15th Oct

IO N IPT SC R SU B

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Cycling along the emirates to help underprivileged

No: 15240

THULQADA 17, 1432 AH

Kuwaiti jets back after GCC exercises

Captain Dhoni inspires India to 126-run win

150 Fils

2Syria forces 3 kill4512, toll crosses 3,000 Troops slay civilians, army defectors: UN

BURI, Bahrain: Thousands of Bahrainis participate yesterday in a rally in the western village of Buri, Bahrain, demanding freedom for political prisoners and supporting an initiative by six opposition groups calling for democracy in the Gulf island nation. Relatives of a jailed Shiite opposition leader in Bahrain say he’s gravely ill, but prison authorities have not provided proper treatment. — AP

Kuwait fans brace for English football thriller KUWAIT: English Premier League football fans in Kuwait prepare for the biggest and fiercest of rivalries in England, with Liverpool and Manchester United set to face one another today, in what promises to be an amazing spectacle of footballing splendor.

The much-anticipated match will see 19-time league champions, Manchester United face 18-time champions, Liverpool, in the latter’s home ground of Anfield, for their first North-West England derby of the Premier League season. Liverpool sit only three points adrift of Manchester United, who sit 19 points second in the league table under Manchester City. Statistics say that in their last 19 matches, Manchester United have won nine, while Liverpool have won seven, with both teams drawing the remaining three.

Ali Abdal, a Manchester United supporter thinks Liverpool will be 2-1 winners on the day, due to the abilities of their combined strike force of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. “Suarez is clever and makes defenders look stupid with his clever play,” he told KUNA. Midfielder Charlie Adam is another good addition for the Reds, as he is a good ball-provider, Ali explained.

As for the teams’ chosen formations, Ali maintains that Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson could spring a surprise, as he is known to do so, and has an option of choosing a duo of strikers from any of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck or Javier Hernandez.

United’s talisman and England international, Rooney, could be affected mentally by the England manager Fabio Capello’s negative remarks, after Rooney was earlier redcarded in a European qualifier against Montenegro, Ali predicts. However, the Red Devils will be boosted with the return of big players like defender Nemanja Vidic and striker Hernandez (nicknamed Chicharito) to the starting line-up, with both known to excel in their respected positions, he added.

Liverpool fan, Najeh Al-Dulaimi, thinks his team will be 3-1 triumphant on the big day, with providers including Suarez, Dirk Kuyt and captain, Steven Gerrard, with United’s goal scored by any of Chicharito or Rooney.

United will reinforce their midfield area with many players, and will opt for a defensive formation which depends on the Chicharito-Rooney duo. — KUNA

DAMASCUS: Syria forces killed 12 people yesterday as they fired on rallies supporting army defectors opposed to a crackdown that the UN said has killed more than 3,000 people.

“Twelve demonstrators were killed today,” Rami Abdel Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP by telephone. The toll included seven in Dael on the outskirts of Daraa, a flashpoint town in the south; a demonstrator in Saqba on the outskirts of Damascus, one in the Al-Qadam neighborhood of Damascus and another on the outskirts of Aleppo.

“There were massive demonstrations in several Syrian cities despite a significant deployment of security forces,” Rahman said, including a rally in Deir Ezzor, “the largest since military operations ended there in August.”

Syrians also staged demonstrations in the northwestern province of Idlib, the central region of Homs, the coastal city of Latakia and Damascus, the Observatory said.

Pro-democracy activists called for nationwide demonstrations yesterday in support of “free soldiers”—a reference to defectors—after 36 people, including 25 soldiers, were killed in clashes across the country on Thursday. “The free men of the army do not kill the free men of the people who are calling for their freedom,” The Syrian Revolution 2011, a motor of protests, said.

The Observatory has reported mount-

Max 38º Min 20º

ing armed resistance to security forces.

Clashes in Banash and Daraa on Thursday pitted troops against deserters, who apparently mutinied rather than obey orders to shoot civilian protesters. Western governments have issued increasingly shrill warnings that unless the Assad regime heeds popular demands for reform, the so far peaceful protest movement risks feeling it has little alternative but to turn to violence.

“More than 100 people have been reported killed in the past 10 days alone,” UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said. At least 187 children were among civilians killed in the relentless clampdown on the protests against President Bashar AlAssad’s regime that erupted in mid-March.

The heavy death toll came from “sniping from rooftops and indiscriminate use of force against peaceful protesters,” noted Pillay. “The government of Syria has manifestly failed to protect its population,” Pillay said. “The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective and decisive manner, before the continual ruthless repression and killings drive the country into a full-blown civil war,” she added.

“The international community must speak with one voice and act to protect the Syrian people,” she said. China and Russia vetoed UN Security Council resolution proposed by European governments, which warned of “targeted measures,” but not sanctions, against the regime. — AFP

LONDON: A man takes a photograph of himself in front of the window display after buying the new iPhone 4S at an Apple store in London yesterday. Some enthusiasts queued for up to a week to snap up the gadget. — AFP (See Page 30)

LOCAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Visitors attending the event

Cycling along the emirates Challenge aims to raise funds for underprivileged

By Ben Garcia

Brian Wilkie

KUWAIT: Would you like to be part of a challenging cycling event? If so, brace yourself for the sporting event to be held between November 28 and 2 December organized by Gulf for Good. Gulf for Good is a charitable trust that has raised millions of dinars for philanthropic purposes around the world.

One does not need to be an athlete nor to posses superior sportsmanship to be part of the challenge. Sheer interest and will power to achieve something special are considered core competencies. On Wednesday, the British Business Forum Kuwait, during its October monthly meeting held at the British Embassy premises featured the founder of the Gulf for Good, Brian Wilkie as guest speaker. Wilkie has invited residents and Kuwaitis to sign up for the cycling challenge to promote future competitions.

Over the last decade, Gulf for Good raised almost KD 500,000 in funds in 23 different countries by organizing 35 trips overseas. This involved more than 730 participants from 40 different nationalities, including several citizens and residents, “We organize exciting adventure challenges around the world by inspiring people to do something unusual. At the same time, they should do good for others and keep themselves fit in return,” Wilkie told BBF members.

Participants raise funds, which are then donated to hand-picked trusts in the region where the event is held. Wilkie said he was keen on increasing the number of participants from Kuwait and gave a detailed explanation of Gulf for Good’s 36th challenge - cycling across the seven emirates of the UAE. “Starting from Al Ain, all seven of the UAE emirates will be explored on this 400 kilometer expedition which will raise money for the Al-Manar Charity School in Ajman,” he said. “Please spread the word to your friends, post it on your Facebook wall and invite companies to participate,” he said. ‘Challengers’ from all over the GCC will explore the mountains of the emirates and their exclaves on the cycle along the stunning Indian Ocean coast, navigating their way through the desert, before a triumphant ride is made into Dubai, marking the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the UAE’s formation.

“This is a pretty affluent region,” Wilkie continued, “but there are lots of poor people, both locals and expats, who for one reason or another can’t attend normal schools, and Al-Manar was set up for them.

It’s badly in need of refurbishment and we will be contributing towards that. It’s a girls’ and boys’ school and it’s non-denominational, so it’s a great cause.”

He said he hoped the six-day, 400 kilometer trip would raise close to KD 15,000 but was hoping for a lot more. Up to 25 volunteers will take part.

“It’s just a great way to see one of the neighboring GCC countries,” he said. “We’ll be cycling through the desert and along the east coast through the mountains. It’ll be mostly on roads, though there will be a few off-road bits. Generally, the weather in December is pretty kind - it’s not too hot and great for cycling.”

The ride will start at Al-Ain on November 28 and the route will take the course of an enclave of Ajman, Hatta, Kalba, Khor Fakkan, Masafi, Falaj Al-Mualla, Dibba and Al-Ghail. The cyclists, who will spend three nights at desert camps, are due to roll into Dubai from Sharjah on December 2, the country’s National Day. The registration fee is 2,200 Dirhams. “Individually, they only need to raise KD 1,000 but the more money they raise, the merrier. They can do that through their companies or get the support from sponsors,” he said.

Funds raised from previous competitions have already been used to build a community hospital in Nepal, classrooms in Tanzania, deliver four ambulances to Kenya, equip schools in Jordan and Oman, provide medical equipment in Palestine and China, build a training centre for disabled children in Sri Lanka, supply equipment for blind students in Oman, build a teaching centre in Borneo, refurbish orphanages in Thailand, Cambodia and Egypt and supply two mobile hospitals in Delhi slums.

“We hear constantly that the challenges we organize make a huge difference to peoples’ lives,” he told his audience.

“Obviously, the recipients of the funds benefit enormously. The challenge often turns out to be a life-changing experience for many.”

Wilkie explained that the premise of the charity is simple. “Volunteers sign up for one of the overseas challenges, which in the past have included trekking through

Ethiopia, ascending to Everest Base Camp and Machu Picchu in Peru or, closer to home, trekking in Lebanon and next up cycling through the seven emirates of the UAE,” he said.

The participants have to raise a target amount, and then Gulf for Good helps with physical training before the trip and transport to the country, as well as guides, accommodation and food while there. All the money raised goes towards children’s projects in the country of the challenge, and volunteers get a chance to visit the projects they fund.

Wilkie said participants don’t need to be fitness fanatics to take up one of the Gulf for Good challenges. “People of all shapes and sizes and levels of fitness have taken part. The great thing for me is seeing them succeed,” he said.

For more information on the ‘Cycle the Seven Emirates’ challenge Gulf for Good’s other charity challenges, contact +9656 6123286 / +971 4368 0222 or visit www.gulf4good.org

BBF Chairman with a visitor

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Kuwaiti warplanes back after GCC exercises KUWAIT: Several Kuwaiti air force vertical planes returned home yesterday, after taking part in 12-day Gulf Cooperation Council military

exercises in Saudi Arabia’s Taif. Welcoming the Kuwaiti air force unit home were Kuwait Air Force Commander, Air Vice Marshal, Abdulaziz

Al-Jasim and Ali Al-Salem Airbase Commander, Group Captain, Adnan Al-Salama, among other senior air force officers. — KUNA

Blocs rework strategy as NAB pulls out of grilling Groups to discuss new nominees

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: Firefighters from Subhan attend to a freak accident in which a concrete mix fell from top of a forklift cabin seriously injuring an Asian.

Customs officials foil drug, alcohol smuggling Asian seriously hurt in crane collapse

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Abdaly customs officials foiled an Egyptian trucker’s attempt to smuggle large quantities of drug pills from Iraq. Officials said that the truck was prevented from entering the country yesterday afternoon. According to a preliminary estimate, the total quantity may slightly exceed one million pills. In another development, customs officials confiscated a shipment of Red Label whisky at Shuwaikh port on Thursday. More than 3,000 bottles of imported Red Label were seized. It had been declared that ‘refrigerators’ were being imported from the UAE, ordered by a trading and contracting company in Kuwait. The company’s representative fled the scene as customs officials conducted the inspection. The owner of the contracting company has been summoned for an investigation.

KUWAIT: Following the withdrawal of the National Action Bloc (NAB) from the proposed grilling motion initiated against HH the PM Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah after reading its content, the Popular Action Bloc and the Development and Reform Bloc (PAB, DRB) will meet tomorrow to discuss the names of new nominees. The NAB will have to either choose MP Abdul Rahman Al-Anjeri or a Muttairi MP to be the third, joining MPs Ali Al-Diqbasi and Falah Al-Sawwagh in filing the motion. “However, suggestions were already made to limit the co-presenters to two MPs only,” stressed the sources. He noted that MP Naji AlAbdul Hadi retreated from taking part to yield to a strong demand. Officials added that MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri also withdrew support from the motion on grounds that he was too busy preparing a grilling motion against Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak.

Al-Saifi faces pressure on ‘grilling’ Al-Sayer A number of lawmakers have asked MP Saifi Al-Saifi to opt out from initiating a grilling motion against the health minister, Dr Hilal Al-Sayer. They warned him against a possible backlash that may arise should the motion be presented. The MPs explained that enough media cover-

‘Kuwaitis’ property usurped in Cairo ‘ Kuwait’s embassy in Cairo has filed a complaint with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry with a list of Kuwaiti-owned property that was reportedly usurped during the uprising that took place in the country earlier this year.

Most of the property state was not occupied by Kuwaiti citizens. However, some Egyptians had broken into them.

Furthermore, officials explained that the complaint was supported by providing a full list of the ownership deeds and addresses of the units.

Housing loan may be raised to KD 100,000

Freak accident Police received an emergency call about the fall of concrete mix on top of a forklift cabin. A soft drink manufacturing company in Subhan owned it. Firefighters from Subhan responded to the spot. The Asian driver’s body was trapped inside the cabin.

After a painstaking 40-minute operation, they freed the body from the damaged cabin.

Patient attacks nurse In a press statement released by Dr Qais Al- Duwairi, Acting Undersecretary at the Ministry of Health, it was stated that one of the patients assaulted a male nurse at the Casualty Department, Farwaniya hospital. He had also lodged a complaint against the nurse at was the police station. The nurse was hospitalized. The undersecretary condemned the attack and said that ministry would take legal action against the assaulter to protect employees.

Bodies found A 50-year-old Indian’s body was found at his work place in Mina Abdullah. It was removed to perform an autopsy. Another 41-year-old Indian expat was found dead at a farm in Wafra. The body was removed by the coroner to perform an autopsy.

age could not be warranted and that Al-Saifi would be accused of attempting to delay the grilling motion concerning cash deposits scandal. ‘If filed, this grilling motion will embarrass members of both PAB and DRB because the latter will not support Al-Sayer being interpellated.

Sources also said that MP Jamaan Al-Harbash would back the minister all the way, particularly after appointing his brother as health attache. Furthermore, sources said that MP Ahmed Al-Saadoun will not support the grilling motion as Al-Sayer belonged to the same constituency.

MP Musallam Al-Barrak is also expected to oppose the motion since Al-Sayer belonged to the same tribe - AlMuttairi, leaving only Ali Al-Diqbasi and Khaled Al-Tahous who usually follow Al-Saadoun and Al-Barrak.

KUWAIT: The drug pills recovered by Abdaly customs officials from an Egyptian trucker.

KUWAIT: Discussing the prospect of raising housing loans granted from KD 70,000 to 100,000, the parliamentary committee recently held a meeting with the Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah Minister of Housing Affairs. Representatives of the Public Authority for Housing(PAH) and the Savings and Credit Bank participated in the meeting. The relevant announcement was made by MP Naji AlAbdulhadi. He added that the committee will deliberate on the government’s stance next Wednesday, reported Al-Watan. In a related development, the Savings and Credit Bank - Farwaniya branch- has been receiving housing applications from citizens who seek a loan to acquire a pre-fabricated home or to construct a new one. Khaled AlAzmi the branch’s team leader said that it has processed about 50 applications.

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Kuwait FM deplores ‘satanic scheme’ against Saudi envoy KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah on Thursday condemned “the satanic scheme” to assassinate Saudi ambassador to the United States Adel Al-Jubeir.

“The State of Kuwait strongly condemns this heinous terrorist attempt,” Sheikh Dr Mohammad said in statements to KUNA here. He expressed hopes the details of the aborted attempt would be revealed soon and those involved be brought to justice. The top diplomat also voiced Kuwait’s solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and support to all the measures it will take in response to this sinful scheme. —KUNA

‘Govt will not yield to demonstrations’ KUWAIT: The government is seriously studying the financial demands made by workers from different walks of life , said Mohammad Al-Nomas, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs .

Speaking at a ceremony held at the Spanish Embassy on the occasion of Spain’s National Day, Al-Nomas said that the government would consider all the proposed solutions, stressing that it would not yield to pressure exerted in the form of strikes.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice employees’ union announced that it would not change plans on canceling the strike scheduled to be held next Sunday to demand special allowances, reported Al-Watan.

Also, the Supreme Planning Committee, a part of the Ministry of Justice convened on Wednesday, affirming its respect for the demands put forward by workers, stressing that these demands will be met in accordance with the law.

KTS invites teachers to attend seminar KUWAIT: Chairman of Kuwait Teachers Society (KTS) Met’eb Al-Otaibi invited all concerned to attend a seminar at 7 pm on Monday at its Dasmah headquarters to discuss the voting on teachers cadre due to be held in Parliament on October 25. Al-Otaibi added that he was very optimistic about passing the cadre since at least 40 MPs had officially signed a docuMet’eb Al-Otaibi ment showing their approval.

Kuwait Science Fair kicks off in a week KUWAIT: ExxonMobil Exploration and Kuwait Energy will team up to present the Fourth Kuwait Science Fair (KSF) in a week, it was announced here yesterday. The event is set to be held under the patronage of Minister of Oil and State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Dr Mohammad AlBusairi.

The exhibition, held since 2008, will also offer young high school students the chance to take part in a science and mathematics competition, comprising 200 schools in the country. The annual competition will be held in both Arabic and English languages, and aims to encourage youngsters to assume these fields in their future endeavors, Executive Chairman of the KSF competition, Asil AlTerkait told KUNA. The students will be asked to present their scientific inventions, after which 100 of these will be chosen as candidates for an arbitration panel, including top engineers and specialists employed in Kuwaiti oil and scientific firms. —KUNA

Wataniya Telecom launches GiveKuwait 2011-12 drive Largest free exhibition for entrepreneurs, small businesses KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom is seizing all prospects it encounters to give its support to the Kuwaiti society and inspire the young generation. Wataniya is glad to announce the launch of its GiveKuwait Campaign for the year 2011-12. This year, GiveKuwait is going to focus on creating opportunities and promoting young entrepreneurs by giving them and their businesses exposure and attention it deserves.

The pl an set for the GiveKuwait 2011-12 is to empower the growing number of entrepreneurs. It will give local talents in Kuwait a chance to foster their potential capabilities and provide them with a platform to display their products and services in one of the largest exhibition of its kind to ever be held in Kuwait. The exhibition will open its doors for registration at the end of this year’s quarter and small business owners, young and aspiring entrepreneurs can participate for free. Wataniya will offer them space and stalls to display their products and services at zero cost. Wataniya will also create a mega advertising campaign that will support the participants and offer them exposure on a national level. Their work, ideas and initiatives will be showcased before the entire country.

The GiveKuwait Campaign is a long term project from Wataniya which aims to not only provide exposure to upcoming entrepreneurs it will also equip

them to become pioneering leaders in their field. A group of participants will be selected to receive a one-month course in business development, project management and in-depth market analysis led by professionals and

Riham Al-Ayyar, Senior Director of Communication, Brand and Customer Experience at Wataniya. experts in the field. Furthermore, all the participants of the GiveKuwait campaign will be able to showcase their products and services on a specially developed and designed portal.

In her words, Riham Al-Ayyar, Senior Director of Communication, Brand and Customer Experience at Wataniya elaborated more on GiveKuwait saying, “This year, GiveKuwait will be taken to

another level. We will be organizing one of the largest exhibitions of its kind.

Young entrepreneurs and small businesses will get the chance to showcase their products and services and be exposed to the Kuwaiti public by portraying their creative ideas and initiatives. We are very happy to organize this event since GiveKuwait 2011-12 will help the Kuwaiti community to develop and it will lay a strong foundation for the future of our country.”

Al-Ayyar also added: “Following last year’s tremendous success, GiveKuwait 2010-11 has achieved within the Kuwaiti community on the occasion of Kuwait’s 50th anniversary, Wataniya is making sure it continues to give its support to the young generation. We will meet their needs by being the first Kuwaiti company to initiate creative projects and campaigns.”

During last year’s GiveKuwait campaign, Wataniya had assured that weekly prizes were given to participants in order to encourage them and further motivate them, as well as there were also grand prizes for the final winners of the campaign.

Stay tuned for more details and announcements on GiveKuwait 20112012. Wataniya will announce all details regarding this campaign very soon. For more information on Wataniya Telecom’s GiveKuwait Campaign, please visit www.wataniya.com

News agencies body chief stresses neutrality, safety LONDON: Secretary General of the World Council of News Agencies Uffe Sorensen listed here yesterday key challenges facing international news agencies as media independence, neutrality and integrity as well as the safety of journalists at flashpoints.

Speaking to KUNA on the sidelines of a preparatory meeting of the World Council of News Agencies, which kick-started here earlier in the day, he emphasized that news agencies have to observe credibility and reliability should they want to retain their due role as a source of news.

However, he expressed belief that world news agencies are ushering in a fresh stage of working mechanisms. He stressed the significance of the meeting as a good opportunity for the conferees to share experiences on their careers.

Saudi Press Agency (SPA) Abdullah AlHussein asked for holding the fourth congress of the World Council of News Agencies in Saudi Arabia in 2013. He appreciated all suggestions submitted to upgrade the performance of news agencies and to reinforce cooperation among them. He stressed the importance of multilateral cooperation for protecting, safeguarding and encouraging common interests among all world news agencies. Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Board Chairman and Director General Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Sabah and Secretary General of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) Farid Ayar participated in the meeting. The SPA chief held a dinner party last night in honor of the participating delegations. — KUNA

LONDON: KUNA Board Chairman and Director General Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Sabah, Secretary General of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) Farid Ayar along with other delegates pose for a photo during the conference of World Council of News Agencies in London.

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KUWAIT: Firefighters from Mishref attend to a car accident on the King Fahd Expressway yesterday.

Multiple car crashes leave one dead, many wounded

By Hanan Al-Sadoun KUWAIT: Police received an emergency call about a jeep that collided into another vehicle and flipped over along the King Fahd Express road, near Bayan palace. Firefighters from Mishref arrived and found the 18-year-old motorist dead. Passersby had already extinguished the fire that had broken out. Also, a car accident took place along the Sixth Ring road opposite to Farwaniya. A 27-year-old female citizen’s left leg was injured while the other citizen involved in the accident emerged unscathed from the incident. The woman was admitted to Farwaniya hospital. In a motor accident that took place between the graveyard and Sulaibiya, three individuals sustained mild injuries. One was a citizen, the other was a Saudi national and the third, a bedoon. They were admitted to Sabah hospital. Another car accident took place along Fahaheel Expressway near Sabah Al-Salem bridge. A 29-year-old citizen suffered facial injuries. Also, a 24-year-old Indian expat suffered spinal injury. Both were admitted to Mubarak hospital.

Lovers caught in car; policeman wounded KUWAIT: A policeman who had been patrolling in Jahra, noticed a car that was parked in a doubtful manner. Upon approaching it, he caught a young man and a woman in a compromising position. The man sensed the policeman approaching and placed the car in reverse gear and fled the scene, injuring him. The officer managed to jot down the car’s license plate number, which he passed on to his colleagues before being admitted to the hospital for treatment. He sustained a broken arm, in addition to abdominal pain. After conducting an investigation, police found that it belonged to a woman who lives in Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate. She claimed that the car was parked outside her home and was not used that day. Police asked her to bring the car to police station. She, however, failed to cooperate raising suspicions about her involvement in the case. — Alanbaa.

Role of Kuwaitis suspected in $180m embezzlement Multinational money-laundering scam surfaces KUWAIT: A new complaint has been reportedly lodged with the Public Prosecution Department (PPD) in connection with money-laundering. Allegedly a sum of $180 million was siphoned off in cooperation with Iranian and Russian parties. Evidence was also presented on some citizens’ involvement in illegal money transactions.

According to reliable sources, the money was used to purchase naval armament for Iran, which violates the international embargo placed on the country. Clandestine operations were conducted through a well-connected shipping operator based in Dubai; a Kuwaiti company on paper. Its Iranian partners have been blacklisted, in addition to 317 companies that have been accused of operating a money-laundering network around the world.

Similar cases have taken place in the past, and the sum of $180 million is not believed to be the only amount to be laundered. An Iranian official and the chairman of a Kuwaiti company have been suspected, so have the chairman and managing director of a subsidiary company. The Iranian party suggested that the $180 million be paid in different installments, ranging between $10 million and $ 15 million each time to avoid arousing American intelligence’s suspicion, reported Al-Rai. Documents pertinent with the operation indicate that the chairman of the Kuwaiti company owns 51 percent stakes in the Dubai- based shipping operator and the Iranian company owns the rest.

The partners have allegedly forged formidable relations with Iranian parties by undertaking commercial activities and other large-scale prohibited operations.

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Nations must cooperate to help women: Kuwait Rezouqi sees major development role for women UNITED NATIONS: Kuwait has urged nations of the world to join hands and overcome snags obstructing efforts aimed at enhancing women status.

The state fully abides by the UN Convention on Discrimination against

address at a meeting of the UN commission for social, cultural and humanitarian affairs.

Rezouqi, during the commission deliberations on women status promotion, praised the granting of the

UNITED NATIONS: Ilaf Mahmoud Rezouqi, a member of the Kuwaiti delegation taking part in the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, yesterday. —KUNA Women, said Ilaf Mahmoud Rezouqi, a member of the Kuwaiti delegation taking part in the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in an

Nobel prize to three women activists, two from Liberia and one from Yemen.

“This constitutes an indication as to the role of the women for boosting

development,” she said.

Shedding some light on Kuwait’s experience in this regard, Rezouqi said Kuwait has been keen on implementing the principle of justice and equality between the two genders. The Kuwaiti Constitution stipulates that people are equal and must not be subject to discrimination in front of the law, in terms of duties and rights. It also renounces discrimination on the basis of gender, race, language or religion.

As to the Kuwaiti woman, she is a first-degree citizen, like men, and her contributions date back to old times, and not only with the endorsement of political rights, said Rezouqi in her detail address to the commission.

Elaborating further, she shed light on the hardships the Kuwaiti women had to tolerate during the old times and their status in the 60s when they started receiving education. Women societies have also played an effective role for aiding the females be employed.

During the 1990-1991 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, many women volunteered to serve at hospitals, smuggle food, money and arms, through security checkpoints. With time, the status of the Kuwaiti women significantly improved, and now women serve as ministers, directors, enjoy political franchise and occupy various senior posts. She also indicated at several laws that support various women’s rights. —KUNA

Kuwaiti TV channel holds festival to help the blind

PARIS: Head of Kuwaiti Cultural Bureau in Paris Dr Abdulrahman Al-Radwan. —KUNA

Kuwait seeks education cooperation in Italy PARIS: Head of Kuwaiti Cultural Bureau in Paris Dr Abdulrahman Al-Radwan said here yesterday that his visit to Italy was aimed at broadening ties with Italy within the higher education domain.

Al-Radwan, who recently came back from Italy after attending the honoring ceremony of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah at an Italian university, said that he embarked on several visits to Italian universities to boost cooperation and meet with officials of each respective institute.

He noted that the bureau mission, as the entity that follows up on some 450 Kuwaiti students within the EU region, required them to conduct such a visit to Italy to look into the increase of the number of students there. The bureau handles the affairs of students in all of Europe expect in the UK and Ireland. —KUNA

CAIRO: Al-Ata’ Kuwaiti television channel held here late on Thursday in cooperation with Egypt’s Orman House a festival supporting individuals suffering from blindness.

Chairman of the Festival High Committee Ahmad Al-Farsi told the press that the event aimed at supporting talented individuals suffering from blindness, affirming that the event was held under the auspices of the Arab League and the Kuwaiti Embassy.

Al-Faris called on Arab media outlets to support this segment of society because they very well could achieve feats that could be parallel to their nor-

mal counterparts or even exceed them.

Officials representing the Arab League, the Kuwaiti diplomatic corps in Cairo, and Orman House lauded the event held by the Kuwaiti channel, calling for efforts on part of Arab states to support events and missions to help the disabled unleash their talents.

The event was attended by Arab League Assistant Undersecretary for Social Affairs Dr Sima Buthouth, Kuwait’s Envoy to the Arab League Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim, Kuwaiti Ambassador to Egypt Rashid Al-Hamad, and Orman House’s Chairman of the Board HussamEddine Al-Qabani. —KUNA

MILAN: Mayor of Milan Giuliano Pisapia greets Ministry of Information Undersecretary Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al-Sabah during the Kuwait Days Festival in Milan. —KUNA

MILAN: A pavilion displaying the rich Kuwait heritage during ‘Kuwait Days’ festival in Milan. —KUNA

Milan mayor hails Kuwaiti envoy for festival success MILAN: Mayor of Milan Giuliano Pisapia has praised the Kuwaiti General Consulate for organizing the “Kuwait Days” festival here and expressed desire of the diplomatic mission to boost the Kuwaiti-Italian relations.

Pisapia, in remarks to KUNA, said the festival, inaugurated by the Ministry of Information Undersecretary, Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al-Sabah, early last week, constituted a message of peace, rapprochement and brotherhoodan event that came a year after the successful exhibition of Islamic arts.

The media demonstration, held at Al-Duomoa Piaza, the top landmark of the ancient city, which is a main cultural-economic center in Europe, practically contributed to the cultural interaction between Kuwait and the city.

The mayor indicated that such Kuwaiti activities in Milan would bolster “the relationship of brotherhood between us.”

Elaborating, he said Kuwait’s planned participation in the exhibition in 2015 would result in increasing cooperation at the economic, social and cultural levels. The festival concluded yesterday with a seminar on Kuwaiti heritage. —KUNA

Kuwait diplomat expresses interest in Korea experience JEJU, South Korea: A leading Kuwaiti diplomat has said that Kuwait could examine the South Korean experience at the level of education, hinting that useful lessons could be taken from the Koreans’ democratic system, based on laws and accountability.

Kuwait could benefit from the South Korean experience in the sector of development, said the visiting Director-General of Kuwait Diplomatic Institute (KDI) Ambassador Abdul-Aziz Al-Sharekh, during the 8th symposium on cooperation

between the Asian nation and Middle East states, held on the island of Jeju.

Al-Sharekh touched on the South Koreans’ concern that consequences of the “Arab Spring events” might affect the ties between South Korea and the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). However, he made the point that these protests were caused by internal factors, namely peoples’ demand for democracy and development. Assuring further the Korean side, he pointed out that the Kuwaiti Constitution, enacted in 1962, set

the basis for democracy in the Gulf country.

Nevertheless, Kuwait could benefit from the Korean experience in the realms of democracy and education. Meanwhile, the veteran Kuwaiti diplomat, in an interview with the international Korean television channel, Arirang, shed light on the ties between the two countries, praised role of the Korean companies in Kuwait, namely their construction of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port. He also hailed the marked scientific and political progress in the Asian nation.

—KUNA

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Riyadh vows response over ‘Iran death plot’

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British defense minister Liam Fox resigns

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Austria court clears politician over mosque game

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Berlusconi wins confidence vote Own allies openly express disappointment

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi waves as he arrives at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome yesterday prior to the start of a confidence vote session. — AFP ROME: Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi narrowly survived a confidence vote yesterday in Parliament - the latest of dozens he has faced - but markets were not reassured that outcome was enough to solve Italy’s growing economic crisis.

Berlusconi’s conservatives won 316-301 in Parliament’s lower house, and his allies clapped in relief at the result after days of political tension and uncertainty. Had he lost, the 75-year-old Berlusconi would have been forced to resign about 1 1/2 years before the end of his term in 2013, effectively ending his political career.

“The best signal that Italy could have sent to the markets would have been to boot Mr Berlusconi out, but it has failed to do so,” said Sony Kapoor, managing director of Re-Define an Economic Think Tank.

“With Mr Berlusconi still at the helm, there is nothing that Italy can do from within that will restore market confidence.” Three ratings agencies have downgraded Italy’s public debt, citing the country’s political gridlock and its low growth prospects. Berlusconi has been weakened by sex scandals, criticized for his handling of Italy’s troubled economy

and faced repeated calls for his resignation from his political rivals, labor unions and even some business leaders. Even some of his own allies have openly expressed disappointment, with at least two deserting the vote yesterday.

Italy has found itself increasingly embroiled in Europe’s debt crisis over the past few months. It’s debt burden about 120 percent of its national income - is second only to Greece in the 17nation eurozone. After a slew of ratings downgrades and rising borrowing costs, Berlusconi’s government has been forced to enact a series of austerity measures to assure the markets that a strategy is in place. However, investors remain skeptical that there’s the necessary political will to push through the big spending cuts and tax increases - fears that have driven Italy’s borrowing costs ever higher. Italy is considered now more of a danger than Spain partly because Berlusconi’s government has backtracked on several reform proposals. The European Central Bank has been buying up Italian bonds in the markets for weeks, and without that, Italy could have found its borrowing rates rise

to an unsustainable level. Berlusconi has steadfastly hung onto power despite the scandals and four criminal trials in Milan.

He has always maintained his innocence and blamed what he says are overzealous, left-leaning prosecutors bent on ousting him. He insists there is no alternative to his government and called the vote yesterday an “ambush” by the opposition.

Moments after his victory, he spoke to reporters about his plan to spur the country’s moribund economy. Italy is under pressure to come up with growth-promoting measures to avert being dragged into the widening European sovereign debt crisis. This week, Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, who takes over the helm of the European Central Bank on Nov 1, urged the government to act more quickly to implement reforms that can spur growth beyond the austerity package that put Italy on the path to balance its budget by 2013.

Draghi warned that otherwise the rising cost of borrowing to service national debt will eat up “no small part” of the austerity package approved by Parliament last month. —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Riyadh vows response over ‘Iran death plot’ JEDDAH: Riyadh says it is determined to respond against Tehran for its alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador in Washington, but analysts expect only diplomatic measures, including a possible appeal to the International Criminal Court. “We will not yield to (Iran’s pressure) and we will hold them accountable for each hostile action, to which Saudi Arabia will find a suitable response,” warned Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, quoted by the Saudi media. Prince Saud, speaking in Vienna on Thursday during the inauguration of an interreligious centre, slammed the alleged plot against Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir unveiled by the United States, calling it an “ignoble act.”“Iran’s leadership is pursuing its interference in the affairs of other countries and its repeated attempts to... destabilise states,” in the region, he said.

The Saudi chief diplomat accused Iran of dis-

patching “its agents to various Arab countries” including Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon, the Saudiowned Al-Hayat newspaper reported. “This is not the first time Iran has been suspected of undertaking such actions,” another Saudiowned daily, Asharq Al-Awsat, quoted him as saying. Tehran has strongly denied any involvement in what Washington says was a plot by the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force to kill Jubeir by hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million. Washington has named two principal suspects in the case: Manssor Arbabsiar, a used-car salesman who is a naturalised US citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, said to be an Iran-based Quds force operative.

Shakuri is believed to be in Iran, while Arbabsiar, 56, was arrested on September 29 at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. Tehran appealed to Riyadh not to “fall into the trap,” calling the US claims a plot to divide Muslim

states, protect Israel and increase pressure on the Islamic republic which is already under sanctions over its controversial nuclear project.

Prince Saud pinned responsibility for the alleged plot on Tehran, saying it “planned and financed” the operation, but gave no details on how the kingdom planned to respond. “We must wait and see,” he told journalists in response to a question on whether Saudi Arabia would recall its envoy from the Iranian capital. Riyadh “has several options available, diplomatic and otherwise, including a reduction of its diplomatic representation in Tehran,” Salman al-Dussari, chief editor of the daily Al-Iqtissadiya told AFP, ruling out a military response. “We must not mistake the calm approach of Saudi diplomacy for a sign of weakness,” he said, adding that the belligerent “actions of Iran will lead it to face the International Criminal Court.”

