8 Sep

ON IP TI SC R SU B

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Gulf perfumers smell opportunity in local, global markets

Qatar bets on future as hub for sports

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Shamali: Kuwait has no plans to boost spending

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www.kuwaittimes.net

SHAWWAL 10, 1432 AH

Politics hindering effort to reshape economy

Expats face KD 130 health insurance 3 hospitals planned KUWAIT: The chairman of the founding committee of the health insurance hospitals’ company and director of establishments and projects at the Public Investment Authority Mohammad AlMuneef yesterday said the health insurance ceiling for expats will be KD 130 for the first two years per individual. Meanwhile, Health Ministr y Undersecretary Dr Ibrahim Al-Abdulhadi said that sites where the health insurance hospitals are to be built have been allocated in Dajeej (Farwaniya), Amghara (Jahra) and Sabahiya (Ahmadi). He added the Dajeej and Amghara sites will be 50,000 sq m each while the Sabahiya one will be 36,000 sq m.

Abdulhadi said the sites were near highways to avoid jams and provide easy access. He said the hospitals will be managed by the private sector and construction and equipment will be of “American standards”. — Al-Anbaa

Harbash warns against aborting Assembly session Barrak blasts Iraq

By B Izzak and A Saleh KUWAIT: The number of MPs who signed a request to call for an emergency parliamentary session yesterday rose to 22, still 11 short of the required number as Islamist MP Jamaan Al-Harbash warned the government against aborting the session. Harbash said that the alternative to foiling the National Assembly session Continued on Page 13

CAIRO: Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak lies on a stretcher as he is wheeled into a courtroom yesterday. — AP

Egypt military ruler to testify in Mubarak trial CAIRO: The chief judge in the trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak yesterday summoned high-profile witnesses including Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi to testify in court.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, accused a police witness of having revised his testimony to favour the defendants, following accusations in the Egyptian media of a cover-up over the killings of hundreds of antiregime protesters. The prosecution, under fire for

summoning police witnesses who appeared to back up the defence’s case, said Captain Mohammed Abdel Hakim had given them different testimony during their investigation.

But Judge Ahmed Refaat, who initially ordered Hakim detained following the prosecution’s accusation, declared him innocent at the end of the session.

Prosecutor Mostafa Suleiman said Hakim testified in Continued on Page 13

Max 44º Min 26º Low Tide 01:40 & 15:42 High Tide 07:22 & 22:14

ABU DHABI: Kuwait has no plans to boost budget spending in the next fiscal year, nor does it expect budget cuts in the coming months, the country’s finance minister said yesterday. Asked whether he expected budget cuts Mustafa Al-Shamali said: “No, no budget cutting but for the future we have to realise things we have to do, for instance no raises in budget expenditure ... investment side of the budget”. “It (this year’s budget spending) will be the top because we put some expenditure in this budget and it won’t be put in again,” he told reporters on the sidelines of Arab finance ministers’ meeting in the United Arab Emirates.

Kuwait plans to spend KD 4 billion this fiscal year out of its four-year development plan, Shamali said, but did not give details on how much has been spent so far.

Shamali also said the current oil price was ‘okay’ for the state and that it was always seeking a reasonable price for itself and crude importers. “The price is now okay for us and even importers,” he said. Brent crude prices hovered above $113 per barrel yesterday, while the US benchmark moved around $87 per barrel.

Calls by Kuwait’s top policymakers to correct imbalances in the economy and cut budget waste may signal new resolve to push ahead with long-delayed diversification plans. But conflict between the Cabinet and the National Assembly, long a headache for anyone trying to get things done in Kuwait, may block the effort.

Kuwait, with 3.6 million people, depends on income from crude oil for around 93 percent of its government budget, the most among oil-exporting Gulf countries.

Despite its wealth, the state-dominated economy has drawn few foreign investors, unlike neighbours such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2009, the $133 billion economy nosedived into an estimated contraction of 5.0 percent in real terms, the most severe in the Gulf, after the global financial crisis slashed oil prices to as low as $36 per barrel. So a weakening of crude prices in the last several months and a softening global economy seem to have rung alarm bells in the world’s sixth biggest oil exporter.

HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said last month that a misuse of budget surpluses and “irresponsible consumer waste” had deepened structural imbalances and distortions in the economy, and must be fixed. He told the first meeting of an advisory committee set up to see how Kuwait should tackle local and Continued on Page 13

Russia hockey team plane crash kills 43 TUNOSHNA, Russia: Forty-three people including a Swedish Olympic champion died yesterday when a Russian jet carrying a top ice hockey team crasheD on take-off near the site of an annual forum attended by President Dmitry Medvedev.

The 18-year-old Yak-42 passenger jet took off from Yaroslavl’s city airport some 300 km northeast of Moscow just as senior delegates settled into their seats for two days of talks about Russia’s upcoming election battle. The plane began listing to the left only seconds into the afternoon flight and crashed about 500 m away from the Tunoshna airport.

Initial reports said the jet may have hit a local radar antenna and the twisted wreckage of the aircraft lay buried in the Tunoshna River as divers searched for signs of life. “According to the latest data, there were 45 people on board - 37 passengers and eight crew. Officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov sur-

vived the crash along with a crewmember. The local emergencies ministry said the jet was taking members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team to the Belarus capital Minsk for the their first match of the 2011-2012 season.

The team is trained by Canada’s Brad McCrimmon - a former assistant coach with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings - and has several foreign players on the roster posted on its website. Those confirmed dead include the team’s goalie and former Swedish Olympic champion Stefan Liv as well as the Slovak ex-NHL standout Pavol Demitra. The crash also revived memories of an Aug 1979 disaster that claimed the lives of 17 football players from the Tashkent side Pakhtakor.

“I heard a big bang and then a louder one 10 seconds later,” said Andrei Gorshkov, a 16-year-old Tunoshna resident.

Continued on Page13

NEW DELHI: A man injured in a bomb explosion reacts in pain as he is brought to the RML hospital yesterday. — AP

Blast outside court kills 11 in New Delhi HOMS, Syria: An image grab shows a pro-government militia member dressed as a soldier firing his weapon at a man on Sept 5, 2011. — AFP

Syria ‘crimes against humanity’ slammed

YAROSLAVL, Russia: Rescuers lift a stretcher with the body of a victim out of the river at the crash site of a Russian Yak-42 jet near this city on the Volga River yesterday. — AP

DAMASCUS: France accused Syria of “crimes against humanity” yesterday, as activists said regime forces killed at least 20 people, including 17 in a tankbacked raid on the flashpoint city of Homs. “The Syrian regime has committed crimes against humanity,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said during talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. “The way it (the Syrian regime) suppressed the popular protests is unacceptable,” he said, expressing hope that Russia would change its stance and back UN condemnation of the crackdown. The Syrian authorities, he said, should be sent “a powerful signal that such actions cannot continue.”

But Lavrov gave no signs of being ready to ease a Russian position that last week saw Moscow lash the European Union for imposing a crippling oil Continued on Page 13

NEW DELHI: A powerful bomb hidden in a briefcase ripped through a crowd outside New Delhi’s High Court yesterday, killing 11 people and injuring 76, many of them petitioners waiting for legal hearings. The device was placed near an entrance gate reception area, where more than 100 people were queuing for passes to the court complex, located in the heart of the Indian capital. It was the first major attack on Indian soil since triple blasts in Mumbai on July 13 killed 26 people. It has still not been established who carried out those bombings. “Eleven persons have died in this unfortunate incident and 76 others have been injured,” a Home Ministry statement said. Gruesome mobile phone images of the moments after the attack were aired on television, showing screaming victims surrounded by bloody limbs and scattered files.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conceded that there were “weaknesses in our security system and terrorists are taking advantage of them”. “We have to overcome these,” Singh was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency aboard an plane taking him back to New Delhi from an official visit to Bangladesh.

Earlier Singh told reporters in Dhaka that the bombing was a “cowardly act of a terrorist nature”. The United States, France, Britain and Pakistan, all condemned the bombing, with Washington describing it as “cowardly”.

Delhi police released sketches of two suspects from eyewitness accounts.

Investigators said they were also probing an emailed claim of responsibility purportedly sent from Harkat-ul-Jihad alIslami (HuJI), a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group linked to previous attacks on Indian soil. “More than 100 people were in a queue at the reception,” Rahul Gupta, a petitioner whose case was listed for a hearing yesterday, told AFP at the scene, where the blast left a crater in the ground. “There was a huge explosion. I saw a lot of people lying around in a pool of blood.”

The email being studied by investigators warned that other courts would be targeted unless authorities repealed the death sentence on a man convicted for conspiring in a 2001 Islamist militant attack on India’s parliament. ”It would be very premature to make any comment on Continued on Page 13

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

LOCAL

Buyer beware, don’t believe the odometer Car-buyers should not rely on odometer reading

By Ben Garcia

Deputy Amir receives top state officials KUWAIT: At Bayan Palace yesterday, His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah received HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, as well as the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah. —KUNA

MPs, activist defend CP KUWAIT: Several political and social activists in Kuwait have responded angrily to reports of a Wikileaks cable which claimed that a top American diplomat made inappropriate and insulting comments about His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlSabah. The activists, who are demanding an official apology from the US Embassy, emphasized HH the Crown Prince’s commitments to his duties towards Kuwait throughout his political career.

Local daily Al-Rai published a story on Tuesday quoting a ‘top secret’ document which Wikileaks claims to have obtained from the US Embassy in Kuwait. The document, dated March 19, 2009 and signed by the then-Charge d’Affaires, reportedly includes comments deemed inappropriate for publication describing HH Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad in insulting terms.

Minister of Public Works and State Minister of Municipality Affairs Fadhil Safar rejected the statements contained in the cable, saying, “His Highness the Crown Prince has assumed senior posts in which he took part in the decision-making process that enabled Kuwait to

overcome obstacles and attain a prestigious status.”

Meanwhile, MP Musallam Al-Barrak applauded Sheikh Nawaf’s endeavors as a long-time government figure, describing him a “one of the few [former] ministers to have always been keen on cooperating fully with the parliament.”

MPs Dr. Faisal Al-Mislem, Husain Mizyed, Saad Al-Khanfour, Falah Al-Sawagh and Mohammad Hayef also strongly defended the Crown Prince and condemned the comments contained in the Wikileaks cable. Another parliamentarian, Saifi Al-Saifi, called upon the foreign ministry to demand an apology from the US Embassy, while MP Khalid Al-Adwah demanded that the ChargÈ d’Affaires associated with the leaked document be expelled from the country.

A number of Municipal Council members even went so far as to demand the expulsion of the current US Ambassador to Kuwait along with an apology from the US administration, with Councilor Ashwaq Al-Madhaf describing the statement in the cable as “politically insolent and imprudent.” —Al-Rai

KUWAIT: Most would-be buyers considering buying a secondhand car would immediately check the number appearing on the odometer and will often buy a car based on the number registered on the odograph; the less miles on the clock the greater the car’s market value.

Manny, a Filipino auto mechanic for 35 years, warns that buyers should not depend on the figures shown on the odograph, however, as odometers can be very easily tampered with and changed. “Don’t be deceived,” he said yesterday. “ The buyers should not be concerned on the mileage or distance traveled by a vehicle alone.”

He urged drivers to be cautious, saying, “Yes, the instrument is very important indeed, but the number shown there shouldn’t be the basis for buying a secondhand car since it can be changed to any number at any given time or at the whim of the car owners.”

While he admitted occasionally tampering with the odometers of friends’ cars, Manny said that this was very much in his past and was known about by his

new odometer is not retroactive, after all, it can be reset to zero if the purchaser wants to do so.

Another way is to disconnect the cable from the digital odometer, which means that the speedome-

KUWAIT: A car owner checking his car engine. odometers can easily be turned back to zero, he said, but this is more difficult on the newer, computerized models, although it can still be done.

One way of changing the mileage, he explained, is to simply change the odometer. Since a

ter will simply stop working: “Even if you disconnect the cable the speedometer won’t read them, so even if you drive ten thousand miles it won’t show up on the odometer,” said Manny.

Manipulating the odometer is called ‘clocking,’ and is often

used by unscrupulous vendors to help increase their cars’ resale value. While Kuwait has no specific law punishing anyone for tampering with an odometer this crime would generally fall under the category of cheating customers and could thus be prosecuted.

Manny asserted, however, that odometer fraud in Kuwait is not as rampant as it is in many other countries, since generally new or old car models here are more affordable than they are elsewhere: “The good thing in Kuwait is that cars are as cheap as a pair of shoes, so why would anyone think of committing such a crime?” he asked.

Manny advised astute car-buyers not to rely on the odometer reading but to always allow a computerized check-up of the car transmission and engine, which will also determine whether or not the car has been involved in any major accident which generally affects the vehicle’s overall condition. “Those are common mistakes committed by car buyers,” he warned. “They only rely on the mileage, which is completely wrong - the mileage is okay but not the entire car.”

Spike in Internet demand leads to speed slowdown KUWAIT: Local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are reportedly facing major problems, with large numbers of subscribers complaining of extremely slow Internet speeds over the past few days. This slowdown has been blamed on a large influx of new customers wishing to benefit from the recently introduced lower service prices.

The ISPs claim that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) failed to provide them with greater service capacity which would have enabled them to cope with the expected surge in demand after a ministry order forced them to cut prices by nearly 40 percent late last month. According to one communications insider, the service providers - which rent the bandwidth provided by the ministry, which controls all Internet sources connected to the regional net-

Performance of real estate improving

MADRID: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Spain Adel Al-Ayyar (left) yesterday held a farewell dinner reception for the outgoing Saudi Ambassador to Spain, Prince Saud Bin Nayef Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

The prestigious event was attended by top Spanish dignitaries, including parliament speaker Javier Rojo, Foreign Ministry undersecretary Antonio Lopez and Chief of Staff Jose Julio Rodriguez, as well as MPs and government officials. During the event, Ambassador AlAyyar applauded Prince Saud Bin Nayef’s efforts to serve the issues of the Arab and Muslim nations, and strengthen the dialogue of civilizations in support of peaceful coexistence. — KUNA

employers. “It’s a well-known fact; many auto mechanics do that,” he revealed, also explaining that old car models’ odometers are the easiest to falsify the mileage on; the old manually operated

KUWAIT: Secretary of the Real Estate Union Qais Al-Ghanim revealed here yesterday that real estate investment, represented in the leasing and ownership of apartment buildings, improved significantly during the first half of this year thanks to high return on investment.

Al-Ghanim told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the real estate investment sector took advantage of the low interest rate on bank deposits in the revitalization of its performance during the first half after many of the investors were lured to this sector, whose returns surpass the current deposits returns. He noted that there are no detailed official statistics on the performance of real estate in general in Kuwait during the first half, but the general feeling among real estate experts confirm that there are boom that hit the real estate investment during the last period with expectations of continuous improvement of performance in the coming period.

As for the commercial real estate, Al-Ghanim drew attention that it has continued to decline in market values during the first half, stressing that it could not get out of its crisis represented in the large number of demand and scarcity of supply, expecting that to continue during the coming period.

Asked about the commercial real estate crisis, AlGhanim said that the economic situation has a direct impact on this sector and does not give any room for any sort of recovery amid the faltering in the corporate owner of the trade towers and the significant low price per square meter of office space which does not cover expenses that were spent to build such towers.

Al-Ghanim predicted that the real estate portfolio of Kuwait Investment Authority which is being developed would improve the performance of the commercial property sector “if it is already invested in the market,” saying it did not enter the market until now. —KUNA

work, blame the ministry for rushing through the price cuts without considering the potential repercussions, given the fact that the ministry cannot provide ISPs with greater capacity.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the same insider revealed that demand for Internet subscriptions rose by an astonishing eighty percent within a few days of the new, lower prices being introduced, either via new subscriptions or through requests from existing customers to increase their Internet speed.

A decree was announced last month in which, “the Ministry of Communication agreed to reduce the tax that Internet Service Provider companies pay by 42 percent, on the condition that the companies reduce their subscription fees to consumers by the same rate, said the official who wished to remain

anonymous. The ministry went as far as to threaten to revoke the licenses of any ISPs that fail to comply with the new policy.

In other news, the Ministry of Communications (MoC) is expected to open up the market to more Internet Service Providers in the near future, ending the current monopoly of the ‘big three’ ISPs in Kuwait.

The decision will mean an amendment to the current regulations, which lack any means of licensing new ISPs in the country. Telecommunication companies which provide Internet services to customers currently rent the bandwidth from ISPs, which in turn rent it from the MoC. The new provision will enable telecom companies to be licensed as internet providers, and thus rent capacity directly from the ministry. —Al-Jarida & Al-Qabas

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THURSْDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

local

‘Long-term’ expatriates caught in grey area ‘This is the country that I consider home’

By Lisa Conrad

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah received yesterday at Bayan Palace Canada’s Ambassador Reid Henry, on the occasion of ending his tenure. The meeting was attended by Undersecretary at the Premier’s Diwan Sheikh Fahad Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. — KUNA

Egyptian community launches Facebook forum ‘Egyptians in Kuwait Webpage’

By Sherif Ismail KUWAIT: Members of the Egyptian Community in Kuwait recently launched a special Facebook forum at www.facebook.com/egykwt where Egyptian expats in the country can communicate, exchange expertise, discuss and come together to solve their problems, as well as voicing their demands.

The forum, which already has 11,000 members, despite only being launched recently, is intended to help resolve a range of problems such as difficulties with Egypt Air, as well as helping to create a special Egyptian school for community members’ children. Members will also be able to discuss issues with Egyptian embassy staff, through discussions and consultations with the

relevant authorities, with the ultimate goal of the forum being to provide the best services for members of the expatriate Egyptian community in Kuwait.

The site provides full protection for members against intruders and bans all improper comments, whether they are directed at site members or certain governments, as well as strictly prohibiting all comments that violate the laws of Kuwait, a land loved and respected by all the site members. The forum’s discussions and problem-solving abilities have so far gone a long way towards finding positive and suitable solutions to a whole range of challenges.

The webpage also has a very strict policy of not allowing members to use aliases as usernames rather than their real names.

Interior ready for new school year

Abdullah Al Muhanna

KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry is ready for the upcoming school year, said an official here yesterday. Interior Ministry’s Assistant for Operation Affairs Major General Abdullah Al-Muhanna told the press that all precautions would be taken to ensure the safety of students heading to their schools and educational institutions, adding that the Interior Ministry would take care of traffic during such busy period of the year.

Road users should respect traffic laws, said the official, adding that the Interior Ministry would pursue those who violate the safety regulations while driving.

He stressed that any complaints from road users should be delivered via the 112 emergency number, adding that the Interior Ministry would be glad to respond to any distress call. The Interior Ministry’s air patrol would also monitor traffic to make sure that no traffic congestions occur, said the official. — KUNA

News

in brief

MoH recruits 1,350 nurses KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health(MoH) has recruited a total number of 1,350 nurses from India and the Philippines.

Around 1,000 have been recruited from India and 350 from the Philippines to fill in the shortage of nurses in Kuwait’s hospitals and clinics, reported Al-Anba.

Awataf Al-Qattan, Director of Nursing Services has said that the Ministry of Health has floated a number of tenders for 12 companies. Employment formalities are in progress.

Crooked cops KUWAIT: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has referred the police officers, who are accused of hijacking a lorry carrying an illicit cargo of liquor in the hope of selling it on the black market, to the Public Prosecutor. In a press release issued yesterday, the Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) security department’s Public Relations unit said that the department would not cover up for anyone suspected of engaging in criminal activities, even if those accused are

amongst its own staff, adding that nobody is above the law in Kuwait.

Prison ‘escape rope’ KUWAIT: Staff at Kuwait’s Central Prison have launched an investigation after an observant warden spotted a 20-meter rope made of knotted bedsheets and other items lying outside the service gate at the facility. The eagle-eyed staff member immediately alerted the prison’s security personnel who in turn notified the Ministry of Interior (MoI) of the discovery. MoI Assistant Undersecretary for Reform Institutions Lieutenant General Khalil Al-Shamali arrived at the jail early yesterday morning shortly after receiving the information, ordering a headcount of the inmates. This was carried out immediately, with all the prisoners fully accounted for. The investigation to determine the source of the homemade rope is continuing, with a prison staff insider revealing that a number of wardens have been questioned and some face possible penalties over negligence. — Al-Shahed

KUWAIT: “I was born here, raised here, have lived here my entire life, but anyone landing freshly in the airport right this second, has as many rights and benefits in Kuwait as I do,” Mohammad, a Jordanian expatriate, says discontentedly. Nationality is firmly on the forefront of debate in Kuwait. The issue of the bedoon population is especially controversial, and a regular topic across the board - from articles in newspapers, to debates in diwaniyas and blog entries. The issue is undoubtedly important, but other nationality issues in Kuwait are also interesting to consider.

Kuwait’s expatriate population exceeds its local population twice over and, as with any population group, there are different segments within it.

A segment that is especially interesting to consider is the long-term expatriates from within the region. Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians and Jordanians make up a considerable part of society in Kuwait. Within this group is a further subgroup that has lived in Kuwait their entire lives, and this is the group that take the spotlight today. With the world becoming increasingly globalized, life-long expatriates are becoming increasingly common. As people cross borders in their search for better opportunities, they’re staying longer, and starting younger, away from home. The groups at hand are the offspring of expatriate parents, and are stuck in somewhat of a grey area. This ‘inbetween’ expatriate is not an issue exclusive to Kuwait, but many other countries both within the region and internationally.

“This is the country that I consider home.

It’s the country I miss when I travel, and where my children were born and raised. But I’ll never be Kuwaiti, officially or unofficially. Even if I got the passport, I wouldn’t be regarded as a Kuwaiti,” said Mohammad. The ‘unofficial’

aspect concerns rights and benefits, which many countries bestow upon residents who have resided for extended periods of time.

“When I go ‘home’ to Jordan it’s like a vacation so I feel like a visitor more than a national.

When I’m here, I’m a foreigner. Where I actually fit within this spectrum, I’m not really sure.”

These feelings resonated with many expatriates, who reported the difficulty they have with feeling rooted in Kuwait, “The restrictions placed on us, regardless of how long we have lived here, mean that we are regularly excluded. It’s not even nationality that I want, but at least rights within the country that I have worked in for my entire life, that I have contributed to, that I have been loyal to. Isn’t that worth something?” asked a Palestinian expatriate, Souad. “Anything that makes you attached or relaxed in a country, we’re restricted from.

There is no help in paying for schooling, there are restrictions on being able to ever purchase property and rules that mean that we can never really fully own a business,” she added.

While the practical issues of remaining excluded from certain rights and benefits can be difficult for the livelihood of such expatriates, it also has affects on their sense of self and identity. Souad added, “I was born here, I’ve lived here my entire life and have only left for vacations to Lebanon. In Lebanon, the concentration is on the fact that I work in Kuwait. In Kuwait, the concentration is on the fact that I’m Palestinian and in Palestine they’re too busy attempting to survive to care about where those of us lucky enough to be earning a good living will ever fit into a society. The issue isn’t just about your lifestyle; it’s about who you are.”

While some feel that their identities are stretched and pulled across borders, others have no interests in nationality or benefits, but want better rights. Lebanese expatriate Saad, said, “I’m not Kuwaiti. My parents are not Kuwaiti. My grandparents are not Kuwaiti. Why

would I want the Kuwaiti nationality? I’m proud of my roots. I don’t think the point should be nationality, but it should be rights and more equality. I would be able to settle better here if I had that. I’ll live here for the rest of my life in all likelihood, with or without additional rights.

But, it would mean that I could do so much more, especially business-wise.” Fahad, a Kuwaiti engineer said, “Granting expatriates, who have been here a long time, rights, could be a good idea. It might help integration a bit more throughout the country, if there’s a bit more equality. As far as nationality is concerned, I don’t think it ’s really relevant because that’s more to do with heritage. If rights are more balanced, they can keep their nationalities but enjoy various aspects of the country more.” He adds, “But this would have to be monitored. For expats who have been here for a long time, and who have contributed to the country. We don’t want to become like England, handing out rights and benefits and nationality to anyone who has been here a few years.”

The issue of ‘if and how’ long-term expatriates should be granted further rights has been going back and forth for years. Some insist that full nationality is the way forward, while others just want recognition for their years spent and loyalty shown. Others have yet to consider the larger consequences of not being able to function as a citizen in the country you reside in.

Ahmed, a 14-year-old Syrian teenager said, “I only went to Syria once. But I’m a Syrian. I don’t want the passport from here because it would mean I’m not a Syrian anymore. I speak in a Syrian accent and we follow our traditions, it would be weird if I suddenly started saying I’m Kuwaiti when I’m obviously not. But I have Kuwaiti friends from school; we all hang out together and get along with each other.” It seems the issue is considerably more simplified through the life of a youth.

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

LOCAL

kuwait digest

in my view

The GCC’s middle class

The burden of leadership

By Salah Othman very society consists of an upper class, a middle class and a lower segment which forms its texture. A society prospers when the percentage of lower segment reduces giving way to a burgeoning middle class.

In the Arab World, the middle class has merged with the lower class - which is opposite to the theory of development, creating societies that consist only of upper and lower classes. In these societies, the richer the people, the poorer those in the lower class become. When intellectuals and well-educated citizens - comprising the original middle class in modern societies find themselves being part of the lower class in the Arab World, they revolted to put an end to the social imbalance. Through their endeavors, they clashed with the upper class. The rich people rushed to protect their earnings.

However, the working class believes that they have no other choice but to revolt against the current situation after becoming victims of an imbalanced distribution of wealth and opportunities instead of becoming a part of the nation’s development.

This situation is present in almost all the Arab republics in which governments marginalize the society and monopolize wealth and power. On the other hand, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were able to avoid this situation, not due to the vast natural resources and relatively limited population, but because governments give attention to the welfare of GCC citizens and commit to justice. This in turn, has bridged the gulf between social classes as governments ensure that education is spread to the lower classes.

However, the situation in GCC countries has worsened due to the society’s dependence on consumerist culture boosted by governments, as well as the dominance of a limited group of individuals with wealth and power that created a marginalized part in the society. GCC governments desperately tried to solve the error by paying excessive financial privileges to citizens, despite realizing the enormous risk in taking this step as it could prove costly if prices of oil - the only source of income - drops. If that theory becomes a reality, governments will find themselves confronting people who seek policies to protect their welfare.

This reality has prompted people to make use of the redundancy of resources as much as they can and at any cost - even if it is at the cost of the country’s stability and security. This situation has narrowed the gap between GCC countries and Arab countries, meaning that the Gulf States must work toward stopping public funds’ transfer, find alternative sources of income and get back on track of true development. — Al-Qabas

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kuwait digest

Reviving the Kuwait spring

By Fouad Al-Obaid

fouad@kuwaittimes.net Twitter: @Fouadalobaid

eing in charge is not always an easy task.

Leadership comes with obvious advantages, along with many duties and responsibilities.

Leadership whether at a household level, or at the state-level requires certain attributes and qualities, which are not necessarily inherent on every individual! Leadership is a skill. Those that have mastered the art of being at the helm, know that more than anything being a leader is stressful. This article will discuss the issue of state leadership at the time of the Arab uprising.

The more one thinks about the heights of power, the more one understands that being in command changes the nature of the leaders’ lives in many different ways. Those that cling to power for a prolonged period of time-as has been the custom in this part of the world, tend to have bloated egos.

When considering that the collective Arab world today is as powerful as a single medium-sized European country, the reality is harsh. What motivated many in our part of the world is to stand up and voice their concern. It is the pain of their everyday misery. For many in the Arab world, living conditions are sub-prime, and most Arab citizens are living in poverty with no prospects for improvement.

The Arab Spring has brought down three longstanding dictators. So far, the prediction is for a few others to fall by. The reason for their demise is often similar. They arrive on the scene as visionaries who have ‘plans’ of grandeur for their respective states.

The problem with revolutionary leaders such as: ‘Guide of the revolution,’ ‘the Brother Leader,’ ‘King of Kings’ megalomania. These cases have no limits for the divide between reality and fantasy as time fades.

Private dictatorships are what countries with leaders have become!

In the West, the burden of leadership is often balanced by a need to serve. Presidency or premiership is often left to the most qualified charismatic personalities, contending for a seat to hold transparent elections. Their tenure is clearly defined by a set of terms to which they are subject to. They are elected to serve the people and not to have people serve them! Often, they are led by a desire to create history positively. Once their tenure is over, they pass on the relay to the next elected representative without any fuss! Furthermore, the burden of having to lead is divided among competent advisors. Elected officials who know that they are not above the law know that it is up to them to uphold laws. This is even before asking fellow citizens to do likewise.

In this part of the world, corruption has been rampant for far too long. Perhaps, we are living during times when change is near. One of the many lessons to be derived from the Arab Spring is that when oppression reaches untenable levels change will come. The collective progression of global civil society has largely been shaped by the desire to acquire greater freedoms and ensure peaceful co-existence.

Should the rest of the regional autocrats not realize that it is up to them to be at the forefront of their national development! And should they not realize that societies void of freedom are not sustainable.

They will end up on the wrong side of history.

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kuwait digest

‘A Nation of Sheep’

By Dr. Ghanim Al-Najjar he above title is the name of a 1961 book writ- been misled until a pro-American Vietnamese saw ten by the great American writer William J. the video and couldn’t believe what he was hearing Lederer, who passed away in 2009 at the age of although by then American officials emphasized that 97. Lederer left a great legacy of books and plays, the thousands of Americans operating in Vietnam had most important of which was his 1958 work, ‘The primarily depended on that video in their training.

Ugly American.’ The sheep-like nation he refers to in The book also explained how misleading media can turn people into a docile and easily led nation of the other book’s title is the USA. Years ago, I read an Arabic translation of ‘A Nation sheep.

So much water has run under Vietnamese bridges of Sheep’ even before reading ‘The Ugly American.’ since those days. It’s the Since the translation was not same old story of how very good I decided to read The first thing that came to my revolutions start and the original English version.

The first thing that came to mind when I initially set foot in where they may or may my mind when I initially set Vietnam was this book’s title as I not end up. The story of the book can be useful for foot in Vietnam was this book’s title as I recalled how it focused recalled how it focused on how those trying to twist the on how American media and American media and politicians had Arab revolutions by askpoliticians had manipulated manipulated the minds of the US ing for things they cannot achieve, as though somethe minds of the US electorate to allow them to introduce electorate to allow them to introduce one were asking a crawlwhatever policies they wished. whatever policies they wished. One ing baby to stand up, One of the best sections of of the best sections of the book dance, turn somersaults and touch the ceiling the book shows how footage purporting to show shows how footage purporting to with one hand. Had the Vietnamese people speaking show Vietnamese people speaking term ‘A Nation of Sheep’ about possible dangers to about possible dangers to Americans been used before the Arab revolution it would Americans there was unknowingly misrepresented by the there was unknowingly misrepre- have exactly fit the Arab CIA itself while being used by sented by the CIA itself while being nation that had been pasthe intelligence body to train used by the intelligence body to train sively ruled by un reformable rulers.

US agents before they travelled to the country. The footage US agents before they travelled to However, since the Genie has been released from purported to show some the country. the bottle, I think this Vietnamese farmers speaking description doesn’t fit about potential dangers that might face the agents when they arrived in Vietnam - anymore except, maybe, with some men of letters but used a translator who was saying something and politicians fond of the idea of ruling docile peoentirely different to what the subjects were actually ple who have insisted on dealing with their countries saying. The Americans did not realize that they had as helpless sheep-like nations. — Al-Jarida

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By Thaar Al-Rashidi es, in his capacity as the Assistant Undersecretary for Parliament Affairs Ahmad Al-Haifi has stated that Kuwait is ahead of the current Arab spring by 50 years. Its Constitution came into force in the 1960s. We, the Kuwaitis were raised in a democratic atmosphere and have tasted freedom. Starting from a young child in Kuwait to the oldest individual, we are more politically aware. However we still haven’t reaped its fruits after half a century of the onset of Spring.

Democracy is indoctrinated within a Constitution where the ruler are chosen from among the public in agreement with a partnership’s contract. However, some are trying to circumvent it during the past few years and establish that the law is above the Constitution. For example, the Constitution guarantees freedoms and laws that are passed by the government. It also curbs freedom - with the example of the press law, a clear and unjustified violation. It is our partnership contract with the ruling family. Such attempts have harmed our old Kuwaiti spring, despite the fact that we are sticking to our Kuwaiti Spring by making it better. We shall not be ungrateful to our democracy simply because government practices are wrong! Anyone who breaches the ‘contract’ should be held accountable, and whoever tries to deface the Kuwaiti democracy should be referred to the courts. Before that, the government should change. It is the executive authority that should be aware that the country is not owned by its Prime Minister and a ‘few merchants.’

Wikileaks began unveiling state secrets, and believe me, after ten years we will not need a ‘Wikileaks’ or a whistleblower website to open the door toward unrestricted information through the internet. Today, we know who has perpetrated crimes. We know who received payments and who has been manipulating state security in the name of freedom, jeopardizing national unity. Let us give back to our Kuwaiti spring its joy and a beautiful country. — Al-Anba

kuwait digest

kuwait digest

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On the slippery slope

By Mubarak bin Shafi Al-Hajiri poiled food, outstanding students who cannot ing to a point only God knows where it will end!

People were comfortable in the past, they find seats in the only government university, fat bank balances for the nation’s representatives worked, made money and only hear one newscast, (MPs); deteriorating health services; money launder- in which they learnt about the Arab struggle against ing; high prices; unbearable traffic jams; thefts; mis- Israel. They then ‘sleep’ to practice their daily routine. trust; threats; suffocation and the freedom of some. Today, however, now that satellite channels rule the airwaves, the number of Also, let us not forget the cornewspapers have multirupt media, and the inferior plied along with news and theater scene. Among other things, there are other catasAm I one of those people who social communications sites. They have moved trophes taking place in can only see negativity? There away from the Arab strugKuwait! Am I pessimistic? Am I may be beautiful things, and are gle and Israel, accepted looking to the empty part of defeat and followed the the glass? Aren’t there beauticloser to being an oddity. Sadly, ful things in Kuwait that oddity proves to be the norm. If news of domestic affairs.

Their brains are an informashould be highlighted and you like Members of Parliament tion superhighway, somecommend those that take care thing that instills worry in of them. who do not sell their conscience, the person and makes him Am I one of those people it is because others are doing it pessimistic. Mistakes are who can only see negativity? without shame! If you like an exposed to people, and There may be beautiful things, masks fall off. They know and are closer to being an official who does not steal, it is how appointments and oddity. Sadly, oddity proves to because others do and raise promotions are made. be the norm. If you like their hands towards the sky -’Oh! The sincere has deviated Members of Parliament who do not sell their conscience, it God give me blessed sustenance from his principles after noticing that the insincere is because others are doing it as you are the best giver.’ has gotten ahead of him. without shame! If you like an The clean has left cleanliofficial who does not steal, it is ness, when it has become because others do and raise their hands towards the sky -’Oh! God give me an obstacle, the way to a good living. The creative has become less enthusiastic for creativity. The ignoblessed sustenance as you are the best giver.’

If you are attracted by an employee who does his rant is always rewarded!

Am I pessimistic? No, I am not pessimistic, but I or her job perfectly, and is not preoccupied with the iPhone and Blackberry, don’t be surprised! There are am not optimistic either. Do you know why? Because those who do and scream in the face of those who people are pessimistic, and the state continues to object to negligence. Sincerity at work is an oddity! deteriorate, under a government that thinks being Cleanliness and good consscience is an oddity. on the proverbial slippery slope can be equated Creativity is an oddity. And the country is deteriorat- with progress! — Al-Watan

Our northern neighbour

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By Mubarak Al-Moasharji any people in Iraq mistake Kuwait as being the weakest link between its neighbours. This mistaken belief leads them to overlook such aspects as an Iranian nuclear plant built a few kilometers away from Iraq’s border. Intervention in the south of the country and bombardment of Kurds in the north, as well as Turkish dams that restrict Iraq’s share of joint river waters are ignored. Sadly, they exaggerate imaginary issues with Kuwait.

I am not talking only about the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port. Many Iraqi politicians have been protesting against Kuwait for reasons such as Kuwait’s insistence on collecting compensation for the 1990/91 Iraqi invasion. They make fabricated claims alleging that Kuwait steals Iraqi oil or, in the most recent case with the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, that Kuwait harms Iraq’s economic interests.

The invasion period wasn’t the only violent escalation, as Iraqi militants targeted the Kuwaiti embassy in Baghdad on several occasions. They recently threatened to attack the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port and other targets in Kuwait. In the meantime, many Iraqi MPs found attacking Kuwait through hateful statements an opportunity to achieve popularity.

In order to thwart the idea of Kuwait being the region’s weakest link, the Kuwaiti government should adopt the following: Build a barbed-wire, electric fence across the Kuwaiti - Iraqi border, set up an antimissile system to ward off any shelling attempts on Iraq’s part. Furthermore, the government needs to close the border outlet with Iraq and allow only humanitarian cases to be considered (the border was closed for two decades and that didn’t affect Kuwait’s economy). The government needs to implement these, until Iraq is ruled by a government that can take full control over its internal situation, and commit to international regulations, bilateral agreements and joint borders. — Al-Rai

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Salehi praises Kuwaiti-Iranian relations TEHRAN: Iran is keen on best relations possible with Kuwait, and ties between the two countries are of praiseworthy level, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday.

The remark was made during the official’s meeting with a visiting delegation of Kuwaiti journalists and media figures headed by Chairman of Kuwait Journalists Association (KJA) Ahmad Behbahani. Kuwaiti Ambassador Majdi Al-Thifeeri was also in attendance.

The top diplomat said it is vital to bolster media as well as cultural communication and interaction between the two nations for their own and the whole region’s interest. His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah, he said, is leading his country with wisdom and showing due care for promotion of cooperation, Salehi noted.

As to his view on GCC and regional stability and security, he said “we are all for strong bonds of friendship with the Kuwaiti people and other people of the Gulf, and we have family ties, as well as economic, commercial, and other social relations between our two peoples.” He stressed he was optimistic about the future.

“Our top leaders urge us to sustain good-neighborly relations with coun-

tries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, with which we differ in view on a number of issues.” The official noted Kuwait has the benefit of “government and subjects of the same social fabric.”

This also goes for the rest of the Gulf, he said, and “this should be maintained to help us all deal with the present and avoid any future complications or stress in ties.” The minister referred to developments in the Arab region, and while stressing Iran was keen on preserving stability and security of the area, he also pointed out it views the situation in Bahrain as an internal issue, which should be addressed through dialogue.

On Syria, he said the situation could be viewed from two angles. The first suggests the Arab country as an important link in the region’s defenses against outside dictates, which should be sustained as such. The second shows Syria in need of an internal re-ordering and re-assessment, about which “we engaged in dialogue with the Syrian officials.” The delegation, which includes prominent Kuwaiti journalists, is making the first visit of its kind by a GCC delegation since the Iranian revolution of 1979. The aim is holding meetings with senior officials to bolster media relations and ascertain Iran’s stances on a host of issues. — KUNA

TEHRAN: KJA delegation seen with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. — KUNA

CSC approves pay rise for oil sector staff

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah yesterday met with United States Air Force (USAF) Secretary Michael Donley to discuss military cooperation between Kuwait and the US. During the meeting at Bayan Palace, the friendly discussions between Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak, who is also First Deputy Prime Minister, and the senior American official touched on a number of subjects of mutual interest. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah and the Commander of the Kuwaiti Air Force, Lieutenant General Abdulaziz Al-Jassem. — KUNA

Kuwait, Luxembourg MPs underline excellent ties Visit ‘heralds a new beginning in ties’ LUXEMBOURG: Kuwaiti and Luxemburgish officials yesterday expressed their determination to further expand and strengthen their already excellent bilateral ties following talks between parliamentarians from the two countries. “It is a great pleasure for the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies to welcome such an important delegation from Kuwait,” the President of Luxembourg’s Parliament, Laurent Mosar, told KUNA. “We have excellent bilateral relations on the governmental relations and very good parliamentary relations.”

He continued, “Kuwait is a very important country on the political level in the Arab region and I think we have to continue to develop our trade relations. We are very happy to discuss the situation in the Arab region with such eminent members of the Kuwaiti parliament.”

Mosar said that the Kuwaiti delegation’s four-day visit “heralds a new beginning in ties between the two countries,” adding that senior political figures in Luxembourg would organize a visit to Kuwait as soon as possible.

On his part, the head of the six-member Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation Mubarak Al-Khurainej, who is also the

president of the Kuwait-Luxembourg interparliamentary friendship group and chairman of the Kuwaiti parliament’s foreign affairs committee, expressed his happiness on behalf of the Kuwaiti MPs at the visit to Luxembourg.

“Today’s meeting was very important,” he said. “Firstly we discussed the distinguished relationship between Kuwait and Luxembourg. We underlined our estimation and thanks to Luxembourg which held the EU Presidency at that time when Kuwait was liberated.”

Luxembourg’s position once again demonstrated the crucial role played by the international community in developments around the world, he noted.

Amongst the subjects under discussion during the meetings between the Kuwaiti and Luxemburgish MPs were the recent developments in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria, with the two sides holding identical positions on these events, AlKhurainej noted. The Kuwaiti parliamentarians also held a separate meeting with the chairman of the Luxemburgish parliament’s foreign affairs committee Ben Fayout which also focused on the situation in the Arab world. Ben Fayout, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in

Luxembourg’s parliament, told KUNA that they had a very good discussions with the Kuwaiti parliamentarians. “These meetings are really important for us especially in this time in regard of what is happening in the Middle East and the Arab world and to get the feeling from colleagues from this part of the world,” said Fayout “Our colleagues from Kuwait are really interested in developing democracy not only in Kuwait but also in other areas surrounding [Kuwait].

We think that this is a very hopeful period where democracy can develop and our colleagues from Kuwait and ourselves are on the same page.”

Fayout explained that the government of Luxembourg has made strong efforts to develop financial cooperation with Kuwait, with one field of special interest being Islamic finance.

“We stressed [to the Luxemburgish MPs] that Kuwait is the first Arab and Gulf country that issued a statement through its Foreign Ministry on what happened and what is happening in Syria,” AlKhurainej revealed.

The Kuwaiti parliament has a clear position on the rights of the Syrian people and the rights of the Arab peoples to selfdetermination, he added. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and spokesman of the government Ali Al-Rashed announced yesterday the approval of the Civil Service Council (CSC) at its meeting yesterday, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister and acting President of the CSC Sheikh Ahmed Hamoud Al-Sabah, to grant an increase of salaries and allowances of Kuwaiti workers and salaries of non-Kuwaitis in the oil sector.

The minister told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) after the meeting that the Civil Service Council agreed to grant an increase of the salaries of Kuwaiti workers in the oil sector by a fixed percentage of the total basic salary plus an incentive bonus to be in the form of a monthly financial reward.

He said senior officials would be granted increases of 16.5 percent of basic salary, while administrators would receive an increase of 33 percent of basic pay.

As for the technicians, the minister said they would

receive an increase of 66 percent of basic salary in addition to the promotional allowance for the grade.

He said the Civil Service Council also agreed to grant an increase in allowances for non-Kuwaiti employees in the oil sector between 25 to 50 Kuwaiti dinars per month and KD 30 for irregular shift a month. A housing allowance of KD 75-80 will also be paid.

The minister added that technicians in the oil sector almost represent two thirds of the workers. He said that the Civil Service Board agreed to grant a 50 percent increase in salaries of non-Kuwaiti employees in the oil sector.

The minister congratulated the employees for these incentives.

On the other hand, Al-Rashed said that the Civil Service Board reviewed at its meeting yesterday some of the organizational structures provided by some government agencies and took the appropriate decisions.

— KUNA

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Syrian youth stabs father Police punch-up KUWAIT: Jahra police are hunting for a young Syrian man who stabbed his father during a row at the family home in Sulaibiya, leaving him critically injured before fleeing the house. Paramedics and police rushed to the home after the assailant’s brother called the emergency services hotline to report that his sibling was attacking their father with a knife, only to find that the attacker had fled before their arrival. The injured man was rushed to Jahra Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a critical condition. The hunt continues for the son.

Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti man was arrested after his 20-yearold son called police to inform them that he had insulted His Highness the Amir. Police arrested the man at his house in Sulaibiya shortly after his son made the call. Although the accused man initially denied the allegations during questioning, his son provided police with a voice recording in which his father could clearly be held insulting the monarch, a treasonous offence under Kuwaiti law punishable by a jail sentence.

The man was referred to the State Security Department for further action.

Unhappy families A Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior officer and six family members, including a Ministry of Defense officer, all armed with swords, burst into the home of his parents-in-law after his wife left him to return to their house, inflicting injuries on three of his wife’s family members during the attack.

Police and paramedics were quickly at the scene after a distraught member of the wife’s family called the emergency services hotline to report the brutal assault, only to find that the cowardly assailants had fled before their arrival. The injured were rushed to hospital, while a hunt is underway for the attackers.

In another case, an Um AlHayman resident filed a case at the local police station after a disgruntled relative fired a shotgun at his home following a family argument. Police investigating the incident retrieved shotgun shell casings at the scene and are hunting for the accused man.

Hawally suicide A 24-year-old Arab man committed suicide on Tuesday by jumping from a window of an apartment in Hawally. Police and paramedics rushed to the apartment building after horrified residents reported finding the body on the ground outside.

Paramedics confirmed that the man had died instantly, and his body was removed for autopsy.

Detectives investigating the incident found that the young man had jumped from the window, apparently in a bid to end his life.

Police punch-up Two police officers were held for questioning after they got into a fistfight with one another at Kuwait International Airport following a dispute. According to security sources, the fight took place outside the airport terminal after one of them confronted the other over his verbal abuse of a female colleague who was late for work. The two were referred to nearest police station to face charges after airpor t security intervened to stop the brawl.

Shopper brutalized Six security guards at a Salmiya mall face assault charges after they savagely beat a young man who they accused of immoral acts. A number of horrified shoppers who spotted the guards dragging the young man to the men’s toilet whilst hitting and kicking him called the emergency services hotline. In the lavatory the guards apparently continued with their brutal attack, soaking the young man by shoving his head down a toilet. During the melee, one bystander, an American man, apparently attempted to intervene to save the young man, but the guards’ numerical superiority proved too much for him.

Although the guards insisted during questioning that they were simply performing their duty in deterring their victim from committing further immoral actions (which have so far not been specified), the American witness insisted that the youth had done nothing warranting such a brutal assault. The guards are being held in custody pending the results of the investigation.

Fugitive caught A Kuwaiti man in his thirties is facing multiple charges after he was pulled over for reckless driving. Patrol officers pulled the man over on Fahaheel Road after spotting the car speeding and swerving wildly all over the road.

On searching the vehicle, the officers found a quantity of heroin, as well as 20 narcotic tablets and other drug paraphernalia. As if this weren’t enough, the officers found on check ing the man’s ID that he was a fugitive, having gone on the run after being sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment over a previous case. He is currently in custody awaiting further action.

Hunt on for expat, sponsor Travel ban orders have been imposed against a Kuwaiti man and his Egyptian employee who police are searching for after they both refused to cooperate with police investigating assault allegations made against the Egyptian man.

The assault victim, another Kuwaiti man, had reportedly visited Farwaniya police station to report the attack, claiming that

he had got into an argument over the Egyptian expatriate’s poor driving skills, which quickly developed into a physical altercation in which the man left him with various injuries. The victim provided a medical report detailing the injuries he sustained in the attack.

On attempting to contact the accused man, police discovered that he had switched his mobile phone off. When police contacted the man’s sponsor, meanwhile, he initially promised that he would turn his employee in, but subsequently turned his own phone off and made no move to hand the accused man in.

Explosives found Bomb disposal officers detonated an RPG in an open area near the Burgan oil field, as well as eleven cluster bombs near the Wafra Road, following two separate reports from passersby who found the devices half-buried in the sand. Investigations confirmed that the explosive devices were left by invading Iraqi force during the 1990-91 invasion and occupation.

Bird-shooters busted Two teenagers were arrested after they were caught hunting birds inside a restricted zone near an oil facility. Police officers headed to the location after people in the vicinity reported hearing gunshots. There, they found two youngsters aged 16 and 17 carr ying hunting rifles. The youths, who subsequently admitted that they were hunting birds, were referred to the Abdullah Port police station for further action.

—Al-Qabas, Al-Rai, Al-Anbaa, Al-Watan

Cell search finds cells

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: An unannounced cell search operation by Central Prison wardens resulted in the confiscation of 22 cell phones, three grams of heroin and a number of narcotic tablets. Following the five-hour operation, an investigation has been launched to discover how the prisoners were able to obtain the confiscated items.

GENEVA: Kuwait’s Permanent Ambassador to the UN, Dherar Al-Rezouqi with Kuwait Engineers Society delegation in Geneva. — KUNA

Wataniya TV Channel an astonishing achievement KUWAIT: Ramadan 2011 was different from all previous years, Wataniya Telecom had launched the first of its kind initiative in Kuwait and the region as a reward to its customers, adding a new spirit to the Ramadan atmosphere in Kuwait. Wataniya’s TV Channel achieved

Abdolaziz Al-Balool unprecedented success and was wellreceived by the Kuwaiti community with its latest shows and hit series that brought families together, and added joyful moments to their days during the holy month.

Wataniya is abiding by the promise it made to its customers to be a network that is ahead of what is being offered in the market, and that provides exceptional initiatives and makes its customers proud of belonging to such a telecom company. Wataniya TV Channel provided programs and shows that catered to different age groups and preferences which were aired at timings suitable and matching with the traditional Kuwaiti home in the month of Ramadan.

Commenting on the success of Wataniya’s TV Channel, Abdolaziz AlBalool PR Director, “Our TV Channel con-

cluded the month of Ramadan of this year with great success as we have received thousands of positive and encouraging feedback from viewers.

Although it was the first of its kind experience for any telecom company in the region, shows and programs broadcasted on the channel recorded high viewership and were enjoyed by our audience.”

In parallel with launching the T V Channel, Wataniya also gave viewers the opportunity to interact with each other and engage in conversations about the shows they are watching through an interactive web portal. The web portal made sure that customers never miss an episode. By logging on, customers streamed and watched any older episode of their favorite show that they might have missed on their laptops as well as their mobile handsets.

Al-Balool had revealed that the company’s website had witnessed 6,471.85 visits on an average day at a total of 108,289 users. Al-Balool also confirmed that the channel had landed on the most watched TV channels during the month of Ramadan this year. According to a recent study conducted by an independent research company, Wataniya T V was ranked 6th on the most viewed channels during the holy month of Ramadan from a list of over 150 Arabic competing channels contrasting from entertainment to news related channels.

Wataniya Telecom had launched its channel at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan through an exquisite gala dinner which was attended by a large number of actors and celebrities who were part of the shows that aired on the channel. The channel was also announced through a press conference which brought together the Kuwaiti media with Wataniya’s top management.

Young tearaways Two juvenile sex pests were arrested in Fahaheel for harassing young women and touching them inappropriately, whilst another two young tearaways were arrested in the same area for stealing a motorcycle and going joyriding on it.

Hospital fire Firefighters’ rapid reaction to a report of a blaze in an Adan Hospital basement room meant the fire was quickly extinguished with no need to evacuate any patients or staff and no major damage reported.

BB sponsors social media seminar KUWAIT: The Burgan Bank announced yesterday that it will be the strategic sponsor of the upcoming ‘CRUSH IT!’ social media seminar, which is set to take place in Kuwait next month. The seminar, the first of its kind in Kuwait, will be hosted by renowned social media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk in collaboration with Al Zanki Enterprises.

This interactive seminar will serve as a platform to share best practices on using social media for businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals.

Through the ‘CRUSH IT!’ seminar, Gary Vaynerchuk aims to show participants how to utilize Gary Vaynerchuk high-level and platform-specific social media along with effective digital marketing strategies to improve the overall working environment. Gary Vaynerchuk’s 2009 book ‘Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion’ was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, as well as becoming the Number One Web Marketing book on Amazon’s Bestseller list within the first few weeks of its release. Gary Vaynerchuk is a hugely successful entrepreneur and social media professional who grew his family business from a value of $4 million to $60 million in five years. Vaynerchuk’s speeches on personal branding, social media, and marketing have gained praise from established web denizens and earned him the admiration of countless bloggers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Talking about the upcoming event, Bashir Jaber, Burgan Bank’s Assistant General Manager of Corporate Communications, said: “In today’s connected world, social media has gained a significant degree of importance in marketing communications. It has created an environment where communication, collaboration and coordination exist without barriers. Social media is rapidly changing the way that individuals consume information and journalists report news, and as a result, billions of dollars in advertising have been moving online, waiting to be claimed by whoever can build the best content and communities. Neither businesses nor individuals can now deny the importance of social media in our daily lives.”

CBK marks end of summer youth training course KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) recently marked the conclusion of its 2011 summer training program for children of CBK staff members as well as @Tijari account costumers aged between 16 and 22. The program, which began on June 26 and ended last month, offered the trainees an opportunity to gain basic knowledge and experience of work in the banking sector.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea today MESSAGE FROM DPRK EMBASSY

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of economic construction on giving priority to the development of national defence industry and thus provided itself with the most reliable war deterrent.

