total jobs, Glenn said.

Books-A-Million said in a statement Thursday it made an offer for 30 Borders locations. Glenn said five other stores might also be included in the discussion. Glenn said that, under the plan being discussed, Books-AMillion would acquire the inventory and merchandise at the included stores, then negotiate with landlords on leases. But the bulk of Borders stores will close in what Glenn called a “bittersweet” operation.

“There were a lot of sad people, a lot of sadness in the corporate office,” Glenn told Judge Martin Glenn, no relation, at US bankruptcy court in Manhattan. A group of liquidators will sell off Borders’ merchandise and furniture in a process likely to start Friday and be completed by September, according to court papers. No hardand-fast deadlines exist for getting a deal done, Glenn told Reuters. He added, however, that Books-A-Million would like to hammer out a deal by Friday, in time to stop closing sales from going forward at stores that might remain open. Borders will keep the rights to its brand name and any leases not transferred to Books-AMillion. The liquidation will likely bring in between $250 million and $284 million the company can use to pay back creditors.

The sale deal that wasn’t Borders, which helped pioneer the concept of book superstores, thought it had a buyer willing to keep its business alive when private-equity firm Najafi Cos, owner of the Book-of-the-Month Club, offered $215 million in cash and $220 million in assumed liabilities for the company. But the deal fell apart amid objections from creditors, forcing the second-largest book retailer to announce plans to close its doors. Borders, founded in 1971, had hoped a “white knight” buyer would emerge, but it canceled a planned auction Monday night after receiving no bids.

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Books-A-Million runs about 200 so-called “superstores” and another 30 smaller stores. The company’s presence is concentrated most heavily in the southeast, but the Borders deal could expand its footprint: about half of the 35 stores that could be acquired are in the US Northeast, including eight in Pennsylvania, three in Maryland and five in New England. Borders declared bankruptcy in February, unable to overcome competition from larger rival Barnes & Noble and from online retailer Amazon.com.

Borders also never rivaled its competition in e-reader sales. — Reuters

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James Franco says he didn’t want to host Oscars

Wedding dress to draw record crowds to London palace Page 29

Page 24

Australian Ballet dancers Madeleine Eastoe and Kevin Jackson perform before the Melbourne skyline on the 88th floor of the Eureka tower, to promote the announcement of their lead roles in the Australian Ballet’s upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet, yesterday. Acclaimed Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy will direct the ballet with costumes designed by Akira Isogawa, which starts on September 1, 2011. —AFP

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Boyz II Men celebrate 20th anniversary with new CD A

fter 20 years, Boyz II Men have not reached the end of the road in their music career. In fact, the group is preparing to celebrate their milestone anniversary this year with a new album, including reworked versions of their classic hits.”Nothing too extreme or dramatic, but we’ve added a few things here and there,” says Shawn Stockman of their coming project. Boyz II Men brought their Motown-Philly harmonies to the masses when they made their debut with “Cooleyhighharmony” in 1991; propelled by hits like “End of the Road” and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,” the Philadelphia-based group’s first album sold more than 9 million copies. Their sophomore CD, “II,” sold 12 million copies.

Stockman says the group, which originally included Wanya Morris, Nathan Morris and Michael McCary, had no idea how huge their achievements were.”We were so busy just working ... we didn’t think too much about how it would impact the world, which is probably a good thing, because it kept us sharp and kept us focused, even to this present day,” he said. “Looking back, it’s a great thing. It’s hard to talk about it because it’s something that we think it’s a great milestone in our careers, but we’re still hungry, and we still feel like we have so much more to contribute, musically and otherwise.” The group, which became a trio after McCary left, still records and performs regularly. Their last CD, 2009’s “Love,” had them performing standard love songs. They never have replicated the sales, or the radio success, of those first two multimillion-selling albums. Still, Stockman says they have not stopped being successful.”It wasn’t the kind of thing where we made flop albums, and someone got on drugs, and then all kind of craziness happened. The industry just changed, and tastes changed,” he said. “We didn’t fall off. ... Time and how things have gone in the industry and in life, it kind of preserved us to be able to have some sort of success.”

The trio’s coming album, “Twenty,” will feature new songs and new renditions of some of their best-known work.”We’ve always been true to our love songs, and the type of music that we do, we feel this type of music is timeless,” he said. “It’s our 20th anniversary, so we wanted to not only give our listeners something new, but our new listeners I guess an anthology.” Stockman

Richard Smallwood returns with 12th album

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he death of Richard Smallwood’s mother in 2005 left him so distraught that the Stellar- and Dove Award-winning artist lost the inspiration to write a song for four years. But Smallwood found motivation after watching a news telecast that highlighted many of the world’s problems. As a result, he wanted to show people that there is still hope, and that led him to produce his latest album, “Promises,” which features his

choir ensemble, Vision.

His belief that anyone can overcome life’s obstacles is the driving force on his 12th album. He divinely informs listeners on how to battle through the process of mourning on his first single, “Trust Me.” On “Is There Any Way?” Smallwood pays homage to his mentor, singer Walter Hawkins, who died from pancreatic cancer this year. The touching track is a rendition of Hawkins’ 1984 single.

The longtime music director and pianist also revives his magical moments with Vision. Some of the best songs are the slow-paced “Be Faithful” and “Unbroken Promises,” along with the upbeat “I’m Forgiven.”

Check out this track: On “Praying for Peace,” Smallwood teams up with singer Lalah Hathaway as the Vision backs them up on the inspirational song.—AP

hopes the group will capture a younger generation, but also a few fans they may have lost along the way. “We hope that those people that we’ve touched before, we’ll be able to touch again, because they haven’t gone anywhere, they’ve just grown up,” he said. — AP

Boyz II Men perform on the Mainstage at the 2011 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. —AP

Reviews

Faithfull still rocks but acts her age

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arianne Faithfull has survived a rollercoaster-like ride through life to reach the age of 64 that her friends, the Beatles, once celebrated in song. On her new CD, Faithfull still rocks but acts her age, unlike some of her contemporaries who vainly chase after their lost youth. On “Horses and High Heels,” which reunites her with producer Hal Willner, Faithfull shows her mastery at finding familiar and obscure songs to cover that she can relate to personally and transform. On the Carole King pop ballad “Goin’ Back,” a 1960s hit for Dusty Springfield, she poignantly recasts it to reflect the viewpoint of an older woman looking back on her past. Her distinctive world- weary, gravelly voice and acting skills add gravitas to the melancholic, fatalistic “Past, Present and Future,” a quirky song by the Shangri-Las, spoken rather than sung to an accompanying theme based on Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

After overcoming writer’s block following recent bouts with cancer and depression, Faithfull includes four originals among the 13 tracks that draw on recent life experiences. The guitar-driven “Why Did We Have to Part?” expresses regrets over a romantic breakup. The Celtic folk-inspired title track creates haunting late-night images of horses’ hooves and women’s high heels clattering on the streets of Dublin and Paris - the two cities the British expat now calls home. This album, recorded in New Orleans, has some songs that almost seem out of character for a singer long associated with the dark side of life. The rollicking blues-rock “No

Reason,” by British songwriter Jackie Lomax, sounds like a Rolling Stones song, while Allen Toussaint’s “Back in Baby’s Arms,” with guest appearances by Dr. John and Lou Reed, finds Faithfull singing soul with a funky groove. Dare we say that Faithfull has finally arrived at a happier place?

Check this track out: On her original “Eternity,” Faithfull samples the late Rolling Stone guitarist Brian Jones’ 1968 recording in Morocco with the Master Musicians of Jajouka in an uptempo, and surprisingly optimistic, folk-rock song.

— AP

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Review

B

eyonce Knowles has had it all before turning 30, yet is still humbled by what she calls “the biggest opportunity of my life”-the lead role in Clint Eastwood’s remake of the film, “A Star Is Born.” The singer and burgeoning actress, whose fourth solo album “4” debuted at No 1 on pop charts after its release last month, told Reuters she felt lucky to have landed the iconic role previously played by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland.

Beyonce Eastwood will helm the fourth remake of the story about rising singer and actress Esther Blodgett, and Beyonce fondly remembers being a young girl and watching previous versions of the movie with her mother. “It’s when I became a fan of Barbra Streisand’s. And I then saw Judy Garland’s version of ‘A Star Is Born’ and I realized every 20 to 30 years a new star is born and a new talent represents that generation and era-so I didn’t think that I would ever get the opportunity to be the star,” she said.

Beyonce has won 16 Grammy Awards, is married to rapper mogul Jay-Z, has topped Forbes magazine’s lists of the most powerful and influential celebrities and is one of the world’s top-grossing musicians. She starred in other movies with large ensemble casts, such as the widely-praised “Dreamgirls”, but she said meeting Oscar winner Eastwood still made her quiver.

“I met with Clint and I was so nervous and I know that it is the biggest opportunity of my life. I will work as hard as I can,” she said. “Because I can’t wait. And I am so happy that he trusts me and I am in good hands and I am so fortunate.” The film is due to begin shooting at the end of the year and, according to showbiz website Deadline Hollywood, may also co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. But for now, Beyonce is still busy managing the singing career that she has taken over from her father and longtime manager, Matthew Knowles.

The switch has the music industry watching closely. Without directly addressing her father, Beyonce said it was “difficult balancing the business and the creativity.” “Having to balance the two is really hard and really making sure that I’m still doing my job, which is to be the performer and the entertainer and not

have to do everyone else’s job so that mine doesn’t suffer, that’s been a challenge,” she said. She added: “I’m sleeping with my blackberry, I’m having dreams that I’m answering e-mails, like it’s that far!”

Labor of love While “4,” debuted at No 1, its first week sales were her lowest to date and singles “Run the World (Girls)” and “Best Thing I Never Had” have not performed as well as other hits, from “Crazy In Love” on her first album to her third CD’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Halo.”The Houston-born singer, who first experienced fame with the all-girl group “Destiny’s Child,” said that with “4” she wanted to make a cohesive album that was “one body of work.”

“This album was a labor of love. It was not about singles,” she said. “I felt like the emotion and live instruments and just soul (were) missing out of the music industry, especially the popular music that’s out. I wanted to bring it back to the music I grew up listening to. It’s like a mixture of the ‘90s and the ‘70s and rockn-roll.”

Beyonce heralds the video for “Run the World (Girls)” as a current favorite, but acknowledges that the black-and-white video for “Single Ladies,” which showed off her swinging pelvis and rhythmic dance moves in a one-piece bodysuit, was a hard act to follow. That video “was something that no one knew would become the phenomenon it became, thank God. And I know I am so lucky to have one of those moments in my career.

It is just a blessing.”

Her move to take charge of her career-everything from her tour performances to videos-is partly aimed at inspiring younger stars to take control of their careers, she said, citing one of her major influences, Michael Jackson. “It just feels like no one else can tell me how I am supposed to perform, and I think it’s what separates the Michaels and the Madonnas from the artists that are great but are just not quite the Michaels and the Madonnas,” Beyonce said.

While some industry watchers have wondered if success has gone to her head, Beyonce seems to exhibit very little of the ego of many pop stars and said as the years progress, she will likely be living “vicariously” through other artists. As she turns 30 years-old in September, what can she possibly achieve by, say, 60? “I am sure at 60 I will not doing the Oh-Oh-Oh dance, that will not be cute,” she laughed, referring to the ‘Single Ladies’ dance. “I think my priority will be my children and hopefully my grandchildren by then-and my record label or production company or whatever else.”—Reuters

LaVere’s ‘Stranger Me’ weird, wonderful

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my LaVere intended to record her latest album with Jim Dickinson, but the producer and Memphis music icon passed away in 2009 before she was ready to record “Stranger Me.” There’s no doubt Dickinson would have loved LaVere’s record, though. It’s a little bit weird, right from the opening notes of the wonderfully flippant opener “Damn Love Song,” through the cover of Captain Beefheart’s “Candle Mambo” near the end, and a whole lot of angry. And no wonder. It’s a reflection of a time of great upheaval for LaVere, a diminutive Memphis singer known for her giant upright bass and a bit part as Wanda Jackson in “Walk the Line.”

The fact that the album even exists - with the loss of her biggest champion, the departure of her guitarist Steve Selvidge to The Hold Steady and her breakup with boyfriend/drummer Paul Taylor is a testament to her toughness. And all that upheaval is here on “Stranger Me” in song content, in odd tunings and instrumentations that conjure even odder emotions, and in her honesty. And it’s just like Dickinson would have encouraged her to do. With the help of Arcade Fire producer Craig Silvey, she emerges from this time defiant. “Stranger Me” is full of fabulous anti-love songs, hitting a high point with the menacing “Red Banks,” a song about turning the tables on an angry lover, powered by baritone sax and haunting guitar. There are delicate songs of longing and hurt as well. But LaVere’s at her best on songs where she’s shaking her tiny fist at men, at fate - and even her own heart.

Check this track out: With a tip of the hat to “Red Banks,” “Damn Love Song” is the highlight of “Stranger Me.” It’s a fabulous first impression, a curse thrown in your face like a drink, lurching along on a thundering bass line that’s just the start of the psychedelic fun. — AP

Ziggy Marley underlines differences with father

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iggy Marley is carrying on his father’s musical legacy proudly, but he wants to remind reggae lovers of their differences. In a new album, the 42-year-old eldest son of Bob Marley reflects on lessons learned from his dad, who died at age 36 after contracting cancer. On the tune “The Roads Less Traveled,” he sings about his father’s womanizing ways and inability to shed “yes men” in success: “My daddy had a lot of women, and my mama had a lot of grief. The bredrens (friends) that surrounded him became the enemies.”

Marley said in an interview that while he’s happy to expand his and his family’s brand - whether with a “Marijuana Man” comic book or a Marley’s Mellow Mood “relaxation drink” - he has kept his circle of friends small and purposefully avoided accumulating any sort of entourage.”I’d rather be by myself really than have like a million posse around me,” Marley said in an interview at his Los Angeles home.

“Some of them you don’t even know what’s in their hearts. You don’t know who you can trust.”

“That’s why I sing that song, because I

learned from what I saw as a child and decided that I would take another way,” he said. “My father, we bumped heads when I was younger, much younger. ... I had different ideas that I shared with him. He didn’t like them as much. He gets upset or whatever. I guess I had a strong opinion from when I was a little boy, you know.”Marley’s fourth

solo studio album, “Wild and Free,” also includes a song obliquely about leaving behind his birthplace of Jamaica, titled “Get Out of Town.” The five-time Grammy winner now lives primarily in Miami, Florida.

“He’s from the country and I was born in the town. One day I told him that. I don’t want to be a country boy,” Marley said of his father. “He was upset with those things. And then another time it was about dreadlocks. I said to him, ‘You cannot have dreadlocks.

You can be dread in your heart.’ He was very upset. Each father want their sons to be just like them really” But now that Marley - who does sport dreadlocks - has matured, his singing voice and his take on reggae music is arguably more evocative of Bob than others in his famously musical family.

“If it wasn’t natural to be like him, it wouldn’t happen. But since it naturally evolved to have a lot of the ideas and traits of my father, then that’s fine,” he said. Like his father, Marley couches some downbeat themes in sunny-sounding tunes.”Welcome to the world. I can’t promise it’s a good place,” he sings to his children in one song.—AP

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

James Franco

says he didn’t want to host Oscars

Lindsay Lohan, center, arrives with her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley for a case review conference.

Judge: Lohan needs to speed up community service James Franco and Anne Hathaway

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emember that disastrous Academy Awards show back in February?

Well, it wasn’t James Franco’s fault that he was a lousy host. In fact, he didn’t even want the gig and acted dull on purpose. Four months after a brief Twitterfueled tiff in which he criticized Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch (and then made up with Vilanch the next day), Franco is in the August issue of Playboy magazine with his first in-depth comments about what was widely seen as a debacle of an Oscar show, with Franco’s listless performance drawing near-unanimous scorn.

And there’s nary a mea culpa to be found in Franco’s comments, which repeatedly circle back to the same theme: I didn’t write that stuff, and I did what I could with substandard material. Oscar observers could be forgiven for thinking that Franco in fact did what he could to sabotage lackluster material by appearing dazed and confused while co-host Anne Hathaway was unnervingly chipper.

After the show, one staffer told TheWrap that Franco had been even more lethargic during rehearsals, leading staff members to hope that he was “saving it for the show”-while others said that the actor’s performance was the object of some serious 11th-hour discussions among top show staffers, who knew his detached style presented a huge problem. To read Franco’s comments in Playboy, though, he was simply a victim of bad writing, and a loyal deckhand who figured there was nothing to do but go down with the ship.

In fact, he uses that exact metaphor at one point, after saying that he considered himself “trapped” by the material. “I felt, this is not my boat,” he told Playboy’s Stephen Rebello. “I’m just a passenger, but I’m going down and there’s no way out.” Other tidbits from Franco’s interview: * He didn’t want to do the show, but he thought it’d take some of the pressure off Fox Searchlight’s push to get him a Best Actor Oscar for “127 Hours,” because “at the time I thought no one had won an Oscar the year they hosted the show.” (He was mistaken: David Niven had.)

* He figured he could handle the gig even though he was attending Yale and couldn’t show up in LA until a few days before the show, because the Oscar host doesn’t really have all that much to do.

“They knew I could rehearse only on weekends because of school, but how much do you have to rehearse?” * After first seeing the material, he told the show’s producers, Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer, “I don’t know why you hired me, because you haven’t given me anything. I just don’t think this stuff’s going to be good.” * He acted blase on purpose. “I thought, Okay, Anne is going the enthusiastic route. I’ve been trained as an actor to respond to circumstances, to people I’m working with, and not to force anything. So I thought I would be the straight man and she could be the other, and that’s how I was trying to do those lines.” * He tweeted during the show as a “cutting-edge” way of reminding people that he didn’t write the stuff he was saying. * Contrary to rumor, he wasn’t high. * He didn’t want to come onstage in drag, and in fact was so mad about that that he once planned to deliberately trip and fall when he came onstage. “Me in drag is not funny,” he said. * When it comes to the writing staff, “there were a lot of cooks who shouldn’t have been cooking.” And Judd Apatow wrote some funny stuff for the show that wasn’t used. * But afterwards, Cohen told him that Steven Spielberg had called it “the best Oscars ever!”

That last comment reminded me of Allan Carr, who produced the even-moredisastrous 1989 Oscar show, and afterwards defended his own debacle by announcing that Ronald Reagan had called it “the best television show I’ve ever seen.”

But the scariest part of the Franco interview isn’t the Oscar material-which, after all, is old news at this point. The unsettling thing is that Franco starts hitting many of the same notes when he talks about his upcoming film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” —Reuters

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judge warned Lindsay Lohan Thursday that she must spend more time doing community service and enroll in psychological counseling or risk running into problems with her probation.

In a separate development, Lohan was sued for assault and battery in Riverside County by a former worker at the Betty Ford Center who had a dispute with the actress in December. In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner

LindsayLohan talks with her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley during a case review conference. —AP photos reminded the actress during a status hearing in her criminal cases that she had to complete 480 hours of community service by next April, and that she would not grant any extensions, even if Lohan is

working on a film. “She’s not going to get five minutes more than one year” to complete the service at a shelter for women and the county morgue, Sautner said. The judge opened the hearing by telling Lohan that probation officials had submitted a report stating she had violated the terms of her release. “Don’t look shocked Ms. Lohan because it isn’t true,” Sautner said, explaining the probation officer was relying on incorrect information.

The judge did chide the actress for not providing officials with a phone number where she could be reached for monitoring. It was Lohan’s first appearance in court since completing 35 days of house arrest.