“Iranian embassies in Gulf countries are tick-

ing time bombs, hatching plots against these countries,” Dussari continued, warning of a possible “Iranian escalation in the coming days in tandem to rising international pressure.” “We can expect anything from Iran which is capable of activating its sleeper cells in the region or trying to provoke a problem in Gulf waters,” he said. University professor Abdullah Qabba said that although Riyadh cannot “accept Terhan’s belligerent acts,” it is likely the kingdom will take a gradual approach, perhaps starting with an “economic boycott” or a “break in diplomatic ties.”

“The Saudi regime will not stop its wise and measured policy,” he said. “Saudi Arabia’s only available options are political measures and putting pressure on Iran through international institutions,” said Saudi analyst Abdullah Hamid Eddine, stressing that Riyadh should not act alone. — AFP

NTC launches assault on Gaddafi fighters in Sirte, clashes in Tripoli SIRTE: Forces from Libya’s new regime launched a fierce assault on two areas of Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte yesterday, as their comrades clashed with supporters of the fallen strongman in the capital. The latest offensive in Sirte, aimed at mopping up remaining pockets of stiff resistance, came a day after National Transitional Council (NTC) combatants were forced to withdraw under a hail of withering sniper fire. At least four people were killed and 46 wounded in yesterday’s fighting, said a medic at a field hospital in eastern Sirte, Abdulsalam Abdelkani. “All the injuries are sniper shots and bullet wounds.”

An AFP correspondent said shortly before 1:00 pm, a large column of NTC forces, some in trucks and some on foot, pushed out of the central police HQ towards loyalist positions in the Dollar and Number Two districts. Huge plumes of thick black smoke billowed above both neighbourhoods amid an intense grenade and mortar bombardment and almost continuous machinegun fire. NTC fighters opened up with 130 mm cannons, after their troops eased back to allow for the bombardment. “We shelled the two areas for six hours. Our scouting teams had identified targets,” said Colonel Tawfiq alJazwim, supervising the attack on the Dollar and Number Two districts. “We fired dozens of Grad rockets and some artillery shells. There has been no similar response incoming. We’ve stopped the shelling for the evening. If required, we will start again tomorrow,” he said.

NTC scouts had earlier probed loyalist defences, advancing as far as two kilometres (just over a mile) west from the central police headquarters before pulling back. New regime troops seized a school on the edge of the Dollar neighbourhood from which they launched the heavy bombardment. The 100strong force came under intense return fire. The fighters were later heading back to NTC base for the night. Defiant Gaddafi loyalists in the two areas of northwest Sirte have been staging a determined last stand that has put paid to NTC hopes of a swift mop-up. — AFP

SIRTE: A Libyan National Transitional Council fighter fires at loyalist troops as street battles continue to take control of Sirte yesterday.— AFP

SANAA: Yemeni anti-government protesters perform Friday prayers during a mass protest in Sanaa yesterday.

Demonstrators called for the United Nations to intervene to put Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on trial in the wake of a crackdown on anti-regime protests that has cost hundreds of lives. — AFP

Yemen protesters urge UN to put Saleh on trial Hundreds of thousands gather in weekly protest SANAA: Demonstrators called yesterday for the United Nations to intervene to put Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on trial in the wake of a crackdown on anti-regime protests that has cost hundreds of lives. “We want the world to pass a resolution which defends the blood of the revolutionaries,” protesters chanted at a huge gathering near “Change Square” in central Sanaa that has become the epicenter of a campaign to oust Saleh. The demonstrators, who protest organizers said numbered in the hundreds of thousands, called for the veteran leader to go on trial. “There will be no immunity... Saleh and his cronies must face trial,” chanted the protesters, gathered after weekly Muslim prayers as on every Friday since the out-

break of their campaign in late January.

Troops of dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who switched sides in March, were out in force to protect the demonstrators. At a rival protest, tens of thousands of pro-regime demonstrators gathered near the presidential palace in southern Sanaa swearing to stand by Saleh who has been in power for the past three decades. “The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh... With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Saleh,” they chanted, in images broadcast by state television. Protesters demanding the ouster of Saleh are hoping to see decisive action by the UN Security Council.

According to a letter from Yemen’s youth movement to the United Nations

earlier this month, at least 861 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded since mass protests erupted across the country.

The government, for its part, has urged the Security Council to avoid a resolution targeting the embattled president, calling on it instead to back a political solution. Organizers of the youth protests have called for a march on Saturday from Change Square to AlZubeiri Street which marks the demarcation line between the rival camps. In south Yemen, which marked the 48th anniversary of independence before its unification with the north in May 1990 yesterday, activists at rallies in several towns called for the restoration of the region’s independence. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

British defense minister Liam Fox resigns: office Fox second member of Cameron’s coalition govt to resign

DADAAB: Somali refugees stand yesterday where two Spanish aid workers were kidnapped on October 13 from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and believed to have been taken across the border into lawless Somalia. — AFP

Search for aid workers in Kenya yields vehicle NAIROBI: Kenyan security forces hunting for Somali gunmen and two kidnapped Spanish aid workers found their vehicle abandoned and mired in the desert as aid agencies scaled back relief operations in the world’s biggest refugee camp yesterday in response to the abduction there. Kenya has deployed troops and six helicopters to try to rescue the pair, who apparently have been forced to continue on foot with their captors. They had been headed toward Somalia. The UN temporarily suspended all non-lifesaving aid operations in the Dadaab refugee camp following Thursday’s kidnapping of the two workers from Doctors Without Borders, a spokeswoman said. Hundreds of staff are confined to their offices, forcing the cancellation of services like education, counseling and relocation of families until further notice. “Only water, food and health services are being maintained,” said UN refugee agency spokeswoman Needa Jehu-Hoyah. “This will of course have an impact on the poor refugees.” In recent months, tens of thousands of refugees fleeing a spreading famine in southern Somalia have swollen the severely overcrowded camp.

Most of the nearly half-million people in Dadaab, a sprawling, dusty wasteland about 50 miles from the Somalia-Kenya border, are refugees from Somalia’s 20-year-old civil war.

Now many refugees are afraid that services might stop permanently as a result of the kidnappings, said refugee community leader Mohamud Jama Guled. “People are sad and mournful,” he said. “They have gone to the (Doctors Without Borders) hospital but it is not opening ... They hope these two ladies will come back. Anyone who takes these humanitarians, they are wrong. They are wrong forever. These people are helping those who are suffering.” Gunmen seized the two women Thursday after shooting and injuring their Kenyan driver. The hijacked vehicle got stuck about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Somali border because of rain and bad terrain, said a police official in a position to know but who could not be identified because of agency rules. Police suspect the gunmen may have then forced the women to walk on foot, the official said. Jehu-Hoyah said the ban on nonessential movement for UN staff and their partners from aid groups would remain in place until further notice but that the UN was working closely with the Kenyan government to improve security. She said more police had been deployed and extra checkpoints set up.

Security has long been a concern at Dadaab, where representatives from various factions seek to recruit disaffected young male refugees as fighters. Aid workers live in guarded compounds surrounded by high barbed-wire walls, and the UN requires its staff to travel in the camps with armed escorts.

Thursday’s kidnapping has the potential to severely affect services for a long time to come. “This incident, in the camp, in the middle of the day, is very worrying,” said Alun McDonald, a spokesman for the aid group Oxfam. “Security has become much more of a concern.” All Oxfam staff had been confined to their compound for the day and it is unclear how long the ban on movement will last. The restrictions have so far not significantly affected work providing water to tens of thousands of refugees, McDonald said. Trips by VIPs who planned to visit the camp to shine the spotlight on the famine as well as trips by journalists have been canceled by the UN because of the attack, which follows the September disappearance of a Kenyan driver for CARE during a carjacking. —AP

LONDON: British defense minister Liam Fox resigned yesterday, forced out over his close working relationship with a friend who posed as his advisor despite having no official government role. In his resignation letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, the Conservative lawmaker admitted he had allowed the distinction between his personal and government activities to be blurred through his work with Adam Werritty.”I mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred. The consequences of this have become clearer in recent days. I am very sorry for this,” Fox wrote. In his letter of response, published by Downing Street, Cameron said he understood why Fox was leaving but was “very sorry to see you go” and praised his achievements in 17 months as defense secretary. “I understand your reasons for deciding to resign as defense secretary, although I am very sorry to see you go,” the prime minister wrote, adding that he hoped Fox and his wife Jesme would remain his “good friends”.

In his letter of resignation, which comes after days of allegations about his relationship with Werritty, Fox said: “I have also repeatedly said that the national interest must always come

LONDON: This file picture taken on October 18, 2010, shows British Defense Secretary, Liam Fox, leaving after attending a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, in central London. — AFP before personal interest. “I now have to hold myself to my own standard. “I have therefore decided, with great sadness, to resign from my post as secretary of state for defense — a position which I

have been immensely proud and honored to have held.” Fox’s departure leaves a vacancy at the top of the Ministry of Defense at a crucial time, when British forces are still deployed on a NATO mission in Libya and continue their ten-year operation in Afghanistan.

The minister also had the job of pushing through eight percent cuts to the armed forces budget as part of a government-wide austerity drive, which saw him confront military chiefs over what he described as years of mismanagement. “I am particularly proud to have overseen the long overdue reforms to the Ministry of Defense and to our armed forces,” Fox said. “I am proud also to have played a part in helping to liberate the people of Libya, and I regret that I will not see through to its conclusion Britain’s role in Afghanistan, where so much progress has been made.” Fox is the second member of Cameron’s coalition government to resign since it took office in May 2010 — the first, Liberal Democrat minister David Laws, was forced to stand down within weeks of the election over an expenses scandal. Cameron said Fox had done a “superb job”, saying: “You can be proud of the difference you have made in your time in office, and in helping our party to return to government.” — AFP

French teacher set herself on fire in front of students BEZIERS: A French maths teacher who doused herself in petrol and set herself on fire in front of terrified pupils died of her injuries yesterday, police and a hospital source said. The 44-year-old was hospitalized on Thursday after walking into the playground of a high school in the southern city of Beziers with a jerry can of fuel and starting a blaze that left her with third-degree burns. She staggered across the yard in front of her horrified students, some of whom joined teachers in rushing to her aid. She was taken by helicopter to a specialist burns unit at the university teaching hospital in nearby Montpellier, but doctors could not save her. “(The teacher) had thirddegree burns over 95 percent of her body,” a hospital source told AFP. “With these burns there was no way she could have survived.”

Parents and pupils who spoke to AFP at the scene Thursday said the teacher had a difficult relationship with several pupils in her maths class and that a meeting with them to clear the air on Wednesday had become rowdy.

Yesterday morning, her colleagues staged a small protest outside the school in “solidarity” with their colleague, whom they identified as “Lise”.

“Her gesture calls on all staff to show their solidarity and underlines the difficulty we have in carrying out our duties.

We expect the authorities to act responsibly,” the teachers said in a statement, brandishing signs reading “Never Again”. After news of her death

emerged, one of the teachers, Christophe Quittet, said a silent march would be held in her memory departing Monday afternoon from the school.

A psychological crisis cell was treating shocked students at the Jean Moulin secondary school, a sprawling establishment with more than 3,000 students and 280 teachers. Top local education

official Christian Philip said the school had reopened its doors yesterday morning for those seeking to talk about the tragedy but that all classes remained suspended until at least Monday.

Traumatized students were being assisted by a psychological crisis cell, he said, and about 80 students had already been treated. —AFP

KIEV: Young Ukrainian ultra-nationalists shout slogans and hold a banner as they march with others in Kiev yesterday to mark the 69th anniversary of the formation of the UPA (“Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya”), an armed nationalist group. UPA or “Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya”, which is also known as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during World War II, taking part in battles against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The group was the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Bandera faction (the OUN-B), originally formed in Volyn, in northwestern Ukraine, in the spring and summer of 1943. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

Austria court clears far-right politician over mosque game Court claims game did not incite violence ‘in real life’ VIENNA: An Austrian court cleared a farright politician of incitement yesterday, ruling that an online anti-mosque game used in his election campaign did not encourage violence against Muslims in real life. Freedom Party deputy Gerhard Kurzmann used the game in his failed bid to become governor of the southeastern

province of Styria in 2010. Prosecutors accused him of inciting religious hatred and defaming a religion with the game.

The “Bye Bye Mosque” game let players shoot cartoon mosques and Muslims emerging from an idyllic country scene.

Judicial authorities forced the Freedom Party to take down the website after the

Austrian right-wing politician Gerhard Kurzmann, right, arrives at a court in the southern Austrian city of Graz, yesterday. The court has found him innocent of charges of incitement for commissioning a video game that required players to target and stop mosques, minarets and muezzins as they pop up on a screen.

The game _ called “Moschee Baba,” Austrian German dialect for “See ya, mosque,” was posted online and sparked widespread criticism. It was put online as part of campaiging for regional elections last year. —AP

game sparked sharp criticism from Austria’s Social Democrats and Greens, as well as the Islamic and Roman Catholic communities.

“It did not reach the threshold of incitement and I would also say this was not the intention,” Judge Christoph Lichtenberg told the Graz court in remarks carried by the national APA news agency. The prosecutor’s office plans to appeal. The game was developed by the same Swiss public relations firm that created anti-Muslim and anti-immigration campaigns for the rightist Swiss People’s Party. Its creator, Alexander Segert, was also cleared by the court. The Freedom Party, which campaigns on an anti-immigrant platform, said it wanted to start a debate about mosque-building but not encourage people to use violence against Muslims. “The judge has unmistakably determined that the question of whether mosque-building should be banned is being discussed all over Europe and that it is a completely legitimate debate,” the Freedom Party said in a statement.

The Freedom Party is Austria’s biggest opposition party and has been gaining in polls before 2013 elections. At the national level it has been seeking to ban Islamic face veils and mosques with minarets.

Less than 2 percent of Styria’s population is Muslim, according to APA, and the province has no mosques with visible minarets. There are around half a million Muslims in Austria, a predominantly Roman Catholic country of 8 million people ruled by a centrist coalition. —Reuters

Gory details emerge in South African white extremist murder JOHANNESBURG: Gory, leaked photos of white extremist leader Eugene Terre’Blanche’s corpse capped a week of gruesome testimony yesterday in his murder trial, with claims of child labor and sex abuse. While the steel pipe used to bash in his head and the machete used to slice his body were brought before the court, the images of his bloody remains appeared on Facebook.

His belt was undone, his pants pulled down and his genitals exposed. The curved machete known as a panga lay on his mutilated body.

The leaked crime scene photos were posted by a group called “Boere Krisis Aksie”, or Afrikaner Crisis Action, which posts racist comments alongside hundreds of pictures of dead or beaten bodies. Terre’Blanche’s family threatened legal action against the group, while prosecutors warned of possible criminal charges. “It is clearly defeating the ends of justice as most of the pictures have not yet been presented in court as evidence,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said. The photos appeared to have been removed by yesterday morning, but the grim details kept pouring from the court, as lawyers for the two farm workers charged in the case exposed mis-steps in the police investigation.Chris Mahlangu, 28,

and a 16-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons have both pleaded not guilty.

Mahlangu said he acted in self-defence when Terre’Blanche attacked him with the machete. The youth claimed Terre’Blanche was already dead when he entered the house. The two black workers are accused of hacking to death the co-founder of the far-right Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) at his farmhouse outside the small northwest town of Ventersdorp on April 3, 2010. A paramedic told the court yesterday that blood dripped from Terre’Blanche’s body to the floor as his dog lay beneath the bed, and splattered across the walls and curtains. The court heard that the officer who arrested the pair did not immediately read them their rights and locked the juvenile up with adults. The same officer then told the court that he had changed his testimony under pressure from his superior.

But three other farm workers testified Mahlangu and the teen confessed shortly after the killing. “These two men emerged (at my quarters) and Mahlangu said I am your (new) boss today ... I killed Eugene Terre’Blanche,” said Matshediso Enie Matsietsa. A police data recorder said the minor phoned in the crime, saying “my friend and I killed Terre’Blanche.”“He said ‘we are hiding in a

camp near a farm’. He said ‘we want to come to the police station, but we are afraid of whites from other farms, as they may find us and kill us’,” Klaas Nkathule testified.

The teenager’s lawyer Norman Arendse said Terre’Blanche often plied the boy then 15 years old-with alcohol.

“There were also allegations of verbal, physical and sexual abuse,” Arendse said.

But he said witnesses were scared to testify. “The main reason appears to be fears of intimidation, fear they will lose the little they have and the fear they will lose the roof over their head, and the food they receive on the farm,” Arendse said. “We have a situation here of child labour,” he added. Allegations of abuse by Terre’Blanche are not new. He spent three years in prison on a 1997 conviction of trying to kill a security guard who was so severely attacked that he suffered permanent brain damage. Terre’Blanche’s family members and the media followed the trial over television in a separate room, to protect the teenager’s identity. He cannot be named or pictured under South African law. But notably absent have been Terre’Blanche’s supporters, who wear swastika-like symbols and who tried to derail South Africa’s first all-race elections in 1994.The trial is set to continue until October 21. —AFP

AMUR: This file photo shows Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin opening a throttle during the unveiling ceremony for the Russian section of the Russia-China oil pipeline in the far eastern region of Amur. —AFP

Strong quake briefly halts Russian oil supplies to China MOSCOW: A strong earthquake struck Russia’s Far East near the Chinese border yesterday, shaking buildings hundreds of kilometers away, briefly halting Russian oil supplies to its energy-hungry Asian neighbor. Schools were evacuated in one Russian city and office workers fled buildings across the border in China, but emergency officials said there were no casualties or significant property damage. The US Geological Survey said the 6.1 magnitude quake struck yesterday at 0610 GMT near Skovorodino in the Amur region, about 5,150 km east of Moscow, and 210 km north of China’s Heilongjiang province.

Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said the quake forced a five and a half hour halt to oil shipments to China on the 300,000 barrel-per-day East Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, but added the pipeline itself had not been damaged.

A spur of the pipeline leads to China from Skovorodino.

Transneft spokesman Igor Dyomin said the company also temporarily stopped loading railway cars destined for the port of Kozmino on the Sea of Japan, an export route for another 300,000 barrels-per-day of oil to China and Asia-Pacific nations including South Korea, Japan and the United States. “The company halted supplies as a preventive measure. Transneft expects aftershocks,” said Dyomin, adding the power supply to some pumping stations was interrupted and reserve capacity was plugged in.

Light fixtures were shaken and schools were evacuated in Chita, a city about 700 km southwest of the epicenter, ItarTass news agency said. Tremors were also felt in the border city of Blagoveshchensk, 500 km southeast of the epicenter.

The quake caused no casualties or significant damage, Amur region Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Raisa Kopyrina said by telephone. Russia’s Interfax news agency cited a resident as saying there was minor damage to structures in villages close to the epicenter. In the Chinese city of Heihe, people in an 18-storey government building felt tremors and ran outside, state news agency Xinhua quoted a city official as saying. “The ground kept shaking for one or two minutes and as I was running out of my house, I heard my bowls and plates knocking against one another in the cabinet,” Xinhua quoted Li Guiquing, a resident of Beiji Village in the border province, as saying. —Reuters

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INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 2011

Salon shooting suspect was angry over divorce Over 1,500 attend candle-lit vigil

HANOVER: Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney makes his point during a Republican presidential debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. If polls show one thing with certainty, it’s that Republicans aren’t sold on Romney and they’ve been looking for other presidential candidates. — AP

Party isn’t sold on Romney, seeking alternative options WASHINGTON: If polls show one thing with certainty, it’s that Republicans aren’t sold on front-runner Mitt Romney and they’ve been looking for other presidential candidates.

While Romney seems to have grabbed control of the race, Republicans have been bouncing from candidate to candidate - and even some non-candidates - in search of the perfect nominee to defeat President Barack Obama. But with the Republican field set and no more people flirting with bids, it’s entirely possible that Republicans will rally behind one candidate - perhaps even Romney - between now and January when the first votes are cast. At least eight other Republicans have seen their standings soar in Republican primary surveys since the beginning of the year. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani didn’t run. Nor did mogul Donald Trump. And among those who actually got in the race, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and now businessman Herman Cain all have sat near- or at - the top of national polls, at least briefly.

The indecisiveness is a reflection on Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and business executive who hasn’t been a ble to lock up the Republicans’ support even though he’s essentially been running for president since losing his 2008 bid. Many Republicans know Romney, a Mormon. They just don’t love him. A recent Associated Press - GfK poll found that 64 percent of conservative Republicans viewed Romney favorably but only 20 percent had deeply positive opinions about him. “The (Republican party) is in a rebellious an d ultraconservative mood,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. “And,” he added, “Mitt Romney is not rebellious.” Or, for that matter, ultraconservative.

Consider that in a Tuesday debate, Romney defended the 2008-2009 Wall Street bailout that irks the conservative anti-tax tea party movement and declared that he could work with “good” Democrats. He also gave one of his most spirited defenses of his Massachusetts health care initiative, legislation that Obama has called a partial blueprint for his own national overhaul. While those positions may make him appealing to a wider swath of Americans in next year’s election, they greatly disturb conservatives who dominate the Republican primary electorate. And that helps explain why some Republicans have been itching for someone else.

Generally, Republicans say that Romney has more experience and a better chance to beat Obama next year than anyone else in the field. But those on the party’s right flank doubt whether he - more so than other candidates - shares their values. Conservatives in the potential Republican electorate were deeply divided on that question in a CBS News/New York Times poll early this month. Only 12 percent chose Romney, while nearly half picked Cain (20 percent), Bachmann (18 percent) or Perry (11 percent). Such divisions have been the most defining factor of the race so far. —AP

SEAL BEACH: The horror for most people in this quiet seaside town began to unfold with the staccato ‘pop, pop, pop’ of a handgun as a shooter opened fire in the beauty salon where his ex-wife worked.

But for Michelle Fournier, family and friends say, the nightmare began much earlier. Fournier, a stylist at Salon Meritage, was engaged in a long and bitter custody struggle with ex-husband Scott Dekraai for custody of their 8-year-old son and Fournier had recently told friends and family and said in court documents that she feared for her safety as Dekraai became more and more unbalanced.

Dekraai, 41, was being held without bail yesterday on suspicion of murder after police alleged he barged into the upscale salon and opened fire, killing six women and two men and leaving another woman in critical condition. Police said Thursday that Fournier was among the dead.

Fournier’s brother said he saw Salon Meritage on TV and immediately sensed what had happened.

“The worst part about it was seeing the news and seeing the awning and knowing exactly what happened without even hearing a word,” Butch Fournier said.

“That’s what killed me.” The quaint, sunsplashed town of Seal Beach, with its Main Street of vintage shops, restaurants and boutiques, has had only had one homicide in the previous four years - and this week’s bloodbath left residents reeling. Several hundred attended a prayer service at a church across from the salon on Thursday night and more than 1,500 showed up with candles at a vigil in the parking lot of the shopping center where the salon stands. About a half-dozen therapy dogs, wearing green vests embroidered with names like Anise and Riley, moved through the crowd providing comfort to mourners. “We’ve all heard the expression: Wrong place at the wrong time. But what if you are exactly where you are supposed to be? What if you are right where you had every right to be and to be safe and secure right where you were?” police Chaplain Donald Shoemaker told the crowd, as people wiped away tears.

“They got up on Wednesday morning and went to earn an honest living or do something they enjoyed ... No amount of planning or decision-making could prepare them and their friends and loved ones for what would unfold.” Dekraai suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from a 2007 tugboat accident that mangled his leg and left a colleague dead but his marriage to Fournier was falling apart even before that, and the court battle over their son was still raging Wednesday before the shooting. Fournier had indicated to friends and in court documents that she was afraid of her ex-husband. Her friend Sharyn White said that just weeks before the killings, Fournier told her that her exhusband had stopped by and threatened to kill her and others there. White, who is also Dekraai’s step-aunt, said Fournier told her she took the threat seriously, though others in the salon laughed it off. She said Fournier also had told her that when they were still married Dekraai had once held a gun to her head.

SEAL BECAH: Mourners cry during a vigil in the parking lot in front of Salon Meritage.— AP “She said ‘Sharyn, Scott has threatened aim at Fannin, and shot him once in the to come in here and kill us,’” White said. head and then turned to his own ex-wife, There is no sign that Fournier sought a shooting her three times. Fannin’s wife, restraining order against her husband, Sandy, escaped only because she was in though other friends agree she was afraid. the back, possibly mixing hair dye, Sesler “As recently as a month ago, she told me said. A masseuse hid in the massage room how scared she was and I offered to hire with two others and locked the door. Two her bodyguards,” said Tim Terbush, a long- more hid in the bathroom, Sesler said, time friend. He said she turned him down according to accounts from people who because she feared that would only make were interviewed by police inside his Dekraai angrier. Police officers who arrived restaurant in the immediate aftermath. An within minutes of reports of shots fired elderly woman fled the salon after the encountered a horrific scene, with bodies shots broke out and seemed frozen on the of victims scattered throughout the salon sidewalk. Sesler’s wife, Patty, grabbed her and a man bleeding in the parking lot out- through the restaurant’s side door and side. Ron Sesler, working the lunch rush at pulled her into the kitchen, Sesler said. The his restaurant next door, said he thought shooter had been staring directly at the the rapid “pop, pop, pop” he heard was a woman but didn’t fire, he said. Just hours jackhammer until a terrified woman ran before the shooting, Sesler said, Michelle through the restaurant and into the Fournier had stopped by the restaurant to kitchen, screaming, “They’re shooting peo- ask about the lunch special and promised ple!” Over the next nightmarish minutes, to come back. Throughout Seal Beach and Sesler watched as hairstylists and cus- the nearby city of Huntington Beach, tomers from the next-door Salon Meritage where Dekraai lived, his bitter custody batstreamed into his restaurant seeking tle with Fournier was common knowledge refuge. Hysterical stylists still wearing their among friends, and the couple attended smocks with hair clips in the pockets and what should have been a routine court customers halfway through dye jobs and hearing Tuesday in the matter. While permanents piled inside Patty’s Place as court papers show the case was continued Sesler locked the door and his wife franti- until December, Fournier’s boyfriend said cally dialed 911. Police soon showed up the case had greater importance. He told and used the restaurant as a temporary The Associated Press the judge had base to interview witnesses. “The whole pressed Dekraai to explain why he was place was filled, it was whoever survived,” continuing to push for more time with his said Sesler, 68, still noticeably shaken on boy. A report by a court-appointed psyThursday as he tried to resume business as chologist found the current custody usual. “We just locked the doors and wait- arrangement was working and should not ed for police. It seemed like a long time - be changed, said Michael Warzybok, who minutes - but it was probably seconds.” He dated Fournier for a year. “The judge was said David Caouette, the only victim killed like what are you going to come back for?” outside the salon, was a regular at the Warzybok said. “All of a sudden he didn’t restaurant who just happened to park get his way.” Dekraai had tried to meet next to the gunman as he was running Fournier for coffee the day of the shootback to his truck. “If he was late, the guy ing, but she refused. In court documents would have driven away. If he was early, filed in February, Dekraai said he had 56 he would have been in here,” Sesler said. percent custody of his son and his wife Other victims were identified by police had 44 percent. He wanted the court to Thursday as Randy Fannin, Victoria Buzzo, grant him “final decision making authoriLucia Kondas, Laura Elody, Christy Wilson ty” when it came to matters involving their and Michelle Fast. Fannin was the salon’s son’s education and his medical and psyowner, according to Sesler and other fami- chological treatment. In court documents ly and friends. The witnesses who gath- filed in May, Fournier described her husered in Sesler’s restaurant, many of them band as “almost manic” when it came to longtime friends, said Dekraai first took controlling their son.— AP

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Prosecutors: Women talk of jihad in recorded calls 100 calls monitored over 10-month wiretap

PUCHENG COUNTY: In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, dense smoke is seen after an aircraft crash during an air show in Pucheng county, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province yesterday. — AP

Chinese fighter jet nose dives into field at show BEIJING: A Chinese air force jet crashed at an air show yesterday, leaving one of the pilots missing and presumed dead.

Footage aired by China Central Television showed the jet sputtering and then nose-diving into a field outside the northern city of Xi’an as one of the pilots ejected from the cockpit and landed beneath an open parachute. Only one parachute was seen opening, and the plane, a two-seater JH-7 “Flying Leopard” fighter-bomber, burst into flames upon crashing. The other pilot’s seat appeared not to have ejected.

The pilot who ejected suffered only minor injuries, but his comrade appeared to have been trapped in the doomed plane, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing witnesses and air show organizer He Liang.

The plane crashed more than a mile from the nearest onlookers and there were no deaths or injuries on the ground.

The crash is being investigated and it wasn’t clear if mechanical problems or pilot error was to blame. The plane is powered by two highly reliable license-built Spey Mk202 engines and it was considered unlikely that both would have stalled at the same time. The Chinese-made JH-7 entered service in 2004 and is a mainstay of the country’s air force and naval aviation, with more than 100 built. At least one of the planes crashed previously - during a China-Russian joint exercise in 2009 - killing both pilots. China rarely released information about military accidents, but the public nature of the crash and the rapid spread of images of it happening on the Internet made it impossible to keep secret. — AP

Obama and America’s culture of secrecy WASHINGTON: Old habits die hard. By the time you read to the bottom of this column, around 1,600 US government documents and communications will have been classified in the name of national security. If past habits serve as a guide, many if not most of the “confidential,” “secret” and “top secret” markings will fall under the label “overclassification,” a practice that stretches back to the 1940s and has been criticized in a long string of reports by high-powered congressional commissions and academic experts. The latest comes from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school. It says needless classification actually harms national security because it acts as a barrier to the exchange of information between government agencies and corrodes democracy. “Secret programs stifled public debate on the decisions that shaped our response to the September 11 attacks,” the report notes.

Classification forced Americans to rely on leaked documents to debate such questions as the interrogation of detainees in secret overseas prisons or the government’s eavesdropping, without warrants, on Americans’ telephone calls. “The classification system must be reformed if we are to preserve the critical role that transparent government plays in a functioning democracy,” says the report. It was released against the background of another debate that relies on leaks rather than a government explanation - the killing by a drone strike in Yemen of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born propagandist for al Qaeda. —Reuters

MINNEAPOLIS: An attorney for one of two US women accused of funneling money to the terror group al-Shabab in Somalia showed Thursday that prosecutors selected just a small fraction of conversations from hundreds of hours of recorded phone calls in making their argument that the women talked of supporting jihad. Amina Farah Ali, 35, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 64, are among 20 people charged in long-running investigations into recruiting and financing for al-Shabab, which the US considers a terror group with ties to alQaida. Investigators believe at least 21 men left Minnesota - home to the United States’ largest Somali community - to join al-Shabab. Others have pleaded guilty to related charges, but the women are the first to go on trial.

The women’s attorney, Dan Scott noted that in one recording, jurors heard only 41 seconds of a 20-minute call. In another conversation - a 19minute call while Hassan’s house was being searched by the FBI - only five minutes were played. “So in that call, at least 14 minutes were not translated,” Scott said. FBI Special Agent Kevin McGrane replied: “Correct.” Some local

Somalis watching the trial said playing only a small portion of the recordings was unfair and didn’t provide a full picture of what the women were doing.

“They just picked a selected part,” said Mohamed Mohamed, who watched Thursday’s proceedings. “You don’t know what was said before, you don’t know what was said after.” The recorded calls are all in Somali. Jurors are following along with written transcripts that the government has had translated into English.

Ali and Hassan, US citizens of Somali descent, are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The women say they were raising money for charity.

Prosecutors have spent days playing nearly 100 phone calls recorded during a 10-month wiretap on Ali’s home and cellphone. Jurors have heard excerpts in which the women talk about jihad, seek pledges from participants in religious teleconferences, and talk about arranging to send money overseas. On Thursday, prosecutors played calls in which the women allegedly talked about being searched and questioned by the “enemy,” which McGrane said

refers to the FBI. While conducting a search warrant on the women’s homes, investigators found photographs of fighters on Ali’s computer, and notebooks containing names and numbers of people who the government alleged participated in teleconferences.

While cross-examining McGrane, Scott said some images found on Ali’s computer were in temporary Internet files, meaning whoever used that computer simply clicked on the picture to view it, not save it or upload it. Hassan’s attorney, Tom Kelly, asked McGrane about interviews Hassan gave to the FBI. McGrane said those conversations were not recorded and Hassan’s Miranda rights, which include the right to remain silent or the right to have an attorney present during questioning, were not read because she was not in custody.

“That was good for you, correct?” Kelly asked. “Absolutely,” McGrane replied, later explaining that lawyers often tell clients not to speak during interviews.

Kelly asked if agents would typically tell an interviewee if they think he or she is lying. McGrane said no. “I usually give my interviewees enough rope to hang themselves,” he said. — AP

5 children, deputy die as van crashes into truck KIT CARSON: A van driven by a sheriff’s deputy who ran a group home for adopted and foster children collided with an empty cattle trailer on Thursday in a highway construction zone, killing him and five children and injuring seven other children. Howard Mitchell, 57, was taking 12 of the children from the home in Kit Carson to Eads at the time of the crash around 7:30 a.m., troopers said. The school district in Eads, about 15 miles away, said on its website that the Mitchell family had close ties to the community of about 600 people. The children who died ranged in age from 4 to 17 and lived in the home for adopted and foster children, said Kiowa County Sheriff’s office spokesman Chris Sorensen. Seven other children in the van were hospitalized. The truck driver, of Cheyenne, Wyo, was treated at a hospital and released. A photo provided by the State Patrol showed the front of the van crumpled into the rear of a large livestock trailer. There was about 26 feet of skid marks on the patch of US 287 leading to the collision, Trooper T.A. Ortiz said.

The accident happened on a stretch of highway south of Kit Carson that has been under repair for the past month.

One lane was closed, and the collision occurred at the back of a line of traffic about 1,000 feet long, said Stacey Stegman, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Sorensen said the normal speed limit on the highway is 65 miles per hour, but speeds were reduced because of the construction zone. Meteorologists said weather conditions in the area at the time were clear, no wind and tempera-

CHEYENNE WELLS: Pat Daugherty of Cheyenne Wells, Colo, touches a picture of Howard Mitchell at a make-shift memorial. — AP tures in the low 30s. In Kit Carson, where would come to the restaurant to buy pie Mitchell ran the Mitchell House Children’s for Mitchell and his wife. “Good kids, all of Home, neighbors said they were devas- them,” she said. “Things aren’t going to tated. The family are “good people with be the same. We’re going to miss them. good hearts,” said Annette Weber, man- It’s unbelievable.” Sorensen identified the ager of the Trading Post restaurant next children who died as Austyn Ackinson, door to the group home. Mitchell, a 11; Tony Mitchell; Tayla Mitchell, 10; Andy Cheyenne County sheriff’s deputy, was a Dawson, 13, and Jeremy Franks, 17. quiet man who spoke little but was Weber said Mitchell had adopted Tony respected by the children in his care, and Tayla. Tony Mitchell was in the fourth Weber said. “He just had a way with kids,” grade, Superintendent Glenn Smith said. she said. Some of the children from the Smith described Tony and Tayla as home worked at the restaurant, she “absolutely full of energy,” and Andy was added. “They always came to work, and a dynamic kid who loved to play sports. they always did a good job and they Jeremy was ornery but respectful. In were always more than happy to help September, after a football team member lost his mother, Jeremy came up with us,” Weber said.

