18 Sep

ON IP TI SC R SU B

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

Iranian leader warns Arabs not to trust US, NATO

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Blackburn stun Arsenal 4-3 on day of upsets

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www.kuwaittimes.net

50 years after UN chief death, conspiracy theories swirl

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Kuwait’s ambassador to return to Baghdad

‘Fortified’ location found • Iraq MP urges speedy finish of Faw port

Max 42º Min 25º Low Tide 09:08 & 21:14 High Tide 02:08 & 15:01

By A Saleh

Al-Qaeda cell had Kuwait in crosshairs Suspects on trial RIYADH: The trial of members of a suspected Al-Qaeda cell charged with planning attacks against two US military bases in Qatar opened in Riyadh yesterday. The cell, dismantled five years ago, comprised 41 members including 38 Saudis, a Qatari, an Afghan and a Yemeni and was “the most important Al-Qaeda” operation in Saudi Arabia, the attorney-general said. It had “planned attacks in Qatari territory against the Al-Udeid and AsSailiyah US bases,” he added. The As-Sailiyah air base and the Al-Udeid camp served as launching pads for the US military for an attack on Afghanistan in 2001 and on Iraq in 2003.

“The cell also had projects aimed at Kuwait,” the attorney general said, reading the indictment. He said there was “coordination” between the group and Al-Qaeda cells in Iraq and Syria to “ensure logistical support for their operations”. Nine of the 41 accused were present at the court yesterday and the judge gave them time to review the charges. The other defendants would appear later, he said.

In late June, 86 Al-Qaeda suspects went on trial in a special Saudi security court on Sunday in connection with deadly attacks carried out in the kingdom. The defendants face charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, of taking part in attacks on public buildings and residential compounds, and of smuggling and possession of weapons.

Thirteen of the group are accused of participating in the May 2003 car bombings of three residential compounds that left 129 people dead or wounded, including women and children, SPA said. In April, a judicial source said a total of 5,080 terrorist suspects either faced trial or had already been tried before the special court which has come in for criticism from lawyers. — AFP

in the

news

Iraq recovers $216m from Saddam officials BAGHDAD: Iraq has recovered $216 million in the past month from bank accounts overseas belonging to two Saddam-era officials, the country’s anti-graft watchdog said in a statement seen yesterday. The Commission on Integrity reclaimed $116 million from accounts in France, it said in a statement issued Thursday, in addition to $100 million retained from Kuwait in August. The funds comprised $106 million deposited in UBAF, a French-registered bank whose shareholders include 19 Arab banks and Credit Agricole, and the equivalent of $10 million in foreign currency deposited in several banks in France. The anti-corruption watchdog said in the statement published on Thursday that the accounts had been registered “under one of the former regime members,” but did not say which Saddam Hussein-era official. On Aug 22, the Commission on Integrity issued a statement saying it had recovered slightly more than $100 million held under the name of an ex-regime official in neighbouring Kuwait. It said in both instances that it had obtained the funds with the help of the US embassy in Baghdad.

RENO, Nevada: A P-51 Mustang airplane crashes into the edge of the grandstands at the Reno air show on Friday. (Inset) The plane is seen just before crashing. — AP

Plane crashes at US air show LOS ANGELES: A vintage World War II aircraft killed at least three people and injured more than 50, some critically, when it ploughed into spectators at an air show in the US state of Nevada and there were fears yesterday that the death toll would rise. Amateur video of the accident in Reno captured the moment the P-51 Mustang fighter, called the “Galloping Ghost”, smashed almost vertically to the ground near a packed grandstand. At least 15 victims were in a critical condition in hospital. “I did have an opportunity to visit the site, and it is horrific,” Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval told reporters.

Witnesses said the aircraft crashed Friday into an area of boxes - roped-off areas for spectators - while one said the pilot prevented even greater casualties by swerving to avoid hitting the grandstand itself. “It pretty well wiped out the front of the box area,” said Mike Houghton, the head of the Reno Air Racing Association, declining to comment on how many people could have died, while giving the number of injured as 54. “We are all devastated by this tragedy,” he added, briefing reporters. The aircraft was piloted by a Florida real estate developer, named as 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward.

Amateur video of the accident, shot from the grandstand, showed people gasping in horror as the plane

Several hurt in bomb blast at India hospital AGRA, India: A suspected bomb exploded at a hospital in the northern Indian city of Agra yesterday injuring several people, witnesses said, though no deaths were immediately reported. The blast came less than two weeks after a powerful bomb in a briefcase ripped through a crowd outside New Delhi’s High Court, killing 15 people and wounding dozens of others, many of them waiting for legal hearings. Police inspector-general P K Tiwari said preliminary investigations suggested the explosion was caused by a crude bomb placed under a seat in the reception area of the hospital, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. “The blast took place in the reception where explosives were kept under a chair,” Tiwari was quoted as saying, adding it was too early to say if it was a “terror attack”. “I heard a bang sound and when I turned there were splinters of glass lying around and I saw three people injured,” a witness told AFP, declining to give his name. The Press Trust of India reported that six people had been injured in the blast. Agra, 200 km from the Indian capital New Delhi, is home to the Taj Mahal, India’s famed “monument to love,” which draws almost three million domestic and foreign tourists annually.

MANAMA: Supporters of Bahrain’s Sunni rulers protest against an international investigation into the Gulf kingdom’s crackdown on months of Shiiteled demonstrations calling for greater rights.

Thousands of supporters rallied in the capital Manama yesterday urging authorities to protect police and army officers who helped quell the antigovernment unrest from being questioned by the panel. Angry crowds chanted “No punishment for brave officers.” More than 30 people have been killed since February, when Bahrain’s Shiite majority started protesting for greater freedoms from the ruling Sunni dynasty. The Bahrain Commission of Inquiry started the probe in July with the consent of the ruling monarchy. Its findings are expected Oct 30. — AP

came down. Reno Air Racing Association Mike Draper said the plane was a lap or two into the race when its pilot called in a mayday. “We don’t know why it crashed.

The pilot did call in. He did pull out of the lap, which is what they do. They usually pull up, directly up to clear the race track,” he added. Eyewitness Ben Cissell praised the pilot. “I think that that pilot in the last two seconds pulled up because he saw the bleachers and I would guess he probably saved 200 to 300 other people,” he told CNN. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an immediate investigation, and would give updates on the number of dead in the accident, Houghton said. Cissell said he was only yards from the crash site, in the middle of the area of boxed-off sections with tables and chairs for spectators, divided off by velvet ropes. “I was about 100 feet from the crash site and I would think that the plane hit right at about the middle of those boxes,” he said. Another eyewitness, Gerald Lent, said: “It’s just like a massacre. It’s like a bomb went off ..

There (were) people lying all over the runway.” “One guy was cut in half. There’s blood everywhere... There’s arms and legs. One guy just said ‘Hey, there’s another foot over here,” he added, quoted by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Iraq Ali Al-Momen is due to resume his diplomatic duties in Baghdad in the coming days after a new “fortified” and secure headquarters for the embassy was found. Speaking to the Kurdistan News Agency (AKNEWS), Momen said that Kuwait’s embassy in Baghdad would resume work in ten days at a more secure location. “Kuwait has not withdrawn its ambassador from Baghdad as some media claimed with the aim to create a political crisis between both countries,” Momen said. He also denied that he had left Baghdad for any political reasons or disagreements over the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port project.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi lawmaker urged his government to speed up construction and finish a port on Iraq’s side of the Arabian Gulf to counter competition from the Mubarak port that is being built nearby. The rival ports have caused a major feud between the neighbors.

Baghdad has tried to play down concerns that the Kuwaiti facility will disrupt Iraqi shipping.

But yesterday, Mansour Al-Timimi, a Shiite from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s political bloc, said the Mubarak port will have a “destructive” impact on Iraq’s economy and waterways. Al-Timimi urged Baghdad to finish up the construction of its own Faw port, which stalled after it started two years ago. He also said Iraq should boycott companies involved in building the Kuwait port.

Sponsor consent not needed to transfer iqama Rule comes in force

By A Saleh KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has started putting into practice its decision on amending article 15 of decision number 200/2011 pertaining work in the private sector that allows transferring residents’ work permits, including those working under government contracts, without referring to sponsors.

The ministry said that the new measure would be applicable subject to certain conditions such as having worked for the last sponsor for three consecutive years and giving sponsors a three-month notice since relevant work departments will make sure the transfer application includes a copy of this notice.

Moreover, the ministry highlighted that the work departments and units will not receive any ‘absent’ reports from sponsors during such notice periods.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

LOCAL

Task force set to demolish illegal structures, gardens Overgrown plants pose visibility problem

By Nawara Fattahova

ESFAHAN, Iran: Members of the Kuwaiti delegation holding talks with Iranian officials during their visit to the city of Esfahan yesterday.

Kuwaiti delegation in Esfahan ESFAHAN, Iran: The General Governor of the province of Esfahan, Ali Reza Zakar Esfahani, called on Kuwaitis to visit the city and surrounding region to get acquainted with the tourist attractions and rich heritage.

Esfahani, addressing a delegation of Kuwaiti journalists who have recently visited Iran and this ancient city, 340 km south of the capital, dubbed by natives as “half of the world” for its attractive nature, abundant orchards, groves and trees lining up sides of roads and streets.

Kuwaiti citizens who desire to visit the city, of a three-million populace, will be granted entry visa at the airport, he said.

He praised presence of the Kuwaiti delegation in the country, affirming that such interaction would boost the general relations and cultural ties between the Iranian and Kuwaiti peoples.

Esfahani shed some light on a 2003 law for encouraging foreign investments, noting that foreign entrepreneurs could transfer their capitals and profits in hard currency abroad. Moreover, the government is compelled to compensate for

losses resulting from bureaucratic complications.

For his part, the Kuwaiti ambassador to Iran, Majdi Al-Thafiri, said the visit of the Kuwaiti delegation depicted high interest at the official and public levels to enhance the ties.

Esfahan, located in central Iran, is famous for therapeutic spas and ancient bazaars displaying a variety of products and handicraft items.— KUNA

Report warns of port’s negative impact on Iraqi economy KUWAIT: The Iraqi team which visited Kuwait last month for talks on the controversial Mubarak Al-K abeer Port project has warned that Iraq’s eco n omy wi ll b e significant l y adversely affected by the Kuwaiti meg a - p or t , a ccord ing to a news report quoting an Iraqi MP. Sp e a k i n g to the p ress o n Saturday, legislator Abdul Hussein Risan, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s finance committee, reportedly indicated that the parliament has now received the technical team’s report from the Iraqi Cabinet, noting that the country’s government has yet to issue an official decision based on the team’s assessment. Rizan, a member of the Al-Ahrar Coalition, also suggested that Iraqi political parties are unlikely to reach any unified stance on the contentious issue.

A Kuwaiti foreign ministry insider said, however, that the ministry has received no statements to date from Iraq concerning the Iraqi technical team’s assessment and report. The insider preferred to keep his identity anonymous when contacted to comment on the subject.

On Thursday, meanwhile, an Iraqi MP denied suggestions that an Iraqi parliamentary delegation had travelled to Kuwait to discuss the controversial Mubarak Al-Kabeer port issue, explaining that a misunderstanding had led an Iraqi news agency to misconstrue an MP’s trip to visit family

members in Kuwait as an official trip.

The Iraqi foreign ministry and parliament were both quick to deny reports by Iraq’s Al-Soumariya News Agenc y suggesting that Iraqi MP H assan Al-S an eed was visitin g Kuwait as the head of an official delegation on a trip to discuss the port project. “Al-Saneed’s trip is simply a private visit to family members in Kuwait,” said MP Yaseen Majid of the State of Law Coalition.

Meanwhile, Iraqi foreign ministry undersecretary Lubaid Abawi said in a statement issued on Thursday that the ministry can only make an official statement on the Kuwaiti port issue after it receives the final report p rep ared by th e tech n ical team which visited Kuwait last month. The team’s report is currently being studied by the Iraqi Cabinet, after which it will be referred to the Foreign Ministry, Abawi explained.

M e a nw h i l e, a n o t h e r I r a q i M P Aliya Nassif of the White I raqiya Pa r t y, u r g e d t h e o t h e r G u l f Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to “support Iraq” by intervening to stop Kuwait’s construction of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port on the east of Boubyan Island a few kilometers a w a y f ro m I r a q’s o u t l e t t o t h e Arabian Gulf. Nassif called on the GCC to take this step as “the beginning of a new era to resolve all the outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait.” — Al-Watan

KUWAIT: After a long hiatus, the committee in charge of removing encroachments on state property will begin demolishing illegal structures in residential areas after issuing hundreds of warning letters to offenders. The task forces have already begun work in Bayan and Mishref. Many reasons contributed to this break, “We were waiting to change the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) decree that was issued in 2007 on the limits placed on growing garden plants, which was to maintain a three meter spacing between each tree or hedge. However, in response to public outcry and parliamentary pressures, a new decree was passed in 2010,” Col Dhafer Al-Sayegh, PR and Media Coordinator at the committee told the Kuwait Times.

“The new regulation stipulates that a spacing of gardens be maintained at one meter from the street, and a meter and a half between neighboring homes. Unfortunately, people have been flouting the rules. We have noticed that many homes in Dahiya, south Surra and other areas grow plants that are two to four meter high. These should be trimmed,” he added.

“Overgrown trees and plants pose a major visibility problem, causing many car accidents, especially if home is located on the corner. Also the trees should not block the passageway between houses that lead to co-operative societies, mosques, grocery stores and others. These passageways were paved so that ambulances and other vehicles can ply during cases of emergency,” he pointed out.

The task force has also halted work progress to conduct maintenance work on vehicles, “In the hot weather, our vehicles are heated quickly. Also, it was vacation time when people traveled and the onset of the holy month of Ramadan. We allowed some time to

the Municipality to reorganize teams in accordance with six governorates. Some violations are part of his responsibility. After this long period, we found that people have been issuing violations again. Some even commit repeated violations,” Al-Sayegh added.

Offenses are often repeated, “The garden in front of every house belongs to state property. So it should be used in a proper way, only for planting purposes. We are not against the greenery. Many violations were made to gardens such as building rooms, which is illegal,” he added.

“Many people from different residential areas complain that their neighbors have blocked the passageways. Some claim they have to walk long distances just to be able to go to pray at the mosque,” he explained.

The committee is working on passing a law that penalizes violators, “If the violator fails to remove the violation, our teams will demolish it. He will have to pay a fine,” highlighted Al-Sayegh.

According to Al-Sayegh, there were about 16,000 illegally constructed diwaniyas in all six governorates. “The notice period was one month, during which we held a campaign about these violations.

At least 80 percent were removed from the diwaniyas. This highlights people’s high sense of responsibility,” he added.

During the past few months, old structures in residential areas were razed down, “We removed illegal structures in the form of factories, stables, pens, and others. We also held awareness campaigns in schools. Children who break or damage things in schools will be punished. Otherwise when they grow up they will have a tendency to flout laws. Furthermore, a park with playgrounds in Mina Abdullah is under construction. This was originally a landfill in which liquid waste from factories was dumped,” Al-Sayegh concluded.

KUWAIT: Demolition teams in action in Bayan and Mishref yesterday.

MPs seeking to unify strategy on suspicious deposits KUWAIT: As MPs coordinate to formulate a united strategy on how to deal with the sensational allegations of suspicious multimillion-dinar deposits being made to some lawmakers’ bank accounts, some legislators have expressed concern that the parliamentary legislative and legal committee may fail to complete discussions on the draft anticorruption bill before parliament reconvenes next month.

Since the sensational allegations first surfaced in late August, MPs Mohammad AlMutair and Mubarak Al-Waalan have both submitted separate bids proposing an investigation into the financial affairs of all MPs, including assessments of their bank accounts. Fellow MP Abdullah Al-Roumi has gone a step further, lodging a complaint with the Attorney General to demand action on the case, despite the fact that the allegations have not yet been substantiated.

According to a parliamentary insider, several independent MPs are actively attempting to convince their colleagues to agree to certain unified strategies to be used in tackling the issue during the upcoming parliamentary term. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the insider cited MP Dr Hassan Jowhar who

repor tedly expressed skepticism of any unanimously agreed strategy being formulated during a meeting that took place between the various parliamentary blocs on the issue. Another parliamentarian, Ali AlOmair, on Friday denied any involvement in the scandal, indicating that he has no account with the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the bank at which the unnamed MPs are alleged to have held accounts into which the multimillion-dinar payments were supposedly paid. Al-Omair was speaking out after rumors circulated that he was one of those involved in the scandal and that the NBK had referred him to the Public Prosecution Service for questioning last week. As the start of the new parliamentary term approaches, many MPs believe that the Cabinet will find itself facing numerous grilling motions with widespread public unhappiness at the government’s failure to make use of the parliament’s four-month summer recess to resolve controversial outstanding issues. “The Cabinet is deliberately ignoring demands for reform because they depend on the majority support they have in the parliament, which enables them to avoid fulfilling that responsibility”, claimed MP

BBC’s media expertise will greatly benefit Kuwait TV news sector LONDON: The British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) media expertise will greatly benefit Kuwait Television’s news division, especially following the announcement of a decision to launch a new satellite Kuwaiti news channel, said a senior Kuwaiti media official on Friday evening.

Following a meeting with senior BBC officials, Yousef Mustafa, the Assistant Undersecretary of News and Current Affairs at Kuwait’s Ministry of Information, told KUNA that the talks had focused on working closely with the globally renowned broadcasting corporation, which will provide consultancy services, as well as training and development programs for Kuwait Television’s news and current affairs personnel, along with all the necessary media expertise to ensure

the success of the new Kuwaiti news and current affairs channel.

Amongst the other high-level officials attending the meeting were Jackie Chambers’ the director of the BBC’s Training and Development Program, Mia Costello, representing the BBC Training Academy, and Khalid Abdullah, the head of the BBC’s International Cooperation Department and director of Business Development for the Middle East and West Asia.

During his visit, Mustafa found out more about the BBC’s training and development programs and courses in a diverse range of areas, including strategic planning and management, programming, technology skills, TV production, and news editing.

The senior Kuwaiti official also expressed enthusiasm about finding

out more about the BBC’s training courses on presenting financial and sports-related news and current affairs programming in order to advance the skills of Kuwaiti journalists and editors working in these areas.

He also suggested that organizing training programs to enhance the leadership skills of the Kuwait T V news and current affairs division’s managers and department heads should be another area of focus.

Mustafa concluded by revealing that both the Kuwaiti and British officials had agreed to continue with an exchange of visits and to organize a number of training courses and workshops to serve the best interests of Kuwait’s news and current affairs sector. — KUNA

USAF low flights endanger lives, oil facilities KUWAIT: Senior officials from the Kuwait Air Force (KAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF) reportedly met recently to formulate a new cooperation and coordination strategy.

According to one KAF insider, the meeting also featured discussion of a complaint filed by Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior over USAF jets’ frequent low

flights over Ahmadi Port, with the interior ministry warning that if these incidents continued, oil facilities and even lives at the port could be endangered.

The insider said that KAF footage showed a USAF fighter jet flying low over the port, with a number of proposals put forward during the meet-

ing to ensure no future repetitions of such incidents. The USAF in Kuwait will now be expected to brief all newly arrived air and ground crew on the country’s laws, particularly those outlawing low-flying flights over certain sensitive locations, including oil facilities, and establishing certain air routes for all USAF planes. — Al-Watan

Daifullah Buramia in a recent statement.

Another MP, Abdurrahman Al-Anjari argued that interpellation motions have become the only option left for lawmakers to pressure the government over its shortcomings “since it has failed to take positive steps during the summer recess towards achieving reform.” Fellow lawmaker Saifi Al-Saifi, meanwhile, mentioned these positive steps as “the criterion based on which the government’s seriousness in achieving development can be assessed.”

MP Musallam Al-Barrak was more pessimistic of the government’s future potential, insisting that the current cabinet is incapable of achieving reform. Al-Barrak said that his opinion was based on the fact that although seven cabinets were formed by the incumbent Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah since 2006, none of them have been able to end the continuing acrimony between the government and parliament.

MP Dr. Salwa Al-Jassar also questioned the government’s ability to resolve a number of critical outstanding issues since it failed to do anything about them during the summer recess. —Al-Qabas

MSAL no longer to process expats’ transactions KUWAIT: As of October, staff at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s (MSAL) labor division will reportedly no longer be allowed to process transactions submitted by expatriate residents, with all such transactions to be processed henceforth solely by their employers or representatives of the companies employing them.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an MSAL insider also revealed that the ministry is set to launch a new online service next month which will allow employers to finalize employee transactions such as visa transfers and renewals online through the labor division’s website, which can be accessed via the MSAL’s portal. The insider also revealed that the ministry has asked the contracting companies which supply cleaning and security personnel to the labor division to provide replacements for many of these staff currently deployed there after a number of the present employees became ‘experts’ in assisting patrons to conduct transactions, sometimes illegally.

The MSAL insider said that Jamal Al-Doussari, the Assistant Undersecretary at the Labor Division, has formally notified the contracting firms in question of the need to replace some of the long-serving cleaning and security personnel. The insider claimed that these staff members have now attained sufficient insider knowledge of the department’s internal workings to assist in conducting transactions and in some cases even to help users jump the queue and other illegal practices.

The insider further revealed that as of October, labor department staff will no longer be allowed to deal with transactions submitted by expatriate residents, with these matters henceforth to be dealt with solely by their employers or the representatives of the companies employing them. — Al-Rai

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local

Drug addicts nabbed

By Hanan Al Saadoun KUWAIT: Police arrested two individuals that were wandering aimlessly in Salmiya. Upon spotting the police patrol vehicle, they tried to flee.

However, police overpowered them. In a pat-down that followed, syringes used to inject drugs, a spoon and knife were found and confiscated. The men were referred to higher authorities.

Car accidents A car accident took place along the Fourth Ring Road, opposite Qairawan.

Three young citizens aged 17, 18 and 23 years respectively were injured in the accident. In another incident that took place along Fahaheel road, above Al Qurain bridge, a 33-year- old Russian woman suffered a fracture. He was admitted to Adan hospital. A motorcycle accident took place along the Fifth Ring Road. A 36-year-old citizen fractured his arms and was admitted to Farwaniya hospital. Also, a car accident took place along the 5th Ring Road opposite the Avenues injuring two expatriates aged 17 and 20 years respectively. They were admitted to Al Sabah hospital. A 44-year-old citizen

KUWAIT: The Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Bui Quoc Trung hosted a reception at Crowne Plaza Hotel on Wednesday to commemorate the 66th national anniversary of Vietnam. Officials, diplomats and media personalities graced the occassion.

No orders for closure of poultry shops over bird flu concerns WHO issues international alert

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: No advisory notice has been issued to the owners of live poultry outlets instructing them to shut down, according to staff at a number of these stores in Salmiya.

Although a number of Arabic language papers yesterday reported the closure of some live poultry outlets in Kuwait as a “precautionary measure” to avert the possibility of any spread of the potentially deadly avian flu (bird flu) virus, workers at a number of these stores were adamant that they had received any such official notification.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued an interna-

tional alert on a possible new outbreak of the virus this winter, with the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) responding by asking the Kuwait Municipality to forcibly shut down all the country’s live poultry sellers’ outlets.

Instead, the PAAAFR has instructed that all such outlets should be replaced by properly regulated poultry breeding facilities with slaughterhouses onsite.

Staff at local live poultry outlets insisted, however, that they have received no official notification of any closure orders. “We haven’t received any advisory from my employer or from the municipality to close down our shop,” said one

employee at a small live poultry outlet in Maidan Hawally.

“Besides, there’s no news of any bird flu in Kuwait, so why be scared? I hope they won’t do that [shut down the shop].”

The shop worker believed that poultry prices could be negatively affected by any bird flu scare. “If ever we were to be closed down, the price would probably be unstable again,” he suggested.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI), which supervises and regulates all commercial establishments, cast further doubt on the reports of upcoming closures, saying that no ban on live poultry out-

lets has yet been officially ordered and that the ministry has issued no instructions to do so.

Certainly, it appears that no such closures have yet been ordered or implemented.

Although some members of the public have expressed concern at the news reports of a possible bird flu outbreak, other seem unworried.

One shopper at a local Cooperative Society store told the Kuwait Times, “I don’t think there’s a reason to be scared. Besides, according to the reports, it could maybe spread in winter, so we still have time to prepare and check all the imported live and even frozen chickens.”

Near-death vehicular experiences KUWAIT: An Asian driver escaped death by five centimeters, the distance between his head and the tail-end of a trailer truck which he rear-ended on the Fifth Ring Road on Friday. Emergency services personnel who rushed to the scene were amazed to find that the lucky motorist had escaped with only minor injuries, finding the man’s car a write off with the entire front end crushed in the collision. He was taken to Farwaniya Hospital. Police indicated that had his car smashed into the back of the other vehicle only five centimeters more the motorist would not have been alive to tell the tale.

Meanwhile, a Yemeni man was rushed to Amiri Hospital in a critical condition after suffering a heart attack whilst driving in Qadisiya, which caused his car to swerve off the road and

crash into a wall at a local mosque. Paramedics were able to resuscitate the driver before taking him to hospital. An investigation has opened into the incident.

Narrow escape A Saudi woman whose account of returning to life af ter being pronounced dead made headlines only a few days ago was hospitalized in a critical condition following a fire that engulfed her Taima house on Friday night. An article in the Thursday edition of Al-Rai quoted the woman as stating that she was wrongly pronounced dead at Jahra Hospital three years ago but was lucky enough to regain consciousness just before she was scheduled to be buried.

A day after her stor y was published, the

7,011 citations issued to drivers in weekend crackdown KUWAIT: A coordinated crackdown on traffic violations over the weekend resulted in the issuing of 7,011 traffic citations and the impounding of 283 vehicles.

According to the statistics released yesterday by the Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) traffic division, the largest number of citations was recorded in Hawally, where a whopping 1,979 reckless motorists were issued with penalties whilst 34 vehicles were confiscated. Farwaniya’s drivers fared little better, with 1,268 citations being issued and 32 vehicles impounded. In Ahmadi, 1,162 drivers were penalized and 11 vehicles were confiscated, while traffic officers in the Capital issued penalties to 963 motorists and 11 vehicles were impounded. A total of 285 citations were issued to drivers in Jahra, which saw the largest number of vehicles impounded, 43 in all. Meanwhile, Mubarak Al-Kabeer’s motorists received the smallest number of citations during the weekend crackdown, 121 in total, with only eight vehicles confiscated in this area.

Traffic division officials from the Operations Department were also extremely busy over the weekend, issuing 1,125 citations in all.

Meanwhile, 108 motorists in the area around Kuwait International Airport were penalized during the same period, while three vehicles were impounded.

The traffic division yesterday urged all Kuwait’s road-users to comply with the traffic regulations and abide by the road markings for their own and others’ safety.

woman was rescued along with her eight-yearold daughter from their burning house, with both being admitted to Jahra Hospital ’s Intensive Care Unit.

An investigation is underway to determine the cause of fire, with detectives trying to find whether or not foul play was involved. The woman’s original story featured a photocopy of a death certificate bearing her name, dated 2008. She explained that the certificate was issued when she was wrongly pronounced dead, before waking up in the morgue hours later, where she was eventually saved by a worker. The repor t did not specify why the woman chose to publicize the incident three years after it happened.

—Al-Rai, Al-Anbaa, Al-Watan

suffered mild injuries and was administered treatment on the site.

Smoke inhalation A fire broke out at a Taima home. A 16-year-old Saudi national suffered from a case of smoke inhalation. He was admitted to Jahra hospital.

Hit-and-run case A 24-year-old Indian was run over by a speeding car while attempting to cross the road near the gas station at Abdullah Mubarak. He suffered from multiple injuries and nasal injury. He was admitted to Farwaniya hospital.

Young man revived The Medical Contingenc y Department’s was informed about an Egyptian man in his twenties who lay in unconscious at a car rental office in Mangaf. An ambulance was sent to the area led by technicians Nizar Rabie and Hafez Ashkanani. He reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest and was given necessary treatment and admitted to Adan hospital. Medical personnel put in efforts to revive him, which met with success, as he was brought to life again.

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Hajj visa forgery network smashed Imam summoned for questioning KUWAIT: An investigation is underway into the carriers of a number of fraudulently obtained Egyptian passports, which allegedly contain forged residency stamps. The passports were discovered by staff at the Kuwaiti embassy who were processing visa applications for the upcoming annual Hajj pilgrimage, as well as others for Umra (a minor pilgrimage).

According to a security insider, Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior Undersecretary Lt Gen Ghazi Al-Omar has assigned the Assistant Undersecretary for Passport and Migration Affairs Maj Gen Abdullah Al-Rashid to launch an investigation into the complaint lodged by staff at the Saudi embassy following the discovery of the suspicious passport stamps.

Divers finish maintenance on Qarouh reefs’ markers KUWAIT: Kuwaiti divers recently carried out their latest maintenance operation to maintain the buoys marking the location of the coral reefs in the country’s waters and replace worn-out ropes around them, helping to protect the fragile reefs from being scraped by boat hulls or otherwise adversely affected by irresponsible fishing activities.

“The Kuwait Dive Team carries out period maintenance operations in which worn-out

ropes are replaced around the coral reefs in Kuwait’s waters,” explained Faisal Al-Harban, the Operations Manager of the Environmental Voluntary Foundation’s team.

Al-Harban added that the project to protect the buoy markers has been a great success since its inception sixteen years ago, adding that sailors and fishermen have been tremendously cooperative in helping to protect the coral reef locations.

Smart IDs to obtain subsidized food KUWAIT: Citizens will now be able to obtain subsidized food items only by producing their smart IDs cards starting next year, as per a new regulation that aims to curb malpractice.

Acco rd i n g to a M inist r y o f Co mmerce and Industry official, outlets that distribute subsidized food items will only cooperate with citizens who produce their smart identification cards. Citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as bedoon (stateless) residents will be able to obtain their share using their GCC civil identification and security identity cards respectively, reported Al-Rai. The state offers subsidized food items to around 1.7 million individuals residing in Kuwait. The official who spoke anonymously explained that the new decision will go into effect in January next year.

KD 500,000 to prospect for new power plants KUWAIT: The Ministr y of Electricity and Water (MEW) will begin prospecting for locations to build new power plants and water desalination plants; a project for which the government has assigned a budget of KD 500,000.

“Studies will be conducted with the aim of increasing production capacities of power plants and to transform them to dual purpose facilities, in addition to finding suitable locations where new plants can be built,” said Saleh Al-Othaina Minister of Electricity and Water in a recent press statement.

I n ot he r n e ws, w ater co nsump t io n in Kuwait has exceeded production since this month, despite the fact that temperatures have been dropping, reported Al-Qabas.

According to a senior MEW insider, electricity consumption rates have been stable as the highest recorded measure was 10,500 megawatts taken on September 6.

On the other hand, water consumption has exceeded daily production since the start of the month. The official who spoke anonymously assured that the ministry was able to maintain the consumption to production ratio, as reserves were boosted by the surplus in production.

Another KD 1,000 winner in NBK’s Watani Online weekly draw ‘Use Watani Online and Win’ KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently conducted the fourth draw of its first-of-its-kind “Use Watani Online and Win” campaign that rewards customers with KD 1,000 weekly for banking online.

NBK’s customer Yaqoub Ahmad Al Sabaghah is the fourth draw winner in this campaign.

NBK will host a total of eight draws over the course of eight weeks to give customers a chance to win KD 1,000 by using Watani Online.

Cu stom e r s wh o u se Wat ani Onl ine (www.nbk.com) to perform their banking transactions including account-to-account transfers, credit card payments, bill payments or local and international transfers will be entitled for one chance per day each time they log in to Watani Online to enter the draw to win KD 1,000 weekly.

The campaign is designed to reward customers who do their banking with Watani Online. The aim is to encourage new customers to join the high-tech, secure, convenient and free online banking channel provided by the safest bank in the Middle East.

Apparently, after the embassy staff noted that the details of the passport owners did not match the details given on the visa stamps, subsequent investigations revealed that the passports in question actually belonged to individuals who had never entered Kuwait.

Detectives investigating the case summoned the owner of the Hajj agency that handed in the passports to the embassy, who told them during questioning that the passpor ts were brought to his office by an Egyptian imam and that none of the agency staff had spotted that the residency stamps in them were forged.

When the imam in question was summoned for questioning, he eventually admitted that a compatriot who works with a local firm had offered to help him obtain an Umra pilgrimage visa for his father, who lives in Egypt, through forging documents for him.

This in turn led police to arrest the man named by the imam, who subsequently

admitted during interrogation that he was a member of a 13-man gang which specializes in removing valid Kuwaiti residenc y visa stamps from the passports of Egyptian residents of Kuwait and tracing or otherwise fraudulently placing them in the passports of Egyptian citizens wishing to perform pilgrimages who have never been to Kuwait, with these stamps making it more likely that the carriers will obtain pilgrimage visas.

The other gang members named by the gang leader were arrested shortly afterwards, with two of them identified as Asian staff at the Saudi embassy who would apparently collect and deliver the forged passports to the gang in return for payment.

In other news, Saudi authorities are reportedly coordinating with Hajj pilgrimage travel agencies in Kuwait in order to reach an agreement by which passports of bedoon (stateless) pilgrims would be retained in safe locations to prevent their being used to illegally enter

Saudi Arabia. According to one security insider, the agreement would see the Saudi authorities allocate safety deposit boxes to each agency, where bedoon pilgrims’ passports would be retained until the pilgrimage season ends.

Since bedoons are almost all denied passports, Kuwait issues temporary Kuwaiti passports to allow some stateless residents to perform Hajj and Umra, which usually expire after the pilgrimage ends. There have been cases discovered in recent years in which some stateless residents used these temporary passports to illegally enter Saudi Arabia, prompting authorities in both countries to devise measures to stop this practice.

These measures also include a stipulation by which each Hajj convoy would only be granted access back to Kuwait following the end of pilgrimage after ensuring that it carries the full number of bedoon pilgrims regi s te re d a s p a s s e n g e r s w h e n t h e co nvoy arrived. — Al-Jarida, Al-Qabas

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

LOCAL

kuwait digest

Letters to Badrya Darwish

Think twice!

By Abdullah Al-Mutairi P Waleed Al-Tabtabae posted a tweet recently stating, “if I were the Amir of Kuwait, I would have severed ties with the Syrian regime. We disgrace ourselves by dealing with this regime that kills its own people.”

I am against the Syrian regime’s massacre of its people. At the same time, I don’t support AlTabtabae’s views. Kuwaiti people will not accept the rule of others except for the descendents of Mubarak Al-Kabeer. If Al-Tabtabae wants to rule another country, he is free to purchase one of the poor countries with the help of charity money using Al-Sabah family’s donations.

The youths of 16 September? Do you have names? Are you are afraid to announce your name so that the Kuwaiti public will become aware of your loyalties! You have criticized the government for not building a new hospital for 30 years! It has not built a new university for the past 50 years! I criticize Islamist MPs and liberals.

Where have you been all this time? What has been your attitude towards the previous prime ministers? I want to tell the youth that expansions have been made at all the hospitals that were done at the time of the current prime minister. The growth plan has been approved, which includes the construction of several public utilities and services. The youth support the MPs of the current National Assembly Council.

Do they chose MPs - government or public? If the results are bad, it does not mean that the

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I want to tell the youth that expansions have been made at all the hospitals that were done at the time of the current prime minister. The growth plan has been approved, which includes the construction of several public utilities and services. The youth support the MPs of the current National Assembly Council. Do they chose MPs government or public? If the results are bad, it does not mean that the council is bad. It means that we are bad voters. council is bad. It means that we are bad voters.

The youth demand constitutional amendments. I am sure that they follow the bloc ‘Anything but the Constitution.’ The youth want a popular prime minister through elections. It is the presence of a popular prime minister that ends corruption. Don’t we see what has been happening to Arab countries? The ruling party controls all the ministries and state interests. It will take care of corruption so as to remain in power!

Do you prefer Western democracy in favor of Arab democracy. It allows the detention of anyone who violates the law. Youth are calling for holding demonstrations to support their demands! Why did you not demonstrate during the summer? Is it because you cannot bear the summer heat?

I have been laughing for naming yourselves as such! For your information, the military council has activated the emergency law in full. Do you think your supporters will do you any good?

At last, do you think what you do can be of use to parties? Think twice before you do something regretful. — Al-Watan

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

Dear Badrya Darwish, From the time I arrived in Kuwait on March 1, 2011, to inaugurate the first Peruvian Embassy in Kuwait, I have been trying to read your column as well as the Editor-in- Chief’s editorial (that appears on Fridays) in Kuwait Times.

Both, frankly, write very well and, most importantly, let readers be informed on the right way with the deepest human concern.

However, your column titled ‘Stop Stereotyping’ was really amazing. Congratulations! What a fabulous solid, authentic and strong philosophy on the quality of life. It not only appeals to Kuwaitis but also to people all over the world.

Let me express my sincere appreciation.

kuwait digest Regards

Kuwait United Governorates

By Ahmad Y. Al-Duaij really was puzzled while trying to select a title for network of corruption in Kuwait, which harms [the today’s article, with the reason for my bemuse- country’s] reputation abroad, and we must fight corment lying in the statement of oil minister Dr. ruption through the law without regard to who may Mohammad Al-Busairi. In the end, I narrowed it be harmed.”

Your Excellency Sheikh Dr. Mohammad, your down to several choices; these included the ‘Unites States of Kuwait,’ just like our strategic ally the statement is no less strange that of your col‘United States of America,’ but I asked myself, is league Dr. Al-Busairi. Does Your Excellency, until Kuwait a series of states? Dropping this idea, I this moment consider the corruption in Kuwait thought about the ‘United Kuwait Emirates,’ but that permeated the flesh and went right through dropped that as a title idea since Kuwait is not a to the bone simply an ‘impression’? Corruption in number of emirates, but one emirate. I toyed with Kuwait, Sheikh Dr. Mohammad, is a fact and a daithe idea of using ‘Self combustion,’ inspired by the ly practice with the blessing of the government minister’s statement, but in the end, I decided the which is ready to expend massive amounts on remaining in power. title should be ‘Kuwait United Governorates.’

D i d Your E xce l l e nc y he a r a b out t he All this was inspired by oil minister Dr. Mohammad Al-Busairi’s earlier statement that “We International Transparency Organization? It will, did not ask for one dinar from the state regarding in its upcoming report, place Kuwait alongside the latest oil sector salary increases, and the corpora- Somalia in competing for the bottom place on tion’s [KPC’s] budget is self-financed and it is not the list. The Somalis’ status may have an excuse because of the horrible included in the first chapter s i t uat i on t he re, b ut of the budget.” what is the logic behind Dr. Al-Busairi, your staterampant corruption ment is amusing, strange Corruption in Kuwait is a fact the in a ver y rich countr y and entertaining - in the and a daily practice with the such as Kuwait? Sheikh sense of the old saying, ‘Most tragic things produce laughblessing of the government which D r. M oha m m a d, you in your statement ter.’ “Self-financed,” Your is ready to expend massive said “We must fight corrupExcellency the Minister? amounts on remaining in power. t i on t hrough t he l aw What self finance?! What regardless of who may you’re talking about is self or be harmed,” but I would spontaneous combustion (I ask, which law? The law took the definition from the site of Al-Arabi Sport Club). This is a scary and that will be passed by your supporters, the majorstrange phenomenon that does not have any scien- ity in Parliament, those involved with the multitific explanation, which occurs when the human billion dinar bribes? Then in your statement in body bursts into flames without leaving behind any whi c h you s a i d “re ga rd l e s s of w ho m ay b e harmed,” Your Excellency must know before anytrace except for very small fragments.

In response to your claim that you did not ask for one else that nobody will be harmed, but I assure one dinar for the oil sector from the state budget, we you that the logic of the International say: is the KPC budget financed from our brotherly Transparency Organization report about Kuwait neighboring country Iraq, for example? Or any other following the scandal of bribed MPs, and the talk country than Kuwait? Or was the oil sector perhaps of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about financed from the budget of Ahmadi governorate? Kuwait and money-laundering, and the American Enough cheating Kuwaitis, because they are among Ambassador’s cable about Kuwait and the year the most aware and clever people, but it seems that 2020 exposed by Wikileaks will be very black. But the statement of US Ambassador Deborah Jones on if it comes out otherwise, then you should know ‘Kuwait and the year 2020’ may contain many true that Kuwait’s long arm of corruption has reached the International Transparency Organization. observations.

Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem, the Sheikh Mohammad, it will be better for a clean and Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister, made another respected man like you to submit your resignation, strange statement in which he said “It is very danger- so that your clean reputation is not destroyed ous to have an impression about the existence of a along with your political career. — Al-Watan

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Amador Velasquez Ambassador of Peru to Kuwait Dear Badrya, Having read your front page editorial that appeared on Sept 12 issue of Kuwait Times, I could not agree more that the so-called ‘War on Terror’ has claimed countless innocent lives, has been used by many governments as an excuse to commit unlawful actions, and has not fulfilled its primary aim of ending terrorism.

However, I do take strong exception to your view that it is not known who is responsible for perpetrating the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Badrya, in most people’s books, such concepts like ‘irrefutable evidence’ and ‘commonly accepted facts’ still apply. May I remind you that the physical perpetrators of the attacks were 19 Islamic extremists, fifteen of whom were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. Their identities were established within hours of the attacks, and they were unequivocally linked with Al Qaeda and, ultimately, with Osama bin Laden.

And, as the case may be, Al-Qaeda is an organization that has always vowed to inflict murder and destruction upon the United Stated, its citizens, and its allies, in the name of its own extreme interpretation of Islam. This organization, and others connected to it or patterned after it, have perpetrated and continue to perpetrate countless acts of terror that have wreaked havoc throughout the entire world, East and West alike, all in the name of Islam.

It is little wonder then, that so many Americans (and Westerners in general) do not differentiate between the peaceful Muslims and these insane extremists, but do instead fear and mistrust the Muslim world in general. And in view of the heavyhanded American-led response to 9/11, including the massive loss of civilian life in two wars, the disregard for the rights of detainees, and the backlash against Muslims in the US, the anti-American sentiment so prevalent throughout the Muslim world is likewise hardly surprising.

These sentiments aside, the fact remains that 9/11 was the brainchild of Osama bin Laden and the top Al-Qaeda leadership. These are commonly accepted facts backed by irrefutable evidence. No reasonable persons nowadays doubt that. By aligning yourself with the various doubters and conspiracy theorists, you risk showing yourself as either an uneducated and uninformed person, or as someone with extreme political views, or both - which is really unbecoming of an editor of a major newspaper - someone who is supposed to be unbiased and non-judgmental.

Sincerely, Yuri Lipkov

kuwait digest

kuwait digest

‘MPsgate’

Leave Kuwait alone!

By Saud Abdul Aziz Al-Attar

By Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar orruption in our country, the land of black gold, is creative in its own way. It has a function, of course.

The ‘MPsgate’ story to crop up the recent political conflict is not new. It is only new in terms of procedures. Al-Qabas newspaper did really well by raising the topic so that both people and MPs as well as the public begin discussing and examining it. The only one who kept silent on the issue was our ‘wise’ government.

Although a main part of the issue, it followed the concept ‘Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Say No Evil!’

Anyway, the ‘MPsgate’ scandal appears to be a traditional fish trap (Hathrah) where various entrapped types of fish appear alike. Do they don a government-prescribed uniform like primary school children?

The violated law in question in the scandal is Law Number 35/2002 which was originally passed to combat money laundering. So is it possible that many MPs are involved in money laundering?

This question came to my mind after reviewing the number and names. After contemplation, I think that our ‘distinguished’ MPs could have been involved in the crime. The money laundering law has only criminalizes one aspect, which is to conceal or disguise the legitimate sources through which money was

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obtained. It is a charge that automatically drops if the real sources are revealed. Since our distinguished MPs may not be involved in such operations, I expect them to cooperate and tell the prosecutor about the real source that was deposited to accounts. If this happens, (which I don’t expect to), they will be free and as innocent. However, the society will have to deal with the political side of the matter, discussing whether the sources were legitimate or not. I have another suggestion for the MPs involved in this scandal. Why don’t they meet at one of the farms, to reach an agreement on telling the prosecutor that their money originated from a treasure they found in Warah mountain, and even bring some witnesses to testify this! To make the story more credible, they can dig a large hole on the site and bury some millions there before escorting the public prosecutor to find the ‘hidden’ booty.

On the other hand, the ball is now in the court of the Central Bank’s investigation unit to report technically. It is the same bank that, we were once told, has been monitoring bank deposits that amount to 10,000 dollars. So, how did this group of ‘large fish’ escape with millions? This is a question that will only be answered by a stupid person!— Aljarida

uwait is a sovereign, independent country that is built on the efforts made by its loyal countrymen. It has always been protected by its people and Allah Almighty who gave it a lot of blessings. This is because he knows how goodnatured and virtuous the people are.

The political challenges Kuwait currently experiences are merely because some people are willing to walk naked through the desert heat only to attain fame and reap endless personal gains, forgetting that Kuwait is actually greater and more important than them. All the fuss they make emanates from a hollow drum. The recent alleged Wikileaks reports quoting the US ambassador states that Kuwait cannot last till 2020 because its officials are busy looting its wealth.’ They are useless because nobody can foretell the future.

Ignorance is also evident in the fact that those making them do not really know the essence of the Kuwaiti people, and how consolidated and strongly bonded to the land and their rulers they are. It is such ignorance that causes delusional allegations and lies. These are considered an infringement on Kuwait’s sovereignty.

So, to all these shallow people I say, ‘Leave Kuwait Alone!’ Go ‘tweet’ elsewhere because Kuwait will always be fine, thanks to the wisdom of men who have appreciated the blessings bestowed on them by Allah. Yes, Kuwait does not need somebody to talk on its behalf or interfere in its business. We are keen on conserving our unity, safety, security to protect this country despite all conflicts and evils. — Annahar

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

India’s Modi fasts, seeks to end riot controversy

Humbled rebels gripe outside Bani Walid Page 8

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‘Don’t trust NATO, US, West’ Iran’s supreme leader warns Arabs TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday warned those involved in popular Arab uprisings against trusting Western powers and their “promises,” saying they should instead confide in Islam for solutions.

“Never trust America, NATO, and criminal regimes like Britain, France and Italy-who for a long time divided your lands (among themselves) and plundered them,” Khamenei said as he opened a two-day conference in Tehran on “Islamic Awakening” attended by several hundred guests from Arab countries.

“Be suspicious of them and do not believe in their smiles. Behind those smiles and promises lie conspiracy and betrayal,” Khamenei said. “Look for solutions in ... Islam.”

“Do not let your enemies dictate your plans for the future, do not sacrifice the principles of Islam before temporary interests,” he said in remarks broadcast live on state television.

Iran has vocally supported most uprisings in the Arab world, with the exception of the revolt in its regional ally Syria, where it backs the regime of President Bashar AlAssad while advocating reform. The Islamic republic has in recent months repeatedly accused the West of attempting to hijack the revolt movements in the Arab world.

Khamenei said the “ultimate goal” of the regional revolutions should be creating a new Islamic civilization based on religion, logic, science and morals-one which is away from Western schools of thought.

He also denounced the intervention of NATO in Libya, saying the operation had inflicted “irreparable losses” on the country through destroying its infrastructure. “If it were not for these interventions, the Libyans may have taken longer to succeed but so many innocent people would not have been killed and the former allies of Gaddafi would not have been able to seek to interfere (politically) in this warravaged and oppressed country,” Khamenei said. Lebanese Hezbollah’s number two Sheikh Naeem Qassem, secretary general of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Abdullah,

Dutch government to ban niqab, burqa AMSTERDAM: The Dutch government said yesterday it will ban face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women because these flout the Dutch way of life and culture.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte also announced tougher rules for immigrants and asylum-seekers wanting Dutch nationality who, in future, must show they have earned income and have not received financial assistance or benefits for at least three years.

