10 Aug

ON IP TI SC R SU B

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

Gulf stocks crash on global jitters

Syria’s Assad defies world reproach with new raids

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Top seeds suffer early exits from the Rogers Cup

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At least 50 drown after Comoros boat capsizes

London burns as riots rock Britain Iran urges Britain not to use ‘violence’

conspiracy theories

Democracy and anarchy

Education minister under fire

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

he age of revolutions which is currently sweeping the Arab world has brought the winds of change to the shores of the United Kingdom. In fact, it is not the shores, it is to the heart of the country, London, the business capital of the world and the finance and commercial hub connecting Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the rest of the world. I don’t think there is a country that does not have a big stake in London.

Today, the beautiful snobbish city is hit by riots.

The riots are far different from the ones we are experiencing around us in the Arab world. In the Continued on Page 13

KUWAIT: National Assembly speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi said yesterday that conditions for holding the emergency parliamentary session have been completed and he has notified the government. Khorafi said the session will be held after an Amiri decree is issued calling for the session. He also said that the date of the session will be determined in the Amiri decree although MPs who requested the session have suggested the session to be on August 15.

Thirty-three MPs last week submitted the request to convene the session to discuss what many lawmakers described as a serious crisis regarding the failure of Kuwait University to admit thousands of students.

Continued on Page 13

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Max 47º Min 31º Low Tide 01:48 & 16:01 High Tide 07:33 & 22:38

LONDON: Britons swept up, patched up and feared further violence yesterday, demanding police do more to protect them after three nights of rioting left looted stores, torched cars and blackened buildings across London and several other UK cities. Police said they were working full-tilt, but found themselves under attack - from rioters roaming the streets, from a scared and worried public, and from politicians whose cost-cutting is squeezing police numbers ahead of next year’s Olympic Games.

Iran urged Britain yesterday to show “restraint” in dealing with rioters, the state television website reported. Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast asked “the British government to prevent the use of violence by the police, and to engage in dialogue with the protesters and examine their demands in order to restore calm,” the Continued on Page 13

By B Izzak

By Badrya Darwish

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Emsak: Fajer: Shoruk: Dohr: Asr: Maghreb: Eshaa:

Ramadan Kareem CROYDON: A property is on fire near Reeves Corner in Croydon, south London yesterday. A wave of violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities yesterday. — AP

Month of Mercy See Page 13

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

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Swiss BelHotel Plaza holds Ghabqa for media

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wiss BelHotel Plaza Kuwait held Ramadan Ghabqa for media and press at their authentic Al Dallah International Restaurant and a truly authentic Arabian atmosphere that was prepared during this holy month.

Ali Haddad, the General Manager of Swiss BelHotel Plaza Kuwait welcomed the arrival of the guests to express Hotel’s gratitude and appreciation for the media’s contributions and continued support in the past few years. On this occasion lots of gifts were given away by sponsors like Turkish Airlines which offered airline tickets. Food hampers from Alyasra Company and other gifts Seba Med and Kuwait Times.

Swiss BelHotel Plaza Kuwait has 153 cozy rooms with standard, Deluxe, Executive room & Business Suites. Ideally in the heart of Kuwait City having its advantage for easy access in all corporate establishments, malls and tourist spots in Kuwait. A variety of restaurants and cafes that will astonish your appetite. Meet and dine at Al Dallah Restaurant and enjoy the genuine array of Oriental cuisine that will satisfy your cravings.

Sense the tradition and feel the spirit of Ramadan in Bait Al Kuwait that caters local Kuwaiti cuisine with its antique private concept.

Gather your colleagues, family and friends in our cozy spacious Grand Ballroom up to 400 pax (Theatre style) with enticing variety of menus for Iftar and Ghabqa that will definitely fill your appetite.

Swiss BelHotel International is a Hong Kong based global management company managing hotels, resorts and residences throughout the Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East Regions.

Movenpick Hotel holds Iftar for staff

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he Movenpick Hotel organized an Iftar feast for staff members. The Iftar was held inside a Ramadan-style tent set up in Al-Bida’a especially for the holy month of Ramadan.

Ruby Tuesday holds Ramadan Ghabqa

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uby Tuesday invited representatives of local press and media outlets to their annual ghabqa hosted at the restaurant’s Gulf Road branch, which was decorated to convey the traditional atmosphere of the holy month.

Gulf Bank to sponsors biggest Girgiyan event KUWAIT: Gulf Bank yesterday announced its ‘M ain Sponsorship’ of the Al-Kharafi Activity Centre for Kids Annual Girgiyan, which is par t of its Ramadan campaign. This family day will take place today (August 10) at the Center’s venue at Dhahyat Mubarak

Abdullah Al Jaber.

This family day will give the children and their families the oppor tunity to enjoy a wide range of activities and competitions, including, a theatrical play, face painting and a talent show. This year, the kids at the Center will participate in mak-

ing the biggest Girgiyan bag, which will teach them the importance of social responsibility through helping each other and work ing together to make the most amazingly big Girgiyan bag for everyone. This activity is also intended to help in developing the kids’ skills.

The Girgiyan bag will be the biggest and the first of its kind in Kuwait to be made by kids with special needs.

Gulf Bank continues to reach out to children with special needs throughout the year, reiterating the Bank’s commitment to the wider community.

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Pizza with Quaker Oats

KUWAIT: Iftar buffets featuring traditional Arabic dishes at to of the leading hotels in Kuwait.

For the Crust: * 2 cups of flour * 1/4 cup of Quaker Oats * 1/2 teaspoon of salt * 1/4 teaspoon of sugar * 1 packet of quick active dry yeast (2 teaspoons) * 1/4 cup mix of olive oil & vegetable oil * 3/4 of a cup of very warm water.

For the Filling: * Slices of any kind of meat * 1 large onion * 1 medium green bell pepper (capsicum) * 1 clove garlic * 1/2 cup of mushroom slices * 2 tablespoons of black olives sliced * 3 tablespoons of ketchup of (pizza sauce) * 1 teaspoon of oregano * 2 cups of shredded mozzarella (cheddar if you like) * 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese * salt and pepper.

Preparing the Crust: 1. Combine yeast and sugar in warm water until yeast is fully dissolved.

2. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl. Add Quaker Oats. Stir in yeast mixture and oil; mix to a soft dough.

3. Knead on floured surface for 5 minutes or until elastic. Let it stand in a warm place until dough has risen.

Preparing the Filling: 1. Spread Pizza sauce over the crust, top it with sliced beef sausages, beef pepperoni or any kind of meat you like.

2. Top your pizza with sliced mushroom, tomatoes, onion, garlic, capsicum and olives.

3. Add salt, pepper and a pinch of oregano. Finally top it with cheese.

4. Bake your thin crust for 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees F. if it’s thick, it needs about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Layali Ramadan

Ingredients: - Vermicelli 300grs - Butter 50grs - Pure ghee 50grs - Rose water 30grs - Blossom water 30grs - Icing sugar 130grs - Digestive biscuit 100grs - Honey 15grs - Ashta 1kg.

- Blossom jam 40grs - Pistachio 50grs Preparation: 1. Combine vermicelli, butter and ghee, roast until golden brown 2. Base of roasted digestive biscuit 3. Ashta to be place in the middle as a filling 4. Topped with vermicelli mixture 5. Decorated pistachio powder & blossom jam 6. Served with apricot syrup www.facebook.com/MMCKuwait

Ramadan tricks: What to avoid and what should you stock up on Tried and tested tips and tricks that help the fasting process

By Sawsan Kazak

KUWAIT: Fasting from sun rise to sunset can be a shock to the system, both physically and psychologically. Abstaining from food or drinks for so many hours during the holy month of Ramadan takes some getting used to as your body and mind adapt to the new situation.

But within a few days, your body gets the hang of it and the process of fasting gets easier as the month goes on. Also, people’s bodies react differently to certain foods or behaviors and throughout the years fasters develop some tricks to keep themselves satisfied during the sometimes long fasting hours.

Caffeine withdrawal One aspect of fasting that seems to affect some people’s systems is the caffeine withdrawal they have to endure. If your body is used to getting a coffee fix every morning, withholding could result in mild withdrawal symptoms.

Amira, Lebanese mother of two, says she was one of these people who used to develop severe headaches in the morning because she wasn’t having her usual morning coffee. “My head would hurt like crazy and I would find it hard to get through the day, but then I developed my own system for getting around

that,” says Amira. “I now have a coffee at night, a few hours before I go to sleep so that I could get caffeine in my system,” explains Amira. “I know caffeine is supposed to keep you up, but my body is so used to it that it doesn’t anymore. But by having the coffee at night I don’t have to go through the caffeine withdrawal symptoms in the morning,” Amira adds.

She doesn’t know if this is actually working or just psychological, but she doesn’t care; as long as it ’s helping avoid headaches.

System timings Another aspect that is sometimes grueling for the body is the late night meals. Having a heavy suhour and then going to sleep can have a negative effect on some people’s bodies; causing them to wake up hungry and thirsty, depending what they eat.

Noor, a Kuwaiti student, has her own tricks to making the day more bearable.

The twent-year-old never goes to bed right after eating suhour. “I try to have a light meal at night and always wait until I have digested most of it before I go to sleep. If I sleep with a full stomach I wake up starving; I have no idea why,” says Noor.

Also, certain foods can affect your thirst levels. It is believed that heavy

meats, spices or garlic can cause you to drink more water and it is usually advised to stay away with dishes that have these ingredients. Noor also make a point to avoid eating Kababs at night as she has noticed that she gets really thirsty the next day. “I keep my suhour light and try fight my urge to overeat as it will not help me in the long run,” says Noor.

Mom knows best Khaled, a Jordanian expat, admits he isn’t always able to fast but when he does he keeps in mind his mom’s advice.

“My mom always said to eat a lot of cucumbers. I’m assuming cucumbers keep you hydrated or something,” says Khaled. “Also, my mom seemed to believe that eating sweets at night was a good thing as your body will store all that sugar as energy and this will help you the next day. I’m not sure your nutritionist might agree with that one,” says Khaled jokingly. Like Noor, Khalid’s mom also advised to stay away from Kababs.

“My mom always told me that if I ate Kababs at night, I would be dehydrated by the morning, so I stay away from that,” says Khaled.

Staying healthy With so many changes in people’s

eating habits, staying healthy sometimes takes a backseat. Shaheen, a twenty-five-year-old Kuwaiti, tries hard to keep track of what he eats and takes extra precautions to stay healthy.

“I usually take a multi-vitamin at night as well as fish oil capsules like omega 3,” says Shaheen. “I also make sure I drink a protein shake at suhour just in case I didn’t get enough at Iftar; it’s hard to eat so much during Ramadan because I get full fast,” he explains.

Shaheen also tries to include yogurt in his nightly meals as it keeps the stomach neutral. “By eating some plain yogurt I can avoid having too much acid in my stomach. Also, laban (drinking yogurt) is high in fat which is good as the body stores that and uses it as energy the next day,” says Shaheen. The healthy twenty-five-year-old also has high praises for bananas.

“Bananas are a great source of potassium and when they are not very ripe, just a little green, they have more good carbs that your body uses as energy,” explains Shaheen.

Shaheen focuses a lot on staying hydrated, especially in this weather. “ I, of course, drink a lot of water at night especially right before I go to sleep. I avoid food with salt, such as anything fried, or actually salty,” says Shaheen.

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kuwait digest

in my view

Is this our greatest achievement?

Of Juju monsters and fairytales

By Khalifa Al-Khurafi apan experienced a cataclysmic natural disaster when an earthquake, the strongest to hit any part of the world since 1900, shook the country.

This then triggered a massive Tsunami that swept away most of the country.

Honshu, Japan’s largest island, was completely ravaged by the catastrophe which killed more than 10,000 people and injured thousands, in addition to inflicting unprecedented damage on infrastructure, including a radioactive leak at one of the nuclear reactors.

The disaster razed down the Sendai Airport, nuclear reactors, oil refineries, and factories were shut down as a result of the massive destruction.

Blackouts hit millions of homes and companies, while both railroad services and ports were shut down. Meanwhile, industrial giants like Toyota and Sony cut down production in Japan, even at places that were not affected by the disaster. Radiation contamination also stopped food exports from Japan.

The Japanese government estimated that the losses stand between $197 and $308 billion, making it the costliest disaster in history. Yet, the government didn’t wait for help. It didn’t stop giving aids to developing countries.

Japan’s government has set aside $200 billion for a five-year rebuilding plan. Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano announced that previous plans to reduce taxes will be halted because the government needs taxpayers’ money to fund the rebuilding process.

Despite having one of the largest tax rates in the developed world (Japanese company pays an average tax rate of 40%), the Japanese have never complained about reducing taxes because they are aware of the sacrifices needed to be made.

Japan, established the third strongest economy in the world despite lacking natural resources. It honed industrial capabilities to create products out of raw materials. Japan manufactures one hundred different products using the oil imported from Kuwait, including plastic, tires and clothes. On the other hand, Kuwait hasn’t been able to provide for 50 percent of our needs in fifty years since oil exportation was launched.

The lack of natural resources has not stopped Japan from amassing a gross domestic product that reached $5.474 trillion in 2010. The greatest achievement Kuwait has made in utilizing its topdemand natural resource was to connect oil fields with ports so as to load tankers with oil for sale, while wasting oil surpluses owing to gross mismanagement on the government’s part and parliament members. —Al-Qabas

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By Fouad Al-Obaid

fouad@kuwaittimes.net Twitter: @Fouadalobaid e are living during a rather interesting period of time in our history. We are at a time, where people are waking up to their true potential and yet, things that are illogical still make great sense to many. What fascinates me is that the general populace still feels outdated about ideas and theories that fail to pass as toddlers’ wisdom test.

If I were to elaborate on examples; I could write an entire treatise on that matter. What I will do in this article is mention two examples, which I believe are worthwhile. The two examples come from different backgrounds one emanates from the religious world, the other is political.

The first absurd example, and it does relate to our times, is the edict from Dubai. The given edict specifies that people living in high towers should have an altered eating time due to their dwelling height, and the fact that they supposedly can see the sun for a longer period than their brethrens on the lower floors, and so should wait before they break their fast. Without mentioning why would one ponder on such trivial matter, we are given insight into two problems that people today are faced with. The first issue is the need for a person to come up with this improbable problem. The second is the cleric that gave this problem a thought and dreamt of a rational solution to an irrational problem!

The second case I would like to point out and is more political in nature, are the claims made by the Syrian regime - the reason for their actions in various cities is the presence of terrorists and thugs. Well, I can understand the envy that Damascus has towards the West who recently points the blame to many problems on terrorism or terrorists! When the political elite in that country has a hard time pointing out what the terrorist does, it justifies the shelling and blind firing on thousands and tens of thousands of civilian protestors in the hope of stopping the terrorists! If they go by this logic, I fear that we will witness the first official terrorist State. I foresee that all compatriots will be blamed in the fashionable yet vague term: Terrorist!

Now, if we leave these two aforementioned examples, which as I mentioned are but a few examples. In this holy month we see countless questions on matters that are asked to bearded men, on and off TV. Should the person asking various questions hope to increase his wisdom and general awareness, I have nothing against it. Nevertheless, the majority of the questions asked are interesting if they were not serious in nature; the answer delightful, especially if the person replying is not serious!

Well, in the spirit of asking interesting questions, and hoping for delightful answers, I would like to question whether it would be possible for the Juju monster to meet in private with the fairy by the lake, and debate whether Santa this year should pass by Rio or Cape Town first! Furthermore, would it be possible to use modern technology to facilitate the logistical operation or should he stick to tradition?

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kuwait digest

Blessed Ramadan

By Eng Bashar H Al-Qattan amadan is a holy month to be compassionate and abide by the teaching of our Holy Prophet (PBUH). It is a gracious month for Muslims around the world. In Islam, the Quran is the primary source of guidance for Muslims, so we begin with it to understand what fasting in Islam is all about and why fasting is prescribed upon us.

Fasting occupies a key position in Islam. It is common knowledge among Muslims that Islam is based on five principles, among which is fasting. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said to his companions, some people think that “Ramadan” means fast-

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ing, but actually that’s just the name of the lunar month in which fasting is obligatory on adult sane able-bodied Muslims.

Actually, Ramadan means “intense heat,” and it was given that name because when the ancient Arabs were naming the months, that month was particularly hot. The actual word for fasting in Arabic is “sawm,” which literally means to both “abstain from and rise above.”

During the days of the lunar month of Ramadan, Muslims are commanded to abstain from the following things: This month teaches us to be kind to every human being, and com-

passionate. During this month all Muslims indulge in meeting and socializing with near and dear ones exchanging greetings, food and so on. Keeping in mind this holy month we also try to pray more often as we can apart from the 5 times salat we offer.

Last but not the least I would like to elaborate a little bit for all the women in the kitchen, to be alert and careful while cooking in the kitchen as a lot of accidents occur due to carelessness and leaving the gas cooker open while in hurry to attend to the family needs.

So we strongly recommend installing gas lead detector to avoid such incidents.

Wising all the readers a Happy Ramadan.

kuwait digest

Kuwait’s real priorities

By Ali Al-Bdah f you ask anyone living in Kuwait or in the Arabian Peninsula about what worries them the most, they’ll tell you it’s the lack of water and electricity.

We live in an area that is extremely hot most of the year, and we live on desalinated seawater that needs the use of tremendous amounts of energy to be transformed into something that will quell its residents’ thirst. If the electricity supply were cut for any significant amount of time, we’d die of thirst and heat. I hoped and still hope that some of our billions will be directed to two projects that are more important than all the development projects and armsbuying, past, present and future, a solar power station or any other alternative power source other than oil or nuclear energy, that provides the basic electricity needs for the region’s people, as well as the ability to set up domestic desalination facilities.

We want citizens to be able to obtain water without the need for oil-fueled power stations, in order to think ahead to that time when the oil inevitably dries up or the power supply is cut for any reason.

I wish the government would ask inventors, maybe even run a contest for them, to invent such a solution, or ask local or foreign bodies to provide such stations for reasonable prices; it’s vital that we start working on devising such a system now, before the country’s wealth is lost or we spend it on vanity projects that only benefit contractors such as Silk City and other luxury projects.

Protecting people and being ready for any problematic situations that could arise are amongst the most important of the government’s responsibilities, and providing water and power should come first after extracting oil in its list of priorities.

I am sure that Kuwait’s young people and those in other Arab countries must have many ideas for such projects, and we in Kuwait have all the necessary amenities to devise easily operated and maintained systems rather than spending billions on projects nobody would be able to benefit from anyway if electricity and water were lost to us. Instead of building skyscrapers, we need to build facilities that will protect us or our descendants from dying of thirst, and rather than buying weapons of destruction we need to create things that will ensure the continuity of life.

These idea aren’t new; they may have been discussed and implemented at an individual level, and could have been discussed by research institutions in Kuwait and other Arab Gulf countries without freshwater sources, but I haven’t heard of any country having serious intentions to move in this direction. I may be mistaken, but what is certainly true is that the Kuwait development plan, which has now reached a cost of KD 37 billion, has not directed one single Dinar towards water security other than establishing electricity stations or water desalination plants that operate on transient energy sources and could break down and be rendered useless for any reason.

So, when will we hear any words of comfort from our government about these issues? —Al-Jarida

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kuwait digest

Cooperative Societies

By Yousef Awad mong the achievements in our country of which we are proud is the presence of Cooperative Societies, which are a unique experiment whose outstanding accomplishments benefit both citizens and expatriates.

The positive aspects of Co-ops outnumber the negative ones, which unfortunately accompany any achievement. The truth is that many cooperatives have been effective tools in fighting high prices, with their special offers enabling them to have a positive influence in reducing the prices of many essential household staples.

We proudly remember the stance of the former Cooperative Union the unscrupulous brokers selling some of these staple goods, which made those brokers pay close attention and comply with the regulations, including health and safety rules.

Some Co-ops are known for their strict management and keen interest in helping citizens to meet their needs, which are ‘cooperative’ in deed as well as in name.

Yet, as is always the case in any activities, there will be mistakes or negative incidents. This does not have much effect if it is accidental or out of officials’ ability to control, because so long as their intentions are honorable and the Co-op’s management avoids playing with shareholders’ money, there will be no problem and the solution to any problem that arises will be easily found through cooperation amongst the board members.

Among the negatives for me, however, is that Co-op directors are able to serve in their position for more than two terms, which is a problem even if they are resoundingly upstanding and honest; the regulations should be amended so that these positions can only be held for a maximum of two terms since change generally means improvement as new ideas contribute to enhancing the Co-ops’ activities.

Other problems include the management of the Coops’ green grocery sections because these are rarely satisfactory in meeting customers’ needs; often the problems with these sections impact negatively on the perception of the Co-op management, however good it is otherwise.

Amongst recently introduced policies has been a 10 percent upper limit on the profits which the Co-ops are allowed to distribute to shareholders; I believe this decision is wrong because it narrows the difference between excellent and poorly performing Co-ops - if a Co-op can distribute 15 percent of its profits, why deprive its shareholders from this, which is one of their rights? If a Co-op is well run then there should be few or no problems and profits should be rationalized, as they are at present!

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Number of car accident fatalities on the rise Safety guidelines, precautions can come a long way

By Hussain Al-Qatari KUWAIT: Statistics published by the Ministry of Interior revealed that car accident fatalities recorded numbered to four cases within the first week of Ramadan. The Ministr y of Interior ’s Moral Guidance Department issued a statement urging people to abide by the rules and laws of traffic in order to ensure their safety.

The Ministry also announced that it recorded 44 fatalities in car accidents for the month of July alone. The statistics show that 16 of the victims of these accidents were Kuwaiti nationals and 28 were expatriates. A source from the Ministry of Interior said that the number is very high when compared to last year. In 2010, the number of fatalities totaled to 125. “Comparing 44 fatalities in one month with 125 fatalities in a whole year, we already predict accident fatalities to increase immensely by the end of 2011,” he said.

Summing up the cause of road accidents, the official noted that observing safety guidelines and

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah received yesterday, at Seif Palace, the Ambassador of the Senegal Abdulahad Ambaki, (top) who presented His Highness with a letter from the Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on bolstering relations in all fields between the two brotherly nations. His Highness also received the Ambassador of Romania Constantin Volodea Nistor (above) who is ending his tenure as accredited ambassador to Kuwait. The two meetings were in presence of the Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah. — KUNA

‘Hayef’s statements may make grave repercussions’ KUWAIT: A senior Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs official warned of “grave disorder” if the so called demands for killing Syria’s ambassador to Kuwait be consulted.

He also insisted at the same time that religious consultations always go in line with the state’s political approach.

MP Mohammad Hayef had called during a gathering in support of Syrian people on the weekend, for consulting religious scholars on whether or not the ambassador’s stance warrant for him to be fought and killed. He went on his Twitter account the following day as to claiming that the ambassador is involved in crimes committed in Syria, adding that he hired a legal team to coordinate with who he says are “victims [of the ambassador in Syria and Lebanon] to lodge a complaint against him at the International Criminal Court.

“While the lawmaker ’s call seem to come out of his compassion towards Syrian civilians, his statements convey threat for a grave disorder to happen which would make the situation worse”, said a source from the MAIA’s Fatwa and Sharia researches department in a recent statement. “The Sharia reference cannot diverge from the political reference, which is the government in this case that has agreements with other countries”, he added.

And while he criticizes the fact that “such irresponsible behavior would come from a representative of the public”, the source who spoke anonymously warned that Hayef’s statements might spark counter calls in Syria to consider the killing of the lawmaker in retaliation to his aggressiveness towards the ambassador.

The MAIA’s Fatwa and Sharia researches department hasn’t received any requests pertaining with Hayef’s call. “We can’t look into such demands unless through orders from the Cabinet, or through an order certified by the parliament which is highly unlikely to happen”, the source said.

Meanwhile, diplomats in Damascus denied accusations made by Mohammad Hayef, in which he claimed that Syria’s ambassador to Kuwait Bassam Abdul Majid served as part of the Syrian military presence in Lebanon. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the diplomats are quoted in a recent news report suggesting that Hayef might have confused between the ambassador and former Syrian interior minister Major General Ghazi Kanaan who served in Lebanon before assuming his post.

In the meantime, MP Waleed AlTabtatbaei - who previously voiced disagreement with Hayef on his controversial statements - announced support to Hayef’s initiative in lodging a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the Syrian ambassador “because the Syrian regime and its subordinates must be held accountable for the crimes committed against humanity”.

Al-Tabtabaei’s remarks came on Monday with statements made in reaction to the government’s decision to recall Kuwait’s ambassador in Syria. On that regard, the lawmaker said that the step isn’t enough to stop a demonstration that was scheduled for yesterday evening in front of the Syrian embassy building to demand for the ambassador’s expulsion. —Al-Rai

and remove the loopholes of the current law.

The bill will facilitate many procedures including that of founding new company to help Kuwait achieve its goal of turning into a financial and commercial hub in the region, the minister said.

She revealed that international and local law experts have revised

KUWAIT: File photo shows traffic congestion during the rush hour. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity of Water (MEW) has been successful in ensuring steady supply of water in the country since the beginning of Ramadan. This was made possible by achieving daily production rates that are higher than consumption rates, that further boosted the state’s reserves. According to a senior ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the ministry was able to raise production levels after consumption rates slightly surpassed the produced amount on the first day of August. The official further noted that the ministry has been able to meet increasing demand for water, with production limits reaching 409.205 million gallons on Sunday, while total consumption of that day touched 402.297 million gallons.

The ministry increased the state’s reserves days to over 2,375 million imperial gallons, the

KUWAIT: The country has not taken any measures to stop issuing work permits for expatriate workers, said a senior Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor official recently.

In statements made to Al-Watan Daily, the ministry’s undersecretar y Mohammad AlKandari further indicated that the MSAL is currently coordinating with the Ministr y of Interior in order to find a way to stop the process of transferring visitor’s visas to work permits in the private sector.

He added on that regard that an agreement on the provision is already in place, but the ongoing coordination is focusing on finding the best timing to put the order in effect. “ We are tr ying to avoid making a surprise decision which can leave negative impact on both employees and employers”, Al-Kandari said.

He added at the same time that the provision would not affect university graduates, as well as those working as per contracts between their companies and a governmental body, reported Al-Watan.

New companies law in offing: Minister KUWAIT: Work for completing companies draft law is in full swing, Minister of Commerce and Industry Amani Buresli said yesterday, expecting that the bill will see light soon.

In press statement, Burseli underlined that the proposed law will help end many of the problems facing companies working in Kuwait

a maximum speed of 45 km/ph during rush hour. “ This was thought of as a solution for traffic congestion during the rush hour in Ramadan. But people’s lack of respect for regulations caused the retraction of this law days after it was announced,” he said.

A police patrol officer who spoke on condition of anonymity

noted that, on average he issues 20 violation tickets per day, “Most days, these violations have to do with using the phone while driving, or not abiding by the maximum speed limit designated for each street,” he said.

From his experience on the street, he noted that people of ten find that break ing the rules is in fact the norm. “A lot of the time, people try to talk their way out of getting a traffic ticket, and only a small frac tion admits to their mistake. This is a big indicator that they don’t see where they are wrong. The majority talk to us as if we are overreacting by issuing a ticket,” he said.

Meanwhile, four expatriates died in traffic accidents that took place across the country during the first week of August. Statistics quoted in a recent report issued by the Ministry of Interior’s Security Media Report stated this.

The Security Media Department (SMD) has urged motorists to maintain discipline on the road and abide by traffic regulations to protect their lives.

MEW boosts water production

MSAL to ban visa transfer

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah received at Seif Palace yesterday Abdelelah Abdullah Al-Mutawa, who presented him with a biography of Abdullah Ali Al-Mutawa.—KUNA

precautions can come a long way, “Of course this is common sense: If you follow the safety guidelines and rules of the road, you are safe. If you don’t, you are not.

People don’t always keep that in mind,” he said. He explained that during the first week of August, the Ministry decided to allow driving on the emergency lane at

the bill which is currently under discussion with members of the financial committee at the National Assembly.

“The ministry will take their recommendations and comments into account to rewrite the final version of the bill,” Buresli said, adding that the bill is expected to be issued in the coming few weeks. — KUNA

official said. Meanwhile, the official revealed that electricity consumption levels have remained stable during the first week of Ramadan, with the highest rate recorded last Wednesday at 10,810 megawatts, reported Al-Qabas.

Meanwhile, a top ministry official argued that Kuwait could’ve achieved water security had the ministry adopted projects based on studies provided by its water desalination department.

During an interview with Al-Rai daily, Munir AlRamadan, Director of the Department said that more than 20 studies including ones pertinent with utilizing the reverse osmosis (RO) technology( to increase water production) has been ignored for no definite reasons. Ramadan insisted that the RO technology was a viable option, adding that it is used in Japan to clean water from impurities like bromide, chlorine, bacteria,

germs, pesticides and even radioactive materials, reported Al-Rai. Separately, the MEW has reportedly responded to 80 percent of inquiries put forward by the State Audit Bureau. A ministry insider assured that the remaining part will be finalized in the near future. “Minister [of Electricity and Water] Salem Al-Othaina had instructed that a specialized committee be formed to answer the SAB’s questions,” said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The ministry seeks cooperation with the SAB to protect public funds from misuse,” he added, reported Al-Qabas.

In other news, the Kuwait Municipality approved a MEW request to expand a main electricity transformer located in Sharq so as to meet the power consumption overload in the area, reported Al-Rai.

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MENA professionals would like to receive investment education: Poll Majority save none of their wages KUWAIT: Almost 41 percent of Middle East professionals save nothing from their household income, with the biggest non-housing costs expenditure going on food (40.8%), according to the latest online poll series conducted by Bayt.com.

The results of the ‘Bayt.com MENA Saving and Spending Trends’ poll showed that only 18.3 percent of Middle East professionals are able to save between 1-10 percent of their household income. This comes in line with the latest Bayt.com Consumer Confidence Index survey, in which the overwhelming majority of Middle Eastern professionals claimed that their salary increase was not keeping up with the cost of living.

Poll results also revealed that 32.3% of Middle East professionals spend 21 to 40 percent of their income on rent or mortgage with 34.7% spending even more than that. Moreover 66.6 percent of polled professionals stated they do not currently own any home for either personal or investment purposes while as many as 10 percent own two homes or more.

Outside of housing costs (which includes rent or mortgage and utilities), 40.8 percent of respondents claim that their biggest expenditure is on food, and 15.6 percentage state it is on school fees. Transport, travel and clothing rack up a collective 23.6 percentage of costs, with only 1.5 percentage of Middle East professionals spending most on children’s items - the lowest percentage in this category.

“The current distribution of expendable income suggests that in the first half of 2011, the majority of respondents spend on essential items only, with very little being used towards entertainment and the purchase of non-essential goods,” said Amer Zureikat, VP Sales at Bayt.com. “This correlates with earlier data gathered by Bayt.com, and suggests that the current costs of living exceed the salaries received by most professionals in the MENA region.”

When asked what they would spend extra income on if they had it, 20.2 percentage of respondents stated schooling costs for their children. At least 18.5% said they would choose to spend any extra money on either a car or travel, with the majority of respondents (57.8%) stating they currently travel once a year. Only 1.4% of Middle East professionals said they

KUWAIT: A worker cleans his pot at Safafeer Souq. — Photo by Joseph Shagra would use the extra money to purchase more fits of investing, with 19.4 percent understandchildren’s items. In terms of shopping prefer- ing investments to a small extent. Of those surences, 30.7 percent of respondents said they veyed, only 6.1 percent know nothing about prefer to shop in large malls, with 19 percent investing, and have no interest in learning.

The poll results show that more than half of preferring large and diversified department stores. As for the shopping habits, the poll rein- Middle East professionals (51.3 percent) are forced the prevalence of the internet in making expecting to retire after 60, with the primary regional shopping decisions as well as purchas- source of post-employment financial support es. Poll results revealed that only 36.6 percent of coming from career savings and investments, Middle East professionals never compare items according to 27.7 percent of respondents, or online nor buy them, whereas 23.4 percent of from career savings alone for 21.6 percent of respondents occasionally compare items online respondents. Only 10.1 percent will rely on but don’t buy them, 14.3 percent occasionally social security pay-outs.

“Our poll shows that there is a definite need buy items online, 14.1 percent frequently compare items online but don’t buy them, and as for investment education in the MENA region, many as 11.4 percent frequently buy items as there is a significant portion of the populaonline. When it comes to investments, the over- tion unaware of the available options in the whelming majority of respondents (43.6 per- field but show a willingness to learn more, precent) admitted not being investment-savvy but sumably to increase returns on savings and posshowing an interest in acquiring this knowhow; sibly retire before the age of 60,” concluded 22.4 percent claimed to be clued in to the bene- Zureikat.

KUWAIT: An Iranian grocer and a Filipina tailor defended their act of engaging in sexual relations during the first day of Ramadan in Maidan Hawally by stating that they were in love and planned to marry soon. They have been referred to the police station for further interrogation.

Molester attacked An infuriated Arab expatriate physically assaulted a man who allegedly molested his daughter in Nugra. The 17year-old-girl was accompanied by her father when a man came close to her and committed the act. In response to an emergency call, the Hawally police reached the scene and broke up the fight. The injured man was admitted to Mubarak ICU. The girl’s father was admitted to Nugra police station and was charged with attacking and injuring an individual. A case was lodged against the suspect.

The burnt building after firefighters extinguished the flames.

Fire breaks out in Hawally KUWAIT: The Operation Center received a report yesterday about a fire that broke out in one of the buildings in Hawally. In

By A. Saleh KUWAIT: The Ministry of Finance has been issued instructions to expedite salary payment for the month of August so that families can prepare for Eid. Officials explained that the Ministry will execute the directives before the end of next week. Officials explained that the government has been busy paying a KD 50 backdated allowance.

response to an emergency call, firefighters from Salmiya fire center reached the scene and doused the flames. No casualties were reported. The flames were caused due to negligence on the part of building owners.

‘All Kuwaiti students in London unharmed by riots’ Police are currently being questioned by a supervisory body over the death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham on Thursday.

Tottenham includes areas which are impoverished in London in terms of unemployment, and has a history of ethnic and racial tension. People frequently complain of misbehavior and abuse of power by police officers during arrests and inspections.

A police statement meanwhile reported more looting in north, east, and south London, and said 50 young people had destroyed stores on Oxford Street, the city’s main shopping area. The statement also reported the arrest of 215 people for taking part in the rioting, with charges filed against 25 only so far. —KUNA

‘Govt keen to protect human rights’ MP Adel Al-Sarawi said that the International Youth Day, which falls on 12 August, emphasizes that the government is keen to protect human rights and basic freedom and opinion for dif-

ferent views that the youth enjoy.

According to latest statistics, the number of youth aged between 15 to 24 years constitute about 60 percent of total number of Kuwaitis.

He pointed out at the role played by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Social Affairs and Awqaf ministry, and the likes, explaining that International Youth Day offers an opportunity review the plans and government programs.

Al-Saraawi demanded that the government list out the achievements of the youth sector, denouncing the fact that the International Youth Day comes at a time when social media users’ freedom is being curtailed.

‘Facilitate Kuwaiti officers’ safe return’ Chairman of Interior and Defense Committee MP Shuaib Al-Muwaiziri reasserted his demand to facilitate the safe return of Kuwaiti officers currently undergoing training courses in Syria due to the deteriorating security situation.

He told reporters, “We are calling upon the First Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah to ensure that Kuwaiti officers return home safe.” He added, “A quick decision should be taken to return them immediately owing to the unsatisfactory security situation there. “

Warning to US citizens KUWAIT: According to the Kuwait Ministry of the Interior, public gatherings may continue to take place over the next week in front of the Syrian Embassy, located in Mishref (off route 303). In order to avoid any possible incidents, the US Embassy recommends that this area be avoided after Aisha prayer (just prior to 8pm).

Spontaneous and planned demonstrations take place in Kuwait from time to time in response to world events or local developments. At times, even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. Do not let curiosity get the best of you; avoid the areas of demonstrations and exercise caution if within the vicinity of any large gatherings. Please stay current with media coverage of local events, be aware of your surroundings, and practice personal security awareness at all times.

For the latest security information, US citizens living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of States Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website, where the current Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, as well as the Country Specific Information for Kuwait can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888407-4747 toll-free in the United States and

Canada or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except US federal holidays).

The US Embassy is located at Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa Street, Block 6, Plot 14, Bayan, Kuwait. If you are a US citizen in need of emergency assistance in Kuwait, you may reach the US Embassy by calling +9652259-1001 and requesting the duty officer.

US citizens living or traveling in Kuwait are encouraged to enroll in the Departments Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) so that they can obtain updated information on travel and security.

US citizens without internet access may enroll directly with the nearest US Embassy or Consulate. By enrolling, US citizens make it easier for the Embassy or Consulate to contact them in case of emergency. For additional information, please refer to ‘A Safe Trip Abroad.’

This message may be accessed on the Embassy website, http://kuwait.usembassy.gov Please note that the Consular Section is closed for US and most local holidays. The current holiday schedule for 2011 is posted on http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/holidays.html

Girl attack Two girls attacked a couple of teenage boys in an apparent incident of miscommunication. The two girls were in Salmiya when one of them noticed a light flashing from the gadget of a boy who was also accompanied by his friend. In what appeared to be a knee-jerk reaction, the girl and her friend attacked the boys, to the surprise of onlookers. Policemen who reached the scene broke up the fight.

The boys denied clicking any photographs of the girls, and handed over their phones to police to verify. The girls refused to withdraw charges until one of the girls’ brother threatened to punish her.

Sexual assault A woman accused her neighbor of sexually assaulting her and tearing her clothes apart, at the staircase of the building they live in. She said that the man attacked her, tackled her to the ground and tore her clothes apart and left the scene calmly. The victim took her torn clothes to the police station and lodged a complaint against the attacker, reported Al Rai. When police questioned the man, he confessed to committing the act. He blamed her for the incident, stating that the woman would expose her body parts to seduce him. The case was referred to the Public Prosecution Department.

Street fight An argument broke about between a citizen and a Saudi national in Farwaniya. When an Indian expat attempted to intervene, they turned against him and assaulted him. Paramedical staff that responded to an emergency call, admitted him to the hospital.

Investigations were launched into the case, reported AlWatan.

LONDON: Head of the Cultural Office in UK Mohammad Al-Hajri asserted that all Kuwaiti students in the British capital are unharmed by the recent and ongoing riots and violence, and noted the majority of the students enrolled in London are in Kuwait for the summer break.

He said that the office has been keeping an eye on the situation, and no report of abuse or assault or damage caused by the riots has been filed over the past two days. He urged the students in London to avoid areas where the acts of violence are taking place for safety sake.

Some areas of London have been experiencing riots since Saturday, supposedly over the killing of a 29year-old man by police upon arrest.

Early salary payment

‘No meeting until Amiri decree received’ The National Assembly Council Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi said that the emergency session can be held only after His Highness the Amir issues a decree, deciding on the nature of the meeting. He added, four subjects concerning reports and a draft law will be discussed. He said, “I shall not convene a session, until I receive the Amiri decree and I hope to finalize everything in one session, and it will be finished before Iftar. A general discussion will be held, and after that voting for draft laws can be taken.”

‘We are in love’

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

Security guard attacked One of the patrons of the Ministry of Education (MoE) attacked a security guard who refused to open the main gate after working hours. The patron threatened the guard and once it was opened, he attacked the guard. The ministry asked that a police patrol be stationed near its buildings to avoid the occurrence of such incidents.

Ministry bans car window tinting KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior will no longer permit motorists to use car window tinting, so that better control can be exercised in tackling crimes. The ministry’s General Traffic Department previously issued a license to a car owner that allowed upto 30 percent window tinting.

According to officials, Mustafa Al-Zaabi, Assistant Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs Major General asked that all such licenses be recalled after the situation began spiraling out of control, with many exceeding the maximum permissible limit. The official stated Al-Zaabi has ordered for new conditions through which window tinting permissions can be granted, including producing of a medical report, reported Al-Jarida. He has also instructed that the vehicles that flout the law will be impounded. However, impounded cars will be released only when the tinted covering is removed.

KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr Hilal Al-Sayer visits Al Jahra hospital. — KUNA

Health minister reviews Jahra hospital’s projects KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr Hilal AlSayer paid a visit to Al-Jahra Hospital and reviewed the construction projects being conducted to expand the hospital’s capacity for better health services.

Al-Sayer was accompanied by the Health Ministr y Undersecretar y Dr Ibrahim Al-Abdulhadi, Director of Jahra Health Zone, Dr Fahad Al-Khaleefa in a tour which was made late Monday.

They examined the third phase of construction which includes a women’s wing at the emergency room, IVF unit, maternity ward and an Intensive Care Unit. Al-Sayer called all officials at AlJahra health zone to take follow up action on these new construction projects, and ensure their conformity to

specifications and standards.

He also noted that the hospital should make up for any shortage in incubators, pre-term baby medical equipment and medication.

He encouraged that all patients’ needs be met with, and that any shortage in staff should be dealt with to provide better services for the public by lessening time spent in waiting rooms and by providing proper medical treatment.

This tour comes as part of a series of others conducted by the Kuwaiti minister to ensure that all the countr y ’s health zones receive necessary medical and administrative supplies to proceed with constructions projects. —KUNA

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

Clashes erupt in Delhi during anti-graft protest

Strauss-Kahn maid files civil lawsuit Page 10

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Pressure grows on Assad

Lebanese intellectuals and journalists hold up placards against the Syrian regime during a vigil to show their support to the Syrian protesters at the Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut late Monday. (Inset) Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad (left) meets Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Damascus yesterday. — AP DAMASCUS: Pressure grew on Syria yesterday as Turkey’s foreign minister arrived in Damascus with the stern message that Ankara has “run out of patience” with its deadly crackdown on protests. Iraq also joined Arab outrage of Syria’s crackdown, with speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi condemning the bloodshed and “oppression of freedom,” after Gulf states Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait withdrew their envoys from Damascus. Embattled President Bashar Al-Assad met Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in the presence of the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, the pro-government Dunia television channel reported.

They met as the death toll mounted, with rights activists reporting 21 deaths, including 17 people killed by security forces in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, scene of a deadly army assault Sunday that killed 42 people.

“At least 15 people were killed in different parts of Deir Ezzor which has been raided by tanks and vehicles mounted with machine guns,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, quoting activists at the scene. “A woman and a young man shot (earlier in the day) died of their wounds,” the Britain-based Observatory said in a statement.

A human rights lawyer also spoke of two deaths in the central flashpoint city of Hama, adding that some 50 tanks were deployed in the Hilfaya and Tibet al-Imam districts. The Observatory reported two people killed and several wounded in the northwestern Idlib province bordering Turkey, while “a dozen tanks and other armoured vehicles attacked the Binnish and Sarmin areas”. State-run SANA news agency reported that funeral ceremonies were held yester-

day in the Homs military hospital for three members of the security forces killed by “terrorist” groups in the central city and in protest hub Hama.

On Monday SANA, quoting a militar y source, said troops had left Hama “after completing a mission of protecting civilians and tracking down the armed terrorist groups which had been wreaking havoc” in the city. Assad named a new defence minister on Monday as he faced growing regional isolation, naming army chief General Daood Rajha, 64, to the job. Davutoglu’s visit to Damascus was to pass on Ankara’s message that it “has run out of patience” with the ongoing violence, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked Davutoglu to press Syria to “return its military to the barracks,” while Damascus has warned that the minister would himself “receive a firm message” during the visit.

On their Facebook page, Syrian Revolution 2011, an engine of the uprising, invited Davutoglu to “come and pray” in a Damascus mosque “to find out from close up of the demands of the Syrian people”. The regime’s repression of Syria’s prodemocracy uprising has left more than 2,050 people dead, including almost 400 members of the security forces, the Syrian Observatory says.

Iraq’s speaker of parliament yesterday called for an end to Syria’s deadly crackdown. “We call for an end to all non-peaceful activities, and what is happening in Syria, the shedding of blood and the oppression of freedom, is condemned and unacceptable,” Nujaifi said in a statement. Late on Saturday Saudi King Abdullah said he was recalling his ambassador from

Syria and urged Damascus to “stop the killing machine and the bloodshed... before it is too late”. “Either Syria chooses willingly to resort to reason, or faces being swept into deep chaos, God forbid,” he warned, calling for reform.

Kuwait and Bahrain, who with Saudi Arabia are part of the energyrich six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, also recalled their envoys, prompting Washington to say it was “heartened” by the moves. A chorus of Arab and Muslim condemnation of the bloodshed in Syria built up throughout the weekend and into Monday when Al-Azhar, the Cairobased top Sunni authority, said the crackdown “has gone too far”.

Arab League chief Nabil Al-Arabi said Syria must launch a “serious dialogue” with protesters who have rallied almost daily since mid-March, urging reforms in a country ruled by the Baath party for nearly 50 years.

Assad’s replacement of his defence minister was his latest in a series of measures since protests began nearly five months ago, including a decree earlier this month allowing opposition political parties.

In April, the president ordered the formation of a new government, an end to five decades of draconian emergency rule and abolished the feared security court. He has since sacked the governors of the flashpoint provinces of Hama, Homs and Deir Ezzor. But Assad has also repeatedly defended the security forces, saying on Monday they were confronting “outlaws”. On Saturday, Muallem said “free and transparent” elections to a new parliament would be held by the end of 2011 and that the regime was committed to reform announced by Assad. — AFP

At least 50 drown after Comoros boat capsizes MORONI: At least 50 people including children drowned in rough seas when a passenger boat sunk off the Comoros archipelago in the early hours of yesterday after its engines failed, the country’s public prosecutor said. The vessel was ferrying more than 100 people from the capital Moroni to the island of Anjouan when it hit rocks about 3 km off the coast of the main island after both its motors cut out, causing the boat to capsize, said public prosecutor Soilih Mahmoud. “Fifty bodies have been recovered so far but some bodies remain trapped in the submerged wreckage and will only be retrieved when the seas calm,” the prosecutor added.

Boats are an important mode of transport between the Indian Ocean archipelago’s three islands and accidents are relatively common on the island, which is sandwiched between Madagascar and southern Africa.

Survivor Ali Abdou Moussa said both engines on the

boat packed up at the same time in turbulent seas.” The port authorities were alerted but no help came. The boat drifted and hit a rock. Some of us swam to shore and called for help, but it wasn’t until eight o’clock that a rescue effort got underway,” Moussa told Reuters. Some survivors like himself managed to swim ashore, he said.

The Red Cross said about 60 survivors had been taken to hospital at Ouzioine and Foumbouni. Witnesses at the dock at the time of the boat’s departure said the ferry was overloaded with people. Boat accidents are common in the tiny archipelago, especially those carrying migrants from the impoverished isles to the French island of Mayotte. Geographically, Comoros is made up of four islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan, Moheli and Mayotte. But Mayotte voted to remain part of the islands’ colonial master France and is economically better off than its neighbours. — Agencies

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Western style clashes with old bureaucracy in Iraq BAGHDAD: After fighting for more than a year to get paid for reconstructing a government building in Baghdad, Iraqi businessman AbuDeema says he is throwing in the towel and packing up for a market where he won’t drown in bureaucracy. His patience finally wore out when his paper work was put on hold for a month while the senior account manager he was dealing with in the government went overseas on vacation.

“We are getting killed by red tape,” he said. “It is in the personnel who implement these laws. They have to change their style of doing business.”

While security remains a central concern for businesses more than eight years after the US invasion, complaints about an ingrained culture of bureaucracy from the Saddam Hussein era highlight new risks as Iraq recovers from the worst of its sectarian conflict. Registering and licensing

a business in Dubai takes a week while in Iraq, it takes six to 8 months as applications are lost in a blizzard of duplicated paperwork, one foreign businessman at a US enterprise pointed out.

The cost of goods soars as bureaucracy delays inspection of goods at port, he said. He struggles even to get some officials to use their email to communicate. “They are trying, but the government still lacks public technocrats,” he said. “Saddam has gone but his ways of conducting business are still entrenched in government. They are not embracing new governance methods, office technology or more open ways of doing business.”

The battle between Iraq’s state-run planning mindset and its desire to join the global economy may have erupted into the open with the recent dismissal of Trade Bank of Iraq chief

Hussein Al-Uzri, who fled the country after being accused of wrongdoing at an institution that is praised by foreign investors. Uzri, a US-educated banker, was accused by the Iraqi government of committing “multiple violations” related to bad debts costing millions of dollars. He went into exile in early June but denied the allegations as “unsubstantiated” and “fabricated”, Cabinet Secretary Ali Al-Alaq, a top aide to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, said at that time that authorities moved against the bank because its leadership was suspected of violating banking regulations and issuing improperly secured loans. But some Iraqi senior bankers with knowledge of what happened behind the scenes said the charges against Uzri are unfounded. Instead, they said, he was seen by some officials as a maverick who rocked the boat, making the

bank a success story by multiplying its capital base four- or five-fold in a few years.

Uzri shook up the bank’s culture, paying large salaries to reward executive successes and riding roughshod over internal bureacracy. He also ran into opposition from government critics who saw him amassing power inside the state-run bank, some senior bankers said. “Uzri’s problem was the Western mentality that he has, and his Western style in running the bank,” said a senior government banker on condition of anonymity.

“This does not suit Iraqi officials or the prime minister, who wanted Uzri to run the bank with their Iraqi... mentality and Iraqi standards.”

Iraqi executives say those like Uzri imperil their jobs by pushing for a more modern way of doing business.

“I wish I could act as he used to do at TBI. But I can’t,” said one Iraqi private

bank president, who asked not to be named for fear he would be expelled. “ There are some rules or ways of doing things, and we can’t just drop them. But you know these have become old fashioned and they should be changed.”

Under Saddam’s Baath Party, Iraq had one of the most centralized political systems in the world, riddled by red tape, favouritism and corruption, with Baath members dominating government posts. And as in many other emerging markets, many Iraqis still speak bitterly of unchecked malfeasance they perceive from the lowest to the highest levels of government.