Kay Piskorski, mother of the Trading the idea to make a card from the commuPost’s owner, said some of the children nity, Smith said. —AP

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INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Thai PM moves to soothe flood jitters Country’s worst floods in decades leaves 289 dead

MADANG: Locals gather at the crash site of an Airlines PNG Dash 8 plane near Madang in Papua New Guinea yesterday. —AFP

28 feared dead in PNG air crash CANBERRA: Around 28 people are feared dead after a passenger aircraft crashed on Thursday in the South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, with only four survivors reportedly pulled from the wreckage, local aviation and embassy officials said. The Airlines PNG Dash 8 with 32 passengers and crew on board was en route from Lae to the resort town of Madang in PNG’s north when it crashed in bad weather around 20km southeast of its destination, Sid O’Toole, from the PNG Accident Investigation Commission, told Australian radio. “The crew have experienced a problem, the thing has actually gone down overland with reports of fire and there have been some fatalities,” O’Toole said.

People from a village near the crash site in thick forest at the mouth of the Gogol River said they had rescued four people, some with serious burns. Two pilots from Australia and New Zealand were believed to be among the survivors. “Initial indications are that there are no Australians amongst those killed. The high commission has undertaken preliminary checks, but official confirmation may take some time,” a spokeswoman for Australia’s Foreign Ministry said. Most of the passengers on the aircraft were believed to be local Papuan parents on their way to attend student graduation ceremonies at Madang’s Divine Word University.

“A huge storm came through, huge, big winds, lots of rain.

The story is that... the plane went down during this storm,” said Trevor Hattersley, the Australian High Commission’s warden in Madang. Airlines PNG said it had grounded its fleet of 12 aircraft until further notice and was co-operating with authorities to mount rescue and recovery efforts. A full investigation was under way by authorities and Airlines PNG as to the possible cause of the accident. The crash is the second fatal incident involving an Airlines PNG aircraft in recent years. In August 2009 an Airlines PNG Twin Otter crashed on approach to the Kokoda airstrip, killing all 13 people onboard, including nine Australians.

More than 20 aircraft have crashed in the country since 2000, prompting the government to crack down on airline safety given its importance in overcoming PNG rugged mountain terrain and lack of roads. The Dash 8 is a series of twin-engined, mediumrange, turboprop airliners. Introduced by De Havilland Canada in 1984, they are now made by Bombardier Aerospace. — Reuters

BANGKOK: Thailand’s premier reassured Bangkok’s 12 million residents yesterday over a looming flood crisis, after an evacuation false alarm briefly sparked panic and people stockpiled food and water. Massive efforts are under way to prevent the densely populated capital from being inundated by the country’s worst floods in decades, which have wreaked havoc in north and central Thailand, leaving at least 289 people dead. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday that the situation was under control. “The water level is stable and not increasing. So I would like to ask people not to panic,” she told reporters. Some residents in Bangkok’s northern suburbs rushed to move their belongings to higher ground late on Thursday after a government minister warned there was a risk of one-meter deep water owing to a burst dyke. But the authorities quickly backtracked, causing confusion among residents, some of whom have been piling sandbags outside their properties and buying flashlights, bottled water, nonperishable food and other essential items.

In the Bangkok suburb of Saimai, local authorities received hundreds of phone calls from concerned residents after Thursday’s evacuation alert, district chief Nongpanga Boonpaksa told AFP by telephone.”There were some frantic traffic jams in our district because

BANGKOK: A Buddhist temple stands in floodwaters next to the Chaopraya river in Bangkok yesterday. About 110,000 people around the country have sought refuge in shelters in the face of the floods that have destroyed crops, inundated hundreds of factories and damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people. — AFP people were trying to move their cars to higher places but the situation later returned to normal,” she said. About 110,000 people around the country have sought refuge in shelters in the face of the floods that have destroyed crops, inundated hundreds of factories and damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people. Currently 26 out of 77 provinces are affected, but conditions in inner Bangkok and at most of Thailand’s top tourist destinations are mostly normal. Heavy

rain drenched the city again yesterday, and this weekend Bangkok is bracing for a large amount of run-off water along with seasonal high tides that will make it harder for the flood waters to flow out to sea. But the authorities said they remained confident they could prevent serious flooding in the lowlying capital. “Bangkok will definitely not be affected by floods,” said Justice Minister Pracha Promnog, who heads the government’s flood relief centre. —AFP

IAEA team praises Japan following Fukushima visit

TOKYO: Japan’s State Minister in charge of nuclear power affairs Goshi Hosono (left) receives a report from the head of IAEA mission member Juan Carlos Lentijo (right), head of radiation protection at the Spanish nuclear regulatory authority at Hosono’s office in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP

TOKYO: A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency praised Japan yesterday for steps it has taken to reduce radiation exposure for the public, particularly children, near the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. During a nine-day trip, the IAEA team visited schools, farms and government offices outside the 20-mile exclusion zone surrounding the power plant, which was damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. In a preliminary report submitted to the government, the 12-member team said Japan had developed “an efficient program for remediation allocating the necessary legal, financial and technological resources to bring relief to the people affected by the accident, with priority being given to children.”

The report noted efforts to decontaminate schools and some 400 playgrounds - mostly by volunteers, many of them parents of students. Towns around the exclusion zone have begun washing down public areas and removing topsoil in parks and school yards. It was the U.N. atomic agency’s second major mission to Japan since the nuclear crisis began. Its purpose was to assess Japan’s strategy and plans to reduce radiation exposure in areas around Fukushima prefecture. No one has died from radiation in the nuclear crisis, but concerns remain high over how the lingering contamination will affect Fukushima’s youth. On Sunday, local doctors began a long-term survey of children in the region for thyroid abnormalities, a problem linked with radiation exposure.—AP

Australia warns risk of more boatpeople SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned yesterday that the failure to secure a refugee swap deal with Malaysia risked more asylum-seekers gambling with their lives on unauthorised boat journeys. Gillard was forced to abandon her controversial plan to send up to 800 boatpeople to the Southeast Asian country in exchange for 4,000 of its refugees on Thursday after it was rejected by opposition lawmakers. The arrangement was aimed at stopping the flow of hundreds of people, mostly from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, coming by boat from Asian hubs each year in the hope of being resettled in Australia.

“We are at real risk... of seeing more boats,” Gillard

told ABC radio as she laid the blame squarely on opposition leader Tony Abbott, whose Liberal/National coalition refused to support the bill allowing the swap.”My view is that we should be implementing the arrangement with Malaysia... it would be the greatest deterrence to stop people risking their lives at sea and getting on leaky boats,” she said. Gillard added that more than 400 people had died on Australia-bound boats in recent years. Canberra has previously processed asylum-seekers in Papua New Guinea and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, but a recent High Court ruling blocking the Malaysia deal cast legal doubts over all offshore arrangements. The move forced Gillard’s coalition gov-

ernment to prepare new legislation to allow offshore processing, but the prime minister failed to gain enough support to change the Migration Act. Rights group Amnesty International welcomed the policy change but said Australia had reluctantly been pushed into acting like every other Western democracy.

“By default, the government is now in a position to look seriously at how we process people onshore and tackle head-on the extended periods that vulnerable people spend in detention,” Amnesty spokesman Graham Thom said. Those seeking asylum in Australia are relatively small in number-with just 2,572 arriving on 42 boats so far in 2011. — AFP

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US missile kills 4 in NW Pakistan PESHAWAR: Drone-fired US missiles killed four people in a northwestern Pakistani region controlled by the Haqqani militant network yesterday, a day after a similar attack there killed a top commander of the group, Pakistani officials said. The identities of the dead in the North Waziristan region were not known, the officials said. The four were riding in a car close to Miran Shah town, the main base of the Haqqani network, when two missiles struck, said the officials, who did not give their names because they were not allowed to brief reporters.

US intelligence believes the Haqqanis are the top threat to security in Afghanistan and that they enjoy the support of the Pakistani army. It wants the army to sever its ties and attack the group, something that Islamabad refuses to do. The issue is a main cause of t ensions between the two countries. On Thursday, a missile attack close to Miran Shah killed Janbaz Zadran, who US

officials said was a top commander in the network who helped orchestrate attacks in Kabul and southeastern Afghanistan. They said he was the most senior Haqqani leader in Pakistan to be taken off the battlefield.

Earlier in the day yesterday, two militants killed alongside Zadran were buried in the town of Lakki Marwat, which lies just outside the tribal regions. About 2,000 supporters attended the funeral of one of the men, Maulana Iftikhar. They included Arab militants and a lawmaker from the country’s largest opposition party.

The size of the funeral indicated significant support in that region for fighters battling the American presence just across the border in Afghanistan.

The Pashtun ethnic group that accounts for most of the resistance in Afghanistan straddles the frontier.

Iftikhar was the head of an Islamic school in Miran Shah.

He came from Lakki Marwat. Locals said he was involved

in “jihad” in Afghanistan. “Maulana Iftikhar is a martyr, and we warn America to immediately stop these drone attacks,” said Ahmed Jan Qureshi, a local leader of the Islamist Jamiat Ulema Islam political party. “America should realize that these attacks are causing hate against it, and see these thousands of people who are here to attend funeral of a martyr.”

Also present was Munawar Khan, the town’s local lawmaker and a member of the opposition party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He declined to speak to The Associated Press. Since 2008, the United States has regularly unleashed unmanned drone-fired missiles against militants in the border region. Pakistani officials protest the strikes, which are unpopular among many Pakistanis, but the country is believed to support them privately and makes no diplomatic or military efforts to stop them. — AP

India fetes Myanmar leader on state visit New Delhi feeling vindicated by Thein Sein’s initiatives

KABUL: Afghan vendor, Siddique Murakhan, 21, sits next to his bananas for sale on a roadside in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP

NATO, Afghan forces raid kills 13 insurgents KABUL: NATO and Afghan forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight operation targeting local Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. The joint raid by coalition and Afghan troops in northern Faryab province began late Thursday, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for Afghan police in the north. One police officer was killed in the operation, he said. NATO said in a statement that the forces were searching for Taliban leaders in Ghormach and Qaisar districts. The coalition did not say whether any of the insurgents targeted in the raid were captured or killed. Northern Afghanistan has become increasingly violent over the past year as insurgents facing pressure from NATO troops in their southern strongholds have pushed into pockets in the north.

In eastern Kunar province, meanwhile, about 45 artillery shells fired from the Pakistani side of the border landed in Dangam district over the course of the day yesterday, said provincial Police Chief Ewaz Naziri. One child was wounded in the firing, he said, without giving more details.

Tensions have been rising along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan in recent weeks as Afghan officials have decried shelling from Pakistani territory that has killed an unknown number of civilians, displaced hundreds of people and destroyed several homes and mosques. Pakistani officials have said previously that the artillery fire was not intentional and said they regretted the killings and damage. NATO also reported the death of an international service member in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. The international military coalition did not provide further details.

NATO typically waits for national authorities to release specifics about their casualties. It was the ninth international military death since the beginning of October. So far this year, at least 462 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan. — AP

NEW DELHI: India rolled out the red carpet yesterday for Myanmar President Thein Sein, on a visit that followed his government’s release of 200 political detainees-the latest in a series of reformist moves. The former general, who arrived in India on Wednesday and spent two days touring Buddhist pilgrimage sites, was given a full state welcome in New Delhi for the official leg of his three-day trip.

He then began a round of extensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The visit coincided with Myanmar’s release on Wednesday of nearly 200 political prisoners, in another tentative sign of change in the authoritarian state after decades of military rule and repression.

Thein Sein has surprised critics by signaling a series of political reforms since taking power in a controversial election last November, and has held direct talks with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a rare concession to public opinion, his nominally civilian government last month suspended construction of a controversial mega-dam, risking the anger of traditional ally China, which is backing the project. The prisoner release was welcomed by the United States and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, although both called on the government to release all the roughly 2,000

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (right) shakes hands with Myanmar President Thein Sein after a signing of agreements at Hyderabad House in New Delhi yesterday. — AFP political detainees still behind bars. “We see Observers say the releases and the overit as an important step that responds to the tures to Suu Kyi signal Myanmar’s desire to aspirations of the Burmese people,” State end its long international isolation, backed Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland by trade and financial sanctions. India began said. “We have not yet seen a complete list. engaging the Myanmar junta in the midWe do believe that there is still a large num- 1990s on security and energy issues and as a ber of political prisoners in prison, and we counter to China’s growing strategic influcall for all of them to be released,” she ence in the Southeast Asian nation, formerly called Burma. —AFP added.

Police say at least 43 killed in Nepal crash

SINDHULI: A Nepalese villager looks at the wreckage of a passenger bus in Sindhuli district, some 100 kilometers southeast of Kathmandu. At least 41 people were killed when a bus veered off a mountain road in eastern Nepal and plunged onto a river bank, officials said. — AFP

KATMANDU: A crowded bus veered off a mountain highway and was dangling over a river in eastern Nepal on Thursday, police said. At least 43 people were killed in the accident and more were feared missing. Police, soldiers and villagers were having a hard time reaching the wreckage, which was caught in trees just above the Sunkosi River near Jhagajholi village, about 150 miles east of Katmandu, said police official Lokendra Shrestha.

He said initial reports from the scene said 43 bodies had been recovered, but a still unknown number of people were feared trapped in the wreckage or thrown into the river below. There were also some body parts scattered around the scene of the accident, he said. Buses in the country were more crowded than usual because of the end of two-week national festival that sees people return back to their jobs from their home villages. The bus was traveling on the B.P. Koirala Highway, a narrow route with hairpin bends that in most parts is just wide enough for one vehicle to pass. The site of the accident is a four hour drive from the nearest city. Bus accidents in the mountainous Himalayan nation are common and often blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads. — AP

NYC protest cleanup is being postponed

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China inflation dips, yet policy on pause

Business

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Rating cut puts Spain back on crisis radar

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Obama, S Korea’s Lee to pitch trade deal in US

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NEW YORK: Mannequins are fashionably dressed in a Bloomingdale’s store window.

US consumers stepped up their spending on retail goods in September, a hopeful sign for the sluggish economy. — AP

Cost of ‘Arab Spring’ more than $55bn Libya, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain hurt most LONDON: The uprisings that swept the Middle East this year have cost the most affected countries more than $55 billion, a new report says, but the resulting high oil prices have strengthened other producing countries. A statistical analysis of International Monetary Fund (IMF) data by political risk consultancy Geopolicity showed that countries that had seen the bloodiest confrontations—Libya and Syria—were bearing the economic brunt, followed by Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen.

Between them, those states saw $20.6 billion wiped off their gross domestic product and public finances eroded by another $35.3 billion as revenues slumped and costs rose. But as the major oil producers such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait avoided significant unrest- often through increasing handouts as oil prices rose-they saw their GDP

grow. Oil prices rocketed from around $90 a barrel of Brent crude at the start of the year to just short of $130 in May before retreating to around $113 now.

“As a result, the overall impact of the ‘Arab Spring’ across the Arab realm has been mixed but positive in aggregate terms,” the report estimated, saying overall the year to September saw some $38.9 billion added to regional productivity. Libya looks to have been the worst affected, with economic activity across the country-including oil exports-halted at an estimated cost to GDP of $7.7 billion, or more than 28 percent. Total costs to the fiscal balance were estimated at $6.5 billion, roughly 29 percent of gross domestic product. In Egypt, nine months of turmoil eroded some 4.2 percent of gross domestic product with public expenditure rising to $5.5 billion just as public revenues fell by $75 million.

Handouts not reform?

In Syria, where protests have continued throughout the year in the face of a bloody crackdown, the impact is hard to model but early indications suggested a total cost to the Syrian economy of some $6 billion or 4.5 percent of GDP. The report said the number of Yemenis below the poverty line was expected to be pushed above 15 percent as a result of currency falls and protracted unrest. Total cost to the economy was estimated at 6.3 percent of GDP, with the fiscal balance deteriorating by $858 million, 44.9 percent of GDP. Tunisia, where the protests began in late 2010, lost some $2.0 billion from its GDP, roughly 5.2 percent, with negative impacts across almost all sectors of the economy including tourism, mining, phosphates and fishing. Tunisia’s government increased expenditure by some $746 million, pushing

its fiscal balance some $489 million into the red. Saudi Arabia’s newly instituted handouts and wider public investment program, the report estimated, amounted to some $30 billion-perhaps seen by the kingdom’s rulers as a way of avoiding real reform. But increased oil prices and production helped boost gross domestic product by more than $5 billion and push up public revenues by $60.9 billion. In Bahrain, oil helped cushion the impact of weeks of protest, with the fall in GDP relatively low at some at 2.77 percent. Public expenditure rose some $2.1 billion, partly because of cash transfers of $2,660 to each family.

None of these steps, the report argued, addressed the underlying causes behind the unrest. A better solution, it said, was much broader international support through the G20 or United Nations aimed at much wider reform. —Reuters

business SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

Rating cut puts Spain back on crisis radar S&P cuts rating to AAMADRID: Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating yesterday, sending the euro briefly lower and underlining the challenges facing Europe’s major powers as they meet G20 counterparts over the euro-zone debt crisis. S&P, whose move mirrored that by fellow ratings agency Fitch last week, cited high unemployment, tightening credit and high privatesector debt among reasons for cutting the nation’s long-term rating to AA- from AA. Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose slightly in response, although they remained almost 60 basis points lower than those of Italy and, at 5.27 percent, some distance from the 7 percent level widely regarded as unsustainable.

“Despite signs of resilience in economic performance during 2011, we see heightened risks to Spain’s growth prospects due to high unemployment, tighter financial conditions, the still high level of private sector debt, and the likely economic slowdown in Spain’s main trading partners,” S&P said. It also noted the “incomplete state” of labor market reform and the likelihood of further asset deterioration for Spain’s banks, and downgraded its forecast for Spanish economic growth in 2012 to about 1 percent, from the 1.5 percent it forecast in February.

High yields on Spanish government bonds point to concerns that it could be the next euro zone economy to require a Greece-style bailout, and despite an unpopular austerity program, doubts remain that Spain will meet its deficit target of 6 percent of GDP this year.

The Financial Times quoted a senior Spanish official as saying that meeting the 6 percent deficit target would be “difficult”. But Spain’s Economy Minister Elena Salgado said later yesterday that there would be some margin for manoeuvre this year thanks about 2 billion euros raised by an auction of wireless frequencies and lower interest payments.

“Interest payments by the central government will be at least 2 billion euros below budget. So the combined effect of the spectrum auction and lower interest payments will mean we have a margin of 0.4 percent (of GDP)” Salgado said.

S&P announced the downgrade as finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the world’s 20 biggest economies were due to meet later yesterday in Paris amid pressure to find an urgent and convincing solution to the deepening debt crisis. Spanish unemployment, at 21 percent, is the highest in the European Union, reflecting a stagnant economy, the collapse of a decade-long housing boom and cuts aimed at taming a public

MADRID: Spain’s Finance Minister Elena Salgado gives a press conference yesterday. —AFP sector deficit that reached 11.1 percent of GDP in 2009.

The decision to shelve multi-billioneuro privatization plans, mainly due to tough market conditions, has meanwhile deprived the state of much needed revenues. “The market’s perception of Spain is that it’s in a stronger position (than other debt-laden states) - with a strong defense on bank capitalization in place from the FROB bad bank fund, aggressive government action to control and cut spending and a 70 percent debt/GDP ratio,” said Bill Blain, senior director at broker NewEdge Group. “The

biggest problem, but the issue I read least about, is the unresolved crisis between central government making cuts and the reticence of regions to follow,” he said. Salgado said the government will shortly announce its plans to ensure Spain’s heavily-indebted regions meet their tough 2011 deficit targets.

Job dilemma A botched labor market reform in 2010 did little to alleviate joblessness that is concentrated mainly amongst younger Spaniards, and a new government after November 20 general elections will be under pressure to tackle the issue. The centre-right People’s Party is expected to win the election easily and deepen austerity measures but they have shied away from presenting specific policy measures for fear of eroding public support. Like Fitch, which also now rates Spain at AA-, S&P signaled further possible downgrades for Spain, saying there was still a risk the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy could slip into recession next year, with a 0.5 percent contraction.

The euro reached a session low of $1.3723 after the downgrade, but later recovered on reports the European Central Bank was buying Spanish and Italian debt. Hopes that G20 officials would agree on the outlines of a plan to resolve the debt crisis ahead of a European Union summit on Oct. 23 also buoyed the shared currency, which remained on course for its biggest weekly rally since January. Spain’s blue chip index was little affected by the rating cut.

Finance chiefs from outside the euro zone are expected to speak frankly when they meet their European counterparts at yesterday G20 meeting, given impatience growing over the crisis and its implications for the rest of the world. On Thursday, Fitch cut credit ratings or signaled possible downgrades for several major European banks. It downgraded UBS, Lloyd’s Banking and Royal Bank of Scotland. It also placed Barclays Bank , BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale on watch negative. —Reuters

Nigeria inflation rises despite bank rate hikes ABUJA: Nigeria’s headline inflation rose outside the central bank’s notional single-digit target in September, data showed yesterday, despite six official interest rate rises this year. Nigeria’s consumer inflation rose to 10.3 percent year-on-year in September from 9.3 percent in August, snapping three straight months of declines, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. Food prices , the largest contributor to the consumer index, rose 9.5 percent year-on-year in September after 8.7 percent the previous month.

“The biggest contributors to the consumer inflation were the high prices of electricity and food items ... The rise in food prices was mainly due to the increasing costs of yam, cooking oil and

fish,” an NBS document said. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been raising interest rates for more than a year to help curb high inflation and support the naira currency, which plunged to an alltime low this week. CBN hiked its benchmark interest rate by a much biggerthan-expected 275 basis points to 12 percent and implemented several other tightening measures at an emergency meeting on Monday.

The naira recovered from the record low of 167.8 to the US dollar on Monday, after the central bank sold around $1 billion into the market in the space of a week, traders said. But trading on the local currency remains volatile and further weakness would add to inflation pressures. The naira was trading at

164.85 against the dollar mid-session on Friday. “The acceleration of inflation in September validate the MPC’s significant tightening measures earlier this week,” “We expect the significant depreciation of the naira in October to compound the existing inflationary pressures, through higher imported inflation.”

Although monetary tightening measures are will help temper inflation in coming months, upward price pressures are on the horizon, including higher public spending and fuel prices. Nigeria’s government unveiled a four-year fiscal plan this month, which showed spending in the 2012 budget will increase from this year, although the fiscal deficit should decline. —Reuters

COLOMIERS: China Southern Airlines Chairman Si Xianmin (right) shakes hands with European plane maker Airbus CEO Tom Enders during the delivery ceremony of China Southern Airlines first Airbus A380 yesterday at Airbus delivery center. The airline is the seventh company in the world to use this superjumbo airliner. —AFP

Google Q3 earnings rise 26%, top analyst views SAN FRANCISCO: Mounting worries about another global recession haven’t shaken Google. The online search and advertising leader’s third-quarter earnings, released Thursday, are the latest reminder of how Google’s position as the Internet’s dominant gateway has spawned a business that endures economic turbulence better than most companies. “When I look back at the last quarter, the word that springs to mind is, ‘Gangbusters,’ Google CEO Larry Page crowed during a Thursday conference call with analysts.

Investors quickly chimed in with their approval as Google’s stock price surged more than 6 percent. The stock climbed $35.94 to $594.93 in extended trading after the release of results.

The third-quarter numbers painted a picture of a company operating in a bubble of prosperity amid a sputtering economy.

Even as a stubbornly high unemployment rate vexes the US, Google added nearly 2,600 more workers to its payroll to guarantee that 2011 will be the biggest hiring year in the company’s 13year history. Google ended September with more than 31,500 workers, an increase of 28 percent, or nearly 7,000 jobs, from the end of last year.

While the US economy’s growth is shrinking, Google’s is accelerating. The company’s third quarter revenue of $9.7 billion was 33 percent higher than the same time last year. It marked the fourth consecutive quarter that Google’s year-over-year revenue growth has climbed. Google earned $2.7 billion, or $8.33 per share, in the three months ending in September. That was up 26 percent from nearly $2.2 billion, or $6.72 per share, a year earlier.

If not for expenses covering employee stock compensation, Google would have earned $9.72 per share. That figure easily beat the average estimate of $8.77 per share among analysts surveyed

by FactSet. After subtracting the commissions that Google pays its advertising partners, Google’s revenue stood at $7.5 billion - about $200 million above analyst projections. Google is doing well because of the reach of its search engine and the effectiveness of its ads. Google processes about two out of three searches in the US and an even higher percentage in Europe and other parts of the world. Those searches provide Google with the traffic and marketing insights prized by advertisers.

Internet ads also are generally less expensive than print and broadcasting campaigns, making online promotions less susceptible to corporate cutbacks during tough times. But not all online ad sellers do as good a job as Google. Yahoo Inc. and AOL Corp., a pair of Internet pioneers that started before Google, have been struggling mightily - something that isn’t expected to change when those companies report their third-quarter results. Yahoo’s numbers are out next month while AOL will release its results Nov. 2.

Google is also helped by its expansion into mobile phones with its popular Android software. The company’s mobile revenue is now running at about $625 million per quarter, Page said Thursday.

He sounded confident that mobile will become an even bigger moneymaker with next week’s scheduled release of updated Nexus phone from Samsung and Google’s proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of cell phone maker Motorola Mobility Inc. Page is also bullish on Google’s 3 1/2-month-old Plus service, a social networking alternative to Facebook’s online hangout. With 800 million users, Facebook is widely seen the biggest threat to Google. Plus has more than 40 million users, Page said. As well as Google is doing, it won’t be immune if the economy tumbles into a recession. Google’s growth slowed dramatically during the first half of 2009 as a financial crisis caused the deepest recession since World War II. But Google never cut back as dramatically as most companies during the last recession and bounced back much more quickly. —AP

business SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

China inflation dips, yet policy on pause Money supply growth weakest since 2001

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama pose with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his wife Kim Yoon-ok at the North Portico of the White House. —AP

Obama, S Korea’s Lee to pitch trade deal in US WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak are promoting a new trade deal by visiting an auto plant in Michigan, a state battered by Asian car imports, in a rare joint appearance outside of Washington by a US president and a visiting head of state. In choosing General Motors Co’s Orion assembly plant for a post-state dinner tour yesterday, the two leaders will draw attention to an aspect of a US-South Korea trade agreement that had been among the most difficult to negotiate.

Congress approved the deal Wednesday after negotiators overcame US auto industry complaints that previous efforts at a deal failed to do enough to lift South Korea’s barriers to US-made cars.

Obama is taking Lee to the heart of the region that has been hardest hit by foreign car competition, especially the influx of vehicles like South Korea’s Hyundai. But for Obama, the trip is also an opportunity to highlight the auto industry’s resurgence after he engineered an $80 billion government bailout for GM and Chrysler in 2009. The Orion plant, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit, had been shuttered before the federal government stepped in and helped usher the two carmakers through bankruptcy protection. The plant now is producing the subcompact Chevrolet Sonic and will start production of the compact Buick Verano soon. The Sonic, the only subcompact sold in the US that is assembled in the US, is being built with Korean parts. GM began building the Sonic last year following an agreement with the United Autoworkers that allowed the company to pay some workers lower wages that are more competitive with those in GM’s foreign plants.

The Sonic’s predecessor, the Chevrolet Aveo, was built in South Korea.

All in all, Obama could profit from calling attention to policies aimed at benefiting Michigan, a state that has the third highest unemployment rate in the country at 11.2 percent and which represents an important battleground in his bid for re-election. Obama won the state by a 57-41 margin in 2008, but could face difficulties in the state, especially if his general election opponent is Mitt Romney, whose father was Michigan governor. The trip also serves as an opportunity to illustrate his special relationship with the South Korean leader. Inviting Lee to the US heartland is an unusual addition to the itinerary of a high-profile state visit. The two men were expected to fly separately to Michigan; once at the plant, both men planned to make remarks.

Lee’s is the fifth state visit during Obama’s presidency, but the first that has included added travel beyond Washington. President George W Bush was more predisposed to travel outside the capital Beltway with foreign leaders. In 2006, he invited Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, an unabashed Elvis Presley fan, to Graceland. In 2001, Bush took Mexican President Vicente Fox to Toledo, Ohio, where the two addressed Hispanic voters the day after their state visit at the White House. The following year, thenPolish President Aleksander Kwasniewski accompanied Bush to a Polish cultural center in the Detroit suburbs. In addition to the South Korea agreement, Congress approved free trade deals Wednesday with Colombia and Panama. The South Korea deal, which would be the largest since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, still must be approved by South Korea’s National Assembly- a vote that Lee said he was confident would succeed. The South Korea deal alone could expand U.S. exports by $11 billion and support 70,000 jobs, according to the White House. —AP

BEIJING: China’s consumer inflation dipped to 6.1 percent in September, retreating further from three-year highs, although stubborn food price pressures will deter the central bank from loosening its policy reins anytime soon. A slowdown in price rises would be welcomed by policymakers as confirmation that a flurry of increases in interest rates and bank reserve requirements is working, just when China’s economy is showing increasing strains from the global downturn. Since inflation is still close to the three-year peak of 6.5 percent hit in July, few analysts believe China will follow the likes of Brazil, Indonesia and Singapore and ease policy in the nearterm, barring a marked deterioration in Europe’s debt woes.

Indeed, September’s data for bank lending and money supply, controlled by China to manage inflation, is proof of Beijing’s tight monetary policy. “The slowdown in the CPI last month is not drastic enough to reduce inflationary expectations, and it is still too early to confirm an easing trend in price pressures,” said Qiao Yongyuan, an analyst with CEBM in Shanghai. “The central bank is more likely to keep its current monetary stance unchanged and will wait for data in coming months to judge the direction of policy,” Qiao said.

The broad M2 measure of money supply rose 13 percent in September from a year ago, less than forecast and the weakest clip since October 2001. Yuan loans lent by banks also came in weaker than expected at 470 billion yuan ($73.6 billion), lows not seen since December 2009. And in the latest sign that the world’s No. 2 economy is shuddering from Europe’s debt crisis, its massive foreign exchange reserves suffered a drop of nearly $61 billion in September as the euro skidded and hot money flowed out. The fall in reserves was the biggest ever for China and left the stockpile-the world’s biggest-standing at $3.2 trillion at the end of the third quarter.

“There was a big drop in stock markets, and global investors repatriated some money from emerging countries including China,” Benny Lam, an economist at CCB International in Hong Kong said of the fall in reserves. “But this is temporary.”

Stubborn inflation The dip in inflation in September was right in line with a poll of economists’ fore-

casts and lower than August’s reading of 6.3 percent. Food price pressures remained strong, however, rising 13.4 percent from a year earlier, unchanged from the pace in August’s data. Non-food inflation eased to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent in August, the data showed. China’s producer price index in September came in below market expectations with a 6.5 percent rise from a year ago, compared with August’s 7.3 percent. “The data will come as a relief to the Chinese government, which now faces a deadlock in policymaking. It will fine-tune

HONG KONG: A 100 hundred yuan bank note is held in front of a yuan currency sign yesterday. —AFP policies in December,” said Shen Jianguang, an economist with Mizuho Securities Asia in Hong Kong. China’s ruling Communist Party usually holds an annual agenda-setting economic policy conference in December. Headline inflation may have fallen for two months running, but other evidence shows that the battle is far from won, analysts said. Policymakers, worried about the potential for price rises to fuel social unrest, are sure to remain guarded. “Right now, they are not sure that inflation is slowing just (based on) one month’s number. The policy will be on hold for one or two more months,” said Shen. A central bank survey released in September showed inflation expectations among urban Chinese rose in the third quarter.

Monthly changes in the consumer price index suggested price pressures actually picked up in September, rising by 0.5 per-

cent compared with 0.3 percent in August.

Policy on hold After lifting interest rates five times and banks’ reserve requirements nine times since October 2010, Beijing has put policy tightening on hold as a slowdown in Europe and the United States threaten global growth. On Friday, Singapore eased its monetary policy, saying the “outlook for the global economy has deteriorated sharply”. That followed rate cuts in Brazil and Indonesia in recent weeks. China’s economic growth has been slowing down this year alongside increasing concerns that the developed world may be heading into a recession. Data on Thursday showed China’s import and export growth cooled last month as the annual pace of exports to the troubled European Union in September more than halved from August.

The government has already taken some baby steps to support the economy. On Wednesday, it unveiled measures to support cash-starved small businesses, which account for 75 percent of employment.

Shut out of the lending market by Beijing’s stringent anti-inflation credit curbs, many small cash-starved firms have resorted to borrowing from China’s thriving shadow banking sector at exorbitant rates. A unit of China’s sovereign wealth fund is buying Chinese bank shares in the midst of concern about how they will be impacted by a mountain of local government debt. Some analysts say China may relax monetary policy if push comes to shove, although milder moves such as relaxing credit restrictions and lowering banks’ reserve requirements are likely to come before a more drastic rate cut.

“The central bank may even see fit to ease policy before the end of the year, perhaps starting with cuts to very high reserve requirements, though it will be keen to keep a grip on lending growth,” said George Worthington, the chief Asia Pacific economist for IFR Markets. “Rate cuts are unlikely to be on the agenda barring a renewed global slump given the relatively modest tightening on that front since the last crisis in 2008/09.” Some analysts say China’s rapidly growing shadow banking sector also indicates that Beijing’s credit controls are looser than what meets the eye, thereby lessening the need for any forceful relaxation in policy for now. —Reuters

JPMorgan Q3 net falls NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase & Co’s quarterly earnings fell 25 percent, excluding an accounting gain, as European financial turmoil reduced demand for securities underwriting and acquisition advice. The results are the first for the third quarter from a major US bank and underscore how market turmoil has clobbered underwriting and merger advisory fees. JPMorgan shares closed down 4.8 percent on Thursday, pulling down other big bank stocks and weighing on the wider market. “There were some very strong headwinds for JPMorgan,” said Marshall Front, chairman of Front

Barnett Associates LLC. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the company will cut 1,000 jobs in its investment bank over the next 18 months.