The country’s reputation as relatively easy on immigration has changed over the past decade, reflecting voter concerns over the large number of Muslim immigrants.

“The government believes the wearing of clothing that completely or almost entirely covers the face is fundamentally at odds with public life, where people are recognized by their faces,” the government said in a statement on Friday. “Face-covering clothing prevents this and goes against the principles of equality between men and women, especially women.” The new measures reflect the influence wielded by populist politician Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam, anti-immigration Freedom Party is the third-largest in parliament.

Wilders has a pact with the minority coalition government to provide crucial support in parliament in exchange for tougher policies on Islam and immigration from nonWestern countries. The Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition government has already faced tough opposition from Wilders’ Freedom Party over its support for euro zone bailouts, and needs to keep it on side in order to push ahead with crucial budget cuts. The government said it did not consider the ban on face-covering veils a restriction of religious freedom, but that even if it was, it was “necessary and justified in the interest of protecting the character and way of life in the Netherlands.”

The proposals will first be presented to the council of state, the administrative court, and then to parliament. No time frame was given, but Wilders has said he hopes to introduce the ban on face-covering veils this year or next.

Arabic-style niqabs which leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid are far less commonly seen on the streets of the Netherlands than Muslim headscarves which leave the face exposed. France imposed a ban on burqas last year and on Friday banned street prayers. —Reuters

Nine Afghans killed by mine MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Nine civilians including five children have been killed by a roadside mine as they herded cattle in northwest Afghanistan, police said yesterday. The incident took place in Faryab province, which borders Turkmenistan, late Friday and again highlights the dangers civilians face in the ten-year war in Afghanistan. Faryab police spokesman Sayed Massoud Yaqoobi confirmed details of the incident, adding: “Nine civilians were killed including five children and a man was wounded.” There are about 140,000 international troops in Afghanistan, mainly from the United States, combating a Taleban-led insurgency that started after the militants were ousted from power by a US-led invasion.

But civilians are the biggest casualties of the war. The United Nations said in July that 1,462 civilians were killed by the Afghan conflict in the first half of this year, up 15 percent on the same period last year. It blamed 80 percent of the deaths on insurgents. Many deaths come as a result of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mines. In the latest major attack in Afghanistan, insurgents this week killed at least 15 people-including 11 Afghan civilians of whom three were children-in an attack which targeted the United States embassy in Kabul.— AFP

and former Afghan premier and warlord Burhanuddin Rabbani are attending the meeting.

West’s troubles curbing oil price Iran says international crude oil prices will not rise with the onset of the cold season due to the continuing global economic slump, state broadcaster IRIB quoted an official yesterday as saying. “Due to the existing economic crisis, it is predicted that this year no significant changes happen in the oil price by the onset of the cold season,” said Iran’s OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi.

Khatibi said there were indications that lingering financial crisis in some Western countries would lead to a drop in oil demand. “The drop in demand in recent weeks has been to the extent that some non-OPEC producing countries were compelled to lower their output in proportion to the drop in demand,” Khatibi said. Iran, a leading price hawk inside OPEC, holds the rotating presidency of the group. At the last OPEC meeting, on Jun. 8, it successfully opposed a push led by Saudi Arabia to raise output quotas, leading the Saudis to increase production unilaterally, a move strongly criticized by Tehran.— Agencies

SEBBAH: Libya fighters arrest a man from Nigeria, who they allege is a Gaddafi loyalist, as they take control of Gaddafi loyalists villages in the desert some 730 km south of Tripoli. — AP

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GOP seizes on waning campus Obamamania CHICAGO: The young people in the ad look dissatisfied and pouty. Barack Obama’s voice and the words “winning the future,” from one of his old campaign speeches, echo in the background. “You’re LOSING my future,” says one young man. The ad - which has aired during sportscasts, reality TV shows and late-night comedy programs popular with younger people was produced for the College Republican National Committee. It is an attempt to play on the fears that haunt college campuses - fears that they won’t find jobs, fears that they’ll be living with less than their parents did. Their fears are, of course, far from exclusive to their generation. But some say the fact that it has taken hold in a voting bloc that helped usher the president into office on a wave of hope and change provides a big opening for Republicans - unless the president can find a way to get them fired up again.

They have much at stake. “People are taking out $100,000 in debt and they’re graduating next year,” says Nick Haschka, a 25-year-old MBA student at Northwestern University. Haschka voted for Obama in 2008 and remains a strong supporter. “I think he’s doing the best he can in these circumstances,” he says. But he knows others

have been less patient. And that’s been confirmed by recent polls, which show that young voters’ support for the president is waning. That’s true even on campuses like Northwestern, one of many where Obamamania began to take hold four years ago, when young voters supported the president by a 2-1 margin.

“I don’t really think he can make a difference now,” says Charlotte Frei, a 24-year-old doctoral student at Northwestern who’s studying transportation engineering. She voted for the president in 2008 and will probably do so again, though she’s not very enthusiastic about it. Others worry that apathy could cause a lot of young voters to sit this one out. “It’s unfortunate - but I think the last election was an exception,” says Aubrey Blanche, a senior at Northwestern who’ll soon graduate with a degree in journalism and political science and who, like many others, has “no idea” where she’ll get a job.

Young Republicans see an opportunity. Even at the University of Chicago, a short walk from the Obamas’ home in Hyde Park, members of the small local chapter of College Republicans are feeling empowered to engage students in conversation as the fall term begins. “The jobs issue is a major accel-

erant,” says Jacob Rabinowitz, a sophomore who is the group’s vice president. Meanwhile, in a recruiting video, Zach Howell, the outgoing chairman of the national College Republican group, says his party offers “real change” and “hope,” playing off the themes of Obama’s last campaign.

The group’s ads are edgy and catchy - and a good start, says political scientist Richard Niemi. “Throwing back a candidate’s words at him or her is a tried-and-true method,” says Niemi, a professor at the University of Rochester in New York. “But you’ve got to have the candidate to go with it.”

That’s where it gets tricky for Republicans, since young voters have traditionally leaned heavily Democratic. So far, in this race, Ron Paul, a Republican with libertarian leanings, is among those with a small but loyal legion of young followers.

Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor, also has attempted to make a play for young supporters, calling them “Generation H.” Jacob Engels - a 19-year-old business student at Valencia College in Florida who is a delegate in the Republican straw poll later this month - is a Huntsman supporter. Though Huntsman hasn’t made a strong showing in early polls, Engels calls him the

“pragmatic choice” because he’s less conservative on issues such as the environment and gay marriage. That would make Huntsman more palatable to his college peers, he says. “I just don’t think you can get away with the Bachmann craziness and the Perry stuff,” Engels says of two presidential candidates - Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry - who lean more to the right on social issues.

Bachmann, a Republican member of Congress from Minnesota, and Perry, the governor of Texas, are, in fact, names that tend to stir up college Democrats - and not necessarily in a good way. “If Perry ran, I’d definitely vote against him,” says Frei, the Northwestern Ph D student. Of course, that’s good for Obama, says Larry Berman, a political science professor at Georgia State University. But, he says the president also needs to find ways to inspire young people to vote FOR him, not just against his opponent, whoever that turns out to be.

He says the president might, for instance, find a new role for Vice President Joe Biden and choose a new running mate that would appeal more to the younger crowd. The president also is likely to make more appearances on college campuses, as he did when he recently took his jobs plan to

the campus of Ohio State University.

“He can’t win Ohio and other key swing states without a dramatic turnout of young voters,” Berman says.

Perhaps most important, “I think he’s got to fight,” Berman says. He suggests a re-election campaign speech like the one President Franklin D Roosevelt made in 1936 in which he said of his detractors, “I welcome their hatred.”

That kind of passion would appeal to college students, among others, he says.

Either way, Meredith Segal, who helped found and run Students for Obama during the last presidential election, says it’s far too early to discount young voters. No, their response to Obama won’t be the same as it was in the 2008 campaign, she says.

“Inevitably there is a difference between something that is brand new vs. a known quantity,” says Segal, who’s 25 and now director of student and family services at a new urban charter school outside Boston. “It’s always virtually impossible to recapture the newness and energy of a candidate who is being discovered for the first time.” But she adds: “This generation still has the potential to have a huge impact - not just in the election but on their campuses, in their towns, their cities and their country.”— AP

Humbled Libyan rebels gripe outside Bani Walid Traitors, snipers and oil slicks blamed for defeat

WEST BANK: Palestinian demonstrators hurl stones at an Israeli military watchtower during a protest calling for a Palestinian state with full UN membership at the Qalandia checkpoint. — AP

Abbas seeks UN membership amid diplomatic tussle RAMALLAH: President Mahmud Abbas has promised Palestinians he will seek UN membership before the Security Council this week, amid mounting opposition from Israel and the United States. With Washington calling the move “counterproductive,” Abbas told Palestinians in a televised address on Friday: “It is our legitimate right to demand the full membership of the state of Palestine in the UN.” Europe yesterday joined the diplomatic tussle, calling for a “constructive solution” on Palestinian statehood and a resumption of negotiations with Israel. “We continue to believe that a constructive solution that can gather as much support as possible and allows for the resumption of negotiations is the best and only way to deliver the peace and two state solution the Palestinian people want,” said Jaja Cocijanic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Yossi Peled, a Likud party minister without portfolio in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told public radio on Saturday Israel could not prevent the Palestinian UN recourse. “Unfortunately,

Israel does not have the means to prevent the Palestinians from demanding adhesion of their state to the UN, and it is impossible to stop them,” he said. “But the initiative will no doubt not get through the Security Council, and will leave us room to negotiate,” he said, adding that only direct talks will result in the solution of two states for two peoples. Washington has already threatened to veto the Palestinian bid in the Security Council.

Abbas made his pledge after Israel boosted its military presence in the West Bank ahead of expected Palestinian demonstrations as the UN statehood bid looms on September 23. Israel’s daily Yediot Aharonot said three battalions of reservistssome 1,500 personnel-had been mobilized and units already in the occupied territory had been reinforced. Explaining US opposition to the planned UN bid, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said: “We believe that any gesture, any movement in New York to that end would be counterproductive to what the real focus should be on, which is direct negotiations between the parties. — AFP

OUTSIDE BANI WALID: Grumbles replaced gunfire outside the Muammar Gaddafi bastion of Bani Walid yesterday as Libyan interim government fighters sat in the morning sun discussing their defeat the day before, as occasional mortar bombs whistled towards them. The mortar fire from the town’s defenders, loyal to Libya’s old leader, only aggravated the anti-Gaddafi men’s humiliation.

“It was difficult,” admitted one fighter, surprised he had survived a hail of sniper fire and rockets when his brigade raced into Bani Walid on Friday. “We’ll do it differently next time.” The mood could not have been more different to the one on Friday when ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) forces, who had waited outside the town through more than two weeks of abortive negotiations for its surrender, were finally given the order to take it with a full-on military assault.

“Bani Walid, Bani Walid,” shouted NTC fighters as they hurtled into battle in pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns. “Let’s go. God is greatest. Bani Walid will be free.”

But it wasn’t that simple. After hours of heavy fighting, the NTC men started pouring out of Bani Walid almost as fast as they had poured in, saying they had been ordered to retreat after facing stout resistance. That was a serious setback to a new government trying to exert its control over all of Libya and capture remaining bastions of the man who ruled it eccentrically for 42 years.

TRAITORS, SNIPERS, OIL SLICKS Yesterday, the surly-looking NTC fighters had several theories as to why they were defeated. “There are traitors among us,” Anas Madraha told Reuters, repeating a familiar

SEBBAH: Libya fighters enter a Gaddafi political office next to a police station as they take control of Gaddafi loyalists villages in the desert some 730 kms south of Tripoli. — AP refrain that Gaddafi infiltrators were feeding information to Bani Walid’s defenders. Another NTC fighter, Abushusha Bellal, went further.

“When we entered the city, snipers shot at us from the front and traitors shot at us from the back,” he said with a look of disbelief. “They always play tricks and shoot us in the back.”

For others, the oil the Gaddafi men poured down the steep streets leading to the city centre was the problem. There were not enough troops. The organization was chaot-

ic. There was no cooperation between the different brigades who took part in the attack. There was a lack of discipline, they said.

One fighter, Nuraldin Zardi, told Reuters his brigade had missed the order to retreat and had found itself trapped and isolated inside Bani Walid hours after their comrades had fled. “God only knows why,” he yelled, shaking his fist.

“When the shelling started no one told us we were supposed to retreat.”

Zardi said his unit had con-

served its ammunition and fought its way out street by street. “We will not rely on our commanders any more,” he added, reflecting growing dissent in the ranks, both between brigades and towards officers. “We will do everything ourselves and take our own decisions.” NTC reinforcements began to arrive yesterday from around Libya and fighters said another 1,000 men from Tripoli and other parts of the country were coming. “Now it is quiet,” Madraha, the fighter said. “Hopefully we will go back in soon.”—Reuters

Sudanese boycott meat to fight food inflation Economic crisis worsens after southern split KHARTOUM: Ishraga Youssef was running out of options as food prices spiraled in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, so she decided to take drastic action by giving up meat.

Over the weekend, her children were due to sit down to some rare vegetarian dinners-partly to save money and partly to join an equally rare protest, an organized boycott of lamb, beef, chicken and all other meat products, the staples of a Sudanese diet. “Meat is so expensive so from today we don’t have meat any more in our house ... It’s not healthy anyway,” the Khartoum lawyer told Reuters, standing in front of her city-centre home.

The organizer of the boycott, the Sudanese Consumer Protection Society, is hoping many will join her over the weekend, to turn their kitchens into the front line of a mass movement against rising prices of basic commodities. Protests are rare in Sudan. A handful of street demonstrations earlier this year, inspired by uprisings across the Arab world, were quickly crushed by the security services. But pressures on Sudanese households keep mounting. Meat prices rose more than 41 percent in August from the same time last year, according to Sudan’s Central Bureau

of Statistics, against a background of soaring inflation that Sudan’s government has blamed on hoarders, but critics say is down to state mismanagement.

Overall inflation hit 21.1 percent the same month, up from 17.6 percent a year ago. The cost of cooking oil jumped 47.7 percent from a year earlier, while the price of fish, much of it fresh out of the Nile, rose by 33.2 percent. “Meat has become too expensive though it’s mostly locally produced. Prices are not justified,” said Yassir Mirgani Abdulrahman, head of the Sudanese Consumer Protection Society. “A kilo of meat costs 30 ($11.20 at the official rate) or even 36 (Sudanese) pounds. One year ago it was 20 pounds,” he said while distributing campaign stickers in central Khartoum. “We’ll continue with other products. Milk and vegetables such as lentils are also too expensive,” he said.

The protests have come at a particularly gloomy time for the Sudanese economy, weighed down by years of civil wars and US trade sanctions. In July this year Sudan’s south declared independence, taking with it about 75 percent of the country’s oil reserves- the lifeblood of the country’s economy. — Reuters

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9/11 hero jailed From tale of heroism to tale of graft NEW YORK: A former government official hailed for helping two people escape the World Trade Center on Sept 11 was sentenced Friday to at least a year in prison, his second term behind bars after two separate bribery cases turned his story of heroism into a tale of graft in the wake of the attacks. Friday’s sentencing was specifically about a case in which Mark Jakubek took payoffs to let a company overbill for work on the trade center cleanup and other projects, but it was peppered with broader references to the terror attacks and Jakubek’s role in rescuing people from them.

While Jakubek said he was suffering continuing psychological problems from the disaster, a prosecutor questioned whether his valor had been overblown. His voice faltering, Jakubek, 52, proclaimed his innocence and traced a trail of personal losses. “I always told the truth. ... I was totally unaware that these wrongful activities were going on,” Jakubek said. He noted that his legal problems had cost him his job at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and ended his 22-year marriage. He also said he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder “as a result of the attack on the World Trade Center and my heroic saving of two employees.”

Jakubek’s former port authority colleague Anthony Fontanetta, 63, was convicted in the same case and also was sentenced Friday to one to three years in prison - the minimum possible for a racketeering conviction that could have gotten each man up to 25 years behind bars. They were allowed to stay free for at least a week to ask an appeals court to give them bail during a planned appeal. “Their obligation was to ensure that the port authority got the goods and services they paid for,” Manhattan assistant district attorney Michael Scotto told the court. “The only goods and services that the defendants were concerned about were the ones they received ... for violating that trust and allowing the theft of thousands of dollars from the port authority.”

On the day of the 2001 attacks, Jakubek and some co-workers were scrambling down the stairs from their World Trade Center offices when they heard screams coming from an elevator. He and the others helped find a way to pry the elevator door open, he later told the New York Post, which included him in a list of “New York’s heroes” in 2002. The state Legislature gave him a commendation, said his lawyer,

Glenn Abolafia.

But Scotto noted that another account “102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers,” a 2004 book by New York Times writers Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn - said that the men in the elevator wedged the door open slightly themselves. Jakubek then found a post to force it open wider and wire-cutters those in the elevator used to free themselves, Dwyer and Flynn wrote. “This was hardly heroic,” Scotto said. “It was considered heroic by our Legislature,” Abolafia responded.

Two years after the attacks, Jakubek pleaded guilty in a federal bribery case, admitting he had taken nearly $20,000 in kickbacks to speed payments to contractors whose billing records had been destroyed in the attacks. At the time, Jakubek said the terror attacks had left him with profound psychological scars. “In helping save two people’s lives, I lost a part of my own,” he told a judge, who noted that thousands of other people had lived through Sept 11 trauma without committing crimes. Jakubek spent about a year in a federal prison. By the end of 2004, Jakubek had been indicted again, in a sweeping state court case surrounding asbestoscleanup firm Specialty Service Contracting Inc. Jakubek, who had managed the authority’s environmental field operations, was accused of taking sports and concert tickets and other bribes to let the company get away with padding its bills. Specialty Service worked for the agency at John F. Kennedy International Airport and on cleaning up crushed police cars, pieces of steel and other artifacts from the trade center site, which the authority also owns. The company inflated equipment expenses and plumped up its payroll with no-show workers, one of whom actually was in jail on a day he was listed as working, prosecutors said.

The firm stole more than $60,000 through the ground zero cleanup project and millions of dollars overall, prosecutors said. Jakubek and Fontanetta, an engineer, and their lawyers said the two didn’t know about the billing practices. Fontanetta and Jakubek both said Friday they had taken some tickets, but Fontanetta said he had paid $50 toward the $75 price of a pair of tickets he received, and Jakubek said he never did anything in return for those he accepted. Fontanetta said he had “lost everything in my life ... because I refused to admit to something that I did not do.” —AP

US probes legality of anti-terrorism strikes ‘We can’t use force whenever, wherever we want’ CAMBRIDGE: A top US anti-terror advisor said America’s anti-terror campaign must go beyond “hot” battlefields in Afghanistan but legal curbs could constrain its action. John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s top advisor for counterterrorism and homeland security, also criticized Friday attempts by some lawmakers to ensure that military, rather than civilian courts deal with terror suspects. Brennan’s speech at Harvard Law School later Friday laid out the legal questions surrounding US counterterrorism operations, especially the widening geographical spread of US military strikes against extremists.

“The United States does not view our authority to use military force against Al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to ‘hot’ battlefields like Afghanistan,” Brennan said. “We reserve the right to take unilateral action if or when other governments are unwilling or unable to take the necessary actions themselves.” However, Brennan added, “that does not mean we can use military force whenever we want, wherever we want.

“International legal principles, including respect for

a state’s sovereignty and the laws of war, impose important constraints on our ability to act unilaterally and on the way in which we can use force-in foreign territories.”

The New York Times earlier quoted administration and congressional officials as saying that the Obama team was divided on the legal leeway the United States had in killing Islamist militants in Yemen and Somalia. The paper said the discussion, pivotal to the future course of the anti-terror fight, centered on the extent to which Washington could escalate drone strikes, cruise missiles or commando raids from current high value Al-Qaeda targets to target thousands of extremist “foot soldiers.”

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported late Friday that the Obama administration had significantly increased the frequency of drone strikes and other air attacks against Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Some of the strikes, carried out by the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, have been focused in the southern part of the country, where insurgent forces have for the first time conquered and held territory, the paper said. Unlike in

Brazilian anti-corruption outrage stirs RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilians tired of corruption are organizing street protests through online social networks, a movement likely to gain strength after a government minister resigned this week under a cloud of suspicion. The non-partisan protest organizers are holding a new march Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro to highlight the scandals rocking the government of President Dilma Rousseff.

An initial protest held in Brasilia on September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, gathered 30,000 people, many of them wearing red clown noses. Cristian Maza, one of the movement founders said that the web initiative calling for the protests “snowballed” after she and friends copied messages seen on Facebook and repeated them on their own digital walls. Thirty thousand people have already signed on to say they will attend the Rio rally. “Several demonstrations are being organized. We hope that will make things change,” said Maza, a 37-year-old shopkeeper. “ This won’t be fixed with just one march. The cry has to continue.”

The usual tolerance of Brazilians for corruption has been tested in recent months with revelations that have caused the

departures from Rousseff’s government.

Tourism minister Pedro Novais was forced to step down Wednesday after suspicions were raised that millions of dollars were embezzled. Reports also said he paid a personal assistant with public funds, and his wife used a parliamentary aide as her personal chauffeur. Novais followed Rousseff’s agriculture, transport and chief ministers out the door after scandals suggesting personal enrichment at taxpayers’ expense.

The departures have badly weakened the image of Rousseff and her government.

Another minister, Nelson Jobim, in charge of defense, was forced to resign in August not because of corruption charges but because he openly criticized other cabinet members. Some analysts, though, said the exits showed Rousseff was demanding higher standards from her ministers than those set under her predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “The degree of tolerance by the president to these corruption claims is less than those shown by Lula and other presidents, who protected the fingered politicians,” said Gil Castello Branco, secretar y general of Contas Abertas, a group calling for government accountability and transparency. —AFP

Pakistan, where the CIA has presidential authorization to launch drone strikes at will, each US attack in Yemen and nearby Somalia requires White House approval, The Post said. In his speech, Brennan also took issue with administration critics on Capitol Hill who are seeking to mandate that all terror suspects are treated as enemy combatants and held in military custody rather than in the civilian court system.

“I am deeply concerned that the alternative approach to counterterrorism being advocated in some quarters would represent a drastic departure from our values and the body of laws and principles that have always made this country a force for positive change in the world,” Brennan said. “Such a departure would not only risk rejection by our courts and the American public, it would undermine the international cooperation that has been critical to the national security gains we have made. “Our counterterrorism professionals-regardless of the administration in power-need the flexibility to make well-informed decisions about where to prosecute terrorist suspects.” — AFP

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50 years after UN chief’s death, conspiracy theories swirl STOCKHOLM: Fifty years on from the plane crash which killed UN chief Dag Hammarskjoeld, there is a chorus of demands for a new probe into his death that many claim was the work of mercenaries.

Hammarskjoeld was killed on the night of September 17-18, 1961, when his DC-6 came down near Ndola airport in the British colony Northern Rhodesia (modern-day Zambia) as he flew in to peace talks to end fighting in the mineral-rich Katanga province in neighboring Congo.

The United Nations’ own inquiry shortly after the crash blamed pilot error, effectively endorsing an initial investigation by the colonial authorities. But reports from witnesses and other diplomats have led to widespread accusations of a cover-up and the suspicion that Hammarskjoeld paid the price for supporting efforts by the newly independent Congolese government to crush an uprising in Katanga being funded by Western mining companies.

Goran Bjoerkdahl, a Swedish aid worker who has interviewed eyewitnesses to the crash in Ndola, recently proclaimed that there could be “no doubt Dag Hammarskjoeld’s plane was brought down”. “My own conclusion, after adding the new witnesses’ statements and the archive information to previously published documents, is that Hammarskjoeld’s DC-6 was brought down and that the motive was to maintain the west’s control over Katanga minerals,” he wrote in Britain’s Guardian newspaper last month.

A new book by the author Susan Williams entitled ‘Who Killed Hammarskjoeld?’ also argues that the plane was brought down, prompting the diplomat’s nephew Knut Hammarskjoeld to recently call for a new inquiry. Others who believe that the Swedish authorities have been too ready to accept the official version of events include Rolf Rembe who is the Swedish author of a book on Hammarskjoeld’s career and legacy. “What is important is to require all the rel-

evant documents,” Rembe told Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet daily. “It seems unlikely, but it could have been an attempted kidnapping of Hammarskjoeld,” he added.

In 2007, retired French diplomat Claude de Kemoularia added fresh fuel to the conspiracy theory when he recounted a meeting with a group of mercenaries and a Belgian pilot in Paris in 1967 who claimed to have brought down the plane. He then made contact with the Swedish authorities in the hope that they would open a new inquiry but his efforts were in vain. The foreign ministry later dismissed his version of events as “extremely unlikely”.

John F Kennedy, the US president at the time of Hammarskjoeld’s death, eulogized him as “the greatest statesman of our century”. In an address from the White House, Kennedy paid tribute to Hammarskjoeld’s “dedication to the cause of peace, his untiring labor to achieve it, his courage under

attack, (and) willingness to accept all responsibility in trying to strengthen the United Nations to make it a more effective instrument.” But Hammarskjoeld was far from universally popular and Kennedy’s Soviet counterpart Nikita Khrushchev had called for his resignation over his handling of the Katanga conflict.

Hammarskjoeld responded: “It is very easy to bow to the wish of a big power, it is another matter to resist.” Hammarskjoeld, who was 56 at the time of his death, is the only UN secretary general to have died while in office and also the only person to have been posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The current Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt will travel today to Ndola, near the scene of the crash, to take part in a commemorative ceremony. Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria will attend a similar event at the University of Uppsala and Swedish public radio’s symphony orchestra will play a concert in his memory in the capital Stockholm. — AFP

Latvians vote in anti-oligarch poll Russian speakers’ party leads, but might not win power

ABUJA: An unidentified woman, who reportedly lost her husband in last month’s suicide attack on United Nations headquarters, weeps during a memorial service for those killed, outside the damaged building in Abuja, Nigeria. — AP

Obasanjo visits family of Boko Haram leader LAGOS: A former Nigerian president has urged relatives of a slain radical Muslim sect leader to halt the group’s increasingly bloody attacks against the government, meeting attendees said. The unannounced meeting came just weeks after the group known as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria that killed 23 people and wounded 116. The attack launched far from the group’s base in the country’s northeast represented a major escalation in violence. Officials also fear the shadowy group now has ties to Al-Qaedalinked terror organizations elsewhere in Africa.

On Thursday, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke with the family of late Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf for two hours in the northeast city of Maiduguri, civil rights activist Shehu Sani said Friday. The meeting represented the first visit of a Nigerian leader to the family since Yusuf was killed while in police custody following a 2009 sect riot and security crackdown that left 700 people dead. Obasanjo’s visit shows the government’s growing desperation in its fight against Boko Haram, which wants to implement Islamic law across northern Nigeria.

Obasanjo, who led Nigeria as a military ruler in the 1970s and later as its first elected president, remains a powerful force in the country’s politics and in regional diplomacy.

Yusuf’s family agreed to meet with Obasanjo as he never cracked down on the sect during his eight years in office, Sani said. During Thursday’s meeting, Sani said Obasanjo asked the family why the sect continued to attack security agents, clerics and government officials. Relatives said the attacks represented revenge against the government for Yusuf’s death and the killing of two other leaders

during the 2009 uprising, Sani said.

Yusuf’s relatives also provided rare details about the group, saying they have representatives in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. “They said the Nigerian security forces and the army cannot crush them because they have the capacity to reach out to anywhere if they want to,” Sani said. Speaking Friday to the AP in Maiduguri, Yusuf’s relative Babakura Fugu said the meeting with Obasanjo raised their “confidence by 100 percent.” Fugu said the former president promised to brief current President Goodluck Jonathan about the talk.

Family members asked Obasanjo to have their destroyed homes rebuilt, to receive a promised court settlement of $6,600 from the government, Fugu said. They also asked that officials compensate other sect members who lost relatives in the 2009 security crackdown. It remains unclear who is actually leading Boko Haram since Yusuf’s death. Analysts and diplomats have said they believe the sect is split into at least three sub-groups, each with its own loose command-and-control structure.

Complex bank robberies appear to be aimed at funding the group, but Yusuf’s family said about 40 percent of the sect’s funding now comes from outside of Nigeria. Last month, the commander for US military operations in Africa told the AP that Boko Haram may be trying to coordinate attacks with AlShabab of Somalia and North African terror group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is split largely between a Christian south and a Muslim north. Unemployment and unceasing poverty, coming despite the nation making billions a year from oil production, have fueled resentment in recent years in the north. Boko Haram and other extremist groups have tapped into that unrest. — AP

Metropolitan Police seeks Guardian hacking sources LONDON: The Guardian newspaper said yesterday it would fight “to the utmost” an attempt by police probing Britain’s phone hacking scandal to force it to disclose the sources for its repor ts on the affair.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is seeking to obtain a court order under the Official Secrets Act to identify “evidence of potential offences resulting from unauthorized leaking of information”.

The Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger condemned the move as “vindictive”, adding: “We shall resist this extraordinary demand to the utmost”. The daily has been at the forefront in exposing the voicemail hacking scandal at media baron Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid. The Guardian said the police intended to go before a judge at the Old Bailey in London, England’s central criminal court, on September 23 to apply for an order under the Official Secrets Act 1989 requiring it to hand over documents relating to the source of information for a number of articles.

It said the police thought the act could have been breached in July when the newspaper revealed that the voicemail of a teenage murder victim had been hacked into. The story led to a public outcry and News of the World closed shortly afterwards. In a statement, the MPS said it had applied for a production order against The Guardian and one of its reporters “in order to seek evidence of offences connected to potential breaches relating to Misconduct

in Public Office and the Official Secrets Act”. It said it took concerns of leaks seriously “to ensure that the public interest is protected by ensuring there is no further potential compromise”.

The MPS paid tribute to The Guardian’s “unwavering determination to expose the hacking scandal”, and said it recognized “the important public interest of whistleblowing and investigative reporting”, which it was not seeking to prevent.

“However, neither is apparent in this case.

This is an investigation into the alleged gratuitous release of information that is not in the public interest.” The Guardian’s reporter Amelia Hill was questioned under caution earlier this month over alleged police leaks surrounding the hacking inquiry. In August, a policeman working on the probe was arrested over the unauthorized disclosure of information.

The Guardian called the latest move an “unprecedented legal attack on journalists’ sources”. “It seems to me an extraordinarily heavy-handed use of the Official Secrets Act which is basically about espionage and international relations and things like that to defeat the privilege journalists have to protect their sources,” Rusbridger told BBC radio. “What they are trying to do is to find out the source of the embarrassment of the articles-and no doubt The Guardian’s coverage was embarrassing to the police. “It looks vindictive and it looks ill-judged and disproportionate.”— AFP

RIGA: Latvians voted in a snap election yesterday called to break the power of oligarch businessmen, with centre-right Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis facing a challenge from a party usually backed by the large Russianspeaking minority. Opinion polls suggest the most votes will go to Harmony Centre, which has portrayed itself as the only centre-left party that would boost social spending after tough austerity measures and delay Latvia’s entry to the debt-plagued euro zone.

Harmony is trying to move beyond its traditional base to win support across the ethnic divide. But suspicions of Russian influence and differences with potential coalition partners over economic policy may stop Harmony entering government for the first time since Latvian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

“I’ll vote for Harmony Centre because they know how to pull this country out of its mess ... I hope they get into the government this time,” said Viktors, 61, an aviation technician, who declined to give his family name.

Viktors said the next government should seek easier terms on a 7.5 billion euro international bailout that Latvia had to take during the economic crisis of 2008. “They also should renegotiate the bailout agreement to extend payments for a longer period. We should get back on our feet before starting to pay back,” he added. Latvian media have highlighted

Harmony’s ties with the United Russia Party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a sign the party would bring Latvia more under Russian influence. Analysts say Dombrovskis’s Unity party and another formed by ex-President Valdis Zatlers, who forced the election to counter the political influence of oligarchs, could form the core of a new government but not win a majority in parliament.

The parties’ most widely tipped partner is a nationalist bloc, but some see Harmony as a possible ally. “I would imagine that if Unity does well in the election the first chance (to form a government) will be given to the existing prime minister. He has led the country through the economic recovery process,” said political commentator Karlis Streips. Voting is due to finish at 10 pm (1900 GMT). “I’ll go to vote. Maybe something will be better, but I don’t expect any big changes. In general, people are disappointed and they don’t care. People have lost trust in politicians,” said Kristaps Celeste, 27, a student.

INFLUENTIAL OLIGARCHS Critics say oligarchs have used their wealth to influence politics and favor their own business interests or those of their associates. Three politically influential businessmen at the centre of the row have denied any wrongdoing.

Zatlers triggered the election by ordering parliament be dissolved after lawmakers refused

permission for prosecutors to search a flat owned by a businessman and member of parliament.

Latvians overwhelmingly backed his decision in a July referendum. By then Zatlers had failed to be re-elected as president by parliament, and he formed his own party. Opinion polls have shown Harmony Centre leading the race, with Dombrovksis’s Unity and Zatlers’s Reform Party vying for second place.

Dombrovskis, 40, led Latvia through a harsh package of public sector pay cuts and higher taxes after a 2008 financial crisis and 7.5 billion euro international bailout. However, his Unity party won the last election in October 2010 with 33 seats.

He campaigned on a platform of further fiscal austerity to help Latvia adopt the euro in 2014, policies Zatlers backs for the country, which regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004. Dombrovskis says his policies have restored international confidence in Latvia and brought about the current recovery from a stunning 18 percent drop in economic output in 2009. Harmony faces tough questions about its attitude to history. Many ethnic Latvians see the 50 years of Soviet rule as an occupation, while many of Harmony’s Russian-speaking supporters are insulted by that word. — Reuters

‘Game over’: Clouds gather for tycoon who took on Kremlin

Martin McGuinness

McGuinness to run for Irish presidency BELFAST: Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness is to run for president of the Republic of Ireland next month as part of what he called a bid to bring about Irish reunification by peaceful means. The candidature of 61-year-old McGuinness for the October 27 election is expected to be rubber-stamped by the executive council of his Sinn Fein party today.

McGuinness, who admits being a commander of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary group during the three decades of violence in Northern Ireland, would be the first candidate from the hardline Catholic socialist party to run for the Irish presidency.

The bid will be seen by many north and south of the border in Ireland as an audacious move. McGuinness was branded the mastermind of the IRA during the decades of sectarian bombings and shootings in Northern Ireland but later became a champion of the peace process in the province, which remains part of the United Kingdom. “I hope that my campaign will give citizens the opportunity to make a stand for the new Ireland,” McGuinness said. Speaking during an investment trip to the United States, he said he believed that those who voted for him in Northern Ireland would be pleased with his decision.

“They will be very happy that I, as an Irish republican from the North, will be prepared to stand for the Irish presidency,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

“The whole all-Ireland nature of the agreements that we have made make it incumbent upon all of us to continue to bring about-I hope-the reunification of Ireland by purely peaceful and democratic means.” If elected he would have to give up his current role while a Sinn Fein colleague is likely to fill in for him during the campaign.

McGuinness remains a highly divisive figure in Ireland. He has admitted he was the IRA’s number two in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1972 when 13 people died after British soldiers opened fire on a civil rights march in what became known as Bloody Sunday. He was jailed in the Republic for terror offences. But when peace accords in 1998 largely brought an end to the three decades of violence known as the Troubles, McGuinness amazed many by entering a government with the man who was formerly his bitter foe, the firebrand Protestant leader Ian Paisley.

The next Irish president faces the prospect of following two historic periods of office by Mary McAleese and, before her, Mary Robinson. The two women are seen to have broadened the role of the presidency to provide a platform for the marginalized and to build bridges between Catholics and Protestants across Ireland, north and south. Labor Party candidate Michael D Higgins remains the front-runner in the race to succeed McAleese, according to the latest poll last week. Higgins has 36 percent of the first preference vote, with Gay Mitchell, the candidate of Fine Gaelwhich governs Ireland in a coalition with junior partners Labor-second with 24 percent.

Meanwhile a senator who last month abandoned his bid to become Ireland’s first gay president, after controversy involving a former lover, said Friday he “hoped” to get the backing of the 20 parliamentarians required to allow him to re-enter the race. David Norris, 67, withdrew after it emerged that he wrote to the Israeli authorities pleading for clemency for his former partner Ezra Yitzhak, who was accused of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in 1992. —AFP

MOSCOW: Just days ago, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was the darling of the Russian leadership as the new head of a liberal Kremlin-backed party, given acres of television coverage and hobnobbing with the ruling tandem. On Friday, he and his close political associate became the target of a new muckraking documentary shown on prime-time state-controlled television. The expose capped Prokhorov’s three-month stint at the helm of a small pro-reform party, Pravoe Delo (Right Cause) and came a day after the free-wheeling industrialist called Kremlin’s top strategist a “puppeteer” and accused him of stifling debate.

At a party meeting on Thursday, Prokhorov said he was quitting and would not lead Pravoe Delo into December parliamentary polls because he was not ready to be a puppet of President Dmitry Medvedev’s top spin doctor Vladislav Surkov. “Game over,” Prokhorov declared in a bitter blog entry. He warned that he expected “problems at the least in the public arena,” for himself and his followers. “They will waste (us) cruelly and uncompromisingly. I am ready for this,” he said, breaking into slang.

The billionaire, listed as Russia’s third richest with a fortune of $18 billion by Forbes magazine, has interests ranging from mining to metals to eco-friendly cars and was chiefly known as a patron of sport and arts before his sudden venture into politics this summer. He took over the party leadership on June 25 in a fanfare of publicity, clearly enjoying support from Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who stood to benefit from a pliant figure heading a nominally opposition movement with no grassroots backing.

Two days after Prokhorov joined the party, Medvedev received him at his residence outside Moscow. But his startling public attack and a pledge to have Surkov fired led to a spectacular fall from grace. Surkov is considered one of the most influential Russian officials, who is credited with coining the term “sovereign democracy” to describe the country’s political system. He has worked with both Medvedev and his predecessor in the Kremlin, Putin, and is in charge of the ongoing political campaign for December parliamentary polls.

While Prokhorov slammed Surkov for orchestrating his downfall, observers noted he did not go so far as to criticize the ruling tandem, despite suggesting they had given Surkov carte blanche. Surkov “could not have single-handedly privatized the entire political system without the support, approval and direct orders of the country’s leadership,” opposition Novaya Gazeta said. “The Kremlin laid bare its methods showing how democracy works.” A Kremlin source dismissed Prokhorov’s accusations as “hysterics.” Prokhorov, who has stakes in Russia’s biggest gold producer Polyus Gold and world’s biggest aluminum producer United Company Rusal, has much to lose. Many believe his fate could match that of jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Russia’s richest man, if he does not back down.

Despite his vows to establish his own movement, Prokhorov’s political future looks unclear. The owner of US National Basketball Association team New Jersey Nets cancelled a meeting with young supporters, his first scheduled appearance since his resignation. “Circumstances have changed,” an aide to Prokhorov said.

The aide spoke after Russian television at peak-time aired a hastily-put together documentary smearing Prokhorov’s ally, Yevgeny Roizman, a controversial former convict who runs a cold-turkey rehabilitation program for drug addicts. “By taking Roizman under his wing, Prokhorov committed a fatal error,” the program’s voiceover said. Its title punned on his party’s name: “Not the Right Cause.”

The show on NTV channel, controlled by state gas giant Gazprom, aired footage of Roizman talking of his links with the criminal underworld and testimony of handcuffing and chaining of addicts in his rehabilitation centre. The tactic was typical of state-controlled media’s treatment of political outcasts. The same channel previously aired a series of muck-raking documentaries about Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov ahead of his sacking by Medvedev. “Despite 20 years in business, strangely enough I still had some illusions,” Prokhorov said in his blog. “Yesterday I lost them. That’s even a good thing. I suggested changes. The system is not ready.” — AFP

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Bangladesh police ‘death squad’ under fire DHAKA: Bangladesh’s feared Rapid Action Battalion police kill about 100 “criminals” a year, but when they shot 16year-old Limon Hossain they discovered that their impunity might have limits.

Hossain, a student who has become a symbol for anger over tactics commonly used by elite “RAB” officers, was hit at point-blank range and survived only after his leg was amputated. The RAB say he was a member of a criminal “terrorist” gang and was wounded in a gunfight with RAB commandos, but governmentbacked agencies, rights groups and evenit seems-the prime minister have all questioned its account.

Hossain’s case has unleashed an outpouring of criticism of the RAB, which can normally rely on public support for its routine killing of alleged criminals in what it describes as “encounters” or “incident shootings”. “I was walking home when one officer grabbed my shirt collar,” Hossain said, recalling the daytime attack in March near his village of Jhalakati in

southwest Bangladesh. “He said I was a terrorist. I told him I wasn’t, I told him I was just an ordinary student but he didn’t listen-he shot me through the leg. “He hadn’t asked me any questions, not even my name. I was lying there thinking this was it, it was the last day of my life,” he said from his hospital bed in Dhaka.

Hossain survived but, because he was left to bleed on the ground for hours, doctors had to amputate his right leg above the knee four days after the shooting. He is now learning to walk again with a prosthetic leg. “This case is a milestone,” said Nur Khan Liton of the local rights group ASK. “Before, the public thought extrajudicial killings were justified as it was only criminals targeted. Now people realize that RAB kill normal people too.”

No RAB officer has ever been prosecuted or held to account for any extrajudicial killing, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which says RAB is a “death squad” that acts as “judge, jury and executioner”.

In the most recent high-profile example, five alleged criminals were shot dead in the Uttara district of the capital Dhaka in August by the RAB, in circumstances that remain unclear. After any fatal incident, the RAB issues standardized press releases, which many local papers run in full without further comment, saying the victim was involved in criminal activity and was killed by crossfire or in a “shootout”.

Immediately after Hossain’s shooting, RAB filed charges against the teenagerthe first step towards a prosecution-claiming he was part of a criminal gang run by Morshed Jommader, who was the original target of the RAB operation. “I say very strongly, that he (Hossain) is a member of this Morshed group,” Commander Mohammad Sohail, head of RAB’s legal and media wing said. “(This claim) that we have shot him intentionally in public, in daylight... pointing the gun in his leg, this is absolutely fake,” he said.

Hossain was hit during a shoot-out

between RAB members and Morshed’s gang, Sohail said, accusing those who challenged the RAB’s account of having “ill motives”. But for the first time since it was founded in 2004, the RAB’s behavior has been called into question by senior establishment bodies. “RAB felt they must establish that he was a terrorist so that they could not be criticized. They came up with this accusation that he was the member of a gang,” said Mizanur Rahman, chairman of the government-appointed National Human Rights Commission.

The fact that the criminal charges were filed against Hossain only after he was shot raises doubts over their legitimacy, he said. “This must be taken as a test case. RAB have done good counterterrorism work but this doesn’t mean all the bad can be overlooked. They have to follow the law. They can’t just shoot a person,” Rahman added. According to an independent ASK investigation, RAB’s claim that there was a firefight is untrue.

“Everyone we interviewed said they’d

heard only one shot,” ASK’s Liton said. A government inquiry also concluded that there was no evidence either Hossain or his family were involved in criminal activity.

Even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared to come out in Hossain’s support by admitting there was no proof he was a criminal, but the story, citing anonymous officials in her private office, was deleted from local news agency BSS’s website after two hours. The case filed against Hossain “is a concocted case without legal foundation,” his lawyer Idrisur Rahman said. Hossain’s mother has filed a complaint against the RAB, but the family are pinning their hopes on an intervention by the prime minister. “I feel very bad losing my leg but now I am more scared about the false cases against me. I don’t want people to think I am a terrorist associate,” he said. “People are threatening me, telling me to stop saying RAB shot me-they say I’ll lose my other leg if I don’t shut up.” —AFP

India’s Modi fasts, seeks to end riot controversy Rising Hindu nationalist seeks moderate image

AHMEDABAD: India’s Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi looks on at the Gujarat University Convention Centre in Ahmedabad yesterday. —AP

AHMEDABAD: Controversial Indian Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi began a fast yesterday to promote “goodwill” in what was seen as a bid to project himself as a potential candidate for premier. “My mission is to spread peace, goodwill and brotherhood,” Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said at the start of his three-day fast attended by top fellow leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s main city.

Modi, arguably India’s most polarizing political figure, is seeking to put behind him allegations of complicity in deadly Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002, analysts say.

The makeover attempt is seen by commentators as grooming him into a prime ministerial candidate for the next

general elections in 2014. The silver-haired leader, 61, told the crowd he was seeking to “promote communal harmony.” In a full-page letter published in Saturday’s newspapers, he said “no state, society or individual can claim to be perfect” and that he was “grateful to all those who pointed out my genuine mistakes.” He made no apologies for what human rights groups have condemned as his lax response to the massacre of as many as 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, during communal riots which swept the western state in 2002.

At the same time, he told the audience which included political and religious leaders and some Muslim traders, “I feel the pain of all the families who lost their near and dear ones.” Modi, who has always denied any

Tourism boost in Indian Kashmir; Violence ebbs SRINAGAR: More than 700,000 tourists have visited Indian Kashmir so far this year, the highest number since an insurgency erupted against New Delhi’s rule more than two decades ago, an official said. Police say violence is at its lowest level since the start of a separatist revolt in 1989. Before it erupted huge numbers used to visit the Himalayan state. “More than 700,000 tourists have visited Kashmir this year,” a senior government tourism official

said, declining to be named. “ This has been the best tourist season since the insurgency began in the state.”

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan each hold part of the disputed region and both claim it in full, although a slow-moving peace process is under way.

The insurgency in Indian Kashmir has left more than 47,000 people dead according to the official count.

Rights groups say the number of dead and missing totals at least 70,000. “With the return of peace and normalcy the tourism sector has started showing significant resurgence,” Indian Kashmir governor NN Vohra told a tourism conference that wound up on Friday.

He added that this year’s visitors included 21,000 foreigners. In 1988, nearly a million tourists visited the region known as the “Switzerland of the East” for its snow-capped mountains, freshwater lakes and breathtaking landscapes.

But their numbers dwindled after the revolt began.

Visitors started returning in large numbers after nuclear-armed India and Pakistan launched a peace process in January 2004 to settle six decades of hostility sparked by their rival claims to Kashmir.

A total of 500,000 tourists visited in 2008, before the troubles escalated. But massive anti-India unrest over the last two summers appeared to dash hopes of a recovery in the tourist trade as the flow of visitors dried up. More than 110 people were killed in 2010 alone, mostly in firing by security forces to quell violent protests.

The number of visitors “to the valley this summer should ser ve as a loud message for change of travel advisories issued by various countries regarding Jammu and Kashmir,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said. “Good days of tourism are returning.” —AFP

wrongdoing over the riots, got a major boost earlier this week when the Supreme Court refrained from passing any order on a petition seeking his prosecution over the riots. But Congress party leaders in Gujarat, some of whom embarked on a parallel fast yesterday, dubbed Modi’s actions a “political stunt.”

“There are serious allegations against Narendra Modi. He is just trying to whitewash his communal image but no one can forget and forgive the mistakes he has committed,” said senior Congress politician Shanker Sinh Vaghela. Vaghela and his fellow party leaders began their three-day fast yesterday in Ahmedabad that they said was to expose Modi’s “injustice.” During the last decade,

Modi has become a torchbearer of corporate good governance with his state posting annual growth of more than 11 percent in recent years and attracted major international investors.

His staunch anti-corruption reputation has made him increasingly popular among many Indians as the Congressled national government is mired in multi-billion-dollar graft scandals. He consistently figures among India’s most popular chief ministers in opinion polls. “Modi is on a fast to Racecourse Road,” said prominent Indian media commentator Suhel Seth, referring to the prime minister’s official residence in New Delhi. The protest fast, used to historic effect by Mahatma Gandhi in his fight against British rule, has made a

comeback in India among activists seeking to pressure the government on a host of issues.