Iraq has good anti-corruption laws, but aggressive enforcement has yet to take place. The countr y ranks among the world’s most corrupt nations in Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index. —Reuters

Libya blasts NATO village ‘massacre’ rebels in crisis as top ministers sacked

ZLITEN, Libya: Libyan authorities yesterday accused NATO of a “massacre” of 85 villagers in air strikes in support of rebels, whose political leadership was in crisis with the sacking of its top officials. The village of Majer, 10 km south of Zliten in western Libya, was attacked late on Monday to try to help rebel fighters enter the government-held city from the south, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said. “After the first three bombs dropped at around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Monday, many residents of the area ran to the bombed houses to try to save their loved ones. Three more bombs struck,” he told reporters on an organised visit.

Thirty-three children, 32 women and 20 men from 12 families were killed in the “massacre”, Mussa said. Rebels fighting around Zliten, 120 km to the east of Tripoli, said on Monday they were running low on ammunition as they struggled to hold off an assault by loyalist forces. Abdul Wahab Melitan, a rebel spokesman in the nearby port city of Misrata, said forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar had launched an assault on their positions around Zliten on Sunday.

The rebels, advancing from Misrata, a week ago punched into the centre of Zliten, sparking fierce clashes. But they later pulled back to the edge of the city of 200,000 inhabitants.

NATO in Brussels said alliance warplanes hit eight targets in the Zliten area on Sunday four command and control nodes, one military facility, a weapons dump, an anti-tank weapon and a multiple rocket launcher. It was yet to give an update on Monday’s air raids.

Early yesterday, explosions in the Fernej district of southwest Tripoli struck at between 1:00 am (2300 GMT) and 2:00 am, sending flames shooting into the night sky, an AFP correspondent said. They were followed by a

series of smaller blasts, suggesting an arms depot had been hit. Two other explosions followed at around 6:00 am, he said. In the rebel capital of Benghazi in eastern Libya, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), sacked the entire executive office of his government late on Monday.

NTC officials said he dismissed several top ministers - including those responsible for finance, defence and information - while calling for root and branch reform. “Mr Mustafa Abdel Jalil has disbanded the executive office,” spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah told AFP, adding that prime minister Mahmud Jibril would be tasked with creating a reformed body. It was the latest dramatic phase in the turmoil sparked by the assassination of rebel military commander General Abdel Fatah Yunis - amid his return to Benghazi under arrest in late July.

The NTC has come under fire for its role in events leading up to Yunis’s death, as well as its handling of the aftermath. Although details are sketchy and still under investigation, it is known that an arrest warrant was

signed by senior NTC executive member Ali Essawy, raising allegations that the NTC unknowingly helped facilitate his murder.

Essawy was one of the most visible members of the rebel government - the interlocutor for visiting foreign dignitaries.

The council has faced angry and sometimes violent protests from Yunis’s tribe, as well as demands for reform from groups that were at the forefront of the uprising against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that erupted in mid-February. Abdel Jalil has vowed that an internal investigation into the NTC’s management of the crisis would not flinch from apportioning blame. “No one is above the law, starting from the top of the NTC,” he said.

Since the general’s death, tribal tensions have come to the surface in a country where clans for decades have formed the basis for solving disputes in the absence of functioning judicial institutions. Insiders have reported frequent clashes between the NTC, whose members were largely Libyan-based lawyers and former members of Gaddafi’s regime, and the executive branch, the majority of whom were exiles. —AFP

Sudan survives split, troubles loom KHARTOUM: One month after allowing the south to secede, Sudan’s government has not reaped the hoped-for rewards but it has so far resisted strong international pressures and mounting domestic challenges. Khartoum was expecting to be swiftly removed from the US terror blacklist, as Washington promised, in return for its cooperation over January’s referendum and the resulting independence of South Sudan on July 9. An easing of sanctions and help with its crippling debts were also hoped for.

But none of this has happened yet, while the ongoing conflict in the ethnically-divided border state of South Kordofan has focused unwanted foreign attention on Sudan’s internal problems. An angry exchange of accusations on Friday between Khar toum and Washington, where loud voices are calling for the deployment of peacekeepers to avert government-sponsored “genocide” in South Kordofan, laid bare the deep mistrust

between the two countries. “ There is a general view in Sudan that the Americans are not up to their commitments, and they’re just buying time, in order to put pressure on the government,” a senior member of the ruling National Congress Party, Ibrahim Ghandour, told AFP. “Many politicians here feel that the idea of regime change is still at the forefront of the American political plan,” he said.

In stark contrast, China, Sudan’s biggest trade partner, sent its Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to Khartoum this week for a two-day visit that reaffirmed Beijing’s unwavering support for the cash-strapped government and its protection in the UN Security Council. Prior to southern independence, some commentators were predicting a bleak future for President Omar AlBashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity in the war-torn Darfur region.

Bashir demonstrated once again, on Sunday, that the ICC charges fail to prevent his international movements when he flew to Chad for the inauguration of President Idriss Deby Itno, after having travelled to Riyadh, Doha, Beijing and Tehran in the past two months. But with the involuntary loss of the oil-producing south, other serious domestic threats to Bashir’s regime are looming, analysts say. These include divisions within the NCP, spiralling inflation, and two major conflicts within Sudan’s new borders.

“Internal challenges are the priority for Bashir, more than international isolation,” said International Crisis Group’s Sudan expert Fouad Hikmat. “At the moment, stability in the north is maintained by coercion, by the use of force, by brutality, by continuation of the war in Darfur, by trying to defeat militarily the SPLM in the north, which he cannot,” he added.

The president himself admitted, in a speech to parliament

after the secession of the south, that the north was entering a new phase, and called for “perseverance and patience” until things improve. Ordinary Sudanese are certainly feeling the pinch, with the government introducing an austerity package to reduce Sudan’s unaffordable subsidies, after the gaping loss of southern oil revenues, estimated at some 36 percent of its previous income.

The tussle with South Sudan over oil transit fees, with which the north hopes to offset its losses, prompted the Port Sudan authorities to block a southern oil shipment last week, aggravating already fraught relations between Juba and Khartoum. But arguably the most telling indication of troubles at the top are the cracks within the ruling party itself. At the end of June, Nafie Ali Nafie, Bashir’s top adviser and number two in the NCP, signed an accord with Malik Agar, the leader of the SPLM north, that raised hopes of a permanent settlement to the South Kordofan conflict. —AFP

MOGADISHU: A girl from southern Somalia sits outside a makeshift shelter at a refugee camp yesterday. —AP

Somali govt offers amnesty to Shabab MOGADISHU: Somalia’s embattled government offered amnesty yesterday to Islamist rebels in the war-torn capital as its soldiers tried to open up emergency aid access for thousands hit by famine.

Fresh gunfire was reported in Mogadishu early yesterday after sporadic clashes between troops of the Western-backed transitional government and remnants of the Shabab rebels following their surprise pull-out on Saturday. The government “offered a general amnesty to insurgent fighters remaining in Mogadishu who give themselves up and renounce violence,” it said in a statement.

“We offer an amnesty - put down your weapons and your guns, and come and join the people and your society,” government spokesman Abdirahman Osman said. “For those who have been misled by the senior commanders, now is the time to end the war,” he added. The Al-Qaedaaffiliated Shabab rebels, who had controlled around half of the city, abandoned key Mogadishu positions, saying it was a change of military tactics. Much of southern and central Somalia however remains under insurgent rule. Analysts say internal wrangles, losses in the fighting for Mogadishu and a possible change of military strategy explained the withdrawal. Sporadic gunfire rang out yesterday morning, according to an AFP correspondent.

The UN Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was assessing how the rebel withdrawal would open aid group access to the war-torn city, to which about 100,000 people have fled in the past two months to escape extreme drought. “Although it is too early to know what the impact on the overall situation is, humanitarian actors are assessing the ability to operate and/or scale up activities,” it said a statement yesterday.

A special Somali forces unit has been

tasked with securing the area deserted by the Shabab “until the Somali Police Force can fully take over,” the government statement said. “The government will ensure that all criminal activities will be dealt with swiftly by the court, in order to deter any attempts hindering the ongoing security operations,” it added.

The 9,000-strong AU force (AMISOM) and government troops have meanwhile reinforced their hold over former rebel positions in an effort to allow more aid into the war-torn capital yesterday. “The extremists have been preventing the provision of food to hungry Somalis and this has opened up the opportunity to help many more people,” said Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, the AU special representative to Somalia, in a statement late Monday. AMISOM however warned people intending to return to former Shabab-controlled areas of the “high possibility” of “roadside bombs and pockets of remaining extremist fighters,” Diarra said.

The United Nations has officially declared famine in Somalia for the first time this centur y, including in Mogadishu and four southern Somali regions. “Famine... is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks,” OCHA warned. “Cases of acute watery diarrhoea are increasing across Somalia,” it added. Most of the regions declared to be in famine are still controlled by the Shabab rebels. The UN’s food monitoring unit has described Somalia as facing the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world and Africa’s worst food security crisis since the country’s 1991-1992 famine. Par ts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda have also been hit by the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades. —AFP

Iraq power plans short-circuit

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi man checks the many electricity wires attached to a pylon as the capital endures another stifling summer with only a few hours of electricity a day on Aug 7, 2011. —AFP

BAGHDAD: Mismanagement and bureaucratic deadlock in Iraq’s electricity ministry have short-circuited a quick-fix plan for some 50 power plants to alleviate the country’s severe power shortage, officials say. Electricity minister Raad Shallal Al-Ani, whom Prime M inister Nouri Al-Malik i has moved to dismiss but who must still be questioned by parliament, announced on March 23 that Iraq planned to build 50 power plants with a capacity of 100 megawatts by the summer of 2012.

But so far, contracts have been made for 44 of the 50 units, and all have fallen through or are in limbo, according to Iraqi officials.

Iraqi electricity production and imports from Syria and Iran total

about 7,000 megawatts, with demand around twice as much and rising at a rate faster than supply is currently being added.

An aide to Maliki said Sunday that Ani was being dismissed for approving allegedly improper power station contracts - one with Canadian firm Capgent and another with Germany’s MBH - to expand power provision in Iraq.

On July 2, Capgent signed a $1.66-billion contract with Iraq’s electricity ministry to build 10 power plants of 100 megawatts each over a period of 12 months.

Four days later, Baghdad signed a $625 million contract with MBH to build five power stations with a total 500 megawatts capacity in 11 months. But Deputy Prime

Minister for Energy Hussein AlShahristani told a news conference on Monday that Capgent was “a company on paper only” and MBH was bankrupt and facing legal trouble. “The contracts with the phantom and bankrupt companies have been cancelled and lawsuits filed against them,” Shahristani said.

He announced the formation of a committee “to investigate the electricity minister, and all the people that played a role from the technical, contractual and financial sides in the ministry.” But, he stressed that “this does not mean that the big projects are affected, as the projects of the ministry to obtain 7,000 additional megawatts by the end of 2013 are

moving forward.” The electricity ministr y spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment regarding the power deals.

Iraqis receive just a few hours of national grid power a day with which to run air conditioners and refrigerators in blistering 50-plus degree Celsius heat. Power, and the lack thereof, has been a constant complaint of Iraqis, thousands of whom protested in the south of the country last year to bemoan poor electricity supplies.

The government has sought to head off similar rallies this year by pushing a raf t of proposals, including one that provides free fuel to private generator operators on the condition that they sell it at a reduced price to Iraqis. —AFP

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Berlin Wall makes comeback for tourists BERLIN: The Berlin Wall is making a comeback. A half century after it was built and two decades after its demise, a few bits of the Wall that once split Berlin into East and West are being reinstated for posterity to the delight of tourists seeking a glimpse of the city’s Cold War history. Almost all of the 160 km of the Berlin Wall that encircled West Berlin in the heart of Communist East Germany was hastily torn down or chiseled away in the euphoria after it was breached in 1989.

There were only a few withered remnants of the wall left by the time the two Germanys reunited less than a year later on Oct 3, 1990. Only three of the 302 ominous East German guard towers still stood.

“There’s a general complaint that the demolition of the Wall was a bit too extensive,” said Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit. “That’s understandable from today’s point of view and it would have probably been better for tourists

if more of it could have been preserved,” he told Reuters. “But at that time we were all just so happy to see the Wall gone.”

There was indeed a powerful rush to obliterate all traces of the 3.6-m-high concrete and barbed wire barrier, building of which started on Aug 13, 1961.

“Mauerspecht” (wall-peckers) armed with hammers and chisels got souvenir chips and bulldozers did the rest, turning it into gravel and developing the prime real estate. Many of the Wall slabs were sold, raising some 2 million deutsche marks for the government (about $1 million at the time). Some 300 East German border guards and 600 West German soldiers worked together to tear the rest down, converting it into 300,000 tons of concrete mass.

But now, as growing numbers of tourists come to Berlin each year searching largely in vain for traces of the Wall, the city has reerected and restored parts while monu-

ment preservation experts are working to conserve other vestigial segments. “At first no one gave a second thought to the idea of preserving any of the Wall for future generations,” said Jochen Staadt, political scientist at Berlin’s Free University. “But there was always interest from foreigners who came and say ‘Where’s the Wall?’,” added Staadt, a specialist on East Germany and the Wall. “It took about a decade until the late 1990s before people in Berlin, especially those under 30, started taking an interest in what the Wall was actually like.” New buildings have gone up on many parts of the former “death strip” that separated East and West, and it is sometimes hard to tell where the barrier once stood. In the last few years a piece of the Wall complex running six city blocks, or some 800 m, has been rebuilt and restored on Bernauer Strasse, scene of some of the most dramatic escapes after the wall was built. People jumped from upper storey

windows in buildings on the east side of the Wall onto the street on the west side. The windows were soon sealed off with bricks and the buildings later demolished.

In the early 1990s, the area around Bernauer Strasse was a veritable wasteland, with locals complaining about needles from drug addicts left hind in the weeds in the undeveloped land. Part of the rebuilt section is made up authentic Wall slabs, some purchased for euro1,000 ($1,400) each from a private collector, and some of it is made of 3.6-m-high rusting iron rods that symbolise where the Wall stood but have gaps that allow visitors to see through it. Another four city blocks, or about 500 m, of concrete Wall slabs and iron rods will be added next year.

Berlin, with help from the federal government and European Union, is spending some euro28 million on the construction.

While it is an eerie reminder of where the Wall was, the memorial on Bernauer Strasse

is a far cry from the original. Instead of the death-like silence around it, it is alive with myriad tourists buzzing in and around it. “In early 1989, (East German leader) Erich Honecker said the Wall would still be standing in 100 years and to a certain degree we’re doing what we can to make that happen,” Alexander Klausmeier, director of the Berlin Wall Foundation that is overseeing the project, said with a smile. “It’s all a bit crazy.” There are a few other pieces of Berlin Wall remnants elsewhere: a 1.3-km-long section known as the East Side Gallery that is covered with 105 giant paintings from artists around the world and an 80-m section behind the Finance Ministry. A few individual graffiti-covered slabs were put up in Berlin, such as at Potsdamer Platz square, in the last decade. The city also embedded a cobblestone line into streets marking some spots where the Wall stood. A biking trail follows the wall’s route as well. —Reuters

Clashes in Delhi during anti-corruption protest Demonstrators demand Dikshit’s ouster

NEW DELHI: Police fired water cannons and tear gas at opposition party activists on the streets of the Indian capital yesterday, as thousands of anti-government protesters rallied against the ruling Congress party over corruption scandals. Youth demonstrators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) marched on parliament demanding the resignation of a prominent ruling Congress party politician over corruption, the latest move to pressure the beleaguered government to act on graft.

A series of high-profile scandals has eroded trust and stymied policymaking in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration in recent months.

BAKU, Azerbaijan: Former Azerbaijan’s President Ayaz Mutallibov (center) prays in a mosque upon arrival yesterday. —AFP

Exiled Azerbaijan ex-prez returns BAKU: Azerbaijan’s first president in the turbulent period following independence from the Soviet Union has returned to the country for the first time after 19 years in exile, his allies said yestereday. Ayaz Mutallibov, who was forced to resign in 1992 and fled to Russia, arrived from Moscow on Monday evening after being given permission to attend the funeral of his son in Baku. Dressed in black, the 73year-old former president was ushered straight to a waiting car and made no comment as police tried to prevent journalists from approaching him at the airport.

Mutallibov still faces criminal charges dating from his time in office, when the country fell into political turmoil amid its war with Armenian forces over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh. The cochairman of Mutallibov’s Social Democratic Party said that his return had been sanctioned by Azerbaijan’s current leadership.

“If there had been no guarantees of immunity at the highest level, then Mutallibov would have been arrested at the airport,”

Rajapaksa in China as West turns up heat COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa landed in China yesterday seeking tighter economic ties in a stormy financial world, and against the backdrop of an aggressive Western push for a probe into war crimes allegations. Rajapaksa was due to attend the Universiade sporting event in Shenzhen and will later meet President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Beijing, in the latest of his several visits to one of Sri Lanka’s closest allies.

The Sri Lankan leader on Monday said economic cooperation was the focus of a trip made on an invitation from Hu in June, with the aim of expanding ties and learning from China’s economic growth example. China is Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral donor and in June committed $1.5 billion to Sri Lanka’s $6 billion post-war rebuilding plan, having already financed a power plant and new port in Rajapaksa’s southern Hambantota electorate. “They want to make sure the same magnitude of money flows in, in times of insecurity,” said a Colombo-based diplomat on condition of anonymity, referring to the global debt turmoil that has hit world markets.

That, however, is not likely to be at the top of his list. “The fact is he is awfully disturbed by the pressures he is getting from the Western hemisphere on the war crimes issue,” said Kusal Perera, a political analyst at The Centre for Social Democracy. —Reuters

co-chairman Araz Alizadeh told journalists.

“The (current) president demonstrated a high level of humanism and gave permission,” he said.

Mutallibov was the last Communist Party First Secretar y of Soviet-era Azerbaijan, but dissolved the party after independence and was then restored to the country’s leadership by elections in 1991. However he was forced to step down six months later after a series of disastrous military defeats during the Karabakh war, and a brief attempt to return to power soon after his resignation was thwarted by an armed uprising. Mutallibov still faces charges of complicity in a bloody crackdown by Soviet troops in Baku in 1990 and of failing to prevent a massacre during the Karabakh conflict in 1992.

But Baku-based political analyst Mubariz Ahmedoglu said he believed that the authorities may allow the former leader to remain in Azerbaijan without facing jail if he does not make any outspoken statements. —AFP

The opposition also staged a protest inside parliament forcing its closure at a time when it is slated to introduce reform legislation including one on easier land acquisitions. The demonstrators were seeking the resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit after a state auditor slammed costly tenders given to questionable contractors for the 2010 Commonwealth Games on her authority. Dikshit has denied any wrongdoing.

Police wielding batons charged at the protesters after they jumped over barricades and threw stones at police, according to a Reuters witness. A Delhi police official told a local TV channel that 20-25 people had been injured in the clashes. “Please protest in a peaceful manner,” Anurag Thakur, the leader of the BJP’s youth wing, appealed to the protesters. “We don’t want our youth to resort to such violent measures.”

The protests came on the same day as a survey published in The Hindu newspaper said a majority of Indians see their civil servants and lawmakers as the most corrupt groups in the country, comfortably beating business leaders. Nearly two-thirds of respondents saw Singh’s government as “very corrupt” or “somewhat corrupt”, while many said his coalition’s handling of anti-graft movements was “insincere”, according to the poll conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

While 43 percent ranked politicians as the most corrupt, only 3 percent saw business people as the most corrupt, despite the fact that executives have been arrested or questioned by police in connection with graft scandals. “A spate of corruption scandals in high places, accentuated by high-profile anti-corruption movements, have taken a toll on the government’s image, especially among the more educated and articulate sections,” the Hindu said.

Petty corruption is a fact of life for hundreds of millions of Indians who need to pay bribes for anything

NEW DELHI: India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists try to break a police barricade as a water canon is fired on them during a protest against corruption yesterday. —AP from a passport to a gas connection, but a string of billion-dollar scandals has sparked widespread anger against the government. The Congress party has come under fire for what activists say is a cynical response to mass anti-graft movements that sprouted this year. The government says the protests were undemocratic and should not be allowed to dictate policy.

A mass fast led by a popular yoga teacher was broken up by what many saw as a heavy-handed police raid in June. Activists have also criticised the government for what they see as watering down an anti-corruption bill, which is due to be introduced into parliament in this session. The think-tank CSDS interviewed

20,268 people, the majority of them in rural India for the survey on corruption. The survey suggested that information on the scandals was slow to trickle down from New Delhi. Only 27 percent had even heard of Andimuthu Raja, perhaps the most famous casualty of the scandals, a former telecoms minister facing trial.

In a separate question, 25 percent of all respondents saw a police station as the most corrupt office, more than courts, hospitals or village councils. The corruption saga has dented investor confidence and smothered reforms such as on land acquisition that could help maintain the momentum of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, which has showed signs of slowdown. —Reuters

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Historic Philadelphia imposes ‘flash mob’ curfew PHILADELPHIA: Philadelphia announced Monday a nighttime curfew for minors in its historic downtown in an attempt to stop flash mob invasions by rampaging teenagers.

The measure was the latest effort to secure a city famous as the site of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence and drafting of the US Constitution, but which has spent years tr ying to overcome violent crime. Starting Friday, anyone under 18 will be subjected to the 9:00 pm curfew Friday and Saturday nights.

Teens caught violating the curfew could be fined $100 to $300, while parents will get a warning for the first violation and face up to $500 in fines for subsequent violations.

“Let this be a message to any others who think that participating in flash mobs is acceptable or fun - don’t do it,” District Attorney Seth Williams said.

“We will apprehend you, prosecute you and send you away. You will not damage the reputation of our great city.” Often organized on networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the teen rampages - dubbed flash mobs start suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving behind everything from broken bones to stabbings in what city officials have tried to make a haven for tourists and businesses.

The curfew affects the Center City

neighborhood, home to a vibrant arts and restaurant scene and many of Philadelphia’s major historical attractions, as well as University City, near two of the city ’s major colleges.

Officers may send the minors home, drive them home or call their parents to pick them up at a police station.

Parents who do not immediately pick up their child could see themselves investigated for child neglect. In other parts of the city, a 10:00 pm curfew remains in effect for minors under the age of 13 and 12:00 am for those under 18.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter vowed to put a stop to the violence in the heart of the city. “You are out wreaking havoc,” he told the troublemakers. “You are out causing problems. You are out doing things you should not be doing. We are going to get you off the streets.” During the most recent attack, a crowd of 20 to 40 youths beat and robbed two people in a July 29 episode that spanned two city blocks and continued unimpeded by the police.

The beatings, which left at least one man unconscious and another requiring surgery to his jaw, took place in the shadow of Philadelphia’s iconic City Hall, and a block from the Avenue of the Arts housing the city’s orchestra and theaters. Four people

were arrested, including an 11 yearold boy. In June, 50 to 100 youths attacked several people, including the editor of an alternative weekly, who suffered a broken leg.

The beatings have put businesses

because people thought they could get away with it.” Dozens of new restaurants and arts institutions have led the way to a 20 percent increase in residential population over the past decade in Center City, and the

PHILADELPHIA: In this March 20, 2010 photo, young people fill South Street during a flash mob incident that involved thousands and closed the street to traffic from Front Street to Broad. — AP in the area on edge. “There’s nothing good you can say about them,” said Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District, a group working to improve business conditions in the tony neighborhood. “These are random acts of violence that occurred

neighborhood is among the trendiest in the city.

For locals like Donna Wallace, a commercial loan specialist who works in the city but lives in the suburbs, the flash mobs are a frightening phenomenon, keeping her off the trains if the

Strauss-Kahn maid files civil lawsuit Diallo alleges ‘sadistic attack’

NEW YORK: The maid accusing French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape filed a civil suit yesterday in New York alleging a “sadistic attack” and seeking unspecified compensation. Her move came as prosecutors deliberated over whether to drop sex assault charges against Strauss-Kahn, or take the former head of the International Monetary Fund and powerful French figure to trial. The 17-page court filing alleged a “violent and sadistic attack” in the Manhattan Sofitel room where Nafissatou Diallo went to clean StraussKahn’s luxury room on May 14.

No specific amount of money was named in the suit, which referred only to “an award of damages in an amount to be determined at trial, plus prejudgment interest” and other unspecified compensation. Filled with gruesome detail about how the French VIP allegedly forced his penis into the Guinean immigrant’s mouth, the suit also claimed that StraussKahn had assaulted women in “hotel rooms around the world”.

The suit requested a jury trial in the Bronx, a tough neighborhood of New York where Diallo lives and where the local state court has a reputation for favoring victims in

civil suits. Responding to the suit, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn - who until the scandal had been tipped to become the next president of France - said Diallo and her lead lawyer Kenneth Thompson were simply after their client’s fortune.

“We have maintained from the

intentional infliction of emotional distress upon Ms Diallo, whom he sexually assaulted as she attempted to do her job as a housekeeper”. Strauss-Kahn, the suit said, “intentionally, brutally and violently sexually assaulted Ms Diallo and in the process humiliated,

Dominique Strauss-Kahn beginning that the motivation of Mr Thompson and his client was to make money. The filing of this lawsuit ends any doubt on that question. The civil suit has no merit and Mr Strauss-Kahn will defend it vigorously,” attorneys William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman said.

The suit alleged “sexual assault, battery, false imprisonment and

Nafissatou Diallo degraded, violated and robbed Ms Diallo of her dignity as a woman.”

The ensuing emotional and mental distress was such that “she may never recover”. A civil suit was always expected. Only the timing was in question and ordinarily a civil action is held back until the fate of the criminal case is clear. Strauss-Kahn’s next sched-

uled court appearance in the criminal case is August 23. There has been speculation that prosecutors may drop their charges at that hearing. The district attorney’s office has publicly called into question Diallo’s credibility amid revelations that she lied on her application form to gain asylum in the United States from her native Guinea.

But Thompson argues that his client risks being abandoned by prosecutors and that a jury trial in civil court is her only choice. As part of a fight against negative reports about her credibility, Diallo took the unusual step of going public last month with media interviews and a press conference to present her side of the story. Alleged victims in sex crime cases rarely seek to reveal their identity, let alone mount media campaigns. The burden of proof in a civil trial is significantly lower than the near watertight “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that has to be met in criminal courts.

That could mean that even if Strauss-Kahn is let off by prosecutors, he will still face a bruising jury trial in the Bronx. Alternatively, he could, through his lawyers, seek to pay Diallo in an out-of-court settlement. — AFP

Wisconsin election tests Obama’s foes MADISON: Voters in Wisconsin headed to the polls yesterday in a recall election sparked by a backlash against the Republican Party’s swing to the right in a US presidential battleground state. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on the closely-watched polls as President Barack Obama’s Democrats try to harness a mass protest movement which emerged in response to a controversial Republican plan to strip state workers of their union rights.

Control of the Wisconsin state senate hangs in the balance as six Republican state senators fight to keep their seats. One Democratic state senator has already weathered a recall attempt and two more are up for recall on August 16. “The nation is watching. What you have here is a state making a decision on which way do you go,” said John Hogan, who is managing the recall efforts of state senate Republicans.

Republicans have also poured money into the recall campaigns as they seek to defend both their seats and the conservative agenda of the Tea Party movement, which helped the GOP achieve historic gains in November ’s mid-term election.

Frustration with Tea Party ideals has been growing across the country. A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that just 20 percent of Americans view the Tea Party favorably and 43 percent think they have too much influence in the Republican Party.

The US debt ceiling crisis has also soured opinions after members of the congressional Tea Party caucus insisted it would not raise the debt limit under any circumstances-even as polls showed that the public want-

ed compromise. Hogan said he expects voters to support GOP senators because they were willing to “make the tough decisions” that were necessary to cope with the state’s budget problems.

Wisconsin Democrats are meanwhile hopeful that they will be able to win back the senate and are energized by the strength of the protest movement. “We all know we’re operating in uncharted territory here, completely unprecedented. It’s an incredible thing to be a part of,” said Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party. Daily protests of as many as 100,000 people descended on Wisconsin’s state capitol for much of February and March after newlyelected Republican Governor Scott Walker proposed a controversial bill that would strip most public workers of collective bargaining rights.

The protests intensified after Walker unveiled a budget with deep cuts to schools, state-subsidized health insurance and other critical services while cutting taxes for businesses. The state’s 14 Democratic senators fled Madison and went into hiding in order to prevent the legislative quorum necessary for the bill to be brought to a vote.

Republicans nevertheless passed the bill, using a legislative maneuver that a judge later ruled was unconstitutional. Republicans control the governor’s office, state house and have a 19-14 advantage in the state senate. Democrats will need to win at least three of the six seats up for grabs to regain control of the senate.

But if they lose either of the two recall elections next week, Republicans could flip the house again. — AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama enters his limousine following a fundraiser at a private residence in Washington on August 8, 2011. — AFP

streets are empty. “I definitely wouldn’t want to stay downtown now,” Wallace said. “I leave with the crowds.” City officials have struggled to respond. After attacks last year, a city councilman asked the mayor to sue Facebook and Twitter for unwittingly facilitating organization of the group assaults.

Police have beefed up patrols in the neighborhood and asked residents and businesses to register their security cameras with the authorities. Some young people fear that the attention given to the flash mobs could have negative repercussions for those not involved. Travis Holmes, 21, worried that the police response will give authorities more license to arrest young, African American men, since most of the assailants are blacks from poor outlying neighborhoods and most of the victims white.

“You can just be walking down the street by yourself and they’ll stop you,” Holmes said. “But as young African Americans, you can’t target all of us.”

Tasha Jamerson, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said there was not much that could be done under current laws to stop the problem. “You are limited when prosecuting juveniles. With some of those kids, all you can get (for punishment) is community service,” she said. — AFP

200 Afghan nomads in violent Kabul protest KABUL: Around 200 Afghans burned tyres and blocked key roads near the presidential palace on Tuesday in angry protests after at least three people were killed over a land dispute. The unrest flared just southeast of the Afghan capital Kabul when members of the Kuchi nomadic tribe clashed with guards working for a housing project linked to the family of lawmaker Qais Hasan.

Police said three people were killed and three others were wounded. But an AFP photographer was shown four bodies being carried by demonstrators in downtown Kabul.

The dispute is believed to be over a planned land development by the family of the politician opposed by the Kuchis, frequently seen on Afghan roads moving between areas with their herds of goats and other animals. The interior ministry said an armed clash “over land” broke out between the Kuchis and the guards around 8:00 am (0330 GMT ).

“Three people, all of them Kuchis, have been killed and three others have been

injured,” added Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai. “Police have launched an investigation into the incident. Nobody has been detained yet.”

The Kuchis then brought their protest into the centre of Kabul, near President Hamid Karzai’s high-security palace and other key government offices, the AFP photographer at the scene said. He added that some protesters were carrying sticks and burning tyres and that security forces had sealed off the area and were firing water cannon to try to control the crowd.

After hours of demonstrations, the angry mob agreed to leave the area, officials said. Hasan, the lawmaker, was not immediately contactable by AFP. Pashtun nomads, estimated to number over two million in Afghanistan, roam the country in search of pastures for their camels, sheep and donkeys. In 2010, there were heavy clashes in Kabul between Hazaras and Pashtun nomads over pastures in Afghanistan’s central highlands. — AFP

Old S Africa collides with new in city names MASHISHING, South Africa: A sign warmly greets visitors with “Welcome to Mashishing”, a town where everything else indicates the name is Lydenburg. Such geographic confusion occurs across South Africa, as old place names are replaced with new, Africanised ones. “Officially, the name has been changed to Mashishing,” the town’s spokesman Puleng Mapheto said. But aside from a few nearby road signs, it’s hard to know that the name changed five years ago. The police station, the post office, schools, the museum and store ads all refer to Lydenburg.

The Voortrekkers, descended from the first Dutch settlers, founded the town in 1850 as they fled British rule.

They named the town Lydenburg, or city of suffering, because their group had been decimated by malaria.

Mashishing is what the place was traditionally called in Northern Sotho, meaning “long, green grass”. White residents, very much in the minority, are hardly bothered to make the change.

“This place is called Lydenburg. I don’t know anything about Mashishing,” said an employee at a coffee shop, who declined to give her name.

Gerard van de Water, who owns an antique shop, acknowledged the new name but lamented the change. “The drive in this country is to do away with white men’s names, whatever it costs,” he said. “This place is no longer worthy to be called Lydenburg, anyway.

Mashishing fits 100 percent with what the town is becoming, with all the potholes in the streets.” “It’s like all towns in South Africa, they are being changed to black people’s names,” said Elzebe Brits, who runs a second-hand bookshop.

“People are very confused! To get things more difficult, the municipality is called Thaba Chweu.” “Even black people still call this place Lydenburg,” she said with a big smile.

Those whom AFP met didn’t seem particularly concerned. “The problem is that Mashishing refers to the township too,” said Mosima Matlala. “Well, we say both names, it depends on the context.”

As in many towns, some white residents feel the name was changed without sufficient public debate, said JeanPierre Celliers, curator of the Lydenburg Museum. “We know that this area was

already settled around 1650,” he said, which is not counting the “Lydenburg Heads”, seven terracotta figures found in the region dating from the sixth century. “We have to redefine who has a right to have a heritage in this country,” Celliers said.

The name change debate is especially fierce in the capital Pretoria, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has for now shelved efforts to dub the city Tshwane, the municipality ’s name. But many other towns, mountains and rivers have been renamed in recent years. Three people in the culture ministry are tasked with compiling the public’s requests for changes. While some cities like Nelspruit and Piet Retief are, like Lydenburg, transforming in fits and starts into Mbombela and eMkhondo, other names are finally starting to take hold, especially in the northern Limpopo province, where the process started earlier.

Naboomspruit is now Mookgophong, Potgietersus is Mokopane, and the provincial capital Pietersburg is Polokwane.

Most signs have also changed, except at post offices in towns like Modimolle, 200 km north of Johannesburg. “For us, it is still called Nylstroom. They still have not entered the new name in the system,” one postal worker said. Apparently that’s not a problem. “The sorting machines work with the post codes, mainly. The staff is trained with the name changes, anyway. They are usually very proud of knowing them,” said South African Post Office spokesman Johan Kruger.

Some names deliberately don’t stick.

The town of Louis Trichardt became Makhado, but a court ordered it turned back, for lack of due process. Other changes went unnoticed. Only the weather service has adopted Mahikeng, as the name of the North-West provincial capital Mafikeng. Even the local government pointedly ignores the switch. Atlases and roadmaps have changed with the times, more or less.

The old name usually appears in parentheses, but not always. And in the distance tables, some historical background helps to find Lephalale, the former Ellisras, still listed under E. — AFP

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Rape, mutilation: Pakistan’s tribal justice for women MULTAN, Pakistan: On April 14, two men entered Asma Firdous’ home, cut off six of her fingers, slashed her arms and lips and then sliced off her nose. Before leaving the house, the men locked their 28-year-old victim inside. Asma, from impoverished Kohaur Junobi village in Pakistan’s south, was mutilated because her husband was involved in a dispute with his relatives, and they wanted revenge.

Her fate is familiar in parts of Pakistan’s remote and feudal agricultural belts, where women are often used as bargaining chips in family feuds, and where the level of violence they face is increasing in frequency and brutality.

At the hospital in nearby Multan town, Asma’s shocked parents sat quietly by her bedside and struggled to explain what the future holds for their

now disfigured daughter. “I don’t know what will happen to her when she leaves here,” Asma’s father, Ghulam Mustafa, said, in a dilapidated ward heavy with the smell of antiseptic and blood, where other women, doused with acid or kerosene by relatives or fellow villagers, awaiting an equally uncertain future. Asked if Asma will return to her husband, her father remains silent.

Pakistan is the world’s thirdmost dangerous country for women, after Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, based on a survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In its 2010 report, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says almost 800 women were victims of “honour killings” - murders aimed at preserving the honour of male relatives - and 2,900 women reported raped - almost eight a day.

The bulk, or almost 2,600, were raped in Punjab alone, Pakistan’s most populous province.

And the numbers are rising: media reports say crimes against women have risen 18 percent in the year to May and the human rights commission believes its figures represent only a fraction of the attacks which take place across the country. Dr Farzana Bari, director of Gender Studies at Quaid-e-Azam University, says Pakistan’s patriarchal society often condones discrimination against women, which is more prevalent among poor and uneducated rural families. That mindset can often influence the police and judiciary, which sometimes turn a blind eye to honour killings or rapes carried out to “punish” women. “I think honour killings are a symptom of vigilante justice,” she said. “And vigilante justice occurs in an environ-

ment where the state is unable to enforce its writ.”

In rural areas, women are often shut out of the justice system, which is compromised by powerful landowners and feudal lords who dominate a hierarchy that makes it difficult - and deadly - for those with little education or social standing to speak out.

Families or tribes then often take justice in their own hands, presiding over “jirgas” or “panchayats” gatherings of elders that hand down punishments that include rape, killing or barter of women for crimes that include falling in love with a man deemed inappropriate or besmirching family honour. Some women are maimed just to settle scores.

Members of the panchayat systems say the tradition is hard to shake because it is entrenched in the local culture and also because it is much more efficient

Japanese city marks 66th ’versary of bombing TOKYO: The Japanese city of Nagasaki yesterday called for a shift from nuclear power to renewable energy as it commemorated the 66th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of World War II. Mayor Tomihisa Taue said Japan must develop safer energies such as solar, wind and biomass following the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March in the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago. “This March, we were astounded by the severity of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station,” Taue said at a ceremony held near the spot where the US military dropped its plutonium bomb. that to 50 percent by 2030, but the government has since announced a review of that plan.

Five months since the quake and tsunami sparked the Fukushima nuclear disaster, only 16 of Japan’s 54 reactors are opera-

long it will take, it is necessary to promote the development of renewable energies in place of nuclear power in a bid to transform ourselves into a society with a safer energy base”. His message echoed that of Hiroshima’s mayor,

NAGASAKI: A ceremony is held in front of the Statue of Peace at Nagasaki Peace Park yesterday to mark the 66th anniversary of the world’s second atomic bomb attack. —AP it happened that we are threatened once again by the fear of radiation? Have we lost our awe of nature? Have we become overconfident in the control we wield as human beings?”

Until the March 11 disaster, Japan relied on nuclear power for about 30 percent of its energy needs and had planned to boost

tional, with most of the closed plants now undergoing safety checks. More nuclear plants are due to go offline for regular checks and maintenance in coming months, while many regional governments that host atomic power stations have been unwilling to approve reactor restarts.

Taue said that “no matter how

and of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who reiterated Tuesday that he would “aim to lower our dependence on nuclear power and to create a society that does not depend on nuclear power”.

The Fukushima disaster started when a magnitude-9.0 seabed quake and a massive tsunami hit the six-reactor plant, knocking

family honour.”

The slightest transgression by a woman - being seen talking to a man on the street, perhaps, or having an unknown phone number in a mobile - can bring harsh punishment and social ostracism of the family, he says, making the quick, harsh judgment of the panchayats popular. “Women are cherished here,” he said. “Men protect them. If a woman is out of her house then what is she doing? That is what people think here.”

Many women are unable to speak out because they lack the support and education to understand their rights, activists say.

But even those who dare often get nowhere. The most high profile instance of a violent ruling by a tribal court against a woman is that of the gang rape of Mukhtaran Mai, which took place near Multan in 2002. —Reuters

No shame for killings in Indonesian town

Nagasaki urges shift from nuclear power “As the people of a nation that has experienced nuclear devastation, we have continued the plea of ‘No More Hibakusha!’,” he said in his ‘peace declaration’ speech, using the Japanese word for the WWII radiation victims. “How has

than the regular courts. “In the settled areas there are courts but people can’t always get justice or compensation,” said lawyer and tribal elder Karim Masoud, who presides over both panchayat settlements and the mainstream court system. “With the jirgas, they can get compensation, and it takes less time to settle a dispute. It’s fairer and people don’t have to use bribes to get justice.”

Zarmuhamad Afridi, who also attends jirga rulings in Pakistan’s northern tribal belt and works within the mainstream court system, said the jirga system survives because in many parts of Pakistan, a man’s honour is intrinsically linked to how his wife or daughter behave. “If a couple is not married and they are having a relationship, a jirga may rule that the woman should be shot,” Afridi said. “That is okay for many, because they have to protect

out cooling systems and sparking meltdowns and a series of explosions. The plant has since leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea, forcing the evacuation of more than 85,000 people from a 20-km surrounding zone and more from radiation hotspots further afield.

A record 44 countries sent representatives to the Nagasaki ceremony. The United States sent Tokyo embassy deputy chief James Zumwalt to the ceremony after ambassador John Roos attended in Hiroshima last year, the first time an American envoy was present at either event.

Nagasaki was devastated on Aug 9, 1945, by a bomb nicknamed “Fat Man” which killed more than 70,000 people instantly or in the days and weeks that followed from burns and radiation sickness. Three days earlier “Little Boy ”, a four-tonne uranium bomb, was dropped on Hiroshima, killing an estimated 140,000 people.

Taue called on nuclear-armed countries the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China to abandon the bomb. “ What about the more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world?” he said. “Do we still believe the world is safer thanks to nuclear deterrence? Do we still take it for granted that no nuclear weapons will ever be used again? “Now seeing how the radiation released by an accident at just a single nuclear power station is causing such considerable confusion in society, we can clearly understand how inhumane it is to attack people with nuclear weapons.” —AFP

CIKEUSIK, Indonesia: When Dani bin Misra was released from prison last week after serving just three months for smashing in the skull of a member of a Muslim sect, this conservative Indonesian town let out a triumphant cry. “He’s a hero!” Rasna bin Wildan said of the teenage killer. The ferociousness of the attack, captured on video and circulated widely on the Internet, guaranteed no one from the Ahmadiyah group would dare set foot in Cikeusik again, the 38-year-old farmer said as others nodded in agreement.

Their reaction is part of a wider wave of intolerance against religious minorities that is challenging Indonesia’s image as a beacon of how Islam and liberalism can coexist. Once the preserve of hardline preachers, the hatred of Ahmadis now seems to be spreading among ordinary people in pockets of the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Whether the government can check this and other intolerance could be key to how Indonesia, home to 240 million people and one of the world’s fastest growing economies, evolves in the 21st century.

There are reasons to worry, analysts say.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who relies heavily on Islamic parties for support in parliament, has remained silent as hard-liners shuttered Christian churches, threw Molotov cocktails at one of their theology schools, and attacked worshippers and priests with knives and clubs as they headed to morning prayers.

A string of attacks on the Ahmadiyah - including the torching of mosques and homes only got worse after a 2008 government decree that said those who follow their practices or proselytize could face up to five years in prison.

Soon after, residents in Cikeusik, a roughand-tumble farming community less than 200 km from Jakarta, elected a new village chief, Muhammad Johar - the only candidate pledging to take a tough stand against the sect. Many mainstream Muslims consider the Ahmadis heretics because they do not believe Muhammad (PBUH) was the final prophet. In the eyes of the villagers, Dani and other members of the frenzied mob who killed three Ahmadis in February were just helping get the job done. Six were wounded, and the others fled with only the clothes on their backs, their houses destroyed and looted. “I do feel bad people had to die,” said Asep Setiadi, 40, as he headed out to his rice field.

“But I’m grateful that they’re finally gone.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Siti Zubaidah, holding her baby girl in a sling as she chatted with a neighbor, had nothing but praise for Dani. “We had to clean our village,” added Wildan bin Satim, 72. “This is no place for the followers of a cult.” The Ahmadiyah, established in 1889 in India, consider its founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to be a savior and

SERANG, Indonesia: In this July 26, 2011 photo, Dani bin Misra, one of the suspects in the brutal lynching of three Ahmadiyah sect members in February, sits on the defendant’s chair during his sentencing at the district court. —AP messiah, counter to traditional Islamic teaching.

They have tens of millions of members worldwide and around 200,000 in Indonesia.

They were not always unwelcome in Cikeusik, where men carry swords as they walk the dusty, potholed roads after nightfall to ward off beggars, thieves and other potential troublemakers. Matori Abdullah was the first Ahmadi to arrive. He, his wife and eight children lived peacefully alongside other Muslims in the 1980s and early ‘90s, attending the same mosque and religious ceremonies. But the situation began to deteriorate after the ouster in 1998 of longtime dictator Suharto, who had suppressed hardliners and even discouraged the wearing of headscarves by women.

Conservatives in Cikeusik used a newfound freedom of expression to insult the Ahmadiyah, who by then numbered about 35, most of them part of Abdullah’s extended family. Clerics raised questions during sermons about the validity of their faith, and residents whispered as they passed in the streets. “Sometimes teachers would tell the class the Ahmadis are heretics,” said 15-yearold Arief Muhammad Zainal, now living in fear in the outskirts of Jakarta with others from the village. “The other students would point and stare. Other times kids would pinch or slap me, muttering ‘Ahmadiyah boy’ as they passed.”

Over time, the Ahmadis started to withdraw. In 2009, they used a $15,000 donation to build a concrete house for their religious ceremonies and stopped going to the mosque. “They refused to pray with us,” said Johar, the village chief. “So how should we consider them as Muslim?” Visitors would flock to the house from neighboring towns, sparking rumors they were trying to recruit new members. —AP

Land seizures in Kashgar fuel anger among Uighurs KASHGAR, China: Uighur merchant Obul Kasim carries emotional scars from his confrontation with an unbending government after he failed to save his 100-year-old mudbrick home from demolition, a victim of the urban renewal marching across the historic Silk Road. When he refused to leave his Kashgar home in the far western region of Xinjiang in 2004, police handcuffed him and took him to the local station. In 2005 and 2007, he travelled to Beijing to seek redress over what he saw as inadequate compensation, but was rounded up by provincial officials both times. The issues are jarringly familiar.

Kasim’s grievance is probably the most common complaint across China, but the issue takes on new ramifications in Xinjiang, where demolitions are linked by experts to attempts to eliminate the identity of Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority. Uighurs make up one of the country’s most discontented minorities, resentful of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and the country’s majority Han Chinese. “Every time I think about my housing problem, I’m so angry I can’t sit,” said Kasim, his brown eyes flashing.

“No department has listened to me. My father was so angry because of this, he passed away of a heart attack.”

Kasim, who sells embroidered skullcaps near Kashgar’s Id Kah mosque, China’s

largest, said he would return to Beijing to petition after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, though he does not expect much.

The local government offered him compensation of 470 yuan ($73) per square metre for his 510 sq m home. High-rise apartments are now worth 30,000 yuan per square metre.

“A very large source of discontent is land dispossession,” Tom Cliff, a graduate student at the Australian National University who spent more than three years in Xinjiang, said in emailed comments. “Many Uighurs see this as their land being taken away from them with inadequate compensation and no recourse to the law.”

Gopuk Haji, a 97-year-old doctor of traditional medicine, said the government gave him a house of 80 sq m, even though his previous mud-brick home was 100 sq m. He dismissed as paltry compensation of 9,600 yuan. “A real Communist Party must help the people,” he said. “This Communist Party is fake. They are only using money to line their pockets.” Sporting a long, wispy white beard and flowing white shirt, Haji said China’s former leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai were good people. “Now the people are all bad. They are all corrupt. If you don’t have money here, you don’t have power.”

Demolitions proceed at a furious pace across the flat, parched region around

Kashgar, designated as “a special economic zone” on the historic Silk Road trade route linking China and Europe. Heaps of earth and bricks dot residential quarters, while workers lay foundations for drab, modern high-rise apartments. Men in skull caps whack a camel on a dusty street as skyscrapers loom in the distance. The adobe homes with wooden doors in winding red-dirt lanes were once hailed as the best surviving example of Central Asian architecture.

Ignoring protests from preservationists, the government in 2008 razed most of Kashgar’s old city, destroying 80 per cent of the mud-brick houses to build “earthquakeresistant housing”. Managing the Uighurs has been one of the Communist Party’s biggest challenges. Tensions erupted into violent clashes between Han Chinese and Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people in the regional capital Urumqi in July 2009.

For Uighurs, Tibetans, and most recently, Inner Mongolians, greater prosperity has not quelled demands for greater autonomy. “One of the lessons that we can take from Xinjiang is that the pursuit of sheer economic growth as a solution to social problems is not working,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for New-Yorkbased Human Rights Watch. Bequelin said that the rest of China may hope the government might change its policies, but “in

the case of Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, they take to the streets to take a stand”.

Mass demolitions in Kashgar’s old city, he said, were “taken as evidence of the state’s intent to erase and destroy Uighur identity and heritage”. Like 2009, this year has been jittery in Xinjiang, a region that accounts for a sixth of the country’s land mass, holds deposits of oil and gas and is home to 8 million Uighurs.

Many experts believe the roots of the violence in July’s deadly attacks in Kashgar and the desert city of Hotan stem from a deep belief among Uighurs that they have been left behind as Han Chinese pour into Xinjiang and dominate opportunities. Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at Pomona College in California, said more unrest in Xinjiang was inevitable. “Uighurs are clearly upset with the policies there,” he said.

“China thinks they can overrun the region with the Han and put in money for security services and that will ameliorate the problem. But it’s not working.”

On the first Friday of Ramadan prayers, soldiers carrying riot shields and rifles marched past the Id Kah mosque, while a paramilitary officer wearing a helmet and bullet-proof vest took videos of men streaming into the mosque with prayer mats. Banners declared in Chinese: “Unity is

a blessing, separatism is a scourge,” and “The Han will never leave the minorities.”

Mutual distrust persists. “When they look at us, I know they have hatred in their hearts,” said a Han Chinese taxi driver from southwestern Sichuan province. The government has blamed the violence in Xinjiang on the separatist “East Turkestan Islamic Movement” (ETIM), designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States in 2002. Beijing says separatists work with Al-Qaeda or militants among other Turkic ethnic groups in ex-Soviet Central Asia over the border to seek an independent state called East Turkestan.

