4th Oct

ON IP TI SC R SU B

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Radical Jews torch mosque in Israel

THULQADA 6, 1432 AH

Cancer kills Nobel physician before he hears of prize

With help, fabled Arab antelope lives anew

www.kuwaittimes.net

Olympic taekwondo ditches traditions

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7Bahrain 28 sentences 40 Shiite 17 protesters to life in jail 14 jailed for killing Pakistani • 22 jailed for attempted murder

Ohio Muslim inmates sue over meals COLUMBUS, Ohio: A Muslim death row inmate says the Ohio prison system is denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law while at the same time providing kosher meals to Jewish prisoners, according to a federal lawsuit that alleges a civil rights violation. Condemned inmate Abdul Awkal says the prison system’s failure to provide halal meals is a restraint on his religious freedoms.

Awkal, joined by a second inmate not on death row, says the vegetarian and nonpork options offered by the Abdul Awkal Department of Rehabilitation and Correction aren’t good enough. The inmates say the food must be prepared in specific fashion, such as ensuring that an animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining its blood, to conform with Islamic beliefs.

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Knox cleared of murder PERUGIA, Italy: US student Amanda Knox was acquitted of murder and sexual assault by an Italian court yesterday after breaking down in court and pleading for mercy in a dramatic end to her four-year legal battle. She was expected to be released within hours from her prison in Perugia. There were cries of “Shame! Shame!” and “Murderer!” from an angry crowd outside the courtroom immediately after the verdict.

The verdict overturns the 24-year-old’s convictions for the grisly killing of her British housemate Meredith Kercher on Nov 1, 2007 in the university town of Perugia in central Italy where both young women were studying. Her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, who was appealing with Knox, was also acquitted of the charges, leaving only one person convicted - local drifter Rudy Guede, who like the other two has always denied murder. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25 in the original trial. Guede is serving out a 16-year sentence after exhausting his appeals.

The 21-year-old Kercher was found half-naked in a pool of blood on the floor of her bedroom in the cottage she shared with Knox. Her body was covered in knife wounds and bruises and investigators found traces of a sexual assault. In the reconstruction of the crime put forward by prosecutors during the appeal

PERUGIA, Italy: Amanda Knox breaks in tears after hearing the verdict that overturns her conviction and acquits her of murder at the Perugia court yesterday. — AP trial, which began in Nov 2010, Kercher was sexually assaulted by Guede and then held down by Guede and Sollecito while Knox wielded the knife. Knox initially told police she was there at the time of the murder and falsely identified the owner of a local bar where she worked as the killer. But she later argued that the statement was only given under heavy Continued on Page 13

Max 37º Min 26º Low Tide 11:07 & 22:52 High Tide 03:12 & 18:01

DUBAI: A Bahraini special court yesterday jailed 36 Shiites for up to 25 years each in three separate cases linked to pro-reform protests in the Gulf kingdom, a military prosecutor said. The rulings came only hours after a civil court date was set for a group of medics who were handed lengthy jail terms last week for their roles in the month-long protests, leading to international condemnation of Bahrain.

In yesterday’s decision, 14 Shiites were sentenced to life, or 25 years in prison, after being convicted of beating to death a Pakistani with a “terrorist” intent and gathering for riots, the prosecutor Yusof Fleifel said.

Abdulmalik Ghulam Rasool - killed in March - was assaulted with wooden planks and metal bars as he left his home in Manama, state news agency BNA said, adding that the 14 were also charged with intending to cause riots and commit other crimes. Fifteen were sentenced to 15 years in jail for attempting to murder military personnel and taking part in protests and vandalism at Manama’s Bahrain University, Fleifel said, quoted by BNA. The third case involved seven students, six of them jailed 15 years, while another was sentenced to 18 years, over charges including the attempted murder of several people at the university. The students had been charged with “holding people hostage in building S20 and setting it on fire with the aim of killing those in the upper floor” in addition to damaging the building and stealing computers, BNA said. The students were collectively fined 349,300 Bahraini dinars ($926,377), it added.

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KUWAIT: This undated image, provided by Foster + Partners, shows an artist’s rendition of KIA’s new terminal building.

New KIA terminal design balances environmental, aesthetic objectives Project sets sights on LEED ‘gold’ environmental accreditation

By Lisa Conrad KUWAIT: The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) held a press conference yesterday to launch the design of the new Kuwait International Airport terminal. Officials from the MPW, along with representatives from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the design consultants, provided further information regarding the project and discussed the project’s strategic objectives.

According to a statement issued yesterday, KIA is seeking to strengthen its position regionally and establish itself as a regional air hub in the Gulf.

The project is geared toward creating not only a modern, comfortable terminal building, but also one that is as environmentally friendly as possible. The project has set its sights on becoming the world’s

first passenger terminal to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ‘gold’ accreditation.

These objectives are apparent from the additional efforts included in the design, for example taking advantage of Kuwait’s climate by incorporating solar panels on the airport buildings’ roofs.

Whilst great attention has been paid to environmental awareness in the design, this hasn’t come at the price of aesthetic factors: the baggage reclaim area will be surrounded by cascades of water and a large area of the surrounding land will be landscaped, turning it into a ‘lush oasis,’ the statement revealed.

The airport will serve 13 million passengers per year in the short term, with further development aimed at increasing this to 50 million in the longer term. The terminal building’s design has been undertaken

by a consortium led by the leading London-based architects Foster + Partners, in association with the local consulting firm Gulf Consult.

Other members of the design team include the British firm Arup, the Dutch Netherlands Airports Consultants, and the UK’s Parsons Brinckerhoff. Mouzhan Majidi, the Chief Executive of Foster + Partners, said in the statement, “The scale of the airport shows Kuwait’s great foresight in recognizing the benefits of strategic investment in future infrastructure. The environmental ambitions driving the project are equally impressive. We are pleased to have this opportunity to reveal our designs. The emblematic three-winged form will be as memorable from the air as from the ground - a new symbol of contemporary Kuwait, which resonates with its rich culture and history.”

Kuwait takes part in UN-HABITAT conference NAIROBI: Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Republic of Kenya and delegate to the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) Ahmed Badr Rezouki headed the Kuwaiti delegation to the environmental protection organization conference here.

“The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry pays special attention and encourages embassies and diplomats to participate actively in all international conferences and activities despite the technical nature of some of these events,” Ambassador Rezouki said in a press statement yesterday. “We hope Kuwaiti specialists and experts would enhance their participation in these conferences in the future to enrich their experiences and benefit from international expertise.”

The conference kicked off Monday at the headquarters of the United Nations Office in Nairobi and will end on October 7.

It brings together hundreds of specialists and experts on environment issues from over 150 countries. The gathering is

tackling institutional and governmental framework for the establishment of a mechanism to maintain biodiversity and to protect the environment.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

UN-HABITAT’s programs are designed to help policy-makers and local communities get to grips with the human settlements and urban issues and find workable, lasting solutions. UN-HABITAT’s work is directly related to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, particularly the goals of member States to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020, Target 11, Millennium Development Goal No. 7, and Target 10 which calls for the reduction by half of the number without sustainable access to safe drinking water. —KUNA

Drugs seized

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Two Egyptian men who arrived in Kuwait on two separate flights were arrested in connection with possession of drugs. At least 15,000 pills were found in the first man’s possession, while a further 3,000 tablets were confiscated from his compatriot. Both men were referred to concerned authorities.

Man injured A 40-year-old Bangladeshi national sustained deep lacerations to both hands in a street fight that took place near Mishref co-operative society. He was admitted to Mubarak hospital.

Car accident A 55-year-old Egyptian man was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in Farwaniya hospital after suffering head injuries in a car accident on Kabad Road yesterday.

Grilling not finalized after meeting KUWAIT: Details of the grilling motion prepared against Prime Minister HH Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Sabah are yet to be finalized, according to sources with knowledge of a meeting held Sunday between Popular Action Bloc (PAB) members at the office of bloc leader Ahmad Al-Saadoun. The meeting was also attended by MP Falah Al-Sawagh of the Development and Reform Bloc (DRB) and independent lawmaker Saifi Al-Saifi.

The sources who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that the recent meeting featured discussions

on the government’s alleged failure to investigate MPs suspected of receiving large unexplained bank deposits the subject of the grilling motion.

The sources added that discussions concerning the motion have been put on hold while MPs await the outcome an Irada Square public rally scheduled for TOMORROW. “The meeting was for coordination only. We haven’t made any decisions. We are waiting for [tomorrow ’s] rally,” MP Fahal AlSawagh told Al-Rai following the meeting, adding that the National Action Bloc (NAB) will likely co-present the motion with the two opposi-

tionist blocs. The grilling motion is due to be submitted to Parliament on Oct 13, as previously announced by DRB spokesman MP Faisal Al-Mislem.

In the meantime, MP Waleed AlTabtabaei of the DRB noted that veteran political figures including former MPs Ahmad Al-Khateeb and Hamad Al-Jou’an as well as Ahmad AlSaadoun and Khalid Al-Sultan will participate in Wednesday’s rally.

He added that a representative from each of the three main oppositionist blocs as well as one independent lawmaker will address the gathering. — Al-Qabas

Iraqi parliament to discuss Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port study

By A. Saleh KUWAIT: Iraq’s parliamentary services committee revealed yesterday that the Iraqi government report on Kuwait’s Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port will be discussed in the parliament today (Tuesday) during an open session.

Committee member MP Ihsan AlAwadhi said that the decision to discuss the report submitted by a technical team following its recent visit to Kuwait to inspect and be briefed on the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port site in open session was taken to allow the Iraqi people to find out about the details of the stages of the port’s construction and its potential effects on Iraqi maritime activities.

The MP said that the Mubarak AlKabeer Port issue has serious economic dimensions and has become a critical concern for the Iraqi public, adding that it would be improper to attempt to keep the details of the technical report secret.

Al-Awadhi said that Iraq will adopt a unified stance on the issue of the Kuwaiti port based on the report’s findings.

Meanwhile a representative of the Iraqi Islamic Party said, “the construction of Fao Port is the practical answer to Kuwait’s [construction of ] Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port.”

IIP Secretary General Iyad AlSamerrai asked the Iraqi government to avoid involvement in media altercations with the Kuwaiti side, adding that “A patriotic stance is not shown by rhetoric, but by a series of practical and effective moves.”

Al-Samerrai continued, “Iraq needs a political will to solve its

international disputes and a plan that continues with the construction of Al-Fao port according to the original standards.” The senior party official added that it is necessary to “consider Al-Fao port project as vital and political challenge.”

On a separate issue, meanwhile, Kuwaiti MP Khalid Al-Adwa asked the interior minister to take every possible measure to meet the demands of the Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) civilian staff and put an end to the unfair treatment that they have been subjected to for many years, which the MP said has adversely affected their allowances and salary increases.

Al-Adwa said that a rapid positive response to the demands of the MoI’s civilian personnel would be the correct way to improve the situation for them. These staff have submitted demands for a review of their pay and conditions on many occasions over a number of years, Al-Adwa indicated, adding that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has issued several directives supporting their demands, issuing the most important of these statements, which called for treating these staff and military personnel equally, in 2006. Al-Adwa also alleged that some servicemen had employed repressive tactics and harassment against civilian ministry personnel demanding their rights.

Meanwhile state minister of development and planning Abdulwahab Al-Haroun said that increasing private sector workers’ salaries would help in developing this vital sector, as well as being considered an excellent means of

attracting large numbers of Kuwaitis to work in this area, thus helping to eradicate unemployment amongst citizens and limit the number of Kuwaitis on the CSC’s books awaiting public sector jobs. The minister warned that the public sector cannot continue to create large numbers of new jobs for the unemployed indefinitely, adding that it is essential to encourage young Kuwaitis to join the private sector, which is a partner in developing the country.

Al-Haroun said that the prevalence of politically motivated decisions had harmed the private sector, adding that incentives for Kuwaiti employees should be increased. He added that the only way to develop the public sector is to encourage growth in the private sector and improve it through ensuring that it offers job security and supports Kuwaiti workers, ensuring that they don’t perceive any differences between the benefits offered by working in the public or private sector. On another news story, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs (MAIA) has announced the forthcoming construction of a residential complex of villas for imams and muezzins (prayer callers) in the Zahra area. An MAIA insider revealed that the ministry is to contract a specialist firm to begin work on the project before the end of this year, after it has completed all the necessary official paperwork with the Central Tenders Committee.

The insider explained that each villa in the complex will include apartments for staff employed at nearby mosques.

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local

Kuwait-Iraq tensions still simmer over port Restrictions on cross-border trade

By Rupert Horsley

KUWAIT: Australian Ambassador to Kuwait Glenn Miles cutting the ceremonial ribbon at the inauguration of Australia Open Day held at the Sheraton Hotel last night.

KUWAIT: Tensions arising from the $1.1 billion Mubarak AlKabeer Port project appeared to intensify again this week, dampening the rapprochement that followed the visit of the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

In a renewal of opposition to the project, Iraqi MPs accused Kuwait of offering ‘gifts’ and bribes to senior politicians in return for their support. At the same time, Iraqi media has linked a decision to limit trade at the SafwanAbdali crossing with the political controversy surrounding the port. There has been growing opposition inside Iraq to the Mubarak project since work began there in mid -May, prompted by fears that it will eclipse their own $6 billion port, planned to be built on the nearby Faw peninsula. Both projects aim to become major regional hubs, able to compete with the Suez Canal as the point of transit for Asian-European trade.

In June, official opposition to

the project took a dangerous turn when the Iraqi wing of Hezbollah threatened to target both Kuwait and the port unless work ceased.

Following this, on Aug 26, three Katyusha missiles were fired at Boubyan Island, where the port is being built.

Tensions eased after Zebari, commenting on the favorable findings of a team of technical experts, told AP that the port “won’t affect our navigation...and our fears have been removed.” It was reported that the team had negotiated a reduction in projected capacity at the port and that all sides were satisfied that international law was being observed.

Following this, the GCC affirmed its support for the construction of the port.

The dispute was reignited this week, however, after Iraqi MPs accused Kuwait of giving cash and ‘gifts’ to Iraqi politicians in return for their support of project, prompting a denial by Mohammad Al-Busairi, Minister of Oil, Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs and

Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs. One Iraqi MP, Alia Nassif, a prominent critic of the Mubarak port, went so far as to accuse Kuwaiti intelligence officials of involvement in an assassination attempt on her husband.

More serious than the escalation in rhetoric, however, are the severe restrictions recently imposed by Iraq on cross-border trade, which pose a serious threat to bilateral relations, according to the Abdul Rahim Al-Rifai, Head of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti Relations Council. Iraq has reportedly reduced the amount of trucks permitted to cross the border each day from 2,000 to 60, while raising the fees due per truck by almost $80.

Kuwait Times was unable to confirm this decision with Iraqi officials in Basra, but while customs brokers at the border claimed the decision had been cancelled, commercial interests inside Iraq confirmed it, adding that the steps were protested by the Basran business community. A source familiar with cross-border

trade, contacted by Kuwait Times, also complained of undue delays in obtaining the visas required by truckers to enter Iraq.

Officials on both sides were quick to deny any connection between the decision and the Mubarak project, with Iraq’s ruling party, the State of Law Coalition insisting that it was a “technical undertaking related to tax law, that had previously been applied to both Syria and Jordan” which has “no relation whatsoever with the political differences between the two countries or with the issue of the Mubarak Port.”However, a businessman who regularly uses the Safwan crossing told Kuwait Times that the decision will lead to “higher costs for Iraqis for the goods they import...it is not in Iraq’s interests,” adding, “it doesn’t make sense.” Indeed, this argument is lent credence by the opposition the decision has faced from Iraqi traders. “This is not likely a Cabinet or high-level decision,” the businessman added, which, if the case, invites speculation as to how long it will last.

KUWAIT: Some prospective students being entertained at the venue.

— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Australian education showcased in open day

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: At least 15 Australian colleges and universities participated in a four-hour IDP open day held at the Sheraton Hotel, Kuwait City last night. The education exhibition was inaugurated by Australian Ambassador to Kuwait Glenn Miles and IDP Kuwait officials. IDP organizes bi-annual open days in different cities in the Middle East aimed at promoting education in Australia.

Speaking to reporters, Ambassador Miles noted that the main goal is to talk to prospective students in Kuwait about Australian education, “We do this bi-annually to promote Australian education programs and interact with students closely— one by one—learn more about their concerns and everything that goes along with our education system. This is a perfect platform to showcase what Australia can offer in terms of education,” he said.

He asserted that Kuwait and Australia enjoy very strong relations in terms of education, emphasizing the significant growth of students from Kuwait over the last four years, “From 120 students in 2007 it grew to over 900 today. It was a phenomenal

growth and we are expecting large number of new students by next year. It was amazing indeed, thanks to Australian College of Kuwait and Box Hill College which served as the stepping stone to landing a place in academic institutions back in Australia,” he added. Miles also underscored that an easier, more streamlined visa processing method will be implemented in the coming days by the end of the year, “At the moment, it is already easy to acquire a student visa to Australia. We are yet to study the possibility of streamlining the existing procedure further. By the end of the year, the new system will be implemented,” he said. Open days offer students and parents advise on the courses available, university details, accommodation facilities and other options. The Australian education system is one of the best in the world according to Miles. This is in addition to the world-class, most sophisticated and up-to-date technologies and facilities provided to students, “We have a welcoming cosmopolitan and multi-cultural society. Well-funded and high standard universities/colleges across the board. Our place is safe, very accommodating, plus our students can work while studying,” he said.

Ministry to buy 120 traffic cameras KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior plans to purchase 120 new traffic cameras to enforce stricter control over speed violations as well as running red lights. According to a news report quoting a letter sent to the Central Tenders Committee(CTC), the ministry will buy 60 cameras

that detect red light running, 50 cameras to detect speed violations, and 10 cameras that will be fixed in cars.

All cameras will be connected to a database that is linked to the M inistr yís I nformation System Department, reported Annahar.

KUWAIT: (Left) Minister Salem Al-Othaina at the exhibition. (Right) Salem Al-Othaina and Abdulatif Al-Suraie with some participants during the conference. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Kuwait hosts cyber security conference

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The Arabian Conference on Information and Communications Security (ACICS) was launched yesterday at the Al-Raya Ballroom under the auspices of the Prime Minister HH Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah. The two-day conference is due to include exhibitions presented by the participating institutions.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Minister of Information and Communication and Chairman of the Central Agency for Information Technology Salem AlOthaina announced, “This conference is being held at the time when information and communications security has changed from a technical issue of IT to a national security issue that is addressed with the greatest importance by political leaders. The United States and European Union have established special departments for information and communications security and for countering electronic crimes and terror. Many states envisage having such departments in the future.”

Offering further details on the Kuwaiti government’s plans to guard against electronic crimes, Al-Othaina added, “In Kuwait, the Central Agency for Information Technology, in cooperation with the relevant state institutions, is chiefly responsible for information and communications security

systems. We at the government are looking forward to having this conference increase the capabilities of the Central Agency for Information Technology.”

The ACICS conference is being held amid the Kuwaiti government’s efforts to streamline government services and organization - in effect, to create an e-government that will bring government departments into the 21 Century. Speaking on the subject, Al-Othaina added that, “Modern technology is our way to modern lifestyle in all administrative, educational, health, and economic fields. We hope that this conference will highlight the necessary steps needed to attain information security from legal, technical administrative aspects.” CAIT is responsible for the e-government in Kuwait and pursuant to this responsibility it monitors advances made among hackers and perpetrators of other e-crimes. Director General of CAIT Abdullatif Al-Suraie explained that, “We are making such advances by, for example, drafting the Electronic Dealing Law, which has since been submitted to Parliament to approved. Another important project is executing the Kuwait Information Net, which connects 50 public institutions through one net of fiber optics with the highest level of security and privacy as it uses the modern coding systems and firewalls. This net offers security and safety for all public institutions

dealing in it.” Al-Othaina added that, “We at the Ministry of Communications best understand the value and dangers as well as requisite privacy associated with using the networks for information exchange, work, trading and production. In the end we realize that protecting information equals protecting our community and country both today and into the future.”

Al-Suraie remarked on the timeliness of the conference, explaining that electronic security and crimes are important and evolving issues globally.

“Information and communication technology is the main arena in which to plan, develop and execute economic, social, educational and health plans for rapidly expanding communities today,” he explained, noting that, “failure of or damage to these technologies may have unpredictable results.”

Al-Suraie also touched the threats inherent in technological advances, explaining, “The technology itself helps develop the techniques of attacking, and this attracts the electronic criminals.

Reports issued by specialized international companies in this field show that the electronic pirating has increased this year.” In a rapidly-developing technological world, Kuwait is hoping that the ACICS conference will provide experts with a space to exchange ideas and expertise and, in doing so, contribute to greater cyber security.

Diabetes ‘a modern-day plague’

By Roland Singer-Kingsmith

KUWAIT: (Left) Sheikh Malik Al-Sabah opens the exhibition. (Right) The Kuwait International Property Show. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Kuwait International Property Show opens

By Lisa Conrad KUWAIT: The Kuwait International Property Show was officially opened

by Sheikh Malik Al-Sabah yesterday.

The event features stands from around 30 companies, each showcasing various local and international real estate opportunities.

The show, which is taking place at the International Fairground in Mishref, will continue until Saturday.

In a statement issued to announce the event, Sheikh Malik said that the economic crisis had eliminated false real estate companies, which, prior to the crisis, had damaged Kuwait’s real estate market by causing rises in real estate prices.

KUWAIT: Sheikh Malik Al-Sabah, center, and Ministry of Commerce and Industry Undersecretary Abdulaziz AlKhaldi, right, tour the exhibition.

KUWAIT: Diabetes was likened to a modern day equivalent of the Black Death at a scientific symposium held at the Dasman Diabetes Institute (DDI) this week.

David Matthews, Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Oxford, made the analogy to highlight the desperate need for the government, medical professionals and the general public to start treating diabetes as an infectious disease to which everyone is susceptible.

“We can only prevent diabetes when we shift our perception of the disease away from being the inevitable result of personal greed and towards the understanding that the environment in which we live is toxic,” he said.

Professor Matthews was speaking during one of a series of multidisciplinary workshops specially designed to highlight new scientific research into diabetes and to inform existing health initiatives on how best to deal with the disease in the future.

The incidence in Kuwait of Type 2 diabetes, which is brought about by lack of exercise and over ingestion of calories, has grown exponentially throughout the last 20 years. Most research studies now estimate that between 20-25 percent of the total Kuwaiti population suffers from Type 2 diabetes and there is no sign of the rate flatlining before 2030 at the earliest. The disease is incurable and brings with it a lifelong struggle to regulate one’s daily life in order to survive. Prof Matthews put it bluntly: “Diabetes is not an irritating condition: it’s a chronic dis-

ease, which means that once you’ve got it, you’ve got it forever. Even if you go on a diet, diabetes doesn’t just go away.”

Serious medical complications associated with the disease can include renal failure, heart failure and blindness. Diabetics also typically die ten years younger than their non-diabetic counterparts.

Kuwait is at particular risk because advances in technology have made modern life for most Kuwaitis and expatriates almost entirely sedentary and the hot climate makes outdoor activity particularly unattractive in comparison to relaxing in the comfort of air-conditioned malls. The enormous variety of foods on offer, brought about by globalization and ubiquitous supermarket chains, has created a culture of ‘cafeteria eating.’ This is a proven scientific phenomenon whereby creatures, including humans, put on weight faster if there are more types of food available to eat. Furthermore, the regularity with which Kuwaitis visit fast food chains is contributing significantly to the high rate of new Type 2 diagnoses.

The disease’s impact is not limited to the individual alone, however. Wider national implications can be catastrophic, especially in the long term, and a failure to inculcate a culture of healthy eating now could potentially lead to the decimation of future generations and astronomical healthcare costs. Dr. Monira Al-Arouj, one of the symposium’s participants from the DDI, identified the clear risk posed by diabetes in the Gulf region and concluded her presentation by saying: “The huge personal and public cost of diabetes is threatening the security of families and

the economic stability of entire nations.”

These negative consequences are already being felt by Kuwait’s health services, which are struggling under mounting pressure to support those with diabetes. Prof Matthews was keen to highlight the long-term burden of diabetes on the nation: “It’s not simply a matter of ‘poor them,’ it’s a matter of ‘poor us’ because of the huge amount of infrastructure required to care for them. If 25 percent of your population were suddenly killed in road traffic accidents, it would be a tragedy today. But if a quarter of your population contract diabetes, it is a tragedy today, tomorrow and every day after that.” Diabetes is no longer the concern of the patient alone, he stressed, but it is in the interests of the wider community to prevent the spread of the disease.

The symposium therefore is focusing on the urgent need to respond not only to a burgeoning population of diabetics but also to find ways to immunize Kuwaitis against the toxicity of modern life. It is not simply a matter of introducing government legislation banning certain products and promoting others, rather it is about re-designing the entire way in which Kuwaitis approach food and exercise. The key to changing such an attitude, according to Dr. Kazem Behbehani, the DDI’s Director General, lies in improving health education at all levels. “Combating diabetes is about making everyone better aware of the health issues connected with over-eating and under-exercising,” he said. “That includes children, adults, teachers, healthcare providers and everyone in between.”

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kuwait digest

in my view

Who do you want as PM?

Mind your language

By Hassan Al-Essa

By Rizwan Ahmed

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he other day, MP, Abdulrahman Al-Anjari said simply that he wishes to become Prime Minister, which is a lawful right of every Kuwaiti citizen.

Constitutionally, Al-Anjari only made an uncontroversial statement; neither Kuwait’s constitution nor any other laws stipulate that the PM must be a ruling family member, after all, it was simply the political norm and tradition after the constitution was established that the PM would also be the Crown Prince, whilst his immediate deputy will be the next premier.

This went on until the premiership and the Crown Prince position were separated when the late Sheikh Saad was too sick to hold both positions. So, that is the story of a tradition that no longer exists, which gave way to a new custom that separates the two positions, which is more constitutional as for one man to hold both positions grants the PM a sort of profoundly undemocratic immunity.

According to the constitution, however, the premier can be grilled in parliament after which lawmakers would declare a state of ‘no cooperation’ with the government. The Prime Minister’s sheikhdom, however, still influences the premiership regardless of the name of the sheikh in the position at a given moment or the order of those jockeying for position in subsequent generations.

Restricting the premiership to the descendants of Sheikh Mubarak has certainly made certain individuals - the elite and a wide range of citizens - believe that simply considering ‘opening up’ the premiership to non-members of the ruling family was a taboo; that’s an argument I have so many times whenever somebody sarcastically asks when the subject is raised: “Who do you want as PM, Ahmed Al-Saadoun, Musallam AlBarrak or....?!”

There is no tyranny in our constitution, but what worsens our situation is the ignorance of those who are supposed to be enlightened, especially those individuals who read widely and are well aware of history and various fields of learning, view this position as the sole property of the ruling family while lecturing others about democracy and freedom and constantly condemning the government’s policies and the way the state is run.

Such people have condensed the whole state into one person, forgetting all about the sovereignty of law and our state of institutions. They forget that the state’s survival is not linked to individuals, but is based on the people’s unity and collective willpower. Our true dilemma is that so many of these ‘oil cultured’ people and the semi-modernized ones continue to condemn the spirit of tribalism whilst failing to realize that they themselves are tribal fanatics. They believe that they are the only citizens and that everyone else is an intruder. For me, however, it is they themselves who are intruders on citizenship and equality and I wish they would simply be quiet and remain silent for good. — Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

Limiting freedom of speech

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

T

he attack launched by the government against citizens who express their opinions online on blogs and social networking sites is not only illegal and undemocratic, but also contradicts with the nature of the state and its fundamental system.

Jailing bloggers is illegal because Kuwait doesn’t have a penal code pertinent to opinions expressed online. It is also illegal because the internet isn’t restricted to Kuwait’s borders. A webpage is not even a physical object that can be used as evidence in trial.

Furthermore, websites cannot be considered ‘public spaces’ because most people express their opinions in private blogs or personal accounts in social networking sites. Jailing bloggers is also undemocratic because freedom of speech is protected by the

Constitution.

Can the Kuwaiti government criminalize someone who expresses opinion at Hyde Park, for example? What gives a website greater physical presence in Kuwait than in Hyde Park?

If the government indeed penalizes Kuwaitis who break Kuwait’s speech regulations when speaking abroad, does that mean that Kuwait does the same against citizens who commit other crimes overseas? Serving and consuming alcohol is illegal in Kuwait; does that mean that the government can pursue Kuwaitis who invest in overseas hotels that serve alcohol?

The government is likely to never do that given its attention appears to be concentrated on limiting freedom of expression and pursuing those with ideologies that oppose-or pose a threat to-

their beliefs as well as the religious beliefs of their allies.

It’s noteworthy that the majority of criminal cases filed against those who express their opinions online, in the press or elsewhere, are all involved in incidents in which religious beliefs as well as individuals are subjects. In the most recent case of Nasser Abul, for example, an individual was jailed for expressing his opinion online on a separate branch of his own religion.

In its relentless attack on the freedom of speech, the government will always find support from Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, Mohammad Hayef, Faisal Al-Mislem, Jamaan AlHarbash or other Islamist MPs, who ironically, are currently leading anti-government efforts that are supported by some democratic citizens. — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

The need for financial aid reform

By Thaar Al-Rashidi

W

hether recently published stories concerning an MP giving financial aid to his constituents are factual or not, one truth remains in the eyes of the public - that there are many MPs to have received undisclosed payments. Many MPs, with limited exceptions, have accepted such payments and the culprits are not confined to the Parliament.

Whether working in the public or commercial sector, sheikhs may give the MP the money out of personal or religious convictions. We cannot blame the sheikh who pays for religious reasons.

To those unfamiliar with the system, it merits an explanation. MPs and their secretaries have ‘Financial Aid Lists,’ that detail constituents’ application for aid. List in hand, the MP tours offices of sheikhs and influential ministers to lobby for funds ranging from KD 1,000 to KD 5,000 per voter. The amounts allotted to a constituent vary depending on the applicant’s status in society. An MP may count among his applicants a student, an individual with extensive debts, an ill person seeking treatment abroad and, of course, someone who will use any reason in attempt to get money from the government.

Whether working in the public or commercial sector, sheikhs may give the MP the money out of personal or religious convictions. We cannot blame the sheikh who pays for religious reasons. We can, however, take up the issue with the sheikh who pays the MP in order to strengthen the minister’s standing in his constituency or otherwise financially support him. First of all, whose money was used?

Was it the sheikh’s personal money or was it public funds? By paying the MP, the sheikh strengthens him and in doing so ensures that the minister will defend the sheikh’s interests.

Therefore, both stand to gain.

The sheikh pays tens of thousands to the MP in order to secure some position at a later date or to have the MP vote for or against an issue for the sheikh; these political dealings should be stopped. All of this should stop. The state can no longer tolerate MPs or votes being paid in this manner. — Al-Anbaa

think it’s a sin to live in a place for a long time without learning the local language. How can you get the fullest advantage out of any environment and be at home there when the language of that place is gibberish to you? It didn’t take me too long to figure this out, after which I decided to begin on the most interesting journey of my life - the road to learning the Arabic language. You could argue that many people who come here learn by just talking and don’t really need to go in for formal training. This is true, but it is the case for those who have no choice but to speak Arabic such as sales staff at bakalas (corner stores), mechanics, taxi drivers, etc.

With me, I didn’t have the advantage of being exposed to Arabic at work because, as a white collar worker, I was confined to the company of bilingual people. For our Arabic-only chores, we had Arabic speaking assistants to do the job so there you go - Arabic never struck to me as something I couldn’t live without.

Nevertheless, as they say the ‘devil is in the detail,’ so the essence of living in an Arabic country lies in knowing the Arabic language. So I bucked down to it and got myself enrolled in Arabic classes.

It’s been a few months since I enrolled in the classes and I am already in love with this language or as I would say in my crude Arabic style “Ana uhib al lughat el Arabia.”

Although I still tend to struggle with constructing full (grammatically flawless) Arabic sentences, it is great fun to be able now to converse, albeit in broken Arabic, with an Arab and get a sense of elation that I didn’t have to use English during the conversation at all. This feeling is priceless and hard to fathom for anyone who hasn’t been through the process of learning a second language and then being able to converse in it.

I have one advantage as an Arabic language student in that, as a Muslim, I learnt to read the Quran as a child.

This isn’t necessarily a massive advantage because, funnily enough, in my home country they teach us to read the Quran without teaching the Arabic language, which means I can read Arabic text without comprehending it.

So, Alhamdulillah, I have been ahead of my co-students as far as reading Arabic is concerned.

Arabic has more depth than other languages because there are a variety of spoken dialects in the language.

There is classical Arabic which is actually the one that is taught and is the formal version and then each particular location (or country) has its own dialect, such as the one in Kuwait. The local dialects can vary widely between one another. I got a sense of that while I was in Ras Al Khaimah (an emirate of the UAE) a couple of years ago. I and one of my Jordanian friends were standing at a shop counter, where a local Ras Al Khaimah lady just in front of us was holding a conversation on the phone. When she was done, I enquired of my Jordanian friend, whose mother tongue is Arabic, as to what the lady had been talking about. I was baffled when he responded that he could not understand a word of what she said over the phone because it was all in local dialect. I then realized how different these local dialects could be from one another.

For teaching purposes, it is the classical version that is taught and is the recommended version for those learning to converse in Arabic as a second language because this version is easily understood in every Arabic country.

Nevertheless, it is always helpful to be familiar with local jargon as well. So for instance there are a number of “How are you?” expressions such as “Shlonak?”, “Keefak?”, “Kaif Al Haal?” and “Kaifa Haluka?” etc., with the people of each country or region using one or more of these in their localized version of the language. In short, when in Rome do as the Romans do and try to use the specific wording for that location!

Just as learning any skill involves concentration and focus, the same applies to learning languages. In order to learn fast one has to keep thinking and trying to use words and sentences in the Arabic language. To express the sentiment alternatively, one has to come out of the English thinking mode and put one’s Arabic hat on, which I assure you is not easy initially. Unfortunately, in the normal course of business, individuals shy away from using the second language because they feel embarrassed, unless they are thrown into a situation where they are left with little choice but to use it. For instance in my case, I made quite some headway in improving my spoken Arabic when I was searching unassisted for an apartment in Kuwait because the janitor or ‘haris’ for any apartment block was invariably Egyptian and only able to speak Arabic. I was therefore forced to think and construct sentences in Arabic only without having the luxury of switching into English when Arabic words were hard to come by.

Learning Arabic requires persistence and a burning desire to learn and implement what has been learnt.

Unless the student is extremely passionate about the language and every other word learnt and the language excites him or her, he or she may well run out of interest and give up. There are various ways to keep the interest burning. First of all, the learner has to instill the habit of talking in Arabic wherever he or she can. I don’t like the concept of Arabic classes being held in English. They should be held in Arabic only so that the student is compelled to practice speaking it at least during the class if not anywhere else. Secondly one needs to find sources to keep the interest alive such as reading Arabic language newspapers, listening to Arabic language TV and music and being attentive to Arabic language signs such as roadside advertisements, etc. and trying to work out what they say. I have recently bought some music by Nancy Ajram and Haifa and though I must admit that I am not yet able to understand the songs fully (inshallah soon!), they do enhance my interest in Arabic. Recently I even started humming them while taking showers; the way I used to with Hindi songs. My Arabic teacher was quite amused when I once asked her what is the meaning of “Akhasmak” and “Aseebak” and she guessed instantaneously that I have been listening to Nancy Ajram.

Interestingly the teacher also informed me that this was Nancy’s first song.

I can confidently claim that learning Arabic has been (and continues to be as I learn more) an extremely fulfilling experience for me for a variety of reasons. In addition to helping me understand and communicate far better with my Arabic colleagues, it has given me incredible insight into cultural issues and made me more confident in socializing at Arab gatherings. I am now far less nervous about visiting any ministry and find my Arabic skills handy in making a positive impression on beautiful ladies! All in all, it is worth the effort and I cherish every moment of being a student of Arabic. For all the foreigners living here and feeling lost, I urge you all to try Arabic classes. It’s not just enjoyable, but a useful skill for life.

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Donation drive for Philippines typhoon launched in Kuwait Relief goods accepted

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: The Filipino community in Kuwait, represented by five non-governmental organizations, in cooperation with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), yesterday launched a massive ‘donation drive’ to help the victims of the two horrendous typhoons that hit the Philippines in recent days. Nearly 70 people have been confirmed

Philippine Amateur Basketball Association in Kuwait and the Beta Sigma Fraternity (Kuwait Chapter).

The Manila weather bureau has warned that the flooding will continue for the next five days, especially in the worst affected areas in the northern Philippines, including the coastal towns and districts of Bulacan and Pampanga. Typhoon Nesat has caused an estimated PHP 8.8 bil-

cannot process such donations.

What we are accepting are token donations of canned goods, noodles and medicines, maybe clothes and something to keep bodies warm amidst massive flooding,” said Dr Chie Umandap, the FBC Chairman.

Filipinos and people of all other nationalities are welcome to donate goods, explained Dr. Umandap. “This is not exclusive for members - even non-mem-

MANILA: Volunteers in a dinghy prepare to distribute relief items to flood victims in the northern Philippine town of Calumpit yesterday. The Philippine authorities, who have been rushing aid to thousands of people marooned in their flooded homes for nearly a week after deadly typhoons, said the worst appeared to be over, with the waters receding. — AFP dead as a result of the typhoons, while many are still missing and over 160,000 people remain at evacuation center awaiting immediate assistance. The donation drive in Kuwait is being spearheaded by the Filipino Badminton Committee (FBC) in coordination with POLO and the Filipino Cultural Club, the Bicolanos in Kuwait, Fil-Aseak, the

lion ($200 million) in damages, according to the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

“What we launched today is collecting donations from our members but all ‘in kind.’ We would like to discourage donations in cash because we are not from government agencies and

New communications authority launching shortly: Al-Othaina KUWAIT: The new communications authority which will oversee the restructuring of this sector will be launched shortly, said the acting communications minister, Salem Al-Othaina yesterday.

Al-Othaina, who is also Minister of Electricity and Water, Minister of Information and chairman of the Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT), said that the issue of the new authority is likely to be amongst the subjects on the parliament’s agenda when it reopens at the end of this month. The minister added that the funding for information-related projects connected with the development plan which are to be undertaken by the new body are likely to be included in the communications ministry’s 2012 budget.

On a related issue, CAIT Director General Abdullatif Al-Suraie said yesterday that the agency takes every measure to improve reliability and security of services and of the information accessible through the state’s official online portal.

Al-Suraie further explained that the CAIT, which is responsible for designing the IT and communications strategies for all state bodies, is seeking to organize more specialist events and training programs for staff, who also regularly attend such events and courses elsewhere, to ensure that they are up to date with all aspects of work in this field.

Al-Othaina and Al-Suraie were speaking following the inauguration of the Arab Conference for Information and Communications Security, which has opened yesterday in Kuwait.

The two-day conference, which concludes later today, aims to promote ways to help avoid previous problems in the field of IT and communications and to provide a number of recommendations based on the experiences shared by the expert delegates attending the event. — KUNA

bers are welcome,” he said. “In fact, we appeal for help from everybody. Consider your donation an early Christmas gift to our kababayans [countr ymen]. If there are other nationalities who wish to donate you are most welcome and may God bless you. We have a situation in the Philippines that calls for our action so we want to heed that call.”

The POLO in Kuwait is also encouraging everyone to donate and to show solidarity with the typhoon victims. Speaking with the Kuwait Times, Philippine Labor Attaché to Kuwait David Des Dicang said that now is the time to show solidarity: “We are in Kuwait, we are not affected but our brothers and sisters are struggling for their everyday lives back in Pampanga and Bulacan; this is the time to come forward, unite for one cause and share something,” he stated.

Donations can be dropped off at any time at the POLO office in Jabriya (Block 7, Street 103, Villa 503, Jabriya) and on Fridays at the Kuwait Disabled Club in Hawally between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. “We are thankful for the cargo company that sponsors at least half of our forwarding expenses,” said Umandap. “If anyone who wants to buy boxes and forwarding expenses it will be okay; it can be arranged to the forwarding cargo subject to fifty percent discount.” Philippine Vice Consul Rea Oreta was delighted to hear about the Filipino community leaders’ initiative. “It is indeed a ver y laudable effort by our Filipino organizations in Kuwait to initiate the donation drive; however, besides submitting your donations in kind to them, please note that you can also direct your help to Philippine agencies such as the DPWH and Red Cross. And also please donate only to legitimate organizations [such as the aforementioned groups] with proven track records,” she added.

All donations will be directed to Caritas Manila under the stewardship of Father Anton Pascual, Umandap concluded. For more information please contact the following numbers: 97197268 (Dr Chie Umandap), 99079341 (Maria Al-Amiri) or 97214475 (Clive Brookes).

Al-Khorafi on Balkans tour KUWAIT: Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Jassim AlKhorafi will head to Serbia today to continue a sevenday Balkans tour, which will also include Albania and Kosovo.

Al-Khorafi is expected to meet the Serbian President Boris Tadic and House Speaker Slavica Dukic Dejanovic in Belgrade. In Tirana, he will meet Albanian President Bamir Topi and House Speaker Jozefina Topalli, followed by a trip to Pristina, where he is set to meet Kosovan President Atifete Jahjaga and House Speaker Jakup Krasniqi. Al-Khorafi’s visit comes amid Kuwait’s efforts to strengthen bilateral relations with regional states and he is due to discuss cooperation on issues of mutual concern, particularly parliamentary work, with regional officials.

The Kuwaiti delegation of parliamentarians also includes MP Mohammad Hayef, MP Faisal Al-Dowaisan, MP Ali Al-Omair and MP Khaled Al-Tahoos. — KUNA

33,000 travel ban orders issued KUWAIT: More than 33,000 travel ban orders were issued against citizens and residents during the first half of 2011, according to a biannual report just released by the Ministr y of Justice’s Public Implementation Department.

Statistics also show that nearly 20,000 travel ban orders were lifted during the period between January and June 2011. Residents of Farwaniya governorate face the largest number of bans, 8,939, followed by Hawally with 8,621.

Al-Ahmadi has the next highest number of travel bans with 5,683, with Jahra following with 5,000 ban orders. In the Capital, 3,476 travel ban orders were issued, with a further 1,954 being issued in Mubarak AlKabeer, reported Al-Qabas.

The number of appeals made against travel ban orders fell by 15.7 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period last year.

KUWAIT: Hala Qadoumi, PR Director of the Safir International Hotel visited the Kuwait Times offices at the weekend, presenting a cake on the occasion of the newspaper’s 50th anniversary. She was received by Adnan Saad, the Kuwait Times’ Marketing Director.

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Wataniya Telecom sponsors Kuwait CSR conference KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom announced its platinum sponsorship of the Kuwait Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Conference, held under the patronage of Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Managing Director of Governmental Relations, Parliamentary and Public Relations and Media in the Kuwait Petroleum Company(KPC).

The event was held on the 28 and 29 September at the Crowne Plaza. It was successful at bringing corporate leaders together to network, do business and engage in an open dialogue with top experts and professionals who focus on CSR in Kuwait. There were also prominent guest speakers who were representatives from different companies in the local and international region. The attendees also exchanged their opinions on how to improve and tackle the prominent parts of CSR that needs to be focused on in Kuwait’s market.

The Conference highlighted some important topics and elements of CSR,

including business conduct, healthy employee relationships that produce best outputs, occupational health and safety, monitoring systems and community involvement.

Abdolaziz Al-Balool PR Director at Wataniya Telecom describes Wataniya’s participation in this conference as, “Wataniya Telecom is proud to be the platinum sponsor of one of the most prominent conferences during the year, and we recognize the need for this conference in supporting sustainable development in Kuwait and promoting the culture of social responsibility in corporations. He added, “This conference succeeded to be an ideal forum that benefited everyone in the field of CSR and it has raised many international and local experiences, pointing out that Wataniya will continue its efforts to enhance its contribution to society in light of its social responsibility and initiatives taken to reach the community and its members, particularly in the process of overall development.”

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s social development department held a seminar on domestic violence yesterday at the society development center in Ferdous. Speakers at the event included educational experts Dr Meshary AlHusaini and Dr Latifa Al-Kandari. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Corrupt detective held in sting operation Shepherd killed in landmine blast KUWAIT: A police detective has been arrested for soliciting bribes from detainees in exchange for securing their release. Investigations were launched after the Ministry of Interior assistant undersecretary for the security affairs Maj Gen Sheikh Ahmad AlKhalifa Al-Sabah was tipped off about the Mubarak Al-Kabeer detective, reported Al-Rai. The suspect was arrested in a sting operation and has been referred to the General Department for Criminal Investigations. He admitted during interrogation that he has been soliciting bribes since becoming a patrol officer in Ahmadi.

Chaotic scenes at SCB as Kuwaiti women allowed housing loans KUWAIT: The Savings and Credit Bank was inundated with housing loan applications from women on Sunday, the first day on which new regulations came into effect allowing Kuwaiti women housing loans of up to KD45,000 each.

Scenes of chaos broke out when the bank opened, with several women apparently knocked to the ground by others in the stampede to submit loan applications. Although many hundreds of women queued at the SCB headquarters from early morning onwards, all of them arriving before 3:00 PM when the bank closes, many returned home disappointed after the SCB closed its doors at 4:00 PM, despite previous assurances that staff would be accepting applications until 7:00 PM and only 200 applications were accepted on the first day.

SCB officials were evidently taken by surprise by the massive numbers of

women who turned up on the first day as Kuwaiti women made up for lost time after years of being given no chance of obtaining housing loans for their own homes. Speaking to the local press last week, some SCB officials had predicted that there would be a low turnout of applicants on the first day with the number increasing gradually.

One SCB insider said that the bank’s Director General Saleh Al-Mudhaf held an urgent meeting with senior SCB officials to discuss the reasons behind the bank’s failure to predict the massive numbers of women turning up to submit applications, which left many SCB staff overwhelmed and many of the enthusiastic would-be applicants frustrated at not being amongst the first to apply. The insider claimed that Al-Madhaf was “very upset” during the meeting, demanding that steps be taken to ensure that such chaotic scenes did not recur at the SCB’s offices in the future. —Al-Qabas

Abdaly landmine A shepherd was killed recently when he stepped on a landmine in the Abdaly desert. Police and paramedical staff arrived on the scene after a passerby reportedly witnessed

an explosion. The victim was pronounced dead on the scene, reported Al-Rai. His body is now being examined by forensic experts.

Gunman sought Police are looking for a suspect in connection with public shooting in Al-Doha. Officers headed to the scene of the shooting to find the young man fire an AK47. The shooter was able to escape and a case was opened at the local police station for investigation, reported Al-Rai. Kidnap case Investigations are continuing in a case involving a woman who accused three young men of kidnapping her.

The accused insist that the woman willingly escorted them to an Ardhiya apartment. The woman originally reported to Andalus police station that she had been kidnapped from

the area raped, reported Al-Rai. One of the alleged kidnappers insisted that the woman was never kidnapped, explaining that there was an altercation between the two when he dropped her off after their date.

Abandoned baby Investigations are underway to identify the parents of an infant found abandoned near an Saad Al-Abdullah, reported Al-Rai. The newborn was in good health when taken to Jahra Hospital for medical attention.

Mugger held Police have arrested an individual accused of theft in Al-Jahra after responding to reported sightings of assaults in the area, reported Al-Anba.

Police found the suspect after tracking his car license plate, provided by one his victims. The suspect confessed to committing several other

similar cases and was referred to the relevant authorities.

Road dispute A man filed a case with Sharq police against an individual who reportedly threatened him with a weapon. In his statement, the individual explained that the suspect pointed a weapon at him as he left his car after the two vehicles collided into each other along Arabian Gulf Street, reported Al-Rai. He added that the suspect sped away from the scene, but managed to take down his license plate number.

Alcohol smuggling Customs officials at one of the Kuwait’s land border checkpoints found 27 bottles of liquor in an oil shipment from France, reported AlRai. An investigation has been opened to ascertain the liquor’s origin.

Kuwait FM lauds strong ties with Spain MADRID: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Al-Sabah yesterday hailed the strong and deeply-rooted KuwaitiSpanish ties.

The visiting Kuwaiti foreign minister early on in the day held talks with Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez.

The meeting was also attended by Kuwaiti Ambassador to Spain Adel Al-Ayyar.

“We have discussed several regional and international issues of mutual interest, particularly the Middle East peace process and the Palestinian statehood bid,” Sheikh Mohammad said following the meeting. He also applauded Spain’s historical supportive stance to the Palestinian people and their cause. The Kuwaiti top diplomat underlined the importance of voting for the Palestinian bid at the UN. “King Carlos has expressed great enthusiasm and readiness in this regard,” he said. The talks also touched upon the Spain-led initiative for dialogue among civilizations.

“There was a desire from both sides to better promote and buttress the initiative in the face of the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia,” he added.

Sheikh Mohammad noted that they have recom-

mended holding a conference for dialogue among civilizations on annual basis in rotation between Muslim countries and Europe.

“An international conference for dialogue among civilizations will be held in the Arab Gulf region at the end of 2011,” he said.

Sheikh Mohammad revealed that he will hold talks with his Spanish counterpart Jimenez later in the day to discuss means to bolster bilateral relations and signing a number of agreements for diplomatic cooperation. The Kuwaiti Foreign Minister started Sunday a two-day visit to Spain with the aim of bolstering ties between the two countries.

The visit by Sheikh Mohammad comes at an invitation of Jimenez who extended the invitation during her visit to Kuwait last February.

Meanwhile, a Spanish foreign ministry official praised yesterday Kuwait’s vital role in the Arab world and region, noting on the exceptional relations between Spanish King Juan Carlos and His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The Spanish Special Representative to Arabian Gulf Relations Ambassador Damaso de Lario made his remarks after receiving Kuwait’s Deputy Prime

Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah at Torrejon de Ardoz Air Base.

The Ambassador said the visit by Sheikh Dr Mohammad reflected the superior ties between the two countries, aimed at further bolstering ties with the Spanish Royal family.

De Lario added that Kuwait-Spanish relations have strongly improved in the past few years, especially in the commercial and economic spheres and the increase to Spanish companies and institutes working in Kuwait, along with the prosperous Kuwaiti investments in Spain.

The Spanish diplomat noted that the Kuwaiti minister would discuss regional and international issues with his Spanish counterpart Trinidad Jimenez, particularly developments in Libya and Egypt. “The two sides will also tackle issues regarding the Middle East process, the Palestinian statehood bid to the UN, and bilateral relations,” De Lario said. The Ambassador praised as well Kuwait’s Embassy in Spain headed by Ambassador Adel Al-Ayyar, and his exerted efforts to maintain strong ties and cooperation between the two countries. —KUNA

TEC concludes creative thinking course KUWAIT: The Touristic Enterprises Company(TEC) organized a training course to help staff members utilize creative thinking at the work place in cooperation with the Global Consultants - Business Advisory and Training Services.

The event took place between Sept 25 and 29 at the TEC headquarters in Shuwaikh. At least 17 employees took part

in the event.

Lectures were delivered by Dr Badr Sadiq Badr, who focused on improving the way creative thinking is utilized to derive solutions for existing problems.

Dr Badr was felicitated by Hanan AlMutawaa, head of the TEC’s Training Department before handing out certificates to trainees.

Dr Badr and Al-Mutawaa poses with trainees.

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti firefighters staging a strike in front of the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate building.

— Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Police called after firefighters storm KFSD building

Dr Badr receives award.

KUWAIT: Police officers clashed with scores of off-duty firemen after the latter stormed the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) building yesterday.

Hundreds of firefights had staged a sit-in outside the building to demand pay raises and were expecting to meet with a senior KFSD official to discuss their demands. When no official met them, more than 100 firefighters reportedly forced their way into the building in an effort to meet General Director Maj Gen Jassem Al-Mansoury. According to an Al-Aan

news report police arrived on the scene to evict the demonstrators from the building.

