26 Sep

ON IP TI SC R SU B

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Abbas: No talks without freeze on settlement

Four blasts kill 17 in Iraq’s Karbala

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Everest tour plane crash kills all 19 on board

Peerless Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix

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Saudi monarch gives women right to vote Female activists hail King Abdullah as reformist

Islamist jailed for insulting Shiite tweets Two others arrested KUWAIT: A court yesterday sentenced a Sunni Islamist activist to three months in jail for writing remarks on his Twitter account deemed derogatory to Shiites, a legal source said.

Mubarak Al-Bathali, who is serving another three-month jail term on a similar case, was arrested several weeks ago by the secret service police on charges of undermining national unity and disparaging Shiites. The sentence is not final as it can still be challenged in the appeals and supreme courts, but Bathali has to remain in jail until his appeals are examined.

Police yesterday also detained two Kuwaitis, Meshaal Al-Nami, a writer, and Menwer Al-Shemmari, a radio announcer, for writing remarks deemed offensive to the owner of Shiite daily Al-Dar, businessman Mahmoud Haider. The two men were being detained at Ferdous police station.

The same court is due to issue a ver-

dict tomorrow against a Kuwaiti Shiite blogger for allegedly using his Twitter account to harshly insult the rulers of Kuwait’s Gulf partners Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Nasser Abul, 26, was arrested more than three and a half months ago and tried on charges of undermining national interests and risking severing Kuwait’s relations with “brotherly countries”. He has denied the charges saying a hacker had written the offensive remarks on his Twitter account and that he had deleted them as soon as he saw them.

Kuwait Society for Human Rights and Amnesty International have called for Abul to be freed, with the latter saying it believes he is a “prisoner of conscience detained for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression”.

Several Kuwaiti MPs have strongly criticised what they described as a government crackdown on bloggers and users of social networks Facebook and Twitter. —AFP

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Port workers go on strike for pay hike KUWAIT: Hundreds of Kuwaiti port workers began a strike yesterday for more pay, disrupting operations at the Gulf state’s three commercial ports, a trade union leader said. “We have stopped work for two hours. We will continue doing this every day until our demands for better pay and working conditions are met,” the head of the ports trade union, Ali Al-Sukoni, told AFP by phone. Sukoni said that most of the 850 workers at the three ports have joined the strike and that “operations have been affected”. Port workers briefly stopped work more than two years ago to demand a 35 percent increase in basic salaries and other incentives. They ended their strike after being promised their demands will be met. But the promise was not kept.

Fewer than 1 in 5 vote in Bahrain by-elections MANAMA: Fewer than one in five voters cast ballots in Bahraini by-elections this weekend, a government website showed, after the Shiite majority in the Gulf Arab state boycotted the polls following the crushing of a protest movement this year.

Eighteen parliamentary seats were vacated by the largest opposition party Wefaq after security forces killed protesters at the start of pro-democracy demonstrations in February. In 14 districts, only 25,130 voters of a total 144,513 came out to vote, representing a 17.4 percent turnout. All of the candidates are independents who would have found victory a tall order without the boycott. Voting did not take place in four districts where candidates were running uncontested and automatically won the seat.

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (center) is welcomed at the airport by HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (right) after the Amir arrived back home yesterday following a private tour of Mongolia, the US and the UK. — KUNA

Oppn intensifies campaign as all wait for decisions

RIYADH: Saudi King Abdullah yesterday granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections, in a historic first for the ultraconservative country where women are subjected to many restrictions. “Starting with the next term, women will have the right to run in municipal elections and to choose candidates, according to Islamic principles,” he said in speech to the Shura Council carried live on state television.

Women’s rights activists have long fought to gain the right to vote in the Gulf kingdom, which applies a strict version of Sunni Islam and bans women from driving or travelling without the consent of a male guardian. Manal AlSharif, a 32-yearold computer security consultant who was arrested on May 22 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving around the eastern RIYADH: Saudi King Abdullah city of Khobar, told addresses the annual Shura (conAFP the king’s deci- sultative) Council yesterday. — AFP sion as “a historic and courageous one”. “The king is a reformist,” she said of the 86-year-old monarch, whose country was spared a wave of protests rocking the region by which autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt were toppled.

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Court annuls Zain meeting Firm to appeal

Govt passes anti-graft draft law

By B Izzak KUWAIT: Opposition Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said yesterday the opposition will hold another major rally on Oct 5 as part of its campaign to stem out corruption and press for the resignation of the prime minister and dissolving the government. Tabtabaei said that gatherings at diwaniyas will also continue with one scheduled today at Osama Al-Shaheen’s diwaniya in West Mishref area and another next week at Nawaf Sari’s diwaniya in the 4th constituency.

The Cabinet meanwhile announced yesterday that it has approved the draft anti-corruption and wealth disclosure law with penalties of up to seven years in prison, and will send it to the Assembly for approval.

The crimes covered by the law include manipulation of public tenders and auctions, bribery, counterfeiting, forgery and graft.

The Oct 5 rally will be held at the square opposite the National Assembly in Kuwait City to press for holding to account MPs suspected of receiving millions of dinars in bribes. Tabtabaei said that the opposition is also waiting for expected decisions by the leadership that may meet its demands including the sacking of the prime minister, the dissolution of the Assembly and calling for snap elections.

HH the Amir, who is the only authority who can sack the premier and dissolve the Assembly, returned home yesterday following a private tour to Mongolia, Britain and the United States that lasted for more than three weeks. The opposition campaign began last Wednesday

with a massive rally attended by close to 7,000 people to press action against MPs suspected of receiving bribes. The corruption scandal was exposed last month

by Al-Qabas newspaper which said that the bank accounts of two MPs had received huge deposits within a short duration.

Since then, two local banks referred the bank accounts of at least nine MPs to the public prosecution for investigation on allegations they received the millions in deposits for political reasons. Some opposition MPs have explicitly accused the government of paying the bribes to secure the MPs’ support on crucial voting in the Assembly.

The Assembly’s legal and legislative committee meanwhile failed to hold its session yesterday for a lack of quorum. The committee was supposed to study draft laws for combating corruption including the wealth disclosure law. Tabtabaei, a member of the committee, however accused its chairman MP Hussein Al-Huraiti of scrapping the meeting deliberately because he (Tabtabaei) called his office that he was about to reach the Assembly to take part in the meeting. Huraiti said the meeting was cancelled five minutes before his arrival. The meeting has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

In a related development, lawyer Mohammad AlAnsari, representing about 100 Kuwaiti citizens, filed an urgent lawsuit that requires MPs to disclose their wealth before becoming a member of parliament until now. A positive ruling on the case could force the wealth disclosure requirement even before a special law is passed.

KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti court ruled Zain’s April annual shareholders meeting invalid yesterday, upholding a case brought by a former board member who opposed the election process but a company source said the decision will not derail the sale of Zain’s Saudi stake. The ruling is not final as it can still be challenged before the appeals and supreme courts. In April, Zain elected a new board including a top executive from Kuwait’s family conglomerate Kharafi Group, and approved a $3 billion dividend for 2010. The dividend has already been distributed. The court case centred on the manner in which the new board was elected.

A lawyer for Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah, who was not re-elected in April, said yesterday the decision was a first degree ruling. “The ruling is specifically about the elections of the board members,” said lawyer Rashed Al-Radaan. A Zain company source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the firm will appeal the ruling. “The ruling shocked the board ... but the company will appeal immediately,” the source said.

A Zain spokesman declined to comment, saying it was an issue between a shareholder and the board.

Last year, Sheikh Khalifa filed a lawsuit to halt due diligence in a $12 billion deal to sell a 46-percent stake in Zain to the UAE’s Etisalat. The deal fell apart in March after Etisalat walked away. Etisalat, the Gulf’s largest telecoms firm, cited Zain’s divided board as part of the reason it had quit the deal. Another Zain source told Reuters that the board was not given enough time to present its documents to the court, but was confident about the appeal. “We will have a chance in the appeal to provide a clearer picture and we are very confident about it,” said the source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. — Reuters

US mosque designed to blend in, not stand out

Low turnout marks limited UAE polls DUBAI: Just over a quarter of voters selected by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates took part in the second-ever polls to elect half the country’s advisory Federal National Council, results showed yesterday. Only 35,877 voters voted on Saturday to elect 20 members of the Federal National Council, representing around 28 percent of some 129,000 Emirati citizens with the right to vote, National Election Committee figures showed. The low turnout came after the government significantly increased the size of the electoral college from just 6,600 voters in the first polls in 2006, in line with a declared policy to gradually widen political participation. Only one woman, out of some 85 female candidates across the country, won a seat, representing the emirate of Umm Al-Qaiwain. Sheikha Isa Ghanem Al-Ari garnered 536 votes of a total 1,796 ballots cast in the small emirate where 3,285 citizens were named as voters. In total, 450 candidates competed for the 20 seats.

Max 42º Min 26º Low Tide 04:35 & 17:16 High Tide 10:23 & 23:23

DUBLIN, Ohio: In this Aug 26, 2011 photo, Bob Apel (left) the architect of the Noor Islamic Center, and developer Khaled Farag stand outside the mosque. — AP

HILLIARD, Ohio: The commanding white structure sits on the edge of cornfields in the suburbs, striking in design yet puzzling in its purpose. One of the largest new Islamic worship centers in the US doesn’t look like a mosque, at least at first glance. And that’s what its developer was aiming for, especially in a post-Sept 11 world. “We went to the architect and explained that we didn’t want a building that stood out as a mosque,” said Khaled Farag, who also is one of the mosque’s founders. “We wanted something that fit into a residential neighborhood. We wanted an American mosque,” Farag said.

The result is a cultural contradiction: a building that is not immediately recognizable as an Islamic house of worship,

but is one, as well as a facility that functions as a seven-day-a week interactive museum about all things Islam. “It’s not your traditional-looking mosque, because it’s not just a mosque,” said Abdul Aburmaieleh, a regular worshipper who also custom-built his home in a nearby upscale subdivision. “Prayer is done as one function,” he said. “It’s a community center, a cultural center.”

Fair or not, Muslims building a new mosque face far more scrutiny than Christians erecting a new church. Plans to create an Islamic cultural center near the site of the terrorist-destroyed World Trade Center caused an uproar last year.

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

LOCAL

Support of imams must be sought to prevent child marriage, says Tutu Legal marriage age for girls in Kuwait is 15

By Lisa Conrad

KUWAIT: MP Adnan Al-Mutawa is seen with representatives of the Philippine Association of Licensed Agency to Kuwait including Miriam Mondragon, Marcia Gonzalez Sadicon and Dolor Suarez El-Enany.

Kuwaiti MPs to visit Manila

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: A 10-member parliamentary delegation from Kuwait will arrive in Manila on September 28 to discuss the impending ban to be placed on Manila domestic workers. In an interview with Kuwait Times, Miriam Mondragon, Vice President of the Philippine Association of Licensed Agency to Kuwait (Philaak) revealed that the visit is part of the ‘Annual Friendship Visit,’ an annual event. “As there are issues concerning the ban, it will be part of this year’s agenda,” said Mondragon. In her words, Kuwaiti MP Adnan Al-Mutawa informed the Manila team about the visit which will also focus on the issue.

The group of Mondragon arrived in Kuwait to hold face-to-face talks with Kuwait officials to enact a law for the benefit of domestic helpers. Apart from MP Al-Mutawa, the group also met MP Saleh Ahmad Ashour and several high-ranking officials from the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Social Affairs and Labor, “We spoke to them and acknowledged the the issue’s importance. They are keen on cooperating with us. As they stressed, there is a pending bill at the National Assembly since 2009, but it has not been deliberated, “They are willing to cooperate and ready to enact the domestic labor law,” she said.

The Philippines recently announced its readiness to implement a law that bars domestic helpers in the Middle East including Kuwait and the UAE, citing Republic Act 10022 or the Migrant Workers Act. Should the ban on the Filipino domestic helpers be imposed, not only the newly hired or wouldbe hired housemaids will be affected but workers who are on vacation will also be held in Manila indefinitely and will not be allowed to leave. The Migrant Workers Act (RA 10022) states that a host country should sign either a

bilateral labor agreement, ratified at the ILO’s Geneva Convention and not just be a mere signatory. A host country must also secure migrant’s social and labor rights including domestic helpers. Kuwait only partially complies with the RA 10022. Domestic helpers include housemaids, drivers, cooks, gardeners, personal nurses. Of the 160,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, 75,000 are engaged in domestic help jobs. Mongragon explained that the law in the Philippines stipulates that if a country does not comply with either of the abovementioned stipulations, Manila will not send any workers. She explained that the ban on the deployment of household workers is not an abrupt decision on the part of the Philippine Government. The Philippine government has passed a law on the deployment of Filipino workers for overseas employment.

It states that all the host countries should comply on the guarantees. It must have positive measures towards guarantees. “Failure to comply with such countries means no deployment of workers,” she added. In this case, according to her, Kuwait is non-compliant, “The law will act as the guide that settles various problems that we experience now and hope to lessen the recurrence of domestic problems between domestic workers and the employer,” she explained.

Dolor Suarez El Enany and Marcia G. Sadicon, both Philaak officers, were also part of the visiting group. Following the meetings held here, El Enany noted that it is unfortunate for most of the poor families in far-flung provinces to be denied work and opportunities in the Middle East, “I am afraid that if the law is imposed, several families especially those from small villages in the Philippines will be deprived of opportunities. Some of them rely on female members of the family who work as housemaids.

KUWAIT: “If nothing happens and the current patterns continue, by the end of this year, 10 million girl brides younger than 18 will have been married,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu in an exclusive inter view with the Kuwait Times last week. The ‘Girls Not Brides’ campaign was launched

by The Elders, a group of influential, high profile figures brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela to campaign on various issues, including human rights and women’s issues.

Archbishop Tutu, chairman of The Elders, was in New York ahead of the United Nations General Assembly week, highlighting the issue of child marriage at the Clinton Global Initiative. The campaign, by a global partnership of organizations, has gained great attention and support to date. In the two weeks following the announcement of the partnership, 50 organizations have approached the campaign organizers to sign up and become members.

Archbishop Tutu told the Kuwait Times that suppor t from Imams must be sought in the M iddle East so that alliances and partnerships can be formed to confront the issue of child marriage, emphasizing, “An adult is someone who is 18 years old and above.”

According to the US Depar tment of State’s 2010 Human Rights Report, the legal marriage age for women is just 15 in Kuwait. A recent study, ‘ Women’s rights in Kuwaiti Personal Status Law,’ confirmed this, referring to Constitutional Article 24/A, which requires that girls must have reached puberty before marriage and that “the marriage contract may not be registered unless the female has attained fifteen

years of age and the male sev- with adult concerns such as enteen years at the time of reg- preparing for motherhood and committing considerable time istration.”

However, the Department of to housekeeping.

“If girls stay in school State’s report added, “younger girls [in Kuwait] continued to instead, they will be more able marr y earlier in some tribal to get gainful employment and groups. The Ministry of Justice possibly go on to getting estimated that underage mar- degrees. Even if they don’t, riages constituted two to three they are more likely to get better jobs than if they had zero percent of total marriages.”

Obtaining reliable statistics education.” The Nobel Peace on how many girls in Kuwait Prize winner continued, “If between the ages of 15 and 18 [girls] are going to work they are getting married is extreme- are likely to get better jobs, ly difficult and, even more wor- and in many countries women ryingly, so is acquiring any data are already in very significant regarding the two to three per- positions. Clearly, it is ultimatecent of girls who are reportedly ly for the benefit of the nation illegally married off even earli- that women are given this er. According to Archbishop opportunity.”

The subject of child marTutu and almost every accredited international authority, at riage remains a major issue in 15 a person is still a child. The many Middle East countries, as effects of child marriage on the a Jordanian woman inter viewed for underage the UN spouses are “devas- “Child marriage is driven Women 2011 “Progress of tating,” said the arch- by tradition, by custom, the World’s b i s h o p , and so it is important to Women: In Pursuit of adding that if this prob- enlist the support of tra- J u s t i c e ’ report pointlem is lef t unsolved, it ditional leaders, who are ed out: “Girls are always will prevent usually male.” treated with t h e injustice. achievement of the UN’s Millennium They have marriage imposed on them by the age of 16. But Development Goals (MDGs).

“We will not improve mater- men are allowed to get their nal health if this practice con- education and can work any tinues because, since [child place they want.”

Not only does waiting until brides] are physically immature, when they give birth they adulthood before marr ying run the risk of death,” he increase an individual’s educawarned. “Female children tional and career opportuniunder the age of 15 who give ties, it also increases the likelibirth have five times the likeli- hood of better health, pointed hood of death during pregnan- out Archbishop Tutu: “You’re cy than those above the age of likely to have people who are healthier if they get married 20,” Tutu warned.”

Fur thermore, Tutu later in life, and their children explained, marriage in child- are likely to be healthier than hood greatly reduces girls’ those who were born of much opportunity to complete their younger mothers.”

Change is in the hands of education since, instead of studying, they are occupied both governments and the

societies they govern over, continued the globally admired elder statesman, adding that ensuring universal compliance with international conventions can assist in this: “ The [UN] Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it quite clear that marriage has to happen as something where the two parties willingly give their consent to getting married, and it has to happen between those who are regarded as adults, which means over 18 years of age,” he stressed.

The leading global figure added that culture is a central part of this issue, “Child marriage is driven by tradition, by custom, and so it is important to enlist the support of traditional leaders, who are usually male,” Tutu explained. “Enlisting their support has proven to be successful; in Ethiopia leaders were ver y suppor tive and receptive to the campaign after being approached.”

In the case of the Middle East, the Archbishop Emeritus voiced a belief that enlisting the support of Imams could be effective in eradicating the practice of child marriage. “It’s not easy, but the experience we have of Ethiopia gave very great hope that, in fact, traditional leaders will realize that, if girls spend a longer time in school, it makes them more precious and enhances their worth,” he asserted.

Archbishop Tutu underlined that tackling such issues is not easy, but is certainly possible.

The new campaign stresses that the continuation of this practice reaps negative consequences for the girls involved, as well as for the development of the nations they come from.

As Archbishop Tutu concluded, “Slavery was something people thought was almost divinely sanctioned at the time, but now it has been abolished.

Change is possible.”

VIVA announces winner of weekly campaign KUWAIT: Kuwait Telecommunications Company VIVA announced the first winner of its newest campaign, the first of its kind in Kuwait for its prepaid customers, which was televised on AlWatan Television Station and held at Marina Mall on Saturday.

The campaign kicked off on Thursday, Sept 15, and will continue for several weeks to enable customers as many opportunities as possible to enter the draw for the chance to win a new car every week.

Winner Zaminor Altaf of the first weekly campaign draw won a brand new Jeep Cherokee which was presented by Abdulrazzaq Al Essa Marketing Communications Senior Manager - and Fahad Al Fahad Corporate Communication Executive of the company . VIVA CEO Salman Bin AbdulAziz ABadran congratulated the winner expressing, “VIVA would like to congratulate you on being the first winner of our new launch. Thank you for being loyal customer to VIVA and participating in our special promotions and offers that VIVA aims to develop as what would be the most beneficial to our customers.”

The offer is only applicable to prepaid customers where they can enter the draw through two options, the first option is to subscribe with 500 fils per day which gives them infinite minutes and SMS within VIVA network. For every 500 fils spent, the customer is entitled 1 chance to enter the draw. The second option for prepaid customers includes subscribing to BlackBerry KD 7 which gives them full and unlimited BlackBerry Services, where customers will gain fifteen points .

Customers are able to subscribe to both options in order to enter the draw to win a luxurious car, where their points will be accumulated and carried on to the next draw if they did not win. To increase their chances to win a new car every week, prepaid customers can subscribe to the ‘Flavor of the Week’ which will be a ‘special service’ for that week allowing more opportunities to win every week.

To subscribe, to ‘Infinite Calls and SMS’ offer, Send “1” to 535 in an SMS. Prepaid customers interested in the full, unlimited, local KD 7

KUWAIT: Abdulrazzaq Al-Essa pictured with the winner and other officials.

BlackBerry offer can send an SMS with the number ‘2’ to ‘535’. For the full menu of the prepaid offers, send an SMS with the word “GO”, to number ‘535’.

To find out more about VIVA’s numerous competitive promotions, products and packages visit any of the twelve VIVA branches or visit our website at www.viva.com.kw.

VIVA is the newest, most advanced mobile telecommunications service provider in Kuwait.

Launched in December 2008, VIVA makes things Possible for our customers by transforming communication, information and entertainment experiences. The company has rapidly established an unrivalled

position in the market through our customer and employee centric approach. VIVA’s quest is to be the mobile brand of choice for Kuwait by being transparent, engaging, energetic and fulfilling.

VIVA continues to take a considerable share of the market by offering an innovative range of best value products, services and content propositions; a state of the art, nationwide network and worldclass service. VIVA offers Internet speed up to 42.2Mbps due to the implementation of the most advanced third generation (3G and HSDPA) network in Kuwait resulting in superior coverage, performance and reliability.

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

local

Ease of passport issuance creates loopholes for human traffickers Nepalese ambassador denies newspaper report

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Some employees of the Health Ministry staging a strike yesterday.— Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Labor union strikes to enter second week KUWAIT: For the second week, labor unions staged strikes in protest against unfulfilled demands. The Cabinet had recently passed general pay raises to employees of state-owned companies.

Yesterday the Labor Union of the Kuwait Ports Association (KPA) staged a two-hour strike at the country’s three main sea ports (Shuwaikh, Shuaibah and Doha), according to Al-Qabas report yesterday. In the meantime, staff from the public medical facilities are prepared to launch strikes yesterday against being left out of allowances paid to technical staff. Labor unions from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Customs General Department reiterated plans to stage strikes on September 27 and October 19, reported Al-Qabas.

The Kuwait Teachers Association(KTA) announced in a press statement that it does not plan to stage a strike, with the belief that the Parliament will pass general pay rises that overthrow a bonusbased allowance that Ahmad Al-Mulaifi Minister of Education and Higher Education hopes to enforce. “The Cabinet refuses to raise the salaries of 39,000 teachers to avoid adding budgetary inflation. At the same time, it passes a KD 140 million pay raise to 8,000 oil sector employees,” said Meteb Al-Otaibi KTS Chairman, reported Al-Rai. MP Musallam Al-Barrak said that 36 MPs have already signed the petition to pass teachers’ allowances’ bill, expecting that the number will rise to 40 by the end of the week.

Autumnal Equinox on Sept 28 K U WAI T: M e te orolo gist Adel A l Sa ado u n s a i d, yesterday , that Wednesday, Sept. 28 will be split evenly between day and night, in a pheno men on k n own a s t he Aut umnal Equinox.

Al-Saadoun said that every year, on this occasion, daytime and nighttime hours are equal in length in a majority of countries, with slight variations from one region to the other.

The variation in the date at which the Equinox is observed depends on the countr y or region’s distance from the equator. Kuwait is estimated to see an equally-long day and night on September 28, with the sun rising at 5:39:49 and setting at 17:39:31.

The l en gth of n igh t will th en increase daily by one minute until the longest night on December 22, he pointed out. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Nepalese Ambassador to Kuwait, Madhuban Paudel yesterday denied reports that one third of the Nepalese community in Kuwait comprises domestic workers that entered the country illegally. The ambassador was talking to Kuwait Times about a report published in the Nepalese English daily Republica yesterday. It stated that a manpower mafia has been taking Nepalese women from villages to Kuwait with promises of lucrative jobs, leaving them in the lurch. The news report also claimed that the Nepalese embassy in Kuwait sent a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs in Kathmandu stating that over 22,000 Nepalese women landed in Kuwait using forged passports, documents and fabricated addresses of local agents who promised them jobs.

Republica also claimed that about 60,000 Nepalese male and female

workers live in Kuwait, out of which about 22,000 reached the country illegally. An overwhelming majority, 98 percent are women. Paudel told Kuwait Times that according to the official data of Kuwaiti government there were 47,614 Nepalese in Kuwait, “This number registered by the Kuwaiti Immigration Department may have increased to about 55, 000, he said. He added that these Nepalese are in Kuwait, “however they are illegal according to the Nepalese government coming without the permission approval of Nepalese government,” he stated.

Many of the Nepalese left Nepal on forged passports, “I don’t blame the poor people as it may be difficult for them to realize that their passports are fake,” he said attributing this to the easiness in falsifying the Nepalese passport, which he says is a handwritten passport. The traffickers can alter photographs in passports before sending them to Kuwait.

“These passports will remain valid till 2015,” the ambassador said, adding that about 10 to 15 percent of the Nepalese come to Kuwait on fake passports. The open border system between India and Nepal plays a role in failing to provide exact data about, “The Nepalese can go to India without visa or documents. From there they can easily go to Dubai. It is hard for authorities to find out if passports are fake, especially a Kuwaiti embassy in Nepal does not exist,” he said. In his words, the Nepalese who have been working in Kuwait before the embassy was set up did not have record and are considered illegal, “ Those who came here after the embassy was launched in March 2010 are about 13,000 in number. They have completed the requisite formalities with the Nepalese government,” he explained.

The Nepalese embassy in Kuwait is informed about its citizens in case they face problems or death, “When a

Nepalese dies here in Kuwait, we face a problem if the passport is fake. It shows wrong data and address. The real owner of the passport may be alive. Also, some maids come to the embassy when they face problems with their sponsor or simply go back to Nepal. They do not have documents with the sponsor,” he added.

Paudel seeks to sign an agree ment between Kuwait and Nepal, “The agencies here in Kuwait are not responsible for the violations and oppression that Nepalese maids face. They issue the work visa based on the passport copy in cooperation with an agent in Nepal. It brings Nepalese nationals that are not authorized by the government of Nepal. Some human traffickers also falsified passports and were arrested by the Nepalese government,” he said. He elaborated that the Nepalese government faces this problem only in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,” he concluded.

MP urges to implement ‘Kuwaitization’ policy

By A. Saleh

KUWAIT: MP Ali Al-Deqbasi has warned of possible rising unemployment amongst Kuwaitis if state bodies continue with their current recruitment policy. “The report issued by the National Bank of Kuwait [NBK] several days ago stated

that ‘Kuwaiti recruitment is witnessing the slowest growth rate since 2006, falling from 16 percent a year ago to 7 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year,’” the MP pointed out, accusing the government of favoring expatriate workers over Kuwaitis.

Al-Deqbasi asserted that the government is

failing to practice the ‘Kuwaitization policy’ of replacing non-Kuwaitis in skilled positions with Kuwaitis, which he said is essential, especially since the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has introduced training programs to equip Kuwaiti candidates for these positions with the necessary skills.

Iraqi MP slams Zebari over statements KUWAIT: An Iraqi MP yesterday expressed a lack of suppor t for Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari’s expression of confidence in Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations. The parliamentarian, Alia Nassif of the Iraqiya White Bloc, accused the minister of failing the Iraqi people through his statements on Kuwait’s Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, saying that he had been making excuses for Kuwait and accusing him of seeking the status of a regional hero in the eyes of Kuwaitis. Nassif also insisted that the minister’s opinion represents a partisan policy of Iraqi non-commitment, not only on Kuwait’s rights but on the Iraqi government’s own stance.

As well as criticizing the minister for his

assertion that the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port would not harm the Iraqi economy, the MP also condemned Zebari’s insistence that the United Nations S ecurit y Council (UNSC ) Resolution 833, concerning the demarcation of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, must be respected.

In a statement issued yesterday, Nassif said, “Zebari’s disappointing statements have butchered the Iraqi cause and indirectly given legitimacy to Kuwait’s Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, although it is being built in a location that will hamper Iraqi ports.”

The MP continued, “Although we expected Zebari to make such statements, we were shocked at his ‘Kuwaiti’ approach, which will make him a hero in the eyes of Kuwaitis after

he made [his statement] at the UN.” Nassif said that she was unhappy at the Iraqi minister’s playing down what she claims are the dangers of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port to Iraq; instead, she continued, he had offered his approval of the legitimac y of UNSC Resolution 833, which she asserted had led to Kuwait seizing large amounts of Iraqi territory.

Describing herself as being amongst the Iraqi MPs calling for a review of this resolution, Nassif concluded, “Despite the major sadness caused by [Zebari’s] statements, they do not represent the Iraqi people’s will and are not official, as is evident by the demonstrations in [Baghdad’s] Liberation Square last Friday condemning those statements.” — Al-Watan

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Years

LOCAL

Man deceives car-leasing business in Hawally Illegal residents in custody

Kuwait Energy graduates its ‘Future Energy’ internship class of 2011 KUWAIT: Kuwait Energy Company, one of the fastest growing oil and gas exploration and production companies in the Middle East, announces the graduation of 16 Kuwaiti and international students who have each successfully completed the Company’s 2011 ‘Future Energy’ internship program. The annual internship program offers college, university and high school students the opportunity to acquire first-hand experience in the oil and gas industry.

The graduating class was hosted at the Company’s head office in Kuwait, by members of the management team, including the Company Chairman, Dr. Manssour Aboukhamseen, and CEO, Sara Akbar. Sara Akbar said: “We were lucky to have hosted such a talented and ambitious group of students. We wish them all success in their careers.”

The two-month mentoring program took place at the Company’s

head office in Kuwait. At the end of their internship period, each student was assessed and given feedback on their performance by their direct mentor. The majority of interns received positive assessments, and some interns were found to have the potential for employment at Kuwait Energy once they complete their studies.

Sara Akbar added: “ The students had the oppor tunity to learn more about the oil and gas industry and in particular geology, reservoir engineering, exploration and development drilling. Our role is to offer our youth the opportunities to help them excel. Students will often surprise you with their capabilities; all they need is guidance and support.”

The ‘Future Energy ’ class of 2011 included students from the Lothan Youth Achievement Center (LoYAC),a Kuwaiti non-profit organization working towards the overall development of the youth, as well as students from Kuwait

University, the American University of Kuwait, the Australian College of Kuwait, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, and several private and public high schools across Kuwait.

In addition to its annual Kuwaitbased internship program, Kuwait Energy also provides internship opportunities at its international offices. In its Egypt office, Kuwait Energy hosted 15 interns and will be hosting a three-month graduate internship program providing Latvian graduate students with full-time field and office experience in Egypt and Kuwait.

Kuwait Energy is a proud, round-the-year supporter of programs and initiatives that help develop the skills of future oil and gas professionals. Kuwait Energy is also a co-founder of the annual Kuwait Science Fair competition, the largest applied science competition in Kuwait for high school students.

Fishermen Union warns of roaming vendors KUWAIT: Kuwait Fisherman Union General Supervisor Salem Al-Failakawi has warned consumers of the increase of roaming fish vendors.

The vendors, Al-Failakawi explained, sell expired fish, manipulate weights and in the case of shrimp, use small or spoiled product to flesh out basket contents. Al-

Failakawi also noted that current high prices - Zubaidi currently sells for KD 8 per kilo, for example - are due to decreased fishing. Al-Failakawi blamed the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and rish resources, whose ban on nylon nets and mandating of cotton ones he reports to be the reason for the decreased yield. — Al-Watan

KUWAIT: Police are hunting for a Kuwaiti conman who deceived a car-leasing business in Hawally into renting five vehicles to him before disappearing with them.

The owner of the car rental business approached police to inform them that he had been scammed by the man, who had informed him that he was renting the vehicles on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MoE) to transpor t teachers to schools. When the business owner subsequently grew suspicious and called the MoE to verify the man’s claims, however, he was informed that there was no such agreement and they had never heard of the suspect. On learning this, the owner of the car rental business immediately approached police to tell them that he had been conned. A police background check revealed that the fraudster had only recently been released from prison, where he had served a sentence in connection with another fraud-related offence.

Police have also issued descriptions of the vehicles to scrap yards in Kuwait in case the man attempted to sell the vehicles there.

Fatal crash A 26-year-old motorcyclist died in an accident on Kabad Road on Saturday. Paramedics, who reached the crash scene with police shortly after the accident, pronounced the man dead at the scene and the body was removed for autopsy. An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the accident, in which the motorcyclist lost control of the vehicle, which overturned, catapulting him into the road.

Newborn abandoned An investigation is underway to trace the parents of a newborn baby girl found abandoned near an apartment block in Jabriya.

After a shocked resident found the baby lying on the ground outside the building wrapped in

a blanket, the tiny infant was rushed to hospital.

A case has been filed at the area police station.

False rape charges The law yer representing a policeman who faces rape charges brought by a woman claiming to be his ex-girlfriend is insistent that his client is being framed by the woman, who the attorney says has a history of similar scams. The accuser told police that she was involved in a relationship with the officer, who had led her to believe they were to be married in order to lure her to an apartment where he raped her.

The woman’s claims have been thrown into doubt, however, after the accused man’s lawyer submitted evidence apparently showing that she previously brought similar charges against three other men in order to blackmail them into paying her to drop the charges.

One of the documents apparently indicates that one of the men she accused previously paid her KD20,000 in order to drop the charges against him. An investigation is underway to assess the new evidence and discover whether the accuser is actually a serial fraudster.

Shoplifter pardoned Security staff apprehended a teenage girl as she was leaving a store in a Salmiya mall with KD 70 worth of stolen make-up. The guards spotted the shoplifter stealing the goods on the store’s sur veillance cameras, waiting until she was on her way out before apprehending her. Initially, the girl indignantly denied the charges, going so far as to verbally abuse the security officers who she accused of attempting to frame her. When the guards insisted on searching her handbag, they found the stolen items and called the police, with the shoplifter’s demeanor undergoing a rapid transformation as she pleaded tearfully for forgiveness.

She was taken to the local police station, with the store owner going there shortly afterwards to press charges against her. When the girl’s mother came to the station and agreed to sign an undertaking promising that there would be no recurrence of the incident, however, the store owner agreed to drop the charges. Meanwhile, police are hunting for a thief who stole a KD12,000 electrical generator from an oil company site in Mutraba.

An investigation was launched after the site project manager reported the theft at the local police station on discovering it when he arrived at work the next day.

53 expats held Fifty-three expatriates were arrested on various charges in a security crackdown in the Capital area on Saturday. Those detained include 37 illegal residents and 14 individuals who failed to produce any form of ID, as well as two fugitives wanted in connection with previous offences. All the detainees were referred to the relevant authorities for further action.

Fugitive caught A fugitive wanted in connection with a number of thefts was arrested by patrol officers in Ahmadi. The man initially aroused the officers’ suspicions when he refused to pull over at a police checkpoint, instead driving off.

Following a short car chase, the man was apprehended, with a search of the vehicle uncovering a quantity of hashish and a bottle of homemade liquor. The officers also discovered that the man had swallowed a number of narcotic tablets in his possession during the car chase in a desperate attempt to conceal them. On checking his ID, they discovered that he was wanted on the previous charges. He is currently in police custody awaiting trial. —AlQabas, Al-Rai, Al-Anbaa, Al-Watan

Kuwaitis go to court to demand disclosure of MPs’ finances

By A. Saleh KUWAIT: Around 100 Kuwaiti citizens yesterday submitted formal legal complaints at a local court demanding that MPs be compelled to make full financial disclosures following the recent upheavals over accusations of multimillion dinar political bribes being made to some parliamentarians.

The complainants have asked that the court force all MPs, current and former, to disclose their personal financial details.

Meanwhile, a joint statement from Duhairan Abu Al-Khail and the Al-Jamhour family, part of Al-Mutran tribe, condemned the publication of a list purporting to show individuals who had received ‘kickbacks’ from MP Askar Al-Enezi, which contained Al-Khail’s and

some family members’ names. The statement denied that any such payments had been made, condemning the “lying mouths” who had made the claims and asserting “We do not have any connection to the claims of receiving money from other parties.”

The statement continued, “Whoever sees the lists [of names] will find major discrepancies between them as one was headlined ‘Transactions of MP Askar Al-Enezi,’ while the list that included our names was headlined ‘Cont. of various transactions,’” which the statement said confirmed the dishonesty of those who claimed that Al-Khail or any Al-Jamhour family members had received payments from Al-Enezi.

The statement also called on Al-Enezi to “officially refute these allegations and exonerate those who have been unjustly treated.”

Three hurt in road accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Two Kuwaiti men in their twenties were taken to Amiri Hospital yesterday after sustaining various injuries in a car crash on Maghreb Street.

In a separate incident, a 43-yearold Kuwaiti man suffered unspecified injuries in a collision on Salmi Road.

He was taken to Jahra Hospital.

Fight club A 46-year-old Iranian man was taken to the Amiri Hospital after suffering lacerations to his scalp in a fight in the Bneid Al-Gar area.

KUWAIT: A lecture on the ‘Secrets of Success’ was delivered by author Nasser Al-Khalidi at Kuwait Fire Services Department. He spoke about how one can achieve goals and continue to strive hard to achieve success. Deputy Director for Firefighting Affairs Yousuf AlAnsari attended the lecture.

Kuwaiti cultural event promotes Islamic heritage preservation TLEMCEN: Kuwaiti intellectual Dr. Abdul-Rahman Rashed Al-Haqqan delivered a lecture, Saturday evening, on his country’s contribution to the preservation and promotion of Islamic heritage at the cultural palace of Tlemcen, northwest Algeria.

The lecture, part of the Kuwait culture days event marking Tlemcen’s selection as the capital of Islamic culture for 2011, was attended by a Kuwaiti delegation led by Kuwait’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) Assistant SecretaryGeneral Abdulhadi Nafel Al-Ajmi, Kuwait’s ambassador to Algeria Saud Faisal Al-Douish as well as a large Algerian audience. Al-Haqqan, who received his doctorate in comparative

jurisprudence from Cairo’s Al-Azhar University in 2008, stated that the State of Kuwait maintains great interest in preserving Islamic heritage. He stressed that, “The Kuwaiti government and non-governmental institutions, including NCCAL, Al-Babtain Foundation for Peotic Creativity, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, the Waqf Endowment Fund and the Center for Revival of Islamic Heritage are leading the drive for promoting Islamic cultural heritage inside and outside our country.” “NCCAL is a grand edifice that focuses on the promotion of national Arab and Islamic cultural affairs through its rich publications,” Al-Haqqan, who is also an advisor to the Ministry of Awqaf and

Islamic Affairs, added.

On Tlemcen’s selection as the capital of Islamic culture for 2011, he said the city has a long history and is the home of many scholars to have enriched the Islamic library.

Meanwhile, Al-Ajmi expressed joy for the cordial exchanges between the intelligentsia of Kuwait and Algeria, praising NCCAL’s role in preserving Islamic heritage. “There is extensive coordination between NCCAL and the relevant state institutions, such as the Ministry of Awqaf, to rehabilitate the fine collections of Islamic manuscripts,” he pointed out.

Opened Thursday, the Kuwait cultural days event will come to a close Sunday evening. — KUNA

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More changes needed to meet aspirations of the Gulf youth Meeting the challenge

LONDON: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah concluded a private visit to the United Kingdom yesterday and is heading home, accompanied by Deputy National Guard Chief Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and a delegation of officials. His Highness was seen off at Heathrow airport by Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and Deputy Premier and Minister of Justice and Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr Mohammad Mehsen Al-Efasi.

Al-Mass Awards support individuals with special needs KUWAIT: Burgan Bank’s Al-Mass Awards, which began as a simple idea to reward special needs individuals as well as organizations that support children and people with special needs ten years ago, has gained popularity and national admiration over the past decade.

The Al-Mass Awards, which honors and encourages personal development of individuals with special needs as well as organizations that support this segment by rewarding them for overcoming obstacles and challenges in three categories. It was developed in partnership with Burgan Bank and KIPCO’s Masharea Al-Khair, an organization dedicated to managing and allocating funds for charitable projects.

The Al-Mass Awards, which reflect Burgan Bank’s commitment towards supporting special needs patients, provides an opportunity to identify and reward 12 special needs individuals’ successes.

The awards are presented in three categories —- Blue Diamond award for those with a cognitive or mental disability; the Yellow Diamond award for those with physical disabilities; and the White Diamond award, for those with a sensory disability such as deaf, mute and blind individuals.

The Al-Mass Awards have been sig-

nificantly recognized across the Kuwaiti society during the last decade.

The awards ceremony is held annually, where winners’ achievements are announced through a documentary movie, along with interviews set up with friends and family. Winners receive a financial reward from Burgan Bank, which is deposited in their personal accounts.

Al-Mass Awards, at its core, reflect qualities of brilliance, purity and endurance. It recognizes the special needs of individuals through patience, strength and determination to overcome life’s challenges.

Burgan Bank’s overall approach to CSR includes a fundamental element which is, as a Kuwaiti company, its values should be on par with the necessities of the Kuwaiti society.

Young Kuwaitis participate in GCC Quran contests KUWAIT: The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) 24th Holy Quran and Hadith Recitation Contest began here yesterday, with 45 young Kuwaitis among the contestants.

Each of the GCC countries - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates - is allowed to put nine entrants forward for each of the five categories.

Contestants can apply for inclusion in one of three age-related categories - 10-14 years old, 15-18 and 1925, explained the head of the organizing committee’s media affairs team, Tawfiq Al-Eid, adding that the contest is one of the most important and keenly anticipated competitions in the GCC, and aims to instill the ethics and beliefs of true Islam in the young and to encourage all age groups to memorize and recite the Holy Quran.

The event is taking place at Kuwait’s Grand Mosque under the auspices of the GCC Secretariat, with five daily evaluation sessions taking place in the morning and evening to select the finalists. All the participants and members of the judging panels have already arrived in Kuwait and a meeting of the heads of the various delegations and the judges was scheduled to take place yesterday evening. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The GCC is at a moment of unprecedented demographic opportunity.

Young people make up one-third to onehalf of the population of the GCC countries, presenting GCC governments with an opportunity to propel their nations forward: This group can bring creativity, energy and productivity to the GCC national and regional economies. With their contributions, the GCC region can accelerate its development and continue building knowledge economies.

But 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 and 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.

GCC stakeholders are aware of both the opportunities and the challenges in these areas and are making good progress in addressing them. But a more universal, allencompassing effort is needed to ensure that young people are fully engaged in GCC societies, including governments, private sectors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and civic organizations. The region needs a new paradigm that puts the region’s youth at the forefront of national policies, and involves young people themselves in building their future. Only such a holistic effort will allow the GCC to capitalize on this demographic dividend.

Because education is a cornerstone of young people’s development and the basis on which the Gulf’s knowledge economies will be built, it was a major focus of the survey. Young people certainly recognize the importance of education.

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 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 environments 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.

The Middle East currently has among the highest unemployment rates in the world for people between the ages of 15 and 24; according to the International Labour Organization, the 2009 youth unemployment rate of 24.9 percent was nearly double the global rate of 12.8 percent.

Unemployment looms as a huge worry for young people, with 87 percent of our Booz & Company’s survey respondents describing it as a major problem.

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.

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.

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.

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. Educated and ambitious young women are participating more and more in the public arena as businesswomen, university deans, bankers, medical professionals, scientific researchers, and government ministers. However, the Booz &

Company survey found that despite the gains that women have made in the region, a mix of local norms and traditions, social beliefs, and principles emanating from the GCC’s patriarchal system still, to some extent, exer t an influence over young women’s lives, limiting their opportunities in education, employment, and leisure pursuits.

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.

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.

The challenge for GCC policymakers is to create programs that assist young women without upsetting strongly held traditions.

It is not easy to design and implement such nuanced policies. But the benefits that would result-in terms of eliminating poverty, increasing literacy, improving public health, developing human capital, and boosting productivity-are worth the effort.

GCC countries need to build workforces that are resourceful, productive and creative, with 21st century business skills and the ability to operate in multicultural settings. These are traits learned through leisure experiences, be they recreational sports or science fairs.

Diversified, knowledge-based economies also will require young people to take a broader look at their career options-something else fostered by leisure activities, which expose young people to different areas of interest. Because of the benefits of organized leisure activities, and in particular of the physical exercise involved in sports, we asked survey participants about their leisure time.

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kuwait digest

kuwait digest

Act fast or resign

KHRS must defend Twitter detainees

By Walid Al-Ghanim

By Iman Shamsuddine

he wave of labor strikes which has hit the country recently have taken place at an unfortunate time, as if Kuwait didn’t already have enough chaos-causing problems. It’s no secret that this surge was sparked by the Cabinet’s decision to give in to the pay increase demands of oil sector employees - which Minister of Oil Dr Mohammad Al-Busairi desperately tried to justify by claiming that the increase would not be paid by the government.

I believe that the Civil Service Council and the Civil Service Commission are responsible for the current catastrophic chaos in the public labor sector, and that this is due to their failure to conduct research that would provide proof of the need for pay increases to all Kuwaiti state employees. No Kuwaiti public sector worker can be blamed for feeling frustrated upon learning that employees with fewer academic qualifications and skills are receiving higher pay than theirs.

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rresting citizens for comments posted on Twitter has unfortunately become a cause that doesn’t receive much attention from MPs or from the Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS).

Extending the detention of citizens held for investigation without evidence against them is an indication of the authorities’ lack of commitment to protecting Kuwaitis’ rights and freedoms as instructed by the constitution. If someone were to be detained in a Western country for opinions they shared online, human right groups would immediately focus their attention on defending that person’s right to freedom of expression, and demanding their release or rapid trial.

We are not calling for anyone to be placed above the law. All we ask is that the law be properly implemented in order for justice to prevail against law-

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The KHRS has so far failed to take strong steps to address incidences of the suppression of freedom in the form of arresting people for Twitter posts. As a nongovernmental organization whose job is to defend human rights protected by the Kuwaiti constitution, it’s sad to see the KHRS being so passive regarding what happens to citizens who share their views on a social networking website, with some of these citizens remaining in custody without trial. breakers. This obviously isn’t the case when someone is jailed without clear charges against them, and has their detention extended without justification. If anything, this should be considered a shortcoming in implementing the law and a form of inequality practiced against citizens.

Unfortunately, the KHRS has so far failed to take strong steps to address incidences of the suppression of freedom in the form of arresting people for Twitter posts. As a nongovernmental organization whose job is to defend human rights protected by the Kuwaiti constitution, it’s sad to see the KHRS being so passive regarding what happens to citizens who share their views on a social networking website, with some of these citizens remaining in custody without trial.

Not only does the KHRS need to strongly address the current topic, but it is essential that it makes efforts to increase public awareness regarding human rights, especially concerning freedom of speech, since many in Kuwaiti society are active on social networking websites but aren’t fully aware of the red lines that they shouldn’t cross. Since making the public aware of these rights and regulations is amongst the duties of the country’s NGOs, the KHRs is duty-bound to defend the Twitter detainees for the good of Kuwaiti society. — Al-Qabas

The government refuses to pass a KD100 pay increase for an academically qualified teacher with a minimum of eight years’ experience, but gives the green light to increases of twice that amount to oil sector personnel who in some cases have no university qualifications.

kuwait digest

Guiding the public to achieve reform

By Walid Al-Rujaib n a survey carried out to assess Kuwaiti public opin- public on the need to tackle the root cause of corrupion following last Wednesday’s mass rally, most citi- tion, which is the flawed approach by which the counzens told Radio Kuwait reporters that the country try’s political scene is run, which conflicts with the would be better off without the parliament, being sole- state’s development ambitions.

Parliamentary dissolution might seem inevitable ly and completely ruled by the Al-Sabah family. I switched channels, turning to the privately owned today after attempts to resolve the corruption crises reached a dead end, but Marina FM station which the people must be made was carrying out a simiaware that their animosilar survey at the time, This isn’t the first time in Kuwait that ty should not be directed and most replies to simiat democracy itself, but lar questions were the the people have rejected democracy should instead be guided same: “ We don’t need out of a lack of awareness of the contowards selecting patriotthe parliament.” cept, as well as their inability to sepaic and honest MPs. This isn’t the first time Political groups vary in in Kuwait that the peorate the principles of democracy from their ideologies, intenple have rejected the actions of corrupt MPs. This kind of tions and analysis of the democracy out of a lack current situation, as was of awareness of the conconfusion in Kuwaiti society creates a during last cept, as well as their need for democratic groups in the proven Wednesday’s mass rally, inability to separate the country to launch campaigns to and it’s normal for these principles of democracy differences to be reflectfrom the actions of corincrease public awareness of the ed in the supporters of rupt MPs. This kind of importance of the democracy that ear- each group and for peoconfusion in Kuwaiti ple to structure their society creates a need lier generations of Kuwaitis fought to views accordingly. Today, for democratic groups in attain, and the difference between the Kuwaiti public needs the country to launch that and MPs’ corruption. political authorities who campaigns to increase can understand their difpublic awareness of the ferent viewpoints and importance of the guide them towards democracy that earlier generations of Kuwaitis fought to attain, and the differ- achieving reform. This mission is even harder when carried out in a society where people aren’t fully aware of ence between that and MPs’ corruption.

This contemporary societal attitude also makes the aspects of democracy, but political groups have no demands for parliamentary dissolution unsuitable. other choice but to take this path if they want to Instead, priority should be given to enlightening the achieve change from the foundations up. — Al-Rai

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One example of this is the accountants and legal staff members, whose salary varies depending on the state department they work in, despite having similar academic qualifications and job tasks. Their frustration is further increased when they occasionally learn that a colleague signed by a higher-paying department, made it there through ‘wasta’ (unlawful mediation dependent on personal connections and/or nepotism). The government refuses to pass a KD100 pay increase for an academically qualified teacher with a minimum of eight years’ experience, but gives the green light to increases of twice that amount to oil sector personnel who in some cases have no university qualifications. Even after this, the government tries to convince us that it is trying to improve education as part of the state’s development process.