Uighurs doubt their claims. “The ETIM doesn’t have a big influence on Uighurs,” said a 40-year-old imam, who declined to be identified. “Most people have heard about this separatist movement, but most of them don’t know who they are or have seen their faces.” Staring at a poster of two Uighurs shot by police last week on suspicion of involvement in the attacks in Kashgar, Kasim, the Uighur merchant, said: “They are not terrorists. They had their own problems. If they couldn’t solve them, then maybe they had no choice.” And asked whether Xinjiang should be independent, he said: “I’m afraid to give you an answer.

Walls have ears. But if you are smart, you’ll know what my answer is.” —Reuters

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KABUL: Afghan boy prays after reciting verses of the Quran during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at a mosque yesterday. _ AP

London burns as riots rock Britain Continued from Page 1 website said. His remarks came before British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that London will boost its police presence to 16,000 in an attempt to control the riots that have shaken the city since Saturday.

London’s Metropolitan Police force vowed an unprecedented operation to stop more rioting, flooding the streets yesterday with 16,000 officers, nearly three times Monday’s total. Although the riots started Saturday with a protest over a police shooting, they have morphed into a general lawlessness that police have struggled to halt with ordinary tactics. Police in Britain generally avoid tear gas, water cannons or other strong-arm riot measures.

Many shops targeted by looters had goods that youths would want anyway - sneakers, bikes, electronics, leather goods - while other buildings were torched apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn.

Police said plastic bullets were “one of the tactics” being considered to stop the looting. The bullets were common in Northern Ireland during its years of unrest but have never before been used in mainland Britain. But police acknowledged they could not guarantee there would be no more violence. Stores, offices and nursery schools in several parts of London closed early amid fears of fresh rioting yesterday night.

“We have lots of information to suggest that there may be similar disturbances tonight,” Commander Simon Foy told the BBC. “That’s exactly the reason why the Met (police force) has chosen to now actually really ‘up the game’ and put a significant number of officers on the streets.” The riots and looting caused heartache for Londoners whose businesses and homes were torched or looted, and a crisis for police and politicians already staggering from a spluttering economy and a scandal over illegal phone hacking by a tabloid newspaper that has dragged in senior politicians and police.

“The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner and there is a degree of frustration,” said Andrew Silke, head of criminology at the University of East London. London’s beleaguered police force called the violence the worst in memory, noting they received more than 20,000 emergency calls on Monday - four times the normal number. Scotland Yard has called in reinforcements from around the country and asked all volunteer special constables to report for duty.

Police launched a murder inquiry after a man found with a gunshot wound during riots in the south London suburb of Croydon died of his injuries yesterday. Police said 44 officers and 14 members of the public were hurt, including a man in his 60s with life-threatening injuries. So far over 560 people have been arrested in London and over 100 charged, and the capital’s prison cells were overflowing. Several dozen more were arrested in other cities.

Prime Minister David Cameron - who cut short a holiday in Italy to deal with the crisis - recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots and looting that have spread from the deprived London neighborhood of Tottenham to districts across the capital, and the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol. Cameron described the scenes of burning buildings and smashed windows as “sickening,” but refrained from tougher measures such as calling in the military to help police restore order.

“People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain’s streets and to make them safe for the law-abiding,” Cameron told reporters after a crisis meeting at his Downing Street office. Parliament will return to duty tomorrow, as the political fallout from the rampage takes hold. The crisis is a major test for Cameron’s Conservative-led coalition government. A soccer match scheduled for today between England and the Netherlands at London’s Wembley stadium was canceled to free up police officers for riot duty.

A wave of violence and looting raged across London on Monday night, as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s.

Groups of young people rampaged for a third straight night, setting buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looting stores and pelting police officers with bottles and fireworks. Rioters, able to move quickly and regroup to avoid the police, were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, plundering stores at will.

Silke said until police were seen arresting large numbers of rioters, it will be hard to control the rioting. “People are seeing images of lines of police literally running away from rioters,” he said. “For young people that is incredibly empowering. They are breaking the rules, they are getting away with it, no one is able to stop them.” Politicians visited riot sites yesterday - but for many residents it was too little, too late.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was booed by crowds who shouted “Go home!” during a walkabout in Birmingham, while

London mayor Boris Johnson - who flew back overnight from his summer vacation - was heckled on a shattered shopping street in Clapham, south London. Johnson said the riots would not stop London “welcoming the world to our city” for the Olympics. “We have time in the next 12 months to rebuild, to repair the damage that has been done,” he said. “I’m not saying it will be done overnight, but this is what we are going to do.”

Violence first broke out late Saturday in the low-income, multiethnic district of Tottenham in north London, after a protest against the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in disputed circumstances Thursday. Police said Duggan was shot dead when officers from Operation Trident - the unit that investigates gun crime in the black community - stopped a cab he was riding in.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, said a “non-police firearm” was recovered at the scene. But the Guardian newspaper reported that a bullet in the officer’s radio was police-issue, indicating Duggan may not have fired at the officer. An inquest into Duggan’s death was opened yesterday, though it will likely be several months before a full hearing. Duggan’s death stirred memories of the bad old days of the 1980s, when many black Londoners felt they were disproportionately stopped and searched by police. The frustration erupted in violent riots in 1985.

Relations have improved since then but tensions remain, and many young people of all races mistrust the police. Others pointed to rising social tensions in Britain as the government slashes 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the huge deficit, swollen after the country spent billions bailing out its foundering banks. Many rioters appeared to relish the opportunity for violence. “Come join the fun!” shouted one youth as looters hit the east London suburb of Hackney.

In Hackney, one of the boroughs hosting next year’s Olympics, hundreds of youths left a trail of burning trash and shattered glass. Looters ransacked a convenience store, filling plastic shopping bags with alcohol, cigarettes, candy and toilet paper.

Disorder flared throughout the night, from gritty suburbs along the capital’s fringes to west London’s posh Notting Hill neighborhood. In Croydon, fire gutted a 140-year-old family run department store, House of Reeves, and forced nearby homes to be evacuated. “I’m the fifth generation to run this place,” said owner Graham Reeves, 52. “I have two daughters. They would have been he sixth. “No one’s stolen anything,” he said. “They just burnt it down.”

In the Clapham Junction area of south London, a mob stole masks from a party store to disguise their identities and then set the building on fire. In nearby Peckham, a building and a bus were set ablaze. Cars were torched in nearby Lewisham, and in west London’s Ealing suburb the windows of each store along entire streets had been smashed. A blaze gutted a Sony Corp. distribution center in north London, damaging DVDs and other products, and about 100 young people clashed with police in north London around Camden.

“We locked all the doors, and my wife even packed a bag to flee,” said 27-year-old Camden resident Simon Dance. “We had Twitter rolling until midnight just to keep up with the news. We were too afraid to even look out the window.” Outside London, dozens of people attacked shops in Birmingham’s main retail district, and clashed with police in Liverpool and Bristol. Yesterday, as Londoners emerged with brooms to help sweep the streets of broken glass, many called for police to use water cannons, tear gas or rubber bullets to disperse rioters, or bring out the military for support. Although security forces in Northern Ireland regularly use all those methods, they have not been seen on the mainland in decades.

Conservative lawmaker Patrick Mercer said that policy should be reconsidered. “They should have the tools available and they should use them if the commander on the ground thinks it’s necessary,” he said. But the government rejected the calls, for now.

“The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon,” Home Secretary Theresa May told Sky News. “The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.” The riots could not have come at a worse time for police, a year before the Olympic Games, which Scotland Yard says will be the biggest challenge in its 182-year history.

The government has slashed police budgets as part of its spending cuts. A report last month by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary said the cuts - a third of which have already taken place will mean 16,000 fewer police officers by 2015. Opposition Labor lawmaker David Winnick said the government should scrap its plan to cut police numbers. “I think it’s absolute madness in view of what’s happened over the last few nights,” he said. The force also is without a full-time leader after chief Paul Stephenson quit last month amid a scandal over the ties between senior officers and Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers, which are being investigated for hacking phone voicemails and bribing police for information. — Agencies

Democracy and anarchy Continued from Page 1 Middle East - be it Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen etc, people are rioting for political reasons. People are suppressed and oppressed by dictators who are controlling the countries with an iron fist.

People there have a cause. You can justify it if they take up to the streets and demonstrate. Even when millions were protesting on Tahrir square, few trivial accidents took place. There were no major stories of looting and setting cars on fire.

But in London, it is a totally different story. They have democracy, they elect their leaders, they even scrutinize them and hold them accountable even if a cat dies in the street. There is question time in parliament and a very strong civil society to such a point that we in the Arab world ask our leaders to copy this level of democracy and justice. In the UK, these young men who are ruining everything have no cause, no beliefs. This makes it even scarier.

That is why I do not sympathize with those who are

looting and disturbing the country. It is not demonstrations. It is chaos and anarchy and it should be dealt with harshly. Different broadcasting stations, BBC etc are polling the people if the police should treat the looters harshly and with violence. They ask if the police should treat them otherwise.

Excuse me, when your house is burnt, you car is damaged and your shop is looted I don’t think there is a place for psychological therapy. When there is violence you cannot expect the police to put on velvet gloves. Thank God, there is something called government and police in this world. Imagine if countries let loose for just a moment. When you witness things like this happen it is scary. Imagine if a country has no police, army or government what would people do to each other?

I think there is a thin line between total freedom and democracy. Sometimes it makes me wonder: do people deserve total liberty to do what they want? I don’t think so and what is happening in London is the best example.

Report shows rise in world restrictions on religion WASHINGTON: Nearly a third of the world’s population lives in countries where it is becoming more difficult to freely practice religion, a private US research group reported yesterday. The Pew Research Center ’s Forum on Religion and Public Life said government restrictions and public hostility involving religion grew in some of the most populous countries from mid2006 to mid-2009. “During the threeyear period covered by the study, the extent of violence and abuse related to religion increased in more places than it decreased,” according to the report “Rising Restrictions on Religion.”

Only about one percent of the world lives in countries that saw more religious tolerance during those years, it said. The Pew Center review of 198 countries found those deemed restrictive or hostile in the previous report were growing even more so, while the opposite was found for those with more religious tolerance.

A substantial rise in public hostility toward religious groups was seen in

China, Nigeria, Thailand, Vietnam and Britain, while government restrictions rose substantially in Egypt and France.

The Pew Center looked at laws or other government policies aimed to ban particular faiths, limit preaching, give preference to particular religions or prohibit conversions. To measure hostility, it looked at sectarian violence, harassment over religious attire and other types of intimidation.

The countries most restrictive or hostile toward certain religions included India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Iran, China, Myanmar, Russia, Turkey, Vietnam, Nigeria and Bangladeshalthough most of these did not show much change in the three years. People were k illed, physically abused, detained, imprisoned, displaced from their homes, or had their proper ty destroyed for religious reasons by governments in 101 countries in the year ending mid-2009, compared to 91 a year earlier, the report said.

Such violence rose in more countries than it declined over the three

years.

Mob violence involving religion occurred in 52 countries as of mid2009, compared to 38 a year earlier.

Religious hatred or bias led to violence by private citizens groups in 142 countries, nearly three-quarters of the 198 included in the study, and about the same as of mid-2008. “Religion-related terrorist groups were active in 74 countries,” and violence was seen in half of these, in the year through mid-2009, the Pew Center said.

Christians and Muslims, the world’s two largest religious groups, were harassed in the most countries. Other religions also saw harassment, but Jews, who make up less than one percent of the world’s population, saw restrictions or harassment in 75 countries. In five European countries-Britain, Denmark, Russia, Sweden and Bulgaria - religious tension focused on the rapidly growing Muslim population, but there was some rising anti-Semitism and antagonism toward minorities such as Jehovah’s Witnesses. — Reuters

Month of Mercy

By Sheikh Aa’id Al-Qarnee

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ercy is a favor from Allah which He places in the hearts of whomsoever He wills. Verily, Allah will have mercy on His servants who are merciful. Allah is the Most Compassionate the Most Merciful. He loves the merciful and calls to mercy. He orders His servants to enjoin patience and mercy. A person may lack mercy for any number of reasons, among them, an abundance of sins and disobedience.

They stain their hearts so much so that they ultimately blind them until their hearts become harder than stones. Allah says of the Children of Israel: “And yet, after all this, your hearts hardened and became like rocks, or even harder.” (2:74).

Allah also says about them when they opposed and rebelled against the divine law: “Then, for having broken their solemn pledge, we rejected them and caused their hearts to harden.” (5:13). Among the things that cause a loss of mercy is arrogance with wealth and pride with riches. Allah says: “Nay, verily, man becomes grossly overweening whenever he believes himself to be self-sufficient.” (96:6-7). The day the heart is disciplined with faith and good deeds it fills with mercy and kindness.

Another reason for the weakness of mercy is an abundance of gluttony and saturation. They give rise to contempt and recklessness. Hence the month of fasting was prescribed to crush this unruliness and ill discipline. The fasting person is naturally among the most merciful people. That is because he has tasted hunger, experienced thirst and endured hardship.

His soul is, therefore, enveloped with mercy, care and gentleness for Muslims.

Mercy is something which every Muslim is required to render to his brother Muslim. It is a requirement from every responsible custodian toward those under his care. He should feel sorry for them and be lenient toward them. Prophet Muhammad sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said: ‘O Allah! Whoever was entrusted with authority over any affair of the Muslims and made it difficult for them, please make it difficult for him.

And whoever was entrusted over any affair of the Muslims and was kind toward them, then be kind toward him.’

In a related hadith Allah’s Messenger also said: ‘Whoever oversees an affair for my nation and disappeared or abandoned them without fulfilling their needs while impoverishing them, Allah will debar him from his needs and impoverish him on the Day of Judgment.’ Mercy demands that the scholar and teacher should be gentle toward his students and lead them to the easiest and best ways to love him and benefit from his teachings. If he does this Allah will decree for him the most excellent and abounding reward.

Listen to the manner in which Allah praises His Prophet sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam : ‘And it was by God’s grace that thou [O Prophet] didst deal gently with thy followers: for if thou hadst been harsh and hard of heart, they would indeed

have broken away from thee’ (3:159). Mercy further requires from the imam that he should not make worship difficult for his followers or cause them harm. On the contrary, he should be merciful, kind and wise.

The Prophet said: ‘Whoever from you leads the people in prayer must make it easy because among them are the old, the sick, the young and the needy.’ It was narrated that when Mu’adh once extended the prayer the Prophet said to him: ‘Are you a troublemaker O Mu’adh? Are you a troublemaker O Mu’adh? Are you a troublemaker O Mu’adh?’ In the same manner, when Uthman ibn Abi al As al Thaqafi requested: ‘O Messenger of Allah, make me an imam of my people.’ The Prophet said: ‘You are their imam so lead the prayer according to the weakest of them and take a caller to prayer who would seek no payment for doing so.’

Mercy dictates that the one who calls to Islam must advise those whom he is inviting with tenderness. That he should, moreover, clarify issues to them with concern. He should not hurt, defame people or even revile the disobedient in public.

Allah advised Moses and Aaron to employ the following methods in their call to the tyrant Pharaoh: ‘But speak unto him in a mild manner, so that he might bethink himself or [at least] be filled with apprehension’ (20:44).

He also says: ‘Call you [all mankind] unto thy Sustainer’s path with wisdom and goodly exhortation, And argue with them in the most kindly manner’ (16:125). The eminent jurist and Islamic scholar, Imam al Shafe’e wrote: Support me with your advice in private, and avoid advising me in public. Surely giving advice among the people is a kind of reproach, which I would rather not listen to. If you disobey and ignore my wish, don’t be saddened if you are not obeyed.

Mercy is required from a father to his children. This matter was previously discussed in the lesson (No. 18) on how we train our children. The mercy of the father or mother toward her children has the greatest effect on their integrity, wellbeing and obedience. Self-praise and harshness only open the door to despair. The Prophet sallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said: ‘Kindness was never bestowed upon something except that it beautified it, and it was never removed from that thing except that it made it ugly.’

O you who fast and cause hunger to your stomach, there are thousands of stomachs more awaiting a meal. Will there not arise from among you those who would feed them? O you who fast and cause thirst to your liver, there are thousands more who await a mouthful of water. Will there not arise from among you those who would quench their thirst?

O you who fast and wear the finest garments, there are naked people out there awaiting only a piece of cloth to cover their bodies. Will there not then come forth from among you those who would clothe them? O Allah! We implore your extended mercy that will forgive our sins and erase our misdeeds and errors.

Education minister under fire Continued from Page 1 Khorafi said that all the issues regarding the admission problem should be debated in one day, including a proposal by five MPs to have additional budget allocations of KD30 million to admit the Kuwaiti students who were denied admission

by Kuwait University.

Head of the Assembly Education Committee MP Jamaan Al-Harbash said that there is no solution in the horizon for the admission problem, and warned that the problem will develop into a major political and social crisis. Harbash said the education minister Ahmad Al-Mulaifi failed to propose the required solutions to the problem during Monday’s meet-

ing with the committee as only 1,370 students were admitted out of more than 5,000 students who applied for scholarships.

He said that the ministry undersecretary told the committee that the ministry can admit a maximum of 300 students more, which leaves thousands of students without seats inside and outside Kuwait. Harbash said that the admission crisis is expected to intensify in the coming years because the new state university which was supposed to be ready after three years will not be ready before 2020 at a cost of KD4 billion, which will seriously aggravate the problem.

The lawmaker called for a deep investigation with all former and current officials who are responsible of

delaying the new university project and accordingly contributing to the crisis. A member of the committee MP Faisal Al-Muslim accused the education minister of being part of the problem when he said there was no need for holding an emergency parliamentary session.

Muslim called on the minister to shoulder his responsibilities or step down, adding that the government tactic now is to delay the problem until the second semester “which we must not accept”. MP Mukhled AlAzemi meanwhile proposed that the government should utilize millions of dinars from the offset program to send thousands of Kuwaiti students on scholarships to foreign universities.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

opinion

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Issues

Don’t count on China to reprise global savior role

By Emily Kaiser and Koh Gui Qing hina is still nursing a hangover from its 2008 stimulus spending spree and may be reluctant to kick off another big round, leaving less potent options on the table should the global economy tilt toward a cliff. Just two weeks ago, economists were banking on at least one more interest rate rise from the People’s Bank of China this year because inflation remained hot. Indeed, yesterday’s figures showed it hit a fresh three-year high at 6.5 percent.

But the worsening global economic outlook has many people predicting a policy about-face. Asia’s stock markets tumbled yesterday as investors fretted over the risk of another US recession and deepening debt crisis in Europe.

“It’s time for Beijing to announce to the whole world that it will try to stimulate domestic demand again,” said Tang Yunfei, an analyst with Founder Securities in Beijing.

China’s fiscal firepower is not in doubt. With $3.2 trillion in reserves and low public debt, China could afford to kick up spending, but the side effect would be worsening inflation when prices are already rising too fast for comfort.

Beijing is particularly sensitive to inflation because relentlessly rising prices can stoke social unrest, which could be dangerous for the Communist Party. Besides, the last round of stimulus in 2008 caused more than a few headaches that linger today. Beijing encouraged banks to lend freely to government projects such as railways, airports and roads. Some of the loans have soured, and local government defaults now pose one of the biggest threats to China’s growth. Local government liabilities amount to nearly 27 percent of China’s total annual output, so if the state is forced to mop up those bad loans its deep pockets would look a bit more shallow. That means China would most likely rely on more modest measures if the economic outlook deteriorates. Possible steps include cutting taxes for small- and medium-sized businesses, ramping up investment in affordable housing, altering bank lending rules to get more money into the hands of smaller companies, and lowering interest rates. “We are still digesting the mess of the 2008 stimulus package,” said Yu Xuejun, local head of China’s banking regulator in Jiangsu province. “It’s unrealistic to hope that China will come to the rescue of the global economy this time.”

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‘SAFE HAVEN’ In 2008, when the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy triggered a sharp global slide, China was among the first in the world to implement a large-scale stimulus package, pouring 4 trillion yuan into the economy. Local governments borrowed heavily from banks to cover their share of the stimulus, leading to an explosion of debt estimated at 10.7 trillion yuan. Some economists think as much as a quarter of that total could end up in default.

The burst of spending helped China lead the economic recovery that began in 2009. But if it comes to reprising that role, banks may be leery of lending to government investment projects again given the well-publicized problem loans, said Vincent Chan, a research analyst at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. With property prices already high, the government will have to be careful not to overstimulate, he said. “China may again be seen as a ‘safe haven’ as in late 2008, but this time its ability to rely on the old credit-cum-investment model to get out of trouble will be hindered by many more constraints,” Chan said. “Investors should not expect a repeat of the 2009 China market performance any time soon.”

Investment now amounts to almost half China’s gross domestic product, up from 41 percent in 2008 when Beijing ramped up spending for the Olympics. In the decade before that, the ratio of investment to GDP averaged a relatively modest 36 percent. Ting Lu, an economist with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, said if there is another recession in the United States, China could respond by allocating more money for social housing or infrastructure. “I don’t think they would announce a big investment program as in 2008,” Lu said.

That suggests it will be the central bank doing the heavy lifting if conditions do worsen. Tang, the Founder Securities analyst, said it was “worrisome” that the PBOC still insisted that inflation, not growth, posed the biggest economic risk. “If Beijing does not change the tone of its policy until the end of this year, it might be too late,” he said. But other economists argued that China’s economy is still growing at an annual rate well above 9 percent, and it is less reliant on US and European exports for growth than it was just a few years ago. — Reuters

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

Obama fails to reassure markets after S&P move

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland hat should a US president say to stop stock markets

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from falling and reassure Americans that the country will be able to solve its debt and deficit problems? President Barack Obama’s first public comment about Standard & Poor’s downgrade of US debt to AA-plus from the top-notch AAA was not enough to stop a market plunge of 600 points, with investors uncertain if Washington can overcome political gridlock. Here is a look at what Obama tried to achieve: Reassurance. Obama wanted to underscore to Americans that the United States remains the economic envy of the world despite the credit downgrade and will

work its way through its fiscal problems. “Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be AAA country,” he said.

Persuasion. Obama sought to use the S&P downgrade to his advantage in a long-running dispute with congressional Republicans over how best to stem Washington’s red ink. Republicans want only spending cuts, a position Obama’s Democrats believe is unreasonable given the pressing need to maintain spending for the social safety net. While a joint bipartisan congressional committee will chart a way forward on reducing deficits by late November, Obama made clear where he stands: he wants to increase taxes on wealthier

Americans and an end to some corporate tax loopholes to ease the pain of spending cuts.

Obama said he would lay out a specific vision for deficit reduction to help the congressional committee.

That was considered the big news from his remarks because, technically, the recent deal on deficit reduction puts the next phase in the process in the hands of lawmakers in Congress. Obama took some heat from Republicans during the debt debate for not delivering a plan on paper that outlined his deficit reduction ideas.

This decision may be in reaction to the criticism-and a signal that he intends to stay in the throes of the debate even as the “super committee” and the rest of Congress takes up the baton.—Reuters

Global Downturn: A Crisis of Political Economy

By George Friedman lassical political economists like Adam Smith or David Ricardo never used the term “economy” by itself. They always used the term “political economy.” For classical economists, it was impossible to understand politics without economics or economics without politics. The two fields are certainly different but they are also intimately linked. The use of the term “economy” by itself did not begin until the late 19th century. Smith understood that while an efficient market would emerge from individual choices, those choices were framed by the political system in which they were made, just as the political system was shaped by economic realities.

For classical economists, the political and economic systems were intertwined, each dependent on the other for its existence. The current economic crisis is best understood as a crisis of political economy. Moreover, it has to be understood as a global crisis enveloping the United States, Europe and China that has different details but one overriding theme: the relationship between the political order and economic life. On a global scale, or at least for most of the world’s major economies, there is a crisis of political economy. Let’s consider how it evolved.

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Origin of the Crisis As we all know, the origin of the current financial crisis was the subprime mortgage meltdown in the United States. To be more precise, it originated in a financial system generating paper assets whose value depended on the price of housing. It assumed that the price of homes would always rise and, at the very least, if the price fluctuated the value of the paper could still be determined. Neither proved to be true. The price of housing declined and, worse, the value of the paper assets became indeterminate. This placed the entire American financial system in a state of gridlock and the crisis spilled over into Europe, where many financial institutions had purchased the paper as well.

From the standpoint of economics, this was essentially a financial crisis: who made or lost money and how much. From the standpoint of political economy it raised a different question: the legitimacy of the financial elite. Think of a national system as a series of subsystems - political, economic, military and so on. Then think of the economic system as being divisible into subsystems - various corporate verticals with their own elites, with one of the verticals being the financial system. Obviously, this oversimplifies the situation, but I’m doing that to make a point.

One of the systems, the financial system, failed, and this failure was due to decisions made by the financial elite. This created a massive political problem centered not so much on confidence in any particular financial instrument but on the competence and honesty of the financial elite itself. A sense emerged that the financial elite was either stupid or dishonest or both. The idea was that the financial elite had violated all principles of fiduciary, social and moral responsibility in seeking its own personal gain at the expense of society as a whole.

Fair or not, this perception created a massive political crisis. This was the true systemic crisis,

compared to which the crisis of the financial institutions was trivial. The question was whether the political system was capable not merely of fixing the crisis but also of holding the perpetrators responsible. Alternatively, if the financial crisis did not involve criminality, how could the political system not have created laws to render such actions criminal? Was the political elite in collusion with the financial elite?

There was a crisis of confidence in the financial system and a crisis of confidence in the political system. The US government’s actions in September 2008 were designed first to deal with the failures of the financial system. Many expected this would be followed by dealing with the failures of the financial elite, but this is perceived not to have happened. Indeed, the perception is that having spent large sums of

There had long been a minority in Europe who felt that the European Union had been constructed either to support the financial elite at the expense of the broader population or to strengthen Northern Europe, particularly France and Germany, at the expense of the periphery or both. What had been a minority view was strengthened by the recession.

The European crisis paralleled the American crisis in that financial institutions were bailed out. But the deeper crisis was that Europe did not act as a single unit to deal with all European banks but instead worked on a national basis, with each nation focused on its own banks and the European Central Bank seeming to favor Northern Europe in general and Germany in particular. This became the theme particularly when the recession generated disproportionate

WASHINGTON: Photo shows George Washington on the front of the one dollar note in Washington, DC. The United States’ credit rating was cut for the first time ever Friday, August 5, 2011, when Standard and Poor’s lowered it from triple-A to AA+, citing the country’s looming deficit burden and weak policy-making process. — AFP money to stabilize the financial system, the political elite allowed the financial elite to manage the system to its benefit.

This generated the second crisis - the crisis of the political elite. The Tea Party movement emerged in part as critics of the political elite, focusing on the measures taken to stabilize the system and arguing that it had created a new financial crisis, this time in excessive sovereign debt. The Tea Party’s perception was extreme, but the idea was that the political elite had solved the financial problem both by generating massive debt and by accumulating excessive state power. Its argument was that the political elite used the financial crisis to dramatically increase the power of the state (health care reform was the poster child for this) while mismanaging the financial system through excessive sovereign debt.

The Crisis in Europe The sovereign debt question also created both a financial crisis and then a political crisis in Europe. While the American financial crisis certainly affected Europe, the European political crisis was deepened by the resulting recession.

crises in peripheral countries like Greece.

There are two narratives to the story. One is the German version, which has become the common explanation. It holds that Greece wound up in a sovereign debt crisis because of the irresponsibility of the Greek government in maintaining social welfare programs in excess of what it could fund, and now the Greeks were expecting others, particularly the Germans, to bail them out.

The Greek narrative, which is less noted, was that the Germans rigged the European Union in their favor. Germany is the world’s third-largest exporter, after China and the United States (and closing rapidly on the No 2 spot). By forming a free trade zone, the Germans created captive markets for their goods. During the prosperity of the first 20 years or so, this was hidden beneath general growth. But once a crisis hit, the inability of Greece to devalue its money which, as the euro, was controlled by the European Central Bank - and the ability of Germany to continue exporting without any ability of Greece to control those exports exacerbated Greece’s recession, leading to a sovereign debt crisis. Moreover, the regulations gen-

erated by Brussels so enhanced the German position that Greece was helpless.

Which narrative is true is not the point. The point is that Europe is facing two political crises generated by economics. One crisis is similar to the American one, which is the belief that Europe’s political elite protected the financial elite. The other is a distinctly European one, a regional crisis in which parts of Europe have come to distrust each other rather vocally. This could become an existential crisis for the European Union.

The Crisis in China The American and European crises struck hard at China, which, as the world’s largest export economy, is a hostage to external demand, particularly from the United States and Europe. When the United States and Europe went into recession, the Chinese government faced an unemployment crisis. If factories closed, workers would be unemployed, and unemployment in China could lead to massive social instability. The Chinese government had two responses. The first was to keep factories going by encouraging price reductions to the point where profit margins on exports evaporated. The second was to provide unprecedented amounts of credit to enterprises facing default on debts in order to keep them in business.

The strategy worked, of course, but only at the cost of substantial inflation. This led to a second crisis, where workers faced the contraction of already small incomes. The response was to increase incomes, which in turn increased the cost of goods exported once again, making China’s wage rates less competitive, for example, than Mexico’s.

China had previously encouraged entrepreneurs. This was easy when Europe and the United States were booming. Now, the rational move by entrepreneurs was to go offshore or lay off workers, or both. The Chinese government couldn’t afford this, so it began to intrude more and more into the economy. The political elite sought to stabilize the situation - and their own positions - by increasing controls on the financial and other corporate elites.

In different ways, that is what happened in all three places - the United States, Europe and China - at least as first steps. In the United States, the first impulse was to regulate the financial sector, stimulate the economy and increase control over sectors of the economy. In Europe, where there were already substantial controls over the economy, the political elite started to parse how those controls would work and who would benefit more. In China, where the political elite always retained implicit power over the economy, that power was increased. In all three cases, the first impulse was to use political controls.

In all three, this generated resistance. In the United States, the Tea Party was simply the most active and effective manifestation of that resistance. It went beyond them. In Europe, the resistance came from anti-Europeanists (and anti-immigration forces that blamed the European Union’s open border policies for uncontrolled immigration). It also came from political elites of countries like Ireland who were confronting the political elites of other countries. — Stratfor

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

analysis

Chinese swagger over US distress could sour ties

By Don Durfee and Chris Buckley merica’s debt troubles have triggered a burst of popular anger and swaggering self-confidence in China that, if unchecked, could complicate the broader US-China relationship, making it harder for leaders to manage disputes from Tibet to Taiwan. The bitter debate in Congress over spending and last week’s downgrade of the US sovereign credit rating unleashed a torrent of blunt and sometimes vitriolic commentary from China’s state media, which criticized the world’s biggest economy for its “debt addiction” and “short-sighted” political wrangling.

Such comments were hardly a surprise. China has parked about two-thirds of its $3.2 trillion foreign reserves into US government debt, making it uniquely vulnerable to any default, its ruling Communist Party likes to score publicity points from American failings. Some commentators have suggested that China use its position as Washington’s biggest creditor as leverage on nonfinancial issues. Combined with Chinese leaders’ public silence on the downgrade, that could create a dangerous brew of uncertainty and inflated expectations about Beijing’s intentions.

Last week, a popular tabloid linked to the Communist Party ’s mouthpiece argued that China should use its “financial weapon to slap Washington” over arms sales to Taiwan. “We’re reluctant to use the United States’ debt bonds as a weapon, but Washington is forcing China to do this,” Ding Gang, a senior reporter for the People’s Daily, wrote in the Global Times. Editorials in state media are not necessarily a direct reflection of official thinking.

But as public indignation over the debt crisis echoes across the Internet, there is the possibility that the swelling propaganda, and the expectations for a tough line that it can encourage, will crimp Beijing’s room for maneuver in its relations with Washington, said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on US-China relations at the Center for Strategic and International

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Studies in Washington, DC. “There are louder and louder voices that are saying China has many other important relationships and that the US is increasingly weak, and therefore China can stand up for its own interests,” she said.

SHOUTS AND HARANGUES This isn’t the first time China’s leaders have confronted nationalist passions that can shape foreign policy. Some analysts argue that anti-Japanese protests at

try’s officials struggled against a common misperception that China could ignore the demands of Western powers and assert its national interests more boldly. This time, anger over the debt crisis has combined with a growing conviction among China’s elite that the United States is in decline and so the time has finally come for China to take its place on the world stage.

“The United States lacks great politicians,” said Zhao Changhui, a well-known

BEIJING: A man walks past the office building of the People’s Bank of China in Beijing. China and other governments have little choice but to keep buying US Treasury debt to store swelling foreign reserves even after Washington’s credit rating was cut by Standard & Poor’s. — AP home last year contributed to China’s unyielding position in a dispute with its neighbor over the fate of a Chinese boat captain who had rammed a Japanese coast guard vessel.

And when China proved to be the only major economy that continued to grow strongly through the global financial crisis that began in 2008, the coun-

Chinese economist and country risk analyst. “Up until now, the United States has refused to acknowledge the fact that it is declining.” Such sentiments, along with the fury that is being vented by the public in blogs and online chatrooms, could limit Chinese policymakers’ options. “The government will have its own worries regardless of pressure from others,” said

Jin Canrong, an expert on the United States at Renmin University in Beijing.

“But other people in society will shout and harangue, demanding answers, and that will increase domestic pressures on the government.”

That in turn could influence China’s stance on key issues, such as US support for the Dalai Lama or weapons sales to Taiwan, said Glaser, the Washingtonbased expert. “If the reaction (to arms sales to Taiwan) from netizens and hardliners, and particularly some of these PLA (People’s Liberation Army) people who are so outspoken, is really excessive and the leadership is intimidated by it, then they may have to react more harshly than they originally planned to pacify people,” she said. “There could be this spiraling effect where the actual impact on Sino-US relations could be far greater than even the leadership itself wants.”

US ELECTION FLASHPOINT Glaser and other analysts said that Chinese President Hu Jintao made it clear after last year’s tensions that he considers stable ties with the United States a priority, despite persistent tensions between them. Those relations will be in the spotlight later this month, when Vice President Joseph Biden visits China. “Now most sensible people believe that the United States has been weakened but will remain unsurpassable for at least 10 years or 20 years,” said Yuan Peng, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a government-run think tank in Beijing.

But China will also worry that US public rancor could turn on Beijing as Washington prepares for a presidential election race, added Yuan. “Imagine, if (US politicians) fight so much about domestic issues, then China policy could also be seriously affected by domestic political pressures. That could harm relations, especially with the presidential election next year,” he said. “We’ve also reassessed our views of the US political system. We used to admire its checks and balances.

But now the shortcomings of that system are much more obvious.” — Reuters

US financial power hides deep economic problems

By Hugues Honore financial power, which gives the dollar nearly untouchable status, hides structural problems in the world’s biggest economy: debt, de-industrialization, inequality and a loss of competitiveness. A serious warning that all is not well has come in the form of Friday’s historic downgrade of its “AAA” credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, which was followed Monday by plunging global stock prices. President Barack Obama said he heard the warning. “Our problems are imminently solvable. And we know what we have to do to solve them,” he said Monday, referring to the need to rein in massive US budget deficits.

He stressed his confidence in the US economy: “We continue to have the best universities, some of the most productive workers, the most innovative companies, the most adventurous entrepreneurs on Earth,” he said. This patriotic statement,

US

however, obscures some less pleasant details. If, as Obama believes, investors around the globe still give the United States a “AAA” rating, the country must first retain its uncontested currency supremacy.

Supported by a domestic financial sector and the confidence of foreign central banks, the status of the dollar is virtually intact. “The US economy has its own problems, that we highlighted with the downgrade,” said John Chambers, S&P’s managing director and head of its sovereign ratings committee. But he added that “the dollar will remain the key international reserve currency under any plausible scenario.” Judging by its value, though, the dollar may be losing its luster. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its annual report on the US economy in July that the dollar is now at its lowest level in decades against the currencies of major trading partners.

One problem the United States faces is a loss of competitiveness, something

Americans encounter every day as the vast majority of the products they consume bear the words, “Made in China.”

“They’re really starting to worry that America has lost its competitive edge.

Jobs are going overseas,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

According to the World Trade Organization, the US share of world exports for goods fell by 12.1 percent in 2000 to 8.4 percent in 2010. More than 10,000 factories have closed in the United States since 2003, the trade publication “Plant Closing News” reports.

The loss of manufacturing jobs, in turn, has helped open growing income gaps between college graduates and unskilled workers, between regions and between ethnic groups.

To be sure, the US economy is still the queen of the ser vice sector, and of finance in particular. In an interview with The New Republic in February, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he had no enthusiasm for “trying to

shrink the relative importance of the financial system in our economy as a test of reform, because we have to think about the fact that we operate in the broader world.”

IMF chief economist Simon Johnson called this a fundamental error. “It is a deeply disturbing vision, one that amounts to a huge, uninformed gamble with the future of the American economy,” he said, recalling the trials of Iceland and Ireland in their financial globalization. Increasing the finance sector’s influence is a way to mask an economy of debt, a main product of banks, say certain economists. And the financial crisis showed that credit can be harmful. In the United States “you have a big private debt overhang, in this case households,” said economist Carmen Reinhart Saturday on the Bloomberg TV channel.

Asked what that means for the future, she said “stubborn unemployment issues” and “growth that is not on par with other recoveries.”— AFP

‘Green hunger’ as starvation stalks fertile Guatemala

By Deborah Bonello hey call it the “green hunger.” Here in the mountains of central Guatemala, one of the world’s top exporters of sugar and bananas, vegetation is everywhere and yet the people are starving.

Guatemala, which has a population of 14 million, has the highest rate of child malnutrition in Latin America. Half of all children under five are malnourished. In rural areas such as Jalapa, about 100 kilometers or a three-hour drive from Guatemala City, where many families scrape by on less than a dollar a day, that figure can rise shockingly to as high as 90 percent.

Luis Alexander is nine months old and suffers from acute malnutrition. He appears weak and tiny in his mother’s arms in front of their mudbrick house.

Ronald Estuardo Navas, a hunger monitor at the international non-profit Action Against Hunger, measures Luis’s arm with a tape that evaluates the nutritional health of a child via the size of the upper arm. “He has a perimeter of 9.9 centimeters-there’s a high risk he could die,” he said. His mother, Herlinda Rodriguez, who has two other children to care for, is also undernourished. “He’s underweight because I don’t have enough breast milk to give him. That’s why he’s so thin,” she said. Looking around the green and mountainous land surrounding the Rodriguez family’s humble home, it’s hard to understand why they are slowly starving. Guatemala is the world’s fifth largest exporter of sugar, coffee and bananas, and when subsistence crops fail thousands of families simply cannot afford to buy enough food.

Many families have had to resort to buying their basic staples of corn and beans and rice from local markets because their modest subsistence crops have been seriously reduced by droughts and floods over the last few years-the

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creeping effect of climate change across this region. But the purchasing power of the little money these communities have has been battered by both international food price fluctuations and local prices, which have been pumped up by domestic scarcity. Three quarters of the food produced here is exported to the international market.

truth is that there is no work here, or the chance to have a salary, the fact that (maize) is so expensive makes it very difficult for us.”

More than 6,500 people died from hunger related issues last year, 2,175 of whom were under five years, according to Luis Enrique Monterroso, who oversees the right to food at the Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY: A boy plays with a dog in a street of San Pedro Ayampuc, 25 km northeast of Guatemala City. According to a United Nations report, 49 percent of children in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition.— AFP ‘Problem is too big for anybody ’Willem van Milink Paz, World Food Program Representative Guatemala, says: “What we are seeing in Guatemala is that the price, the local price of food, is even higher proportionally than what we’ve seen at international levels.” That has hit families hard. Benjamin Lopez Ramirez, a subsistence farmer in Jalapa, says: “The

Human Rights Office. Although there are schemes and money to help, he says, there’s a lack of political will. “The state doesn’t exist for the most vulnerable families in this country.” Malnutrition doesn’t stunt just physical, but also mental, development in children, which does not bode well for Guatemala’s future economic development.

Guatemala’s income from taxes is one of the lowest in the region at just 10 percent, and although the private sector could play a bigger role in reducing the levels of malnutrition and poverty in the country, the key factor is state involvement. Van Milink Paz said: “To be clear and honest about this, there is not going to be a real solution to the problem if the government of Guatemala doesn’t take a major part in the solution. “The problem is too big for anybody-you know private companies or even a UN agency like the World Food Program or other NGOs working in this area to solve. We are only really nibbling at this problem and not really solving it.”

There have long been programs purportedly aimed at targeting child hunger.

The latest, overseen by outgoing President Alvaro Colom, is called “My Family Progresses,” and is a conditional cash transfer scheme that gives poor mothers a stipend provided their children go to school and get regular health checkups. But the program has been mired in criticism, and accused of a lack of transparency. Monterroso says this scheme and others like it are more directed at winning political popularity than producing real social change.

Billy Estrada, sub secretary of food security for the Guatemala government, said the problem is not a lack of schemes, but a lack of consistency. “What I think is lacking, and will be lacking, in this government and those that will be, are continuous policies that can extend their mandate. “It wouldn’t matter if the political parties alternated if there was a continuation of activities started by one government and worth the effort continuing.” Unless the state can find the political will to implement schemes effectively to tackle the structural causes of malnutrition, children like Luis Alexander will continue to suffer.— AFP

Focus

Saudi switch against Assad a blow to Iran

By Joseph Logan audi Arabia, self-appointed guardian of Sunni Islam, is deeply wary of popular uprisings that have convulsed the Arab world, but it has lost patience with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s violent attempts to crush a mainly Sunni protest movement. Saudi-Syrian relations were rarely warm, with Riyadh riled by Syria’s alliance with its Shiite regional rival Iran, and they chilled further after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafiq Al-Hariri, a friend of the Saudi royal family.

But until this week Saudi King Abdullah had kept silent on the violence in Syria, which human rights groups say has cost more than 1,600 civilian lives in five months of turmoil. Now the Saudis have taken a stand, perhaps deciding that Syria’s diplomatic isolation and the bloodshed unleashed by its minority Alawite rulers on their majority Sunni opponents have made Damascus a ripe target of diplomatic opportunity.

“They realize the regime in Syria is facing a serious, nationwide, deep rebellion and is therefore vulnerable,” said Beirut-based Middle East analyst Rami Khouri.

The kingdom, which brooks no dissent at home and helped Bahrain crush Shiite-led protests in March, recalled its ambassador from Damascus on Monday and denounced the violence in Syria, which Assad blames on armed gangs with foreign backing. The Saudi decision was announced in a statement in the name of King Abdullah, who warned Syria it faced ruin over the crackdown, among the bloodiest in Arab uprisings that have already brought down the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt. Analysts suggested that Saudi Arabia sees in Assad’s woes a chance to strike a blow at Iran, even at the cost of undermining an established ruler, with a chance of chaos-or even representative government-in a nation at the heart of the Arab world. “The benefits of hitting the Iranian connection outweigh the negatives of a new democracy in Syria”, should one emerge in a postAssad Syria, Khouri said.

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IMPACT ON THE STREET The Saudi shift was prefigured in the regional political blocs over which the kingdom casts a long shadow, and mirrored by the countries and institutions for which its oil wealth and claim to religious rectitude are persuasive. The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council-which includes Bahrain-on Saturday expressed its “concern and regret” over Syria’s crackdown, echoing Western calls for political reform. A day later, the Arab League, whose new head had visited Assad soon after taking office, called for an immediate halt to violence against demonstrators during military operations in Hama, Deir al-Zor and elsewhere in Syria.

The king’s warning to Syria, said one Saudi commentator, has paved the way for more states to pile pressure on Syria’s rulers while leaving some margin for them to avoid downfall. “The statement wasn’t isolated from the worldwide movement to put pressure on the Syria regime. Saudi Arabia is important when it comes to future decisions, actions taken to pressure the regime,” said Jamal alKhashoggi.

“For Saudi Arabia to come out criticizing the regime will no doubt have an impact on the Syrian street. It will fuel the tension, fuel the anger ... It will create pressure on Syria to recognize its position for what it is.” The move has had the immediate effect of cranking up the chorus of condemnation surrounding Syria, already facing sanctions from the United States and Europe. Bahrain and Kuwait recalled their ambassadors from Damascus hours after the king’s message, and Sunni Islam’s most venerable institution of learning, al-Azhar in Cairo, called the Syrian assault on protesters an unacceptable “human tragedy.”

SECTARIAN RISKS The latter voice echoes the Sunni bonds Saudi Arabia was invoking by moving against Syria during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, on the heels of a tank assault against a rebellious, largely Sunni city, Hama, where Assad’s father killed thousands to put down an Islamist armed revolt in 1982. The Assads’ Alawite sect is deemed heretical

by Saudi Arabia’s austere brand of Sunni Islam.

Videos posted on YouTube after the king’s message appear to show Syrians in Saudi Arabia cheering the defense of his co-religionists in Syria.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this [the Saudi decision] happened during Ramadan,” said Gregory Gause, a political science professor at the University of Vermont.

“There is a heightened sense of the importance and role of religion, and people in Syria, an overwhelmingly Sunni country, were sure to read it in a sectarian way,” he said. “They (the Saudis) increasingly see Iran and the Arab upheavals as requiring them to play their hole card: We’re Sunnis, they’re Shiite, and there are more of us than there are of them.” Anti-Assad protesters have sometimes shouted slogans against Iran and Syria’s close Lebanese Shiite ally Hezbollah, once wildly popular for its confrontations with Israel.

Any appeal to sectarianism, Syria’s regime and opposition alike have warned, risks tearing Syria apart. Yet it appears to be a risk that Saudi Arabia, having seen off a domestic challenge between 2003-2006 from militants who derived their ideology from a form of Salafism, a puritanical set of Muslim doctrine, is now willing to take. “The leadership feels that the kind of Salafist, jihadist movement that threatened them is under control, that they’ve crushed it and controlled it ideologically,” Gause said. “The upshot of encouraging it in the region is that I think they think they’ve got a handle on it.”— Reuters

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Clijsters shuns farewell talks TORONTO: Belgium’s world number two Kim Clijsters on Monday shot down talk of retiring after next year’s London Olympics and said she would rather have a much lower-key farewell. The four-times grand slam winner, who returns to action at this week’s Rogers Cup in Toronto after missing Wimbledon with a foot injury, said the Olympics were the last big event she is focused on. “I am not saying I am done after the Olympics but that’s where so far I have set my schedule towards and what I am building towards and then we’ll see what happens from there,” Clijsters, 28, told reporters.

“I might choose to end (my career) in a smaller tournament just to have it a little more personal and where I can really enjoy it with my family, my friends and coaches.” Clijsters said it was too soon to determine what tournament would be her last but the three-times US Open winner did say she felt a special connection to Flushing Meadows, where she won the first three grand slams of her career. — Reuters

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Monday. Chicago White Sox 7, Baltimore 6; Tampa Bay 2, Kansas City 1; Boston 8, Minnesota 6; Atlanta 8, Florida 5; NY Mets 9, San Diego 8; Colorado 10, Cincinnati 7; Texas 9, Seattle 2; Houston 9, Arizona 1; Philadelphia 5, LA Dodgers 3; Pittsburgh 5, San Francisco 0.

Boston NY Yankees Tampa Bay Toronto Baltimore Detroit Cleveland C’ White Sox Minnesota Kansas City Texas LA Angels Oakland Seattle Philadelphia Atlanta NY Mets Washington Florida Milwaukee St. Louis Pittsburgh Cincinnati Chicago Cubs Houston San Francisco Arizona Colorado LA Dodgers San Diego

American League Eastern Division W L PCT 71 43 .623 69 44 .611 60 54 .526 58 56 .509 44 68 .393 Central Division 61 53 .535 56 56 .500 56 58 .491 51 64 .443 49 66 .426 Western Division 65 51 .560 63 52 .548 51 63 .447 49 65 .430 National League Eastern Division 75 40 .652 67 49 .578 57 57 .500 55 59 .482 55 60 .478 Central Division 65 50 .565 62 53 .539 55 59 .482 55 60 .478 49 66 .426 38 77 .330 Western Division 63 53 .543 62 53 .539 54 62 .466 52 62 .456 51 65 .440

GB 1.5 11 13 26 4 5 10.5 12.5 1.5 13 15 8.5 17.5 19.5 20 3 9.5 10 16 27 .5 9 10 12

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

Crusaders stay homeless WELLINGTON: The Crusaders will play another Super rugby season away from home next year after Christchurch City Council (CCC) said yesterday that a stand at the team’s Lancaster Park stadium needed to be demolished because of earthquake damage.

New Zealand’s second largest city is still in the process of getting back on its feet after a 6.3magnitude quake struck on Feb. 22, killing more than 172 people and badly affecting infrastructure.

The seven-times Super rugby champions and runners-up last season were forced to play this year’s home matches at Timaru, Trafalgar Park in Nelson and also one in London, England after the quake left substantial damage to the ground.

“ The Hadlee Stand (at Lancaster Park) has suffered severe earthquake damage and engineers for the Council are recommending it be demolished,” the CCC said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Re-levelling and other repairs are required on the Tui Stand at the southern end of the stadium.

More work is required to establish the best outcomes for the Paul Kelly Stand and the Deans Stand.

“Both have dropped 300-400 millimetres as a result of the earthquake.” The prospect of repairs to the three stands looked bleak with the CCC saying that the scale of the re-levelling required “has never been undertaken in New Zealand before and is rare around the world”. — Reuters

Thiago ready for debut MADRID: Barcelona midfielder Thiago Alcantara has earned the chance to make his Spain debut in Italy today after eye-catching performances for club and country, Andres Iniesta said on Monday.

Vicente del Bosque called up the 20-year-old for the world champions’ friendly in Bari and the absence of the injured Xavi and Cesc Fabregas have increased his chances of winning a first cap.

“He’s very young but he has demonstrated he has more than enough quality,” Iniesta, scorer of Spain’s winning goal in last year’s World Cup final, told reporters.