Politico-ideological and military power The DPRK has consistently adhered to the principles of maintaining Juche* in ideology, independence in politics, selfsufficiency in the economy and selfreliance in national defence.

Guided only by the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung and formulated by leader Kim Jong Il in a comprehensive way, the DPRK has thoroughly applied it to all state activities. In this country all the people have been firmly armed with the Juche idea and the whole society has been modeled on one ideology.

This lies in administering an independent politics which solves all the problems in compliance with the Juche ideal, giving primary consideration to the revolution of its own country and the interests of its own people, and relying on its own efforts as required by its actual situation. In the closing years of the last century when socialism collapsed in one state after another in the former Soviet Union and other countries, the DPRK invariably held fast to the banner of socialism. This fact brought home to the international community how firmly the DPRK champions independence. In the present reality, in which the DPRK leads the drive to make the world independent, displaying its sovereignty and dignity in confrontation with the allied imperialist forces single-handed, it also strikes the world community that this country, small as it is, is a politico-ideological power to be reckoned with.

The DPRK is a military power which no one dares provoke. It has the Korean People’s Army (KPA) displaying its might as an invincible army and has established a reliable system incorporating all the people, nationwide defence with the KPA as its core, an integral whole of the army and the people which can never be broken even by means of nuclear weapons, and a powerful national defence industry capable of manufacturing any state-ofthe-art weaponry as it wishes.

For its national defence, the DPRK has consistently pursued the lines of turning the entire army into one composed of cadres, modernizing the whole army, arming all the people and fortifying the whole nation.

In the course of implementing the requirements of the strategy to turn the whole army into skilled cadres and modernize it, the KPA has developed into an invincible armed force fully provided with both powerful offensive and defensive means, whose soldiers are well versed in modern military science, technique and tactics and proficient in using state-of-the-art weapons and other combat equipment. The strategy of arming the entire people and turning the whole country into a fortress was carried out at a high level, with the result that all the Koreans have been fully prepared to deal a crushing blow to aggressors in case of emergency, together with servicepersons, and strong defence positions have been built up in all parts of the country so as to turn it into an impregnable fortress. In the closing years of the last century socialism collapsed in some countries all at once, and the allied imperialist forces directed the spearhead of their anti-socialist offensive at the DPRK. Even under such grave situation the DPRK held higher the banner of Songun** and has carried out a strategy

Towards economic power As it has already held the position of a politico-ideological power and a military giant, the DPRK is now striving to build itself up as an economic power. Once it attains the goal befitting an economic power, it can be said to be a great, prosperous and powerful nation both in name and reality.

Over a decade ago it set out to achieve a national target of building of a thriving nation and has now stepped up its economic construction, Gigantic land realignment projects have been carried out on a nationwide scale, hydroelectric power stations mushroomed in different parts of the country and the modernization campaign has swept through industrial establishments across the country.

The flames of a new revolutionary upsurge for the building of an economic power are spreading over this country, bringing about miraculous successes one after another.

Kwangmyongsong No. 1, the DPRK’s first ar tificial ear th satellite, was launched successfully in 1998 to be followed by another one Kwangmyongsong No. 2 last year, drawing the admiration of the world community. The Songjin Steel Complex located in the northeast of the country has perfected a Juche-based steel-making system of using no coke or metal waste products. A large number of factories and, enterprises have widely introduced the CNC technology, bringing about eye-opening changes in the field of industry as a whole. The builders of the Huichon Power Station, one of the leading facilities in building an economic power, opened up a sure prospect for finishing a project which would normally take more than a decade in only a few years while the Februar y 8 Vinalon Complex is mass-producing vinalon cotton, and the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex producing fertilizers by completing the anthracite gasification to ultramodern standards. All these facts show how much closer the Koreans have come to attaining the aforementioned goal. All the Koreans are now out to dynamically launch the general offensive to fling open the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful nation in 2012 marking the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung, father of socialist Korea, as intended by leader Kim Jong Il. This is the appearance of the DPRK today. * According to Wikipedia, Juche or Chuch’e is a Korean word meaning ‘main subject.’ In the DPRK (North Korea), Juche refers specifically to a political thesis of Kim Il-Sung, the Juche Idea, that identifies the Korean masses as the masters of the country’s development.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Kim elaborated the Juche Idea into a set of principles that the government uses to justify its policy decisions. Among these are independence from external powers, a strong military posture, and reliance on Korean national resources. “Juche” has sometimes been translated in North Korean sources as “independent stand” or “spirit of self-reliance”, and has also been interpreted as “always putting Korean things first.” According to Kim Ilsung, the Juche Idea is based on the belief that “man is the master of everything and decides everything.” ** According to Wikipedia, Son’gun, often spelled Songun, is the DPRK’s ‘Military First’ policy, which prioritizes the KPA in the affairs of state and allocates national resources to the army first. This has played many roles, including that of ‘Military First Politics,’ serving as a political system, that of “a line of Military First Economic Construction” acting as an economic system, and of “Military First Ideology” making it the new guiding ideology of North Korea.

he Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was founded on September 9, 1948, some six decades ago.

The founding of the DPRK was an event of historic significance as it ushered in a period of building a socialist state of unique style centered on the masses of the people in Korea. Since its foundation, the Korean people have eliminated centuries-old backwardness and penury and built a powerful socialist state, which is independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in defense.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

China migrant children hit by school closures

US safer 10 years after 9/11, but at what cost?

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Libya’s NTC demands Niger stop Gaddafi Gaddafi still in Libya, in good spirits: Arrai TV BAN WALID: The wreckage of a plane lies strewn on the ground around what used to be Gaddafi’s 32nd infantry regiment’s base at Mardun. —AP

TRIPOLI: Libya’s new leaders were yesterday urgently seeking Niger’s help in preventing Muammar Gaddafi, his family or his troops from crossing the border, as the hunt for the fugitive strongman intensified. New regime forces, meanwhile, were poised to battle loyalist troops still holding out in their remaining strongholds of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, Sabha in the deep south and the coastal city of Sirte, Gaddafi’s hometown. Gaddafi’s sole remaining media mouthpiece, Mishan AlJuburi, owner of the Syria-based Arrai Oruba television, said the defeated leader was still in Libya, along with his son Seif Al-Islam.

“I can tell you that I spoke with Gaddafi very recently,” Juburi told AFP. “He is in Libya, in very good spirits, feels strong, is not afraid, and would be happy to die fighting against the occupiers,” Juburi, a former Iraqi MP, said by telephone. “His son Seif Al-Islam is in the same state of mind,” added Juburi, whose channel has broadcast a number of audio messages from Gaddafi and his son since they

went into hiding after Tripoli was overrun by rebel fighters last month. Asked how he makes contact with Gaddafi, Juburi said: “When I need to talk to him, I send him a message, or he contacts me when he wants to pass a message.” Libya’s new rulers are anxious to arrest Gaddafi and put him on trial, thus sealing their hold on the country.

They are fearful he may slip into a neighboring country, particularly Niger, to which a convoy carrying other senior officials of his ousted regime fled on Monday. Bidding to cut off Gaddafi’s potential escape routes, the nowruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said it had dispatched a team to Niamey. “We have sent a delegation today that is going to Niger to talk... about securing our borders to stop any kind of infiltration of Gaddafi troops to Niger, to stop any attempt by Gaddafi or his family to escape to Niger,” Fathi Baja, head of the NTC’s political affairs committee, said.

“We ask any neighboring countries to stop Gaddafi people from going to their land,” Fathi

told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi.

When asked about the convoy that entered Niger reportedly carrying money and gold, he replied: “We don’t know how much money this convoy was transporting but, according to what we know, security reports provided by groups in this region, from phone contacts and certain people’s dispatches, we can say that they have seen money and gold in these cars.” He added: “If that happened, we want that money back.”

The large convoy of civilian and military vehicles entered Niger late on Monday and drove through the city of Agadez. Niger was adamant Gaddafi was not with the convoy, while Washington said that while some senior officials of the ousted regime were in the convoy, he was not believed to be among them.

Gaddafi’s remaining forces have been a given a Saturday deadline to surrender, in a bid to spare further bloodshed.At Bani Walid, 170 kilometres (105 miles) southeast of Tripoli, negotiators were still seeking to broker the

oasis town’s peaceful surrender. “The negotiations were successful yesterday and we are waiting for the NTC to give us the green light to go in,” said the NTC’s chief negotiator, Abdullah Kenshil.

NTC leaders say they are committed to avoiding bloodshed in Bani Walid, even after a delegation sent there on Tuesday retreated after being fired on. “The elders have joined the revolution,” Kenshil said, adding that some of them were in Tripoli and others were back in Bani Walid after armed men loyal to Gaddafi initially prevented them from returning. In the hamlet of Wishtata, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the front, Colonel Abdullah Abu Asara said his volunteer fighters were ready for anything. “We are fully ready to attack, we are just waiting for the command from the National Transitional Council, we are under their command now,” he told AFP. NTC forces yesterday were trying to advance along the road from Um Khunfis to the Red Valley, the pro-Gaddafi forces’ front line, some 60 kilome-

Twin suicide blasts kill 23 in Pakistan Taleban claim responsibility for attacks QUETTA: A pair of suicide bombers attacked a top army officer in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta yesterday, missing him but killing his wife. At least 22 others died, including several guards, a senior officer and two children, officials said. Police said they were investigating whether the strike was in revenge for the recent arrests in Quetta of three top Al-Qaeda suspects, an operation that was assisted by the CIA. But within hours, the Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack and a spokesman for the group said Brig Khurram Shahzad, the deputy head of the region’s Frontier Corps, was targeted because of an incident several months ago that left five people dead at a checkpoint in the city. In yesterday’s blasts, the first attacker detonated his vehicle next to a group of Frontier Corps officers close to Shahzad’s house.

Hurling grenades, the second attacker than stormed the house and blew himself up inside it, police officer Naseer Ahmed Kurd said. Police officer Hamid Shakil said at least 23 people were killed and more than 60 were injured.

Two of the dead were children traveling in a rickshaw. A colonel in the corps was also killed, he said. Shakil said one of the suicide bomber was carrying an identity card showing him to be a 21-year-old Afghan refugee. The bombing comes just days after Monday’s disclosure of the arrests of

the three Al-Qaida suspects in the city.

The Pakistan army statement announcing it had stressed the level of CIA involvement - a possible sign of an upswing in cooperation between two uneasy anti-terror allies after the rancor

to the recent arrests, but we are investigating,” police officer Hamid Shakil said of the blasts. Islamist militants are seeking to topple Pakistan’s Western-allied leaders and take over the country.

Allied to the insurgents fighting US

QUETTA: Pakistani police officer walks past burning vehicles at the site of suicide bombing yesterday. —AP surrounding Osama bin Laden’s killing.

American officials praised the operation, saying the detention of the most senior militant - Younis Al-Mauritani was a significant achievement. The Frontier Corps took part in the operation. “This attack was maybe in reaction

forces across the border in Afghanistan, they have attacked hundreds of government, police, army and civilian targets since 2007, when the violence began in earnest. Many thousands have been killed, and Pakistani authorities have struggled to counter the threat.

Quetta is a dangerous city, and is thought to be home to Al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders. It lies close to the border with southern Afghanistan, the heart of the insurgency in that country.

It is also wracked by separatist violence, but those rebels have tended not to deploy suicide bombers. Pakistan didn’t say when Al-Mauritani and the two other Al-Qaeda operatives were arrested but a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, has said the arrest took place in the past two weeks.

The unusual announcement about the cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency appeared aimed at reversing the widespread perception that ties had been badly damaged by bin Laden’s death.

The Pakistanis accused the Americans of violating their sovereignty with the bin Laden raid, while Washington was angr y the terror leader had been found in a house in a military garrison town in Pakistan. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday praised Pakistan for alMauritani’s arrest. “It’s a tribute to the Pakistanis, who worked with us on this effor t to be able to go after him,” Panetta told reporters, adding that he assumes the US will ask the Pakistani authorities for permission to interrogate the suspect. — Reuters

tres east of Sirte, an AFP journalist said, reporting artillery fire. Loyalist forces putting up strong resistance fired several shells at NTC vehicles at an electricity power station, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

On Tuesday, NTC forces advanced at least eight kilometres (five miles) towards Sirte in heavy fighting, commanders said.

NATO, in its latest operational update yesterday, said its warplanes had bombed six tanks, six armoured fighting vehicles, four armed vehicles, a munitions store and an artillery piece in Sirte the previous day.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Libya on September 15 for talks with NTC chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil in Benghazi, the Turkish premier’s office said yesterday. In July, Ankara recognised the NTC as Libya’s legitimate government. Por tugal’s Foreign Minister Paulo Portas, visiting Benghazi yesterday, urged his country’s businessmen to return to Libya, calling it “a land of opportunities.” — AFP

UAE investor rejects Tanzania accusations DAR ES SALAAM: A UAE businessman has denied allegations in a US cable that he offered gifts to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete as well as donating $1 million to the ruling party in exchange for investment deals in the east African country. The managing director of Albwardy Investment, which is owned by Dubai-based investor Ali Albwardy, described the accusations published by WikiLeaks from a February 2006 U.S. cable as “monstrous and totally untrue”. “At no time has a bribe been either requested or given to President Kikwete

by Mr. Ali Albwardy, the UAE owner of the Kilimanjaro hotel,” Philip d’Abo said in a statement issued via the president’s office in Tanzania yesterday.

A spokesman for the Tanzanian president’s office on Monday also denied Kikwete had accepted gifts from Albwardy. The US cable said Albwardy, who owns a hotel chain in Tanzania, flew the African leader to London on a shopping trip and bought designer suits for the president. “At no time has Mr. Albwardy either paid for the airfare for the president to visit London or purchased even one suit for him from Savile Row. This is a total fabrication as is the part concerning the $1 million donation to the CCM by Mr Albwardy,” he said.

“At no time has Ali Albwardy given President Kikwete anything that can be construed as a bribe ... the president feels equally upset to be falsely accused particularly as the source of this memorandum is supposedly a representative of both a friend and an ally.” The US cable comes at a sensitive time for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party as it faces potential political fallout from graft allegations against some other senior members, including a former prime minister. Kikwete came to power in 2005 on a strong anti-corruption platform, but his government has since been criticized for failing to tackle large-scale graft. In May, donor countries slashed funding pledges for Tanzania’s 2011/12 budget, citing concerns about corruption and the slow pace of reforms. Albwardy owns three hotels in Tanzania-the Kilimanjaro Hotel in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, a beach hotel in Zanzibar and a lodge in the Serengeti national park-through the company Albwardy Investment. The Kilimanjaro Hotel was the country’s flagship state-owned hotel until it was sold to Albwardy in 2002, under the previous CCM administration. — Reuters

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

Iran’s revolution ‘matter of time’: US defense chief Reform movement learning from Tunisia, Egypt WASHINGTON: Revolution in Iran appears to be a matter of time, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted on Tuesday, saying the Iranian reform movement was learning from revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Panetta, a former CIA director who took over the Pentagon’s top job in July, was asked on the Charlie Rose television show whether the Arab Spring might spread to non-Arab Iran. Panetta responded: “Absolutely.” “I think we saw in evidence of that in the last election in Iran that there was a movement within Iran that raised those very same concerns that we’re seeing elsewhere,” Panetta said.

DUBAI: Austrian doctor Eugen Adelsmayr is pictured at the Marina beach in the Gulf Emirate yesterday. Adelsmayr is on trial for the “mercy killing” of a patient and was suspended from working in Dubai’s Rashid Hospital and has continued practicing in a hospital in the emirate of Al-Ain. —AFP

Palestinian lashes out at US policy on UN bid RAMALLAH: The United States is showing “disdain” for Arabs by trying to prevent the Palestinians from gaining statehood recognition at the United Nations, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday. Washington fears the Palestinians’ move at the United Nations, expected later this month, could further snarl flagging US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, which broke down last year following a row over Jewish settlements.

David Hale, the US Middle East peace envoy, was due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later yesterday in the latest American effort to halt the UN maneuverings and convince the two sides to return to direct negotiations. Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said US policy now appeared confined to one point: stopping the Palestinians from embarking on their diplomatic initiative at the United Nations.

“The subject is not settlements, or Palestinian independence or the rights of the Palestinian people, or halting the criminal violations perpetrated by the settlers against the Palestinian people,” he said. “All this is being ignored and the only issue has become the issue of us not going to the United Nations,” he told Voice of Palestine radio.

“This shows not only disdain for the Palestinian position, but also scorn for what is happening in the Arab region-a state of revival seeking justice for the Arab peoples and justice for the whole region.” Popular uprisings have toppled Arab autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya this year.

Arguing that the twodecade old peace process has run out of gas, the Palestinians are seeking an upgrade in their diplomatic standing at the United Nations. They are presenting the move as a step towards leveling the playing field with Israel. Like Washington, Israel opposes the move, saying it aims to undermine its own legitimacy and

that Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through a negotiated deal.

Low expectations The Palestinians are seeking an independent state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem-territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

The last round of peace talks, which lasted only a few weeks, broke down last October over the issue of Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians say the settlements undermine their chances of establishing sovereignty over the territories.

Hale and Dennis Ross, a senior White House official, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday. Hale’s meeting with Abbas follows a phone call on Tuesday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Palestinian leader. Clinton had urged Abbas to “continue to work hard with us to avoid a negative scenario in New York at the end of the month”, a State Department spokesperson said, referring to the meeting of the General Assembly.

Asked about the visit by the US envoy, Abed Rabbo said: “We will see today, but our expectations are not at all high, especially in light of what we hear on the American position.” US opposition to the UN move will torpedo any Palestinian application for full membership of the world body. That requires the approval of the Security Council, where the United States wields veto power. Anticipating that, Palestinian officials have said they could also table a General Assembly resolution that would upgrade their standing from an “entity” to a “non-member state” — the status held by the Vatican.

Palestinian officials have in recent days rowed back from statements indicating that they plan to apply for full UN membership regardless of the US position.

They now say their course of action has yet to be decided. —Reuters

No apologies, lifting of Gaza blockade JERUSALEM: Israel will not apologize to Turkey for a deadly May 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla and will not lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip, an Israeli minister insisted yesterday, as ties with Ankara sank to new lows.

“Israel defends its interests and its government will not apologize,” said Israel Katz, Israel’s transport minister and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Katz, who spoke on Israeli public radio, made the comments a day after Ankara reiterated it was suspending military deals with the Jewish state and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated that he would seek to visit the Gaza Strip.

Ties between Turkey and Israel, once close allies, have been in crisis in recent days over Israel’s 2010 raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla, which left nine Turkish citizens dead. Relations had already frayed over the incident but tensions reached new highs last week after the UN published a report on the raid, accusing Israel of using excessive force during the operation, but endorsing the Jewish state’s naval blockade on Gaza.

Turkey responded angrily to the report, announcing the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador and suspending military agreements with the Jewish state. The report’s publication had been delayed several times while the two countries tried to patch up relations. Ankara had called on Israel to offer an apology for the raid, compensation and to lift the blockade on Gaza, terms all rejected by the Israeli government. Yesterday, Katz reiterated that the Gaza blockade would not be lifted.

“Israel maintains its naval blockade of Gaza to stop the transfer of weapons to terrorists from Hamas,” he said, refer-

ring to the Islamist movement that rules the coastal territory.

Israel has accepted the UN report, with some reservations, but Turkey dismissed its findings and has threatened to lodge a legal case against the Jewish state before the International Criminal Court. Also speaking on Israeli public radio, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said the deterioration in ties between the two countries had been happening for over two years and was in part the consequence of failed Israeli policy. “Turkey feels that Israel is isolated and weak, and that its ties with the United States are in a delicate state... If the peace process (with the Palestinians) hadn’t stopped, Turkey wouldn’t be acting like this,” she said.

The deterioration in ties has seen Ankara pledge to suspend all military trade agreements with Israel, though private trade between the two nations is expected to continue. Yesterday, Israeli media cited Israel’s industry, commerce and employment minister Shalom Simhon as saying he believed “at stormy times like this, commercial exchanges can serve as a way to improve bilateral relations.”

Trade between Israel and Turkey has been rising, despite the political crisis brewing in recent year. According to the Israel Exports Institute, exports from the Jewish state to Turkey totaled $858 million (609 million euros) in the first half of 2011, rising around 23 percent from the same period last year.

For the whole of 2011, exports were valued at $1.7 billion (1.2 billion euros).

Israeli imports from Turkey were valued at $1.8 billion for the whole of 2010, up 30 percent from 2009, and accounted for $1.1 billion in the first half of 2011 alone, up 14 percent from the previous year. —AFP

“And I think in many ways, it’s a matter of time before that kind of change and reform and revolution occurs in Iran as well.”

Iranian security forces crushed mass protests in the wake of Iran’s disputed June 2009 re election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Panetta acknowledged the difficulties supporting such protests given the potential for backlash.

“We should try to take every step to tr y to suppor t their effor t but at the same time, we’ve got to analyze each situation to make sure that we do nothing that creates a backlash or that undermines those efforts,” he said. Iran’s leaders had hoped the Arab Spring would spell the end of U.S.backed regimes in the Arab world.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali K hamenei has dubbed it the “Islamic Awakening,” inspired by Iran’s 1979 revolution that replaced a Western-backed k ing with a Muslim theocracy.

But Panetta offered a different interpretation of events and their impact on Iran. “I think the reform movement in Iran is learning one hell of a lot from what’s happened in Tunisia and Egypt and Libya and Syria,” Panetta said. Supporters of Iran’s opposition Green movement are

TEHRAN: Mansoureh Karami (left) widow of Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a Tehran University physics professor, and Behjat Qasemi, widow of Majid Shahriari, a nuclear scientist, whose husbands were killed in bomb attacks last year, attend a conference commemorating Iranian government officials who have been assassinated after 1979 Islamic Revolution. —AP watching the Arab uprisings with a mixture of admiration, regret for their own movement’s failure and concern about what might replace fallen regimes.

“One of the issues we were look ing at when Tunisia and

Egypt happened is ... what sparked this? What made this all happen?” Panetta said, listing factors including social media and populations of youth who lacked hope for the future. “ The fac t is when people

decide that that moment has come, that’s a moment when tremendous change is about to happen,” Panetta said. “And I think it’s true, not only in the Middle East. It’s going to be true in Iran as well.” —Reuters

Libyan war has turned desert into powder keg, region warns

MOGADISHU: Severely malnourished child from southern Somalia sits in Banadir hospital yesterday. —AP

Somali militants order schools to teach Arabic MOGADISHU: Somalia’s Al-Shabaab rebels have banned English from schools in the southern port city of Kismayu they control and demanded teachers switch the curriculum to include Arabic and Islamic studies. The latest edict shows the disconnect between the Al-Qaedaallied rebels intent on stamping harsh laws on areas they control, and Somali leaders who have agreed to hold an election next year even though the internationally backed government barely controls any territory beyond the capital.

The new school ruling also comes just days after the rebels ordered businesses on the outskirts of Mogadishu to rip down posters in English and Somali and replace them with Arabic ones. Teachers in Kismayu said Al-Shabaab ordered the syllabus be changed from the beginning of this month after a week of meetings between the two parties. “We used to teach the students Kenyan, Sudanese or Malaysian curricula which are written in English so that students can understand the material when they reach university,” Mahmud Ali, headmaster of Mohamed Jamac secondary and primary school in Kismayu, told Reuters by phone.

“But now we can’t teach because we have to change everything, including our teachers who are mostly Kenyan and don’t speak Arabic. We also used to teach students Somali literature, we don’t know what to do now,” he said. The southern port city of Kismayu has about six secondar y schools that teach in English, while most of the primary schools already teach in Arabic. AlShabaab have in the past sought to recruit school children to join a holy war against Somalia’s government and its allies. They have already banned English and science studies in other parts of southern Somalia.

Parents must teach children jihad In a statement posted on Al-Shabaab’s website, the militants said they took this step because they felt students were learning values in Christian and Hindu curriculums that they said were against Islamic sharia principles. The hardline group, which bans music, movies and soccer, adheres to its own harsh interpretation of sharia law. They have also beheaded people and amputated limbs as punishment.

“The reason we want to impose this is to eradicate every curriculum against the Islamic sharia and we want to promote Islamic studies. We will take steps to control the educational system of our children,” the group said in a statement.

“Parents have to make sure they teach their children the principles of Islamic jihad,” said the group, which wants to impose its version of sharia law on all of Somalia.

Somali politicians adopted a roadmap on Tuesday designed to lead to elections within a year and end a string of fragile transition governments that have successively failed to bring peace. The meeting came about three weeks after AlShabaab withdrew from most of their rebel bases in Mogadishu, a move they said was tactical. Their leader has vowed the fighters will return.

The plan also lays out timetables for improving security in Mogadishu and other parts of southern Somalia, but it is not entirely clear how they would achieve that with an already overstretched African Union peacekeeping force, and Al-Shabaab intent on launching attacks against government and African troops. Somalia has been in turmoil since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Fighting has killed more than 21,000 —Reuters

ALGIERS: The Libyan conflict has turned the neighboring Sahel zone into a powder keg, regional powers said yesterday in Algiers, as Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenal risks being snapped up by Al-Qaeda’s local franchise. “The region has been turned into a powder keg,” Niger’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum told counterparts from Algeria, Mali and Mauritania-the Sahel nations most threatened by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Sahel security conference, the first of its kind, was decided months ago but convenes only days after the toppling of the 42year-old Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi by Western-backed rebels.

Algeria and other Libyan neighbours have expressed fears that the ousted Libyan leader’s arsenal and remaining loyalists would be scattered across the Sahel, an eight-million-square-kilometre (3.1-million-square-mile) area south of the Sahara desert.

Bazoum said half a ton of Semtex explosives was seized in Niger in June, warning that there may have been more, as well as surface-to-air missiles. “We don’t want the Sahel to become a war zone,” said Mali’s Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye, who also voiced alarm over the mass return of migrants from Libya.”Some 20,000 Malian workers have already returned and now we’re seeing the second wave which includes those who were involved in fighting and are coming back with weapons,” he said.

He said that reinforcing security was the region’s responsibility but added that outside assistance in the fields of surveillance, intelligence and training was needed. British, French and US delegates speaking at the conference agreed that the military effort should be led by the region. “We recognize that this effort must be led by the governments of the region,” said Shari Villarosa, from the office of the coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department.

Deadly attacks as well as kidnappings of foreigners claimed by AQIM have already slashed what little revenue some of the world’s poorest nations were getting from tourism.

Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department, told the Algerian news agency Tuesday that Washington was “taking seriously all reports about weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and we are doing our best to follow up these reports”. Hundreds of former Tuareg rebels from Niger and Mali who had found refuge in Libya in recent years and fought alongside Gaddafi loyalists this year are crossing back into their countries, raising security fears.

While there is no evidence of strong links between pro-Gaddafi fighters and AQIM, observers fear an influx of weapons from Libya could benefit the AlQaeda franchise in its desert hideouts.

“The danger is that the combatants returned with weapons. If they have nothing to put in their mouths they will sell these weapons or use them,” said Malian political scientist Moussa Diallo. Other observers argue that has already happened. The European Union’s counter terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove warned Monday that the chaos in Libya had given AQIM potential access to new weaponr y, including “surface-to-air missiles which are extremely dangerous because they pose a risk to flights over the territory”. Since Osama bin Laden’s death in May, experts have argued that while “Al-Qaeda Central” was weaker than it has been, its offshoots in Yemen and in North Africa remained potent threats to global security. —AFP

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Years

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

US safer 10 years after 9/11, but at what cost?

Civil libertarians fear America becoming Orwellian NEW YORK: Tourists flock to Times Square for the bright lights and Broadway shows. There they find another spectacle: helmeted police with machine guns patrolling the subway station on the lookout for would-be bombers and gunmen. Ten years after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001, the United States has altered the balance between freedom and security, turning an open and casual society into an ever-vigilant one. The results are undeniable. The country has not suffered another attack, though there have been close calls like last year’s failed Times Square bombing, when the makeshift explosives packed into a Pakistani-American’s truck failed to detonate.

But at what cost in lost liberty and dollars?

Civil libertarians fear the era of surveillance and circumspection could become permanent. The United States has spent an additional $400 billion on security plus $1.3 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before counting interest on the war debt and healthcare for veterans, according to the “Costs of War” research project

by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

The president and police have more power, claiming more authority to snoop into the private lives of citizens with less oversight from the courts. Airport security are much more

thorough. Soon after Sept. 11, the US government resorted to two controversial practices in response to threats from abroad- extraordinary rendition-the illegal transfer of foreign suspects captured abroad to a third country for detention and interrogation-and imprisonment of suspected militants captured abroad at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“Ten years later, if we are still in this emergency mindset, then this is now who we are.

This is the new normal,” said Susan Herman, president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“At some point if you don’t reverse that process you really have moved yourself into an Orwellian state.” For many who remember the mass loss of life on that crisp, clear Tuesday morning 10 years ago, the “new normal” has served the country well.

“To me there’s no doubt it’s been worth it,” said US congressman Peter King, a New York Republican who is chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. “Actions like the Patriot Act, inspections at the airports, port security-all of that is certainly better than people being burned to death or having to throw themselves out of 106-story buildings,” King said. The Patriot Act, passed in October 2001, expanded the surveillance powers of US law enforcement agencies.

Growth for security industry The reaction to Sept 11 also created a robust security industry that has benefited companies such as OSI Systems Inc, whose Rapiscan unit makes airport screening machines. OSI’s annual revenue grew from $111 million to a high of $623 million in 2008. Analysts project revenues in the $700 million range for 2012. Other companies including L-3 Communications Holdings, Verint Systems Inc, FLIR Systems Inc and American Science and Engineering Inc saw dramatic growth but must adapt to tighter US Department of Homeland Security spending because of Washington’s budget crunch. “ There is no growth in US government spending. The big growth for homeland security is going to be international, primarily in the Middle East,” said Brian Ruttenber, an equity analyst at Morgan Keegan. The business is feeling public opposition to intrusive scans at airpor ts and sees more growth potential in machines that inspect cargo containers and tractor trailers. “You don’t have tons of controversy around containers,” Ruttenber said. The airport inspections are tolerated. “If I have the choice between taking off my shoes and having the risk of the plane blowing up, I’d rather take off my shoes,” King said.

The invasion of privacy is more unsettling,

especially for Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent who face discrimination and have been caught up in the security net. “It’s worse now than it was on Sept 11, 2002,” said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “I don’t see things being dramatically different five to seven years from now.” One prominent civil libertarian blames President Barack Obama for expanding the growth of executive power.

Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University’s law school, called Obama a “nightmare” who betrayed civil libertarians after campaigning against Bush’s approach. “It’s very easy to give up civil liberties but it’s very difficult to regain them,” Turley said.

“For civil libertarians, Barack Obama has proven to be a nightmare.

He has made all the arguments previously made by Bush and has gone further in some cases. He has shown very little concern for civil liberties in the area of counterterrorism.” King sees those concerns as misplaced and expressed confidence in the courts to protect innocent people who will inevitably be ensnared by police mistakes. “I don’t see any extremes at all,” King said.

“My concern is that people in government don’t take it seriously enough and try to be politically correct.” — Reuters

Massive Texas wildfire still out of control BASTROP: One of the most destructive wildfires in Texas history is slowing down after torching hundreds of homes, but stretched-thin firefighting crews have yet to gain any control of the blaze that is still plowing across rain-starved grasslands. The fire in Bastrop County is the most devastating wildfire in Texas in more than a decade, but it is just one of more than 180 fires that have erupted in the past week across Texas.

The wildfires are blamed largely on Texas’ yearlong drought, one of the most severe dry spells the state has ever seen. The fires are confronting Gov. Rick Perry with a major disaster at home just as the Republican presidential nomination contest, in which he is a leading contender,

heats up elsewhere in the United States.

The Texas fires have destroyed more than 1,000 homes, caused four deaths and pulled the state’s firefighting ranks to the limit. Crews finally got a reprieve Tuesday from winds pushed in by Tropical Storm Lee, which whipped the blaze into an inferno over the weekend. Increased humidity was moving in overnight, and officials expected some containment Wednesday morning, Texas Forest Ser vice spokesman John Nichols said. “Tonight should be a good night, tomorrow should be a good day - we hope,” Nichols said.

“The reason why it hasn’t been able to be contained is the wind.” Perry cut short a high-

BASTROP: This photo provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife shows a fire burning in Bastrop State Park in Texas. — AP

Amnesty law limits Brazil soul-searching BRASILIA: President Dilma Rousseff, herself a former guerrilla, has backed a probe into Brazil’s 20-year dictatorship, but critics argue it won’t be effective unless she first annuls a 1979 amnesty law. Many of the Latin American giant’s neighbors-Argentina, Uruguay and Chile-have embarked on soulsearching journeys in recent years that have seen former dictators and high-profile military officers sent to prison for their roles in oppressive regimes of the 1970s and 1980s.

Analysts and relatives of victims, however, argue that without a dismissal of the amnesty law that could shield the worst offenders from Brazil’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, the factfinding truth commission will be toothless.

“The proof that this commission will not be effective, is that the military supports it,” argued Elizabet Silveira, sister of one of the estimated 400 persons who “disappeared” at the hands of the military authorities. She now

heads the anti-dictatorship activist group “No More Torture.” Rousseff, who herself in the 1960s was tortured and imprisoned at the hands of the regime, told a recent gathering of her ruling Workers’ Party, there was “no doubt” the commission would be created in the coming months. But a review of the 1979 amnesty law “is not on the government’s agenda,” Maria do Rosario, Rousseff’s Special Secretary for Human Rights, later told the Correio Braziliense newspaper.

Marcelo Rech, a military commentator and director of Brazil’s online newspaper InfoRel, told AFP the armed forces establishment “will tolerate the commission, because it is not out to get them.” The probe will not enable a proper “reckoning with the past,” he said, because with the current amnesty in place, it remains “unimaginable” Brazil’s commission would follow the path of neighbor countries to convict offenders. —AFP

BRASILIA: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff reviews the troops during Independence Day celebrations yesterday. — AFP

profile presidential campaign trip to South Carolina to deal with the crisis, and on Tuesday toured a blackened area near Bastrop, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Austin. He later deployed Texas Task Force 1, the same search team sent to New York following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. “Pretty powerful visuals of individuals who lost everything,” Perry said. “The magnitude of these losses are pretty stunning.”

The conservative Republican who constantly criticizes federal government spending still said he expects federal assistance with the wildfires but complained that red tape was keeping available bulldozers and other heavy equipment stuck at the Army’s Fort Hood base, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Bastrop. The post was fighting its own 3,700-acre (1,500-hectare) blaze. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration has approved seven federal grants to help Texas with the latest wildfires. About 1,200 firefighters battled the blazes, including crews from as far away as California and Oregon. Five heavy tanker planes, some from the federal government, and three aircraft capable of scooping 1,500 gallons of lake water also helped.

In southern California, a 20-square-mile blaze still threatened hundreds of homes, burning about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. Over 1,250 workers have been deployed to fight it. The fire, which has blackened more than 13,000 acres (5,269 hectares), started Sunday near the town of Tehachapi when a single-engine Cessna crashed into a remote area, killing two people on board.

Since then, 12 homes and 18 buildings have been destroyed and two firefighters have been injured. About 650 homes were destroyed and 200 buildings were under evacuation orders, and officials said the fire is 40 percent contained. — AP

US says pilot left line of view of other plane ANCHORAGE: A 24-year-old pilot who died in a midair collision in Alaska had pulled up alongside another plane piloted by his girlfriend, then flew over the small aircraft and disappeared from her line of view, a federal investigator said Tuesday. Kristen Sprague radioed Scott Veal that she couldn’t see him and he responded by saying something like, “Whatever you do, don’t pitch up,” said National Transportation Safety Board investigator Clint Johnson. Within moments, Veal’s Cessna 208 Caravan struck the right wing of the Cessna 207 flown by Sprague.

The collision Friday severed the vertical stabilizer and rudder on the Caravan’s tail, sending Veal’s plane into a nose-dive into the tundra near a western Alaska village, Johnson said. Veal died in the fiery wreckage nine miles (14.4 kilometers) north of Nightmute. Johnson said his remains have been recovered.

Sprague, 26, was not injured and landed her plane about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away despite its seriously damaged wing. No passengers were onboard either plane. Johnson said it was too early to determine the probable cause of the collision, which occurred 800 feet (240 meters) from the ground. Weather was not a factor; visibility was about 1,500 feet (450 meters) at the time of the crash. It was the veteran investigator’s first case involving planes flying together in such close proximity. Johnson declined to “speculate about blame.”

The crash is the state’s third midair collision since July. The NTSB has said the two earlier crashes involved aircraft that were difficult to spot amid mountainous terrains. In last week’s collision, Sprague and Veal were traveling together to the regional hub town of Bethel and were communicating on a predetermined radio frequency.

Sprague, who is originally from Idaho, was flying from the Bering Sea village of Tununak for rural freight carrier Ryan Air. Veal, of Kenai, was flying from nearby Toksook Bay in a plane operated by Grant Aviation, an air taxi and cargo carrier. The collision occurred less than 10 minutes into the flights. —AP

AUSTIN: Texas Gov Rick Perry speaks to media after taking an aerial tour of the fire devastation at Steiner Ranch, a residential development in Texas. — AP

Debate features first appearance for Perry SIMI VALLEY: Texas Gov Rick Perry is looking to make a strong first impression on the national stage Wednesday when the newly minted front-runner is scheduled to make his first appearance in a Republican presidential debate one day before President Barack Obama unveils his jobs-creation plan. It’s the first of three Republican presidential debates scheduled over the next three weeks. The events promise to shape the Republican presidential race heading into this winter’s series of nominating primaries and caucuses. National and state polls show Perry, who has been in the race just a few weeks, and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, competing for the lead. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who was running strong in polls earlier this summer, is trailing, along with no less than a half dozen other lesser-known Republicans.

With the national unemployment rate stuck at 9.1 percent, the economy was likely to dominate Wednesday’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

But Perry’s attendance was in question.

Aides said Tuesday that he plans to debate.

But Perry, who was in Texas dealing with one of the most destructive wildfire outbreaks in the state’s history, left open the possibility that he may skip the debate.

Should Perry attend as expected, he will face a bright spotlight in part because he doesn’t have extensive debate experience and is competing in his first national campaign. He’s a natural politician, but aides privately acknowledge that Perry doesn’t count debating among his strongest skills.

In 10 years as governor, Perry has debated other candidates just four times - and last year, he didn’t debate his general election opponent at all.

Perry entered the race and immediately jolted the Republican electorate with a shot of energy. But he found himself in hot water for controversial remarks, including suggesting there are “gaps” in the theory of evolution, questioning whether humans play a role in climate change and referring to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. The debate will test whether he can withstand on-camera questioning or barbs from his competitors over those issues. Romney, who led the field before Perry became a candidate, has turned in two strong debate performances largely by staying above the fray while his rivals sparred onstage. This time, he may not have that luxury.

Romney is expected to come face to face with Perr y just as the former Massachusetts governor has been stepping up his efforts to contrast himself with his chief rival. Romney has been emphasizing his private sector business experience and suggesting that it’s superior to Perry’s, who has held elected office since 1985 and is Texas’ longest serving governor. Romney also has started drawing distinctions with Perry on immigration: Romney opposed legislation to allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition breaks, while Texas universities allow illegal immigrants to receive those discounts. Romney was debating a day after unveiling a major economic plan that he is using to sell himself as the candidate with the most business know-how.

For Bachmann, the debate comes as she’s looking to regain traction she lost when Perry entered the race; both candidates attract support from tea party activists who favor limited government and lower taxes, and the two are competing for the larger share of their votes. —AP

Gunman kills 5 at Nevada restaurant CARSON CITY: A gunman wielding an AK-47 opened fire on a table of uniformed National Guard members at a restaurant in an outburst of violence that killed five people, wounded seven others and put Nevada’s capital city on high alert. Five Nevada National Guard troops sitting together at the back of the restaurant were shot - three of them fatally. Another woman was also killed, and the gunman, 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, shot himself in the head and died at a hospital. The shooter’s motive was unclear, but family members said he had mental issues. He had never been in the military and had no known affiliation with anyone inside the restaurant.

Witnesses and authorities described a frantic scene in the bustling business district, in which the shooter pulled into the large complex of retail stores and shops just before 9 am in a blue minivan

with a yellow “Support Our Troops” sticker on the back. He got out and immediately shot a woman near a motorcycle, a witness said.

Ralph Swagler said he grabbed his own weapon, but said it was too late to stop the shooter, who charged into an IHOP restaurant through the front doors.

“I wish I had shot at him when he was going in the IHOP,” said Swagler, who owns Locals BBQ & Grill. “But when he came at me, when somebody is pointing an automatic weapon at you - you can’t believe the firepower, the kind of rounds coming out of that weapon.” The gunman went all the way to the back of the International House of Pancakes restaurant to the back area and opened fire, Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said.

When he left the restaurant, he stood in the parking lot and shot into the nearby businesses, shattering several windows across the street. —AP

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Chechen forces face new scrutiny over abductions Kremlin could be aiming to send signal to Kadyrov

PERUGIA: Amanda Knox (right) is escorted by a police officer as she arrives for hearing of her appeals case at in Italy. — AP

Court says no to new DNA test in Knox trial PERUGIA: An Italian court rejected a prosecutor’s request yesterday for new testing of crucial DNA evidence in the appeals trial of Amanda Knox - a positive development for the American student who is seeking to overturn her murder conviction. The decision to deny more DNA testing was a blow to the prosecution, which had sought to counter the results of a court-ordered independent review that harshly criticized how genetic evidence was used in the case. Without a clear motive or convincing witnesses, the DNA evidence is crucial, and much of the appeals outcome hinges on it.

The court presided over by Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann also set closing arguments to begin Sept.

23, with the prosecution going first, followed by civil plaintiffs and the defense. A verdict is expected by the end of September. Knox was convicted in December 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher while they were studying in Perugia and sentenced to 26 years; Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian who was Knox’s boyfriend at the time, also was convicted and sentenced to 25 years.

Both deny wrongdoing and are appealing the lower court’s verdict. In the first trial, prosecutors maintained that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher’s DNA was found on the blade. They said Sollecito’s DNA was on the clasp of Kercher’s bra as part of a mixed trace that also included the victim’s genetic profile.

The appeals court ordered an independent review - as sought by the defense - which found that much of that evidence was unreliable and possibly contaminated. The review was at the center of several fiercely debated hearings in the Perugia courtroom, with police defending their investigation.

Pratillo Hellmann said the discussion had been thorough enough for the court to form an opinion. New testing would be “superfluous,” he said, rejecting the request made earlier in the day by Prosecutor Manuela Comodi.

The court also rejected another prosecution request to put back on the stand a witness who had previously testified that his brother, a fugitive, had killed Kercher during a botched burglary. The witness, a jailed Naples mobster called Luciano Aviello, announced he wanted to retract and was questioned by Comodi in prison in July. The court ruled that transcriptions of that questioning would suffice.

Curt Knox, the defendant’s father, said he was pleased with the court’s decision. “It shows the judge and the jury believed in what the independent experts have brought back to them,” he told reporters. “It’s really kind of a desperation move on the prosecution to ask for another independent review that they originally were totally against.”

Knox has said his 24-year-old daughter is anxious as the trial draws to a close, but also that she’s seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Hopefully we’ll get to take Amanda home,” he said. Curt Knox is expected to be joined by Knox’s mother, Edda Mellas, for the last stage of the trial.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kerchers, said the family would come to Perugia for the verdict, as they did in the first trial. Just days ago, the family released a letter to express “great concern” over recent DNA evidence findings, asking the court to assess “every single (piece) of evidence, both scientific and circumstantial, as well as any witnesses who have taken the stand independently of any other information or media.” Kercher was found stabbed to death on Nov. 2, 2007 in the apartment she shared with Knox. She had been murdered the night before, according to forensic police. — AFP

MOSCOW: Islam Umarpashayev had lost hope of getting away alive from Chechen security forces after he was kidnapped from his home, beaten and held for months in a basement, handcuffed to a radiator. But the 26-year-old Chechen survived and, more than a year after his release, is fighting what could be a landmark case against his captors. Human rights groups say progress in the case could signal a turning point after years of impunity for Chechen security forces fighting an Islamist insurgency, in which rights activists say hundreds of civilians have disappeared. Federal Russian investigators have taken on the case, raising the activists’ hopes that it could lead to what they say would be the first prosecution of the mainly Muslim region’s security forces for five years.

Rights groups say Russian authorities have turned a blind eye to abuses in return for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov keeping at least a shaky peace, but the Kremlin now wants to rein him in because of fears he has won too much autonomy. “Some kind of political decision has been made at the top not to allow any more of this (abuse), and to use the judicial system to bring the Chechen authorities back to reality,” said Oleg Orlov, head of the Russian human rights group Memorial. Kadyrov has denied any part in abductions or killings in Chechnya, which remains volatile after two separatist wars with Moscow.

Chechnya’s OMON special police chief, Alikan Tsakayev, denied his force has detained civilians illegally and said he was cooperating with investigators.

But rights groups say Kadyrov has spread a climate of fear in Chechnya and Umarpashayev’s case is vital because he is the only survivor brave enough to cooperate with investigators. In an interview after months in hiding, Umarpashayev told Reuters the Chechen security officers had released him to convince his father to drop an appeal over his case to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.

Umarpashayev, who said he did not know why he was detained, said he was still afraid of what might happen to him

but he would not give up his fight for justice. “There is one guy, I’m scared of falling back into his hands alive ... but there is no way back for me,” he said, a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes on a dark street in the central city of Nizhny Novgorod on his way back to Chechnya.

“Groomed to look like rebels” Umarpashayev was freed after four months captivity on April 2 last year following pressure from European diplomats. Rights activists used his mobile phone to track him down and fought for his release at the court in Strasbourg. The European court has ruled against Russia in 186 cases involving Chechnya, and while Moscow has paid thousands of dollars in fines as a result, the court has few means to ensure it acts to prevent repeat violations. Umarpashayev said the security officers who beat him had told him he was being groomed to look like thick-bearded rebels and would be shot in a mock counter-terrorism operation. “ They wouldn’t let me shave. With a beard and long hair, I would look like a militant. They told me: ‘We’ll give you fatigues and a gun and you’ll die like a man!’,” he said. At one stage in the investigation, Umarpashayev said he had risked leaving state witness protection to return to Chechnya to identify one of his kidnappers. His father, Irisbai, said threats had forced him and six other relatives to also flee but the family was continuing to seek justice. “My son is the only one who went in to that hell and came out alive because we fought. We will keep fighting,” he said. Chronically jobless and raised during wars, Umarpashayev put his faith in an anti-establishment strain of Salafi Islam.

But he says he has no sympathy with militants seeking to establish an Islamic state in Russia’s North Caucasus. Human rights activist Igor Kalyapin, Umarpashayev’s lawyer, said his client had been targeted for criticising policemen in mobile phone conversations with other young people. “Since Kadyrov became leader, not one officer has ever been brought to justice. To even hint of shortcomings among Chechen police or

Ex-media mogul Conrad Black back to prison CHICAGO: Deposed media mogul Conrad Black traded tailored suits for prison garb for the second time Tuesday after failing to fully clear himself of fraud and obstruction charges, US prison officials said. “My only fear for the next seven months is the sadness of being separated from (my wife) Barbara, although I am also resigned to tedium,” Black wrote in a farewell column in Canada’s National Post Saturday. The flamboyant newspaper baron and British Lord-who once counted politicians and pop stars among his entourage-reported to prison as a memoir professing his innocence and detailing his remarkable fall from grace hit bookshelves. “A Matter of Principle” is described by publishers as a “scathing account of a flawed justice system” in which Black insists “I never ask for mercy, and seek no one’s sympathy.”

Black, 67, was forced out of the global media empire he’d built out of his Toronto offices in 2003 after shareholders accused him of engaging in a $500 million “corporate kleptocracy.” US prosecutors charged Black and his associates with skimming off some $60 million from his global newspaper empire between 1999 and 2001.

They were ultimately convicted of stealing $6.1 million by awarding themselves tax-free bonuses from newspaper sell-offs without the approval of the board of the Hollinger holding company.

Black had served 29 months of a 78-month sentence when the US Supreme Court tossed out the “honest services” law that had formed the basis of his 2007 conviction. He was released last year while his case was reexamined by the courts but only succeeded in shedding two of the four counts for which he was originally convicted. That brought the total fraud down to $600,000, of which Black received less than half. At his resentencing hearing in June, Black railed against prosecutors for refusing to concede after he evaded conviction on 13 of 17 counts and had two more overturned on appeal. He castigated the “corporate governance zealots” who destroyed Hollingerwhich was forced into bankruptcy in the wake of the charges-for what he said amounted to the “improper receipt of $285,000.” — AFP

South African secrecy bill seen as risk to free press CAPE TOWN: South African activists fear that whistleblowers and journalists who expose state wrongdoing will be targeted by a weakened but still-tough new secrecy bill set to be voted into law. The Protection of State Information Bill which carries jail terms of up to 25 years is likely to be rubber-stamped by parliament this month after the ruling ANC used its majority to push it through a special committee on Monday. “The next step will be to try and persuade the president not to sign it into law,” said Freedom of

Expression Institute executive director Elston Seppie. “If that doesn’t happen we are actually gearing ourselves up to take it to the Constitutional Court to challenge it there.”

The bill lost some of it sharpest bite after it was sent back for a robust reworking, but African National Congress (ANC) members refused to include far-reaching whistleblower protections or a public interest defence. This means that disclosing, or even possessing, restricted information carries jail

terms from up to 25 years, with those charged unable to argue that their actions were in the public’s best interest.

“The parliamentary process did improve it. But the bill at the end of the day still has serious problems,” said Anton Harber, professor of journalism at Wits University. It comes as the ANC is pushing for a media tribunal to punish bad reporting and a general uneasiness over the relationship between an increasingly intolerant bureaucracy and the free press. — AFP

that, God forbid, they torture people, is taboo,” he said. Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for Kadyrov, said human rights campaigners misunderstood the situation. “Officers are killed every day and badly wounded fighting terrorists.

In a surprise move, investigators said last month they would look into suspicions that local security forces were involved in her death. Memorial had previously accused Russia of not investigating Estemirova’s death properly. Kalyapin said

MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (right) poses for a photo with Danish Queen Margrethe II (second right) and members of the Danish Royal Family Crown Prince Frederik (left) and Prince Henrik during their meeting yesterdaty. Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II is on a state visit to Russia. — AFP Should there really be criminal cases against them?” he asked.

Fear of reprisals But Memorial, whose activists have been described by Kadyrov as “enemies of the people” for their efforts to expose rights abuses in Chechnya, said security forces had kidnapped at least 27 people and killed 24 in Chechnya last year. Two people Umarpashayev says were imprisoned with him are still missing, and rights activists say they fear one is dead and the other has fled abroad. Memorial says its figures may show only a quarter of the true scale of abuses because many Chechens have feared coming forward since one of the group’s leading campaigners, Natalia Estemirova, was shot dead hours after being abducted in 2009.

local investigators were afraid of reprisals if they challenged the security forces. He is acting for the families of victims of seven kidnappings in 2009 but said Umarpashayev’s was the only one where there had been progress. In a letter leaked to rights groups last year showing the internal tensions, Viktor Ledenev, the provincial head of the Investigative Committee, complained to regional Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov that forces under his command were obstructing investigations. Ledenev’s deputy, Nikolai Khabarov, went further in a letter to Kalyapin in March. He said investigators were not only failing to solve crimes but colluding in concealing kidnappings. “As a result ... the perpetrators flee and the whereabouts of the victims is never established,” he wrote. — Reuters

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China migrant children hit by school closures Govt to shut down 24 unlicensed institutions BEIJING: Xie Changsheng moved to Beijing from rural China 11 years ago in search of a better life. Now he has decided to return after the school his children attended was demolished. Xie, a driver, and his wife both worked for the Hongxing School for migrant children on the northwestern edge of Beijing, where their son and daughter, aged five and six, were educated. As the new academic year started in Beijing last week, thousands of migrant workers living in the city were forced to find new schools for their children after authorities shut down 19 illegal schools in a new crackdown.

Under China’s complex residency laws, most migrant workers remain registered in their native towns and villages and do not qualify for the all-important hukou, or household registration permit, in the city where they live.

Without this document, their children do not qualify for places in public schools, making the unregistered feepaying migrant schools their only option.

“The school sorted out problems the government could not resolve. What laws did it violate?” demanded Xie, his voice trembling with emotion. “I have been driven into a corner. I feel so unjustly treated by society,” said the 38-yearold, who believes he now has no option but to return to farming. Around one in 10 of the 430,000 migrant children living in Beijing attend migrant schools that are not approved by the government, with the rest at public or licensed schools.