These developments come as labor strikes in the public sector continue to escalate, following the government’s approval of a pay raise for oil sector workers three weeks ago, following the latter ’s threat of strikes. On Sunday, 250 civil employees from the Ministry of Interior (MoI) held a sit-in to demand equal pay to MoI servicemen. The gathering was attended by MPs Musallam Al-Barrak, Khalid AlTahous, Ali Al-Deqbasi and Shuwaib Al-

Muwaizri. “We decided to continue with holding weekly strikes, with the next one scheduled for nex t Sunday,” Thafer Al-Hamlan, spokesperson for the protestors, told reporters.

Sunday also witnessed strikes at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Information Technology Systems Department, while labor unions at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs as well as the Public Authority for Industry announced plans to escalate strikes if the government fails to approve their demands.

TUESAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Panetta warns Israel against growing isolation

Aid rushed to Philippine flood victims Page 12

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RAMALLAH : Palestinians attend a demonstration calling for the release of prisoners held in Israeli jails and in support of inmates in hunger strike yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (inset) Burnt copies of the Quran are seen outside a mosque in northern Israel which was torched overnight in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangaria, located in the Upper Galilee yesterday.—AFP

Mosque torched, Jewish radicals suspected 200 villagers protest mosque fire JERUSALEM: Arsonists torched a mosque in an Arab village in northern Israel early yesterday, setting off protests by villagers who later clashed with police. Graffiti sprayed at the site suggested Jewish radicals, suspected in other recent mosque fires, were involved. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a carpet was burned inside the mosque in Tuba-Zangria and interior walls were damaged. Copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, were also burned, Israeli media reported.

The words “price tag” were spray painted on the mosque, Rosenfeld added - a reference to a Jewish settler practice of attacking Palestinians or the Israeli military for government operations or attacks against Jewish settlements. Army Radio also reported that the family name of a settler and his infant son killed last week in a car crash near the West Bank town of Hebron was scrawled on a wall of the mosque in Tuba-Zangria. Israeli police have said Palestinian rock-throwers struck the man in the head, causing him to lose control of the car.

About 200 villagers from TubaZangria marched toward a major intersec tion to protest the mosque fire, with the intention of blocking the road, Rosenfeld said. Some demonstrators set tires on fire and threw stones at police officers, who dispersed the crowd with tear gas, he said. No one was injured and no arrests were repor ted by midday. No unrest was reported inside the village. Security was heightened across northern Israel to prevent further disturbances and police met with village leaders in an effor t to defuse tensions, Rosenfeld said.

Israeli Arabs account for onefifth of Israel’s population of 7.6 million, and many live in north-

ern Israel. The mosque was the third to be set afire since the government destroyed structures in an unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank last month. An Israeli military base was also vandalized after the demolitions and threatening graffiti was sprayed at the apartment of a prominent Israeli settlement opponent. Jewish extremists are suspected in all of these incidents.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the mosque arson, and ordered the Shin Bet internal security agenc y to ac t quick ly to locate the assailants. A text message from his office said he “was fuming when he saw the pictures” and said the attack “ran counter to the values of the state of Israel.” Most “price tag” actions are carried out in the West Bank, and attacks on mosques inside Israel are rarer.

An official at the mosque, Ali Zangria, told Army Radio that a villager detected smoke rising from the mosque around 2 a.m. and contacted police. “But everything had already gone up in smoke by then,” he said, ruing that his village had been singled out for attack. “ The village is a quiet one and we always had good relations with Jewish residents.” However, relations between Arabs and Jews in the area have suffered since the chief rabbi in the nearby town of Safed urged followers last year not to rent or sell their homes to Arabs.— AP

Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood threaten poll boycott AMMAN: A spokesman for Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood says his influential group will boycott this year’s municipal elections if the government fails to deliver on promised democratic reforms.

A boycott by the Muslim Brotherhood’s party will likely embarrass the government, which is touting the election as a means for greater public participation in decision making.

Jamil Abu-Bakr said yesterday the threat to boycott the vote was agreed upon by the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front, which is Jordan’s largest opposition party.

The group is demanding that Cabinet officials be elected by a parliamentary majority, rather than be appointed by the king. An exact date has yet to be set, but municipal elections will likely take place in December.—AP

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Don’t fear us: Tunisian Islamist leader

TUNIS: Tunisia’s Islamist party will uphold women’s rights and not try to impose strict Muslim values if, as many expect, it wins the first election since Tunisia’s revolution, its leader said. The Oct 23 vote for an assembly that will draft a new constitution has pitted resurgent Islamists against secular groups who say their modern, liberal values are under threat. Tunisia electrified the Arab world 10 months ago when a popular uprising overthrew autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, creating a model that was copied by people hungry for change in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere.

Western powers and governments in other Arab states are watching Tunisia’s election closely, worried that democratically elected Islamists might impose strict Islamic law and turn their back on Western allies. Rachid Ghannouchi, who returned to Tunisia from exile in Britain after Ben Ali’s fall, told Reuters in an interview that Western countries and Tunisian liberals had nothing to fear from a victory for his Ennahda party. “Ben Ali did

everything he could to convince the West that we are a terrorist group but he couldn’t do it,” he said. “We are not cut off from our environment ... All the values of democracy and modernity are respected by Ennahda. We are a party that can find a balance between modernity and Islam.”

More than 100 parties will contest the election, but Ennahda has the highest public profile and biggest support network. Opinion polls suggest it will get the most votes, but not win an outright majority in the assembly drafting the constitution. In the interview, Ghannouchi denied an allegation by his critics that he presents a moderate image in public but that once in power his party’s hardline character will emerge. Two issues in particular, women’s equality and liberal moral attitudes, are seen by many Tunisians as a litmus test of how tolerant Ennahda will be if it gains power.

In an indication of the party ’s stance on women’s rights, a woman who does not wear the head covering favoured by Islamists is Ennahda’s can-

didate for one district in the capital, Tunis. “The values ??of modernity and women’s freedom began with the first president of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba,” Ghannouchi said at his party headquarters, where many of the staff are women. “ We will not retreat from these values ... We will support these values,” he said. “A woman’s freedom and her freedom of dress has been established and we will develop it.”

Western tourists are a major source of income for Tunisia but their habits of drinking alcohol and wearing skimpy clothing can cause tensions with devout Muslims. Nevertheless, Ghannouchi said he did not favour any restrictions.

“We will seek to create a diversified tourism product, like Turkey,” he said, adding that hotels would not be prevented from offering alcohol and swimming pools, but that they would be encouraged to offer packages for observant Muslims without access to alcohol and with Islamic dress codes at the pool.

European states for years tolerated

Ben Ali’s autocratic rule because Tunisia was a trading partner and it helped curb the flow of drugs, illegal migrants and Islamist militants northwards across the Mediterranean.

Ghannouchi said it was in the interests of all sides for Tunisia to maintain good relations with the West. “I lived for a long time in Europe without any problems,” he said. “I lived in tolerance with everybody.” “During my meetings with Western officials and diplomats, I received the message that Ennahda will be welcomed if it wins the elections,” he said. “They told me that they stand at the same distance from all competitors and their goal is the success of the democratic transition, because the failure of the transition would be catastrophic for Europe, for example, which will be flooded by hundreds of thousands of migrants.”

“We will maintain the relations with our traditional partners such as Europe, but we will seek to improve them in order to get advanced status,” Ghannouchi said, referring to a trade pact Tunisia is seeking with the

European Union. “But we will try also to diversify our partnership to open up to the United States and Latin America, Africa and Asia, and especially Arab markets,” he said.

One reason for the uprising against Ben Ali was that the economy was growing too slowly to generate jobs for youngsters. Ghannouchi said his party’s foreign policy would be driven by the need to fix this problem.

“The biggest concern is to attract foreign investment as part of foreign and local partnerships to drive growth and increase jobs.” “ The party aims to develop the knowledge economy by encouraging investment in the technology industry ... There are significant growth opportunities in the telecommunications sector,” he said. He said he had a message for potential investors.

“Tunisia has become beautiful without Ben Ali ... We will put an end to corruption, we will develop legislation to stimulate investment,” said Ghannouchi. “We will confront the corruption that has spread in the structures of the state.”— Reuters

Iraqi forces battle bombers, gunmen to rescue hostages A dozen people feared dead

SIRTE: National Transitional Council fighters fire their Rocket propelled grenade (RPG) against troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi as they close in on the town of Sirte yesterday.—AFP

Fighting halts aid mission into Libyan siege city SIRTE: A Red Cross convoy carrying aid to relieve a worsening humanitarian crisis in Libya’s besieged city of Sirte had to turn back yesterday because Libyan interim government forces unleashed a barrage of gunfire. Aid agencies say they are concerned about the welfare of civilians inside Sirte, the hometown of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who are trapped by the fighting and running out of food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took some supplies into Sirte last week, and it tried again yesterday, assembling a convoy of two trucks carrying aid, and accompanied by two four-wheel drive vehicles. The convoy set off from a bridge a few kilometers west of Sirte but came to a halt after only about 100 meters because interim government forces started firing into the city.

They fired a heavy barrage of mortars, artillery, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons just as the convoy was starting to move. The ICRC convoy turned around and headed back west, away from Sirte. An anti-Gaddafi commander at the scene, Ismail Al-Sosi, told Reuters: “The rebels secured the way for the International Red Cross to go but as soon as they entered the city they returned because of the (pro-Gaddafi) militias firing.

We did not start the firing. The militias started the firing.”

However, a Reuters team who witnessed the incident said they saw no incoming fire from the Gaddafi loyalists inside Sirte.

Speaking just before the aborted attempt to get supplies into the city, an ICRC official said the humanitarian situation there was dire. “We’re trying to provide medical assistance and oxygen to the hospital in Sirte,” said Hishem Khadrawy. “We are really concerned about the medical situation because of the conflict.”

Civilians who were able to get out of Sirte spoke of many other people unable to leave and facing deteriorating conditions.

Boshnab Khalifa drove out of the city with his family. A woman in the back seat of his

car clutched a Koran. “We were in our apartment and then the wall was blown in by a rocket,” he said. “The situation is very bad. Our family and our friends are trapped inside. They cannot get out. There are many families trapped inside, some have no gas for their cars, other (cars) have been damaged or destroyed.”

Another resident fleeing Sirte, Mohammed Diap, said pro-Gaddafi militias were barring people from getting out.

“There is no food, no water, no power.

Some are trapped because there is no fuel, others are trapped because of the militias,” he said. “ The people who are trapped inside are in danger. There is random shelling everywhere.” Libyans ended Gaddafi’s 42-year rule in August when rebel fighters stormed the capital. Gaddafi and several of his sons are still at large and his supporters hold Sirte and the town of Bani Walid, south of Tripoli.

Gaddafi’s supporters are too weak to regain power, but their resistance is frustrating the new rulers’ efforts to start building the post-Gaddafi Libya. A city of about 75,000 people, Sirte holds symbolic importance. Gaddafi, known for his self-aggrandizing gestures, transformed his birthplace from a sleepy fishing town into Libya’s second capital.

At his instigation, parliament often sat in Sirte and he hosted international summits at the Ouagadougou Hall, a marbleclad conference centre he had built on a desert plot in the south of the city.

Concerns about the humanitarian crisis have focussed on the city’s Ibn Sina hospital. Medical workers who fled Sirte say patients were dying on the operating table because there was no oxygen and no fuel for the hospital’s generators. Medical staff outside Sirte who had treated wounded civilians fleeing the fighting yesterday said they had been told the corridors were full of patients and that treatment was being given only to pro-Gaddafi fighters or members of Gaddafi’s tribe. “There is a section for civilians and a section for the (proGaddafi) brigades. —Reuters

Turkish PM leaves door open to talks with Kurdish rebels ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested a resumption of talks with Kurdish rebels was possible despite a recent surge in attacks, the Turkish press reported yesterday. “If we deem it necessary, we will make a decision and tell our colleagues to do what is needed,” Erdogan said, referring to talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

His remark, made to reporters on a plane flying him back from a visit to Macedonia, was widely interpreted in the Turkish media as a suggestion that talks with the PKK may resume. Erdogan confirmed that secret talks did take place last year with the separatist PKK, which

has been fighting against the Turkish government since 1984. “I sent (intelligence chief ) Hakan Fidan. He was my special envoy and he wasn’t alone,” Erdogan said.

Recordings of the talks, that took place in Oslo last year, were leaked in the media, sparking the ire of the opposition and sending shockwaves through a public opinion accustomed to Ankara’s longstanding blanket refusal to talk to the PKK. More than 120 people have been killed since mid-June in clashes between government forces and the main Kurdish rebel group, mainly in the country’s southeastern region.— AFP

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces yesterday killed several suicide bombers and gunmen to rescue hostages seized by insurgents after they attacked a local government compound and a police station in Anbar province. Two bombers detonated their explosives outside the compound in Baghdadi, 190 km (120 miles) west of Baghdad, while attackers disguised in uniforms took about 20 people hostage before troops recaptured the complex.

In a separate attack on a police station in the town security forces thwarted an assault when they killed two bombers and detained one other. The attacks underscored Iraq’s still delicate security situation as the last US troops prepare to withdraw at the end of 2011 more than eight years after the invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

“The operation is over. Iraqi special forces stormed the compound all the attackers have been killed,” Anbar provincial governor Qassim Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian strife in 2006-2007, but Sunni Islamist insurgents and radical Shi’ite militias still carry out daily attacks, assassinations and bombings. Mohammed said four people, including a police chief, and three attackers were killed. But two police sources said as many of 13 people were killed during the attack and subsequent army action.

Casualty figures often vary after attacks in Iraq. Sources said three to seven bombers were involved in the compound attack. At the compound the provincial council building where the hostages were held was partially destroyed in the siege. “I saw a gunman covering his face with a mask as he was on the roof, then he disappeared. When the police and army arrived the gunmen were on the roof and at the windows,” said local resident Jasim Khalaf.

Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliates, Islamic State of Iraq, though weakened by the loss of top commanders, often target local government buildings in an attempt to destabilize Prime

Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s power-sharing government. Anbar, a vast mostly Sunni Muslim province in western Iraq, is the former stronghold of Iraq’s Al-Qaeda. Suicide bombers killed four people last month in an attack on another government complex in Ramadi, also in Anbar.

The area has seen growing political tensions since September when gunmen killed 22 Shi’ite pilgrims there, triggering angry exchanges between tribal leaders from Anbar and the mainly Shi’ite city of Kerbala nearby.

Iraqi and US officials say local armed forces are able to contain the stubborn insurgency.

But the government is debating whether to ask some American soldiers to stay on as trainers to help the Iraqi military fill gaps in its capabilities.

About 44,000 US troops remain in Iraq after ending combat operations last year.

They are mostly advising and assisting I r a q i fo r c e s a s t h e y p a c k u p b e fo r e a year-end deadline for them to leave the country.— Reuters

Syrians detain 3,000 in town in 3 days: Activist

JERUSALEM: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, smiles as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks, in the Prime’s Minister office in Jerusalem yesterday.—AP

Panetta warns Israel against growing isolation TEL AVIV: Israel must find a way to resume negotiations with the Palestinians and has a responsibility to try and ease tensions with its neighbors in the region, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday amid prodding from the United States to return to peace talks. Standing next to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Barak pushed back a bit on the Pentagon chief’s warning that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the region, threatening its security. And he offered no new thoughts on the thorny issues that have stymied the peace talks, including the proposed timetable and the contested settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Making his first trip to Israel as defense secretary, Panetta has pressed the Obama administration’s view that the two sides must restart the long-stalled peace talks.

And during a news conference with Barak, Panetta said it’s time for bold action by both sides to move toward a negotiated two-state solution.

The visit comes amid new international pressure to reach a peace deal by the end of next year, fueled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ move two weeks ago asking the UN Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Those areas were captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Mideast negotiators - known as the Quartet - are urging the Israelis and Palestinians to produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. The Quartet - the United States, European Union, United

Nations and Russia - is also urging both sides to avoid “provocative actions.”

The administration opposes the Abbas’ UN bid, and Panetta’s visit was clearly part of a broad campaign to avoid such a vote, and instead nudge the two sides back to the table. On Sunday, Panetta issued his edgy warning that Israel risks eroding its own security if it does not reach out to its neighbors, such as Turkey and Egypt, where relations are eroding. “It’s pretty clear that at this dramatic time in the Middle East, when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become increasingly isolated. And that’s what’s happening,” he said.

Barak offered only general agreement but made no commitments that Israel would be more receptive to discussions about the settlements. Israel has continued to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where some 500,000 Jewish settlers now live. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. But, he added, “I fully agree that we have to look for any reasonable and proper way to ease tensions with Turkey, with Egypt, to find a way to resume negotiations in a sincere and effective manner with the Palestinians.”

But he also criticized Abbas’ move at the UN, saying the “events of last week in New York clearly prove that there are limits to the Palestinians’ capacity to navigate the world.” And while he agreed Israel needs to reach out to its neighbors, he said that it’s clear there are others in the world “who would like to see Israel cornered into some kind of isolation.” — AP

BEIRUT: Syrian troops going house to house have detained more than 3,000 people in the past three days in a rebellious town that government forces recently retook in some of the worst fighting since the country’s uprising began six months ago, an activist said yesterday. Also, a member of Syria’s outgoing parliament dismissed a broadbased national council set up by the opposition, saying it will not be able to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime. Khaled Abboud told The Associated Press that those who announced the formation of the council in Istanbul a day earlier are “deluding themselves.”

Syrian dissidents met in Istanbul Sunday and formally established a national council designed to overthrow Assad’s regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. The council appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a deeply fragmented dissident movement. Abboud dismissed the opposition move, saying: “It’s a dream that will never come true.”

In the rebellious central town of Rastan, which the government retook on Saturday, an activist told The AP by telephone that security forces have detained more than 3,000 residents since Saturday. He said the detainees were being held at a cement factory, as well as some schools and the Sports Club, a massive four-story compound. “Ten of my relatives have been detained,” said the activist, who asked that he be identified by his first name, Hassan. He said was he speaking from hiding in Rastan.

“The situation in the town is miserable,” he said, adding that the town of some 70,000 people was heavily bombed for five days starting today when the army launched an offensive. Syrian activists say the fighting in Rastan pitted the Syrian military against hundreds of army defectors who sided with the anti-regime protesters, who are calling for Assad’s ouster. The clashes in Rastan were among the worst the country has seen since the uprising began in midMarch. Hassan said that as of Sunday, the regime brought into Rastan thousands of workers to clean up the streets and rebuild damaged areas in what appeared to be an attempt to cover the damage caused by intense shelling.

He added that food stuffs also were brought into the town.

Syria’s state-media said troops took control of Rastan after hunting down “armed terrorists” holed up inside. But the fighting there highlighted the increasingly militarized nature of an uprising started months ago by peaceful protesters. The uprising began in mid-March amid a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that have so far toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Assad has reacted with deadly force that the UN estimates has left some 2,700 people dead.

Also yesterday, funeral processions were held for the 21year-old son of Syria’s top Sunni Muslim cleric who was killed a day earlier in an ambush in a restive northern area.

The cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, who is considered a close supporter of Assad’s regime, told hundreds of people attending the funeral at a mosque in the northern city of Aleppo that the country’s opposition should stop working against Syria from abroad.

“Come and say whatever you want here and if anyone rejects I will be with you in the opposition,” said Hassoun, his voice shaking, in an apparent reference to steps taken

by Assad to allow the formation of political parties and promises of free elections. “You want freedom, you want justice then come here and build it with us in Syria.”— AP

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Bush to mark progress of library construction DALLAS: Former President George W Bush was set to speak yesterday at a ceremony marking the placement of the last construction beam for his presidential center in Dallas. Around 600 people, including former first lady Laura Bush and members of the construc tion team, were expec ted to attend the “topping out” ceremony for the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will include his presidential library and a policy institute.

The nearly 225,000-sq.-foot center is

located on about 25 acres on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

When completed in spring 2013, it will have an exterior of red brick and limestone and landscaping that includes a restored prairie, a woodland and wildflower meadow. Architect Robert A.M. Stern said that the center has been designed to complement the university’s Georgian architecture but also has “its own character.”

Laura Bush, who chairs the design committee for the center, told The

Associated Press that she wanted the building to have a modern feel since her husband’s presidency was the first of the 21st centur y. Visitors to the museum will enter through Freedom Hall, a large light-filled open space that will tie different aspects of the center together. The museum’s permanent exhibit includes a replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during the Bush administration and the White House Rose Garden, with a few tweaks for the Texas climate.

“It’s very open and accessible and we hope people will come back again and again,” Stern said. Like the Bushes’ ranch in Crawford, the presidential center has incorporated environmentally friendly design elements, including using as many as possible materials from within 500 miles of the site. Also, solar panels will supply hot water and there will be a system to capture and reuse rainwater.

Laura Bush said that the museum’s exhibit on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

will include a giant bent beam from the World Trade Center. “ That is a ver y somber part of the museum display,” she said.

The George W. Bush Foundation has already raised the $250 million needed for the cost of the building and an around $8 million endowment to the US National Archives and Records Administration, said foundation president Mark Langdale. The Bushes moved to Dallas after he left office in January 2009.—AP

I didn’t know about his past: US fugitive’s wife American to claim a new identity

ACAPULCO: A Mexican army soldier examines the body of a man who was killed after gunmen opened fire killing a total of three men in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, Mexico Sunday . —AP

12 dead in Mexico tourist hubs CULIACAN: Twelve people have been shot dead in two of Mexico’s top tourist spots, authorities said Sunday, in two states that have been hard hit in the country’s spiral of drug-related violence.

In Mazatlan, one of Mexico’s busiest international tourism hubs, gunmen killed five people in a vehicle outside a liquor store. Witnesses told police the gunmen did say a word before opening fire on the three men and two women.

Mazatlan is in Sinaloa state-home to Joaquin ‘el Chapo’ Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s largest, with its operational reach extending through Central America and down to Colombia.

Guzman was arrested in 1993 but bribed his way out of a maximum security facili-

ty by hiding himself in a laundry cart. He has a $5 million bounty on his head. In southwestern Guerrero state, seven bodies bound and riddled with bullets were found Sunday in the beach resort of Zihuatanejo, local police said. A local newspaper published a photo of the victims, who appeared to be half-naked and bloodied, with their feet bound to a pole in the street. Threatening notes bearing the seal of the Knights Templar, an offshoot of the La Familia crime gang, appeared to be near the bodies. More than 41,000 people have been killed across Mexico since the federal government in 2006 launched a crackdown against drug cartels, according to official data and media tallies.— AFP

Alaska voters weighing in: salmon vs gold JUNEAU: The battle over a copper and gold mine near one of the world’s premier salmon fisheries is headed to the ballot in a vote next week that has turned a normally sleepy local election into a national environmental debate. Voters in southwest Alaska’s Lake and Peninsula Borough are deciding whether to ban large -scale resource extraction activity, including mining, that would destroy or degrade salmon habitat. The measure is aimed squarely at Pebble Mine, the massive gold-and-copper prospect near the headwaters of Bristol Bay. The debate surrounding Pebble has attracted the attention of chefs, actordirector Robert Redford and big-name jewelers who have vowed not to sell any gold coming from the project. The mine is a joint venture of Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American plc of the United Kingdom. But today’s vote will almost certainly not be the last word on how - or whether - the mine is built.

“Among other things, the question in front of the Lake and Peninsula voters is about changes to land use that the Alaska attorney general says is unenforceable as a matter of law,” said Mike Heatwole, a spokesman for Pebble Limited Partnership, the group promoting the mine project.

Pebble Partnership sued to keep the “Save the Salmon” initiative off the ballot, arguing in part that the measure would improperly bypass the role of the local planning commission. State court Judge John Suddock denied that request, noting Alaska’s Supreme Court has given deference to initiatives absent proof they would do something unlawful. He put the case on hold until Nov 7, to allow for the vote and challenges.

The vote is the latest skirmish in the fight over a project that supporters say could create up to 1,000 long-term jobs in economically-depressed rural Alaska but that opponents fear could fundamentally change the landscape and disrupt, if not destroy, a way of life. The companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars scoping out the deposit, which Northern Dynasty has described as the largest undeveloped deposit of its type in the world, with the potential of producing 53 billion pounds (24 billion kilograms) of copper, 50 million ounces (1.4 billion grams) of gold and 2.8 billion pounds (1.27 billion kilograms) of molybdenum over nearly 80 years.

The mine would be directly above Iliamna Lake, the largest producer of sockeye salmon in the world. This year, the commercial harvest of salmon was valued at nearly $138 million, which doesn’t include fish caught by Alaska Natives for subsistence. The Bristol Bay Native Corp., which has more than 8,000 shareholders with ties to the region, is opposed to the mine.

Jason Metrokin, Bristol Bay Native corp.’s chief executive, recently said in a statement that Pebble presents an “unacceptable risk to Bristol Bay salmon, which have supported our communities for thousands of years” while providing an important commercial, food and cultural resource.

Pebble Mine would be located 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage and has been described as potentially the world’s largest man-made excavation.

Though Heatwole said Pebble hasn’t completed a pre-feasibility study or formally submitted a mine plan, critics say the potential footprint of the project could cover 15 square miles (39 square kilometers), with an open pit and network of roads and power lines. “It’s not a NIMBY (not in my backyard) thing so much as a survival thing,” said Scott Kendall, an Anchorage attorney for the Save Our Salmon ballot group. He likened it to putting a nuclear plant next to an elementary school. “To these people, it’s completely inappropriate and incompatible with the life they want to live.”

The region around Bristol Bay is sparsely populated, dotted by small communities mostly cut off from the road system and generally accessible only by plane. About 1,600 people live in Lake and Peninsula Borough, which is roughly the size of the state of West Virginia, covering about 23,780 square miles (61,590 square kilometers). The landscape is pristine, stark, rugged, boasting wildlife like walrus, moose, bears and caribou. For a short period each summer, the area bustles with fishing activity, a leading sector of the local economy.

Over the last several years, there’s been lobbying surrounding the project from both sides. Ads, alternately touting the mine’s economic potential or casting it as dangerous and wrong for Alaska, frequently appear on statewide TV. For Greg Anelon, the vote is less about Pebble Mine than it is about land-use rights. Anelon, a fisherman who works at the Iliamna Development Corp., a subsidiary of another Alaska Native corporation that is involved in a number of businesses, said he hasn’t made his mind up about the proposed mine, and wants to first see a plan of development.

Nevertheless, Anelon is working to defeat the initiative. He worries the measure is the wrong tack to take in fighting the mine, arguing that it could affect other activities, like gravel extraction, a claim that Kendall denies.

The initiative would ban any work covering more than one -square -mile (2.6square-kilometers) and impacting waters significant for salmon. Kendall said there’s never been another project of that size in the borough. Lisa Reimers, chief executive of the Iliamna Development Corp., said the measure is poorly worded. — AP

LISBON: The wife of captured American fugitive George Wright said her husband told her he escaped from a US jail but never revealed he had been convicted of murder or accused of a dramatic airplane hijacking. Maria do Rosario Valente said she was shocked to learn about her husband’s past after his capture in Portugal last week after 41 years on the lam. She said she thought the jail escape “was just a boast.”

“Now I’ve found out the rest,” she told Portugal’s TVI television in an inter view broadcast late Sunday. The US is trying to extradite Wright to serve the remainder of his 15- to 30-year sentence for a 1962 murder in New Jersey. The FBI also says he was part of a Black Liberation Army group that hijacked a US plane to Algeria in 1972.

Wright ’s lawyer says the American will claim a new identity to prevent the US from extraditing him. The lawyer, Manuel Luis Ferreira, told The AP that Wright became a Portuguese citizen called Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos in 1991 after marrying Valente. Wright’s new identity was given to him by Guinea-Bissau’s government when it granted him political asylum in the 1980s, and that was accepted

by Portugal, Ferreira said. At the time, Guinea-Bissau was a singleparty Marxist state that looked kindly on black liberation movements.

That fact may weigh heavily on the US extradition request for Wright. Portuguese citizens convicted in another country may be

able to serve their sentences in Portugal if family members are there. Valente told TVI late Sunday she never really believed Wright’s jail escape stor y - until now. “I didn’t really think much of it,” she told TVI. “I thought it was just a boast.” Wright broke out of the Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, on Aug. 19, 1970, after serving more than seven years of his sentence for killing a man in a 1962 gas station robbery. He was captured in a seaside village near Lisbon last week after decades on the run, and is being detained in Lisbon while the court rules on his extradition.

Valente, who is Portuguese, met Wright in the late 1970s when he was living near Lisbon, the Por tuguese capital. They lived together in the 1980s in Portugal and in Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony in West Africa, according to Wright ’s lawyer.

Valente gave birth to a son, Marco, with Wright in 1986 and married Wright in 1990. They had a daughter, Sara, the following year. Valente said she was visiting her parents last week when she was called into police headquarters in Lisbon and given an account of the charges against her husband.

“That day is blurry,” she said. She said their children, now adults, “were grief-stricken” when they learned about their father’s past and wept with him all the way through their first jail visit last week. She described Wright as a loyal husband and dedicated father. “I’ve no cause for complaint,” she said.—AP

LISBON: Manuel Luis Ferreira, the Portuguese lawyer of the fugitive George Wright, talks with a journalist during an interview with Associated Press Saturday, Oct 1, 2011 in Lisbon. —AP

Colombia anti-union violence undeterred

MIAMI: Workers carry the body of former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez from the mausoleum to the hearse in Miami yesterday. Perez is finally going home, more than nine months after he died living in exile in Miami. Family members and attorneys say Perez’s remains will begin their journey Monday to Venezuela. —AP

Body of Venezuelan ex-prez going home MIAMI: The body of former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez is finally going home, more than nine months after he died living in exile in Miami.

Family members and attorneys say Perez’s remains will begin their journey yesterday to Venezuela. The former president’s body has been in a mortuary and a temporary mausoleum during a bitter family feud that finally settled in August.

Perez was Venezuela’s president from

1974-79 and 1989-93. He died in Miami in December at age 88. The feud concerned where Perez would ultimately be buried. Perez ’s estranged wife in Venezuela, Blanca Rodriguez de Perez, insisted she had rights as surviving spouse to bring his body home. Perez’s longtime companion Cecilia Matos said Perez had repeatedly vowed never to return as long as arch-nemesis Hugo Chavez was president.— AP

Peru region scraps protest against Southern Copper LIMA: Authorities in Peru’s Tacna region called off plans for a mass protest against Southern Copper on Sunday, saying they would enter talks with the miner and Peru’s central government to solve a thorny water dispute. The decision allowed leftist President Ollanta Humala- who took office in July promising to end debilitating social conflicts over natural resources-to dodge what would have been the first major bout of unrest of his term. Humala’s team persuaded Tacna’s president and provincial mayors to drop their plans by issuing a legal ruling over the weekend that essentially forces Southern Copper to repeat a step in the public approval process for its $800 million project to double output at its Toquepala mine. “I can definitive-

ly say that we’ve decided to not go ahead with the protest,” Guillermo Chocano, the president of Tacna, told Reuters by telephone.

Widespread protests and road blockades were expected to start in Tacna to demand the miner’s water licenses be canceled and that it install a desalination plant fed by seawater instead. Local leaders say groundwater used by Toquepala and another Southern Copper mine, Cajone, should be devoted to agriculture and local residents in the desert region along Peru’s southern Pacific coast.

Southern Copper, a unit of Grupo Mexico that produced about 334,437 tons of copper at its Peruvian mines last year, told Reuters on Friday that it was willing to enter formal negotiations with local authorities.— Reuters

BOGOTA: A new study challenges claims from the administration of President Barack Obama that Colombia is making important strides in bringing to justice killers of labor activists and so deserves US congressional approval of a long-stalled free trade pact. The Human Rights Watch study found “virtually no progress” in getting convictions for killings that have occurred in the past 4 1/2 years.

It counted just six convictions obtained by a special prosecutions unit from 195 slayings between January 2007 and May 2011, with nearly nine in 10 of the unit’s cases from that period in preliminary stages with no suspect formally identified. Democrats in the US Congress have long resisted bringing the Colombia trade pact to a vote, citing what they said is insufficient success in halting such killings. The White House disagrees, and says Colombia has made significant progress in addressing anti-unionist violence.

It is pushing for congressional approval as early as this week of the Colombia agreement along with pacts with South Korea and Panama, something the Republicans endorse and that they say will increase US exports by $13 billion a year and support tens of thousands of jobs. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk recently said the trade agreements are “an integral part of the President’s plan to create jobs here at home.”

But in Colombia, the world’s most lethal country for labor organizing, the killings haven’t stopped. At least 38 trade unionists have been slain since President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010, says Colombia’s National Labor School. “A major reason for this ongoing violence has been the chronic lack of accountability for cases of anti-union violence,” Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent Thursday to Colombian Chief Prosecutor Viviane Morales that details the study’s findings. Convictions have been obtained for less than 10 percent of the 2,886 trade unionists killed since 1986, and the rights group said it found “severe shortcomings” in the work of a special unit of Morales’ office established five years ago to solve the slayings. The letter says the unit has demonstrated “a routine failure to adequately investigate the motive” in labor killings as well as to “bring to justice all responsible parties.” A chief finding: The 74 convictions achieved over the past year owe largely to plea bargains with members of illegal far-right militias who confessed to killings in exchange for leniency.

They did so under the so-called Justice and Peace law that gave paramilitary fighters reduced prison sentences of up to eight years in exchange for laying down their arms and confessing to crimes. That law expired at the end of 2006, the year the free trade pact was signed. Only in a handful of cases did prosecutors pursue evidence that the paramilitaries who confessed acted on the orders of politicians, employers or others, Human Rights Watch says. Prosecutors “made virtually no progress in prosecuting people who order, pay, instigate or collude with paramilitaries in attacking trade unionists,” the letter states.

“What is at stake is the justice system’s ability to act as an effective deterrent to anti-union violence.” Of the more than 275 convictions handed down through May, 80 percent were against former members of the United SelfDefense Forces of Colombia, or AUC. The head of international affairs in the chief prosecutor’s office, Francisco Echeverri, told the AP that it has put 513 people in prison.—AP

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Cyprus arms blast probe finds president responsible NICOSIA: A public inquiry into a Cyprus munitions blast that killed 13 people and crippled the island’s main power plant found yesterday that President Demetris Christofias was responsible for the disaster. The head of the inquiry, Polis Polyviou, handed over his findings-which are not legally binding-to the president and the attorney general before giving a press conference.

“Unfortunately, based on the facts as shown by the testimony that came before me, I have no choice but to conclude that the president of the republic has serious institutional and personal responsibilities in relation to the matter,” Polyviou said. “My conclusion is that the main responsibility for the tragedy lies with the president.”

Polyviou said Christofias’s role in the

deadly blast was “direct, specific, unambiguous and serious”.

He told reporters that the president had the “greatest responsibility ” because he was in charge of a failed decision-making process that saw no measures taken to protect Cypriot citizens. Christofias was accused of “unforgivable negligence” for allowing the munitions to be stored out in the open at a naval base on the island’s south coast for two and a half years and taking no steps to avert the risks despite repeated warnings.

“It was a timebomb left at the naval base until it exploded,” he said. The lawyer said he was convinced that Christofias was aware of the danger that the deteriorating arms cache posed but chose to keep 98 containers piled up at the base unprotected. They

were stored just 150 metres (yards) from the island’s biggest power station.

Last month, Christofias told the public inquiry he was never told of the risk posed by the arms cache. The inquiry’s hefty 650-page report argues that Christofias has no excuse to say he was not told of the dangers.

“Saying I didn’t know is not enough,” said Polyviou. “The president of the republic, even if his version is accepted, knew at least from September 2010 that the cargo was kept at a National Guard camp in a field exposed to weather phenomena especially in summer, increasing the danger that comes with the gunpowder deteriorating,” he wrote in his report. Christofias said that at no point was he informed of the risks posed by the containers of seized Iranian munitions stored out at the

Mari naval base, even after officials met a week before the July 11 blast to discuss their deterioration in the scorching summer heat. The defence and foreign ministers and the commander of the Greek Cypriot National Guard resigned over the blast. The deputy commander was sacked.

The containers had been at the base since their seizure in February 2009 when Cyprus intercepted a Cypriotflagged freighter bound from Iran for Syria, under pressure from the United States and other Western governments. Christofias said the decision to keep the weapons on the island was the “correct” one after a proposal for the UN to take responsibility for the cache did not materialise.

But Polyviou said the munitions were kept on island to placate Syria

and Iran in a risky diplomatic game which gave Cyprus no room for manoeuvre.

He said that ex-foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou blocked the arrival of UN weapons inspectors who requested they be allowed to check the “actual state of the cargo”. “Within two minutes they would have realised the cargo was in a bad state,” said Polyviou.

The arms were seized after a UN sanctions committee said the consignment contravened a ban on Iranian arms shipments. Relatives of the victims have welcomed the hard-hitting report. The munitions blast killed 13 service personnel and firefighters and knocked out the Mediterranean island’s biggest power plant, leading to rolling daily power cuts, economic disruption and public uproar. —AFP

Knox pleads with court to free her Court begins deliberations

COPENHAGEN: The Danish Socialist Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt (3rd L) presents members of her new government, in front of the Royal palace of Amalienborg in Copenhagen yesterday. —AFP

First Danish female PM presents new government COPENHAGEN: Denmark must make sacrifices to emerge from a sudden economic downturn that struck this year after a long period of prosperity, the country’s new prime minister said yesterday as she presented a new coalition government formed after two weeks of difficult negotiations. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the country’s first female prime minster, heads an alliance that includes ex-communists and pro-market liberals and has struggled to chart an economic program.

Denmark’s economic growth forecast for 2011 has been reduced to 1.3 percent growth, down from a previous forecast of 1.9 percent.

The aging work force is also putting a greater burden on the budget, which is projected to reach a deficit of 3.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2011 and 4.6 percent in 2012 after years of surplus. Danish media have reported, citing unidentified officials familiar with the negotiations, that Thorning-Schmidt’s plans for tax hikes on wealthy Danes and banks apparently were scrapped after vehement opposition from the pro-business Social Liberals.

Danish media also reported that the coalition has agreed on boosting Denmark’s economy with 10 billion kroner ($1.8 billion) in public investments. “The government platform will show the way out of the crisis,” Helle Thorning-Schmidt said as she presented a new three-party alliance, including both ex-communists and pro-mar-

ket liberals. “We cannot emerge from the crisis if everyone doesn’t cooperate and we don’t make unpleasant decisions,” she said. The government planned a news conference yesterday to present the coalition’s platform.

Thorning-Schmidt’s alliance between Social Democrats, the Socialist People’s Party and Social Liberals secured a narrow majority of 92 seats in the 179member Folketing in last month’s election. But attaining compromises will be a struggle for Thorning-Schmidt, who will have to reach out to ex-Marxists in power for the first time since they were established in 1959 - and promarket liberals in her government.

The new government includes 14 men and nine women, of which Thorning-Schmidt’s Social Democrats will have 13 spots and the two other parties - the Social Liberals and the Socialist People’s Par ty - six each.

Margrethe Vestager, head of the Social Liberals, was tapped to become economy and interior minister, while the Socialist People’s Party leader Villy Soevndahl was designated foreign minister.

Soevndahl’s working-class party moved away from its Marxist roots following the collapse of the Iron Curtain two decades ago. Thorning-Schmidt formally presented her government to monarch Queen Margrethe, who appointed her prime minister yesterday. Thorning-Schmidt will address the new Parliament today as the assembly reconvenes after summer recess. —AP

Potential Sarkozy rival quits election race PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election prospects may have improved after popular former environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo said he would not run for president next April. Borloo’s decision, announced on Sunday night, reduces the risk that the conservative vote will be splintered at Sarkozy’s expense in round one of the ballot.

Sarkozy, whose popularity hit record lows in September, will need a strong showing to keep out Marine Le Pen, leader of the farright National Front party, and make the second round runoff between the top two candidates. Sarkozy is widely expected to run for a second term, but has made no announcement yet. Borloo has not made clear who he will support in the election.

Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire, who is heading the election campaign for Sarkozy’s UMP party, said he would contact Borloo in the coming week or two to see how he could work with the Sarkozy camp.

“There’s no room for division,” Le Maire said.

The Socialists, the favourites for next year’s presidential and parlia-

mentary ballots, hope that Sarkozy might fall before the second round, and tried to counter the impression that Borloo’s backers would automatically vote for Sarkozy.

“Voters need to know that it’s the first round that will count in the presidential election of 2012,” said Francois Hollande, current favourite to become the Socialist candidate for the presidential election. Pierre Moscovici, a Socialist former minister who is work ing closely with Hollande, said estimates put Borloo’s support at 7-9 percent, and there was no reason for all these votes to go to Sarkozy.

Regular opinion polls indicate that Hollande would win the first round of the presidential contest next April 22, with Sarkozy coming in second to qualify for the May 6 runoff. But Sarkozy’s edge on Le Pen is relatively slim, suggesting that she could still pip him for second place.

Despite Borloo’s withdrawal, other potential conservative candidates could draw some of Sarkozy’s first-round votes, including former prime minister Dominique de Villepin. —Reuters

PERUGIA: Amanda Knox tearfully told an Italian appeals court yesterday she did not kill her British roommate, pleading for the court to free her so she can return to the United States after four years behind bars.

Moments later, the court began deliberations. Knox frequently paused for breath and fought back tears as she spoke in Italian to the eight members of the jury in a packed courtroom, but managed to maintain her composure during the 10-minute address.

“I’ve lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible,” she said of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-yearold Briton who shared an apartment with Knox when they were both students in Perugia. “I’m paying with my life for things that I didn’t do.”

Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, Knox’s former boyfriend from Italy, were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25. They both deny wrongdoing.

“I never hurt anyone, never in my life,” Sollecito said yesterday in his own speech to the jury. Presiding Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann said the jury would not emerge before 1800 GMT (2 pm EDT) at the earliest.

Kercher’s mother, sister and a brother are expected to be in court for the ruling. They have expressed worry over the possibility of acquittal.

“The lower court found the defendants guilty. The Kercher family’s interest is to have the verdict confirmed,” family lawyer Francesco Maresca said yesterday. The highly anticipated verdict will be broadcast live. Hundreds of reporters and camera crews filled the underground, frescoed courtroom before Knox’s address yesterday, while police outside cordoned off the entrance to the tribunal.

The trial has captivated audiences worldwide: Knox, the 24-year-old American, and Sollecito, a soft-spoken Italian, were convicted of murdering a fellow student in what the lower court said had begun as a drug-fueled sexual assault. Knox insisted yesterday that she had nothing to do with the murder and that Kercher was a friend who was always nice to her. Gesticulating, at times clasping her hands together, the American said she has always wanted justice for Kercher.

“She had her bedroom next to mine, she was killed in our own apartment. If I had been there that night, I would be dead,” Knox said.

“But I was not there.” “I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal. I wasn’t there,” Knox said. Also convicted in separate proceedings was Rudy Hermann Guede, a small-time drug dealer and drifter who spent most of his life in Italy after arriving here from his native Ivory Coast. Guede was convicted in a separate fast-track procedure and saw his sentence cut to 16 years in his final appeal.

Knox said she had nothing more than a passing acquaintance with Guede, who played basketball in a court near the house, and didn’t even know his name. Sollecito, who addressed the court before Knox, told jurors that he did not know Guede at all. Sollecito was anxious as he addressed the court, shifting as he spoke and stopping to sip water.

He said prior to the Nov 1, 2007 murder was a happy time for him, he was close to defending his thesis to graduate from university and had just met Knox. The weekend Kercher was murdered was the first the pair planned to spend together “in tenderness and cuddles,” he said. At the end of his 17-minute address, Sollecito took off a white rubber bracelet emblazoned with “Free Amanda and Raffaele” that he said he was been wearing for four years. “I have never taken it off. Many emotions are concentrated in this bracelet,” he said. “Now I want to pay homage to the court. The moment to take it off has arrived.” Knox and

her family, present in Perugia, hope she will be set free after spending four years behind bars caught up in what they say is a monumental judicial mistake. Prosecutors, who have depicted Knox as a manipulative liar, are seeking to increase her sentence to life in prison.

The jury is made up of the presiding judge, a side judge and six jurors, five of them women, and they have several options as they go into deliberations. They can acquit both defendants and set them free.

They can uphold the conviction, then confirm the sentence, reduce it

PERUGIA: Amanda Knox, accompanied by her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova, arrives for an appeal hearing at the Perugia court, central Italy yesterday. —AP or increase it. They can theoretically decide to split the fate of Knox and Sollecito, convicting one and acquitting the other. Over the course of the appeals trial, the defendants’ positions have significantly improved, mainly because a court-ordered independent review cast serious doubts over the main DNA evidence linking the two to the crime.

Prosecutors maintain that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher’s DNA was found on the blade. They said Sollecito’s DNA was on the clasp of Kercher’s bra as part of a mix of evidence that also included the victim’s genetic profile. But the independent review - ordered at the request of the defense, which had always disputed those findings reached a different conclusion. — AP

Kenya holds man in connection with Frenchwoman’s kidnap LAMU: Kenyan police questioned yesterday an employee of a disabled Frenchwoman kidnapped from her beachfront home in the idyllic resort of Lamu at the weekend and taken to nearby Somalia. A gang of 10 armed men seized Marie Dedieu, 66, early Saturday from her home on Manda Island in the Lamu archipelago and fled by sea, fighting off an attempt by Kenya’s navy to stop them.

The kidnapping, the second of a foreign visitor in the area in less than one month, sparked an immediate exodus of visitors in a heavy blow to Kenya’s tourism industry. “The man we have in custody was working at the woman’s home and he is assisting us with the investigation,” said a police source who asked not to be identified. “There are aspects we want him to clarify to us because he is crucial in this investigation,” the officer added.

Kenyan officials suspect AlShebab, the Somali Islamist insurgent group that is battling the Western-backed Somali government of responsibility. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to AFP, said Kenya had “already sent envoys to Somalia to establish contact with the

abductors” but the talks would likely take time. Dedieu, who needs a wheelchair to move around and is on several types of medication, has lived for the past 15 years in the Lamu archipelago, off Kenya’s northern coast.

Her companion, John Lepapa, a 39-year-old Kenyan who was present during the attack and said he was shot at, told AFP that six assailants landed, leaving four waiting in a boat, and “they all had guns”. Abdul Alim, a close friend of Dedieu who works on Lamu, said her staff told him the

kidnappers had dragged their employer over sand and stones and then “dumped her in the boat like a sack.”

Kenya said its forces gave chase, dispatching a helicopter and coastguard vessels to catch the kidnappers as they made their way by speedboat to Ras Kamboni in southern Somalia but failing to apprehend them in time. The majority of tourists on Manda packed their bags and left immediately, and those encountered yesterday on Lamu admitted they were nervous.

LAMU: Lamu residents demonstrate against insecurity yesterday following recent kidnapping of French woman and a British couple a month ago at the Manda Islands. —AFP

“When I heard for the first time about the Kiwayu kidnapping I told myself it could happen anywhere, but now I don’t feel safe,” said Carme Ruestes, a 42-year-old Spanish woman on a round-theworld trip. “There are no police at night and it’s a problem,” said 27year-old Sara Lopez, noting that police officers are often drunk at the weekend. “We arrived last night and we’re not cancelling our stay,” said Jing Kong, one of a group of six Chinese tourists.

“I’m a bit worried, but Kenya as a whole is not as safe as Japan or Europe, so there is necessarily an element of risk.” Dedieu and Lepapa had just returned from France on Wednesday, and the timing of the attack has aroused suspicions that the gang may have been tipped off about their return.

A British tourist, Judith Tebbutt, was seized to the north of Lamu and taken to Somalia on September 11 by an armed gang who killed her husband. She is believed to have been sold to pirates now holding her in central Somalia.

The security forces had insisted that the first attack, for which two Kenyans have been charged, was an isolated incident. — AFP

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Afghan women’s rights ‘at risk’ ten years on: NGOs KABUL: Women’s rights in Afghanistan risk being forgotten as international troops withdraw and the government struggles for a peace deal 10 years after the Taleban were ousted, two charities said yesterday. Separate reports by Oxfam and ActionAid say women’s rights have improved since the October 2001 US-led invasion, particularly access to education, with 2.7 million girls now in school, according to Oxfam.

But they warned of an “uncertain future” and “huge challenges” ahead, citing increasing violence against women and fears that any future peace deal with the Taleban could lead to gains being sacrificed. “Women in Afghanistan have achieved real progress in areas such as political participation, the rule of law, and educa-

tion since 2001 but these hard-won gains remain fragile,” Oxfam’s report said. “With the imminent withdrawal of international forces, there is a risk that the government may sacrifice women’s rights in order to secure a political deal with the Taleban and other armed opposition groups.”

ActionAid said its survey of 1,000 Afghan women found that 72 percent believe their lives are now better than a decade ago, 86 percent worry about the Taleban returning to power and 37 percent say the countr y will be a worse place if foreign troops leave. All 140,000 international combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, handing control of security to Afghan forces.

President Hamid Karzai is currently reviewing his strategy of trying to talk

peace with the Taleban after the assassination of his peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, which experts say has dealt a heavy blow to hopes of reconciliation. The US and other countries made restoring women’s rights a key priority in Afghanistan after the October 7, 2001 invasion which ousted the Taleban in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the US. Under the militant Islamist regime, women had little access to education, were banned from working outside the home, forced to wear burqas and had to be escorted by a male relative whenever they left their houses. Major gains have been made in the last decade, Oxfam and ActionAid said.

Some 42 percent of primary school age girls are enrolled in school and Afghanistan has one of the world’s

highest rates of parliamentary female representation at 28 percent, albeit thanks to a quota system.

However, Oxfam warned such improvements were under threat as “women are increasingly caught between a spreading insurgency, a government that is willing to sacrifice women’s rights and an international community focused on rapidly reducing its military presence in Afghanistan”. It highlighted disturbing levels of violence against women and said that a key law criminalizing practices such as honor killings and child marriage was only being implemented in 10 out of 34 Afghan provinces.

Some 87 percent of Afghan women say they have suffered “physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage,” Oxfam said, while self-

immolation still happens. The Taleban also continue to attack girls’ schools and limit the movements of women in areas which they control, its report added.

It accused Karzai’s fragile government of a “willingness to sacrifice women’s rights for political ends” in order to gain the support of hardliners and bolster its own position.

ActionAid, meanwhile, said women’s rights groups were being “kept in the dark” about negotiations with insurgents. It called women’s rights a “nonnegotiable part of any political settlement” and urged all parties involved “to make public statements of their commitment to equal rights for men and women-including women’s right to education, to work and to participate in public life.”—AFP

Three dead as twin blasts hit southern Afghan city Insurgents step up campaign KANDAHAR: Two suicide bombers struck Afghanistan’s biggest southern city Kandahar yesterday, killing three people, officials said. In the first blast, Assadullah Khalid, minister of border and tribal affairs and chief security coordinator for the south, claimed he was the target as two civilians were killed. Insurgents have recently stepped up a campaign of political assassinations, killing President Hamid Karzai’s younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai in Kandahar in July and his peace envoy Barhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul last month.

But the interior ministry said there

MUMBAI: Economically backward Indians queue up to buy kerosene being sold by the government at subsidized rates in Mumbai, India yesterday.—AP

India to re-define poverty benchmark after outcry NEW DELHI: India’s top economic planning body said yesterday it would revise a proposed new poverty benchmark after stirring a storm of protest by declaring any villager earning 50 cents a day was not poor. The proposed new poverty measure, which had been approved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office, had been condemned by social activists as unrealistic especially with India’s soaring inflation.

Last month, the commission suggested those with a daily income of 25 rupees (50 cents) in villages and 32 rupees in cities should not be classed as being below the poverty line and entitled to government welfare benefits. “We have supported the idea that entitlements should go beyond the poverty line

level,” Planning Commission chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia told a news conference. He denied it had been the commission’s intention that “benefits should be limited to those below the poverty line.”