“He is extremely talented considering how young he is and it is for this reason the coach has opted to call him up.”

Thiago was named man of the match after helping Spain win the European Under-21 championship in Denmark in June, an audacious 40metre free kick catching the Switzerland goalkeeper off his line to seal a 2-0 final victory. — Reuters

Phillies roll over Dodgers LOS ANGELES: Philadelphia pitcher Roy Halladay became the National League’s first 15-game winner, steering the Phillies to a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday.

Halladay (15-4) allowed one run over 6 1-3 innings as Philadelphia maintained a luxurious 8-1/2 game lead atop the NL East division.

Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins drove in two runs each for Philadelphia, while Shane Victorino - who played while awaiting the outcome of an appeal against a three-game suspension for his part in a fight in San Francisco last week - homered in the ninth.

Howard’s RBI was his NL-leading 89th, four more than Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder. Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda (7-14) gave up four runs through 6 1-3 innings.

Braves 8, Marlins 5 In Miami, Dan Uggla extended his hitting streak to 29 games as Atlanta beat hapless Florida. Uggla hit a ground ball to shortstop for an infield single in the fifth inning, extending the longest active hitting streak in the majors. Chipper Jones followed with a single and Alex Gonzalez then hit a three-run homer off Brad Hand (1-4) to break the game open.

Uggla added a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Atlanta’s Michael Bourn drove in a run with his 30th infield hit, most in the NL. Freddie Freeman had a tworun single. Braves starter Derek Lowe (7-10), who had lost his past three starts, allowed two runs in six innings and took the win. Craig Kimbrel struck out two batters for his 35th save of the season. The Marlins are 0-5 in their current homestand.

Pirates 5, Giants 0 In San Francisco, Pittsburgh broke

through for its first win in 11 games, downing San Francisco. Pirates starter Charlie Morton (9-6) pitched eight scoreless inning and reliever Jose Veras completed the team’s ninth shutout this season.

Rockies 10, Reds 7 In Cincinnati, Carlos Gonzalez’s tworun homer - Colorado’s fourth of the game - broke an eighth-inning tie in a that featured a long rain delay and seven homers in all as the Rockies beat

LOS ANGELES: Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley (left) makes the relay to complete a double play over the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Casey Blake, (23) sliding into second base to end the seventh inning. —AP Ryan Ludwick hit two RBI singles while Garrett Jones doubled among his four hits for Pittsburgh, which battered Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong (9-2), who lost for the first time in 13 starts.

The Giants - held to two or fewer runs for the eighth time in 10 games were blanked for the third time in nine games and had their NL West lead cut to half a game ahead of Arizona.

Cincinnati.

Seth Smith hit two two-run homers for the Rockies, the fifth multihomer game of his career. Gonzalez snapped a 7-7 tie with the first homer allowed this season by Bill Bray (2-2). Todd Helton also homered.

Colorado’s four homers matched its season high and the seven homers between the two teams accounted for 15 of the 17 runs scored.

Rockies reliever Matt Belisle (6-4) pitched out of a threat in the seventh and Huston Street worked the ninth for his 29th save.

Mets 9, Padres 8 In New York, Lucas Duda’s two-run single capped a three-run ninth that rallied New York past San Diego. Angel Pagan, Jason Bay and David Wright all homered for the Mets on a day they put their top two hitters - Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy - on the disabled list.

The Padres got four runs in the top of the eighth to take an 8-4 lead but their normally reliable bullpen couldn’t hold it, and San Diego’s four-game winning streak was snapped.

Duda, who had three hits, singled to start a two-run eighth. Mike Baxter, just promoted from the minors, delivered an RBI double and Ronny Paulino’s sacrifice fly made it 8-6. Jason Pridie opened the ninth with a single off Heath Bell (2-4).

Wright and Duda then had RBI singles.

New York closer Jason Isringhausen (32) worked a scoreless ninth for the win.

Astros 9, Diamondbacks 1 In Phoenix, Wandy Rodriguez pitched six strong innings to guide Houston past Arizona. Rodriguez (7-9) struck out five and retired the final 11 batters he faced.

JD Martinez’s three-run homer off Daniel Hudson (11-8) gave Houston a 30 lead four batters into the game. Carlos Corporan added an RBI double in the inning and Rodriguez hit a run-scoring single to make it 5-0.

Jimmy Paredes had a two-run single for the Astros, who added two runs in the second on an RBI double by Matt Downs and a run-scoring infield single from Clint Barmes. Hudson allowed a career-worst 11 hits over a career-low three innings. He struck out one, matching a season low. —AP

California businessman takes over Atlanta Hawks ATLANTA: The new owner of the Atlanta Hawks said on Monday he would do all he could to bring an NBA championship to a city that has made the playoffs the last four years but never clinched the title.

Alex Meruelo reached a sale agreement for a majority ownership stake in the Hawks and the Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta that hosts the team.

The deal is subject to approval by the NBA Board of Governors, and financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “My focus is one focus: to bring a championship back to Atlanta. My focus is on the basketball team, my heart and

my soul and that’s where I want to be,” Meruelo told his first news conference at the Philips Arena.

Meruelo, a Cuban-American who made a fortune with the La Pizza Loca fast food chain in southern California, choked up as he described his pride at being the first Hispanic owner of a basketball franchise.

Meruelo described himself as a “1000 percent Hawks fan” but gave no details of how he would address the team’s management, staffing or players-issues critical to Hawks fans.

In particular, he said nothing about Joe Johnson, the team’s highest paid

player who has been criticized for a failure of leadership as the team has four times reached the playoffs only to fall short before the Eastern Conference final. The Chicago Bulls defeated the Hawks in six games in this year’s conference playoffs second round in May. NBA rules prevented Meruelo from giving details of his own financial input and a lockout caused by a labor dispute between owners and players also constrained his comments, Hawks officials said. “The first responsibility is that I earn the respect, the loyalty and the love of the Atlanta community,” said Meruelo, who appeared nervous. — Reuters

Greipel records seventh win

Andre Greipel in action in this file photo

SINT WILLEBRORD: German sprint specialist Andre Greipel recorded his seventh win of the season here yesterday as the Omega Pharma rider won the first stage of the Eneco Tour.

It wasn’t enough for the 29-year-old to take the overall lead, as young American star Taylor Phinney retained the lead he took when he won the prologue on Monday.

Greipel, winner of the Tour of Spain points jersey two years ago, edged out Russian Denis Galimzyanov, American star Tyler Farrar and Theo Bos of the Netherlands.

Phinney finished seventh in the final sprint which involved around 15 riders after the peloton had been split apart when there was a mass crash 500 metres from the line.

Phinney, who leads Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen in the overall standings, said he was relieved to have avoided being involved in the crash while Greipel said the accident was no surprise.

“There wasn’t a lot of space and it was pretty narrow in the final straight,” said Greipel, winner of seven stages on the major Tours in his career.

“However, I managed to sort myself out. Today, it will be another stage for the sprinters. I hope that things work out for me as well as they did today.”

The final crash was one of a series during the stage which saw French duo Sebastien Minard and Arnaud Labbe forced to retire from the race, which could see Belgian classics specialist Philippe Gilbert supplant Australia’s Tour de France champion Cadel Evans as world number one. Today’s second stage is a 173.7km ride in Belgium beginning in Aalter and finishing at Ardooie. —AFP

MINNEAPOLIS: Minnesota Twins second baseman Trevor Plouffe makes an unsuccessful dive for a sharp grounder off the bat of Boston Red Sox’s Dustin Pedroia in the sixth inning. —AP

Red Sox down Twins MINNEAPOLIS: Boston’s David Ortiz hit the goahead single with two outs in the ninth inning, capping an impressive personal game and lifting the Red Sox to an 8-6 win over the Minnesota Twins in the American League on Monday.

Ortiz, a former Twin, hit a two-run homer in the sixth, finishing with four hits and three RBIs; only a triple shy of hitting the cycle. Jarrod Saltalamacchia added a homer and two RBIs to help the Red Sox move 1-2/2 games ahead of the idle New York Yankees in the AL East division.

Marco Scutaro chipped in with three hits, and Boston reliever Alfredo Aceves (8-1) gave up one run in an inning for the victory.

Glen Perkins (3-2) gave up two runs in 1 2-3 innings to take the loss for the Twins, who suffered their fifth straight defeat.

Rangers 9, Mariners 2 In Arlington, Matt Harrison pitched seven strong innings for his career high 10th victory, guiding Texas past Seattle. Harrison (10-8) allowed two runs with six strikeouts and no walks, surpassing his nine-win rookie season in 2008.

Nelson Cruz homered and had three hits. Mitch Moreland and Yorvit Torrealba also had three hits for the AL West-leading Rangers, who stretched their lead over the idle Los Angeles Angels to 11/2 games.

The Rangers scored twice in the second

against rookie Charlie Furbush (1-1) with the help of the Mariners’ second error of the night. Furbush allowed seven runs over four-plus innings.

Rays 2, Royals 1 In St. Petersburg, Casey Kotchman led off the ninth inning with a home run and also hit a runscoring single to lift Tampa Bay over Kansas City.

Kotchman drove the first pitch from Blake Wood (5-1) over the center field fence. Rays closer Kyle Farnsworth (4-1) pitched a perfect ninth to earn the win.

White Sox 7, Orioles 6 In Baltimore, AJ Pierzynski homered and drove in three runs to power Chicago to a narrow win over Baltimore. Gordon Beckham also connected for the White Sox, who blew a four-run lead before rallying to secure their season-high sixth consecutive road win.

Baltimore’s J.J. Hardy hit a three-run homer in the seventh off Jesse Crain (6-3) to put Baltimore up 6-5, but the White Sox regained the lead against Jim Johnson (5-4).

Paul Konerko walked, Carlos Quentin singled and Pierzynski hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

Alex Rios then singled under the glove of the third baseman to bring home Quentin for the winner. Sergio Santos struck out the side in a perfect ninth for his 23rd save of the season. —AP

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

S P ORT S

Two triathletes die, organizers ponder changes NEW YORK: Two competitors died after experiencing problems during the swim portion of the Nautica New York City Triathlon, prompting race organizers to consider demanding more documentation of athletes’ training and experience.

The deaths were the second and third ones at the popular triathlon in the last three years. On Monday, a New York City lawmaker called for a top-to-bottom review, questioning whether rain the night before which could have led to choppy water and strong currents - 32 Celsius (90F) temperatures were factors.

Race director Bill Burke called the deaths “a very, very sad occurrence and tragedy,” but characterized the weather conditions during Sunday’s race as optimal, with relatively mild temperatures and good cloud cover for much of the day.

Burke said participants were not required to provide a health certificate or proof that they have participated in another triathlon - things he would like to see enacted in the future. “It’s something we’re going to look at and try to put possible identifiers in place that can hopefully give us some indication and let the athletes know what they need to be careful about,” he said. “Have you done an openwater swim? Have you participated in another triathlon? How much training have you put into this?” Participants in the yearly race swim about a mile (1,500 meters), ride 25 miles (40 kilometers)

and run 6 miles (10 kilometers).

They attend a mandatory briefing before the race that includes information about training and staying hydrated. Burke said it was not uncommon for some people to struggle with over-exertion. He said he most commonly sees heat-related problems like fatigue and dehydration.

“What we try to do at all of our events it to give the athletes as much knowledge as possible,” he said. That includes posting information on the event website and emailing potential competitors about different training programs taking place in their communities that might better prepare them for the event. Michael Kudryk, 64, of Freehold, New Jersey, died Sunday after he was pulled out of the Hudson River unconscious. Police say he was believed to have suffered a heart attack.

A 40-year-old woman from Elmhurst, Illinois, who was not identified at the family’s request, died Monday. Burke said she was believed to have gone into cardiac arrest twice after Sunday’s swim.

Police said 26 other participants needed assistance for minor injuries or pains throughout the swim. “I already talked to the USA Triathlon this morning,” Burke said. “We’re certainly going to take a very hard look at everything, at how people prepare for this.” Three years ago, a 32-year-old competitor from Argentina was pulled from the water unconscious and later died. The medical examiner ruled

that he died from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, a condition linked to high blood pressure.

Race organizers said he apparently was unaware of his condition. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer asked triathlon organizers to conduct a full review.

He cited a 2009 study by the Minneapolis Heart Institute that found athletes participating in triathlons have twice the risk of sudden death as those running in marathons. He also pointed out a recent study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association that found 14 people died while participating in triathlons, 13 of them while swimming, from 2006 to 2008.

“New Yorkers signed up for a triathlon - not a game of Russian Roulette,” Stringer said. “Choosing to compete is a decision every athlete has to make for themselves, but it is the obligation of the city to make sure all potential risks are accounted for to the extent possible.”

Dr. Kevin Harris, a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute and lead author of the 2009 study, said anyone with risk factors for heart disease should get checked out before competing in a triathlon. Training is also crucial, particularly because it’s difficult for participants to rest in the water if they start to tire, he said.

While it’s difficult to replicate the conditions of a group swim, training in a larger body of water like a

lake instead of a pool can help.

The triathlon has grown in popularity. Burke said more than 3,000 people participated in Sunday’s race, the 11th one held, compared with 683 the first year. Athletes are selected via a lottery system, similar to major marathons.

Burke said safety was always the triathlon’s No. 1 concern. For example, he said, in 2003, the swim portion was canceled due to high bacteria levels in the water. In Central Park on Monday, several athletes said the news was unsettling but would not deter them from participating.

Annette Kiider, a 36-year-old personal trainer, said she entered the lottery for this year’s New York City Triathlon but didn’t get a spot.

“I still want to do it,” she said. “I feel like the New York triathlon would be different and exciting. I know with the New York marathon, there’s just so much energy.” John Egan, 33, said he had participated in triathlons and open-water swims. He said the “bunch start” where swimmers all dive into the water at once can be scary and disorienting. But the New York City triathlon already uses a more orderly system where 20 swimmers jump in at once.

Egan said he didn’t think race organizers should be tasked with screening participants. “If you choose to do it you should know your limits,” he said. “I don’t feel like it’s the race organizers’ responsibility. I feel like that’s untenable.”— AP

Still acting like the old Tiger in a new world

LONDON: A cyclist passes burnt-out cars in Hackney, East London, yesterday following unrest overnight. — AP

London violence raises 2012 Olympic concerns LONDON: Less than a year before London hosts the 2012 Games, scenes of rioting and looting a few miles (kilometers) from the main Olympic site have raised concerns about security and policing for the event.

Images of buildings and vehicles in flames broadcast around the world are also poor publicity for the capital as it prepares to stage the games for a third time.

The unrest, which started Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London after a police shooting, spread closer to the Olympic complex Monday when scattered violence broke out in the Hackney area of east London.

“You can imagine how stretched the police would be if this were to occur during the Olympics,” said Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics. “So I think this will create a worry within City Hall and the Home Office.

“It’s not so much that this might happen again unlikely - as that it reminds the people in charge that while the Olympic Games are going on, any other major event is going to be complicated.”

Groups of youths, many wearing hoods and masks, attacked shops and windows in Hackney.

Police in riot gear were pelted with pieces of wood and other objects.

The government said more than 200 people had been arrested and more than two dozen charged over three days of trouble. Police said at least 35 police officers were injured.

Sports also felt the impact, with two football matches called off because police needed to focus its resources on the violence. West Ham said police told it to postpone the League Cup match against Aldershot yesterday because “all major public events in London were to be rearranged,” while south London side Charlton said its cup match against Reading was being called off “on safety grounds” on advice from the police.

Hackney is one of the five boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park, a 1-square-mile (2.5-squarekilometer) site that will be the centerpiece of the games, which start on July 27, 2012. Monday’s violence took place about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) from the park. The park includes the Olympic Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies

and track and field competition, as well as the velodrome, aquatics center, basketball arena, handball arena and main press and broadcast center.

Other Olympic venues are located at various sites around the capital, including Hyde Park (triathlon), Horse Guards Parade (beach volleyball), Wembley Stadium (football) and Wimbledon (tennis). There has been no violence in those areas.

For civic leaders and Olympic organizers, the violence was an unwelcome reminder of London’s volatility, less than two weeks after the city celebrated the one-year countdown to the games with great fanfare. The International Olympic Committee said it had confidence in British authorities.

“Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC,” spokesman Mark Adams said. “It is, however, directly handled by the local authorities, as they know best what is appropriate and proportionate. We are confident they will do a good job in this domain.” LOCOG, the London organizing committee for the Olympics, declined to comment on the trouble, in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid making any links between the violence and the games. Two police cars and a double-decker bus were set on fire Saturday, stores were looted and several buildings along Tottenham’s main street five miles (eight kilometers) from the Olympic Park were reduced to smoldering shells.

The unrest was sparked by a police shooting, but some blamed unemployment, insensitive policing and opportunistic looting for the worst violence the city has seen in years.

Police and politicians insisted the disorder was the work of a criminal minority and not a sign of social tensions or security lapses ahead of the 2012 Games. Britain was already preparing a massive security operation for the Olympics, but most of the attention has been on the threat of international terrorism. About 12,000 police officers will be on duty each day of the games, which have a security budget of at least 475 million pounds ($770 million).

A day after London was awarded the games in 2005, suicide bombers attacked London’s transport network, killing 52 people. The British government is planning for the national terror threat to be “severe” during the Olympics, meaning an attempted attack is highly likely.— AP

JOHNS CREEK: Hiroyuki Fujita, of Japan, hits at the range before a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament. — AP

JOHNS CREEK: Tiger Woods stepped from behind a microphone, thankful to be done with a short interview that felt like an intrusion. He took 23 questions, most of them about his golf, a few others about his left leg, then walked off without looking at anyone.

“That’s why you guys listen,” he muttered under his breath, “and I play.” He was as dismissive as ever, another example of how much has changed in his world, and how little he realizes it. He is not the Tiger Woods he once was. Such bravado used to be accepted from Woods because he always backed it up.

On the golf course, he set an unparalleled standard of excellence. Starting Thursday, he’ll compete in the PGA Championship without having won anything in nearly two years. His agent said he once rejected 100 emails a day from companies wanting to get involved with the world’s most famous athlete. In the 16 months since Woods returned from a sex scandal, he still doesn’t have a corporate logo on his golf bag. His only new endorsement is a Japanese heat rub.

One thing that still looks the same is that red shirt on Sunday, yet even that has lost some of its meaning. “That’s his trademark,” Graeme McDowell said. “Really, I think that’s all it is right now. What it means to him is obviously a different thing.

What it means to the rest of us ... it’s not really something to be intimidated by anymore.” McDowell, who won the US Open at Pebble Beach last summer, still considers Woods to be a special player. But after more than a year of finishing in the middle of the pack, or finishing the final round before the leaders even tee off, or not even playing because of recurring injuries to his left leg, Woods is more like just another player in the field.

No. 1 in the world a year ago, he’s now No. 30. “Mystique is not something that’s measurable,” McDowell said. “It’s when you stand on the tee box with him and you get the feeling you’re in the presence of greatness. When someone shows themselves as flawed and human ... what Tiger was doing all for years and years was superhuman. He was imposing himself on players just by being there.

“Until he starts winning again, he’s not going to get that back.” Some things haven’t changed. Woods still draws the biggest crowds, tournaments sell more tickets and golf is more interesting when he plays. Among his peers, he has always been popular because of the way he plays golf and because the TV interest he created made them all rich. They love having him as a teammate at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. He is one of the guys that week. But do they really know him? Did they ever?

Mark O’Meara was his best friend, more like a big brother, for many years until O’Meara remarried and moved to Houston.

They talk sporadically and see each other even less. Woods remains close to Notah Begay, who rarely plays on tour these days.

He plays practice rounds with Arjun Atwal, another member at Isleworth Country Club, outside Orlando.

Stewart Cink was among his biggest supporters when Woods first was exposed for cheating on his wife after Thanksgiving 2009. They have been playing golf since they were juniors and joined the PGA Tour about the same time. Cink once told a story of how his mother went back onto the course after his round because she wanted to watch Woods play.

“I don’t feel like I know him as well as I used to,” Cink said. “I never knew him that well, but now I feel like I hardly know him at all. I wouldn’t say that’s a big difference. I think he may be gun shy about getting close to people, either his fellow competitors like me, caddies, the media. He’s a really private guy. But once you get to know him, he’s really good to be around.

“He’s not out here to be social. That’s not his goal,” Cink said. “He has a big sheet of goals to accomplish. His social life is not his No. 1 priority, nor should it be.”

Now that Woods has moved into his new home in south Florida, he has practiced on occasion at the Bear’s Club, home of Jack Nicklaus. Robert Allenby saw him

OHIO: Tiger Woods waves after making birdie on the 17th hole during the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament at Firestone Country Club in this file photo. —AP there two weeks ago and said he felt Woods seemed more at ease with his life.

At tournaments, he sees no change.

“We see him come out and practice, play and get out of here,” Allenby said.

“He’s always been a big one to save his energy for the tournaments. But that’s the beauty of Tiger. A lot of stuff has happened in his life. When it comes to his golf, he still tried to keep that the same. That’s impressive. I know what it’s like to go through a divorce, and it can get seriously ugly.”

That falls in line with what Woods said in 2000 to Golf Digest senior writer Jaime Diaz, who has been around Woods longer than any other journalist. “To live a sane life, I have to be ruthless sometimes. Put up a wall, be cold, say no. If I didn’t, I would never have my own time and space, which is vital to me to achieve what I want in life.”

Even so, some of his peers thought he would return a different person perhaps spend a little more time in the locker room, or play charity events for other players beyond his closest friends.

For all he’s done to wreck his image, most everyone on tour wants to see him return to greatness. Even though there is a new wave of players starting to emerge, like U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, it’s hard to find anyone who won’t say that golf still needs Woods.

“Tiger still is golf, really,” McDowell said.

“It’s exciting to have him back.” Cink could see parallels with David Duval, an enigma when he was No. 1 in the world, portraying a coldness behind those wraparound shades. His game went into a freefall, partially brought on by injuries, and when Duval was at his lowest, he showed a softer side and became more appealing.

Woods has never warmed to the media, mastering the art of saying very little, but with a smile. The shield now is a cement wall. Woods once said he never read anything, and even turned down the TV when one of his friends was playing, because the media had opinions without having all the facts. Now he reads everything. He will be the first to admit that the calamity in his personal life is no one’s fault but his own. But he thinks the media has made it

personal. His answers are more clipped.

Asked last week how long it has been since his leg felt this strong, Woods replied, “Years,” without saying how many.

How long since he stopped having to put ice on his knee? “A while ago,” he said.

It would be foolish to think that Woods can never get back to the top, maybe not as dominant as he was before, but still the player to beat. Remember, he won 14 majors in his first 12 years, and that wasn’t an accident. He was that good.

His was the one score that always mattered. “You never had to scroll down to find it, did you?” Ian Poulter said. The PGA Championship last year is when he first started working with Sean Foley. Progress is hard to measure because Woods took a two-month break in the winter and then went four months, last week at Firestone, before he completed a tournament.

Earlier this year, he kept saying he needed more rounds to fine tune his swing. So why not play more tournaments? “Because I have a family. I’m divorced,” Woods snapped in March. “If you’ve been divorced with kids, then you would understand.”

He is sharing parental duties with his ex-wife. The weeks that Woods signed up to be with their two children were the weeks he never played golf, which is why he said he could not play in Greensboro, N.C., in two weeks, even if that was the only way to extend his season.

Physically, he looked as strong as ever at the Bridgestone Invitational. He had too many sloppy stretches, not unusual for someone who had not played a full round of golf since the Masters.

Mentally? Emotionally? Only Woods knows. “I think he’s found it difficult to pull his personal issues and separate them from his professional life, and I think it’s affected his game,” said Stuart Appleby, a fellow member at Isleworth. “His temperament, his patience ... that’s been tested and tested and tested. He senses the public doesn’t look at him in a perfect light the way they once did.” A PGA Tour official was talking the other day about the best shot he ever saw from Woods. There are plenty of choices. —AP

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sp orts

Australia set for spin assault PALLEKELE: Australia are gearing up for a Sri Lankan spin assault when the two teams clash in a five-match one-day series starting in Pallekele today.

Tillakaratne Dilshan’s home side hope to carry the momentum into the one-day matches after winning both Twenty20 internationals against Australia at the same venue over the past three days. Australia’s uneasiness at facing spin was exposed on Monday when unorthodox slow bowler Ajantha Mendis grabbed 6-16, the best figures ever in international Twenty20 cricket, to fashion his team’s remarkable win.

The tourists, chasing Sri Lanka’s 157-9, were cruising at 71-0 on the back of Shane Watson’s attacking half-century before nine wickets fell for 78 runs.

Dilshan said the Twenty20 wins will give his side the advantage in the one-dayers and the three Test matches that follow.

“It is good to make a winning start against a strong side like Australia and I am sure we can carry the momentum into the one-dayers,” said Dilshan, who struck an unbeaten century in the first match.

“The one-dayers will be a lot tougher, but I am confident we will do well.”

Cameron White, Australia’s Twenty20 captain, who will return home this week because he is not part of either the oneday or Test squads, said a spin assault awaited the tourists.

“It’s going to be the same during the one-day series,” said White. “It’ll be hard and tough work for the batsmen against the spinners. “It’s no secret. It’s just going to be

about who can come out on top at the end of the series.”

Australia will be bolstered by the return of captain Michael Clarke and senior pros Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey who have considerable experience when it comes to facing spin bowlers.

White said he hoped their experience will help Australia, the world’s top-ranked one-day team, tackle Mendis and the other spinners better.

“These seniors have seen a lot of Mendis in the past which is a definite advantage,” he said. “The more you play such bowlers, the easier it becomes to face them.”

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, included slingarm fast bowler Lasith Malinga and opening batsman Upul Tharanga in the 16-man squad announced yesterday.

Malinga missed the Twenty20 games due to a back injury, while Tharanga has served out a three-month suspension on dope-related charges.

Australia (from): Michael Clarke (capt), Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Shaun Marsh, Steven Smith, John Hastings, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Xavier Doherty, James Pattinson, Doug Bollinger.

Sri Lanka (from): Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), Angelo Mathews, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Chandimal, Jeevan Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Thisara Perera, Upul Tharanga, Suranga Lakmal, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suraj Randiv, Rangana Herath, Chamara Silva, Shaminda Eranga.—AFP

COLOMBO: Australia’s ODI cricket captain Michael Clarke ( left) chats with team coach Tim Nielsen during a practice session ahead of their first ODI match against Sri Lanka. —AP

Williams’ victory dance draws mixed reaction JOHNS CREEK: Tiger Woods’ former caddie drew a mixed reaction to the way he gloated over his new boss’ first victory with him on the bag. Some understood Steve Williams’ frustration after being dumped by Woods.

Others thought the caddie went overboard in his comments to the media, taking attention away from the guy who actually won the World Golf Championship at Firestone, Adam Scott.

The crowd chanted Williams’ name as he walked up to the 18th green with Scott, who pulled away for a four-stroke victory.

Afterward, Williams gave an interview that was nearly twice as long as the Aussie’s, calling it “the best win I’ve ever had” - remember, he caddied for 13 of Woods’ major titles - and making it clear he felt his ex-boss had treated him unfairly.

Steve Stricker said Monday that Williams was clearly upset and eager to let his feelings out after the acrimonious split.

“I’m not going to say if he went overboard or not,” Stricker said after a practice round for the final major of the year, the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. “It’s just too bad their relationship had to end like that.” A pair of English golfers, who weren’t at Firestone but watched the tournament on tel-

evision, both went on Twitter to take shots at Williams.

“Cannot believe they have interviewed Steve Williams. Nice of him to take away from Scotty’s win. Says it all,” Chris Wood wrote.

Oliver Wilson chimed in, “Steve Williams taken all the attention off Adam scotts fantastic win! Played great and nobody is talking about him this morning!!!” He added a hash tag to his tweet with the word “shameful.”

Stricker was more diplomatic. “This is all media driven. The media is looking for a story here,” he said. “I don’t know the whole situation. I’ve heard two different stories, and I don’t know which one is the real story. But, obviously, he was upset to the point that he said what he did in front of everybody. That’s his right.” Woods also played at Firestone, his first tournament in three months, and finished 18 shots behind Scott. That only added to Williams’ glee.

“Stevie was obviously hurt. He gave his all to Tiger for 13 years,” said Nick Faldo, who will be an analyst on CBS’ broadcast of the PGA Championship. “I’m sure there was an element to that where he was saying, ‘Hey, look what I’ve just done, mate.’ I know Stevie is getting praise and criticism, both ways. That’s kind of normal for him. That’s Stevie.”—AP

Lin Dan eases through at world championships LONDON: China’s Lin Dan eased into the second round of the world championships with a 21-11 21-10 success over Lithuanian Kestutis Navickas yesterday.

The Chinese suffered a surprise quarter-final exit in last year’s tournament in Paris after three world titles in a row but looked in good shape at the Wembley Arena against his world-ranked 40 opponent.

Lin’s return of some heavy smashing coupled with sharp reflexes took him through in 34 minutes. The victory avoided fresh Chinese embarrassment after the shock defeat on Monday of fifth-seed Chen Long by Guatemalan outsider Kevin Cordon.

Lin, seeded two behind Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei, told reporters: “Conditions in the hall are good and the drift and light are favourable for me. I feel comfortable here.

“I concentrated well and played well.”

Wang Shixian, China’s top seed in the women’s singles, started her campaign with a comfortable 21-11 21-14 victory over Bulgaria’s Linda Zechiri.

There was more success for Ireland when Scott Evans beat Austria’s Michael Lahnsteiner 21-15 21-16 in the men’s singles, following Chloe Magee’s opening day win in the women’s event.—Reuters

LONDON: Denmark’s Mads Conrad-Petersen (left) plays a shot past Jonas Rasmussen during their match against South Africa’s Dorian Lance James and William Viljoen at the World Badminton Championships.—AP

SRI LANKA: (From left) Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis , Mahela Jayawardene, Jeevan Mendis, and Kumar Sangakkara celebrate the dismissal of Australia’s batsman Shaun Marsh during the second Twenty20 cricket match. -AP

Mendis makes T20 history PALLEKELE: Ajantha Mendis became the first bowler to bag six wickets in a Twenty20 international as Sri Lanka clinched the series 2-0 against Australia with an eight-run win in the second match Monday.

The unorthodox spinner finished with 6-16 off four overs as Australia lost their way after an explosive start provided by Shane Watson, who hammered a 24-ball 57 with five sixes and six fours.

Australia, who lost the first match by 35 runs, were eventually restricted to 149-9, after the hosts made 157 at the Pallekele International Stadium.

Sri Lanka were indebted to opener Mahela Jayawardene (86 off 63 balls) for posting a competitive total before Mendis ended Australia’s early flourish.

Angelo Mathews also caught the eye for Sri Lanka with his key role in David Warner’s dismissal off Mendis as he held a superb catch in the deep, but was about to step over the boundary line before relaying the ball to Jayawardene.

“That was a brilliant catch and the turning point,” said Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan. “This series is a big advantage going into the one-day and Test series.”

Watson dominated a 71-run stand for the opening wicket with Warner, but his dismissal in the sixth over triggered a collapse which saw Australia lose four wickets in the space of four runs.

“No excuses after the start Watson gave,” said Australia skipper Cameron White. “We just had to find a way but couldn’t. Mendis bowled beautifully.”

Sri Lanka were earlier strongly placed at 121-3 after 14 overs before paceman John Hastings rallied his team to eventually finish

with 3-14 off four tight overs. Fast bowler Brett Lee was the other main wicket-taker with 3-39, including two wickets in the last over. Jayawardene dominated Australia’s attack with exciting strokeplay, smashing one six and 12 fours in his sixth half-century in Twenty20 internationals.

He survived on 82 when he was caught off a Lee full-toss in the last over, but it was ruled a no-ball as it was above the waist. He fell in the same over, caught in the deep going for a

big shot.

Sri Lanka, electing to bat after winning the toss, lost Dilshan in the third over before being steadied by Jayawardene.

Dilshan, who hit an unbeaten century in the opening match, contributed just four runs this time before being trapped leg-before by Lee. Jayawardene then added 43 for the second wicket with Dinesh Chandimal (13) and 46 for the fourth with Kumar Sangakkara, who made a 16-ball 24.—AFP

SCOREBOARD KANDY: Scoreboard from the second Twenty20 match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday: Sri Lanka innings M Jayawardene c Hussey b Lee 86 T Dilshan lbw b Lee 4 D Chandimal c and b Smith 13 T Perera c Watson b Johnson 9 K Sangakkara c White b Hastings 24 J Mendis b Hastings 1 A Mathews b Hastings 5 D Perera c Smith b O’Keefe 0 N Kulasekara b Lee 4 R Herath not out 1 A Mendis not out 0 Extras: (lb-2, nb-1, w-7) 10 Total: (nine wickets, 20 overs) 157 Fall of wickets: 1-23 2-66 3-75 4-121 5-123 6-131 7-137 8-150 9-152.

Bowling: Lee 4-0-39-3 (w-1, nb-1), O’Keefe 4-0-33-1, Johnson 4-0-35-1, Smith 3-0-27-1, Hussey 1-0-7-0 (w-1), Hastings 4-0-14-3 (w-1)

Australia innings S Watson c T Perera b A Mendis 57 D Warner c Jayawardene b A Mendis16 D Hussey b Herath 2 S Marsh st Sangakkara b A Mendis 0 C White b T Perera 39 S Smith b A Mendis 12 B Haddin b A Mendis 0 M Johnson b A Mendis 7 S O’Keefe run out 1 J Hastings not out 3 B Lee not out 4 Extras: (b-4, lb-2, nb-1, w-1) 8 Total: (nine wickets, 20 overs) 149 Fall of wickets: 1-71 2-73 3-73 4-75 5-113 6113 7-129 8-131 9-144.

Bowling: Kulasekara 3-0-26-0 (nb-1), T Perera 2-0-21-1, D Perera 3-0-26-0, Herath 4-031-1 (w-1), A Mendis 4-1-16-6, J Mendis 4-023-0.

Sri Lanka won by eight runs

Strauss, Dhoni play down top ranking BIRMINGHAM: England captain Andrew Strauss and India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni played down the significance of the world rankings for different reasons yesterday ahead of the third test.

India are currently the number one side but England will leapfrog them and secondplaced South Africa if they win the four-match series by two clear tests, a feat they would achieve with victor y at Edgbaston.

“We’re not approaching this test match any differently,” Strauss told reporters. “That number one ranking comes as a consequence of playing good cricket.

So all we’ve got to concentrate on is playing good cricket.

“Rankings are not at the forefront of our mind at the mind, what is at the forefront of our mind is starting this test match well and hoping to get into a position to win it later in the week.”

Dhoni, whose team lost heavily at Lord’s and Trent Bridge and have been hampered by injuries to key players like Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag, was equally unconcerned by the rankings.

“We don’t talk much about ratings,” Dhoni said. “I’ve said in the last two years, ratings are not what are important for us.

“What we concentrate on is the kind of cricket we are playing so we try to break the sessions into smaller sessions not look five days ahead as to what may be the result.

“What’s important for us is how you go about doing stuff in the first hour. We know the small things that matter and we will try

to stick to that.”

England look set to make one change to the team that won by 319 runs in Nottingham with Ravi Bopara replacing the injured Jonathan Trott. Bopara’s last test was two years ago and he averages 33.46 in 10 matches.

Chris Tremlett has been released from the squad having failed to recover from a back injury, so Tim Bresnan should retain his place for the match starting today.

“I think Ravi being the only change would be a reasonable assumption to make barring any last minute injuries,” Strauss added. “We’re all delighted that Ravi has got a chance again.

“He has been knocking on the door for quite a long time. He fills the role that has been vacated by Jonathan Trott very well with his batting and his ability to bowl a few overs. It’s great to see him have the opportunity come into the Test side again.”

India’s selection is less clearcut. Sehwag has recovered from shoulder surgery and while he made only eight in the warmup match at Northamptonshire, Dhoni said his place was almost assured. Gautam Gambhir will also return, from a bruised arm, and open with Sehwag.

Harbhajan is out with a stomach muscle problem and India are deciding whether to pick a replacement spinner, slow leftarmer Pragyan Ojha or leg-spinner Amit Mishra, or a fourth pace bowler. “He (Sehwag) is practising every day, which means he’s available for selection and I can see no good reason why he shouldn’t play,” Dhoni said.

“He’s a very dynamic player who backs his instinct to play

shots, irrespective of which bowler he’s facing.

He believes more in looking at the ball and just giving it the treatment it deserves. “We all

know an aggressive opener can have a very big impact on the opposition bowling attack-so he’s a very good player to have in the side.”—Reuters

LONDON: India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni walks to the nets during a prac tice session at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground. —AP

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

S P ORT S

Matches called off as riots spread across London

STUTTGART: Ralf (left) helps Luiz Gustavo with an exercise during a practice session of the Brazilian soccer squad. Brazil will face Germany in a friendly soccer match today. —AP

Germany looks for first win over Brazil in 18 years BERLIN: With one eye on the past, Germany is putting its faith in the future as it looks to beat Brazil for the first time in 18 years in a friendly today.

Highly rated 19-year-old midfielder Mario Goetze is expected to make his first start for Germany before a sellout crowd of close to 55,000 in Stuttgart.

Goetze’s sparkling performances for Borussia Dortmund have earned him rave reviews - he was compared to Argentina’s Lionel Messi by former Germany player and manager Franz Beckenbauer - and he should fill in for the rested Real Madrid midfielder Mesut Oezil.

“He is a player who brings a lot to the game, who finds solutions on the pitch,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said yesterday. “He has an ingenuity with the ball and also without it - he can play the ball without looking down and he has good vision for the players around - so he’s quite developed already.”

Brazilian hopes are pinned on another 19year-old, Neymar of Santos, as it looks to recover from a disastrous showing in the Copa America, which saw the team exit in the quarterfinals.

“We’re beginning the second phase following the Copa America,” Brazil coach Mano Menezes said before leaving for Germany. “We’re heading in the right direction. We’re still looking at building this new team. We have great players, now we need put them in place and build a great team.”

Germany has not beaten Brazil since a 2-1 win in Cologne on Nov. 17, 1993, one of only three victories compared to 12 for the South Americans. There have been five draws.

The last meeting between the sides was in June 2005, when Brazil prevailed 3-2 in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup. Germany has all but qualified for next year’s European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, while Brazil will play mainly friendlies before it hosts the World Cup in 2014.

Dortmund offseason signing Ilkay Guendogan was the only new call-up to Loew’s squad. The 20-year-old Guendogan, who chose to play for Germany over Turkey when he was 18, said “I’m happy that it has worked out.”

Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 22-year-old winger Marco Reus is also in line to win his first cap after being called up three times before. He had to pull out each time because of injury, but said he would not take any special precautions before the game.

“That wouldn’t help,” Reus said. “If you’re only focused on not getting injured, then you can be sure something will happen.”

He added: “Not everyone can say they made their debut in a game against Brazil. I would be thrilled if it actually happened.”

Loew has no major injury worries, with Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng expected to shake off an ankle injury to start on the bench.

A left knee injury has ruled Chelsea defender David Luiz out for Brazil, leaving Lucio, Thiago Silva and Dede as the likely starting defenders for the match.

Sami Khedira was also allowed a rest following Real Madrid’s summer tour. With Goetze coming in for Oezil, Toni Kroos should take Khedira’s place in defensive midfield.

Kroos is one of seven Bayern Munich players expected to start for Germany, with Manuel Neuer in goal and striker Mario Gomez hoping to add to his 19 international goals.

Another Bayern player, Luiz Gustavo, could debut for Brazil along with midfielder Ralf of Corinthians and defender Dede from Vasco.

“It’s a new moment for everybody and also for coach Mano Menezes,” said Milan striker Alexandre Pato after arriving Monday in Germany. “We have to restore our tarnished image.”

Bayern Leverkusen midfielder Renato Augusto said Brazil needs a good showing.

“There’s nothing like a win to forget the past,” he said, referring to the Copa America. “It’s going to be a difficult game, we’ll see what they (Germany) have to offer.”

With Gomez starting, Stuttgart striker Cacau will have to settle for a place on the bench. The Brazil-born Cacau, who ordered 60 tickets for friends and family to attend the game, said it was “a special feeling” to play against the land of his birth in his adopted city. —AP

ITALY: In this picture taken Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, Atalanta’s captain Cristiano Doni looks on at the end of a friendly soccer match against Lumezzane in Rovetta. —AP

Atalanta have six points deducted, Doni banned MILAN: Promoted Atalanta had six points deducted and their captain, former Italy international Cristiano Doni, was suspended for three-and-a-half years yesterday by the Italian soccer federation (FIGC) over alleged matchfixing.

Retired former Lazio and Italy striker Giuseppe Signori was banned for five years from any football-related activity, the FIGC added in a statement.

They were among 17 individuals suspended for between one and five years and an equal number of clubs, all except Atalanta outside the top division, to have points deducted or be fined in the betting scandal.

The federation said Atalanta’s punishment will take effect for the coming season, meaning the team will begin their first campaign back in the top flight with minus six points when Serie A kicks off at the end of this month.

Serie B team Ascoli will also have six points deducted while third division Alessandria Calcio were demoted. The clubs and individuals were cited by the FIGC’s sporting prosecutor following a

criminal investigation into a betting scam which had initially centred on 18 games in the second tier Serie B and Italy’s lower divisions.

Police said they had found evidence of an organised system among former and current footballers, sports betting operators and others to manipulate the results of a number of soccer matches.

They said bets worth tens of thousands of euros, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, had been placed on matches.

The investigation was triggered by a Serie B match in Cremona last season which aroused suspicions that led to a wider probe.

Atalanta are likely to appeal the decision with a hearing expec ted before the new Serie A season kicks off.

Fellow top flight side Chievo avoided any points penalty after paying a fine following a plea bargain earlier in the process.

Italian soccer had only just recovered from a 2006 match-fixing scandal which led Juventus to be demoted to Serie B. —Reuters

LONDON: Police on Monday ordered football clubs in London to postpone matches as violence and looting spread across the British capital for a third night with buildings being set ablaze.

As police struggled to contain the spiraling disorder, League Cup matches due to take place at West Ham and Charlton yesterday were postponed due to security resources being stretched.

England’s friendly against the Netherlands today at Wembley Stadium in north London is also under threat, although officials will meet with police 24 hours before the match to discuss the situation.

West Ham, though, said police told it to postpone the League Cup match against Aldershot yesterday because “all major public events in London were to be rearranged.” The east London club said it was “because of the need to focus police resources elsewhere.”

“Whilst neither the club or police anticipate any issues around the game itself, the club has to comply with the police request,” West Ham said.

South London side Charlton said its cup match against Reading was being called off “on safety grounds” on advice from the police.

The violence, which is unrelated to any football issues, began late Saturday near Tottenham’s ground in north London when a peaceful protest against the fatal police shooting of a man in disputed circumstances degenerated into a rampage.

The damage at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane stadium was limited to a ticket office, which remains closed. But Tottenham announced that stadium tours

have been canceled for “safety reasons,” while the neighborhood’s main shopping street remains cordoned off on Monday, with steam still rising from burnt-out buildings.

The opening game of the Premier League season, however, is still due to go ahead.

everything it can to ensure that this remains the position.”

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said the club is “deeply saddened” by the weekend rioting, which saw buildings in the area torched and police officers injured.

“The club is committed to sup-

look to play our part in that.”

But there has also been anger directed against the club among locals since Levy unveiled plans last year to bid for the right to move into the Olympic Stadium in east London after the 2012 Games. Although the stadium was awarded to rival club West

LONDON: England’s Rio Ferdinand (left) and John Terry (centre) lead out their team-mates as they make their way out ahead of a training session at the London Colney, training facility yesterday. Raging riots across London forced England to call off today’s soccer match against the Netherlands at Wembley Stadium. —AP “Following the disturbances in Tottenham over the weekend, the club has been in ongoing discussions with the necessary authorities regarding this coming weekend’s Premier League fixture against Ever ton,” Tottenham said in a statement.

“We can advise fans that at this stage the game is going ahead and the Club is doing

porting its community with help with both the physical clean up of our area and the longer term rebuilding of the community spirit,” Levy said. “It is more critical than ever that community, business and political leaders local and national, public and private - now work closely together to support the regeneration of this area and we shall certainly

Ham, Tottenham is still challenging that decision in court.

The club also announced last month that it was still looking to resurrect plans to build a new stadium next to its current home by applying for public funding.

Levy did not directly refer to the club’s future in Tottenham in Monday’s statement condemning the weekend violence. —AP

Russia face tough Serbia test MOSCOW: Russia, who are battling for top spot in the 2012 European championship’s qualifying Group B, are set to test their current form today in a home friendly with Serbia.

Russia share the lead in their qualifying group with the Republic of Ireland and Slovakia, who are all on 13 points after six matches, five points ahead of fourth-placed Armenia.

In September Russia will play two crucial home qualifiers, with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ireland. Russia’s national manager Dick Advocaat has called up 20 players for the friendly with Serbia.

Right back Alexander Anyukov, who missed the qualifier with Armenia on June 4 because of suspension, will probably play while Yury Zhirkov, who moved to Anzhi Makhachkala from English Premiership giants Chelsea, is also expected to start.

“We desperately need to play a friendly ahead of the decisive qualifying clashes in September,” Zhirkov said.

“This time we will face really strong opponents-Serbia. It seems to be a really good test for us.”

But Advocaat will have to do without Rubin Kazan midfielder Alexander Ryazantsev, who is sidelined with an injury. His place is likely to go to Dynamo Moscow playmaker Igor Semshov who scored his 100th goal in the Russian league last month.

Advocaat has also issued lastminute call-up to Zenit St Petersburg defensive midfielder Roman Shirokov, who has just recovered from injury and featured in Saturday’s 2-0 win over CSKA Moscow.

Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchnko, who scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 win in their last outing against Armenia, and Stuttgart forward Pavel Pogrebnyak look set to start up front.

The two sides have met eight times in the post-Soviet era with Russia leading the head-to-head by three wins to one with four draws. Serbia head coach Vladimir Petrovic, who will be without the injured Dejan Stankovic of Inter Milan and Chelsea full back Branislav Ivanovic, is looking at the game as an important test ahead of September’s Euro 2012 qualifiers with Northern Ireland and Faroe Islands.

“We deliberately chose Russia,” Petrovic said. “We need to play against strong teams to try and find some form ahead of the upcoming deciding qualifiers.”

Serbia are third in their qualifying Group C with eight points from six matches, three points behind secondplaced Slovenia, who have played a game more. Italy top their group with 16 points. —AFP

ITALY: Spanish national soccer team coach Vicente del Bosque listens to a question during a press conference. Italy and Spain will play an exhibition match today. —AP

More than a friendly between Italy, Spain ROME: Neither the Italian nor Spanish leagues are up and running yet and it’s only a friendly but both sides are taking their international clash here today very seriously.

Italy host the world champions in their toughest test since Cesare Prandelli took over from Marcello Lippi following their World Cup disaster in South Africa just over a year ago.

The Azzurri arrived as the reigning champions but their defence petered out feebly as they failed to win any of three group games, unable to beat even New Zealand.

Spain on the other hand proved beyond all question that they’re the best team out there at the moment. Such has been their and Barcelona’s dominance-most of the Spain team also line up for Barca-that many feel next season’s European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, where Spain are also the reigning champions, will be little more than a procession for the Iberians.

And while they have won every one of their Euro 2012 qualification group matches, twice in the last year they have proved remarkably brittle in friendlies.

Both Argentina and Portugal put four goals past them in friendlies and although they won comfortably away to the United States and Colombia in June, they may have lost some of their air of invincibility, certainly when nothing is riding on the game.

And Prandelli is definitely taking this game seriously as he looks to continue the undoubted development his team have shown, although admittedly mostly against modest opposition.

“I want to see character and courage in winning back the ball and then using it,” he said. “I’m interested to see where we’re at. Of course Spain begin with an advantage from the work they’ve done over the years right from the junior nation-

al teams.

“But this match will certainly serve us.” Spain’s Andres Iniesta also claims that despite the importance of preparing for the beginning of their respective league campaigns, both the Italian and Spanish players will be up for it.

“It’s true that we’re at the beginning of the season but there’s always an extra motivation playing against Italy,” said the Barcelona star.

“They’re one of the best teams in the world and this is one of those games you always want to play in. “I expect it to be an intense game as it always is against Italy, and even more so because they’re at home.”

However, with the Spanish Supercup due to begin at the weekend (it’s played over two legs) between the country’s two biggest rivals, Barca and Real Madrid, the international friendly has perhaps taken a back seat in terms of importance.

Spain have been hit by a major withdrawal from each camp. First Real’s Sergio Ramos pulled out of the squad and then so too did Barca’s Xavi.

Prandelli is not without his own problems for having overlooked his former charge at Fiorentina, veteran striker Alberto Gilardino.

La Viola’s coach Sinisa Mihajlovic hit out at Prandelli for having selected two players from Serie B but not Gilardino-although the two in question are a full-back and a midfielder and not in direct competition for Gilardino’s place.

“Gilardino is one of the best in the world in getting behind a defence and with lots of balls into the box,” said Prandelli.

“But against Spain I need forwards with other characteristics. (Angelo) Palombo (whose team Sampdoria have only just been relegated) is not a Serie B player and (Torino’s Angelo) Ogbonna has incredible ability.” —AFP

Strauss, Dhoni play down top ranking

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TORONTO: Germany’s Julia Goerges reaches for a shot during her 6-1, 6-3 win over Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament. —AP

Bartoli falls in Toronto TORONTO: Qualifier Galina Voskoboeva upset France’s Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round of the $2.05 million WTA hardcourt tournament here on Monday.

Kazakhstan’s Voskoboeva, currently ranked 135th in the world after reaching a career high of 64th in February of 2009, arrived in Toronto after reaching the first semi-final of her career at Baku, Azerbaijan, in July.

Bartoli, ranked ninth in the world and seeded ninth, had trouble with her serve and double-faulted four times. But she said her serve was just one of her problems.