Last month, the government said it would shut down 24 unlicensed migrant

schools. By the end of August, 19 had closed and the remaining five been given a temporary reprieve. The government regularly cracks down on migrant schools. According to welfare group Migrant Workers’ Friend, dozens of establishments were knocked down between 2006 and 2010. Previous state media reports-citing Beijing’s education authorities-have blamed inadequate food safety and security for recent closures.

Hongxing’s headmistress Xie Zhenqing said that of her more than 1,300 pupils-children of vegetable sellers, rubbish recyclers and construction workers-several hundred had now been admitted to government schools. Others are enrolled in other migrant schools and around 200 have returned to the countryside, while a handful of the older children have simply abandoned their education and gone to work with their parents. “I have had lots of phone calls, so many parents are still looking for a school,” said Xie, the headmistress. “Who could not be worried when their children are left without schooling?”

Beijing’s education authorities declined to comment when contacted

by AFP. But the crackdown has been widely covered in China’s state -run media, and some commentators say migrant workers face widespread discrimination in a city that has prospered on their labor.

“The closure of migrant schools by Beijing’s education authorities without fully ensuring the children’s schooling is a blatant encroachment of citizens’

Prison torture’s new shadow on Afghan security services KABUL: NATO has stopped sending prisoners to several Afghan jails because of UN warnings of torture, raising fresh questions about the capacity of Afghan security forces at a time when they are meant to be taking over greater responsibilities. High desertion rates, widespread corruption, drug use and illiteracy are among the problems plaguing Afghanistan’s army and police, despite billions of dollars and thousands of trainers that NATO is pouring into raising standards. The new allegations of mistreatment come in a UN report, which names several detention centres around the country. It has not yet been released to the public but the findings have been shared with some Afghan and NATO officials.

“We have stopped the transfer of detainees to certain installations, as a precautionary measure,” ISAF spokesman General Carsten Jacobson told a news conference in Kabul yesterday. “We are aware that a UN report will come out and we will look into that report. We have not stopped the overall transfer of detainees, but to certain installations only.” Prisoner transfers in parts of NATO’s southern regional command-particularly the Taleban heartland, Kandahar-had already been stopped in July. But the latest decision, made just “a few days” ago, added at least another 8 facilities to the list.

Run by police and intelligence services, they are scattered across the country including western Herat, eastern Khost and Kapisa and northern Kunduz and

Takhar provinces, and include Afghanistan’s main counter-terrorism centre. The shut-down comes as the Afghan government prepares to announce the areas chosen for a second swathe of security transfers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to the Afghan army and police. The whole country is set to be under the control of the national forces by 2014, with foreign combat troops back home.

The UN report is expected to be released within a few days, but a spokesman said the Afghan government was already looking into ways to improve conditions, and the mistreatment did not appear to be sanctioned by top levels of government. “We understand that they are taking the findings extremely seriously and are proposing a series of remedial actions,” said UN spokesman Dan McNorton.

“Our findings indicate that the mistreatment of detainees is not an institutional or government policy of the government of Afghanistan.” Afghanistan’s prisons were already well-known to be over-crowded and beset by a range of other problems, including inmate violence. In April, hundreds of prisoners escaped from jail in Afghanistan’s southern Taleban heartland, Kandahar, through a tunnel dug by the insurgent group. Officials called the breakout a “disaster”, and the scale of the operation fueled suspicions of collusion by guards. — Reuters

KABUL: A French military instructor (right) watches a young sniper of the Afghan National Army (ANA) equipped with a US-made M24 rifle during training at Darulaman camp yesterday. — AFP

equal rights to education,” wrote Yu Jianrong, a government think-tank researcher and social activist, on his microblog. The respected Caixin media group said in a commentary on its website that the move was actually aimed at driving migrants out to help curb

“stop functioning” without the huge influx of cheap labour migrant workers provide. The government knows that the city cannot survive without the migrant workers, and has no choice but to address the issue, said Hursh. “I think the message has been given quite strongly

BEIJING: This photo shows students playing at a still-open migrant school which welcomes students from the demolished Hongxing school. — AFP Beijing’s population explosion.

But Jonathan Hursh, founder of the Compassion for Migrant Children campaign group, warned that the city would

in the last few weeks, quite clearly, and I think that it brings a certain level of accountability with it that the government will respond to,” he said. — AFP

9/11 brings slow death to Pakistan’s Peshawar PESHAWAR: When the people of Peshawar watched the collapse of New York’s Twin Towers on television, it seemed like a distant tragedy. Few could have imagined that the events of September 11, 2001, thousands of miles away would touch their lives in this bustling frontier city near the Afghan border. But over the decade since then, Peshawar has itself been targeted repeatedly by Islamist militants opposed to Pakistan’s cooperation in the US war on militancy.

These days the city is a magnet for suicide bombers rather than the tourists and traders who once made its economy vibrant. “I come to my shop every morning but I don’t know if I am going to go home alive or in a body bag,” said Sheikh Arshad, who repaired his minivan after it was damaged in a bombing and then had to sell it to keep his herbal medicine shop afloat. “When 9/11 happened I had no idea it would bring such destruction to my business, to my city. There is nothing anyone can do. The police come after every bombing, take down our names and promise compensation. But nothing happens.”

Rich history, uncertain future For centuries Peshawar was a crossroads of culture and trade between Afghanistan, South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It is also the gateway to the Khyber Pass, which sits on the ancient Silk Road and leads to the Afghan border. The city fired imaginations in modern times too. During the 1980s, Peshawar became a den of spies and jihadis when the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan covertly funded a mujahideen guerrilla war to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

At one point it was home to Osama bin Laden and other high-profile militants, long before he became the United States’ enemy number one.

But there is little magic left in Peshawar, the congested capital of Pakistan’s northwest KhyberPakhtunkhwa province. Destructive changes brought by 9/11 were subtle at first. Trade with neighbouring Afghanistan fell gradually after a US-led invasion toppled the Taleban there in 2001. Remnants of the regime fled over the porous border to Pakistan’s northwest and established sanctuaries close

to Peshawar, which lies 105 miles (170 km) northwest of Islamabad with a population of 1.5 million.

But Peshawar really started feeling the heat after a full-scale war erupted between the Pakistani state and homegrown Taleban when former President Pervez Musharraf’s forces launched an armed assault on militants in Islamabad’s Red Mosque in 2007.

Peshawar was soon swept up in government offensives and counter-attacks by militants. Suicide bombings rocked the city, killing hundreds of people over the years. No one seems safe from the carnage. Eight-year-old schoolboy Asghar Khan was walking with some friends last month when a bomb hidden in a fruit cart was detonated remotely, killing him. Five policemen, who appeared to be the target of the attack, also died.

“Really, if the 9/11 incident had not occurred, Asghar would have still been with us,” said his uncle, Ashfaq Khan.

The boy’s 60-year-old father was still too shaken to speak. He just held up a photograph of Ashgar. Once an easygoing centre of culture in a picturesque valley, today Peshawar feels like a city under siege. Soldiers in machinegun nests are stationed across what was known long ago as the City of Flowers and many commercial buildings are protected by sandbags and barbedwire fences.

Ijaz Ahmed, who heads police operations in Peshawar, stood in his office a few feet away from photographs of fallen comrades in the war against militants. He reflected on Peshawar’s history since 9/11, and its uncertain future.

“Peshawar has become the frontline city,” he said. “And it has suffered the most from the violence.” The psychological scars are deep. Post-traumatic stress disorder is on the rise. “Before 9/11, I’d see maybe one in a hundred cases where a child was suffering from depression. Now it’s one in every seven,” said psychiatrist Khalid Mufti.

Economy, culture throttled Peshawar’s economy has taken a battering too. Half of the city’s industrial zone has shut down since 2007 and output in the remaining plants has dropped by 50 percent, says the provincial chamber of commerce and industry. — Reuters

News

in brief

China rescues 30 in slave case BEIJING: Chinese police have rescued 30 mentally handicapped people who were forced to work as virtual slaves at brick kilns in a poor central province, and have detained eight people including a 14-year-old factory supervisor, state media said yesterday, Some of those rescued from the kilns in Henan province were blind and mute, while others were unable to say where they had come from, compounding the police’s difficulty at returning them home, the People’s Daily said on its website (www.people.com.cn). Police acted on a tip-off and raided the kilns to rescue the workers, who were from four Henan counties, the report added.

The case recalled a scandal in 2007 that elicited public outrage when Chinese media found at least 1,000 people forced to work as slaves in brick kilns in Shanxi province, following a father’s desperate search for his missing teenage son. After that case, the government vowed to root out the practice, but occasional media reports since of new slave cases show it has continued, in part due to the strong demand for construction materials to fuel China’s real estate boom. There have been several other similar incidents since. Some Chinese traffickers deliberately targeted mentally handicapped people from the poor countryside to lure them into employment contracts, according to Chinese media.

Mouse halts HK to Nepal flight HONG KONG: A Nepal Airlines Boeing 757 was grounded at Hong Kong’s airport after a mouse sneaked into the cockpit, the airline said yesterday.

The Kathmandu-bound flight, due to take off Tuesday evening, had to be cancelled after a mouse was reportedly spotted by pilots before departure, holding up the 84 passengers waiting to board the flight. By Wednesday afternoon, the creature was still on the loose aboard the aircraft.

“Oh yes, a mouse-they found in the cockpit,” Sita Gurung, the general manager of the Nepal’s flag carrier at its Hong Kong office told AFP. “The mouse has not been caught yet, but efforts are under way to take care of it,” she said, adding that the airline has placed mouse traps on the plane.

Gurung said the plane would have to remain at the airport while the hunt for the furry visitor continues. “We have made arrangements for all of the affected passengers to stay at hotels in Hong Kong,” she said, adding that the 84 will flown out on other airlines if the aircraft is not ready, without giving a time frame. The incident is the second embarrassment for the Nepali airline this week, after the same plane was reportedly grounded for over 11 hours at Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday-also due to a mouse. During Monday’s incident, all 133 passengers on board the Bangkok-bound flight were evacuated after a mouse jumped out from a box of drinks, according to Nepal-based newspaper Republica.

China warns museums after thefts BEIJING: China has ordered its museums to tighten security after a series of embarrassing thefts, including at Beijing’s Palace Museum, and will temporarily shut those which don’t meet standards, state media reported yesterday. Curators at the Palace Museum, housed in the former home of China’s last emperors in the Forbidden City, were left red faced after several items loaned from a Hong Kong museum were stolen in May. “People who have been lured by the high profits attained through the theft and smuggling of ancient relics tend to set their targets on various museums,” state news agency Xinhua cited a notice from Ministry of Public Security and State Administration of Cultural Heritage as saying. “Police and cultural authorities should examine museum security systems and improve training for museum guards. Museums should make emergency response plans and conduct emergency drills every six months to improve their ability to handle thefts.” Museums which don’t improve their security before the end of the year will be closed until they can take steps to convince the government they have no loopholes or flaws a thief could exploit, Xinhua said.

Taiwan man steals 35 skeletons TAIPEI: A Taiwanese man has been arrested over the theft of 35 skeletons which had been discovered at a construction site in the island’s north, police said yesterday. The skeletons, unclaimed and apparently from an old burial ground, had been placed temporarily in a warehouse. The man allegedly stole them and took them to Taipei, where he was caught on Tuesday, police in Miaoli county said. The suspect, who works for a funeral home and has a record of theft and drug abuse, said he was concerned the skeletons-dug up during construction of a museum-would be stolen because the warehouse was not locked, police said.

The man had put the skeletons in a truck and parked it near a Taipei park for nearly a month before he was arrested, they said.

Man faces Australian court over bomb hoax SYDNEY: A man who triggered a 12-hour standoff with police after marching into a law office with his daughter and claiming he had a bomb demanded several thousand dollars and access to a lawyer during the crisis, court documents revealed yesterday. The 52-year-old man was refused bail during a brief court hearing yesterday and charged with a range of offenses following Tuesday’s tense standoff. A police tactical team forced its way into the office where he had been holed up with his 12-year-old daughter and overpowered him after negotiations began to crumble on Tuesday night.

His daughter had previously been released unharmed, and police said there was no bomb in the man’s backpack. The man’s name has been withheld for legal reasons. In New South Wales state, it is generally illegal to identify a child victim of a crime, and by naming the father, the girl’s identity would be revealed.

Police said that he is a resident of the town of Orange, 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Sydney. According to court documents filed by police in western Sydney’s Parramatta Local Court yesterday, the man demanded 4,500 Australian dollars ($4,760) from an Aboriginal Land Council, access to a lawyer and wanted legal action taken against another man. Aboriginal Land Councils are advocacy groups for Aboriginal rights.

In the court papers, police said the man had a long criminal record that includes firearms offenses and breaching bail. The documents did not explain what triggered the man’s demands or what his ultimate goal was. He was charged with giving false information of danger, detaining a person with intent to obtain advantage, remaining in a building with intent to commit an indictable offense, common assault and three counts of destroying or damaging property, a police statement

said. Police said he broke a window and two vases during the standoff.

It was not clear what potential prison sentence he could face if convicted. The man did not appear in court for the hearing and the case was adjourned until Sept 15. The drama began Tuesday morning, when the man walked into the reception area of the lawyers’ offices.

Employee Betty Hor said he approached her and asked to see someone whom Hor had never heard of. The man went upstairs briefly then returned to reception and repeated his request. She told him again that she had never heard of the man he was seeking. Hor said the man then threw a book at her desk and told her to call the unknown man and the state attorney-general’s department and “tell them I’ve got a bomb in my backpack.” Hor called police as the man walked to a lawyer’s office with the girl. — AP

TENKAWA: Police rescuers search for victims inside remains of an apartment house washed away by flood water yesterday. Japan’s worst storm in 28 years triggered by typhoon Talas left dozens of people dead in the country. — AP

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

NEWS

Russia hockey team plane crash kills 43 Continued from Page 1 “Flames shot high and a column of black smoke rose into the air.” He said he had seen the plane about 300 m over the village, its nose pointing at a downward angle, then lost sight of it as it fell. When he ran to the site, he said, “The wheel assembly was burning, half the plane was in the water, seats were floating and two people lay dead.” Resident Irina Prakhova saw the plane going down, then heard a loud bang and saw a plume of smoke. “It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong,” said Prakhova, who said she was on her way to a local pump to collect buckets of water. “I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on.”

Russia has experienced another summer full of mishaps that have for the first time also marred the country’s onceproud space program. Two accidents involving Tu-134 and An-24 jets this summer that killed a total of 54 people prompted Medvedev to call for most of the aircraft to be retired by Jan 1. But that move was followed by a series of smaller air accidents as well as a Volga River boat disaster that killed 122 people who were on a pleasure cruise. And several subsequent space failures have prompted Russia to ground its most famous rockets in a move that now threatens to leave the International Space Station abandoned for the first time in 10 years.

This dire record has tarnished Medvedev’s vision of the modern Russia he promotes in messages ahead of presidential elections next year in which Vladimir Putin - his more nationalist mentor and prime minister - could also run.

Medvedev was due to speak at the forum today and sent his top political adviser Vladislav Surkov to the scene of the disaster. Conference participants also held a minute of silence while the country’s ice hockey season kicked off with a somber message from the deputy head of Gazprom - the company that sponsors Russia’s Continental Hockey League (KHL). “I propose that we honour the memory of the dead with a minute of silence,” Gazprom number two Alexander Medvedev said at the season opening in the Ural Mountains city of Ufa. The match was later abandoned to applause from the crowd.

Three-time Russian champion Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was founded in 1959 and last won the country’s title in the 20022003 season. The team has a strong national following and recently attracted several younger stars from the NHL. One of those killed included 23-year-old former New Jersey Devils player Alexander Vasyunov - a Yaroslavl native with many local friends. “We have been friends since childhood,” 24-year-old Dmitry Luchnikov told AFP while recalling his friend’s recent decision to play for his home team. And local resident Andrei Dudin, apparently expressing the sentiments of many, said: “It is good that it did not fall on the village.” — Agencies

NEW YORK: A test of the Tribute in Light rises above lower Manhattan Tuesday. The memorial, sponsored by the Municipal Art Society, will light the sky on the evening of Sept 11, 2011, in honor of those who died ten years ago in the terror attacks on the United States. — AP

Syria ‘crimes against humanity’ slammed Continued from Page 1 embargo on Syria. “We are convinced that the essential thing is to start dialogue at the talks table,” Lavrov said. “We consider that inciting certain forces within the opposition to boycott the invitation to dialogue is a dangerous path and risks a repetition of the Libyan scenario, which neither Russia nor France wants.”

Russia has staunchly opposed attempts by Western governments to push through a UN Security Council resolution targeting President Bashar Al-Assad and has circulated an alternative draft calling for him to implement reforms.

European Union nations are considering fresh sanctions against Syria, a diplomatic source who asked not to be identified said in Brussels. “There is preliminary political agreement” between EU nations on slapping a ban on oilsector related investment as part of a seventh round of sanctions against the Assad regime, the source said.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, said in a posting on Facebook that Assad’s regime “bears the responsibility for the violence”. The United Nations says 2,200 people have been killed since democracy protests flared in Syria in mid-March. Activists said the Syrian security forces killed another 20 people yesterday.

The Local Coordination Committees, which organises the anti-regime protests on the ground, said they included 17 in the central city of Homs, one in Hama to the north and two in Sarmeen, Idlib province. The forces used “gunfire and stun grenades to terrorise the people near the police headquarters around the citadel at the downtown,” the LLC said in a statement sent to AFP in Nicosia. The activists said forces backed by tanks swept early morning into Homs, where communications and Internet services were cut in many neighbourhoods.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “military reinforcements including 20 truckloads of soldiers entered the city,” and that there was “intense gunfire in the market and governorate headquarters”. Heavy

machinegun fire was heard in the Bab Dreib and Bostan Diwan neighbourhoods of Homs after 2,000 protesters took to the streets following the deaths of four people near the city on Tuesday. The activists said demonstrations also took place in other parts of Syria including Hama, but that a massive clampdown prevented rallies in Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.

The deadly crackdown came only hours after Syria said it was postponing a planned visit to Damascus by the head of the Arab League. The Cairo-based pan-Arab organisation said later that Nabil Al-Arabi would now visit on Saturday.

“It was decided that the Arab League secretary general will visit Syria on Saturday during a telephone conversation between (Arabi), Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and Syria’s envoy at the League,” the group’s deputy leader, Ahmed Ben Helli, told reporters in Cairo. Damascus had postponed the trip at the 11th-hour “due to circumstances beyond our control”.

Arabi has been commissioned by the 22-member bloc to travel to Damascus with a 13-point document outlining proposals to end the bloody crackdown on dissent and push Syria to launch reforms. According to a copy of the document seen by AFP, Arabi is to propose that Assad hold elections in three years, move towards a pluralistic government and immediately halt the crackdown. The initiative, agreed by Arab foreign ministers last month, angered Syria which said it contained “unacceptable and biased language”.

In his Facebook posting, Ford took aim at the justifications Assad’s regime uses for the violent crackdown. Ford said he accepted security forces had died during the protests, but stressed this was “far, far lower than the number of unarmed civilians killed”. He said Syria’s government, with “a clear preponderance of arms and force, bears the responsibility for the violence”. Syria’s regime, which has promised to launch a wide range of reforms to appease protesters, blames the unrest on foreign-backed “armed terrorist gangs”. — AFP

Blast outside court kills 11 in New Delhi Continued from Page 1 the mail at this stage, but yes that mail has to be looked at seriously because HuJI is a very prominent terrorist group,” SC Sinha, director general of India’s National Investigation Agency, told reporters. HuJI militants have been active in Pakistan and India, while an affiliate group exists in Bangladesh.

One lawyer inside the court told AFP he was working in his office when the bomb detonated. “I was in my chambers when I heard a huge explosion and the windows in my room were blown in,” M I Chowdhary said.

“People were carrying the injured away. Some of them looked horribly hurt. “That time is peak hour for petitioners and other people getting their entry passes at the reception area. So it seems somebody had timed it to cause maximum casualties. Security is

really not up to the mark,” Chowdhary added. “It needs to be tightened around such a sensitive target.”

An attack in broad daylight at such a high-profile location, which lacked CCTV cameras and had faulty security scanners, quickly led critics to question the authorities readiness especially as it came ahead of the Sept 11, 2001 anniversary of attacks in the United States. “Notice that this comes just days before 9/11, so the government should have expected something like this,” said independent strategic analyst Maj Gen Ashok Mehta.

The last bombs in the Indian capital were in Sept 2008, when blasts in several upmarket shopping areas killed 22 people and injured nearly 100. A home-grown militant outfit called the Indian Mujahideen claimed it was behind that attack. India has made efforts to improve domestic security

since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 Islamist gunmen laid siege to the city, killing 166 people. But experts say security forces still suffer from weak grassroots intelligence gathering.

New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for the Mumbai attacks, sending relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours into a deep freeze. A foreign office statement attributed to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the latest attack, calling it a “heinous act”. The High Court has been targeted before.

In May, a low-intensity device was set off in the parking lot but there were no casualties and only minimal damage. Other recent bombings include a blast in February last year at a packed restaurant in the western city of Pune which killed 16 people including several foreigners. — Agencies

Shamali: Kuwait has no plans to boost...

Continued from Page 1 global economic challenges that not investing in the right direction threatened the country’s finances and growth.

“It might signal an awareness and a decision taken at a senior level to push in this direction,” said Fabio Scacciavillani, chief economist at Oman Investment Fund. “Risks of global recession are increasing. We know that most likely the second part of 2011 will be much weaker than expected, potentially leading into global recession.” Central bank governor Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz Al-Sabah said in July that the Cabinet needed to boost capital spending and support the private sector to overcome a “one-sided” dependence on oil revenue and the government’s control of all sectors.

The Assembly cleared a $110 billion, four-year development plan in February 2010, aiming to diversify away from oil and boost the private sector, which accounts for only a quarter of economic output. But more than a year later, the country’s first such plan since 1986 is still mostly on paper after political conflicts paralysed the government. The government has approved several projects under the plan, the latest of which is a long-delayed KD 4 billion ($14.7 billion) oil refinery, but key steps have not been taken on most of those projects and it is still not clear when building of the refinery will start.

Analysts say an important factor behind the delays is long-running tensions between parliament and a government dominated by the ruling Al-Sabah family. The National Assembly, the most outspoken in a region dominated by autocratic rulers, has triggered numerous Cabinet resignations and reshuffles.

The current government is Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah’s seventh since he was appointed prime minister in 2006. Kuwait’s parliament can question state business deals and

Continued from Page 1 court that anti-riot units in Cairo on January 28 had been equipped with blank ammunition and tear gas, whereas he said in previous questioning that hunting ammunition was used. Protesters torched police stations across the country that day, prompting Mubarak to call the military on to the streets.

Picking up the pace of the trial, Refaat said he has summoned military ruler Tantawi, the country’s acting head since Mubarak’s overthrow, to testify on Sunday behind closed doors for reasons of “national security”.

The head of the general staff, Sami Anan, would give evidence on Monday and former intelligence chief and vice president General Omar Suleiman on Tuesday, also behind closed doors. Interior Minister Mansur Al-Essawi and a predecessor, Mahmud Wagdi, will testify on Sept 14 and 15 respectively, the judge added. At the previous court session on Monday, none of the police witnesses who gave evidence implicated Mubarak or his interior minister Habib AlAdly for the deaths during the revolution against Mubarak’s 30 years of autocratic rule.

The latest hearing was the fourth in the trial which opened on Aug 3 and, unlike the first two sessions, the process has been taken behind closed doors and off-camera. Mohamed El-Damati, a representative of the families’ lawyers in civil cases, filed to question Tantawi, to whom Mubarak handed power on his ouster in Februar y, and the fallen leader ’s wife Suzanne Mubarak. Tantawi was defence minister for two decades under the veteran president. The lawyers said they also wanted to question former intelligence chief Suleiman who is reported to have said Mubarak was aware of each bullet fired during the revolution, and Suzanne Mubarak.

The case against the ousted president, Adly and six of his security chiefs suffered another blow on Monday when it emerged that the prosecution’s main witness had been convicted of destroying a recording of police telephone calls. And two other police officers summoned to back the case that Mubarak and the other accused had ordered the shootings of protesters testified they had in fact been ordered to exercise “restraint”. Essam al-Batawi, Adly’s lawyer, told AFP after yesterday’s session that prosecution witnesses’ testimony favoured his defendant. “The prosecution’s witnesses have turned out to be defence witnesses,” he said. “Their testimony confirms what the defendants have said, that they did not issue instructions to use ammunition against protesters.”

But lawyers for the victims’ families accused police of leaning on the witnesses to revise their testimonies. “The witnesses were subject to pressure to change their testimonies,” said Sameh Ashur, the head lawyer for the victims. Television footage showed the ailing 83-year-old Mubarak, who faces charges of involvement in the killings and corruption, arriving at the courtroom in an ambulance and on a stretcher yesterday, as on previous sessions.

There were no reports of trouble between his supporters and opponents outside the court, unlike on Monday when police arrested 20 people. But late on Tuesday, football fans clashed with police in a Cairo stadium, injuring nearly 80 people, after they chanted slogans against Mubarak and torched dozens of cars.

The charges against Mubarak, who has pleaded innocent, follow months of protests demanding justice for the roughly 850 people killed during the revolt which ended his regime. The trial, adjourned until today, is being held in a police academy once named after Mubarak on Cairo’s outskirts. — AFP

get projects up and running. That’s a big issue for them,” Gamble said. In July the International Monetary Fund described a shortfall in meeting the development plan’s spending targets as one of the main risks to Kuwait’s economic outlook.

Despite its ballooning budget, Kuwait, which has experienced only very limited and peaceful street protests this year demanding the removal of the prime minister and better infrastructure, health and education, has the financial muscle to deal with short-term weakness in oil prices. Economists in a Reuters poll forecast it will book a fiscal surplus of 20.2 percent of GDP in 2011/12 . “For Kuwait to commit to its current budget, oil prices need to be at an average of $88 a barrel for the year,” said Jassim Al-Saadoun, chairman of Kuwait’s Al-Shall Economic Consulting.

Brent crude prices are down from April’s peak of $127 because of fears of a global recession, but they still stand around $110 per barrel. Kuwait has foreign asset reserves worth $22.5 billion in the central bank and over $290 billion in the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s estimated the government’s net asset position at about 211 percent of GDP at end2010.

So unless oil prices fall dramatically from current levels, the economy is likely to be able to muddle through for some years regardless of what policies are adopted. This may reduce pressure for a resolution to the political conflicts hindering economic reform. “Given the hardly changed composition of government, we expect the policy stalemate between the government and parliament to remain a salient feature of Kuwaiti politics,” S&P said in July. “The political stalemate will likely hamper implementation of Kuwait’s ambitious...development plan...to eventually turn Kuwait into an international trade and financial hub.” — Reuters

Harbash warns against aborting Assembly...

Continued from Page 1

Egypt military ruler to testify in Mubarak...

in 2008 led the government to cancel a $17.4 billion joint venture with US company Dow Chemical.

“We have a vision and a clear strategy with clear goals ... but where is the maestro who will execute these plans? It’s time for the government to start performing,” said Kamel Al-Harami, a Kuwaiti oil analyst. Over the past decade, Kuwait was able to attract just $1.5 billion in foreign direct investment, or a mere 0.5 percent of total Gulf inflows, data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show. It lagged not only much less wealthy Bahrain with nearly $10 billion of FDI inflows in 2000-2010, but even an impoverished and violence-torn Yemen with $3.5 billion. UNCTAD ranks Kuwait as 135th among 141 states in its inward FDI performance index.

“The potential for political volatility there means that some foreign investors are cautious about making large commitments to the country. It is not unusual for projects to get held up or just not to happen,” said Paul Gamble, head of research at Jadwa Investment in Riyadh.

Since 2004, Kuwait’s projected budget spending has tripled to a record KD 19.4 billion planned for the 2011/12 fiscal year, which started in April, with expenditure on wages for government employees rising almost as fast. The world’s No.6 oil exporter has also boosted social spending this year, including cash grants and free food rations for its citizens, mirroring a trend seen in much of the Gulf as unrest swept through the Arab world. Still, the state, whose 2011 gross domestic product is expected by private economists to grow around 4.4 percent, managed to spend only 76 percent of its 2010/11 budget.

“One of the problems historically with Kuwait’s budget is that they have underspent, particularly in terms of planned investment spending, because they were not able to

to debate multimillion-dinar illegal deposits into the accounts of two MPs is going to the street to mobilize people. The lawmaker said that the government is not dealing seriously with the scandal as it claims that the Central Bank does not have any information on the deposits, estimated at KD 25 million.

He said that at a time when the board of directors of local banks are referring suspicious accounts to the public prosecution for investigating, the government is trying to foil the emergency session and attempts by the Central Bank. Harbash said that the government is strictly scrutinizing the accounts of charity societies, while at the same time is resisting a probe into the illegal deposits because it fears that it could include ministers who allowed the illegal transactions.

The lawmaker warned that the government should attend the emergency session because the alternative to this is going to the street which will be a very serious development. Harbash also called on all MPs to sign the request for the emergency session, which will be historical. The session, set for Sept 22, requires that 33 MPs sign the request to be held because the Assembly is currently in summer recess and a majority of MPs must

sign to hold an emergency meeting.

The new developments come amid reports that local banks plan to refer accounts of around a dozen MPs to the public prosecution for investigation over money-laundering charges. An official statement said following the Cabinet weekly meeting on Tuesday that the necessary legal action will be taken by the Central Bank on the issue, without explaining the nature of the measures. If the required number of MPs is secured, the request for the session is expected to be submitted to the Assembly today. The session is also expected to debate and pass a number of anti-corruption laws including wealth disclosure and the establishment of the Corruption Combating Authority.

Official sources said the government will not boycott the emergency session to discuss the KD 25 million issue. MPs who signed the petition to hold the session are: Saleh Al-Mulla, Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, Dhaifallah Buramia, Hussein Mizyed, Ali Al-Deqbasi, Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, Abdulrahman Al-Anjari, Ahmad AlSaadoun, Hussein Al-Huraiti, Khalid Al-Tahoos, Jamaan Al-Harbash, Hassan Jowhar, Saifi Al-Saifi, Mubarak Al-Waalan, Mohammad Hayef, Salem Al-Namlan, Faisal AlMislem, Falah Al-Sawwagh, Musallam Al-Barrak and Roudhan Al-Roudhan.

MP Barrak meanwhile strongly blasted Iraq’s Transport Minister Hadi Al-Ameri who yesterday warned that Iraq could close its border crossing with Kuwait in Safwan (Abdali) if Kuwait does not stop building the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port on Boubyan Island. Barrak said that it is clear that Baghdad does not want the port to be built at all, so “this does not give legitimacy to the maritime borders between the two countries”. The lawmaker also condemned threats by the Iraqi minister that Baghdad could resort to force one day to prevent the construction of the port. Barrak stressed that Iraq would lose more if it closes the border point.

Meanwhile, MP Khalid Al-Adwah asked the government to sit with oil sector labor unions in order to solve their salary problems and raise wages to maintain employment stability for this important sector, which is facing a great danger because of the migration of the sector’s workers to other countries. He said all demands are legitimate under the law. He said statistics showed that Kuwait will lose more than $350 million daily if the strike takes place. He appealed to the prime minister to intervene and approve the salary increase, especially after due time of study and approval by KPC and Supreme Petroleum Council.

14

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

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Issues

Morocco counts cost of Arab Spring spree

By Souhail Karam efty handouts have helped Morocco contain street protests, but now it faces a tough balancing act of rationalising spending while boosting economic growth to avoid expanding the ranks of the disenchanted.

A government spending spree on wage hikes for state employees and food and energy subsidies has siphoned off over half of public investment funds in 2011. Such funds have been key to stimulating economic growth in the country, a net oil importer, over recent years.

Now, opposition to the sale of state assets, a sharp drop in foreign currency reserves due to a surging trade deficit and the instability of local and international debt markets mean Morocco may be forced to seek assistance from foreign donors to finance its 2012 budget, said an official at an international financial institution, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Morocco, which is already the biggest recipient of European Union financial aid outside Europe, raised about 1 billion euros from a eurobond issue in 2010, but jittery global markets could make another debt issue more difficult next year.

The country’s financing needs could be inflated further if economic conditions continue to worsen in the EU, which is Morocco’s main export market and a key source of some $13 billion generated annually by tourism and migrant workers’ transfers. Morocco raised food and fuel subsidies in 2011 to 48 billion dirhams ($6.1 billion) from a budgeted 17 billion, and in May increased the annual burden of public sector wages by 11 percent to 95 billion dirhams with salary hikes. This followed street protests, inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, which aimed to press King Mohammed, one of the biggest stakeholders in the Moroccan economy, to change the Arab world’s longest-ruling dynasty into a British- or Spanish-style monarchy. The 48-year old king offered to hand some powers to elected officials while retaining a key say in strategic areas. Protests have continued, however, and the palace hopes early parliamentary polls in November will satisfy critics.

The handouts will raise the government’s budget deficit this year to between 5.5 and 6 percent of gross domestic product, which is estimated at $105 billion, the International Monetary Fund estimated in August. That would far exceed the 3.5 percent originally projected by the government. For the IMF, “the major challenge for Morocco remains achieving a GDP growth rate that will help reduce unemployment and improve living standards, while ensuring medium-term macroeconomic stability”. “Persistently high commodity prices, the regional context, and global financial stability add uncertainties to (Morocco’s) economic outlook,” it said.

With almost a third of youths unemployed, high poverty rates, a poor education system and problems with nepotism and corruption, Morocco seems in the eyes of some analysts to contain all the ingredients for a revolt.

Through public investment, mostly in infrastructure, the state has mitigated popular discontent in recent years by creating thousands of jobs. But private firms, especially manufacturers, have struggled, especially after Morocco signed free-trade agreements with dozens of countries such as Turkey, Egypt, the United States and the EU over the past 15 years.

The economy, where a rain-dependent agricultural sector accounts for 15 percent of GDP but employs 40 percent of workers, has over the past few years been growing at an average rate of 5 percent, below a minimum 7 percent which analysts believe is needed to keep unemployment stable. “The government will need some external support for the 2012 budget. It will most likely come from the French Development Agency, France or other Western countries,” said the official at the international financial institution.

Morocco may obtain funds from a multi-billion dollar initiative to help countries affected by the Arab Spring that was announced by the Group of Eight nations in Deauville, France last May. But the Moroccan government could also help itself and generate “a lot of money” by enforcing more transparency in its public procurement, the official said, for example by “eliminating discretion in awarding licences for transport or high-sea fishing”.

The government in last month forecast the economy would grow at least 4.7 percent in 2012 after a projected 5 percent in 2011 and 4.5 percent in 2010. — Reuters

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A Mexican massacre and a war without end

By Bernd Debusmann here’s good news and bad news on the war on drugs in Mexico and the United States. The good news: cooperation between US and Mexican security forces has rarely been closer. “Unprecedented,” President Barack Obama termed it in a message of sympathy for 52 people killed in an arson attack on a casino in northern Mexico.

The unprecedented cooperation he referred to ranges from the United States providing intelligence drawn from wiretaps and aerial surveillance by US drones to taking part in planning operations to capture drug lords.

American agents, according to accounts from both sides of the border, had a role in hunting down 21 of the 37 men on Mexico’s list of most-wanted organized crime chiefs.

The bad news is that closer cooperation in taking out the CEOs of illicit business enterprises has done little to curb violence in Mexico or throttle the flow of drugs north and the smuggling of guns and cash south.

One CEO goes, another one steps in his place. Real change would require an admission by political leaders that conventional drug war strategies have failed and, more importantly, that there’s a need for significant societal changes in both countries.

In the United States, millions of Americans would need to stop snorting, sniffing or injecting the drugs produced in Latin America and smuggled across the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. In Mexico, deeply-rooted traditions resistant to assistance from outside allow crime syndicates to flourish acceptance of corruption as a way of life and

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“dreadfully little respect for the law,” in the words of former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda. In an insightful new book “Manana Forever - Mexico and the Mexicans” - he writes that “Mexico has no way out of its drug wars ... unless it changes its attitudes towards the law. This is not occurring.”

Statistics tell the story of the drug wars’ failure on both sides of the border. In the United States, where President Richard Nixon declared “war on drugs” 40 years ago, they are at least as easily available now as they were then. The laws of supply and demand proved more powerful than progressively harsher enforcement. “The market forces of replacement and adaptation make the drugdealing industry resilient even in the face of heavy enforcement,” Mark Kleiman, a widely respected drug policy expert, writes in a thoughtful essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine.

“The United States sends five times as many drug dealers to prison today as it did 30 years ago, but this has not prevented the 80-90 percent reductions in the prices of cocaine and heroin over that time, which came as a result of falling dealers’ wages and increased efficiency in trafficking.” Numbers tell a similarly bleak story in Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon formally declared war on his country’s drug traffickers and sent the military into action shortly after taking office in Dec 2006. That opened the bloodiest chapter in Mexico’s history since the 1910-1920 revolution. By the end of 2007, the body count stood at 4,300. It climbed steadily: 5,400 deaths in 2008, 9,600 in 2009, 15,000 in 2010 and around 7,000 so far this

year. The government long insisted that criminals killing other criminals in often gruesome ways (beheadings became commonplace) accounted for around 90 percent of the dead, soldiers five percent and innocent civilians the rest. That account glossed over an enormous wave of common crime, from murder and kidnapping to the protection racket apparently behind the Monterrey casino attack.

The criminal-on-criminal story line died on Aug 25, when gunmen set fire to Monterrey’s Casino Royale. Of the 52 people who died, 42 were bingo-playing middleclass women, most of them asphyxiated when they found the emergenc y exits locked. The attack highlighted the scant respect for rules and regulations Castaneda complains about. The casino had been ordered closed by the Monterrey mayor’s office for various code violations but a local judge reversed the move and ordered the place reopened. Like many of the casinos that sprouted during Calderon’s presidency - from 198 in 2006 to 790 now, according to the magazine Proceso - its functions are said to have included laundering dirty money.

As he has done frequently, Calderon took the casino attack as an oppor tunity to rebuke the United States for not doing enough to “drastically reduce” Americans’ consumption of drugs and curb the flow of cash and guns from the United States to Mexico. But in a speech on Sept 2, he also listed what he called the most important challenge facing his government: “Repair the fabric of society torn by lack of opportunity for the young, the disintegration of

families and the loss of values.”

That will take time and meanwhile, the drug wars continue, with strategies that have a proven record of failure. Could the wars be waged more effectively? Yes, says Kleiman, in his Foreign Affairs essay headlined Surgical Strikes in the Drug Wars. In the United States, shrinking the market could be done by reducing the use of hard drugs (i.e. noncannabis) by what he estimates are around 3 million people. This small minority of drug users, according to Kleiman, accounts for around 80 percent of hard drug use and an even larger share of crime associated to their addiction, with about 75 percent having at least one felony arrest in the course of a typical year.

Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, offers an unorthodox idea for Mexico: rather than fight all criminal groups with equal force at the same time, publicly identify the most violent through a scoring system taking into account the overall number of its killings, its targets (dealers, enforcement agents, ordinary citizens, journalists, community leaders etc), and kidnappings.

Then, wipe out that group and start the process again, going after the next group.

“The process could continue until none of the remaining groups was notably more violent than the rest. In effect, such a strategy would condition the traffickers’ ability to remain in business on their willingness to conduct their affairs in a relatively nonviolent fashion.” Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But so is the idea that there is a way to stop people from using drugs. — Reuters

Desertions show unease growing in Syrian army

By William Maclean flurry of desertions from Syria’s military shows unease among the rank-and-file over its repression of unrest but the army’s overall clout seems unaffected, allowing President Bashar al-Assad to go on using force to prop up his weakened authority.

Further violence would worsen communal strains in the army, a pivotal power base for Assad, who is from the minority Alawite sect, while more desertions would raise opposition morale as he steps up efforts to crush protests now in their sixth month. But a tipping point predicted by some analysts, at which a balance of fear favouring the government swings sharply and hastens its collapse, has not been reached.

“Low-level army defections appear to be on the increase, but they are still not affecting the effectiveness of military operations,” a diplomat in the Syrian capital said of the mostly-conscript, 220,000-strong armed forces. Nikolaos van Dam, a Dutch scholar of Syrian politics and a former senior foreign ministry official, told Reuters that defections from the army were continuing, but as long as they remained modest in scope, involved no loss of heavy weaponry or senior officers, there would be little danger to Assad.

“And if there were to be any sort of military threat to the regime, senior officers would stick together even more,” he said, noting that the fate of many top commanders was closely tied to that of Assad. “Any attempt at an internal coup would be extremely dangerous for those contemplating it. If they were discovered they would be quickly shot.”

Protesters have been encouraged by the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, whose autocratic rule they saw as similar to Assad’s, and growing overseas pressure on the ruling hierarchy.

But Andrew Terrill, Research Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Army War College, told Reuters that large numbers of

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defections would probably have to occur in Syria “as they did in Libya, if that revolution is going to evolve from mass protests to regime-threatening armed struggle.”

“Defections at this level have not yet taken place.” Residents and activists in different regions have reported the defection of hundreds among the mostly Sunni Muslim rank and file who managed to evade a Soviet-style

Others have simply deserted and dropped out of sight. A factor behind the unease of Sunni soldiers has been attacks by core loyalist Alawite forces on mosques during armoured incursions into the cities of Hama and Deir Al-Zor last month, with Arab satellite channels repeatedly playing a video purportedly showing the minaret of a mosque in Deir al-Zor falling from tank fire, activists and a for-

An image grab from Sept 6, 2011 shows a man mourning over the body of Adnan Farzat at a hospital after he was shot dead in the town of Rastan near Homs. – AFP system of political commissars and secret police that has ensured virtually no dissent in the military during 41 years of Assad family rule. Scores of other conscripts have been shot for refusing to fire at pro-democracy protesters, human rights campaigners say.

mer officer said. The total number of defections from the army stands at about 700 since the uprising began in March, according to estimates by some Syria experts, with many of that number leaving in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which this year

fell in last month.

Many at first sought refuge in Turkey or Lebanon, residents and exiles say. Now some may be going to Iraq as well. A tribal sheikh told Reuters from Deir al-Zor in the east that heavy gunfire was heard overnight in the eastern Twaiba neighbourhood of the town of Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq. Citing residents, he said the army was seeking deserters suspected of fleeing to this desolate part of the country, mirroring reports about areas on the border with Turkey and Lebanon where intensified military operations apparently have targeted hideouts of suspected deserters in the last two weeks.

Most army conscripts are from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority and many come from rural areas targeted in military efforts to suppress six months of street demonstrations against Assad. Army commanders and security chiefs are mostly from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism. Syrian authorities have repeatedly denied that army defections had occurred. They have expelled independent media since the uprising began in March, making it difficult to verify accounts of developments on the ground. But some purported defections have been captured on video and feature on Internet social networking sites and YouTube. “We have a dream - Free Syria,” says a sign in English held aloft in another clip of what appears to a protest by hundreds.

Activists and residents have also been reporting increased defections in the central city of Homs and nearby countryside.

Residents of Rastan, a Sunni town near Homs and traditionally an army recruiting ground, published footage on Tuesday purportedly showing defecting soldiers on a balcony greeting a crowd of several thousands at a pro-democracy rally in the town last week.

While the videos’ authenticity remains unconfirmed, they are a boost for opposition activists seeking to complement protests with an information and diplomatic campaign to unseat Assad.—Reuters

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

analysis

Egypt Islamic body blossoms in Arab Spring

By Yasmine Saleh gypt’s highest religious authority, AlAzhar, is emerging from the shadow of ousted President Hosni Mubarak as it tries to salvage a prestige tarnished by decades of submission to strongman leaders.

From within its tall, crenellated walls, AlAzhar’s sheikhs spent more than 1,000 years studying Islam’s holy texts and interpreting their meaning for the faithful, building an authority unrivalled in the Muslim world.

Some of its lustre dimmed when President Gamal Abdel Nasser brought it under the authority of the state in 1961. Forty years on, Al-Azhar’s sheikhs were being dragooned into supporting the harsh security regime that cemented Mubarak three-decade rule.

With its reputation shackled to that of an unpopular leader, Al-Azhar waned just as firebrand preachers with less religious learning began spreading their dogmatic strain of Islam using the Internet and satellite TV. A nadir was reached in 2007 when Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar for more than a decade until his death last year, announced that journalists who spread rumours about the state of Mubarak’s health should “receive 80 lashes”.

To restore its reputation, Al-Azhar’s leading lights are reinventing the institution as an advocate of democracy, reform of the state and, perhaps surprisingly, secular rule. “Many people feel there is a strong need to have such an institution in the future to preserve Islam’s moderation against other waves led by stricter and less reliable organisations,” said Hassan Nafaa, chairman of the political science department in Cairo University.

Change began breezing through AlAzhar’s cool stone corridors months before the uprising swept Mubarak out of office in February. In 2010, his Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif oversaw the appointment of the more free-spirited Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb to replace Tantawi. When millions took to the streets to force Mubarak from office in

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January, the expected Azhar fatwa (decree) demanding that Egyptians rally behind their president never came and the institution instead issued a statement merely urging restraint. Many Azhar scholars joined hands with the protesters in the uprising, and drew no criticism from their superiors.

With Mubarak gone, it gathered together intellectuals to collaborate on a vision for

him back to the institution as if he had never been away. “There was no rejection from an Al-Azhar sheikh or any other official. On the contrary, I was encouraged by everyone. I think everyone knew that change was inevitable and no one could stop it coming.”

What Al-Azhar says still has moral traction, even among Christians who make up some 10 percent of Egypt’s 81 million people. In a

Egyptian Muslims perform prayers at Al Azhar mosque, the highest Islamic Sunni institution, during Ramadan on Aug 28, 2011. – AP Egypt’s political future. An eleven-point document published by Al-Azhar in June proposed freedom of opinion, faith and human rights in a state that would be “civilian, protected by constitution and law”. “Al-Azhar wanted to develop ... to reflect the changes it saw coming,” said Mohamed Rafa’a Al-Tahtawi, a former Azhar spokesman who worked on a first draft of the political document. Tahtawi said he resigned his post in February to join the uprising, but former colleagues welcomed

country undergoing a crisis in state education, its university offers some of the best courses in modern sciences and languages, business studies, engineering and agriculture.

It runs schools across Egypt and sends experts to teach across the Middle East and beyond. Many of the Muslim world’s most influential scholars and politicians are graduates. The gravitas endures, but restoring its authority over religious affairs has become more vital than ever after the weakening of

Mubarak’s security apparatus and the resurgence of groups such as Salafists who oppose the submission of religious leaders to secular authority. Al-Azhar’s leaders have begun reaching out to politicians competing to form an elected new government, including members of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which was officially banned under Mubarak and is likely to play a decisive role in politics.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has set a timeline for a parliamentary election in November, followed by a presidential election possibly early next year. An Azhar sheikh, Ahmed El-Tayeb, met Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie in May. El-Tayeb said the Brotherhood was “always close to Al-Azhar but past circumstances did not allow for such meetings to take place”.

“The meeting discussed the importance of reaching a unified Islamic discourse that is moderate,” El-Tayeb said according to a report in Al-Ahram newspaper.

Last month, Al-Azhar mediated between liberal politicians and Islamists who opposed their attempt to lay down the principles of a new constitution - a move the Islamists saw as a ploy to block the creation of an Islamic state. But secularists are sceptical of AlAzhar’s push into politics. “What will happen if we disagreed with Al-Azhar on something?

It will be hard to argue with a religious institution,” said human rights analyst Gamal Eid, head of the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI). “You cannot ask for a civil state and allow religious organizations to participate in politics,” he said. Al-Azhar is now pushing to be released from government control, saying its head should once again be elected by staff, not chosen by the head of state. “Al-Azhar has realised there is no way for it to continue functioning as it did under Mubarak. It knows it must clean up internal corruption,” said political analyst Nafaa. “I can see a strong desire to return to being a leader of the Sunni Muslim world.” — Reuters

Hints of high life in poverty-stricken Gaza

By Crispian Balmer midst the poverty and deprivation of the Gaza Strip, a few small signs of prosperity have started to emerge, giving violence-weary locals a taste of comfort that is taken for granted in much the rest of the world. A smar t hotel which aspires to five-star service, a shopping outlet that boasts Gaza’s first in-store escalator and a sparkling supermarket stocked to the rafters have all opened their doors this summer in the Palestinian enclave. Their appearance does not mean that wealth and wellbeing are spreading in the tiny territory, because they are not. But they indicate a fresh willingness by outsiders to invest in Gaza and eye future potential.

“I have heard about this from my friends and today is my first visit. It is amazing,” said Ali Mohammed, 45, a telephone technician who had come to buy chocolates at the central Al-Andalusia store, which is spread out over three floors. “It is as if we were not in Gaza. The blockade is everywhere to be seen out there, but not in here.”

Israel has imposed a strict blockade on

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Gaza in response to repeated rocket attacks from Islamist militants over the past six years. However, some of the restrictions have eased over the last 12 months, allowing Al-Andalusia to come to life. A group of Palestinian businessmen, many educated abroad, have hooked up with foreign investors to put $4 million into the enterprise, using their contacts to help fill the shop with merchandise from around the Middle East. Some is imported legitimately through Israel, other goods come via the smuggling tunnels that link Gaza to Egypt, giving shoppers an unusual amount of choice all under one roof.

“We originally wanted to build a proper shopping mall, but we started with this as a test,” said general manager Ihab Al Esawi, who expects to recoup the original investment within 3 years, so long as war with Israel does not spoil their plans. “You have to have faith,” he said with a smile. Up to 2,000 people a day visit the store, including many young children who endlessly ride the spanking new escalator- only the second moving staircase to be installed in the enclave and the first to be put in a shop that

is open to everyone.

“This is so exciting,” said 10-year-old Bilal Haboush, clutching onto the handrail, his eyes wide open with joy as if he were riding the latest roller coaster at Disney World.

Elevated prices in Al-Andalusia and the nearby Metromarket, a supermarket that would not look out of place in a wealthy Gulf state, mean that only the Gaza elite can shop there regularly. The UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNWRA, says that some 1.2 million of Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants are registered as refugees, with unemployment running at around 45 percent - one of the highest rates in the world. “The combination of persistently high unemployment and the continuing deterioration of the real wages of working people underlie significant levels of poverty,” UNWRA said in a report published in June. But small pockets of wealth do still exist, and the Islamist group Hamas, which has a firm grip on power in Gaza, looks increasingly interested in seeing local businesses flourish as a way of diversifying their revenue streams and creating jobs. It is hard to gauge Hamas’ involvement in the private entities that have emerged over the past

year, but they surely could not operate without prior approval, and if nothing else, they provide the cash-strapped group with badly needed taxes.

“Hamas is shifting from being just a military movement and a charity, towards ... looking to make money,” said Omar Shaban, the head of the Gaza-based Pal-Think thinktank. “Even Hamas now understands what it means to have a good life, that it is not all about jihad and martyrdom. They are starting to go to hotel terraces with their families.

It is a good thing. They feel they have something to lose,” he added.

One of the more remarkable hotel terraces in the whole Middle East opened earlier this year in the northern corner of the Gaza Strip, close to a Hamas military training base and one of the territor y ’s largest refugee camps. Originally conceived as offices when building started in the 1990s, the designs later morphed into a 220-bedroom hotel which was due to be operated by the luxury Movenpick chain. But they pulled out before a guest had even moved in after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 following a brief civil war. — Reuters

Fear still reigns in Iraq, even after Saddam

By Lara Jakes s a Shiite Muslim who was interrogated by Iraq’s secret police and lost her job because she would not join the regime’s Baath Party, Fawzia Al-Attia should feel safer now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.

She does not. Death threats and Baghdad’s daily bombings have made Al-Attia more afraid than she was during Saddam’s reign of terror, she says. “Before, I couldn’t say anything in my own home,” said Al-Attia. “But at least I was safe. I was only afraid of Saddam. It is not like now. Now, you open the door to your home and you could get killed.”

American troops are preparing to pull out of Iraqi completely by the end of December, more than eight years after the invasion that ousted Saddam and promised a better life for Iraqis. As the country enters a post-US era, many Iraqis who had welcomed the 2003 invasion feel they remain in even more danger than before Saddam’s fall.

Security is a key indicator of Iraq’s future - it drives business investment, government policy decisions and the psyche of the war-torn nation. In interviews across Baghdad, Iraqis cited the random daily bombings and shootings that continue to kill people here. At least under Saddam, they say, they knew they could avoid being targeted by violence by simply staying quiet.

Al-Attia doesn’t make the comparison lightly. She remembers the fear when, under Saddam’s rule, she was called to a police station for questioning. Her husband followed her because he didn’t know if he’d ever see her again. Now that same uncertainty looms in the background every day. Because of sectarian violence, she and her family moved from a Shiite neighborhood to the heavily fortified Green Zone. A sociology professor at Baghdad University, she can’t drive herself to work, relying instead on bodyguards to take her. “Under Saddam, there was fear, but in a different way,” she said.