A spate of high-profile fastsmainly focusing on corruptionhave garnered national attention in recent months and posed a public relations challenge to the graft-tainted coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Last month, veteran activist Anna Hazare embarked on 13-day fast in New Delhi, drawing nationwide support and forcing the lawmakers to commit to passing tough anticorruption legislation. “This is the first time a politician is fasting. Narendra Modi should be the next prime minister. He’s not corrupt and is now apologizing for his mistakes,” said Rajiv Patel, a 37-year-old cotton trader in Ahmedabad.—AFP

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Australia’s Malaysia refugee swap under fire SYDNEY: Protesters angr y at Australia’s plans to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia shouted down Immigration Minister Chris Bowen Saturday, as the opposition said Canberra’s draft law stripped away rights. The government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard has struggled to implement its controversial deal with Malaysia under which it wants to send 800 asylum seekers to the Asian nation in return for accepting some 4,000 of its refugees.

The High Cour t last month blocked the proposal, ruling Canberra could not send boatpeople to a country without adequate protections, prompting Gillard to seek to amend the Migration Act to ensure

offshore transfers can go ahead.

Protesters targeted Immigration Minister Bowen yesterday, repeatedly interrupting an open-air press conference in western Sydney at which he was urging opposition leader Tony Abbott to pass the new legislation.

He called on Abbott to accept that the High Court ruling made all offshore processing of asylum-seekers doubtful-even though Australia had previously sent boatpeople to Papua New Guinea and the tiny Pacific state of Nauru. “The legal advice is clear... that offshore processing cannot occur in any way and with any certainty without the parliament passing legislation,” Bowen said. “ That applies to Papua New Guinea, it

applies to Nauru, it applies to Malaysia, it applies to any other place.”

Refugee activists repeatedly heckled the minister. “Clearly, this is a very controversial issue,” Bowen said at one point. Opposition leader Abbott, whose support is crucial to the bill being passed, had said earlier his Liberal Party had yet to determine whether it would agree to the Migration Act amendments but he was “troubled” by the draft. Abbott, who supported asylum-seekers being sent to other countries when conservative leader John Howard was in government, said the new laws would remove safeguards for boatpeople and allow a system of “off-

shore dumping”. “My initial response, and that of my senior colleagues, is that the draft legislation strips out protections that the Howard government thought was necessar y,” he said.

Abbott said he also had concerns the proposed changes would give the immigration minister total discretion over where asylum-seekers could be sent. “It is really legislation for offshore dumping,” he said. “It’s providing the minister with an unfettered discretion that doesn’t require any need for relevant human rights standards.” But Bowen said protections for asylum-seekers were “built in” to the bilateral arrangement agreed with Malaysia, which is not a

signatory to the United Nations convention on refugees.

“The Malaysia arrangement, which has got those human rights protections built into it-this is an arrangement where Malaysia has agreed to treat people with dignity and respect,” Bowen said. With her Greens coalition partners against the offshore processing of refugees, Gillard’s Labor government needs the support of the opposition to pass the amended legislation. The plan, which Canberra hopes will form part of a regional framework to crack down on people-smugglers, has been broadly criticized by refugee advocates who argue Australia is abandoning its responsibilities to refugees.— AFP

Washington cancels Taiwan’s F-16 deal US bows to Beijing’s pressure

FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE: The ruined Unit 3 reactor building is seen at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. — AP

Quakes, aftershocks hit off Japan disaster zone TOKYO: A strong 6.6-magnitude undersea quake and a series of aftershocks hit off the coast of Japan’s Honshu Island yesterday, not far from the area ravaged by a huge March quake and tsunami, geologists said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and no widespread tsunami warning, although the initial earthquake was followed by five more quakes of magnitude five or above, one of them measuring 6.2.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the first, 36.2-kilometre deep quake hit 108 kilometers east-south-east of the coastal town of Hachinohe, 574 kilometers from Tokyo, at 4:26 am (1926 GMT Friday). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that “no destructive widespread tsunami risk exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data”. But it said that quakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis. “Authorities in the region of the epicentre should be aware of this,” the centre said in a statement.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that there might be some changes in sea levels due to the first earthquake, but that there were no reports of damage or casualties and none was expected, according to the Kyodo news agency.

It said the initial quake jolted Iwate prefecture, an area badly hit by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left almost 20,000 dead or missing and sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

The 6.6-magnitude quake was fol-

lowed by two smaller magnitude-five tremors within an hour in the same area east of Hachinohe. The fourth quake struck at 7:08 am (2108 GMT Friday), with a magnitude of 6.2 at a depth of 20.2 kilometers, 137 kilometers east-southeast of Hachinohe. Again, no widespread tsunami warning was issued.

During the next two hours there were two more magnitude-five tremors nearby, the second one with its epicenter only five kilometers deep, the USGS said.

Iwate police confirmed there was little impact from the series of quakes. “We have received no reports” of damage or injuries, an official at Iwate prefectural police said. “We have also heard municipal authorities have no plans to set up emergency teams today.” Japan, located on the tectonic crossroads known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and dotted with volcanoes, is one of the world’s most quakeprone countries, registering a fifth of the world’s most powerful quakes every year.

Since March’s enormous quake and the devastating tsunami it spawned, the country has been rocked by hundreds of powerful aftershocks. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster the tremors set frayed nerves on edge, but for many Japanese they have now become a part of almost daily life. However, they remain a worry for engineers working to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant, where the March 11 waves knocked out cooling equipment and sparked nuclear meltdowns. There were no reports of yesterday’s quakes causing any problems at the plant.— AFP

Migrants tell of slavery at sea on Thai fishing boats RAYONG: Thousands of men from Myanmar and Cambodia set sail on Thai fishing boats every day, but many are unwilling seafarers-slaves forced to work in brutal conditions under threat of death.

The day Hla Myint saw the sea for the first time was when traffickers delivered him, after a week’s trek through the jungle from Myanmar, to a ship on Thailand’s coast. He said it was the beginning of seven months of “hell”, during which there were beatings “every day, every hour”.

His is one of a multitude of stories of slavery in Thailand’s multi-million dollar fishing industry, which campaigners say relies on forced labor to provide seafood for restaurants and supermarkets around the world. Hla Myint decided to escapethrowing himself into choppy waters and clinging to a life buoy for five hours before reaching land-after seeing his captain kill a crewmate. The man, who had been caught trying to escape, was savagely beaten and tortured in front of the rest of the fishermen. “Later they took him to the back of the ship, stood him on the edge and shot him in the head. My heart pounded so hard when I saw that,” said Hla Myint, whose name AFP has changed to protect his identity. Now he works with a local aid group helping others to flee. He told his story to AFP during a dash to rescue four young Myanmar men hiding in bushes near the coastal town of Rayong, just hours after they broke out of a locked room and ran for their lives. “They threatened that if we tried to run away, one bullet cost only 25 baht

($0.83),” said Myo Oo, 20, whose name has also been changed. Another member of the group, a teenager clearly still petrified, described beatings with the butt of a gun.

The UN recently acknowledged Thailand’s “significant progress” in efforts to tackle trafficking, but said it needed to go further and warned that trafficking of forced labor in the fishing industry was “growing in scale”. Sirirat Ayuwathana of Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, which is in charge of tackling trafficking in the country, said authorities were aware of the problem and planned to set up a commission to work on registering all fishing boats and crew members. “We cannot know what happens when the boats leave the shore. The workers could be tortured or detained. The captains have total control of the boat, and they may mistreat these people,” she said.

Life on the boats is incredibly hard. Men toil for up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, only able to snatch a few moments for food and rest between hauling nets, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Some boats use “mother ships” to refuel and take on new crew to avoid returning to land and many fishermen spend months or even years trapped in waters as far away as Somalia, the IOM said. Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, who wrote the report, said marine police in one Thai coastal area told him they found up to 10 bodies a month washed up on the shore.—AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States has decided not to sell Taiwan new F-16 fighter jets and will instead provide upgrades to its existing planes, a US congressional source said Friday. The US State Department was to brief key lawmakers Friday on the decision, which was sure to anger China critics in the US Congress and upset Taiwan, but “no official announcement will be made for weeks,” the official said. “We are hearing from State that it will be an upgrade and no sale,” the source, who requested anonymity said.

Taiwan applied in 2007 to buy 66 F-16 C/D fighters, which have better radars and more powerful weapon systems than the 146 F16 A/Bs it currently has, in response to China’s growing militar y muscle. US magazine Defense News reported recently that Washington had told Taiwan it will not sell the jets, but both US and Taiwan officials have insisted no final decision has been made, amid strong Chinese resistance to the sales. And the Washington Times repor ted Thursday that the upgrades would be part of a $4.2 billion arms package for Taiwan from US President Barack Obama’s administration.

The White House in January 2010 had announced a $6.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan which included Patriot missiles, Black

MADOU: In this file image, a Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter lands on a section of highway during a military drill in Madou, Tainan city, south of Taiwan. A US senator on Friday, accused President Barack Obama of capitulating to China amid mounting expectation the US will refuse to sell new F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan. — AP Hawk helicopters and equipment for Taiwan’s existing F-16 fleet, but no submarines or new fighter jets. Beijing considers Taiwan par t of its territor y awaiting reunification with the mainland, by force if necessary. Washington recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei but remains a leading arms supplier to the island. In response to the repor ts, Republican Senator John Cornyn

condemned the decision as “capitulation to Communist China” and “a sad day in American foreign policy” as well as “a slap in the face to a strong ally and long-time friend.”

“This sale would have been a win-win, bolstering the national security of two democratic nations and supporting jobs for an American workforce that desperately needs them,” he said in a

Cambodia welcomes Thai ex-PM Thaksin PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s leader welcomed former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for talks yesterday, just two days after hosting Thaksin’s sister, Thailand’s current prime minister.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thaksin hugged and addressed each other as “brother ” when they met yesterday morning at the Cabinet offices. Thaksin, who arrived late Friday night, is also scheduled to deliver a lecture on economic development and play golf during his scheduled weeklong stay.

The warm relationship between the two men contrasts with frosty ties between their two nations since Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup. There have been several deadly border clashes over disputed territory, and Hun Sen’s embrace of the exiled Thaksin was sure to irk the former Thai leader’s opponents, who point out that he is a fugitive running from a corruption conviction.

Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister in August after leading a pro-Thaksin party to victory in a general election, and her installation is expected to restore closer relations between Thailand and Cambodia. During a visit to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Thursday, she and Hun Sen agreed that troops along their disputed border should meet regularly to ease tensions and withdraw from a temple area as ordered by an international court in July.

Yingluck is also expected to attempt to rehabilitate Thaksin by obtaining a pardon or amnesty for him so he can return home without serving time in prison. Thaksin fled Thailand in 2008 before being sentenced to two years in prison on a corruption charge. The billionaire ex-leader maintains a home in Dubai and frequently travels in Asia and Africa on business trips.

But Thaksin’s opponents strongly oppose such a move, and high-profile activities such as his visit to Hun Sen serve as a lightning rod for criticism that he is acting high-handedly by interfering

PHNOM PENH: Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (left) hugs Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen upon his arrival at the government’s Peace Building in Phnom Penh. —AFP

in foreign affairs. The true depth of Hun Sen’s affection for Thaksin is hard to gauge, but his very public backing of the former leader was clearly meant to irk the previous Thai government of Thaksin opponents. At one point in 2009, Hun Sen appointed Thaksin a government adviser, but Thaksin soon resigned the position.

Hun Sen said last Monday that the purpose of Thaksin’s visit was not to talk about the countries’ border dispute around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, competing claims to offshore oil reserves in the Gulf of Thailand or the possibility for an early release of a pair of Thai nationalist activists serving jail terms in Cambodia for spying. Thaksin is scheduled to fly to the northwestern city of Siem Reap, site of the ancient Angkor temple complex, on Tuesday, and leave Cambodia on Sept 24.— AP

statement. In Taipei, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that as far as it was aware Washington had yet to decide on the issue. “We have not heard from the US that a decision on the F16 C/D has been made,” said defense ministry spokesman David Lo. “We are actively pursuing the request as we need to replace our ageing F5 jets to maintain our serial defense.”—AFP

Malaysians among 4 killed in Thai blasts NARATHIWAT: Malaysian tourists were among four killed and 110 wounded in multiple blasts in the insurgency-plagued Thai south, authorities said yesterday, amid concerns that foreigners were targeted. Three Malaysians, including a three-year-old boy, and one Thai national died in explosions near two hotels and a Chinese-Thai cultural centre in a coordinated attack in Sungai Golok town, Narathiwat province on Friday night. Police said militants may have deliberately aimed to hurt tourists in the triple bombing, one of the largest in recent months in the Muslim-majority deep south where a seven-year rebellion has left thousands dead.

“The insurgents intended to raise the violence to the level of international terrorism by targeting foreigners,” said Phaithoon Choochaiya, commander of Southern Border Province police, during a visit to see the injured at the town hospital yesterday morning. Shadowy rebels regularly target security forces, government workers and Buddhist and Muslim civilians in attacks, but the violence rarely affects foreigners. The director of Sungai Golok hospital said 19 Malaysian tourists were among the wounded in Friday’s blasts. He said 40 people were still being treated for their injuries and the rest had been discharged.

Two devices-outside the Parkson hotel and the Chinese centre-were believed to have been planted on motorcycles. Another explosion outside the Merlin hotel and near a police station was thought to be from a car bomb. Other police and army figures gave another explanation for the violence, saying drug dealers, who provide money for local militants, instigated the blasts in revenge for a recent narcotics crackdown. “The blasts last night were definitely retaliation from drug dealers who fund the insurgents. Every time we focus on drugs, there is more violence,” Sungai Golok police colonel Jakkarporn Tantong said.

Lieutenant General Udomchai Thamsarorat, of the Fourth Army Area Command, concurred, saying illegal activity “is the cause of all the trouble” in the area.

Malaysia said it could not yet confirm the number of its citizens killed or wounded in the blasts, in a statement from the country’s foreign ministry, which noted that violence in the deep south had “escalated” recently. It would “monitor the developments” and liaise with the Thai authorities “to get a clearer picture on the bombing,” the statement said.

Around 4,800 people have been killed in near-daily attacks since early 2004, according to Deep South Watch, an independent research group that monitors the conflict in three southern provinces near the Malaysian border. The group has said it has seen a higher frequency of attacks with a greater intensity of violence in recent months. On Thursday five soldiers were killed after suspected insurgents opened fire on those wounded in a roadside bombing, police said.— AFP

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Issues

Billionaire’s exit shows Kremlin grip on politics

By Timothy Heritage he sudden political exit of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov in a feud with the Kremlin has sent a warning that politics and business still do not mix well in Russia. It has also set back hopes that the metal tycoon’s entry into politics in June as the head of the small Right Cause party heralded more freedom in Russian politics, and has raised questions over Prokhorov’s future in business. “His main mistake was that he went into politics. Oligarchs should not do this,” Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, told Kommersant newspaper.

Prokhorov, who made his fortune in precious metals and owns the US News Jersey Nets basketball team, quit as leader of Right Cause on Thursday after a split in the party which he blamed on Kremlin manoeuvres behind the scenes. Many political analysts said that although his emergence in politics three months ago must have been blessed by the Kremlin, he had become too ambitious and gone beyond the role he was supposed to play.

In his two terms as president, from 2000 to 2008, Vladimir Putin reduced the political influence that the powerful businessmen known as oligarchs gained in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin and told them to stay out of politics. “In our country the amount of money you have is not important. Even if you have 100 billion (dollars) it will not save you from the authorities if they find you objectionable,” said Anton Orekh, a commentator on Ekho Moskvy radio.

He drew parallels with the fate of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested in 2003 after openly showing political ambitions. His business empire was broken up by the Kremlin and sold off, and he is still in jail. “He (Prokhorov) turned out to be too inexperienced in this intrigue, blunt and even naive ...

He thought he would be an exception to the rules. But the rules of our political game were not thought up to make exceptions,” Orekh said. “They don’t allow anyone to be an exception. Khodorkovsky did not understand this in his time. Now Prokhorov has not understood this - and for God’s sake don’t let him share exactly the same fate as Khodorkovsky.”

Few politicians doubt Prokhorov, who Forbes magazine rates as Russia’s third richest man with a fortune of $18 billion, had the tacit approval of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to enter politics. Prokhorov’s role was widely seen as a safety valve for limited criticism which could show that the world’s largest country and biggest oil producer was moving away from what is often called a managed democracy and attract votes from more radical parties in a parliamentary election on Dec 4.

As an oligarch, he is unpopular with many Russians who have not benefited from the transition to capitalism since the collapse of the Soviet Union and is unlikely ever to have mass support. But he quickly fell out of favour after saying he wanted to be prime minister or even president. Right Cause’s manifesto accused the presidency of being an all-powerful monarchy and Prokhorov demanded limits on the number of seats any party can hold in parliament - a risky remark because Putin’s United Russia has a twothirds majority and is the only party capable of mustering such support.

Prokhorov, 46, accused Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin’s main political strategist, of being a puppet master who made real politics impossible in Russia.

“His mistake was that he got mixed up in a Kremlin project and thought they would give him independence,” Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the liberal Yabloko party, told Kommersant. “Surkov would not have provoked such a scandal against the wishes of the leadership.” Prokhorov has a lot to lose if his business empire is affected. He owns a 17 percent stake in RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium producer, and a 30 percent stake in Russia’s top gold producer, Polyus Gold. Many political analysts and commentators say Prokhorov is unlikely to be punished as severely as Khodorkovsky was but the prospects of the Kremlin reducing its tight control of the political scene have receded.

“Prokhorov went too far and the Kremlin reined him in. Anyone who thought the rules had changed must think again,” said a Russian official who declined to be named. — Reuters

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

Palestinian UN bid puts Obama on defensive

By Matt Spetalnick hen President Barack Obama brokered the relaunch of IsraeliPalestinian peace talks last September and set a one-year goal for reaching a deal, few thought he would succeed where so many others had failed. But hardly anyone could have predicted that Obama would now be facing one of the sharpest blows to US prestige in decades of Middle East diplomacy - a Palestinian threat to defy him and push for statehood at the United Nations this week. That unilateral move not only risks deeper paralysis in USled peacemaking efforts, but also puts Washington in a bind while it strives to restore credibility with the broader Arab world amid a wave of popular uprisings.

And it will be a stark reminder of the diplomatic costs the United States pays to shield its close ally Israel, which is finding itself more isolated than it has been in decades as it struggles to adapt to the region’s political upheaval. Rather than leading, the White House has appeared to be catching up to events, as with this week’s last-ditch US diplomatic mission to dissuade the Palestinians from going ahead with their plan to seek UN statehood recognition - or at least to help contain the fallout if they do.

Seeking to defuse the situation, the European Union is pushing a fallback option that would offer some kind of lesser upgrade for the Palestinians at the United Nations and have the “Quartet” of Middle East negotiators lay out new guidelines for

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resuming peace talks, EU diplomats said on Thursday. The stepped-up European role shows the Obama administration more willing to share Middle East diplomatic duties with Western allies, as it did militarily in the NATO-led bombing campaign that helped oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Obama administration has also watched the rapid deterioration of Israel’s ties with Egypt and Turkey, once its closest partners in a mostly hostile neighborhood, with growing alarm and remains at a loss over how to counter the trend.

Middle East experts, while not ruling out an 11th-hour compromise, warned it was probably too late to avoid a historic showdown when world leaders gather in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly beginning on Tuesday.

“The administration raised expectations from Day One that peacemaking would be a high priority,” said Haim Malka, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “But it never really got off the ground, so now they ’re taking a big hit.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists, despite fierce US and Israeli opposition, that he has to take the case to the United Nations because 20 years of US-sponsored peace efforts have hit a dead end.

With Washington vowing to veto a statehood resolution in the Security Council, the most the Palestinians can expect is a vote in the more-supportive General Assembly to upgrade their status from an observer “entity” to a “nonmember state” - like the Vatican. Israel fears that even that could

open the way for the Palestinians to use international agencies to pressure it over West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem annexation. Obama finds himself in a quandary of opposing a move toward Palestinian self-determination even though he has declared - more forcefully, in fact, than any US president before him - that the Palestinians deserve a path to eventual statehood.

He insists that a two-state solution can only come through direct negotiations, but many critics say he has not done enough to restart long-stalled talks or provide other incentives for the Palestinians to drop their UN maneuver. “American influence in the region has been reduced. This is one measure of it,” said Elliott Abrams, a former aide to President George W Bush now at the Council on Foreign Relations. Many Arabs question Obama’s even-handedness as peacebroker when he claims to champion the will of the people in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere but demands the Palestinians keep waiting. Privately, an Obama aide acknowledged that a perceived US “double standard” creates public relations problems. Obama spokesman Jay Carney said the administration takes its Arab friends’ concerns seriously but was “absolutely convinced that trying to achieve statehood through the U.N. is counterproductive.”

Though Obama’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often been strained, he cannot afford to risk alienating Israel’s broad base of support in Congress and among American voters as he faces an unexpectedly daunting

2012 reelection bid that hinges mostly on the US economy. Republicans were quick to criticize Obama in May when he and Netanyahu clashed in an Oval Office meeting over the president’s insistence that talks on Palestinian statehood should start on the basis of Israel’s pre-war 1967 borders.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates was reported, in one of his last national security meetings before retiring this summer, to have listed US steps taken to guarantee Israel’s security while stating bluntly that Netanyahu had given little in return to advance peace prospects. Obama may seek concessions from the rightwing Israeli leader in return for holding the line at the United Nations, but probably not immediately.

Analysts believe he will put off any major new peace drive until a possible second term. “It’s beyond the realm of the possible that the president will get it reactivated in the next 14 months,” said Dan Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel who advised Obama during the 2008 campaign.” He doesn’t need another failure.”

That’s a starkly different attitude from when Obama took office in Jan 2009, making clear he hoped to make Middle East peacemaking a signature foreign policy achievement. After an ensuing series of diplomatic stumbles, Obama called Netanyahu and Abbas together in Washington on Sept 2, 2010, to restart face-to-face talks and commit to trying to achieve a peace deal within a year - a timeframe most analysts deemed unrealistic. Negotiations broke down quickly in a dispute over Israeli settlement building. —Reuters

Turkey tough talk boosts Mideast stature

By Elena Becatoros reated to a hero’s welcome in Egypt last week and flexing his military muscle in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is basking in growing popularity in an Arab world being transformed by revolution and war. After years of being cold-shouldered by the club of European countries it has sought to join, Ankara has been strengthening its role as regional leader while also unleashing invective against Israel - a move which has rapidly bolstered its standing in the Muslim world.

“Turkey is gaining a surge of popularity in Arab countries by confronting Israel,” said Fadi Hakura, a Turkey specialist at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “But whether this is temporary or longer-lasting remains to be seen.”

Basking in the applause of Arab leaders is not cost free. Turkey and Israel have seen their lucrative commercial and military alliance, one of the closest in the region, collapse in the wake of last year’s deadly raid by Israeli commandos on a flotilla attempting to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish activists were killed. Since then, Ankara has appeared increasingly hard-line, saying the raid - for which Israel has expressed regret but not apologized - could have been a “cause for war.” Erdogan said Monday his country had shown “patience” in refraining from taking any action over the incident.

The raid, which Erdogan described as a “bloody massacre,” ignited unprecedented anger in Turkey and drove the Jewish state’s relations with its most important Muslim ally to their lowest point in six decades. Ankara suspended military ties with Israel this month, expelled top Israeli diplomats and pledged to campaign in support of the Palestinians’ statehood bid at the United Nations next week.

Alarmingly, Erdogan also threatened to send warships to patrol the eastern Mediterranean to deter potential aggression against any Gaza-bound aid ships in the future.

The announcement stoked concerns over a possible naval confrontation, forcing the US State Department to bluntly tell Israel and

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Turkey, both US allies, to “cool it”. The Turkish premier’s rhetoric has remained defiant. “Israel cannot do as it pleases in the Mediterranean,” he said during a visit to Tunisia Thursday.

Erdogan’s popularity in the Arab world skyrocketed when he stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2009 after

although he eventually dropped that plan, without giving a reason for the change. “I know that my brothers in Gaza are waiting for me. I too long for Gaza,” Erdogan told AlJazeera. “Sooner or later, if God allows it, I will go to Gaza.”

Perhaps more alarming is the rapidly esca-

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) attends Friday prayers with Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil (center) and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Tripoli’s renamed “Martyrs’ Square” on Friday.— AFP publicly berating Israel’s President Shimon Peres over the 2008-2009 Gaza war. The 57year-old Erdogan, whose Islamic-rooted party has been in power since 2003 and still enjoys strong support, embarked on a tour of Arab nations this week, visiting Egypt on Monday and Tuesday before heading to Tunisia on Wednesday and the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Thursday.

Just a week before Palestinians are to formally bid for UN recognition as an independent state, Erdogan said he wanted to cross the Egypt-Gaza border to visit Palestinians there -

lating tension in the eastern Mediterranean over plans by Turkey’s longtime rival, Cyprus, to begin exploratory drilling for oil and gas beneath the seabed near Israel in October.

With borders in the region still not universally recognized, and the expected deployment of Turkey’s warship to the region over the Gaza dispute, the potential for problems has alarmed many.

“The potential risks of a naval confrontation between Turkey and Cyprus are higher than those with Israel,” said Hakura, the Chatham House analyst. Split since 1974 between an

internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, Cyprus has been one of the main sticking points in Turkey’s bid to join the EU. Turkey does not recognize the island as a sovereign state and strongly objects to the Greek Cypriot search for mineral deposits.

Some argue the saber-rattling over oil exploration could diminish Erdogan’s standing on the world stage. After the flotilla incident, Erdogan was seen as “a sophisticated chess player” who was improving Turkey’s position abroad as well as his own standing at home, said Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Middle East analyst. “But this changed after his intervention and threats with regards to the question of the recent gas finds,” said Javedanfar.

“He is now being viewed as a populist politician who needs confrontation to push his agenda.”

Despite the fears sparked by Ankara’s muscle-flexing and threats of warships, the actual risk of a naval confrontation with Israel is quite low. Neither Turkey nor Israel are interested in such a dramatic escalation of tensions, which would have profound consequences for regional security and the Middle East peace process. Moreover, Turkey on Wednesday announced that an early warning radar will be stationed in Turkey’s southeast as part of NATO’s missile defense system capable of countering ballistic missile threats from neighboring Iran, which sees Israel as an archenemy.

But Turkey standing up to Israel may be the harbinger of a new era in the Middle East that could eventually force Israel to review its actions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faces isolation and mounting tensions with countries like Egypt, Turkey and even the United States. “We are in a quiet new territory ... I do think that there is a strong sense in Israel of one has to be more careful with developments,” said Daniel Levy, a Middle East analyst at the Washington-based New America Foundation.

“After initiating this confrontation with the killing of the nine Turkish activists and refusing to apologize over their deaths, Israel does not want to escalate tensions further with Turkey,” Levy said. — AP

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Big step for Crosby NEW YORK: Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has been cleared to practice with his team in training camp starting yesterday, though no date has been set for his return to competition from concussion.

The 24-year-old Canadian has not played in the National Hockey League (NHL) since early January after absorbing two hits to the head in successive games within a week.

“I’m cleared to practise without contact,” Crosby, who is one of the NHL’s biggest draw cards, told the team’s website on Friday. “That’s good news for me. I’m excited to

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

Stricker pulls out of tourney

get going. “Whatever symptoms I’ve had have been pretty minimal. To be able to get cleared to do this is good.”

Last week, Crosby and his medical team said he was still some way from returning to league action despite making progress in his recovery from concussion. The Penguins are scheduled to open their NHL season on Oct. 6.

Following his concussion in January, Crosby was bothered by headaches and was shut down for the season and playoffs.

After some setbacks, he then made significant progress later in the offseason but started having headaches again when he got to 90 percent exertion in his workouts. — Reuters

LEMONT: American Steve Stricker withdrew from the BMW Championship after Friday’s second round due to a sore neck, putting his participation in the seasonending Tour Championship in jeopardy.

“Steve has been battling some neck pain the past few days and the discomfort became more severe today,” Stricker’s representative, Jon Heaton, said in a statement.

“After consulting with his doctor, he has decided to rest at home for a few days in hopes of regaining full strength for the Tour Championship next week.”

After labouring to a five-over-

par 76 at Cog Hill Golf and Country Club on Thursday, world number five Stricker had bounced back with a 70 on Friday before pulling out of the third of four lucrative FedExCup playoff events.

Only the top 30 after today’s final round at Cog Hill qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship next week in Atlanta, where a $10 million bonus will go to the overall points leader.

Stricker, who has won twice on the PGA Tour this season, had been well positioned to make a run for the big prize, occupying eighth place in the FedExCup standings before the start of the BMW Championship.—Reuters

Dixon on pole in Japan MOTEGI: New Zealand’s Scott Dixon secured pole position for today’s Indy Japan at Twin Ring Motegi, the last IndyCar series race to be held in Japan.

The Target Chip Ganassi driver posted the best lap of 1 minute, 38.3918 seconds on Saturday to edge Team Penske driver Will Power of Australia by 0.0276 seconds. American driver Graham Rahal was third. “We gradually worked on the car and made it better and better,” said Dixon, who won here in 2009. “It took us a bit of time but we finally got it right.”

Ryan Briscoe of Australia was fourth followed by Canadian rookie James Hinchcliffe

Tigers maul Athletics The Angels started the day trailing first-place Texas by 31/2 games in the American League West division.

They’re now five games behind Boston in the wild-card chase.

Hunter (4-4) gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked two. Mark Reynolds and Nolan Reimold also homered for the Orioles. Dan Haren (15-9) allowed seven runs and seven hits in five-plus innings.

OAKLAND: Newcomer Doug Fister pitched the Detroit Tigers to the American League Central title on Friday night, beating the Oakland Athletics 3-1.

Fister (9-13) retired 17 straight during one stretch to win his third straight start and fifth consecutive decision.

He allowed three hits, struck out five and didn’t walk a batter. Wilson Betemit hit a go-ahead triple off Trevor Cahill (11-14) in the sixth. Don Kelly hit a solo home run in the seventh. Detroit is headed to the playoffs for the first time since winning the AL wild card in 2006 and losing to St. Louis in the World Series. The Tigers won their first division title since 1987.

Indians 7, Twins 6 In Minneapolis, Jim Thome hit home run No. 603 as Cleveland edged the Twins but still lost the AL Central title to Detroit. Thome homered in the ninth against Joe Nathan - his second homer since Cleveland reacquired him on Aug. 25. The 41-year-old spent his first 12 seasons with Cleveland and more than 1 1-2 years with the Twins.

Backed by a 5-0 lead, Ubaldo Jimenez (4-2) allowed three runs - none earned - and five hits in 6 1-3 innings. Kevin Slowey (0-6) gave up five runs and seven hits in four innings.

Blue Jays 5, Yankees 4 In Toronto, Mariano Rivera missed the chance to get his 601st career save when CC Sabathia failed to hold a fifth-inning lead and Jose Molina hit a ninth-inning single to lift Toronto over the Yankees. With the Yankees ahead 3-1, Sabathia gave up a three-run double to Aaron Lind in the fifth. Nick Swisher’s RBI single tied it in the sixth, but Lind doubled off Boone Logan (5-3) to lead off the ninth. Molina then singled with one out off Cory Wade.

New York lost its second straight game since Rivera got his 600th save Tuesday at Seattle, moving within one of matching Trevor Hoffman’s career record. Casey Janssen (5-0) pitched two scoreless innings as Toronto won for the fourth time in five games.

Royals 7, White Sox 6 In Kansas City, Missouri, Eric Hosmer had three hits and doubled in the winning run in the ninth to lift Kansas City.

Hosmer’s shot scored Alex Gordon, who led off the inning with a single. After Miguel Cabrera’s sacrifice bunt moved Gordon to second, Billy Butler was walked intentionally. Greg Holland (5-1) worked the ninth to pick up the victory. Matt Thornton (1-5) took the loss in the White Sox’ sixth straight defeat.

Red Sox 4, Rays 3 At Boston, Mike Aviles hit his first homer of the year as the Red Sox held off Tampa Bay and extended its lead in the American League wild-card race to four games.

Josh Beckett (13-5) returned from a skipped start for another strong outing against the Rays, who had a chance to catch the Red Sox in the wild-card race with a sweep in Boston. It was Boston’s second win in nine games and its first in seven tries against the Rays. James Shields (15-11) lost for just the second time since July.

Orioles 8, Angels 3 In Baltimore, Tommy Hunter pitched seven shutout innings as the Orioles slowed Los Angeles’ playoff push.

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

Chicago Cubs 4, Houston 3 (12 innings); Baltimore 8, LA Angels 3; Florida 3, Washington 0; St Louis 4, Philadelphia 2 (11 innings); Toronto 5, NY Yankees 4; Boston 4, Tampa Bay 3; Milwaukee 6, Cincinnati 3; NY Mets 12, Atlanta 2; Kansas City 7, Chicago White Sox 6; Cleveland 7, Minnesota 6; San Francisco 9, Colorado 1; Detroit 3, Oakland 1; San Diego 2, Arizona 0; Seattle 4, Texas 0; LA Dodgers 7, Pittsburgh 2.

NY Yankees Boston Tampa Bay Toronto Baltimore

American League Eastern Division W L PCT 90 59 .604 87 63 .580 83 67 .553 76 74 .507 61 88 .409

GB 3.5 7.5 14.5 29

Detroit Cleveland Chicago White Sox Kansas City Minnesota

Central Division 88 63 73 75 73 77 66 86 59 90

.583 .493 .487 .434 .396

13.5 14.5 22.5 28

Texas LA Angels Oakland Seattle

Western Division 86 65 .570 82 68 .547 68 83 .450 63 87 .420

3.5 18 22.5

Philadelphia Atlanta NY Mets Washington Florida

National League Eastern Division 97 52 .651 86 65 .570 72 79 .477 71 78 .477 68 83 .450

12 26 26 30

Milwaukee St Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs Houston

Central Division 88 63 82 68 74 76 68 83 66 85 51 99

.583 .547 .490 .450 .437 .340

5.5 14 20 22 36.5

Arizona San Francisco LA Dodgers Colorado San Diego

Western Division 87 64 .576 81 70 .536 74 76 .493 70 80 .467 64 87 .424

6 12.5 16.5 23

OAKLAND: Detroit Tigers’ Doug Fister works against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game. — AP

Mariners 4, Rangers 0 At Seattle, Blake Beavan pitched eight strong innings as the Mariners capitalized on a Texas throwing error to beat the Rangers.

Beavan (5-5) allowed just four hits and struck out three. Closer Brandon League pitched the ninth in a nonsave situation, but finished off Seattle’s 10th shutout this season. Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler made the costly throwing error for the Rangers with two outs in the third inning, which led to three Seattle runs. CJ Wilson (16-7) picked up the loss for Texas. — AP

Braun homers twice as Brewers defeat Reds 6-3 CINCINNATI: Ryan Braun homered twice and became the second player in Brewers history to get 30 homers and steals in a season as Milwaukee beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-3 on Friday. The Brewers moved closer to clinching their first National League Central title with the win. The Reds were eliminated from playoff contention.

Braun hit one of his homers off Bronson Arroyo (8-12), then added his 30th off Jeremy Horst. Braun, who also has 31 steals, joined Tommy Harper as the team’s only 30-30 players.

Prince Fielder, Mark Kotsay and George Kottaras also homered off Arroyo, who has given up a team-record 44 homers. Randy Wolf (13-9) gave up three runs and seven hits while pitching into the eighth inning.

Cardinals 4, Phillies 2 At Philadelphia, Adron Chambers drove in the go-ahead run with his first MLB hit and Tyler Greene added an RBI double in the 11th inning as St. Louis beat the Phillies. St. Louis appeared to have the game won in the ninth, but Corey Patterson dropped Carlos Ruiz’s drive to right with two outs, allowing the tying run to score. The Phillies entered the game needing a win combined with loss by the Atlanta Braves to clinch their fifth straight NL East title. Kyle McClellan (12-6) pitched a scoreless 10th for the win. Yadier Molina homered and Albert Pujols went 4-for-4 for the Cardinals, who won for the eighth time in nine games.

one unearned run in seven strong innings and hit a two-run double as San Francisco kept its playoff hopes alive with its sixth straight win. Brandon Belt, Cody Ross and Chris Stewart homered for the Giants, who closed to within six games of Arizona in the NL West and within five games of the Braves in the wild-card race. Ross, whose fifth-inning solo shot was the 100th homer of his career, left the game with a strained right hamstring in the sixth.

Bumgarner (12-12) allowed six hits to win his career-best fifth straight. Alex White (2-2) gave up six runs on nine hits in 5 2-3 innings.

five-hitter when Carlos Lee hit his second home run of the game, a two-run shot that tied it 3-all. Jeff Samardzija (7-4) threw a scoreless 12th to pick up the win.

Cubs 4, Astros 3 In Chicago, Matt Garza pitched nine strong innings and Marlon Byrd hit an infield single in the 12th inning to lift the Cubs to victory.

Starlin Castro set up the winning rally with a leadoff walk, went to second on Darwin Barney’s sacrifice and moved to third on a wild pitch. He scored when third baseman Chris Johnson couldn’t handle Byrd’s shot up the line off reliever David Carpenter (0-3).

Garza was one strike from finishing off a

Dodgers 7, Pirates 2 At Los Angeles, pinch-hitter James Loney hit a three-run homer to lead the Dodgers. Hiroki Kuroda (12-16) set a career high in victories, striking out seven and allowing two runs and five hits in six innings. Loney’s first career pinch-hit homer off Chris Resop hit the top of the right-field wall, capping a four-run sixth inning that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 7-2. Pittsburgh’s Jeff Locke (0-2) gave up three runs and five hits in three innings. — AP

Padres 2, D’backs 0 In San Diego, Tim Stauffer allowed only four hits pitching into the seventh inning as the last-place Padres beat the NL Westleading Diamondbacks.

Arizona was shut out for just the fourth time this season, an MLB low.

Stauffer (9-12) struck out six and walked none to win for the first time in five starts.

Wade Miley (3-2) took the loss.

Marlins 3, Nationals 0 In Washington, Javier Vazquez threw his first complete-game shutout in more than six years to lead Florida past the Nationals.

Vazquez (11-11) allowed five hits for his eighth career shutout. His last came as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 1-0 win at Detroit on May 22, 2005.

Mike Stanton had an RBI double and two singles for the Marlins. Washington starter John Lannan (9-13) lost for the sixth time in seven starts, and the Nationals ended a five-game winning streak.

Mets 12, Braves 2 In Atlanta, David Wright drove in five runs with two homers as the Mets pounded the Braves. Atlanta leads St. Louis by only 31/2 games in the NL wild-card race with 11 games remaining. The Cardinals gained ground by beating the Phillies.

The Mets matched their season high with 20 hits and ended a six-game losing streak. Chris Capuano (11-12) gave up two runs on six hits in five innings. Lowe (9-15) gave up nine hits and six runs in only 2 1-3 innings while losing his third straight start.

Giants 9, Rockies 1 In Denver, Madison Bumgarner allowed

CINCINNATI: Reds’ Chris Heisey (bottom) is forced out at second base as Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Jerry Hairston, Jr. (top) throws to first to complete a double play in the ninth inning. — AP

in fifth and defending champion Helio Castroneves in sixth.

The deadly March 11 earthquake damaged the 2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) oval at Twin Ring, so Sunday’s race will be held instead on the recently repaved 14-turn road course.

Power is currently in second place in the IndyCar Series standings with 502 points, just five behind leader Dario Franchitti.

Franchitti will start a seasonlow ninth on a road course.

“Dario starting ninth is good for us, although a lot can happen in a race,” said Power, who will make his ninth frontrow start of the season. —Reuters

Wilson, Rose share lead LEMONT: Tiger Woods is not at Cog Hill for the first time since 2002. For different reasons, he was on the minds of the two guys leading the BMW Championship.

Mark Wilson, who lives about 15 minutes away from the public course in the suburbs south of Chicago, began his second round Friday with a careless bogey when he missed the green to the left and chipped to about 10 feet.

That was enough to make him remember Woods.

They were paired in the last group of the third round two years ago, and Woods hooked his opening tee shot into a bunker and made bogey. By the end of the round, Woods had his lowest score of the year and had a sevenshot lead.

“The first thing that popped in my mind was when I played with Tiger in 2009. He shot 62 after an opening bogey,” Wilson said after he recovered for a 5 under 66.

“So obviously my mind is in the right place thinking of stuff like that. I made a bunch of birdies after that. I feel good about going into the weekend.”

Wilson didn’t have a big lead. He had to settle for a share of the lead with Justin Rose, who had a 68 and had his own remembrance of Woods.

They were paired in the final round in 2007, in the second-to-last group, when Woods got near the lead and hit the gas. He holed a long birdie putt on the 12th and wound up with a 63 for a two-shot victory.

“I remember that day clearly,” Rose said. “We were both sort of 4 under through seven or eight holes, going along really nicely. He was very jovial and laughing and joking around to start with, and then the way he closed it out was a huge learning curve right there.

He got more and more focused, more and more into his shot, more tunnel vision as the round went on.

“I thought about that funnily enough on the 13th tee, about the way he closed that round out,” Rose said.

“It definitely is a big lesson when you see someone playing that way and the way they have the ability to close out. There’s nobody better than him at that, so it was a good lesson to learn that day.”

Rose wound up making a bogey from the bunker on the 13th hole to slip two shots behind Wilson, but he closed strong. First, it was a 3-iron over the flag to about 30 feet on the par-5 15th that led to eagle, followed by a birdie on the next hole for the outright lead. He missed the fairway on No. 18 and made bogey, although he still shared the lead with Wilson at 11-under 131.

Considering that Rose opened with a 63 - tying the lowest start ever at this tournament - a 68 put him in a good frame of mind.

“You never quite know what to expect after playing so well in the first round,” Rose said. “Actually, my caddie said it’s the best round he’s seen in 20 years out there from a ball-striking perspective. So, there’s only one way to go from there. But today was good.”

It was even better for Wilson, who considers Cog Hill a home course after he moved to the area. Wilson again had a large following of friends and family, and he treated them to a good show. He ran off four straight birdies around the turn, starting with a wedge to tap-in range at No. 8, and was steady the rest of the way for a 66.

Webb Simpson, who leads the FedEx Cup and has won two of his last three tournaments, made his only bogey of the tournament on the fifth hole but was otherwise solid in his round of 68 that left him two shots behind.

They will be in the final group Saturday morning, when the tee times are moved forward to finish in time for NBC Sports to televise the Notre Dame football game.

John Senden of Australia, who is No. 55 in the FedEx Cup and needs a top-five finish to advance to the Tour Championship, had a 66 and was alone in fourth place at 134. Bill Haas, who has the Presidents Cup on his mind at No. 12 in on the American list, was another shot back after a 66.

This is a pivotal week for two cups. The BMW Championship is the final tournament for the top 10 players for US and International teams to qualify for the Presidents Cup. Brandt Snedeker (No. 11) had a 66 and was tied for seventh with a group that included David Toms (No. 10). Also at 5-under 137 were Geoff Ogilvy and Robert Allenby, both of whom are on the bubble for the International side. Another shot behind was Jim Furyk, who is No. 9 on the U.S. list.

For the FedEx Cup, the top 30 advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake for a shot at the $10 million prize.

Wilson, a two-time winner early in the season, already is a lock for East Lake. He would have to win the BMW Championship to earn a spot on the Presidents Cup team, although it could come with an even greater bonus. No one on the PGA Tour has really stood out this year, and these next few weeks are likely to go a long way toward deciding player of the year.

Wilson really isn’t part of the conversation yet. His wins were eight months ago, against fields that were not terribly strong. A win at Cog Hill would be different, not to mention timely.

“That would put me with the most wins of anybody, and then going into East Lake if I can get another one there, I think I’d have a good argument. That’s a lot of ‘ifs,’” Wilson said. “I’ve played great so far. There are a lot of great players out here, but I feel like I’m playing very close to the same form I had when I started the year out.

My mind is in a better place, and I’m just kind of accepting the results.

“But yeah, I would definitely put myself in there.

Certainly not right now, but I need at least one more win, two more wins to probably be in that discussion.”— AP

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SPORTS

Marathon running, cholesterol-reducing drugs, and muscle damage

By Ricardo Guerra Marathon running has increased in popularity over the past three decades, with participation in the United States rising from 25,000 runners in 1976 to nearly 470,000 in 2008.

Many professional and recreational runners take prescription drugs, unaware of potential side effects that affect runners in particular. One such class of drugs, called statins, which includes Lipitor, Crestor, and Pravachol, lowers blood cholesterol by inhibiting a cholesterol-producing enzyme, and may even lower the risks of heart attack and further cardiovascular disease in a narrow category of patients.

A new study forthcoming in the

American Journal of Cardiology examined the effect of statins on creatine kinase (CK), an enzyme linked to muscle damage. Elevated levels of CK in the blood and muscle following exercise correlates with muscle damage.

The study, conducted by Dr. Beth Parker of the Henry Low Heart Center at Connecticut’s Hartford Hospital, is the first to measure CK levels in athletes taking statins following physical activity in a real-life environment rather than in a university laboratory.

For several years, exercise physiologists have monitored their athletes’ CK levels to help avoid over training.

Marathon running and other extreme endurance events are associated with significant muscle damage, and even

under normal circumstances, CK levels can rise by a factor of between two and five immediately upon completion of a race.

Parker is adamant in stressing the psychological and physiological benefits of sensible daily moderate exercise.

“Raising unnecessary warnings may actually do more harm than good by actually deterring active folks from accruing the well established benefits of daily activity,” she said. Normally, the benefits of exercise outweigh the harm of occasional increased CK levels. But what if those CK levels are further heightened by the use of prescription drugs?

In her study, conducted with eighty well trained marathon runners, Parker

found that post-race levels of creatine kinase were thirty to fifty percent higher in the group of runners that were using statins to treat high cholesterol when compared to a control group (runners not using statins).

There have been many reports of side effects from statin use that include muscle pain, fatigue, a serious acute muscle condition called rhabdomyolysis (a severe breakdown of muscle that produces substantial amounts of muscle fiber contents, which are toxic to the kidneys), impotence, and scarring of the liver. Alarming emotional and cognitive related problems, including anxiety, depression, and memory loss have also been reported.

When asked about the practical

implications of her study, Parker noted, “Professional and recreational athletes are reported to be intolerant of statins due to muscle complaints.” She advised clinicians to consider discontinuing drug administration for several days prior to strenuous endurance events such as a marathon. Finally she mentioned that future research should look at CK levels following physical activity in a larger pool of subjects across more varied statin dosages.

As always, further research is needed to establish how statin use affects subjects from different demographics.

But for now, it may just be wise to consult a physician about keeping the cholesterol-lowering drugs in the cabinet several days before the big race.

Blake runs second fastest 200m

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara plays a shot during the second day of the third Test cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka. —AP

Sangakkara launches strong Sri Lanka reply COLOMBO: Kumar Sangakkara remained unbeaten on 61 in his 100th Test to launch a strong Sri Lankan reply to Australia’s first innings total of 316 on the second day of the third and final Test yesterday.

Former captain Sangakkara walked out to a rousing ovation from the sparse crowd and added 69 for the unbroken third wicket with the experienced Mahela Jayawardene (31 not out) to take Sri Lanka to 166 for the loss of two wickets at close.

Australia paceman Peter Siddle breached the defence of Lahiru Thirimanne (28) while Tharanga Paranavitana (46) fell to a sharp catch

by Ricky Ponting off Mitchell Johnson at short cover. Needing a victory to draw the three-test series, Sri Lanka trail the visitors by 150 runs.

Earlier, Michael Hussey scored his 15th Test hundred and his fourth against Sri Lanka to guide Australia to a first innings total of 316.

Resuming on their overnight score of 235 for five, Australia added 81 runs on Saturday with

Hussey scoring 55 of them to move from 63 to 118 in an innings which lasted 178 deliveries and included 12 fours and two sixes.