“It was a day when nothing was working,” Bartoli said. “I tried my hardest but I committed so many mistakes it was hard to win. I was not feeling the ball and my legs were not moving. “I was late on everything and committing a lot mistakes, especially on my backhand.”

Romanian qualifier Simona Halep pulled off another upset, rallying to defeat 12th-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Kuznetsova, ranked 15th in the world, had 50 unforced errors. Tenth-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia, who dropped out of the top 10 on Monday for the first time since April

of last year, advanced with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ayumi Morita of Japan.

Stosur will meet the winner of late yesterday’s match between Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada and Shahar Peer of Israel. The top eight seeds at this US Open tuneup have firstround byes.

The talent-laden field is led by world number one Caroline Wozniacki, trying to get back on track after early exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Last year Wozniacki went all the way to the title here and after a first-round bye, she will begin her defense against either

Wawrinka sees off Nalbandian MONTREAL: Roger Federer turned 30 on Monday but fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka gave himself a present instead as he outclassed Argentinian David Nalbandian 6-1, 6-4 to reach the second round of the ATP Montreal Masters.

Wawrinka, who won the 2008 Olympic doubles gold medal alongside Federer, said that while he wouldn’t go so far as to give him a present he has the utmost respect for his compatriot as a player and a friend.

“I”ve known him since I was 16. We have always practised a lot, played together, played doubles, played the Olympics, the Davis Cup,” said the 26-year-old.

“It’s always good to know him and to play with him.” Wawrinka is making yet another change of tennis surface after playing on grass at Wimbledon, switching to indoors for a Davis Cup tie and then to clay for the Gstaaad ATP event last month before turning to cement for the run to the US Open which starts on August 29.

“It’s never easy,” admitted the Swiss, who reached the US Open quarter-finals last year.

“But with experience every year it’s more easy for me to come back from clay to hard court. I had almost a week, five days here to practise, to be ready.

“Everything is great. I’m playing great, I’m practising really well. To win in two straight sets was really good for me.”

Wawrinka was followed into the second round by Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine.

The winner of the Umag title a week ago in Croatia beat Erik Chvojka, but it took a battle to secure the 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory.

MONTREAL: Philipp Petzschner from Germany tosses the ball to serve to Gilles Simon from France during first round of play at the Rogers Cup men’s tennis tournament.

Petzschner beat Simon 7-5, 6-2. — AP South African Kevin Anderson defeated Spain’s Pablo Andujar 6-4, 6-4. Wawrinka dominated his match breezing past 29-year-old Nalbandian, who has now lost two straight first-round matches on cement in as many weeks.

The Swiss advanced with eight aces and 25 winners while his Argentine opponent - a US Open semi-finalist in 2003 - struck 22 unforced errors and lost serve four times.

“With him, you never know,” said the winner. “Today he was not playing really good. I

think he’s not really ready. But in one week he can change his level.

“Next week he can play really well, beat every player, and be in the semi-final or final.

But we’ll see.” The tournament, which precedes another Masters 1000 next week in Cincinnati marks the fist time that the world Top four of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Federer and Andy Murray have played since either Wimbledon or the Davis Cup last month. Murray has won the last two editions in Canada at Montreal and Toronto. — AFP

Yanina Wickmayer or Roberta Vinci.

World No.2 Kim Clijsters is the second seed but has played just two tournaments in the past four months as she battled a string of injuries to her shoulder, wrist and ankle.

In the second round late yesterday Clijsters will face China’s Zheng Jie, a 6-2, 6-1 winner on Monday over fellow qualifier Alberta Brianti of Italy. Russian Nadia Petrova also advanced, defeating Australian Jarmila Groth 6-1, 6-2 to set up a second-round clash with third-seeded compatriot Vera Zvonareva.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, Russian Maria

Sharapova, China’s Li Na, Czech Petra Kvitova and Italy’s Francesca Schiavone round out the top eight seeds.

The field also includes 13-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, who is unseeded after returning from an absence of nearly 11 months because of injury and illness.

She cemented her return by lifting the title in Stanford a fortnight ago. If Williams gets past Alona Bondarenko in the first round yesterday she’ll face Germany’s Julia Goerges, a 61, 6-3 winner over Serbian 15th seed Jelena Jankovic.—AFP

Federer has plenty of tennis left — Connors MONTREAL: Old pro Jimmy Connors predicted that Roger Federer still has plenty of tennis life left as the world number three from Switzerland turned 30 on Monday.

Connors, who reigned atop the sport in the 1970s and won eight Grand Slam singles titles in the 1970s and early 1980s, was to be inducted into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame on Monday.

The 58-year-old American said that with Federer’s effortless style of play over the years, his brilliant career could go on for many more seasons.

“As far as turning 30, I would consider that still young in Roger ’s case only because over such a period of time he was winning matches in a way that really didn’t tax him so much because he was playing at such a high level,” Connors said.

“I would think that he’s still in some pretty good shape, so I don’t think that 30 would bother him.” Connors did admit that age brings more responsibility to stay fit and work hard off court.

“When you get older, that means you just have to work harder, put in the time.

But your life changes along the way, certainly.

“He (Federer) has a couple children now, so many other things on his mind.

He has to remember the one thing that has gotten him to this point is his tennis, what he’s put into it.”

Federer wasn’t on court on his birthday. After a first-round bye he’ll kick off his Montreal campaign with a secondround clash against either Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina or Canadian wild card Vasek Pospisil.

“The older you get, the things get tougher,” warned Connors. “It gets harder to make time to practise. It gets harder going out and working on things that need to be improved.

“Federer has played an awful lot of matches. But if he’s going to continue at this level, he’s got to spend the time and working on the right things.”

Connors also took a moment to relive his own memories of playing Montreal, a tournament which he never won. “I played some very good tennis here, but as I was reminded last night, I got to the semis quite a few times but never won it. “ That cer tainly wasn’t by lack of effort. I happened to run into some good guys (John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl). I could only do what I could do. Too late to change that now.” — AFP

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CAIRO: An Egyptian trader reacts after trading has been halted for 30 minutes on the Egyptian Exchange after the benchmark index fell 5 percent, tracking a plunge in other world markets at the stock market, in Cairo yesterday. — AP

Gulf stocks crash on global jitters Kuwait, UAE, Qatar lead routs

DUBAI: Gulf stock markets dropped yesterday as world markets continued to deteriorate over fears of a new global economic recession because of European and US economic woes.

“There is a complete surrender to the developments in global markets ... Local markets are ignoring the economic fundamentals of the region,” said financial analyst Wadah Taha.

“There is total panic and an inability to diagnose the developments in Europe and the United States and understand their potential impact on regional markets,” he said. Although oil prices continued to fall, Taha said that the impact on the economies of the oil-rich region

should be limited as current prices remain above the prices projected in governments’ budgets. The Dubai Financial Market index closed 1.95 percent down at 1,444.29 points, with leading Emaar Properties falling 2.83 percent and Arabtec construction group dropping 2.99 percent. In Abu Dhabi, the capital’s stock market slipped 1.34 percent to 2,577.76 points at the close. All sectors were down, with energy leading the losses by a drop of 3.93 percent.

The Saudi market, closed later reducing its losses to 0.81 percent at 6,008.67 points, after it plummeted 4.27 percent at the opening. The leading petrochemical sector, which shed 5.49

percent of its value at the start of trade, narrowed its losses to 1.05 percent.

The largest Arab bourse shed 5.46 percent of its value on Saturday after being the first market to feel the impact of the historic downgrading of the US credit rating late on Friday by Standard & Poor’s. Other Gulf markets closed in the red yesterday.

Qatar Exchange, the second-largest Arab stock market, was 1.76 percent down at 8,070.69 points. Kuwait Stock Exchange also widened its losses to 1.25 percent, closing at 5,882.2 points. Muscat Securities Market in Oman closed 2.42 percent down at 5,894.02

points, and Bahrain Bourse dropped 0.73 percent to 1,265.38 points.

Egyptian stocks tumbled across the board yesterday, extending two days of sharp declines as fears for the global economy continued to drain funds from riskier emerging markets. The benchmark index fell 5 percent at the open before it was suspended for half an hour for breaching a downward limit. It closed down 4.8 percent at the end of a shortened Ramadan trading session.

The price of New York crude sank below $80 in Asian trade and its Brent counterpart briefly dropped under $100. “It is understandable if

companies linked to energy and petrochemicals were affected, but many listed companies are local in their activities and their drop is not justified,” said Taha. He said confidence was unlikely to return to Gulf markets before strong signals for drastic action in Europe and the United States to calm global markets. “Markets will remain in fear, watching what happens abroad and ignoring local fundamentals,” he said. Global markets are reeling under the impact of fears over about global economic growth and sovereign debt after the downgrading of the US credit rating and debt problems in the euro-zone. — Agencies

Gold hits $1,778 in biggest three-day rally since 2008 LONDON: Gold hit a record high yesterday in its biggest three-day rally since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, as investor fears over the threat to the global economy from the European and US debt crises hit assets seen as higher risk.

Though spot prices retreated from highs as stock markets opened higher in the United States, they remained up 1.4 percent on the day at $1,739.60 an ounce at 1342 GMT, having earlier peaked at $1,778.29.

“The short run uptrend is intact,” said VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov. “Panic dominates for now and even though we have rebounded a bit on the broader market, people will still fear liquidating substantial gold longs.” Gold has risen by about 7 percent this month, driven by flows of cash

out of equities, bonds and currencies, after the United States lost its top-notch credit rating. Investors have lost confidence in the ability of European leaders to stem the spread of the debt crisis that has now engulfed the euro zone’s third- and fourthlargest economies, Italy and Spain.

European stocks lost over 5 percent in early trade, higher-yielding currencies slid, German government bonds and the Swiss franc rallied as investors ditched anything perceived to be risky.

“The market could come off from here, but it’s headed in a northerly direction,” said ANZ head of metal sales Peter Hillyard earlier. “From where we are now, you might think we could see some sort of pull-back.

But I’m talking about a momentary thing, a

Bahrain to keep dollar peg after S&P cut DUBAI: Bahrain will keep its currency peg to the dollar following Standard & Poor’s US rating downgrade, the Gulf state’s central bank governor said in remarks published yesterday.

“The exchange rate policy followed suits our economic situation,” Rasheed Al-Maraj was quoted as saying by Bahrain’s Arabic daily Al-Ayam newspaper. “ The central bank is working to secure a stable financial policy to support economic growth in Bahrain and to help the commercial sector from the volatility risk in the dollar exchange.”

His position echoed that of the United Arab Emirates, which said on Sunday it stuck by its currency peg. All Gulf Arab states other than Kuwait peg their currencies to the dollar and their fortunes are

closely tied to US developments. Gulf states are also major investors in US Treasuries, which have remained in strong demand since Friday’s S&P action.

S&P cut its US long-term credit rating amid concerns about the nation’s budget deficits and climbing debt burden. The move contributed to wiping trillions off global markets on rising fears of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy.

Bahrain’s central bank head said in July the kingdom had no plans to change base interest rates. Its repo rate and one-week deposit rate have stood at 2.25 percent and 0.50 percent respectively since September 2009. Analysts polled by Reuters in June cut the country’s growth outlook for the second time in a row, to 2.7 percent from 3.4 percent. — Reuters

pull-back like the loading of a gun, which then fires away.”

Reflecting the rush into gold, holdings of metal in exchange-traded funds rose for a twelfth day to an all-time high near 70 million ounces, equivalent about half of total supply in 2010, based on World Gold Council data.

Gold priced in euros hit an all-time peak above 1,250 euros an ounce and was set for its biggest two-day rally since May 2010, when the euro zone debt crisis first flared. Gold in sterling and yen also hit records. Gold’s upward progress has attracted some profit-tak ing from investors who have scrambled to plug holes in their portfolio from the rout across the stock markets. — Reuters

BANGKOK: Thai customers queue to buy gold at a jewelry shop in Bangkok yesterday. The price of gold struck a record high above $1,700 an ounce on Monday with dealers flocking to the safe haven metal as Asian stocks tumbled following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of US debt. — AFP

Fed faces recession fears, market havoc WASHINGTON: New recession worries and market havoc pose the toughest challenge yet this year for the US Federal Reserve when its policy board meet later yestreday holding a near-depleted box of stimulus tools.

Economists say the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), meeting for the first time since its “QE2” asset purchase program ended in June, has few options to overcome stagnating growth and the growing pessimism that sent stock markets on their deepest plunge since the crisis of 2008.

Also under the dark shadows of the eurozone debt crisis, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and his team will be challenged to shore up confidence in what they have repeatedly called a “recovery” that looks less and less like one.

US officials are already fending off suggestions of a “double-dip” recession, two years after the 19-month “Great Recession” ended in June 2009. But analysts say the economy in

the second half of the year will remain weak, with Goldman Sachs estimating a one-in-three chance of returning to negative growth, after a one percent growth in the first half.

Already pressure is building on the Fed to adopt a new stimulus program after the expiration of the $600 billion QE2 (the central bank’s second round of quantitative easing), though many doubt that more liquidity in the system will help.

“We assume that a further easing of monetary policy will be up for serious debate,” said Harm Bandholz at UniCredit Bank. Almost certainly the central bank will keep its ultra-low, near-zero interest rate in place. In the first half of the year, the FOMC was divided between a majority who believed the economy remained soft, and a minority who believed the economy was gaining steam and faced a burst of easy money-induced inflation.

But after growth in the second quarter proved to be nearly stagnant, and inflation fell,

in July Bernanke told a congressional panel that more stimulus could be merited. “The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might reemerge, implying the need for additional policy support,” he said.

He said the Fed could follow in the footsteps of QE2 and increase its purchases of US securities, pushing more liquidity into the economy. It could also cut a key interest rate it pays to banks on their reserves-which could help push down commercial lending rates, he said. Goldman Sachs and others expect at least some technical signals to the market from the language in the Fed’s post-meeting statement: to signal that their low funds rate will stay in place longer than previously suggested, and to signal that they will leave the money injected into the market under QE2 (through buying Treasury bonds) longer in the market than earlier suggested. —AFP

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The most powerful C-Class of all time The new Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Coupe black series

pectacular design, technology transfer from the world of motorsport and driving dynamics at the highest level; the new Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series embodies the new AMG brand claim, Driving Performance, like no other AMG model. The new high-performance vehicle is the most powerful C-Class of all time, boasting a maximum output of 380 kW (517 hp) and a maximum torque of 620 newton metres. The AMG 6.3-litre V8 engine impresses with its hefty torque, tremendous pulling power and responsiveness, and ensures highcalibre performance: the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 4.2 seconds (all data provisional). Exclusive fun at the wheel comes courtesy of the adjustable AMG coil-over sports suspension, the AMG high-performance compound braking system and the functional standard equipment. The AMG Track Package is available as an option to enhance driving dynamics even further. It boasts sports tyres and active rearaxle transmission cooling, plus the AMG Aerodynamics package including flics, a functionally tuned front splitter and an adjustable carbonfibre rear aerofoil.

Broad, low, brawny and ready to pounce from a standstill - the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series makes a mighty impression. It’s clear right from the first time you set eyes on it that the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series is made for ambitious laps on a closed-off race track.

In visual terms the new highperformance vehicle is reminiscent of the SLS AMG GT3 customer spor ts car and symbolises the transfer of technology from the sphere of motorsport, which has been part of the corporate philosophy of Mercedes-AMG GmbH for 44 years now.

With its new C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series, AMG is presenting an exciting sports car for enthusiasts

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who are passionate about sports cars which are big on horsepower, and this marks the impressive continuation of the Black Series strategy, which began back in 2006. AMG, the per formance brand of Mercedes-Benz Cars, is once again demonstrating its expertise when it comes to designing and developing emotionally appealing high-performance cars.

“AMG has its roots in international motorsport. The new C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series is the best proof

angle you’re looking at it: the new C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series displays its ties with motorsport from every perspective. The arrow-shaped front section with the central Mercedes star in the radiator grille is the visual synonym for its unfettered forwards thrust. The air intakes in the striking front apron ensure reliable air flow through the large cooling modules.

Two openings in the aluminium bonnet support the expelling of engine heat, whilst the struts positioned at an angle in the front apron

there is for the permanent transfer of technology from the race track to the road. The numerous successes in the DTM, the customer sports range featuring the SLS AMG GT3 and our commitment to Formula 1, where we have been providing the Official F1? Safety Car and the Official F1? Medical Car for the past 15 years, continuously spur on our engineers and technicians. The C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series embodies the new AMG brand claim, Driving Performance, like no other AMG model”, comments Ola K?llenius, the CEO of Mercedes-AMG GmbH.

emphasize the vehicle’s width. The black front splitter located at the lower end helps to balance the vehicle aerodynamically.

Arrow-shaped front section with large cooling air openings It doesn’t matter from which

AMG light-alloy wheels 255/35 R 19 and 285/30 R 19 these are the impressive wheel formats for the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series at its market launch. The wheel/tyre combination is mounted on 9 x 19 (front) and 9.5 x 19 (rear) AMG light-alloy wheels, fills out the wings to stunning effect and plays a significant part in the dynamic appearance of this new AMG sports car. Painted titanium grey, the highsheen light-alloy wheels are produced using particularly light forging technology - as is the case on

the SLS AMG. These forged wheels weigh a total of eleven kilograms less than comparable wheels with a conventional design. The lower weight results in reduced unsprung masses, which improves both the suspension’s response and the steering precision.

Broad effect The tail end of the Black Series coupÈ is also a feast for the eyes: the new rear apron with its expressive black diffuser insert creates a broad effect. Just like on the SLS AMG GT3, it protrudes beyond the profile of the rear apron. The black grille on the upper end of the diffuser insert is an eye-catching feature, as is the AMG sports exhaust system: both of the chromed twin tailpipes integrated into the rear apron have an angular cross-section. The spoiler lip on the boot lid is painted in the vehicle colour and reduces lift at the rear axle, resulting in more driving stability at high speeds. The AMG logo with its discreet “Black Series” lettering is reserved exclusively for the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series.

A displacement of 6.3 litres, a maximum output of 380 kW (517 hp) and a torque of 620 newton metres from eight cylinders - one glance at the technical data and it’s clear that the engineering behind the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series is every bit the equal of its sensational appearance. The high-torque M156 naturally aspirated engine was specially refined for the new two-door model, whose forged pistons, connecting rods and the crankshaft with a lightweight design, for example, all come courtesy of the SLS AMG. These measures are flanked by a new engine control unit. As the car’s performance proves, the uprated V8 engine has an easy time of it in the coupÈ: the sprint from standing to 100 is over in 4.2* seconds (* preliminary data).

Plenty of pulling power, an agile response and hefty torque - the

qualities of the large-displacement AMG high-speed naturally aspirated engine arouse unadulterated passion in the driver.

AMG coil-over sports suspension with an AMG rear axle differential lock The AMG sports suspension is a sophisticated new development. It has been designed as a coil-over suspension, as is the norm in motorsport - and it represents a hallmark feature of a Black Series model. It

the AMG high-performance braking system has also been redeveloped: a larger braking system is now used, with discs featuring compound technology proven in motorsport at the front axle (format: 390 x 36 millimetres) and integral discs at the rear axle (360 x 26 mm).

Red-painted six-piston fixed callipers at the front and four-piston fixed callipers at the rear reliably decelerate the perforated, faderesistant brake discs, which are ventilated all round.

offers numerous setting options, and allows the driver to create their own personal set-up.

The AMG speed-sensitive sports steering facilitates superb vehicle control: the retuned map control for the power assistance ensures optimum steering precision.

The standard-specification AMG rear axle differential lock is responsible for reliable traction in particular for race-track applications. The 3stage ESP offers the ideal solution for all driving situations: via the ESP(r) button the driver can choose from the “ESP ON”, “Sport Handling Mode” and “ESP OFF” stages. In view of the increased driving dynamics, not only has the anti-lock braking system been completely retuned;

The captivating high-tech components and the spectacular exterior design both find their logical continuation in the interior of the C 63 AMG CoupÈ Black Series, which is black with red highlight elements, displaying the functional atmosphere of a true racing vehicle, whilst at the same time positively glowing with high quality and lovingly crafted details. Two AMG sports bucket seats facilitate the best levels of lateral support and thus optimum vehicle control on the race track. The black DINAMICA microfibre upholstery on the centre panels of the seats and doors is a new type of synthetic fibre which is characterised by its high light fastness.

flydubai’s Indian summer

flydubai will commence operations to Ahmedabad, its 44th operational destination, on 27 August 2011.

KUWAIT: flydubai, Dubai’s pioneering low cost airline, has announced flights to its 44th destination - the world’s third fastest growing city, Ahmedabad. Flights to India’s seventh largest city will operate weekly on Saturdays from 27 August 2011. Flights from Dubai will cost from AED 550 one way. Flights from Ahmedabad to Dubai will start at AED 620.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, said: “Ahmedabad is the former capital and largest city in Gujarat and I am delighted to be able to announce today that it will become the third Indian city on flydubai’s rapidly expanding network. “The growing Indian expatriate population in the UAE and the increasing reliance our two nations have on each other for our economic growth and development, makes the introduction of quality, affordable direct flights between the UAE and India’s numerous secondary airports very important.

“I would like to thank the Indian authorities for granting us the permission to fly to this exciting destination. flydubai looks forward to extending a very warm welcome to the passengers travelling between Ahmedabad and Dubai and we look forward to being able to extend our service to other Indian cities in the future.” The site of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and the base of India’s independence movement, the 600-year old city has always been of national and international significance. In recent years, Ahmedabad has also become prominent as a seat of academia, attracting scholars and experts from around the globe to institutions like the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), National Institute of Design and the Indian Space Research Organisation. With the UAE’s increasing focus on knowledge based industries, the new routes will support joint-ventures in areas like space, design, agriculture,

pharmaceuticals and bio-technology.

Ahmedabad also has a strong sporting pedigree, with some matches from this year’s Cricket World Cup being played in the city’s Sardar Patel Stadium.

Flight details FZ437 to depart Dubai Terminal 2 at 2210hrs, landing in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 0250hrs local time. The return flight FZ438 will depart at 0335hrs, arriving in Dubai at 0505hrs. A one-way fare to Ahmedabad from Dubai starts at AED 550, and includes one piece of hand luggage weighing up to 7kg and one small laptop bag or hand bag. Fares from Ahmedabad to Dubai are priced from AED 620. Checked baggage starts at AED 50 for 20kgs. A seat with extra legroom costs AED 100. Flights between Dubai and Ahmedabad can be purchased from flydubai’s website (www.flydubai.com), its call centre (+9714 301 0800) and through travel partners.

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2706370 .4422760 .3851170 .3650360 .2704880 .2735460 .0060410 .0024740 .0737130 .7181570 .3827970 .0721890 .7032280 .0063980 .0458700

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2720500 GB Pound/KD .4445840 Euro .3871270 Swiss francs .3669410 Canadian dollars .2719000 Danish Kroner .0519680 Swedish Kroner .0417040 Australian dlr .2749750 Hong Kong dlr .0348350 Singapore dlr .2238170 Japanese yen .0035320 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0740980 Bahraini dinars .7219050 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0725660 Omani riyals .7068990 Philippine Peso .0000000

.2758550 .4508020 .3925420 .3720730 .2757030 .2788200 .0061580 .0025220 .0751350 .7320020 .3901770 .0735810 .7167850 .0065210 .0467550 .2741500 .4480160 .3901150 .3697730 .2739990 .0523690 .0420260 .2770970 .0351040 .2255450 .0035590 .0061190 .0025060 .0031840 .0036900 .0746700 .7274780 .3877650 .0731260 .7123550 .0064810

Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.551 6.052 3.160 2.485 3.781 225.540 34.029

GCC COUNTRIES 72.949 75.165 710.540 726.580 74.489

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 47.150 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 45.853 Yemen Riyal 1.252 Tunisian Dinar 199.740 Jordanian Dinar 386.130 Lebanese Lira 1.835 Syrian Lier 5.906 Morocco Dirham 35.284 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 273.450 Euro 390.620 Sterling Pound 448.050 Canadian dollar 276.580 Turkish lire 154.490 Swiss Franc 363.150 Australian dollar 279.330 US Dollar Buying 272.900 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL CASH

SELL DRAFT

286.100 726.880 3.860 278.400 536.900 36.400 53.000 167.800 47.940 394.500 35.730 6.330

284.600 726.880 3.655 276.900

226.100 45.899 393.000 35.580 6.060

0.033 0.241 0.238 3.610 388.170 0.185 93.530 47.200 4.210 229.600 1.853 50.800 709.900 3.290 6.600 75.610 72.970 226.080 39.860 2.629 452.000 42.900 367.200 5.600 9.490 198.263 74.520 273.700 1.220

0.033

386.290 0.184 93.530 3.800 228.100

365.700 5.600 9.360 74.420 273.300

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Currency

Selling Rate

272.950 287.750 448.881 398.614 336.036 723.683 74.287 74.920 72.747 384.203 45.810 2.490 6.230

3.163 3.652 6.476 669.512 3.571 9.218 5.739 3.937 90.730

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Canadian Dollars

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 450.000 273.300

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. 709.720 3.175 6.420 75.180 72.970 226.080 39.860 2.485 450.000

GOLD 1,746.640

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Bahrain Exchange Company Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees

Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal 10 Tola

GOLD 322.000 165.000 85.000

COUNTRY

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

3.651 6.430 9.126 0.271 0.273

273.200 3.175 6.065 2.500 3.660 6.445 74.485 73.055 726.300 45.850 454.200 0.00003280 3.910 1.550 388.200 5.750 395.600 282.200

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

272.850 392.800 449.800 276.400 3.575 6.040 45.835 2.485 3.654 6.395 3.164 726.800 74.350 72.850

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BUSINESS

Wataniya Telecom posts KD 308.5m net profit for first half of 2011 Another successful quarter with continued growth in revenue, profits

Golden offers on Chevrolet from Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive KUWAIT: Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive wishes everyone a Blessed Ramadan this season and welcomes the holy month by introducing one of its strongest campaigns of the year - the highly anticipated golden offers on all Chevrolet cars. This promotion marks another milestone in Yusuf A. Alghanim & Son’s foray of efforts to create valuable offerings and delightful experiences for customers.

With Chevrolet’s Golden Offer, everyone is a winner as customers will receive guaranteed cash vouchers upon the purchase of any Chevrolet vehicle including the Chevrolet Tahoe, Traverse, Silverado, Captiva, Cruze, Caprice, Malibu and Camaro. Personalized choices is what best describes the way of business at Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive. Customers can redeem their cash vouchers on a variety of products and services ranging from service contracts at Yusuf A. Alghanim, accessories from Kromozone, latest electronics from XCite as well as fashionable furniture & furnishings from Safat Home.

Chevrolet’s line-up caters to all tastes and personal preferences. From refined, spacious and safe vehicles for the family to sporty, high performance and reliable rides for the young at heart, Yusuf A.Alghanim & Sons golden offer provides everyone with the Chevrolet vehicle that best suits every individual’s needs, wants and lifestyle.

Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive adds the finishing touch to the ownership experience with highquality after-sales services. With the world’s biggest and most advanced automotive service center, customers are rest assured about their vehicle service and maintenance. Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive welcomes you and your family to the showrooms brimming with a joyful ambience and our friendly staff. Everyone can enjoy this year’s exclusive golden offers throughout Ramadan in all of Yusuf A.Alghanim & Sons showrooms.

Ramadan Kareem.

Bahrain okays $862m more for public wages DUBAI: Bahrain, the tiny Gulf state rocked by anti-government protests in February, approved extra budget spending of 325 million dinars ($862 million) to cover an increase in public sector salaries, the state news agency said. The additional spending in the state budget would cover the increase in wages from the financial years 2010 and 2011, BNA reported this week. The cabinet approved the draft law in a meeting on Sunday, amending some provisions of a 2011 law regarding the adoption of the state budget for the fiscal years 2011 and 2012. It also approved a draft law to raise the borrowing ceiling to 3.5 billion dinars from 2.5 billion currently. — Reuters

Etisalat to shake up top management DUBAI: UAE telecoms operator Etisalat is preparing for a major management shake-up that includes the retirement of its long-time chairman and the appointment of a new group chief executive, according to a report yesterday.

Arabian Business, citing unnamed sources, said on its website that the changes will result in the departure of several high-level executives including Chairman Mohamed Omran, who may retire later this year.

Arabian Business said an announcement to the stock exchange was expected this week. An Etisalat spokesman declined to comment on the report, saying: “Normally if we have any announcement, we immediately communicate it to the stock market and the media.”

The Abu Dhabi-listed former monopoly’s group financial officer Salem Al Sharhan left in April, citing personal reasons. The Gulf ’s largest telecoms firm, which is 60-percent-owned by the government, reported a 14.9 percent drop in profits last month, on higher operating costs rose and increasing competition in its home market from Dubai-based operator du . — Reuters

KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom (NMTC) announced its financial results for the first half 2011. The company has achieved KD 308.5 million. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman of Wataniya Telecom commented on the results saying, “The first half of 2011 was another successful period for Wataniya Telecom showing continuous growth in customers, revenue and profitability.

During the first half of 2011, Wataniya Telecom has seen an increase in revenue of 35.2% and EBITDA by 54.6% compared with the same period of 2010. Earnings per share have increased by 19.8 % after excluding the effects of the revaluation gain for Tunisiana”. He added: “Year on

Year Revenue increase of 15.4% in Kuwait and 30.6% in Algeria shows that investments of previous periods are starting to pay off and that we are capable of driving progress in competitive markets.

Tunisiana’s robust performance demonstrated the ability to overcome challenges and produce solid results Operational Highlights: * Total customer base increased to 16.9 million at the close of Q2 2011, versus 15.8 million at the same period in 2010, amounting to growth of 6.8%. * Revenues for H1 2011 amounted to KD 352.1 million ($1.29 billion), compared with KD 260.5million ($951.4 million) for the same period in 2010, amounting to growth of 35.2%. * EBITDA for the first half of 2011 was KD 155.5 million ($568.2 million), compared to EBITDA of KD 100.6 million ($367.4 million) for the same period in 2010, amounting to growth of 54.6%. * The consolidated Net Profit was at KD 308.5 million ($1.13 billion), compared to Net Profit for the same period in 2010 of KD 35.9 million ($131.0 million). Net Profit for H1 2011 includes a fair value gain of KD 265.5 million ($969.9 million) recorded due to revaluation of existing held interest in Tunisiana following the increase in the shareholding from 50% to 75%. The Net Profit in H1 2011 without

Review of Operations Wataniya - Kuwait Wataniya Kuwait’s customer base increased to 1.92 million customers at the end of Q2 2011, an increase of 14.9% on Q2 2010. Revenues for the first half 2011

were KD 124.1million ($453.5 million), an increase of 15.4% compared to revenues for the same period in 2010of KD 107.5 million (USD 392.8 million). EBITDA for H1 2011was KD 59.7 million ($218.1million) compared to EBITDA for the same period in 2010ofKD 46.8 million ($170.9 million), an increase of 27.6%. Net Profit was at KD 306.3 million ($1.12 billion), compared to Net Profit for the same period in 2010 of KD 34.3million ($125.5 million).

Net Profit for H1 2011 includes a fair value gain of KD 265.5 million ($969.9 million) recorded due to revaluation of existing 50% held interest in Tunisiana following the increase in the shareholding from 50% to 75%. The Net Profit in H1 2011 without the fair value gain was KD 40.8 million ($149.1 million), an increase of 18.8% on the same period of 2010.

Tunisiana - Tunisia As a result of the increased Tunisiana shareholding (now 75%) both revenue and EBITDA have been consolidated at 100% (previous year 50%) from Q1 2011 onwards. The Tunisiana customer base at the end of Q22011 stood at6.15million customers: an increase of 10.6% on the same period in 2010. Revenues for the first half 2011were KD 97.6 million ($356.6 million), compared to revenues for the same period in 2010 of KD 52.3 million ($191.1million). EBITDA for H1

NBK gives Watani Online users a chance to win KD 1,000 weekly KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has launched the “Use Watani Online and Win” promotional campaign that offers customers a chance to win KD 1,000 weekly. The campaign will run for eight weeks.

Customers who use Watani Online (www.nbk.com) to perform their banking transactions including account-toaccount transfers, credit card payments, bill payments or local and international transfers will be entitled for one chance per day each time they log in to Watani Online to enter the draw to win KD 1,000 weekly. NBK’s Deputy General ManagerConsumer Banking Group Abdulla AlNajran Al-Tuwaijri said: “This campaign aims to reward customers who do their banking with Watani Online and encourage new customers to join this high-tech, secure, convenient and free banking channel provided by the safest bank in the Middle East.” Watani Online can be accessed through NBK’s website at www.nbk.com.

InfoFort showcases secure govt to citizen solutions Kingdom eGovernment Summit 2011 KUWAIT: InfoFort, an Aramex company and the leading records and information management solutions provider in the Middle East and Africa, sponsored the Kingdom eGovernment Summit 2011 held in Riyadh this year.

The two-day event drew together nearly 100 senior-level government officials and solution providers to discuss the latest industry trends that will affect the Kingdom’s eGovernment offerings.

During the event, IT industry leaders and government officials explored a wide range of issues including ways to ensure easy access to technology for all public sector offices how to encourage strong communication between public offices and government departments in charge of implementing effective e-government programs and the role of financial support for nextgeneration eGovernment solutions.

the fair value gain was KD 43.0 million ($157.0 million), an increase of 19.8% on the same period of 2010. * The consolidated EarningsPer Share was616 fils (USD 2.2), compared to72 fils (26 cents) per share earned for the same period last year. Excluding revaluation gain the Earnings Per Share increased to86fils (31cents), amounting to an increase of 19.8%.

Abed Shaheen, Managing Director, InforFort delivered the final keynote speech at the event, focusing on how to improve government to citizen services while preserving critical records in the age of Wikileaks. “Services like those provided by InfoFort offer significantly improved access to important government services by citizens as they find it easier to obtain the essential information to access the services they require. As information becomes managed more effectively, allowing governments to provide better support through improved tracking and follow-up systems, citizens will be increasingly satisfied with the services afforded to them. But beyond citizen satisfaction, the improved efficiency and savings gained through implementing these systems will reduce overhead, wasted time and other unnecessary costs,” said Shaheen.

Abdulla Al-Tuwaijri

2011 was KD 54.5 million ($198.9 million) from KD 27.3 million ($99.7 million) for the same period last year representing an increase of 99.6%.

The total Net Profit stood at KD 22.2 million ($81.2 million) an increase of 82.1% when compared with KD 12.2 million ($44.6 million) for the same period in 2010. The Net Attributable Profit to Wataniya Telecom for the first half 2011was KD 16.7 million ($60.9 million), compared to KD 12.2million ($44.6 million) for the same period in 2010. This reflects the new 75% shareholding.

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman of Wataniya Telecom Nedjma - Algeria The Nedjma customer base at the end of Q22011 was8.05 million customers, a similar level as in the same period last year. Revenues for H1 2011were KD106.0 million ($387.1 million), an increase of 30.6% compared with revenues of KD 81.1 million ($296.4 million) for the same period in 2010.

EBITDA for H1 2011was KD 41.1 million ($150.0 million), an increase of 36.8% on KD 30.0 million ($109.8million) for the same period in 2010.The total Net Profit for the first half of 2011 was KD 10.7 million ($39.2 million) compared to a total net loss of KD 1.3million ($4.9 million) for the same period in 2010. The Net Attributable Profit to Wataniya Telecom for H1 2011was KD 7.6 million ($27.8 million) compared to a Net Attributable Loss of KD 1.0 million ($3.5 million) for the same period in 2010.

Bravo - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Bravo’s customer base was 0.21 million at the end of Q22011, an increase of 4.4% from the same period of2010.

Revenues for H12011 decreased to KD

9.7million ($35.3 million) from KD 11.1 million ($40.5 million) for the same period in 2010.The total Net Loss for H12011 was KD 5.2 million ($18.9 million) compared to a total Net Loss of KD 3.8 million ($13.8 million) for the same period in 2010.The Net Attributable Loss to Wataniya Telecom for the first half 2011was KD 2.9 million ($10.5 million),compared to a Net Attributable Loss of KD 2.1 million ($7.7 million) for the same period in 2010.

Wataniya - Maldives The total customer base at end of Q2 2011was 0.13million, an increase of 23.2% from the same period of 2010.

Revenues were KD5.0million ($18.3 million) for H12011compared to KD 4.6 million ($16.7 million) for the same period 2010. EBITDA for H1 2011 was KD 1.1 million ($4.1 million) compared to an EBITDA of 0.7 million ($2.4 million) for the same period in 2010. The Net Attributable Loss for the first half of 2011was KD 1.3million ($ 4.8 million) compared to a Net Attributable Loss of KD 2.8 million ($10.2 million) for the same period in 2010.

Wataniya - Palestine The total customer base at end of Q2 2011 was 0.42 million, an increase of 71.1% from the same period of 2010.

Revenues were KD9.8million ($35.6 million) for H1 2011 compared to KD 3.8 million ($13.8 million) for the same period 2010.Wataniya Palestine has passed the breakeven point on EBITDA with KD 0.4 million ($1.4 million) in the first half 2011, compared to a negative EBITDA of KD 3.9 million ($14.2 million) for the same period in 2010. The total Net Loss for H1 2011 was KD 4.4 million ($15.9 million) compared to a total Net Loss of KD 8.7 million ($31.9 million) for the same period in 2010. The Net Attributable Loss for the first half of 2011 was KD 2.1million ($7.7 million) compared to a Net Attributable Loss of KD 5.0 million (USD 18.2 million) for the same period in 2010.

Explanation about fair value gain In January 2011, NMTC increased its investment in “Tunisiana” from 50% to 75%. As a result, the NMTC ownership and voting interests in Tunisiana; previously treated as a joint venture (joint control) becomes a Subsidiary and thus Tunisiana is now fully consolidated within the NMTC interim condensed consolidated financial information. “If the acquirer holds a non-controlling equity investment in the acquired entity immediately before obtaining control, the acquirer re-measures that previously held equity investment at its acquisitiondate fair value and recognizes any resulting gain or loss in income statement.”

Egypt’s Mobinil shifts focus to data services CAIRO: Egyptian mobile firm Mobinil is switching focus from market share to boosting revenue per user and hopes to expand data services to make up half its revenue by 2013, its chief executive said.

Analysts estimate data services constitute between 4 and 10 percent of Mobinil’s revenue. CEO Hassan Kabbani said in an interview late on Sunday that the segment’s share of revenues had reached “double digits”, but would not be more specific.

Mobinil, jointly owned by Orascom Telecom and France Telecom , plans to expand services such as mobile payment and Internet through LinkDotNet, an Internet provider it bought last year, to bolster profitability in a saturated and fiercely competitive market. Egypt’s mobile subscription rates in 2010 topped 80 percent, and price wars between its three operators-Mobinil and the local units of Etisalat and Vodafone-have eaten into revenue. “We have reached a level with the price that is very difficult now

to go below,” Kabbani said. “The competition is no longer about how many subscriber identity modules (SIMs) or how many customers you can claim to have. It should be more oriented towards average revenue per user (ARPU).” “Data can play the role to compensate for what we are seeing ... I can expect that maybe in three years from now data revenue can constitute more than 50 percent of the total revenue.” Mobinil, whose first-half income was hit by the unrest that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, has suffered a boycott of its services by subscribers who took offence at a cartoon posted online by its founder in June.

Some considered the cartoon posted by Naguib Sawiris, which showed Mickey Mouse with a long beard and Minnie Mouse veiled in black, as offensive to Islam. Mobinil had 30.541 million subscribers at the end of June. Kabbani said subscribers who had left the network due to the boycott were currently in the “hundreds of thousands”. — Reuters

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KSE continues plunge GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) continued to plunge yesterday tracking the meltdown in US, Europe and Asian markets.

Investors’ concerns are growing day by day amid global rout on economic growth. It was another losers day in the GCC region as a whole.

Global General Index (GGI) ended the day down by 1.14 percent, at 178.72 point, its lowest level since July 05, 2010. Market capitalization was down for the day reaching KD29.25bn.

Showing a negative note, KSE Price Index closed at 5,882.2 point, shedding 74.2 points (1.25 percent) from its previous close.

Market breadth During the session, 89 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 66 equities retreated versus 5 advanced.

Trading activity was up this session. Total volume traded was up by 19.67 percent with 95.07mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD23.17mn (43.41 percent higher compared to the Monday session). The real estate sector was the volume leader yesterday, accounting for 27.64 percent of total shares. The banking sector was the value leader, with 48.49 percent of total traded value. National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) was the most active in terms of values traded during yesterday’s session, with 3.19mn shares exchanged at an aggregate value of KD3.32mn. The scrip flat at KD1.040.In terms of top gainers, Kuwait National Cinema Company was the top gainer for the day, adding 8.33 percent and closed at KD1.300.

Sector-wise Investment sector was the steepest loser for the day (-1.99

percent), as Global Investment House shed 10.2 percent and closed at KD0.022, making it the biggest decliner in the market.

Furthermore, heavyweights Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) and National Investment Company recoiled by 2.99 percent and 2.86 percent, respectively.

Services stocks close with a 1.13 percent dip. Selling was heavy on Agility stock which shed 3.70 percent, as investors undertook selling before the announcement of the company’s 1H2011 financial results. Zain also retreated by 1.04 percent and closed at KD0.950, its lowest level since

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

business

February 07, 2010.

Within the Industrial sector, Refrigeration and Warehousing Industries Company’s stock was traded ex-dividend during the day, closing at KD0.235. AGM and EGM were held in May 22, 2011 and approved the distribution of 5 percent cash dividends and 5 percent bonus shares to the company’s shareholders. Elsewhere in the industrial sector, Kuwait Cement Company closed down by 2.15 percent at KD0.455.

Global Industrial Sector Index lost a notable 1.68 percent from its value by the end of the day. On the special indices front, Global Large Cap Index (Top 10) recoiled

by 0.93 percent; also Global Islamic Index drew back by 1.34 percent.

Oil news The price of Kuwaiti crude oil dropped $0.30 to reach $100.77pb on Monday, compared to $101.07pb the day before, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) yesterday. The decrease of oil price was due to the increase of the US dollar against major currencies. This decline was a result of investors avoiding taking risks in the exchange market because of data and fears related to the future of the world’s biggest economy.

OPEC cuts oil demand growth forecast LONDON: OPEC cut its forecast for global oil demand growth this year as a worsening economic outlook curbs consumption in developed economies.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in a monthly repor t yesterday, also said the group’s own production has surged to more than 30 million barrels per day, an increase that comes just as the economic outlook is weakening.

“Dark clouds over the economy are already impacting the market’s direction,” OPEC said in the report. “ The potential for a consequent deterioration in market stability requires higher vigilance and close monitoring of developments over the coming months.”

World oil demand will increase by 1.21 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2011, OPEC said in the repor t, 150,000 bpd less than expected last month. Growth next year was lowered only marginally, by 20,000 bpd to 1.30 million bpd.

Brent crude slumped to the lowest in six months yesterday, dipping below the $100-mark briefly after a US credit downgrade intensified concern about a global slowdown in demand for energy.

Brent crude slumped to its lowest level in six months yesterday, briefly dipping below $100 on mounting worries about prospects for the world economy and a slowdown in demand for energy. Brent crude fell as much as $5 to $98.74 a barrel, the lowest intraday price since Feb. 8. It recovered to $103.14 by 1105 GMT in volatile trade, but was still nearly $25 off an April peak above $127.

US crude fell $1.35 to $79.96 after touching $75.71, its lowest since September 2010. US crude’s discount to Brent reached its deepest level ever at $23.76.

“The underlying fundamental is that demand in Europe and the US is not strong, we have a selloff in equities and confidence in the global

recovery has been hit again,” said Olivier Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland.

Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia has left supply to Asian and European customers unchanged in September despite a drop in oil prices in the past week, industry sources told Reuters.

The plunge of more than 6 percent over the past two days has taken prices below the comfort zone for some of the more hawkish members of the Organization of the Petroleum Countries, who opposed the unilateral Saudi output increase. OPEC ministers will meet if prices continue to fall, Iran’s OPEC governor, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said on the Oil Ministry news website SHANA on Friday, when Brent was trading around $110. Investors, meanwhile, were awaiting the Federal Open Market Committee meeting yesterday for clues to whether the US central bank might ease monetary policy further.

US crude oil stockpiles were forecast to have risen by 1.5 million barrels last week, which would be a third consecutive weekly increase, as releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve kept moving into commercial inventories, a Reuters poll showed ahead of weekly inventory data.

Industr y group the American Petroleum Institute will publish inventory figures later yesterday, followed by government statistics from the Energy Information Administration today.

China’s inflation rate, which analysts fear could curb the ability of the world’s second-largest oil user to stimulate demand and offset a global slowdown, turned out to be higher than expected at 6.5 percent in July, its highest since June 2008.

Also highlighting the harsh economic climate, British factory output fell unexpectedly in June, official data showed yesterday. — Reuters

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Trichet sees markets in worst crisis since WWII BRUSSELS: The head of the European Central Bank yesterday defended his institution’s decision to help stabilize the bonds of Spain and Italy, but indicated that the ECB doesn’t see itself as the euro-zone’s lead firefighter for long.

“It is the worst crisis since World War II and it could have been the worst crisis since World War I if leaders hadn’t taken the important decisions,” ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in an interview with French radio station Europe.

Trichet didn’t directly confirm that the ECB has been buying up the bonds of Italy and Spain, saying only that his banks “is in the secondary mar-

ket” for euro-zone bonds and that it would release the amounts invested on Monday, as it does every week.

Yet the markets yesterday again showed clearly that the ECB was buying up the debt of the euro-zone’s third and fourth largest economies.

The yield, or interest rate, on Spanish 10-year bonds dropped below 5 percent, after approaching 6.5 percent just a week ago. The yield on Italian equivalents was at 5.1 percent, also more than 1 percentage point below where it was Monday morning before the ECB intervention.

The ECB head also indicated that his bank still

sees the main responsibility for fighting the debt crisis with euro-zone governments and not the central bank.

“I won’t say” how long the ECB will buy bonds on the secondary market, Trichet said. “What we expect is that the governments do what we consider to be their job.”

He said euro-zone countries needed to implement recently taken decisions to allow their bailout fund to buy government bonds on the open market “as rapidly as possible.” Italy and Spain, meanwhile, have to deliver on their promises to cut their budgets as the central bank has

demanded, Trichet said.

Despite the ECB’s reluctance to take a central role in fighting the debt crisis, analysts have warned that it may not be easy for the bank to halt its bond-buying program once the euro-zone bailout fund has been equipped with its new powers. They caution that the ?440 billion European Financial Stability Facility does not have enough money to intervene effectively on secondary markets to help large countries like Italy and Spain, and that divisions among countries, which all have to sign off on intervention, could delay any necessary action. — AP

China July output cools while inflation stays hot

PBOC seen standing pat as global outlook darkens

TOKYO: Toshio Nishizawa (left), president of Tokyo Electric Power Co, listens to a reporter’s question during its press conference at the headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. The utility behind the unfolding Japanese nuclear disaster reported a 571.7 billion yen ($7.4 billion) quarterly loss and its president is expecting the red ink to swell further over restoration and compensation costs. — AP

Japan’s TEPCO logs $7.4bn quarterly loss TOKYO: The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), yesterday reported a first-quarter loss of $7.4 billion following the March radiation disaster. The world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and has heavily damaged farming, fisheries and tourism in the fallout zone.

TEPCO, long one of the world’s biggest power companies, has also suffered shortfalls in electricity output as the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi and other plants have stayed offline since the March 11 quake.

The company announced a net loss of 571.8 billion yen for the April-June period-largely due to an extraordinary loss of 503 billion yen for compensation and other costs linked to the disaster.

TEPCO has had to pay for large-scale emergency operations at Fukushima, including the decontamination of water used to cool reactors. The company’s operating loss reached 52.0 billion yen, compared with an operating profit of 62.9 billion yen for the same period a year ago. Sales dropped 7.2 percent on-year to 1.13 trillion yen.

The company did not issue a forecast for the full fiscal year to March 2012 and warned of a risk that its finances could deteriorate to the point where it can no longer operate as a private firm. TEPCO president Toshio Nishizawa said his company had paid 70.9 billion yen in provisional compensation and sold assets worth 11.5 bil-

lion yen during the quarter to secure capital needed to run the company.

Rising fuel cost had pressured the company, which has relied on thermal plants to make up for damaged and idled nuclear reactors, he told a press conference in Tokyo. “ TEPCO is no doubt in a difficult situation in terms of securing funds,” he said. “We will make thorough efforts to cut costs and make asset sales in order to secure funds,” Nishizawa said. The initial impact of the disaster hit TEPCO in the previous quarter, when it reported a 1.24 trillion yen net loss for the fiscal year to March 31, the biggest ever for a Japanese non-financial company.

The nuclear disaster started when a magnitude-9.0 seabed quake and a massive tsunami hit the six-reactor plant almost five months ago, knocking out cooling systems and sparking meltdowns and a series of explosions.

The plant has since leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea, forcing the evacuation of more than 85,000 people from a 20-kilometre (12-mile) zone around the plant and more from radiation hotspots further afield.

The disaster has contaminated farm produce including vegetables, dairy products, fish, mushrooms and green tea. Regional beef shipments have been banned after cattle were found to have been fed contaminated rice straw.

Japan’s parliament last week passed a law to create a state-backed entity that would pool funds from TEPCO and other nuclear power companies as well as the government to guarantee that compensation can be paid out. —AFP

FRANKFURT: Picture taken with a zoom effect shows traders working at the stock exchange in Frankfurt am Main, central Germany, yesterday. German stocks plunged on fears that slowing growth and the euro-zone debt crisis will cause another recession. — AFP

BEIJING: China’s industrial output grew at a slower pace last month while inflation unexpectedly quickened, putting the central bank in a bind as it tries to keep prices in check without dragging down an economy facing increasing threats from abroad. Industrial production rose 14 percent from a year earlier, a strong showing but shy of the 14.6 percent rate that economists polled by Reuters had predicted and slower than June’s 15.1 percent jump.