Sectarian violence, which drove Iraq to the brink of civil war just a few years ago, was almost nonexistent under Saddam. In May 2003, two months after the invasion, there were fewer than a handful of daily attacks on Iraqis, national security forces and foreign troops. That number spiked in May 2007, with an average of 180 attacks a day, according to the U.S. military data released by congressional investigators at the General Accounting Office. Between 2005 and 2008, an average of 60 Iraqis was killed daily.

Since then, violence has dropped dramatically, but attacks continue. Several people a day die, and a bombing in a residential area or on a street of shops that causes no casualties still spreads fear among everyone who hears about it. This past July, US forces in Iraq reported an average of 20 daily bombings, rocket attacks and shootings including some that were thwarted before they were carried out. Sunni insurgent groups, which sprung up when

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Saddam was ousted and Iraq’s majority Shiites took power, continue to strike at anyone who tries to restore normalcy to Iraq - security forces, the government, Americans or even fellow Sunnis, like the 29 who were killed in a Baghdad mosque by a suicide bomber during Ramadan prayers this past month.

“I’m not going to short-sheet the current security situation; I think it’s not what the Iraqis want or deserve,” said US

NAJAF: In this June 24, 2011 file photo Layla Mohammed, 5, cries during the funeral of her father Mohammed Sharif who was killed in a bombing. — AP Army Maj Gen Jeffrey S Buchanan, the American military’s top spokesman in Baghdad. Asked to compare today’s security in Iraq to what it was under Saddam, Buchanan called it “very, very different”. “I don’t think we know as much of what was going on in the past, just because much of it was quiet,” he said. “In the dead of the night, people would come and take you away, and you never heard from them again.”

Certainly no one has forgotten the horrors under

Saddam. Estimates of how many Iraqis were executed or otherwise “disappeared” during Saddam’s 24-year regime range from 300,000 to 800,000. Reviews of bodies found in mass graves from that era point to what Gerard Alexander, an expert at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, has called a “conservative estimate” that an average 16,000 Iraqis a year were killed. Saddam persecuted prominent Shiite clerics and their followers and launched what Human Rights Watch calls a campaign of genocide against Kurds. People from all backgrounds rarely, if ever, dared to criticize the government, even to relatives or neighbors, for fear they’d be taken away by Saddam’s secret police and beaten, imprisoned, killed, or simply disappear.

“When I was in Baghdad, I would always feel that today would be the day that I would be killed. But I was lucky,” said Biekhal Alkhalifa, a 31-year-old Kurd who commuted between engineering classes in Baghdad and her hometown of Kirkuk when Saddam was president. “I am sure there are a lot of Arab people who now say, ‘We wish Saddam was still in power,’” she said. “But for the Kurds, it is 100 percent of us who are happy that he is gone.”

The US military surge that poured more than 160,000 troops into Iraq in 2007 quelled much of the sectarian violence. But a July report by the US watchdog that oversees construction in Iraq concluded that the nation is more dangerous now than it was last year due to bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Iranian-backed Shiite militias. Iraq Body Count, an independent British monitoring group, estimates at least 102,043 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began.

Iraq has gone into what Sean Kane, a former United Nations diplomat now with the US Institute of Peace, calls a “sideways drift” - progress has plateaued and Iraqis have a hard time predicting what may come next. The violence looms over the American military’s planned exit, fueling fears about instability and burgeoning influence from neighboring Iran. As a result, Baghdad and Washington are reconsidering whether the US troops should leave by Dec 31, as required under a 2008 security agreement.

Saddam’s last wide-ranging campaigns of death against Shiites and Kurds ended in 1991. As a result, in the perception of many Iraqis, the years before the 2003 US-led invasion seemed peaceful - even as Saddam continued terrorizing people in smaller numbers without attracting much nationwide attention. “Even though Saddam was a tyrant, we Iraqis used to live a good life,” said Huda Aqeel Jaffa, 35, a Sunni housewife with three children and a husband who receives death threats because, as a construction contractor, he is seen as working with Americans. “Life was simple, and we could go everywhere we wanted. Now, there is no security. There is no stability. There is no humanity. We are afraid of everything.” — AP

Focus

Away from UN debate, camp on edge

By Tom Perry nce again, it can be easier to find a rifle than a job in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin.

Residents say occasional bursts of gunfire in its narrow streets are an economic indicator as telling as any. Many see the renewed disorder as a consequence of despair. The scene of heavy fighting in 2002 during the last Intifada, or uprising, Jenin camp today challenges the picture of a West Bank prospering under the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Western-backed and internationally-funded government. Young men who fought in the last uprising have since emerged from Israeli prisons to bleak prospects. Their local standing as heroes has not helped them to find work.

They hold the PA responsible and say their anger is growing.

“I live in total despair,” said a 25-year-old ex-fighter jailed by Israel at the height of the Intifada and jobless since his release five months ago. “To me, the whole world seems black.” The camp’s 16,000 people, mostly descendants of Palestinians dispossessed when Israel was created in 1948, live with memories of a violent past and little hope for a better future. Some view the camp as a ticking bomb, especially at a time when Palestinian belief in any chance of peace with Israel or the removal of half a million Israeli settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967 - has dissolved.

Plans by the Palestinian Authority leadership to press a claim to statehood at the United Nations in September offer something to talk about, but little more. Its consequences hard to fathom, the diplomacy planned for New York appears a world away from the daily worries of getting by and the tensions that have surfaced recently within the camp. In Jenin camp, locals say small groups of masked men have reappeared in the streets, reviving memories of lawless armed gangs that roamed here during the last Intifada.

A few weeks ago, dozens of bullets were fired at a community services centre. Separately, UNRWA, the UN agency which cares for Palestinian refugees, was forced to suspend its operations temporarily following threats to its staff. The car of one local notable who lives just outside the camp was torched. Adding to the pressures, Israeli security forces have stepped up raids and arrests in the camp in recent months as part of investigations into the killing in April of an Israeli actor and director who ran a community theatre. “I won’t tell you the situation is out of control, but it is not under full control,” said Atta Abu Irmaila, a local leader in Fatah, the ruling party in the West Bank led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. “Things are very difficult.

If it stays like this, anything is possible.”

Addressing the camp from mosque minarets, community leaders recently appealed for an end to displays of arms by masked men. Palestinians who know the camp’s politics attribute recent disturbances to individual rivalries rather than friction between factions such as Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Used to much worse, they say the trouble should not be overdrawn, but talk of tensions rooted in poverty - at least some of the gunmen belong to the camp’s jobless generation.

A decade ago, the workforce of Jenin camp and the adjacent city of the same name would have found jobs in nearby Israel. That was before the last intifada, when Israel identified Jenin as a hub for suicide bombings and shooting attacks. Its military response led to a 10-day assault in 2002 known among Palestinians as the ‘Battle of Jenin’. Today, tighter restrictions on access to Israel mean its labour market remains cut off to many. Veterans of the fighting also complain that the PA has failed to offer them employment.

“What’s going on in the camp is because there is no work for the youth,” said a 28-year old, a veteran of the fighting who was jailed by Israel for eight years and arrested recently by PA security forces on suspicion of opening fire in the camp. He was cleared of the charges. His treatment by the police has bred more resentment of the PA. “When they come into the camp, they come in as if they are going into a war zone,” he said. Like others, he would not give his name for fear that talking to the media would bring more police attention. “I want to work. Tell me to demolish a mountain and I’ll do it,” said another intifada fighter of the same age. “We see that our children are going to be worse off than us. If things stay as they are, the pressure will generate an explosion,” he said.

In a report issued in June, UNRWA highlighted a divergence between refugee and non-refugee prosperity in the West Bank, showing higher rates of unemployment among the refugees. Registered refugees account for close to 700,000 of the West Bank’s Palestinian population of 2.4 million. Across the Palestinian workforce in the West Bank, one in four were unemployed, the report said.

For the most vulnerable, UNRWA runs a job creation program that pays labourers $420 a month for short-term projects, such as building repairs. But it isn’t enough to make Jenin prosper. By contrast, the city of Ramallah, the PA’s administrative capital, has boomed, thanks in large part to injections of aid from international donors who have backed the PA’s efforts to build institutions for statehood. Economic conditions have also improved in other West Bank towns, partly because Israel has relaxed some of the crippling restrictions on movement it imposed during the intifada. The PA recognises that Jenin needs more attention to remedy above average unemployment. “The government is aware of the need to double the efforts”, said Ghassan Khatib, PA spokesman. But the Authority faces an uphill struggle to win local confidence. Its economic policies are seen to be failing and its security forces are also looked upon with a degree of suspicion, their credibility undermined by repeated Israeli raids. Some question the Palestinian security forces’ role when the Israeli army still acts as it pleases. Such sentiment generates warnings that the PA could be the focus of future anger. “I am the regional secretary general of Fatah but I do not work in politics. My job is social work,” said Abu Irmaila. “I cannot do politics - I can’t say: ‘Come, there is a Fatah conference, or a march, or support the president’, to someone who can’t find food to eat. People are saying: ‘We fought the Israelis, we offered martyrs and prisoners and our homes were destroyed.

But you, oh Palestinian Authority, Fatah - what have you done to us?’” he said.—Reuters

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

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Austria coach to quit

2012 sponsorship target

Holmes has brain surgery

LONDON: London has met its domestic sponsorship target for next year’s Olympic Games of 700 million pounds ($1.1 billion), organisers said yesterday.

London’s organising committee LOCOG said the announcement of Westfield shopping centres as its 44th domestic sponsor had enabled it to reach the target. That money is helping to fund an operational budget for the Games of 2 billion pounds, which is also being financed by ticket sales, international and global sponsorship deals, merchandising, licensing and tele-

MIAMI: American JB Holmes had successful brain surgery last week and plans to return to the PGA Tour next year, his manager said on Tuesday.

Holmes was diagnosed with Chiari malformations, structural defects in the part of the brain which controls balance, and had surgery at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital on Sept. 1. “The surgery was performed by Dr. George Jallo ... and he reports that J.B. did extremely well and his team of doctors is very happy with the results,” Holmes’s manager Terry Reilly said in a statement. “J.B. is still recuperating in Baltimore. He will head home to Orlando, Florida, today, where he expects to make a full recovery through rehab over the next few months. He looks forward to returning to the Tour in 2012.” The long-hitting Holmes, a double winner on the US circuit, is expected to be sidelined for three months while recovering from his surgery. He had been experiencing vertigo-like symptoms since the Players Championship in May and pulled out of last month’s Barclays Classic in Edison, New Jersey to have the condition treated surgically.—Reuters

vision rights.

“After eight years of bidding and planning, we have almost rea c he d t he s um m i t of our Games preparations,” LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe said in a statement. “ We cont i nue to d e l i ve r aga i ns t our ob j e c t i ve s a s demand for involvement in all things London 2012 goes from strength to strength ... I would like to thank the LOCOG team, our stakeholders and our comme rc i a l p a r t ne r s for a l l t he work that has got us to this stage.”—Reuters

VIENNA: Austria coach Didi Constantini will leave when his contract ends in December following the team’s failure to qualify for Euro 2012, the latest in a long line of disappointments for the national side. The Austrian federation (OEFB) said that the search for a new coach would begin immediately and Constantini’s successor could make his debut in a friendly in November. “The contract which expires on Dec. 31 this year will not be renewed,” said the OEFB in a statement on its website (www.oefb.at) following a meeting between Constantini, 56, and federation president Leo Windtner.

“According to the timetable, the new coach should be established by the start of November with his debut in a friendly on Nov. 15.” Constantini, who replaced Karel Brueckner two years ago, has managed seven wins and three draws in 23 matches during which he has barred some of Austria’s top players including midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz. Tuesday’s goalless draw at home to Turkey ended their chances of playing at Euro 2012 and maintained their record of having never reached the tournament through the qualifying competition.—Reuters

Phillies extend lead over Braves PHILADELPHIA: The Philadelphia Phillies extended their lead over Atlanta atop the National League East to 9-1/2 games by beating the Braves 6-3 on Tuesday.

The major league -leading Phillies reduced their magic number - the combination of their wins and Atlanta’s losses - for clinching a fifth straight division title to 14 games. They have won at least 90 games in four consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history. Rookie starter Vance Worley (111) allowed two runs, striking out six to earn his ninth straight win. The Phillies have won Worley’s last 14 starts. That’s the most for a rookie since 1970. It’s also the most for any Phillies pitcher since the team won 15 straight starts by Steve Carlton in 1972. Braves starter Tim Hudson (14-9) gave up four runs in six innings.

ST PETERSBURG: Texas Rangers starting pitcher CJ Wilson (right) celebrates with catcher Mike Napoli after shutting out the Tampa Bay Rays 8-0 in a baseball game.—AP

Rangers thrash Rays ST. PETERSBURG: Texas’ CJ Wilson pitched a shutout to steer the American League West-leading Rangers to an 8-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.

Wilson (15-6) became the first Texas lefthander to record 15 or more wins in consecutive seasons. He has three complete games this year.

David Murphy drove in four runs for the Rangers and hit a homer, as did Ian Kinsler.

Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a third-inning single. Tampa Bay starter Jeff Niemann (9-7) gave up seven runs in 4 2-3 innings.

Red Sox 14, Blue Jays 0 In Toronto, Jon Lester struck out 11 in seven innings to win his fourth straight decision, steering Boston to a huge win over Toronto.

Lester (15-6) did not allow any extrabase hits, and walked only one to improve to 4-0 with a 1.16 ERA in his past five starts.

He also matched a season high for strikeouts and is 4-0 in his past six starts against Toronto.

Marco Scutaro and David Ortiz each matched a career-high with four hits while Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Reddick homered as the Red Sox equalled a seasonhigh with 20 hits. Blue Jays starter Luis Perez (3-3) allowed a career-worst eight runs in 2 2-3 innings.

Tigers 10, Indians 1 In Cleveland, Detroit opened its lead over Cleveland in the AL Central to 8-1/2 games. Victor Martinez drove in three runs for the Tigers, who have won five straight overall and six in a row against the Indians.

Detroit starter Rick Porcello (13-8) was staked to an 8-0 lead after the top of the second inning as the Tigers knocked around Indians starter Fausto Carmona (614). Porcello gave up one run over 6 1-3 innings.

Yankees 5, Orioles 3 In New York, the hosts had to wait until 2.15 a.m., in front of only about 500 diehard or insomniac fans, to complete their win over Baltimore. The game did not begin until 11:08 p.m. due to a rain delay of 4 hours, 3 minutes.

Francisco Cervelli hit a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning off Tommy Hunter (3-3). Two fans reached near the

left-field wall to grab it, and even though Orioles manager Buck Showalter argued, the umpires upheld their original homerun call after a video replay.

Brett Gardner followed with a home run, and the AL East-leading Yankees won their sixth in a row. Cory Wade (4-0) won in relief.

Mariners 2, Angels 1 In Anaheim, Felix Hernandez won at Angel Stadium for the first time since 2006, as Seattle snapped a five-game skid with victory over Los Angeles.

Justin Smoak and Kyle Seager scored unearned runs for the Mariners, who had lost 18 of their last 21 games at Angel Stadium before Tuesday, when Hernandez (14-11) went eight innings and outpitched Ervin Santana.

Los Angeles committed four errors and dropped 3-1/2 games behind Texas in the AL West standings.

Santana (11-10) yielded seven hits over six muddled innings in his 200th career start for the Angels, losing for just the second time in 13 starts.

White Sox 3, Twins 0 In Minneapolis, Jake Peavy struck out a season-high nine to guide Chicago past Minnesota.

Peavy (7-7) pitched 6 1-3 scoreless innings against a Twins team that had three players who were called up from the second tier of the minors in the past two days.

Alex Rios homered and Alejandro De Aza had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI for the White Sox, who have won three in a row. Twins starter Liam Hendriks (0-1) allowed three runs over seven innings in his major league debut.

Royals 7, Athletics 4 In Oakland, Eric Hosmer and Jeff Francoeur hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning to set up Kansas City’s win over Oakland.

Salvador Perez added three hits while six players drove in runs for the Royals, who have scored 29 runs in their past three road games.

Kansas City starter Danny Duffy (4-8) notched his first win in a month, allowing only four hits over 6 1-3 innings in what is likely his final start of the year. A’s starter Gio Gonzalez (12-12) gave up a careerworst 10 hits.—AP

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

NY Yankees 5, Baltimore 3; Detroit 10, Cleveland 1; LA Dodgers 7, Washington 3; Philadelphia 6, Atlanta 3; Houston 4, Pittsburgh 1; Boston 14, Toronto 0; Texas 8, Tampa Bay 0; NY Mets 7, Florida 4 (12 innings); Cincinnati 4, Chicago Cubs 2 (13 innings); Chicago White Sox 3, Minnesota 0; St. Louis 4, Milwaukee 2; Colorado 8, Arizona 3; Seattle 2, LA Angels 1; Kansas City 7, Oakland 4; San Francisco 6, San Diego 4.

American League Eastern Division W L NY Yankees 87 53 Boston 85 56 Tampa Bay 77 64 Toronto 70 72 Baltimore 55 85 Central Division Detroit 80 62 Chicago White Sox 71 69 Cleveland 70 69 Kansas City 60 83 Minnesota 58 84 Western Division Texas 81 62 LA Angels 77 65 Oakland 64 78 Seattle 59 82

PCT GB .621 .603 2.5 .546 10.5 .493 18 .393 32 .563 .507 8 .504 8.5 .420 20.5 .408 22 .566 .542 3.5 .451 16.5 .418 21

National League Eastern Division Philadelphia 90 48 Atlanta 82 59 NY Mets 69 71 Washington 65 75 Florida 63 78 Central Division Milwaukee 85 58 St. Louis 75 67 Cincinnati 70 72 Pittsburgh 65 77 Chicago Cubs 61 81 Houston 48 94 Western Division Arizona 81 61 San Francisco 75 67 LA Dodgers 69 72 Colorado 67 75 San Diego 61 81

.652 .582 9.5 .493 22 .464 26 .447 28.5 .594 .528 .493 .458 .430 .338

9.5 14.5 19.5 23.5 36.5

.570 .528 6 .489 11.5 .472 14 .430 20

Cardinals 4, Brewers 2 In St. Louis, Kyle Lohse threw six scoreless innings to guide St. Louis to victory over Milwaukee. Lohse (13-8), who leads the Cardinals in victories, struck out six. His scheduled start was pushed back two days after a poor performance in his previous outing.

Jon Jay and Matt Holliday both hit homers for St. Louis off Milwaukee starter Yovanni Gallardo (15-10), who has given up six long shots in his past 10-2/3 innings, all of which were against the Cardinals. He conceded three runs in six innings. The Brewers’ comfortable lead over the Cardinals in the NL Central was trimmed to 9-1/2 games.

Rockies 8, D’backs 3 In Denver, Colorado piled on seven runs with two outs in the eighth inning, over whelming Arizona. Troy Tulowitzki homered, Seth Smith tripled twice, while Jordan Pacheco and Carlos Gonzalez had two hits apiece for the Rockies.

Arizona led 3-1 and appeared headed to its fourth straight win when the Rockies came alive in the eighth. With a man on first, Mark Ellis singled to left and Carlos Gonzalez knocked in the go-ahead run with a single off David Hernandez (3-3).

Tulowitzki followed with his 30th homer of the season to make it 5-3. Colorado’s Matt Belisle (10-4) got the win.

Giants 6, Padres 4 In San Diego, San Francisco escaped a bases-loaded jam in the

PHILADELPHIA: Phillies Placido Polanco slides under Atlanta Braves shortstop Alex Gonzalez whose throw to first was late allowing Chase Utley a base hit during the seventh inning. —AP bottom of the ninth inning, squeezing out a win over San Diego.

With the Giants leading 6-3, Orlando Hudson was walked on four pitches to open the Padres ninth. After two outs, rookie Anthony Rizzo hit an RBI double, and two hit batters then loaded the bases. The Giants then turned to Ramon Ramirez, the sixth reliever, who struck out the last batter to end the game. Earlier, San Francisco rookie Brett Pill hit a two-run homer in his first big league at-bat, while starter Eric Surkamp (1-0) earned his first major league win, allowing five hits in as many innings.

The defending World Series champions pulled within six games of NL West-leading Arizona with 20 to go. San Diego’s Wade LeBlanc (25) got the loss.

Dodgers 7, Nationals 3 In Washington, Stephen Strasburg threw five scoreless innings in his first major league start since undergoing Tommy John surgery, but the bullpen blew the lead as Los Angeles beat Washington.

The 2009 No. 1 draft pick displayed the repertoire that wowed the baseball world last year during

a rookie season cut short by injury.

Strasburg threw 56 pitches, 40 for strikes. He struck out four. The Nationals led 3-0 when he left, but the Dodgers took the lead for good on Rod Barajas’ two-run double in the eighth inning off Henr y Rodriguez (3-3). Kelly Jansen (2-1) got the win.

Mets 7, Marlins 4 In Miami, Nick Evans drove in three runs, including a go-ahead single in the 12th inning, to lead New York over Florida.

Jose Reyes, Justin Turner, Angel Pagan, and Evans each had three hits for New York, which lost a tworun lead in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Marlins reliever Jose Ceda (0-1) gave up three straight hits to begin the 12th, including Evan’s soft liner to center that scored Pagan. Later in the inning, Reyes hit an RBI single and Lucas Duda drew a basesloaded walk to give the Mets a 7-4 lead. New York’s Ryota Igarashi (4-1) got the win in a game that lasted 4 hours, 29 minutes, including a 1:14 rain delay.

Reds 4, Cubs 2 In Chicago, Joey Votto hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the 13th

Astros 4, Pirates 1 In Pittsburgh, Brett Myers pitched into the eighth inning to earn his first win in 2-1/2 months, leading Houston over Pittsburgh.

Myers (4-13) allowed one run over 7 2-3 innings as last-place Houston snapped a four-game losing skid. He had lost seven consecutive decisions coming into the game. Humberto Quintero had three RBIs for the Astros and Jimmy Paredes finished with three hits.

Former No. 4 draft pick Brad Lincoln (1-2) allowed two runs in six innings for the Pirates.—AP

Kruger aiming to end drought in Singapore

Dream moves up to third ATLANTA: Angel McCoughtry scored 35 points to lead Atlanta Dream to an 85-74 win over Connecticut Sun on Tuesday, moving into third place in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference.

The loss dropped the Sun a game behind first-place I ndiana in the Eastern Conference. The Dream is one game behind the Sun and half a game ahead of fourth-placed New York.

Tina Charles had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Connecticut for her 22nd double-double of the season, matching the WNBA record she set last year.

Silver Stars 82, Sparks 65 I n Los Angeles, San Antonio clinched a playoff spot for the fifth straight year by beating Los Angeles.

Becky Hammon scored 17 of her season-high 37 points in the fourth quarter to help the Silver Stars seize the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Hammon shot 14 of 19 overall with four 3-pointers as the Silver Stars went on 12-0 run after the Sparks had got within three. Tully Bevilaqua added 11 points for San Antonio. Tina Thompson had 18 points for the Sparks, who were eliminated from postseason contention.—AP

inning as Cincinnati recovered from blowing a two-run lead in the ninth and still beat Chicago.

In the ninth, Reds starter Mike Leake had been closing in on his first career shutout when Starlin Castro reached on a two-out single and Bryan LaHair drove a pitch over the wall in right for his first homer since 2008, tying the game.

Reds reliever Aroldis Chapman (4-1) got four outs for the victory and Francisco Cordero got three outs for his 321st career save, tying Jose Mesa for the most by a pitcher from the Dominican Republic.

Chicago’s John Grabow (3-1) got the loss.

Angel McCoughtry

SINGAPORE: South African Jbe Kruger plans to shed his bridesmaid’s tag by securing a first Asian Tour victory at the Singapore Classic which starts today.

The 25-year-old, fourth on the Order of Merit list, is the highest ranked player in this week’s $300,000 event and is determined to live up to top billing at the revamped Orchid Country Club.

A strong line-up of Asian Tour stars has gathered in Singapore with title holder Peter Karmis of South Africa, Thai stars Prayad Marksaeng and Pariya Junhasavasdikul, India’s Sujjan Singh and local favourites Mardan Mamat, Lam Chih Bing and Quincy Quek tipped to sparkle.

Last year, Kruger was pushed into second place by his close friend Karmis, making it one of three runner-up finishes he endured on the Asian Tour.

This season, he has come close on several occasions and feels it is now only a matter of time before he wins an event. “I’m feeling really comfortable and confident to be back here. I think it’s just meant to be that I did not win (last year) and I am glad Peter won. “If anybody were to beat me, I hope that it would be Peter. I will try to play better this week,” said Kruger.

Undeterred by the changes to the Orchid course, which converted two par fives into demanding par four holes, the slightly built South African said he is driving further than before. “I’m actually hitting it quite long at the moment so it must be to my advantage now that they’ve revamped the course,” said. Ninth-ranked Prayad is shooting for a second Singapore title to add to his haul of six Asian Tour victories, the last claimed in 2007.

The 54-year-old won the Singapore PGA Championship back in 1996 and believes he has a strong chance this week. “Everything is working in my game right now. I changed to a new driver and irons last month and it’s allowing me to control my shots a lot better,” said the Thai. —AFP

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

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Years

A year to go until the 2012 Paralympics

By David Weir LONDON: In just under a year from now the 2012 Paralympics will begin in London.

And I’m confident that the UK will put on the most amazing show. London 2012 will be my fourth Paralympics but the most special by far as someone born and raised in South London. I’m convinced it will be the best Paralympics ever.

I caught the racing bug when I was really young competing in wheelchair races from the age of 8. I started off representing my school, then my area of London and then I raced in the London mini-marathon.

I made my international debut at 14. I didn’t compete in the Sydney Paralympics; I think I’d started racing too young and as a result I lost my focus for a while. But when I watched Tanni Grey-Thompson win several gold medals on the television at home I got really emotional - it made me realise that racing was what I wanted to do and I

started training again.

The Paralympic Games returns to its spiritual home in 2012, as the UK was the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. In 1948 Doctor Ludwig Guttman organised a sports competition for a group of wounded British war veterans at Stoke Mandeville hospital, 4 years later Dutch athletes took part making it an international event. By the 1960 Games, 400 athletes from 21 countries took part and the competition was officially recognised as the ‘Paralympic Games’. We’re using the 2012 Paralympic Games as an opportunity to encourage more disabled people to take part in sport.

I am playing my part in this and since Beijing I have been mentoring a number of young racers hoping some will break through and become future Paralympians.

The commitment required is immense and involves an often gruelling training schedule. You have to be mentally tough, but it’s all worth it.

Jamaican Olympic team to jive to Marley look PARIS: When Jamaican athletics great Usain Bolt takes part in next year ’s Olympic opening ceremony in London he along with his team-mates will be dressed by the daughter of another Jamaican legend the late reggae singer Bob Marley.

His daughter Cedella told The Times that the strip would be a mix of ‘Grace Jones meets my Dad’. “Everything looks fabulous. I can’t tell you what the Marley touch is, that would be giving it away, but we come from life, we love to be vibrant,” the 44-year-old mother of three told The Times from her Miami home.

“I love playing with patterns, playing with textures. “If you look at Dad and the I Threes (his backing vocalists) and Grace Jones and put that together, you can get an idea for the look and feel of the collection.”

Marley, the second of Bob’s 11 children and who was 13 when her ftaher died of cancer, said that one album of her father’s had particularly influenced her design. “ When I listened to the music, especially when designing the collection, I was into stuff from the ‘Catch a Fire’ album.

“I listened to songs like ‘Burnin” and ‘Lootin”. They aren’t angry songs, but it’s talking about a rebellion, it’s more of a rebel’s eye.” Marley, whose father’s most famous singles hits numbered ‘No Woman No Cry’ and ‘Jamming’, said that she was relieved given 100m and 200m

world record holder Bolt’s brief appearances on the track that she had also been commissioned to design the suits for the opening and closing ceremonies in London.

“He’ll (Bolt) be moving so fast, you’ll probably see him on track for less than 10 seconds,” admitted Marley, who has carried the flame of the family’s charity ILove which has attracted superstar supporters such as Lady Gaga and Elton John. “So I’m happy that they have also asked me to design opening ceremony and podium wear.” Marley, whose family charity has helped out among other causes earthquake relief in Japan and the latest project a partnership with Save The Children in support of famine relief in East Africa, is intrigued by the fact another daughter of a music legend Stella McCartney has been hired to design the British team’s garb.

“Stella and Cedella is cool and kind of weird,” said Marley, who admits she has never met her rival, though, she has bought a lot of her clothes.

Marley said that Bolt and his teammates were simply carr ying on a Jamaican tradition in proving they are winners. “That’s what we do as Marleys and as Jamaicans,” she said.

“We break records and make history.

The real pressure is on the athletes. They have the real job. “All I have to do is make sure they look good while they’re doing it.”—AFP

Sebastian Vettel in action in this file photo

Vettel out to turn around Red Bull’s form at Monza MILAN: Nearing a second consecutive Formula One championship, Sebastian Vettel will be looking to draw on his personal success and end a trend of Red Bull struggles at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Vettel became the youngest winner in F1 history when he won at Monza in 2008 at the age of 21 when he was with Toro Rosso, but his fourth-place finish last year was Red Bull’s best result in six attempts at the historic track.

Recalling his 2008 win, Vettel said it is something he “will never forget”, adding that he had “goosebumps standing on the podium with the fans below.”

Vettel has won seven of the 12 races thus far this season and holds a commanding 92-point lead over teammate Mark Webber in the drivers’ standings. If Vettel wins this weekend, he could seal the title at the next race in Singapore later this month - depending on how Webber fares.

“Unfortunately it’s the last European race of the season. But we were spoilt with how good the race unfolded in Spa, so let’s hope Monza is the same,” said Webber, who finished second behind Vettel at the last race in Belgium.

Other former winners in the field include: Michael Schumacher, who won a record five times - the last coming in 2006 after which he announced his retirement; three-time winner Rubens Barrichello, now with Williams; and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who won for the second time last year. Racing in front of Ferrari’s home fans, Alonso will be under immense pressure to

repeat his win - especially with his victory at the British GP in July bring Ferrari’s only win this year.

Alonso sits third in the standings, a massive 102 points behind Vettel, with teammate Felipe Massa sixth, 185 points back.

“Winning in Monza is incredible, (and) winning there driving a red car is even more incredible,” Alonso said. “Being on the podium, seeing thousands of fans below you wearing red shirts and waving red flags is simply an overwhelming emotion.”

With average speeds of 250 kph (155 mph) and top speeds of 340 kph (211 mph), Monza is the fastest circuit on the calendar, as well as one of the oldest - with the Italian GP one of only four races to have survived from the first year of F1 in 1950.

The layout of the Monza track - slow corners followed by long, high-speed straights - means the KERS power boost system will be in use. Cars can gain 0.4 seconds per lap at Monza with the help of KERS, according to the Mercedes team.

There are four places on the track - turns 2, 7, 10 and 11 - where cars accelerate from relatively low speed to near top speed, providing up to four boosts per lap, which are delivered to the wheels 20 milliseconds after drivers press the deployment button on their steering wheels. The high speeds will also make it a key race for the new Pirelli tires being used this year, although the Italian manufacturer - with headquarters a half-hour drive from Monza - promises to be ready. Monza was one of the testing venues for Pirelli before its inaugural season in the sport.—AP

2012 presents a huge opportunity for disability sport and the Paralympic movement. The television coverage alone will help project the sport around the world and really help raise its profile. I hope people will see how exciting Paralympic sport is and that we work and train as hard as able-bodied athletes.

We really have to make the most of the opportunity 2012 presents, the build-up, Games time itself and then the ‘afterglow’.

“We have to continue promoting disability sport after the Games have finished and highlight what it can do to enrich the lives of disabled people and its role in helping to build a more inclusive society. I’d encourage anyone thinking about disability sport to just take the plunge and give it a try. The 2012 Games will be a great platform to demonstrate what the UK has achieved for disabled people on and off the track. I’ve seen the positive changes in society since I started racing. There are

many more disabled children in mainstream schools now, there’s more of a positive attitude to disabled people in society in general for example people don’t stare in the street as perhaps they would have done a generation ago.

Thanks to legislation and improved access and facilities disabled people in the UK are able to live independent lives. Most workplaces now have disabled members of staff I hope the UK example will inspire other countries to improve the lives of their disabled citizens.

The Olympic Park is a fantastic sporting site. Anyone who has visited it cannot fail to be impressed. It has been designed very much with the athletes and accessibility in mind. All the venues are so close together and the site is so green. The venues really will inspire athletes to deliver their personal best. Disability access has been incorporated into the design and structure of the buildings, open spaces and transport for

2012 ensuring as many people as possible can enjoy the spectacle of the Games.

I can’t describe what competing in 2012 in front of a home crowd will mean. I raced with a Chinese athlete in Beijing and the volume in the stadium with his home fans chanting was overwhelming. Winning gold in London would be the best moment of my life professionally.

The UK will take the Paralympics to another level in 2012. It’ll be the biggest Games yet in terms of competitors, audience and profile. I want to use this opportunity to encourage people around the world to be part of the 2012 Paralympic experience.

I hope the 2012 Games demonstrate how sport can unite across communities and highlight how many cultures are represented in the UK. Every nation really will have a home crowd to cheer them on, (Paralympic tickets go on sale on Sept 9).

Come along and be inspired.

1948 Olympics velodrome reopens after huge facelift LONDON: The track cycling venue used at the 1948 London Olympics has reopened after a 500,000pound ($800,000) refurbishment.

The Herne Hill Velodrome in south London is the only remaining finals venue from the ‘48 Games still in active use. The venue, which had been in a state of disrepair, has been fitted with a new state-of-theart track as part of a project funded mainly by British Cycling.

The velodrome was officially reopened yesterday by Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson. He says “it is fitting that the year before London 2012, we are able to celebrate the refurbishment of the track at one of the key venues from the 1948 Games.”

Also attending was triple Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins, who first started racing on the Herne Hill track at the age of 12.

Meanwhile, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Brazil and the Dominican

Republic booked their spots in the semifinals of the Olympic basketball qualifying tournament for the Americas on Tuesday.

Puerto Rico defeated Canada 7974, Argentina overpowered Venezuela 111-93, Brazil beat Panama 90-65 and the Dominican Republic defeated Uruguay 84-76.

All four advanced with room to spare with two rounds of secondround play remaining.

The semifinals are Saturday and play ends Sunday with the top two teams qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. The United States won the 2010 world championship and has already qualified for London.

Argentina, probably the favorite, pulled away from Venezuela with 26 points from Emanuel Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs. The only undefeated team, Argentina shot 18 of 28 three-pointers against Venezuela.

“It has been shown that Argentina has great shooters,” Venezuela coach Eric Musselman said.

Pablo Pirgioni added 20 for Argentina and Andres Nocioni had 19. Hector Romero led Venezuela with 21. Argentina leads with 10 points, followed by the Puerto Rico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic with nine. Canada, Uruguay and Venezuela have six and Panama has five. In Puerto Rico’s victory, Carlos Arroyo scored 26 with 13 for Alex Galindo. “In the two remaining games, we are not going to sit back,” Puerto Rico coach Flor Melendez said. “My attitude and that of my players is to win.”

The game was level at 64-64 before Puerto Rico pulled away with key baskets down the stretch from Arroyo and Ricky Sanchez.

Guilherme had 17 to lead Brazil, with 12 for Cesar Lima. Danilo Pinnock had 20 for Panama.

“The result made it look like an easy game, but there are no easy rivals,” Brazil coach Ruben Magnano said. Al Horford led the Dominican Republic with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Leandro Garcia Morales topped Uruguay with 22 points.

The Dominicans hung the jersey of Edgar Sosa alongside the bench during the match. Sosa was injured on Monday when he fell among a pack of players under the basket in a victory over Panama.

Players from both teams were near tears as they gathered around him following the fall. Both of his lower right leg bones appeared to have snapped, leaving his leg bent at a grotesque angle. Sosa is expected to be out for at least six months.

Late yesterday, it’s Canada vs.

Uruguay, Venezuela vs. Panama, Brazil vs. Argentina and the Dominican Republic vs. Puerto Rico.—AP

Froome wins Tour thriller SPAIN: Britain’s Chris Froome of Team Sky won the 17th stage of the Tour of Spain yesterday in a gruelling uphill duel to the finish line with Spain’s Juan Jose Cobo, who retained the leader’s red jersey.

The 26-year-old Kenya-born rider-the great revelation of this year’s Tour-cut Cobo’s lead in the overall standings by nine seconds through his hard-fought one-second win and bonus points.

He now trails the Geox cyclist by just 13 seconds, setting up the prospect of a thrilling final four stages before the riders reach Madrid on Sunday.

Another British member of Team Sky, Bradley Wiggins, finished 12th in Wednesday’s mountainous 211kilometre stage from Faustino V to Pena Cabarga-the longest of this year’s Tour-and lost time on the overall leaders while retaining third place. The 31-year-old Olympic gold medalist is now one minute, 41 seconds behing Cobo. In the final hill climb in the 6.1 kilometres up the Pena Cabarga, which has gradients that reach 19 percent, the lead changed hands several times as first

Ireland’s Daniel Martin then Belgium’s Juergen van den Broeck attacked.

When a determined Froome took over, he seemed set to take the stage and possibly the leader’s jersey before an exhausted Cobo appeared behind him.

A duel between the two ended with the Briton crossing the line just one second ahead of the Spaniard.

Third was Dutchman Bauke Mollema of Rabobank, 21 seconds behind Froome, while Martin was fourth, three seconds further back.

“It was one of the toughest stages in my career,” said Froome, who had held the leader’s red jersey after the 10th stage. “Today, Juanjo (Cobo) was really strong.”

The stage was marked by several short-lived breakaways. Three Movistar riders-Spaniards Sergio Pardilla and David Lopez and Lithuania’s Ignatas Konovalovaswithdrew from the event due to stomach upsets. Today’s 18th stage takes the riders 174.6 kilometres from Solares to Noja, which should see Cobo and Froome resume their battle for the leadership.—AFP

SPAIN: Argentine cyclist Juan Jose Haedo (center) celebrates during the Spanish Vuelta cycling race. —AP

Kuwait’s Rashidi crowned champion

Duaij Al-Otaibi (right) with Talal Al-Rashidi

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: Kuwait ’s Talal Al-R ashidi was crowned champion of the Trap men junior event yesterday, as he won the gold medal at the Kovilovo shooting ranges in Belgrade, Serbia, where the 2011 shotgun World Championship are being held until Sept 14.

He shot 122 out of 125 targets.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Allan Norwood was second with 121 out of 125 targets followed by Maksim Smikov from Russia after a shoot-off with Britain’s Mark Shaw, Milan Hric (CZE) and Valerio Grazini from Italy.

Sheik h Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah said Kuwait Shooting outstanding achievements will continue with

Talal Al-Rashidi celebrating

the grace of God, and dedicated the win to HH the Amir and HH the Crown Prince along with Kuwait people.

President of Kuwait and Asian Shooting Federations and Vice President of ISSF Sheikh Salman Al-Sabah congratulated Kuwait’s delegation headed by the President of the Arab Shooting Federation, KSSF Deputy Chairman of the Board and ISSF Administrative Council Member Engineer Duaij Al-Otaibi for their good efforts resulting in those outstanding achievements in the name of Kuwait.

Sheikh Salman lauded the role of shooter Abdallah Al-Rashidi, father of Talal for his tremendous efforts in preparing his son for the event.

Meanwhile, Champion Talal Al-Rashidi

said “this is a dream come true, and I have been training for three years, several days a week to reach this point”. He said that he loved trap shooting from the get go, and contemplated any other event.

Talal’s father Skeet champion Abdallah AlRashidi said “this is one of the best things of my life. I got my son involved in shooting and wanted him to win this championship, as this was his last opportunity as a junior shooter, and I could not be more proud of him.

Talal Al-Rashidi dedicated his achievement and Gold medal to Sheikh Salman AlSabah and board members, along with his father Abdallah Al-Rashidi adding that this is a strong motive to make more achievements in the future.

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SPORTS

Officials fix breakdown as World Cup nears AUCKLAND: Handling the breakdown, the most contentious and confusing aspect of rugby, has never been easier thanks to regular meetings between coaches and officials, International Rugby Board (IRB) head of referees Paddy O’Brien said yesterday.

Debate often rages amongst coaches, players and supporters about the murky dealings when an attacker is brought to the ground and a dogfight ensues for possession of the ball.

Has the tackler released his opponent, rolled away and returned to his feet fairly and have his team mates arrived from the correct position?

Has the attacker released the ball in time and have his team mates remained on their feet as they try to support him? So many rules, so many

bodies flying in different directions and the referee has only a split second to make his decision.

“People quite often tell me the breakdown is a mess. It’s been a mess for 100 years,” former referee O’Brien told Reuters at Eden Park, two days ahead of the World Cup kickoff.

“It is the key difference we have in the game. We have clear guidelines how we want the breakdown refereed.

It is not as complicated as people make out and I think the breakdown has never been better.”

While mistakes are inevitable, O’Brien dismisses the notion of employing a second referee on the pitch to help rule on decisions.

“Not unless you want two lots of inconsistencies. There is enough com-

ment with just one,” The fast-talking New Zealander added.

“The bottom line is we all know that it is not a perfect game. What we have got to do is try and minimise the mistakes we make, but it is not something we are frightened of. I suppose if we didn’t have that, we would have nothing to talk about.”

Two years prior to the Sept. 9-Oct. 23 World Cup, O’Brien was part of a meeting with the coaches of international teams and test match referees to discuss the officiating of matches in preparation for the tournament in New Zealand. At that meeting, all parties agreed that there were five main points of concern that the referees needed to be stricter on: the breakdown, the scrum, offsides, mauls and foul play.

O’Brien, who spoke just after another briefing with the coaches, said the meeting was a great success and that it would be conducted again ahead of future tournaments like the Six Nations and the soon to be expanded TriNations.

“I think it’s the first time I have had a complete buy-in and everyone understands what the philosophy is,” O’Brien said. “The important thing is that our referees deliver that. “As I said, the game is complex and we are going to make mistakes... but if we go and get the accurate, clear and obvious, then we will make sure the World Cup is a success.”

Another added benefit of bringing the referees together was that the meetings improved the level of consis-

tency in matches.

A common sight in past tests was that of players and coaches left bemused by the constantly changing rulings on decisions depending on where the referee came from.

“That’s because we have the likes of these World Cups and we get these groups (of referees) together,” O’Brien explained of the new-found consistency. “These are not Northern Hemisphere referees or Southern Hemisphere referees, these are the IRB referees and I think that’s really important.

“The teams from the north may play differently to the teams from the south.

The referees are on the same page at this tournament and I don’t think we will see any difference between either of them.”—Reuters

Countdown to kickoff as NZ ready for WCup

AUCKLAND: Australia rugby team player Stephen Moore (right) takes a passing practice during the team’s training. Australia will play their opening game of Rugby World Cup against Italy on Sept. 11. —AP

Wales and moans on a dark day for N Zealand WELLINGTON: The low moan to the left of me started to increase in volume. And length. It was a man in immense mental pain borne out of frustration. And resignation.

Down on the Millennium Stadium pitch, French scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste Elissalde was tearing off towards his own line, ball in hand, ready to hoof it into the stands and continue New Zealand’s rugby World Cup nightmare.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO,” came the crescendo that had been building for what seemed like minutes, but in reality was merely seconds.

Elissalde completed the coup de grace, sending the ball into the seats and referee Wayne Barnes blew the whistle to ensure the All Blacks were leaving the World Cup without the trophy. Again. “I can’t believe this has happened again,” my All Blacks jersey clad neighbour started chanting. Over and over again. As if he was re-living the failures of 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003. Over and over again. Frustrated, he squatted down in the aisle and lit a cigarette.

In the non-smoking, enclosed arena. His rationale, as he shrugged his shoulders at me and looked into the near distance with vacant eyes, was plainly obvious. ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’. I understood.

We had had a strange journey my neighbour and I. Taking a year out of journalism to do post-graduate study in Britain, I had chosen to see the World Cup as a fan, and we had seats together for the All Blacks’ games throughout the 2007 World Cup. Him, me and two other New Zealanders, all of us following ‘our’ team.

One was a postal worker from Perth in Australia who had saved for four years and was backpacking around Europe. The other, like my neighbour, lived in London.

We had introduced ourselves in Marseille, and cheered when Richie McCaw’s team demolished Italy 76-14, then bade each other farewell, expecting not to see each other again. We surprisingly found ourselves sitting together the next week in Lyon. We asked what the others had been doing in the previ-

ous week. What to see in the south of France.

Where to get a decent beer. What was happening back ‘home’.

And then we revelled in the passion displayed by tournament debutants Portugal, whose efforts earned a standing ovation despite the 108-13 loss.

By the third pool game in Edinburgh, the hellos had been swapped for the customary ‘Maori salute’. Eyebrows raised, slight head nods upwards. Such a simple New Zealand gesture, a piece of shared culture that identifies the diaspora to each other and silently conveys so much. “Hey! How are you? Good?

I’m fine, thanks for asking.” A 40-0 victory over a Scotland side that seemed to have no intention of trying to win the game caused some consternation. A win, yes. But...

Then came the 85-8 thrashing of Romania in Toulouse. More concerns. Something’s not quite right. Never mind, they smashed France twice in June (42-11 & 61-10) and they’ll sort out those kinks by Cardiff. Boy, were we wrong. My mobile phone started beeping.

Over and over again. More than 30 times. In the space of 10 minutes. English friends, who had watched their side upset Australia hours earlier in Marseille to advance to the semifinals, commiserating?

No. They were offering, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, ‘good natured’ mocking of the All Blacks’ failure to win the Webb Ellis trophy. Again. They all got the same, very brief and to-the-point, reply.

My All Blacks-supporting friends had dispersed-no handshakes or goodbyes-and I headed into the damp Cardiff evening to meet an old university friend from New Zealand.

An hour after Elissalde’s kick into touch ended the dreams of more than four million New Zealanders for another four years, we’re at the bus stop, waiting to go back to the pub where we had managed to get rooms for the night. What a disappointment, I posit rhetorically. “Oh well,” he responded with a deep sigh. “There’s always next time.”—Reuters

AUCKLAND: The Rugby World Cup is destined to start with a loud, angry and physical confrontation, even before kickoff when New Zealand opens against Tonga. The Tongans won a toss of the coin which allows them to start their Sipi Tau - or cultural challenge, as the International Rugby Board describes it - on Friday night before the All Blacks start their world-famous haka at Auckland’s Eden Park. But as tournament director Kit McConnell revealed yesterday, the rival war dances could be almost simultaneous.

Tonga “will go first. It’s up to the All Blacks to determine when and how they respond to that,” McConnell said. “It’s not up to us to tell the teams how they choose to perform their challenge.”

However long it takes or whomever crosses the line, it’s certainly going to get the seventh edition under way in the distinctively Pacific style which local organizers are hoping to promote for the six-week World Cup the first in New Zealand since the inaugural tournament in 1987.

That was the last time the All Blacks won the title, and every edition since then the pressure from a rugby crazy New Zealand public to win a second title has intensified.

New Zealand coach Graham Henry made nine changes to the starting lineup which lost the TriNations decider to Australia in Brisbane last month, including a completely reshuffled backline in which flyhalf Daniel Carter was the only player unmoved. Ma’a Nonu was moved out one place in midfield to accommodate the recall of Sonny Bill Williams at inside center, while Israel Dagg was given a start at fullback in place of 98-test veteran Mils Muliaina.

Richie McCaw will be leading the All Blacks for the 62nd time when he runs out for his 99th test on Friday against Tonga.

Two days ahead of kickoff of the 48-match tournament, 1,000 tickets were still available for the opening match. Organizing committee chairman Martin Snedden expected them to sell quickly. Snedden, a former New Zealand test cricketer, has batted away concerns over ticket sales in recent weeks.

Ticket sales so far of 246 million New Zealand dollars ($204 million) were only NZ$22 million ($18.2 million) shy of target forecasts for the tournament - the only revenue the hosts keep for staging the tourna-

AUCKLAND: Chairman of the International Rugby Board Bernard Lapasset addresses a press conference with the Webb Ellis Cup in front of him at Eden Park. Eden Park will host the opening Rugby World Cup game between New Zealand and Tonga here tomorrow. —AP ment. “That’s 10 times bigger than any previous event held in New Zealand,” Snedden said. “We’ve got 45 days to sell that NZ$22 million. In the last 100 days, we’ve done NZ$77 million ($64 million). We’re going to hit this target. The intensity of ticket sales in the last few days is just snowballing, and I don’t have any reason to think that’s going to stop.” He also defended the ticket pricing, which can range from about NZ$390 ($323) to NZ$1,200 ($995) for the final and from about NZ$100 ($83) to NZ$450 ($373) for the opening match and which some critics have said are beyond the average wage earner in New Zealand. Half of the tickets still unsold for the opening match are in the highest category. Did organizers get the pricing right? “Absolutely, we’re happy,” Snedden told The Associated Press. “This will be the biggest crowd we’ve had here for a game for 50 years.”

Snedden said ticket sales for five of the pool matches at Eden Park, which is also venue for two quarterfinals, both semifinals and the final, already exceed 50,000, including New Zealand vs. Tonga at more than 58,000 and Fiji vs. Samoa at more than 56,000. The venue capacity is 60,000, including temporary seating

installed for the World Cup. “We’ve sold every ticket we’ve put on the market for the final,” he said, adding that 1,500 had to be kept in reserve for both teams in the final, so more seats could come back onto the market.

Organizers announced the largest anti-doping program ever at a World Cup, with 300 urine and blood samples to be collected during the tournament, on top of the 1,000 conducted by the IRB on players from all 20 participating countries since 2010.

Heavy scrutiny will extend to the field. IRB referees chief Paddy O’Brien said the 10 officials controlling matches at the tournament had been instructed to strictly police infringements in the set-piece and breakdown, which slow down play. The aim, clearly, is to promote a running game. After seven years of preparations, public interest started to heighten in New Zealand last month when the All Blacks hosted and beat Australia in the first Bledisloe Cup test at the revamped Eden Park.

Snedden said the “atmosphere was unsurpassed.” “We know that we are going to have something better on our hands for Rugby World Cup,” he said. “Yes, we’re focused on that opening match. It couldn’t be better

for us in terms of putting the All Blacks up against Tonga. We desperately want this tournament to reflect the true nature of who we are as New Zealanders and the place we hold in the Pacific.” IRB chairman Bernard Lappasset said he was anticipating “an exceptionally successful tournament.”

“This mix between Maori culture and rugby tradition is one part of the success of this tournament, and the reason why this tournament is so special,” he said. “All is set for a wonderful Rugby World Cup.” The IRB launched a new fundraising appeal to help rebuild rugby in Christchurch, which was devastated by deadly earthquakes in February and subsequently lost its rights to host seven World Cup matches.

“Christchurch won’t play a direct part obviously in the hosting of rugby matches in the tournament. It will play a significant part in the tournament in terms of the festival of events,” Snedden said. “The people in Christchurch are going to be in our hearts and our minds on many occasions during the tournament. “It’s been a tough 12 months in New Zealand,” he added. “The country is ready to have fun. It’s ready to have a party.”—AP

New Zealand ready to party

WELLINGTON: South African rugby player JP Pietersen (left) reacts as he avoids a tackle from teammate Jaque Forie during their training. South Africa will play their opening game of Rugby World Cup against Wales on Sept 11.—AP

Making friends? No, I’m here to win, says Cooper AUCKLAND: The role of public enemy number one amongst All Blacks fans sits well with Australia flyhalf Quade Cooper, who yesterday said he was in New Zealand to win the rugby World Cup-not to win new friends.

Cooper has riled New Zealand fans after a number of clashes with All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and the flyhalf could be considered fortunate for escaping a ban after dropping his knee into the flanker’s head during the Tri-Nations victory in Brisbane last month.

“It doesn’t bother me at all, I don’t mind being public enemy number one,” 23-year-

old Cooper told reporters at the team’s hotel in central Auckland yesterday. “I actually enjoy it. It’s going to come with the territory.

Like most New Zealanders hate the Wallabies but there is a lot out there that respect the way we play as well. “We are here to win a competition we are not here to make friends or make enemies, it’s all about playing rugby and enjoying it at the same time.” New Zealand-born Cooper also clashed with McCaw in the Wallabies’ Bledisloe Cup win in Hong Kong last year when he pushed the flanker’s head into the ground after the winning try. —Reuters

AUCKLAND: New Zealand is ready to party and enjoy hosting the rugby World Cup after a difficult year in which earthquakes and a mining disaster rocked the country, the tournament’s organising head Martin Snedden said yesterday.

The country was left devastated after a February earthquake in New Zealand’s second largest city of Christchurch killed 181 people and destroyed much of the city.

That followed the death of 29 miners after a methane gas explosion at the Pike River mine in November as the country, like many others, struggled with the impact of the global financial crisis. “It’s been a pretty tough 12 months or so in New Zealand with what’s happened in Christchurch, with what’s happened in Pike River with the mining disasters, the economic situation,” Snedden told reporters at Eden Park yesterday.