Her attorney, Shawn Holley, noted the actress was prohibited from doing community service during that time. Lohan, 25, has completed one of four antishoplifting classes. Sautner said she must complete the rest before returning to court on Oct 19. Holley said her client is having trouble enrolling in court-ordered psychological counseling.

Sautner agreed that the actress should not have to enroll in group treatment, but said Lohan must find someone to counsel her within three weeks.

Lohan cannot afford to pay a psychiatrist who was previously treating her but would find a new program shortly, Holley said. The actress remains on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanor grand theft case in which she pleaded no contest in May to taking a $2,500 necklace without permission. —AP

Actress Charlize Theron and moderator Damon Lindelof sit on stage as an image of director Ridley Scott appears on screen linked from Iceland during the 20th Century Fox panel while talking about their new movie, ‘Prometheus,’ Thursday. —AP

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

‘Twilight’ cast surprises fans with breakfast Comic-Con 2011

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hey had begun their vigil Monday night - and Thursday morning, the throng of fans waiting in line to be the first to grab a seat in the San Diego Convention Center’s Hall H to see the first panel presentation of Comic-Con International 2011 were rewarded for their patience. Five cast members from “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1,” the movie that kicks off four days of entertainment programming in the 6,500-seat venue, showed up to greet their public bright and early

Thursday morning. And they brought breakfast.

For the first time, Summit Entertainment orchestrated a surprise meet-and-greet where Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene and Elizabeth Reaser were joined by Julia Jones and Boo Boo Stewart. The five stars signed autographs and posed for pictures as Summit staff passed out “Twilight” posters, coffee mugs, juice and muffins.

The fans were ready for action. They had the cast signing magazine covers,

Cast members, from left, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner appear on a panel for their film, ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking the Dawn Part 1’ at the Comic-Con International 2011 convention in San Diego Thursday.

Actress Ashley Greene, left, and actress Nikki Reed surprise fans by making an early morning appearance at Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday.—AP

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personal pictures, T-shirts, even pieces of technology. “I’m so happy,” squealed Aimee Gastelon, 22, from San Diego, who had been waiting since Tuesday afternoon for a seat inside, but never expected the actors to show up in person. “I’m really surprised they came out.

They have never done that before.”

Ashley and Nikki just signed my iPad,” added Gastelon. “My iPad is so much more valuable now,” she exclaimed

before running off to hunt down Reaser.

For the first group of women in linefriends who first met last summer at the Los Angeles “Twilight” convention EclipseCon, the appearance of the cast members was an unbelievable surprise.

“We’re shocked. It’s absolutely amazing,” says Arianna Ruiz, 21, from Antioch, Calif. “And I got to meet the three cast members I haven’t met yet.”

— Los Angeles Times

great movies about newspapers

ewspapers themselves have been making headlines lately, with the British tabloid News of the World collapsing amid allegations of phone hacking and police bribery and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch testifying before Parliament - and being attacked by a protestor with a shaving-cream pie in the process. But the Fourth Estate has long been an inspiration for filmmakers who’ve depicted reporters as both seekers of truth and unscrupulous diggers of scoops. Here’s a look at five films that are worth stopping the presses to watch: “Citizen Kane” (1941): All these years later, Charles Foster Kane’s shadow is inescapable when considering any modern-day media empire. The larger-than-life character, which Orson Welles loosely based on the life of publisher William Randolph Hearst, was full of the same kinds of ego, drive and greed that we see among the powerful today. The words and imagery are iconic; one friend joked on Twitter that he hoped Murdoch would utter the word “Rosebud” at the end of his Parliament testimony this week. But Kane knew then what the reality would become for those of us working in this field now: “The news

goes on for 24 hours a day.”

“All the President’s Men” (1976): The story - and the movie - that launched a generation of journalism careers, with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman starring as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal. Alan J. Pakula’s film quietly builds to a boil, all the while meticulously depicting the nuts and bolts of what it takes to report a big story. Its obsession with accurate detail, especially in its portrayal of the tedious inner workings of a newsroom, might make it seem dry at times. But given the constant pressures that come today with online journalism and a 24-hour television news cycle, “All the President’s Men” feels like a quaint time capsule in which there was time to dig and check and recheck.

“His Girl Friday” (1940): The definition of snappy banter and a prime example of the great screwball comedies of the era.

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell are at their best here as exes who flirt, bicker and (naturally) fall in love with each other again.

Grant plays hard-driving newspaper editor Walter Burns, who will do whatever he must to get former wife Hildy Johnson

(Russell) - the paper’s former star reporter back on the staff and into his life, rather than letting her settle down with a new husband. Howard Hawks’ film builds to a mad crescendo of lies, schemes and coverups, all of it expertly timed and fluidly choreographed. When you’re in a crummy mood, this is the movie to pop into the DVD player.

“Ace in the Hole” (1951): Decades before Baby Jessica tumbled down a Texas well or 19 men were trapped in a mine in Chile, Billy Wilder’s film was eerily prescient in depicting the kind of giddy hoopla that can surround such a tragic event. Kirk Douglas is riveting as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newsman who’s been bounced out of nearly every major paper in the country.

But when he stumbles on the story of a man who’s stuck in a mountain tunnel in small-town New Mexico, he shamelessly manipulates it, figuring this is his way back into the big time. It’s a showy role, full of swagger and bravado, and Wilder’s vision of the circus that literally crops up around the rescue effort is full of dark insight and biting wit.

“Fletch” (1985): Between this, “Caddyshack” and “Vacation,” Chevy Chase

was at the height of his game. But playing wisecracking undercover investigative reporter Irwin M “Fletch” Fletcher provided him with perhaps his most identifying role, and gave the world some of the most enjoyable lines to quote. Fletch misses deadlines and frustrates his editor, he assumes false identities and sneaks into offices to get the information he needs.

He’s fearless in a way most of us in this business only wish we could be, and utters the quips we wish we could come up with at just the right moment. Can he borrow your towel for a sec? His car just hit a water buffalo. —AP

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

British artist

Lucian Freud dies aged 88

People look at a painting by Lucian Freud entitled, ‘Boy Smoking’, dated 1951-2, part of the Simon Sainsbury Bequest unveiled at the Tate Britain gallery in London.

Christie’s Head of Post War & Contemporary Art, Pilar Ordovas looks at a Lucian Freud 1992 painting ‘Bruce Bernard’ on display at the auction house in London.

Readers will be talking about ‘Paradise Prophecy’

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he Paradise Prophecy” (Dutton), by Robert Browne: Robert Browne produces a novel that reads like an amalgam of Jim Butcher and Dan Brown in “The Paradise Prophecy.” In this thriller, the War in Heaven has come to Earth, and mankind will soon be extinct. The cast of characters includes Sebastian LaLaurie, a theologian who developed a drinking problem after the death of his wife, and Bernadette Callahan, who works for the US government and is starting to lose all sense of reality. When Callahan is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of a popular young singer in Brazil, her life will be changed forever. LaLaurie is teamed up with Callahan when it appears that the singer was murdered and that others have fallen prey to a killer with seemingly supernatural abilities. Their investigation leads them to a secret organization with the sole purpose of keeping ancient documents like a lost chapter of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and several missing pages from a book called the “Devil’s Bible” hidden from the beings that could use them to destroy the world.

“The Paradise Prophecy” is hard to describe. The unfolding events become more fantastical, and it’s sometimes difficult to tell one demon from the other. The initial transition to the supernatural is also a bit jarring.

However, once the reader adjusts to the novel’s tone and scope, the pages cannot fly by fast enough. The shocking end will compel everyone to want to talk about the reading experience with others as much as Browne seems to be hinting at more to come. —AP

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ealist painter Lucian Freud, grandson of the inventor of modern psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and widely seen as Britain’s top contemporary artist, has died in London aged 88, his lawyer said. Freud was known for his signature nudes and self-portraits such as the powerful 1993 work of himself as a naked older man waving his brush like a weapon. In recent years his paintings have sold for astronomical sums. His 1995 Portrait “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” fetched 33.6 million dollars

exciting, humble, warm and witty. He lived to paint and painted until the day he died, far removed from the noise of the art world,” said New York art dealer William Acquavella. Born to architect Ernst Freud, Sigmund’s youngest son, in Berlin in 1922, Lucian moved to England with his family aged 10 to escape Nazism and became a British citizen in 1933.

Freud, once described by art critic Robert Hughes as the greatest living realist painter, studied at London’s Central School of Art and Goldsmiths College, but his career was interrupted when he served as a merchant seaman in an Atlantic convoy in 1941. After an early flirtation with surrealism, Freud turned to portrait painting, particularly nudes, in the 1950s.

Former critic for the Observer newspaper William Feaver, who knew the painter for more than four decades, said he had “restored portraiture to its proper place” by painting figures from all walks of life. “He said everything he did was autobiographical and a self portrait. He was a witty,

impulsive artist but generous with it,” he added. His 2001 portrait of the queen under a heavy crown was dismissed by many of her fans as “ugly” and decried as “a travesty” by The Sun newspaper. The queen herself made no comment.

“I paint people,” Freud once said.

“Not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.” Art critic and presenter Tim Marlow called Freud a “very special man”.”He looked at the world was as if he was painting it but when you saw his paintings you saw how he really saw at it,” he said Thursday. “He was the sort of person who had a twinkle in his eye but he would also look at you in a daunting and scrutinizing way.

“He was very funny and very dry. He never lost his sharpness.”The painter was notorious for subjecting his models to sittings lasting up to a year, and the intense relationship struck up between artist and subject provided the creative force for many of his works. —AFP

Visitors look at Lucian Freud’s work entitled ‘Woman Smiling’ during a photo call at Christie’s in London, yesterday. at a Christie’s auction in New York-a world record for a living artist. A statement released by his lawyer Diana Rawstron Thursday said the artist “died peacefully ... at his home in London”.

His New York gallery, Acquavella Galleries, said Freud died Wednesday after a brief illness at his home in Notting Hill. “In company he was

In this file photo of Oct 27, 2010 Sotheby’s employee Chloe Stead holds ‘Self Portrait with a Black Eye’ by British artist Lucian Freud at Sotheby’s auction house, London. — AP photos

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

In this photo taken on July 21, 2011, women passengers sit in a decorated bus in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Florescent material and stainless steel sheets are used for decorating traditional trucks and buses which is a famous car-craft in Pakistan. —AP

Celeb birthdays for the week of July 24-30

Matt LeBlanc

July 24: Actor John Aniston (“Days of Our Lives”) is 78. Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 75.

Actor Mark Goddard (“Lost in Space”) is 75. Actor Chris Sarandon is 69.

Comedian Gallagher is 65. Actor Robert Hays (“Airplane!”) is 64. Actor Michael Richards is 62. Actress Lynda Carter is 60.

Director Gus Van Sant is 59. Country singer Pam Tillis is 54. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 46. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 43. Actress Laura Leighton (“Melrose Place”) is 43. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 42. Actor Eric Szmanda (“CSI”) is 36. Actress Rose Byrne is 32.

Actress Summer Glau is 30. Actress Elisabeth Moss is 29. Actress Anna Paquin is 29. Actress Mara Wilson is 24.

TV personality Bindi Irwin (“Bindi: The Jungle Girl”) is 13.

July 25: Actress Barbara Harris is 76.

Drummer Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds is 68. Bassist Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire is 60. Supermodel Iman is 56. Cartoonist Ray Billingsley (“Curtis”) is 54. Guitarist Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is 53. Country singer Marty Brown is 46. Actress Illeana Douglas is 46. Actor Matt LeBlanc is 44. Actor D.B. Woodside (“24”) is 42. Actress Miriam Shor (“Swingtown,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) is 40. Actor James Lafferty (“One Tree Hill”) is 26.

July 26: Actress Marjorie Lord (“Make Room for Daddy”) is 93. Actor James Best (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 85. Singer Dobie Gray is 71. Singer Darlene Love is 70.

Singer Brenton Wood is 70. Singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones is 68.

Actress Helen Mirren is 66. Drummer Roger Taylor of Queen is 62. Actress Susan George is 61. Actor Kevin Spacey is 52. Singer Gary Cherone (Extreme,

Van Halen) is 50. Actress Sandra Bullock is 47. Singer Jim Lindberg of Pennywise is 46. Actor Jeremy Piven is 46. Singer Wayne Wonder is 45. Actor Cress Williams (“Close to Home”) is 41. Host Chris Harrison of “The Bachelor” is 40.

Actress Kate Beckinsale is 38. Drummer Dan Konopka of OK Go is 37.

July 27: TV producer Norman Lear is 89.

Actor Jerry Van Dyke (“Coach”) is 80.

Actor John Pleshette (“Knots Landing”) is 69. Singer Bobbie Gentry is 67. Actressdirector Betty Thomas (“Hill Street Blues”) is 63. Singer Maureen McGovern is 62. Actress Roxanne Hart is 57.

Guitarist Duncan Cameron (Sawyer Brown) is 55. Comedian Carol Leifer is 55. Country singer Stacy Dean Campbell is 44. Singer Juliana Hatfield is 44. Actor Julian McMahon (“Profiler”) is 43.

Comedian Maya Rudolph is 39.

Drummer Abe Cunningham of Deftones is 38. Singer Pete Yorn is 37. Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 34. Singer Cheyenne Kimball of Gloriana is 21.

July 28: Actor Darryl Hickman is 80.

Cartoonist Jim Davis is 66. Singer Jonathan Edwards is 65. Actress Sally Struthers is 63. Actress Georgia Engel is 63. Drummer Simon Kirke of Bad Company is 62. Guitarist Steve Morse of Deep Purple is 57. Bassist Marc Perlman of The Jayhawks is 50. Actor Michael Hayden (“Murder One”) is 48. Actress Lori Loughlin is 47. Actress Elizabeth Berkley is 39. Singer Afroman is 37.

Drummer Todd Anderson of Heartland is 36. Singer Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach is 35. Rapper Soulja Boy is 21.

July 29: Actor Robert Horton (“Wagon Train”) is 87. Actor David Warner (“Titanic”) is 70. Keyboardist Neal

Doughty of REO Speedwagon is 65.

Singer-bassist Geddy Lee of Rush is 58.

Documentary maker Ken Burns is 58.

Singer Patti Scialfa with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is 58.

Actress Alexandra Paul (“Baywatch”) is 48. Country singer Martina McBride is 45.

Drummer Chris Gorman (Belly) is 44.

Actor Tim Omundson (“Psych”) is 42.

Actor Wil Wheaton is 39. Singer Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men is 38. Actor Stephen Dorff is 38. Country singer James Otto is 38. Actor Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother”) is 37.

Musician Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley is 34. Actress Allison Mack (“Smallville”) is 29.

July 30: Actor Richard Johnson is 84. Actor Edd “Kookie” Byrnes is 78. Blues guitarist Buddy Guy is 75. Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 72. Singer Paul Anka is 70. Jazz saxophonist David Sanborn is 66. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is 64.

Actor Jean Reno (“The Da Vinci Code,” “Godzilla”) is 63. Blues singer Otis Taylor is 63. Actor Ken Olin is 57. Actress Delta Burke is 55. Singer-songwriter Kate Bush is 53. Country singer Neal McCoy is 53.

Actor Laurence Fishburne is 50. Actress Lisa Kudrow is 48. Country guitarist Dwayne O’Brien of Little Texas is 47.

Actress Vivica A. Fox is 47. Actor Terry Crews (“Everybody Hates Chris”) is 43.

Director Christopher Nolan is 41. Actor Tom Green is 40. Drummer Brad Hargreaves of Third Eye Blind is 40.

Actress Christine Taylor is 40. Comedian Dean Edwards (“Saturday Night Live”) is 38. Actress Hilary Swank is 37. Actress Jaime Pressly is 34. Singer guitarist Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers is 31. Actress Yvonne Strahovski (“Chuck”) is 29. — AP

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

There’s no look defining -there are many

denim I

n the ‘70s you had your bellbottoms and in the ‘80s your tight designer jeans. In the ‘90s, you went from distressed grungy to dressy denim, and then came the skinny-jean revolution in the 2000s. But, say insiders, there isn’t a defining denim trend heading into the important fall shopping season this year - and that’s expected to be a good thing for the women’s apparel market.

It takes multiple pairs to round out your wardrobe. Skinnies and their close cousin the jegging are still going strong. There also is a more wearable interpretation out there of the high-waisted, flared-leg pant that was popular on the runway for fall, and boot-cut and boyfriend jeans have earned “classic” status.

“The consumer is passionate about denim, and it seems like you can’t have too much,” says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with market research firm The NPD Group. He adds, “You’re going to find a denim free-for-all where anything goes.

Purchases will be spread out and people will buy by brand, but not a single trend. Price point is a factor but the features people are putting a greater emphasis on is fit and brand.”

Jeans already are the rare apparel item that people don’t give up on when they are feeling economically squeezed, Cohen says.

He puts them in the “replenishment” category along with socks and underwear, because people feel they are a necessary thing. Even when they’re not worn out, consumers are willing to “trade up” their denim, in the way they will few other things except perhaps a new smartphone or laptop, if they find a pair they think are more flattering, Cohen adds. “They’re always back on

the quest for the perfect pair.”

Sales for women’s jeans had a period of brief decline in the middle of 2010, NPD reports, but ended up 2.6 percent and grew another 20 percent in the first three months of 2011. Jeggings were a juggernaut, finishing last year with an increase of 200 percent, but Cohen suspects those were more of a fad. Fashion denim as a category is still poised for further growth, though, because people aren’t married to a single look: They still have their casual and dressy pairs, black and white jeans, and those with light and dark washes. And all those silhouettes.

“What ‘denim’ is today has changed from just ‘jeans.’ ... It’s crossed the boundary of just being one thing,” says Rosella Giuliani, creative director of Gap’s denim collection.Designers and celebrity stylists Emily Current and Meritt Elliot say they have noticed huge shifts in trends when it came to jeans every five years. If that’s still true, we’re in the middle of the “anything goes” trend. “It’s a fun point when there are lots of trends relevant at the same time,” says Current. “It encourages personal style and lets you play with proportion and different styles.”

Elliot adds, “Women can dress more appropriately for body type and lifestyle.

You can ebb and flow between ‘trends’ jeggings are not for everyone, the boyfriend is not for everyone, but one of them might be for you.”

In 20 years in the business, Tana Ward, chief merchandising officer for American Eagle, says she has never seen this much democracy in the denim market. Consumer interest is spread almost equally among silhouettes and leg shapes, and a particular style isn’t seen as something for the very

Image courtesy of Gap shows their Women’s Skinny Boot Jeans.

Gap’s 1969 ponte five-pocket leggings.

young - or not so young - or the very casual versus dressy.

“Today’s designers and today’s trends are built off inspiration from all the eras before now,” Ward says. Denim retailers and manufacturers have also learned not to dictate to customers that there is one right way to be wearing their jeans, she adds. “Today’s shoppers aren’t tied to an era. They are most interested in looking good.”

Trial and error is really the best way to find flattering jeans, say the experts, but there are some style assumptions: • High-rise, extreme flares are a perfect complement to a long, lean shape, says Ward, while curvier shapes bring a femininity to skinny jeans, especially with either a long, loose top, or fitted tank and open cardigan.

• Wide legs look best with a shorter top not one that shows your belly - but one that hits at the top of the jeans, Ward suggests.

• Gap’s Giuliani likes to see denim trousers with a blazer and heel, although she’s personally wearing a lot of a “slouchy skinny” shape - a version of the skinny jean with a more relaxed cut but still a tight leg opening.

• Elliot says she’s often asked, “How long will skinny jeans live?” and “How long will the boyfriend last?” “My answer: ‘They’re here as long as they serve a purpose, probably forever.”