Even education minister Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, who for a long time has been fighting teachers’ unions over the enforcement of his performance-based bonus system, was startled when the government enforced a general pay increase for oil sector personnel at a meeting which lasted for a grand total of 13 minutes.

Amid this chaotic situation which threatens the state’s stability and the future of its development, the Civil Service Council, the Civil Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance remain passive. If they aren’t able to enforce general pay rises based on comprehensive studies that ensure equality among state employees, I urge senior officials at the three bodies to submit their resignations before the situation gets worse. — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

kuwait digest

We need transparent political groups

Money laundering and terrorism!

By Thaar Al-Rashidi

By Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar

f there is anyone worse than the government in terms of lack of transparency, it has to be opposition political blocs. No wonder, the movements that participated in Wednesday gathered some faxes and press releases.

They are quite foggy about why they want to oust the government and its Prime Minister. The agendas of most are not clear to the public.

No political speaker in the participating group has told us about their opinion. They advocate vehemently against the Prime Minister. This is something we understand.

The Prime Minister is, in our view, is responsible for the executive authority and therefore, responsible about anything. However, these movements are hell bent on targeting the Prime Minister.

Dear sirs, the Prime Minister is not alone in the political arena. There are three other major parties.

Also, there are business people who exert considerable influence on the Council. Why don’t you tell us your opinion? We can then believe that there is nothing personal against the Prime Minister especially if you openly declare your opinion through press releases.

If you concentrate on the Prime Minister and his governments, it is our right to enquire “if you refuse to talk about the other bigwigs.” You are working for some of them. They are here to create a coalition for a political reason. We are concerned about our state’s better future.

I do not see a problem with any political movement that cooperates with a political magnate, provided that it declares its stance openly. Otherwise, it will be worse than the government. Whenever each political group unveils its agenda, we support that group. If it hides, we will have no choice but remain indifferent to it. We can deal with it as if it works against the public. — Al-Anba

o avoid frustration, it is better to prevent people from being misled into believing that the cash scandal would be fruitful in fighting corruption. I tried, in a series of previous articles, to explain the danger of corruption to societies. It has become part of the folklore and even traditions.

The Ministry of Education in the 1960s and the Municipality office boy back in the 1970s!

The problem lies in the fact that the law in question while discussing the MPsgate is Law Number 35/2002 and the Finance Minister’s decision to put it into practice in July 2005. It was called the AntiMoney Laundering law.

It did not originally target corruption. It was mainly made to fight terrorism in an international campaign in the aftermath of 9/11, 2001. That is why the Central Bank was so lenient in turning a blind eye to the sudden inflation of many people’s bank accounts.

It possibly includes those that involved money laundering. A national committee to fight money laundering and terrorism was formed in 2004.

The name of the committee shows that money laundering is linked to funding terrorism, which shows where the general trend has been heading to. Accordingly, wise legal handling of the issue might get concerned MPs off the hook.

The charges could be dropped, which is doable in courts. So, the whole issue lies in politically questioning MPs on corruption that was promoted by various governmental entities.

So, in order to take serious anti-corruption measures, a campaign must be launched to demand a wealth of anti-corruption laws like ones to combat corruption, financial wealth disclosure, conflicting interests, whistleblower protection and data access laws. Kuwait’s decision to be a signatory to the international corruption fighting treaty is enough to turn it into a local law. Unfortunately, the volume of corruption calls for strict measures to be taken. — Aljarida

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Abbas rules out talks without settlement halt

Thousands at pope’s final Mass in Germany Page 10

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Libya finds mass grave of 1,270 Interim govt forces hold back on edge of Sirte SIRTE: Libya’s interim rulers said yesterday they had found a mass grave containing the bodies of 1,270 inmates killed by Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces in a 1996 massacre at a Tripoli prison.

To the east of the capital, NATO bombers hammered the city of Sirte to clear the way for fighters with the National Transitional Council who are trying to capture Gaddafi’s hometown. But Gaddafi loyalists showed they were still a threat by attacking the desert oasis town of Ghadames, on the border with Algeria. The interim government said the attacks had been repulsed but some reports said fighting was still going on.

A spokesman for the Tripoli Military Council said investigators had found the mass grave about two weeks ago.

The uprising that toppled Gaddafi was ignited by protests linked to the Abu Salim massacre. In February, families of inmates killed there in 1996 demonstrated in the eastern city of Benghazi to demand the release of their lawyer. “We are dealing with more than 1,270 martyrs and must distinguish each one from the other for identification by comparing their DNA with family members,” said Dr Osman Abdul Jalil, a medical official.

“It may take years to reach the truth.”

Human rights groups have estimated that about 2,000 Abu Salim inmates were killed in the 1996 massacre.

Earlier last weekend, the forces of the NTC had pushed to within a few

hundred metres of the centre of Sirteone of the last bastions of proGaddafi resistance in Libya-but later drew back to let the NATO jets do their work.

“Yesterday our freedom fighters attacked Sirte city from two sides.

That doesn’t mean that Sirte is free now, but it is an indication that Sirte will be free soon,” said Ahmed Bani, NTC military spokesman in Tripoli.

“I’m asking now any militiamen fighting on the side of the tyrant (to realise) that the game is over.”

Yesterday, the roar of jet engines could be heard overhead, and sporadic booms when NATO ordnance hit targets on the ground. One strike, giving off a deep thud, released a big cloud of smoke and dust over the south of the city.

“NATO has dropped a lot of bombs today,” said one rebel fighter, who declined to give his name. “You can see the planes up above. They struck along here,” he said, gesturing with his hand across the area south of the city centre.

NATO’s support for the antiGaddafi rebellion played a major part in toppling Gaddafi and the alliance says it will keep up its operations for as long as needed.

In a statement, the alliance said its sorties on Saturday in the vicinity of Sirte had struck targets including 2 command and control facilities, a military staging area, a storage bunker and radar facility, and 29 armed vehicles.

Taking Sirte would be a huge boost

for the NTC as it tries to establish credibility as a government, and a blow for Gaddafi, widely believed to be on the run inside Libya.

But it is an awkward proposition because pro-Gaddafi fighters there are well armed and many of the residents have family and tribal ties to Gaddafi.

Accounts from NTC fighters and people who had managed to leave Sirte indicated that pro-Gaddafi forces were trying to prevent civilians from fleeing, effectively using them as a human shield. “Gaddafi’s forces have surrounded the area, closed it off, by shooting at people,” said a man called Youssef, who was driving away from Sirte with his wife. “There are a lot of people who want to get out but can’t.”

He said he and the other civilians from Sirte leaving the city on Sunday morning had escaped by cutting through the desert. That was echoed by another man, called Abubakr, who was heading out of Sirte with his wife and four children in a car loaded with baby diapers and food.

“The situation is not good, really it is not good. It is terrible. There are (pro-Gaddafi) gangs unloading on people, shooting at them. It’s really bad,” he said.

A Gaddafi spokesman has accused NATO and NTC forces of killing several hundred civilians in strikes on Sirte.

That, along with the accounts that pro-Gaddafi forces are killing civilians, could not be independently verified because journalists have only been able to reach the parts of Sirte held by

TRIPOLI: Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters stand guard as journalists are allowed yesterday to see the area where they claim that the remains of more than 1,700 prisoners executed in 1996 were found at Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim. —AFP the interim government.

The attack by pro-Gaddafi forces on Ghadames underlined the fragility of the NTC’s grip even on parts of the country nominally under its control.

The town, about 600 km (400 miles) south-west of Tripoli, is near a border crossing that pro-Gaddafi

Libyans have used to flee into Algeria.

Its old town, an intricate maze of mud walls, is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

“These militias have attacked our people in Ghadames city ... All the information we have got is that these groups are related to the son of

Gaddafi, Khamis,” the NTC’s Bani told a news conference.

“Our freedom fighters have taken control of that area,” he said, t h o u g h h e a c k n ow l e d g e d t h e clashes were not completely over.

“This problem will end soon. It’s a matter of days.” —Reuters

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Hezbollah leader may get military tribunal in US WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is considering a military trial in the United States for a Hezbollah commander now detained in Iraq, US counterterrorism officials said, previewing a potential prosecution strategy that has failed before but may offer a solution to a difficult legal problem for the government.

While the US hasn’t made a decision, officials said a tribunal at a US military base may be the best way to deal with Ali Mussa Daqduq, who was captured in Iraq in 2007. He has been linked to the Iranian government and a brazen raid in which four American soldiers were abducted and killed in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala in 2007.

No military commission has been held on US soil since the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. President George W. Bush tried holding a few suspected terrorists at military bases inside the US, but each detainee ulti-

mately was released or transferred to civilian cour ts. President Barack Obama has said that, because of changes to the military commissions that give prisoners more rights, he supports them as an option in the fight against terrorism. Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group that the US has branded a terrorist organization.

But a tribunal for Daqduq probably would draw criticism from both liberals, who say a civilian court should be used, and conservatives, who don’t want suspected terrorists brought to the US regardless of the venue.

The officials who discussed the deliberations spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, would not discuss the administration’s plan for Daqduq. Asked in a recent interview whether the administration would

generally consider holding military commissions in the US, he replied: “I have not heard anybody rule out such a thing.”

The Bush administration had planned to prosecute Daqduq in an American civilian court. To prepare for that, intelligence officials questioned Daqduq, then had the FBI restart the interrogation from scratch so his answers would be admissible in court. In a twist of political irony, however, that plan has been effectively scuttled because of opposition from Bush’s own party. Republicans found a political toehold in criticizing Obama for wanting to bring terrorist suspects to the US for trial.

A decision must be made soon.

Daqduq is among a few of the remaining US prisoners who, under a 2008 agreement between Washington and Baghdad, must be transferred to Iraqi custody by the

end of 2011. US officials fear that if he is turned over to Iraq, he will simply walk free. Congressional Republicans have said Daqduq should be transferred to the militar y base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial.

Career lawyers in both administrations, however, say that’s just about impossible.

The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of imprisoning al-Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay. But Daqduq is not part of or affiliated with al-Qaeda. That means Daqduq could be prosecuted at Guantanamo, but probably not imprisoned there.

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group; al-Qaida is a Sunni organization. The two have had a relationship of convenience at times but the Sept. 11 commission found no evidence that Hezbollah was aware of or involved in the planning for the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

No Hezbollah agents have been prosecuted at Guantanamo. During the Bush administration, the military held prisoners Ali Al-Marri, Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla in the brig at the Navy base in Charleston, S.C. They were labeled enemy combatants and detained indefinitely.

Hamdi, a US citizen captured in Afghanistan, ultimately was sent to Saudi Arabia on the condition that he relinquish his citizenship. Padilla, also a US citizen, was transferred to a civil court because the Bush administration worried the Supreme Court would rule his detention unconstitutional. He was convicted and imprisoned on terrorism charges. Al-Marri was held for six years before the Obama administration transferred his case to federal court, where he pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism and received an eight-year prison term. —AP

Abbas rules out talks without settlement halt Palestinians give hero’s welcome to president

BAGHDAD: Security forces stand guard at the scene of a bomb attack in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. A series of blasts hit a Shiite holy city in Iraq yesterday, killing and wounding scores of people, police and hospital officials said.— AP

17 killed in Iraq shrine city attacks KARBALA: Multiple blasts at a passport and identity card office in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala killed at least nine people yesterday, amid nationwide violence that left 17 dead. The series of four explosions in the central city also wounded nearly 100 people and caused major damage to nearby vehicles and buildings, leading security forces to cordon off the scene and close all entrances to Karbala.

An initial roadside bomb at 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in the centre of the city, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of the capital, was followed by three more blasts once emergency ser vices arrived, a police officer and a provincial official said. “The bomb attacks in Karbala today have so far killed nine people and there are 99 people wounded,” said Alaa Hammudi, head of Karbala province’s health department. He warned the toll could rise further. Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanimi, the army commander for forces across five provinces in central Iraq, including Karbala, put the toll at 10 dead and 86 wounded.

He said the four explosions included two roadside bombs, a car bomb and a suicide explosion, but did not say the order in which they happened. An AFP journalist at the scene reported seeing several bodies covered in blood being taken away by paramedics, and major damage to vehicles and buildings, with some houses completely collapsed.

Security forces cordoned off the area in the aftermath of the attacks, the journalist said. An interior ministry official

said entrances to the city had been closed. Karbala is a predominantly Shiite city that is home to the mausoleums of Imam Hussein and his half-brother Abbas.

It has frequently been the target of Sunni insurgents in the past, such as on Januar y 20 when a spate of blasts against Shiite pilgrims on the outskirts of Karbala killed 45 people. In the western city of Ramadi, meanwhile, two roadside bombs killed two people and wounded six others, including two young girls, a police officer and an antiAl-Qaeda militiaman said.

An initial explosion at the home of tribal chief Mohammed Awwad killed a woman and wounded the girls, the security officials said. The second, which occurred when police arrived, killed a man and wounded four others, including three policemen.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, a key Sunni insurgent base in the years after the US-led invasion of 2003, but since 2006 local tribes have sided with the American military and day-to-day violence has dropped dramatically. In the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Hurriyah, meanwhile, the driver of a senior official in Iraq’s human rights ministry was killed by gunmen using silenced pistols, an interior ministry official said.

Violence is down across Iraq from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 239 people were killed in violence in Iraq in August, according to official figures. —AFP

A third of Jewish Israelis marginalise Arab citizens JERUSALEM: A survey by an Israeli think tank published yesterday said while most of the country’s Jews deny claims of discrimination against its Arab citizens, one third view them as outside Israeli society.

“The data show that at present the Arab population feels discriminated against to a great extent, while a majority of the Jewish population rejects the allegation,” the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) said in its annual survey.

It said that asked if they considered “Arab citizens of Israel” as “part of Israeli society,” 67.9 percent of Jewish respondents and 86.1 percent of Arabs answered in the affirmative.

It said that 77.6 percent of Arabs interviewed felt “discriminated against compared with Jewish citizens,” but 52.5 percent of Jews disagreed. Israeli Arabs, who make up nearly 20 percent of the population, are Palestinians who remained in the Jewish state following the 1948 war that attended its creation, along with their descendants. While they are guaranteed full equality under Israeli law they say that in practice they are short-

changed in job opportunities, education and public funding, among other areas.

The far-right Yisrael Beitenu party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman won 15 seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament in the 2009 general election, becoming the legislature’s third-largest party, on a platform which included revoking Israeli Arabs’ nationality unless they swear allegiance to the state.

In March this year parliament passed a bill penalising Arab commemoration of Israel’s founding as a “catastrophe,” in a move condemned by local rights groups.

The legislation imposes fines on any publicly funded bodies, such as local authorities or educational institutions, that mark the date as one of mourning or support other activities defined loosely as “contrary to the principles of the state.”

The IDI said that its Israel Democracy Index was compiled from interviews conducted in March with a representative sample of 1,200 Israeli adults; 85 percent of them Jews and 15 percent Arabs. It had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. — AFP

RAMALLAH: The Palestinians will not hold peace talks without a “complete halt” to Israeli settlement building, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told cheering crowds yesterday. “There will be no negotiations without international legitimacy and a complete halt to settlements,” he said in an address to thousands who gathered to welcome him back from his bid to secure full UN membership for a state of Palestine.

Abbas’ popularity has skyrocketed since he asked the U.N. on Friday to recognize Palestinian independence, defying appeals from Israel and the United States to return to peace talks. His request has pushed the region into uncharted waters, and left the international community scrambling over how to respond.

The comments appeared to be a rejection of a proposal for new talks from the international peacemaking Quartet, which on Friday proposed renewed negotiations but did not explicitly seek a settlement freeze.

Abbas told the crowds he had conveyed their dreams of statehood to the international community with his address to the UN General Assembly and formal submission of the membership bid. “ We went to the United Nations carrying your hopes, your dreams, your ambitions, your suffering, your vision and your need for an independent Palestinian state,” he said.

“I have no doubt that the whole free world from one end to the other received what we told

RAMALLAH: Thousands of cheering Palestinians welcome their president Mahmud Abbas (posters) outside his Ramallah headquarters yesterday, as he returned from delivering a historic UN membership bid. — AFP them about you and your dreams with all due respect,” he added as the crowds chanted “The people want a Palestinian state.”

Abbas arrived in Ramallah from Amman, and was greeted by a presidential honour guard at his headquarters, known as the Muqataa. He walked solemnly into the compound and went immediately to the grave of his predecessor Yasser Arafat where he laid a wreath before walking to a small stage to address the crowds, flanked by his prime minister Salam Fayyad.

“Brothers, there is no doubt that we are strong, strong in our rights, strong in our determination; our eyes, our minds and our

culture are strong,” he said. “Lift your heads up high, you are Palestinian!”

The crowds applauded wildly, waving the Palestinian flag and the yellow banner of Abbas’s Fatah party. Thousands had begun gathering at the Muqataa several hours before Abbas arrived, responding to calls from local unions, the Fatah movement and the campaign that was organised to back the UN bid.

Buses laid on by different groups brought cheering Palestinians from cities including Hebron in the south and Jenin in the north, organisers said.

Ahead of Abbas’s arrival, Mohammed Amudi said he had

come to show his support for the unassuming Palestinian leader. “I came to the Muqataa to declare my support for Abu Mazen’s brave speech at the United Nations and his challenge to the United States,” he said, using Abbas’s popular nom de guerre.

Nearby, 71-year-old Abed Qader Mohammed sat holding a Palestinian flag. “I came to show solidarity with Abu Mazen because I believe that his speech to the UN was not just his speech, but our speech,” he said.

“Abu Mazen did his job at the UN and put our demands on their table and I’m here at the Muqataa today to say to him: Thank you.” —AFP

Yemeni troops fire on protesters, killing one SANAA: Yemen troops opened fire yesterday on protesters calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be tried for crimes against Yemenis, killing one person, hours before he was expected to make a speech. The protester was shot in the head as he shouted into a megaphone while perched on top of a minivan that was leading the march of tens of thousands of people in the city, an AFP correspondent reported.

The protesters, who set off on from Change Square, the epicentre of the pro-democracy movement in the capital, chanted “Freedom!

Freedom! The people want the butcher tried!”

Their demand comes after the bloodiest week Sanaa has seen since mass anti-government protests calling for Saleh’s resignation erupted in January, prompting fears of renewed clashes.

In all, more than 170 people, mostly unarmed protesters, have been killed in the capital since last Sunday. Most of the casualties were antigovernment protesters killed when security forces used artillery and gunfire and to disperse demonstrating crowds.

In Yemen’s second largest city of Taez, three people were killed and three others were wounded in clashes early yesterday. The overnight fighting erupted between armed tribesmen who have thrown their support behind anti-government protesters and security forces loyal to Saleh.

Two tribesmen were killed and three others were wounded, a tribal source told AFP, requesting anonymity. A medical official in Taez said a third man was shot early yesterday by government troops. The clashes came a day after Yemeni security forces in Taez, including the elite Republican Guard troops commanded by Saleh’s son Ahmed, bolstered their deployment throughout the city and on its outskirts.

Also yesterday, witnesses said that the army bombed central Taez. Four people were wounded when their car was hit in the shelling, they

SANAA: A protester, center, chants slogans as he marches with others during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, yesterday. — AP said. The beefed up military deployment came after Saleh’s return to Yemen on Friday after a near four-month absence. He flew in from Saudi Arabia where he received treatment for wounds sustained in a June explosion at his presidential compound. Taez has been the scene of intense clashes between government troops and antigovernment protesters since calls for Saleh’s resignation first began. In June, influential tribal leaders deployed armed men to protect the prodemocracy protesters in Taez, leading to regular firefights and bloody clashes between the two

sides. At least eight people have been killed there in the past week, six of them civilians, according to medical officials. The latest protests came amid renewed calls by the United Nations, the United Stares and Gulf leaders for Saleh to step down and transfer power to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, the sponsors of the Gulf initiative that provides a road map for a peaceful transition of power in Yemen, have been rebuffed by Saleh, who has repeatedly delayed signing the initiative.—AFP

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Obama tells Americans to ‘stop complaining’ and fight WASHINGTON: In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and “put on your marching shoes” to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.

And though he didn’t say it directly, for a second term, too. Obama’s speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders that he’s been giving away too much in talks with Republicans-and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average at 16.7 percent.

“It gets folks discouraged. I know. I listen to some of y’all,” Obama told an audience of some 3,000 in a darkened Washington convention center.

But he said blacks need to have faith in the futureand understand that the fight won’t be won if they don’t rally to his side.

“I need your help,” Obama said. The president will need black turnout to match its historic 2008 levels if he’s to have a shot at winning a second term, and Saturday’s speech was a chance to speak directly to inner-city concerns.

He acknowledged blacks have suffered mightily because of the recession, and are frustrated that the downturn is taking so long to reverse. “So many people are still hurting. So many people are barely hanging on,” he said, then added: “And so many people in this city are fighting us every step of the way.”

But Obama said blacks know all too well from the civil rights struggle that the fight for what is right is never easy. “Take off your bedroom slippers.

Put on your marching shoes,” he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. “Shake it off.

Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

Topping the to-do list, he said, is getting Congress to the pass jobs bill he sent to Capitol Hill two weeks ago. Obama said the package of payroll

tax cuts, business tax breaks and infrastructure spending will benefit 100,000 black-owned businesses and 20 million African-American workers.

Republicans have indicated they’re open to some of the tax measures-but oppose his means of paying for it: hiking taxes on top income-earners and big business.

But at times, Obama also sounded like he was discussing his own embattled tenure. “The future rewards those who press on,” He said. “I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama (2nd L) and his wife Michelle (2nd R) pose with Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards recipients Rev. Joseph Lowery (3rd R) and Democratic Representative from Georgia John Lewis (3rd L), and Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver II (L) and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation chairman Rep. Donald Payne after addressing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards at the Washington Convention Center on Saturday. — AFP

Tensions soar among Bolivia’s indigene Groups oppose plans to build highway YUCUMO: Hundreds of indigenous demonstrators in Bolivia’s Amazon basin region forced the country’s foreign minister to join their protest march Saturday, using him to break through a police blockade. Protesters, who are not from Bolivia’s two main groups of natives, oppose plans to build a highway through a rainforest reserve which they fear will bring migrants into the steamy lowlands they have called home for centuries.

The demonstrators have been walking for weeks, and are headed for the capital La Paz. They forced Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca-who was trying to negotiate with the protesters-to march with them past riot officers into an area where rival Andean highland indigenous people had settled.

“They made me march. They made me do it,” Choquehuanca, visibly tired after walking for about four hours, told local media. He was released near Yucumo, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the blockade near Chaparina. “The situation is difficult,” Choquehuanca said upon returning to La Paz, referring to tensions between protesters and other indigenous people who support President Evo Morales.

Protest leader Adolfo Chavez told local radio that native women were clutching Choquehuanca’s arms and had forced him to join the march, using him as a sort of “human shield.”

Another official was also forced to take part in the march, an AFP journalist witnessed. About 1,000 protesters headed toward Yucumo from Chaparina, another town 323 kilometers northeast of the capital La Paz where highland indigenous people who support Morales have settled.

Dozens of Morales supporters in Yucumo burnt tires and took refuge behind mounds of dirt and tree trunks in hopes of preventing the protesters from continuing their march. Four police officers were injured in scuffles

YUCUMO: Marchers continue their trek to the capital city, on the outskirts of Yucumo, Bolivia, Saturday. Indigenous and environmentalist groups began their march on Aug 15 to protest a government planned highway that would cut through the nature preserve Territorio Indigena Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure (TIPNIS), home to 15,000 natives. — AP with protesters on Saturday, including two who were struck in the face by arrows held by demonstrators, Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti said late Saturday.

Demonstrators were apparently carrying spears and arrows to hunt for food during their protest march-which they say will take them to La Paz-and to protect themselves. Choquehuanca had been attempting to mediate between the groups, which he has said could engage in ethnic slaughter on the scale of Rwanda’s bloody 1994 genocide between Hutus and Tutsis.

But they have flatly rejected his efforts. Llorenti said the foreign minister had been “kidnapped” and announced plans to file a complaint against the natives Monday at the Inter-American Commission on

Human Rights. Simeon Jaliri, a leader of the confederation of farm workers representing Quechua and Aymara people-said they had declared a state of emergency after what happened to Choquehuanca.

“We are prepared to mobilize,” he warned. Bolivia is South America’s only mostly indigenous nation. The Socialist president Morales is an indigenous leader himself, and favors the road project, arguing it is needed for development. The planned highway would run through an Amazon forest natural reserve where natives have lived largely in isolation for centuries. Amazon natives fear that landless Andean Quechua and Aymara people-Bolivia’s main indigenous groups-will flood into the area and colonize the region. — AFP

Chavez foe in Venezuela makes candidacy official CARACAS: Opposition candidate Leopoldo Lopez made it official, registering to run next year against longtime Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking a third term. “Today, I am letting you know... that I am committed to defeating him at the ballot box on October 7, 2012,” the 40-year-old economist told hundreds of followers in Caracas.

Lopez, whose right to run was upheld last week by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, is with the centerright Will of the People party. He said he would take part in February 2012 primaries for the Democratic Union opposition alliance, which is looking to field a unity candidate to mount the strongest possible challenge against Chavez.

“This idea that some have abroad that the government is invincible is not true,” Lopez said earlier this week in an interview with AFP and the Venezuelan website Noticias 24. “We can defeat it, despite all of the difficulties ... and despite all the power and the concentration of public resources that he has,” said Lopez. A charismatic politician with a winning smile, Lopez comes armed with a master’s degree from Harvard and experience as mayor of the upscale Caracas municipality of Chacao. Lopez said last week the recipe for victory is an alliance among all the opposition presidential hopefuls. “There is an agreement that whoever wins in the primaries, we’ll all work on the same team-and that is etched in stone,” he said.

Other next-generation leaders include Miranda governor Henrique Capriles, 38, who shares Lopez’s telenovela-

complain. I’m going to press on.” Caucus leaders remain fiercely protective of the nation’s first African-American president, but in recent weeks they’ve been increasingly vocal in their discontentespecially over black joblessness.

“If Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House,” the caucus chairman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, recently told McClatchy Newspapers. Like many Democratic lawmakers, caucus members were dis-

star looks; Pablo Perez, 42, governor of the oil state of Zulia; and opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado, 44.

Chavez, however, remains a formidable opponent. The 57year-old president maintains a 50 percent approval rating, even though he has been physically weakened after Cuban doctors removed a cancerous tumor from his pelvic areaaccording to the government-on June 20 in Havana.

The omnipresent Chavez has been forced to decrease his public appearances as he undergoes chemotherapy treatment, but insists that next year he will be healthy enough to defeat the opposition “by a knock-out.” Chavez, a leftist ex-paratrooper, has been in power since 1999.

A staunch and vocal critic of the United States, he has used his country’s petrodollars in large part to become the region’s leading sponsor of leftist cooperation agreements, subsidizing oil distribution and helping prop up the Cuban regime, the Americas’ only one-party Communist government.

Lopez was banned from politics in 2005, when the office of the Comptroller General accused him of corruption. The case was never brought to trial, and on September 16 the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared the Venezuelan ruling invalid. Rulings that result in political punishment are legal only if decided by a criminal court, it said. An angry Chavez said the “politically motivated” rights court ruling sought to “stimulate” corruption, and said the case was now in the hands of the Venezuelan Supreme Court. — AFP

mayed by Obama’s concessions to the GOP during the summer’s talks on raising the government’s borrowing limit.

Cleaver famously called the compromise deal a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” But Cleaver said his members also are keeping their gripes in check because “nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president.”

Still, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., caused a stir last month by complaining that Obama’s Midwest bus tour had bypassed black districts. She told a largely black audience in Detroit that the caucus is “supportive of the president, but we’re getting tired.” Last year, Obama addressed the same dinner and implored blacks to get out the vote in the midterm elections because Republicans were preparing to “turn back the clock.”

What followed was a Democratic rout that Obama acknowledged as a “shellacking.” Where blacks had turned out in droves to help elect him in 2008, there was a sharp drop-off two years later.

Some 65 percent of eligible blacks voted in 2008, compared with a 2010 level that polls estimate at between 37 percent and 40 percent. Final census figures for 2010 are not yet available, and it’s worth noting off-year elections typically draw far fewer voters. This year’s caucus speech came as Obama began cranking up grass-roots efforts across the Democratic spectrum. It also fell on the eve of a trip to the West Coast that will combine salesmanship for the jobs plan he sent to Congress this month and re-election fundraising.

Obama was leaving for Seattle, where two money receptions were planned, with two more to follow in the San Francisco area. Today, Obama is holding a town meeting at the California headquarters of LinkedIn, the business networking website, before going on to fundraisers in San Diego and Los Angeles and a visit tomorrow to a Denver-area high school to highlight the school renovation component of the jobs package. — Reuters

Blackout plunges Chile’s capital into darkness SANTIAGO: A widespread blackout sparked by a problem with Chile’s national power grid plunged the capital Santiago and other regions into darkness Saturday for about three hours, authorities said. Four of the South American nation’s 15 regions-including the Santiago capital area of more than six million people-lost power at around 8:30 pm (2330 GMT).

In total, nearly 10 million of Chile’s 17 million people were affected. Power had mostly been restored late Saturday, Energy Minister Rodrigo Alvarez told reporters. Chile’s emergency services said the cause of the problem with the national power grid was not immediately clear.

City officials in Santiago said there was no evidence of sabotage. There were no immediate reports of related

injuries. The blackout ground the capital’s subway system to a halt, cut off cellular phone service and forced the delay of a concert by Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin. The show later went on, once power generators were up and running.

Police fanned out to major intersections across the city to help direct traffic, as nearly all signals were out. A mob of about 200 looters ransacked a supermarket in the Santiago suburb of Quilicura, a police official told TVN public television.

The looters clashed with police, and one youth suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. A 26-year-old man was arrested at the scene. The last massive blackout hit Chile in March 2010, affecting 80 percent of the population. —AFP

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Algerians ignore latest protest call — for now ALGIERS: A new “day of rage” was called recently in this violence-scarred North African nation. But when the allotted time arrived, nobody showed up: The colonnaded boulevards in the heart of Algiers on May 1st Square were quiet, with just a few scattered shoppers milling about.

Like much of the rest of the Arab world, protests swept through Algeria earlier this year calling for more democracy, but they have since fizzled.

The latest call on Facebook and other social networking sites for a new revolt on Sept. 17 was roundly ignored.

The fall of Moammar Gadhafi - a close ally of Algeria - in neighboring Libya after a seven-month civil war has turned the focus onto Africa’s largest country, and the question of whether its military-dominated government could also succumb to the uprisings sweeping the region.

This oil-rich country sees small protests nearly every day over economic and social issues by a population that is fed up with its government.

But some Algerians fear the bloodshed and uncertainty seen in other Arab uprisings.

They have reason to be wary: 20 years ago, Algeria’s army stepped in to stifle burgeoning political freedoms, leading to a decade of insurgency that pitted security services against the armed supporters of a popular Islamist movement and left an estimated 200,000 Algerians dead.

The civil war left deep divisions in Algerian society and a lingering fear of security forces. That, along with government largesse stemming from oil wealth, has kept the lid on the situa-

tion here. “The country is on the edge of an explosion, the regime has only held on by spending billions, but for how long?” asked Sherif Arbi, a prodemocracy activist, on the day the protest didn’t happen. “This is just a postponement.”

In fact that same day, just on the other side of town in the neighborhood of Diar Chems, there were riots over the promised distribution of new housing units. Two days later, protesters blocked the main road of the capital’s Beau Fraisier neighborhood over the same issue.

This month alone nearly every city in the country has seen some kind of protest, usually ranging from between dozens and hundreds of participants, of people angry over the lack of water, housing, electricity or calling for higher wages.

A quarter of the population lives under the poverty line and unemployment is rampant. Until now, however, the widespread anger of ordinary people over bread and butter issues has not coalesced into a united call for change. People are just as suspicious of opposition politicians and democracy activists as they are of the despised regime.

“Algerians are enormously unhappy with their current situation for a whole slew of reasons,” said John Entelis, an expert on Algeria at Fordam University, adding that for now the government has the means to placate them. “The state has an economic capacity to buy them off, at least for a short term.”

In addition to ending a long-running state of emergency law and promising a freer media, President

Abdelaziz Bouteflika defused the first wave of protests by extending key subsidies and boosting wages for the police, army, government employees

nation of 35 million is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of natural gas and the central bank announced last week it had currency reserves of $173

ALGIERS: In this May 2, 2011 file photo, Algerian anti riot police use batons to disperse students calling for political change during a protest in Algiers.

Like much of the rest of the Arab world, protests swept through Algeria earlier this year calling for more democracy, but they have since fizzled. — AP and health workers.

Recently though, educational unions have said their raises weren’t enough. “If the government does not review the increase in salaries, we will go back on strike,” Larbi Nouar, head of the largest union of secondary school teachers, told The Associated Press.

Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, where long-serving regimes were overthrown in uprisings this year, Algeria has the funds to “buy the peace,” in the words of Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia. The

billion. Algerians are also less likely to protest because many are disillusioned by the results of the so-called Arab Spring, said Mohand Berkouk, the director of the Center for Strategic and Scientific research in Algiers.

“The political changes in the (Arab) world have not brought the expected results, notably democracy,” he said, pointing to the bloody situation in Yemen and Syria as well as the persistent uncertainty in Egypt and Tunisia.

“These examples of instability do not

motivate the Algerians, who, it must be strongly emphasized, have already suffered two decades of violence and terrorist atrocities,” he noted.

Shopkeepers around May 1st Square said Saturday they didn’t want any trouble in their neighborhood and had planned to prevent any protest themselves. “Those who want to make a revolution, they just have to go back to their own neighborhoods in their own cities, we have had enough of demonstrations disrupting the peace of the residents and hampering local business,” said Farid Sekfali, who owns a local shoe store.

Under Bouteflika and an amnesty program, most of the combatants laid down their weapons over the past decade, but a hard core of fighters that pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2006 remains and periodically carries out attacks. In some ways, Algeria was a forerunner of the Arab Spring.

Enormous popular demonstrations against a sclerotic government dominated by unimaginative generals in 1988 brought unprecedented political opening in the region - at the cost of 500 lives.

Following those iconic protests, which filled places like May 1st Square and the colonial era avenues of downtown Algiers, the press was liberalized, political parties legalized and competitive elections were held for the first time. A moderate Islamist party, the Islamic Salvation Front, dominated the first round of the 1991 parliamentary election, prompting the generals to cancel the runoff, snuffing out the short-lived democratic experiment and sparking a civil war. — AP

Russia’s finance chief rebels over Putin plan ‘I do not see myself in a new government’

FREIBURG: Priests prepare the communion at a mass with Pope Benedict XVI at the airfield in Freiburg, Germany, yesterday. Pope Benedict XVI is on a four-day official visit to his homeland Germany. — AP

Thousands at pope’s final Mass in Germany FREIBURG: Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the final Mass of his visit to his native Germany yesterday, making a strong appeal for unity among his Catholic flock and with the Vatican. Tens of thousands of faithful turned out in Freiburg, filling a field beside the airport in one of the largest turnouts of the four-day trip.

Benedict is visiting a Germany where church teaching on such issues as priestly celibacy, contraception, homosexuality and a ban on women becoming priests are heavily contested while a clerical sex abuse scandal is one of the reasons cited for the departure of tens of thousands of Catholics from the German church.

“The church in Germany will continue to be a blessing for the entire Catholic world if she remains faithfully united with the successors of St. Peter and the Apostles,” Benedict said in a homily urging German Catholics to “work together in unity.” “Dear friends, in the last analysis,

the renewal of the church will only come about through openness to conversion and through renewed faith,” he said from an altar set up on a small hill.

The pope has drawn large crowds at his stops in Berlin, across mainly Protestant eastern Germany and this heavily Catholic city in the south. There have also been scattered protests, the largest of them in Berlin. Benedict alluded to the dissent in Catholic ranks Saturday night when he said that through the years “damage to the church comes not from opponents, but from uncommitted Christians.”

Many in the crowd yesterday waved yellow and white Vatican flags beneath a bright blue sky as they waited for the Mass to begin. “I expect a beautiful Mass.

It is beautiful to realize that one is not alone. It gives you a feeling of greater community,” Thamah Huyen Nguyen, a 26-year-old pilgrim from Freiburg. — AP

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON: Russia’s finance minister announced yesterday he would step down next year if President Dmitry Medvedev becomes prime minister following Vladimir Putin’s expected return to the presidency.

Prime Minister Putin said on Saturday he would reclaim the presidency in an election next March that could open the way for the former KGB spy to rule until 2024.

But in comments likely to worry foreign investors who have praised his guardianship of Russia’s economy, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin made clear he was unhappy with Putin’s decision to ask Medvedev to be prime minister after the election.

“I do not see myself in a new government,” Kudrin, 50, said in comments released in Washington, where he was meeting global policymakers. “The point is not that nobody has offered me the job; I think that the disagreements I have (with Medvedev) will not allow me to join this government.”

Kudrin, who has hinted he would like to be prime minister, has won the respect of investors by saving windfall oil revenues for a rainy-day fund which helped Russia through the 2008 global economic crisis.

Putin’s decision to return to the post he held from 2000 to 2008 is also likely to cause some nervousness in the West, where he is considered less liberal than Medvedev and more outspoken in his criticism of Western policies. Washington said it expected to keep making progress in the “reset” towards better relations with Moscow, whoever was the next Russian president. But many in the West are wary, and economists fear economic stagnation under Putin.

“This (announcement) shows that Russia is far away from open, democratic competition for the presidency,” said Ruprecht Polenz, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. James Goldgeier, a Russia expert at American University in Washington, said: “There will be a businesslike relationship (between Washington and Moscow), but not a warm one.” Putin, 58, and Medvedev, 46, have ruled in a power ‘tandem’ since Putin was forced by the constitution to yield the presi-

dency in 2008 after serving a maximum two consecutive terms.

Putin accepted a proposal by Medvedev to return as president at a carefully choreographed congress of Putin’s ruling United Russia party on Saturday. “I want to say directly: (Medvedev and I) reached an agreement between ourselves long ago, several years ago, on what to do in the future, on who should do what,” Putin said.

under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s and early 1980s.

“It’s a sign of growing stagnation in the Russian political elite and it means that Mr Putin, if elected, can rule for another 12 years until 2024,” said Yevgeny Volk, deputy director of the Yeltsin Foundation think tank.

Opinion polls show other potential candidates, such as nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky or Communist Gennady Zyuganov, have

MOSCOW: A file picture taken on May 23, 2011 shows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) meeting with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin in the Gorki residence outside Moscow.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who yesterday broke ranks from a plan to install Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister, is the last surviving remnant in the Russian government from the days of post-Soviet liberal reform. — AFP Over 11 years in power, Putin has cultivated the image of a vigorous leader and been filmed riding bare-chested on horseback, scuba diving and showing off his judo skills. His policies-crushing a Chechen separatist rebellion, taming super-rich businessmen and bringing wayward regions to heel-have similarly won him popularity among Russians.

But critics say his return to the Kremlin, virtually unopposed, could bring back memories of the economic and political stagnation

much less support and Putin will easily be elected. The main liberal opposition leaders such as former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov have only limited appeal nationwide.

The next president will be elected for six years and is allowed up to two consecutive terms. Putin proposed Medvedev to lead United Russia’s list of candidates for a parliamentary election on Dec. 4 as well as become prime minister next year. — Reuters

Italian murder trial saga draws to an end

ROME: Members of Rome’s Sikh community protest during a protest entitled “Turban campaign supports D-Day” in central Rome, yesterday. D-Day an abbreviation for Dastaar Day (Dastaar — the Punjabi word for Turban) is a Turban awareness day to be held at several European capitals, as Sikhs gather across Europe to voice their concerns with proposals in several countries which could see the outlawing of the Sikh Turban, an integral part of Sikh identity. — AFP

ROME: After lurid headlines, multiple books and even a film, a verdict in Amanda Knox’s appeal against her conviction for murdering a British student in an Italian university town is now expected within days. Media coverage of the killing of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia on the night after Halloween 2007 has concentrated on Knoxportrayed alternately as an American naif abroad or a brooding figure consumed by hatred.

The truth is that even the verdict-expected later this week or early next week after closing arguments in the appeal-may not shed light on what exactly happened that gruesome night in the stone cottage that Knox and Kercher shared.

Several observers have said the convictions of Knox and her

then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito could be overturned after experts commissioned by the court cast serious doubts on some of the DNA evidence that helped convict them.

The prosecution has tried and failed to get the judge to order another analysis of the alleged murder weapon and Kercher’s bra clasp and has pointed to other evidence, as well as damning details of Knox’s initial questioning. Knox and Sollecito “deserve life sentences,” prosecutor Manuela Comodi said on Saturday in her final argument before the six-person jury.

“Reasonable doubt? For me, there has never been any,” she said. But prosecutors have failed to establish any real motive and have put forward a theory that Kercher, 21, may have been killed

as part of a drug-fuelled sexual attack by Knox, Sollecito and a third person, Rudy Guede.

Guede has been sentenced separately and is serving a 16year sentence, having exhausted his appeals. Like Knox and Sollecito, who were sentenced to 26 and 25 years at trial, Guede has protested his innocence.

According to the prosecution’s theory, Kercher was killed by Knox herself while being held down by Sollecito and Guede, who has pointed the finger at Sollecito and Knox as the murderers.

Knox told investigators during initial questioning just days after the murder that she had been in the house at the time of the killing and had heart Kercher’s screams, pointing the finger at a local bar owner as the murderer.

The bar owner, Patrice Lumumba, was later found to have a rock-solid alibi. Knox’s defence now say she was with Sollecito at his home and they have pushed hard to cast doubt on the DNA evidence on a kitchen knife and Kercher’s bra clasp, which helped convict them in December 2009.

The appeal opened in November 2010 with a frail-looking Knox breaking down at one of the first hearings to say she was “unjustly convicted”, spoke of her “broken life” and paid tribute to Kercher. She also apologised to Lumumba, saying: “I should have withstood the pressures that made me do you wrong.” Knox has claimed that police beat her during questioning-for which she faces a separate charge of slander. — AFP

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Despite riot stain, could Modi become India’s next PM? NEW DELHI: The polarising chief minister of India’s booming state of Gujarat wants to be a contender for premier in 2014, analysts say, but he will struggle with the stigma of religious riots on his watch. Narendra Modi remains one of the country’s most controversial politicians, lauded for his pro-business approach, strong governance and intolerance of corruption, but criticised for his handling of 2002 anti-Muslim unrest.

He is accused of having turned a blind eye to the violence nine years ago that claimed up to 2,000 lives and of failing to bring to justice the perpetrators of the orgy of killing. As part of his attempted transformation from a tarnished regional leader to a national statesman, Modi staged a three-day “harmony” fast which ended last week when he sipped juice given to him by Hindu, Muslim and Christian supporters.

He declared his fast had “united all of India” and, signalling his larger ambitions, declared: “India and Indians should dream for bigger things.” So can Modi remould his appeal from a poster-boy of Hindu nationalism, known as Hindutva, into someone to be trusted to tackle India’s problems of slowing growth and corruption?

“A conservative section of the upper middle class are certainly in favour of him-those who like his economic

reforms of Gujarat,” Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a political analyst and columnist for Daily News and Analysis, told AFP. “He’s still a divisive figure and the untested factor of his ambition is that his support base does not really extend beyond Gujarat. But he’s definitely someone to watch.”

Modi had a boost this month when a US Congressional research paper hailed his governance track record and called him the “likely” prime ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposition in the 2014 national elections.

The US Congressional Research Service report, prepared for US lawmakers, lauded Modi’s rule of Gujarat as “perhaps India’s best example of effective governance and impressive development”. Modi came to power as chief minister of Gujarat in October 2001. He was elected for a third term in December 2007 and will face the electorate again in state polls in 2012.

The approving words were all the more remarkable as the United States barred Modi from entry in 2005 over the riots, one of the worst episodes of religious blood-letting in independent India’s history.

The 61-year-old, whose stress on India’s traditional Hindu identity is at odds with the ruling federal Congress party ’s secular credo, has always denied accusations he abetted the

Pakistani commanders meet after US criticism ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army chief will convene a special meeting of senior commanders yesterday following US allegations that the military ’s spy agency helped militants attack American targets in Afghanistan, the army said.

Senior Pakistani officials have lashed out against the allegations of support for the Haqqani militant network, accusing the US of trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its troubled war in Afghanistan. The public confrontation has plunged the already troubled US-Pakistan alliance to new lows.

Pakistan’s leaders have shown no indication that they plan to act on renewed American demands to attack the Haqqani network in its main base in Pakistan, even at the risk of further conflict with Washington. The US has given Pakistan billions of dollars in military and economic aid.

The top US military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, last week accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting Haqqani insurgents in planning and executing a 22hour assault on the US Embassy in Afghanistan on Sept. 13 as well as a truck bomb that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.

Kayani, widely considered the most powerful man in Pakistan, has dismissed the allegations, saying the charges were baseless and part of a public “blame game” detrimental to peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also slapped down the accusations in a statement issued late Saturday. “We strongly reject assertions of complicity with the Haqqanis or of proxy war,” Gilani said in a statement.

“The allegations betray a confusion and policy disarray within the US establishment on the way forward in Afghanistan. Pakistan claimed to have severed its ties with Afghan militants after the 9/11 attacks and supported America’s campaign in Afghanistan, but US officials have long suspected it maintained links. The comments by Mullen, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were the most serious yet accusing Pakistan of militant ties, although he didn’t cite any specific evi-

dence.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has implied that American forces could even carry out unilateral raids inside Pakistan against the Haqqani network, operations that could have explosive implications in Pakistan where antiAmerican sentiment is widespread.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar warned the US on Saturday against sending American troops into Pakistan, saying there are red lines and rules of engagement that should not be broken. “It opens all kinds of doors and all kinds of options,” she told Pakistan’s private Aaj News TV from New York. The comment was in response to a question about the possibility of US troops coming to Pakistan.

Despite the seriousness of the US claims, which appear to accuse Pakistan of state-sponsored terrorism, Mullen and other US officials have said Washington needs to keep engaging with Islamabad, a reflection of its limited options in dealing with the nucleararmed state.

The head of US Central Command, Gen. James Mattis, echoed this sentiment following a meeting with Kayani in Islamabad. In a statement issued yesterday by the US Embassy, Mattis emphasized “the need for persistent engagement among the militaries of the US, Pakistan and other states in the region.”

Mattis also met with Pakistani military’s chief of staff, Gen. Khalid Wynne, who expressed his concern about “negative statements emanating from the US” and stressed the need to address “the irritants in the relationship,” according to a statement issued by the military.

Around half of the US war supplies to Afghanistan are trucked over Pakistani soil, and even as it accuses Islamabad of complicity with Afghan insurgents, Washington knows that it will likely need Islamabad’s cooperation in bringing them to the negotiating table.

Gilani also called for greater cooperation. “Let’s avoid mutual recrimination and recommit ourselves to working together for eliminating terrorism and for reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan,” he said. — AP

KANDAHAR: An Afghan boy who was injured in a bus accident lays down on a hospital bed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, yesterday. Nine people were killed and seventeen injured. — AP

riots, but he still faces legal action. His main pitch to national voters would be his track record in creating a thriving corporate climate in Gujarat in contrast

like Tata Motors have set up business in Gujarat which boasts strong infrastructure and 24-hour power in contrast to the blackouts that plague vast

AHMEDABAD: In this file photograph taken on September 17, 2011, Indian Muslims greet India’s Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi (R) at the Gujarat University Convention Centre in Ahmedabad. — AFP to other parts of India where bureaucratic red tape has throttled development. International investors such as auto giant Ford and domestic investors

swathes of India. “Imagine what will happen to the country if he leads the nation,” top business leader Mukesh Ambani, India’s wealthiest man, said at

an investors’ conference in Gujarat, welcoming the prospect. Gujarat’s annual 11 percent growth far outpaces the country’s expansion of around 8.5 percent.

Modi’s reputation as Gujarat’s “Mr Clean” has also raised his standing among many Indians weary of graft as the Congress national government has become mired in billion-dollar scandals. “He has not yet crossed the barrier of distrust but he has come a long way,” political analyst Subhash Agrawal, founder of India Focus, a private think-tank, told AFP. “If he can export his model of governance, the ‘Gujarat miracle’, to the rest of India, he could potentially be the BJP candidate in 2014 and if not in 2014, then in 2019.” Modi still faces potential rivals within the BJP party, such as senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, or fellow regional leader Nitish Kumar, who has transformed impoverished Bihar.

A STAR News-Nielsen poll in early September suggested the BJP would grab 32 percent of votes nationwide if elections were held now, while the ruling Congress would garner just 20 percent. “I have called him a modern-day Hitler,” said influential Indian media commentator Suhel Seth. “But the fact is that time has moved on,” he wrote in the Indian Express under the title: “Why India needs Narendra Modi.” — AFP

Everest tour plane crash kills all 19 Passengers were Bhutanese citizens KATHMANDU: An aircraft taking tourists on a morning sightseeing trip around Mount Everest crashed into a hillside near the Nepalese capital Kathmandu yesterday, killing all 19 people on board. The Buddha Air Beechcraft plane, carrying 10 Indians, two Americans, one Japanese citizen and three local passengers, came down in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, around 10 kilometres (six miles) from Kathmandu.