Annual inflation inched up to 6.5 percent, its highest mark since June 2008, when global oil prices were soaring toward a record high.

Economists had expected a dip to 6.3 percent, after June’s reading of 6.4 percent. China has acknowledged that inflation will exceed its annual target of 4 percent this year. But with debt crises raging in the United States and Europe, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)is widely expected to hold interest rates steady.

“This is the type of data that should have prompted the PBOC to hike interest rates, but given the current turmoil in financial markets, we expect them to delay it,” said Wei Yao, an economist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong.

Most of Asia’s stock markets fell yesterday, following deep losses on Wall Street, as investors weighed the risk of another US recession and a worsening sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Some market watchers had hoped strong Chinese growth figures and tamer inflation would offer some relief from the global rout.

The US Federal Reserve holds its policy-setting meeting later yesterday. With interest rates already near zero, its easing options are limited. Economists see little chance that the Fed will announce another round of bond purchases this time. China’s urban investment soared 25.4 percent in July, slightly below expectations and June’s 25.6 percent gain.

Retail sales followed a similar pattern, rising a solid 17.2 percent year-on-year but coming up short of forecasts for a 17.6 percent gain and below June’s 17.7 percent rise.

“This shows that China’s growth has not picked up and continues to slow, and because of weaker external demand it will continue to slow in the coming months,” said Ken Peng, senior economist at BNP Paribas.

Peng said July probably marked the peak in inflation, giving policymakers room for “selective easing” to cushion the blow of

BEIJING: A fruits vendor waits for customers at a market in Beijing yesterday. China’s inflation rose to a 37-month-high last month as the overheated economy cooled. Consumer prices rose 6.5 percent over a year earlier, up from June’s 6.4 percent, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing government data. —AP falling export demand.

“I stress the word ‘selective’, as it’s not going to be the 2009 free-fall,” Peng added, referring to the darkest phase of the financial crisis.

After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, China quickly ramped up a big stimulus package, helping to buffer its own economy and buoy the world. But given its high inflation, it may not be in a position to repeat that feat.

Since October, China has raised interest rates five times and cash reserve requirements for banks nine times to combat quickening inflation. The clampdown on lending and interest rates has not been enough to cap price pressures. Economists had hoped that June might have marked the inflation peak.

Although oil prices have dropped sharply since early May, food costs keep climbing.

Yesterday’s data showed food inflation at 14.8 percent from a year earlier, up from 14.4 percent in June. Non-food price pressures actually eased to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent a month earlier. Pork prices, which were the

AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines form tie-up KUALA LUMPUR: Budget carrier AirAsia and state-owned Malaysia Airlines formed an alliance yesterday under a share swap deal to end their long rivalry and boost business.

Tune Air, the parent of AirAsia, and government investment arm Khazanah signed an agreement to exchange shares. This will see Tune hold a 20.5 percent stake in Malaysia Airlines, while Khazanah gets a 10 percent stake in AirAsia. Analysts say the deal will curtail competition and help turn around the struggling state carrier and improve AirAsia’s access to lucrative international routes.

However, some opposition lawmakers fear it will create a monopoly.

AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes defended the deal, saying it would improve services. “I don’t think there is anything to worry about for the Malaysian public. This is driven by low cost. Be positive about it,” Fernandes said.

Media reports have estimated the deal would be worth 2 billion ringgit ($657 million). Khazanah currently owns a nearly 70 percent stake in Malaysia’s flagship carrier. Analysts believe the partnership will enable Malaysia Airlines to focus on premium routes while AirAsia can expect to get more access to international air routes with Khazanah as its shareholder. AirAsia has long complained that the state carrier monopolizes profitable routes. HwangDBS Vickers Research said the deal would help reposition Malaysia Airlines as a premier long-haul carrier. Some observers said this was akin to bailing out the national carrier, which suffered a first-quarter loss due to high fuel prices.

Malaysia Airlines Chairman Md Nor Yusof said the agreement marked “a new era of cooperation,” with both air-

lines complementing each other and bolstering Malaysia’s ambition of becoming a regional travel hub. Md Nor said Malaysia Airlines will focus on being a full-service carrier, while its budget unit, Firefly, would be relaunched as a new regional full-service airline.

In contrast, AirAsia, which started in 2001 with just two planes, has expanded phenomenally across the region with a fleet of nearly 100 aircraft. It now offers long-haul flights through affiliate AirAsia X. In June, AirAsia ordered 200 Airbus SAS A320 airplanes, raising its total orders for A320 aircraft to 375 as it aims to become one of the world’s largest airlines by 2020. It posted a record profit of 1.07 billion ringgit in the 2010 financial year.

Other analysts said the alliance would help cut costs with better bargains for aircraft purchases and allow Malaysia Airlines to compete with regional rival Singapore Airlines, which plans to set up a budget airline next year to operate medium and long-haul routes.

Dzulkefly Ahmad, lawmaker from the opposition Pan-Islamic Malaysian Party, expressed concerns the partnership would hurt the aviation sector. He said the tie-up comes ahead of a Competition Act that will be implemented next year to restrict monopolistic practices in Malaysia.

“Monopolies are the single largest stumbling block in the process to reform the Malaysian economy,” he said.

“It can only result in the consumers losing out,” said Tony Pua of the opposition Democratic Action Party. Khazanah has also proposed to acquire 10 percent of shares in long-haul carrier AirAsia X at a later date. Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia will also issue free warrants to each other’s shareholders. — AP

primary culprit behind June’s hot inflation figures, soared again in July despite a slight cooldown in the second-half of the month.

They jumped about 57 percent in the year to July, lifting the consumer price index by a hefty 1.5 percentage points.

Overall, the month-on-month rise in the consumer price index was 0.5 percent, ahead of forecasts for a 0.3 percent rise. The producer price index was up 7.5 percent year on year, faster than the 7.3 percent increase that economists polled by Reuters had predicted and well ahead of June’s 7.1 percent rise. That suggests there is still some inflation pressure building in the pipeline. But if demand drops from the United States and Europe, China’s next policy move may be towards easing, not tightening. “It’s time for the Chinese government to relax its policies. It’s time for Beijing to announce to the whole world that it will try to stimulate domestic demand again,” said Tang Yunfei, an analyst at Founder Securities in Beijing. — Reuters

German exports slump in June FRANKFURT: German exports slumped in June on a monthly basis, the national statistics office said yesterday in another sign of slowing global trade.

German exports declined by 1.2 percent, preliminary adjusted data released by the Destatis office showed, to 88.5 billion euros ($126 billion) following a revised monthly gain of 4.4 percent in May. Imports were slightly higher at 77 billion euros, and Destatis said the country’s adjusted trade surplus fell to 11.5 billion euros from 12.9 billion in May. But Germany, the second biggest exporting country worldwide after China, had a current account surplus of 11.9 billion euros in June, better than the revised figure for May of 6.7 billion euros, central bank data showed.

The current account is a broader measure of trade and financial flows between countries, and analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a smaller surplus of 10 billion euros. The unadjusted German trade surplus of 12.7 billion euros in June was down from 14.8 billion in May and missed an analyst forecast for 14.3 billion however. A breakdown of the numbers showed that exports to other euro-zone countries increased by 4.7 percent in June on a 12-month basis, while imports jumped by 12.6 percent. That ran counter to claims of some critics who have said German prosperity has come at the expense of its partners in the 17-nation bloc. — AFP

British industrial output stagnates LONDON: British industrial output stagnated in June and the trade-in-goods deficit worsened, official data showed yesterday, further clouding the economic outlook amid plunging stock markets.

Industrial production was unchanged in June from the previous month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement. However it sank by 0.3 percent in June on a 12-month comparison.

Expectations had been for a monthly increase of 0.4 percent and a slight annual gain of 0.2 percent, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Manufacturing output, which excludes mining and quarrying, as well as electricity, gas, and water supply, sank by 0.4 percent in June from May, but grew by 2.1 percent on an annual basis. In a separate data release, the ONS revealed that Britain’s trade-in-goods deficit widened to £8.9 billion ($14.6 billion, 10.2 billion euros) in June from £8.5 billion in May. — AFP

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Shades of post-Lehman crisis in Asian turmoil seen dumping shares on expectations that investors will pull out what’s left of their money in an effort to preserve capital. The rout spilled into foreign exchange, commodity and money markets, at one stage thumping the Australian dollar down as much as 3 cents versus the US dollar and pushing it below parity for the first time in five months.

“It’s very illiquid out there. We are still assessing the shock value of the fall in equities on fx and fixed income...,” said the head of a desk at a European bank in Asia, as the selling peaked mid-morning.

“There is a broad sense of systemic risk here. This is completely uncharted territory.” Japanese foreign exchange margin traders took a bath as stop loss orders hit cross rates include the Aussie/yen and South African rand/yen. Traders in Reuters’ Dealing Room chatroom kept a stunned silence for the most part, punctuated with the occasional “nutty”, “wow” and “what’s going on?”.

Just as a total meltdown loomed, heavyweight investors, including state funds, stepped in to staunch losses.

Blackrock Inc , the world’s biggest money manager, was one of those looking for bargains in the wreckage.

“Gold and bonds are doing really, really well and we’re making profits on them and putting these into the asset classes that are getting cheaper and cheaper, which are definitely equities,” James Holt, investment strategist at Blackrock in Sydney told Reuters in an interview.

SEOUL: A currency trader works in front of a TV showing US President Barack Korea’s state funds also stepped in to Obama at the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul yesterday. Asian equity support the market, buying 505 billion markets were sharply down early yesterday as investors fearing a possible global won ($466 million) worth of shares, economic slowdown continued to flee stocks. —AP though that was dwarfed by selling by foreign investors as the KOSPI closed 3.6

SEOUL/HONG KONG: Asian markets yesterday endured one of their most volatile days since the height of global financial crisis three years ago as margin calls forced traders to dump risky assets before bargain hunters and state investors swooped in to stem hefty losses.

Sparked by a 6.7 percent fall in the S&P 500 Index overnight and signs that global growth was sputtering, Asia stocks tanked at the open and quickly spiraled lower on indiscriminate selling.

“I have butterflies in the stomach. It drove me crazy watching the market

moves, they were so fickle,” said Shawn Oh, a market strategist at Daishin Securities in Seoul. South Korea’s KOSPI slumped close to 10 percent at one stage, its biggest slide in two years, as brokers demanded investors sell stocks or stump up more cash to cover potential losses.

“Retail is very important in Korea, and huge margin calls have been kicking in, so there have been forced sellers for retail,” said an analyst at a foreign brokerage in Seoul who could not be identified due to internal company policy.

Some Asian mutual funds were also

percent lower. Korea’s bourse operator suspended program trading for five minutes to try to stem losses, while the country’s top financial regulator imposed a three-month ban on stock short selling.

While policymakers from Sydney to Tokyo and Seoul kept up efforts to soothe jittery investors, rumors of emergency measures from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) at yesterday’s meeting also played a part in halting the bloodbath, at least temporarily.

“Talk of government funds buying stocks in Korea, Taiwan and Australia seems to have supported the markets. A lot of these indices are deeply oversold,” said Tom Kaan, a Hong Kong-based director at Louis Capital Markets.

“But all eyes are on the FOMC right now for some sort of credible stimulus. If that isn’t forthcoming, then I expect some real money hanging on to longs bailing out.” Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index, already down 11 percent over the past week, fell as much as 5.5 percent during the session before rebounding to close more than 1 percent higher. “Not even in the global financial crisis did we see this extraordinary volatility,” said RBS Australia’s head of Sydney sales trading, Justin Gallagher. In China, where the Shanghai Composite ended flat after falling as much as 3.5 percent on top of a 3.8 percent fall on Monday, retail investors were rattled.

“I was really scared by the slump .... It’s impossible for any investor not to panic,” said Robin Lu, a 37-year-old who runs a translation business. Lu said he sold onethird of his 100,000 yuan ($15,500) stock portfolio on Monday. “The tumble has changed my conviction on long-term

investment, as the trend has obviously been changed for the worse,” said Lu, who has been investing in stocks since 2006. “The market these days bring back memories of the market meltdown during the 2008 crisis, which taught me the importance of cutting losses decisively.”

Hong Kong stocks suffered their worst one-day loss, 5.7 percent, since the 2008 crisis. The moves in Hong Kong and South Korea came as stock futures saw record volume.

Not all market participants were fazed by the volatility. In Tokyo, which has endured a succession of natural and financial disasters, traders were more sanguine. “It’s not panic selling yet. You’re not seeing all investors puking. It’s very orderly selling in a sense,” said a trader for a US brokerage based in Tokyo who did not want to be identified.

Some players even welcomed the wild ride. “These are great moves for bulls and bears today if you held your nerve and were prudent on the size of your positions,” said Geoff Last, a market veteran of more than 30 years and head of Institutional FX at AXI Trader, an Australian forex broking firm. “It was amazing, crazy stuff ... one remarkable day.” But with European markets giving up early gains and major indexes there falling as much as 6 percent, traders and investors were reluctant to call an end to the mayhem.

“We are getting a feeling that we are not out of the woods yet,” said a head of sales at a Honk Kong -based hedge fund.

“We are advising our clients to stay out as much as possible and take profits on any rallies. This is not normal market behavior.” — Reuters

Fed under pressure to act as markets swoon

Fed may have run out of tools to fight recession WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve gathers yesterday under growing pressure to take some type of action to stem a financial market meltdown linked to fears of a new US recession.

The trouble is, the Fed’s policy toolkit looks rather depleted, making some question the likely effectiveness of any further monetary stimulus. While most analysts expect the Federal Reserve to not make any major changes in policy at its meeting yesterday, some wonder whether market disruptions of recent sessions warrant some kind of central bank intervention.

The Fed will deliver its policy statement around 2:15 pm (1915 GMT).

US stocks extended last week’s rout on Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average ending 5.55 percent lower following Friday’s historic downgrade of the US AAA credit grade by ratings firm Standard & Poor’s.

US stocks saw their biggest one day drop since December 1, 2008 during the worst of the financial crisis of that year. Bank shares were severely punished, raising fears of a new market meltdown.

“If the Fed does nothing, it could prove to be a disappointment at this point,” said JP Morgan analysts on a conference call to discuss the S&P

downgrade. Some economists argue the Fed is close to out of bullets. Interest rates are effectively zero and the Fed’s balance sheet stands at a record $2.9 trillion after an unprecedented program of unconventional monetary easing.

Still, there are a few things the Fed could do to reassure markets, including to suggest it will revise down its growth forecasts-the first signal that it is leaning toward further policy accommodation.

The central bank might also decide to begin reinvesting proceeds of maturing bonds in its portfolio into longer-dated Treasury maturities, putting further downward pressure on longterm borrowing costs. Yet with those rates already at their lowest in over two years, there is a sense that such an effort might prove fruitless.

Despite the loss of the US government’s prized AAA credit rating from Standard and Poor’s, a steep rally in US Treasuries, on renewed fears of a global downturn, has pushed such yields to their lowest levels in over two years. So it is unclear how much positive effect on the economy any move by the Fed to lower rates would have.

Another move the Fed could make, but one that few expect, is another round of bond pur-

chases. These are seen as controversial and only modestly effective, so policymakers will be reluctant to resort to them again. “(It) depends on how confident the Fed is in their own forecast,” said John Silvia, economist at Wells Fargo.

At the moment, it was difficult to imagine that such confidence was very high. In June, the Fed forecast growth of 2.7 percent to 2.9 percent for 2011. But that was before the rate of first-half expansion was revised sharply downward, and the employment picture worsened.

US gross domestic product rose just 0.4 percent in the first quarter, and only 1.3 percent in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the jobless rate continues to hover above 9 percent with no clear hint that it is coming down soon. Adding to concerns about the financial system, the latest rescue package from the European Central Bank, aimed at putting a floor on selling of Italian and Spanish bonds, was greeted with skepticism among investors.

Fed officials have noted that, while US bank exposure to smaller European nations like Greece and Portugal is relatively minor, there is a certain contagion risk from their holdings of vulnerable European banks. — Reuters

Cheap sale signals cooling Hong Kong housing market

MELBOURNE: Institutional traders David Lindahl (left) and Chris Weston (right) from IG Markets study a screen showing losses in major stock indices on their trading floor in Melbourne yesterday. — AFP

Aussie dollar falls below greenback parity SYDNEY: The commodities-linked Australian dollar yesterday slumped below parity with the greenback for the first time since March, when it was rocked by the Japan earthquake.

The “Aussie” sank under US$1.00 shortly after noon yesterday and was as low as 99.30 US cents by 12.20pm (0220 GMT), amid carnage on regional markets linked to the US debt downgrade by Standard & Poor’s on Friday.

Since breaching parity with the greenback in October the Aussie has rallied consistently near or above the US$1.00 mark, retreating only briefly in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s quake and nuclear crisis.

It hit a record of US$1.1081 just two weeks ago. The unit has plunged 4.1 percent in local trade since Monday’s close, and was tipped below parity by a 6.5 percent surge in Chinese inflation to its highest level in three years on soaring food costs.

China is Australia’s major trading partner

and the soaring inflation’s potential to trigger social unrest and economic instability is likely to rattle policymakers and investors.

The Aussie is a risk-based currency and Bank of New Zealand currency strategist Mike Burrowes said it was hit badly by the global panic. “We’re seeing the safe-havens, like the US dollar, the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen all appreciate,” Burrowes said.

“These risk aversion fears and concerns around the US debt downgrade are really underlying that-concerns around global growth and a potential for global growth to slow in Asia.” Australia’s central bank took the unusual step of commenting on financial markets yesterday amid the steep falls in both the dollar and the stock market. “The Reserve Bank is monitoring market developments closely with no strains evident in the money markets,” a spokeswoman for the bank said. “The Reserve Bank’s market operations continue to be conducted as usual.” — AFP

HONG KONG: A luxury residential site in Hong Kong was sold well under market expectations yesterday at the latest government land auction, signaling a cooling of the city’s red-hot property market.

The 23,000-square-metre (247,570-square-foot) site near the outskirts of the southern Chinese city went for HK$5.5 billion ($704.4 million), well below the HK$7.1HK$8.25 billion range forecast by five analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

The auction got off to a slow start and the site was sold to Kerry Properties and Sino Land at its opening bid-the only offer. Kerry Properties executive director Ho Shut-kan told reporters after the auction that the land was bought at a “very reasonable price” and said he remained “positive” about the outlook for the property market.

Analysts have warned that the auction may have been hamstrung by the global financial market turmoil following the historic downgrade of United States debt by Standard & Poor’s over the weekend.

Property prices in Hong Kong, famous for its sky-high rent, have surged over the past couple of years due to record low interest rates and a flood of wealthy buyers from mainland China.

The government has been trying to control ever-rising prices, its major headache, amid growing disquiet among the seven million-strong population over the rocketing cost of owning a home.

In June, the city’s finance chief John Tsang said risks for property buyers in the territory were “higher now than ever” as he announced new measures to tame the world’s least affordable real estate prices.

The city has imposed new taxes and staged a series of land auctions in the past 18 months to boost supply and bring down prices-which has helped slow down the real estate market.

Property transactions in Hong Kong fell 37 percent from 11,601 in June to 7,291 in July, according to the government’s land registry.—AFP

TOKYO: Bank of Japan’s Gov Masaaki Shirakawa (left) and Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda talk before a fiscal and monetary meeting at Upper House in Tokyo yesterday. — AP

Murdoch to face Wall St on News Corp earnings call NEW YORK: News Corp is taking a risk in putting boss Rupert Murdoch, famous for his off-script comments, on the media conglomerate’s quarterly earnings call today with succession questions sure to be asked.

Murdoch, 80, will be speaking to Wall Street for the first time since the phone hacking scandal in Britain, and the issue of succession planning at the global media empire is certain to be raised, according to people familiar with the company. It will be Murdoch’s first appearance on an earnings conference call since last August, and Wall Street wants to know if he is any more willing to hand over the CEO reins to trusted lieutenant Chase Carey, currently deputy chairman.

The issue of succession has come to the fore since Murdoch, chairman and chief executive, appeared overwhelmed at a British parliamentary hearing last month on the hacking tactics of his now-closed News of the World paper. At the heart of the issue is whether Murdoch’s son and heir apparent James has been too badly tainted by the scandal at the British tabloid, which ultimately reported to him as head of News Corp’s European businesses.

There are also questions about the veracity of the younger Murdoch’s testimony to British lawmakers, which may yet do his reputation and succession hopes more harm.

“There is an understanding internally with senior management that the succession question has become an issue,” said a person familiar with internal discussions ahead of a News Corp board meeting yesterday. Larry Haverty of Gabelli Multimedia Funds-who owns 195,000 Class A shares and 40,000 Class B shares of News Corp — said the company would benefit from “ringfencing this scandal.”

Rupert Murdoch is expected to acknowledge some of the recent troubles in his prepared remarks, but he will not issue a new ‘mea culpa’ like the one he gave to the British parliament, according to the person familiar with the planning. The source was not permitted to talk publicly on the matter.

The conference call will take place after a board meeting on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan said investors he spoke with were very focused on succession questions. “It would be helpful for him to lay out a strategy and we need to hear more about Chase Carey,” Eagan

said. “Could they break up the chairman and chief executive roles?”

Carey, the News Corp chief operating officer, is respected by investors and analysts as a skilled operator who keeps the company running as the senior Murdoch focuses on pet projects.

The quarterly results themselves are expected to be solid, boosted by the performance of News Corp’s US cable and broadcast television networks. Analysts, on average, forecast quarterly profit of 29 cents a share, versus 33 cents a year ago, on revenue growth of 4.3 percent to $8.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company will likely try to focus Wednesday’s conference call on its financials, but it is unlikely to ever get away from the scandal even as its British newspaper unit is responsible for less than 5 percent of operating profits. Murdoch is known for making off-the-cuff comments, such as when he told analysts that News Corp intended to make the website of the Wall Street Journal free. He made the comments before a full business analysis, which ultimately concluded that WSJ.com should remain a paid site.

“If Murdoch’s on the call, it will help more than it will hurt,” said Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Tuna Amobi. “He can speak with the best authority on the succession plan.”

Since the controversy, News Corp’s corporate governance has been put under a microscope-particularly its board, which has been criticized for being too cozy with the Murdochs.

Under the leadership of independent director Viet Dinh, the board has tried to change the perception that it is crammed with family members and corporate insiders. On Friday, Dinh announced that Murdoch’s daughter Elizabeth would not be joining the board as had previously been planned.

Some analysts expect the board to authorize another increase in News Corp’s dividend, following the July 12 lifting of its share buyback program to $5 billion. “I think the board will likely be more proactive than they have been in asking for additional capital allocation, possibly an increase in dividend yield, which is currently just 1 percent.

Time Warner Inc is around 3 percent while Walt Disney Co is around 1.14 percent,” said Collins Stewart’s Eagan. — Reuters

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TECHNOLOGY

Your smartphone: A brand new frontier for hackers Attackers becoming smarter in developing new techniques

Acer media-center PC has built-in touchpad NEW YORK: Flat-panel TVs and PCs go great together - the PC gets a giant screen, and the TV gets access to tons of online video. But getting the two together in an elegant way has been difficult. PC makers haven’t shown much interest in making computers that work really well when controlled from the couch. So it’s good to see Acer Inc. take a serious stab at the problem with its new Revo RL100. The Windows PC is designed from the ground up to fit into an entertainment center. It’s smaller than most DVD players and very quiet.

It’s also a good value at $470 with a DVD drive or $570 with Blu-ray. The most striking thing about the design is that a thin, postcardsized black slate pops out of the front of the unit. It’s a wireless touchpad that turns, at the touch of a button, into an illuminated wireless keyboard. When stored inside the PC, it recharges its internal battery. So this, finally, is a brand-name PC that comes with a built-in “couch controller.” The Revo’s touchpad still leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn’t come close to replicating the ease with which we control a PC through a regular keyboard and mouse.

The touchpad lacks mouse buttons, so you have to double-tap to register the click of the left mouse button, and hold down to register a right-click. Clicking and dragging is possible, but you need both talent and practice.

Furthermore, the pad can’t act as touchpad and keyboard at the same time, so you need to switch between modes frequently. For instance, going to a new website involves steering the cursor to the address field in touchpad mode, then switching to the keyboard mode, then switching back to mouse mode to navigate the page.

The keyboard is small and best used with the thumbs, so it’s not suitable for longer typing sessions. So the Revo falters where it tries the hardest. In nearly every other respect, it does well. Setup was commendably easy. It can be difficult to get regular PCs to use the TV display correctly, but with the Revo, it worked the first time. The Revo’s only display jack is an HDMI port, the kind used by flat panels. Helpfully, Acer includes an HDMI cable as well. It also has a WiFi chip, so you don’t have to draw a cable from your router to get Internet access.

The Revo’s processor and graphics chip are about as powerful as you’d find in a small laptop. It played Blu-ray, DVD and streamed Netflix movies fine. It did a good job with Skype videoconferencing, another of the pleasures of having a living-room PC (you supply the webcam).

Streaming of high-definition home movies from another PC also worked well. The Revo has a 750 gigabyte hard drive, enough for several weeks’ worth of standard-definition video. High-definition YouTube videos didn’t play quite as smoothly as I’d like, probably because of the limitations of the Nvidia ION graphics chip.

Hardcore 3-D action games are beyond the capabilities of the Revo. There’s a USB jack and a slot for a memory card on the front of the unit, but you have to go to the back to find two more USB jacks and the headphone jack. That’s not a wonderful layout for something designed to be stuck in an entertainment center. But the backfacing headphone jack isn’t an issue if you connect the Revo through a receiver, as I did, as receivers have headphone jacks of their own.

From my point of view, the chief competitor to the Revo is the Mac mini, which is much more powerful but lacks an optical drive and leaves you to figure out how to control it from the couch. The Revo has a room for improvement in the control department as well. For the next model, I hope Acer figures out how to add mouse buttons and a permanently accessible keyboard to the wireless controller. “Couch surfing” with a PC will never be as easy as mashing the channel-change button on a TV remote, but we can hope to get closer to this epitome of laziness. — AP

LAS VEGAS: Hackers are out to stymie your smartphone. Last week, security researchers uncovered yet another strain of malicious software aimed at smartphones that run Google’s popular Android operating system. The application not only logs details about incoming and outgoing phone calls, it also records those calls. That came a month after researchers discovered a security hole in Apple Inc.’s iPhones, which prompted the German government to warn Apple about the urgency of the threat.

Security experts say attacks on smartphones are growing fast - and attackers are becoming smarter about developing new techniques. “We’re in the experimental stage of mobile malware where the bad guys are starting to develop their business models,” said Kevin Mahaffey, co-founder of Lookout Inc., a San Francisco-based maker of mobile security software.

Wrong-doers have infected PCs with malicious software, or malware, for decades. Now, they are fast moving to smartphones as the devices become a vital part of everyday life.

Some 38 percent of American adults now own an iPhone, BlackBerry or other mobile phone that runs the Android, Windows or WebOS operating systems, according to data from Nielsen. That’s up from just 6 percent who owned a smartphone in 2007 when the iPhone was released and catalyzed the industry. The smartphone’s usefulness, allowing people to organize their digital lives with one device, is also its allure to criminals.

All at once, smartphones have become wallets, email lockboxes, photo albums and Rolodexes. And because owners are directly billed for services bought with smartphones, they open up new angles for financial attacks. The worst programs cause a phone to rack up unwanted service charges, record calls, intercept text messages and even dump emails, photos and other private content directly onto criminals’ servers.

Evidence of this hacker invasion is starting to emerge. Lookout says it now detects thousands of attempted infections each day on mobile phones running its security software. In January, there were just a few hundred detections a day. The number of detections is nearly doubling every few months. As many as 1 million people were hit by mobile malware in the first half of 2011.

Google Inc has removed about 100 malicious applications from its Android Market app store. One particularly harmful app was downloaded more than 260,000 times before it was removed. Android is the world’s most popular smartphone operating software with more than 135 million users worldwide. Symantec Corp., the world’s biggest security software maker, is also seeing a jump. Last year, the company identified just five examples of malware unique to Android. So far this year, it’s seen 19. Of course, that number pales compared with the hundreds of thousands of new strains targeting PCs every year, but experts say it’s only a matter of time before criminals catch up.

“Bad guys go where the money is,” said Charlie Miller, principal research consultant with the Accuvant Inc. security firm, and a prominent hacker of mobile devices.

“As more and more people use phones and keep data on phones, and PCs aren’t as relevant, the bad guys are going to follow that. The bad guys are smart. They know when it makes sense to switch.” When it comes to security, smartphones share a problem with PCs: Infections are typically the responsibility of the user to fix, if the problem is discovered at all.

The emergence in early July of a previously unknown security hole in Apple Inc.’s iPhones and iPads cast a

NEW YORK: In this file photo, a person operates an iPhone in New York. Security experts say attacks on smartphones are growing fast — and attackers are becoming smarter about developing new techniques. — AP spotlight on mobile security. Users downloaded a program that allowed them to run unauthorized programs on their devices. But the program could also be used to help criminals co-opt iPhones. Apple has since issued a fix. It was the second time this year that the iPhone’s security was called into question. In April the company changed its handling of location data after a privacy outcry that landed an executive in front of Congress.

Researchers had discovered that iPhones stored the data for a year or more in unencrypted form, making them vulnerable to hacking. Apple CEO Steve Jobs emerged from medical leave to personally address the issue.

The iPhone gets outsize attention because it basically invented the consumer smartphone industry when it was introduced in 2007. But Apple doesn’t license its software to other phone manufacturers. Google gives Android to phone makers for free. So, Android phones are growing faster. As a result, Google’s Android Market is a crucial pathway for hacking attacks. The app store is a lightly curated online bazaar for applications that, unlike Apple’s App Store, doesn’t require that developers submit their programs for pre-approval.

Lookout says it has seen more unique strains of Android malware in the past month than it did in all of last year. One strain seen earlier this year, called DroidDream, was downloaded more than 260,000 times before Google removed it, though additional variants keep appearing. Lookout says about 100 apps have been removed from the Android Market so far, a figure Google didn’t dispute. Malicious applications often masquerade as legitimate ones, such as games, calculators or pornographic photos and videos. They can appear in advertising links inside other applications.

Their moneymaking schemes include new approaches that are impossible on PCs. One recent malicious app secretly subscribed victims up to a service that sends quizzes via text message. The pay service was charged to the victims’ phone bills, which is presumably how the criminals got paid. They may have created the service or been hired by the creator to sign people up. Since malware can intercept text

IBM unplugs from U of I supercomputer project CHAMPAIGN: IBM Corp on Monday dropped out of a project to build one of the world’s fastest supercomputers at the University of Illinois, saying it requires too much financial and technical support. The move leaves the university looking for someone to build the $300 million-plus Blue Waters system that it still hopes to deliver by the fall of 2012.

The school’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications will have just a few weeks to customize its plans to a new builder and present them to the project’s primary financier, the federal government’s National Science Foundation.

There is no guarantee the project that was originally expected to go online this year will continue. IBM won’t say how much money the project would have cost the company, but Monday ’s announcement followed several months of talks with university officials. “As we moved forward in the project, increased cost from the final design and other changes made us come to the conclusion” not to continue, IBM spokeswoman

Joanna Brewer said. John Melchi, who is senior associate director at the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications, said IBM’s decision is disappointing but said that with the NSF waiting for a revised plan there’s little time for the 120 or so people at the university who’ve worked on the project to do anything but keep working.

“When you look at the work you’ve put in the previous three or four years, it is disheartening,” he said. “Honestly, there’s a certain amount of energy here; people are inspired.”

The NSF’s National Science Board, a 20-member group of scientists, expects to have a revised plan to vote on as early as mid-September, NSF spokeswoman Lisa-Joy Zgorski said. “Whether or not we move forward with a comparable alternative ultimately rests upon the decision of the National Science Board,” she said. When Blue Waters was announced in 2007 it was billed as a project to build what was expected to be, at least for a time, the world’s fastest supercomputer. — AP

CHAMPAIGN: This photo provided by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois shows the National Petascale Computing Facility on the campus. — AP

messages, it’s likely the victims never saw the messages - just the charges. A different piece of malware logs a person’s incoming text messages and replies to them with spam and malicious links. Most mobile malware, however, keep their intentions hidden. Some apps set up a connection between the phone and a server under a criminal’s control, which is used to send instructions.

Google points out that Android security features are designed to limit the interaction between applications and a user’s data, and developers can be blocked. Users also are guilty of blithely click through warnings about what personal information an application will access.

Malicious programs for the iPhone have been rare. In large part, that’s because Apple requires that it examine each application before it goes online. Still, the recent security incidents underline the threat even to the most seemingly secure devices.

A pair of computer worms targeting the iPhone appeared in 2009. Both affected only iPhones that were modified, or “jailbroken,” to run unauthorized programs.

And Apple has dealt with legitimate applications that overreached and collected more personal data than they should have, which led to the Cupertino, Calif.based company demanding changes. “Apple takes security very seriously,” spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said last month. “We have a very thorough approval process and review every app. We also check the identities of every developer and if we ever find anything malicious, the developer will be removed from the iPhone Developer Program and their apps can be removed from the App Store.”

A criminal doesn’t even need to tailor his attacks to a mobile phone. Standard email-based “phishing” attacks - tricking people into visiting sites that look legitimate work well on mobile users. In fact, mobile users can be more susceptible to phishing attacks than PC users. The small screens make it hard to see the full Internet address of a site you’re visiting, and websites and mobile applications working in tandem train users to perform the risky behavior of entering passwords after following links, new research from the University of California at Berkeley has found. — AP

When Mac flirts with iPad BERLIN: Experienced Macintosh users are already used to it - every two years Apple updates its Mac OS X operating system. But whereas the Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009 was really just a maintenance update without any spectacular changes, the company has taken a big step forward with Mac OS X Lion. Apple based their new system on some of the ideas from the successful iOS mobile system from the iPad. Similarly to the iPad, Mac users can now navigate with a series of gestures. The new operating system also adopted the iOS methods for easy saving of files and dealing with emails. The German Press Agency dpa took a look at the new operating system.

Apple took a new approach starting straight away with the installation of the system onto a Mac with the previous OS Snow Leopard. The new Lion system can be purchased for just under 24 euro (34 dollars) in the Mac App Store. Apple allows installation onto as many Macs as desired in one household. Those who do not have a broadband internet connection to comfortably download the 3.6 GB file can purchase a USB stick featuring the Lion OS from Apple for 59 euro.

A second major change is clear shortly after the installation as Apple has switched the scrolling direction.

Until now, window contents are shifted up by pulling the scroll bar in a downward motion or pulling the scrolling wheel towards your hand. It is just the opposite with Lion - similar to the logic used with the iPad. But you get used to the new logical movements quickly.

Traditionalists or users who also work with a Windows PC and do not want to continually re -think their actions between the two systems can change the settings in Lion to work in the usual manner. Apple assumes that the mouse will play an ever decreasing role in navigating through documents and operating the entire system. Instead, users use multi-touch gestures and stroke with

their fingers the MacBook’s touch pad or the Magic Trackpad for desktop Macs. Many of the gestures are already known by iPad users and are very intuitive. Other gestures, such as the one to start a program selection, can be taught easily with a short video tutorial.

Owners of an iPad will recognize the new system function LaunchPad which helps quicken access to installed programs. Until now, Mac users could add a selection of their most-used applications into the Dock at the bottom of the screen and start it with just a click. The rest of the programs though had to be started in the Programs folder or called up using the Spotlight search function.

With just a click of the LaunchPad symbol in the Dock, Lion fades out all operating programs and shows a screen-filling overview of all applications.

This display looks like the App overview on the iPad and can be sorted just like on the Apple tablet. Those who install a lot of programs on the Mac can easily lose their overview if they don’t consequently clean house. Such users are better served by searching through Spotlight.

If you want to have a bird’s eye perspective on all open windows and applications on the Mac then you can call up the Mission Control function. A row of miniature symbols appear along the top of the screen, showing the Dashboard (a page with smaller programs like a calculator or weather forecast), the desktop and all opened programs. Directly below that are all opened windows on the desktop, grouped together according to application. The new Mac system is also based on the iPad’s successful handling of files. Until now, Mac users (just like with Windows PCs) had to save items themselves and determine where they should be saved. Once software is customized to Lion, all changes to a document are automatically saved every five minutes without the user having to do anything. — dpa

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Soy might not relieve menopause symptoms NEW YORK: Women seeking relief for menopause symptoms may have suffered a setback after a US study found that taking soy supplements may not help ease menopause symptoms or prevent the bone changes that start at that time of life. Women have been without a clear go-to treatment for menopause since the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study of hormone therapy reported heart and cancer risks with estrogen and progestin userisks that soy supplements didn’t have.

But the most recent study, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that women who took soy supplements every day for two years didn’t have any improvement in their symptoms compared to those who took a soy-free placebo pill- and they suffered more hot flashes by the end

of the study. “What prompted us to do this study was in the wake of WHI when many of our patients stopped using hormone therapy,” said Silvina Levis, the study’s lead author who is from the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami. “Many of them had just gone to a health food store and started on soy supplements. The study was started to try to answer a simple question: will these soy isoflavone tablets help women with the issues they were concerned with?” Levis and her team randomly split 248 women who had recently hit menopause into two groups. For two years, half of the women took 200 mg of soy isoflavones every day-about twice the amount of a soy-rich diet. The other half took placebo pills.

None of the participants, most of whom were

Hispanic, knew whether they were getting the real or the sham treatment. About 182 completed the study. At their two-year visit, women in both groups had lost the same amount of bone density in their spine and hip since starting the study. They also reported a similar number of menopause symptoms, except that more women in the soy group said they had hot flashes — 48 percent, compared to 32 percent in the placebo group. Women taking the daily soy supplements also reported some of the stomach and digestion problems, such as constipation, that have been linked to soy before, but there were no serious side effects linked to the supplements, Levis said.

“When we started the study we wanted this to work, because it would provide an easy and healthy

way to help women in the initial stages of menopause,” she added. After this, “maybe women will reconsider.” Medications including certain antidepressants may provide relief for menopause symptoms in some women, Levis added. For bone health, other doctors have recommended regular physical activity, combined with calcium and vitamin D supplements.

“The scientific evidence is telling them that they might not receive any benefit from extra soy,” said William Wong, a nutritionist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who didn’t participate in the study. But he added that that doesn’t mean that soy couldn’t have health benefits over a longer period of time, such as if girls started getting more of it during puberty. —Reuters

Specific IQ genes still elusive LOS ANGELES: Scientists who hunt for “intelligence genes” used to think there were fewer than half a dozen of them. In recent years, they determined there may be at least 1,000 each with just a tiny effect on the differences in people’s IQ. A study released yesterday found new evidence that many genes play a role in intelligence, but scientists still couldn’t pinpoint the specific genes involved.

“It’s been kind of a shock to the system that it hasn’t worked,” said psychologist Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia, who had no role in the study. “We can’t find the effects of any individual genes that are large enough to seem worth worrying about.”

Previous work involving twins and adopted children has found that genes have a significant influence on differences in IQ scores, producing about half the difference between adults in general. The influence of genes on IQ appears to grow from childhood to adulthood.

Scientists have come to realize that, as with height, differences in intelligence come not from a few genes, but rather the overall effect of many genes, each with only tiny influence.

That makes them hard to tease out. The new DNA study, reported online yesterday in the

journal Molecular Psychiatry, came to similar conclusions. Many genes work together to shape intelligence much like the different instruments of an orchestra that play in sync.

Unless there’s a soloist playing, it’s often difficult to decipher the contributions of individual instruments.

As important as genes are in determining intelligence, they don’t act alone and the role of one’s upbringing and experiences cannot be ignored. So why do researchers care so much about the relationship between genes and intelligence? Our memory, reasoning skills and thinking abilities tend to decline as we age, some faster than others.

Understanding the genetics of intelligence may someday help researchers gain a better handle on mind-robbing diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The new work was done by IJ Deary of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and colleagues in several countries. The team wanted to find out “whether genetic differences that we could test on people’s DNA could explain some of the reasons that people have different intelligence test scores,” Deary said in an email. Researchers didn’t ID any genes affecting IQ. But they estimated that they found a

ORANGE: John Olsen shows a picture of himself with his biological mother Pat Holmes at his home. Olsen, who was adopted at birth, attributes his brainpower to his genes. — AP

genetic influence that accounts for at least 40 percent to 50 percent of the differences on intelligence test scores in the 3,511 unrelated adults in their study who were tested on knowledge and problem-solving skills.

They focused on more than 500,000 places in the participants’ DNA, looking for evidence that IQ-influencing genes lay close to those places. They concluded that the overall effect was coming from many scattered genetic differences, each of only small influence. The latest work adds to evidence that even the most powerful of these has only weak influence.

Deary said that future studies will probably need to involve millions of people to detect the genetic effects. Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, who’s looked for intelligence-related genes for 15 years but didn’t participate in the new study, isn’t surprised by the latest findings.

“We’ve got a century of twin and adoption studies,” such as those comparing twins reared in different families, that support the notion that about half of IQ differences come from DNA, he said. Plomin said this doesn’t mean half of a person’s intelligence is due to genes nor does such a genetic influence imply that a person’s intelligence is fixed.

Turkheimer, the Virginia psychologist, thinks other types of research such as brain scans might have better luck in understanding what intelligence is. Those methods are better than “pinning your hopes on adding together a bunch” of small effects from individual genes, he said.

John Olsen, of Orange, Calif, who was adopted at birth, attributes his brainpower to his genes. As a kid, he always wondered where his inquisitiveness came from. School bored him and there were no lively debates at the dinner table growing up. “I was a bit of a challenge,” he recalled.

“I was very curious and like a lot of intelligent people always asked, ‘Why?’” In his late 20s, Olsen took a genius test and scored high enough to get accepted into Mensa, the high IQ group. A telephone call from a long-lost aunt several years ago led to a reunion with his biological mother. Olsen soon discovered his mother had the same curiosity and liked to ask probing questions. He also learned his maternal grandmother was fond of one-line comebacks and “was wickedly smart till the day she died.” — AP

April was record-setting for tornadoes in US WASHINGTON: The US set a record for the most tornadoes within a month with April’s deadly storms. The final report for the month shows 753 twisters across the country, including a super outbreak on April 25-28 that killed more than 300 people in the South and Midwest. While final death statistics are still being studied, the toll on April 27, being called the Dixie Outbreak, set a one-day record for tornado deaths since 1950. It topped the 310 deaths on April 3, 1974.

Current estimates for the day range from 313 to 317 and could go higher, according to federal Storm Prediction Center data.

Follow-up studies that eliminated dupli-

cate reports cut April’s tornado total down from the preliminary count of 875 that generated widespread publicity. But the storm center says that still tops the former monthly record of 543 tornadoes in May 2003.

Atmospheric scientists noted that April had an active weather pattern across the 48 contiguous states, with strong storms moving through the center of the country, tapping into moisture from the Gulf of Mexico as they matured across the mid-Mississippi Valley.

Contributing to the thrashing were the La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean, unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and the increase of moisture in the

MUMBAI: Indian coast guard officials walk past heaps of plastic and oil on Juhu Chowpatty beach in Mumbai yesterday. Indian coastguards said that leaking oil from a stricken container ship that collided with another vessel off Mumbai had reduced to a trickle. — AFP

atmosphere caused by the warming climate.

Thomas Karl, head of the National Climatic Data Center, has cautioned against focusing on any single cause for the unusual chain of events, saying “clearly these things interconnect.” The tornado death toll for the year so far is 546, including 364 in April and another 177 in May, generally the two busiest months for twisters.

That total ranks this year fourth overall in tornado fatalities, still well behind the record 794 deaths in 1925. In addition to the high tolls in April and May, three people were killed by tornadoes in June and there was one death each in February and March. —AP

NEW YORK: A study has revealed that the majority of packed lunches are too warm to be safe for consumption.— MCT

Children’s packed lunches too warm to be safe: Study NEW YORK: Tests of more than 700 preschoolers’ packed lunches found that fewer than 2 percent of the meats, vegetables and dairy products were cool enough to be safe, according to a US study. One in six US residents gets food poisoning every year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but it is unclear how many cases are caused by lukewarm sack lunches. The study by Fawaz Almansour, a doctoral student at the University of Texas in Austin, was the first to check how the food that children take to school is doing in terms of health about ninety minutes before they eat it.

“It was a shock when we discovered that more than 90 percent of the perishable items in these packed lunches were kept at unsafe temperatures,” Almansour said. According to his study, published in

Pediatrics, some 705 lunches packed by parents for children in full-time daycare centers were checked for the temperature of perishable food items and the number of ice packs included. The CDC says that perishable foods kept between 4 to 60 degrees Celsius for more than two hours are no longer safe to eat. Some 39 percent of the lunches had no ice packs, while 45 percent had at least one. Some 12 percent were kept in refrigerators.

Still, 88.2 percent of lunches were at ambient temperatures. “Even with multiple ice packs, the majority of lunch items were at unsafe temperatures,” Almansour and colleagues wrote. Almansour said the study had been an “eye-opener.” “It shows there is a problem,” he added, recommending that lunches be packed with lots of ice packs and refrigerated once the children arrive at school. — Reuters

TEXAS: The skeletal remains of a fresh water crab is seen on the cracked, dry bed of Lake EV Spence in Robert Lee, Texas. — AP

Oklahoma, Texas set heat records in July WASHINGTON: Sweltering may have reached a new record last month, as Oklahoma racked up the country’s highest monthly average temperature ever.

That’s the highest average temperature, for any month, for any state, associate Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus said. According to automated weather recording instruments, the state’s average for July was 89.1 degrees.

That tops an average of 88.1 set in July 1954, McManus said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Monday reported that last month was the fourth hottest July on record for the US and that Texas and Oklahoma had their warmest months on record.

“We’ve been beating temperature records left and right, from the 1930s Dust Bowl drought and the 1950s drought,” said McManus, who admitted that’s not the kind of record you put on a Chamber of Commerce promotion. And it’s not like Oklahoma is alone in this.

Nationwide, in the past 30 days 3,709 high temperature records have been set or tied. And, worse, there have been 7,410 records for overnight warmth broken or tied, meaning less chance to recover from the sweltering daytime readings. “This has been a devastating year,” National Weather Service director Jack Hayes said. “Natural disasters are on the rise in the United States,” he noted, including records for heat, tornadoes, floods and fires, and with the bulk of hur-

ricane season still remaining.

Waco, Texas, tied its record for the most consecutive days of 105 degrees or more at six (Aug. 1-6). The previous were Aug. 31-Sept. 5, 2000, and Aug. 9-14 1969. And Dallas-Fort Worth is on pace to establish a new record for consecutive 100-degree days. It’s currently at 38 days, from July 2 to Aug. 8. The record is 42 set June 23-Aug. 3, 1980. The July average for Texas was 87.1 degrees. The current heat wave is typical of US heat waves in the past decade and is consistent with the increasing warm summer nighttime extremes observed across much of the country since the late 20th century, NOAA reported.

Other findings included: Forty-one of the lower 48 states had above-normal, much-above-normal or a record warmest July. The South climate region - Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas - had its warmest single calendar month for any climate region on record. The average temperature of 86.1 degrees bested the previous all-time record of 85.9 set in July 1980 in the South climate region.

Dallas exceeded 100 degrees on 30 of the 31 days in July. Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., had its warmest single calendar month on record, with an average temperature of 84.5 degrees, breaking the previous record of 83.1 degrees set in July 2010 and July 1993. — AP

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Orange goo near remote Alaska village id’d as eggs ANCHORAGE: Scientists have identified an orange-colored gunk that appeared along the shore of a remote Alaska village as millions of microscopic eggs filled with fatty droplets. But the mystery is not quite solved. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday they don’t know for sure what species the eggs are, although they believe they are some kind of crustacean eggs or embryos.

They also don’t know if the eggs are toxic, and that worries many of the 374 residents of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo community located at the tip of an 8-mile barrier reef on Alaska’s northwest coast.

There’s been at least one report of dead minnows found in the lagoon of the village the night the eggs appeared last week. Residents also are worried about the community ’s dwindling reserves in village water tanks even though the orange mass has dissipated from the lagoon and Wulik River, said city administrator Janet Mitchell.

“It seems to be all gone,” she said. “But if they’re microscopic eggs, who’s to say they’re not still in the river?” Scientists also don’t know why the

unidentified eggs suddenly emerged on the shores of Kivalina last week. Villagers say they’ve never seen such a phenomenon before. “We’ll probably find some clues, but we’ll likely never have a definitive answer on that,” NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.

Samples are being sent to a NOAA laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, for further analysis.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation also sent samples Monday to the Institute for Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Kivalina residents live largely off the land, and many are worried about the effect on some wildlife and plants from the goo, which turned powdery once it dried - and probably went airborne. Mitchell said some people went berry picking over the weekend, but couldn’t tell if the goo was on the fruit, called salmonberries, which are the same color of the eggs. The caribou are in the region now, but she doesn’t believe the migrating animals pose much risk as a food source.

The eggs were found on at least one roof and

in buckets set all over the village to collect rain water. City Councilwoman Frances Douglas said the gooey, slimy substance was widely spread in streaks along the Wulik River and the lagoon, which is a half mile wide and six miles long.

Orangey water was reported from as far away as the village of Buckland, southeast of Kivalina.

Douglas estimated the volume of eggs she could see “in excess of a thousand gallons, easily.” The weather last Wednesday, when the bright substance emerged, only intensified the effect, according to Douglas. “We had an overcast sky, so it really, really stood out,” she said. “You couldn’t miss it for nothing.”

Even village elders don’t recall anything like it, said Douglas, who has lived all her 44 years in Kivalina. She remembers temperatures were colder in her childhood, gradually rising over the years. She wonders if that has anything to do with the invasion of the eggs. “With climate change, anything can happen, I guess,” she said.