• Don’t limit yourself to pants, adds Current. A denim skirt or even a shirt or jacket can give off the same hip vibe that jeans have.”

“It’s been interesting to watch denim move away into a whole category of casual fabrication,” Current says.

The appeal of jeans is largely built on the durability of denim, but technology has allowed for manufacturers to make the fabric softer, more supple and stretchier, while maintaining its strength, Giuliani adds. It’s also allowed for lighter weights of denim, making jeans truly a year-round look, she says.

Unfortunately, strong, 12-month sales of denim doesn’t necessarily benefit any other category of women’s apparel, observes NPD’s Cohen.

Because jeans can be worn with pretty much anything - T-shirts, sport shirts, dress shirts, etc., - they don’t fuel sales of another must-have item. “Denim is universal in that it doesn’t create a chain reaction to dovetail from its success,” he says. — AP

This product image courtesy of American Eagle Outfitters Inc shows their Skinny Jeans. —AP photos

This product image courtesy of American Eagle Outfitters Inc. shows their Hipster Flare Jeans.

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

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uckingham Palace expects record crowds this summer, when up to 650,000 people are set to file into Queen Elizabeth’s London residence and past the dress worn by Kate Middleton at her wedding to Prince William. The ivory and white garment, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, won over the fashion press and public when Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge and a future queen, walked up the aisle of Westminster Abbey in April.

In the run-up to the fairytale wedding, details of the outfit were a closely guarded secret, known only to the handful of people who worked on the dress. Hundreds of millions of viewers admired it on television and the Internet, and now hundreds of thousands will see it for themselves, unprotected on a raised oval stage in the ornate palace ballroom where state banquets are held.

Reflecting the surge in interest in the royals after the marriage and the newlyweds’ recent trip to North America, advanced ticket sales for the summer tour of Buckingham Palace have hit 126,000, up 107 percent on the same point last year. In total a record 643,000 people are expected to take the tour, during which visitors can see 19 state rooms, a display of Faberge jewellery-and the dress, Middleton’s wedding shoes, earrings and a silk replica of her bouquet.

Above the dress is the original veil and Cartier “halo” tiara worn by the bride, featuring around 900 diamonds and lent to her for the occasion by the queen. Caroline de Guitaut, curator of decorative arts at the Royal Collection, said the royal couple, whose wedding drew huge crowds to the streets of London, had striven for modesty as well as beauty and grandeur on the big day. “They wanted the wedding to be modest as far as an occasion of that kind can be modest,” De Guitaut told reporters. “There is a sense of modesty in this dress. I think it will stand the test of time, definitely.”

to draw record crowds to London palace

Queen and duchess to visit In a video made after the wedding and for the exhibition, designer Burton talked in detail about the painstaking process of making the dress and its 2.7metre train. Middleton was closely involved in the design process as well as in the decision to display the dress in Buckingham Palace. The queen and duchess were due to visit the display on Friday.

“What is so astounding ... is just how much thought and extraordinary work and craftsmanship and skill went into it,” said De Guitaut. Even the wedding cake is on show in a glass cabinet in the state dining room, complete with ornate sugar flowers and a deep cut where the couple plunged in the knife. The other major attraction for visitors this year is a display of around 100 pieces from the British monarchy’s unparalleled collection of works by Russian jeweller Faberge.

The exhibition, which features highlights from a total of 600-700 Faberge creations owned by the the royals, ranged from treasures bought by and given to Queen Victoria to a recent bequest to heir to the throne Prince Charles. “Many of these pieces are still in use,” said De Guitaut. “Clocks, for example, are still on desks and (picture) frames are still used in private apartments. It’s still a living collection.” The summer opening at Buckingham Palace runs from today to Oct 3.—Reuters

The Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, in Buckingham Palace, London. — AP photos

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TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

EMC reports record Q2 revenue and profit

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MC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) yesterday reported record financial results for the second quarter of 2011. Strong worldwide customer demand for EMC’s information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure products and services, balanced growth and continued outstanding execution contributed to EMC achieving record second-quarter consolidated revenue and net income. The results were also highlighted by strong year-over-year percentage increases in non-GAAP operating and gross margins and all-time record consolidated quarterly revenue for EMC’s business operations outside of the United States.

Second-quarter consolidated revenue was $4.85 billion, an increase of 20% compared with the year-ago quarter. Second-quarter GAAP net income attributable to EMC increased 28% year over year to $546 million.

Second-quarter GAAP earnings per weighted average diluted share increased 20% year over year to $0.24.

Non-GAAP1 net income attributable to EMC for the second quarter was $793 million, an increase of 33% compared with the year-ago quarter. Secondquarter non-GAAP1 earnings per

weighted average diluted share were $0.35, an increase of 25% year over year. EMC achieved year-to-date operating cash flow of $2.2 billion and free cash flow2 of $1.6 billion. The company ended the second quarter with $9.5 billion in cash and investments.

Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our record-setting performance during the quarter was marked by balanced growth, solid execution and significant technology innovation as customers around the world continue to embrace EMC’s cloud computing and Big Data strategies. It is our firm belief that this strategy is well-placed and underpinned with winning products and services and strategic partners. We remain confident in our ability to continue delivering strong results this year and over the long term. Furthermore, we remain committed to investing heavily to extend our technology lead and help customers and service provider partners accelerate their IT and business model transformations.”

David Goulden, EMC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, said, “EMC’s second-quarter results are further evidence that our strategy is on

Many Chinese surprised gadgets made in China BEIJING: So strong is the appeal of the Apple brand in China, some Chinese are willing to sell a kidney to pay for its gadgets.

Apple Inc’s iPads, iPhones and iMacs have been a smash hit in China, especially with the affluent, and upwardly mobile, middle classes and fashion-conscious urban youth who are snapping up the slinky, easy-to-use goods with gusto. The apparently insatiable appetite for Apple goods in the world’s second largest economy is good news for the Cupertino, Californiabased firm, which reported forecast-smashing results this week, helped by massive growth in Asia, and China in particular. It’s also created a sizable market for knock-offs in the world’s prime manufacturer of imitation goods, where pirates set up a fake Apple Store in the southwestern city of Kunming that is so good that even the employees believe it’s the real deal. “Apple is a very well-known brand in China, and that’s reason enough for some people to buy,” said Xu Ziqing, a 23year-old Beijing hotel receptionist.

“Chinese people these days care very much about brands.

They might not know whether the product is truly good or bad, but if it’s a good brand, they will want it.” Desperation to get hold of Apple computers can lead to extreme behavior. Last month, state media reported that a teenager from the poor inland province of Hunan had sold one of his kidneys to be able to afford an iPad 2.

The tablet computer is also becoming the must-have accessory on Beijing’s notoriously crowded, stifling subway, a transport network used mainly by middle-income white collar workers and eschewed by the wealthy. Apple executives have said they have just scratched the surface in China, and the company is in the process of opening more stores there.

Apple’s two Beijing stores-in the shopping districts of Xidan and Sanlitun-heave with people, even on weekdays, and on weekends, queues can stretch around the block. For many customers, Apple products are a tangible sign of belonging to a certain social strata. “All of my friends use Apples. I thought it was time we found out what the fuss was all about,” said Annie Xue, browsing a 13,000 yuan ($2,015) 27-inch iMac with her husband at one of Apple’s two bustling official retail stores in Beijing. “I’ve only used Windows before, and I am a little worried I won’t be able to find my way around an Apple. But it seems so easy and intuitive,” she added.

At the company’s official Beijing stores, Apple employees claim to have heard nothing of the fake shop in Kunming. “I can assure you that there are only four official Apple stores in China, and you’re standing in one of them right now,” said one employee at the crowded Sanlitun branch. —Reuters

Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer target and that we continue to execute our financial ‘triple play’ - gaining market share, investing aggressively to take full advantage of the massive opportunities at the intersection of cloud computing and Big Data, and improving profitability. Our focus on providing technology and services that accelerate our customers’ journey to the cloud and enable them to leverage their data for more competitive advantage is resonating strongly in the mar-

ket. Given the strong results we have achieved this year and the opportunity we see for the remainder of 2011, we are raising our financial outlook for the year. We now expect to exceed 2011 consolidated revenue of $19.8 billion, GAAP EPS of $1.07 and non-GAAP EPS of $1.48.”

Second-quarter highlights Second-quarter highlights included double-digit revenue growth for EMC Information Storage business, which increased 19% year over year. EMC’s high-end EMC Symmetrix storage product portfolio, which includes the EMC Symmetrix VMAX, increased revenue 15% compared with the year-ago quarter, and EMC’s portfolio of mid-tier storage products3 grew revenue 27% year over year.

Revenue from VMware (NYSE: VMW), which is majority-owned by EMC, increased 37% and revenue from EMC’s RSA Information Security business grew 13% year over year.

Additional second-quarter highlights included strong revenue growth for the EMC VNX unified storage and the company’s backup and recovery solutions. EMC saw increasing customer demand for its Big Data technologies product revenue from EMC Isilon, EMC

Atmos and EMC Greenplum each doubled year over year. Further secondquarter highlights included continued customer demand for EMC’s broad consulting and professional services portfolio.

Also during the quarter, VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment Company formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, experienced continued momentum as demand from customers for best-of-breed converged infrastructure through the Vblock Infrastructure Platform grew. VCE’s year-to-date revenue for 2011 has already exceeded its full-year 2010 revenue amount.

EMC’s consolidated second-quarter revenue from the United States reached $2.5 billion, an increase of 17% year over year, representing 52% of consolidated second-quarter revenue. Revenue from EMC’s business operations outside of the United States hit an all-time record $2.3 billion, an increase of 25% year over year, representing 48% of consolidated secondquarter revenue. Within this, revenue increased 20%, 34% and 43% year over year, respectively, in EMC’s Europe, Middle East and Africa; Asia Pacific and Japan; and Latin America regions.

Angry Birds plot global domination ASPEN: Look out Nokia, Angry Birds are plotting to knock you off your perch as Finland’s top company. Peter Vesterbacka, the chief marketing officer of Angry Birds creator Rovio, outlined the company’s global ambitions during an appearance Thursday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in this Colorado ski resort. Wearing a bright red sweatshirt with a picture of an Angry Bird on the front, Vesterbacka, whose nickname is “Mighty Eagle,” said downloads of the addictive Angry Birds game had hit 300 million.

“That’s a good number but our goal is to be the first brand with a billion fans,” he said.Rovio launched Angry Birds as an iPhone application in 2009 and it is now available on a host of other devices, including Android smartphones, the iPad, Sony PlayStation 3 consoles and even through Google’s Chrome Web browser. It currently has 120 million active users on mobile devices. Angry Birds involves catapulting cartoonish birds into fortresses built by eggstealing green pigs but Vesterbacka said Rovio is “not a games company.”

“What we are building is a next generation entertainment franchise,” he said. “I think we’re the fastest growing consumer franchise ever.”

Vesterbacka said Rovio has acquired an animation studio and begun producing two-minute animated Angry Birds shorts and a full-length movie is two or three years away. “We’re working on new Angry Birds experiences,” he said.

“We’ll expose a bit more of the Angry Birds story.” The Rovio executive said the company’s next project is its first book. “It’s the Angry Birds cookbook,” he said. “We’ll have three

Angry Birds was launched as an iPhone application in 2009 and it is now available on a host of other devices, including Android smartphones, the iPad, Sony PlayStation 3 consoles and even through Google’s Chrome Web browser.—AFP

different books coming out this year,” Vesterbacka said. “And we’re selfpublishing because we can.”

Asked by a questioner in the audience how much of Angry Bird’s success could be attributed to “luck,” Vesterbacka appeared to get a little bit, well, angry. “First of all we are very analytical so Angry Birds was built to be a hit,” he said. “We tried to eliminate luck at every stage of the process.”

And secondly, “we built 51 games before Angry Birds so it wasn’t like we were an overnight success,” he said.

Vesterbacka also said Rovio has successfully expanded the Angry Birds franchise from the virtual world to the

real world despite being repeatedly advised that it would not work. “We have been told time after time that we’re not supposed to do movies, books, toys,” he said. “We sold like eight million toys.”

It’s not “rocket science,” he continued. “If you are strong brand, if you have a strong following of fans you can do anything.” At the end of his appearance, Vesterbacka was asked whether Rovio could one day dethrone mobile phone maker Nokia as Finland’s most important company.

“Yes,” the “Mighty Eagle” replied, before walking off the stage and tossing a yellow stuffed Angry Bird toy into the crowd.—AFP

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Fake Apple Store in China even fools staff Fake Apple store in Kunming, China, found by blogger

JAPAN: Kuchofuku president Hiroshi Ichigaya and an employee display jackets that have cooling fans on the back at the firm’s headquarters in Toda, Japan.—AFP

‘Air-conditioned clothes’ help Japan beat heat

As

jackets go it looks far from fashionable, but its Japanese maker cannot meet sky-rocketing demand for “air conditioned” coats with built-in fans.

Kuchofuku Co Ltd-whose name literally means “air-conditioned clothing” has seen orders soar amid power shortages in Japan after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. As parts of the nation sweat out an uncomfortable summer shackled by restrictions on electricity use, demand has grown for goods that provide guilt-free respite from the unrelenting summer heat.

Two electric fans in the jacket can be controlled to draw air in at different speeds, giving the garment a puffed-up look. But this has not deterred those happy to be cool rather than “hot” when it comes to fashion. “I work in a very hot place and have to wear long sleeved outfits, so I came over to buy this to stay cool and to prevent heat stroke,” said Ryo Igarashi, 33, as he left the Kuchofuku office after buying an air-conditioned jacket. Igarashi said the clothing offers him relief at hot construction sites where he, coincidentally, installs air conditioners in buildings.

Nearly 1,000 companies in Japan use Kuchofuku, including automobile giants, steelmakers, food companies and construction firms. Among its other products, the company also sells airconditioned cushions and mattresses that use Kuchofuku’s patented plastic mesh system that allows air to circulate while supporting weight.

The products have taken on extra significance since the closure of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and a government decree obliging big companies in the Tokyo and Tohoku northern region to reduce power usage by 15 percent to avoid blackouts. Initiatives such as “Super Cool Biz” encourage employees to ditch jackets and ties and turn down air conditioning, while the power-saving drive has also sparked demand for cooling gadgets.

Personal air-conditioning Imports of electrical fans through Tokyo port hit a record high in May, jumping 70 percent from a year earlier to 1.24 million units, according to the customs office. The fans in the Kuchofuku jacket are connected to a lithium-ion battery pack that lasts for 11 hours on a single charge, consuming only a fraction of the power used by conventional air-conditioning, said company president Hiroshi Ichigaya. Ichigaya says that his clothing offers a counter-intuitive solution: that by wearing more, a person can feel cooler than if baring it all.

“People are now trying to wear as little as possible in such campaigns as Super Cool Biz, but wearing more Kuchofuku makes you feel much cooler,” Ichigaya told AFP. Up to 20 liters per second of air circulates throughout the jacket and escapes through the collar and cuffs, drying off sweat and cooling down the wearer. The idea of “personal air-conditioning” struck Ichigaya-a Sony engineer for two decades until the early 1990swhen he was trying to invent an air conditioner that would use little electricity. “It came to me that we don’t need to cool the entire room, just as long as people in it feel cool,” he said.

Kuchofuku, first launched in 2004, typically draws demand from factories and construction sites but the company has recently seen orders come in from office workers and housewives. A standard air-conditioned jacket sells for around 11,000 yen ($140), with others priced higher. A central government official recently approached the company to buy half-a-million jackets, but Ichigaya said he had to turn the order down because the company was unable to boost production in time to meet demand. —AFP

SHANGHAI: Chinese counterfeiters have had a field day pumping out knockoffs of Apple Inc’s best-selling iPhones and iPads, but one appears to have gone a step further-a near flawless fake Apple Store that even employees believe is the real deal. The store in Kunming was stumbled upon by a 27-year-old American blogger living in the city, the capital of China’s mountainous southwestern Yunnan province. Complete with the white Apple logo, wooden tables and cheery staff claiming they work for the iPhone maker, the store looks every bit like Apple Stores found all over the world, according to the blogger, who goes by the name “BirdAbroad”.

But Apple has no stores in Kunming and only 13 authorized resellers in the city, who are not allowed to call themselves Apple Stores or claim to work for Apple. “This was a total Apple store rip-off. A beautiful rip-off a brilliant one-the best rip-off store we had ever seen,” the anonymous blogger posted on Wednesday. “Being the curious types that we are, we struck up some conversation with these salespeople who, hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple.”

An Apple spokesman in California declined to comment on the fake stores but said consumers can go to the company’s website to locate authorized outlets. Apple takes infringement of intellectual property very seriously and acts swiftly to protect its secrets. When an iPhone prototype turned up at a US bar last year and was sold to a technology blog Gizmodo, Apple kicked up a furor and investigators raided a journalist’s home.

The United States and other Western countries have often complained China is woefully behind in its effort to stamp out intellectual property theft. “Famous US brands, and the respect and loyalty they command from consumers, are critical to our ability to compete in China and around the world. Press reports of a fake Apple store are indicative of the challenges we continue to face combating intellectual property theft in China,” a senior U.S. trade official said.

“Confronting those challenges is a high priority for the Obama Administration,” the official added. It was unclear whether the store was selling fake or genuine Apple products. Countless unauthorized resellers of Apple and other brands’ electronic products throughout China sell the real thing but buy their goods overseas and smuggle them into the country to skip taxes.

The store had sections devoted to differ-

KUNMING: A motorcyclist passes by a shop masquerading as a bona fide Apple store.—AP At one unauthorized Apple reseller in ent Apple products, similar to real Apple stores, and large posters advertising the Shanghai on Thursday, the shop was decoiPhone 4 and MacBook Pro, according to rated in much the same way as Apple photos on the stores, with wooden tables and chairs with iPads laid out for customers to try out. The blog.(http://birdabroad.wordpress.com/20 11/07/20/are-you-listening-steve-jobs/) The shop was not on a list of authorized Apple in Shanghai.

Cupertino, California-based firm reported resellers forecast-smashing results on Tuesday, (http://www.apple.com.cn/reseller/index.p helped by massive growth in Asia, and hp) But the proprietors fell short on the China in particular. Apple executives have attention to detail displayed by their counsaid they have just scratched the surface in terparts in Kunming. For one, the store also China and the company is in the process of sold some other products, like chocolate jigsaw puzzles, that would never see the opening more stores there. light of day at a real Apple Store.

“Do you have a Web camera for my Shady origins In May, China was listed for the seventh MacBook?” asked one customer. “No, but year by the US Trade Representative’s office our other store in Lujiazui should have it,” as a country with one of the worst records said the sales representative, referring to for preventing copyright theft. Also, piracy Apple’s genuine retail store in the heart of and counterfeiting of US software and a Shanghai’s financial district. When wide range of other intellectual property in approached, none of the staff claimed to China cost US businesses alone an estimat- work for Apple or that the store was an ed $48 billion and 2.1 million jobs in 2009, actual Apple Store. Customers appeared the US International Trade Commission said unfazed. “I prefer to get my Apple products fixed here. It’s very troublesome going to in May. Apple, which was slow to establish its the real Apple store in Lujiazui because not brand in China, has four retail outlets in only do you have to pay to get repairs, but Beijing and Shanghai. The firm plans anoth- you have to make an appointment to see er two more this year, including one in the sales specialist,” said Xavier, a 30-someShanghai and another in Hong Kong. But thing expatriate who declined to give his the immense popularity of Apple’s iPads, last name. “The prices are the same as the iPhones and MacBook computers has real store but the service is better here,” he spurred a bumper crop of resellers with added, before whipping out his two iPads to tinker with.—Reuters dubious credentials.