Banks globally are laying off staff as new regulations squeeze potential profits and as stock and corporate credit markets weaken.

But Dimon said JPMorgan’s cuts are mainly due to increased use of automation. The bank did post 1 percent loan growth, which Dimon said was a positive for the economy and showed that the rest of the bank is generally on an even keel compared with the chronically volatile investment banking

business. Mid-sized companies and small businesses, in particular, are borrowing more, he said. The bank’s return on equity, a measure of profitability, was 9 percent, close to the 10 percent that some analysts view as a likely long-term average for major banks under new regulations and capital rules. JPMorgan posted quarterly earnings of $4.3 billion, or $1.02 per share, down from $4.4 billion, or $1.01 per share, in the same quarter last year. The results were muddied by adjustments for the market value of the bank’s debt, which gave it a $1.9 billion pre-tax gain. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Greek govt vows more cuts Protests mount ahead of 48-hour general strike

NEW YORK: Raj Rajaratnam, co-founder of Galleon Group LLC, leaves Federal Court after his sentencing. —AP

Hedge fund exec gets 11 years for insider trading NEW YORK: Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire at the center of the biggest insider-trading case in US history, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years behind bars - the stiffest punishment ever handed out for the crime. “His crimes and the scope of his crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated,” US District Judge Richard J Holwell said. “Simple justice requires a lengthy sentence.” The 54-year-old founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund was also fined $10 million and ordered to forfeit $53.8 million in what the judge said were illicit profits from trading on confidential corporate information.

Prosecutors said Rajaratnam made as much as $75 million in all by cultivating a network of friends, former classmates and other tipsters at various companies and investment firms who supplied him with early word on such things as mergers and earnings announcements. In return, they received kickbacks or a chance to get in on the action. Among the companies he profited from were Google, IBM, Hilton Hotels, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Goldman Sachs.

The sentencing was the last major act in a series of prosecutions that followed Rajaratnam’s 2009 arrest. More than two dozen people were arrested in the investigation, nicknamed Perfect Hedge, and all were convicted. The scandal - along with the 2008 financial meltdown and the Wall Street abuses it exposed - stoked populist anger in the US and complaints that the stock market is a sucker’s game, rigged by insiders.

The judge called it “an assault on the free markets that are a fundamental element of our democratic society. There may not be readily identifiable victims, but when the playing field is not level, the integrity of the marketplace is called into question and the public suffers.” Asked at his sentencing if he would like to speak, Rajaratnam responded: “No, thank you, Your Honor.” The Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam was ordered to report to a yet-to-bedesignated prison Nov 28. His lawyers asked that he be sent to the medical facility at the federal prison in North Carolina where Bernard Madoff is serving his 150-year sentence. He has advanced diabetes and needs a kidney transplant, according to the judge.

The longest previous sentence in an insider-trading case was 10 years, given twice before, most recently last month to one of Rajaratnam’s co-defendants. But Rajaratnam’s punishment fell far short of the 241/2 years prosecutors had asked for. Federal prosecutor Reed Brodsky said insider trading “makes a mockery of the principle that no one participant has an unfair advantage through thievery.” He said Rajaratnam corrupted at least 20 fellow traders and insiders, and at least 19 public companies were victims of his crimes. “Today you sentence a man who is the modern face of illegal insider trading,” Brodsky told the judge.

“He is arguably the most egregious insider trader to face sentencing in a courthouse in the United States.”

The judge said Rajaratnam deserved some leniency, noting his poor health and his charitable work in helping the homeless and the victims of Sept 11 and natural disasters. Rajaratnam’s lawyers had argued for 61/2 to nine years. Defense attorney Terence Lynam asked the judge to show compassion because of Rajaratnam’s illnesses, saying: “He does not deserve to die in prison.” — AP

ATHENS: Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos pledged yesterday to pass sweeping austerity measures in parliament next week, declaring that Greece was in a “fight for our existence” and defying union opposition and rebels in the ruling Socialist party’s own ranks.

After days of protests by groups ranging from taxi drivers to lawyers and cancer patients, much of Greece will be shut by a 48-hour general strike called to coincide with the vote, which could take place in two stages on Wednesday and Thursday. Both of the main public and private sector union federations have backed the protest, which will close shops, factories and services in one of the biggest protests since the debt crisis began two years ago.

At least two deputies from the ruling PASOK party have threatened to vote against part of the package, which includes a mix of pay cuts, tax hikes and public sector layoffs as well as measures to open up the economy. The government’s slender majority is expected to hold up, with support from smaller opposition parties, however. Venizelos, a burly political veteran drafted in by Prime Minister George Papandreou in June to head the austerity drive, said there was no alternative to the measures, which the government says are needed to fend off bankruptcy.

“This is a fight for our existence,” he told parliament. “We will do anything.”

Inspectors from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank left Athens on Tuesday indicating they would recommend releasing an 8 billion euro tranche of aid that Greece needs to keep paying its bills past mid-November.

But they warned that the country, deep in recession and choking on a public debt equivalent to some 162 percent of gross domestic product, was slipping behind on its targets and needed to lift efforts to cut costs and reform its stricken economy. Public anger at the measures has mounted, however, as Greeks have seen taxes go up, wages slashed and previously safe jobs in the public sector threatened with redundancy, in the most severe cuts in their postwar history.

Athens public transport services were shut down for a second day yesterday,

ATHENS: A taxi driver stands in front of riot police during a protest outside the Finance Ministry yesterday. — AP the finance ministry was blocked by can’t be part of a parliament in which I striking officials and about 1,000 taxi have nothing to say.” Two other PASOK drivers marched on parliament, saying lawmakers said they would vote against they fear for their livelihoods if the gov- a provision in the draft law which would ernment eases regulations that effec- suspend sector-wide wage deals in certively close access to many professions. tain parts of the economy until 2014 to In a bid to prevent profiteering on promote company-level agreements. motor fuel during a strike by customs The government has only a narrow officials which is holding up refinery majority with 154 seats in the 300-memdeliveries, the government also put a ber parliament. It would be able to cap on petrol prices, which have risen 50 replace any deputy who resigned with percent since an increase in duty last another member from its own ranks.

A small centre-right party has also year. said it may support the government in Rebels Venizelos, who said he was working Thursday’s vote. Robopoulos, a car dealto build support for Greece among IMF er and one of the few independent busimembers including rising economic nessmen in the Greek parliament, has powers like Russia, India and China, said made several threats to resign in the the strikes could lead to public disorder. past but has held back at the last minute “We must urgently come to our senses,” to avoid triggering a government crisis. he warned. He acknowledged the threat However his comments underlined that reforms could be undone by work- growing disillusion in the ruling party, ers who simly refuse to implement cuts which has seen its position in parliathat will hit them directly: “The general ment eroded by a steady trickle of accounting office doesn’t work because desertions over the past year.

Six lawmakers have shed PASOK parit’s occupied. The general data system centre doesn’t work because it’s occu- ty discipline to sit as independents in pied,” he said. “Society is turning on protest against austerity measures.

Another two resigned their seats altoitself.”

Papandreou’s government has seen gether and were replaced by the party. its approval ratings drop sharply and The conservative opposition, which has there have been growing signs of revolt repeatedly attacked the austerity measwithin his own party. At least one mem- ures as counterproductive, has called on ber of parliament threatened to quit. “I the government to resign. Venizelos diswill resign on Monday. Let somebody missed that: “I am sure this will steel the else take my place,” Thomas resolve of PASOK lawmakers,” he told Robopoulos told a radio interviewer. “I parliament. — Reuters

In low-tax Texas plenty jobs, but wages are low AUSTIN: Craig LeTulle is living the American dream on his ranch in Texaswhere there’s no state income tax and few restrictions on business-and he doesn’t think President Barack Obama has any right to take it away with tax hikes targeting the rich. Obama says it’s only fair for those who can afford it to pay a little more to help the country get its fiscal house in order and recover from a deep economic downturn. Republicans call it class warfare and an attack on job creators. They insist that cutting taxes and government spending is the way to spur economic growth and earlier this week blocked Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill. For LeTulle, it’s personal.

Despite his success, he doesn’t consider himself rich. But his commercial roofing business depends on investments made by the very people who’d see their bank accounts shrink if taxes go up. “The more money they take out of that man’s pocket and send to Washington, the less money he has to put out in the community and to build things,” he said. LeTulle wants his taxes to be spent efficiently on things like roads and police, not wasted on a bloated bureaucracy and programs that feed a destructive “entitlement society.”

“Washington has to understand: it’s not their money,” LeTulle told AFP. The United States is embroiled in an impassioned debate over basic economic

principles and the 2012 election is shaping up to be a referendum on the role of government in society. Texas Governor Rick Perry may be trailing in the polls for the Republican nomination to challenge Obama, but his governing philosophy of low taxes, limited government and generous opportunities for business has been embraced by all the Republican White House hopefuls. There are few places in the United States where this conservative policy has been more thoroughly applied than Texas. It is one of the only states in the nation without an income tax. State legislators meet for just 140 days every other year and lawmakers are paid an annual salary of just $7,200.— AFP

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business SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

India inflation stays high 13th rate hike seen

MANILA: Protesters hold banners showing support for Anti-Wall Street protesters during a rally outside the American Chamber of Commerce office yesterday. —AFP

Asian stocks retreat on Europe debt crisis fears HONG KONG: Asian stocks were mostly lower yesterday as investors worried about uncertainty over corporate earnings and Europe’s debt crisis while China said inflation eased but stayed high. European stocks rose amid hopes a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in Paris would make headway on Europe’s sovereign debt crisis Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to close at 8,747.96 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 1.4 percent to 18,501.79. The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China slipped 0.3 percent to finish at 2,431.37 after authorities said China’s inflation rate eased to 6.1 percent in September but still well above the official target Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.9 percent to end at 4,269.00. Benchmarks in Taiwan and New Zealand also fell while Singapore stocks dipped after government officials lowered the country’s 2011 economic growth forecast and warned growth may slow further next year. South Korea’s Kospi index, however, rose 0.7 percent to end at 1,835.40.

European stocks advanced in early trading. The FTSE 100 index of leading British companies was down 0.1 percent at 5,397.48, while Germany’s DAX was up 0.8 percent to 5,964.03. France’s CAC 40 was 0.9 percent higher at 3,214.55. US stocks were poised to rise. Dow futures were up 0.5 percent at 11,454 while broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures were up 0.6 percent at 1,204.80. “There’s an awful lot of reticence to get involved in the markets, particularly from the institutions, ahead of earnings season,” said Ben Collett, Hong Kong-based head of Japanese equities at Louis Capital Markets. With markets so volatile recently amid uncertainty over Europe’s debt crisis and company profits, “you need to basically have your foot on the sell button during this earnings season for anything other than better than expected,” Collett said.

Analysts said China’s September inflation data was another sign that price increases are moderating after peaking in July, but they didn’t expect the government to ease back on inflation-fighting measures just yet. Fears about Europe’s debt crisis were reignited after some ratings agency downgrades on Thursday. Standard & Poor cut Spain’s long-term debt rating, citing the country’s weak growth prospects and risks facing its banks while Fitch downgraded its outlook for three European banks and said it’s reviewing ratings for a host of others, citing ongoing exposure to sovereign-debt in Europe’s weaker economies and sluggish growth prospects.

The euro rose to $1.3803 from $1.3783 in late trading Thursday. The dollar strengthened to 76.94 yen from 76.88 yen. “Too many policy obstacles still lie ahead” regarding the European debt crisis, strategists at Credit Agricole CIB said in a research note, adding that questions remain unanswered over the size of recapitalization needed for European banks and how much of a loss investors will have take on Greek bonds. Crude oil for November delivery was up 87 cents to $85.12 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.34 to end at $84.23 on Thursday. Brent crude rose 98 cents to $110.18 a barrel. —AP

NEW DELHI: India’s inflation remained stubbornly close to double-digits in September, and economists yesterday said a 13th rate hike loomed despite a slowing of Asia’s third-largest economy.

The Reserve Bank of India has raised interest rates 12 times since March 2010 — the most aggressive tightening pace of any central bank globally-and will decide whether to hike interest rates again at a meeting on October 25.

Annual inflation, measured by the closely watched Wholesale Price Index, fell marginally to 9.72 percent in September from its August level of 9.78 percent, data showed.

But it was still significantly above the central bank’s comfort zone of six percent. “Another rate hike looks likely in view of persistently high inflation. The downside risks to growth are rising, but inflation is offering no comfort,” Crisil ratings agency chief economist DK Joshi told AFP. India’s figures coincided with the release of China’s key inflation measure which remained elevated in September at 6.1 percent.

High inflation in the emerging market giants gives them little space to ease tight credit policies that might help support stuttering growth in advanced economies, analysts say. India’s September inflation, which was in line with market forecasts, was fuelled by sharp price rises of staples like pulses, fruits and vegetables. “These numbers provide no relief for India’s central bank,” said HSBC chief India economist Leif Eskesen, who pointed out that inflation has been running above nine percent for more than 10 months.

“This is despite tightening monetary conditions, normal monsoons and stabilization of international commodity

prices,” he said. Inflation is a political tripwire in India where 75 percent of the 1.2 billion population live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank. Prices have to “come down and show signs of definite decline” for the central bank to change its tight monetary policy stance,

SILIGURI: Indian females pluck tea leaves in a field of the Kiranchandra Tea Estate on the outskirts of Siliguri yesterday. Tea growers in northeastern India say climate change has hurt the country’s tea crop, leading not just to a drop in production but also subtly altering the flavor of their brew. —AFP said C. Rangarajan, head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

The Indian inflation numbers follow a raft of data indicating the economy is losing steam at a quicker clip than anticipated under the weight of surging lending costs for everything from consumer appliances to plant equipment.

India’s industrial output rose by a weaker-than-expected 4.1 percent in

Corporate news shores up stocks FRANKFURT: Upbeat corporate news from Google and Unilever shored up market sentiment yesterday despite a downgrade of Spain’s government debt and concerns over a eurozone plan to force some banks to raise new capital. Despite a fairly subdued session in Asia earlier, stock markets in Europe were trading higher and Wall Street was poised for a solid opening later though monthly retail sales figures could have a bearing at the bell.

Ahead of those numbers, which are expected to show a monthly 0.7 percent pickup, investors are assessing news from the third-quarter earnings season, which is now picking up. The news yesterday has tempered the downbeat newsflow from the eurozone debt crisis that has dominated markets over the past few days. Google Inc made $2.7 billion in the third quarter, up 26 percent, and added 7,000 workers over the past year despite worries about the US economy. CEO Larry Page crowed that the results were “gangbusters.”

Meanwhile food and personal care company Unilever PLC announced a 16.7 billion ruble (? 390 million) acqui-

August from a year earlier, data this week showed, while a quarterly Dun & Bradstreet survey showed business optimism down 12.1 percent year-on-year.

The economy grew by 8.5 percent in the last fiscal year and Premier Manmohan Singh has forecast growth “of close to

sition of Russian beauty company Concern Kalina, signaling expansion in a large emerging consumer market in the region, while Swiss-based agrochemicals firm Syngenta reported strong third-quarter sales. “Company news is again being taken into consideration, where before macro news was dominant,” said Commerzbank market analyst Achim Matzke in Frankfurt. “For example, that Unilever is embarking on expansion in Russia is being taken as a positive by the markets.” Earnings news weighed in the balance against worries from Europe’s government debt crisis.

Ratings agency Standard and Poors downgraded Spain overnight, while Fitch warned about a number of banks around the world.

European officials are reading what they say will be a decisive effort to quell the debt crisis, renegotiating a new debt relief deal for Greece that could inflict higher bond writedowns on creditor banks. Ahead of that, the European Union is seeking to force banks that are deemed to be insufficiently capitalized to increase their financial cushions, a step that can lead to shareholder losses and reduced dividends. —AP

eight percent this year”.

That expansion is robust compared to anemic Western growth, but down from an initial expectation of nine percent and too slow to fulfil pledges of significant poverty reduction and job creation.

India’s currency has slumped by nearly 10 percent against the dollar this year, exacerbating inflation by making imported goods costlier. —AFP

Sales rise in September on autos WASHINGTON: US consumers stepped up their spending on retail goods in September, a hopeful sign for the sluggish economy. They spent more on autos, clothing and furniture last month to boost retail sales 1.1 percent, the Commerce Department said yesterday. It was the largest gain in seven months. Auto sales rose 3.6 percent to drive the overall September increase. Still, excluding that category, sales increased a solid 0.6 percent. The government also revised the August figures up to show a 0.3 percent increase after initially reporting no gain.

Stock futures rose after the release of the report, which is the government’s first look at consumer spending each month. Stronger spending could help tamp down concerns that the economy is at risk of a recession. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

The increase “shows that households are not completely down and out,” said Paul Dales, senior US economists for Capital Economics. Dales said the data correspond with an annual growth rate of 2 percent for consumer spending growth in the July-September quarter.

Dales cautioned that weak hiring will likely prevent consumers from spending at this rate on a month-to-month basis. —AP

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Brent rises above $114 after US data Paris meeting to focus on euro zone crisis LONDON: Brent crude rose above $114 a barrel yesterday on better-than-expected retail sales in the world’s top oil consumer, the United States, and investor speculation that European leaders could soon reach a rescue deal on the euro zone debt crisis. November Brent crude rose $3.14 to $114.25 a barrel by 1325 GMT on the day of its expiry, having risen in seven of the past eight sessions. The December contract was also stronger yesterday but stood at a $2 discount to November. US crude was up $2.95 at $87.18 a barrel.

Retail sales in the US rebounded at their fastest pace in seven months last month as consumers shook off some of their concerns about stock market drops and political gridlock, potentially giving new momentum to the weak economic recovery. “It’s a sentiment thing and this comes on top of better US jobs data.

People are clinging onto any positive news,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, oil and commodities analyst at VTB Capital.

France and Germany reaffirmed their commitment to a recent deal between their two leaders to combat the euro zone crisis and protect the euro currency, the finance ministers of both countries said yesterday. Prices also received support from a dip in Chinese inflation to 6.1 percent in September, indicating the central bank may at last put on hold further tightening of its monetary policy that has slowed economic growth and fuel consumption.

Less price pressures may allow the Chinese central bank to look at easing monetary policy, said Jeremy Friesen, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Societe Generale. “If that helps consumer spending and prevents a slowdown in construc-

tion, it would be positive for global commodities,” he added.

OPEC tensions Supply disruptions in Nigeria and the North Sea as well as still irregular exports from Libya have cut global output of some of the best quality light, sweet oil so far this quarter. Brent has risen 12 percent since briefly dipping below the psychologically-important $100 a barrel level in early October. This has driven Brent to record highs versus the US benchmark and yesterday the spread was over $27 a barrel. A power contest between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran is also helping to support Brent by adding a political risk premium to prices, analysts said. Saudi Arabia and the United States traded charges with Iran earlier this week over an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, prompting

US President Barack Obama to warn Iran it would face the toughest possible sanctions for its role.

“We knew they (Saudi Arabia and Iran) were not good friends and now there’s a new struggle between two of the biggest members in OPEC,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. OPEC is set to meet again to discuss policy on Dec. 14 in Vienna. The dollar was slightly lower yesterday and is down more than 2 percent from the start of the week, giving a boost to commodity prices across the board by making them cheaper for nondollar buyers. US crude oil stocks rose more than expected last week as imports rose but oil product inventories surprised with larger-than-expected drawdowns, US Energy Information Administration data showed. — Reuters

Revelations prompt WSJ investigations NEW YORK: New York City police officer runs over a Legal Aid Society observer as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march through the streets near Wall Street yesterday. —AP

NYC protest cleanup is being postponed NEW YORK: The cleanup of a plaza in lower Manhattan where protesters have been camped out for a month was postponed early yesterday, sending cheers up from a crowd that had feared the effort was merely a pretext to evict them. Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said the owners of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, had put off the cleaning.

Supporters of the protesters had started streaming into the park in the morning darkness before the planned cleaning, forming a crowd of several hundred chanting people.

“I’ll believe it when we’re able to stay here,” said protester Peter Hogness, 56, a union employee from Brooklyn. “One thing we have learned from this is that we need to rely on ourselves and not on promises from elected officials.” But protester Nick Gulotta, 23, was jubilant. He originally held up a sign referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg that said: “Bloomberg Don’t Evict Occupy Wall Street.” People cheered and clapped him on the back when he scratched out the “don’t” and replaced it with “didn’t.”

“It shows when people work together, you really can make a difference and make justice happen,” Gulotta said. A confrontation between police and protesters, who had vowed to stay put through civil disobedience, had been feared.

Boisterous cheers floated up from the crowds as the announcement of the postponement circulated, and protesters began polling each other on whether to make an immediate march to Wall Street, a few blocks away. “Late last night, we received notice from the owners of Zuccotti Park Brookfield Properties - that they are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation,” the deputy mayor’s statement said. —AP

LONDON: Britain’s newspaper auditor said that it may move to investigate The Wall Street Journal’s European circulation figures after a former employee accused it of propping up its subscriptions by effectively paying for its own papers via third parties. The Wall Street Journal Europe’s publisher, Andrew Langhoff, has already resigned over the paper’s links to the Netherlands-based Executive Learning Partnership, a consultancy that former program manager Gert Van Mol says was receiving payments and getting press in return for buying up thousands of copies of the Journals’ papers. “In essence you’re providing money to somebody who uses that money to buy your copies,” Van Mol told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He added that the group had also been “promised articles and interviews” as part of the deal.

Journal publisher Dow Jones insisted that the payments were for legitimate services, and while it acknowledged that its complex arrangement might have appeared questionable, it had been vetted and approved by Britain’s Audit Bureau of Circulations, also known as ABC. But ABC suggested Thursday that it didn’t have all the facts at its disposal when it signed off on the deal, saying that “there now appears to be additional new information which may give grounds for further investigation.” ABC declined to release any further detail or say how likely such an investigation would be. As a rule, the group doesn’t confirm whether investigations have been opened unless they result in corrective action.

Such an action could include revising down the Journal’s stated circulation figure of 74,800 papers p er day, said Rob Lynam, the head of press for UK media agency MEC. Because the figures are a key way of gauging a newspaper’s reach, Lynam said that could lead to a fall in ad revenue - although he noted that the big-

LONDON: A worker poses for photographs by holding a copy of Wall Street Journal newspaper above a stand with stacks of other newspapers at Victoria train station. — AP ger risk was to the respected paper’s prestige. “It’s embarrassing more from a reputation point of view, particularly with everything that is going with News Corp. at the moment,” he said.

News Corp. is Dow Jones’ parent company and it’s already under the spotlight over allegations that the company tolerated illegal espionage and police corruption at its biggest-selling Sunday tabloid, the News of the World. If ethical problems surface at the Journal, it could feed criticism that the company leadership’s has been complacent about shady dealings across its holdings, which include the Fox News Channel and The New York Post. “The magnitude is not as big a deal as criminally hacking into a private individual’s phones, but there is once again a flavor of cutting corners in a fairly big way in pursuit of business,” Rick Edmonds, with the Florida-based journalism school The Poynter Institute, said

Tuesday.Van Mol said he attempted to flag the issue to senior executives, including Journal publisher Les Hinton, in late 2010. But instead of taking action, he said the company ordered him not to talk about the issue. In January, Van Mol was made redundant. Hinton, who oversaw News Corp’s UK newspaper arm before moving to Dow Jones, has since resigned over the phone hacking scandal. He has not returned repeated calls seeking comment over the past few months.

Dow Jones said that Van Mol had been “first investigated by the company because of concerns around his business dealings.” Van Mol said he knew of no such investigation. Dow Jones spokeswoman Bethany Sherman added that her company been in communication with the Audit Bureau of Circulations since July regarding aspects of the issue and reached out again to the body on Thursday.—AP

SaturDaY, OCtOBEr 15, 2011

A documentary charts Belafonte’s busy life Page 28

Americana nods just start of good times for Cook Page 26

NEW YORK: American country singer Taylor Swift launches her debut fragrance, “Wonderstruck”, at Macy’s Herald Square on Thursday in New York. —AP

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he 36-year-old soccer star - who is believed to want to finish his playing career with Paris St Germain - is said to have hired a US real estate agency to find a “triplex apartment in a beautiful building” that he, his wife and their four children can use as a base in the city.

According to local reports in France, Victoria wants to buy somewhere in the prestigious sixth arrondissement on the historic Rive Gauche, which is best known for the Sorbonne University and its bookshops and libraries, and has previously seen literary legends Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, F Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce reside there.

However, Victoria, 37, is more interested in the areas fashion shops. Josephine Leclerc, who runs a boutique in

the sixth arrondissement, said: “Victoria often comes to Paris for fashion events, and would just love to be here full time. David and Victoria will set the place abuzz - we would absolutely love to have them here.’ The couple who have three sons, Brooklyn, 12, Romeo, nine, and sixyear-old Cruz, as well as three-month-old daughter Harper - already own a holiday home in the South of France, as well as properties in England and the US.

Cowell has a lot to learn about ladies : One Direction

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he 48-year-old actor plays journalist Paul Kemp in new movie ‘The Rum Diary’ - based on the exploits of notorious writer Hunter S Thompson - and he admits the scenes where he pours alcohol in his mouth and sets it alight wasn’t the first time he achieved the feat, recalling a “weird” experience when a friend had to save his life when a trick went wrong. He said: “I did spew a little fire when I was a youth. I very dumbly chugged a little bit of gasoline and blew it into a torch and my head was on fire. That’s true. “It’s a weird thing when your head is on fire. You tend to panic first. And then when panic sets in and you cannot get your face out, you run.

Which is the worst thing you can do. A friend of mine, a guy named Bones, came over and put my face out. He saved my life.” Despite his scary childhood experience, Johnny was delighted to repeat the stunt in the movie. He said: “I was very excited that night about the possibility of actually spewing fire.” And the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star would happily tackle the feat again. Speaking at a press conference for ‘The Rum Diary’ he joked: “I’ll do it again for you today if you’d like.”

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he ‘X Factor’ boss - who is engaged to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy - has been seeking late night love tips from Harry Styles, one of the young lotharios in the boy band, who are signed to his Syco label. Harry, 17, told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I spoke to Simon just the other day. He’ll be halfway through a text to his lady and he’ll say, ‘How do I end the message? What do I write now?’ And I tell him, ‘Just be cool’. “He’s 52 but he’s still got a lot to learn about the ladies. I tell him to take his time and not rush into anything.” Harry is not only Simon’s first port of call when he needs relationship advice, as he has also been helping out his bandmates, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson. Niall added: “Harry is the guy to go to for love stuff. He’s like an agony uncle. He just knows what to do and what to say. He knows all about the game.” ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ singer Harry - who has previously been linked to model Syanne Patterson - has reportedly been working his considerable charms while on a recent visit to Italy. Niall added: “Harry caught the eye of one fan. They swapped numbers and she ended up cooking him a nice pizza.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the group clubbed together to treat Niall for his birthday last month, by buying him a life size waxwork of US President Barack Obama. Liam told The Sun newspaper: “Niall is obsessed with Barack Obama. He knows everything about him. “We looked around for the waxwork for ages. It’s a life-size model and it’s heavy. “We had it made and delivered. We all chipped in for it. He sits on a bench in our flat. Niall loves it. “It was a fair bit of money but I can’t say as we don’t want Niall to know.”

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In this picture taken Oct 10, 2011 Michael Aubermann, right, and Stephan Schilling from the Cologne civic association stand at a public book shelve on a square in Cologne, Germany. Take a book, leave a book.

This Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011 photo shows books in boxes inside the Book Tree, also known as Buecherwald, at Prenzlauer Berg’s Sredzkistrasse in Germany’s capital Berlin. —AP

Public bookshelves spread across Germany T

ake a book, leave a book. In the birthplace of the printing press, public bookshelves are popping up across the nation on street corners, city squares and suburban supermarkets. In these free-for-all libraries, people can grab whatever they want to read, and leave behind anything they want for others. There’s no need to register, no due date, and you can take or give as many as you want. “This project is aimed at everyone who likes to read - without regard to age or education. It is open for everybody,” Michael Aubermann, one of the organizers of the free book exchange in the city of Cologne, told The Associated Press.

The western city’s latest public shelf, a $6,883 steel bookcase with acrylic glass doors, was put

up two weeks ago next to Bayenturm, one of the city’s medieval towers. It is the fourth free shelf that Aubermann’s group, the Cologne Citizen’s Foundation, has placed outside; there are two more inside local Ikea outlets. “We installed our other outdoor shelves last year and it’s been working really well,” said Aubermann, a 44-yearold who works in IT management.

The public book shelves, which are usually financed by donations and cared for by local volunteer groups, have popped up independently of each other in many cities across Germany including Berlin, Hannover and Bonn, and also in suburbs and villages. Each shelf holds around 200 books and it takes about six weeks for a complete turnover, with all the old

titles replaced by new ones, he said. Vera Monka, a 46-year-old Cologne resident who works in catering and event management, said she takes advantage of the free books all the time.

“I have often left books here, but frankly, I have even more often taken books with me,” she said, browsing through the latest new arrivals at the Bayenthal shelf. “For me personally, this project is simply great, because I do not have much money left to spend on good literature.” Even commercial book stores and online book retailers seem to support the idea of free book exchanges. “We see this project rather as a sales promotion than as competition,” said Elmar Muether, the acting branch manager at

Cologne’s Mayersche Buchhandlung book store.

“If books are present everywhere, it helps our business too.”

Bettina Althaus, a spokeswoman for buch.de, a German online bookstore comparable to Amazon.com, also welcomed the movement.

“Public bookshelves are in no competition with the online book trade. On the contrary, we are happy about any kind of motivation to read,” Althaus said. So far, the Cologne book group has had few problems with vandalism or other kinds of abuse, though a used-book seller once scooped up every volume on a shelf to sell at a flea market. Another time the shelves kept getting stacked with material from a religious group. —AP

‘Arab Spring’ heralds new era for publishers P

ublishers from Arab countries attending the world’s biggest book fair have welcomed a greater freedom of speech ushered in by the fall of repressive regimes but still face challenges. Thirteen Syrian exhibitors who had registered to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair were absent from the five-day event due to a visa problem, the fair’s director of communications Katja Boehne said. Other Arab editors hailed the lifting of printing restrictions in their countries following the “Arab Spring” of pro-democracy protests that shook off years of tyrannical, oppressive rule from Tunis to Tripoli.

In Tunisia, “one feels there is a bigger freedom of expression. You find all the books which were banned” under ousted President Ben Ali, said Walid Soliman, founder of publishers Walidoff. “There is no longer offi-

FRANKFURT: Algerian author Boualem Sansal gestures during a news conference in Frankfurt, central Germany yesterday. Sensal will be awarded with the 2011 prize of the German Book Trade association tomorrow. —AP

cial censorship.” Egypt is not only seeing new publishing freedom but a huge interest in books about the revolution, Ahmed Salah Zaki, director of the Cairo book fair said. “Many people are eager now to read what happened in Tahrir (Square),” he said.

However, he added that he was not entirely supportive of a sudden total freedom of expression, preferring a “wisdom censorship” to guard against books critical of Egyptian customs and traditions.

Egyptian editor Sherif Bakr welcomed an end to corruption, which saw some big publishing houses receiving subsidies under the regime of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, he said. “Today everyone has the same chance,” Sherif Bakr added. But while the political climate has eased, publishers still face practical problems. — AFP

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Jubilant crowds greet Bhutan’s newly married king

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hutan’s newly-married king and his 21year-old bride greeted huge crowds of well-wishers yesterday as they made their way on foot back to the capital along windy Himalayan roads. The hugely popular 31-yearold king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, married and crowned Jetsun Pema, the commoner daughter of an airline pilot, on Thursday in a colourful Buddhist ceremony in the ancient capital of Punakha. The staunchly royalist people of this remote Himalayan nation, which has resisted outside influences for centuries, are enjoying a three-day public holiday to mark the Bhutanese school children wave the national flag of Bhutan as they wait for the arrival of the royal couple, King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and newly crowned Queen Jetsun Pema in Thimphu in Bhutan yesterday.—AFP occasion.

The royal couple set off on foot from Punakha-a two-and-half-hour drive from the capital along roads with stunning views over untouched mountains- and had covered only a few kilometres (miles) by midday. “There are people lined up along almost the entire stretch,” royal spokesman Dorji Wangchuck told AFP by phone from the scene. The king’s habit of diving into crowds, greeting people and picking up babies is known to exasperate his security detail, A defined benefit plan provides a guaranteed monthly benhe Philadelphia Orchestra said a new collective bargainbut is a core part of his appeal to his 700,000 ing agreement has been reached between the orchestra efit for workers, while a defined contribution plan shifts adoring subjects. association and its musicians union. The tentative agree- responsibility for retirement planning and investing to workers, When he was crowned in 2008 in Punakha, he ment reached last week has been ratified by players and but doesn’t guarantee a specific amount of money based on did much of the return journey to the capital approved by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association board. It years of service. Vulgamore praised the musicians for making Thimphu on foot. This time the couple planned will go yesterday to the judge in the orchestra’s bankruptcy sacrifices that will help the orchestra achieve long-term finanto cover parts of the route that go through less case who has the final say, the orchestra said in a statement cial stability. A call to the Philadelphia Musicians’ Union for populated areas by car. The main streets of released Thursday. In April, the renowned 111-year-old sym- comment was not immediately returned. A day earlier, the Thimphu have been decorated with flashing phony became the first major US orchestra to file for Chapter national pension fund representing the musicians expressed lights and the official poster of the royal couple opposition to the contract because it ends the orchestra’s par11 bankruptcy protection. and the national flag adorn lampposts, building Orchestra president and chief executive officer Allison ticipation in the pension fund. “In light of the trustees’ responfacades and roundabouts.

Vulgamore said the agreement calls for cutting salaries and sibility under federal pension law, the fund currently sees no Lines of schoolchildren with the national moving musicians’ pensions to a defined contribution plan alternative to litigation to protect the interests of all of its parorange-and-yellow flag had already started from the current defined benefit plans. She declined to provide ticipating musicians,” Alan Raphael of the American Federation forming at midday, hours before the royal couspecifics on Thursday, shortly before the orchestra’s opening of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund said in a written ple were due to arrive. Amid clouds of incense statement released Wednesday. —AP night concert and gala. and chanting monks, Pema was crowned queen at the end of a series of elaborate rituals in the 17th-century fortified monastery in Punakha that served as the headquarters of the country’s ancient capital. The “Dragon King”, an Oxford graduate who came to power in 2008 at the start S customs officers Thursday for- its authenticity and ownership. of democracy in Bhutan, said afterwards that he “We are pleased to return a piece of mally returned to France a 19th had waited to get married but was sure he had century painting that went miss- French heritage that was stolen during found “the right person”. ing for decades after it was stolen by a World War I,” said John Morton, head of “She is a wonderful human being,” he told a German soldier at the end of World War the US Immigration and Customs small group of foreign reporters. Bhutan banned I. “A Fisherman’s Daughter” by Jules Enforcement, in a statement. “We foreign television until 1999 and is the only Breton was commissioned by the north- remain committed to combating culturnation in the world whose government pursues ern French city of Douai and hung in al heritage crimes, which are one of the “Gross National Happiness” for its people instead the local museum, from where it was oldest forms of organized cross-border of economic growth. Dasho Karma Ura from the looted along with other artworks in the illicit activity.”

