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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

At least 26 killed in Syria, Russia criticizes EU ban

Iran kills 30 Kurd rebels in new border push

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www.kuwaittimes.net

SHAWWAL 6, 1432 AH

Bolt lights up worlds as Kenya makes history

US airport unveils new body scan technology

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Scandals rock National Assembly, government Early election looms amid bickering

Max 45º Min 27º Low Tide 10:23 & 22:16 High Tide 03:07 & 16:48

By B Izzak conspiracy theories

It is not a cowardice act

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

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gain I am writing an article which might upset many people. And I am using similar words I used on August 9. The topic is about the Mubarak Al-Kabeer megaport. In my previous article on the subject I expressed my opinion because I care for Kuwait. I am neither an MP nor a minister. I am a simple citizen. In my previous column I argued that it is not time to challenge Iraq and build a megaport, the fifth biggest port in the world to be precise, near a country in turmoil.

Today, I read an article but I don’t remember the name of the writer or the media it was published in. The writer mentioned something very similar to what I said three weeks ago. I thanked him a lot because he was rational in his article and explained what goes in my mind at the present moment. Allow me to partly repeat myself for the sake of Kuwait. This is not a trivial issue. It is not an issue to be taken lightly.

This is the fate and future of Kuwait and for the people living in the country. We will never forget the 90s and what Saddam did. We thought after the liberation that it was Saddam who was hostile to Kuwait. But every day we are discovering that there are still people who are hostile towards Kuwait. Here, I am not digging old graves but let’s learn lessons from history. On top of all this, history does not ignore the situation in Iraq itself. There are rifts everywhere between Sunnis and Shiites.

Iran has a big hand in Iraq. People are split. It was only few days ago when a man committed suicide in a mosque during prayers in the holy month of Ramadan. That means the country is unfortunately very unstable. This is so sad. There are 101 militias working in Iraq, be it Sunni, Shiite, Mossad or MI5. The bottom line: A wise man cannot go and build a megaport and give such hot spot a reason to export the violence.

I remember that the fellow writer also explained that if the port was constructed for commercial reasons it would be a loss. If you are going to throw billions near the Iraqi border, I assure you that with the current security situation in Iraq nobody will rush to use your port. There are other ports in the area which can do the same service peacefully.

It is not a cowardice act to retrieve from the port at this stage. Actually, it is a cowardice act to push the country towards the edge of danger. Put it on hold and wait till you see the region calm down. The whole Arab world is in turmoil... it is not only Iraq. What’s the hurry? Kuwait was left without development for years. Now, all of a sudden there are construction plans near the Iraqi border?

The gentleman who wrote the article mentions something I liked. It goes like this: As you have already started building, do not go on a big scale and use it instead as a military navy base. I salute him for this vision and the great idea.

KUWAIT: Photo shows people enjoying a ride at the Kuwait’s Entertainment City during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday. Amusement parks are among the most preferred destinations for families in Kuwait during holidays. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Intel files show Gaddafi-CIA link UK to ship $1 bn banknotes to Libya TRIPOLI: The CIA worked closely with Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence services in the rendition of terror suspects to Libya for interrogation, according to documents seen yesterday by the AP, cooperation that could spark tensions between Washington and Libya’s new rulers. The CIA was among a number of foreign intelligence services that worked with Libya’s agencies, according to documents found at a Libyan security agency building in Tripoli.

The discovery came as the Libyan rebels said they would surround pro-Gaddafi cities until the Sept 10 deadline for their surrender. “We are by the grace of God in a position of strength, capable of entering any city, to

deploy any of our fighters in any direction,” the head of the rebels’ National Transitional Council, Mustafa AbdulJalil, told reporters in Benghazi. “However, in our desire to avoid bloodshed and to avoid more destruction to public properties and national institutions, we have given an ultimatum of one week to the areas of Sirte, Bani Walid, Jufra and Sabha.”

“It is an opportunity for these cities to peacefully join the revolution,” he said, adding the rebels were providing humanitarian aid to the besieged areas along with water and electricity services. The intelligence documents found in Tripoli, meanwhile, provided new details Continued on Page 15

BANI WALID: NTC fighters secure a check point on the road from Tarhuna to Bani Walid, southeast of the capital Tripoli. — AFP

KUWAIT: As the country returns to normal operations today following the Eid Al-Fitr break, the National Assembly and the government are facing two major scandals that, according to a lawmaker, may lead to dissolving the Assembly and calling for fresh early polls. Opposition MPs have decided to call for an emergency parliamentary session to discuss reports that deposits worth KD25 million have been illegally made to the accounts of two MPs within a short duration, raising suspicions of money laundering and political corruption.

In the second scandal, a recording saw Kuwait Airways chief Hamad Al-Falah making highly offensive remarks against the Shiite minority, triggering controversial statements from MPs. In an article in Al-Jarida newspaper, independent Shiite MP Hassan Jowhar said that neither the National Assembly nor the government will be able to survive the two scandals and he said he was sure that the National Assembly will be dissolved and fresh elections held before the start of the next term late October.

Continued on Page 15

Militia unleashed KUWAIT: Kuwaiti diplomats are concerned that militant groups in south Iraq have been mobilized to carry out attacks in an attempt to divert some of the international attention currently being focused on the turbulent situation in Syria where the government has continued with its violent crackdown against change-seeking protestors since mid-March.

According to a senior diplomatic insider, a “neighboring state to Kuwait,” provoked by the current public demonstrations in Syria, has decided to activate groups in southern Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon to ease the international and regional pressure currently imposed on the Syrian government.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the same source, who did not identify the country which he claimed is provoking the insurgents’ acts by name, further speculated that Bahrain could see an increase in foreign intervention within the next few days or weeks, while hinting that militant groups in southern Iraq could intensify their attacks on American military targets there.

On a related note, a separate news report quoted another diplomat who suggested that Kuwait should make a complaint to the UN Security Council over the “increasingly hostile tones expressed by Iraqi politicians against Kuwait.” The diplomat, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, further indicated that the complaints should also address the recent incident in which three missiles fired by an Iraqi militant group fell in southern Iraq, with reports indicating that they were intended to target the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port site.

“Kuwait must take actions against the Iraqi statements and threats, while the Iraqi Defense Ministry must take actions to thwart militants attacks,” said the unnamed diplomat. The senior official not only urged Kuwaiti authorities to submit a complaint to the UN if the missiles were confirmed to have been targeted at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port site, but called on them to make the move before Iraq, which previously stated through Prime Minister Nouri AlMaliki that Baghdad would complain about the Kuwaiti mega port to the United Nations if it was proven that the port would harm Iraq’s interests, does so.

Continued on Page 15

in the

news

Activists on hunger strike

10 killed, 2 missing

2 planes collide in air

DUBAI: Two Bahraini Shiite activists jailed for life in June for “plotting to overthrow” the Sunni ruling family have gone on hunger strike, the daughter of one of them said yesterday. Human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and opposition Haq movement member Abduljalil AlSingace stopped eating on Tuesday in solidarity with detainees held at Bahrain’s Dry Dock prison, Zainab AlKhawaja said. She said that the detainees, who were arrested as part of a March crackdown on Shiite-led prodemocracy protests, had called their hunger strike in protest at the government’s failure to honor promises to release them. “I am concerned about my father’s health,” Khawaja said. “He was beaten when detained and his jaw was broken. They also beat him repeatedly on his jaw in court. The doctor had told him to eat well for his health to improve.

BEIJING: 10 miners have died and two more are missing after a coal mine in southwestern China flooded.

The official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday that rescuers have recovered the bodies of the miners from the Zengjiagou mine outside Dazhou in Sichuan province. Xinhua gave no word on the status of the two missing miners. Xinhua said the flood occurred last Monday, but gave no explanation of why the news was delayed. It said the mine’s owner and a safety official have been taken into police custody. Such floods usually happen when miners inadvertently drill into abandoned shafts that have filled with groundwater.

Twenty-two miners were rescued last month from a flooded coal mine in northeastern China after about one week under ground.

ANCHORAGE: Two single-engine planes collided in the air Friday near a remote western Alaska village, sending one aircraft crashing nose first and leaving its pilot presumed dead, authorities said. Just the two pilots were aboard the planes when they collided in the afternoon near the village of Nightmute, about 400 miles west of Anchorage, State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. One plane landed, but the other crashed and burned on impact, she said. The pilot of a Ryan Air Cessna 207 that put down safely was identified Kirsten Sprague, 26, of Idaho. Sprague walked away from the landing but was flown to Bethel, about 100 miles away, for a medical evaluation, Peters said. No hometown was available. The pilot of the Cessna 208 Caravan that crashed was identified as Scott Veal, 24, of Kenai, Alaska. That plane was destroyed and Veal “is presumed deceased” although no body has yet been recovered, the spokeswoman said.

QITAIHE: Rescue workers carry a coal miner on a stretcher after he was rescued from a flooded mine in Qitaihe, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. — AFP

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LOCAL

Come Eid, no overtime pay for restaurant workers ‘Kind weather’ adds charm to festivities, parties

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Eid holidays are not over for many, extending to the first week of September. On the first and second-day of Eid, many expatriate families enjoyed refreshing activities like fishing, jogging and playing football. Many went for strolls in malls, visited cafes and restaurants. For some, it was a time to visit families, long lost friends and the traditional souk. The weather sympathized with revelers, and there were no disappointing sandstorms or unbearable humidity.

For some service-oriented facilities, like restaurants, Eid days are the busiest in a year. If you wondered who prepared that great meal you enjoyed with your family at a restaurant during Eid holidays, they are restaurant workers. Chefs, kitchen helpers, waiters and waitresses work extra time every Eid holiday. If you think they are lucky because Kuwaiti law stipulates that workers be paid double overtime pay for working during official holidays -you are wrong. Not all are paid in accordance with the labor law’s regulations. One example is that of Reneier, a Filipino kitchen helper’s experience. He works at a famous international eatery situated along Gulf Road. He has been employed in the same restaurant for the past five years, but never received a day off during Eid holidays. He didn’t receive overtime pay as well, “We are not paid overtime as per the law. Most of the time we work for over 16 hours (inclusive of a double shift). We haven’t got any extra compensation,” lamented Reneier. As a compensatory move, however, another day off is granted.

“Given the choice, I would prefer receiving cash. Money is more important to me, that is the reason why I work in Kuwait. But I have no choice. According to our company’s policy, we should follow orders,” he said.

Some workers at a fast food chain receive some extra cash during Eid holidays. Vicky enjoys working every holiday because customers are more generous than usual, “It is a delight to serve happy customers,” she said. “I feel their happiness. Besides, they are more generous, (referring to tips received from customers),” Vicky noted.

KUWAIT: Many families enjoyed activities like fishing, yachting and playing during the Eid, others spent some time with their families and friends at beaches and parks.—Photos by Ben Garcia

Cabinet may include wealth disclosure in anti-graft law

MoI official visits KCG centers for Eid KUWAIT: A senior Ministry of Interior (MoI) official visited the Kuwait Coast Guard’s (KCG) marine security centers on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr to congratulate staff there on the occasion. MoI Assistant Undersecretary for Border Security Affairs Major General Sheikh Mohammad Al-Yousef Al-Sabah, who was

accompanied on his visit by a number of other dignitaries, including the Director of the Marine Security Department Commodore Mubarak Al-Omairi, visited the security centers on Al-Qarouh and Um Al-Maradem Islands, as well as the Al-Khairan centre located at Kuwait Bay.

Better salaries still luring Kuwaitis to public sector

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Cabinet’s legal committee is set to meet tomorrow (Monday) to discuss the possibility of including a wealth disclosure regulation in the draft legislation for the establishment of an anticorruption authority.

This stipulation would help avoid a political crisis since MPs have been pushing for the enforcement of a regulation to allow the monitoring of senior officials’ financial assets, including those of members of both the Cabinet and parliament.

The news comes as the government continues to deal with the sensational allegations of multimillion dinar bribes being paid into two unnamed lawmakers’ bank accounts. According to one Cabinet insider, the subject, which has already had a significant impact on Kuwait’s political scene, is set to be discussed during the Cabinet weekly meeting on Tuesday, two days after His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah returns to the country today from a short overseas trip.

In the meantime, the parliamentary legislative committee is reportedly going to reject the anticorruption authority draft law if it fails to include any wealth disclosure

regulation, according to committee rapporteur MP Dr. Maasouma Al-Mubarak.

Speaking on Friday, Dr. Al-Mubarak indicated that the committee previously rejected the same draft law when it was previously presented without the wealth disclosure regulation.

On a related issue, Development and Reform Bloc (DRB) met yesterday (Saturday) to draw up a petition calling for holding an extraordinary session in order to discuss the multimillion dinar bribe allegations. DRB member Dr. Walid Al-Tabtabaei insisted that the bloc set out to “settle the mystery behind the KD25 million deposits” before the start of the next parliamentary term in late October.

Meanwhile, the State Audit Bureau (SAB) has expressed its willingness to support the anticorruption authority once it’s established “through providing special reports that expose the reasons behind financial and administrative corruption in state departments.”

“Tackling corruption is a primary part of the SAB’s monitoring duties, which makes the bureau automatically responsible for supporting any anticorruption body”, said

an SAB source insider, further indicating that the bureau is also capable of providing practical advice to the executive authority on combating corruption.

The SAB insider also suggested that the anticorruption authority would help the SAB “by enabling auditors to refer violations to the public prosecution.”

In other news, a source from the Ministry of Finance’s department to combat money laundering indicated that the Public Prosecution Service investigated six companies in 2007 and 2008 over suspicions of involvement in money laundering activities.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the ministry source indicated that the office enforced 166 penalties over administrative errors committed by companies in 2009, adding that 26 out of 30 of those investigated over money laundering allegations the same year were found to be innocent.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior has reportedly started early in taking the necessary preparations in order to handle any public demonstrations called from September 16th to demand that the government step down.

— Al-Qabas, Al-Jarida, Al-Rai & Al-Watan

CSC report on job sector KUWAIT: Kuwaiti jobseekers are still showing a strong preference for work in the public sector rather than the private sector, mainly due to the far superior wages and conditions on offer in the civil service, as well as a wide spread belief that the government has a duty to provide them with jobs, according to a new report.

The new report, issued jointly by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD), addresses the imbalance in the percentages of Kuwaitis working in the public and private sectors, and the reasons behind the failure of initiatives to encourage more of the country’s citizens to take up private sector jobs.

The report, which has been submitted to the cabinet for consideration,

indicates that despite the thousands of job opportunities in Kuwait’s private sector, the majority of Kuwaitis still prefer to sign up for the state’s employment program, primarily due to the higher guaranteed wages and better conditions available to them there.

The report also indicates, however, that the introduction of legislation compelling private sec tor firms to employ a cer tain percentage of Kuwaitis amongst their workforce has helped increase the number of Kuwaiti private sector personnel, as well as cutting the official unemployment rate among Kuwaitis to 1.75 percent.

According to the latest official statistics, the total number of people working in Kuwait exceeds 2.08 million, of which only 336,277 or 16.1 percent are Kuwaiti. —Al-Jarida

Banja Luka’s Grand Mufti praises Kuwait SARAJEVO: Banja Luka’s Grand Mufti Edhem Camdzic yesterday emphasized the importance of Kuwait’s support for the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially those in the Bosnian Serb Republic, lauding the visit of the Kuwaiti Ambassador Mohammed Fadhil Khalaf to the city’s Fatwa Department.

The Grand Mufti also expressed great pleasure at what he called Kuwait’s care for Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he said has helped to achieve tranquility in the hearts of Muslim residents in the Republic who suffer numerous challenges that threaten their survival there.

During his meeting with Ambassador

Khalaf at the headquarters of the Mufti of Banja Luka, Camdzic stressed the importance of strengthening Kuwait’s role in supporting the Muslims living in the Bosnian Serb Republic, explaining that doing so would help them to survive in the face of challenges that have forced a large number of them to leave their homes and villages there.

During the televised meeting, the Grand Mufti also expressed his pride in the role played by the leadership of the State of Kuwait and its people in support of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the world, referring to the historical support given by the State of Kuwait to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people.— KUNA

Coral reefs recovering from bleaching Kuwait Dive Team recaps scan KUWAIT: Coral reefs in Kuwait’s territorial waters was able to survive the highest temperatures during this year’s summer and continue recovering from coral bleaching which affected all Kuwaiti coral reef sites last year.

This was announced in a report published by the Kuwait Dive Team, recapping a scan carried out September 1st to check the coral reefs’ situation. “Though coral reefs showed recovery earlier this year, we were concerned that the bleaching could return during July and August when water temperatures peak”, said environmental projects supervisor in the Environmental voluntary Foundation team Mahmoud Ashkenani in a press release, in which he described the current condition of coral reefs as “good”.

Bleaching happens when corals

lose the zooxanthella; a flagellate protozoa that can provide up to 90% of a coral’s energy requirements through photosynthesis, and give corals their distinguished color. Aspects such as pollution and high water temperatures kills the zooxanthella and subsequently leave the coral where they live in a bleaching state.

“Fortunately, high temperatures didn’t affect the reproduction of the zooxanthella which helped coral reefs maintain recovery rates”, Ashkenani said, adding in his statement that the best rate of recovery was detected at the coral reef off of Al-Araifjan shore, while the lowest recovery rate was recorded at the Um Al-Maradem island’s reef. According to Ashkenani, bleaching killed more than 70% of Kuwait’s coral reefs last year; including all reefs with diameters exceeding

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

LOCAL

Parents unhappy as prices of stationery items rise Children gear for ‘back to school’

By Nawara Fattahova

Shrimp prices fall in local markets KUWAIT: Shrimp prices at local fish markets have dropped to around KD 50 for a mid-sized basket after soaring to as much as KD70 at one point.

On the first day that Kuwaiti shrimp were fished out, nearly 500 baskets were put on sale at the fish market in Sharq. The jumbo sized variety were sold at the rate of KD 80, and the mid-sized (Um Nuairah) were sold at the rate of KD 48, while the smaller size (Shahamiya) was priced at KD 28. “ The end of the seven-month ban will be a breather for local fish markets. Fishermen can now provide freshly caught shrimp from Kuwaiti waters,” said Mohammad Al-Oraifan President of the Kuwait Fishermen Association. He acknowledged the fact that the ban was placed by the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) to allow shrimp to reproduce.

Meanwhile, Al-Oraifan blamed the PAAAFR for high prices of local fish, highlighting restrictions such as the ban placed on the use of nylon fishing nets limiting fishermen’s ability to catch fish like Zubaidi (Silver Pomfret) fish. He noted that many fishermen left their jobs because of the situation, eventually leading local markets to depend on imported items, reported Al-Rai. In a separate note, the Kuwait Fishermen Association (KFA) has filed an official complaint with the Kuwait Municipality against street vendors that sell fish at the parking lot outside the fish market in Sharq, at lower prices. Many customers have fallen victims to fraud where shrimp baskets are loaded with extra ice cubes and smaller size shrimp to create the impression of extra weight, in addition to cases where imported products are sold as local catch. The Association argues that in addition to undertaking unlicensed activity, this practice poses a health risk to customers because the vendors do not abide by safety requirements, reported Al-Qabas.

KUWAIT: With the new school year set to begin shortly, some parents have already begun back to school shopping for their kids, although a number are waiting until schools reopen in order to obtain a checklist of the necessary items from the schools themselves. Most parents agreed on one thing, however; the price of school stationery items has increased sharply.

Even those parents who haven’t yet begun shopping for their children’s school items have noted the increase in prices. “We wait till the school starts when the teachers provide their special demands,” Maha, a mother of three, told the Kuwait Times. “Often when we buy stuff the teachers don’t accept it so we have to then buy other things. But when I was buying stuff for Eid, I passed by the stationery section and I checked the prices of some items, and noticed they’re more expensive than last year.”

Not only are the prices of items higher, parents say, but the quality of the goods on offer is significantly lower.

“The price is triple what we used to pay a few years ago,” said Um Khalid, a mother of two older children. “What’s worse is that the quality of the products is very bad. The eraser for instance breaks after the first or second use, and I can’t find the good quality brands which were available in the past. I think it’s worth it to invest in quality as it will last for many years as my son’s bag.

The problem is that the kids don’t like to take the same thing to school the next year, and they demand new things for each school year.”

Um Khalid continued: “My eldest daughter is at university now, so she has different needs, and she will also receive a grant. My son is studying at secondary school and I bought him a laptop for school this year. I didn’t buy the stationery yet, but I prepared a KD 100 budget for him.

This will include stationery, shoes, socks, tissues, sanitizers and others.”

Some parents spend less, however. “It costs me about KD 50 to buy my three kids only the stationery

MPs seek measures to resolve bedoons’ issue KUWAIT: A number of MPs are reportedly studying the option of probing the work mechanism followed by the body set up by the Kuwaiti government to solve stateless residents’ (bedoon) problems, a report stated.

It also quotes president of the body Saleh Al-Fadhalah as saying that the plan calls for resolving issues within five years.

He explained that bedoon residents will be categorized into three - the first includes those that own documents to prove that their predecessors lived in Kuwait prior to 1965 (the 1965 census), and others who obtain security identification cards, following which they will be naturalized. The third pertains to people who surrendered their original nationali-

ties; they will be asked to legalize their status, reported Al-Watan.

In other news, the Ministr y of Education(MoE) has formed a committee comprising representatives from the government body as well as the Civil Service Commission to devise a method to appoint bedoon teachers at public schools. A ministry insider commented on condition of anonymity that the formation of the government body has made it impossible for the MoE to hire stateless residents, similar to moves taken by Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Health. The body has been tasked with handling subjects pertinent with stateless residents, reported Al-Rai. — Al-Watan & Al-Rai

NBK shares Eid with kids at NBK, Ibn Sina Hospitals KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait’s (NBK) Public Relations team and staff paid a visit to NBK Hospital and Ibn Sina Hospital at Sabah Medical district to share Eid with children suffering from permanent and incurable ailments.

NBK Public Relations Officer, Yaqoub Al Baqer said that NBK staff in general and the PR team in par ticular have always devoted a considerable part of their time to comfort the children and present them with felicitations and gifts as part of NBK’s corporate social responsibility program. “Sharing the

happy moments of Eid Al Fitr and other similar occasions with these wonderful kids isour pleasure. We are proud that NBK devotes such attention to supporting Kuwait society and providing compassion and support for those in need, including sick children. NBK’s commitment to shoulder its corporate social responsibility was the basic motive that led NBK to build its children hospital at Sabah Medical district many years ago,” Al Baqer added.

Visits to the hospitals were emotional and overwhelming for both the children and NBK staff.

items without the uniform, shoes and other items demanded by the teachers,” said Sami, a father of three children, all at elementary grade level. “This includes colored pencils, pencil cases, school bags, pens, pencils, eraser, and other things. I’m not sure if the price has risen compared to last year, but I think the difference won’t be huge. I also expect to receive lists of requirements from the teachers during the school semester.”

University fees are putting the greatest pressure on many parents’ budgets. “In the past it cost me about KD 40-50 for my three kids,” said Ismail, a father of four. “This year two are already at university and only one is at intermediate stage in school, so his stuff will cost me about KD 20. I already bought him a laptop last year, and if he demands an iPad I won’t be able to buy it for him as it’s expensive. The biggest expense is the university fees which come to KD 600.”

Some parents can handle budgeting for the standard school costs, but find the extras a drain on their finances, with a number unhappy at the cost of school trips. “I have two kids in the intermediate and secondary grades,” said Abu Ahmad, a father of two. “On average I spend about KD 20 [for school kit] on each of them. All year long they make demands. This is fine by me, but I don’t like the school trips to entertainment places, for which we pay KD 3 each. I think there’s no need for such trips if they’re not educational like visits to the museum or scientific center.”

Even when they’re not well off, parents are unhappy at seeing their children feeling dejected at having fewer hi-tech gadgets than their classmates. “I didn’t buy them computers or iPads for school as I have laptops in the house and a computer they can use,” said Abu Ahmad.

“Maybe I will buy them iPhones, but they don’t need them as those are banned for use in the school anyways. The kids shouldn’t feel discriminated against comparing to other kids. I expect the increase to be about 15-20 percent for the stationery items.”

KUWAIT: A mother browses stationery items at a shop in downtown Kuwait as the beginning of the new school semester nears.

KUWAIT: Children look for textbooks at a stationery shop yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Oil strike can result in $350 m daily loss KUWAIT: Kuwait’s oil sector may be fully paralyzed toward the end of the month, as employees of the state-owned oil firm plan to proceed down their tools on September 18 if the government fails to increase wages before that date.

“Salaries of oil sector employees in Kuwait are the lowest among all [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, and touches as low as 45 percent compared to some countries,” said Mohammad Al-Hamlan Vice President of the Labor Union at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in a recent report, quoting statistics that will be taken from a survey carried out by an American company. He indicated that studies per tinent with salar y raises provided by the Supreme Council of Petroleum “do not meet our minimum demands,” which basically call for wages to be raised to the minimum wage levels paid in other GCC countries. He warned at the same time that “experienced personnel are leaving the local oil sector for better opportunities abroad.”

According to Al-Hamlan, all labor unions in the KPC’s subsidiary companies plan to participate in the all- out strike scheduled to be held on September 18, which he says can only be prevented if the KPC adopts previous recommendations to enforce a KD 183 million total raise. He also warned that Kuwait can lose up to $350 million a day starting from the day of the strike. Furthermore, AlHamlan urged KPC officials to suspend oil production and refinement 48 hours before the strike “to avoid problems from taking place when work remains halted,” Al-Hamlan also reiterated workers’ right to express their point of view, which he insists, is an option taken as a “last resort after all negotiations reached a dead end.” —Al-Rai

GDCE identifies remains of 236 Kuwaiti PoWs KUWAIT: A team of forensic experts from Kuwait’s General Department of Criminal Evidence (GDCE) has so far positively identified the remains of 236 Kuwaiti prisoners of war found in mass graves in Iraq and Kuwait in operations supervised by the Red Cross.

The latest progress update on the team’s work was given on Friday by GDCE Director General Major General Dr. Fahad Al-Doussari, who also revealed that the department has released a book, ‘The Grand Mission,’ detailing the team’s painstaking efforts to recover and identify the remains of those Kuwaiti Pow’s still missing and to return them to Kuwait.

In an interview with local daily Al-Rai, the GDCE head explained that the department’s staff had concluded 171,000 transactions during the first six months of 2011, completing an average of 1,000 per day. Maj Gen Al-Doussari

further revealed that the GDCE plans to link its computer network to the Ministry of Interior database in order to facilitate the introduction of an electronic fingerprint registration system for all expatriate workers in Kuwait, doing away with the less efficient ink-fingerprinting method currently used. He explained that the MoI’s electronic fingerprinting system has already proved its worth in identifying a number of previously deported expatriates who attempted to use forged passports to reenter the country. The project has been rolled out to all Kuwait’s land and sea ports after its trial operation at Kuwait International Airport proved a great success, he added. The GDCE incorporates a number of different subdepartments, including the crime scene investigation division, the forgery investigations team, the forensic department and the identification section. — Al-Rai

Public sector to go solar: MEW KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) is set to install solar panels at its headquarters building to provide an environmentally friendly power source there, before rolling out the solar panel project to other state departments’ buildings.

The project is part of the country’s plan to be more environmentally friendly and utilize more renewable energy sources, explained a senior MEW official.

“The MEW plans to provide electricity to all state departments via solar panels in order to rationalize the consumption

of electricity produced by power plants,” said Iyad Al-Falah, the ministr y ’s Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Services, in a press release issued on Friday. Revealing that the MEW’s solar panel project is the first of its kind to be adopted by Kuwait’s public sector, Al-Falah fur ther explained that the projec t will initially be tested by installing solar panels on the headquarters building’s roof, as well as on that of the adjacent Ministry of Public Works, before rolling it out to other state departments. — Al-Qabas

KUWAIT: The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr Mohammad Al-Afasi paid a visit to social care homes during Eid Al-Fitr. He gave away gifts as well as ‘Eidiyas’ (cash gifts) on the occasion. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

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in my view

kuwait digest

The day Arabs revolted

The true Arab revolution

By Dr Abdullatif Al-Suraikh

By Fouad Al-Obaid n the early 20th century, Arab uprisings broke out against Western colonization, as hundreds of thousands lost their lives as a price for freedom.

Unfortunately, these uprisings were succeeded by tyrannical regimes that made matters worse, and pushed Arab countries backwards towards stagnancy.

The true form of revolution that the Arab region aspires to achieve isn’t limited to tyrannical regime.

It has expanded its efforts to rebel against ideologies and beliefs. The Arabs’ true revolution will help transform Arab societies into role models that can set an example to protect human values and eliminate unconstructive practices instead of entirely blaming governments for corruption. After all, a regime cannot become corrupt unless it finds a suitable environment that is conducive to corruption.

Arabs can achieve true revolution when they become productive nations that set an example for other countries in terms of productivity and hard work, similar to the growth experienced by Japan, Germany, Brazil and Malaysia.

A true revolution takes place when we eliminate the general belief that other nations plot our destruction. Even if that theory rings true, that should give us more motivation to work and build a faster and more effective economy.

The Arabs’ true revolution will happen when we aspire to become the best nation in the world, and create that goal as a social doctrine. This goal can only be achieved through actions that speak louder than words; actions that give the world a better idea about what we are capable of achieving. This should replace the miserable reality of sectarian struggle we witness.

While we feel optimistic about the Arab revolution of the current generation, we can’t help but feel concerned that these revolutions might not be vastly different than those of the past century. We realize eventually that new tyrannical regimes follow the ousted ones that we haven’t learned from history.— Al-Rai

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kuwait digest

Flexibility and corruption

By Ali Al-Zubi do not understand all this fuss about increasing corruption among MPs. Is it part of Kuwaiti parliamentary work, especially after 1992? All of us know many MPs, former and current, who turned into industrialists.

For example, our colleague Dr Mohammad AlRumaihi when he worked as Editor-in-Chief of ‘Fakkir’ magazine asked me to publish a white paper titled ‘Kuwait is an example of legislative corruption.’ I remember, following its publication, some Kuwaiti dailies analyzed and held discussions on the subject, except MPs who deliberately ignored it. Even one of the current MPs approached it negatively.

Strange enough, what came to my attention and that of many of the friends, is that corruption is made by ministers but some MPs are accused of it. One of our friends firmly believes that the MP who takes a bribe is worse than a minister who gives it. Corruption, whether its legislative or administrative, small or big, influences our environment and social values. As long as the society is ‘flexible’ towards corruption, the rate of corruption will only remain high. —Al-Qabas

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KUWAIT: A comparatively benign weather prompted people to go out to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr this year. A family relaxes under the shade of date palms in a park on the second day of Eid in Kuwait City.

fouad@kuwaittimes.net Twitter: @Fouadalobaid

ubilance was in the air as millions of Arabs watched the fall and liberation of Tripoli on TV sets in awe. An improbability became reality. A tyrannical regime was sent fleeing. The Libyan society was liberated, given a new breath of freedom. Hope filled the streets of an Arab World in struggle with itself. Traditional chants, down with ‘this foreign power’ no longer echoed. Welcome to a new era embodieding the new spirit.

The fall of a brutal private dictatorship came as a surprise and boon to an Arab Spring turned summer. A renewed push, a spirit of possibility was perceived in Sana’a and Damascus. Who next? Lists of potential countries in need of reform are in plenty! Illegitimate rulers are for the first time in modern history gravely concerned with their own future; their own fate. After all, one of their peers has been televised on a hospital bed, locked up in a cage, facing a judge. The strongman turned feeble culprit understandably is a shocking image.

With the externalization of all internal problems, regimes in the region lay blame on foreign countries that were used as useful scapegoats. For a long time, regimes in the region sustained and thrived on make -believe threats. Orwellian ‘thought crime’ became reality. Regimes became obsessed by urges to control and monitor their society’s every move. A large-scale prison was the emerging reality of countries where simple speech could lead to death!

The hope for a new chapter is now beginning.

The era of false justification and inaction on the part of various puppet governments in the region is coming to a crumbling end. As citizens understand the value of freedom no longer will tyranny be tolerated! Divine appointments no longer seem to be acceptable to a growing majority of Arabs.

The future may look bleak in the short-term.

Nevertheless, the future will be bright for once tyranny is rooted out, liberty and peaceful co-existence will lead to a brave new society able and willing to deal with issues lucidly.

The Arab World is at a juncture in history. We are at a historic time. The fate of our collective Arab nations is no longer a game for foreign or domestic despots. The future belongs to legitimate governments who are able to understand the demands of their people, and accordingly work towards increasing overall well-being. The march towards a brighter future has been launched and it is has had set backs - may have more struggles in the near future.

The cost of change will initially be high at first.

In the end, when this generation’s grandchildren ask of what happened in 2011? All will give an answer and it will come in two forms; I took a stance and was part of it. I did nothing but sit back and see history unfold as a useless spectator.

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kuwait digest

The Gloomy Arab Spring

By Ahmad Al-Duaij t is not necessarily true that the revolutions in have lived under since the July 23rd, 1952 coup many Arab countries, collectively known as the which removed the hereditary monarchy, the situa‘Arab Spring,’ will bring good things, given the tion is still confused although seven months have Arab people’s chronic backwardness which means elapsed since the fall of president Hosni Mubarak; in that there is still a general lack of will to impel Egypt there are those who do not want things to settle down and anyone who opposes anything at all progress.

The Arab countries that have come under cen- will now call for a gathering in Tahrir Square to turies of colonization by foreign powers, either by protest against it. As conditions continue to deteriodirect occupation or by total dependence, are still rate, the snail’s pace of the recovery may lead some referred to by the West as Third World nations or, if to demand or support a type of ‘just dictatorship’ the Western powers wish to raise the Arab countries’ during the period of transition; this in turn would lead to the ‘fair dictator’ findmorale a little, as ‘developing ing that they don’t want to nations.’ relinquish their power...and Previous revolutions against The Arab countries that country returns to Square some hereditary regimes have have come under centuries the One. The situation in Yemen, led to more regressive republiof colonization by foreign meanwhile, is very dangercan replacements taking over, ous and the fate of President along with bloody dictatorships powers, either by direct Abdullah Saleh has been that have invented an unpreceoccupation or by total Ali decided in advance. It is not dented type of hereditary repubdependence, are still the fate of President Saleh lican regime with the rule passing from father to son, as in Syria referred to by the West as that is important, however, the fate of North and and, almost, in Saddam’s Iraq, Third World nations or, if but South Yemen, where it is Gadaffi’s Libya, Assad’s Syria and the Western powers wish clear that the revolution Saleh’s Yemen. But how can republics be hereditary? This is to raise the Arab countries’ which has been going on for long time will result in the down to Arab culture which morale a little, as ‘develop- acountry’s being once again dominates many aspects of life ing nations.’ broken up. Libya, meanin the region. Arabs have lived while, was plagued with a for thousands of years under different type of a dictator hereditary ruling regimes, which has most definitely had a clear influence on the who brutally controlled Libyans for 42 years and structure of their ‘political DNA,’ meaning that as they revolted against him with clear support from soon as an Arab president obtains power through a Western countries; pick-up trucks with machine revolution, a coup or even via fraudulent elections, guns mounted on them do not topple a bloody he becomes a chronic dictator and will be baptized regime like Muammar Al-Gaddafi’s. Whether the with the blood of his opponents and indeed his own Arab people revolted or remained calm, the destiny of their new or established political regimes is people.

Although the Arab Spring began in Tunis, the known in advance; absolute submission to the will symbols of the former regime still have control of of the Western powers, led by the United States of many aspects of life there, In Egypt, the largest Arab America, as is the case already with the countries country, meanwhile, after the recent revolution that are not yet infected by the miserable revolucaused by oppression and tyranny that Egyptians tions. — Al-Watan

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kuwait digest

Revolution or outburst?

By Jassem Boodai everal friends of mine who are Arab political Nakba and the wars that followed, the Arab World activists told me that whenever they engage in a was dominated on the political and social levels by conversation with a non-Arab official, they usual- the idea of isolation from the West; mostly biased ly end up being asked “Can the Arab Spring fully guar- towards the enemy. However, that doesn’t deny the antee human rights and rights of minorities?” When fact that we failed to establish active civil societies foreign officials are told that the Arab World is shifting that can achieve change.

Arab leaderships and societies toward protecting human never gave much attention to rights, Arab activists faced human rights and questions like: “Is there going Today, many Arabs bring freedoms, democracy. On the other hand, to be an opportunity for a competent Christian politi- up the conspiracy theory the rights of minorities continue cian to be elected as prime that calls for protecting the to be violated, sectarianism has minister? Will the Kurds be rights of minorities. They increased and crimes were comnaturalized and given better pave the way for further dis- mitted against humanity under the pretext of protecting governpolitical privileges? Will followers of all non-Muslim integration of Arab coun- ments from groups that allegedly faiths be allowed to practice tries and societies. If this pose a threat to Arab unity and their rituals in public? Will concept becomes a reality, it religion. In the meantime, socinon-Muslims still be forced to is only because we failed to eties were filled with ideologies that reject different opinions and fast in public during the day establish a formula accord- believe only in the form of freein Ramadan?”

These questions are part ing to which all communities dom that allows them to practice of the Western point of view are treated equally in Arab in accordance with their own perspective. which reflect their hopes for societies.

Today, many Arabs bring up change in the Arab World the conspiracy theory that calls for that assures more public freedoms. Although Western countries have their own protecting the rights of minorities. They pave the way questionable regulations placed on the freedoms of for further disintegration of Arab countries and sociMuslims including, restrictions placed on the clothes eties. If this concept becomes a reality, it is only they wear, they question the situation of public free- because we failed to establish a formula according to doms in the Arab World. It remains justified, as much which all communities are treated equally in Arab societies. If individual interests such as tribalism and as, it is our duty to clear our public image.

On that regard, we need to ask ourselves a few sectarianism dominate our ideologies, then the Arab questions: Have we always given consideration to Spring will soon turn into a merciless summer. Only human rights issues in terms of our nationalistic ide- when there is true reform towards boosting freedoms, ologies? Has our ‘Arabism’ been always civilized? Have democracy and human rights can we say that Arabs we been open towards different faiths? Have we been went into a true revolution instead of indulging in an modern in our goals and ambitions? Since the 1948 occasional outburst. — Al-Rai

kuwait digest

Counting our blessings

S

By Waleed Al-Ghanim hank God this is not going on here,” blurted out my friend Abdul-Aziz AlEidan’s 5-year-old daughter Sheikha.

They were apparently watching TV news reports on Libya. Security is the most precious blessing that people of Kuwait have, and it is most envied. It’s a blessing that we inherited from our ancestors. It has allowed Kuwait to become a safe haven for people fleeing from troubled areas and seeking refuge.

Kuwait has experienced a war and the tragedies that accompany it. Its people have emerged stronger, with an iron will. Do we need to be constantly reminded of the blessing we have? We should now wake up to protect our country from dangerous practices that threaten the existence of this blessing.

It’s easy to place the blame on the Cabinet or the Parliament. The fact of the matter is that we are responsible for protecting Kuwait through hard work and dedication in the workplace, in addition to electing competent representatives to the Parliament and stop sectarianism and tribalism whenever raised by individuals.

The country has been derailed, and the government must fix this situation before it’s too late.

There are serious flaws present, especially in the social policy. We should eliminate MPs that failed to commit duties properly. — Al-Qabas

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

LOCAL

Prize money mobile phone scam returns

Two killed in three-car pileup on Jahra Road Filipina escapes rapist KUWAIT: Two motorists died in a three-car pile-up on Jahra Road on Friday. The fatal collision took place after a tow truck smashed into the concrete roadside barrier when the driver lost control of the vehicle while trying to avoid hitting two other cars which had abruptly swerved in front of him. This resulted in another car behind the truck smashing into it, followed by one more car crashing into that one. The drivers of both cars were pronounced dead at the scene, with police identifying one of the motorists as a Kuwaiti national, whilst the identity of the second driver was undisclosed. A police investigation has been opened into the tragic accident.

to report the incident.

Callous conman A young Kuwaiti man was recently arrested for cheating his ex-girlfriend out of KD 15,000 before splitting up with her. The young woman, also Kuwaiti, reported the callous Romeo after he convinced her that they were set to marry before conning her out of the money in separate payments, telling her that he was using it to prepare for their wedding. On being questioned, the young man admitted to cheating her out of the money, revealing that he had used it to buy himself a new car. His victim subsequently dropped the charges after her ex-boyfriend’s father signed a formal undertaking to repay the money defrauded by his son.

Held with illegal arms Three Kuwaiti men arrested in Salmiya for public intoxication and alcohol possession also face charges of possessing illegal weapons ammunition after police found magazines for an AK47 assault rifle in their vehicle. The men’s car had stopped at a police checkpoint in the area where officers discovered that all three were extremely intoxicated, as well as finding two bottles of liquor and the gun ammunition in the car. The three drunkards were taken into custody to sober up.

Abductions foiled A Kuwaiti teenager suffered serious injuries when he leapt from a moving car to escape two men who he realized were planning to sexually assault him. The boy told police that he had been standing in a street in Wafra and had accepted a lift home from the men. Once in the car, however, he said he quickly realized that the men had no intention of taking him home and were instead abducting him with the intention of raping him, at which point he managed to open the car door and leapt from the moving vehicle. The abductors fled the scene, leaving him in the road and he was thankfully able to call for help, being rushed to hospital shortly thereafter.

A hunt is underway for the two would-be rapists. In a similar case, a 27-year-old Filipina woman was able to escape the clutches of two men who attempted to force her into a car in Mahboula. The woman managed to run away and hid beside a nearby house until the men gave up searching for her and fled the scene, at which point she immediately called police

Woman escapes rapist A Filipina cleaner whose employer attempted to sexually assault her managed to escape from his Sabah Al-Salem home before he could complete his attack. The woman told police that she had recently been hired as a cleaner on a part-time basis by the occupant, a single man living alone in the property. While working there on one occasion, however, the man attempted to overpower and sexually assault her.

Thankfully, she managed to flee, immediately going to the local police station to report the incident.

Revelers rousted Ten people - seven men and three women - were arrested in Salwa as they left a party at which alcohol had apparently been served. Police were waiting outside the apartment block following a tip-off from an informant about illegal parties being held in a flat there. The ten revelers were taken into custody.

Liquor heist Police are hunting for two armed thieves who abandoned a truck they stole which was loaded with more than 100 cardboard boxes containing bottles of imported liquor after the vehicle became bogged down in quicksand. The truck’s Egyptian driver had earlier called police to report that the vehicle had been stolen, explaining that he had been driving the vehicle on the Seventh Ring Road en route to an Asian country’s embassy with a car escorting him when two armed men appeared at the roadside and forced them to a stop. One of the gun-wielding thieves then got into the truck and the other into the escort car, forcing both to drive to Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh before briefly stopping there to abandon the two terrified drivers and fleeing with the lorry.—Al-Rai, Al-Anba, Al-Watan,

Beware of text messages, swindlers are on the prowl!

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Many competitions and events are generally organized during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid. Taking advantage of the opportunity these occasions present, swindlers are hard at work to trick gullible citizens and residents.

Mobile phone scams had spread like wildfire a few years ago.

Scamsters resorted to dubious measures to send random SMS messages. Mobile phone users replied to their messages that made promises of grandiose wealth, whether in the form of cash, vehicle or other means.

After this scam was publicized, telecommunication providers issued warnings to subscribers, so did the Ministry of Interior.

Swindlers then began using the names of famous companies to make their fraudulent messages appear authentic, leading mobile phone users to believe them.

The latest in a series of fraudulent SMS messages landed a local telecommunication service provider in hot soup. The messages not only reached hundreds of company clients, it also reached subscribers of another telecommunication serv-

KUWAIT: A motorist suffered minor injuries after his car flipped over along Istiqlal Street yesterday. Paramedical staff members admitted the victim to the nearest medical facility.—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Firefighter risks life to rescue trapped man One killed in Jleeb blaze

By Hanan Al Saadoun KUWAIT: A heroic firefighter risked his life to rescue a man trapped in a blazing apartment in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh early Friday morning. Although three men, all Asian, had already been rescued by firefighters from the burning apartment, another man was trapped by the flames. The officer, later named as Mohammed Al-Baghli, reportedly rushed into the blazing flat and led the man to safety before collapsing and being taken to Farwaniya Hospital. Although all those rescued from the blaze were also immediately rushed to the hospital, medical staff were unable to save the life of one of the men, who died shortly after his arrival as a result of the burns sustained in the blaze. The fire apparently broke out in one apartment before spreading to a neighboring one and an investigation has been launched to determine what caused it.

ice provider, “ A large number of our clients called us on the first day of Eid complaining about receiving some SMS messages asking them to reply so as to win attractive prizes.

The clients complained about having replied to these messages, until they ran out of balance without winning anything,” Abdulrahman, an employee from the Customer Care Department at a local mobile telecommunication company told the Kuwait Times.

The company has advised its subscribers to exercise caution, “Clients should be careful. The company cannot block all the numbers that send fraudulent SMS messages. Such SMS messages are sent from international numbers that cannot be detected. The company cannot always sue them for the usage of its name for deceitful purposes,” added Abdulrahman.

Strangely, fraudulent SMS messages that make tall claims about the user winning an exorbitant amount of KD 250,000 as Eid AlFiter prize from a (local telecommunication service provider ) was received by a subscriber of another service provider. So, it is advisable to think twice before pressing that Send button on your phone again!

Meanwhile, firefighters rescued 120 residents from a sixfloor apartment building in Mangaf late on Friday night after a fire broke out in one apartment there, gutting the flat and endangering other apartments in the building.

Firemen from the Fahaheel fire station worked closely with others from the technical rescue fire center and the support and emergency centers, arriving at the building within three minutes of being notified of the blaze. The firefighters used the special ‘Pronto’ extending ladder, the longest in the Middle East, to rescue residents from the building, with two residents - an Arab and an Asian - being treated at the scene for the effects of smoke inhalation.

The blaze was quickly brought under control, with an investigation underway to determine the cause of the fire.

Two firefighters also received medical treatment at the scene, one for minor injuries sustained while tackling the blaze and the other for the effects of smoke inhalation.

KUWAIT: Firefighters from Mangaf supported by Fahaheel Fire Center tackle a blaze that broke out at an apartment building in Fahaheel.—Photos by Hanan Al-Sadoun

KUWAIT: Fire-fighters evacuate a man injured in a fire mishap from a flat in Jleeb Al-Shouyouk yesterday.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Years

LOCAL

Kuwait participates in democracy IT forum Nation implements laws, regulations KUALA LUMPUR: Kuwait is taking part in an Arab forum on the role of the information technology in boosting democracy, which began in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

The three-day gathering, which focuses on the role of IT and communication technology in supporting democracy and freedom of expression, was organized by the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO), part of the Arab League.

Meanwhile, head of the Kuwaiti delegation and the assistant undersecretary for parliamentar y affairs of the bureau of the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ahmad Barrak Al-Haifi, told KUNA on his part that his country implemented the most advanced laws and legislations to ensure the rights of speech and democracy, affirming that the government had paid considerable attention to IT and social networking technologies and integrated them into the governmental infrastructure.

The forum, held with participation of nine Arab states, focuses on the so-called “Arab spring” events which have warranted such a debate, particularly regarding the role of technological means, namely social networks, for promotion of democracy, as well as role of the governments at this level. The forum gathers a number of Arab officials, legislators, political and figures representing civil associations.

The Kuwaiti delegation, headed by Ahmad Barrak Al-Haifi, the Assistant Undersecretary for Parliamentary Affairs from the office of the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, includes Maha AlKulaib, a political researcher with the Foreign Ministry, and Worood Saud Al-Saeedi, the

KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuwaiti delegation attending the Arab forum on the role of the information technology in boosting democracy. —KUNA head of the department of proposals and bills at the minister’s office, as well as other senior staff with the department.

The forum aims to promote democracy as a politico-social phenomenon aimed at attaining social and political equality among individuals and sections of society. The organizers of the event explained that the recent and current events of the ‘Arab Spring’ warrant such a debate, particularly regarding the role played by technology, particularly online social networks, in them and in promoting democracy generally, as well as the role played by government. Participants in the forum include a number of Arab officials and legislators, as well as representatives of political and civil associations. —KUNA

KUALA LUMPUR: Head of the Kuwaiti delegation and the assistant undersecretary for parliamentary affairs of the bureau of the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ahmad Barrak Al-Haifi.

Deployment of maids to Mideast may go down

National Guard Club celebrates Eid

By Hanaan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: The National Guard Officers Club in Al-Funaitees hosted a celebration for members and their families on Thursday. They celebrated Eid Al-Fitr. Several activities including competitions were held and participants were awarded gifts.

Families say goodbye to soldiers headed to Kuwait Sendoff ceremony held in Brandon BRANDON: It was an emotional day on Thursday for the families of about 240 soldiers who are being deployed overseas. The Mississippi National Guard held a send-off ceremony Thursday for members of the 112th Military Police Battalion in Canton and the 113th MP Company in Brandon. The soldiers are mobilizing for one year in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Kuwait.

The 112th will serve as a command and control element for both the 113th MP Company and the 268th MP Company, based in Ripley, Tennessee.

“They’ll be controlling the traffic to and from Iraq and they’ll have a lot of missions other than that,” said Brig. Gen. William Freeman.

Hundreds of supporters packed Brandon’s City Hall for the ceremony, which was almost like a pep rally for the soldiers. After the ceremony, the families had about an hour to spend with the soldiers before the unit loaded onto buses

and headed to Camp Shelby, where they will complete their post-mobilization training required for deployment.

Sgt. Jennifer Trejo and her husband, Sgt. Chris Trejo, spent their last few moments at home hugging their 1-yearold daughter, Jade. The couple met and fell in love in Iraq during their last deployment. Now, they will spend a year away from their little girl.

“We’re familiar with the process, but this is our first time leaving her,” Jennifer Trejo said.

Jade will stay with Jennifer Trejo’s parents while the couple is deployed. “We’ve been staying with my parents so she’ll get familiar with the house and she won’t notice as much when we left,” Jennifer Trejo said. “We’re just worried if she’ll remember us.” The buses received a police and Patriot Guard escort out of Rankin County. Supporters lined US 80 and Highway 49 as part of the send-off.

—wapt.com

After a year in Kuwait, soldiers come home

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orter Hausman, 4, stands on a street corner with a home made sign that says “Welcome Home Daddy.” “Daddy ” is Staff Sergeant Michael Hausman who has been deployed in Kuwait for a year.

“I wanted to just run and jump on my son. That might hurt him. So I just wanted to pick him up and give him a big hug and give all my family members a big hug,” Hausman said, minutes after coming off the bus to reunite with his loved ones.

Eighteen local ser vicemen returned home after 365 days in the Middle East. In Kuwait, they were ammunition suppliers for the effort in Iraq. Here, they are husbands, boyfriends, brothers, fathers and sons. Hausman says while he was

away, he still stayed connected with his family. “Skype almost every day with Porter. Phone calls and text messaging. [We were] pretty connected,” he said.