China’s Alibaba to launch mobile operating system SHANGHAI: China’s leading e-commerce company Alibaba said yesterday it will launch a mobile operating system, joining industry giants Google and Apple in providing software for smartphones. The group will also unveil its first smartphone at the launch, to be held next week in Beijing, Alibaba spokeswoman Florence Shih told AFP by telephone from Hong Kong. The smart-

phones, expected to cost between 2,000 yuan ($309) and 3,000 yuan, will offer a number of “cloud applications” along with pre-installed mapping and instant messaging software, she added.

Cloud services allow users to access applications or store their data on remote servers instead of on their personal computers or handsets. Sales of smartphones in China grew to 19.91 mil-

lion units in the first quarter of 2011, up 4.8 percent from the previous quarter, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. However, industry experts expressed skepticism about the prospects for a new entrant to an already crowded market dominated by Google’s Android operating system, Apple’s iOS and the Symbian platform developed by Nokia. —AFP

TV listings SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

22:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 23:00 Going Green 23:30 African Voices 00:45 01:40 02:35 03:30 04:25 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:25 08:15 08:40 09:10 Irwin 10:05 11:00 11:55 12:50 13:45 14:40 19:15 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

Dogs 101 Untamed & Uncut Last Chance Highway Whale Wars Up Close and Dangerous Animal Cops Houston Must Love Cats Lemur Street Michaela’s Animal Road Trip The Really Wild Show Natural Born Hunters New Breed Vets with Steve

00:00 00:30 01:20 02:10 02:55 03:25 03:55 04:30 04:50 05:10 05:40 05:50 06:10 06:30 07:00 07:20 07:40 08:10 08:20 08:40 09:00 09:30 09:40 10:40 11:35 12:20 14:20 16:20 16:50 17:45 18:30 20:10 21:00 21:50 22:35 23:05

Lead Balloon The Weakest Link Survivors Live At The Apollo The Cup Doctors 2 Point 4 Children Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola 2 Point 4 Children BBC Electric Proms 2007 The Weakest Link Eastenders Strictly Come Dancing One Foot In The Grave BBC Electric Proms 2007 The Weakest Link Holby City Robin Hood BBC Electric Proms 2009 Live At The Apollo One Foot In The Grave Red Cap

America’s Cutest...

Cats 101 Crocodile Hunter Dogs vs. Cats Animal Cops Houston Animal ER E-Vets: The Interns Cats 101 Touching the Dragon Into the Dragon’s Lair I’m Alive Speed of Life

00:20 Come Dine With Me 01:10 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 01:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 02:00 Masterchef Australia 02:50 The Naked Chef 03:15 Fantasy Homes Down Under 04:00 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:30 Saturday Kitchen 11:25 Masterchef: The Professionals 14:25 Cash In The Attic USA 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 20:30 Cash In The Attic USA 21:30 Antiques Roadshow

00:00 00:30 00:40 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:00 05:10 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00

00:40 Dirty Jobs 01:35 Miami Ink 02:30 Ultimate Survival 03:25 Twist The Throttle 04:20 Mythbusters 05:15 How It’s Made 05:40 How Stuff Works 06:05 Dirty Jobs 07:00 Street Customs 2008 07:50 Heartland Thunder 08:45 Ultimate Car Build-Off 09:40 Science Of The Movies 10:30 The Future Of...

11:25 Mythbusters 12:20 Auction Kings 14:35 American Chopper: Senior vs Junior 15:30 Sea City: Building The Impossible 16:25 Ultimate Car Build-Off 17:20 Mythbusters 18:15 Man vs Fish With Matt Watson 19:10 Man, Woman, Wild 20:05 Ultimate Survival 21:00 Taking On Tyson 21:55 Flying Wild Alaska 22:50 Man vs Fish With Matt Watson 23:45 Human Prey

BBC World News Sport Today Weekend World BBC World News America Our World BBC World News Peschardt’s People BBC World News Weekend World Women On War BBC World News My Country BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News Africa Business Report BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News

EASY VIRTUE ON OSN CINEMA 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:00 11:10 11:30 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

Click BBC World News Weekend World Women On War BBC World News World Features BBC World News World Features Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World Equestrian World BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News My Country BBC World News Click BBC World News Africa Business Report BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Women On War BBC World News World Features Dateline London

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 Chowder 08:15 Hero 108 09:05 Angelo Rules 10:00 The Secret Saturdays 10:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 11:45 Bakugan: New Vestroia 12:35 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 13:25 The Powerpuff Girls 14:15 Adventure Time 15:05 Ben 10: Alien Force 15:50 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 16:35 Skunk Fu! 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 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:45 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:15 08:30 09:00 09:15 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30

Backstory World Sport The Situation Room World Report World Business Today CNN Marketplace Africa Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360 World Sport Inside Africa World Report Backstory World Report CNN Marketplace Africa Ireport For CNN World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East Mainsail World Sport Revealed Talk Asia African Voices Inside Africa Ireport For CNN World Report World Sport Piers Morgan Tonight World Report Revealed Going Green The Best Of Backstory International Desk African Voices Mainsail World Sport Talk Asia Inside Africa International Desk Ireport For CNN World Report Revealed

00:05 00:55 01:45 02:35 03:25 04:15 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 10:35 13:55 14:45 14:48 15:15 15:45 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40

Weird Or What?

Mighty Ships The Tech Show Bad Universe Catch It Keep It How Does That Work?

Mighty Ships One Step Beyond Weird Connections Sci-Fi Saved My Life Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac Prototype This Race To Mars Mission Critical: Hubble Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Bang Goes The Theory The Gadget Show Prototype This The Future Of...

Nasa’s Greatest Missions Space Pioneer The Gadget Show Sci-Fi Science The Tech Show Da Vinci’s Machines Catch It Keep It Bang Goes The Theory

00:00 Kim Possible 00:25 Fairly Odd Parents 01:15 Stitch 02:00 Replacements 02:50 Emperors New School 03:35 Stitch 04:25 Replacements 05:15 Fairly Odd Parents 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:25 Handy Manny 06:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 07:10 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 07:40 The Hive 08:00 Fish Hooks 08:25 Suite Life On Deck 08:53 Shake It Up 09:15 Good Luck Charlie 09:40 Wizards Of Waverly Place 10:05 Wizards Of Waverly Place 10:30 Tinkerbell And The Great Fairy Rescue 11:40 Fish Hooks 12:00 Shake It Up 13:40 Wizards Of Waverly Place 14:25 Hannah Montana 15:15 Fish Hooks 15:25 Good Luck Charlie 16:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:00 Hannah Montana 18:00 Shake It Up 19:10 Gotta Kick It Up 20:55 Wizards Of Waverly Place 21:25 Fish Hooks 21:50 Phineas & Ferb

22:15 22:40 23:05 23:30 23:55

Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance Yr 2 Jonas La Hannah Montana 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 I’m In The Band 08:45 Pair Of Kings 09:10 I’m In The Band 09:30 Pair Of Kings 09:50 I’m In The Band 10:15 Pair Of Kings 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 Aaron Stone 13:25 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 14:10 Phineas And Ferb 14:30 Kick Buttowski 14:55 Pair Of Kings 15:20 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 15:50 I’m In The Band 17:05 Phineas And Ferb 17:30 I’m In The Band 17:55 Phineas & Ferb 18:20 I’m In The Band 18:45 Phineas And Ferb 19:10 I’m In The Band 19:35 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 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

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Behind The Scenes 01:25 E!es 02:20 E! Investigates 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 30 Best And Worst Beach Bodies 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 09:45 Kourtney And Kim Take New York 10:15 Khloe And Lamar 11:10 The Dance Scene 12:05 E! News 13:05 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 14:05 E!es 14:30 E!es 15:00 Holly’s World 15:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:55 Extreme Close-Up 17:25 Fashion Police 17:55 E! News 18:55 Khloe And Lamar 19:55 THS 20:55 The Dance Scene 22:25 E! News 23:25 E!es

00:30 Ghost Lab 01:20 A Haunting 02:10 Serial Killers 03:00 True Crime With Aphrodite Jones 03:50 Dr G: Medical Examiner 04:45 Black Museum 05:15 Ghost Lab 06:10 Mystery Diagnosis 07:00 Forensic Detectives 07:50 Murder Shift 08:40 Mystery ER 09:30 Real Emergency Calls 09:55 Street Patrol 10:20 Disappeared 11:10 FBI Files 12:00 On The Case With Paula Zahn 12:50 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed

TV listings SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011 13:40 Mystery ER 14:30 Real Emergency Calls 14:55 Street Patrol 15:20 Disappeared 16:10 Forensic Detectives 17:00 Murder Shift 17:50 FBI Files 18:40 Mystery ER 19:30 Street Patrol 19:55 Real Emergency Calls 20:20 On The Case With Paula Zahn 21:10 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 22:00 Ghost Lab 22:50 The Haunted 23:40 A Haunting

01:20 03:10 05:10 07:05 08:35 10:30 12:20 14:15 15:50 18:20 19:50 20:05 22:00 23:20

Impromptu Eureka Ulee’s Gold-PG Extremities The Bridge At Remagen-PG Hornet’s Nest-PG Comes A Horseman-PG The Aviator-PG The Group-PG Convicts-PG Mgm’s Big Screen-FAM Invasion Of The Body Snatchers Summer Heat-18 Shag-PG

00:00 Hooked 01:00 World’s Deadliest 01:55 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 02:50 Deadly Summer 03:45 Predator CSI 04:40 Desert Seas 05:35 Wild Russia 06:30 Monster Fish of The Congo 07:25 Fish Warrior 08:20 Secrets Of The King Cobra 09:15 Kalahari 10:10 Animal Autopsy 11:05 I, Predator 12:00 Megafish 13:00 Fish Warrior 14:00 Snakezilla 15:00 Shark Men 16:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 17:00 Catching Giants 18:00 Predator CSI 19:00 Snakezilla 20:00 Shark Men 21:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 22:00 Catching Giants 23:00 Predator CSI

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 Modern Family 10:00 Outsourced 10:30 According To Jim 11:00 Coach 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Yes Dear 13:00 The Office 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 14:00 According To Jim 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 Outsourced 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 10 Things I Hate About You 18:30 Hot In Cleveland 19:00 Hot In Cleveland 19:30 How I Met Your Mother 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00

Off The Map Big Love The Good Guys Drop Dead Diva Strong Medicine Good Morning America

07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Psych One Tree Hill The Good Guys My Generation The View Off The Map Drop Dead Diva My Generation Live Good Morning America Strong Medicine The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. C.S.I. New York Justified Private Practice Psych

Alias The Good Guys Drop Dead Diva Big Love Off The Map Surface Alias Sons Of Tucson Look-A-Like Persons Unknown The Good Guys Off The Map Drop Dead Diva Sons Of Tucson Look-A-Like Persons Unknown Alias 8 Simple Rules ...

Persons Unknown C.S.I. C.S.I. New York Justified Breaking Bad The Glades

01:15 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:15 16:00 18:00 19:45 21:15 23:15

Menace II Society-18 Two: Thirteen-R Splinter-18 G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra-PG15 Star Trek: Generations-PG The Manchurian Candidate-18 2012-PG15 Star Trek: Generations-PG The Order-PG15 The Final Destination-18 The Thirteenth Floor-18 El Orfenato-18

00:00 Return To Me-PG15 02:00 Say It Isn’t So-18 04:00 Leave It To Beaver-PG 06:00 Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs-FAM 08:00 A Lot Like Love-PG15 10:00 Revenge Of The BridesmaidsPG15 12:00 Nativity!-PG 14:00 The Ramen Girl-PG15 16:00 Return To Me-PG15 18:00 Marci X-PG15 20:00 Friday-18 22:00 Stan Helsing-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:45 12:45 14:30 16:30 18:45 21:00 23:00

Arrivederci Amore, Ciao-18 Mona Lisa Smile-PG Synecdoche, New York-18 Awakenings-PG Enid-PG15 Romeo + Juliet-PG15 Little Nicholas-PG The Soloist-PG15 Capitalism: A Love Story-PG15 Blues Brothers 2000-PG15 Clash Of The Titans-PG15 Female Agents-18

00:00 Splinter-18 02:00 Deadly Impact-18 04:00 The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations-18 06:00 King Arthur-PG15 08:15 Enemy Of The State-PG15 10:30 Against The Ropes-PG15 12:30 Kiss The Girls-18 14:30 Enemy Of The State-PG15 16:45 Wyatt Earp-PG15 20:00 Se7en-18 22:15 The Thirteenth Floor-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

00:00 The Enchanted Mountain-PG 02:00 Winx: Secret Of The Lost Kingdom-PG 04:00 Time Kid-FAM 06:00 Rugrats In Paris: The MovieFAM 08:00 Inspector Gadget’s Biggest Caper Ever-FAM 10:00 Catch That Kid-PG15 12:00 Babe-FAM 14:00 Kung Fu Magoo-FAM 16:00 A Christmas Carol-PG 18:00 The Big Green-PG 20:00 Babe-FAM 22:00 Kung Fu Magoo-FAM

00:00 The List-PG15 02:00 How To Go Out On A Date In Queens-PG15 03:30 Inside Job-PG15 06:00 Hardwired-PG15 08:00 Phoebe In Wonderland-PG 10:00 Make It Happen-PG15 12:00 Valentine’s Day-PG15 14:30 Marmaduke-PG 16:00 Phoebe In Wonderland-PG 18:00 Nanny Mcphee And The Big Bang-PG 20:00 Too Big To Fail-PG15 22:00 The Hurt Locker-18

01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:00 20:00 21:00

WWE SmackDown WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection UFC The Ultimate Fighter Trans World Sport Live AFL Premiership NRL Full Time Live NRL Premiership Total Rugby Live Test Cricket UFC The Ultimate Fighter Live Darts World Matchplay

00:00 02:30 03:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:00 15:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

AFL Premiership Mobil 1 The Grid Darts World Matchplay Live AFL Premiership NRL Full Time Live NRL Premiership Total Rugby Live Tri Nations Super Rugby Highlights Live Currie Cup Live Currie Cup Tri Nations AFL Premiership

00:00 NRL Premiership 02:00 Rugby Union 04:00 Rugby Union 07:00 Live Snooker 10:30 Rugby Union 12:30 Trans World Sport 13:30 Live PGA European Tour 17:30 Live The Seniors Open Championship 21:30 ICC Criket World 22:00 Rugby League

The Gray Man-PG15 The Good Girl-PG15 Adam-PG15 Easy Virtue-PG15 The Wronged Man-PG15 Easy Virtue-PG15 Meet Bill-PG15 Echelon Conspiracy-PG15 The Wronged Man-PG15 Furry Vengeance-PG15 Agora-18 The Maiden Heist-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:00 Family Guy 02:30 Party Down 03:00 10 Things I Hate About You 03:30 The Office 04:00 Yes Dear

01:30 Mother And Child-18 03:45 12 Men Of Christmas-PG15 05:15 Harry Potter And The HalfBlood Prince-PG15 08:00 The Perfect Score-PG15 09:45 StreetDance-PG15 11:30 Preacher’s Kid-PG 13:30 Bandslam-PG15 15:30 Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past-PG15 17:15 StreetDance-PG15 19:00 Clash Of The Titans-PG15 21:00 Too Big To Fail-PG15 23:00 Triage-18

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

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WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection

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V8 Supercars Extra Live NRL Premiership Live The Evian Masters Live Rugby League UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown

00:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 01:00 Dinosaur Secrets 02:00 How The Earth Was Made 03:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 04:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 05:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 06:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 07:00 Dinosaur Secrets 08:00 How The Earth Was Made 09:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 10:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 11:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 12:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 13:00 Dinosaur Secrets 14:00 How The Earth Was Made 15:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 16:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 17:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 18:00 Russia: Land Of The Tsars 19:00 Dinosaur Secrets 20:00 How The Earth Was Made 21:00 Houdini: Unlocking The Mystery 23:00 Ancient Discoveries

00:00 01:00 01:30 01:55 02:25 03:20 04:15 05:10 05:35 06:05 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:55 10:50 11:50 12:50 13:45 14:45 15:40 16:35 17:30 18:25 19:25 20:20 21:15 21:40 22:10 23:05 23:30

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00:00 Trabant Trek 00:30 Word Travels 01:00 Globe Trekker Special 02:00 Rajasthan - A Colourful Legacy 03:00 Indian Times 04:00 Globe Trekker 05:00 Trabant Trek 05:30 Word Travels 06:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Flavours Of Spain 08:30 Flavours Of Spain 09:00 Flavours Of Spain 09:30 Flavours Of Spain 10:00 Flavours Of Spain 10:30 Flavours Of Spain 11:00 Indian Times 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Globe Trekker 14:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 15:00 Rivers Of The World 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 First Class South Africa 17:30 Journey Into Wine- Australia 18:00 Hollywood And Vines 18:30 Cruise Today 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Indian Times 21:00 People Of The Sea 22:00 That Crazy French Woman 23:00 Globe Trekker

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Biggest Loser Challenge at Crowne Plaza

T

he InterContinental Hotels Group has launched the Go4Gold initiative within its hotels whereby the staffs are encouraged to participate in activities that enhance their bodies and minds. Launched at the Crowne Plaza Kuwait in the presence of the Hotel Manager, Ahmed Serafi, the program has 3 stages of winning - bronze, silver and gold, each dependent on a greater percentage of staff participation.

Having a wide reputation as a socially responsible hotel, the Crowne Plaza Kuwait easily won the Bronze medal with its active presence in every social sphere. Moving to the next step, the hotel is now in its quest for the silver medal. To achieve this, Crowne Plaza Kuwait has embarked on the Biggest Loser

Challenge within the hotel, motivating employees to stay healthy and in shape. Centering on overweight contestants, the handpicked ones are put on a six - month period of rigorous workout sessions, nutritional changes and their very own personal trainers to oversee their progress during this time. The contestants have a common goal: lose the highest percentage of weight to become the Biggest Loser and win exciting prizes for the same.

The professional trainer helps contestants monitor their BMI on a regular basis with all the support from their colleagues and especially the Voice of the Crowne, a committee that represents the voice of the employees of the Crowne Plaza Kuwait to the management of the hotel. With limited participation open, the top

Ramadan celebrations at Swiss BelHotel Plaza Kuwait

C

elebrate and gather this Holy Month of Ramadan at Swiss BelHotel Plaza Kuwait! Ramadan is a time of reflecting, believing and worshipping God. Be a part of Swiss Belhotel Plaza Kuwait as we celebrate the true spirit of this auspicious holy month.

Rejuvenate with selection of famous Ramadan sweets and drinks to quench your thirst with a unique music of live oud playing that would remind each and every one of the local customs and traditions of Muslim world. Take pleasure in every sundown with our paramount

offers in our restaurants.

Sumptuous Iftar buffet at the AlDallah Restaurant with a real taste of wide array of appetizing oriental and traditional gulf dishes. Rates from KD5.500 or get KD3.000 coupons if you buy it before July 31 and a chance to win an airline ticket from Turkish airlines. Bait Al-Kuwait is a combination of antique with elegance and private atmosphere prepared with traditional dishes serving buffet breakfast and lunch.

