20 May 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

Pakistan holds repeat poll despite killing

Internet in ‘coma’ as Iran election looms

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RAJAB 10, 1434 AH

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Kharafi wins $930m in damages from Libya Group wins arbitration decision through Arab League

KUWAIT: M A Al Kharafi and Sons of Kuwait has won a final arbitration decision worth 1.2 billion Libyan dinars ($930 million) against the Libyan government as a result of a breach of contract by the Libyan government. In 2006, M A Kharafi and Sons entered into contract with the Libyan government to establish a seafront resort in Tripoli, which included a five-star hotel, hotel apartments and villas, and a shopping mall through a 90-year Build Operate Transfer (BOT) concession.

Until 2010, the company, which had spent large sums on feasibility studies, design works and management contracts, had not formally received the land from the Libyan government.

The former Libyan regime then cancelled its contract with the Kharafi group. As a result the Kuwaiti firm decided to proceed directly to arbitration based on the Arab League’s Joint Investment Protection Agreement to claim for 90 years of lost revenue. The arbitration panel awarded Kharafi Group 1.2 billion Libyan dinars (US$930 million) including interest as a final decision that cannot be contested. The award is the first of its kind in the Arab League under the Joint Investment Protection Agreement between Arab countries. — Mid-east.info

conspiracy theories

The thin line

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

W

hat do I benefit as a Kuwaiti from the government’s sudden savage harassment and attack against expats in the country? I have the right to know if it is in my interest. Does that bring me more money? Does it flourish the economy of the country by kicking expats out? Does it solve the unemployment amongst us Kuwaitis? Definitely no.

Let’s face it: the kinds of jobs expats are doing are not our primary target. Why the crazy campaign which everybody has been noticing for four weeks now? It is done to legalize matters.

There is difference between legalizing and taking care of the security in any country. All of a sudden the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and Ministry of Interior are at war. It seems they are everywhere and they chase expats. Daily the ministry is issuing the number of violators who have been deported.

What an accomplishment! You should be proud of yourselves, guys. It looks like people who are sitting in the ministries do not own businesses themselves and they do not know what harm is done to the market by this sudden attack and chasing of expats, as if they are all criminals. The funniest part is that they are boasting about it by informing us daily on the deportation numbers. But surprisingly, no company or person was punished that brought these souls into Kuwait, took a handsome amount for himself and threw them to wander illegally in the country. Of course, they will not tell us about these people because they have wasta and are influential.

Let’s talk about the ministry that calls for the deportation of “marginal labour”. If they understand the word correctly, this kind of labour is important for any country. If the country is emptied of this labour, all of us will cry when unable to paint our house or fix something. If I need a plumber, do I need to go and recruit a plumber on my sponsorship from a foreign country - be it Bangladesh, India or Pakistan? If anyone needs household matters to be fixed at home, we need labourers, the porters in the co-op, the airport.

Are they all marginal? Can the airport do without them? Can the co-op serve without the porters filling our bags and pulling our trolleys to our cars? Can schools be cleaned without all these janitors (commonly known as farash or farasha)?

Can hospitals survive without them? Can any office run without an office boy to make chai (tea) and clean? Can any company run its business without security people?

Can you explain what exactly is the marginal labour you target to kick out? Or maybe because you do not have businesses and you do not care.

You just try to convince us that you are more loyal to the country than us and that you are more patriotic by kicking out marginal labour out of Kuwait. This would harm businesses. Can we do without taxi drivers? Or are these also marginal jobs? Are the drivers who drive the buses which 50 percent of expats rely for transportation, called marginal labours too? How about the drivers who take our kids to school? Do we not need them anymore? Can you call us, the people who have businesses and discuss it with us, because it has an impact on our operations. We are not government employees. Our salaries are not secured in the banks in the end of the month. It is easy for you to sit and invent new rules without properly studying their impact on the country.

Are you trying to convince us that unemployment among Kuwaitis can be solved by doing all of that? There is a thin line between harassment and legalizing and organizing the labour force.