Hausman’s father Doug was also in the Army and went through several deployments. As his son returns, the coming home experience has come full circle. “They were always waiting for me to get off the bus.

This is the first time I had to wait on one of them to get off the bus. I now know what my wife and kids went through all the time I was gone,” Doug Hausman said. For many of the soldiers who returned home Monday morning it was their first overseas deployment of their military career.

— Stjoechannel.com

MANILA: The recruitment industry expects a huge decline in the number of Filipino domestic workers being deployed to the Middle East with the likely approval of a resolution that would make Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates off limits to household service workers.

According to industry sources, the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has already approved a Department of Foreign Affairs proposal to ban the deployment of Filipino domestic workers in the three Arab countries.

The DFA made the recommendation because of the three countries’ non-compliance with labor policies and international and local laws, including Republic Act No. 10022, or the amended Migrant Workers Act. According to Sec tion 3 of RA 10022, the Philippines will allow deployment only if the host country has “existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of workers.”

The law also provides that a host country must be a “signatory to and or a ratifier of multilateral conventions, declarations relating to the protection of workers; and has concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with the government on the protection of the rights of OFWs.” Approval of the DFA recommendation would result in a 50-percent decline of Filipino household service workers (HSWs) deployment in the next few months, according to a recruitment expert, who refused to be named for lack of authority to speak on the matter.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Thursday said there was indeed such a recommendation from the DFA but that the POEA’s governing board has yet to make a decision.

“We still have to wait ... but if it is adopted, the [deployment ban of HSWs] will be the effect,” said Baldoz who chairs the POEA board.

Household service workers make up a huge portion of the eight to 11 million Filipinos working overseas.

In 2010 alone, the total deployment of HSWs reached 96,583, with Hong Kong as the top destination.

Kuwait ranked second with 21,554 Filipino domestic workers followed by UAE with 13,184, and Qatar fifth with 9,937, according to an industry source.

The deployment of HSWs in the latter three countries combined accounted for almost half of the total number of Filipino domestic workers deployed last year, the source said. — Philippine Daily Inquirer

Wataniya Telecom concludes its Forza TV show in Avenues KUWAIT: As part of the holy month of Ramadan, Wataniya continues to give back to the community and support in aiding those in need as well as setting up fun filled events for children to enjoy such as Gargian, children plays and other fun-filled activities.

Part of the exciting activities which took place with Wataniya’s customers and the rest of the nation was the notable and famous “Forza Show” which truly showed its success for the first time due to its live entertaining show with the viewers. The show hosts were the famed Abdullah Boushehri, Mahmoud Boushehri and Haya Abdulsalam.

It was an open-event game show where everybody had the chance to participate in the Avenues.

People participating in the show got the chance to answer trivia questions on stage which were hosted by “Mohammed Tahoun” and won Blackberry Smartphones instantly along with other devices and valuable gifts.

Abdulaziz Al-Balool Public Relations Director said: “Ramadan is a special month where families come together and spend quality time with their loved ones.

Wataniya Telecom is glad to be hosting an event during the Holy month where kids can

come with their families and enjoy variety of fun-filled cultural and entertaining activities.”

A show which proved this year that it had the potential to grab all its viewers’ attention to be part of the Forza show and win prizes from cars, holiday tickets to mobiles, vouchers and more.

Al-Balool also said: “ We made sure to engage all the viewers to participate in order to win valuable prizes in Forza Show. Many participants who didn’t get the chance to win in the Forza Show got the chance to win in the Avenues.”

Over the past few years during Ramadan, Wataniya has always engaged in various social activities in order to be closer to its customers and the people of Kuwait. Moreover, several events and activities are organized to give back to the community by helping the poor and promoting the welfare of the old and young citizens.

For more information on Wataniya Telecom’s CSR programs and initiatives, please visit www.wataniya.com, or follow them on Twitter www.twitter.com/wataniyatelecom, or check latest updates on www.facebook.com/wataniyaor check latest news on their blog www.wataniya.com/blog.

KUWAIT: A crab burrows backwards to hide between rocks on the marina shores in Salmiya. — Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Chile air force plane crashes with 21 aboard

NATO kills Afghan ex-Gitmo detainee

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BEIT OMAR: Palestinian, foreign and Israeli protesters hold up banners as they demonstrate against the Israeli occupation in farmland close to this Palestinian village near the Israeli settlement of Karmi Tsour, north of the West Bank town of Hebron yesterday. — AFP

Appeals for Turkey, Israel to make up Ankara expels Israeli ambassador, challenges Gaza blockade ISTANBUL: Top diplomats piled pressure on Turkey and Israel to make up yesterday after Ankara’s decision to expel the Jewish state’s ambassador in retaliation for last year’s deadly Gaza flotilla raid. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, senior European foreign ministers and officials in Washington all urged the onetime allies to end their increasingly poisonous dispute that they worried could impact on the wider Middle East.

But there seemed little prospect of an immediate end to their dispute as Turkey’s foreign minister indicated that a legal challenge to Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip would be launched in a matter of days.

“I sincerely hope that Israel and Turkey will improve their relationship,” Ban told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra. “Both countries are very important countries in the region and their improving relationship, normal relationship, will be very important in addressing all the situations in the Middle East, including the Middle East peace process.” The UN leader said he had been trying to help the countries improve their relationship since May 31, 2010 when Israeli

troops boarded a Gaza aid flotilla, leading to the deaths of nine people including eight Turks.

Turkey pulled its ambassador out of Tel Aviv in the immediate aftermath of the raid but on Friday Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said ties would be further downgraded after a UN probe slammed the “excessive” force used in the raid, for which Israel has failed to apologise. As well as announcing the Israeli ambassador Gaby Levy was being expelled, Davutoglu also said all bilateral military agreements were suspended.

Davutoglu spent yesterday with European Union counterparts who sent a clear message they wanted an end to the spat.

“Our wishes are like those of the UN secretary general who said that this dispute between Israel and Turkey must be resolved through dialogue and mutual understanding, not via other means,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters at a meeting in Sopot, Poland. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle meanwhile said Berlin was “very worried by the recent dispute”, urging immediate dialogue by “all parties”.

There were also similar calls to mend fences from

Washington. The United States “has longstanding friendships with both Israel and Turkey”, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, urging the two sides “to look for opportunities to improve their longstanding relationship”.

Davutoglu himself refused all comment to foreign media in Poland.

But in comments carried by Turkey’s Anatolia news agency, he said Ankara planned to send a request next week to the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, to consider the legality of the naval blockade of Gaza. “This is not just an issue between Turkey and Israel but one between Israel and the international community, involving international rights and the international community’s conscience,” he said. The Turkish measures came after a UN-mandated report criticised Israeli troops for using “excessive” and “unreasonable” force when boarding the ferry Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010. It added, however, that the flotilla “acted recklessly in attempting to breach the naval blockade” and the Israeli forces “faced significant, organised and violent resistance from a group of passengers”. —AFP

Kurd rebels to unite against Iran Iran kills 30 rebels in new push ARBIL, Iraq: The separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has battled Turkey for years, said yesterday it will aid another north Iraq-based Kurdish rebel group in fighting against Iranian forces. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said earlier they had resumed operations against Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iran along the Iraqi border, inflicting “heavy blows”. “From now on we will fight on the side of the fighters of PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) against the Iranian attacks, that are trying to enter the Kurdistan region of Iraq, especially in the Qandil area,” PKK spokesman Dozdar Hammo told AFP. “We are a force to protect the people of Kurdistan. We see it is our duty to protect the achievements of the people of Kurdistan in any part,” Hammo said. “There have been clashes that are continuing until now, and we see that the goal of Iran is eliminating the Kurdish people, and not the PJAK party, and these are the reasons that led us to take this decision,” he said.

A local official from a Kurdistan border area said on condition of anonymity that Iranian forces attempted to take control of a mountain near Sardasht in Iran, which was held by PJAK forces,

on Friday. They were not able to do so, and then began shelling several areas of Iraq Kurdistan, he said, adding the shelling was still ongoing yesterday afternoon. Fighters of the PJAK, which has ties with the PKK that has been battling Turkish forces since 1984, have clashed repeatedly with Iranian forces in the mountainous border region in recent years. Meanwhile, Maqdid Aref Ahmed, mayor of the Haj Omran district of Arbil province, said a shepherd was killed by Iranian shelling earlier yesterday. “A Kurdish shepherd, Bassem Farman Mohammed, was killed by Iranian shelling of the border area that began at about 8:30 am (0530 GMT),” said Ahmed. The health director in the town of Choman, Ahmed Hassan, confirmed the shepherd’s death. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said yesterday they had resumed operations against Kurdish rebels. “This operation is aimed at clearing the infected northwestern border area and started from the Sardasht heights,” the Guards’ ground forces said in a statement carried by Iranian state media. “Heavy blows have been inflicted.” The Guards said they had resumed their operations “after the terrorist PJAK group failed to take advantage of a month’s grace period

given to them during the holy month of Ramadan to retreat from the border area”. They said operations would “continue until the border areas are completely cleared and sustainable security has been established.”

Iranian state television website reported two Guards were killed during the operation on Friday with the PJAK. “In continuation the series of operations... Revolutionary Guards killed and wounded 30 of the members of the PJAK terrorist group,” a Guards operation officer, Colonel Hamid Ahmadi, was quoted as telling the official IRNA news agency without clarifying the toll. In July, Iran launched a major offensive against rebels of the PJAK, targeting their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan along the Iran-Iraq border, and shelling the area for weeks. Human Rights Watch has charged Iran may be deliberately targeting civilians in its campaign against the rebels. “The evidence suggests that Turkey and Iran are not doing what they need to do to make sure their attacks have a minimum impact on civilians, and in the case of Iran, it is at least quite possibly deliberately targeting civilians,” the New York-based watchdog’s deputy Middle East director, Joe Stork, said on Friday. —AFP

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

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

Efforts to save dying Iran lake turn political TEHRAN: Efforts to stem the rapid drying up of Iran’s largest lake took a political turn this week after arrests were made in a local protest against the government’s inaction on the

ecological disaster. One of the largest salt lakes in the world and classified as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, Lake Orumiyeh has lost more than half of its surface over the last two

Orumiyeh, Iran: A file picture dated April 25, 2011 shows an abandoned ship stuck in the dried salt field of Lake Orumiyeh. — AFP

decades due to drought and the damming of rivers feeding it. The lake could be dried out in the next two to four years and lead to apocalyptic consequences if no urgent action is taken, according to local officials and environmental experts.

The lake’s disappearance would leave behind 10 billion tons of salt and jeopardise the lives of millions of people as well as the local agriculture, according to Orumiyeh lawmaker Javad Jahangirzadeh. The parliament refused in mid-August to fasttrack a rescue plan presented by local lawmakers to save the lake, which is situated between East and West Azarbaijan provinces in the northwest. The refusal provoked Orumiyeh residents to demonstrate on Aug 27, only to be repressed by force, according to several Iranian news websites.

The confrontation was criticised

by Jahangirzadeh, who warned officials against politicising “an environmental issue”.

Lake Orumiyeh “should neither become a security issue nor should it be politicised. It is a social and environmental issue that should be

solved,” he said at a meeting of experts on Friday carried by the conservative website Khabaronline.ir.

“We should not confront the protests.

Instead, we should better think of a solution,” he said, while acknowledging that the demonstration was “illegal”. Jahangirzadeh said 99 percent of his constituents considered the lake to be a sensitive issue.

The city’s Friday prayers leader also called on officials to heed the people’s demands, the Tehran Times reported yesterday. “People are rightfully calling for measures (by the government) to save the lake and the officials should respond to the people’s demands,” Hojatoleslam Gholamreza Hassani said. Another Orumiyeh lawmaker, Nader Qazipour, echoed the remarks, saying the citizens “have the right to pursue their social and environmental demands” but urged them to use “legal channels,” the paper reported.

Several opposition websites said the authorities were concerned about nationalist slogans in the August 27 protest and other smaller scale gatherings that preceded it.

ICRC chief visits as Syria forces kill 26 EU oil embargo comes into effect DAMASCUS: Syrian forces killed 26 people in two days as they quelled anti-regime protests, activists said yesterday as the Red Cross chief arrived for a visit and a punitive EU oil embargo came into effect. The bloodshed came despite the European Union slapping Syria with the embargo and as EU ministers warned yesterday of possible further sanctions over the regime’s failure to heed global calls to halt the repression.

Syria’s longtime ally Russia criticised the latest sanctions while the United States, which has been urging moves to isolate President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, welcomed them.

Meanwhile Red Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger arrived yesterday afternoon in Damascus for talks with Assad over access to prisoners and areas affected by the crackdown, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Four people were killed yesterday in raids by security forces in the rebellious northwest province of Idlib and the central city of Homs, a day after anti-regime protests which activists said cost 21 lives. The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said three people were killed and five wounded yesterday in Maarrat “during an incursion by tanks and 50 buses carrying members of the security forces” in Idlib province.

A fourth man was killed yesterday in the Deir Baalba neighbourhood in the protest hub of Homs during a raid by security forces, the Britainbased Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported. And a political activist who was shot and wounded late Friday also died yesterday from his injuries, the LCC said. The Observatory said the security operation in Idlib was “to hunt down wanted people,” and to track down Hama’s attorney general, Adnan al-Bakkur, who announced his resignation in an Internet video broadcast Wednesday to denounce the repression. Syrian authorities claim he was kidnapped by an “armed gang” who forced him under pressure to issue “pure lies”.

Meanwhile the body of a man “which had visible signs of torture,” was left by the authorities outside his family home in Homs more than a month after he was detained, the Observatory said. It quoted a local dissident as saying the family refused to take delivery of the body on Friday because “the authorities asked them to sign a report accusing terrorist gangs of killing. More

DAMASCUS: Souvenir mugs with portraits (from right to left) of late Syrian President Hafez Assad, his dead son Bassel Assad, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and Syrian President Bashar Assad are seen displayed for sale in the old city of Damascus yesterday. — AP than 2,200 people have been killed in Syria since almost daily protests began on March 15, according to the United Nations, while rights groups say that more than 10,000 people are behind bars.

In addition to the oil embargo that went into effect yesterday, the EU has also expanded a list of around 50 people - including Assad himself targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban, adding four Syrian businessmen accused of bankrolling the regime. Three firms were also added. The oil embargo will deprive Assad’s regime of a vital source of cash as the EU buys 95 percent of Syria’s crude exports. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised the embargo, saying “unilateral sanctions will do no good,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said however the oil ban would “directly impact” the Syrian regime’s financing of its crackdown. “These sanctions send a powerful signal to the Assad regime to end the violence and allow a

peaceful political transition to begin,” she said.

Meanwhile EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European bloc will “continue to put the pressure on and to look for ways of doing so”, when asked if the EU planned more sanctions on the Assad regime.

The ICRC delegation chief in Damascus said Kellenberger would stay in Syria until Monday afternoon and also hold talks with Prime Minister Adel Safar and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. A statement from Kellenberger’s office said that during a previous visit in June “an understanding was reached according to which the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent would have enhanced access to areas of unrest, and negotiations would take place concerning ICRC visits to detainees”. Asked about the possibility of visiting detainees, the ICRC delegation chief in Damascus, Marianne Gasser, said: “We are confident that we will be able to start visiting people detained by the interior ministry.” — AFP

Pics reveal jet set lifestyle of Gaddafis TRIPOLI: Pictures raked up from Muammar Gaddafi’s bunkers tell of the jet set lifestyles of daughter Aisha, posing as a blond seductress with diamond necklaces, and playboy son Saadi with his private jets. Family albums dug up from the fallen Libyan leader’s base in Tripoli and from Saadi’s seaside chalet tell of Western nightclubs and luxury, in contrast to Gaddafi himself whose extravagance was limited mostly to his costumes. Aisha, a lawyer in her early 30s, was

known in her country for her elegance, long blonde hair and often sexy outfits. She and a circle of friends are seen posing like members of a pop group.

On her marriage day, she is wearing an enormous diamond necklace. Other photos show her in trendy ski costumes, visiting the Louvre in Paris or strolling along a Prague street. Saadi, 38, a would-be professional footballer who converted to military life as head of an elite unit,

WADI MARDUM, Libya: A rebel celebrates by firing his AK47 as they travel in convoy, after patrolling the village 30 km from Bani Walid yesterday. — AFP

appears to live up to his reputation as a playboy.

“First and foremost, I want to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart to the opportunities you have given me this year,” writes a New Yorker, Linda, in a dedication.

“I am forever grateful and blessed to have met you! May all your dreams in this New Year come true and keep doing what you are doing. It works. You can move mountains.”

His pictures also reveal a soft spot for singer Nicole of the band Pussycat Dolls, in a sexy onstage portrait. Saadi is also shown with rapper friends, looking the part in a T-shirt and thick chain around his neck, or wearing a black suit and white shirt, circled by sinister-looking men.

The pictures also unveil Gaddafi’s second wife, Safiya, in black headscarf, who never made public appearances. Safiya sought refuge in Algeria last week together with Aisha, who gave birth to a baby daughter on arrival, and two of her less politically or militarily active sons, Hannibal and Mohammed.

In other pictures, a young Muammar Gaddafi stands confident next to Hafez Al-Assad as they glance at two boys of the late Syrian president: Bassel who died in a 1994 car crash, and Maher who commands an army division. The snapshots are likely to fast become collectors’ items. “These are ours,” one man told a foreign news agency photographer as he emerged blackened from one of the tunnels in Gaddafi’s Bab Al-Aziziya compound in central Tripoli, his arms full of pictures. Many Libyans, however, are not impressed.

“Look how they spent money, travelled, went out, while your young people had to go on dangerous boat trips to escape to Europe and try to live a normal life,” said Ani Mohammed, a 21-year student. “We were treated like pariahs while they led five-star lives.” — AFP

Orumiyeh lies in a region close to Turkey and Azerbaijan and its inhabitants are mainly Azeri - the largest minority in Iran representing 20 percent of the total population. Neither the authorities nor the state media have yet taken a stance on the issue.

The disappearance of Lake Orumiyeh could lead to the displacement of 14 million people, Jahangirzadeh warned, adding that the salt dust would endanger the ecosystem of all surrounding areas, whose economy relies on agriculture and tourism.

Hojatoleslam Hassani meanwhile said salt storms could make life difficult for neighbouring provinces, including Tehran, as well as neighbouring countries Iraq and Turkey.

“So far, the government has taken no action to resolve the issue,” Jahangirzadeh said. “Thus, I ask the people to continue this trend. (The protests) should not stop until they achieve their goal.” The proposal rejected by the parliament envisaged feeding the lake with water from the River Arax, located on Iran’s border with Armenia and Azerbaijan some 70 km to the north. — AFP

Sudan state media say rebels kill 17 civilians KHARTOUM: Rebels fighting Sudanese troops in the ethnically divided border state of South Kordofan killed 17 civilians, some of them children, state media reported. “Seventeen civilians were killed on Thursday, including children, and 14 wounded, including a number of women, in attacks by the SPLA in the areas of Um Dahilib and Murung, in the Kalugi region of South Kordofan state,” the official SUNA news agency reported late on Friday. Members of the northern branch of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which fought with the southern former rebels during their devastating 22-year war with Khartoum and have battled the Sudanese army in South Kordofan since early June, were not immediately available for comment.

The SUNA report said the most deadly fighting took place in Murung, where 16 people were killed and 11 wounded.

It described the attacks as a rejection of the ceasefire declared by President Omar Al-Bashir last month, and quoted the state governor Ahmed Harun denouncing the conduct of the SPLA, whom he accused of targeting unarmed citizens. Harun, who like Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Darfur, said the remnants of the SPLA had been driven out of the region.

On Aug 23, Bashir declared a twoweek ceasefire in South Kordofan. But his government was accused shortly after wards of failing to honour its pledge and came under heavy criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups for limiting humanitarian access to those affected by the conflict.

On Friday, fighting erupted in Blue Nile state, another ethnically divided state on the north-south border where the SPLA had a large number of fighters during the civil war.

Khartoum has sought to reassert its authority within its new borders since South Sudan’s recognition as the world’s newest independent state on July 9,

KHARTOUM: Sudanese foreign ministry’s undersecretary, Rahmatallah Mohamed Osman, speaks during a press conference yesterday. — AFP moving to disarm troops outside its control. The foreign ministr y said on Saturday that, according the 2005 peace agreement that ended the north-south conflict and paved the way for southern secession, all SPLA troops should withdraw south of the border. “This is not a Sudanese movement,” Rahmatallah Mohamed Osman, the foreign ministry’s undersecretary, told reporters. “What happened in Blue Nile was an attack against Sudan,” he added.

Blue Nile and South Kordofan are located north of Sudan’s new international border, and their residents are Sudanese citizens. But they both have large numbers of SPLM-North supporters and troops loyal to Sudan’s main opposition party, which fought alongside the southern former rebels. The Sudanese army’s insistence on expelling or forcibly disarming SPLA elements in South Kordofan is what appears to have triggered the outbreak of fighting in June. — AFP

Files show Gaddafi army of snitches TRIPOLI: When Muammar Gaddafi threatened to chase rebels “street by street, alley by alley (zenga, zenga), house by house,” it was no idle threat, thanks to his army of informants and gunmen posted in every area. Tucked away in an innocuous office building on Baladiya Street, an offshoot of Martyrs’ Square, or Green Square as it was known under Gaddafi’s regime, lies one node of the regime’s intricate spy network.

“This was the control room for all of Tripoli,” said Abdelkarim Gadder, gesturing at three expansive satellite maps veined with the smallest streets of the capital and marking every major landmark.

Green thumbtacks show a myriad of gates from which security operatives could funnel into a neighbourhood in search for regime opponents. “Checkpoints and communication channels doubled after the resistance,” said Gadder, referring to the protest movement that erupted midFebruary, escalated into civil war, and forced Gaddafi and his clan into hiding.

Street camera footage shown on massive television screens, he said, helped security services and neighbourhood informants to identify those who took part in anti-regime protests.

Door-to-door house arrests would promptly follow. “There was a snitch for almost every household,” said Gadder.

“Gaddafi’s regime knew who lived in each apartment, who is with him, who is against him.” By way of example, he points to the neighbourhood of Souk Al-Jumaa in southeastern Tripoli which was an early pocket of resistance against Gaddafi’s regime after February 17. “Just this one, small neighbourhood had five fixed checkpoints, 14 mobile checkpoints, 170 armed men and 90 backup forces,” ready to move and smite the opposition, he said, leafing through a

binder with records of the manpower available in each area of the city.

Gadder said security services consisted in a mixture of military men and civilians.

Massive file folders document the names of agents, most of them armed, drawn from more than 15 branches of security including the armed forces, interior ministry, foreign ministry, intelligence services, national security, military police, Tripoli security forces and revolutionary councils. There were at least 500 low-level spies, including taxi drivers, working in metropolitan Tripoli under Gaddafi. They earned no more than 400 Libyan dinars ($330) per month but the salary was supplemented by material perks.

Mid- to high-ranking officers stood in their thousands and earned up to 1,200 dinars.

“It was not the salary that counted. It was the cars, the homes, the money for medical treatment,” he said.

The majority of these men are still at large, said Gadder, adding he was now tasked with tracking their whereabouts so that those involved in crimes could be brought to justice. Those without blood on their hands could be brought into the fold of new security services. But telling the two apart might prove a difficult task as a large amount of evidence disappeared - Gaddafi’s men destroyed digital databases on their way out when rebel forces overran the capital on Aug 20.

“They destroyed all the computers so we have to rely on the written documents,” he said. Another loss of data came from NATO’s air strike that pummeled the headquarters of Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi’s former right hand man and spymaster, he said. “We never know what was lost. Many things are missing,” including the records of mercenaries who fought to defend the regime, he said. — AFP

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Years

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

‘Lone wolf’ terror seen as biggest threat HAMBURG, Germany: After 9/11, it was the men who went to radicalized mosques or terror boot camps who were seen as the biggest terror threat.

Today, that picture’s changed: Authorities are increasingly focusing on the lone wolf living next door, radicalized on the Internet - and plotting strikes in a vacuum. The March fatal shooting of two American airmen in Frankfurt by a Kosovo Albanian. The attempted backpack bombing on Fort Hood, Texas, apparently inspired by the deadly 2009 assault on the US base. The foiled attack on Fort Dix, New Jersey, by a tiny cell of homegrown terrorists.

These Islamist terror plots share something in common with Anders Behring Breivik, the Norway killer who hated Muslims. They are the work of extremists who are confoundingly difficult to track because they hardly leave a trace. In today’s transformed security landscape, authorities and experts say, the 9/11 plotters would surely have been caught. It’s widely believed that these days there’s no way a cell involving 19 hijackers and an extensive support network could have plotted attacks in a Hamburg mosque, trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan, and took flight lessons in the United States without being picked up by countertenor operations.

And President Barack Obama said in a CNN interview on Aug 16 that a “lone wolf ” terror attack in the US is more likely than a major coordinated effort like the Sept 11 attacks. Western authorities have infiltrated major jihadist groups, planting moles, eavesdropping on chatter, keeping tabs on radical mosques, and carrying out regular terror sweeps. Some say the tough measures have eroded civil liberties.

But lone wolves or small homegrown cells that blend into the general population present a more slippery challenge. “The biggest threats are people working alone or in very small groups,” a senior German intelligence official told AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “So it’s not important whether we have 40 or 50 or 60 followers of the jihad (under observation) ... that doesn’t really make much of a difference. The question is are there some that we

don’t know but who are planning it?”

Modern technology is also making things harder for authorities. As extremists adapt to the anti-terror crackdown, they have taken more advantage of the Internet to cloak their communications and recruit new attackers. “Before, people were recruited in mosques where you’d hear speeches - Finsbury Park or Baker Street” in London, French anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic told the AP. “Then that totally stopped. Today, there is not a single case where group members weren’t recruited on the Internet. The ability to self-indoctrinate online is a big concern, because not being in a group complicates our task of surveillance,” he said. A terrorist group, he said, “is easier to monitor, moves around and has meetings.”

That’s what led to the first successful attack on German soil by an Islamist extremist, in which a 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian allegedly gunned down two American airmen outside the Frankfurt airport in March. Arid Uka, a 21-year-old Kosovo Albanian who grew up in Frankfurt is accused of opening fire at the city’s airport on a busload of US airmen on their way to Afghanistan, killing two and injuring two others.

According to the indictment, Uka was radicalized over time by jihadist propaganda he saw on the Internet, and the night before the act had watched a video that purported to show American atrocities in Afghanistan; it was actually a clip from a film. The investigation turned up no connections with any terrorist organization. “He was a single person acting alone radicalized through jihadi Internet propaganda,” prosecutors’ spokesman Marcus Koehler told the AP at the time of the indictment. “That shows, in the opinion of the federal prosecutors office, how dangerous jihadist propaganda on the Internet is.”

In recent years, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have been increasingly targeting people like Uka - using radicals who grew up in Western countries to make videos in their native languages urging people in their home or adoptive countries to take up jihad. A series of German-language videos were posted on the

Internet before 2009 elections in Germany promising attacks - which never happened - and USborn cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki’s sermons have turned up on the computers of nearly every homegrown terror suspect in the United States.

Al-Awlaki allegedly exchanged emails with the US Army psychiatrist accused of carrying out the 2009 shootings at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. Prosecutors also say an Al-Awlaki sermon

Pfc Naser Abdo on jihad was among the materials - including videos of beheadings - found on the computers of five men convicted in December of plotting attacks on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey. “It was from 2003 to 2008 that we saw this rise in power of the tool of the Internet: first as propaganda, then to send messages and do recruiting,” said the French judge, Trevidic. Now, he said, “everything is done on the Internet, with more and more sophisticated methods, and we’ve had the possible difficulty because we were dealing with a young generation that understands the Internet by heart.”

Last month, another US serviceman was arrested for plotting a solo attack on Fort Hood - this time with a backpack stashed with explosives. Pfc Naser Abdo was caught only when a Texas gun shop clerk alerted authorities after finding the suspect acting strangely in his store. In the 2007 Fort Dix case, wiretaps helped authorities find out

about the deadly plot to attack the base. Suspects Mohamad Shnewer, Serdar Tatar, and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, were convicted in Dec 2008 of conspiring to kill US military personnel. Terrorists have also been exploiting voiceover-Internet systems like Skype - which are much more difficult for authorities to track, the German intelligence official said. “It’s easier to follow someone to find out which flat they are meeting in, than to find out information in the jungle of passwords and voice-over-Internet technical communication,” he said. In the three-day 2008 siege in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people, the attackers’ handlers eschewed conventional phones for voice-over-Internet telephone services, according to authorities. The gunmen also examined the layout and landscape of the city using images from Google Earth, which provides satellite photos for much of the planet over the Internet.

But when the attacker is acting alone there is no communication to pick up at all. In the Norway attack, Anders Behring Breivik has claimed to belong to a shadowy group of modern-day crusaders against Islam, with cells all over Europe, but prosecutors have said all signs are that he acted alone. “The biggest threat today ... is the lone wolf, the lone bomber like we saw in Oslo,” said Rolf Tophoven, director of the Essen-based Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy. “If you radicalize yourself in your own house, in your own workroom, then nobody can control you.”

But even Breivik would have done things that could have alerted authorities, the German official said. “It’s more difficult to find out about those people but of course we are not really helpless so we can still find them, even if it is a lone wolf,” he said. “If you look at Norway you still have a trail he had to get the explosives, he had to get the weapon, he had to train with the weapon, he had to get the explosives into the city. So even if a terrorist is alone he needs some logistical preparation so we have to be more aware of those tracks, and the Internet is one of them, one of the most important.” — AP

Famine likely to spread in southern Somalia UN warns situation to worsen

UTOEYA, Norway: Victims lie near the shoreline after a man dressed as a police officer gunned down youths at a camp organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party in this July 22, 2011 file photo. — AP

Norway moves slow to convict terror suspects OSLO: Eleven people have been arrested under Norway’s anti-terror laws since 2000, including the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people two months ago.

Not one has been convicted. The July 22 bomb attack and shooting rampage rocked the foundations of Norway’s democratic society, which places high value on openness and civil rights.

Officials conceded shortcomings in terror legislation in the Scandinavian country, and Norway’s chief prosecutor predicted a range of changes, including tightened security.

“We cannot have a situation where it’s possible to drive a van carrying a bomb to the prime minister’s office and ... be parked there for several minutes before it explodes,” Tor-Aksel Busch said. Busch said the case of Anders Behring Breivik will force scrutiny of Norwegian sentencing practices. “We have (maximum) verdicts of 21 years for defendants that have killed two, maybe three people,” Busch told AP. “In this case, we have an inconceivable number beyond that.”

Breivik has admitted to the July killings, but denies criminal guilt because he says the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe. If found guilty on terrorism charges, he faces 21 years in prison. An alternative custody arrangement - if he is still considered a danger to the public - could keep him behind bars indefinitely. But a look at recent history suggests that finding someone guilty in Nor way is not easy. Before the July attacks, suspects have only been arrested in four cases on suspicion of terror or terror financing but no one has so far been convicted under the terror laws, according to records obtained by AP in response to a request under Norway’s Freedom of Information Act. Norway, like other European countries, adopted terror legislation after 9/11. However, critics have pointed out loopholes, including the fact that planning an act of terror alone is not a crime.

If two or more people are involved in planning, it becomes a crime of conspiracy. Breivik claims he planned and carried out the attacks on his own. In Norway’s first terrorism trial in 2008, three men were charged with plotting attacks against Israeli and US embassies in Oslo, which never took place. Two were acquitted, for lack of evidence.

The third defendant was found guilty of complicity in an unrelated shooting at a synagogue in Oslo in 2006, but the court ruled that the incident, in which no

one was hurt, was not an act of terror. A higher court later found him guilty of attempted murder, but the Supreme Court suspended the verdict due to a procedural error and he was released.

Last year, a Somali-born Norwegian who had transferred $33,000 to AlShabaab militants in Somalia was found innocent of funding terrorism. The court said he had not knowingly funded terrorist activities of an organization that at the time was not classified as a terrorist group by the United Nations. Instead, he was found guilty of breaking a UN arms embargo on Somalia and was given a fine. Two others arrested in the case were released by police after questioning.

They were not charged.

In 2003, Mullah Krekar, the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar AlIslam, was under suspicion of funding and organizing terrorism in Iraq from Norway. The case never made it to court but Norway declared him a threat to national security and ordered him deported. The decision was later postponed amid concerns he would face execution or torture in Iraq. Last month, authorities filed terror charges against Krekar for making death threats against Norwegian politicians if deported. In Norway, as in neighboring Scandinavian countries, authorities tend to fight terrorism by disrupting plots rather than making arrests.

Last year, the detention of three suspected Al-Qaeda members was an aggressive departure from routine, in a case where the FBI and CIA worked closely with local authorities to unravel an alleged plot in Norway. Mikael Davud, Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak and David Jakobsen were arrested in connection with a plot against an unspecified Norwegian target. US and Norwegian officials believe the plot was linked to the same Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda planners behind thwarted schemes to blow up New York’s subway and a British shopping mall.

Davud, the suspected ringleader, told police he had planned a bomb attack against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo and had used the two other suspects to obtain the ingredients for a bomb, but said they were not aware of the target, according to his lawyer Carl Konow Rieber-Mohn. Security police said Bujak had indicated that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which caricatured Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was the intended target. — AP

NAIROBI: Famine -hit areas of southern Somalia will likely spread in coming days, with the situation continuing to worsen despite massive international aid efforts, the United Nations has warned. “The situation in Somalia is deteriorating,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released late Friday, noting that updated malnutrition figures will be “available shortly”. “The Somalia Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) warns...that almost all regions of the south could face famine,” the report read. “Although internal displacement is decreasing, rates of malnutrition and mortality are increasing and communicable diseases continue to spread,” OCHA added.

The UN has described Somalia, where a civil war has been going on since 1991, as facing the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world. Famine was declared in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia in July. It later spread to three further areas, including into the Somali capital Mogadishu and the Afgoye corridor, the world’s largest camp for displaced people.

Famine implies that at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of people, and two deaths per 10,000 people every day, according to UN definition.

Some 12.4 million people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda, are affected by the worst drought in decades in the region and are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. Al-Qaeda affiliated Shabab gunmen pulled out of positions in Mogadishu last month, but continue to restrict aid into areas they control in famine-hit southern regions.

Aid deliveries into the worst affected areas remains severely limited. The UN World Food Programme “only has partial access to the central areas and virtually none in the south,” OCHA added. Other aid agencies face similar

difficulties, including the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

“It is still proving extremely difficult to go beyond the gates of MSF’s established health

volatile and access to certain neighbourhoods is hindered by sporadic outbreaks of violence,” MSF added. A Malaysian cameraman was shot dead in Mogadishu on Friday and another

KUALA LUMPUR: The mother of 39-year-old Bernama TV journalist Noramfaizul Mohd Nor stands next to a group family photo showing the TV cameraman (back row) yesterday. The Malaysian journalist was shot dead and another seriously wounded in the wartorn Somali capital on Friday. — AFP facilities to reach the most vulnerable people,” a statement read. “Despite repeated efforts and negotiations, we have still not been able to open new projects and develop new activities in southern Somalia,” Alfonso Verdu, MSF’s program manager in Somalia said in a statement. MSF, who have worked in Somalia throughout the past two decades of civil war, said poor security in Mogadishu had also limited aid efforts. “The situation is extremely

journalist wounded when shooting broke out between African Union troops and other gunmen. Meanwhile Somali leaders will hold a rare three-day conference in Mogadishu due to begin today in an effort to set up plans for a new government. The current government is one of the more than a dozen attempts to form a central authority in Somalia since it plunged into war with the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre. — AFP

27 Somalis killed in Puntland fighting MOGADISHU: At least 27 people have been killed in heavy fighting near the border of two semiautonomous regions of Somalia, witnesses said on the eve of a political conference to hammer out a road map towards elections in the chaotic country. Puntland’s security ministry said its forces had repelled a two-day attack by al Shabaab militants in the north of Galkayo town, which its troops control, and accused the authorities of the Galmudug region, who control the south of Galkayo, of harbouring the militants.

The latest clashes and escalation in rhetoric risk spilling over into the three-day political talks starting today, the first major nationwide conference to be held in war-battered Mogadishu in four years. “The fighting erupted (on Thursday) after al Shabaab terrorists opened fire on Puntland security forces intending to arrest members of a terrorist cell who

organise assassinations and bombings,” the security ministry said in a statement.

Witnesses said the fighting had subsided early yesterday but that bodies still lay strewn in the town’s streets and tensions remained high. “I myself counted 17 corpses,” resident Abdikadir Ahmed told Reuters from Galkayo’s Garsoor neighbourhood, where the fighting started. A nurse said the town’s main hospital had received more than 70 wounded fighters and civilians, of whom at least 10 had died on the operating table.

Puntland says there has been an escalation in guerrilla-style attacks on its territory since the al Qaedalinked al Shabaab rebels began waging a bloody insurgency four years ago, bent on imposing an austere version of sharia (Islamic law) on Somalis.

“These crimes were planned and organised in the neighbourhood where (the) fighting erupted

and in the neighbourhood of Galkayo where the Galmudug authority is based,” the Puntland administration said. “Al Shabaab terrorists have been escaping to the Galmudug side, where the terrorists reorganise and receive ammunitions and medical treatment,” said the administration.

Galmudug’s president, Mohamed Ahmed Ali, denied supporting al Shabaab or fighters allied to the militants. “We do not support any side. We do not sell weapons. Two sub-clans of the same clan are fighting,” Ali told Reuters. “Puntland has no excuse to indiscriminately shell innocent civilians.” Somalia has been mired in conflict and awash with weapons since the downfall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago. It has become a haven for foreign jihadists bent on striking the region’s main economies, security experts say. A string of interim governments have run the country

since 2004 but have failed to exert any real power beyond Mogadishu or achieve any tangible security gains outside the capital. The Mogadishu conference is supposed to adopt a road map of political reconciliation and reform leading to the election of a new president in Aug 2012. Separately, Djibouti plans to send about 700 troops to Somalia by the end of September to join the African Union peacekeeping force, a source familiar with the deployment said.

The Somali government has called for extra troops to secure Mogadishu after al Shabaab’s withdrawal from the capital and to help it regain control of other rebelheld parts of the country. A senior police officer said yesterday local militia fighters, who had set up a roadblock in the capital to extort payments from taxi drivers, had killed four government troops after the soldiers attempted to detain them. — Reuters

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As race ramps up, GOP asks if Perry can stay atop WASHINGTON: The Republican race for the White House is about to accelerate dramatically, with a series of debates and events testing whether Rick Perry has staying power and Mitt Romney can keep focusing on the president instead of his GOP rivals.

September also may settle the field for good, with Sarah Palin perhaps deciding at last whether to run.

Perry, the Texas governor, jolted the party last month by leaping to the top of several national polls within days of joining the race. Now, three scheduled debates in 16 days, the first on Wednesday in California, will show how well he can stand alongside his competitors and field a range of questions.

That opening debate “will be most critical” for Perry because “it will be his first time out,” said Terry Nelson, a campaign strategist who had worked for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, now out of the 2012 race. Perry’s entrance has riveted political insiders and led to talk of how Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, should respond. It also siphoned off some of the buzz surrounding Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a tea party favorite previously considered by many observers to be Romney’s chief rival.

But GOP strategists warn that it’s very early, and polls at this stage are often poor predictors of what’s to come in next year’s voting to pick a nominee.

“There’s movement all over the place,” said Kevin Madden, an unpaid adviser to Romney and a veteran of several campaigns. At this stage in the 2008 presidential cycle, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani topped national Republican polls, followed by exTennessee Sen Fred Thompson. Both men faded fast.

Barely registering was former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee, who four months later won the Iowa caucus. Arizona Sen John McCain eventually claimed the nomination.

For all that, party insiders say Perry can be a potent and resilient contender if he avoids major missteps.

They say that polls and anecdotal evidence suggest he can appeal to a crucial swath of Republican activists: deeply conservative voters who place a somewhat greater emphasis on the economy, especially jobs, than on social matters, such as gay marriage. Unlike Bachmann, a three-term House member,

Perry can point to a record of robust job creation as governor. Unlike Romney, Perry espouses a long-held anti-Washington, anti-regulation philosophy that doesn’t leave hard-core conservatives wondering whether he’s a soul mate.

Romney’s response to the Perry surge has been calm and measured. He still points nearly all his criti-

week at “career politicians” during a speech in San Antonio. Presumably that applies to the president and the Texas governor alike.

Danny Diaz, who has advised several Republican campaigns, says Romney is playing it smart. “I don’t think there’s any reason for the Romney team to deviate from what they’ve been doing,” Diaz said. “Looking

URBANDALE, Iowa: Former Alaska Gov Sarah Palin greets a supporter at The Machine Shed restaurant Friday. — AP cisms at President Barack Obama. Romney did, however, adjust his Labor Day weekend schedule to add a tea party event in New Hampshire and an appearance with Sen Jim DeMint. DeMint, a tea party favorite whose endorsement could be valuable, also is hosting Perry, Bachmann, Texas Rep Ron Paul and others at a forum tomorrow in Columbia, South Carolina.

Romney’s closest swipe at Perry was a brief jab last

at national polls, you can read into them almost anything you like.” Defeating Obama is the GOP goal. If Romney can convince them that he has the best chance of doing that, he may subdue more conservative opponents such as Perry and Bachmann. But Michael Dennehy, a GOP veteran of New Hampshire campaigns, said Romney’s team “is crazy not to respond” to Perry right away. “If they don’t,” Dennehy

said, “he’s going to be on top on them in no time.”

The Republican contenders, including Perry for the first time, will face each other at the California debate on Wednesday and Florida forums Sept 12 and Sept 22. Romney plans a major speech Tuesday on jobs.

Palin scheduled holiday weekend stops in Iowa and New Hampshire. For most politicians, that would signal a strong interest in running for president. Former Alaska Gov Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee, has kept Republicans guessing for months. Many expect no decision from her until late September.

For now, most eyes are on Perry. If he survives the three debates largely unharmed, Romney and the others will have to decide when and how to start exploiting his faults. They might have several options.

Perry has called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme,” “a failure,” and perhaps unconstitutional. Journalists and some nonprofit groups are digging into his record of withholding various details of spending and other actions as governor, including the awarding of state contracts to financial supporters. Romney’s team “needs to encourage the coverage of those kinds of stories,” Nelson said. “If there are things in the governor’s record, people will learn about them.”

Of course, the other contenders have vulnerabilities too. Critiques of Perry’s record could trigger counter punches at Romney’s record as governor on jobs and healthcare. Strategists in all the campaigns are scrutinizing maps, potential attack ads and history. Perry’s potential appeal to tea party-leaning activists in Iowa and South Carolina, where his Southern heritage is a bonus, might serve him well.

Iowa will start the nominating process with its midwinter caucus, followed by New Hampshire’s first-inthe-nation primary. South Carolina’s primary will come later.

Five of the eight Republican presidential races since 1980 have been competitive, and the eventual nominee always captured South Carolina, plus either Iowa or New Hampshire. Romney has focused his efforts mainly on New Hampshire, with fewer visits to Iowa and South Carolina. If Perry’s place atop the polls seems more real than ephemeral, September may force Romney to change plans, while Bachmann and others seek an opening before it’s too late. —AP

Israel anti-terror laws: Effective or extreme?

SANTIAGO: Chilean soldiers load supplies into an Air Force aircraft before its departure for the Juan Fernandez archipelago yesterday. A Chilean Air Force plane crashed early yesterday in the Juan Fernandez islands off Chile’s Pacific coast with 21 people aboard, including Felipe Camiroaga (inset), one of Chile’s most popular television presenters. — AP

Chilean rescuers find bodies after air crash Well-known TV presenter aboard SANTIAGO: Chilean rescuers and fishermen found four bodies and aircraft wreckage yesterday after an air force plane with 21 people aboard lost contact off the remote Juan Fernandez islands, officials said. Hopes dimmed of finding survivors from Friday’s crash, one of the worst air crashes in the country in recent years. “It seems like a violent accident that didn’t leave anyone alive,” Maximiliano Larraechea, secretary general of the Chilean air force, told reporters. “But we’re still not losing hope and we’re going to continue searching in the same way.” Fishermen and rescuers

combing the waters around the Pacific islands found the bodies of two men and two women, he added. The CASA 212 militar y plane tried twice to land before it went missing as heavy winds and sporadic rains hit the area, the defense minister said. Among the passengers were five TVN national television staff members, including well-k nown presenter Felipe Camiroaga, who were planning to film a report about reconstruction on the islands after last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The islands were one of areas worst affected by the quake.

The mayor of the islands, Leopoldo Gonzalez, told state television that passengers’ belongings had been found in the sea about a kilometer from the islands’ landing strip. Local radio Bio Bio later cited Gonzalez as saying a door of the plane had been found in the water.

Felipe Paredes, who staffs the control tower at the landing strip, said he saw the plane struggling to land and cited heavy winds and sporadic rain. “When the plane was blown off course by the wind, it managed to pull up again,” Paredes said. He said he then lost sight of the plane. — Reuters

Pakistani arrested on US terrorism charges WASHINGTON: A Pak istani-born man living in northern Virginia was charged with trying to help a militant group in his home countr y, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and making false statements to authorities, US prosecutors said on Friday. Jubair Ahmad, 24, was accused of providing material support to the group, Lashkar-eTaiba, “a designated foreign terrorist organization, and making false statements in a terrorism investigation,” the complaint said. Lashkar-e-Taiba was designated in 2001 by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.

When he was a teenager, in 2004, he attended an LeT training course and at one point he attended a commando course but he only spent a week there because his instructor

told him he was too young, according to the complaint. He was accused of posting in Sept 2010 on YouTube a propaganda video backing LeT, an anti-Indian militant group with historically close ties to Pakistan’s top spy agencies. Jubair communicated with the son of LeT leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed about mak ing the video, which included images of the leader, “jihadi martyrs and armored trucks exploding after having been hit by improvised explosive devices,” prosecutors said. When confronted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents last month with the video, he falsely denied seeing it previously, according to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint. The group has been accused of being behind

the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

Jubair received religious training from LeT as a teenager in Pakistan and later attended LeT’s basic training camp, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Virginia.

He made an initial appearance in an Alexandria, Virginia, federal court where a judge ordered that he be held pending a preliminar y and detention hearing set for Wednesday.

He was also appointed a public defender. He entered the United States in 2007 along with other family members, and in 2009 the FBI launched an investigation after receiving information Jubair might be associated with LeT, prosecutors said. He is in the country as a lawful permanent resident. — Reuters

JERSUALEM: Israel was dealing with terrorism long before Al-Qaeda attacked the United States a decade ago. So when two passenger planes crashed into the World Trade Center, Washington looked to Israel for ideas. American lawenforcement agencies have now adopted many Israeli technologies, according to Steven Emerson, executive director of the nonprofit Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism. The New York Police Department has a permanent representative in Israel to share intelligence and study its response to terrorism.

However, there are questions about whether Israel’s approach to anti-terrorism is extremely effective, or just too extreme. Israel’s extrajudicial detentions and killings, as well as its profiling of terror suspects, have been both lauded as revolutionary successes and lambasted as violations of human rights. Boaz Ganor, an Israeli counterterrorism expert, said there is an inherent contradiction between battling terrorism and maintaining a democracy’s liberal values, because terrorism aims to exploit the weaknesses of liberal democracies.

It sows fear and panic among people

and, as a result, forces governments to yield to terrorist demands. “Reality forces us to sacrifice some of these liberal values on the margins,” he said. “It’s a constant balance, and Israel has been the model for finding this balance.”

Israel officially has been in a state of emergency since independence in 1948.

Israel is now putting forward a sweeping, 1,500-page counterterrorism bill that will gather all its anti-terror measures under one law. The parliament approved the first draft in August. Israeli counterterrorism measures have included administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, expulsions, targeted killings, home demolitions and harsh interrogation techniques. Nearly all have faced legal challenges, and the Israeli Supreme Court has overturned some, placing restrictions on the government. There have been rulings against torture, mandating the length of time a suspect can be detained and how the military is allowed to act around unarmed civilians.

The US had to revolutionize its laws after the shock of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks with The Patriot Act, and then was accused of bypassing them with

the detention center in Guantanamo Bay. But Israel’s tools evolved over decades of coping with suicide bombings, highjackings and kidnappings. “If the US had our measures, they may not have needed a Guantanamo,” said Mordechai Kremnitzer, a legal expert at the Israeli Democracy Institute. “The administrative detention is a far less draconian measure than sticking people in a black hole where the law does not apply.” But Kremnitzer also said Israeli laws needed some softening and “modernization”. In 1999, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel appealed to the Supreme Court to cancel the emergency measures that date back to the British-mandate era, arguing they violate basic rights and are inappropriate in a modern democracy. The court has yet to issue a ruling, as the state has promised to pursue alternative legislation.

The Justice Ministry said the new law would upgrade the state’s ability to crack down on recruitment, incitement and the transfer of funds to terror organizations. The bill also calls for tougher punishments for those aiding terrorists and a life sentence for those convicted of “acts of terror”.— AP

Lee strengthens, rain pelts US Gulf NEW ORLEANS: Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Lee were falling in southern Louisiana and pelting the Gulf Coast yesterday as the storm’s center trudged slowly toward land, where businesses were already beginning to suffer on what would normally be a bustling holiday weekend. The storm could bring up to 50 cm of rain to some areas. Tropical storm warnings were in effect from Mississippi to Texas, and flash flood warnings extended along the Alabama coast into the Florida Panhandle.

The storm’s slow forward movement means that its rain clouds should have more time to disgorge themselves on any cities in their path.

The storm’s biggest impact, so far, has been in the Gulf of Mexico oil fields. About half the Gulf’s normal daily oil production has been cut as rigs were evacuated, though oil prices were down sharply Friday on sour economic news. Federal authorities said 169 of the 617 staffed production platforms have been evacuated, along with 16 of the 62 drilling rigs. That’s reduced daily production by about 666,000 barrels of oil and 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas.

The storm was expected to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast late Saturday and turn east toward New Orleans, where it would provide the biggest test of rebuilt levees since Hurricane Gustav struck on Labor Day 2008. Still, residents didn’t expect the tropical storm to live up to the legacy of some of the killer hurricanes that have hit the city. “It’s a lot of rain. It’s nothing, nothing (compared) to Katrina,” said Malcolm James, 59, a federal investigator in New Orleans who lost his home after levees broke during Katrina in August 2005 and had to be airlifted by helicopter. “This is mild,” he said.

“Things could be worse.”

In New Orleans, sporadic downpours caused some street flooding in low-lying areas early Saturday, but pumps were sucking up the water and sending it into Lake Pontchartrain. Lee’s storm surge so far had not penetrated levees along the coast, National Weather Service forecaster Robert Ricks said. Tornado warnings were issued overnight in Louisiana and south Mississippi but Ricks said there were no confirmed touchdowns. So far, damage appeared confined to downed power lines and trees. The outer bands of Lee, the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, began dumping rain over southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and Alabama on Friday.