The three Nepalese crew also died in the accident as the plane smashed into wooded slopes, leaving the fuselage broken into several pieces. “All 19 people have died. The Buddha Air-103 was returning from a mountain flight when it crashed into Kotdada Hill,” Bimlesh Lal Karna, head of the rescue department at Tribhuwan International Airport, told AFP. Police spokesman Binod Singh said one person had initially survived the crash but had died in hospital. “The rescue efforts have been hampered by heavy rain,” he added, confirming the nationalities of the passengers.

Airport authorities on the ground lost contact with the plane at 7:30 am (0145 GMT) and it crashed minutes later. “When we reached the crash site, we found the dead bodies scattered within 25 metres (yards) of the site which is surrounded by trees,” Dip Shamsher Rana, a police officer who took part in the rescue, told AFP. “The nearest road is 50 metres away. There was mangled remains of the aircraft which was broken into several pieces.” Witnesses told local television stations how the plane burst into flames on impact.

“The plane was flying very low. We were surprised. It crashed into the hill and there was a huge explosion,” one man told the Avenues Television news channel. Buddha Air, a private airline based in Kathmandu, was not immediately available for comment but was

KATHMANDU: Mother, center, of crew member Asmita Shrestha who died in the plane crash, walks as she waits to receive her daughter’s dead body at the Teaching hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, yesterday. — AP

Afghanistan to probe Rabbani’s killing KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday appointed a team to investigate the assassination of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani as officials insisted they were getting “closer to the truth” about his death.

Rabbani, chairman of Karzai’s High Peace Council, was killed by a turban bomber who had purported to be a peace emissary from the Taleban leadership. His death threatens fresh turmoil in Afghanistan, with experts saying it could lead his Tajik supporters-who provided the bulk of resistance to the Taleban when they were in power-to reject all efforts to talk peace.

Officials also revealed that last week they arrested a man who spoke to the killer on the phone the day before Rabbani’s killing. Police and other senior figures have blamed the Taleban for the attack, but unusually, the leaders of Afghanistan’s ten-year insurgency have so far refused to comment on it.

The investigation will be led by Afghan defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, seen as close to Karzai, a statement from the presidential palace said. The statement added: “As a result of actions taken to identify the elements behind Ustad (professor) Rabbani’s assassination, an arrest has been made and information obtained from him is bringing us closer to the truth.”

A government source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the arrested man had spoken to the bomber the day before the attack. The bomber, who was believed to be a trusted Taliban emissary, had left the official guesthouse where he was staying to speak to the man, the source said.

“When Esmatullah (the bomber) left the guesthouse he had a white hat but when he returned, he was wearing a turban and had new clothes. He had cleaned himself up,” the source said. “He joked with the workers of the guesthouse about his new clothes and turban, saying: ‘I’m going for a very important meeting. I should look good.’” The statement from the presidential palace also announced beefed-up security for senior figures in Afghanistan in the wake of Rabbani’s killing. Rabbani was buried in Kabul Friday amid chaotic scenes with angry supporters chanting “Death to America, death to Pakistan, death to Karzai” and vowing to take to the streets to protest his killing. — AFP

due to release a statement later.

The company offers a 8,240 rupee ($140) “Everest Experience” package, taking tourists from Kathmandu and flying them around the world’s tallest mountain and surrounding peaks. The Buddha Air website describes the Beechcraft as the “safest plane operating in the domestic sector”.

It adds that early morning flights are scheduled to take advantage of better weather conditions before winds blow up snow plumes that can obscure the Himalayan panorama. The one-hour flights are popular among tourists, and several companies offer daily trips to view the 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) Everest summit. Aviation accidents are relatively common in Nepal, particularly during the summer monsoon, when visibility is often poor. In December last year, a Twin Otter plane carrying three crew and 19 passengers smashed into a mountainside shortly after taking off from a small airstrip 140 kilometres east of Kathmandu.

The passengers were mostly Bhutanese citizens on a religious tour of Nepal and had chartered the Tara Air plane to take them to a Buddhist holy site in the area. In November last year a helicopter crashed near Mount Everest during a mission to rescue two stranded climbers, killing the pilot and an engineer.

Three months earlier, a plane headed for the Everest region crashed in bad weather killing all 14 people on board, including four Americans, a Japanese and a British national.

Nepal has only a limited road network and many communities in the mountains and hills are accessible only on foot or by air. — AFP

US in ‘disarray’ in Afghanistan: Gilani ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s prime minister has turned on the US over its allegations of links to the Haqqani terror network, saying the “blame game is self-defeating” and US policy in Afghanistan is in “disarray”. The two countries are key allies in the war against Islamist militants in Afghanistan, but their relationship is often troubled and plumbed new depths after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a covert US raid in Pakistan in May. The latest row, with Washington accusing elements of the Pakistani state of supporting the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network it blames for an attack on the US embassy in Kabul, has raised the tensions to an unprecedented level.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Saturday the US allegations would only benefit the militants, and that they “betray a confusion and policy disarray within the US establishment on the way forward in Afghanistan”.

“We strongly reject assertions of complicity with the Haqqanis or of proxy war,” he said in a policy statement issued by his office amid a growing rift with the United States. “Blame game is selfdefeating... It will only benefit the enemies of peace.

Only terrorists and militants will gain from any fissures and divisions.” The White House demanded Friday that Pakistan “break any link they have” with the Haqqanis, a Taleban faction founded by a CIA asset turned Al-Qaeda ally.

A day earlier, top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen directly accused Pakistan’s intelligence service of supporting the network’s attack on the embassy and a truck bombing on a NATO outpost.

The Haqqani network, which has a fighting force of at least 2,000 men, operates independently of the Taleban leadership but remains politically subservient and would fall behind any peace deal it negotiated.

It was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a disciplined Afghan guerrilla leader bankrolled by the United States to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s and now based with his family in Pakistan. Haqqani allied himself to the Taleban after they took power in Kabul in 1996 and when American troops invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks he took refuge in the Pakistani tribal district of North Waziristan.

With training bases in eastern Afghanistan, the network is close to AlQaeda, loyal to Mullah Omar, and targets US troops across the Afghan east, the southeast and within the capital Kabul.

Gilani’s comments came after Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Washington’s humiliating public attack was “not acceptable” and warned the US stood to lose a vital ally.

The Pakistani premier said his country was not responsible for the security of foreign troops inside Afghanistan and it was itself a victim of terrorist attacks launched from Afghan soil. “ While there have been terrorist attacks in Kabul and Wardak, there have also been numerous attacks on Pakistan launched from sanctuaries and safe havens in Nooristan and Kunar in Afghanistan,” he said “It is as much the responsibility of the Afghan National Army, NATO and ISAF not to allow such cross-border militancy.” — AFP

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

China talks on Taiwan agenda: Wikileaks TAIPEI: Taiwanese president Ma Yingjeou will seek to open political negotiations with Beijing if he is re-elected, a leaked US diplomatic cable says-contrary to his public statements. The idea of political, as opposed to trade, talks with the mainland is highly sensitive in Taiwan, which Beijing still regards as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

The two split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, and Ma’s administration has said it has no plans for political nego-

tiations with Beijing. But Taiwan’s Vice President Vincent Siew told Stephen Young, then director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy, that Ma would seek to start them if he was re-elected in 2012, according to the cable published by WikiLeaks.

Siew made the remarks in 2009 when Young paid him a farewell call.

“If Ma is re-elected in 2012, observed the Vice President, the administration will confront the more difficult chal-

lenge of resolving outstanding crossStrait political issues,” the cable said.

The issues may include “a peace treaty, a formal end to hostilities, and development of bilateral military confidence mechanisms,” Siew was quoted as saying.

“These ‘highly political’ issues will be controversial in Taiwan,” said Siew, “but (we) should be able to build on four years of cooperative engagement on economic issues.” Ties between Taiwan and its giant neighbour have

improved significantly since the Beijing-friendly and economicsfocused Kuomintang party took power in Taipei in 2008.

In June last year Taiwan and China signed the landmark Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a pact widely characterised as the boldest step yet towards reconciliation. However, the island’s leading pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has repeatedly accused Ma of trading

Taiwan’s sovereignty for economic benefits from Beijing.

DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, the party’s presidential candidate told suppor ters at a rally in central Taichung on Saturday night that Ma might sell out Taiwan in his second term, an allegation the incumbent flatly rejects. Tsai, the island’s first female presidential candidate, will take on Ma who is seeking a second and final four-year term, in January’s vote. — AFP

Suicide bomber attacks packed Indonesian church Bomber was inside the church with worshippers

TALIPAO: Residents ride an overloaded passenger jeep as they flee to safer areas following clashes between suspected Muslim militants and government troops at Talipao town, Sulu province, southern Philippines yesterday. — AP

16 killed as Filipino troops clash with militants MANILA: Suspected Muslim militants attacked government troops guarding a school construction site in a rebel stronghold yesterday, igniting a clash that killed 13 gunmen, two marines and at least one villager, a marine commander and a resident said.

About 50 gunmen attacked two marine detachments in hilly Talipao town in the southern Philippines’ Sulu province at dawn, but were repulsed in two hours of fierce fighting that killed 13 suspected militants and two marines, marine commander Col. Romeo Tanalgo said. Six other military personnel were wounded before the gunmen split and withdrew into the forest, he said.

Villager Miriam Jalani said her nephew was killed in their Talipao house by stray gunfire while four other relatives were wounded during the fighting. Several residents fled from their homes, hauling bags of clothes and food.

“We’re afraid we’ll also get caught in the crossfire,” she said, fighting back tears, as she prepared to flee from her home. The attackers were likely young Muslim militants trained by the notoriously violent Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaedalinked group regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines, and radical members of a larger rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, which also has a presence in the impoverished, far-flung community, military officials said.

The militants have formed a new, cultlike group led by a commander identified as Hatib Zacaria who wants to make a name through violence, said regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang. The marines have been monitoring the new group for about a year, marines officials said.

The group’s commanders are called Awliyah, a word in the local Tausug dialect that pertains to religious leaders believed by their followers to possess supernatural powers, officials said.

The marines who came under attack

in their two roadside detachments were guarding a school construction site and a road project. “These are the people who are against development, that’s why the mayor is mad,” Tanalgo said of the militants, who were mostly armed with M16 and Garand rifles.

The clash halted a planned Muslim wedding in Talipao, angering many villagers, some of whom offered to help fight the militants. They were not allowed to join the clash, said another marine officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Government troops recovered seven rebel firearms at the scene of the fighting and were checking if there were more bodies of slain gunmen in the area.

Reinforcement troops were pursuing the fleeing militants, Tanalgo said.

Washington blames the Abu Sayyaf for many bomb attacks, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings. The militants have attacked and killed American citizens in the past and have been the target of yearslong US-backed Philippine offensives. The Moro National Liberation Front signed a peace accord with the government in 1996 after it dropped its secessionist bid and settled for limited Muslim autonomy in the south, homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. Most of the Moro rebels, however, did not lay down their arms and now complain that the Philippine government reneged on many political and economic promises under the 1996 pact. They have occasionally been blamed for launching attacks against government forces and have been suspected of harboring Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu, about 610 miles (980 kilometers) south of the capital, Manila.

The Philippine government has been in talks with Moro National Liberation Front rebels to address their complaints after they made a pledge not to coddle the brutal Abu Sayyaf. — AP

SOLO: A suicide bomber attacked a packed Indonesian church yesterday wounding at least 27 people, some critically, and sending terrified worshippers rushing out into the streets in panic. The morning bombing in the city of Solo, in Central Java, was the latest in a spate of attacks on minority religious groups in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Solo, a city of 500,000, is the home of militant Islamist spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, who was jailed in June for 15 years for funding a terrorist group that was planning attacks against Westerners and political leaders.

Police earlier reported that one person had been killed in the attack, but later clarified that the only person who died was the bomber. Kristanto, a worshipper, said he and his wife were getting ready to leave at the end of the service at the Bethel Injil Church when the bomb rocked the building. “I was about to head home when a ver y loud explosion shocked me. A crowd of people from inside the church rushed to the streets,” he told AFP. “ They were screaming and ver y hysterical. The peaceful Sunday has quickly become a chaotic situation.” “I helped several people who were injured and lying weak on the ground,” said the badly shaken 53-year-old, who goes by one name.

The bomber was inside the church with worshippers when he got up and detonated the bomb on his way out. “He let off the bomb and his guts had spilled all over the floor. We are still trying to identify him,” said national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam. He confirmed that only the attacker had died.

SOLO: Villagers gather after a bomb went off in a church, not in photo, in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia, yesterday. A suicide bomber attacked an Indonesian church packed with hundreds of worshippers yesterday, killing himself and wounding at least 20 other people, police and hospital officials said. — AP Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Djoko Suyanto, said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had strongly condemned “the act of terrorism”.

“Nothing can justify this inhuman act,” Suyanto told Elshinta radio.

“It is the task of everybody to overcome this act of terrorism.”

An AFP correspondent saw the apparent bomber’s body on the ground at the church’s main entrance. He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers. Most of Indonesia’s 200 million Muslims are moderates, but the country has struggled to deal with a radical fringe of extremists who have carried out numerous attacks,

including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Indonesia’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion but rights groups say violence against minorities including Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect has escalated recently. In June, a Muslim cleric was sentenced to one year in jail for inciting hundreds of people to burn churches and attack police. Seventeen men were also jailed for up to five months for February attacks on churches in the town of Temanggung, on Java.

Police have also been investigating a Good Friday plot to blow up a Jakarta church and a book bomb campaign targeting

Pro-nuclear mayor re-elected in Japan

Navy driving China’s military expansion SHANGHAI: China’s navy is playing an important role in the country’s drive to become a world military power, with the recent trials of its first aircraft carrier underlining the scale of Beijing’s naval ambitions. China has become increasingly assertive on the high seas and the carrier’s first outing last month sparked jitters in the United States and Japan, which said the move would have a “big impact” on the region.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) — the largest armed force in the world is primarily a land force. But the navy is playing an increasing role as Beijing grows more assertive about its territorial claims, notably in the East China Sea and South China Sea. On a rare visit on board the Anqing, a missile frigate at the Eastern Fleet base in Ningbo, south of Shanghai, journalists were accompanied by a group of officers as soldiers looked on impassively.

The officers were giving little away and the ship appeared to serve as a museum piece as much as a warship. “As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China must take greater responsibility in world affairs,” Captain Wei Hua, chief of staff of the Shanghai naval base, told the visiting journalists. “We have some 18,000 kilometres of coastline and over three million square kilometres of maritime area. It is therefore very important to build a powerful navy to protect the country and its interests.” Taiwan, which has been self-gov-

erned since the end of a civil war in 1949 but which China still regards as part of its territory, remains key to Beijing’s defence strategy, but is far from its only interest.

Beijing lays claim to swathes of the South China Sea which are also claimed by its smaller neighbours, and must also secure supply routes and new sources of raw materials to fuel its booming economy.

“Beijing intends to bring the (South) China Sea, which it regards as its backyard, firmly within its sphere of influence,” said one international defence expert. Since 2007, at the request of President Hu Jintao, the navy has held a permanent seat on the Central Military Commission, China’s powerful supreme military authority.

And now the navy is looking further afield-it already participates in the fight against Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. “In the same way that the country is developing, the Chinese navy is growing,” said Wei. The 2.3-million-member PLA is extremely secretive about its defence programmes, which benefit from a huge and expanding military budget boosted by the nation’s runaway economic growth.

Last month, the Pentagon warned in an annual report to Congress on China’s military of an increasing focus on naval power and said Beijing had invested in high-tech weaponry that would extend its reach in the Pacific and beyond. — AFP

Muslim moderates and counterterrorism officials. No one was killed in those incidents.

Yudhoyono’s government has faced growing criticism over its failure to respond to the spate of religious hate crimes.

Human rights groups also expressed outrage after a member of the Ahmadiyah sect, which are regarded as heretics by some conservative Muslims, was sentenced to six months for defending himself and others from a lynch mob which killed three of his friends. The sentence was the same or stiffer than those handed out to 12 Islamic extremists who led the mob in the February rampage. —AFP

TOKYO: Philippine President Benigno Aquino (R) arrives at Tokyo International Airport yesterday. Aquino is on a four-day visit to Japan. — AFP

Aquino arrives in Japan TOKYO: Philippine President Benigno Aquino yesterday arrived in Tokyo, where he is expected to raise territorial disputes with China during a meeting with Japan’s new prime minister. Ahead of his visit, Aquino’s spokesman quoted him as saying the territorial conflict and heightened tensions between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea should also concern Japan.

“Just like the US, Japan is also a stakeholder in the quest for peace and stability in the (South China Sea). So this is a matter of common interest to the two countries,” spokesman Herminio Coloma said in a statement to AFP. A long-stand-

ing territorial row between Tokyo and Beijing over disputed islands in the East China Sea is also a headache for Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who took power earlier this month.

Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday that Tokyo and Manila will step up their maritime security ties and sign a military cooperation agreement when Noda and Aquino meet on Tuesday.

During the four-day visit to Japan, Aquino also plans to travel to the disaster-hit northeastern region, including Ishinomaki, one of the cities hardest-hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. — AFP

TOKYO: A mayor who backs a plan to build a new nuclear reactor in his western Japanese town was reelected yesterday, Kyodo news reported, a sign that atomic power still has pockets of suppor t in the countr y despite the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Shigemi Kashiwabara, 62, won a third term as mayor of Kaminoseki in the western prefecture of Yamaguchi, where Chugoku Electric Power Co wants to build a new atomic plant that would begin commercial operation in 2018, Kyodo said.

The challenger in the election had called for the plan to be scrapped in the wake of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was crippled by the massive March 11 ear thquake and tsunami that devastated northeast Japan.

Public support for nuclear power, which supplied about 30 percent of resource-poor Japan’s electricity needs before the March disasters, has dwindled since the Fukushima crisis, the world’s worst radiation accident in 25 years.

Surveys show a majority of voters favour a gradual phase-out of nuclear power, and government officials have said that it would be difficult to go ahead with plans to boost atomic energy’s share to 50 percent by building new reactors.

Some 80,000 people have been evacuated from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which is still leaking radiation, and last Monday, tens of thousands rallied in Tokyo to demand an end to the countr y ’s reliance on nuclear power.

But many in the largely rural, ageing communities that host or want to host-Japan’s reactors still back the nuclear plants, which provide jobs and bring subsidies that account for hefty chunks of local finances.

“What is wrong in hoping for a decent living?”

Kyodo quoted Mayor Kashiwabara as saying earlier this month. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who took over as Japan’s sixth premier in five years, has made clear that he sees nuclear power as playing a part in Japan’s energy supply for decades. Short-term, however, he faces the challenge of convincing the public that it is safe to restart reactors that have been shut down for routine maintenance. Unless such reactors are restarted, all of Japan’s 54 reactors will be off-line by next April. — Reuters

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NEWS

VILNIUS, Lithuania: People watch as fireworks illuminate the sky during the Third International Fireworks Festival late on Saturday. — AFP

Saleh calls for early elections SANAA: Yemeni President Abdullah Ali Saleh called for early elections yesterday in his first speech since returning to Yemen but his latest peace formula is unlikely to appease protesters who want nothing less than his immediate departure. Saleh, speaking as a sixth day of violence raised the death toll to more than 100 lives, said he was committed to transferring power through elections. But since the crisis began in January when protesters took to the streets demanding that he quit, the embattled Yemeni president has been prodigal in proposals to end the eight-month-old violence but followed up on none that entail him surrendering power.

Saleh, who returned on Friday from Saudi Arabia where he sought treatment after a June assassination attempt, reiterated his acceptance of a Gulf power transfer and said the vice-president retained authority to hold talks with the opposition. “Let’s all go towards dialogue, understanding and peaceful exchange of power through elections and early presidential elections,” he said in the televised speech. Traditional Arab head gear

covered most of Saleh’s head and neck while an elaborate flower arrangement hid his hands in an apparent bid to disguise injuries sustained in a June bombing of the presidential palace.

Yemeni officials and diplomats involved in political negotiations to ease Saleh out had said the direction the crisis takes will hinge on the president’s words yesterday evening.

Protesters, watching the speech in tents in Sanaa’s central Change Square, were disappointed. “We’re so used to this there’s nothing new in the speech. It’s the same story, the same politics, he talks to us as if we’re children,” said Saeed, 30, a protester watching the speech in the central square. “He’s just talking and talking about this initiative and we haven’t seen any action.”

Earlier yesterday, Yemeni soldiers killed two tribal fighters and wounded 18 anti-government protesters in the latest clashes in a week of bloodshed that has raised fears of a descent into all-out civil war. For the first time since six days of battles between opposition and loyalist forces erupted in Sanaa, the clash-

es spread outside the capital. Two pro-opposition tribal fighters were killed in the mountainous outskirts of Sanaa when the army shelled an area where the two sides had been clashing.

In Sanaa, soldiers used live rounds against thousands of unarmed protesters singing and chanting “God is great, Freedom” as they marched out of their protest camp and into the capital’s busy streets. “I saw soldiers from above, in buildings and on the bridge,” said Mohammed Al-Mas, 21, a protester whose back was drenched in blood from a gunshot wound. “Then the gunfire started and I ran back, but I suddenly felt the shot in the back.”

A local photographer said the violence was caused by one soldier who opened fire with a machinegun, but other protesters said they saw 10 troops open fire. Eighteen people were wounded and medics said two were in critical condition. Doctors drenched in blood worked on bullet wounds at a makeshift hospital in “Change Square,” the name protesters have given the shanty town of tents they have staked out in the middle of Sanaa. — - Reuters

Saudi monarch gives women right to vote Continued from Page 1 The king’s decision means that women will be able to take part in the elections that are to be held in four years, as the next vote is due to take place on Thursday and nominations are already closed. In addition to participating in the only public polls in the country, women would have the right to join the all-appointed Shura (consultative) Council, he said in the address opening the assembly’s new term. “We have decided that women will participate in the Shura Council as members starting the next term,” the king said in the unexpected move to enfranchise women.

More than 5,000 men will compete in Thursday’s municipal elections, only the second in Saudi Arabia’s history, to fill half the seats in the kingdom’s 285 municipal councils. The other half are appointed by the government. The first elections were held in 2005, but the government extended the existing council’s term for two years.

King Abdullah said his decision came because “we refuse marginalising women’s role in the Saudi society in all fields,” and followed “consultations with several scholars”. He did not mention anything about women’s right to drive in the kingdom where they must hire male chauffeurs, or depend on the goodwill of relatives if they do not have the means. However, he said that “balanced modernisation which agrees with our Islamic values is a necessary demand in an epoch where there is no place for those who are hesitant” in moving forward.

“This is great news,” said Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a Saudi writer and women’s rights activist. “Women’s voices will finally be heard. Now it is time to remove other barriers like not allowing women to drive cars and not being able to function, to live a normal life without male guardians.” “Despite the issue of the effectiveness of these councils, women’s involvement in them was necessary. Maybe after women join there will be other changes,” said Naila Attar, who organized a campaign Baladi (Arabic for My Country) calling for women’s

involvement in the municipal council elections. “I believe this is a step to involve women in the public sphere. It is the top of the pyramid and a step in the direction for more decisions regarding women.”

Saudi Arabia has seen many changes since Abdullah became king in 2005. Norah Al-Fayez, who was named to the post of deputy education minister for women’s education in 2009, was the first woman ever named to a ministerial post in the country. More than 60 intellectuals and activists had called in May for a boycott of the September ballot because “municipal councils lack the authority to effectively carry out their role” and “half of their members are appointed,” as well as because they exclude women.

The Shura Council had recommended allowing women to vote in the next local polls, officials have said.

In April, Samar Badawi said she was suing the municipal affairs ministry for upholding the ban on women taking part in the local poll. Badawi filed a lawsuit at the administrative court in Makkah against the ministry for denying women the right to register as voters. Also in April, a group of women defied the ban on women in elections by turning up at a voter registration office in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, in a rare public demonstration against the male-only electoral system. But they were turned back by the head of the centre who told them women were still banned from voting.

While being spared any unrest linked to the Arab Spring, the oil-rich Sunni kingdom has however seen minor sporadic demonstrations by Shiites that took place in its Eastern Province. Sharif was the icon of a campaign through which a group of defiant Saudi women got behind the steering wheels of their cars on June 17 in response to calls for nationwide action against the ban on driving. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has publicly thrown her support behind the campaign, saying that “what these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right”. “The Saudi woman, will for the first time, become a partner in decision-making. I hope she gets assigned as a minister,” said Sharif. — Agencies

SANAA: A grab taken from Yemen’ws state television station shows Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh addressing the nation yesterday. — AFP

US mosque designed to blend in, not stand out Continued from Page 1 mistake was not involving the families of Sept 11 victims from the beginning.

Central Ohio is home to a growing Muslim population of more than 25,000, or more than double what it was 10 years ago. Census figures show a majority are from Somalia Columbus has the second-biggest US Somali population after greater Minneapolis - along with immigrants from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, among other countries. The region’s relatively stable economy and comfortable lifestyle have long been a draw.

Plans for the Noor Cultural Islamic Center were well under way before the Sept 11 attacks. After the tragedy, the center added interior glass walls and additional windows and launched an active community outreach program.

Farag says the goal was to make the building more user-friendly for nonMuslim visitors. The $7.4 million center opened five years ago this month.

During the August celebration of Ramadan, the annual Muslim holy month of fasting, supporters raised the final $360,000 to pay off the construction debt.

Ohio’s best-known mosque, built by the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo in 1981, sits near Interstate 75, visible for kilometers with its striking dome and minarets, the tall towers used historically to call worshippers to prayer.

The Noor center deliberately lacks minarets, and its domes hug either side of the building in understated fashion. Its gabled roof echoes the peaks of barns that dot Ohio’s rural landscape. Its many windows make it easy for visitors to look inside and once they’re inside, to observe worshippers in the large prayer hall.

Architect Bob Apel says his marching orders were clear. “They didn’t want to impose themselves on everybody else,” he said. “They wanted to be part of the community.” About 2,000 people attend prayers weekly, including packed services each Friday around midday. It sits on the border between two well-off Columbus suburbs and was developed as part of an upscale subdivision whose homes are popular with Muslim professionals.

Educational posters line walls inside the mosque. “What do Muslims think about Jesus?” reads the title of one. “Who are American Muslims?” asks another. The center hosts a variety of activities for Muslims who attend the mosque, including legal and health clinics, weekend Arabic classes for children, counseling services and parenting classes, among others. For non-Muslims it holds a weekly “Islam 101” class and tour each Saturday, bringing in members of local churches and synagogues. “One of the keys to preventing bigotry and so on is when you have an opportunity to sit and learn with someone,” said Michael Ungar, a Columbus rabbi who has cotaught classes at the mosque with Muslim and Christian leaders.

The center is hardly the first mosque with a nontraditional design in the US or abroad. The Islamic Society of North America’s headquarters in Plainfield, Indiana, is a modernist building nearly three decades old. Last year, the Islamic Society of Greater Valley Forge opened a new $1.5 million mosque in suburban Philadelphia that, like the Noor Center, lacks minarets and brings to mind a community center, not a house of worship.

Other mosques have chosen a more traditional look. In 2005, the Islamic Center of New Mexico

reopened with a traditional domeand-minaret building after the previous structure, a simple, modern-looking facility, was torn down. In Dearborn, Michigan, in suburban Detroit, home to one of the biggest Arab-American populations in the US, tall minarets and gold domes dominate the Islamic Center of America.

Islamic studies expert Akbar Ahmed said the Noor Center put aside rich cultural traditions with the design, he said. The result is a message that says, “‘Look, we are a distrusted community and we are vulnerable and we need to hide our identity,’” said Ahmed, chair of the Islamic Studies Department at American University.

Farag stands by the center’s unorthodox design. The feeling among the mosque’s founders was, “We’re in the United States, we need to do something different, we need to first make it do things that mosques ought to do in the United States, and also it’s got to look like something that comes from the United States,” said Farag, 49, who emigrated from Libya as a youth. “Something always bothered me about a mosque that looks imported from somewhere,” he said.

The Noor Center sits at the entrance to the Silverton Farms neighborhood, where homes start around $300,000. Residents are a mix of faiths, with a majority Muslim. Shannon Pollino, a non-Muslim who lives within walking distance of the center, bought a house in the neighborhood in 2006.

He questioned the idea of moving near a mosque but decided that wasn’t how he should live his life. “I’m sure a lot of people opposed it - I personally could care less,” said Pollino, 39, a telecommunications sales engineer.

“I’m not going to stop anybody or feel any different towards an individual because of their belief.” — AP

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

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Leaderless Iran opposition seen lacking strategy

By Parisa Hafezi ran’s reformist opposition has watched with admiration as revolutions have toppled three Arab leaders, but despite divisions in the ruling elite it looks incapable for now of taking its protest movement back out onto the streets. Mass protests against the 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked the worst unrest since the Islamic Revolution three decades earlier, but were quelled with lethal force by the state’s security apparatus, headed by the elite Revolutionary Guards.

While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei swiftly endorsed the election result, splits emerged in the ruling establishment as some, including lawmakers, criticised the government for mishandling the protests and using force to silence the ‘Green’ opposition. Attempts to revive street protests have fizzled. The opposition, which says its fight for a freer Iran will continue, is following the Arab uprisings with a mixture of envy and regret for its own failure, analysts and moderate former officials say.

“The opposition is leaderless and lacks any strategy.

The opposition leaders are under house arrest. Dozens of prominent reformists are jailed. Their supporters have no choice but to wait and see,” said a close ally of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who asked not to be named.

Mousavi, a former prime minister, and Mehdi Karoubi, a cleric and a former parliament speaker who also stood against Ahmadinejad, have been placed under house arrest since February and denied any contact with the outside world.

The authorities, who deny the election was rigged, have jailed many senior pro-reform politicians, closed a dozen reformist publications and banned at least two moderate parties since the vote. The government is permitting less and less political dissent by banning media coverage of the opposition, according to journalists working for local newspapers. The opposition continues to communicate over the Internet despite a web-filtering system designed by the authorities to curb its online activity.

The main question is whether the lack of anti-government protests shows the pro-democracy movement is a spent force, or whether it can remain alive despite the fierce state crackdown. “The core supporters of the regime are ready to sacrifice their lives for the regime.

They consider killing or dying for the regime as their religious duty,” said a pro-reform politician, who was sentenced to two years jail after the 2009 vote on charges of “acting against national security”. “Confronting the establishment has been made very costly to intimidate the opposition supporters.” Unlike the Arab countries, Iran’s opposition leaders are limited in their ambitions: they remain committed to the Islamic Revolution and the principles of its leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but they want to reform the establishment within that framework. “The Green opposition is not questioning the foundation of the system as happened in the Arab world,” said Dubai-based political analyst Hamid Sedghi. “It makes it difficult for the authorities to uproot the opposition, but also it prevents any regime change.”

The chances of witnessing the kind of uprising that swept veteran Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan rulers from power seem remote in Iran in the near term, since the leadership and opposition are united in defending the establishment, analysts say. “It’s a Catch-22,” said political analyst Hamid Farahvashi. “The opposition leaders are also among the founders of this system, who want an evolution, not toppling the establishment.”

Iran’s hardline rulers have put a positive spin on the Arab Spring, saying it will spell the end of US-backed governments in the region. Khamenei has called it the “Islamic Awakening” and said it was inspired by Iran’s 1979 revolution, which replaced the US-backed Shah with a Muslim theocracy. But the cleric-led elite is concerned about any spillover effect of popular uprisings against dictatorial leaders in the Arab world.

Analysts say two factors may help sustain the opposition despite its current weakness: the weakness of the economy, and a widening political rift among the hardline elite. Ahmadinejad’s honeymoon with clerics and the Revolutionary Guards has ended because of his bucking of Khamenei’s authority, analysts say. Khamenei clipped the president’s wings by reinstating his sacked intelligence minister in April.— Reuters

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Mideast heading into dangerous paralysis

By Karin Laub ith combative speeches at the United Nations, the Palestinian and Israeli leaders have locked themselves into positions that seem to preclude a resumption of peace talks and usher in a season of confrontation over a Palestinian state. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will now focus on rallying international support, his aides say, in hopes of pressuring and isolating Israel and driving up the political cost of holding on to the lands it occupied in the 1967 war.

Abbas insisted Saturday that he won’t go back to talks without an Israeli settlement freeze or acceptance of pre-1967 borders as a starting point. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while calling for new talks, gave no sign he’s willing to consider those demands. Instead, he reiterated in interviews with Israeli TV stations that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state and that talks would first have to address security arrangements.

Considering the vast gaps, international mediators did not offer bridging proposals after the two leaders’ speeches, instead simply urging a resumption of talks and a deal within about a year. But such target dates have little meaning without real pressure and previous timetables were quickly cast aside.

The Palestinians, bypassing what they see as pointless talks with the historically hardline Netanyahu, will now try to boost their standing, mainly at the UN. On Friday, Abbas submitted a request for UN membership of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in 1967 and since populated with half a million settlers living among about 4 million Palestinians.

Even though the recognition bid is sure to be derailed - either by insufficient support or a US veto in the UN Security Council - the Palestinians stand a good chance of a General

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Assembly status upgrade that would grant them access to UN agencies and international courts. The aim is to “pressure Israel through all UN agencies”, said Abbas aide Nabil Shaath. Some Palestinians said the new strategy is nothing less than a paradigm shift, following two decades in which the Palestinians pursued a series of bilateral efforts to reach agreement with a much stronger Israel with the US and other international players mediating but never imposing terms on either side. Twice over the past decade, the negotiators seemed to make serious progress, with Israel - which had pulled its troops out of Gaza in 2005 - also offering to give up large chunks of the West Bank and parts of east Jerusalem. In the end, gaps could not be bridged. “For a long time, the program was just to negotiate with the occupier,” said Mustafa Barghouti, an independent West Bank politician. “Now we should defy our occupier. We gave them enough time.”

Abbas’ new approach, especially his defiance of the Obama administration, which opposes the recognition bid, has proven to be hugely popular at home. The Palestinian leader has clearly enjoyed the sudden adoration from flag-waving crowds after six years in power with few political achievements and many setbacks, including the loss of Gaza to the Islamic militant Hamas in 2007. On the flight home Saturday, he told reporters he was exhausted after marathon meetings and intense pressure on him to desist, even from some Arab countries, but that “this didn’t affect our spirits to reach the goal and deliver the Palestinian message officially”. Yet he also cautioned that “we don’t want to push people to have high expectations.”

Palestinian officials acknowledged that there is no detailed plan to move forward, beyond calling for nonviolent protests against Israel and eventually asking the General Assembly to admit Palestine as a non-member observer state, with the implied

recognition of the pre-1967 borders. Abbas has not said how he’ll handle his Hamas rivals, who have been criticizing his UN recognition bid because it would limit a Palestinian state to the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

A power-sharing deal with Hamas, struck in principle earlier this year, is currently on hold. Reviving an alliance with the militants, who still seek Israel’s destruction, could cost the Palestinian leader international support at a crucial time. On the other hand, Abbas cannot claim to control a key Palestinian territory, Gaza, and rocket fire from there on Israel has drawn reprisals and complicated matters.

In the quest for recognition, it remains unclear whether the Palestinians have the required support of at least nine of the 15 Security Council members, which would trigger a US veto. The Obama administration hopes to get a blocking majority and avoid a veto, which would hurt its fragile standing in the Arab world. Palestinian officials have said trying to force the US to use the veto is part of their new pressure campaign.

Abbas said Saturday that he expects the Security Council to decide in weeks, not months. If the Palestinians get a sense that the US is trying to stall a vote in the Security Council, they might turn to the General Assembly in the meantime, said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador. “I think there is no problem for us to apply for the non-member state while our application is processed in the Security Council,” he said.

Netanyahu’s options of counter-pressure appear limited at the moment. Members of his ruling coalition have called for punitive steps, from annexing parts of the West Bank to withholding millions of dollars in monthly tax rebates Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians. The Israeli leader has not said how he would respond. However, retaliation might be counterproductive and only generate more international sympathy for the Palestinians.

Palestinian officials have dismissed threats from the US Congress to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid, noting that keeping Abbas’ West Bank based Palestinian Authority in place is a key US interest, particularly security forces that cooperate closely with Israel in preventing attacks by militants.

In their statement calling for a resumption of talks, the Quartet of Mideast mediators, of which the US is a leading member, called for another conference to raise aid for Abbas.

While Abbas was upbeat following the standing ovations he received at the General Assembly, Netanyahu also seemed pleased with his UN performance and the strong show of US support. Asked by Israel TV’s Channel 10 if the trip went well, he said: “I think so. I came to stop something that is not good for Israel. To thwart a maneuver that is problematic diplomatically. To present our truth to the world that is used to hearing lies and slander about Israel and Zionism.”

Netanyahu said he hoped the Palestinians would eventually return to “serious talks about how to ensure security that is the foundation of peace and also to recognize us and be rid of these demands of flooding Israel with refugees.”

The Israeli leader has repeatedly appealed for a resumption of talks without the conditions required by Abbas, such as a settlement freeze and adopting the pre-1967 frontiers as a baseline. The Palestinians say they’re simply insisting on parameters adopted by the international community, and that Netanyahu wants endless talks as a shield for continued settlement building. In May, President Barack Obama for the first time laid out his own framework for talks, saying the pre-1967 frontier should serve as a baseline, angering Israel. Obama did not repeat those words in his UN speech earlier last week, apparently trying to avoid controversial statements as the campaign for the 2012 US presidential election kicks into gear. — AP

Putin’s return stokes fear of stagnation

By Guy Faulconbridge ladimir Putin says he stands for stability, but his critics say his return to the Kremlin next March could ultimately bequeath an era of stagnation and even turmoil in Russia. The prime minister, who announced on Saturday he would seek a new term as president, prides himself on bringing order after the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But prominent critics, from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, say his return could undermine stability unless he can shake the country out of inertia and torpor.

Even Putin’s protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, said there was a danger of stasis in Russia in a speech to the ruling party on Saturday, just minutes before he suffered the humiliation of proposing Putin take back the presidency from him next year. “Formalism and bureaucratisation are very dangerous: they lead to stagnation and the degradation of the political system,” Medvedev told a congress of Putin’s United Russia party.

Putin handed him the chance to be president in 2008 after serving the maximum two successive terms as head of state, but is the driving force in their power “tandem”.

Medvedev’s offer to stand aside in March was clearly stage-managed by Putin. For many Russians, Putin’s return cements a doomladen view of prospects for the world’s biggest country, which is also the largest energy producer and home to the biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Gorbachev, the only other man alive to have held the top job in the Kremlin, referred to this feeling last week and said Russia faced turmoil unless its leaders embraced change.

“It is the very absence of change which threatens to provoke instability and put the

V

future of the country in question,” said Gorbachev, 80, whose reforms culminated in the Soviet Union’s fall. He said Russia was returning to the era of Leonid Brezhnev, whose 1964-1982 rule is widely portrayed as an era of stagnation when strong oil sales masked economic decline.

appealed to many Russians after the chaos of Yeltsin’s rule. He promised order and reform as he did again at Saturday’s party congress and supplied the longest Russian economic boom in a generation.

Russian nominal gross domestic product (GDP) has risen more than sevenfold since

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev (left) hugs Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the congress of Russia’s ruling party in Moscow on Saturday. — AFP When President Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned on the last day of the millennium and handed over the nuclear suitcase to Putin, it was a breath of fresh air for many Russians. Putin’s vigour and even his sometimes crude language - vowing to wipe out rebellious Chechens “in the shithouse” -

1999, while the average monthly income multiplied by 10. But the former KGB spy also brought iron control and promoted former spies who had little care for the freedoms many Russians hoped could change centuries of oppression and turmoil. Putin made clear that Russia would no longer be ordered

about by anyone. Foreign leaders were lectured, and super-rich businessmen, or oligarchs, who crossed the Kremlin were exiled or thrown into jail.

Khodorkovsky, one of Russia’s more outspoken oligarchs, got prison. He challenged Putin’s authority and his oil company, Yukos, was broken up and sold off. Asked what would happen if Putin returned to the Kremlin or remained paramount leader, Khodorkovsky told Reuters in writing this month: “The hopes for internal reform of the current system of power would disappear.”

“Emigration of socially active and intellectual Russians would accelerate,” Khodorkovsky said from prison colony No. 7 in the town of Segezha, near the Finnish border about 900 km north of Moscow.

Oligarchs still whisper about new businessmen who have made billions of dollars under Putin but few dare to publish their names for fear of lawsuits. Putin’s message remains clear - rich businessmen should stay out of politics. When Putin was asked about corruption at a dinner for reporters at his residence outside Moscow during his presidency, he hit back by saying that other countries were just as corrupt. Technically he was right: by 2010 Russia was ranked by watchdog Transparency International as being as corrupt as Cambodia, Kenya and Laos. Although foreign investors talk openly of the wealth of his friends, Putin has denied a vast personal fortune.

It is the presence of such friends and Putin’s love of control that place him in a trap, his opponents argue: he wants order, but his striving for control may ultimately destroy that very order, they say, by constructing a brittle and corrupt system dependent on one man. For his supporters, Putin is a saviour: an almost tsar who has saved his country of 142 million people from chaos.— Reuters

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Owen focuses on United LONDON: Michael Owen says he would rather force his way into the Manchester United team than wait for an England recall because he does not expect to play for the national side again while Fabio Capello is manager. Owen, 31, England’s fourth highest international scorer with 40 goals from his 89 internationals, re-ignited the debate about his future with two goals against Leeds United in a League Cup tie on Tuesday when he made his first appearance of the season.

However, the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle United forward said that he no longer expected to be part of Capello’s plans but would never say, as many players have done, that he did not want to play for the national side. “I was in every squad for over a decade and all of a sudden it stopped one day,” he told Sunday’s Observer newspaper. “I would never turn my back on it, but obviously there’s a scar there that still hurts a bit. But I don’t get upset now when I’m not in the squad, like I used to. “If I got a call-up I’d be there within five minutes. Fabio Capello picked his first squad and I was on the bench.” — Reuters

MLB results/standings Results and standings from Saturday’s Major League Baseball games. Cleveland 8, Minnesota 2; Washington 4, Atlanta 1; NY Mets 2, Philadelphia 1; St. Louis 2, Chicago Cubs 1; Texas 7, Seattle 3; NY Yankees 9, Boston 1; Pittsburgh 4, Cincinnati 3; Colorado 4, Houston 2 (13 innings); Cleveland 7, Minnesota 6; Baltimore 6, Detroit 5; Chicago Ws 6, Kansas City 3; Milwaukee 6, Florida 4; Tampa Bay 6, Toronto 2; NY Mets 6, Philadelphia 3; Arizona 15, San Francisco 2; San Diego 3, LA Dodgers 0; LA Angels 4, Oakland 2.

NY Yankees Boston Tampa Bay Toronto Baltimore

American League Eastern Division W L PCT 96 61 .611 88 69 .561 87 71 .551 80 78 .506 67 91 .424

GB 8 9.5 16.5 29.5

Detroit Cleveland White Sox Kansas City Minnesota

Central Division 91 67 .576 80 78 .506 77 81 .487 69 89 .437 60 98 .380

11 14 22 31

Texas LA Angels Oakland Seattle

Western Division 92 66 .582 86 72 .544 71 87 .449 66 92 .418

6 21 26

Philadelphia Atlanta Washington NY Mets Florida

National League Eastern Division 98 60 .620 89 69 .563 77 80 .490 76 82 .481 71 87 .449

9 20.5 22 27

Milwaukee St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs Houston

Central Division 93 65 .589 87 71 .551 76 82 .481 71 87 .449 70 88 .443 55 103 .348

6 17 22 23 38

Arizona San Francisco LA Dodgers Colorado San Diego

Western Division 92 66 .582 84 74 .532 79 78 .503 71 87 .449 69 89 .437

8 12.5 21 23

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Fan dies in fall from VIP box LIMA: A 23-year-old fan died after falling 30 metres from a executive box at the end of a Peruvian derby marred by crowd trouble, the Alianza Lima club said Sunday.

Alianza demanded that the stadium of arch-rivals Universitario be closed following the incident which they said happened when fans of the home club burst into VIP boxes and attacked the occupants at the end of Saturday’s match.

“I request the veto of Universitario’s Monumental stadium as there is no guarantee of safety, what happened to this Alianza fan is deplorable,” Alianza president Guillermo Alarcon told the club’s website (www.alianzalima.com) “We were also attacked, we had difficulty getting out, our buses had to wait for one hour,” he added. “We

are not playing at the Monumental stadium again, it’s unacceptable that there are acts of violence at this stadium.”

Witnesses told Peruvian television that Universitario fans burst into the boxes, smashing bottles of beer and whisky, attacking the occupants and throwing paint over them. They said there was no police presence in that part of the stadium. The Monumental, sometimes used for international matches, has several tiers of executive boxes with a sheer drop to the ordinary seats below.

There was also trouble before Saturday’s game when television pictures showed a faction of Alianza Lima supporters known as the Comando Sur fighting amongst themselves. —Reuters

Mourinho stirs fierce debate MADRID: The subject of coach Jose Mourinho prompted passionate debate between members at Real Madrid’s general assembly yesterday, with some saying his behaviour had damaged the club’s image.

“If you have a tiger as your mascot you have to keep him tied up to stop him eating your neighbor’s daughter,” said club member Rafael Vareos who prompted catcalls and whistles from the largely proMourinho crowd. The colourful and combative Portuguese coach, who joined the Spanish giants from Inter Milan at the end of the 2009-10 season, has repeatedly clashed with officials and rival coaches and has created a siege mentality around the club by suggesting there is a conspiracy favouring bitter rivals Barcelona.

During a Spanish Super Cup match against Barca last month, he jabbed a finger into the eye of the Catalan club’s assistant coach Tito Vilanova during a mass brawl, for which he faces disciplinary proceedings.

Mourinho won a power battle with Real director general Jorge Valdano, who was sacked in May, and has been handed enhanced powers by president Florentino Perez. — Reuters

Yankees hammer Red Sox NEW YORK: Derek Jeter capped a six-run second inning with a three-run homer, rookie Jesus Montero had four RBIs in finishing a triple shy of the cycle and the New York Yankees stunned the reeling Boston Red Sox early in a 9-1 victory Saturday.

Boston dropped to 4-15 since holding a nine-game lead over the Rays in the AL wild-card race on Sept. 4. Tampa Bay went into Saturday night’s game at Toronto trailing by two games.

Freddy Garcia (12-8) pitched six innings of six-hit ball, making his case for the No. 3 spot in the Yankees’ postseason rotation. Jon Lester (15-9) allowed eight runs and eight hits in 2 2-3 innings as Boston starters fell to 3-10 with a 7.34 ERA during the slump.

Orioles 6, Tigers 5 At Detroit, Baltimore earned a victory over Detroit when Matt Angle executed a tiebreaking squeeze bunt in the ninth inning.

shared by Earl Whitehill (1930) and Hal Newhouser (1946). Pedro Strop (2-1) picked up the win, and Kevin Gregg pitched the ninth for his 22nd save.

Daniel Schlereth took the loss (2-2)

White Sox 6, Royals 3 At Chicago, Alex Rios and Brent Morel homered to back John Danks and lead the White Sox over Kansas City.

Danks (8-12) improved to 5-0 in 12 starts against the Royals, allowing three runs and six hits in 7 1-3 innings. He retired his first 14 batters before Salvador Perez’s fifth-inning single.

Rios had three hits, including a tworun homer in the second and a triple in the eighth. Morel’s homer was his 10th of the season, including eight in September. While Chicago won for just the fourth time in 14 games, the Royals lost for the third time in their last 12. At 77-81, the White Sox need to win their remaining games to avoid their third losing season in eight years under manager Ozzie Guillen. Everett Teaford (2-1) took the loss.

Rangers 7, Mariners 3 At Arlington, Texas, Seattle ace Felix Hernandez (14-14) was forced out of the game when he was hit on the right forearm by Michael Young’s line drive during the Rangers’ six-run fourth inning. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner fell to the ground as the ball deflected towards third base for a single.

Hernandez was charged with seven runs - five earned - and 12 hits in his shortest outing since May 7 last year.

Texas, which clinched its second straight AL West title on Friday night, has won six of seven. Scott Feldman (2-1) allowed three runs and five hits in four innings.

Rays 6, Blue Jays 2 At St. Petersburg, Florida, Tampa Bay moved within 1 1/2 games of Boston in the AL wild-card race after Johnny Damon’s three-run homer gave it victory over Toronto.

Damon connected with two out in the eighth, giving the Rays a four-run lead.

Damon’s third hit of the game came after shortstop Mike McCoy mishandled Evan Longoria’s grounder for an error and Ben Zobrist flied out for the second out in the inning. Rookie reliever Alex Torres (1-1) threw five shutout innings to earn his first big league win in his fourth game this season. The left-hander replaced Jeff Niemann to start the second and allowed three hits. Damon also had a run-scoring double in the first as the Rays won for the second time in six games.

Jose Bautista hit his major leagueleading 43rd homer for the Blue Jays, who had won seven of 11. Ricky Romero (15-11) gave up six runs - one earned and six hits over 7 2-3 innings.

ing. Williams, who improved to 4-0 in six starts, allowed a run and five hits in 6 1-3 innings, struck out two and walked two. Jordan Walden got his 32nd save.

Rookie Guillermo Moscoso (8-10) took the loss.

NEW YORK: Yankees’ Jesus Montero hits a home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox. —AP Justin Verlander allowed five runs and eight hits in seven innings. He retired 13 of his last 14 batters but the Tigers weren’t able to overcome his shaky start.