Once debutant Shaminda Eranga removed Brad Haddin (35) in the fifth over of the day to end a sixth-wicket stand of 75 with Hussey, the Sri Lankan bowlers wasted little time in wrapping up the innings. Hussey was stranded at one end as Sri Lanka chipped away at the wickets from the other.

Chanaka Welegedara, who went wicketless on day one, dismissed Mitchell Johnson (8) and Siddle (0) off successive deliveries with Hussey stuck on 99 at the non-strikers end. Hussey eventually reached his century with a single to the leg side before Eranga bowled him to end with figures of 4-65. Welegedara also picked up Trent Copeland’s wicket to finish with figures of 3-75. Australia lead the series 1-0 after winning the first match by 125 runs in Galle before the teams played out a rain-affected draw in Pallekele. —Reuters

Scoreboard COLOMBO: Scoreboard at the close of the second day of the third and final test between Sri Lanka and Australia yesterday.

Australia first innings: (overnight 235-5) S Watson c Dilshan b Eranga 8 P Hughes b Lakmal 0 S Marsh b Herath 81 R Ponting c P Jayawardene b Lakmal 48 M Clarke c P Jayawardene b Eranga 6 M Hussey b Eranga 118 B Haddin c P Jayawardene b Eranga 35 M Johnson c Herath b Welegedera 8 P Siddle c Paranavitana b Welegedara 0 T Copeland c M Jayawardene b Welegedara 1 N Lyon not out 3 Extras: (lb-4, nb-3, w-1) 8 Total: (all out, 104.3 overs) 316 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-22, 3-101, 4-120, 5-190, 6265, 7-293, 8-293, 9-295

Bowling: Welegedara 21-6-75-3, Lakmal 21-3-60-2 (nb-3), Eranga 23.3-6-65-4 (w-1), Herath 27-5-78-1, Dilshan 12-0-34-0 Sri Lanka first innings: T Paranavitana c Ponting b Johnson 46 L Thirimanne b Siddle 28 K Sangakkara not out 61 M Jayawardene not out 31 Extras: 0 Total: (two wickets, 65 overs) 166 Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-97 Bowling: Copeland 15-5-34-0, Siddle 11-3-25-1, Johnson 11-0-49-1, Watson 11-5-20-0, Lyon 15-233-0, Hussey 2-1-5-0.

Australia lead the three-match series 1-0.

Pakistan defeat Zimbabwe HARARE: Pakistan stamped their authority over Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club on Friday, winning the first of two Twenty20 matches by a huge 85 runs.

Mohammad Hafeez was the star of the show, scoring 71 before taking four wickets. Pakistan raced to 198 for four-a record against Zimbabwe-with the highest previously set by South Africa with 194-6 at Kimberley last year.

Then they bundled out Zimbabwe for 113 in the 16th over, condemning the home side to a fifth successive loss to the tourists, who also won the one-off Test as well as three one-day internationals. “Everyone is taking up their responsibility. Especially Hafeez, the way he’s gone. Asad Shafiq too played very well,” said Pakistan skipper Misbah Ul Haq. “We just wanted the top order to play normal cricketing shots, and that’s just what they did.

The credit for the fielding goes to both coaches.

Everyone understands how important this aspect of the game is these days, and the boys have worked hard to get to this level.”

Brendan Taylor won the toss for Zimbabwe and put Pakistan into bat. Hafeez and Asad Shafiq responded by racing to 34 in three overs and the tone was set with 10 boundaries struck off the first 27 balls. Shafiq’s 38 came off 34 balls and man-of-the-match Hafeez’s 71 required only 48. Near the end of the innings, when Pakistan were attempting to clear the 200 mark, Sohail Tanveer hit five balls off the last over available to him for 15 runs.

Zimbabwe were never going to get close to the 199 set them for victory, and apart from Chamu Chibhabha’s 28 and Charles Coventry’s 30 there was next to no resistance.

The home side found themselves at two down for 13 and then 37 for three with the match already wrapped by Misbah Ul Haq’s side.

Opener Vusi Sibanda’s dismissal came from a wonderful overhead catch by Misbah while the run-out of Tatenda Taibu by Hafeez was remarkable for speed and throwing accuracy. Pakistan play Zimbabwe again here today in the tour finale. —AFP

Scoreboard HARARE: Scoreboard in the first of two Twenty20 internationals between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Harare Sports Club on Friday: Pakistan M. Hafeez c Coventry b Chibhabha 71 A. Shafiq run out (Coventry) 38 R. Raja lbw b Price 23 U. Akmal not out 22 S. Malik c Masakadza b Jarvis 7 S. Tanveer not out 17 Extras (4lb, 15w, 1nb) 20 Total (4 wkts) 198 Did not bat: Misbah ul-Haq, Yasir Shah, Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Khan, Aziz Cheema Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Shafiq), 2-147 (Hafeez), 3-154 (Raja), 4-180 (Malik) Bowling: Mpofu 4-0-59-0; Jarvis 4-0-30-1 (1w); Price 4-0-35-1 (6w); Chigumbura 3-0-31-0 (1w); Masakadza 2-0-22-0; Chibhabha 3-0-17-1 (1nb) Zimbabwe V. Sibanda c Misbah b S. Khan 7 C. Chibhabha lbw b Hafeez 28 C. Zhuwayo c U. Akmal b S. Khan 0

B. Taylor c Y. Shah b S. Tanveer 10 H. Masakadza c Y. Shah b Hafeez 12 E. Chigumbura c Tanveer b Ajmal 1 C. Coventry c U Akmal c S. Ajmal 30 T. Taibu run out (Hafeez) 6 R. Price b Hafeez 3 K. Jarvis c Y. Khan b A. Cheema 0 C. Mpofu not out 4 Extras (4lb, 8w) 12 Total (for all out, 15.2 overs) 113 Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Sibanda), 2-13 (Zhuwayo), 337 (Taylor), 4-64 (Masakadza), 5-64 (Chibhabha), 677 (Chigumbura), 7-102 (Coventry), 8-104 (Taibu), 9-104 (Jarvis), 10-113 (Price) Bowling: S. Khan 2-0-13-2 (1w); S. Tanveer 3-0-24-1 (3w); Hafeez 2.2-0-10-4; Cheema 3-9-21-1 (3w); Y. Shah 3-0-31-0; S. Ajamal 2-0-10-1

BRUSSELS: Jamaican Yohan Blake blazed to the second fastest 200 metres of all time at the Brussels Diamond League meeting on Friday, upstaging compatriot and training partner Usain Bolt who clocked the quickest 100m of the season.

Blake, who won the world 100 title in Daegu last month after Bolt was disqualified from the final, stunned the capacity crowd by clocking 19.26, just seven-hundreds of a second behind Bolt’s world record set in Berlin in 2009.

Blake, the man seen as the main challenger to Bolt’s supremacy, said he was surprised by the time. “I knew I could do something crazy... but to be honest I was surprised when I saw the clock at the finishing line,” he told reporters.

Bolt, the Olympic 100 and 200 metre champion, failed to deliver in the 100 in Daegu after leaving the blocks too early, and was far from the first to rise on Friday, needing to drive hard to push past fellow Jamaican Nesta Carter.

His time of 9.76 was two hundredths of a second quicker than the previous season best of Asafa Powell set in June. So who is the world’s fastest man now?

“Well, he is the world number one,” Blake said referring to Bolt. “In the 200 metres, well, I would say, yeah, I’m number one.” Bolt, who retained his 200 world title in South Korea, was his usual confident self and said he was not worried by Blake’s time.

“Listen, you need to understand, I’ve done great things. Yohan is coming, he is going to be a great athlete, but I’m not afraid of one athlete,” he said.

“I’m still number one. He has to

beat me a couple of times before I have to start getting worried. He still has a long way to go,” he continued before adding that 2012 would be “an interesting season”.

Double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who limped out of the 10,000 metres at the world championships, ran the

him the strength to carry on.

“Two years is a long time without racing, without training. I am getting back to a good level and after this I will improve, so it was perfect,” he said.

For many athletes the Brussels meeting brought the season to a close, but the fast track produced a

Campbell-Brown and Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad and Tobago.

Jeter was one of 16 athletes to win a trophy and $40,000 for being the most consistent performers over the Diamond League series.

In the 1,500 metres, American Morgan Uceny also took a trophy and cash prize after she clocked a

BRUSSELS: Yohan Blake of Jamaica wins the 200m race during the Memorial Van Damme Diamond League meeting at the King Baudouin stadium. —AP fastest time of the season in 26 minutes 43.16 seconds after a last lap sprint with Kenya’s Lucas Kimeli Rotich, who smashed his personal best by almost 30 seconds.

Bekele, out with a ruptured calf muscle since the start of 2010, said he had come close to quitting a year ago, but his friends had given

string of season and personal best performances.

In the women’s 100 metres, the one-two-three was a repeat of the world championship final in Daegu last month. American Camelita Jeter proved she is this season’s form sprinter with a time of 10.78, ahead of Jamaica’s Veronica

world best for 2011 of 4:00.06.

Women’s 100 metres hurdles world champion Sally Pearson of Australia had an unhappy evening, crashing out of the race while leading after hitting a hurdle and ending up lying prone on the track. The race was won by American Danielle Carruthers. —Reuters

England down India to wrap up series win CARDIFF: England defeated India by six wickets in a rain-affected match here Friday to complete a 3-0 one-day series victory over the reigning world champions.

India looked to have posted a formidable total after piling up 304-6 off their 50 overs, with Virat Kohli lashing a superb century and veteran Rahul Dravid contributing 69 in his farewell one-dayer.

But rain left England with a revised Duckworth-Lewis victory target of 270 off 40 overs, which was later reduced to 241 to win after further interruption.

England captain Alastair Cook (50) and number three Jonathan Trott (63) anchored the home sides run chase, before debutant Jonny Bairstow blasted a dazzling unbeaten 41 off 29 balls with Ravi Bopara scoring 37 not out.

England eventually finished on 241 for four off 32.2 overs for victory by six wickets as India’s hopes of salvaging a win from their miserable summer, which also included a 4-0 Test series whitewash, were dashed.

“To remain unbeaten in this oneday series is a huge fillip to our side and it’s a fantastic effort by the lads,” England skipper Cook said, paying tribute to the performance of man-ofthe-match Bairstow.

Bairstow was ecstatic at his promising debut. “To start off like this is a dream come true really,” said Bairstow, who had received his cap from fellow Yorkshireman Geoffrey Boycott earlier Friday.

“He just said relax and enjoy it and that’s what I tried to do. It’s a positive outcome for the side and the boys have played really well throughout the series.”

Before rain tilted the game in England’s favor, India had looked to have given themselves an excellent chance of finishing the tour with a win courtesy of Kohli’s sixth career ton.

Dravid, playing his 344th and final one-day international, weighed in with a valuable 69 off 79 balls before being bowled by Graeme Swann.

India piled on the agony for England’s bowlers late on, with skipper MS Dhoni scoring 50 off just 26 balls as the tourists left the home side with a challenging target.

CARDIFF: England’s players celebrate after winning their series of One Day International cricket matches against India. —AP India had a lucky escape early in the innings, when Ajinka Rahane’s thick outside edge flew straight to Samit Patel at third man only for the Nottinghamshire all-rounder to spill a straightforward catch.

Yet England did not have long to wait for the breakthrough, Jade Dernbach tempting Rahane into a mishit flick which was brilliantly caught by Steven Finn running in from the boundary to leave India 52-1.

Rahane’s departure heralded the arrival at the crease of Dravid, who received a stirring ovation in his farewell match.

However India were soon in trouble as Parthiv Patel holed out to midon in Swann’s first over as England kept the brakes on the touring side’s run rate.

Yet the entrance of Kohli swung the match back in India’s favor, with the talented 22-year-old flaying England’s attack to all corners of the ground in a knock which included eight boundaries and one six.

Kohli’s innnings finally ended in the 44th over when he was out hit wicket off Swann to leave India on 236-4. Yet any hopes of an English fightback were ruthlessly snuffed out

by Dhoni, whose stylish half-century featuring five boundaries and two sixes. —AFP

Scoreboard CARDIFF: Scoreboard after the fifth and final one-day international between England and India in Cardiff, Wales yesterday.

India innings P. Patel c Bresnan b Swann 19 A. Rahane c Finn b Dernbach 26 R. Dravid b Swann 69 V. Kohli hit wicket b Swann 107 S. Raina c Bresnan b Finn 15 MS Dhoni not out 50 R. Jadeja c Bopara b Dernbach 0 R. Ashwin not out 0 Extras (b 1, lb 11, w 6) 18 Total (for six wickets; 50 overs) 304 Did not bat: RP Singh, MM Patel, R Vinay Kumar Fall of wickets: 1-52 2-57 3-227 4-236 5-284 6-288 Bowling: T. Bresnan 9-0-62-0, S. Finn 10-1-44-1 (3w), J. Dernbach 10-0-73-2 (3w), G. Swann 9-0-34-3, S. Patel 8-0-55-0, R. Bopara 4-0-24-0 England innings A. Cook b Kohli 50 C. Kieswetter lbw b Vinay Kumar 21 J. Trott c Singh b Jadeja 63 I. Bell c sub b Singh 26 R. Bopara not out 37 J. Bairstow not out 41 Extras (lb 1 w 1 nb 1) 3 Total (for four wickets; 32.2 overs) 241 Did not bat: S. Patel, T. Bresnan, G. Swann, S. Finn, J. Dernbach Fall of wickets: 1-27 2-106 3-160 4-166 Bowling: Vinay Kumar 6.2-0-42-1, RP Singh 7-0-51-1 (1w), MM Patel 4-0-26-0 (1nb), R. Ashwin 4-0-25-0, R. Jadeja 5-0-52-1, V. Kohli 6-0-44-1 Result: England won by six wickets (D/L method)

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1948 Olympians reflect on last London Games LONDON: When US basketball player Ray Lumpp traveled to London to compete in the 1948 Olympics, food was being rationed and bombing rubble remained in a city still recovering from World War II. Things were so bad athletes were asked to bring their own towels. Lumpp wondered whether London was going to be ready for the 4,000 athletes who gathered for those games and remembers the jealousy directed at the Americans because they brought their own meat and sugar, precious commodities in a country under rationing.

But the classic British resiliency turned those doubts into inspiration.

“Everything around was all leveled,” he said. “You had to take your hat off to the English people. ... (They) could not have been nicer.”

England had been awarded the 1940 Games, but the war wiped them out, as well as those four years later. With the last Olympics being the Nazi-driven 1936 Berlin Games, it fell to Britain in 1948 to restore the vision of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the mod-

ern Olympics. “London did a fantastic job with no money then,” said author Janie Hampton, who chronicled the joy and sacrifice of athletes who competed in 1948 in her book, “ The Austerity Olympics.” “If London hadn’t done such a good job, it would have fizzled out.”

Despite a shoestring budget, the games were immensely successful and the memories still resonate for the athletes who were there. The only thing Ray Myland got out of the 1948 Olympics was cauliflower ears.He wouldn’t have it any other way.

His father had boxed, but Myland had been blinded in one eye by a childhood accident so he took up wrestling - which seemed safer - when he was about 17.

Finding some success, he kept at it.

He still remembers working at his family’s pub until 5:15 p.m., and then racing from St. Albans to catch the train to St. Pancras station in London so he could wrestle. If he missed the l0:20 p.m. train, he’d have to take the train to the end of the Tube line and walk or hitch the 10 miles back home - or spend the night in the station waiting room until

the 4:20 a.m. train back.

The derelicts and drunks would try to do the same, and the police came round at regular intervals to eject those without a ticket. “People thought I was mad,” he said. “It obviously was an effort. (But) I would have rather have gone wrestling than just about anything else.”

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Lumpp had returned to New York City after serving three years in the Air Force to play for New York University.

He turned down offers to play professionally so he could remain an amateur and compete in London.

He was married, but couldn’t afford to take his wife, Anne, with him. So she went home to Nebraska and stayed with her family for the two months it took him to cross the Atlantic by boat, compete and get back. He returned $800 in debt but with a gold medal in his pocket. It was well worth it.

“The greatest thrill in my life was when I was selected for the team,” he said during a telephone interview from his home on New York’s Long Island. “We received our medals at Wembley

Stadium, and you are called up on the victory stand. You’re not representing Ray. You’re representing your country. I was so proud.”

Hampton’s book depicts the difficulties athletes faced and the satisfaction they gained in competing so soon after World War II, when the challenge of qualifying was followed by a struggle to raise money to train, buy equipment and travel to London.

“The Olympians I spoke to did not boast, but ever yone — whether in Britain, Singapore, Iran or New Zealand lit up at the memory of that fortnight,” she wrote. “There was something about overcoming the adversity that made it worthwhile.”

Myland, who lives in Essex, knows a thing or two about adversity. His competitive life was dotted by breaks. The first was when he had to take over his father’s pub. Then getting married set him back a bit, but he just kept coming back to the mat.

“We had no funding - no partnership of any sort,” the 84-year-old said. “If you went to the cinema, you had to pay to

go. If you went wrestling, you had to pay.” He also competed in the 1952 Helsinki Games, an Olympic berth that earned him an invitation to a cocktail party with Queen Elizabeth II. “I doubt she’d remember me, mind,” he said. “We had some whisky. It was ver y nice whisky too.”

Myland met his wife, Eileen, a judo instructor, at a physical education show organized by the London police. He had gotten a motorbike by then and they would meet at night after he trained.

Married after the 1952 Olympics, they have two daughters and will be celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in 2012. Eileen nominated Ray to be one of the torchbearers for the 2012 Games. He can’t run now of course, but she thinks he can handle the torch from his motorized scooter. Whether he’s chosen or not, he’ll be back to watch the Greco-Roman wrestling in London, receiving the tickets as part of a program for former British Olympians and their families. “It was the ultimate,” Myland said. “If you are in a sport and you get into the Olympics, that’s as high as you can go.” —AP

Spain and France in European final

OHIO: Toledo wide receiver Eric Page (center) is tackled by Boise State linebacker Byron Hout (left) and cornerback Jerrell Gavins (right) in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game. —AP

Toledo’s mistakes too costly in Boise St. loss TOLEDO: Two ranked opponents, too many mistakes again for Toledo. Seemingly overmatched against No. 4 Boise State, the Rockets were hanging tough against the Broncos until they started dropping passes and turning the ball over in the 40-15 loss.

Boise State’s Kellen Moore had something to do with it too. Moore had 455 yards passing and five touchdown passes in a nearly flawless performance.

The Rockets dropped a sure touchdown pass in the first half and fumbled inside the Broncos’ 10-yard line in the third quarter.

“You can’t turn the football over in the red zone, you can’t have nine penalties,” Toledo coach Tim Beckman said. “They definitely exploited the things we were not doing well.” The Rockets (1-2) twice were within the Broncos’ 11 when they lost the ball. Running back Adonis Thomas agreed with his coach that there were too many mistakes.

“The thing that really hurts about both of these losses is that we beat ourselves both times,” Thomas said. “It just goes to show us that if we eliminate a lot of those mistakes, how good of an offense we could be.” It was especially bitter coming after a 27-22 loss to No. 17 Ohio State last

Saturday. In that one, Toledo allowed a touchdown on a punt return, missed a field goal and botched another one. Still, the Rockets were 17 yards away from a potential winning touchdown when an incompletion on fourth down ended their chances. This one wasn’t that close. Moore was throwing with ease, spreading his passes to nine different receivers.

Just before the half, Moore connected on six consecutive passes, including a 1yard throw into the corner of the end zone to Tyler Shoemaker for a 20-6 lead.

Austin Dantin and Terrance Owens again shared time for Toledo at quarterback. But it was Owens who seemed to have the most success. He completed 17 of 31 passes for 201 yards.

The Broncos’ defensive line never let either quarterback get comfortable with a relentless rush. Defensive tackle Chase Baker picked off an Owens’ pass that was tipped at the line. “There’s nothing you can really do about that,” Owens said. “It’s real tough because those are just blown opportunities. We have got to make those plays.

If we make those plays during the game we could be talking about something else right now.” —AP

KAUNAS: Holders Spain and France advanced to the European basketball championship final, and qualified for next year’s Olympics, by beating Macedonia and Russia respectively on Friday.

The Spaniards, who won their first European title in Poland in 2009, overpowered tournament upstarts Macedonia 92-80 while France, looking for their maiden major championship crown, beat Russia 79-71.

Both sides also progressed to the 2012 London Olympics along with hosts Britain. Russia, Macedonia, Lithuania and Greece will enter a 12-team playoff for another three berths.

Macedonia, who went into the 24-team tournament in Lithuania as one of the underdogs, were worthy opponents but Spain broke them down thanks to a breathtaking performance by point guard Juan Carlos Navarro and centre Pau Gasol.

Navarro scored a game-high 35 points and led the way when the Spaniards overcame a 45-44 halftime deficit to lead 71-62 at the end of the third quarter.

Los Angeles Lakers centre Gasol added 22 points and 17 rebounds while his younger brother Marc and Congolese-born forward Serge Ibaka chipped in with 11 points each. American-born point guard Lester Bo McCalebb, the driving force behind Macedonia’s success in the tournament, scored 25 points for the former Yugoslav republic and Pero Antic added 17 points and nine rebounds.

“We have reached our initial objective to qualify for the Olympics. It was a tough match today and Macedonia have had a magnificent tournament,” Navarro told Spanish television.

“We are very pleased to have reached the final and I am delighted to have helped the team. There are opportunities that you can’t allow to escape and now we will go all out for the title.”

Russia reached the last four with

KAUNAS: Boris Diaw (left) from France looks on as Victor Khryapa (right) from Russia shoots on basket during the EuroBasket European Basketball Championship semifinal match.—AP an impressive 9-0 record but were powerless against a more athletic French team who kept pulling away as guard Tony Parker shone again. Parker, a triple NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs, led all scorers with 22 points while shooting guard Nicolas Batum added 19 points along with seven

rebounds and four assists.

U t a h J a z z fo r w a rd A n d re i Kirilenko stood out for 2007 winners Russia with 21 points.

France go into the final confid e n t t h e y c a n d o b e t te r t h a n their 96-69 defeat by Spain in the second group stage. “We played a s o l i d g a m e to d ay a n d we’ l l

Johnson starts bid for 6th NASCAR title

KUWAIT: Al-Da’iya Youth Center held a football tournament featuring teams composed of members of youth centers of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports, which was won by ‘Al-Da’iya Star’ team. The tournament provides a good opportunity for sports clubs’ scouts to observe talent of youth clubs’ members. Youth centers offer the chance for kids to hone their skills at young age before joining sports clubs as they grow up.

JOLIET: Kyle Busch heads the list of favorites to win the NASCAR championship this season, followed

by Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon.

But nobody’s paying much attention to Jimmie Johnson, who is quietly preparing for what he hopes will be a sixth consecutive title. The 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship begins Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway.

Johnson goes into the race ranked sixth in the 12-driver field, trailing co-leaders Busch and Harvick by nine points. He could theoretically make that up with a win late yesterday, but those are harder and harder to come by these days.

“I’m a realist,” he said Friday at the speedway southwest of Chicago. “There’s a year when we’re not going to be the champion and that’s fine.

That’s the way it is. I just want to make sure the team and myself, that we don’t leave anything on the table. If we get beat we get beat, and I’ll walk up and shake the champion’s hand.

Johnson has just one win so far this season, at Talladega, where Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. pushed him to the victory. More startling is the fact the Talladega win is his only victory in the last 35 races - one shy of a full season.

Even though the lone victory is the fewest number of wins he’s had at the start of any previous Chase, it would be foolish to read too much into the numbers. “I don’t draw any conclusions,” he said. “We’ve rolled in hot, we’ve rolled in cold and we’ve ended up with championships. I truly believe that these 10 races, it’s a clean sheet of paper. You just start over.” His rivals understand that they overlook him at their own risk. “It won’t surprise anyone in the garage or this room if he were to be one of

the contenders in the final race at Homestead,” said Edwards, who’s ranked fifth in the Chase standings.

“He is awfully tough to have to race at these championships ... everyone takes that as a given.”

Teams have tried a variety of ways to beat Johnson down the stretch and failed. Hendrick teammate Gordon nearly did it in 2007 but lost, Edwards had a flurry of late victories in 2008 and still fell short, and teammate Mark Martin couldn’t keep pace in 2009.

Then came Denny Hamlin, who went into last year’s season finale as the points leader but showed signs of cracking before he even got to the track. Hamlin’s legs were shaking so badly at a news conference that Johnson joked he was rocking the entire stage.

It was no surprise when Johnson calmly retained his title after Hamlin slogged through a sloppy final weekend. Trying to rattle Johnson is simply a waste of time. He scoffed at Kurt Busch at Richmond last weekend when Busch referred to him as “a five-time chump” and intimated that it’s been equipment - not talent - that’s led to all of Johnson’s success.

After some tense moments in the media center, the two agreed to attempt to move forward incident-free. “What we do as champion drivers is put those things behind us and go race. That’s what we’re supposed to do,” Busch said. “We know we have to race hard and race smart.” That’s exactly what Johnson has started to do, too. Before Richmond, where the on-track incidents with Busch led to a 31st-place finish, Johnson had five straight top-10s. He was second at Michigan, fourth at Bristol and second at Atlanta. —AP

have to play another solid game o n S u n d ay. I a m p ro u d o f my team mates and it’s a great victory,” Parker told Canal Plus television. Earlier on Friday, Greece beat Serbia 87-77 and now meet Lithuania in a fifth and sixth place playoff match late yesterday.—Reuters

Dream rallies to down Sun UNCASVILLE: Lindsey Harding scored 10 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter as the Atlanta Dream rallied to beat the Connecticut Sun 89-84 in Game 1 of their WNBA Eastern Conference semifinal series on Friday.

Angel McCoughtry added 16 points for the Dream, despite missing most of the final period with foul trouble. Erika DeSouza and Armintie Price had 14 points apiece, and Sancho Lyttle finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Renee Montgomery and Asjha Jones had 16 points apiece for Connecticut. Game 2 of the best-of-three playoff series is today in Atlanta. Connecticut led 68-63 with 9:10 remaining when McCoughtry was whistled for her fifth foul. But Iziane Castro Marques made a pair of 3-pointers to help fuel an 11-4 run.

Lynx 66, Silver Stars 65 In Minneapolis, Lindsay Whalen scored 20 points to lead the Lynx to victory over San Antonio in the opening game of their Western Conference semifinal.

Whalen also had five assists and made the game’s biggest defensive play, tipping a Silver Stars inbounds pass to Maya Moore with 4 seconds left to seal the victory.

Seimone Augustus added 19 points and Rebekkah Brunson grabbed 14 rebounds for Minnesota.

Danielle Adams and Becky Hammon each scored 16 points for San Antonio, which lost all four regular-season games against the Lynx, as well. Game 2 will be today in San Antonio.—AP

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

S P ORT S

NBA players present unified front in labor impasse LAS VEGAS: David Stern was meeting with NBA owners in Dallas when he got word of how things went at a gathering of NBA players in Las Vegas. Unity, the commissioner was told, was a big part of the players’ message.

“We think that’s a good thing,” Stern said. “We would like to negotiate with a strong union that’s capable of delivering a deal.” Eleven weeks into the lockout, both sides came away Thursday professing their solidarity.

The separate meetings updating their constituents on collective bargaining talks came two days after a session between the union’s executive committee and the owners’ labor relations committee brought no progress after the league refused players’ desire to keep the current salary cap system.

The union emerged from that setback saying the Nov. 1 scheduled start of the regular season could be in jeopardy. Training camps have been expected to open Oct. 3.

Union president Derek Fisher raised the notion of “a fundamental divide between the owners internally” in a letter sent to his membership earlier this week.

But after four hours of meetings in Dallas, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver insisted “there is absolute agreement, and it’s a complete fiction coming from somewhere that there isn’t.”

Stern hinted at some difference of opinion when

he said there was “virtual unanimity on approach.” He then explained that the differences are minor.

“Some people might say they want a hard cap with this wrinkle and someone says I want a hard cap with that wrinkle,” Stern said. “But I would say there is unanimity in favoring a hard cap - period.”

Fisher and union executive director Billy Hunter met with about 40 players at a Las Vegas casino in what Fisher described as “a very colorful and engaging meeting.” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith also spoke to the players, who were mostly in town to play in an Impact Basketball academy league.

“There is not the fracture and the separation amongst our group that in some ways has been reported,” said Fisher, the Los Angeles Lakers point guard. “We just want to continue to reiterate that point.” Fisher’s letter to players, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, was first obtained by SI.com. In it, he wrote that owners “could not agree with each other on specific points of the deal (Tuesday) and therefore it caused conflict within the league and its owners. So it is our hope that ... at the owners meeting in Dallas that they work out their differences, come up with a revenue sharing plan that will protect their teams and are then ready to come together and sign off on the agreement we as a smaller group deemed reasonable.” Stern said the owners spent as much time Thursday talking about revenue sharing as they did

collective bargaining. He added that a planning committee meeting is scheduled for Friday in New York.

Stern said no negotiating sessions are planned with the union, but “we’ll both be in New York starting tomorrow and it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some conversation.”

The union’s emphasis on solidarity stems from suggestions that players could get antsy once they start missing paychecks in a few weeks. NBPA members have been educated for several years about the steps necessary to survive a long lockout, and Fisher said the union will continue to protect the rights of players who sign overseas this fall.

“I’ve never seen this union as strong as we are collectively right now,” said Boston Celtics center Jermaine O’Neal, among the few remaining players who participated in the 1998-99 labor dispute. “A lot of our young guys are wide-eyed when they see the numbers at first, but now they’re educated. We don’t need to make a temporary, emotional decision. We need to make a long-term decision for a bigger purpose.” Players discussed union decertification during their meeting, but Hunter emphasized the union believes such a drastic step isn’t an imminent strategy despite behind-the-scenes calls for the move from several agents. NFL players dissolved their union to file an antitrust lawsuit against the league earlier this year. Fisher rejected the notion that the NBPA is wait-

ing for a ruling on a charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board for unfair bargaining practices, although Hunter said he plans to travel to Washington next week in hopes of getting an expedited ruling.

“Sometimes it’s implied that we’re waiting, posturing, sitting on the sideline and waiting for something to happen favorable for us with the NLRB,” Fisher said.

“That’s just not the case. It’s part of this process, but we’re still taking action. We have to negotiate a deal, and that’s the only way we’ll get what’s fair for these guys.”

If NBA owners are searching for cracks in the players’ unity, as Fisher and Hunter believe, the union attempted to provide a visual answer. Over 30 players stood together behind Fisher and Hunter at a brief news conference, wearing identical gray T-shirts with one large word in yellow: “STAND.” “All the agendas that might be pushed by different groups, they don’t have a way in as long as we stand shoulder to shoulder,” Fisher said.

The league also announced a five-year deal with referees. Asked whether those refs will have games to work starting Nov. 1, as scheduled, Stern said, “That’s a really good question.”

“The clock is ticking, but it hasn’t struck midnight yet,” he said. “We have time to do what has to be done and we’d like to do it, actually.” Aron reported from Dallas and Beacham reported from Las Vegas. —AP

Sinclair sets Swans flying Swansea 3

West Brom 0

AUCKLAND: Australia’s Adam Ashley-Cooper (left) is tackled by Ireland’s Conor Murray during their Rugby World Cup match at Eden Park. — AP

Ireland stun Australia to open up World Cup INVERCARGILL: The upset the World Cup has been threatening since the start finally materialised yesterday as Ireland produced a magnificent performance at a rocking Eden Park to beat Australia 15-6 and completely open up the tournament.

Ireland’s first victory in five World Cup meetings with the Wallabies will probably shift the three Tri-Nations sides into the same side of the draw and open a path to the final for the Six Nations teams.

Holders South Africa, who invariably raise their game when it matters, showed that they remain a major threat with a clinical 49-3 sixtry destruction of Fiji in Wellington.

Argentina also began to find their rhythm as they bounced back from their narrow opening defeat by England to also score six tries in a fluid 43-8 victory over a poor Romania side in Invercargill.

It was Ireland though who will hog the headlines as they outfought and out-thought the Pool C favourites in a match that will live long in the memories of the 58,000 there and the millions more watching over their breakfasts in Europe.

Going into the match on the back of four warm-up defeats and a nervy opening victory against the U.S., the Irish tackled like demons, refused to allow Australia to settle and were deserved winners.

Two penalties and a drop goal from Jonathan Sexton and another two penalties from Ronan O’Gara proved decisive as the Irish pack, and their scrum in particular, ruled the night.

“It was the performance we knew we had in us,” said Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll. “It’s just half the job done. As much as we’ll enjoy this, let’s not lose sight there are two more games.”

Those are against Russia and Italy but on this form they should prove a formality for a team desperate to perform well after failing to live up to expectations all too often in the biggest tournament of all.

Two more victories would give Ireland top spot in the pool and a quarter-final against the runners-up from Pool D, likely to be Wales or Samoa, and a great chance of reaching the semi-finals for the first time.

Tri-Nations champions Australia badly missed injured flanker David Pocock as the Irish back row made hay, scything down gold shirts at every opportunity and preventing the talented Wallaby backs from having any time or space. Assuming they win their remaining games against Russia and the United States Australia should face a daunting quarter-final against the Springboks, with New Zealand likely to be waiting for the winners in the semis. —Reuters

Serbia, France stay alive in Davis Cup PARIS: Defending champions Serbia and France stayed alive in their Davis Cup semifinals when they both won their decisive doubles rubbers yesterday.

In Belgrade, Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic defeated Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 6-2 to trail 2-1 overall while in Cordoba JoWilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra earned France their first point by beating Spanish duo Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-2, 6-0.

After world number one Novak Djokovic pulled out of the opening singles rubber on Friday, Serbia slumped 2-0 down overnight.

Djokovic was suffering from fatigue as well as a back injury picked up in his US Open final win over Rafael Nadal on Monday.

World number 74 David Nalbandian took full advantage of Djokovic’s absence on Friday to see off Troicki, who won the decisive leg of last year’s final against France, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Juan Martin Del Potro then eased past Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to give Argentina, who have never won the Davis Cup, a 2-0 lead. But on Saturday Troicki and Zimonjic took a tense tiebreak and then battled back from 4-1 down in the second set, winning five games in succession, roared on by a 15,000-strong crowd.

“There was so much energy out there,” said Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic, adding that Djokovic was fit to compete today. “It was a must-win situation for us, we were definitely under pressure and we played really well under the circumstances,” said Zimonjic.

“It was a difficult match, we had unbelievable support from the crowd and we

are in good position now because I like our chances if Novak plays tomorrow.”

In the Cordoba bullring, nine-time champions France needed to win after Nadal cast off fatigue to thrash Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-0, 6-1 in Friday’s opening rubber and David Ferrer then defeated Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4, 6-1. And Tsonga and Llodra duly obliged giving their experienced Spanish rivals no chance.

But France captain Guy Forget warned: “We still have to beat the best player in the world on clay in the last six years at home.

It’s not going to be easy. We still need a miracle.” Nadal takes on Simon in today’s reverse singles with Ferrer drawn against Gasquet.

Meanwhile, International Tennis Federation chief Francesco Ricci hit back at Nadal, insisting the Spanish superstar was wrong to claim the gruelling tennis schedule was damaging players’ welfare.

Nadal had even hinted at a players strike in protest at a calendar which required him to play Davis Cup just four days after losing in the US Open final in New York. “I have the deepest respect for Nadal. He is a great champion and a sporting role model, but to accuse the Davis Cup of putting players’ physical well-being at stake is incomprehensible,” said Ricci.

“Why doesn’t Nadal address his complaints to the ATP which controls 90 percent of the calendar when we control just a few weeks?

“It is not acceptable to us to relax the Davis Cup calendar. The players already play less than two weeks of Davis Cup each year. We want to find more favourable dates, we are already putting all this on the table. “We will see what solutions we can find.” —AFP

SWANSEA: A day of firsts saw Swansea City score their first ever Premier League goal and secure their first victory since promotion last season in a 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion yesterday.

The honor of scoring the Swans’ first goal of the campaign fell to Scott Sinclair, star of May’s Championship play-off final victor y over Reading, with further goals from Leroy Lita and Nathan Dyer completing the success.

Having started the match bottom of the table, Swansea finished the day in 12th place, with West Brom slipping four places into the relegation zone.

A sombre start to proceedings at the Liberty Stadium saw both sides respect a minute’s silence in memory of the four miners who died at the nearby Gleision Colliery this week and the late father of Swansea coach Brendan Rodgers. Swansea were dealt a blow shortly before kick-off when record signing Danny Graham was ruled out due to a back injury, with Lita taking his place up front.

Sinclair fluffed an early chance when the ball landed at his feet at the back post, but he made amends with a 14th-minute penalty after Paul Scharner had been penalised for going through Joe Allen from behind.

It was the first ever Premier League goal scored outside England and made Sinclair the first top-flight goalscorer for Swansea since Bob Latchford found the target in a 2-1 defeat at Manchester United in May 1983.

LONDON: Swansea City’s Nathan Dyer celebrates scoring against West Bromwich Albion during the English Premier League soccer match. —AP Neil Taylor almost gifted the visitors an equaliser in the 22nd minute when his errant back-pass inadvertently set Shane Long free on the edge of the Swansea box, but the Irishman blazed his shot over the crossbar.

Long’s profligacy assumed new significance barely two minutes later, as Lita doubled the Swans’ advantage with a close-range header from Sinclair’s flick-on before tearing off his shirt in jubilant celebration.

A brilliant finger-tip save from Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm prevented Long pulling a goal back just after the half hour.

Dyer put the game to bed three minutes into the second half, cantering onto Lita’s flick-on and drilling the ball between the legs of Ben Foster. Vorm continued to thwart the Baggies, athletically denying Graham Dorrans, Peter Odemwingie and Long to preserve Swansea’s defensive inviolability at home this season.

The only negative for Swansea was a troubling collision between Odemwingie and Taylor that saw the former booked and the latter stretchered off after being given oxygen on the pitch, prompting nine minutes of injury time. —AFP

Everton late show sinks Wigan Everton 3

Wigan 1

LIVERPOOL: Everton had Apostolos Vellios and Royston Drenthe to thank for scoring late goals that handed them a 3-1 win over Wigan at Goodison Park yesterday.

David Moyes’ side fell behind to Franco Di Santo’s first half effort and although Phil Jagielka equalised soon after it looked as though the hosts would have to settle for a disappointing draw.

There were only six minutes left when young Greek striker Vellios fired Everton into the lead before Dutch winger Drenthe, signed on loan from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day, bagged the decisive third goal in stoppage time.

Those late goals allowed Moyes to breathe a sigh of relief after he opted to leave out France striker Louis Saha despite his lack of attacking options.

Saha, who has made only two appearances this season, reacted to being left out of the squad by venting his frustration on micro-blogging website Twitter, but Everton were eventually able to thrive in his absence.

Seamus Coleman’s stooping header was turned around the post by Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi in the early stages.

Wigan took the lead in the 31st minute and Moyes will have been furious with the way Di Santo was allowed to collect Ben Watson’s nearpost corner and turn inside Leon Osman before firing in a shot which deflected off Tony Hibbert and past Tim Howard for his third goal of the season. Having previously struggled for goals the Argentinian has now scored more this season than in his previous three-and-a-half years in England.

However, the lead lasted just 97 seconds as Osman’s inswinging corner was met by a powerful Tim Cahill header which crashed against the crossbar, rebounding for Jagielka to head home from close range.

Despite that leveller Everton laboured for much of the second half, prompting Moyes to send on Drenthe and fellow loan signing Denis Stracqualursi. But it was the third substitute Vellios who landed the crucial blow, the 19year-old rising highest to head Hibbert’s cross into the far corner of the net. —AFP

LONDON: Everton’s Roysten Drenthe (left) and Wigan Athletic’s Adrian Lopez battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match at Goodison Park. —AP

Wolves mauled by QPR Wolves 0

QPR 3

LONDON: Queens Park Rangers moved into the top half of the table as Neil Warnock’s new-look team recorded an impressive 3-0 win over Wolves at Molineux yesterday.

Wolves never recovered after a two-goal blitz by the Hoops in the opening 10 minutes, captain Joey Barton opening his account for the club in the eighth minute before Alejandro Faurlin added a second.

A comprehensive win for the Londoners was completed on 87 minutes, substitute DJ Campbell scoring his first goal for the club after converting Armand Traore’s pass.

It was QPR’s second away win of the season following their 1-0 victory at Everton last month,

and lifted Warnock’s side to ninth.

A mood of optimism has swept over QPR since they were taken over by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes last month, a buyout which led to the arrival of several proven Premier League performers as the transfer window closed.

QPR new boys Barton and Shaun WrightPhillips both caused problems for Wolves, with the former Manchester City team-mates linking to great effect in midfield for the visitors.

Their partnership reaped swift reward when Wright-Phillips cut back to Barton, who slotted past Wayne Hennessey to make it 1-0.

Two minutes later QPR doubled their lead, Faurlin chesting down a failed clearance on the edge of the box and blasting home. Wolves rallied and a shot from Karl Henry clipped the outside of Paddy Kenny’s upright, but the away team were soon back on the front foot, and their fluid midfield play was a constant menace for Mick McCarthy’s men. The execellent WrightPhillips was denied on 78 minutes when his shot hit the post, but QPR wrapped up the win three minutes from time when Campbell slotted home Traore’s low cross. —AFP

y

A

19

e niv rsar n

Years

Barca thump Osasuna

Soccer results/standings English Premier League results Aston Villa 1 (Agbonlahor 13) Newcastle 1 (Best 57); Blackburn 4 (Yakubu 25, 59, Song 50-og, Koscielny 69-og) Arsenal 3 (Gervinho 10, Arteta 34, Chamakh 85); Bolton 1 (Petrov 64-pen) Norwich 2 (Pilkington 37, Johnson 42); Everton 3 (Jagielka 33, Vellios 84, Drenthe 90) Wigan 1 (Di Santo 31); Swansea 3 (Sinclair 14-pen, Lita 24, Dyer 49) West Brom 0; Wolves 0 QPR 3 (Barton 8, Faurlin 10, Campbell 87).

Playing today Fulham v Man City; Man Utd v Chelsea; Sunderland v Stoke; Tottenham v Liverpool.

English Football League results Championship Barnsley 1 Watford 1; Blackpool 1 Cardiff 1; Crystal Palace 0 Middlesbrough 1; Hull 1 Portsmouth 0; Leeds 2 Bristol City 1; Leicester 1 Brighton 0; Millwall 0 West Ham 0; Nottingham Forest 1 Derby 2; Peterborough 2 Burnley 1; Reading 2 Doncaster 0.

Playing today Southampton v Birmingham

Division One Brentford 1 Preston 3; Chesterfield 4 Carlisle 1; Exeter 0 Bournemouth 2; Hartlepool 3 Bury 0; Leyton Orient 1 Oldham 3; Milton Keynes Dons 1 Huddersfield 1; Rochdale 2 Charlton 3; Sheffield Utd 3 Colchester 0; Stevenage 0 Notts County 2; Tranmere 2 Wycombe 0; Walsall 2 Scunthorpe 2; Yeovil 2 Sheffield Wednesday 3.

Division Two AFC Wimbledon 4 Cheltenham 1; Accrington Stanley 0 Crewe 2; Barnet 0 Oxford 2; Bristol Rovers 0 Aldershot 1; Burton 2 Swindon 0; Crawley 3 Bradford 1; Dagenham and Redbridge 1 Morecambe 2; Hereford 1 Gillingham 6; Macclesfield 3 Northampton 1; Port Vale 2 Shrewsbury 3; Southend 2

English Premier League table English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man Utd Man City Chelsea Newcastle Stoke Liverpool Aston Villa Everton QPR Wolves Norwich Swansea Wigan Blackburn Arsenal Bolton Tottenham West Brom Sunderland Fulham

4 4 4 5 4 4 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 5 4 4

4 4 3 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0

0 0 1 3 2 1 4 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 2 2

0 18 3 12 0 15 3 12 0 7 3 10 0 4 2 9 0 3 1 8 1 6 3 7 0 6 4 7 1 6 4 7 2 4 6 7 2 4 6 7 2 5 7 5 2 3 5 5 2 4 7 5 3 7 10 4 3 6 14 4 4 8 13 3 2 3 8 3 4 3 8 3 2 2 4 2 2 2 5 2

English Football League tables Championship M’brough Brighton Southampton Derby West Ham Cardiff Blackpool Hull Leicester P’borough Leeds Crystal Birmingham Reading Millwall Barnsley Watford Portsmouth Ipswich Coventry Burnley Nottingham Bristol City Doncaster Division One Charlton Sheffield Utd Huddersfield Milton Keynes Hartlepool Preston Notts County Brentford Sheffield Tranmere Oldham Stevenage Carlisle Chesterfield Colchester Walsall Bournemouth Yeovil Rochdale Bury Scunthorpe Wycombe Exeter Leyton Orient Division Two Morecambe Rotherham Shrewsbury Burton Albion Crawley Town Southend Oxford Utd Port Vale Gillingham Torquay Aldershot AFC Wimbledon Cheltenham Swindon Crewe Bristol Rovers Macclesfield Accrington Dagenham

7 7 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 9 9 8 8 7 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

5 5 5 5 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 6 6 4 5 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 4 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 0 1 1 0 6 5 5 4 5 5 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 2 3

2 1 0 0 2 3 3 0 2 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 3 0 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 5 2 4 1 1 1 1 2 2 4 1 2 4 3 0 2 2 1 6 2 2 2 2 3 2 4 1 1 3 2 2 5 2 2 1 0 0 3 2 4 1

Plymouth 0; Torquay 3 Rotherham 3.

Scottish Premier League results Aberdeen 2 (Considine 37, Mawene 53) Kilmarnock 2 (Heffernan 15, Sheils 28); Dundee Utd 3 (Dalla Valle 13, Swanson 43, Daly 71) Inverness CT 1 (Ross 16); Dunfermline 2 (Thomson 53, Hanlon 63-og) Hibernian 2 (Sproule 37, O’Connor 51); Hearts 2 (Hamill 43-pen, Mair 70-og) St Mirren 0; Motherwell 0 St Johnstone 3 (Clancy 20-og, Sandaza 75, Craig 85).

Playing today: Rangers v Celtic Scottish Football League results First Division Falkirk 2 Dundee 1; Hamilton 2 Raith 2; Partick 4 Ayr 0; Queen of the South 4 Morton 1; Ross County 1 Livingston 1.

Second Division Albion 1 Stenhousemuir 1; Arbroath 3 Airdrie 1; Dumbarton 0 Cowdenbeath 4; East Fife 1 Brechin 1; Stirling 2 Forfar 4.

Third Division Berwick 2 Peterhead 1; East Stirling 1 Stranraer 3; Elgin 0 Clyde 3; Montrose 2 Annan Athletic 3; Queen’s Park 1 Alloa 3.

Playing tomorrow Ipswich v Coventry

0 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 2 3 3 3 2 4 2 2 2 3 4 3 3 4 4 6 0 1 0 1 0 1 3 3 3 3 3 2 4 4 3 4 6 5 5 6 3 5 6 7 1 1 2 1 3 3 2 3 3 1 3 3 4 5 5 3 4 3 5

13 11 15 10 15 10 9 5 9 14 13 9 8 7 6 5 7 7 8 4 6 7 5 2 17 17 16 17 15 15 16 13 16 10 12 16 11 12 14 10 10 10 12 8 11 5 4 5 19 21 13 13 18 11 12 21 15 15 8 15 13 13 11 10 12 7 6

5 5 8 6 7 7 6 6 9 10 12 8 7 8 8 7 10 9 16 5 10 13 11 12 7 7 7 9 7 9 11 9 16 8 13 11 15 13 15 11 17 13 18 18 14 12 13 19 5 12 9 9 17 11 9 16 10 12 7 15 13 10 12 12 10 11 10

17 16 15 15 14 12 12 12 11 10 10 10 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 5 5 5 5 1 20 20 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 14 14 13 13 11 10 9 9 8 8 7 6 5 5 2 20 18 17 16 16 16 15 14 14 14 14 14 13 12 12 12 11 10 10

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

SPORTS

German league results Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Rolfes 70) Cologne 4 (Novakovic 44, Podolski 47, 54, Jajalo 90); Hamburg 0 Borussia M’gladbach 1 (de Camargo 66); Nuremberg 1 (Wollscheid 62) Werder Bremen 1 (Ekici 24); Hertha Berlin 2 (Lell 46, Torun 57) Augsburg 2 (Hosogai 20, Callsen-Bracker 64); Hoffenheim 3 (Babel 20, Roberto Firmino 23, 85) VfL Wolfsburg 1 (Dejagah 67); Kaiserslautern 3 (Sukuta-Pasu 24, Shechter 54, Tiffert 73) Mainz 05 1 (Choupo-Moting 15) Spanish League results Sporting Gijon 0 Valencia 1 (Soldado 29); Granada 1 (Uche 55) Villarreal 0; Mallorca 0 Malaga 1 (Caceres og-39); Barcelona 8 (Messi 4, 40, 78, Fabregas 13, Villa 33, 76, Roversio 39og, Xavi 57) Osasuna 0.