The commission had initially suggested that anyone earning more than 50 cents in villages and 65 cents in cities would have enough funds for “food, education and health.” While India boasts a burgeoning class of urban rich thanks to a rapidly expanding economy, hundreds of millions of people still face a lack of food, clean water and proper housing.

Ahluwalia’s statements came after Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and several impoverished states where tens of millions of poor are dependent on state enti-

tlements criticised the new poverty benchmarks. Indian social activists had also challenged Ahluwalia to live on 50 cents a day and prove that it was enough money on which to survive. “We are now clearly, categorically and unequivocally saying there is no link between state-wise poverty estimates done by Planning Commission and the selection of (welfare) beneficiaries,” Ramesh told the same news conference.

The eligibility of rural households for different government welfare schemes would be determined after a census sur vey, Ahluwalia and Ramesh said in a joint statement.

The census “will seek to ensure that no poor or deprived household will be excluded from (welfare) coverage,” the government said in a statement.—AFP

Bangladesh charges first suspect over 1971 war DHAKA: A special court in Bangladesh yesterday charged its first suspect with atrocities including genocide, rape and religious persecution during the country’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Delawar Hossain Sayedee, a leader of an opposition Islamic party, will be tried at the tribunal set up last year to investigate those accused of crimes committed during the nine-month conflict. “Sayedee has been charged with 20 counts including crimes against humanity, murder, genocide, rape, arson, looting and forcibly converting Hindus to Islam,” public prosecutor Abdur Rahman Howlader told AFP. Judge Nizamul Huq read out the charges to Sayedee, 71, in a crowded Dhaka courtroom. If found guilty, Sayedee could face death by hanging.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh, which was called East Pakistan until 1971, has struggled to come to terms with its violent birth. The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war, many murdered by locals collaborating with Pakistani forces. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-the daughter of independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-established the court after she returned to power in 2009, but it has been widely criticized for targeting her political opponents.

The court, called the International Crimes Tribunal, is a domestic set-up with no United Nations oversight or involvement. “Every word, every sentence and every line of the 4,500-page allegations against me are lies,” Sayedee told the court after being charged. “I was not a collaborator. I did not commit any crimes.” Sayedee is alleged to have been the regional chief of a militia that was created during the war to collaborate with the Pakistani army.

Sayedee has been held in detention along with four other suspects from the

DHAKA: Jamaat-e-Islami leader Dealwar Hossain Sayedee (C) is escorted by security personnel as he emerges from the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka yesterday.—AFP Jamaat-e-Islami party and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Both parties have dismissed the tribunal as a government “show trial”, while the New York-based group Human Rights Watch has said legal procedures fall short of international standards. The 1971 war began after tens of thousands of people were killed in the capital Dhaka when Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight, a campaign intended to deter Bangladeshis from seeking independence.

The violence and subsequent military action that allegedly included mass killings, rape and torture created a groundswell of public support for the pro-independence movement. “We have concrete evidences of all Sayedee’s atrocities. On May 4, 1971 he shot dead 20 people in a remote village called Masimpur,” prosecutor Syed Haider Ali

told AFP. “Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during our war of independence, and finally we’ll see justice,” Ali said. “It’s a memorable day for the country. We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.” Defence lawyers previously withdrew from proceedings to protest against what they said would be an unfair trial and it remained unclear who would represent Sayedee in court.

“It’s a politically motivated case. It aims at tarnishing the image of my client,” said Sayedee’s lawyer Tajul Islam, who questioned the court’s legality. A private local organisation that has investigated war crimes in 1971 has identified 1,775 people, including Pakistani generals and local Islamists allied with Pakistan, as being complicit in the atrocities. The court will reconvene on October 30 to cross-examine witnesses.—AFP

was no evidence the blast was aimed at Khalid and he himself admitted he was five kilometres (three miles) away when it happened. “There was an explosion-a suicide bomber wearing explosives on his body detonated in an area where there was not an obvious target,” interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui told AFP. The Kandahar provincial media office said one person was killed and 19 injured, including six children. But Siddiqui and local police chief Abdul Raziq put the death toll at two.

Shortly afterwards in a different part of the city, a suicide bomber wearing

army uniform struck inside an army garrison. “It was a suicide attack that killed one guard and the attacker, two army soldiers were wounded,” said General Abdul Hamid, commander of the army unit whose garrison was struck. It is relatively easy to buy army uniforms from Afghan markets and there have been a string of attacks this year committed by attackers wearing them. Kandahar is seen as the birthplace of the Taliban. Karzai’s brother, a key figure in the south and head of Kandahar’s provincial council, was killed at his home in the city on July 12.—AFP

Haqqani says US wants him to join Afghan government: BBC LONDON: A BBC report quoted Afghan insurgent leader Siraj Haqqani yesterday as saying he’s been approached by the United States to join the Afghan government and denying that his militant group was behind the killing of the top Afghan peace envoy. The Pakistanbased Haqqani network is affiliated with

both the Taleban and Al-Qaeda and has been described US and other western nations as the top security threat in Afghanistan. The group has been blamed for hundreds of attacks, including a 20-hour siege of the US Embassy and NATO headquarters last month. The group’s is led by Jalaludin Haqqani, but

the ailing leader has relinquished most operational control to one of his sons, Siraj. Last week, US officials accused Pakistan’s spy agency of assisting the Haqqanis in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan - the most serious allegation yet of Pakistani duplicity in the 10year war. —AP

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3 killed in Maoist attack on Philippine nickel mine Guerillas took hostages, attacked other mines

PHNOM PEHN: A Cambodian boy rows a container through floodwaters at a village in Kandal province, 25 kilometers east of Phnom Penh yesterday. More than 100 Cambodians, nearly half of them children, have died in the country’s worst flooding in a decade.—AFP

Two Khmer Rouge judges should quit: Rights group PHNOM PENH: A rights group demanded the resignation yesterday of the two judges responsible for indictments at Cambodia’s tribunal on Khmer Rouge war crimes, alleging that they improperly halted investigations into further suspects. The major New York-based group Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the two-judge indictment panel, comprising You Bunleng of Cambodia and Siegfried Blunk of Germany, had violated its duties by failing “to conduct genuine, impartial, and effective investigations” into suspects beyond the one convicted last year and four set for trial.

The group said justice could not be obtained as long as the two judges held their jobs. Critics allege that the judges ended investigations prematurely in response to political pressure from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has openly opposed expanding the trials with additional indictments of former Khmer Rouge figures, some of whom have become his political allies. Blunk has restrictions on what he can say publicly, but has insisted that he and You Bunleng “have worked independently from outside interference.”

The UN -backed tribunal is seeking justice for 1.7 million people who died of starvation, exhaustion, lack of medical care or torture during the communist Khmer Rouge’s time in power in the 1970s. Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen responded yesterday to the Human Rights Watch statement by saying that You Bunleng and Blunk “will continue to perform their duties independently,” and that their decisions are subject to checks and balances that are part of the tribunal’s structure.

He added that no final decisions had yet been made on further indictments.

Controversy over the judge’s actions began in April, when they issued a “closing order” halting further investigation into suspects cited in documents known

as Case 003. Human Rights Watch said a closing order was expected soon in Case 004. The closing order ignited criticism from several of the tribunal’s UN appointed legal staff, who complained in a private letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the move represented a failure of justice.

“The investigating judges concluded their investigation into case 003 without notifying the suspects, interviewing key witnesses, or conducting crime site investigations,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in yesterday’s statement. “This would be shocking for an ordinary crime, but it’s unbelievable when it involves some of the 20th century ’s worst atrocities. The Cambodian people have no hope of seeing justice for mass murder as long as these judges are involved.”

The tribunal sentenced former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav in July 2010 to 35 years in prison for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other offenses.

Still facing trial are Khieu Samphan, 79, the former Khmer Rouge head of state; Nuon Chea, 84, who was Pol Pot’s No. 2 and the group’s chief ideologist; Ieng Sary, 85, the former foreign minister and his wife, Ieng Thirith, 79, who was minister for social affairs. The charges against them include crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture. Their trial opened with a week of procedural hearings in June, but it is not clear when testimony and the presentation of evidence will begin. Last month, the tribunal announced it will hold the trials of the four former leaders in segments according to separate charges in order to expedite the proceedings. It said their first trial would consider charges involving the forced movement of people and crimes against humanity and that later trials would focus on other charges including genocide.— AP

Japan begins energy debate as nuclear forces fight back TOKYO: As Japan’s leader when the Fukushima nuclear crisis began in March, Naoto Kan concluded atomic power simply was not worth the risk. His successor seems less convinced. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s month-old government begins debate on Japan’s energy policy yesterday, but Noda has already signalled that nuclear power could play a role for decades. Six months after the world’s worst radiation crisis in 25 years erupted at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima plant, critics say powerful pro-nuclear interests are quietly fighting back.

“It’s been a real bad year for the ‘nuclear village’ but I don’t think they are down and out,” said Jeffrey Kingston, Director of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus, referring to the nexus of utilities, lawmakers and regulators who long promoted atomic power as safe, clean and cheap. Public concern about safety leapt after the Fukushima accident, which forced 80,000 people from their homes and sparked fears about food and water supplies.

Some 70 percent of voters polled in July backed Kan’s call to phase out nuclear plants.

A series of scandals in which regulators and power companies tried to sway hearings on reactors has also dented public trust. In an effort to tap in to that sentiment, Kan floated ambitious targets for renewable energy and embraced a future without nuclear power. He promised an overhaul of a government plan approved last year to build 14 new reac-

tors and raise the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity mix to 53 percent by 2030 from about a third prior to the Fukushima accident.

“It chilled me to the bone every waking moment of each day,” he told his last news conference as premier of the battle to contain the disaster. “How should we deal with the risk that nuclear power might cause our country to perish? This question is what led me to propose the creation of a society free from dependence on nuclear power.” Noda, in contrast, has acknowledged that public safety concerns will make it tough to build new reactors, but on Friday stopped short of saying atomic power would play no role at all by 2050. He said decisions on reactors already under construction would have to be made “case-by-case”.

He was also vague about the criteria that an advisory panel, which will make recommendations on a new energy plan by next summer, should use in reaching its conclusions. “Naturally, we are aiming at the best energy mix that can allay the concerns of the citizens about safety,” Noda told a news conference. The panel is chaired by the head of steel industry giant Nippon Steel Corp , a heavy user of electricity and considered partial to nuclear power, but also includes those opposed to atomic energy. Bureaucrats with strong ties to the power industry were recently appointed to key posts at the Trade Ministry, which oversees energy policy, in what Sentaku monthly magazine said was a sign the “nuclear village” was alive and well.— Reuters

MANILA: Hundreds of Maoist guerrillas killed three men, took hostages and torched equipment and facilities in an attack on a major nickel mine in the southern Philippines yesterday, security officials said. Three members of the private security agency guarding the Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC) in Surigao del Norte province on the southern island of Mindanao were killed when they tried to stop the rebels, Colonel Rodrigo Diapana told reporters.

“We got reports that four people were also taken captive,” he said, adding extra troops and two helicopters were sent to track down the rebel group. Later, two of the hostages were reported to have been freed. Taganito is a unit of Nickel Asia Corp , which is partly owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd . Reynaldo Rafal, regional police chief, said there were dozens of Japanese nationals who were working in nearby mines when about 200-300 rebels, some in army uniforms, stormed the nickel project site in Claver town.

“They are all safe, they were not harmed,” Rafal told reporters. The Japanese embassy in

Manila later confirmed the workers were accounted for and safe. Another group of rebels attacked the nearby Platinum Metals Group Corp also in Claver town, Surigao del Norte. Three hours later, another mine site operated by another Taganito company, Taganito HPAL Corporation, was also attacked by rebels. Maoists have been fighting to overthrow successive governments for more than 40 years. Peace talks resumed with the current government in February after a break of six years, but further planned talks have since repeatedly been delayed.

The rebels extort money from businesses in areas they control, calling it ‘revolutionary taxation’, and are a major impediment to investment outside urban areas. “These acts were a form of punishment because mine owners did not give in to the extortion demands,” said Major Eugene Osias, an army spokesman, adding they expected more attacks because the rebels were desperate for funds.

Nickel Asia, the Philippines’ largest nickel producer, suspended operations at the mine

indefinitely. “We understand that certain equipment of TMC, as well as our affiliate, Taganito HPAL Corporation, were burned,” the company told the stock exchange. Security officials said the rebels seized three Taganito Mining Corporation officials at roadblocks and used them to get into the mining sites. After disarming private security guards at the site, the rebels herded all the people in an open area and set fire to equipment and facilities, Rafal said.

The rebels burned trucks, digging equipment, and the TMC guesthouse. They also seized several guns from private security guards and smashed computers in the site offices. In December 2010, Maoists threatened to step up attacks on mines in the Philippines saying they destroyed the environment, displaced indigenous people and took mineral wealth from poor Filipinos. In June, Nickel Asia said its sales volumes were likely to increase about 20 percent this year, with most material going to China. It aimed to sell about 10 million tonnes of ore this year, topping 8.3 million tons last year. —Reuters

Malaysian PM moves to repeal security laws KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s premier launched a promised campaign to strip away authoritarian laws yesterday, introducing motions in parliament to repeal a pair of tough security statutes.

Najib Razak, who is widely tipped to call snap polls within months, last month unexpectedly announced plans to scrap oppressive laws including the Internal Security Act (ISA), long criticised as oppressive and outdated. The moves comes as Najib, who faces a reinvigorated opposition, seeks to burnish his administration’s image three months after police used force to quash a street rally for electoral reforms.

The government has indicated repeal of the notorious ISA-which allows virtually indefinite detention without trial-would start next year but Najib launched motions yesterday to scrap two lesser laws often condemned as heavy-handed. They are the 1933 Restricted Residence Act, which allows police to require a person to live in a certain area or to bar them from an area, and the 1959 Banishment Act, which allows non-Malaysians to be banished from the country.

Malaysia has had a history of authoritarian rule since its 1957 independence from Britain, employing a range of tough laws to maintain order in the Muslimmajority but multi-racial country.

However, such laws have faced growing condemnation as inhumane and prone to abuse aimed at stifling legitimate political dissent. The opposition political alliance has expressed concern over Najib’s plans to replace the ISA-enacted in 1960 — with two new security laws, saying the move could merely be windowdressing if the new legislation is just as tough.

Najib has given few details on that plan yet but yesterday reiterated his pledge that the laws would balance security with rights. “The two new acts will try to find a balance between human rights, individual rights, civil liberties while guarding the nation’s security and harmony,” he told parliament. “I believe that with these actions, Malaysia will be among one of the countries whose practice of democracy is respected by other countries.”

Malaysia has been ruled by a coalition dominated by Najib’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO) since independence.

However, a fractured yet strengthening opposition alliance achieved historic gains in 2008 parliamentary polls, and Najib is seen under pressure within UMNO to win back lost segments of the electorate. Najib’s government also yesterday introduced a motion-approved later in the dayto establish a parliamentary panel to look into the demands of the July 9 electoral reform rally in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Police crushed the demonstration with tear gas and water canon and detained more than 1,700 people. The oppositionbacked rally was organised by an electoral reform group calling for longer campaign periods, greater opposition access to government-controlled media and an end to alleged vote -buying, among other things. Following criticism both at home and abroad, Najib announced he would set up a nine -person bipartisan parliamentary panel to look into the rally’s demands. The new panel was expected to begin meeting this week and come up with recommendations next year.—AFP

KUALA LUMPUR: This photo taken on September 16, 2011 shows Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak waving to the crowd during the Malaysia Day and Independence Day parade in Kuala Lumpur.

Najib tabled motions in parliament yesterday.—AFP

Aid rushed to Philippine flood victims CALUMPIT: Philippine authorities rushed aid yesterday to thousands of people marooned in their flooded homes for nearly a week after deadly typhoons, but said the worst appeared over with waters receding. The subsiding water allowed relief workers to deliver food, medicine and dry clothes to families who had waited out the floods on their roofs and upper floors of their homes while being hit with back-to-back typhoons.

“We have no food to eat, and no clean drinking water,” construc-

tion worker Orly Nabong told AFP as he joined hundreds of victims lining up for relief items on higher ground in Calumpit, one of the worst-hit towns. “ The water is slowly going down so we think we can wait it out, but we need supplies.” Nabong, 52, said adult members of his extended family remained on the second floor of their home, including his siblings, although the children had already been taken to an evacuation centre.

Calumpit, two hours’ drive

MANILA: Residents wade through floodwaters while boats queue up to ferry others at Calumpit township, Bulacan province, north of Manila, Philippines yesterday.—AP

north of Manila, is part of Bulacan province, a flat farming region that was particularly hard hit by the heavy rains of typhoons Nesat and Nalgae. Nalgae pummelled the Philippines’ main Luzon island on Saturday, hitting many of the same areas that Nesat had torn through five days earlier. Fifty-eight people have so far died in the two storms, and 28 remain missing, according to the civil defense office in Manila.

Another 360,000 people are either in evacuation centres or stranded in the flooded areas and in need of relief, the office said.

The Philippines endures about 20 major storms annually, but Nesat and Nalgae were among the most powerful this year with their massive rain bands covering most of Luzon, the country ’s main and most populous island.

At the height of Nesat’s fury last week, authorities also released waters from dams which had reached critical levels, adding to the flooding. The government had warned on Sunday that rains from Nalgae could stream down from mountain ranges nor th of the flood zones and lead to higher levels of water. But by yesterday morning the threat had passed.

“The amount of rainfall from Nalgae wasn’t enough to cause

more flooding, although some areas will likely remain under water for some days,” civil defence chief Benito Ramos told AFP. Some towns have endured flooding nearly two storeys deep over the past week, although authorities said the worst of the waters yesterday were about chest high. In Calumpit, residents waded through waist-deep floods to reach the makeshift command post where food was distributed in sacks and a water filtration system was set up.

“We need clean drinking water and perhaps purification tablets,” said Cloie Cruz, 26, who left her parents and three siblings at dawn to fetch supplies. Rescuers were also finally able to reach areas previously cut off by raging currents, allowing them to bring medicine or to ferry those needing medical attention to evacuation centres or clinics. Calumpit mayor James de Jesus said there would likely be no more need to forcibly evacuate those in their homes as the water cleared. “ The most impor tant thing now is to reach those who still need help,” he told reporters.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino said he was trying to personally talk with top officials in the affected areas to ensure that relief efforts were speeded up. —AFP

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DAMASCUS: A Syrian woman walks with her child in the courtyard of the historic Ommayad Mosque yesterday. — AP

Knox cleared of murder Continued from Page 1 questioning and has since said she was at Sollecito’s house the whole night.

“I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I wasn’t there,” the tearful Seattle native told the court earlier yesterday as her family wept, before the eight-person jury retired to consider the dramatic verdict. “I am paying with my life for a crime I did not commit,” an ashen-faced Knox said, speaking in almost flawless Italian with her hands sometimes joined as if in prayer in a hushed courtroom and other times holding the bench for support. “I want to go home. I want to return to my life,” she said in a statement that she had to interrupt frequently as she struggled to contain her emotions. “I am not the person they say I am. I am not into perversion and violence,” she said, after her accusers told the court that she was a “shedevil”.

Kercher’s family meanwhile complained their loved one had been “forgotten” in a case that has focussed on the figure of Knox and they lashed out against what they called a “large PR machine” working to secure Knox’s acquittal. “The brutality of that night, everything Meredith went through, the fear, the terror, she didn’t deserve that,” Kercher’s sister Stephanie said, wiping away

tears in a rare press conference in Perugia ahead of the verdict. “Mez has been forgotten in all of this. It’s difficult to keep her memory alive. We’re here today to find justice,” she said, urging jurors to ignore the “media hype”. Four hundred journalists are covering the trial in Perugia.

Appeal verdicts that overturn the original case are relatively rare in Italy but Knox’s defence had the upper hand for much of the appeal, particularly after independent experts cast serious doubt on some crucial DNA evidence. Sollecito also spoke before the verdict, saying: “I have never hurt anyone in my life.” He took off an arm band with the inscription “Free Amanda and Raffaele” and presented it to the court as a symbol of their innocence. Under the Italian justice system, the eight-person appeal court jury that issued the ruling included main judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann himself, another judge and six jurors from the general public.

Prosecutors had asked for the sentences to be increased to life in prison because of the lack of a motive for the killing.

In Seattle, about a dozen Knox supporters were overjoyed that she has been cleared of the murder conviction. “She’s free!” and “We did it!” they shouted at a hotel where they watched the court proceedings on TV. — Agencies

PERUGIA, Italy: (From left) Arline, Stephanie and Lyle Kercher, mother, sister and brother of slain British student Meredith, speak to reporters earlier yesterday. — AP

Tehran looks to sea as route to project power DUBAI: Iran has never been shy about claiming military advances such as missiles capable of hitting Israel or an attack drone dubbed the “ambassador of death.” Its latest focus: The high seas. In the past week, Iran has announced the deployment of ship-based missiles that can target shorelines from international waters, and its naval commander said that Islamic Republic warships could someday be cruising near America’s Atlantic seaboard.

While many defense analysts believe such a mission is still far beyond Iran’s naval reach, the current emphasis on maritime forces suggests a growing drive by Tehran to display power beyond the Gulf and the overwhelming presence right on its doorstep of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. “Iran simply doesn’t have the ability to be a naval giant at this point,” said Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. “That doesn’t mean, however, Iran is not serious about trying to move in that direction.”

Warships flying the Iranian flag already have been sent far beyond the Gulf. In February, two Iranian navy vessels passed through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, raising alarm from archfoe Israel. Iranian ships also have been sent to challenge Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. In June, Iran said it sent submarines to the Red Sea in the first such deployment outside the Gulf.

The next step is dispatching warships to cruise in international waters off the US East Coast, said Iran’s navy chief, Rear Adm. Habilbollah Sayyari. “In the same way that the ‘world arrogance’ is present near our sea borders, we will have a powerful presence near the US sea borders,” Sayyari said last week, using one of Iran’s mocking phrases to

Ohio Muslim inmates sue over meals Continued from Page 1 “The issue of eating halal meals is especially important to me because I face a death sentence,” Awkal said in a filing in federal court earlier this year. “It is important to me that I follow the requirements of my faith as I approach death.” A judge has given lawyers and inmates for the state until next month to finish filing documents bolstering their arguments, ahead of an expected January trial. Awkal, 52, is scheduled to die in June for killing his estranged wife, Latife Awkal, and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz in 1992, in a room in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court. Joining Awkal in the lawsuit is Cornelius Causey, 35, serving 15 years to life for murder and aggravated robbery convictions out of Hamilton County.

Ohio argues that it provides both non-pork and vegetarian meals to Muslims and says the courts have sided with this practice. The state also says that providing halal meals could hurt Ohio financially, given the current budget situation. “The complete restructuring of ODRC’s food service administration and preparation, at a cost of millions to the State of Ohio during fiscal crisis, is at stake,” Ryan Dolan, an assistant attorney general, argued in a court filing.

Ohio included in its response to the lawsuit a document from a Muslim who does regular spiritual counseling of Muslim inmates. While Imam Sunni-Ali Islam said he thought it was problematic that Ohio provided

kosher but not halal meals, he said he doesn’t think it rises to the level of religious discrimination. The state’s prison guidelines for Jewish prisoners say, “ The Department will accommodate kosher dietary restrictions to recognized Jewish inmates.” For Muslim inmates, prison rules say, “The diet will be free of all pork and products containing or derived from pork. The institution will provide nutritionally adequate meat and non-meat alternatives.”

Ohio prison officials declined to comment beyond documents filed in support of the state position.

California provides packaged kosher meals to Jewish inmates and halal meals prepared at prisons for Muslim prisoners. Meats used for the halal meals are cooked separately from other prison food, said spokesman Paul Herke. The state serves about 4,100 halal meals a day at a cost of about $3.50 per day, compared with about $2.90 a day for regular prison meals. “We would consider that a pretty nominal difference,” Herke said.

Arizona provides vegetarian and other options to satisfy the halal requirement but does not provide meals specifically dubbed halal. Similarly, Muslim inmates in Texas can select regular, meat-free or porkfree meals but are not ser ved halal meals.

Massachusetts serves both kosher and halal meals. Ohio says requiring halal meals could mean new dietary plans for as many as 2,000 inmates, while Awkal’s lawyers believe the figure is lower because not all Muslims eat halal meals. — AP

describe the US. Sayyari gave no timetable on a possible Atlantic mission. But many military analysts view it as more bluster than reality given Iran’s current naval fleet, which suffered blows in Gulf battles during the 1980-88 IranIraq war.

Iran’s current navy has a few frigate-class vessels that can move beyond the Gulf but largely comprises much smaller attack and patrol craft that need to remain close to shore.

The website of Iranian state TV quoted Sayyari yesterday as saying that Iran’s “presence in the open seas” is supported by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. “The Atlantic Ocean is one of the open seas and we can have a presence there and in other open seas around the world. We will definitely do that,” Sayyari was quoted as saying.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney responded to Iran’s Atlantic warnings by saying the U.S. doesn’t “take these statements seriously ... given that they do not reflect at all Iran’s naval capabilities.” But Iran is not short on ambition - or at least boasts about its purported military developments.

During war games in July, Iran unveiled underground missile silos it claims can withstand a direct bomb strike. Iran says it already has missiles with ranges of up to 2,000 km, putting Israel, US bases in the Gulf and parts of Europe within reach.

The missiles are one of the showpieces in Iran’s self-described strides toward homegrown expertise in technology - including military arsenals, equipment to create nuclear fuel and rockets capable of putting satellites in orbit. Part of the drive for self-reliance in engineering is a way to ridicule Western led sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, which the US and others fear could lead to atomic weapons. Iran says it only seeks energy and

medical research from its reactors, including a Russian-built plant that began producing electricity last month.

But Iran’s push for military self-sufficiency also springs from necessity. U.N. arms embargoes on Iran sharply limit its access to new technology and have forced military planners to retool existing equipment - some dating from the 1970s or earlier - or attempt to master their own designs. “Even if Iran wants to try to improve its conventional military capability in the next few years and has the money to do so, the UN arms ban will make that close to impossible,” wrote Bruce Riedel, a military affairs researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Iran, however, tries to present a much more confident picture. The country’s defense minister, Gen Ahmad Vahidi, said last week that factories are now mass producing a shipbased missile with a range of 200 km to hit “warships and coastal targets”. The missile was unveiled last month by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed it was built entirely by Iranian technicians. Last year, Iran announced its first domestically built guidedmissile destroyer, Jamaran, which it said can carry attack helicopters.

The official news agency IRNA also quoted the head of naval research, Mansour Maghsoudlou, as saying new submarines are on the drawing board, but the report gave no other details. “Iran’s trip to the Suez was mostly symbolic. The eastern Mediterranean is about the limit of their naval capabilities at this stage,” said Paul Rogers, a professor at Bradford University in Britain and a frequent commentator on security affairs. “But that probably won’t stop Iran from speaking loudly about their plans on the seas, which seem less about what they can really do and more for political purposes.” — AP

Bahrain sentences Shiite protesters...

Continued from Page 1 Matar Matar, a former opposition MP, said those convicted of killing of the Pakistani had confessed under torture and that the evidence against them was weak. “Their lawyers had asked for a medical committee to check them for marks of torture, but their request was turned down,” Matar told AFP, adding the defendants had said they only took part in a public gathering. “ The only evidence used against them is through witnesses. There are no fingerprints or any other proof... Their confessions were taken under duress,” he added.

The three groups were sentenced by the National Safety Court, a special security court set up following a mid-March clampdown on the Shiite-led protests.

King Hamad had declared a State of National Safety, a quasi-emergency law, a day before forces drove protesters out of Manama’s Pearl Square, the focal point of demonstrations, and cracked down on Shiite activists across the country. The defendants were able to appeal their sentences before civil courts, BNA said, citing Fleifel.

The National Safety Court has a mixed military and civil panel. But last month the king promised that all Bahrainis in trials related to the protests would see their verdicts issued by a civil court. Scores of opposition activists and protesters, predominantly Shiites, have been handed sentences criticised as harsh in

the West, including several death sentences.

Meanwhile, the group of Shiite medics who were handed lengthy jail terms by the same court last week will get to appeal their sentence in a civil court later this month, the prosecutor general said. “A session has been set for October 23 to look into the appeals,” chief prosecutor Abdulrahman Al-Sayyed said in a statement carried overnight by BNA. Twenty medics had on Thursday been sentenced to jail terms of between five to 15 years. The medical staff all worked at Manama’s Salmaniya Hospital, which was stormed by security forces in mid-March as they drove protesters out of Pearl Square, the focal point of demonstrations.

Meanwhile, human rights activists said yesterday that a group of 14 prominent Bahraini activists and opposition figures who launched a hunger strike on Sept 24 were being denied medical care while in prison. Mohammad Al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, said the health of at least two of the jailed activists on hunger strike had deteriorated. “Abduljalil Al-Singace and Abdulwahab Hussein Ali both have pre-existing medical conditions, including diabetes, and their health has deteriorated significantly,” Maskati told AFP. Authorities in the kingdom ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty have said that 24 people were killed when the Shiite-led protests were put down, including four policemen.

The opposition puts the death toll at 30. — Agencies

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Issues

Yemen sinking in conflict as Saleh clings on

By Erika Solomon, Mohd Ghobari fter months of protests, bloodshed and diplomacy, Yemen is mired in a contest between the president and his rivals that risks tipping a dirt-poor nation bordering oil giant Saudi Arabia into civil war and economic collapse. President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s struggle against an army general and tribal chiefs who were once powerful allies has almost eclipsed popular demonstrations against his 33-year rule that had chimed with prodemocracy Arab uprisings elsewhere.

Such protests swiftly removed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt this year, but it took a prolonged and bloody struggle to oust Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Popular revolts in Syria and Yemen have also turned violent, with the outcome still in doubt. Political strife has further loosened state control over much of Yemen, allowing free rein to northern rebels, southern secessionists and Al-Qaeda militants, even as drastic shortages of food, water, fuel and jobs stalk its 24 million people.

Yemenis are wearied by bouts of fighting between Saleh loyalists and opposition forces that have punctuated diplomatic efforts to induce the veteran president to relinquish power. “We keep thinking we’re close to an agreement and then it slips away again,” said one senior Western diplomat. “There are very powerful forces at work that don’t want an agreement because of their own financial interests, their own skins.” Even within Saleh’s ruling party, patience is wearing thin. “If we want to survive as a party in the future, it’s in our interest to sign a political solution as quickly as possible,” said one party elder who had once encouraged Saleh to stay on.

Well-connected businessmen have also lobbied politicians to sign a deal, saying responsibility for Yemen’s economic nightmare will fall squarely on the GPC if no deal is signed. Such arguments seem wasted on the president, locked in a triangular struggle with his former allies - the Ahmar family, which leads a confederation of Yemen’s well-armed tribes, and a rebel general and Saleh kinsman, Ali Mohsen. The Ahmars and Mohsen defected separately earlier this year, but have little in common with the youthful protesters staging daily anti-Saleh demonstrations for the past eight months.

Saleh, Mohsen and the Ahmars each hint they will stand down if their opponents do likewise, yet violent brinkmanship still goes on, turning Sanaa, the capital, into a patchwork of districts controlled by government and opposition forces. “On some level they want a military conflict because they think they can come out on top. Then they think again, they are not sure, so we end up in this standoff,” one negotiator said.

Foreign powers fear the turmoil in this fractured Arabian Peninsula state is emboldening Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing, despite the killing of its chief Englishlanguage propagandist, Anwar Al-Awlaki, in a US drone strike last week. Violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, worsening a crisis that could spill into Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries trying to ease Saleh out with a transition plan. All parties share the blame for holding up the deal, but analysts say Saleh and his family are the prime obstacles. Saleh returned to Sanaa last month from Saudi Arabia, where he had spent three months recuperating from an assassination attempt in which he was badly burned. Many interpret his surprise return as a sign that he and his relatives, who control much of the military, will fight to hang on to power. “It all comes down to one guy who doesn’t really want to give up power,” one Western negotiator said. “His family is worried about their own future, their lives. They don’t know a Yemen where they’re not in control... That kind of Yemen is very scary to them. So they oppose any deal.”

On the surface, the argument is over the mechanism for a power transfer. The opposition refuses to join a transitional government until Saleh’s powers devolve officially or at least in practice on his vice president. Saleh’s party insists he should only hand over his powers after an early election. Some analysts say Western powers are effectively encouraging Saleh to hang on - even though Washington pointedly renewed its call for him to quit, just hours after Awlaki’s killing.

Gulf specialist Gerd Nonneman, at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Western counterterrorism cooperation with the forces run by Saleh’s son and nephew must be stopped. “It’s all very well for the US to occasionally come out with a statement saying it hopes Saleh signs the deal and resigns. But then the family looks at all the collaboration with his son and nephew,” he said.

“They think, hang on, why don’t we tough this out? We’re not really going to be pushed out.”— Reuters

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In Tripoli limbo, militias grow assertive

By William Maclean igged with belt-fed machineguns and spray-painted with the names of provincial towns, the militia trucks that roam Tripoli are a daily reminder to its residents of how militarised their new political landscape has become. In a country eager to swap the gun for the ballot box, the assertive presence of armed groups in the capital is seen by many as an unwelcome attempt to occupy the political vacuum created by the fall of Muammar Gaddafi six weeks ago.

In theory the heavily-armed paramilitaries are allies against Gaddafi, but in practice the behaviour of the various groups, their loyalty pledged principally to their respective home towns, suggests they are morphing into determined rivals. War-weary Libyans are concerned the competition remains peaceful. Azzedine Ageel, a columnist in February newspaper, wrote: “One of the dangers is that, in the absence of a strong government and firmly-rooted security and justice institutions, people will resort to the law of the jungle and take matters into their own hands.”

On a visit to Tripoli last week, US Senator Lindsey Graham said Libya had a very bright future, “but there are fault lines. When this war is over, someone has to convince the militias to lay down their guns and follow the rule of law”.

“This can be a showcase for what the Arab Spring is all about. But if you don’t watch it, it can go backwards.”

Gaddafi may still be at large, but his last bastions are under siege, and so, Libyans say, opposition to him is increasingly unable to act, as it once did, as the glue that sealed the interprovincial alliance of convenience that ended his rule. Many of these militias have stayed on, saying they are needed to provide security. Many see thinlyveiled attempts to stake rival claims to national power, pointing to statements by several groups extolling the exploits of their men during the uprising.

Aside from provincial rivalries, there is competition between the Islamist-run Tripoli Military Council, which has nominal control over the whole city and is believed to be backed by Qatar, and formations loyal to the interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, a Westerntrained technocrat. Making political statements continues to be an activity pursued by men in uniform as much as by the civilian leaders of the country’s interim authority.

A diplomat said weapons confiscated by militias from the many arsenals used

by Gaddafi forces during the uprising had been stored in agreed locations as part of attempts to remove unlicensed weapons from the city. But some, he said, had found their way back to their respective home cities. “It’s a dangerous game,” the diplomat said. “The militias are suspicious of each other. They think accumulating weapons gives them a stake in political power.”

At first glance, Tripoli remains a city in celebration. But as the weeks wear on, euphoria is receding and everyday concerns are pressing. The city wants to get back to business. The militias say they will be gone when the state institutions are restored. But residents are questioning when that will be. “It needs

R

attention,” said an official of the National Transitional Council, the country’s caretaker government, referring to relations between the rival armed groups in the capital of two million people.

In one recent incident reported by residents, gunmen from one militia tried to break into a downturn office tower overnight. They were prevented from taking the location, a prized property which has an extensive car parking facilities, when local residents came onto the streets carrying guns and ordered them out. In another incident reported by several residents of the capital, several hundred militiamen mobilised for an armed confrontation when they learnt a colleague had been beaten up by a member of another militia. Only the intervention of their commander persuaded the men to back down, the resi-

ate comment from the NTC on the report.

The NTC has said all parties should understand that the country is still in a conflict and full normality cannot be expected. “Our freedom fighters are brave people and they cannot be called bad names. Our freedom fighters are the people who did their best to keep Libya free under any circumstances,” Ahmed Bani said in September. “At the end of this period all of the people who have no relation to the gun will hand back their guns. There is no room for radical thought or disorderly behaviour in our actions.”.

The main security institution in the Libyan capital is the Tripoli Military Council, which is run by Abdulhakim Belhadj, a veteran Islamist foe of Gaddafi. Several large militias in the city

group, the Tripoli Revolutionists Council, to keep order in Tripoli, a mission that analysts say may overlap uneasily with that of Belhadj’s Council. An analyst in Tripoli who did not want to be identified as the subject was sensitive said Naker’s remarks suggested he was a suppor ter of Jibril. Suppor ters of Belhadj make little secret of their disdain for Jibril, who they say is seeking to exclude them from a share of power following Gaddafi’s fall.

George Joffe, a Libya exper t at Cambridge University, said he regarded the announcement of the new Council as “a very negative development”. It either meant the NTC had lost control of the military situation or it meant a faction inside the NTC had decided to take on the Islamists. Some analysts say that the strains evident in Tripoli are a result

A Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter flashes the victory sign after finding a weapons depot inside a house in the village of Qasr Abu Hadi, the birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi, where fighting has been raging for the past three days with diehards of the former Libyan strongman, near Sirte yesterday. The capturing of the village will be a major symbolic victory for the fighters of the country’s new rulers as they battle to eradicate the last vestiges of Gaddafi’s 42-year rule. — AFP dents said.

The NTC authorities say they are well aware of the risks and are working hard to ensure all parties keep talking to each other. De facto head of state and NTC chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil held a successful meeting with militias last week to gain greater cooperation, an NTC officials said. One foreign official who knows the NTC leadership well said: “Jalil is not the kind of man to k nock heads together.” On Sunday evening, the Februar y newspaper reported, all security and military councils of Tripoli met and agreed to unify under one umbrella. Militias originating in other towns should move outside the city limits, it said. There was no immedi-

say they cooperate with his council, but have no formal link to it. Mukhtar AlAkhdar, leader of a militia from Zintan, told Reuters all were cooperating well.

“Everyone has this as a mind set to secure the safety of Tripoli and other liberated cities.

Of course there are violations; we are not saints or angels. These violations even took place during the previous regime; but generally the violations are minor. “You have to know that we came here based on a plan; we did not come here just like that. Tripoli did not move on its own. We all moved based on a plan that was agreed upon.”

On Sunday, a revolutionary officer announced the creation of a new armed

of the fact that it fell so quickly. It did not have the chance, as Benghazi did, of developing a civil society and a tradition of post-revolutionary debate in the six months between its liberation and Gaddafi’s fall. Tripoli’s politicians, they suggest, just need practice. On Friday, in Bengazi, for the second successive week, the imam at Tahrir square, the epicenter of the uprising against Gaddafi, said Libya was now one country for all its people and expressed gratitude for “martyrs” from different cities naming Misrata, Benghazi, Ajdabiyah, Garyan and many others. He said no one should claim credit for a specific city over another. “If you hear a tongue saying that, cut it,” he said. —Reuters

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

sp orts Shock, sorrow after teen cheerleader’s death in LA

Ancelotti wants English return LONDON: Former Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti wants to manage again in England and has hinted he would be interested in the Tottenham Hotpur job if Harry Redknapp takes over England when Fabio Cepello retires after Euro 2012. Ancelotti, who won the 2003 and 2007 European Cups with AC Milan, was sacked by Chelsea at the end of last term after going trophyless only a year after winning a Premier League and FA Cup double in his debut season. “In a few months Capello’s job will go to an Englishman that will free up a spot at a club. Only big jobs interest me like Liverpool and Tottenham. But I’m not in a rush,” the Italian told La Repubblica newspaper yesterday. “I still have a very strong desire to stay in England. For a coach, it is the ideal country. In Italy it is difficult to get full intensity during a training week, in England it is the opposite. It is difficult to reduce it.” Tottenham’s Redknapp is the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Capello.

Ancelotti also said Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger’s job could be in jeopardy given their poor start to the season while he reiterated long held wishes to one day manage Italy, favourite former club AS Roma and Ivory Coast. —Reuters

LOS ANGELES: When students return for school at Washington Prep, they were greeted by crisis counselors and missing one of their beloved classmates, a cheerleader who died after collapsing during a football game. Angela Gettis, a 16-year-old sophomore at the school, was rallying the crowd Friday night in the fourth quarter of a tie game at Fremont High School when she suffered an apparent cardiac arrest, Los Angeles Unified School District spokesman Tom Waldman said.

The game stopped as coaches and trainers ran to help. Bystanders performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Gettis died about three hours later at a hospital, becoming the second teenage

girl from Los Angeles district schools to die over the weekend after a dramatic campus incident.

School officials planned to discuss Gettis at the morning news conference. School district Superintendent John Deasy said the girl was “a wonderful young lady. It is a catastrophic loss for the school and for the community.

My heart goes out to her family.”

Gettis was a good student, said officials at the inner-city school in a rough area of Los Angeles. She planned to attend college and wanted to major in forensic science, school principal Todd Ullah told KABC-TV. At least two tribute pages memorializing the teen popped up on Facebook as news of her death spread. — AP

Tevez set for meeting MANCHESTER: Carlos Tevez was meeting Manchester City officials yesterday as the inquiry into his actions during last week’s Champions League match at Bayern Munich, takes a significant step forward, a source close to the player confirmed to Reuters.

Manager Roberto Mancini said after Tuesday’s game, which ended in a 2-0 win for Bayern, that Tevez had refused to go on as a substitute and that as far as he was concerned the Argentine’s career at Manchester City “was finished”.

The striker denied the allegations but was suspended by the club for two weeks while an internal investigation is being carried out.

Reuters sources close to Tevez confirmed the meeting was taking place on Monday at a private location.

Tevez took no part in Saturday’s 4-0 Premier League win at Blackburn Rovers, but sought to placate City fans last weekalready angered by his open desire to leave the club which he has expressed over the past year. “There was some confusion on the bench and I believe my position may have been misunderstood,” he said in a statement last week. — Reuters

Valverde, Tigers hold off Yankees NEW YORK: Tigers manager Jim Leyland tracked Curtis Granderson’s popup in the rain, anticipating the game’s final out. Then Alex Avila stepped on the on-deck circle and slipped. The Yankees’ MVP candidate had another chance. Not a good feeling.

“It wasn’t my most pleasant moment,” Leyland said. “All of a sudden, against anybody - but particularly against a team like them with the short porch in right field. ... But it worked out OK.” Boy, did it.

Detroit closer Jose Valverde walked Granderson to put runners on first and sec-

Friday night, but the game was suspended after only 1 1/2 innings.

The Yankees lost three of four this year at Detroit and are 22-25 at Comerica Park since it opened in 2000. It’s one of only two AL stadiums where New York has a losing record.

“The mentality here is everything is high, we feel good, and we just lost a tough one here today,” said Nick Swisher, who homered on Valverde’s first pitch.

Tigers starter Max Scherzer pitched no-hit ball into the sixth before Cano blooped an opposite-field single to left. Miguel Cabrera’s

NEW YORK: Detroit Tigers’ Austin Jackson (right) is safe on a throwing error by New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter as Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira cannot come up with the ball in the sixth inning during Game 2 of baseball’s American League division series. —AP ond, but he recovered to retire the dangerous Robinson Cano and finish the Tigers’ 5-3 victory over New York on Sunday that evened the AL division series at one game apiece.

“It’s tough to win games here, especially in the playoffs,” Avila said. “You get what you can and get ready for the next game and that’s all you can think about.”

Playing on the scheduled travel day because rain interrupted Game 1, the Tigers now fly home with a chance to take command of the series, just as they did in 2006, when they lost the opener in New York before sweeping three straight.

Game 3 is Monday. In a rematch, of sorts, CC Sabathia is scheduled to start against Justin Verlander, a 24-game winner. The two All-Stars faced each other in the series opener

two-run homer in the first off Freddy Garcia gave Scherzer an early edge, and the Tigers took a 4-0 lead into the eighth.

Granderson hit a solo homer off Tigers reliever Joaquin Benoit in the eighth. Pretty soon, the rain - and all the drama - filled Yankee Stadium.

“Today, we proved that we can compete.

(Monday) is going to be a different story,” Benoit said. “We go home, we’re going to play in our home ballpark, which is a little bit more fair.” Planning on playing two more days in a row in Detroit, Yankees manager Joe Girardi did not use his top late-game relievers, Rafael Soriano and Dave Robertson, and Detroit added a run in the ninth on Don Kelly’s RBI single off Luis Ayala for a 5-1 lead.

“Being down three runs, and you know

what Valverde has done all year long, we decided to go to Ayala,” Girardi said.

Valverde entered in the ninth with a fourrun lead. He led the majors in going 49 of 49 in save chances this year, and the Tigers were a perfect 83-0 this season when taking a lead into the ninth.

But this was not a save situation for Valverde, and he was far from perfect. “It’s a little hard. That’s what happens sometimes,” Valverde said.

Swisher began the comeback with a drive over the right-field wall. Jorge Posada followed with the first postseason triple and Russell Martin walked. With the crowd rooting for a rally, Andruw Jones hit a sacrifice fly that made it 5-2. “We always have faith,” Posada said.

Derek Jeter struck out as the rain that has hounded this playoff series from the start returned in buckets. Granderson then lifted his foul pop near the Detroit dugout and Avila gave chase. But the All-Star catcher slipped on the mat sporting the Yankees’ logo, lost his balance and had no play.

“I was looking to see where the railing was, and I hit the on-deck circle and my foot went right underneath me,” Avila said. “I couldn’t recover after that.” Given another chance, Granderson drew a walk that sent him to first base as the tying run.

“After the Granderson popup, where the catcher slipped I said, ‘Wow, this might be our inning, we might have a break there,’” Teixeira said. “But you can’t come through every single time.”

Cano and Valverde both did their best to stay dry - the Yankees’ star asked for a towel to wipe off his helmet, the Tigers’ relief ace tried to tuck away the ball in his glove.

Valverde won this matchup, retiring Cano on an easy grounder to second base.

Cabrera took advantage of the short right field porch in the Bronx with a homer to give Detroit a 2-0 lead. The AL’s top hitter this year added an RBI single in a two-run second that began with a throwing error by Jeter.

Making his postseason debut, the 27-yearold Scherzer excelled. He gave up two hits, struck out five and walked four. He was lifted for Benoit with a 4-0 lead after allowing a walk and a single to Posada to open the seventh as ominous clouds settled over the ballpark.

“I had confidence I was going to pitch well today,” Scherzer said. “I was just very relaxed and was able to slow everything down and it allowed me to pitch my game.”

Benoit had not given up a run in his last 22 outings and he retired Martin, then struck out pinch-hitter Eric Chavez as it began to pour, sending fans running for cover.

Jeter came up with runners on first and second for the second time in the game and struck out looking with rain drops dotting his batting helmet.

Umpires never called for the tarp and blue skies returned about 10 minutes later in the top of the eighth in a game that began with players wearing sunglasses after two days of wet weather. Benoit gave up Granderson’s homer to star t the eighth but got Alex Rodriguez, 0 for 8 in the series, and Mark Teixeira to pop out, eliciting boos from many of the 50,596 in attendance.

“I don’t have any plans of changing my lineup,” said Girardi, when asked about Rodriguez’s struggles. “I’m not going to make too much of two games.” —AP

Akmal axed for test series against Lanka ISLAMABAD: Pakistan cricket selectors have axed middle order batsman Umar Akmal for the three-test series against Sri Lanka. “Akmal has not been justifying his place in test cricket,” chief selector Mohsin Khan said, adding he wants to see the batsman learn how to play longer innings in domestic cricket. Akmal had scored just two half-centuries in his previous 12 matches. He made an impressive debut in New Zealand in 2009 by scoring century in his debut innings and three half-centuries in a three-match series. Fast bowlers Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz were recalled after being rested for the series against Zimbabwe.

Former captain Shoaib Malik, who has not played a test match for over a year, made his way back after leading Sialkot Stallions to the national twenty20 title on Sunday night. Captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan will form the backbone of Pakistan’s middle-order batting with

Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Malik giving them support. Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman was also recalled after being rested for the series against Zimbabwe.

Left-handed batsmen Taufeeq Umar and Imran Farhat will vie for the opening spot with in form Mohammad Hafeez, who was named man of the series against Zimbabwe.

The selectors also retained fast bowler Aizaz Cheema after the paceman claimed eight wickets in his debut test against Zimbabwe. The test series begins in Abu Dhabi on Oct 18 with Dubai and Sharjah hosting the remaining two test matches. Akmal received some consolation when he was named in Pakistan’s squad for this month’s Hong Kong Super Sixes tournament. All-rounder Abdul Razzaq will lead the side that also includes fast bowler Sohail Tanvir of the Rawalpindi Rams which lost to Malik in the national Twenty20 final. — AP

HARARE: Pakistan player Yasir Shah (left) celebrates with teammate Umar Akmal in this file photo. —AP

MILWAUKEE: Brewers’ Nyjer Morgan (2) and Corey Hart (1) can’t come up with a double by Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chris Young during the sixth inning of Game 2 of baseball’s National League division series. —AP

Brewers down D-backs MILWAUKEE: The Milwaukee Brewers played all season through a mix of sunlight, shadows and sellouts on their way to 57 regular-season wins at Miller Park. Now, they’re guaranteed to be back. The Brewers won their first two home games in the best-of-five NL division series over Arizona in front of jam-packed crowds, including a 9-4 victory over the Diamondbacks on Sunday that pushes them to the cusp of their first postseason series win since 1982. “It’s kind of an incredible feeling to have that kind of support,” Brewers right fielder Corey Hart said.

“The other team feels that. They don’t want to be out there in that kind of atmosphere.”

Games 3 and 4, if necessary, are in Arizona beginning Tuesday after Milwaukee successfully protected home-field advantage. The Brewers clinched their first division title in 29 years with nearly a week to play when they won the NL Central, but never rested because Arizona was just behind them in the NL standings and held the home-field tiebreaker. It took until the final day of the season to ensure Milwaukee would start at home, and the first two wins in this series have vindicated that decision to go for it.

“We’re excited that we won the first two games, but we could just as easily come back home tied 2-2,” Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun said. “The goal was to advance in the postseason, and we haven’t accomplished that, so I don’t think we’re overly excited, but we feel good about the way we’ve played these first two games. “It’s a short series. It’s important to find a way to win when you’re at home. We’re off to a good start.”

Braun hit a two-run homer and fellow slugger Prince Fielder added an RBI single for Milwaukee. The brawny Brewers excel in other ways, too, especially Jonathan Lucroy. Lucroy - “Mr. Squeeze” to his teammates - drove in the go-ahead run with a bunt and Milwaukee broke away from Arizona with a five-run sixth inning. “The little things matter,” said Jerry Hairston Jr., who scored on Lucroy’s bunt. “When you have guys like Braunie and Prince with the big power, the little things add up.”

The Brewers hold a 2-0 lead in a postseason series for the first time in franchise history and will go for the sweep when Shaun Marcum takes on rookie Josh Collmenter in Game 3. “If there’s any team that’s been down before and come back, it’s us,” Diamondbacks shortstop Willie Bloomquist said. “We’re certainly not going to fold up our tents just yet.

We’re going to come out fighting on Tuesday and come after them and see what happens.”

Lucroy keyed the five-run sixth and delivered right after Diamondbacks reliever Brad Ziegler became angry about a balk call. That’s when rookie Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke put on a play - he’d already seen Lucroy successfully bunt a few times this season. “Good teams always take advantage of the other team’s mistakes,”

Braun said. “There’s no doubt coming into that inning, they had the momentum.”