Cozy Banquet spaces offer private Iftar and Ghabka for corporate events

with greatest deals on menus starting from KD5.500, KD6.000 and KD6.500 plus 10 percent service charges per person. Moreover, Swiss-Belhotel can be experienced in your own place with our outside catering services with our steadfast team to offer you the best eminence of food during this holy month of Ramadan. Lighten up at the cafe that provides a range of menu of juices, hot beverages and Ramadan sweets.

challengers have been chosen based on their BMI measurement at the Health Club, and the challenge in on! Tiring and tough, these challengers are not only in the race to win the grand prize, but also to get themselves in shape, remaining healthy and fit.

AWARE lecture

“T

he Meaning of Ramadan” by Dr Teresa Lesher Ramadan presents a wonderful opportunity for Westerners to learn more about Kuwait, to meet new individuals and have questions regarding Islam and the Arab culture answered at the AWARE Center on August 11 at 5:30 pm. During this special month, the communal meal referred to as Iftar, breaks the fast at the end of the day and brings family and friends together. As part of AWARE’s Ramadan activities, we invite you to join us for a presentation followed by a traditional “Iftar dinner!”

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

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WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

NBK honors second group of AUB High Fliers

N

ational Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently celebrated the graduation of the second group of participants in the prestigious High Fliers leadership program, in partnership with the American University of Beirut. The event was organized under the personal sponsorship and presence of NBK Group Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim S Dabdoub and attended by NBK Capital CEO Salah Y Al-Fulaij and the Dean of Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut, Professor Gefrorge Najjar.

Commenting on the success of the program, Dabdoub said: “The next generation of leaders is the future of NBK. We are committed to identifying and developing our talented people so that in time they can guide the bank to even greater

success.” Dabdoub congratulated the graduates and called on them to strive for excellence. “This program marks the start of what will be a continuing process to nurture and grow our young talent. I am delighted with the outcome of this program and look forward to seeing the participants moving into key leadership roles in the bank,” added Dabdoub. The High Fliers leadership program is designed in partnership with AUB to provide NBK’s future leaders with a wide range of leadership disciplines. This intensive program, which commenced in May 2009, covers topics such as finance, risk and people management skills and included classroom discussion, case studies and assignments.

Beach clean-up today

“A

l-Yaal,” Kuwait’s First Nationwide Marine Conservation Initiative developed by en.v in partnership with K’S PATH will clean up Sulaibikhat Beach-3 near the Ministry of Health today at 6:30 am (Dow’s

Marine Conservation Program under Al-Yaal).

Your efforts can help save the marine life of this beach. Email: angelique@kspath.org.

Leisure activities Kuwait Zoo The Kuwait Zoo is located in Omariya on the Airport Road. It is open everyday except on Saturdays. The timings during winter are 8am to 8pm. For more information contact: 24733389.

Fridays from 2pm to 10.30pm. For more information contact: 22240025 or visit their website at: www.tsck.org.kw.

Amusement Parks

Sultan Art Gallery The Sultan art gallery is located on Street no: 105, building no: 168, Subhan, Kuwait city.

Aqua Park Aqua Park will be open from 1st April 2011 from 10am-10pm everyday. For information contact: 22431960/1/3 or visit: www.aquaparkkuwait.com.

Entertainment City Entertainment City is open from Sunday to Wednesday from 3pm to 11pm during winter. It is also open on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 10pm. For more information contact: 24879455.

The Scientific Centre Scientific Centre is located on the Gulf road in Salmiya. It is open from Saturdays to Thursdays from 9am to 10.30pm and on

Art galleries and artifacts

Boshehri Gallery Boshehri Gallery is located on the AlMobarak street, Salmiya, Kuwait. For more information on their collection please contact: 25714883/25724883.

Tariq Rajab Museum This museum is open from Saturdays to Thursdays at 9am to 12pm and 4pm to 7pm. On Fridays it is open from 9am to 12pm. For more information on their location etc contact: 25317358 or visit their website: www.trmkt.com.

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HEALTH SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

White S African farmers seek new life in Georgia

GONATE: A farmer visits a field of a new cocoa variety on July 13, 2011 in a cocoa grower cooperative in Gonate. Facing with aging orchards, the World Food group Nestle began an extensive renewal program, distributing nursery of a new variety to farmers to boost production. — AFP

New rules urged on hybrid animal-human experiments Growing use of humanized animals in medical research LONDON: Scientific experiments that insert human genes or cells into animals need new rules to ensure they are ethically acceptable and do not lead to the creation of “monsters”, a group of leading British researchers said yesterday.

While humanizing animals in the name of medical research offers valuable insights into the way human bodies work and diseases develop, clear regulations are needed to make sure humanization of animals is carefully controlled.

Extreme scenarios, such as putting brain cells into primates to create talking apes, may remain science fiction, but researchers around the world are constantly pushing boundaries. Chinese scientists have already introduced human stem cells into goat foetuses and US researchers have studied the idea of creating a mouse with human brain cellsthough they have not actually done so.

Such controversial research needs special oversight, according to a report from Britain’s Academy of Medical Sciences on the use of animals containing human material. Using animals with limited humanized traits is not new.

Genetically engineered mice containing human DNA are already a mainstay of

research into new drugs for diseases like cancer. But Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at the University of Cambridge, who led the Academy’s working group, said there were three areas of particular concern.

“Where people begin to worry is when you get to the brain, to the germ (reproductive) cells, and to the sort of central features that help us recognize what is a person, like skin texture, facial shape and speech,” he told reporters.

His report recommends that government should put in place a national expert body, working within the existing system for regulating animal research, to oversee such sensitive areas. British ministers said they welcomed the report and would consider its recommendations carefully. Bobrow said other countries would need to follow suit with their own rules, as their scientists and regulators also recognized the need to address potential public concerns.

STEM CELLS In addition to helping fight debilitating diseases, humanized animals have played a pivotal role in developing new treatments for infertility. They are also central to much stem cell research. The

world’s first clinical trial using neural stem cell therapy in stroke patients-a joint project between Scottish researchers and British biotech company ReNeuron-was only possible after first testing human brain cells on rats.

Robin Lovell-Badge, a geneticist at the Medical Research Council, said other important animal research models included a Down’s syndrome mouse with some 300 human genes and one with 95 percent of its liver derived from human cells. A public opinion poll carried out for the report found general support for research into animals containing human material, if it was conducted to improve human health. But there were serious concerns voiced about experiments involving the brain, the potential fertilization of human eggs or sperm in an animal, and giving animals human characteristics such as facial features or speech. Attitudes also differed according to type of animal. “If you come home and your parrot says ‘Who’s a pretty boy?’ that’s one thing.

But if your monkey says it that’s something else,” said Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. — Reuters

SARTICHALA: A long way from his South African birthplace, amid the sweeping wheat fields of eastern Georgia, farmer Piet Kemp says that he has found a new home in this former Soviet republic. And if the government gets its wish, hundreds more like Kemp will follow to help revive Georgia’s ailing agricultural sector, bringing in both cash and expertise. Shaken by violent attacks and reforms to transfer land to blacks in South Africa, many white farmers have been emigrating, and 10 have already relocated to Georgia to set up businesses under a program launched by the government.

Kemp was the first of them to make the move, lured by local business opportunities-and the promise of security. “I do not want to live in constant fear,” the 67-yearold said emotionally as he recalled the widespread killings of other white farmers in South Africa. “We tried to defend our rights, but we lost this war.” When the apartheid system ended in 1994, 87 per cent of commercial farms belonged to the white minority, including Boers like Kemp, descendants of Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 17th century.

Discontent grew among Boers after the government started to redistribute farmlands in an attempt to counter apartheid-era discrimination. Amid the violence, Kemp said that he felt he had no choice but to leave. “In Georgia there is no violence, the crime rate is extremely low. So I will never go back,” Kemp declared, comparing the situation here to the high violent crime rates back home, which include some 46 murders a day. He sold his farm in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, was given Georgian citizenship and in March this year rented 700 hectares of land in the village of Sartichala, where he now cultivates maize and wheat.

“I moved to Georgia because I see tremendous opportunities here-there is a good climate, fertile soil and a good market,” he said. Georgian Diaspora Minister Mirza Davitaia, who is in charge of the scheme, said “it is a very important investment initiative.” “Serious capital will be invested in Georgia’s agricultural sector.” South African farmers, he said, “will bring in their skills, experience and technology.” A website, www.boers.ge, was set up to attract interest, and Davitaia said he believed that the 10 South African farmers who have already moved to Georgia will be followed by hundreds of other Boers.

‘Country going to waste’-But near Kemp’s land in the village of Sartichala, some Georgian farmers said that the authorities should be supporting them ahead of foreign immigrants. “I have nothing against Boers, but our government should first care about its citizens. Georgian villages, Georgian agriculture and Georgian peasants have been neglected for decades,” said one of them, Tengo Paatashvili. Others said however that they would be grateful for any help in revitalizing the country’s agricultural sector. “Whoever comes to Georgia with good intentions is welcome. There is plenty of land in the country that is going to waste,” said farmer Lado Aladashvili. The authorities need all the help they can get, because although Georgian land is incredibly fertile and a large proportion of its population works in agriculture, more than 80 per cent of foodstuffs are imported, fuelling drastic food-price inflation. —AFP

Twig tea, anyone? Study says labels About a third of herbal teas have extra ingredients OSLO: Herbal teas often contain unlisted extra ingredients such as weeds, ferns or bits of tree, according to a study by New York high school students that could help tighten labeling rules. “A third of the herbal teas had things in them that are not on the label,” Mark Stoeckle, of the Rockefeller University who helped oversee the project, told Reuters by telephone.

The students collected dozens of teas and herbal teas and found extra ingredients in some including ferns, grass, parsley, other weeds and even traces of an ornamental tree, Taiwanese cheesewood, they said.

“For me, the most surprising ingredient was the annual bluegrass,” said Catherine Gamble, 18, of Trinity School. “It seems kind of outrageous to have it in a tea.” “I think nothing

was outright poisonous...but things like camomile (found in some samples) have been known to cause allergic reactions to people. To have those in tea and unlabelled could be dangerous,” she told Reuters. The students said that three of 70 tea products tested and 21 of 60 herbal products contained rogue ingredients not on the labels. The tea study, using $5,000 equipment for genetic testing and a

technique known as DNA barcoding, could help regulators tighten labeling rules for teabags and make manufacturers improve what they put in the brews, they said. Testing can be done for about $15 a sample and takes about 24 hours. The teas and infusions were from 33 manufacturers in 17 nations, according to the findings, published Thursday in Nature’s online journal Scientific Reports. —Reuters

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

I Karren Stead was the first girl to grab the All-American Soap Box Derby championship, in 1975.

I Nearly half of derby racers are girls.

I Derby cars can reach speeds of up to 30 miles an hour.

“I’d like to say I’m ready to kick (butt) and show the guys how it’s done. But I’m not here to prove anything about being a woman. I’m here to drive a race car and try to win a race.”

— Race-car driver Lyn St. James, in People magazine, 1993. St. James is the first woman to win the Indy 500 Rookie Of The Year award.

— prettytough.com

A stinky solution Smelly socks may be key to fighting malaria

P H OTO S B Y J I M G E N S H E I M E R / S A N J O S E M E R C U RY N E W S / M C T

Veronica Harris, 14, (white car) races down at the Silicon Valley Soap Box Derby in Palo Alto, Calif., in May. She won third place in the Masters Division.

The scent of stinky, old socks leaves most people holding their noses with disgust. But researchers have found that the odor of old socks is actually extremely attractive to mosquitoes. Dr. Fredros Okumu, head of the research project at Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute, plans to use this new information to develop a device that will attract and trap mosquitoes. He hopes this unusual method will help prevent and fight malaria.

A BIG PROBLEM

BY LINDA GOLDSTON San Jose Mercury News (MCT)

S

crunched into her narrow fiberglass race car, her eyes just visible through her goggles and helmet, 14-year-old Veronica Harris of Campbell, Calif., is ready to race the wind — or with the wind.

So is her 8-year-old sister, Jessica, in a slightly smaller car.

The Harris sisters are part of the new face of gravity-fueled soap box derby racing, as more girls flock to the “AllAmerican” sport that dates to 1934. Girls weren’t allowed to enter the races until 1972, but they’ve been making up for lost time.

In the Silicon Valley Soap Box Derby — and increasingly across the country — 70 to 75 percent of the racers are girls. They love the speed, they love meeting so many young people from other places and they love going headto-head with boys in races.

The boys are pretty keen on girls racing, too.

“Are you kidding?”

Veronica asked. “The boys adore having all these girls doing something they like to do.”

Both Veronica and Jessica qualified to compete for the title of world champion at the 74th All-American Soap Box Derby on July 23 in Akron, Ohio.

Jessica just started racing in the soap box rally circuit in February, but she already has amassed half a shelf of trophies on a large

Jessica Harris, 8, sits in her soap box derby car to determine what adjustments need to be made.

Young sisters have fallen in love with soap box derby bookcase that is dominated by dozens of trophies won by her older sister.

“I like the wind in your face and the confidence you get from the parents helping,” said Jessica, who is dubbed “the speed demon” of the family by her mom.

Is a world championship in her future?

“Most likely,” she said, with only the hint of a smile.

Kits for the cars are purchased from All-American Soap Box Derby. A finished car costs about $1,000, said the girls’ fa-

ther, Chris, who helped them assemble their cars.

The beginning, or stock car, kit is designed for an 8-year-old to build — or assemble. The stock cars are made of plastic and the kit includes a precut floorboard. Super stock cars are made of the same material as gallon milk jugs, Harris said.

Masters class cars are made of fiberglass.

“Since the cars have no propulsion, weight is a key factor,” Chris Harris said.

“The kids add weights to their cars to bring each car, driver and weight up to the maximum for their weight class.”

Soap box derby racing has become a family af-

Veronica (left) gives her sister, Jessica tips before racing at the soap box derby. Above are the soap box derby trophies Veronica has won.

fair for the Harrises.

“It’s one of the few family sports that’s left,” said Chris Harris, a computer engineer.

The national group, All-American Soap Box Derby, has struggled in recent years with financial problems, but supporters and fans are hoping the release of a movie about the sport — “25Hill” — will kick off new fervor.

Actor Corbin Bernsen decided to do the film after reading about the financial woes of the youth racing league.

For the Harrises, it was the sisters’ brother who ignited the family’s passion for the sport.

Patrick Harris was invited to race by Boy Scouts “but got beaten pretty handily by two little girls” when he was 15 or 16, their mother, JoAnna Harris, said. One of those girls was declared local champion that day and went on to become a world champion.

But it was enough to hook Veronica.

“She said, ‘If they can do it, I can do it,’” her mother said.

Races start with the cars on ramps at the top of a hill. The cars can reach speeds of 25 to 30 mph.

The rest is up to gravity, steady hands on the steering handle and judicious timing on the brakes.

Oh, and keeping the body low. “The lower your head, the lower your body in the car, the faster you’ll go,” Veronica said.

She should know. This year’s derby is her fourth trip to the national championship — twice as a local champ and twice as a rally champ.

Malaria is a disease that is spread by infected mosquitoes. Symptoms of malaria can include chills, fever and vomiting. The disease can spread easily and quickly. One mosquito carrying malaria can infect numerous people. While malaria can exist in moderate climates, it is far more severe in tropic and sub-tropic climates like Africa. In parts of Africa, malaria can infect an entire population.

While the global infection rate of malaria is continuing to drop, there are still more than 220 million cases of malaria each year. Nearly 800,000 of these cases result in death, the majority of them being children in Africa. Okumu hopes this can be used to develop a device that is affordable and accessible to the people who need them most.

ACCOMMODATION

L AU R I E M C A DA M / M C T

BITING BACK

Bed nets treated with insecticide and indoor spraying have helped. But no such developments have been made to battle these bugs outdoors. “The global goal of eradication of malaria will not be possible without new technologies,” said Okumu, who has been working on this project for two years.

Okumu mixed eight chemical compounds to create the perfect scent to lure the mosquitoes into the trap. Then he experimented with poisons until he found one that could kill up to 95 percent of mosquitoes. Tests showed that traps scented with the odor of human feet attracted four times as many mosquitoes as a human volunteer, Okumu said.

Okumu has been awarded a $775,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to fund his research to create the outdoor traps. He’s working to make traps that would cost anywhere from $4 to $27.

“It’s bold, it’s innovative and it has the potential for big impact,” said Dr. Peter A. Singer, the head of Grand Challenges Canada, who cofunded Okumu’s research. “Who would have thought that a lifesaving technology was lurking in your laundry basket?”

— Cameron Keady © 2011 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TIME FOR KIDS and Timeforkids.com are registered trademarks of Time Inc.

Accommodation available in 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom C-A/C apartment for a decent couple, executive bachelor or working lady in Mahboula, close to Gulf Road. Contact: 66216713.

(C 3534) 23-7-2011 Big room available for family in Khaitan with bathroom in a villa. Only for Indian or Pakistani families. Contact: 66757903/ 67732788/ 94974793.

(C 3530) Sharing accommodation available in Abbasiya near Highway Center 1st August onwards for bachelor or couple, rent bachelor KD 50, couple KD 80. Contact: 99645213. (C 3532) 18-7-2011

Keeping a secret isn’t easy DEAR AMERICAN GIRL: I found out a big secret about my friend’s family — and I’m not sure she even knows! I don’t know if I should tell her or let her parents tell her.

— Question mark I Slow down, take a breath and keep this to yourself.

There’s no way to know for sure if this secret is true or not. If she knows the secret, she may prefer not to discuss it. If she doesn’t know, her parents should tell her in their own way. If you need to talk about this, confide in your parents. Letting the rumor loose around school could crush your friend and your friendship.

Visit “Fun for Girls” at americangirlmagazine.com to get or give advice. © 2011 American Girl, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHANGE OF NAME

M A RT Y W E S T M A N / M C T

DEAR AMERICAN GIRL: One of my friends shared a personal secret with me. I feel terrible because I told some people, and now the whole sixth grade knows.

— Can’t keep a secret I You’ve made a big mistake, but you’re also owning that mistake and trying to make it better. Tell your friend how sorry you are, what you’ll do to make things right, and how you’ll keep this from happening again. An apology may not restore your friendship, but you’ll feel better knowing you’ve done your best to make amends.

I, Mehlka, holder of Indian Passport No. G6110304 hereby change my name to Mehlka Mustansir. (C 3536) The new name changed for Shahina Begum Abdul Kalil holder of Indian Passport No.

J6455361 issued in Kuwait.

Name change from Shahina Begum Abdul Kalil to Shahina Begum Abdul Khaleel. (C 3538) 23-7-2011

SITUATION VACANT Nepalese, Sri Lanka, Philippine housemaid required for an Indian family in Salwa live-in, salary KD 100. Residence can be arranged. Contact: 97205370/ 25618766.

(C 3537) 23-7-2011 FOR SALE “PILATE POWER GYM” for all over body strength and Aerobic training, almost brand new with owner’s manual nutritional guide and CD for details info pls do Google search, price less than half from market KD 55.

Contact: 99430379. (C 3535) Items for sale in a spacious 2 BR + 2 Bathrooms in Jabriya.