The National Hurricane Center said the center of Lee was about 72 km south of New Iberia and moving north-northwest at 11 kph. It was expected to cross the

Louisiana coast by yesterday night and pass into the southern portion of the state today. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center say that Lee’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 95 kph yesterday morning. They said some slight strengthening was possible before landfall. Lee comes less than a week after Hurricane Irene brought destruction to the Caribbean and the US Eastern Seaboard, killing more than 50 people. It was too soon to tell if Hurricane Katia, out in the Atlantic, could endanger the US. It was expected to pass north of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean.— AP

NEW ORLEANS: A hotel is reflected in puddles of rain from approaching Tropical Storm Lee at a streetcar track, as a streetcar passes through Lee Circle Friday. — AP

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NATO kills Afghan ex-Gitmo detainee Political standoff over legislature continues

SRINAGAR: This Oct 12, 2006 file photograph shows Tabassum Guru, wife of the Kashmiri Muslim Mohammad Afzal Guru, during a news conference. —AFP

Kashmir lawmaker seeks clemency for attacker SRINAGAR: Kashmir ’s legislature will debate whether to ask New Delhi for clemency for a Kashmiri man sentenced to death for his role in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, a lawmaker said yesterday. Independent legislator Abdul Rashid said he had submitted a resolution to the Kashmir assembly speaker seeking clemency for Afzal Guru, a businessman from the northern Kashmir. “Let the house resolve that Afzal Guru be granted amnesty on humanitarian grounds against the death sentence granted to him by the Supreme Court of India,” reads the resolution. Rashid said executing Guru could have “serious consequences” for the political situation in Kashmir, where large protests against his sentence have been held in the past.

Guru was convicted of plotting the Dec 13, 2001 raid on the Indian parliament that left 15 people dead, including the five attackers, and brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan close to war. Guru insists he was not involved in the plot. Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani has warned New Delhi of major unrest “if such a “blunder” as executing Guru is carried. “India cannot control the situation here -notwithstanding its military power,” Geelani said last month. “Guru’s death will create hundreds of Afzal Gurus in Kashmir.”

More than 47,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of a Muslim separatist insurgency in Kashmir in 1989 and anti-India sentiments run high. “The house will discuss the resolution during the upcoming summer session of the state leg-

islature beginning September 26,” Kashmir assembly speaker Akbar Lone told reporters. Rashid’s move follows the passage of a similar resolution in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu seeking clemency for three men convicted of the 1991 murder of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Last week, a Tamil Nadu court stayed the trio’s execution for two months.

India’s home ministry has called on the president to reject the mercy petition filed

by Guru. The main opposition in the Kashmir state assembly, Peoples Democratic Party, said it would support the resolution. Indian Kashmir remains under heavy military control but this summer has not seen the cycle of violence and strict curfews that have rocked the disputed Himalayan region over recent years. Ruling party members as well as the opposition believe that hanging Guru could break the “peaceful atmosphere” in the region that is divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both nations.

A top Kashmiri politician, Farooq Abdullah, India’s national minister for renewable energy, has stated his opposition to hanging Guru as it could transform him into a hero for Kashmir’s youth. India has not carried out an execution since 2004. The Supreme Court says the punishment is reserved for the “rarest of rare” crimes. The lone surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed, 22-year-old Pakistani Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, is also on India’s death row. —AFP

KABUL: NATO and Afghan forces killed a former Guantanamo detainee who had become a key AlQaeda affiliate after returning to Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

Sabar Lal Melma, who was released from Guantanamo in 2007 after five years of detention, had been organizing attacks in eastern Kunar province and funding insurgent operations, NATO spokesman Capt Justin Brockhoff said. A NATO statement described Melma as a “key affiliate of the Al-Qaeda network” who was in contact with senior AlQaeda members in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Troops surrounded Melma’s house in Jalalabad city on Friday night and shot him dead when he emerged from the building holding an AK-47 assault rifle. Several other people were detained. A guard at the house, Mohammad Gul, said a group of American soldiers scaled the walls of the compound around 11 pm and stormed the house, shooting Melma in the assault. Three others were detained, Gul said.

Melma had been detained for about five days in August, Gul said.

Melma is not the first former detainee to rejoin the insurgency. In 2009, the Pentagon said 61 detainees, or approximately 11 percent, released from Guantanamo had rejoined the fight. Experts have questioned the validity of that number. About 520 Guantanamo detainees have been released from custody or transferred to prisons elsewhere in the world. After the fall of the Taleban, Melma, 49, was given the rank of brigadier general and placed in charge of approximately 600 border security troops in Konar province, according to his military file made public by WikiLeaks.

He was captured in Aug 2002 while attending a meeting with US military officials in Asadabad and transferred to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in October that same year. He was suspected of

Taleban claim kidnap of 30 Pakistani ‘boys’ KHAR, Pakistan: Pakistani Taleban yesterday claimed responsibility for the kidnap of more than 30 young people who mistakenly crossed the border from the country’s lawless northwest into Afghanistan. A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan’s ( T TP) said those kidnapped were not boys as reported

by Pakistani officials but aged between 20 and 30, adding their fate would be decided by the central leadership of the organisation.

“We have kidnapped them. These people are with us, they are not kids but young people of ages between 20 to 30,” Taleban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. “These people belong to the areas where tribesmen rose militias against T TP. We will thoroughly investigate about them and then our central leadership will decide their fate,” Ehsan said.

Pakistani officials had said the incident took place on Thursday after a group of boys, aged between 12 and 18, left the Ghakhi area of Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal region during celebrations marking the Eid holiday. Bajaur administration official Islam Zeb said the boys had been abducted by a militant group

allied with Taleban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who led local insurgents but is believed to have fled to Afghanistan in 2010. A group of around 60 boys took part in the outing but about 20 below ten years old were allowed to return to Pakistan, while up to 40 others between 12 to 14 years old were held, officials said earlier. The boys belonged to tribesmen from Mamoun who are opposed to AlQaeda and the Taleban and have raised militias to fight them, angering militants who often hit back with bombings and shooting attacks.

Zeb told AFP yesterday that a delegation of Pakistani tribesmen is negotiating with the tribal elders in Afghanistan “to put pressure on the kidnappers to set them free”. “We are trying our best to seek their release. A tribal Jirga has been sent to Kunar for negotiations,” Zeb said.

Malik Ayaz, a tribal elder involves in negotiations told AFP yesterday that Pakistani tribesmen are facing difficulties securing the safe release of the abductees as the border area is mostly controlled by Taleban. “We are in contact with the tribesmen across the border but at the moment we are facing difficulties in

negotiations. This border area is largely controlled by Taliban,” he said.

Mohammad Akhtar, a witness who managed to fleethe mass kidnap said dozens of young people were in the area. “We were there to enjoy our Eid vacations and all of a sudden Taliban attacked,” he said.

“Some people managed to flee the area because they were a little bit away from the attack site,” he said.

“We were there just for fun and to see the mountainous areas and to enjoy,” he added.

Afghan border police commander General Aminullah Amarkhel, the governor of Kunar, where the boys vanished, Fazlullah Wahidi, and the local Afghan Taleban commander all told AFP on Friday they were unaware of the incident.

Afghanistan shares a disputed and unmarked 2,400-km border with Pakistan, and Taleban and other Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds on either side. The Pakistani militar y has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the militant threat in Bajaur, one of seven districts in the semiautonomous tribal belt that the United States sees as the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda. —AFP

Indian govt, rebel group sign accord NEW DELHI: A leading separatist group in India’s remote northeast signed a ceasefire accord with the Indian government yesterday aimed at resolving a three decade-old insurgency, a government official said. Home Ministry spokesman Onkar Kedia said the suspension of operations agreement was signed by the two sides in the Indian capital. The agreement paves the way for formal peace talks between the Indian government and the United Liberation Front of Asom, or ULFA. The group has been fighting since 1979 for an independent homeland for the ethnic Assamese in Assam state, about 1,600 km east of New Delhi.

The ULFA had announced a unilateral ceasefire in July after

New Delhi released seven of its top leaders from prison, including its chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa.

Under the accord, nearly 2,500 ULFA fighters will stay in designated camps set up by the government and their weapons kept in joint custody while the two sides hold talks to reach a final agreement, an ULFA official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters. The insurgency has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives. The Indian government has offered talks previously on greater autonomy if the ULFA gave up violence, but has ruled out independence.

Rajkhowa was released after a yearlong detention in January after his group split up last year

and several of his colleagues were picked up by authorities in Bangladesh and handed over to India. However, a rival splinter group headed by commander Paresh Baruah, who is said to be in hiding near the ChinaMyanmar border, has opposed the peace process. More than 30 groups in the northeast have been fighting for decades for independence from India or wide autonomy in the region. The rebels say Assam’s indigenous people - most of whom are ethnically closer to groups in Myanmar and China than to the rest of India - are ignored by the federal government in New Delhi. They also accuse the Indian government of exploiting the northeast’s rich natural resources. —AP

helping carry out rocket attacks against US troops. While imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the US determined he was a “probable facilitator for Al-Qaeda members” and was also thought to have links to Pakistan’s intelligence service. He was sent back to Afghanistan in Sept 2007.

parliament despite protests from sitting parliamentarians that the new group is illegitimate. Afghan election officials ruled last month that nine sitting parliamentarians should be replaced following a review of vote fraud allegations from last year’s election.

democracy,” said Mohammad Rafiq Shaher from Herat province, one of the ousted lawmakers.

And in the southern city of Kandahar, officials said NATO forces killed a child and a shopkeeper who were caught up in a firefight between a military patrol and a gun-

JALALABAD: Afghans stand at the scene where Sabar Lal Melma, a former Guantanamo detainee, was allegedly killed in a NATO and Afghan forces’ raid yesterday. —AP NATO said in a statement that coalition forces have captured or killed more than 40 Al-Qaeda insurgents in eastern Afghanistan this year. In June 2010, then CIA Director Leon Panetta said only 50 to 100 AlQaeda operatives continued to operate inside Afghanistan. It’s not clear if Panetta was referring to commanders or foot soldiers.

In Kabul, meanwhile, a political standoff over the makeup of the legislature continued as police escorted a handful of new lawmakers into

More than 1,000 police were stationed around the parliament building yesterday in anticipation of violence, but the new lawmakers took their seats without incident, officials said. Yesterday was the first day back at work after the holiday of Eid Al-Fitr and many lawmakers had not yet returned from their home provinces.

The nine ousted parliamentarians were blocked from entering and vowed to continue to fight for their seats. “This is a coup against the Afghan parliament and against

man. The attacker started shooting at the NATO troops and they returned fire, killing the two, said Sher Shah Yosufzai, the deputy police chief of Kandahar province.

He said he had reports that a NATO service member had also been killed in the fighting. NATO said in a statement that one of its service members was killed in an insurgent attack yesterday in southern Afghanistan but did not say if it was the same incident and did not provide any further details. —AP

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Cambodia’s activist monk fights on despite threats PHNOM PENH: His saffron robe a rare beacon among protesters, Cambodia’s most outspoken monk has been banned from temples and risked arrest for challenging rights abuses - but he vows not to be silenced. “The more they threaten me, the more I stand up for our rights,” said the Venerable Loun Sovath, also known as the “multimedia monk” for filming forced evictions and distributing the footage. In a country where Buddhist monks are hugely respected but rarely seen standing shoulder to shoulder with those fighting abuses, his peaceful activism has attracted praise from rights groups and condemnation from authorities.

“Seeing a monk amongst the crowd lifts the spirits of people defending their human rights,” the bespectacled holy man told AFP during a recent interview in the capital, where he joined a rally against deforestation.

“Only one of me can make one hundred, 200, 300 people feel strong.”

But his tireless campaigning has made the Buddhist hierarchy and the authorities nervous, say observers, who fear for his safety. Police have interrupted his meetings, followed him and cursed at him. He has also been warned that he faces arrest for inciting people to protest. Religious officials have repeatedly ordered him to stop activities or risk being disrobed for disobeying Buddhist discipline, while senior

monks have tried to make him sign a pledge promising to cease his activism, Sovath said.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director with the international campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the monk’s championing of villagers who have lost land to “rich and well-connected persons” makes him a high-profile target. HRW is “extremely concerned” that Sovath, 30, could “face reprisals, and perhaps violence, because what he’s doing is really a challenge to the core of Cambodia’s lawless, might-makes-right political culture”, he said. Sovath, who entered the monkhood at the age of 13, became an activist after witnessing a land grab in his own village in March 2009, when police fired at unarmed villagers protesting against the confiscation of their fields. He captured much of the confrontation - during which his brother and nephew were injured - on camera and successfully resisted police attempts to confiscate his material.

Since then, he has broadened his work to speak up for all victims of social injustice, becoming one of the impoverished nation’s leading human rights defenders - and the only one in orange robes. Pressure on Sovath has increased in recent months amid what rights groups say is a growing crackdown on freedom of expression in Cambodia.

Seven international rights groups,

including Amnesty International, Witness and HRW, recently asked key donor nations to urge the government to stop the threats and intimidation

one of the country’s highest-ranking clerics, told AFP that Sovath’s actions were “not correct”. “A monk should not get involved in politics” or “participate

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Buddhist monk Loun Sovath stands next to his painting at the LICADHO office on Aug 16, 2011. — AFP against the monk. “The ongoing government harassment of Venerable Sovath constitutes a veiled attempt by the Cambodian authorities to silence those who speak out on issues that they deem controversial,” they wrote in a letter leaked to AFP. But Phnom Penh’s powerful chief monk Non Ngeth,

in rallies and riot actions,” he said. In April, Non Ngeth banned monasteries in the capital from hosting Sovath, who lives in northwestern Cambodia - a move that goes against the custom of temples offering shelter to visiting clergymen. A similar order, signed by Siem Reap’s senior monk Pich San, was

issued to all pagodas in Sovath’s own province in late last month, effectively evicting him from the temple that has been his home since he was a teenager. The under-fire monk admitted his current situation was “very difficult”.

“Although I have no pagoda to stay in right now, the pagoda is inside my heart,” he said, before adding laughingly: “The Buddha had no pagoda also.”

Both directives, seen by AFP, claim Sovath is sullying the image of the religion with his activities. Sovath believes criticism against him is the result of political pressure on his religious elders. “I’m not doing anything wrong against Buddhism or national law,” he said, adding that he had a right “to educate people and to do good things”.

He said Cambodian monks have been scared off taking a stand on controversial issues after a bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in 1998 left at least two monks dead and scores more injured. “Many, many monks support me,” Sovath insisted. “They know about human rights in Cambodia, injustice and social problems. But if we want them to show their faces... they are afraid.” He is determined not to give in to those fears because monks “should be representatives for justice, happiness and peace”. “The people need us to help them,” he said. “This is what makes me go on.” — AFP

UN concerned over Aussie refugee plans Ban hails ‘model’ nation nevertheless

FUJISAWA, Japan: Surfers ride waves at Nishihara beach near Tokyo yesterday as slow-moving Typhoon Talas reached southern Japan. — AP

Typhoon Talas dumps rain on south Japan TOKYO: Powerful Typhoon Talas inched across south-central Japan yesterday, dumping rain and buffeting a wide swath of the archipelago with strong winds. At least two people died and five others were reported missing. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the center of the typhoon, the 12th of the season, was moving north at less than 10 kph across Okayama prefecture yesterday evening after crossing the southern island of Shikoku.

Because of the storm’s slow speed, the agency warned that heavy rains and

strong winds could lead to flooding and landslides. Kyodo News agency said 3,200 people were evacuated in 16 prefectures.

A woman who appeared to be in her 30s was declared dead after she was found in a river in Ehime prefecture on Shikoku, police said. A 73-year-old man in Nara prefecture died after a landslide caused his house to collapse, police said.

Media reports said five others were missing, including a 75-year-old woman who was swept away in a swollen river in Shikoku’s Tokushima prefecture. — AP

Opposition urges Japan defence minister to go TOKYO: Japan’s main opposition party called for the new defence minister to resign on Saturday for referring to himself as an amateur shortly before he took office, but there was a poll boost for the new premier. Yasuo Ichikawa told Japanese media just before his formal appointment to the defence brief: “I am an amateur concerning security”, comments that the opposition LiberalDemocratic Party said proved he was not qualified for the job. “For that comment alone he deserves to be discharged from his ministerial post,” said LDP policy chief Shigeru Ishiba, a former defence minister. He said the wisdom of new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in appointing Ichikawa was also “put into question”.

But there was better news for Noda as Kyodo news agency reported a public approval rating of 62.8 percent on Saturday, compared with 15.8 percent for his predecessor Naoto Kan in late August. The cabinet announced on Friday by Noda, Japan’s sixth new leader in five years, featured untested talent in key posts including the finance and foreign ministries.

Ichikawa, 69, who worked in the farm ministry for 25 years before entering politics, said his comment had been misinterpreted. “I meant to say that most of the people are amateurs and it is important to pursue security policies from the people’s viewpoint,” he said late Friday.

But the controversy refused to go away yesterday, with LDP policy expert Ichita Yamamoto joining calls for Ichikawa to quit as soon as possible.

“We feel very anxious leaving Japan’s national defence to a person with such an attitude,” Yamamoto said. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan have been

at odds with the United States over a huge US military presence in Okinawa since it ended the LDP’s long domination of Japanese politics in 2009.

Noda’s two predecessors have failed to resolve the issue with the key ally due to Okinawa islanders’ resistance to the planned transfer of a US Marine Corps air station from a growing urban area to a scenic stretch of shore. Major newspapers yesterday noted that Finance Minister Jun Azumi, 49, and Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, 47, are “unknown quantities” with little experience in the fields related to their jobs. But they also commended Noda for allocating cabinet posts to strike a balance among quarrelling factions within his party.

The business daily Nikkei said the line-up “emphasised a balance of power” after a leadership battle between supporters and enemies of veteran powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, who has been indicted in a political funding scandal. Two members from Ozawa’s group joined the cabinet. “There is no room for futile confrontation within the party,” the daily said, citing crucial issues such as the recovery from the March earthquake and tsunami, emergency at the disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant and economic strife.

The influential Asahi Shimbun said Noda, a former finance minister, may have proven his reputation as a “candidate from within the finance ministry” by appointing two figures close to the ministry in his cabinet. The appointments showed the Noda government’s readiness to follow the finance ministry’s drive for tax increases to solve the public debt problem, Asahi said. — AFP

CANBERRA: United Nations Secretar yGeneral Ban Ki-moon said yesterday he had concerns about Australia’s approach towards refugees, even as he praised the “model” nation for its record on the world stage.

Beginning a Pacific tour expected to focus on the threat of climate change, Ban met Prime Minister Julia Gillard to discuss developments in Libya and the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. “Australia is one of the model countries in many areas,” Ban said, listing its contributions to peace and security and human rights among its efforts. But he added: “Of course there are some concerns on how to deal with immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.”

Canberra suffered a humiliating setback last week when the High Court blocked its plans to ship up to 800 boatpeople to Malaysia, ruling that asylum seekers could not be sent to another nation unless that country was compelled to adequately protect them.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN convention on refugees and the court’s decision was welcomed by activists who had accused Australia of abandoning its international obligations by transferring asylum seekers to a country without proper protection. Canberra had argued the policy would have dealt a blow to people-smugglers and is taking legal advice on what to do next, as the ruling could also jeopardise its plans to transfer other asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea.

Ban is the first UN secretary general to visit Australia since Kofi Annan toured in 2000 and his visit comes as Canberra is pushing for a seat on the UN Security Council. He commended Australia’s recent endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and praised the country’s contribution to the organisation.

“You may be known as ‘Down Under’, but when it comes to contribution and commitment you are well above and beyond,” he said.

“On foreign aid, Australia is increasing... at a

time when too many countries are pulling back.”

The UN leader, who was to leave Australia yesterday to visit the Solomon Islands and

stake this is not a time for gamesmanship,” he said. “This is a time to work together to get real results.” Gillard said Australia would remain a strong supporter of the UN. “We

CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard welcomes UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to her office at Parliament House. — AFP Kiribati before heading to New Zealand, said climate change and sustainability would be a key focus of his Pacific tour. Climate change was a real and growing threat, with some countries in the region particularly vulnerable, he said on the eve of the Pacific Islands Forum which he will attend in Auckland. “Whole islands could be lost as sea levels continue to rise,” Ban said, calling for ambitious targets to keep global temperatures in check.

The UN leader said time was of the essence in dealing with the issue. “With so much at

understand that the work of the United Nations brings our world together to address some difficult problems,” she said. “Australia will continue to pursue its bid for election to the United Nations Security Council because we believe in the work of the United Nations and its importance.”

The prime minister said Australia would provide an additional Aus$10 million (US$10.65 million) to fund UN efforts in the Horn of Africa, bringing the nation’s assistance on the issue to almost Aus$100 million. — AFP

US sends aid to flood-stricken North Korea SEOUL: The United States sent a plane loaded with a small but symbolic shipment of emergency aid that was due to arrive in flood-stricken North Korea yesterday, in the latest sign of a thaw in relations between the countries.

A cargo plane departed Friday from the US packed with $900,000 worth of food, medical aid, soap, blankets and cooking kits, according to the North Carolina-based aid group Samaritan’s Purse. The shipment is to “let the North Koreans know that we are their friends”, Franklin Graham, president of the relief

agency, said from an airfield in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a video clip posted on the group’s website. The clip showed tractors towing boxes to the plane, and the Boeing 747 taking off in a cloud of dust.

Samaritan’s Purse said it has pledged $1.2 million in addition to the $900,000 that the US government has allocated for aid to North Korea through US-based charities. Ken Isaacs, a Samaritan’s Purse vice president, said the group has worked with the US government and several other Christian organizations to send

KAESONG, North Korea: In this April 17, 2011 file photo, men check a plough and tractor in a field along the highway near this southern city south of Pyongyang. —AP

the aid as they try to “continue gaining humanitarian access into North Korea”. The help comes after US and North Korean officials met in New York in late July for talks seen as a sign of a thaw in relations between the wartime foes.

Officials say they discussed ways to restart nuclear disarmament negotiations that have been stalled for more than two years.

Washington says Pyongyang must prove its commitment to dismantling its nuclear arms programs before the talks on providing aid in exchange for disarmament can resume. North Korea and the US signed a truce in 1953 to bring the Korean War to a halt, but have not signed a peace treaty and do not have diplomatic relations.

Pyongyang cites the US military presence in South Korea as a main reason for the need to build atomic weapons.

North Korea has been reaching out recently for help in the wake of autumn flooding last year, an unusually harsh winter and more heavy rain this spring and summer. Heavy rain and tropical storms have pounded North Korea in the past few months, dis-

placing nearly 30,000 people and killing dozens, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross. The World Food Program said earlier this year that an estimated 6 million of North Korea’s 24 million people would go hungry without help from outside donors due to the impact on the harvest.

However, there are persistent concerns among some governments that aid to the North is routinely diverted to its powerful military. Washington has not responded with food aid, but pledged to provide emergency help for the flooding. The State Department said that providing humanitarian assistance is separate from political and security concerns. “This emergency relief demonstrates our continuing concern for the well-being of the North Korean people,” it said in a statement. Even a small amount carries weight, one analyst said.

“However small they may be, aid offers and other developments enhance the mood for greater political cooperation,” said Kim Young-yoon, a senior researcher at the state -funded Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. — AP

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

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Issues

Libya new leaders divided, untested

By Samia Nakhoul ibya’s new rulers have been united by little more than wanting to get rid of Muammar Gaddafi and so, as they met world leaders on Thursday following his sudden downfall, the spotlight is now falling on their own divisions. In the confusion of their swift final seizure of power, mutual suspicions are growing within the ramshackle rebel coalition, and skepticism is deepening among the Libyan people whom they must now lead.

The victors of the revolution are struggling to pull together the threads of national unity.

The National Transitional Council (NTC), led largely by figures from long disadvantaged eastern Libya as well as by prominent defectors from the old regime, is under pressure from within Libya and from Western backers to form a stable, legitimate government that includes all regions and tribes. But that is a tall order in a country where, since he seized power in a military coup on Sept 1, 1969, Gaddafi all but obliterated institutions other than the quirky underpinnings of his highly personalized rule.

Both the NTC and its international friends are conscious of the disaster that befell Iraq after its US occupiers dissolved Saddam Hussein’s army and the Baath party, creating a large pool of heavily armed men who were both angry and unemployed. It is a mistake, the Western powers are anxious not to repeat. Yet there is great suspicion, especially among the young vanguard of the Libyan uprising, about the motives of former allies of Gaddafi who dominate the NTC under his former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

“If they wanted to reform, or are capable of it, they would have done so when they occupied their old posts,” said Mustafa al-Feitouri, a university professor and writer in Tripoli. “They came from within the Gaddafi regime and with the same mentality of the old regime. Therefore many people are sceptical about their honesty and capabilities. “There are rivalries and tensions between the youth who have led the revolution and the leaders in charge of the politics. They feel that their role is being marginalized.”

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OLD AND NEW GUARD Other factions, notably from the west of Libya, as well as the NTC’s NATO allies, are also wary of placing the estimated $170 billion of Libya’s frozen assets abroad in the hands of an organization that has yet to win clear national confidence. “The West realizes that the NTC is not organized and not harmonious. This is why they are cautious,” said Saad Djebbar, a British-based Algerian lawyer who once acted for the Gaddafi government in dealings over the Lockerbie airliner bombing.

Some Libya watchers say the alliance with Western powers should not end with the military victory that toppled Gaddafi. “The West is wise not to release Libya’s frozen assets before laying down the procedures and creating a machinery for transparency, control and good governance,” Djebbar added.

Amid shortages of everything from water to electricity to basic foodstuffs, confidence is in just as short supply. “People are happy with the liberation and that the regime fell but the reality is more complicated. The chaos that we’re seeing in providing services, water and electricity is also applicable to the political and military scene,” said Feitouri. NTC officials say the 40-member council, the composition of which reflects a balance between a desire for competence and a need for consensus, has faced a challenge from the start —reconciling the democratic ambitions of the mostly young Libyans who threw off Gaddafi’s rule with the views of town and village elders who fear for the country’s traditional social order. “The rebels from all shades, tribes and allegiances rallied together and were united in their goal which is to bring down the regime but their long-time differences have started to emerge now as soon as they achieved their goal,” said Feitouri. “The two sides have a generational gap and a different vision that separates them.

There is a clash between the young rebels and the NTC leaders who are from the old generation.” The failure of the top leadership, including Abdel Jalil, to make an appearance in the capital 10 days after Tripoli fell has also prompted questions, notably over last week’s Eid al-Fitr holiday. Suffering the hardships of war, many people in the city are bemused to see their new leaders spending their time abroad.— Reuters

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What should justice for Gaddafi look like?

By Joseph Schuman s rebels shore up control of Libya and hunt for the man who ruled the country for 42 years, the legal prospects for Muammar Gaddafi are as murky as the political vacuum he leaves behind. US and other officials believe that Gaddafi remains in Libya and may be hiding in one of the desert or coastal patches still under control of his remaining loyal forces. But wherever Gaddafi is found, there is no shortage of jurisdictions that are laying claim to him.

In the days since rebel forces moved into Tripoli and found that Gaddafi had bolted, several senior members of the umbrella National Transitional Council (NTC) have insisted the next government can and will try him for crimes committed against the Libyan people. At the same time, Gaddafi, one of his sons and his former military intelligence chief are wanted for alleged crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Hague-based institution was created a decade ago by the Rome Statute, a treaty now ratified by 117 countries, as a successor to war-crime tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. And several members of the US Congress say they want Gaddafi brought to the United States to face charges for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 203 people, and a 1986 assault on a Berlin discotheque that killed two US servicemen. New British, French and German claims on Gaddafi could also emerge from decades-old terrorism blamed on Libya, while neighboring Chad or other past enemies could jump into the fray.

There is no one legal authority governing what happens to an ousted dictator with a history of repression at home and terrorism abroad. If Gaddafi is taken alive, it will probably be politics rather than international law that would determine where he faces prosecution, just as global politics at the UN Security Council generated the case against Gaddafi at the ICC. The international pursuit “was not the decision of a bunch of lawyers in The Hague,” said Sean Murphy, a George Washington University law professor and former State Department lawyer. “This was a decision that was in large part unleashed by the political will of countries at the UN.” For now, those politics are favoring the judicial preferences of the transitional government.

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POLITICS AND JUSTICE After the fall of Tripoli last week, Obama administration

officials stressed that Libyans themselves should decide what happens to Gaddafi, as long as the solution meets “the highest standards of international justice.” But this week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other U.S. diplomats suggested Gaddafi’s future is a less-important priority than securing Libya’s chemical weapons, reducing the potential for Islamic extremism there and steering the new Libya toward democracy. In a background briefing ahead of Clinton’s meeting with NTC leaders in Paris this week, two senior State Department officials said “the Gaddafi situation” would not be discussed in detail, let alone be an issue that Washington is going to push.

Clinton did not mention Gaddafi’s legal status at a post-meeting news conference. Of course, the problem with leaving a Gaddafi trial to the Libyans is that they currently have no judicial system. Under Gaddafi, Libya’s justice system was based on Islamic law, but special “revolutionary courts” and military courts dealt with all perceived political offenses and crimes against the state. The Benghazi-based TNC has repeatedly said it wants to draft a new constitution, without saying what that would look like. The sometimes-contradictory statements on Gaddafi and other subjects coming from NTC-fraught with ethnic and regional divisions that hobbled its battlefield plans-have not fostered confidence in the rebels’ ability to govern or produce a working legal framework.

“No one has a sense of what they’ll do,” said David Kaye, the head of UCLA’s International Human Rights Law Program and a former legal adviser to the American Embassy in The Hague, who participated in the Yugoslav war-crimes trials.

Complicating a potential Libyan prosecution is that several NTC officials were once high-ranking members of Gaddafi’s regime, who may have blood on their own hands and might be reluctant to see the past hashed out in court, Kaye said.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It is possible a fledgling Libyan successor to Gaddafi’s regime would want to curry international favor by sending him to the ICC, or that if Gaddafi is caught abroad another government would do so. A prosecution in The Hague would put Gaddafi in a much more established legal setting. The ICC in June issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son and onetime heir Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, and spymaster Col Abdullah Al-Senussi for crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors charged that after the governments of Tunisia and Egypt collapsed during the “Arab Spring,” Gaddafi used

state forces and resources to deter and quell “by any means, including by the use of lethal force, the demonstrations of civilians against the regime.” The charges only cover crimes allegedly committed during the last two weeks of February, and an eventual ICC prosecution could include more charges and more members of Gaddafi’s family and government. ICC rules allow member states to deal with war crimes on their own first, but Libya is not a member state. (Neither is the United States, though the Obama administration has promised to cooperate with the ICC.) Like the trials for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, an ICC trial of Gaddafi would likely take years of pretrial investigations, depositions and actual testimony before reaching a verdict. The prosecutors would have to take the broad charges laid out in the arrest warrants and build a case through hundreds and possibly thousands of witness interviews and evidence gathered on the ground in Libya. With such cases at the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, that included block-by-block video recordings in many of the towns where atrocities took place.

The ICC would pay for counsel if an exiled Gaddafi could not afford his own lawyers, and he would have the right to challenge the admission of all the evidence and the testimony of the witnesses. Complicating matters further, the ICC has provisions allowing witnesses to testify anonymously if they fear retribution, and the defendant can dispute such allowances for each witness.

The biggest challenge, though, would be getting Gaddafi there. If Gaddafi flees Libya, several other African countries would likely give him shelter. Zimbabwe, which is not a party to the treaty creating the ICC, has made clear it still regards him as a friend. The leaders of South Africa, which is an ICC member state, nonetheless remain loyal to Gaddafi for the backing he gave them in opposing Apartheid. And while the South African government has not said he’d be welcome, it has called on the ICC to investigate whether NATO committed war crimes with its air support of the rebels.

In neighboring Egypt, the government successor to ousted President Hosni Mubarak had no qualms about flouting an ICC warrant. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, indicted by the ICC nearly three years ago for his government’s atrocities in Darfur, was one of the first foreign leaders to visit postMubarak Egypt, knowing he faced no danger of arrest in doing so. — Reuters

Turkey-Israel fallout threatens wider damage

By Fulya Ozerkan urkey’s spectacular fallout with Israel in the aftermath of last year’s flotilla raid could damage the key NATO member’s ties with the US and leaves the Jewish state even more isolated, say analysts. Almost since the creation of Israel more than six decades ago, Turkey has been seen as its firmest friend in the Muslim world, the pair not only forging strong diplomatic and trade ties but also relations between their militaries.

But with Friday’s announcement by Ankara that it was not only expelling Israel’s ambassador but also severing military ties, their relations are now at an all-time low that observers say will have far wider ramifications. Turkey had been the first predominantly Muslim country to recognize the state of Israel, in 1949. While Prime Minister Reccep Tayep Erdogan’s hard line towards Israel since the deadly raid on a Gazabound aid flotilla last year has been popular among Turkish voters, some observers say Ankara will end up paying a heavy price by upsetting a much more powerful ally, the United States.

“People see Turkish-Israeli relations as bilateral but they are in fact trilateral. We are all aware of the Israeli influence in US politics,” said Sabri Sayari of Istanbul’s private Sabanci University. “If it goes this way, the deteriorating Turkish-Israeli ties will negatively affect Turkey’s relations with the US,” he said. In particular, Sayari predicted that Turkey could find itself on the receiving end of negative resolutions in the US Congress like the adoption of a bill branding the World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide.

Last year a US Congressional panel vot-

T

ed to brand the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by the Turks as genocide, much to the fury of the Turkish government although that vote has to date not been endorsed by the Senate. “Negative resolutions could now come out of Congress like on the Armenian issue,” said Sayari. “There is quite a strong pro-Israeli viewpoint in Congress. The White House is doing its best (to block such a vote) but it is up to the

Senate and this will certainly have a negative impact there.”

Erdogan has long displayed a more confrontational attitude towards Israel, famously walking off stage after an angry exchange with then Israeli President, Shimon Peres, at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos when he accused the Jewish state of a master in killing people.

Up until recently Erdogan’s stance has had

AT SEA: In this file photo, an Israeli soldier is surrounded by people aboard the Turkish-flagged vessel. Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador and said it is cutting military ties with the country over its refusal to apologize for last year’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed 9 people. — AFP

little impact on the powerful military, many of whose leaders have strained ties with the prime minister’s Islamist rooted government. But Friday’s announcement illustrated how what was seen by many in the military as political posturing is now having an impact. “The government policy regarding relations with Israel is transforming into a state policy,” said Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University, adding that it was “a dangerous situation”.

Other analysts however said that Israel would be the real loser of the breakdown in ties and it could ill afford to fall out with a rare friend in the Muslim state at a time of tumult in the Arab world. Egypt’s long-term leader Hosni Mubarak was seen as the most pro-Israeli of all the Arab leaders but he is now on trial over the excesses of his security forces in the last days before his toppling in February. Jordan is the only other country in the neighborhood to have diplomatic ties with Israel and even its regime has been jolted by protests. “Turkey has given plenty of chances to Israel but Israel has not understood Turkey’s good faith,” said Osman Bahadir Dincer of the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization. “The elitist policies will only help Israel isolate itself in the region.” Apart from the diplomatic and military freezes, President Abdullah Gul also said on Friday that Turkey might consider “other measures” in the future, without elaborating. Opposition parties lashed out at the government, saying it was further evidence of a diplomatic malaise at a time of deepening tension with Syria. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) said that the government’s moves were “merely symbolic” and represented “a psychological decision.”— AFP

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NEWS

A satellite image shows a suspected nuclear reactor site in Syria. — AP

Iran nuclear plant suffers new glitch VIENNA: Iran told UN inspectors last month it had temporarily shut down its Bushehr nuclear reactor for technical reasons, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report, in a possible new setback for the Russian-built power plant.

Bushehr has faced repeated delays, angering Tehran and fuelling speculation that Moscow has used it as a lever in diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program, which Western powers fear is a front for weapons development.

The 1,000-megawatt plant had been due to start producing electricity early this year, but those plans were thwarted by what Russia said in February was a pump problem requiring the removal of nuclear fuel that had just been loaded. In May, the Russian company that built the $1 billion plant, Atomstroyexport, said Bushehr had begun operating at a low level in a crucial step towards bringing it online and connecting it to the Islamic state’s electricity grid.

But a confidential report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained by Reuters on Friday, said it had visited the reactor site on Iran’s Gulf coast on Aug 18.

Iran had then “explained that the reactor had been shut down for

technical reasons and that it was planning to restart the reactor within the next few days”.

It gave no further detail, but a diplomat familiar with the issue said he believed Iran had blamed “one small problem in the turbine hall” for the shutdown at the country’s first atomic energy station. Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, rejected any suggestion of a new setback to Bushehr’s start-up. “I assume that there is no problem at all and things go in the right direction,” Soltanieh said.

Bushehr was begun by Germany’s Siemens in the 1970s, before Iran’s Islamic Revolution, but has been dogged by delays. The United States and other Western nations for years urged Russia to abandon the Bushehr project, saying it could help Iran develop nuclear arms, but an agreement obliging Tehran to repatriate spent nuclear fuel to Russia eased those concerns.

Iran says it wants nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes and has rejected calls by six global powers including Russia to stop enriching uranium, activity which can have both civilian and military purposes.

In August, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali

Akbar Salehi said Bushehr would be switched on soon. Also last month, members of an Iranian parliamentary committee set up to examine the status of Bushehr said costs had spiraled for the project.

Fuel was loaded into the reactor last October but some four months later had to be removed due to fears that metal particles from nearly 30year old equipment used in the construction of the reactor core had contaminated the fuel. Experts say that firing up the plant will not take Iran any closer to building a nuclear bomb since Russia will supply the enriched uranium for the reactor and take away spent fuel that could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.

Countries concerned about Iran’s nuclear activities are more worried about its own enrichment of uranium, a process than can make nuclear fuel but also bomb material if done to a very high level. Iran says it needs nuclear power to allow it to export more oil and gas and prepare for the day when mineral riches dry up.

“The Bushehr power plant is continuing its test ... and electricity will be connected to the national grid,” Soltanieh said. — Reuters

18 killed in Yemen SANAA: A suicide car bomber killed three policemen and injured seven at a checkpoint in the port city of Aden on the Arabian Sea yesterday, a Yemeni security official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said gunmen firing their weapons drove through the checkpoint after the bombing on the road linking Aden to Zinjibar. Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, has fallen under the control of Islamic militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Earlier yesterday, Yemeni military and medical officials said three soldiers and 12 militants were killed during clashes between Islamists and army units advancing on Zinjibar. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Militants have seized a number of cities in southern Yemen, taking advantage of political turmoil that erupted in Februar y with mass protests against longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh. — AP

Scandals rock National Assembly, government Continued from Page 1 The Reform and Development Bloc decided at a meeting yesterday to call for an emergency parliamentary session to debate on actions that must be taken against the illegal deposits. No exact date has yet been set for the session because several delegations of MPs will be travelling abroad in the coming two weeks. The most likely date will be around September 20. AT least 33 MPs must sign the request for the meeting because the assembly is currently in summer recess and to hold a session, the approval of a simple majority of MPs is required.

MP Waleed Al-Tabtabai, a member of the Reform bloc, said that the draft request for the emergency session has been prepared and other MPs will be asked to sign it. MP Ali Al-Deqbasi said he will start negotiations with other MPs to hold the ses-

sion to debate the sensitive issue.

MPs are pressing the government to debate and approve a string of anticorruption laws including the controversial wealth disclosure legislation that requires officials and politicians to reveal their wealth before and after assuming their posts.

Head of the assembly’s legal and legislative committee MP Hussein Al-Huraiti said the panel will meet on September 11 to discuss several draft laws on corruption, including the wealth disclosure and setting up the anti-corruption establishment.

Opposition MP Mussallam Al-Barrak sent two new questions to the finance and justice ministers on the illegal deposits. He asked the finance minister to provide him with details of deposits made to accounts of all MPs since the middle of 2009, and if abnormally large amounts have been deposited or transferred to any account of MPs.

He also asked the justice minister about real estate owned by MPs since the middle of 2009 and how and when these were owned. MPs and the government were also busy dealing with another crisis related to Kuwait Airways Corp (KAC) whose chief was reported to have made remarks in private highly offensive to Shiites. It was reported that a friend of KAC chief Falah had recorded a private conversation with him and then leaked the compact disc to the press.

According to sources on the Twitter, Falah was asked by the government to go on an “open vacation” until the government has settled the issue. But several MPs insisted that Falah made the remarks in private and the one who leaked the recording must be penalized. The issue is expected to take a sectarian turn when MPs go back to the assembly today after the Eid break.

Apple lost item-Clue points to new iPhone OAKLAND: San Francisco police said yesterday they had helped Apple Inc security search for a “lost item,” following a week of reports that a prototype of the newest iPhone had gone missing in July. Officers did not say exactly what Apple had lost, but they left a clue-the San Francisco Police Department’s Friday press release about the hunt was called “iphone5.doc,” an apparent reference to a new version of the mobile phone that tech industry watchers expect to be released soon.

Apple declined to comment on the matter. Tech news service CNET this week said an iPhone 5, which has not been released, went missing in a San Francisco bar in July. SF Weekly, a local newspaper, on Friday quoted a San Francisco man as saying police had come to his house in July searching for a lost iPhone.

Although a prototype of the iPhone

4 went missing in 2010, police said this time Apple had tracked “the lost item” to a San Francisco house and four police accompanied two Apple employees to the house. “The two Apple (security) employees met with the resident and then went into the house to look for the lost item. The Apple employees did not find the lost item and left the house,” the police statement said. It did not say why police accompanied Apple security or the circumstances under which Apple employees “went into the house to look for the lost item”. Police did not respond to a request for further comment.

SF Weekly quoted a 22-year-old man who described himself as the resident of the searched house as saying the group identified themselves as police and that none had said they were working for Apple. They had traced the phone to the house using

satellite positioning software on the device but did not find anything in the house, he said he was told. The man, identified by SF Weekly as Sergio Calderon, could not be reached for comment by Reuters. Police, meanwhile, gave different versions of events during the day on Friday, while Apple has declined to comment at all.

Hours before San Francisco police issued their statement about the search, SFPD spokesman Lieutenant Troy Dangerfield denied that police had been contacted by Apple in connection with any lost phone, or by the person visited by Apple security and the police. “No one has reported anything,” Dangerfield told Reuters. In general, Dangerfield said SFPD requires a supervisor’s approval for personnel who are not law enforcement officers to accompany police during investigations. “It’s not routinely done at all,” Dangerfield said. — Reuters

Intel files show Gaddafi-CIA link Continued from Page 1 on the ties between Western countries and Gaddafi’s regime. Many of those same countries backed the NATO attacks that helped Libya’s rebels force Gaddafi from power. One notable case is that of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, commander of the anti-Gaddafi rebel force that now controls Tripoli.

Belhaj is the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a now-dissolved militant group with links to Al-Qaeda. Belhaj says he was tortured by CIA agents at a secret prison, then returned to Libya. Two documents from March 2004 appear to be American correspondence to Libyan officials to arrange Belhaj’s rendition. Referring to him by his nom de guerre, Abdullah Al-Sadiq, the documents say he will be flown from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Libya and asks for Libyan government agents to accompany him. It also requests American “access to Al-Sadiq for debriefing purposes once he is in your custody.”

“Please be advised that we must be assured that AlSadiq will be treated humanely and that his human rights will be respected,” the document says. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, which found the documents, called the ties between Washington and Gaddafi’s regime “a very dark chapter in American intelligence history, and it remains a stain on the record of the American intelligence services that they cooperated with these very abusive intelligence services.”

In Washington, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood declined to comment yesterday on any specific allegation related to the documents. “It can’t come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats,”

Youngblood said. “That is exactly what we are expected to do.”

Meanwhile, Britain will ship the remainder of $1.5 billion in frozen Libyan funds to Benghazi within a week, a senior official in the rebel government said on Friday, helping its new rulers to pay public workers and restore order in the war-torn country. A portion of the funds amounting to around 280 million Libyan dinars, or around $234 million, reached Benghazi this week already by airplane.

The money is part of a consignment of freshly printed Libyan dinars worth about $1.5 billion ordered by Gaddafi from British printing firm De La Rue Plc but blocked by Britain in March after he began a violent crackdown on protests. Many of the delivered notes still bear the face of the deposed leader, whose image elsewhere in the eastern city of Benghazi is openly mocked in graffiti.

“Most of it is coming by sea to Benghazi. It will come in a week’s time and it will be the rest of the $1.5 billion,” Fathi Baja, head of the National Transitional Council committee for political and international affairs said.

“We need lots of finances.”

Now that NTC forces have overthrown Gaddafi, Britain is releasing the money to ease a cash crunch.

The remainder will be delivered shortly, Foreign Secretary William Hague said. A second NTC member told Reuters that the British money already received was now in the central bank vault and would soon be distributed to commercial banks. “We need a portion of money in hard currency (non-Libyan) to open up credit to buy oil products. At the same time we need Libyan currency for banks to pay government salaries,” said Mustafa El-Huni, NTC representative for Jufra in southern Libya. — Agencies

Militia unleashed Continued from Page 1 The tensions over the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port stem from the fact that Kuwait is building it on the east of the Boubyan Island and a few kilometers away from the Iraqi coast. Iraqi politicians and activists have expressed concern that the port would hinder activity at Iraq’s narrow outlet to the Arabian Gulf, demanding that work on the Kuwaiti port be canceled or that it be relocated.

Last month, an official Iraqi delegation visited Kuwait and was taken in a tour of the project’s site, and given assurances by senior Kuwaiti officials that rather than harming Iraq’s interest, the facility would instead held to

boost the Iraqi economy. The Iraqi government has yet to declare its official stance regarding the port which will be based on the delegation’s report.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi MP called on Friday for the cancelation of Iraq’s commitment to UN Resolution 833 which marks the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border “if Kuwait continues building its mammoth port.” MP Nahidah Al-Dayani of the Al-Iraqiya List, a coalition of political leaders led by former prime minister Iyad Alawi, then added more fuel to her already controversial statement by suggesting that Iraq’s current commitment to the resolutions “prevents Baghdad from seeking military options with Kuwait — Agencies

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Romanian non-flying winger AUCKLAND: Romanian winger Catalin Fercu’s decision to withdraw from their rugby World Cup squad because he did not want to go on the long flight has annoyed half of the team, vice captain Cristian Petre said yesterday. “I would say more than half the team are angry at him, not just disappointed with him,” Petre told reporters. “We feel like he just gave up. Some of the team feel like he just abandoned us when we needed him most.”

Romania arrived in New Zealand on Thursday without Fercu and will begin their World Cup campaign against Scotland in Invercargill on Sept.

10 before they finish their Pool B campaign with matches against Argentina, England and Georgia.

Petre said he understood Fercu’s concerns. “If you make someone fly against their will, they could have a panic attack and that would be worse.”

“A lot of the team don’t understand his decision and that’s why many are angry at him. They feel like he could have made an effort to try and be with us.” Adrian Apostol replaced Fercu in the squad. —Reuters

Brawl shows we’re together ST GALLEN: Spain say they have proved they are united by the way they stood up for each other during a fight at the end of their friendly against Chile.

Midfielder Andres Iniesta said the incident had buried any suspicions of a rift between the Real Madrid and Barcelona members of the squad, following the recent acrimonious clashes between the two clubs. “ We’re all fighting for the same cause and we’re all team mates, there’s no doubt whatsoever about that,” Iniesta told reporters after Spain’s controversial 3-2 win. The Spanish sports daily Marca appeared delighted with what it said was a sign of togetherness.

“There was a war at the end of the match, but peace was declared between the Real Madrid and Barca international players, who stood up for each other,” it said.

“Madrid and Barca players were involved in another flareup, but this time on the same side,” it added, before launching into a detailed explanation of how Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets entered the melee to defend Real Madrid’s Alvaro Arbeloa.

The fighting overshadowed superb performances by Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas, who came on in the second half and rescued Spain after they had been over-run in the first half when they were losing 2-0. —Reuters

‘No chance’ of rule change DAEGU: Athletics chief Lamine Diack maintained the hardest of lines yesterday, telling Reuters there would be no changing or bending of the rules to prevent big names being disqualified. “No chance,” the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) president said in an interview at the Daegu world championships.

The start of the championships was marred by the disqualification of two of the sport’s biggest names on technicalities, depriving fans and broadcasters of the chance to see the greatest names in the biggest races. The world’s fastest man Usain Bolt was scratched from the 100 metres final for making a false start under the IAAF’s one-false-start-and-you’re-out rule. A day later, Cuba’s Dayron Robles was dramatically stripped of his 110 metres hurdles gold medal for bumping China’s Liu Xiang along the track.

The rules are the rules, Diack stressed, and they are good ones. He said that the biggest eye-opener of the championships so far had been Bolt’s disqualification but that he had seen nothing to persuade him any rules needed changing. “I think it was Bolt disqualified by false start, I did not expect this,” he chuckled, when asked what had surprised him most about these Games. “(But) I work for this rule. I like very much this rule, I vote for having this rule. “(In the past) all athletes have the possibility to have one (false start), so you can have eight,” he said, warming to his theme in a suite of the south-east Korean city’s InterBurgo hotel.—Reuters

Tigers devour White Sox

MIAMI: Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Ryan Madson (left) and catcher Carlos Ruiz celebrate after the Phillies defeated the Marlins 5-3. —AP

Phillies beat Marlins MIAMI: John Mayberry drove in three runs with a homer and a sacrifice fly Friday as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Florida Marlins 5-3 to climb 42 games above .500 for the first time in the franchise’s 129-year history.

The Phillies, whose record of 88-46 is the best in the majors, were 41 games over in 1976.

They reached the new pinnacle with their fifth consecutive win. Roy Oswalt (7-8) bounced back from a loss to the Marlins a week earlier. He allowed three runs in 6 1-3 innings while striking out seven. Ryan Madson earned his 27th save in 29 chances with a one-hit ninth for the Phillies. Marlins rookie Brad Hand (1-5), recalled before the game from Double A Jacksonville to make his ninth start of the year, pitched into the sixth inning and allowed four runs, three earned. Jose Lopez hit his sixth homer for Florida.

Giants 6, D’backs 2 At San Francisco, Carlos Beltran hit a goahead two-run home run and Matt Cain recovered from a rough first inning as San Francisco snapped Arizona’s season-best win streak at nine. Cody Ross hit a two-run homer and made a nice play with his glove as the reigning World Series champions pulled within five games of Arizona in the NL West. Jeff Keppinger added an RBI double off Joe Saunders (9-12) for the Giants. Cain (11-9) won for only the second time in seven starts, allowing two runs on five hits in eight innings.

Brewers 8, Astros 2 At Houston, Prince Fielder had four hits, including a two-run homer in the ninth, as Milwaukee rallied with all its runs in the last three innings. Ryan Braun hit the go-ahead tworun single in the seventh inning to help the NLCentral-leading Brewers snap a three-game skid and end Houston’s fourgame win streak. Casey McGehee had a two-run shot in the eighth inning to stretch the lead to 5-2 and Nyjer Morgan scored in the ninth before Fielder’s 31st homer.