The right-hander was bidding to become the first pitcher to win 13 starts in a row since Ellis Kinder of the Boston Red Sox in 1949, according to STATS LLC. The major league record of 21 was set by the Philadelphia Athletics’ Lefty Grove in 1931. Verlander broke the previous Tigers record of wins in 11 straight starts,

Angels 4, Athletics 2 At Anaheim, California, Jerome Williams won his fourth straight decision since joining the Angels last month, and Torii Hunter homered and drove in three runs in a victory over Oakland that kept Los Angeles’ AL wild card hopes alive. The Angels, who were eliminated from the AL West race on Friday night, are 21/2 games behind Boston and one behind Tampa Bay for the wild card with four games remain-

Indians 7, Twins 6, Game 2 At Cleveland, Shelley Duncan drove in three runs in each half of a day-night doubleheader, and Cleveland erased a six-run deficit to beat Minnesota.

The Indians also won the opener behind Duncan, who hit a two-run single with two out in the first and a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in Cleveland’s six-run sixth inning.

Duncan’s two-run single off Matt Capps put Cleveland ahead 7-6 in the seventh inning of the second game as the Indians won for the eighth time in 11 games. The Twins (60-98) have lost 19 of 21 to reach the second-most losses since the team moved to Minnesota in 1961, ahead of only a 60-102 record in 1982. They have lost eight straight to the Indians.

Two Cleveland rookies earned their first career win. Left-hander Nick Hagadone (1-0) pitched an inning to get the victory in the second game. Righthander Zach Putnam (1-0) struck out three over 1 1-3 innings in the opener.

Francisco Liriano (9-10) gave up five runs and got only one out in Cleveland’s six-run sixth in the opener. Jose Mijares (0-2) got the loss in the night game.

Chris Perez pitched the ninth inning of the second game for his 36th save in 40 chances. —AP

Cardinals get past Cubs ST. LOUIS: The Cardinals kept their faint wild-card hopes alive when Carlos Marmol forced home the tying run with a bases-loaded walk to Ryan Theriot with two outs in the ninth inning, then threw a game-ending wild pitch to give St. Louis a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.

The Cardinals pulled within two games of wild card-leading Atlanta, which lost 4-1 to Washington. St. Louis plays the Cubs again late yesterday, then closes with three games at Houston. Jason Motte (5-2) got two outs for the win. Marmol (2-6) blew a save for the 10th time in 44 opportunities. The Cubs had three of their six hits in the first, including Alfonso Soriano’s RBI single off Kyle Lohse.

Cardinals star Albert Pujols walked in the sixth and has reached safely in 40 consecutive games, breaking a tie with Johnny Damon for the longest in the majors this season.

Nationals 4, Braves 1 At Washington, Chien-Ming Wang pitched six effective innings and drove in a run with his first career hit, leading Washington to victory.

Atlanta is only two games ahead of St. Louis for the NL wild card. The Braves play the Nationals again on Sunday, then close the season with three home games against Philadelphia. Making his 11th start since returning from a two-year layoff following shoulder surgery, Wang (43) allowed one run and four hits, struck out four and walked none.

Wang’s RBI single off Brandon Beachy (7-3) capped a three-run fourth that put the Nationals ahead 40. Drew Storen pitched the ninth for his 41st save. Freddie Freeman hit a leadoff homer in the fifth for Atlanta.

Mets 2, Phillies 1 At New York, Hunter Pence dropped a deep fly ball for an error that led to five unearned runs, and the Mets completed a doubleheader sweep that handed the NL East champions their eighth straight defeat.

Having already secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason, the sluggish Phillies remained winless since clinching their fifth consecutive division title last Saturday.

In the afternoon opener, R.A. Dickey took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and David Wright hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth for New York. Bobby Parnell (4-6) got the win and Manny Acosta recorded three outs to earn his third save. Jimmy Rollins started both games for the Phillies. He had three hits in the nightcap, including a bunt and an RBI single. Slumping second baseman Chase Utley doubled, walked and hit the ball hard three times. Brad Lidge (0-2) and David Herndon (1-4) each picked up a loss. Mets starter Dillon Gee (13-6) allowed three runs, two earned, and nine hits in six innings in the second game.

Pirates 4, Reds 3 At Pittsburgh, Rookie Josh Harrison

had four hits to lead the Pirates to the win. Harrison set a career high for hits, finishing with two singles, a double and a triple against his hometown team.

Cincinnati fell to 76-82 with four games remaining. The Reds won their first division title in 15 years last season. Neil Walker added three hits for Pittsburgh. Brad Lincoln (2-3) went five innings for the win.

Brandon Phillips, Joey Votto and Juan Francisco each had two doubles for Cincinnati. Votto also drove in two runs to become the first Reds player with back-to-back 100-RBI seasons since Dave Parker in 1985-86.

Cincinnati’s Travis Wood (6-5) gave up four runs and seven hits in 2 2-3 innings.

Rockies 4, Astros 2 At Houston, Chris Nelson walked with the bases loaded in the 13th inning as the Rockies ended a ninegame losing streak.

Pinch-hitter Tommy Field sparked the winning rally with a leadoff walk.

Eric Young then reached on a bunt single against Jordan Lyles (2-8), with Field going on to third on an error by catcher Humberto Quintero. Young moved up on defensive indifference, but Mark Ellis grounded out. Dexter Fowler was intentionally walked to set the stage for Nelson, who forced home the tiebreaking run. Pinch-hitter Wilin Rosario added a sacrifice fly in the 200,000th regular-season game in major league history.

Matt Reynolds (1-2) pitched an inning to get the victory and Rafael Betancourt finished for his seventh save in 10 opportunities.

Brewers 6, Marlins 4 At Milwaukee, pinch-hitter Corey Hart hit a two-run double in the seventh inning as Milwaukee rallied to beat Florida.

Ryan Braun finished 2 for 3 to raise his batting average to .331, just ahead of the Mets’ Jose Reyes (.330) for the NL lead. The Brewers have never had a batting champion.

John Axford converted his 45th save, a franchise record, and the NL Central champions came back from deficits of 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3.

Emilio Bonifacio and Omar Infante homered, but Florida guaranteed its first last-place finish in the NL East since 2007. The team will be renamed the Miami Marlins on Nov. 11 as it prepares to move into its new retractable-roof ballpark. Milwaukee improved to a major league-best 5423 at home, matching the 1978 Brewers for most home wins in franchise history. LaTroy Hawkins (2-1) got the win and Burke Badenhop (2-3) took the loss.

D’backs 15, Giants 2 At Phoenix, Ian Kennedy pitched six innings to earn his NL-best 21st win and Arizona routed San Francisco, eliminating the defending World Series champions from the postseason picture. Gerardo Parra had two

ST LOUIS: Cardinals’ Tyler Greene (27) steals second as Chicago Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney can’t handle a throw from Geovany Soto in the ninth inning. —AP hits and four RBIs for the Diamondbacks, who scored six times in the first and tied their single-highest scoring game of the season. Ryan Roberts drove in three runs.

Kennedy (21-4) allowed two runs and five hits, struck out four and walked two. The right-hander is 6-0 with a 1.66 ERA in his past seven starts. Arizona scored six times in the first inning against Eric Surkamp (2-1), who walked four and recorded just two outs.

Padres 3, Dodgers 0 At San Diego, Matt Kemp’s pursuit of the Triple Crown took a hit when Aaron Harang threw eight sharp innings to lead San Diego over Los

Angeles. Kemp leads the NL with 119 RBIs and is tied for the lead with 37 homers. But he went 1 for 4 to drop his batting average to .325, falling six points behind league leader Ryan Braun of Milwaukee at .331. New York’s Jose Reyes is second at .330.

With just four games remaining, Kemp is trying to become the majors’ first player to achieve the Triple Crown since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, and the first in the National League since Ducky Medwick of St. Louis in 1937. Heath Bell pitched the ninth for his 42nd save in 47 chances.

Harang (14-7) retired 21 of his final 22 batters. Chad Billingsley (11-11) allowed three runs and four hits in six innings for Los Angeles. —AP

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Cavendish emulates Simpson to clinch world cycling crown

BUFFALO: Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth (left) makes the save on Joe Colborne during the third period of an NHL preseason hockey game. —AP

Flyers soar over Red Wings DETROIT: Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 in a preseason game Friday night.

James Van Riemsdyk and Matt Read also scored for Philadelphia and Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves. Fabian Brunnstrom scored for Detroit and Jimmy Howard stopped 19 shots.

Van Riemsdyk and Jagr scored 52 seconds apart late in the first period to erase the Red Wings’ 1-0 lead. Van Riemsdyk tied it 1-all with 2:34 left in the opening period and Jagr gave the Flyers the lead for good with 1:42 remaining in the first.

The Flyers’ victory came a night after a banana was thrown from the stands as Wayne Simmonds scored during a shootout. Simmonds, who is black, did not play Friday night but was seen signing autographs.

Canadiens 4, Senators 3, SO In Montreal, Max Pacioretty fueled the comeback and Erik Cole scored the shootout winner for the Canadiens.

Pacioretty converted Montreal’s first shootout attempt after scoring a pair of power-play goals in the second to key the Canadiens’ comeback from a 3-0 deficit.

The Canadiens’ left wing played his second game since returning from a broken vertebra, the result of a controversial hit by Boston’s Zdeno Chara on March 8.

Scott Gomez drew Montreal even at 3 with 36.5 seconds left in the third when the puck went in off Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson.

Zack Smith scored goals 1:03 apart in the first period and Milan Michalek got the Senators’ third goal midway through the second.

Nathan Lawson stopped all 11 shots he faced after taking over for Montreal starter Carey Price following Michalek’s goal. Craig Anderson played the entire game for Ottawa, stopping 29 shots.

Wild 4, Blue Jackets 3 At St. Paul, Dany Heatley scored twice in his Minnesota debut, including the winner in overtime for the Wild. With Minnesota on the power play in the extra period, Heatley tipped Mikko Koivu’s shot from the right circle past Columbus goalie Allen York.

Josh Harding made 31 saves for the Wild, who also got goals from Devin Setoguchi and Kristopher Foucault.

Fedor Tyutin scored a power-play goal and had a pair of assists for Columbus.

Derek Mackenzie and Ryan Russell also scored for the Blue Jackets. York made 20 saves.

Rangers 4, Devils 3 In Newark, defenseman Brendan Bell snapped a tie with 3:04 left, and New York earned a preseason split with New Jersey.

Bell flipped a shot from the right point that got past Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, giving the Rangers the win. New York lost 2-1 in overtime to New Jersey on Wednesday night in Albany, N.Y. Brad Richards had a goal and assist in his Rangers debut, and Derek Stepan and Marian Gaborik added goals for New York. Chad Johnson stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third period for the win.

Adam Henrique, Jacob Josefson and Ilya Kovalchuk scored for New Jersey.

Brodeur played the entire game, making 27 saves.

Bruins 6, Islanders 3 In Boston, Rich Peverley and Patrice Bergeron each had a goal and two assists to lead Boston to victory in its preseason home opener. Brad Marchand added a goal and an assist.

Rick DiPietro made 20 saves for the Islanders and Tim Thomas, last season’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner, had 13 saves for Boston.

The Bruins also got goals from David Krejci, Dennis Seidenberg and Johnny

Boychuk. Dylan Reese scored twice for the Islanders. Trevor Frischmon also scored for New York.

Predators 3, Hurricanes 2 In Raleigh, Jack Hillen and Chris Mueller scored in the third period to rally Nashville past Carolina.

Hillen and Mueller scored 1:37 apart against Carolina backup goalkeeper Justin Peters, who entered the game at the start of the third. Alexei Ponikarovsky had two goals for Carolina.

Carolina goalkeeper Cam Ward saw his first action of the preseason after being slowed by upper body stiffness since the opening of training camp a week ago. Ward started and played 40 minutes. He gave up a goal to Nashville’s David Legwand at 17:58 of the second period.

Sabres 2, Maple Leafs 1 In Toronto, Jason Pominville scored on the power play at 14:42 of the third period and Buffalo won its third straight preseason game.

The Maple Leafs killed off four previous penalties before Pominville connected for the Sabres with the man advantage. Buffalo’s Matt Ellis fed rookie Corey Tropp off a Leafs turnover and he beat Reimer low for a 1-0 lead. Phil Kessel tied it for Toronto in the second on a powerplay goal.

Lightning 5, Panthers 2 In Tampa, Ryan Shannon scored two goals in the second period and Dwayne Roloson made 31 saves in Tampa Bay’s victory.

Mattias Ritola opened the scoring eight minutes into the game, lifting a backhander past Panthers goalie Jacob Markstrom with 7 seconds remaining on a power play.

Shannon capitalized on another manadvantage situation at 6:31 of the second period, then scored again at the 12:55 mark.

Jack Skillie broke through for the Panthers on a power play 4:20 into the third after the Panthers came up empty on six opportunities in the first two periods.

Michal Repik scored Florida’s other goal 12 minutes later. Carter Ashton and Vincent Lecavalier had third-period goals for Tampa Bay. Markstrom finished with 28 saves.

Blackhawks 3, Capitals 2 In Chicago, rookie Brandon Saad scored the winner with 3:21 left in the third to lift Chicago to its first preseason win.

Set up by Jonathan Toews, Saad drove to the net and beat Washington’s Tomas Vokoun with a high shot from the left edge of the crease for the game-winner.

Viktor Stalberg scored two goals early in the third period for Chicago. Saad set up Stalberg’s first score. Joel Ward and Matt Hendricks connected for Washington.

Blues 3, Avalanche 2 In Denver, Evgeny Grachev scored his third goal in four preseason games, Adam Cracknell and David Backes added goals and St. Louis kept Colorado winless in the preseason.

Grachev scored on a power play at 8:06 of the first period on a pass from Jamie Langenbrunner. Cracknell wristed a shot from the center of the right circle past goalie Semyon Varlamov at 5:02 of the third and Backes scored an emptynetter with just over 58 seconds left in the game.

Paul Stastny scored for the Avalanche from up close 13 seconds later, but it wasn’t enough and the Avalanche fell to 0-2 in exhibition play.

Colorado rookie Tyson Barie ended Jake Allen’s shutout bid with a shot from the top of the left circle at 12:48 of the third. —AP

COPENHAGEN: Mark Cavendish became Britain’s first world road race champion since the late Tom Simpson in 1965 when he dominated a bunch sprint to win the men’s elite race at the road world championships here yesterday.

Australian Matthew Goss finished second to take the silver with German Andre Greipel winning the bronze after 260 km of racing. “We knew it was the best chance we had since San Sebastian in 1965 to bring the rainbow jersey back to Britain,” said Cavendish.

“And with the best eight riders in the race, we achieved that. It’s incredible. It’s the work of Great Britain, and I’m bringing it (jersey) back.”

On a mainly flat 14 km circuit that was not conducive to attacking, the first salvos came early, an eightman breakaway forming and going on to build a maximum lead of nearly 10 minutes on the main bunch.

They were reeled in well before the finish and, in the final laps, a flurry of attacks was soon brought to heel by a miserly and determined peloton which hit a near record average speed of 45.82 km/h for the race.

Britain, helped by Germany, had taken a firm grip early on to boost their chances of a bunch sprint for Cavendish and their work paid off handsomely.

After putting the Isle of Man sprinter in prime position on the 500-metre uphill finish, he found a gap inside the final 200 and powered up the inside of the barriers to beat Goss by half a wheel.

“When I kick I know whether I’m going to win or not,” added Cavendish. Goss, who like Cavendish had to tweak his preparations after dropping out of the Tour of Spain with a virus, said his race could not have worked out better-except for one major detail. “I don’t like being the bridesmaid! I would much rather be wearing that jersey there,” said the Australian, pointing at the rain-

bow stripes being worn by Cavendish, his teammate at HTCHighroad.

Goss, however, was quick to pay tribute to both Britain and Australia.

“When he went, I kind of jumped on the wheel. I knew it was still a long way to the finish line and I had in the back of my mind I could get back if everything went well, but in the the end I ran out of metres.

“You can’t dwell, his (British) team

behind following a crash on the sixth lap. With the pace up front unrelenting, his group never recovered their deficit.

Before then, world number one Philippe Gilbert, who is not considered a true sprinter like Cavendish and Goss, had tried to toughen the race for the sprinters by Belgian teammates on the attack. But the pace being set meant he was given little opportunity to launch any

just proves what I said before the race, I wasn’t a favorite on this kind of course.”

It was a sentiment that Goss confirmed: “It’s really difficult to ride away on this circuit when the bunch is going that fast.”

After his key lead-out man Tony Martin and three other Germany teammates were caught behind, Greipel admitted he had to change tack. “We were helping Britain in the

New world champion Mark Cavendish of Britain, third left, celebrates as silver medallist Matthew Goss of Australia, second right, and bronze medallist Andre Greipel of Germany, right, sprints towards the finish line of the elite men road race over 266 kilometers (165.3 miles) with start in Copenhagen, and finish in Holte, Denmark yesterday. —AP rode really strongly and you can’t take that away from them. And the team did everything for me. Big hats off to those guys, I wasn’t far away from finishing off the job.”

Reigning world champion Thor Hushovd of Norway was one of several top names who got stuck

trademark attacks. In the finale he sprinted, but could only finish 17th.

“We tried to make the race as hard as possible but the British and the German teams controlled it pretty tightly,” said Gilbert.

“It was impossible to stay out in front without being chased down. It

chase up until the crash, but we had to change our plans after that,” said the German, who won his maiden Tour de France stage in July.

“It’s just a pity Tony got stuck behind. We had brought the best German team I could have for this race.” —AFP

China edge Jordan by one point for Asian title WUHAN: Forward Yi Jianlian knocked down a free throw with 28 seconds left to give China a thrilling 70-69 victory over Jordan yesterday to win the Asian championship and secure a berth at the 2012 London Olympics.

Yi scored 25 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead China to their 15th Asian title in a pressure -packed game before a wild capacity crowd in Wuhan. He was named the most valuable player.

The championship was China’s first since superstar Yao Ming retired in July and signals that the world’s most populous nation will remain a power in the region without the former NBA giant.

China’s basketball team have represented Asia at every Olympic Games since 1976. “We didn’t start good tonight and we got behind, but we got it going good in the second quarter and played with a lot of effort and did everything to come back,” an exasperated Yi said.

“This win is an acknowledgement of all the work we have put in.” Yi was fouled on a questionable call when he collided with Ali Zaghab while fighting for a rebound on Jordan’s end of the court with 28 seconds remaining.

Yi missed the first free throw, but made the second. “It was regrettable, we played real well, but China came out on top. They are the better team,” Jordan’s point guard Sam Daghles said. “It is unfortunate that the game was decided by the referees, it would have been better if the players decided the outcome.” The loss ended Jordan’s dream run after they had eliminated two-time reigning champions Iran 88-84 in a shock quarter-final upset, then won their semi-final against the Philippines 75-61 on Saturday.

“We came out a little nervous at the beginning, but our veterans came out in the third quarter and gave us an incredible run that made the difference in the ball game,” China’s American coach Bob Donewald said. Yi Jianlian

WUHAN: China’s Yi Jianlian (center) holds up the trophy as he celebrates with his fellow players after winning against Jordan at the final of the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship. —AP “brings an intensity at a high level, as well as incredible skill both inside and out and he loves to play defence. I’m lucky to coach him,” he said.

Rasheim Wright led Jordan with 26 points, including the last eight straight points for his team and a three pointer that tied the game at 69-69 and silenced the home crowd.

“It was an unbelievable effort from our team,” Jordan coach Tab Baldwin said. “Maybe nobody believed we could win that game, but in my heart I knew we could.” Silver medallists Jordan and third-placed South Korea still have a chance to qualify for London if they can take one of the three spots on offer at next year’s

Olympic qualifying tournament. Iran finished fifth, but had the second best record with eight wins and one defeat. Jordan, the third place finisher in 2009, ended the tournament with a record of five wins and four losses.

China remained undefeated.

In the bronze medal game, shooters Cho Sung-Min and Moon Tae-Jong each hit a three pointer in the final minute, helping South Korea overcome a 13-point deficit and defeat the Philippines 70-68.

Cho led South Korea with 20 points, while the Philippines were led by Marcus Douthit, the leading scorer and rebounder in Wuhan with 27 points and 22 rebounds. —AFP

Gafoor’s ton helps Al Waseet to victory over Sri Lankan airlines KUWAIT: Sri Lankan Airlines and Al Waseet Travel had their inaugural T-20 cricket match at Sharq cricket ground on Sept 23. The match started with true game spirit, both side were well balanced. Sri Lankan Airlines won the toss and asked Al Waseet to bat in gloomy conditions.

The surface was very dry and dusty and Sri Lankan bowlers were

right on target and took the first wicket of Abinavi without a score on board.But after that the marathon innings of Gaffor ended with 102 runs (16 x 4 and 01 x 6 ) and Adrin helped with 19 runs.

Finally Al Waseet reached 189 for 9 wickets during their 20 overs.

Sri Lankan openers Asiri and Neomal had a very brisk entertaining start to follow the Al Waseet

score. Both openers departed 26 and 15 runs respectively. After that all the top order batsmen fail to get into double figures, except valiant efforts by Prasanna and Ragul in later stages of the game.

Finally Sri Lankan team were all out for 127 runs ( 17 overs). The match was officiated by well known veteran cricketing personality Waleed Malik.

The Man of the Match — Al Waseet’s Gafoor / best batsman Sri Lankan airlines Asiri / best bowler - Sri Lankan Airlines Lalith.

The chief guest was Taher CEO of Al Waseet group and their top management and well wishers attended the event, award distribution was done by Taher/Samy of Al Waseet and Lalith of Sri Lankan Airlines.

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Baddeley and Mahan share lead at Tour Championship ATLANTA: The battle for the Tour Championship and FedExCup honors remained intriguingly wide open after Aaron Baddeley and Hunter Mahan charged into a tie for the lead in Saturday’s third round at East Lake Golf Club.

Australian Baddeley fired a best of the day, six-under-par 64 to enhance his claims for a Presidents Cup wildcard pick next week while American Mahan carded a 66, the pair finishing level at nine-under 201.

Australian Jason Day, bidding for his first PGA Tour victory this year, birdied two of the last five holes for a 69 to share third place at seven under with South Korea’s KJ Choi (70). “I felt like my game was in good order, so I was excited to get out there and shoot a good score,” Baddeley, who holed out from the fairway to eagle the par-four fourth, told reporters after starting the third round five strokes off the pace. “Overall, it was a very good day. It was nice to hole some putts.”

Mahan joined Baddeley at the top of the leaderboard after rolling in a 22-foot birdie putt at the tricky par-three last, pumping his right fist in celebration.

“I’m excited to be in the hunt,” Mahan said after mixing five birdies and an eagle with three bogeys on a glorious sunsplashed afternoon. “To birdie 18 was very, very nice. “I’ve been playing pretty well all week and I feel like I’ve got a good feel for these greens, which is obviously very important.

“Every day, I feel like I’m hitting it a little bit better. Everything feels good. I just have to do it for one more day.” Twice during Saturday’s third round, four players were tied for the lead before Baddeley and Mahan broke free from the log-jam over the closing stretch.

Australian world number 10 Adam Scott, who had been one stroke ahead of the chasing pack overnight, faded after the turn on the way to a 74 and a tie for ninth at four under. Every player in the elite field of 30 began the week with a mathematical

chance of winning the FedExCup, along with its $10 million bonus, with victory on Sunday. Of those, British world number one Luke Donald was best placed after the third round. The ultra-consistent Englishman, fourth in the FedExCup standings coming into this week, returned a 70 on Saturday to share fifth place at six under with American Bill Haas (69). “My focus for this week is to win this tournament, and everything else kind of falls into place if I can do that,” said Donald, who is also a strong contender for PGA Tour Player of the Year.

“Only being three back, I’ve still got a great chance. If I don’t get off to a good start tomorrow, then I guess I’ll be looking at potentially where I am in the FedExCup. But until that time happens, I’ll be pressing on to try and win.” For Baddeley, FedExCup glory remains a distant prospect as he has to win the Tour Championship and hope that players ranked higher in the points standings finish poorly.

The Australian was 27th at the start of the week while any of the top five-Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Donald and Matt Kuchar-would automatically secure the trophy with victory late yesterday. “I’m just going to try and win the golf tournament tomorrow,” said Baddeley.

“So much has got to go right for me to win the FedExCup. “So for me, I just want to try and win the Tour Championship, which is a great event, a very prestigious event, and then try and impress Greg (Norman) in the process.”

Baddeley is among a handful of contenders for the final two spots on Norman’s International 12-man team for the ninth Presidents Cup against the United States from Nov. 17-20. He is vying with compatriots Robert Allenby and John Senden, Fiji’s Vijay Singh and South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Rory Sabbatini for Norman’s two wildcard picks, to be announced on Tuesday. “Talking to Greg on Monday, I knew I had to play well this week to impress him,” Baddeley said.—AP

Al-Baz celebrates his world championship accomplishments in 2010 and 2009.

Kuwait prepares for World Jet Ski Championship KUWAIT: Kuwait’s jet ski team is currently in Arizona, where they prepare to take part in the world championship that the American state hosts from Oct 1-9. The team consists of members of the Kuwait Sea Sports Club led by coach Abdullah Burabie’a, while Abdullah Al-Omar is leading the Kuwaiti delegation.

Kuwait, which finished second in last year’s competition following the United States, realizes that this year’s tournament is likely going to be more tough than last year’s, due to the increasing lev-

el of competition according to international contestant Mohammad Al-Baz. AlBaz insisted that his teammates remain optimistic regarding their chances.

In 2009, Al-Baz was crowned world champion in the junior’s competition, and was awarded for being the youngest competitor at the competition at the age of 16. The two-time reigning Kuwaiti pro champion was able to win this year’s United Arab Emirates pro jet ski tournament, ending his compatriot Mohammad Burabei’s three-year reign.

Italy and US face must-win clash NELSON: Italy want a four-try win and the United States just want a win as they set different goals for their clash tomorrow with a play-off berth and automatic entry to the next World Cup at stake.

The Italians need maximum points and to lift their for-and-against points ratio-which means try-fest victories in their remaining pool games against the USA and Ireland — to have a chance of making the quarter-finals.

And the odds are heavily in their favour with Six Nations experience and squad depth against a side pulled together from around the globe.

But, the United States say they face just as much pressure having targeted this game as a means of direct entry into the next World Cup as the third placegetter in a pool which is heading towards a climactic finish.

Ireland, Australia and Italy remain in contention for the two knock-out berths and if Italy falter then it puts them in direct competition with the United States for the crucial third spot.

That has caused Italy coach Nick Mallet a selection headache as he made nine changes to the team that whipped Russia 53-17 and plumped for an experienced side with an ageing look to it to play the United States. If they are unable to race to a commanding lead by midway through the second half, Mallet conceded that will create substitution problems “We’ve got to win this game and I can’t risk losing the game by taking off key players,” he said.

“Obviously, I’d like to do that to allow them to only play 60 out of 80 minutes but if the game is really tight, which it could quite easily be against the United States, I think that it’s difficult to do that because we must win at all cost.”

From the Italian team that lost 32-6 to Australia in their opening game only forwards Rober t Barbieri and Mar tin Castrogiovanni do not return for tomorrow’s match.

Mallet said defensive errors by the backs counted against those in the side that beat Russia while in the forwards the decision to play Mauro Bergamasco over Barbieri was purely on form.

The coach rated Bergamasco his best player on defence against Russia, but said if he drops off against the United States then Berbieri would be in the frame for the final pool match against Ireland.

The US Eagles sacrificed themselves in their last outing, a 67-5 loss to Australia, by resting 14 players from their supposed First XV which beat Russia so they would be fresh to play Italy. For the Italian match they have reverted to the exact same starting line up and the same bench they used to beat Russia 13-6.

“If we get two wins it means we automatically qualify for the next World Cup and that would be huge for the country,” said captain Todd Clever. “We will be able to focus not on qualification but on actually having a proper preparation for the next World Cup.—AFP

GERMANY: About 40,000 runners from 125 nations start the 38th Berlin Marathon in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. —AP

Makau sets record in Berlin Marathon BERLIN: Haile Gebrselassie lost the race against time yesterday when Patrick Makau shattered his marathon world record and ended an era of two decades dominated by arguably the greatest distance runner in history. His lungs seizing up and struggling for air after more than 27 kilometers (17 miles) of the Berlin Marathon, Gebrselassie finally quit shortly after kilometer 35. By then, Makau was more than two minutes ahead - on his own and on the way to the German capital’s landmark Brandenburg Gate and a new world record.

“I was hoping to gain a lot of experience but not to win,” Makau said after slashing 21 seconds from Gebrselassie’s old mark. Makau pulled away after 27 kilometers and finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds.

Gebrselassie, whose previous record stood at 2:03.59, pulled up after Makau’s breakaway and seemed on the verge of giving up when he stopped running and bent over, holding his chest. After about a minute, he resumed the race. “He was still feeling good at 25K but then his lungs started tightening up, he could not breathe, we don’t know why,” Gebrselassie’s agent Jos Hermens told The Associated Press.

Gebrselassie suffers from asthma and is allowed to use an inhaler to treat the condition, but hadn’t taken any because he had not had any problems for months, Hermens said. “Maybe this was a mistake, but he felt fine before, his preparation was good,” Hermens said.

Gebrselassie had won four successive Berlin marathons from 2006 and set his world record in 2008. “This is not the end of Haile, but this is the end of an era,” Hermans said. Makau, whose previous personal best was 2:04.48, also won last year’s event in driving rain. Yesterday’s race on Berlin’s flat course took place in sunny, mild conditions. The 26-year-old Makau brandished a Kenyan flag after coming through the Brandenburg Gate and crossing the finish line.

“Today maybe a new generation is starting in marathon,” Makau said. “My body was not good

in the morning but I had no problems in the race, I did everything well.”

By the 35th kilometer, Makau was alone in front. “I knew then that I could win the race and break the record,” he said.

He and Gebrselassie had stayed together until the 27th kilometer and were easily on world record pace from the start.

Gebrselassie, 38, pulled out of the New York City Marathon in November with a knee injury and retired immediately after the race. But he

GERMANY: First placed Patrick Makau from Kenya holds a bunch of flowers during the medal ceremony for the 38th Berlin Marathon.

Makau finished the race in a new world record time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds. In background is the landmark Brandenburg Gate. —AP changed his mind eight days later.

He injured both knees when he fell during a training run in the rugged countryside of his homeland but came back to win a halfmarathon in April in Vienna, Austria. He also won

the 10,000-meter Great Manchester Run in May. Gebrselassie’s main objective in Berlin was to run a good time and qualify for Ethiopia’s Olympic team. Hermens said Gebrselassie is not planning to retire again, but that he might have problems qualifying for next year’s London Olympics.

“No, no, he is in a much better mood now than in New York, he did not suffer a lot. But qualifying may be a problem now, we don’t really know where to get it,” Hermens said. Hermens said Gebrselassie would now probably run in Dubai in January and seek a time of about 2:05 and then have a long rest before London. “He is not getting any younger, his main goal is go to his fifth Olympics because no long distance runner has done that.

“But the reality is that someone 25 will run faster than someone 38,” Hermens said. “We are going to see low 2:03s and high 2:02s soon.”

Gebrselassie won Olympic gold medals in the 10,000 meters in 1996 and 2000 and competed in 2004 and 2008 in the distance. He also had four world titles in the 10,000 between 1993 and 1999. He broke 27 world marks, although some of them were not in officially recognized distances.

Stephen Kwelio Chemplany, a pacemaker, finished second in 2:07.55, and Edwin Kimaiyo was third in 2:09.50 to complete the Kenyan sweep.

Florence Kiplagat of Kenya won the women’s race in 2:19.44 to complete her first marathon, ahead of Irina Mikitenko of Germany and world record holder Paula Radcliffe of Britain, who was making her Berlin debut and competing for the first time since finishing fourth in New York in 2009. Mikitenko clocked 2:22.18 and Radcliffe finished in 2.23.46 after a number of injuries and the birth of her second child.

“It’s been a tough year and with everything I had to come through I should accept this and at least I have the Olympic qualifying time,” Radcliffe said. “I had to swallow my pride a little bit because I wanted to do better than that.”—AP

Argentina, Ireland eye quarters DUNEDIN: Argentina and Ireland took significant steps towards reaching the rugby World Cup quarter-finals with contrasting wins over Scotland and Russia respectively yesterday. Samoa maintained their slim chances by flattening Pacific island rivals Fiji, meanwhile.

Argentina, who finished third at the last World Cup four years ago, were seven minutes away from elimination after a grinding battle in the Wellington rain.

That was until replacement winger Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino produced a piece of magic to sc ythe through the Scottish defence for the game’s only try, which captain Felipe Contepomi nervelessly converted for a 13-12 victory.

Scotland, playing with controlled aggression as Argentina struggled to deal with an injury pile-up, had built a 12-6 lead with penalties from Chris Paterson and Ruaridh Jackson and drop goals by Jackson and his replacement Dan Parks.

Neither side had come close to a try in testing conditions but Amorosino, man of the match in their last game against Romania, caught the Scottish defence cold with a superb slaloming run to turn the match.

The result leaves England top of Pool B on 14 points, with Argentina and Scotland both on 10. With Argentina likely to beat Georgia in their final game, Scotland would have to beat England, either with a bonus point or preventing England getting one, to maintain their proud record of reaching at least the quar ter-finals of ever y World

Cup. The pool winners are likely to face France while the runnersup will play New Zealand. “It was an amazing game,” said Amorosino. “We know we need to play until the last minute-it’s a World Cup, you have to stay

upset win over Australia last week with a 62-12 thrashing of Russia-though the tournament debutants did score two tries in Rotorua.

Keith Earls crossed twice for Ireland while flyhalf O’Gara gave

WELLINGTON: Argentina’s Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino scores his team’s match winning try against Scotland during their Rugby World Cup game. —AP

focused.”

Scotland coach Andy Robinson said his players were absolutely devastated. “It’s one lapse, it’s 30 seconds that has cost them a test match. You have to finish off sides like Argentina, but credit to them, they were under a lot of pressure.”

There was no such pressure on Ireland, who backed up their

a masterclass, kicking seven from eight goal attempts and marshaling a backline featuring several squad players.

“A few guys got an opportunity this week to back up the performances of the weekend,” said Ireland stand-in captain Leo Cullen. “It was important to continue the momentum.”

For Samoa to reach the last

eight for the first time since 1995 they almost certainly need to beat Pool D leaders South Africa next week-something they have come nowhere near threatening in six previous meetings.

Their World Cup hopes were effectively derailed by last week’s defeat by Wales but they bounced back with a 27-7 victory over Fiji, who need a miracle combination of results to match their 2007 achievement of reaching the quarter-finals.

Samoa led 12-0 at halftime before a sellout crowd of 60,000 Eden Park crowd as the city ’s Polynesians turned out in force, with three penalties and a drop goal by flyhalf Tusi Pisi.

Scrumhalf K ahn Fotuali’i claimed the first try after an hour and though flanker Netani Edward Talei finally crossed for Fiji, their slim hopes were crushed almost immediately when number eight George Stowers capped a superb individual performance with their second try.

“This game is all about pressure and if we kept on the pressure (we knew) we’d get some points,” said Samoa captain Mahonri Schwalger “If you want to win a test like this against a strong side like Fiji you have to make sure you get your points when you get down in their 22.”

Fiji’s experienced flyhalf Nicky Little said his team had let down their fans and even apologised to his opponents.“I feel sorry for Samoa. We did not put up a good enough fight so apologies for that,” he said. “I do not think we fired a shot.”—Reuters

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Vettel bags Singapore GP SINGAPORE: Sebastian Vettel demonstrated his vast supremacy yesterday when he won the Singapore Grand Prix to move within a point of becoming the youngest double world champion in Formula One history.

The 24-year-old German, the defending champion and runaway leader of this year’s oneman title race, drove from pole position to the chequered flag in flawless style in his Red Bull car.

He won the floodlit 61-lap night

German fails to score a further point.

With the next race the Japanese Grand Prix October 7-9, there is every chance the peerless Vettel will seal his triumph-and make history-at the Suzuka circuit.

“Obviously I am very pleased with the result and the car was great for me all the way through. I pulled away easily at the start and had a good gap, but the safety car was not in our plans,” said

capable, but I still have to do it,” said the 2009 world champion.

“With the races we had so far, it should not be a problem. But it is over when it is over and this one has to wait to be closed first.

“The team is doing a great job.

I am feeling very comfortable with the team, with the car and we are on top of our game.”

Two-time world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who needed to finish on the podium to keep his own challenge for the

SINGAPORE: (From left) McLaren driver Jenson Button of Britain, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany, Red Bull driver Mark Webber of Australia and Red Bull performance engineer Tim Malyon, pose for the photographers during the award ceremony of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix. —AP race at the Marina Bay street circuit by a controlled 1.7 seconds.

Briton Jenson Button finished second in his McLaren to keep the title race just about alive with five races remaining. Australian Mark Webber in the second Red Bull finished third.

Vettel now requires a solitary point to claim his second title in succession and can only be beaten to the crown if Button wins all the remaining races while the

Vettel.

“I was lucky again to have a good re-start and I was soon back in the rhythm and I had a huge gap again, even with the traffic. “I was in control at the end and it is a great feeling to win this race- I love the track here and it’s such a challenge.

“As to the championship? Ah, well, I guess I have another chance at the next race.” Button refused to give up the title. “I feel

drivers’ title alive, came home fourth ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren.

Hamilton produced a typically spectacular drive including five pit-stops, a collision and a charge from 16th through the field.

Another Briton, Paul Di Resta, came home sixth for Force India, his best result to date in his rookie season in Formula One, ahead of Germans Nico Rosberg in seventh for Mercedes and Adrian

Sutil in the second Force India.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari, who was the victim of a collision with Hamilton in the early stages of an incident-filled contest, came home ninth.

Mexican Sergio Perez, whose collision with Michael Schumacher saw the German eliminated from the race, finished 10th.

It was Vettel’s ninth win this season and the 19th of his career.

His Singapore triumph in sweltering humidity was heralded by an explosion of dazzling fireworks over the brightly lit cityscape.

Vettel won in a victorious time of one hour, 59 minutes and 6.757 seconds, a time that signalled the longest and most arduous race of the year. He, Button and Webber stood still, drained and dripping with sweat on the podium at the end.

Vettel, from his 11th pole position, pulled clear with apparent ease to take control early on, leaving the rest to scrap for places in a flurry of action into Turn One, Sheares Corner.

He stretched his lead to 20 seconds by lap 30, when the race was red-flagged for the first time after Schumacher ran into the rear of Perez’s Sauber car and made an airborne collision with the barriers.

This brought out the safety car and signalled a spate of pit-stops while Schumacher ’s wrecked Mercedes was lifted clear. The 42year-old German was unhurt.

It gave Button a sniff at Vettel, and although he ran him close he never looked like denying the German the victory he richly deserved.

Webber, who sits fourth in the overall standings, said: “Unfortunately I’ve found myself having to come back through too often this year. I haven’t made the starts I made last year and I have to work on that.

“Seb clearly deserved victory and well done to JB (Button) for second place. I would have loved a win, but it’s a very, very challenging venue.” —AFP

Preview

Murray headlines Thailand Open

TOKYO: Laura Robson of Britain returns a shot against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania during the Japan Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament. —AP

Radwanska off to winning start at Pan Pacific Open TOKYO: N inth-ranked Agnieszk a Radwanska of Poland coasted to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Japanese wild card Misaki Doi yesterday in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open.

After struggling with her serve in the first set, Radwanska won 10 out of 10 points on her first serve in the second set to close out the match in 1 hour, 5 minutes at Ariake Colosseum.

“I was doing much better with my serve in the second set,” Radwanska said. “I had some trouble with it in the first set but started hitting the ball better in the second set.”

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the top-seeded player in the $2,000,000 tournament, has a first-round bye as does secondseeded Maria Sharapova of Russia.

In other first-round matches, 11thseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia beat Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-3.

Japan’s Ayumi Morita advanced to

the second round with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Irina Falconi of the United States.

Thailand ’s Tamarine Tanasugarn opened with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic.

Israel’s Shahar Peer, seeded sixteenth, recovered from a slow start to defeat wild card Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 while Britain’s Laura Robson overpowered Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-2, 6-2.

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic had a 7-6 (2), 4-1 win over Anastasija Sevastova when the Latvian had to stop due to a right hip injury.

Sevastova held ser ve in the first game of the second set but Zahlavova Strycova reeled off four quick games winning 16 of 20 points - when Sevastova stopped.

Germany’s Angelique Kerber routed Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-0 while Kaia Kanepi of Estonia defeated Flavia Pannetta of Italy, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.—AP

BANGKOK: Andy Murray headlines the ATP Thailand Open starting today, little more than a week on from the end of draining US Open and Davis Cup commitments and after saying top players could strike.

One of the more vocal members of the elite, the world number four has complained bitterly in recent weeks about a packed men’s schedule, which will only get worse in 2012 with the London Olympics added to the mix.

“Maybe things will get done if all the players get together and say what they want exactly.

It’s ridiculous. They need to change it,” the 24year-old Scot said during the Davis Cup. Murray, who is still without a Grand Slam title but this year reached the Australian Open final, had only a few days off before heading for Asia.

He, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the top four seeds, will get a little extra time to rest after receiving byes into the second round at the Impact Arena’s hard courts in the Thai capital Bangkok.

Murray, the top seed, will be hoping to go one better after he was the losing finalist in 2005 when he was defeated by Roger Federer.

He will certainly not want a repeat of the last time he played the Thailand Open, in 2006, when he went out in the first round to compatriot Tim Henman.

Murray will start in the second round against the winner from German Michael Berrer, whom he beat at Roland Garros in the spring, and a qualifier.

Murray’s tennis diary contains few holes this season and he has proposed a meeting at the Shanghai Masters next month to try and formulate a set of proposals for tennis bosses.

“What happens in Shanghai-what the players decide to do-might also be quite significant,” he said.

With Swedish drawcard Robin Soderling out with injury, Monfils takes the second seeding in Bangkok, the flamboyant Frenchman playing for the first time since losing his US Open clash to Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Fellow Frenchman and 2009 winner Simon is seeded third, ahead of Spaniard Garcia-Lopez, who won the 2010 title over Finn Jark ko Nieminen after upsetting Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

Croatian Ivan Dodig, who is seeded fifth, opens against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

The Thailand Open is one of two ATP World Tour events in S outheast Asia this week , w i t h t h e M a l ays i a n O p e n r u n n i n g a t t h e same time. —AFP

NORMAN: Oklahoma running back Dominique Whaley (left) breaks away from Missouri linebacker Zaviar Gooden (right) in the second half of an NCAA college football game. —AP

Oklahoma, LSU and Alabama roll on NORMAN: Landry Jones threw for 448 yards and three touchdowns to Ryan Broyles, leading Oklahoma back from a rare home deficit to beat Missouri 38-28 on Saturday.

With two starting receivers out of the lineup, Broyles had to play up to his usual All-American standard without proven sidekicks. Kenny Stills, who caught the winning touchdown in a win at then-No. 5 Florida State last week, was out with a head injury and Trey Franks is suspended indefinitely.

The Sooners roared back with 28 straight points to avenge a loss in Columbia last year and move their home winning streak to 38 straight games.

The Tigers (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) pounced early to take a 14-3 first-quarter lead, breaking a streak of 20 straight home games in which Oklahoma (3-0, 1-0) never trailed.

In Morgantown, West Virginia, Jarrett Lee threw three touchdown passes, Michael Ford ran for two scores and No 2.

LSU survived a strong second half by No. 16 West Virginia to win 47-21.

The Tigers (4-0) converted two turnovers into scores, built a big early lead and withstood West Virginia’s strong comeback for its third win over a ranked opponent this season, with all of three coming away from home. Every win so far has been by double digits.

Lee’s three TD passes tied a career high and matched his output of the three previous games. He finished 16 of 28 for 180 yards.

In Tuscaloosa, No. 3 Alabama’s topranked South Eastern Conference defense smothered No. 14 Arkansas’ offense in a 38-14 victory.

Alabama’s Trent Richardson ran for 120 yards and had a 61-yard touchdown catch to lead the rout of the Razorbacks and give the Tide a headstart in the SEC West race.

AJ McCarron completed 15 of 20 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns, including a 37-yard TD pass to Michael Williams on a fake field goal for the Tide (4-0).

Oklahoma State won the Big 12 showdown, with Brandon Weeden leading the Cowboys from behind at Texas A&M. Weeden threw for a school-record 438 yards and two scores as No. 7 Oklahoma State rallied for a 30-29 win over the Aggies on Saturday.

In Madsion, Wisconsin, Nick Toon had a career-high 155 yards receiving and two touchdowns as Wisconsin’s (4-0) recovered from a slow start to beat South Dakota 59-10.

Wisconsin took control of the game with a 21-point outburst in the final six minutes of the second quarter. Russell Wilson completed 19 of 25 passes for 345 yards and three touchdowns before taking a seat in the fourth quarter.

In other key Top 25 results, No. 4 Boise beat Tulsa 41-21, No. 9 Nebraska defeated Wyoming 38-14, while No. 21 Clemson stunned No.11 Florida State 3530 and No. 13 Virgina Tech outscored Marshall 30-10. —AP

Nicolas Almagro

Debutant Almagro top seed at Malaysia Open KUALA LUMPUR: The Davis Cup has taken a severe toll on the ATP Malaysian Open starting today, with Spain’s Nicolas Almagro taking over as top seed after the withdrawal of world number nine Tomas Berdych.

Berdych, who helped the Czech Republic remain in the Davis Cup World Group, is suffering with a nagging shoulder problem that forced him out of the hardcourt event at the Putra Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

Almagro, the world number 12, will be making his debut at the tournament and is awarded with a first-round bye, as the ATP World Tour begins its Asian swing.

He will face the winner from Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan and Spaniard Albert Ramos in the second round. The top four seeds all enter at the secondround stage.

The tournament is beginning its third edition, but holder Mikhail Youzhny is another notable absentee. He will not be in town to defend his title as he gets treatment on his injured back in Moscow.

But fellow Russian Nikolay Davydenko, a one-time member of the top five but now ranked a lowly 36th

and without a title since April, when he won Munich on clay, will be back.

The 30-year-old takes the fifth seeding and begins against Ryan Harrison, one of three Americans in the field along with Alex Bogomolov, the sixth seed, and Ryan Sweeting.

The colourful Harrison carries a reputation as a hothead, with his display of temper during an opening-round loss at the US Open against Marin Cilic earning him a fine.

Serbian Davis Cup players take the second and third seedings, with Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic. Jurgen Melzer, of Austria, is seeded fourth.

Russian debutant Dmitry Tursunov and Japan’s Kei Nishikori, beaten in the 2010 first round by Marcos Baghdatis, complete the seedings.

Two young Australians are others to watch out for. Wimbledon quarter-finalist Bernard Tomic starts against Italy’s Flavio Cipolla and Matthew Ebden clashes with Belgian David Goffin.

Former Australian Open finalist Baghdatis, who has had a mixed year, is in on a wildcard entry, with the 2010 quarter-finalist from Cyprus competing in Malaysia for the third straight edition. —AFP

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NBA players not taking serious look overseas yet INDIANAPOLIS: John Wall isn’t taking his game overseas yet. If the NBA lockout continues to drag on, well, he just might. “Maybe down the road, but not right now,” the former No. 1 overall pick said Saturday night when asked about the possibility before a loosely organized exhibition game in Indianapolis.

One day after league officials announced the postponement of training camp and the cancellation of 43 preseason games, 16 NBA players participated in a game that could become the new normal for NBA fans. Most participants played high school, college or pro ball near Indianapolis. The game, of course, came without many of the NBA’s usual trimmings.

Instead of thousands of fans, only a few hundred showed up at the University of Indianapolis, a Division II school that will be the practice site for this year’s Super Bowl team from the NFC. Instead of hearing a live person

sing the National Anthem, a recording was played over the public address system. Instead of wearing clearly distinguishing colors, the team with black jerseys was told to turn theirs inside out just before tip-off in an effort to delineate themselves from the navy blue team. And instead of making money, the proceeds from Saturday’s Indy Pro Am Lockout League game will benefit foundations headed by new Pacers player George Hill, former Indiana Mr. Basketball Eric Gordon and WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings.

Officials wore gray shirts with an NBA logo but were not sanctioned by the league, and team officials were not allowed to attend.

Players will take it, for now. “I don’t know how many games we’ll miss or how long we’ll be locked out,” Atlanta Hawks guard Jeff Teague said. “But this going to have to do because it’s the only way to play against the best talent and

be at an NBA level when it (the lockout) ends.” Nobody’s sure when the lockout will end, so players are taking precautions. Five of them told The Associated Press they are carrying insurance to cover any potential injuries during the lockout, and that’s not the only way they’re protecting themselves.

“The best thing about games like this is that all the guys realize you have careers,” former Butler star and current Utah Jazz player Gordon Hayward said.

“So we’re not going to do something stupid.”

Perhaps that accounted for the lack of defense Saturday night. The blue team, Goodman League, won 170-167.

Wall had 41 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins had 33 points and 15 rebounds. Gordon led the Knox team with 40 points and nine assists. All but three of the 16 players reached double figures.

Whether it was Wall, the Washington

Wizards point guard, or Eric Gordon, who plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, the key concern was staying in shape, to be ready for the return of NBA ball.

The players said they aren’t even sure the league owners know what they want in a new deal.