Speegle called the climate change theory “purely speculative.” —AP

JUNEAU: This photo, provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows a magnified close up of a sample of orange gunk tested by NOAA scientists in Juneau, Alaska. —AP

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Chittagong Samity holds dua and iftar mehfil

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hittagong Samity Kuwait (CSK) arranged a Dua & Iftar Mehfil on the 6th of Ramadan (Saturday 6th of August 2011), at Gulshan Hotel Hall Room. The Honorable Bangladeshi Ambassador Sayed Shahed Reza attended the Mehfil as the Chief Guest. The constellation of attendees included distinguished personalities such as the Counselor of Bangladeshi Embassy Mr Nurul Islam, Defence Attach Brig.General MD Aminul Hasan ndc,psc First Secretary (Labour) of Bangladeshi Embassy All Reza, Nazrul Islam Country Manager of Biman Bangladesh Air Lines and Shafayet Hussain patwary Sonali Bank Representative in Kuwait, Senior Vice president Of Bangladesh Businessmen Society(BEBA) and Chairman of Ambassador Group of Companies Mukai Ali (Luthfur), Jahangir Hussain Patwary, Chairman of Diamond Group of Companies. and Vice President of Kuwait Financial Center Khaled Ahmed Chowdhury and last but not the least Dr Shahjahan.

The event attracted local representatives from Electronic and Print Media, Businessmen, Social Workers, Representatives from Bangladesh Awami League, Jube League, Sramik League Volunteer League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Jubu Dal, Volunteer Dal, Jatiya Party, Liberal Democratic Party, Comilla Samity, Jalalabad Samity, Samol Sylhet, Noakhali Samity, Barisal Samity, Fandpur Samity and Nigar. Numerous other notable personalities from various sectors of Bangladeshi Community such as Freedom Fighter Morshed Alam Badal, Engtneer Abdul Rob, Jamal Uddin, Omar Faruk Nahid, Abdul Manna Sandipi, Jamal Uddin, Abul Kalam, Gias and oth-

ers also attended the event.

The Iftar Mehfil hosted by SM Jahangir Alam, General Secretary of Chittagong Samity delivered the host s address to the gathering, followed by a humble recitation from Holy Quran by MVL Kamrul Islam. Haji Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury, President of Chittagong Samity addressed the gathering. After extending his heartfelt gratitude towards the attendees, in his brief address, Haji Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury highlighted to the audience that Ramdan is the month of obedience and submission to ALLAH s Commands with the highest degree of commitment, sincerity and faithfulness to seek ALLAH s Mercy, to beg forgiveness for their sins so as to escape damnation. Haji Jafar Ahmed also prayed to The Almighty ALLAH to extend for himself and the audience, the best guidance so that people can avoid Ghibah (Back Biting) which is one of the greatest Sins in Islam and asked for HIS mercy in this holy month of Ramadan. The Chief Guest (Ambassador of Bangladeshi Embassy), in his address conveyed his good wishes and Ramadan Bleesing to the muslim Umma and Bangladeshi in home land and abroad also said to the audience to increase the good deeds and forsake the wrongful acts completely not only this month but forever, to follow and abide by the Kuwaiti government rules and prove this by individual act as all individuals represent Bangladesh in Kuwait.

The Dua & Milad Mehfil was conducted by Mvl Kamrul Islam with prayer for the peace and prosperity for the people of Kuwait and Bangladesh as well as the whole mankind. The event concluded with this address and Dua for the betterment of all humanity and Muslims around the world through the special

The Chittagong Samity Kuwait (CSK) Dua & Iftar Mehfil.

Kuwait’s fencing champions participate at Alliance Fencing Academy

Birthday Greetings

Happy birthday to Shreya Sajeev who celebrates her 11th birthday today! Greetings come from grandparents, papa, mommy, uncles, aunts, friends and relatives.

RAMADAN KAREEM

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afir International Hotel celebrates this year ’s honored guests with the finest nights of Ramadan in a genuine Arabian atmosphere.

Enjoy delicious Iftar buffets and Ghabqa dishes made especially by our skilled chefs in a warm family atmosphere.

Enjoy also Ramadan tunes and melodies, which take you to the beautiful day times, all of this in our see breeze restaurant with a wonderful view of the Arabian Gulf and the gleaming Kuwait Towers. In addition to opportunities of winning prizes and gifts such as tickets for Europe presented by Kuwait Airways, free stays at Safir hotels in Egypt and Qatar, free internet subscriptions provided by Quality Net and free entry tickets to the scientific center. In addition to other special prizes provided by Safir International Hotel.

Wish you happy Ramadan!

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alsam and Lulwa Al-Ayoub have completed their training in Houston, Texas at the internationally renowned Alliance Fencing Academy that brought together fencing athletes from around the world from June 20-August 7, 2011. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah was keen and made sure the Al-Ayoub champions accepted the academy’s invitation to attend the training.

The fencing champions completed their fencing training camp in which they were invited to participate in by Alliance Fencing Academy in Houston, Texas, USA. The training camp, which lasted for 18 days, saw the participation of 89 male and female athletes from 9 countries; amongst them were fencers from the USA, Kuwait, Russia, Canada, Britain, France, and Lebanon.

The Alliance Fencing Academy, which is considered to be one of the most prestigious American fencing academies in the United States, organized the training camp to coincide with preparations for international fencing teams to qualify for the 2012 Olympics held in London, England. The academy invited a group of international athletes to benefit from this distinct training agenda, in addition to inviting Kuwait’s fencing champions from the Middle East.

Over the past 18 days, a timetable was set to suit the each participant’s experience, performance, and expertise. In addition to this, the coaching staff in charge of the camp was made up of professionals from Russia, France and the United States. At the end of the training camp, the athletes received certificates for their participation in the training of elite sports from the academy.

According to the director of the camp, the

Announcements Girgian Fashion Show Get your kids dressed up in their best Girgian costumes or Fairy tale costumes! The Kids Gergean Fashion Show event is sponsored by Fantasy World & it includes lots of entertainment & goodies. It is open to kids aged 2 to 15 years. This event will be covered by many magazines :) When: Thursday, August 11th, Time: 8:30pm, For more info: 9722-4813 GIRGIAN: A fun Girgian party at Baroue! :) When: August 12th, 13th & 16th, Where: Baroue, Avenues Mall, Time: 8pm, For more info: 2259-7457 to 60

The Alliance Fencing Academy Russian Coach Andrey Geva, “Balsam and Lulwa Al-Ayoub’s participation was indeed a distinct one, and despite their numerous sports engagements, they were keen to attend; this was considered as Kuwait’s first participation at Alliance Fencing Academy.” In addition to this Coach Geva also stated that, “because we care about elite sports and the technical levels that come with it, we always seek to organize training camps of a high caliber for the participating athletes. It is due to this that we attract the finest coaches and fencers from around the world; therefore, the camp’s participation is expensive in comparison to other international camps.”

The French coach, BenoÓt Bouyssett, who also oversees the training of the US team in ÈpÈe, supervised Balsam And Lulwa Al-Ayoub’s training during their time at

Alliance Fencing Academy.

The Al-Ayoub champions stated that, “It is an honor for us to have been invited amongst the elite to participate in this outstanding international camp in Texas. In addition to this, being given certificates to certify that we have completed training in the elite sports now places us amongst the best fencing athletes in the world.

As a result, we are very happy and proud that we are the first to represent Kuwait in the history of the academy, and we are always looking to represent in the best way possible all over the world.

According to Balsam Al-Ayoub, “We stopped participating in international events for two seasons due to our engagement with our sports development programs around the world; in addition this, the Olympic suspension placed on Kuwait in 2010 - and continues to our current

day - has affected and halted Kuwait’s participation since in international tournaments. As athletes, we are looking for a vital solution to the current problems of sport in Kuwait, and due to the suspension, Kuwaiti athletes and champions are not able to represent Kuwait, or carry the Kuwaiti flag at tournaments in various sports fencing amongst them. It is also worthy to note that we extend our profound thanks to Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, President of the Olympic Council of Asia, and the Kuwait Olympic Committee for constantly supporting us. Not only has he supported us during our fencing career, but he also supported, and continues to support the sport’s development.”

The Al-Ayoub champions will return to Kuwait tonight to prepare, and continue to work on their upcoming sport projects.

Squash tournament Aware Arabic courses

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he AWARE Management is glad to announce that Ramadan Arabic language courses run till September 15th, 2011.

AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community.

We cater to teachers, travelers & those working in the private business sector.

Photography contest

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he Cancer Aware Nation (CAN) in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Dasman Diabetes Institute will be holding a photography contest during Ramadan. The theme of photo contest is to highlight the quality and quantity of healthy foods against unhealthy foods and the correct or wrong methods of preparing and cooking foods. This activity is part of the awareness campaign of CAN during the season of Ramadan to educate and encourage the public to observe healthy eating habits to eat cancer - fighting foods and to promote an active lifestyle to stay fit and healthy and especially to prevent cancer diseases.

The contest is open to the public and exciting prizes await the winners. The following prizes will be awarded: first place KD 1000, second place KD 200 and gift vouchers third - fourth fifth places KD 50 and gift vouchers sixth to tenth place gift vouchers. All participants will receive certificates of appreciation. Deadline for submitting the photo entries is on 24/8/2011. More information about this contest can be found at www.Shireenalmutawa.blogspot.com or call 22250226.

AWARE Arabic courses highlight lIntroductory to Level 4 Arabic language basics lBetter prepare you for speaking, reading and writing Arabic lCombine language learning with cultural insights lTaught in multi-nationality group settings lProvide opportunities to interact with Western expatriates and native Kuwaitis/Arabs. For more information, call 25335260 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw

Don Bosco Oratory announces cricket tournament

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on Bosco Oratory is pleased to announce its Major 7-a-side ‘Box Cricket Tournament’ in Kuwait. This event is for the cricket lovers in Kuwait and will be played on a League cum Knock out basis at the IEAS Indoor grounds at Salmiya. The last date for entries for participation is August 9th. Entries are accepted on a first come first serve basis. Draws will be announced on 10th August. We wish all teams the very best and request to help us in succeeding to organize this major event.

When: The tournament begins on August 13.

We request all interested teams to contact the organizer at the school grounds between 7-8 pm Mon - Thurs or: Philip: 6604-7730, Alex: 6606-9282, Liston: 99849649

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nce again this year, the stage is set for the third annual ‘Ramadan Stars Squash Tournament’ to be held from 15th August to 22nd August at the Kazma Sporting Club, Adailiya. Abdulrahim Al Awadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee has announced that doors are now open for registration to all those who are interested in participating, stating that the deadline for registration will be 13th of August.

The participation in this tournament is open to all and will fall under three categories this year. The first category is for amateurs from ages 17 and above, second category is for professional players from ages 20 and above and the third category is for ladies 17 and above.

Following its last two years of grand success, the 3rd annual Ramadan Stars Squash Tournament is being organized during Ramadan for squash lovers who will have an opportunity to practice the sport while being encouraged to develop their skills in a healthy and competitive environment.

Al Awadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee, commented, “In our last two tournaments, we have received very positive feedback and have witnessed a huge number of interested participants thus giving us immense encouragement to hold an exciting tournament this year. The 2011 squash tournament offers a great opportunity to all squash players to accept another challenge and build on their sports skills in midst of a friendly atmosphere. I highly encourage all interested players to maintain their level of activity during Ramadan while balancing fitness and fasting and to register before the deadline ends”.

All details pertaining to the tournament and means to participate can be found on the tournaments facebook page under ‘Ramadan Stars Squash Tourney’. The registration is taking place at GO SPORTS located at The Avenues Mall.

Alawadi also pointed out the great interest the ‘Ramadan Stars Squash tournament’ received from the private sector, where companies took the initiative in sponsoring the tournament. Alawadi expressed his gratitude and thanks to Go Sports, Comtel, Right Guard, TRACCS Public Relations, and Unite Colors, guaranteeing unique prizes for all winners.

For details contact Sarah Saeed TRACCS Tel: 22916093/ 66491539 Fax: 22916095. E-mail: sarah.saeed@traccs.net

Ernakulam iftar Kuwait Ernakulam Residents’ Association (KERA) iftar on August 13, at Rhythm auditorium, Abbassiya, from 5.30 pm onwards.

Attention kids!

CEF VBS 11 starting from August 22. Six exciting days of singing, games & bible stories for children of all ages.

Hurry !!!. Limited Seats. Register Online: www.cefkuwait.org Tulukoota talent hunt Tulukoota Kuwait will hold a “Talent Hunt 2011” a chance to prove an inborn trait in you that confirms your individuality, uniqueness. So step forward to grab this opportunity to show your caliber and entertain. Dance, music, art or any special talent- now is your chance to showcase it - and be part of this year’s Talent Hunt & Tulu Parba. Talent Hunt event is open to all Tuluvas. For more information and registration form kindly log on to our Website: www.tulukootakuwait.org or visit our facebook page Tulukoota Kuwait Talent Hunt 2011. You could also email your form request to: secretary@tulukootakuwait.org or contact our area coordinators mentioned below. Mangaf, Fahaheel, Abuhalifa : Ronald Dsouza- 60035824, Shalini Alva- 23726164, Suma Bhatt- 97834578 Salmiya & Hawally: Swarna Shetty- 99006934, Kripa Gatty66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq : Rekha Sachu65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana- 66585077 Sanath Shetty67712409.

Pathanamthitta Onam The executive committee of Pathanamthitta District Association has decided to hold 2011 Onam Festival celebrations on Friday October 28, 2011 with a grand public function attended by Member of Parliament from Pathanamthitta Loksabha Constituency, Anto Antony and other prominent dignitaries from Kerala and Kuwait. All residents of Pathanamthitta District and persons of Pathanamthitta District origin are hereby invited to attend this function and friends and families.

Art salon Bouhshari Art Gallery Exhibition runs through 15 September. Daily working hours: 10am - 1pm and 5 - 9pm, except on Friday and on Thursday evening.

Indian bowling league Indian Bowling League Season 2 would like to invite you and your families to participate in an Indian bowling event where all nationalities, the young and the old can have fun playing an enjoyable game while meeting new people in a healthy competition from July 12th - August 15th For more details contact: Uly 99503348, Amaldo 66052062, and Nasha 99516960. If anyone is looking to assist them in this event with sponsors, they will be really obliged to have your help to make this event a success.

Registrations are open.

Rink soccer Don Bosco Oratory is pleased to announce its Major 4-ASide “Rink Soccer Fiesta” in Kuwait! This event is for the soccer lovers in Kuwait and will be played on a League (round robin) cum knock out basis from August 2nd at the IEAS Quadrangle in Salmiya. For details contact Chris: 6651-9627, Alex: 66069282 from 6-9pm.

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription ended on 25 of April 2011. To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref ) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF BANGLADESH The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will follow office hours during the holy month of Ramadan. Sunday to Thursday : 09:00 A.M 3:00 PM. Friday and Saturday : Weekly Holidays.

This is for information of all concerned. l The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will remain closed on Monday, 15 August 2011 on the occasion of the National Mourning Day, the 36th Death Anniversary of the Father of Nation - Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Embassy will arrange the following programmes to observe the National Mourning Day, the 36th Death Anniversary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Monday, 15 August 2011 at the Chancery. The programme on this occasion will be as follows: 0830 hrs Roof top Hoisting of the National Flag at half-mast 1630 hrs First Floor Recitation from the Holy Quran one-minute silence in honour of the martyrs.

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EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930 - 1630 Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floor, Al Banwan Building (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building), Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City. For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfs-uk-kw.com Telephone:22971170.

The Consular Section will also be closed on the same dates. For information on the British Embassy services, visit the British Embassy website: www.ukinkuwait.fco.gov.uk nnnnnnn

Kuwait Fire Services Directorate holds Ghabqa The Kuwait Fire Services Directorate held a ghabqa for firefighters and staff, at the Abdullah Al-Mubarak ceremonial hall at Al-Khaldia. KFSD General Director Major General Jassem Al-Mansouri was present at the event, and he answered reporters’ questions which addressed various topics pertaining to the KFSD.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home.

The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait.

Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF GERMANY The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com nnnnnnn

Summer Activities KAYAKING Kuwait Surf-Ski Kayak Club 99706742 Sea kayaking is one of the fastest growing water sports in the world today. Call if you are interested in purchasing a kayak, getting involved in the sport.

MOTOR SPORTS Kuwait Motor Bike League / The Amateur Car & Motorbike Association Motorbike track (for trail/dirt bikes) and rally car-racing centre located behind the Science Club on the northern side of the 6th Ring Road (between roads 401 and 50). Car and bike races held on Fridays. Use of facilities and participation in competitions limited to members only. office on 3td Ring Road, near Road 50.

NETBALL Kuwait Netball Meet Monday for mixed games 6:30 -7:30 and Tuesday for Woman only check the website for more info. www.kuwaitnetball.com

RUGBY Kuwait Nomads The rugby season in Kuwait runs from September to May. Mens, ladies and minis rugby are played and the teams frequently travel to participate in AGRFU tournaments.

Any interested child between the ages of 517 can participate in the Minis rugby.

Training is held every Friday between 9amllam on the grassed pitch at the Yarmouk stadium. The men’s and ladies teams have the pleasure of training and playing on the KOC sand pitch in Ahmadi, the home of the Kuwait Nomads. Training nights are Sundays and Tuesdays from 7pm-9pm.

Inter-Gulf matches are played on Thursdays or Fridays. www.p8nompds.com

the start and finish. Decide how far you want to walk, walk half the distance and then turn back. There are roads to cross so take care if you have young children with you. Despite all of this, it’s still very worthwhile going along and trying it out.

RUNNING For anyone who likes walking, jogging or cycling in Kuwait there is a very good track around the area of Mishref. The track is 4.9km long and is marked out in distances of 100m. There are also a number of outdoor exercise machines located near the start and the end of the track. Please note, however, that the track is more of a horseshoe shape rather than a complete circuit as there is a gap of at least a mile between

SAILING The Arabian Gulf waters are an ideal environment in which to learn to sail. Offshore the seas are seldom rough and there is often a moderate breeze. Many of the sea clubs organize sailing activities.

HASH HARRIERS 23982219 Social jogging on Thursday and Saturday evenings. Hash Harriers has been operating around the world since 1938. Hash is for a mixture of abilities from walkers to experienced runners. It is social rather than athletic. Length of course depends on time of year. Contact Gerry Burton on the above number or on 99764028. www.hasher.net

CATAMARAN SAILING 66587737 Dive Caroline Beach Fafaheel The Kuwait Catamaran Club is a group of enthusiasts

who love sailing on fast cats in the Arabian Gulf’s waters around Kuwait. Usually an informal group sail on Friday afternoons.

Boats are privately owned but visitors are very welcome and can be taken out as crew. Boats for hire, a Dart 18 and Hobie 16.

Contact John Morley johnmorley@hotmail.com Fahaheel Sailing Club (see Dive Caroline) 2371 9289 www.horn3.com KOSA 23983365 99745383 The Kuwait Offshore Sailing Association (KOSA) meets on the first Tuesday of each month (except July and August) at the Dive Caroline clubhouse, which is located at the Fahaheel Sea Club. Fortnightly racing plus International events in Bahrain and Dubai.

Boats often require crew and will take you if you turn up! Catamaran racing is arranged after KOSA morning races, followed by a sunset barbecue on the beach.

An Annual Regatta, usually during April, is also organised. www.kospg8.com

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Embassy of India will remain closed on the following dates on August 15, 2011 (Monday) - ‘Independence Day’ and August 22, (Monday) - ‘Janamashtami’. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF IRAN The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kuwait announced their official working hours during the holy month of Ramadan, which will go between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm on weekdays. The Iranian embassy extends will wishes to His Highness the Amir, the government as well as the people of Kuwait on this occasion. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF SLOVAK REPUBLIC The Embassy of the Slovak Republic to the State of Kuwait would like to inform the public that from 8th August 2011, the working hours of the Consular Section will be on Monday and Wednesday from 10:00 till 13:00 hrs.

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00:45 Dogs 101 01:40 Untamed And Uncut 02:35 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 03:30 Ray Mears’ Wild Britain 04:25 Buggin’ With Ruud 05:20 Animal Cops Houston 06:10 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Jeff Corwin Unleashed 08:15 Natural Born Hunters 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Dogs 101 10:05 Dogs 101 11:00 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 11:55 Meerkat Manor 12:20 Wildlife SOS 12:50 K9 Cops 13:45 Animal Cops Houston 14:40 Animal Precinct 15:30 RSPCA: Have You Got What It Takes?

16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 17:00 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 17:25 Dogs 101 18:20 Breed All About It 18:45 Orangutan Island 19:15 Crocodile Hunter 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Austin Stevens Adventures 22:00 Monster Bug Wars 22:55 Human Prey 23:50 Life Of Mammals

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

One Foot In The Grave The Weakest Link Holby City Spooks Eastenders Doctors One Foot In The Grave Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola Tweenies Balamory Tikkabilla Charlie And Lola One Foot In The Grave One Foot In The Grave The Weakest Link Himalaya with Michael Palin Doctors Eastenders Holby City One Foot In The Grave My Family My Family Himalaya with Michael Palin The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Holby City Himalaya with Michael Palin The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Bleak House Bleak House My Family

00:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Claus Meyer 00:50 New Scandinavian Cooking 01:15 What Not To Wear 02:05 New Scandinavian Cooking With Claus Meyer 03:45 Daily Cooks Challenge 05:10 New Scandinavian Cooking With Claus Meyer 06:55 New Scandinavian Cooking

With Claus Meyer 07:20 Daily Cooks Challenge 09:20 Daily Cooks Challenge 09:50 What Not To Wear 10:40 Indian Food Made Easy 11:05 Indian Food Made Easy 11:30 Cash In The Attic 12:15 Antiques Roadshow 13:05 New Scandinavian Cooking 13:35 Britain’s Dream Homes 14:25 What Not To Wear 15:15 Indian Food Made Easy 15:40 Indian Food Made Easy 16:05 Cash In The Attic 16:55 Antiques Roadshow 17:45 New Scandinavian Cooking 18:10 Britain’s Dream Homes 19:05 Indian Food Made Easy 19:35 Indian Food Made Easy 20:00 Cash In The Attic 20:45 Antiques Roadshow 21:40 New Scandinavian Cooking 22:05 Britain’s Dream Homes 23:00 Masterchef Australia 23:45 Masterchef Australia

00:00 BBC World News 00:30 World Business Report 00:45 Sport Today 01:00 BBC World News America 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Sport Today 02:00 BBC World News 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 Newsday 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Sport Today 04:00 Newsday 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 Newsday 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 Newsday 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 Hardtalk

00:40 01:35 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50

Dirty Jobs Miami Ink Ultimate Survival Wheeler Dealers Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How Does It Work?

Dirty Jobs Wheeler Dealers Street Customs 2008

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 08:45 09:10 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:25 12:20 13:15 14:10 15:05 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:10 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:45

How Does It Work?

Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings Taking On Tyson Pit Bulls And Parolees Ultimate Survival Miami Ink Dirty Jobs Wheeler Dealers Mythbusters Deadliest Catch Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings How Does It Work?

Cash Cab (US) Science Of The Movies Mythbusters Weird Or What?

Deadliest Catch

00:05 Smash Lab 00:55 Extreme Engineering 01:45 Space Pioneer 02:35 How The Universe Works 03:25 Scrapheap Challenge 04:15 How Stuff’s Made 04:45 Extreme Engineering 05:40 One Step Beyond 06:10 Superships 07:00 Scrapheap Challenge 07:55 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 08:50 The Gadget Show 09:15 The Gadget Show 09:40 How The Universe Works 14:55 How The Universe Works 15:45 Weird Connections 16:10 Scrapheap Challenge 17:00 The Sun 17:50 Sci-Fi Science 18:15 The Gadget Show 18:40 What’s That About?

19:30 Weird Connections 19:55 Weird Connections 20:20 Smash Lab 21:10 The Gadget Show 21:35 The Gadget Show 22:00 What’s That About?

22:50 Weird Connections 23:15 Weird Connections 23:40 The Gadget Show

00:15 00:35 01:00 01:25 Cody 01:50 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:35 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:15 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:35 09:00 09:20 Cody 09:45 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:20 11:30 11:35 12:00 Splits 12:10 12:20 12:30 12:40 Splits 12:50

MAMMOTH ON OSN CINEMA

Sonny With A Chance Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up The Suite Life Of Zack And Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Emperor’s New School The Suite Life Of Zack And Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Splits Mickey Mousekersize Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Splits The Hive Handy Manny Splits Jake & The Neverland Pirates Sonny With A Chance

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

The Suite Life Of Zack And Phineas And Ferb Splits Shake It Up Hannah Montana Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Sonny With A Chance Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb The Suite Life Of Zack And Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Hannah Montana Suite Life On Deck Fish Hooks Shake It Up Jake & Blake Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Fish Hooks Hannah Montana Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Jake & Blake Hannah Montana

06:00 American Dragon 06:20 Kick Buttowski 06:40 Pokemon Dp: Sinnoh League Victors 07:05 Phineas & Ferb 07:30 Kid Vs Kat 07:50 Pair Of Kings 08:15 I’m In The Band 08:40 Kick Buttowski 09:00 Zeke & Luther 09:25 Zeke & Luther 09:50 I’m In The Band 10:15 The Super Hero Squad Show 10:40 Suite Life On Deck 11:05 Suite Life On Deck 11:30 Pair Of Kings 11:55 Phineas & Ferb 12:20 Phineas & Ferb 12:45 I’m In The Band 13:10 Kid Vs Kat 13:30 Kid Vs Kat 13:50 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 14:10 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 14:30 Phineas & Ferb 14:50 Pair Of Kings 16:50 Pair Of Kings 17:15 Zeke & Luther 17:40 Phineas & Ferb 18:05 Phineas & Ferb 18:30 Escape From Scorpion Island 18:55 Kick Buttowski 19:20 American Dragon 19:45 Aaron Stone 20:15 Kid Vs Kat 20:40 I’m In The Band 21:05 The Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes 21:30 Zeke & Luther 21:50 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 22:15 The Super Hero Squad Show

00:05 Jungle Junction 00:15 Little Einsteins 00:40 Higglytown Heroes 00:55 Higglytown Heroes 01:10 Jo Jo’s Circus 01:30 Special Agent Oso 01:45 Special Agent Oso 02:00 Jungle Junction 02:15 Jungle Junction 02:25 Little Einsteins 02:50 Higglytown Heroes 03:05 Higglytown Heroes 03:20 Jo Jo’s Circus 03:40 Special Agent Oso 03:55 Special Agent Oso 04:10 Jungle Junction 04:25 Jungle Junction 04:35 Little Einsteins 05:00 Higglytown Heroes 05:15 Higglytown Heroes 05:30 Jo Jo’s Circus 05:50 Jungle Junction 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:15 Higglytown Heroes 06:30 Higglytown Heroes 06:45 Handy Manny 07:00 Special Agent Oso 07:15 Jungle Junction 07:30 Jungle Junction 07:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 08:10 Timmy Time 08:20 Handy Manny 08:30 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 08:45 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 08:55 The Hive 09:10 Handy Manny 09:25 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:50 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 10:15 The Little Mermaid 10:40 Little Einsteins 11:05 Jungle Junction 11:20 Lazytown 11:45 Handy Manny 12:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 12:25 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 12:40 The Little Mermaid 13:05 The Hive 13:15 Special Agent Oso 13:25 Little Einsteins 13:50 The Little Mermaid 14:15 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 14:40 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:05 Handy Manny 15:20 Handy Manny 15:30 The Hive 15:40 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 15:55 Imagination Movers 16:20 Lazytown 16:45 Jungle Junction 17:00 The Hive 17:10 Little Einsteins 17:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 17:55 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 18:10 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 18:25 The Little Mermaid 18:50 Special Agent Oso 19:03 Animated Stories 19:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 19:25 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 19:50 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 20:00 Jake And The Neverland Pirates 20:10 The Hive 20:20 Timmy Time 20:30 The Little Mermaid 20:55 Little Einsteins 21:20 Jake And The Neverland

Pirates 21:35 Jungle Junction 21:50 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 22:15 Timmy Time 22:25 Handy Manny 22:40 Jungle Junction 22:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 23:20 Special Agent Oso 23:35 Special Agent Oso 23:50 Jungle Junction

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 THS 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 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 30 Most Outrageous Celebrity Feuds 12:05 E! News 13:05 Holly’s World 13:35 Holly’s World 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 E!es 15:30 E!es 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 E!es 17:55 E! News 18:55 THS 19:55 Khloe And Lamar 20:25 Khloe And Lamar 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:25 The Dance Scene 21:55 The Dance Scene 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:15 Man’s Work 00:40 Mantracker 01:30 World Combat League 02:20 Man’s Work 02:45 Man’s Work 03:10 Aiya TV 03:35 Aiya TV 04:00 Untracked 04:25 Untracked 04:50 Mantracker 05:40 World Combat League 06:30 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 07:00 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 07:30 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 08:00 Cape Epic 08:25 IFMXF 2010 08:50 IFMXF 2010 09:15 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 10:05 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 10:55 Dr Danger 11:20 Dr Danger 11:45 Fantasy Factory 12:10 Fantasy Factory 12:35 Man’s Work 13:00 Man’s Work 13:25 Mantracker 14:15 World Combat League 15:05 Dr Danger 15:30 Dr Danger 15:55 Fantasy Factory 16:20 Fantasy Factory 16:45 Cape Epic 17:10 IFMXF 2010 17:35 IFMXF 2010 18:00 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 18:50 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 19:40 Mantracker 20:30 Man’s Work 20:55 Man’s Work 21:20 I’ll Do Anything 22:10 World Combat League 23:00 Aiya TV 23:25 Aiya TV 23:50 Man’s Work

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

Ghost Lab A Haunting Deadly Women Couples Who Kill Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghost Lab Mystery Diagnosis Murder Shift Forensic Detectives Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Fugitive Strike Force FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn Royal Inquest Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Fugitive Strike Force FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol On The Case With Paula Zahn Royal Inquest I Almost Got Away With It I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:30 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00

A World Apart Cycling Home First Ascent Banged Up Abroad Eccentric Uk Eccentric Uk Weird & Wonderful Hotels

By Any Means Earth Tripping A World Apart Cycling Home First Ascent Banged Up Abroad Eccentric Uk Eccentric Uk Weird & Wonderful Hotels

By Any Means Earth Tripping A World Apart

AVATAR ON OSN MOVIES ACTION 13:00 Amazing Adventures Nobody: Europe 13:30 Amazing Adventures Nobody: Europe 14:00 Destination Extreme 15:00 Endurance Traveller 16:00 Departures 17:00 Departures 18:00 Meet The Amish 19:00 Amazing Adventures Nobody: Europe 19:30 Amazing Adventures Nobody: Europe 20:00 Destination Extreme 21:00 Endurance Traveller 22:00 Departures 23:00 Departures

00:00 02:45 04:30 06:15 08:00 10:00 PG15 12:00 13:45 15:30 18:30 20:15 22:00

Of A Of A

Of A Of A

The Thin Red Line-18 The Alphabet Killer-PG15 D4-PG15 The Marine 2-PG15 The Bodyguard 2-PG15 Beyond A Reasonable DoubtHeaven’s Fall-PG15 The Bodyguard 2-PG15 Pearl Harbor-PG15 Heaven’s Fall-PG15 Child’s Play 2-PG15 Signs-PG15

01:00 Brotherhood-PG15 03:00 Meet Bill-PG15 05:00 Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea-FAM 07:00 5 Dollars A Day-PG15 09:00 Stone Of Destiny-PG15 11:00 Charlie & Boots-PG15 13:00 Who Is Clark Rockefeller-PG 15:00 Messengers-PG15 17:00 Hurricane Season-PG15 19:00 When In Rome-PG15 21:00 Mammoth-PG15 23:15 The Uninvited-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 02:00 The Cleveland Show 02:30 Rita Rocks 03:00 Just Shoot Me 03:30 Just Shoot Me 04:00 Two And A Half Men 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 06:00 Seinfeld 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Two And A Half Men 08:30 Just Shoot Me 09:00 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 09:30 Raising Hope 10:00 Cougar Town 10:30 Seinfeld 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Two And A Half Men 13:00 Just Shoot Me 13:30 Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne 14:00 Seinfeld 14:30 Raising Hope 15:00 Cougar Town 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Just Shoot Me 18:30 Just Shoot Me 19:00 Parks And Recreation 19:30 The Simpsons 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Louie 22:30 Rita Rocks 23:00 The New Adventures Of Old Christine 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

Grey’s Anatomy House Private Practice Grey’s Anatomy Strong Medicine

05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Good Morning America The Event Emmerdale Coronation Street Never Trust A Skinny Cook Huey’s Cooking Adventure The Martha Stewart Show The View Grey’s Anatomy Grey’s Anatomy Live Good Morning America Strong Medicine The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Warehouse 13 Supernatural Terriers Private Practice The Event

01:00 Fast Lane-PG15 03:00 D4-PG15 05:00 Stag Night-18 06:45 The Hunt For Red OctoberPG15 09:00 Stonehenge ApocalypsePG15 11:00 Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time-PG15 13:00 The Order-PG15 15:00 Stonehenge ApocalypsePG15 16:30 Avatar-PG 19:15 Menace II Society-18 21:00 El Orfenato-18 23:00 Child’s Play 2-PG15

00:00 Hope Springs-PG15 02:00 Dance Flick-18 04:00 Dragnet-PG15 06:00 The Ramen Girl-PG15 08:00 500 Days Of Summer-PG15 10:00 Married To It-PG15 12:00 Mafia!-PG15 14:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs-PG 16:00 Hope Springs-PG15 18:00 Land Of The Lost-PG15 20:00 Addams Family Values-PG 22:00 Funny People-18

01:00 The Waterdance-18 03:00 Cheri-PG15 05:00 Cape Fear-PG15 07:00 End Of The Spear-PG15 09:00 Where The Wild Things ArePG 10:45 By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama-PG15 13:00 Lost In Yonkers-PG 15:15 Operating Instructions-PG15 17:00 Preacher’s Kid-PG 19:00 No One Knows About Persian Cats-PG15 21:00 Rumble Fish-18 23:00 The Deep-PG15

01:15 03:00 05:15 07:00 09:00 11:30 13:00 14:30 16:30 19:00 21:00 23:15

The Shape Of Things-PG15 The Lovely Bones-PG15 The Last Song-PG15 Inside Job-PG15 Sherlock Holmes-PG15 Bond Of Silence-PG15 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 The Informant!-PG15 Sherlock Holmes-PG15 Grown Ups-PG15 Mammoth-PG15 Clash Of The Titans-PG15

01:00 War Of The Buttons-PG 03:00 My Fair Madeline-FAM 05:00 Toy Story 3-FAM 07:00 Dennis The Menace: Cruise Control-FAM 09:00 Stuart Little 2-FAM 11:00 Astro Boy-FAM 13:00 Free Willy: Escape From Pirate’s Cove-FAM 15:00 Catch That Kid-PG 17:00 Astro Boy-FAM 19:00 Homeward Bound II: Lost In San Francisco-FAM 21:00 Free Willy: Escape From Pirate’s Cove-FAM 23:00 Dennis The Menace: Cruise Control-FAM

00:00 Deadly Impact-18 02:00 Whip It-PG15 04:00 Marmaduke-PG 06:00 Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale-PG15 08:00 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 10:00 StreetDance-PG15 12:00 Whip It-PG15 14:00 You Again-PG15 16:00 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 18:00 St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold-PG15 20:00 The Wolfman-18 22:00 The Lightkeepers-PG15

00:30 02:30 05:30 07:30 08:30 10:30 12:30 13:00 20:00 21:00 23:00

ITM Cup Rugby Union Trans World Sport Live ITM Cup Rugby Union Speedway WWE SmackDown!

ITM Cup Rugby Union Futbol Mundial Live Test Cricket Trans World Sport ITM Cup Rugby Union Speedway

00:30 Futbol Mundial 01:00 Golfing World 02:00 NRL Premiership 04:00 NRL Full Time 04:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 05:00 Futbol Mundial 05:30 Live ITM Cup Rugby Union 07:30 Rugby World Cup Classics 08:00 Trans World Sport 09:00 Golfing World 10:00 Scottish Premier League Highlights 10:30 Rugby Union ITM CUP 12:30 Rugby World Cup Classics 13:00 Live Test Cricket 20:00 Trans World Sport 21:00 ITM Cup Rugby Union 23:00 Scottish Premier League Highlights 23:30 European Tour Weekly

00:00 ICC Cricket World 00:30 Scottish Premier League 02:30 Rugby World Cup Classics 03:00 Five Beach Volley Ball 03:30 Trans World Sport 04:30 Rugby League Challenge Cup 06:30 Futbol Mundial 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 Currie Cup Rugby Union 10:00 FIVB Beach Volley Ball 10:30 AFL Highlights 11:30 World Hockey 12:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 12:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 13:00 Golfing World 14:00 FEI Equestrian World 14:30 The Challenge Series Golf 15:00 Asian Tour Golf 15:30 Asian Tour Highlights 16:30 International Rugby Union 18:30 Golfing World 19:30 European Tour Weekly 20:00 AFL Highlights 21:00 Rugby World Cup Classics 21:30 Futbol Mundial 22:00 Asian Tour Golf 22:30 Asian Tour Highlights 23:30 Mobil 1 The Grid

00:00 UFC 133 03:00 Speedway 04:00 V8 Supercars Championship 06:00 UFC Unleashed 07:00 WWE Vintage Collection 08:00 Speedway 09:00 Super League Formula 11:30 Powerboats F1 Highlights 12:00 WWE NXT 13:00 V8 Supercars Championship 15:00 V8 Supercars Extra 15:30 Powerboats UIM Class One Highlights 16:00 Modern Pentaholn 18:00 Speedway 19:00 Powerboats F1 Highlights 21:00 UFC Wired 22:00 UFC Unleashed

Classifieds WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

ACCOMMODATION

Sharing accommodation in Abbassiya near Balansiya Bakery, from 1st September, full furnished 2 bedroom flat with mini split A/C, looking for executive bachelor or couple to share with Keralite family. Contact: 66944127 or (afternoon) 24334240. (C 3560) 9-8-2011 Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya, near United Indian School.

For a couple KD 80 or bachelor KD 50. Contact: 99645213.

(C 3557) 8-8-2011 Furnished sharing accommodation in a 2 bedroom apart, for an executive bachelor or couple in Farwaniya, for RC Goan or Mangalorean with Mangalorean bachelor behind Crowne Plaza.

Contact: 97521167, 24762183. (C 2554) 7-8-2011 One room fully furnished in 3 bedroom C-A/C flat is available for rent. Muslim bachelor/ Pakistani is preferred. Contact 99714430.

(C 3553) 6-8-2011

FOR SALE

Mitsubishi Galant, Model 2000 (Manual) silver color, 380km done, registered up to February 2012, new tires & battery, good condition A/C working, demand KD 800/- can dis-

cuss. Contact: 97868266.

(C 3561) 10-8-2011 Nissan Sunny 2009, white color, 71000km, KD 2,300/. Contact: 65085629.

(C 3559) 9-8-2011 2006 Pajero white V6 full option without sunroof cruise control, 6CD changer, wood decoration, folding mirror, fog light alloy wheels, running 126000 km, price KD 3750 (negotiable) for urgent sale leaving Kuwait. Contact: 66219290. (C 3552) 6-8-2011

reputed company in Kuwait. Email: anson7714@yahoo.com (C 3556) 8-8-2011 Kuwait Orthodox parents invite proposals for their son 29/172cm, M.Com PGDBA born & brought up in Kuwait and employed in MNC Kuwait since 2008 from parents of Orthodox / Jacobite / Marthoma girls B.Tech/MCA/MBA/M.Com employed in Kuwait.

Contact email: thekalloors@gmail.com (C 3555) 7-8-2011

MATRIMONIAL

Christian parents invite marriage proposal for their daughter 25, 5.5”, MA, Bed, English teacher, based Meerut, U.P, India from qualified and professional boys. Email: davidsondaniel@hotmail.com (C 3562) 10-8-2011 Proposals are invited for a RCSC girl, 30, 165 working as accountant with a

SITUATION VACANT

A driver for a family of two adults, will have to carry other tasks, must have a valid driver’s license and transferable visa interested call Tell: 99160902 9-8-2011 British family in Fintas looking for live-in maid.

Please Contact: 23908092 after 2pm. (C 3558) 8-8-2011

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 THY ETH UAE DHX MSR GFA QTR JZR FCX KAC BAW JZR BBC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA FCX MEA IRM RBG MSR IRC UAL RJA MSR JZR FDB KAC KAC SVA CLX QTR KAC

Arrival Flights on Wednesday 10/8/2011 Flt Route 642 AMMAN 772 ISTANBUL 620 ADDIS ABABA 853 DUBAI 370 BAHRAIN 614 CAIRO 211 BAHRAIN 138 DOHA 539 CAIRO 201 DUBAI 412 MANILA / BANGKOK 157 LONDON 507 LUXOR 45 DHAKA 557 ALEXANDRIA 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 284 DHAKA 302 MUMBAI 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 344 CHENNAI 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 132 DOHA 125 SHARJAH 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 203 DUBAI 404 BEIRUT 5066 MASHAD 3557 ALEXANDRIA 610 CAIRO 6791 MASHAD 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 640 AMMAN 621 ASSIUT 775 JEDDAH 57 DUBAI 802 CAIRO 790 MEDINAH 500 JEDDAH 792 LUXEMBOURG 134 DOHA 546 ALEXANDRIA

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

KNE SVA SYR ETD UAE SVA GFA SVA JZR ABY KAC FDB KNE ALK IYE KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC AIC JAI KAC FDB OMA VOS MEA JZR MSR DHX UAE GFA QTR UAL MSR JZR DLH SAI AXB KLM PIA

701 9375 341 303 857 2376 215 510 561 127 550 63 745 227 824 166 502 542 618 786 774 777 102 1734 674 575 572 1738 61 647 81 402 203 618 372 859 217 136 981 612 185 636 441 393 447 215

RIYADH JEDDAH DAMASCUS ABU DHABI DUBAI JEDDAH BAHRAIN RIYADH SOHAG SHARJAH SHARM EL SHEIKH / SOHAG DUBAI JEDDAH COLOMBO / DUBAI SANAA / DOHA PARIS / ROME BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH RIYADH JEDDAH NEW YORK / LONDON JEDDAH DUBAI CHENNAI / GOA MUMBAI JEDDAH DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT DAMASCUS ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN CAIRO DUBAI FRANKFURT LAHORE KOZHIKODE / COCHIN AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN KARACHI

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

Airlines AXB JZR DLH AIC PIA THY ETH UAE DHX MSR QTR RJA GFA KAC BBC VOS JZR BAW KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA JZR KAC FCX MEA KAC KAC KAC IRM KAC RBG JZR KAC MSR IRC RJA FDB MSR KAC

Departure Flights on Wednesday 10/8/2011 Flt Route 390 MANGALORE / KOZHIKODE 506 LUXOR 637 FRANKFURT 982 AHMEDABAD / CHENNAI 206 LAHORE 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 615 CAIRO 139 DOHA 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 801 CAIRO 46 DHAKA 94 DUBAI / KANDAHAR 774 JEDDAH 156 LONDON 545 ALEXANDRIA 54 DUBAI 177 FRANKFURT / GENEVA 117 NEW YORK 789 MEDINAH 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 560 SOHAG 549 SOHAG 204 DUBAI 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 103 LONDON 501 BEIRUT 5065 MASHAD 785 JEDDAH 3558 SOHAG / ALEXANDRIA 776 JEDDAH 1733 JEDDAH 611 CAIRO 6792 MASHAD 641 AMMAN 58 DUBAI 622 ASSIUT 1737 JEDDAH

Time 0:25 0:30 0:40 1:05 1:10 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:55 4:05 5:00 7:00 7:10 7:20 8:00 8:00 8:15 8:25 8:35 8:40 8:55 9:05 9:25 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:55 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:50 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:40

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

UAL JZR KAC KAC SVA KAC CLX KNE SYR ETD SVA QTR UAE GFA ABY JZR SVA FDB KNE SVA JZR ALK IYE KAC KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC JZR KAC OMA MEA MSR DHX UAE GFA KAC FCX QTR KAC KAC UAL MSR KAC JZR SAI

982 202 673 617 503 773 792 704 342 304 2374 135 858 216 128 268 511 64 746 2377 184 228 824 283 361 571 62 1735 331 538 351 648 403 619 373 860 218 381 102 137 301 205 981 613 415 556 442

BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DUBAI DOHA MEDINAH / JEDDAH RIYADH HONG KONG MEDINAH DAMASCUS ABU DHABI JEDDAH DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH BEIRUT RIYADH DUBAI JEDDAH JEDDAH DUBAI DUBAI / COLOMBO SANAA DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI JEDDAH TRIVANDRUM CAIRO COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DELHI BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA ALEXANDRIA LAHORE

14:45 14:55 15:10 15:35 15:45 15:50 16:20 16:45 17:30 17:35 17:35 17:45 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:40 18:40 18:45 19:10 19:40 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:40 21:00 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:40 23:50 23:50 23:55 23:59

34

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 405

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) You are in a planning mood and are very clearheaded and able to view all the alternative paths. Go ahead and make those decisions. You can see the road ahead and will make the right choices. Continual discovery, persistent search and continual change will keep you on the move and growing.

You will help your company make beneficial changes that will enable money-saving ideas to go into effect. Work and career should be a primary focus during this time.

You will benefit from analytical insights, getting to the heart of things—penetrating.

This is a time of new thoughts and sudden insights and to get an unexpected boost in the way you think, speak or write. Communications are accented and you may find all kinds of opportunities opening to you now.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Taking care of business is a major theme where your emotional orientation is concerned. You are very practical and will find many things get accomplished quickly. You aim to have a place for everything and everything in its place—and anything that gets in the way may get on your nerves.

Things may not go as quickly as you would like today and this can be frustrating. Pace yourself so that your emotions do not get the best of you. Health and work goals take on a greater importance for you now. This afternoon may be a perfect time to schedule in some golf, hand ball, tennis or any other type of competitive sport. This form of exercise will release much tension and relieve any anxieties that may have built up during the day.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS

1. Extremely pleasing.

4. In a slow and lazy manner.

10. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

13. The month following March and preceding May. 14. Medieval artillery used during sieges.

15. A label made of cardboard or plastic or metal.

16. The former capital and 2nd largest city of Brazil.

17. Moth having nonfunctional mouthparts as adults.

19. A bar of sand.

22. A ruler of the Inca Empire (or a member of his family).

23. A cylindrical drawstring bag used by sailors to hold their clothing and other gear.

26. The cry made by sheep.

27. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

31. A member of a Caddo people formerly living in north central Texas.

37. Clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing.

40. (Norse mythology) One of the Aesir known for his beauty and skill with bow and skis.

41. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

42. A doctor's degree in education.

43. Having been made square.

46. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

48. A hard gray lustrous metallic element that is highly corrosion-resistant.

49. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

54. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

58. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

59. Offering fun and gaiety.

60. A piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred.

61. Bound or secured closely.

62. (Greek mythology) Goddess of discord.

63. Humble request for help.

64. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

DOWN 1. A person of Iranian descent.

2. Relating to or having the characteristics of bees.

3. An unbroken or imperfectly broken mustang.

4. United States physiologist (born in Germany) who did research on parthenogenesis (1859-1924).

5. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and closely related to Hausa.

6. The capital of Croatia.

7. One of the most common of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

8. (Irish) The sea personified.

9. A period of time containing 365 (or 366) days.

10. A state in the western United States.

11. Type genus of the Majidae.

12. Any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent.

18. A motley assortment of things.

20. Russian country house.

21. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

24. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

25. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

28. An inflammatory disease involving the sebaceous glands of the skin.

29. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

30. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring on land.

32. Being nine more than forty.

33. An important seaport on the Island of Cebu in the Philippines.

34. Frogs, toads, tree toads.

35. A small island.

36. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

38. Late time of life.

39. Type genus of the Lacertidae.

40. A period of time containing 365 (or 366) days.

44. An Arab country on the peninsula of Qatar.

45. A wall hanging of heavy handwoven fabric with pictorial designs.

47. A blanket that is used as a cloak or shawl.

50. Small European freshwater fish with a slender bluishgreen body.

51. A roughly cylindrical that is vessel open at the top.

52. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

53. An informal term for a father.

55. American prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942).

56. An abnormally large amount of this fetoprotein in the fetus can signal an abnormality of the neural tube (as spina bifida or anencephaly).

57. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

Yesterday’s Solution

Gemini (May 21-June 20) New ways to communicate or an easy manner will make conversations and interactions go well. You find yourself more talkative and patient than at other times. A dialogue with an older person may take place.

Taking care of business is a major theme where your emotional orientation is concerned. You want to get things accomplished and you are capable of success. It is important to have your space neat and organized and you work on that part of the day. This neat area in which you like to work helps you to enjoy less stress. Stay aware of how you feel in order to halt excessive stress buildup. This is a very successful day.

An evaluation of your finances now will give you an idea of where you can expand your scope of professional activities.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

You can really get your thoughts and ideas across to others.

Your good communication skills will not fail you. Others may disagree with what you say but this just challenges you to pull out a few statistics or facts that will back up your views. It will not take long to sway others to your point of view.

After gaining respect for your knowledge or expertise, you can communicate your ideas and concepts to a listening, interested audience. Exhibiting your knowledge, through perhaps advertisement or in writing a book, you will find a great deal of positive feedback. Making your mark on the world has special significance for you.

Achievement, ambition and authority take on greater importance. Administering to people becomes central to your lifestyle.