With the score 4-all and runners at the corners with one out, Hairston took a couple of half-steps and sprinted home as Lucroy bunted toward first base. Ziegler’s awkward flip went wide of catcher Miguel Montero and the Diamondbacks imploded from there, with Milwaukee taking a 9-4 lead. “It was crazy,” Montero said. “I didn’t even get a chance to second-guess myself. It was like, ‘OK, here we go - boom, boom, boom, boom.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on over here?’. Brewers starter Zack Greinke struggled in his first postseason appearance, giving up three home runs and leaving without a decision.

Greinke went 11-0 this season at Miller Park, the retractable-roof stadium that opened in 2001 and has none of the charm of the throwback ballparks built during the same era.

Instead, it feels a little like a warehouse, and when the roof is closed, the noise reverberates off the soaring metal ceiling and the crowd feels almost on top of the field. “If we come back (for Game 5), they’re going to be strong, if not stronger,” Hart said. “We love it because they’re on our side.”

The Diamondbacks seemed poised for a come -from-behind victory Sunday after notching 48 this season when Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Young and Justin Upton all homered off Greinke to tie it. Instead, Arizona went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and Milwaukee kept its cool until the sixth, when seven consecutive batters reached with one out. Hairston, making his second straight start in place of Casey McGehee at third, doubled to chase Diamondbacks starter Daniel Hudson.

Ziegler entered, and was called for a balk when he spun and found no one behind Hairston for a pickoff attempt as he attempted to throw. Ziegler pointed down at his foot, upset at second base umpire Bruce Dreckman’s call, and walked the free-swinging Yuniesky Betancourt on four pitches.

Ziegler said he was “somewhat curious” about what happened because he believed his footwork was proper. “I honestly don’t know what he called. I didn’t ask him about it,” said Ziegler, who didn’t want to be ejected for arguing. “I didn’t feel like I balked. I felt my (front) foot came down on top of the rubber, so I felt I was clear of my back foot at that point. It didn’t matter after that.”

Roenicke called for the squeeze, and Lucroy laid it down perfectly, just like he had on a suicide attempt on the final play of a 3-2 win against the Giants on May 28. The play started Milwaukee’s big inning, and Arizona finds itself in a bigger hole. “When you go on the road, you want to at least take one. If you don’t, you’ve got to go home and defend your own tur f,” Upton said. “That’s the bottom line.

That’s what home-field advantage does for them. They played well at their home place, got two wins, but we’ve got to do the same thing.” — AP

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S P ORT S

Kenny Perry wins first Champions Tour title CARY: After nearly withdrawing following his sister’s death Saturday night, Kenny Perry won the SAS Championship on Sunday for his first Champions Tour title. Kay Perry died Saturday night after a long fight with breast cancer. She died two years to the day after the death of their mother, Mildred Perry, also to cancer. “When I heard the news last night, it was a long night,” Perry said. “I didn’t sleep a lot, thought about just getting on a plane and heading home. “But Dad was great. He called me, he said, ‘Son, you just need to go out there and represent Kay today.’”

He did, making a 30-foot eagle putt on the par5 17th en route to a 2-under 70 and a one-stroke

victory over Jeff Sluman and John Huston. “I was very calm all day. I had no nerves,” Perry said.

“Normally, I’m a little jumpy, a little jittery, tense.

Today, I was just - I felt like I was on a low. I was really down. I was kind of depressed, and my swing was in rhythm. It wasn’t fast, and I had great control of the golf ball.” The 51-year-old Perry, a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour winner, had an 11-under 205 total - the highest winning score in tournament history - on the Prestonwood Country Club course. Sluman also finished with a 70, and Huston shot a 71.

Perry rallied after making a double-bogey 7 on the 12th hole after hitting his approach shot into

the water. He also had a double bogey in the first round. “Normally, I get pretty frustrated and pretty upset over that type of deal, and they get to me inside,” said Perry, the fifth first-time winner this year. “I was able to just plod along, just play along.”

“I really wasn’t thinking a lot about winning. I just wanted to make her proud and somehow, you know, the eagle fell in the bottom of the cup on 17, and I felt like I know they are watching. I felt like I had some help up there. Excited to win, but I’d rather have my sister back.”

Sluman said the weather made play difficult for the second straight day. “We’re not used to that cold and blustery kind of north, northwest

wind, and it makes the golf course set up extremely difficult,” Sluman said. “It was at least 2 to 2 1/2 shots tougher (than Friday). (And) with no humidity, it really dries the greens out, and the greens were, from Friday until today, 3 feet faster.” Russ Cochran, the 2010 winner, had a 71 to finish fourth at 8 under, a stroke ahead of Fred Couples (70). Tom Lehman (72) tied for 12th at 4 under. He maintained his lead in Charles Schwab Cup race and the $1 million payday. Mark Calcavecchia tied for the low round of the day with a 68 to tied for 10th at 5 under. He picked up 53 points and remained in second place in the Schwab Cup race, 398 points behind. — AP

Na hits Vegas jackpot LAS VEGAS: Kevin Na kept his cool with a redhot putter to hold off fellow American Nick Watney and claim his first PGA Tour title with an emotional two-shot victory at the Las Vegas Open on Sunday. South Korea-born Na rolled in a 43-footer to birdie the par-three 17th before parring the last for a six-underpar 65 and a 23-under total of 261 at the TPC Summerlin. The 28-year-old, who had been winless in his previous 210 PGA Tour starts,

threw both arms skywards in celebration before removing his cap and embracing his caddie. “Oh wow,” a tearful Na said greenside after being told he had finally triumphed in his 211th career start. “I went through a lot. I’d have nightmares finishing second.”

“I used to tell my mother: ‘As hard as I work, when I am going to get my first win’. People said they believed in me more than I think I believe in myself, especially Kenny my caddie.

LAS VEGAS: Kevin Na holds up the championship trophy after winning the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open golf tournament. — AP

“Every time he was there for me and he believed in me.” Tied for the lead overnight with Watney, Na was briefly caught at the top by his playing partner with four holes to play before he tightened his grip on the title with birdies at 15, 16, and 17. World number 11 Watney, bidding to become the PGA Tour’s first three-times champion this year, had to settle for second place after closing with a four-birdie 67. Americans Tommy Gainey and Paul Goydos both signed off with 68s to share third place at 18 under.

A NA-WATNEY DUEL For most of Sunday’s final round, however, the tournament came down to an effective head-to-head between Na and Watney, the two overnight leaders. Na made a red-hot start, birdies at the first and second holes putting him two strokes clear at 19 under.

Though Las Vegas resident Watney cut that deficit to one with a long-range birdie putt at the third, Na restored his two-shot cushion by sinking a 20-footer from just off the green at the par-four fourth.

Na made his first mistake of the day with a bogey at the sixth, after missing the fairway to the left off the tee, and dropped back into a tie for the lead with American Tim Herron at 19 under. Herron, a four-times winner on the PGA Tour whose most recent victory came at the 2006 Colonial Invitational, had birdied four of the first seven holes before losing momentum over the closing stretch on his way to a 69 and joint fifth. Na, however, immediately bounced back with a birdie at the seventh before picking up another shot at the par-five ninth after reaching the green in two and two-putting.

Two ahead at the turn, Na was briefly caught by Watney when he bogeyed the parthree 14th after failing to get up and down from a buried lie in a greenside bunker. The long-hitting Watney had rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-five 13th to get to 20 under overall. Once again, though, Na regained control, sinking a three-footer to birdie the driveable par-four 15th before following up with a two-putt birdie at the parfive 16th to lead Watney by one. He never relinquished his grip as he finished birdie-par to triumph by two strokes. — Reuters

ST ANDREWS: Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey celebrates winning the Dunhill Links Golf Championships at St Andrews, Scotland. Michael Hoey held off compatriots Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell to win the Dunhill Links Golf Championship. — AP

Woods drops out of top 50 NEW YORK: Tiger Woods will plummet to depths he has not reached in 15 years as he is projected to drop two spots to 51st in the world rankings. The former world number one has not triumphed anywhere since the 2009 Australian Masters and has been steadily losing ranking points because of his struggles on and off the course. In the rankings, Woods is expected to be sandwiched by South African Louis Oosthuizen (in 50th) and fellow American Jonathan Byrd (52nd), the first time he has been out of the top 50 since he was 61st on Oct 13, 1996.

Ever since his private life unraveled in sensational fashion at the end of 2009 and he tried to repair his crumbling marriage, Woods has been a shadow of the dominant player he once was. It has been just over three years since Woods clinched the last of his 14 major titles and he has not competed on the PGA Tour since missing the cut at the PGA Championship in August. However, Woods will return to the US circuit for next week’s Frys.com Open at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, California, his first ever appearance in the PGA Tour’s Fall Series. — Reuters

Early damage done, time for World Cup knockout AUCKLAND: One wobbly result in the pool stage has set the scene for a North vs. South final at the Rugby World Cup, with the eight surviving teams starting their fine-tuning yesterday for a knockout series divided on equatorial lines. A dozen teams are out of World Cup contention for at least the next four years and there were no surprises in the eight countries that remain, except for the order they’re playing.

is do or die, so it’s a different level completely.” Five days of tending to battered and bruised bodies after a sometimes brutal weekend in which seven of the eight quarterfinal spots were decided will end when Ireland takes on Wales in Wellington on Saturday. England and France meet later that night in Auckland, on the eve of the southern hemisphere double-header involving top-ranked New Zealand against 2007 semifinal-

WELLINGTON: Wales defense coach Shaun Edwards speaks during a press conference at Rugby World Cup. — AP Defending champion South Africa will face Tri-Nations champion Australia in a quarterfinal at Wellington on Sunday night, a match between the only two-time World Cup winners that hadn’t been expected until Ireland beat the Wallabies on Sept. 17 to upset the anticipated order of things. Little wonder John Smit, veteran of 110 test matches and longtime Springboks captain, is getting edgy.

“One thing’s for sure,” Smit said yesterday, “the real World Cup starts this week.”

“It’s definitely a tournament that’s set up in two stages,” Smit continued.

“This is the stage where every game

ist Argentina and No. 2-ranked Australia against No. 3 South Africa.

Smit’s Springboks squad has lost at home and away to Australia this year, and is coming off a 13-5 win over Samoa in a savage encounter that ended the tournament for star backline utility Francois Steyn. That’s quite a dent for a team that is trying to be the first back-to-back World Cup champion, but nothing Smit can’t overcome.

“Pressure’s what makes the game beautiful and what creates some special performances. Without those nerves I don’t think you ever quite reach the top of the game,” Smit said.

“There will be nerves and I think

some of the guys who haven’t been around the World Cup will feel a different kind of vibe this week. It’s really how you deal with it and how you use that to your advantage.” There’s still tickets available for all quarterfinals, but organizers expect them to go quickly after 1.07 million were sold for the 40 matches in the group stage.

“That’s an incredible turnout equivalent to filling Eden Park around 18 times,” RNZ 2011 CEO Martin Snedden said. “We promised a unique experience as our Stadium of Four Million fans warmly embraced the teams and their supporters and that’s exactly what happened.” Revenue from 1.34 million ticket sales to date has hit 262 million New Zealand dollars ($199 million), leaving organizers only NZ$6.5 million ($5 million) shy of pre-cup targets with eight matches still to play. “I have no doubt we will reach our goal,” Snedden said. Australia has one of the least experienced squads at the World Cup and for all its precup exploits - winning the TriNations title for the first time in a decade with a deciding win over New Zealand - is entering new territory this week.

The Wallabies scrum was destroyed by a veteran Irish pack at Eden Park in the pool stage and will face another stern test from the big, gnarled, experienced Springboks eight in the quarterfinals. The appointment yesterday of referee Bryce Lawrence for the match - he awarded a handful of scrum penalties to Ireland against Australia - is unlikely to have been well received by the Wallabies coach Robbie Deans. Australia captain James Horwill said his team had been more or less playing finals rugby since that loss. “After the Irish game, every game was a knockout game for us,” Horwill said. “We couldn’t drop a game. The mindset is that we have to do everything in our power to win

and that’s what we’re going to be doing this weekend.”

The Australians have had a long injury list during the tournament, but are expecting to be close to full strength on Sunday. Steyn’s injury, only a day before star New Zealand flyhalf Dan Carter was also ruled out of the tournament with a trainingground injury, is more unsettling for the Springboks. In fact, Springboks coach Peter de Villiers said the loss of Steyn was a greater blow to South Africa than the loss of Carter was to the All Blacks. “Coming into the World Cup, he came as a fullback. We were forced to use him at center and there he showed us just what his value is as a player and as a key man,” de Villiers said. “We’re going to miss him, definitely.”

Carter faced the press for the first time since he injured his groin in

kicking practice Saturday, ending his tournament and casting a long shadow over New Zealand’s chances of winning the World Cup for the first time in 24 years. His message to the All Blacks was simple: get on with it.

England will be missing winger Delon Armitage, one of the more impressive players in a comeback 1612 win over Scotland last weekend that secured top spot in Pool B, after he was banned for a high tackle in that match.

Armitage pleaded guilty to a charge of foul play and was banned for one match by RWC judicial officer Bruce Squire in Auckland yesterday.

“It’s a shame to lose Delon as he has played well, but these things happen and we have some quality wings in Mark Cueto and Matt Banahan to chose from,” England manager Martin Johnson said. Georgia winger

Lekso Gugava was suspended for five weeks yesterday for a tip tackle on Argentina center Felipe Contepomi during the Pumas’ 25-7 win on Sunday, matching the harshest punishment of the tournament.

Samoa center Eliota FuimaonoSapolu was called yesterday to face a misconduct hearing for criticizing Nigel Owens’ refereeing performance as “absolutely horrendous,” one of five players cited for disciplinary breaches in the last round of pool matches at the Rugby World Cup. Owens was later appointed to the New Zealand-Argentina quarterfinal.

Citing commissioners have also asked Ireland prop Cian Healy for details over an alleged gouging attempt by Italy hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini in the last match of the group stage. Ireland won 36-6 to eliminate the Italians. — AP

AUCKLAND: (Left to right) France’s head coach Marc Lievremont, lock Pascal Pape, fitness coach Jean Luc Deloire, scrum half Morgan Parra prepare to board a bus to go to a training session during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. — AFP

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Busch wins at Dover

LONDON: Lebanon’s Andrea Paoli (right) reels away from a kick on her way to an 11-10 win over Taipei’s Jo-Wei Lin during the British Open Taekwondo Championships. —AP

Taekwondo ditches traditional origins MANCHESTER: Since becoming an Olympic event, taekwondo has largely ditched its traditional origins, creating a new schism in the kick-heavy combat sport. At this weekend’s British Open, more than 400 top fighters battled it out in one of the key warm-up events before the 2012 London Olympics, with many medals going to Britain, France and Iran. Since taekwondo’s governing body rewrote the rules last year to award fighters more points for head shots, many of the best players now often throw fancy spinning and jumping kicks that were once seen only occasionally. Some taekwondo purists say the changes have gone too far and argue the Olympic-style fighting bears no resemblance to the martial art’s origins in Korea.

But Britain team coach Joseph Salim said the changes made to taekwondo in recent years were needed to make the sport relevant for the Olympics. “The race for medals may take away a little bit from the martial art, but it’s more dynamic and modern now,” Salim said.

Salim said he prefers training fighters with a traditional background, meaning knowledge of the stylized fight patterns developed years ago.

“If you are really good at (patterns), it’s easier to polish your fighting style,” he said, explaining that some of the traditional taekwondo stances can be easily tweaked for Olympic-style sparring. All competitors in major events, including the Olympics, must hold a taekwondo black belt certified by the martial art’s ruling body in Seoul - which demands expertise in sparring as well as the stylized patterns and self-defense techniques. But once fighters get the black belt, nearly all abandon the martial art’s traditional elements. “I can’t even remember the last time I did a (pattern),” said Britain player Lutalo Muhammad, whose specialties are the spinning and jumping kicks that give him the

impression of almost flying in the ring. “Maybe I’ll go back to the traditional side once my fighting career is over.”

Others say the taekwondo seen in the Olympics doesn’t even merit the name and is mere showboating. Just as the Korean war split the country in two, so too did a division emerge in taekwondo. One faction founded the International Taekwondo Federation in 1966, which remains staunchly traditional and incorporates more punching and hand strikes.

Its style of taekwondo is practiced by the North Korean army.

On the other side is the World Taekwondo Federation, the Olympic sport’s ruling body.

Since the group was formed in 1973, it has marketed taekwondo so successfully it is now the world’s most popular martial art. “Olympic taekwondo is not taekwondo,” said Ri Yong Son, chief director of the International Taekwondo Federation. “There is no understanding of the martial arts philosophy.” Taekwondo in the Olympics still retains some traditional elements - competitors bow to each another and the referee before and after the match and pay respects to their opponent’s coaches after the match, and all commands are in Korean.

Critics say such practices are mere formalities, however, and point to the example of the Cuban taekwondo player so incensed at a referee’s decision at the Beijing Olympics he kicked him in the head. Ri said that incident illustrates how little understanding many Olympic taekwondo fighters have of the importance of respect in martial arts. He also criticized Olympic-style taekwondo for focusing almost exclusively on kicks, since punches are only allowed to the body and worth only one point.

“They never punch,” he said of Olympic taekwondo players. “That is not a good way to fight.”— AP

DOVER: Kurt Busch left a rocky star t to th e Ch ase an d h i s fiercest rival behind him. Busch stormed into contention for a secon d Cup c h ampion sh ip, holding off fellow Chase drivers Jimmie Joh n son an d Ca r l Edwards to win Sunday at Dover International Speedway, tightening the leaderboard in a playoff wh ere n o dr iver h a s emerged as a clear-cut favorite.

Busch, though, is in the mix.

H is N o 2 2 Dodge seeme d only to get stronger over the 4 0 0 -mile race an d h e bea t Johnson, his long-time antagonist, on the final restart to take the checkered flag for the second time this season. The win pushed Busch from ninth to fourth in the points standings, only nine points out of first.

Only 15 points separate the top eight drivers with seven races left. Edwards and Kevin Harvick share the points lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship standings entering round 4 of the Chase at Kansas Speedway. Har vick is seeded first because of a tiebreaker.

Busch, the 2004 champion, won his 24th career race and for the first time at Dover. “To win a Sprint Cup race in the Chase, this is what it’s all about,” Busch said. Johnson leads active drivers with six career victories at Dover and traditionally dominated Chase races. Sure enough, after a tough start to the Chase, the defending fivetime champion led the majority of laps and proved the No. 48 is far from finished. “Are we out of this?” said Johnson, rubbing his chin with a smile. Not yet. Not by a long shot.

Johnson got beat off the last two restarts, spinning his tires on the first one and he mistimed when Busch would accelerate on the second. “I hate leaving points on the table, and we h ave th ese fir st th ree,” Johnson said. Losing to Busch had to sting. Busch made his move off the final restart with 43 laps, leaving Johnson and the rest of the field in the mirror. Johnson’s reign was consid-

e re d by s om e to b e on t he ropes after he finished 10th and 18t h i n t he f i r s t t wo C ha s e races. But his strong result on one of his favorite tracks moved him only 13 points behind the leaders and feeling confident.

He has five straight top 10s, including one win, at Kansas.

“Giving up a win by not getting a good restar t, I’ll think about it tonight,” Johnson said.

“But big-picture wise, we’ll take

it.” The winning move against Johnson made the victory more meaningful for Busch. Two of t he s p or t ’s top d r i ve r s have developed a long-simmering rivalry - trading paint and barbs - over the years. It reached a boiling part at Richmond when Busch called Johnson a “fivetime chump.”

“To beat your arch nemesis, that ’s just icing on the cake.

That’s pretty sweet,” Busch said.

DOVER: Racers take the green flag for the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Dover International Speedway. —AP

Johnson, who led 157 laps, was second and Edwards was third.

Edwards, who won the Dover Nationwide race on Saturday, dominated most of the race until a pit road speeding penalty cost him a lap.

Wi t hout t ha t inf r a c t i on, Edwards just might have won the race and made it a weekend sweep. “I definitely took myself out of position to fight for the win by doing that,’ Edward s s a i d. “I t ’s s om e t hi ng t ha t ’s painful.” Chase drivers dotted the rest of the field.

Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch were fifth and sixth. Har vick was 10th. Tony Stewart lost the points lead he built after winning the first two Chase races and finished 25th. Other Chase results were: Jeff Gordon 12th, D e nny H a m l i n 18t h, B r a d Keselowski 20th, Ryan Newman 23rd a nd D a l e E a r nha rd t J r 24t h. E a r nha rd t , N e w m a n, Hamlin are about out of contention. Gordon needs to get hot f a s t . N on- C ha s e d r i ve r s filled four of the top-10 spots.

K a s e y K a hne w a s four t h, A J A l l m e ndi nge r w a s se vent h, C l i nt B ow ye r e i ght h, a nd Marcos Ambrose ninth.

B us c h s t a r te d t he C ha s e ranked seventh in the standings and opened with a solid sixth at C hi c a gol a nd S p e e d w ay. H e struggled at New Hampshire and finished 22nd.

He found the right combination at Dover, where he qualif i e d s e cond a nd c a r r i e d t he position into Victory Lane - and up the standings. “ We’ve got such a long way to go in this Chase,” Busch said. “That’s what we’re really focused on.” Busch won the first Chase by beating Johnson by eight points for his only NASCAR championship.

H e c re d i te d ow ne r R oge r Pe ns ke for gi v i ng hi m t he equipment and crew needed to compete for a title. “The car just had a good feel all weekend long,” Busch said. It ’s a good feel he has to keep rolling all the way through Homestead if he wants to race away with the championship.—AP

Ponor’s return a boost for Romania

MINNEAPOLIS: Atlanta Dream guard Izaine Castro Marques (right) protects the ball as Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore (23) pursues in the first half of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals basketball series. —AP

Lynx blow open Game 1 MINNEAPOLIS: More than 15,000 fans walked into Target Center on Sunday night, hoping that the Minnesota Lynx could give them a little relief from the sports abyss the Twin Cities sit in at the moment. They waved white pom-poms and hollered at the top of their lungs, and Rebekkah Brunson and Co made sure they didn’t go home disappointed. Brunson had 26 points and 11 rebounds and Seimone Augustus added 22 points to lead the Lynx to an 88-74 victory over the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 of the WNBA finals.

“It was amazing,” Brunson said of the charged-up atmosphere. “The city’s been excited about this team from the beginning of the season and everybody keeps jumping on and jumping on and we love it. We love the fact we can come in here and play in front of a crowd like this.” Lindsay Whalen added 15 points and six assists and the Lynx turned a close game into a runaway with a 13-0 run to open the fourth quarter. Taj McWilliams-Franklin added eight points and 10 boards while battling an illness.

Angel McCoughtry scored 19 of her 33 points in the third quarter and Lindsey Harding scored 20 points for the Dream.

Atlanta led by 12 points midway through the second quarter, but the Lynx kept them off the board for the first 4:34 of the fourth quarter to take control. With starting center Erika de Souza missing the game while playing for Brazil in an Olympic qualifying tournament, the Dream were outrebounded 40-28 and outscored in the paint 52-30. “Look at the rebounds,” Harding said. “We needed her.” De Souza will be back for Game 2 of the best-of-five series, which is tomorrow night in Minneapolis. For those who say the women’s game lacks everything that makes the sport great - athleticism, shot-making and competitive fire - Game 1 will not help them make their case.

Maya Moore’s sensational reverse layup, a

scoop shot that started from clear on the other side of the rim, got the Lynx started on a thirdquarter surge that got them back into the game.

Brunson finished a three-point play and Augustus’s no-look pass was finished by Whalen’s reverse layup to cap a 9-0 run that gave them a 51-49 lead. “We’ve got some athletes up in here!” Brunson boasted. On the other end, McCoughtry was simply unstoppable, hitting a incredible array of jumpers from odd angles all over the floor, blocking shots and forcing steals to keep her team from faltering. She scored all but four of Atlanta’s 23 points in the third and the game was tied at 62 heading into the fourth.

Whalen started the deciding surge with a three-point play and a shooter’s roll jumper and the Lynx turned up the pressure on the defensive end to get two fast break layups to take a 75-62 lead with 5:45 to play.

“We knew our run would come at some point,” Whalen said. The Lynx blocked a WNBA finals record 11 shots and held Atlanta to 37 percent shooting in their first finals game in franchise history. “We couldn’t find the rim for about four minutes,” Dream coach Marynell Meadors said. “And everything we did resulted in points for Minnesota.”

After 12 largely anonymous and often wretched seasons of existence, the Lynx finally broke through this year in a major way. With Augustus healthy for the first time in three years and Moore coming from UConn with the No 1 overall pick, the Lynx blew the doors off the rest of the league, finishing 27-7, six games better than the second-best team. The Twins and Timberwolves both finished in last place and the Vikings are off to an 0-4 start, leaving Minnesota’s sporting public desperate for someone to cheer for. The fired-up crowd of 15,258 the second-largest in franchise history - was treated to a nerve-racking start.—AP

TOKYO: Catalina Ponor strutted onto the floor, and all eyes immediately turned toward her. The triple Olympic gold medalist is the center of attention at the world gymnastics championships, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Back in her element after deciding - again - that she’s not cut out for the sedate life of a retiree, the 24-year-old is giving the Romanians some badly needed swagger as they rebuild their once-proud women’s program. “We need to have a star, a leader on our team,” Romanian coach Octavian Belu said yesterday.

A star? Ponor is more like a galaxy. Her three Olympic gold medals - she won the beam and floor titles in Athens in addition to Romania’s team gold - alone are enough to solidify Ponor’s place among gymnastics’ greats. But it was the way she carried herself that made judges and competitors alike stop and stare, with a sass and attitude even the world’s biggest divas would admire. When the Romanian national team was based in Deva, Ponor was the one gymnast who didn’t train there. Her flaming red convertible was a familiar sight in Bucharest. She once got busted for going to a nightclub without permission. And woe to anyone, even her teammates, who got in her way, as Ponor would fix them with an icy stare.

Bad knees forced Ponor to retire after she won the beam title at the 2006 European championship. She made a brief return in 2007, but called it quits again at the end of that year because of her knees. She lived comfortably on the healthy stipend awarded to Olympic champions by the Romanian government, and tried coaching. After watching the Romanians struggle at last year’s worlds, however, Ponor decided to make one last comeback.

“She’s coming back because maybe she feels like we feel, the place of a gymnast is in the hall,” said Belu, who resumed his old post as coach of the national team last year after spending five years in politics. “A gymnast like Catalina, with three gold medals in the Olympic Games, it’s better to have in the hall like a symbol than, I don’t know, in the museum.” Romania certainly needs her. After the Soviet Union broke up, Romania became the world’s most dominant team. It won five straight world titles from 1994 to 2001, as well as the team gold medal at the Sydney and Athens Olympics. Romanians won three of the five individual titles in Athens, and they would have swept the all-around titles in Sydney if Andreea Raducan hadn’t been busted for taking cold medicine.

But Belu and longtime assistant Mariana Bitang stepped down in 2005, and the program quickly fell into disarray. In 2006, Romania finished fourth at the world championships, the first time since 1981 it had failed to win a team medal. It got back on the podium with a bronze in 2007, but it was a distant third behind the United States and China.

Same story at the Beijing Olympics, when Romania finished more than seven points behind China and five behind the Americans, and Sandra Izbasa’s gold on floor was the only individual medal.

“It was very, very difficult for me” to watch, said Belu, who left the national team to become head of Romania’s Ministry of Sports.

“I tried to help, looking to the budget and other facilities. But I think it was not enough.”

After years of hauling in multiple medals at every major competition, the Romanians had become an afterthought. The pipeline that had turned out one generation of champions after another appeared to have dried up.

“If you have two leaders and two gymnasts on each apparatus (capable) of being in the finals, you have 10 possibilities to have medals. So this is a very, very simple thing,” Belu said. “If you go with one gymnast for one apparatus, in the one final with one possibility, it’s very difficult to expect to some miracles.” Belu and Bitang were asked in the summer of 2010 to lead the national team again.

Though Romania again failed to medal in the team competition at last year’s worlds, Ana Porgras won the beam title, the team’s first gold at worlds since 2001.

Romania won two of the four event titles at this year’s European championships, and four

medals overall. “I don’t know if my coming back was enough to put the Romanian gymnastics at the same level as before, but I try,” Belu said. “Step by step we arrive at the Olympic Games, and I hope we’ll be enough good to hope to have good results in London.”

Ponor will be a key to that. She still appears to be among the world’s best on beam, and her floor exercise would outshine some of the shows in Vegas. But her greatest value will be her leadership and reputation. She could be seen giving her younger teammates advice during Monday’s podium training, and she even helped chalk the uneven bars.

Better yet, judges all over the floor were craning their necks to get a look at what Ponor and the Romanians were doing.

Podium training is the gymnasts’ only chance to work on the competition floor before the event begins, but it’s also when judges start handicapping the field - and Ponor gives Romania some big bonus points. The world championships, the main qualifier for the London Olympics, begin Friday. “I don’t look to Catalina like a gymnast who is now 24. She is very dynamic and she keeps the same qualities as before,” Belu said. “It’s only one step, these world championships, but she looks toward London, and I hope she’ll be in her best condition in London.”— AP

MEXICO: This March 2, 2008, file photo shows Romania’s Catalina Ponor performing a floor routine during a gymnastics competition in Mexico City.—AP

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Vettel aside, tires are star F1 performer PARIS: Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull aside, the star of this Formula One season has been Pirelli for being brave enough to supply teams with tires that wear out cleverly - something easier said than done.

No offense intended, but Vettel has sucked the suspense out of the driver’s championship by being so successful.

Starting on pole for 11 of the 14 races and winning nine of them, he has left only crumbs for everyone else. Since Vettel needs just one more point to do it, you can all but bet the house that the young German will win the world title in Japan next weekend, effectively making dead-rubbers of the last four races in Korea, India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

In years past, when nothing much happened in too many F1 races, that might have been our cue to switch off the TV and turn to more interesting pursuits like watching grass grow or paint dry. But not this season. The paradox is that even as Vettel stormed away, more often than not, the racing behind him has still been too enthralling to miss.

Thanks, Pirelli.

The easier and arguably safer path for the Italian manufacturer would have been to supply F1 with tires that just ran on and on, that wouldn’t lose grip and speed, wouldn’t need changing in a race.

After all, who wants to be associated with a product that doesn’t last? But that would have been zero fun.

Instead, at risk of staining its reputation with potentially bad publicity, Pirelli accepted the challenge of delivering tires that would wear out after roughly 10 or 20 laps (depending on the type used), forcing drivers to pit more and to use their brains to fit the right tire at the right time. Tires, in other words, packed full of key ingredients for good entertainment interest, action and uncertainty. We have been treated to the sight of world-class drivers struggling to control their cars and dramatically losing speed as their tires wore out. We have seen them caught by drivers with fresher tires. The chess game of tire strategy has brought the entire field alive. Some purists may find it silly to deliberately throw a spanner in the works of such finely engineered cars by fitting them with such

capricious tires. But the result has been a more absorbing spectacle.

The same goes for the overtaking aid a go-fast moveable rear wing - fitted to F1 cars this season. F1’s governing body has got the balance with those about right. The wings generally haven’t made overtaking stupidly easy, which would have undermined the credibility of the racing. But nor is overtaking as ridiculously difficult as it too often was without them.

Together, the tires, the wings and the electric power booster that many teams use have all combined to give F1 the extra oomph it so badly needed.

Which is good because Pirelli could have switched to a more conservative approach if the gamble it took with the tires had backfired. Thankfully, it didn’t.

“We always had a plan B,” Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said in a telephone interview. “We could have run in very quickly with tires that lasted the whole race. We prepared ourselves for all eventualities. ... If we felt that the public didn’t buy into it, or the sport didn’t buy into it, and it wasn’t working, we

could have just gone back to what had been termed before as ‘boring.’” The first tires Pirelli tested preseason were so durable they could have lasted for three races; “we were too conservative by far,” Hembery added.

The teams and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone wanted tires that would require about 2 or 3 pit stops per race.

That required tire compounds that would wear neither too quickly nor too slowly, and “it took us a lot of time to understand how to do that,” he said.

“It would have been far easier from our point of view to have made something that just lasted the weekend,” for the whole Grand Prix, he said.

Hembery promises more of the same next season, with “2-3 pit stops average,” and only modest tweaks to the tires. One of those is to encourage teams to make more use of Pirelli’s somewhat harder “medium” compound tire.

At the moment, cars running those more durable tires can expect to be about 1-1.2 seconds slower than cars with the less durable but faster “soft” tires, he said. So that, in layman’s terms,

is roughly a choice between sprinting for a short distance or running a little slower but over a greater distance.

Hembery wants to close that gap to 0.7-0.8 seconds, so cars on the harder tires aren’t penalized so much for using them. The hope is that will give teams a greater variety of viable tire strategies to play with. Pirelli tested tires for next season last week in Spain. “The idea is to close the gap, maybe, some of the gaps, in performance,” he said.

Vettel’s audacious overtake of Fernando Alonso at the Italian Grand Prix in September, in itself, proved him to be a worthy champion. With two tires on the grass, Vettel was brave, decisive, quick and error-free - everything you want the world’s best driver to be.

But Pirelli should take a bow, too.

Hembery says they’ve been getting fan mail. Deservedly so.

“I get people randomly coming up to me and just saying, ‘Brilliant, well done, thank you, I’m finally watching Formula One again,’” he said. “That, certainly, in my motorsport career, has never happened before. That is gratifying.”—AP

Roddick aced out of China Open BEIJING: Andy Roddick was sent packing in his opening match at the ATP-WTA China Open yesterday by South African Kevin Anderson as French second seed Gael Monfils was forced out of the tournament with a knee injury.

Roddick, the 2008 winner and seeded sixth, fell 6-4, 7-5 as Anderson blasted

BEIJING: South Africa’s Kevin Anderson prepares to serve the ball to American Andy Roddick during a men’s singles tennis match of the China Open. —AP down his eighth ace on his second match point. The loss was a huge blow for the American, whose sole title this season came in Memphis, after winning both of his previous matches against 31st-ranked Anderson.

“I had lots of break points in the first set and I broke twice in the second,” said a disappointed Roddick. “If I break twice and don’t win a set, that says my serve isn’t holding up.”

Eighth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov also made an early exit as he fell 6-1, 1-6, 6-0 to Italian Flavio Cipolla in a topsy-turvy clash, as Monfils withdrew from the tournament and next week’s Shanghai Masters with a

knee injury. Croatia’s former top 10 regular Marin Cilic, now 25th in the world, defeated China’s Wu Di 6-2, 6-0, while Spain’s Feliciano Lopez put out Turk Marsel Ilhan 62, 7-6 (8/6).

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco beat Michael Llodra of France 6-2, 6-4. Florian Mayer of Germany, playing his first match since winning the clay Bucharest title eight days ago, made a successful change to hard court, taking out Spaniard Albert Ramos 6-2, 6-4.

Women’s holder Caroline Wozniacki survived a tough challenge to begin her title defence, with the top seed stretched to the limit in a 3-6, 6-0, 7-5 win over Lucie Hradecka. “It wasn’t a pretty match, but I’m through,” said the world number one.

“That’s what’s most important.” Beijing has a special place for the Dane, winner of six titles this season, who first took over the top ranking in the Chinese capital a year ago. “It’s been a year now that I’m number one, it’s an amazing feeling. It’s something I’ve always practised for and tried to achieve. Over the last few tournaments of the season, I want to finish off well.”

Wary of the first-round upset of French Open winner Li Na of China, Wozniacki made sure she came through against her 49th-ranked opponent, but not before dropping the first set.

However, the 21-year-old belatedly came good, ignoring nine aces from her opponent, who also sent over seven double-faults. Wozniacki broke six times on her way to victory and a meeting with Australian Jarmila Gajdosova.

In other first-round matches, Zheng Jie earned a home win as she beat Alberta Brianti 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, while Ana Ivanovic upset 16th-seeded two-time winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-3.

Russian Maria Kirilenko, the 2005 winner, beat German Julia Goerges 7-6 (11/9), 6-3. Austrian Tamira Paszek booked the first of the third-round places with her defeat of Czech Petra Cetkovska 1-6, 6-4, 62. Seventh seed and former Roland Garros champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy went out to Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 62, 6-2.—AFP

Wozniacki rallies to advance in Beijing BEIJING: World number one Caroline Wozniacki saw off a tenacious challenge from Lucie Hradecka to open the defense of her China Open title with a 3-6 6-0 7-5 first round victory yesterday. The top seeded Dane struggled to find her rhythm against the powerful Czech’s serve in the first set but asserted her superior ranking in the second, only to be forced into fight for survival in a nail-biting decider against the world number 49. “It wasn’t a pretty match, but I’m through,” the relieved Dane told reporters. “She’s a player that doesn’t give you any rhythm. She’s serving at 200 kilometers per hour, so when it’s on, it’s difficult. “But in the second set, her first serve percentage dropped, and that made it easier for me to start the rallies,” she added.

The 21-year-old, who was crowned world number one at this event a year ago but has struggled for form in recent tournaments, said maintaining her top ranking was paramount. “If you’ve been number one pretty much the whole year, you want to finish there as well. It would be a little bit bitter to lose it in the last week of the season,” she added. “So definitely, I just give it my all in the last few tournaments.”

Outgunned in the first set, the tournament was in danger of suffering another upset before Wozniacki rallied to turn the match around against her 26-year-old opponent.

Local favorite Li Na’s shock first round loss on Sunday and the withdrawal of several top stars, including world number two Maria Sharapova, had put a damper on the competition, but organizers will be relieved to see Wozniacki still in the draw. In another result, Austria’s Tamira Paszek became the first woman to reach the third round when she rallied past Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 1-6 6-4 6-2. In the men’s draw, Germany’s Florian Mayer beat

Albert Ramos 6-2 6-4 and Croat Marin Cilic trounced China’s Wu Di 6-2 6-0. Defending men’s champion and world number one Novak Djokovic pulled out two days before the start of the tournament because of a back injury.— Reuters

PARIS: This July 10, 2011 file photo shows competitors swimming in the Seine River during the Paris Triathlon competition in Paris. USA Triathlon is creating a task force to determine if anything more can be done to prevent competitor deaths after five triathletes died in races over the last two months.—AP

Deaths in recent racesp rompt USA Triathlon review NEW YORK: USA Triathlon is creating a task force to determine if anything more can be done to prevent deaths such as those that occurred at recent races in New York City, Washington, DC, and Louisville, Ky. An independent panel of three physicians and two certified race directors will review the cases and see if there are common factors among them, USA Triathlon Rob Urbach told The Associated Press. The panel’s findings will then be presented to a larger review committee of medical professionals and industry personnel to determine what, if any, actions should be taken. The move comes after five triathletes died following US races over the last two months.

Two competitors, a 64-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman, died in August during the swim portion of the Nautica New York City Triathlon. Later that month, a 46-year-old man died during the swim leg of the Ironman Louisville triathlon and a 58-year-old professor at Bates College in Maine died after having a problem in the water during a triathlon in that state. Earlier this month, a 59-year-old man died during the bike portion of the Nation’s Triathlon in Washington.

“We felt in all cases we’ve adhered to best practices,” Urbach said. “At this point, I’m being advised there’s nothing (additional) that can be done. But as a responsible governing body, we’re taking a look through this.”

There is no deadline, Urbach said. But one task force member, Dr. Lawrence Creswell, said the group hopes to begin its research in October and wrap up by the end of the year. A progress update will be given at USA Triathlon’s race director symposium in January in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“I thought the events were unsettling,” said Creswell, a heart surgeon, assistant professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and an avid triathlete. “I think that the participants in triathlons would take some comfort in knowing that USA Triathlon was interested in the problems, interested in understanding the problem better and trying to see if there’s anything that

can be done to limit participants’ risk. I think it could be something positive with a broader impact.” Deaths during triathlons remain rare, and as more people participate there is bound to be a corresponding increase in the number of fatalities. According to research published last year in The Journal of American Medicine, there were 14 deaths among the almost 960,000 participants in US triathlons between 2006 and mid-September 2008, a rate of 1.5 deaths per 100,000 participants. Of the 14 deaths, however, all but one occurred in the swim portion.

“The results were a surprise to me,” said Dr. Kevin Harris, a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute and lead author of the JAMA article. “We saw a cluster of events in the triathlon, but we didn’t realize before getting into the details that the vast majority were going to be during the swim portion.”

Some have blamed triathlon’s boom in popularity for the disparity in when deaths occur. First made famous by the Ironman, weekend warriors have flocked to the shorter sprint (typically a half-mile swim, 15.5-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run) and Olympic (.93-mile swim, 24.8-mile bike ride and 6.2-mile run) distances. Triathlon, Urbach said, is now the fastest-growing adult participation sport in the world.

According to a study by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 1.978 million people in the United States did a triathlon last year, up almost 64 percent from the previous year and a 148 percent increase since 2007.

But it is hard, particularly for first-time triathletes, to replicate the race-day experience of the swim during training. Most swim training is done in a pool, not open water, and some people panic when they find themselves in a cold lake, river or ocean with poor visibility and waves, surrounded by other competitors thrashing around.

Yet the larger, more serious problem, Creswell and Harris said, is logistics. It is obvious almost immediately when someone collapses or experiences problems while running or biking, and medical attention - even if that’s just a spec-

tator administering CPR - is usually available within seconds.

In the water, despite having lifeguards and water safety personnel nearby in boats or kayaks, it is tough to see someone struggling among all the splashing bodies, which look virtually identical in their wetsuits and race-issued swim caps. When a person in distress is spotted, it takes additional precious seconds to get that person to shore, where there are defibrillators and ambulances. “It’s hard to tend to them,” Creswell said. “There are a few survivors when people have sudden cardiac death at a marathon or a running event. ... But it’s very hard in the water portion of a triathlon. I think that’s the challenge.”

Harris and his group suggested setting proficiency standards for participants, particularly for swimming, though Harris acknowledged that would be tough to implement. A full physical before a race would uncover underlying heart conditions or other medical issues, but even that provides no guarantee.

The first year Bill Burnett was a race director, a 38-year-old man had a fatal heart attack during the swim portion of one of his triathlons. The man had been told by a doctor two weeks earlier that he was good to go.

“He did what he was supposed to do,” said Burnett, whose Streamline Events company produces several multisport events in New England.

“Now I often wonder, should there be some type of question you ask before you do a triathlon?

The debate is still out there. I’m not so sure about that. You have to trust that when someone is going to do that, that they’re in good shape.”

There are already strict standards for safety, aid stations and medical personnel at any USA Triathlon-certified race, and they are reviewed on a regular basis. But after the recent deaths, Urbach said he felt the federation had to go even further to ensure everything was being done to protect competitors. “If we find, in fact, something different or additional we could be doing,” Urbach said, “we will.”—AP

Fish and Stepanek cruise through at Japan Open

BEIJING: Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki reacts during a women’s singles tennis match against Czech Republic’s Lucie Hradecka at the China Open. —AP

TOKYO: Fourth-seeded Mardy Fish of the United States defeated fellow American Ryan Harrison 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in their firstround match at the Japan Open yesterday.

Fish relied on his serve and volley game to outlast his compatriot in a battle that took 2 hours, 44 minutes at Ariake Colosseum.

Harrison put up a valiant fight, displaying a blistering forehand throughout the match, but leading 5-4 in the final set he saw Fish win his service game to level, then was broken in the next game.

Fish closed out the match on serve with a forehand winner after Harrison had staved off two match points. Fish prevailed despite committing a high number of unforced errors in the contest. “It was a close match,” Fish said. “It could have gone either way. He played well.” Fish was impressed by his 19-year-old opponent, who had to qualify for the main draw.

“He’s a strong player and I think he will be

a top player in the future,” he said. Earlier, seventh-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic beat Somdev Devvarman of India 6-4, 6-3 in their first-round match.

Stepanek and Devvarman exchanged breaks in the first set before Stepanek broke the Indian again in the 10th game to take the set.

Devvarman broke Stepanek in the opening game of the second set and moved out to a 3-1 lead, but Stepanek then reeled off five straight games to take the match in 1 hour, 32 minutes. Qualifier Matthew Ebden of Australia downed Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4 in the day’s other first-round match. Top seed Rafael Nadal, the defending champion in the $1.2 million event, will take on wild card Go Soeda of Japan in his first-round match today. Second seed Andy Murray of Great Britain will meet Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus also today.—AP

TOKYO: American Mardy Fish returns the ball to his compatriot Ryan Harrison during their first round of the Japan Open tennis tournament. —AP

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

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Real crush Espanyol 4-0 Higuainscores hat-trick

TURIN: Juventus’ Claudio Marchisio celebrates after scoring during a Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Juventus. —AP

Juve, Udinese stay top CagliariandPalermolurkwithintent ROME: A late brace from Claudio Marchisio sent Juventus back alongside Udinese at the top of Serie A after deservedly defeating champions AC Milan 2-0 at their atmospheric new arena on Sunday. The Italy midfielder scored his first with a lucky ricochet with three minutes to go after playing a one-two with Mirko Vucinic before making the game safe in injury time, firing a 25-metre volley through goalkeeper Christian Abbiati’s legs.

“We deserved to score a long time before,” Juve coach Antonio Conte told Italy’s Sky Sports TV. “Our intensity and approach were brilliant. We dominated possession, which was very important against a side like Milan, but the best thing that came from tonight was the way we played as a team.” The once mighty Turin side, seventh the last two terms, are unbeaten under new boss Conte with three wins and two draws. “I’m not looking too far ahead,” added the ex-Juve player.

“The only promise I will give is to make the team competitive because Juve deserve to be challenging among the best.”

Earlier on Sunday, Udinese beat Bologna 2-0, while 2-0 victories for Cagliari and Palermo over Lecce and Siena helped the island teams join Napoli within a point of the leaders. A Sebastian Giovinco brace helped Parma beat Genoa 3-1 and Lazio grabbed the three points at Fiorentina thanks to a late Miloslav Klose header in a 2-1 win. Encouraged by a noisy crowd, Juventus edged a fast-paced opening quarter with ex-Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo coming closest with two trademark long-range swervers that Abbiati had to watch closely.

Juve’s Vucinic, playing as the lone striker in Conte’s 4-5-1 formation, came close to giving the home side the lead with two sublime pieces of skill just after the half hour mark. First, on 33 minutes, the Montenegrin had Abbiati scrambling to his left to save after turning sharply in the box and fizzing a right-foot shot towards the corner.

Then, three minutes later, the ex-AS Roma man brought the Turin crowd to their feet as he killed the ball 20 meters out and bent a dipping shot against the underside of the Milan bar. With the champions struggling to contain the inspired forward, Vucinic’s next trick was to shift

the ball onto his favored right foot and fire a raking drive just wide of the upright as Juve pressed for the all-important first goal. Gianluigi Buffon came to Juve’s rescue six minutes after the restart, stretching out his giant hand to turn aside Boateng’s angled volley as a more aggressive Milan attempted to up the pace. Vucinic threatened again on 67 minutes after latching onto a misplaced Mark van Bommel backpass but the lightning fast Thiago Silva recovered to save the Dutchman’s blushes.

Juventus continued to dominate and Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal saw two long-range efforts flash wide as the pace slowed with a quarter of an hour to go. On 80 minutes Vucinic thought he had won it but could only hold his head in his hands as his shot from just outside the box bounced the wrong side of the post. But the Bianconeri’s luck changed dramatically in the final stages as Marchisio, running on to Vucinic’s pass, deflected Daniele Bonera’s clearance into the net on 87 minutes.

With seconds remaining Milan’s Kevin Prince Boateng, who had already been booked for dangerous play, was giving his marching orders for catching Giorgio Chiellini with his hand before Marchisio compounded the champions’ misery. “This was our worst performance of the year,” Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “We didn’t play at the right rhythm and gave the ball away too much. We played badly both in defense and attack. “We have to improve and fortunately there’s now a break next week that will help us regroup.”

Goals from Mehdi Benatia and Antonio Di Natale sealed Udinese’s win. Moroccan defender Benatia opened the scoring with a rare goal on 29 minutes, poking the ball home from a corner before striker Di Natale settled the contest with a 72ndminute penalty to give Udinese 11 points from five games.

Promoted Novara and Catania played out a six-goal thriller in the early kick off with Alejandro Gomez equalising for the Sicilians in injury time after second-half goals from two ex-Catania players Takayuki Morimoto and Jeda had looked like giving the hosts the win. In Saturday’s games, Napoli defeated Inter Milan 3-0 at the San Siro while Roma recorded their second straight victory, beating Atalanta 3-1. — Reuters

Mohamed Bin Hammam

CAS rejects Bin Hammam bid to reclaim AFC presidency DOHA: Mohamed Bin Hammam has failed in his bid to be reinstated as head of Asian soccer by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said yesterday. The 62-year-old Qatari is serving a lifetime ban from soccer after being accused by FIFA of bribery during his failed bid to become the world governing body’s president in May. As the most senior AFC member, China’s Zhang Jilong assumed the roles of acting head and FIFA executive committee member after the ban. Bin Hammam was attempting to overturn that decision and be reinstated to both roles in the interim ahead of his CAS hearing into the FIFA ban and the AFC decision.

Bin Hammam had ran against FIFA president Sepp Blatter but withdrew from the race on May 29 after being accused of handing $40,000 bribes in brown envelopes as a sweetener to Caribbean soccer officials to secure their vote. Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term three days later. Bin Hammam, who

was re-elected unopposed for a third and final term as AFC head in January, has continually said he was innocent and is taking his case to CAS after having his appeal against the decision rejected by FIFA last month.

The Qatari has been heavily critical of FIFA since the decision in May. He has appeared to flout FIFA rules on the ban from all soccer by using AFC headed paper and referred to himself as the AFC president when making public a number of statements on his blog.

The AFC said they welcomed the decision by CAS to reject the appeal to have Zhang removed. “AFC has strictly followed the AFC Statutes at all times in relation to Jilong’s designation as AFC Acting President and nomination to the FIFA Executive Committee,” the statement read yesterday. “Hence, AFC welcomes the CAS decision on provisional measures and is confident of its prospects of success at the CAS hearing on the merits of the appeal.” — Reuters

MADRID: Gonzalo Higuain scored a hattrick as Real Madrid crushed Espanyol 4-0 away, moving them to within a point of new La Liga leaders Barcelona who won 1-0 at Sporting Gijon on Sunday. The Argentina striker completed his treble in the 89th minute, shor tly af ter substitute Jose Callejon had made it 3-0. Champions Barca were 1-0 victors at bottom club Sporting where a 12th-minute strike from Adriano Correia was enough to earn them their first away success in the league this season.

Barca have 14 points from six games and are ahead of second-placed Levante on goal difference, after one of the season’s surprise early form teams beat another, Real Betis, 10 away.

Juanlu’s volley went into the net off the legs of Betis goalkeeper Casto Espinosa in the 33rd minute and from there on their rugged defense held firm to maintain their unbeaten star t to the campaign. The Valencia-based club, who claimed the scalp of Real two weeks ago, were one point ahead of Jose Mourinho’s men in third, and Malaga and Valencia who both won on Saturday. “I would like to have one more point, but one point is nothing really,” Real coach Jose Mourinho told reporters. “The team that deserve all the attention (at the top) are Levante. “They are the smallest, they don’t get the same attention and they deserve it.”

Sevilla went sixth with 12 points, ahead of their city rivals Betis on goal difference, after a 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid where goalkeepers Javi Varas and Thibaut Courtois both shone. Real’s lightning-quick counterattacks sank a spirited Espanyol in Barcelona with Cristiano Ronaldo laying on the first for Higuain after 17 minutes. The Argentine, star ting in place of the injured K arim Benzema, lashed his second into the far top corner in the 66th and Callejon sealed the win from Ronaldo’s lay-off in the 82nd.

The youngster apologized to home fans who had idolized him over the previous three seasons before he returned to the Bernanbeu during the summer, and Higuain grabbed a late fourth. “I had to work very

hard to get back to playing again,” Higuain told Spanish television, referring to the back injury that made him miss much of last season. “I recovered as best I could and I’m now delighted to have had a game like this.”