“That’s what it seems like from what I’ve seen in the media and from what I hear,” Gordon said. “It’s going to take a collective agreement by everybody to get this thing settled.”

In the meantime, they’ll continue working on their own. Hayward is going through his training at St.Vincent Sports Performance in Indy. Some are working in groups, and others are playing in games like this, where there are almost as many smiles as dunks. Teague plans to return to Atlanta next week, where he will continue playing pro am games.

But each player has his own primary concern. Josh McRoberts, an Indiana native who played with the Pacers last

season, is a free agent who hasn’t been able to negotiate a new deal. Shelvin Mack left Butler after his junior season, was selected by Washington in the second round of this year’s NBA draft and is still unsigned.

“It’s kind of tough,” Mack said. “We’ve got things like this so we can still work on our skills, but you’d really like to get back to work.”

For some players, that could come sooner - if they decide to move overseas.

Kobe Bryant has been offered a $6.7 million, one-season contract to play for the Italian team Virtus Bologna.

Gordon said that while he’s had offers, he’s not jumping at the chance and neither is D.J. White, the former Indiana star who now plays for Charlotte.

“I’ve really not thought much about it,” White said. “You really just want to work on your game and we’ll see what happens. It’s hard to put a time table (on deciding to play overseas).”—AP

Europe beat US to win Solheim Cup SPAIN: Barcelona’s David Villa (left) scores against Atletico Madrid during a Spanish La Liga soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium. —AP

Barca destroy Atletico MADRID: Barcelona went second in La Liga after Lionel Messi scored a brilliant hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday while Cristiano Ronaldo recorded another treble in 10-man Real Madrid’s 6-2 drubbing of Rayo Vallecano.

The two Spanish heavyweights dropped points in their previous games but returned to winning ways with dominant home performances engineered by their two outstanding players.

Valencia suffered their first defeat of the season when they were beaten 1-0 at nine-man Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao’s new coach Marcelo Bielsa is still without a win after the Basque club surrendered the lead in a 1-1 draw at home to Villarreal.

Champions Barca, bidding for a fourth straight title, have 11 points from five games, level with third-placed Sevilla and one ahead of Real Madrid and Valencia.

Promoted Real Betis, the surprise early leaders, have 12 points from four games and visit Getafe today. Atletico had the first clear chance at a rainy Nou Camp when Jose Antonio Reyes squared for Tiago and the Portuguese midfielder curled a shot from the edge of the penalty area that struck the crossbar. That was as good as it got for Gregorio Manzano’s side as Barca, who drew 2-2 at Valencia on Wednesday, were ahead in the ninth minute.

A superb pass from playmaker Xavi sent David Villa clear and he turned inside his marker before rifling a low shot past keeper Thibaut Courtois.

Barca doubled their lead six minutes later when World Player of the Year Messi and Pedro combined and the ball deflected in for an own goal off defender Joao Miranda.

Messi made it 3-0 in the 26th minute when he

flummoxed the Atletico defence with an outrageous piece of skill before curling a precise shot inside the post.

His second came after a trademark run across the defence and shot back across the keeper and he completed the hat-trick in added time when he ran on to a Villa chip and shot through the legs of Courtois from a tight angle.

At the Bernabeu earlier, Real got the moraleboosting win they were looking for after a shock 10 defeat at Levante and a 0-0 draw against Racing Santander in their previous two games.

The home support were given an early fright as Vallecano, whose annual budget is a fraction of their illustrious city neighbours, scored a goal timed at 12 seconds when Michu followed up a blocked Raul Tamudo effort.

The visitors had a couple of chances to extend their lead, prompting frustrated whistling from the home fans before Ronaldo equalised in the 39th minute and Gonzalo Higuain put Real ahead in first-half stoppage time.

Ronaldo, who scored three against Real Zaragoza last month, made it 3-1 from the penalty spot in the 51st after Kaka was felled but Michu scored a second goal four minutes later.

Home forward Angel Di Maria then picked up a second yellow card and was sent off after 56 minutes. Real restored their two-goal lead when teenage defender Raphael Varane diverted a corner into the roof of the net.

Mesut Ozil set up fellow substitute Karim Benzema for the fifth goal in the 73rd minute before Ronaldo grabbed his third with another penalty.—Reuters

French League results/standings Auxerre 4 (Traore 51, Oliech 52, 63, 67) Sochaux 1 (Maiga 2); Brest 1 (Roux 61) Ajaccio 1 (Socrier 66).

Playing later: Rennes v Saint-Etienne Played Saturday: Lyon 3 (Gomis 8, 33, Bastos 64) Bordeaux 1 (Modeste 84-pen); Toulouse 1 (Bulut 59) Nancy 0;

8 8 8 8 7 8 8 8 8 8

5 5 5 5 4 3 3 4 2 3

2 2 2 1 2 4 4 1 5 1

1 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 4

14 14 12 15 17 13 10 12 14 7

7 7 7 9 11 10 7 10 10 14

17 17 17 16 14 13 13 13 11 10

Sochaux Saint-Etienne Marseille Bordeaux Evian Valenciennes Nice Brest Ajaccio Nancy

8 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

2 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0

3 2 4 4 4 3 3 6 3 4

3 3 3 3 3 4 4 2 4 4

13 6 9 9 8 9 7 6 8 5

19 10 11 12 12 10 9 8 16 9

9 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 4

Oliech hat-trick punishes Sochaux PARIS: Kenyan forward Dennis Oliech exploited Sochaux’s defensive fragility to claim his first Ligue 1 hat-trick as Auxerre came from behind to win 41 at Stade Abbe-Deschamps yesterday.

Beaten 6-2 at home by Rennes on Wednesday, Sochaux made a quick start and went ahead in the second minute when Yassine Mikari lofted a ball behind the Auxerre defence that Modibo Maiga tucked away. However, Sochaux’s porousness became evident in the second half, with quick-fire goals from top scorer Alain Traore and Oliech turning the match on its head.

Traore claimed his sixth goal of the season in the 51st minute, with Oliech making it 2-1 barely a minute later after Sochaux goalkeeper Teddy Richert fluffed an attempted clearance just outside his area.

Static defending enabled Oliech to fire home in the 63rd minute, after his initial shot had been saved by Richert, before he completed his hattrick four minutes later by converting Traore’s leftwing centre.

“The coach (Laurent Fournier) changed things around at the break,” explained Traore, Ligue 1’s top scorer alongside Lyon’s Bafetimbi Gomis.

IRELAND: Europe’s Suzann Pettersen (center) lifts the Solheim Cup as she and fellow team members celebrate defeating the US in the Solheim Cup golf tournament. —AP match, was unable to start due to a wrist injury.

“I’m devastated that I couldn’t play today to help represent my team,” Kerr said. “I tried my best but I couldn’t hold the golf club.”

The home side raced 11-8 ahead when Catriona Matthew soundly defeated Paula Creamer 6 and 5 and Sophie Gustafason beat Stacy Lewis by two holes. The Americans hit back when Morgan Pressel beat Anna Nordqvist 2 and 1 and Brittany Lang defeated Sandra Gall 6 and 5.

Veteran Juli Inkster gave the US hope when she won the 18th with a par four to snatch a halved match with Laura Davies before Christina Kim beat Swede Maria Hjorth 4 and 2 to level the scores.

Two hole wins for Europe’s Christel Boeljon over Brittany Lincicome and American Vicky Hurst over Melissa Reid left the match riding on the last three singles.

With Stanford and Munoz all square in the final singles, the game between Pettersen and Wie became crucial. Pettersen birdied the parthree 16th from 18 feet to square the match but Wie birdied the 17th from 20 feet to remain all square after the Nor wegian had hit her approach to three feet to set up an easy birdie.

Pettersen fired a brilliant approach to eight feet at the last but while the American came out to four feet from greenside side, Europe’s top ranked player holed the birdie putt.

“We knew it was going to come down to the last couple (of matches) if we had a chance and this is just fantastic,” Pettersen said. “Absolutely brilliant team and what a way to finish on home soil.” Munoz turned the tide Europe’s way with a birdie from three feet at the 17th and when O’Toole overshot the 18th against Hedwall and then failed to save par, Europe was guaranteed victory.—AP

Pizarro double lifts Werder

Evian 2 (Barbosa 34, 39) Caen 4 (Niang 11, Proment 45+4, Bulot 69, Traore 72); Nice 1 (Dja Djedje 90+1) Dijon 1 (Corgnet 14); Lille 1 (Cole 34) Lorient 1 (Monnet-Paquet 90+3); Valenciennes 1 (Saez 90+3) Marseille 1 (Diawara 16); Montpellier 0 Paris Saint-Germain 3 (Gameiro 39, Pastore 43, 80).

French league table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Lyon Saint-Germain Toulouse Montpellier Rennes Lille Lorient Caen Auxerre Dijon

DUNSANY: Europe won the Solheim Cup for the first time since 2003 yesterday, finishing powerfully to beat the United States 15-13 at Killeen Castle.

Nor way ’s Suzann Pettersen turned the momentum Europe’s way when she recovered from 1 down with birdies at the last three holes to beat Michelle Wie by one hole. Her win left Europe needing just one point from the last two singles to win the trophy but the side captained

by Alison Nicholas did even better.

Caroline Hedwall of the Netherlands - 2 down with two holes to play - earned a crucial halved match to give Europe a 14-13 lead when rookie Ryann O’Toole bogeyed the 17th and 18th.

Spain’s Azahara Munoz birdied the 17th in the final singles to go 1 up on Angela Stanford and guarantee Europe’s victory before closing out a one hole win at the last.

“I’ve been in agony all day,” European captain Alison Nicholas said. “The players have had such heart and passion and purpose. I hand it all to them. They’ve been unbelievable.”

Nicholas said Europe’s win was the greatest achievement of her career. “They were so up for it and they believed in themselves,” she said.

“They just fought to the end. The rookies have done fantastic. The experienced players have done really well as well. It’s just been a real team effort.” American captain Rosie Jones also praised her players. “They fought so hard and really came together in the last couple of days to do so well, and it’s just really hard,” Jones said.

Jones declined to blame O’Toole for the defeat.

“You know what, she played awesome,” Jones said. “She’s undefeated in her first Solheim Cup. That is just unbelievable ... She feels bad because she was 2 up coming in.

“But I tell you what, she got three points this week, and I don’t know if anybody else did that.

So that’s pretty awesome.”

Play was suspended three times during the day due to adverse weather conditions but the 28,000 strong crowd saw an exciting finish.

The sides were tied 8-8 entering yesterday’s 12 singles matches but Europe won the session 7-5 with American Cristie Kerr forced to forfeit her match with Karen Stupples.

Kerr, who was set to play in the 12th singles

“We started pressing Sochaux higher up the pitch, capitalising on the gaps in their defence.

And it worked well.” Victory lifted Auxerre above Sochaux and Dijon into ninth place, demoting Sochaux to 11th.

The basement battle between Brest and Ajaccio ended in a 1-1 draw, leaving both teams in the bottom three. Fifth-placed Rennes host SaintEtienne in yesterday’s late game, when victory for the hosts would take them level on points with co-leaders Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse. Lyon put their mid-week 1-0 loss to Caen behind them on Saturday when they overwhelmed Bordeaux 3-1, with Gomis on target twice and in-form Michel Bastos claiming his second goal of the season.

A well-worked Umut Bulut goal saw Toulouse edge Nancy 1-0, while PSG confirmed their title credentials with an impressive 3-0 victory at former leaders Montpellier.

Record signing Javier Pastore found the net twice, slamming home a fine volley in the 43rd minute to make it 2-0 before capitalising on an error from goalkeeper Geoffrey Jourdren to seal the win 10 minutes from time.—AFP

BERLIN: Peru striker Claudio Pizarro scored a brace, including a last-gasp winner, as Werder Bremen went joint-second in the Bundesliga yesterday in a 2-1 home victory over nine-man Hertha Berlin.

The three points moves the northerners into joint second spot with Borussia Moenchengladbach with 16 points from seven games, two shy of leaders Bayern Munich, who beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 on Saturday.

Pizarro, who had a successful spell at Bayern but could not settle when he moved to Chelsea, netted on 23 minutes after Colombian Adrian Ramos had put Hertha into a third-minute lead.

And the Peruvian veteran then netted the clincher in stoppage time. The bad-tempered match featured 12 yellow cards, two of which became red cards for Hertha’s Christian Lell in the 57th minute and Ramos, six minutes later.

Also yesterday, Cologne thanked goals from Mato Jajalo and Lukas Podolski for a 2-0 win over Hoffenheim, who stay fourth but who are now four points adrift of the sides just above them.

On Saturday, Bayern Munich strolled past Leverkusen to stay clear after having been temporarily dislodged three hours earlier when Borussia Moenchengladbach clinched a 1-0 win over Nuremburg.

Gladbach have not won the league since 1977 and their most recent honour, in 2008, was the second division trophy.

But Belgian defender Filip Daem’s 76thminute penalty was enough to ensure that the five-time champions enjoyed a few hours top of the heap before Bayern Munich brushed aside Leverkusen.

Bayern’s opening goal came on five minutes from Thomas Mueller, with Belgian defender Daniel van Buyten netting the second on 19 minutes to effectively put the match to bed.

Leverkusen had not won in Munich in 22 attempts and without their flu-ridden former Bayern star Michael Ballack they offered little resistance.

Bayern took their foot off the gas in the sec-

ond half with an eye on their midweek Champions League date with Manchester City.

But Arjen Robben still had time to put his name on the scoreboard in the final minute on his return from injury, the Dutch winger netting from close-range after good work from Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Robben was delighted to make such an immediate impact on his return after mssing a trio of league outings and a Champions League pool win over Villarreal.

“Of course it’s great after so many weeks out,” said Robben, who replaced Toni Kroos in the closing stages. Reigning champions Borussia Dortmund, meanwhile, had to scrap as they came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Mainz.

Dortmund have been on the ropes this term, losing three of their opening six matches, but they showed some grit after Nikolai Muller had put Mainz into a 33rd-minute lead.

Ivan Perisic, on target in the Champions

League in the draw with Arsenal, bagged the equaliser mid-way through the second half before Lukasz Piszczek clinched victory in the dying seconds, poking home through a forest of legs.

“We’ve managed to break the trend of working hard and yet getting little to show for it,” said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp after his side’s first away success of the season.

Like Dortmund, neighbors Schalke have been bouncing around in mid-table but Spanish veteran forward Raul celebrated being offered an extension to his current deal with a goal in a 4-2 home win over Freiburg.

The victory was a boost after coach Ralf Rangnick quit on Thursday, citing fatigue, to become the second coach this week to part company with a Bundesliga side.

Hamburg sacked coach Michael Oenning on Monday but responded with a 2-1 win over Stuttgart for their first win.—AFP

German League results/standings Werder Bremen 2 (Pizarro 23, 90+3) Hertha Berlin 1 (Ramos 3); FC Cologne 2 (Jajalo 20, Podolski 64) Hoffenheim 0.

Played Saturday Mainz 05 1 (Mueller 33) Dortmund 2 (Perisic 64, Pizczek 90); VfL Wolfsburg 1 (Dejagah 63) Kaiserslautern 0; Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Daems 76-pen) Nuremberg 0; Schalke 04 4

(Farfan 33, Huntelaar 62, Holtby 67, Raul 75) SC Freiburg 2 (P. Cisse 3, Jendrisek 83); FC Augsburg 0, Hanover 0; Bayern Munich 3 (Mueller 5, Van Buyten 19, Robben 90) Bayer Leverkusen 0.

Played Friday VfB Stuttgart 1 (Harnik 18) Hamburg 2 (Bruma 50, Tesche 67)

German league table after matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Bayern Munich Werder Bremen M’gladbach Hoffenheim Schalke 04 Hanover VfB Stuttgart Dortmund Nuremberg

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

6 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3

0 1 1 0 0 3 1 1 1

1 1 1 3 3 1 3 3 3

21 14 9 12 15 8 10 9 6

1 7 3 7 12 8 6 7 7

18 16 16 12 12 12 10 10 10

FC Cologne Leverkusen Hertha Berlin VfL Wolfsburg Mainz 05 Kaiserslautern FC Augsburg SC Freiburg Hamburg

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

3 3 2 3 2 1 0 1 1

1 1 3 0 1 2 4 1 1

3 3 2 4 4 4 3 5 5

13 7 9 8 9 5 6 12 8

15 10 9 12 15 10 12 22 18

10 10 9 9 7 5 4 4 4

Europe beat US to win Solheim Cup

Makau sets record in Berlin Marathon

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

China edge Jordan by one point for Asian title Page 16

ITALY: Catania’s Argentine defender Nicolas Spolli (left) fights for the ball with Juventus’ Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal (right) during their football match. —AP

Juventus, Udinese share lead ROME: Turin giants Juventus share the Serie A lead with Udinese after both earned a point from away fixtures yesterday while Genoa lost 2-1 at Chievo.

Juve are top on goals scored following a 1-1 draw at Catania while Udinese were held 0-0 away to Cagliari. The visitors wasted a glorious late chance to win in rainy Sicily when Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal skied a chance from 15 yards with the goal at his mercy.

Juve fell behind midway through the first half as Alejandro Gomez crossed from the right and Gonzalo Bergessio got in front of his marker to turn it in at the near post.

Milos Krasic equalised for the visitors just four minutes after the restart with a shot from 20 yards that Mariano Andujar should have saved.

The Serbian winger had another opportunity after a mazy dribble but this time the goalkeeper was alert to the danger. Juve coach Antonio Conte refused to get carried away by his team’s positive start and said they still have a lot of improving to do.

“We know there’s still a lot of work to do but that shouldn’t frighten us, it should give us strength,” he said. “We’re not kidding ourselves and we’re not kidding anyone, the road ahead is a long one.”

Udinese kept their unbeaten run going as they held on for a point in a largely uneventful game in Sardinia.

Earlier in the day Davide Moscardelli scored with a flying header with virtually the last touch of the game to knock 10man Genoa off the Serie A summit. Genoa had led the table on goals scored at the

start of the day but now trail the two leaders by a point.

They took the lead through Argentine Rodrigo Palacio, his sixth goal of the season in all competitions, but succumbed to an equaliser from Sergio Pellissier before substitute Moscardelli’s dramatic late intervention.

Pellissier also missed a penalty after Genoa had Dario Dainelli sent off for a foul on the forward inside the box. Having beaten Napoli 1-0 at home in midweek, it was the second game in a row Chievo had defeated the league leaders.

“It’s true but that’s just coincidence,” said Chievo coach Domenico Di Carlo. “It was a great win against an excellent side and playing good football.

“Our lads believed right to the end.

No-one let up, they were excellent. These

are important points for our aim which is to stay up.” Genoa coach Alberto Malesani felt his team were too tired to hold on with 10 men.

“Without the sending off, I’m 99 percent certain we would have won this game,” he said. “Dainelli’s red card was decisive. Unfortunately we were tired. I think Chievo deserved to win but my team were too tired to play with 10.

“Congratulations to them for believing right to the end but it’s also a bit our fault.”

Atalanta remain the only other undefeated team alongside Juve and Udinese after they won 2-0 at home to Novara.

Matias Schelotto opened the scoring with a header from Gianpaolo Bellini’s cross and Luca Cigarini added the second with a rising shot from outside the box.

Atalanta would actually be two points

ITALY: AS Roma’s Argentine forward Pablo Daniel Osvaldo celebrates after scoring against Parma during their Serie A football match. —AFP clear at the top after three wins and a have four points.”

Roma handed coach Luis Enrique his draw in their four games but for having started the season with a six-point penalty first win since joining the club at the beginning of the season at the sixth for match-fixing.

Coach Stefano Colantuono admitted attempt with a 1-0 success at Parma. he was disappointed not to be sitting on Daniel Osvaldo scored his second goal in a week by heading home Aleandro Rosi’s top of the table.

“Who knows when I might find myself cross on 50 minutes. The win eases the up there again?” he asked. “It’s a shame pressure on Enrique but sent Parma into about the punishment but the truth is, we the relegation zone.—AFP

Dunne own goal gives QPR dramatic draw LONDON: QPR snatched a dramatic 1QPR 1 1 draw against Aston Villa as Richard Dunne scored an own goal in stoppage time at Aston Villa 1 Loftus Road yesterday.

Neil Warnock’s side looked set to suffer a controversial defeat when Villa took the lead through Barry Bannan’s spot-kick after referee Michael Oliver harshly penalised Armand Traore for a tug on Gabriel Agbonlahor.

QPR felt they should have had a penalty of their own when Shaun Derry’s goal-bound header hit Alan Hutton on the arm, but Oliver and his assistants failed to spot the offence.

Oliver then sent off Traore in the closing moments for a second booking, but QPR rescued a point when Dunne turned Heidar Helguson’s cross into his own net.

Villa’s failure to hold onto their lead means Alex McLeish’s side have now drawn five of their six Premier League games this season, while QPR remain level with their opponents on eight points.

Warnock was furious with Oliver’s performance and he said: “I’ve had a look at our penalty appeals again and I think the statisticians have put the first Alan Hutton one down as a save. How can he not give it?

“He can’t say he’s in a bad position. My boys deserve better than that. “As for the penalty he gave? It’s embarrassing. Armand has blown on him. “Referees should be seen and not heard and the official made it all about him, which is a shame because he took away from what was a good performance from us.”

McLeish added: “I had to tell my players a few home truths at half-time because in the first half we were poor, very poor. “I let them know that in no uncertain terms and sure enough we came out a lot better in the second half.”

Although Villa were able to count British Prime Minister David Cameron among their supporters at Loftus Road, even the presence of such a famous fan couldn’t inspire McLeish’s team in the early stages.

QPR made a fast start and went close to taking the lead in the fifth minute as Adel Taarabt cleverly worked space for a well-struck effort from long-range that beat Shay Given

LONDON: Queens Park Rangers’ Armand Traore (right) vies for the ball with Aston Villa’s Barry Bannan during the Premiership football match. —AP but cannoned back off a post.

There was a real purpose about QPR’s attacking play and both Shaun Wright-Phillips and Taarabt had closerange shots blocked in a 14th-minute melee.

McLeish’s men almost snatched the lead against the run of play when Bannan’s curling free-kick forced a superb one-handed save from Paddy Kenny just before half-time.

However, Villa did take the lead in the 58th minute when Oliver ruled that former Arsenal defender Traore had deliberately pushed Agbonlahor as they challenged for a cross. Bannan stepped up to fire home the penalty and the Scottish midfielder nearly grabbed his second goal when

Kenny made a good stop to keep out his near-post effort.

A low shot from Wright-Phillips forced Given into an excellent save before Derry’s header from a corner hit Hutton on the arm.

When Tommy Smith’s appeal for a penalty, again for a Hutton handball, was rejected by Oliver, who then sent off Traore for a lunge on Marc Albrighton, it seemed like QPR’s luck was out.

But they equalised in the third minute of stoppage time when Helguson’s cross was cleared by Stephen Warnock into Dunne, who couldn’t stop the ball rebounding off him into the net.—AFP

Levante go third in Spain MADRID: Levante defeated nineman Espanyol 3-1 yesterday to go third in La Liga, a third win in three matches to illustrate their victory over Real Madrid last weekend was no fluke.

The modest Valencia-based club have 11 points, the same as secondplaced Barcelona, and trail the champions only on goal difference after a week which also saw them beat Real 1-0 last Sunday and Rayo Vallecano 2-1 in midweek.

They are just one point behind leaders Real Betis, the only side with a 100 percent record, who play at Getafe today. Levante went ahead in the 12th minute with the first of Ruben Suarez’s two penalties, after Rui Fonte had tripped Juanlu Gomez. Suarez scored again from the spot on 58 minutes after Jordi Amat had tripped him when he had a clear chance on goal. Amat was sent off and Espanyol were down to 10 men.

Hector Moreno pulled one back for Espanyol on 72 minutes but any hopes of a comeback were quickly dashed when Jose Barkero restored the two-goal advantage four minutes later.

Espanyol’s misery was further componded on 81 minutes when substitute Walter Pandiani was given a straight red card for an elbow in the face of Victoriano Rivas ‘Nano’.

Mallorca got their first points since the opening weekend, beat-

ing Real Sociedad 2-1 at home to take some pressure of coach Michael Laudrup.

Victor Casadesus and Chori Castro came to Laudrup’s rescue with goals in the 20th and 49th minutes after Imanol Agirretxe had put Sociedad ahead with a clever chip on 15 minutes.

The winner came when Castro drilled a powerful shot into the top right hand corner of the net after the Sociedad defence failed to clear a corner.

After three defeats in a row without a goal scored, Laudrup was understandably happy with the win.

But he admitted that his team had rode their luck in a match where Sociedad had hit the woodwork three times.

“We have suffered for that win.

Real had four or five clear-cut chances, but Dudu (Aouate, Mallorca goalkeeper) was fantastic,” he said.

Also yesterday Granada and Osasuna drew 1-1 in Los Carmenes to both remain in the bottom half of the table. Raul Garcia opened the scoring on 29 minutes for Osasuna before Fran Rico evened the game in the 63rd minute.

On Saturday Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both hit hat-tricks as Barcelona and Real Madrid went on a Spanish goal rampage, shrugging off worryingly lacklustre midweek performances. —AFP

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Nokia launches stylish Nokia N9 Smartphone

KSE equities plunge Page 24

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China launches first gold vending machine BEIJING: China, already the world’s second largest bullion consumer, has installed the country’s first gold vending machine in a busy shopping district in Beijing, state media said yesterday.

Shoppers in the popular Wangfujing Street can insert cash or use a bank card to withdraw gold bars or coins of various weights based on market prices, the People’s Daily said on its website. Each withdrawal is capped at 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) or one million yuan (about $156,500) worth of gold, the report said.

Gold vending machines already exist in Britain, the United States, the Middle East and Europe. The machine was launched on Saturday by the Beijing Agricultural Commercial Bank and a gold trading company, the report said. They plan to install an unspecified number of machines in secure locations such as gold shops and upmarket private clubs. Gold is often used as a hedge against inflation and the machines could prove popular among Chinese consumers looking for a convenient way to safeguard their cash amid rising prices. Chinese con-

sumer demand for gold soared 27 percent year-on-year to 579.5 tons in 2010, according to the World Gold Council. India, the world’s top consumer, saw a 66 percent increase to 963.1 tons. —AFP

BEIJING: Chinese bank staff standing by the country’s first gold vending machine in the popular Wangfujing Street in Beijing, where shoppers can insert cash or use a bankcard to withdraw gold bars or coins of various weights based on market prices, while each withdrawal is capped at 2.5 kilograms (inset) or one million yuan (about $156,500) worth of gold. —AFP

Week of trials for Greece and euro IMF, EU experts return to Athens for audit ATHENS: Greece and the euro head for a week of trials from today as European and IMF experts return to Athens for a fiscal audit that will decide if the debt-hit country can escape default next month.

EU heavyweight Germany will meanwhile hold a key vote Thursday on reforming a permanent European Union stability fund to enable it to engage in debt restructuring, a fallback the euro-zone looks increasingly set to need.

That’s two days after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou visits Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as speculation mounts that a new EU rescue of Athens crafted in July will need to be revised. Additional commitment to a EU stability fund has been criticized by many in the ruling German coalition. But opposition parties are likely

to support the move, and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says Berlin has no objections to speeding up its launch. “If the (European Stability Mechanism) could be implemented earlier, then we would not object to that,” Schaeuble said at a briefing at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington.

The IMF’s policy board said over the weekend it had agreed to act decisively and collectively “to restore confidence and financial stability, and rekindle global growth.” The 27nation European Union-the Fund’s largest shareholder-meanwhile pledged to “do whatever is necessary to resolve the euro-area sovereign debt crisis and ensure the financial stability of the euro-area as a whole and its member states,” the board

said. Greece’s fur tive dance with bankruptcy, only a year after a massive EU-IMF bailout loan of 110 billion euros ($149-billion) to restore its economy, has cast an ugly spotlight on other struggling EU economies, stripping the gleam off the euro.

To make the country’s huge debt viable in the long-term, a second EU rescue worth 159 billion euros was set up in July. Part of it involves private bank creditors accepting a 21 percent “haircut” or reduction in value of the debt they hold, to lower Greece’s interest costs.

But Athens’ continued woes has led to speculation that a 50-percent haircut will now be required to make a difference. Banks holding Greek debt are likely to need recapitalization if forced to take losses of this magnitude.

Yesterday, the French government

Dubai 2010 real GDP up 2.8%, beats estimate DUBAI: Dubai’s economy expanded by 2.8 percent in real terms last year, faster than previously expected, as growth in trade and the retail sector helped it recover from its contraction in 2009, preliminary data showed yesterday.

One of the seven United Arab Emirates, the OPEC producer’s trade and business hub was hit last year by the $25 billion debt restructuring of Dubai World .

The emirate, which accounts for 28 percent of the UAE’s economy, previously estimated its gross domestic product rose 2.4 percent in 2010, according to a prospectus for the government’s updated bond issuance program in June. Dubai’s economic output shrank by 2.4 percent in 2009 after the global financial crisis burst its property bubble, freezing projects worth tens of billions of dollars.

In 2010 Dubai’s real GDP rose to 293.6 billion dirhams ($79.9 billion) after a downwardly revised 285.7 billion in the previous year, data from the Dubai Statistics Center showed. It previously reported output of 286.6 billion dirhams for 2009.

“We definitely see GDP growth going up (this year),” saidPhilippe Dauba-Pantanacce, senior MENA economist at Standard Chartered. “Dubai

has benefited from the safe haven effect and from a diversion of investments and growing tourism from neighboring countries affected by the crisis (unrest),” he said.

The UAE, which enjoys the world’s sixth highest per capita income of $47,400, has avoided the civil revolts which challenged governments in nearby Bahrain and Oman in February and March. Hotel occupancies in Dubai stood at 75.5 percent in the first half, up from 70 percent in 2010.

“Unfortunately we don’t have enough data, but if you look at retail, tourism, it feels that 2011 up until now will be as good as 2010 or maybe slightly better,” said Mahdi Mattar, chief economist at CAPM Investment. “However, we are at a critical point right now when it comes to global forecasts.”

Despite the recovery, banks remain hesitant to lend across the UAE, the world’s fourth-biggest oil exporter, and the once-booming property sector is still weak in Dubai, known for ambitious projects such as the world’s tallest tower. The emirate’s housing market still has nearly a third too much supply and prices are expected to fall by another 10 percent, deepening a three-year drop of nearly 60 percent from its peak, a Reuters poll showed in

July. Dubai’s wholesale and retail trade sector, which accounts for a third of its GDP, rose by 4.5 percent last year, while construction tumbled by 14.7 percent, the data showed. However, the UAE’s private sector was already feeling the impact of the global slowdown last month as growth in business activity plunged to a 15-month low in August, a survey showed. In August, passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport grew by 0.8 percent to 4 million from a year ago, much slower than July’s 9.7 percent jump, as the number of travellers fell due to the holy fasting month of Ramadan and regional political instability, Dubai Airports said on Sunday. Air freight volumes dropped 7.9 percent to 182,781 tons, hit by economic uncertainty in the United States and Europe, the airport operator said, although flagship carrier Emirates Airline is not yet seeing a downturn in business. “Dubai is a regional hub. Impact of a global slowdown would filter through multiple channels,” said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. “However, Dubai’s economy would be more resilient now compared to 2008 given that real estate prices have already come down significantly and debt workouts have been undertaken.” —Reuters

denied a report that it plans to inject 10-15 billion euros in the country’s leading banks. But a source close to the issue confirmed to AFP that highlevel discussions have been held with the banks on the need to recapitalize.

The European currenc y took another blow last week after credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s dunked I taly ’s credit standing, a treatment until now dealt to laggards such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal who later took loan lifelines.

The concern among markets is now that the euro-zone faces a much bigger problem than just Greece, and that EU policymakers have responded to the crisis with their usual show of disunity instead of determination.

An informal meeting in Poland in mid-September that could have calmed fears exposed instead the difference of opinion between

Europeans and the United States on how to handle the issue. All of last week, calls came in from government and finance leaders-including G20 members-for euro-zone leaders to move decisively and in unison to prevent Greece from defaulting and to shore up weak banks. Once again, Athens has ironically found itself underpinning Europe’s recover y hopes.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was in Washington this weekend to present to the IMF a new round of austerity measures designed to show the government’s determination, but also guaranteed to cause social unrest. The additional effort was demanded by the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank, known as the ‘troika’ in Greece, who threatened to withhold funds out of the original rescue loan.

To make sure ‘troik a’ exper ts would return to complete an audit suspended three weeks ago, the government imposed a hugely controversial property tax, new pension cuts and temporary layoffs for 30,000 civil servants. Several union strikes are scheduled for next week along with a civil ser vant walkout on October 5 and a general strike on October 19.

A poll published in opposition daily Eleftheros Typos yesterday showed 48.5 percent of Greeks are unable to pay the additional taxes and a further nine percent, who have the necessary money, will refuse to cough up.

Another poll in Kathimerini daily said 66 percent of respondents oppose a return to the drachma, though 60 percent say a Greek default is likely and 40 percent term the euro-zone’s future uncertain. — AFP

New UBS boss seeks a fresh start ZURICH: The new interim boss of UBS has been charged with reorganizing its investment bank, a task which will take two to three years to complete, its chairman said yesterday, after CEO Oswald Gruebel quit over the $2.3 billion rogue trading scandal.

The UBS board on Saturday accepted the resignation of German-born chief executive Gruebel, 67, and appointed as his interim replacement Sergio Ermotti, who hails from Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region of Ticino.The board is looking at both internal and external candidates to fill the post permanently and Chairman Kaspar Villiger told a newspaper on Sunday ex-Bundesbank head Axel Weber has already been involved in the CEO selection process as an independent advisor.

But Weber is still not due to take over as UBS’s chairman until 2013, Villiger said. He also said that Ermotti, the suave former UniCredit banker who joined UBS in April as head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, and has worked in London and New York, is a strong candidate to remain as CEO. “He has lots of experience and brings a lot of what’s needed to run the bank. I also think it’s good that he’s Swiss,” Villiger told the NZZ am Sonntag. With the Swiss public losing its patience with the country’s biggest bank after a series of crippling crises, Ermotti’s nationality may give him an edge over competitors and help him

deal with politicians and regulators.

Villiger said the board has already asked Ermotti, who was passed over for the CEO job at Italy’s UniCredit, to speed up a scaling back of the investment bank. “Revamping the bank will probably take the next two or three years until it’s all completed,” Villiger said.

Villiger, a former Swiss finance minister who also faced calls to resign over the scandal, said in a conference call with reporters on Saturday that the bank was sticking to plans for Weber to join the board next year and take over as chairman in 2013.

He reiterated that point yesterday.

“It’s not optimal for the president and the chief executive to step down at the same time. This way Axel Weber has the chance to get up to speed, Villiger told the NZZ. “He’ll also live in Switzerland and get to know the Helvetic characteristics. We see no reason to change this plan.”

Gruebel, a banking industry veteran who helped turn around UBS’s cross-town rival Credit Suisse , was brought out of retirement to try to revamp UBS after it almost collapsed in 2008 under the weight of more than $50 billion lost on toxic assets.

His decision to take responsibility for the latest $2.3 billion loss and step down was welcomed by several Swiss politicians. The Swiss parliament looks set to enact new capital adequacy standards for big banks that go

Sergio Ermotti beyond the Basel III rules.

Earlier this year Gruebel criticized the regulatory plan and the Swiss National Bank’s decision to cap the strong Swiss franc at 1.20 per euro to shield the economy from a downturn.

Gruebel’s resignation was “not surprising and right,” Christophe Darbellay of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CVP) told the NZZ am Sonntag. Darbellay also said he approved of the decision to appoint a Swiss CEO, telling the paper, “Swiss values will be good for UBS.” Yet to MP Christoph Moergeli of the right-wing, anti-immigrant Swiss People’s Party (SVP), Villiger should have gone instead, making room immediately for Weber, he told local media. — Reuters

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business Al Tijari announces winners of Najma Account draw KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al Najma account draw on 25th September 2011.

The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry represented by Abdulaziz Ashkanani.

The winners of the Al Najma Daily Draw are :1. Amal Fahmi Ahmad Mohammed— KD 7000, 2. Lorance Mohammed AlBasheer— KD 7000, 3. Mariam Salem AlAzmi — KD 7000, 4. Abbas Ali Bahayla — KD 7000, 5. Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed Shereef Malaee — KD 7000.

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait with the launch of the new Najma account. Customers of the bank can now enjoy a KD 7,000 daily prize which is the highest in the country and another 4 mega prizes during the year worth KD 100,000 each on different occasions: The National Day, Eid Al Fitr, Eid Al-Adha and on the 19th of June which is the date of the bank’s establishment.

With a minimum balance of KD 500, customers will be eligible for the daily draw provided that the money is in the account one week prior to the daily draw or 2 months prior to the mega draw. In addition, for each KD 25 a customer can get one chance for winning instead of KD 50.

Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners and also extends appreciation to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their effective supervision of the draws which were conducted in an orderly and organized manner.

KIB hails success of its Visa prepaid and Visa gift cards KUWAIT: Kuwait International Bank (KIB), one of Kuwait’s leading Islamic banks, yesterday commented on the success of the recent launch of its Visa International Prepaid Card and Visa Gift Card.

R.K. Nair, Senior Manager in KIB’s Retail Business Development (RBD) department said that: “KIB is committed to ensuring that its customers benefit from the very best banking services available. We are very R K Nair, Senior Manager in KIB’s pleased that the Visa Retail Business Development International Prepaid (RBD) department Card and the Gift Card so popular and effective at meeting the diverse needs of our valued Al-Dawli customers. “The benefit of the cards for our customers is that they are prepaid, reloadable and readily available, which means that customers can easily control and manage their finances. The cards also work online and through retail outlets, providing maximum flexibility and convenience”.

KIB is focused on expanding its range of Sharia-compliant banking products to assist its customers in all their financial requirements. Its competitive Visa International Prepaid and Visa Gift cards were launched for the first time during the Eid Al Fitir Holiday. Both cards are fully compliant with Sharia banking requirements.

Alessandro Lamanna, Nokia’s Vice President of Sales, MEA

Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia Global Head of Design

Nokia launches stylish Nokia N9 Smartphone Latest all-screen smartphone in Mideast DUBAI: Nokia announced the local availability of the Nokia N9 smartphone in key markets across Middle East and Africa at a glamorous party in Downtown Dubai. This latest smartphone offering is built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smartphone technology. Built with the latest in human innovative technology, the Nokia N9 promises to re-define the way smartphones are used. With its groundbreaking technology and en-vogue look and feel, Nokia’s latest smartphone promises to be a worthy and striking companion to the style conscious consumer.

Alessandro Lamanna, Nokia’s Vice President of Sales, Middle East and Africa said, “The Nokia N9, which will be available in select markets across the world, is perfectly suited for this region’s high-tech and style conscious consumer who demand best-in-class products. With recent figures from Gartner revealing that Nokia smartphones continue to be market leaders in MEA, claiming 41.9% of the category market, consumers in the region clearly value and trust Nokia products. Addressing this clear preference, Nokia has selected MEA as one of the first markets to launch the N9, continuing our commitment to meet customer demands for products that excel in performance and enhance their social standing.”

One swipe and you’re home The Nokia N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Whenever you’re in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes you home.

The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: using apps, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities. The industrial design of the Nokia N9 is an example of extreme product making and craft. The body is precisionmachined from a single piece of polycarbonate and flows seamlessly into beautiful curved glass. The laminated deep black display means that the user interface just floats on the surface of the product.

The Nokia N9 also packs the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

Nokia Global Head of Design, Marko Ahtisaari said, “Innovation is at the heart of our strategy and with the N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone so we reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The positive consumer feedback we’ve received on the Nokia N9 from across the region is very exciting and sends a strong message about Nokia and its new challenger mindset, strategy and direc-

tion. Hand in hand to design is the look and feel, and we are certain the Nokia N9 will both surprise and enthrall style conscious users.”

Innovative all-screen design With no need for a home key, the all-screen Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine. The 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from scratch-resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body enables superior antenna performance. This means better reception, better voice quality and fewer dropped calls.

Touch just got better Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows you to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together. Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360º wireless music speaker only once, and you get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap.

Camera, maps and multimedia The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wideangle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in lowlighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced. The Nokia N9 features free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps. With the new dedicated Drive app, you can

Near Field communication (NFC) Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows the user to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together.

Paired with cool Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia wireless speaker for great surround music, guarantees an optimal experience. In addition, the N9 packs the latest camera with a powerful 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide angle lens, HD quality video capture and large lens aperture to enable optimal

get in your car and start navigating to your destination right away. You can watch videos in true 16:9 widescreen format. And because the Nokia N9 is also the world’s first smartphone with Dolby Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, you get a surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

capture of precious, fleeting moments. With its groundbreaking new technology and continued commitment to optimal user experience, the N9 epitomises Nokia’s challenger mindset. The eagerly anticipated phone will be available in three colors - black, cyan, and magenta and is scheduled to be in stores in early October.

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

3.230 6.590 76.560 73.890 216.610 36.680 2.614 432.900 41.700 309.900 5.700 9.460 198.263 75.460 277.100 1.230

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

10 Tola

GOLD 1,706.590

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 .4270000 .3720000 .3040000 .2730000 .2780000 .0040000 .0020000 .0745100 .7259280 .3810000 .0700000 .7116400 .0040000 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2744500 GB Pound/KD .4290340 Euro .3746930 Swiss francs .3068540 Canadian dollars .2756630 Danish Kroner .0503080 Swedish Kroner .0412290 Australian dlr .2808720 Hong Kong dlr .0352320 Singapore dlr .2162390 Japanese yen .0035930 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0747510 Bahraini dinars .7282740 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0732060 Omani riyals .7131350 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES

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

3.688 5.603 3.156 2.506 3.510 214.070 35.507 3.690 6.355 9.027 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES

.2790000 .4390000 .3820000 .3220000 .2830000 .2890000 .0072500 .0035000 .0752590 .7332230 .4010000 .0760000 .7187920 .0072000 .0530000 .2765500 .4323170 .3775600 .3092020 .2777720 .0506930 .0415440 .2830210 .0355020 .2178930 .0036210 .0057920 .0025160 .0031610 .0036920 .0753230 .7338460 .3911600 .0737660 .7185920 .0063940

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

73.870 76.113 719.500 735.750 75.429

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 49.000 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.343 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.267 Tunisian Dinar 194.930 Jordanian Dinar 391.180 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 185.800 Syrian Lier 5.980 Morocco Dirham 33.851 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 276.900 Euro 375.200 Sterling Pound 432.460 Canadian dollar 277.450 Turkish lire 151.050 Swiss Franc 310.880 Australian dollar 270.750 US Dollar Buying 275.700 GOLD 335.000 168.000 87.000

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

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

SELL CASH

274.700 736.030 3.880 272.400 543.600 36.800 51.300 167.800 47.840 377.800 36.180 6.090 0.034 0.242 0.241 3.700 392.630 0.187 91.390 47.700 4.260 218.900 1.876 49.200 718.860

SELL DRAFT

273.200 736.030 3.694 270.900

216.600 46.362 376.300 36.030 5.610 0.033

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Selling Rate

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

275.600 278.680 434.095 379.890 309.205 730.710 75.010 75.650 73.455 387.940 46.255 2.498 5.770 3.147 3.688 6.338 676.022 3.705 9.145 5.800 3.690 91.545

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

263.20 263.90 300.00 368.80

433.00 3.62 3.880 6.200 2.615 4.200 3.230 75.50 736.00 47.84 392.70 718.90 76.70 73.90

276.700 3.170 5.620 2.520 3.705 6.395 75.440 73.940 735.600 46.340 432.400 3.190 1.550 393.100 5.750 378.900 274.800 3.690

Al Mulla Exchange

UAE Exchange Center WLL Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro

422.90 3.00 3.230 5.650 2.035 3.750 2.950 75.00 725.00 44.74 385.00 713.00 73.50 73.20

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

Currency

718.660

75.360 276.700

Currency

391.160 0.186 91.390 3.540 217.400

308.400 5.700 9.210

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 430.900 276.700

Rate for Transfer

Bahrain Exchange Company

3.165 6.320 76.130 73.890 216.610 36.680 2.507 430.900

274.70 272.40 310.00 377.80

US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

276.350 376.000 430.700 270.600 3.645 5.595 46.355 2.505 3.680 6.310 3.165 735.975 75.300 73.800

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business

Strong US dollar performance after FOMC NBK WEEKLY MONEY MARKETS REPORT KUWAIT: Cautious trading dominated financial markets last week. Speculation of another monetary easing program from the Federal Reserve overshadowed earlier pessimism that spread across Asian and European markets. Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency added to the pressure by downgrading Italy’s credit rating by one notch, resulting in major concerns over the outlook of the European debt crisis.

The US dollar fell against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday, when the dollar index traded as low as 76.79. The greenback erased earlier losses after the FOMC decided to implement an “operation twist” by shifting into buying long-term assets rather than a third quantitative easing program. The Dollar Index reached a high of 78.79, driving all major currencies to plummet by the end of the week. After opening the week at 1.3720, the euro plunged after the FOMC decision to a low of 1.3382. Adding to the sharp fall of the euro, Moody’s downgraded eight Greek Banks, and escalated worries over the country’s financial stability. The Sterling Pound opened on Monday at 1.5755, however, lost ground against the Dollar later in the week to a low of 1.5352, after minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee showed that policy makers decided not to hike the benchmark interest rate, and one member voted for an increase in the asset-purchase program to GBP 250B. The Japanese yen was the outperformer last week, as markets sought after the safe haven status of the currency. The JPY opened the week at 76.77, reached a high of 78.98, before it closed the week at 76.09.

Rumors that the Swiss National Bank was about to raise the floor of the Swiss franc to 1.2500 against Euro took the market by surprise. The EUR/CHF opened the week at 1.2057. Although the SNB denied the rumors of the devaluation, the pair soared to 1.2343 and closed the week at 1.2223. The CHF fell against the US dollar from 0.8996 to a low of 0.9182, and closed the week at 0.9057.

Housing starts Housing starts dropped more than expected in August by 33,000, from 604,000 to 571,000, signaling that the housing industry remains flat even as mortgage rates fell to record lows. Housing starts fell by 5% to a three-month low. The number fell below the expected forecast of 590,000, due to foreclosures and lack of employment, which are holding back residential construction. On the other hand, building permits rose in

Al-Tijari provides customers chances to win prizes KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced the extension of its campaign for updating its customer information which was launched in 20th July 2011 till the end of September 2011. The campaign comes within the Bank’s efforts which aim at encouraging customers to update their data and information for enhancing communication with customers and providing secured banking services.

Commenting on the campaign, Ramzi Al-Sabouri, Ramzi Al-Sabouri Executive Manager, Marketing and Sales - Retail Banking Division at Commercial Bank of Kuwait said that the Bank always endeavors to encourage customers to update their data and information with a view to provide them with better services through all service channels, emphasizing that the process of updating data by customers shall benefit customers and useful for them and guarantee the correctness and validity of all banking transactions and correspondences with the customer.

Al-Sabouri added that the Bank shall offer 50 pre-paid cards as prizes in the draw that will be held for selecting 50 winners where the first winner will qualify to win a prepaid card with a balance of KD 150 and 49 winners will qualify to win a pre paid cards with a balance of KD 50 for each.

Al-Sabouri concluded that the Bank is appreciative to those customers who have updated their data in response of this campaign and invites all other customers who have not updated their data and information to head to any of the Bank’s branches during the official working hours and prior to 30/9/2011 to update their data so that they will be eligible to enter the draw that will be held by the Bank on 9/10/2011.

August to the highest level this year, showing signs that constructions are stabilizing. Permits rose to 620,000, higher than the 590,000 forecast, representing an increase of 3.2%.

Home sales Sales of previously owned houses rose more than anticipated last month as investors bought up troubled properties with cash. Sales hiked to a five-month high in August to $5.03 million, a 7.7% increase. Economists compared the hike to the peak of $7.08 million in 2005,

challenges facing the global economy.”

German sentiment German investor confidence fell to more than a 2year low this month, as growth outlook is hampered by the escalating European debt crisis and global slowdown. Although the indicator is better than expected, it is still lower than last month’s figure by -5.7.

The Bank of England held the benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5%, even though inflation is at 4%, double the Banks’ target rate of 2%. The nine-member committee also kept the £200 billion purchase program unchanged. The decision comes as the bank weighs the affects of raising rates against the risks of higher inflation on the current economic recovery.

BOE stimulus Bank of England officials said that they may need to buy more bonds to boost an uncertain recovery, after resisting adding stimulus this month in a decision that was “finely balanced.” The BOE policy makers mentioned that it was “increasingly probable that further asset purchases to loosen monetary conditions would become warranted at some point” as the global economic recovery is acting vulnerable to increasingly disappointing news from Europe and the United States.

Japan may aid Europe Japan’s new Finance Minister Azumi said that Japan may aid the European Financial Stability Facility by buying bonds if the need for more capital arises. He also mentioned “there will be no blank check and Europe’s problems are for Europe to solve.”

just before the housing boom turned into a sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Fed not printing The Federal Reserve announced “Operation Twist”, at a scale of buying $400 billion worth of long-term Treasuries, driving the 30-year bonds to rally while sending yields to the lowest level in almost three years. The Fed intends to purchase treasuries with remaining maturities of 6 years to 30 years and sell an equal amount of treasuries with remaining maturities of 3 years or less by the end of June 2012.