Northampton Barnet Bradford Hereford Plymouth

9 9 9 9 9

2 2 1 1 0

3 3 3 2 1

4 10 12 4 11 16 5 12 16 6 4 20 8 3 19

9 9 6 5 1

Scottish Premier League table Rangers 6 5 1 0 11 1 Celtic 6 5 0 1 14 2 Motherwell 8 4 1 3 9 12 Hearts 8 3 3 2 9 4 Kilmarnock 7 2 4 1 11 8 St Johnstone 7 2 3 2 7 6 Dunfermline 7 2 3 2 11 12 Dundee Utd 8 2 3 3 10 13 St Mirren 8 2 3 3 4 7 Aberdeen 8 1 3 4 4 10 Hibernian 7 1 2 4 5 12 Inverness 8 1 2 5 8 16

16 15 13 12 10 9 9 9 9 6 5 5

Scottish Football League tables First Division Morton Hamilton Falkirk Partick Raith Livingston Q of South Ross County Dundee Ayr

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

3 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1

2 3 3 2 2 4 1 4 1 2

1 9 7 11 1 11 7 9 1 8 7 9 2 10 7 8 2 8 7 8 1 10 9 7 3 9 10 7 1 7 9 7 3 6 8 7 3 7 14 5

Second Division Arbroath 6 Cowdenbeath 6 Stenhousemuir 6 Forfar 6 Stirling 6 Brechin 6 Airdrie Utd 6 Albion 6 Dumbarton 6 East Fife 6

5 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

0 1 2 1 2 2 0 2 1 1

1 1 1 2 2 2 4 3 4 4

20 18 11 12 14 9 11 7 13 5

10 9 8 10 13 9 13 15 19 14

15 13 11 10 8 8 6 5 4 4

Third Division Annan Athletic Alloa Stranraer Elgin Clyde Berwick Queens Park Montrose Peterhead E Stirling

5 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 1 1

0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0

1 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 5 5

16 11 17 11 8 10 8 7 7 4

10 8 9 8 5 12 11 12 12 12

15 13 12 12 10 7 7 6 3 3

German League table Werder Bremen 6 4 1 1 12 Borussia 6 4 1 1 8 Bayern Munich 5 4 0 1 16 Hoffenheim 6 4 0 2 12 VfB Stuttgart 6 3 1 2 9 Leverkusen 6 3 1 2 7 Nuremberg 6 3 1 2 6 Schalke 5 3 0 2 11 Hertha Berlin 6 2 3 1 8 Hanover 5 2 2 1 6 Borussia 5 2 1 2 6 Cologne 6 2 1 3 11 Mainz 6 2 1 3 8 Wolfsburg 6 2 0 4 7 Kaiserslautern 6 1 2 3 5 Freiburg 6 1 1 4 10 Augsburg 6 0 3 3 6 Hamburg 6 0 1 5 6

6 3 1 5 4 7 6 8 7 7 4 15 13 12 9 18 12 17

13 13 12 12 10 10 10 9 9 8 7 7 7 6 5 4 3 1

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Spanish League table Valencia 3 3 0 0 Barcelona 3 2 1 0 Real Madrid 2 2 0 0 Malaga 3 2 0 1 Real Betis 2 2 0 0 Real Sociedad 2 1 1 0 Sevilla 2 1 1 0 Osasuna 3 1 1 1 Espanyol 2 1 0 1 Mallorca 3 1 0 2 Grenade 3 1 0 2 Levante 2 0 2 0 Vallecano 2 0 2 0 Santander 2 0 1 1 Bilbao 2 0 1 1 Atletico 2 0 1 1 Getafe 2 0 1 1 Villarreal 3 0 1 2 Real Zaragoza 2 0 1 1 Sporting Gijon 3 0 0 3

6 15 10 6 2 4 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 2 0 3 2 0 2

3 2 2 2 0 3 3 9 2 2 5 1 1 4 3 1 5 8 6 5

9 7 6 6 6 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

Messi hat-trick sparks 8-0 rout MADRID: Lionel Messi grabbed a hat-trick as Barcelona responded emphatically to questions over their motivation by demolishing Osasuna 8-0 in a staggering display of attacking football at Camp Nou yesterday.

Messi scored his first goal after just five minutes as the Spanish and European champions rebounded from two successive draws to deliver the perfect response to critics who claimed they had become complacent with success.

Cesc Fabregas, playing in attack with Pedro Rodriguez rested, soon scored their second before David Villa rounded the keeper just after the half hour mark and slotted home.

An own-goal from Ruben Gonzalez added to Osasuna’s misery and Messi was on target again before the break. There was no drop in pace this time from Barca as in their games against Real Sociedad and AC Milan, and they continued to punish Osasuna.

Xavi lobbed the keeper and then Villa and Messi both struck again to wrap up the scoring. It will be a warning to Real Madrid who face Levante today that they will not let go of their league title without a fight.

There has been a mood of optimism in the Real camp that this season they will come out of the shadows of Barca.

“We want to compete for all the competitions and I don’t want to pick between the league and the Champions League over which would be more important,” said Real star Xabi Alonso.

“We were not at our best in the last league match against Getafe as we lacked control over the game but it is good to be able to make corrections while still having won.”

Earlier a poacher’s goal from in-form Roberto Soldado gave Valencia a 1-0 win over Sporting Gijon to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season.

Sporting, who are still to pick up a point, started

SPAIN: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi from Argentina (center) duels for the ball next to Osasuna’s Roversio Rodrigues de Barros from Brazil and Dami Abella during a Spanish La Liga soccer match. —AP strongly with plenty of possession but it was Valencia who took the lead through Soldado who has now scored five of Valencia’s six goals so far.

Sloppy defending from the home defence gave Jonas Goncalves plenty of time to shoot but while the keeper Juan Pablo saved well, Soldado pounced on the rebound.

Sporting showed spirit but it was Valencia who looked more dangerous in front of goal. Soldado could have had a second after the break and substitute Aritz Aduriz also had a shot blocked well by the keeper.

“The game showed the personality of the team and it was a group performance. This was a difficult game against a side which is battling to pick up

points so we can congratulate ourselves for the way we played and worked hard,” said Valencia coach Unai Emery.

A deflected Martin Demichelis header, which came off Pablo Caceres, gave Malaga a deserved 10 victory against Mallorca and Granada picked up their first points of the season with Ikechuwku Uche scoring in a 1-0 victory over Villarreal.

Promoted Real Betis will look to continue their winning run away to Athletic Bilbao who are still finding their feet under new coach Marcelo Bielsa.

Real Sociedad will be on a high against Sevilla after their comeback against Barca but in contrast Atletico Madrid take on Racing Santander still looking to score their first goal in the league.—AFP

Struggling Inter and Roma draw MILAN: Inter Milan and Roma did little to relieve the pressure on their coaches with a 0-0 draw yesterday. Both squads remained winless this season and time could be running out for Inter coach Gian Piero Gasperini and Roma’s Luis Enrique.

Inter lost its three previous matches this season, capped by an embarrassing 1-0 home defeat to Turkish debutante Trabzonspor in the Champions League earlier this week.

Inter was beaten 2-1 by AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup last month and lost 4-3 at Palermo in its Serie A opener last weekend, allowing four goals in a league match for the first time in more than seven years.

Roma is also in crisis, having opened the Italian league with a 2-1 home defeat to Cagliari after also losing a Europa League playoff to Slovan Bratislava. Both sides produced numerous chances at the San Siro, but both squads also appeared disorganized at times. Roma got more bad news when goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg had to be carried off on a stretcher after getting kicked in the head during the first half, although medical tests reportedly showed no major injuries. Earlier, Cagliari took the early lead in Serie A with a 2-1 win over newly promoted Novara.

Today defending champion AC Milan visits Napoli and Juventus hopes to continue its strong start at Siena.

Also today, it’s: Atalanta vs. Palermo; Bologna vs. Lecce; Catania vs. Cesena; Lazio vs. Genoa; Parma vs. Chievo Verona; and Udinese vs. Fiorentina.

Under a light rain in Milan, Gasperini reverted to his preferred three-man defense and lined up Diego Forlan and Diego Milito at forward in a 3-5-2 formation.

Roma responded with a 4-3-3 spearheaded by Daniel Osvaldo, captain Francesco Totti and 20-year-old Fabio Borini. Roma had the first chance when Osvaldo was denied from a sharp angle

by Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar in the 11th. In the 15th, Stekelenburg charged forward to punch away a ball that Inter defender Lucio was chasing. Lucio then failed to jump over the keeper and hit the right side of Stekelenburg’s head

with his foot, earning a yellow card for the Brazil defender.

Stekelenburg sat up after the incident but then immediately appeared to lose consciousness, and his head dropped back to the ground. He regained his senses in the changing room before being taken to the San Carlo hospital, according to the ANSA news agency.

Italy’s Sky TV reported that medical tests revealed no major injuries. Borini put a powerful shot on goal in the 19th, drawing another save from Julio Cesar, and Inter then responded with a chance from Milito that was stopped by

ITALY: AS Roma Brazilian forward Osvaldo of Argentina (right) challenges for the ball with Inter Milan Brazilian defender Lucio during a Serie A soccer match. —AP

Ten-man Bremen go top, Cologne floor Leverkusen BERLIN: Ten-man Werder Bremen went top of the German League yesterday thanks to a 1-1 draw at Nuremberg despite having Germany goalkeeper Tim Wiese sent off.

With Bayern Munich playing at Schalke on Sunday, Bremen took the opportunity to go top as they picked up a point, despite losing Wiese after just 17 minutes.

The 29-year-old was shown a straight red after a desperate, rugby-style tackle on Nuremberg striker Christian Eigler, who was through on goal, which forced Bremen to bring on reserve goalkeeper Sebastian Mielitz.

Werder then took the lead when Turkey midfielder Mehmet Ekici scored against his former club just seven minutes later.

Torrential rain threatened to flood the Nuremberg pitch in the first half and delayed the start of the second, but the hosts levelled on 62 minutes with a late header from defender Philipp Wollscheid.

“It certainly wasn’t boring,” said coach Thomas Schaaf. “We weakened our position with the sending off, but inspite of that we managed to score a goal.

“The team struggled afterwards, but they kept their discipline and under these conditions we deserved the point.”

The point leaves Bremen top on goal difference, and level on 13 points with Moenchengladbach, to leave Bayern just a point behind before Sunday’s game in Gelsenkirchen.

‘Gladbach kept up their impressive start to the season with a 1-0 win at bottom side Hamburg. Brazil-born Belgium striker Igor de Camargo got the crucial goal with a header on 66 minutes to knock Bayern down to third.

Hamburg remain rooted to the bottom of the table with one point from six

games as pressure grows on coach Michael Oenning.

Having lost 2-0 at Chelsea in their opening Champions League game on Tuesday, Bayer Leverkusen were dismantled by Cologne as Germany striker Lukas Podolski and Slovakian forward partner Milivoje Novakovic ran riot in a 4-1 victory.

“Cologne deserved the win, it was an indisputable effort,” said Leverkusen coach Robin Dutt. “The defeat is hard to take for me and there will be marked words said to the squad.”

While Novakovic scored the opening goal after being set up by Podolski, the Slovakian then turned provider to set up both of his teammate’s goals as Cologne took a 3-0 lead after 54 minutes.

Leverkusen captain Simon Rolfes pulled a goal back, but things got worse for coach Robin Dutt when he saw Germany winger Andre Schuerrle sent off for a heavy tackle on defender Christian Eichner just before Novakovic and Podolski combined to set up midfielder Mato Jajalo for the fourth goal on 90 minutes.

The defeat leaves Leverkusen sixth in the table and lifts Cologne to 12th.

Yesterday night Kaiserslautern got their first win of the season when they beat Mainz 3-1 while Hoffenheim earned a 2-1 win at home to Wolfsburg to go fourth.

Bundesliga new boys Hertha Berlin and Augsburg, who both won promotion from the second division last season, played out a 2-2 draw at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

Defending champions Borussia Dortmund need a win at Hanover on Sunday to stay in touch with the leaders as they remain mid-table after two defeats in their opening five league games.—AFP

Roma’s substitute keeper Bogdan Lobont.

In the 36th, Inter’s Japan fullback Yuto Nagatomo shot wide from an angle, and Julio Cesar did well to shut down an effort from Osvaldo in the 46th. In the 50th, Inter playmaker Wesley Sneijder placed a perfect free kick across Roma’s area but Milito headed it wide.

Gasperini replaced Milito with fellow Argentine Mauro Zarate in the 58th and the forward evaded two defenders before launching a powerful shot wide six minutes later.

Zarate provided a spark for Inter and set up Sneijder in the center of the area in the 86th but the Netherlands international had his shot cleared off the line

by Roma defender Simon Kjaer.

In Sardinia, Brazilian forward Thiago Ribeiro gave Cagliari the lead with a header in the 38th and Argentine forward Joaquin Larrivey doubled the lead in the 86th with a deflection off a shot from captain Daniele Conti.

Japan forward Takayuki Morimoto pulled one back for Novara in the 88th with a lob from outside the area.

Novara, which is back in the top division for the first time in 55 years, has one point. Many Cagliari fans heeded a call from club president Massimo Cellino and wore purple to ward off bad luck, since the match was played on the 17th day of the month and 17 is considered an unlucky number in Italy. The purple may have worked, as Cagliari has a full six points. “It’s a great starting point,” said Cagliari midfielder Davide Biondini.—AP

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Sunderland v Stoke ..............................15:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 6 Tottenham v Liverpool ........................15:30 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 Fulham v Man City ................................17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 4 Man United v Chelsea ..........................18:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 Spanish League Getafe v Vallecano .............................. 13:00 Al Jazeera Sport +2 Zaragoza v Espanyol ........................... 17:00 Al Jazeera Sport +2 Atletico v Racing ..................................19:00 Al Jazeera Sport +2 Al Jazeera Sport 2 HD Levante v Real Madrid ..........................21:00 Al Jazeera Sport +2 Al Jazeera Sport 2 HD Bilbao v Betis .........................................23:00 Al Jazeera Sport +5 Italian League A Atalanta v Palermo ...............................13:30 Al Jazeera Sport +1 Udinese v Fiorentina ............................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +6 Al Jazeera Sport 2 HD Siena v Juventus ...................................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +1 Parma v Chievo.....................................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +2 Lazio v Genoa .......................................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +7 Napoli v AC Milan .................................21:45 Al Jazeera Sport +1

Barcelona demolish Osasuna 8-0

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LONDON: Blackburn Rovers’ Serbian midfielder Radosav Petrovic (left) vies with Arsenal’s Ivorian forward Gervinho during the English Premier League football match. —AFP

Arsenal’s horror show continues Blackburn 4

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BLACKBURN: Ayegbeni Yakubu scored twice to turn up the heat on Arsene Wenger as Blackburn twice came from behind to defeat Arsenal 4-3 at Ewood Park yesterday.

Blackburn fans marched before kickoff demanding the removal of manager Steve Kean after a poor run of form. But they were celebrating by the end as Blackburn leapfrogged Arsenal in the table after a Yakubu-inspired victory, the Nigerian striker unwanted by Everton but eager to prove he can still cut it at this level. It leaves Arsenal with just four points

from their opening five games and means Wenger’s side have now conceded 12 goals in the last two away games in the Premier League.

The defeat also exposed the frailty in Arsenal’s defence, which conceded two own goals during a pulsating contest The Gunners had taken the lead on 10 minutes, Alex Song splitting the defence with a weighted pass to find Gervinho who rifled a low angled shot beyond Paul Robinson.

But despite dominating play Arsenal were unable to add to their lead and were rocked on 25 minutes when Yakubu conjured a goal out of nothing, picking up David Hoilett’s pass to finish beyond the advancing Wojciech Szczesny.

However Arsenal were back in front within nine minutes, when new signing Mikel Arteta opened his account for the club, sweeping in Aaron Ramsey’s cross with aplomb to put Arsenal 2-1 up.

Yet with the game under control, the defensive brittleness which has become Arsenal’s hallmark in recent seasons reared its head early in the second half.

There appeared to be little danger Ruben Rochina chipped in an innocuous free-kick from near the right-hand side of the penalty box, but Arsenal’s failure to clear cost them dear as Song diverted the ball into his own net.

Sensing Arsenal’s unease, Blackburn ramped up the pressure and on 59 minutes they took the lead after another set piece. A Hoilett corner found Steven Nzonzi at the far side of the area, and the Frenchman lashed a shot towards the sixyard box which was turned in by Yakubu for the Nigerian striker’s second of the match. A wretched afternoon for Arsenal got even worse on 69 minutes when a swift counter-attack down the right saw Martin Olsson burst clear.

The Swedish international accelerated

past Johan Djourou before beating Alex Song and cutting back into the six-yard area where Laurent Koscielny steered into his own net for the second own goal of the match.

Substitute Marouane Chamakh raised Arsenal’s hopes of a comeback when he headed in on 85 minutes as the Londoners laid siege to the Blackburn goal. Robin Van Persie had a close-range effort well saved by Robinson while both Chamakh and Per Mertesacker should have hit the target with headed chances.

Theo Walcott might have had legitimate claims for a penalty when he was bundled over by Robinson, but Rovers were not to be denied their first win of the season.

Meanwhile, there still appears to be no light at the end of a very long tunnel for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger after his side lost 4-3 at Blackburn Rovers to leave them with just four points from a possible

Norwich hang on for first EPL win Bolton 1

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BOLTON: Two first-half goals proved enough for Norwich City to record their first win of the Premier League season, a 2-1 success away to 10-man Bolton Wanderers yesterday.

Anthony Pilkington and Bradley Johnson struck for the Canaries, before Ivan Klasnic was sent off for the home side as the interval approached.

Martin Petrov reduced the deficit from the penalty spot just after the hour, and the visitors had goalkeeper John Ruddy to thank for a crucial save to deny David Ngog deep in stoppage time. Paul Lambert’s side move above Bolton in the table and on to five points, but there is no respite for Owen Coyle’s men, who have now lost four league games on the bounce since a comprehensive 4-0 win at QPR on the opening day.

The hosts had been beaten 5-0 at home by Manchester United last weekend, but would have been hopeful of getting back to winning ways against promoted Norwich.

Norwich had not won in Bolton since 1982, when they triumphed at the old Burnden Park, and they had not won an away game in the Premier League since 1994.

However, they started the brighter of the two teams, and Jussi Jaaskelainen was forced into saves from an Elliott Bennett snapshot and a Russell Martin header.

A goal appeared to be a only a matter of time in coming, and it arrived eight minutes before the break when a corner came to Leon Barnett at the back post.

He diverted the ball back towards goal, where Pilkington was on hand to turn it home.

Bolton had barely recovered from that blow when Johnson rose to head a cross from the right-hand side low past Jaaskelainen.

Norwich then seemed to have the game wrapped up once Klasnic was shown a straight red card by Howard Webb for appearing to head-butt Marc Tierney.

Coyle responded by sending on Chris Eagles and Ngog for the second half and the latter won a penalty when he was brought down in the box by Barnett.

Bulgarian winger Petrov made no mistake from the spot, but Norwich held on fairly comfortably after that. Ruddy was only required to save the day once, denying Ngog seconds before the full-time whistle, as the Norfolk club’s long wait for away-day glory finally came to an end.—AFP

15 in the Premier League.

Wenger, who marks 15 years in charge of the club next month, has rarely experienced a run as bad as this in all that time.

Since losing to Birmingham City in last season’s League Cup final in February, Arsenal have won just three of 16 league matches, and along the way have lost two of their most charismatic and important players, Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City.

Yesterday’s defeat keeps the pressure squarely on his shoulders, but at least lifted it from Rovers’ boss Steve Kean after fans called for him to be sacked before the match. An indication of the malaise in the Arsenal side was well illustrated at Ewood Park. Twice they led, 1-0 and 2-1, yet conceded two own goals in the second half and ended up beaten by a Rovers side who had not won in the league and started the day bottom of the table.

Wenger, whose last trophy at Arsenal

was the 2005 FA Cup, came under pressure from fans for the first time last season, and that will intensify after they lost for the third time in five league matches despite having far more chances and possession than Rovers.

He told the BBC afterwards: “We had so many chances in the game and on top of that we scored two own goals so it is unbelievable to understand, but we have to take it on the chin.

“At the moment defensively we are fragile because our confidence is gone due what happened at Old Trafford.”

Arsenal lost 8-2 to Manchester United three weeks ago-the first time they had conceded eight in a match since 1896 — which prompted the Frenchman to uncharacteristically swoop for players on the last day of the transfer window when he brought in Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun and defender Andre Santos.—Agencies

Magpies hold Villa Aston Villa 1

Newcastle 1

LONDON: Bolton Wanderers’ Ivan Klasnic receives a red card after an incident with Norwich City’s Marc Tierney during the English Premier League soccer match.—AP

BIRMINGHAM: Leon Best denied Gabriel Agbonlahor the perfect end to his 200th Aston Villa start as Newcastle earned a 1-1 draw at Villa Park yesterday to preserve both teams’ unbeaten records. Agbonlahor had given Villa the lead with his third goal of the campaign early in the contest as he boosted his hopes of an England recall just days after accusing former manager Gerard Houllier of “killing” his international prospects following a season on the periphery.

France international Yohan Cabaye hit the crossbar early in the second half for the Magpies and a minute later Best fired in to earn them a deserved point. It left Alan Pardew’s team with nine points from their first five games, two ahead of Alex McLeish’s Villa. Both sides made one change, with Barry Bannan drafted in for the injured Emile Heskey, while Demba Ba replaced Shola Ameobi up front for the Magpies.

Bannan, who was utilised wide on the right, took just three minutes to demonstrate his passing prowess with a clever lofted pass that sent Agbonlahor streaking through, but Tim Krul was quickly off his line to avert the danger.

However, Newcastle were unfortunate not to go ahead in the seventh minute when Republic of Ireland international Best released Cabaye 25 yards from goal and his low drive swerved inches past the left post. Shay Given, up against his former team, had to be alert to prevent Gabriel Obertan’s intended cross from creeping under the Villa crossbar.

But it was Villa who took the lead against the run of play after 13 minutes. Fabio Coloccini did well to block Agbonlahor’s volley from Bannan’s cross but the ball fell kindly for the striker and he squeezed a low shot underneath Krul. Villa were comfortably in the ascendancy at this stage and they should have doubled their advantage in the 26th minute following a slick passing move. Another former Newcastle player, Charles N’Zogbia, sent Stiliyan Petrov clean through down the left channel and the Villa skipper unselfishly squared to the unmarked Bent, only for the England striker’s usually reliable predatory instincts to desert him.

Given reminded the visiting supporters why he was such a hero for the Magpies when he made an excellent reflex save to turn Steven Taylor’s volley around the post as half-time approached. The excellent Agbonlahor picked up where he left off upon the resumption when he outmuscled Taylor 15 yards from goal, however his low drilled shot crept agonisingly beyond the right post. Pardew’s side always looked capable of a goal, though, and they could barely have come closer when Cabaye rattled the crossbar with a rasping 25-yard drive in the 56th minute. —AFP

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FRANKFURT: Visitors look at a Ferrari car (front) displayed at the Italian carmaker Fiat stand as the international Frankfurt motor show IAA (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung) opened to the public in Frankfurt yesterday. The world’s biggest motor show, the IAA, runs to September 25, 2011. — AFP

Europe hits back after US jibe on debt Geithner spat spoils talks WROCLAW, Poland: Europe hit back yesterday at US lecturing over its public finances and debt record, insisting the euro-zone was better off than comparable global rivals. “Taken as a whole, it is probably better than other major advanced economies,” European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said at the close of talks in Poland among European Union finance ministers.

Discussions were marred on Friday by a spat with guest US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who prodded the eurozone to take quick action. As more than 12,000 workers from around Europe swarmed the streets of Wroclaw to protest against EU-ordered austerity, Trichet described the medium-term prospects as “quite encouraging if you compare with other major advanced economies.”

He tipped a combined year-end, annual deficit of 4.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product-whereas the United States expects its public deficit to reach 8.8 percent this year. By the time you factor in “superior” cumulative debt levels elsewhere, Trichet said the overall euro-zone outlook was therefore not as endangered as some others. Credit rating giant Standard & Poor’s stunned leaders when it downgraded the US long-term credit rating last month.

Even before sparring with Geithner on Friday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had highlighted the United States as carrying the world’s heaviest debt burden.

And that was despite a new plan to chop at least $1.2 trillion (870 billion euros) over 10 years off the runaway total logged on an infamous Times Square debt clock in New York City.

Trichet added that “mistakes made” by “individual countries” in the euro-zone, led

by Greece with creditors sweating over some 360 billion euros and counting, are “being corrected.”

Hosts Poland, which holds current EU

• euro-zone outlook better off: Trichet

Geithner urged euro-zone leaders to bolster a 440-billion-euro rescue fund for troubled member states, but saw that demand instantly rebuffed by Schaeuble.

Germany instead demanded Washington drop its opposition to a wished-for global

WROCLAW: President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet (left) talks with President of National Bank of Poland Marek Belka during a press conference after morning session during the Informal Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Wroclaw yesterday.—AFP presidency, took the decision to invite Geithner, in a sign of spiraling global concerns. “Governments and central banks need to take out the catastrophic risk to markets,” Geithner said in Wroclaw, although Washington later denied he was writing “prescriptions” for Europe.

financial transactions tax-”emphatically” resisted by Geithner, according to Austria’s Maria Fekter.

“Yes, it’s better to organize something on financial transactions on the worldwide level, but it’s impossible,” Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said yesterday.

“We will do that within the European Union, and maybe also if it’s impossible for the entire EU in the euro-zone,” he added.

Europeans have sought to implement either a tax on profits or turnover from the financial sector since governments were forced to bail out banks caught up in the 2008 credit crunch that started in the United States.

Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said the internal EU debate “raised a lot of emotions” and outlined “considerable divisions.” But Schaeuble said after the talks closed that he is no longer “that pessimistic,” adding “the arguments are changing.” EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier maintained that such a tax was “simple” to install, “liveable with” for the financial sector and “politically just,” as the EU executive readies new proposals for lawmakers in the coming weeks.

Ministers from the 27 EU states cut short their last day of talks in the southwestern Polish city before the protesters’ planned march. At the talks, euro-zone nations decided to postpone until October a decision on whether to hand over the next tranche of an agreed emergency loan package to Greece-the euro-zone member in the eye of the debt storm-worth eight billion euros.

Renewed aid for Greece, after an earlier bailout proved insufficient, has been mired in rows with Finland over its demand for collateral for loan guarantees, and with Slovakia which has threatened to delay parliamentary ratification. “We have to continue the negotiations,” Finland’s Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said. Asked if there had been progress, she responded: “There’s nothing new.” —AFP

UAE Aug inflation slows to 18-month low, seen down DUBAI: Inflation in the United Arab Emirates eased to an 18-month low of 0.6 percent year-on-year in August and prices edged down slightly from the previous month helped by a fall in housing costs, data showed yesterday.

Annual inflation in the world’s No 4 oil exporter had slowed to 1.3 percent in July, after an inflow of new units pushed rents down and as bank lending remained slow after last year’s Dubai debt woes.

In August, consumer prices fell 0.1 percent month-on-month after a 0.2 decrease in the previous month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics

showed.

Housing costs, at 39 percent the largest consumer expense, fell 0.7 percent on a monthly basis in August due to the weak property market. Food prices in the UAE, the second largest Arab economy after Saudi Arabia, rose 0.5 percent in August, much lower than during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan last year as the country introduced price controls and subsidies.

“Both trends-decline in rents and rise in food prices should continue for a little longer,” said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

“Inflation will remain contained in low

single digits this year and even next year but there will be an upside next year,” he said. Food prices usually rise sharply during Ramadan, which ended in August, as families enjoy more elaborate evening meals after breaking their daylight fast.

They jumped 2.7 percent month-onmonth in September 2010, when Ramadan ended in the first half of the month.

The UAE, which has escaped the public protests that have rocked nearby Bahrain, Oman and Yemen, said in May it would fix the cost of about 400 foodstuffs and household products until the end of the year. It also called on retailers

to offer discounts of up to 50 percent during Ramadan.

UAE Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed Al-Mansouri said in May he expected inflation between 1 and 1.5 percent this year. Analysts polled by Reuters expected average inflation of 2.5 percent in 2011 after 0.9 percent last year, which was the lowest annual level since the Gulf war started 1990.

A survey showed this month that growth in UAE private sector business activity plunged to a 15-month low in August and selling prices fell in August after eight successive months of output price inflation. — Reuters

Pressure mounts on UBS bosses over $2bn fraud GENEVA: Pressure mounted on top managers of Swiss banking giant UBS yesterday, after it lost $2 billion due to rogue trading. The bank’s honorary chairman Nikolaus Senn told Swiss German television late Friday that he doubted that chief executive Oswald Gruebel could stay after the debacle.

Senn said that adequate checks were not implemented and criticized Gruebel for his over-reliance on the controls system to uncover problems, instead of going to get a proactive grip on the situation.

“I don’t know how many times Oswald Gruebel flew to London in order to understand from the managers on site what was going on,” Senn said. Swiss tabloid Blick meanwhile questioned “why are the UBS bosses staying silent if they have the situation under control?” In a report published yesterday, it quoted an unnamed trader from a private bank saying that the bank may be keeping mum because some of the unauthorized trades have yet to be wound up. “Whoever knows these open positions can destroy UBS,” claimed the trader. A British court on Friday remanded equities trader Kweku Adoboli in custody over the alleged fraud. The bank had announced the massive loss through unauthorized trading just hours after Adoboli was arrested at UBS’s London offices at 3:30 am (0230 GMT) on Thursday. — AFP

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KFH meets requirements of Capital Market Authority law KUWAIT: Kuwait Finance House (KFH) announced that it has completed all the requirements for the law of establishing the Capital Market Authority (CMA) Number (7) for year 2010, before the legal grace period ends.

Acting CEO Emad Al-Thaqeb said that he submitted all documents and registrations that prove that KFH abides by the law to the concerned authorities at the CMA while the supervisory authorities have been shifted to the authority.

He mentioned that as a leading Islamic financial institution, KFH has been keen to abide by the regulations of the supervisory authorities, especially that those authorities aim to organize the market and protect the interests of shareholders and investors. He went on to say that KFH looks forward to cooperating with the CMA and other supervisory authorities, in order to achieve goals that serve the national economy.

Moreover, he expressed KFH’s confidence in the CMA’s ability to shoulder its supervisory responsibilities, since it

Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons hosts forum KUWAIT: The ME Lexus Marketing Forum was held for Lexus distributors in the GCC and the Middle East and was hosted by Mohamed Nasser Al-Sayer & Sons Co, the forum’s agenda was to cover the subject of marketing the luxurious Lexus brand, and to exchange experiences on that front, it was held on the 11th of September, 2011, at the major auditorium in the company’s head office.

The ME Lexus Marketing Forum was held for the second consecutive year in a GCC country, and conducted its activities under the sponsorship and in the presence of Chief Executive of the Cars Group at MNSS Mubarak Al-Sayer, also attended from MNSS all the departments’ GMs, and the senior executives of Toyota Motor Corporation.

At the conference Mubarak Al-Sayer welcomed the guests and the attendees, while highlighting the activities of the forum and the new marketing concepts to be discussed, and setting the time for accompanying the guest on a tour to the new Lexus Center.

This Lexus marketing forum is focused on becoming a business model for promoting the luxurious Lexus as a brand of superiority in the automotive industry in the GCC and ME. Attendees also focused during round table discus-

sion on cutting edge network marketing strategies while discussing issues specific to pricing and unified marketing strategies.

In his speech Mubarak Al Sayer pointed out that Kuwait is a pioneer in providing ultimate services to Lexus customers, Kuwait being the land of

the largest integrated and luxurious Lexus center, then he accompanied the guests to a tour in Lexus center located in Shuwaikh, where all observed and explored all aspects of the facility and the services provided to the public and customers.

Statement by National Bank of Kuwait

flydubai scores hat trick in Ukraine ahead of Euro 2012

flydubai CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith and Boris Kolesnikov, Vice Prime Minister for Ukraine, Minister of Infrastructure and Chairman of UEFA Euro 2012.

flydubai CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith arrives in Ukraine.

KIEV: flydubai, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, last week launched flights to Kiev, Kharkiv and Donetsk as part of its commitment to open up routes previously underserved by direct air links to the UAE. Representing its entry into Ukraine, the three new routes bring flydubai’s total operational network to 44 destinations across the GCC, Middle East, Africa, Indian subcontinent, Asia and the fringes of Europe and pave the way for UAE football fans looking to travel to Ukraine for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2012. flydubai’s inaugural flights to Ukraine’s capital Kiev and its second major city Kharkiv took off from Dubai on Friday 16th September at 0900hrs and 0910hrs respectively. They were then followed by the airline’s first flight to the eastern-city of Donetsk, which took off yesterday at 0900hrs, also departing from Terminal 2 at Dubai International Airport.

The inaugural flights were celebrated at official ceremonies held at the international airports of each city, at which senior flydubai and Ukraine state officials, including the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Boris Kolesnikov and flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith, were present.

Al Ghaith, said he was proud that the lowcost airline had become the first Middle Eastern airline to operate direct services to Kiev, Kharkiv and Donetsk and that the new routes would herald a new era of prosperity between the Middle East and Ukraine. “This is an historic week for flydubai and illustrates the scale of our ambition to expand into emerging markets, as well as our firm commitment to Ukraine.

“The welcome we have received from the authorities here has been extremely warm and the facilities at the airports in Kiev, Kharkiv and Donetsk are undergoing significant improvement to ensure they become world class. I would like to personally thank everyone who has been involved in making

flydubai’s flights to Ukraine a reality for their generous support and professionalism. I am confident our Ukrainian routes will be very popular with travellers across the region wishing to explore the crossroads of Europe and Russia.

Boris Kolesnikov, Vice Prime Minister for Ukraine, Minister of Infrastructure and Chairman of UEFA Euro 2012, said: “Our infrastructure development for UEFA Euro 2012 is well underway and includes heavy investment in aviation to accommodate the increased traffic expected during the games and beyond. Attracting quality airlines is key to our strategy and we delighted to welcome flydubai here today. flydubai offers high quality affordable direct flights which will definitely stimulate traffic between our two countries.

“Visitors to the Ukraine will find much to enjoy here. Extensive cultural experiences, wonderful Ukrainian food, beautiful buildings and scenery, great sporting events and seasonal weather to ensure travellers can enjoy summer sun and winter snow. We look forward to welcoming the new visitors flydubai will bring to Ukraine as well as to exploring the new opportunities for business these flights will offer between the Ukraine and the UAE.” AS a bridge between Europe and Russia, Ukraine earns its title as the eighth most visited country in the world largely due to its location. It has long been a popular tourist and transit spot with the country’s strong roots in European and Russian history but has forged a unique identity, offering tourists a distinctive adventure, cultural and leisure experience.

Ukraine also has a strong sporting pedigree, with a number of matches from next year’s UEFA Euro 2012 being played in all three cities. The final will be held at Kiev’s Olympic Stadium.

Acting CEO Emad Al-Thaqeb

includes competent employees and high technical abilities. He applauded the supervisory role of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) during the past years, which shielded the market and national institutions during challenging economic circumstances.

In response to an article published in Al-Seyassah newspaper (issue number 15410, 17 September, 2011), making reference to the National Bank of Kuwait and another Kuwaiti financial institution regarding dealing in derivatives, National Bank of Kuwait states the following; 1. NBK does not engage in any derivative trading at all and has no exposure whatsoever to these instruments.

2. What has been published yesterday

is complete fabrication and totally erroneous and amounts to false rumor which could affect the bank’s reputation.

3. The report that has been published yesterday threatens the national security of Kuwait because of the effect it has on the banking sector and economy of Kuwait, and the damage done to the reputation of the country’s banks abroad.

The National Bank of Kuwait will take all necessary legal actions.

Burgan Bank to hold its first new Yawmi draw KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced that it will host its new Yawmi account draw during the week. The new Yawmi account was launched earlier with new key features that aim to provide customers more benefits, and an excellent opportunity to become daily winners of KD 5,000.

Burgan Bank has introduced new changes to its new Yawmi account that aim to strengthen its offering, and allow it to become more convenient, easier, and faster for customers to benefit from. With the relaunch of the new Yawmi account, the minimum period for customers to become eligible to enter the draw is 48 hours only. Customers will now be able to deposit KD 100 or equivalent only to enter the daily draw, and the coupon value to enter the draw stands at KD 10 instead only.

Burgan Bank encourages everyone to open a Yawmi account and/or increase their deposit to maximize their chances to become a daily winner. The more customers deposit, the higher the chances they receive of winning the draw. Opening a Yawmi account is simple, customers can visit their nearest Burgan Bank branch and receive all the details, or simply call the bank’s Call Center at 1804080 where customer service representatives will be delighted to assist with any ques-

tions on the Yawmi account or any of the bank’s products and services. Customers can also log on to Burgan Bank’s www.burgan.com for further information.

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

.2720000 .4310000 .3720000 .3090000 .2750000 .2790000 .0040000 .0020000 .0746180 .7269830 .3810000 .0700000 .7126750 .0040000 .0430000

.2790000 .4430000 .3820000 .3230000 .2840000 .2880000 .0072500 .0035000 .0753680 .7342900 .4010000 .0760000 .7198380 .0072000 .0530000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2748500 .2769500 .4331500 .4364590 .3747990 .3776630 .3114450 .3138240 .2774580 .2795780 .0503240 .0507090 .0409780 .0412910 .2811030 .2832510 .0352100 .0354790 .2205150 .2222000 .0035750 .0036020 .0000000 .0058310 .0000000 .0025250 .0000000 .0031800 .0000000 .0037430 .0748600 .0754320 .7293350 .7349080 .0000000 .3917260 .0733130 .0738730 .7141740 .7196310 .0000000 .0064410

US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.628 5.815 3.138 2.500 3.642 222.420 35.407 3.693 6.367 9.089 0.271 0.273

GCC COUNTRIES 73.576 75.811 716.640 732.830 75.129

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES 47.750 46.286 1.262 196.300 389.630 1.851 5.956 34.475

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 275.800 Euro 385.150 Sterling Pound 439.630 Canadian dollar 285.800 Turkish lire 154.860 Swiss Franc 317.740 Australian dollar 284.900 US Dollar Buying 276.000 GOLD 333.000 168.000 87.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL CASH 289.300 733.110 3.860 285.100 541.400 36.600 54.100 167.800 47.240 384.500 36.030 6.180 0.034 0.241 0.240 3.690 391.080 0.187 95.570 47.600 4.240

232.400 1.869 52.500 716.000 3.240 6.630 76.260 73.600 223.350 39.530 2.604 439.500 43.700 319.300 5.600 9.500 198.263 75.160 276.000 1.230

10 Tola

GOLD 1,870.880

230.900 715.820 3.155 6.375 75.830 73.600 223.350 39.530 2.502 437.500 317.800 5.600 9.290 75.060 275.600

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 437.500 275.600

Sterling Pound US Dollar

UAE Exchange Centre WLL

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees

New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

SELL DRAFT 287.800 733.110 3.693 283.600

223.400 46.314 383.000 35.880 5.830 0.033

Currency Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 289.71 284.38 320.57 383.65 438.54 3.65 3.699 5.803 2.503 3.639 3.178 75.02 733.08 46.31 392.10 716.26 76.00 73.59

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 389.610 0.186 95.570 3.650

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank

Selling Rate 276.000 279.785 435.690 378.510 312.620

Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

731.770 75.120 75.760 73.560 388.505 46.440 2.603 5.785 3.160 3.703 6.374 677.005 3.685 9.195 5.810 3.705 91.678

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Canadian Dollars

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 276.000 3.165 5.790 2.520 3.710 6.425 75.245 73.755 733.800 46.440 440.300 0.00003280 3.710 1.550 393.100 5.750 381.800 284.200

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 275.250 Euro 384.000 Pound Sterling 437.700 Canadian Dollar 279.700 Japanese Yen 3.625 Indian Rupee 5.810 Egyptian Pound 46.295 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.500 Bangladesh Taka 3.682 Philippines Peso 6.370 Pakistan Rupee 3.143 Bahraini Dinar 733.075 UAE Dirham 75.000 Saudi Riyal 73.525 *Rates are subject to change

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

business

Oil holds up amid global crisis, OPEC boosts supply NBK ECONOMIC REPORT

Lama Ataya, Chief Marketing Officer

Managing older subordinates Bayt.com report Maintaining a steep career climb is often a challenge for newly appointed young managers and their managerial success boils down to their ability to not only manage, but lead team members as well as ensure everyone is working towards the same strategic common goals. The fact that young managers may become responsible for older employees can lead to distress and unrest, but the truth is that there is no need to stress!

The Bayt.com Career Experts recommend young managers assess these 5 pieces of advice: 1. Be confident in your own abilities: This includes the fact that you have earned your stripes and deserve to be the boss. Many times, a young manager is mistakenly tempted to promptly dismiss an older team simply because he/she feels the team will overshadow his or her skills, expertise and know how. Instead think of the organisation’s benefit and recognize that you have been promoted for a very good reason.

2. Value the older team members’ experience in life and benefit from them as mentors: Older employees have naturally seen and done a lot and their wisdom and life experience should not be casually discounted.

Young managers will do well to win the respect and trust and confidence of their older subordinates by showing reciprocal trust and respect and confidence in their subordinates’ abilities. Many young managers are able to positively tap into abilities of their much more seasoned subordinates after recognizing them as invaluable mentors brimming with experiences to learn from. Show that you value their presence in your team and their experience and listen to/ask for their suggestions.

3. Create common goals: Regardless of the age difference between any leader and their team members, common goals need to be put in place in order to build a culture of trust and transparent communication. In other words, don’t only aim to be a sole visionary, but make sure all your team members share your vision and are willing to work with you towards achieving a common goal.

4. Show flexibility: Older employees might require a bit more flexibility than other employees, so you may need to handle them delicately at times. You do need their expertise and know-how so pay a closer attention to their needs (which could range from more flexible work arrangements to extra benefits such as special medical coverage for them and their families. Make sure your company is taking their needs into consideration).

5. Display calmness in times of challenge: Older employees often perceive the “young” managers as innovative and entrepreneurial, but when it comes to wise counsel and good judgement, they may sometimes get skeptical. Practice your poise and remain calm and confident - keep your voice steady and aim to maintain a relaxed body language even in difficult situations. Employees, young and old, want to rest assured their leader has good judgment and has things under control in the good and less than rosy times.

KUWAIT: Despite mounting concerns over the strength of the global economy, oil prices generally held up well through August and early September.

While the price of Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) did fall by nearly $10 per barrel (pb) to just under $100pb at the start of August, it had recovered almost all of these losses by month-end. The prices of key global oil benchmarks also rallied: West Texas Intermediate ( WTI) rose $10 to $89, while Brent had jumped $15 to $118 by early September - reaching a six week high. The resilience of oil prices might be linked to the following factors. First, oil supplies remain tight.

Although OPEC increased its supplies by 1.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) between April and July, the effect on prices has been limited for a number of reasons: it had been operating ‘behind the curve’ following the loss of Libyan crude earlier in the year; the increase has reduced OPEC ’s spare capacity, and therefore its abilit y to respond to future shocks; and at least part of the increase has been absorbed by a seasonal rise in domestic consumption in the Gulf states.

Also, a weakening global economy is expected to generate pressure for further loosening (or slower tightening) of monetary and fiscal policies around the world. In the shortterm at least, this may be providing support for commodities among investors and speculators. Gold for example, reached a record high of $1,900 per ounce in August, mostly on expectations of a fresh round of quantitative easing by central banks.

Oil demand outlook Global oil demand was already expected to be modest this year, and some analysts

have nudged their forecasts lower still. The CGES left its 2011 oil demand growth forecast at 0.9 mbpd (1.0%), but this was already one of the most pessimistic forecasts in the market.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), has reduced its 2011 forecast by 0.1 mbpd to 1.2 mbpd (1.4%), but concedes

so far. Production of the OPEC11 (i.e. excluding I raq) increased 431,000 bpd to 27.39 mbpd, mostly thanks to increases in Saudi Arabia and Angola. The three main Gulf OPEC producers - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE have now added a combined 1.46 mbpd since Januar y, almost offsetting the 1.53

possible by the end of 2012.

Outside OPEC, oil supplies are expected to rise by 0.8 to 1.0 mbpd this year, boosted by the release of nearly 165,000 bpd from the IEA’s strategic reserves and up to 0.5 mbpd in OPEC natural gas liquids, or NGLs. Projec ted non- OPEC supply increases for next year are slightly larger, at 1 to 1.5

that a weaker economic growth outcome could push down its oil demand growth forecast to 0.9 mbpd, the same as the CGES. Although oil demand slowed dramatically in mid-year, it expects some 2H 2011 support from an easing of special factors in China that reduced demand growth in 1H, plus stronger demand from reconstruction and power generation needs in Japan.

Analysts expec t demand growth of a stronger 1.3 to 1.6 mbpd in 2012, though once again, the CGES has a more pessimistic outlook.

mbpd lost from Libya.

Although aggregate OPEC output is likely to rise by 0.3 mbpd in 2011, the potential for further big jumps in OPEC supply is unclear. Most of the organization’s 3-4 mbpd of spare capacit y lies within Saudi Arabia. Yet Saudi output - at 9.7 mbpd in July - is at previously untested levels and possibly close to the maximum sustainable rate that the Saudi authorities are comfor table with. Libyan output is expected to return to the market only gradually and over a number of years.

Iraq may now offer the best hope for a substantial increase in medium-term supply, with a potential 0.3 mbpd coming on-stream by the end of this year and a fur ther 1 mbpd

mbpd, even before the impact of the IEA’s stock release is taken out.

Oil supply outlook Latest data shows that OPEC’s crude output continued to climb in July, reaching its highest point of the cycle

Price projections The overall changes in demand and supply in 2011 look likely to be of similar size, suggesting that market fundamentals will have remained more or less unchanged this year from last. Note, however, that supply needed to have exceeded demand this year to avoid a repeat of last year ’s stock draw, while OPEC’s manageable cushion of spare capacity has diminished - both bullish underlying signs. Our base case is for oil prices to dip further as the global economy slows, before stabilizing into nex t year. The price of KEC slides to under $100 pb early

NBK launches most advanced mobile banking application

Mazin Al Nahedh

KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) launched its free, most advanced mobile banking application for the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Blackberr y smar t devices. All NBK customers will easily and securely benefit from a wide range of banking services and products on their devices. NBK General Manager, Consumer Banking Group Mazin Saad AlNahedh said: “the new mobile banking application is aligned with NBK’s commitment to providing its customers with the best and most up-to-date banking services.

NBK Mobile banking is safe and easy to use, offering customers banking services

with the added convenience of their mobile devices. NBK is keen on developing services that meet demands and extend its reach to make banking more convenient for customers.