Centre for Bhutan Studies, a think-tank, said the final weeks of the 1914-18 conflict. It France’s ambassador to the United queen would bring a “new dimension of femivanished in the post-war chaos, then re- States, Francois Delattre, who accepted nine leadership” to the country. The previous emerged in 2000 on the international the painting at a mid-day ceremony in king had four wives, all sisters, who shunned the art market, only to bounce between Washington, called its return “yet limelight.

Europe and North America as Interpol, another symbol of Franco-American “The Bhutanese youth are starting to look up lawyers and art experts wrangled over cooperation.” —AFP to her, to dress up like her and trying to be an attractive personality like her,” he told AFP in an interview. Bhutan, which has never been coloUNITED STATES: The certificate of transfer (bottom) signed by the nized, remained in self-imposed isolation for Ambassador of France to the United States Franlois Delattre and US centuries and is still wary of outside influence Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton taking and the impact of globalization. The country had possession of the Jule Breton painting “Une fille de pÍcheur” following a no roads or currency until the 1960s and continrepatriation ceremony on Thursday at the Ambassador’s residence in ues to resist mass tourism to this day. —AFP Washington DC.—AFP

Philly orchestra, musicians approve new contract T

US returns long-lost painting to France

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

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lizabeth Cook thinks there may be something fishy going on. She’s been through the brokendreams thing before and she has no reason to trust these TV people out in Los Angeles who’ve started chatting her up. “I’ve got my Appalachian, oppressive, paranoid, mistrusting, suspicious thing that’s in my genetic DNA, so I’m thinking I’m being somehow duped,” Cook said. The Nashville singer doesn’t want to say too much, but she’s in talks with producers to star in her own TV sitcom: “It sounds like big talk to me.” But it’s true and just the latest astonishing development in a career that was on a frustratingly slow simmer for half a decade before this sudden boil, which also includes three nominations at the Americana Music Association Awards on Thursday for her album “Welder.” She did not win.

She’s tied with Robert Plant and Buddy Miller for most nominations at the event that celebrates roots music of all stripes, from Cook’s hillbilly-flavored alternative country to Plant’s homage to early rock ‘n’ roll and folk, with his Miller-directed all-star Band of Joy. All three are nominated for artist of the year. “Yeah, awesome,” she says sarcastically of facing off with the juggernaut created by the Led Zeppelin frontman.

“How cool for me.” It’s that sense of humor that’s turned her world upside down at 39. She caught David Letterman’s attention with her SiriusXM Outlaw Country show “Elizabeth Cook’s Apron Strings” and kept him in stitches with stories of her colorful family during an August appearance on “Late Show.”

She went to visit a friend in Los Angeles the next day. That friend, a casting director, forwarded a link of her interview with Letterman to a few key contacts.

Others, also intrigued, sought out Cook. The reality folks even began to circle before she told them to buzz off. “Probably within 24 hours of me being out there I was sitting in every corner office,” she said. And she’s been traveling to Los Angeles and New York City regularly since, alternating tour stops with creative

meetings.

Cook has tried the acting thing before, even landed a few roles that offered tantalizing promise. But her acting career seemed to have gone in the direction of her music career. There too she’d been on the brink of something big when she put out an album on Warner Bros. Records in 2002, but her record didn’t receive the kind of attention she’d hoped and she eventually asked out of her contract. She never really gained the kind of wide exposure a major label can offer again, though she continued to record and release independent albums.

Tim Carroll, Cook’s husband of eight years, thinks things may be different this time, though. Her radio show has allowed people to get to know her, something Letterman also did by having her on for an interview rather than a performance. “That’s so much cooler than just watching someone sing a country song, I think, in a way,” Carroll said. “One of my favorite things about Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, when they come and actually sit down with someone and get interviewed, I actually want to hear their opinions.

It’s pretty cool what these women will say and I think people are intrigued by that. And it’s kind of the role that Elizabeth is getting.”

That personality was already on display for anyone willing to listen. She’s a smart, inventive songwriter who comes by her hillbilly cred authentically. Her mother was a singer from West Virginia and her father was a moonshiner fresh out of jail when he moved in next to Cook’s mother in Florida, where both families had migrated for the railroad and citrus work. Turns out he’d played the standup bass in the prison band and soon her parents formed a honky-tonk band and started grooming a star.

“They focused their musical energy, because they couldn’t really be in the bars at that time, on getting me to sing and putting together little bands for me,” she said. “So it was just like our family hobby that we

would go do that. I didn’t particularly enjoy that.” She ran as far away from the life of a honky-tonking barnstormer as she could, becoming an auditor at Price Waterhouse in Nashville after college. After 18 months she realized her mistake, and ditched the safe life for songwriting.

Greg Allman wins the 2011 Americana Lifetime Achievement Performer Award after being presented by Keb’ Mo’, left, at the Americana Music Association awards show on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. —AP Sitting on the back patio of her small but lovely Nashville home, she described how she figured out what it would take to stay alive, to continue touring up to 200 shows a year and to make the occasional record, and somehow made it work. — AP

Trying on a different look? Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris visited a traditional clothing shop in Dubai and the reality TV star wasted no time trying on the outfits.The 30-year-old was quick to don the outfit and even covered her head leaving just her eyes, and a slip of the leg, on show — The mail

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Indian women shop a day ahead of the Hindu festival of Karva Chauth in Jammu, India yesterday —AP

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n Saturday, Kanika Syal will wake up before dawn to begin a fast at sunrise, and not eat or drink until she sees the moon at night-all in the hope her husband will have a long life. Karva Chauth is a centuries-old tradition observed annually in north India, where women dress up and fast for the day to pray for their spouse’s good health and success. “Since a very long time ago, we have been looking at our mothers celebrate,” says the 25-year-old Syal, who is making her Karva Chauth debut as a newlywed. “It is our turn now.”

A Hindu woman gets henna applied on her hands a day ahead of the Hindu festival of Karva Chauth in Jammu, India yesterday. Karva Chauth is a traditional Hindu festival celebrated in northern India where married women fast one whole day and offer prayers to the moon for the welfare, prosperity, and longevity of their husbands. —AP

But it’s different for the teacher-turnedhomemaker, who, as a member of India’s rapidly growing middle class, will be doing a lot more than her mother ever did for the festival. While it is customary for women to apply henna on their hands, buy clothes and expect gifts from relatives, the new generation of fast-keepers, with money to spare, is exploring a range of pampering options.

They are spoilt for choice. Syal will indulge in a 5,000 rupee ($102) diamond facial and body spa treatment to make sure she looks her best.

Also on the must-have list for the urban elite are botox, laser-hair reduction and chemical peel treatments at spas and beauty

parlors offering Karva Chauth packages.

“There is a 30 to 40 percent increase in the number of patients who look for cosmetic procedures around this time,” says Amit Bangia, head of the department of dermatology at the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences.

The origins of the festival are shrouded in mystery, but one tale tells of a queen being duped by her brothers into breaking her fast before moonrise, leading to the king’s immediate death. She is given a second chance, fasts faithfully-and he returns to life.

Swarovski sieves A booming economy and wave of consumerism have given India’s middle-class more spending power, and malls and luxury stores are wooing women with items such as Swarovski crystal-studded channis, the sieve traditionally used to look at the moon before breaking the day’s fast. For the tech-savvy, jewellery firm Tanishq has introduced a Karva Chauth smartphone app to complement its festival line-up. The app converts the phone into a sieve for the night.

Even mehendi-wallas, the artists who apply henna, make a killing with their custommade designs. Some charge 5,100 rupees to do both hands. But not everyone indulges. Shalini Sood Bhaduri, a former marketing professional, finds the festival “absolutely ridiculous” and “off-putting”. “I really don’t believe that by observing the fast for one day, it is going to add to his life,” she said. Some feminists, however, believe it may be too simplistic to dismiss Karva Chauth as a patriarchal custom. Madhu Kishwar, a senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing

Societies in Delhi, sees it as an interesting “game-play between men and women”.

“There are so many rituals that women seem to have devised to raise the testosterone level of men ... that is when men are more likely to be indulgent partners,” she said. Bollywood hits such as “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”- “Large-Hearted Person will Take the Bride Away”, starring Shah Rukh Khan-have also made the festival more even-handed, with the hero fasting for his beloved. Rohan Vasudeva, a Delhi-based businessman, observed the fast for his fiancÈe last year when they were engaged.

This time, Vasudeva will leave the fasting to his wife. But he is still counting down to Saturday. “I am looking forward to taking her out to dinner.”— Reuters

An Indian woman shops for bangles a day ahead of the Hindu festival of Karva Chauth in Jammu, India yesterday. —AP

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

In this Jan 21, 2011 file photo, actor, singer and activist Harry Belafonte from the documentary film “Sing Your Song,” poses for a portrait in the Fender Music Lodge during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. —AP

In this file picture taken on October 10, 2011, Iranian director Morteza Farshbaf speaks during the New Currents: Directors Presentation at Shinsegae Centumcity cultural hall during the 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). —AFP

Iranian, Filipino

take top Asian film awards

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n Iranian film that reveals the “heart and soul” of its director has shared the top award with a production from the Philippines at Asia’s largest cinematic event yesterday. Morteza Farshbaf’s “Mourning” was handed one of two US$30,000 prizes given in the New Currents award at the 16th Busan International Film Festival and the first-time director said he hoped his film revealed something of the life of common people in his homeland to the world.

“Mourning” follows the story of a deafmute couple who left to care for a young boy after his parents are killed in a car accident. “It took a lot of people a lot of time to make this film and I am just thankful to everyone who helped me along the way,”

said Farshbaf. “There is a lot of myself in this film-my heart and my soul-so I am honored by the fact that this festival chose my film to be in this competition.” New Currents jury head Yonfan, the veteran Chinese director noted for such productions as the arthouse hit “Prince of Tears”, said the 13 films representing 12 countries that made it into the final field were so good they had presented unique problems.

“After the first round of selections the jury had only narrowed that field of 13 down to 10, so I think that shows how strong this year’s selections were,” the director said. The award-which hands out two US$30,000 prizes to first- or second-time Asian directors-was shared by first-time Filipino director Loy Arcenas with his family

drama “Nino”, which focuses on how people are pulled apart by greed. An acclaimed New York-based production designer and theatre director, Arcenas said he had turned to cinema because the medium allowed him to explore the nature of human relationships.

“I have always been interested in chronicling human relationships and that is what I have tried to do with this film,” he said. “I think it is a very small, quiet film but I have tried to show how we as people relate to each other.” The Busan festival’s other main prize-the US$30,000 Flash Forward prize for young non-Asian filmmakers-was taken by Italian director Guido Lombardi who presented the gritty drama “La Bas-A Criminal Education”. — AFP

Bucharest filmfest fetes Romanian New Wave A

festival honoring the New Wave of Romanian filmmakers opened yesterday in Bucharest with a focus on their 10-year presence at Cannes. The festival’s second edition will highlight the stars of this generation such as Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristian Nemescu, Catalin Mitulescu, Radu Muntean and Andrei Ujica.

Ten years ago, Puiu paved the way to Cannes for young Romanian directors with his gripping road movie “Stuff and Dough”. Four years later, his “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” won the festival’s Un Certain Regard prize.

Romanian cinema has remained under the international spotlight with a Palme d’Or for short film awarded

to Catalin Mitulescu, a posthumous Un Certain Regard to Cristian Nemescu for “California Dreamin’”, the Palme d’Or to Cristian Mungiu for “Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days” and the Jury’s Award - Un Certain Regard for “Police, Adjective” to Corneliu Porumboiu.

Besides the Romanian films, the festival will screen fresh movies including the 2011 Palme d’Or “The Tree of Life” by Terrence Malick, “Le Havre” by Aki Kaurismaki, “Michael” by Markus Schleinzer and “Melancholia” by Lars von Trier. A special screening is reserved for a restored version of “Taxi Driver”, 35 years after its 1976 premiere and Palme d’Or. — AFP

A documentary charts Belafonte’s

busy life A

t 84, Harry Belafonte doesn’t sing publicly anymore. But today his music is no less rich or compelling than before, even delivered in the form of the spoken words he voices lyrically and from his heart. “What a blessing, what a blessing,” he marvels in his distinctive sandy whisper, summing up his life in a recent interview. Of course, Belafonte has not been the only beneficiary of that busy, blessed life. He has brought pleasure to millions with his singing (earning the first-ever gold record for his 1956 album “Calypso,” which produced the inescapable smash single “Banana Boat (Day-O)”). Moreover, he gained international stardom in concert, on TV and film in such movies as “Carmen Jones” (1954), “The World, the Flesh and the Devil” and “Buck and the Preacher.” He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his featured role in “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.”

And he blended his artistry with activism, playing a key role in the civil rights movement alongside such leaders as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy (whom he pushed for more aggressive protection of blacks) and President John F. Kennedy (whom Belafonte schooled as a presidential candidate on the importance of King’s mission, while simultaneously advising King on how to work with the Kennedys).

The child of a Jamaican-born domestic worker in Harlem, Belafonte understood and condemned social injustices from a young age, and resolved to help correct them. “I wasn’t an artist who turned activist, I was an activist who turned artist,” he explains. Belafonte’s journey forms a connect-the-dots map of six decades of popular culture and social crusades. And it drives “Sing Your Song,” a beautifully conceived documentary about Belafonte’s life and the era the rest of us have shared with him. (It premieres Monday night on HBO.) At first, he felt narcissistic and superfluous doing a documentary, says Belafonte, hosting a reporter at his awards- and mementos-filled office in the Manhattan neighborhood once known as Hell’s Kitchen. —AP

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

The Ahn Trio, with Angella Ahn on violin, Lucia Ahn on piano, and Maria Ahn on cello, perform for President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during the entertainment portion of the State Dinner in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, Thursday. —AP

State dinner glam includes damp hems, soggy tuxes H

emlines were soaked and raindrops spattered tuxedos, but not even a thunderous downpour could dampen the excitement of guests flocking to perhaps the most exclusive social event on Washington’s autumn calendar: a White House state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. “I love the rain. They don’t have rain in Arizona,” said Dr. Peter Rhee, the trauma surgeon who treated Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head earlier this year.

“So much for the hair salon,” said ABC News correspondent Juju Chang, holding up the floppy ends of her dark locks. Even President Barack Obama took note of the soggy weather as he marveled at the intense day of diplomacy that took the South Korean leader from the White House to the Capitol and back again.

“President Lee has had a very full day - and a very wet day,” Obama said. A driving rain began just as guests started to arrive for Thursday’s opulent East Room extravaganza, soaking many of the guests and their finery as they waited in line to come in from the storm.

Hemlines on many of the floor-length gowns were visibly wet. Raindrops dotted tuxedo sleeves and lapels. One sodden guest hid behind her husband and refused to look in the direction of reporters watching the guest arrivals. Besides better weather, the dinner also lacked Hollywood star power. Billie Jean King, a tennis great from days of yore, was one of the biggest names among the 220-plus invited guests.

King said she’d spent the day reading up on the just-passed US free-trade agreement with South Korea and was “just excited to be here and be a part of it and share.” It was her first state dinner. For the occasion, Obama deployed maximum culinary diplomacy to sig-

nal his high regard for Lee. An intimate dinner at a suburban Korean restaurant on Wednesday was followed Thursday by lunch on the State Department’s fine china and the dinner at the White House.

Lee’s state visit got off to a soggy start under umbrellas at a pared-down morning arrival ceremony on the South Lawn. But inside the White House, rich fall colors and floral arrangements of mums and hydrangeas mixed with fresh apples gave the guests a warm welcome. The meal incorporated vegetables and herbs from the White House garden. The menu: butternut squash bisque, a salad featuring daikon sheets and masago rice pearl crispies in a nod to Korean traditions, wagyu beef from Texas and chocolate cake served with a blend of Korean and American pears. —AP (Above) A view of the East Room of White House where President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are hosting a state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday in Washington.

(Left) President Barack Obama’s table setting is seen in the East Room of White House where he and First Lady Michelle Obama are hosting a state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday night in Washington. —AP

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Apple in talks for iCloud for movies LOS ANGELES: Apple Inc. is in talks with Hollywood studios about offering a system that would allow people to buy movies on iTunes and watch them on multiple Apple-made devices without the need to transfer or save files, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Movies were a big omission from Apple’s so-called iCloud service, which launched on Wednesday. In a free update to its iOS mobile operating system, the maker of iPads and iPhones is now allowing for music, books and apps bought through iTunes to be automatically synced on multiple Apple devices without the need for a physical connection. TV shows can be bought and downloaded wirelessly on separate devices but can’t be synced automatically.

The sticking point with movies was

that several studios had to resolve contract issues with premium pay TV channel HBO, according to one of the people. Both people discussed the talks on condition of anonymity because talks are ongoing and Apple has not finalized agreements with all of them.

The talks were earlier reported by the Los Angeles Times. HBO secures the exclusive rights to show movies to paying subscribers during a period called the “pay TV window,” which begins a couple years after movies hit theaters. The ability to buy digital movies typically disappears when they first start running on HBO, mainly to encourage people to become subscribers.

The exclusivity had barred online movie streaming during the window, making it difficult for Apple to stream a movie purchased on an iPhone or iPad

through its Apple TV set-top box to one’s television. New agreements are needed to lift that restriction, but the waiver would only apply to digital movies bought before HBO’s pay TV window starts.

“With every innovation that arrives, HBO has always found a compromise that has worked for both sides,” said HBO spokesman Jeff Cusson. Services such as iCloud save copies of your purchases online on distant computers, eliminating the need for personal data storage devices and the need to continually transfer files back and forth.

These services are seen as a way of spurring people to buy more movies digitally, a growing segment, but one that is still far smaller than purchases of DVDs, which are declining. One impediment to buying digital copies was that purchases only worked on certain

devices.

Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. supply movies to HBO and can’t offer movies through iCloud until they get clearance from HBO. Warner Bros. on Tuesday launched sales of its first movie “Horrible Bosses,” on another Internet-based system called UltraViolet. Every copy of a DVD or Bluray disc from the studio will now allow users to gain access to the movie online through movie database site Flixster, and other partners are expected to be launched soon.

The release of “Horrible Bosses” with online access rights suggested that the studio has resolved any rights issues with HBO, a sister company also owned

by Time Warner. —AP

New iPhone on sale, fans buy in tribute to Jobs Users report glitches with iOS 5 operating system

TOKYO: Apple Inc. fans wait in line in front of a shop in Tokyo to buy its new iPhone 4S on the launch day in Japan yesterday. — AP

Siri gives iPhone 4S sass SAN FRANCISCO: The robotic assistant built into Apple’s latest iPhone might win your heart, but she won’t marry you. Siri will let you down gently though, explaining in a synthetic female voice that such a union would violate the iPhone 4S end user licensing agreement.

A website devoted to offbeat exchanges with the “intelligent personal assistant” had thousands of followers and was overwhelmed with submissions on the eve of the Friday arrival of the iPhone 4S. Telling Siri “I want to hide a body” triggered suggestions including reservoirs, swamps, and trash dumps. Admitting to being drunk met with a list of local taxi companies, while feeling randy resulted in Siri displaying escort services.

Inquiries as to the meaning of life met with responses including “I don’t know but I think there is an app for that” and “Try being nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book now and then.” When asked for the answer to “life, the universe and everything” in the spirit of famed science fiction novel “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Siri’s synthetic female voice echoed the book’s solution — 42.

Proclaiming love for Siri evoked responses along the lines of “I hope you don’t say that to those other mobile phones” and “All you need is love; and your iPhone.” A Macworld editor asked an iPhone 4S to “open the pod bay doors” in a play on a scene in the classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey where a near-sentient supercomputer leaves an astronaut to die in space. “We intelligent agents will never live that one down, apparently,” Siri replied.— AFP

SYDNEY/TOKYO: Apple Inc’s new iPhone went on sale in stores across the globe yesterday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve Jobs’ lifetime, many buying the phone as a tribute to the former Apple boss.

Hundreds queued around city blocks in Sydney and Tokyo to get their hands on the iPhone 4S, ahead of store sales in Germany, France, Britain and North America. “I am a fan, a big fan. I want something to remember Steve Jobs by,” said Haruko Shiraishi, waiting patiently with her Yorkshire terrier Miu Miu at the end of an eight block queue in Tokyo’s smart Ginza shopping district.

The new model looks similar to the previous iPhone 4 but has an upgraded camera, faster processor and highly regarded voice-activated software, which allows users to ask questions. Australian Tom Mosca, the first to buy the phone in Sydney, said he would ask his new white iPhone: “Where’s Steve?” Many Apple fans believe the phone was called iPhone 4S to mean “for Steve”.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and his executive team hope the first device sold without their visionary leader at the helm will protect them against a growing challenge from the likes of Samsung Electronics. The South Korean firm, Apple’s arch-rival with smartphones powered by Google’s Android software, expects to overtake it as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor in terms of units sold in the third quarter.

The iPhone 4S-introduced just a day before Jobs died- was dubbed a disappointment because it fell short of being a revolution in design, but glowing reviews centred around its “Siri” voice-activated software have helped it set a record pace in initial, online sales orders.

In Tokyo, 24-year-old Ryosuke Ishinabe said: “I just wanted the newest iPhone. I want to try out iCloud.” Despite the enthusiasm at Apple stores, the launch was marred somewhat by widespread complaints this week on the Internet about problems downloading iOS 5 — the latest version of Apple’s mobile software.

There were also problems with iCloud, Apple’s online communications, media storage and backup service formally

TOKYO: A customer holds up her newly bought Apple iPhone 4S on the day of its release outside a Softbank shop in Tokyo yesterday. Hundreds of Apple fans queued in Tokyo to get their hands on the latest iPhone, as the US technology giant unleashes its first device since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. — AFP launched on Wednesday, with users reporting glitches such as losing their email access. Those concerns pale compared to the problems for rival Research in Motion, which has been grappling with an international outage of its Blackberry email and messaging services for several days. The vast majority of the iPhone 4S buyers at the Sydney store appeared to be existing Apple customers, many having bought the original iPhone and its subsequent upgrades. Only one out of 10 people surveyed by Reuters was a new Apple customer.

“I have been waiting for the iPhone 5 for a long time. But since Jobs died, I wanted to make sure I had a new iPhone with some advantages over the old,” said iPhone devotee Mark Du, concerned over future Apple gadgets without Jobs in charge. Apple fans in Sydney and Tokyo made sure Jobs was part of the iPhone 4S launch, with flower, candle and photo shrines to the late Apple boss erected outside the stores. Underscoring the enthusiasm for the new phone, Japanese mobile

carrier Softbank Corp had to temporarily stop contract applications after its computer system was overwhelmed with more requests than it had expected.

Apple said it did not release sales figures on launch day, so gauging initial sales is difficult. Apple said it had taken more than 1 million online orders in the first 24 hours after its release, exceeding the 600,000 for the iPhone 4, though that model was sold in fewer countries initially.

Some analysts expect fourth-quarter iPhone shipments to reach 30 million or more, almost twice as much as a year ago.

Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone uses chips from Qualcomm Inc , Toshiba and a host of smaller semiconductor companies, according to repair firm iFixit, which cracked the device open on Thursday.

Apple’s iOS 5 software became available this week and is intended to upgrade older phones and enable new features such as better Twitter integration. But glitches with the new iCloud service and mobile software sparked a chorus of user complaints. — Reuters

technology SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

PayPal announces online shopping service SAN FRANCISCO: PayPal, eBay’s online payment service, announced a new service that aims to make it easier to shop online by cutting down on the number of accounts consumers have to create with various Web retailers. The service, called PayPal Access, was unveiled at eBay’s X.commerce developer conference in San Francisco.

EBay spokesman Anuj Nayar said Tuesday that PayPal Access will let users log on to participating retailers’ sites and pay with their PayPal username and password, rather than create separate accounts as many online retailers currently require. Currently, shoppers on some sites have to set up a new account even if they’re paying with PayPal, the details for which they don’t enter until

near the end of the transaction. PayPal Access keeps a user’s financial details within PayPal. PayPal Access was rolled out with X.commerce, a new eBay Inc. business that also launched Wednesday, geared toward developers and merchants. It encourages developers to integrate eBay’s technology into commerce apps and websites. X.commerce merges the software developer communities for eBay.com, PayPal and eBay-owned ecommerce platform Magento. Together they include 850,000 developers.

Also Wednesday, X.commerce showed off a set of developer tools that is intended to simplify the process for adding eBay-owned technology - such as that behind Milo, a local shopping

engine eBay bought in 2010 - to websites and apps for smartphones and tablet computers. The conference also spotlighted the upcoming version of eBay’s smartphone app RedLaser, which lets people scan product barcodes and compare prices online and in local stores. RedLaser 3.0, which Nayar said will be out by the end of the year, will add PayPal for purchasing items directly from the app.

A demo of the app showed a man scanning the barcode on a Nintendo Wii box, finding it in stock at a nearby Toys R Us and buying it within the app so he could go pick it up at the store. Also on Wednesday Facebook and X.commerce announced a partnership to help retailers and developers make online shop-

ping more social. EBay is integrating Facebook’s “open graph” functionality with the commerce platforms run by Magento and, eventually, GSI Commerce. Both of these eBay-owned businesses manage companies’ presences online. Magento works with small- and medium-sized companies, while GSI works with larger ones.

This integration will let retailers that use Magento or GSI Commerce weave social shopping functions into their websites and apps. For example shoppers will eventually be able to click Facebook-linked buttons indicating they “want” or “own” a pair of shoes. The information will show up on their Facebook news feeds where friends can see it and respond. —AP

BlackBerrys buzz back to life after long outage ‘Needs more than an apology to win back users’

In this video game image released by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., a scene is shown from “Unchartered 3.” —AP

Table salt used to boost digital storage SINGAPORE: Scientists in Singapore said yesterday they have discovered a process that can expand the data storage capacity of computer hard disks six-fold using a common kitchen ingredient-table salt. The discovery was made by Singapore’s national research institute the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, in collaboration with the National University of Singapore and the Data Storage Institute.

The institutions have “developed a process that can increase the data recording density of hard disks to 3.3 Terabits per square inch, six times the recording density of current models”, they said in a statement. “This means that a hard disk drive that holds 1 Terabyte (TB) of data today could, in the future, hold 6 TB of information in the same size using this new technology.”

The discovery has been published in scientific journal Nanotechnology as well as the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B. Scientists were able to boost data storage capacity by packing more bits-miniature structures which hold information-in neater patterns compared to the random configurations used in current hard disk drives.

“It’s like packing your clothes in your suitcase when you travel.

The neater you pack them the more you can carry,” the statement said. The method-called bit patterning-had previously not been feasible as scientists were unable to see the outlines of the bits clearly after they had been printed onto a film in a process much like developing photographs.

But adding table salt into the solution used for bit imaging allowed the outlines to stand out in sharp relief. “It can give you a very high contrast. We are now able to see fine lines that would normally be blurred out,” Joel Yang, the Singapore scientist who discovered the salty recipe, told AFP. “Otherwise you can try your best to pattern these bits very closely but they will all end up being gigantic blurred-out blobs,” said Yang of the national research agency’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering. Yang predicted that the salted bit-patterning process will be adopted by the industry by 2016 “when the current techniques run out of fuel and (hard drive manufacturers) need to find alternate methods” of increasing data storage space. —AFP

NEW YORK: BlackBerrys across the world buzzed back to life, leaving customers outraged and threatening to cost the granddaddy of all smartphones more business when it’s already struggling to keep up in a crowded marketplace.

The three-day blackout interrupted email and Internet services for tens of millions of frustrated users and inflicted more damage on an already tarnished brand.

“I’ve been a pretty big BlackBerry advocate,” said Kate Jacobson, a student at Michigan State University. “But I’m done playing these games with you, BlackBerry.”

After using a BlackBerry for three years, she said the outage was the “last straw.” On Thursday, she got an iPhone.

Her unhappiness was shared by users across several continents. BlackBerrys in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa had been without email or chat messages since Monday. In the US and Canada, the outage was shorter, starting Wednesday. But many, perhaps most, of the world’s 70 million BlackBerry users were affected.

“When I woke up in the morning and had zero emails, I was like, ‘That’s impossible,’” Jacobson said. She had already endured problems with her BlackBerry Curve turning off at the wrong moments. It didn’t play videos well, either. Research In Motion Ltd., which makes the phones and handles email traffic to them, said the system was steadily processing a vast backlog of stalled messages.

The company’s two CEOs apologized profusely. It was a break from the past, when outages of BlackBerry service merited only terse statements from the company.

Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie said they had not made plans yet to compensate customers, but they were turning their attention to that question.

“Our priority right up until this moment (has been) making sure the system’s up and running,” Balsillie said. “We’re going to fully commit to win that trust back.” It will take more than an apology to win back some Blackberry users. But RIM’s latest fiasco is unlikely to result in a mass exodus of its corporate and government clients.

BlackBerrys, like other imperfect busi-

ness technologies, are deeply entrenched in commercial settings, and getting rid of them represents time and money that companies may be reluctant to give up. Indeed, RIM may experience a slower, more subtle migration from its smartphone. Two types of people have kept the BlackBerry from sinking further into the oblivion of onceiconic but forgotten gadgets: corporate IT managers and aspiring young people in developing countries like India. Countries outside North America account for 54 percent of RIM’s revenue.

For big companies, BlackBerrys are still the gold standard in security. But employ-

BlackBerrys, while a nearly equal number, 18 percent, were from a variety of brands that use Google Inc.’s Android software, according to research firm Gartner Inc. In the same three-month period this year, 12 percent of smartphones were BlackBerrys, while Android phones zoomed to 43 percent, outselling BlackBerrys more than three to one. BlackBerry phones have not kept pace with the iPhone and its imitators, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee.

A recently launched update of the flagship “Bold” model with the signature BlackBerry keyboard is selling well, he said,

HONG KONG: A man walks past a large BlackBerry advertisement in Hong Kong yesterday. BlackBerry services were restored worldwide after an embarrassing technical glitch left millions of angry users without email and messaging for almost four days, the smartphone’s maker said. —AFP ees keep chipping away at the power of IT managers by bringing in their own phones and tablets - iPhones, iPads or devices powered by Google’s Android software- and demanding to get their work email on them, said Ahmed Datoo, vice president of Zenprise Inc., which helps companies manage their cellphone fleets.

With each instance, the BlackBerry’s position in its core market is undermined. In the April-to-June period of 2010, 19 percent of the smartphones sold in the world were

but an all-touchscreen model isn’t. It just doesn’t match up to the iPhone and Android phones. “If someone really wanted a full touchscreen experience, why would they buy that? You have much better alternatives out there,” Wu said.

RIM launched a tablet computer, the PlayBook, this year. But like other iPad wannabes, it’s been a dud. In the developing world, the low-end BlackBerry Curve has been the first smartphone for many. —AP

TV listings

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

00:45 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 01:40 Mutant Planet 02:35 Whale Wars 03:30 Untamed & Uncut 04:25 Monster Bug Wars 05:20 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 06:10 World Wild Vet 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 08:15 Breed All About It 08:40 The Really Wild Show 09:10 Growing Up...

10:05 Natural Born Hunters 10:30 Jeff Corwin Unleashed 11:00 Crocodile Hunter 11:55 Dogs 101 12:50 Must Love Cats 13:45 Bad Dog 14:40 My Cat From Hell 15:35 Into The Pride 16:30 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 17:25 Swarm Chasers 18:20 Speed Of Life 20:10 Dogs 101 21:05 Shark Invasion 22:00 Into The Lion’s Den 22:55 Your Worst Animal Nightmares 23:50 Untamed & Uncut

00:00 Beautiful People 00:30 The Weakest Link 01:20 Afterlife 02:10 Robin Hood 03:00 Him And Her 03:30 Doctors 04:00 Keeping Up Appearances 04:30 Balamory 04:50 Gigglebiz 05:05 Me Too 05:25 Charlie And Lola 05:35 Buzz & Tell 05:45 Balamory 06:05 Gigglebiz 06:20 Me Too 06:40 Charlie And Lola 06:55 Buzz & Tell 07:05 Balamory 07:25 Gigglebiz 07:40 Me Too 08:00 Charlie And Lola 08:10 Buzz & Tell 08:20 Balamory 08:40 Gigglebiz 08:55 Me Too 09:15 Charlie And Lola 09:30 Buzz & Tell 09:45 Keeping Up Appearances 10:45 Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness 11:35 Robin Hood 12:20 Eastenders 14:20 After You’ve Gone 14:55 The Weakest Link 15:40 Ray Mears’ Northern Wilderness 16:30 Robin Hood 17:15 The Weakest Link 18:00 After You’ve Gone 18:30 Holby City 19:20 Holby City 20:10 Robin Hood 20:55 As Time Goes By 21:25 One Foot In The Grave 22:00 The Royle Family 22:30 Blackadder II 23:30 Him And Her

00:40 01:25 02:15 04:00 04:50 05:35 06:25 07:20 09:55 12:10 12:35 16:05 20:25 22:10 22:55 23:45

Gok’s Fashion Fix What Not To Wear Antiques Roadshow Masterchef Australia Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Fashion Fix What Not To Wear Antiques Roadshow Bargain Hunt Masterchef Australia Daily Cooks Challenge Antiques Roadshow What Not To Wear Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Fashion Fix Antiques Roadshow`

00:00 00:30 00:40 01:00

BBC World News Sport Today Weekend World BBC World News America

CoaCh Carter oSN aCtIoN hD 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:10 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:10 11:30 12:00 12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:10 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:10 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00

Our World BBC World News Horizons BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News BBC World News World Challenge 2011 BBC World News World Features Horizons BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News Click BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News World Features World Challenge 2011 BBC World News Tropic Of Cancer BBC World News The Health Show Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World Spirit Of Yachting BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News World Features Horizons BBC World News Final Score BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News

21:15 21:30 22:00 23:10 23:30

Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News The Health Show Dateline London

00:05 Robotboy - Elements 00:30 Squirrel Boy 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Cramp Twins 01:45 Chop Socky Chooks 02:10 Best Ed 02:35 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 03:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 03:25 Generator Rex 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Flapjack 04:40 Chowder 05:05 Powerpuff Girls 05:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 05:55 I Am Weasel 06:20 Squirrel Boy 06:45 Cow & Chicken 07:00 The Life & Times Of Juniper Lee 07:04 Cow & Chicken 07:25 Powerpuff Girls 07:50 Cartoon Network Dance Club 08:05 Angelo Rules 08:30 Chowder 08:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 09:20 Adventure Time 09:45 Gumball 09:55 Cow & Chicken 10:30 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 11:20 Generator Rex 11:45 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 12:10 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders

12:35 Hero 108 13:00 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 13:25 Robotboy - Elements 13:50 I Am Weasel 14:15 Best Ed 14:40 Chowder 15:05 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 15:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 15:55 Cow & Chicken 16:20 Adventure Time 16:45 Codename: Kids Next Door 17:10 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 17:35 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 18:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:25 Flapjack 18:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 19:15 Adventure Time 19:40 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 20:05 Chowder 20:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 20:55 Cow & Chicken 21:20 Best Ed 21:45 I Am Weasel 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 22:50 The Secret Saturdays 23:15 Samurai Jack 23:40 Megas XLR

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 03:45 04:00 05:00

Backstory World Sport The Situation Room World Report World Business Today CNN Marketplace Africa Piers Morgan Tonight Anderson Cooper 360

06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:15 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:15 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 12:45 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 20:45 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00 23:30

World Sport Inside Africa World Report Backstory World Report CNN Marketplace Africa The Gateway Future Cities World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East Open Court World Sport Cnngo Talk Asia African Voices Inside Africa The Gateway Future Cities World Report World Sport Piers Morgan Tonight World Report Cnngo World’s Untold Stories The Best Of Backstory International Desk African Voices Open Court World Sport Talk Asia Inside Africa International Desk The Gateway Future Cities World Report Cnngo Piers Morgan Tonight News Special African Voices

00:15 00:40 01:35 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:45 Junior 09:40 10:30 11:25 12:20 12:45 15:05 17:20 18:15 19:10 20:05 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:45

Swamp Brothers Extreme Fishing The Future Of...