“I think the country is ready to have fun. I think it is ready to have a party. “I think we are ready to really welcome and embrace the thousands and thousands of international visitors that are coming and to make sure we, with them, do have a fantastic time and enjoy the rugby.”

Snedden, who sat in front of the Webb Ellis Trophy which will be awarded to the winners of the near

two-month tournament starting Friday, was joined by International Rugby Board chairman Bernard Lapasset.

almost, but this is a fantastic atmosphere in Auckland and everywhere in New Zealand.” The February earthquake forced organisers to move sev-

AUCKLAND: New Zealand rugby players Jerome Kaino (left) and Andy Ellis warm up during training. The All Blacks will play Tonga in their opening Rugby World Cup game on Sept. 9.—AP “Six years in the making and now just two days to go. I’m confident that it will be an exceptional and successful tournament,” Lapasset told reporters. “Everything is ready,

en matches from Christchurch which is still struggling to recover. Snedden thanked Lapasset as he launched an IRB-backed appeal on Wednesday, fronted by All Blacks captain Richie

McCaw, to raise funds to rebuild rugby in the area.

“The people of Christchurch will be in our hearts and our minds on many occasions during the tournament and one of my greatest hopes is that they feel that, as the tournament goes on, they are part of what’s happening and they are able to enjoy it,” said Snedden.

England were the first team to travel to Christchurch to see the damage for themselves. They toured schools on Wednesday and manager Martin Johnson conducted coaching sessions after the team received a traditional Maori welcome. Snedden, who toured Australia last month to spruik the World Cup, also said organisers were still short NZ$22 million ($18 million) of their ticket sales target but he was adamant the benchmark would be met during the tournament. “We have a target of NZ$268 million dollars to hit our ticket forecast.

Today we sit at NZ$246 million, 10 times bigger that any previous event held in the history of New Zealand,” he added. “We have 45 days of selling to do that NZ$22 million. In the last 100 days we have done NZ$77 million. “We are going to hit this target.

The intensity of ticket buying that’s happening in the last few days is just snowballing.”—Reuters

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sp orts

Qatar bets on future as sports mecca DOHA: Biking through the south of France one summer’s day a decade ago, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani was stopped by a pack of cyclists from the Tour de France.

So impressed was he with the peloton racing past that he phoned famed Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx and asked him to organize a similar bike race in the Gulf Arab state.

Thus began a 10-year love affair with sport which would eventually see the tiny country do what most thought impossible: win an audacious bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. But Qatar’s bold ambition in the realm of sport does not end there. Buoyed by its successful World Cup bid, the country has begun to indulge a seemingly insatiable desire to host global sporting events.

Last month Qatar officially launched a bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. It has submitted a bid for the 2017 World Athletic Championships, and has expressed interest in hosting the Grand DÈpart for the 2016 Tour de France. This is all bolstered by Qatar’s sponsorship of a myriad of sports events and teams.

State-owned Qatar Airways was the official airline for this year’s Tour de France. A Qatari investment vehicle earlier this year bought a 70 percent stake in French soccer club Paris St Germain for an undisclosed amount.

Doha-based broadcaster Al Jazeera recently bought a share of the domestic television rights of French league games from 2012 to 2016. The network paid 90 million euros ($129 million) a

year for rights to broadcast two live games a week and for other associated rights over four seasons between 2012 and 2016.

The timing couldn’t have been better. “By giving Qataris-especially the youth-more access to sport and bringing the world’s best sporting stars to Qatar, Qatar’s elite are quite simply and understandably boosting their own popularity domestically,” said David Roberts, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute based in Doha.

Unlike neighbouring Gulf countries, Qatar has been notably free of the unrest that has swept the region in recent months. As the country with the world’s highest per capita income, estimated at $90,149, it can afford to spend lavishly on bids for sporting events.

Qatar is likely to spend an estimated $100 billion to host the 2022 tournament. It spent $2.8 billion on the Asian Games, which it hosted in 2006. Qatar’s emir has closely associated himself with sport throughout his reign, promoting access to sporting facilities in the late 1980s and early 1990s and bringing the FIFA Youth (under 20) World Cup to the country after he came to power in 1995. It turned out to be a shrewd strategy.

“Qatar’s foray into sport and other youth-oriented initiatives has helped boost the government’s popularity and helped it connect with a new generation of Qataris,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center. “The World Cup bid, as well as the flurry of sporting, education, and cultural activities,

have all shown the Qatari government to be both active and innovative, offering a sharp contrast to most other Arab regimes.”

As in neighboring countries, decision-making is dominated by the emir and a small group of family members, with cabinet and an unelected Shura Council advising, though there is one elected municipal council.

Summer temperatures can reach as high as 50 celsius- although temperatures are much milder in winter-making it an unlikely cycling hub. But the Emir’s daughter Sheikha Mayassa organised a women’s bike race in 2009. It is now an annual event. “The ladies tour is a political statement from Sheikha Mayassa, to show that Qatar is an open, liberal country where women as well as men can play sports. It exists to show that there are no restrictions to sporting in Qatar,” said the race’s organiser Dirk DePauw.

“Qatar wants to be a country where sport is very important. They want to do it for the young people, and to help with obesity and the health problems,” said Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx, who helped launch the race.

“The whole (royal) family loves cycling. He bikes, the whole family bikes. And he wants the people here to bike.”

Though its greatest success has undoubtedly been the 2022 World Cup coup, Qatar has seen some defeats along the way. A bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, eventually won by Rio de Janeiro, floundered on its insistence on holding the Games in October. Qatar is now bidding for

the 2020 Games and Olympic officials have allowed a shift in dates to avoid the extreme desert heat.

A close US ally that hosts a large US military base, Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and gained global attention recently with high-profile purchases such as that of London department store Harrods.

Bolstering Qatar’s image as a modern sporting venue would help the country plan for a future without gas. “Sports tourism is one of their primary focus areas in terms of overall diversification. It’s a clear strategic focus for them,” said Raghavan Seetharaman, chief executive officer of Doha Bank.

“The bigger picture is that they have to diversify, and the diversification has to come from multiple sources. Investments they’ve done via the sovereign fund. They’ve invested billions in sports facilities, and 2022 will create even more momentum. They can leverage it beyond 2022, if they can create the right traffic through sports tourism,” Seetharaman said.

“They (the royal family) are passionate about sports. That’s why they went after 2022. It’s something that no one in the region has ever done,” the Chairman of Qatar ’s Tourism Authority Ahmed Abdullah Al-Nuaimi said in an interview with Reuters.

“And it’s not only for Doha, it’s for the whole region. People will see the Middle East in a different way, not just as a struggle, as a political problem, but as offering something else.” —Reuters

Andy Carroll’s, drink and double-standards

ITALY: Italian players celebrate after winning the match against Slovenia during a Group C, Euro 2012 qualifying soccer match in this file photo. —AP

Italy marks turnaround by qualifying for Euros FLORENCE: Italy has come a long way in little more than a year. After an embarrassing first-round exit from the World Cup, new coach Cesare Prandelli has qualified the Azzurri for the European Championship with two matches to spare.

“I don’t even think the biggest optimist would have thought we would qualify so easily,” goalkeeper Gianliugi Buffon said after a 1-0 win over Slovenia on Tuesday secured Italy’s spot at next year’s tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

The match typified how the squad has embodied Prandelli’s approach, which relies on three forwards often left out by previous coach Marcello Lippi: Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli.

Rossi and Cassano created numerous chances early on, then Giampaolo Pazzini came on and scored the winner before Balotelli nearly doubled the lead on two separate occasions.

“Rossi and Cassano did a great job at the start and then Balotelli and Pazzini with their anger and determination - also had great performances,” Buffon said.

“That’s what made us win and it shows we’re a united group with a common goal.”

Former Azzurri stalwarts Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Gattuso retired from the national team after the World Cup, and Prandelli has dropped aging fullback Gianluca Zambrotta.

The new center back tandem of Andrea Ranocchia and Giorgio Chiellini has been superb, with Italy having allowed just one goal in its eight qualifiers; the fewest of the more than 50 teams in qualifying.

“We’ve gone against our history a bit.

Usually we suffer until the last match to qualify,” said Buffon, who along with midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi are the last holdovers from the squad that won the 2006 World Cup. “This result gives us a lot of confidence.

Pazzini, who played under Prandelli at Fiorentina, has accepted his bench role with determination.

“Prandelli always kept me in consideration,” he said. “I don’t want to create any controversy, but I showed that I’m always ready when there’s a need.” —AP

PARIS: Walk through an English town or city late on a Friday night and the chances are good that you’ll see people staggering drunk out of pubs, perhaps vomiting stomachs of beer into the gutter or simply passed out on the pavement. Yet, if those people include professional footballers, the chances also are good that it could become news even if they don’t have a match to play the next day. Why? The inference is that footballers should somehow know better, live more soberly than the fans who pay to watch them play. That type of thinking is not without hypocrisy because, for many of those same fans, no trip to a game is complete without stopping in a pub or liquor store before or afterward.

The latest footballer to be caught in the spotlight of Britain’s double fascination with both drink and football is Andy Carroll, the towering 22-year-old striker who, if he can only turn his obvious potential into consistent goals, could become the match-winner England needs to stop going home from major championships with its tail between its legs. So far, Carroll has made just three England appearances and scored once.

Liverpool’s big-spending newish American owners gambled a reported 35 million pounds (then $56 million) that Carroll can help revive the formerly dominant team in English football when they bought him from Newcastle in January. But since then, and partly because he had injuries, the club has squeezed only 13 appearances and 3 goals from the bearer of its No.9 shirt worn previously by such prolific scorers as Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler.

In short, Carroll has everything to prove. That, unfortunately, includes apparently having to prove that he doesn’t have a problem with alcohol, that he isn’t destined to become simply another name on the roll-call of players Paul Gascoigne and George Best are obvious examples - remem-

English. If the English drinking culture seems alien to Capello, that could also explain why he has taken Carroll aside for a few words of fatherly advice, especially since the English tabloids are so quick to jump not only on perceived excesses by players but to report even occasions where they are spotted out having an innocent beer.

“Here a lot of people drink. It is normal here,” Capello said last November. Then, picking up a mobile telephone, he added: “It can record all the time. It can take pictures. You can find everything on Facebook, et cetera. This is the worst. For this reason people can speak about this person drinking or this person being out. In Italy and Spain, I know the life of the players. They like to drink when they eat, during dinner. Not after.”

So what does this all add up to when it comes to Carroll? Really, at this stage, not much. He is a young player, trying to learn his trade in a goldfish bowl of massive expectations not made easier by the big price tag on his head and

by Capello talking publicly about him when he could have kept this issue private. Carroll also is a young Englishman who, like so many of those who watch him play, seems to like a drink when he’s not at work. So what? Is that LONDON: England’s soccer player Andy Carroll adjusts his shoe dur- news? Or could this instead be ing a training session at Wembley Stadium in this file photo. —AP more of a story about England, its drinking habits and about doublething even close to the world- to make sure that England players standards?

“Why shouldn’t players go out beating side England fielded way are at their best playing for their country - which is one reason why and get drunk? Everyone else back in ... 1966.

In response to reporters’ pre- he bans alcohol in his team does,” former Liverpool and match questions about Carroll, the camps. Putting aside the English England star John Barnes said in a Italian replied in his English that tabloids’ lurid accounts of his sup- telephone interview. “This is just remains clumsy despite nearly posedly late night partying - after binge drinking, whereby he likes four years in his high-paying job all, given their methods, how to go out and drink too much and that the player wasn’t in pristine much of what they report really party, type of thing, so it’s more of condition and that “his style of life bears repeating? - Carroll has, to a a lifestyle rather than a problem,” is a problem if you (sic) no good, certain extent, also brought atten- added Barnes, who previously because he needed to be careful, tion on himself. A court last worked with current Liverpool because he is important player October fined him and ordered manager Kenny Dalglish at Celtic. not only for England team, also for him to pay compensation after he “The hypocrisy comes from the Liverpool. I think he understand pleaded guilty to assaulting a man public wanting to hang someat Newcastle’s Blu Bambu night- body, because he went out and what he need to do.”

“If he want to be a good player, club. And Capello, remember, is got drunk when it shouldn’t even a good sportive man, he need to Italian, and many Italians don’t be an issue - as long as it’s the drink less than the normal,” drink in the same way as the right time.” —AP bered in Britain as much for their football as for the damage they inflicted on their careers and bodies with excessive drinking and partying.

Twice in the past six months, England manager Fabio Capello has seen fit to state publicly that Carroll shouldn’t drink too much.

The most recent example was before England beat Wales 1-0 in Euro 2012 qualifying this week.

Carroll played for just four minutes at the end of that sorry performance which again suggested that Capello is still far from turning his Premier League stars into any-

Away wins boost Canada, Panama World Cup hopes MIAMI: Canada and Panama both came out of tricky away games with important wins in World Cup qualifying games in the North and Central America and Caribbean region on Tuesday.

Canada now have the maximum six points from two games in CONCACAF Group D after they enjoyed a 3-0 victory at Puerto Rico thanks to goals from Iain Hume (41), Simeon Jackson 984) and Tosaint Ricketts (89).

Canada lead by two points from St Kitts and Nevis who enjoyed an impressive 4-2 win at Caribbean rivals St. Lucia after leading 4-0 at half-time.

Panama’s Blas Perez grabbed the winner in the Group C clash with Nicaragua-the striker’s 50th minute winner securing the victory in the opening game for Los Canaleros in Group C. In Group B, Trinidad and

Tobago earned a 2-0 win away to Barbados thanks to goals from Keon Danile and Darryl Roberts.

The Soca Warriors are level on two points with Guyana who beat Bermuda 2-1 thanks to two second half strikes from Vurlon Mills.

Guatemala lead Group E with two wins from two following their 2-1 victory away to Belize but the biggest goal feast of the night came with Antigua and Barbuda’s 8-1 away win over U.S. Virgin Islands-Peter Byers notching a hat-trick while Randolph Burton scored twice.

El Salvador look well set as they picked up their second victory with a 4-1 triumph in the Cayman Islands with Luis Anaya scoring twice.

The six group winners in the current second stage of qualifying go through to face the top-six ranked teams in the region in the third phase.

The top three teams at the end of the fourth phase of qualifying, involving six teams, will qualify for the 2014 World Cup

finals in Brazil with the fourth placed team heading into a playoff with the top team from Oceania. —Reuters

PUERTO RICO: Puerto Rico’s Noah Delgado (left) and Canada’s Michael Klukowski (right) go for the ball during a 2014 World Cup qualifying soccer game. —AP

Capello later added. What Capello meant by “normal” wasn’t clear.

Nor is it clear why Capello feels compelled to feed the public and media fascination with Carroll’s off-field life, when a simple “I’m not going to talk about that” would have killed this line of questioning stone dead. Liverpool took the wiser option of subsequently refusing to comment about what Capello had said. But Capello is also right. Excessive alcohol consumption is not going to help any young athlete’s career and he’s not speaking out of turn by pointing that out. In fact, he’s duty-bound

Wales fan dies after assault at Wembley LONDON: British police launched a murder investigation after a fan died following a suspected assault outside Wembley Stadium before England’s Euro 2012 soccer qualifier against Wales.

The Metropolitan Police named the man as 44-year-old Michael Dye from Cardiff and said that six people, understood to be Welsh, had been arrested outside the ground before Tuesday’s Group G match which England won 10. “Police were called at approximately 19.20 (1820 GMT)...to an area outside Wembley Stadium following reports of an assault,” a police statement said.

“Michael John Dye...suffered head injuries and was taken by London Ambulance Service to a central London hospital. He was pronounced dead at 20.50.” Local media quoted paramedics as saying Dye had also suffered a heart attack before being taken to hospital.

Wales coach Gary Speed offered his condolences to Dye’s family and agreed the incident had overshadowed the match.

“It’s a game of football at the end of the day and there’s nothing more precious than life,” he told Sky Sports News. “The players and the staff, we’re all deeply saddened by the news that we found out after the game.”

Dye was a Wales and Cardiff City fan, according to a statement on the Championship (second division) club’s website (www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk), while local media reported he had worked as a mason for his city’s council. “Out of respect for the family of the supporter, the sensitivity of the situation and until full details and circumstances are ascertained, no statements will be made until deemed fit by proper channels,” the Cardiff club said. — Reuters

Dream moves up to third in WNBA

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LONDON: In this photo released by Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand sail through Tower Bridge on the River Thames in London in the lead up to the Volvo Ocean Race. —AP

Captain Cook steers England to easy victory over India SOUTHAMPTON: Captain Alastair Cook led from the front as England took a 1-0 lead in the one-day series with a seven wicket win over India here at the Rose Bowl on Tuesday.

After Saturday’s no result in Durham, Cook made 80 not out as England overhauled India’s total of 187-8 made in their 23 overs, with five balls to spare, after the match was shortened because of rain.

The skipper is not in England’s Twenty20 team and there were suggestions that he could leave himself out when the match was truncated.

But he made nonsense of those opinions as he and Essex clubmate Ravi Bopara (24) milked the Indian bowling attack, missing some of its bigger names, after Cook and Kieswetter had got England off to a rapid start. Cook, not considered a one-day player until he was made captain at the start of the season, got to his seventh one-day international 50 in 37 balls, controlled the run chase and even unveiled a reverse sweep. With eight overs left the run rate was down to a run a ball and with wickets in hand England cruised home. Kieswetter got the England reply off to a flyer making 46 from 25 balls with three sixes, including two successive sixes from the spin of Ravichandran Ashwin.

Kieswetter has attracted some criticism for making good starts and not finishing the job off and was guilty of that again as he was trapped leg before in the seventh over. Bell came in and immediately hit two fours off the back foot to help England race past the 100 mark in the tenth over and break the back of their target before he holed out at extra cover for 25.

India’s total was built on 54 from Ajinka Rahane - in just his second one-day international - and a whirlwind 40 from Suresh Raina, made from 19 balls.

With the match shortened Raina was in Twenty20 mode as he hit three fours and three sixes and accelerated the Indian run rate towards the end of the innings before he was well caught by Ben Stokes in the final over.

Tim Bresnan took two of his three wickets in that last over but the pick of the England bowlers was Graeme Swann who finished with 3-33 from five overs and gave his captain some control when India looked like getting away in the middle overs.

Rahul Dravid chipped in with 32 and opener Parthiv Patel made 28 of the first 30 runs before he was caught behind off James Anderson. The third international in the five-match series takes place at the Oval in London tomorrow.—AFP

SCOREBOARD SOUTHAMPTON: Scoreboard of the Indian innings in the second one-day international with England here at the Rose Bowl yesterday: India P.Patel ct Kieswetter b Anderson 28 A.Rahane ct & b Swann 54 R.Dravid ct Anderson b Swann 32 V.Kohli ct Bell b Swann 9 S.Raina ct Stokes b Bresnan 40 MS Dhoni ct Bell b Bresnan 6 M.Tiwary ct Bell b Bresnan 11 R.Ashwin run out 1 P.Kumar not out 0 Extras: (2lb, 4w) 6 Total: (8 wkts, 23 overs) 187 Did not bat: RV.Kumar, M.Patel Fall of wickets: 1-30 (Patel), 2-109 (Dravid), 3-125 (Kohli), 4-143 (Rahane), 5-164 (Dhoni), 6-182 (Raina), 7-186 (Tiwary), 8-187 (Ashwin) Bowling: T. Bresnan 3-0-43-3 (1w), J. Anderson 3-0-11-1 (1w), S. Broad 3-0-25-0 (1w), J. Dernbach 5-0-50-0 (1w), R. Bopara 2-0-13-0, G. Swann 5-0-33-3, S. Patel 1-011-0.

England A.Cook not out 80 C.Kieswetter lbw V.Kumar 46 I.Bell ct Kohli b Ashwin 25 R.Bopara ct Kohli b Ashwin 24 S.Patel not out 9 Extras: (2lb, 2w) 4 Total: (3wkts, 22.1 overs) 188 Did not bat: B.Stokes, T.Bresnan, S.Broad, G.Swann, J.Anderson, J.Dernbach Fall of wickets: 1-67 (Kieswetter), 2-105 (Bell), 3-165 (Bopara) Bowling: P.Kumar 4-0-41-0, RV.Kumar 4.1-0-33-1 (1w), R.Ashwin 5-0-42-2 (1w), M.Patel 5-0-35-0, V.Kohli 3-0-22-0, S.Raina 1-0-13-0.

Result: England won by seven wickets

LONDON: England’s Alastair Cook plays a reverse sweep off the bowling of India’s Ravichandran Ashwin in their one day international at the Rose Bowl cricket ground.—AP

Nadal leads revolt over safety at rain-hit Open NEW YORK: Rafael Nadal lashed out at US Open organisers yesterday, claiming players’ safety was being put at risk in a desperate effort to make up for lost time at the rain-ravaged Grand Slam.

Defending champion Nadal, world number four Andy Murray and 2003 winner Andy Roddick joined forces to complain to tournament referee Brian Earley after they were sent out to play on courts that had been battered by almost constant rain.

Their last-16 matches lasted just 15 minutes before they were hauled off as more rain soaked Flushing Meadows. “We don’t want to go on court if it is raining. If I have to go on court, I go on court, but I think it’s not fair,” said Nadal, whose match had originally been slated for Tuesday before the whole day’s schedule was washed out. The clearly unhappy Spaniard was 3-0 down to Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller on Arthur Ashe Stadium when they pair were taken off as conditions deteriorated.

“We are not protected. There is a lot of money at the Grand Slams but we are part of the show. They are just working for that and not for us,” added Nadal.

“It was still raining when they called us on court. The rain never really stopped, the courts were not dry. I know the fans are there but the health of the players is important.” Murray, who was trailing 2-1 to America’s Donald Young on Grandstand, insisted it was too dangerous to play. “It’s dangerous.

The lines get really slippy. Players want to play more than anyone, but not when it’s dangerous,” said the Scot. “ The back of the court was soaking and the balls were wet too. Everyone mentioned it to the officials but they said it was fine. It didn’t make sense to go out on court for seven or eight minutes and then come back inside. “It won’t happen again today.”

Roddick, who was 3-1 up on fifth-seeded David Ferrer, joined Nadal and Murray in complaining over having to play on what they claimed were treacherous surfaces.

“I think if it’s up for discussion if the court’s playable or not, then it’s not playable. Walking out there it was still misting. The back of the courts were still wet,” said the American.

“We wanted to make it known we didn’t want to be put in that position. I certainly understand they need to put tennis on TV, I understand the business side of it as well, but players need to feel comfortable and safe.

“To Brian Earley’s credit, when we did go in there he listened to us. He was very nice in the conversation.” Roddick added: “It probably hits home a little more if there’s three of us standing there instead of just one.”

Tuesday’s wipeout was the first time both the day and night sessions had been cancelled at the tournament, which does not have covered courts or a stadium with a retractable roof, since 2006.

With the rain continuing, the men face having to play four days in succession to get the event completed by Sunday. The men’s final has been carried over to the following Monday for the past three years.

All four women’s quarter-finals, two men’s quarter-finals and the remaining four men’s fourth round matches were all due to be played on Wednesday but the start of play had already been delayed by 90minutes because of rain. The other last 16 tie, which had yet to start, saw John Isner facing Gilles Simon.

In women’s last eight ties, top seed Caroline Wozniacki, still searching for a first Grand Slam title, takes on Germany’s Andrea Petkovic while three-time winner Serena Williams was up against Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Second seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia was facing Australia’s Samantha Stosur with unseeded German Angelique Kerber meeting Italy’s Flavia Pennetta.

Men’s quarter-finals action saw world number one Novak Djokovic playing fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic and five-time champion Roger Federer clashing with JoWilfried Tsonga.—AFP

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KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti man shops for perfumes at a cosmetics and perfumes exhibition in Mishref in this file photo.— AP

Gulf perfumers smell opportunity Increasing global interest in Arab fragrances

News

in brief

Saudi: Euro crisis could hurt ABU DHABI: Saudi Arabia’s finance minister pointed to risks to its exports yesterday should the financial crisis in Europe lead to slower economic growth, although it may also present opportunities for its oil-rich investors.

There are growing fears that a fresh crisis in Europe could trigger a global recession. Asked about any potential impact, Alassaf said: “Concerns could be for trade, or demand for Saudi production or exports.” “But on the other hand, it may be an opportunity for investors,” Alassaf said. Saudi Arabia, with more than $400 billion in assets, is the Arab world’s richest country.

HSBC to cut 3,000 jobs HONG KONG: HSBC is cutting about 3,000 jobs over the next three years in Hong Kong as part of a global restructuring, a spokeswoman said yesterday. The bank will try to redeploy some staff to other roles elsewhere in the company so the number of people actually losing their jobs may be less than 3,000, said the spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with company policy. The cuts are part of a strategic reorganization of the bank announced last month to make it more efficient and less bureaucratic. The British banking group said in August that it is cutting 30,000 jobs worldwide by 2013 and selling almost half its retail bank branches in the US as part of a new strategy to focus on fast-growing emerging markets. HSBC employees 23,000 people in Hong Kong and 296,000 worldwide. The job cuts in Hong Kong are part of a first wave of a global reorganization, which will also include restructuring at operations in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, the spokeswoman said. “This means we’ll make better decisions more quickly that will then mean we can create more business opportunities,” the spokeswoman said.

DNO eyes more assets in Iraq, UAE and Oman OSLO: Norwegian oil company DNO could buy more oil and gas assets in Iraq, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Tunisia once it completes the $250 million acquisition of assets from by UAE-based RAK Petroleum, DNO’s chairman said yesterday. DNO agreed to buy assets owned by major shareholder RAK Petroleum in July. Once the deal is completed-it needs to be approved at an extraordinary general meeting of DNO in December-DNO would hold oil and gas fields in these five countries and could acquire more. “We are looking opportunistically at other assets that may be priced well,” Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said in an interview.

“Following the merger, DNO will be in Iraq, Yemen, Oman, the UAE and Tunisia ... It can use each of these platforms to grow more in those countries.” MossavarRahmani is both the chairman of DNO’s board and chief executive of RAK Petroleum, which has owned 30 percent of DNO’s shares for more than a year and would own 40 percent with the deal. Talking generally about the attractiveness of oil and gas opportunities in the region, the chairman said the north of Iraq was by far the most attractive part of the region.

DUBAI: Walk through any of Dubai’s immaculate, air-conditioned shopping malls, and the scent of spicy perfume becomes an integral part of the shopping experience. From boutiques to sales clerks offering samples, there’s no shortage of fragrances lingering in the air, part of a tradition dating back thousands of years. “I don’t count the layers my wife puts on every day, but her smell always blows me away,” says Mustafa Al-Muhana, a Saudi Arabian visitor to one of the specialist perfume stores.

Per capita consumption of perfumes in the Gulf region is among the highest in the world. Men and women equally enjoy applying layer upon layer of scents which linger long after the wearer has disappeared from sight. “If a perfume doesn’t leave a trail, it’s not good enough,” says Abdulla Ajmal, deputy general manager at Ajmal Perfumes, a United Arab Emiratesbased fragrance manufacturer.

That belief is providing healthy sales for foreign makers of perfumes in the Gulf and also supporting a growing fragrance manufacturing industry within the region, which is struggling to diversify away from its traditional reliance on energy exports. Saudi Arabia is the Gulf’s largest regional market for fragrances, accounting for $827.5 million last year; the UAE was in second place with $205.8 million, according to consumer research firm Euromonitor International. By 2014, it expects fragrance sales to have grown 14.4 percent in Saudi Arabia and 16.5 percent in the UAE. Some predict even faster growth because of tourism and business travel to the region, in addition to rising competition as an increasing number of international players move into the Middle Eastern fragrance market, including Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Guerlain. “ The growth of the Gulf perfume industry will be exponential,” says Shazad Haider, chairman of Fragrance Foundation Arabia, the regional outpost of the Fragrance Foundation, a group which represents the industry’s interests globally. “We will see a minimum twofold growth over the next three years.”

GLOBAL INTEREST The people of the Arabian Peninsula have used oud, a perfume resin from the agarwood tree, as well as sandalwood, amber, musk and roses for over two thousand years; they are still the dominant ingredients in local perfumes. Perfume is repeatedly mentioned in the Islamic hadiths, which record the actions and words of Prophet Mohammed, and it is reported that he himself never refused perfume, intensifying its significance for all Muslims. Many perfumers say they have identified a trend in which traditional Arab fragrances are starting to attract broader, global interest. “We have a strong line that uses other Western notes but the interesting point is that our European, American...cus-

tomers are looking for the oriental notes, especially the oud oil,” says Shadi Samra, brand manager at Saudi Arabia-based Arabian Oud, which has flagship stores in London and Paris. In Dubai’s warehouse district, Ajmal Perfumes operates a $10 million, 150,000-square-foot factory that makes around 50,000 bottles of Arab and French fragrances a day.

Abdulla Ajmal said the turnover of the family-owned business in 2010 was $200 million; sales were dampened by the political unrest in the Arab world this year, but Ajmal said he still aimed for 6 percent growth in 2011. For now, however, many local manufacturers may struggle to achieve their international ambitions because they do not comply with global industry standards covering restricted ingredients and quality control. “If you want to export to anywhere else, not just to the West, but also Asia, you are going to have to comply with IFRA standards,” said Stephen Weller of the Brussels-based International Fragrance Association (IFRA). He added that the association currently had no Gulf members.

FOREIGN COMPETITION And while Gulf Arab perfume manufacturers seek growth abroad, they face stiff competition from French and global players on their home ground. L’OrÈal Middle East, the regional arm of the French cosmetics giant, accounted for 9.6 percent of fragrance sales in the UAE in 2009, the biggest share, followed by Ajmal with 9.2 percent, according to Euromonitor International. The three largest domestic makers, Ajmal, Rasasi and Designer Shaik, together accounted for 21 percent. “Most of the international houses work very closely with consumers here in the region...They adapt and introduce something customized, or they modify some of their product ranges to fit the taste of the region,” said Mohamed Al-Fahim, chief executive of Paris Gallery, one of the largest regional fragrance retailers. At the store’s Dubai Mall branch, Arabian-style glass bottles now carry the names of brands such as Guerlain and Clive Christian. Armani Prive and Tom Ford, among others, have developed ranges specifically for the region, and others plan to follow.

A 50 ml bottle of French brand Kilian’s Arabian Nights collection retails for about 1,500 dirhams ($410). In an acknowledgement of the heavier-than-average use of perfume in the region, a refill sells for halfprice. Global fragrance houses which can adapt to brand-conscious Gulf consumers still enjoy hefty advantages over most local perfumers in the form of bigger marketing budgets, technology and general experience of the industry. “We still have a way to go to produce something of the same level or even better than what is produced in Europe or the US,” Paris Gallery’s Fahim said.— Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Germany’s court upholds bailouts KARLSRUHE: Germany’s high court yesterday upheld the country’s participation in eurozone bailout funds, but ruled that lawmakers should be more involved in such decisions. The ruling means that while Germany’s agreement to take part in the financial rescue of Greece will not be affected, participation in future bailouts might become more complicated. Presiding Judge Andreas Vosskuhle said even though the Federal Constitutional Court had rejected lawsuits arguing that Germany’s participation had violated parliament’s right to control spending of taxpayer money, it was not giving a rubber-stamp to the chancellor’s office.

The verdict “should not be misinterpreted as a constitutional blank check for further rescue packages,” Vosskuhle told the court.

Chancellor Angela Merkel greeted the ruling, telling parliament that the judges had “absolutely confirmed” her government’s policies.

“The Federal Constitutional Court said personal responsibility and solidarity, naturally with the absolute approval of the parliament, is the way,” Merkel said.

In an impassioned defense of the 17-nation euro, she told lawmakers that the euro meant more to Europe than just a common monetary zone, noting that no countries with a shared currency had ever gone to war with one

another. “The euro is the guarantor of a unified Europe,” she said. “If the euro collapses, Europe collapses.” She again rejected, however, the possibility of introducing eurobonds. “Eurobonds are the way to a debt-union; we need a stability-union,” she said. In a rushed vote, Germany’s parliament agreed to join in the May 2010 bailout of Greece to keep it from defaulting on its debts, and to back the euro 440 billion ($620 billion) European Financial Stability Facility with some euro147 billion ($207 billion) in loan guarantees. — AP

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business

CITROEN at the Frankfurt motor show PARIS: At this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show CITROEN is exhibiting its three DS line models alongside its latest innovations and an all-new concept car. The brand is reasserting its ambition to develop solutions that make travel easier by combining two house values: daring and technology.

THE DARING DS LINE The CITROEN DS3 has already topped the 100,000 sales mark just 18 months after launch. Meanwhile, nearly 15,000 orders have been taken for the DS4 after a few months on the market.

CITROEN is lining up the three DS line models on its stand at the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show, with pride of place going to the latest creation, the CITROEN DS5. Set for launch in late

2011, the DS5 is a new step forward in the development of the distinctive line, which complements CITROEN’s main range by targeting customers looking for a resolutely modern approach to premium vehicles expressing the finest in French luxury. The Marque is underlining its boldness with the presentation of the CITROEN DS3 Ultra Prestige, an all-new version of the DS3 featuring watchstrap-design club leather upholstery specific to DS line models. In keeping with the spirit of the DS line, CITROEN is sharing its passion for the crafting of noble materials by presenting its finest upholsterers and their creations in a special corner on its stand.

FINEST IN CITROEN TECHNOLOGY CITROEN launched a full-electric

solution, the CITROEN C-ZERO, late last year. With the CITROEN DS5, the brand is releasing “Hybrid4” full-hybrid diesel technology combining performance (200 bhp, four drive wheels) and reduced CO2 emissions (99 g/km). The Marque is also presenting a C3 with eHDi 70 micro-hybrid technology. This model emits just 87 g/km of CO2, making it one of the most carbon-efficient cars in its category. CITROEN technology also comes in the form of 100% useful equipment. The CITROEN eTouch service pack automatically localizes the vehicle in the event of an incident to accelerate the arrival of the emergency services, while the brand’s Hydractive suspension, a world exclusive on the CITROEN C5 and C6, provides an ideal balance between ride

comfort and roadholding. This technological expertise is also reflected in the new CITROEN DS3 WRC, which is already notching up victories in the World Rally Championship.

CITROEN MAKES TRAVEL EASIER Following launch in France on 1 March 2011, CITROEN MULTICITY will be released in Germany early. The offer, accessible via the web and mobile phones, makes organizing travel arrangements easier, from route calculation - including all modes of transport - through to holiday reservations. CITROEN is continuing its thinking on mobility and discovering new avenues of exploration. Drawing on the best of its “Creative Technologie”, the brand will be unveiling an all-new

concept car at Frankfurt.

THE CITROEN BRAND A dynamic and creative brand, CITROEN launched the DS3 in 2010, scoring immediate sales success, and the DS4 in 2011. The distinctive line will be extended in late 2011 with the CITROEN DS5. Building on more than 90 years of Creative Technologie, CITROEN markets a range including two full-electric cars, vehicles equipped with e-HDi micro-hybrid technology, and - soon - a full hybrid, Hybrid4. The Marque is also innovating in services with its CITROEN MULTICITY mobility offering. CITROEN has 10,000 customer contact points, 11,500 employees and presence in 80 countries. It sold 1,460,000 vehicles in 2010.

Iran imports 4-5 cargoes of gasoline every month Most gasoline imports are from China under barter

10 percent discount for AUB cardholders at Asnan Clinic KUWAIT: Ahli United Bank (AUB) in cooperation with Asnan Clinic announced an innovative promotion exclusively designed for AUB’s credit card holders. As part of AUB’s strive to provide its credit card holders with a world of benefits that compliment their financial needs, Asnan Clinic offering them a discount of 10% on any service.

The participation of Asnan Clinic in AUB’s Instant Pearls Program is an added value to the program in terms of variety of the services provided to AUB credit card holders.

AUB continues to enhance its strategic alliances with successful retailers such as Asnan Clinic which reinforces AUB commitment to constantly deliver added value services & privileges to its customers.

Asnan Clinic is the leading cosmetic dental center in Kuwait. At our clinic, ar tisan meets science to provide a unique blend of caring, comfort, and the most advanced dental procedures available today. As part of its mission is to be an American Dental Clinic in Kuwait, they have exclusively hired a US trained

specialist in every single field of dentistry. Asnan clinic use state of the art dental equipment, dental chairs, and xray machines from the USA, Germany and Japan. Asnan clinic Sterilization process is based on the American System. The radiographs are all digital and reduces the unnecessary exposure by 85 to 90%.

AUB additionally extends its cardholders the “Pearl Rewards” Program which offers 3 pearl points for every KD 1 spent with AUB credit cards anywhere in the world. These Points can be conver ted to equivalent air miles and redeemed at any of the three leading airline Partners; Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways & Gulf for free flights, upgrades, hotel accommodation....etc. So the more you use your credit card, the more air miles you earn to enjoy free flights, upgrades, hotel accommodation and lots more additional benefits offered by each Airline’s Membership Program”.

AUB credit holders also get free worldwide travel and emergency medical insurance family coverage when tickets are purchased using AUB credit cards.

SINGAPORE: Iran has been importing four to five cargoes of gasoline per month, with most of it supplied by China as the Islamic Republic finds ways to get around the US-led sanctions, three industry sources familiar with the matter said. “For sure Iranians are importing gasoline from Asia, China namely,” one source said. “Suppliers sell to traders on a free-on-board (FOB) basis and they know that the cargo will end up in Iran,” he added.

The purchases were on a barter basis, a second source said.

“Chinese are buying crude and sending back gasoline,” he added.

Iran’s fuel trade has been hampered by West’s sanctions as oil companies stop supplying fuel to the Islamic Republic, fearing US-

led sanctions aimed Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, which it says is purely for energy purposes. An official from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said Iran has been importing gasoline but he declined to confirm the amounts or the barter system.

Washington wants to isolate Tehran over its nuclear program, which it believes Iran is using to develop weapons and although there is no international ban against buying Iranian crude, sanctions make financing difficult. Iran has trouble receiving billions of dollars of oil payments from its major customers such as India and South Korea as sanctions put a restrain on financial transactions. After months of a payment row with India over a

hefty $5 billion dollar oil bill, Iran said on Sunday that India has paid all of its oil debt. South Korea’s accumulating debt, around $3.8 billion in August, could hit $5 billion by the end of the year, government sources said. The volume of crude imports in the first seven months of 2011 rose almost half on the year. At nearly 560,000 barrels per day, the flow was about a quarter of Iran’s crude exports and is worth some $20 billion a year.

China signed up to the United Nations sanctions when they took full effect in mid-2010, but refused to support measures that targeted Iran’s oil and gas sector. “ These ships are not directly going to Bandar Abbas,” the first source said. “They’re making sev-

eral stops before arriving at their final destination,” he said.

Iran’s imports of nearly 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline in March and April had also involved ship-to-ship (STS) transfers. The state-owned company has imported gasoline recently but it has also been exporting, mostly to Iraq, the NIOC official said.

He did not provide amounts but said the grade was around 90 RON. Iran has boosted domestic output and curbed domestic demand by reducing subsidies and raising pump prices, but the trade patterns imply it is not yet self-sufficient and the gasoline it produces has been below the European standard of 95 RON. — Reuters

Burgan Bank participates in the 15TH housing exhibition KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced yesterday the participation in the 15th housing exhibition. The housing showcase is set to take place between the 12th and 15th of December. This is the fourth consecutive year that Burgan Bank has participated as a result of the joint success from previous participating outlets. This enables Burgan Bank to present their latest products and services to the visiting customers.

The signing ceremony was attended

by Haneen Al Rumaihi, Head of Marketing at Burgan Bank accompanied by Medhat Bahgat, a marketing official from the United Company for Marketing and Exhibitions.

Haneen Al Rumaihi, Head of

Marketing at Burgan Bank said: “The housing exhibition is a great platform to showcase the modern ways of building and construction along with awareness of the best practice methods used in housing welfare.

Through our participation, we were able to reach and cater to the diverse banking needs of our customers.” Burgan Bank continues to become an active participant across social as well as business events. The bank has been visiting different government and private institutions where it has been presenting and introducing its products and services. Its customer centricity approach is a reflection of its success across diverse business lines.

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2700000 .4380000 .3860000 .3220000 .2740000 .2870000 .0040000 .0020000 .0740490 .7214410 .3810000 .0700000 .7072410 .0040000 .0430000

.2760000 .4490000 .4490000 .3530000 .2820000 .2960000 .0072500 .0035000 .0747940 .7386590 .4010000 .0760000 .7143490 .0072000 .0530000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2722500 .2748500 GB Pound/KD .4408050 .4441990 Euro .3880140 .3910020 Swiss francs .3243360 .3268330 Canadian dollars .2761890 .2783150 Danish Kroner .0520880 .0524890 Swedish Kroner .0426510 .0429790 Australian dlr .2893470 .2915750 Hong Kong dlr .0349980 .0352670 Singapore dlr .2261610 .2279020 Japanese yen .0035460 .0035730 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 .0060010 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 .0025040 Pakistan rupee .0000000 .0031560 Bangladesh taka .0000000 .0037500 UAE dirhams .0742880 .0748600 Bahraini dinars .7237630 .7293350 Jordanian dinar .0000000 .3887550 Saudi Riyal/KD .0727530 .0733130 Omani riyals .7087180 .7141740 Philippine Peso .0000000 .0065440

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.539 5.966 3.138 2.489 3.741 228.270 35.260

Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.668 6.494 9.171 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal 73.283 Qatari Riyal 75.509 Omani Riyal 713.780 Bahraini Dinar 729.910 UAE Dirham 74.830 ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 47.000 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.063 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.257 Tunisian Dinar 199.060 Jordanian Dinar 388.080 Lebanese Lira 1.844 Syrian Lier 5.933 Morocco Dirham 34.860 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 274.700 Euro 388.560 Sterling Pound 441.030 Canadian dollar 279.310 Turkish lire 156.520 Swiss Franc 322.420 Australian dollar 291.040 US Dollar Buying 274.650 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

GOLD 335.000 171.000 89.000

10 Tola Sterling Pound US Dollar

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY SELL CASH Australian dollar 294.800 Bahraini dinar 730.190 Bangladeshi taka 3.850 Canadian dollar 281.100 Cyprus pound 539.300 Czek koruna 36.500 Danish krone 53.900 Deutsche Mark 167.800 Egyptian pound 47.060 Euro Cash 391.000 Hongkong dollar 35.890

Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

SELL DRAFT 293.300 730.190 3.683 279.600

228.500 46.109 389.500 35.740

6.310 5.965 0.034 0.033 0.240 0.239 3.650 389.530 388.050 0.186 0.185 95.200 95.200 47.500 4.230 3.750 231.500 230.000 1.862 52.300 713.150 712.970 3.260 3.150 6.630 6.500 75.960 75.530 73.310 73.310 228.510 228.510 41.090 41.090 2.629 2.490 443.500 441.500 43.500 327.800 326.300 5.600 5.600 9.590 9.360 198.263 74.860 74.760 274.900 274.500 1.220 GOLD 1,901.390 TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 441.500 274.500

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees

Selling Rate 274.450 278.920 439.820 388.450 320.850 727.660 74.700 75.330 73.150 386.320 46.140 2.488 5.970

Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

3.146 3.682 6.490 673.198 3.650 9.290 5.780 3.820 91.164

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency Rate per 1000 (Tran) US Dollar 273.900 Pak Rupees 3.145 Indian Rupees 5.955 Sri Lankan Rupees 2.495 Bangladesh Taka 3.680 Philippines Peso 6.515 UAE Dirhams 74.675 Saudi Riyals 73.190 Bahraini Dinars 728.200 Egyptian Pounds 45.970 Pound Sterling 445.500 Indonesian Rupiah 0.00003280 Nepali rupee 3.910 Yemeni Riyal 1.550 Jordanian Dinars 389.200 Syrian Pounds 5.750 Euro 390.400 Canadian Dollars 281.800

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

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

274.150 389.300 441.200 279.400 3.580 5.962 46.010 2.488 3.685 6.485 3.140 730.025 74.675 73.275

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KFH applauds women housing law

TRIPOLI: A banker shows 50 Libyan Dinar bank notes bearing the portrait of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday as people are refusing to use the bills and the banks are collecting them and returning them to the central bank. — AFP

New Libyan leaders vow to remake ‘cocktail’ economy TRIPOLI: Libya’s new leaders face immediate battles to get people back to work, tackle fuel and water shortages and improve security, but they are already eyeing a bigger goal: the complete transformation of the Libyan economy. “The economic inheritance that we received from the old regime is a system that is completely and utterly destroyed,” according to Libya’s new economy minister, Abdullah Shamia. For a man whose job is now to drum up business and help Libya and Libyans get rich, his assessment is bleak: “There is not a single sector that can add any value to the economy.”

That, according to Shamia, is because for 42 years the economy-like much else in Libya-was run according to the selfinterest and whimsy of the Kadhafi clan.

The result was an eccentric blend of oilbased socialism, capitalism, paternalism and nepotism, with no clear direction or goals. “It was a cocktail,” said Shamia. But it was a cocktail with only one real ingredient: oil. It was the high quality crude that lies beneath Libya’s desert sands that paid for all of rallies, private jets and foreign misadventures. Today the oil sector accounts for as much as 98 percent of Libya’s export revenues, and experts say even that sector suffers from underinvestment.

Libya’s National Transitional Council now wants to start building an economy that has a living, breathing private sector and that is not only dependent on natural resources. “Diversification of the Libyan economy is a fundamental issue we need to deal with,” said Shamia. While oil and the utility sectors might still see the state play a key role, Shamia hints at

a rash of privatizations to come, and, he hopes, an influx of foreign capital. That kind of investment will be needed to meet Libyans’ high expectations, fanned ever-higher by the fire of revolution.

While many citizens speak of their yearning for democracy, just as many complain about badly paid punch-in-punchout government jobs to which the vast majority are indentured.

Libyans want their country’s oil riches to make them filthy rich and energyrich Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait are cited as role models for the future of the countr y. But some exper ts fear the NTC’s earnest plans to diversify the economy, may be putting the car t before the horse. “The most urgent task is to get the oil pumping again, they are going to have to put a lot of effort into rebuilding infrastructure said Mohsin Khan a former Middle East director at the International Monetary Fund now with Washington’s Peterson Institute.

“Until that is on track it is going to be very difficult for them to do anything, because there will be no revenues.”

According to Ross Cassidy, an oil expert with British research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie it could take 36 months from the end of hostilities to get production back to pre-war levels. Still, the NTC has a sizeable financial bufferzone. It is estimated that the Bank of Libya and the country’s sovereign wealth fund have around $170 billion in assets.

According to ex-IMF official Khan, “a good chunk” of that cash will be needed to rebuild infrastructure after months of sometimes brutal war. Remaking Libya’s cocktail economy may have to wait for the next round.— AFP

Egypt to rely on local market for financing ABU DHABI: Egypt has no plans to issue an international bond currently and will rely on local market to meet its financing requirements, the country’s finance minister said yesterday. When asked if the country was looking at an international bond sale, Hazem El-Beblawi said, “International markets? No. Internal? We issue bonds regularly, locally.” He also said inflation in the North African country is ‘relatively under control’ at a meeting of Arab finance ministers in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

Egypt’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rates on hold last month reflecting continued concern about inflation and analysts expect rates to remain unchanged.

“Inflation is relatively under control but we have to be vigilant and follow vigilant policies to avoid uncontrolled financial situations,” Beblawi said. The North African coun-

try’s economy has been hard hit by popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak earlier this year and kept investors on the sidelines. The economy contracted in the first six months of 2011 and growth is projected to remain weak in the second half. “ The main problem is for stability to return which will reassure investors from the inside and outside, basically a return to normality, which we are getting close to rapidly,” Beblawi said. Egypt plans to finance its budget deficit for the fiscal year that began on July 1 mainly by selling 120 billion Egyptian pounds ($20.1 billion) in domestic treasury bills and bonds after the ruling military council turned down a $3 billion funding package that the Finance Ministry had sealed with the IMF. It plans to auction 12 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.01 billion) of treasury bills on Thursday and Sunday, its central bank said. — Reuters

We can cope with new shocks: Arab ministers ABU DHABI: Arab finance ministers shrugged off the threat to their economies from political upheaval and a global slowdown yesterday, saying ample cash reserves and mutual support would help them withstand new shocks. The meeting of the 22 ministers follows the fall of Tripoli to forces opposing the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. Tunisia and Egypt’s rulers were ousted earlier in the year and there is ongoing unrest in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. The outlook for the global economy has also worsened in recent weeks but they promised to help each other out. “This is a clear expression of the intention and tendency of Arab countries to help their brothers,” Minister for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al-Tayer, financial affairs minister for the UAE, which hosted the meeting, told reporters.

Egypt, where the economy was hurt by the popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, is negotiating aid from other Arab countries. Finance Minister Hazem el-Beblawi told Reuters that Egypt was close to striking a deal with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Monetary Fund for several billion dollars in loans. In June, Egypt rejected in June a $3 billion loan offer from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank but Beblawi said IMF assistance was still an option. He said the econ-

omy was close to getting back on its feet.

“The main problem is for stability to return, which will reassure investors from the inside and outside-basically a return to normalcy, which we are getting close to rapidly,” Beblawi said.

Arab governments have handed out billions in an effort to create jobs, counter rising living costs and foster stability among their citizens. Higher oil prices-due in part to regional instability- brings in more revenue and has bolstered reserves. Some economies have gone into deficit, however, and the key for oil-producing Arab states is whether the global slowdown will hamper demand, sending oil prices lower. Saudi Arabia, the richest Arab nation, plans to spend more than $130 billion in handouts.

Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf said there were risks to its exports should the financial crisis in Europe lead to slower economic growth, but it could also present opportunities for its oil-rich investors.

“Concerns could be for trade, or demand for Saudi production or exports,” said Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf. “But on the other hand, it may be an opportunity for investors.” The UAE, which suffered from the 2008-2009 global crisis, forcing investment conglomerate Dubai World to seek a debt standstill, said it was in a comfortable position. — Reuters

KUWAIT: Kuwait Finance House (KFH) applauded the approval of women housing law, and stressed that this positive step plays a role in stabilizing the Kuwaiti family, since women are an important element in the society and the national economy, which allows women to participate effectively in boosting the economy.

Local Real Estate Department Manager Salah Al-Khamees stated that the approval of this law by the Cabinet is considered to be a reformative step that complements a series of reformative procedures that the government has begun. In addition to that, it reveals Kuwait’s care in granting all society segments their equal rights, especially women, since they work hand in hand with

men to develop Kuwait. He stressed that KFH always encourages the approval of laws that favor the Kuwaiti family, in order to create a stable society, not to mention speeding up the economic reformation process; thus paving the way for a per fect environment for national corporations.

Al-Khamees noted that such a step will also positively affect the local real estate market through adding a new, effective segment, which serves the general welfare of the society and maintains balanced growth of some real estate market sectors. He mentioned that KFH has accumulative experience in this sector, and is willing to channel this experience to serve the new segment that benefits from the new

law, since it will require technical consultancies to ensure a fair price for the real estate that is to be acquired.

Such consultations will be offered through real estate centers found at some banking departments. He revealed that more than one party can take part in the acquisition request according to the rules and regulations. It is worth noting that KFH managed during the past years to offer significant added value to the local real estate market and foreign markets that it operates in, due to the experience of its employees and technical abilities in that field. In addition, KFH received recognition from official and supervisory authorities as an authority in real estate assessment.

Salah Al-Khamees

Thai PTT scraps Qatar LNG deal Energy firm plans expansion to 10 million tons RAYONG: Thailand’s largest energy firm, PTT Pcl , has cancelled a deal to buy 1 million tons a year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the world’s top exporter Qatar after a recent price surge, and has signed alternative contracts with two suppliers. State-controlled PTT also plans to pump $400 million to double the capacity of the country’s first LNG terminal to 10 million tons.

The company was in talks with several suppliers on pricing of the fuel and planned to import 2.5 million tons after the middle of 2012 to 2014, Wichai Pornkeratiwat, senior executive vice-president for its gas business, told reporters. “When things change, we can cancel that. What we signed was just an MOU,” Wichai said referring to a memorandum of understanding PTT inked with Qatar in 2008 to buy 1 million tons of LNG a year from late 2011 to feed the LNG receiving terminal, also the first in Southeast Asia.

PTT declined to give details about its suppliers. Rising LNG demand in the wake of the Japanese earthquake in March has pushed up LNG prices in recent months to more than $16 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu), up from $7-8 mmBtu, during the pre-quake peri-

od, PTT CFO Tevin Vongvanich said.”It’s the sellers’ market now after prices surged as a result of the nuclear crisis in Japan,” Tevin said, referring to the aftermath of the quake and tsunami which also crippled the country’s nuclear power plants and triggered a huge radiation leak.

LNG, gas chilled to liquid form for sea transport, is a key fuel source in Thailand, which uses natural gas to generate about 70 percent of its electricity. Yesterday, PTT officially opened the 5 million ton a year LNG terminal at the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in the eastern province of Rayong. The $880 million terminal consists of one jetty and two storage tanks that together can handle up to 5 million tons per year (tpy) of LNG, the amount Thailand plans to gradually import after 2011.