Al-Nahedh added: “This innovative application enables customers to easily and securely access their accounts to check balances, transfer funds, and make payments in-one quick view.

NBK customers can download NBK Mobile Banking on NBK.com or by logging into Watani Online. For assistance, customers can visit any of NBK’s branches or call Hala Watani at 1801801.

in 2012, but steadies there after, possibly with the help of modest cuts in OPEC output to ensure that oil prices remain high enough to sustain member governments’ budget spending plans.

In an alternative scenario, a downturn in 2H 2011 global economic growth - from a double-dip recession in OECD economies, for example reduces the growth in world oil demand to around 0.6 this year and 0.7 mbpd in 2012. In this case, the price of KEC would fall towards $70 pb at the star t of 2012, likely prompting a large cut in OPEC output during the first quarter of the year.

Higher prices, on the other hand, could result if aggressive policy measures in the developed world help to resuscitate economic growth and Europe and the US. This might add some 0.3 to 0.4 mbpd to oil demand growth in 2011 and 2012, respec tively. With no meaningful change in OPEC output, the price of KEC could jump from $114 in 3Q 2011 to above $135 by 1Q 2012.

Budget projections The three oil price scenarios described above would generate average oil prices within the wide band of $92 and $121 per barrel for FY2011/12, a 12%-47% increase on a year earlier. All three prices are substantially higher than the $60 pb used in the Kuwaiti government’s budget projections. If as we expect, spending comes in at 5-10% below the government’s forecast, the budget could see a surplus of between KD 4.0 billion and KD13.6 billion before allocations to the Reser ve Fund for Future Generations. This surplus is in contrast to a budgeted deficit of KD6 billion, and would represent Kuwait’s 13th successive budget surplus.

Iran official sees West’s troubles curbing oil price TEHRAN: Iran says international crude oil prices will not rise with the onset of the cold season due to the continuing global economic slump, state broadcaster IRIB quoted an official yesterday as saying.

“Due to the existing economic crisis, it is predicted that this year no significant changes happen in the oil price by the onset of the cold season,” said Iran’s OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi. Khatibi said there were indications that lingering financial crisis in some Western countries would lead to a drop in oil demand.

“The drop in demand in recent weeks has been to the extent that some non-OPEC producing countries were compelled to lower their output in proportion to the drop in demand,” Khatibi said. Iran, a leading price hawk inside OPEC, holds the rotating presidency of the group. At the last OPEC meeting, on Jun. 8, it successfully opposed a push led by Saudi Arabia to raise output quotas, leading the Saudis to increase production unilaterally, a move strongly criticized by Tehran. —Reuters

Saudi Jubail refinery to open Dec 2013 RIYADH: Saudi Aramco Total Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (Satorp) expects its new refinery at Jubail in Saudi Arabia to be fully operational in December 2013, the joint venture’s chief executive said yesterday.

State -run Saudi Aramco and France’s Total are building the $14-billion Jubail facility as part of a push by the world’s top oil exporter to almost double its refining capacity. “Overall Engineering, Procurement and Construction work at the refinery is 68 percent complete,” Fawwaz Nawwab, CEO of Satorp, told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Nawwab said that although the refinery was designed to process 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), Saudi Aramco had committed to supply it with up to 440,000 bpd for 30 years.

Jubail will refine Saudi heavy crude into a range of fuels from gasoline to petroleum coke-for domestic consumption and export. Around 54 percent of the project’s output will be diesel and jet fuel with an estimated quantity of 11.4 million tons a year.

Annual regular gasoline and pet-

coke production is estimated to be around 2.8 million tons and 2.1 million tons respectively, said Nawwab, adding that export of these products will depend on seasonal demand within the kingdom.

“Demand fluctuates with the season how much of the production goes to local versus international market depends on demand.” Saudi Arabia heavily subsidises fuel, however Nawwab said that Satorp would still sell its products to Aramco at international prices, Aramco would then bear the costs of re-selling to the domestic market at discounted rates. “For Satorp, we sell at international price both to Total and Aramco that is the case by the way for other joint venture refineries in Saudi Arabia,” he told reporters. The joint venture is set to issue up to 3.75 billion Saudi riyals ($1 bln) in Islamic bonds to help pay for it . However no decision was made on when an initial public offering (IPO) would be launched. “The sponsors are committed to maintain their combined equity ownership of 75 pct in the project,” said Nawwab. — Reuters

Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive launches much-awaited giant promotion On the occasion of the up-and-coming camping season, Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive launched the highly anticipated offer on the Chevrolet Silverado starting at KD 5,555. Known for its popularity amongst the youth, the powerful Silverado is the ultimate car to have for every season.

The offer is also extended to other Chevrolet vehicles including the Tahoe starting at KD 9,999, Avalanche starting at KD 9,999 and Suburban starting at KD 11,444. The Chevrolet Silverado is an expressively powerful pick-up available as a regular, extended and crew cab in three different trim levels WT, LT and LTZ - and in two and four-wheel drive versions. The Silverado is available with a 4.8-liter V8 with 335 hp and a 5.3-liter V8 with Active Fuel

Management, generating 355 hp. The Silverado is also available in 2500HD and 3500HD series with a 6.0-liter V8 engine that generates 360 hp. The Chevrolet Tahoe encapsulates a sharp driving experience with a powerful 5.3-liter V8 engine, generating 320 hp at 5,400 rpm and 505 Nm of torque at 4,600 rpm with segment-leading fuel efficiency. The Chevrolet Tahoe is available in three trim levels - LS, LT and LTZ - with two and four-wheel drive models.

The Chevrolet Avalanche offers the flexibility of an SUV and pick up and provides an exciting driving experience. Powered by a 5.3-liter V8 engine generating 310 HP. For those looking for a capable, safe and comfortable ride during long drives, the Chevrolet Suburban is the best choice with its 5.3-

liter V8 engine with 320 HP or 6.0-liter and V8 engine with 352 HP in two and four-wheel drive models.

Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive adds the finishing touch to the ownership experience with highquality after-sales services. With the world’s biggest and most advanced automotive service center, customers can rest assured that vehicles’ service and maintenance needs will be fulfilled.

Whether you choose a Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe, Avalanche or Suburban, you are guaranteed to enjoy a car that suits your lifestyle and family needs. Grab this offer that is for a limited period and pass by the any of Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive showrooms to drive off in the Chevrolet vehicle that best fits your needs today.

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BUSINESS

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

KSE resilient, key index recovers KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed last week strong purchasing transactions contributed to the recovery of its main index to the 6,000 point psychological level once again, after being lost beginning of last August. The purchasing power included many operational and leading stocks, especially of banking and service sectors.

The stock market was supported by the buy and hold operations on some service sector stocks, due to some rumors and positive news concerning a number of listed companies, which gave a partial confidence to the traders and moved them to selective acquisition transactions that enhanced market gains.

On the other hand, the market was activated as it is getting close to the end of the third quarter of this year. Some portfolios and funds wish to support its investments in the market, and enhance its financial results before the end of the period by switching positions and collection operations for stocks of positive expected results.

By the end of the week, the KSE market closed

BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT in green zone. The price index closed at 6,027.1 points, up by 1.08%, whereas the weighted index recorded gains of 1.19% after closing at 421.53 points compared to the previous closing.

Moreover, last week’s average daily turnover was up by 77.71%, whereas trading volume average recorded a growth of 49.03%.

All of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone except for one sector. Last week’s highest gainer was the Real Estate sector, achieving 3.69% growth rate as its index closed at 2,085.3 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Investment sector’s index closed at 3,762.4 points recording 1.98% increase. The Services companies sector came in third as its index achieved 0.88% growth, ending the week at 13,784.7 points. The Non Kuwait companies sector was the least growing as its index closed at 5,675.5 points with a 0.15% increase. On the other hand, the banks sec-

tor was last week’s only loser as its index declined by 0.51% to end the week’s activity at 11,801.5 points.

Sectors’ activity The Investment sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 410.19 million shares changing hands, representing 32.84% of the total market trading volume. The Services sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 25.61% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 319.86 million shares. On the other hand, the Services sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 47.17 million or 30.50% of last week’s total market trading value. The Banks sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 35.63 million represented 23.04% of the total market trading value.

Market capitalization KSE total market capitalization grew by 1.11% during last week to reach KD 29.65 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitalization except for one sector.

The Industry sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 2.34 billion, increasing by 2.84%. The Real Estate sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 2.74% increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 1.71 billion. The third place was for the Services sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 7.55 billion by the end of the week, recording an increase of 2.40%. The food sector was the least growing with 0.06% recorded growth after its market capitalization amounted to KD 715.47 million. On the other hand, the Banks sector was last week’s only decliner as its total market capitalization decreased by 0.29% to reach, by the end of the week, KD 12.96 billion.

For further details, please visit our web site: www.bayaninvest.com.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

business

China’s Wen pledges to step up inflation fight Prices spiral puts pressure on government

Father of the winner of the first prize of KD 125,000 minor Shaikha Al Shemeri receives the prize from NBK head office Branch Manager Ahmed Al Essa.

Shaikha Al Shemeri wins KD 125,000 NBK’s top Al-Jawhara prize KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently announced the names of the Al-Jawhara draw prize winners for the month of September 2011 which was conducted at NBK’s head office.

The first prize of KD 125,000 went to Shaikha Abdulaziz Sadoun Al Shemeri, while the second place winner Mohamad Moustafa Dhaher received KD 7,500. The third winner Khaled Yousef Saleh Altowaitan was awarded KD 3,000 and the remaining 97 winners were awarded KD 400 each.

Father of the first prize winner of KD 125,000 Minor Shaikha Abdulaziz Al Shemeri said that several years ago, he opened Al-Jawhara account for his daughter for saving purposes, and winning the grand prize was unexpected and a pleasant surprise for the family.

Al-Jawhara account offers numerous benefits to NBK customers. It is not only an interestfree account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, but also automatically entitles account holders to enter the monthly Al-Jawhara draw. Each KD 50 in an Al-Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance at winning any one of the 100 prizes allocated for each draw. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in your Al-Jawhara account, the greater your chances of winning. Al-Jawhara accounts are available for both Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait. For further information kindly visit www.nbk.com, or call Hala Watani at 1801801.

AL JAWHARA WINNERS September 2011 Sr.# Cert. No. Name of Customer

Prize

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Min Shaikha Abdulaziz Sadoun Al Shemeri Mohamad Moustafa Dhaher Khaled Yousef Saleh Altowaitan Basel Mustafa Alminawi Hussain Ali Mohamed Algharib Enaya Mohamed Brakat Mahmoud Ali Salem Alsalem Saad Mobark Someaa Alhobedah Wael Mansour Abdulla Almansour Alexander Doubikaitiss Elham Abass Fahad Taqi Latifah Hamad Mohammad Alfozan Tanoeer Ahmad Mohd Abdulrhida Mohd Almosawi Mohd Iqbal Mushtaq Ahmad Saleh Majed Fares Khamis Alshreifee Haji Ghuloom Ali Alnadaf Hussain Jaleel Ibraheem Mohammed Amenah Ahmed Basher Hamdeya Mohamad Motar Alrashidi Fawziya Taher Hussain Aljaafar Min Layan Ahmed Hamza Al Hadad Susan Renee Sakkez Kobra Abbas Glom Hajia Sameair Ashour Mohammad Alshaeer Mariam Jasem Mohd Majiki Awatef Jumaa Ali Haidar Ghanimh Ahmad Alomar Alomar Osama Mohd Atiya Hamed Refaey Ali Abdulla Hussain Almaqsid Kattunilathu Geevarghese Geevarghese K T Geevarghese Fahed Abdulrahman Khalil Shaikha Mohd Hamad Al Zaabi Suliman Hajiya Mohammad Hasan Habeb Yagoub Yousef Bu Abbas Rakan Hameed Jameel Alqassab Min Talal Fahad Al Mashaan Shaaban Mohammed Khalf Alanezi Nijat Parween Mohamed Aaqel Kokr Amina Arshad Hussain Ali Sekarani Aishah Ali Mubarak Almutiri Shamlan Abdulaziz Mohd Alroumi Fatemah A Alredha Mohd Alsheik Min Husain Anwar Husain Juma Shaban Mirza Sameha Mahammed Abduldayem Mandor Abdelmouneim Ismail Awad Hussein Laila Abdullah Gandomi Farea Ahmad Mohammad Alsaqaf Maysoon Rashoud Hamad Alrashoud Mohammad Eejaz Baber Abdulghafoor Tawfiq Abdulwahed Shehab Alkalbi Eatedal Abdu;Sattar Abdulwahab Almomen Salem Abdullah Eid Alrasheedi Fahad Mohammad Mishari Al Bader Ali Ghamlas Ali Alkhuraineg Abdulla Abdelrahim Habib Alhamar Binu Varghese Abdulrahman Mohamed Alkandari Meshaal Manea Mohamead Al Ajmi Esam Yousef Abdulrazaq Alhezami Fatmah Bader Saied Abdulwahab Alrfaei Nora Adnan Abas Shashtar Naser Hamad Naser Alajmi Fatima Salem Saad Alnashwan Ahmad Abbas Sulaiman Alsabea Jaber Abdulla Mohammed Habib Inas Mohammed Abdulaziz Areej Marhoon Ali Alabdulhadi Awaad Helal Alshemeri Salem Ali Jendi Nadiya Yagoub Ali Muthfar Hemuod Mohd Abdulla Alfadli Jamal Mohamad Jamal Mohamad Abdulla Abdulhussain Abdulla Alfodari Cheryl Guerrerro Alegre Mohammad Munir Fayez Abdulrasool Abdulla Al Fayez Salim Salah Salim Alsowailm Jasem Mohammed Jasem Aleqab Saad Buti Ali Alkhaldi Marzouqa Hmoud Mubarak Alfnaini Imad Habib Hassan Johar Hayat Abdullah Abaas Saleh Alsalem Min Shade Soliman Saed Aldekan Ohoud Abdullah Sulaiman Alsleli Taleb Taqi Sayed Taleb Mustafawi Jassim Khalil Abbas Farman Osama Jabr Mohammed Albaker Shaikha Abdulla Faris Alhashar Bandar Ibrahim Awad Al Mutairi Rashed Abdullhammed A Aljaber Muna Khalifah Mulla Essa Al Jerran Min Hajar Mahdi Salman Ibrahim Hashemeyah Mohammad Ali Alshakhs Khaled Mohammad Othman Almousa Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed Bahman Raniah Abdulaziz Ahmed Al Thani Hamed Kameel Manie Alfadli Nadiya Mudhi Hizam Alazmi

BEIJING: Premier Wen Jiabao says he “cannot relax” due to soaring prices in China that have led to steep rises in the cost of food, vowing to step up the fight against the politically sensitive inflation rate.

The government in the world’s secondlargest economy has been struggling to bring the spiralling prices under control and fears they could spark unrest as living expenses spike for many millions. “Prices are high currently, and I cannot relax,” Wen told residents in the northeastern port city of Dalian, according to a statement posted on the central government website late Friday. “The government will continue to take measures to control prices.”China has already implemented a number of policies over the past year to try to slow inflation, including restricting the amount of money banks can lend and hiking interest rates five times since October last year. In a sign that these policies are starting to work, the consumer price index (CPI) — the main gauge of inflation-rose 6.2 percent in August, down from a more than three-year high of 6.5 percent in July. But analysts warned that price pressures would continue to put pressure on the government and poured cold water on hopes that authorities might relax monetary policy-claims reinforced by Wen’s comments. The government had originally set a target of four percent for inflation in 2011, but Wen has already admitted it will be difficult to keep CPI within that target.

In June, he said that fighting rising prices remained a priority and hoped to bring the level under five percent with “hard work”. Food prices are of particular concern, as they affect the daily lives of everyone in the country, with foodstuffs accounting for more than one-third

of the monthly spending of the average Chinese consumer. Wen acknowledged this, saying food was “indispensable,” according to the statement. “To resolve the issues of food supply and prices, we have to bring into play the role of market mechanisms and also carry out macro-control,” he said. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, which made public China’s August inflation rate last week, yearon-year food price rises that month slowed to 13.4 percent from 14.8 percent in July. But Wen still expressed concern about the value of food.

“Currently, meat prices are basically stable, but in the past few days, they have increased

again,” he said. He added the government was looking at ways to encourage farmers to raise pigs, in a bid to stabilize the price of pork, China’s meat of choice. Wen toured Dalian after delivering the opening speech at the summer session of the World Economic Forum, which this year attracted about 1,500 business leaders and government officials from 90 countries.

This week, Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice head of the National Development and Reform Commission-China’s top economic planning agency-said inflation had reached a “turning point ” and would stabilize in the coming months. —AFP

Indian vegetable vendor awaits customers at a market in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Sept.

15, 2011. —AP

Booz & Company survey

Youth in GCC:

Meeting the challenge DUBAI: The GCC is at a moment of unprecedented demographic opportunity. With young people making up one-third to one-half of the population of the GCC countries, regional leaders in government and business must understand the needs and aspirations of this critical generation in order to tap into their ideas and energy.

To that end, Booz & Company conducted a survey of 415 young nationals aged 15 to 24 in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, focusing on the areas most relevant to young people today: * Education * Employment * Gender gap * Leisure activities * Community engagement The survey showed that despite solid economic growth, technological improvements, and increased expenditure on education, GCC countries’ socioeconomic systems have not yet evolved sufficiently to meet the basic aspirations of their youth, who are seeking both social recognition and economic empowerment.

Education Because education is a cornerstone of young people’s development, it was a major focus of the Booz & Company survey. Young people certainly recognize the importance of education.

When asked “What is your major priority/ambition in life?”: * 45 percent gave top ranking to completing their education * 17 percent said that finding a job was their first priority * 10 percent noted their top priority was to get married and start a family However, when it comes to the quality of their education, the primary beneficiaries of the GCC’s efforts are not happy. When asked, “To what extent do you think the education system of your country has prepared you/is preparing you to find a job?”, they responded: * To a large extent: 19 percent * To some extent: 50 percent * To a lesser extent: 20 percent * Not at all: 12 percent The results were similar when Booz & Company asked, “To what extent do you think the education system in your country has prepared you/is preparing you to succeed in your chosen career?”: * To a large extent: 22 percent * To some extent: 49 percent * To a lesser extent: 18 percent * Not at all: 10 percent In order to drill down into youths’ discontent, we asked survey participants to specify what was wrong with their education system: * Traditional methods of teaching: 63 percent * Theoretical knowledge/Lack of practical application: 60 percent * Curriculum not in line with job market: 58 percent * Lack of training: 53 percent * Lack of qualified teachers: 52 percent * Outdated curriculum 39 percent GCC governments have begun to recognize the need for change and reorientation, and the initiatives undertaken so far are laudable.

However, there is more that can be done.

Curriculum reform is one major priority; in addition to instituting teaching methods that encourage students to take initiative and solve problems, there needs to be more emphasis on science, technology, mathematics, and foreign languages.

We also suggest GCC countries pay urgent attention to upgrading and expanding vocational education in partnership with the private sector. The aim would be to link the two environ-

ments of classroom and workplace in a practical way so that young people do not feel they are crossing into unknown terrain when they move from one to the other. The private sector can also get involved in the form of summer jobs, internships, and mentoring programs.

Employment Unemployment looms as a huge worry for young people, with 87 percent of Booz & Company’s survey respondents describing it as a major problem. Young nationals see a number of hurdles to employment. When asked, “In your opinion, what are the challenges that people encounter while looking for a job?”, they noted: * Very few jobs available: 58 percent * Low salary: 57 percent * Lack of previous job experience: 49 percent * Job qualifications are high: 46 percent * Lack of appropriate skills for their chosen job: 24 percent * Lack of career progression/growth: 18 percent However, young nationals also have some issues with the jobs available. When we asked them to rank certain criteria in order of importance, their number one consideration in choosing a job was a good salary. The second most important criterion was job satisfaction, followed by the reputation of the organization and job stability. Respondents placed career growth and skills development after these other desirable characteristics in a job. These rankings suggest that GCC youth are highly motivated by a desire for financial security.

Finally, the survey respondents felt that their governments had a role to play in mitigating unemployment. When Booz & Company asked what governments can do to expand economic opportunities for youth, they said: * Develop youth service programs: 65 percent * Promote youth entrepreneurship: 62 percent * Create employment through microfinance: 60 percent Significantly, only 38 percent said they believed the state should partner with the private sector to identify high-demand skills.

Booz & Company’s survey confirmed that GCC youth struggle to find suitable employment and are anxious about their prospects. They also suffer from the absence of a tradition of part-time work during school vacations, as well as a lack of internships and mentoring programs offered by the private sector. Among our survey respondents, only 41 percent said they had ever held a temporary job or internship during summer vacation while they were at university.

Those who had not sought out summer work said that it was because: * They were traveling: 45 percent * They preferred resting and relaxing at home: 31 percent * They didn’t feel ready for work: 26 percent * There were not many good positions available: 19 percent These findings suggest that GCC youth need to adjust their attitude so that they see part-time work as valuable, necessary training.

In order to reap the full rewards of the GCC’s youth bulge, countries need to partner much more extensively with their private sectors to address youth unemployment. The pervasive attitude that it is the task of government alone to provide work must change.

It is also vital to develop clear, strategic economic plans to reach the twin goals of economic diversification and youth employment simultaneously. That means job creation in sectors where the GCC can gain a competitive edge, including knowledge-based activities such as R&D and finance, with corresponding reform in education to give students the necessary skills in

science, technology, mathematics, and foreign languages.

Youth and Gender As a result of women’s increased education in the region, GCC women are exerting a positive influence on their society as they move beyond the traditional confinements of home and family.

However, the Booz & Company survey that they still face limits in their opportunities in education and employment.

Notably, we found a significant “aspiration gap” between men and women. When we asked both what they feel should be the role of women in society: * 59 percent of men believed women should first be wives and mothers; 22 percent of women felt that was true * 27 percent of men felt that women should seek employment for financial support or independence; 71 percent of women believed that they should do so We found similar discrepancies when we asked about the role of women in education and employment. In response to the question “Do you believe in equal opportunities between men and women in education?”, 91 percent of women said yes, compared to only 67 percent of men; likewise, 76 percent of women believed in equal opportunities in employment, compared to just 46 percent of their male counterparts.

Although young men accept that more women are getting an education, they are still resistant to the idea that they should have the same opportunities as men in the workforce.

There was a significant gap between men’s and women’s responses when we asked what governments should do to improve the status of girls and women: * Encourage women to work in different fields: 44 percent (men); 70 percent (women) * Encourage education of girls inside and outside the country: 38 percent (men); 60 percent (women) * Encourage women’s promotion to prominent decision-making posts: 36 percent (men); 69 percent (women) * No need to improve: 24 percent (men); 5 percent (women) Another pertinent finding from our survey showed the ambition and initiative of young GCC women. When asked “What can your country’s government do to expand economic opportunities for youth?”, the most common response among young women was “promote youth entrepreneurship”; 65 percent of young women thought this would be effective. Among young men, however, this choice came in third, with 59 percent of young men opting for it.

Recently, all of the GCC countries have launched important initiatives to encourage women’s greater participation in society, but most of them address female unemployment.

Booz & Company believes particular attention should be paid to empowering young women by creating opportunities for them to voice their opinions and realize their ambitions.

In our vision of a new paradigm for GCC youth, officials would begin to develop policies that support the needs and aspirations of women as much as they support those of men.

They would also work to change national perceptions about the role of women in GCC society, sending the message that the demands of a modern economy require the productive participation of women and that women represent a largely untapped resource for powering up their economies. A more flexible approach to women’s participation in the workforce not only would generate more jobs for women and contribute to national income; it also would reduce countries’ dependence on foreign labor.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

BUSINESS

Bernanke, Europe hold key to aiding rally WALL STREET WEEKLY OUTLOOK NEW YORK: Wall Street hopes for more Fed action and clear signs European leaders will follow through on their new urgency to tackle the euro-zone debt crisis if US stocks are to build on their best week since early July.

Investors expect the Federal Reserve to take steps to pull down long-term interest rates when policymakers meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to help revive the persistently weak US economy.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, speak ing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Aug. 26, said the Fed’s Open Market Committee would meet for two days in September instead of the scheduled one day to discuss ways to boost the recovery. But even with expectations of more intervention to boost the economy, investors will keep a close eye on developments in Europe.

Any lack of progress or backsliding on efforts to get the currency bloc’s fiscal house in order will renew worries the crisis could seri-

ously damage the world financial system and major economies.

“The Fed is really going to dominate next week,” said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont. “But the market has been trying to work its way higher here, trying to feel if maybe the European thing won’t cascade out of control.”

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Poland on Friday, urged them to leverage their bailout fund to better tackle the debt crisis, but there was no agreement on what steps to take.

While the Standard & Poor’s 500 has been moving upward over the past week, the benchmark index has been stuck in roughly a 100point range over the last six weeks.

It is likely to run into resistance near the 50-day moving average of about 1,228, with analysts also pointing to the 1,250 level as the next significant hurdle. “This is really a consolidation phase, which is

normal after the kind of early last month swoon that we had. So far this trading range is developing in a very positive and healthy way,” said Gail Dudack, chief investment strategist at Dudack Research Group in New York.

“Longer term, the market is looking better but we are getting ver y close to that resistance at 1,250 which would be pretty surprising if we can break above that at this early juncture. It could take a little more time, people shouldn’t be disappointed.” The week’s economic calendar includes reports on the beleaguered housing market along with weekly initial jobless benefits claims.

Housing “is dead and it will stay dead, and I don’t expect anything out of unemployment either,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

Companies due to post earnings next week include homebuilder Lennar Corp, Nike Inc, General Mills Inc as well as technology compa-

nies Adobe Systems, Red Hat Inc and Oracle Corp.

FedEx Corp, the No. 2 U.S. package delivery company, which is seen as a proxy for how the economy is performing, is also scheduled to report quarterly results. Though earnings have managed to hold up in the face of a lackluster recovery, analysts worry this might not last if the financial system suffered the shock of a Greek debt default. But while many feel Bernanke has telegraphed the plans for the Fed meeting, the euro zone debt crisis remains an uncertainty that could knock the market lower.

“It’s absolutely the wild card because Europe’s problems may b e s i m i l a r to w h a t we s aw i n 2008, but they are much more difficult to deal with because country debt is far more difficult to deal with than mortgage debt,” Dudack said. She added that having so many countries that are part of a committee trying to solve the problem only added to the complications. —Reuters

Obama urges Congress approval of jobs plan Plan to help businesses hire more jobs WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama urged Congress yesterday to pass his job creation plan without delay, arguing it will make it possible for businesses to hire more workers and for Americans to find jobs.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said the time for action on his proposal “is now.” “No more games or gridlock. No more division or delay,” he stressed. “It’s time for the people you sent to Washington to put country before party-to stop worrying so much about their jobs and start worrying more about yours.”

Obama’s $447 billion plan was unveiled earlier this month in an attempt to kickstart efforts to combat 9.1 percent unemployment in the world’s biggest economy and restore trust in his economic leadership. The centerpiece of the proposal is a deeper-

than-expected $240 billion payroll tax cut for employers and employees, meant to spur consumer demand and encourage firms to hire new workers.

Some key economists have given the blueprint a positive review, even though the plan is unlikely to emerge unscathed from the Republican-led House of Representatives.

Obama insisted that his proposal would cut taxes for every worker and small business in the country.

“And it will not add to the deficit,” he promised. “It will be paid for.” However Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have been skeptical of the president’s plan.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that the president’s proposals were “a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job

creation in America.”

Obama sent his jobs plan to Congress last Monday. He plans to submit another plan on September 19 to explain how he will pay for the legislation, without adding to the US budget deficit. However, a new opinion poll made public late Friday indicated that failure to to reduce the ranks of the unemployed continued to pose a serious political threat to Obama.

The sur vey, commissioned jointly by The New York Times and CBS News, showed that on the issue of job creation, 40 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s per formance and 53 percent disapprove. The poll showed Americans were divided about the president’s latest $447 billion plan to spur job creation.

Forty-eight percent of those polled said they were somewhat or very confident that Obama’s

proposals would create jobs and stimulate the economy. But about as many people — 47 percent-said they were not at all sure the plan will do that.

Just one in four Americans thought Obama had made real progress fixing the economy, with 68 percent saying they do not think he has, according to the survey.

The poll conducted among a random sample of 1,452 adults nationwide September 10-15 had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. But Obama expressed confidence in his plan’s eventual success. “This jobs bill puts construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges and modernizing our schools,” he said in his address. “This jobs bill puts teachers back in the classroom, and keeps cops and firefighters on our streets.” —AFP

Dollar benefits from Europe’s debt muddle NEW YORK: The US dollar gained against other major currencies on Friday, while the euro fell after a meeting of European finance ministers made little progress towards resolving the euro-zone’s debt crisis.

The dollar strengthened to $1.3797 against the euro at 2100 GMT on Friday, compared to $1.3882 at the same time a day earlier. Against Japan’s currency, the dollar rose to 76.77 yen late on Friday from 76.66 the previous day.

“The single currency is slipping on a lack of concrete news from today’s European finance minister meeting,” said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy for Wells Fargo.

“With European jitters set to persist and despite the possibility of Fed easing, we still see potential for some further upside in the greenback over the near-term.”

At their meeting in Poland on Friday, euro-zone finance ministers delayed an eight-billion-euro ($11 billion) bailout loan for Greece until they had firmer evidence of Athens’s willingness to cut its deficit.

And in a sign of friction, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was also attending the meeting, clashed with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble over Europe’s handling of the debt crisis. The dollar climbed to 0.8754 Swiss francs from 0.8689 on Thursday.

It also gained against the British pound; the greenback stood at $1.5786 to the pound on Friday, compared to $1.5802 the previous day. —AFP

EU trade with major partners grows BRUSSELS: Trade of the 27-member European Union with all its major partners grew in January-June 2011 compared with January-June 2010, according to figures released by the EU’s statistical office Eurostat. The highest increases were recorded for exports to Russia (+36%), Turkey (+35%), India (+25%), China (+23%) and South Korea (+20%), and for imports from Russia (+30%), India (+25%), Brazil (+24%), Norway (+22%) and Turkey (+19%). However, EU imports from South Korea dropped by 7%. The EU trade deficit increased with China (-74.6bn euro compared with -72. 1bn), Russia (49.5bn compared with -39.9bn) and Norway (-24.3bn compared with -18.8bn), remained nearly stable with Japan (10.9bn compared with -11.1bn), but fell with South Korea (-2.5bn compared with -6.4bn) for the same period.. The EU deficit for energy increased significantly to 185.4bn euro in January-June 2011 compared with 144.8bn in January-June 2010. The EU surplus for manufactured goods rose to 112.6bn compared with 78.7bn for the same period. —KUNA

MADISON: Cheese for sale at the Dane County Farmers’ Market in Madison, Wisconsin. The market is a mind-boggling array of 300 vendors of fresh cheese, produce, crafts and more. There are often so many people you have. —AP

Potent forces try to tie hands of US deficit panel WASHINGTON: The days of “go big” in Washington’s latest deficit-reduction drama are morphing into “don’t go there.”

When the US Congress formed a “super committee” last month to do what no regular committee has been able to accomplish- fix the country’s raging budget problems-there was great hope in the air. But with each passing day, some political leaders in Washington, including the president, have been trying to put major sources of savings off limits, potentially tying the bipartisan panel’s hands.

“As the super committee begins its work, you’re seeing all sides starting to draw lines,” said Ryan McConaghy, director of the economic program at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. “It highlights the political difficulty of getting a grand bargain.”

In just the past week, look at what has happened: The White House said President Barack Obama will not include Social Security, the federal pension program, in his recommendations for government savings.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top US Republican, said no to tax increases, Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a super committee member, closed the door to defense spending cuts and the No 2 House Republican, Eric Cantor, said it could be that overall tax policy might have to wait until after the 2012

national elections.

If tax increases are not part of the mix, Democrats have vowed to block governmentbacked healthcare benefit cuts. While the super committee is not obliged to follow the cues of Obama, Boehner and Cantor, it is stacked with members who have shown loyalty to their political leaders.

Whatever the super committee agrees to, if anything, the deal will have to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republicancontrolled House. If the committee deadlocks, $1.2 trillion automatic across-the-board spending cuts will be triggered, beginning in 2013, and divided equally between defense and domestic programs.

It remains to be seen whether the early jockeying is mere opening negotiating tactics by Republicans and Democrats who will be facing each other at the polls next year or whether the two sides are beginning to polarize, as they have in every other major debate in the last two years. If the former is true, congressional aides and budget experts in the private sector say there still is a slim chance the super committee could tackle the main drivers of government deficits-exploding costs of federal healthcare programs amid relatively low tax receipts-and exceed its mandate of at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. —Reuters

STERLING HEIGHTS: An assemblyman works on the line building Chrysler 200 vehicles at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. —AP

GM, UAW reach first labor deal since bankruptcy DETROIT: General Motors Co and the United Auto Workers union reached a proposed contract for about 48,500 production workers that would create new US factory jobs and include profit-sharing bonuses.

The proposed contract, which must be ratified by rank-and-file workers, represents the first since US taxpayers bailed out GM and Chrysler Group LLC in 2009. Details of the tentative deal reached late on Friday were being withheld until it could be reviewed by UAW officials from around the country at a meeting set for Tuesday in Detroit.

The proposed contract would recall about 570 GM workers currently on layoff, revive a now-idled assembly plant in Tennessee and pay signing bonuses of about $5,000 for each worker, a person with knowledge of the terms said. The UAW chose to complete negotiations with GM first, before reaching a deal with Chrysler and finally turning to Ford Motor Co, people close to the talks said.

The contract talks in Detroit have played out at a time of increasing uncertainty about the strength of US auto sales for the remainder of this year and in 2012, as well as concern about the risk of another recession. The union had surrendered the right to strike GM or Chrysler as part of the bankruptcies for the automakers brokered and funded by the Obama administration.

“As America struggles with record levels of unemployment, we aimed to protect the jobs of our members-to guarantee good American jobs at a good American company. And we have done that,” UAW President Bob King said in a statement. GM said it expected the union would complete ratification votes within a week to 10 days. The timing is key because King and other union officials are expected to remain focused on winning approval for the GM contract before turning their attention to the negotiations with Chrysler, which is controlled by Fiat SpA. At stake in the Detroit contract talks are wages and benefits for about 112,500 unionized US auto workers who have gone without a base pay increase since 2003. The contract terms will also set a key benchmark for wages at auto parts suppliers and at non-union plants operated by Asian and German automakers in the southern United States.

Harley Shaiken, a University of California at Berkeley professor and confidant of King, said the GM contract was significant in part because of the weak US economy. “This isn’t just a contract between a company and a union. It is a company and a union amidst the worst economic downturn we’ve had since the

1930s,” he said.

The UAW’s four-year contracts with all three Detroit automakers expired late Wednesday. The automakers and the union extended contract terms indefinitely as negotiations continued. The deal with GM was reached at about 11 p.m. EDT on Friday (0300 GMT on Saturday) after seven weeks of negotiations.

The proposed GM deal would move production of a new vehicle to the automaker’s now-idled assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, a person with knowledge of the deal said.

The contract would also pay signing bonuses of around $5,000 for each worker, equivalent to a total cost of about $245 million for GM, the source said. GM and the other two Detroit automakers offered one -time contract-signing bonuses and profit-sharing rather than traditional wage increases in an effort to avoid the kinds of fixed costs that contributed to the industry’s near collapse two years ago. A signing bonus of about $5,000 would be above the $3,500 proposal GM made early in the talks and far short of the bonus of $7,000 or more that the UAW had sought.

The former Saturn plant in Tennessee had been the site of GM’s experiment with a more collaborative relationship with workers based in part on the model of Japanese automakers led by Toyota Motor Corp. GM scrapped the Saturn brand as part of its 2009 bankruptcy and the assembly portion of the plant has been shut. An engine plant at the site remains open.

It was not clear how many of the new jobs would be at the entry-level wage of about $15 per hour, roughly half of the wages paid to veteran production workers. The automakers have looked to use more workers at that lower wage rate to bring down overall labor costs.

The Detroit Free Press said the proposed contract also included new investment by GM to create jobs at powertrain plants in Romulus and Warren, Michigan and in Wentzville, Missouri, where GM has a stamping and an assembly plant.

In his statement, King said the GM contract would shift production jobs “back to the United from other countries,” a major goal for the union in the talks.

King also said the union had held the line against proposals from GM to shift more healthcare costs to workers. The UAW has hoped to use new labor agreements with the Detroit automakers as a springboard to winning first-ever contracts to represent workers at US factories operated by Japanese, South Korean and German automakers. —Reuters

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TECHNOLOGY

Paley COO praises benefits of Facebook LOS ANGELES: Facebook is a technology business, but during an interview Friday at the Paley Center, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg made it sound like a digital utopia. From the Arab Spring to organ donations, Sandberg said Facebook is bringing about social and political change with the click of the “Like” tab. “This is about engagement. This is about giving people an authentic voice and what happens as a result,” Sandberg said. The social discovery that Facebook and its web of friends, family and lesser acquaintances makes possible was in evidence

in the political revolutions that sprung up across the Middle East in recent months, Sandberg told moderator Pat Mitchell, Paley’s President and CEO. Though Sandberg said Facebook shouldn’t take too much credit for the unrest — “we didn’t march in the streets,” she noted-the tech executive said that the platform played a key role in pushing demonstrators out of the closet and into Tahrir Square. In particular, Sandberg argued that Facebook allowed people in Egypt to realize that their distaste for strongman Hosni Mubarak was

Seven states join suit against AT&T, T-Mobile deal WASHINGTON: Seven US states threw their support on Friday behind the Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to block AT&T’s $39 billion takeover of TMobile. The Justice Department said the attorney generals of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington had joined the suit filed in US District Court here last month. The move is another setback for AT&T as it seeks to salvage the proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA, the US unit of Deutsche Telekom.

“We have had an excellent working relationship with a number of state attorneys general and they have provided invaluable assistance throughout our investigation,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

“We are pleased that these states have joined the department in its lawsuit,” it said.

“Together, we will seek to protect con-

sumers from the anti-competitive harm that would result from this proposed transaction.”

AT&T submitted a defense of its takeover bid for T-Mobile to the court last week, rejecting the Justice Department’s assertion that the deal would be anti-competitive and claiming that it would benefit consumers. “Rather than substantially reducing competition, the combined firm will usher in more intense competition to an already vibrantly competitive market,” AT&T said. US District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle has ordered lawyers for the Justice Department, AT&T and T-Mobile to attend a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the prospects for a settlement. In the event the case goes to trial, the Justice Department proposed on Friday that it begin on March 19, 2012. AT&T has proposed a January 16, 2012 trial date. — AFP

shared by others in their social spheres.

Domestically, Sandberg said Facebook will play an even bigger role in the 2012 elections than it did in the last presidential race.

In 2008, Sandberg said there were roughly 34 to 36 million connected users and today that number stands at 170 million. Add to that growth spurt, studies by the likes of Pew that demonstrate that people are 57 percent more likely to attend a political rally if they see their friends are going, and there is real potential for get out the vote efforts. To

Twitter’s board loses two early investors No replacements to be named Two of Twitter’s earliest investors have left the company ’s board of direc tors, the latest change to the fast-growing social media company ’s leadership. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital are no longer on Twitter’s board, the company said on Friday. It was not immediately clear what prompted the change.Twitter does not plan to appoint new directors to replace Wilson and Sabet, a source familiar with the matter said. Wilson and Sabet did not return emails seeking comment. The departures mark the latest change to Twitter, whose microblogging service allows users to broadcast shor t, 140- charac ter messages, or “tweets,” to groups of “followers.”

Last October, Dick Costolo replaced cofounder Evan Williams as chief executive. Earlier this year Costolo brought Jack Dorsey, another co-founder, back to the company as executive chairman. Williams and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone have recently started a new project called Obvious Corp. Twitter, which has more than 100 million active users, has been increasingly

Google adds more IBM patents to tech arsenal

Chinese search engine plans overseas expansion BEIJING: The head of China’s biggest search engine Baidu has said he aims to make it a household name in at least half the world within a decade, according to a company statement. Baidu chief executive Robin Li made the comment in a meeting earlier this month with China’s propaganda chief Li Changchun, a statement posted on the search engine’s website late Thursday said. “Robin Li reported on Baidu’s target for the next decade to ‘become a household name in more than half the countries around the world and represent Chinese businesses to influence global economies’,” it said of the meeting.

Baidu, China’s most popular search engine by far with a local market share of more than 75 percent, said Li Changchun had approved the plans. Baidu already has a presence in Japan, although it is largely overshadowed there by international rivals Google and Yahoo!. It has also recently launched operations in Thailand and Egypt.

“This has been a push of the Chinese government for years now, making Chinese

companies go global,” Jeremy Goldkorn, of the Beijing-based web research firm Danwei, told AFP. “Perhaps their idea is that they stand the most chance of success in non-anglophone markets where there are repressive governments. “They can position themselves as something that is not American, and therefore less likely to be hostile.”

Robin Li’s meeting with the head of China’s powerful propaganda arm came amid official concern over the growing influence of the Internet in China, which has the largest online population at 485 million people.

Last month Beijing’s most senior Communist Par ty official visited the offices of two Chinese Internet companies, Sina and Youku, to urge them to stop the spread of “false and harmful information”.

Youku is a video sharing service, while Sina runs a news website and a highly popular microblog that was used by thousands of people to criticize the government after a July train crash in which at least 40 people died. — AFP

Klum tops list of most dangerous celebs online SAN FRANCISCO: As the host of Project Runway, supermodel Heidi Klum is used to telling designers when their fashions haven’t made the cut. Her popularity has gained her some unwanted fans: computer hackers, who have made Klum the most dangerous celebrity to search for on the Internet, according to a new report.

McAfee, a computer security company that’s now part of semiconductor maker Intel Corp., says in a report this week that searches for Klum are more likely to lead to malicious software than searches for any of the other celebrities they studied, which included Cameron Diaz (last year’s No. 1), Jessica Biel (No. 4) and Tom Cruise (who fell off McAfee’s top 10 list this year.) There is a common thread: Hackers routinely weave attack commands in photos, videos and other content connected to famous people, especially women, who are more likely to be the subject of searches for racy photos. Only two of the celebrities on this year’s list, Piers Morgan and Brad Pitt, are men.

McAfee said that searches using Klum’s name and other qualifiers such as “hot pictures,” “screensavers” and “‘free’ downloads” yield a nearly one-in-ten chance of landing on a malicious site.

While some hacking attacks take advantage of so-called “zero day” software vulnerabilities that can’t be blocked, many are easy to prevent. Many attacks require that users install a video player or other piece of software to view what appears to be a video or photo. That is generally a red flag to be avoided.

McAfee’s full list: 1.

Heidi Klum.

2.

Cameron Diaz.

3.

Piers Morgan.

4.

Jessica Biel.

5.

Katherine Heigl.

6.

Mila Kunis.

7.

Anna Paquin.

8.

Adriana Lima.

9.

Scarlett Johansson.

10 (tie). Emma Stone, Brad Pitt and Rachel McAdams.

Sandberg, even the sickly economy could benefit from a little Facebook balm. She said that in the down times, job seekers have used the platform to find their next gig. Facebook, Sandberg said, has helped users find roughly 250,000 jobs.

“The unemployment rate in this country is way too high. This is a crisis for us in the United State and we feel really fortunate that we’re able to help at all,” Sandberg said. Next step for Facebook: sticking a fork in world hunger ...oh, and making a killing when it likely goes public next year. —TheWrap.com

SAN FRANCISCO: Google confirmed Thursday that it has added 1,023 more IBM patents to its technology arsenal to fend off legal attacks by rivals such as Apple and Microsoft. The purchases added to the 1,000 or so patents the California-based Internet firm bought from IBM in July and reportedly ranged from mobile software to computer hardware and processes.

Google spokesman Jim Prosser told AFP that the patent transfers had taken place but would not disclose financial terms of the deal or specifics regarding the intellectual property.

The push by Google to strengthen its patent portfolio comes as the fight for dominance in the booming smartphone market increasingly involves lawsuits claiming infringement of patented technology.

Smartphone titan HTC Corp this month ramped up its patent war with Apple with the help of ammunition provided by Google, the force behind Android mobile software. Google transferred a set of patents to HTC that the Taiwan-based company used to amend intellectual property infringement complaints against iPhone maker Apple in the United States. In August, HTC accused Apple of patent infringement as part of an ongoing legal battle. In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in the state of Delaware, the Taiwanese smartphone maker charged that Apple violated three HTC-held patents in its Macintosh computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads and other products.

HTC also filed a complaint with the Washington-based US International Trade Commission. Technology giants have taken to routinely pounding one another with patent lawsuits. Apple has accused HTC and other smartphone makers using Google’s Android mobile operating system of infringing on Apple-held patents. Some of the nine patents that HTC got from Google had belonged to Motorola Mobility, which Google is buying for $12.5 billion in cash.

Motorola Mobility ’s trove of patents was a key motivation for Google, which is keen to defend Android. “Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Google chief executive Larry Page said when the Motorola Mobility buy was announced. Motorola Mobility chief executive Sanjay Jha told financial analysts the US maker of smartphones and touchscreen tablet computers has over 17,000 issued patents and another 7,500 pending. — AFP

focused on building a revenue-generating advertising business on top of its Web service.

The company is broadening the areas of its service where ads will appear, Costolo said during a briefing with reporters and analysts at the company’s San Francisco headquarters last week. During the meeting, Costolo repeatedly cited Wilson in examples and anecdotes about the various uses for Twitter, at one point using the example of Wilson’s son and his proclivity for following NBA players on Twitter without actually contributing any tweets himself.

Twitter, which raised $400 million in a new round of funding earlier this year, credited Wilson and Sabet on Friday with playing important roles in the company’s success.

“Both saw what Twitter could become before most anyone else,” said Twitter spokesman Sean Garrett in an emailed statement. “We look forward to their continued input as both investors in the company and passionate users of the product.” The departures were first reported on the technology blog AllThingsD.com.— Reuters

Microsoft CEO sees Windows as key to growth plan SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer assured analysts that Windows remains the software maker’s financial foundation, even though slowing personal computer sales are raising worries about the operating system’s ability to adapt to the new ways people and business are using technology. “Windows is at the center of our ‘go-forward’ strategy,” Ballmer said during a presentation held in Anaheim, near Disneyland. “We feel very comfortable that this is a smart thing to do for our customers and the smart thing to do for our shareholders.”

The Associated Press monitored Microsoft’s analyst meeting via webcast. Ballmer’s upbeat tone reflected a positive buzz surrounding Windows 8, a version due out next year that Microsoft is touting as the most radical makeover of its lucrative operating system since 1995. Windows 8 is being designed to run on devices that boot up faster and work on touch-screen computer tablets, as well as on PCs that depend on keyboards and mice.

The overhaul is Microsoft’s most aggressive response to the tablet craze that Apple Inc. set off with its release of the iPad in 2009. Since then, Apple has sold more than 28 million iPads and analysts expect tens of millions more to be sold by the time Windows 8 is ready to be shipped. Microsoft isn’t saying when Windows 8 will go on sale, but analysts expect it to hit the market at some point between July and the 2012 holiday shopping season. In the meantime, Microsoft is still promoting Windows 7, which has sold nearly 450 million copies since its 2009 release. It just recently surpassed Windows XP - a decade-old operating system as the most widely used version of Microsoft’s operating systems, according to company estimates.

To build the excitement for what’s coming next, Microsoft provided its most extensive demonstration of Windows 8 so far Tuesday during a packed meeting with applications developers. It gave away 5,000 Samsung tablets running on a preliminary version of Windows 8 and also is allowing anyone to take the software for a test spin if they want to install it on their own machines. By Wednesday morning, Ballmer said more than 500,000 copies of Windows 8 had been downloaded.