Barca’s Adriano scored after Xavi’s shot came back off the post, but the visitors were not at their best and a third successive away draw was always a possibility in the face of a combative hosts. “It was hard work but it

away win. Centre back Martinez let fly from over 50 metres out and caught Gorka Iraizoz off his line, the visiting keeper perhaps distracted after one of his defenders had just been carried off on a stretcher.

Spain striker Llorente had put Bilbao ahead, turning in the area to score in the 34th minute, before Martinez levelled just past the hour mark in a sun-soaked San Sebastian. Llorente then struck a superb vol-

MADRID: Real Madrid’s head coach Jose Mourinho from Portugal (right) and Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal pose with their trophies during an award ceremony to highlight their achievements in the Spanish League. Ronaldo is named Player of the Year and Mourinho as Coach of the Year by Marca newspaper. —AP was worth it,” Adriano told reporters. “The points are worth their weight in gold.” In the midday k ickoff, Real Sociedad’s Inigo Martinez scored from inside his own half in the Basque derby, but Fernando Llorente’s brace made sure Athletic Bilbao earned a 2-1

ley to restore Bilbao’s advantage in the 71st minute and earn under-pressure Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa a first league win this season. Bilbao climbed out of the bottom three to five points from six games, two behind their hosts in ninth. — Reuters

PSG beat Lyon to claim lead PARIS: Javier Pastore’s cheeky second-half goal helped Paris St Germain to a 2-0 win over rivals Olympique Lyon and sent the bigspending hosts three points clear in Ligue 1 on Sunday. The two sides had been locked together at the top before kick-off but Argentine playmaker Pastore, French football’s most expensive signing, continued his fine form by embarrassing Hugo Lloris at his near post following a powerful run.

Lyon’s Bafetimbi Gomis missed a great chance when his unmarked header drifted wide but PSG, who should have had a

penalty in the first half, made sure of the win in stoppage time through Christophe Jallet. “Both sides played well,” Lyon coach Remi Garde, without five firstteam players, told a news conference. “Right now PSG are ahead of us but there are still 30-odd games to go.” Champions Lille are just a point behind Lyon after ending a run of five successive draws in all competitions with a comfortable 2-0 win over Stade Rennes, whom they leapfrogged up into fifth.

Moussa Sow, Ligue One’s top scorer last season, settled home nerves with a seventh-minute strike following good play from

Flamengo spoil Fabiano’s Sao Paulo return RIO DE JANEIRO: Striker Luis Fabiano’s return from a six-month injury layoff was not enough to help Sao Paulo to victory in the Brazilian championship as they lost 2-1 to Flamengo on Sunday.

The defeat stopped third-placed Sao Paulo from splitting top two Vasco da Gama and Corinthians, who draw 2-2.

Six points separate the top six in the tightest title race for years. Vasco, still under caretaker coach Cristovao Borges since Ricardo Gomes’s stroke last month, lead the way on 50 with Corinthians two points behind. Sao Paulo are on 46, Botafogo 45 after a 2-0 defeat at Atletico Goianiense and champions Fluminense and Flamengo both a point further back. More than 64,000 fans packed the Morumbi in Sao Paulo to welcome back Fabiano, who signed from Sevilla in March but has needed two knee operations.

“It was Luis Fabiano’s party, but it was good to spoil the party because we needed these three points,” Flamengo captain Ronaldinho told reporters after their second successive victory following a bleak run of 10 matches without a win.

Fabiano, who previously played for Sao Paulo from 2001 to 2004, was denied an opening goal by a superb save from Flamengo goalkeeper Felipe. Teenage Brazil forward Lucas left Sao Paulo a man short from the 55th minute when he was sent off for a second booking and Flamengo took advantage by snatching the lead with a Thiago Neves header 10 minutes later.

Flamengo also had a player dismissed when midfielder Willians was shown his second yellow card and Sao Paulo profited with a 79th minute equalizer from striker Dagoberto. However, midfielder Renato stunned the Sao Paulo fans six minutes from time when his low shot took a deflection off a defender and wrong-footed goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni.

Fluminense beat Santos 3-2 in a thriller on Saturday with two goals coming in the dying minutes of the match. Colombian striker Wason Renteria appeared to have snatched a draw for Santos in the 89th minute but defender Marcio Rosario headed the winner from a corner in stoppage time. — Reuters

England’s Joe Cole and Florent Balmont flicked in Eden Hazard’s free kick just after the half hour mark. Last term’s runners-up Olympique Marseille, in good form in the Champions League but floundering in Ligue 1, could only muster a 1-1 at home with Stade Brest to lie 13th after nine games. Andre Ayew, almost as important for Didier Deschamps’ side as his famous father Abedi Pele was for Ghana, grabbed the 19th-minute equaliser at the Stade Velodrome following a wellworked move.

Romain Poyet had given Brest an early lead thanks to a mistake

from home keeper Steve Mandanda and the visitors managed to frustrate Marseille throughout a disjointed game.

“We lacked the freshness to change rhythm and to put them under pressure a bit more, especially in the second half,” Deschamps said.

“The situation is complicated. I hope nothing happens to my players during international week.”

Montpellier and Toulouse failed to seize top spot on Saturday after a 2-2 draw at Girondins Bordeaux and 3-0 loss at Sochaux respectively, meaning they stay on 17 points with Lyon. — Reuters

Fan shot ahead of Argentina derby BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s volatile Avellaneda derby between Racing Club and Independiente exploded on Sunday when a fan was shot during fighting between rival supporters. The shooting took place in the street three hours before the start of the high-risk match, for which some 1,200 police officers were on duty. La Nacion reported on its website (www.lanacion.com.ar) that the fan had been taken to hospital but his life was not in danger. The match ended 1-1. Boca Juniors continued their march towards the league title with a 1-0 win over Tigre at the Bombonera thanks to an own goal from defender Diego Castano, who turned the ball into his

own net in the 15th minute. With the Apertura championship just past the halfway mark, Boca are five points clear of promoted Atletico Rafaela, who beat Lanus 2-1 at home on Saturday, and six in front of Racing. “It’s been a long time since the Boca people were (as happy as) this,” playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme told repor ters after the home side extended their unbeaten run to 20 matches. “We scored early and then controlled the second half better than the first.”

Boca, who last won the league title in the 2008 Apertura, have conceded only two goals and taken 24 points in their 10 matches so far. — Reuters

BUENOS AIRES: Boca Juniors’ Roman Riquelme eyes the ball during an Argentine league soccer match against Tigre. —AP

Ponor’s return a boost for Romania

17

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Wozniacki rallies to advance in Beijing

18

Early damage done, time for World Cup knockout Page 16 HOUSTON: Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (23) holds off Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jason Worilds (93) in the second quarter of an NFL football game. —AP

Lions stun Cowboys GREEN BAY: Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Lloyd (84) makes a catch against Green Bay Packers strong safety Charlie Peprah (26) during the first half of an NFL football game. —AP

ARLINGTON: Matthew Stafford saw his defense start wiping out a 24-point deficit with interceptions returned for touchdowns midway through the third quarter, then he and Calvin Johnson took over from there, leading the Detroit Lions to a stunning 34-30 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

A week after turning a 20-point halftime deficit into an overtime win, the Lions provided further proof they’re a legitimate contender this season. Detroit is 4-0 and has won an NFL-best eight straight games. This also was its franchise-record fifth straight road win, avenging a loss here last November that had been its NFL-record 26th straight road loss. Tony Romo and the Cowboys (2-2) continued to show there’s no lead and no deficit too big for them. They blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead for the first time in franchise history in the opener.

Packers 49, Broncos 23 At Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers threw for a career-high 408 yards, tied a personal best with four touchdown passes and ran for two more scores and Green Bay remained unbeaten. Charles Woodson ran an interception back for a touchdown for the Packers (4-0), who join resurgent NFC North rivals Detroit as the only undefeated teams left in the NFL. Eric Decker caught a pair of touchdowns from Kyle Orton for Denver (1-3). Orton threw for 273 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. Backup Tim Tebow made a brief and uneventful appearance at quarterback for the Broncos early, but coach John Fox chose not to give Tebow more work when the game got out of control in the fourth quarter.

Bengals 23, Bills 20 In Cincinnati, Rookie quarterback Andy Dalton shook off a horrid first half and led his first comeback victory, culminating in Mike Nugent’s 43-yard field goal as time ran out against previously unbeaten Buffalo.

The Bills (3-1) came in as the AFC’s last perfect team after pulling off historic comebacks. This time, they couldn’t hold a lead. Dalton threw a touchdown pass and ran 3 yards on a draw play, tying it with 4:09 to go. He scrambled for a first down on the winning drive - a replay overturn gave him the needed ground - and Nugent ended it with his third field goal in front of the smallest crowd of Paul Brown Stadium’s history. The Bengals (2-2) overcame a 17-3 halftime deficit to end a 10-game losing streak against Buffalo.

49ers 24, Eagles 23 In Philadelphia, when Alex Smith began to air it out, he outdid Michael Vick and Philadelphia. Chucking its conservative approach in the second half, the 49ers surged back from a 20-point hole for the victory.

Vick wasn’t hampered by his bruised right hand, throwing for a career-high 416 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 75 yards. But Philly’s defense fell apart in the final 30 minutes, and Frank Gore capped a 77-yard drive with a 12-yard TD run with 3 minutes remaining. Former Eagles kicker David Akers, who left for San Francisco as a free agent this summer, kicked the decisive extra point. His replacement, rookie Alex Henery, missed from 39 and 33 yards in the final period.

Philadelphia (1-3) has been outscored 36-0 in the fourth quarter of its last three games, all losses. The 49ers (3-1) are on top of the NFC West in Jim Harbaugh’s rookie season as coach.

Texans 17, Steelers 10 In Houston, Arian Foster rushed for 155 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter as Houston overcame an injury to All-Pro Andre Johnson for the win., Johnson left in the second quarter with a

right hamstring injury and did not return though he was back on the sideline late to watch Houston (3-1) finish off the injury-plagued Steelers (2-2).

Ben Roethlisberger was under pressure all day and was sacked five times behind an offensive line missing two regular starters. The quarterback injured his left leg late in the game and left the stadium wearing a walking boot. The Steelers lost running back Rashard Mendenhall (hamstring), linebacker James Harrison (eye) and defensive end Aaron Smith (foot) during the game. Foster, the 2010 NFL rushing champion, finally looked healthy after weeks of nursing a left hamstring strain.

Patriots 31, Raiders 19 In Oakland, Tom Brady bounced back from a fourinterception performance by throwing for 226 yards, two touchdowns and committing no turnovers.

Wes Welker caught nine passes for 158 yards and a score, BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Stevan Ridley adding rushing touchdowns and the Patriots (3-1) played a mostly mistake-free game after last week’s surprising loss in Buffalo. This time the interception that changed the game was made by New England instead of thrown

by Brady. Patrick Chung got a gift-wrapped pick in the end zone late in the first half when Jason Campbell inexplicably threw the ball right to the safety with no receiver in the area for the Raiders (2-2).

Ravens 34, Jets 17 In Baltimore, Baltimore scored three touchdowns on defense, all off turnovers by New York quarterback Mark Sanchez, and cruised to a victory in a bizarre game that featured an NFL-record five returns for scores.

Baltimore’s three touchdowns on defense were the most in franchise history. Jameel McClain took a fumble

by Sanchez 6 yards for a score on New York’s first offensive play, Jarret Johnson scored on a 26-yard fumble return and Lardarius Webb put the Ravens up 34-17 in the third quarter by taking an interception 73 yards into the end zone. It was a performance that would have made Rex Ryan proud - if he was still Baltimore’s defensive coordinator. Unfortunately for Ryan, he is now New York’s head coach. The Ravens also held the Jets to 150 yards and seven first downs in taking over sole possession of first place in the AFC North. New York (2-2) has lost seven straight to the Ravens (3-1), the past two with Ryan on the Jets sideline. New York’s touchdowns came on a 107-yard kickoff return by Joe McKnight and a 35yard interception return by David Harris.

Saints 23, Jaguars 10 In Jacksonville, Drew Brees threw for 351 yards and a touchdown, Darren Sproles added 188 all-purpose yards and New Orleans improved to 3-1.

The Saints scored TDs on their first two possessions and looked well on their way to reaching 30 points for the fourth consecutive week. But Brees threw two interceptions, and the Saints were forced to settle for three field goals in the second half. It didn’t matter against the Jaguars (1-3), who have scored 39 points this season.

They have two touchdowns in rookie Blaine Gabbert’s two starts. Gabbert completed 16 of 42 passes for 196 yards, with a touchdown and an interception.

Bears 34, Panthers 29 In Chicago, Devin Hester set an NFL record with his 11th punt return for a touchdown, Matt Forte ran for a career-high 205 yards for Chicago (2-2).

Hester had earlier set up a TD run by Forte with a 73yard kickoff return before he ran back a punt 69 yards in the second quarter to move ahead of Eric Metcalf on the all-time list. He performed three somersaults in the end zone with the lead at 24-10, but the celebration was a little early. The Panthers cut the lead to four points at halftime and had their chances to take the lead in the second half but came up short, spoiling coach Ron Rivera’s return to Soldier Field.

Rookie Cam Newton threw for 374 yards for the Panthers (1-3) and Steve Smith passed Muhsin Muhammad as the team’s leading receiver, finishing with 181 yards on eight catches. He now has 9,414 in his career.

Chargers 26, Dolphins 16 In San Diego, Philip Rivers threw for 307 yards and one touchdown, Mike Tolbert ran for another score and San Diego knocked out Miami quarterback Chad Henne.

Henne hurt his left shoulder at the end of a run on a broken play on the Dolphins’ second possession and didn’t return. Although backup Matt Moore led the Dolphins to the game’s first TD, Rivers’ passing eventually overpowered the Dolphins (0-4). Rivers threw a 55-yard TD pass to Vincent Jackson to tie the game at 7 late in the first quarter. Ryan Mathews’ 48-yard gain on a screen pass set up Tolbert’s 1-yard leap over the pile for a 20-10 lead for the Chargers (3-1) early in the third quarter.

Redskins 17, Rams 10 In St. Louis, Ryan Torain ran for 135 yards and a 20yard score, and Washington held off a late rally by winless St. Louis. The Redskins (3-1) dominated on defense and got two of their seven sacks late by Stephen Bowen and Brian Orakpo to knock the Rams (0-4) out of scoring position. James Laurinaitis’ interception and 15-yard return of an underthrown pass from Rex Grossman had given St. Louis the ball at the Washington 19 with about five minutes remaining.

Falcons 30, Seahawks 28 In Seattle, Matt Ryan threw for 291 yards, rookie Julio Jones caught 11 passes for 127 yards, and Atlanta held off a second-half rally. Ryan was brilliant in the first half.

He started out 13-for-15 and had a 1-yard touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez on Atlanta’s first possession.

Michael Turner also ran for TDs of 21 and 1 yards in the first half. Matt Bryant’s 50-yard field goal early in the third quarter gave Atlanta (2-2) a 27-7 lead. Tarvaris Jackson threw for three TDs, but the Seahawks (1-3) couldn’t complete the comeback, and Steven Hauschka missed a 61-yard field goal attempt with 13 seconds left.

Titans 31, Browns 13 In Cleveland, Matt Hasselbeck’s fresh start in Tennessee has his team off to an unexpected one. The 13-year veteran quarterback, who left Seattle as a free agent after a playoff-filled decade, threw three TD passes in the first half and safety Jordan Babineaux returned an interception 97 yards for a TD for their third straight win under first-year coach Mike Munchak.

Hasselbeck threw for 194 yards in the first half while helping the Titans (3-1) build a 21-6 lead. The 36-year-old finished 10 of 20 for 220 yards - 26 on two completions after halftime.

Giants 31, Cardinals 27 In Glendale, Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes in a 58-second span late in the game to rally New York.

The scoring passes of 2 yards to Jake Ballard with 3:37 to go and 29 yards to Hakeem Nicks with 2:39 left came after the Cardinals (1-3) seemingly had taken control of the game 27-17 on Beanie Wells’ third rushing touchdown of the game with 5:16 to go.

Manning completed 7 of 8 for 126 yards on the decisive drives as the Giants (3-1) won their third in a row. He finished 27 of 40 for 371 yards. Nicks caught 10 for 162 yards. Wells rushed for a career-best 138 yards. —AP

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Investors pin hopes on Q4 Page 26

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

A ‘great haircut’ to kick-start US growth

Al Shaya & Al Sagar launches new store ‘TYRE PLUS’ Page 22

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TAIPEI: Investors look at a huge stock display panel at a securities trading house in Taipei yesterday. Taiwan’s weighted index dived 211.41 points, or 2.93 percent, to 7,013.97 as Asian markets plummet on renewed Greece fears. —AFP

Shares suffer fresh panic Greek deficit target miss haunts shares FRANKFURT: Greece’s admission that it will miss its deficit targets for this year and next hit European shares yesterday, with banking stocks among the worst performers. While a Greek debt default is getting closer, talks continue among euro zone finance ministers on the next steps to try to resolve the currency area’s sovereign debt crisis.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 1.7 percent at 907.71 points by 1100 GMT, “The market has simply run out of patience and confidence that politicians and central bankers will be able to put an end to the European financial crisis any time soon,” said Markus Huber, head of German sales trad-

ing at ETX Capital. “Due to the prevailing very high level of negativity and uncertainties, consumers and companies become a lot more cautious regarding spending and expanding, which in the end might not only lower growth substantially for the next quarters to come but may also push major economies back into recession.”

Highlighting the problem was the cost to insure German debt against default, which rose to a record high of 118 basis points. “They (the Germans) are going to end up paying for the rest of Europe, if it ends badly,” said a trader in London. “It seems to be going that way.”

The STOXX Europe 600 Banks index was down

2.8 percent, underperforming the FTSEurofirst 300. The banking sector has lost a third in value this year.

The biggest faller was financial services group Dexia , whose shares were down 9.8 percent. Belgian and French finance ministers were due to meet yesterday to discuss ways to shore up the bank’s balance sheet. Credit agency Moody’s announced it was reviewing its ratings of the Franco-Belgian financial group for possible downgrade on concerns about its liquidity position. Other big decliners in the banking sector were BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and Societe Generale, down between 8 and 5 percent respectively. Alcatel

Lucent shares were down 8.5 percent, which weighed on a 2.4 percent weaker STOXX Europe 600 Technology index.

Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey said he expected revenues and margins to come under pressure due to economic headwinds.

“Our checks and some early public statements by operators suggest that spending in second half year is at risk of further disappointment,” he said. Automakers , among the cyclical sectors whose performance is highly correlated with economic growth, fell 4 percent, with BMW down 6.7 percent. The VDAX-NEW volatility index , Europe’s main investor fear gauge, was up 5.3 percent hovering below a

UK freezes tax

Greece’s economy stuck in recession Debt seen climbing to 172.7% of GDP ATHENS: The Greek economy will remain stuck in recession next year, underlining the challenge the country faces in creating enough growth to claw its way out of a debt crisis shaking the euro, Greek budget figures showed yesterday. Gross domestic product (GDP) is seen contracting by 2.5 percent next year from a 5.5 percent slump in 2011, according to the country’s 2012 budget draft, which was submitted to parliament after agreement with international inspectors.

Those numbers are in line with recent forecasts by the IMF, but much worse than predictions used in July to calculate a second, 109 billion euro rescue package which anticipated 0.6 percent growth in 2012, putting an end to three consecutive years of recession. Greece’s Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the budget draft marked a key transition from deficits to surpluses, excluding the country’s huge debt service costs. “The 2012 budget completes an intense and difficult effort of fiscal adjustment, reaching a primary surplus of 3.2 billion euros in 2012 from a primary deficit of 24 billion in 2009,” he said in a statement. However, if Greece’s international lenders, also known as the “troika”, conclude in a report to be issued this month that recession will continue to be worse than predicted, EU officials have suggested that banks that agreed in July to write off 21 percent of the value of their Greek debt holdings may be forced to take deeper losses. The country ’s debt is expected to rise to nearly 173 percent of GDP next year from about 162 percent in 2011, the budget draft said. Greek growth is a key factor in determining whether this debt is viable or whether the country will have to default.

Greece late on Sunday admitted it would miss its budget targets for this year and decided on fresh austerity measure to meet a new, revised target for 2012. The budget plan predicts a deficit of 8.5 percent of gross domestic product for 2011, well off the 7.6 percent target. Tough measures, including a new property tax and public sector firings aim at narrowing the budget gap to 6.8 percent of GDP in 2012, a new target, slightly higher than a previous 6.5 percent goal agreed with the inspectors in July, due to a deeper recession. Greece’s EU/IMF inspectors are still combing through the debt-laden country’s books and have not yet agreed to pay out a lifeline bailout tranche of 8 billion euros under its ongoing 110 billion euro rescue plan, agreed last year. Greece’s deputy economy minister Pantelis Oikonomou said yesterday that talks with the troika had essentially concluded. But sources with direct knowledge of the talks dismissed the statement, saying they were far from over.

“The talks are not over,” one official with direct knowledge of the talks told Reuters.

The inspection team was still examining Greece’s budget numbers and other reforms required for the disbursement of the aid. Oikonomou had earlier said that Greece had convinced its lenders the fiscal slippage was due to a deeper than expected recession and that the troika would start drafting its report on Wednesday, after two more visits at the countr y ’s General Accounting Office to cross-check some numbers. “I believe we have essentially concluded,” Oikonomou told television station Mega. “To the extend that they (the troika) are convinced that the recession is really deeper, I believe we have figured things out,” Oikonomou said.— Reuters

2.5 year-high, signaling a rise in investors’ risk aversion and a run to safe-haven assets.

However, some investors are looking for the moment to get back into the market.

“Tactically most of the indices, along from those in Asia, are sitting pretty much on their long-term trend lines,” said Neil Dwane, chief investment officer at RCM, part of Allianz Global Investors. “If it breaks those trend lines, the market can fall 10 to 15 percent and during that process you would probably feel that your margin of safety is building, you can start to buy high quality, maybe even high yielding equities as the first wave into the market.”—Reuters

ATHENS: Riot police push demonstrating high school’s students in the attempt to open the road during the protest in front of the Greek Parliament. — AFP

Piracy costs shipping industry $9 bn a year NEW DELHI: Piracy is costing the global shipping trade more than $9 billion a year, according to Indian ship owners, who yesterday demanded that the UN set up a maritime force to halt pirates operating off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean. Increased insurance costs, longer routes to avoid pirate-infested areas, armed guards posted on board ships and ransoms paid for the release of hijacked vessels and crew push up operating costs for the global shipping industry, said Anil Devli of the Indian National Shipowners Organization.

Pirates from Somalia are holding about 26 hijacked ships and 600 crewmembers in captivity. The Horn of Africa nation hasn’t had a functioning government since 1991, and piracy has flourished. International militaries patrol the region, but the seas are too vast for the effort to halt attacks. The association has written to the

Indian government to pursue their demand for a maritime force under UN command, much like the world body’s peacekeeping force, to ensure the safety and security of sea lanes in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, Devli said yesterday. “What is happening today is that various navies are providing escort services to ships along certain sea corridors,” Devli said. “We believe a UN effort would resolve the issue quickly and at much less cost than what the world economy is spending due to piracy.”

The force would have a legal mandate to board suspicious ships and have armed soldiers to protect ships at sea as well as armed naval vessels empowered to attack pirate vessels, he said. The association has written to India’s defense and foreign ministries asking the Indian government to push their proposal at the UN Security Council. — AP

MANCHESTER: British finance minister George Osborne confined pro-growth steps to measures including a freeze in the tax households pay for local services yesterday, pinning his hopes for recovery on a resolution of the euro zone debt crisis. Facing calls across the political spectrum for the government to do more to prop up growth, Osborne’s determination to stay the course on fiscal cutbacks adds to pressure on the Bank of England to ease monetary policy further.

“The single biggest boost for British economy that can take place this autumn is nothing I can announce, it is the resolution of the euro crisis,” Osborne told BBC Radio 4 ahead of a speech at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in the northern English city of Manchester, where fellow Tories and business leaders called for a more coherent growth strategy. The chancellor urged the European governments to find a solution by the time Group of 20 leaders meet in Cannes in early November. “If we come out of that meeting with the euro zone crisis still unresolved that would be terrible not just for Britain, not just for Europe, but for the whole world economy,” he said. “This instability is really debilitating.”

NO MONEY The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, in power since May 2010, is slashing spending and raising taxes to virtually eliminate a record budget deficit by the next election due in 2015, leaving next to no extra cash to support a struggling economy. This leaves the onus to boost growth firmly on the Bank of England, which is widely expected to pump more money into the economy and launch a fresh round of quantitative easing, possibly as soon as this Thursday. Osborne repeated that erasing Britain’s high budget deficit was paramount at a time when highly indebted countries were in the markets’ spotlight. “Our substantial strategy is to deal with Britain’s debt in a global debt storm,” he said, rejecting calls from within his own party to cut taxes. “I am not a believer in deficit-funded tax cuts,” he said.

Osborne’s team have been juggling funds to try to help families and businesses cope with rising costs and the spreading economic malaise, although officials admit there is little they can do to stimulate growth immediately. “I wanted to help families and pensioners with the daily cost of living,” Osborne said. — Reuters

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Al Shaya & Al Sagar launches new store ‘TYRE PLUS’

KUWAIT: Kuwait Automotive Imports Company WLL (KAICO), a leading automotive and auto products distributor in Kuwait, owned by two prominent Kuwaiti families Al Shaya and Al Sagar, celebrated yesterday the opening of its second outlet of the Michelin’s concept store “TYRE PLUS” located in Shuwaikh industrial area, Zina Street. The opening ceremony was attended by Yousef Al-Shaya (KAICO’s CEO), Ashish Tandon (General Manager), Tahseen Kamal (TYRE PLUS Consultant Middle East), Sadiq Ali (Divisional Manager - Tires & Lubricants), Hocine Driss (Technical Sales Manager -Michelin Kuwait) and various dignitaries as well as journalists, tyre dealers, KAICO’s customers and staff.

TYRE PLUS is an independent professional network of tyre retail stores that offers MICHELIN, BFGoodrich, and other tyre brands as well. It provides professional tyre services such as tyre repairs, wheel balancing and wheel alignment.

TYRE PLUS also offers non-tyre related services such as oil and battery changes, comprehensive brake inspection and replacement, and minor mechanical repair services all under one roof at competitive prices in a clean, friendly, safe and comfortable environment.

The new TYRE PLUS branch is located

centrally at a premium location of Shuwaikh industrial area, in the middle of Zina Street. Spread over a total area of around 600 sqm, the outlet has a pleasant ambience and an innovative display of tyres and accessories.

It also has a workshop, fully-equipped with latest machinery to handle all tyre and vehicle related services, an exercise undertaken by Michelin Tyres for all its TYRE PLUS outlets across the world. The store has a professional team of five executives all trained in required technical skills. Michelin would also provide TYRE PLUS team with professional trainings encompassing product, soft and management skills.

The first TYRE PLUS Branch in Kuwait was opened in Jahra industrial area in January 2008. KAICO aims at reaching its customers and providing them quality products and services no matter where they reside in Kuwait. At the inauguration Yousef Al-Shaya stated, “TYRE PLUS represents a great added value to Michelin’s initiative of effective distribution programs that aim at enhancing the retail experience for customers. Shuwaikh is an important industrial area in Kuwait and has seen rapid development attracting many important industrial houses to set up manufacturing facilities in the area.

Through our innovative retail point TYRE PLUS we are confident that the concept will appeal to the consumers in this area”.

He added, “Our association with Michelin goes back to 1977 and we feel that Michelin makes world quality road mobil-

truck tire facility in Ardiya with MICHELIN support by the end of this year.

Additionally we intend to add other 3 Tyre Plus outlets in 2012 under Michelin expertise and guidance.

Ashish Tandon, KAICO’s General

ity products available to discerning customers in Kuwait. TYRE PLUS in Shuwaikh will cater to provide world class services and products to consumers. We are aggressively expanding our Michelin business and we intend to open new

Manager commented, “Our partnership with TYRE PLUS clearly shows our commitment to provide consumers with quality and convenient solutions to meet the challenging demand for their vehicles.

We are confident that the multi-brand

IPIC gets $1.9 bn ADCB loan Aabar rejects international financing proposal DUBAI: Sovereign fund Aabar, which bought Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank’s 25 percent stake in Malaysian group RHB Capital, will get a $1.9 billion loan from ADCB to pay for the deal, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Aabar parent International Petroleum Investment Co obtained the loan from ADCB by using its deposits with the bank as collateral, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is a three-way deal. ADCB is lending to IPIC and the funds will come back to the bank through Aabar,” one of the sources said. The tenure and interest rate was not available.

Aabar agreed in June to pay 10.80 ringgit per share for ADCB’s quarter stake in RHB in a $1.9 billion deal. The valuation offered by Aabar effectively stalled a consolidation in Malaysia’s banking sector. The deal was also seen as a means to shore up the capital base

of the Abu Dhabi lender, one of the region’s most exposed banks to indebted conglomerate Dubai World and hard hit by a surge in provisions. “ADCB declines to make any statement on loans extended to our customers, appropriate disclosure regarding all loans and advances can be found in our balance sheet in due course,” it said.

Neither Aabar’s chief executive not IPIC was available to comment.

The deal closed on Sept. 30 and the funds were transferred to an account in Malaysia in ringgits. ADCB booked a $357 million gain from the stake sale in its second-quarter results. Aabar and IPIC would face higher financing costs if the deal was funded externally in the current environment, hence the decision to opt for a loan from ADCB, the source said. Aabar had earlier rejected a financing proposal by an international consortium of banks as being too

expensive, sources said in August.

Aabar, taken private by IPIC last year, missed an internal July 31 deadline to complete the deal and was liable to pay interest of 6.5 percent per annum on the delayed payment.

Abu Dhabi entities, accustomed to raising debt freely and seeking loans, have been put on a tight leash in recent months as the wealthy emirate seeks to centralize debt issuance by state-linked firms. ADCB is 58 percent owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, according to Reuters data. Both IPIC and its subsidiary Aabar are heavy allocators of capital in the oil-rich emirate. IPIC, with a mandate to engage in energy investments, took over Spanish company Cepsa early this year. Aabar is the largest shareholder in German automaker Daimler and was a cornerstone investor in commodities firm Glencore’s IPO this year. — Reuters

concept of TYRE PLUS will appeal to customers, especially those who are busy and need efficient, professional, reliable and trustworthy auto and tyre services that help them save time and money. On the occasion of the outlet opening Sadiq Ali, Divisional Manager - Tires & Lubricants announced the special launching offer for all TYRE PLUS customers, who will get free wheel alignment checkup & free nitrogen inflation. This offer is valid until December 31, 2011.

Hocine Driss, Technical Sales Manager said, “TYRE PLUS was established in 2002 and is currently present worldwide in countries such as Australia, China, Thailand, Russia, India, Taiwan and Mexico, in addition to its presence in the Middle East in countries such as KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Oman & Bahrain.

The advantages of being a TYRE PLUS owner include the flexibility of independent ownership without the restrictions of a franchise agreement; the benefit of security and support of being part of an international network while maintaining independence and exclusive technical and retail training for employees”. KAICO offers the best standards to its customers through high quality products and services in order to gain customers for life.

KAICO’s philosophy is “Customer is #1”.

Burgan Bank announces Yawmi Account winners KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced yesterday the names of the five lu cky winners of its Yawmi account draw, each taking home a prize of KD 5,000. The lucky winners for the five daily draws took home a ca s h-prize of KD 5 0 0 0 each, a nd they a re: AMEENA IBRAHIM AL-SHAAR; HUSSAIN ALI HASSAN; MOHD ABDULHAMEED MOHD ABDULRAHMAN; JOURIYAH AWAD ALMUG AI R ALHAMAD AHMED SAAD HABIB DAMER. The newly re-launched Yawmi Account is better, easier and faster than any day before. With its new and enhanced features, the Yawmi Account has become more convenient, easier, and faster for customers to benefit from. Now, cus-

tomers will be eligible to enter the dra w after 4 8 hou rs only from opening the account.

Customers are also required to deposit KD100 or equivalent only to enter the daily draw, and the coupon value to enter the draw s ta nds at KD1 0 . T he newly designed Yawmi account has been launched to provide a highly innovative offering along with a higher frequency and incentive of winning for everyone.

Today, the Yawmi account is a well understood product, where its popularity can be seen from the nu mber of increas ing a ccou nt holders.

Burgan Bank encourages everyone to open a Yawmi accou nt

and/or increase their deposit to maximize their chances to becoming a daily winner. The more customers deposit, the higher the chances they receive of winning the draw.

Opening a Yawmi account is simple, customers are urged to visit their neares t Bu rg a n Ba nk branch and receive all the details, or s imply ca ll the ba nk’s Ca ll Center at 1 8 0 4 0 8 0 where cu s tomer service representatives will be delighted to assist with any questions on the Yawmi account or any of the bank’s products and services.

Customers can also log on to Burgan Bank’s www.burgan.com for further information.

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2740000 .4260000 .3650000 .3000000 .2600000 .2630000 .0040000 .0020000 .0749570 .7302820 .3810000 .0700000 .7159100 .0040000 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2761000 GB Pound/KD .4280380 Euro .3679580 Swiss francs .3025750 Canadian dollars .2625900 Danish Kroner .0494540 Swedish Kroner .0398610 Australian dlr .2657740 Hong Kong dlr .0354440 Singapore dlr .2105220 Japanese yen .0035840 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0752010 Bahraini dinars .7326520 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0736460 Omani riyals .7174220 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

3.632 5.609 3.169 2.514 3.553 211.670 35.216 3.681 6.306 8.873 0.271 0.273

.2805000 .4370000 .3750000 .3130000 .2720000 .2740000 .0072500 .0035000 .0757100 .7376220 .4010000 .0760000 .7231050 .0072000 .0530000 .2782000 .4312930 .3707570 .3048770 .2645870 .0498300 .0401650 .2677950 .0357140 .2121240 .0036120 .0057130 .0025310 .0031890 .0037140 .0757730 .7382250 .3934940 .0742060 .7228790 .0064320

GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

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

74.030 76.278 721.060 737.350 75.592

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 48.800 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.518 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.270 Tunisian Dinar 192.980 Jordanian Dinar 392.030 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 185.620 Syrian Lier 5.993 Morocco Dirham 33.636 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 277.500 Euro 371.430 Sterling Pound 432.210 Canadian dollar 265.420 Turkish lire 149.840 Swiss Franc 306.290 Australian dollar 272.870 US Dollar Buying 277.150 GOLD 302.000 152.000 78.000

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

270.600 737.620 3.890 267.500 544.800 36.800 51.400 167.800 47.940 373.800 36.230 5.950 0.032 0.239 0.241 3.700 393.760 0.188 89.590 46.200 4.270 215.000 1.797 48.800 720.420

SELL DRAFT

269.100 737.620 3.678 266.000

213.000 46.521 372.300 36.130 5.620 0.032

10 Tola

75.520 277.300

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 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

277.250 265.075 432.540 372.325 304.555 735.085 75.460 76.100 73.895 390.265 46.513 2.512 5.623 3.175 3.700 6.291 680.075 3.695 8.940 5.840 3.600 92.095

Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

271.92 268.85 309.65 373.72

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

277.300 3.165 5.610 2.525 3.695 6.335 75.595 74.095 737.200 46.505 435.400 3.190 1.550 394.000 5.750 375.300 269.300 3.690

Al Mulla Exchange

UAE Exchange Center WLL Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro

433.96 3.66 3.712 5.611 2.516 3.547 3.165 75.48 737.61 46.52 394.51 720.68 76.47 74.04

434.50 3.62 3.820 5.955 2.620 4.200 3.220 75.62 737.62 47.94 393.76 720.42 76.75 74.05

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 432.500 277.300

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Currency

720.240

306.800 5.700 9.110

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

Currency

392.010 0.187 89.590 3.550 213.500

3.1797 6.310 76.300 74.050 212.960 36.890 2.513 432.500

GOLD 1,694.740

Rate for Transfer

Bahrain Exchange Company

3.220 6.590 76.730 74.050 212.960 36.890 2.619 434.500 41.600 308.300 5.700 9.320 198.263 75.620 277.700 1.220

270.60 267.50 308.30 373.80

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)

276.950 373.300 433.600 266.400 3.625 5.630 46.490 2.513 3.660 6.300 3.170 736.575 75.400 73.900

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Islamic funds to see zero to negative growth DUBAI: Growth of the global Islamic asset management industry will likely halt or reverse this year as the industry struggles with poor sentiment in financial markets and lackluster interest among Islamic institutional investors, said Jahangir Aka, senior executive officer at asset management firm SEI Investments.

Islamic funds’ assets grew 7.6 percent in 2010 to $58 billion, according to a report by consultancy Ernst & Young, much slower than growth of 35 percent experienced by conventional funds. Aka said conventional funds benefited from stable inflows of new money related to pensions and US 401k investment plans- savings systems that generally have yet to be created in the Islamic world. “Net-net we’re going to have a flat to down year for growth,” Aka said in an interview with Reuters. “The market mood

and a lack of a needs-based industry are the main drags.”

There may be some tentative buying of Islamic assets in 2012 as investors look to deploy capital that was kept on the sidelines as the global economy took a turn for the worse this year. But until there is more institutional interest in investing in Islamic mutual funds, growth will be modest, he said.

“We have to develop a deeper institutional investor base,” said Aka. “We have a couple of big families, a supranational bank and a few Islamic banks. But none of them are major investors in the mutual fund market.”

SEI, based in Oaks, Pennsylvania, manages around $179 billion in assets, out of which Islamic funds account for less than 1 percent.

Pension and institutional funds in particular will

be critical to the industry’s growth as they provide long-term, stable money, he said, but so far movement in that direction has been minor.

Islamic funds currently make up just 5.6 percent of the nearly $1 trillion Islamic finance industry globally, according to the Ernst & Young report.

INSTITUTIONS Aka said institutional investors often looked at the size of an Islamic fund rather than its performance in deciding whether to invest. With 70 percent of the 800 Islamic funds globally falling short of $100 million in assets, that weighs on the industry. “Islamic asset management is still a young industry,” he said.

“It’s like giving a three-year-old child a university test - they’re not going to pass it. Look at the performance instead of just the size of the

products.” On a performance basis, the All Country World Islamic Index has outperformed its conventional counterpart this year to date, according to data from MSCI. The Islamic index fell 14.6 percent, compared with a 15.8 percent drop by the All Country World Standard Core Index.

But Islamic funds are having a tough time staying in business. In 2010, 46 Islamic funds were liquidated while only 23 were launched.

Aka said there had been some house cleaning among funds that were too aggressive or charged inflated fees that damaged the industry’s reputation, but that continued consolidation would ultimately hurt the industry. “I would say please don’t liquidate these funds. We are a small market and cannot afford shrinkage in end-client choice.”— Reuters

Oil slips near $102 on euro debt fears Hedge funds selling as redemption periods end

UAE students to introduce sustainable designs at index DUBAI: INDEX, the Middle East and North Africa’s largest and longest established Interiors and Design Exhibition, in association with Interior Services Group (ISG) and local design organization tasmena, are challenging design students across the UAE with the INDEX Student Challenge 2011. Open to design students at all universities within the UAE, this year’s challenge theme is reuse - as in “Reduce, Reuse and Rec ycle”. Students will be tasked with creating design applications using local waste materials in the region, for example plastic, paper or wood.

Traditionally targeted at interior design students, this year ’s INDEX Student Challenge broadens its platform by also introducing a new Graphic Design Challenge.

“Since its launch at INDEX four years ago, the Student Challenge has been one of the exhibition’s most fun features. The INDEX Student Challenge encourages the development of creative talent beyond the classroom. With the support of ISG, tasmena and the participating institutions, the challenge helps students exercise their design and development skills in addition to their leadership and teamwork abilities.

Students gain great experience and knowledge from cross-campus networking and interaction with industry professionals,” said Paula Al Chami, Event Director for INDEX. With the theme reuse, interior design students of the INDEX Student Challenge 2011 will have to develop projects to fit one of the six product specific shows at this year’s exhibition: In Retail, Textiles, Lighting, Furnishing, Outdoor Living or Kitchen & Bathroom. By limiting students to reuse materials they have to introduce more environmentally friendly and sustainable designs into the industr y.

Finalists will be asked to execute their designs at the show and will compete for the opportunity to recreate a product into a signature piece for one of Italy’s largest furniture companies, Natuzzi. In the new addition to this year ’s challenge, the Graphic Design contest, participating students will be tasked to design and develop the new image of the INDEX Student Challenge, bearing the reuse theme. The winning design will be adopted as the logo of the student challenge, appearing on all communication and branding during and after the exhibition. “The INDEX Student Challenge is an exciting opportunity that provides a link between academia and industry. The challenge is an invaluable experience as it exposes the students to the actual design process, with an emphasis on teamwork, leadership, working to budgets and deadlines.

The industry benefits by gaining new talent that come with a fresh approach, an understanding of the industry and what’s expected of them as professionals,” said Kristina Keutgen of tasmena.

The Student Challenge is open to all students from post-secondary academic institutions within the UAE and participation is free. Students willing to participate will create teams of two to five members and submit their ideas. All ideas for the Graphic Design contest must be submitted by October 9th, 2011 whereas the deadline for the Interior Design challenge is October 20th, 2011. All submissions will go across two judgment phases; the first by the students’ academic institution and the second, a jury composed by members of INDEX, ISG and tasmena. Finalists will create their designs in the Sheikh Rashid Hall at INDEX, which runs from October 22-25, 2011 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

(Left) Isam Al Sager. (Right) National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) office.

NBK to sponsor the Third Kuwait Financial Forum KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) is the main sponsor of the Third Kuwait Financial Forum that is due to be held under the patronage of HH the Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on October 31st and November 1st, 2011. The Forum is organized by AlIktisad Wal-Aamal Group in cooperation with the Kuwait Central Bank and the Kuwait Bank Association.

Isam Al Sager, NBK Group Deputy CEO, said: “NBK’s sponsorship of this forum comes in alignment with the bank’s ongoing policy of supporting all national economic activities and events, notably those geared towards highlighting and discussing pressing topics and issues of the hour in addition to reflecting a positive

image of the Kuwaiti financial and banking sectors”.

“The forum will discuss a number of pressing topics and issues that have direct relevance to the unprecedented challenges facing the Arab economies as a result of the recent developments in the region and the international financial crisis. The forum will also discuss the outlook of the global economy in light of the American and European debt crisis and its implications on the emerging markets”, Al Sager added.

Given its importance and timing, the forum is expected to attract a host of Arab finance ministers and central banks governors as well as heads and executive managers of the major banks and financial institutions in the Arab world in addition to economists and banking experts.

LONDON: Oil prices fell towards $102 yesterday after Greece said it would miss its deficit target and as concerns rose about FrancoBelgian bank Dexia, which pulled down stocks and the euro, while the dollar strengthened.

Brent crude futures were down 55 cents to $102.21 a barrel at 1100 GMT after hitting an intraday low of $101.12. US crude futures were down 68 cents to $78.52. Investors and traders have been troubled by draft figures released by Greece on Sunday showing it would miss a deficit target set just months ago in a massive bailout package. This suggests the steps taken to avert bankruptcy may not be enough.

In addition, Belgian and French finance ministers will meet yesterday to discuss ways to shore up the balance sheet of FrancoBelgium financial services group Dexia. Dexia has one of the largest exposures to Greece among non-Greek banks. The euro and European shares also sold off as investors mulled the lack of a credible solution to Europe’s debt crisis. “Greece said it could not meet its deficit target for the rescue plan and I think that was a significant input,” said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix. “There is the possibility that Belgian bank Dexia might need to go through some sort of nationalization. The market is still very jittery about the banks so that could put some pressure on there.”

WEAK DEMAND Christophe Barret, global oil analyst at Credit Agricole CIB, pointed to weak demand figures in the US and Europe, and the return of Libyan crude to the market as likely to weigh on oil prices. “At over $100 a barrel the Brent price is still pretty high so it should continue to go down,” he said. United Arab Emirates (UAE) OPEC governor Ali Obaid AlYabhouni also pointed to “ominous clouds on the horizon” for oil demand because of global

economic problems. European debt problems and the prospect of weaker demand in parts of Asia are a big worry for producers, he said.

Analysts and traders are now unsure as to where oil will go next. Christopher Bellew, a trader at Jefferies Bache, said if Brent dipped below $100 it would probably not stay there

omy,” said Marc Ground, an analyst at Standard Bank. “Volatility is expected to remain elevated.”

A bearish target at $99 per barrel has been established for Brent, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. Jakob said with the support of $80 having been broken for US

SINGAPORE: Part of the Royal Dutch Shell refinery is seen on Pulau Bukom, five kilometers off Singapore.— AP for long as funds would come back in and start buying. But Jakob suggested there was a risk of some selling by hedge funds this week because last Friday was the final day for many hedge funds’ quarterly redemption notice periods.

“We expect the oil price to remain under pressure from both the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis and the deteriorating global econ-

crude, $75 will now be targeted for support.

Chinese data offered some support to prices as it showed industrial activity was improving.

China’s factory activity picked up in September for a second month in a row and export orders strengthened. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index inched up to 51.2 from August’s 50.9, largely in line with a median forecast of 51.3 in a Reuters poll. — Reuters

Middle East banks could increase business through improved CRM DUBAI: Middle East banks could achieve big hikes in revenue growth and cross-selling through improved CRM channels, according to The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In a recent comparative study of Middle East banks and some of the leading international banks, BCG has learned that for most Middle East banks, less than 5% of new business is driven by CRM. This is in comparison with a 30-50% increase in new business attributable to CRM for some of the leading international banks.

In addition, Middle East banks stand to double their cross-selling capabilities through improved CRM: currently the cross-selling ratio for Middle East banks lies in the range of 2-3, while some of their leading global counterparts have achieved a range of 4-6. Dr Reinhold Leichtfuss, Senior Partner & Managing Director and leader of BCG’s Financial Institutions practice in the Middle East said: “These insights reveal the enormous potential for Middle East banks to improve their revenue growth through holistic and innovative uses of CRM. As the economic environment is becoming increasingly competitive, regionally and globally, consumers are becoming ever more selective about their consumption choices. Against this backdrop, leading Middle East banks have a great opportunity to outsmart their competitors by taking a lead in the field of CRM”. Based on project work,BCG surmises that banks could increase their proactive sales by more than 30% though a judicious use of CRM. The studies showed that bank branches that had used improved CRM methods generated more customer leads per week; that these were of a higher-quality; and, subsequently, these led to a higher proportion of converted leads.

The overall performance of the bank branches in the pilot group also improved over time. In fact, over a three month period, the sales index of the pilot branches increased by more than 30% as compared to the control group. The trend is indicative for most banks. Looking in particular at the credit card business of banks, BCG believes that there is a clear and direct correlation between CRM and revenue growth. In several projects for leading International banks, credit card penetration, as well as charge volume, nearly doubled in less than three years for banks using improved CRM campaign manage-

ment for their existing customer bases.

Leichtfuss commented: “These studies help us to quantify the results of enhanced CRM techniques. While the profitability of banks is obviously impacted by a number of different factors, we can safely say that a holistic use of CRM can lead to measurable growth. This is indeed great news for Middle East banks as it points to hidden pockets of revenue growth. At the same time, we have some excellent global models to learn from.”

Pablo Tramazaygues, Partner & Managing Director in BCG’s Madrid office commented: “Leading European banks are running more than 300 propensity models each month to generate more high quality leads for their branches and alternative channels. By doing this they have achieved cross-selling ratios of more than four and, in some segments, even six products”.

KEY FEATURES The successful implementation of a CRM program will take customer understanding, offers and customer experience to a new level. The 5 key elements of CRM are: -A comprehensive and high quality data warehouse that allows flexible

use. - A CRM intelligence unit which creates ideas and campaigns. - Campaign management that can effectively execute and control campaigns. - Multichannel management that includes multiple customer touch points - for example, the internet, call centers, advisors, ATMs, and mobiles - and an efficient front end sales force that can act upon the generated CRM leads. - A mechanism that helps learn from the reactions of the customer.

“While each of these key elements may seem easily achievable, so far, only a few leading international banks have succeeded in using a powerful CRM program. Part of the success depends on having a holistic, capability-building process, a robust IT platform and, last but not least, strong organizational capabilities. As complex as this endeavor may sound, the establishment of an effective CRM process and system represents one of the sustainable competitive advantages for any financial institution since it entails at least a two to three year period of internal testing and learning; as opposed to product innovations, new branch formats and the like.No other institution can simply ‘copy’ a CRM”, Leichtfuss concluded.

Rasgas to shut down 7 plants DOHA: Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer Rasgas plans seven maintenance shutdowns in 2012, a company official from one of the world’s biggest gas exporters said yesterday. In June, Rasgas announced plans to shut its 7.8-million ton per year (mtpa) LNG export facility, known as Train 7, for maintenance in January 2012. But it plans to shut Train 7 again for work in October 2012 as part of a wideranging program of shutdowns next year. “ The first ( Train 7) will be in January...

Trains 1 and 2 will be shut in May and Train 7 will be down in October,” the Rasgas official told Reuters at a conference in the Qatari capital Doha. “We will also shut AKG-2 (Al Khaleej Gas Two) in March.” AKG-2 processes gas for use in Qatar, while processing associated condensate and natural gas liquids, while trains 1 and 2 produce up to 6.6 mtpa of LNG for export around the world.

Rasgas performs on average between five and six maintenance shutdowns on its large gas liquefaction plants each year, he said. He was unable to give details of the other two maintenance shutdowns planned for next year. “We try to do the maintenance at offpeak seasons, which are at different times for different customers,” he said. Rasgas, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, is one of two producers in Qatar which together can produce 77 million tonnes a year of gas chilled to liquid form for export by ship.

News that Qatargas planned maintenance on its facilities from September to October 2011 sparked a surge in European gas prices in late August. An official from sister LNG producer Qatargas declined to comment when asked about maintenance plans for its plants next year.— Reuters

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KSE ends trading in red GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT

Dearth of IPOs, secondary market routes halt exits

KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended yesterday’s trading session in red. The retreat was broad-based with seven out of the eight sectors losing ground.

KSE and all GCC stock exchanges following the news that Greece will miss its deficit target for the year.

Market Indices Global General Index (GGI) ended the day down by 0.64 percent, at 179.52 point. Market Capitalization was also down for the day, reaching KD29.27bn. On the other hand, KSE Price Index closed at 5,811.9 point, shedding 27.30 points (0.47 percent) to its previous close.

Market Breadth During the session, 99 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 45 equities declined versus 14 that advanced.

Daily Trading Activity The gains were accompanied by mixed trading activities. Total volume traded was up by 2.01 percent with 127.02mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD12.01mn (11.79 percent lower compared to Sunday’s session).

Services sector was the volume leader, accounting for 30.22 percent of total shares exchanges.

Abyaar Real Estate Development Company was the session’s most traded stock with 16.48mn shares exchanged. The banking sector was the value leader, having 27.12 percent of total traded value.

Top Gainers and Biggest Decliners In terms of top gainers, Housing Finance Company (ISKAN) was the top gainer for the

day, adding 7.04 percent to its share value and closing at KD0.038. On the other hand, Contracting & Marine Services Company shed 8.70 percent and closed at KD0.210, making it the biggest decliner in the market.

Sectors-wise With the exception of the food sector, the market moved only south. Global Food Index closed up by 0.35 percent backed by Livestock Transport & Trading Company. The scrip closed up by 4.59 percent. The company announced that it has received the approval from the Cabinet of Ministers to sell its cattle from the Kuwaiti Ports with a 15 percent

profit margin. The Global Industrial Index saw the steepest decline of 0.92 percent, on the back of Kuwait Cement Company’s 5.66 percent slide.