Jobless claims More Americans filed for first-time claims for unem-

reduce the region‘s second-largest debt burden. The euro slid after the announcement breaking the 1.3600 level as traders worried whether European policymakers will be able to contain the euro-zone’s debt crisis.

In addition, Moody’s downgraded eight Greek banks by two notches, due to their high exposure to Greek government bonds and the deteriorating economic situation in the country. Moreover, the Greek government said it would accelerate budget cuts and extend its austerity measures to keep emergency loans flowing and to qualify for next month’s payment of 110 billion Euros. The country announced that there will be a 20% cut in pensions. The Group of 20 nations also committed to a “strong and coordinated international response to address the renewed

China stimulus China’s stimulus in any world economic slump is unlikely to be more than half the nation’s estimated 9.3 trillion Yuan ($1.46 trillion) of fiscal and monetary expansion. China’s government is struggling with elevated inflation and the threat of a deeper economic recession because of the crisis in Europe, the nation’s biggest export market, and the weakness in the US economy. In an effort to boost consumption, the government might propose temporary cuts in fees for electricity and water, and temporary tax breaks for small businesses.

Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar at 0.27605 The USD-KD opened at 0.27605 yesterday morning.

KIPCO’s new personal pensions firm receives official approval Real choice for consumers: Chairman KUWAIT: KIPCO, the Kuwait Projects Company, yesterday announced that its new personal pension and savings company, Takaud Savings & Pensions BSC (closed), has received official approval to begin operations from the Central Bank of Bahrain. The announcement means that Takaud can now begin preparations to launch the MENA region’s first range of personal pension and savings products.

Takaud Savings & Pensions is incorporated in Bahrain and aims to launch its initial product range in selected MENA countries at the beginning of next year.

In March last year, KIPCO signed an agreement with Munich Re - one of the world’s leading reinsurers - to support the development of Takaud’s long-term savings and pension products.

KIPCO believes there is a large and unmet demand throughout the MENA region

for low-risk, long-term pension products with secure and reasonable returns. Statistics from the United Nations’ Economic & Social Affairs Department projects that the number of people aged over 65 in the region, estimated at 10.6 million in 2000, will increase to 32 million, or 6.8 per cent of the total population, by 2030. This number is expected to grow to 70 million, or 12.3

Ali Al-Bagli during the draw you had to spend at least KD 100 outside Kuwait using your ABK Emirates credit cards or Prestige or Raed debit cards during the three months of the promo. The more purchases you made the more chances you had of winning these valuable prizes.

We chose the timing of the offer to coincide with the travel season, so clients can benefit and double their chances of winning. In addi-

per cent of the total population, by 2050. This means that while the region’s total population will double during the first half of the century, the population of over 65s will multiply by more than six times in the same period.

KIPCO’s Group Chief Operating Officer and Takaud Chairman, Samer Khanachet, said the announcement by the

Central Bank of Bahrain marked an important milestone in the development of the region’s personal finance industry: “ Takaud will provide consumers in our region with the type of reliable pension and savings products they have been looking for, so it is very welcome news that the regulatory authorities in Bahrain have given their final approval to the

Bahrain Central Bank governor Rasheed Mohammed Al-Maraj, (centre) meets with Takaud’s Chairman Samer Khanachet (fourth from right) and the company’s Board of Directors and management.

ABK holds third & final draw for ‘Enjoy this Summer with ABK’ KUWAIT: Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait held its third and final draw for its offer “Enjoy this summer with ABK” that was launched at the beginning of summer. The draw was held on September 22, under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“Enjoy this Summer with ABK” enabled both, ABK Emirates credit cardholders as well as Prestige and Raed debit cardholders the opportunity of winning valuable prizes.

Cardholders who had used their cards overseas for KD 100 or above between 15 June and 15 September were entitled to enter this draw.

The grand prize, a magnificent boat was won by an overjoyed Mohammed Youssef Ali Al Matrouk from the Jabriya branch and the cash prizes were won by four other customers from the Head Office, Ministry Complex, University and Sharq branches.

Stewar t Lockie, GM. Retail Banking stated, “We have concluded our successful summer campaign where we gave our customers the opportunity to enter three draws on three luxurious boats and 10 cash prizes each worth up to KD 2,500.

To enter this last and final draw

ployment as the labor market struggled to improve.

Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 9,000 last week to 423,000, although still higher than the forecasted number. The average number of claims in the past month rose for a fifth straight week, to the highest level since mid-July.

Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency downgraded Italy’s credit rating from A+ to A, and gave the country a negative outlook. The news came after escalating concerns that weakening economic growth and a “fragile” government imply that the country will not be able to

tion to the prizes clients received up to 7 Skywards Miles for every KD 1 spent using their ABK credit cards.”

Lockie added, “We would like to congratulate today’s winners, and for all our customers watch this space for more fantastic offers from ABK.” For more information you can chat live with an ABK representative on Ahli Chat via www.eahli.com or you can call Ahlan Ahli at 1 899 899.

company. Takaud can now begin its preparations to launch its product range in a number of countries in the region. We believe Takaud will change the face of the region’s personal finance industry, because until now, consumers had few or no choices in how to invest for their future and retirement. Takaud products will be specifically designed to meet the investment aspirations of people in our region and we are highly confident in the company’s success.”

The Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Rasheed M AlMaraj, said: “It is a pleasure to see KIPCO enter into this leading field and to provide pension services and long-term savings products in the Middle East through a pension company licensed in Bahrain. The Central Bank of Bahrain is supporting efforts in this area by providing a suitable environment for the growth and prosperity of these companies.”

Joyalukkas announces winners of ‘Easy Gold Plan’ in Kuwait KUWAIT: Joyaluk k as recently announced the winners of their Easy Gold Plan for the month of August. The Joyalukkas Easy Gold Plan is a unique installment based initiative for customers to save and buy jewelry of their choice in easy installments. The Joyalukkas Easy Gold Plan assures customers of more value than their savings account since Gold is considered as one of the safest investment options available today.

Under the Joyaluk k as Easy Gold Plan, customers can choose a monthly payment option starting from KD 10 and retain it for a period of 12, 18 or 24 months. At the end of the period customers can pick the jewelr y of their choice from the Joyalukkas showrooms based on the value saved.

Most customers who have participated in the scheme have endorsed that the Joyalukkas Easy Gold Scheme has given them much better returns than Fixed Deposits.

“Joyalukkas is committed to giving customers convenience,

value, choice and excellent service. The Easy Gold Scheme is part of our convenience initiative to make the purchase of jewelry very easy and secure for our customers.

We assure their returns and we give them the flexibility of picking the jewelry they like and would love to own”, said Joy Alukkas, Chairman, Joyalukkas Group The winners for the month of August under the Joyalukkas Easy Gold Plan are Jissy George, EGP Card No: 1491003258 and Riyas,

EGP card no. 1491002357. They each get to win gold coins from Joyalukkas.

Joyalukkas is one of the first ISO certified jewelry retailers in the M iddle East and has also recently won the Superbrand status in UAE. In addition to this, Joyalukkas has been recognized with the Dubai Quality Awards certificate for its best practices in all aspects of jewelry retailing and has also won Middle East’s Retailer of the Year award from Retail ME.

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KSE equities plunge GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: The bearish trend persisted in the global market during the weekend hit Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) hard yesterday. On the whole, a negative trend prevailed in the GCC market yesterday.

Investors’ concerns about a possible Greek debt default and the flagging US economy continued to affect the regional market sentiment.

Global General Index (GGI) ended the day down by 1.22 percent, at 180.43 point. Market capitalization was also down for the day, reaching KD29.46bn. On the other hand, KSE Price Index closed at 5,849.8 point, shedding 66.4 points (1.12 percent) to its previous close.

Market breadth During the session, 99 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 74 equities declined versus 7 that advanced.

Trading activity was up during the session. Total volume traded was up by 31.83 percent with 205.24mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD25.19mn (35.98 percent higher compared to Monday’s session). Services sector was the volume leader, accounting for 35.41 percent of total shares exchanges. Al-Safat Energy Holding Company was the session’s most traded stock with 29.04mn shares exchanged. The same sector was the value leader, having 38.41 percent of total traded value. Zain Company was the most active in terms of value traded, with KD4.65mn worth of shares traded. In terms of top gainers, Gulf Petroleum Investment Company was the top gainer for the day, adding 8.62 percent to its share value and closing at KD0.032.

The board of Gulf Petroleum Investment Company in its meet-

ing held on Thursday, September 22, 2011 gave a nod to lifting capital by KD10mn. A total of 100mn shares will be issued at 100 fils each with no issue premium. This approval is subject to the endorsement of competent authorities, mainly the Capital Market Authority (CMA), the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MOCI) as well as the ordinary and extraordinary shareholder meetings of the company.On the other hand, Global Investment House shed 12.66 percent and closed at KD0.0345, making it the biggest decliner in the market.

Sectors It was a bad session for the Kuwaiti market as all sectors wit-

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

BUSINESS

nessed losses, except for the food sector, which recorded an increase of 0.12 percent as witnessed in Global Food Index. This increase was mainly on the account of Danah Al Safat Foodstuff Company which gained 4.00 percent to close at KD0.078, while other frontline companies such as Kuwait Foodstuff Company (Americana) closed flat at KD1.500.

Global Investment Index was the prominent loser, as it ended the day down by 2.28 percent. Many stock witnessed losses in this sector, Coast Investment & Development Company lost 6.67 percent, Kuwait Financial Center declined by 5.36 percent and Al Imtiaz Investment Company lost 3.57 percent. In reference to a previously released news,

Al-Safat Investment Company ended the day up by 5.13 percent at KD0.082.

Global Industrial Index plunged by 1.72 percent during the day, as reflected by the fall of many stocks in this sector such as heavyweight Kuwait Cement Company which declined by 1.92 percent, as well as National Industries Group (Holding) (-2.70 percent) and Boubyan International Industries Holding (-2 percent).

Oil News The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at USD105.11pb on Thursday, compared with USD108.99 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

Chinese target Arctic with Iceland land deal REYKJAVIK: A Chinese businessman’s plans to buy a swathe of Iceland for a resort have sparked local skepticism, amid speculation it is a bid by Beijing to get its hands on Arctic riches.

The melting Arctic ice cap means lucrative oil and gas deposits under the seabed could soon become accessible, and shorter shipping routes between Asia and Europe will open up.

Observers suggest those prospects may be the real reason behind property tycoon Huang Nubo’s plans to buy 300 square kilometers (200 square miles) of Icelandic wilderness.

He says he wants to build a luxury resort with a hotel, golf course and sports facilities, and Europe’s biggest nature reserve. The purchase could give China a foothold in the region-enabling it to establish contacts and gather information-before the Arctic treasure chest opens up.

“It is likely that the Chinese government will find every way to enhance cooperation at multiple levels-scientific, economic, political and otherwise to lay the groundwork for future involvement in the construction and operation of infrastructural hubs” in the Arctic, Embla Eir Oddsdottir, project manager at The Stefansson Arctic Institute in Iceland, told AFP. “The possibility of shipping and transport across the Arctic is very important for China,” she noted.

With the icecap melting in summertime, the route between the Atlantic and the Pacific will shorten the sailing distance between Shanghai and Europe by about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles).

“In talks with Icelandic authorities, (the Chinese) have made a point of saying it was very plausible” that China would use Iceland as a trans-Arctic shipping port, the chairman of the Icelandic parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Arni Thor Sigurdsson, told AFP. Marc Lanteigne, a senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and an expert on China’s rise as a strategic and economic power, said there were “very strong, and often very opaque, links between large Chinese businesses and the country’s government.”

China could especially be eying the up to 160 billion barrels of oil believed to be in the Arctic.

“China is now importing more than 50

percent of its crude oil consumed, and like other large economies is worried about the safety of petroleum imports from the Middle East and is seeking alternative sources,” Lanteigne said. He noted Beijing had been active in the oil trade in Central Asia, the Caspian region and sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.

“It is therefore very likely that China would want to increase its presence in the Arctic out of concern for being left out of oil exploration there,” he said. Sigurdsson noted China had “no direct claim to natural resources” in the region, but could “become a participant ... by cooperating with states or companies searching for resources.”

Observers stressed there was no concrete indication Beijing would use Huang’s land purchase to hunt for Arctic riches. Yet his plans have raised eyebrows in Reykjavik, where Interior Minister Oegmundur Jonasson has said he would scrutinise the application carefully. Jonasson insisted the land “is not up for sale simply because a high price is being offered.” Huang has offered to buy the partially state-held land, known as Grimsstadir a Fjoellum, for $10 million and wants to invest a total of $100 million (70 million euros). The former government official, whose company Zhongkun Group owns resorts and tourist facilities worldwide, has said he is attracted by Iceland’s wilderness and pledged to respect the local environment.

Tourism bureau chief Oloef Yr Atladottir said she was favourable to Huang’s plans, saying the investment as presented would be “very positive.”

A recent poll showed 59.1 percent of Icelanders were wary yet supported the sale, largely because Iceland could use the much-needed cash injection after its devastating 2008 economic crash.

Since the collapse of its overweighted financial sector, tourism has become a key source of revenue.

Lanteigne said the location Huang had chosen was notable. “The location ... is significant given that northern Iceland is being viewed as a potential depot for fossil fuel exploration vessels,” he said. In addition, Iceland’s position in the North Atlantic “would mean that a Chinese strategic presence of any type would be enough to unsettle governments in the United States and Europe,” Lanteigne said. —AFP

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

business

Empowering women powers nations

By Robert B Zoellick magine if a city of almost four million people disappeared every year. A Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Yokohama. It would be hard to miss. Yet it goes largely unnoticed that almost four million girls and women “go missing” each year in developing countries when compared to their female counterparts in developed countries. About two-fifths are never born; a sixth die in early childhood, and more than a third die in their reproductive years.

High mortality rates are just one of many barriers to equality between men and women, as argued in the World Bank’s new report. Equality is not just the right thing to do. It’s smart economics. How can an economy achieve full potential if it ignores, sidelines or fails to invest in half its population?

The world has taken significant steps over the past 25 years toward narrowing the gaps between men and women in education, health and labor markets.

Today, girls and boys participate equally in primary education in most developing countries; a third have more girls in secondary school than boys. At the university level, women now outnumber men in more than 60 countries. Women are using their education to participate increasingly in the labor force, diversify their time beyond housework and childcare and shape their communities, economies and societies. Women now make up more than 40 percent of the global labor force - including a large share of the world’s entrepreneurs and farmers.

This pace of change has been remarkable: For example, what took the United States 40 years to achieve in increasing girls’ school enrollment, Morocco did in a decade.

Other dimensions of equality, however, portray a more disturbing picture. Girls who are poor, live in remote areas or belong to minority groups still cannot attend school as easily as boys.

Women are more likely than men to work in low-paying occupations, to farm smaller plots and to manage smaller firms in less profitable sectors.

Whether workers, farmers or entrepreneurs, women earn less than men: 20 percent less in Mexico and Egypt; 40 percent less in Georgia, Germany or India; 66 percent less in Ethiopia. Women especially poor women- have less say over decisions and less control over household resources than men. Women’s voice and representation in society, business and politics is significantly lower

I

than men’s - with little difference between poor and rich countries.

Leveling the playing field for women would offer huge potential. Talk to Julian Omalla. This Ugandan business woman had trouble getting a loan in 2007. She was not alone. Ugandan women owned nearly 40 percent of registered businesses, our research showed, but got less than 10 percent of commercial credit. Since Omalla gained access to credit, thanks to Uganda’s DFCU Bank and the World Bank’s private sector arm the IFC, her food and beverage company has thrived. Today it employs hundreds of people.

Much more can be done to stop women from being economically marginalized. Equalizing access to fertilizers, and other inputs for

World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick female and male farmers, for example, could increase agricultural yields in much of Africa by 11 percent to 20 percent. Removing obstacles to women that block certain sectors and occupations could raise output per worker by 3 percent to 25 percent depending on the country. Legal reforms that would allow women to own land and businesses, or inherit property, can free them to become economic agents of change.

Putting resources in the hands of women has shown to be good not just for them, but also for their children. It increases a child’s chances of survival, health and nutrition and school per-

formance. Empowering women to use their talents and skills can boost countries’ competitiveness and support growth -a valuable, under-used resource in an uncertain global economy. During the 2008 financial crisis, women’s incomes helped keep many families afloat -hence the importance of ensuring that women’s productivity and incomes are not held down by market or institutional barriers, or overt discrimination.

This challenge is not just about developing countries. Around the world, one in 10 women will be sexually or physically abused by a partner, or someone she knows, over her lifetime.

The World Bank’s new report calls for action in four areas: * addressing human capital issues, like the higher mortality of girls and women, through investment in clean water and maternal care and persistent disadvantages in education through targeted programs; * closing the earning and productivity gaps between women and men - by improving access to productive resources; water and electricity, and childcare; * increasing participation by women in decisions made within households and societies; and * limiting gender inequality across generations, by investing in the health and education of adolescent boys and girls, creating opportunities to improve their lives and offering family planning information.

We have seen that focused policy attention can make a difference. Sustainable solutions are best grounded in partnerships including families, the private sector, governments, development agencies and religious and civil society groups.

Even in the most traditional societies and poorest villages, I have seen that when women gain opportunities to earn more for their families, it quickly overcomes men’s suspicions - or even initial hostility.

But people often need a project that sparks a changed outlook.

The poorest countries can accomplish much more with financial help. The World Bank will invest, in part, because the economic payoffs are large. Gender equality is the right thing to do. And it is also smart economics.

(Robert B. Zoellick is the president of the World Bank Group.

Their new report, “World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development,” was released on Monday.)

BAE may cut 3,000 jobs as Typhoon jet output slows Govt slashes defense outlay amid crisis

JAKARTA: Customers look at a new Honda Scoopy motorcycle at a Honda showroom in Jakarta. Unreliable public transport, congested roads and a booming middle class make populous Indonesia one of the world’s largest motorcycle markets, and Japan’s Honda Motor wants a bigger slice of the pie. — AFP

Emirates Airline says no drop in demand yet HAMBURG: State -owned carrier Emirates Airline is not yet seeing a downturn in business and bookings for the next few months are at high levels, even as other airlines warn stuttering economies are affecting sales. “As yet, fingers crossed, we have not seen any diminution of demand,” President Tim Clark told Reuters in an interview at Hamburg airport.

Lufthansa last week warned on profits and said it would offer fewer seats on its planes this winter than previously expected. In contrast, low-cost rival easyjet lifted its guidance for the year, boosted by business passengers.

Clark said booking levels were in the high 70 percent range for November, which he described as strong for the time of year. Clark, who flew into Hamburg on an Airbus A380 superjumbo as part of the airport’s 100th anniversary celebrations, said the UK and Germany were doing well, while its Athens operations were seeing good load factors and yields.

“Our biggest single problem is fuel, but that’s coming off now, he said.

“You’ve got the euro and sterling going through the floor, and that gives us sleepless nights because so much of our income comes out of the euro zone and

the UK but on the other hand, the non euro zone currencies are stronger.”

Clark said fast-growing Emirates, which is the biggest A380 customer with 90 orders placed, was not interested in taking off any planes from Air Berlin , which is scaling back its fleet as it strives to return to profitability. “It’s important that they sort themselves out because Air Berlin’s a very good partner for us,” he added.

Clark also said the carrier was no further with trying to get slots at Berlin’s new airport, due to be opened next summer. There have been reports that flag carrier Lufthansa has asked the government not to award slots to Emirates.

Lufthansa has been openly critical of Emirates, accusing it and other Gulf carriers of having an unfair advantage and distorting the market because they are backed by rich states.

“If we were flying in empty and charging silly prices and wrecking markets etc, then the case of our friends in the various airlines that seem to be opposed to us would rest, but it doesn’t,” Clark said.

“There are lots of places Lufthansa doesn’t fly to,” he said, citing places such as many Africa cities, Australia and Indonesia. “We do, and the Germans want to go there.” — Reuters

KFH Bahrain to advise on merger of 3 banks DUBAI: Kuwait Finance House’s Bahraini unit will advise on the merger of three Islamic banks in the Gulf state, its chief executive said in a statement yesterday, without naming the institutions involved.

KFH-Bahrain’s Chief Executive Abdul Hakim Al-Khayyat said after the potential merger, the newly created entity will have capital of $400 million and assets of $500 million. Al-Khayyat said a likely merger will take between 6 to 9 months to complete, adding that the banks will announce their decision within a few weeks, once negotiations reach an advanced stage.

In August, Bahrain Islamic Bank and Al Salam Bank said the two banks are in merger talks to form the Gulf Arab state’s largest Islamic lender with assets of 1.7 billion dinars ($4.5 billion), according to a statement on the Bahraini bourse website.

The banks hired KPMG Fakhro as advisor after receiving approval from the central bank for their planned merger. Consolidation in the Gulf ’s financial sector have long been touted as a necessity but have seen little success in an industr y frozen by unrealistic valuations and ownership limits. — Reuters

LONDON: British defense giant BAE Systems is set to announce up to 3,000 job losses as it struggles to secure new orders for the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet and slows deliveries to the project’s existing customers amid cuts to defense budgets, British media reports said yesterday.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper and broadcaster Sky News said up to 3,000 workers could lose their jobs, all of them in Britain, as BAE prepares for a possible slowdown in production.

The Sunday Telegraph said the job losses could come as early as next week at two of the firm’s military aircraft division plants in northern England. BAE has a 33 percent stake in the Eurofighter joint venture company alongside EADS and Finmeccanica and has received orders for some 550 planes from the four partner nations involved-the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. A spokeswoman for BAE said the company would not be drawn on possible job cut figures, which she said were speculative.

“As a company we haven’t officially announced anything yet and our approach to this is, as and

when we do, we would inform our staff first,” she said.

But in a statement the company, which is Britain’s biggest manufacturing business, said it had informed staff it is “reviewing our operations across various businesses” to make sure it was best placed to secure future business.

It blamed a lack of fighter jet orders on depressed world markets and said a rationalization of some parts of the business was therefore needed. BAE said: “In order to bridge the gap between current demand and future anticipated export contracts the production rate on the current Typhoon program for the partner nations will be slowed.”

It added: “BAE Systems recognizes that the long-term future of Typhoon is based on its export potential and therefore we need to ensure we are in the best possible position to secure those opportunities. Extending the production program will help us achieve this.”

A spokeswoman for BAE said the review “had more to do with the bridging of the gap between the production of aircraft for those partner nations and any export requirements.”

The firm said it was actively pursuing Typhoon sales in India, Japan, Oman and Malaysia and that exports of the fighter aircraft “remained a priority” for the business.

The timing of the possible layoffs in the defense industry will come as an embarrassment to the Conservative-led coalition government which is seeking to rebalance the economy away from financial services and towards manufacturing. Unions reacted angrily to the reports, describing the possible job losses as a “hammer blow” to the industry.

Unite, Britain’s biggest union, said it would seek urgent clarification from BAE to clarify which sites will be hit by the losses and would press for redundancies to be voluntary.

The Sunday Telegraph said the plants expected to be worst affected are BAE’s military aircraft division in Warton, Lancashire, and Brough, East Yorkshire, both in northern England.

BAE has already slashed 15,000 jobs globally in the past two years. Chief Executive Ian King warned in February that more job cuts could be needed. — Reuters

Trade volume in UAE free zones, markets hits AED 101bn in Q1 ABU DHABI: Trade volume in UAE free zones of 2011 first quarter reached approximately AED 101 billion, for AED 84.6 billion at the same period of time in the last year, with an increase of AED 16.4 billion with 19 percent growth.

The Federal Customs Authority (FCA) announced in a press release that the free zone trade of the first quarter of this year represented 31 percent of the total volume of the trade, referring to the fact that the total UAE trade volume (non-oil external trade and free zone trade) in the first quarter of the year reached AED 329.4 billion, of which imports hit AED 204.2 billion, 27.3 billion for exports and reexports contributed AED 98 billion.

FCA added that the free zone trade data reflected the economic role played by those zones in national economy and international trade. The growth rate in the free zones trade revealed a rebound in economy and trade, and highlighted the national economy’s ability to lure foreign funds. It also confirmed that the UAE outshined as an ideal business environment.

Imports volume of the free zones reached 19 percent Y-o-Y (year over year) in 2010, from AED 48.8 billion in 2010 to AED 57.4 billion.

Exports and re-exports reached AED 43.6 billion, rising 20 percent from AED 36.2 billion in 2010.

In the first quarter of this year, the total trade volume of free zones and markets in terms of weight reached about 4.4 million tons, including 2.8 million tons of imports, 286,000 tons of exports and 13 million tons of reexports. Thus, the daily average weight of imported and exported shipments and consignments dealt with by the different free zones and markets amounted to about 18.3,000 tons per day on the basis of official working hours (8 hours for 5 days a week), with an average of 2.3,000 tons per hour, the authority pointed out.

China, India, the USA, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Hungary, Switzerland, Malaysia and

France respectively, were the leading exporters to the free zones in the first quarter with a value of AED 39.6 billion, or 69 percent of the total value of the UAE imports.

Regarding exports, Iran, India, Iraq, Germany, USA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UK, Turkey and Somalia consecutively were on top with a gross value of AED 1.6 billion, representing 56 percent of the total UAE exports.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Belgium, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Oman consecutively were on top in re-exports with a gross value of AED 27.6 billion, representing 68 percent of the total UAE re-exports.

The re-exports of the UAE free zones to the GCC countries rose compared to its imports, which means that GCC region is a key reexport destination for UAE free zones.

The trade volume with this region in terms

of value, in the first quarter of the year, reached almost AED 11.1 billion, of which imports represented AED 1.7 billion, compared to AED 9.3 billion in re-exports and 182 million in exports.

According to the authority, Saudi Arabia was the leading trading partner among GCC countries with a trade volume of AED 6.5 billion in the quarter of 2011.

It was followed by Kuwait (AED 2.1 billion), Qatar (AED 1.2 billion), Oman (AED 772 million), and Bahrain (AED 594 million). The total free zones trade volume of the UAE with the Arab countries in terms of value in the first quarter witnessed an increase in the re-exports from these countries. The overall foreign trade volume of the UAE with Arab countries reached AED 20.3 billion, including AED 2.1 billion of imports, AED 802 million and AED 17.4 billion of re-exports. —KUNA

SEOUL: South Korea’s Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Joong-Kyung (center) bows in apology for the September 15 power outage at the parliament in Seoul. —AFP

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BUSINESS

Thai rice scheme causes price uncertainty BANGKOK: A populist policy aimed at boosting the incomes of Thai farmers has raised fears of global rice price turbulence, and experts say the kingdom could just be hurting itself.

Thailand, the world’s biggest rice

exporter, has vowed to boost the minimum price farmers receive by buying unmilled rice directly at 15,000 baht ($485) per ton from October. The current price is about 10,000 baht. The move, part of an array of promises that helped pro-

BANGKOK: A Thai vendor shows a variety of rice on sale at his shop at a market in Bangkok yesterday. A populist policy aimed at boosting the incomes of Thai farmers has raised fears of global rice price turbulence, but experts say the kingdom could just be hurting itself. —AFP

pel former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s allies to victory in a July election, has fuelled speculation that world prices could be set to surge. While it is unclear what effect the policy might have on global consumers, prices have already risen and observers fear a spike could pile further pressure on poor importer nations.

Rice is the staple food for more than three billion people, about half the world’s population, and Thailand produces about one third of global exports, with China, Bangladesh, Philippines, South Africa and Nigeria among its major customers.

Export prices for Thai rice on world markets have jumped from $500 per ton in early July to around $600 as Thai farmers withheld stocks to take advantage of the rice deal, according to analysis from Capital Economics. The Thai Rice Exporters Association, concerned that the country could lose out to competitors, has warned that prices could hit $800 per ton.

Vichai Sriprasert, head of Riceland International, said last week the move could push Thai

prices “higher than anybody”. “Any government in the world when they subsidize their commodities (it is) to be more competitive, but Thailand just did the opposite,” he said. The United States Department of Agriculture predicts Thai exports, projected at 10 million tons this year, will slump by 20 percent in 2012, although global trade is predicted to drop just four percent from a 2011 record high.

In a report earlier this month, it said Vietnamese exporters had already used their competitive advantage over Thailand to up sales, leading to a four percent rise in their price quotes since August as supply tightened.

But government spokeswoman Anuttama Amornvivat said Thailand did not expect the move to affect the kingdom’s dominant status in the market. “We are confident we can export the same amount of rice but will earn more,” she said, adding that Thailand expects 3.7 million farming households to benefit from the scheme.

Export representatives from Thailand and Vietnam—the world’s second biggest supplier—warned

of the effect on consumer prices at a recent meeting in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. “Vietnam is worried that the high price of Thai rice will cause their rice for domestic consumption to increase,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, referring to Vietnam’s double-digit inflation. A report from the USAID-affiliated Famine Early Warning Systems Network last month said Asian rice prices had risen “significantly” since July, driven mainly by the Thai government proposal. “Unless trade in rice is disrupted by national policies, prices should remain relatively stable,” it predicted, forecasting that world production would increase slightly ahead of consumption in 2011/12. “If, however, rice prices were to increase, this development would have an adverse impact on food security in low-income, fooddeficit countries, especially in the context of high oil prices and a global slowdown in economic activity.”

Capital Economics said prices were still unlikely to reach “anywhere near” their 2008 level, when they peaked at around $1,000 a ton

amid export curbs in India and rocketing oil prices.

It said high forecasts were based on assumptions that Thailand would stockpile a large amount of rice, adding it could instead choose to sell at a discount. Economists said the bill for the scheme could be significant, which suggests “the government will be keen to pass at least some of the cost to consumers. But it also suggests that the scheme may not be in place for very long.”

The rice project is similar to one set up under Thaksin-who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption-and is part of a raft of measures, including a rise in the minimum wage, aimed at his poor and rural support base.

Thai economist Ammar Siamwalla, who said he “had a hand in” the last government’s rival rice income guarantee subsidy that paid farmers when prices hit a base level, warned the scheme was open to corruption.

He told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand this week that research into a similar 2005 program showed farmers received only 37 percent of the total project expenditure. —AFP

IMF pledges action amid global fear on EU crisis Warnings surge from around the world WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund pledged firm collective action yesterday as warnings surged from around the world over a possible European economic meltdown.

With calls for the European Union to move coming from all sides-including China, the United States, Brazil and a host of fragile poorer countries-the IMF said that Europe’s leaders would take whatever action is needed to prevent the current debt crisis from

days would head off more panic in markets, which have plunged since July on worries over the advanced economies.

Acknowledging that Europe is the focus of the current crisis, the IMF’s policy board said it had agreed to act decisively “to restore confidence and financial stability, and rekindle global growth.”

“Euro-area countries will do whatever is necessary to resolve the euro-area sovereign debt crisis and ensure the financial stabil-

and Finance Committee.

IMFC chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam said there was not just individual resolve, but a collective resolve that we will do what it takes to prevent an escalation of the crisis.”

It was an echo of late Thursday’s surprise statement by the G20 group of developed and industrial economies following a particularly violent one -day plunge in global markets. “We are taking strong actions to maintain financial stability, restore

WASHINGTON: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Bahrain’s Minister of Finance Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Richard Mills and World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick take part in a closing news conference of the IMF/ World Bank Annual Meetings at IMF headquarters in Washington on Saturday. —AP escalating.

But worries remained that moves to fix fiscal deficits in Europe and the United States were already hurting the rest of the world, with surplus liquidity fueling food and oil price increases and market volatility, and spending cuts choking off growth, investment and trade.

And it was hardly clear whether the second statement by the world’s top financial officials on the euro-zone crisis in two

ity of the euro-area as a whole and its member states,” the board said.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde, on the firing line two months after being unexpectedly drafted from her job as French finance minister to lead the global emergency lender, insisted that the world’s top financial officials were serious about facing the crisis. “There was no denial, no finger-pointing,” she said of the meeting of the IMF’s powerful International Monetary

confidence and support growth,” they said.

All week, calls came in from government and finance leadersincluding members of the G20 — for euro-zone leaders to move decisively and in unison to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt and to shore up weak banks.

Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan told the IMFC that “the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area needs to be

resolved promptly to stabilize market confidence.”

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that markets were moving faster than Europe’s leaders, and said they were depending too much on the European central bank to handle the problem. While there were many ideas floated on what Europe needed to do, Germany and France, as well as Lagarde, insisted that they would stick to the July 21 package of new money for Greece and a broadening of the scope of the emergency European Financial Stability Facility.

“We in Europe are generally on the right path, especially we in Germany,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted in Washington.

“We are hand in hand with Germany to implement the July 21 agreement, not to move away from this strategy,” French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said.

But there was still clear widespread nervousness over two coming hurdles: whether Greece can satisfy the IMF and EU that it is implementing austerity reforms enough to earn another eight billion euro handout that will allow it to avoid default, and whether the parliaments of the 17 members of the euro-zone will ratify the July 21 pact by mid-October as targeted, to allow the new financing for Greece and for banks to get underway.

Greece wants to stay in the euro-zone, and the other members want it to stay, Schaeuble said. “If the necessary measures (by Greece) will be taken, we’ll do everything to make that happen,” he added. —AFP

Yacht world seduces China, Brazil’s super-rich buyers MONACO: Russian oligarchs and their floating palaces helped keep the luxury yachting industry buoyant through the crisis, but super-rich buyers from China and Brazil are rushing to join them on the waves.

Emerging market billionaires are showing a keen interest in superyachts, according to pundits at this year’s Monaco Yacht Show, the prestigious four-day global yacht gathering that wrapped up here on Saturday.

“The BRIC-Brazil, Russia, India and Chinanations are much more active than they were three to four years ago,” Ellie Brade, Pacific editor at the Superyacht Group monthly magazine told AFP. China now has 115 billionaires, without counting Hong Kong, according to the Forbes rich list, second only to the United States and ahead of Russia’s 101. “Right now there is a significant and growing demand amongst wealthy Asian people, and in particular, the Chinese, to properly enjoy yachting,” said Olivier Besson, managing director of YPI Asia, an Asian joint venture run by Monaco superyacht firm YPI. Almost all of YPI Asia’s buyers come from mainland China, Besson said, but until recently most of the boats sold there were smaller vessels. “Now, they have had a glimpse of the benefits that owning a superyacht can bring

and they like what they see,” Besson said.

In Monaco this week, Besson had three clients jetting in from Asia to look at 45-metre to 60-metre (196 feet) boats, among the 100plus luxury vessels on show.

Pierrik Devic at Fraser Yachts Monaco, was also entertaining a number of Chinese clients at the fair.

“The Russians are still the biggest clients amongst the BRIC countries, but the Chinese are potentially very big clients,” he said.

Recent superyacht purchases by Chinese buyers include the sleek, 65-metre (213-foot) Lady Lau-launched last year with five decks and guest rooms in a range of styles from Thai and Chinese to Egyptian.

In April, YPI Asia sent a 65-metre AzimutBenetti superyacht, Ambrosia, to the Hainan yacht show, the largest megayacht ever seen in local waters. Another reason for the boom: there are “more opportunities for people to operate yachts in these regions,” Brade said.

‘Understanding their culture’ Some hurdles persist in China, including a very high wealth tax of over 43 percent, YPI Asia’ Besson said. But the lack of infrastructure that long held back the yachting market is changing, experts said, with a string of

marina projects underway along China’s shores, including a superyacht facility in Tianjin near Beijing.

Meanwhile on the Latin American market, leading Italian yacht builder Azimut Benetti has seen its Brazilian sales soar 45 percent over the past five years, the firm’s sales and marketing manager Stefano de Vivo told AFP. Benetti worked around the hurdle of high Brazilian import taxes on luxury goods by setting-up a local production facility. Booming India is another target country for the yachting industry, and Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, recently snapped up a 95metre (311 feet) yacht, the Indian Empress.

To cultivate this promising new clientele, most of the international firms that buy, sell, charter and manage the floating palaces have been opening offices in Asia and South America. But for the industry, until now focused on Europeans and North Americans, catering to these new buyers is a learning curve. “It’s about educating potential clients about owning superyachts-and understanding their culture,” Brade stressed.

Sun-loving, partying Brazilians for instance want lots of swimming decks and outdoor space, while many Chinese do not swim and prefer to keep out of the sun. —AFP

NEW YORK: Rachael Pletz (right) holds up a sign as she and others participate in a march organized by Occupy Wall Street on Saturday in New York.

Marchers represented various causes both political and economic. —AP

Police arrest 80 Wall Street protestors NEW YORK: At least 80 people protesting in New York against the US financial system and Wall Street practices were arrested on Saturday in the first big crackdown since demonstrators began camping on city streets a week ago.

“About 80 arrests were made,” a spokesman for the New York Police Depar tment told AFP. Most of the detained protestors were accused of blocking traffic and government facilities, and resisting arrest. One person was charged with assaulting a police officer and one officer suffered a shoulder injury, the department spokesman said.

The main protest website, occupywallst.org, said between 80 and 100 people had been arrested, most of them in the Union Square area of Manhattan.

Footage on the site showed police corralling a crowd with orange plastic mesh. The Occupy Wall Street protest began on September 17 in the vicinity of the heavily guarded New York Stock Exchange. A week later, a hardcore of demonstrators remained camped around the clock in a small nearby park.

Although only loosely organized, protestors have persevered despite a heavy police presence and several days of rain. The demonstrators communicate constantly through YouTube, Twitter and other online platforms. They say they are motivated by anger against the huge disparity between the very rich in the country and the growing number of people struggling in the aftermath of the US financial crisis and recession. —AFP

Poland CB head: Ready to aid banks with liquidity WASHINGTON: Poland ’s central bank is ready to supply the country’s banking system with liquidity if a need arises and its intervention in the foreign exchange market will be random, Governor Marek Belka said late yesterday.

The current storms in the European economy carry a risk of shortages of available cash, Belka told journalists at the sidelines of the I nternational M onetar y Fund/World Bank autumn meeting in Washington. “The central bank is ready to, if it becomes necessary, to supply liquidity to Polish banks,” he said. “They should feel secure. Even if the international banking system dries up they can count on us.”

Belka also said that should the current destabilization in the country’s forex market continue, the central bank will carry out intermittent intervention aimed at keeping the ruble from sliding and spooking speculative investors. On Friday, Polish authorities launched an unprecedented coordinated intervention on the forex and debt mar-

kets to rescue the zloty and bonds, which have been pummelled this week by the global flight from risk.

The move drove up the zlot y more than two percent against the euro. “We will be intervening - randomly, when we will decide that the market is destabilizing, but not defending any rate,” Belka said.

Friday’s move was the bank’s first forex inter vention since April 9, 2010, and only the second since Poland adopted its free-float system for the currency.The zloty had tested 27-month lows against the euro in recent days amid fears of a second global recession and the debt crisis in the euro zone.

The governor also said that the government has been doing a good job on lowering budget deficit and will have no problem of reaching this year’s target of 5.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“In general I think we will be nicely surprised with our fiscal results this year,” Belka said. “Maybe the same will happen next year. Here, we are not that confident.” —Reuters

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Brain scans let computer reconstruct movie scenes Technology set to reveal dreams, hallucinations

SAN FRANCISCO: Global IP Solutions’ Dovid Coplon (right) and John Hermansen demonstrate their video conferencing software technology while talking to Niklas Enbom, who is in Sweden. — MCT

Video chat gets an upgrade SAN FRANCISCO: It’s a sparkling morning in the South of Market neighborhood, the city’s tech ghetto. But at Global IP Solutions, the light outside Niklas Enbom’s office is shading toward an evening blue. Enbom is on a video chat to Global IP Solutions’ San Francisco headquarters from Sweden, where it is nine hours later and dusk is fast approaching. The company, which typically uses its acronym GIPS, provides the underlying video and audio technology for the newly released version of Yahoo Messenger video chat, the service the Swedish executive is using to connect from Stockholm. GIPS also provides the audio technology for Google’s competing service within Google Talk.

Enbom, GIPS’s vice president for software development, is saying that a $70 webcam connected to virtually any PC or Mac built in the last few years with a broadband Internet connection will produce a high-quality video chat experience, even to countries that lack the robust telecom infrastructure of the United States. “A standard PC can do this in real time, with good quality,” Enbom says over the video link.

Even from Sweden, his lips move in almost perfect synchronization with his words, and the audio quality is comparable to a landline telephone connection.

The video is good enough to notice that it’s around sunset in Stockholm, where a large part of GIPS’s engineers are based.

In short, the technology is good enough that you start to forget about the technology and concentrate on the conversation. For decades, ever since Dick Tracy made calls through the video screen on his wristwatch, video chat has been a personal technology everybody could imagine using, but that - for an array of technology, standardization and sociological reasons - few have actually used.

A survey this spring by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only about 20 percent of adult US Internet users have participated in a video chat.

Video chat “is this thing that’s always in the future,” said Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at comScore, a marketing research company that tracks many aspects of the online audience. But following a decade of hard work on the difficult software challenge of producing a good-quality video and voice connection over the Internet, GIPS says that future has finally arrived.

In many ways, GIPS officials said, audio was the bigger technical challenge. Engineers had to design software to overcome microphone echoes and to accommodate different sound levels from different makes of microphones.

They even introduced “comfort noise” low levels of background hiss when no one is speaking that subconsciously reassure users they are still connected.

Anybody with a PC or Mac that has at least 1 gigabyte of memory and a DSL or faster Internet connection has the processing power and bandwidth to have a high-quality video chat through its technology, GIPS says. Both Google and Yahoo allow anyone with a Gmail or Yahoo mail account to download software to make free video chat calls. As Americans become more mobile, video

chat would seem to fill a need, alongside cell phone texting, Facebook status-casting and the other personal communication tools that have recently joined the telephone.

With more computers being shipped with built-in webcams, video chat may be close to that critical mass that will cause it to mushroom in popularity, just as online video did when enough users had broadband Internet connections, Lipsman said. GIPS says its technology, which compresses and limits the number of bytes it needs to send through the Internet’s pipes to produce a quality video and audio connection, will speed that transformation.

Technology is only part of why it hasn’t happened yet, Internet experts say.

Frustrating standardization issues remain: Someone on Yahoo Messenger can’t video chat with someone on Google Talk or other services because there are no common standards that allow various services to connect to one another. Imagine if Verizon mobile phone users couldn’t call people on the networks of AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile.

Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, DC, said there are also social reasons why video chat has not been embraced. In many daily interactions, people don’t want the level of intimacy required by a video chat, Rainie said.

“It is more complicated than an instant message, where you can just dash it off and do it in the midst of doing other things,” Rainie said over the phone from Washington. “ With a webcam exchange, you can’t be multi-tasking, or even thinking about it. With a phone call - as I’m talking to you right now, I’m looking at my screen. And if I felt like it, I could be browsing my e-mail, or I could be filing my nails, or tying my shoe, and you wouldn’t be bugged that I wasn’t making eye contact.

“What some people tell us is that what they like with electronic communication is that they can apportion their attention without suffering in any great social way.”

Despite those issues, Yahoo says its video chat traffic is up since it launched its latest version of Messenger with the GIPS technology on Aug24. Yahoo says people in video conversations through its Messenger service now spend double the time per call as people on audio-only calls, though a spokesman declined to say just how much time that is. “We’re extremely pleased,” said spokesman Jason Khoury. “We’re extremely happy with the service (GIPS) has produced, and we’re really happy with the engagement” of users.

What you need to video chat GIPS says you don’t need an expensive webcam or a high-powered computer for a high-quality video chat. The company recommends the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, which includes a microphone and retails for about $70 to $100. The company says any PC or M ac with more than 1 gigabyte of memory should have the processing power to support a good video chat experience. — MCT

Spam without borders There are almost no spam-free zones left in the world today. For many years, spammers have fought hard for areas of the world from which they could launch spam attacks, constantly trying to maintain their conquered territories while annexing new ones. Meanwhile law-enforcement agencies, anti-spam vendors and other interested parties are doing their best to combat the ‘invasion’.

Statistics show that unlike 2010, in 2011 the share of spam distributed from different regions stopped fluctuating from month to month. No longer is half the world’s spam coming from just three countries. The zombie machines used to spread spam emails are now distributed fairly evenly throughout the world, signalling the end of the spammers’ geographical expansion.

Infected computers sending spam are now found as far afield as South Africa and on remote Pacific islands.

This shift in the geographical spread of spam sources is primarily down to progress on the legal front, and the growing global reach of the Internet as

well as the closure of botnets and affiliate programs. Almost nowhere has escaped the interests of the bot-masters: strong legislation in the developed world is offset by fast and widespread Internet connectivity, while developing nations are catching up in terms of computer access but still have weak anti-spam legislation and low levels of IT security.

“According to Kaspersky Lab, in the near future the BRICS and other rapidly developing countries will top the rating of the most prolific sources of spam because they are of particular interest to the spammers from the ‘legislation/IT protection/number of users/bandwidth’ point of view.

We also expect the amount of spam originating from the US to grow, although it will not reach its previous level. Widely available Internet connectivity and a large number of users attract botnet owners in spite of the raft of anti-spam legislation adopted in the country and the high level of IT protection in use,” comments Darya Gudkova, Head of Content Analysis & Research.

NEW YORK: It sounds like science fiction: While volunteers watched movie clips, a scanner watched their brains. And from their brain activity, a computer made rough reconstructions of what they viewed. Scientists reported that result Thursday and speculated such an approach might be able to reveal dreams and hallucinations someday. In the future, it might help stroke victims or others who have no other way to communicate, said Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the paper. He believes such a technique could eventually reconstruct a dream or other made-up mental movie well enough to be recognizable. But the experiment dealt with scenes being viewed through the eyes at the time of scanning, and it’s not clear how much of the approach would apply to scenes generated by the brain instead, he said.

People shouldn’t be worried about others secretly eavesdropping on their thoughts in the near future, since the technique requires a person to spend long periods in an MRI machine, he noted. Another expert said he expected any mind-reading capability would appear only far in the future. For now, the reconstructed movie clips are only crude representations, loosely mimicking shapes and movement, but not nearly detailed enough to show that a blurry human-like figure represents the actor Steve Martin, for example.

The new work was published online Thursday by the journal Current Biology. It’s a step beyond previous work that produced similar results with still images. The paper reports results from the brain scans of three co-authors, who were chosen because the study subjects had to be motivated enough to lie motionless in an MRI machine for hours and stay alert as they stared at a tiny dot, Gallant said. The machine was used for a technique called functional MRI, or fMRI. Unlike ordinary MRI, which reveals anatomy, fMRI shows brain activity. The first task was to teach the computer how different parts of each subject’s brain responded to scenes of moving objects. Participants stared at a dot to

keep their eyes still as movie clips lasting 10 to 20 seconds unfolded in the background.

That went on for two hours as the MRI machine tracked activity in their brains. The study focused on parts of the brain that respond to simple features like shapes and

and so “we just had to make do with what we had.”

The quality could be improved by better techniques to blend human forms, as well as a bigger storehouse of moving images, he said.

Still, the overall results are “one of the most

This set of paired images provided by Shinji Nishimoto of the University of California, Berkeley shows original video images (upper row) and those images reconstructed by computer from brain scans. — AP movement, rather than other parts that identify objects. So it was limited to “only the most basic parts of vision,” Gallant said. Next, the question was: Could the computer use that brain activity information to reconstruct what appeared in the movie clips?

To test that, researchers fed the computer 18 million one-second YouTube clips that the participants had never seen. They asked the computer to predict what brain activity each of those clips would evoke. Then they asked it to reconstruct the movie clips using the best matches it could find between the YouTube scenes and the participants’ brain activity.

The reconstructions are blends of the YouTube snippets, which makes them blurry.

Some are better than others. If a human appeared in the original clip, a human form generally showed up in the reconstruction.

But one clip that showed elephants walking left to right led to a reconstruction that looked like “a shambling mound,” Gallant said.

The YouTube clips hadn’t shown elephants

impressive demonstrations of the scientific knowledge of how the visual system works,” said Marcel Just, director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University. “I’d give 50 or 100 dollars to see dreams of mine with that (current level of ) quality,” said Just, who didn’t participate in the new study. Perhaps the technique could be used someday to provide helpful brain stimulation to people who have trouble processing visual information, he said.

Michael Tarr, co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint venture of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, called the work a “cool demonstration” of how scientists can use fMRI to study the brain. “I don’t think people should interpret this as a precursor to mind-reading,” said Tarr, who didn’t participate in the work. “The level of knowledge we’d have to have about the brain before we could even think about seeing whether mind-reading would work is decades, if not centuries, away.” — AP

Digital Age comes with its own complications KANSAS CITY: Publish a book on paper, says a sheepish Beth Collins, and “I’m hesitant to read it.” But send it through the ether to her feather-light Kindle 2, Amazon’s whiz-bang electronic reading machine, and she’s eager to get lost in its pages - virtual though they may be. “ The Kindle is more portable. It’s more readable,” said Collins, 56, a high school administrator.

If enough people buy Kindles or Sony’s rival device or a yet-to-debut electronic newspaper from Plastic Logic, the world of publishing could change forever - from how the written word is sold to how easy it would be to have your novel published. It even would alter the meaning of publishing.

But the “ifs” are huge. Even in the Digital Age, building a great gadget doesn’t guarantee consumers will come. Will people, for instance, fork out for Blu-ray video systems or instead decide that their standard DVDs are sharp enough? Could next year’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car wallop Big Oil, or will it collect dust at dealerships if gas prices stay low? Will the Google-based Android phone finally connect the search engine to your pocket, or has Apple’s iPhone already cemented its place as the hippest of hip candy?