“The initial reaction has been all we have been hoping for,” Ballmer told analysts. That may be so, but Microsoft still appears to have work to do to win back investors who have become increasingly convinced that the company has lost its competitive edge as Google Inc. emerged as the Internet’s most powerful player and Apple Inc. shaped mobile computing trends with the iPhone and iPad tablet. The Internet and mobile devices are now seen as more compelling

franchises with greater future potential than the PC business that Microsoft has milked since the 1980s with Windows and its Office suite of software.

Since Google went public in August 2004, its stock has increased by more than six fold while Microsoft’s shares have dipped 2 percent. And since Apple released the first iPhone in June 2007, its stock has more than tripled while Microsoft’s shares have backtracked 11 percent. That shift enabled Apple to surpass Microsoft as the world’s most valuable technology company. Microsoft shares closed Wednesday at $26.50, up 46 cents. The lackluster performance of Microsoft’s stock has intensified the pressure on Ballmer, an exuberant leader who succeeded company co-founder Bill Gates as CEO in 2000. With Microsoft’s revenue growth slowing, Ballmer has curbed spending and even laid off workers to save money. The penny-pinching helped Microsoft boost its revenue to $774,000 per employee in its last fiscal year ending in June compared with $622,000 per worker in fiscal 2006, Microsoft boasted Wednesday.

Ballmer, 55, is betting Windows 8 will help Microsoft catch up in tablets and renew demand for PCs that can be operated with a touch of the finger as well as with the traditional navigation tools. Microsoft is also scrambling to build a mobile version of Windows that will be more widely embraced in the smartphone market, where it has fallen behind Google’s Android operating system as well as Apple’s iPhone system. “I don’t love where we are now, but I am very optimistic of where we can be,” Ballmer said.

The company’s proposed $8.5 billion acquisition of Internet phone and video service Skype is expected to become a key part of Microsoft’s mobile strategy.

Microsoft is hoping to gain regulatory approval to close the Skype deal before January. After losing billions of dollars investing in Internet search technology during the past five years, Microsoft believes it’s in a better position to gain ground on Google - a name synonymous with looking things up online.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has been steadily picking up market share since its 2009 introduction but the gains have mostly come at the expense of Yahoo Inc. Deciding to rather save money than fight Google, Yahoo last year began relying on Microsoft’s technology for most of its search results. That alliance has enabled Microsoft to process about 30 percent of the search requests made in the US compared to about 65 percent at Google. Yahoo has been struggling far more than Microsoft in recent years. The ongoing problems prompted Yahoo’s board to fire Carol Bartz, the CEO who negotiated the Internet search partnership with Microsoft.—AP

VIRGINIA: Students Meghan Clark (L) and Nathan Hughes (3rd L) show US President Barack Obama (2nd L) the FIRST Robot, a robot created in the school’s prototyping and robotics senior research labs for last year’s FIRST Robotics Competition, as he tours Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday. Obama asked if the FIRST Robot could grab the microphone. —AFP

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Future NASA rocket to be most powerful ever built WASHINGTON: To soar far away from Earth and even on to Mars, NASA has dreamed up the world’s most powerful rocket, a behemoth that borrows from the workhorse liquid-fuel rockets that sent Apollo missions into space four decades ago. But with a price tag that some estimate at $35 billion, it may not fly with Congress. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and several members of Congress on Wednesday unveiled the Obama administration’s much-delayed general plans for its rocket design, called the Space Launch System. The multibillion-dollar program would carry astronauts in a capsule on top, and the first mission would be 10 years off if all goes as planned. Unmanned test launches are expected from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in six years.

Calling it the “largest, most powerful rocket built,” NASA’s exploration and operations chief, William Gerstenmaier, said the rocket will be tough to construct. But when NASA does it, “we’ll have a capability to go beyond lowEarth orbit like no other nation does here on Earth,” he said in a telephone briefing Wednesday. The rocket resembles those NASA relied on before the space shuttle, but even its smallest early prototype will have 10 percent more thrust than the Saturn V that propelled Apollo astronauts to the moon.

When it is built to its fuller size, it will be 20 percent more power ful,

Gerstenmaier said.

That bigger version will have the horsepower of 208,000 Cor vette engines. NASA is trying to remain flexible on where it wants to go and when.

The space agency is aiming for a nearby asteroid around 2025 and then on to Mars in the 2030s. There could even be a short hop to the moon, but not as a main goal. All those targets require lots of brute force to escape Earth’s orbit, something astronauts have not done since 1972.

The far-from-finalized price tag may be too steep given federal budget constraints. “Will it be tough times going for ward? O f course it is,” Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said in a separate news conference. “We are in an era in which we have to do more with less - all across the board - and the competition for the available dollars will be fierce.

But what we have here now are the realistic costs” verified by independent experts. Although five senators of both par ties who are leaders in science issues praised the plan in a joint press release, outside experts are skeptical that Congress will agree to such a big spending project.

“In the current political environment, new spending is probably the most taboo thing in politics,” said Stan Collender, a former Democratic congressional budget analyst. He put the odds of this getting congressional

approval at “no better than 50-50 this year. There are going to be a lot of questions asking what kind of commitment we’re going to be making here.

You can find yourself with a rocket that no one wants to fire.”

Nelson puts the cost of the program at about $18 billion over the next five years. But that estimate is mostly for development and design through the first test flight in 2017, and doesn’t include production of later rockets, Gerstenmaier said. Gerstenmaier wouldn’t give a total estimate, but it is almost double that, according to senior administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make the announcement.

University of Texas engineering professor Hans Mark, a former NASA deputy chief and frequent critic of recent space agency plans, said money and where the rocket is going are likely to be bigger problems than technical engineering issues. He said that in some ways, it sounds like NASA is melding the best of space shuttle and Apollo technologies. The rocket is similar to Apollo not only in size and shape, but in its reliance on liquid fuel. The winged, reusable and recently retired space shuttles sat on top of a giant liquid fuel tank, but relied heavily on twin solid rocket boosters to get off the ground.

NASA figures it will be building and

launching about one rocket a year for about 15 years or more in the 2020s and 2030s, according to the senior officials. The idea is to launch its first unmanned test flight in 2017 and send up the first crew in 2021, followed by the asteroid and Mars missions. At first, the 320-foot-tall rockets will be able to carr y 77 to 110 tons, which would include the six person Orion MultiPurpose Crew Vehicle capsule and more. The crew capsule, which is now being built, has at least twice as much space as the old Apollo capsules, which could only fit three astronauts, said NASA spokesman Michael Braukus.

Eventually the rocket will grow to 400 feet tall, weigh 3,250 tons and be able to carry another 143 tons into space, maybe even 165 tons, the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said. By comparison, the long-dormant Saturn V booster that sent men to the moon was able to lift 130 tons. The plans dwarf the rumbling liftoff power of the space shuttle, which could haul just 27 tons. The biggest current unmanned rocket can carry about 25 tons.

Some of the design elements, the deadline and the requirement for such a rocket were dictated by Congress.

Senators were talking about issuing subpoenas to NASA because they felt the space agency was taking too long in coming up with the design, but

NASA officials said they just wanted to get all the details right before unveiling the plan.

The giant rocket will be powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel.

During the initial test flights, it will use solid rocket boosters designed for the shuttle strapped on its outside, and will have shuttle main engines powering it on the inside. But soon after that the solid rocket boosters will be replaced with new boosters that should have advanced technology and may be either liquid or solid.

NASA hopes to free up money for the rocket by turning over the launching of astronauts to the International Space Station, which orbits the Earth, to private companies and just rent spaces for astronauts like a giant taxi service. NASA officials aren’t sure how much they’ll save because it depends on how much the firms will charge and when they will start flying. Stanford University engineering professor Scott Hubbard worries that NASA has a history of spending far more than initially proposed - the space shuttle cost about twice what it was supposed to and that this new rocket system will drain money from other NASA missions. NASA already has major financial overruns with the still-underconstruction, multibillion- dollar replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.— AP

Arctic sea ice shrinks to second lowest level Scientists mostly blaming global warming

MARYLAND: Vials containing samples of organic apples and other food products wait to be tested for conatminants at the International Food Safety Training Laboratory (IFSTL) at the University of Maryland’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Maryland.— AFP

New US lab trains global scientists in food safety MARYLAND: Global food trade is a big and risky business. About one trillion dollars worth of food is traded every year around the world, but only a tiny portion gets tested for contaminants-ranging from about one percent of imports in the United States to about 10 percent in Japan. And yet, at least 1.8 million people die from diarrheal disease caused by contaminated food or water annually, and “developing countries bear the brunt of the problem,” according to the World Health Organization.

Considering the high costs of an outbreak-both in human lives and in money lost-world governments are searching for ways to improve food safety without actually boosting their surveillance of what enters their borders. A new approach to the dilemma was unveiled this week at a university campus on the outskirts of the US capital, at a facility called the International Food Safety Training Laboratory.

The IFSTL is based in a handful of rooms on the campus of the University of Maryland where US government regulators and teachers equipped with advanced testing technologies train international scientists in the US food safety. Lab manager Janie DuBois said it is the first lab of its kind in the world to tackle a variety of techniques year round, ranging from pesticide residue to microtoxins and bacterial pathogens like salmonella and E.coli.

“Everybody wants to know what the regulation is and understand how they are supposed to implement their scientific program to meet that regulation,” DuBois said. “The United States is not imposing its methods on other countries,” she added. “There is really a grander goal of harmonization of techniques.” Such practices are needed because food imports into the United States have nearly doubled in the past decade, up from $41 billion annually in 1998 to $78 billion in 2007, according to US Department of Agriculture figures.

While deadly outbreaks-such as the recent spread of E.coli in Germany and France that was traced to contaminated Egyptian fenugreek-grab headlines and rattle consumers, the IFSTL was not created in response to any particular scare.

Instead, it was a change to US law, known as the Food Safety and Modernization

Act, signed by President Barack Obama.

The law requires the US government to “expand the technical, scientific and regulatory food safety of foreign governments, and their respective food industries, from which foods are exported to the United States.” So now, for a cost of about $2,500 per week per student, governments and private businesses can send their food safety scientists to the US lab for hands-on training.

“We learned many things here we didn’t know before,” said Jackie Han, a Chinese food additives testing supervisor at Qingdao Hr-Qau Inspection Limited, who donned a white lab coat and spoke to AFP during a break in between sessions this week. “There is not much information in China so we come out here to get the real thing,” said Han, who was among about a dozen visiting students from China and Indonesia making up the lab’s first-ever class.

“Our goal is to be the bridge between China and the foreign countries, between the food exporters and importers.” It may be good business for China, which is rapidly increasing its US exports, to show its interest in keeping food safe, but it is also economical for the United States, which in turn can limit the burden on US inspectors. To act otherwise when up to 60 percent of produce and 80 percent of seafood consumed in the United States comes from other countries, would be too expensive, said Paul Young, director of chemical analysis operations at Waters Corporation.

“Testing at import, while it is important for sure, is not the solution. The solution needs to be built into the production systems in the country of origin.” Waters provided equipment to the new lab, including a state of the art mass spectrometer. The sophisticated machine enables scientists to test for “very large numbers of potential contaminants in a very short period of time and also to be able to detect them at exquisitely low concentrations,” said Young. Lab planning for the rest of this year is still under way, but organizers are aiming for 15-20 courses annually, with an eye to eventually replicating the model in other countries.”The next step is building a global network of interconnected laboratories so they can share curricula and best practices,” said Young.— AFP

WASHINGTON: Arctic sea ice melted this summer to the second lowest level since record-keeping began more than 50 years ago, scientists reported Thursday, mostly blaming global warming. “This is not a random event,” said oceanographer James Overland of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s a long-term change in Arctic climate.” The new measurements were taken by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. It reported that the amount of ice covering the Arctic hit its lowest point late last week, covering just 1.67 million square miles. Only in 2007 was there less summer sea ice, which has been dramatically declining since scientists began using satellites to monitor melt in 1979. Other records go back to 1953. Each summer, sea ice melts and then refreezes starting in the fall. The summer minimum is a key measurement for scientists monitoring man-made global warming.

This year ’s level is 36 percent below the average minimum of 2.59 million square miles.

Since the 1980s, summer Arctic ice has shrunk from something the size of the Lower 48 United States

to an area that covers just the region west of the Mississippi River, said Snow and Ice Data Center senior scientist Walt Meier.

The University of Bremen in Germany, which uses a different satellite sensor and has been monitoring levels since 2003, reported last week that this year’s sea ice actually fell below the record set in 2007. Ice Data Center research scientist Julienne Stroeve said two factors cause summer sea ice to shrink more than normal: worsening man-made global warming and localized and seasonal Arctic weather. In 2007, local weather conditions - wind, barometric pressure and sea currents - all were the worst possible for keeping sea ice frozen, she said. But this year, those seasonal conditions weren’t too bad, she said. Even so, the data center’s measurements show one of the worst years for melt. Stroeve thinks the problem is that after years of shrinking sea ice, what’s left is so thin that it doesn’t sur vive as much as ice would have in past years. Meier said the sea ice is 40 to 50 percent thinner than it used to be.

Using computer models, scientists have predicted the Arctic will eventually be free of sea ice in the

summer by mid-century; a few researchers say it could happen as early as 2015 or 2020. Overland and Meier said they think 2030 to 2040 is more likely for an ice-free

TAIPEI: A disabled dog in a neckerchief with writing “Adopt me” is taken to a gathering to demand establishment of a government department to protect dogs and cats from their owners who abused or dumped the animals in Taipei, Taiwan yesterday. The organizer said animal abuse is a serious problem in Taiwan and authorities must take steps to protect animal rights. —AP

Scientists discover 12 new frog species in India NEW DELHI: Years of combing tropical mountain forests, shining flashlights under rocks and listening for croaks in the night have paid off for a team of Indian scientists which has discovered 12 new frog species plus three others thought to have been extinct. It’s a discovery the team hopes will bring attention to India’s amphibians and their role in gauging the health of the environment. Worldwide, 32 percent of the world’s known amphibian species are threatened with extinction, largely because of habitat loss or pollution, according to the group Global Wildlife Conservation.

“Frogs are extremely important indicators not just of climate change, but also pollutants in the environment,” said the project’s lead scientist, biologist Sathyabhama Das Biju of the University of Delhi. Many of the newly found frogs in India are rare and are living in just a single area, so they will need rigorous habitat protection, Biju told The Associated Press yesterday. “Unfortunately in India, conservation has basically focused on the two most charismatic animals - the elephant and the tiger.

For amphibians there is little interest, little funding, and frog research is not easy.”

Night frogs are extremely hard to find, coming out only at dark and during the mon-

summer. Sea ice is crucial for polar bears and walruses, Overland said.

Sea ice also reflects the sun’s heat, so when the ice melts Earth retains more warmth, Overland said.—AP

soon season, living either in fast-flowing streams or on moist forest ground. Biju said he and his student researchers had to sit in dark, damp forests listening for frog sounds and shining flashlights under rocks and across riverbeds. They confirmed the new species by description as well as genetics.

The 12 new species include the meowing night frog, whose croak sounds more like a cat’s call, the jog night frog, unique in that both the males and females watch over the eggs, and the Wayanad night frog, which grows to about the size of a baseball or cricket ball. “It’s almost like a monster in the forest floor, a huge animal for a frog, leaping from one rock to another,” Biju said. Three other species were rediscovered, including the Coorg night frog described 91 years ago, after scientists “had completely ignored these animals, thinking they were lost.”

The discoveries - published in the latest issue of international taxonomy journal Zootaxa - bring the known number of frogs in India to 336. Biju estimated this was only around half of what is in the wild, and said none of India’s amphibians are yet being studied for biological compounds that could be of further use in science. —AP

KARNATAKA: In this July 2010 photo released by Systematics Lab, Delhi University, a jog night frog sits in the forests of the Western Ghats in Karnataka, India. —AP

Western US states lead in reducing lung cancer rates BOSTON: Western US states boast the lowest rates and most rapid decline in lung cancer in the nation as fewer people smoke cigarettes, a study released on Thursday showed. Over nearly a decade, from 1999 to 2008, rates of new lung cancer cases dropped among men in 35 states and women in six states, with residents in the West leading the pack, the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The results show that by curbing smoking, lung cancer rates could decline to levels not seen in a century, producing significant health care cost savings and saving lives, CDC researchers said. “What the report is showing is that we are really turning around one of our most significant modern day epidemics, and that is lung cancer,” said Marcus Plescia, director of CDC’s cancer prevention and control division. Cigarette smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke caused most lung cancer deaths in the United States, the CDC said.

The deadly disease is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in the country, it said. Lung cancer is linked closely with smoking patterns, with declines in lung cancer rates emerging as soon as five years after smoking rates drop, the CDC said. States that invested in tobacco control strategies such as higher tobacco prices, media campaigns and 100 percent smoke-free policies saw larger declines in smoking, it said. “It’s an investment that really, really pays off, not just in life loss, but for fiscal savings, too,” Plescia said. The study is the first time the CDC has broken down smoking and lung cancer trends at a state level.

While lung cancer rates among men continued to fall, it was only from 2006 to 2008 that women showed decreases nationwide, bucking a years-long rising trend. Lung cancer incidence among women decreased in the West, stabilized in the Midwest and was climbing in the Northeast between 1999 and 2008. At the same time, lung cancer among men decreased in 35 of 44 states analyzed and remained stable in nine others.

According to the CDC analysis, many states with high ratios of people who quit smoking were in the West and Northeast. Findings showed the South was plagued with higher rates of smoking and lung cancer cases than other regions. Researchers said the Southeast has shown the least progress and probably has the weakest tobacco control programs. — Reuters

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Soyuz lands safely in Kazakhstan, rattles nerves Capsule spends 164 days in space MOSCOW: A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three returning astronauts from the International Space Station touched down safely Friday in the central steppes of Kazakhstan, but not without rattling nerves after a breakdown in communications. NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyayev landed some 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan at 10 am local time after 164 days in space.

Repeated calls to the Soyuz TMA-21 capsule from Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow, went unanswered for several minutes, well after the craft had de-orbited.

Communication was eventually established between the crew and an Antonov fixed-winged aircraft circling the landing site. The landing was smooth in the area planned seconds before the expected arrival time. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, NASA’s Michael Fossum, and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan’s JAXA space agency remain onboard the international space station and are due to return to Earth on Nov. 22.

There will be some taut nerves in the run-up to that return, which Roscosmos announced Friday should be preceded by a manned Soyuz launch from Baikonur on Nov 14. Earlier last week, Roscosmos announced that the launch was to take place on Nov 12. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, had to postpone that launch from October amid concerns over a failed supply mission last month. Another delay would almost certainly mean the space station

would have to be left unmanned. Astronauts have been living aboard the station, without interruption, for almost 11 years.

Since phasing out the US space shuttle program earlier this year, NASA is relying entirely on Russia to get American and other astronauts to the international space station. On Friday, Russian space officials mounted their wellrehearsed search-and-recovery operation for Soyuz landings, deploying 14 Mi-8 helicopters in a holding circular pattern, as well as more than half a dozen all-terrain vehicles. “What these helicopters do is that they sort of arrive at a targeted area and hover for a bit until they get a confirmation of exactly where the Soyuz has landed. But we actually did not hover at all today, we came straight in to the landing site,” said NASA spokesman Josh Byerly, speaking from the landing site.

Samokutyayev, who occupied the central seat in the capsule, was the first to be pulled out and hoisted into a medical chair. He look visibly drained, but in good spirits, as a nurse mopped his brow and checked his blood pressure.

A beaming Garan was hoisted out a few minutes later, shortly followed by Borisenko. The three men were then carried in their reclining seats into an inflatable medical tent positioned some 30 meters (30 yards) away, where they were to change out of their entry suits into more comfortable clothes ahead of their return home.

Around them, jubilant Russian space officials exchanged congratulations and posed for photographs. Some fixed a photo of Russian space

pioneer Yury Gagarin together with seminal rocket designer Sergei Korolyov, after whom the Moscow mission control is named.

Helicopters will first take the three men to the Kazakh city of Karaganda, after which Samokutyayev and Borisenko will fly on to the Chkalovsky airport, near Moscow, while Garan will leave directly for the United States with a NASA support crew. Russian Mission Control could not secure direct audio communication in the period between the Soyuz capsule de-orbiting and landing. A mission control official repeatedly called out their call-sign, “Tarkhany,” and appealed for a response, but received no answer.

Still, a beeping signal indicated that the module separation process had been completed. Minutes before landing, an aircraft awaiting their craft’s arrival reporting seeing the parachute deploy and shortly afterward a flying Antonov aircraft command center received the message that the crew was well.

The capsule landed gently around 30 seconds before 10 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) in the barren steppe, throwing up a puff of dust, before rolling onto its side. While it is not unusual for the capsule to be pulled onto its side, it makes pulling out the crew a slightly lengthier process. Their craft carrying the returning crew was dubbed the Gagarin, as they began their trip to the space station from the Baikonur spaceport in southern Kazakhstan on April 4, just eight days shy of the 50th anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s maiden voyage into orbit.— AP

New New e H Hope ope …

New Life

DZHEZKAZGAN: Russian space agency rescuers carry Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyayev after his landing aboard the Soyuz TMA-21 space capsule about 150 km south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan, on Friday. US astronaut Ron Garan and two Russian cosmonauts, Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyayev, made a safe delayed return from the International Space Station as Russia again pushed back the launch of their replacement crew because of a recent rocket crash. —AFP

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NECK to host preschoolers’ motivation program

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

W H AT ’ S O N

Al-Baqsami participates in European Artists EV

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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.

Al-Baqsami with one of her paintings.

Announcements DYINA seeks new members The new association, DREAMS OF YOUTH INDIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION has been formed for the general welfare of the “DYINA” members who we wish are in Kuwait, India and elsewhere in the world. On this occasion DYINA welcomes all Malayalees in Kuwait, especially whoever staying in company camp / hostels (ladies conveners available for the convenient for the ladies) . For more information contact. Poulose Thekkedeth 66790870; Paul Joseph- 97200915; Babu Thomas - 99240368; Shaji - 55042540; Jose Payappilly 99809603; Reason -97286904 Balamurali to perform for VOICE music As part of its Youth Wingís first anniversary, VOICE Kuwait will hold a classical music evening on Friday, Sept 23 at United Indian School, Abbassiya. Renowned musician Prof AyamkuTi Mani will present a vocal program accompanied by distinguished violinist Karunagappally S Balamurali, Arun Arunapuram on mridangam, Aranmula Harilal on ghatam and Manoj Mavelikkara on morsing. Karunagappally S Balamurali, a violinist for 25 years and music director for several TV serials and music albums is new in Kuwait and Fridayís performance is his maiden presentation in Kuwait, as the launch of a his musical career in Kuwait. Viswakarma Organisation for Ideal Career & Education (VOICE) invites all music lovers to this program.

For details, please contact: PG Binu 97964375; Balamurali 99584182

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uwaiti artist Thuraya Al-Baqsami took part in the 19th European Artists EV, which takes place in Essen, Germany featuring 150 artistic works made by 37 artists from 20 countries.

Al-Baqsami is among five Arab participants in the event, who participated with works that reflect the dynamic change in the Arab World, matching the event’s theme that focuses on global change.

The other four Arab participants at the event are Ahmed Saker from Egypt, Ola Hijazi from Saudi Arabia, Joseph Al-Nahawi from Oman, and Zaki Al-Mabron from Sudan. The event was opened by a speech from chairperson of the European Artists Association Carola Thatcher, followed by a speech from critic Alexandrah Skerov who gave an explanation for the exhibition’s theme. Meanwhile, Al-Baqsami delivered a speech on behalf of the participating artists.

TIES Center Eid al Fitr open house

Indian music album wants talents A Malayalam musical album that has song writers from Jnanpith award winner ONV to the popular Rafeeq Ahmad and singers from Hariharan to Sreya Ghoshal, produced by Ragasuthra Music Company and orchestrated by Viswajith plans its launch soon. The 8 songs in the album use lots of Indian languages in part and the music also is pan Indian. As part of the launch the songs are being visualized. A few songs will be shot in Kuwait since the songs represent the life of Indian expats in Kuwait. Ragasuthra is looking for real talents for their gulf based production of music videos. -Talents/Actors: M/F - Age: 14 - 26; Family combination: M/F - Age: 28 - 45; Supporting character: M/F - Age 10 - 60; Assistant Director: M/F; -Associate Director: M/F; Assistants: M/F; Training will be given for selected candidates. Serious applicants may send their bio data with recent photographs to ragasuthra@gmail.com

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IES Center celebrated a full day Eid ul Fitr open house on Friday, 2nd Sept 2011 in a colorful manner from 10 am to 8 pm. Families of TIES clubs and outsiders attended the function. More than 100 participants attended the different activities. For kids movies, games, henna painting, face painting, calligraphy bouncing castle etc were organized. Quiz competition was conducted for adults and prizes were distributed to the winners. Delicious food and snacks, prepared by TIES staff was served to all. All the kids and adults enjoyed the program.

Tulukoota talent hunt Tulukoota Kuwait will hold a “Talent Hunt 2011” a chance to prove an inborn trait in you that confirms your individuality, uniqueness. So step forward to grab this opportunity to show your caliber and entertain. Dance, music, art or any special talent- now is your chance to showcase it and be part of this year’s Talent Hunt & Tulu Parba. Talent Hunt event is open to all Tuluvas.

For more information and registration form kindly log on to our Website: www.tulukootakuwait.org or visit our facebook page - Tulukoota Kuwait Talent Hunt 2011. You could also email your form request to: secretary@tulukootakuwait.org or contact our area coordinators mentioned below. Mangaf, Fahaheel, Abuhalifa : Ronald Dsouza- 60035824, Shalini Alva- 23726164, Suma Bhatt- 97834578 Salmiya & Hawally: Swarna Shetty- 99006934, Kripa Gatty- 66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq : Rekha Sachu- 65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana66585077 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.

Arpan Onam on Sept 23 Arpan Kuwait will celebrate Onam, Kerala’s harvest festival, on September 23 at the Indian Community School, Salmiya (Senior Girls) from 10 am onwards. Various cultural programs have been scheduled to make the celebration a success. Traditional attractions like athappookkalam, mohiniyattom, kaikottikali, folk songs, dance and songs and skits will be presented by Arpan members.

A program committee headed by K Mahadevan is overseeing the preparations.

The celebration will come to an end with a sumptuous ‘Onasadya.’

NAFO Onam celebration NAFO Kuwait to celebrate Onam on September 30, 2011 at the Indian Community School (Senior for Girls) auditorium Salmiya. Cultural activities such as dance,skit, nadan pattukal, vallapattukal etc will be held which will be followed by the traditional onasadhya. All NAFO members are requested to make this program a grand success by participating in various activities. Please register your name at Contacts@nafoglobal.com.said the convener of the program Rajasekaran Nair.

For details please contact Nandakumar 99559416, Udayakumar 66464577 or Rajasekharan Nair 97824780.

Al-Baqsami in a group photo with artists taking part in the event.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Kuwait celebrates Hindi Diwas in style

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s a tribute to the magnanimity of the Hindi language Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan celebrated Hindi Diwas on 14th September 2011 by hosting the first inter-school street play (Nukkad Natak) contest in Kuwait. This contest was harnessed with a strong drive to channel the importance and popularity of Hindi language and to advocate the need to revolutionize the conventions at the government and corporate sector. Six major schools dynamically joined in BVB’s maiden venture of holding an Inter School Street Play Competition and the entire show was compared in Hindi by the students.

The well ordered competitions brushed disparate areas of communication rating ground work, creativity, composure, conversation and rendition. The performers excelled in conveying social messages like the scarcity of water, corruption, dowry, the need for legends like Anna Hazare to take lead and so on. Each team outshone the other and with a marginal difference the triumphant teams netted the first, second and third positions. The FAIPS team and Carmel School team bagged the first and the second positions respectively. The teams were awarded Trophies. The host School stood third. Bhavan’s honoured all the participants and winners with certificates and prizes. The students of BVB entertained the audience with their tunes and twirls.

The judges who graced the occasion were Minisha Pandit and Dr Usha Chopra.

In their address to the gathering the judges congratulated the excellent teams for the pulsating rendition and appreciat-

ed BVB for the successful venture. The Principal of BVB, T.Premkumar expressed his gratitude to the Principals of other Indian schools for their cooperation and

participation. The Principal also appreciated the sincere efforts of the Hindi teachers of all the schools for building such wonderful teams of vibrant and talented chil-

dren. The audience parted only to meet again with a punch on the political scenario and say Jai Hind on Hindi Diwas Samaroh 2012.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

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Embassy

Birthday Greetings

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

Many many happy returns of the day to Ammukutty (Amalendu) who celebrates her 9th birthday today. Greetings come from Achan, Amma, Maman, other relatives, friends and well wishers.

Gulf University welcomes new students at the student & family orientation day Kaveya celebrates her birthday on 18/9/11. Happy birthday from mom, dad, Tij, friends and family.

Happy Birthday Fajer Happy birthday to dear Muhammed Fajer Bin Anwar.May almighty bless you. From Anwar Sadath Thalassery

Konkani drama

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uwait Goan Association (KGA) after presenting popular Konkani tiatrs ‘Ghor Bandlem ghorabo Modlo’ and ‘Tujea Moga Passot’, now all set to present Tragedy King Mario Menezes most popular Konkani drama “Hatachim Panch Bottam” in Kuwait on Friday, 18th November 2011 with full troupe.

Await for more details or email: kgakuwait@gmail.com

Free Arabic courses provided by IPC

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ake your opportunity to learn and improve your Arabic skills. The women section of Islam Presentation Committee will be conducting FREE Arabic Language Course in Basic & Advance Level for non-Arab LADIES commencing on September 30, 2011.

Islamic subjects and Quran classes are also offered in different languages. Classes are offered only once a week.

Register now! For more information: Rawdah-22512257-97290278; Salmiya25733263-97533263; Khaitan-2473013799285459; Mangaf-23723002; Jahra-2455883067720696.

Study in Canada Fair 2011

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rganized by the Embassy of Canada, the sixth annual Middle East Education Initiative (MEEI) will be visiting Kuwait from Oct 1 to 4, 2011.

Representatives of 20 leading Canadian universities and colleges will be available to meet students, parents, teachers and guidance counsellors to present the advantages of studying in Canada. On Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 a Study in Canada exhibition will be held at the Marina Hotel, Salmiya from 6-9:00 pm for potential students and their parents to attend. The Canadian institutions will also be visiting local schools to speak to interested students about opportunities to study in Canada.

Kala Onam celebrations

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nam celebrations along with the closing ceremony of the free Malayalam Education Program of Kerala Art Lovers Association (Kala, Kuwait) will be held on September 30th, 2011 Friday at Indian Community School, Khaithan. Dance, Art and Cultural programs including Athapookalam Competition, Thiruvathira dance, Nadanpattugal, Onapattugal, Vallom kali will capture the day till 4pm in the evening.

By 5pm, closing ceremony meeting of Malayalam classes will begin which will include cultural meeting, honoring of the teachers and representatives who provided spaces to take Malayalam classes and finally presentation of trophy’s to winners of the quiz competitions held at different zones in Kuwait. Chief guests from India as well as prominent guests from Kuwait will also attend the function. For more details please contact: 24317875, 97817100 or 66656642.

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he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) welcomed its new students and their families at the Open Day on campus with a program filled with student interaction, Professors’ advice and the spirit of opportunity.

Their day started with the welcoming faces of distinguished students and staff guiding them through the different aspects of the university, dedicating a booth to each of the departments that interest a new student: Registration, Student Success, IT, SIS, Graduation, Student Association and some student clubs, to name a few. With their new university pride giveaways and programs in hand, the new students and their parents made their way into the auditorium for their first official start to their GUST journey.

Students were first ushered into the grandest hall on campus for an open forum. Student Union representative, student Abdulmehsen Al-Ibrahim, welcomed the new students and their parents to this exciting day and presented Dr Robert Cook, the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr Cook welcomed the students to their new home and introduced them to the details of how the GUST family works. “We will be here to help you in every way we can,” he started, “but you will need to become active learners and work to perfect your academics. Become involved in all the extracurricular activities that GUST offers, but don’t forget your studies, they are your first priority.” Dr Sabah Al-Quaddoumi, Vice President for Academic Services,congratulated the students on a job well done. “We are proud and glad that you have made GUST your first choice. We value every student and their academic career. We value the dedication to become a bigger person in the next 4 to 5 years,” he stated in his speech, assuring the students that GUST will do what it can to help them on their journey. And one of the newest vehicles GUST will be providing is the new Student Success Center, “which was created to help you succeed.

For your success is our success.”

The Deans took the stage right after, Dr Ali Ansari, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, welcomed the students to the beginning of an “amazing journey” and gave them a background on the CAS. And Dr Lee Caldwell, Dean of the College of Business Administration, noted the special obligation GUST has to give them the highest quality education possible and introduced them to the

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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form.

All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed. To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website. As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically.

The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday. The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5257E.P DF. nnnnnnn

CBA and its standards. Dr Mesfer concluded the speeches, talking to about the Student Life Office and its dedication to helping the students in their transition from high school to a university way of life.

After a round of questions and concerns from the students and their parents were answered, Margaret Combs gave an overview of the ESL Department at GUST andits aim of helpingease the student transition into the English language to navigate through their future course selections and the difference it will make in their confidence in communication;which was fol-

lowed by a detailed brief on the colleges and the majors offered and the career paths following graduation.

GUST did not stop there. A workshop was held for the students, run by the University Admission & Registration Department, which covered topics such as how to calculate the Grade Point Average (GPA), the significance of the Major Point Average (MPA) and how and when to register for classes.

GUST is honored to have hosted the newest additions to its family and wishes them the best of luck on their journey.

AWARE orientation for newcomers

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hese orientations are free of charge and provide an opportunity for newly arriving Western guests to learn more about the programs on offer at AWARE. Our staff will be available to answer further questions related to life in Kuwait. If you are new to Kuwait or new to AWARE, we welcome your participation in one of the following presentations: Monday, 26 September 2011 Thursday, 29 September 2011 Monday, 03 October 2011 Thursday, 06 October 2011 Time: 7:00pm-9:00pm Venue: AWARE Center Dinner Buffet is included RSVP to info@aware.com.kw For a free ‘Orientation to Kuwait’ packet, or to ask a question, send an email to info@aware.com.kw

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

Weekly diwaniyas The AWARE Center hosts a weekly diwaniya every Tuesday during which different topics are discussed.

“We discuss topics ranging from culture, legal tips, health, current affairs, religion and issues concerning development in the region”, says Hassan, AWARE Educational Dept.

Manager. Hassan further states, “The aim of the diwaniya is to help Westerners and other expatriates in receiving firsthand information about Kuwait while providing an opportunity to interact with locals.

It is through these diwaniyas that we have been able to clear misconceptions about Islam, Muslims and Arabs.” AWARE Diwaniyas are held weekly on Tuesday evenings at 7 pm. Here are what our guests are saying: “The diwaniya presentations at the AWARE Center are attended by

people from all over the world and are a pleasant venue where locals and expats can meet and exchange ideas. Because of the casual, friendly atmosphere, participating in the discussion is not at all intimidating! The diwaniyas cover a very wide range of subjects and I have really enjoyed them, both as a guest and as a presenter.” Claudia Farkas Al Rashoud “In our experience, the weekly AWARE Diwaniya can almost be guaranteed to provide a stimulating and entertaining evening. However, it is the people, coming as they do from most corners of the globe, who really make these events as fascinating as they are. Newcomers are always welcomed. Contrary opinions and different viewpoints are shared with mutual respect and dignity. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have become involved in these events.”

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 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 PERU With the growing interest shown by Kuwaiti citizens and/or foreign residents in Kuwait for going for vacation and tourism to Peru and/or with the purpose of doing business over there, The Embassy of Peru in Kuwait did the effort and obtained as a temporary and immediate solution - till the opening of the consular section of Diplomatic Mission of Peru in Kuwait City - that the consular section of the Embassy of Peru in Qatar will attend those requests of granting such visas. Working hours: 9 am till 2 pm or call +974-4491-5944, Fax: +974-4491-5940 E-mail: info@peruembassy.com.qa

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

Untamed & Uncut Sharkman Monster Bug Wars Dogs 101 Animal Cops Phoenix Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Meerkat Manor Crocodile Hunter The Really Wild Show Animal Crackers Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Must Love Cats Dogs 101 Crocodile Hunter Air Jaws Air Jaws 2 Big Five Challenge My Cat From Hell Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Karina: Wild On Safari Wildest Africa Monster Bug Wars Dogs 101 Perfect Predators Whale Wars Max’s Big Tracks

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

Robin Hood The Jonathan Ross Show Blackadder Blackadder Little Britain As Time Goes By Allo Allo Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Poetry Pie Poetry Pie Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Poetry Pie Poetry Pie Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Jackanory Junior Poetry Pie Poetry Pie As Time Goes By Allo Allo Robin Hood The Weakest Link Casualty Casualty The Weakest Link Doctors Robin Hood As Time Goes By Allo Allo Coast Heart & Soul Lark Rise To Candleford Kiss Of Death

00:50 Antiques Roadshow 02:35 Holmes On Homes 07:35 Come Dine With Me 12:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 15:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 17:20 Holmes On Homes 20:35 Masterchef Australia 23:20 Holmes On Homes

00:00 00:10 01:00 01:30

BBC World News The World Debate BBC World News Middle East Business Report

02:00 BBC World News 02:10 World Features 02:30 Newsnight 03:00 BBC World News 03:10 World Features 03:30 Equestrian World 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Dateline London 05:00 BBC World News 05:10 The World Debate 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Click 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 Newsnight 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 India Business Report 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 Fast Track 10:00 BBC World News 10:10 The Health Show 10:30 Equestrian World 11:00 BBC World News 11:10 World Features 11:30 Dateline London 12:00 BBC World News 12:10 The Secret War On Terror 13:00 BBC World News 13:10 World Features 13:30 BBC World News 14:00 BBC World News 14:30 Newsnight 15:00 BBC World News 15:10 World Features 15:30 BBC World News 16:00 BBC World News 16:15 Sport Today 16:30 Click 17:00 BBC World News 18:10 The World Debate 19:00 BBC World News 19:30 India Business Report 20:00 BBC World News 20:30 BBC World News 21:00 Sports World Have Your Say 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 Equestrian World 23:00 This Week With Christiane Amanpour

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 The Life & Times Of Juniper Lee 07:25 The Powerpuff Girls 07:50 Cartoon Network Dance Club 08:05 Angelo Rules 08:30 Chowder 08:55 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 09:20 Adventure Time 09:23 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 09:30 Adventure Time 09:45 Courage The Cowardly Dog 10:05 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:27 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 11:20 Generator Rex 11:45 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 12:10 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 12:35 Hero 108 13:00 Best Ed 13:58 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 14:20 Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends 14:40 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 15:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 16:20 Camp Lazlo

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 17:10 Robotboy - Elements 18:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:25 Flapjack 18:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 19:15 Adventure Time 19:40 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 20:05 Chowder 20:08 Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 20:15 Chowder 20:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 20:55 Cow & Chicken 21:20 Best Ed 21:45 I Am Weasel 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 22:50 The Secret Saturdays 23:15 Samurai Jack 23:40 Megas Xlr

00:20 Replacements 00:45 Replacements 01:10 Fairly Odd Parents 01:35 Fairly Odd Parents 02:00 A Kind Of Magic 02:20 A Kind Of Magic 02:45 Stitch 03:10 Stitch 03:35 Kim Possible 04:00 Kim Possible 04:25 Emperor’s New School 04:50 Emperor’s New School 05:15 Stitch 05:35 Stitch 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:25 Handy Manny 06:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 07:10 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 07:30 Fish Hooks 08:00 Suite Life On Deck 08:25 Phineas And Ferb 08:50 Good Luck Charlie 09:15 Shake It Up 09:40 Fish Hooks 10:05 Wizards Of Waverly Place 10:30 Jump In! 12:00 Suite Life On Deck 12:25 Shake It Up 12:50 A Kind Of Magic 13:15 Good Luck Charlie 13:40 Fish Hooks 14:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 14:25 Stitch 14:50 Shake It Up 15:15 Fish Hooks 15:35 Good Luck Charlie 15:55 Hannah Montana 16:20 Shake It Up 16:45 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:30 Good Luck Charlie 18:00 Fish Hooks 18:20 Suite Life On Deck 18:45 Shake It Up 19:10 Wizards Of Waverly Place The Movie 20:55 Wizards Of Waverly Place 21:25 Fish Hooks 21:50 Phineas And Ferb 22:15 Suite Life On Deck 22:40 Sonny With A Chance 23:05 Suite Life On Deck 23:30 Hannah Montana 23:55 Kim Possible

00:40 Great White Appetite 01:35 I Escaped Death 02:30 How Stuff’s Made 03:00 How Do They Do It? 03:25 How Stuff’s Made 03:55 How Do They Do It? 04:20 How Stuff’s Made 04:50 How Do They Do It? 05:15 How Stuff’s Made 05:40 How Do They Do It? 06:05 How Stuff’s Made 06:35 How Do They Do It? 07:00 American Chopper: Senior vs Junior 07:50 Ultimate Car Build-Off 08:45 Wheeler Dealers 09:40 Extreme Fishing 10:30 The Next Great Baker

COACH CARTER ON OSN ACTION HD

18:15 19:10 20:05 21:00 21:55 Zero 22:50 23:45

Ultimate Survival Deadliest Catch Dual Survival Mythbusters Rising: Rebuilding Ground Frontline Battle Machines...

Frontline Battle Machines...

00:05 The Gadget Show 00:30 Mighty Ships 01:20 The Colony 02:10 Powering the Future 03:00 Engineered 03:50 Da Vinci’s Machines 04:45 Catch It Keep It 05:40 How Does That Work?

06:10 Superships 07:00 NASA’s Greatest Missions 07:55 Head Rush 07:58 Sci-Fi Science 08:25 Weird Connections 08:55 Brainiac 09:45 Prototype This 10:35 The Kustomizer 14:45 Head Rush 14:48 Sci-Fi Science 15:15 Weird Connections 15:45 Bang Goes the Theory 16:10 The Gadget Show 16:35 The Gadget Show 17:00 Smash Lab 17:50 Science of the Movies 18:40 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 19:30 Primal Connections 20:20 Killer Outbreaks 21:10 Sci-Fi Science 21:35 The Tech Show 22:00 Eco-Tech 22:50 Mighty Ships 23:40 The Science of Fear and Lust

00:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:45 Aarti Party 02:10 Aarti Party 02:35 World Cafe Middle East 03:25 Chopped 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 - Back To Basics 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 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 20:45 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 21:10 Barefoot Contessa 21:35 Barefoot Contessa 22:00 Chef vs Britain 22:25 Chef vs Britain 22:50 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 23:15 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 23:40 World Cafe Asia

00:00 00:15 00:40 00:55 01:10 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:15 02:25 02:50 03:05 03:20 03:40 03:55 04:10 04:25 04:35 05:00 05:15 05:30 05:50 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:45 07:00 07:15 07:40 07:55 08:20 08:30 09:00 09:10 09:25 09:55 10:15 10:45 11:10 11:30 11:40 12:05 12:30 12:45 13:00 13:15 13:25 13:35 13:50 14:15

Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Jungle Junction Jungle Junction Higglytown Heroes Higglytown Heroes Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time Little Einsteins The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Lazytown Art Attack Imagination Movers The Hive Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction The Hive Timmy Time Special Agent Oso The Little Mermaid Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

14:40 15:05 15:20 15:50 16:05 16:20 16:45 17:10 17:35 17:50 18:00 18:25 18:40 18:55 19:05 19:23 19:25 19:50 20:09 20:10 20:35 20:50 21:00 21:30 21:55 22:10 22:35 22:55 23:20 23:50

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Handy Manny Lazytown Art Attack Imagination Movers Jungle Junction The Hive Little Einsteins Jake & The Neverland Pirates Handy Manny Timmy Time Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Animated Stories Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates A Poem Is...

The Little Mermaid Special Agent Oso The Hive Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Handy Manny Jo Jo’s Circus Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction

00:25 Fashion Police 00:55 Chelsea Lately 01:25 Too Young To Kill 03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Reality Hell 05:30 Wildest TV Show Moments 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kendra 10:15 Giuliana & Bill 11:10 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 12:05 E! News 13:05 Fashion Police 13:35 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:05 E!es 15:00 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:55 The Dance Scene 16:55 Behind The Scenes 17:55 E! News 18:55 Holly’s World 19:55 Giuliana & Bill 20:55 Khloe And Lamar 21:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:15 Aiya TV 01:30 M1 Selection 2010 02:20 Untracked 04:00 Born To Run 04:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

06:30 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 08:00 IFMXF 2010 09:40 Summer Dew Tour 2010 10:30 Summer Dew Tour 2010 11:20 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

12:10 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

13:00 Eddie Jordan’s Bad Boy Racers 13:50 Mantracker 14:40 Fantasy Factory 17:10 I’ll Do Anything 18:00 Mantracker 18:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

19:40 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

20:30 Eddie Jordan’s Bad Boy Racers 21:20 Eds Up 21:45 Eds Up 22:10 Mantracker 23:00 I’ll Do Anything 23:50 Kick Ass Miracles

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

A Haunting Ghost Lab The Haunted A Haunting Amsterdam Vice Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol I Almost Got Away With It FBI Files True Crime With Aphrodite I Was Murdered Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol I Almost Got Away With It Forensic Detectives Murder Shift FBI Files Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Nightmare Next Door I Almost Got Away With It Deadly Women

00:00 Racing To America 01:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 01:30 Pressure Cook 02:00 A World Apart 03:00 Ultimate Traveller 04:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 05:00 Long Way Down 06:00 Racing To America 07:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:30 Pressure Cook 08:00 A World Apart 09:00 Ultimate Traveller 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 Long Way Down 12:00 Racing To America 13:00 Cooking The World 14:00 Going Bush 14:30 Bluelist Australia 15:00 Food School 15:30 Banged Up Abroad 17:30 Weird & Wonderful Hotels

CRAZY ON THE OUTSIDE ON OSN MOVIES HD 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 23:30

Travel Madness Cooking The World Going Bush Bluelist Australia Food School Banged Up Abroad Weird & Wonderful Hotels

00:15 02:00 03:45 06:00 08:15 10:15 12:00 14:15 16:15 18:30 20:45 22:15

30 Days Of Night: Dark Days-18 Deadly Impact-18 Spiderman 2-PG15 Coach Carter-PG15 Hollywood Homicide-PG15 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 Hollywood Homicide-PG15 The Sum Of All Fears-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 Child’s Play 2-PG15 Windtalkers-PG15

01:00 Swansong: Story Of Occi Byrne-PG15 03:00 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 04:45 MacHEADS-PG15 06:00 My Name Is Khan-PG15 09:00 Don’t Fade Away-PG15 11:00 How To Train Your Dragon-PG 13:00 The Flyboys-PG15 15:00 Private-PG15 17:00 My Bollywood Bride-PG15 19:00 Flash Of Genius-PG15 21:15 Date Night-PG15 23:15 Death Race 2-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Sarah Silverman Program 02:00 Saturday Night Live 03:00 Melissa And Joey 03:30 Mr. Sunshine 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 Melissa And Joey 09:00 Will And Grace 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:00 Outsourced 10:30 Coach 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Mr. Sunshine 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 Coach 14:30 How I Met Your Mother 15:00 Outsourced 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Friends 18:30 Friends 19:00 30 Rock 20:00 Happy Endings 20:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 Sarah Silverman Program 23:30 Happy Endings

01:00 Menace II Society-18 03:00 Spiderman 2-PG15 05:15 Fear Island-PG15 07:00 Batman: Under The Red Hood-PG 08:30 The Hunt For Red OctoberPG15 10:45 Collateral-PG15 12:45 What Lies Beneath-PG15 15:00 The Hunt For Red OctoberPG15 17:15 Set It Off-PG15 19:15 Jason X-18 21:00 Windtalkers-PG15 23:15 Child’s Play 3-18

19:15 RWC Highlights Weekly 19:45 Scottish Premier League 21:45 PGA European Tour 00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Old Dogs-PG I Love You Beth Cooper-PG15 17 Again-PG15 Stuart Little 2-FAM My Sassy Girl-PG15 The Addams Family-PG Addams Family Values-PG A Film With Me In It-PG15 Old Dogs-PG Wake-PG15 Dance Flick-18 Land Of The Lost-PG15

01:00 Triage-18 03:00 Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale-PG15 05:00 My Sister’s Keeper-PG15 07:00 12 Men Of Christmas-PG15 09:00 Dean Spanley-PG 11:00 Sleepover-PG15 13:00 One Hot Summer-PG15 15:00 Bandslam-PG15 17:00 Dean Spanley-PG 19:00 Crazy On The Outside-PG15 21:00 A Family Thanksgiving-PG15 23:00 Shanghai-PG15

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Country Bears-PG The Prince Of Dinosaurs-PG Queen Of The Swallows-FAM The Nutty Professor-FAM Globehunters-FAM Dr. Dolittle-PG The Country Bears-PG Dinosaur Island-PG Astro Boy-FAM Dr. Dolittle-PG A Simple Wish-FAM Dinosaur Island-PG

01:30 03:45 06:00 06:30 08:00 09:00 10:30 11:30 13:00 13:30 16:30 17:00 18:30 19:30 21:00 22:00 23:30

Rugby World Cup Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Prizefighter RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday

01:00 01:15 03:15 05:15 05:30 06:00 06:30 08:00 09:00 10:30 11:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:30 19:30 21:00 22:00 23:30

RWC Highlights Scottish Premier League Rugby Union Currie Cup RWC Highlights Futbol Mundial Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Total Rugby Rugby Union Currie Cup ICC Cricket World RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday

00:00 04:30 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:30 14:30 15:00 19:00

PGA European Tour AFL Premiership Scottish Premier League NRL Premiership AFL Premiership Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Live PGA European Tour RWC Highlights

00:00 WWE SmackDown 02:00 WWE Bottom Line 04:00 Live UFC Fight Night 25 06:30 Live V8 Supercars Championship 10:00 WWE SmackDown 12:00 WWE Bottomline 13:00 WWE Tough Enough 14:00 Scottish Premier League Highlights 14:30 Live Scottish Premier League 16:30 Futbol Mundial 17:00 Live Super League 19:30 Total Rugby 20:00 Live Super League 22:00 UFC Fight Night 25

00:00 King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed 01:00 Cutty Sark: Out Of The Ashes 02:00 Lost Worlds 03:00 Engineering An Empire 04:00 Inside The World Of Henry VIII 05:00 The Search For Sherlock Holmes 06:00 King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed 07:00 Cutty Sark: Out Of The Ashes 08:00 Lost Worlds 09:00 Engineering An Empire 10:00 Inside The World Of Henry VIII 11:00 The Search For Sherlock Holmes 12:00 King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed 13:00 Cutty Sark: Out Of The Ashes 14:00 Lost Worlds 15:00 Engineering An Empire 16:00 Inside The World Of Henry VIII 17:00 The Search For Sherlock Holmes 18:00 King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed 19:00 American Pickers 20:00 Pawn Stars 21:00 UFO Hunters 22:00 Ancient Aliens

00:00 Homes With Style 01:00 Videofashion News 01:55 Big Boutique 02:25 How Do I Look?