Max 40º Min 24º High Tide 07:44 & 19:10 Low Tide 00:40 & 13:37

‘Hundreds’ deported for traffic offences

BARCELONA: Members of the Castellers “Vila de Gracia” form their famous human tower called “castell” in the Barcelona neighborhood of Gracia yesterday. A “castell” is a human tower traditionally built during festivals in many places in Catalonia. At these festivals, several “colles” or teams compete to build the most impressive towers they can. — AP

Tunisia Salafists clash with police

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KUWAIT: Kuwait has deported hundreds of expats for traffic offences in the past month, a report said yesterday, drawing condemnation from a human rights group. The Al-Anbaa newspaper cited a senior interior ministry official as saying that as many as 1,258 foreigners have been deported for traffic violations since a crackdown began about a month ago.

Foreign residents caught driving without a licence, using their cars to carry paying passengers, jumping a red light for a second time, or breaking the speed limit by more than 40 km per hour, can be deported without a court order.

The Kuwait Society for Human Rights called on the government to halt the deportations describing them as “oppressive”. “The oppressive measure against expatriates... violates the basic principles of human rights,” it said. The group warned that the measure could tarnish the state’s image abroad at a time when its human rights record is under scrutiny.

Kuwait is home to 2.6 million expatriates who form 68 percent of the country’s 3.8 million population.

Kuwaiti nationals who commit similar offences have their vehicles seized and can be sent to court.

Last month, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Thekra Al-Rasheedi said the state plans to deport around 100,000 expatriates every year for the next decade to reduce the number of foreigners living in the Gulf state by one million. She did not say what measures she would adopt to carry out the plan.

Foreigners need to hold a university degree, earn KD 400 a month and have lived in Kuwait for at least two years to be eligible to apply for a driver’s licence, under a decision issued nearly a decade ago. —AFP

Ticket for $590.5m lottery sold in US

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Syrian army, Hezb storm rebel town

MPs warn govt on oil appointments

Israel threatens more strikes

Popular Movement seeks members

AMMAN: Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops yesterday and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks fail. Activists said it was the fiercest fighting in Syria’s two year-old civil war involving Hezbollah, a Shiite group backed by Iran which they said appeared to be helping President Bashar Al-Assad secure a vital corridor in case Syria fragments. Speaking from Qusair near the border with Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, activist Hadi Abdallah said Syrian warplanes bombed the town in the morning and shells were hitting the town at a rate of up to 50 a minute. At least 32 people were killed.

Assad poured scorn on the idea that a USand Russian-sponsored peace conference

planned for Geneva next month would end fighting that is deepening the sectarian fault lines between Sunnis against Shiites across the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “preparing for every scenario” in Syria and held out the prospect of more Israeli strikes inside Syria to stop Hezbollah and other opponents of Israel getting advanced weapons. “We will act to ensure the security interest of Israel’s citizens in the future as well,” Netanyahu said. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied reports that it attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored near Damascus this month that it believed were awaiting delivery to Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006 and is allied with Assad. — Reuters (See Page 8)

By B Izzak KUWAIT: A number of MPs yesterday warned the government against what they called “rushed” appointments in the oil sector after the government reshuffled leading posts in the vital sector amid a bitter controversy over a $2.2 billion payment to US’ Dow Chemical. The Cabinet at the weekend suspended leading officials at state-owned Petrochemicals Industries Co, which signed the multibillion-dollar deal with Dow, and referred the whole issue to the public prosecution.

In another major step, the Supreme Petroleum Council and the Cabinet removed the chief executive officer of national oil company Kuwait Petroleum

Corp (KPC) Farouq Al-Zanki and appointed Nezar Al-Adasani in his place. A longserving oil executive, Adasani was a member of KPC’s board of directors and the chairman of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co, a subsidiary of KPC, before he was surprisingly appointed in the post.

The Cabinet also reduced the membership of KPC board of directors and appointed a number of new faces.

The appointments however were not to the liking of a number of MPs. MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah called on the prime minister to suspend the appointments and threatened that if he does not respond, “we will exceed the agreement you have reached with the Assembly Continued from Page 2

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LOCAL

Kuwait to hold 16th Int’l Music Festival

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received yesterday a host of top local officials at Seif Palace. HH the Amir received HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The Amir also received Parliament Speaker Ali Fahad Al-Rashed, as well as H H the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. —KUNA

French expatriate commits suicide

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A 63-year-old French expatriate committed suicide at his residence in Salmiya by shooting himself with a pistol inside his mouth, security sources revealed.

Mahboula clash A violent scuffle broke out among a number of expats in Al-Mahboula, security sources said.