SECOND PHASE EXPANSION The terminal is capable of being developed into an LNG commercial hub for Southeast Asia, which would further enhance Thailand’s energy security, PTT said. Chief Executive Prasert Bunsumpun said PT T planned to expand the capacity of the LNG terminal to 10

million tons, expecting construction to be completed in 2016 with an estimated investment of $400 million. “We are discussing with the Energy Ministry about the expansion. If it approves the plan, we will start the project immediately,” Prasert said. Shares of PTT rose almost 1 percent yesterday, compared with the 0.8 percent rise in the main index.

Thailand is among a growing number of new LNG buyers in Asia as imports of the cleanerburning fuel allow countries to diversify away from oil and coal.

Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and possibly Sri Lanka and the Philippines are expected to become LNG importers in the next few years, adding to rapidly growing Asian demand for the supercooled fuel. Thailand’s terminal comes ahead of projects in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia is building a 3.8 million-tpy LNG terminal in western Malacca state, due to be ready in the middle of next year, and is looking at building another in southern Johor state. Singapore, which aims to become a business centre for LNG, is expected to launch a 6 million-tpy terminal in early 2013.— Reuters

BoJ holds rate steady TOKYO: The Bank of Japan yesterday left its key rate unchanged but refrained from further easing measures after last month expanding its asset-buying scheme to help safeguard a fragile post-quake recovery. Expectations had risen that officials would unveil some sort of easing after Switzerland’s central bank on Tuesday surprised markets by announcing it would cap the strength of the franc against the euro amid fears for its economy. The BoJ in a statement said its policy board voted unanimously to keep its key rate between zero and 0.1 percent, as it held steady after last month’s move to expand by 10 trillion yen ($129 billion) a scheme to buy assets.

The yen strengthened against the dollar in Tokyo trade after the announcement, as positions that were built on speculation the BoJ would offer further easing measures were unwound, dealers said. “Japan’s economic activity has been picking up steadily while the supply-side constraints caused by the earthquake disaster have been mostly resolved,” the central bank said in a statement. It maintained an optimistic view of the recession-hit Japanese economy, saying it expected it “to return to a moderate recovery path from the second half of fiscal 2011”. The BoJ said it would retain its virtually zero interest rate policy until it “judges that price stability is in sight” and the economy overcomes the deflationary pressures that have dogged it for months. Japan’s manufacturers have staged a rebound since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left around 20,000 dead or missing and shattered crucial supply chains, heavily disrupting Japanese industry. But concerns have grown that those efforts could be undermined by a strong yen, which erodes exporters’ profits and makes domestically-made goods more costly to sell overseas.

The Swiss National Bank on Tuesday said it would put a ceiling on the Swiss franc, which like the yen has surged to record highs on safe haven demand amid global growth concerns, hitting its own industries. When asked about the Swiss central bank’s decision, BoJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said: “Authorities of each country are pursuing the most appropriate policy based on their economic and financial conditions as well as their institutional framework.” A senior official at Japan’s ministry of finance suggested Japan would not try to imitate the SNB’s policy, but warned that Japan would take “decisive action” if the yen moves excessively.

“Japan by default has a different currency policy (from that of Switzerland), as we have the world’s third largest economy and third most important currency,” Senior Vice Finance Minister Fumihiko Igarashi said in comments reported by Dow Jones Newswires. “We need to respect an open market,” he said.

Last month the BoJ said it would expand to 50 trillion yen a 40 trillion yen scheme to buy securities and boost liquidity to help shore up confidence and support the economy amid worries over the strong yen. The bank’s asset purchase fund, a key policy tool it uses to buy Japanese government bonds, corporate bonds and exchange traded funds, was expanded to 15 trillion yen from 10 trillion yen.

It also boosted a credit facility by 5 trillion yen to 35 trillion.

Yesterday it said it “has subsequently been steadily implementing the decision.” After the BoJ announcement the yen rose to 77.14 against the dollar, from around 77.40 beforehand. In late August the Japanese unit surged to a post-war high of 75.95 against the dollar, despite an earlier 4.5 trillion yen intervention

by Japan to curb its strength versus the greenback and euro.

Amid concerns that the unit’s strength could prompt more companies to shift jobs and production abroad, Tokyo last month unveiled a $100 billion facility to help combat the strength of the yen and support companies.— AFP

TOKYO: Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Masaaki Shirakawa (centre right) answers questions from journalists during a press conference at BOJ headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala humbled in Carlyle IPO DUBAI: Carlyle’s IPO filing exposes Mubadala’s pain. The Abu Dhabi fund may have lost up to half the value of its $1.85 billion signature investment into the US private equity firm, despite clawing back some of the losses last year on its original 2007 punt. The final valuation will remain unclear until Carlyle prices its shares, but the outcome is unlikely to spare the emirate’s blushes.

Mubadala initially bought a 7.5 percent stake in Carlyle for $1.35 billion at the top of the cycle four years ago. Public valuations of the sector have since plummeted. And when Abu Dhabi invested a further $500 million into Carlyle last year, the emirate managed to extract a 10-year convertible bond with the same face value, paying an annual 7.25 percent coupon, as well as 2 percent equity interest-essentially thrown in for free.

But Carlyle might only be worth around $7.5 billion, according to a Breakingviews calculation based on the market capitalization of rival Blackstone. Abu Dhabi would need to end up with about 25 percent of the entire Carlyle group to break even on its investment. Yet the IPO filing states that Mubadala will not be able to own more than 19.9 percent of the firm on a fully diluted basis.

Put another way, the $1.35 billion Mubadala paid for 9.5 percent of Carlyle implies a $14.2 billion value for the group.

Assuming Mubadala’s $500 million bond converts into shares of the same value, Mubadala would only breakeven if Carlyle were worth $14.7 billion. To reach that, Carlyle’s performance fees, or “carry”, would need to be valued at a multiple of 8 — compared to the 3 at which Blackstone trades, according to a Breakingviews analysis.

Abu Dhabi’s bond will convert at a 7.5 percent discount to the final IPO price, and Mubadala may have benefited through some of its undisclosed direct investments in Carlyle’s funds. Yet it’s unlikely to be enough to recover the paper loss. The investment has also brought limited strategic benefits to the emirate compared to other bets, like the $8 billion joint venture Mubadala formed with General Electric in 2008. While Abu Dhabi may walk away with some acquired M&A expertise and, potentially, a board seat, these come at a rich price.

Carlyle Group, the private equity firm, filed for an initial public offering on Sept. 6, putting it closer to joining rivals Blackstone, KKR and Apollo on public markets. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala has invested $1.85 billion into Carlyle over four years, in two tranches.

The Abu Dhabi fund bought an initial 7.5 percent stake in the private equity group for $1.35 billion in September 2007. In December 2010, Abu Dhabi paid a further $500 million.

In exchange, Mubadala received a 10-year subordinated convertible bond of the same value and an additional 2 percent equity interest. Details of the investment were not revealed at the time. According to the terms, the $500 million bond pays an annual 7.25 percent coupon and converts at a 7.5 percent discount to IPO price if a listing takes place within five years. Mubadala will not be able to sell its stake in Carlyle for a period of between 12 and 24 months following the IPO and cannot own more than 19.9 percent of the business. Mubadala had received $19 million interest from the bond as of the six months ended June 2011.— Reuters

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Major indices post impressive gains GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended yesterday’s session in a booming state, tracking Asian equity gains. The advance was broad based with 7 out of 8 sectors managing to record hefty gains. All major indices posted impressive gains during the session. It is worth mentioning that the local bourse gained 1.99 percent in September so far.

In terms of top gainers, Pearl of Gulf Franchising Company was the top gainer for the day, adding 16.13 percent to its share value and closing at KD0.018. On the other hand, United Projects Company shed 7.69 percent and closed at KD0.300, making it the

Company, which made it to the top gainers list for the day, was the biggest gainer in the sector, adding 8.00 percent to its share price and ending the day at KD0.0135. Also, National Real Estate Company, which was also on the top gainers list, was up by 7.58 percent and

in the coming months, the finance minister Mustapha Al-Shamali said yesterday.

Agility Public Warehousing Company launched a major supply chain initiative aimed at delivering high levels of security and stability of shipment transit.

Goods are shipped from Hong

biggest decliner in the market.

Sectors Wise All Global indices ended the day on a positive note except for Global Food Index which shed 0.10 percent from its value. The decline was caused by Danah Al Safat Foodstuff Company and Livestock Transport & Trading Company, which were the only two decliners in the sector with the rest of the companies remaining unchanged. The two mentioned stocks were down by 1.39 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively.

Global Real Estate Index was the biggest gainer, adding 2.21 percent. Investors Holding Group

ended the day at KD0.071.

Heavyweight, Mabanee Company was the main driver of sector gain.

The scrip closed up by 3.80 percent at KD0.820. Global Banking Index was the second biggest gainer, adding 2.02 percent to its value backed by heavyweight National Bank of Kuwait (NBK). The scrip was up by 3.85 percent to end the day at KD1.080. The company reported heavy trading value, with KD1.39mn worth of stocks traded.

Kong to Nokia’s ultra modern factory in Cluj, Romania. Under the $90mn-$100mn contract, new innovative reliable solutions are being provided for Nokia. These solutions cut costs and improve supply chains.

Market Indices Global General Index (GGI) ended the day up by 1.54 percent, at 181.38 point. Market Capitalization was also up for the day, reaching KD29.68bn.

On the other hand, KSE Price Index closed at 5,908.2 point, adding 47.3 points (0.81 percent) to its previous close.

Market Breadth During the session, 101 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards advancers as 67 equities advanced versus 15 that declined.

Daily Trading Activity Trading activity was mixed during the session. Total volume traded was down by 2.02 percent with 162.49mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD17.49mn (35.62 percent higher compared to Tuesday’s session). Real Estate sector was the volume leader, accounting for 38.38 percent of total shares exchanges. Three services stocks made it to the top volume list for the day.

Abyaar Real Estate Development Company was the session’s most traded stock with 28.32mn shares exchanged. The services sector was the value leader, having 25.23 percent of total traded value. National Investment Company was the most active in terms of value traded, with KD2.31mn worth of shares traded. The scrip closed up by 5.56 percent at KD0.190.

Top Gainers and Biggest Decliners

Corporate News Kuwait has no plans to boost budget spending in the next fiscal year, nor does it expect budget cuts

Oil News The price of Kuwaiti crude oil dropped 23 cents to reach $105.73pb on Tuesday, compared to $105.96pb on Monday, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) yesterday. The drop is due to continuous signs of a drop in the US and Chinese economies, which would resulted in the decrease in

Stocks, euro recover; Long-term fears linger SINGAPORE: European stocks were poised to follow Asian shares higher yesterday as investors hunted for bargains, while the euro edged up against the dollar as traders covered some bets against the common currency following a sharp overnight fall. The constellation of asset price action reflected risk taking among investors, who had been mostly driven for the past few weeks by fears that still lingered about a euro zone break up and global recession. The Australian dollar rallied 1 percent, climbing above $1.06, US Treasury yields edged higher and gold tumbled on a sudden large sell order in thin trading conditions.

The Swiss franc, which had been along with gold the safe haven of choice for investors, kept to a relatively tight trading range above 1.2000 per euro, the day after the Swiss central bank said it would buy foreign currencies in “unlimited quantities” to enforce a cap on the currency versus the euro. “The stock market is rebounding after steep declines in recent days, but the situation has not changed and volatility remains high,” said Korea Investment Trust Management fund manager Kim Young-il in Seoul. “Uncertainty is high about the direction of the US economy, and uncertainty is even higher in Europe as investors are not sure whether the bloc is going in the right direction.”

Japan’s Nikkei share average rose 2.0 percent, coming off a two-and-a-half year closing low on Tuesday, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan gained 2.3 percent. The biggest gainers in the MSCI index were the tech and materials sectors, as electronics exporters such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and miners like Australia’s BHP Billiton posted strong gains. Shares of electronics makers have taken some of the worst beatings in the global market rout of recent weaks on mounting worries about slowing consumer and corporate demand.

The Nikkei was trading at a price-to-book ratio of 0.95 as of Tuesday’s close. That was the lowest since Aug. 24 and before that the lowest since April 1, 2009. A price-to-book ratio below 1.0 for the Nikkei means that the market value of every stock in the index is less than if all the companies’ assets were liquidated. Value-driven investors, though, were not returning in hordes to scoop up

bargains. “It’s a short-term rebound. I’m rather pessimistic,” said Norihiro Fujito, a senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

AUSTERITY DEMANDS The euro zone’s most indebted and high risk nations were scrambling yesterday to convince investors and the rest of Europe of their commitment to tackle their debt problems, even as the bloc’s main paymaster Germany faced increasing opposition to further aid. An unexpected jump in a US services sector index, however, helped stocks on Wall Street pare losses into the close and end down less than 1 percent. S&P 500 futures traded in Asia rose about 0.6 percent yesterday. Investors are now focusing on a speech by US President Barack Obama to Congress today, which CNN reported would include plans for a $300 billion jobs package.

The euro rose about 0.4 percent to around $1.4060, still not far from a two-month trough plumbed on Tuesday.

The dollar, pressured by disappointment that the Bank of Japan took no action at a policy meeting, was down 0.6 percent at around 77.19 yen, coming off an overnight high of 77.74. Speculation had risen on Tuesday that Japan may introduce measures to curb currency strength after Switzerland’s shock move. The Swiss franc plunged nearly 10 percent against the euro on Tuesday, its biggest daily fall ever, after the Swiss central bank jolted markets by drawing a line in the sand on how much the currency can gain.

“While we would not stand in the way of the SNB move, we question whether the SNB will be fully successful in maintaining 1.20 if global risks accelerate,” BNP Paribas strategists wrote in a note.

In commodities markets, spot gold fell further after striking a new record above $1,920 following the Swiss National Bank move. A large sell order caught traders off guard and triggered automatic sell orders, taking the metal to as low as $1,826.18.

Brent crude prices rose on Tuesday after three straight declines as tight North Sea supplies, continuing uncertainty about Libya’s oil and more tropical storms boosted prices. Brent crude was up about 0.4 percent to $113.30 a barrel yesterday, while US crude gained 0.4 percent to $86.35 a barrel.— Reuters

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What’s ahead for US Congress deficit-cutting panel?

WASHINGTON: When a new “super committee” in Congress begins work this week on reducing US budget deficits, the financial world will be watching to see just how serious Washington is about getting its fiscal house in order.

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction- featuring six Republican and six Democratic members of Congress - was created in early August as part of a deal that achieves $917 billion in spending cuts coupled with an increase in US borrowing authority.

Now, this special committee will try to find at least $1.2 trillion more in savings in the next decade. Credit ratings agencies will judge the panel’s results, which could have a profound impact on the country’s fiscal health. Already, one agency, Standard & Poor’s, has downgraded US debt. Here are some key points to keep in mind: WILL THE SUPER COMMITTEE SUCCEED? Democrats and Republicans are urging bipartisanship. Nonetheless, the panel will be working in a highly charged atmosphere after a bitter fight over raising the debt limit and amid presidential campaigns that are heating up. If Republicans cannot go along with tax hikes and Democrats form a wall of opposition against cuts to gov-

ernment healthcare or retirement benefits, it likely will be doomed to failure.

But if both sides keep everything on

DETROIT: Home owners Gloria and Mah-Lon Grant stand in front of their home that they bought back at a foreclosed properties auction. The couple said they would be homeless and their house likely gutted if Ted Phillips’ nonprofit group, United Community Housing Coalition, hadn’t helped them buy it back. — AP the negotiating table and if nobody walks out of the talks or is seen as trying to poison the atmosphere, some sort of deal might be reached.

Congress has to vote on it by a Dec 23 deadline. If a majority of the panel agrees to a deal, no amendments can

US trade deals facing tricky path to approval WASHINGTON: After a heated fight this summer over the US debt ceiling, coolerheaded Republicans and Democrats could come together this fall to pass three long-delayed free trade agreements. But to get past distrust built up on each side, business groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce anticipate a series of votes on related trade issues leading up to the pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, each signed more than four years ago. The process is expected to begin today with action on an expired program that helps domestic manufacturers by waiving duties on goods from developing countries.

Former US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said she was optimistic Congress would soon pass the trade deals but worried the effort could fail if the White House “overplays its hand” on Trade Adjustment Assistance. The White House and Republicans have locked horns this year over TAA, a longstanding program to help retrain workers who have lost their jobs because of foreign competition. The program was expanded in 2009 to cover service industry workers and provide more generous benefits. Those reforms have expired, but the core program continues.

Many Republicans, with a strong push from the party’s anti-spending Tea Party wing, question the need for TAA and its effectiveness. Democrats argue it is a key part of the US social safety net. Earlier this year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, struck a deal with the White House and a key Senate Democrat on a slimmed down version of TAA that includes many of the 2009 reforms. But Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate objected to White House plans to include the revamped program in the implementing legislation for the South Korea deal.

Democrats feared the program would be killed if not shielded by legislation for one of the trade pacts, which under previously agreed rules cannot be amended.

So, the administration and Congress have been looking for a separate path to get both TAA and the trade deals approved. Administration officials have said Obama will submit the pacts for congressional approval after the exact timing and sequence of votes have been agreed. In a speech on the Senate floor, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell urged Obama to “send them to Congress today so we can finally ratify them.”

be made by Congress, which would have until Dec 23 to approve or reject the measure.

VOTES IN HOUSE AND SENATE One industry official, who asked not to be identified, said he expected the process to begin today with House renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences, a program that allows developing countries to sell thousands of goods in the United States without paying duties. That bill would then be sent to the Senate, which is expected to amend the GSP legislation by attaching the TAA compromise negotiated earlier this year.

The combined package would return to the House, where it would await Obama’s formal submission of the trade deals. The House would then vote “in tandem” on the four pieces of legislation, sending the GSP-TAA bill to Obama’s desk for his signature. The three trade deals would go to the Senate for final congressional action before going to the White House. Because of the relatively few legislative days in September, the process could stretch into next month.

Several congressional aides noted some details remain to be worked out, but said they expected a roughly similar process.

Also, some lawmakers could push for votes on China currency legislation and other controversial trade issues, potentially further delaying or jeopardizing the trade deals. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday Democrats would renew their push for a vote on a bill to deal with “currency manipulation” as part of their efforts to create and protect jobs in the United States. Schwab, who was former President George W Bush’s chief negotiator when each of the deals was signed, said she believed approving the “TAA compromise is a small price to pay for the free trade agreements. That’s the view of the business community and I share that view.”

But the sequencing of votes matters, and Schwab said she feared the effort could collapse if Obama insists the Republican-controlled House approve TAA before he submits the trade pacts to Congress for votes. Failure to pass the trade deals would hurt US manufacturers, farmers and ser vice companies eager to expand exports to three countries, she said. It would also undermine the Obama administration’s own efforts to craft a regional free trade agreement with eight other countries in the Asia Pacific region, she said. “If these things don’t go through this fall, we have zero credibility. Zero. Not just in the TransPacific Partnership talks but in other international negotiations,” Schwab said. — Reuters

HONG KONG: A visitor takes a picture in front of a watch display during the 30th Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair. The expo, the largest trade of its kind in the world, showcases some 700 exhibitors and runs until September 11. — AFP

WHAT ABOUT EXTERNAL FORCES? The committee will be under pressure from lobbyists. US defense contractors, for example, will fight deep Pentagon cuts. Some healthcare industry lobbyists and some liberal groups hope the com-

mittee fails. They fear they would suffer bigger cuts under a deal than if the super committee fails and automatic spending cuts are instead triggered, beginning in 2013. And then there are the Republican presidential candidates.

Their campaigns will be heating up as the super committee is deliberating. If those candidates ratchet up their rhetoric against any tax increases, it will be more difficult for Republicans on the panel to embrace deficit-reductions through higher revenues. Conservative Tea Party activists who seek to cut the size of government want only spending cuts. Liberal groups want a “balanced” approach that includes tax increases.

WHAT IF GLOBAL ECONOMIES TANK? If economic growth further deteriorates in the United States or if European debt problems jeopardize the American economy, there could be more pressure on the panel for a deal — and maybe even one bigger than the $1.2 trillion in added savings.

WHAT MIGHT A DEAL LOOK LIKE? There could be some savings in the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly-ones that do not reduce benefits but cut costs in other modest ways.

Some new revenues, such as ending some special interest corporate tax

breaks, could be included. But it is unclear if Republicans would insist on an equal amount of income tax rate cuts. A partial deal is also possible. If the panel cannot get to $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years, it could agree on several hundred billion dollars worth. The rest would be achieved through automatic spending cuts starting in 2013.

The question is whether Congress late in 2012, after congressional and presidential elections, would let those automatic spending cuts go forward. A deal also could include savings outside the mandated 10-year budget window, said Alex Brill, a research fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Those longer-term savings could be aimed at Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security and would amount to a lot of money, he said.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON THURSDAY? The super committee holds its first meeting, which will be open to the public. The members will deliver opening statements, which will give some clues as to how partisan a fight this will be.

They also will weigh the rules under which they will operate. That will be followed by the panel’s first public hearing on Tuesday, when it will hear from the Congressional Budget Office chief. A few more hearings are likely. — Reuters

Obama plans $300 bn in tax cuts, spending President’s approval ratings hit new lows WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama, facing waning confidence among Americans in his economic stewardship, plans to propose some $300 billion in tax cuts and government spending, US media reported. The price tag of the proposed jobs package, to be announced

by Obama in a nationally televised speech to Congress today, would be offset by other cuts that the president would outline, CNN reported, citing Democratic sources.

Bloomberg News said the plan would inject more than $300 billion into the economy next year through tax cuts, spending on infrastructure, and aid to state and local governments. Obama would offset those shortterm costs by calling on Congress to raise tax revenues in a deficit-cutting proposal he will lay out next week, the news agency reported, without citing sources. The White House declined to comment on the reports. Obama’s aides have refused to go public with the estimated cost of Obama’s package or provide many specifics in advance, except to say that the proposals will have a “quick and positive” impact on boosting jobs at a time of stubbornly high US unemployment.

“We need to do things that will have a direct impact in the short-term to grow the economy and create jobs, and the president will put forward proposals that will do just that,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Republicans criticized Obama for not including them in discussions on the package before his big speech and indicated any jobs bills could face tough passage through Congress, where they control the House of Representatives.

“I have no doubt the president will propose many things today that, when looked at individually, sound pretty good, or that he’ll call them all bipartisan. I’m equally certain that, taken as whole, they’ll represent more of the same failed approach,” said the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell. Republican House leaders separately wrote to Obama urging him to repeal “excessive, job-destroying regulations” and laying out possible areas of common ground, including reforms to the unemployment system and free-trade agreements.

WANING CONFIDENCE, TAX CUTS Confidence in Obama’s management of the economy has been hit by months of bad economic news, and several polls on Tuesday showed fresh declines in his job approval ratings. Obama hopes to start reversing this trend with his address to a joint session of

must now get lawmakers to back additional spending that many oppose. However, the president is seeking congressional support at a time when his own prospects of re-election have worsened. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Obama’s job approval rating at a low of 44 percent, while an ABC News/

DETROIT: President Barack Obama waves to supporters during a Labor Day speech at Detroit’s Renaissance Center, headquarters of General Motors in Detroit, Mich. — AP Congress today, in which he will try to convince voters that he has a better economic recovery plan than his Republican opponents.

Bloomberg said nearly half the stimulus in Obama’s plan would come from tax cuts, including an extension of a payroll tax cut paid by workers and a new decrease in the amount paid by employers. Vice President Joe Biden told reporters last month a payroll tax cut for employers was being considered. Direct aid to local governments will focus on stopping layoffs of teachers and first responders, Bloomberg said.

Obama fought Republicans for much of the summer to lift the US debt ceiling in a bitter debate that saw rating agency Standard & Poor’s cut the US AAA credit rating, and he

Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans now rate the president’s job on the economy and jobs negatively.

A third survey by Politico and George Washington University found that 72 percent of voters believe the country is either strongly or somewhat headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 12 percent since last May. Obama must get unemployment down from levels currently above 9 percent to improve his chances of winning a second White House term in the November 2012 election. The president has already touched on a various steps Congress could take to lift growth and hiring, including infrastructure spending, business tax breaks, and extending the payroll tax cut and aid for the long-term unemployed. — Reuters

BofA consumer bank, brokerage chiefs quit CHARLOTTE: Bank of America Corp, which has lost almost half of its market value this year, announced a broad reorganization on Tuesday that includes the departure of two senior executives. The biggest US bank said after the market closed that Joe Price, head of consumer banking, and Sallie Krawcheck, head of global wealth and investment management, have left. Price was a former chief financial officer of the company, and Krawcheck was a former CFO of Citigroup, leader of its Smith Barney brokerage unit and frequently touted as the highest ranking woman in the financial services industry.

Chief Executive Brian Moynihan named commercial banking head David Darnell and investment banking head Tom Montag, a former Goldman Sachs executive, to new positions as co-chief operating officers. The changes are effective immediately, the company said.

A bank spokesman said neither

Moynihan nor the executives involved in the shifts were available for comment.

Investors did not seem convinced that the reorganization indicates Moynihan now has a steady hand on the controls of a company battling a barrage of litigation and loan losses. BofA stock inched up to $7.03 in afterhours trading after closing at $6.99 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. “It seems apparent Moynihan is under pressure to make some bold moves,” said David Dietze, chief investment strategist at Point View Financial Services in Summit, New Jersey, which owns BofA shares. “Obviously there is disagreement among people at the top who have lots of options and lots of experience.”

The shake-up comes less than two weeks after billionaire investor Warren Buffett invested $5 billion in the bank’s preferred stock and after the company announced it would shed 3,000 jobs this quarter. The moves only

temporarily arrested a shareprice decline as investors fear the bank remains on the hook for billions of dollars of mortgagerelated losses. Krawcheck and Price managed key parts of the company’s Merrill Lynch operations, which Bank of America bought during the financial crisis and has proven to be one of its most profitable businesses. Both, however, were closely allied with Moynihan’s predecessor Kenneth Lewis, whose purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp is responsible for much of its continuing losses.

NEW ROLES, NEW BAR SET In their new roles, Darnell-a veteran commercial banker who also worked closely with Moynihan-will oversee consumer banking operations, including the Merrill Lynch retail brokerage operations. Montag will run divisions that work with corporate and institutional customers.

“Moynihan has just raised the bar for a small group of execu-

tives, including those loyal to former CEO Lewis, to step up and resolve the sins of the past in a more decisive and effective manner,” said Todd Hagerman, a banking analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach.

The reorganization comes as Bank of America hustles to shed assets to bolster its capital base and continues battling lawsuits related to its 2008 purchase of Countrywide, once the nation’s largest home lender. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank paid $2.5 billion to buy Countrywide, but writedowns and legal costs have pushed the estimated cost of that purchase to more than $30 billion.

Krawcheck, who was in charge of the Merrill Lynch brokerage unit as well as of U.S. Trust and other private banking units, was recruited by Lewis in August 2009.

When he was forced into early retirement in September 2009, she was touted as a candidate for the top job that eventually went to Moynihan. — Reuters

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Indian outsourcers seek revenues from ‘smart work’ NEW DELHI: For advertising executive Govind Nair, working in India’s outsourcing industry for a California telecoms firm means burning the candle at both ends for his customers. “They tr y to be considerate. They know there’s a 12-and-a-half-hour time difference between India and San Francisco but we still end up getting up early and going to bed late,” Nair, 30, says. Such hours are becoming increasingly routine for many young Indian professionals as they liaise with counterparts in the United States and other Western countries on high-end “smart work” projects.

India, known as the world’s largest back office with its cheaper, educated English-speaking workforce, is expanding its “knowledge processing outsourcing”, offering market research, statistical analysis, legal, health and a host of other services. The sectorfamiliarly known as KPO-”is the next wave of global sourcing for India”, Som Mittal, head of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) told an industry conference last week.

erhouse. The country now has 70 percent, or $2 billion, of the $2.9 billion global KPO industry, Crisil says. North America provides 65 percent of the sector’s revenues, Britain 20 percent and continental Europe 10 percent.

Nasscom believes the fresh economic troubles in Europe and the United States may accelerate KPO sector growth as Western firms seek to harness the technical and financial expertise of India’s supply of university graduates, lawyers, accountants and MBAs. “India has a tremendous advantage in its technical, analytic and managerial skills,” Matthew Vallance, chief executive of one of India’s biggest back office companies, Firstsource Solutions said. The $2 billion is still a fraction of India’s overall outsourcing revenues, expected to total $68 to $70 billion this year. But Crisil forecasts in a new report that revenues from outsourcing knowledge-intensive skills will nearly triple to $5.5 billion by the end of 2015.

“India is moving up the value chain,” GURGAON: Photo shows Indian staff working at a call centre in Gurgaon on said Crisil chief executive Roopa the outskirts of New Delhi. — AFP Kudva, noting Indian lawyers now

Performing “value-added tasks” such as writing equity reports and legal work can mean 40 to 50 percent higher billing rates than for lower-value jobs in call centers fielding inquiries about bank accounts, industry officials

Denmark’s fading economy ‘the main focus of election’ COPENHAGEN: Campaigning ahead of Denmark’s September 15 general election is all about the economy, with one side calling for belt-tightening and the other vowing to spend its way out of the crisis. After a decade under a centre-right government focused on cutting back the public sector and freezing taxes, opinion polls indicate Danish voters are preparing to hand the reins to the left-leaning opposition, which has traditionally championed the country’s generous welfare state.

The opposition, headed by Social Democratic leader Helle ThorningSchmidt who could be become the country’s first woman prime minister, has blasted Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen’s government for callously cutting back on retirement and failing to spend to stimulate the economy.

“After 10 years with Lars Loekke (Rasmussen) and (his ally the populist Danish People’s Party leader Pia) Kjaersgaard, Denmark has ground to a halt,” Thorning-Schmidt charged recently.

Rasmussen has staked his credibility on maintaining healthy finances, yet late last month his government forecast the deficit will balloon next year to nearly 85 billion kroner (11.4 billion euros, $16.5 billion), or 4.6 percent of gross domestic product. That compares to last year’s deficit of just 2.8 percent of GDP and a towering surplus of more than 80 billion kroner five years ago.

Denmark narrowly missed recession this year as growth hovers around one percent.

Contrary to the left bloc, Rasmussen has insisted austerity measures are the best cure for Denmark’s economic woes, and has called the opposition’s planned stimulus spending “irresponsible wishful thinking.” The left has called for spending of about 18 billion kroner (2.41 billion euros, $3.39 billion) to get the economy moving, which they say could be financed by adding an extra hour to the work week. To fend off criticism of financial irresponsibility, it has vowed it will not borrow to fund the welfare state. Rasmussen’s centre-right coalition, made up of his Liberal Party

and the Conservative Party and backed by the far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), has charged the opposition’s economic plan is vague, will dramatically deepen the deficit and cause both interest rates and unemployment to rise.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has already pushed through-perhaps to his peril-plans to raise the official retirement age from 65 to 67 and gradually do away with early retirement, which today is possible starting at age 60. It was rumors that the same system was under attack that spelled the demise of the Social Democratic government a decade ago, and the centre-left opposition has threatened to tear up the reform if it comes to power.

But amid mounting global financial and economic turmoil, and as Denmark’s economic growth has slowed and its budget deficit soars, economists say neither side has the wiggle room to push through their most partisan issues. They say the election result will have little impact on Danish economic policy, and a win by the opposition may not mean a very radical shift. “ The government and opposition agree that we must keep to the EU rules. They also agree that you have to manage public finances,” Danske Bank chief economist Steen Bocian said, pointing out that “a major policy shift need not be expected, seen from the financial markets point of view.”

The differences in the two sides’ economic approaches are actually minute, Bocian said. “The differences in the first couple of years are so relatively small that there is no reason to expect a massive interest rate hike or pressure on the Danish krone” if there is a change of government, Bocian said. Aarhus University economics professor Bo Sandemann Rasmussen agreed. “Both the government and opposition plans operate with a deficit in 2012 of between 80 and 90 billion kroner, so in the short term there is not much difference, and both plans seek to balance the budget in the long term,” he said. — AFP

Anger as Qantas chief handed 71% pay hike SYDNEY: Pilots yesterday criticized as ‘hypocrisy’ Australian airline Qantas’ decision to give chief executive Alan Joyce a 71 percent pay rise as the company plans to sack 1,000 staff. Unions have been locked in a bitter industrial dispute with the carrier for a year, and fiercely attacked the revelation in the company’s annual report that Joyce would be paid Aus$5 million (US$5.3 million) in cash and benefits.

Qantas said while Joyce’s payment for the 2010-2011 financial year was greater than the Aus$2.9 million he earned last year, it was below that paid to executives at other top-ranked Australian companies. “Mr Joyce’s salary is not excessive compared with other large Australian companies,” a Qantas spokesman said.

The airline said Joyce’s “vested remuneration”-meaning fixed pay, cash bonuses

and the value of shares and rights which were realized in the year-was Aus$3.04 million. “His actual salary in 2010/11 was nine percent lower than last year and Qantas executives have not been awarded a cash bonus for the past two years,” the spokesman said.

But the Australian and International Pilots Association described the pay rise as a “disturbingly typical display of hypocrisy”. “To hand yourself a 71 percent payrise, while simultaneously sacking a thousand Aussie workers, smacks of breathtaking arrogance,” AIPA Vice President Captain Richard Woodward said. Qantas this year doubled its fullyear net profit to Aus$250 million but warned of challenging times ahead as it plans an Asia-focused restructuring which will see it establish two new airlines in Asia. — AFP

say. KPO revenues have been growing at 26 percent annually according to research house Crisil, outpacing the overall expansion of the flagship outsourcing industry that has helped make India an emerging market pow-

research case law and put together arguments to be presented in court in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. Bankers prepare papers for acquisitions, while nurses monitor the condition of housebound patients in the West. Doing value-added work has become increasingly important for India as it seeks to preserve its overall global outsourcing dominance, especially after ceding its crown as the world’s leading call centre hub to the Philippines.

Last December, the Philippines, which also has a trained, Englishspeaking workforce with a strong service culture, edged past India to become the largest call centre operator in the world, logging $5.5 billion in annual revenues compared with India’s $5.3 billion. “India is still ahead (in total offshoring), although other offshoring sites like the Philippines and Indonesia are emerging,” said Tervinderjit Singh, a research director at global consultancy Gartner. “But these countries are still not mature enough in high-level professional work which India can provide,” he said. — AFP

Italy and Greece under pressure Italy to hike VAT; Strikers protest against austerity BERLIN: The eurozone’s most indebted nations were scrambling yesterday to convince investors and the rest of Europe of their commitment to tackle their debt problems, even as the bloc’s main paymaster Germany battles increasing opposition to further aid.

Germany’s top court is due to deliver a ruling around 0800 GMT that may grant legislators more say over future aid, but was expected to stop short of blocking Berlin’s contribution to a current series of multi-billion euro bailouts.

Italy’s centre-right government promised on Tuesday to hike value-added tax as it bowed to market pressure for more action on its swollen debt and ignored mass street protests and strikes against its austerity measures. Greece’s finance minister pledged to speed up delayed privatizations and structural reforms, while his Irish counterpart said Dublin was considering making a deeper fiscal adjustment than planned next year to boost market confidence.

“We are in the middle of a peculiar war-if we lose, we lose everything,” Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told reporters.

“If we don’t complete structural reforms, if we don’t change the way the state and the economy work, we will be stuck.” Doubts about the will of Italy and Greece to push through the austerity demanded by their partners have darkened the political mood in Europe as leaders grapple with a two-year-old debt crisis that has triggered renewed pressure in bond markets. With Italian bond spreads over German bunds widening, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi met ministers as the Senate began a debate opening the way for approval of a 45.5 billion euro austerity package on Wednesday.

Rome said it would raise value added tax and introduce a constitutional balanced budget amendment as part of a revised plan.

But its credibility has taken a hammering in financial markets because of the chaotic way it has been handled. With investors alarmed at Italy’s lack of progress in reining its 1.9 trillion euro debt, Rome’s borrowing costs have been rising inexorably for more than a week, despite intervention by the European Central Bank. “Italy is governed appallingly badly,” European Energy Commissioner Guenter Oettinger told a conference in Berlin on Tuesday, accusing Berlusconi’s government of irresponsibility and saying the ECB, which has bought Italian bonds in the open market to hold down yields, had been “cheated”.

FISCAL BACKSLIDING Meanwhile fiscal backsliding in Athens has

put a new aid payment from the country’s international lenders in danger and prompted lawmakers in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party to call for Greece’s ejection from the 17-nation currency area. Just six

secured in May 2010.

BAILOUT FUND The ECB is counting on European governments to step in and assume the role of

ATEHNS: An employee at the Athens Metro puts up a notice to announce a four-hour work stoppage. Strike-minded unions are fiercely opposed to sweeping labor reforms announced by the government this week. — AP weeks after eurozone leaders came together in Brussels to agree on new anti-crisis measures-including a second bailout for Greece and new powers for the bloc’s rescue fundtheir strategy looks to be unraveling. In southern Europe, public resistance to new austerity measures is on the rise, while in the north public anger at a series of taxpayer funded bailouts is building to a crescendo.

Greece has floated the idea of speeding up payments under a second international bailout although it has made no formal request and any such change would be unlikely, an official close to EU and IMF negotiators told Reuters on Tuesday. Any such demand to cover a higher-than-expected deficit would fur ther complicate talks between Greece and its international lenders, already fraught due to the country’s repeated fiscal slippages and reform delays. Seeking to placate creditors, Finance Minister Venizelos told reporters in Athens late on Tuesday Greece would speed up delayed reforms, key to obtaining an 8 billion euro tranche of aid from a first, 110 billion euro EU/IMF bailout

bond-buyer of last resort once their rescue mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), receives new powers. But for that to happen, national parliaments need to approve the changes to the mechanism-a major hurdle in member states where aid to euro zone stragglers is increasingly unpopular. A euro zone official said on Tuesday that a deal giving new powers to the bailout fund would be ratified by all euro zone countries by the end of this month timeframe that had been put in doubt when a government coalition member in Slovakia said its parliament would not vote until December at the earliest.

Yesterday ’s ruling from Germany ’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, in a case brought by six prominent euro-sceptics who argue the euro zone’s existing bailouts are unconstitutional, could limit Berlin’s ability to react swiftly if the debt crisis deteriorates further. “A reversal of German contributions to previous aid packages is not to be expected,” said Nicolaus Heinen, an economist at Deutsche Bank. — Reuters

Oil up at $113 on weak dollar LONDON: Oil was up at just over $113 a barrel yesterday, underpinned by expectations of lower US crude stocks after a storm disrupted production in the Gulf of Mexico, and optimism about a new support package for the US economy. A Reuters poll ahead of the weekly inventory report from the US Energy Information Administration gave a consensus forecast for a fall of 1.9 million barrels of crude in the week to Sept 2. Front-month Brent crude futures gained 42 cents to $113.31 a barrel by 1005 GMT, after settling up $2.81 on Tuesday. US crude was trading at $87.07 a barrel, up $1.05.

Brent had rallied from $109.85 to $113.61 on Tuesday, and yesterday’s trading consolidated these gains, supported by a weaker dollar, tight North Sea supplies, and the ongoing hurricane season. “Oil does seem to

have an ability to stay up despite appalling economic data, due to Middle East unrest, hurricanes and dollar weakness,” said Christopher Bellew, a trader at Jefferies Bache. He said oil had bounced on Tuesday partly because of the Swiss National Bank’s decision to peg the Swiss franc to the euro to try to prevent further appreciation. Analysts believe oil may gain further support from this move because it reduces the number of safe haven assets available.

“Investors will seek other obvious investments,” said Thorbjorn Bak Jensen, an oil analyst at Global Risk Management.

“Commodities will surely be one of them. Yesterday’s mini-rally supports our conclusion.” Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix, agreed: “With what is going on in the currencies and the stock market we have to respect that some

flows might be looking for a parking spot.” Traders are also closely tracking the progress of storms in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Lee, which made landfall over the weekend, is expected to have disrupted imports to the US, adding to the impact of Hurricane Irene, which forced the closure of several oil hubs on the US East Coast the previous weekend.

“Following Tropical Storm Lee, production of almost 850,000 barrels a day, or over 60 percent of US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, were still shut down until yesterday,” said analysts at Commerzbank. “This should be reflected in a fall in US crude oil inventories.” A broad area of low pressure located over the southern Gulf of Mexico has a medium 40 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, the US National Hurricane Center forecast. Analysts and

traders also pointed to hopes that US President Barack Obama might announce new stimulus measures to boost the flagging US economy.

Obama is expected to unveil a $300 billion package to create new jobs in an address to Congress today, CNN reported, citing Democratic sources. Brent crude could rise towards $115.36, while US oil is expected to revisit the Sept 1 high of $89.90, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao says.

The market is also taking some comfort from the fact that fears of a sharp slowdown in China have eased after an influential government economist said the world’s second-biggest energy consumer would be able to achieve a soft landing for its economy.

“There are some signs that it is nothing like as bad in the Far East as it is in Western economies,” said Bellew. — Reuters

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TECHNOLOGY

Tech company to build science ghost town ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico: New Mexico, home to several of the nation’s premier scientific, nuclear and military institutions, is planning to take part in an unprecedented science project - a 50-sq-km model of a small US city. A Washington, DC-based technology company announced plans Tuesday to build the state’s newest ghost town to test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems. Although no one will live there, the replica city will be modeled after a typical American town of 35,000 people, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new.

Pegasus Global Holdings chief executive officer, Bob Brumley, says the

$200 million project, known as The Center, will be a first of its kind in the US, creating a place for scientists at the state’s universities, federal labs and military installations to test their innovations for upgrading cities to 21st century, green technology and infrastructure in a real world setting. It will also enable them to rub shoulders with investors, meaning it could ultimately draw enough new businesses to give the state a technology corridor like that in California’s Silicon Valley or Virginia’s Reston, Brumley said.

“The idea for The Center was born out of our own company’s challenges in trying to test new and emerging technologies beyond the confines of a sterile lab environment,” said Brumley.

“The Center will allow private companies, not for profits, educational insti-

tutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies prior to introduction.”

For instance, he said, developers of solar technology would be able to assess exactly how their systems would be delivered and used in one house where the thermostat is set at 78, and another where it’s set at 68.

The center could also help show how efficient it might be in an old building versus a new one. Brumley said Pegasus has been working with the state on the project for about 18 months, and has some initial plans already drawn up. It is now working on appointing a public-private advisory board and selecting a final site.

He said it will be developed on state -owned land, either in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor or in the Las Cruces area near the Texas and Mexico borders. The northern part of the state is home to the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories and an Intel factory. Southern New Mexico has White Sands Missile Range, Fort Bliss and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Brumley indicate he had a site narrowed down but said it will likely be a few months before anything final is announced.

Initially, the project will employ about 350 people, Brumley said. But he estimates it could ultimately create 3,500 new jobs “outside the fence”.

“This could give New Mexico a leadership position in the commercialization of federal research,” he said. “It will

serve as a magnet for investors.”

Brumley said the ghost town will make money by charging user and operation and maintenance fees, selling energy to the grid by subleasing some of its state land for the development of office buildings, hotels and restaurants.

Gov Susana Martinez said the state is committed to working with Brumley.

“I am confident this innovative project would provide a great boost to New Mexico’s economy,” she said in a statement. “We are pleased to be able to offer the resources, open spaces, and talented workforce required to make this effort a success.” My administration is committed to an ongoing relationship with Pegasus that will allow The Center to thrive and create New Mexico jobs.” — AP

Yahoo fires CEO Bartz says fired over telephone, rocky run ends

HONG KONG: A woman walks past the soon to open new Apple store yesterday.

Apple plans to open its first store in Hong Kong and another in Shanghai by year’s end, a spokeswoman said yesterday as the maker of the iconic iPhone sets its sights on the booming China market. — AFP

McAfee warns of threat to vehicles SAN FRANCISCO: Cars made smarter with Internet technology are zooming into perilous hacker territory, according to a report by US computer security giant McAfee. The first-of-its-kind report, entitled “Caution: Malware Ahead” and released late Tuesday, warned that security is lagging as vehicles are enhanced with embedded chips and sensors for a growing array of purposes. “As more and more functions get embedded in the digital technology of automobiles, the threat of attack and malicious manipulation increases,” said McAfee senior vice president and general manager Stuart McClure. “It’s one thing to have your email or laptop compromised, but having your car hacked could translate to dire risks to your personal safety,” he added.

Chips are embedded in almost all parts of cars from airbags, brakes, and power seats to cruise controls, antitheft gadgets, and communications systems, according to McClure.

Researchers have demonstrated that computers controlling functions in automobiles can be hacked if attackers get into vehicles and, in some cases, from afar. A security consultant with iSEC Partners showed peers at a recent Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that it is possible to unlock or start cars by sending commands in the form of text messages from smartphones.

Sensors used by roadside emergency services to find cars or by car owners to make sure vehicles are being driven safely, can give cyber stalkers ways to track someone’s movements, according to the report. Hackers could disrupt car navigation systems, steal personal data through Bluetooth con-

nections, or disable vehicles remotely, the findings indicated. “The automobile industry is continually adding features and technologies that deliver new conveniences such as Internet access and the ability to further personalize the driving experience,” the report said. “However, in the rush to add features, security has often been an afterthought,” it said.

There were no indications that hackers have yet taken advantage of computer vulnerabilities in cars, according to McAfee. McAfee and smart gadget software specialty firm Wind River, both owned by US chip colossus Intel, collaborated with embedded device security firm ESCRYPT on the study. “As the trend for ubiquitous connectivity grows, so does the potential for security vulnerabilities,” said Wind River senior director for automotive solutions Georg Doll. “The report highlights very real security concerns, and many in the auto industr y are already actively designing solutions to address them,” Doll added.

Researchers cited industry projections that the number of Internet connected devices will climb to 50 billion in the year 2020 from a billion last year.

The bulk of those gadgets are expected to be embedded devices such as airport ticket kiosks, cash registers, key card readers, and controls for factory machinery. “Today, we’re seeing bold new experiments, including Google’s auto-piloted cars and smart roads with sensors that report on traffic conditions and vehicle speeds,” the report said. “Experiments like these show the ongoing possibilities... But there is a concern that as the industry advances, there has been little done to ensure the security of these systems.” — AFP

Kaspersky, Emerging Threats pro partnership to deliver protection aspersky Labs, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, has announced its collaboration with Emerging Threats Pro. Emerging Threats Pro produces a professional grade IDS and IPS ruleset for Snort and Suricata based on and supporting the Emerging Threats open source project. The ruleset focuses on malware and major vulnerabilities, but also provides known bad IP lists and IP/DNS reputation feeds. Kaspersky Lab uses this ruleset for its in-lab internal research work.

The cooperation between the two companies entails collaboration on a malware samples exchange and also combined work on extending Emerging Threats Pro ruleset coverage. Kaspersky Lab’s specialists have already begun feeding data into Emerging Threats Pro in order to improve the ruleset for all its users

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and thus ultimately make the Internet a safer place.

Commenting on the collaboration, Nikita Shvetsov, Director of AntiMalware Research at Kaspersky Lab, said: “We are happy to be collaborating with the Emerging Threats Pro Team, the open source team to go to for the best IDS/IPS ruleset. Our combined efforts will produce expertise synergies for both organizations to optimize our signatures, which will then trickle down to better Internet security for all.”

Matt Jonkman, CEO of Emerging Threats Pro, added: “Our team is excited about the collaboration with Kaspersky Lab. The IDS and anti-virus industries are fighting the same battle, so working closely together as non-competitive companies only makes sense - to strengthen both our organizations’ exper tise and offerings.”

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock fired CEO Carol Bartz over the phone on Tuesday, ending a tumultuous tenure marked by stagnation and a rift with Chinese partner Alibaba. Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse will step in as interim CEO, and the company will search for a permanent leader to spearhead a battle in online advertising and content with rivals Google Inc and Facebook. Shares in Yahoo jumped 6 percent in after-hours trading. They are scarcely higher than where they were when Bartz first took the reins in January 2009 with hopes of reviving stalled growth and competing with upand-coming rivals.

On Tuesday, her efforts were abruptly halted after Bostock called with the bad news. “I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward,” the outspoken CEO said in a two-sentence email to employees obtained by Reuters. The decision to oust Bartz was reached by an unanimous vote of Yahoo’s 8 independent directors late last week, according to a person close to the company. Bartz, and Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, who are also on the board, did not participate in the vote, the person said.

The turn of events surprised few Wall Street observers who had tracked a rising torrent of criticism and watched revenue growth falter and sputter out.

Some analysts said Bartz’s departure signaled the company had run out of options after failing to dominate the advertising and content markets and handing over its search operations to Microsoft Corp. That partnership, under which Microsoft handles search for Yahoo’s websites and keeps a portion of ad revenue, appears to favor the software company at Yahoo’s expense.

Yahoo is still one of the most popular destinations on the Internet but faces increasing competition from social networking service Facebook and from Google, which has a market value of $170 billion, ten times more than Yahoo. Yahoo said that a newly-formed executive leader-

acquisition interest two weeks ago, said a second source with direct knowledge of the approaches who declined to be identified because the talks were preliminary. The source added that other media companies might have been approached as well, but he had no direct knowl-

NEW YORK: In this May 24, 2010 photo, Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, attends a news conference. — AP ship council would help Morse in managing day-to-day operations as well as supporting “a comprehensive strategic review” to position the company for future growth. Yahoo has not hired investment banking advisors, according to the person close to the company. But the person said the company was likely to meet with various banking firms in the coming weeks.

“It’s hard to say what direction they are going to head. What is the next step for Yahoo? They went down the road of search, they went down the road of media, becoming a content company, they went down the road of advertising,” said YCMNet Advisors CEO Michael Yoshikami.

“I’m not sure where they go right now. One wonders if this means that they might be ripe for a takeover.” At least three private equity firms had reached out to at least one media firm to gauge

edge of that. A takeover of Yahoo would mark yet another change for a company that helped define the Internet two decades ago, but has been unable to keep up.

Yahoo is currently worth about $16 billion, with much of that ascribed to its roughly 40 percent stake in China’s Alibaba, the parent company of websites including Alibaba.com and Taobao.

Yahoo also owns a stake in Yahoo Japan , along with Japanese mobile company Softbank.

Relations between Yahoo and Alibaba have soured in recent years with Alibaba founder Jack Ma failing in its attempt to buy out its US partner’s stake.

The rocky relationship between the companies came to a head in May when it was revealed that Alibaba had abruptly handed Alipay - one of Alibaba’s crown jewels - to a company controlled by Ma, apparently without Yahoo’s knowledge.

TechCrunch in tussle with AOL WASHINGTON: Less than a year after its acquisition by AOL, leading technology blog TechCrunch is involved in a tussle with its new parent company over journalism ethics and editorial independence. After several days of confusion, controversy and conflicting reports about his fate, TechCrunch founder and ousted co-editor Michael Arrington broke his silence Tuesday with a post on TechCrunch.com. Arrington demanded AOL either grant TechCrunch the editorial independence it promised when the Internet company acquired the site in late September of last year or it sell the popular blog back to him. Otherwise, he said: “I cannot be a part of TechCrunch going forward.”

The legendarily combative Arrington illustrated his blog post with a picture from the movie “300”, which features a small band of Spartans battling against the Persians in a fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae. Arrington’s situation at TechCrunch has been murky since he launched a $20 million venture capital fund last week called CrunchFund. Several of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capitalists are contributors to the fund.

The launch of a fund investing in startup companies like those TechCrunch covers was seen as a breach of journalism ethics by some media analysts and rival tech bloggers and prompted Arrington’s removal as co-editor. The decision to remove Arrington from an editorial position at TechCrunch was

reportedly made by Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, which AOL bought in February. Huffington was named the head of all editorial content at AOL following the purchase of her news and opinion site for $315 million, making her Arrington’s de facto boss.

Complicating matters, however, was the fact that $10 million of the funding for CrunchFund came from the venture capital arm of AOL itself and the project received the blessing of Huffington’s boss, AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong.

“TechCrunch is a different property and they have different standards,” Armstrong told The New York Times in an article last week announcing the creation of the fund. “We have a traditional understanding of journalism with the exception of TechCrunch, which is different but is transparent about it,” he said.

Neither Armstrong, Huffington or AOL has made any public comment since the controversy erupted last week. In his blog post, Arrington said the “core issue” was not his employment situation at TechCrunch but “editorial independence and self determination”. “As of late last week TechCrunch no longer has editorial independence,” he said. “Some argue that the circumstances demanded it. I disagree.”

Without specifically mentioning Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, Arrington said that editorial independence “means autonomy from Huffington Post”. — AFP

“The immediate impact will not be much because I don’t think Yahoo wants to sell its stake and although Alibaba wants to buy it.