Hall (12m), BR (5m), big kitchen, private area + shaded car park. Contact: 66197107. (C 3533) 20-7-2011

information SATURDAY, JULY 23, 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 PIA THY ETH PIA UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR JZR THY JZR JZR JZR KAC BAW KAC FCX JZR KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA IRA QTR JZR MHK IRC MSR JZR IRM KAC MSR KNE UAL RJA MSR FDB KAC JZR QTR KAC SVA KAC KNE JZR CLX QTR JZR IRC AFR KAC ETD UAE SYR KAC KAC GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY

Arrival Flights on Saturday 23/7/2011 Flt Route 642 AMMAN 215 KARACHI 772 ISTANBUL 620 ADDIS ABABA 239 SIALKOT 853 DUBAI 370 BAHRAIN 305 ABU DHABI 614 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 211 BAHRAIN 138 DOHA 529 ASSIUT 770 ISTANBUL 241 AMMAN 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA / BANGKOK 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR 201 BAHRAIN 1541 CAIRO 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 344 CHENNAI 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 132 DOHA 125 SHARJAH 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 3407 MASHAD 6130 DOHA 165 DUBAI 711 BAGHDAD / NAJAF 6807 SHIRAZ 623 SOHAG 201 DAMASCUS 5066 MASHAD 672 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 703 MEDINAH 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 640 AMMAN 621 ASSIUT 57 DUBAI 786 JEDDAH 357 MASHAD 140 DOHA 562 AMMAN 500 JEDDAH 552 DAMASCUS 745 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 792 LUXEMBOURG 134 DOHA 535 CAIRO 6791 MASHAD 6706 PARIS 118 NEW YORK 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 341 DAMASCUS 154 ISTANBUL 178 GENEVA / FRANKFURT 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 777 JEDDAH 239 AMMAN 127 SHARJAH

Time 0:05 0:25 1:15 1:45 2:15 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:35 4:10 4:55 5:15 6:10 6:15 6:30 6:35 7:00 7:10 7:15 7:20 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 10:20 10:25 11:10 11:20 11:35 12:10 12:45 12:50 13:15 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:10 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:10 15:15 15:15 15:50 16:00 16:15 16:15 16:50 16:55 17:00 17:00 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35 17:40

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

550 63 227 177 104 502 542 618 607 774 674 572 458 975 790 93 61 789 647 402 787 618 372 445 859 217 136 981 614 135 606 513 185 612 636 393 539 45 480

SOHAG / SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI DUBAI LONDON BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA MASHAD RIYADH DUBAI MUMBAI SINGAPORE / ABU DHABI CHENNAI / GOA MEDINAH KANDAHAR / DUBAI DUBAI JEDDAH MUSCAT BEIRUT JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN LUXOR SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE / COCHIN CAIRO DHAKA / BAHRAIN SABIHA

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 23/7/2011 Flt Route 1540 CAIRO 637 FRANKFURT 576 GOA / CHENNAI 447 AMSTERDAM 216 KARACHI 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT / ISLAMABAD 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 785 JEDDAH 356 MASHAD 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 153 ISTANBUL 671 DUBAI 551 DAMASCUS 256 BEIRUT 561 AMMAN 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 101 LONDON / NEW YORK 549 SOHAG / SHARM EL SHEIKH 133 DOHA

17:50 17:55 18:00 18:00 18:35 18:45 18:50 18:55 19:05 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:55 19:55 20:00 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:15 23:30 23:45 23:50

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

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

107 302 214 3406 165 6131 541 776 238 712 6808 501 624 176 702 5065 611 641 58 622 982 787 673 789 746 617 505 773 481 512 141 538 792 6792 82 304 135 6706 342 858 216 128 184 266 511 64 613 228 134 283 604 571 62 790 331 351 648 403 457 619 543 373 445 677 860 218 381 102 137 301 205 554 607 981 411 613

GENEVA / LONDON ABU DHABI BAHRAIN MASHAD ROME / PARIS DOHA CAIRO JEDDAH AMMAN NAJAF / BAGHDAD SHIRAZ BEIRUT SOHAG DUBAI RIYADH MASHAD CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI ASSIUT BAHRAIN JEDDAH DUBAI MEDINAH JEDDAH DOHA JEDDAH RIYADH SABIHA SHARM EL SHEIKH DOHA CAIRO HONG KONG MASHAD BAGHDAD ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI / HONG KONG DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI BEIRUT RIYADH DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI / COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA ISFAHAN MUMBAI DUBAI JEDDAH TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT ABU DHABI / SINGAPORE ALEXANDRIA CAIRO BAHRAIN BAHRAIN / AMSTERDAM DUBAI / MUSCAT DUBAI BAHRAIN DELHI BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD ALEXANDRIA LUXOR WASHINGTON DC DULLES BANGKOK / MANILA CAIRO

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

10:10 10:15 10:20 11:20 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:10 12:20 12:35 13:00 13:10 13:40 14:10 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 15:05 15:10 15:30 15:30 15:35 16:00 16:05 16:10 16:10 16:15 16:40 16:45 17:00 17:00 17:35 17:45 18:00 18:00 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:40 19:00 19:10 19:10 19:30 20:05 20:35 20:40 20:45 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:55 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:10 23:15 23:40 23:40 23:50

C R O S S W O R D

3 8 7

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. A point located with respect to surface features of some region.

5. A Bantu language spoken in southern coastal Tanzania.

10. The sign language used in the United States.

13. A large mountain system in south-central Europe.

14. A white powder with a pleasant taste and odor.

15. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

16. A way of regarding situations or topics etc..

17. Go trecking.

18. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

19. English scholastic philosopher and assumed author of Occam's Razor (1285-1349).

21. A person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy.

23. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

24. Tag the base runner to get him out.

26. A member of a pastoral people living in the Nilgiri hills of southern India.

28. A state in New England.

29. The act of catching an object with the hands.

33. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

35. A tiny or scarcely detectable amount.

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

39. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

41. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

43. A state in northwestern North America.

44. Being nine more than forty.

45. The federal agency that insures residential mortgages.

46. French novelist.

49. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

52. With eagerness.

56. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

59. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

60. Produced by a manufacturing process.

61. Fallow deer.

63. (boxing) A blow with the fist.

64. A primeval personification of air and breath.

65. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

66. Of or being the lowest female voice.

DOWN 1. The taste experience when a savoury condiment is taken into the mouth.

2. A folded part (as a fold of skin or muscle).

3. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

4. Of or relating to a dialect of Sotho or the Bantu people who speak it.

5. Standard time in the 7th time zone west of Greenwich, reckoned at the 105th meridian west.

6. The waging of armed conflict against an enemy.

7. (Greek mythology) The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.

8. A battle in the Thirty Years' War (1643).

9. A resin used in adhesives and paints.

10. A city in northern India.

11. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

12. A polite name for any woman.

20. A crime syndicate in the United States.

22. An oil port in southern Iraq.

25. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

27. God of death.

30. Marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience.

31. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

32. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

34. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

36. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

37. A Russian prison camp for political prisoners.

40. An ancient Egyptian city on the west bank of the Nile opposite Cairo.

42. Quieten or silence (a sound) or make (an image) less visible.

47. A subsidiary proposition that is assumed to be true in order to prove another proposition.

48. Tropical American trees with palmately compound leaves and showy bell-shaped flowers.

49. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

50. Mild yellow Dutch cheese made in balls.

51. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

52. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

53. A barrier consisting of a horizontal bar and supports.

54. Being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north.

55. A port in western Israel on the Mediterranean.

57. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

58. Primitive predaceous North American fish covered with hard scales and having long jaws with needle-like teeth.

62. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Angels beat Rangers in pitchers’ duel ANAHEIM: Los Angeles’ Jered Weaver won a riveting pitching duel against Texas’ CJ Wilson as the Angels beat the Rangers 1-0 on Thursday to move within three games of the American League West leaders. Weaver (13-4) went seven-plus scoreless innings and struck out six to win his seventh straight decision and reduce his major league-best ERA to 1.81.

Weaver departed after giving up a single leading off the eighth, on his 122nd pitch. Scott Downs retired the next three batters and rookie Jordan Walden got three outs in the ninth for his 23rd save. The only run came courtesy of an error by Rangers center fielder Endy Chavez. Wilson (10-4) took the loss despite holding the Angels to just two hits over eight innings, striking out eight and walking one.

(6-7), who allowed five runs in six innings.

Detroit moved half a game ahead of idle Cleveland in the division, while the fourthplace Twins fell six games back.

Blue Jays 7, Mariners 5 In Toronto, the hosts handed Seattle a 12th straight loss. Rajai Davis hit a tiebreaking double in the bottom of the eighth, responding to

a Miguel Olivo grand slam in the top of the inning which had brought the Mariners level.

Seattle reliever David Pauley (5-4) got two quick outs in the bottom of the eighth before Mike McCoy doubled to left and Yunel Escobar walked. Davis followed with a double to right, scoring both runners. Blue Jays reliever Jon Rauch (4-3) worked 1 2-3 innings for the victory. — AP

Rays 2, Yankees 1 In St Petersburg, James Shields outpitched C.C. Sabathia to steer Tampa Bay past New York to tighten the AL East division race. The loss dropped New York two games behind first-placed Boston in the AL East.

The third placed Rays salvaged a split in the four-game series and moved within 51/2 games of the Yankees. Shields (9-8) struck out six over 7 2-3 innings, allowing only one baserunner past first until the eight when he gave up two doubles. Sabathia (14-5) lost for the first time in six weeks, ending a streak of victories in seven consecutive starts. Evan Longoria homered and had two of Tampa Bay’s five hits. Sam Fuld drove the second run with a fifth-inning triple. Rays closer Kyle Farnsworth worked the ninth, earning his 19th save.

Tigers 6, Twins 2 In Minneapolis, Detroit beat Minnesota for the 10th straight time. Tigers starter Justin Verlander (13-5) threw eight dominant innings, giving up one run, no walks, and striking out nine. Jhonny Peralta drove in three runs with three hits, Brennan Boesch hit a two-run homer, and Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Peralta - batting fourth, fifth and sixth - were all over Twins starter Carl Pavano

PHOENIX: Kelly Johnson #2 of the Arizona Diamondbacks attempts to turn a double play as Nyjer Morgan #2 of the Milwaukee Brewers slides into second base at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. — AFP

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Thursday: San Diego 5, Florida 3; St. Louis 6, NY Mets 2; Toronto 7, Seattle 5; Atlanta 9, Colorado 6; LA Angels 1, Texas 0; Tampa Bay 2, NY Yankees 1; Detroit 6, Minnesota 2; Arizona 4, Milwaukee 0.

American League Eastern Division W L Boston 59 37 NY Yankees 57 39 Tampa Bay 52 45 Toronto 50 49 Baltimore 39 56 Central Division Detroit 52 46 Cleveland 51 46 Chicago White Sox 47 51 Minnesota 46 52 Kansas City 40 58 Western Division Texas 56 43 LA Angels 53 46 Seattle 43 55 Oakland 43 55 National League Eastern Division Philadelphia 61 36 Atlanta 58 41 NY Mets 49 49 Washington 48 50 Florida 47 52 Central Division Pittsburgh 51 45 Milwaukee 53 47 St. Louis 51 47 Cincinnati 48 50 Chicago Cubs 39 60 Houston 33 65 Western Division San Francisco 57 42 Arizona 53 46 Colorado 47 52 San Diego 44 55 LA Dodgers 43 55

PCT .615 .594 .536 .505 .411

GB 2 7.5 10.5 19.5

.531 .526 0.5 .480 5 .469 6 .408 12 .566 .535 3 .439 12.5 .439 12.5

.629 .586 4 .500 12.5 .490 13.5 .475 15 .531 .530 .520 1 .490 4 .394 13.5 .337 19 .576 .535 4 .475 10 .444 13 .439 13.5

NFL team owners approve new deal NEW YORK: National Football League (NFL) team owners voted on Thursday to approve a proposed agreement with players and end the lockout that has left America’s most popular sport in limbo. The 32 owners voted 31-0, with the Oakland Raiders abstaining, in support of a 10-year collective bargaining agreement they hope will resolve their bitter labor dispute and ensure the 2011 season goes ahead as planned. “We are pleased to announce that our clubs have approved the terms of a long-term negotiated agreement with the NFL players,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

“It includes many positive changes that emerged from a spirit of compromise rooted in doing what is best for the game and players.”

But the deal was dependent on the players also agreeing and the owners gave the players until Tuesday to sign off on the proposal. Player representatives held a conference call later on Thursday to discuss the deal but did not take a vote, partly because the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), which was dissolved when the talks collapsed, still had to be re-certified.

“Here in America, every time an employee makes that decision about whether he wants to be a part of a union, it is something that is serious, significant and something that should be done in a very sober way,” NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith told reporters in Washington. “The decision to decertify was important because at the time we were a real union. And the decision for our players, as men, to come back as a union is going to be an equally serious and very sober one that they have to make.” Players also said they were unhappy with some parts of the agreement, which they said the owners had not shown them.

“Please don’t get excited about that press conference,” Washington Redskins defensive end Vonnie Holliday wrote on his Twitter page.

“The owners have agreed on a deal we the players have not seen! This is not consistent.”

Smith said he was only given a copy of the new proposal on Thursday night and would review the contents before speaking to players again.

“There is no agreement between the NFL and

the players at this time,” he wrote in an email to players. If the players agreed to recertify the union, as expected, then vote in support of the new agreement, the owners said they would immediately end the lockout and reopen the gates to training.

HALL OF FAME GAME CANCELLED The regular season will begin as scheduled in September and the preseason will start on Aug 11. The only game that will be lost will be the annual Hall of Fame game that was scheduled for Aug 7 between the Chicago Bears and St Louis Rams. The new deal also included proposals for limits on training and offseason programs, rookie wage scales, additional funding for retirees and beefed up salary caps.

“Hopefully we can all work quickly, expeditiously and get this agreement done,” said Goodell. “It is time to get back to football. That is what everybody here wants to do.”

The dispute, dubbed as a row between billionaires and millionaires squabbling over a fortune, has drawn criticism from US President

Barack Obama at a time when thousands of families were struggling just to make ends meet. Although NFL players are among the best paid sportsmen on the planet and each of the 32 clubs was on the latest Forbes Magazine list of the world’s 50 richest sporting teams, neither side could reach agreement on a range of issues centered around how they should divide more than $9 billion in annual revenues, a figure that was projected to double by 2016.

The players, led by high-profile quarterback Tom Brady, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and its owners, who responded by imposing the lockout. The matter has been in and out of the courts for months, with judges urging both sides to sort out their differences through mediation, but was teetering towards a critical stage with the preseason due to start next month and the regular season scheduled to kick off in September. “I firmly believe that this is a fair deal,” New York Giants owner John Mara said. “The best thing about it is that our fans will not have to hear about labor-management relations for 10 years.” — Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Alonso quickest in first practice

Lorenzo eyeing MotoGP boost LAGUNA SECA: MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo has long been inspired by Laguna Seca and its infamous Corkscrew turn, and he will be banking on that special spur when he defends his US Grand Prix title this week. With nine races left this season, the 24-year-old Spaniard trails Australian Casey Stoner by 15 points in the overall standings and would dearly love to trim that deficit further with another triumphant display on Sunday.

Lorenzo made up some ground on Stoner when he snatched second place for Yamaha at last week’s German Grand Prix where the pacesetting Australian had to settle for third.

“We are very strong at the moment ... and we will try to continue to reduce our gap behind Casey,” Lorenzo told reporters while preparing for Friday’s practice. “I have had great moments at Laguna Secaabove all last year when I won but also in 2009 when I got pole position even with a big crash and at the end got a podium.”

Two years ago, Lorenzo took pole position despite crashing and partially dislocating his collar bone in qualifying. He finished the race third behind winner Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi after a gutsy performance.

Twelve months ago, the Spaniard again started on pole but this time he benefited from a spectacular crash by compatriot Pedrosa on lap 12 before powering across the finish line 3.517 seconds ahead of Ducati’s Stoner. “That win was very special,” Lorenzo said of his 11th MotoGP triumph. “Winning at Laguna Seca was something I’d always dreamed of. “Laguna Seca is amazing for the American style and the atmosphere but, above all, because of the Corkscrew. I think maybe it is the best corner in the championship.”

HEATED COMPETITION Lorenzo is certain, though, to face heated competition on Sunday from 2007 U.S Grand Prix champion Stoner and Pedrosa, winner here in 2009. “It’s a circuit I’ve always enjoyed quite good results at and we’ve always been naturally quite fast on it,” said Stoner, who has finished on the podium in his last seven races. “There are lots of sweeping gradients and unusual corners with a lot of camber, so you need to be delicate on the track and not ‘attack’ it too much. “We’ll be looking to improve our results from the past three weekends.

Three podiums are great but I’m here to win races.” Pedrosa, who sealed his return from injury by winning the German Grand Prix on Sunday, is another long-time fan of Laguna Seca which is scenically laid out in rolling hills overlooking the Monterey Peninsula.

“With the exception of last year, when I crashed, and in 2008, when I couldn’t race due to injury, I’ve always had fun racing at Laguna Seca,” the 25-year-old Spaniard said. “The victory in 2009 was very exciting. “I know that I will suffer more at Laguna Seca because there are many hard braking areas and very fast direction changes. But the atmosphere there is special ... and I’d like to close the first part of the season with a good feeling.” Pedrosa broke his collarbone in a collision with Italian Marco Simoncelli at the French Grand Prix in May and only came back at this month’s Italian round. — Reuters

NUERBURGRING: Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain speeds into a turn during the second free practice session at the German Formula One Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring circuit, Germany yesterday. The German Grand Prix will be held tomorrow. — AP

NUERBURGRING: Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso followed up his opening win of the season in Great Britain two weeks ago by finishing quickest in first practice for the German Grand Prix as the rain stayed away yesterday. Heavy showers and even a hailstorm had hit the Nuerburgring on Thursday but despite the usual threatening clouds in the Eifel Mountains, the teams were able to get through their warm up routines with different tyres undisturbed.

World champion and championship leader Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets for much of the session at his home race but dropped down to third behind Red Bull team mate Mark Webber and Spain’s Alonso, who set the fastest lap of 1:31.984.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi suffered the only big incident when he spun off late in the session while Michael Schumacher ploughed through the gravel. A decent crowd, which had earlier clogged the roads in the isolated area of western Germany, was in attendance with Force India reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg taking the first session instead of Paul Di Resta meaning seven Germans were on track. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton led during the early exchanges but ended up over a second behind Alonso in fifth while Indian Karun Chandhok struggled for pace in the Team Lotus having been given the drive in place of Jarno Trulli on Thursday. — Reuters

Workforce seeks King George redemption LONDON: Workforce heads to Ascot today as favorite to overcome a small but select field for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Sir Michael Stoute’s star turned up at the mid-summer showpiece 12 months ago after lifting the Epsom Derby, but failed to fire in a lackluster fifth of sixth behind stablemate Harbinger. He closed out his three year old campaign last autumn in Paris when he returned to his very best to claim Stoute’s first ever Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp.

This term has seen him score on his debut before a battling second to Aidan O’Brien’s star Australian import So You Think in the mile and a quarter Eclipse Stakes. Back over his favored mile and a half trip he will take all the beating, that is certainly the view of Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to the colt’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah. “I think he’s had a very straight forward time. He’s come out of the Eclipse very well. He’s been pleasing at home but I think the lead up to the King George last year was a slightly different one

as he’d been in the Derby.

“I think that this year the ground is going to be to his liking as they’ve had a bit of rain at Ascot and there is a bit more forecast on each day. The well being of the horse is as good as it’s ever been,” Grimthorpe told sportinglife.com. O’Brien fields arguably the greatest danger in the shape of St Nicholas Abbey who has been entrusted to the trainer’s son, Joseph, in the biggest ride of the young jockey’s career.

Victory would double the youngster’s tally of winners in Britain with his only previous success coming at the far less glamorous surroundings of Ayr. O’Brien though emphasized his big race expertise when partnering his father’s Roderick O’Connor to Irish 2,000 Guineas glory at the Curragh this spring. Champion juvenile in 2009, St Nicholas Abbey was installed ante-post favorite for the King George after his win in the Coronation Cup last month when ridden by Ryan Moore.