Designers and market analysts say a device can’t have too few features or too many. It must perform tasks that no device has ever done, or at least do them so elegantly as to seem new. Its value must be obvious at a glance.

Finally, the device needs to capture that most enigmatic of qualities - it’s gotta be cool. Even then disappointment could come from failing to make the

Beth Collins (partially visible) is a self-proclaimed “early adopter,” someone who tries out the latest gadget like her first and second generation Amazon Kindle electronic book readers, the Apple video iPod, and several brands of Treo smartphones. — MCT

right partnerships, pitch the innovation the right way or become favored by “early adopters,” such as Collins, who set trends for the rest of us.

In today’s economic climate, the gadget also must weather a wintry marketplace. “In the end, you want something that looks cool and is easy to use,” said Michael Song of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Garmin International, which has a hit in its Nuvi navigation devices, talks about making gadgets as simple to use as an ATM or a gas pump. In developing applications for smart phones, designers at Handmark Inc. in Kansas City constantly keep an eye on how their products are used.

As Steve Jobs, the driving force behind Apple Inc., famously said: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Yet working well isn’t enough. Theorist Everett Rogers studied such things as preventing scurvy in the British navy or persuading Peruvian villagers to boil drinking water. Good ideas, he concluded, don’t always catch on. His 1962 book, “Diffusion of Innovations,” listed factors that determine what technology takes hold. Subsequent revisions applied his thinking to controlling the spread of AIDS and the success of the Palm Pilot electronic organizer. Rogers returned to the same five factors: Does the new thing have some relative advantage? For Collins, the ability to cram thousands of books into a device that’s more compact than a single paperback makes the Kindle a winner.

Is it compatible with past experience? Certainly the Kindle is easy to read. The letters look identical to those on a printed page (and they can be expanded to large print). Yet even with a fast-growing 260,000 titles, Amazon’s Kindle library still leaves out more than it includes. The company says it is shooting “to have every book, ever published, in any language, in print or out of print, all available in less than 60 seconds.”

Is it too complex? Here, things get relative. It’s pretty simple to download books to the Kindle over a wireless connection and read them, but is it as simple as pulling a book from a shelf and turning the pages? Rogers argued that trialability - whether a new user can test it - is critical. In that respect, onlineonly Amazon has a problem. As good as the device might be, a consumer first has to gamble the $359 purchase. It’s like asking someone who has never driven to order a car online. Finally, it must be easy for people to observe the device’s new advantage. Because it was hard for illiterate Peruvian villagers without a grasp of germ theory to see better health from boiled water, they didn’t bother with it. —MCT

EMC shatters storage performance limits in VMware BAHRAIN: The number one choice of customers for information infrastructure in VMware virtual and cloud environments according to a recent Wikibon survey, yesterday announced that it has shattered the performance limits it previously set for storage throughput and bandwidth in a VMware vSphere 5 environment. With performance and scalability parameters now stretched out even further, EMC is accelerating customers’ journey to the cloud by removing potential performance-oriented barriers for organizations as they virtualize their mission critical applications.

Performance testing of an EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage system with VMware vSphere 5 achieved in excess of 1,000,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS), which is three times the previous ceiling of 364,000 IOPS achieved by utilizing three EMC CLARiiON CX4 storage systems with VMware vSphere 4. The Symmetrix VMAX system was configured with 8 engines and 960 disk drives. The testing showed that at peak load the Symmetrix VMAX was able to support a VMlevel response time of 2 milliseconds and illustrated the ability of both VMware vSphere 5 and the Symmetrix VMAX to leverage the scaling and performance of the latest Intel Xeon processors and powerful Emulex Lightpulse Host Bus Adapters. With this new storage performance level, organizations can now confidently virtualize even their largest online transaction processing (OLTP) applications, with the most stringent workloads and lowest latency service level agreements at a lower cost while gaining greater agility than in a traditional physical environment.

Bandwidth testing of a single EMC VNX unified storage system with VMware vSphere 5 achieved a workload of 10GBps, over 3.5 times more than the previous VMware vSphere limit which required three EMC CLARiiON CX4 arrays, illustrating the power of a VNXsystem. The test also highlights the bandwidth, performance, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness of converged storage networks -and the new VMware vSphere 5 software FCoE initiator coupled with the Intel x520 network interface. The most extreme bandwidth workloads including Big Data analytics, data warehousing and media, can be virtualized on the latest technologies from EMC and VMware and gain lower costs and greater agility than a physical approach.

EMC offers broad technology support and the industry’s most comprehensive integration with VMware vSphere 5 and cloud infrastructure suite. The combination of EMC’s industry-leading products, solutions and services with VMware virtualization and cloud infrastructure technologies accelerates the customer journey to the cloud - lowering IT costs and improving business agility.

“VMware and EMC are committed to delivering highperformance solutions that can easily handle the most demanding workloads,” said Hatem Naguib, vice president, alliances, VMware. “EMC storage systems are designed to take advantage of the significant performance and bandwidth improvements in the new VMware vSphere 5, enabling customers to virtualize their business-critical applications with confidence.”

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Years

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Breast cancer study shows benefits of double therapy Researchers say a new approach could save lives worldwide

In this photo, atop roughly two miles of ice, technician Marie McLane launches a data-transmitting weather balloon at Summit Station, a remote research site operated by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and situated 10,500 feet above sea level, on top of the Greenland ice sheet. — AP

The American ‘allergy’ to global warming: Why? NEW YORK: Tucked between treatises on algae and prehistoric turquoise beads, the study on page 460 of a long-ago issue of the US journal Science drew little attention. “I don’t think there were any newspaper articles about it or anything like that,” the author recalls. But the headline on the 1975 report was bold: “Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” And this article that coined the term may have marked the last time a mention of “global warming” didn’t set off an instant outcry of angry denial. In the paper, Columbia University geoscientist Wally Broecker calculated how much carbon dioxide would accumulate in the atmosphere in the coming 35 years, and how temperatures consequently would rise. His numbers have proven almost dead-on correct. Meanwhile, other powerful evidence poured in over those decades, showing the “greenhouse effect” is real and is happening.

And yet resistance to the idea among many in the US appears to have hardened. What’s going on? “The desire to disbelieve deepens as the scale of the threat grows,” concludes economist-ethicist Clive Hamilton. He and others who track what they call “denialism” find that its nature is changing in America, last redoubt of climate naysayers. It has taken on a more partisan, ideological tone. Polls find a widening Republican-Democrat gap on climate.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry even accuses climate scientists of lying for money. Global warming looms as a debatable question in yet another US election campaign.

From his big-windowed office overlooking the wooded campus of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY, Broecker has observed this deepening of the desire to disbelieve. “The opposition by the Republicans has gotten stronger and stronger,” the 79-year-old “grandfather of climate science” said in an interview. “But, of course, the push by the Democrats has become stronger and stronger, and as it has become a more important issue, it has become more polarized.”

The solution: “Eventually it’ll become damned clear that the Earth is warming and the warming is beyond anything we have experienced in millions of years, and people will have to admit...” He stopped and laughed.

“Well, I suppose they could say God is burning us up.” The basic physics of anthropogenic manmade - global warming has been clear for more than a century, since researchers proved that carbon dioxide traps heat. Others later showed CO2 was building up in the atmosphere from the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels. Weather stations then filled in the rest: Temperatures were rising.

“As a physicist, putting CO2 into the air is good enough for me. It’s the physics that convinces me,” said veteran Cambridge University researcher Liz Morris. But she said work must go on to refine climate data and computer climate models, “to convince the deeply reluctant organizers of this world.” The reluctance to rein in carbon emissions revealed itself early on. In the 1980s, as scientists studied Greenland’s buried ice for clues to past climate, upgraded their computer models peering into the future, and improved global temperature analyses, the fossil-fuel industries were mobilizing for a campaign to question the science.

By 1988, NASA climatologist James Hansen could appear before a US Senate committee and warn that global warming had begun, a dramatic announcement later confirmed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a new, UN-sponsored network of hundreds of international scientists.

But when Hansen was called back to testify in 1989, the White House of President George H W Bush edited this government scientist’s remarks to water down his conclusions, and Hansen declined to appear. That was the year US oil and coal interests formed the Global Climate Coalition to combat efforts to shift economies away from their products. Britain’s Royal Society and other researchers later determined that oil giant Exxon disbursed millions of dollars annually to think tanks and a handful of supposed experts to sow doubt about the facts.

In 1997, two years after the IPCC declared the “balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate,” the world’s nations gathered in Kyoto, Japan, to try to do something about it. The naysayers were there as well. “The statement that we’ll have continued warming with an increase in CO2 is opinion, not fact,” oil executive William F O’Keefe of the Global Climate Coalition insisted to reporters in Kyoto. The late Bert Bolin, then IPCC chief, despaired.

“I’m not really surprised at the political reaction,” the Swedish climatologist told The

Associated Press. “I am surprised at the way some of the scientific findings have been rejected in an unscientific manner.” In fact, a document emerged years later showing that the industry coalition’s own scientific team had quietly advised it that the basic science of global warming was indisputable. Kyoto’s final agreement called for limited rollbacks in greenhouse emissions. The United States didn’t even join in that. And by 2000, the CO2 built up in the atmosphere to 369 parts per million - just 4 ppm less than Broecker predicted - compared with 280 ppm before the industrial revolution. Global temperatures rose as well, by 0.6 degrees C (1.1 degrees F) in the 20th century. And the mercury just kept rising.

The decade 2000-2009 was the warmest on record, and 2010 and 2005 were the warmest years on record.

Satellite and other monitoring, meanwhile, found nights were warming faster than days, and winters more than summers, and the upper atmosphere was cooling while the lower atmosphere warmed - all clear signals greenhouse warming was at work, not some other factor. The impact has been widespread.

An authoritative study this August reported that hundreds of species are retreating toward the poles, egrets showing up in southern England, American robins in Eskimo villages.

Some, such as polar bears, have nowhere to go. Eventual large-scale extinctions are feared.

The heat is cutting into wheat yields, nurturing beetles that are destroying northern forests, attracting malarial mosquitoes to higher altitudes.

From the Rockies to the Himalayas, glaciers are shrinking, sending ever more water into the world’s seas. Because of accelerated melt in Greenland and elsewhere, the eight-nation Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program projects ocean levels will rise 90 to 160 centimeters (35 to 63 inches) by 2100, threatening coastlines everywhere. “We are scared, really and truly,” diplomat Laurence Edwards, from the Pacific’s Marshall Islands, told the AP before the 1997 Kyoto meeting.

Today in his low-lying home islands, rising seas have washed away shoreline graveyards, saltwater has invaded wells, and islanders desperately seek aid to build a seawall to shield their capital. The oceans are turning more acidic, too, from absorbing excess carbon dioxide. Acidifying seas will harm plankton, shellfish and other marine life up the food chain.

Biologists fear the world’s coral reefs, home to much ocean life and already damaged from warmer waters, will largely disappear in this century. The greatest fears may focus on “feedbacks” in the Arctic, warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. The Arctic Ocean’s summer ice cap has shrunk by half and is expected to essentially vanish by 2030 or 2040, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Sept. 15. Ashore, meanwhile, the Arctic tundra’s permafrost is thawing and releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. These changes will feed on themselves: Released methane leads to warmer skies, which will release more methane. Ice-free Arctic waters absorb more of the sun’s heat than do reflective ice and snow, and so melt will beget melt.

The frozen Arctic is a controller of Northern Hemisphere climate; an unfrozen one could upend age-old weather patterns across continents. In the face of years of scientific findings and growing impacts, the doubters persist.

They ignore long-term trends and seize on insignificant year-to-year blips in data to claim all is well. They focus on minor mistakes in thousands of pages of peer-reviewed studies to claim all is wrong. And they carom from one explanation to another for today’s warming Earth: jet contrails, sunspots, cosmic rays, natural cycles.

“Ninety-eight percent of the world’s climate scientists say it’s for real, and yet you still have deniers,” observed former US Rep Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican who chaired the House’s science committee. Christiana Figueres, Costa Rican head of the UN’s postKyoto climate negotiations, finds it “very, very perplexing, this apparent allergy that there is in the United States. Why?” The Australian scholar Hamilton sought to explain why in his 2010 book, “Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change.”

In an interview, he said he found a “transformation” from the 1990s and its industryfinanced campaign, to an America where climate denial “has now become a marker of cultural identity in the ‘angry’ parts of the United States.” “Climate denial has been incorporated in the broader movement of right-wing populism,” he said, a movement that has “a visceral loathing of environmentalism.” An in-depth study of a decade of Gallup polling finds statistical backing for that analysis. — AP

STOCKHOLM: Giving breast cancer patients radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the same time significantly cuts the risk their tumors will come back and should be considered as a new treatment approach across the world, cancer experts said yesterday. The double treatment, known as synchronous chemoradiation, could also save lives among people with breast cancer, a disease that currently kills 425,000 women a year worldwide, according to the British experts who conducted a major scientific study. They said the synchronous treatment, which the study showed has limited side effects and does not harm patients’ quality of life, should be considered for use by all breast cancer doctors.

“The results have implications worldwide,” Indrajit Fernando, a consultant clinical oncologist at the University Hospitals Birmingham Trust, told reporters

at the European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress (EMCC) in Stockholm. “Clinical practice needs to be reviewed.” Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. A recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in the United States found that in 2010 it killed around 425,000 people and was newly diagnosed in 1.6 million.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are usually given after breast cancer surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells in the breast, chest wall or underarm area, and to try to reduce the risk of a local cancer recurrence. The standard approach is to give chemotherapy first, followed by radiotherapy.

But the best timings for radiotherapy and chemotherapy have long been debated among cancer experts, so Fernando’s team decided to study various schedules of radiotherapy with a type of chemotherapy called anthracycline -CMF chemotherapy in

patients with early-stage breast cancer.

The study involved almost 2,300 women in Britain who had already undergone surgery to remove their tumors. The results showed that compared with the standard approach, giving both treatments at the same time “reduces the risk of local cancer recurrence by 35 percent in women with early breast cancer”, Fernando said.

After a follow-up of over eight years, the study found that only 41 patients in the synchronous chemoradiation group had suffered recurrence, compared with 63 patients in the group who had standard chemotherapy followed by radiation treatment. At five years, tumors had recurred in only 2.8 percent of those who got both treatments at the same time, compared with 5.1 percent among those who received the therapies separately.

Although there were no differ-

ences in overall survival rates between the two groups after five years, Fernando said he would expect to see survival rates rise in larger groups of patients over a longer time period. “Even a 2.3 percent reduction in local recurrence rates will have an impact worldwide when we consider that this is a very common cancer,” he said, citing data showing that for every four local recurrences of the disease prevented, one death from breast cancer death can be avoided.

Fernando said he has already changed practice in his own clinic and will send his data to Britain’s National Institute of Clinical Excellence, which advises on treatment guidelines. Michael Baumann, president of the European Cancer Organization, said more follow up would be needed to assess potential longer-term side effects. “I am convinced this trial will spur a lot of discussion,” he said. — Reuters

Endangered ferret makes a comeback INTERIOR: As the cage door opened, black-footed ferret No. 7505 tentatively peeked his head out, looked hesitantly at the prairie dog burrow offered before him, and then rushed inside, disappearing beneath the earth of western South Dakota’s badlands. His freedom had been months in the making, but in less than a minute - and three decades after his species was believed extinct - he was gone, unleashed into the wild to do what the endangered ferret does best: attack and kill prairie dogs. “Hopefully, he’s chowing down on a prairie dog now,” said Paul Marinari, a fish and wildlife biologist with the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center. The release was invitation-only event at the Badlands National Park, attended by about two dozen ferret fanatics, to kick off a weekend of nationwide festivities celebrating the 30th anniversary of the rediscovery of a mustelid once thought extinct.

On Sept 26, 1981, a ranch dog in Meeteetse, Wyo., proudly presented his owners with a dead black-footed ferret. A local taxidermist identified the creature, which had been thought extinct for several years, launching a decades-long recovery effort that has seen the ferret population grow from 18 to more than 1,000 in the wild. The ferret is still endangered, but conservationists are hopeful that by 2020, enough will be in the wild to wipe them off the list.

“We have a responsibility to restore a species that is very much a part of our North American heritage,” said Kristy Bly, a wildlife biologist with the World Wildlife Fund. The recovery of the black-footed ferret - called BFFs for short signifies the health of the grassland ecosystem, she added.

“We’re committed to seeing this healthy, living prairie come back,” Bly said. The ferrets’ decline is intertwined with the war waged on prairie dogs by farmers. Long considered farmland pests that compete with livestock for grass, prairie dogs have been hunted and poisoned en masse since the early 1900s.

The campaign worked. But as the prairie dogs disappeared, so, too, did their predators. Larry Haverfield, a cattle rancher in Logan County, Kan., said that loss wreaked havoc on the prairielands. “Man poisons the prairie dogs, and that poison also kills some of the predators,” he said.

“You’re shooting yourself in the foot.” Haverfield has allowed 7,000 of his 10,000-acre farm to host prairie dogs, irking his neighbors. In 2007, his land became one of just 19 recovery sites in the US, Canada and Mexico for the black-footed ferret, and 74 ferrets have since been released on his property. They were born in captivity, then taken to 1,600-square-foot preconditioning pens where they’re taught to hunt and feast on prairie dogs. The ferrets spend at least 30 days in the environment before they’re released into designated reintroduction sites. The recovery hasn’t been without hiccups: Wildlife biologists had trouble at first mating the ferrets in captivity; they mate just once a year and have small litters of kits. Also, some swaths of the re entry sites have been hit with canine distemper and the sylvatic plague, though newly introduced ferrets are vaccinated for both diseases.

Re-entry sites also are in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and New Mexico. Several of the states have events scheduled throughout the weekend to celebrate the rediscovery’s 30th anniversary, as do Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Washington, DC. George and Kay Locatelli, of Fairfield, Calif., were giddy while meeting a captive ferret on display at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center in the Badlands National Park on Saturday morning. The ferret, named Mr Brightside after a song by The Killers, curled up cutely in his aquarium for dozens of eager visitors. — AP

INTERIOR: Mr Brightside (named after a song by The Killers) sits in a display at the Ben Reifel Visitors Center at Badlands National Park in Interior. — AP

SACRAMENTO: Mikaela Espinoza, 17, talks to a friend on her cell phone while checking her MySpace page, as the television is on in the background. — MCT

Teens risk health with night texting, talking SACRAMENTO: To many parents, text messaging is an enigma - a practice their children engage in when they could just make a phone call or walk down the street to their friends’ houses. It seems to be a strange but harmless means of communication. What most don’t know is that too much texting can actually be detrimental to their teens’ health. That’s because new technologies, such as cell phones and social networking sites, give teenagers easy access to their friends 24 hours a day.

“The more technology we develop, the more we rely on technology,” said Dr Myrza Perez, a pediatric pulmonologist at Capital Allergy & Respiratory Disease Centers in Roseville and Folsom, Calif. A specialist in sleep disorders, she says “before technology, we went to sleep when the sun went down.

Now, with all these distractions, teenagers alone in their rooms stay up to extremely late hours on their cell phones and computers.

Their parents have no idea.”

The trend of sleep deprivation is leading to many daytime problems for teenagers, including headaches, impaired concentration, weakened immune systems, crankiness, increased use of nicotine or caffeine and hyperactive behavior often misconstrued as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These symptoms are often interpreted by doctors as problems meriting medication, when in fact the best cure might be to turn off their cell phones at night.

Mikaela Espinoza, 17, always used to sleep with her phone at her bedside, just in case a friend called or text-messaged her in the middle of the night. Sometimes, she said, she would receive calls or messages as late as 3 am - and she would wake right up to call or text right back. “Whenever I’d hear my phone ring I would just, like, wake up and answer it,” Espinoza said. “I think a whole bunch of kids text like all night long.”Espinoza soon found herself suffering from near-debilitating migraine headaches throughout the day. She couldn’t concentrate in school, she couldn’t go out with her friends, she couldn’t be herself, she said.

Her primary physician’s first instinct was to check her eyes. When that yielded no solutions, he sent her in for a CAT scan. It came back clear.

“Nobody knew what was wrong with me,” Espinoza said. Eventually, Espinoza was diagnosed with a condition growing more and more common among teenagers: too much texting. “After they realized I wasn’t getting enough sleep, they told me I needed to turn off my phone or have it taken away from me at night,” she said. “My mom was real mad at me.”

According to the National Sleep Foundation, school-age children and adolescents need at least nine hours of sleep a night.

But in a national survey conducted in 2006, only 20 percent of American teens said they get nine hours a night. Nearly half sleep less than eight hours on school nights and 28 percent of high school students reported falling asleep in school at least once a week. The problem, experts estimate, has only worsened since then. “We all have this 24/7 lifestyle and as technologies become more prevalent, the problem just gets worse,” Perez said. “They’re distractions and they lead to sleep deprivation.

I feel like it’s getting worse with newer technologies.”

Cell phones are not the only culprits of sleep deprivation, Perez added. Video games and computers contribute to teenagers’ inclination to stay up all night. “Cell phones, computer screens and even televisions emit light rays that keep you awake,” Perez said. “Light automatically stimulates the retinas. Before bed, people should turn off those devices and switch to a quieter, healthier activity, like reading.”

Dr Amer Khan, a pediatric neurologist who practices at Sutter Roseville Medical Center and Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., said part of the problem lies in an all-around ignorance of sleep disorders, one of his specialties.

“Sleep problems are often masked and hidden behind daytime problems,” Khan said. “The patients don’t realize it’s a sleep problem, and their physicians don’t realize it’s a sleep problem, so they get treated and diagnosed as daytime problems when that’s not the case.”

Marvin Green, 19, suffers from sleep apnea, a condition characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. He was not diagnosed until he was 17 years old. Sleep problems, like sleep apnea, are often misdiagnosed in young patients because the symptoms that manifest during the day can be misleading. “Kids manifest a lack of sleep with hyperactivity,” Perez said. “A lot of people in the sleep field would know that should at least prompt a sleep assessment. But most people don’t go to a pediatrician saying they’re having trouble sleeping, and there’s always so much ground to cover in one general health checkup that sleep problems just get overlooked.”

Green said he was put on medication for other conditions and never thought much about the quality of sleep he was receiving. “I would get these terrible migraines and would fall asleep in school sometimes,” Green said. “I thought it was stress. I started not sleeping as much because of the headaches, and then the headaches would get worse because of the lack of sleep. It was a Catch-22.”

Part of the problem, experts say, is that individuals are not sleep-conscious and are never taught how to maintain healthy sleep habits like going to sleep and waking up at a consistent time every day, not eating or exercising right before bed and turning off noise - and light-emitting devices including televisions, computers and cell phones.

Green said he was unaware of just how important sleep is, noting it was never taught or discussed in health classes and was not discussed by his primary care physician. “I learned about the birds and the bees in school, but sleep was never really a high priority,” Green said. “There is no education about sleep problems. It’s not like we don’t know these problems exist, we’re just never taught about them and were never really told how important sleep is to your all-around health.”

Now he, like Espinoza and countless other teenagers who have experienced the debilitating effects of a lack of sleep, understands that a little shut-eye can go a long way. “You can’t really function in the daytime without it,” Green said. —MCT

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

H E A LT H

Yoga poses take the stress out of summer Long flights, lots of walking and constant kid activity can take all the fun out of any summer vacation. But there’s an easy remedy, and it can go wherever your next trip takes you: yoga. You don’t need any equipment or special skills to practice yoga’s simple stretches.

All you need is a moment to slow things down, breathe deeply and allow your body to relax. “If you do nothing else, take five huge breaths through the nose,” advises Meredith Smith, a yoga instructor at the Downtown Fort Worth YMCA. “Breathing through the nose and letting your belly expand really helps you relax deeply.”

A few easy yoga poses, shown here by Smith - do them in your hotel room, in your bedroom or at the beach - can also go a long way toward relieving stress, promoting well-being and helping us find our bliss. And isn’t that the real reason we head to beaches, mountains and lakes each summer?

Seated Eagle Why do it: It stretches the upper back and shoulders.

How to do it: Sit cross-legged. Cross right arm under left arm and wrap once or twice. Backs of hands should be together or palm-to-palm. Lift the elbows shoulder height and push forward. Hold for five breaths. Repeat, crossing left arm under right arm this time.

Meredith Smith demonstrates the yoga pose, seated eagle. — MCT

Lying pigeon Why do it: It opens up the outer hip.

How to do it: Lie on your back. Cross your right ankle over left knee. Reach right arm through your legs and left arm on outside of left leg and clasp, pulling legs toward you. Relax right outer hip. Hold for five breaths, then change legs.

New New e H Hope ope …

New Life

Reclining butterfly Why do it: It promotes relaxation and opens the inner thighs and hips. It is not an active stretch.

How to do it: Lie on your back and bring soles of feet together, knees splayed. Draw heels toward your groin, arms at your side, about 45 degrees from your body. Palms should be up, fingers slightly curled, eyes soft and closed. Hold 3 to 5 minutes.

Don’t do this if you have knee and lower back pain.

Puppy pose Why do it: It really stretches the upper back, chest, arms and shoulders. Plus it feels great.

How to do it: It’s no surprise that this is a modified downward facing dog with a few small differences.

Get on all fours, then extend arms in front of you and melt your heart down toward the floor. Hold for five breaths.

Downward facing dog (a forward bend) Why do it: If you only have time for one pose, this is the one. It stretches every major muscle in the body.

How to do it: Downward facing dog is an inverted V. Get on all fours with hands shoulder-width apart, fingers splayed. Press sitz bones (lowest part of the pelvis) back, pressing heels into the floor. Head is relaxed. Hold for five breaths. Think of the way your dog stretches after a nap. Don’t do this if you have wrist pain, high blood pressure or glaucoma.

Sphinx (a backbend) Why do it: It’s a gentle low back stretch. It’s great for lower-back pain associated with walking a lot or sitting for long periods of time.

How to do it: Lie on your belly with your elbows under your shoulders and palms face down. Legs are extended behind you, not too far apart, with shoulders relaxed. Hold for five breaths. — MCT

Meredith Smith demonstrates the yoga pose, reclining butterfly. — MCT

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Announcements 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.

VBS anniversary held

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.

Birthday Greetings

K

uwait Tamil Christian Church, celebrated their VBS anniversary on September 25, 2011. This year the VBS was organized with the theme “Walk in my Ways”. Many children participated along with the teachers and the event was a grand success.

Gege and Yaseen Wdel Gamal Abd Nassem Happy Birthday from Sherif Ismail and Boobet El Massreen

YMCA Onasangamom YMCA Kuwait is conducting Onam Sangamom & Arts nite on Thursday 29th September at 6.30pm at Indian Community Senior Girls School Salmiya. The programs include Comedy Skit “Pravasa Charitham Onnam Bhagam”, Vanchipattu, Thiruvathirakali, Maveli, Chendamelam, Ganamela etc. OnaSadhya is also arranged for the attendees. For Onasadhya please take the coupon before the program. For details please contact.97542985, 99498369, 99046751, 99607230.

YMCA membership YMCA Kuwait is conducting membership campaign from 1st September to 31st November, 2011.

Persons who wish to become members of YMCA Kuwait and person who would like to contribute their time, efforts and services for the society and humanitarian causes may please contact: 97542985, 99498369, 99046751, 99607230, 55120208.

Brain Bang Calling all students aged 11 and above, Support Group for Accelerated learning under the umbrella of FOCC (Friends of CRY Club, Kuwait), BRAIN-BANG invites you to join us in our fortnightly Friday Class from 11.45 am to 13.45 pm in Salmiya starting October 7th for the next 6 months. Successfully running for the seventh consecutive year.

Areas of development are : lMemory tools to Understand and Learn Better lTools and Techniques to empower your mind lActivity, fun, games and worksheet based assignments lPractical Experiments lMind Gymnastics lApplication of Learning Techniques to conventional study. Register before October 5th 2011. Limited seats. Register early to avoid disappointment. Website: www.focckwt.org E-Mail: brainbang@focckwt.org Phone no: 25660835/25618471/97677820

Indian Lawyers’ Forum holds executive meeting

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he Executive Committee of “Indian Lawyers’ Forum” was held at the residence of AnasPuthiottilat in Hawally. President Thomas Panicker presided over the meeting. Forum decided to celebrate Onam. Different committees were constituted to make the Onam celebrations a grand success. All Indian Lawyers and their families are cordially invited to attend the Onam functions, the date of which will be intimated to all the members.

Merit scholarship

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ulu Koota Kuwait is pleased to announce its Merit Cum Means Scholarship Award to be awarded during Tulu Parba which will be held on 4th November 2011 in American International School Auditorium, Maidan Hawally.

Tulu Koota Kuwait firmly believes in the great value of education and is strongly committed to helping needy students to achieve their educational goals. Application accepted from minimum one year valid members children study-

ing either in State of Kuwait or in India, scoring high grades at X and XII standard Board Examination held during Academic year 2010-2011. Contact Tulukoota Kuwait Welfare officer Suresh Shyam Rao on 65976789 or email: shyamson@yahoo.com to submit the copies of marks sheet & proof of income with the application. Candidates obtaining high grades but not eligible for merit cum means scholarship shall be honored with Merit Certificate and Medal. For further information please contact: Harish Bhandary Tel. 50264416

Happy birthday baby Joy. May God guide you as you grow to be a blessing to your family. Greetings from LAIF, Daddy, Mummy, Favour, Aunty Chinwe, Uncle Ebere, friends and well-wishers.

IBL teams see progress in 3rd week of tournament

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ndian Bowling League (IBL) now through the round robin qualifying stage of the on-going 2011 Tenpin Bowling Tournament Season 2 being held at Cozmo Salmiya, saw the front running Federation pin busters and the time masters of West End Watches Company renew their lane rivalry as they showed off their dominating form in posting impressive scores over the weekend. Making it to the 3rd week winners list were the fast improving Al-Qwassem, Spare Us and the on and off pin breakers of Fire Fly. Tired and weary of playing second fiddle and eager to topple the pace setting Federation kingpins from the top of the table, the watch makers of West End might be on the right track based on their walk in the park victory over the Pin Pointers. In the first game of the 3-game series match, the West End Watches foursome of Ahmad Sultan, Lloyd Fernandes, Nelson D’Souza and Rudolph Castelino started their campaign with a modest 727-657 winning effort. In game 3 Ahmad Sultan of West End Watches Co played a startling 255 winning the Weekly Men’s High Game as the time watchers handed the hapless Pin Pointers a 915-779 beating. In booking their 2482-2088 total pin falls win. Suiting up for the over matched Pin Pointers were Alfred Avila, Joe Presenta, Lito Michael, Rocky Castil and Rudy Delima.

Getting the feel of the bowling center after two weeks, the vastly improved Whiplash subdued Spare Us in games two and three on their way to a 2,396-2,562 total pin falls victory. Spearheaded by the veter-

an Aga Cuadrazal, the rest of the Whiplash namely Edwin De Mesa, Rico Baluyot, Aldin Avila and Vernie Villaruel back a tough Spare Us in the opening game with a 774-777 decision. Bowling for Spare Us in this outing were Adrian Noronha, Anthony King, Bala Subramanyam, Brian Fernandes, Colin Costa & Valentine Gonsalves Going to the only other match up of the week, Federation had a fierce battle against Third Position holder Al-Qwassem whose fighting

Federation Bowlers fell one notch down remained 5 points behind the time keepers West End Watches Co. Meanwhile, Amaya maintained the winning order of the day by dishing out an impressive 689-535, 789-498 & 887-638 three game sweep over the neophyte pin breakers of the i-bowl team. In posting their walk in park 23651671 total pin falls victory Loukmaan King, Rod Llait, Liza Catapia, Raine Ualat and Blanca

the Street Bowlers. Playing for Bowling Stones were Branden Pinto, Leandro Rodrigues, Leroy Rodrigues & Raoul Pinto. Heading the Street Bowlers Amaldo Fernandes, Julian D’Silva, Rakesh Ramanan, Shirley Castellino and Floyd Suares and holding out at position 7 on the Intermediate group.

Across the other lanes Fire Fly pin crackers simply overpowered the beleaguered Alleygators en route to an easy 2483-2134 victory

match, the rest of the Fire Fly keglers namely Bill Stiles, Lee Mills, Carol Al-Awadi, Nasha King went home smiling after completing a 3game sweep with another impressive 862-781 win in game three.

Bowling in this outing for the vanquished Alleygators were Jason D’Souza, Rohan Fernandes, Waleed Saadedeen, Jafar Soleiman & Samantha Fernandes.

Joining the band wagon Petrol Link considered one of the contenders for the Championship

spirit was uninterrupted throughout the match. Outclassing their rivals in game one & game two, Federation Bowlers led by Paul Delany, Moustafa Mousawi, Salem Hajras and Basel Al-Anzi defeated Al-Qwassem to 809-725, 856-749 and lost in game three 811-879 to Al-Qwassem fought back fiercely with 231 by Ayad Amiri, 231 by Fahad Rughaib, 211 by Yacob Shatti & 184 by Fahad Abul.

Federation bowlers lead to victory with 2476-2353. League leader

Mercado carried the scoring load for Amaya. Suiting up for the ibowl team in this match were Ram Iyer, Xavier Mascarenhas, Cleona D’Souza, Roy Vaz and Kamran Shaikh.

The other participating team Bowling Stones at position 12 in the Greenie group bowled their way up against the Street Bowlers and came to a close victory with a pinfall of 2140-2103. Bowling Stones taking control of game two and three after losing game one to

and winning the weekly High Team Series for Week Three. Having a big edge due to their experience in years of bowling, Fire Fly started rather slow and was made to flex their muscles before turning back their opponents in game one of the 3-game series match 783-661.

Fully warmed up for the next game, the Quartet of Nourie Amiri, Abdurahman Swaydeh, Saleh Khalid and Jassim Darwish overrun the defenseless Alleygators 838689. Now totally in control of the

League Category who cooled off Kegler Strikers in an astonishing fashion. Packed with experienced bowlers who are mainstays of teams participating in other ongoing bowling leagues, Petrol Link literally stopped the clock on their rivals who woke up to a 2360-2298 defeat. Spearheaded by the four some of Farid Gabriel, Abdullah Khalid, Mohammed Ashour and Abdul Aziz Aslawi claimed one game on hand via 795-664, 787798, and 778-836 losing the 2nd &

3rd game to Kegler Strikers and winning the overall pinfalls.

Manning the lanes for Kegler Strikers in their line of fire were Aqeel Al-Farisy, Al-Belarmino, Ed Mendoza and Jr Sabado.

Displaying the same solid pin breaking they dished out last season, the happy go lucky tenpin strikers of Just Smile in Italian known as Solo Sorriso breezed through a tough outing against the out classed No Strikes Team. As if moving around their own backyard, the victorious Team of Mohammed Al Rashed, Ibrahim AlJaddi, Abdullah Behbehani and Youef Al-Huraibi carried (Just Smile) Solo Sorriso to a wide gap 808-702 decision in game one of the 3-game series meeting.

Now in full throttle, (Just Smile) Solo Sorriso completed a three to nothing win by pinning down No Strikes!! in game three via a 705677 rout. The final score of the match was 2258-2050 in favor of (Just Smile) Solo Sorriso. Also bowling for the No Strikes! In this match were Anastasius Menezes, Joel Fernandes, Max Gomes, Ulysses Menezes, Fatima Sequeira, Nadine Dias and Christine D’Souza Weekly High Team Series was taken by Firefly with 2483. The Weekly Men’s High game was captured by Ahmad Sultan of West End Watches Co with 255 game.

The Weekly Women’s High Game was delivered by Blanca Mercado with a score of 232. The matches of the Indian Bowling League are held every Friday at 1.30 pm at the Cozmo Bowling Center located at the Salmiya City Center.

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Embassy Information EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription ended on 25 of April 2011. To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref ) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211. nnnnnnn

Cass Business School Dubai welcomes Executive MBA class

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ass Business School Dubai yesterday welcomed the fifth intake of its Executive MBA (EMBA) program, ranked the 10th best in the world by the Financial Times. The class of 201113, comprising 61 students from 24 countries, will study at the Cass Dubai Centre in DIFC. This year’s EMBA program began with a four day induction at the Cass Dubai Centre in DIFC, including an introduction to the faculty, the unique Cass virtual learning environment, Moodle, team building and professional development workshops and a social reception hosted by the school at the Capital Club. The students also enjoyed a formal welcome

to the course in the presence of DIFC Management and Guy Warrington, HM Consul General.

Abdulla Mohammed Al-Awar, CEO of DIFC Authority, said: “We would like to welcome Cass’s fifth intake of its EMBA program. As part of its mandate to contribute to the development and growth of the financial sector in the region and to UAE’s economy, DIFC supports educational programmes that help in the creation of knowledgeable, experienced and talented professionals. The Cass program indeed complements this mandate. We look forward to congratulating the new intake on their successful completion of the program to having their

Study in Canada Fair 2011

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he Embassy of Canada is pleased to announce that the fifth annual Middle East Education Initiative (MEEI), composed of approximately 20 leading Canadian universities and colleges will be visiting Kuwait from October 2 to October 4, 2011.

Representatives from the institutions will be available to meet with students, parents and other members of the education community, and provide information about study opportunities in Canada. The tour includes select school visits and a Study in Canada fair at the Marina Hotel, Salmiya, on October 2 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Quality education is available throughout Canada, and each of our 10 provinces and 3 territories has something exciting to offer. With its safe and welcoming environment and affordable tuition fees, Canada remains a top destination for international students wishing to pursue their studies abroad. The enthusiasm shown by international students for post-secondary studies in Canada gives testimony to the superior quality of our education system.

Students recognize that Canada offers them the opportunity to earn academic qualifications that are recognized and respected around the world, while being part of a tolerant and vibrant multicultural community. International students in Canada have access to the most sophisticated and up-to-date technologies and facilities, and to programs which allow them to gain valuable work experience through work placements and cooperative education.

We invite you to come and meet the representatives from Canada’s colleges, universities and language schools, and discover how studying in Canada will set you on the path to achieving your dreams. The schools participating on the tour will: Memorial University University of Alberta Vancouver Island University Mount Saint Vincent University Sheridan College Carleton University’ Columbia College York University University of the Fraser Valley Grant MacEwan University Ryerson University Dalhousie University University of Waterloo University of Victoria Seneca CollegeUniversity of Windsor University of New Brunswick Concordia University For more information please contact: kwait-td@international.gc.ca visit www.kuwait.gc.ca

eventual contribution to the growth of the regional financial services industry”.

Professor Roy Batchelor, Associate Dean MBA programs at Cass, said: “On behalf of everyone at Cass Business School, I welcome the 2011-2013 cohort of students to the Dubai Executive MBA. The group can look forward to two years of world-class business education, delivered by internationally recognized academics, and the opportunity to build their international network of business contacts. With a wide choice of electives, students can tailor the content of the program, meaning the course will take them wherever they want to go in their career.”

Ehsan Razavizadeh, Regional Director for Middle-East and North Africa said: “In just five years, the Cass EMBA program has earned an enviable reputation in the UAE and across the region. This reputation is once again reflected in the hugely impressive educational and professional backgrounds of our student intake.

Many of our alumni are already taking major strides in the professional world, and I am confident this year’s class will join them and become the region’s next generation of business leaders.”

Launched in 2007, the two-year Cass EMBA course is designed to meet the needs of business executives in the Middle East and surrounding regions.

Movenpick Hotel gets ‘Green Globe Certificate’

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reen Globe Company, an international certificate provider for the sustainable management and operations for travel, tourism and hospitalities industries worldwide, has awarded its Green Globe Certificate to Movenpick Hotel Kuwait Free Trade Zone on September 21, 2011. MHK scored 84 percent out of the company’s required indicators for certification.

The audit and certification process was conducted by an independent regional auditor from Avireal Middle East who provided the site’s inspection and validation.

Movenpick Hotel Kuwait’s operations in the areas of the property’s sustainable management, social/economic, cultural, and environmental applications like power, water and other resources’ consumption and conservation were inspected. The process of compliance contributes to maintaining core criteria and at the same time addresses regional issues through the adoption of locally developed standards.

“Providing such a prestigious certificate to all Movenpick properties worldwide by end of 2011 comes in line with the company’s approach on sustainability,” says Maricar Canasa, Learning and Development Manager. “Movenpick Hotel Kuwait showed great dedication and hard work in obtaining the Green Globe Certificate. Our success and achievement lies in our continuous efforts and commitment of integrating into the hotel’s business strategy, operating processes and quality standards all the Green Globe’s 41 criteria and 337 indicators,” she concluded.

Beat Peter, the General Manager of Movenpick Hotel Kuwait, expressed his happiness and pride for having awarded the Green Globe certificate with an 84 percent rating exceeding all expectations. “This success tops all of our hotel’s achievements in 2011. We commit to achieve all of our objectives, with special emphasis on the areas of guest satisfaction,” Peter elaborated.

EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930 - 1630 Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floor, Al Banwan Building (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building), Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City. For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfs-uk-kw.com Telephone:22971170. The Consular Section will also be closed on the same dates. For information on the British Embassy services, visit the British Embassy website: www.ukinkuwait.fco.gov.uk nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form.

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF GERMANY The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Embassy of India will remain closed on the following dates during the month of October 2011. October 2, 2011 (Sunday) - Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday; October 6, 2011 (Thursday) - Dussehra; and October 26, 2011 (Wednesday) - Diwali. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF KENYA

Free Arabic courses provided by IPC

The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy. We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area - Block 6 - Street 9 Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316.

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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: Rawdah22512257-97290278; Salmiya-2573326397533263; Khaitan-24730137-99285459; Mangaf-23723002; Jahra-24558830-67720696.

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

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Radisson Blu Hotel launches Spice Route food festival

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tarting October 5, the Rangoli all-day dining restaurant will be serving authentic cuisine from as far away as China and India. Come taste the spectacular selection of home-cooked foods from these two superpower nations. The Rangoli restaurant is open daily from 6:30 pm to 11 pm.

Every Wednesday, delight in the Spice Route buffet and live cooking stations, alongside special Spice Route mocktails.

General Manager of the Radisson Blu Hotel Kuwait, Philippe Pellaud, commented on the gastronomic jewels of the Spice Route.

“With its unique ambience and a variety of Indian dishes and Chinese delicacies to try from, the Rangoli restaurant will definitely take guests on a wondrous culinary journey during this stimulating food feria. The hotel is also entering this New Year, with the full force of social media - for more

information about te hotel and its upcoming activities, do join us on Facebook (Radisson Blu Hotel Kuwait), Twitter and LinkedIn (RBlu_Kuwait).” The Radisson Blu Hotel Kuwait is located on Al-Bida’a road (Gulf road), in Salwa. For further information and reservations, do call 2567 3000.

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 Embassy of Peru in Kuwait has the honor to announce the opening of its office soon in Sharq area, Ahmed Al-Jaber street, Al-Arabiya Tower, 6th Floor, Kuwait City.

Moreover, please be notified that there will be “Peru Expo-Tour, Trade & Invest” and the working hours will be from 09:00 till 14:00 (SundayThursday). You are cordially invited to visit us in order to know why Peru should be your new touristic destination and your best business partner.

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00:45 Untamed & Uncut 01:40 Black December 02:35 Rogues 03:30 Whale Wars 04:25 Dogs 101 05:20 Animal Cops Phoenix 06:10 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Baby Planet 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Project Puppy 10:05 Dogs 101 11:00 Animal Cops Houston 11:55 E-Vets: The Interns 12:20 Wildlife SOS International 12:50 Cell Dogs 13:45 Crocodile Hunter 14:40 Rogues 15:30 Escape To Chimp Eden 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Animal Crackers 16:55 Safari Sisters 17:25 Dogs 101 18:20 Breed All About It 18:45 Crocodile Hunter 19:40 Echo And The Elephants Of Amboseli 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Perfect Predators 22:55 Maneaters 23:50 China’s Last Elephants

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

00:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:10 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00

Dalziel And Pascoe As Time Goes By Freefall Lark Rise To Candleford Last Of The Summer Wine Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Tellytales Poetry Pie Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Tellytales Poetry Pie Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Tellytales Poetry Pie Balamory The Roly Mo Show Me Too Tellytales Poetry Pie Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Heart & Soul Doctors As Time Goes By Coast Last Of The Summer Wine Heart & Soul The Weakest Link Doctors As Time Goes By Coast Heart & Soul The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Holby City Dalziel And Pascoe Blackadder

BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News The Health Show Our World Newsday India Business Report Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday

05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 Newsday 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 Hardtalk

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 09:25 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 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

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

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

Replacements Fairly Odd Parents A Kind Of Magic Stitch Kim Possible Emperor’s New School Stitch Emperor’s New School Suite Life On Deck Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Handy Manny Imagination Movers The Suite Life Of Zack And Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Sonny With A Chance Good Luck Charlie Hannah Montana Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Fish Hooks Shake It Up Jake & Blake Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Jake & Blake Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place

00:00 Chef Abroad 00:30 Glutton For Punishment 01:00 Food Tripper 02:00 Julian and Camilla’s World Odyssey 03:00 Planet Food 04:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Intrepid Journeys 09:00 Globe Trekker 10:00 Planet Food 11:00 Distant Shores 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Floyd On Africa 13:30 Hollywood and Vines 14:00 Intrepid Journeys 15:00 Travel 360 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Distant Shores 18:00 Opening Soon 18:30 Hollywood and Vines 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Flavours of Greece 20:30 Essential 21:00 Cruising to the Northern Lights 22:00 Tall Ship Explorers

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE ON OSN ACTION HD

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

The Next Great Baker Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Flying Wild Alaska How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Auction Hunters Ultimate Survival Deadliest Catch Ultimate Survival Extreme Fishing Sons Of Guns Cash Cab Us Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Mythbusters Flying Wild Alaska Cake Boss Border Security Auction Hunters How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? Cash Cab Us Ultimate Survival Deadliest Catch Dual Survival

00:30 Killer Outbreaks 01:20 The Colony 02:10 Powering the Future 03:00 Science of the Movies 03:50 What’s That About?

04:45 Kings of Construction 05:40 How Does That Work?

06:10 Smash Lab 07:00 Thunder Races 07:55 How Techies Changed the World 08:50 The Gadget Show 09:40 Smash Lab 10:35 Brainiac 11:30 Sci-Fi Science 11:55 How Does That Work?

12:25 The Tech Show 13:15 The Gadget Show 14:05 One Step Beyond 14:30 Stunt Junkies 14:55 Building the Biggest 15:45 Weird Connections 16:10 Thunder Races 17:00 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 17:50 Sci-Fi Science 18:15 The Gadget Show 18:40 Man Made Marvels: China’s National...

19:30 Kings of Construction 20:20 Smash Lab 21:10 The Gadget Show 22:00 Man Made Marvels: China’s National...