Dodgers 8, Braves 6 At Atlanta, James Loney hit a three-run double to key a five-run seventh inning as Los Angeles rallied for its fifth straight win and 10th in 11 games. Andre Ethier added a two-run single and Juan Rivera drove in three runs for the Dodgers, who scored five runs off rookie righthanded reliever Arodys Vizcaino (1-1).

Javy Guerra earned his 14th save despite

giving up a homer to Dan Uggla in the ninth.

Kuo Hong-chih (1-2) pitched two scoreless innings to get the win.

Reds 11, Cardinals 8 At St. Louis, Juan Francisco hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning and drove in five runs as Cincinnati ended St. Louis’ four-game winning streak. Yonder Alonso had a two-run homer and scored three runs for the Reds, who blew a 5-0 lead. Todd Frazier added a pinch-hit, solo home run for Cincinnati. Jose Arredondo (4-4) allowed a solo homer in his one inning of work but got the win. Brandon Phillips, Edgar Renteria and Jay Bruce drove in the other runs for the Reds. Reliever Marc Rzepczynski (0-1) took the loss, and Matt Holliday and David Freese homered for St. Louis.

Rockies 3, Padres 0 At San Diego, Kevin Millwood pitched seven strong innings and Troy Tulowitzki drove in two runs to lead Colorado. Millwood (2-1) allowed seven singles, including three infield singles, with eight strikeouts and no walks. He combined with two relievers to hand San Diego its majors-leading 18th shutout. Rafael Betancourt pitched the ninth for his fifth save in nine chances. Tulowitzki drove in one run with a groundout and added an RBI single.

Mets 7, Nationals 3 At Washington, David Wright hit a three-run homer, Angel Pagan drove in two runs and R.A. Dickey pitched into the seventh inning on three days’ rest as New York downed Washington. The Mets have won seven of eight, while the Nationals have dropped nine of 10 and are 10 games under .500 for the first time this season.

Wright’s shot off Ross Detwiler (2-5) gave the Mets a 3-0 lead in the first. It was his 12th home run of the year. Pagan’s two-run single in the third put New York ahead 6-1. Dickey (7-11) allowed three runs on nine hits, striking out one.

Pirates 3, Cubs 1 At Chicago, Brian Burres pitched into the sixth inning in his first start of the season, and Alex Presley had two triples and scored twice as Pittsburgh beat Chicago to end a five-game skid. Burres (1-0) allowed one run and five hits over 5 1-3 innings. The left hander was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday. Four Pirates relievers combined for 3 2-3 perfect innings, with Joel Hanrahan striking out a pair in the ninth for his 33rd save in 36 chances. —AP

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Friday.

Pittsburgh 3, Chicago Cubs 1; NY Yankees 3, Toronto 2; Detroit 8, Chicago White Sox 1; NY Mets 7, Washington 3; Texas 10, Boston 0; Baltimore 3, Tampa Bay 2; Philadelphia 5, Florida 3; LA Dodgers 8, Atlanta 6; Milwaukee 8, Houston 2; Cleveland 5, Kansas City 4; Cincinnati 11, St. Louis 8; Colorado 3, San Diego 0; Oakland 9, Seattle 2; San Francisco 6, Arizona 2; Minnesota 13, LA Angels 5.

American League National League Eastern Division Eastern Division Philadelphia 88 46 .657 W L PCT GB Atlanta 81 56 .591 8.5 NY Yankees 83 53 .610 NY Mets 67 69 .493 22 Boston 83 54 .606 .5 Washington 63 73 .463 26 Tampa Bay 74 63 .540 9.5 Florida 60 77 .438 29.5 Toronto 69 69 .500 15 Baltimore 55 81 .404 28 Central Division Milwaukee 82 57 .590 Central Division St. Louis 73 65 .529 8.5 Detroit 76 62 .551 Cincinnati 68 70 .493 13.5 Cleveland 69 66 .511 5.5 Pittsburgh 63 75 .457 18.5 Chicago White Sox 68 67 .504 6.5 Chicago Cubs 59 79 .428 22.5 Minnesota 58 79 .423 17.5 Houston 47 91 .341 34.5 Kansas City 57 82 .410 19.5 Western Division Western Division Arizona 78 60 .565 Texas 79 60 .568 San Francisco 73 65 .529 5 LA Angels 74 64 .536 4.5 LA Dodgers 67 70 .489 10.5 Colorado 65 73 .471 13 Oakland 62 76 .449 16.5 San Diego 60 78 .435 18 Seattle 58 79 .423 20

DETROIT: Justin Verlander took a shutout into the eighth inning as the Detroit Tigers expanded their American League Central lead over Chicago with an 8-1 win over the White Sox on Friday.

The White Sox had won five of six, but fell 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Tigers with two games left in the series.

Austin Jackson had three hits, including a two-run homer, for the Tigers, while Jhonny Peralta added a three-run double in a five-run fifth.

Verlander (21-5) improved to 19-2 since May 1, allowing one run on seven hits in 7 1-3 innings.

He walked one and struck out six in Jim Leyland’s 500th win as Tigers manager.

ing up two runs with none out in the first and Brett Gardner hit a two-run homer in the third for New York, which returned early Friday from a successful trip to Boston.

New York returned early Friday from a successful trip to Boston.

Gardner, Andruw Jones and Curtis Granderson all made impressive plays to help the Yankees improve to 12-0 in Nova’s

two runs as Baltimore beat Tampa Bay. Britton (9-9) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings. The left-hander was coming off starts against Minnesota and the New York Yankees where he gave up one run in a combined 12 innings.

Nolan Reimold’s sacrifice fly and Hardy ’s two-run single accounted for the runs in the seventh. Evan Longoria gave the Rays a 2-0 lead on a two-run double in the first. He has 60 RBIs over his last 64 games.

Indians 5, Royals 4 At Kansas City, Missouri, Justin Masterson worked seven strong innings, and Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Donald both homered to lift Cleveland over Kansas City.

Masterson (11-8) allowed seven hits and four runs as the Indians (69-66) equaled last year’s win total and remained 51/2 games behind first-place Detroit in the AL Central.

Royals starter Bruce Chen (106) gave up five runs on eight hits in six innings and Chris Perez worked the ninth for his 31st save.

Rangers 10, Red Sox 0 At Boston, Derek Holland allowed two hits in seven innings and got his usual strong support as Texas hit three homers against Boston.

The Rangers’ first homer came on a three-run shot by Ian Kinsler in the second. In the fifth, David Murphy hit a solo homer and Elvis Andrus added a two-run blast after a single by Craig Gentry.

The Rangers came in scoring 7.29 runs per game for Holland (13-5) - a major-league best for a pitcher - but he didn’t need much backing, holding Boston to a pair of singles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez. Neither made it to second base as Ellsbury was caught stealing and Gonzalez was stranded when Kevin Youkilis struck out.

Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2 At New York, Ivan Nova won his 11th straight decision with some help from a rangy outfield as Robinson Cano hit a tiebreaking single in the fifth inning to lift New York over Toronto.

Nova (15-4) was nearly unhittable for seven innings after giv-

The Angels, who took the field knowing Texas had already beaten the Boston Red Sox 10-0 at Fenway Park, began a nine-game homestand with their fifth loss in eight games and slipped 41/2 games behind the Rangers in the AL West race.

Pavano (7-11) allowed four runs and six hits over 6 2-3 innings with four strikeouts and no walks. It was the first victory

ANAHEIM: Minnesota Twins shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka (right) of Japan, looks back to first after getting the forced out of Los Angeles Angels’ Vernon Wells (10) at second on a grounder from Angels’ Peter Bourjos in the seventh inning. —AP last 12 starts.

Twins 13, Angels 5 At Anaheim, California, Carl Pavano won for the first time in 10 starts since the All-Star break, and Trevor Plouffe homered as Minnesota received four basesloaded walks against Los Angeles.

‘Cheating’ is part of the game, say Wales, Springboks WELLINGTON: The All Blacks received some unlikely support yesterday with both Wales captain Sam Warburton and Springboks loose forward Francois Louw confirming all sides pushed the boundaries of the law at every opportunity.

New Zealand and their open side flanker Richie McCaw were labelled as cheats on Thursday by respected British sports columnist Mark Reason for the way in which he claimed they were able to consistently infringe without being penalised. “The All Blacks no longer even bother to bend the laws. They set out to deliberately cheat,” Reason wrote in Wellington’s Dominion Post, in a column that warned New Zealanders not to complain if the side were knocked out of the World Cup due to a dubious referring decision.

“The All Blacks cheat in spades.” Reason, who now lives in New Zealand, added he was aware that “other teams cheat”, which was circumspectly confirmed by Warburton and Louw on Saturday, six days before the 2011 tournament kicks off in Auckland. “I think you have to really,” Warburton said when he was asked if teams deliberately tested referees.

“No openside (flanker) wouldn’t try it,” he added of the contest at the breakdown.

“I think Richie is the best at sussing (working) out the referees but it’s just part and parcel of the game. “I could play 80 minutes and pick out 10 things where someone has done something illegal but it goes on all the time constantly. I think its something all the players, from 1 to 15 try and do on the pitch at some stage.” Louw said it was just as important to remember that teams played to the referees’ interpretations of the laws. “It’s quite a fine line and it’s always the interpretation of the ref that counts on the day. “I think the most important thing is to get a feel for the ref. Some guys have mastered it better than others but at the end of the day if you can get away with it then you have done a good job.” —Reuters

since July 7 for the 35-year-old right-hander, who has given up the most runs (107) and hits (221) in the majors.

Orioles 3, Rays 2 At St. Petersburg, Florida, Zach Britton had his third consecutive solid start and J.J. Hardy drove in

Athletics 9, Mariners 2 At Oakland, California, Hideki Matsui and Cliff Pennington both drove in three runs to lead Oakland over Seattle. Brandon Allen and Scott Sizemore drove in runs for the A’s, who won their second straight following a fivegame losing streak.

Guillermo Moscoso (7-8) snapped a two-game losing streak despite allowing his first earned run in 25 2-3 innings against AL West opponents. He improved to 5-2 with a 2.62 ERA at home this season.

Franklin Gutierrez and Brendan Ryan drove in runs for the Mariners, who lost for the sixth time in eight games. —AP

Wales begin mind games ahead of Springboks clash was confident his side would be able to do.

Their build-up in August, playing three games and winning their last two against 2007 finalists England and third-placed Argentina, had also held them in good stead for their expected bruising encounter next week, the 47-year-old said.

“It has been great the last couple of months having the players together. That has always been the frustration at the international level, not being able to have a pre-season or buildup.

“I’m pretty happy with what happened in August with the warm-up games and we think we’re in pretty good shape. “We think we can match them physically and that’s the key to it.”

Gatland was also at pains to point out, very little had separated the two sides in their three previous encounters, though all three were won by the Springboks.

“The last three times we have played them there has been very little in terms of the points, I think it was three points, four points, five points and we have outscored them seven tries to six... so there hasn’t been a heck of a lot between the two teams.

“All we need to do is DUNEDIN: Otago stadium is seen in Dunedin, New Zealand. The Otago stadium will host the Rugby World Cup Pool B match get over that final hurdle and get that ‘W’ (win) between England and Argentina on Sept. 10. —AP next to our names.” While piece and they put the ball up in the air, use the power Gatland is not prepared to look any further ahead than the opening clash for now, he remains well aware of the runners effectively and they’re a strong defensive side.

“We pretty much know what they’re going to do. tough nature of Pool D, in which they also face Namibia, “(Morne) Steyn kicks penalties and drop goals and they Samoa and Fiji.

The two Pacific nations have combined to stop will play to their strengths because that’s what they’re good at doing (and) they’re definitely a hard side to Wales advancing from the pool phase on two occasions, with Samoa halting their progress in 1991 and beat.”

Gatland said the key to beating the Springboks, Fiji’s 38-34 victory four years ago also preventing them therefore, would be to match them physically, which he from reaching the quarter-finals. —Reuters WELLINGTON: Wales coach Warren Gatland wasted little time in firing the opening shots ahead of their World Cup opener against champions South Africa, saying the Springboks “don’t play any rugby”.

Gatland’s team will meet South Africa in their Pool D match on Sept. 11 and the former All Blacks’ hooker was adamant the game plan the Springboks used to win the 2007 tournament would be evident again this time.

“They don’t play any rugby,” Gatland told reporters in Wellington on Saturday, a day after his side arrived in New Zealand for the Sept. 9-Oct. 23 tournament, before he clarified his statement.

“They’re very good at what they do in terms of set

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France overpowers Germany

UNCASVILLE: Connecticut Sun’s Tina Charles (left) is fouled by Indiana Fever’s Tangela Smith during the first half of their WNBA basketball game.—AP

Sun down Fever UNCASVILLE: Tina Charles had 10 points, 10 assists and 16 rebounds to lead the Connecticut Sun to an 83-55 victory over the Indiana Fever on Friday.

Charles’ triple double was the first in franchise history and the fifth in the league with the last one coming on May 21, 2005, when Deanna Nolan had a triple for the Detroit Shock at Connecticut.

Danielle McCray had 14 points, Kara Lawson scored 12 and Asjha Jones added 10 for the Sun (19-12), who moved within a half-game of Indiana for first place in the Eastern Conference. Katie Douglas had 12 points and Tamika Catchings added 11 for the Fever (19-11).

Liberty 78, Lynx 62 At Minneapolis, Leilani Mitchell scored 24 points with six 3-pointers as New York clinched a playoff spot with a win over Minnesota.

Cappie Pondexter added 13 points and seven assists for New York (18-13), which is in third in the Eastern Conference standings. Plenette Pierson scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in helping the Liberty break the Lynx’s six-game win streak.

Seimone Augustus scored 17 and Maya Moore added 16 for Minnesota (24-7), which clinched the WNBA’s best record

despite the loss and will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Storm 78, Shock 72 At Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sue Bird scored 21 points to help Seattle rally for a victory over Tulsa and a playoff berth. Lauren Jackson added 20 points and Swin Cash had 13 for the Storm (18-13), who had won four straight coming in but trailed by nine points at halftime.

Jennifer Lacy scored 18 points for the Shock (3-27), Amber Holt added 17 and Tiffany Jackson had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Dream 95, Mystics 73 At Atlanta, Armintie Price scored 19 points, Angel McCoughtry added 16 and fill-in starter Alison Bales had a career-high 15 to move Atlanta within one win of a spot in the playoff.

The Dream (17-14) have won nine of their past 12 games, and the 2010 WNBA finalists hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the East. They need a win over their final three games or a loss by fifth-place Chicago (14-16) to sew up a playoff spot.

Rookie guard Jasmine Thomas scored a career-high 19 points for Washington (6-25) and All-Star forward Crystal Langhorne added 15.—AP

SIAULIAI: Dark horse France made it three straight wins after an effervescent performance by point guard Tony Parker lifted them to a 76-65 victor y over Germany at the European basketball championships on Friday.

Serbia also maintained a perfect record with an 89-80 defeat of Israel while former European champions Italy kept alive their hopes of reaching the second stage af ter centre Andrea Bargnani inspired a 71-62 win over Latvia.

Hosts and 2003 winners Lithuania won a see-saw battle against Turkey 75-68 in Group A, where holders Spain cruised to an 86-69 win over Britain.

Germany for ward Dirk Nowitzki, who led the Dallas Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title, drew first blood in his personal battle against Parker in the Group B game, scoring seven of his team’s first nine points to give them an early 11-6 lead.

But it was Parker, himself a triple NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs, who stole the show after he came to life and stunned the Germans with an irresistible offensive arsenal.

He finished with 32 points, including 15 in the third quarter, scoring from lay-ups through a packed German defence as well as from long range.

Shooting guard N icolas Batum added 14 points for a French team which held Nowitzki to 20 points after he made just five of his 13 shots from the field.

“We struggled in the second half and found it difficult to get the ball to the basket and keep up with the French, while Parker produced a paramount achievement at the other end,” Nowitzki told Germany’s Sport 1 television.

Italy, the winners of two titles and four times the runners-up, were staring at early elimination

from after trailing Latvia at halftime as they relied almost entirely on Bargnani to keep them afloat in Group B action.

The Toronto Raptors centre responded with a heroic solo effort, scoring a tournamenthigh 36 points along with seven

remaining two preliminary stage games against France and Israel and hope that other results go their way if they are to advance to the top 12, featuring two groups of six.

“It was very important to win and stay in contention after the

ARGENTINA: Puerto Rico’s Andres Rodrigues (left) dribbles past Argentina’s Luis Scola during a FIBA Americas Championship basketball game . —AP

rebounds to give his team a fighting chance of reaching the second group stage.

The Italians need to win their

opening two defeats, we are all exhausted after playing three games in as many days but also overjoyed that we have finally

put some points on the board,” said Bargnani.

“We have now rekindled our hopes of not just winning our next two games, but playing to the best of our abilities because we know we can improve.”

Serbia trailed by 12 points midway through the third period of their Group B match when an on-court skirmish appeared to ignite their comeback against a plucky Israeli side.

For ward Dusko Savanovic poured in 24 points, centre Nenad K rstic scored 18 and Marko Keselj added 15 as the trio collected seven rebounds apiece for the Serbs.

Spain followed their opening wins over Poland and Portugal with a comfor table defeat of Britain in which Pau Gasol and his younger brother Marc combined for 39 points.

Los Angeles Lakers centre Pau scored 21 while Memphis Grizzlies forward Marc chipped in with 18 against one of the tournament’s underdogs, whose Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng had 25 points, including a threepointer from midcourt.

The first real test of Spain’s credentials will come on Sunday, when they clash with Lithuania in a mouth-watering contest between the event’s top two contenders.

Power forward Ersan Ilyasova scored 10 first-quarter points as Turkey led 35-32 at halftime in Panevezys but Lithuania, roared on by a passionate home crowd, turned the tide after the interval with a balanced team effort.

“We were good defensively, we fought for each and every ball and lef t ever ything out there on the court,” Lithuania’s forward Paulius Jankunas said after contributing with seven points and two assists.

“We usually struggle in the third quar ter and therefore decided to play it more aggressively this time.”—Reuters

Matteson takes control with a seven-birdie 65 NORTON: British world number one Luke Donald signalled an ominous warning to his FedExCup playoff rivals by firing a five-under-par 66 in Friday’s opening round of the Deutsche Bank Championship.

The Englishman mixed six birdies with a lone bogey to lurk just one stroke off the pace set by American Troy Matteson at the TPC Boston.

“It was a good round,” Donald told reporters. “I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball pretty well the last few days. I did miss a couple (of putts) coming in but I made a good few out there and was very happy with the score.”

Entering this week’s event, the second of the PGA Tour’s four lucrative playoff events, Donald occupies fifth spot in the overall standings and trails FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson by 1,583 points.

The long-hitting Johnson also made a good start on Friday and was among a large group including PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley, former Masters champion Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler after carding a threeunder 68.

Matteson, a double winner on the PGA Tour, opened his round with a bogey at the 10th but rebounded with seven birdies the rest of the way to take control at the top.

He began this week a precarious 97th in the FedExCup standings and well aware he needs to sparkle at the TPC Boston if he is to advance.

The leading 70 players after the

Deutsche Bank Championship move on to the BMW Championship at Cog Hill before the top 30 qualify for the Tour Championship finale at East Lake.

“Obviously where I’m at, if I don’t play well (here) I’m not going to play next week,” Matteson said. Donald got off to a fast start with a birdie at the first but dropped a shot at the second before immediately responding with consecutive birdies.

Further birdies at the seventh, 10th and 11th put him at five under and seemingly on track to claim the outright lead but he parred his way home to stay one shot off the pace.

Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, 2009 PGA champion Yang Yong-eun of South Korea and American Jerry Kelly ended the round level with Donald after carding matching 66s.

Four-times major winner Phil Mickelson returned a 70 after putting a belly putter in tournament play for the first time. Notably Mickelson did not three-putt once during his round.

The American world number nine hit 10-of-14 fairways on Friday and was happy with his form on the greens. “I got off to a great start with it and I thought it went well,” left-hander Mickelson said after totalling 29 putts in the opening round.

“I feel that I’m probably putting better with that putter than I would be with the short putter, so I’ll end up using it for the rest of the tournament I would anticipate.”—Reuters

NORTON: Sergio Garcia, from Spain, hits his second shot on the ninth hole during the second round of the Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament.—AP

Donaldson leads European Masters

Sheikh Salman shooting tourney Sheik h Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah Grand Prix Shooting Tournament was organized lately in Cameron by The Cameron Shooting Federation with the support of the State of Kuwait.

The Grand Prix covered the Air Pistol and Rifle as well as archery. The closing ceremony was attended by the sports, youth and physical education minister M ichael Zwan, President of the Olympic committee and president of the military sports association, Ahmad K alk abah, Area governor R adeeb Simon and Vice President of the

Cameron Shooting Federation Robert Fouj.

Prizes presented by the President of Kuwait and Asian Shooting Federation and Vice president of the ISSF Sheikh Salman Al-Sabah.

The organization of the GP comes as part of the cooperation protocol that was signed recently in Kuwait and the Cameron shooting officials organized the event in recognition of the major role Sheikh Salman played in developing the shooting sport in Cameron in particular and promoting it in Asia and Africa in general.

SWITZERLAND: Jamie Donaldson edged ahead of Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy yesterday to lead after three rounds of the European Masters.

Donaldson, chasing a first career victory, shot a 6-under 65 to head the leaderboard at 14 under, one shot clear of Westwood with McIlroy a further stroke back in third.

“I’m the underdog in effect even though I’m winning by one,” Donaldson said of Sunday’s final group. “It’s awesome. You are playing with two of the greatest players at the moment.”

Second-ranked Westwood had seven birdies, including at all four par-5s, and no dropped shots in a 64 that was the day’s best.

“It’s always nice to play a round with no 5s and no bogeys, especially on a course like this that can trip you up,” Westwood said.

McIlroy began the day in a four-way share of the lead at 8 under, but dropped shots at the 16th and 17th in his 67.

“It wasn’t the greatest way to finish but I’m still in there,” said the US Open winner, who has targeted the world No. 3 slot with a victory here.

Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, last week’s winner at Gleneagles, Scotland, had a 66 to be 11 under alongside Gary Boyd of England.

Fifth-ranked Martin Kaymer of Germany is among six players on 10 under, trailing Donaldson by four shots. Playing in an unheralded final three-player group with Boyd and Simon Dyson, Donaldson shot seven birdies with a single blemish in his round - a six at the 629-yard (meter) ninth.

“I played really good all the way round,” said the 35-year-old Donaldson, who has two runner-up finishes on the European Tour, most recently at Malmo, Sweden in July 2009.

“I will go out (Sunday) with the exact same game plan.” Westwood’s round included four straight birdies between the sixth and ninth holes.

“They are scoring holes,” said Westwood, who fought a heavy cold despite another sunbaked day at altitude in the Swiss Alps. “I tried to hit in sensible places all day and try not to make mental errors.”

McIlroy birdied the first and sixth then sank a 40-feet putt for an eagle two at the scenic seventh hole. He got back-to-back birdie-4s after the turn, before his putting let him down at the par-3 16th.

“There’s a 61 or 62 out there,” said McIlroy, who lost a playoff here at age 19 when taking a four-shot lead into the final round.

“I should have won here in 2008 and I feel I

should be leading this tournament by a bit already,” McIlroy said. Kaymer lamented another day of missed chances at holes five through seven, though the former top-ranked golfer remains in contention.

“I am level par for the tournament at those three easy holes and Rory is six under for them,” Kaymer said. “I’m playing very well and need to be very, very patient.”—AP

Bahrain welcomes F1 GP date switch BAHRAIN: Following a request from the Indian Grand Prix organizers to FOM on a date change, The Bahrain International Circuit announced yesterday that it welcomes the date switch with India to host the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix on the 22nd of April 2012. The announcement was declared after officials from the Indian Grand Prix organizer raised some concern to FOM in hosting the race in April. The Bahrain international circuit has always worked in supporting the Formula One family and to do what is best for the sport. We look forward to welcoming back all the teams, drivers, organizer, and fans in 2012.

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String of deaths opens door to tough questions TORONTO: Determining whether the sudden deaths of three players was related to their enforcer roles is something that must be explored, a leading sports psychologist and former National Hockey League tough guy said. Still reeling from the deaths of Winnipeg Jets centre Rick Rypien and New York Ranger Derek Boogaard, the NHL was rocked again on Wednesday as recently-retired tough guy Wade Belak was found dead in a Toronto hotel at the age of 35.

On the surface, the deaths appear eerily similar, Rypien, Boogaard and Belak all made a living on the unforgiving fringes of the sport, bare knuckle brawlers who literally had to fight opponents to keep a place on their teams. Belak’s death, the third in under four months, raised some uncomfortable questions as to whether the three players are part of a

tragic coincidence or a deadly problem.

“There are some things about that particular job which might make somebody more prone to depression,” Dr Don Malone, head of the Psychiatric Neuromodulation Center at the prominent Cleveland Clinic said. “I’d be very surprised if we were able to come up with a common link but nevertheless it is something that ought to be looked into.” Rypien battled depression for about a decade and was found dead at his home this month at the age of 27 while Boogaard’s death at 28 was ruled accidental and caused by a lethal combination of alcohol and painkillers. No cause of death has been given for Belak’s death.

The deaths have set off alarm bells with the NHL and NHL Players’ Association, who issued a joint state-

ment on Thursday promising to review substance abuse and behavioral health programs available to players. “While the circumstances of each case are unique, these tragic events cannot be ignored,” the statement said. “We are committed to examining, in detail, the factors that may have contributed to these events and to determining whether concrete steps can be taken to enhance player welfare and minimize the likelihood of such events taking place.”

In the wake of the deaths, players who have filled the enforcer role have opened up about the unique pressures and demands they live with each night waiting for the tap on the shoulder that sends them over the boards looking for a fight. Cam Connor, who split eight fight-filled seasons between the rough-and-tumble World Hockey Association and

NHL, lived and worked in what he likened to a House of Pain. “I had that task of having to scrap way more than I wanted to and there is a lot of pressure that goes with that,” Connor told Reuters. “No question that it is a tough job. “But I think the only thing these three individuals had in common was the game of hockey and that they were fighters ... that is where it stops.”

To survive as an enforcer some turned to alcohol and drugs to help cope with the demons that, according to Connor, keeps some players awake at night. While Connor does not see a link between the recent deaths and their work he says the NHL could do more to identify those at risk, including more random drug tests to find players on painkillers, which he says is a telltale sign of problems. “If you got these painkillers or any other drugs in

your system, maybe that’s when they could say, ‘OK, let’s have a talk,’” said Connor. “Maybe it is the pressure coming at you but there is a reason you’re doing it. “Maybe they can identify a few people who fit into that danger category.”

Drug and alcohol use can signal depression agrees Malone, but sometimes, such as in the case of Belak, who was about to embark on a new career providing radio analysis for one of his former teams, the signs are not so obvious. “There are a couple of things you can look at with someone like this who was outwardly doing well, outwardly adjusting well and then - boom,” said Malone. “One possibility, he (Belak) was hiding it.

“The other thing is something may have happened emotionally and it was a very impulsive act. We don’t know.” — Reuters

England, India ODI falls victim to rain

BULAWAYO: Pakistan batsman Younus Khan blocks the ball on the third day of the Test match against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club. —AP

Zimbabwe fail to pressure Pakistan BULAWAYO: Pakistan reached 3575 in reply to the hosts’ 412 all out at the close of the third day of the one-off Test at Queens Sports Club here yesterday.

Zimbabwe missed a cluster of chances to pile the pressure on Pakistan, dropping five catches with a fielding fumble also costing them an easy run out.

The day was also marked by two batsmen passing the 1000 Test run landmark, with Mohammed Hafeez reaching 115 and scoring his third century and Umar Akmal, when he had reached 12.

However neither pair went very far afterwards. Hafeez was out at lunch for 119, which included a six and 17 fours — a career highest.

Umar was out for 15 off the last ball of the day. He hit Greg Lamb hard onto a close fielder’s shoulder and Brendan Taylor took the rebound.

Azhar Ali moved his overnight 27 to 75 before giving a nick to Tatendo Taibu off Lamb. It was his ninth Test 50 and his third in succession. Captain Misbah ul Haq made a fluent 66, remarkably his

ninth half century in his last 11 innings.

Predictably remaining to fight another day in partnership with the incoming Adnan Akmal is Younis Khan, who is on 61 after securing his 24th fifty. Pakistan will be looking to these two to take them past the Zimbabwe total today.

There have been two significant partnerships for the tourists Hafeez and Ali put on 188 for the second wicket and Khan put on 100 with Ul Haq for the fourth.

For Zimbabwe it was a generally successful day in difficult flat-pitch

circumstances, due largely to the spinners Raymond Price and Lamb.

Price was economy supreme, conceding 39 runs in 34 overs with 18 maidens but without any wickets. Lamb disposed of three tourists for 85. However the pacemen Chrisopher Mpofu and Brian Vitori drew blanks in conceding 148 runs between them.

Pakistan will need another good partnership today to gain the advantage while Zimbabwe will need two more wickets to get into the tail and that could give them pole position.—AFP

SCOREBOARD BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe: Scoreboard at the close on the third day of the one-off Test between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club yesterday: Zimbabwe first innings 412 all out (T. Mawoyo 163 n.o., A. Cheema 4-79, S. Ajmal 4-143) Pakistan first innings (overnight 116-1) M. Hafeez c Lamb b Masakadza 119 T. Umar lbw b Jarvis 4 A. Ali c Taibu b Lamb 75 Y. Khan not out 61 M. Ul Haq c Vitori b Lamb 66 U. Akmal c Taylor b Lamb 15 Extras (4b, 13lb) 17 Total (5 wkts, 120.1 overs, 479 mins) 357 To bat: Adnan Akmal, Junaid Khan, Sohail Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema

Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Umar), 2-196 (Hafeez), 3-218 (Ali), 4-318 (ul Haq), 5-357 (U. Akmal) Bowling: Vitori 21-2-93-0; Jarvis 20-4-581; Mpofu 19-4-55-0; Price 34-18-39-0; Lamb 20.1-2-85-3; Masakadza 6-2-10-1 Zimbabwe - Brendan Taylor (capt), Vusi Sibanda, Tinotenda Mawoyo, Hamilton Masakadza, Craig Ervine, Tatenda Taibu, Gregoty Lamb, Raymond Price, Chris Mpofu, Kyle Jarvis, Brian Vitori.

LONDON: England captain Alastair Cook maintained his side were ready to go on and win the abandoned first one-day international against India until rain intervened.

India appeared to have the upper hand after posting a score of 274-7 with Parthiv Patel making 95 and had England 27-2 in 7.2 overs.

But Cook was confident his side now aiming to add the world number one ranking in 50-over cricket to their Test status as top of the ranking - could have overhauled the Indians. “Anything can happen,” Cook told reporters after the premature end to the match. “That was a very good wicket and a quick outfield - 275 was gettable.” India looked like posting a score over 300 but Samit Patel’s spin put the brakes on with his ten overs costing just 42 runs in the absence of Graeme Swann who has a virus.

Cook added: “He was under pressure knowing we needed to get ten overs out of him against a side who play spin very well.”

Praveen Kumar took both wickets - captain Alastair Cook edged onto his stumps and Craig Kieswetter was trapped leg before.

But India are sweating on the fitness of Sachin Tendulkar who will see a surgeon on Monday about an old toe injury that kept him out of this game. Patel’s 95 came from 107 balls with 12 fours and he shared a stand of 103 for the second wicket with Virat Kohli who made 55.

Patel’s well-paced innings looked like giving him his first three figure score for Indian until he was caught behind of James Anderson giving the England bowler his 200th wicket in one-day internationals.

Suresh Raina added 38 from 29 balls before he was deceived by a slower bouncer from Jade Denbach and gave Alastair Cook a simple catch at leg slip and while captain MS Dhoni was there towards the end of the innings a total of 300 looked possible but the Indians stalled in the final overs as England snapped up three wickets in the last two overs.

On a gloomy day in the north east of England Cook put India in after winning the toss but his bowlers struggled as the Indian opening pair of Patel and Ajinkya Rahane put on 87 for the first wicket. Rahane was first to go - caught in at fine leg by Samit Patel top-edging a hook from Stuart Broad - and Rahul Dravid went for just two.

Dravid edged a ball from Stuart Broad to Craig Kieswetter but stood him ground when the England side appealed.

The Hot Spot technology failed to pick up the edge but third

LONDON: India’s Praveen Kumar celebrates after taking the wicket of England’ Craig Kieswetter (left) during the first one day international cricket match at the Riverside Cricket Ground. —AP umpire Marais Erasmus told the on- tamely edged behind and Rohit field officials he had heard a noise Sharma was hit on the hand first and that was enough for Dravid to ball by Broad and retired hurt.

Raina and Dhoni swung the bat be given out.

But Indian captain MS Dhoni but the steady loss of wickets meant said: “There was nothing on hot India could not get away from spot and he was given not out - the England and two wickets in the last benefit of the doubt always goes to over of the innings for Tim Bresnan the batsman. I still don’t know how put the brakes on. With Tendulkar missing the match his wait for his they gave him out.”

Kohli and Patel took the score on 100th international hundred goes before Patel, sniffing his milestone, on.—AFP

SCOREBOARD CHESTER-LE-STREET, United Kingdom: Scoreboard from first one day international between England and India which was abandoned due to rain here yesterday: India P.Patel c Kieswetter b Anderson 95 A.Rahane c Patel b Broad 40 R.Dravid c Kieswetter b Broad 2 V.Kohli b Patel 55 R.Sharma retired hurt 0 S.Raina c Cook b Dernbach 38 MS Dhoni c Kieswetter b Bresnan 33 P.Kumar not out 2 R.Ashwin b Bresnan 0 RV.Kumar not out 1 Extras: (5lb, 3w) 8 Total: (7wkts 50 overs ) 274 DNB: M.Patel.

Fall of wickets: 1-82 (Rahane), 2-87 (Dravid) 3-190 (P Patel), 4-206 (Kohli), 5-266 (Raina), 6-272 (Dhoni), 7272 (Ashwin)

Bowling: Anderson 9-0-41-1, Bresnan 10-0-54-2 (2w), Broad 10-0-56-2, Dernbach 9-0-61-1, Patel 10-0-42-1, Trott 2-0-14-0 (1w) England A.Cook b P Kumar 4 C.Kieswetter lbw P Kumar 6 J.Trott not out 14 I.Bell not out 2 Extras: (1lb) 1 Total: (2 wickets 7.2 overs) 27 DNB: E.Morgan, B.Stokes, S.Patel, T.Bresnan, S.Broad, J.Anderson, J.Dernbach Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Cook), 2-21 (Kieswetter) Bowling: P.Kumar 4-1-11-2, RV.Kumar 3.2-1-15-0 Result: Match abandoned - no result

Harris stars as Aussies win first Test GALLE: Fast bowler Ryan Harris claimed five wickets as Australia beat a valiant Sri Lanka by 125 runs in the first Test yesterday to take the lead in the three-match series.

Sri Lanka, who resumed the fourth day on 120-5 chasing an improbable victory target of 379, were dismissed for 253 in their second innings midway through the afternoon session.

Mahela Jayawardene hit a classy 105 and Angelo Mathews made 93 to hold off Australia, but the rest of the batting caved in.

It was Michael Clarke’s first Test win as Australian captain, having lost to England by an innings in Sydney in January when he stood in for the injured Ricky Ponting.

The emphatic win in Galle helped Ponting set a new benchmark of becoming the first cricketer to have been part of 100 Test victories.

The 36-year-old, the team’s frontline batsman, was already Test cricket’s most successful captain with 48 wins when he stepped down in April to make way for Clarke.

Jayawardene and Mathews, who came together on Friday afternoon with Sri Lanka tottering on 685, put on 142 for the sixth wicket in a courageous fightback. The pair batted through the entire morning session, defying the Australian bowlers on the dusty, crumbling wicket that made strokeplay difficult. The classy Jayawardene, 34, Sri Lanka’s highest run-getter in Test cricket, notched up his 29th century with the help of 15 boundaries and a six.

Mathews, 10 years Jayawardene’s junior, showed why he is regarded as one of the most exciting young talents in the modern game even though he narrowly missed his maiden Test century.

The partnership made some amends for the home team’s poor batting earlier in the match, when Sri Lanka were shot out for 105 in the first innings and reduced to 68-5 in the second. The stand was broken in the seventh over with the second new ball when Jayawardene inside-edged a delivery from Harris on to his stumps after lunch.

Mitchell Johnson had Suraj Randiv fending a catch to second slip, while Mathews was ninth out,

bowled by Shane Watson attempting a big hit.

Sri Lanka had added six runs to their overnight score of 120-5 when heavy rain interrupted play for an hour. But the weather cleared and the umpires delayed the lunch break by 30 minutes to make up for lost time.

Clarke rotated his four frontline bowlers in a bid to break the stand as Jayawardene and Mathews dug in to keep the scoreboard moving. Mathews reached his third half-century with two consecutive boundaries off Johnson, guiding the left-arm seamer through third man before pulling him to the midwicket fence.

A confident Jayawardene lofted off-spinner Nathan Lyon for six and then played an audacious scoop shot off the same bowler over the wicketkeeper’s head, a stroke made famous by his captain Tillakaratne Dilshan.

The second match in Australia’s first Test series in Sri Lanka since 2004 will be played in Pallekele from September 8 and the third at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo from Sept 16.—AFP

SCOREBOARD GALLE, Sri Lanka: Final scoreboard on the fourth day of the first cricket Test between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium yesterday: Australia 1st innings - 273 (R. Ponting 44, M. Hussey 95, S. Lakmal 3-55, R. Herath 3-54) Sri Lanka 1st innings - 105 (T. Paranavitana 29, N. Lyon 5-34, S. Watson 3-11) Australia 2nd innings - 210 (M. Clarke 60, R. Herath 5-79) Sri Lanka 2nd innings (overnight 120-5): T. Paranavitana lbw b Harris 0 Total (all out, 95.5 overs) 253 T. Dilshan b Harris 12 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Paranavitana), 2-15 K. Sangakkara c Hussey b Watson 17 (Dilshan), 3-52 (Sangakkara), 4-63 M. Jayawardene b Harris 105 (Samaraweera), 5-68 (P. Jayawardene), 6-210 T. Samaraweera c Haddin b Johnson 0 (M. Jayawardene), 7-221 (Randiv), 8-242 P. Jayawardene b Harris 0 (Herath), 9-249 (Mathews), 10-253 (Lakmal).

A. Mathews b Watson 95 Bowling: Harris 20-5-62-5 (w1), Copeland 16S. Randiv c Clarke b Johnson 0 6-20-0, Johnson 19-6-56-2, Lyon R. Herath c Copeland b Harris 12 19.5-2-73-1, Clarke 6-0-16-0, Watson 13-6-19S. Lakmal c Johnson b Lyon 5 2, Ponting 2-0-5-0 C. Welegedara not out 4 Australia win by 125 runs, lead 1-0 in threeExtras: (b1, lb1, w1) 3 match series

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NASCAR stars say no disrespect for Obama HAMPTON: Four NASCAR stars will take a pass on meeting President Obama at the White House. They say it doesn’t have anything to do with politics. When word got out that Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards wouldn’t be going to the White House next Wednesday, it sparked plenty of chatter on talk shows and social media networks. There was speculation the four were making some sort of protest about Obama’s policies on behalf of a generally conservative sport.

Nonsense, insisted Biffle, who said he has to go to a two-day retreat in Minnesota for 3M, the major sponsor of his No. 16 car.

The event has been scheduled for months and will be attended by clients from around the world.

“I saw some comments that we rejected the invitation,” Biffle said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “To me, that’s not what we did. Rejecting means, ‘No, I don’t want to go. I’m not going to go. You can’t make me go.’ That’s rejecting. Having a conflict and not being able to participate is something different.” Stewart also had a schedul-

ing conflict, though he declined to go into details. “Trust me, if we could be there, we’d definitely be there,” he said. “I’ve always viewed it as an honor just to get an invitation to go. I’ve enjoyed every trip every time I’ve gone there. I’ve learned more and more about it. And it’s pretty cool feeling to be with most powerful man in the world.

That’s not an invitation we take lightly.”

Eight other drivers who made last year’s Cup playoff, including five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, plan to be there along with NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France.

“Regardless of political views, when (president of the United States) sends an invite and wants to honor you at the White House, you accept,” Johnson wrote on Twitter, accompanied by a hash tag with the word “respect.” He added that some fans had complained about him accepting an invitation from Obama.

Biffle and Stewart pointed out they’ve been to the White House several times, meeting both former President George W. Bush and Obama, who was inaugurated in

2009. “I’ve been there since he’s been in office,” Biffle said. “I’ve got a handshake picture with the president and I in the bookcase in my office, right behind my desk.”

Stewart said he wasn’t “going to put anybody under the bus by talking about” his conflicting plans, but insisted it was something he couldn’t break or change.

Otherwise, he would have been at the White House.

“Every time I go, I learn more about each room,” Stewart said. “If you get the chance, you should go. It’s really worth it.”

Jeff Burton is among the drivers who will be meeting with the Democratic president, even though he’s thought to harbor future political ambitions as a Republican.

This isn’t about politics, Burton said.

“I worked really hard to free up my schedule when I got the invitation because, to me, it’s important for the president of the United States to invite NASCAR to come so he can honor us,” he said. “I mean, that’s really what this is. A lot of people have turned this around like we’re going to honor the president.

The president asked us to come to honor us. That’s a hell off a compliment for our sport and us as individual drivers and teams.”

Harvick said it’s a tough time of year to find some spare time in his already crowded schedule. The Washington visit was scheduled three days before the race at Richmond, Virginia, that will set the 12-driver field competing for the Sprint Cup championship. “Most everything we do is scheduled months in advance,” Harvick said. “I have been to the White House before and it’s an honor just to go the White House and be in the Oval Office and on the premises at the White House. I understand the honor. Just with everything we have going on right now, there is no way to reschedule the things we have going next week.” Such as? “I don’t think that is anyone’s business,” Harvick said. “It is just a bad week for us.”

Some media outlets reported that Kurt Busch wouldn’t be going to the White House, either. Not so. His team rescheduled an important photo shoot for next year’s

merchandise and marketing campaigns, a session that must be done by the end of the month to get everything ready before the team heads to Daytona for the start of the 2012 season.

“All along, it was my intention to go,” Busch said. “Who’s going to turn down an opportunity to go to the White House? For me, it’s an honor and a privilege. I have met both Bush and Obama. To be a Chase driver and go to the White House, that’s an important visit. You might not make the Chase every year and miss out on those opportunities.” Burton said all the debate about NASCAR’s visit to the White House symbolizes a larger divide within the country. “Ten years ago, after 9-11, this country was unified. This country was together,” he said.

“Today, we’re sitting here talking as if someone, for political reasons, is going or not going to the White House. And we wonder why this country is in trouble. We can point the finger and blame all the people in Washington. Well, maybe we need to look in the damn mirror a little bit. Really.

It’s our country.”—AP

Scots frustrated by late penalty

ITALY: Honda Rider Casey Stoner, of Australia, takes a curve on his way to clock the fastest time during the qualifying session for the San Marino MotoGP.—AP

Stoner breaks own mark to take pole MISANO: World championship leader Casey Stoner will star t from pole in today’s San Marino MotoGp after recording the fastest time in qualifying yesterday breaking his own track record, set here in 2008.

The Honda-riding Australian-who comes into the race on the back of his win in the United States last Sunday-timed 1min 33.138sec to erase his former record time by 0.24sec and take pole for the eighth time this season.

Yamaha’s defending world champion

Jorge Lorenzo of Spain was 0.12sec slower while another Spaniard, and Stoner’s Honda team-mate, Dani Pedrosa was 0.18sec adrift. Stoner, world champion in 2007, leads Lorenzo by 44 points but is not envisaging having things all his own way today. “ Today will be a very hard race,” said Stoner. Lorenzo, however, was almost resigned to having to concede more ground in the title race. “We will have to be at more than 100 percent tomorrow (Sunday) to beat the Hondas,” he said.—AFP

Taaramae wins stage SPAIN: Rein Taaramae of Cofidis won the 14th stage of the Spanish Vuelta yesterday for the 24-year-old Estonian’s first career victory in a major race.

But the big winner was Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, who extended his overall lead as a brutal mountain stage punished his main chasers.

Taaramae broke away in the final uphill push to finish the 175.8-kilometer (109.2mile) mountain course from Astorga to La Farrapona in 4 hours, 39 minutes, 1 second.

“I am very happy because throughout the Vuelta I have had a lot of bad days,” Taaramae said. “I thought about pulling out, but my team director encouraged me to continue.”

Spanish cyclist Joan Jose Cobo, of Geox, was runner up - 25 seconds behind - and moved into fourth place in the overall standings.

Defending champion Vicenzo Nibali trailed Wiggins by only four seconds ahead

of the 14th stage but dropped from second to seventh overall, after the Italian rider fell behind on the last of three mountain passes.

“During San Lorenzo (the first mountain pass) I was fine, but after the last climb I paid for my effort,” Nibali said. “I was strong but there was little time to eat. I made the mistake of not eating well.”

Wiggins is now seven seconds ahead of Sky teammate Christopher Froome, while third-place Bauke Mollema of Rabobank is 36 seconds behind the leader.

Michele Scarponi - second in this year’s Giro d’Italia - pulled out of the race early in the day, while Karsten Kroon also withdrew after the Dutch rider and Belgium’s Sep Vanmarcke crashed off the road on a steep descent. Sunday’s 142.2-kilometer (88.3mile) mountain course from Aviles to Alto de L’Angliru in the northern province of Asturias could prove decisive as the race enters its final week.—AP

GLASGOW: Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2012 were left hanging by a thread after Michal Kadlec scored a controversial last minute penalty to give the Czech Republic a 2-2 draw at Hampden Park yesterday.

Craig Levein’s side, hunting a place in the qualification play-offs, needed a victory to close the gap on the Czechs in the race to finish second behind runaway group leaders Spain.

They were in control when Darren Fletcher set up Kenny Miller to open the scoring a minute before the break. But the Czechs laid siege to the Scotland goal in the second-half and got the goal their pressure deserved when Jaroslav Pasil headed home a 78th equaliser.

A Jan Rajnoch mistake allowed Miller to cross for Fletcher to put Scotland ahead again in the 83rd minute. However, there was heartbreak for the Scots when Dutch referee Kevin Blom pointed to the spot in the 90th minute after substitute Jan Rezek went down even though replays showed Danny Wilson made no contact with his challenge.

Kadlec expertly converted the resulting penalty which leaves Scotland, who have played a game less, five points behind the Czechs in second place. “We did so many good things today. We showed great resilience and played very well at times and to lose the match through circumstances we can’t control is hard to take,” Levein said.

“The players are very angry as you can imagine after that game today as they did everything that was asked of them and still didn’t get the points.” Czech coach Michal Bilek felt his side deserved a draw and said: “We started well and the game was going in our favour. They had reasonable chances but we kept the ball well, “Scotland have one more game than us to play so we can’t say we are in the European Championship finals yet.” The Czechs soon made their presence felt when Milan Baros sent Petr Jiracek scampering down the left. The Galatasaray striker burst into the box to get on the end of his cut-back but sliced his shot over the bar.

Their impressive start continued when Tomas Rosicky floated a free-kick into the box which Rajnoch headed just over Allan McGregor’s bar.

The Czechs were claiming for a penalty when Charlie Adam appeared to barge Baros off the ball in the box but Blom waved away their protests. Scotland had failed to put debutant keeper Jan Lastuvka, in for the injured Peter Cech, under any pressure but he was finally called into action after 30 minutes when he reacted quickest to smother a headed Miller knock-down for Steven Naismith.

The home fans erupted a minute before the

GLASGOW: Czech Republic’s Michal Kadlec, celebrates his goal during their Euro 2012 Group I qualifying soccer match against Scotland at Hampden Park. —AP break when Scotland took the lead against the run of play through Miller.

Fletcher won possession outside the box and released the Cardiff City striker who took a touch before unleashing a low shot that hit Lastuvka’s leg on its way into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

The Czechs were dominating possession as Scotland tried to hang on to their lead and their

breaststroke.

Van der Burgh collected two bronze medals at the world championships in Shanghai two months ago. Kenyan Jason Dunford, who took gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly in Delhi, could f a ce a n o ther S o ut h Af r ic an, R o land S ch o e m a n , who ho lds wo r ld 50m freestyle and butterfly records.

On the track, Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan will come to Mozambique after winning gold in the men’s 10,000m at the world championships.

Compatriot Gisaw Melkam will compete in the women’s half marathon. The a tte n d a n ce o f o t her Et hio p i ans like Kenenisa Bekele in the men’s 5,000m, Gelete Burka in the women’s 1,500m and D i re Tu n e i n t he wo m en’s m ar at ho n depends on whether they are invited to a Golden League meet.

Kenya have sent a ‘B’ team to give younger athletes exposure, head of mission Charles Nyaberi said. “The best athletes went to Daegu,” said Nyaberi. “We are hoping that two or three can double up.”

S o u th Af r i c ans L J van Zy l, who bagged bronze in the 400m hurdles in Korea, and women’s world 800m champio n Ca s te r S em eny a are o t her likely absentees.—AFP

Scotland however as the Czechs were awarded a penalty in the 90th minute when Rezek went down in the box without any apparent contact from Wilson.

Kadlec made no mistake from the spot to equalise before Blom further enraged the home fans by failing to award a stoppage time penalty for a trip on Scotland defender Christophe Berra.—AFP

Agreement set to bring end to Italian strike

Star athletes skip Mozambique MAPUTO: The 10th All-Africa Games will see world-class swimmers competing in Mozambique but prominent athletes like ‘Blade runner’ Oscar Pistorius probably missing t he four -ye a rl y m u l ti - s p o r t championships.

Although delegates have praised the southern African country for its sports facilities and accommodation, events like the world athletics championships in S outh Korea and a Diamond League meet in Zurich later this month drew away many top men and women.

Mozambique are expecting 5,000 men and women from 48 countries to compete in 24 spor ts from today. S outh African swimming sensation Chad le Clos, 19, will hope to emulate his performance in the 200m butterfly in India last year, where he set a Commonwealth Games record of 1:56.48.

“He will win a few races, that ’s for sure,” his father Bert told AFP. “He has been training very hard this season.” The you n g sw i m m e r i s d u e i n M a p u to Satu rd ay w i t h t he re s t o f th e S o u th African swimmers after they visiting facilities for the 2012 London Olympics.

Th e sw i m m i ng co m pl e x a t th e Zimpeto National Stadium will also host South African Cameron van der Burgh, world record holder for 50m and 100m

pressure paid off in the 78th minute when Plasil equalised as he headed in substitute Jan Rezek’s fierce cross-shot from the right.