Moore now is entrusted with Workforce who took over the favorite’s mantle after

rain eased conditions at Ascot this week, prompting Workforce’s connections to confirm his participation.

Moore has partnered Workforce in all of his seven career outings. Frankie Dettori got the better of Workfroce’s Eclipse conqueror So You. Think on Rewilding in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Italian star is aiming for a repeat on the Godolphin four-year-old today. This pair will have the services of a pacemaker in Debussy with Godolphin counting on a strong pace to allow Rewilding to show off his best form.

“The key to Rewilding is that he needs to get into a rhythm,” Godolphin’s racing manager, Simon Crisford explained in The Independent newspaper. “It’s no good to him if they crawl then sprint; he has such a good turn of foot and loves to quicken off a fast pace.” The select field is completed by Nathaniel, the three-year-old supplemented at a cost of £75,000 by John Gosden on behalf of owner Lady Rothschild after his distance win in the King George VII Stakes last month. — AFP

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‘Springboks-Lite’ tag angers SA SYDNEY: South Africa are bristling at being tagged “Springboks-Lite” and are keen to show they are far from second-stringers in today’s Tri-Nations opener against the Wallabies in Sydney. The world champions have left more than 20 injured front-line players at home and have selected four players in the 22-man squad to make their Test debuts with another six starting players having fewer than 10 international caps each.

Danie Rossouw, one of five 2007 World Cup winners in the squad, took exception to the Springboks being labeled second-stringers and said they would be motivated to beat Australia at the Sydney Olympic stadium.

“This second-string stuff, I’m not listening to that stuff. It’s a Springbok team and if you get picked for a Springbok team, you give your best,” Rossouw chided reporters. “We’ve got the best 22 for this game and that’s how it is. It’s not nice to be called the secondstring team.” Another World Cup winner, centre Wynand Olivier, warned the Wallabies not to expect an easy ride. “There is a lot of quality in this Springboks side,” Olivier said.

“For us, it’s a big opportunity just playing for the Springboks. “This weekend is definitely going to be a big one-B side, A side, it doesn’t matter. A Test is a Test and it’s always a physical confrontation and I can’t see anything less than a physical confrontation.”

Coach Peter De Villiers said his revamped combination were hungry for the chance to play for their country. “The new caps had outstanding Super Rugby seasons and this is an exciting opportunity for them,” he said.

“They have been rewarded for their form and now it’s up to them. “We have got some new combinations, but there is a lot of potential in this side and the players are hungry for this chance.” The Wallabies say they won’t be taking any liberties with South Africa, even with the absence of their stars Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez and Bryan Habana among others.

Australia are still smarting over their humiliating 32-23 loss to Samoa last weekend when they fielded well below their top side. Leading flanker David Pocock, back in the Wallabies’ lineup, said he was expecting a fired-up Springbok team. “It’s something that a lot of us have talked about, that this is their team that put their hands up during the Super 15,” Pocock said. “And they’ll be very keen to show why they’ve been selected, and they’ll be working very hard, so it’s not going to be easy. “They’re a tight outfit no matter who they pick and with the tradition the Springboks have, whoever pulls on that jersey is going to be a better player on that day.

“So we’re expecting a very physical, fired-up Springbok team, particularly in the forwards.”

Olivier believes there will be doubts lingering in the Wallabies’ minds after their shock loss to Samoa. “In years to come, they’re going to say Samoa beat Australia, they’re not going to ask what the Australian side was like,” he said. “So Samoa beat them and, for us, we’re the Springboks and we’ve come here to win the game and put up a challenge. The guys are mentally up for this.” Heavy rain in Sydney this week may help South Africa’s cause and hamper Australia’s emphasis to shift the ball wide to their attacking backline. A spur for the Wallabies this weekend will be to retrieve the second world ranking they relinquished to South Africa after their stunning loss to Samoa. —AFP

DUNEDIN: Conrad Smith (center) of New Zealand tries to avoid a tackle by Malakai Ravulo (right) of Fiji during their rugby union Test match at Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin yesterday. New Zealand won 60-14. — AFP

Rusty All Blacks rout Fiji to open season WELLINGTON: New Zealand blew off the cobwebs with a 60-14 hammering of Fiji in Dunedin yesterday to make a solid start to a season they hope will end with a World Cup triumph on home soil. The All Blacks ran in eight tries, the pick of them from starting flyhalf Colin Slade and replacement scrumhalf Piri Weepu, but will be disappointed with aspects of their game as they look ahead to next week’s Tri-Nations meeting with South Africa.

Fiji lost 91-0 the last time they faced the All Blacks in 2005 and so were delighted with a spirited performance that was rewarded with second-half tries for Nemia Serelevu and Vereniki Goneva. Although the All Blacks were far from their ruthless, rampaging best, there was never any prospect of the kind of upset Australia suffered against Samoa last Sunday. “I think it’s a start, there’s some good things there, we may not have got all the detail dead right but you can see it’s going to come,” All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said. “We’ve got plenty to work on over the next few days but at least we got that under our belts.”

The home side always looked likely to score when they put sustained pressure on the Fijians and that was the case when Sitiveni Sivivatu, who scored four tries on debut against the country of his birth in the 2005 meeting, crossed in the corner after 10 minutes. Slade, competing for the spot as deputy to Dan Carter in the World Cup squad, had already kicked two penalties on his first test start when his well-judged chip over the defense allowed him to regather off the post and extend the lead 13 minutes later.

FIJIAN DOMINANCE But the All Blacks machine then stalled for a while before hooker Andrew Hore played winger to score the third try after 35 minutes and impressive blindside flanker

Adam Thomson added another by inching over from close range just before the break.

With a 32-0 lead at halftime, the All Blacks would have been hoping to push on in the second half but it was more than 20 minutes before they could add to their tally.

The Fijians got just desserts for their dominance of the third quarter of the match when flanker Dominiko Waqaniburotu capitalized on turnover ball with an explosive break down the left touchline before feeding scrumhalf Serelevu. Weepu had just replaced an out-of-sorts Jimmy Cowan when his grubber kick allowed Conrad Smith to break the All Black second-half drought and Slade’s last act before being replaced by Carter was to convert the try to

make the score 39-7.

Six minutes later Weepu was involved three times in a sweeping move which resulted in him crossing the line but a fine individual effort from replacement winger Goneva soon cut the deficit to 46-14.

Australian referee Stuart Dickinson’s pedantry around the scrum climaxed with a penalty try to the All Blacks four minutes from the siren, however, and there was still time for fullback Mils Muliaina to celebrate his 95th test with his 33rd try for his country. “We were pleased with some of the things we were doing,” Fiji skipper Deacon Manu said. “The scoreline got away from us at the end and that’s quite disappointing.” — Reuters

Scare for Wallabies as Cooper misses training SYDNEY: Wallabies flyhalf Quade Cooper missed training because of illness yesterday in a blow to the Australians on the eve of the Tri-Nations opener against South Africa. Cooper has been restored to the team after being rested for last week’s upset loss to Samoa and was expected to fire the Wallabies back to winning ways at the Olympic Stadium today. A spokesman for the team said the 23-year-old was suffering from a stomach illness but captain Rocky Elsom said the New Zealand-born back should be fit to face the Springboks.

“If he’s not feeling that well, it’s probably a good move not to train but I think he’ll be fine tomorrow,” the flanker told a news conference.

Fullback Kurtley Beale stepped into the flyhalf position in training and would be the favourite to take the number 10 shirt if Cooper does not recover in time. That

could also mean a surprise recall to the matchday squad for the experienced Matt Giteau, who had a poor game against Samoa and was left out of the team to face South Africa. Another concern for the Wallabies is the continuing torrential rain falling on Sydney, which could reduce the game to a tight, forwards dominated contest and rob the home side of the advantage their backs would be expected to bring to the clash. Elsom, however, said he was not expecting Sydney’s wettest July in 50 years to be that much of a factor. “We’ve got a gameplan we think can adapt to both,” the 28-year-old said.

“Obviously if it’s as it is now, it’s not going to be as free flowing but that’s not necessarily a problem. “Even then you’re talking about perceived strengths and what happens when you get out there can be different.” —Reuters

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Defending champ Fish into Atlanta quarters ATLANTA: Mardy Fish opened his ATP Atlanta title defense Thursday with a 63, 6-3 victory over France’s Nicolas Mahut that put the top-seeded American into the quarter-finals. Fish, who enjoyed a first-round bye, fired six aces and broke Mahut four times to finish off the second-round clash in less than 90 minutes. Fish showed no ill effects from an abdominal muscle strain which had bothered him since the French Open.

The world number nine will play for a semi-final spot against Indian eighth seed Somdev Devvarman, who booked

his first quarter-final since late April with a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Japan’s Tatsuma Ito. Fish won four straight games in the second set before dropping his serve, immediately breaking back. “That break-back was good, I was able to snatch the momentum,” he said.

“It was the first match back on outdoor hardcourt,” added the 29-year-old.

“You always feel a bit of pressure coming back to place where you’ve had success. “I’m happy just to move on, it’s only going to get tougher from now on.

The first match is always tricky. He’s a tough opponent who serves well and

Sacked caddie blasts Woods WELLINGTON: Tiger Woods’ sacked caddie Steve Williams said yesterday he had lost respect for the former world number one and felt he had wasted two years of his life loyally standing by the scandalplagued golfer. Woods announced this week that he has parted company with New Zealander Williams, his bagman for 12 years-a period when Woods won 13 of his 14 majors. Williams said his sacking was poor reward for staying loyal to Woods after the golfer’s November 2009 car crash which opened the door to revelations about his extra-marital affairs and triggered a slide down the world rankings.

“Realistically, I could look back and say I’ve wasted the last two years of my life because he’s played infrequently, he’s been injured and he’s played poorly,” Williams told the New Zealand Herald. “I was prepared to hang in there through thick and thin, so I found the timing extraordinary.” Williams said he told Woods after the 2009 scandal broke that he had lost respect for the golfer and that it needed to be earned back.

But he said his opinion of Woods had sunk further following his dismissal. “Whatever respect he may have earned back, he’s just lost,” he told the newspaper.

In a statement released Wednesday on his official website, Wodds hailed Williams as “an outstanding caddie and a friend” but added “it’s time for a change”.

Williams told the New Zealand Herald that he had “no idea” about Woods’ infidelities before the scandal erupted but stayed with him even though his wife was a close friend of the golfer’s spouse Erin, who divorced him in 2010. He described the fallout from the scandal, which sparked a worldwide media frenzy as lurid details of Woods’ private life emerged, as the most difficult of his life.

“I’m a stickler for loyalty, I stuck with Tiger through a difficult period when a lot of people thought I should have left his side when things weren’t going as they should have been going,” he told TVNZ late Thursday.

“I’m not disappointed in the fact that I’ve got fired, I’m just disappointed in the timing of it, given how loyal I’ve been to him. That obviously didn’t mean much to him.”

Williams said he was looking forward to permanently working with Australian Adam Scott, for whom he has caddied on a part-time basis this year as an injured left leg kept Woods out of the sport.

“I’m excited about it, the last few weeks carrying with Adam has kind of opened my eyes a little bit,” he said.— AFP

plays aggressive.” Fish was joined in the last eight by 19-year-old compatriot Ryan Harrison, who waited out the evening weather delay to beat Belgian Xavier Malisse, the fourth seed, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4. The last few games were played after a thunderstorm halted play for nearly three hours. Two-time grand slam winner Lleyton Hewitt, his ranking down to 174th, lost to Rajeev Ram of the United States 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. Ram, a qualifier, will line up against Harrison in the quarters.

Harrison said that he and Malisse exchanged choice words on a

changeover after the weather delay, following back-to-back breaks of serve.

“When I broke him back he said some things that I wasn’t too happy with. So I said some things back,” he said. “It was the heat of the moment. We both want to win.

I like it when it gets intense, the competitive drive sparks me, it’s an added motivation. But whoever wins will always get the last laugh.” The tournament is the ATP’s first stop in the six-week US hardcourt build-up to the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year that starts in New York on August 29. — AFP

Blanks off to another fast start at Canadian Open Shaughnessy course bares its teeth VANCOUVER: American Kris Blanks fired a three-under 67 to set the pace at the Canadian Open on Thursday, grabbing a first round lead for the second time in three events. Blanks also found himself perched atop the leaderboard after the first day at the John Deere Classic two weeks ago and the Puerto Rico Open last year but so far the 38-year-old journeyman has been unable to translate his flashy starts into a strong finish and a first PGA Tour win.

Helped by an eagle at the par five seventh at the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, Blanks battled to a one shot advantage over a chasing pack of 11 players, including South African Ernie Els (68) and Matt McQuillian, who is among the 17 Canadians in the field bidding to become the first home grown winner of the national championship since Pat Fletcher in 1954. “It was that way the same way at John Deere ... so I will kind of draw on some of the stuff that happened in the following rounds after that,” Blanks told reporters. “But it’s a little different this week.

“I don’t necessarily feel like I’ve got to shoot six-or-seven under tomorrow like I did at John Deere. “I’m just going to try to stick to my game plan, get a good night’s sleep and get after it tomorrow.” Still, it is unlikely to be a restful night for Blanks with another pack of nine golfers, led by American young guns Anthony Kim and Rickie Fowler, lurking a shot further adrift at one-under and ready to pounce.

American Sean O’Hair had been poised to snatch the lead from Blanks getting to four-under with four to play only to bogey his final three holes to join the group on 69. The spectacular tree-lined Shaughnessy layout bared its teeth as the field struggled to get under par in near ideal conditions.

The last time the Canadian Open was staged on the par 70 layout in 2005 it played as the most difficult non-major event on the PGA Tour and may hold that distinction again this year. “Obviously I am very pleased with that, this is a very tough golf course,” Els told reporters. “All and all just a solid round of golf. “This golf course is very much like a US Open. It’s Canada’s national open and this is the way national opens should be played. They should be played as tough as possible.” After missing the cut at the British Open, Donald looked

VANCOUVER: Kris Blanks putts on the ninth hole during the first round of the Canadian Open golf tournament at the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver, British Columbia.— AP as if he had brought his major hangover going three-over on the front nine but the with him to Canada. Playing the back nine South African responded with an error free first, Donald got his round off to a disas- finish picking up a pair of birdies, includtrous start with double-bogeys on two of ing one at the last to finish on one-over 71.

Jose Maria Olazabal’s first visit to the his opening four holes.

But then the Briton suddenly began to Canadian Open will not provide many live up to his top ranking picking up back- pleasant memories as the Spaniard to-back birdies at 14 and 15 before reeling labored to a four-over 74 alongside off three consecutive from the fifth to fin- defending champion Carl Pettersson of ish at level par 70 alongside crowd favorite Sweden, twice Canadian champion Jim John Daly. Masters champion Charl Furyk and home favorite 2003 Masters Schwartzel got his day off to rocky start champion Mike Weir.— Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Turkey deepens match-fixing probe ANKARA: The Turkish Football Federation’s ethics committee was studying more than two dozen legal files in a match-fixing probe yesterday to decide whether to postpone the start of the league and impose sanctions against several clubs, including league champion Fenerbahce. Turkish authorities have charged and jailed about 30 suspects, including Fenerbahce president Aziz Yildirim.

They are also looking into suspicious movement in the shares of Fenerbahce and some other clubs on the Istanbul stock market last season, a senior finance official said yesterday.

The probe involving 19 games has severely shaken Turkish football and fueled the fury of hundreds of Fenerbahce fans who invaded the pitch during a friendly against Ukrainian champion Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday night, forcing the abandonment of the game. Fenerbahce fans - some wearing masks and T-shirts bearing the picture of jailed club presi-

dent Aziz Yildirim - ran onto the pitch in the 67th minute of the game at Fenerbahce’s Sukru Saracoglu stadium and also attacked media representatives for what they regard as critical media coverage of the match-fixing probe. The game came hours after Yildirim said in a letter that he would step down and after the federation indefinitely postponed the Turkish Super Cup final between Fenerbahce and Besiktas because both teams are implicated in the match-fixing probe.

Turkish federation president Mehmet Aydinlar said the ethics committee would decide whether to postpone the scheduled league start on Aug 5. Aydinlar is already against an early August start because of the hot weather.

Ethics committee members behind closed doors were examining 26 files, including testimonies of the suspects, the federation said. It was not clear if the committee would also impose any sanctions on Fenerbahce or any other

S Africans to learn Cuban secrets JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s lamentable performance at the Commonwealth Games boxing tournament in Delhi has prompted the country’s sports chiefs to send 10 of its best fighters to Cuba in a bid to avoid similar failure at next year’s London Olympics. The four boxers who competed in Delhi failed to win a single bout let alone a medal, continuing a decline that has seen no South African Olympic boxing medalists since the country was allowed back into the international fold.

Over the next few weeks a team of South Africans will study the methods which have made Cuba an Olympic boxing powerhouse. “It’s like sending soccer players to Brazil. Cuba are one of the world’s top boxing nations and it’s very exciting for us, we’ll get a lot of experience from the camp,” Lebogan Pilane, one of the boxers who under-achieved in India and who will benefit from the program said in Johannesburg on the eve of the squad’s departure. The diminutive Pilane, who hails from the mining town of Welkom in the northern Free State, is an amateur light flyweight champion in South Africa, but was part of the team which returned empty-handed from the Commonwealth Games. A stint with coaches of the Havana Boxing Federation could help Pilane and his team mates stand more of a chance of making an impact in London next year providing they mange to qualify, according to Barries Barnard of the South African National Amateur Boxing Organization (SANABO). “Cuba are one of the powerhouses of world boxing and I want these guys to steal with the eye, bring back information from Cuba so we can get our act together,” Barries said.

Cuba has led the way in Olympic boxing, with 32 gold medals since 1968, and has a good relationship with South Africa dating back to its support for the antiApartheid movement. Gideon Sam, the president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), has identified boxing as one of the sports that needs drastic improvement in light of the disappointing performances since South Africa returned from exile at the 1992 Olympics. South Africa won four gold, four silver and eight bronze boxing medals prior to isolation, but none since 1992, despite the sport being one of the most popular in the country, particularly in the previously-disadvantaged communities.

Barnard estimates that there are about 4,500 amateur boxers in South Africa. “Many people have been saying it’s about time boxing came to the party and brought home a medal,” he said. London may even come to early for South Africa’s boxers but Sam said they need to build for the future. —Reuters

club. Fenerbahce, which has already lost millions of dollars after its shares plunged, has warned the federation in a strong message that postponement of the league would further harm the club. The federation so far has refrained from taking any disciplinary measures against Fenerbahce or Trabzonspor, allowing them to compete in the Champions League.

Fenerbahce won 16 of 17 league matches in the latter part of the season to come from a distant third place and claim a record 18th title, beating Trabzonspor only on goal difference.

Now, the club risks losing its league title in the same manner as Italian club Juventus, which was stripped of its 2005 and 2006 Serie A championships because of a similar scandal.

The scandal eroded shares in Fenerbahce by more than 35 percent on the Istanbul stock market since the news of the scandal surfaced earlier this month while shares of two other top Istanbul clubs Besiktas and

Galatasaray also declined. Vedat Akgiray, chairman of the Capital Markets Board of Turkey that regulates the stock market, said shares of some football clubs were under investigation, saying the outcome of the investigation would be critical to market players, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

“If the uncertainty is not eliminated, the financial risk will grow and cause more trouble,” the Anatolia quoted Akgiray as saying in Washington. “We are looking into the (last) season, movement on the dates of alleged matches.” Turkey is the latest country to be affected by a slew of match-fixing and betting scandals around the globe, from South Korea to Zimbabwe.