Leo (July 23-August 22) It may be hard to organize or persevere. Everything may seem to be falling apart. We can all go through confusing days and you may gain a sense of being organized by taking time to sort out the priorities. Do not try to do everything at once and delegate jobs whenever possible. Do not force things—be patient. Your negotiation skills come into play later today when you may want to add to or subtract from some project. You may find yourself serving to guide someone younger than you later today. You prefer the forest to the trees and the common to the uncommon. You are at home in ideas of man’s essential unity. You will act as a minister to others, like it or not. A peace of mind is something you really enjoy this evening.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Your intuition is on target today—you are able to find the real cause of a problem and make some positive changes. Breakthrough flashes of insight with tremendous originality and independence are typical. You are an aggressive prime mover, a starter, able to initiate and get things moving. Your mind cuts right through all the window dressing and gets right down to the basics. Before anyone knows it, you have the heart of the matter out front for everyone to see. You would make a great investigator, either in scientific research or undercover work. Your ability to get to the point is all but phenomenal. You can talk and put into words areas of the emotional that others would not go near. Sports activities with your friends prove enjoyable this evening.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Secrets, conspiracies and the hidden links that unite all things take on greater importance in your life now. Digging into the past for hints about the present and future uncovers a lot of answers to the questions that will not go away. This is a very lucky day for making plans or decisions and finding your way through just about any problem you may discover. You feel successful and able to handle difficult situations today. Good advice from a guide or older person may be available. Relationships; whether partnerships, personal or the social scene in general, are very important during this time and can have a very decided influence on your career and workplace. You may find that a more impersonal attitude is the key.

This is a good day.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Taking care of business and getting things accomplished is the major concentration for the day. Your mind is full of practical ideas, especially related to your job or skills. You always come up with new ideas and practical thoughts. This is not the best time to spend money but it is the best time to make you known. You are at your best, physically and mentally and anything you set out to do will work in your favor. You are never funnier, wittier or more at your mental best than when in a group or lost in a deep conversation with a partner. Your interests this evening are in communicating with friends. You are craving more excitement in your life and you may get what you seek if you throw a curve into an existing relationship.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You have a great deal of psychological talent. You are able to sense and feel in the more abstract mental areas and to bring farout ideas down to earth. You are always at the leading edge of social understanding.

You have a great sense of compassion and a real understanding of others. Deep and penetrating analysis, particularly with a group or in relation to your situation, may be in order. Others could seek you out for your psychological insight. This could be a time to make changes in your environment. Your intense and probing mind has no trouble getting to the heart of any question this day. Woe to anyone who tries to argue with you or hide things from you. You have a natural mind for research, detective work and any undercover operations.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

You may be discovering new and different reasons or ways to enjoy and appreciate life today. A kind of mini-revolution may find you altering your value system, allowing you to like new things. There could also be some insight into love and compassion. A natural transformation of your values, the way you appreciate and love yourself and others is taking place. You may cease to waste time and money acquiring that which is worthless and may develop an eye for that which is lasting and worthwhile. This could be a time of challenge from a career standpoint. You may find yourself spending more interest and energy at home and with the family and having less shine on the job. This home life may lay the foundation for greater confidence at work.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Very emotional, you have strong likes and dislikes and do not mind expressing your opinion from time to time. You tend to find your own way, which often runs counter to what everyone else is doing. Yet, with all these frustrations, many people will come to you in order to learn and eliminate all that clutters their own life. You seem to be able to eliminate the clutter in your life quite easily today. Your solutions to life’s problems may even ignore your own needs or feelings. You are creative when it comes to partnerships or loves and will establish unusual and different relationships. The attention this evening may be toward a loved one and communication abilities. There are opportunities to understand and be understood today.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

There is the possibility of new visions or sudden insights into your self-image or into the way you want to accomplish your dreams. There may be some question into religion—and you take time to reshape and renew your way of life—during which your imagination is at full tilt. When one part of our life opens up, it seems other avenues open up as well. This just could be a time of good fortune when things open up in a very natural way for you. Situations are almost custom-made and it is easy to see the path to take. There are plenty of opportunities and you may find yourself wanting and able to do almost everything.

Interesting things are happening in your life and this may encourage you to spend excessively. Spend some time in thought.

A

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Years

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

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22545171

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24810598

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22545171

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24742838

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22434853

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22545051

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24711433

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24316983

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23927002

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24316983

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23980088

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23711183

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23262845

24812000

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25610011

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22450005

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25616368

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24843100

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25312700

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24849400

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24892010

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23940620

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24840300

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24846000

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24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

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4732263

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22517733

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22517144

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24848075

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24849807

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24848913

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24814507

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22549134

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22526804

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24814764

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22515088

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22532265

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22531908

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22518752

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22459381

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22451082

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22456536

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22465401

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25746401

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25316254

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25623444

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25388462

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25381200

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22630786

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24810221

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24770319

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24575755

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24772608

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24775066

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24775992

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24311795

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24884079

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24892674

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24719048

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24710044

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3900322

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24575518 24566622

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24734000 24881201 24726638

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25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

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22547272

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22617700

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25625030/60

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23729596/23729581

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22635047

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22613623/0

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23729596/23729581

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2572-6666 ext 8321

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25710444

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22621099

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25713514

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23713100

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24334282

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3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

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25343406

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22562226

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25739272

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22618787

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22619557

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22525888

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22610044

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25653755

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25327148

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25620111

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22639939

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25633324

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22666300

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25345875

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25728004

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25355515

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22636464

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24726446

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25322030

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25654300/3

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22633135

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info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

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25722291 22666288

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Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

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25339330

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Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25655535

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22433377 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22958787 22453820/1 22404838/9

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25330060

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25722290

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24555050 Ext 210

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Aniston threw Pitt out ennifer Aniston ordered Brad Pitt out of their house after he admitted he was in love with Angelina Jolie, it has been claimed. The actress had been suspicious about the relationship between her then-husband - who she married in 2000 - and his ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ co-star for a long time before their 2005 separation, but he initially denied they were romantically involved. The film’s producer Arnon Milchan says in new book ‘Confidential: The Life Of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan’: “At first, Jen didn’t believe he was involved with Angelina. She started asking around but no one would tell her anything because they were loyal to Brad, so she asked him point blank. He denied it.” The pair went on a pre-planned holiday to the Caribbean with friends Courteney Cox and her husband David Arquette to celebrate New Year 2005, but the strain proved too much and Brad confessed he was in love with Angelina, according to Arnon. He added: “He eventually admitted he was in love with Angelina. Jen was furious and threw him out.”

According to Arnon, Brad only returned to his martial home to collect his belongings before moving

J

lie Saab prefers celebrities rather than models to wear his designs because they are “real women”. The Lebanese fashion designer - whose clothes have been worn by stars including Halle Berry, Rihanna and Emma Watson - admitted he is happier to see actresses and singers wearing his garments because they do justice to his designs. He explained to Britain’s HELLO! magazine: “Unlike the catwalk, where the 17-year-old models are so tall, the red carpet is like a podium for real life it means so much more to me to see

E Banderas was ‘afraid’ of dating Madonna ntonio Banderas was “afraid” of dating Madonna because she was too “powerful”. The Spanish actor who is now married to Melanie Griffith was flattered when the pop superstar declared a romantic interest in him early in his career, but insists that nothing would ever have happened between them. Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar magazine, he said: “It was kind of flattering when somebody said, ‘She likes you, a lot.’ I said, ‘Oh, really? I’ve no idea what I should do about this, I mean, I’m married [to first wife, Ana Leza].’ So, nothing happened. “I was afraid of it at the time, because she was a very powerful woman. I didn’t want to be Madonna’s boy. For good or for bad, I just wanted to

A

have my own career.” Antonio was introduced to Madonna by his friend, movie director Pedro Almodovar and says he “flipped out” when they first met because he was so overwhelmed by her fame. Recalling their first meeting, he said: “‘Antonio,’ Pedro said, ‘She would love to get to know you.’ I couldn’t speak English at the time. “She said a lot of things at the table when we were having dinner, I couldn’t understand anything. I was just flipping out that I was sitting down close to Madonna. She was very famous already, and we were just local people.”

them in my dresses.” Elie also designed Katy Perry’s stunning gown for her wedding to Russell Brand and he was thrilled to work with the “sweet” singer but warns he has no plans to replicate the dress for anyone else. He said: “She wears a lot of my dresses and she came to Paris to choose this one and for her fittings - she is such a sweet girl. “If a client orders a dress for a special occasion, she wants to look unique.”

Reed’s fiance takes control of wedding

ikki Reed’s fiance is “taking control” of their wedding plans.

‘Twilight’ star Nikki became engaged to the ‘American Idol’ finalist Paul McDonald after a few months of dating in June and has revealed he is taking over the preparations for the nuptials. Speaking at the Teen Choice Awards, which took place on Sunday ,she said: “He’s doing a lot of it, he is. He’s, like, taking control. He sits with his computer in between songs and is kind of on a roll with everything.” While Nikki’s fiance couldn’t make it to the awards show, he found a way to send a memento of his band with her. She added: “Paul’s on my nails. I put Paul on each one of my nails, and that’s his band, the Grand Magnolias. That’s their logo because he can’t be here, and I said I’d take him with me.” Paul, 26, has previously defended his and Nikki’s decision to get engaged just three months after they met. He said: “It’s kind of one of those things you don’t expect. Like, last year I never would have thought I’d be getting married. “She’s amazing. She’s the perfect girl. We fit each other; when you know, you know, and she’s the one.” Nikki - who plays Rosalie Hale in the vampire movie franchise - has expressed similar sentiment, saying she doesn’t care what people think of their whirlwind romance. She said: “I’ve never met anyone like him. I’ve never met anyone who has such a good solid heart and comes from such a good solid family and is just a genuine person. We have the exact same sense of humor. I’ve never laughed so much with anyone as I do with him.”

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he actress - who has been dating ‘The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning’ actor Adam Shulman for three years - thinks it would be a “shame” if people did not think they could fall for one another as soon as they meet. When asked if she believes in love at first sight, she replied: “Why not? I think it’s a good thing to believe in, I think it’d be a shame if we didn’t have that, it’d be a lot less fun.” The 28-year-old beauty who split from Raffaello Follieri in 2008 around the time he was imprisoned for four-and-a-half years for money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy - also thinks people can have such a thing as a soul mate for the rest of their lives. Speaking at the New York City premiere of her latest movie ‘One Day’ last night ,she said: “I think there’s a lot of people out there but I think usually there’s one person out there that you can find yourself committing to.” Anne was joined at the premiere by her ‘One Day’ co-star Jim Sturgess, as well as guests Coco Rocha, Michael Michele, Beth Ostrosky and Kevin Jonas. The 28-year-old Hollywood beauty recently revealed she was “look forward to a little alone time” after breaking up with Raffeallo, but she then fell for Adam. She explained: “I am very much in love. Adam totally ruined my plan. I was really actually looking forward to a little alone time and then I fall in love like a fool. It’s three years. It’s serious!”

T

Paris and Nicky paid $1m to attend a princess’ b’day aris and Nicky Hilton were paid $1 million to attend a Middle Eastern princess’ birthday party. The showbiz siblings have recently been holidaying in the south of France, and a source has revealed the girl - who was celebrating her 16th birthday - was “ecstatic” to have the pair in attendance. An insider told X17online.com: “Paris and Nicky were flown to Cannes for a sweet 16 party for a Middle Eastern princess. “They were paid a hefty price tag of $1 million to show up for one hour. The teenage birthday girl was ecstatic to have Pairs there.” Socialite Paris, 30, and her designer sister Nicky have been enjoying a host of parties around

P

into the producer’s house, where he would make a low-key entrance to the film set every day. The book claims: “Brad drove each day to the set, and everywhere else, on a motorcycle and he wore a wraparound helmet with a tinted visor so no one would recognize him. He stayed with me for the duration of filming.” Brad split from Jennifer in January 2005 and started a relationship with Angelina just a few months later. The couple are still together now and raise six children, Maddox, nine, Pax,seven, Zahara, six, Shiloh, five, and threeyear-old twins Knox and Vivienne, together.

the Mediterranean in recent days. She arrived on the Spanish party island of Ibiza yesterday (07.08.11), where she revealed she couldn’t wait to “get the party started”. She revealed on twitter: “Just landed in Ibiza in NickyHilton! Yes!! Let’s get the party started! Huge!! :D(sic)” Hours later, she added: “Midnight in Ibiza, just now on our way to dinner.

The night has just begun.”— Bang Showbiz

amantha Ronson is having her matching tattoo with ex-girlfriend Lindsay Lohan covered up.

The 33-year-old DJ - who had an on/off relationship with the troubled actress for around two years - had a small heart etched onto her left hand in 2008 to complement the ‘Mean Girls’ star’s design, but she has now decided she doesn’t want any reminders of their romance. So she has created a new inking, which includes a skull and crossbones to cover it up. A source told the New York Post newspaper: “Samantha brainstormed ideas for her next tattoo, which will be something on her left hand to cover up the small heart she got in 2008 to match Lindsay’s tattoo.”

As well as Samantha - who was recently arrested for driving under the influence - moving on from their relationship, it seems Lindsay is as well as she is currently dating a model. The 25year-old was spotted on a dinner date with Spencer Falls at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont hotel, and the hunk was also seen leaving her home in Venice Beach, California. A fellow diner said: “Lindsay seemed totally smitten by him and just really happy. It was really refreshing to see her back to her old self again.” Last month, Lindsay completed 35 days under house arrest for stealing a necklace and violating the terms of her 2007 conviction for driving under the influence (DUI).

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inger Gavin DeGraw, whose hits include “I Don’t Want to Be,” suffered a broken nose and was hospitalized after he was attacked by a group on a New York City street. It was not clear what led to the attack in the city’s East Village, or how many individuals assaulted DeGraw, New York police spokesman Lieutenant John Grimpel said. He said the attack happened in the early morning hours on Monday. A representative for the 34-year-old DeGraw issued a statement saying, “Gavin DeGraw was assaulted late Sunday night and taken to the emergency

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lifestyle

room at Bellevue Hospital by ambulance. He is currently under observation.”

DeGraw was listed in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital Center after suffering the broken nose and facial cuts in the attack, Grimpel said. The identities of the singer’s attackers remain unknown, he added.

DeGraw had just left a group of his friends when he was assaulted, Grimpel said. No further details were available. The singer/songwriter, who was born in New York state, got his start playing in nightclubs in and around Manhattan and hit it big when “I Don’t Want

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to Be” was chosen as the theme song for television drama, “One Tree Hill.” His other top songs include “Chariot” and “Follow Through.”

— Reuters

The Baensch family enjoy a private piano lesson with musician Gavin DeGraw through the Starwood Preferred Guest Moments program at the Susquehanna Bank Center. — AP

regg Allman, the southern rock legend and frontman for The Allman Brothers Band, has canceled a series of summer concerts due to a lingering upper respiratory condition, his representative said on Monday. On doctor’s orders, the 63-yearold veteran bluesman and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was forced to cancel tour dates from Aug 26 - Sept 15. Some of the dates will be rescheduled for later in the year.

Allman, who battles Hepatitis C and has struggled with drug and alcohol addictions during his life, is recovering from a liver transplant last year. In June, he had to cancel four dates at the end of a four-week European tour. “His doctor hoped that with rest he’d get better, but unfortunately the issue has persisted,” Allman’s representative said in a statement.

“Treatment is going to involve several days of hospitalization and 4-6 weeks of bed rest at home.”

Allman expects to return to touring in the late fall to support of his highly acclaimed “Low Country Blues” album, his first solo work in 14 years, his management said. The Nashville-born singer, keyboardist

G o need for Kanye West and Jay-Z to simply watch a throne.

Judging by Monday’s reviews and Web response to their new album, “Watch the Throne,” they should just sit atop it to reign over the realm of hip hop. The highly anticipated album from the pair of music masters was met with high praise across the Web only hours after being released exclusively on iTunes at midnight, Monday. The album received glowing early reviews. Allhiphop.com gave it 9 out of 10 stars, calling it “a creative victory at worse and at its very best, a paradigm shift for Hip-Hop.” Musician and producer Questlove of Grammy-winning band The Roots took to Twitter in the wee hours of the morning, enthralled by Jay-Z’s performances on an emerging fan favorite. He tweeted: “Hov’s verse on ‘Who Gone Stop Me’ is getting a 4th listen at 2am.” Hip-hop historian and deejay Davey D was so impressed he tweeted that “Watch the Throne” “is better than illmatic, 36 chambers, Aquemini, Sgt Pepper & Joshua Tree combined,” referring to albums from Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Outkast, the Beatles, and U2.

Davey D was accused of getting carried away by journalist and author Toure, who tweeted, “friends don’t let friends overhype.” But even Toure was impressed, calling the album “great,” and lauding the “substantive” lyrics on tracks like “New Day” on which Kanye and Jay-Z address their future sons. Only a few comments steered toward negative. The Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot gave the album two out of four stars and called Kanye “desperate, transparent, awkward, vulnerable.”

He also said Jay-Z lost his steam, “He no longer needs to surprise us, he simply needs to file annual updates reminding us that, after all, he’s JayZ and you’re not,” Kot said.

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Gregg Allman performs on the Bud Light Stage on Saturday Aug 7, 2011.— AP

‘Apes’ star Andy Serkis on the art of performance capture e gave the standout performance in one of the year’s best-reviewed movies, but will awards voters understand that it’s OK to write down Andy Serkis’ name on the line that says “Best Supporting Actor?” We heard this question before, of course-back when Serkis got some Oscar buzz by playing the twisted and conflicted character Gollum in the final two “Lord of the Rings” movies. That time, it came to nothing. And now it’s once again a significant query in the aftermath of the release of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

In the film, which topped the box office over the weekend, British actor Serkis cements his status as the lord of performance-capture by turning in a carefully calibrated and compelling performance as Caesar, a chimpanzee who develops extreme intelligence through medical testing, and eventually leads an ape revolt. “I’d like to think that it could be understood as being no more than acting,” said the 47-yearold Serkis, who made his first performance-capture splash as Gollum. He then played the title role in Peter Jackson’s remake of “King Kong.” Soon he’ll appear as Captain Haddock in Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.”

“I don’t see that there should be any kind of special category or anything like that,” he told TheWrap.

“The performance is acting. That’s always been my attitude.” Since “Apes” was released on Friday, some have been asking again if Serkis could at land an Oscar (or at least a nomination) for the performance, in which his movements and facial expressions were used by special-effects technicians at Weta Digital to create Caesar.

Time’s Richard Corliss called it “a performance so nuanced and powerful it may challenge the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to give an Oscar to an actor who is never seen in the film.”At Awards Daily, Sasha Stone called Serkis’ work “the performance of the year (so far),” and added, “finally, motioncapture has delivered on its promise to create seamlessly emotional, realistic performances.” Stone, though, concludes that performance-capture remains a threat to actors, “which is why the Academy will continue to be reluctant to recognize a motioncapture performance over a live-action one.”

At least one Academy member, director Rod Lurie, has tweeted about the topic: “I wasn’t buying into this ‘Andy Serkis for best supporting actor’ business,” he wrote after seeing the film. “But I am now...” Still, an informal survey of Academy members indicated very little optimism that the actors’ branch will actually recognize Serkis’ subtle and gripping performance, which is certainly the heart and soul of the film.

The consensus: Voters aren’t comfortable considering traditional acting alongside performances in which the actor’s face is digitally replaced by specialeffects wizards, regardless of how closely that digital replacement is based on what the actor does. My

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In this CD cover image released by Roc-A-Fella / Def Jam Recordings / Roc Nation, “Watch the Throne,” a release by Jay-Z & Kanye West, is shown. —AP Impatience pays off?

Hip-hop fans have been waiting impatiently for “Watch the Throne” since Kanye West first mentioned it on Twitter almost a year ago. The two have a storied history, dating back to more than a decade ago when Kanye West got his big break producing for artists signed to Roca-Fella records, the label co-founded by Jay-Z. But a lot of the buzz surrounding the album has nothing to Jay-Z or West, Singer-songwriter Frank Ocean’s two guest appearances on the tracks “No Church” and “New America,” made him a popular topic online Monday. The album also features guest appearances by Beyonce and Mr. Hudson, as well as vocal work from late soul singers Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield.

Mixtape DJ Mick Boogie tweeted, “I feel like Frank Ocean is channeling his inner mos def on “no church” - not a bad thing.” West might want to take note of all the positive buzz. Over the weekend, he went on a rant during a show in England in which he said people look at him like he’s Adolf Hitler.—Reuters

Kutcher stars in ‘Two And A Half Men’ TV show shton Kutcher has moved into the star role on the hit US television series “Two and a Half Men”-and US celebrity media revealed Monday how Charlie Sheen’s character dies in the show. Kutcher joined the cast after Sheen, who earned $2 million per episode for his role as the erratic, hedonistic bachelor, was famously fired from the show in March for slamming its producers in outbursts that Warner Brothers described as part of his “selfinflicted disintegration.” Sheen’s character, jingle writer Charlie Harper, “slips” in the Paris subway soon after he was caught cheating on his wife right after their wedding, is hit by a train and dies in a “meat explosion,” according to entertainment website TMZ.com.

Kutcher, 33, agreed to join the cast in May and enters the show ensemble as a brokenhearted Internet billionaire. “Two and a Half Men” has been a hit since it was launched in 2003 and has been nominated for numerous awards, including nods for Sheen at the Emmys and Golden Globes. “Preparing to tape the first ep of 2.5. Little nervous. All will be revealed!” Kutcher announced on his Twitter account Friday just before filming for the new season began.

Kutcher rose to fame as the handsome, dim-witted Michael Kelso in the TV comedy “That 70s Show.” He also produced the practical joke show “Punk’d” and has starred in a handful of movies. He is married to actress Demi Moore, 48.Filming of “Two and a Half Men” was canceled for the rest of the season in February following Sheen’s public tirades against producer Chuck Lorre. In addition to his reported substance abuse, Sheen, 45, had several run-ins with the law in the 1990s in cases related to drugs, domestic violence and prostitution. Sheen turned his talents to the Internet, then went on tour with a live comedy show, entitled the “My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option” in which he talked about being fired from the show. —AFP

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and songwriter, who earned a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, penned the hits “Midnight Rider” and “Whipping Post.” The Allman Brothers Band, which was formed with his late brother Duane Allman, is known for its renditions of classic southern rock songs such as “Statesboro Blues” and “Black Hearted Woman.”

His most recent tour comes on the heels of a July 27 benefit concert he gave on the eve of World Hepatitis Day. Allman suffers from Hepatitis C and is a spokesman for the Tune into Hep-C campaign. The benefit, which starred The Allman Brothers Band, included Natalie Cole, the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. It raised over a quarter million dollars to support the American Liver Foundation and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable. Allman also struggled with cocaine, heroin and alcohol problems through much of his adult life. — Reuters

guess is that Serkis will get more consideration than, say, “Avatar” actress Zoe Saldana, for whom James Cameron campaigned two years ago in an attempt to persuade voters that she deserved a nomination. And at least one critics’ group, I expect, will recognize Serkis’ achievement.

But as for the Academy, it may well prove too tradition-bound to take the plunge. Serkis himself wasn’t entirely comfortable talking about his own awards prospects when TheWrap caught up with him over the weekend. But he is messianic when it comes to the process of performance-capture, and why it should be considered no different from live performance.

In David Lynch’s 1980 film “The Elephant Man,” he pointed out, John Hurt was nominated for Best Actor for a role in which his face was completely obscured by prosthetic make-up that transformed him into the monstrously deformed John Merrick. “It was a magnificent performance in which he was totally unrecognizable,” said Serkis. “His artistry was enhanced by the brilliant team of special make-up artists. And for some reason, people somehow have an easier time understanding that layer of enhancement than when it comes to pixels.

“I think it’s important that people really understand it- and if it takes an award as a way of charting that progress toward understanding, then so be it.”

The progress that has been made in performance capture in recent years, he added, has helped actors take real control in the process. When he played Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” films in the early 2000s, he acted on set with his fellow cast members, but then had to retreat to a small motion-capture studio to recreate his performance-and Gollum’s facial expressions were completely animated by effects technicians to match Serkis’ facial expressions.

By “King Kong” in 2005, improvements in the process allowed him to control the facial performance himself; the technology became more sophisticated with head-mounted cameras that captured facial expressions in “Avatar” (on which he did not work). On “Planet of the Apes,” for the first time, Serkis and his fellow ape actors were able to shoot their parts on the live-action stages and locations alongside the other actors, even in broad daylight.

“The technology has become more invisible, and created a stronger interface between the director and the actors,” Serkis said. “At this point, it’s no different than any acting role you take on. You do the research into primate behavior, chimpanzee behavior in particular. You learn the physicality, the body language and so on, and you can use the monitor in real time to see your performance: If Andy lifts his right hand up, then Caesar lifts his right hand up.”—AP

In this image provided by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Patrick Swayze, portraying Johnny Castle, and Jennifer Grey, portraying Baby Houseman, are shown in a scene from the film, “Dirty Dancing.”—AP

Classic ‘Dirty Dancing’ film to get Hollywood remake he classic 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” is getting a remake, adding songs from the 1960s and brand new compositions to some of the original music, film studio Lionsgate said on Monday. The beloved coming of age movie, starring the late Patrick Swayze as smoldering dance teacher Johnny Castle in a forbidden romance with teenager Jennifer Grey as Frances “Baby” Houseman, will be modernized for a new generation, producers said.

Kenny Ortega, the film’s original choreographer and the director of the Michael Jackson concert movie “This Is It” and “High School Musical”, will direct the new version which has not yet been cast. “Amazingly it has been almost 25 years since the original film was released, but the fans remain legion, and engaged more than ever with a brand that is special and vital to them. We believe that the timing couldn’t be better to modernize this story on the big screen, and we are proud to have Kenny Ortega at the helm,” Lionsgate film group president Joe Drake said in a statement.

Swazye died in 2009 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57.

Grey hit the headlines again in 2010 when she won the TV show “Dancing With the Stars”. “Dirty Dancing” won Oscars for best music and best original song for its emotional closing number “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”, and has sold more than 10 million units on DVD, as well as inspiring a hit stage show in London and six other countries.

A “Dirty Dancing” Facebook page has more than 10 million fans, cementing the 1987 movie’s status as one of the most beloved movies of modern times. “Dirty Dancing” is the latest iconic dance film to be revisited. A much-delayed remake of the 1984 film “Footloose” starring newcomer Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough is due to arrive in movie theaters in October, while an updated version of the 1980 musical “Fame” was a critical flop in 2009.—Reuters

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A scenic view can be seen of the Malibu Pier from the grounds of the Adamson House. — MCT photos

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ou could spend a solid year sniffing out cool spots for travelers in Venice, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu scores of hotels, hundreds of restaurants and bars, more than 30 miles of coastline. But you’re new to the scene, or you haven’t visited in a while, and who has a year anyway? We offer the seventh installment of our yearlong series of Southern California close-ups - 11 micro-itineraries that will lead you to fresh fruit, ancient art, pub darts, magic, gymnastics, Venus on roller skates and J. Paul Getty on how to be rich. (You can find our six previous destination micro-itineraries for Los Angeles and Orange counties at latimes.com/socalcloseups.) They’ll work for you or for your out-of-town guests.

Scott Morrison, top, surfs with 10-year-old Charlie at Surfrider Beach.

Veni, Vidi, Venice That’s a loose Latin paraphrase for: “I came, I saw and, boy, are we a long way from Burbank.”

Venice lies just south of Santa Monica and left of the American mainstream - artsy, edgy, defiant and occasionally downright dissolute. Check out Ocean Front Walk on a weekend morning, and bring a fistful of dollar bills to tip the street musicians, magicians and all-around characters. Don’t miss the mural of Venus on roller skates, near Speedway and Windward Avenue. (Maybe you’ve already seen it, in the Steve Martin movie “LA Story.”) See too the careening teens at the Venice Skate Park, the cyclists on the meandering beach bike path, and the serious pickup games on the basketball courts. There will be something to amuse you and something to offend you.

(Perhaps the cheeky young man seeking contributions for penis-reduction surgery?) Venicelovers embrace it as the weirdness capital of Southern California, if not North America.

Others take one look at the grit and graffiti and ask: What’s so special about beachfront urban blight and cheap sunglasses? Before you pass judgment, inspect the canals just south of South Venice Boulevard and survey the ambitious restaurants, galleries and shops along Abbot Kinney Boulevard. After you check into the playful but grown-up-oriented Hotel Erwin - where singing a song at the front desk may get you an upgrade - have a drink at the rooftop bar. It doesn’t have a pool, but step across Pacific Avenue to Signs, a seagull and the moon are captured on the Paradise Cove Beach in Malibu.

Mao’s Kitchen for a $9 bowl of noodle soup almost large enough to swim in.

Sweet swimming on a tight budget For a memorable pool or a base camp for a beach day with the kids, head to 415 Pacific Coast Highway. There, by wide, sandy Santa Monica beach, William Randolph Hearst in the late 1920s built a vast mansion for his mistress, actress Marion Davies. These days, only the big marbleedged pool and guesthouse remain, joined by a sleek complex of changing rooms, fitness equipment and special-event spaces that was completed in 2009. It’s known as the Annenberg Community Beach House. It’s run by the city of Santa Monica, and it’s probably the best-looking municipal pool you’ve ever seen. Though much of the 5-acre facility operates year round, the pool opens only in summer, accepting walk-up guests and reservations (up to three days in advance), its water (4 to 8 feet deep) heated to 80-85 degrees.

Lots of moms and tots. There’s a cafe, a cool little playground, a summer-only fitness room (which costs extra), beach volleyball, beach tennis, a pair of beach soccer fields and rentable space for parties. A day of pool access (10 am-6 pm) costs $10 for adults and $4 for kids 1-17).

On most Mondays, that price drops to $1 for adults and kids and the pool stays open until 8 pm. Because demand can be high, you should show up around 8:30 am with a towel and swimsuit. Pay the $8-$10 to park your car all day, or park your bike free at one of the racks. Then head for breakfast at the neighboring Back on the Beach Cafe (8 am -8 pm). When the pool admission window opens at 9:30, you buy your passes, and when the pool opens at 10, you’re ready.

Pier people, parallel bars and prawns You can’t overlook the Santa Monica Pier. It starts where Colorado Avenue stops, it dates to 1909 and its Pacific Park amusement zone includes a solar-powered Ferris wheel. You’ll find plenty of junk food, several restaurants, free live music on Thursday nights in summer and abundant people-watching at all hours. This is

Southern California’s Coney Island. You’ll also notice the bike path that runs near the pier - it goes north to Temescal Canyon, south to Washington Boulevard in Venice - 8 { miles in all. If you don’t mind navigating around Marina del Rey, you can rejoin the beach and pedal to Torrance, about 18 miles south of the Santa Monica Pier.

The Spokes ‘n Stuff Bicycle Shop (1715 Ocean Front Walk) is ready with rentals at $22 a day for a grown-up’s bike. But before you roll anywhere, stroll over to Muscle Beach, just south of the pier, where dozens of regulars perform gymnastic feats of strength, grace and daring on rings, ropes and parallel bars. Once upon a time, Jack LaLanne hung out here. Ask nicely, and they’ll literally show you the ropes. Then head a few blocks north to 1355 Ocean Ave. for seafood at BP Oysterette. (The initials stand for Blue Plate, not British Petroleum.) Then bed down for the night just a block away, behind the blue Art Deco facade of the historic but relatively affordable Georgian Hotel (1415 Ocean Ave.).

Retail, produce, magic and darts You know that Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade isn’t as trendy as it was 20 years ago.

You understand that Santa Monica Place, a mall that reopened at the south end of the promenade after a major rehab in 2010, generates more retail heat these days. So you do both, because pedestrianism is next to godliness, because the promenade’s street performers are good and plentiful, because a serious farmers market sets up at Arizona and 3rd on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and because there are plenty of distinctive non-national enterprises nearby.

Hennessey + Ingalls Art & Architecture Bookstore at 214 Wilshire Blvd, for instance. Or Magicopolis (1418 4th St) with its weekend magic shows Just a block off the Third Street Promenade, at 1436 2nd St, is Hostelling International Santa Monica, a 260-bed haven built in 1990 for frugal, youngish travelers, and later upgraded. Don’t expect a pool or much privacy; all hostel options involve shared bathrooms, from the nine private rooms (most $159 a night) to the $36 dorm-room beds. Especially for younger travelers without children, the place has an agreeable global collegiate buzz.

Then again, you may be rich If so, Santa Monica hoteliers are ready for you.

Prove your cool by choosing the historic grandeur of the beachfront Casa del Mar, a redone ‘20s building with cool tile, big views from its upstairs bar and brochure rates that begin at $565 a night.

Or, for a comparable price, hop across Pico Boulevard to Shutters on the Beach, which looks like a New England beach house that just kept growing and seems to draw more celebrities (even though the same owners control both hotels).

Another option, of course, is saving a few hundred dollars and staying at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel (a block up from the beach, palm trees inside its five-story atrium) or using Marriott Rewards points at nearby Le Merigot. With the money you save, you can buy one round of drinks at Casa del Mar, another at Shutters and round out the night with cotton candy on the pier.

“Face Fragments,” in bronze

by Susan Evans is displayed at James Gray Gallery at Bergamot Station Art Center.

Saho Enomoto, 26, second from left, drinks cappuccino with friend Harumi Kamei, 21, at Venice Coffee Bar in Venice.

Sweat, then shop Check in at Santa Monica’s venerable Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, grab a table overlooking the pool and dig into an early dinner at Fig, an in-house bistro that focuses on seasonal dishes. Splurge on the carbohydrates, because you’ll be up and out early the next morning in your workout wear, walking, jogging or pedaling 1.3 miles along Palisades Park to the public stairways on Adelaide Drive near 4th Street, a.k.a. the Santa Monica Stairs. You’ll find the stairs easily enough - one set is concrete, one is wood, and they’ll be populated by fitness fiends panting, stretching, kvetching and primping, which occasionally annoys the well-heeled neighbors.

You’ll see the young and beautiful, the old and resolute, and probably a guy with boxing gloves.

Once you’ve retired to the hotel and freshened up, head for nearby Montana Avenue, where dozens of high-end boutiques, service businesses and restaurants are arrayed from 7th to 17th streets. Get breakfast or lunch at Cafe Montana (at 15th Street) or Babalu Bakery & Restaurant (at 10th Street). Families won’t want to miss Every Picture Tells a Story, the charming children’s bookshop and art gallery at 1333 Montana Ave.

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Jon Beau, of Art Colony School of Sustainability, doing his own form of Tai Chi in Santa Monica.

Art and music, all day and into the night Once upon a time, in the 19th century, Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station (2525 Michigan Ave) was a rail yard. But ever since its revival as a cluster of galleries in 1994, it has been a treasured spot for one-stop art browsing. Along with contemporary painting and sculpture, you’ll find a lot of photography, a few artsy shops, a wellshaded patio cafe for lunch or a snack, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. There’s your afternoon. Then head to McCabe’s, a beloved music shop and concert venue at 3101 Pico Blvd. The shop is more than 50 years old and has served as a clubhouse of sorts for Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder and many other Los Angeles musicians.

Live shows, often acoustic and often Americana, happen on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the guitar showroom, which holds 150 fold-up

Santa Monica statue stands at intersection of Ocean and Wilshire Boulevards in Palisades Park.

chairs and some of the city’s most discriminating (yet enthusiastic) audiences.

(This summer’s bookings included John Doe & Jill Sobule and JD Souther in July.) For food, it’s a two-block walk to the trendy Upper West restaurant and bar (3321 Pico Blvd). Or go three blocks west and try the throwback Googie diner Rae’s (2901 Pico Blvd; open until 9 pm), which is as old and weathered as Upper West is shiny and new. If the evening gets late, the Travelodge Santa Monica awaits across the street from McCabe’s at 3102 Pico Blvd. It’s not fancy, but rates start at less than $150 and parking is free.

The Getty Villa The Romans, the Greeks, the Etruscans - they’re all here in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by gar-

dens that have matured nicely since the villa’s grand reopening in 2006 after a massive redo. The site is as intimate as the Getty Center in Brentwood is epic - the gardens, galleries and open-air theater all crowded together in a canyon near the sea just south of Malibu. Do lunch in the cafe (open 11 am -4 pm Thursdays-Mondays).

Cool gift shop too, with art books and prints, jewelry, pinhole cameras, mood pencils (69 cents each), “The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English” ($20 in Penguin paperback), and, admit it, your secret favorite item, J Paul Getty’s 1965 book, “How to Be Rich” ($6.99, paperback).

The Malibu quartet First, acknowledge that you underestimated the size of Malibu. Twenty-seven miles of coastline! But at about 23000 Pacific Coast Highway (about 12 miles from the Santa Monica Pier), you will find a handy foursome. First, the Malibu Pier, where you might buy bait (really, you could) or have a bite at the Beachcomber Cafe. Next, a few hundred yards farther up the beach, have a look at the Malibu Lagoon and imagine living in the Adamson House, a classic Spanish-style beach home that’s now part of the state park system.

(There are tours of the interior too, offered 11 am -3 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays; guided tours of the house are $7 per adult and $2 for those 6-16.)

Jump in the ocean if you like. Then head back to the pier and beyond to the Malibu Beach Inn. If you can afford the splurge ($325 a night and up), every one of its 46 rooms has a wide ocean view.

If you can’t spend that much, you can still eye the view over a meal in the hotel’s Carbon Beach Club restaurant. (Just remember, non-hotel guests must reserve in advance.)

Cove, sand, cafe Simple. Right?

Out-of-towners, beware. If you ask a local for tips on the best beaches in Malibu, you risk drowning in a sea of beach-bum bombast and legal disputes over what’s public and what isn’t, where to park, the shape of the waves, the clarity of the water, the rights of wealthy beach-dwellers and

The fountain at Adamson House with Surfrider Beach in the background can be seen in Malibu. who lives in that big, ugly house over there, anyway? Zuma Beach County Park (near 30000 Pacific Coast Highway) is big and sandy. El Matador State Beach (32215 Pacific Coast Highway) is smaller, harder to reach, edged by cliffs and caves - and gorgeous. The state Coastal Commission and Los Angeles Urban Rangers will tell you much more about dozens of others at www.coastal.ca.gov/access/MalibuGuide2010.pdf.

Or you could do the shallow thing and head for the trailer park from “The Rockford Files” and “Baywatch.” Paradise Cove, a hefty 18 miles up the coast from the Santa Monica Pier, is home to a busy cafe, tiny pier and one of the state’s ritziest mobile-home parks. It’s a star on big and little screens (“Gidget” and “The OC” are also among its cre-dits), so if you have come to California with tourist fantasies about the perfect little beach, this could fill the bill.

Gentle waves, handsome bluffs, fine sand, beach toys aplenty, lifeguard at the ready, legions of armchairs lined up beneath an array of palapas.

Many locals scoff, because it can get crowded, and because dogs, surfboards and barbecues are banned. Additionally, the cost of parking in the pri-vate lot jumps from $3 (for four hours) to $25 if you don’t spend at least $20 at the cafe. But if you reserve your lunch well ahead and show up early, and it isn’t 100 degrees in the San Fernando Valley that day, you just might have paradise your way. — MCT

A giant Smurf advertising the movie “The Smurfs” at Santa Monica Place.

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he southern half of the New River Gorge is like comedian Rodney Dangerfield. It gets no respect. Everyone loves the northern part of the gorge near Fayetteville with its whitewater rafting, hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, historic sites and spectacular Almost Heaven scenery. It’s also where you will find the impressive US 19 bridge over the New River. The New River Gorge National River was created in 1978. It covers 70,000 acres and stretches 53 miles along the stream that starts in North Carolina and forms the Kanawha River at Gauley Bridge.

But the southern part of the gorge south of the old rail and coal town of Thurmond has its own attractions: especially Grandview, Sandstone Falls and the old rail town of Hinton. There is also a green or environmentally friendly visitor center north of Hinton: the Sandstone Visitor Center at Sandstone.

Grandview offers, well, really grand views of the gorge. The views of the New River Gorge are impressive from the three main overlooks at Grandview.

You are atop the gorge and cliffs: about 1,400 feet above the New River. From the main lookout, you can view seven miles of the gorge, complete with still-active rail lines at the bottom of the canyon. In fact, you are so high that are looking down on circling turkey and black vultures that are circling below. In the early spring, the leaves have not yet emerged that increases into-the-gorge visibility. You can look down to the old town of Quinnimont where the first coal was shipped from the New River Gorge in 1873 and its rail yard.

The North Overlook offers a view of the old Harrah farm and the horseshoe-shaped bend in the New River. The Turkey Spur Overlook is the northern-most viewing spot at Grandview. It is accessible by vehicles. It is a two-mile drive. There are 150 steps to climb to the top overlook. The Grandview overlooks are the highest along the New River in the federal park. Grandview became part of the federal national river in 1990 after more than 50 years as one of West Virginia’s most popular day-use state parks.

In 1939, the West Virginia Conservation Commission purchased the initial 50 acres for the park from the Admiralty Coal Co. Work on the park began in 1940 by the federal Civilian Conservation

Corps. The 892-acre area is east of Beckley off state Route 9 and about five miles north of Interstate 64.

Use Exit 129.

Grandview is also widely known for its colorfulwhen-blooming rhododendrons. There is a small visitor center that is open from noon to 5 p.m. daily from June through August, five short hiking trails stretching six miles along the rim, three overlooks, picnic areas and ranger-led walks and talks. The Little Laurel Trail is two miles one-way and drops into the gorge near Prince. It follows an old road for two miles and goes past an old coal mine at Royal.

The Grandview Rim Trail runs 1.6 miles one way along the canyon’s rim. It is the longest trail. It is a moderate hike with several short steep sections near Turkey Spur Overlook. The half-mile Tunnel Trail offers rocky sandstone outcroppings. It short and offers the most shade. The Castle Rock Trail is short (0.6 miles) and strenuous with rock walls and exposed coal seams.

At Grandview, you are very close to trailheads that provide access to Glade Creek, a shady trout stream that flows into the New River. A 5.6-mile abandoned rail line runs along the stream with its numerous swimming holes and samll cascades.

Check with the National Park Service for updates on trailhead access. Grandview is also home to Theatre West Virginia that stages outdoor dramas from June through August. Call 800-666-9142 for more information.

The shows include Honey in the Rock and Hatfields & McCoys, plus musicals “The Jungle Book” and “All Shook Up.” They are staged from midJune to late August. Tickets are $19 for adults, $17 for senior citizens and $9 for children under 12.

There are also discounts for being American Automobile Association members. For theater information, write to Theatre West Virginia, P.O. Box 1205, Beckley, WV 25802,304-256-6800 or 800-6669142, http://www.theatrewestvirginia.com. For Grandview information, call 304-763-3715 or 304763-3145. You will find the very impressive Sandstone Falls to the southeast near Hinton.

It is the largest waterfall within the federally designated national river and one of the most-photographed falls in the state of West Virginia. The north-flowing stream drops 10 to 25 feet at Sandstone Fallos. The river is about 1,500 feet wide

and divided by a series of islands.

At low water, Sandstone Falls is a series of small waterfall, separated by islands and rocky outcroppings. At high water, the New River thunders over the cascades and sends a watery spray into the air.

The average flow is about 8,000 cubic feet per second. The highest recorded stream volume was 246,000 cubic feet per second ion Aug 15, 1940. I visited Sandstone Falls in April at very high water.

It looked and sounded like Niagara Falls. The water was thundering over the drop. It was pretty awesome - even from a distance. You can only view Sandstone Falls in sections. It’s not all visible at once. Sandstone Falls are 8.5 miles north of Hinton.

You can get up an up-high look at the falls from 600 feet above the river on state Route 20. That overlook is 3 miles south of Interstate 64 and 8.5 miles north of Hinton.

To get an up-close look at the falls, you have to travel through Hinton and then head north on River Road (state Route 26). It runs north on the west side of the New River from state Route 20. It is a onelane road most of the way. At the falls, you will find an accessible boardwalk that crosses two bridges and leads to observation decks and islands below the falls. You are a bit closer to the cascades on the west bank. The falls on the east side of the river are a little farther away.

There is a half-mile loop trail that circles the largest island below the falls. The land around Sandstone Falls was once timbered, farmed and grazed. A grist mill and a ferry operated below the

falls. Today an unusual ecosystem thrives below the falls: an Appalachian riverside flat-rock community.

Floods have periodically swept over the hard, horizontal sandstone. That has carried away soil and vegetation. Only plants that withstand such conditions survive on the rocks. Sandstone Falls is a popular fishing spot for smallmouth bass and catfish.

It has also been the site of a number of drowning over the years. The New River is one of the oldest in the world, going back 65 million years to the ancient Teays River. The stream falls 750 feet in 50 miles but its southern section near Hinton is rather placid and calm. There are a few small rapids but it’s ideal for beginners. It was named an American Heritage River in 1998. It is one of 14 streams to be so designated.

Nearby is Brooks Falls offers river ledges and a watery hole. It sits next to the road as you head from Hinton to Sandstone Falls. From that trailhead, you can access the Big Branch Trail, a streuous, 2mile loop known for its small waterfalls, wildflowers and old farmsteads. The National Park Service opened the Sandstone Visitor Center in 2003 in the hamlet of Sandstone.

The facility focuses on the New River watershed, its natural and cultural history and its activities over the years including timbering and coal mining. It offers educational exhibits on the park, its resources and its heritage. Hours: 9 am to 5 pm daily except a few holidays.—MCT

The Sandstone Visitor Center at the hamlet of Sandstone opened in 2003. — MCT

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ind Rostom, a legendary actress from the golden era of Egyptian cinema, has died in Cairo. She was 82. Egypt’s MENA state news agency said Rostom died Monday of a heart attack at a Cairo hospital shortly after being admitted with chest pains. With her blond hair and good looks, Rostom often played the sultry seductress, and quickly rose to stardom to become one of Egypt’s bestknown actresses.

She won popular acclaim for her 1958 film “Cairo Station” about the city’s underclass and their struggles to survive. She starred in it with Youssef Chahine, one of Egypt’s most lauded movie directors.

Among her other well-known films were “Love Rumor,” and “Struggle On the Nile” with Omar Sharif - the country’s most celebrated actor. Born in Alexandria, Rostom defied her conservative upbringing to stake out a career in film.

She was dubbed by fans the Marilyn Monroe of the Arabs and “the queen of seduction” of Egyptian cinema. She quit acting in 1979 because, she said, she wanted the people to remember her as a beautiful movie star. Her last public appearance came after Egypt’s popular uprising in January that forced former President Hosni Mubarak to step down. She expressed worries over path of the revolution. She was married twice. She is survived by her second husband and a daughter. — AP

Jackson’s children deliver

Michael art

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he children of the late “King of Pop” Michael Jackson delivered 10 pieces of art by their famous father to the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital on Monday.

Prince, 14; Paris, 13; and Prince Michael-also known as “Blanket,” age nine-signed some of the artwork by their late father, who died on June 25, 2009 at age 50. The artwork was donated by Brett-Livingstone Strong, an artist and friend of the Jackson family, who had them in his private collection. “You look at this, it makes you happy,” said

Michael Jackson’s sister La Toya at a ceremony at the hospital. “They’re whimsical, they’re magical and there’s just joy and peace,” she continued. “I know that when you see this and the kids see it, it will bring some type of joy to them, and at the same time, I know it will bring joy to my brother as well.” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Jackson’s mother Katherine also attended the ceremony. — AFP

(From left) Members of the Jackson family Blanket Jackson, Prince Jackson, Paris Jackson, Katherine Jackson and La Toya Jackson pose at Children’s Hospital . — AP

A picture dated from the mid-1950s shows Egyptian movie star Hind Rostom.—AFP

Tourists flock to Morocco for sun, sea and... surgery

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ong famed as a tourist destination for its sunny beaches, exotic cuisine and historic sites, Morocco is now offering foreign visitors another attraction: plastic surgery clinics. Only a short flight from Europe, the North African country is attracting growing numbers of foreign visitors looking to take advantage of lower prices for everything from face-lifts and nose jobs to tummy tucks and penis enlargements.

For clients like Marcela, a 31-year-old Spanish mother of three, Morocco offered the chance for a surgery that would have cost much more at home.

“We can get help to look after our children here and the surgery is much cheaper than in Spain. We also think that this clinic is one of the best,” she said as she had her final consultation with her surgeon at a clinic in Rabat before getting abdominoplasty, better known as a tummy tuck.

Marcela said she had chosen Morocco, a country she had previously visited as a tourist, because the price of the operation here was only about 2,500 euros ($3,500) - three times less than in her native Spain. In an industry known for lax regulation, Marcela said she pre-

ferred to see the clinic and check its standards before booking the surgery. “We wanted to visit the clinic first to see if we liked it. I don’t like buying it as a package online where I choose a clinic from a website and set off into the unknown.

The operation is very serious,” she said.

But everything appeared to have gone well and four days later Marcela had recovered enough from the surgery to be out for a walk on the beach with her family. Morocco has a history of plastic surgery dating from the early 1950s and in recent years the country has become, along with north African neighbor Tunisia, an increasingly favorite destination for procedures, Salaheddine Slaoui, a specialist in cosmetic and reparative surgery said.

“At the time when sex change operations were banned in Europe, they were practiced here,” the surgeon said. “The demand for cosmetic surgery in Morocco is actually growing steadily. There are about 1,000 to 1,200 cosmetic surgeries per month in Morocco, and 10 to 15 percent of patients came from abroad,” Slaoui said, adding that the number of plastic surgeries had also doubled in the last decade. About 80 plastic surgeons-

working in both private and public clinics-are operating in the country, mostly in Rabat and the economic capital Casablanca.

Surgeons say breast enhancement and liposuction are the most popular operations. Women are the main clients, accounting for three-quarters of plastic surgeries, according to the Moroccan Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Cosmetic Surgery (SMCPRE). But men are also increasingly turning to plastic surgery with one operation in particularpenoplasty, or penis enlargement-growing in popularity. “I see dozens and dozens of patients every month for this kind of surgery,” Casablanca plastic surgeon Maria Reghai told Moroccan magazine TelQuel. “And demand is growing stronger and stronger. Compared with last year, the number of consultations for penoplasty has practically multiplied by five!” — AFP