They held their lead for just five minutes when Fletcher fired Scotland ahead again. A slip from Rajnoch allowed Miller to race down the left and he laid the ball across goal for the Scotland captain to roll the ball home from 10 yards.

There was a devastating finale in store for

KOLKATA: Argentinean soccer player Lionel Messi rests during a practice session in Kolkata, India. The Argentinean team played a friendly match with Venezuela Friday.—AP

UEFA wait for racism report LONDON: UEFA will study their match delegate’s report before deciding whether to take action against the Bulgarian Football Federation over racist abuse during Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier with England.

Several of England’s black players were subjected to monkey noises throughout their team’s 3-0 win at the Vasil Levski Stadium, prompting English officials to complain to their Bulgarian counterparts after the match.

Bulgaria coach Lothar Matthaus was dismayed by the abuse suffered by Chris Smalling, Ashley Cole, Theo Walcott and Ashley Young and apologised after the match.

Rooney and Walcott both admitted they were aware of the abuse. “As players, we

could hear it on the pitch,” Rooney said. “It has been going on for years and it is not right. It needs to stop and hopefully something can be done about it.”

Now UEFA will assess the evidence before deciding what to do. “UEFA are aware of the situation,” a spokesman told Britain’s Press Association yesterday.

“We will study the reports, including the delegate’s report, tomorrow.” The issue of racism has been a persistent problem for England in away matches in eastern Europe.

The Football Association also demanded an international with Spain in 2009 should be played in Seville rather than Madrid after encountering racism during a previous game in the capital.—AFP

ROME: Italy’s footballers are set to sign an agreement with club presidents tomorrow that will end the current strike and allow the domestic season to start on September 9, a source close to the players’ union (AIC) revealed yesterday.

“The collective labor agreement between the players and Serie A will be signed tomorrow morning or afternoon, there are just a few small technical matters left to be resolved,” the anonymous source told Italian news agency Ansa.

The agreement is however only believed to be a temporary one that will allow football to be played while the different parties continue to discuss the terms of a new labour agreement.

There are two major sticking points to the new agreement, with the first relating to the payment of a solidarity tax and the second connected to the fate of players who are forced to train on their own when dropped from their club’s squad.

On Friday, AIC president Damiano Tommasi said he was “moderately optimistic,” with most observers in Italy beginning to believe that players and presidents were set to reach agreement.

The dispute has been ongoing since November last year, and the opening weekend of the season, due to be played on August 27 and 28, was postponed after the strike was called.

On Thursday, the clubs finally agreed a proposal by the players to sign the temporary agreement which will run through to June 30, 2012, and to give themselves 15 to 30 days to negotiate over article 7 relating to the conditions faced by players dropped from their club’s squad. The parties do appear to have reached a resolution on the payment of the solidarity tax, with the AIC agreeing that the players should pay it themselves.

However, no law as yet exists on the payment of the tax. “The conditions that the AIC demanded in order to sign the agreement are now in place,” assured the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in a statement on Friday, “so the league season should start next weekend.”—AFP

Sun down Fever in WNBA

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DAEGU: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt goes for the finish line as (from second right) USA’s Walter Dix, France’ Christophe Lemaitre, Norway’s Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, Jamaica’s Nickel Ashmeade, Brazil’s Bruno de Barros, and Trinidadís Rondel Sorrillo, compete in the Men’s 200m final at the World Athletics Championships. —AP

Bolt lights up worlds Kenya makes 1500m history DAEGU: Sprint star Usain Bolt rebounded from his 100m disqualification to scorch to 200m gold yesterday, while Asbel Kiprop won a firstever men’s 1500m title for Kenya.

The 25-year-old Jamaican defending champion and world record holder crushed the field in the 200m, winning in the fourth fastest time ever run - 19.40sec.

Only Bolt, twice, and American track legend Michael Johnson have run faster. He may have been slowest out of his blocks, but Bolt wasted no time in making up ground on American Walter Dix outside him. Coming into the home stretch, Bolt, teeth clenched and muscular arms pumping, gave one glance across the lanes and then pinned his eyes on the trackside clock at the finish and went for it.

“I feel great. I’m still the best,” said Bolt, who was disqualified from the 100m final for a false start. “After the false start on Sunday, I was

extremely disappointed not to have given myself the chance to defend my 100m title.

“The 200m represented a great opportunity for me to put it behind me and move on, and I’ve been determined to do so all week.”

Dix claimed silver in a season’s best 19.70sec with Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre coming through strong at the end to take bronze in a national record 19.80sec.

“I wanted to bring the USA the gold but it wasn’t to be, I had to console myself with silver.

He was just too strong,” Dix said of Bolt.

Earlier in the evening, a master class in middle-distance running saw Kiprop add the world 1500m title to his Olympic crown. The 22-yearold Kenyan stood firm in the sprint for home, compatriot Silas Kiplagat taking silver and American Matthew Centrowitz bronze.

Remarkably, it was the first time a Kenyan has won the 1500m event at the worlds,

although Kenyan-born Bahraini Yusuf Kamel and American Bernard Lagat (2007) are holders of the last two world titles.

“It makes me happy to be the first Kenyan to win the 1500m,” said Kiprop. “Running with Kiplagat and others gives me motivation to run next year in the London Olympics.”

Asbel and Kiplagat’s medal showings further confirmed the east African country’s status as the dominant nation in middle distance and long distance running.

“I’m happy with the medal haul,” said Kiprop.

“We’ve been trying to balance up the medals table, to win the same amount as the girls!”

Sally Pearson handed Australia a first gold, winning the 100m hurdles in a new championship record of 12.28sec, American Danielle Carruthers winning silver in a photofinish from compatriot Dawn Harper.

“I have worked so hard to get here to this,”

Wozniacki cruises as injury toll hits 18 NEW YORK: Top seed Caroline Wozniacki eased into the US Open last 16 yesterday as the injury curse which has swept through the season’s last Grand Slam claimed its 18th victim.

Wozniacki, the runner-up to Kim Clijsters in 2009, and still searching for an elusive first major, made the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over America’s world number 103 Vania King.

The Dane next faces either 15th-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion, or Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova. “It’s great to be through.

I was fighting and getting a lot of balls back. It was windy out there so it was quite difficult to play,” said Wozniacki, who has collected six tour titles in 2011.

Meanwhile, Czech ninth seed Tomas Berdych and Marcel Granollers, the Spanish 31st seed, took the tournament injury toll to 18 when they quit their third round matches.

Berdych was suffering from a right shoulder injury and needed treatment at the end of the first set against Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, which he lost 6-4, and then called it quits when he was down 5-0 in the second. Granollers, seeded for the first time at a major, was trailing Spanish compatriot and 2003 runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 4-3 when he brought proceedings to a halt with a stomach strain. Tipsarevic and Ferrero will meet for a quarter-final place. Berdych, 25, said he first felt the injury in his Cincinnati Masters quarter-final win over Roger Federer two weeks ago before it caused him to quit his semi-final against Novak Djokovic.

“I already knew there was a problem. I had it in Cincinnati, so it was a case of just trying,” he said. “I was lucky to finish the match against Roger and I felt it here again in the last round. So I didn’t hit on Friday, I just got treatment and tried to relax it.” Tipsarevic, who has reached the fourth round of the US Open for the first time, said he was keen not to ease off against Berdych despite his opponent’s

NEW YORK: Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns a shot to Vania King during the US Open tennis tournament. —AP injury. “I raised the game, I stepped inside the court, I was more aggressive, not allowing him chances to get back. I knew that if I became more and more dominant that he might think of retiring,” said Tipsarevic.

Also going through in early third round action was 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, twice a quarter-finalist.

The Italian seventh seed saved a match point before defeating South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.

Schiavone will face Russian 17th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who beat Serbian 11th seed Jelena Jankovic, the 2008 runner-up, 6-4, 6-4.

Late yesterday, men’s top seed Novak Djokovic eyes his 60th win in 62 matches this year when he tackles Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko, a semi-finalist in 2006 and 2007. Djokovic has lost just three games in his first two rounds as he bids to

win a first US Open title and add to the Australian Open and Wimbledon crowns he has already collected in his recordbreaking year.

Five-time champion Roger Federer, seeded three, bids for a last 16 place when he meets Croatian 27th seed Marin Cilic.

A win would mean the Swiss superstar will reach the fourth round for a 30th straight Grand Slam, a run which began at Wimbledon in 2004.

Three-time women’s champion Serena Williams takes a 5-1 career record over Belarusian fourth seed Victoria Azarenka into their third round encounter.

Williams has dropped just three games so far at this year’s event. In a tournament which saw former winner Maria Sharapova, French Open champion Li Na and Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova all fail to get beyond the second round, the American is now the favourite to capture a fourth US Open.—AFP

said Pearson. “I’ve got faith in my coach and I could not be happier with my training, so I’m not surprised by this win.”

There was, however, heartbreak for two defending champions, Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen.

Injury-hit Vlasic was denied a unique title hat-trick when Russian Anna Chicherova won the high jump on countback (2.03m).

And Thorkildsen was pushed into silver spot

by Matthias de Zordo in the men’s javelin, the German tyro nailing 86.27m.

After winning silver in the 400m and bronze in the 200m, Allyson Felix eventually got a gold running the second leg of the US women’s triumphant 4x400m relay team.

The morning session saw Sergey Bakulin lead Russia to a 1-2 finish in the world men’s 50km race walk to further confirm the country’s top ranking in the gruelling discipline.—AFP

Sharapova exits as Murray survives test NEW YORK: Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the US Open Friday in a shock third round loss to Flavia Pennetta, while Andy Murray was lucky to survive after being pushed to five sets by Robin Haase.

Sharapova was beaten 6-3 3-6 6-4 in the biggest upset of the tournament so far before Murray clawed his way back to defeat Haase 6-7 2-6 6-2 6-0 6-4 in the second round and avoid another early exit at the last grand slam of the year.

“You’re relieved to get through a long one like that, especially when you’re behind,” fourth seed Murray told reporters. “I’m just glad I’m in the next round and get a chance to improve and play better and give myself a chance,” added the Briton.

Defending champion Rafa Nadal strolled through to the third round when his opponent, Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, retired in the first game of the third set complaining of a stomach muscle strain with the Spaniard well in control, leading 6-2 6-2. Sharapova, who won the U.S. Open in 2006 but has not won a grand slam title since the 2008 Australian Open, became the biggest casualty of a tournament that has mostly gone according to the script.

The Russian third seed was one of the favourites to win the crown after winning a lead-up event in Cincinnati but made a whopping 60 unforced errors and served 12 double faults, including two in the final game.

“It’s disappointing to lose in New York. Losing isn’t fun for anyone because we work to win,” she said. “We don’t work to try to lose. So when we’re faced with a position where we can win and we didn’t in the end, it’s tough.”

For Pennetta, a quarter-finalist at Flushing Meadows in 2008 and 2009 who is seeded 26th, it was a moment to savour as she celebrated her victory on a baking hot day at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I think this one is one of the best victories in my career, and is gonna be like this forever,” the Italian said. “It’s a good moment. I’m really happy right now but it’s just a match. It’s over, and I have to be focused for the next one.” Pennetta’s next opponent is China’s Peng Shuai, the 13th seed, who advanced with a 6-4 7-6 win over Julia Goerges of Germany in an increasingly wide open women’s draw. None of the remaining players in the bottom half of the draw have won a grand slam title and the only two to have played in a final are last year’s runner-up, Vera Zvonareva of Russia, and Australia’s Sam Stosur.

Zvonareva, seeded second, beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4 7-5 Friday while ninth seed Stosur, a finalist at the French Open last year, outfought Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 6-7 7-5. Stosur came back from a break down in the third set after squandering two match points in the second set.

Murray, who also won in Cincinnati, was in danger of bowing out after his Dutch opponent won a first set tiebreaker and took the next set to establish control.—Reuters

Medals table DAEGU, South Korea: World Athletics Championships medal table after the eighth day of action yesterday: Country Gold 1. USA 10 2. Russia 7 3. Kenya 6 4. Jamaica 3 5. Germany 3 6. Britain 1 7. China 1 8. Australia 1 9. Ethiopia 1 10. Botswana 1 10. Brazil 1 10. Grenada 1 10. Japan 1 10. New Zealand 1 10. Poland 1 10. Ukraine 1 17. Cuba 0 18. South Africa 0 19. Belarus 0 20. Canada 0 20. Croatia 0 20. Czech R 0 20. Estonia 0 20. Hungary 0 20. Kazakhstan 0 20. Norway 0 20. Puerto Rico 0 20. Sudan 0 20. Tunisia 0 30. France 0 31. Colombia 0 32. Bahamas 0 32. Belgium 0 32. Iran 0 32. Italy 0 32. Latvia 0 32. Kitts & Nevis 0 32. Slovenia 0 32. Spain 0 32. Trinidad 0 32. Zimbabwe 0

Silver 7 4 5 3 2 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Bronze 4 6 3 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Total 21 17 14 7 6 5 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

DAEGU: Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic clears the bar in the Women’s High Jump final at the World Athletics Championships. —AP

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NEW YORK: Waya Richardson, of the Tuscarora tribe, dances outside the New York Stock Exchange during the ceremonies celebrating NativeOne becoming the exchange’s first Native American-owned member. — AP

US job growth fuels recession fears Unemployment rate steady at 9.1 percent WASHINGTON: US employment growth ground to a halt in August, reviving recession fears and piling pressure on both President Barack Obama and the Federal Reserve to provide more stimulus to aid the frail economy. For the first time in nearly a year the economy failed to create new jobs on a net basis according to the Labor Department’s monthly nonfarm payrolls survey on Friday. Economists had expected nonfarm employment to rise 75,000 last month but they cautioned against viewing the data as a surefire sign of recession.

A worsening debt crisis in Europe and an acrimonious political fight over the US government budget and debt, which led Standard & Poor’s to strip the country of its AAA credit rating, ignited a massive stock market sell-off last month and sent business and consumer confidence tumbling. “The economy is struggling against stiff headwinds, which appear to have intensified in recent months,” said Millan Mulraine, senior macro strategist at TD Securities in New York. “While it has clearly not fallen off the cliff, there is little to suggest it is anywhere close to regaining its momentum.”

Investors fled riskier assets on the news, sending stocks tumbling, pushing up the price of gold, and lowering US Treasury bond yields. Employment was dampened by 45,000 striking workers at Verizon Communications. Those workers have since returned to work and will be counted as on the payroll in September. But even taking that into account the report was largely bleak. The unemployment rate, however, held at 9.1 percent as a survey of households found both job growth and, for the first time in a year, an expanding labor force.

With the jobless rate stuck above 9.0 percent and confidence collapsing, President Barack Obama faces pressure to come up with ways to spur job creation. The health of the labor market could determine whether he wins re-election next year. Obama will lay out a new jobs plan in a speech to the nation on Thursday, and White House advisers said the data underscored a need for action. “He will be very specific about what we can do that can have a meaningful impact on job growth in the economy right away,” Gene Sperling, a top economic adviser to Obama, told Reuters Insider. Obama

China seeks Libyan guarantees BEIJING: Beijing has asked Libya’s new rulers to guarantee Chinese business interests in the north African country, despite not supporting the military action that helped bring them to power. China is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council yet to formally recognize the Transitional National Council and repeatedly opposed NATO’s use of force in support of the rebels during recent fighting. In talks in Paris on Friday with Mahmud Jibril, the number two in the transitional authority, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said he “respected the important role of the TNC in Libya”. He added that China stood “ready to maintain close contacts to promote friendly Chinese-Libyan relations”, according to a statement on the website of the Chinese embassy in France.

But he also asked Jibril to guarantee the interests of Chinese companies in Libya amid fears in Beijing that Libya’s new government may give preferential treatment to Western countries that supported the rebels. China, which long helped prop up the Gaddafi regime, has invested billions of dollars in rail, oil and telecoms in Libya, and has commercial and strategic reasons for not wanting Western countries to exert too

much influence there. “China is ready to grant reconstruction aid to Libya... and hopes that the TNC will take into account China’s concerns, respect its commitments and guarantee the interests of Chinese business interests in Libya,” he added. Zhai represented Beijing as an observer at talks in Paris on Thursday at which the international community agreed to free up billions of dollars’ worth of Libyan assets to help the country’s new rulers.

Jibril told Zhai the interim authorities would take whatever measures were necessary to protect Chinese citizens and property in Libya, the statement said. According to a previous commerce ministry statement, China has 50 large-scale projects worth at least $18.8 billion in Libya. The state Xinhua news agency late last month urged Libya’s new leaders to protect foreign assets and honor business contracts and projects signed with the Gaddafi government.

China, a major oil importer, needs to secure stable supplies of the resource to help keep its huge economy moving. The North African state produced about 1.6 million barrels per day of oil before the rebellion broke out, but output has since slowed to a trickle. — AFP

on Friday withdrew new rules to limit smog pollution that businesses had argued would kill jobs and cost them billions of dollars. The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, said it was time for political cooperation “to end the uncertainty facing families and small businesses, and create a better environment for long-term economic growth.”

Eyes on the Fed Despite massive cash injections by both the government and the Fed, sustainable job growth has eluded the economy. “The entire recovery has been a recovery in name only. The Achilles heel ... has always been the lack of job creation,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.

The data could strengthen the hand of officials at the Fed who wanted to do more to help the sputtering economy in August. The economy needs to generate about 150,000 jobs each month just to keep the unemployment rate steady over time.

The central bank, which meets on Sept 20-21, cut overnight interest rates to near zero in December 2008 and has bought $2.3

trillion in securities to inject cash into the economy. Despite simmering inflation pressures, many economists expect the Fed to launch a third round of bond buying soon to put downward pressure on long-term rates, partly because the federal government appears intent on belt-tightening.

“Even the inflation hawks have to be concerned by this report,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “With fiscal policy at all levels of government restraining growth, the Fed is the only game in town.”

Expectations of further Fed action drove the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note below 2.0 percent. The US dollar rose on safe-haven flows, while the S&P 500 stock index fell 2.53 percent.

Underlying pace of job growth weak While employment was held back by the Verizon strike, the impact was offset somewhat by the return of 23,000 public employees in Minnesota after a partial government shutdown. Stripping out both of those factors, employment would have expanded by more than 20,000 jobs last month and, with-

out the strike, private payrolls would have increased by 62,000, instead of a paltry 17,000. Still, the overall tenor of the report was decidedly weak. Employers created a combined 58,000 fewer jobs in June and July than previously thought, and the length of the average workweek fell 0.1 hour to 34.2 hours, the fewest since January. In addition, average hourly earnings dropped three cents. About 43 percent of the 14 million Americans unemployed in August had been out of work for at least six months. The jobless rate would have been 16.2 percent if people who want to work but have given up looking for jobs and those working only part time for economic reasons were counted.

Although hiring cooled, fairly steady readings on claims for jobless benefits, relatively strong consumer spending and continued demand for manufactured goods offer hope the economy will avoid recession.

Analysts say the economy should pick up steam from here, although they warn the recovery is so weak that any fresh shock could send it tumbling. In the first half of the year, the economy expanded at less than a 1.0 percent annual rate. — Reuters

Experts downbeat on global economy CERNOBBIO: Business leaders and finance experts gathered in Italy have offered a downbeat assessment of the global economy - with several predicting another recession due to a calamitous cocktail of sluggish growth, eurozone dysfunction, and financial market volatility. The year’s events - from natural disasters and violent uprisings to fears of debt defaults - have not only sent shock waves through the financial world but also caused a slump in confidence among consumers and industry.

“There is a significant probability of a double-dip recession,” New York University economist Nouriel Roubini said Friday in opening remarks that lived up to his nickname of “Dr Doom” - earned for forecasting a financial crisis years before the 2008 crash, even as many reveled in the boom times. On this occasion Roubini seemed to reflect prevailing sentiment at the annual Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of an overcast Lake Como - although some felt that at least the emerging economies and a few countries in northern Europe would do fine. Much of the concern focused on the United States.

“The numbers that we’ve seen recently for the US on manufacturing, on construction, on consumers’ sentiment tell me that the odds

have gotten much greater that the US is going to continue to decline and that we are going to be in a formal recession before the end of the year,” Harvard University economic professor Martin Feldstein, a member of the President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, told the Associated Press.

Roubini blamed the mostly unexpected events of 2011 - the Arab Spring fueling oil prices, the turmoil in Greece spreading through Europe, the Japanese natural disasters upsetting global supply chains and “significant worries about the US system and the political fight (over the debt ceiling) between the Democrats and the Republicans.”

Because of this series of shocks, he estimated advanced economies had reached a stall speed of around 1 percent annual growth, a figure that is lower than official expectations in many countries. Roubini said that governments and central banks, which have already made multitrillion-dollar stimulus moves, had no more “bullets.” The gathering opened amid growing concerns over a slowdown in manufacturing - the main pillar of growth in developed economies in the years since the global financial crisis - and about European banks’ exposure to sovereign debt. — AP

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KFH inks MoU with Turkish companies

NBK congratulates new Singapore President KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) congratulated its International Advisory Board (IAB) member Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam on being elected President of Singapore. Dr Tan has served on NBK’s IAB since its inception in 2007 and most recently served as the deputy chairman and executive director of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.

The Singapore Presidential elections were held Aug 27.

“We would like to congratulate Dr Tan on his electoral victory. We also thank him for his important contribution to the International Advisory Board,” said NBK Group CEO Ibrahim S Dabdoub.

“Dr Tan’s vast knowledge and experience will be a great asset to the future of Singapore and we have been lucky to have him with us at NBK.” NBK is the only Arab bank to host an International Advisory Board. The 21 member board includes world recognized political leaders, businessmen, bankers and economists including for-

Talks to execute some developmental projects: Al-Ghanem

Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam mer British Prime Minister Sir John Major, HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal AlSaud, World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, Pimco CEO and co-CIO Mohamed El Erian and Reliance Industries Limited Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani.

NBK’s Watani Online draw announces KD1,000 winner KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently conducted the second draw of its first-of-its-kind “Use Watani Online and Win” campaign that rewards customers with KD1,000 weekly for banking online.

Mohammed Ali Hafeez, winner of the second draw prize, said: “Watani Online allows me to manage my banking transactions such as transfers, payments, online statement requests, new account opening and much more. It’s convenient and secure and I love using it.” NBK will host a total of eight draws over the course of eight weeks to give customers a chance

to use Watani Online. Customers who use Watani Online (www.nbk.com) to perform their banking transactions including account-to-account 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 KD1,000 weekly. The campaign is designed to reward customers who do their banking with Watani Online. The aim is to encourage new customers to join the high-tech, secure, convenient and free online banking channel provided by the safest bank in the Middle East.

KUWAIT: Kuwait Finance House (KFH) subsidiar y company the Kuwaiti Manager Holding Company signed a memorandum of understanding with a Turkish consortium that Eksim, Renaissance, and Acibandem companies, in order to collaborate in the field of construction; especially since the Turkish companies are highly experienced in various economy sectors.

KFH’s CEO Mohammed Al-Omar stressed that KFH is willing to take part in the planned governmental development projects through financing Kuwaiti companies, or by executing projects through its subsidiary companies. He noted that KFH gives great importance to governmental expenditure that is considered to be a major pillar in boosting the national economy; thus directly affecting the capital, laborers, commodities market, and the real estate field that witnesses a boost in construction, selling, and renting. He went on to say that this agreement reflects the good image of KFH Group, which allows it to get involved in alliances with major global companies; thus serving as an added value to the national economy.

Furthermore, he stated that KFH celebrates signing the agreement with important Turkish companies that operate in the construction field. He added that such collaboration will benefit the Kuwaiti Manager that seeks to execute major projects that are part of the development plan. He revealed that those companies have been rated as A at governmental authorities, which allows them to offer world class services.

KUWAIT: Kuwait Finance House officials are pictured with the Turkish companies’ officials.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Manager ’s Chairman Shaheen Al-Ghanem hoped that this agreement would benefit the company in the experience, logistic fields, studies, and reports; thus allowing the company to get involved in new projects and to increase its market share. He went on to say that the company is considering several projects in the field of construction, but explained that each company has experience in certain projects, which will expose the company to various experiences he noted that the company has six other companies that work in important fields that support the company, such as Kuwaiti Manager for Real Estate, Kuwaiti Manager for Management of Real Estate

Projects, and AC company RASCO. He noted that the Kuwaiti Manager has agreements with major international companies that will be cemented by the new agreement, not to mention the fact that the company was awarded the ISO 2000:9001 in quality from Lloyd’s international company. The Turkish companies were represented by Abdullah Tivnikli - Chairman - Eksim Group, Ufuk Guner - Deputy CEO - Eksim Investment Holding, Erman Ilcak - Chairman Renaissance Group, Cengiz Turkmen - COO Renaissance Group, Sedat Ar tukoglu General Manager - Acibadem Project Management Company, and Yalcin Nak Deputy CEO. - Acibandem Group.

KFH offers best online banking services KUWAIT: Kuwait Finance House (KFH) won Best Online Banking Services award from Global Finance magazine, since it offers its clients various banking services online using advanced technology on kfh.com, in addition to other means, such as iPhones.

Marketing and Public Relations Manager at KFH Fahad Al-Mukhaizeem stated that the award underscores KFH’s leadership in offering online banking services and solutions to its clients in Kuwait and overseas. He added that such a leading status encourages KFH to make more investments in the field of technology, in order to offer world-class services to its clients. He revealed that KFH was the first Islamic bank to setup a website, which makes it an authority for those interested in Islamic banking around the

globe; especially that the website offers services in various banking sectors.

Moreover he explained that the website is user friendly, where clients can perform simple banking operations, and can also perform complicated transactions. KFH offers over 150 free services online, and takes advantage of social networking sites, where it offered secure banking services for clients using those sites. It is worth noting that KFH’s IT Sector is based on service oriented architecture to launch advanced systems, where this technology assists in integrating KFH’s technological infrastructure; thus speeding work process. The magazine had applauded KFH’s constant efforts to upgrade its banking business through reinforcing online banking services.

Fahad Al-Mukhaizeem

German FDP slams blow to euro

KUWAIT: The winner Mohammed Ali Hafeez receives the prize from NBK Public Relations Officer Yaqoub Al-Baqer.

BERLIN: The interruption of talks between Greece and international lenders on a new aid tranche is a blow to the stability of Europeís currency, the deputy leader of Germany’s junior coalition partners said yesterday. Christian Lindner, general secretary of the Free Democrats, (FDP) junior coalition partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right government, said Athens was endangering European solidarity. “The breakdown of talks between the Troika and Greece is a blow to the

stability of the euro,” he said at a news conference in Berlin.

Referring to Greece’s failure to meet deficit targets set in exchange for a second bailout package, Lindner said Athens was shirking responsibilities to which it had agreed. “This is not about non-binding statements of intent, but contractually secured reciprocity for the emergency loans,” he said. “We insist these agreements are observed.”

Talks between Greece and the EU, IMF and ECB were put on hold

on Friday after disagreement over why Athens has fallen behind schedule in cutting its budget deficit and what it must do to catch up. The unplanned early departure of senior inspectors from the three bodies showed tension between Athens and its lenders over reforms, as clouds gathered over the second bailout package aiming to pull the country out of a severe debt crisis.

The pro-business FDP styles itself as a defender of the German taxpayer, a stance Lindner reiter-

ated in his statement over Greece. “Taxpayers in Northern Europe and especially Germany cannot accept inability or reluctance. In the eyes of the FDP, Greece must reaffirm its will for stability and reform.”

“Mediation or postponements are no longer acceptable for us. The heads of the IMF and euro countries should therefore travel to Athens immediately to obtain binding declarations toward the fulfillment of the agreed goals.” —Reuters

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

.2695000 .4420000 .3920000 .3310000 .2750000 .2850000 .0040000 .0020000 .0734970 .7160490 .3810000 .0700000 .7011640 .0040000 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2712500 GB Pound/KD .4444300 Euro .3944250 Swiss francs .3333540 Canadian dollars .2772950 Danish Kroner .0529350 Swedish Kroner .0433340 Australian dlr .2877420 Hong Kong dlr .0348060 Singapore dlr .2246000 Japanese yen .0035360 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0738800 Bahraini dinars .7197820 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0723530 Omani riyals .7048200 Philippine Peso .0000000

.2760000 .4550000 .4010000 .3440000 .2850000 .2950000 .0072500 .0035000 .0749140 .7298540 .4010000 .0760000 .7146820 .0072000 .0530000 .2733500 .4478700 .3974780 .3359350 .2794420 .0533450 .0436700 .2899700 .0350760 .2263390 .0035630 .0060010 .0024950 .0031470 .0037190 .0744520 .7253550 .3866340 .0729130 .7102770 .0065080

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 3.632 5.917 3.130 2.476 3.710 227.330 35.009

GCC COUNTRIES 72.776 74.986 705.730 724.860 74.312

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 47.250 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 45.801 Yemen Riyal 1.243 Tunisian Dinar 201.540 Jordanian Dinar 385.390 Lebanese Lira 183.100 Syrian Lier 5.892 Morocco Dirham 35.383 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 272.800 Euro 396.950 Sterling Pound 450.800 Canadian dollar 282.400 Turkish lire 156.000 Swiss Franc 344.880 Australian dollar 288.300 US Dollar Buying 273.500 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees

293.100 724.760 3.820 281.600 535.300 36.300 53.400 167.800 46.710 400.000 35.630 6.260

0.033 0.239 0.237 3.650 386.630 0.184 93.880 47.100 4.200 234.100 1.848 50.900 707.820 3.230 6.580 75.390 72.760 227.370 40.700 2.610 451.200 43.200 342.600 5.600 9.510 198.263 74.300 272.900 1.210

0.033

385.150 0.183 93.880 3.730 232.000

341.100 5.600 9.570 74.200 272.500

291.600 724.760 3.655 280.100

227.400 45.764 398.500 35.480 5.950

Rate for Transfer

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Currency

Selling Rate

272.550 277.275 447.255 397.420 338.155 722.620 74.180 74.180 72.640 383.640 45.781 2.474 5.916

3.145 3.647 6.408 668.530 3.650 9.200 5.740 3.795 90.532

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 449.200 272.500

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

SELL DRAFT

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. 707.640 3.150 6.445 74.960 72.760 227.370 40.700 2.475 449.200

GOLD 1,866.830

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Bahrain Exchange Company SELL CASH

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 337.000 171.000 88.000

COUNTRY

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

3.643 6.441 9.102 0.271 0.273

272.400 3.140 5.960 2.490 3.660 6.445 74.265 72.790 724.200 45.775 452.000 0.00003280 3.910 1.550 387.000 5.750 401.600 284.300

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)

272.300 397.500 449.000 279.000 3.580 5.917 45.800 2.474 3.650 6.410 3.140 725.000 74.225 72.750

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Elliott Wave Principles in Action applied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average

By Kamel Mansour

B

elieve it or not! The Dow Jones Industrial Average at 16,000 marks end of 2012! Is it a fantasy or a reality in the midst of mixed and fairly negative sentiments in the global markets? This article will delve, in depth, into the analysis of the Dow Jones Industrial Average using Elliott Wave Principles. It is a continuation of the series “Elliott Wave Principles in Action”. The Index quotes 30 blue chip public companies to give a broad reflection of corporate industry in the US. It may be regarded by some as unrepresentative of the whole industry, yet it is still perceived as “The Indicator” of the mass psychologies and their perceptions of the direction of the global economy.

Many throughout the decades have ventured into the study of the stock market to unravel the secrets of this mysterious domain fueled by the present and expected psychology of human behavior in order to establish entry and exit targets for maximum profits with controlled risk. Ralph Nelson Elliott was one of the few whose methodology had withstood the course of time.

I want to re-iterate that I have expanded on one of these Principles, the only additional approach I devised and invented outside the original Elliott parameters. It was the re-plotting of full data series in a new graphical methodology that discounted the inflation factor embedded throughout the price history since the Great US Industrial Revolution. The Dow Index will soon bottom and resume its final upward trend as a continuation of the corrective phase that commenced in March 2009.

With a high probability, the market will test the All Time High of July 2007 prices and more.

Ralph Nelson Elliott (1871-1948) During the 1930’s, RN Elliott discovered a rhythm in the market which he called “The Wave Principle”. Unlike the common cycle theories, the Wave Principle was not based on fixed periodicities of recurring cycles, but rather was founded on repetitive Patterns which did not pay heed to time in as much as it adhered to Forms. Elliott first published his findings of “The Wave Principle” in a series of articles in the Financial World in 1939. Seven years later, his grand oeuvre and final publication was “Nature’s Law” which delved more into mysticism to elucidate the rationale behind his Principle. Elliott redefined the approach of speculative markets to reformulate the random events into a harmonized, well-defined structure. He handed down a trading system to steer the path of investors through the market waves. “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails” - Bertha Calloway.

The Wave Principle A Wave is a movement in the market upward or downward until it is interrupted by another movement in the opposite direction. Each completed wave becomes a sub wave of a larger wave of the next higher degree. It can range from tick by tick intervals up to centuries long. Elliott classified, with ingenuity, the degrees as follows, in an ascending order: Subminuette, Minuette, Minute, Minor (m), Intermediate (i), Primary (p), Cycle (c), Super Cycle (sc), Grand Super Cycle (gsc).

Various Elliotticians have different practical classifications of the various waves but, in the end, they all consent to the fact that any five impulsive or up-move will finish the next higher Wave 1 which is then followed by a reaction of three corrective or down-moves to end Wave 2 and then up, down and up till Wave 5 is terminated. Henceforth, it will constitute Wave I of a larger degree. The largest of the waves is the Grand Super Cycle.

In the normal market jargon of our daily life, a bull market defines an up-move and a bear market indicates either a correction or a down-move.

What sets the Wave Principle aside and ahead is primarily its characteristics of design and form. The waves take shape and thence, a pattern emerges which allows one to judge the probable impact of future amplitude and time with some degree of accuracy. If one accurately defines the start of a new move then the end of the second (corrective) wave of the same degree that follows, one knows that the next wave will make up the third wave that shall be more or less comparable in its degree to that of the first which shall pose no major danger of risk of reversal. In such a circumstance, investment decisions and trade positions can be taken with minimal risk and equanimity, only if one is knowledgeable of Elliott Wave Principles.

A completed Bull market cannot consist of three waves, it must consist of five waves and if one finds three divisions in an up-wave, the formation has not yet completed and there are two more legs to undergo which can be translated into one more bull and another bear moves. Impulse waves can extend more than their normal five waves to indicate the market has impetus to go further to add on an extra four waves to its pattern and, if the market is still filled with momentum, this strength will push for another additional new set of four waves.

It is like a rocket whereby the first stage of the extension has its own engine and propellant to advance it up. Similarly, the second stage also has its own booster. The final extended period is always thronged with hefty speculation and entrenched with bubbles, such as the Internet Bubble at the turn of the second millennium.

The Wave may extend or shorten in form as a result of political, economical, governmental, social or even ecological news and may take ample time to allow the investors to decide where the market is heading, but the shape is unchanged irrespective of the type of the move whether corrective or impulsive. Corrections are of different types but one thing for sure, they retain the 3 wave structure no matter which degree they are in the cycle. All smaller sub consolidations will be composed of sets of 3s of each of these categories: 3 Minors, 3 Intermediates, 3 Primaries and then 3 Cycles to complete the Super Cycle. They are like strata of Patterns that have to be built up to attain the final Main Consolidation Form.

In order not to digress into their complicated ramifications, the Inverted Zig-Zag, for instance, is a term given to the 5-3-5 set of corrective waves in a downward trend. The market moves in a five waves opposite the main down trend followed by a three corrective waves in the direction of the main down trend which should not cover the whole ground of the first five waves. Thereafter, it ends with a five wave move to finish the pattern.

Why 5-3 Wave Structure?

Fibonacci, an Italian Mathematician, disclosed in the 13th Century a Summation Series that started with these numbers: 1,1,2,3,5,8 et... whereby the sum of the previous two digits equaled the next upper digit, ad infinitum. You may notice that the 5-3 structure is from this series and, for those who are into esoteric reasoning, the human body reveals these recurring 5-3 patterns. The human body has 5 extremities: 2 arms, 2 legs and a head. Each arm and leg has three divisions. Each finger has three parts except for the index.

Elliott Wave Principles vis-a-vis the Market The market is influenced by a myriad of global factors since the world has become uniquely interrelated and integrated as one order. These factors are wars, threats of wars, peace, promises of peace, economic recessions and depressions, economic recoveries and promises to economic recoveries, pronounce-

ments by industry and union leaders, by government officials, inflation, deflation, interest rates and their prospects, jobless rates, consumer confidence, natural calamities, cosmic showers, astrological interconnection with daily behavior on our lives, guru selling or buying on insider information, etc... In addition to the extraneous factors, our daily family life adds heat, such as more savings versus less saving, partial or full liquidation of stocks to pay the taxes or settle mortgage payments, divorce disputes, etc... The list never finishes.

For an average daily investor, the information is heard in the daily media in all its facets where the rumors and the facts are already discounted in the market. They become yesterday’s news. The investor is not equipped with sophisticated and costly systems to try to discount all these factors to the present in order to take a decisive judgment how the market will change its direction to move “his or her way”. Don’t we all desire this daunting ultimatum to know what is next?

The consequence of all these incalculable current and future events is, in fact, embedded in the market prices which develop into Forms. These random noises usually elongate or shorten the movement but never alter the original direction of the market. Stock, commodity and currency market prices are created not by facts, but the sum total of what people think about these facts. How can one explain the undervaluation of the 19481950 or the overvaluation of 1928-1929?

Good news will extend the market when it is going upward, whereas bad news in an upward market will just be a correction. The building process is a socio-economic one, better described by economists as the “up-wave” and the demolition process is known as the “down-wave”. Elliott’s methodology will guide the investor to anticipate the moves by adhering to his rules and its techniques. Many who have been able to decipher its language kept discrete as the information was too valuable to disseminate to the public; others have ventured and were discouraged since the exception to the rules were more than the rules themselves.

Elliott’s first telegram to mark the beginning of a grandiose movement of the 20th century came few hours after the end of wave 2 of the move from 1932 where the market sentiments were at their doldrums.

Post World War I and during the 1920s, the Dow had witnessed one of the greatest movements in the market. It was the final leg of the Super Cycle that commenced in 1857. The whole world at that time was plunged into chaos to rebuild their devastated land and industries. The end of the move was marked

with rampant speculation that a bubble formed. Has the investor learnt anything from these final waves since then?

Zilch! Nada! People forgot easily and history repeated itself in the final wave up during the Fifth and Final Cycle of Super Cycle 5 that commenced in 1932 where earning powers were outrageously skyrocketing and inflation was abnormal. These Final Waves got different argot in the midst of investors: the Bubbles.

The vernacular I named them was “the supreme climax of ecstasy”.

The years 1857 and 1932 were filled with virtually dark future, insurmountable gloom and deep depression with no alternative investment refuge to resort in the financial world.

Stock prices were rock bottom. In 1956, many believed that the market topped and that a new bear market had begun, but the waves count did not support a major reversal. The market continued its bullish trend till 1964. The economic recession of 1973-1974 was the most severe depression since the 1930s. It was believed to be attributable to the oil crisis. This period marked the end of the Fourth Cycle of Super Cycle 5 of the 20th Century. If the long wave cycle of economic life repeats itself, those who are unprepared will suffer hardship, so will anyone who is unable to prepare for the crunch. But anyone who can anticipate what lies ahead and plans accordingly could gain the opportunity of a lifetime. Elliott has fitted the facts of life to become the “Global Positioning System” of the market to guide the dedicated follower through an unchartered territory.

The Dow and Elliott in Time - A Recap with a New Look For every five wave impulsive moves upward, three corrective waves follow and the whole form is of growth. It was believed that the stock market breathed life during the Great Industrial Revolution in 1776. Since then, it has moved in 5 distinctly delineated Super Cycle Waves that ended in 1999 accompanied with two major depressions along the way that spanned from year 1835 to year 1857 down by 39% and from year 1929 till year 1932 down by 45% measured according to the newly re-plotted data. The Waves can be classified as follows: Grand Super Cycle 1 (gsc1) - 1776 to 1999 was composed of the following Super Cycle waves: Super Cycle 1 (sc1) - 1776 to 1835 Super Cycle 2 (sc2) - 1835 to 1857 Super Cycle 3 (sc3) - 1857 to 1928 (with an Irregular top in 1929) Super Cycle 4 (sc4) - 1928 to 1932 Super Cycle 5 (sc5) - 1932 to 1999 and was composed of the following Cycle waves: Cycle 1 (c1) - 1932 to 1937 Cycle 2 (c2) - 1937 to 1942 Cycle 3 (c3) - 1942 to 1964 Cycle 4 (c4) - 1964 to 1974 Cycle 5 (c5) - 1974 to 1999 and was composed of the following Primary Waves: Primary 1 (p1) - 1974 to 1976 Primary 2 (p2) - 1976 to 1980 Primary 3 (p3) - 1980 to 1986 Primary 4 (p4) - 1986 to 1988 Primary 5 (p5) - 1988 to 1999 and was composed of the following Intermediate Waves: Intermediate 1 (i1) - 1988 to 1990 Intermediate 2 (i2) - 1990 to 1990 Intermediate 3 (i3) - 1990 to 1997 and was composed of the

following Minor Waves: Minor 1 (m1) - 1990 to 1992 Minor 2 (m2) - 1992 to 1994 Minor 3 (m3) - 1994 to 1996 Minor 4 (m4) - 1996 to 1997 Minor 5 (m5) - 1997 to 1997 Intermediate 4 (i4) - 1997 to 1998 Intermediate 5 (i5) - 1998 to 1999 Grand Super Cycle 2 (gsc2) - from December 1999 and is expected to go on till first half of the third decade of the 21st Century and is composed of the following Cycle Waves: Cycle 1 (c1) - from December 1999 and is expected to complete its formation when the Dow hits 3,200 by 2015 and is composed of the following Primary Waves: Primary 1 (p1) - December 1999 to March 2009 Primary 2 (p2) - from March 2009 and is expected to complete its formation in December 2012. It is composed of the following Intermediate Waves: Intermediate 1 (i1) - March 2009 to May 2011 Intermediate 2 (i2) - May 2011 to approximately September or October 2011 Intermediate 3 (i3) - Approximately September or October 2011 to approximately December 2012 Primary 3 (p3) - From an approximate date of December 2012 till an approximate date end of year 2015 Few critical factors to focus upon in this new approach analysis: The very long term upper channel bounded by the Peaks of 1835 and 1929 was touched in 1999 which marked the End of the Biggest Wave since 1776 known as the First Grand Super Cycle (gsc1).

Three Corrective Waves have commenced from 1999 whose time and price should overcome any correction previously witnessed since 1776. The Third Impulse or the Fifth Super Cycle (sc5) started in 1932 where many believed that the Fifth Super Cycle commenced in 1942 or even 1949. Based on the newly plotted historic prices, I strongly believe that the Fifth Super Cycle cannot be called a Fifth Super Wave had we commenced at either of these latter two dates. To ear-mark the Fifth Super Cycle, it should commence in 1932; a date justified by very, very few Elliotticians during the 20th Century but not Elliott who marked 1942 as the onset of the Fifth Super Cycle. But he could have changed his mind had he witnessed the final waves in the Grand Super Cycle.

During the last stage before 1999, two extensions occurred.

The first extension commenced during 1993 and 1994 between a range of 3,230 and 3,825 followed by a second and final extension during 1996 and 1997 between a range of 6,310 and 6,625 before the Orthodox and Final High in year 1999 was attained. These extension ranges were decisive and should be crucial key elements for the Support on the way down whereby the First Support was reached in March 2009 at 6,440 level on the Dow and the Second Support is yet to be fulfilled, not immediately, but pursuant to the end of this current upward correction that commenced in March 2009 that is expected to top by end of year 2012.

Where is the Dow Heading? The Micro Picture The current wave in the making that commenced in March 2009 and topped in May 2011 formed the first five sub waves. It was the First Intermediate (i1) of the Second Primary (p2). There is no place for a five waves in an upward reaction unless it is an Inverted Zig Zag (5-3-5 wave structure) which is one of the most predictable indicators in Elliott Principles and yet the safest to enter the market on the termination of its middle 3 sub waves reaction that is still in the making prior to the ensuing five and final sub waves that have not yet commenced.

Since May 2011, the Second Intermediate (m2) has been developing into a three sub waves where the first sub wave from May 2011 was clearly non impulsive in nature; an indication that the market has not yet changed its main corrective upward direction from March 2009.

If we calculate the 38.2% retracement of the length of the move from March 2009 to May 2011, it will give us a level of 9,900 on the Dow; a level close to the lows of July and August 2010. The market bottomed on August 8, 2011 at 10,444 marks.

The movement since August 8, 2011 has not been impulsive nor has the movement from the retracement low on August 21, 2011. This signals that the market is still in the corrective mode since May 2011. What strengths this correction concept is the time factor where the movement from May 2011 should overcome the largest corrective time in that particular wave between April 26, 2011 and August 30, 2011 which lasted 18 weeks.

The Third Intermediate (i3) will soon commence. It will be shorter in both time and price targets than the First Intermediate (i1) which will signal grave weakness in the ensuing market; an indicator to swiftly push the market downward thereafter to new lows lower than the levels seen in March 2009.

The Super Cycle Macro Picture Since 1999, the market started its Super Cycle Wave Consolidation. Of the Three Primaries, the First Primary (p1) was a Flat which ended at 6,440 in March 2009. The Second Primary (p2) is expected to consolidate till year end 2012 which will be 13 years from the Orthodox High of 1999. The latter is expected to cover the whole area to the top; a trait of the Double Retracement.

The Inverted Zig-Zag in the Second Primary (p2) will alternate with the Flat in the First Primary (p1). The Final and Third Primary (p3) will be a five wave structure that will take us down to the beginning of the Extension in 1993, the 3,200 mark on the Dow to finish the First Cycle in the Grand Super Cycle 2 (gsc2) correction. The latter Wave is spreading its bearish roots and slowly seeping its negative sentiments in the market. From

year 1999 and with the first 3 set of Primaries completed at a level of 3,200 by year 2015, it will finish the First Cycle of the 3 Cycle set.

Fibonacci and the Divine Proportion The Divine Proportion, or better known as the Golden rule, was extensively used by Greeks in their art to give beauty, harmony and balance in architecture and design. This was the famous Phi = 1.6180. It was also recognized as the Fibonacci ratio where the division of the higher Fibonacci integer to the immediate preceding integer would give Phi. Fibonacci ratios and digits play an important role in Elliott Analysis. The final 5 wave upward reaction to complete the current Inverted Zig Zag is expected to be satisfied by year 2015 which will happen to be 13 years from the low in 2002 and 8 years from the high in 2007.

Using the re-plotted figures, if we multiple 1.618 by the distance from March 2009 to the expected terminal top of the Inverted Zig Zag and then subtract it from that terminal Top, we will end at 3,660 marks on the Dow which happens to be in the range of the first extension of the Final Cycle 5 of the Super Cycle 5 of the Grand Super Cycle 1. The structure of the five waves envisaged in the ensuing Third Primary (p3) 5 waves after the completion of the Inverted Zig Zag is expected to have the following Intermediate price swings and based on the re-plotted data: Intermediate 1 (i1) - 16,000 to 9,600 The first reaction after the top is reached should overcome in price, the last reaction in the preceding upswing which will happen to be in the range 9,900 and 9,600 Intermediate 2 (i2) - 9,600 to 13,200 (61.8% of Intermediate 1) Intermediate 3 (i3) - 13,200 to 5,000 The psychological level 5,000 was the end of wave 4 of the Third Minor of the Third Intermediate of the Fifth Primary of the Fifth Cycle of the Fifth Super Cycle. Such waves are resting stages in a declining market. If we take 1.382 of Intermediate 1 and deduct the result from 13,200, we end up with 5,765 which is a close call for the 5,000 marks.

Intermediate 4 (i4) - 5,000 to 6,850 This is in line with Intermediate 2 and also near the bottom of March 2009 at 6,440 which will become a Resistance on the upside.

Intermediate 5 (i5) - 6,850 to 3,200 This is the final target which was the beginning of the First Extension in Primary 5 of Cycle 5 of Super Cycle 5 of Grand Super Cycle 1.

3,200 on the Dow! - A Dream or an Eventual Veracity The market is a balance of forces between bulls and bears whose key elements are price amplitude and time scale. Since 1999, a Major Consolidation commenced which, when measured both in time and price, would eventually surpass all previous reactions.

In time, this Consolidation had, by March 2009, exceeded all the previous corrections since 1932, an indication that the overall market was undeniably bound to move downward. In terms of amplitude, the Second Cycle (c2) from 1937 to 1942 retraced 43% of the First Cycle (c1). It was the maximum retracement of the move from 1932 to 1999. If this percentage were applied to the amplitude ranging from 1932 to the All Time High in July 2007, the market would end at around a Dow level of 3,100.

Moreover, the beginning of the Extension in 1993 provided a base at around 3,200, making this level mark in the Dow a Very Strong Support for the First Cycle Retracement that started in year 1999. This retracement on the way down will be inevitable when the Final Fifth Wave from 1988 extended twice on the way up.

The Cycle Wave Subsequent to 3,200 Marks There are two scenarios that will take place during the post level 3,200 on the Dow. The first scenario (Scenario 1) bases itself on Elliott’s axiom that the extension in the fifth of the fifth wave will Double Retrace to cover all the grounds back to the top and, in this case, it is the Top of July 2007.

The second scenario (Scenario 2) is that the market will be very weak that the impetus to push it back to the Top of July 2007 will not be sufficient and will therefore, extend the C wave downward in the same manner as the market witnessed on the way up for the last Primary 5 of Cycle 5 of Super Cycle 5.

Consequently, the Primaries will be relabeled to Cycles in Scenario 2.

Dow 1,000 - 1,500 in First Half of 2020’s In both scenarios previously noted, the Major and Final Bear Wave to correct all the years since the Industrial Revolution will unfold its gruesome nature and it will be either 5 waves in nature (Scenario 1) or 9 or 13 waves (Scenario 2). With This Final Bear Phase, the market will finish its 3-set Cycles and will be the end of the Grand Super Cycle 2 (gsc2) for Scenario 1 or the end of Super Cycle 1 of the Grand Super Cycle 2 for Scenario 2. In order to comprehend its economic severity, the two great depressions that ended in both years of 1857 and 1932 should suffice to alert the investor what to expect.

The Fourth Cycle (c4) of the Fifth Super Cycle (sc5) of the Grand Super Cycle 1 posted a range 570 - 1,070 on the Dow which was, and has always been, a logical stopping area for the Dow during its life. This range is more emphasized by the previous major Dow Retracements that bottomed in years 1857 and 1932 which moved down between a minimum of 39% and a maximum of 45% of their respective previous Impulsive Super Cycles.

If we apply these two percentages to the final amplitude from 1932 to July 2007, we will obtain a range 520 - 750 marks on the Dow. We notice that the years 2020 and 2021 are important Fibonacci dates when taken from crucial previous market Bottoms or Tops. Super Cycle 5 (sc5) in Top 1999 + 22 year {(maximum time of all the prior Super Cycle reactions which was during the Second Super Cycle (sc2)} = 2021.