Dirty Jobs Ultimate Survival Mythbusters How It’s Made How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Carfellas South Beach Classics Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear American Chopper: Senior vs Nextworld Science Of The Movies Mythbusters How It’s Made Auction Kings Border Security Mythbusters Extreme Fishing River Monsters Ultimate Survival Dual Survival Deadliest Catch One Man Army How Sharks Hunt

00:05 The Tech Show 00:30 Mega Builders 01:20 Stunt Junkies 01:45 Future Weapons 02:35 Brainiac 03:25 The Gadget Show 03:50 The Gadget Show 04:15 How Does That Work?

04:45 Mega Builders 05:40 One Step Beyond 06:10 The Future of...

07:00 Race to Mars 07:55 Head Rush 07:58 Sci-Fi Science 08:25 Weird Connections 08:55 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 09:45 When Aliens Attack 10:35 Engineered 14:45 Head Rush 14:48 Sci-Fi Science 15:15 Weird Connections 15:45 Bang Goes the Theory 16:10 The Gadget Show 16:35 The Gadget Show 17:00 Monster Moves 17:50 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 18:40 Da Vinci’s Machines 19:30 Prototype This 20:20 Race to Mars 21:10 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 22:00 Da Vinci’s Machines 22:50 Prototype This 23:40 Bang Goes the Theory

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Behind The Scenes 01:25 25 Celebrity Near Death Experiences 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 40 (More) Crimes Of Fashion 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 10:15 Bridalplasty 12:05 E! News 13:05 Giuliana & Bill 14:05 THS 15:00 E!es 15:30 Ice Loves Coco 15:55 Khloe And Lamar 16:55 Extreme Close-Up 17:25 Fashion Police 17:55 E! News 18:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 The Soup 21:25 THS 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 The Soup

00:30 The Haunted 01:15 A Haunting 02:05 Stalked: Someone’s Watching 02:30 I Was Murdered 02:50 Deadly Women: Face To Face 03:15 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

03:40 Dr G: Medical Examiner 04:25 A Haunting 05:15 The Haunted 06:10 Mystery Diagnosis 07:00 Forensic Detectives 07:45 Murder Shift 08:35 Mystery ER 09:20 Real Emergency Calls 09:45 Real Emergency Calls 10:05 Disappeared 10:50 FBI Files 11:40 Murder Shift 12:25 On The Case With Paula Zahn 13:15 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 14:00 Mystery ER 14:50 Real Emergency Calls 15:15 Real Emergency Calls 15:35 Disappeared 16:20 Forensic Detectives 17:10 Murder Shift 18:00 FBI Files 18:45 Real Emergency Calls 19:10 Mystery ER 19:55 Street Patrol 20:20 On The Case With Paula Zahn 21:10 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 22:00 The Haunted 22:50 Ghost Lab 23:40 A Haunting

00:00 Departures 01:00 Wild Rides 01:30 Wild Rides 02:00 Treks In A Wild World 02:30 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody UK 03:00 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody USA 03:30 Amazing Adventures Of A Nobody: Europe 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 A World Apart 06:00 Departures 07:00 Wild Rides 07:30 Wild Rides 08:00 Treks In A Wild World 08:30 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody UK 09:00 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody USA 09:30 Amazing Adventures Of A Nobody: Europe 10:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 11:00 A World Apart 12:00 Departures 13:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 13:30 Pressure Cook 14:00 A World Apart 15:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 16:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 17:00 Long Way Down

TV listings SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011 18:00 Perilous Journeys 19:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 19:30 Pressure Cook 20:00 A World Apart 21:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 22:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:00 Long Way Down

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 09:30 12:45 14:30 16:00 18:15 20:00 22:00

Diary Of The Dead-18 Child’s Play 2-PG15 Maximum Risk-18 G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra-PG15 Jesse Stone: No Remorse-PG15 Wyatt Earp-PG15 The Thirteenth Floor-18 Jesse Stone: No Remorse-PG15 Coach Carter-PG15 The Thirteenth Floor-18 Let Me In-R Secret Window-PG15

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:15 09:00 11:00 12:45 14:30 16:30 18:45 21:00 23:00

In Her Skin-PG15 Paper Man-PG15 Dinner For Schmucks-PG15 The Nutty Professor-FAM Paper Man-PG15 Good Hair-PG15 How To Train Your Dragon-PG Emotional Arithmetic-PG15 The Great Debaters-PG15 Tron: Legacy-PG15 She’s Out Of My League-18 Brotherhood-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Party Down 02:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 03:00 Mad Love 03:30 The Office 04:00 Two And A Half Men 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Malcolm In The Middle 06:00 Coach 06:30 Weird Science 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Two And A Half Men 08:30 Mad Love 09:00 Malcolm In The Middle 09:30 Modern Family 10:00 Outsourced 10:30 Coach 11:00 Weird Science 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Two And A Half Men 13:00 The Office 13:30 Malcolm In The Middle 14:00 Coach 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 Outsourced 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Weird Science 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Melissa And Joey 18:30 Mr. Sunshine 19:00 Outsourced 19:30 How I Met Your Mother 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 Party Down 23:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno

00:00 01:00 02:30 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00

The Good Guys The X Factor (US) Look-A-Like Glee Eureka Good Morning America The Good Guys Tower Prep The Ellen DeGeneres Show Friday Night Lights The View The X Factor (US) Look-A-Like Survivor: South Pacific Live Good Morning America Eureka The Ellen DeGeneres Show

18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami Big Love The Good Guys

21:00 Secret Window-PG15 23:00 The Evil Dead-R

No Ordinary Family Law & Order Friday Night Lights The X Factor (US) Glee Survivor: South Pacific According To Jim Two And A Half Men White Collar Friday Night Lights The X Factor (US) Glee White Collar Law & Order Two And A Half Men Coronation Street White Collar C.S.I. C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami Rescue Me Terriers

01:00 Ninja Assassin-18 03:00 Jason X-18 05:00 Diary Of The Dead-18 07:00 Superman/ Batman: Apocalypse-PG15 09:00 The Karate Kid II-PG 11:00 The Box-PG15 13:00 Speed-PG15 15:00 The Karate Kid II-PG 17:00 King Arthur-PG15 19:15 Paranormal Activity-PG15

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

One Hot Summer-PG15 The Allnighter-PG15 Tom And Huck-PG15 Stuart Little 2-FAM 13 Going On 30-PG15 The Ramen Girl-PG15 Garfield-PG Double Wedding-PG15 One Hot Summer-PG15 The Freshman-PG15 My Best Friend’s Girl-18 Mallrats-18

01:00 03:15 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:45 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

Quills-18 Winter’s Bone-18 Too Big To Fail-PG15 In God’s Hands-PG Shipwrecked-PG15 The China Syndrome-PG Make It Funky!-PG15 The Dust Factory-PG15 North-PG Me And Orson Welles-PG Mary, Queen Of Scots-PG15 Wolf-18

01:00 Crazy-18 03:00 Catch That Kid-PG 04:45 Everybody Wants To Be ItalianPG15 06:45 Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief-PG15 09:00 Tangled-FAM 11:00 Napoleon Dynamite-PG 13:00 At Risk-PG15 15:00 Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s

Assistant-PG15 17:00 Tangled-FAM 19:00 Calvin Marshall-PG15 21:00 Lottery Ticket-PG15 23:00 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps-PG15

00:00 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.PG 02:00 The Big Green-PG 04:00 The Prince Of Dinosaurs-PG 06:00 In Search Of The Titanic-PG15 08:15 Young Fisherman-PG 10:00 Bambi-FAM 11:45 Furry Vengeance-PG 14:00 The Amazing Zorro-FAM 16:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 18:00 Bambi-FAM 19:45 Dr. Dolittle-PG 22:00 Young Fisherman-PG 23:45 The Amazing Zorro-FAM

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 11:45 14:00 16:00 17:45 20:00 21:45

The Spirit-PG15 Charlie St. Cloud-PG15 Maneater: Part I-PG15 Marmaduke-PG Maneater: Part II-PG15 Gasland-PG15 District 9-PG15 Saved!-PG15 Maneater: Part II-PG15 The Time Traveller’s Wife-PG15 Lottery Ticket-PG15 Iron Man 2-PG15

00:00 01:00 02:00 02:30

WWE Tough Enough RWC Weekly Highlights Le Mans Series Highlights European PGA Tour

The GreaT DebaTers ON OsN CINeMa

07:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

WWE Smackdown RWC Weely Highlights Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday WWE SmackDown Live Currie Cup RWC H/L Weekly RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Rugby Union Currie Cup

00:00 02:00 03:00 03:30 07:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 16:30 18:30 19:00 20:00 22:00 23:00

Currie Cup RWC Highlights Futbol Mundial Premier League Snooker Currie Cup ICC Cricket World Total Rugby Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup 2011 Live RWC Matchday Futbol Mundial Live Scottish Premier League Anglo Welsh Cup Total Rugby RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup 2011 RWC Matchday Currie Cup

02:30 03:00 05:00 07:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 16:00 20:00 20:30 22:30

ICC Cricket World LV Anglo-Welsh Cup European Challenge Cup European PGA Tour ICC Cricket World Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial NRL Full Time Rugby Union Currie Cup Live European PGA Tour RWC Matchday Highlights Scottish Premier League European PGA Tour

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 15:30 16:00 18:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

WWE Tough Enough WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Tough Enough WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection Super Formula Total Rugby Live Currie Cup Live Currie Cup WWE Tough Enough WWE Bottom Line WWE SmackDown

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

Investigating History Ice Road Truckers Mummy Forensics Ancients Behaving Badly Clash of the Gods Battles B.C. Investigating History Ice Road Truckers Mummy Forensics Ancients Behaving Badly Clash of the Gods Battles B.C. Investigating History Ice Road Truckers Mummy Forensics Ancients Behaving Badly Clash of the Gods Battles B.C. Investigating History Modern Marvels Modern Marvels Decoding the Past The Real Wolfman

00:00 00:25 01:15 02:00 02:50 03:35 04:25

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Emperor’s New School Stitch Replacements

05:15 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:30 Fairies 08:00 08:25 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:00 14:25 14:50 15:15 15:35 15:55 16:20 16:45 17:10 17:30 18:00 18:20 18:45 19:10 20:35 20:55 21:25 21:50 22:15 22:40 23:05 Cody 23:30 23:55

Fairly Odd Parents Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Adventures Of Disney

00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:35 05:00 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:15 06:30 06:55 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:55 09:20 09:45 10:10 10:35 11:00 11:30 11:55 12:20 12:45 13:05 13:30 13:50 14:15 14:40 15:05 15:30 15:55 16:20 16:45 17:10 17:35 17:55 18:20 18:30 20:00 20:30 20:50 21:05 21:40 22:05 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:35

Droopy: Master Detective The Flintstones Johnny Bravo Duck Dodgers King Arthur’s Disasters The Scooby Doo Show Popeye Classics Tom & Jerry Popeye The Jetsons The Flintstones Looney Tunes Pink Panther & Pals Tex Avery Yogi’s Treasure Hunt The Garfield Show New Yogi Bear Show Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Paddington Bear Gerald Mcboing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm Puppy In My Pocket Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Yogi’s Treasure Hunt The Garfield Show Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Top Cat Popeye New Yogi Bear Show Tex Avery The Addams Family Droopy & Dripple The Flintstones The Garfield Show Duck Dodgers Wacky Races Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo Dastardly And Muttley The Jetsons Wacky Races Scooby Doo Where Are You! Popeye Classics Yogi’s Ark Lark Top Cat Dastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Wacky Races The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Johnny Bravo Dexters Laboratory The Garfield Show Scooby Doo Where Are You!

Suite Life On Deck My Babysitter’s A Vampire Shake It Up Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Twitches Too So Random Shake It Up A Kind Of Magic Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Stitch Shake It Up Fish Hooks Good Luck Charlie So Random Shake It Up My Babysitter’s A Vampire Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Halloweentown So Random Wizards Of Waverly Place My Babysitter’s A Vampire Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance The Suite Life Of Zack And Hannah Montana Kim Possible

what’s on

Birthday Greetings

SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

Egyptians in Kuwait launch charity project

A

group of Egyptian youth residing and working in Kuwait recently launched a charity organization in Kuwait with the aim of collecting donations from members of the Egyptian community in the form of clothes, electronics

and toys be them new or second hand to be sent to Egypt and distributed to the poor in various poor Egyptian villages.

The organization had already packed up the first shipment to be sent soon under the title ‘Eidiya and

School Bag Campaign’ which will include a ton and half of clothes for the Eid, school bags, gifts and toys.

The organization could be reached on Facebook and at numbers: 99009355, 96648889, 97574370

Many, many happy returns of the day Abigail!

We pray to God to shower His blessings on you and wish you all the happiness in the world. Loads of love and best wishes from Dada, Augusto, Aurora, Godfather Alfredo, Godmother Sebastiana and Elle.

Konkani drama

K

uwait Goan Association (KGA) after presenting popular Konkani tiatrs ‘Ghor Bandlem ghorabo Modlo’ and ‘Tujea Moga Passot’, now all set to present Tragedy King Mario Menezes most popular Konkani drama “Hatachim Panch Bottam” in Kuwait on Friday, 18th November 2011 with full troupe. Await for more details or email: kgakuwait@gmail.com

Announcements Art competition The eleventh Onam celebrations of Pathanamthitta District Association will be held on Friday, October 28, in which Anto Antony, MP of Pathanamthitta Loksabha constituency will be the Chief Guest and the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, Satish C. Mehta will offer felicitations.

The association is holding an art competition in poetry and short story writings and the association is inviting poems and short stories from talented individuals among Malayalees in Kuwait. Persons interested in participating may send their writings with photograph to the following address before October 20. Email: pta@ptadistrict.org, pdakuwait@gmail.com for more information, contact 97863052 or 66501482.

Indian Lawyers’ Forum Onam Indian Lawyers’ Forum will celebrate Onam, the unique, secular, harvest festival of Kerala on 18th November, 2011 Friday 10.30 am at Hi-Dine Restaurant Auditorium, Abbassia. Celebrations will include traditional variety entertainments, with the grand ‘ONASADHYA’.

All Indian Lawyers & Law graduates working here in Kuwait are invited with their families.

For details contact Panicker 97203939, Pulikkal 97260159. Email: advpanicker@gmail.com Kala painting competition Kala (Art) Kuwait will conduct Children’s Day by marking the birth day of the first prime minister of India,

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, under the auspices of Kala (Art) Kuwait on Friday, 4th November 2011 at the Indian Community School, Khaitan Branch, at 2 pm.

The program is titled as “Niram 2011 - B Natural “ consists of painting competition for the Indian school students and a “Marathon Open Canvas Painting” for the other attendees including parents, visitors and Guests. The Painting Competition will be conducted in four different age groups. Group ‘A” from LKG to 1st Standard, Group ‘B” from 2nd to 4th Standard, Group ‘C” from 5th to 8th Standard and Group ‘D” from 9th to 12th Standard.

The media for Group ‘A” and ‘B” will be Crayons while Group”C” and ‘D” are Water Colors. Crayons and water colors shall be brought by the participants.

Stamped Drawing papers will be supplied by the Organizers. Clay Modeling Competition also will be conducted for 7th to 11th Standard Students. Clay will be provided by the Organizers. The Marathon Open Canvas Painting is conducting in a view to display everyone’s views and talents through their vivid creations.

Students can register their names through websites www.kalakuwait.net or www.indiansinkuwait.com. For details contact kalakuwait@gmail.com or 24891490, 99489078, 97449419.

BEC T10 Cricket tournament The BEC T10 Tennis Ball Cricket Tournament will be organized & played from 7th October to 11th November, 2011. The Tournament being organized

by RED N BLACK CRICKET CLUB and sponsored by BEC EXCHANGE will be played out in Abu Halifa cricket grounds. For registration and other queries please mail at mail@rednblack.org or call 66820148/ 66130940/ 66841653.

Tulukoota talent hunt Tulukoota Kuwait will hold a “Talent Hunt 2011” a chance to prove an inborn trait in you that confirms your individuality, uniqueness. So step forward to grab this opportunity to show your caliber and entertain. Dance, music, art or any special talent- now is your chance to showcase it - and be part of this year’s Talent Hunt & Tulu Parba. Talent Hunt event is open to all Tuluvas. For more information and registration form kindly log on to our Website: www.tulukootakuwait.org or visit our facebook page - Tulukoota Kuwait Talent Hunt 2011. You could also email your form request to: secretary@tulukootakuwait.org or contact our area coordinators mentioned below. Mangaf, Fahaheel, Abuhalifa : Ronald Dsouza- 60035824, Shalini Alva23726164, Suma Bhatt- 97834578 Salmiya & Hawally: Swarna Shetty99006934, Kripa Gatty- 66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq: Rekha Sachu65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana- 66585077 Sanath Shetty- 67712409.

Brain Bang Calling all students aged 11 and above, Support Group for Accelerated learning

under the umbrella of FOCC (Friends of CRY Club, Kuwait), BRAIN-BANG invites you to join us in our fortnightly Friday Class from 11.45 am to 13.45 pm in Salmiya starting October 7th for the next 6 months. Successfully running for the seventh consecutive year.

Areas of development are : ● Memory tools to Understand and Learn Better ● Tools and Techniques to empower your mind ● Activity, fun, games and worksheet based assignments ● Practical Experiments ● Mind Gymnastics ● Application of Learning Techniques to conventional study. Register before October 5th 2011. Limited seats.

Register early to avoid disappointment.

Website: www.focckwt.org E-Mail: brainbang@focckwt.org Phone no: 25660835/25618471/97677820 KGA Alemao Memorial Football Tournament The 3rd edition of Eslinda Alemao Memorial Football 7-a-side tournament will be held on first day of Eid Al Adha Festival (6th November 2011) to be held at the MOH Grounds, Al-Sabah Hospital Premises, Shuwaikh under the auspices of Kuwait Indian Football Federation (KIFF). All KIFF affiliated teams are requested to contact the organizers, Kuwait Goan Association (KGA). For more info, Email: kgakuwait@gmail.com Tel: (+965) 94963677.

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what’s on SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

Bangladesh FM welcomed in Kuwait

Information

T

he foreign minister of the peopleís republic of Bangladesh Dr Depu Moni came on a state visit to attend the international conference on ASIAN Cooperation Dialogue organized in Kuwait. Bangladesh Awami League Kuwait branch met with the minister on October 9 at the Bangladesh Embassy premise. M Jaforuzzaman Lal the acting president of KAL led the team comprising of acting general secretary Asrak Ali Ferdous, advisor Rabiul Alam Rabi, vice president Fayez Kamal, Shafiqut Alam Sshfi, Abdul Hay Mamun, Shekandar Ali, organizing secretary Rukonuzzamn Khan Piddu and Nazrul Islam, secretary of international affairs Shirajul Islam, deputy office bearer Ali Abdul Waheed, secretary of female affairs Shima Islam, president of Awami Shechashebok league Abul Kalam Azad, general secretary of Jatio Sromi league Kamal Hussain and convener of Bangabandhu Shainik League Imamuddin Badol. The member of the board of directors Jahangir Hussain Patwary and Nazrul Islam also accompanied as representing the delegates of Kuwait - Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries. The Ambassador of Bangladesh Sayed Shahed Reza and councilor Nurul Islam spent their valuable time during the meeting. Depu Moni was received with flowers by little MIM. Asrak Ali Ferdous the acting general secretary of KAL introduced everyone to the minister. M Jaforuzzaman Lal the acting president of KAL welcomed her visit and thanked her for precious time given to KAL in that particular complementary meeting. She said in her speech to obey the rules and regulations of Kuwait. She also praised the activities and services provided to the community

EMBASSY OF ARGENTINA In order to inform that 23rd of October 2011, will be Argentine national election where all Argentinean citizen residents permanently in Kuwait can vote only if they are registered at the Electoral Register of the Argentine Embassy. The procedure of inscription ended on 25 of April 2011. To register it is necessary that Argentinean citizens should come personally at the Argentinean Embassy (Block 6, street 42, villa 57, Mishref) and present the DNI and four personal photos (size 4x4, face should be front on white background). For further information, contact us on 25379211.

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EMBASSY OF BRITAIN The Visa Application Centre (VAC) will be closed on the same dates above. The opening hours of the Visa Application Centre are 0930 - 1630 Application forms remain available online from the UKBAs’ website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk or from the Visa Application Centre’s website: www.vfs-ukkw.com. And also, from the UK Visa Application Centre located at: 4B, First Floor, Al Banwan Building (Burgan Bank Branch Office Building), Al Qibla area, opposite Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City. For any further inquiries, please contact the Visa Application Centre: Website: www.vfs-uk-kw.com E-mail:info@vfs-uk-kw.com Telephone:22971170. The Consular Section will also be closed on the same dates. For information on the British Embassy services, visit the British Embassy website: www.ukinkuwait.fco.gov.uk by the Ambassador Sayed Shahed Reza and his associates. In her speech she urged to put the best affords and abilities within the laws of Kuwait to intro-

duce themselves as the best nationals in Kuwait in terms of reaching the target of national interest.

K’s PATH to hold shelter open day

K

Embassy

’S PATH (Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat) will hold its first Shelter Open Day of the season today at the K’S PATH shelter in Wafra from 10 am to 2 pm. The event, which is open to all, celebrates the first anniversary of K’S PATH’s shelter rebuild and World Animal Day. K’S PATH has planned many engaging activities for families and children including a shelter tour, fun art and craft projects, and a special educational presentation on the indigenous species in Kuwait.

“Our first Shelter Open Day of the season is a way to thank our supporters and patrons in the community for standing by us at all times, by showcasing our wide range of work in animal protection and habitat conservation”, says K’S PATH Chairman Ayeshah Al Humaidhi. “It’s also a great opportunity to familiarise children with the basics of animal freedoms, animal care and protecting our environment. We have special activities lined up on occasion of World Animal Day and our first shelter rebuild anniversary. We invite all to visit our shelter to see the amazing work that our dedicated volunteers and staff do and learn how those interested can support the K’S PATH community.”

Families and individuals are welcome to visit the shelter in Wafra on Open Day anytime between 10 am and 2 pm, and entry is free. A shelter tour held every 30 minutes will acquaint visitors with the different species protected by K’S PATH and its habitat conservation activities. Visitors are requested to please leave their pets at home. The Shelter Open Day is a great opportunity to spend quality family time while socialising K’S PATH’s friendly dogs, grooming cats, feeding donkeys and getting to know K’S PATH’s community. Please visit www.kspath.org/map for directions to the shelter.

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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca. The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait. Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca.

Effective January 15, 2011, the only Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application form that will be accepted by CIC is the Application for Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside of Canada [IMM 5257] form.

All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed.

To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website. As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically.

The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday.

Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday.

The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5257E .PDF. A guide explaining the process can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/5256E.PDF.

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HEALTH SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

WHO: Number of people with TB falls for 1st time LONDON: The World Health Organization says the number of people with tuberculosis has fallen for the first time. In a report, WHO estimated 8.8 million people fell ill last year, dropping from a peak of about 9 million in 2005. Officials said fewer people are now dying from the disease, but that a third of cases worldwide are probably not reported. The small decline in reported cases is partly due to increased availability of medical treatment for TB, WHO said. The UN health agency also said estimates are now more accurate because countries have better surveillance of tuberculosis patients.

The TB death rate is expected to be reduced by half by 2015 everywhere except Africa, where the AIDS epidemic has also fueled a spike in tuberculosis. India and China account for about 40 percent of the world’s tuberculosis cases. In recent years, health experts have also warned of the increasing threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis, a signal that many people with TB aren’t being treated properly.

Last month, officials warned that drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading fast in Europe and that there are few drugs left to treat it. WHO estimated countries need another $1 billion to fund tuberculosis programs in 2012.

In the report, officials said they didn’t have enough data to know whether the global outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis is increasing, decreasing or stable.

Last year, a new rapid test for drug-resistant TB was unveiled in more than two dozen countries, allowing patients to be treated sooner and stopping the disease’s spread. “But the promise of testing more people must be matched with the commitment to treat all detected,” Mario Raviglione, the director of WHO’s TB department, said in a statement. “It would be a scandal to leave diagnosed patients without treatment.”— AP

Study: Flaxseed may not cool hot flashes NEW YORK: Eating flaxseed may not ease menopausal hot flashes after all, despite some promising early evidence that it might, according to a US study. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota found that 188 women who were randomly assigned to eat a daily flaxseed bar saw no more improvement in their hot flashes than women given flax-free “placebo” bars.

Over six weeks, more than one-third of the women in each group had a 50 percent reduction in the frequency and severity of their hot flashes. The similar results in both groups suggest a placebo effect or some other explanation for the changes some women reported, said researchers led by Debra Barton, whose findings were reported in the journal Menopause. “What women should take from this study is that there is little compelling information to try flaxseed if the objective is to reduce hot flashes,” Barton told Reuters Health in an email.

In an earlier pilot study, Barton and her colleagues had found that women who consumed flaxseed did see their hot flashes wane, on average. But that study had no comparison group of women taking a placebo, she noted. Flaxseed is high in compounds called lignans, a type of phytoestrogen. These are plant chemicals structurally similar to estrogen that may have a weak estrogen-like, and an anti-estrogen, effect on the body. The most effective treatment for hot flashes is hormone replacement therapy, but since hormones have been linked to increased risks of heart disease, blood clots and breast cancer, many women want alternate remedies.

Some anti-depressants have been found to cool hot flashes by as much as 80 percent. But Burton noted that “natural” products, such as black cohosh, soy and now flaxseed, have failed to stand up to clinical trials. The latest study included women with bothersome hot flashes, such as those occurring at least an average of four times a day. Half of them had a history of breast cancer, which would generally make it inadvisable to treat the symptoms with hormones. Barton’s team randomly assigned the women to eat either a flaxseed bar or a placebo bar each day for six weeks. The flaxseed bar contained fiber, protein and 410 milligrams of lignans. The placebo bar provided fiber and protein. — Reuters

NAGPUR: : In this picture taken on Thursday a 3-year-old female tiger splashes in water during a rescue operation after the feline fell into a 20 ft (6 m) well in Nagpur. The rescue operation lasted just over 28 hours to save the tigress that was trapped in the well for four days. —AFP

After knee repair, half can’t play sports the same NEW YORK: After knee reconstruction surgery, half of people who played sports both competitively and just for fun don’t perform as well as they used to, according to an Australian study. Of more than 300 men and women who had the surgery, a third stopped playing sports entirely and 68 who were still active said they didn’t play as well as before, researchers reported in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

The anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, is the ligament inside the knee that helps keep the joint stable. About 150,000 ACL injuries occur each year in the United States.

“Less than 50 percent of the study sample had returned to playing sport at their preinjury level or returned to participating in competitive sport when surveyed at 2 to 7 years after ACL reconstruction surgery,” wrote Clare Ardern at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, who led the study. Ardern and her colleagues followed more than 300 men and women for two to seven years.

Participants had either played

Australian-rules football, basketball, netball or soccer before their surgeries. At 39 months post-surgery, 208 out of the 314 people who had the operation were still playing a sport, the researchers said.

Of those 208, 68 said they played at a lower level than before their injury and 140 said they played about the same as before their injury. The remaining 106 participants either were not playing sports or did not complete the entire study. “Although almost all people returned to playing some form of sport, they did not play continuously for many years after their surgery,” Ardern told Reuters Health in an email.

She also noted there may be other reasons why people stopped playing sports, such as fear of getting injured again or less confidence in performing.

Of the 196 people who played competitive sports before their injury, 91 returned to their competitive sport.

“This is a big injury,” said Edward McDevitt, a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, who was not part of the study.

“Many athletes who choose surgery have a long and difficult road to face. If you’re not willing to go through it, then you might be better off just getting a brace.” He added that while knee surgery does allow people to return to their sport, they couldn’t perform as well as doctors might wish. People who tear the ACL can either opt for physical therapy and surgery or just physical therapy alone. “Some people find that they are able to function well without surgery, provided they have adequate leg strength to support the injured knee,” Ardern said.

“Other alternatives may be to avoid sports involving direction changes, jumping and landing or activities that make the knee feel unstable, or use knee braces and supports.” McDevitt speculates that after surgery, some athletes may not have the same range of motion, preventing them from playing as before.

“I tell my patients, ‘I can’t make you like before, I’m not God. But I’ll do the best I can to restore you back to the way you were,’” he added. — Reuters

Surgery halts seizures in many epileptics: Study LONDON: Almost half of epilepsy patients who have surgery find that it stops their seizures completely for at least 10 years, scientists said yesterday, suggesting an effective alternative to costly and difficult drug treatment. In the first long-term study of post-surgery epilepsy patients, British researchers found that 82 percent of them were seizurefree after one year, 52 percent had no seizures after five years, and 47 had still had none after 10 years.

“If the seizures aren’t controlled with medication, that’s where surgery should be considered,” said John Duncan of the National Hospital for Neurosurgery at University College London, who led the study. “In those people, surgery has a good chance of stopping the seizures.” Epilepsy is a brain disorder that affects around 50 million people worldwide, including many millions of young children and

teenagers. It can cause recurring seizures, in which brain cells send out faulty signals, causing sometimes violent muscle spasms and loss of consciousness.

It can be focal epilepsy, where a specific part of the brain is affected, or generalized epilepsy, where the regions of the brain involved are much more spread out. There is no cure for epilepsy, but medications can help prevent seizures in some patients. Common drugs include divalproex sodium, the generic version of Abbott Laboratories anti-seizure drug Depakote, and Trileptal sold by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG . According to the World Health Organisation, recent studies in both developed and developing countries have shown that up to 70 percent of newly diagnosed children and adults with epilepsy can be successfully treated with anti-epileptic drugs. —Reuters

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health & science SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Gore links climate to US Great Lakes problems DETROIT: Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday linked climate change to a rash of environmental catastrophes, from floods in Pakistan to drought in Texas and rampant algae blooms sucking oxygen from Lake Erie.

The fallout from a warming planet is being felt around the world, Gore said in a speech during the annual meeting of the International Joint Commission, which advis-

es the US and Canadian governments on issues affecting shared waterways. Things will get worse unless people reject a campaign of denial orchestrated by the fossil fuel industry and make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

“We’re still acting as if it’s perfectly OK to use this thin-shelled atmosphere as an open sewer. It’s not OK,” Gore said. “We need to

listen to the scientists. We need to use the tried and true method of using the best evidence, debating and discussing it, but not pretending that facts are not facts.” Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign to awaken people to the climate change threat, said warmer temperatures could nullify much of the progress made in recent decades to heal the battered

Great Lakes.

Increasingly, severe storms made worse by greater volumes of water vapor in the atmosphere are causing wastewater treatment system overflows that dump raw sewage into the lakes, he said. That forces beach closures and promotes growth of algae blooms that create oxygen-deprived zones where fish can’t survive. —AFP

CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

ACCOMMODATION

hereby change my name to Tasneem Abbasi with the new Passport No. E8590562.

(C 3691)

Fully furnished sharing accommodation available for Indian couple or bachelors with an Indian family, central A/C flat having Internet and satellite. Rent KD 80, Hawally near Sultan Center. Contact: 97919485. (C 3693) 15-10-2011

I, Nallam Narasimhulu Indian Hindu holder of Indian Passport No. J 3971485 converted in to Islam religion and changed my name as Shaik Abdullah Al Haji from 16.01.1993.

(C 3692)

Sharing accommodation available for Indian / Sri Lankan couple or ladies in Salmiya near Indian Public School. Contact: 99467432.

(C 3690) 13-10-2011

I, Abdul Manaf Badarudeen, holder of Indian Passport No: E1020382, now residence in Kuwait would like to change my name to Manu Manaf Badarudeen. (C 3688) 15-10-2011

SITUATION VACANT Wanted driver for small Kuwaiti family, 3-5 years experience in Kuwait, speak, read write English, 20-30 years old. Contact: 99997550.

(C 3685) Driver vacancy is available, valid Kuwaiti driver’s license and transferable residency required. Contact: 99018760 / 99390585.

(C 3686) A Kuwaiti family is looking to hire an Indian cook familiar with the traditional Kuwaiti cuisine. Transferable residency required. Contact: 99018760 / 99390585.

(C 3687) Need British / American host family to host 16 year old boy from respectable Kuwaiti family for conversational English daily 2 hours.

Ref on request. Contact: 97524681 (C 3689)

FOR SALE Galant-2008 model for sale, well maintained, semi super deluxe model, color: silver grey, engine: 2400 cc, automatic gear, accident free, sun roof, ABS, airbag, cruise control, 6 disc CD player, passing till June 2012. Asking price: KD 3,100/- only serious buyer contact: 65561277. (C 3680) 11-10-2011 Motor cycle Honda Africa VTwin 750cc, 99 model, 20,000km only, American owned, with all spares, KD 850/-. Call: 99434036 / 66274034.