03:20 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

04:15 Married Away 05:10 Homes With Style 05:35 Area 06:05 Clean House 07:00 Big Boutique 08:00 Clean House 09:00 Top 10 09:55 Homes With Style 10:50 Open House 11:50 Videofashion News 12:50 How Do I Look?

13:45 Glamour’s 20 Wedding Do’s And Don’ts 14:45 Open House 15:40 Top 10 16:35 Big Rich Texas 18:25 How Do I Look?

20:20 Fashion Police 20:45 Clean House Comes Clean 21:15 Clean House 23:05 Ruby

02:05 Key Largo-PG 03:45 The Prisoner Of Zenda-FAM 05:35 The Strip-PG 07:00 Captain Nemo And The Underwater City-FAM 08:45 TCM Presents Under The Influence-U 09:15 Show Boat-FAM 11:00 TCM Presents Under The Influence-U 11:30 For Me And My Gal-FAM 13:10 It’s Always Fair Weather-FAM 14:50 Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo-PG 17:15 Pick A Star-FAM

Classifieds SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Single room with separate bathroom available in 3 bedroom 3 bathroom deluxe C-AC flat with small Muslim family in Hawally Tunis street, near Sadique roundabout, behind Commercial Bank, for single executive or decent couple or 2 working ladies. Contact: 97794619. (C 3626) 15-9-2011 Accommodation available in Salmiya, Amman St, CA/C new building, for two Indian/ Sri Lanka bachelors with another Indian.

Contact: 99467432.

(C 3622) Accommodation available from 1-10-2011 or before for a small family or one or two decent non-smoking / non-drinking bachelors in a two bedroom flat near Paradise Restaurant, Abbassiya. Tel: 97669236/ 24315927. (C 3623) 14-9-2011

good price. Contact: 99322585. (C 3625)

F7811421, wish to change my name to PIEDADE JORGE.

A/C General, gas oven, bed, cupboard, fully carpeted in two bedroom big hall flat in Abbassiya. For further details, contact: 66895049.

(C 3627) 15-9-2011

I, STEVE AUSTIN GEORGE, Indian Passport No # E1095661, wish to change my name to STEVE AUSTIN JORGE.

Toyota Corolla model 2006, 1.8 engine, excellent condition, registration 2007-2012, price KD 2,400.

Contact: 66396517.

(C 3621) 14-9-2011

I, PATRICIA RUFINA GEORGE, Indian Passport No # E0374505, wish to change my name to PATRICIA RUFINA JORGE. 18-9-2011

No: 15213

SITUATION WANTED Indian couple need a job 12 years experience in Kuwait, cleaning, cooking and driving, we are expecting good salary, Please call 65585930.

(C 3624) 15-9-2011

CHANGE OF NAME FOR SALE PC Compaq P4 with LCD monitor, Panasonic DVD recorder, Polaroid multimedia projector with screen.

All in excellent condition at

I, Ramar Perumal, holder of Indian Passport No: J5341408 hereby change my name to P. Abdul Rahman.

I, PIEDADE PEGGY GEORGE, Indian Passport No #

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines RJA MLR JZR THY ETH UAE DHX ETD MSR JZR FDB JZR GFA QTR KAC FCX JZR JZR KAC BAW JZR KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA IRC FCX RBG MEA JZR JZR JZR KAC MSR UAL RJA KAC FDB QTR

Flt 642 1405 267 772 620 853 370 305 614 269 67 189 211 138 544 201 503 555 412 157 1541 206 382 615 284 302 53 332 678 352 855 132 125 603 301 213 6801 203 3555 404 165 121 561 672 610 982 640 774 57 140

Arrival Flights on Sunday 18/9/2011 Route AMMAN COLOMBO/DUBAI BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO BEIRUT DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA CAIRO DUBAI LUXOR ALEXANDRIA MANILA/BANGKOK LONDON CAIRO ISLAMABAD DELHI SHAHRE KORD DHAKA MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT/DUBAI COCHIN DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH SHIRAZ ABU DHABI BAHRAIN AHWAZ DUBAI ALEXANDRIA BEIRUT DUBAI BAHRAIN SOHAG DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN RIYADH DUBAI DOHA

Time 0:05 0:15 0:35 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:05 3:10 3:10 3:15 3:20 4:40 5:25 5:40 6:10 6:15 6:30 7:10 7:15 7:20 7:35 7:40 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:00 8:05 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:25 9:30 9:35 10:15 10:30 10:35 10:55 11:10 11:15 12:30 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:15

KAC SVA KAC KAC JZR QTR JZR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR RBG JZR ABY JZR FDB ALK JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI SYR FDB OMA VOS MEA KAC DHX KAC UAE KAC GFA QTR AFG UAL AIC JZR JZR JZR MSR DLH AXB JZR KLM JZR PIA

562 500 788 746 257 134 535 303 857 215 510 777 3558 239 127 213 63 227 177 166 542 618 786 614 102 674 572 341 61 647 81 402 552 372 512 859 172 217 136 405 981 981 135 787 185 612 636 389 539 447 481 205

AMMAN JEDDAH JEDDAH ABU DHABI/DAMMAM BEIRUT DOHA CAIRO ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH SOHAG AMMAN SHARJAH DEIREZZOR/ALEPPO DUBAI COLOMBO/DUBAI DUBAI PARIS/ROME CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN NEW YORK/LONDON DUBAI MUMBAI ALEPPO DUBAI MUSCAT BAGHDAD BEIRUT DAMASCUS BAHRAIN TEHRAN DUBAI FRANKFURT BAHRAIN DOHA KABUL/DUBAI BAHRAIN CHENNAI/AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE/MANGALORE CAIRO AMSTERDAM/BAHRAIN SABIHA LAHORE

14:20 14:30 15:00 15:05 15:10 15:15 15:50 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35 17:35 17:40 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:00 18:40 18:50 18:55 19:00 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:15 21:00 21:00 21:15 21:20 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:10 23:30 23:35 23:50 23:55

Airlines KAC AXB JZR MSR DLH AIC MLR THY ETH SWT UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR JZR JZR RJA GFA JZR BAW IRA FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR KAC ETD GFA KAC IRA JZR IRC RBG FCX MEA KAC JZR JZR KAC KAC

Flt 677 394 1540 613 637 976 1405 773 620 94 854 68 371 306 615 139 560 164 643 212 120 156 614 54 534 171 671 745 256 561 787 856 126 133 117 302 214 773 602 212 6802 3557 204 405 541 776 238 103 785

Departure Flights on Sunday 18/9/2011 Route DUBAI/MUSCAT COCHIN/KOZHIKODE CAIRO CAIRO FRANKFURT GOA/CHENNAI COLOMBO ISTANBUL BAHRAIN/ADDIS ABABA DUBAI/KANDAHAR DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA SOHAG DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN LONDON SHAHRE KORD DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT DUBAI DAMMAM/ABU DHABI BEIRUT AMMAN JEDDAH DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA NEW YORK ABU DHABI BAHRAIN RIYADH SHIRAZ DEIREZZOR/ALEPPO AHWAZ SOHAG DUBAI BEIRUT CAIRO JEDDAH AMMAN LONDON JEDDAH

Time 0:10 0:15 0:20 0:20 0:40 0:50 1:15 2:15 2:30 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 5:00 5:55 6:55 7:00 7:10 8:20 8:25 8:35 8:40 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:25 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:20 10:25 10:50 11:15 11:15 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:10 12:30 13:30

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

JZR MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC KAC KAC SVA JZR QTR KAC KAC JZR ETD QTR UAE GFA RBG ABY JZR SVA FDB JZR JZR JZR ALK KAC KAC JAI FDB SYR KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC DHX UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR KAC

176 611 641 58 982 551 673 617 503 480 141 613 511 538 304 135 858 216 3556 128 184 511 64 786 204 134 228 283 361 571 62 342 343 351 648 403 543 373 860 218 102 137 301 205 554 502 530 411 981 613 415

DUBAI CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DUBAI DOHA MEDINAH/JEDDAH SABIHA DOHA BAHRAIN TEHRAN CAIRO ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH DUBAI RIYADH DAMASCUS BAHRAIN DUBAI/COLOMBO DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI ALEPPO CHENNAI COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD ALEXANDRIA LUXOR ASSIUT BANGKOK/MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA

13:40 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 14:55 15:10 15:35 15:45 16:00 16:15 16:20 16:30 16:40 17:35 17:45 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:25 18:35 18:40 18:40 18:55 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:10 23:25 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:50

34

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 442

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) This is a high-energy day where much can be accomplished. As a result you can expect a little boost: some sort of extra support or recognition from those around you. You may feel that you are in touch and in harmony with others and you will notice others receptive to what you say. You will enjoy being with others in an atmosphere of work or play. The support you need is available in whatever you decide to do today. There is a feeling that anything is possible if you set your sights high enough. You may decide to take a course in speed learning or some other way to absorb facts quickly. You want to get some of the time consuming chores out of the way. There is optimism and a tendency to take on new challenges.

Leave some room for sports today.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) New ways to communicate or an easy manner will make conversations and interactions with others go very well today. You may be instructing your loved ones in the use of a new computer, phone system, etc. This is a more talkative and open time when loved ones can relate and communicate well.

Loved ones enjoy your company. A dialogue with an older person may also take place today. You are at your mental best with helpful thoughts and ideas. You may consider helping an elderly individual with a new diet or provide supplements this afternoon.

This evening is an excellent time to take care of mental work—paying bills, creating plans. There is an interest in healing. This could involve physical repairs as well as bodily healing.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A drug combination found in some over-the-counter headache remedies (Aspirin and Phenacetin and Caffeine).

4. A burn cause by hot liquid or steam.

9. Not agitated.

13. A colloid in a more solid form than a sol.

14. Type genus of the Caviidae.

15. An onerous or difficult concern.

16. Jordan's port.

18. Small voraciously carnivorous freshwater fishes of South America that attack and destroy living animals.

20. A woman of refinement.

21. Covered with paving material.

22. An associate degree in nursing.

26. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

27. English essayist (1775-1834).

30. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

35. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

36. Alternatively, a member of the family Nymphaeaceae.

40. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

41. Green algae common in freshwater lakes of limestone districts.

42. The quarter of many North African cities in which the citadel is located.

44. Before noon.

45. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

47. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

48. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

51. The capital and largest city of Lithuania.

55. An implement used to propel or steer a boat.

59. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.

60. The law enforcement agency in the Justice Department.

61. Small genus of delicate mossy bog plants having white or violet flowers.

63. (folklore) Fairies that are somewhat mischievous.

64. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

65. A genus of tropical American plants have sword-shaped leaves and a fleshy compound fruits composed of the fruits of several flowers (such as pineapples).

66. The organ of sight (`peeper' is an informal term for `eye').

DOWN 1. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

2. Large dark brown North American arboreal carnivorous mammal.

3. Wearing or provided with clothing.

4. A fraudulent business scheme.

5. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

6. Any of various perennials of the genus Geum having usually pinnate basal leaves and variously colored flowers.

7. Being one more than fifty.

8. A metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables.

9. A steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain.

10. Of the appetites and passions of the body.

11. A Bantu language spoken in southern Zaire.

12. One thousandth of a second.

17. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

19. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

23. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

24. An enclosed space.

25. A small cake leavened with yeast.

28. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

29. (of persons) Highest in rank or authority or office.

31. The longer of the two telegraphic signals used in Morse code.

32. (Islam) The man who leads prayers in a mosque.

33. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

34. An implement consisting of handle with a free swinging stick at the end.

37. Toward the mouth or oral region.

38. A state in northwestern North America.

39. (Hindu) A manner of sitting (as in the practice of Yoga).

43. The agent to whom property involved in a bailment is delivered.

46. (zoology) Pertaining to or characteristic of birds.

49. Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart.

50. An elaborate song for solo voice.

52. A ruler of the Inca Empire (or a member of his family).

53. Displeasing to the senses and morally revolting.

54. Free from risk or danger.

56. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

57. (British) Your grandmother.

58. 100 pyas equal 1 kyat.

62. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Circumstances may enhance and stimulate appreciation and enjoyment of your life situation. Your system of values may deepen, providing you with a better sense of discrimination and good taste. Purchasing, selecting colors, etc. Your mind may be very clear now, with thoughts that are in focus. It is easy to organize your thoughts—communication of all kinds is furthered. You could write that book or sign up to take a course. Your thoughts count now—use your mind.

Communicate. The new and unexpected may figure in your living situation or surroundings. An insight about your support system, your mother, or other females may be important. You could discover a rebellious young person will open up to you now.

A good friendship is developing.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

Support and recognition are in your future, both from the public and from family and friends. You feel at home in the world and it takes care of you. You could have deep insights into your own feelings and inner, spiritual nature. You could be moody or even dreamy at this time. Your emotions and feelings could reach heights that are close to ecstatic. It is easy, however, to find proper motivation to fulfill your ideals or make your dreams into reality.

Your own business, a business partnership or perhaps an investment in a business are all possibilities just now. Your own growth and success may be linked to questions of security—home and family in particular. Establish a home base from which to move forward. You have the power.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Do not allow others to sidetrack you from your plans this day—you could have a problem with organizational skills. You may have allowed important chores to remain unfinished for much too long; however, now is the time to fix that car, take care of the yard, paint a door, polish the shoes, etc. This could be a challenging day in the amount of work you may want to accomplish around your living quarters. You could feel great support from those around you. Becoming more honest with a loved one has resulted in a deeper bond between the two of you. Carry this honesty into other parts of your relationship. Find positive ways to make a loved one happy. You could feel a great deal of closeness to this loved one now.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Fondness and appreciation for the past and for your roots in life take on a greater importance for you now. Making your home situation more pleasant and attractive plays a part in this and the sale or purchase of real estate could bring you much gain before this cycle is completed. Family harmony is within your reach. Insights into your deeper, more spiritual nature are available to you at this time. You will discover whole new areas of your psyche or mind that have been closed up to now. There are insights into how to make your dreams a reality. You can reflect and understand your own situation and just what you want to plan for your future. A vacation during a big holiday may be a consideration; help in your planning comes unexpectedly.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You are in a mood of self-enjoyment and can appreciate your own better qualities. You may feel love for an older person or someone in authority today. This is a good day to spend with a loved one.

Emotions are up and you may even find yourself pondering a bit on the meaning of life. You feel at one with your situation. Considering the day, this is a productive and potentially satisfying one. You may find yourself working on those new habits you want to form now. Careful . . . negative habits are easily formed and oh, so hard to break. What you do with your days will become important when you realize new habits form almost unconsciously each day. You could find yourself ignoring the practical this evening.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Your own creative style is excellent, but you never think of showing it off to anyone. It is about time to show off your skills.

Perhaps a hobby has become most enticing—trains, art, collections, gardening, makeup, clothes, etc. You would do well to display your hobby the next time there is an art show in your area. Work now to improve or enlarge your stock. The recreation or civic center in your city will have suggestions for your consideration. This is a great way to build self-esteem. You have a great deal of talent that others would enjoy viewing.

Your best supporters can come through associations with others who share your interests. Friends are a wonderful gift—they can strengthen your objectivity and hope for the future.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

You can demonstrate great sensitivity to the needs of others just now and are in a good position to communicate with matters concerning the family today. Obtaining and exchanging information is important now as you gather information to create your next book or research. You will be learning about the concerns of young ones and may be compelled to guide and suggest.

Involving yourself with neighbors or sibling(s) satisfies a deep emotional need.

Understanding feelings is important for everyone and satisfies the curiosity and helps one grow. Sports, entertainment, projects and chores all can be enjoyed when there is a team effort. Unexpected company this evening will be complimentary of your home and family. Music is in the air.

A time when you may feel very passionate, or during which your feelings, emotions and basic life urges undergo change. You feel more personal and direct and find that you waste less time with hurt feelings than before. If it makes sense you love it and if it doesn’t you feel guilty about it: that’s what it’s like now. You may decide to sign up for an exercise class with a friend—or perhaps, teach a class. You give a friend loving attention today—they may have been going through some hard times lately. You have a clear vision into your own inner sense of values, how you appreciate and love. You will enjoy the outcome as you examine and think about what is important and of lasting value in your life. Someone surprises you in positive ways this evening.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Family members may notice and comment on your progress this month; it is all positive. Everything conspires to value and to bring out your unique qualities. You may find that someone close to you understands and is supportive of your ideas. You could come up with new solutions or inventions.

Stress and finances are present today. In other words, even though stress is present, rewards are available—take them. Late afternoon will give you time away from the stress and there are opportunities to laugh and be with your loved ones. This evening an important relationship, perhaps a young person or someone in your near environment may come into focus. You are able to understand this person as you have never understood them before.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

A state of grace is probably going to be one of the uppermost things that will soothe your furrowed brow. In other words, it is time to let the little negatives in your life go—move forward with your life purpose. This has been a month of rapid growth and recognition for your hard work, mentally and physically. There is a new moneymaking opportunity on the horizon—you need to pay attention. Although this is Saturday, it will give you time to get any paperwork in order for requesting a loan or purchasing some stock. There is a feeling that anything is possible if you set your sights high enough. There is optimism, faith and a tendency to take chances at the deepest emotional levels. This is a creative period for you—a time to be appreciated and admired.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

Al-Shohada’a

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Fayhaa

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

24812000

Al-Jahra

25610011

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

Clinics Rabiya

4732263

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Al-Omariya

24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways FlyDubai Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

22433377 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22958787 22453820/1 22404838/9

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist 25340300

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada) Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Salem soso

22618787

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Mousa Khadada

22666300

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists

25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291 22666288

Rheumatologists:

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

Dentists

Internists, Chest & Heart

25339330

25655535

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

General Surgeons

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345

Central African Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia

00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689

y

A

36

e niv rsar n

Years

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

lifestyle G O S S I P

Spears launches

European tour

ritney Spears launched her European tour with an exclusive party in London. The ‘Criminal’ singer turned up at the Sanctum Soho Hotel with boyfriend Jason Trawick looking stunning in a green-and-black bodycon dress to celebrate the start of the European leg of her ‘Femme Fatale’ tour. The series of concerts start in St Petersburg, Russia, on September 22 and end in Lisbon, Portugal on November 9 and will see Britney returning to London for dates at the city’s The O2 venue in October. Britney, 29, arrived in the British capital earlier this week and said it is a city that is always close to her heart.

She tweeted: “So excited to stop over in the UK before I start my European tour in a few weeks.

Can’t wait! I LOVE London, it’s like my second

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home.” She will also shoot her new video for ‘Criminal’ in the UK capital, adding: “Decided to shoot the Criminal video in the streets of merry old England when I get there.” Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge will not undertake solo royal duties until at least 2012. Duchess Kate - who wed Prince William in April this year - will not fulfill any solo engagements until at least next year as she adjusts to life within the royal family. She will instead support her husband as he continues his training as a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot in Anglesey, Wales. One aide said in the past people who marrying into the royal family have waited up to three years before taking on solo royal duties. One senior courtier told the Daily Express newspaper: “I don’t think it’s

going to be as long as that but I am just trying to put things in context. “Historically, women joining the Royal Family do not begin undertaking solo engagements until around two years after their marriage.” Kate has already undertook official royal business alongside her husband, including her first official overseas visit, a trip to Canada shortly after their wedding. She will also attend certain public occasions with William, such as appearing at the Cenotaph for the first time on Remembrance Sunday, on November 11. William and Kate are, however, set to spend less time in the public eye over the next year as they step back to allow the focus to be on Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, marking 60 years of her reign.

Jason Derulo

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he ‘Don’t Wanna Go Home’ hitmaker insists he has simple tastes but admits he requests for his backstage dressing rooms to be infused with his favorite scents. He said: “The only things I need on my rider are t-shirts, vests, fruit, veg, and vanilla-scented candles. “I’m so simple! I’m super chilled, laidback and can laugh at myself. I’m all about enjoying life to the full and living in the moment.” Jason, 21, also admitted he was a target for bullies when he was younger because of his interest in performing, but he refused to give in to his tormentors. He told Top of the Pops magazine: “I was prone to taunts when I was younger because I was into singing. But I’m a pretty big guy and when that stuff happened to me, I didn’t back down - I got into fights all the time. “If you’re being bullied, you do have to put a stop to it straight away because if you do back down, it’s them winning and they’ll do it more. Stand up to it and it’ll go away because bullies don’t want to fight, they just want to show off.”

Roberts is ‘creepy and eerie’ on the set

Depp gives hats to Bullocks‘ son atthew Fox is being sued for $25,000 by a woman who claims he punched her. Ohio bus driver Heather Bormann has filed assault and battery charges against the former ‘Lost’ actor following the incident in the early hours of August 28, where she claims he drunkenly tried to get onto her vehicle and demanded she drove him to his hotel. When she refused - because she was there for a private party - papers filed at the Cuyahoga County Court allege he attacked her “with his fists”. The case states: “Defendant Fox continued to force his way onto the steps of the bus, and bellowed loudly at plaintiff, demanding she drive him to his hotel.

Plaintiff again informed him she could not do so, that this was a private party and that he was trespassing upon a private party and vehicle, without permission to do so, and would have to find another ride.

“Suddenly and without provocation, Fox attacked plaintiff with his fists, delivering sudden and severe blows to her right breast, groin, arm and legs, inflicting severe, disabling injury and pain to plaintiff.” She defended herself against the punches, causing Matthew to suffer a split lip, and the Cleveland police were eventually called. Heather is seeking the money for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A lawyer for the actor has not yet commented on the compensation claim.

Matthew Fox sued

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ohnny Depp has given several hats to Sandra Bullock’s toddler son.

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor has nearly 1,000 hats and after his partner Vanessa Paradis ordered him to get rid of some, he decided to give a few to 20-monthold Louis to wear when he’s bigger. A source told National Enquirer magazine: “Sandra thought it was the sweetest thing. She told Louis often cries if she doesn’t put a hat on his head and that’s why he’s rarely seen without one. Johnny promised to send more.” Earlier this year, Vanessa ordered Johnny - who has previously been voted Hat Person of the Year - to get rid of his hats because they were starting to overtake their Paris home. A source said: “He has hundreds of hats - two rooms in their Paris apartment packed with them.

“Vanessa wants some closet room but Johnny’s hats are taking up too much space. She told him point-blank, ‘Johnny, you get those hats out of here or when you’re gone, I’m going to throw them all in the trash.’ “He was horrified. He loves his hats and he is constantly buying more.”Vanessa’s ultimatum came after her partner - with whom she has two children, Lily-Rose, 11, and eight-year-old Jack - came home with a hat he’d bought from a homeless person, but Hollywood star has now agreed to find somewhere else to store his headwear.

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Williams launches clothing line obbie Williams launched his new clothing line in London .

The Take That singer launched his menswear collection, Farrellnamed after his grandfather Jack Farrell - at the city’s flagship House of Fraser store, where he met with the first 200 fans to make a purchase from the range. He also posed for pictures with his arms around mannequins adorned with key pieces from the collection. Items in the range include checked shirts, scarves and coats and pieces are priced between £35 and £350. Robbie - who was accompanied by wife Ayda Field on the promotional trip - collaborated with stylist Marcus Love and his hairstylist Oliver Woods on the collection.

This collection is the first of its kind designed by Robbie, who last year celebrated a successful 20 years in the music industry. A source close to Robbie has previously said the collection has a “heritage feel combined with a modern style” as a homage to his late grandfather late Jack Farrell. The source added at the time: “Robbie had an active role in the business.”

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ulia Roberts is “creepy and eerie” on the set of ‘Brothers Grimm: Snow White’. The 43year-old actress is playing the evil queen in the forthcoming adaptation of the classic fairytale, and co-star Lily Collins - who plays the titular beauty - admits she is impressed by the “brilliant” performance she’s been giving. She said: “Everyone loves that Julia smile and laugh and she maintains that, but in such this creepy eerie way that you don’t know if you love her or hate her. “She’s brilliant. She’s so nice, she’s classy,

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she’s just everything I had hoped she’d be.” The 22-year-old actress has been working hard on the film - which is being released at around the same time as ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ with Kristen Stewart - and reveals it is close to wrapping. She added to Access Hollywood: “I flew in this morning, I fly back out tonight, I’m working tomorrow morning. It’s been the most incredible experience. I feel like I’m literally in a fairytale every day. And I finish in about a week and a half, so I’m almost done.”

Hilson’s voice struggles K

eri Hilson had to “fight” to keep her voice. The ‘Knock You Down’ hitmaker claims she wrongly gets labeled a diva because she has struggled with vocal strain, caused by constantly performing and talking in interviews when she’s on tour. She told theboombox.com: “Certain situations you’re put in are to the detriment of your instrument, and a lot of damage was done. Promo days are 12 to 14 hours of talking. That is very damaging. “I had to take care of it mostly while I was recording ‘No Boys Allowed.’ It’s been the hardest thing, just to fight for my health, fight for my instrument, my gift.

They will abuse it if you let them “You have to fight. If the word ‘diva’ comes up around my name, it’s because I’m fighting for my voice. “I’ve had to fight and if I’m called a diva for fighting for myself like no one else will, then I’ll be a diva.” The singer also added she is hoping to work with producer Timbaland again, after appearing on his singles ‘Scream’ and ‘The Way I Are’ and him producing tracks for her albums.

She added: “I miss working witht Timbaland. I’ve been on the road so much that I haven’t been able to get back in the studio with Tim, but I love it. He’s a huge source of inspiration when I’m working on my own album, so I will get back with him very, very, very soon. I just don’t know when.”

Contostavlos

makes commitment to girlfriend appy Contostavlos has given his girlfriend an eternity ring. The N-Dubz rapper has had a tumultuous relationship with Kate Vassell - the mother of his sons Gino, two, and nine-month-old Milo - but presented his partner with the jewelry to symbolize the fact he has changed and wants to commit his life to her. He said: “I love her to death. I’ve been naughty in the past, I’ve cheated and done silly things. I’ve made my mistakes but now I’m going to do my utmost to be faithful. I bought her an eternity ring the other day. She loved it. She cried.” Dappy also believes good sex is the key to a lasting relationship. He told heat magazine: “Don’t take me narrow-minded, but good, very strong love-making and intercourse with another person will keep you there for a long time. I believe that. “When you have good sex with someone, you will end up loving them because you will adore what they do to your body and how they pleasure you.”—Bang Showbiz

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Pearl Jam opens up on 20 years of rock fame M U S I C

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Super Heavy:

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hat can the Rolling Stones, Eurythmics and the blockbuster Slumdog Millionaire possibly have in common? More than you think-at least that’s the bet behind Super Heavy, a five-strong supergroup fronted by Mick Jagger whose new album comes out tomorrow. Five stars from the worlds of rock, soul, pop, reggae and world music-Jagger, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, soulwoman Joss Stone, Bob Marley’s youngest son Damian and AR Rahman who scored the “Slumdog” soundtrack-have brought their eclectic styles together for the occasion.

The motley make-up of Jagger’s new supergroup, the term used when musicians team up on the model of Cream in the 1960s or Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz, has raised some eyebrows in music circles.

But Jagger insists the resulting album-titled simply Super Heavy-is “not all weird”. Super Heavy was the brainchild of Dave Stewar t, who said he was inspired by the mish mash of sounds he heard wafting through the window of his home above Saint Ann’s Bay in Jamaica. “It’s kind of the jungle, and sometimes I’d hear three sound systems all playing different things. I always love that, along with Indian orchestras,” Stewart told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year.

‘I said to Mick, ‘How could we make a fusion?’

A few phone calls later and plans for the troupewho together claim 11 Grammy Awards-were in the works, with a first jam session held in Los Angeles six months on, in early 2010. “We didn’t know what the hell we were doing,” said the Eurythmics founder and co-writer of such 1980s hits as “Sweet Dreams” and “Talking to an Angel”.

“We were just jamming and making a noise. It was like when a band first starts up in your garage. We might have a 22 minute jam, and it would become a six minute song.”

Jagger-who plays the guitar and harmonica as well as singing on the album-has warned it is “a different kind of record that what people would expect.” “It’s not all weird and strange though,” he told Rolling Stone of the result, a concentrate of musical styles drawn from around the planet. The rhythms and vocals of Damian Marley, who has worked with some of the top names in US hip-hop, leave a strong mark, along with AR Rahman’s Bollywood-tinged melodies, some of them sung in Urdu.

Joss Stone’s deep voice adds a touch of glamour and emotion, while Mick’s own performance is Jagger to the hilt. The first single off the album, “Miracle Worker,” went on sale online on July 7 and the AZ record label, part of the Universal music group, releases the full album worldwide on Monday. The idea of a supergroup stems back to the 1960s when Cream brought together Eric Clapton of the Yardbirds, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Graham Bond Organization in 1966 — becoming a rock monument in its own right.

Two years on, David Crosby of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills and Graham Nash of The Hollies split from their bands and reformed as Crosby, Stills and Nash, producing its now-classic vocal harmonies and folk guitar, sometimes with Neil Young. Less of a hit despite an A-list cast, the Traveling Wilburys was set up in 1988 by Bob Dylan, George Harrison, US rockers Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra.

The supergroup trend has resurfaced in recent years, spurred in part by the globe-trotting tastes of Blur frontman Damon Albarn, the creative mind behind both the Gorillaz music project and the 2007 supergroup album “The Good the bad and the Queen.” Jack White of The White Stripes also helped found two supergroups in the past decade, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. And in 2009, Them Crooked Vultures brought together rock legend Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and the multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, of Led Zeppelin fame. —AFP

ameron Crowe’s documentar y “Pearl Jam Twenty” takes viewers on a 20-year behind-the-scenes journey with a band that has reached the top of the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon while refusing to embrace the spotlight. “It’s more than just a rock documentary,” Academy Award winner Crowe said of the film he pieced together from over 1,200 hours of archived footage and recent interviews. Highs like Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder slow-dancing with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain beneath a stage while Eric Clapton plays “Tears in Heaven” above intersect lows like the suffocation deaths of nine fans at the band’s Roskilde, Denmark concert in 2000, throughout the two-hour film.

“I’m still emotionally coming down from parts of it,” guitarist Mike McCready said in an interview along with the rest of the band and Crowe following the premier of the documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). “I had to sit down a while ago because I was overwhelmed ... much like a concert, but even more so.” Crowe, director of “Jerr y Maguire” and a rock journalist in Seattle in the ‘80s, spent three years making the film. It hits movie screens worldwide on Sept. 20 for a one-night showing, then runs for a week in select markets starting on Sept. 23.

The Seattle-based group is also releasing a 384-page book and a 29-song soundtrack to mark its first two decades.

A DVD of the documentary with extra footage will follow. There are points in the film where the band appears near collapse, such as during its battle against Ticketmaster in the mid-90’s, or the Roskilde tragedy, which drummer Matt Cameron said was for him the most wrenching part of watching the film. “But

Pearl Jam it’s an important part of our story too, of our survival, because we could have easily thrown in the towel,” he said. “It brings memories to the front by sort of reliving it with an audience. That catharsis was very real with all of us.”

Twenty years of fame The birth of Pearl Jam followed the drug overdose of Andrew Wood, the charismatic singer of Mother Love Bone, in 1990. That group’s guitarist Stone

Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament later hooked up with McCready and Soundgarden’s Cameron. Together they brought in Vedder, a surfer from San Diego, to sing. Pearl Jam played their first show six days later. Fame came quickly, but the band turned their backs on it.

Vedder did not want to make videos, and in his acceptance speech for best hard rock performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards, he said, “this doesn’t mean any-

Gosling turns tough guy for thriller ‘Drive’

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yan Gosling may be one of Hollywood’s hottest leading men and a heartthrob at that, but he doesn’t shy away from tough-guy violence. In fact, he finds it suits him sometimes as in his newest film, “Drive.” In the the film that opens in theaters on Friday, Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman who becomes embroiled in a heist gone wrong. The high-octane thriller also has a John Hughes-inspired, sentimental young romance between Gosling and his co-star, Carey Mulligan.

“I always wanted to make a violent John Hughes movie. I love John Hughes movies, I love “Pretty in Pink” but I always thought if there were headsmashing in it, it’d be the perfect movie,” Gosling told Reuters. The 30 year-old actor was nominated for an Oscar in 2007’s “Half Nelson” playing a drug-addicted school teacher, and

he has won over critics, fans and Hollywood players with performances in a wide range of independent film dramas such as “Blue Valentine” and “Lars and the Real Girl.”

Yet, Gosling said it was hard finding a filmmaker with a shared vision for the romantic thriller “Drive,” until he ran into Dutch director Nicolas Winding Refn whose credits include the “Pusher” crime dramas and “Bronson,” about prisoner who assumes the personality of movie action hero Charles Bronson. In “Drive,” Refn avoids Hollywood glitz and portrays a dark side to the City of Angels in this thriller. “I saw Nicholas’ work and I knew that he would have the same sensibility,” said Gosling.

Driven to love Gosling’s character, known simply as the mysterious ‘Driver,’ is a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for anyone who wants to hire his driving services and his intricate knowledge of Los Angeles’ back streets. Leading a largely transient and solitary life, the Driver finds himself drawn to his neighbor Irene (played by Carey Mulligan), a mother-of-one whose husband is in prison.

When Irene’s husband Standard (played by Oscar Isaac) is released from jail, the Driver decides to help ex-con clear his debts. But events take a wrong turn and the Driver finds himself in danger.

Throughout “Drive,” Gosling conveys most of his character’s feelings and emotions through pensive gazes, as his character is given very little dialogue.

“I don’t think you need all this talking in movies. Sometimes it’s easier to get the point across if you’re not saying something,” said Gosling. “For me anyway, it (dialogue) gets in the way. so it was a real relief to just take that out, and people can just watch it and make their own assessments of what they think the characters are going through.”

The film premiered at the Cannes film festival in May where Refn was named best director, and critics have so far been favorable. The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy calls Gosling’s performance a “bid to enter the iconic ranks of tough, selfpossessed American screen actors-Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin.” —Reuters

thing.” Twenty years on, Pearl Jam is ready to open up about its rise to fame and struggle to avoid its trappings.

“We’ve kept it all pretty tight,” Gossard said, adding that at this point, “it’s good to not be afraid to kind of let out some stuff and let people in to see how the process works and what the personalities are like.” In the film, Cameron interviews the band members in their homes, and Gossard has a hard time finding any Pearl Jam paraphernalia. All of the band members have side projects that keep them busy, from Vedder’s ukulele album, to Cameron’s work on a new Soundgarden CD, and Ament’s new band Tres Mts. “When we do put on the shoes that we wear in this band, it’s such a treat,” Ament said. “We’re not always under the lights and when we played Montreal the other night, I was like, ‘Oh my God, wow!

This is the most insane thing ever!”“ The band squeezed in TIFF just days into a 22date tour. They played a two-and-a-half hour set in Toronto on Sunday to a soldout arena that ended with an epic version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” featuring “uncle Neil” himself wailing away with the band to the thrill of the crowd.

Pearl Jam has worked with Young in the past and credits the nearly 66-yearold with being a major inspiration.

Vedder attended Young’s premier before dashing off for Pearl Jam’s second soldout Toronto concert on Monday. Back in 1991, when the band played their first show, they had eight songs.

“Now we can play, literally, almost 140 songs at any given time,” Vedder said.

And do they have another 20 years in them? “I dare you to come up and try to keep up with me, Matt, or any of us,” Vedder said. — Reuters

Movie slams ‘pink-washing’ in breast cancer campaigns

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ink ribbons dumb down the grim realities of treating cancer, and hide the profitfocused core of many high-profile fund-raising events, according to a movie that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this week. “Pink Ribbons, Inc” takes a detailed look at some of the colorful fundraising events in North America, where women, united in their fight against breast cancer and mostly dressed in pink, cheer their way along scenic routes.

The film questions the priorities of the campaigns and the broad use of the pink-ribbon logo as a fightbreast-cancer addition to products as diverse as T-shirts, toilet tissue and handguns. “For me, pink ribbons were something very innocent,” said Lea Pool, director of the made-in-Canada documentary, which emphasizes the corporate sponsors of many of the events. “I think it’s still not a bad idea, but I was very afraid of all the corporations and how they hijacked the disease and how they made profits out of that, and how there is pink-washing in the process of doing fund-raising.”

Showing at the festival weeks before Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as cancer charities have dubbed October, “Pink Ribbons, Inc.” pleads with fund-raisers to think about where the money they raise will go, and asks organizers to be more open. It questions the logic of focusing on cancer treatment rather than prevention, pointing out that pharmaceutical companies stand to gain if more people use their drugs, and urges more research on the environmental factors that may contribute to breast cancer.

Some of the most moving scenes of the 97-minute movie center on discussions among a group of women with Stage IV breast cancer, when the disease has spread to such an extent that doctors cannot offer the possibility of effective treatment. —Reuters

Bluesman Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith dies at age 75

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rammy-winning blues musician Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who was a longtime sideman for Muddy Waters, died of a stroke Friday in Chicago at age 75, according to a statement on his website. Smith’s death comes less than six months after the passing at age 97 of blues master Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins, with whom Smith shared a Grammy win this year in the best traditional blues album category for their 2010 release “Joined at the Hip.” Smith said backstage at the Grammy Awards that he first met Perkins as a boy and was glad to have found success recording with his elder. “To tell you the

truth, right now I’m one of the happiest men on earth,” he said at the February event. While the Grammy win at age 75 was Smith’s first, he had previously had a long career playing with the late blues legend Muddy Waters.

Born in Helena, Arkansas, in 1936, Smith went to Chicago at age 17 and heard Waters playing for the first time.

He later joined Waters’ band as a drummer in the early 1960s. In 1964, Smith was forced to pack up his drum kit for a time and he supported himself with odd jobs such as driving a taxicab in Chicago, according to a profile on his website. But Smith rejoined Waters’ band in 1968 and played with him through the 1970s, the

period when Waters won his six Grammys. Aside from the drums, Smith also played the harmonica and sang. In the 1980s, he per formed in the Legendary Blues Band with Perkins, Louis Myers, Calvin Jones and Jerry Portnoy.

Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy, said in a statement that Smith was a “great, versatile Chicago bluesman” who “made an indelible impact” on the blues genre.

“Our sincerest condolences extend to his family, friends, fans and all who will continue to appreciate his rhythm and riffs for generations to come,” Portnow said.—Reuters

‘Big Eyes’ Smith

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Kuwait Times ‘Ramadan Quiz’ More than 15,000 entries received

Jalil Khaled, Country Manager of Jet Airways, picks the winner

(From left) Omar Massouh, Sales Manager Panasonic; Adnan Saad, Marketing Director of Kuwait Times; Jalil Khaled, Country Manager Jet Airways; Abdel Aziz Ashkinani Ministry of Commerce; Abdulla Shaheen, Swimming Pool Manager T.E.C. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

By Ben Garcia

Who is the winner?

The youngest winner

Wait to pronounce the right name!

Lucky winner of Prize No 20 Pereira Querobino

KUWAIT: A laborer from Sylhet, Bangladesh, has bagged the first prize in the recently concluded ‘Ramadan Quiz’ organized by Kuwait Times. Saifil Islam, 26, was overcome with joy after learning of his win last Thursday. “I was at the work place when my friend told me that my name appeared in the Kuwait Times, declared as the winner of Ramadan quiz,” he said.

Saifil works as a laborer in Subhan area, “My job here is at a construction site. I do some electrical jobs as well. I am very happy that I won the first prize,” an elated Saifil told the Kuwait Times during a telephonic conversation. The first prize winner receives a 65 inch 3D Panasonic Television plus a 3D camcorder worth KD 3,200, and other valuable gifts, “I plan to sell the television and camcorder. I need the cash. I cannot use these back home,” he said.

The Ramadan Quiz, is an annual religious quiz contest organized by the Kuwait Times. A raffle draw was held last Wednesday at the Kuwait Swimming Pool Complex, Shaab in the presence of dozens of spectators. Led by Kuwait Times Marketing Director Adnan Saad, Abdulaziz Askhanani-a representative from, the Ministr y of Commerce and Industry supervised the event. Prizes worth more than US $100,000 prizes were given away. Some of the winners were present at the venue. They were the seventh 13th, 20th, 32nd and 45th prize winners.

Sayeeda Begum, the seventh prize winner has been watching the proceedings at the venue with her husband, “I came to witness the raffle draw. I never expected to win anything. I just want to see the proceedings,” Sayeeda told the Kuwait Times. Omar Koya, the 13th prize winner was also present with his son, “I came late. I was not even aware that my name was called out. “My friend was the first to come here and he told me that I won the 13th prize.

I am very happy, “ he said. Perera Quirobino claimed the 20th prize. He was part of the crowd as well, “At least I won something thanks to my friend who helped me answer a few tough questions. If not for him I would not have been be able to answer all the questions,” said Perera who is a Christian. Rashidi Adisakia from Nigeria bagged the 32nd prize, “I am an avid Kuwait Times reader. I read it every day.

I only found the first three questions difficult. However, I managed to answer them all,” he said.

Saad said that the Kuwait Times had received more than 15,000 entries but chose only 70 perfect answers. “If you think that all the 30 answers are perfect, your name will be in this raffle drum (tambiolo),” he said. All the answers were strictly verified by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, he added. “There were only five difficult questions. The ministry had permitted two correct answers to each question. For example, if your response was Khalid just as Omar to a question, your entry would be eligible,” he said. Saad promised to include easier Ramadan questions next year.

He thanked all the participants and sponsors led by Panasonic (Ideas for life), Sebamed, Touristic Enterprises Company, SwissBelHotel Plaza-Kuwait, Jet Airways and Gulfnet.

The first five winners 1. Saifil Islam 2. Abdulhalim M. Al-Sabah 3. Bilal Jawid 4. Muhammad Shabir 5. Ali Mubarak

Honey is good for you

One of the winners

A lucky winner

Sebamed prizes

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Lucky winners of 13th prize Naser A Jader Dolfi

Chek... no no Checkatt... no Chekattacal Aboobaker

And now the winner of the first prize is...

Omer, help me to announce the name!!

Judge committee: Maher, Eyad, Zainab

Views of the audience (Top and below)

Shou hayda??

Where is my name?

Family winners

One of the winners

Super Heavy: Mick Jagger’s motley crew

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

Fashion Week

Model display outfits by Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada during the Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week yesterday.

—AFP photos

Just add people

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apan’s Nissin Foods opened a cup noodle museum yesterday charting the history of the speedy snack where visitors even get the chance to create their own tasty version. About 500 adults and children queued up before the museum opened in the port city of Yokohama near Tokyo with celebrity guests ranging from a former prime minister to a retail business tycoon. “We opened this place... as a factory that gives children experience and a museum for corporate activities,” Nissin Foods Holdings president Koki Ando said.

Ando, whose late father Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles more than half a century ago, said visitors could knead flour, roll out noodles, steam and fry them to make chicken ramen which is then put into bags.

Children in aprons set to work making noodles under the watchful gaze of guests including former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese premier from 2001-2006.

In another area of the museum called “My Cup Noodle Factory”, visitors can design cups, put dried noodles in them and pick toppings and broth for their own versions of cupped meals-with the potential to create more than 5,000 different versions. The museum exhibits packages of Nissin instant noodles from around the world over the decades and houses restaurants that serve food such as Vietnamese pho noodles and pasta from Italy.

There are giant cup noodle containers in the museum for children to

Japan noodle museum opens doors

play in. Momofuku Ando, the man credited with inventing instant noodles, took a lower-profile role in the business at the ripe old age of 95 in 2005, the year Nissin supplied vacuum packed instant noodles or “Space Ram” to a Japanese astronaut aboard a US space shuttle. Ando died of acute heart failure in 2007. The businessman, born in 1910 in Taiwan under Japanese occupation, entered the food business when Japan was hungry after World War II and invented the world’s first instant noodles, chicken ramen noodles sold in bags, in 1958.

He launched the cupped version in 1971 with a pre-cooked slab of noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container. Ando saw his invention stocked on the shelves of convenience stores

around the world. As the products were widely replicated, more than 95 billion ser vings were consumed around the globe in 2010, according to the Japanese instant noodles manufacturers’ association. Ando said he was inspired to develop the product when he saw a long line of people waiting to buy soup noodles at a black market stall in post-war Japan.

“Peace prevails when food suffices,” he was quoted as saying. The museum is Nissin’s second devoted to instant noodles after one opened in the western Japan province of Osaka in 1999.

The multi-storey Yokohama museum has a total floor space of 10,000 square meters (107,600 square feet) — three times bigger than the Osaka museum. — AFP

Children make instant noodles at the opening of a cup noodle museum in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo, yesterday.

—AFP photos

A child tries out to make instant noodles at the opening of a cup noodle museum.

Nissin Foods Holdings president Koki Ando, a son of instant noodle inventor Momofuku Ando, looks at a display of instant noodle packages from various countries at the opening of a cup noodle museum.