Super Cycle 5 (sc5) Top in 1999 + 21 years (Fibonacci Integer) = 2020 Super Cycle 2 (sc2) Bottom in 1932 + 89 years = 2021 Top in year 2007 + 13 years = 2020 Low in year 2002 + 21 years= 2023 If we multiply 1.618 by the re-plotted distance from the estimated 3,200 levels and the end of the Double Retracement expected at circa 16,000 marks, then deduct the result from the latter level on the Dow, we will obtain a level on the Dow equivalent to 1,180 marks (Scenario 1). If we multiply 2.618 by the replotted distance from the low of March 2009 at 6,440 level to the end of the Inverted Zig Zag expected at circa 16,000 marks, then deduct the result from the latter level on the Dow, we will obtain a level on the Dow equivalent to 1,475 marks (Scenario 2) If the parallel of the long term upper channel that captured the Super Cycles Tops is taken from the Super Cycle 4 (sc4) Low in 1932, it will give a tentative target in 2022 at a level of 745 on the Dow. The line that connected the bottoms of 1857 to 1932 would give a tentative target in 2022 at a level of 1,500 marks on the Dow. Thus, the 1,000 to 1,500 mark range on the Dow is believed to be attained by the first half of the 2020’s. Such a level is assumed to be the Final Support of this Major and Longest Correction ever known to mankind since the Great US Industrial Revolution. Its termination shall mark the birth of a new Era, a new Grand Super growth Cycle for generations and centuries to come.

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Market constantly affected by presence of stress factors BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

Kuwaiti employment growth modest in Q1 NBK ECONOMIC BRIEF KUWAIT: Kuwaiti civilian employment growth was steady at 5.2 percent at the end of Q1. Growth has been slipping since the world financial crisis of 2008 and in Q1 was the slowest since 2006. The total Kuwaiti workforce including non-civilians increased by 16,300 during 2010, growing at a slightly slower rate of 4.8 percent.

New civilian jobs in the first quarter of 2011 further confirm the slowing trend, even after accounting for the seasonality in first quarter figures. The number of first time employed in Q1 was the smallest in over five years at 2,700; 14,600 new jobs were created in the 12 months through the end of Q1, a figure that is slightly slower than a year before (15,800).

Still, growth continued at a relatively healthy rate.

The pace of growth in the workforce was twice as rapid as growth in the Kuwaiti working age population, which stood at 2.6 percent in 2010. This is likely owing in part to the increased labor participation of women over the years. The growth lead that employment of Kuwaiti women had in prior years appears to have faded. In 2007 and 2008, as many as 60 percent of new jobs went to women. Since then, the percent of new jobs going to women has decreased, falling to 55 percent in 2010 and 48 percent in Q1.

The private sector remains the largest source of first time employment; hiring of Kuwaitis by the private sector has held up quite well over the last year, even showing some improvement. In Q1, about 60 percent of new jobs were at private employers. Despite this, growth of the private sector Kuwaiti workforce continued to slow during the last 12 months. Year-on-year growth fell to 7 percent at the end of Q1 compared to 16 percent a year before. This may reflect a slowdown in activity in the private sector. Nonetheless, growth in this sector remained more rapid than the overall workforce.

Politics haunts Thailand’s ratings: Fitch BANGKOK: Politics is casting a shadow over Thailand’s sovereign credit ratings despite a better-than-expected economic performance in 2010 when the kingdom was wracked by violent protests, Fitch Ratings executives said Thursday. Fitch raised its A- rating on the Thai currency from negative to stable in May, but the credit rating agency said it would continue to watch the country’s political developments this year as its main consideration for sovereign risk.

In April to May 2010, Bangkok was rocked by antigovernment protests that left 92 people dead and parts of the capital in flames. The unrest, however, had little impact on the country’s economy, which grew 7.8 percent. Growth was driven by a 28-per-cent jump in exports, which accounted for about 70 per cent of its gross domestic product.

“It’s fair to say that the impact on the economy and the public finance has been much less than previously expected,” said Andrew Colquhoun, Fitch’s senior director and head of its Asia-Pacific sovereign team. Thailand held an election on July 3, which passed off without violence or an adverse impact on its fiscal standing.

“In the public finance, we expected there would be more fiscal loosing before the elections, but it didn’t happen,” Colquhoun said. The spending habits of the next government remained under watch. The polls brought to power the Pheu Thai Party, which romped to victory on a host of populist policies. They included promises to hike the minimum wage an average of 80 per cent nationwide, pay fixed prices for farm products, cut corporate taxes and waive taxes for first-time car and home buyers.

“Fitch will be watching carefully what fiscal strategies the new government pursues,” Colquhoun said. In particular, the credit rating agency would watch to see if public debt is on the rise. The agency will also be on the lookout for more political unrest. “The key rating weakness for Thailand is on the structural side and is essentially political risk. ... W can’t entirely discount the risk of a downside outcome,” Colquhoun said of the political scene, which has been described as a looming showdown between the establishment and forces for change.

Another risk for the Thai economy comes from the growing economic instability in the United States and Europe, still critical markets for Thai exports. “I believe that exports will continue to grow along with world trade as long as the EU and US slowdown doesn’t create another global recession,” Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said at a Fitch Ratings presentatation on the country’s economic outlook.

The central bank governor noted that over the past decade, Thailand had diversified its markets and products away from dependency on its traditional markets in the US, Europe and Japan. Thai exports to these traditional markets fell from 50 per cent of the total in 1995 to less than a third at present, Prasarn said. —dpa

KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last month in the red zone, as both its indices reached record levels not seen for several years. The price index declined during the month to reach its lowest close since August of 2004, whereas at one session daily trading value reached its lowest at all levels for nearly nine years. By the end of August, the market price index recorded monthly loss of 3.97 percent, while the weighted index fell by 3.21 percent.

Furthermore, the market was constantly affected by the presence of stress factors, which came on top of “Standard & Poor’s” agency’s decision to reduce the credit rating of the United States for the first time in its history. This decision had a strong negative impact on the global financial markets in general, and psychologically influenced Kuwait Stock Exchange in particular.

Moreover, trading in the market was dominated by random selling operations during the last month, in light of the control of a general state of pessimism among the investment communities, as it included many listed stocks, especially the blue chips ones. In addition, banking sector witnessed heavy selling actions led to a remarkable decline in its shares, and caused to lower trading levels significantly in most of the sessions, where it reached in one session its lowest level since September 2002. However, the market was able to achieve some gains to its indices during a number of sessions, supported by the buying transactions on previously declined stocks; however the followed profit-taking operations had a stronger effect on the market indices which retreated to the red zone again. On the other hand, the investors were morally affected by the market’s decision to stop trading on number of stocks, due to its failure to meet the deadline date to submit its semi-annual financial results of the current year, which ended mid of August, as by the end of the month, the percentage of companies that announced their results reached 82 percent achieving approximately KD 997.86 million, down by 31.26 percent compared to the results of those companies in the same period last year, which amounted to KD1.45 billion.

6 months results By mid of last trading day of the month, 178 companies announced their results for the 6 months 2011 with a total net profits amounting to KD993.43 million, retreat of 30.91 percent compared to the same period of last year, which amounted to KD1.44 billion.

On the other hand, and as per the announced results, KSE average P/E ratio is currently at 16.

Market Indices The price index closed the month at 5,791.3 points, losing 239.3 points, a percentage of 3.97 percent compared to July’s closing. On the other hand, KSE’s weighted index ended August’s activity at 402.26 points, after decreasing by 13.34 points, at a percentage of 3.21 percent.

Sectors’ indices All of KSE’s sectors ended last month in the red zone. The Non Kuwaiti Companies sector was the biggest loser, with its index ending the month at 5,419.5 points, 6.66 percent lower than its July close.

In the second place came the Investment sector with 6.02 percent decrease, followed by the Food sector that lost by 4.45 percent. The least declining was the Insurance sector, as its index decreased by 1.02 percent and ended August’s trade at 2,569.2 points.

Trading activity The total number of deals executed during the month decreased by 21.73 percent to 27,282 deals. In addition, total trading value decreased by 11.32 percent to approximately KD280.28 million, while trade volume decreased by 10.75 percent to 1.59 billion shares.

Market sectors The services sector dominated total trade volume during the month with 432.23 million shares changing hands, representing 27.10 percent of the total market trading volume. The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 26.13 percent of August’s total trading volume, with a total of 416.74 million shares.

On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value, with a turnover of KD131.57 million or 46.94 percent of last month’s total market trading value. The Services sector took the second place as the sector’s August turnover of KD65.6 million represented 23.40 percent of the total market trading value.

Listed stocks The share of Abyaar Real Estate Development Company dominated the first place in terms of shares

volume with a total of 191.28 million shares; followed in the second place by National Ranges Company with 115.36 million shares changing hands. The third position in the list was for Global Investment House with a volume of 88.16 million shares. National Bank Of Kuwait was the heaviest traded company in terms of value, with a total turnover of KD55.21 million dominating the top place in this list, followed by Kuwait Finance House, which turnover totaled to around KD28.50 million. Finally the third position was for Kuwait International Bank with a turnover of KD22.95 million.

Gainers and losers During Aug, 25 advances and 116 declines were recorded compared to end of previous month’s prices. Fur thermore, prices of 16 stocks closed unchanged, among 157 stocks participating to the month’s trades out of the 215 listed securities in the regular market.

Top gainers Kuwait National Cinema share was the month’s top gainer with an increase of 38.18 percent in its share price ending Aug at KD1.52 up from KD1.10 in Jul. The second place in the list was for Gulf Class Manufacturing Company closing at KD1.02 up from 800 fils, an increase of 27.50 percent. Finally, Burgan Company For Well Drilling, Trading & Maintenance ranked third with a 22.92 percent increase in its share price which ended the month at 240 fils.

Top losers The share of National I nternational Holding Company was the top loser during Aug with a drop of 29.41 percent, closing at 30 fils down from its listing date price closing, which was 42.5 fils. Alargan International Real Estate Company ranked second in this list with its share closing at 114 fils, a 28.75 percent drop compared to the previous month’s closing at 160 fils. The third place was for Gulf Finance House as its share price declined by 27.38 percent to close at 30.5 fils.

Market capitalization The total market capitalization of Kuwait Stock Exchange recorded 3.15 percent decrease to reach KD28.32 billion by the end of last month, some KD0.92 billion growth compared to past July.

Tips to stay on top of your game Bayt.com Study External pressures, thorns, obstacles and difficulties aside, how many of us are responsible for unwittingly hampering our chances of career success through our own misplaced and misguided attitudes and behaviors. The Middle East’s No 1 job site career experts highlight below some common faux-pas that can ruin a career and should be avoided at all costs.

1. Poor time management Missing deadlines, failing to abide by agreed timelines, arriving to meetings late and generally disrespecting approved schedules is a surefire way to lose credibility and professional respect. Try to value each and every minute on the job and recognize the inefficiencies that arise from procrastination and slovenly time management and the impact these have on the organization as a whole.

2. Failure to deliver on promises A promise made should be a promise kept if your professional credibility is to remain intact. Avoid making promises you cannot deliver on. Unless you are known as someone who can be strictly depended on to follow through and deliver on time you are likely to be passed over for promotions and key assignments. When you do need more time or resources for an assignment communicate the requirement formally and professionally and manage the situation to show you are in control and will not be sacrificing on quality of delivery.

3. Poor team skills A good team-player is able to work cohesively within a team framework and contribute, collaborate, communicate and challenge to meet specific goals within that framework.

Inability to see beyond one’s self, work well with everyone, find the good qualities of others in the team, communicate persuasively and effectively, listen actively and attentively, give and welcome input, offer encouragement and assistance where needed and show respect, patience and courtesy inevitably leads to marginalization and failure to meet personal and professional goals.

4. Lack of ethics or professionalism Conducting personal business on the job and any other activities that show flagrant disrespect for company time, resources and property are both unethical and unprofessional.

Chatting endlessly on the job, office gossip, wasting office supplies, laying about important work-related matters, backbiting the boss, spreading office secrets, routinely bringing personal matters to the workplace all fall under this category.

5. Lack of initiative Complacency is a surefire road to professional mediocrity.

To succeed it is essential that you continue to show enthusiasm, stretch the limits, be proactive and test the boundaries in the interest of innovation. Take responsibility for your personal and professional growth and continue to build momentum in your training and profession development activities. If you chose to simply lie low and casually bide your time while others race ahead in their careers you will most probably be overlooked for promotions and plum assignments and your skills may well eventually become redundant.

6. Inability to handle pressure Every job entails a certain amount of stress and pressure and failure to recognize and handle the strain may lead to a pronounced and sustained decline in performance. Learn to recognize stress and cope with it professionally and effectively. Take breaks and holidays when needed, learn to manage stress and cope with pressure so that it is not an ongoing problem for you. It may be that the pressures mounting on you are due to poor time management or delegation skills or weakness in a certain area in which case developing your skills in these areas is highly advisable.

FREEPORT: Gregg Trimarco of South Bellmore, was one of several people stocking up on supplies at the Home Depot store in Freeport. — AP

Oil down nearly 3% despite storm Concerns grow over weakening global economy NEW YORK: Oil prices fell Friday along with the prospects for global economic growth as the government reported the economy added no jobs last month. Benchmark crude fell $2.48, or 2.8 percent, to finish at $86.45 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the Labor Department said employers stopped adding jobs in July. The unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent. The US jobs report follows a weak manufacturing report from China and concerns that the lingering debt crisis in Europe continues to hold back economic growth there.

Put together, concerns are growing that the global economy is weakening. A weak economy reduces demand for oil and oil products such as diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline because fewer goods are shipped and people travel and commute less. “We were doomy and gloomy before the jobs report and then the jobs number became the crescendo of all the bad news,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at PFGBest. “The big story is the global

economic slowdown.”

Brent crude, used to price oil in many international markets, fell $1.96 to end at $112.33 per barrel In London. Oil was also pushed down as the dollar rose against the euro and some other currencies. Oil is priced in dollars and becomes more expensive to buyers with foreign currency - and less attractive as the dollar get stronger.

Also, a Libyan official said Friday that five foreign oil and gas companies have returned to Libya to resuscitate production choked off by civil war and sanctions. This encouraged traders that Libyan oil might begin flowing sooner than hoped, though most expect it to be several months before significant exports resume. Concerns about the economy, the dollar and increased supply from Libya overwhelmed worries that the interruptions of oil and gas production caused by Tropical Storm Lee in the Gulf of Mexico might squeeze supplies and push prices higher.

The storm has forced several oil companies to evacuate personnel

from production platforms and drilling rigs in the region. Nearly half of the Gulf’s oil production has been cut off, as well as one-third of the region’s natural gas production, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Forecasters expect the storm to dump a foot or more of rain on parts of Louisiana starting this weekend.

“Several days of decreased oil and gas production and major inland flooding are clear concerns with this system,” said Bob Haas, Weather Operations Manager and Meteorologist at MDA EarthSat in a report. The storm is not expected to damage rigs in the region, however.

Oil production should resume shortly after the storm has cleared and companies can return workers to production platforms. In other energy trading, heating oil fell 5.44 cents to finish at $2.9974 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 5.31 cents to finish at $2.8396 a gallon. Natural gas fell 17.8 cents, or 4.4 percent, to end the day at $3.872 per 1,000 cubic feet. — AP

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ECB’s Trichet presses Italy on budget goals Pressure on Italy growing as bond spreads widen CERNOBBIO: ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet stepped up warnings over Italy’s strained public finances yesterday, telling the struggling centre-right government it must act quickly to reassure nervous markets. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, hit by a renewed bout of scandal last week, has caused growing alarm over the failure of his divided government to pass clear measures to cut back Italy’s 1.9 trillion euro ($2,726 billion) debt mountain. Speaking after a week of steadily rising market pressure on Italian bonds, Trichet repeated that the government had to meet last month’s pledge of a clear plan to balance the budget by 2013 and pass reforms to boost Italy’s stagnant economy.

DUSHANBE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (left) looks at President Dmitry Medvedev (center) as he reads documents during a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) leaders yesterday. —AFP

Ukraine says no concession in Russian energy dispute DUSHANBE: Ukraine and Russia turned up the heat in an energy dispute yesterday as Kiev reiterated its refusal to accept Moscow ’s terms and the Kremlin appeared to snub a call for talks at a regional summit. Ukraine yesterday rejected Russia’s calls to cede half of its state energy company Naftogaz to Russian energy giant Gazprom in return for cheaper gas as the country’s presidents attended a summit in Tajikistan. “It will not happen,” Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said categorically on the sidelines of a regional summit in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

“Any pressure on these issues, it’s humiliating for us,” Yanukovych said.

“First, we are cornered, and then we are dictated terms. It’s humiliating today, not for me personally, it’s humiliating for the nation and I cannot allow it.” Ukraine had said Friday it wanted to hold separate energy talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit as Kiev pushed for a new deal on gas imports in the latest spat between the two neighbours. But the Kremlin had said on Friday that no meeting with Yanukovych was scheduled and the Tajik foreign ministry told AFP yesterday afternoon that Medvedev had already left Dushanbe.

Russia has offered to lower Ukraine’s gas price if it dropped plans to establish

free trade relations with the European Union and allowed Russian energy giant Gazprom to win control of half of Ukraine’s Naftogaz company. Ukraine argues that it now pays more than some richer European Union countries and that Russia’s price terms are political, in the neighbours’ second major clash over gas prices in three years.Leaders of former Soviet states gathered in Dushanbe for the summit of the Commonwealth of the Independent States, a group including all ex-Soviet states except for the Baltic countries and Georgia. Russia also announced plans to discuss future energy projects with members of Libya’s transitional government.

“They suggested holding meetings.

We invited representatives to Moscow on their request. We will discuss all this with them,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as telling journalists. Medvedev also held bilateral talks with Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov yesterday after Russia expressed interest in a pipeline project aiming to pump Turkmen gas through Pakistan and Afghanistan to India. Berdymukhamedov is expected to visit Moscow in the near future. Earlier last week, Berdymukhamedov said Turkmenistan had “reached a level of strategic partnership with Russia,” in spite of previous rows over the price of gas. —AFP

BUENOS AIRES: In this file picture, people collect signatures outside empty Cafe Richmond. —AFP

Landmark Buenos Aires cafe to make way for sports shop BUENOS AIRES: Once the haunt of literary giants Jorge Luis Borges, Graham Greene and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the famed Cafe Richmond in the heart of Buenos Aires is set to be replaced by a Nike shop, a scandal that has Argentines mourning the loss of a national treasure. On a crowded tourist street, passersby are greeted by locked doors and glass painted white, in an apparent attempt to hide the shock gutting of the grand old gathering spot. For nearly a century, more than 100 antique English leather armchairs provided comfort for bohemians, writers, adventurers, politicians and untold numbers of European and American tourists.

But nearly all of the celebrated pieces of furniture, including classic 19th-century bentwood tables, were spirited away recently in the dead of night. A look through a crack in the paint revealed the front room to be virtually bare, stripped of all but seven or eight chairs. “People are alarmed. They stop, peer in, and stay here for many minutes” contemplating the cafe’s historic past and uninspired future, said one policeman posted at the entrance. “They need to vent about it, it’s pretty remarkable.”

The August 14 closure of the Richmondfeatured in onetime patron Greene’s 1973 bestseller “The Honorary Consul” as well as in “Hopscotch,” the influential 1963 novel

by Argentine writer Julio Cortazar-continues to make waves, pitting conservationists against bureaucrats who say they are powerless to intervene in a private property issue. Dozens of people lined up Wednesday in front of the coffeeshop to sign a petition, launched by the Commission for the Preser vation of Cultural Heritage of Buenos Aires, calling for the landmark’s re-opening. “ There’s no explanation,” housewife

Claudia told AFP about the closure, as she waited with her daughter Marcela to sign the petition. “They have no respect for what is par t of our histor y,” Marcela lamented. The Argentina operation of US sportswear giant Nike said it was “not involved with the decision” to shutter Cafe Richmond. “The local Nike shops are operated in all cases through third parties,” and Nike is not engaged in the purchase or rental of premises, the company said in a statement, although it did not deny that a Nike shop would take the place of the restaurant.

Public interest at stake The plans have infuriated many, including Teresa de Anchorena, a grande dame of the heritage protection movement and member of the commission on monuments. She wants the capital’s minister of culture, Hernan Lombardi, to intervene, but he has refused. “Had he done so, the Richmond would have been protected,” she said. Santiago Pusso, head of non-governmental group Stop the Demolition, said he plans to file a complaint against Lombardi “for failing in his duties as a public servant.” Rated a “cafe notable”, the Richmond captured the air of a bygone Buenos Aires.

It serves as a memory point for France and its legendar y aviation company Aeropostale. Pioneer pilots Saint-Exupery and Jean Mermoz would spend hours over coffee or drinks in the front room discussing how they would change the world, or playing billiards in the basement. SaintExupery, author of “Night Flight” and “The Little Prince”, lived a stone’s throw from the cafe in “a small, charming apartment” on Florida Street, he wrote in a letter to his mother in November 1929, shortly after arrival. —AFP

“This is absolutely decisive to consolidate and reinforce the quality and the credibility of the Italian strategy and its creditworthiness,” he told a conference in the northern Italian town of Cernobbio. The European Central Bank, which has been buying Italy’s bonds in the market to try to hold down yields and stop its borrowing costs spiraling out of control, has been stepping up warnings that Rome must act quickly.

There has been some speculation that it might reduce its purchases to put pressure on Rome to act more quickly to pass a much disputed 45.5 billion euro package of austerity measures now going through parliament.

However, any sign of the ECB cutting back its bond-buying programme would risk triggering a market selloff that could tip the euro zone’s third economy into a Greek-style emergency.

According to participants at a closed-door session in Cernobbio, Trichet declined to speak about the program.

“I’m not going to tell you what

we’re doing on bond buying but we have a meeting next week,” Trichet told the conference, according to three different witnesses, apparently referring to next week’s regular Governing Council meeting.

Underlining the growing urgency of the situation, the premium investors demand to hold Italian debt rather than benchmark German bonds rose on Friday to 331 basis points, the highest since the ECB started buying Italian paper in August.

Yields on 10-year Italian bonds ended the week at 5.29 percent, creeping back up towards the 7 percent level generally regarded as unmanageable.

Political divisions Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said successive governments had failed to prevent a mountainous public debt from getting out of control, and swift action was essential.

“We have hesitated from resolutely and coherently addressing constraints that should have been loosened and broken from

the heavy weight of accumulated public debt,” he told the meeting.

Napolitano has played a prominent role in the crisis, using his authority as head of state to cut through political rivalries and broker a series of agreements on budget measures.

But cabinet divisions have hampered efforts to finalize the package. Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti appears increasingly at odds with Berlusconi and the rest of the government. Speculation persists that the government may fall before the end of its term in 2013, perhaps to be replaced for a limited time by a government of technocrats. Napolitano declined to comment when asked if the current government was in a position to tackle the situation.

“Should there one day be a government crisis ... I will take my responsibility, as per my mandate, of proposing a solution,” he told a question-and-answer session. Yesterday, Berlusconi’s office denied a report in the daily Corriere della Sera that he had attacked Tremonti’s insistence on

budget rigour even at the expense of economic growth, the latest in a long series of such reports.

Disagreements over taxes and pensions have led to a series of Uturns over the past week. A tax on high earners and a rise in the pension age have been proposed, then dropped within days.

Doubts about Berlusconi’s focus on the austerity plan were heightened this week when magistrates arrested a businessman linked to a 2009 prostitution scandal on suspicion of trying to extort as much as half a million euros from the premier.

Berlusconi has denied making any illicit payments, accusing what he calls politically motivated magistrates of trying to bring him down and dismissing the case as absurd. He has survived dozens of scandals over issues ranging from tax fraud to underage prostitution and the impact of the latest affair is unclear but newspapers have printed extensive extracts of wiretapped conversations which could prove damaging. —Reuters

Bare-knuckle trade tactics attract regulator interest NEW YORK: Paul Carlucci’s name doesn’t appear on any public list of News Corp’s power players. As CEO of News America Marketing and publisher of the New York Post, he is the most influential executive you’ve never heard of inside Rupert Murdoch’s empire. That could change as News America Marketing’s alleged bare-knuckle business tactics come under the regulatory spotlight in the United States amid the phone hacking scandal that has rocked News Corp’s News of the World in Europe.

“Carlucci is a pretty savvy political operator in that he has been able to wield a lot of power while flying under the radar, but that’s not the case anymore,” said a former News Corp source. US regulators and law enforcement officials are taking a close look at the business practices of News America, one of the nation’s largest providers of newspaper inserts, the coupon circulars that usually bulk up a Sunday edition.

As part of an investigation which began with so-far unsubstantiated claims that News Corp operatives illegally hacked into the phones of 9/11 victims, federal authorities are reviewing lawsuits brought against News America by several competitors that have cost about $650 million in settlements. One of the cases that federal authorities are looking at, according to a US law enforcement official, is a 2004 claim by Floorgraphics that accused News America of breaking into its computers and taking corporate data that ultimately caused it to lose some clients. Floorgraphics was a rival of News America for grocery store marketing until the company bought it as a way to settle the lawsuit. Investigators want to see if this case and other, similar litigation form a pattern of illegal activity at News Corp. The US inquiry is only beginning and may ultimately amount to nothing. Carlucci, through a representative, declined comment.

Who is Paul Carlucci?

Born in New York and of Italian descent, Carlucci started his career in advertising sales at the New York Daily News and rose to high-level ad executive positions at retail stalwarts Macy’s and Caldor. He joined News Corp in 1991 as executive vice president of News America, eventually replacing Les Hinton as the division’s chief executive. Hinton resigned from News Corp earlier this year as a result of the UK phone hacking scandal. In 2005, Carlucci took on the role of publisher of the New York Post after Murdoch’s eldest son, Lachlan, quit the position. Rupert Murdoch briefly served as publisher before naming Carlucci.

“He’s not Australian or British, and didn’t come up in publishing,” said a second former News Corp employee who had frequent dealings with Carlucci. “He’s an outsider who has managed to become the ultimate insider.” Carlucci, who wears his hair slicked back and usually carries a Montblanc pen, has a penchant for finely tailored suits and a reputation for step-on-your-throat business tactics. An executive at Sara Lee once said of her dealings with News America that it “feels like they are raping us and they enjoy it.” Carlucci, who turns 64 this year, emphatically peppers his comments with curse words and is known among friends as “Johnny Legit,” according to the first ex-News Corp source.

But supporters of Carlucci view his thuggish depiction as little more than an anti-Italian bias. “Paul is a tough businessman, but he’s no different than any other guy who has made a ton of money,” said a longtime friend of Carlucci’s who asked to remain anonymous because of their relationship. Just because he screens scenes from “The Untouchables” for employees “doesn’t mean he’s a mobster,” this source added.

John Kimball, the former chief marketing officer for the Newspaper Association of America, who has been friends with Carlucci for nearly three decades, said, “He’s always been very perceptive, intelligent, a quick study and a tough, but fair negotiator.” Carlucci, who walks with a confidence that adds several inches to his less than 6-foot frame, is big on one hallmark of the streets: loyalty. “He treats his people well,” said the former News Corp employee. “If you do right by him, he’ll move mountains to do right by you.” That, in essence, embodies the News Corp credo. —Reuters

SAN JOSE: In this photo, a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze is featured at a car dealership in California. —AP

US carmakers report strong August sales NEW YORK: Fears that car buyers would stay away from dealerships in August never materialized. Instead, Americans were lured by new models, cheaper financing and the need to replace aging cars. As a result, last month sales rose 7.5 percent compared with the same month last year, according to Autodata Corp. Most major automakers reported healthy sales increases in August, led by Chrysler with a 31 percent jump. Toyota and Honda saw double-digit declines as they continued to struggle with earthquake-related car shortages.

Results were better than expected.

Some analysts thought that the volatile stock market and Hurricane Irene would hurt sales. While it was easy for carmakers to do better than last year, which was the worst August for the industry since a double-dip recession in 1983, the results were also a sign that sales could pick up speed after a disappointing summer of little or no growth.

“Consumers are inching back into buying items and some big-ticket purchases,” says Paul Ballew, a former GM chief economist who now works for Nationwide Insurance. He attributed the sales increase to people replacing aging vehicles, record-low loan rates of less than 4 percent for customers with good credit, and high trade-in values for used cars. Car loans carried more than 6 percent interest just three years ago.

People are also driving their cars longer than before the recession. The average age of a car in the US was almost 11 years in July, according to the Polk research firm. If sales stayed at August’s pace, they would end the year at 12.1 million. That’s better than the 11.6 million last year, but still far below the 17 million in 2005. Because they have cut staff and factories since the recession, automakers are turning profits at the lower sales levels. But they’re still hoping for a better autumn, as supplies of Japanese cars get back to normal and new cars such as the redesigned Toyota Camry go on sale.

Even Irene could boost sales, as people whose cars were damaged or destroyed look for new ones.

Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insights for the car pricing site TrueCar.com, says the hurricane cost automakers about 5,000 sales in the last weekend of August, but he expects them to be made up later. GM says it will offer $500 to car buyers in major disaster areas and let those buyers defer payments for 90 days.

Chrysler Group’s sales jump was due to strong demand for Jeeps and minivans. General Motors Co.’s sales rose 18 percent, led by the new Chevrolet Cruze small car, which accounted for one in every 10 GM vehicles sold. Buyers also went for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain small crossovers. New models also boosted Ford Motor Co.’s sales, which rose 11 percent on the strength of the Ford Explorer SUV and Ford Fiesta subcompact. But Toyota Motor Corp’s sales fell almost 13 percent, while Honda Motor Co’s sales slid 24 percent.

Dealers are still short on many top-selling models such as the Honda Civic.

Randy Pflughaupt, Toyota’s vice president of sales administration, says all of Toyota’s North American plants will be fully operational this month and will crank up production with overtime and extra shifts. But supplies won’t be completely back to normal levels until next year.

The industr y remains war y. The unemployment rate is stuck at 9 percent, food and clothing costs are going up and consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level in more than two years last month. But August sales indicated things are on the right track, barring fur ther bad economic news.

“Consumers are being cautious, yes, and appropriately so, but they are not retrenching,” says GM’s US sales chief Don Johnson. “All indications to us are that the industry is going to continue to slowly grow through the rest of the year.” —AP

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BUSINESS

World Bank chief warns of economic ‘danger zone’ BEIJING: World Bank chief Robert Zoellick warned yesterday that the global economy was heading into a new “danger zone”, as he urged China to speed up structural reforms to help its development. “The financial crisis in Europe has become a sovereign debt crisis, with serious implications for the monetary union, banks, and competitiveness of some countries,” he said at a conference in Beijing on the future of China. “ The United States must address the issues of

growth and weakening confidence,” he warned, adding that China would face further challenges in the years ahead. “In the next 15 to 20 years, China is well-positioned to join the ranks of the world’s high income countries,” he said, warning: “That’s a transition that only a handful of countries have made-and, sadly, many have failed”.

The World Bank in July reclassified China as an upper middle income economy, putting it in a group of

debt, spending, tax reform to boost private sector growth and a stalled trade policy,” he added, warning starkly: “The world economy is entering a new danger zone this autumn.”

The World Bank chief also urged Beijing to accelerate its structural reforms as it seeks to develop from an export-driven economy towards a growth model more reliant on domestic consumption. “China’s structural challenges occur in a current international context of slowing

nations that he said needed to move on from the growth models they relied on while they were poor. “They can be squeezed on both ends: by competition from low-income, lowwage economies, as well as by competition from upper-income countries through innovation and technological change,” he said. He urged Beijing to address the issue, saying “China’s policymakers know what needs to be done”.

Beijing routinely comes under pres-

sure from Europe and the United States to revalue its currency, which they say is kept artificially weak to favor Chinese exports, and to allow more access to the world’s number two economy. China’s monetary policy and intellectual property rights have also been at the root of persistent frictions between the trading partners. “Decisions in Europe, decisions in the United States, decisions in Chinathey affect us all,” added Zoellick, who is in China until Monday. —AFP

US regulator sues major banks over subprime bonds Litigation may hamper settlement with states WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: A US regulator sued more than a dozen major banks on Friday over losses on nearly $200 billion of subprime bonds, which may hamper a broader government settlement of the mortgage mess left over from the housing crisis. The lawsuits by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, came as a surprise to the market and weighed down bank shares.

NEW YORK: In this file photo, Paul Lawless (center) works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. —AP

Wall St Week Ahead

QE3 no silver bullet for stock markets NEW YORK: Friday’s jobs report that showed hiring in the United States unexpectedly ground to a halt in August is increasing speculation the US Federal Reserve will move to stimulate the economy. But will it help stocks?

Fed action-if it happens-is no longer viewed as the elixir for the stock market it once was. Wall Street tumbled over 2 percent on Friday as investors fretted more about the economic outlook rather than looking ahead to another round of Fed bond buying. Next week, the question of whether the Fed will step up to the plate with another round of quantitative easing will take center stage with a highly anticipated speech from President Barack Obama.

That could make for another volatile week. This time last year, anticipation of a second round of quantitative easing, or QE2, sparked an almost uninterrupted rally that lifted the S&P 500 around 30 percent from August to May. What a difference a year makes. Confidence in policy makers is sapping away as the economy languishes, the United States grapples with the loss of its top-notch credit rating, and the European Union seems to be coming undone at the seams.

Wall Street sees an 80 percent chance the Federal Reserve will intervene in the bond market to lower long-term interest rates, according to a Reuters poll on Friday.

But Friday’s action in the stock market signaled that equity investors do not see that prospect as silver bullet for their woes. The broad-based S&P 500 index fell 2.5 percent on the day. “This downdraft is based on sentiment and that has to be turned around,” said Brian Battle, vice president of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.

“I think we’re in for a longer trend of either malaise or just a down channel.”

That means traders and investors who were hoping for a return to normalcy after extreme

volatility in August may have to wait a little longer. Obama is due to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday to lay out plans to create jobs, boost economic growth and lower the deficit. He faces an uphill struggle when it come to reassuring investors, who fault the lack of consensus in Washington. Heading into an election year, the disharmony is not likely to get better any time soon. Nonfarm payrolls were unchanged last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, and figures for previous months were also revised down to show employers created a combined 58,000 fewer jobs than had been thought in June and July.

The US Treasury market rallied after the data as Goldman Sachs and other US primary dealersbig Wall Street firms that do business directly with the Fed-said they expect the US central bank to start buying longer-dated bonds after its Sept. 20-21 meeting.

Seasoned traders say that August’s extreme volatility was one of the most trying periods in living memory, outstripping the 2008-2009 meltdown and the 1987 stock market crash on Black Monday. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and it’s never been more exhausting,” said the chief executive of a New York-based proprietary trading firm, who said many of his traders closed out their positions in August, reducing the firm’s inventories to just 15 to 20 percent of what they could be. At least some of that volatility looks set to spill over into September until there is more clarity over the economy and what the Fed is likely to do at its Sept 20-21 meeting. But some fund managers who take a more long-term view are using pullbacks to cut back positions that have done less well while increasing positions in their preferred stocks.

Many fund managers are still convinced the US economy will avoid a recession and stocks will rally into the end of the year. —Reuters

The lawsuits could add billions of dollars to the banks’ potential costs at perhaps the worst possible time for the industry. The litigation reflects how different parties, including investors, banks and different government groups are fighting over who should bear the losses from the housing crisis that tripped the economy into the worst recession in decades in 2008.

The FHFA accused major banks, including Bank of America Corp, its Countrywide and Merrill Lynch units, Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc and Nomura Holdings Inc of misrepresenting the checks they had done on mortgages before bundling them into mortgages. For a FACTBOX on the banks the FHFA sued, please double click here: The banks also bundled loans into bonds that should have never been sold to investors, because the mortgages did not meet the investors’ stated criteria, the lawsuits said.

Most of the banks and finance companies that were sued refused to comment or were not immediately able to comment, but some called the charges unfounded.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the epitome of a sophisticated investor, having issued trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities and purchased hundreds of billions of dollars more,” said Mayura Hooper, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank AG in a an emailed statement.

The biggest banks are already negotiating with the attorneys general of all 50 states to address mortgage abuses. They are looking for a comprehensive settlement that will protect them from future litigation and limit their potential mortgage litigation losses. “This new litigation could disrupt the AG settlement,” said Anthony Sanders, finance professor at George Mason University and a former mortgage bond strategist.

Banks may be more reluctant to agree to a settlement if they know litigation from other government players could still wallop their capital, he said. Before the FHFA lawsuits had even hit a court docket, financial experts offered blunt expectations for the outcome. “The lawsuits will be settled. The end result will be a further outflow of cash from the banks and more importantly an additional black eye,” said Sean Egan, managing director of EganJones Ratings Co. FHFA director Edward DeMarco is looking to minimize future losses for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are owned by the government after failing in September 2008. The FHFA filed the suits before a three year statute of limitations expired. Fannie Mae and Freddie

Mac are pillars of U.S. mortgage finance. The KBW Bank Index closed down 4.5 percent on Friday, nearly doubling the losses of the broader market. Bank of America led the index lower, dropping 8.3 percent.

A twist Bank shares also came under pressure from signs the Federal Reserve could start selling shorterterm debt on its books and buying long-dated bonds to push longerterm yields lower as a stimulus measure. Such a move, known as “operation twist,” would hurt banks whose profit margin is tied to the short-term rates at which they fund and the longer-term rates at which they invest. Major banks already face potential payouts of tens of billions of dollars to settle regulatory charges of abusive mortgage lending and foreclosure practices, and

sion since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed in conservatorship in 2008, a person familiar with the matter said. While the ultimate amount FHFA will seek is still unclear, that person said it could top the $20 billion being discussed by the banks and the state attorneys general.

A blizzard The blizzard of litigation against banks is hurting share prices in the sector because investors feel unable to estimate the ultimate scope of a given bank’s legal liabilities. Bank of America, for example, had intended its proposed $8.5 billion settlement in June with investors in Countrywide mortgage securities to resolve most litigation tied to its disastrous 2008 takeover of that home loan provider.

But many parties are objecting

insurance.

The FHFA’s lawsuits follow an initial lawsuit in July against UBS AG seeking to recover $900 million of losses incurred on $4.5 billion of debt. One legislator praised the expected FHFA lawsuits. Brad Miller, a Democratic congressman from North Carolina, said: “Not pursuing those claims would be an indirect subsidy for an industry that has gotten too many subsidies already.”

FHFA and various investors have alleged banks, while packaging residential home loans into securities sold to investors, failed to conduct adequate due diligence and hid or misstated the quality of the underlying loans and underwriting as well as borrowers’ ability to make payments. A Bank of America spokesman said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac acknowledged their

CHARLOTTE: In this file photo, Bank of America’s headquarters are shown in NC. —AP other investor lawsuits over mortgage debt losses.

Such payouts would reduce earnings and weaken capital levels, perhaps harming the ability of banks to lend money and provide much-needed life to a stalled housing market and weakened economy. Banks have been walloped by mortgage losses, but so have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which failed after trying to finance too many bad mortgages with too little equity. The two entities guarantee bonds backed by mortgages. The question of whether to take action for problems related to the mortgage bonds has been under discus-

to that settlement and the deal did not stop insurer American International Group Inc from suing Bank of America for $10 billion over its own alleged mortgage securities losses. Nor did it stop Nevada’s attorney general from threatening to withdraw from an $8.4 billion nationwide settlement with the bank. The AG now wants to sue the bank, accusing it of reneging on promises to modify mortgages.

Other banks also face mortgage lawsuits. In May, the US Justice Department sued Deutsche Bank, accusing it of misleading a US housing agency into believing loans it made qualified for federal

losses were due to the downturn in the housing market and other economic factors, and they claimed to understand the risk in the securities, but are now trying to hold other parties responsible for their losses.

As more borrowers fell behind or went into foreclosure, the value of securities backed by their loans fell, causing losses for investors.

Losses stemming from the precipitous deterioration in subprime and other mortgages pushed the government to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sept 7, 2008.

Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $140 billion to keep the firms afloat. —Reuters

Got 10 bucks for a cup of joe?

Speculators bid up coffee rates WASHINGTON: If you’re angry that Wall Street speculators have been driving up the price you pay for gasoline, these same big financial investors now are pushing up the price of your cup of joe. Grocery shoppers have seen whopping increases this year in the price of a can of ordinary coffee, whether it’s a generic store brand or better-known ones such as Folgers and Maxwell House. Since spring, coffee has been selling at $7 to $8 a can in many parts of the country, or about twice the price of a gallon of gas.

The retail price of coffee in July was up 20.7 percent over the same month last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks changes in grocery store prices. Big coffee marketers have trimmed prices a bit for consumers in recent weeks, but the price of contracts for future delivery of coffee continues to rise unabated. What gives?

Coffee-industry veterans blame financial speculators. They say they’re taking advantage of global supply hiccups to drive up coffee prices by adding volatility to the trading of contracts for future delivery of coffee. It’s not as debilitating to family income as high crude oil prices, but the phenomenon is the same. “It’s definitely not purely supply

and demand; it’s way too volatile,” said Shawn Hamilton, the vice president of operations and a veteran coffee buyer for Java City in Sacramento, Calif., a national wholesaler of coffee and a midsize regional coffee roaster.

Experts say that global consumption of coffee is up, particularly in China and coffee-producing Brazil. There’s also been a weather-related dip in production from coffee-rich Colombia. These underlying supply-and-demand factors do justify higher coffee prices, just not this high. The hiccup in production and rising demand set the stage for Wall Street speculators - many of them big hedge funds that invest for the ultra-wealthy - to flood into commodities markets and speculate on contracts for future delivery of coffee.

The net result distorts the price of coffee. The price of a futures contract for 37,500 pounds of coffee rose by more than 40 percent last year, and has gone up by more than 57 percent this year through Aug 19. “It’s not a true coffee market anymore, where the laws of supply and demand hold forth,” said Danell Seda, a trader for Walker Coffee Trading in Houston, an importer of green coffee beans that

supplies the specialty coffee market.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, complained in March that he had no trouble obtaining coffee beans - there’s no supply shortage - and that speculators were to blame for soaring coffee bean prices on commodity exchanges, which had reached $2.96 a pound, their highest levels in 34 years, though not when adjusted for inflation. The company didn’t make an executive available for this story.

Just a few months earlier - in a letter Dec 14 to members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - the chief procurement officer for Dunkin Donuts, Ed O’Rourke, called for a curb on financial speculators. “Something as simple as a good cup of coffee at a fair price is under threat today because of intense pressure by hedge funds and other speculators,” he wrote. At least one CFTC commissioner now agrees. “Speculators have influenced coffee prices in commodity markets in a way that isn’t consistent with the fundamentals of supply and demand,” Bart Chilton said. He’s prodded fellow CFTC members to find a way to rein in excess speculation in coffee and other commodities. —MCT

BEIJING: Patrons sit outside a Starbucks Coffee branch in China. —MCT

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TECHNOLOGY

AOL Huffpost, Tech Crunch scandal raises concerns NEW YORK: With Labor Day weekend a day away-or for the more fortunate, in full swing-it is only fitting that another controversy erupted before the unofficial end of a summer of salacious scandal. Michael Arrington, founder and editor of the blog TechCrunch, has announced that he is launching a $20 million venture capital fund, backed in part by owner AOL. The “CrunchFund” will invest in start-ups, including many that his own newsroom writes about.

So far as anyone can tell-the details on this have changed repeatedly-the fund will operate under AOL, but under AOL Ventures rather than the AOL Huffington Post Media Group.

Arrington’s position at the company is still somewhat unclear, but the latest reports suggest he remains an AOL employee, just not on the editorial side.

However, he remains “founding editor” of Tech Crunch, as well as an “unpaid blogger.”

The truth is always murkier when something inappropriate is happening.

Since TechCrunch is one of the tech world’s foremost news sources, and Arrington is not only its pioneering founder but its scoop master-much like Kara Swisher is at AllThingsD- the phrase conflict of interest doesn’t even begin to describe this. That is why tech and business writers across the country have been up in arms ever since Thursday’s announcement. The aforementioned Swisher penned a lengthy post that made several good points, but also made a series of nasty personal comments about Arrington. She began by referring to him as “perpetually petulant” and her snipes never got nicer.

But personal disagreements aside, no one seemed too pleased with this move, or with AOL’s lack of clarity on what exactly was going on. Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici tweeted, “1st test of @arring-

ton’s new transparency ethos: JUST TELL US WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH YOU ALREADY.” NYU journalism professor and Press Think blogger Jay Rosen tweeted “I know it shouldn’t, but it amazes me how AOL can’t get the Arrington announcement (and his role with TechCrunch) clear.” Most prominent media or tech writers weighed in, either through an article or a tweet (yes, even the New York Times’ David Carr) and that is because this underscores the continued erosion of classical journalistic integrity and ethics.

AOL has said Arrington will not exert influence over TechCrunch’s editorial side, which is hard to imagine if he continues to contribute to the site in any way. Even if he has no editorial role at all, AOL Huff Post’s initial refusal or inability to see that it would be a huge problem if Arrington retained an editorial presence says it all. The 12-hour about face was remarkable. AOL did

not immediately respond to requests for comment. Whether or not a conflict of interest in this specific instance remains, the whole ordeal reinforces that the Internet is rendering the old rules of journalism irrelevant.

Depending on how you look at it, this process may be complete or ongoing, swift or gradual, but it is happening. This is not exactly breaking news, nor is it meant to suggest that the record of print newspapers is immaculate in this regard either. Still, it must be pointed out.

This is the continued story of a changing news landscape, one in which news travels faster, the pressure to get scoops is greater and the fight to protect the bottom line intensifies. This leads to some great journalism, and far more suspect journalism. It also produces more scandals, and then even more rivals and colleagues reacting in horror or disbelief. Most days it seems

the majority of non-media people could care less about these wonky scandals-hacking the phone of a celebrity or a murdered teen is far more provocative, not to mention the appeal of Kim Kardashian’s wedding! — but this speaks to a more fundamental question of interests.

Regulating privacy is important, but hacking does less to undermine the credibility of a journalist than a significant conflict of interest does.

The problem of special interests is obviously not unique to journalism.

Does anyone wonder why the political system is gridlocked? At least the uproar surrounding Arrington’s move evinces that some people still care. Or maybe the naysayers are upset they didn’t think of it first. Or they just like to complain. Whatever it is, any time journalistic ethics get debated should provide some solace to those who still do care. —Reuters

US airport unveils new body scan technology 241 security machines to be installed at 40 airports

Google pulls plug on Fast Flip, Aardvark WASHINGTON: Google said Friday it is pulling the plug on online news reader Fast Flip, social search service Aardvark, commenting tool Sidewiki and several other products. “Over the next few months we’ll be shutting down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features,” senior vice president Alan Eustace said in a move he called a “fall spring-clean” at the Internet giant.

Eustace said the closures will allow the Mountain View, California-based company to “devote more resources to high impact products-the ones that improve the lives of billions of people.”

“Technology improves, people’s needs change, some bets pay off and others don’t,” he said in a blog post. Google said it is discontinuing the products as part of the closure announced last month of its experimental test bed Google Labs.

Besides Fast Flip, Aardvark and Sidewiki, other products facing the ax include Google Desktop, Google Web Security, Image Labeler, Notebook and Subscribed Links. Sidewiki allows notes and comments to be posted alongside Web pages for others to read. Google said it will begin removing Fast Flip, which was unveiled in September 2009, from Google News in the coming days. “For the past two years, the Fast Flip experiment has fueled a new approach to faster, richer content display on the Web-which will live on in our other display and delivery tools,” Google said.

“We want to thank the dozens of participating US publishers for their collaboration with us in pioneering news content browsing and reading experiences for the Web and mobile devices,” it said. Google’s media partners on Fast Flip include The New York Times, the BBC, The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal

and other publications. Other companies supplying content include magazines such as the Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire and Popular Mechanics, as well as online news sites TechCrunch, Salon and Slate.

Fast Flip allows users to browse through news stories from Google’s media partners at speeds significantly faster than the time it usually takes to load a Web page. Aardvark co-founders Max Ventilla and Damon Horowitz said in a blog post entitled “Goodbye Aardvark” that the service will shut down at the end of this month. Google acquired Aardvark, which was founded in 2007, in February of last year for a purchase price put at $50 million by technology blog TechCrunch.

Aardvark uses the contacts in a person’s network to provide answers to questions via the Web at Vark.com, instant messaging, email or Twitter. “Aardvark began as a small experiment in a new kind of social search, and over a few years blossomed into a service that made millions of connections between people to answer each other’s questions,” Ventilla and Horowitz said.

“Over this time, we learned a lot about creating and maintaining online communities, and how to facilitate sharing of knowledge between people,” they said.

“We’ve been excited to share these lessons within Google over the past year, especially as part of the effort behind Google+” Google+ is the social network launched by the Internet giant in June.

Ventilla and Horowitz said the Aardvark team “remains committed to developing powerful tools for connecting people and improving access to information.” The announcement of the closure of the slate of products comes a week after Google said it was shutting down Slide, a developer of applications for social networks it bought a year ago.— AFP

BERLIN: A visitor takes a photo of Sony tablets with his cell phone at the Sony booth at the IFA, one of the world’s largest trade fairs for consumer electronics and electrical home appliances in Berlin, Germany on Friday. —AP

NEW JERSEY: Newark Liberty International Airport became the first New York area airport to install body scanning technology that will replace a system that was harshly criticized for invading travelers’ privacy by displaying naked images. Transportation Security Administration officials unveiled the software at the airport on Friday, where more than 8 million passengers boarded planes last year.

The technology was originally tested in Februar y at Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Washington and rolled out in July.

In all, the technology will be installed in 241 security machines at 40 airports around the country over the next few months at a cost of $2.7 million that includes research and development, according to the TSA. The agency plans to install it in all airports eventually. The new system uses a screen that displays a gray silhouette of a generic body. The screen is placed at security checkpoints in a spot where both the traveler and the security agent can see it.

In demonstrations Friday using TSA employees as travelers, yellow boxes appeared on the silhouette denoting items that needed to be removed such as cell phones or keys.

Under the previous system, the images of travelers’ bodies were displayed in a separate room, where a TSA officer would radio the officer at the checkpoint that a traveler was carrying an item that needed to be scanned.

The new system speeds that process by using the yellow boxes to display the exact locations of the offending items, according to Donald Drummer, the airport’s federal security director.

“In the past there was an image viewing room that was remote that looked at a body-

specific image,” Drummer said. “In this case we will have a silhouette on the screen that both the passenger and our officer will see and they will know where to target.” TSA employ-

Others called the scans - and the enhanced pat-downs given to people who opted not to be scanned - violations of the Constitutional right against unreasonable searches. The sys-

ees assigned to image viewing rooms will be shifted to other positions within the agency, a TSA spokeswoman said.