After receiving a report about it, police reached

the site only to find a man already dead in the courtyard of the building. Sources added that a number of expats living on the first floor of the building were involved in the fighting. One of them held the other and threw him out of the apartment, causing him to fall to the ground. He died on the spot. The deceased was identified as a Nepalese national. The culprit was caught and handed over to the concerned authorities, while the body of the deceased was taken for criminal investigation.

Citizen stolen A Kuwaiti man complained to the officers at the Jaber Al-Ali police station that two people stole stuff from his car that was parked at the cooperative’s parking space in the same area.

The thieves broke the side glass of the car and stole KD200 and an expensive watch besides an iPad and sunglasses. When they saw the owner approaching, they ran away but he was able to note down the plate number of their car. A case was filed.

Municipal raids in Mahboula, Hadiya KUWAIT: A field inspection campaign carried out by the Ahmadi municipality authorities resulted in more than 50 citations being handed out. The campaign covered foodstuff stores, saloons and public stores at AlMahboula and Hadiya.

Municipality branch director engineer Fahad Dughaim Al-Otaibi said that citations were handed out for running stores with expired licenses, dealing in food items past their expiry dates, employing laborers without health papers and failure to abide by

norms governing hygiene and other violations. Al-Otaibi said that the inspection campaigns will continue and surprise checks can happen at any time of the day or night. He urged everyone to abide by municipality’s rules and regulations.

KUWAIT: Kuwait is set to hold the 16th International Music Festival starting today to celebrate World Music Day, which falls on June 21. The festival organized by Kuwait’s National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters will include a variety of musical shows by artists and bands of different countries. These events give local musicians the chance to promote their art, and also give audiences in Kuwait the opportunity to taste arts from different cultures.

Lyricist Bader Boresli will be honored in the festival for his famous patriotic songs which will be played under the lead of Maestro Ahmad Hamdan, alongside singers Abdullah Al-Rowaishid, Suleiman Al-Mulla, Faisal Al-Saad, Sina Al-Faris, and Bassam.

Bands participating in the event include Paravonista from Bolivia, Naya which is a women band from Jordan, state Musicians of the Turkish Cultural and Tourism Ministry, Branko Krismanovic from Serbia, and a folk music night is also held by vocalists Fattooma and Sulaiman Al-Qassar. The closing ceremony will feature the orchestral performance “Al-Aasjad” by music composer Dr Sulaiman Al-Daikan.

All musical events will be held at AlDasma Theater starting 8:30 pm, except the Serbian band show which will be held at Kuwait National Museum theater. The idea of a World Music Day was created by American musician Joel Cohen in 1976 while working in French National Radio.

The occasion was later marked with the blessing of French Minister of Culture Jack

Lang after the presidential elections in 1981. The idea spread in Europe in 1982, and later went international in 1985 where more than 100 countries started marking the day in celebration of music. —KUNA

MPs warn govt on oil...

Continued from Page 1 speaker”. Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and speaker Ali Al-Rashed agreed to work to resolve a political crisis that was triggered when MPs filed to grill the interior and oil ministers and the government then boycotted Assembly sessions. Details of the agreement between the two officials were not published but it was agreed that the government will attend the Assembly session on May 28.

Member of the Public Funds Protection Committee MP Saadoun Hammad said the committee will speed up its investigation in the Dow issue and intends to recommend to refer Oil Minister Hani Hussein to the public prosecution over losses to public funds and payment of the penalty. He said the committee will summon members of the team that negotiated the payment with Dow to hear their testimony on the payment of the penalty and who had asked them to pay it.

MP Safa Al-Hashem described the quick

move to make the appointments as “suspicious” and charged that some of the names have close relations to the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Islamic Constitutional Movement, which she has been targeting for a long time. She said the investigation committees have condemned the oil minister and he should face next week’s grilling, adding that the appointments indicate that the prime minister has been sidelined by the oil minister and two other ministers. MP Faisal AlKandari called on the oil minister to stay away from personal matters with regards to appointments and dismissals in the oil sector.In another development, the opposition Popular Action Movement yesterday opened registration for members, which marks the body becoming an official popular political movement after it remained for several years as a parliamentary bloc.

Registration at several diwaniyas across the country will continue for one month. The movement has already elected some of its office bearers and committees.

Kuwaiti, Qatari teams discuss marine life KUWAIT: The Kuwait Dive Team of the Environmental Voluntary Foundation are hosting a team of Qatari environmentalists over a three -day period for an exchange program aimed at exchanging expertise in the field of marine life protection. Yesterday, members of Qatar Scientific Club’s Marine Environment unit and the Kuwait Dive Team sat down together in a number of joint workshops to discuss protecting the marine environment.