22:50 Kings of Construction

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 01:10 01:30 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:20 03:40 04:10 04:35 05:00 05:30 05:50 06:15 06:45 07:00 07:15 07:45 08:20 08:30 09:00 09:15 09:25 09:45 09:55

Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Little Einsteins Higglytown Heroes Jo Jo’s Circus Jungle Junction Higglytown Heroes Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Handy Manny The Hive Mickey Mouse Clubhouse The Hive Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

10:15 10:45 11:10 11:30 11:45 12:10 12:25 12:40 13:05 13:15 13:25 13:50 14:15 15:05 15:30 15:40 15:55 16:20 16:45 17:00 17:15 17:30 17:55 18:25 18:50 19:02 19:05 19:50 20:10 20:20 20:30 20:55 21:20 21:35 21:50 22:15 22:25 22:40 22:55 23:20 23:50

The Little Mermaid Little Einsteins Imagination Movers Jungle Junction Lazytown Handy Manny Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers The Hive Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers Lazytown Jungle Junction The Hive Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Little Mermaid Special Agent Oso Animated Stories Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Timmy Time Handy Manny Little Einsteins Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time Handy Manny Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction

00:25 Style Star 01:25 15 Unforgettable Hollywood Tragedies 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 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10:15 THS 12:05 Fashion Police 13:05 Khloe And Lamar 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 15:30 THS 16:25 Behind The Scenes

CLASH OF THE TITANS ON OSN MOVIES HD 17:00 Word Travels 17:30 Market Values 18:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 19:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 20:00 Word Travels 20:30 Market Values 21:00 Cycling Home From Siberia With Rob Lilwall 21:30 Madventures 22:00 Which Way To 23:00 Word Travels

00:15 Wrestling With Reality 01:30 Eds Up 02:20 Untracked 03:35 Fantasy Factory 04:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

07:30 Ride Guide Snow 2008 08:00 UCI Nissan Mountainbike World Cup 2008 08:25 Maloof Money Cup 2010 09:15 Maloof Money Cup 2011 10:55 Fantasy Factory 11:45 Eds Up 12:35 Mantracker 13:25 Carpocalypse 14:15 World Combat League 15:05 Fantasy Factory 15:55 Eds Up 16:45 UCI Nissan Mountainbike World Cup 2008 17:10 Maloof Money Cup 2010 19:40 Carpocalypse 20:30 Mantracker 21:20 Untracked 21:45 Glutton For Punishment 22:10 World Combat League 23:00 Enfusion 23:50 Mantracker

00:00 Don’t Look Up-18 02:00 Deadline-PG15 04:00 Assassination Tango-PG15 06:00 The Stepfather-PG15 08:00 The Truth About Charlie-PG15 10:00 The Bodyguard 2-PG15 12:00 Beyond A Reasonable Doubt14:00 The Truth About Charlie-PG15 16:00 Heaven’s Fall-PG15 18:00 Beyond A Reasonable Doubt20:00 John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars-PG15

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

00:00 Curb Your Enthusiasm 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 State Of The Union 02:00 Saturday Night Live 03:00 Friends 03:30 Friends 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 Friends 09:00 Will And Grace 09:30 30 Rock 10:30 Coach 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Friends 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 Coach 14:30 30 Rock 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 19:00 Cougar Town 19:30 Traffic Light 20:00 Seinfeld 21:00 The Daily Show Global Edition 21:30 The Colbert Report Global Edition 22:00 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 23:00 State Of The Union 23:30 Seinfeld

A Haunting Ghost Lab The Haunted A Haunting Ghosthunters Murder Shift Diagnosis: Unknown Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Diagnosis: Unknown Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol I Almost Got Away With It FBI Files True Crime With Aphrodite I Was Murdered Diagnosis: Unknown Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol I Almost Got Away With It Forensic Detectives Murder Shift FBI Files Diagnosis: Unknown Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Nightmare Next Door I Almost Got Away With It Deadly Women

00:00 Travel Madness 00:30 Travel Madness 01:00 Cooking The World 02:00 Going Bush 02:30 Bluelist Australia 03:00 Food School 03:30 Banged Up Abroad 05:30 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 06:00 Travel Madness 07:00 Cooking The World 08:00 Going Bush 08:30 Bluelist Australia 09:00 Food School 09:30 Banged Up Abroad 11:30 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 12:00 Travel Madness 13:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 14:00 Word Travels 14:30 Market Values 15:00 Cycling Home From Siberia With Rob Lilwall 15:30 Madventures 16:00 Which Way To

01:00 In Her Skin-PG15 03:00 Bustin’ Down The Door-PG15 05:00 Flying By-PG15 07:00 On Broadway-PG15 09:00 The Spy Next Door-PG15 11:00 Emotional Arithmetic-PG15 13:15 Winx: Secret Of The Lost Kingdom-PG 15:00 The Eclipse-PG15 17:00 The Sunset Limited-PG15 19:00 The Open Road-PG15 21:00 A Perfect Getaway-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 14:30 16:15 19:00 21:00 23:00

Ninja Assassin-18 From Hell-18 The Grudge 3-18 Dick Tracy-PG15 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 The Box-PG15 Annihilation Earth-PG15 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 Avatar-PG The Gene Generation-18 El Orfenato-18 Knife Edge-18

04:45 Super League 06:45 RWC Highlights Weekly 07:00 Golfing World 00:00 Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past-PG15 08:00 PGA European Tour 12:30 Scottish Premier League 02:00 The Ramen Girl-PG15 04:00 Revenge Of The 14:30 Rugby World Cup 16:45 RWC Highlights Weekly Bridesmaids     -PG15 17:15 RWC Highlights 06:00 The Longshots-PG15 08:00 Rugrats In Paris: The Movie- 17:30 Golfing World 18:30 ICC Criket World FAM 19:00 AFL Highlights 10:00 Dirty Work-PG15 20:00 PGA European Tour 12:00 Julie And Julia-PG15 Highlights 14:00 Babe-FAM 16:00 Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past-PG15 21:00 ICC Criket World 21:30 Scottish Premier League 18:00 Four Last Songs-PG15 23:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights

01:00 The Maiden Heist-PG15 03:00 Moon-PG15 05:00 Head Of State-PG15 07:00 Shrek Forever After-FAM 09:00 My Sassy Girl-PG15 11:00 Sweet Home Alabama-PG15 13:00 Everybody Wants To Be Italian-PG15 15:00 Hurricane Season-PG15 17:00 My Sassy Girl-PG15 19:00 Clash Of The Titans-PG15 21:00 Barry Munday-PG15

00:00 A Christmas Carol-PG 02:00 My Fair Madeline-FAM 04:00 Daddy Day Care-PG 06:00 The Big Green-PG 08:00 Inspector Gadget’s Last Case: Claw’s...-FAM 10:00 Delgo-FAM 12:00 A Christmas Carol-PG 14:00 Groove Squad-FAM 16:00 Tooth Fairy-PG 18:00 Delgo-FAM 20:00 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.PG15

00:00The Ultimate Fighter Season 14 02:00 Rugby World Cup 04:15 RWC weekly Highlights 04:45 Rugby World Cup 07:00 Trans World Sport 08:00 Total Rugby 08:30 RWC weekly Highlights 09:00 Live RWC Matchday 09:30 Live Rugby World Cup 11:00 Live RWC Matchday 11:30 Rugby World Cup 13:45 Prizefighter 16:45 Speedway FIM World Championship 17:45 Futbol Mundial 18:30 RWC Weekly Highlights 19:00 RWC Matchday 19:30 Rugby World Cup 21:00 RWC Matchday 21:30 SPL Highlights 22:00 WWE Vintage Collection 23:00 Speedway FIM World Championship

00:30 RWC Weekly Highlights 01:00 AFL Premiership 03:30 NRL Premiership 05:30 Trans World Sport 06:30 Total Rugby 07:00 Scottish Premier League 09:00 Live RWC Matchday 09:30 Live Rugby World Cup 11:00 Live RWC Matchday 11:30 RWC Weekly Highlights 12:00 AFL Premiership 14:30 ICC Cricket World 15:00 Golfing World 16:00 NRL Premiership 18:00 World Hockey 18:30 Futbol Mundial 19:00 RWC Matchday 19:30 Rugby World Cup 21:00 RWC Matchday 21:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 22:00 AFL Highlights 23:00 European PGA Tour Highlights

01:15 Trans World Sport 02:15 RWC Highlights Weekly 02:45 Scottish Premier League

00:00 02:00 03:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 16:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC 135 Prelims UFC 135 UFC Unleashed WWE Bottomline WWE Tough Enough Speedway FIM World Le Mans WWE SmackDown WWE Tough Enough Speedway FIM World UFC 135 Prelims UFC 135

00:00 The Universe 01:00 American Pickers 02:00 Pawn Stars 02:30 Pawn Stars 03:00 UFO Hunters 04:00 Beyond The Big Bang 06:00 The Universe 07:00 American Pickers 08:00 Pawn Stars 08:30 Pawn Stars 09:00 UFO Hunters 10:00 Beyond The Big Bang 12:00 The Universe 13:00 American Pickers 14:00 Pawn Stars 15:00 UFO Hunters 16:00 Beyond The Big Bang 18:00 The Universe 19:00 Ice Road Truckers 20:00 Ax Men 21:00 Lock N’ Load With R. Lee Ermey 22:00 IRT: Deadliest Roads 23:00 Ax Men

00:00 Top 10 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 Videofashion News 09:00 Open House 09:55 How Do I Look?

10:50 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

11:50 Clean House: Search For The Messiest...

12:50 Clean House 13:45 Videofashion News 14:45 How Do I Look?

15:40 Ruby

01:35 Carbine Williams-PG 03:10 Some Came Running-PG 05:25 Flamingo Road-PG 07:00 Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?-PG 08:30 Where Eagles Dare-PG 11:00 Come Fly With Me-FAM 12:45 Bhowani Junction-PG 14:35 Conspirator-FAM 16:00 Little Women-FAM 17:55 North By Northwest-PG 20:15 Captain Nemo And The Underwater City-FAM 22:00 Diner 23:50 Shaft

Classifieds MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Accommodation available in Abbassiya two bedroom furnished flat, bachelor accommodation KD 35, from Oct 1st. Contact: 99162583. (C 3641) 22-9-2011

FOR SALE Complete contents of 1 BR flat for sale. 1 deal for newlywed or single executive, for details and viewing call: 99701641 or email: alem.furnz@gmail.com (C 3640) 24-9-2011 Brand new Nissan Altima 2011 for sale, will offer good discount, car still in showroom.

Contact: 66947732.

(C 3635) 20-9-2011

SITUATION WANTED

Sri Lankan housemaid looking for a part time / full time job for European or American family, have experience.

Contact: 97413349. (C 3645) 25-9-2011 Fresh dynamic Mechanical Engineer with immaculate English language skills looking for opportunities, in engineering, media or related fields. Transferable residence.

Phone: 67078742. (C 3639) 21-9-2011 Oracle ERP Specialist (Project Lead, Apps DBA, Techno-Functional), 15+ years exp in IT (6+ yrs in Ebs R11/R12, 3 full cycle implementation) Oracle Certified, Indian, Transferable residence. (M) 99316737.

(C 3637) 20-9-2011

LOST Policy No. 633001847 for Mehmood Ul Hassan

Chohan issued by State Life Insurance has been lost, if anybody found please contact: 22452208-9. (C 3643) 22-9-2011

SITUATION VACANT A Kuwaiti family wants an Indian driver. Tel: 97949776.

(C 3638) 21-9-2011

CHANGE OF NAME I, Sweatha Ibrahim, holder of Indian Passport No. E8320183 hereby change my name to Hilda . D’Souza.

(C 3644) 24-9-2011

Joy, holder of Indian Passport No. E2157210 issued at Kuwait, hereby change my name as Joy Davis. (C 3642) 22-9-2011 I have change my surname from my old surname Mithu Habibullah Ismail to my new Surname Mitha Habibullah Ismail. I am holding Indian Passport No. Z026492 (C 3636) 20-9-2011 I, VADAKKE VEEDU DAMODARAN VINODAN holding Indian Passport No: Z1846634 has changed my name to VADAKKE VEEDU DAMODARAN VINOD as on 19-9-2011. (C 3632) 19-9-2011

I, Kannanaikkel Devassy

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines BBC THY ETH UAE ETD DHX MSR FDB GFA QTR KAC JZR FCX JZR KAC JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR ABY ETD GFA SHY MEA IRC MSR JZR KAC KAC MSR SYR UAL RJA FDB OMA QTR DHX

Flt 45 772 622 853 305 370 614 67 211 138 544 503 201 555 412 531 157 206 302 53 352 284 344 362 855 132 125 301 213 1125 404 6521 623 201 618 672 610 341 982 640 57 645 140 878

Arrival Flights on Monday 26/9/2011 Route DHAKA/BAHRAIN ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN CAIRO DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA CAIRO LUXOR DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA/BANGKOK ASSIUT LONDON ISLAMABAD MUMBAI DUBAI COCHIN DHAKA CHENNAI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH ABU DHABI BAHRAIN ANTALYA BEIRUT LAMERD SOHAG DAMASCUS DOHA DUBAI CAIRO DAMASCUS WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN DUBAI MUSCAT DOHA BAHRAIN

Time 0:55 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 4:40 5:15 5:25 6:10 6:15 6:20 6:30 7:15 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 10:45 10:55 12:00 12:10 12:45 12:55 13:15 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:50 14:00 14:15 14:15

SVA KAC JZR QTR KNE KAC KAC KAC MLR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR ABY RBG FDB ALK KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC AIC JAI FDB OMA JZR VOS MEA KAC DHX KLM UAE GFA QTR UAL JZR TAR JZR MSR DLH JZR PIA

500 788 257 134 745 546 550 118 403 303 857 215 510 239 127 3553 63 227 104 542 786 744 614 774 674 975 572 61 647 179 81 402 552 372 445 859 217 136 981 135 327 185 612 636 539 239

JEDDAH JEDDAH BEIRUT DOHA JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA SOHAG NEW YORK COLOMBO/DUBAI ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH AMMAN SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA DUBAI COLOMBO/DUBAI LONDON CAIRO JEDDAH DAMMAM BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI CHENNAI/GOA MUMBAI DUBAI MUSCAT DUBAI BAGHDAD BEIRUT DAMASCUS BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN TUNIS DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT CAIRO SIALKOT

14:30 15:00 15:10 15:15 15:25 15:30 15:35 16:15 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:35 17:40 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:35 18:50 19:00 19:15 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:30 19:35 20:00 20:10 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:45 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:30 23:55

Airlines AXB DLH KLM AIC PIA AFG BBC THY ETH UAE FDB DHX MSR ETD QTR GFA JZR BAW KAC FDB KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR ETD GFA SHY KAC MEA KAC JZR KAC IRC MSR KAC MSR SYR RJA FDB UAL OMA

Departure Flights on Monday 26/9/2011 Flt Route 390 MANGALORE/KOZHIKODE 637 FRANKFURT 447 AMSTERDAM 982 AHMEDABAD/CHENNAI 206 PESHAWER/LAHORE 406 DUBAI/KABUL 46 DHAKA 773 ISTANBUL 622 BAHRAIN/ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 615 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 156 LONDON 545 ALEXANDRIA 54 DUBAI 671 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 787 JEDDAH 549 SOHAG 617 DOHA 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 1126 ANTALYA 165 ROME/PARIS 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 238 AMMAN 103 LONDON 6522 LAMERD 624 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 611 CAIRO 342 DAMASCUS 641 AMMAN 58 DUBAI 982 BAHRAIN 646 MUSCAT

Time 0:25 0:40 0:55 1:05 1:10 2:00 2:10 2:15 2:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 5:00 7:10 7:15 8:25 8:35 8:40 9:00 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:35 9:40 9:50 10:00 10:15 10:20 11:45 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:10 12:30 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:00

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

KAC KAC DHX SVA JZR KAC KNE QTR KAC KAC JZR VOS ETD MLR QTR UAE GFA ABY JZR JZR RBG SVA FDB ALK JZR KAC JAI FDB JZR KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC DHX KLM UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC TAR JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR

673 551 876 501 178 773 746 141 613 743 538 82 304 404 135 858 216 128 184 266 3554 511 64 228 134 283 571 62 528 331 351 648 403 543 373 445 860 218 102 137 301 205 327 554 504 411 981 613

DUBAI DAMASCUS BAHRAIN JEDDAH DUBAI RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA BAHRAIN DAMMAM CAIRO BAGHDAD ABU DHABI DUBAI/COLOMBO DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA RIYADH DUBAI DUBAI/COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA MUMBAI DUBAI ASSIUT TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT CAIRO BAHRAIN BAHRAIN/AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD DUBAI/TUNIS ALEXANDRIA LUXOR BANGKOK/MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO

15:10 15:25 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:05 16:10 16:15 16:20 16:25 16:40 17:00 17:35 17:40 17:45 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:30 18:35 18:40 19:10 19:10 20:00 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:10 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:50

34

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 450

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) A drive to question situations may find you working through some strong internal changes now. Push too hard and you may find your goals do not come to a positive end. Be patient, these energies will swing in a more positive direction soon. When it comes to business and career, you have a mind that just cannot help but take care of business. This is where most of your energies and concerns will be for today. You will see good results from your efforts. Your thoughts and ideas are practical and your clear-sightedness makes some form of management or supervision almost unavoidable. Your sense of discrimination, when it comes to practical issues, is excellent—you value clearheaded thinking in others.

Romance is possible this evening.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) This day is a natural for self-expression and lends itself to your particular thinking. Your very own opinions and professional insight are beneficial to the best outcome today. You have been holding back on your best moves but your participation in some work project is very important today. An elderly person in your family needs your attention this afternoon. Encourage the elderly to write down genealogy facts for the next generation. Writing stories for the children to enjoy and placing them away for safekeeping might be a fun project for more than just the eldest member of your family. Recording the stories might also be fun— the young will enjoy hearing their childhood voices when they are older.

Communicate with those you love.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. God of the earth.

4. United States writer of poems and plays about racial conflict (born in 1934).

10. An American doctorate usually based on at least 3 years graduate study and a dissertation.

13. A lipoprotein that transports cholesterol in the blood.

14. A tricyclic antidepressant (trade names Adapin and Sinequan) with numerous side effects (dry mouth and sedation and gastrointestinal disturbances).

15. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

16. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

17. Accuse formally of a crime.

18. (astronomy) A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.

19. A small cake leavened with yeast.

21. An Indian nursemaid who looks after children.

23. Someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else.

25. Title for the former hereditary monarch of Iran.

28. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

29. Small genus of Eurasian herbs.

32. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

34. Remote and separate physically or socially.

35. A state in northwestern North America.

36. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

37. A gray tetravalent metallic element that resembles zirconium chemically and is found in zirconium minerals.

41. A large body of water constituting a principal part of the hydrosphere.

43. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

47. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

48. Advanced in years.

49. An acute inflammatory disease occurring in the intestines of premature infants.

53. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

55. Hang loosely or laxly.

57. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

58. Black tropical American cuckoo.

59. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

61. (informal) Roused to anger.

62. One of the most common of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

63. A waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water.

64. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

DOWN 1. Marked by lack of intellectual depth.

2. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

3. Divulge information or secrets.

4. The Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Dali region of Yunnan.

5. (biology) Of unlike parts or organs.

6. Very small species of shrubs of southern hemisphere.

7. Relating to or having the characteristics of bees.

8. A Bantu language spoken by the Chaga people in northern Tanzania.

9. (prefix) Opposite or opposing or neutralizing.

10. (Middle East) Usually small round bread that can open into a pocket for filling.

11. A pilgrimage to Mecca.

12. A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.

20. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

22. The elapsed time it takes for a signal to travel from Earth to a spacecraft (or other body) and back to the starting point.

24. Australian clover fern.

26. An accidental happening.

27. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

30. (Greek mythology) Goddess of the earth and mother of Cronus and the Titans in ancient mythology.

31. A Kwa language spoken in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

33. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

38. Preaching the gospel of Christ in the manner of the early church.

39. The closing section of a musical composition.

40. A member of a North American Indian people living around the mouth of the Colorado river.

42. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

44. Growing old.

45. Soviet chief of secret police under Joseph Stalin.

46. A large stringed instrument.

50. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

51. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

52. An informal term for a father.

54. Being one hundred more than two hundred.

55. A brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium and sulfur.

56. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

60. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

61. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

Yesterday’s Solution

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Right now, the key to career moves involves attending to nagging details—whatever you have neglected or put aside for later. A planning notebook may be an essential item to help you with your daily, weekly and monthly goals that help you increase your quota or financial expectations. If you are in sales, this is an imperative tool. You will prosper through new insights, inventions and an independent point of view. All people need a day away from the intense, professional planning; today you could grab your golf equipment, tennis racket or skates and a friend or family member and make the rest of the day a day of rest, recreation and refurbishment. A social engagement will find you in great form this evening.

Make bedtime a reasonable time.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

You will prosper by pursuing your ideals and most deep-seated dreams of how life could be. Don’t be afraid to project that image and make those dreams real. Ideas of group cooperation in some project could further your career now. Buckle down and concentrate on your career for now. If you are not working this today, your organizational skills will be used in your ability to round up a group and play sports or create some social gathering. You may not be a coach but you can get the group together and allocate responsibilities, like one person brings refreshments and one person brings something else, etc. You can expect a little boost now, some sort of extra support or recognition from those around you. Friends want to make this day a repeat!

Leo (July 23-August 22) You are able to reflect on the present and plan some future event. Perhaps a wedding is at hand. There are opportunities to converse and commiserate with friends. There is a greater appreciation for things of value and the idea of value itself is in order. You are cautious, thinking ahead and planning for some future event. There are many blessings to enjoy at this time—not always from other people. Sometimes the best rewards are realizing that you have done a good job with your choices in life. Take a step back to appreciate your life at this time and spend more time contemplating over the positives. This evening is a good time to enjoy the company of a loved one, read a romantic book or take in a movie.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Talking with a neighbor and planning the next social function is a fun thing over the morning coffee or tea. Walking around the house and taking notes about what might need changing or updating before the winter sets in is a good thing to do. A charity social may earn enough money for the neighborhood to help out the elderly in your area with a meal a day or a volunteer system to read to an invalid is another way to be helpful. In order to know which people have needs and which people can help, a survey could be taken through the mail with a checkmark for needs and a checkmark for volunteer with a self-addressed return envelope enclosed. Good for you; now you and your neighbor have a mission and a mighty good one. Communication is good today.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

In the past you have been flexible, only when necessary. Now you are learning flexibility without the push. There is time for you to try out new things or break away from an old routine. Looking for a part-time job, you might check out tutoring young people, especially along the area of writing or speech. You enjoy working with people and would make a good counselor, teacher or mentor for those young people that have a bit of difficulty with their school work. You seem compelled to deal with the challenges of others and you enjoy solving difficult problems. Yours is a passionate life. Intense feelings and strong attachments make for hot times and you are fiercely loyal, if not sometimes possessive. You have a sense for power, wealth and passion.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) The power of organization on a social scale seems to take on a larger than life aura as you enter into a new cycle. It’s as if ambition and authority are answers in themselves, rather than only a means to an ideal objective. Careful—this can lead to duplicity, confusion and ambitious schemes that tend to become lost along the way. It is easy to overdo, strain or explode with temper under these aspects, so take it easy. Bide your time. Secrets, conspiracies and the hidden links that unite all things take on greater importance in your life now. Your patience is rewarded today. Digging into the past for hints about the present and future uncovers a lot of answers to the questions that will not go away. You lead a full and most positive life.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You are a born leader; others find it easy to take instructions from you and tend to follow your example. You enjoy helping others solve their personal or technical problems today. Your patience is rewarded. There are opportunities to make plans or decisions and find your way through just about any problem. You feel successful and able to handle difficult situations today. Good advice from a guide or older person may be helpful. This could just be the time to really examine and analyze your goals. It can be easy now to separate the unimportant from the important and revise a few goals and dreams. The results are solid goals that support you. You may find yourself enjoying your friends this afternoon, sharing some good experiences together.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

You could be seen by others as just the person to be placed in charge of some project requiring a conservative mind—a day for thinking and ideas. A bout of philosophy or even a little religion could have an enormous effect on your career during this time. Lasting values and whatever you find to be true can guide you now—opening up avenues that have remained blocked.

Generally, this is a fruitful period for real estate investments, particularly if you are realistic; know your limitations. You may feel like talking a bit more than usual, exploring new ideas or getting happily lost in a conversation. A short trip or a special phone call is in order this afternoon. Family, home and the other roots in your life give you a sense of mission now.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You have a great desire and drive to be thorough and responsible down to the smallest detail. You always know what is essential and what is not—you love the routine. A majority of your planets at this time suggest that right here and now is where you like to be and operate. You tend neither to spend much time in procrastinating about the future nor reminiscing about the past. You like to BE in the moment, of the day. Obtaining and exchanging information is fun and you may find yourself talking about world affairs and sipping mocha at your local bookstore. This evening there is more interaction with neighbors as well as loved ones. Being aware of the activities and feelings of the people you love and the people around you keeps you in-touch.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

You may feel like being different, trying something unusual today. There are new ideas forming today. There is a yearning to broaden your options for professional advancement now. Law, politics, education, travel or religion, among other things, may take part in this search for advancement. Lectures, self-help literature and tapes or books seem to attract you now. You enjoy working with your mind and your sharp perceptions make finding new solutions easy. You will bring an unexpected twist or insight into whatever you set your mind to accomplish now. You are able to teach or help others to be more original when it comes to the words or thoughts they use.

Technical problems have your attention this evening.

A

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Years

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 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

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24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

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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

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25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

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24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

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24719048

N.Kheitan

24710044

Fintas

3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

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PHARMACIES

AIRLINES

ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

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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

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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

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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

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25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

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24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581 22641071/2

22655539

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25343406

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22562226

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25739272

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22561444

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22618787

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22619557

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22525888

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22610044

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25653755

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25327148

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25620111

Neurologists

Dr. Adnan Ebil

22639939

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25633324

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22666300

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25345875

Gastrologists

25728004

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25355515

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22636464

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24726446

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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

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A

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Years

36

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

lifestyle

Picture shows cake presented by Costa del Sol.

Picture shows cake presented by Sheraton.

Picture shows flowers presented by Asda’ PR agency.

Picture shows flowers presented by Central Bank of Kuwait.

(From left) Picture shows Giovanni Petrigh, Director of Sales of Movenpick Hotel, Beat Peter – Movenpick Hotel General Manager, Kuwait Times’ Adnan Saad, Yasmine Adel –Movenpick Hotel’s Communications Manager and Kuwait Times’ Eiad Al Ahad. –Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Picture shows cake presented by Movenpick - Al-Bida’a Hotel.

Picture shows cake presented by Movenpick Free Picture shows cake presented by Marina Hotel.

Trade Zone.

(From left) Picture shows Shukri Salman Director of Sales of Costa Del Sol Hotel, Natalie Hauranieh, Sales Executive and Adnan Saad.

(From left) Picture shows Eiad Al Ahad, Khadija Meftah PR Executive of Movenpick Hotel & Resort Al Bida’a, Adnan Saad and Ahmed El Dackrouri, Sr Sales Manager of Movenpick Hotel & Resort Al Bida’a.

(From left)Picture shows Mario Bassil, Food & Beverage Manager of Marina Hotel, Adnan Saad, Ziad Boujaber, Marina Hotel’s Director of Sales and Eiad Al Ahad.

(From left) Picture shows Kuwait Times PR & Marketing representative Eiad Al Ahad, Caroline Zaher - PR & Marketing Manager of Sheraton Hotel, and Adnan Saad, Kuwait Times Marketing Director.

A

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Years

lifestyle

Taiwan

director’s aboriginal epic breaks new ground

T

aiwanese director Wei Te-sheng knows how to break records. His very first feature film was Taiwan’s biggest ever blockbuster, while his second, now in theatres, is the island’s most expensive production and looks set to top his own box office record. Wei, 42, shot to fame in Taiwan after his romantic movie “Cape No. 7” beat all the odds to become a critical and commercial success in 2008, at a time when the island’s flagging film industry was hit by a recession. He wasted no time and jumped right into his next ambitious project “Seediq Bale”, based on the true story of Taiwan’s indigenous headhunters fighting against Japanese colonial forces in the 1930s.

“This is something I have always wanted to do since I first read a comic on the subject. I felt hot-blooded when I saw the history, the rebellion, and the ugly and contradictory side of humanity,” Wei told AFP. “The movie is more than conventional heroism. There is no absolute right or wrong in history. The Japanese are not absolute villains and the aborigines are not absolutely right.” Taiwan was ruled as a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, but that history is usually seen from the perspective of the island’s majority Han Chinese population, not its aborigines, who make up about two percent of the population.

Wei said he finished the script back in 1999 but had to put it aside due to a lack of funding to make the big-scale scenes he envisioned. That changed when the hit “Cape No 7” helped bring in more investors. The end product is a two-part, fourand-a-half hour movie that has again set many new records in Taiwanese cinema. It is the first epic-length release and was the island’s most expensive production, costing Tw$700 million ($24 million). It is also the first movie with an aboriginal theme in an aboriginal dialect, which is completely different to

This undated handout picture released by Ars Film Production shows a fighting scene between Taiwanese aborigines and Japanese troops in Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng’s latest movie ‘Seediq Bale,’ an epic tale of Taiwan’s indigenous tribes fighting against Japanese colonial forces in the 1930s. —AFP Mandarin but related to languages spoken across the Pacific.

And it is also probably the bloodiest movie shot on the island, with numerous beheadings and other atrocities, justified by Wei as necessary in order to truthfully depict war and the headhunting culture of the past.”Seediq” is the name of the mountain tribe, while “Seediq Bale” means a “real man” who has his face tattooed after killing an enemy, so after death he can cross the “rainbow bridge” that leads to his ancestors in the heaven. “Killing is an act of revenge for others but for the aborigines the hatred is gone when the blood is drawn, and they ask the spirits of the killed to follow them to the rainbow bridge. In their belief it is not destruction or slaughter.”

The film’s first installment, “The Sun Flag”, opens with a hunting scene in the mountains in central Taiwan and progresses quickly to Japan taking over the island and waging harsh policies on the indigenous tribes, eventually leading to retaliation and, in the end, yet more oppression. Shooting in

the mountains was challenging, while securing enough funding to keep the production rolling was a constant struggle, Wei said, but it all paid off after rave reviews in Taiwan. Wei is poised to smash his own box office record of Tw$530 million for “Cape No 7”, which is credited with rekindling the interest in local films, which for years lagged far behind offerings from Hollywood, Hong Kong and China. “The Sun Flag” has raked in Tw$265 million in just two weeks since its opening on September 9 and the second installment, “The Rainbow Bridge”, will be released on September 30. The “Seediq Bale” wave is sweeping Taiwan, from the central bank issuing commemorative coins on the Seediq tribe to travel agencies promoting tours to aboriginal sites and restaurants touting aboriginal cuisine.

The film has also attracted attention abroad after its premiere at the Venice film festival and its rights were sold to major European countries with discussions going on for the US

‘Los pasos dobles’ named best film at San Sebastian festival S

panish filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta’s “Los pasos dobles” beat the much-fancied Japanese film “Kiseki” to the top prize at the San Sebastian festival on Saturday. The jury, chaired by Oscar-winning American actress Frances McDormand (“Fargo”), named Greek-born Filippos Tsitos as best director for his thriller “Adikos kosmos” (Unfair World). The special jury prize went to French actress and director Julie Delpy for her film “Le Skylab”, a tribute to her late mother. The award of the top prize to “Los pasos dobles” (The Double Steps) was greeted with surprise.

The film had divided critics and “Kiseki” (I Wish), directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, had been tipped as favourite to win. The film focuses on the tsunami that hit Japan in March. In the end, the Japanese film had to settle for the prize for best screenplay. “Los pasos dobles” takes its inspiration from the biography of French artist and author Francois Augieras (19251971) who painted the walls of a military bunker in the desert and let it sink into the sand. Delpy’s film “Le Skylab”, a tribute to her late mother, is a humorous family chronicle set against the backdrop of her grandmother’s birthday in 1979, and got one of the warmest receptions of the festival at its screenings.

The autobiographical screenplay focuses on the divergent political beliefs in the family and the first loves of some younger members of the family.

“Adikos kosmos” (Unfair World) is the story of a policeman who helps delinquents until the day he

finds himself implicated in a murder case and starts to question his ideas of justice. As well as the director’s prize, the film earned its star, Antonis Kafetzopoulos, the award for best actor. The best actress prize went to Spain’s Maria Leon for her role in “La Voz Dormida”

and Chinese markets.Wei, who had no formal film-making training and started out as a television production assistant, considers it a “big miracle” to see his career going this far. “I believed that Taiwanese films would rise again and I had hoped to have a part in it and I did not expect that I would be so lucky,” he said.

“Cape No 7”, which tells the story of the romance between a Taiwanese band player and a Japanese woman, was released in China in 2009 after some controversy over its Japan-related theme. Wei said he was approached by some movie-industry people in China after the release of the film, which grossed $4.6 million on the mainland and was the number one Internet download there, but turned them down to focus on “Seediq Bale”. For his next project, Wei said he wanted to shoot a trilogy on Taiwanese history 400 years ago, or the island’s favorite sport baseball, but he has not yet set a time table. “I want to take a little break and go travelling,” he said.—AFP

Lady Gaga to perform at Delhi’s first F1 Grand prix

(The Sleeping Voice) by Benito Zambrano, a drama set in Franco-era Spain. She plays a young woman who must help her sister who is locked up in a jail awaiting execution once she has given birth to her baby.

A total of 16 films were in the official competition.

The festival opened with a screening out of competition of a supernatural thriller “Intruders”, starring British actor Clive Owen and directed by Spain’s Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“Intacto”, “28 Weeks Later”).

American actress Glenn Close received a special prize honoring her career in cinema. She took the opportunity to present her new film, “Albert Nobbs”, which she also co-wrote with Booker Prize-winning novelist John

French director Julie Delpy holds the 59th San Sebastian International Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, for her film “Le Skylab”.

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Mali actor Amassagou Dolo shows the Golden Shell award for the best film with “Los Pasos Dobles” (The Double Steps). —AP

All the prize winners of the 59th San Sebastian International Film Festival, pose on stage, in the Northern Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian. —AFP

Banville. Adapted from short story by Irish writer George Moore, it tells the story of a woman who disguises herself as a man in 19th-century Ireland to get a job as a butler in an up-market hotel. Close, who plays the title role, also produced the film. She and Clive Owen were among the few big names at the cash-strapped 59th edition of the festival, which said it had been forced to weigh the cost of each invitation. Sponsorship income had climbed by just over 300,000 euros this year, boosting an overall budget of more than seven million euros. —AFP

merican pop sensation Lady Gaga has been signed up to play at India’s inaugural Formula One race next month, which will be held at a newly-built circuit outside the capital New Delhi. The colorful diva will perform at a concert after the Indian Grand Prix on October 30, organizers said in a press release on Saturday. US heavy metal outfit Metallica are also slated to play at an “F1 Rocks” gig in the satellite town of Gurgaon on October 28 as a lead-up to the race.

“Formula 1 fans will be able to participate in a spectacle of performance from internationally acclaimed artistes who are travelling to India for the event,” race organizers Jaypee Sports International said. “Pop legend Lady Gaga will mark the closing of the ceremony.” Tickets for the race have been priced between 2,500 rupees ($50) and 35,000 rupees.

Separate tickets will be needed for the after-race concert and other entertainment programs during the three-day event. Organizers say they have sold 20,000 of the 100,000 race tickets so far, with the cheapest seats all sold out. — AFP

Mindshare wins three golds at Cannes M

indshare goes beyond media at Cannes scooping a total of three Gold, two Silver and one Bronze award across Cyber, Titanium and Integrated, Media and Outdoor categories at this year ’s Cannes Adver tising Festival. The accolades fur ther demonstrate both the agency ’s quality and breadth of work.

As Nike’s global media partner, Mindshare is part of the global communications team that picked up a Gold Lion for the “Write the Future”

campaign in the Titanium and Integrated Lion category. The collaboration, which includes Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, AKQA and Razorfish, also won a Gold Cyber Lion. The carefully synchronized global strategy and the power of the network led to the campaign being the most viral video on the planet in 2010.

Mindshare Tunisia was credited for work on Brand Collective’s campaign “June 16th 2014”, the campaign picked up a Gold Media Lion. A Silver Lion went to Mindshare Turkey for its

unique Koc Group campaign, seeing the agency break new ground with a live pitch on Turkey’s Got Talent final. As the credited media partner for LG Electronic’s “Washing Tunnel” campaign, Mindshare South Africa also scooped a Silver Lion in the Media Lions category.

Mindshare UK won its first Bronze Outdoor Lion for Lynx Angel Ambush by creating an augmented reality digital outdoor campaign to bring to life the seductive effect of Lynx Excite, the fragrance so tempting “even angels will fall”.

Dominic Proctor, CEO Mindshare Worldwide said “In a world where integration is the fundamental of modern marketing, we’re thrilled that M indshare has won three Golds and more awards in more categories than any other media agenc y ” Graham Bednash and George Michaelides, Co-Leaders Global Invention said “Our performance at Cannes was spectacular.

Winning three Gold Lions and winning across such a broad range of categories demonstrates the talent and creativity of the agency” .

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

lifestyle F A S H I O N

Italian designers opt for

chic

lady-like

special - which even when Maier uses pleats, a trend in the current fashion week, seems unique. The silhouette is classic but sensual, a combination of a tailored cut and fluid lines. The latest Bottega Veneta bag comes in various sizes, is ultra soft and meant to carried in the hand.

ETRO Etro combined soft silhouettes and bright pop colors against cooler backgrounds for next spring and summer women’s wardrobes, punctuated by bold geometric patterns and dramatic styles.

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Models wear creations part of the Jil Sander women’s Spring-Summer 2012 fashion collection that was presented in Milan, Italy, Saturday. —AP

idway through the current women’s wear fashion week for the Spring-Summer 2012, it is clear that designers are thinking ladylike, not sporty. There are few trousers in the collections, and when they show up they are slim and proper. Short shorts do have a prominent place on the runway, but after all it is summer. Hemlines hover discreetly around the knee or are elegantly floorlength. Colors vary from black and white to beige, pastels and a few bold colors. The preferred footwear is the sandal, with either a high or a platform heel. Sneakers and summer boots, with the exception of a few eccentric models, are out.

Many shows hark back to the Roaring ‘20’s or the chic ‘50’s, the first fashion decade to make reference to the Charleston era - think chemise dress. Low waists, crinoline hemlines and sequined embroidery are everywhere, but the defining style is pleats - small, large, accordion it makes no difference as long as the fabric folds.

JIL SANDER Taking the label’s staple white cotton, designer Raf Simons in the collection shown Saturday, turns it into a shift dress, a jacket, or even a coat dress. The use of sheered fabric and layered poplin reveal the contours of the body, making the outfits subtly sexy. The all-white look, paired with white-laced summer boots, has a slight hospital feel.

The designer notes say the collection aims to suggest the new Jazz Age, and there was plenty on display during Friday’s preview show to recall the Roaring ‘20s.

Dresses were either dropwaisted or without any waist at all. Skirts were pleated or swishing. And flowing dresses of the simplest cut were layered underneath with pleated or frilly slips for a very feminine look. Flapper-inspired dresses offered a simple interoperation of the era in plain black-and-white, set off by slicked back hair. But designer Veronica Etro also emboldened the look, deconstructing its signature prints to emphasize curves. And large cutouts on the sides and shoulders along with plunging necklines and dangerously low backs added drama to the collection. Hemlines brushed the knee, but also fell to mid-calf and floor-length - as in a dramatic, flowing black-lavender-andgold gown with folds and pleats that caress the shape. Not all the looks required jewelry. When they did, earrings were large geometric shapes in metal and stone. Shoes were flat or high-heeled strappy sandals, or metallic high-heeled sneakers. —AP

BOTTEGA VENETA In the preview collection presented Saturday, Tomas Maier mixes fabrics and colors to create a unique blending effect for next summer’s styles. A mix of leather and fabric and a contrast of black and brown make up the pleats of a skirt, while bands of different shades and materials are worked together to create a multi scarf effect for dresses. Prints and embroidery, too, are a combination of shiny and opaque, color contrasts and mixing of fabrics. The overall feel is of something very

Models wear creations part of the Bottega Veneta women’s wear.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

lifestyle F A S H I O N

Milan catwalks offer dream of exotic escapes

F

rom visions of far-flung rainforests to travel back in time to the Roaring Twenties, Milan Fashion Week has been all about escapism-offering a welcome respite from a mood of economic gloom in Italy. Gucci’s Art Deco style, Alberta Ferretti’s jungle themes, Prada’s 1950s race track models and Moschino’s matadors have been some of the most striking features on the catwalks this year, taking spectators to distant worlds. “The collection interprets the freedom of a contemporary traveler who sets off for far away destinations because she knows her roots and identity,” read a statement put out by Trussardi for its new spring/summer 2012 lineup.

The glitzy Trussardi show at the Renaissance-era Sforza Castle that dominates the Milan city centre featured models in explorer outfits with luxury luggage who took their places in airline seats after sashaying down the runway.

Frankie Morello’s kitschy new collection “Souvenirs d’Italie” also centered on the theme of travel-this time featuring Italian landmarks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum and Michelango’s David statue. The last runway for Dolce & Gabbana’s second line D&G-a retro riot of color and figure-hugging foulards inspired Vogue Italy editor Franca Sozzani an elegant attendee at the

shows-to think back to the Dolce Vita.

She said the dresses were like the “Golden Age of Capri and Portofino.”But Stefano Tonchi, editor of US fashion magazine W and former editor of the New York Times Style Magazine, said he has had enough of all the retro.

Italian fashion “should think big and open its eyes and stop dusting off the aesthetics of the past,” he said, quoted in La Repubblica daily. “It should concentrate on the contemporary: on art, on cinema, on music. Look at the present,” he said, calling on young Italian designers to “confront with more conviction the themes of our era and our culture.”

Some designers have stood out this year with standout original work, including Versace with its selection of latter-day mermaids, as well as Bottega Veneta with a collection featuring an eclectic mix of fabrics. It is not just the collections that have been engaging in a good bit of escapism-attendees have been every bit as creative in their get-ups. Chinese actress Yang Mi attended the Gucci show drawing attention with a vivid red gown from the fall collection and fashion students have packed into many of the shows, wearing everything from military jackets to ponchos. —AFP

Chinese model Shu Pei wears a creation part of the Moschino women’s SpringSummer 2012 collection that was presented in Milan, Italy, Friday. —AP

Nepal fashionistas

woo the West

File pictures show Nepalese and Indian models showcase creations by a local designer on the catwalk during an event of Nepal Fashion Week in Kathmandu. —AFP photos

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Models wear creations part of the Etro Spring-Summer 2012 fashion collection.

hile the eyes of the style world were on the Milan spring-summer collections, another fashion event was taking place on the other side of the world-in the Himalayas. At Nepal Fashion Week the models sashayed down the catwalk in a mix of Western and ethnic apparel, contrasting classic with kitsch in a cornucopia of sassy cocktail dresses, flowing silk gowns, kaftans, kurti blouses, shalwars, sequins and ruffles. Dozens of young designers displayed their collections as the Nepali fashion industry bid to bring itself to global prominence, and attract the attention of international buyers.

The event, which wrapped up on Saturday night, mixed high concept with ready-to-wear, with established Nepali designers, and stars of the future, hoping to introduce themselves to the world. “There is a lot of potential in Nepal,” said US designer Bethany Meuleners, fashion consultant for the event. “There’s a lot more interest than ever before so that gives a big push for where the fashion industry could go.”

Organizers of Kathmandu’s four-day event, launched in 2004, hope it will prove there is more to Nepal than politics, and efforts to sell the local fashion industry to the West were apparent throughout. The announcer spoke only in English and themes such as “Cinderella Dreams” and the Harry Potter-inspired “Deathly Hallows” struck more of a chord than the more eastern-flavored “Thamel Night” and “Tribes of Bangladesh.” The last couple of years have been a busy time for the Nepalese clothing industry, with a proliferation of high street fashion outlets and the launch of two online clothing stores, Fashion Mirror and Harilo.

The unique selling point of Nepalese fashion is the natural fabrics, such as hemp and bamboo, as well as richly textured hand-woven cotton, which are not often seen on the catwalks of Paris or Milan. But there remains a dearth of prominent Nepalese fashion designers promoting the industry in the West. New York-based designer Prabal Gurung, courted by the world’s top style magazines and worn by Michelle Obama, Demi Moore and Rachel Weisz, can claim to be the first and-as yet-only big Nepalese name to make it on the global fashion circuit.

Nepal suffers electricity shortages which can mean power cuts for up to 14 hours a day in the winter. Experts believe the poor infrastructure and unstable political situation are the main obstacles to the fashion industry’s attempts to

break into Western markets. “When you have strikes and power outages and everything, it’s hard for them to set up contracts where they can promise the work can get done when it’s supposed to get done,” said US designer Meuleners.

After years of damaging instability, the green shoots of recovery appear to be showing, with clothing worth 3.64 billion rupees ($46 million) in exports to Europe during the first 11 months of the last fiscal year, according to official figures-a rise of 11.5 percent on the previous year.

Nepal’s market is also expanding. A decade ago 90 percent of exports were to the United States whereas now exporters are selling half their stock to Europe and 25 percent to India.

Whether Kathmandu can break into the stronghold of the four main fashion cities-London, Paris, Milan and New York-when other destinations such as Brazil and Hong Kong have failed, is another matter. Nepalese beauty queen Anupama Aura Gurung, current holder of the Miss Nepal Earth crown, believes the country’s industry could match international standards within five years. “Nepal fashion is really very raw-it’s still in the baby phase,” she told AFP. “But we are learning to crawl and slowly we will get up and walk.”—AFP

e niv rsar n

y

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Nepal fashionistas woo the West

Years

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

39

Dwarf bullfighter Antonio Garcia whose stage name is “Tony,” is charged by a calf at the local bullfighting plaza in San Miguel de Allende. —AP

Last bullfights in Spain’s Catalonia before ban S

pain’s top matadors gathered Saturday for a final weekend of bullfighting before the blood sport is banned in the northeast Catalonia region, and crowds of fans carried them for miles (kilometers) to their hotel after they killed the bulls. Top flight ‘toreros’ were on the bill both Saturday and yesterday at the La Monumental arena in Barcelona. They include Jose Tomas, one of Spain’s most popular bullfighters. The ban takes effect Jan 1, but this weekend’s fights are the last events of the 2011 season in the Catalan capital.

The conservative, pro-bullfighting newspaper El Mundo ran an analysis by an economist lamenting that the city will lose money by banning bullfighting that is permitted in all other regions of Spain except in the Canary Islands, where it was prohibited in 1991. The newspaper published another article that read like an obituary, with vignettes about matadors who made their names in Catalonia and others who

died in the ring, including four in Barcelona’s La Monumental. Matador Julian Lopez, known by his nickname of “El Juli,” said he was saddened and angered that he will no longer be able to take on bulls in Barcelona’s ring. “This is such a beautiful arena, with a lot of tradition both for bullfighters and for this national celebration,” Lopez said.

Hundreds of bullfight supporters chanted “Catalonia is pro-bullfighting” as they accompanied the matadors to their hotel after Saturday’s fight. The bullfighting ban for Catalonia was passed last year, but lawmakers later effectively endorsed other bull traditions blasted as cruel by animal rights activists. They included the summer pastime of attaching metal brackets to bulls’ horns with flaming balls of wax before they are set free to chase people in rings or on the streets of small towns, and letting the beasts chase daredevils near seaside marinas until the bulls plunge into the water. —AP

Animal Naturalis activists toast during a protest against the bullfighting and celebrating the last “corrida” in front of Monumental bullring in central Barcelona, yesterday.—AFP

New York hosts

F Caramelized onions with rhubarb broth and green grilled onion by Blaine Wetzel, chef at The Willows Inn on Washington’s Lummi Island.

Black cod with black truffle foam and asparagus - a dish by Slovenia’s Ana Ros.

French chef Armand Arnal’s watermelon, ginger and basil dessert.

or 52 hours this past weekend, a mid-sized art space in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood has become a nonstop pop-up restaurant for star chefs in a battle of creativity and mouth-watering technique. Thirteen top chefs from Europe and the United States embarked on four-hour, roundthe-clock shifts to feed night owls and gourmets at Exquisite Corpse, an event hosted by French group Le Fooding.

The chefs are a mix of rising stars and culinary sages rounded up by Andrea Petrini, an Italian journalist and consultant who’s spent the last 25 years in France. He created the three-day matrix that blends different countries, experience levels and styles.

“Building this is like creating alchemy-finding people who will play off of each other and are flexible enough to work with the format,” he said, also explaining the surrealists’ idea of the “corps exquis,” where every chef’s first course has to feature an element used by the chef in the preceding shift.

“If (French chef) Jean-Francois Piege-a perfectionist-came in here, he’d blow a gasket,” Petrini says, gesturing at the residential-style kitchen and the zany idea of Exquisite Corpse as a whole. Piege would not, however, have his feathers ruffled by the venue, where the centerpiece is a table for 40, bedecked at every meal with hundreds of candles and further lit by a great chandelier made of dozens of glass jugs. Beneath it sits an ever-changing group of customers, ranging from the young and hip at 5:00 am to other chefs and foodies who fill the table at all hours.

For chefs, the tricky part is throwing together a meal that is representative of their style at a table thousands of miles away from the home kitchen, and where none of the purveyors are familiar. “I brought a lot of stuff with me,” said Blaine Wetzel, chef at The Willows Inn on Washington state’s Lummi Island.”Stuff,” as it turns out, required an industrial-sized Igloo cooler packed to the gills with

Ana Ros of the Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia, cooks one of the most surprising meals of the weekend at Exquisite Corpse, in New York City’s Chelsea district. —AFP photos dry ice. The cooler threw off airport security so much that Wetzel and his crew, who arrived to the airport three hours early, were forced to take a later flight.

“Some of the food we do here doesn’t make sense out of context. If you’re not on the islands, it might seem pretty gimmicky,” he said, citing a Native American kelp and herring roe dish he’s currently featuring on Lummi Island. What’s in his cooler? Sockeye salmon caught by Willows Inn owner

Riley Starks-fish featured in Wetzel’s dish with celery and watercress.”With the kind of food I make, if you order salmon from the wrong place, God knows what you’d get.”

Listening to him talk, one gets the sense that, in part, chefs are here to show their cuisine to the rest of the world. Working alongside a group of highranking peers, they don’t want to leave anything to chance. So put that pressure together with the fact that they only get four hours to use the kitchen and the task of feeding the forty-odd guests several courses becomes a praise-worthy feat in itself. “It’s perilous,” said chef Armand Arnal of La Chassagnette restaurant in Arles, France, whose plane arrived only four hours before his 1:00 am shift started on Saturday. He and his crew literally ran into the kitchen with their cooler.

“It’s always hard to export your feeling, your cuisine,” he said. Ana Ros of Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia, cooked one of the most surprising meals of the weekend, thrusting her tiny country into New York’s limelight. “When you travel to New York City, you expect globalized food,” she said.

“But when you come from a small country like Slovenia, you should try to tell a little story about ityou want something from there.”

Over four courses, she featured native ingredients like figs, goat’s milk, trout and deer, and her black cod with black truffle foam and asparagus was one of the weekend’s best dishes. The cod held its form yet yielded under gentle pressure from a fork and the truffle foam vaulted each bite into the ether.

“In the countryside, it’s not globalized, you move with the seasons and cook what nature gives you,” said Ros. The recipe for her egg foam, for example, is based on a version her grandmother made for her as a girl, minus the truffles.

“It’s made from egg yolk, vegetable broth, a little salt and some truffles. Stop. Nothing else.” Over the course of the weekend there were inevitable

People gather at the candlelit dining room at Exquisite Corpse in New York City’s Chelsea district. kitchen disasters. Miscommunication could send entire courses into oblivion, chefs’ egos grated, and there were broken glasses galore. Yet there were also perfect and unexpected dishes, beautiful meals and the feeling that at five in the morning, or at any other time in the event’s 52-hour stretch, you and your entourage could eat the finest food anywhere in the Big Apple, made by some of the best chefs in the world. —AFP