The body scanners’ debuted last fall sparked a heated debate over security concerns versus travelers’ privacy. In response, New Jersey’s legislature issued a resolution urging Congress to review the program.

tem also created concerns that the naked images could be downloaded and distributed.

According to TSA statistics, about 2 percent of travelers have opted out of the scans and submitted to pat-downs. The new, generic body scans could lower that number, though some travelers may opt out due to concerns over exposure to radiation. —AP

China urges Internet rethink to silence foes BEIJING: China’s Communist Party control is at risk unless the government takes firmer steps to stop Internet opinion being shaped by increasingly organized political foes, a team of party writers warned in a commentary published on Friday. The long commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the main newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, added to signs that Beijing, jolted by the growing audience and influence of Twitter-like microblogging websites, is weighing fresh ways to tame and channel online opinion.

Chinese officials and media have recently complained about the spread of damaging and unfounded “rumours” on the Internet. But this commentary raised the political stakes by arguing that organised, subversive opponents are exploiting tardy regulation to inflame opinion and spread their views.

The commentary urged changes in how China controls Internet innovations. “Internet opinion is spontaneous, but increasingly shows signs of becoming organized,” said the commentary, written by a team of writers for the Communist Party’s top theoretical journal, “Qiushi”, which means “Seeking Truth.”

“Among the many controversies stirred up on the Internet, many are organized, with goals and meticulous planning and direction, and some clearly have commercial interests or political intentions in the background,” said the commentary. “Unless administration is vigorous, criminal forces, hostile forces, terrorist organizations and others could manipulate public sentiment by manufacturing bogus opinion on the Internet, damaging social stability and national security.”

A commentary in the People’s Daily does not amount to a government policy pronouncement, and indeed this one may reflect a more conservative current in official debate. But it adds to signals that Beijing is leaning to

tougher controls. China already heavily filters the Internet, and blocks popular foreign sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The People’s Daily commentary did not single out the explosive growth of microblog, or “weibo”, users, who reached 195 million by the end of June, an increase of 209 percent on the number at the end of 2010.

But a preface to the newspaper commentary singled out a recent string of public uproars that have spread through microblogs, especially the “Weibo” site of Sina Corp , which dominates the sector in China. Those uproars included a bullet train crash in July that drew outrage aimed at government officials over evasive statements, safety failures and the feverish expansion of high-speed rail. Sina and other Chinese microblog operators already deploy technicians and software to monitor content, and block and remove comments deemed unacceptable, especially about protests, scandals and party leaders. But the torrent of information and combative views can be hard to tame.

“In Internet battles, usually negative views crush positive ones,” said the People’s Daily, adding that extreme online opinion abounded with “unvarying suspicion of government policies, official statements, mainstream viewpoints, the social elite and the well-off”.

Officially, at least, Sina’s Weibo and other Chinese microblog sites are still in “trial” mode. In comment’s that appeared aimed at such microblogs, the People’s Daily commentary said the Chinese government had shot itself in the foot by letting Internet technologies take off and win huge followings before effective control was in place.

That must change, it said. “We have failed to take into sufficient account just how much the Internet is a doubleedged sword, and have a problem of allowing technology to advance while administration and regulation lag,” said the commentary. — Reuters

Assange months ago wanted all WikiLeaks US cables released WASHINGTON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange late last year told associates his website’s entire cache of US diplomatic cables “must somehow” be released, according to a written record of the discussion. The recordnotes of a meeting-describes an intense conversation between Assange and other WikiLeaks activists in November at Ellingham Hall, a mansion in eastern England where he has resided since British courts released him on bail pending a decision on a Swedish extradition request for his questioning about sexual misconduct allegations.

According to the notes, examined by Reuters, the substance of the meeting was a “heated conversation about rough plans on releasing cables.” The debate’s details were first reported on Friday on the website of Britain’s Guardian newspaper by James Ball, a former WikiLeaks staffer who attended the meeting and who now works for the Guardian. Evidence of the discussions surfaced as WikiLeaks announced that it was releasing its entire database of “251,287 US embassy cables in searchable format.” People who examined the database said its contents are unredacted.

The topic under discussion at Ellingham Hall was a plan under which WikiLeaks would give mainstream media organizations access to the cable cache in return for their agreement to redact sensitive information from the documents before publication. Last year, human rights groups criticized WikiLeaks for releasing raw US military documents whose contents could have jeopardized the safety of civilians. According to the notes, a Scandinavian activist said: “You do realize the idea of not putting ALL of these cables up is totally unacceptable to people around this table, don’t you?” This set off “another shouting match.” According to the notes, Assange was “insistent all cables must somehow be eventually released.” Assange did not respond to an email requesting comment which was sent to him via the owner of the mansion. The notes do not allege that Assange or others were insisting that the full document cache be released uncensored. In a book on WikiLeaks published earlier this year, two Guardian journalists, David Leigh and Luke Harding, wrote that when he started talking about releasing classified USgovernment documents, Assange expressed reluctance to redact the material, but was persuaded to do so by mainstream reporters. In a statement released earlier this week, WikiLeaks appeared to lay the groundwork for its release of the entire document cache by accusing one of the two Guardian journalists of having “negligently disclosed top secret WikiLeaks’ decryption passwords” in their book. — Reuters

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health & science

Armstrong relives historic Moon landing Astronaut provides rare glimpse into the flight SYDNEY: It’s more than 40 years since Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon, but his memories of the historic flight remain as undimmed as his passion for further exploration of space. The Apollo 11 commander, now aged 81, relived the 1969 mission that enthralled the world as he watched Google’s new high-definition images of the Moon in Australia last week. The pictures, available on YouTube since May but which Armstrong said he had only just seen, show Apollo 11’s landing spot, including the fuel cell left behind which it also used as a launch pad.

“So for the skeptics about whether we ever landed on the Moon-this is a pretty good indication that somebody’s done it,” he quipped to a business audience that had paid hundreds of dollars to hear him speak. The famously private astronaut provided a rare glimpse into the flight, recalling the moment he hurtled free of Earth’s gravity at “more than 10 times the speed of a rifle bullet”. “You’re looking down at Asuncion Island in the Atlantic at dusk, and you soon fly into darkness,” he said.

“You see some city lights on the African coast and notice lightning flashes illuminating some thunderheads like neon mushrooms far below you.”

Crossing over to the daylight side of Earth he said a “scimitar of light” became a flood, blinding in its brightness, and though minutes passed by swiftly “you seem to be perfectly motionless”. “You look at Malaysia and the islands of Indonesia below, they’re dropping away from you six or 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) per hour they’re dropping away,” he said.

“The horizon is growing more and more, you can see Australia off to the right and Japan off to the left, and all of a sudden you can see the entire circle-the whole planet Earth, kind of a gigantic

footage, Armstrong recalled his arrival on the desolate, cratered landscape and the historic phrase relayed back to Earth: “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” But he was also forward looking,

ADEJE: This file photo taken on June 24, 2011 shows US aviator and former astronaut Neil Armstrong speaking during the Starmus Festival closing ceremony on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife. It’s been more than four decades since Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, and the US hero believes that man should return there and mark Mars as the next space frontier. —AFP blue medicine ball covered with white lacy clouds, and it’s floating slowly away from you into the inky black sky.”

‘A worthy goal’-Playing the new highdefinition pictures of the Moon alongside the original July 1969 Apollo

telling the audience that the American space program was “in some chaos”. As the United States contemplates the future of its space program following the end of the shuttle era last month, he said NASA should start using the Moon for

training missions for Mars exploration.

“I do favor going to Mars but I believe it is both too difficult and too expensive with the technology we have available at the current time,” he told those gathered in Sydney. “I favor returning to the Moon.

We made six landings there and explored areas as small as a city lot and perhaps as large as a small town. That leaves us some 14 million square miles that we have not explored.”

Armstrong also reflected at length on the Apollo program and America’s space race with Russia. It was a sometimes desperate and very close contest, he said, with the Soviets’ unmanned Luna 15 racing neck-and-neck for the lunar surface with Apollo 11 after an ambitious John F. Kennedy had set a deadline of 1970 for the United States to land on the Moon almost a decade earlier.

The Soviet craft’s landing gear failed as it approached the Moon and it crashed into the sur face, while Armstrong hoisted the American flag to “reach a goal that dreamers had been dreaming of for many, many centuries”.

After Apollo 11, Armstrong said five more lunar spacecraft and 10 astronauts landed on the Moon, with the experiments completed there and samples returned multiplying mankind’s knowledge of its closest neighbor “one thousand-fold”.

“We understood the substantial risks, we were willing to accept them because we believed that our goal was a worthy goal,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to be led by men who made me yearn for the vast and endless sea above the surface of the Earth, and I am in their debt.” — AFP

Jeff Bezos’ spaceship fails during test flight Texas: An unmanned spacecraft bankrolled by Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos failed during a recent test flight.

The vehicle became unstable at 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) and ground controllers had to terminate it as a precaution. Additional details about what went wrong were not released. “Not the outcome any of us wanted, but we’re signed up for this to be hard,” Bezos wrote in a blog post Friday.

Bezos founded Blue Origin to develop a vertical takeoff and landing rocketship that would fly passengers to suborbital space. It recently won money from NASA to compete to go into orbit as a space taxi now that the space shuttle fleet is retired. The mishap occurred during a test flight last week from Blue Origin’s West Texas spaceport. The ultra-secretive company notified the Federal Aviation Administration about the launch and only acknowledged the accident publicly

MARS: This artist’s rendering provided by NASA shows of the Mars Rover, Opportunity, on the surface of Mars. Opportunity reached the rim of the Endeavour crater last month. The arrival gave the rover access to geology different from any it explored during its first 90 months on Mars. —AP

Mars rover Opportunity studying new surroundings LOS ANGELES: The Mars rover Opportunity is snapping pictures like a tourist since arriving at its latest crater destination, much to the delight of scientists many millions of miles (kilometers) away. The solar-powered workhorse beamed back images of the horizon, soil and nearby rocks that are unlike any it has seen during its seven years roaming the Martian plains. Opportunity is doing more than just sightseeing. It recently spent a chunk of time using its robotic arm to investigate a flat-topped boulder that likely formed in a hydrothermal environment.

Scientists were giddy with excitement Thursday - a tone reminiscent of the mission’s early days. “Mars is a very complex planet, a very diverse place,” said chief scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University. “We’re seeing some of that diversity here.” After a three-year drive, the six-wheel rover finally rolled up to the western rim of Endeavour Crater in early August to begin a new chapter of exploration.

Project managers chose the locale because it’s older and different than previous spots Opportunity has visited. The view from orbit reveals tantalizing evidence of clay deposits believed to have formed in a warm and wet environment early in Mars’ history. The next task is to head north in search of more ancient rocks and hunt for the elusive clay minerals, said deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.

The most interesting geology is to the south of Opportunity’s current position,

but it’s unclear whether it will go there.

“I’m game for it,” Ar vidson said.

Opportunity is showing typical wear for its age. It has to drive backward to prevent one of its wheels from freezing up and has arthritis in its arm. “We’re no longer driving a hot new sports car,” said Dave Lavery, who heads the rovers program at NASA headquarters. “We’re now driving a 1965 Mustang that hasn’t been restored.”

Opportunity ’s latest feat comes months after NASA bid farewell to its identical twin Spirit. Both rovers parachuted to opposite ends of the red planet in 2004 and lasted beyond their original three-month task. Spirit fell silent last year not long after it got mired in a sand trap. NASA diligently listened for a signal from the rover and gave up in late May. To commemorate Spirit, the rover team named a spot on Endeavour Crater “Spirit Point.”

Opportunity will soon have company on the surface. NASA is set to launch a mobile laboratory named Curiosity in the latest quest to find habitable environments. The three-week launch window opens on Nov 25. The space agency said lats week pre-flight testing is taking longer than expected and it does not yet know whether it can make the start of the launch period. With a $2.5 billion price tag, Curiosity is the most expensive and advanced rover to Mars yet. Once it lands in summer next year, it will study a mountain inside a 96-mile-wide (155kilometer-wide) crater to determine whether conditions were favorable to support microbial life. —AP

on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported about the failure, said the test did not use federal funds and was not part of the development agreement with NASA. Blue Origin’s failure shines a spotlight on the risks of commercial space ventures. SpaceX, which has a NASA contract to develop a commercial vehicle to haul supplies and astronauts, suffered three rocket failures before it found success. Later this year, the company, run by PayPal founder Elon Musk, will launch a capsule on a cargo test run to the International Space Station.

Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, lost three workers in 2007 after an explosion rocked a California airport during testing of a propellant system for its space tourism vehicle. The company is currently conducting flight tests in the Mojave Desert and has not set a date for the first passenger flights. — AP

Health

in brief

Ozone in smog damages health at current level WASHINGTON: Health experts lamented a move by US President Barack Obama to halt rules on limiting smog pollution, saying the decision could endanger many people already susceptible to respiratory problems. Under pressure from businesses and Republican lawmakers, the Environmental Protection Agency had delayed issuing a rule on ozone limits several times. On Friday, Obama unexpectedly told the EPA to withdraw the clean-air initiative.

Listeria outbreak kills two in Colorado DENVER: Two people in Colorado have died in the last month in a listeria outbreak following a puzzling surge in cases of gastrointestinal infection caused by the food-borne bacteria, state public health officials said. Alicia Cronquist, a state epidemiologist, said nine people in Colorado were hospitalized with the infection in August, including the two who died, with seven cases tallied in just the last week.

Court upholds most of South Dakota abortion CHICAGO: An appeals court on Friday upheld much of a South Dakota law setting out what a pregnant woman should be told 24 hours before an abortion, including that the procedure would “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a provision in the 2005 law that would require the doctor to tell the woman about an increased risk of suicide after an abortion-with the court saying the link was unproven and may not exist.

Obese kids have more asthma flare-ups NEW YORK: Shaving off extra pounds might help asthmatic kids prevent flare-ups of the disease, according to a study that found obese children have a harder time controlling their symptoms. The work is the first to show that even after taking race and social factors into account, heavier kids use more drugs to control their asthma and curb flare-ups than their slimmer peers.

Folate tied to lower colon cancer risk NEW YORK: People who eat plenty of folate had a lower risk of colon and rectal cancers in a new study that examined the effects of folic acid fortification in the United States. In addition, the study did not find any extra cancerrelated danger at very high levels of folate-as some researchers have worried-over close to a decade.

Two US children develop flu from pigs: CDC CHICAGO: Two US children were infected with flu viruses that originated in pigs in the past two months, and an analysis of both viruses showed they had picked up genetic material from the 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 virus, government researchers said on Friday.

They issued a warning to health workers to watch out for suspect viruses because those that cross between species can be especially virulent. —Reuters

Space junk at dangerous ‘tipping point,’ study finds WASHINGTON: Clouds of space junk orbiting the Earth have reached a dangerous “tipping point”, threatening to smash satellites and endanger astronauts, US scientists warned in a study this week. “The current space environment is growing increasingly hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts,” said Donald Kessler, chair of the committee that wrote the report and retired head of NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office.

“NASA needs to determine the best path forward for tackling the multifaceted problems caused by meteoroids and orbital debris that put human and robotic space operations at risk.” NASA is currently tracking over 22,000 pieces of debris and estimates there are millions more that are too small to track. Among those are at least 500,000 particles of up to 10 centimeters (four inches) in diameter, which can still cause damage when traveling at such high speeds.

Computer models have shown that the “debris has reached a ‘tipping point,’ with enough currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures,” the National Research Council said in a statement. Efforts to limit the amount of space debris suffered a major setback in 2007 when China tested its anti-satellite missiles on a weather satellite which was blown to pieces.

More debris was formed two years later when two satellites accidentally collided in orbit. Cleaning up the spent rockets and abandoned equipment is not simply costly it is also complicated by the fact that the United States is prohibited by international law from collecting objects belonging to other nations. “The Cold War is over, but the acute sensitivity regarding satellite technology remains,” explained committee vice chair George Gleghorn, former vice president and chief engineer for the TRW Space and Technology Group. — AFP

PRAGUE: Two months old Sumatran tiger cubs play in their exclosure on Friday in Prague Zoo in the capital city. — AFP

Researchers study brain of NHL enforcer Boogaard CHICAGO : Researchers at Boston University are studying the brain of deceased NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard to determine whether he suffered from a degenerative brain condition associated with repeated hits to the head.

Dr Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon and codirector of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston

University’s School of Medicine, confirms Boogaard’s family donated his brain. Cantu leads a research team studying the longterm effects of head trauma in sports.

Boogaard, whose results won’t be released without his family’s approval, is one of three NHL enforcers found dead since May. The 28-year-old former New York Ranger died in May due to an accidental mix

of alcohol and the painkiller oxycodone.

Winnipeg’s Rick Rypien, 27, was discovered in August at his home in Alberta after a police official said a call was answered for a “sudden and non-suspicious” death.

And 35-year-old Wade Belak, who played with five NHL teams before retiring in March, was found dead on Wednesday in Toronto. —AP

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health & science California man arrested for biting pet python SACRAMENTO: A California man is in custody after being accused of biting a python in what police said was apparently an unprovoked attack on the pet snake of an acquaintance. The suspect, David Senk, 54, was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully maiming or mutilating a reptile, Sacramento police Sergeant Andrew Pettit said on Friday.

The badly injured snake underwent surgery.

In a jailhouse interview aired on KOVR-T V in Sacramento, Senk said he had no recollection of the incident after having blacked out from drinking but felt “horrible as hell about it.” Asked why he might have bitten the snake, Senk replied: “I get drunk, I get crazy. I don’t know.

I’ve been an alcoholic for a long time.” Senk was taken into custody after police, responding to a report of an assault, found him lying on the ground with blood on his face.

Officers were then approached by another man and a woman who told them Senk had just taken two large bites out of their python when they let him hold the snake, Pettit said.

“There was nothing to indicate that the snake provoked him at all. He (Senk) just out of the blue took a bite,” the police spokesman said. “From what I understand, he didn’t say anything. He was pretty incoherent.”

The beige- and brown-colored snake, measuring 3 to 4 feet in length, was reported to be recovering after a veterinarian stitched up the reptile, Pettit said. Senk said in the interview he was “not too fond of snakes (but) I try not to bite them.” “It’s the other way around usually,” he added. They bite me.” — Reuters

Gut bacteria picky about what we eat

CALIFORNIA: This photo provided by the City of Sacramento Animal Care Services shows a python drinking water on Friday, in Sacramento, Calif.

Police say the snake underwent emergency surgery after David Senk, 54, allegedly bit the creature twice. —AP

CHICAGO: Gut bacteria-colonies of bacteria that live in the human digestive tract-appear to have fairly picky dining habits, with one type preferring highfat, fast-food fare, and another preferring a highfiber feast, US researchers said on Thursday.

Researchers are increasingly trying to understand the interplay of bacteria and their human hosts. “We know our human bodies are colonized with tons and tons of bacteria and other organisms. In your colon alone, you have more bacterial cells than you have human cells in your whole body,” said Dr James Lewis, a researcher at the the University of Pennsylvania, who worked on the study published in the journal Science.

Last April, German researchers reported that gut bacteria fall into three distinct types. Lewis’ team wanted to see how these different types of gut bacteria affect human health. “The unique feature of the intestines is that they are constantly bathed in what we eat. It seemed logical to us that some of the differences between one person’s gut bacteria and another could be related to what they eat,” Lewis said in a telephone interview.

To understand that, the team had to sort through a lot of excrement. “We fondly refer to this as the poop study,” Lewis said. For the first part of the study, the team recruited 98 healthy volunteers and collected stool samples from each. The volunteers also filled out a detailed questionnaire of their eat-

Al-Seef AlSeef Hospital For the t first time in Kuwait

ing habits. Then the researchers used high-tech gene sequencing machines to determine the genetic code of the bacteria living in the volunteers’ colons.

They found that the gut bacteria were largely from two distinct groups or enterotypes-one called Bacteroides that preferred a typical Western diet rich in meat and fat, and another called Prevotella that preferred a high-carbohydrate diet. Next, the team wanted to see if they could alter the gut bacteria by changing people’s diets. They recruited 10 healthy people who checked into a hospital for a 10-day controlled eating study. Half of the group ate a highfat, low-fiber diet, and the other ate a low-fat, highfiber diet.

Within 24 hours, the team saw changes in the composition of the gut bacteria but the overall enterotype remained the same. Lewis said the findings suggest bacteria that live in the gut are sensitive to short term changes in diet, but it may take a long-term dietary change to significantly alter the types of bacteria that reside in the gut. Now, the researchers are looking to see if these differences have an affect on inflammatory diseases of the gut, such as Crohn’s, which affects 1.5 million people in the United States.

“Crohn’s disease is caused in part by the way our body responds to the microbes in our intestines,” Lewis said. — Reuters

From 4-1 2 Sep. 20 11

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Professor/ Prof essor/ Michel Gagner MD, M FRCSC, FACS FACS Recipient of SLS Excel Award Recipient Award 2011 Recipie nt of (Best ( Award)) in the United States S 20 007 , 2008 , 2009 & 2010.

Recipient Doctor Award) of America for the years 2006 , 2007 Preside ent and member of several International Medical M President Associations.

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Chief off Laparoscopic Surgery Surgery Department at New Ne ew York York Presbyterian Hospital (2003-2007).

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W H AT ’ S O N

Kuwait Ernakulam Residents Association held Indian independence day celebration in Abbassiya.

Indian music video to be shot in Kuwait

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Malayalam musical album that has song writers from Jnanpith award winner ONV to the popular Rafeeq Ahmad and singers from Hariharan to Sreya Ghoshal, produced by Ragasuthra Music Company and orchestrated

by Viswajith plans its launch soon. The 8 songs in the album uses lots of Indian languages in part and the music also is pan Indian. As part of the launch the songs are being visualized. A few songs will be shot in Kuwait since the songs represent the life of Indian expats in Kuwait. Ragasuthra is looking for real talents for their gulf based production of music videos. Talents/Actors: M/F - Age: 14 - 26; -Family combination: M/F Age: 28 - 45; -Supporting character: M/F - Age 10 - 60; Assistant Director: M/F; -Associate Director: M/F; -Assistants: M/F; Training will be given for selected candidates. Serious applicants may send their bio data with recent photographs to ragasuthra@gmail.com

‘SauhrudaThanima 2011’ heralds religious harmony

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auhrudaThanima 2011 and Social Ifthar break conducted by THANIMA(The Human And Nostalgic Interaction of Malayalees Abroad) on 24th August to grace the holy month of Ramadan heralded the message of religious Harmony. Thomas Chandy MLA inaugurated the program which was tak-

en place at Hi-Dine Auditorium.

Abbassiya. Anwar Saed, Fr. Koshy Mathew Panachumoottil, Byju Pillai, Babuji Bathery, Varghese Chandanappally, Jerry John Koshy spoke on the occasion. Iqbal Kuttamangalam presided over the function.

Representatives of all religious faiths

and social and cultural organizations of Kuwait Malayalee community attended the Ramadan friendly get together.

Raghunathan Nair, Jacob Thomas, Rose Kattukallil, C.A Joy, Philip J. Panicker, Johney Kunnil, Shaji Vargese, Thomas Mathew, Maju Karippal, Binoy Thomas, Thomas Kattanam, Jins Mathew,

Peter Ezhupunna, Jojimon K.K, Jeemon, Josekutty, Mukundan, Chndran and Abey Paul were among who spearheaded the program.

The circus is back ABK resumes normal branch timings

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he Italian Circus is in town in Salmiya, Qatar Street, behind Gulf Mart, across from Marina Mall. For more info: 9991-4607 or 9991-4807 (1st show: 6pm - 8pm and 2nd show 9pm - 11pm)

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l Ahli Bank of Kuwait would like to extend heartiest greetings to all on the occasion of Eid. With the auspicious month of Ramadan coming to an end, ABK’s branches will resume normal working hours for customer convenience.

Head Office, Kuwait University, Sabah, Mansouriya, Jabriya, Hadiya, Ahmadi, Khaitan, Jahra 1, Subhan, Qurain, Andalus, Salwa, South Surra will open from 8:30 am to 3 pm.

Liberation Tower and Ministries Complex branches will open for business from 8:30am to

Calling all K’S Path Volunteers Not yet a volunteer?

Worry not. Email volunteers@kspath.org to sign up for our Volunteer Orientation to be held Saturday, September 10th, 2011. We have many exciting volunteer opportunities and projects lined up!

Dreams of Youth Indian National Association (DYINA) formed

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n August 30, some of Kuwait Pravasi Malayalees gathered in Farwaniya for a dynamic new organization that caters to the needs of the needy and the youth. The new association, DREAMS OF YOUTH INDIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION has been formed for the general welfare of the “DYINA” members who we wish are in Kuwait, India and elsewhere in the world. On this occasion DYINA welcomes all Malayalees in Kuwait, especially whoever staying in company camp / hostels (ladies conveners available for the convenient for the ladies) . For more information contact. Poulose Thekkedeth -66790870; Paul Joseph- 97200915; Babu Thomas - 99240368; Shaji - 55042540; Jose Payappilly 99809603; Reason -97286904

2pm. The two shift branches, Shuwaikh, Sharq, Salmiya, Galleria 2000, Hawalli, Fahaheel, Farwaniya, Jleeb Al Shuyoukh and Jahra 2 will remain open from 9am to 1pm and then 5pm to 7pm. The mall branches , in Al Bahar and Olympia Malls will function from 10am to 1pm and in the evening from 5pm to 7pm.

For more information chat live with an ABK representative at www. eahli.com or call Ahlan Ahli at 1899899.

Kozhikode District Association Farwaniya Area Iftar meet

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ozhikode District Association Farwaniya Area organised Iftar Meet on 24th August 2011 at Echo Restaurant Farwaniya. Important personalities from different walks of life attended the Iftar Party. Messrs Ibrahim PV, Prasad P, Afsal (Frontline Logistics), Gafoor (Rajab Cargo), Hatheek and Fasil A.V are amongst the personalities who attended the Meet. Members of the Association from Farwaniya Area turned out in large numbers to attend the function.

In the Iftar Meet presided over by Najeeb PV - Area President, V M Koya Kakkodi delivered the Iftar message. Association

President Rajagopalan explained organizational matters and offered felicitation to the function. Messrs Beeran Koya KT- Vice President, Aboobacker K - Acting General Secretary, Santhakumar M-Treasurer, Anas Puthiyottil- Organizing Secretary and Abdulla Kollarath- Media Secretary also offered felicitation. Biju PV- Sports Secretary welcomed the gathering and Basheer Ahamed - Central Executive Committee member expressed vote of thanks.

Sasidharan Kovilery, Junaid. F and Padmarajan C - Central Executive Committee members from Farwaniya area controlled the Meeting.

Announcements 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 Gatty- 66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq : Rekha Sachu- 65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana- 66585077 Sanath Shetty- 67712409.

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.

Konkani musical show Comedian Philip, the 1st NRI Goan comedian, is all set to entertain you with a Konkani music show titled “Ani, Anik Zaiem?” to be presented by the United Friends Club on September 9 at 4pm at the AIS (American International School) Auditorium, Maidan-Hawalli. This is Kuwait-based comedian Philip’s third musical show after the overwhelming success of staging “Tum Vhoir Aum Sokol” and “Hem Kazar Koslem” in Kuwait and overseas.

Arpan Onam on Sept 23 Arpan Kuwait will celebrate Onam, Kerala’s harvest festival, on September 23 at the Indian Community School, Salmiya (Senior Girls) from 10 am onwards. Various cultural programs have been scheduled to make the celebration a success. Traditional attractions like athappookkalam, mohiniyattom, kaikottikali, folk songs, dance and songs and skits will be presented by Arpan members.

Paritala Yuvasena pays tribute to Ravi

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n an event organised by Paritala Yuvasena Kuwait, the supporters of Telugu Desam Party recollected the prime years of their association with their slain leader Paritala Ravindra on the occasion of his 54th birth anniversary.

Speaking on the occasion, Ratakonda Laxmipati Naidu, President of Paritala

Yuvasena, Kuwait along with others said, “The generosity and helping hand extended by Paritala’s family can never be forgotten by his constituency members. It is now up to us to help his family by supporting his wife Sunitha Paritala, the sitting MLA of Raptadu”.

Telugu Desam Party leaders Muakala

Subbarayudu Naidu, Daruru Balaram Naidu, Koduri Venkat, Ratakonda Venkataiah, Kottapalli Mohan Babu, Peram Ramana, Malepati Babu, Polavarapu Babu Naidu, Maratu Nagandra Naidu, Sannapaneni Mani, various TDP followers and Paritala Ravi’s supporters participated in the event to

pay their tributes. Ratakonda Laxmipati Naidu thanked all for their continued support and overwhelming response and announced that this would be an annual event from now on.

IMAX film program Effective 4th September 2011 to 10th September 2011 Sunday Sea Rex 3D: 10:30am, 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D: 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 7:30pm,9:30pm Arabia 3D: 12:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 5:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 8:30pm

Born to be Wild 3DL: 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 9:30pm Arabia 3D: 12:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 5:30pm, 8:30pm Wednesday Born to be Wild 3D: 10:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 11:30am, 6:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 12:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 8:30pm

Monday Born to be Wild 3D: 10:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 8:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 11:30am Sea Rex 3D: 12:30pm, 9:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 6:30pm Arabia 3D: 7:30pm

Thursday Legends of Flight 3D: 10:30am, 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D: 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 12:30pm; 9:30pm Arabia 3D: 7:30pm

Tuesday Legends of Flight 3D: 10:30am, 7:30pm

Friday Fires of Kuwait: 2:30pm

Born to be Wild 3D: 3:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 4:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 6:30pm Sea Rex: 8:30pm Saturday Born to be Wild 3D: 10:30am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 11:30am, 5:30pm, 9:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 12:30pm, 7:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 2:30pm Arabia 3D: 4:30pm Notes: All films are in Arabic EXCEPT “Fires of Kuwait” For English, Headsets are available upon request Film schedule is subject to changes without notice.

For information call 1 848 888 or visit www.tsck.org.kw

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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.

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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 ■■■■■■■

Lebanese ambassador holds Eid Al-Fitr luncheon KUWAIT: Lebanese ambassador to Kuwait, Basasam Al-Nou’mani held a luncheon on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr at his residence on Tuesday. It was attended by a large number of dignitaries and other members of the Lebanese community in Kuwait. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form.

All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed. To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website. As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday. The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5257E .PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/5256E.PDF. ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF GERMANY The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF INDIA Embassy of India, would like to inform that application forms for passport/visa services and labour contracts that are on its website, www.indembkwt.org, have been upgraded to include the facility for online data entry. Affidavit forms on the Embassy website have had this facility since May 6, 2009.

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EMBASSY OF KENYA

Future Eye Theatre pays tribute to Prof Vayala

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uture Eye Theatre, Kuwait paid a rich tribute to renowned Malayalam theatre personality Prof Vayala Vasudevan Pillai who passed away last Monday. Paying homage at a condolence meeting held at the Successlines, Abbassiya, the theatre group summed up the pivotal contribution Prof Vayala made to the Malayalam theatre in the last four decades. Future Eye Theatre president Sajeev K Peter recalled that in the formative days of Future Eye Theatre, guidelines and encouragement given by Prof Vayala helped Future Eye Theatre evolve into a credible and noted theatre group. His article on Malayalam theatre written for Future Eye Theatre’s first souvenir was quite profound and enriching, he added.

Moving a condolence resolution, executive member P D Poulose listed some of Prof Vayala’s contribution to the theatre. He served as director of the School of Drama in

Thrissur for over two decades. A disciple of theatre guru G Sankara Pillai, Prof Vayala was selected for the ‘Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi Award’ in 2009 for his contributions to Malayalam theatre. Some of the his popular plays include Viswadarsanam (1977), Thulaseevaram (1979), Agni (1982), Rangabhasha (1984), Varavelpu (1985), Kuchelagadha (1988), The Death of Nestling (1992), Suthradhara, Ethile... Ethile? (1993), Kunji Chirakukal (1994), and Swarnakokkukal (1999), he said.

Future Eye Theatre General Convener Prof John Mathews, George Mathew, Vinu Karreri (Kerala Art Lovers Association), Aboobakkar (KALA Kuwait) and James K.C. were among who paid homage on the occasion. General secretary K V Pradeeshkumar welcomed the gathering while treasurer Biju Samuel proposed a vote of thanks.

The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy. We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area - Block 6 - Street 9 Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316.

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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 ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF SOUTH AFRICA On the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, the South African Embassy will be closed 4 September 2011. The Embassy will resume its normal working hours on Monday, 5 September 2011, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the working hours will be from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and the Consular Section operation hours will from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.

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TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Killer Jellyfish 04:25 I’m Alive 05:20 Animal Cops Phoenix 06:10 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 07:00 Lemur Street 07:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 08:15 The Really Wild Show 08:40 Animal Crackers 09:10 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 10:05 Must Love Cats 11:00 Dogs 101 11:55 Crocodile Hunter 12:50 Into The Lion’s Den 14:40 Big Five Challenge 15:35 My Cat From Hell 16:30 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife 17:25 Ray Mears’ Wild Britain 18:20 Dogs 101 19:15 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Crocodile Feeding Frenzy 22:00 Monster Bug Wars 22:55 Whale Wars 23:50 The Animals’ Guide To Survival

00:40 The Jonathan Ross Show 01:30 Gavin & Stacey 02:00 Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive 02:30 Mutual Friends 03:25 As Time Goes By 03:55 Allo Allo 04:30 Tweenies 04:50 The Roly Mo Show 05:05 Me Too 05:25 Jackanory Junior 05:40 Poetry Pie 05:45 Poetry Pie 05:50 Tweenies 06:10 The Roly Mo Show 06:25 Me Too 06:45 Jackanory Junior 07:00 Tweenies 07:20 The Roly Mo Show 07:35 Me Too 07:55 Jackanory Junior 08:10 Poetry Pie 08:15 Poetry Pie 08:20 Tweenies 08:40 The Roly Mo Show 08:55 Me Too 09:15 Jackanory Junior 09:30 Poetry Pie 09:35 Poetry Pie 09:45 As Time Goes By 10:15 Allo Allo 10:50 Robin Hood 11:35 The Weakest Link 12:20 Casualty 13:10 Casualty 14:00 The Weakest Link 15:35 Doctors 18:05 Robin Hood 18:55 As Time Goes By 19:25 Allo Allo 20:00 Ray Mears: Wild Food 20:50 Heart & Soul 21:40 Lark Rise To Candleford 22:35 Spooks 23:25 The Children

00:50 Antiques Roadshow 01:40 Holmes On Homes 06:40 Sweet Baby James 07:10 Come Dine With Me 13:00 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 15:35 New Scandinavian Cooking 17:20 Holmes On Homes 20:35 Masterchef Australia 23:45 Holmes On Homes

00:00 BBC World News 01:30 Middle East Business Report

02:00 BBC World News 02:10 World Features 02:30 Newsnight 03:00 BBC World News 03:10 World Features 03:30 BBC World News 04:30 Dateline London 05:00 BBC World News 06:30 Click 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 Newsnight 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 India Business Report 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 Fast Track 10:00 BBC World News 10:10 The Health Show 10:30 BBC World News 11:10 World Features 11:30 Dateline London 12:00 BBC World News 13:10 World Features 13:30 Third Eye 14:00 BBC World News 14:30 Newsnight 15:00 BBC World News 15:10 World Features 15:30 BBC World News 16:15 Sport Today 16:30 Click 17:00 BBC World News 17:30 My Country 18:00 BBC World News 19:30 India Business Report 20:00 BBC World News 20:30 Third Eye 21:00 Sports World Have Your Say 22:00 BBC World News 23:00 This Week With Christiane Amanpour

00:00 Cow & Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:50 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Courage The Cowardly Dog 01:45 Eliot Kid 02:10 Ed, Edd n Eddy 02:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 04:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:55 Best Ed 05:20 Skunk Fu! 05:45 Cramp Twins 06:10 Eliot Kid 06:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 07:25 Chop Socky Chooks 07:50 Chowder 08:15 Ben 10: Alien Force 08:40 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 09:00 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 09:25 The Secret Saturdays 09:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 10:15 Cow & Chicken 10:30 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 10:55 Courage The Cowardly Dog 11:20 Adventure Time 11:45 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 12:10 Ed, Edd n Eddy 12:35 Bakugan: New Vestroia 13:00 Ben 10 13:25 Codename: Kids Next Door 13:50 Flapjack 14:15 The Life & Times Of Juniper Lee 14:40 George Of The Jungle 15:05 Ed, Edd n Eddy 15:35 Chop Socky Chooks 16:00 Robotboy - Elements 16:25 Squirrel Boy 16:50 Chowder 17:15 The Secret Saturdays 17:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:05 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders

TRAVEL CHANNEL 00:00 Secrets of Bangkok

01:00 How To Holiday Greener 01:30 Essential 02:00 Trabant Trek 02:30 Word Travels 03:00 People of the Sea 04:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Cruising the Spirit of Adventure 09:00 Glutton For Punishment 09:30 Essential 10:00 The Blue Continent 11:00 Intrepid Journeys 12:00 Globe Trekker 14:00 American Civil War Trail 15:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Intrepid Journeys 18:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Secrets of Bangkok 21:00 Planet Food 22:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 23:00 Globe Trekker

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

Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Stitch Stitch Kim Possible Kim Possible Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Stitch Stitch Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Fish Hooks Suite Life On Deck Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Stitch Fish Hooks Fish Hooks Fish Hooks Fish Hooks Suite Life On Deck Shake It Up Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Fish Hooks Good Luck Charlie Hannah Montana Shake It Up Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Fish Hooks Fish Hooks Fish Hooks Fish Hooks High School Musical 2 Wizards Of Waverly Place Fish Hooks Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Hannah Montana Kim Possible

01:35 02:30 03:00 03:25 03:55 04:20 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:05 06:35 07:00

I Escaped Death How Does It Work How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? American Chopper: Senior vs

YOU GOT SERVED ON OSN ACTION HD

Junior 07:50 Ultimate Car Build-Off 08:45 Wheeler Dealers 09:40 Extreme Fishing 11:25 Ultimate Survival 12:20 How Does It Work 12:45 Cash Cab Us 15:05 Cake Boss 17:20 Mythbusters 18:15 Deadliest Catch - Best Of Season 6 20:05 Deadliest Catch Behind The Scenes...

21:00 Mythbusters 21:55 Sharks: Anatomy Of An Attack 22:50 Deadly Waters

00:05 The Gadget Show 00:30 Mighty Ships 01:20 The Colony 02:10 Building the Future 03:00 Engineered 03:50 Da Vinci’s Machines 04:45 Catch It Keep It 05:40 How Does That Work?

06:10 Superships 07:00 The Sun 07:55 Head Rush 07:58 Sci-Fi Science 08:25 Weird Connections 08:55 Brainiac 09:45 Prototype This 10:35 The Gadget Show 14:45 Head Rush 14:48 Sci-Fi Science 15:15 Weird Connections 15:45 Bang Goes the Theory 16:10 The Gadget Show 16:35 The Gadget Show 17:00 Smash Lab 17:50 Science of the Movies 18:40 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 19:30 Mighty Ships

00:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Bobby Chinn Cooks Asia 01:45 Food Network Challenge 02:35 Chopped 03:25 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 04:15 Good Eats - Special 04:40 Unwrapped 05:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 05:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 05:50 Paula’s Party 06:35 Barefoot Contessa 07:00 Chopped 07:50 Guy’s Big Bite 08:15 Everyday Italian 08:40 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 09:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 09:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 09:55 Barefoot Contessa 10:20 Aarti Party 10:45 Boy Meets Grill 11:10 Unwrapped 11:35 Paula’s Party 12:25 Everyday Italian 12:50 Paula’s Best Dishes 13:15 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 13:40 World Cafe Asia 14:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 14:30 Good Eats - Special 14:55 Unwrapped 15:20 Boy Meets Grill 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Guy’s Big Bite 17:00 Barefoot Contessa 17:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 17:50 Aarti Party 18:15 World Cafe Asia 18:40 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 19:05 Good Eats - Special 19:30 Food Network Challenge 20:20 Unwrapped 20:45 Unwrapped 21:10 Lidia’s Italy 22:00 Barefoot Contessa 22:25 Barefoot Contessa 22:50 World Cafe Middle East 23:40 World Cafe Asia

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

Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Jungle Junction Higglytown Heroes Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time Little Einsteins The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Lazytown Art Attack Imagination Movers The Hive Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction The Hive Timmy Time Special Agent Oso The Little Mermaid Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Handy Manny Lazytown Art Attack Imagination Movers Jungle Junction The Hive Little Einsteins Jake & The Neverland Pirates Handy Manny Timmy Time

19:05 19:23 19:25 19:50 20:09 20:10 20:35 20:50 21:00 21:30 21:55 22:10 22:35 22:55 23:20 23:50

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Animated Stories Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates A Poem Is...

The Little Mermaid Special Agent Oso The Hive Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Handy Manny Jo Jo’s Circus Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction

00:25 Fashion Police 00:55 Chelsea Lately 01:25 20 Best & Worst Celebrity Plastic...

03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Reality Hell 05:30 Wildest TV Show Moments 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kendra 10:15 Married To Rock 11:10 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 12:05 E! News 13:05 Fashion Police 13:35 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 16:55 Behind The Scenes 17:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 Khloe And Lamar 21:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 22:25 E! News 23:25 The Soup 23:55 Chelsea Lately

00:15 Wrestling With Reality 01:30 M1 Selection 2010 02:20 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2009 04:00 Mind The Addiction 04:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

06:30 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 08:00 Cape Epic 09:40 Summer Dew Tour 2010 11:20 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

13:00 BMX Megatour 13:50 Mantracker 14:40 Fantasy Factory 17:10 I’ll Do Anything 18:00 Mantracker 18:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

19:40 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

20:30 BMX Megatour 21:20 Eds Up 21:45 Eds Up 22:10 Mantracker 23:00 I’ll Do Anything 23:50 Wrestling With Reality

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

A Haunting Ghost Lab The Haunted A Haunting A Haunting Crime Scene Psychics Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol I Almost Got Away With It FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn FBI Case Files Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol I Almost Got Away With It Forensic Detectives Murder Shift FBI Files Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Stalked: Someone’s Watching Who On Earth Did I Marry?

I Almost Got Away With It True Crime With Aphrodite

00:00 By Any Means 01:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 01:30 Pressure Cook 02:00 A World Apart 03:00 Ultimate Traveller 04:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 05:00 Long Way Down 06:00 By Any Means 07:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:30 Pressure Cook 08:00 A World Apart 09:00 Ultimate Traveller 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 Long Way Down 12:00 By Any Means 13:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 14:00 Exploring The Vine 15:00 Food School 15:30 Banged Up Abroad 17:30 Finding Genghis 18:00 Travel Madness 19:00 Cruise Ship Diaries 20:00 Exploring The Vine

00:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 01:00 Monster Jellyfish 01:55 Leopard Queen 02:50 Bonecrusher Queens 03:45 I, Predator 04:40 Killer Dragons 05:35 Moray Eels: Alien Empire 06:30 Journey Into Amazonia 07:25 Hidden Worlds 08:20 Valley of The Wolves 09:15 Ultimate Predator

MADE IN DAGENHAM ON OSN MOVIES HD 10:10 My Life Is A Zoo 11:05 The Invaders 12:00 How Big Can It Get 13:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 14:00 Hooked 15:00 Wild Russia 16:00 Killer Dragons 17:00 Ultimate Predator 18:00 Planet Carnivore 19:00 Monster Fish 20:00 Wild Russia 21:00 Killer Dragons 22:00 Ultimate Predator 23:00 Planet Carnivore

00:00 Midnight Meat Train-18 02:00 Zombieland-18 04:00 The Siege-PG15 06:00 The One-PG15 08:00 Mindhunters-18 10:00 King Arthur-PG15 12:00 The Librarian: The Curse Of Judas Chalice-PG15 14:00 Mindhunters-18 15:45 Lost In Space-PG15 18:00 The Librarian: The Curse Of Judas Chalice-PG15 20:00 From Paris With Love-PG15 22:00 You Got Served-PG15

01:30 Desperate Hours: An Amber Alert-PG15 03:15 Me And Orson Welles-PG 05:15 The Nutty Professor-FAM 07:00 Good Hair-PG15 09:00 Flying By-PG15 10:45 Parlez-Moi De LA Pluie-PG15 12:45 It’s A Wonderful AfterlifePG15 14:45 Tron: Legacy-PG15 17:00 Love N’ Dancing-PG15 18:45 Secretariat-PG15 21:00 44 Inch Chest-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:00 Saturday Night Live 03:00 Melissa And Joey 03:30 Mr. Sunshine 04:00 Will And Grace 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Two And A Half Men 06:00 Two And A Half Men 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Will And Grace 08:30 Melissa And Joey 09:00 Two And A Half Men 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:00 Outsourced 10:30 Coach 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Mr. Sunshine 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 Coach 14:30 How I Met Your Mother 15:00 Outsourced 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Just Shoot Me 18:30 Just Shoot Me 19:00 30 Rock 19:30 30 Rock 20:00 My Boys 20:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 My Boys

01:00 Killshot-18 03:00 The Siege-PG15 05:00 Clive Barker’s Book Of Blood

07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

S.W.A.T.-PG15 Ghost Town (TV Movie)-PG15 The Fan-PG15 Timeline-PG15 Ghost Town (TV Movie)-PG15 The Bannen Way-PG15 Case 39-18 You Got Served-PG15 Blood River-18

00:00 UFC 134 03:00 V8 Supercars Championship 05:00 UFC Unleashed 07:00 WWE Vintage Collection 08:00 WWE Bottomline 09:00 WWE NXT 10:00 WWE SmackDown 12:00 V8 Supercars Championship 13:00 V8 Supercars Championship 14:00 Speedway FIM World 15:00 V8 Supercars Extra 00:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of 15:30 Mobil 1 The Grid Meatballs-PG 16:00 WWE SmackDown 02:00 Leaving Normal-PG15 18:00 WWE Tough Enough 04:15 Sleepover-PG15 19:00 UFC 134 Prelims 06:00 Bandslam-PG15 20:00 UFC 134 08:00 Imagine That-PG 23:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 10:15 Straight Talk-PG15 12:00 Happy Ever Afters-PG15 14:00 12 Men Of Christmas-PG15 16:00 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs-PG 01:00 Engineering Disasters 18:00 French Kiss-PG15 02:00 How The Earth Was Made 20:00 Year One-18 03:00 Lost Worlds 22:00 Tucker Max-R 04:00 America: The Story Of The Us 05:00 How The States Got Their Shapes 07:00 Engineering Disasters 01:00 Someone Like You-PG15 08:00 How The Earth Was Made 03:00 Gasland-PG15 09:00 Lost Worlds 05:00 Saved!-PG15 10:00 America: The Story Of The Us 07:00 Remember Me-PG15 11:00 How The States Got Their 09:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Shapes The Squeakquel-FAM 13:00 Engineering Disasters 11:00 Made In Dagenham-PG15 14:00 How The Earth Was Made 13:00 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 15:00 Lost Worlds 15:00 Revenge Of The 16:00 America: The Story Of The Us Bridesmaids¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†-PG15 17:00 How The States Got Their 17:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Shapes The Squeakquel-FAM 19:00 American Pickers 19:00 Nine-PG15 20:00 Pawn Stars 21:00 The Dry Land-18 21:00 UFO Hunters 23:00 Robin Hood (2010)-PG15 22:00 Ancient Aliens

00:00 Inspector Gadget’s Biggest Caper Ever-FAM 02:00 Tooth Fairy-PG 04:00 Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation-FAM 06:00 True Story Of Puss’n Boots-PG 08:00 Legend Of Sleeping BeautyPG 10:00 Wild Records!-PG 12:00 Marmaduke-PG 14:00 Rugrats Go Wild-FAM 16:00 A Christmas Carol-PG 18:00 Wild Records!-PG 20:00 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.PG15 22:00 Rugrats Go Wild-FAM

07:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 18:00 20:00

Trans World Sport Live NRL Premiership Super League NRL Premiership Live European PGA Tour NRL Premiership European PGA Tour

03:00 Football Euro Qualification 05:00 NRL Premiership 07:00 Live NRL Premiership 09:00 Football Euro Qualification 11:00 Pro 12 13:00 Futbol Mundial 13:30 AFL Premiership 16:00 Pro 12 18:00 Football Euro Qualification 20:00 live Masters Football 23:00 Pro 12

00:00 02:00 04:30 06:30 07:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 18:00 20:00

Rugby Union ITM Cup AFL Premiership Rugby Union Currie Cup Futbol Mundial Trans World Sport Live NRL Premiership NRL Premiership Rugby Union Currie Cup Live PGA European Tour NRL Premiership PGA European Tour

2012

2012

2012

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

Homes With Style Videofashion News Big Boutique How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Married Away Homes With Style Area Clean House Big Boutique Clean House Top 10 Homes With Style Bridalplasty Videofashion News How Do I Look?

Fashion Police Clean House Comes Clean Clean House Jerseylicious Ruby

00:17 01:00 01:45 02:00 02:45 13:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 18:45 20:00 20:45 21:00 22:00

Playlist Sound System 10 Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Urban Hit 30 Playlist New Playlist Focus - Lil’ Wayne Urban Hit Playlist French Hit 10 Playlist Legend Playlist

00:00 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof 01:45 Honky Tonk-FAM 03:35 Woman Of The Year-PG 05:25 Fury-PG 07:00 Bachelor In Paradise-PG 08:45 They Died With Their Boots On-FAM 11:00 Some Came Running-PG 13:15 Carbine Williams-PG 14:45 The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse-PG

Classifieds SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

MATRIMONIAL Syro Malabar parents and Palai diocese invite proposal for their son 27/171 cm B.Tech engineer, working as programmer with a reputed firm in Kuwait. Email: mailproposals11@gmail.com (C 3598) 4-9-2011 Christian Orthodox girl 33 years BSc nurse, divorced, no liabilities working in Kuwait MOH, seeking alliance from professionally qualified God fearing person with details and photos to: mathewt27@yahoo.com (C 3597) 3-9-2011

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available at Abbassiya near Integrated Indian school, Highland supermarket building, Keralite family.

Contact: 99379252.

(C 3599) 4-9-2011

FOR SALE 99 model Toyota Prado 6 cylinders company paint, accident free, alloy wheels, wood decoration, remote, CD, USB, zenon sensor, 4x4, cash KD 2400. Contact: 60451292. (C 3596) 3-9-2011 Fridge, cupboards, double bed, dining table, sofa set, T V-2 Nos for sale. All in good condition. Contact: 24340141 / 99818982.

(C 3594) Mitsubishi Galant 2008 model, 2400 CC, liquid silver color, single owner accident free, Al-Mulla maintained, service history available upon request, full option, serious buyer contact: 97264236.