The Qataris spoke of a number of leading environmental projects in their country, including a whale shark protection program, head of the Kuwait Dive Team Waleed Al-Fadel told KUNA. These whale sharks are found in large numbers in the Arabian Gulf waters north of the country, and a number of studies and researches were conducted on the nature of their life cycle, as well as problems they are faced with in the region. AlFadel went on to stress the importance of the construction of artificial fish colonies and the initiation of environmental awareness at schools in contributing to shedding light on these efforts. For their part, the Kuwait Dive Team held a presentation of their own marine environment protection programs, which include the placing of marine buoys and coral reef and the removal of ship wreckage and fishing nets that have latched on to coral reef, which cause environmental and navigational risks, after which attendants carried out a workshop on the roles, he stated. Al-Fadel expressed delight at the meeting, aimed at cooperation and coordination in protecting the marine environment, hailing the efforts exerted by the youth of Qatar. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Members of Qatar Scientific Club’s Marine Environment unit and the Kuwait Dive Team sat down yesterday together in a number of joint workshops to discuss protecting the marine environment. —KUNA

Kuwait Cement Co to sponsor KIE 2013 KUWAIT: The Kuwait Cement Company announced it will be sponsoring the Kuwaiti Industries Exhibition 2013 organized by Kuwait International Fair from May 27 to June 5 at Hall No 8 in Fair Ground in Mishref.

Sales and Marketing Director of Kuwait Cement Co, Ali Hussain AlKandari, said the company was looking forward to participate and ensure its permanent presence in the specialized exhibitions in the industrial field as well as in housing and building. He said the Kuwait industries exhibition was considered as an important industry-related activity held annually and the company will participate in it.

With a number of industrial companies working in Kuwait, the company is keen to participate in this annual exhi-

bition to showcase the important role it has been playing for the past four decades and how it has been actively participating in the growth story of construction and industrial domains.

That is how the company has been serving the cause of national economy.

The participation will give a chance to cement consumers in all sectors to meet with company officials and know about the services and products provided by the company.

Al-Kandari said that Kuwait Cement Co. was established in 1968 and its current capital was pegged at KD 63.8 million. It founded its factory in 1972 and continued developing its production capacity which has now reached more than 5 million tons annually. It makes Portland Cement normal kind and salt

resistance/5, Ramadi Cement and GGBS products which are required in many mega projects in the state.

He added the company’s factory has been expanded to produce klinker, a basic product for the cement industry. This venture has been completed by the grace of Allah and the initial work for the oven has started. Now, the company can produce all its requirement of klinker, amounting to five million tons annually, which will enable the company to meet the demands of the growth plan for the state, other projects and new residential cities, all of which need cement products. He emphasized that the Kuwait Cement Company was the only one in the country producing all the cement used here.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LOCAL

MPs initiate moves to delay grilling motions for a month Session on May 28 to be crucial

KUWAIT: A delegation from Kuwait National Guard’s music band consisting of Unit Commander Colonel Jamal Al-Jawher and major Abdul Nasser Bader Al-Yaseen paid a visit to the United States Army music unit in order to exchange experiences and to get acquainted with the latest musical instruments and training methods. They were met by Marine forces musical unit commander who took the delegation on a tour of the music school and training courses.

116 senior posts in government vacant KUWAIT: More than a hundred senior posts remain vacant in state departments concerned with economic, financial and audit affairs, a local newspaper reported yesterday quoting sources privy to the situation.

According to government insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity, 116 job vacancies, some of which have been vacant for seven years, were there in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Central Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait Investment authorities. The vacancies pertain to ‘vital’ posts including those of directors and supervisors, which the sources insist “need to

be filled” if Kuwait was to implement HH the Amir’s vision to turn the country into a financial and commercial hub in the region.

Meanwhile, the sources identified three reasons why senior positions in important state departments remained vacant for several years.

“First, there is a lack of strategic planning and long-term vision with regards to senior officials’ appointments, while employees in the said departments have failed to meet conditions to be promoted to senior posts. In the meantime, qualified candidates find little incentive to pursue a career in leading public sector posts,” they told Al-Qabas newspaper. — Al-Qabas

KUWAIT: A number of lawmakers are leading efforts to delay the grilling motions filed against the oil and interior ministers for a month, which would ultimately put off the debate until the next parliamentary term in October, a local newspaper reported yesterday quoting sources with knowledge of the case.