It really depends on how Tim handles this, as in the past Carol has had a strong stance on this.” said Hong Kong-based CLSA analyst Elinor Leung. “Alibaba wants to buy Yahoo, but not by themselves, probably with other private equity, venture capital funds, by themselves they don’t have the money. But at what price is the other question.”

Bostock voiced his public support in June for Bartz, a lightning rod for criticism from Wall Street, and known for her tough attitude and salty language. Bartz’s ouster capped a decade-long fall from grace for a company whose shares traded at more than $125 in January 2000 during the dotcom bubble - but now languishes at about a 10th of that level. Bartz arrived at Yahoo in Jan 2009 after a strong showing at software giant Autodesk with high hopes of turning around Yahoo, after cofounder Jerry Yang was widely thought to have botched a $47.5 billion proposed takeover by Microsoft, rebuffing that advance as too low.

The Internet company reported a slight decline in net revenue in the second quarter, as efforts to restructure its sales force caused disruptions. Research firm eMarketer has projected that Facebook would overtake Yahoo this year to collect the biggest slice of online display advertising dollars in the United States. Bartz, who had more than a year left on her four-year contract with Yahoo, was slated to host a Q&A at the Citi Technology Conference at 1250 pm ET in New York on Wednesday.

Bartz had reserved a room at the St Regis hotel in Manhattan for Tuesday evening, but a hotel receptionist reached over the phone said the booking had been cancelled. — Reuters

News

in brief

Half of world’s PCs use pirated software SINGAPORE: Almost half of personal computer users around the world get their software illegally, with China’s massive market the worst culprit, a report claimed yesterday. A Business Software Alliance (BSA) survey showed 47 percent of PC users globally believe there is nothing wrong with using unauthorised copies of software programs. This includes buying a single licence for multiple installations or downloading programs from peer-to-peer networks, BSA said.

The survey of 15,000 PC users in 32 countries showed Chinese users have the most relaxed attitude to piracy. As many as 86 percent of computer users in the country acquire their software illegally most or all of the time, the survey showed. “The survey makes it clear that the global software piracy epidemic is spreading fastest in China, which is now the world’s biggest market for new PCs,” said BSA president and chief executive Robert Holleyman.

S Korean regulators raid Google office WASHINGTON: South Korean anti-trust regulators carried out a raid on Google’s offices in Seoul on Tuesday, technology news site CNET reported. CNET said it was not immediately clear why Google’s offices were targeted by the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). Contacted by AFP, a Google spokeswoman said the Internet search giant “will work with the KFTC to address any questions they may have about our business.” In April, South Korea’s top two Internet companies filed complaints with the KFTC accusing Google of stifling competition in the local mobile phone search market. Daum and NHN Corp said Google exploited its position as developer of the Android mobile operating system to have its search function preloaded on local smartphones.

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

Global warming brings crab threat to Antarctica PARIS: The sea floor around the West Antarctica peninsula could become invaded by a voracious king crab, which is on the march thanks to global warming, biologists reported yesterday. The worrisome intruder is a bright-red deep-sea predator that previously had been spotted only in the Ross Sea, on the other side of West Antarctica. Taxonomists identified the crustacean just five years ago, bestowing it with the lengthy monicker of Neolithodes yaldwyni Ahyong and Dawson and placing it among the 121 species of king crab.

It is known as an “ecosystem engineer” because it digs into the sea floor to feast on worms and other tiny animals, an activity that in large numbers can have repercussions across the marine food web. A team led by Laura Grange of the University of Hawaii at Manoa lowered a remote-controlled scoutcraft as part of a long-term probe into biodiversity in the waters off the Antarctic Peninsula. They looked at Palmer Deep, a mud-floored basin in the Weddell Sea located 120 kilometers from the edge of the continental shelf. The robot’s camera, trailed over

two kilometers, spotted 42 crabs, all of them at depths lower than 850 meters, where the water was a relatively balmy 1.4 degrees Celsius. By extrapolation, the crab population in Palmer’s deepan area measuring 14 kms long by eight kms wide-could be more than 1.5 million, says Grange. That density is the same as commercial crab fisheries in Alaska and the British South Atlantic island of South Georgia. The images gave a glimpse of the kind of damage caused by the foraging crustaceans.

The crabs, their shells measuring roughly 10 centimeters across, had

dug gashes up to 20 cms into the soft ocean floor and thrown up lumps of sediment. The robot also retrieved a pregnant female crab, as proof that the species was reproducing. None of the crabs was found at shallower depths, where the seas are colder. The implication is that as global warming heats the frigid coastal-shelf waters, which lie at depths of 400 and 600 meters, the way will be open for the crustacean to continue its creeping advance.

The evidence from sea-floor sediment is that no so-called lithodid, or

crushing, crabs have inhabited the cold shallow waters of the West Antarctic peninsula for 14 million years. Previous research has already named the peninsula as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world for global warming. The waters of its continental shelf are warming at the rate of 0.1 C per decade. “If N yaldwyni is currently limited by cold temperatures, it could spread up onto the shelf within one to two decades,” warns the study, published in the British scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.— AFP

Scientists drill Arctic ice to fathom the melting speed 2011 nears record for ice retreat 500 MILES OFF THE NORTH POLE:

BISMARCK: Dave Glatt, chief of the environmental health section of North Dakota’s Department of Health, speaks to a hearing of the North Dakota Legislature’s interim Natural Resources Committee in the Roughrider Room of the North Dakota state Capitol in Bismarck. Glatt said state and federal health officials sometimes have disagreements about the best way to regulate air pollution. — AP

Medical software regulation criticized WASHINGTON: The patient was listed as unstable, in critical condition. On July 30, 2007, between 8 and 9 am, he was receiving insulin, anesthetic and blood pressure medication through a volumetric infusion pump when all three of the pump’s channels failed. His blood pressure dropped.

Pressure on his brain rose. The pump was replaced, but not in time. The patient was brain-dead. The problem, according to a stark “adverse event report,” was software, specifically an overflow in the memory buffer. New software installed by the device’s manufacturer the year before “resulted in multiple adverse events over a short period of time,” according to the report, which does not name the patient or the treatment facility.

In an industry where software governs everything from digital thermometers to insulin pumps and implanted pacemakers, the risks can be high and crashes can mean injury or death. Between 1983 and 1997, 1 in 4 medical devices used software. Today, the figure is more than half. Software problems are now the third-leading cause for recalls of medical devices. The case of the failed infusion pumps illustrates the dangers of faulty software in the medical device industry, one marked by rapid changes in technology.

The death in 2007 was one of more than 700 linked to infusion pumps and one of more than 10,000 complaints received annually between 2005 and 2009. The incident raised awareness of software vulnerabilities in medical devices, and prompted the Food and Drug Administration to recall about 200,000 pumps from one manufacturer and tighten regulation of the products. But though other safety-critical industries, such as aviation, employ rigorous and continuous software testing, the medical devices industry has been criticized for not adopting standard practices for developing and screening software before products go to market.

In fact, many of the software-based devices - including some insulin pumps, infusion pumps that deliver medicine or food to patients intravenously, and defibrillators used in cardiac arrest - are cleared by the FDA through an accelerated process that involves little or no clinical testing. The Institute of Medicine recently critiqued the process, known as 510(k), saying it does not sufficiently ensure safety and effectiveness of devices before they are put on the market. It also recommended that the agency develop procedures to ensure the safety and effectiveness of device software specifically, which requires a different kind of evaluation from hardware, one that critics

say the FDA hasn’t sufficiently evolved.

“The frameworks for evaluating these devices haven’t kept up with the imagination of what we have available today,” said Kevin Fu, a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “Imagine if we were evaluating car safety with the concept of a horse and buggy in mind. It wouldn’t make sense.” Fu added: “Regulators were caught off guard as to how significant software would be, and it’s led to all sorts of problems. It’s led to unhappiness by all stakeholders and it’s led to adverse events for patients.”

Even small errors can have big effects, said Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, director of research at Dartmouth College’s Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection.

An artificial hip joint with a microscopic difference in size from the standard probably will not pose a threat. But just as a phone number that’s off by one digit takes you to a completely different person, Pfleeger said, a one-off error in code can make a device shut off or function improperly at a critical time. The FDA says that even within the accelerated process, it requires manufacturers to demonstrate that the products are safe and effective before marketing them and that they follow good manufacturing practices.

Over the years, this has substantially increased the average length of time for approval of 510(k) submissions. “As the technology changes, the amount of information we looked at and the way we build our review changes all the time,” said John Murray, a software compliance expert in the FDA’s medical devices arm. The regulatory system is also tailored to give more scrutiny to higher-risk devices - the software in a thermometer, for example, does not deserve the same review as that in a pacemaker, the agency says. But Fu, Pfleeger and others believe implementing testing standards and engineering practices prevalent in other software-reliant industries could diminish some of the risks.

“To say some of these things are standard practice in software engineering is not true,” Pfleeger said. “You don’t need software engineering training to write software for some of these devices ... and it’s much easier to write the code for a device than to test it.” Officials acknowledge that the Institute of Medicine report raises some important issues about software. “We want to do the right thing. ...

We understand that technology is growing,” said FDA policy advisor Bakul Patel, adding that the agency awaits feedback from its public meeting on the report Sept 15.— MCT

As polar bears stalked their ship, scientists drilled into the Arctic sea ice this week to try and figure out why it’s disappearing so fast.

The disintegrating ice floes-each half the size of a football fieldfloated among narrow lanes of open water next to the Arctic Sunrise, the Greenpeace ice breaker likely to be the most northerly ship in the world, according to ice pilot Arne Sorensen.

Nearby, in a monochrome landscape between the Norwegian island of Svalbard and the North Pole, a large cub patted and licked a lollipop-shaped part of laser scanner as it passed. Cracks several meters wide appeared in seconds beneath the scientists’ feet, prompting a hasty retreat. Changes in the Arctic are being driven both by manmade greenhouse gases and natural weather patterns. With less ice, less sunlight is reflected back into space, warming the air and melting more ice.

Experts say thinning of ice ver recent decades may hasten an ice-free summer as soon as 2020.

And, while thickness is more difficult to measure by satellite than area, if anything it is more important. That has put the onus on better data, through new satellite, plane and submarine observations and a low-tech approach on the ice itself-drilling holes and poking a tape measure down.

“What the radar of the satellite sees is just the part of the ice that is really above the water and since about nine tenths of the ice is underneath the water there is a huge uncertainty in what the satellite can actually see,” said Cambridge University PhD student Till Wagner said. “That’s what we are here for to get a better handle on how thick the ice actually is,” he said, standing on a floe next to the Arctic Sunrise.

WILD CARD The sea ice area retreats each summer and this year is closing

on a record low in 2007. With one week of the melt season to go, it is now less than two-thirds of the area it covered in the early 1970s.

The sea ice, distinct from ice sheets hundreds of metres thick over rock in Greenland, floats on the Arctic Ocean and wildlife including polar bears and walruses depend on it for survival.

Wider “wild card” risks from an ice -free ocean in summer include weather disruption as the difference in temperature between the equator and poles is the engine of the world’s weather.

If the Arctic Ocean were open sea in autumn, without an insulating layer of ice, that would allow more warming of the polar air. One forthcoming study calculated that the total volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low in 2010 , suggesting that thinning has continued despite a rather steadier ice extent over the past three or four years.

NASA launches Web tool to explore solar system LOS ANGELES: Want to explore the solar system and follow NASA space missions in real time? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is giving the public the chance to do just that through a new Internet-based tool called Eyes on the Solar System. The space agency said the tool combines video-game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft as they explore the cosmos.

“You are now free to move about the solar system,” Blaine Baggett, a manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., said in a statement. “See what NASA’s spacecraft see and where they are right now - all without leaving your computer.” By using a keyboard and a mouse, online users can zip through space and explore anything

that catches their interest. For example, NASA in August launched a probe called Juno that will explore Jupiter.

Users can follow the Juno spacecraft, literally peering over its shoulder to get a bird’s-eye view of what it sees and even find out what’s ahead on its fiveyear journey to the solar system’s largest planet.

The technology also allows users to switch their point of view from far away to close up to right on board spacecraft, and also to switch from 2-D or 3-D modes. By putting on 3-D glasses, users can see flat images transform into multidimensional illustrations. Users can also travel back in time because Eyes on the Solar System has NASA data dating from 1950. The new tool can be downloaded at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes.—MCT

New EU cars will dial for emergency help BRUSSELS: The European Union is moving ahead with plans to ensure an automatic emergency call system is installed in all new cars from 2015 to save hundreds of lives on Europe’s roads each year. The eCall system to be fitted to new models of cars and light vehicles would automatically alert Europe’s emergency number, 112, in the case of a serious accident, according to a European Commission plan obtained by AFP yesterday. The EU’s executive arm will urge member states this week to ensure mobile phone operators upgrade services to ensure eCalls reach emergency workers, the proposal said. With minutes vital to save lives in car crashes, eCall devices alert emergency services “even if the driver or

passenger is unconscious or otherwise unable to call,” the proposal said.

The technology, estimated at less than 100 euros per car to install, can speed up the arrival of emergency workers by 40 percent in urban areas and 50 percent in the countryside. Addressing privacy concerns, the system does not allow tracking because it sleeps until activated by a crash.

Moves to develop eCall have taken several years with the aim currently for it to be operational in 2015 across the bloc as well as in Croatia, Iceland, Nor way and Switzerland by 2015. While a majority of member states are in favor of the system, Britain and France have failed to sign up to the scheme so far.—AFP

FLORIDA: In this file photo, technicians add a payload fairing to the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) booster at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. — AP

Other scientists are poring over new satellite estimates of thickness from the European Space Agenc y ’s Cr yoSat, which will plug a gap in data between the last US ICESat satellite and the start date for the next around 2016. “The preliminary map of CryoSat thickness shows reasonable agreement ... with airborne data,” said University College London’s Seymour Laxon by email. “Some of this data is only now becoming available.”

On the ice floe near the North Pole this week, the researchers’ coup de grace is a three-dimensional scan which may help scientists understand its shape and strength better. “Traditionally, you might be doing a section or a plan to understand an area but to fully see this in 3D and combine it with the satellite information we are able to really get a really high resolution understanding of what’s going on out here,” said Will Trossell, at startup company Scanlab.—Reuters

Healthy and vital tooth KUWAIT: “Healthy and vital tooth compose of intact enamel, dentin and cementum layer which are all nourished by roots.

Each root contains one or more canal filled with ner ves, ar teries, veins and connective tissues.

When dental decay attacks the tooth it breaks down the layers all the way to the pulp causing that painful toothache.

Dr Mohamed Zinaty Ignoring the decay and toothache leads to more complicated issues such as gingivitis and periodontitis where the disease penetrates into the jaw bone. Seeking an immediate treatment is a must otherwise infected teeth will loosen and fall out. Food remnant left in mouth without cleaning for some time is considered the main source of decay procedure. Bacteria takes that food and produce their harmful acids which break the tooth structure. That is why daily brushing and flossing the teeth is so important as it get rid of these toxin acids. Mouth rinses play an essential role in rendering our oral flora bacteria to the minimum. They are of different types available in market and each type of them has a specific action in attacking the bacteria and the patient is free to use any type he is comfortable with.

Different type of dental restorative materials have been used to restore the destroyed tooth structure. Amalgam is the first material used in dental fillings and it is a mixture of mercury, silver, tin and copper. It was first used in England and France in 1826 then the States in 1830 before its usage fades out to become totally banned in some European countries and limited to some specific cases only in other countries. It has an adverse health effect because of the mercury in addition to a history of tooth fracture due to tight packing of the filling into the cavity beside its contraction and expansion when it is subjected to hot and cold food and drinks.

In 1970’s , the introduction of metal free restorations helped a lot as they are durable and look natural as well. White fillings are made of tooth colored composite materials done chair side and hardened with curing light. There are many other dental restorations used to restore or replace missing teeth and all are metal free such as porcelain crowns, bridges, inlays, onlays, veneers and lumineers. When the decay advances deeper in the tooth and tooth become non vital, dentist needs to deal with the interior of the tooth by removing bacteria, its excretions and infected tooth pulp with debris from and within the tooth canals. Empty canals are now ready to be filled with a special filling material called Gutta Percha.

This material is originally taken from a tree called Getah Perca and it’s been used in dentistry for many years because it does not react within the human body as it is inert and biocompatible. Regular visiting the dentist twice a year for a check up avoids patients from the above mentioned procedures and prevents losing their teeth. Daily brushing and flossing the teeth after each meal takes away the sticky food parts and gives the saliva chance and time to buffer the acidity.”

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Soul food disappearing in Chicago as blacks leave CHICAGO: Duct tape covers a large crack in the premier booth at Hard Time Josephine’s Cooking, where waitresses call you “sweetie� and customers come for the steaming shrimp bisque and homemade peach cobbler that leaves a hint of cinnamon on the tongue. Not long ago, such an eyesore at one of Chicago’s top soul food restaurants would have been unthinkable. Despite the name, times were good: Chicago was a bustling center of black America and people in the neighborhoods savored southern-style cooking.

But in the past 10 years as the city lost more than 17 percent of its black population, one soul food place after another has closed and the sur viving few like Josephine’s are struggling. A tradition is dying in a place where southern cooking came north in the major social migration after World War II. “People used to stand outside the door to get in,� recalled Josephine Wade, who has operated the restaurant in the Chatham neighborhood for more than two decades. “It’s nowhere near like that. Each year it’s very, very difficult to be in business.�

The decline is a symptom of the changing identity of a city where blacks have been the largest racial group for decades, making up more than one-third of the population. Now, a visit to one of the traditional spots like Josephine’s seems like a step back into the past. Pictures of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King; the city’s

first black mayor, Harold Washington; and soul diva Patti LaBelle cover the walls, along with pictures of Josephine herself, an Arkansas native and onetime maid who wound up running restaurants all over the city’s South Side.

The sweet aroma of fresh waffles and salty fried chicken - family recipes passed

down through the generations - hang in the air. No soda is served, only sweet tea. “The fried chicken is succulent. It’s fresh, got that southern flavor,� said Eve Lowe, 59, who comes every Sunday for the brunch buffet of chicken and dumplings, greens and lemon pound cake. “It’s really a lot more than food,� said Audria Huntington,

CHICAGO: Josephine Wade (center) owner of Hard Time Josephine’s Cooking soul food restaurant, works on a chef ’s salad with her staff in the Chatham neighborhood of Chicago. — AP

A Word of Solutions

81, who frequents Josephine’s for the liver and onions or chicken and waffles. “Basically, you have the roots of your culture in the restaurant.�

But places like Josephine’s - located in a sagging building off a busy commercial stretch- may number only a half dozen now, having gradually given way to fast food, healthy food and imports like Cajun cuisine, along with the pressures of a bad economy. Also, more middle-class residents are moving to the suburbs, some retirees are heading “home� to the South and others are pursuing the economic lures of the Sunbelt, reversing the historic wave that brought southern blacks pouring into Chicago for jobs in industry.

The Chatham neighborhood on the South Side shows the change. The rows of once-classy homes in the black middleclass neighborhood, including a brick cottage that was home to gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, are now pocked with boarded-up windows and vacant properties. Other traditionally black neighborhoods have suffered even more as the population loss and foreclosure crisis have left behind weed-filled lots.

One of the most popular soul food restaurants in town, Army & Lou’s, closed this year. “When you lose your base, your foundation, the next generation isn’t there to keep it going,� said former owner Harry Fleming. “It’s losing a real strong sense of heritage.� Army & Lou’s, which opened in

1945, was famous both for its juicy fried chicken and its role in politics. Washington was a regular in the 1980s. It wasn’t unusual to see the civl rights leader Jesse Jackson, his son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr, or Rep Danny Davis eating there.

Earlier this year, the South Side lost Izola’s, known for its seafood. The year before it was Edna’s, a West Side establishment patronized by King. Also gone are the longtime Gladys’ Luncheonette, a popular musicians’ hangout with great banana pie, and Soul Queen. Other cities have great soul food but it’s hard to imagine Chicago, with its special role in black culture, without its thriving soul food scene, said writer Adrian Miller, who is traveling the country researching a book about soul food. In a recent visit to the city, “There was a key element missing,� he said. “There was a hole in my soul.�

Increasing health consciousness has also played a role. Soul food, often fried and made with full-fat ingredients, has gotten a bad rap in recent years. Also, fewer soul food places means distributors no longer make deliveries - so the cost of supplies has gone up.

At Josephine’s, Wade keeps the place going by patching cracks with duct tape, disguising holes in tablecloths and washing the linen herself. She can’t do much to help the sagging building; there aren’t enough customers. “It’s just not here,� she said. — AP

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TBIK hosts ‘Kapamilyas live in Kuwait’ tomorrow

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he Bicolanos in Kuwait [TBIK] in cooperation with ‘The Filipino Channel’ [TFC] will host a ‘Family DayEid El-Fitr’ gathering on Sept 9 at the Qadsiya Sporting Club’s Fajhan Al-Mutairi Stadium in Hawally, from 1pm onwards. Manila artists led by Piolo Pascual, Jovit Baldivino and Giselle Sanchez are expected to arrived today evening to perform in-front of about 5,000 Filipinos. The event is organized by the Bicolanos in Kuwait, a non-profit NGO society committed to promote and assist Filipino OFWs heralding from the Philippines’ BICOL region. Within its primary mission and objectives, TBIK shall conduct social activities and gatherings to uplift community spirit as well as render support to distressed OFWs and/or relief operations for natural calamities suffered in the Philippines. For more information please call Tel 97214475 (Clive Brookes), 94962066 (Shirley Sales).

YIACO Medical Company concludes training course

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IACO Medical Company concluded a training course on evacuation in cases of emergency, at its headquarter building in Salmiya featuring staff members. The course took place in cooperation with the Leaders Security Institute for Studies and Training. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Musical show

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he Indian Cultural Society is pleased to present “Parda Hai Parda” with Munawwar Masoom and team. The Chief Guest for the event will be the Ambassador of India, Kuwait and the guests of honor will include prominent personalities from Kuwait. So, join us for entertainment on Friday the 9th of September at 7.00pm sharp at: Auditorium Kuwait Medical Association, beside Mubarak Al Kabeer Hospital, Jabriya.

Email ics.kuwait@gmail.com for more info.

Moran Mor Baselius Cleemis, Catholica Bava, head of Syro Malankara Rite and Rev Dr John Patippurakkal (left) participate in a press conference in Jleeb Al Shuyoukh.

NECK to host preschoolers’ motivation program

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t. Johns Mar Thomas Church, Kuwait, is set to hold a brief pre-school Motivation Program (Ezhuthiniruthu Sisrusha) for children about to begin school or nursery for the first time. All children in these categories and their parents and guardians are invited and cordially welcomed to participate in the special service, which will be held on September 23 at 10:00 AM in the National Evangelical Church of Kuwait’s (NECK) church and parish hall. Certificates will be given to all the children attending the program.

Those who are interested in taking part in the event are kindly requested to contact the Vicar on 65563486, the Convener on 66742985 or the Secretary on 66546705.

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 talentnow 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 Alva23726164, Suma Bhatt- 97834578 Salmiya & Hawally: Swarna Shetty- 99006934, Kripa Gatty66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq : Rekha Sachu65044521,97862115 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.

KKMA organizes life skill program for NRI women

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n Saturday, 10th September, about 350 NRI Ladies will go to the classrooms to learn Skills for Better Life.

In this one year certification program, named as Prathyasha - Skills for Better Life training program NRI women will learn following 7 modules of life skill interventions: Developmental Psychology, scholastic development, adolescent management,10 life skills referred by the WHO, family budgeting, health and wellbeing and mentoring.

The program is conducted as part of KKMA’s Model NRI Project and organized in partnership with CIGI, a professional organization in Kerala focused on education and life skills enhancement of the society. Classes will be held twice a month (2nd Saturday and 4th Saturday) for a one year period.

Upon successful completion of the training program, they will be honored with Skills for Better Life Diploma Certificates.

Initial classes are being conducted in following 7 centers.

Kanhangad (Kasaragod District)Trikarpur (Kasaragod District),Kannur City (Kannur District),Koyilandy (Kozhikode

District),Kalpakanjeri (Kodungathukundu) (Malappuram District),Kaipamangalam (Trichur District) and Pattambi (Palakkad

happy family!!

“A Happy Life for My Family” is the major objective of Non Resident Indians who have crossed the seas to Gulf coun-

District).

More centers will be opened shortly in different parts of Kerala with an aim to enhance expatriate life and to transform NRIs capable of fulfilling their dream - a

tries. NRIs sacrifice even bare necessities to save the maximum possible from their meager earnings to look after their dependents. However, at a particular juncture of their life when they plan to

return their country, they realize that their earnings aren’t yet enough.

The Model NRI Project is an innovative lifestyle change awareness campaign organized by KKMA. The aim is to encourage NRIs to broaden their knowledge and self-realization possibilities, foster their self-confidence and sense of pride, face up to the difficulties and challenges in the process of development, and enable them to be self reliant.

The first phase of the campaign to mobilize public opinion has already been rolled out with a series of Need Awareness Campaign and Seminars, launched in various districts of Kerala and Karnataka in the year 2010. More than 10,000 NRI family members have attended in Family meets held in following districts.

According to KKMA, by 2015, the Model NRI Project will help over 50,000 people (10,000 NRIs and their dependents) develop critical life skills such as self-esteem, inter-personal and cognitive skills thus enabling them to enjoy family life, increase employability and sustain the improved social status.

TLKS celebrates ‘Gulf lo Ganesh Utsavaalu’

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he Mega Holy and Cultural Extravaganza called “Gulf lo Ganesh Utsavaalu” of Telugu Lalithakala Samithi - Kuwait (TLKS) was held on September 1, 2011, in the Indian Community School, Khaitan. The program was conducted by the priest Sharma and performed by the members of TLKS and other devotees. The unique program was a big success due its quality content and audience remained till the end of the last program.

The event was sponsored by Guduru Kumara Swamy Raju, Proprietor of GKSR Kalyana Mandapam, Rajampet and Mandapam was sponsored by Singaraju Ravi Sankar Raju. After the program, the Laddu Prasadam specially prepared for this occasion by Mayura Hotel (Narayana Reddy) was auctioned to the audience and the highest bidder was Guduru Kumar Swami Raju for an amount of KD 600. The program was followed by delicious lunch prepared by Rayalaseema Hotel and sponsored

by Chejarla Indra Kumar Raju.

The TLKS also extended its heartfelt Eid greetings to the Arab World and thanked the Kuwait Government for extending support to the religious and cultural activities of the foreigners living in Kuwait. Later in the day, various cultural programs were presented to the audience. The cultural programs were inaugurated with the invocation prayer song by Pratyusha and followed by excellent performances by popular local performing associations, which included Nandanam School of Dance and Music, Bhavya Kalamandalam, Heart Beatz School of Dance and Fusion Dance

Academy & Sri Krishna Chaitanya Chekka Bhajana Brundam.

The classical dance programs performed included solo dances by Kalamandalam Krishnendu and by Kumari Kadimela Harini Varma. The dance program choreographed by Krishnendu of Nandanam School of Dance and Music and performed by a group of children was widely appreciated by the audience.

Besides the classical dances, the programs also included performances of mega hit songs of popular movies by Nandanam School of Dance and Music, Heart Beatz

(Sreejith & Lalson Pereira) School of Dance and Fusion Dance (Imran & Venu). The auditorium witnessed huge cheers from the audience.

At the end of the cultural program, mementos were distributed to the Sponsors and to the associations which performed various events. The program was also supported by Mahatmagandhi Telugu Youth Association, Srikrishna Dal, Sri Krishna Chaitanya seva Satsanga committee, Gulf wide Nandamuri fans & members, Pravasandra Telugu Desam & NRI TDP, YSR Congress Committee members,

Kuchivaripalli Youth association and many other Telugu associations & Telugu communities and well-wishers.

The program was successfully organized by Koteswara Rao, Honorary President, Mohan BabuPresident and Kadimella Subramanyam Raju (Bala) -Treasurer as well as TLKS Executive members.

The programs were compered by Koteswara Rao, Honorary President Mohan Babu, President and Kadimella Subramanyam Raju (Bala) -Treasurer of the Telugu Lalithakala Samithi.

The program was successfully organized by TLKS Executive Committee, founder: Madineni Vengaiah Chowdary, Honorary President: K Koteswara Rao; President: K Mohan Babu; Vice President(S): A Prabhakar Reddy & R Lakshmi pathi Naidu; Genereal Secretary: Chandrasekhar Raju; Treasurer: K Subramanyam Raju (Bala); Programme Coordinator: K Lingam Naidu ( Gajendra), JS & Welfare coordinator : Giri Babu ware organized the program.

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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. nnnnnnn

Aquapark celebrates Eid Al-Fitr The Aquapark celebrated the Eid Al-Fitr occasion with special programs featuring musical shows from the Al-Nujoom Al-Kuwaitiya (Kuwaiti stars) Popular Band.

Presents were also gifted to visitors. —Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930 - 1630 Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floor, Al Banwan Building (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building), Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City. For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfs-uk-kw.com Telephone:22971170. The Consular Section will also be closed on the same dates. For information on the British Embassy services, visit the British Embassy website: www.ukinkuwait.fco.gov.uk nnnnnnn

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/IMM525 7E.PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/5256E.PDF. nnnnnnn

Independence day celebrations and quiz competition

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he Salmiya zone of Balavedi Kuwait and Mathrubhasha samithi jointly organized Independence Day celebrations and a quiz competition for the Malayalam class students of the Salmiya region. Kala-Kuwait secretary R Naganathan inaugurated the event which was held in Salmiya.

Jesley Thomas presided the meeting

in which Anugraha Rajan read the independence day message.

Felicitations were delivered by Mathrubhasha Samithi principal chairperson Reghunathan Nair, general Convenor Janardhanan, Joint convenor Rajan Kulakkada, Kala-Kuwait treasurer Shinoj Mathew, P R Babu and J Saji. Alex Johnson welcomed all while Shreya ren-

dered a vote of thanks. Cultural programs performed by the children added color to the day.

In the quiz competition, the team including Shreya and Amalendhu Anil won first place followed by the team comprising of Anugraha Rajan and Elisa in second place and finally third place went to the team of Allwyn and Nayana.

The programs were co-ordinated by Malayalam class teachers Cicily Thomas, Bindu Mathew and Jaya Jose.

EMBASSY OF GERMANY The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com nnnnnnn

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF KENYA

AWARE center diwaniya

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he AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation Tuesday September 13th, 2011 entitled, “Don’t be Clueless: 9 helpful habits to help you adjust to a new culture” by Dr. Linda Fouke So you have moved to Kuwait. Are you feeling Disoriented, Disgruntled or Disillusioned? Are you experiencing “Culture Shock”? You are not alone. If you or someone you know has experienced the uncertainty of an extended stay abroad, you may be dealing with

the reality of “culture shock.” Is this a hackneyed, over-dramatic term or a legitimate state of mind? Come share your story with Dr. Linda Fouke as she leads a discussion entitled, “Clueless in Kuwait - 9 Helpful Habits while in Kuwait.” At this presentation you will learn more about the phases of culture shock and 10 essential keys to helping you cope with the stresses of relocation.

If you are interested, the AWARE Center is the best place to visit on September 13th, 2011 at 7pm. (Linda Graves Fouke,

Ed.D is the Principal of Hope School for Special Needs, Chairperson, Kuwait Special Needs Administrators Network, Vice President, Kuwait Textile Arts Association and co-Founder, Great Books Foundation Discussion Group Kuwait City, Kuwait). For more information, call 25335260 ext 0 / 104 / 105 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw or email: saleha.aware@gmail.com “

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk nnnnnnn

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

00:20 00:45 01:40 02:30 03:25 03:55 04:20 04:50 05:20 06:10 07:05 08:05

Untamed & Uncut Shark Invasion Monster Bug Wars I’m Alive Dogs 101 Animal Cops Houston Dogs 101 Meerkat Manor The Really Wild Show Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Breed All About It My Cat From Hell Dogs 101 Animal Cops Houston E-Vets: The Interns Wildlife SOS New Breed Vets With Steve Crocodile Hunter Shark Invasion Gorilla School The Really Wild Show Crocodile Hunter Must Love Cats Breed All About It Crocodile Hunter Cheetah Kingdom Dogs 101 Shark Attack File 3 Big Five Challenge I Shouldn’t Be Alive Great Savannah Race

Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Casualty Full Circle With Michael Palin Eastenders Doctors Last Of The Summer Wine Tweenies The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Poetry Pie Tweenies The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Tweenies The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Poetry Pie Tweenies The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Poetry Pie Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Lark Rise To Candleford Doctors Eastenders Casualty Last Of The Summer Wine Lark Rise To Candleford The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Lark Rise To Candleford The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Coast True Dare Kiss

The Naked Chef Come Dine With Me What Not To Wear Come Dine With Me Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers The Naked Chef New Scandinavian Cooking Sweet Baby James Holmes On Homes Antiques Roadshow Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers The Naked Chef

08:30 09:00 09:25 10:15 11:55 12:50 14:45 15:25 17:05 18:00 18:25 18:50 19:20

New Scandinavian Cooking Sweet Baby James Holmes On Homes Antiques Roadshow Come Dine With Me Daily Cooks Challenge Bargain Hunt Antiques Roadshow Come Dine With Me New Scandinavian Cooking Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers The Naked Chef Sweet Baby James

00:00 BBC World News 00:30 World Business Report 00:45 Sport Today 01:00 BBC World News America 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Sport Today 02:00 BBC World News 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 Newsday 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Sport Today 04:00 Newsday 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 Newsday 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 Newsday 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi

00:05 Robotboy - Elements 00:30 Squirrel Boy 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Cramp Twins 01:45 Chop Socky Chooks 02:10 Best Ed 02:35 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 03:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 03:25 Generator Rex 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Flapjack 04:40 Chowder 05:05 The Powerpuff Girls 05:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 05:55 Cow & Chicken 06:20 Squirrel Boy 06:45 I Am Weasel 07:00 Eliot Kid 07:25 Angelo Rules 07:50 Best Ed 08:15 Flapjack 08:40 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 09:05 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 09:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 09:55 Cow & Chicken 10:20 I Am Weasel

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 10:35 Adventure Time 11:00 Ben 10 11:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 11:50 The Secret Saturdays 12:15 Samurai Jack 12:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 13:05 Codename: Kids Next Door 13:30 Skunk Fu! 13:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 14:15 Flapjack 14:40 Ed, Edd n Eddy 15:05 Camp Lazlo 15:30 Chowder 15:55 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 16:25 Cow & Chicken 16:50 Courage The Cowardly Dog 17:15 I Am Weasel 17:40 Adventure Time 18:05 Codename: Kids Next Door 18:30 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 18:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 19:20 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 19:45 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 20:10 Hero 108 20:35 Bakugan: New Vestroia 21:00 Total Drama Island 21:25 Adventure Time 21:50 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 22:50 The Secret Saturdays 23:15 Samurai Jack 23:40 Megas Xlr

00:00 Kim Possible 00:25 Fairly Odd Parents 01:15 Stitch 02:00 Replacements 02:50 Emperor’s New School 03:35 Stitch 04:25 Replacements 05:15 Fairly Odd Parents 06:00 Emperor’s New School 06:20 Suite Life On Deck 06:45 Phineas And Ferb 07:05 Wizards Of Waverly Place 07:30 Suite Life On Deck 07:55 Good Luck Charlie 08:20 Fish Hooks 08:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:00 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 09:10 Jungle Junction 09:20 The Hive 09:30 Handy Manny 09:40 Imagination Movers 10:05The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody 10:35 Phineas And Ferb 10:50 Good Luck Charlie 11:15 Phineas And Ferb 11:35 Suite Life On Deck 12:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 12:25 Sonny With A Chance 12:45 Good Luck Charlie 13:10 Hannah Montana 13:30 Suite Life On Deck 13:55 Wizards Of Waverly Place 14:20 Suite Life On Deck 14:55 Good Luck Charlie 15:20 Shake It Up 15:45 Fish Hooks 16:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place 16:35 Jake & Blake 17:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:25 Good Luck Charlie 17:50 Fish Hooks 18:15 Shake It Up 18:45 Suite Life On Deck 19:35 Good Luck Charlie 20:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 20:25 Jake & Blake 20:50 Hannah Montana 21:15 Sonny With A Chance 21:35 Good Luck Charlie 22:00 Shake It Up 22:25 Suite Life On Deck 22:50 Sonny With A Chance 23:15 Wizards Of Waverly Place 23:35 Jonas Los Angeles

00:15 Gold Rush: Alaska 01:10 River Monsters 02:05 Dirty Jobs

CRAZY ON THE OUTSIDE ON OSN CINEMA

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

Ultimate Survival Wheeler Dealers Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Gold Rush: Alaska How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Cake Boss Auction Kings Dual Survival Ultimate Survival Ultimate Survival River Monsters Sons Of Guns Cash Cab Us Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Mythbusters Gold Rush: Alaska Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? Cash Cab Us Miami Swat Ultimate Survival Kidnap And Rescue

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

Smash Lab Superships The Science of Fear and Lust Killer Outbreaks Da Vinci’s Machines How Stuff’s Made Superships One Step Beyond Engineered Da Vinci’s Machines Space Pioneer The Gadget Show Smash Lab Brainiac Sci-Fi Science How Stuff’s Made The Science of Fear and Lust Killer Outbreaks One Step Beyond Stunt Junkies Superships Weird Connections Thunder Races Space Pioneer Sci-Fi Science The Gadget Show Prototype This Bang Goes the Theory Smash Lab The Gadget Show Prototype This Bang Goes the Theory Bang Goes the Theory The Gadget Show

00:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Unwrapped 01:45 Lidia’s Italy 02:35 Barefoot Contessa 03:25 World Cafe Middle East 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 - Back To Basics 10:20 Aarti Party 10:45 Lidia’s Italy 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 Lidia’s Italy 14:55 Unwrapped 15:20 Boy Meets Grill 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Guy’s Big Bite 17:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 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 Paula’s Party 21:10 Chef vs Britain 22:00 Lidia’s Italy

00:00 00:15 00:40 01:10 01:30 02:00 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 07:45 08:10 08:20 08:30 09:00 09:20 09:45 10:05 10:15 10:45 11:10 11:30 11:45 12:10

Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso 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 Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Little Einsteins The Hive The Little Mermaid Art Attack Imagination Movers Jungle Junction Lazytown Handy Manny

12:25 12:40 13:05 13:15 13:30 13:55 14:20 14:40 15:05 15:30 15:40 15:55 16:20 16:45 17:10 17:15 17:30 17:55 18:25 18:50 19:05 19:50 20:10 20:20 20:28 20:30 20:55 21:20 21:45 22:05 22:15 22:25 22:40 22:55 23:20 23:35 23:50

Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers The Hive Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Little Einsteins Lazytown Handy Manny The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers Lazytown Art Attack The Hive Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Little Mermaid Special Agent Oso Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Timmy Time Animated Stories Handy Manny Little Einsteins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Little Einsteins The Hive Timmy Time Handy Manny Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction

00:55 Then And Now 01:25 Beauty Queens Gone Wrong 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 40 (More) Crimes Of Fashion 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Khloe And Lamar 10:15 E!es 12:05 E! News 13:05 Fashion Police 13:35 Extreme Close-Up 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 15:30 E!es 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 Holly’s World 17:55 E! News 18:55 E!es 19:55 Giuliana & Bill 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:25 Khloe And Lamar 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:15 Final Fu 00:40 Carpocalypse 01:30 World Combat League 02:20 Final Fu 03:10 Aiya TV 04:00 I’ll Do Anything 04:50 Carpocalypse 05:40 World Combat League 06:30 Ride Guide Snow 2008 08:00 X-Traordinary 08:25 Winter X Games Europe 2011 09:15 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 10:55 Man’s Work 11:45 Dr Danger 12:35 Final Fu 13:25 Carpocalypse 14:15 World Combat League 15:05 Man’s Work 15:55 Dr Danger 16:45 X-Traordinary 17:10 Winter X Games Europe 2011 18:00 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 19:40 Carpocalypse 20:30 Final Fu 21:20 FIM World Motocross MX3 2011 22:10 World Combat League 23:00 Aiya TV

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

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00

The Haunted A Haunting I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner Crime Scene Psychics The Haunted Mystery Diagnosis FBI Case Files Forensic Detectives Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Ghost Lab FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn FBI Case Files Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Ghost Lab FBI Files Forensic Detectives FBI Case Files Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol On The Case With Paula Zahn FBI Case Files True Crime With Aphrodite True Crime Scene

Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Wild Rides Wild Rides First Ascent First Ascent Endurance Traveller Departures Departures Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Wild Rides Wild Rides First Ascent First Ascent Endurance Traveller Departures Departures Extreme Tourist Afghanistan David Rocco’s Dolce Vita

THE OPEN ROAD ON OSN MOVIES HD 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 22:00 23:00

Bondi Rescue Bondi Rescue: Bali Travel Madness City Chase Rome Adventure Wanted Ultimate Traveller Meet The Natives: USA David Rocco’s Dolce Vita Bondi Rescue Bondi Rescue: Bali Travel Madness City Chase Rome Adventure Wanted Ultimate Traveller

00:00 Penny Dreadful-18 02:00 The General’s Daughter-18 04:00 The Evil Dead-R 06:00 Universal Soldier: Regeneration-PG15 08:00 The Fan-PG15 10:00 Beyond A Reasonable DoubtPG 12:00 Evolution-PG15 14:00 The Fan-PG15 16:00 Stonehenge Apocalypse-PG15 18:00 Evolution-PG15 20:00 Tears Of The Sun-18 22:00 From Hell-18

01:00 02:45 05:00 07:15 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Winter Of Frozen Dreams-18 My Bollywood Bride-PG15 Freakonomics-PG15 Stuart Little 2-FAM Don’t Fade Away-PG15 Paper Man-PG15 Dean Spanley-PG Far North-PG15 The Tempest-PG15 Jack Goes Boating-PG15 Winter’s Bone-18 Crazy On The Outside-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:00 Louie 02:30 The Big C 03:00 Just Shoot Me 03:30 Just Shoot Me 04:00 Dharma And Greg 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Will And Grace 06:00 Coach 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Dharma And Greg 08:30 Just Shoot Me 09:00 Will And Grace 09:30 The Simpsons 10:00 Parks And Recreation 10:30 Coach 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Just Shoot Me 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 Coach 14:30 The Simpsons 15:00 Parks And Recreation 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 19:00 Outsourced 19:30 Community 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Funny Or Die Presents 22:30 The Big C 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

01:00 Maximum Risk-18 02:45 The Grudge 3-18 04:30 Dark Moon Rising-PG15

06:45 The Manchurian Candidate 09:00 The Three Musketeers-PG15 11:00 Panic Room-PG15 13:00 King Arthur-PG15 15:15 The Three Musketeers-PG15 17:00 Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time-PG15 19:00 4.3.2.1.-18 21:00 Julia’s Eyes-18 23:00 Child’s Play 2-PG15

00:00 Trans World Sport 01:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 02:00 Futbol Mundial 02:30 Football Euro 2012 Qualification 04:30 Rugby World Cup Classics 05:00 FEI Equestrian World 05:30 Spirit of Yachting 06:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 00:00 I Love You Beth Cooper-PG15 07:00 Golfing World 02:00 Away We Go-PG15 08:00 Football Euro 2012 04:00 A Lot Like Love-PG15 Qualification 06:00 The Out Of Towners-PG15 12:00 Total Rugby 08:00 Head Of State-PG15 12:30 Trans World Sport 10:00 Under The Tuscan Sun-PG15 13:30 World Hockey 12:00 The Ramen Girl-PG15 14:00 Golfing World 14:00 Frequently Asked Questions 15:00 Euro Tour Weekly About Time Travel-PG15 15:30 Live PGA European Tour 16:00 I Love You Beth Cooper-PG15 19:30 The Challenge Series Golf 18:00 Blue Streak-PG15 20:00 Total Rugby 20:00 Land Of The Lost-PG15 20:30 Futbol Mundial 21:00 NRL Full Time 21:30 Live RFL Championship 23:30 PGA European Tour 01:00 The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee-PG15 03:00 Chasing Papi-PG 05:00 Get Low-PG15 07:00 17 Again-PG15 09:00 The Open Road-PG15 11:00 Flying By-PG15 12:45 Dance With Me-PG 14:45 Invictus-PG15 17:00 The Open Road-PG15 19:00 The Other Guys-PG15 21:00 Winter’s Bone-18 23:00 The Time Traveller’s WifePG15

00:00 The Country Bears-PG 02:00 Turandot-PG 04:00 Ulysses-PG 06:00 Arthur And The Revenge Of Maltazard-PG 08:00 Christmas In New York-PG 10:00 102 Dalmatians-PG 12:00 The Country Bears-PG 14:00 Astro Boy-FAM 16:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 18:00 102 Dalmatians-PG 20:00 The Last Airbender-PG15 22:00 Astro Boy-FAM

00:00 WWE Tough Enough 01:00 Super League 03:00 Powerboats F1 H2O World Championship 04:00 NRL Premiership 06:00 Speedway FIM World Championship 07:00 Trans World Sport 08:00 NRL Premiership 10:00 WWE Smackdown 12:00 Super League 14:00 Le Mans Series 14:30 Trans World Sport 15:30 Live European PGA Tour 19:30 Futbol Mundial 20:00 The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 21:00 WWE NXT 22:00 Trans World Sport 23:00 Powerboats UIM Class One 23:30 European PGA Tour

00:00 European Tour Weekly 00:30 Premier League Snooker 02:30 Spirit of Yachting 03:00 Golfing World 04:00 Rugby Union Currie Cup 06:00 Beach Volley Ball 06:30 European Tour Weekly 07:00 Futbol Mundial 07:30 Mobil 1 The Grid 08:00 Trans World Sport 09:00 Rugby World Cup 2007 Review 10:00 Rugby World Cup Classics 23:00 Rugby World Cup 2007 Review

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 06:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00

V8 Supercars Championship V8 Supercars Championship WWE Tough Enough UFC 134 UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Bottomline Powerboats F1 Highlights Mobil 1 The Grid Speedway WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottomline V8 Supercars Extra V8 Supercars Championship SuperLeague Formula WWE Vintage Collection WWE NXT UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC 134

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Conspiracy?

Ice Road Truckers Patton 360 Britain At War Tales Of The Gun UFO Hunters Conspiracy?

Ice Road Truckers Patton 360 Britain At War Tales Of The Gun UFO Hunters Conspiracy?

Ice Road Truckers Patton 360 Britain At War Tales Of The Gun UFO Hunters Conspiracy?

Ice Road Truckers Ax Men Ax Men Sliced Joe “The Rat” Valachi

00:00 Jerseylicious 01:00 Videofashion News 01:55 Big Boutique 02:25 How Do I Look?

03:20 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

05:10 Homes With Style 05:35 Area 06:05 Clean House 07:00 Big Boutique 08:00 Videofashion News 09:00 Fashion Avenue 09:55 How Do I Look?

10:50 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

11:50 Clean House: Search For The Messiest...

12:50 Clean House 13:45 Videofashion News 14:45 How Do I Look?

15:40 Ruby 16:35 Jerseylicious 17:30 Ruby 18:25 How Do I Look?

Classifieds THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation with Malayali family Malayali working lady or Malayali bachelors from Sept last.

Contact: 65889384. (C 3609) Fully furnished 1BRK flat for an executive bachelor from 01st Oct 2011 to 31st Dec 2011. Contact: 24752182, 66365212. (C 3608) 8-9-2011 One room for rent in two bedroom flat behind Crowne Plaza near Dar Al Quran, Farwaniya, for bachelor only.

Contact: 50129393. (C 3406) Sharing accommodation available for bachelors only Indian near Jabriya bridge 4th Ring Road, near Al Bahar complex. Contact: 22662734, 99247271.

(C 3607) 7-9-2011 Sharing accommodation available at Khaitan opp Jamiya/behind petrol pump in a studio flat with a R/C Mangalorean bachelor.

Rent KD 25. Contact: 66036893. (C 3601) 2 bedroom window A/C furnished flat available in Far waniya, block 3, opp Eureka. Contact: 99962456.

(C 3604) Sharing accommodation for small family or 2 spinsters or executive bachelor near new Riggai, ready for this month. Contact: 66889615. (C 3602) 6-9-2011 Sharing accommodation available at Abbassiya near Integrated Indian school, Highland supermarket building, Keralite family.

Contact: 99379252.

(C 3599) 4-9-2011

FOR SALE 2007 model, Chevrolet Captiva, silver exterior, excellent condition. Price KD 3,600. Tel: 66526872.

Toyota Corolla 2009 model, white color, excellent condition, well-maintained, low mileage, lady driver, KD 3,400. Contact: 60951195.

(C 3603) 6-9-2011 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

SITUATION WANTED Immediately available Indian Accountant (M.Com) for fulltime/part time having sufficient experience in Kuwait. A few years experience to prepare Trading Account, Profit & Losses A/C, Balance Sheet, Budgets and Budget control, Bank dealings, L/cs, Recoveries & Payments, can write/speak Arabic and having driving license & car.

Also can work as Executive Secretar y/Secretar y or Tender Executive. Contact: 97669236/ 24315927.

(C 3600) 5-9-2011

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

TRANSPORT Needed transport for a lady from West Mishref to Mangaf at 2:30pm. Five days a week. Contact: 65088143. (C 3605) 6-9-2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines RJA JZR JZR MEA THY ETH UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR THY JZR JZR FCX JZR KAC BAW JZR KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA MEA JZR KNE MSR JZR MSC SYR KAC MSR UAL SHY RJA MSR FDB OMA JZR SWT QTR KAC KAC

Flt 642 205 267 406 772 620 853 370 305 614 67 211 138 770 503 269 201 555 412 157 1541 206 382 605 302 332 53 352 284 362 855 132 125 301 213 404 165 789 623 561 9621 341 672 610 982 4125 640 621 57 645 357 93 140 562 546

Arrival Flights on Thursday 8/9/2011 Route AMMAN DAMASCUS BEIRUT BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA ISTANBUL LUXOR BEIRUT DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA / BANGKOK LONDON CAIRO ISLAMABAD DELHI ISFAHAN MUMBAI TRIVANDRUM DUBAI COCHIN DHAKA COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH ABU DHABI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DUBAI JEDDAH SOHAG SOHAG SOHAG DAMASCUS / DEIREZZOR DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES ANTALYA AMMAN ASSIUT DUBAI MUSCAT MASHAD DUBAI / KANDAHAR DOHA AMMAN ALEXANDRIA

Time 0:05 0:25 0:35 0:45 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 4:10 5:15 5:25 5:25 6:10 6:15 6:30 7:10 7:15 7:20 7:40 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 10:55 11:10 11:20 12:10 12:30 12:50 13:00 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:10 14:15 14:15 14:20 14:30

SVA KAC KAC KNE JZR QTR JZR KAC MLR ETD UAE KAC GFA SVA JZR TAR JZR ABY FDB ALK JZR RBG KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI SIA IRA FDB OMA JZR MEA KAC MSR DHX KLM UAE GFA QTR UAL AIC JZR MSR JZR JZR MSR DLH LZB AXB JZR BBC PIA

500 552 788 745 257 134 535 118 403 303 857 154 215 510 777 327 239 127 63 227 177 3555 104 502 542 618 786 614 774 674 572 458 617 61 647 179 402 178 618 372 445 859 217 136 981 981 135 606 513 185 612 636 7787 389 539 43 205

JEDDAH DAMASCUS JEDDAH JEDDAH BEIRUT DOHA CAIRO NEW YORK COLOMBO / DUBAI ABU DHABI DUBAI ISTANBUL BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH TUNIS / DUBAI AMMAN SHARJAH DUBAI COLOMBO / DUBAI DUBAI ALEXANDRIA LONDON BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI MUMBAI SINGAPORE / ABU DHABI AHWAZ DUBAI MUSCAT DUBAI BEIRUT GENEVA / FRANKFURT ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN CHENNAI / AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN LUXOR SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT SOFIA / VARNA KOZHIKODE / MANGALORE CAIRO DHAKA LAHORE

14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 15:10 15:15 15:50 16:15 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:00 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:30 17:35 17:40 17:55 18:00 18:00 18:05 18:35 18:45 18:50 18:55 19:00 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:45 20:00 20:10 20:10 20:15 20:45 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:30 23:45 23:55

Airlines AXB JZR DLH IAC KLM PIA MEA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR THY JZR JZR RJA GFA KAC JZR BAW IRA FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC UAE ABY KAC QTR ETD GFA KAC MEA KAC JZR KNE JZR KAC MSR KAC JZR MSC SYR MSR SHY RJA FDB

Departure Flights on Thursday 8/9/2011 Flt Route 394 COCHIN / KOZHIKODE 1540 CAIRO 637 FRANKFURT 976 GOA / CHENNAI 447 AMSTERDAM 216 KARACHI 407 BEIRUT 773 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 560 SOHAG 164 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 545 ALEXANDRIA 356 MASHAD 156 LONDON 606 MASHAD 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 153 ISTANBUL 787 JEDDAH 671 DUBAI 551 DAMASCUS 256 BEIRUT 561 AMMAN 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 101 LONDON / NEW YORK 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 165 ROME / PARIS 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 776 JEDDAH 790 JEDDAH 238 AMMAN 501 BEIRUT 624 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 9622 SOHAG 342 DEIREZZOR / DAMASCUS 611 CAIRO 4126 ANTALYA 641 AMMAN 58 DUBAI

Time 0:15 0:20 0:40 0:50 0:55 1:10 1:45 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 5:00 5:10 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 7:40 8:20 8:25 8:40 8:40 8:50 8:55 8:55 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:15 9:40 9:50 9:55 10:00 10:15 10:20 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:05 12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:20 14:30 14:30 14:35

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

MSR UAL OMA KAC KNE KAC SVA JZR JZR KAC QTR KAC JZR VOS ETD MLR QTR UAE GFA TAR ABY JZR JZR SVA FDB RBG ALK JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB IRA KAC KAC OMA MEA JZR SIA MSR KAC DHX KLM UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR MSR JZR KAC UAL KAC MSR

622 982 646 673 746 617 505 178 512 773 141 613 538 82 304 404 135 858 216 328 128 184 266 511 64 3556 228 134 283 361 571 62 616 331 351 648 403 188 457 619 543 373 445 860 218 102 137 301 205 502 554 607 240 411 981 415 613

ASSIUT BAHRAIN MUSCAT DUBAI JEDDAH DOHA JEDDAH DUBAI SHARM EL SHEIKH RIYADH DOHA BAHRAIN CAIRO BAGHDAD ABU DHABI DUBAI / COLOMBO DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN TUNIS SHARJAH DUBAI BEIRUT RIYADH DUBAI ALEXANDRIA DUBAI / COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI AHWAZ TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT DUBAI ABU DHABI / SINGAPORE ALEXANDRIA CAIRO BAHRAIN BAHRAIN / AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA LUXOR AMMAN BANGKOK / MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA CAIRO

14:40 14:45 15:00 15:10 15:30 15:35 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:05 16:15 16:20 16:40 17:00 17:35 17:40 17:45 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:45 19:10 19:10 19:30 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:45 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:15 21:20 21:55 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:10 23:15 23:25 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:50

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 432

CALVIN & HOBBES

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) Philosophizing, or expressing your theories, is an inborn talent and you are in love with grand gestures and long thoughts. Someone may bring up a subject of interest today and you may want to explore. You enjoy fair, just, frank and broad-minded persons and long conversations with your friends touching on a variety of subjects this afternoon. You dare to dream big. You are very tolerant and accepting of differences and may find yourself promoting your own ideas much of this day. Your sense of inner direction is good and should lead to some ideas for future monetary opportunities. Later today you will be able to make a great deal of headway on your personal projects. You will find a way around almost any obstacle.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. East Indian tree bearing a profusion of intense vermilion velvet-textured blooms and yielding a yellow dye.