Email: jeevesej@yahoo.com (C 3675) 10-10-2011

CHANGE OF NAME I, Yasmine Abbasi, holder of Indian Passport No. Q693373

I, SHABBEER holder of Indian Passport No. G5123333 son of AHMED BASHA do hereafter known my name as SHABBEER AHMED. (C 3678) 10-10-2011

MATRIMONIAL Looking for bride, good educated, preferably R/C or Christian, age (37-41), groom age 46, single R/C Tamil speaking, working here in oil refinery in Kuwait as a technical professional. Send details through email: diamondforever1963@gmail.com

(C 3696) Inviting marriage proposal for Hindu Ezhava boy, 30 years old, star Ravathy from Kottayam district, Kerala, working as an operator for Ministry of Electricity and Water Kuwait (MEW, direct) seeking alliance from parents of girls working in Kuwait/abroad. Email: varsh_m2003@yahoo.co.in (C 3695) 15-10-2011

SITUATION WANTED Mechanical Engineering graduate, with immaculate English language skills, looking for a job in Kuwait, Transferable residency.

Contact: 67078742.

(C 3663) 12-10-2011

LOST Passport No: E 3974347, name: Gollamandala RadhaSurendra Raja Kumari, has been lost, any finder may contact: 65668829. (C 3694) 15-10-2011

information SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers to use seats Airlines THY ETH PIA UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR JZR THY JZR JZR KAC BAW KAC FCX KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR QTR ABY ETD GFA MHK JZR MSR IRC JZR IRM VOS KAC MSR KNE UAL RJA MSR FDB KAC JZR VOS QTR KAC SVA KAC KNE VOS JZR CLX QTR JZR AFR KAC VDA IRC ETD UAE KAC SYR GFA KAC SVA JZR JZR

Arrival Flights on Saturday 15/10/2011 Flt Route 772 ISTANBUL 622 ADDIS ABABA 239 SIALKOT 853 DUBAI 370 BAHRAIN 305 ABU DHABI 614 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 211 BAHRAIN 138 DOHA 529 ASSIUT 770 ISTANBUL 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA/BANGKOK 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR 201 BAHRAIN 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 344 CHENNAI 362 COLOMBO 855 DUBAI 6130 DOHA 132 DOHA 125 SHARJAH 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 711 BAGHDAD/NAJAF 165 DUBAI 623 SOHAG 6807 SHIRAZ 201 DAMASCUS 5066 MASHAD 83 BAGHDAD 672 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 703 MEDINAH 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 640 AMMAN 621 ASSIUT 57 DUBAI 786 JEDDAH 357 MASHAD 93 DUBAI/KANDAHAR 140 DOHA 562 AMMAN 500 JEDDAH 552 DAMASCUS 745 JEDDAH 77 NAJAF 257 BEIRUT 792 LUXEMBOURG 134 DOHA 535 CAIRO 6706 PARIS 118 NEW YORK 4940 STANSTED 6791 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 154 ISTANBUL 341 DAMASCUS 215 BAHRAIN 178 GENEVA/FRANKFURT 510 RIYADH 777 JEDDAH 239 AMMAN

Time 1:15 1:45 2:05 2:25 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:35 4:10 5:15 6:10 6:15 6:30 6:35 7:00 7:15 7:20 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:35 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 11:00 11:10 12:10 12:35 12:45 12:50 13:15 13:15 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:10 14:15 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:00 15:10 15:15 15:15 15:50 16:15 16:15 16:30 16:40 16:50 16:55 16:55 17:00 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35

ABY KAC RBG FDB ALK JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC IRA KAC KAC SIA JAI AIC KAC FDB OMA JZR MEA KNE KAC MSR DHX KLM UAE GFA QTR UAL KAC JZR MSR JZR JZR MSR DLH AXB JZR

127 550 3561 63 227 177 104 502 542 618 607 674 774 458 572 975 790 61 647 179 402 789 788 618 372 445 859 217 136 981 614 135 606 513 185 612 636 393 539

SHARJAH SOHAG/SHARM EL SHEIKH ALEXANDRIA DUBAI COLOMBO/DUBAI DUBAI LONDON BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA MASHAD DUBAI RIYADH SINGAPORE/ABU DHABI MUMBAI CHENNAI/GOA MEDINAH DUBAI MUSCAT DUBAI BEIRUT JEDDAH JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN LUXOR SHARM EL SHEIKH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE/COCHIN CAIRO

Airlines DLH AIC KLM THY ETH PIA UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR THY JZR GFA JZR KAC JZR BAW FDB JZR KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC UAE ABY QTR KAC KAC QTR

Departure Flights on Saturday 15/10/2011 Flt Route 637 340 976 GOA/CHENNAI 447 AMSTERDAM 773 ISTANBUL 622 BAHRAIN/ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT/ISLAMABAD 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 785 JEDDAH 356 MASHAD 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 153 ISTANBUL 671 DUBAI 551 DAMASCUS 256 BEIRUT 561 AMMAN 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 6131 DOHA 549 SOHAG/SHARM EL SHEIKH 101 LONDON/NEW YORK 133 DOHA

17:40 17:50 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:00 18:35 18:45 18:50 18:55 19:05 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:55 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:25 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:15 23:30

Time 00:40 00:50 00:55 2:15 2:30 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 5:00 5:10 6:55 7:10 7:15 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:40 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:15 9:40 9:50 9:50 9:55 9:55 10:00

VOS ETD GFA KAC KAC JZR VOS JZR MHK KAC MSR IRC JZR VOS KNE IRM MSR RJA FDB MSR UAL KAC KAC KAC KNE KAC JZR SVA JZR KAC QTR JZR CLX VOS ETD IRC QTR AFR SYR UAE GFA ABY JZR RBG JZR SVA FDB KAC JZR ALK KAC IRA JAI FDB KAC JZR KAC OMA KNE MEA SIA MSR KAC DHX KLM KAC UAE GFA FCX KAC QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR MSR UAL KAC MSR

84 302 214 165 541 776 78 238 712 501 624 6808 176 83 702 5065 611 641 58 622 982 787 673 789 746 617 178 505 512 773 141 538 792 82 304 6792 135 6706 342 858 216 128 184 3563 266 511 64 613 134 228 283 604 571 62 331 528 351 648 790 403 457 619 543 373 445 677 860 218 102 381 137 301 205 502 554 607 981 411 613

BAGHDAD ABU DHABI BAHRAIN ROME/PARIS CAIRO JEDDAH NAJAF AMMAN NAJAF/BAGHDAD BEIRUT SOHAG SHIRAZ DUBAI DJIBOUTI/DOMODEDOVO AIRPORT RIYADH MASHAD CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI ASSIUT BAHRAIN JEDDAH DUBAI MEDINAH JEDDAH DOHA DUBAI JEDDAH SHARM EL SHEIKH RIYADH DOHA CAIRO HONG KONG BAGHDAD ABU DHABI MASHAD DOHA DUBAI/HONG KONG DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH DUBAI ASSIUT BEIRUT RIYADH DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI/COLOMBO DHAKA ISFAHAN MUMBAI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM ASSIUT COCHIN MUSCAT JEDDAH BEIRUT ABU DHABI/SINGAPORE ALEXANDRIA CAIRO BAHRAIN BAHRAIN/AMSTERDAM DUBAI/MUSCAT DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DELHI DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA LUXOR WASHINGTON DC DULLES BANGKOK/MANILA CAIRO

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

10:00 10:15 10:20 11:45 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:10 12:20 13:00 13:10 13:35 13:40 14:00 14:10 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 15:05 15:10 15:30 15:30 15:35 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:05 16:15 16:40 16:45 17:00 17:35 17:40 17:45 18:00 18:00 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:30 18:35 18:40 19:00 19:10 19:10 19:30 20:05 20:35 20:40 21:00 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:55 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:45 22:55 23:05 23:10 23:15 23:40 23:40 23:50

C R O S S W O R D

4 6 9

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS 1. (usually followed by `to' or `for') On the point of or strongly disposed.

4. An organ in its earliest stage of development.

10. The basic unit of electric current adopted under the System International d'Unites.

13. Perennial herb of East India to Polynesia and Australia cultivated for its large edible root yielding Otaheite arrowroot starch.

14. An athlete who bounds or leaps (as in basketball).

15. Mature female of mammals of which the male is called `buck'.

16. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event.

17. English comedienne and mistress of Charles II (1650-1687).

19. A high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus.

22. The United Nations agency concerned with the interests of labor.

23. A United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments.

25. The act of deciding to do something.

28. Genus of tall smooth herbs of forested mountains of Europe and Asia minor.

32. Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all.

35. A knife resembling a cleaver.

36. Established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules.

38. (Welsh) A warrior god.

40. A Turkish unit of weight equal to about 2.75 pounds.

41. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae.

42. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.

43. A belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school.

45. State in northeastern India.

48. A state in northwestern North America.

51. An ambitious and aspiring young person.

55. (cosmology) The original matter that (according to the big bang theory) existed before the formation of the chemical elements.

57. An association of nations dedicated to economic and political cooperation in southeastern Asia.

59. Water frozen in the solid state.

60. At right angles to the length of a ship or airplane.

63. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

64. A doctor's degree in theology.

65. Jordan's port.

66. A small cake leavened with yeast.

DOWN 1. A detailed description of design criteria for a piece of work.

2. A genus of Mustelidae.

3. An official language of the Republic of South Africa.

4. Of or relating to alga.

5. United States astronomer (1835-1909).

6. Concerning those not members of the clergy.

7. Of or relating to apnea.

8. (British) Informal term for information.

9. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

10. The sixth month of the civil year.

11. A magic power or magic spell.

12. A hymn of praise (especially one sung in ancient Greece to invoke or thank a deity).

18. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radi-

ation is used to detect and locate distant objects.

20. Dish baked in pastry-lined pan often with a pastry top.

21. A department of Greece in the central Peloponnese.

24. Used as a Hindi courtesy title.

26. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

27. Prolific Spanish playwright (1562-1635).

29. A textile machine for weaving yarn into a textile v 1.

30. A liquid used for printing or writing or drawing.

31. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

33. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

34. Primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves.

37. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

39. A rapid escape (as by criminals).

44. United States space station.

46. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

47. A metallic element having four allotropic forms.

49. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

50. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

52. United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (18801957).

53. A condition requiring relief.

54. Area around the altar of a church for the clergy and choir.

56. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism.

58. A sharp hand gesture (resembling a blow).

61. A radioactive transuranic element.

62. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

Yesterday’s Solution

sports SATURDAY, ocTobeR 15, 2011

IndyCars buzz down the Las Vegas Strip LAS VEGAS: Mickey Mouse pulled off his head, SpongeBob Squarepants slid off his suit and the pair joined the tourists lining the street. One of the most famous and busiest streets in the world had become eerily quiet and everyone, including the locals, wanted to see what would happen.

This was just the kind of attention IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard wanted to generate when he helped bring the series back to Las Vegas.

Kicking off its final weekend of the season, IndyCar made a splash in a place where it’s hard to even create a ripple, sending out all 34 cars for the race Sunday onto the Las Vegas Strip for about 10 minutes of parade laps under the neon lights Thursday night.

“This is absolutely amazing,” IndyCar points leader Dario Franchitti said. “This is just what this series needs.” Bernard took a bit of gamble, so to speak, in bringing the series to Las Vegas. He just felt as if he had no other choice after a not-so-great season finale last

year at Homestead, where the race drew an 0.3 rating despite a compelling championship race between Franchitti and Will Power.

In bringing the series to Las Vegas, Bernard hoped to jolt the series back to life after more than decade of lagging crowds and ratings spawned by the series’ bitter 1996 split with CART. But just holding the race here wasn’t going to be enough.

Bernard wanted to draw as much attention as possible, so he offered a $5 million to any non-regular driver who wins the season finale, along with the trip down The Strip. “Las Vegas is such a great market, we just felt this was the market to try it in,” Bernard said. “This is kind of a test for us.”

The parade past the casinos seemed to earn a passing grade from those who watched it. With a stage and staging area set up front of the Bellagio’s fountains, the notyet-started spectacle drew a few hundred fans and curious passers-by. As former Los

Angeles Dodgers Tommy Lasorda was about to answer a question from the announcer, a series of sirens drowned him out, followed by a familiar whir - at least to racing fans - that rang out in an unfamiliar place.

Driving alongside the regular traffic on Las Vegas Blvd., each of the IndyCars passed in front of Ballys, sending out white smoke into the air with peel-outs before heading to the staging area. “I’ve never seen anything like this in Vegas,” Lasorda said. “I’ve been coming here for 60 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

And that was before the cars even turned a lap. With their cars parked on The Strip, the drivers were introduced one by one, then stood on the stage for a group photo as the Bellagio fountains fired water dozens of feet into the air behind them.

The mist still settling and the crowd still gathering, the drivers mingled with VIPs for a few minutes before heading to their cars.

Thousands of people lined the street - including the street performers - and within a few minutes, traffic from Tropicana to Flamingo was shut down. Firing up with a roar of the ignition, the IndyCars tore down The Strip, dark shadows under the bright lights running a short circuit on the south end of the street.

The session over, the cars peeled off The Strip and back to their haulers as the traffic filled the streets again and the sidewalks flowed with tourists, high rollers and the down-on-their-luck. Las Vegas was back to normal, but an impression was made.

“It is important for the series to have events like this,” driver Simona de Silvestro said. “Hopefully, they’ll have more like this. I think it’s just going to attract more and more people outside of racing and that’s a great thing.” It seemed to be a hit on The Strip.

After all, it’s not often that Mickey and SpongeBob are the ones standing around watching. —AP

Button rules out retaliation YEONGAM: Jenson Button has ruled out retaliating against Sebastian Vettel after Red Bull’s double world champion forced him onto the grass at the start of last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. The McLaren driver, who won at Suzuka despite being forced to back off at the first corner when Vettel squeezed him out, had suggested he might take a similarly tough approach.

The Briton asked the German before they appeared on the podium together whether that was how they were going to go racing in future but he played down that stance at the Korean Grand Prix.

Questioned about that incident and whether it had changed his approach to racing against Vettel, the 2009 champion grinned. “No, but it sounded good on TV,” Button told reporters. “I don’t think it changes anything.

You’re still going to be intelligent about the way you go racing and if you know that he’s not going to back out and you’re going to push him on the grass, you’re not going to do it. “If I didn’t back out we would have both ended up in the inside wall. It doesn’t matter that your car’s only a quarter of the way up the inside, the whole car crashes when you touch.”

Button suggested after the start that Vettel should get a penalty for forcing him off but he said in Korea it was just the heat of the moment. “It’s not down to me, it’s down to the stewards and they’ve got all the angles and didn’t think it was necessary to get a penalty so I agree with them.

“The funny thing was that when I spoke to Sebastian he said he didn’t see me,” continued Button. “And I said that on BBC and they said ‘Well, watch this bit of footage.’” Button said Vettel had his head tilted to one side, apparently looking in his mirrors all the time while he accelerated away from pole position.

“Unless he’s just resting his head because he knows its going to be a tough race on his neck, or he’s looking at Lewis (Hamilton)...,” said Button, making quite clear that he did not believe the German’s excuse.

Vettel clinched the championship with four races remaining, and Red Bull could take the constructors’ title this weekend for the second year running, but Button expected McLaren to be strong contenders for race wins for the rest of the season.

“I think our car is generally competitive at high speed circuits, we are efficient now with our rear wing,” said the Briton, refreshed after a few days in Japan.

“I hope that we are quick enough to challenge them (Red Bull) over the next few races.”

Button expected Vettel to be racing as hard as ever, however. “He’s the world champion and if he doesn’t win it’s a negative isn’t it, really? He’s still going to be pushing very hard, I don’t think he’ll suddenly drive differently this race just because he’s won the championship. “He’s not going to change the way he goes racing.” — Reuters

YEONGAM: McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain arrives in the pit during the first practice session of the Formula One Korean Grand Prix in Yeongam yesterday. —AFP

Hamilton leads McLaren one-two in wet practice YEONGAM: Lewis Hamilton put his troubles to one side and led team mate Jenson Button in a McLaren one-two in a wet practice for the team’s 700th Formula One race at the Korean Grand Prix yesterday.

The 2008 world champion, who has been questioning his performances after five straight races without a podium finish, lapped a wet Yeongam circuit with a best time of one minute 50.828 seconds in the afternoon. Button, winner of the previous race in Japan and chasing his sixth successive appearance on the podium, was 0.104 slower in the second 90minute session.

“I’m really struggling to get heat in the front tyres,” said 2009 champion Button, whose style is notably smoother than his more aggressively steering team mate. Mercedes Michael Schumacher lived up to his fame as a master of wet

conditions with the fastest time of 2:02.784 in the opening session.

Red Bull’s newly crowned double world champion Sebastian Vettel, back on track for the first time since he clinched the title in Japan, was second and third respectively in the sessions.

Hamilton’s time will have boosted his spirits after Button was quicker in all three practice sessions in Japan. The Briton told reporters earlier that he felt he had fallen off “quite a steep cliff” since he last won in Germany in July.

Six drivers, including Button, did not set timed laps in the morning as the rain fell steadily and made track conditions treacherous. Even Schumacher’s sure touch failed him momentarily when he skidded off onto the grass at the pit lane entry. There were more spins and slides in the afternoon, with Schumacher’s team mate Nico Rosberg running wide

braking into the tight left-handed first corner and spearing into Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso as the Spaniard exited the pit lane.

The accident revived driver concern about the position of the exit. With the grandstand largely empty and conditions resembling those on race day a year ago when the start had to be delayed, the few fans venturing to the track some 320km to the south of Seoul saw little action until after lunch.

Young French test driver Jean-Eric Vergne took part in practice with Toro Rosso while Indians Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok, both hoping to race in their home grand prix later this month, turned out for HRT and Team Lotus respectively. Vergne will also take part in practice for the team in Abu Dhabi and the season-ender in Brazil. —Reuters

SPORTS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Unbeaten Red Wings shutout Canucks Capitals edge Penguins in overtime

DETROIT: Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander pitches during the fourth inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League championship series against the Texas Rangers Thursday, in Detroit. — AP

Tigers use long ball to stave off elimination DETROIT: The Detroit Tigers staved off elimination in the Major League Baseball playoffs Thursday by beating the Texas Rangers 7-5 despite Nelson Cruz’s record fifth homer of the series. The Tigers narrowed the gap in the best-of-seven American League championship series to 3-2. The winner of the series will face the National League champion in the World Series.

Delmon Young hit two of Detroit’s four homers and Miguel Cabrera sparked a sixth-inning surge when his tiebreaking double deflected off the outer corner of third base deep into the outfield.

“I have that bag in my office right now. And that will be in my memorabilia room at some point in my life, I can promise you,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. Young capped the four-run sixth with a three-run homer for the Tigers. Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander got the win, but he also received help from Phil Coke who worked the final five outs.

Coke got Rangers slugger Mike Napoli out on a game-ending groundout, leaving two runners stranded. Verlander allowed four runs and eight hits in 7 1-3 innings, throwing a career-high 133 pitches. He struck out eight and walked three.

“I want the ball. I want to go as deep as possible,” Verlander said. “It was a battle for me, all night.” With star closer Jose Valverde unavailable for Detroit, Texas trimmed the deficit to 7-5 in the ninth inning. Cruz was on deck when Coke got Napoli out for his first career playoff save.

“Cokie came through for us,” Leyland said. “A little different situation for him obviously, but he was up to the challenge.”

The Tigers surged in the sixth to take the lead. Detroit turned a bases-loaded double play to keep the score tied at 2, then opened the bottom half of the sixth with a single, double, triple and homer-in order-to take a 6-2 lead.

It marked the first time four consecutive batters on one team hit for a “natural” cycle in a MLB playoff game. Verlander was still throwing strong late in the game but Cruz caught one of his fastballs and blasted it down the left-field line for a two-run homer. The homer run marked the end of the night for Verlander and set a record for homers in a semi-final series.

“He struck me out twice with curveballs, so I was glad he threw me a fastball, even if it was 100 (mph),” Cruz said. “I think I might have had streaks like this in the minors, maybe, but I’ve never hit this many homers this fast in the majors.”

Cruz became the fifth player to hit five homers in a playoff series. Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey, Juan Gonzalez and Chase Utley were the others. Verlander received a huge ovation when he left the game, raising his glove in appreciation.

“I don’t like to do that in the middle of a ballgame, but when they show their support that way, you can’t help but give them a little tip of the cap or a wave or something,” Verlander said. “They’ve been tremendous all year.” The Rangers get another chance to reach the World Series for the second straight season when they host game six on Saturday in Dallas. “We were lucky, but we need lucky times right now,” Cabrera said. “Hopefully we’re lucky Saturday.” —AFP

PITTSBURGH: The Detroit Red Wings blanked the Vancouver Canucks 2-0 at Joe Louis Arena on Thursday to extend their perfect start to the new season with a third straight win. Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season, and was in spectacular form in the first period stopping 12 shots including two from pointblank range on Daniel Sedin. Detroit moved up a gear in the second period, outshooting Vancouver 24-8, and were rewarded with two goals.

Justin Abdelkader opened the scoring by converting a cross-ice pass from Todd Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula extended the lead to 2-0 less than three minutes later, completing a give-and-go from Johan Franzen with a weak shot that eluded Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider.

Vancouver had chances to get on the board, Cody Hodgson’s shot at the end of the second period beating Howard but failing to cross the line before time expired and Alex Burrows hit the post with the goal wide open.

Washington’s Dennis Wideman scored in overtime to give the Capitals a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL on Thursday. On the powerplay 2:38 into the extra period, Wideman rifled a shot from just inside the right circle past goalie Brent Johnson to keep Washington unbeaten in three games this season. Alexander Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season for the Capitals, who have won eight straight regular-season games in Pittsburgh.

Mike Knuble also scored. James Neal scored twice for the Penguins, tying it on a power play with 3:45 left in the third.

Devils 2, Kings 1, SO In Newark, Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise scored shootout goals to give New Jersey victory over Los Angeles.

Devils goalie Johan Hedberg, who replaced an injured Martin Brodeur at the start of the second period, made easy stops on the two Kings shootout attempts. Patrick Elias scored in regulation for New Jersey and Gagne got his first goal as a King to open the game.

Avalanche 7, Senators 1 In Ottawa, Joakim Lindstrom scored twice to help Colorado cruise past Ottawa. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 15 saves in his first start for the Avalanche. Rookie Gabriel Landeskog, Milan Hejduk and Matt Duchene each had a goal and an assist, Daniel Winnik and David Jones also scored for Colorado. Milan Michalek had a powerplay goal for Ottawa.

Islanders 5, Lightning 1 In Uniondale, New York, John Tavares had two goals and two assists in the first period and New York went on to rout Tampa Bay. Matt Moulson and P.A. Parenteau also had first-period goals for the Islanders, and Michael Grabner added a fifth in the second period.

Steven Stamkos netted for the Lightning.

Wild 2, Oilers 1, SO In St. Paul, Minnesota, Devin Setoguchi scored in the fourth round of the shootout to lift Minnesota above

DETROIT: Jannik Hansen #36 of the Vancouver Canucks shoots the puck as Jimmy Howard #35 of the Detroit Red Wings makes a save and Niklas Kronwall #55 of the Red Wings defends during their NHL game at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. — AFP Edmonton. Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin stood firm during a third period in which the Wild outshot the Oilers 15-1, giving his team a point, but conceded twice in the shootout; the first time to Matt Cullen, who had the only goal for Minnesota in regulation. Ryan Smyth had the goal for the Oilers, who have lost 17 straight games at Minnesota.

Coyotes 5, Predators 2 In Nashville, David Schlemko, Ray Whitney and Lauri Korpikoski each scored in the first period as Phoenix ruined Nashville’s big party for their home opener. Shane Doan had an emp-

ty-netter and an assist, and Mikkel Boedker had a goal as the Coyotes capped their three-game trip to open the season with their first victory. Ryan Suter and Colin Wilson scored for Nashville.

Flames 4, Canadiens 1 In Montreal, Miikka Kiprusoff made 35 saves in his Calgary-record 263rd victory, helping the Flames defeat Montreal.

Kiprusoff moved past Mike Vernon for the franchise record. Rene Bourque scored twice, and Niklas Hagman and David Moss also netted for the Flames.

Andrei Kostitsyn scored for the Canadiens. — AP

NHL results and standings New Jersey 2, Los Angeles 1 (SO); NY Islanders 5, Tampa Bay 1; Washington 3, Pittsburgh 2 (OT); Calgary 4, Montreal 1; Colorado 7, Ottawa 1; Detroit 2, Vancouver 0; Phoenix 5, Nashville 2; Minnesota 2, Edmonton 1 (SO); Chicago 4, Winnipeg 3; Dallas 3, St. Louis 2.

(SO denotes shootout win, OT is overtime victory) Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA Pittsburgh 3 0 2 16 13 Philadelphia 3 0 0 10 5 NY Islanders 2 1 0 7 4 New Jersey 2 1 0 6 6 NY Rangers 0 0 2 3 5 Northeast Division Buffalo 2 0 0 8 3 Toronto 2 0 0 8 5 Montreal 1 2 0 6 7 Boston 1 3 0 7 7 Ottawa 1 3 0 13 21 Southeast Division Washington 3 0 0 13 10 Tampa Bay 1 2 1 12 16 Carolina 1 2 1 9 15 Florida 1 1 0 4 4 Winnipeg 0 2 0 4 9

PTS 8 6 4 4 2 4 4 2 2 2 6 3 3 2 0

Western Conference Central Division Detroit 3 0 0 10 3 6 Chicago 2 1 0 10 7 4 Nashville 2 1 0 9 9 4 St. Louis 1 2 0 9 9 2 Columbus 0 3 1 8 13 1 Northwest Division Colorado 3 1 0 11 6 6 Minnesota 2 1 1 10 9 5 Edmonton 1 0 1 3 3 3 Vancouver 1 2 1 10 13 3 Calgary 1 2 0 9 11 2 Pacific Division Dallas 3 1 0 9 9 6 Phoenix 1 1 1 9 10 3 Los Angeles 1 1 1 6 8 3 San Jose 1 0 0 6 3 2 Anaheim 1 1 0 3 5 2 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L). Reuters

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Shooters gear up for Asian Air Gun championship

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: As the start of the 4th Asian Air Gun Championship approaches, shooters are gearing up for one of the important events that is considered a prelude to other events that are equally important and have an impact on the qualification for Olympic and world championships.

Shooter Mariam Irzouqi who always excelled in her 10m air rifle events, who recently finished in 5th place during the world championships in Munich, Germany, said that it is very important for the shooter to set clear goals and work towards achieving them the right way. She said that she is lucky to receive full support from her family since early stages, and their encouragements led her to continue her pursuit of the sport. Mariam Said the Kuwait Shooting Club gives us all what is necessary to train well and be ready both mentally and physically. She said all obstacles are removed from our way and the club’s facilities are always at our disposal besides the fact that some of the best international coaches and trainers and coaches are here in Kuwait as the club’s officials headed by Sheikh Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah are keen on giving us the best a shooter needs to obtain the best results possible.

Mariam said she is eager to participate in the upcoming 4th Asian Air Gun Championship and expects to get good results, as she always works hard in the name of her beloved country, Kuwait. Shooter Jasem Abdelmalik is confident about ending in one of the top places, adding that he has been training

well and wants to repeat his achievement in the Arab Championship that was held in Jordan, where he finished in third place in the pistol event. He said competing in Kuwait among our fans gives us extra motivation in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Shooter Mohammad bin Hussein said he will participate with the goal of winning a medal based on his previous results. He said competing with the best shooters in the world makes one concentrate better and will always be alert as the responsibility is much bigger when we compete in our country’s name.

Mousa Al-Khayat said this is his first participation at the Asian level, and that he is prepared well for the competition. He said that he plans to win medals both at the individual and the team levels in the air pistol event. He said that “our level is improving clearly and we will compete with high moral and we will always keep Kuwait in our minds.

Shooter Mariam Abelmalik said she is very optimistic about her participation, as training has become more intense and concentrated. She said that she takes the example from her teammates Mariam and Heba Irzouqi who are among the best shooters in the rifle even.

Meanwhile Kuwait’s national team official Hamad Al-Hajiri said preparations for the championship started in July, and were resumed after the month of Ramadan with a gradual increase in training intensity both mornings and evenings as Kuwait Shooting Sport Club chairman and board members made everything available at the service of shooters.

Al-Hajiri said that Kuwait will participate with 31

shooters among whom are Gulf and Arab champions, and we are confident that they will compete very strongly for the colored medals.

Murray reaches semis with 13th straight win

NEW DELHI: Handout photo taken yesterday by the Asian Tour shows Chiragh Kumar of India during the second round of the Hero Indian Open golf tournament at the Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi. — AFP

Kumar holds lead in Indian Open NEW DELHI: India’s Chiragh Kumar raced to a three-shot lead yesterday to put himself in a good position to secure a dream victory after the second round of the Hero Indian Open.

He battled to a solid five-under-par 67 to retain his overnight lead with a two-day total of 13-under-par 131 at his home course, the Delhi Golf Club. Australia’s David Gleeson, a two-time Asian Tour winner, eagled two holes for 66 to lie in second while Chapchai Nirat of Thailand was a further two shots back in third after his blemish-free round of 67.

Scotland’s Ross Bain, Scott Barr of Australia and Nam Young of Korea were tied in fourth place on 137 in the $1.25 million Asian Tour event. Kumar, a 2006 Asian Games silver team medallist, surprised even himself after shooting another superb round to lead the chasing pack going into the weekend rounds. “I really didn’t expect to shoot another low number but I’m glad I did. The Indian Open is such a big tournament for us and it has grown tremendously. It is like a fifth Major to all the Indian players,” said the 27-year-old. Kumar turned in 34 before adding three birdies on his homeward nine, highlighted by a huge 20-foot par putt on the sixth hole.

“That kept the momentum going as I was able to birdie the next two holes. It was a really good putt,” said Kumar.

Gleeson continued to climb up the leaderboard courtesy of two eagles on holes one and eight which he sank from 10 and 20 feet respectively. — AFP

SHANGHAI: Red hot Andy Murray cruised into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters yesterday, notching his 13th straight victory as David Ferrer battled back from a set down to beat Andy Roddick.

Defending champion Murray, who cantered to a 6-3, 6-2 victory, looked in the groove early on against qualifier Matthew Ebden, putting early pressure on the 124th-ranked Australian’s serve and forcing two breaks in the first set.

The Scottish second seed, seeking his third straight title on the ATP tour, broke early in the second set and sealed the match with a second break after a fierce forehand.

Earlier, third seed Ferrer recovered from losing the first set to beat 10th seed Roddick 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/2). After a first set that went with serve, Roddick drew first blood when he clinched the tie-break but the Spani ard hit back strongly in the second set to break the big-serving American twice.

Roddick was match point down in the 10th game of the third set but kept his nerve to level at 5-5 and force a tiebreak. Ferrer secured two crucial minibreaks and sealed the win after more than two-and-a-half hours. Ferrer, who hit 11 aces in the match and 49 winners compared with 37 unforced errors, was not broken once by his American opponent throughout the match.

“I feel confident. This is very important because some moments I didn’t play really well. This tournament, you know, in important moments I served really well,” said the Spaniard.

Kei Nishikori, playing in his first Masters quarter-final, looked in control throughout his 6-4, 6-3 win over

SHANGHAI: Andy Roddick of the US returns a shot against David Ferrer of Spain during their men’s quarterfinal match at the 2011 Shanghai Rolex Masters tennis tournament at the Qizhong Tennis Center in Shanghai yesterday. — AFP Ukrainian 12th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov. The 21-year-old Japanese broke once in the first set and three times in the second, withstanding nine aces in total from the racket of Dolgopolov and saving six of seven break points.

Nishikori said it was special to reach his first Masters semi-final in Asia, adding: “I feel like home here. It means a lot to play semis here.... I’m really excited now.” “I think I started well today. I knew he was going to hit a lot of slice and I had to be careful. I was trying not to go for too much, just trying to be steady on

the court and that worked,” he added.

Nishikori, who shocked fourth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earlier this week, was already set to become the highestranked Japanese male player ever, having previously equalled the retired Shuzo Matsuoka’s record ranking of 46th.

But winning a place in the semi-finals against Murray means Nishikori, currently ranked 47th, will now rise to around number 32 in the world. Spain’s Feliciano Lopez defeated 15th seed Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-4 with the German unable to repeat the heroics that saw him oust top seed Rafael Nadal on Thursday. — AFP

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SPORTS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

Stern doubts Christmas games if no deal Tuesday NEW YORK: Commissioner David Stern said his “gut” tells him there will be no NBA basketball on Christmas without a labor agreement by Tuesday. That day, when owners and players are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator, is a “really big deal,” he added.

Owners will then open two days of board meetings Wednesday, and without an agreement to bring them, Stern believes further cancellations are coming. “Right now, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, just before my owners come into town, having brought in the labor relations committee and Billy (Hunter) having brought in his executive committee, it’s time to make the deal,” Stern said Thursday. “If we don’t make it on Tuesday, my gut - this is not in my official capacity of canceling games - but my gut is that we won’t be playing on Christmas Day.” Stern canceled the first two weeks of the regular season on Monday when the sides couldn’t reach a deal before a

deadline he had set. Christmas is traditionally the first big day of the NBA season. This year’s three-game schedule features the NBA finals rematch between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat.

The sides will need to act quickly to save it. The talks have stalled over the structure of the salary cap system and the division of revenues between owners and players. They will meet Tuesday with George Cohen, the same mediator who tried to resolve the NFL’s labor dispute months before it eventually ended.

Asked if Cohen had the ability to move the sides toward a deal, Stern said: “I’m hoping he does because I think that if we don’t make a deal by the time my owners meetings come in Wednesday and Thursday, after we’ve met with the mediator on Monday and then met with each other on Tuesday, then I despair.

“Because we will have lost two weeks for sure on our way to losing more

games, offers will get worse, possibly on both sides, and the deal’s going to slip away from us, as may the season,” he added. “So this is the time to make a deal.” In a separate interview with NBA TV, Stern said he thought one was in reach Monday. The sides met for more than 12 hours over two days before talks broke down, and he says despite frequent meetings lately that “we aren’t making any progress.” “How many times does it pay to keep meeting, and to have the same things thrown back at you?” Stern said. “We’re ready to sit down and make a deal. I don’t believe that the union is. Hopefully by Tuesday, aided by the mediator, they’ll be ready to make a deal. Certainly, I’ll bring my owners ready to make a deal.”

Hunter is meeting with players late yesterday in Los Angeles. The union has balked at owners’ proposal to replace their hard salary cap plan by making the luxury tax much more punitive. Players believe it would become such a deter-

rent to spending that it would essentially work as a hard cap.

The sides also have to decide how to divide up about $4 billion in annual revenues. Players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income in the previous collective bargaining agreement and have proposed lowering it to 53 percent. Owners are seeking the same 53-47 split in their favor.

The parties have discussed a 50-50 split, which the players rejected. In the radio interview, Stern repeated a claim he made Monday that the original discussion of an even split was initiated by the players.

They also are still clashing over the length of the agreement, with players not wanting to go beyond six years and owners seeking a 10-year deal but offering the players an opt-out after seven.