Speaking to Al-Qabas on condition of anonymity, the sources indicated that Deputy Speaker Mubarak Al-Khurainej and MPs Ali AlOmair and Abdullah Al-Mayouf have so far obtained almost enough number of approvals from MPs to help pass their proposal during the parliament’s session on May 28.

MPs Dr Yousuf Al-Zalzalah and Safaa AlHashem last week filed motions to grill First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah on allegations of failure to cooperate with the parliament, failure to implement court orders, the state of security and attempting to cover up a Kuwaiti “terror” cell having links with Islamists under trial in the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, MPs Saadoun Hammad, Yaqoub Al-Sane’a and Nasser Al-Merri filed to grill Minister of Oil Hani Husain over the $2.2

billion penalty payment to US-based Dow Chemical, as well as accusations of allowing commercial deals with Israel, not taking any action to prevent the sale of alcohol at Kuwait-owned gas stations in Europe and approving illegal staff promotions at stateowned oil companies.

Meanwhile, Al-Rai reported quoting cabinet insiders that ministers were set to attend next week’s session after missing last week sessions in the wake of the grilling motions.

They further indicated that there was a great possibility that the cabinet will pass requests to delay the grillings for three weeks till a cabinet reshuffle “that includes five to six ministers” is carried out and the Constitutional Court pronounces its much anticipated ruling on the voting system on June 16.

Regarding the K-Dow deal, MP Al-Sane’a identified three parties as being responsible for the fallout from the deal. “The first party was the weak cabinet which capitulated to lawmakers’ pressure and the second party is the Popular Action Bloc which blackmailed the government into canceling the deal,” he said in a statement to the press on Saturday.

The Kuwaiti government had called off the

deal to establish what was to be known as KDow Petrochemicals in late 2008 under pressure from the opposition in the parliament, prompting Dow Chemical to sue for damages as per a penalty clause in the contract and subsequently win $2.2 billion in damages.

Meanwhile, Al-Sane’a accused the Muslim Brotherhood, which does not have any official representation in Kuwait but is widely associated with the Islamic Constitutional Movement, of “forcing” the government to put the “unusual” penalty clause in the contract.

In the meantime, Al-Sane’a argued that Kuwait has a chance to reclaim the money paid to Dow Chemical if there was evidence available “to prove foul play on the part of officials overseeing the deal.”. In that regard, he called the government to “form an international investigation committee” in order to look for any evidence of that nature. “The committee should be able to probe the bank accounts of all the parties to the deal the Kuwaiti and the American side. If a manipulation was to be discovered, cases should be filed with American courts to demand refunds,” he said. —Al-Qabas and Al-Rai

320 more illegal residents arrested KUWAIT: The ongoing campaign initiated by the Ministry of Interior to stamp out illegal residents in the country continued yesterday with the immigration detectives launching a sudden swoop in Al-Rai industrial area, mostly nurseries, car wash centers, secondhand furniture stores etc. The campaign resulted in the arrest of 320 illegal residents, fugitives, deserters, marginal laborers and household laborers.

75 held Meanwhile, a security source said a police campaign resulted in the arrest of a large number of people from several suspicious places. The arrested also included some Kuwaiti citizens.

The source said the criminal detectives raided these places on Saturday evening, targeting three residential towers in Salmiya. The operation resulted in the arrest of at least 75 young men and women.

These included both citizens and expats.

Parking lot Another security source said First Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud issued an order to impound any car that is found in the parking slots for handicapped. The confiscated cars will be kept in the traffic department garage for two months and penalties will be collected, the source added.

Nurseries under scrutiny Director of Woman and Childhood Department at the Social Affairs and Labor Ministry, Iqbal AlRumaideen, said a group of inspectors were asked to supervise the nurseries and report any violations, besides identifying those whose licenses should not be renewed.

She said the department increased its role by making surprise visits to the nurseries to check out how they dealt with the children. The visits were also video graphed so that no violation escapes notice. She said that the compensation for nurseries that were closed due to the spread of swine flu will be paid soon.