Stock price of Boubyan International Industries Holding shed 4.04 percent of its value and closed at KD0.095.

Investment stocks were also notable losers, with the sector’s index ending down by 0.91 percent. Bayan Investment Company shed 5.36 percent of its value and closed at KD0.0265.

Elsewhere in the sector, Commercial Facilities Company & Al Imtiaz Investment Company recoiled by 4.92 percent and 2.56 percent, respectively. The

Middle East PE funds seek strategic buyers and SWFs

Services Index shed 0.86 percent of its value, on the back of 1.05 percent posted by Zain Company.

Share price of Gulf Petroleum Investment Company and Burgan Company for well drilling, trading & maintenance was down 6.85 percent and 6.06 percent respectively.

Corporate News National Cleaning Company announced that its 67.5 percent owned subsidiary has been awarded the lowest price in a three-year, KD328,662 tender offer to maintain the agricultural works of the institutions and facilities that belong to the Municipality of Kuwait.

DUBAI: Private equity funds in the Middle East and North Africa, under increasing pressure to produce returns for investors, have strategic buyers, including sovereign wealth funds, looming larger on their deal radar. PE funds have been hurt by a dear th of options to exit their investments. While initial public offerings are a preferred route globally, the market has been all but shut in the region - bourses like Dubai had not seen an IPO in over three years.

Trade sales and seeking strategic buyers for some of the assets will be the preferred choice for most PE funds in the current market, analysts say. “Sales to sovereign wealth funds, who are increasingly allocating more to direct investments or to a strategic buyer is the clearest route available. It is, in fact, the only choice PE funds have,” said Antoine Drean, chairman of Triago, a company that helps private equity firms raise capital.

Easy leverage and soaring stock markets lured budding PE funds to the region on an investment spree during the boom period but very few have managed to exit profitably. Funds are now under increasing pressure to generate returns for their limited par tners (LPs) investors who typically commit capital to such funds-who have waited much longer than average for their investment to show a return. “The LPs would definitely be thinking that it is time to get something out of their investments. Most of the PE investments in the region are close to their exit periods but exits are tough for a variety of reasons,” Drean said.

Some 218 investments were made by these regional PE funds from 2004-09, out of which only 14 have reached exit, according to a report from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and

Saudi-based PE firm Amwal AlKhaleej, in a sign of the extent of investments awaiting an exit route.

Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Capital plans to exit two more investments in 2012, including its stake in Gulf Marine Services, its chief executive told Reuters early this month. The company and Amwal AlKhaleej sold their stakes in Maritime Industrial Services to Lamprell in a $336 million deal in July. Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj Capital has been tr ying to sell its stake in Turkish hospital group Acibadem in a deal that could be worth at least $500 million.

LIMITED OPTIONS “Given the prevailing uncertainty and volatility in the equity capital markets, exits via regional IPOs are looking increasingly more difficult,” said Omar Mehanna, head of MENA advisory at HSBC in Dubai. Egyptian group Citadel Capital has postponed plans for an IPO of its electricity and natural gas distributor Taqa Arabia several times on valuation grounds. Adding to sellers’ problems, financing for private equity buyouts has contracted sharply, meaning chances of finding another private equity buyer under current market conditions is pretty bleak. Dubai International Capital, the private equity arm of investment arm Dubai Holding, sold hotel operator Ishraq Dubai to diversified firm Almulla Group on Sunday, in at least its third such sale to a strategic buyer this year.

Funds are unlikely to resort to fire sales of their assets despite the pressure to generate returns, Drean said. “While you are unlikely to see fire sales you are likely to see a lot of general partners with mediocre assets sell them off gradually in exchange for poor investor returns.

Those GPs will not raise new funds and will disappear.” — Reuters

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Eurozone manufacturing contraction deepens Factory activity slumps to crisis-era lows LONDON: Factory activity in Europe and Asia slumped in September to levels not seen since the depths of the financial crisis as export demand dropped, surveys showed yesterday, reinforcing fears of a return to recession. Corresponding figures for the United States are expected to underscore the gloomy outlook for the global economy. The euro zone’s manufacturing contraction deepened last month as new orders shrank at their fastest pace since mid-2009. Although Europe’s leaders have so far managed to prevent the euro zone debt crisis triggering a financial catastrophe, data points to worsening economic fortunes across the bloc.

Even in China, which reported a slight uptick in its official PMI, economists saw evidence of a cool-down.

China’s factory activity typically rises in September as businesses prepare for the Golden Week holiday, but this year’s increase was smaller than the average.

“There was no reason to be cheerful, as this was in fact the weakest September reading ever and was on tie with that in 2008,” said Yao Wei at Societe Generale.

Markit’s Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) which gauges changes in the activity of thousands of factories in the countries that share the euro, fell to a final reading of

48.5 in September from 49.0 in August.

It is the second consecutive month the manufacturing PMI has been below the 50 mark that divides contraction from growth. “In a nutshell, the recession in the euro zone periphery’s manufacturing activity is weighing on the overall euro zone index that-in Septembersuggests that the economy is not growing in Q3,” said Annalisa Piazza at Newedge.

Mounting evidence of a weakening euro area economy prompted some economists to predict the European Central Bank will cut interest rates on Thursday, although most expect it to wait until the new year before easing policy. Factory activity in Spain, struggling under harsh austerity measures like much of the euro zone periphery, fell at the fastest pace in more than two years, surveys showed yesterday.

French manufacturers, meanwhile, saw activity decline for the second month in a row. Even in Germany, the biggest and arguably the most prosperous economy in the 17-nation bloc, manufacturing growth effectively came to a standstill.

But British manufacturing unexpectedly grew for the first time in three months, although a slide in new export orders highlighted the dangers facing the sluggish recovery. The HSBC PMI for

China’s services sector rose to 53.0 in September, recovering from an all-time low of 50.6 in August, lifted by new orders. India’s manufacturing output recorded its biggest monthly decline since late 2008, going from robust growth to near stall speed in just five months and a fall in the new orders index for the sixth straight month suggested more weakness ahead.

World stocks kicked off the final quarter of the year sharply lower yesterday while the yen and government bonds rose as concerns grew that a broader Greek debt default may be in the works after figures showed Athens would miss a deficit target. Asia’s export orders have fallen since midsummer as the euro zone crisis intensified and the US economy slowed. So far, the data points to a moderate slowdown in China and elsewhere in Asia, but another US or European recession would change the equation. “A recession in the global economy could cause a China hard landing,” Barclays Capital economists wrote in a note to clients, adding that this was not their baseline forecast.

The ISM Manufacturing index, which measures factory activity in the United States, is expected to fall marginally to 50.5 in September from 50.6 in August

according to a Reuters poll- only scraping above the 50 watermark for growth.

In Japan, a similar report on Friday showed the manufacturing sector contracted in September for the first time in five months, suggesting its economy was back in the doldrums after a short-

lived earthquake -recovery boost.

Japanese business sentiment recovered somewhat in the third quarter, but a strong yen and Europe’s debt crisis left companies cautious about the outlook, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly tankan survey showed yesterday. — Reuters

KABUL: Afghan workers package fruit juice at a food processing factory in Kabul yesterday. According to a recent report from the Afghanistan Independent Human Right Commission (AIHRC), around 42 percent of people are unemployed in Afghanistan and 36 percent have a daily income of less than 50 Afghanis (around $1). — AFP

Confidence up among Japan manufacturers Japan auto sales rise in September

NEW DELHI: A homeless woman sleeps on a pavement in New Delhi yesterday.

India’s Planning Commission, which helps set economic policy, last month told the Supreme Court that the poverty line for the nation’s cities was 1,920 rupees ($39) per person a month. This has angered activists who say the numbers are ridiculously low. — AP

India’s manufacturing growth at 30-mth low NEW DELHI: India’s factory output slowed to its lowest pace in 30 months in September, hit by a slew of interest rate hikes that has dampened economic activity, a widely watched survey showed yesterday. The HSBC India Manufacturing PMI, or Purchasing Managers’ Index, slid more than two points to 50.4, a shade above the 50 level which divides contraction of manufacturing activity from expansion. The September survey finding-based on data from more than 500 manufacturing firmswas the lowest since a below-50 reading in March 2009 and well below the long-term PMI index average of 56.

“Indian manufacturing growth is clearly slowing in response to the tighter monetary policy settings, the uncertainty created by high inflation and the weaker global economic environment,” said HSBC economist Leif Eskesen. With the effects of a dozen interest rate hikes in 18 months continuing to be felt and weak global econom-

ic conditions, “growth in the manufacturing sector is set to remain subdued in the foreseeable future,” Eskesen said. Eskesen and many other economists expect India’s central bank to raise rates at least one more time this year in a bid to check inflation, which at 9.78 percent is the highest among major economies.

The manufacturing figures were seen as likely to fuel concerns that Asia’s thirdlargest economy may be headed for a harder-than-expected landing as India’s central bank keeps up efforts to rein in soaring prices. The findings dim hopes that emerging markets can help offset weakness in advanced economies with even fast-growing India and China losing steam.

Late last week, PMI figures showed that manufacturing activity in China contracted for a third straight month in September due to lackluster demand in the face of the euro zone debt crisis and US economic weakness. — AFP

Sheikh Ahmed: Dubai local banks have ample liquidity DUBAI: Local banks in Dubai have sufficient liquidity to weather a global downturn, the chairman of the Gulf Arab’s largest bank and a key figure in its recovery from a 2009 debt crisis said yesterday. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed AlMaktoum, who is also chairman of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee, also said some local firms still had a way to go to rebound from Dubai’s debt crunch.

A deepening debt crisis in Europe as well as a slowdown in the United States have increased odds for another global recession this year. European bank stocks have slumped sharply since July on concerns about their ability to cope with the potential impact of a Greek debt default. “(Local banks) have lots of cash and lots of liquidity as well,” Sheikh Ahmed, the uncle and close adviser to Dubai’s ruler, told reporters. “We’re not directly affected (by Europe) but I’m sure some (foreign) banks which are here could have certain issues. But the world will

never be with no crisis.” Foreign banks “will keep supporting the retail business here because it’s good for them,” he added.

Sheikh Ahmed, who was named chairman of Emirates NBD in June, oversaw Dubai’s bid to restructure $25 billion in debt after it announced a shock standstill in November 2009 and became the business face of Dubai.

“I think the core business of Dubai is doing well,” he said, citing tourism and exports. He is also chairman of Dubai government-owned Emirates airline. Asked whether the worst of Dubai’s debt problems were behind the emirate-several Dubai-related entities are still undergoing debt restructuring-he said there was still room to go. “Some other companies have some work to do,” he said. “For example Dubai World, they have some more years of restructuring, seven, eight years.” Dubai World signed a final deal with creditors in March to repay its obligations over five to eight years. — Reuters

TOKYO: Sentiment among Japan’s major manufacturers turned positive in September as firms recovered from the impact of the country’s March disasters, the central bank said in its Tankan survey yesterday. But while the statistic returned to positive levels for the first time since the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, it remained below pre-disaster figures. Worries over a strong yen, the eurozone debt crisis and a slowdown in the United States were responsible, analysts said.

Large manufacturer sentiment in September rose to two from minus nine in June, the quarterly survey showed, slightly lower than a market forecast of three. The sentiment of medium and small-sized firms remained negative. The figures represent the percentage of companies saying business conditions are good minus those saying conditions are bad, with a positive reading illustrating that optimists outweigh pessimists. The survey, which is taken into account by the BoJ when formulating monetary policy, saw large manufacturers forecast a reading of four in December, signaling expectations that conditions would continue to improve.

However, this was below a December 2010 reading of five before the March quake.

“Companies are cautious,” said Satoshi Osanai, economist at Daiwa Institute of Research.

“Today’s data is nothing more than confirmation that lost production has recovered. Confidence has not recovered to pre-quake levels.” The March disasters devastated entire towns along the northeast coast, left 20,000 people dead or missing and triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, while also wreaking havoc on Japanese industry.

The nation’s biggest firms such as Sony and Toyota were forced to shutter plants and halt production

due to shortages in electricity and parts after the disaster disrupted supply chains, sending production and exports tumbling. Yesterday’s Tankan survey reflected the restoration of those supply chains, said analysts, as companies continued to restore output, illustrated by a large upswing in confidence for Japan’s hard-hit vehicle manufacturers. Automakers’ sentiment saw a record improvement from minus 52 in June to 13 in September, the BoJ said, with output gradually being restored to pre-quake levels and companies hiring thousands of temporary workers.

Some analysts say yesterday’s data will give the central bank some breathing space amid pressure to introduce further easing measures at its policy board meeting later this week. But they warn that despite five consecutive

monthly increases in output, Japanese industry continues to face headwinds. “The swing (in automakers confidence) is a reaction from a plunge, rather than pointing to robust business,” said Osanai. The March disasters punctured a nascent economic recovery and bounced Japan back into recession. The situation was complicated in the summer after big users of electricity were forced to cut consumption, with around 80 percent of nuclear power plants offline amid public unease over the technology.

Japan’s recovery from the triple disaster has been overshadowed by a strong yen, with the currency surging to a postwar high of 75.95 against the dollar in August on worries over the global economy. A strong domestic unit erodes the repatriated earnings of exporters

CHIBA: Masaaki Osumi, an executive for Japan’s electronics company Toshiba, displays the world’s lightest and slimmest 10.1-inch tablet PC called the “Regza tablet AT700” during a preview at Asia’s largest electronics trade show CEATEC (Cutting-Edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition) in Chiba City, suburban Tokyo yesterday. — AFP

S Korea economy remains ‘strong’ SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Myungbak used a national day radio address yesterday to bolster faith in Asia’s fourth-largest economy amid a global economic slowdown and sluggish factory output at home. On Friday, South Korea reported that factory output in August fell more than expected and set its first back-to-back loss since the 2008 global crisis, sending the won down against the dollar and closing out the worst month for the currency in more than two and a half years.

Seeking to reassure both domestic and foreign investors, Lee used the radio address, with all domestic financial markets closed for National Foundation Day, as a pep talk to dispel pessimism on the economy. “We have surmounted the previous global financial crisis in the fastest and most successful fashion in the world,” Lee said, referring to the 2008-

2009 global financial crisis. “I can assure you that the Korean economy is strong enough for our people to have confidence.”

Lee said that national debt at a third of gross domestic product is well below the 98 percent average of other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations while foreign currency reserves exceed $300 billion and the nation’s current account is in surplus. “It would not be desirable for the nation to be overwhelmed by a crisis mentality,” Lee said. But Lee also cautioned that the current financial crisis over the fate of debt hit euro zone countries like Greece and an economic slowdown in the United Sates remains “quite worrisome” and requires “full-fledged international collaboration” at the upcoming G20 Summit scheduled for early next month in Cannes, France. — Reuters

and has prompted fears that more companies will move production overseas in search of cheaper labor costs. Japan has unveiled a plan to make $100 billion available to help companies acquire assets overseas while boosting its oversight of foreign exchange markets against speculative moves.

Auto sales rise Japan’s domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses saw their first rise in 13 months in September, reflecting the industry’s rebound from the huge disruption sparked

by Japan’s quake and tsunami.

Sales in September grew 1.7 percent from a year earlier to 313,790 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said yesterday.

The figures do not include sales of mini vehicles-which have an engine capacity of 660 cc or less-and reflect a low basis of comparison from the same period a year earlier, when state subsidies for the purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles ended. Sales had been slowing since then, the drop exacerbated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which damaged factories and crippled supply chains, forcing the likes of Toyota to shutter plants and halt production.

Sales dived 50 percent in April and 38 percent in May, as consumer demand took a hit.

Yesterday’s data follows figures released last week that showed higher auto production and exports in August, illustrating the Japanese auto sector’s recovery, enabling dealers to offer a better variety of cars to buyers. But despite the improvement, auto sales fell 25.6 percent to 1.25 million vehicles in the six months ended September compared to a year earlier. Japanese auto manufacturers estimate that domestic vehicle sales will be the lowest in 34 years in the fiscal year ending March 2012 due to the impact of the March disasters. — Agencies

Dubai’s Shuaa inks alliance with UAE’s savings scheme DUBAI: Dubai’s Shuaa Capital and savings scheme National Bonds formed a strategic alliance under which the investment bank will offer advisory and brokerage services to the sharia-compliant firm, the two companies said yesterday. The partnership is also aimed at expanding the customer bases of both companies and promoting a savings culture in the United Arab Emirates, the companies said in a statement. The tie-up will “help some of our clients shift from risk exposure investments to risk control,” Khalifa Al Daboos, chairman of National Bonds, said. No financial details were provided in the statement. Shuaa said it was looking to close one or more acquisitions by the end of the year after sources told Reuters last month that it had targeted a number of companies, including brokerages in Egypt, for potential purchases. Dubai sovereign wealth fund, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), took control of National Bonds in March when it brought out the remaining 50 percent it didn’t own from other local entities including Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties . — Reuters

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Years

business

A ‘great haircut’ to kick-start US growth NEW YORK: More than three years after the financial crisis struck, the US economy remains stuck in a consumer debt trap. It’s a situation that could take years to correct itself. That’s why some economists are calling for a radical step: massive debt relief.

Federal policy makers, they suggest, should broker what amounts to an out-ofcourt settlement between institutional bond investors, banks and consumer advocates - essentially, a “great haircut” to jumpstart the economy.

What some are envisioning is a negotiated process in which cash-strapped homeowners get real mortgage relief, even if it means forcing banks to incur severe write-downs and bond investors to absorb haircuts, or losses, in some of the securities sold by those institutions. “We’ve put this off for too long,” said L Randall Wray, a professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “We need debt relief and jobs and until we get these two things, I think recovery is impossible.”

The bailout of the nation’s banks, a nearly trillion dollar stimulus package and an array of programs by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates near zero may have stopped the economy from falling into the abyss. But none of those measures have fixed the underlying problem of too much US consumer debt. At the start of the crisis, household debt as a percentage of gross domestic product was 100 percent. Today it’s down to 90 percent of GDP. But by historical standards that is high. US households are still more indebted than their counterparts in Austria, Germany, Spain, France and even Greece which is on the verge of defaulting on its government debt.

Tens of millions of US citizens remain burdened with mortgages they can no longer afford, in addition to soaring credit card bills and sky high student loans.

Trillions of dollars in outstanding consumer debt is stifling demand for goods and services and that’s one reason economists say cash-rich US companies are reluctant to hire and unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Take Donald Bonner, for example, a 61year-old from Bayonne, New Jersey, who lost his job working on a dock in June.

Back in March, he attended a “loan modification” fair held by JPMorgan Chase in New York. He has lived in his home since 1970, but was on the verge of losing his job. After falling behind on his $2,800-amonth mortgage, he sought to reduce his monthly payment.

Bonner says the bank denied the request on the grounds that he is ineligible because his income is higher than the minimum threshold set by the Federal government for loan modifications. “They keep asking me for additional documenta-

tion,” Bonner said on Friday. “It seems to me there is never enough documentation and it has to be renewed every month. It does make you wonder with all this bailout money these banks have received, they don’t want to lend the money.”

DEBT JUBILEE The idea of substantial debt restructurings and a haircut for bondholders has been raised by financial pundits, including

you don’t want to reward people who were irresponsible. But if there is a way to do well by doing good, then let’s take a look at it.”

To be sure, consumer debt levels have been coming down since the crisis began.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported in August that outstanding consumer debt has fallen from a peak of $12.5 trillion in third quarter of 2008 to $11.4 trillion. That’s a sign that consumers are get-

FLORIDA: Shoppers carry their purchases as they walk along Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Fla. — AP Barry Ritholtz and Chris Whalen, two popular analysts and bloggers. Renowned economist Stephen Roach, currently nonexecutive chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, has gone a step further, calling for Wall Street to get behind what others have called a “Debt Jubilee” to forgive excess mortgage and credit card debt for some borrowers. The notion of a Debt Jubilee dates back to biblical Israel where debts were forgiven every 50 years or so.

In an August appearance on CNBC, Roach said debt forgiveness would help consumers get through “the pain of deleveraging sooner rather than later.”

But it’s not just the liberal economists and doom-and-gloom financial analysts calling for a great haircut. Even some institutional investors, who might suffer some of the impact of debt reductions on their portfolios, are seeing a need for a creative solution to the mess. “If there is something constructive that can be done it should be,” said Ash Williams, executive director of the Florida State Board of Administration, which oversees $145 billion in public investments and pension money. “You don’t want to reward bad behavior and

ting less indebted. But US households are still carrying a staggering burden of debt.

As of June 30, roughly 1.6 million homeowners in the US were either delinquent on mortgages or in some stage of the foreclosure process, according to CoreLogic.

And the real estate data and analytics company reports that 10.9 million, or 22.5 percent, of US homeowners are underwater on their mortgage- meaning the value of their homes has fallen so much it is now below the value of their original loan.

CoreLogic said the figure, which peaked at 11.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, has declined slightly not because home prices are appreciating but because a growing number of mortgages are entering foreclosure. The nation’s banks, meanwhile, still have more than $700 billion in home equity loans and other so-called second lien debt outstanding on those US homes, according to SNL Financial.

Debts owed by American consumers account for almost half of the nearly $9 trillion in worldwide bonds backed by pools of mortgages, car loans, credit card debt and student loans, which were sold to hedge funds, insurers and pension funds

and endowments. And that doesn’t include the $4.1 trillion in mortgage debt sold by government-sponsored finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, has said the ongoing crisis should be called the “Second Great Contraction” because US households remain highly leveraged. He says the high level of consumer debt is what distinguishes this from other recessionary periods.

COMPETING INTERESTS For those in favor of a radical solution, there are a lot of headwinds. Any debt reduction initiative must confront the issue of “moral hazard” - the appearance of giving a gift to an unworthy borrower who simply made unwise spending choices.

Institutional investors who own securities backed by pools of mortgages are reluctant to see struggling homeowners get their mortgages reduced because that means those securities are suddenly worth less.

Any write-downs that banks are forced to take could imperil their capital levels.

Banks and bondholders, meanwhile, have competing interests. This is because mortgage write-downs depress the value of the securities in which mortgages are pooled and sold to investors. Big institutional investors like BlackRock have long argued that any meaningful principal reduction on a mortgage must also include a willingness by banks to take their own write-downs on any home equity loans, or second liens, taken out by the borrower on the property.

The banks continue to hold those second liens on their balance sheets and so far have been reluctant to mark down the value of those loans, even though the borrower often has fallen behind on their primary mortgage payments. In other words, bondholders are taking the position if they must suffer losses, so must the banks.

“Institutional investors, pension funds and hedge funds all have fiduciary obligations and they can’t necessarily agree to haircuts solely because it may be good social policy,” Sylvie Durham, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig in New York, who practices in the structured finance and derivatives area.

Tad Rivelle, chief investment officer of fixed-income securities at TCW, which manages about $120 billion of which $65 billion is in US fixed income, doesn’t support a big haircut. But he says he can see why some economists and consumer advocates would favor debt reductions and debt workouts as way of dealing with the financial crisis and freeing up more money for spending.

TIME FOR A MEDIATOR? Given the standoff, there’s a sense nothing will happen unless federal policymakers make the first move. The Fed reports that 71 percent of household debt in the US is mortgage-related. But so far Washington policymakers seem more content to rely on voluntary measures. The two main programs set up by the Obama administration to reduce home mortgage debt - the Home Affordable Refinance Program and the Home Affordable Modification Program - have had limited success. To date, the US Treasury Department reports that those voluntary programs have resulted in 790,000 mortgage modifications, saving those borrowers an average of $525 a month in payments. Many of those modifications, however, were for borrowers paying high interest rates, not ones underwater on their mortgages.

In fact, Bank of America, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, said it has offered just 40,000 principal reductions to its borrowers. US administration sources told Reuters that they support the concept of carefully targeted principal reductions for underwater borrowers. But these sources, who did not want to be identified, say the administration cannot mandate banks and bondholders to accept any principal reductions absent Congress authorizing the procedure.

The sources point out that federal authorities don’t have a “magic wand” even at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed home-loan titans.

These sources explain that even though Fannie and Freddie are effectively owned by the federal government, they are controlled by an independent regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. And it’s up to the FHFA, and not the administration, to approve any principal reductions on home loans involving Fannie and Freddie. An FHFA spokeswoman declined to comment. The agency has repeatedly taken the position that its first job is protect taxpayers’ return on investment in Fannie and Freddie rather than reducing mortgages for underwater borrowers.

CLOCK TICKING The fear of some economists is that the economy may be going into a double dip recession. That means precious time is being lost if a negotiated approach to debt reduction isn’t taken now. But the banks also have their own big debt burdens to deal with. Next year alone, US banks and financial institutions must find a way to either pay off or refinance $307.8 billion in maturing debt, compared to the $182 billion that is coming due this year, according to Standard & Poor’s. — Reuters

European car sales fall French market ‘resisting well’; Spain worst hit

HONG KONG: A trader reacts at Hong Kong’s Stock Exchange in Hong Kong yesterday.

Stocks took another battering yesterday after Greece admitted it won’t meet its deficit reduction targets, raising renewed fears that the country will not get crucial bailout loans it needs to avoid a default. — AP

Investors pin hopes on Q4 LONDON: After a torrid quarter for stocks, investors look to the year’s final three months- traditionally the best period for equities-to repair portfolios and find ways to deliver returns in a slowing economy and deepening euro zone debt crisis. There are plenty of reasons to keep investors nervous in the coming week. Euro zone finance ministers meet in Luxembourg on Monday but they are unlikely to decide on the next Greek aid tranche or plans to bolster the bloc’s rescue fund.

The closely-watched US non-farm employment report on Oct. 7 could reinforce expectations that the economy is slowing down.

However, with gloom so widespread, it does not take a lot to turn the mood around. At its policy meeting on Thursday, the European Central Bank may start preparing the ground for an interest rate cut-speculation about which triggered a mini-rally in risky assets earlier this month.

World stocks, measured by MSCI, which were down 17 percent in the third quarter, look like posting their poorest performance since Q4 in 2008, after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. The benchmark index has fallen 21 percent since hitting a three-year high in May. Investors have been certainly sitting on the sidelines. Surveys of 59 leading investment houses in the United States, Europe and Japan showed they held 6.3 percent of their portfolio in cash, the highest since at least 2009. Lipper data shows US money market funds attracted $6.2 billion in the week ending Sept 28, while equity funds suffered outflows of $5.9 billion.

“While equity markets will stay volatile in the short term capped by problems within Europe and concerns about global growth, our view is that as we progress through these we do eventually get some kind of resolution

in Europe,” said Alec Letchfield, chief investment officer at HSBC Asset Management.

“Equities ought to focus on good valuations.

Also the high cash levels-we would see it as opportunity of money going into markets and typically that’s a good sign for equities rallying in due course.” Reuters data shows world stocks have on average risen 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter, making it the best period for equities since 1971.

INCOME FOCUS Rather than sitting on the sidelines, asset managers must find investment opportunities if they are to deliver inflation-beating returns. Patrick Armstrong, fund manager at Distinction Asset Management, likes highyielding stocks as the global economy will be mired in a combination of slow growth and inflation. “Disinflationary forces from emerging markets will become inflationary forces in the developed market,” he said. “We are in a stagflationary environment, that’s the most toxic environment for investors. For equities we are in sectors that have stable cash flows that pay dividend above inflation. Dividend is a pure play to hedge against inflatiandon.”

Distinction Asset Management likes pharmaceuticals, where dividend yield stands at 56 percent, and utilities, while it shorts small cap US stocks. The fund also bought short-duration Greek bonds maturing in March next year, which were hedged until July by short positions on European banks. “There’s a small chance that we can get 100 percent back while the bureaucratic machine moves slowly,” Armstrong said. JP Morgan’s asset allocation team recommends buying high-dividend yield US equities against 10-year US Treasuries, reflecting increasing focus on income by real money investors such as pension funds and insurance companies. — Reuters

PARIS: Car sales in Spain fell to their lowest September total in 15 years and also dipped in France, leading analysts to say a gloomy economic outlook in Europe meant worse could be expected in coming months. Spanish car sales fell 1.3 percent year-on-year to 55,572 cars in September, industry association ANFAC said yesterday, blaming a VAT sales tax hike combined with the withdrawal of government subsidies for the grim figures. “We would have to go back to 1993 to find such a meagre market,” ANFAC said. “The consequences of having such a weak market can be seen in the country’s fleet of vehicles which has an average age of 10 years, one of the highest in Europe.”

In the first nine months, Spain saw a 20.7 percent dip in sales compared with the 2010 period. In France, the news was better, for now. Car sales fell 1.4 percent, carmakers’ association CCFA said, as the market held up in an unfavorable economic situation, particularly given a scrappage scheme was still boosting sales in September 2010. “The market is slowly going down, but it is resilient,” a CCFA spokesman said, adding CCFA now expected a bet-

ter outcome than its forecast for an 8-10 percent fall for the full year. For the first nine months, registrations were still in positive territory, up 0.2 percent.

DIFFICULT MONTHS AHEAD The darkening economic clouds on the horizon will however add uncertainty to the mix, with last year’s high comparison base also setting a high bar. “ The next few months will be more difficult, whether it is end-2011 or the beginning of 2012, especially because of the unfavorable comparison base,” Flavien Neuvy, head of credit provider Cetelem’s autos research unit. “But the market is resisting very well,” he said.

France’s scrappage scheme, introduced to boost sales amid the industry downturn, ran out at the end of 2010, but drivers could still register cars bought under the scheme until March. Xerfi analyst Philippe Gattet said in a research note that aggressive promotions by carmakers had helped support sales in France. “In any case, automobile statistics in the coming months will definitely be bad,” he said.

KIB and IBS discuss skills development KUWAIT: Dr Mahmoud Abul Eyoun, CEO at Kuwait International Bank (KIB) yesterday met with Dr Yacoub AlSayyed Yousuf Al-Refaei, Director of Institute of Banking Studies (IBS) to discuss ways in which IBS can support KIB in skills development, especially in decision making and human resources. Salem Qabazard, HR Executive Manager at KIB, said: “We have discussed with Dr AlRefaei, what methods could be used to utilize the expertise and programs of IBS to upgrade the professional level of the bank’s human resources as well as to develop their decision making skills.

“It is one of KIB priorities to cooperate with IBS. The meeting examined ways of cooperation in providing training courses to KIB staff and developing their professional skills by utilizing IBS ser vices in banking and financial sector in Kuwait”. Qabazard indicated that this visit had strengthened

the ties between IBS and KIB in the field of human resources, allowing KIB to benefit from the institute’s long experience of over 40 years as well as its range of specialized training courses in human resources. It is hoped that this cooperation will effectively upgrade the skills of human resources, ensuring that KIB would remain one of the leading Islamic institutions in Kuwait.

During the meeting with Dr Rifae, the possibility of preparing specialized banking and financial training programs which focus on developing the abilities of human resources in the Islamic banking domain was discussed. The meeting also covered the Bank’s concern to ensure that there is a dynamic working environment to help staff achieve the Bank’s business and financial targets and deliver a competitive and exciting range of diversified products and services for its customers.

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the economic context has been getting worse for several months and that the outlook is bad for the French economy.” Xerfi expected the French market to fall 5 percent in 2011.

ASIA, US SALES FIGURES Japanese auto sales, excluding 660cc minivehicles, rose 1.7 percent in September. Including 660cc minivehicles, sales fell 2.1 percent year-onyear. In India, Maruti Suzuki, 54.2 percent-owned

by Suzuki , said September sales fell 21 percent after a strike disrupted production. India’s top carmaker said the month-long strike at one of its plants had cost it about $135 million in lost output.

The strike ended on Saturday. The United States auto industry was expecting better news, with analysts forecasting a 9 percent rise to the highest level since April, when the Japan earthquake began to affect inventories and demand. However, the shaky economic outlook was expected to curb the industry’s recovery. US auto sales were due out later, along with data from Belgium and Italy. — Reuters

Gold in three-day rally LONDON: Gold headed for its third straight daily rise yesterday, having in September posted its largest monthly slide since 2008, after Greece warned it will miss deficit targets set to avoid bankruptcy, unleashing a sell-off in equities and commodities. European equities slid by more than 2 percent, while copper fell nearly 4 percent and crude oil dropped 1 percent, after Greece said it will miss the deficit targets set in July as part of a massive bailout package, showing that drastic steps to avert bankruptcy may not be enough.

Having staged its largest onemonth drop since the credit crunch of 2008 in September as the escalation in the Greek crisis prompted an investor stampede to the comparative safety of the dollar, gold has for now assumed its more habitual trading pattern of rising in times of financial or economic uncertainty. Spot gold rose by 2.2 percent to trade at $1,658.30 an ounce by 0944 GMT. US gold futures for December delivery rose 2.5 percent to $1,662.50 an ounce.

“Oil is down, so it does look like that classic safe-haven (play). it could all be down again in few hours time, so it’s hard to know if it’s a sustained recovery,” said Mitsubishi analyst Matthew Turner. “We have got Bernanke speaking tomorrow, we

have the ECB rate decision on Thursday and non-farm payrolls on Friday. So it’s a data-packed week .

You’d think the balance of the news would be gold-friendly, or at least what we used to describe as goldfriendly before it fell so sharply, which was bad economic data and bad economies and loose monetary policy. The problem for gold could be if any serious rallies will see selling into them if some people think it’s a good chance to get out.”

DATA BLITZ The European Central Bank holds a regular policy meeting this week at which it is widely expected to leave benchmark euro zone rates on hold at 1.5 percent and signal a shift in its interest-rate rise cycle after a raft of weak economic data and a rapid deterioration in funding conditions for some of the region’s more indebted nations. Also on the slate, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to testify on the economic outlook to the Joint Economic Committee yesterday. The head of the US central bank put markets on notice last week, signaling that despite already having spent trillions of dollars to stimulate growth, the Fed would do more if inflation falls too far and the threat of deflation grows. — Reuters

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Years

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Samsung grows ever bigger, but icon status elusive SEOUL: If you own a consumer electronics gadget, there’s a good chance something from Samsung makes it tick. The company has traveled far from its roots as a seller of cheap appliances in the 1970s and 1980s when South Korean products were more likely to be panned than praised internationally.

Over those decades it has grown to become the world’s biggest manufacturer of memory chips and LCDs - key components that let PCs, digital music players and smartphones store data and display it on flat, high-resolution screens. And they are inside the company’s own finished consumer products such as its top selling TVs and No. 2-ranked smartphones.

But Samsung still has a perception problem. It may be massive and its products known for high quality, but it has yet to mesmerize consumers. The idea the company is a follower, not a leader, risks being cemented by the global intellectual property battle that was ignited when Apple Inc. began legal action in April against Samung for what it says is uninhibited copying of its iPhone and iPad designs.

Sue Chung is someone Samsung should be winning over. Young, Korean and studying for grad school, she uses Apple’s iPhone for reasons including ease of use and a positive feeling about its maker. “The image is very important,” she said, sitting in a Seoul coffee shop. “Apple’s image is very free and more open.”

Within South Korea - a searingly ambitious nation that obsesses over its

international standings in anything measurable - pride in Samsung’s achievements is leavened by comparisons with Apple and its quarter century of game-changing products such as the Macintosh computer and iPhone.

If Samsung Electronics Co. is to live

icons of consumer culture. Being big alone no longer cuts it.

Illustrating Samsung’s heft, its net profit last year was more than five times the combined earnings of Japanese rivals Panasonic Corp., Sharp Corp., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and

SEOUL: Visitors look at mobile products near the Samsung Electronics smart phone Galaxy S II at a showroom in Seoul yesterday. If Samsung is to live up to the vaulting ambitions of its homeland and its top executives, many feel it must move beyond being a highly efficient imitator to creating products so original and seductive in function and design they become icons of consumer culture. — AP up to the vaulting ambitions of its homeland and its top executives, many feel it must move beyond being a highly efficient imitator to creating products so original and seductive in function and design they become

loss-making Sony Corp. Total sales in 2010 came to a company record of 154.6 trillion won ($136.6 billion), making Samsung the world’s biggest technology company by sales.

Yet even bigger dividends can come

from vision such as that possessed by Apple’s Steve Jobs or Akio Morita, the late co-founder of Sony, which popularized music-on-the-go with the 1979 introduction of its Walkman music player. Apple has a market capitalization of about $350 billion, while Samsung, which has seen its share price slump 11 percent this year, is worth much less - about $105 billion.

Tony Michell, a Seoul-based business consultant and author of a book on Samsung, said that the company’s dilemma is how to take advantage of its deep well of domestic brainpower.

“Koreans are immensely creative but their traditional culture of hierarchy doesn’t let them be creative,” he said. “And so Samsung has this problem that it has at the moment: A heavy cultural conservatism which is preventing full creativity.” The intellectual property battle under way with Apple has highlighted one of the perils of playing catch-up.

The Cupertino, California-based Apple, which spurred the smartphone boom with the launch of its iPhone in 2007, slammed Samsung in April by filing a lawsuit in the United States alleging the product design, user interface and packaging of its Android-based Galaxy brand of products “slavishly copy” the iPhone and iPad. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung, which supplies key components such as chips to Apple for its smart devices, has fought back with lawsuits accusing the US company of violating its patents. The battle is playing out in 10 countries, according to

Samsung, including the United States and South Korea. A German court recently ruled in Apple’s favor and banned direct sales of Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer, saying it “did not keep the necessary distance” from the iPad 2 in its design, the news agency dapd reported. A court ruling in Australia on Apple’s request to stop sales of the same tablet in that country is expected this week.

Samsung, meanwhile, has asked a Dutch court to prevent Apple from selling iPhones and iPads in the Netherlands, saying the U.S. company does not have licenses to use Samsung-patented 3G mobile technology in the devices.

A development sometimes overlooked amid the arguments over intellectual property is that Samsung, fueled by the Galaxy brand, is gaining fast in the rush to woo global smartphone consumers after a late start.

The company ranked No. 2 globally in smartphones behind Apple in the second quarter of this year, according to U.S.-based market research firm IDC, which cited the growing global popularity of the Galaxy S. Apple shipped 20.3 million iPhones for a market share of 19.1 percent, while Samsung’s results were 17.3 million smartphones and 16.2 percent market share. Samsung and other manufacturers, however, are far behind Apple in tablets, where the US company controlled 80 percent of the North American market in the second quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.— AP

Apple to unveil powerful new smartphone this week ‘Let’s talk iPhone’

SAN FRANCISCO: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison delivers a keynote at the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 on Sunday in California. — AFP

Oracle uses Sun to put heat on IBM, HP: Ellison SAN FRANCISCO: Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison on Sunday boasted that the acquisition of business computer equipment firm Sun Microsystems had helped turn up the heat on rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Ellison kicked off Oracle’s annual conference in San Francisco by touting high performance systems created by combining Sun hardware with the business software for which his company is known. “When we first bought Sun, people said we would get out of the hardware business,” Ellison said during an opening presentation at the conference.

“I guess we didn’t get the memo,” he quipped before extolling the power and cost-efficiency of Oracle machines such as Exadata, Exalogic, and Sparc Super Cluster. At one point Ellison displayed the title of the Ernest Hemingway novel “The Sun Also Rises” on a giant screen as he mocked critics who said the acquisition meant Sun was dead.

“You know, every night the sun sets but the sun also rises,” Ellison said. Oracle bought Sun in a 5.17-billion-euro (7.57billion-dollar) deal completed early last year after it got the clearance of competi-

tion watchdogs in Europe. Acquiring Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star and developer of the popular Java programming language, put software titan Oracle in the hardware business as a rival to longtime partners such as IBM and HP. Ellison boasted computing systems “orders of magnitude” faster than competitors and prior generations by using multiple devices working simultaneously to process, store, or organize information. He also unveiled an Exalytics Intelligence Machine crafted to find and analyze stored data “at the speed of thought.”

“If you design the hardware and software in concert you can do a better job,” Ellison said. “Apple, for example, is doing a pretty good job designing hardware and software.” Approximately 45,000 people have registered to attend the weeklong Oracle Open World gathering, which is packed with sessions focused on using the Northern California company’s technology.

The event is known for its grand moments, which this week will feature laser light shows and music performances by Sting and Tom Petty. — AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple fans are amped. The computer and gadget maker is expected to announce a new, more powerful version of its wildly popular smartphone this week - more than a year after it unveiled the iPhone 4. Last week, Apple Inc. e-mailed invitations to a media event at its headquarters in Cupertino on Tuesday morning. The invite says “let’s talk iPhone,” implying the normally secretive company intends to show off the latest version of the device. In the past, Apple has typically introduced a new iPhone during the summer, but this year it was expected to hold off until the fall.

It has been 15 months since Apple began selling the iPhone 4 last June. The first iPhone was revealed in 2007, and the phone’s signature slick looks, high-resolution screen and intuitive software made it incredibly popular from the start (the rollout of Apple’s iTunes App Store in 2008 helped, too). In addition to gaining millions of fans over the years - 39 million iPhones were sold just between January and the end of June - the iPhone and its large App Store have sparked fierce competition from smartphone makers such as those using Google Inc.’s Android software, which was first rolled out in 2008.

Beyond the iPhone itself, the Tuesday event is anticipated as Apple’s first major product unveiling in years that won’t be led

by Steve Jobs, who resigned from the CEO post in August after being out on indefinite medical leave since January. The Apple cofounder is now its executive chairman. And though Jobs did emerge from medical leave twice this year to present Apple’s innovations - most recently in June to show off its new mobile software and iCloud content storage service - his successor, Tim Cook, is likely to take the lead this time.

Though not nearly as recognizable as Jobs, Cook, formerly Apple’s chief operating officer, has been running Apple since January. For years, he has been in charge of Apple’s dayto-day operations, and he has long been seen as the natural successor. He also served as Apple’s leader for two months in 2004 while Jobs battled cancer and again for five-and-ahalf months in 2009 when Jobs received a liver transplant. Perhaps more important to Apple fans than who is presenting is what the company will reveal on Tuesday. A new iPhone is expected to have a number of changes, the biggest of which will likely be

under the hood: The inclusion of Apple’s latest iOS mobile software, iOS 5, which has been slated for release this fall.

IOS 5 will include things such as wireless device setup and content synching and beefed-up camera, e-mail and Web browsing apps. A new service called iMessage will allow iOS 5 users to send text messages to each other over Wi-Fi or wireless carriers’ data networks, while a folder called Newsstand

The existing iPhone has a 5-megapixel camera on its rear. A number of recently released smartphones have moved to 8-megapixel cameras. One of the most notable hardware changes many industry watchers are predicting is the inclusion of a more powerful chip: Apple’s dual-core A5 processor, which is the same chip it uses in its current iPad. The iPhone 4 runs on Apple’s older A4 chip, and the move to a more capable chip should

SEOUL: Children try out Apple’s iPads at a showroom in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. —AP will corral newspaper and magazine app subscriptions in one place to make it easier to find them. When it comes out, the software will also be available for Apple’s iPad, iPhone 4 and 3GS and the two most recent generations of the iPod Touch.

A new iPhone is also expected to include Apple’s forthcoming iCloud service, which will store content such as music, documents, apps and photos on Apple’s servers and let you access them wirelessly on numerous devices.

As for hardware, a new iPhone isn’t expected to look that much different from the iPhone 4, though it could be thinner and have a bigger screen. The existing iPhone is 0.37 inches thick and has a display measuring 3.5 inches at the diagonal.

An improved camera is anticipated, too.

improve things such as multitasking, opening apps and gaming. Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said a more powerful chip would be key for getting a feature like voice recognition on the iPhone, which is common on phones running Google Android software. Longtime Apple analyst Tim Bajarin said he wouldn’t be surprised to see voice recognition either.

Despite speculation that Apple may show more than one new iPhone today, Wu is skeptical. He thinks that in addition to a single new iPhone the company is likely to start selling a version of the existing iPhone 4 with less memory for $99.

That would be $100 less than what you’d currently pay to get the cheapest iPhone 4 from one of its two US wireless carriers, AT&T or Verizon Wireless, with a two-year contract. — AP

Retailers bank on Kindle Fire for holidays

TOKYO: Models pose with Japanese electronics company Toshiba’s 55-inch sized glasses-free 3D television called the “Regza 55X3’, which has “Quad Full High Definition” (QFHD) with a 3,840 x 2,160-pixel LCD display and which shows 2D and 3D high definition images, during a preview at Asia’s largest electronics trade show CEATEC (Cutting-Edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition) in Chiba City, suburban Tokyo, yesterdaty. Toshiba will put the Regza 55X3 on the market in December.— AFP

NEW YORK: Amazon’s Kindle Fire is a Catch-22 for retailers: The $199 tablet computer could both help Christmas traffic and hurt future sales. Retailers hope the Kindle Fire’s low price tag - which is less than half that of Apple’s cheapest iPad tablet - will attract shoppers to stores during the busy holiday season. But the device, which offers free shipping and other incentives for customers to shop at Amazon, ultimately could drive sales to their online nemesis.

“I could impulse shop,” said Robin Rothberg, 33, a lecturer at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. “My phone is too small and my laptop is too cumbersome to start on a whim. But a tablet would put e-commerce nearly instantly at my fingertips, anytime.” That’s the dilemma retailers now face. Tablets are almost sure

to be a big hit this holiday season for the likes of Wal-Mart and Best Buy. But at a time when more consumers are eschewing big -box stores to shop online, tablets are making it easier for them to do so.

In fact, a Forrester Research study found that more shoppers who browse on tablets tend to buy and place bigger orders - than they do when using personal computers or smartphones.

“Every electronics retailer has said that tablets are going to be a cornerstone of holiday offerings, so it is important to have the product in stores,” says R.J. Hottovy, a Morningstar analyst. But, “It could work against them, very much so.”

Retailers long have depended on electronic gadgets to drive sales during the holiday period. (Think: smartphones last year and flatscreen TVs the Christmas before.)

New products during the holidays can build buzz and drive traffic to stores, which can lead to higher sales during the two-month period in which retailers can make up to a third of their annual revenue.

This year is no exception.

Forrester Research expects 24 million tablets will be sold in 2011, topping the estimated 20 million PCs that are expected to be sold, but short of the 29 million laptops that are expected to sell.

Apple’s iPad2, the cheapest model of which costs $499, is the dominate player. The iPad accounts for three out of every four tablets sold. Other tablets make up a small percentage of the market, including the Motorola Xoom ($499 for the Wi-Fi only version); the Blackberry PlayBook

(starting at $499); and CherryPad’s CherryPal ($190.)

The Kindle Fire, which was unveiled last Wednesday, is the first tablet that’s expected to be a formidable competitor to the iPad2. Forrester Research predicts Amazon could sell 3 million of the tablet that runs on Google Inc.’s Android software by year’s end.

Meanwhile, Apple has sold nearly 29 million since it released the first one in April 2010.

“We think these Kindles are going to be some of the hottest gifts this year,” said Brian Dunn, CEO of Best Buy Co., the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer that has been struggling in the down economy. He adds that tablets and electronic readers have “captivated consumers.” But Amazon’s tablet could do more than that. — AP

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Soviet-era pill from Bulgaria helps smokers quit LONDON: A pill developed in Bulgaria during the Soviet era shows promise for helping millions of smokers cheaply and safely kick the habit, the first big study of it shows. It could become a new weapon to combat smoking in poor countries, but it is unclear whether it will ever reach the market in the US or Western Europe.

The drug, cytisine, is now used just in Eastern Europe, where smokers usually take the pill for three or four weeks.

Generic versions cost as little as $5 to $17 a month, compared with about $100 for an eight-week supply of nicotine patches or about $300 for a 12week supply of Pfizer Inc.’s Chantix pill common treatments in rich countries to help smokers quit.

Cytisine “is so cheap that even in developing countries, if you can afford to smoke, you can afford to stop,” said Dr. Robert West of University College London. He led the study, published in Thursday’s New England Journal of

Medicine.

Cytisine, sold as Tabex by Sopharma AD, a Bulgaria-based company, is derived from laburnum seeds, which contain a natural nicotine substitute.

West said it was discovered when much of the Soviet Union’s drug research was farmed out to Bulgaria. Russian soldiers referred to it as “fake tobacco,” West said.

New research suggests the drug can triple smokers’ chances of being off cigarettes after one year compared with those taking a dummy pill. It has been sold in Eastern Europe for about 40 years but has not been approved in Western Europe or the United States.

Extab, a Sopharma subsidiar y, has bought worldwide rights to sell it and plans to market it cheaply in developing countries like China and India.

Some experts are unsure it will ever make it to Western markets without larger trials - and without a big pharmaceutical stepping in to pay for them. “It is possible that extensive bureaucracy

and overcautious regulations will prevent its use in the U.S. and Europe,” said Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University Hospital in London.

Hajek said if a big drugmaker got involved, the price would probably jump.

About 95 percent of smokers who try to quit without help fail within six months, and more than two- thirds of the world’s 1 billion smokers live in developing countries. Smoking is the world’s leading cause of preventable death.

The new study was the first major test of cytisine’s safety and effectiveness. It involved 740 smokers in Poland.

For 25 days, half were given cytisine and half received dummy pills. Neither they nor their doctors knew which treatment they were getting. After one year, 2.4 percent of those on dummy pills had stopped smoking versus 8.4 percent of the people on cytisine (often pro-

nounced like “citizen”). The study did not compare cytisine to other smoking-cessation treatments, but experts said the results were on par with those of many alternatives. It had a lower success rate than the 15 to 30 percent seen in studies with Chantix, but that drug carries warnings about possible psychiatric risks.

Nearly 14 percent of people taking cytisine reported stomach problems such as nausea, versus 8 percent of the people on dummy pills. There were two deaths in the group taking cytisine, from lung cancer and cardiac arrest, and three deaths in the placebo group, from lung cancer, stroke and respiratory problems. Dizziness and sleep problems were a little more common among cytisine users.

There have been no signs of any serious side effects in the more than 7 million people who have taken cytisine in the past 40 years, according to records from regulatory agencies in countries

where the drug is licensed.

Patients are given the pills to satisfy their nicotine cravings, then are slowly weaned off the drug. They start with six pills a day, cutting down to just two by the end of the treatment.

The study was paid for by Britain’s Medical Research Council, while the cytisine and the placebo pills were provided by Sopharma AD. West and one other study author reported having consulted for drugmakers, including several that make kick-the-habit products. West also has a patent pending on a nicotine delivery device.

Cytisine “looks promising, but the jury is still out,” said Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Inter ventions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who had no role in the study. Fiore said that more studies are needed to confirm the findings, but that an inexpensive antismoking drug would be useful anywhere. — AP

Nobel medicine prize honours work on body’s defences Dead scientist awarded

OAK BROOK: In this file photo of March 13, 1991, (then) McDonald’s Corp. President Ed Rensi shows off the McLean Deluxe Burger during a news conference at the company’s Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters.

The lower fat hamburger made with seaweed derivative never really caught on with customers. — AP

Salads are nice, but burgers really sell NEW YORK: Americans talk skinny but eat fat. No matter that First Lady Michelle Obama has been on a crusade for a year and a half to slim down the country. Never mind that some restaurants have started listing calories on their menus. Forget even that we keep saying we want to eat healthy. When Americans eat out, we order burgers and fries anyway.

“If I wanted something healthy, I would not even stop in at McDonald’s,” says Jonathan Ryfiak, 24, a New York trapeze instructor who watches his diet at home but orders comfort foods like chicken nuggets and fries when he hits a fast-food joint. In a country where more than twothirds of the population is overweight or obese, food choices are often made on impulse, not intellect. So, while 47 percent of Americans say they’d like restaurants to offer healthier items like salads and baked potatoes, only 23 percent tend to order those foods, according to a survey last year by food research firm Technomic.

That explains the popularity of KFC’s Double Down, a sandwich of bacon and cheese slapped between two slabs of fried chicken. It’s the reason IHOP offers a Simple & Fit menu with yogurt and fruit bowls, but its top seller remains a 1,180-calorie breakfast sampler of eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns and pancakes. It’s also why only 11 percent of parents ordered apple slices as an alternative to fries in McDonald’s Happy Meals.