The Turkish government has promised to be tough on match-fixing, introducing legislation three months ago to confront hooliganism and cheating in football, which includes a maximum 12-year prison sentence for fixing games. — AP

Boxing

Khan, Judah face off LAS VEGAS: WBA light-welterweight champion Amir Khan declared himself Britain’s most exciting fighter ahead of his unification bout with Zab Judah today and said victory in Las Vegas would allow him to look ahead to bigger and better fights. Khan’s assessment of his talents comes after his value appeared to be questioned by television broadcaster Sky, who wanted to downgrade his April bout with Northern Ireland’s Paul McCloskey from pay-per-view, considerably cutting the champion’s purse, leading to a lastminute switch of television company.

Khan, who retained his title after McCloskey was stopped in the sixth round after sustaining a cut to his head, returns to the Mandalay Bay Resort where he claimed a thrilling unanimous points decision win over Argentine Marcos Maidana in December. “I’ve always said I’m the most exciting fighter in Britain,” the fast-talking Khan told reporters on Thursday. “If you look at my performances, they’ve been very exciting to watch. I’m one of those guys, I could make fights look boring, but I choose not to. I get stuck in there, and make the fans very happy.”

Khan, however, was not getting complacent and warned that the versatile Judah, a skillful southpaw, would be a more challenging opponent than the hard-hitting, but relatively one-dimensional, Maidana. “This is going to be a tough fight,” said Khan, 25-1 (17 KOs).

“He’s going to come forward, and he’s going to back up a little bit. There are going to be times when he’s going to be technical. We just have to stay a step ahead of him. “I just need to stick to the game plan and instructions from the corner. I can make it either an easy night or a hard night.” While Khan talked up his opponent’s skills, the Briton’s trainer Freddie Roach was more dismissive of Judah’s chances. “He can fight or he can run,” Roach told

LAS VEGAS: Amir Khan (right) and trainer Freddie Roach spar during a training session at the IBA gym in Las Vegas, Nevada. — AFP reporters. “If he runs, he lasts a little bit longer.”

FULL ON Victory for Khan, favourite to add Judah’s IBF title to his WBA belt, sets up the prospect of a possible blockbuster clash with undefeated welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year, which Khan has called for. “If I win this fight, I can go on to bigger and better things,” he said. “I need to win this fight. I cannot afford to get beaten.” The possibility of facing Mayweather or competing in title unification fights appeared a distant dream three years ago when Khan was knocked out in the first minute of his lightweight bout with unheralded Colombian Breidis Prescott.

That loss led to Khan recruiting the highly regarded Roach, who also trains the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter Manny Pacquiao. “You can’t ask for anything better,” Khan said. “I’ve spent four camps with Manny, I’ve been sparring

with him, I’ve done about 50 rounds with him in total. And when we spar it’s full on. We don’t take it easy on each other.

“We respect each other-and I respect Manny for being the best in the world.

But we know that if I take it easy and Manny takes it easy, we’re not going to learn anything.” While Khan will hope his speed will prove too much for the 33year-old Judah, he conceded the American has the advantage when it comes to experience. Judah, 41-6 (28 KOs), has won world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight and who now holds the IBF light-welterweight title he first won in 2000, when Khan was just 13-years-old. “I’m very relaxed, I’ve been here before,” Judah told reporters.

“I’ve been the co-main event with (former heavyweight champion) Mike Tyson, I’ve had my name and my picture on the side of buses, I’ve been on the big stage before. Amir, this is all new for him.” — Reuters

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Iran and Saudi hit WCup trail HONG KONG: Saudi Arabia and Iran are expected to take a big step on the road towards the 2014 World Cup finals when they face minnows Hong Kong and the Maldives in today’s qualifiers. Elsewhere, Singapore host neighbors Malaysia in a hotly anticipated clash which has grabbed the attention of fans in both countries. The winners of the 15 two-legged ties will qualify for the third round group stage, when Asian giants Japan, South Korea and Australia as well as North Korea and Bahrain join the fray.

Saudi Arabia, 92nd in the FIFA rankings, and 50th-ranked Iran, both three-time winners of the Asian Cup, are unlikely have many problems disposing of their lowly opponents.

But excitement is at fever pitch in Singapore, whose Straits Times newspaper reported that tickets for the potentially feisty encounter with Malaysia had sold out in a matter of hours. “The build-up suggests it could be one of the most explosive games in recent history between the Causeway rivals,” said the city-state’s Today newspaper. Other notable clashes see India, who have never played in football’s showpiece, taking on the United Arab Emirates and minnows Laos playing underachievers China, who have only reached one World Cup in their history.

India coach Armando Colaco said a 2-1 friendly win over Qatar had given his side confidence ahead of their clash with the UAE after a miserable Asian Cup in January when they lost all three games, conceding 13 goals. “My players are eager to play the UAE, and we will play to win.

The Qatar win has begun to give us the belief that we need to beat sides like the UAE,” Colaco said, according to Gulf News. “We are of course still the underdogs and the UAE is a great team, we’ve seen that from our videos, and the way in which they absolutely hammered Lebanon 6-2 just confirms our belief,” he added.

Vietnam striker Le Cong Vinh said his team did not fear 94th-ranked Qatar after Vietnam crushed Macau 131 in the first qualifying round, although he acknowledged there was a sizeable gap between the sides in the rankings. “The coach and players respect Qatar but we do not fear them. We will try our utmost until the last minute,” the striker said. Vietnam are ranked 140th by FIFA. Other ties today are Lebanon v Bangladesh, Turkmenistan v Indonesia, Kuwait v Philippines, Oman v Myanmar, Syria v Tajikistan, Iraq v Yemen, Uzbekistan v Kyrgyzstan and Jordan v Nepal. The second legs will be played on July 28, with the draw for the third round taking place in Brazil on July 30. —AFP

MENDOZA: Venezuela’s players watch the penalty shootout during a Copa America semifinal soccer match against Paraguay in Mendoza on Thursday, July 21, 2011. After the match ended 0-0 in extra time, Paraguay won 5-3 on penalties. — AP

Venezuelans out for bronze consolation BUENOS AIRES: Heartbroken Venezuela are determined to capture bronze in today’s Copa America third place play-off against Peru despite believing they should really be featuring in Sunday’s final against Uruguay.

Venezuela’s plucky campaign was finally derailed in the semi-finals in a penalty shoot-out by Paraguay after a match where they hit the woodwork three times and had a goal disallowed.

Despite their lingering disappointment at the cruelest of exits, coach Cesar Farias and his men will be fired up to beat Peru, not least as President Hugo Chavez continues to laud them with constant eulogies via Twitter. “You were great - what an honor,” he said Thursday of a showing which left them undefeated, the penalties aside, throughout the tournament which they had opened by holding Brazil to a draw. “They robbed us of a winner,” added Chavez from Cuba, where he is undergoing treatment for cancer, referring to Oswaldo Vizcarrondo’s ruled out header for offside.

Chavez has threatened to take the matter to the South American Football Confederation - whose head is Nicolas Leoz - a Paraguayan. Lady Luck may be backing the Paraguayans - who survived another penalty drama in the quarters to see off holders Brazil, but the Venezuelans want to go out with a bang, says Farias, rallying his side in the face of adversity. “Look, we’ve been the away team (in terms of fan numbers) in most of the games and you can factor in the climate too,” with the tournament taking place in a chilly Argentinean midwinter.

The Peru game may end a chapter but not the overall story, adds Farias, promising more to come regardless of today’s outcome. “If we can become strong at home then we will have many possibilities to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in warmer Brazil,” he said. Venezuela are to date the only South American country never to appear at the finals. Peru themselves turned the form book upside down as far as the semis were

concerned before finding Uruguay a bridge too far. They finished rock bottom of the last World Cup qualifiers - Venezuela were third bottom - but under Uruguayan coach Sergio Markarian they have earned new respect.

“We have turned in a dignified showing and we can take away a number of positives,” said Markarian, who, along with all coaches at the tournament, came in with one eye fixed firmly on 2014. With today a chance to weigh up his options for the next cycle, comprising the two-year, 18-match World Cup qualifying program, Markarian says he will make “several changes”. One will be enforced with combative midfielder Juan Vargas suspended. Conversely, Farias can bring back Tomas Rincon, dismissed in the win over Chile, back into his midfield though Giacomo Di Giorgi acquitted himself well against the Paraguayans. When the pair met in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers Venezuela won 3-1 at home but went down 1-0 away. — AFP

Soccer gaining ground in cricket-crazy India NEW DELHI: In a country where cricket is so ingrained in the social fabric that it dwarfs every other sport and most other topics of conversation, Aayushman Chaturvedi made a decision that was almost unthinkable for his parents. He chose football. And if the mushrooming number of local academies emerging are any indication, Chaturvedi is not the only the Indian schoolboy who dreams of playing football in Europe rather than trying to break into the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League.

Even former India footballer Anadi Barua, who runs a bustling academy on the outskirts of New Delhi, is surprised by the recent trend. “It is amazing to see the craze, focus and ambition of youngsters,” Barua said. “I am surprised to see that parents are so happy to see their kids play football and not cricket.” Football in India lacks glamour and money compared with cricket. Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are celebrities across this country of almost 1.2 billion people and have become multimillionaires through cricket.

Leading cricket players can earn $1 million for a six-week season in the IPL - on top of their national or provincial contracts, match fees and endorsements - while only the very top players in football’s long-winding I-League can make anywhere near $100,000 per season. Little wonder there’s millions of cricket players around the country and the number of footballers can be measured in the thousands. As the IPL cricket competition continues to expand and splurge money to enhance its appeal, two

major football clubs that were part of the I-League - Mahindras and JCT - have folded in the last year.

Such was the disparity in 2009 that the Board of Control for Cricket in India felt obliged to give the All India Football Federation a $5 million grant to help keep it afloat. Yet despite the yawning wealth divide, football remains popular - a Nielsen global online survey last year indicated 47 percent of Indians claimed to be football fans. “To translate love for the game into prospects, it is important to give exposure to young players. To watch European league matches on the television is one thing and playing the game altogether different,” Barua said.

India won gold medals in football at the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and also finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. But the standard of the game slipped due to lack of infrastructure and bad administration. Things started changing in the new Millennium. India qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup by winning a competition for second-tier nations, and is involved in home-and-away matches against United Arab Emirates over the next week in the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. Along with the increasing broadcasts of European football, money is also starting to flow into Indian football. IMGReliance - a partnership between IMG Worldwide and Indian company Reliance Industries Ltd- signed a 15-year, $140-million deal last year for all commercial rights to the game in the country, aiming to promote and market football from the grassroots

level to the top. Among Barua’s 150 trainees at the academy in New Delhi’s satellite town of Noida is 16-year-old Aviraj Singh, who was selected for a national schools team to play against a youth team from Premier League giant Arsenal later this year.

Other boys at the academy are going further to get experience against the next generation of Premier League players.

Chaturvedi is one of them. He registered for a shot at a junior trial match at Chelsea and said going to London was like winning the lottery, even if he had to persuade his parents to cover his travel expenses and stay with his grandmother while he was there. “My parents wanted to push me into cricket since there is more scope for that in India,” the 16 year-old Chaturvedi said. “But I always loved football and that is what I always watch on television and on Youtube.

“I perused the opportunity through the internet and was thrilled when I got to appear in the under-18 trials.” Chaturvedi said he hasn’t received a call back or any official feedback from the club, “but I am determined to play professional football some day, be it in Europe or in India.” He learned a lot about his football shortcomings on his trip to England, so it was a valuable exercise. “I need to improve my physical fitness and physique,” said Chaturvedi, who is expected to debut in the Delhi league next season. “My game also needs to be faster.” There’s also a generation of parents who’re bullish about giving their kids the right kind of opportunities.—AP

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SPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Kuwait Team

Kuwait, Philippines teams face off 2014 World Cup qualifier

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti and Philippine teams yesterday affirmed their readiness for this evening’s 2014 World Cup qualifier match in Kuwait. Kuwait’s Al-Azraq and the Philippines’ Azkals teams are set to face off this evening in the first leg of the qualifying round, with the second leg to be played in the Philippines on July 28. At a press conference held at the Movenpick Hotel yesterday both teams’ coaches, Serbian Goran Tufegdzic, the current head coach of Kuwait’s national team, and the Philippines team’s head coach Hans Michael Weiss respectively assured fans that their players are ready for the match today, vowing that it will be one of the greatest matches ever.

The match is scheduled to take place at Qadisiya Sports Club in Hawally around 7 pm.

A huge crowd of local and Filipino fans is expected to throng the venue. Media Relations Officer and Kuwaiti football fan Talal Al-Mehteb, who presided over yesterday’s press briefing, wished his country’s national team victory. “We hope for the better match tomorrow and I especially wish our team’s victory,” he said, adding jokingly, “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to wish luck to the Philippine team!”

Coach Goran categorically asserted that the Kuwaiti side is more experienced than the Philippines’ team. “While I don’t really belittle the capabilities of the Philippine team, our team is more ready, since we’ve had the series of friendly matches in Jordan and Lebanon.

However, we’ll see the result by tomorrow [today],” Goran added. For the Philippines team, today’s match is their biggest ever to date, said Coach Weiss. “Reaching this far is quite an achievement,” he stated. “The Philippines have never reached this far but we are now in the second round. From our side everybody is ready now; we have two players

that are not allowed to play, but I hope that at the last minute, they’ll be able to get the positive nod from FIFA,” he said.

Coach Weiss was referring to the Philippine team’s skipper Aly Borromeo and midfielder Stephan Schrock, who were not given clearance to play in the first leg of the World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait after the International Football Federation (FIFA) rejected the plea to rescind their suspension.

“I am still hoping that a last-minute ruling will rule in favor of Philippine team,” the coach said. Asked by an Arab reporter about unsubstantiated reports that seven players were granted Filipino nationality so that they could play for the Philippine national team, coach Weiss responded, “I don’t think the information was right or accurate.”

He continued, “Every single player in the Philippines team are either pure Filipinos or their father and mother came from the Philippines, so there are no imported players,” said the German coach, pointing out that all the players are Filipinos who can officially play in their country’s national team. “Whether they grew up in Europe or the Philippines doesn’t matter; they are Filipinos. If I compared the players of Qatar for example, I see many black players and I don’t know whether they are all pure Qataris,” he quipped. “One thing is sure; all

Philippines team of our players can play legally in the Philippine National Team.”

Evidently irked about the raising of the player nationality issue, Weiss continued, “I think we have to deal with the players with respect and in fact I don’t want to deal with the subject because it hurts me personally, since my wife is from Japan and we have two kids. I don’t want them to be called half-half; they are human beings and they deserve respect as we have. For me, what is important is that they have an absolute right to play with their country’s national team.”

Emilio ‘Chiffy’ Caligdong, a known left-

winger for the Philippine team, said that the team is no longer worried about the Kuwaiti weather. “We already adjusted to the weather as far as we’re concerned,” he said, adding, “It was really hot, but we had two practice sessions already and we hope to give our best tomorrow.” Asked whether the Philippines team had studied the playing strategies and techniques of the Kuwaiti teams, Caligong responded in the affirmative “Yes we did, we watched their games carefully many times,” he said, adding, “They are indeed professional players, but we can only show our wit by tomorrow.”

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World Cup qualifier: Philippines, Kuwait teams face off

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SHANGHAI: Competitors dive in at the start of the men’s 5km open water swimming event of the FINA World Championships at Jinshan beach in Shanghai yesterday. — AFP

China on the verge of historic sweep Phelps roaring back; German great bags 5th title SHANGHAI: US great Michael Phelps yesterday warned he was roaring back to form for the Shanghai world championships as China stood on the verge of a historic sweep of the diving medals. Phelps said he was out to avenge some stinging upsets this year, including two 200m butterfly losses to China’s Wu Peng which ended a nine-year winning streak that the American had hoped to continue until retirement. The 14-time Olympic champion, 26, will be the star attraction in the pool events from Sunday as he kick-starts his campaign for London 2012, which he insists will be his last Games. “I think the last six to eight months have been really good, leading up to this, being able to have some solid training, some consistent training,” Phelps said.

“Having those races (against Wu) happen earlier in the year hopefully I was able to learning something from them and I can swim faster here,” he added. Excitement is building for the swimming events, which were boosted when Brazilian sprint champion Cesar Cielo was cleared to compete despite testing positive for a banned diuretic. The Court of Arbitration for Sport let Cielo, 24, off with a warning on Thursday, dismissing calls by world governing body FINA for a three-month ban. Brazilian officials hoped the row would not affect the Olympic champion as he pre-

pares to defend his 50m and 100m titles.

“We don’t know,” a spokeswoman said, when asked if Cielo was confident of victory.

“After all this we don’t know but we are there to support him.” Meanwhile defending titleholder He Chong sealed China’s eighth gold medal of the championships yesterday as the hosts drew tantalizingly close to winning all 10 events. Team-mate Qin Kai was vying with He for the title until he slipped on his fifth dive and crashed into the water, a rare mistake which left him out of the medals in fourth place. “I feel really sad, because I have trained very hard over the years. Maybe it is a precious experience for me,” said a downcast Qin. “As for next year’s London Olympics, my goal remains the same-the gold medal.”

Until Qin’s mishap, China had enjoyed a one-two in every individual diving event, underscoring their total dominance of the discipline in which they won seven golds at the 2009 worlds and seven of eight at the Beijing Olympics. Chinese diving icon Wu Minxia topped the semi-finals of the women’s 3m springboard and will expect to add to her giant personal tally in the final today. Earlier, Germany’s Thomas Lurz was hailed as an alltime great as he sealed his fifth world championships open water title in a dramatic 5km race at Jinshan City Beach. Lurz left it desper-

ately late before overhauling Greek rival Spyros Gianniotis in the final meters of the grueling event.

“I was sure that I won only when I touched the finish board, the slap board. Then I already knew that I won,” Lurz said.”But before the race I didn’t think about winning five times or six times or seven times in a row.

I think this is big pressure. Every time I go on the start, I try to do my best and don’t think about the number of titles.” Bronze medalist Evgeny Drattsev of Russia said Lurz, who also won the event in 2005, 2007 and 2009 - when he also won the 10km-had proved himself as one of the great athletes. “Lurz is a very strong swimmer. He is a great athlete in history,” Drattsev said.

In the women’s event, Switzerland’s Swann Oberson took gold with Aurelie Muller claiming France’s first medal of the world championships and American Ashley Twichell taking bronze. Russian synchronized swimming queen Natalia Ishchenko won her fifth gold of the championships, with partner Svetlana Romashina in the duet free, scoring 98.410 points as China finished second and Spain took bronze. Ishchenko, the most decorated synchronized swimmer in history, now has a total of 16 world championships golds, including one as a reserve in 2009.—AFP

‘Rebuilt’ Australia target top-4 finish SHANGHAI: Swimming powerhouse Australia said yesterday they hope to cling on to their place among the top four nations at the world championships as they target an improved gold medal haul.

Australia had a disappointing worlds in 2009, slipping to fourth in the swimming medals table after finishing second behind the United States at the previous year’s Beijing Olympics.

In Beijing they grabbed six golds, a number that dropped to three in Rome. But the team in Shanghai still boasts the likes of Stephanie Rice, a triple gold medalist from Beijing. Head coach Leigh Nugent told a press conference ahead of the start of the swimming events in Shanghai on Sunday that the team was not happy about its performance at the Rome worlds. “Three gold medals wasn’t the result we were looking for in 2009 and we certainly hope we’re going to do better than that,” he said. “I think we’ve rebuilt a stronger team since those days and our positioning here, we can finish in the top four countries. — Agencies