Player contract lengths, luxury tax payments and the use of spending exceptions are among the other big items remaining.— AP

All Blacks face enemy as Deans plots downfall

MEXICO: A man runs holding the Pan American Games torch in Amatitan, Mexico, yesterday. The 2011 Guadalajara Pan American games began yesterday. — AP

US lacking biggest names for Pan American Games GUADALAJARA: Just like the Olympics, the Pan American Games come around every four years and bring together a team of talented athletes from the United States to compete in a multi-sport international.

Unlike the Olympics, however, stars like swimming great Michael Phelps and runner Allyson Felix prefer to skip the event altogether. “At the end of the day, I think the scheduling of these games was a little bit more challenging than normal just because it was October instead of the summer,” United States Olympic Committee secretary general Scott Blackmun said Thursday, a day before the opening ceremony in rainy Guadalajara. “Much of our team historically is comprised of collegiate athletes who are in their college seasons or otherwise in school right now,” Blackmun added. “In other cases we had some scheduling challenges. The best example of that I think is the gymnastics championships in Tokyo. We had athletes competing there up until a couple of days ago. It is not safe for them to go straight from one competition to another.”

The Pan American Games started in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and have twice been staged in the United States.

Traditionally, the best athletes from the United States competed in order to get big-time experience. A few of the more famous Americans to win gold medals at the Pan Am Games are swimmer Mark Spitz and sprit-long jumper Carl Lewis.

Both went on to record-setting glory at the Olympics.— AP

AUCKLAND: Australia enter the All Blacks’ Auckland fortress tomorrow under a New Zealand-born coach who is plotting the end of a dream for the rugby World Cup hosts in the second of the weekend’s semi-finals.

Robbie Deans, overlooked for the All Blacks’ coach’s job four years ago, has set his sights on a third World Cup for the Wallabies at a ground where they have not won since 1986. If they are to lift the Webb Ellis trophy yet again, Australia need to beat the All Blacks then defeat the winners of Saturday’s semi-final between Wales and France.

Australia turned in an awesome defensive display against defending champions South Africa in the quarterfinals and now look to expand their game against the All Blacks. “We have to bring more to the table, ask more of the All Blacks because if we don’t, they’ll bring a lot more to the table,” Deans said yesterday.

“There’s many areas we have to do well in just to be competitive in the first instance. It will take a total performance, attack and defence. “We’ll have to trust ourselves, back ourselves, believe in ourselves, back our systems as well as hang tough when the traffic starts coming the other way.

“It’s very much mental at this point.

It’s too late to recreate the wheel so to speak in terms of the way we approach the game. “There’s not a lot you can do to change your physical state so without a doubt your mindset and how you cope with some of the challenges is key.” Quade Cooper, the New Zealandborn flyhalf who has become a pantomime villain in his native land, has a vital role in a backline awash with talent, even if fullback Kurtley Beale fails to recover in time from a hamstring injury.

Cooper’s gifts are undeniable. He has vision, pace, and audacity but he can be both outrageously good and terribly fallible in the course of the same match.

AUCKLAND: Australian rugby player Ben Alexander, center, passes the ball during a training session in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday. Australia will play New Zealand in a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal tomorrow. — AP Most of the publicity this week in a country desperate to win the World Cup for only the second time since the inaugural 1987 tournament has surrounded the chronic foot injury to captain Richie McCaw. But an equally influential figure will be Piri Weepu, who against Argentina assumed the number one scrumhalf spot and also successfully filled the goalkicking role in the absence of the injured Daniel Carter. “He’s always been a quality player. He’s always had time, he’s always loved the big occasions. If you watch him play he seems to have a lot more time than most out there so that just shows quality,” coach Graham Henry said.

“Now that Daniel’s not playing there’s more responsibility on nine to navigate the ship and probably take over a bit more of the game, which he

doesn’t mind doing.” Henry was reappointed as All Blacks coach ahead of Deans even though New Zealand made their earliest World Cup exit ever when they were beaten by France four years ago. Sunday is certain to be his last game in charge if the All Blacks lose.

“I think there’s a quiet focus there, a quiet determination,” he said. “The guys have been a bit quieter than normal, probably because it’s such a huge game.

It’s probably the biggest game these guys have played in 10 years.”

“Australia, they’re like a big brother to us, a country of 20 million competing with 4-1/2 million and that is a positive relationship I think. It brings the best out of New Zealanders. “But as far as this rugby tournament is concerned it’s a semi-final we need to win to win a cup and it so happens that it’s against Australia.” — Reuters

SPORTS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

We’re not match-fixers, says Australia captain Clarke SYDNEY: Australia test and one-day captain Michael Clarke has defended his players against match-fixing allegations after a sports agent said the country’s top cricketers were “the biggest” culprits. Mazhar Majeed, accused by prosecutors of taking bribes to fix matches, also said that Australian cricketers had fixed “brackets”, a set period of a match on which punters bet, a London court heard on Monday.

The accusation drew a scornful response from Cricket Australia earlier this week and Clarke said yesterday he was “very confident” no Australian players were involved.

“For me personally, it’s not the Australian way,” Clarke told reporters in Sydney before boarding a plane for the tour of South Africa.

“Never in my time have I experienced a conversation with anybody about any such thing. “There’s obvi-

ously been a couple of occasions when guys have been approached and that’s been reported to our team manager and the ICC ... so all the boys in the Australian team are aware that it is happening, it is going on.

“But it’s never involved me and I’m very confident it’s never involved any of the Australian players.” Clarke’s comments come as the trial involving spot-fixing allegations

against former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and bowler Mohammad Asif continues in London. Prosecutors allege that Majeed conspired with Butt and fast bowlers Asif and Mohammad Amir to fix parts of the Lord’s test between England and Pakistan last August. Clarke will lead Australia in three one-day internationals and two tests against South Africa in October and November. — Reuters

Japan’s Uchimura vaults into history YO: Japan’s Kohei Uchimura won a record third straight men’s all-around title at the world gymnastics championships in Tokyo yesterday, prompting his nearest rival to call him an unbeatable “machine.”

The 22-year-old collected 93.631 points, leading the elite group of top qualifiers in five of the six events. European champion Philipp Boy of Germany fought back from sixth place in the penultimate rotation to end 3.101 behind at 90.530 and lift the silver medal for a second straight time.

Another Japanese Koji Yamamuro finished third at 90.255 for his first world individual medal.

“I could perform each and every event with care and I could make firm landings. I feel happy about that,” said Uchimura, who has been unbeatable as an all-arounder since he finished second at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I could hear bigger applause than I did at the Olympics. I was surprised at such an awful sound that I thought there was an earthquake or something,” he quipped. Boy, 24, said: “Uchimura is really a kind of machine. It’s a dream to beat him at the moment. I had to fight from sixth to silver. It’s a perfect result for me.”

Uchimura is the first male or female gymnast to win the allaround title three times in a row at the world championships.

Petar Sumi won in 1922 and 1926 for Yugoslavia, and China’s Yang Wei followed him in 2006 and 2007.

Uchimura dominated his favourite floor exercise, the opening event for his group, as he landed firmly on his feet after each aerial move to score 15.566 points. He topped the board after his second event, the pommel horse, and then on the rings, Uchimura dazzled again with a powerful sequence and a solid landing to break away further from the rest of his group.

Uchimura was the last to perform on the bar with daring swings and aerial moves wowing a capacity crowd of some 8,000 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. He is due to compete in five individual event finals at the weekend to chase his first-ever world apparatus title. “I’m a little tired but I will pretend not to be because I’m the champion.” — AFP

TOKYO: Japan’s Kohei Uchimura performs on the rings on his way to winning the men’s individual all-round final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday. — AP

HYDERABAD: Indian bowler Ravindra Jadeja (L) delivers a ball during the first one day international (ODI) cricket match between India and England at The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday. — AFP

Skipper Dhoni inspires India to 126-run win HYDERABAD: Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from the front as beleaguered India redeemed themselves with a 126run win over England in the first onedayer in Hyderabad yesterday. Dhoni smashed an unbeaten 87 off 70 balls to power the injury-ravaged world champions to 300-7 after he won the toss and chose to bat on a sluggish wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

England, fresh from their overwhelming success over India at home, were shot out for 174 in 36.1 overs to hand India the early lead in the five-match series. Captain Alastair Cook top-scored with 60, but England lost their last eight wickets for 63 runs after being comfortably placed at 111-2 in the 23rd over.

Left-arm spinner Ravinda Jadeja and off-break bowler Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed three wickets each and seamer Umesh Yadav claimed two in front of 25,000 delighted home fans. Cook said losing the toss was crucial as batting became difficult in the second session.

“It was important to win the toss because we saw at the end that the ball kept low,” the England captain said. “But India out-performed us today. “We’re going to have to learn from this, and

that’s the beauty of a five-match series.

We know playing spin is an issue, and that’s a skill thing.

“We’re going to work hard on that in the next couple of days.” Dhoni, who was named man of the match, admitted the absence of dew in the evening helped his side. “There had been a fair amount of dew the previous few evenings and that’s why we played three seamers,” the Indian captain said.

“It was good the dew did not come into play tonight.

“We were looking to make 250-260 because that would have been a good total on this wicket. Of course dew would have made it easier for the side batting second. “I am happy Jadeja has improved a lot and it is good to have a bowler like Yadav in the side because he is one of the fastest we have in the country and hits the deck hard.

“We have to show the same intensity in the remaining matches,” said Dhoni, whose team was been blanked 4-0 in the Tests and 3-0 in the one-dayers on their recent tour of England. India, playing their first international at home since the World Cup triumph in April, were without star batsman Sachin

Tendulkar and at least six other regulars, due to injury or poor form.

The hosts defended the total with a new-look bowling attack in which three specialists, Vinay Kumar, Yadav and Ashwin, had played only 25 one-dayers between them before Friday’s match.

England were reduced to 40-2 by the 10th over before Cook and Jonathan Trott (26) put on 71 for the third wicket.

Jadeja turned the match around by removing both batsmen in successive overs, Cook holing out in the deep and Trott being bowled to make England 120-4. The tourists slipped further to 134-7 as Ashwin dismissed Ravi Bopara and Tim Bresnan and Jadeja took care of the highly-rated Jonathan Bairstow.

Yadav bowled Graeme Swann and Samit Patel, before Ashwin signalled India’s emphatic win by shattering the stumps of last man Jade Dernbach.

Earlier, Suresh Raina made 61 off 55 balls and added 72 for the fifth wicket with Dhoni after India were reduced to 123-4 by the 29th over. Jadeja chipped in with 27 off 22 balls at the end as India hammered 91 runs in the last 10 overs. The second one-dayer will be played in New Delhi on Monday. — AFP

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Barcelona hoping to shake off ‘FIFA virus’ MADRID: Champions Barcelona are hoping there will be no hangover after the international break as they look to hang on to top spot in La Liga when they face Racing Santander today. Pep Guardiola’s men will be expected to claim all three points at the Camp Nou, but Barca are usually at their most vulnerable immediately following an international break-a syndrome known here as the “FIFA virus”-and Guardiola has considerable selection problems to contend with just now.

Xavi Hernandez limped out of Spain’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Scotland on Wednesday and may be rested, while Javier Mascherano is another doubt after continuing with a twisted ankle in Argentina’s defeat in Venezuela on Wednesday. Cesc Fabregas, Ibrahim Affelay and Alexis Sanchez are all out, but there is good news with Andres Iniesta ready t o return after a month on the sidelines.

Barcelona can ill afford to lose any more players just now and Pedro this week warned of the difficulty of playing too many matches so early in the campaign. “It’s always difficult to recover especially from top level matches with lots of travelling, but we’re in good form and confident that we’ll be 100 percent for the

game against Racing,” he said.

Racing have already held Real Madrid this season, but their coach Hector Cuper was clear this week just how highly he rates the current Barca team. “In my opinion I’ve never seen anything like them since I was on this earth,” said the Argentine.

“It is simply excellence, they are the best team in the world by some distance.” Real Madrid sit one point behind their great rivals in third and today face a Betis team who travel to the capital looking to continue their strong start to life back in the top flight.

Last season’s second division champions have lost their last two matches, and have a poor record at the Santiago Bernabeu, but coach Pepe Mel is confident about his team’s chances. “I have to say and think we can win in the Bernabeu and if I get asked in the 85th minute I’ll say the same thing. If we’re losing 5-0 I’ll probably admit it is difficult for us to come back, but until then let’s see,” he said.

Madrid will welcome back Portuguese duo Pepe and Fabio Coentrao after injury while Cristiano Ronaldo resumed normal training on Thursday after returning from international duty with a muscular problem earlier this week. Levante have

been the surprise package of the season so far.

The unfancied club from Valencia sit second in the table after six games, level on points with Barcelona, but they face a tough task at home to Malaga.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are fourth having won four of their last five games.

Valencia, in fifth, warm up for their Champions League clash with Bayer Leverkusen with a trip to Mallorca, for whom Joaquin Caparros takes charge of his first game after the departure of Michael Laudrup. Sixth-placed Sevilla will fancy their chances at home to bottom club Sporting Gijon, who have taken just one point from their opening six games.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid will need to gain something from their trip to Granada to maintain contact with the early pacesetters. Villarreal can be forgiven for having Manchester City on their minds ahead of their Champions League trip to England on Tuesday, but before that Juan Carlos Garrido’s faltering side go to Getafe looking for only a second league win.

Rayo Vallecano entertain Espanyol in Madrid tomorrow, when Zaragoza face Real Sociedad, while a derby clash between Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna is to come on Monday. —AFP

SEVILLA: Real Betis’ coach Pepe Mel celebrates after winning against Zaragoza 4-3, during their Spanish League football match at Benito Villamarin stadium in Sevilla. —AFP

Coach Deschamps hopes for upturn in Marseille fortunes PARIS: Marseille coach Didier Deschamps remains confident he can turn the troubled club’s fortunes around as the 2010 French champions prepare for a testing trip to Toulouse this weekend. OM have won just once in their opening nine league games and signed off before the international break with a desperate performance in drawing 1-1 at home to Brest, a result that left them 13th in the table, 12 points behind leaders and bitter rivals Paris SaintGermain.

Owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus added to the air of uncertainty surrounding the club last week when she threatened to sell up if things did not improve soon. LouisDreyfus met with the squad on Thursday in an attempt to clear the air and help boost morale, but only a win in Toulouse will really lift spirits on the south coast.

“I am not happy that we have taken just eight points from nine games and that people are laughing at us,” said Deschamps. “I am the coach, and the team are not getting results. But I am not going to turn my back on my convictions.”

Marseille go into today’s clash without Cesar Azpilicueta, Alou Diarra and Mathieu Valbuena due to suspension. But there is a chance that Andre-Pierre Gignac could feature against his former club after over a month on the sidelines with the latest in a long line of injuries.

While Marseille were being tipped as serious title contenders at the season’s outset, mid-table respectability was the only honour that Toulouse were expected to compete for. However, under the guidance of former Marseille goalkeeper Alain Casanova, they come into the weekend in fourth place, and will be looking to prove that their 3-0 loss at Sochaux a fortnight ago was merely a blip.

Deschamps’ side are one of three French clubs with Champions League games to look forward to in midweek.

While they host Arsenal, Lyon travel to Real Madrid for the third season running. Before that, Remi Garde’s side will be bidding to bounce back from their 2-0 loss to PSG in their last league game when they host winless bottom club Nancy.

Lisandro Lopez is still out with an ankle injury for OL, but captain Cris is fit again and Yoann Gourcuff could feature for the first time this season following ankle surgery. Lille are another side trying to juggle a Ligue 1 title-challenge and Champions League commitments.

Rudi Garcia’s men play host to Inter Milan in midweek, but first they face a testing trip to Auxerre, who have not lost since the opening day of the campaign. Second-placed Montpellier entertain Dijon, who sit 11th in the table and have performed the best of all the newly-promoted clubs so far.

Leaders PSG go to another promoted side in the shape of Ajaccio, tomorrow. The capital club went three points clear at the top after recording their third win on the bounce against Lyon two weeks ago, with record signing Javier Pastore scoring the first goal in a 2-0 triumph.

Just back from international duty with Argentina, Pastore is set to come straight back into the side against the Corsicans, whose Mexican international goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa should be fit despite missing his country’s defeat to Brazil. Rennes-who face Celtic in the Europa League on Thursday-close out the weekend with a Breton derby against Lorient tomorrow night. —AFP

High-flying Rangers itching for return to action GLASGOW: Winger Gregg Wylde says the Rangers players are desperate to return to Scottish Premier League action against St Mirren at Ibrox today after a two-week international break. Following a slow start to the season that saw them draw their opening league match and crash out of Europe, the Glasgow giants now hold a nine-point lead over Motherwell at the top of the table.

A nine-match winning run has seen them open a ten-point lead over bitter rivals Celtic in third, although the Hoops have a game in hand and could reduce the gap, at least temporarily, with a win over Kilmarnock in Saturday’s early kick-off.

Wylde has been in top form for Rangers this

season and netted his first goal at Ibrox in the 2-0 win against Kilmarnock at the end of last month.

The 20-year-old says the players now aim to add to the momentum they built up before their enforced break.

“The international break can work both ways for you. It is good to keep playing for Rangers and trying to keep up the momentum in the league but it gives some of the players a rest or players who are coming back from injury extra time to recover,” he said. “We have started the season well and we want to keep that winning streak going for as long as possible.

“There are a lot of guys that have been away

playing internationals over the last week or so but everyone will be fully focused on St Mirren come Saturday and hopefully we can pick up another three points.” Rangers will be without on-loan Arsenal man Kyle Bartley, who is recovering from a knee injury, but top scorer Steven Naismith will return from injury against St Mirren.

Defeat to Hearts in their last match before the international break left Celtic with a lot of catching up to do already. The Hoops have lost five of their last ten matches in all competitions this season and defender Charlie Mulgrew says they must go on a winning run if they are to catch Rangers, starting with Saturday’s match at Rugby Park.

“It’s only October and there’s a long, long way to go. We’re looking to win every g ame, like we always do, and be as positive as we can,” he said.

“There’ll be a lot of twists and turns between now and the end of the season and we’ll look to win every game and be as positive as we can.”

Neil Lennon’s side will be without captain Scott Brown, Emilio Izaguirre and Cha Du Ri through injury while Kris Commons is suspended following his sending off in the defeat to Hearts.

Elsewhere today, Inverness Caledonian Thistle face a tough task as they attempt to climb off the bottom of the league with an away trip to high-flying St Johnstone. —AFP

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Johnson hoping for Manchester City chance MANCHESTER: Adam Johnson hopes to seize his chance against Aston Villa after finally becoming accustomed to life under Roberto Mancini’s rotation policy at Manchester City. Given the strength of the squad at Eastlands, Johnson has struggled to nail down a regular spot in the Manchester City team.

But the England winger, 24, appears to have suffered more than most by the consistent reshuffle with the mega-rich club now fighting on four fronts this season with their Champions League involvement.

Johnson, by his own admission, has struggled to find his best form during spells in and out of the side. But after his wonder goal against Blackburn last time out, the former Middlesbrough wideman hopes he can enjoy a sustained run on the resumption of the Premier League following the international break.

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Liverpool v Man United 14:45 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Wigan v Bolton 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 6 Stoke City v Fulham FC 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 QP Rangers v Blackburn Rovers 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 4 Norwich City v Swansea City 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 7 Man City v Aston Villa 17:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Chelsea v Everton 19:30 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Italian League Catania v Internazionale 19:00 Al Jazeera Sport +1 Al Jazeera Sport 1 HD AC Milan v Palermo 21:45 Al Jazeera Sport +1 Al Jazeera Sport 1 HD Spanish League Getafe v Villarreal Al Jazeera Sport +5 Real Madrid v Real Betis Al Jazeera Sport +2 Al Jazeera Sport +3 Real Mallorca v Valencia Al Jazeera Sport +8 Barcelona v Santander Al Jazeera Sport +2 Al Jazeera Sport +3 Granada v Atletico Al Jazeera Sport +3 Al Jazeera Sport +4

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French League Toulouse v Marseille 20:00 Al Jazeera Sport +4 Lyonnais v Lorraine 20:00 Al Jazeera Sport +7 Nice v Bordeaux 22:00 Al Jazeera Sport +6

“We know more than ever that this is a squad game and you have to accept you can’t play every game,” Johnson said. “That’s what successful sides do and we’re no different. You just have to make sure that when you are selected, you give it your best shot.

It’s up to the likes of me to stake a claim when I play.”

Mancini is expected to make wholesale changes once again for the visit of unbeaten Aston Villa today as he manages his injury list ahead of a crucial Champions League meeting with Villarreal next week. Mario Balotelli (back) is struggling to be fit while Sergio Aguero (groin) is unlikely to be risked. Carlos Tevez, who has served a two-week suspension for his allegedly refusing to play against Bayern Munich, won’t be considered.

Mancini’s side will come up though against former goalkeeper Shay Given, who moved to

the Midlands club in the summer after losing his place to Joe Hart. “It will be a difficult game for us. They are a strong team who have started the season well,” Mancini said.

“It says a lot that they are yet to lose. In that run, Shay has been in fine form. He is a good goalkeeper and a good guy.” Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has dropped a broad hint he could be willing to hand striker Emile Heskey a fresh deal.

Former England striker Heskey is in the final year of his existing contract. However, McLeish believes the 33-year-old still has a lot to offer. “Emile is in the last year of his contract but I don’t think he needs to worry about his future,” McLeish said.

“Emile is a player who can play anywhere and won’t let you down. He is a fantastic professional. I never have cheek from him.” Villa are unb eaten in their first seven Premier

League matches, however McLeish concedes this will be their toughest test yet.

“It will be a challenge for us. It’s what it is all about. If you want to be a professional footballer and play at the top level it is hard to beat occasions such as this. “On paper we’re playing against a team that should win.

They have more strength and experience but it’s 11 against 11.”

McLeish has revealed Gabriel Agbonlahor (back), Stephen Ireland (foot), James Collins (foot) and Barry Bannan (Achilles) are also expected to be declared fit. Agbonlahor has begun the season in fine form having already scored four times, with McLeish adding: “We are very pleased with the way Gabby has trained. “We put him through it a wee bit and he came through with flying colours. We expect him, barring a nightmare in training and to be okay for the game.” —AFP

Rooney loss a ‘huge blow’, says Shearer LONDON: Former England captain Alan Shearer said Wayne Rooney’s suspension from the group stage of Euro 2012 was a “huge blow” yesterday as Football Association officials mulled their response to the ban.

Rooney was given a hefty three-match suspension by UEFA on Thursday following his dismissal for violent conduct in England’s qualifier with Montenegro in Podgorica last Friday.

The ban means Rooney will miss all of England’s first round matches at next year’s finals in Poland and Ukraine, leaving manager Fabio Capello with a selection conundrum ahead of the finals.

“It’s a huge blow. It’s not only a huge blow to the team, to the fans and to football followers but to Wayne himself because he realises he’s made a stupid error,” Shearer told BBC radio. “I still think whoever replaces him in the team, England still should have enough to get through the three games without him.”

The English FA said it would await the written verdict from Thursday’s ruling before

deciding whether or not to risk an appeal, which could result in Rooney’s ban being increased if unsuccessful. The severity of Rooney’s suspension surprised many footballers and pundits, with former team-mate Phil Neville branding it a joke.

“Rooney banned for 3 games what a joke- if it was a Dutch Spanish Italian german player

Wayne Rooney

they wouldn’t even get 1 game £fact,” Neville wrote on Twitter. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, tipped as a likely successor to Capello, meanwhile said the Italian should exclude Rooney from every England international prior to the finals but still include him in his squad.

“Fabio Capello has to make a decision now,” Redknapp wrote in The Sun. “And if I were England manager I wouldn’t start Wayne Rooney in any international from now until the Euro 2012 tournament. “But we should definitely still take him to the finals. England should be strong enough to get through the group without Rooney and then we’ll have him raring to go in the later stages.”

“I was seriously shocked when I heard he’d copped a three-game ban for his kick at Montenegro’s Miodrag Dzudovic. “It is a painful, painful lesson for Rooney that he cannot do things like that. I have sympathy for him but those are the rules so he must accept it.” —AFP

Villas-Boas warns against international hangover LONDON: Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has called on his team to shake off the aftereffects of the international break and maintain their recent good form against Everton yesterday. The Blues turned on the style to record heavy victories over Swansea and Bolton in their last two games, and Villas-Boas is keen for his team to maintain that momentum against the Merseysiders at Stamford Bridge.

“The most important thing when an international break happens is for you to get into winning mode straight away,” Villas-Boas said.

“I don’t think it really breaks a winning streak because it’s the nature of the calendar and you cannot avoid it, but you have to get into winning mode straight away.”

Everton have proved to be awkward opponents for Chelsea in recent seasons and have not lost a league match at Stamford Bridge since 2006, recording five consecutive draws.

“Everton is looking for the sixth game unbeaten coming to the Bridge. We have to be alert and it is going to be a hard battle,” Villas-Boas cautioned.

“Everton were on a very good run in my opinion, they lost against Liverpool but had they won they would be up challenging for

the top with one game in hand. “So they are in a good situation and once again proving that (manager) David Moyes’s work is something fantastic.”

Today’s match will also be the first opportunity for Chelsea’s fans to give a large-scale show of support-or opposition-to proposals to move the club to a new purpose-built 60,000-capacity stadium. So far the plans have met with a lukewarm response, but Villas-Boas has urged fans to take encouragement from the experience of his former club Porto eight years ago.

“When Porto left the old stadium to go into the new stadium - the Dragao - nobody liked the name, nobody liked the site, nobody liked the stadium, and nobody liked the idea of moving,” said Villas-Boas. “Because the historic presence of the old stadium on that site meant something enormous for the fans but if you go back to Porto now, there is not one single person who remembers the old stadium.

“Everybody is in love with the new stadium. It’s a beautiful stadium, it’s a magnificent site and everybody is happy with the move.

“Because it took us into the future, brought us

more revenue in the end, and made us play in a magnificent stadium.”

Moyes is likely to deploy a defensive formation as striker Victor Anichebe remains on the sidelines with a groin problem. That is likely to see Tim Cahill, the Australia international, used as a lone forward, a role he carried out to good effect in similar circumstances at Manchester City in September.

Everton stifled Roberto Mancini’s expensively-assembled team for three quarters of that match before being beaten 2-0 and Cahill claimed his team-mates enjoy nothing better than attempting to upset the odds.

“When we are up against it w e seem to shine a bit and try and fight our way out of a corner - the main thing for us it to keep the unity and keep the strength on the pitch,” he said. “We need to have the determination and grit to go to a place like Chelsea and get the right result. We know they’ve been banging in the goals left, right and centre but we need to focus on our strengths.

“It’s exciting - Chelsea are one of the biggest teams in the country if not the world and for us it’s a great challenge to go there and put in a great performance.” —AFP

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BREMEN: Dortmund’s Ilkay Guendogan, right, and Bremen’s Philipp Bargfrede challenge for the ball during the German first division Bundesliga soccer match between Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund in Bremen, Germany, yesterday. — AP

Liverpool test for United LIVERPOOL: Manchester United head to Liverpool at the weekend for a significant test of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team’s improved away form. United won a record 19th league title last season—moving ahead of Liverpool’s tally of 18 — despite their worst away record since the start of the Premier League.

They have improved that in the current campaign, with two wins and a draw from their three away games, with a 1-1 draw at Stoke the only points they have dropped so far. But they will have to improve their record against their old rivals if they are to retain their unbeaten record.

They have lost three consecutive matches at Anfield, with Ferguson recently admitting that his team have been outfought on their recent trips to Merseyside.

Nemanja Vidic, who could return from a calf problem he sustained on the opening weekend of the season, was sent off in two of those three matches.

With Manchester City hosting Aston

Villa, United know that they could lose ground in the title race without a positive result against Kenny Dalglish’s team.

England striker Wayne Rooney, who started his career at another of Liverpool’s bitter rivals Everton, feels the short trip to Anfield is the hardest game of the season.

“For me, Liverpool is always the toughest place to go to and win,” Rooney said.

“They’ll be pushing to get into the top four and with the signings they’ve got they’re capable of doing that so we’ll have to be aware of them and try to beat them this time. “They’ve made some good signings and obviously with them not qualifying for the Champions League last season they’ll be desperate to get back into that.” At least Ferguson’s injury concerns have eased in recent weeks, with Vidic coming through Serbia’s 1-0 defeat to Slovenia in midweek.

Tom Cleverley and Rafael Da Silva are now United’s only long-term absentees as they enter a congested phase of the sea-

son. Dalglish’s return to the Liverpool manager’s job in January has added further spice to this fixture. Ferguson made toppling fellow Scot Dalglish’s Liverpool his main priority when he moved to Old Trafford almost 25 years ago.

And the rivalry continued when United went head to head for the Premier League title with Dalglish’s Blackburn. Dalglish, who may give Steven Gerrard a first Premier League start of the season, is keen to play down the importance of the two managers ahead of today’s fixture and he is adamant that closing United’s sevenpoint advantage is his only motivation.

“We’ve got an opportunity to reduce the gap and it’s up to us to take it,” he said. “They are a fantastic team, a hugely successful football club, and we know it’s going to be a very difficult game. But I think they’ll look at it and think exactly the same thing.

“I don’t have any individual contest with Fergie. It’s the football clubs who

play. We don’t play anymore. We can’t really influence it other than in the buildup and preparation for the games. The most important thing for us is how we compete as a team on the pitch.

“I’m not egotistical, I’m not in this to get one over anyone else. This football club is more important than me and always will be. “The result on Saturday is more important because it’s about how millions of other people feel, rather than how I feel. It’s not a boxing match, it’s a game of football. “They are in a position that everyone wants to be in, and that’s top position in the league. You cannot argue with that because you want to be there yourself. “They’ve set a standard for everyone else to follow or surpass and it’s up to us to take up the challenge.” Glen Johnson, Martin Kelly, Daniel Agger and Fabio Aurelio have all overcome recent problems to be in contention for one of the most eagerly-awaited matches of the Premier League season. —AFP

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ubbed ‘The Masterpiece’, the pop superstar - who famously wore a gown made entirely out of meat to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010 - fashioned the skimpy leotard and flowing train after thousands of her ‘Little Monsters’ sent in pictures of themselves as part of the star’s new MAC Viva Glam campaign. Created by Gaga’s resident stylist Nicola Formichetti, the images have been printed on to fabric the same colour as the 25year-old singer’s new lipstick for the cosmetics brand, which will raise money for AIDS awareness causes. Despite her eccentric fashion choices, the 25-year-old singer - real name Stefani Germanotta - managed to go unrecognised when she went out make-up free to a London pub last week. An onlooker at the Duke of Wellington pub in Chelsea told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Staff didn’t recognise her. She had no make-up on and very normal clothes, just baggy trousers and butch, black, flat shoes. And definitely no wig. “Gaga was chatting to staff, complimenting one on her tattoo. But within half an hour she was overheard saying, ‘This is crazy, I can’t believe no one recognizes me.’ Weirdly, she then started making outrageous comments to people passing by and generally drawing attention to herself.” Meanwhile, the singer has won a court injunction against a cartoon character called

Lady Goo Goo after lawyers ruled there was a link between Gaga and the nappy-wearing baby that appears on website Moshi Monsters.

Lady Goo Goo’s tune ‘Peppy-razzi’ - spoofing Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’ - caused her to become an internet sensation, but London’s High Court has now banned Mind Candy, the British parent firm of Moshi Monsters, from distributing any more tracks by the cartoon character. Michael Acton Smith, founder and CEO of Mind Candy and creator of Moshi Monsters, said: “This court ruling is a huge disappointment. It’s pretty obvious that kids will be able to tell the difference between the two characters. “It was all done in the name of fun and we would have thought that Lady Gaga could have seen the humor behind this parody.”

Ellie Goulding has moved out of her boyfriend’s home

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he ‘Starry Eyed’ singer decided to leave the apartment she was sharing with her man, BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James, after he allegedly complained her huge amount of stuff was taking over the property. Although Ellie has found herself a new home, the couple are not splitting and are still committed to one another. A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “They’re doing what’s best for them, and they’re happy to have their own places at the moment.

They’re definitely still together.” Now Ellie is living apart from Greg she should have even more time to indulge her passion for the gym. The 24-year-old pop star - who performed at Prince William and Duchess Catherine’s wedding reception previously revealed she likes to exercise as much as she can to stay healthy. She said: “I train everyday, I go to the gym and I run, row and do weights as well ... I’m pretty healthy too but I definitely do have my vices, I love alcohol, especially cocktails which I know are really sugary but you have to have a bit of the stuff you like, I drink lots of green tea and water in the day so it’s like I’m either really bad or really good.”

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he ‘Stayin’ Alive’ singer was taken ill at his home in Thame, Oxfordshire, England, and his wife Dwina called an ambulance for him which then took him to the specialist stomach unit at a nearby hospital. A source told the Daily Express newspaper: “An ambulance rushed over to pick him up. His wife was with him and she obviously looked very worried.

He looked in severe pain.” Robin - who is teetotal and a vegetarian - has suffered from crippling stomach pains for years and medical professionals have been unable to diagnose an exact cause for the ailment. A friend of the star said: “He would never go to hospital unless he really had to. He is a very brave man.” This is the second time this year the 61-year-old musician has been hospitalized with abdominal discomfort. In April, he was taken in for tests and was in so much agony he had to cancel a series of Brazilian concerts, including performances in Sao Paolo and Brasilia, as doctors warned him not to travel. In 2010, Robin underwent surgery for a blocked intestine - the same condition which led to the death of his twin brother and Bee Gees bandmate Maurice in 2003. Robin also has an elder sibling Barry, 65, who was part of The Bee Gees.

he ‘Firework’ hitmaker dined on meat pies and Yorkshire puddings after arriving in Sheffield, North England, where she begins the latest leg of her tour.

As well as being keen to try the local cuisine the singer who is married to British comic star Russell Brand - was also keen to learn about the city’s local history. Justin Rowntree, owner of Silversmiths restaurant where Katy dined, told local newspaper The Star: “I got a call from the Leopold Hotel where Katy and her people were staying to say she was on her way. “When she got here Katy was very interested in how we got our name Silversmith’s and was intrigued to hear about Sheffield’s history of silver manufacture.

Then she tucked into a meal. We first introduced her to Yorkshire pudding. She thought it was funny that we ate puddings as starters but once she got her head around it Katy loved it. “Then she had a Whirlow Hall Farm meat pie and Henderson’s Relish gravy which she devoured. Every plate on the table was completely empty when the party left.” Katy later took to her twitter page to enthuse about the food she had enjoyed in her “beloved” England. She wrote: “FINALLY! Beloved ENGLAND! 1st thing I did was stuff me gob w/some yorkshire puddings & meat pies from Silversmiths in Sheffield. Ah bless. (sic)” She later enjoyed another tasty treat. She wrote: “yes, proper beans on toast ... I’ve missed you.”