The mixed message hasn’t stopped many restaurants from offering healthier fare. After all, the government has stepped up its oversight - and influence - over the

industry that it blames for America’s expanding waistline. National rules about putting calorie information on menus are expected to take effect next year and Mrs. Obama touts restaurants and companies that slash calories in foods.

But revamping a menu can be difficult and expensive, requiring months or even years. It took Dunkin’ Donuts four years to figure out how to make its doughnuts without trans fat - which doctors say is one of the unhealthiest types of fat - without altering the taste. And efforts to curb unhealthy eating aren’t always fruitful. In 2009, a year after New York made chains start listing calories on menus, only 15 percent of diners ordered lower-calorie foods, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.

Most restaurants won’t share specifics about how their salads and veggie omelets compete when they’re up against burgers and crepes. But the healthy stuff appears to be only a small proportion of revenue at most chains.

The IHOP pancake house, owned by DineEquity Inc., says that Simple & Fit sales have roughly doubled in the year since the menu was introduced. But it still makes up only a single-digit percentage of revenue.

The Cheesecake Factory, which introduced a “Skinnylicious” menu in August featuring entrees with 590 calories or less, says those foods have also performed well.

But sales of its decadent cheesecakes are up too. “We recognize that ‘cheesecake’ is in our name,” said Alethea Rowe, senior director of restaurant marketing. There’s a host of reasons for the disparity between word and deed. —AP

STOCKHOLM: Three scientists who unlocked secrets of the body’s immune system, opening doors to new vaccines and cancer treatments, won the 2011 Nobel prize for medicine yesterday.

American Bruce Beutler and French biologist Jules Hoffmann, who studied the first stages of immune responses to attack, share the $1.5 million award with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman, whose discovery of dendritic cells in the 1970s is key to understanding the body ’s next line of defence against disease.

Ralph Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discoveries about the immune system but hours later his university said that he had been dead for three days. The Nobel committee had been unaware of Steinman’s death and it was unclear whether the prize would be rescinded because Nobel statutes don’t allow posthumous awards.

Nobel committee member Goran Hansson said the Nobel committee didn’t know Steinman was dead when it chose him as a winner and was looking through its regulations. “It is incredibly sad news,” Hansson said. “We can only regret that he didn’t have the chance to receive the news he had won the Nobel Prize. Our thoughts are now with his family.”

The trio’s discoveries have enabled the development of improved vaccines against infectious diseases. In the long term they could also yield better treatments of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and chronic inflammatory diseases, Hansson said.

“This year’s Nobel laureates have revolutionised our understanding of the immune system by discovering key principles for its activation,” the award panel at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said in a statement in Stockholm.

Lars Klareskog, who chairs the prize-giving Nobel Assembly, told Reuters: “I am very excited about what these discoveries mean. I think that we will have new, better vaccines against microbes and that is very much needed now with the increased resistance against antibiotics.”

Beutler, 53, is based at the Scripps Research Institute in La

Saw palmetto doesn’t ease prostate symptoms BOSTON: Saw palmetto, a plant extract sold as a natural boost to urinary health, doesn’t improve the symptoms of enlarged prostate in middle-aged men, a US study said. Even at high dosages, men taking saw palmetto daily didn’t report any more improvement in symptoms, such as needing to urinate frequently or urgently, than those taking a drug-free placebo pill, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Even pushing up to the highest dose ... we couldn’t see a benefit greater than placebo,” said Michael Barry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the study.

The plant extracts are sold by many supplement and vitamin companies and are available over-the-counter for a few dollars for a month’s worth of capsules. They’re marketed to support prostate and urinary health.

For the study, Barry and his col-

leagues randomly assigned 369 men with urinary symptoms to take either saw palmetto capsules or a placebo daily for almost a year and a half. Every few months, researchers stepped up the dose until men taking saw palmetto were getting 960 milligrams each day.

Urinary symptoms were measured on a scale from 0 to 35 based on men’s own reports. A two-point decrease in score is considered a “slight” improvement, while at three points men can notice a difference in their everyday lives. From the onset to the close of the study, men in the saw palmetto group had an average decrease in symptom scores from 14.2 to 12.2 — a 2.2-point improvement. Men getting the placebo started out with an average score of 14.7, which decreased three points to 11.7.

There was no difference in symptoms between men taking any dose of saw palmetto versus those in the place-

bo group. “We’ve always known that there’s a pretty big placebo effect with bothersome urinary symptoms,” Barry told Reuters Health.

Barry said the findings don’t mean that nobody should take the plant extract, even if its only benefit may come from men believing it will help. “It appears there were essentially no side effects, and that some men improved. I wouldn’t object to men giving it a try to see how it worked for them,” he added.

GNC, which manufactures and sells multiple types of saw palmetto capsules to support “healthy prostate function,” declined to comment on the study. But Stephen Bent, who studies alternative therapies at the University of California, San Francisco, and didn’t take part in the study, said that the research showed “very definitively” that saw palmetto doesn’t ease the urinary trouble caused by an enlarged prostate.— Reuters

Jolla, California. Luxembourgborn Hoffmann, 70, conducted much of his work in Strasbourg.

They will share half the 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.46 million) of prize-money. The rest goes to Steinman, 68, from Rockefeller University in New York.

The work of the three scientists has been pivotal to the development of improved types of vaccines against infectious diseases and novel approaches to fighting cancer. The research has helped lay the foundations for a new wave of “therapeutic vaccines” that stimulate the immune

microorganisms. Steinman’s work, explained how, if required, dendritic cells in the next phase, adaptive immunity, kill off infections that break through.

Understanding dendritic cells led to the launch of the first therapeutic cancer vaccine last year, Dendreon’s Provenge, which treats men with advanced prostate cancer.

“We live in a dangerous world.

Pathogenic microorganisms threaten us continuously,” the Nobel panel said, describing the work over the decades in understanding our defences.

usually the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year. Prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

The award citation noted that the world’s scientists had long been searching for the “gatekeepers” of immune response.

Hoffmann’s pioneering research was conducted on fruit flies, highlighting how key elements of modern human biology have been conserved through evolution.

The immune system exists pri-

BERN: In this Nov. 23, 2007 photo, Bruce Beutler, left, and Jules Hoffmann, right, receive the Balzan Prize in Bern, Switzerland. The Nobel committee says American Bruce Beutler and Luxembourg-born scientist Jules Hoffmann have shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in medicine with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman, yesterday. — AP system to attack tumours.

Better understanding of the complexities of the immune system has also given clues for treating inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, where the components of the self-defence system end up attacking the body’s own tissues.

Beutler and Hoffmann discovered in the 1990s that receptor proteins act as a first line of defence, innate immunity, by recognising bacteria and other

“ The first line of defense, innate immunity, can destroy invading microorganisms and trigger inflammation ... If microorganisms break through this defense line, adaptive immunity is called into action ... It produces antibodies and killer cells that destroy infected cells ... These two defense lines ... provide good protection against infections, but they also pose a risk ...: inflammatory disease may follow.”

Medicine, or physiology, is

marily to protect against infections but it can also protect against some cancers by targeting rogue cells before they proliferate.

Sometimes, however, the immune system goes into overdrive and attacks healthy tissue, leading to autoimmune inflammatory diseases, such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, as well as rheumatoid arthritis. The effect is often compared to “friendly fire”, when troops hit their own comrades in combat. — Agencies

Despite boost in spending, Angolans languish in hospital LUANDA: In the Angolan hospital rooms that do have beds, two or three patients share each one, feeling fortunate not to be among the sick crowded into the corridors.

Angola has tripled its spending on health care since 2006, but for the vast majority of Angolans who can’t afford sparkling new private clinicsor better yet, care abroad-a trip to the hospital is still a nightmare.

Morena Simao is still shocked at her experience giving birth in the Cajueiro public hospital. “I was just abandoned to my fate. My life and my baby’s life were at risk, because the nurses were sleeping,” she told AFP. “They pretended not to have seen me and not to have heard my cries of pain. They told me to shut up, they told me I was making too much noise and that the night is for sleeping.” Simao had already lost a son under similar circumstances at the same hospital, and was afraid

that she’d have to live through that torment again. “I gave birth without help from midwives or nurses. They came when the baby was already born, and was lying in the cold on the ground. For them, it was enough to cut the umbilical cord,” she said.

Later, they asked for a tip, she added.

Similar scenes unfold daily in public hospitals across the country, where patients wait on the ground outside emergency rooms, which is perhaps better than fighting the crowds and the overwhelming stench inside.

Angola’s health care system collapsed during the 27-year civil war that ended in 2002. Despite its oil wealth, in 2006 Angola ranked ninth from the bottom in the world on health spending, which accounted for just 2.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Since then, spending per person has tripled from $64 to $204, according to World Health Organisation

data. ‘Endure public hospitals’-Yet Angola still has less than one doctor for every 10,000 people, while battling to eradicate preventable diseases like polio. At the same time, some improvements have been made. Life expectancy remains low at 52, but is seven years longer than in 2005. During that time child mortality has steadily declined, and the number of babies receiving basic immunisations has roughly doubled.

“The Angolan government recognises that there are certain problems in public hospitals, notably the lack of doctors, nurses and equipment for patients,” Health Minister Jose Vieira Dias Van-Dunem said after a recent meeting on conditions in hospitals. “Despite these difficulties, the government is making important efforts to improve the sanitary situation in the country’s hospitals,” he said, pointing to the increase in spending. — AFP

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Daily aspirin tied to risk of vision loss: Study LONDON: Seniors who take aspirin daily are twice as likely to have late stage macular degeneration, an agerelated loss of vision, than people who never take the pain reliever, according to a European study.

The data do not show that aspirin causes vision loss.

But the findings, published in Opthalmology, are of concern if aspirin somehow exacerbates the eye disorder, given how many seniors take it daily for heart disease.

“For people who have age-related macular degeneration, it probably isn’t wise to recommend taking aspirin,” said William Christen of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in the study.

Researchers led by Paulus de Jong at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical Center collected health and lifestyle information from nearly 4,700 people over age 65. The study included Norwegian, Estonian, British, French, Italian, Greek and Spanish seniors.

Of the 839 people who took aspirin each day, 36 had an advanced form of the disease called wet macular degeneration- or about four out of every 100 daily aspirin users. In comparison, roughly two out of every 100 people who took aspirin less frequently had the same type of macular degeneration.

The wet form of the condition, caused by leaking blood vessels in the eyes, leads to vision loss in the center of the eye’s field of vision. The dry form is more common and less severe, although people still suffer visual impairment. Together, wet and dry macular degeneration make up the leading causes of vision loss among people over age 60, afflicting millions of US residents.

The researchers found that aspirin use was not tied to the dry form, nor to earlier stages of the disease. “I don’t think that’s surprising,” Christen told Reuters health. “I think the effects of aspirin may be different in the early stages of age-related macular degeneration than in the late stages.”

De Jong told Reuters Health there has been controversy over the link between CARDIOVASCULAR disease and macular degeneration. He wrote in an email that his team had analyzed as “meticulously as possible” whether cardiovascular disease might have influenced the results, and still found that aspirin users-regardless of their heart health-are at a greater risk of the more serious type of vision loss. For people with cardiovascular disease who take aspirin to prevent the condition from worsening, the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks to visual health, he added.

“A healthy eye with full visual capacities is of no use in a dead body,” he said. Larger studies that follow people over time and document their aspirin use and vision will help resolve aspirin’s role in macular degeneration, de Jong added. — Reuters

Taste of cherished fish eludes many Bangladeshis DHAKA: From time immemorial, Bangladeshis have been passionate about hilsha fish, a strongly flavoured, whitefleshed fish known for its mouthwatering smell while cooking-and a required menu item at New Year’s and other family celebrations.

But the dazzling silver creature that was declared the country’s national fish upon independence in 1971 now has become a much rarer sight on tables due to rising prices, in large part driven by strong demand from giant neighbour India.

“I loved to eat hilsha when I was a child and later learnt from my mother how to cook it. Culinary excellence is incomplete without this treat,” said Nazmin Ara, a Dhaka housewife.

“For us, now it is a luxury item with an unaffordable price.” Traders said a 1 kg hilsha now sells at 1,000 taka ($13.30) in retail markets in Dhaka, double the price of two years ago, although fishermen say the volume of the catch has, paradoxically, risen over the years.

Though the price was always beyond the reach of the poor, middle- and upperclass Bangladeshis ate it frequently, often with rice and baked chili. But now it has vanished from even their tables except for special occasions such as the New Year, meals with people from abroad, and state functions.

Buyers, and many officials, blame the jump largely on higher transport costs from the catch point to the markets and illegal sale of the fish to India, especially to its West Bengal state bordering Bangladesh, an area also passionate about eating it. Hilsha, also known as “ilish,” is mainly a sea species but prefers to lay its eggs in rivers due to no salinity and less

current. It is caught in all major Bangladeshi rivers, such as the Padma, Meghna and Jamuna, and their Bay of Bengal estuary.

According to Department of Fisheries, Bangladesh produced 340,000 tonnes of hilsha in the 2010-11 fiscal year which ended in June, 27,000 tonnes more than the previous year. “The transport cost is going higher every day, so we cannot sell them cheaply even if we wanted,” said Oli Ullah, a wholesale fish trader in Dhaka’s

along the river borders between the nations, which are impossible to completely control. In recognition of the esteem in which the fish is held by both countries, Bangladeshi governments often use hilsha to smooth ties with India, which surrounds its small neighbour on three sides, officials and analysts say.

“Whenever we host a VIP guest from India, authorities here wish to treat them with all varieties of dishes, but hilsha is a must,” said a senior government official

“For us, now it is a luxury item with an unaffordable price.” Traders said a 1 kg hilsha now sells at 1,000 taka ($13.30) in retail markets in Dhaka, double the price of two years ago, although fishermen say the volume of the catch has, paradoxically, risen over the years.

Kawran Bazar Area. “Also we do not have enough supply all the time. Tonnes of fish are being smuggled to India, pushing the price up in the local market,” he said. India imports hilsha through legal channels but the illegal exports are much larger, traders say, since it’s cheaper and also much less complicated because they bypass customs checks.

The Department of Fisheries said Bangladesh exported 5,376 tonnes of hilsha to India alone out of their total export of 8,500 tonnes in the fiscal year just ended. The rest went to the ethnic Bangladeshi markets in Europe and America.

But the actual exports are likely to be much higher due to active smuggling

who requested anonymity. “We are used to hilsha diplomacy.”

So entrenched is this custom that hilsha was even on the menu when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Dhaka recently, despite the fact that Singh is a vegetarian. It is not known if he tasted it. Truckloads of hilsha go to India each day. Dishonest traders often register them as non-fish cargo, border officials say.

“You can get it cheaper in Kolkata (the capital of West Bengal) than in Dhaka. It is really annoying and frustrating,” said Anwar Sadat, a Dhaka businessman who travels to India frequently and has friends there. Instead of addressing concerns that the uncontrolled smuggling may lead to a day not too far in the future when hilsha

will be completely out of reach for Bangladeshis, the government is instead trying to increase production.

“We have undertaken many motivational programmes to stop fishermen from netting baby hilsha and give them a chance to grow,” said Jahid Habib, director of the Jhatka Conser vation Project.

“Jhatka” refers to the young hilsha.

“Around 11,000 fishermen in seven districts of the hilsha zone spanning 7,000 square kilometres have already been provided alternative source of income during the breeding season.”

As part of the government’s efforts, Jahid said they have banned catching, hoarding, transporting and marketing of hilsha from October 6 to 16, when most of the fish lay eggs. Although mid-July is the best time to catch hilsa in the Bay of Bengal and the estuaries, fishery officials said the trend is now changing because of rising temperatures and climate change.

“Due to such changes, hilsha is now also caught from November to February,” said M. Asaduzzaman, a fishery officer in Charfashion. This increases the market supply in winter, further boosting both legal exports and smuggling-and tightening the local supply still more, keeping prices high. Unfortunately, fishermen are not benefitting. Faruque Majhi, a fisherman in the coastal town of Charfashion, said catching hilsha is no longer profitable since he has to sell it to middlemen at less than the market rate because he cannot take it to city markets himself.

“I have invested 300,000 taka ($4,000) for a net and fishing boat this season, but I have yet to recover the money,” he said.

“So I cannot help (myself ) and sometimes go catch the young fish, though I know it is illegal.” — Reuters

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inistry of Health Undersecretary Dr Ibrahim AlAbdulhadi celebrated the wedding of his son, Abdul-Aziz Al-Abdulhadi, to the daughter of Essam Al-Nahham. The event took place last Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel, and attended by ministers, lawmakers, ruling family members, and other dignitaries, in addition to media and MOH personnel.

The groom Abdul-Aziz Al-Abdulhadi

MOH undersecretary Dr Ibrahim Al-Abdulhadi

Father of the bride, Essam Al-Nahham

MOH undersecretary celebrates son’s wedding

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah in a group photo with Al-Abdulhadi and Al-Nahham on his left.

Head of the state’s apparatus for solving the stateless residents issue, Saleh Al-Fadhalah between undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi and the groom.

Minister of Health Dr. Helal Al-Sayer stands between the groom and undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi

KUNA Chief Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Sabah between undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi and the groom.

MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun between undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi and the groom. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

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he American University of Kuwait will host an exclusive Art Exhibition featuring the works of Matt Lamb from October 9-13, 2011. Alongside the exhibition, special workshops will also be conducted on all days, dedicated to Matt Lamb Umbrella for Peace project. The exhibition and workshop will be open to the general public on Thursday, October 13 from 10 am - 9 pm.

The Matt Lamb Umbrellas for Peace project is a global art project involving painting and decorating umbrellas by children and adults. The individual will artistically design umbrellas that represent their personal values of world peace. A subsequent parade happens throughout their neighborhoods or campus.

This is a manifestation of the individual bringing peace throughout their world that they live in.

AUK invited Matt Lamb as well as Matt Lamb Umbrella for Peace project to raise awareness among our student body as well as the rest of the county issues of peace. This event goes hand in hand with AUK’s liberal arts values and gives AUK the opportunity to showcase a great artist and well as a great cause.

“The Message of peace through art is a great way for AUK to encourage students to be active and socially aware citizens,” said AUK President Dr. Winfred Thompson.

AUK will bring the Matt Lamb Umbrellas for Peace project for the first time to Kuwait. The Project has

been conducted in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, USA, Thailand and Vietnam.

Matt Lamb is an internationally recognized selftaught painter whose works are represented in public and private collections throughout the world. He calls the world his home and travels extensively among his studios and art exhibitions while tirelessly campaigning for world peace. As an artist, sculptor, philosopher, and unstoppable globe-trotting dynamo, Matt Lamb is one of the most intriguing, confounding, pigeonholedefying phenomena in contemporary art.

The American University of Kuwait is a liberal arts institution, based on the American model of higher education. It is dedicated to providing students with knowledge, self-awareness, and personal growth experience that can enhance critical thinking, effective communication, and respect for diversity. AUK seeks to create leaders and life-long learners who aspire to the highest standards of moral and ethical responsibility in their societies.

Announcements Laif annual convention Here comes LAIF Annual Convention. The Life Abundant International Fountain Kuwait is holding its first annual convention at the National Evangelical Church, Kuwait (Neck Compound-Hall of Faith), Near Parliament House, Kuwait City from Thursday, October 6-9, 2011. It will commence on Thursday at 7 pm, Friday at 10 am, Friday at 10 pm, Saturday at 6 pm and Sunday at 6:30 pm. For more information, contact and transport, call 66332844 50611737, 66922052, 665SO209 or e-mail: laifkuwait@yahoo.co.uk, www.facebook.com/L.A.I.F.CHURCH.

Undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi stands between MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei on his right and the Jordanian Ambassador Juma’a Al-Abadi for a group photo.

Oman’s ambassador to Kuwait Salem Al-Ma’shani between undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi and the groom.

AUK to host art exhibition

Annual competition Tulu Koota Kuwait has great pleasure in inviting its valuable members to Tulukoota Kuwait annual competitions on 14th October 2011. It’s a unique opportunity to our members & their children to showcase their talent at the varied competitions. There will be singing, dance, fancy dress competitions for all age group, cute baby photo contest etc. Competitions will be held on Friday 14th October from 10 am onwards in Indian Community School (Senior Girls), Salmiya. For details, competition rules and registrations please contact 65044521, 65013887, 66958848, 97834578 Or visit our website www.tu1ukootakuwait.org or mail us at secretary@tulukootakuwait.org.

MP Jamaan Al-Harbash between undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi and the groom.

Undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi stands between MP Abdurrahman Al-Anjari on his right and Daifullah Buramia for a group photo.

Minister of Education and Higher Education Ahmad Al-Mulaifi between undersecretary Al-Abdulhadi and the groom.

Bangladesh Awami Seschsasebak celebrates Sheikh Hasina b’day

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he 651h birthday of ‘Deshrotno’ Sheikh Hasina the honorable prime minister of Bangladesh is being celebrated worldwide in befitting manner.

Awami Seschsasebak League Kuwait chapter also celebrated the auspicious occasion on 28th September.

The program was presided over by Mohammed Masud Karim president of Bangladesh Awami Seschsasebak league Kuwait chapter. The gallant freedom fighter, Bangladesh Awami League Kuwait chapter President and the chief patron of Bangladesh Awami Seschsasebak league Kuwait chapter Engineer Abdur Rab attended the celebration as chief guest.

Among the special guests were Shafiqur Rahaman advisor to the Bangladesh Awami Seschsasebak League Kuwait chapter, Abdur Rauf Mawla editor of monthly Marulekha and the ex-general secretary of Bangladesh Awami League Kuwait chapter, Literature Mohammed Ali Azam, Hasan Ali the general secretary of Joybangla Sankskritik Oikyojothe, Jahangir Hosen Bablu President of Jatiya Kabita Parisad Kuwait, Poet Selim Reza Editor of literary magazine Mrittika, Moinuddin Sumon the President of Bangladesh reporter’s unity in Kuwait.

Bangladesh Awami Seschsasebak league Kuwait

chapter’s organizing secretary Mohammed Kabir Hosen presented the program that commenced with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran. The introductory speech was delivered by Lak Miah-General Secretary of Bangladesh Awami Seschsasebak league Kuwait that followed the speeches delivered by Bahar Uddin Vice President of the league, James Rozario Joint secretary Nizam Uddin, Syed Mohammed Tayeb, Organizing secretary Delwar Hosen, Office Secretary Mohammed Rashed, legal affairs secretary Kazi Toufik, Mohammed Ashraf. All speakers in their respective speeches highlighted the socio-economic, cultural and political achievements of Bangladesh under the selfless and bold leadership of Bangabandhu’s daughter, the honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Leaders of Bangladesh Awami League and all its affiliates and associated organizations, socio-cultural organizations, journalists and business organization leaders as well as community leaders joined in cutting the birthday cake in honor of the symbol of commoner’s aspiration, people’s leader Sheikh Hasina.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription ended on 25 of April 2011.

To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211. nnnnnnn

Kuwait Times for

‘Most Beautiful Egyptian Child’ contest

By Sherif Ismail

T

he ‘Bawabat Al-Masreyeen’ (Egyptians Gate) Facebook page in Kuwait launched a course in operating the Photoshop program which deals with editing pictures and preparing designs.

There was also a contest for the picture of the most beautiful child among Egyptian community children in Kuwait. The contest started on the 29th of September. The results will be announced on Saturday, October 15 wherein, the top three winners will grace the Kuwait Times office to be awarded of their prices which include free lunch/dinner date at Swiss-Belhotel and a luxury wristwatch (First Prize), free lunch/dinner at SwissBelhotel and a food processor(Second Prize); free lunch/dinner at Swiss-Belhotel plus a coffeemaker (Third Prize).

It is worth mentioning that the Gate began dealing with the community’s problems two weeks ago, as it presents them to concerned officials, and the most important problem is that of Egypt Air so far. http://www.facebook.com/egykwt

Blood donation camp organized

by Sri Paritala Ravi Yuvasena

A

s part of the social responsibility “Sri Paritala Ravi Yuvasena” organized a Blood Donation Camp, on 30th September for a noble cause and in remembrance of their Dynamic Leader Paritala Ravi. This activity took place at Jabriya Blood Bank and went on till 5 pm on Friday. There was a huge response from the donors and it was organized very well. The organizer, President of “Sri Paritala Ravi Yuvasena” Lakshmipathi Naidu Ratakonda appreciated one and all who donated blood and support from elders and well wishers. In memory of the event, certificates were also given by the “Sri Paritala Ravi Yuvasena”.

Jabriya Blood Bank team also very happy to see such crowd of good people who came forward to donate and they have also given some token gifts to the donors.

Reddeiah Naidu Chundu, Chandra Babu Naidu Nagineni, Narasimha Naidu Nallapaneni, Nagendra Naidu

Maratu, Vegi Venkatesh Naidu, Sudhakar Naidu, Mohan Babu Kottapali, Manohar Naidu, Rajendra Naidu, Enduri, Naresh Tallapaneni, Ravi Nagineni, Ravi Siddavatam, Srinu Paladugu, Prabhakar Naidu Ravuluri, Dorababu Gurajala, Balaram Naidu Daruru, Subbarayudu Naidu Mulakala, Venkat Koduru, Sudhakar Rao, K Venkateswar Rao, Pendyala Babu Naidu, Deva Prasad Naidu, Malepati Gajendra, Payyavula Siva, Koti, Kancharla Naresh, Golla Mahesh, Potineni Venkatesh, Suresh, Chengaiah, Tota Sriram, Polavarapu Babu, Mani Sannapaneni, Murali Potturi, Satya, Gokul, Partha Sarathi, Karunakar Reddy, Malli Maratu, Vegi Ravi, Duggineni Pattabhi, Kaperla Pattabhi, Kakarla Chandra Sekhar took a lead especiale role in this event.

IKEA Restaurant & Cafe launches new sumptuous breakfast meals

I

KEA Restaurant & Cafe announced yesterday that it has launched a new IKEA Breakfast (meal) that pleases every taste. IKEA Breakfast consists of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and healthy bread roll, all cooked in 0% Trans oil.

In addition to the new breakfast menu, visitors can also choose a variety of breakfast items such as Foul, Beef Bacon, Freshly squeezed Orange Juice, Low Carb Muesli (mixed cereal), assorted low Carb breakfast snack bars and our bakery section offers assortments of croissants & Danish pastries.

IKEA Restaurant & Cafe upholds international quality standards and cultural preferences in its kitchen as well as its food and beverage service, with an objective of providing visitors the ability to take a break and enjoy a high quality of Swedish and local delicacies. The IKEA Restaurant and Cafe conveys and confirms the IKEA low-price profile by offering food and beverages at competitive prices.

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-uk-kw.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.

The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday. The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM52 57E.PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/5256E. PDF. 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

Kozhikode NRI association (KDNA) logo launched

K

ozhikode District NRI Association Logo was launched during the reception ceremony of M.K. Raghavan MP on 30th September held at Pravasi Auditorium Abbasiya.

Kalathil Abdurahiman, Acting President of KDNA presided over the reception ceremony while HK Mohan, First Secretary Indian Embassy Kuwait inaugurated the event and in his speech he appreciated good activities carried out by the KDNA. A memento was handed over to M.K Raghavan M.P by KDNA vice President Mrs. Asha Premraj and a traditional Ponnada

was presented by KDNA Charity & Welfare Secretary K. Ali Koya.

Indian Community School Joint Secretary Vijayan Karayil, OICC coordination committee General Convener Varghese Puthukulangara, KKMA President Abdul Fatah Thayyil, KDNA advisory board members Basheer Batha & Krishnan Kadalundi, KDNA executive member A.V. Shamsuddin, Organizing and Media Secretary Rasheed Payanthong made felicitation speeches.

KDNA Vice President Azeez Thikkodi handed over the memorandum to the

Chief Guest explaining the pressing issues of expatriates especially those who from Malabr region.

In reply M.K. Raghavan commented the noble activities of KDNA and he stressed that the laymen’s issue should be taken care of and he promised all the support as parliament member of Kozhikode.

As a token of appreciation for designing the KDNA logo a memento was presented to Don Francis by M.K Raghavan MP. First raffle coupon of upcoming KDNA Mega Program “Malabar Mahotsavam” which will be held on 4th November 2011

at Indian Central School Abbasiya, was released by Siddik Valiyakath and received

by Nixon George, Asianet T V Kuwait Bureau Chief.

Raju Sakariya, Siraj Eranhikkal, Jacob Channapetta, Riyas Ayanam, Adv. Thomas Panicker, Chacko George Kutty, Iqbal Kuttamangalam etc. were present in the ceremony.

KDNA General Secretary Suresh Mathur proposed welcome speech and Treasurer Santhosh Punathil proposed vote of thanks.

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Embassy of India will remain closed on the following dates during the month of October 2011. October 6, 2011 (Thursday) Dussehra; and October 26, 2011 (Wednesday) - Diwali. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy.

We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area Block 6 - Street 9 - Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316.

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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00:45 Dogs 101 01:40 Planet Earth 02:35 My Cat From Hell 03:30 Untamed & Uncut 04:25 Maneaters 05:20 Dogs 101 06:10 Animal ER 07:00 Monkey Life 07:25 The Really Wild Show 07:50 Natural Born Hunters 08:15 Safari Sisters 08:40 Breed All About It 10:05 Dogs 101 11:00 Animal Cops Houston 11:55 Pit Bulls And Parolees 12:50 Clinically Wild: Alaska 13:45 Planet Earth 14:40 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 15:30 Monkey Life 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Natural Born Hunters 17:00 Safari Sisters 17:25 Dogs 101 18:20 America’s Cutest...

19:15 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Planet Earth 22:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 22:55 Untamed & Uncut 23:50 Your Worst Animal Nightmares

00:00 00:30 01:05 01:50 02:40 03:10 03:30 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 11:25 12:15 12:45 13:15 14:10 15:40 16:30 17:15 17:45 18:15 19:10 20:00 20:45 21:15 21:45 22:40 23:30

Last Of The Summer Wine Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Holby City Blackadder Doctor Who Confidential Doctors 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 Gigglebiz Me Too Tellytales Poetry Pie Balamory Gigglebiz Me Too Tellytales Poetry Pie Last Of The Summer Wine The Weakest Link Dalziel And Pascoe Doctors Eastenders Holby City Last Of The Summer Wine Dalziel And Pascoe The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Holby City Dalziel And Pascoe The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Holby City The Fixer Blackadder

00:30 Come Dine With Me 01:20 What Not To Wear 02:10 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 02:50 Antiques Roadshow 03:45 Gok’s Fashion Fix 05:20 Come Dine With Me 06:10 Antiques Roadshow 07:00 James Martin’s Brittany 07:25 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets

07:50 The Hairy Bikers Ride Again 08:15 The Naked Chef 08:45 James Martin’s Brittany 09:10 The Naked Chef 09:35 Come Dine With Me 10:25 James Martin’s Brittany 10:50 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 11:30 Antiques Roadshow 12:25 Bargain Hunt 13:10 Daily Cooks Challenge 14:40 Bargain Hunt 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Antiques Roadshow 17:10 Come Dine With Me 18:00 Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets 18:25 The Hairy Bikers Ride Again 18:50 The Naked Chef 19:20 James Martin’s Brittany 19:40 Come Dine With Me 20:30 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 21:15 Antiques Roadshow 22:10 Bargain Hunt 22:55 Design Star 23:40 Design Star

00:00 BBC World News 00:30 World Business Report 00:45 Sport Today 01:00 BBC World News America 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Sport Today 02:00 BBC World News 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 Newsday 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Sport Today 04:00 Newsday 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 Newsday 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 Newsday 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 World Business Report 20:45 Sport Today 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 BBC World News America 23:30 Hardtalk

00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:00 03:25

Droopy: Master Detective The Flintstones Johnny Bravo Duck Dodgers King Arthur’s Disasters The Scooby Doo Show Popeye Classics Tom & Jerry Popeye

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 03:50 04:15 04:35 05:00 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:55 07:20 07:45 08:00 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:20 11:35 12:00 12:15 12:40 12:55 13:20 13:45 14:15 14:40 15:05 15:30 15:55 16:20 Doo 16:45 17:10 17:35 18:00 18:25 18:50 19:00 19:25 19:50 20:15 20:45 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:55 23:05 23:30 23:55

00:05 00:30 00:55 01:20

The Jetsons The Flintstones Looney Tunes Pink Panther & Pals Tex Avery Yogi’s Treasure Hunt The Garfield Show New Yogi Bear Show The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Pink Panther And Pals Puppy In My Pocket The Garfield Show Dastardly And Muttley The Flintstones Tom & Jerry Pink Panther And Pals Top Cat New Yogi Bear Show Puppy In My Pocket Popeye Classics Looney Tunes Wacky Races The Jetsons Duck Dodgers Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Tom & Jerry The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Droopy: Master Detective Wacky Races Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Puppy In My Pocket The Garfield Show The Flintstones Pink Panther & Pals Looney Tunes Yogi’s Treasure Hunt Top Cat Wacky Races Tom & Jerry The Scooby Doo Show Dastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Johnny Bravo Dexters Laboratory The Garfield Show Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop

Robotboy - Elements Squirrel Boy George Of The Jungle 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 Powerpuff Girls 05:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 05:55 I Am Weasel 06:20 Squirrel Boy 06:45 Cow & Chicken 07:00 Eliot Kid 07:05 Cow & Chicken 07:12 Eliot Kid 07:25 Angelo Rules 07:50 Best Ed 08:15 Flapjack 08:40 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 09:05 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 09:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 09:55 Cow & Chicken 10:20 I Am Weasel 10:35 Adventure Time 11:00 Ben 10 11:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 11:50 The Secret Saturdays 12:15 Samurai Jack 12:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 13:05 Codename Kids 13:30 Skunk Fu! 13:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 14:15 Flapjack 14:40 Ed, Edd n Eddy 15:05 Camp Lazlo 15:30 Chowder 15:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy

THE TRIPPER ON OSN ACTION HD

& Mandy 16:25 Cow & Chicken 16:50 Courage The Cowardly Dog 17:15 I Am Weasel 17:40 George Of The Jungle 18:05 Casper’s Scare School 18:30 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 18:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 19:20 Generator Rex 19:45 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 20:10 Hero 108 20:35 Bakugan: New Vestroia 21:00 Total Drama Island 21:25 Adventure Time 21:50 Billy And Mandy 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 22:50 The Secret Saturdays 23:15 Samurai Jack 23:40 Megas XLR

00:00 Backstory 00:30 World Sport 01:00 The Situation Room 02:00 World Report 03:00 World Business Today 04:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 05:00 Anderson Cooper 360 06:00 World Sport 06:30 African Voices 07:00 World Report 07:30 Backstory 08:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Inside Africa 11:00 World Business Today 12:00 American Morning: Wake-Up Call 12:30 News Special 13:00 World One 14:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today 17:00 International Desk 18:00 The Brief 18:30 World Sport 19:00 Prism 20:00 International Desk 20:30 World’s Untold Stories 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson

00:15 00:40 01:35 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 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

Swamp Brothers Extreme Fishing The Future Of...

Dirty Jobs Ultimate Survival Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear The Future Of...

How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings LA Ink LA Ink Ultimate Survival Extreme Fishing Swamp Brothers Cash Cab Us Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear The Future Of...

Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Auction Kings How Stuff’s Made How Do They Do It? Cash Cab Us LA Ink Animal Cops South Africa Pit Bulls And Parolees

00:05 The Tech Show 00:30 Kings of Construction 01:20 Stunt Junkies 01:45 Engineering Ground Zero 02:35 Brainiac 03:25 The Gadget Show 04:15 How Stuff’s Made 04:45 Kings of Construction 05:40 One Step Beyond 06:10 Nextworld 07:00 Thunder Races 07:55 When Aliens Attack 08:50 The Tech Show 09:15 Weird Connections 09:40 The Gadget Show 10:35 Nextworld 11:30 Sci-Fi Science 11:55 How Stuff’s Made 12:25 Engineering Ground Zero 13:15 When Aliens Attack 14:05 One Step Beyond 14:30 Stunt Junkies 14:55 Kings of Construction 15:45 Weird Connections 16:10 Thunder Races 17:00 Brainiac 17:50 Sci-Fi Science 18:15 The Tech Show 18:40 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 19:30 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 20:20 Superships 21:10 The Gadget Show 22:00 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 23:40 The Gadget Show

00:00 00:25 00:50 01:15 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:35 04:00 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:20

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Emperor’s New School The Suite Life Of Zack And

Cody 06:45 07:05 07:30 07:55 08:20 08:35 09:00 10:25 10:50 11:35 12:25 12:45 13:10 13:30 13:55 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 Cody 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 Cody 22:50 23:15 23:35

Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Suite Life On Deck Starstruck Fish Hooks Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Hannah Montana Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Fish Hooks Shake It Up The Suite Life Of Zack And 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 The Suite Life Of Zack And Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas

00:25 Kendra 00:55 The Soup 01:25 E!es 02:20 THS 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 50 Most Insane Celebrity Oops 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Giuliana & Bill 10:15 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 The Dance Scene 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 Giuliana & Bill 15:30 E!es 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 Khloe And Lamar 17:55 E! News 18:55 E!es 19:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:25 Giuliana & Bill 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:05 09:30 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

Ghost Lab A Haunting I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghosthunters Ghost Lab Diagnosis: Unknown Murder Shift Forensic Detectives Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Diagnosis: Unknown Ghost Lab FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn I Was Murdered Diagnosis: Unknown Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Ghost Lab FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Diagnosis: Unknown Street Patrol On The Case With Paula Zahn I Was Murdered Cuff Me If You Can Fugitive Strike Force Dr G: Medical Examiner

00:00 Ultimate Traveller 01:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 02:00 Word Travels 02:30 Market Values 03:00 Cycling Home From Siberia With Rob Lilwall 03:30 Finding Genghis 04:00 Which Way To 05:00 Endurance Traveller 06:00 Ultimate Traveller 07:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 08:00 Word Travels 08:30 Market Values 09:00 Cycling Home From Siberia With Rob Lilwall 09:30 Finding Genghis 10:00 Which Way To 11:00 Endurance Traveller 12:00 Ultimate Traveller 13:00 Meet The Amish 14:00 Banged Up Abroad 15:00 Graham’s World 15:30 Eccentric Uk 16:00 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 16:30 Somewhere In China 17:30 The Best Job In The World 18:00 A World Apart 19:00 Meet The Amish 20:00 Banged Up Abroad 21:00 Graham’s World 21:30 Eccentric Uk 22:00 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 22:30 Somewhere In China 23:30 The Best Job In The World

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 PG15 10:00 11:45 14:00 PG15 15:45 17:30 19:45 22:00

The Tripper-18 Storm Warning-18 Rocky-PG You Got Served-PG15 Beyond A Reasonable DoubtThe Lost Future-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 Beyond A Reasonable DoubtFrom Paris With Love-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 Orphan-18 Icarus-18

GREEN ZONE ON OSN CINEMA

01:00 03:15 05:00 06:45 09:00 11:00 12:45 14:45 16:45 19:00 21:00 23:30

The Burning Plain-18 The Client List-PG15 The Nutty Professor-FAM The Tempest-PG15 Good Hair-PG15 The Client List-PG15 At Risk-PG15 Hurricane Season-PG15 Secretariat-PG15 Green Zone-PG15 Eat Pray Love-PG15 Vinyan-18

00:00 Seinfeld 00:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 01:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 01:30 Neighbors From Hell 02:00 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 03:00 Friends 03:30 Friends 04:00 Two And A Half Men 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Will And Grace 06:00 Coach 06:30 Weird Science 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Two And A Half Men 08:30 Friends 09:00 Will And Grace 09:30 Traffic Light 10:00 Cougar Town 10:30 Coach 11:00 Weird Science 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Two And A Half Men 13:00 Friends 13:30 Will And Grace 14:00 Coach 14:30 Traffic Light 15:00 Cougar Town 15:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 16:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 16:30 Weird Science 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Friends 18:30 Friends 19:00 Cougar Town 19:30 Raising Hope 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 The Cleveland Show 22:30 Entourage 23:00 Neighbors From Hell 23:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Desperate Housewives Boardwalk Empire Scoundrels Revenge One Tree Hill Good Morning America The Good Guys Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show The View Desperate Housewives Revenge Live Good Morning America One Tree Hill The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Grey’s Anatomy Private Practice House Scoundrels The Good Guys

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00

Psych Mildred Pierce Boardwalk Empire Desperate Housewives Revenge Alias Psych According To Jim Coronation Street Body Of Proof Alias Desperate Housewives Revenge

12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:30

According To Jim Coronation Street Body Of Proof Psych According To Jim Coronation Street Body Of Proof Grey’s Anatomy Private Practice House Mildred Pierce Big Love

01:00 03:00 05:00 06:45 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 PG15 19:00 21:00 23:00

Sleep Dealer-PG15 Rocky-PG The Wizard Of Gore-R Set It Off-PG15 Courage Under Fire-PG15 The Thirteenth Floor-18 No Time To Fear-PG15 Courage Under Fire-PG15 G.I. Joe: The Rise Of CobraChild’s Play 2-PG15 Icarus-18 Wild Things: Foursome -18

00:00 102 Dalmatians-PG 02:00 Revenge Of The BridesmaidsPG15 03:45 Renaissance Man-PG15 06:00 A Lot Like Love-PG15 08:00 The Parent Trap-PG 10:15 Hey Hey Its Esther Blueburger-PG15 12:00 The Invention Of Lying-PG15 14:00 Did You Hear About The Morgans?-PG15 16:00 102 Dalmatians-PG 18:00 Jack Goes Boating-PG15 20:00 It’s Complicated-PG15 22:15 Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee-PG15

01:00 Midnight Cowboy-18 03:00 Don’t Look Back-PG15 05:00 Robin Hood (1991)-PG15 07:00 Teen Knight-PG15 09:00 Lost In Yonkers-PG 11:00 Unstrung Heroes-PG15 13:00 In God’s Hands-PG 15:00 Secret Origin: The Story Of DC Comics-PG 17:00 The Dust Factory-PG15 18:45 The Lovely Bones-PG15 21:00 Coach Carter-PG15 23:15 The Headless Woman-PG15

01:00 Paris-PG15 03:30 Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief-PG15 05:30 Malibu’s Most Wanted-PG15 07:00 The Sunset Limited-PG15 09:00 Inside Job-PG15 11:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 13:00 From Justin To Kelly-PG 15:00 The Box-PG15 17:00 Inside Job-PG15 19:00 The Other Guys-PG15 21:00 Hot Tub Time Machine-18 23:00 Alfie-18

00:00 Scooby-Doo! Camp ScareFAM 02:00 The Country Bears-PG 04:00 Kung Fu Magoo-FAM 06:00 Columbus III: The New WorldPG 08:00 Time Kid-FAM 10:00 Nativity!-PG 12:15 The Country Bears-PG 14:15 Barbie: A Fairy Secret-FAM 16:00 Babe-FAM 18:00 Nativity!-PG 20:00 Gold Diggers: The Secret Of Bear Mountain-PG 22:00 Babe-FAM

00:15 Helen-PG15 02:15 The Hurt Locker-18 04:30 St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold-PG15 06:30 Africa United-PG15 08:00 School Of Rock-PG15 10:15 Saved!-PG15 12:00 Africa United-PG15 13:45 Remember Me-PG15

16:00 Saved!-PG15 18:00 Coyote County Loser-PG15 20:00 The Wolfman-18 22:00 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps-PG15 00:15 01:15 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 06:00 07:00 11:30 12:30 14:30 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 22:30 23:30

UFC 136 Countdown Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Highlights Le Mans Series Power Boats F1 Highlights Trans World Sport RWC Weekly Highlights Rugby World Cup RWC Weekly Highlights WWE SmackDown WWE Tough Enough Le Mans Series Speedway FIM World UFC 136 Countdown Rugby World Cup Speedway FIM World Le Mans Series Magazine

02:00 RWC Matchday 02:30 AFL Highlights 03:30 European PGA Tour Highlights 04:30 Golfing World 05:30 ICC Cricket World 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Darts Grand Prix 12:00 European PGA Tour Highlights 13:00 Golfing World 14:00 Rugby World Cup 2011 16:30 NRL Premiership 19:00 European Senior Tour Highlights 20:00 AFL Highlights 21:00 Live Darts Grand Prix

00:00 AFL Premiership 03:30 SPL Highlights 04:00 RWC Matchday Highlights 04:30 NRL Premiership 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 AFL Highlights 09:00 SPL Highlights 09:30 RWC Matchday Highlights 10:00 European PGA Tour Highlights 11:00 Futbol Mundial 11:30 ICC Cricket World 12:00 Spirit of Yachting 12:30 FEI Equestrian World 13:00 Trans World Sport 14:00 Darts Grand Prix 19:00 NRL Full Time 19:30 SPL Highlights 20:00 Beach Volley Ball 20:30 Futbol Mundial 21:00 Scottish Premier League 23:00 RWC Matchday Highlights 23:30 RWC Weekly Highlights

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 14:30 18:00 19:00 21:30 22:30 23:30

Speedway FIM World WWE Tough Enough UFC 136 Countdown WWE SmackDown UFC Unleashed UFC 136 Countdown WWE NXT WWE SmackDown V8 Supercars Championship Speedway FIM World Super Formula V8 Supercars Championship UFC 136 Countdown UFC UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed UFC 136 Countdown

00:15 02:10 03:35 05:05 07:00 08:35 10:20 12:50 14:10 15:50 17:35 20:20 22:00

Cannery Row The Main Attraction-PG Spinout-FAM The Bad And The Beautiful-PG Pat And Mike-FAM Bachelor In Paradise-PG Where Eagles Dare-PG Lili-FAM Green Fire-FAM Son Of Lassie-FAM Quo Vadis-PG To Have And Have Not-FAM Kelly’s Heroes-PG

Classifieds TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

Some loggerhead turtles now endangered WASHINGTON: The Obama administration took steps Friday to protect the loggerhead sea turtle, downgrading the status of some populations from threatened to endangered.

The loggerhead has been listed as threatened since 1978, but a decline in habitat and population in several areas of the world led marine scientists to review the classification.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the change, under which the North Pacific population of turtles is among five groups to be listed as endangered. But the Northwest Atlantic population, which includes the southeast Atlantic and Gulf coasts, remains among four others listed as threatened.

"That's not good," said Doug Inkley, a senior wildlife biologist at the National Wildlife Federation in Reston, Va. "What this means is that all loggerhead sea turtles are threatened or endangered. We're going in the wrong direction."

The brownish-red turtles can weigh as much as 250 pounds and swim for thousands of miles. They don't start nesting until they're close to 30 years old; they can live to be 100.

Millions of children and their parents know the loggerhead from two characters in the animated film "Finding Nemo" _ Crush, Nemo's surfer-dude friend, and his son, Squirt.

Inkley said he wasn't sure exactly why the classification didn't change for the Northwest Atlantic population of loggerhead turtles, since a lot of the discussion revolved around it.

"I find it interesting that only a year ago, NOAA proposed that this population be listed as endangered, yet somehow they changed their mind," he said. "It's a higher level of alertness and awareness. There are further restrictions on endangered species."

However, NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service can only take scientific information into account, Inkley said, excluding factors such as economic impact.

But, he added, "Habitat is very much an issue."

Some environmentalists said the government's decision didn't go far enough.

"The failure to recognize Northwest Atlantic loggerheads are endangered ignores the massive impacts of the BP oil spill and increasing threats from shrimp trawl fisheries on this imperiled population," said Chris Pincetich, a marine biologist with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project of the Turtle Island Restoration Network.

That group, the Center for Biological Diversity and Oceana all petitioned the government for increased protections for

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sea tur tles in the Nor th Pacific and Northwest Atlantic in 2007.

Loggerhead tur tles still face many obstacles, Inkley said, including commercial fishing, habitat loss, marine debris and climate change. Commercial fishermen are required to use turtle excluder devices to prevent catching them unintentionally, but not everyone is abiding by the rule.

"While the incidental catch has gone down significantly, unfortunately, most of the continuing deaths are attributed to shrimp trawling," he said.

In explaining its decision, NOAA said some of the problems of unintentional turtle by-catch have been resolved with the turtle excluder devices on shrimp trawlers.

Also, it said, the practice of long-line fishing, another problem for sea turtles, has declined amid decreasing fish stocks and a slow economy.

Those who reviewed the government's proposed changes said the Northwest Atlantic population is stable. "What we're seeing now is more of a flat line," said Sandy MacPherson, the Fish and Wildlife Service's national sea turtle coordinator.

DuBose Griffin, the sea turtle coordinator at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said she was still concerned about the decline of habitat in

Florida, where 50,000 to 70,000 turtles nest every season.

"As long as there's a threat in the water taking out adult reproductive animals, there's always going to be a chance that the population will decline," Griffin said. "If we see it start dropping again, we may have to revisit this."

"It's something we are keeping our pulse on," MacPherson said.

The commercial fishing industry commented in opposition to proposed changes, said Jim Lecky, the NOAA Fisheries Service director for the Office of Protected Resources, but didn't influence the outcome. " We'll continue to work with those industries to make sure their footprint in the environment is appropriate," Lecky said.

Inkley said that while many shrimp fisherman are using turtle excluder devices faithfully, government officials should crack down on those who don't.

"We do know that compliance is not good in some areas," he said. "People need to abide by these rules and regulations."

Inkley said the endangered classification gives an added measure of protection to turtles wherever it applies, and he hoped it would help them. "We still have a long way to go," he said. — MCT

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CHANGE OF NAME I, Shina Kurian holder of Indian Passport No. E8470284 here by change my name to SHYNA KURIAN. Hence forth all my dealings and documents will be known by my new name.

(C 3669) 4-10-2011 I, Sheikh Mohmed Juber Haji Ibrahim Bhai holding Indian Passport No. G5618180 would like to correct my name to Shekh Mohammadzuber Haji Ibrahimbhai. Herein after in all dealings and documents I will be known by my new name. (C 3660) 3-10-2011

parents of well to do Nair girls for an Indian, Kerala, Hindu, Nair boy, 29 years, Bachelor of Engineering, height 161 cm, Star Punartham with slight dosham, hailing from central Kerala, working as mechanical engineer in Kuwait.

Interested parties may email: menon.murali@ymail.com (C 3661)

SITUATION WANTED MATRIMONIAL

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(C 3662)

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Proposals invited from good looking Nair girls below 24, from upper middle class family from TCR/EKM/North Kerala for a Nair boy 28, 5’10” (1 - 1 1/2 Dosham) working in a Multi National Company Bombay hailing from aristocratic Nair family - EKM. Email: phmenon@hotmail.com (C 3671) 4-10-2011 Hyderabadi Sunni Muslim (S.M) parents invite proposals for their religious, fair, smart, B.E, MBA gold medalist daughter from good looking M.B.B.S / B.E, M.S. boys of decent, proper Hyderabadi families.

Interested contact:Mohdr2005@yahoo.com

(C 3665) 3-10-2011 Marriage proposal is invited from

Indian male, well experienced in Management, Sales, Procurement Logistics seeks job of senior position.

Experience in the field of General Hardware, Oil Field Materials, Tools, Hydraulic Materials, Timber and steel.

Contact: 66889375. (C 3668) Orthodox, Jacobite well settled parents invite proposals for their daughter 25 years, 168cm, fair, M.B.A employed in a private firm in Kuwait from parents of professionally qualified boys. E-mail: sushirishta@gmail.com (C 3672) 4-10-2011 Mechanical Engineering graduate, with immaculate English language skills, looking for a job in Kuwait, transferable residency. Contact: 67078742.