(C 3595) 30-8-2011

No: 15199

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines RJA RJA MLR JZR THY ETH KAC UAE DHX ETD RJA MSR JZR JZR FDB GFA MEA QTR MSR MSR KAC KAC MSR FCX JZR JZR KAC BAW JZR KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA IRC FCX MEA JZR JZR RBG JZR ABY KAC MSR UAL RJA

Flt 5330 642 1405 267 772 620 108 853 370 305 5446 614 269 189 67 211 412 138 1614 2100 1542 544 2104 201 503 555 412 157 1541 206 382 615 284 302 53 332 678 352 855 132 125 603 301 213 6801 203 404 165 121 3553 561 123 762 610 982 640

Arrival Flights on Sunday 4/9/2011 Route AMMAN AMMAN COLOMBO / DUBAI BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA GENEVA / LONDON DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI AMMAN CAIRO BEIRUT DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DOHA CAIRO CAIRO CAIRO CAIRO CAIRO DUBAI LUXOR ALEXANDRIA MANILA / BANGKOK LONDON CAIRO ISLAMABAD DELHI SHAHRE KORD DHAKA MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT / DUBAI COCHIN DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH SHIRAZ ABU DHABI BAHRAIN AHWAZ DUBAI BEIRUT DUBAI BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA SOHAG SHARJAH DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN

Time 0:01 0:05 0:15 0:35 1:15 1:45 2:05 2:25 2:55 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:05 3:10 3:10 3:15 3:15 3:20 3:25 3:45 4:00 4:40 4:55 5:25 5:40 6:10 6:15 6:30 7:10 7:15 7:20 7:35 7:40 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:00 8:05 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:25 9:30 9:35 10:15 10:30 10:55 11:10 11:15 11:45 12:30 13:10 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35

KAC FDB QTR KAC SVA KAC KAC JZR QTR KAC JZR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY JZR FDB ALK JZR RBG KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI SYR FDB OMA VOS MEA KAC DHX KAC UAE KAC GFA QTR AFG UAL AIC JZR JZR JZR MSR DLH LMU AXB JZR KLM BBC JZR

774 57 140 562 500 788 746 257 134 1802 535 303 857 215 510 777 239 127 213 63 227 177 3126 166 542 8067 618 786 614 674 102 572 341 61 647 81 402 552 372 512 859 172 217 136 405 981 981 135 787 185 612 636 1109 389 539 447 45 481

RIYADH DUBAI DOHA AMMAN JEDDAH JEDDAH ABU DHABI / DAMMAM BEIRUT DOHA CAIRO CAIRO ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN SHARJAH DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI DUBAI SOHAG PARIS / ROME CAIRO DUBAI DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI NEW YORK / LONDON MUMBAI ALEPPO DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT DAMASCUS BAHRAIN TEHRAN DUBAI FRANKFURT BAHRAIN DOHA KABUL / DUBAI BAHRAIN CHENNAI / AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT ALEXANDRIA KOZHIKODE / MANGALORE CAIRO AMSTERDAM / BAHRAIN DHAKA SABIHA

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

Airlines KAC AXB MEA JZR DLH RJA AIC MLR THY ETH SWT UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR MEA MSR MSR QTR RJA MSR JZR JZR RJA GFA JZR BAW IRA FDB KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA KAC IRA KAC JZR IRC FCX MEA KAC JZR JZR RBG KAC

Flt 677 394 407 1540 637 5331 976 1405 773 620 94 854 68 371 306 615 413 1615 2101 139 5447 2105 560 164 643 212 120 156 614 54 1801 534 171 761 117 745 256 561 787 856 126 133 302 214 773 602 107 212 6802 204 405 541 776 238 3125 103

Departure Flights on Sunday 4/9/2011 Route DUBAI / MUSCAT COCHIN / KOZHIKODE BEIRUT CAIRO FRANKFURT AMMAN GOA / CHENNAI COLOMBO ISTANBUL BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA DUBAI / KANDAHAR DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO BEIRUT CAIRO CAIRO DOHA AMMAN CAIRO SOHAG DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN LONDON SHAHRE KORD DUBAI CAIRO CAIRO FRANKFURT DUBAI NEW YORK DAMMAM / ABU DHABI BEIRUT AMMAN JEDDAH DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA ABU DHABI BAHRAIN RIYADH SHIRAZ LONDON DEIREZZOR / ALEPPO AHWAZ DUBAI BEIRUT CAIRO JEDDAH AMMAN SOHAG LONDON

Time 0:10 0:15 0:20 0:20 0:40 0:45 0:50 1:15 2:15 2:30 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 4:15 4:25 4:45 5:00 5:05 5:55 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 8:20 8:25 8:35 8:40 8:45 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:25 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:20 10:25 10:30 10:50 11:15 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:10 12:25 12:30

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

KAC JZR ABY MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC KAC KAC SVA JZR QTR KAC KAC JZR ETD QTR UAE GFA ABY JZR SVA FDB JZR JZR RBG ALK JZR KAC FDB KAC KAC JAI FDB SYR KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC DHX UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR KAC LMU

785 176 124 611 641 58 982 551 673 617 503 480 141 613 511 538 304 135 858 216 128 184 511 64 786 204 3554 228 134 1501 8068 283 361 571 62 342 343 351 648 403 543 373 860 218 102 137 301 205 554 502 530 411 981 613 415 1110

JEDDAH DUBAI SHARJAH CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DUBAI DOHA MEDINAH / JEDDAH SABIHA DOHA BAHRAIN TEHRAN CAIRO ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH DUBAI RIYADH DAMASCUS ALEXANDRIA DUBAI / COLOMBO BAHRAIN BEIRUT DUBAI DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI ALEPPO CHENNAI COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD ALEXANDRIA LUXOR ASSIUT BANGKOK / MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA ALEXANDRIA

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

34

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 428

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) You may find that this is just not the best time for exercise, chores and upkeep of home and self but since those things are important, you might be able to get some family member to help—perhaps in exchange for some favor. Pay close attention to an older person in your family today as this person may give you guidance in an unexpected way. You are able to penetrate and get to the very heart of things and you find positive results to most any situation.

Self-sacrifice and an understanding attitude could have far-reaching effects on your family members and friends during this time. Involving yourself with a hobby this evening will help you to relax. You could include others in your fun pastime. A young person may want to join you. Whistle a happy tune!

Taurus (April 20-May 20) This may be a good time for study—you have a real appreciation for old ways of thinking. You may find yourself enjoying a long conversation, writing a letter, or making a special phone call. Your own requirements may appear to limit or separate you from where the rest of the gang is headed.

Perhaps you have decided to brush up on some computer skills—at any rate you will be able to join the group activities again soon. Unconventional approaches to philosophy, religion, law and politics play a bigger role in your life now. Developments in these fields can have a big impact on you. Higher education, publishing, broadcasting or advertising could also play an unexpected role in setting new directions for you now. Keep a good balance.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. An ugly evil-looking old woman.

4. The world's largest desert (3,500,000 square miles) in North Africa.

10. An adult male person (as opposed to a woman).

13. An extension at the end and at right angles to the main building.

14. Being one more than ten.

15. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

16. (informal) Of the highest quality.

17. An Asian temple.

18. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

19. A member of the majority people of Punjab in northwestern India.

22. Fear resulting from the awareness of danger.

25. Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart.

28. (informal) Roused to anger.

29. The mission in San Antonio where in 1836 Mexican forces under Santa Anna besieged and massacred American rebels who were fighting to make Texas independent of Mexico.

32. A river that rises in northern Colombia and flows generally eastward to the Orinoco in central Venezuela.

34. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

35. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

36. A region of Malaysia in northeastern Borneo.

40. The compass point midway between east and southeast.

41. Absolve or pardon.

45. A fraudulent business scheme.

46. Conqueror of Gaul and master of Italy (100-44 BC).

50. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

53. A system of one or more computers and associated software with common storage.

54. Two items of the same kind.

57. A theocratic republic in the Middle East in western Asia.

58. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

59. (Old Testament) The eldest son of Isaac who would have inherited the Covenant that God made with Abraham and that Abraham passed on to Isaac.

60. Clean or orderly.

61. A small carriage in which a baby or child is pushed around.

62. With no effort to conceal.

63. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

DOWN 1. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

2. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

3. (Scottish) A narrow secluded valley (in the mountains).

4. One of the green parts that form the calyx of a flower.

5. A state in the southeastern United States on the Gulf of Mexico.

6. A journey by a large group to escape from a hostile environment.

7. 100 avos equal 1 pataca.

8. Make anew.

9. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

10. A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance.

11. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

12. A quantity of no importance.

20. Tree of the West Indies and northern South America bearing succulent edible orange-sized fruit.

21. Offering fun and gaiety.

23. Designer drug designed to have the effects of amphetamines (it floods the brain with serotonin) but to avoid the drug laws.

24. Small bitter fruit of the marasca cherry tree from whose juice maraschino liqueur is made.

26. A river that rises in northeastern Turkey (near the source of the Euphrates) and flows generally eastward through Armenia to the Caspian Sea. 27. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

30. Any of a group of antidepressant drugs that inhibit the action of monoamine oxidase in the brain and so allow monoamines to accumulate.

31. Using speech rather than writing.

33. A Hindu disciple of a swami.

37. A doctor's degree in dental surgery.

38. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.

39. Large genus of tropical American vines having showy often spotted umbellate flowers.

40. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

42. Small low-growing annual or perennial herbs of temperate and cool regions.

43. State in northeastern India.

44. A unit of dry measure used in Egypt.

47. The sixth month of the civil year.

48. An ancient Hebrew unit of dry measure equal to about a bushel.

49. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

51. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

52. (prefix) In front of or before in space.

55. North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

56. Failing to detonate.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Getting personal with you is a mistake—it always manages to plunge you into turmoil. You resent probing questions, but you are fascinated by any so-called secret information. You may prefer not to think about anything below the surface, but even this is not a constant and this inner conflict produces more than its share of tension. Think about adding to your list of friends—these relationships are the ones that will help you grow in positive, healthy ways. After all, it is through our friends that we truly learn about ourselves. You can demonstrate great understanding to the needs of others just now and are in a good position to communicate concerning groups and society in general. You involve yourself in helping with community improvements.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

You may appear very much at ease today. Everything seems to be working together and you will find yourself expressive.

Characterized by high energy, you tend to be restless and always eager for new experiences. The experience itself is what is foremost in your mind, not so much what you can get out of it. You seek contact, involvement and are not much concerned about matters of personal privacy. You will find yourself enjoying a special impromptu gathering of friends this afternoon; perhaps a special movie is in town that everyone wants to see. This is a great way to be with friends and visiting after a show can be quite fun.

You are a unique individual and many people enjoy your company. There are not many people with your fine character.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Your responsibilities have increased over the recent months and if you take a look at this time last year, you will see some real progress. You may find yourself guiding someone younger than you in matters of importance today. In turn, you may perceive how to proceed with plans regarding your own life situation. Your first obligation is to do the best you can—everything else is secondary. Relationships, personal relationships or the social scene in general is very important during this time and can have a very decided influence in all areas of your life. You may find that a more impersonal attitude is the key. You and a friend take care of or adopt a pet today. Your home environment, friends and surroundings in general become uncomplicated now.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Your personality hangs on your mind; mental activity and the world of communication open up for you now. This is the keystone that binds the rest of you together. Ideas, mental things, information exchange and the interrelating of all these are central to your outer makeup. Communication is the interface that holds the rest of you together. Communication is where the fun part of this day happens. Visiting with acquaintances continues this afternoon—a leisure meal or an ice cream party may develop as a celebration of the end of the summer season. You love a good story and a sense of the mystical pervades every one you tell.

You are at home in the world of myths and dreams and may find that you enjoy the company of others, all day long.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You have an incredible drive to accomplish and achieve these days. Your ambitions are backed up by the will to get things done.

Be aware of your tendency for aggressiveness—you can be very emotional when involved in your personal goals. You try hard and you always push on toward whatever you want to accomplish. You have an ability to work with the imagination, reaching beyond the mundane. Consider the field of teaching, even on a part time basis. You could be an excellent teacher in the areas of art and creative matters. Your sense of the unity behind things spiritual and psychological is felt by those around you. You are at home in the world of dreams and may find the television, movie or script writing industry quite tempting.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You and an old friend may get together today and talk about old times. Fondness and appreciation for the past and for your roots in life take on greater importance now. You may yearn for family harmony. Mothering, or being nurtured, sympathy and a yearning to put down roots create a fondness for things that have stood the test of time. These are some of the hallmarks of the phase that now begins in your life. Romantic and social experiences, as well as artistic tastes, will show evidence of these factors. Family and security are things that rattle your chain more than ever now. These are areas where you make beginnings and bold moves—things you are willing to fight for and things about which it pays to be careful. Real estate brings gain.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

Sunny days are not over. You may find yourself gardening and being creative through the design you give your garden. Perhaps a pool of water and a little waterfall will be nearby. Whatever the case, you enjoy the planning and developing stages. Your persuasive ways will win over any disputes that occur today, but not without much deliberation. The idea of what-you-see-is-whatyou-get is not enough for you. You want more than appearances and are willing to dig down to get at the heart of things. You work through all that is superficial, no matter what kind of personal sacrifice is required. You draw emotional sustenance and a sense of security from ideals, friends and social involvement this afternoon. Ideas for a vacation may surface tonight.

A garage sale is on your mind and loved ones as well as neighbors may offer to pitch in and help—making it a neighborhood effort. Circumstances may urge you to great effort and hard work today. Things are working with rather than against you however, so do not hold back. There may be some real monetary benefits for your efforts.

However, do not try to do everything yourself—others want to help. Let things take their natural course. Consider celebrating this evening with a barbecue bash. You may find yourself seriously thinking about your next vacation—many of your friends and neighbors are talking about their travel experiences from this summer.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You may have to work part of the day today—but the afternoon is yours! Others may find you especially witty and eccentric just now. There are insights with regard to your living situation or life circumstances.

Others value you for your independence and unique qualities. You may have some added responsibility today but this just seems to spur you forward. When it comes to spending the money you may decide a trip is more important than a new hairstyle— some may consider this frugal or unnecessarily a bit much. You may be just as fond of simplicity as much as others are of abundance. You put great value on organization and planning. Watching your finances grow brings a great deal of satisfaction. You may plot out some new investments.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Helping others to make a positive difference in their lives and finding new ways to make money is where your mind-set is focused now. A quick chance to show your talent at a flea market or community bazaar will help you bring in some spending money. Obtaining and exchanging information takes on a great deal of importance when a foreign visitor takes a liking to your professional skills. You are able to step up and take care of this visitor’s needs. While you may not want to make writing a living, you could consider some of your writing is worthy of being published. Think about writing a review of an activity, city or accommodations while traveling or vacationing in the near future. Being paid for your literary expertise can be a lot of fun.

A

y

e niv rsar n

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Years

i n f o r m at i o n FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

24812000

Al-Jahra

25610011

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

lifestyle G O S S I P

Saggy pants cost Green Day singer his airline seat reen Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong says his sagging pants cost him a seat on a Southwest Airlines flight. The singer-guitarist for the San Francisco Bay area band sent a message to his Twitter followers on Thursday expressing his indignation at being tossed from an Oakland-to-Burbank flight for wearing his trousers too low. “Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low! What the f(asterisk) (asterisk)(asterisk)? No joke!” he wrote. An ABC7 news producer who was on the same flight told the station that a flight attendant approached Armstrong as the plane was getting ready to take off and asked him to hike his pants higher. The producer, Cindy Qiu, says Armstrong initially responded by asking the attendant if there weren’t “better things to do than worry about that?” But the attendant persisted and told Armstrong he could be ejected for his refusal to comply. When Armstrong insisted he was just trying to get to his seat, he and a traveling companion were taken off the plane. Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins released a statement saying Armstrong was allowed onto the next flight to Burbank and had told a customer relations agent who

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contacted him he had no further complaints. “As soon as we became aware of what had happened, we reached out to apologize for this Customer’s experience,” the statement read. “He elected to take the next flight. We followed up with this Customer and involved Employees to get more details and, in our latest conversations, understand from the Customer the situation was resolved to his satisfaction.” A University of New Mexico football player was arrested at San Francisco International Airport in June when he allegedly refused a US Airways attendant request for him to pull up his low- riding pants and, later, the captain’s order to leave the plane. The player, Deshon Marman, was held on suspicion of trespassing, battery of a police officer and obstruction of a police investigation when he allegedly resisted the officer who escorted him from the plane. But the San Mateo County district attorney refused to bring charges. The incident sparked allegations of racial profiling after a photo surfaced of a man who flew aboard a US Airways flight wearing skimpy women’s panties and mid-thigh stockings days before Marman’s arrest. That man was white. Marman is African-American.

Rapper T.I.

Madonna impresses

returned to federal prison in Atlanta he lawyer for rapper T.I. said Friday that he’s working to have the Grammy winner returned to a halfway house after a transportation flap left him locked up again in a federal penitentiary. The Federal Bureau of Prisons website Friday shows that the rapper is at the Atlanta penitentiary with a release date of Sept 29. He had checked into a halfway house in Atlanta last week after serving months in an Arkansas prison. The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, made the 375-mile (600-kilometer) trip to Atlanta in a gleaming motor coach on Wednesday. The transportation arrangements appear to be the reason he’s back behind bars, his lawyer said. “The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) appears to have an issue with the circumstances surrounding TI’s transportation from Arkansas to Atlanta,” T.I.’s attorney, Steve Sadow, said Friday. Sadow said they haven’t received formal notice from prison officials explaining what he’s accused of doing wrong. Sadow said Friday there was never any intent to mislead or misstate T.I.’s method of transportation, and he hopes

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Lady Gaga releases fashion film for ‘You And I’ op star Lady Gaga has teamed up with Dutch fashion photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin to produce five fashion-inspired vignettes for her latest single “You And I.” The first video, entitled “You And I: Nymph,” was released on Thursday and featured the singer posing and pirouetting in a series of black-and-white clips shot by the famed fashion photographer duo. The 2-minute 10-second video was the creative brainchild of Lady Gaga, who partnered with her stylist Nicola Formichetti to deliver a minimalistic performance dressed in a simple dress with neutral make-up, a far cry from her usual elaborate style as seen in her previous videos. The pop star, who is known for her quirky avant garde outfits, first collaborated with high fashion photography duo van Lamsweerde and Matadin in May this year for V Magazine’s Asian issue.

The photographers have shot campaigns for fashion brands such as Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent,

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and have had their work featured in Vogue, Harper ’s Bazaar and Elle Magazine, among others. The official video for “You And I,” the fourth single from the album “Born This Way,” premiered on August 18. Thursday’s fashion film release coincides with Lady Gaga’s latest column in the October issue of V Magazine, in which she attacks New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn for recent, negative reviews of the singer. Horyn criticized designer Donatella Versace for praising Lady Gaga’s Versace outfits, in her June 17, 2011 “On The Runway” blog, writing “Be choosier, Ms Versace.” Lady Gaga responded to Horyn in her column, asking “shouldn’t columnists and reviewers, such as Cathy Horyn, employ a more modern and forward approach to criticism, one that separates them from the average individual at home on their laptop?” There was no further announcement from Lady Gaga on when the remaining four videos by van Lamsweerde and Matadin will be released.

‘great’ marriage

he former Spice Girls singer thinks people can go “too far” with going under the knife to alter their appearances, but she insists she doesn’t judge people who decide to have appearance-altering surgical procedures.

She told Britain’s Hello! magazine: “Cosmetic surgery frightens me a little bit - people go too far and sometimes it goes wrong but I wouldn’t judge those who want it done. “I’ve not had it done myself.” Mel, 37, has several tattoos and admits she regrets some of them, particularly as they took so long to cover up when she was appearing in London stage production ‘Blood Brothers’. She said: I regret some of them. I was very young and I’ve changed a lot since then, plus some of them are in prominent places. “When I did ‘Blood Brothers’ on stage I had to cover them up, which was a messy job involving acrylic paint and glue.” —Agencies

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ctress Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband Prinz Frederic von Anhalt was hit by a car in Beverly Hills on Friday and taken to a hospital where he was treated for cuts to his hip and hand, his spokesman said.

The 68year-old von Anhalt was walking to a bank when a car drove out from an underground parking garage and hit him. Doctors were trying to determine on Friday afternoon if he also had broken his leg, the spokesman said. The driver was arrested by Beverly Hills police. Von Anhalt said he did not want to press charges. “He just wants to go home and be with his wife,” his spokesman said.

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adonna impressed her boyfriend’s family with a £50,000 stay in the south of France.

The 53-year-old singer is currently dating 24 year old Brahim Zaibat, and in a bid to impress his mother Patricia Vidal and five of his cousins, she put them up in the Hotel Du Cap on the Cap d’Antibes in the South of France and gave them a limitless budget to enjoy.

A source told the Sun newspaper: “Madonna went all out to impress Brahim’s mother and his cousins. She told them all to order whatever they liked - which they couldn’t believe as the bill for one meal alone came to more than £1,000.” The two families even enjoyed a night out at the Palais nightclub in Cannes before Madonna had to jet to Venice to promote her new movie ‘W.E.’ about the love life of Britain’s Edward VIII and American socialite Wallace Simpson.

Madonna - who has previously dated model Jesus Luz since her marriage break-up with Guy Ritchie in 2008 and was once wed to Sean Penn -recently revealed she was attracted to “creative” men. She said: “I am and was attracted to very creative people which is why I married Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, very talented directors, and they both encouraged me as a director to do what I did. They were both very supportive.”

is

‘frightened’ of cosmetic surgery

hit by car in Beverly Hills

the issue can be cleared up quickly so T.I. can return to the halfway house. “T.I. got on a private bus in the prison’s parking area in full view of BOP employees. Indeed, he was actually escorted to the bus by a prison guard,” Sadow said. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke said Friday he couldn’t discuss why the rapper was transferred back to a prison. T.I. had initially served about seven months at the prison in 2009 after he was arrested for trying to buy unregistered guns and silencers from undercover federal agents. He was on probation after he was released and ordered not to commit another crime or to illegally possess any controlled substances. He was arrested again in September 2010 in Los Angeles on drug charges after authorities said he was found with four ecstasy pills. He was sentenced in October to 11 months in prison for that violation, and had been set for release at the end of September but was let go early.

Holmes has a

Mel C Gabor’s husband

boyfriend’s family

he actress and husband Tom Cruise with whom she has five -year-old daughter, Suri - will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary later this year and the brunette beauty is “proud” to be part of such a high-profile union. She said: “It will be five years in November and our relationship is great. “My husband has made incredible movies that have impacted the world and therefore I’m a part of that now. I’m proud of it and it’s OK.” Despite their worldwide fame, Katie insists she and Tom prefer low-key activities out of the spotlight. She said: “We like to play a version of Scrabble called Take Two, where you don’t use the board, just the pieces.” Katie admitted the attention she receives in public can sometimes be problematic, but she has learned ways of coping.

She explained to Britain’s Hello! magazine: “Some days you can go straight to Starbucks without being bothered and some days you have to switch cars and it’s something that becomes a part of your day. “You kind of figure out how to go with it or fight it. I am still a kid from Ohio, but this is a part of my life now.”

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Oprah

to conduct first live chat on Facebook

alk show queen Oprah Winfrey will be doing her first-ever live chat with social-media website Facebook on Thursday, Sept 8. Facebook users can tune into the hour-long live video chat on the site at 1:30 pm, and can leave questions for Winfrey on the page wall created for the event. The 57 year-old Winfrey has embraced social media. She has almost 6.3 million fans on Facebook and more than 7.2 million followers on Twitter.

Winfrey hosted the final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in May this year. She continues to host a prime-time show on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) television channel, which launched at the beginning of this year.

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M O V I E S

(From left) Writer Scott Z Burns, producers Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher and Gregory Jacobs, actors Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne and director Steven Soderbergh pose during the photocall of “Contagion” at the 68th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. “Contagion” is presented out of competition. —AFP

Venice: ‘Contagion’ tracks spread of lethal virus A

James Bond train stunt rewrite

India orders

cademy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s latest film “Contagion” can be considered a 105-minute public service announcement with a simple message: Wash your hands. Often. Certainly audience members may look more warily at public door handles and subway hand rails after watching, perhaps in a crowded theater, the film about the global spread of a lethal surfaceborne virus with a kill rate of about 25 percent.

“It is impossible, once you start thinking about it, to stop thinking about it,” Soderbergh acknowledged at a news conference ahead of the film’s world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival yesterday.

“I’m washing my hands a little bit more. But since I showed up in Venice I have been shaking hands, alot. I was on an airplane, which is one of the worst places you can be. This is just

the world we live in.” On a filmmaking level, “Contagion” recalls in some ways the great ensemble cast of disaster films such as “The Poseiden Adventure” and “ The Towering Inferno” produced by Erwin Allen in the 1970s.

“Contagion” features Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard and Lawrence Fishburne in a fast-paced drama that depicts the rapid spread of a lethal virus of unknown origin and with no available vaccine. Damon plays Mitch Emhoff, a father trying to protect his daughter from infection after his wife Beth, played by Paltrow, succumbs to the virus after a business trip to Hong Kong. Fishburne is Dr Ellis Cheever, the cool-headed deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control, who dispatches Winslet, Dr Erin Mears, to Minnesota, where the Emhoffs live, to figure out how fast the

virus is spreading. Cotillard is Dr Leonora Orantes, who heads to Hong Kong.

Law plays a muckraking San Francisco blogger, Alan Krumwiede, whose character provides 12 million unique viewers a day suggestions of conspiracy theories about the virus’ spread and government efforts to contain it and develop a vaccine. “There is a certain amount of conflicting and misinformation, and conspiracy that inevitably makes its way around the world with the same progressive force and the same spread as the virus,” said scriptwriter Scott Z Burns. Soderbergh said the star cast makes the film with overlapping stories easier for audiences to process.

“You are throwing so many characters and so much information at the audience, that it is very helpful for them to get a reference point to hold onto,” Soderbergh said. “There is a rea-

son that movie stars have existed since the beginning of cinema. It’s good for the audience.” But while disaster films may come to mind as the virus provokes food shortages, looting and kidnappings - not to mention mass graves in urban America - Soderbergh said he was actually thinking more of “All the President’s Men” when he made the movie.”Scott and I, I think, were interested in making a procedural that was realistic, obviously, in its content, but stylistically also very simple, very clean. So that’s the film I was thinking of most,” Soderbergh said.

Damon - who has worked with Soderbergh on six films, including the “Oceans” series, said he is especially proud of the scene early in the film when he is told that his wife has died.

They wanted an alternative to what Soderbergh called “the slump,” a long shot

showing the guy getting the news and slumping against the way, so they talked to an ER doctor. “This guy has delivered this news hundreds of times to people said that, there’s ‘the slump.’

That’s the one common thing that happens. The other thing that happens, that someone just can’t actually absorb the information. So we literally did the whole scene based on a real conversation and how it actually goes,” Damon said. Paltrow rejected the idea that her character’s death was in any way a moral judgment for cheating on her husband, a fact that emerges after her death as investigators tracked her movements.”I think that if death by virus was a punishment for extramarital affairs, there would be about three dudes left in this room. Maybe less, because we are in Italy,” she joked. —AP

Hollywood shies

away from 9/11-inspired movies F British actor Daniel Craig attends a news conference to promote the latest James Bond movie ‘Quantum of Solace’ in Tokyo. —AFP

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ndia has asked the makers of the latest James Bond movie to change a stunt showing people travelling on train rooftops, saying it would depict the state-run railway in a poor light. “Rooftop travel is illegal in India and it cannot be encouraged,” Indian Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi told AFP yesterday. Many Indians seek to avoid paying for tickets by travelling on the roof. Daniel Craig, who plays the world’s most famous secret agent, was supposed to jump from a motorcycle onto a moving train roof packed with travelers and then leap to another equally crowded train top, according to the script.

Trivedi said 007 could perform the stunt-but only if there is nobody on the top of the trains. “Rooftop travel will not be shown,” he said, adding that the government has also stipulated the filming “has to be safe and passengers should not be inconvenienced.” The railways minister said that the original movie script could have led to an impression that rooftop travel was common in India. “There are many trains in India and not all trains have people travelling on the rooftops,” he argued.

The makers of the as-yet untitled movie-known currently only as “Bond 23”-had agreed to the conditions, Trivedi said in a telephone interview. The film is to be directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes and will be shot in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and the resort state of Goa. Shooting is planned for February and March next year and the film is slated for release in November 2012. Trivedi also said he is plugging for the James Bond character to be used to promote the sprawling Indian Railways, still the country’s main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from new private airlines. “I have proposed that the spy says something like: ‘Indian Railways is as strong as James Bond.’ It is my suggestion,” the cabinet-ranking minister said.

The state-run railway is the country’s largest single employer, with 1.4 million workers, and runs 11,000 trains carrying 19 million passengers daily. The world’s second-largest railway offers some adventurous journeys where trains chug through arid deserts, snowy Himalayan regions and across rickety British-built bridges spanning mountain gorges and fast-flowing rivers. Trivedi declined to say if the film-makers had agreed to give Bond license to become cast ambassador for the creaking railway system, which is plagued by frequent crashes. The last time a Bond film was on location in India was for the 1983 hit “Octopussy”, with actor Roger Moore in the lead role. It was shot in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

“Bond 23” is one of nearly two dozen films by foreign studios which have been cleared to shoot in India recently. Others include a film adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, “Trishna”, British director Michael Winterbottom’s version of Thomas Hardy’s classic “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”, and Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi”. —AFP

or many people, the images of commercial airliners hitting the Twin Towers, and of Manhattan engulfed in a huge dust cloud as they collapsed, looked like a Hollywood apocalypse-style movie. But despite that-or maybe in part because of it — 9/11 has not generated as large a number of movies as previous epochal events such as World War II or Vietnam. Industry insiders say experience shows that 9/11 movies just don’t work at the box officeadding that the attacks may even have pushed Tinsel Town to produce even more escapist movies than it normally would.

In the decade since, only two Hollywood studios have produced films directly inspired by the most deadly attacks ever on US soil: Universal with “United 93” by Paul Greengrass and Paramount with Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center.” This despite an initial surge of Hollywood interest following the September 11, 2001 attacks in Washington and New York. “There was certainly an enormous amount of interest in 9/11 and the wars that happened afterwards,” said producer Bonnie Curtis, who has worked on films including Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.”

“I think that creatively, a lot of people started working on a material that normally wouldn’t even exist without the event itself,” she told AFP. But there were also fairly quickly doubts about public appetite for films about such a traumatic event. “There was a lot of conversation between all of us, like ‘Is it too soon’ to make a film about the events, will audiences have any interest in going and seeing that?,” Curtis said. The answer was clear: “United 93” and “World Trade Center” were both relative box office failures when they came out in 2006.

The first made $74 million worldwide, the second $161 million, modest numbers for Hollywood. “That was a signal also for management to sort of reconsider the subject at the light of day,” said Jason Squire, a professor at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. “You know, it’s tough enough to make movies on any subject, and even more when the subject is sensitive.” Curtis said: “The audiences didn’t really want to go the theater and see that.

And Hollywood is a business; so after the first rush of a handful of films on the topic, no one was green-lighting those types of projects.”

Disney producer Don Hahn said people did not want to see “traumatizing” films. “I was traumatized and I think most of us were.

So we don’t want to look at that again. We’d rather be entertained and movies can take us away from that and have us escape from that.” Smiling, he added: “Maybe that’s why we are seeing so many super-hero movies, so many ‘Captain America’, ‘Iron Man,’ because those characters can defeat bad guys and that’s really a great story for us.” For Squire, there is little doubt: “The 9/11 attacks pointed out the value of entertainment in society as escapist.”

That view is not shared by Richard Walter, a screenwriter and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who said: “To say that Hollywood films are escapist is like saying that Barack Obama is a Democrat. “There is nothing new about that... I don’t think that the things really changed. Hollywood is doing what it has always done,” he added. Curtis insists however that there has been a clear appetite for more lightweight movies since 9/11. “You want to just completely escape into fantasy, special effects, superheroes, a complete escapist entertainment. I think there was a contingency of filmmakers here in Hollywood who went to that direction,” she said.

But she added: “Completely opposite to that, were the filmmakers who wanted to go deeper into the tragedy at hand and show the effects that it had on our country and our planet. Films like Kathryn Bigelow’s 2010 Oscar winner “The Hurt Locker” are a testament to that. “To me, the series of films made the last 10 years in and around the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, obviously has to do with how deeply, in our heart, 9/11 hit us,” said Curtis. The 9/11 attacks “punched us in the stomach and certainly drew our focus towards the aftermath, which we are still dealing with.” —AFP

In this Sept 11, 2001 file photo, the twin towers of the World Trade Center burn behind the Empire State Building in New York. —AP

Singer/musician Lenny Kravitz performs on NBC’s “Today” at Rockefeller Plaza on September 2, 2011 in New York City. —AFP

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

lifestyle T R A V E L

When snowbirds clear out of

Palm Beach,

there’s still plenty of fun to be had

A butterfly lands on a flower in the Mounts Botanical Garden.

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any of the waterfront mansions are shuttered for the season, and there are few yachts at the private docks along the Intracoastal. The theater season doesn’t start until late October, concerts and art exhibits at the Society for the Four Arts are on hiatus until November, and the walking tours of Worth Avenue won’t start again until late November. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a weekend getaway’s worth of music, art, bicycling, shopping, sightseeing, antiquing and dining in Palm Beach and across the Intracoastal in West Palm Beach.

And for those who crave la dolce vita but don’t want to spend high-season rates of more than $500 a night at the city’s luxury hotels, some of those same hotels are offering rooms at less than $200 in late summer and early fall.

Some have special deals in their restaurants and spas as well.

Tempted? Here are 10 things you can do in the two cities connected by the Royal Park Bridge.

• Art After Dark. In one room, a painter is demonstrating a few watercolor techniques. In the atrium around the corner, magicians are entertaining the crowd with tricks. In the next room, another artist is demonstrating how to draw comic-book heroes, and in the auditorium, Spock and Darth Vader are arguing over which is better: “Star Wars” or “Star Trek.”

People-adults and kids, too-are wandering through galleries, looking at exhibits. (Kids especially like “Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television,” an exhibit of costumes from science fiction movies and TV shows, that runs through Sept 4).

It’s Thursday night, time for the Norton Museum of Art’s weekly Art After Dark program, which brings art and artists together with the public in a more casual environment that includes live music, food and cocktails.

The program is from 5 to 9 pm every Thursday at the Norton, 1451 S Olive Ave, 561832-5196, www.norton.org. Admission $12 for adults, $5 for ages 13 to 21. The Norton will be closed Sept 12-30 to reinstall its galleries of European and American art; Art After Dark resumes on Oct 6.

• Go antiquing. Antique Row along South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach has more than 30 shops. Although business slows in the summer, the shops stay open and their owners refresh their stock. Traffic this time of year is mostly year-round residents, says Ray Hawkins of Hawkins Antiques. Late in the year, snowbirds send their designers ahead to shop for an antique breakfront or a gilt wood mirror-or a whole roomful of antiques.

“The thing that attracts a lot of attention is there are 30 or 40 shops and very few shops are empty,” Hawkins says. He’s especially pleased that Cedric DuPont Antiques, known in part for its celebrity clients, moved in February from downtown to Antique Row, where it’s drawing new shoppers to the neighborhood.

Other than Cedric DuPont, most of the shops don’t stand out, and a passerby not looking for antique shops might not notice that he’s on Antique Row. South Dixie Highway between Southern Boulevard and Belvedere Road; http://westpalmbeachantiques.com/.

• Stop and smell the flowers. Literally.

Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach has 14 acres of gardens: the butterfly

garden, the rose garden, herb and vegetables gardens, a display of succulents, exotic trees, tropical fruits and more, plus some lovely sculptures. Chairs and benches are scattered throughout the grounds. There’s even a gazebo where visitors can take shelter during sudden summer storms if the Garden Shop with its large collection of books isn’t within a quick sprint.

559 N Military Trail, West Palm Beach; 561233-1757; www.mounts.org. Open Monday through Saturday, 8:30 am -4 pm; Sunday, noon-4 pm. Admission: suggested donation of $5.

• Sample a celebrity chef’s cuisine. At Cafe Boulud, James Beard award winner Daniel Boulud’s restaurant at the Brazilian Court, the “Summer Sizzles” three-course prix fixe menu is $20.11 for lunch weekdays, $35 for dinner Sunday through Thursday. For the lunch first course, a diner might choose from Golden

Visitors are welcomed in the Grand Hall at the entrance to the Flagler Museum. — MCT photos

A trolley takes passengers through the Clematis Street District in West Palm Beach. ground and includes a radio room and decontBeet Borscht with Smoked Trout Rillette, amination chamber as well as living quarters.

Mesclun Salad with Poached Laughing Bird After Kennedy’s assassination, the facilities fell Shrimp, and Crispy Lamb Ribs with Minted into disrepair and were flooded. The site was Yogurt. On the a la carte lunch menu, by comlater was restored by the Palm Beach Maritime parison, first courses run $12 to $20. 301 Museum and furnished with replica items.

Australian Ave, Palm Beach; 561-655-6060; The museum, located in the old Coast www.thebraziliancourt.com/cafe-boulud/.

Guard station, offers tours of the Kennedy Over at the Omphoy Ocean Resort, where Bunker between 11 am and 4 pm. Thursday local celeb chef Michelle Bernstein has an through Sunday. Admission: $10; $9 seniors; eponymous restaurant, there’s a summer spe$5 students. cial of a three-course prix fixe dinner for $35 The island, which is not natural but was Sundays through Thursdays. 2842 S Ocean built of materials from dredging, is itself a park Blvd, Palm Beach; 561-540-6444; that includes campgrounds, picnic shelters, www.omphoy.com. and some prime snorkeling spots. The island is • Revisit the Cold War. On Peanut Island, at accessible by private boat or shuttles from the the mouth of the Lake Worth Inlet not far from Riviera Beach Marina, 200 E 13th Street, Riviera the former Kennedy estate at Palm Beach, are Beach, 561-339-2504, or the Palm Beach Water a bunker and command center built for Taxi, Sailfish Marina Resort, 98 Lake Dr, Singer President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Island, 561-683-8294; Missile Crisis. The bunker is 25 feet underwww.sailfishmarina.com.

• Visit the place where The Season started.

Henry Flagler, he of Overseas Railroad fame, built Whitehall-a 75-room, 60,000-square-foot Gilded Age mansion-as a winter home. He and his bride, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, entertained regularly there, establishing The Season for Palm Beach society.

Today Whitehall is Flagler Museum, still notable for its opulence. The Grand Hall, at the entry, has a grand double staircase, seven kinds of marble, a bust of Caesar Augustus, a fabulous ornate clock made of rosewood and bronze, and a ceiling decorated with a painting of Pythia, the priestess of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi.

Adjacent to the mansion is a pavilion built to house Flagler ’s private Railcar No 91, restored to its 1912 condition. Visitors can walk through the railcar.

One Whitehall Way, Palm Beach; 561-6552833; www.flaglermuseum.us. Open noon-5 p.m. Sunday, 10 am -5 pm Tuesday-Saturday, closed Monday. Admission $18; $10 ages 1317; $3 ages 6-12; free under age 6.

The sculpture “Allies” by Lawrence Holofcener showing Winston Churchill and Franklin • Bicycle among the rich and famous. Or at Roosevelt is displayed in the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden at the Society of the Four Arts. least among their houses.

The Lake Trail, built by Henry Flagler so guests at Whitehall would have a place to stroll, runs for six miles along the Intracoastal in Pam Beach. It starts at the docks south of Royal Palm Way and runs to the northern tip of Palm Beach.

This wide, smooth strip of asphalt runs between mansions and their docks. Most of the homes have at least a low wall between them and the trail, but parts of many of the houses and backyards are visible.

You’ll run into people jogging, bicycling and just strolling along the trail, which is free and open to all.

Early morning and evenings are the best choices in summer. Parking places include Flagler Museum and the Society of the Four Arts near the south end, and the Publix on the north end on Sunset Avenue.

• Sit in a sculpture garden. Although most of the Society of the Four Arts’ programs are

on hiatus, the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden is open to the public daily for free. The park is a botanical garden with rare species of plants and beautifully groomed grounds. Striking sculptures, realistic and abstract, are set amid the plantings. Benches set in shady spots under trees and vine-covered pergolas invite visitors to read or meditate.

2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 561-6557227; www.fourarts.org. Open daily 10 am -5 pm; free.

• Cruise the Intracoastal. If you’ve wondered who could afford those sprawling mansions — or better yet, who could afford to live in them just a few months each year — the captains/tour guides of the Palm Beach Water Taxi will tell you. Some of the owners’ names you’ll recognize. Unless you’re an avid reader of the business pages, though, many of the homeowners are industrialists and entrepreneurs whose products and company names are more familiar than their own.

If you just want to be out on the water, this 90-minute lap around the Lake Worth Lagoon portion of the Intracoastal Waterway is both entertaining and refreshing — especially if you hit the 10 am tour before the temperature soars.

The taxi sails out of Sailfish Marina, 98 Lake Dr, Singer Island; 561-683-TAXI; www.sailfishmarina.com. Tours at 10 am, noon, 2 pm and 4 pm. Cost: Adults $28, children $14, children 3 and under free. Palm Beach Water Taxi also provides shuttles to the foot of Clematis Street ($15) and to Peanut Island ($10); call for times.

• Dance to the Music. Over the last few years, West Palm Beach has turned its waterfront and commons at the end of Clematis Street into an inviting public space where the city schedules all manner of fun, most of it free. Thursday nights are dance parties with live music.

There’s a jazz concert on the third Friday of the month, and family movies projected on a huge inflatable screen on the green on some other Fridays. Once a month there’s a free concert at the amphitheatre.

During the day, you’ll find youngsters in bathing suits squealing and playing in The Fountain, the triangle of water spouts that go off at unpredictable moments, six inches high this time, six feet high a few seconds later.

Swinging benches are suspended from pergolas along the street, and on the dock, planters rimmed with wide seats provide a berth with a pretty panorama. —MCT

Henry Flagler’s “Railcar No. 91” is displayed at the Flagler Museum.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

lifestyle F A S H I O N

Models display creations from Cecil McBee during the Tokyo Girls Collection (TGC) fashion show in Saitama, suburban Tokyo, yesterday. The very popular TGC was launched in 2005 and is run twice a year, this time highlighting fashions for the autumn and winter collections.

— AFP photos

Tokyo

Model displays a creation from Vence Exchange.

Women found

online business to celebrate being tall

Fashion Week

Models display creations from ‘The Night Porter’.

(From left) Debbie McCord, with daughters Anna, foreground left, and Jessica, far right, and Debbieís sister Kristen Carde founded ilovemyheight.com, an online company promoting T-shirts bearing slogans about the joys of being tall women. —MCT

D Models display creations from Ozoc.

Models display creations from “one spo”.

ebbie McCord was walking through the grocery store last week when she noticed a 12-year-old girl who was more than 6 feet tall. At 6-feet, 3-inches herself, McCord understood the youngster’s sad and frustrated expression. “She didn’t say much but she did say, ‘Sometimes it’s tough being tall,’” said McCord, who remembers hitting 6-feet, 2-inches even before graduating from high school. “And I said, ‘Sometimes it’s a good thing to be tall. Everything has a reason in life.’”

For McCord, 45, one of those reasons is to start her own business, a website named ilovemyheight.com that is devoted to T-shirts celebrating tall women. It’s a team effort that also involves McCord’s 6-foot, 1-inch sister Kristen Carde, her 6-foot, 2-inch adult daughter Anna and her 5foot, 11-inch teenage daughter Jessica.

The site touts specially-ordered T-shirts selling between $16 and $24, and bearing 29 different slogans that range from the inspirational (Live, Laugh, Love Your Height) to the silly (I See Short People) to the snide (Text Me When Ur Taller). “We’re trying to give that inspiration to other young, tall women that it’s OK to be tall,” McCord says. “Love it, go with it, don’t slouch over!”

McCord remembers what it was like to be one of the two tallest girls in her Manatee High School class of 400, feeling uncomfortable dating because all of the boys seemed intimidated. She didn’t let that sense of being “different” hold her back and focused on excelling in her schoolwork.

Her younger sister Kristin, 43, didn’t become unusually tall until late in high school and doesn’t recall ever being embarrassed about her height.

Daughter Anna, 22, recalls her tall teenage years with a sharp sense of humor, writing about “the double check: when someone quickly looks you in the eyes, then realizes how tall you are, immediately sending them glaring down at your feet.” And Jessica, 17, is downright proud of her height, noting only the difficulties of trying to find jeans that are long enough and waiting for the boys her age to grow a little taller. “It gives me a certain type of confidence knowing that I am tall and different,” Jessica says. “It makes me unique, because you can’t look at everyone and say, ‘we’re all tall.’ And it’s a way to recognize me.”

The family started their business after a dinner table conversation two years ago, brainstormed the slogans for several months, spent more than a year researching the basics about hiring a web designer and graphic designer and starting their own business. They now run the business part-time while working or attending school.

One of their greatest challenges was finding a T-shirt company that carried shirts that were longer. They researched a dozen manufacturers before settling on Port Authority and Tultex. Since kicking off two months ago, ilovemyheight.com has sold about 100 shirts. The family plans to eventually offer the shirts at retail locations, and to expand into related lines for the husbands/partners of tall women, and the children of tall women. “The response has been phenomenal so far,” says Carde. “It’s been encouraging, and uplifting. Everybody loves the overall message.”—MCT

India orders James Bond train stunt rewrite

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

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People enjoying a ride at the Kuwait’s Entertainment City yesterday, during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday. Amusement parks are among the most preferred destinations for families in Kuwait during holidays. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

The wonderful world Pumpkin I Trying to grow the greatest

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Minnesota grower is vying to break the state record with his jumbosized jack-o-lantern. To anyone who’s found an overlooked zucchini in the garden and, while chucking the lunker into the compost bin, wondered how hard it could be to grow a giant pumpkin: You have no idea. A great pumpkin, or Curcurbita maxima, is a hybrid of culture and science, the result of hours spent spraying the undersides of leaves to fight pests, of tracking down the best seaweed cultivar from Maine for nutrients, of vigilantly squishing vine borers and fending off foaming stumps, all the while hoping against hope that the underlying sand and fiber mat has foiled any burrowing creature from deciding it’s really an orange condo.

All of which is for naught if things go wrong on moving day. “Yes, I have dropped them,” Travis Gienger volunteered. “Yes, they have broken. It’s devastating.” Gienger, 30, has been growing giant pumpkins for half his life, ever since he first entered a 380-pounder in the youth division of the Minnesota State Fairand won. He’d always liked gardening, encouraged by his grandma. “Grandma was a huge supporter of anything I’d do,” he said, recalling that first entry. The whole family had gone to the fair, stopping first at the horse barns. “ Then Grandma stood up and died of a heart attack, right there,” he said. “She never got to see my pumpkin. So there’s a little bit of sentimental value of putting one in the fair each year.” This has been a challenging growing season, what with a chilly spring bolting into a sweltering summer, said Gienger, who owns Waterstone Landscaping in East Bethel, Minn, and is a

horticulture and landscape instructor at Anoka Technical College. Earlier this summer, he spent about two hours a day in the pumpkin patch, pruning and shaping vines, and reburying them at intervals to boost the energy funneled toward the pumpkins. At one time, the vine fueling his giant covered 1,225 square feet.

Nowhere was there the legendary saucer of milk. “That’s a myth,” Gienger said of the folklore that involves a sort of intra-vine-ous feeding system, although it’s true that calcium is beneficial for cell division and growth. As the vines bloomed, he hand-pollinated several blossoms, then determined which of the baby pumpkins might aspire to the big leagues.

It’s a gamble. “There are people who believe they only pollinate one, and that is it,” he said.

While frequent rains contributed toward the 100 gallons of water needed daily, “all that rain means all this humidity.”

Leaves struggling to release excess moisture into humid air can result in oozing vines and the dreaded foaming stump, where the stem weeps and starts to rot.

Gienger battled that earlier this month, lugging a couple of fans out to the garden to dry out the stem.

His pumpkin continued to grow. How much a behemoth weighs at any given moment is hard to say. Growers estimate weight using a rule of thumb based on circumference. “But they can weigh heavy, they can weigh light,” Gienger said. “This one, it’s getting what we call cantalouping,” referring to the pattern of rough netting over part of the skin. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, given that giant pumpkins rarely resemble what most of us lug home for Halloween. —MCT

n a collection of rosaries that numbers 860, the prayer beads that started it all look like supporting players amid the headliners. There are the shimmering (with garnet beads from Bavaria), the miniature (just three inches long), and the relics (filled with soil from Italy’s catacombs). The plain ebony strand that traveled with her grandfather from Ireland and the silver beads that spent decades in a mother’s handbag have history on their side.

“I brought it for my mother when I was 19,” said Gloria Hoffner, 82, about the silver rosary. “I paid $25 out of the money I had made working at MAB Paints.” Hoffner, of Ridley Park, Pa, bought the rosary in 1949. With the black one belonging to her grandfather, it forms the root of a collection that is still growing.

Hoffner’s rosaries are part of a seemingly endless permutation of beads, medals, and crucifixes that

of rosaries

Gloria Hoffner of Ridley Park holds a multi-colored rosary. —MCT photos perfume bottles, glass dogs, and floaty pens. Now I’m into this, but this is connected to my family.”

Hoffner’s first memory of buying a rosary is from a missionary visiting St Barnabas School in Southwest Philadelphia. Hoffner was 9. She was raised as the only child of Eugene Brady, a truck driver, and his wife, Helen, a homemaker. Hoffner’s upbringing was strict and steeped in the Roman Catholic Church.

“People got rosaries for birthdays and anniversaries. People carried them,” Hoffner said. “I think of my grandfather and my father and those days when someone died and the priest came and everyone knelt down to pray the rosary.” Hoffner scours flea markets, antiques stores, estate sales,

A selection of Gloria Hoffner’s rosary collection includes a Bavarian rosary from Germany, circa 1900 (bottom left), a lasso wedding rosary (bottom right), a papal box with Pope Paul VI’s image (center left), a sterling silver rosary Gloria purchased for her mother in 1946 (center right), Chateline rosary lockets (top).

Travis Gienger stands in his pumpkin patch with some of his huge pumpkins.

are instruments of prayer and devotion for Catholics and other Christians. Hoffner’s collection includes cloisonne beads and beads made from jade, and deer antlers — even ones that glow in the dark.

The crosses open like lockets, contain holy water from the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, and are carved with holes that, peeped through, show images from the life of Mary. “I think almost everyone collects something,” said Hoffner, a retired legal secretary. “From the time I was little, I collected

Gloria Hoffner holds an Irish rosary.

and the Internet. When she travels, her trip inevitably involves shopping for rosaries.

Then the research starts. Hoffner wants to know everything she can about the materials, the manufacturing, and the history. Her notes, clippings, and computer printouts stuffed three big folders until her daughter Helen, a professor of education at Holy Family University, had an idea to write a book.

“I always wanted to get her a coffee-table book on rosaries, but I couldn’t find one,” Helen Hoffner said. “There were all kinds of books on praying the rosary, but none on the history.” So in January 2009, mother and daughter went to work. Helen Hoffner, the author of several education textbooks, was on sabbatical to write yet another. —MCT