4. Tropical American shrub or small tree having huge deeply palmately cleft leaves and large oblong yellow fruit.

10. Not divisible by two.

13. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

14. Constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary epic.

15. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

16. Having a single vocal part.

18. A landlocked desert republic in north-central Africa.

20. Fungus used in the preparation of punk for fuses.

21. Basic principles of the cosmos.

22. The face or front of a building.

25. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

26. Being one more than one hundred.

28. Indigo bush.

29. The branch of engineering science that studies the uses of electricity and the equipment for power generation and distribution and the control of machines and communication.

32. A public promotion of some product or service.

33. A mountain range in South America running 5000 miles along the Pacific coast.

35. Prolific Spanish playwright (1562-1635).

40. A fine grained mineral having a soft soapy feel and consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate.

41. A British peer ranking below a Marquess and above a Viscount.

42. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

44. A gonadotropic hormone that is secreted by the anterior pituitary.

45. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

47. Showing deterioration from age.

50. The dialect of Malay used as the national language of the Republic of Indonesia or of Malaysia.

52. Capital of Armenia.

55. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

56. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

59. Being or occurring at an advanced period of time or after a usual or expected time.

60. A defensive missile designed to shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.

61. (Hindu) A manner of sitting (as in the practice of Yoga).

62. The sixth month of the civil year.

63. Towards the side away from the wind.

64. (astronomy) An indistinct surface feature of Mars once thought to be a system of channels.

65. Large edible mackerel of temperate United States coastal Atlantic waters.

DOWN 1. Fallow deer.

2. Highly excited.

3. Valuable fiber plant of East Indies now widespread in cultivation.

4. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

5. Situated at an apex.

6. A form of entertainment that enacts a story by a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement.

7. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

8. A state in midwestern United States.

9. Any of various plants of the genus Althaea.

10. Of a moderate orange-yellow color.

11. The length of a straight line passing through the center of a circle and connecting two points on the circumference.

12. An informal term for a father.

17. Toward the mouth or oral region.

19. Marked by a rhythmical cadence.

23. A Mid-Atlantic state.

24. Imperial moths.

27. The content of cognition.

30. A hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck.

31. United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (1880-1957).

34. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

36. English writer (born in Scotland) of children's stories (1859-1932).

37. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

38. A member of the Sioux people formerly inhabiting an area along the Missouri river in western North Dakota.

39. Having columns at one or both ends but not along the sides.

43. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

46. (Old Testament) The second patriarch.

48. Of a pale purple color.

49. Avoid or try to avoid, as of duties, questions and issues.

50. Before noon.

51. A French abbot.

53. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

54. Roman Emperor notorious for his monstrous vice and fantastic luxury (was said to have started a fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64) but the Empire remained prosperous during his rule (37-68).

57. Imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of the time) from 206 BC to 221 and expanded its boundaries and developed its bureaucracy.

58. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

Yesterday’s Solution

Obtaining and exchanging information takes on an emotional significance for you. Learning the experience of others will help you in your own decision-making. The power of organization on a social scale regarding business, politics, etc., seems to take on an important aspect. This may mean that you are a concert pianist and have social obligations to play before a charity or perhaps some performance before an educational group. Professionally speaking, it is very important to exhibit superior social skills, particularly if you travel and perform out of the country. Most certainly, this is a wonderful time to discipline your mind through study, education or writing. You will have many experiences to write about and the outcome will be intriguing and positive.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Respect, status and achievement are central goals you have been wanting and today may prove to gain you insights along that line.

You are good when you work with teammates but to lead a team calls for a whole different bag of tricks. Your mental energies, ideas and thoughts, may undergo some transformation. There is a natural sense of growth and development present. You are a productive thinker and you like to respond in positive ways to the needs of your friends and family. You are a good example for others to follow. A family discussion this evening may call for your decision-making abilities. You will help to make the right decision, particularly when you remove emotions from the process. Others are inspired by your positive attitude.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

Communications could be strained this morning. There could be a misunderstanding that needs clearing up—ask questions and remain respectful. By the afternoon all will be at ease. Everything will be working together and you may find communication is expressive and easier to understand.

Something lost is found by another person. A difficult project can be finished by you.

A lost customer will find the right aisle or item, thanks to you. All is working together to make things work out right, particular when the participating parties are patient and have taken care of any physical problems. Your occupation will eventually bring about some incredible results. This evening is a good time to work in the garage or in a garden.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

ZITS

You can put your ideas into words and describe or analyze situations for yourself and others quite well. This could involve teaching and lecturing, etc. Chances are you work in one of the many service occupations, taking care of and looking after people. A bout of philosophy or even a little religion could have an enormous effect on your career during this time. Lasting values— whatever you find to be true and lasting—can guide you now as you open up avenues that have remained blocked. Outer circumstances are favorable and it should be easy for you to push forward in projects and in all aspects of your life.

Things may seem almost magical in the way they work out at this time. You will successfully organize and get things accomplished.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Obtaining and exchanging information is an important aspect of this Thursday. You may be very forceful in what you say and think just now. With all of this emotional energy, you could speak or communicate very well—you have a great mental drive. Your positivism lets you get right to the point and you have little patience with those who do not tend to business. You have plenty of enthusiasm and warm up to things and people quickly. You have an inner self-confidence that burns with its own light. Figuring things out and looking for the best solution to problems are just where you love to spend your energies this day. You have a heightened interest in health and diet, as well as an urge to get your personal things organized into a rational system.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

A supervisor or some senior worker steps in to create some sort of change in direction today. This is a go-with-the-flow sort of day and gives you plenty of opportunities for success in problem solving. Later today, you may consider restructuring your finances. You want a better sense of personal security for the future. Just as important is the way you are using all your resources. Your financial obligations may or may not increase just now, but your way of handling these obligations will change—for the better. However, because of some inside information, it looks as though your finances will show significant improvements—soon.

Take time to review your goals and perhaps some of the methods by which you reach those goals.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Your willingness to give credit to others that deserve recognition is commendable and higher-ups have noticed. You may also go beyond the assigned and expected tasks asked of you today. Help may be needed and you just jump in and lend a hand. Your eagerness to take the risk and make a decision—above and beyond your job identity—will bring you recognition. Today is a self-expression day. You will find others listening to your particular ideas. A good conversation with those you love is possible this evening. Teach others to share their experiences by listening—you enjoy your family. Seek advice and support from your family and encourage your family to seek your advice and support as well. Family members enjoy a strong bond.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Taking care of the necessary parts of life—health, work and such— is the greater preoccupation just now. Sorting things out and getting them organized to utmost efficiency keeps you busy. When there is an opportunity to move forward in your business or in your work, do not hesitate to take on the new. These additional activities will not distract you from keeping a good balance in your life. You have all the drive and energy you could want—it should be easy to focus this energy. The path is open and clear. Marriage and other close relationships give rise to great expectations now, as a new cycle gets underway in your life. Enjoy and appreciate your ties to others; seek and promote harmony in the interaction between people. Be good to you.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) This is a period of great mental activity and heightened communication with others. Your own growth and success may be linked to questions of security—home and family, in particular. Faith, family, friends, mental and physical fitness, volunteer services and finances are the subjects you will want to keep your mind keyed into while you are learning to balance your energies. These are the things that are needed for good balance. This may be a time during which you can get ahead by finding your limits and establishing a home base from which to move forward. Don’t be afraid to project your image. Group cooperation, perhaps teaching or lecturing could further your career now. Prepare yourself for a good tomorrow by doing the best you can today.

Yesterday’s Solution Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You might like to ignore responsibilities and do some socializing, but realities demand that you tend to business for the moment.

Your superiors value your ability to make practical decisions. Others may seek you out for advice concerning business matters. You could be put in charge to make decisions that affect conditions in the workplace. You are most persuasive and you will find others most cooperative. You possess a powerful, persistent drive and are a hard, steady worker. You have a sense of mission and mystery. You are willing to do the work that others would not go near. A young person is monitoring your activities.

Whether you realize it or not, you are being used as a mentor—careful. Enjoy dinner out-of-doors this evening.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Intense focus on your career can find you mercilessly cutting back and getting down to the essentials regarding your professional direction. You will have a sense of being almost driven to pursue your course and succeed. Perhaps you will want to take a class or have someone guide you with a new skill or technique. This could be a time during which your need for inner growth and change may not agree with your progress in the business world. You may not appreciate all of the intensely personal stuff that is boiling up now. It is best to get your lessons learned now—it will help to decrease frustrations later. Deal with situations as they appear and ask questions if someone is not easily understood. Relax with your loved one this evening—dismiss work.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

24812000

Al-Jahra

25610011

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways FlyDubai Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

22433377 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22958787 22453820/1 22404838/9

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist 25340300

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Salem soso

22618787

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291 22666288

Rheumatologists:

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

Dentists

Internists, Chest & Heart

25339330

25655535

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

General Surgeons

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345

Central African Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia

00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

lifestyle M U S I C

&

M O V I E S

Toronto film fest mixes stars, music, Oscar bait T

File photo shows former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov.

here’s a broader vibe than the usual Hollywood A-listers this year at the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the world’s top cinema showcases and a prelude for contenders at the Academy Awards. Stars such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Glenn Close, Robert De Niro and Viggo Mortensen are on the guest list for the 11-day festival that opens today with an unusually heavy emphasis on music and documentaries.

Pitt is on hand for the premiere of “Moneyball,” a film he has been trying to bring to the screen for years as both star and producer. Directed by Bennett Miller (“Capote”), “Moneyball” casts Pitt as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, who rebuilt his team on a shoestring budget applying a fresh statistical approach to find underappreciated players. “Baseball had relied on a form of statistics that just hadn’t been questioned, and this discovery that had been around for 30 years but had been dismissed showed that there’s much more to it,” Pitt said. “There’s a lot of talented people out there who aren’t being used.”

Pitt’s “Ocean’s Eleven” pal Clooney stars in two Toronto films, the family drama “The Descendants” from director Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) and his own latest directing effort, the political saga “The Ides of March,” in which he plays a presidential candidate opposite Ryan Gosling as an ambitious press secretary. Weisz has three films playing Toronto: the 1950s drama “The Deep Blue Sea”; the sexual thriller “360,” co-starring Anthony Hopkins and Jude Law; and the British spy tale “Page Eight,” the festival’s closing-night premiere that co-stars Bill Nighy and Ralph Fiennes.

Fiennes has a second film at Toronto, too.

He directed and stars with Vanessa Redgrave and Gerard Butler in the Shakespeare adaptation “Coriolanus.” Redgrave also has another Shakespeare film at the festival, playing Queen Elizabeth I in “Anonymous,” which stars Rhys Ifans as an aristocrat some scholars believe is the actual author of the Bard’s work.

Other highlights among the 260 feature films playing Toronto: Williams and Seth Rogen in actress Sarah Polley’s latest directing effort, the marital tale “Take This Waltz’; Close in the cross-dressing story “Albert Nobbs,” about a 19th century Irishwoman who disguises herself as a male butler; De Niro, Jason Statham and Clive Owen in the action thriller “Killer Elite”; and Mortensen, Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender in the Sigmund FreudCarl Jung drama “A Dangerous Method.”

Polley, who grew up in Toronto and still

lives there, said that unlike industry-dominated festivals such as Cannes and Venice, Toronto draws regular film fans that give filmmakers a sense of how their work might play in the real world.” The audiences are so enthusiastic,” Polley said. “It’s a great launching pad for a film. You get your optimum audience here. If a film’s not loved by audiences here, it’s probably not going to be loved by an audience anywhere, so it’s a great first shot.”

The 36th Toronto festival is putting music on a pedestal, as well, with documentaries about Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Pearl Jam and U2, the Irish rockers who are the subject of the opening-night gala. In “From the Sky Down,” director Davis Guggenheim (the Oscar-winning Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”) traces the genesis of U2’s 1991 album “Achtung Baby” and follows singer Bono and his band mates today as they prepare for a live performance of those songs. The festival typically starts with a Canadian film, but “we were looking at a number of ideas of just opening up what’s possible in terms of opening night,” said

In this image released by Sony Pictures, Brad Pitt, right, and Jonah Hill are shown in a scene from “Moneyball.” — AP photos

In this image released by the Toronto Film Festival, George Clooney, left, and Shailene Woodley are shown in a scene from the film “The Descendants.”

Cameron Bailey, co-director of the Toronto fest, which also premiered Guggenheim’s 2008 film “It Might Get Loud,” featuring U2 guitarist The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White.

“The fact that it’s Davis Guggenheim is as important as the fact that it’s U2. Our audiences like his films and like his filmmaking. I like how he’s able to get under the skin of

these very prominent figures, whether it’s the guitarists in ‘It Might Get Loud’ or Al Gore or with this one on U2.” Also on a musical note: Jonathan Demme directs “Neil Young Journeys,” his third concert film featuring the rocker, this time in a solo show at Toronto’s Massey Hall at the end of his tour to promote the album “Le Noise.” Cameron Crowe combines his two occupations, filmmaker and

rock journalist, to direct “Pearl Jam Twenty,” a portrait of the Seattle-area music stars built on rare archival material and candid new interviews with Eddie Vedder and his band mates. McCartney is at the heart of “The Love We Make,” Albert Maysles’ chronicle of the former Beatle’s preparations for a memorial concert after the Sept 11 attacks. The film screens at Toronto on Friday, the night before its TV premiere on Showtime and two days before the 10th anniversary of Sept 11.

The attacks left stars, filmmakers, studio executives and fans stranded in Toronto 10 years ago. The festival briefly shut down before resuming with a subdued air. To mark the 10-year anniversary, all festival screenings on Sept 11 will be preceded by a four-minute film featuring directors and other industry professionals looking back on that day and its aftermath.”From the Sky Down” marks the first time the festival has opened with a documentary, and the nonfiction department also offers one of the festival’s most potentially divisive films with “Sarah Palin - You Betcha!”

Director Nick Broomfield (“Biggie and Tupac,” “Kurt and Courtney”) spent 10 weeks during winter in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, where he interviewed her parents, friends, church members and others who have known the former governor and Republican vice presidential candidate.”The idea was to go with a pretty open mind, not with a lot of preconceptions,” Broomfield said.

“It’s almost like we made a diary of what we found rather than going out to nail her.”—AP

ʻBuddy Hollyʼ

A Minute With

Deborah Harry talking new Blondie tribute album lacks spark

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ere is some good advice: avoid standing behind Deborah Harry at airport security. “I have a briefcase full of wires when I travel. I have to go through the X-ray machine and they’re always looking at this massive tangle, like, ‘what?’” laughs Harry, whose travel must-haves include an mp3 player, iPhone, iPad and e-Reader. Keeping up with trends in culture and technology is one thing the 66-year-old Blondie singer and occasional tweeter said comes naturally. “It’s just always been part of who I am,” Harry told Reuters in a recent interview.

Still one electronic remnant of her old punk rock days can be found in her bag. “I still carry my very old-fashioned cassette player,” she said. Harry, among the earliest music video superstars, is currently on the road with original Blondie bandmates, guitarist Chris Stein and Drummer Clem Burke.

The three have been creating new music since reuniting and bringing on new musicians to round out their sextet. “Panic of Girls,” the group’s first album in eight years, hits Amazon.com on Sept 13, and Harry took some time to talk to Reuters about it.

Q: What’s the significance of the album’s title?

A: “It’s sort of like a flock of crows. It’s an adjective or an analogy. It’s a mad rush of

fans or something. It just seemed interesting and novel and descriptive. It caught up with us. It was created as a rhyming scheme for a song that didn’t go on the album and we thought it was just kind of cool.”

Q: You’re last record was 2003’s “The Curse of Blondie.” Why so long between projects?

A: “We’ve been working steadily all of these years, we’ve been doing a lot of touring.

We were examining a way to put out an album independently for a number of years, since the industry has changed so much.”

Q: How so?

A: “The record companies, they’ve gone down. They don’t ship as many records, they don’t sign as many artists. The traditional record business collapsed rather quickly.”

Q: You’re somewhat of a Hip-Hop icon because of your song “Rapture” (1981) in which you were rapping and the video, which featured a DJ, breakdancing and graffiti. Do you listen to any Hip-Hop these days?

A. “Sure! I listen to the radio. I hear what’s being played. I like a lot of Jay-Z. I haven’t heard from Ludacris in a while but I really like him. I’m not hooked on what any single artist does. It’s piece by piece. I think most people are like that.”

Q: “Mother,” the lead single from Panic of Girls pays homage to a Manhattan club you hung out at in 1990s. Where do you go out now?

A: “I’m not locked into one place right now. I go out where my friends are DJing. If I like what they’re playing, that’s a good incentive to have a good time. I like to go to different venues to hear live music. Most recently I went out to a benefit at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Buckcherry and the Toilet Bowls had a reunion. It was a really great night.”

Q: Is clubbing how you find new music and influences?

A: “Yeah, definitely that, but I also listen to radio. I like to listen to what artists, people are talking about and I check out all those album release date lists online.”

Q: What do you think about the way social media like Twitter has changed the way artists interact with fans?

A: “It’s all very immediate and very helpful in a lot of ways. You can certainly get a lot of feedback. On the other hand, sometimes I think it’s a lot of unimportant stuff.”—Reuters

B

uddy Holly never lived to see his 23rd birthday, but that isn’t stopping anyone from celebrating his 75th this week, with the rather belated installation of a star on Hollywood Boulevard and the release of yet another all-star tribute. Maybe now he’ll finally be recognized by the youth of America for something other than stealing Elvis Costello’s look, right?

“Listen to Me: Buddy Holly” is the second Holly tribute to come out in two and a half months, so you’ll be forgiven if you need someone to sort out the confusion-especially since each one features a Beatle. The first was “Rave On Buddy Holly,” released in late June and leaning toward indie-rock types like the Black Keys, Florence + the Machine, and Modest Mouse, though Paul McCartney put in a screaming appearance.

This week’s unrelated follow-up sticks almost entirely to mainstream elder statesmen, with Ringo Starr as the requisite Fab on duty. Peter Asher served as executive producer, which is significant, since he set the first real posthumous Holly renaissance in motion in the mid-’70s by recording Linda Ronstadt’s reputation-reviving versions of “That’ll Be the Day” and “It’s So Easy.”

Ironically, perhaps, the two albums suffer from opposite problems. The alterative artists on “Rave On” were apparently encouraged to retool Holly’s songs so considerably that the melodic life sometimes got snuffed out of them. As for the new “Listen to Me,” Asher’s sensibility isn’t exactly what anyone would call edgy, and there’s stodginess to a lot of the contributions that could have benefited from a bit of the other album’s adventurous approach.

Two highlights come early: Jackson Browne was born to sing the ballad “True Love Ways,” and British rockabilly queen Imelda May finds the fire in “I’m Looking for Someone to Love.” Most everything else counts as either boomer-safe or in the bizarre curio category.

A couple of newish groups make their way into the mix. The Fray do an

Buddy Holly outright U2 impersonation on “Take Your Time,” so if you ever wanted to hear Bono sing Buddy, here’s your chance (sort of ). The weirdest choice is Cobra Starship, whose mixed-gender lead singers do a sort of contempoHuman-League take on “Peggy Sue” that almost clicks, in the corniest possible way. But Brian Wilson’s “Listen to Me” and Ringo’s “Think It Over” are just the kind of passable, going-through-the-motions efforts you might expect from their latest recordings. Ronstadt reunites with Asher to remake their remake of “That’ll Be the Day,” sans the spark of their 1976 recording. —Reuters

‘House’ star Hugh Laurie releases first album

I

f Dr Gregory House, MD gotput to work figuring out what doesn’t quite gel about actor Hugh Laurie’s debut album, “Let Them Talk,” he’d run through a checklist trying to get at the core malady. Could it be the musical genre, or choice of backup? No- the album’s jazzy New Orleans blues could hardly be more delectable in the hands of the great players assembled by producer Joe Henry. Could it be the guest stars?

Hardly, when Dr. John, Irma Thomas, and Allen Toussaint all make prominent contributions.

How about Laurie, himself? Bingo, Dr. House.

The British actor pretty much sticks to one method of singing throughout “Let Them Talk,” and it’s a vocal style best described as... “cranky.” But these are the blues he’s singing, so if the curmudgeon-liness

he cultivates on the TV screen seems to have translated a bit to his singing, better this than having him try his voice at sensitive pop balladry. And in fact, his vocal limitationswhich you suspect he might be the first to admit, in the presence of the New Orleans legends he’s surrounded himself with-aren’t a fatal affliction for “Let Them Talk.”

Compared to recent musical efforts by fellow thespians Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins, the album comes off as far less artistically ambitious, but, on its own terms, and far more unpretentiously enjoyable. Laurie proves a capable enough pianist in the three and a half minutes of instrumental overture that open the album, and when the vocals kick in on Louis Armstrong’s “Saint James Infirmary,” his unabashed cockiness in delivering boasts like, “She may search this world over, she won’t ever find another man like me,” just about compensates for the missing nuance. —Reuters

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

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Royce da 5’9” puts (some) negativity behind him

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rom the first moment rapper Royce da 5’9” met Eminem - “a skinny white kid pushing mixtapes” at an Usher show in 1997 - he saw the potential in him. “I remember just feeling like this guy, he can definitely be something. I want to work with somebody; I want to work with him. I can learn something from him, “ Royce, whose real name is Ryan Montgomery, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. Royce says they’ve both evolved in the 14 years that have passed. The pair had a falling out and feuded for a while, but now are so tight they put out a successful joint album, “Hell: The Sequel,” over the summer as Bad Meets Evil.

And the iconic rapper has given Royce plenty of grown-up advice as his success grows, with his recently released third studio album, “Success Is Certain,” and work on new material with his group Slaughterhouse (Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz). “He’s a lot different, a lot more mature, but still the same funny guy, still the same sense of humor. He’s just an adult now and so am I,” he said of Eminem. The 34-year-old Royce talked about their relationship, his own growing pains and his bond with his 13-year-old son in a recent interview.

AP: How did you sort out your feud with Eminem?

Royce da 5’9”: It kind of sorted itself out. A lot things transpire, time heals everything. It wasn’t anything that he did to me or anything, or anything that I did to him .... We just kind of grew apart at that moment.

There was lot going on, a lot of

In this undated photo provided by MIC records/ Gracie Productions, Detroit rapper Royce da 5’9”, also known as Ryan Daniel Montgomery, is shown.—AP

In this image released by Interscope Records, Eminem, right and Rihanna are shown during the filming of their music video, ‘Love the Way You Lie. —AP money got thrown into the middle, a lot of other people involved. I think once we lost Proof (the rapper was killed in 2006), the D12 guys were real instrumental in kind of bringing us back together. They always knew how close we were.

And once I squashed the beef with them, they were real verbal with going to him and saying “Look, we’re not beefing with Royce no more, there’s not a problem anymore.” And I think just one day he just decided he was going to call me, so he called me and we been back at it ever since.

AP: Your last album, “Death Is Certain” was a very dark album. What are you rapping about now?

Royce da 5’9”: With the “Death Is Certain” album, I spoke about a lot of the mistakes I was making, like the dark cloud that I felt was hovering over my head. Failure, negativity, beef, and this album is you know, looking back ... and reflecting on that; speaking of triumph, overcoming adversity, leaping over hurdles. I still try to maintain the dark feel sonically, but content-wise, I just wanted to make it a little bit brighter.

AP: The album seems to have a more positive feel to it.

Royce da 5’9”: It just came natural because I’m a lot more positive today than I was; I was very negative back then. I’m not that no more.

I’m not angry with anybody, I don’t hate anybody, I don’t have beef with anybody, I don’t have anything bad going on, I’m not drinking (and) driving, I’m not doing none of that stuff. So it’s just kind of a reflection of where I am today.

AP: Does your son ever influence your music?

Royce da 5’9”: I try not to let it influence my music. I try to live a double life, as horrible as that sounds. I try not to be Royce da 5’9” in my home; I try to just be Ryan Montgomery. A regular person, and I don’t want my son looking at me like Royce da 5’9”, and he has to understand that my music is a reflection of the entire me, not just the dad but the person that goes out the door, the person that’s going to protect the home, the person that’s going to provide.

I’m all of those people wrapped up in one, so I kind of bring out differ-

ent sides to my music that he doesn’t need to see.

AP: What will you tell your son about your past mistakes?

Royce da 5’9:” Depending how old he is, if I feel that he’s of age and he’s mature enough, I’d be very honest with him. Like I went to jail for a year and I didn’t think he was old enough to understand and handle it so, I lied, I lied to him. My wife was dropping me off every day at the work release facility and I was telling him that it was the studio. I didn’t want to do that to him. I didn’t want him to have to think about that. And when he gets to age he’ll either find out and come to me and talk to me about it and we can discuss it, or I’m going to tell him when I feel like the time is right. I think as a parent, it’s our job to protect our child’s feelings. ... You don’t want them growing up too fast.—AP

Eddie Murphy to host 2012 Oscars PJ Harvey wins V

Eddie Murphy

eteran Hollywood comedy star Eddie Murphy is to host the Oscars awards show next year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday. It will be the first time the standup comic turned actorfamous for films from “Beverly Hills Cop” in the 1980s to “Shrek” in which he does the voice of Donkey-has hosted the Oscars, the climax of Hollywood’s awards season. “Eddie is a comedic genius, one of the greatest and most influential live performers ever,” said telecast co-producer Brett Ratner, who will put on the February 26 show with Don Mischer.

“With his love of movies, history of crafting unforgettable characters and his iconic performances-especially on stage-I know he will bring excitement, spontaneity and tremendous heart to the show,” he added. Mischer added: “Eddie is a truly ground-breaking performer, whose amazingly diverse array of roles has won him a devoted audience of all ages. His quick wit and charisma will serve him very well as Oscar host.” Murphy, who gained fame on TV show Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s before breaking onto the big screen, said he was looking forward to the gig.

“I am enormously honored to join the great list of past Academy Award hosts from (Bob) Hope and (Johnny) Carson to (Billy) Cr ystal, (Steve) Martin and (Whoopi) Goldberg, among others,” he said.”I’m looking forward to working with Brett and Don on creating a show that is enjoyable for both the fans at home and for the audience at the Kodak Theatre” in Hollywood, he added. The Oscars organizers will likely hope Murphy gets a better reception than this year’s co-hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco. The latter was notably criticized for a wooden performance in February. —AFP

UK’s Mercury Prize for best album

The winner of the prestigious 2011 Mercury Music Prize, PJ Harvey holds the trophy after being awarded the prize in recognition of her album in London.—AP

E US actor Danny Glover poses next to the beach closet dedicated to him on the Promenade des Planches in the French northwestern sea resort of Deauville while attending a homage ceremony during the 37th American Film Festival yesterday.

The Promenade des Planches consists of beach closets dedicated to famous actors and film directors that have come to Deauville. —AFP

Wayne’s new CD sells 964,000 units in 1st week

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t wasn’t quite “A Milli” but it was awful close: Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV” sold 964,000 copies in its debut week for the second-best first-week sales of the year. The figures were released by Nielsen SoundScan on Tuesday. Only Lady Gaga sold more this year. Her “Born This Way” hit No 1 with 1.1 million sold thanks in part to a one-day offer from Amazon.com to buy the album for 99 cents.

Lil Wayne just barely missed his own sales record. “Tha Carter III” sold just over 1 million when it was released in 2008.Lil Wayne made “Tha Carter IV” available for digital download immediately after an appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards, and released a physical CD two days later. —AP

Cruz in Bosnia to shoot new movie O

In this CD cover image released by Cash Money/Universal Records, the latest release by lil Wayne, “Tha Carter IV,” is shown. —AP

nglish musician PJ Harvey won the 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Prize for best album on Tuesday with “Let England Shake,” becoming the first artist in the award’s 20-year history to win it twice, organizers said. Harvey, who also won in 2001 with “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea,” beat out 11 other nominees including chart queen Adele and another previous winner Elbow. The winning album was partly inspired by Harvey’s reaction to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the 41-yearold had long been the bookmakers’ favorite to scoop the annual trophy. Harvey, who is now on tour with her live band, recorded the album in a 19th century church in Dorset, Britain, her representatives said in a statement. The prize, which has gone to a wide range of musical genres since it began in 1992, honors music by British or Irish artists and is based solely on the music on the album. Electronic band the xx won the 2010 Mercury Prize for their debut album, “The xx.”

The shortlist for this year’s award was as follows: Adele - 21 Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!

Everything Everything - Man Alive Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau James Blake - James Blake Katy B - On A Mission King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine Metronomy - The English Riviera PJ Harvey - Let England Shake Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy —Reuters

scar-winning Spanish actress Penelope Cruz arrived yesterday in Bosnia to shoot her new movie, a drama about the 1990s war in the Balkan country, local media reported. Cruz plays the main role in “Venuto al Mondo” (Into the World), a film directed

by Italian Sergio Castellitto, the Dnevni Avaz daily reported on its online edition. The shooting was to start on Monday, the daily said adding that locations were being kept secret.

The movie is based on the bestseller

by Margaret Mazzantini, Castellitto’s wife. It tells the story of a single mother, portrayed by Cruz, who returns with her teenage son to present day Sarajevo, where the boy’s father died during the

1992-1995 war. Cruz, 37, has already worked with Castellitto in the 2004 drama “Non ti Muovere” (Don’t Move), also based on a novel by Mazzantini. Last year Angelina Jolie, another Oscar-winning actress sparked controversy when she wanted to film scenes from her directorial debut “The Land of Blood and Honey” also about the bloody Bosnian war.

Local media reported the film would show a Muslim rape victim falling in love with her Serb attacker, which prompted outrage from rape victims organizations.

Jolie denied the script included such a love story and asked for victims organizations to reserve judgment until they have seen the film. —AFP

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Historic Polish city, college-town vibe

The main square of the Old Town in Krakow. —AP photos

A man as he plays the accordion and sings in the Old Town of Krakow.

A plate of pierogies.

ith crowds of tourists and a college-town atmosphere, Krakow once the capital of Poland - has become a European hot spot. The center of it all is the centuries-old main square in the Old Town, or Stare Miasto, where brick streets are filled with restaurants, coffee shops, trendy boutiques and sidewalk cafes. Midnight feels like noon as crowds crawl late into the night, when many establishments turn bar, pub, disco or dance club. The sound of singing rises up from cellars filled with party-goers.

Krakow, a city of about 800,000 on the banks of the Vistula River in southern Poland, attracts about 7 million tourists a year. The city also boasts two dozen universities with nearly 210,000 students. The mix translates into a youthful, fun energy in the formerly communist country.

In the evening, visitors to the square will find history meeting the 21st century

The Old Town is surrounded by green space called the Planty, which tour guides explain was once the city moat. Now it’s filled with trees, statues, a walking path, gardens and fountains. Along the north side of the Planty is St Florian’s Gate, where local artists fill a stone city wall with paintings for sale. A tram runs in a circle outside the Planty and then branches out into the city.

Several tourist attractions sit just outside the Old Town, including Wawel Hill, which can be described as the heart of Poland. It’s where the country’s kings, queens and other dignitaries are buried in Wawel Cathedral. Tours are available of Wawel Castle and outside near the Vistula River a tall statue of a dragon actually breathes fire - a favorite with children.

Those looking for a more authentic shopping experience can head to the Stary Kleparz, a flea market-like space where vendors sell fresh vegetables, sausages, kitchen items, clothing, jewelry and flowers.

Several side trips are worth a look if there’s time on your itinerary: l Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum: The site of the former Nazi concentration camp, where more than 1.1 million people died during World War II, is about 40 miles west of Krakow. Tours are available in many languages. l Kazimierz: The Jewish quarter of Krakow is just south, within walking distance, of the Old Town. Tourists can see several synagogues, a Jewish cemetery and traditional restaurants. l Nowa Huta: The communists built Nowa Huta as an ideal workers’ city, with a steel mill, apartment blocks and once, a statue of Lenin. Tours are available or get there via tram. l Wieliczka Salt Mine: This UNESCO Heritage Site is about eight miles southeast of Krakow. Visitors can see cavernous rooms filled with intricately carved statues, altars, even chandeliers, all made of salt. l Zakopane: Poles flock to this resort town in the Tatra Mountains about 65 miles south of Krakow. During the winter there’s skiing and sledding; summer offers hiking and swimming.

Trams take groups to the top of mountains for stunning views and shoppers crowd the market and boutiques along Krupowki Street. —AP

Bread rolls for sale at a blue cart.

Photo shows produce for sale in the Stary Kleparz market in Krakow.

as hip-hop dancers perform in front of the landmark statue of poet Adam Mickiewicz while an older man plays an accordion under the city gate.

The large, long Sukiennice building takes up the middle of the main market square. Inside shoppers move from stall to stall down a hallway, deciding among carved wooden boxes, amber jewelry and other tourist trinkets. The building is also home to the Rynek Underground Museum, where visitors can view centuries-old archaeological ruins of Krakow.

On the northeast corner of the square a bugler emerges every hour, on the hour (yes, even in the middle of the night) from the nearly 270-foot tall tower of St Mary’s Church. When he’s done, he waves to crowds below. Visitors can climb the tower stairs for an aerial view of the square or tour the stunning inside of the church.

The buildings just around the square are filled with sidewalk restaurants where diners can watch other tourists take horse and buggy rides or hear an opera singer perform “Ave Maria” for pocket change. Prices for entry to most attractions are reasonable. Poland is not on the euro and the US dollar is worth roughly three Polish zloty.

While Krakow has all the trappings of a touristy European city, a unique vibe sets it apart. Nuns wearing full habits ride their bicycles through the square as Polish families play with their children near large, artistic sculptures. At night groups of young people The Town Hall Tower in the Old hop from bar to bar or wait in long lines for large, Town of Krakow. cheesy loaves of take-out pizza bread called zapiekanka.

Food is plentiful and hardy in the Old Town.

There are many Polish restaurants where tourists can sample pierogi, bigos, kielbasa and other traditional dishes. But there are also trendier cafes, Italian eateries and take-out pizza, gelato and kebob counters for a quick bite.

Cheapest and most popular for a snack are the blue carts that sell rings of freshbaked bread dough covered in poppy seeds, cheese or sesame seeds. Bakeries every few streets sell pastries filled with chocolate, apples, strawberries and cheese, huge loaves of bread and small Polish cookies.

Moscow’s Gorky Park ditches rides in hip revival F

Muscovites as they try to play traditional French game La Petanque at the game’s new site, La Boule, in Moscow’s historic Gorky Park, shortly after the site unveiling. —AFP

Muscovites play traditional French game La Petanque.

about the changes. “It’s become very beautiful ‘Unique experiment for Russia’ or years, Moscow’s historic Gorky Park, the here after the reconstruction,” said Alexander “Last year, 80 percent of visitors were not spooky location of US writer Martin Cruz Krasnoshtanov, 20, a restaurant manager, who Muscovites. People came here from the Moscow Smith’s thriller, was a tacky, neglected space with ancient rollercoaster and candy floss. region for cheap rides. We have a completely dif- sat on a beanbag with his laptop. “Mainly I use the wifi or go to the beach. I’m not bothered ferent life,” he said. The park’s program director, Now visitors lounge on beanbags, attend mass about the rides, but I would put some in for the Yekaterina Kibovskaya, a journalist who spent yoga classes and access free wifi on their lapchildren,” he said. “It’s interesting for children, several years in New York, echoed the message. tops. And the park is set to become one of the because you can cycle, rollerskate... The rides “Everyone is sick of loud music, constantly cookcity’s main venues for contemporary art when aren’t the main thing,” said a woman who gave ing kebabs on camp fires. I think we are ready to Dasha Zhukova, Roman Abramovich’s partner, relax in another way,” she said. “We want to show her name as Valentina Vladimirovna, rollerskatmoves her Garage gallery there next year. It’s a ing with her two daughters. that in our park you can sit on the grass, eat strange turn of events for the park, which was In a move that would have once seemed buns and drink some pleasant, non-alcoholic laid out in the 1920s to show the new proletariunthinkable, Abramovich’s partner Zhukova drinks.” at how to spend their free time in a more “culplans to move her contemporary art gallery Signs thank visitors “for not being mean to tured” way, with lectures and concerts.

Garage to the park next year. In September, the ducklings” and they can leave suggestions in The changes are being pushed through by Garage will hold its first exhibition in the park as special boxes. “A lot of people thank us for the the park’s new director Sergei Kapkov, a close part of the Moscow biennale of contemporary changes in the park but a lot of people ask ally of the billionaire Abramovich and who art. And in May or June next year, it will move about the children’s rides,” Kibovskaya said. One was appointed by the new Moscow mayor into a temporary new home, a 1970s concrete pencilled message pleaded: “Bring back the big Sergei Sobyanin in March. “We wanted it (the pavilion, said the gallery’s director Anton wheel,” while another said simply: “Keep on clean-up) a lot-more than the previous park Belov.”Maybe it’s a unique experiment for Russia doing what you’re doing.” management,” he told AFP during a stroll in when we are bringing contemporary art into a Visitors basking in the sun were positive the park.”I think Gorky Park is such a symbol of park zone, and not an ordinary Moscow and the new mayor park, but one that is the most sigunderstands this, so we started nificant in Moscow and maybe moving quite quickly... We even in Russia,” Belov said. absolutely needed to open up the “In the park there will be a lot park as a public space for of people for whom it will be the Muscovites.” Kapkov has now been first encounter with contempoappointed Moscow’s park czar, in rary art.” Ultimately Garage plans charge of all its vast parks. to move into the Hexagon, a large He heads Abramovich’s National pavilion built in the 1920s for an Football Academy and ran his camagricultural fair by architect Ivan paign for governor of the remote Zholtovsky, later known for classiChukotka region, which Kapkov cal revival Stalin-era buildings. “It also represented in parliament until showed the first avant-garde art he took up the park job. The most exhibitions, the first American controversial decision was to take cars, the first farm machinery,” down the still popular rides which Belov said. “We need to give it were the park’s trademark, Kapkov new life.” Little remains of the said. Gorky Park had some fairoriginal building, which was an ground rides as far back as the open summer pavilion, and exact1960s, but the rides multiplied over ly how to reconstruct it still being the 1990s. “Of course I was a bit discussed. Kapkov said the move worried, but we had to remove the could happen in four years. —AFP rides in any case. They were 26 to 30 years old. They were in a damaged, dangerous state-it was inevitable,” Kapkov said. The changes have brought new visitors to the park: locals rather than outMuscovites try to play traditional French game La Petanque. of-towners, he said.

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Years

lifestyle T r a v e l

The costly

A Bhutanese man walks past the Choeden Memorial, built in memory of the late third King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk in the capital city of Thimphu. —AFP photos

T

The giant Buddha Dordenma statue, still under-construction, overlooks the capital city of Thimphu.

A Bhutanese woman sets her shop at the weekend market.

Traditional paintings are seen at a bridge overlooking the weekend market.

he isolated kingdom of Bhutan is one of the most expensive holiday destinations in the world and a haven for celebrities and the well-heeled. In 2012, it will become even more costly. Foreign tourists are required to book through licensed tour operators, who charge a minimum highseason price of 200 dollars per day per person for an all-inclusive package including accommodation, food and transport. The pristine Himalayan kingdom of snowcapped mountains and gushing mountain streams pursues a policy of “high-end, low-impact tourism”, deliberately keeping out the hordes who might spoil its untouched environment.

From the start of 2012, the highseason daily fee will rise to $250 per day per person, meaning a stay in one of the basic hotels as part of the package will cost a travelling couple at least $500 a night. “It may not make economic sense now to be high end, but Bhutan will be preserved for future generations of visitors,” the director general of the Tourism Council of Bhutan, Kesang Wangdi, told AFP in an interview. “If we opened up, our revenue would go through the roof, but at what price? We restrain ourselves from going wantonly along the economic development path without considering the social impact and the environment.”

Nevertheless, next year the council hopes to boost visitor numbers by more than 50 percent to 100,000 by offering new types of holiday and improving flight links to cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Bhutan famously follows an economic development doctrine known as “Gross National Happiness”, which takes into account the mental well-being of its nearly 700,000 citizens instead of simply measuring financial gain.

The remote and reclusive country, never colonized despite its position between India and China, puts protecting the environment and preserving its unique culture at the heart of its policy decisions.

Citizens have to wear national dress when visiting government offices and many choose to sport the elegant woven outfits in everyday life out of national pride.

Bhutan’s decision to keep out the masses-backpackers looking for cheap holidays in the Himalayas head for neighboring Nepal-makes it an appealing destination for anyone wanting to escape it all.

Hollywood stars Leonardo di Caprio and Keira Knightley are among those to have recently stayed at the ultra-high-end Uma Paro resort, one of a number of luxury hotels catering to wealthy travellers in the country. Staying at a luxury hotel is an additional cost on top of the basic $200-a-day visiting package, meaning a night in an Uma Paro suite costs upwards of $1,000 a night.

‘Snob value’ Ravi Nischal of the Taj Group, the Indian-owned chain of luxury hotels with a property in Thimphu, says Bhutan has a “snob value” because not many people have been to the country and most can only dream of visiting.”The destination has connotations of luxury,” he said. “There is also a lot of mysticism that surrounds Bhutan. It’s known as the last Shangri-La,” he added, referring to the Himalayan paradise described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

The “Land of the Thunder Dragon”, as it is also sometimes known, had no roads or currency until the 1960s and allowed television only in 1999 in a bid to shield itself from foreign influences. Nicole Feerbrucker, a 56-year-old therapist from the Netherlands, told AFP that she had wanted to visit since seeing a photo spread of the former king’s coronation in National Geographic magazine in 1974.

She says the daily tariff and the costly flight on the only airline linking the country to the outside world-state-owned Druk Air-made the holiday expensive for her and her husband and daughter. ”But I think coming here and having to pay such an amount of money keeps the country the way it is. The influences of outside have been diminished by that,” she says. The target of 100,000 visitors next year is causing unease for some in Bhutan who fear the impact of a sudden influx.

Karma Tshiteem, the influential head of the Gross National Happiness Commission, an agency that vets government policy, says the new tourists can be easily absorbed with minimum harm.”The key part of our strategy of reaching 100,000 without any of the accompanying negative impacts is spreading the number throughout the year and throughout the country,” he told AFP in an interview. At present, almost all tourists arrive in spring and autumn for week-long cultural holidays in the three valleys that are easily accessed from the town of Paro, where the country’s only international airport is located.

The Tourism Council wants to attract visitors for spa-type “wellness” holidays, conferences, and adventure tourism-though mountaineering will remain off-limits because Bhutan’s peaks are considered sacred. By doing a better job of marketing Bhutan overseas and increasing flight links, tourism officials hope more people will visit but without disrupting one of the world’s most protected countries. —AFP

A general view of the Luxury Suite villa at the Uma Hotel in Paro.

A view of the dining area at the Uma Hotel in Paro.

The Taktsang Monastery, popularly known as the Tiger’s Nest, stands on a hillside near Paro.

PJ Harvey wins UK’s Mercury Prize for best album

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Part of a Suite of Kunzite, amethyst and diamond “Triphanes” jewelry

by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Elizabeth Taylor’s coming to auction E

lizabeth Taylor dazzled the world with her luminous beauty, lavish lifestyle and an unquenchable passion for diamonds and jewels that was fueled by the great loves of her life. The late Hollywood star amassed one of the foremost jewelry collections in the world, including a 33.19-carat diamond ring and a 16th century pear-shaped pearl from one of her seven husbands, Richard Burton.

Elizabeth Taylor’s “The Mike Todd Tiara,” estimated at $60,000 - $80,000. —AP photos

Burton snapped it up for $37,000, beating out the underbidder, a member of the Spanish Royal family. Cartier later created a ruby and diamond necklace from which the pearl was suspended, a design that was inspired by the famous Velazquez portraits of Spain’s Queen Margarita and Queen Isabel wearing the pearl as a necklace.

It is estimated to fetch $2 million to $3 million. Taylor, who was married eight times - twice to Burton - died in March at age 79. The couple appeared together in about a dozen films, including “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in which Taylor played an alcoholic shrew in an emotionally sadomasochistic marriage.

Burton was enamored of historical pieces, and in 1972 purchased the famous 17th-century Taj Mahal diamond pendant for Taylor’s 40th birthday. The transaction took place at John F Kennedy International Airport because the couple didn’t have time to run into the city before catching a plane, said Kadakia. The heart-shaped diamond is associated with one of history’s greatest love stories. It belonged

Elizabeth Taylor’s “The Taj Mahal Diamond,” circa 1627 - 1628, on a gold and ruby chain

by Cartier, was a gift from Richard Burton for her 40th birthday in 1972.

The Associated Press recently viewed about two dozen of her most iconic pieces at Christie’s auction house, which is selling her complete jewelry collection, valued at $30 million, in New York on Dec 13-14.

“These are the top jewels that Elizabeth Taylor received from the great loves of her life, Mike Todd and Richard Burton,” said Christie’s jewelry expert Rahul Kadakia. “They’re from moments in life that were very dear to her,” jewels that were purchased in Bulgari in Rome, at Cartier in New York and at auction.

The stories behind them are as priceless as the gems themselves. In a 2002 memoir, “My Love Affair with Jewelry,” Taylor took readers on a personal journey of her collection, describing in her own words how she came to own each piece. “I never, never thought of my jewelry as trophies,” she wrote. “I’m here to take care of them and to love them. . When I

Elizabeth Taylor’s ruby and diamond necklace, a gift of Mike Todd, estimated at $200,000 $300,000.

Elizabeth Taylor’s emerald and diamond necklace and pendant, attached at the bottom, part of a suite by BVLGARI, a gift of Richard Burton. die and they go off to auction I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home.”

It’s an extraordinary collection of rubies, diamonds, emeralds and sapphires in intricate and bold designs. Among the standouts is the

16th-century La Peregrina, one of the largest and most symmetrically perfect pear-shaped pearls in the world, which Burton purchased for Taylor in 1969 as a Valentine’s Day gift.

The two had met in Italy on the set of the 1963 film “Cleopatra,” and married for the first time in 1964. Once part of the Crown Jewels of Spain, the pearl later passed into the hands of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon III and the Duke of Abercorn.

When it came up at auction in New York,

to Emperor Shah Jahangir, who had the diamond inscribed with his wife’s name “Nur Jahan.” He later passed the stone on to his son, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife Mumtaz, who died in childbirth.

“I would have liked to buy her the Taj Mahal but it would cost too much to transport,” Burton remarked after buying it. Cartier later recreated the diamond’s original silk cord as a gold rope-like necklace set with

rubies and diamonds. The necklace has a presale estimate of $300,000 to $500,000.

“Jewelry was a way of life for Elizabeth Taylor. They were her friends. She enjoyed wearing them and it gave her a lot of pleasure because they reminded her of the great moments in her life, the great places in her life,” Kadakia said. Like the time Taylor’s third husband, theater and film producer Mike Todd, presented her with a red leather Cartier box as she sat by the pool at a rented villa in the south of France.

Inside was a ruby necklace, matching earrings and bracelet. “She was so, so happy that she jumped into the pool wearing all this jewelry and started doing laps,” said Kadakia, adding that the pieces will be sold separately.

One of the most extravagant gifts Taylor received from Burton was the asscher-cut 33.19-carat diamond set in a platinum ring.

Known as the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, Kadakia said its size and clarity - “as white as they can be and potentially flawless” makes it a perfect gem.

Burton purchased it in 1968 at a New York auction for $305,000. At the December sale, it’s expected to fetch $2.5 million to $3.5 million. “Elizabeth Taylor used to refer to it as her baby and wore it as much and as often as she could,” said Kadakia, including in nearly all her subsequent films.

Among the pieces of jewelry that Taylor purchased for herself was the Duchess of Windsor diamond brooch, which she got at auction for $620,000. Kadakia said she paid a big price for it for two reasons, to remember her friend and because the proceeds were going to a cause dear to her, AIDS research.

The brooch is estimated to bring $400,000 to $600,000.Eighty of the most iconic pieces will be sold on the evening of Dec. 13. The following day, 189 more gems will be sold. About 500 pieces of Taylor’s costume jewelry will be sold online at the same time.

Christie’s also will be selling the star’s haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion, accessories, 20th-century decorative arts and film memorabilia from her Bel Air home on Dec 14-16. Details have not been released.

Christie’s said the top 80 jewelry pieces will be shipped prior to the auction to Geneva, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai and Los Angeles; many of them also will be shown in London and Moscow. Serious collectors will be able to try on the jewelry by appointment. The entire collection will be exhibited from Dec 3-10 at Christie’s New York galleries.

A portion of the proceeds from the exhibition admissions and publications related to the sales will be donated to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Proceeds from the auctions will go to Taylor’s estate.—AP

Kurt Geiger adopts a different style for T

his Autumn Winter the Kurt Geiger fashionista adopts a different style for every mood.

From the ever-seductive signature stiletto to 1960’s inspired Chelsea boots, there is an irresistible array of choices across Kurt Geiger London, KG by Kurt Geiger and Carvela.

Daring exaggerated platforms and towering heels with multi straps and stud detailing, this trend exudes luxurious sensuality. A return to the heyday of the 1960’s

is evident in cute suede ankle boots with chunky zips, knee high boots and coloured suede brogues. Chelsea boots come in bright cobalt blue or python and dalmatian prints. Mary Janes with chunky platform heels, bow detailing and ankle straps come in shiny patent leathers or butter soft suede.

Femininity is redefined with a masculine edge this season in slick pointed pin heeled courts and buckled monk shoes. Patent leathers play with flashes of gold cigarette heels and colours ranging from gunmetal, black, navy and azure. Boots come complete with knitwear inserts, shearling linings and faux fur trims for added winter warmth.

Statement laces with ski hooks, exaggerated rub-

ber soles and velcro straps give the collection an adventurous spirit.

Shine this season is translated into a slick and sophisticated trend for grown up party girls, dazzling party heels glimmer with glitter. Metallic patent leathers adorn cigarette heels and platformed courts in shades of electric blue, deep burgundy and emerald green. Gunmetal and gold are complemented by mirrored metallics that shimmer throughout.

The elegant and beautifully constructed collection has an array of different coloured crepes, sourced from Portugal. There are slim profile loafers with fringing detail in a contemporary almond toe shape, and

suede brogues in rich autumnal colours. Desert boots come in suede, and are available in black, chocolate and pale grey. The crepe collection is all about simple silhouettes and classic styling.

Treat yourself to the latest collection of shoes and pamper your feet at “The Avenues” Phase II.