(C 3663) 3-10-2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines RJA JZR THY ETH UAE DHX ETD FDB GFA QTR AFR JZR KAC JZR JZR KAC BAW KAC FCX KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE IRA QTR ABY QTR ETD GFA IRA MEA MHK JZR KAC MSR UAL RJA KAC FDB QTR SWT KAC SVA

Flt 642 267 772 620 853 370 305 67 211 138 6700 529 544 505 555 412 157 416 201 206 302 53 332 352 284 855 605 132 125 6130 301 213 619 404 711 201 672 610 982 640 512 57 140 93 562 500

Arrival Flights on Tuesday 4/10/2011 Route AMMAN BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA PARIS ASSIUT CAIRO LUXOR ALEXANDRIA MANILA/BANGKOK LONDON JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR BAHRAIN ISLAMABAD MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM COCHIN DHAKA DUBAI ISFAHAN DOHA SHARJAH DOHA ABU DHABI BAHRAIN LAR BEIRUT BAGHDAD/NAJAF DAMASCUS DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN TEHRAN DUBAI DOHA DUBAI/KANDAHAR AMMAN JEDDAH

Time 0:05 0:35 1:15 1:45 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:25 3:35 4:40 5:50 6:10 6:15 6:30 6:35 7:00 7:15 7:50 7:55 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:25 8:55 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:30 9:35 10:25 10:55 11:00 12:45 13:15 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:15 14:15 14:20 14:30

KAC VOS KAC QTR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY RBG JZR FDB ALK JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI FDB VOS OMA MEA KAC MLR MSR DHX KLM UAE JZR GFA QTR UAL AIC JZR MSR DLH AXB JZR BBC PIA

546 77 746 134 303 857 215 510 777 239 127 3553 213 63 227 177 104 166 502 542 618 786 614 774 674 572 61 67 647 402 552 1405 618 372 443 859 183 217 136 981 981 135 612 636 389 539 45 205

ALEXANDRIA NAJAF ABU DHABI/DAMMAM DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA DEIREZZOR DUBAI COLOMBO/DUBAI DUBAI LONDON PARIS/ROME BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI MUMBAI DUBAI IRAQ MUSCAT BEIRUT DAMASCUS COLOMBO/DUBAI ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN CHENNAI/AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE/MANGALORE CAIRO DHAKA LAHORE/PESHAWER

14:30 15:00 15:05 15:15 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35 17:40 17:50 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:00 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 18:55 19:00 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:35 20:00 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:15 20:50 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:50 23:00 23:10 23:30 23:45 23:55

Airlines DLH AIC PIA THY ETH UAE FDB DHX ETD QTR AFR RJA GFA JZR JZR KAC BAW FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY IRA KAC QTR ETD GFA QTR IRA KAC MEA KAC VOS JZR JZR JZR MHK KAC KAC JZR MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC

Departure Flights on Tuesday 4/10/2011 Flt Route 637 FRANKFURT 976 GOA/CHENNAI 240 SIALKOT 773 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 6700 DUBAI/HONG KONG 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 200 DAMASCUS 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 671 DUBAI 745 DAMMAM/ABU DHABI 511 TEHRAN 561 AMMAN 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 604 ISFAHAN 101 LONDON/NEW YORK 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 6131 DOHA 618 LAR 165 ROME/PARIS 405 BEIRUT 541 CAIRO 78 NAJAF 776 JEDDAH 212 DEIREZZOR 238 AMMAN 712 NAJAF/BAGHDAD 501 BEIRUT 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 641 AMMAN 58 DUBAI 982 BAHRAIN 551 DAMASCUS

Time 0:40 0:50 1:10 2:15 2:45 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 5:00 5:10 7:00 7:10 7:15 7:15 7:40 8:25 8:40 9:00 9:05 9:15 9:15 9:40 9:50 9:55 9:55 10:00 10:15 10:20 10:40 11:25 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:20 13:00 13:30 13:40 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 14:55

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

KAC KAC SVA VOS KAC QTR KAC JZR VOS JZR ETD QTR UAE GFA ABY RBG JZR SVA FDB ALK JZR KAC KAC JAI FDB JZR KAC KAC OMA MEA MLR MSR DHX KLM UAE GFA FCX FAH KAC QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR KAC UAL MSR

673 617 501 68 773 141 613 538 82 182 304 135 858 216 128 3554 266 511 64 228 134 283 361 571 62 528 343 351 648 403 1405 619 373 443 860 218 102 102 381 137 301 205 502 554 411 981 613

DUBAI DOHA JEDDAH IRAQ RIYADH DOHA BAHRAIN CAIRO BAGHDAD DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA BEIRUT RIYADH DUBAI DUBAI/COLOMBO BAHRAIN DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI ASSIUT CHENNAI COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT COLOMBO ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN/AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DELHI DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA BANGKOK/MANILA WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO

15:10 15:35 15:45 16:00 16:05 16:15 16:20 16:40 17:00 17:05 17:35 17:45 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:30 18:35 18:40 19:10 19:10 19:30 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:50 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:10 23:40 23:40 23:50

34

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 458

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) Work, achievement and ambition are important to you and come almost automatically. You appear very comfortable in your job. Everything seems to be working together and when interrupted, you can still maintain a balance. This is a really good talent to learn as it is something you have worked hard to achieve. It has been difficult for you to deal with interruptions or difficult people but you have learned to achieve and overcome these difficulties. Later this afternoon the art of expression is fine-tuned as you enjoy companions or best friends.

A lover or child who is bright and articulate plays a big role in your life. When you teach fair play, chaos is seldom seen. Tonight you make contact with someone who lights your fire.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) There are several opportunities available today to gain greater authority and prestige in the workplace. You will probably impress someone that could influence your life in large ways. You are especially active, dynamic and ready to tackle challenges. You influence others with your confidence—not excessively or pompously. There may be some concern over finances but if you remain the practical person that you are, you will see some positive results from your investments. Take the long view and map out a future plan for an early retirement. To ensure peace this evening—maintain low tones. Patience, fortitude and repeated reminders of love are important on the home front. The nurturing of those you love helps to deepen relationships.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

4. (architecture) Forming or resembling an arch.

9. Evergreen tree of eastern Asia and Philippines having large leathery leaves and small green-white flowers in compact cymes.

13. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

14. The capital and largest city of Bangladesh.

15. Showing characteristics of age, especially having gray or white hair.

16. A sheet or band of fibrous connective tissue separating or binding together muscles and organs etc.

18. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

20. Having the leading position or higher score in a contest.

21. New Zealand timber tree resembling the cypress.

23. Unknown god.

24. An associate degree in nursing.

25. 1 species.

29. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

31. A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

32. The longer of the two telegraphic signals used in Morse code.

33. Having a horizontal surface in which no part is higher or lower than another.

34. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

36. Submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers.

38. 10 grams.

41. One of the most common of the five major classes of immunoglobulins.

42. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

44. A town in north central Wisconsin.

46. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

49. Jewish republic in southwestern Asia at eastern end of Mediterranean.

50. A French abbot.

51. A penicillinase-resistant form of penicillin (trade name Nafcil) used (usually in the form of its sodium salt) to treat infections caused by penicillin-resistant strains of staphylococci.

55. An affirmative.

59. A tiny or scarcely detectable amount.

60. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

61. (Hindu) A manner of sitting (as in the practice of Yoga).

62. A German art song of the 19th century for voice and piano.

63. (meaning literally `born') Used to indicate the maiden or family name of a married woman.

64. (Greek mythology) A princess of Colchis who aided Jason in taking the Golden Fleece from her father.

65. An organization of military land forces.

DOWN 1. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

2. Pompous or pretentious talk or writing.

3. Small European freshwater fish with a slender bluish-green body.

4. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

5. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

6. Largest crested screamer.

7. A graphical recording of the cardiac cycle produced by an electrocardiograph.

8. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

9. An Indian tree of the family Combretaceae that is a source of timber and gum.

10. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in Iowa and Minnesota and Missouri.

11. A form of Japanese poetry.

12. Of or relating to the former Indo-European people.

17. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

19. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

22. The cry made by sheep.

26. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

27. Hawaiian dish of taro root pounded to a paste and often allowed to ferment.

28. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

30. Type genus of the Gliridae.

34. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

35. The 19th letter of the Greek alphabet.

37. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

39. A festival featuring African-American culture.

40. (Greek mythology) Goddess of the earth and mother of Cronus and the Titans in ancient mythology.

43. A pentose sugar important as a component of ribonucleic acid.

45. A Christian Bishop who translated the Bible from Greek into Gothic (311-382).

47. A poplar that is widely cultivated in the United States.

48. Lower in esteem.

52. Stiff coarse fiber from the outer husk of a coconut.

53. A distinct part that can be specified separately in a group of things that could be enumerated on a list.

54. A polite name for any woman.

56. A woolen cap of Scottish origin.

57. A number of sheets of paper fastened together along one edge.

58. Used of a single unit or thing.

Yesterday’s Solution

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Power struggles in the workplace may be disconcerting but inevitable when it comes to competition. This is what separates the adult from the juvenile. Attracting support from others can help provide the resources you need to achieve your aims. This is a good day to start a diet, or perhaps, a new and positive habit. All the energies are working in your favor for this to be a successful endeavor. An appreciation for creative insights that are quite otherworldly is upon you. It is easy for you to love and be compassionate and to value what life offers. You have a sense of unity and brotherhood that will stay with you. You may gain a renewed set of values. The spiritual aspect of a relationship becomes deep. Schedule a massage for the two of you.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

You could find yourself in a detached frame of mind, as though you are viewing things from the outside. Your friends and loved ones would be happier if you took a more personal attitude. Making your mark on the world has special significance for you now. Achievement has greater meaning for you.

Organizing and administering to people and projects will become central to your lifestyle. Challenging authority and striving for success are on your agenda as well.

Ambition is a powerful motivation and can lead you into conflict if you let it get out of control. Properly channeled, it results in great achievements and brings recognition.

This evening is a good time for surrounding yourself with friends and young people and for having a good time.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Challenge gives you the opportunity to pull on many choices. It is a good idea to remove the emotions and see the situation in a technical and truthful avenue. This is a good time to be creative and secure the positive. A period of great forethought and planning has begun. You have a lot on your mind and feel a strong need to communicate and gather ideas. You may run into an ethical disagreement this afternoon that could damage your faith in a work situation unless you know clearly where you stand. Changes in the neighborhood may get on your nerves this evening and excessive mental frustrations like this can make it difficult to relax. This evening would be a good time to drive to a nearby park or mall with a loved one. Listen to music.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Your most exciting, life-fulfilling dreams can be met during this time. This is the time to come to an understanding of just where you are in life and where you want to go next—create a focus, achieve and appreciate. The energies that are available are hot and ready to be utilized; however, you must choose the direction you want, since these energies could be negative as well as positive.

Habits are in a cycle of change; variety satisfies a deep inner need. You keep alert to any possible changes and you manage to move a few steps ahead. Satisfying that instinctive itch comes when you communicate. Others value you for your ability to make practical decisions concerning group issues. You have a natural sense of what the public wants at this time.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

The good life and all that is fine and luxurious may be what you value just now. You enjoy finding solutions to whatever problems you find. Circumstances should work together to help bring out your ideals and make it easier to make your dreams real. You may find yourself examining and testing ideas and offering opinions or ideas of your own. All-in-all, this is a good time to project your image. It is easy to organize your thoughts and make your plans for the next phase, project or research. Money that someone owes you may be repaid to you now. This evening is good for relaxation and for enjoying the people around you; laughter comes easily. If nobody wants to cook, consider a call-in order for your evening enjoyment.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You are driven and passionate in your pursuit of change and inner growth. You possess, at the core, an intensity that burns through superficialities, searching for opportunities to face the truth and render the evident to view. Careful . . . this ceaseless investigative activity, while central to your nature, may be the source of discomfort to others. Emotions and drive take the heat as far as being a prime focus for action in your personal sphere. You may be moved to appreciate and discover the beauty in your life and in those around you, particularly when you slow down and enjoy the simple things in life this afternoon. Everything conspires to reveal you at your most elegant, particularly in social situations this evening. You may meet some new people tonight.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Pace yourself today, since you may feel like you are running a race. You are entering a period of emotional change: feeling two ways at once without getting too deep into either polarity is possible. Habits are in a cycle of change; variety satisfies a deep inner need. Learning and communicating relieves an instinctive urge to move forward in your life path. You teach others to think outside the box, now it is your turn to think in creative ways. An understanding attitude on your part could have far-reaching effects on your own life-path and career during this time. A little long-suffering and restraint just now could really pay off in the relationship department this evening. A good conversation with those you love is possible.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

You may find opposition in the workplace today; however, the exchange of ideas becomes a way to reach a positive result. You are developing a knack for organizing things and your skills will not go unnoticed. Your people skills are improving and there is a sense of ambition and self-confidence that improves with each day. Work, achievement and ambition mean a lot to you now.

Saying and writing things with style counts for a lot—the social butterfly in you emerges and you are able to accomplish quite a lot for your company. You may be a buyer for your company and you know just what the public wants. Neighbors or brothers and sisters will likely bring all kinds of good experiences your way.

Humanitarian efforts can affect your life-path.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Finances are a plus today. You may be able to value your own life situation. Someone may compliment you on your tastes or belongings. Close relationships take on more emotional depth, power and importance. Harmonious ties to others are what you yearn for; refinement and elegance are what you seek. The ideal partnership, the perfect balance, the highest standards of truth and beauty—these are some of the things that quicken your pulse. Home, family or real estate will be an interest that requires a lot of discipline and responsibility now. If you get serious about these things and think long-term, you will be pleased with the outcome; otherwise, you could find yourself in a tight situation. Take care to avoid quick decisions.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

This is a significant day that you can use to your best advantage.

This is a day that is not too lazy or too stressful—time for accomplishing tasks or setting things up to work in your favor. You are very determined when it comes to security and you seldom make a move that does not strengthen your position. This easygoing day can certainly work in your favor, without taxing the nervous system or pushing you to extremes. You pursue responsibilities the way others pursue pleasure. Stop to smell the flowers this evening. Truth, religion and philosophy are subjects that will become more of a focus for you now. You may find that travel or the study of a particular country or ethnic group will bring you insight. Plan your next adventure now.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

i n f o r m at i o n

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li fe s t y le G o s s i p

he ‘Loud’ singer was honored with her own waxwork at London’s Madame Tussauds museum where she took centre stage at the attraction’s interactive Music Zone alongside Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga and the late Amy Winehouse. The model of Rihanna - who is famed for her outfits - is wearing the raunchy long black dress she donned to perform her duet with Matt Cardle on the UK final of ‘The X Factor’ last year, complete with a bright cherry red hair-do. Liz Edwards, PR Manager at the attraction, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Rihanna to Madame Tussauds London. Her inclusion couldn’t be more

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timely as her ‘Loud’ tour arrives in the capital this week. We are sure she will hit the right note with our guests as demand for her figure has been huge since her appearance on ‘ The X Factor’ 2010.

Rihanna is one of the biggest music stars of the moment and is a perfect addition to the ‘diva dream team’ of female artists we have here at the attraction.” The figure took four months to complete at a cost of £150,000. Other stars to have waxworks at Madame Tussauds include Justin Bieber, David Beckham and Brad Pitt.

Eva Green prefers to act like a man he ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ actress is attracted to darker roles, and particularly enjoyed portraying the witch character Morgan le Temptress in TV series ‘Camelot’, for which she appeared naked, and bled from her eyes. She told the Sunday Times newspaper: “She’s so gutsy.

We don’t have a lot of roles like this. I don’t want to play girlfriends and love interests.

It’s great to be almost like a man.” While she appeared naked in some of her earlier films Eva, 31, admits she now finds some scenes difficult. Speaking about 2003 film ‘The Dreamers’, she added: “[The nudity] was not pleasant. It’s more difficult now. I feel very self conscious.” Eva first came to international fame playing Vesper Lynd - a femme fatale who proves a match for spy James Bond in ‘Casino Royale’ - but has since shied away from blockbusters and big

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he 44-year-old actor thinks it is “arrogant” to suggest humans are the only form of life in the universe, and often ponders about extra-terrestrials when he looks up at the stars. He said: “When I look up at the sky on a clear night and see the wash of stars and planets, and everything that is outside our universe, I have to believe there is life everywhere.

“It would be very arrogant to believe this is the only planet that could sustain some kind of life.” The Hollywood star - who appears in new movie ‘Melancholia’, which focuses on an apocalyptic collision between Earth and a rogue planet -also revealed he likes to think about his own death, and often contemplates what he would do in a plane crash when he boards a flight. He told the Metro newspaper: “I hope I would stand by my family to the bitter end. I think about that often when I am on the plane. If the plane goes down, how would I handle it? Would I scream, just accept it, or try to do something about it? “My hope would be that I would just be able to let go.

There is something beautiful about being able to accept one’s fate and just allow it to happen. We spend so much of our time fighting it, it would be nice to know that for a few seconds before it’s all done, you would just let go.” Kiefer is not the only Hollywood star to believe in the existence of aliens. Jodie Foster recently donated cash to the Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) in California to help it continue its research work following US federal and California cuts to the budget.

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he ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor admits he has got caught up in the glamour of Hollywood and the trappings which can tempt young stars earlier in his career. The 34-year-old star told Live!

Magazine: “At one point or another over a ten-year period I probably was guilty of taking myself a little bit too seriously. “And that is a recipe for disaster. But there are so many minefields and bullets to dodge: women, gambling, whatever you want.” When there are so many options you work your way through some of them, don’t you? I’ve over-indulged many times, at different times.” Orlando married model Miranda Kerr in July last year, and they have a ninemonth-old boy, Flynn, together. Alongside settling

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he Girls Aloud star - who flew to Camp Bastion in the country’s Helmand Province last month on a morale boosting visit for troops -underwent military training to prepare her for the desert and was determined to make the trip despite the dangers. She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Before I went out I was given war training which was pretty full-on and quite scary. “They warn you about coping with all kinds of scary scenarios - things like having a gun put to your head. I was warned before I went out there that

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budget films, as she can’t stand “3D films and fighting monsters”. She added: “If I don’t like something, I don’t think I can even perform. A movie is from my heart, my soul.”

he ‘Avatar’ star - whose latest role sees him play a secret agent in ‘The Debt’ - always dreamt of being a sportsman but he accidentally ended up in his current profession when he successfully auditioned for Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art to give “moral support” to his girlfriend at the time, who was rejected from the training centre. He said: “I’d just killed someone’s dream; it wasn’t going to last. “I was 19, had travelled all around Australia and was ready to be locked in that place for three years.

I’d never thought about acting and, in hindsight, that fearlessness was what the school enjoyed.”

Sam only stars in movies he would go and watch himself, admitting he would never turn his nose

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down and fatherhood, the star says he always surrounds himself with good friends to keep him grounded. He added: “I’m a guy’s guy, a people person. I like to hang out with real people - I’m not in a golden cage. “I hate being put on a pedestal because it’s a long way to fall. People start doing that to you it often happened, at different times, and I would think, ‘Please don’t do that, please don’t think that I’m all that.’ I’m just like everybody else.” Orlando next stars as the Duke of Buckingham in ‘The Three Musketeers’, in cinemas this month.

it could be dangerous. But nothing could stop me from going. And I’m just so glad I did.” While in the country Cheryl swapped numbers with a British soldier on a tour of duty and the pair are hoping to arrange a date soon. She said: “Not only are the soldiers incredibly brave, a few of them were also incredibly cute. “I actually came back with a phone number from one lad ... although I think his talking to me was a dare. He started chatting to me after I’d been shot at during a training exercise. “Obviously it wasn’t real

ammunition but it was still terrifying. Anyway I think I am going to call him this week and we’ll see what happens. I’m sure he’s not expecting me to ring but that’s why it’ll be funny and that’s why I’m going to do it.” — Bangshowbiz

up at a low-budget film because his participation is still the same. He added: “I think my agents have a grand plan but I have final say, so... People keep saying these are smaller movies. Yeah, the budgets are smaller, but my job doesn’t really change, which is to strive for truth in imaginary circumstances. That’s it. These are not design choices. “I’ve always said it; you do movies that you’d want to go and see and I don’t really care if they’re $200 million or $2 million.”

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2011

li f e s ty le M u s i c

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LA’s latest art project is 340 tons and rock solid ing Sisyphus, it turns out, had little on the folks at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to push a giant rock up a hill for eternity. In modern-day LA, the city’s largest museum has spent months - and $5 million to $10 million - trying to get a 340-ton boulder from a dusty quarry in Riverside onto its campus west of downtown. When the teardropshaped chunk of granite finally arrives it will become the focal point of acclaimed earth artist Michael Heizer’s latest creation, “Levitated Mass.” Museum visitors by the thousands are expected to walk under what will be one of the largest environmental art creations ever placed in an urban setting.

Heizer “came up in a generation that wasn’t just about what you could create or sculpt in the studio,” said Rochelle Steiner, dean of the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Fine Arts. “It was about how you could intervene in the elements, in your own environment, in the landscape, and how the environment became not just your subject matter but your situation as well.” The reclusive Heizer is perhaps best known for “Double Negative,” the 1,500-foot (450-meter)-long land sculpture he cut into a desert mesa in a remote section of southern Nevada.

“Levitated Mass” will be a major coup for the museum, Steiner said, and will provide the general public a rare opportunity to see Heizer’s work up close. But before that can happen, the museum has to get the rock here, and that’s proving a Sisyphean task. At the Stone Valley quarry, on the outskirts of Riverside, a 196-wheel, 44-axle transport vehicle strong enough to hold more than a million pounds (450,000 kilograms) is being constructed. With drivers, steerers and police escorts, as many as 60 people could be involved in the move.

“It will be an entourage,” laughed Rick Albrecht, who is supervising the rock’s move for Emmert International, an outfit that specializes in moving really big stuff. Although Emmert has never hauled a rock the size of a two-story house before, Albrecht appears

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This handout artist’s rendition courtesy of Cirque du Soleil, Inc, shows a scene from the show “The Immortal Tour World” created by Cirque du Soleil as a tribute to Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. The imaginary world and music of Michael Jackson was resurrected with a bang in Montreal at the world premiere of the show. — AFP

Wife of notorious killer debuts in Indian reality TV he 22-year-old wife of a convicted French murderer and alleged serial killer has appeared in India’s hugely popular reality television show “Bigg Boss.” Nihita Biswas, who claims to have married 67-year-old Charles Sobhraj in a secret ceremony while he serves a life sentence in Nepal, is one of 14 contestants in the Indian version of the global hit “Big Brother.” She made her debut to roaring applause from a live studio audience, telling show hosts and Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt that she had been happily married to Sobhraj for three years.

“I am proud to have him as a husband. I have nothing to hide,” she said. Biswas’s mother, Shakuntala Thapa, is one of Sobhraj’s Nepalese lawyers. He was convicted seven years ago for the murder of American tourist Connie Joe Bronzich in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu in 1975. Sobhraj, a notorious con man linked to a string of backpacker killings across Asia in the 1970s that led to his being labeled “the bikini killer”, has always maintained his innocence in the Bronzich case.

Biswas told the Press Trust of India news agency that her husband was “very supportive.” “I got a call for participating in this show and my husband said I must do it,” she said.

“Bigg Boss,” which is in its fifth series, ran into controversy last October when activists of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party protested against two Pakistani artists, Veena Malik and Ali Saleem, appearing on the show. Canadian model and former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson was the star of the 2010 edition. — AFP

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In this photograph, alleged French serial killer Charles Sobhraj (center) and Nihita Biswas (left) who married Charles is guided by Nepalese policemen towards a waiting vehicle after a court hearing in Kathmandu. — AFP

US singer Amy Lee performs with her band “Evanescence” during the last day of the Rock in Rio music festival, at the “City of Rock” in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, on October 2, 2011. — AFP

UK studio tour aims to conjurePottermagic

Baghdad film festival reopens after 4 years aghdad’s third international film festival, and first in four years, opened yesterday, with the aim of reviving an industry hammered by decades of violence and sanctions. More than 150 films from 32 countries will be aired in multiple locations across the Iraqi capital from October 3 to 10, festival director Taher Alwan told AFP. “Although the security situation in the country and all kinds of obstacles are facing us, I believe this edition will be the biggest and the best,” he said. “I believe this festival will stimulate cultural life in Iraq, and we will try to restore the culture of cinema in Iraq. As you know, after (the US-led invasion of ) 2003, everything was closed-the cinemas were closed, there was no cinema activity, so Iraqis felt isolated from the world.”

Alwan added that, by showing their work and meeting fellow filmmakers from other countries, the festival would build confidence among young Iraqi professionals and aspiring moviemakers. He said he hoped it would mark a “turning point” for Iraq’s film industry. The last Baghdad International Film Festival was held in 2007, when Iraq was mired in a brutal insurgency and sectarian bloodshed. Alwan said the long delay between the two festivals was due to the difficulty in obtaining financing, but he hoped it would become an annual fixture. Films will be judged for awards in three categories-best drama, best short film and best documentary, with two other prizes reserved for the best young Iraqi director, and the best female Arab filmmaker. The festival was to open with a ceremony on Monday, with the first film screened set to be “Le voyage a Alger” by Abdelkarim Bahloul. — Reuters

ave a wand and a ladle across the room turns in a cauldron. Move your hand and a knife starts to chop.

Warner Brothers aims to recreate the magic of the Harry Potter movies with a major tour at its newly renovated Leavesden Studios on the outskirts of London, with the attraction due to open next spring. The Hollywood studio behind the record-breaking franchise has relocated the original Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and visitors will be treated to a surprise entrance into the towering set.

There they can admire the attention to detail in which the production crews on the eight movies took great pride-from the elaborate “stonework” of the outer walls to graffiti carved into wooden tables by students. There will be no floating candlesthat particular piece of magic was conjured by computers, but many of the characters, props, costumes and settings were reallife. Among the highlights will be the giant spider Aragog suspended from the ceiling, and fans will be able to pose for photographs in one of the “flying” Ford Anglia cars used in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.

The sharp-toothed “The Monster Book of Monsters” has been dusted off, and Buckbeak the “Hippogriff” is getting a meticulous makeover for when the doors of the attraction open. The studios and neighboring tour space are currently little more than a giant building site, with only a few of the main attractions in place including the shell of the great hall. Journalists were shown around the site recently as Warner cranked up the publicity ahead of tickets for “Warner Bros Studio Tour London-The Making of Harry Potter” going on sale on Oct. 13.

They will cost 21 pounds per child, 28 pounds per adult and 83 pounds for a family of four, and up to 5,000 visitors are expected to be able to take the three-hour tour each day.

Tickets must be ordered in advance. The venture underlines how the Potter phenomenon looks set to go on generating revenue long after the July release of the eighth and final film. Author J K Rowling has also launched the Pottermore website which will allow people to navigate the Potter world and shop for merchandise including, for the first time, e-book versions of the adventures. A posting on the website said the Pottermore Shop would not open until the first half of 2012, later than expected.

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Thousands of spectators watch the first balloon glow of the 40th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. — AP

US hot-air balloon festival sets record rganizers of a New Mexico hot-air balloon festival say they’ve broken their own world record. Officials with the 40th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta say independent counters reported 345 hot-air balloon took to the air in one hour Saturday. That’s 16 more balloons that ascended into the air in an hour during the 2000 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, when the previous record was set. The 12th Lorraine World Air Balloon Festival in France launched 343 hot air balloons in one hour earlier this year. But organizers didn’t file the record with the Guinness World Records. More than 550 hot-air balloons and more than 600 pilots from around the world are taking part in this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

The annual event ran through Sunday. — AP

O Giant murals depicting actor Charlie Chaplin are displayed on two 14 story residential blocks in the Gilamont neighborhood, Vevey, Switzerland yesterday. The murals depict scenes from Chaplin’s movies “Modern Times” and “The Gold Rush”. Chaplin lived in Switzerland for 26 years and died in his sleep in Corsier-sur-Vevey on Christmas Day in 1977. — AP

undaunted by the challenge. “This might be the first time for a rock but our company moved a building in Salt Lake City that was equivalent to a five-story,” he said during a recent day at the quarry, as workers with welding torches worked on the transport vehicle. “It was almost 60 foot (18 meters) wide, it was a little over a hundred feet long, and we had to jack it up 14 feet (4.2 meters), spin it 180 degrees, move it across the street and jack it back down.”

Compared to that, he indicated, the rock will be a piece of cake. The hardest part so far has been getting permission from the three counties, the state and the numerous cities through which Emmert will haul the boulder.

The museum has rescheduled the departure date several times as it works with local officials to find a route acceptable to everybody.

The rock is now tentatively scheduled to leave the quarry sometime later this month.

The 60-mile (100-kilometer) trip to the museum that would normally take about an hour in light freeway traffic is expected to take the rock at least 10 days. It will rarely travel faster than 5 mph (8 kph) and its delivery people may have to drive as far as 20 or 30 miles (32 or 48 kilometers) out of their way to get around various obstacles like utility wires and freeway overpasses.

The move, coming just months after repairs to a major freeway overpass had most of Los Angeles staying off the freeways for a weekend, has reawakened “Carmageddon” traffic nightmare scenarios. Albrecht downplays such concerns. Although the transport vehicle is as wide as three freeway lanes and nearly as long as a football field, he notes it will only travel a few hours each night when traffic is lightest. People along the route will be told in advance that it’s headed their way.

Once the rock arrives it will straddle a 456foot (139-meter)-long trench in such a way that people who walk under it will have the illusion that it is floating unsecured above them. California seismic officials had to sign off on the project to make sure no one would be squashed by the boulder should an earthquake strike. —AP

Behind-the-scenes insight John Richardson, who won an Oscar for his work on the 1986 movie “Aliens” and was special effects supervisor on the Potter films, demonstrated the wand and hand “tricks” and a number of other devices he developed. “There are so many kids and so many adults who have grown up with Harry Potter, it’s an opportunity for them to be close to all things Harry Potter and at the same time give the public the chance to see what goes into making a movie,” he told Reuters. While famous sets like the Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room and Potter’s cupboard under the stairs are being rebuilt, the outer shells will be kept as they were during filming-scaffold, wood and plaster. And despite stressing the craftsmanship that went into making the sets, props and costumes for the movies, there will be an area demonstrating the possibilities of green screen technology. Outside the cavernous warehouse will be a reconstruction of 4 Privet Drive where Harry grew up and of the bridge at Hogwarts. — Reuters

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Models wear creations by British fashion designer Bill Gaytten for John Galliano’s fashion house spring-summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection presented Sunday, Oct 2, 2011 in Paris. — AP photos

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he winds of change blew through Paris on Sunday, day six of the spring-summer 2012 ready-to-wear collections here, as newly appointed young designers replaced the old guard at several top brands and a just-launched label challenged the way the luxury business operates. New designers at Kenzo and Issey Miyake remade both houses in their much younger image, while John Galliano’s replacement at the disgraced British designer’s signature label served up what could only be described as Galliano Lite, with less fancy and fewer excesses. Across town at Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci made his case for why he should replace Galliano at the jewel in the crown of Paris labels, Christian Dior. The brilliant Italian designer fielded a stellar collection of suits in soft sandy colors and powder pink, embellished with fancy peplums, panels and tails. Celine and Hermes continued to appeal to rich people with as much taste as money, with sober, understated collections whose very simplicity belied their sure-to-be astronomical price tags. Monday is another big day in Paris fashion week, with shows by Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, Giambattista Valli, Chloe - where a new designer is making her debut - and Emanuel Ungaro, whose designer deserted just weeks before the show.

John Galliano The first John Galliano ready-to-wear collection under the label’s new creative director had all the trappings of a classic Galliano display, but none of the outrageous excess that was the heart and soul of the brand. Galliano was ousted from his signature label - and from Dior, where he’d spent 15 years as designer - in the wake of a March scandal over anti-Semitic and racist ravings during a series of drunken spats. His longtime right-hand-man, fellow Briton Bill Gaytten, was named to succeed him as creative director of the house of Galliano and is also filling in at Dior pending the appointment of a new designer there.

Since he stepped out of the shadows and into the spotlight earlier this year, Gaytten has presented three collections, and his strategy so far has consisted in serving up Galliano Lite: Looks that mimic the disgraced designer’s signature styles but are stripped of the over-the-top outrageousness that made them brilliant in the first place. For his first ready-to-wear collection at the helm of Galliano, Gaytten sent out the sort of flippy skirt suits and feather-light bias cut silk dresses and gowns that have long been the house’s staples. But the styling at the spring-summer show was toneddown: Flat-topped straw hats were a poor substitute for the kinds of outsized headdresses Galliano models used to sport.

And instead of the traditional thick layer of graphic war paint, the models wore only the lightest touches of tasteful neutral makeup. While it would be difficult to fault Gaytten for Sunday’s more-than-respectable showing, it was hard to get too excited about it either.

Givenchy After Galliano got sacked, the fashion world was abuzz with rumors about who might replace him at Dior. One of the names that surfaced with most insistence was Givenchy’s Tisci, whose dark, dangerous aesthetic had won him considerable critical praise and a devoted fan base. Watching Tisci’s tour-de-force spring-summer collection, you were reminded of the enormity of his gift and all the reasons why he’d be a leading contender for the coveted Dior post. A (figuratively) heavyweight cast of top models, including Gisele Bundchen - who rarely graces runways with her presence - streaked down the catwalk in elaborate pant- and skirt-suits elevated from business staples into the realm of the extraordinary by tails, flouncy peplums and sculptural panels that cascaded down from the neckline. There was a suit for every taste and body shape, with long jackets or shrunken jackets, secondskin pants, high-rise shorts or multilayered skirts with see-through paneling in tan, powder pink, khaki with leopard print detailing or in shimmering silver and gold sequins. Skirt-suits are Dior’s bread and butter, and though the technical virtuosity on display Sunday at Givenchy far outstripped what’s required to make one of Dior’s staple nip-waisted Bar jackets, the collection somehow felt like a kind of billboard for Tisci’s skills. While his S&M-infused aesthetic doesn’t at first glance seem like an obvious fit with Dior’s “jolie madame” style, Tisci’s talent is so prodigious you can’t help but feeling like he could do anything and everything. Women’s Wear Daily reported in August that Dior executives were negotiating a deal with Louis Vuitton’s Marc Jacobs. But the months have dragged by without an appointment announcement, leading some to speculate that the Jacobs deal might have derailed. If it has, Dior executives would do well to take another close look at Tisci.

Models wear creations by Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy’s fashion house spring-summer 2012 ready-towear collection.

Hermes If Roberto Cavalli has come to define the kind of bling-bling clothes favored by people aiming to look like billionaires, Hermes under new designer Christophe Lemaire is for billionaires who want to look like anything but. For his second ready-to-wear collection with the French heritage house, Lemaire fielded the kinds of simple, almost austere garments you could imagine being at

home at an ashram or a nunnery. Models, their heads wrapped in doo-rags, padded the catwalk in boxy linen sundresses and floor-length sleeveless vests whose oversized pockets were their sole embellishment. A couple of long coats in a nubby, oatmeal color fabric had a hood, for a full-on hermit effect. Which is not to say that the collection was in any way poor: The looks were so perfectly crafted, so impeccably conceived and cut, that despite its austerity, the collection faintly dripped luxe. (As it should at a label with among the most astronomical pricetags in the business.)

The show opened with neutral shades and ended with square-shaped dresses and roomy jackets in a rich rainbow of jewel tone suede. But even in deep aubergines and vibrant royal blues, the looks still came off as simple and unostentatious - just right for that slice of the ultra-wealthy demographic that aspires to live simply. Or at least look like they are.

Celine Phoebe Philo, the woman who transformed Celine from a musty, dusty old Paris house into a fashion powerhouse, stuck to the chic minimalist pieces that have reversed the label’s fortunes. Shorn of fussy fixtures, Philo’s sober minimalism seems so in tune with contemporary working women’s needs and desires that over the past two years of her tenure at Celine, it has almost come to define the fashion zeitgeist. With Sunday’s collection, she served up the label’s now-signature staples - squareshaped leather T-shirts and dresses derived from men’s white button-down shirts, as well as variations that pushed the look forward. The peplums, stiff lampshade-shaped panels that attached to the leather shirts and jackets above the midriff, added a pared-down but regal touch.

Issey Miyake A new era kicked off Sunday at Miyake - and it was wearing novelty tights. Once at the vanguard of cutting-edge Japanese fashion, the brand has struggled in recent years to remain relevant, and in a bid to rejuvenate, a 35-year-old was promoted from within to replace the longtime designer. For his debut collection, Yoshiyuki Miyamae shed the bulky silhouettes that had long been the Miyake signature, sending out a light, airy collection of funky neon leggings and tights.

Covered in sharp opaque triangles and with transparent panels and lozengeshaped cutouts that left the front and backs of the models’ calves exposed, the legwear felt like what Super Woman would have worn to Jazzercise class in 1984. It remains to be seen how consumers will react to the Miyamae’s revamped Miyake, but if the audience’s warm applause was any indication, the commercial response is likely to be positive. — AP

Models wear creations by French fashion designer Christophe Lemaire for Hermes’ spring-summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection.

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aunching a luxury fashion label could seem like a bizarre career choice for a lawyer who at the tender age of 25 helped his native South Africa heal the wounds of apartheid. But for Paul Van Zyl, his evolution from executive secretary of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to co-founder of Maiyet - a new fashion house with price points hovering between $500-$2,500 - makes circuitous but perfect sense. Launched Sunday with a runway show during Paris fashion week, Maiyet aims to promote development through high-end consumption, by tapping into the skills of artisans in developing countries to churn out sleek, desirable luxury clothes, handbags, shoes and jewelry. The debut collection was basically an edgy urban wardrobe with an added touch. Khaki trench coats were embellished with a fancy but discreet flourish of embroidery in the same shade; the spring-summer 2012 season’s go-to staple - high-waisted shorts - were served up in sumptuous silks hand-printed in Indonesia; a bubble dress was made from hand-loomed Indian cotton.

The concept - shop to help the poor! - is hardly a new one, but Van Zyl and the label’s president, Kristy Caylor, stress that what sets them apart from other do-gooders with similar goals is the quality of their goods. “We don’t want to be a pity product,” Caylor told The Associated Press in an interview. “It’s not sustainable. It lasts a couple of seasons and then the customers stop coming back. “We are about making things that people genuinely desire, regardless of whether they’re ‘good’ or not,” she said.

Maiyet, named after the Egyptian goddess of truth and harmony, is currently working with groups of artisans in five countries: India and Indonesia for textiles and embroidery, Colombia for silver jewelry, and Kenya and South Africa for accessories carved out of bone and horn. “We don’t tell them, ‘do this faster and cheaper,’” Van Zyl said ahead of Sunday’s show. “We say, ‘do it slowly and carefully and better and we’ll put it on a rack at Barneys.’” Final products are put together in small factories in Italy, the Mecca of the luxury industry. Because artisans in the developing world often don’t have the tools or training necessary to churn out luxury products that meet international standards right away, Maiyet is working with an organization called Nest that provides training to help craftsmen and women hone their skills, Caylor said.

She added that artisans in three additional countries Liberia, Togo and Mexico - are undergoing training and could soon be contributing to Maiyet.

The idea for the label grew out of Van Zyl’s experience of being named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2008.

“I found myself in the company of people who were using market mechanisms to achieve their development goals, whether it be getting clean water to women in Africa or bringing Muslims and Hindus

together in India,” said Van Zyl, who is also co-founder of the International Center for Transitional Justice, an organization that has applied the lessons learned in South Africa to 35 conflict wracked countries around the world. “I became fascinated by the idea of using entrepreneurship to build peace and stability in developing countries.”

After a grant provided initial seed money, Van Zyl went searching for people with top fashion pedigrees.

Enter Caylor, a merchandising executive who had worked at The Gap, Banana Republic and the L.A.based fashion label Band of Outsiders, among other leading brands.

The two spent the past year recruiting a six-person design team of confirmed fashion industry talent and zigzagging the globe to identify artisans. By tapping into their networks, the two targeted countries which - despite long traditions of craftsmanship - have a hard time tapping into the international market.

Caylor said additional funding for Maiyet came from private investors, though she declined to provide any further details. Deals are in the works for the brand to be carried at some top retailers in the United States, including the exclusive New York department store Barneys. Meanwhile, Van Zyl is dreaming big. “I want it to be an absolutely gigantic success,” he said, with a grin. — AP

Models wear creations for Maiyet’s spring-summer 2012 ready-to-wear collection. — AFP photos

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no-nonsense American brashness blew through the house of Kenzo on Sunday, sweeping out the lingering traces of the label’s departed Sardinian designer’s languid Italian romanticism. Just over two months after they were appointed to replace Antonio Marras as creative directors, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim - the New Yorkbased duo behind the wildly successful Opening Ceremony concept stores - presented their debut ready-to-wear collection. Gone were Marras’ poetic, globe-trotting looks, replaced by more overtly hip, youthful designs that buzzed with a very New York energy.

Wrap dresses and short little skirts were paired with oversized parkas, and printed silk shorts were worn with sweaters in clashing patterns. Romantic beauty ceded to practicality, as Marras’ ravishing but sometimes hardto-wear designs were swapped for more sportswear looks, many of them reversible, according the collection notes.

Kenzo has always been about prints and color, going back to the tenure of the brand’s founder, Japanese-born designer Kenzo Takada, but Leon and Lim swapped the oversized flowers of the Marras years for graphic prints in primary colors. The fishnet prints were cool, but in head-to-toe colorblock patchwork, it was enough to make you dizzy.

The youth market is generally regarded as the holy grail for many top labels, and with Sunday’s spring-summer 2012 collection Leon and Lim marked their start of their quest to capture it. — AP

Models display creations by fashion designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim for Kenzo spring-summer 2012 ready to wear collection.

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In this undated file photo made available by the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency in 2007, Arabian Oryx gather on top of a dune after their recent release into the desert. (Inset) An Arabian Oryx is pictured. — AP

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With Arizona help, fabled Arab antelope lives anew

rowing up in the Middle East, Myyas Ahmed Al-Quarqaz only knew the Arabian oryx from postage stamps. The antelope made famous in Arabian poetry and by its associations with the unicorn legend had been hunted to near-extinction. But over the past three decades, it has staged a remarkable comeback through a program that got its start in the Arizona desert and has flourished under the united efforts of several Arabian Gulf countries. Today the Arabian oryx can once again be seen in settings reminiscent of the Bible, grazing and cavorting in the deserts of the Middle East, showing off the thin, graceful horns that underlie the unicorn legend because from a certain angle they look like a single horn, or because they are fragile and sometimes one of them can break off.

Al Quarqaz, a Jordanian, is a conservationist who has worked with the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency to reintroduce oryx into a remote region of sand dunes, gravel flats and dry lake beds along the border with Saudi Arabia and Oman. The first 100 came in 2007 and the numbers have risen to 155 with the goal of reaching 500. A much smaller reserve exists outside neighboring Dubai. “The Arabian Oryx is one of the

most iconic species in this region. Wherever you go, people know the species and they love it,” said al-Quarqaz, as he approached a feeding station in the Arabian Oryx Protected Area of Abu Dhabi. The oryx program has already inspired efforts to revive populations of black-footed ferret and California condor in the US, golden lion tamerins in Brazil, scimitar-horned oryx in North Africa and Pere David deer in China. “This was the first operation to restore a large mammal back to the wild and it has become a classic conservation success story,” said David Mallon of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

His environmental umbrella group says about 1,000 Arabian oryx now live in the wild and up to 7,000 in captivity - enough for the organization to change the animal’s status from critically endangered to vulnerable. Over the centuries the oryx was integral to Middle East life. It could lead Bedouin nomads to watering holes, its facial skin upholstered rifle butts, its blood was used to treat snake bites and it yielded a soup that eased joint pains. But hunting intensified, and by 1962 their number was down to 200, prompting the establishment of a “world herd” that included three caught in Yemen, four from private Saudi collec-

tions, one from the Kuwait ruling family and one from the London Zoo. The following year they were flown to the Phoenix Zoo, chosen because Arizona’s terrain resembled the oryx’s natural habitat, according to Frank Turkowski, an American zoologist on the program. Over time, the population in Phoenix grew and 10 oryx were the first to be reintroduced into the wild at a sanctuary in Oman 1980.

Saudi Arabia followed with its own reintroduction program in 1990. Today they are found, wild or semi-wild, in Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. “It is rewarding to see many citizens of the world unite in such a manner to save and protect wildlife and nature for our and future generations,” Turkowski, who teaches at Central Texas College, said by email. But the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman and the Mahazat asSayd reserve in Saudi Arabia became notorious in conservation circles for what can go wrong in a reintroduction program. The numbers in Oman reached 400 by 1996 but have fallen to a current level of 60 after poachers moved in. Saudi Arabia tried to combat poaching and the invasion of livestock by fencing one of its populations. But it

Read any good personal letters lately?

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f Mark Twain were alive today would he tweet, “OMG, are using email, texting, Twitter tweets, Facebook status reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated, updates, and so on in the same ways that we earlier relied LOL”? When Twain did read his premature obituary, he on the letter for; they are probably using each of these sent a letter assuring friends the report was overblown. media in different ways, some of which allow people to But when was the last time you got a personal letter in get closer to each other and engage in friendly or intithe mail? If you live in a typical American household, it’s mate exchange. It seems that email is the most letter-like been a while. According to the Postal Service’s annual medium,” added Newbold. “One of the ironies for me is survey, the average household gets one personal letter that everyone talks about electronic media bringing peoabout every seven weeks. It was a letter about every two ple closer together, and I think this is a way we wind up weeks in 1987. While many people write notes in the holi- more separate. We don’t have the intimacy that we have day and birthday cards they send, the post office doesn’t when we go to the attic and read grandma’s letters,” said include those in the letter category. Holiday and other Aaron Sachs, a professor of American Studies and History greeting cards, as well as written invitations, have also at Cornell University. “Part of the reason I like being a historian is the sensory expegone down. The Postal rience we have when dealService says this trend is “priing with old documents” marily driven by the adopand letters, he said. tion of the Internet as a pre“Sometimes, when people ferred method of communiask me what I do, I say I cation.” The loss of that lucraread other people’s mail.” tive first-class mail is just one “Handwriting is an part of the agency’s financial aspect of people’s identity,” troubles, along with payhe added. “Back in the day, ment of bills via Internet and when you wrote a letter it a decline in other mail. The was to that one person, so Postal Service is facing losses people said very intimate of up to $8 billion this year. things.” Today with things The loss to what people in like Facebook being more the future know about us public people may not say today may be incalculable. In as much, he said. And earlier times the “art” of letter while some people are writing was formally taught, said Webster Newbold, a This handout image provided by the US open in what they email, professor of English at Ball Postal Service shows a postage stamp hon- “it’s a very different kind of sharing.” “There are indeed State University in Muncie, oring Mark Twain. — AP many ways that a decline Ind. “Letters were the prime medium of communication among individuals, and even in letter-writing will affect future historians, as many peoimportant in communities as letters were shared, read ple in my profession have certainly benefited from the aloud, and published. Letters did the cultural work that insights that written missives provide into how people of academic journals, book reviews, magazines, legal docu- the past thought and felt,” added history professor Jeffrey ments, business memos, diplomatic cables, etc. do now. Nathan Wasserstrom of the University of California, Irvine.

“Personally, I don’t get or send many letters, at least They were also obviously important in more intimate senses, among family, close friends, lovers, and suitors in not carefully composed ones,” he added. Wasserstrom still initiating and preserving personal relationships, and turns to them as a source for his research. “I expect to holding things together when distance was a real and make a lot of use of letters written by people held hostage in Beijing in the summer of 1900 in my upcomunsurmountable obstacle,” he said.

“It’s too early to tell with any certainty whether people ing book on the Boxer Crisis.” — AFP

failed to provide food and water and scores of animals died when droughts took hold in 1999.

Food and water have since been introduced and the numbers have doubled from a low of around 400. The UAE’s reserve of towering sand dunes in Umm Al-Zumoul, which opened in 2007, learned from these experiences. Two dozen rangers patrol the reserve and the animals are equipped with GPS collars for satellite tracking. Authorities will provide an intricate system of 31 feeding stations and manmade watering holes until the oryx have adapted to the native vegetation. There also are projects to develop drought- and salinity-resistant plants for the oryx and a massive tree planting program.

Critics contend such heavy human involvement, and the absence of natural predators like wolves and jackals, raise doubts about whether these animals are truly wild. “The laws of natural selection are being disturbed,” said Paul Vercammen of the Breeding Center For Endangered Arabian Wildlife in the emirate of Sharjah which has bred more than 100 species including the Arabian leopard, oryx and wolf. “In the wild, they die if it’s too dry and the stupid ones get taken by wolves,” he said. “Only the very

strong survive. You do not allow for that selection in managed oryx reserves.”

Al-Quarqaz said a stud book for the whole of the Arabian Peninsula is being developed and will ensure mixing of the region’s multiple oryx blood lines. Currently, the UAE has the largest Arabian oryx population in the world, with several hundred in a Dubai reserve and some 3,000 held in private collections and zoos across the country.

In the Abu Dhabi reserve, across a landscape of dunes, flats and clumps of green shrubbery, many of the inhabitants - Arabian horned viper, desert monitor lizard, Arabian red fox - are sheltering from the 120 degree (50 Celsius) heat.

Then a lone oryx emerges in the distance. It is resting beneath one of the man-made shelters, curved horns and chocolate-colored legs standing out against the dunes.

Startled by human intrusion, it starts running, stopping briefly to glance back before climbing up a dune. Several more oryxes appear at the next feeding station. “It’s too early to call this a complete success,” Al-Quarqaz says of the oryx program. “But from all indications, it is going in the right direction.” — AP

Prison in paradise:

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reen Island, off Taiwan’s east coast, used to be the local version of Siberia, a place where hardened criminals and political prisoners were sent to rot in uncomfortable jails.

Now it has become a major tourist destination, attracting visitors not just with its lush scenery, but also its dark history, reflected in a sprawling prison compound where thousands of inmates were locked up, and some died. “When I was a little girl, my dad used to scare me by saying if I didn’t behave, he’d send me to Green Island,” said one of the visitors to the jail-turned-museum, 22-yearold Vicky Liu. “Now I’ve actually seen it, and I must agree it’s a bit scary to think about how all these people were locked up together in small cells.”

The island’s jail compound, squeezed in between black coastal rocks and steep green hills, was the home of several wellknown dissidents in the days when Taiwan was a right-wing one-party state.

Now a museum and a memorial, it seeks to collect and display artefacts from the period between 1951 and 1987 when the aim of the facility was to re-educate inmates, sometimes by extraordinarily brutal means. Crude drawings by former inmates are on display, showing prisoners being beaten with long bamboo sticks or forced to kneel on broken glass.

Executions also took place in the 1950s.

These may be extreme instances of life in the prison, which had different names, including New Life Correction Centre, and a population of 2,000 at its peak. But few dispute that this was a place of suffering. “It was a kind of concentration camp,” said Cheng Shenghsing, head of the museum, as he eyed the azure ocean, which kept the prisoners from fleeing better than any wall.

“We want it to be a site of remembrance.”

To help a new generation better understand, the museum uses panoramas and animations, as well as life-size wax figures showing inmates toiling with manual labour or crammed together in large prison dormitories.

Green Island still houses a jail, although today it is a place where democratic Taiwan puts its common criminals.

escapes. “They’re not meant to depict political prisoners, so we’re not opposed to this,” said Fu Chie-wei, an official with the museum. About 80 percent of all visitors to the island, located a 40-minute ferry journey from Taiwan proper, are young people attracted by the famed dining and diving.

But a growing number is also interested to hear more about the time when

A visitor looks at cartoon drawings depicting prisoners being beaten and being forced to kneel in broken glass at the old prison complex on Green Island.— AFP However, its reputation as a prison island does not hurt tourism. Several shops in the town of Jhongliao sell prisonthemed souvenirs, often displaying inmates in cartoon form as sneering gangsters busy planning daredevil

Green Island doubled as Taiwan’s prison in paradise. Until a couple of decades ago, the prison area-which took up nearly one tenth of the island’s 15 square kilometers (six square miles) — was strictly off limits to the locals.—AFP