KUNA head receives envoys KUWAIT: Board Chairman and Director General of Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Sheikh Mubarak AlDuaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah received at his office yesterday Lebanese Ambassador Dr Kheder Hilwe, Palestinian Ambassador Rami Tahboub (above), and North Korean Ambassador Kyung-Sik Kim. During the meeting, the chairman discussed with his guests the role of the media in consolidating bilateral

relations among nations, and establishing communication and convergence among culturally diverse people. Also, Sheikh Mubarak affirmed KUNA’s keenness in supporting Kuwait’s relations with other countries, embodying Kuwait’s policy that is based on openness towards the outside world and constantly striving for attaining peace and stability in the world.

During the past few years, KUNA

has gone through a major development process by providing new media services and expanding its correspondent missions across the world with the aim of providing further news credibility, objectivity, and accuracy, noted the chairman.

M o re ove r, S h e i k h M u b a r a k added that the agenc y suppor ts any effort that assists in boosting Kuwait’s relations with countries of the world. —KUNA

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LOCAL

Man dies after car falls off bridge in Salmiya ‘Deported’ Gulf national arrested KUWAIT: A male driver was killed when he lost control over his car that fell off a bridge in Salmiya recently. Police responded to emergency calls about a Kuwait municipality vehicle falling off the Khatabi bridge after hitting the concrete barricade on the side. The Asian man’s body was extricated from the sedan after paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene. It was taken to the forensic department after crime scene investigators examined the crash site. A case was filed for investigations.

Mom reports addict Investigations are on in search of a drug addict after his mother approached police for help. In her appeal to Salmiya officers, the Kuwaiti woman expressed concern about her drug abusing son, saying all her attempts to talk him out of it and even paying for his Omra trip have been in vain.

The woman said she was apprehensive of her own security as well as that of her daughters as her son often invites his friends to abuse drugs at her house.

Hawally thief netted Maidan Hawally police managed to arrest a man who admitted to his involvement in 15 instances of theft reported recently in the area.

The Iranian man was reportedly arrested on Friday following investigations into multiple cases of thefts reported by shops and car owners. He

was caught red handed when he broke a car’s window, and was taken for investigations where he confessed to his crimes. He was referred to the proper authorities to face charges.

Drunk duo held Two people were arrested in Jahra on Friday night for attacking waiters while they were under the influence of alcohol. Police arrived at an Indian food restaurant in the industrial zone of AlJahra and arrested the duo. Investigations revealed that the two stateless men flew into a rage after workers at the Indian restaurant failed to comply with their order for Lebanese food. The two were taken to the area’s police station where a case was filed.

Deported man arrested Traffic police arrested a drunken driver on a highway south of the country recently, only to discover that the man was wanted for entering Kuwait illegally. According to the police report, the Gulf national was pulled over for reckless driving before officers found him heavily intoxicated.

He was taken to the Criminal Evidence General Department, where his identification led the police to discover that he was deported previously over drug-related crimes. He was referred to the proper authorities to face charges which included forgery of official documents as it appeared he used a fake identity to reenter Kuwait.

Forged passport Meanwhile, officers at the Kuwait International Airpor t arrested a man who attempted to enter Kuwait using a forged passport. The 39-year-old Nepalese man arrived on a flight from a Gulf state and reportedly tried to hoodwink the blacklisting procedure. He was on that blacklist as he was deported from Kuwait on a previous occasion. The man was arrested after the fingerprint scan revealed his true identity. He was taken to the proper authorities for further action.

Thief hurt in escape bid A thief sustained several injuries after he jumped from the balcony of a Mangaf apartment when its residents returned home unexpectedly. According to the police report, the family which lives in the apartment, heard strange noises coming from the balcony when they entered their place. The head of the family went to investigate the place and found a masked man apparently tr ying to rob the place. Before he could be caught, the suspect jumped from the third-floor apartment and lay motionless on the floor. He was taken in an ambulance to the Adan Hospital where he was diagnosed with multiple fractures and contusions. Police are waiting for him to be discharged from the hospital in order arrest and question him.

Terminal 2 expansion enhances flydubai passenger experience KUWAIT: Passengers travelling on flydubai are enjoying an improved departure at Dubai International Airport following the opening of the new extension at Terminal 2. The bigger, brighter terminal not only has more check-in desks and self-service kiosks but customers can also enjoy the comfort of a Marhaba Lounge and a range of services at the new business centre - a first for this terminal. flydubai’s CEO Ghaith Al-Ghaith said: “We look at every aspect of our passengers’ journey, not just the flight and the newly refurbished departures hall at Terminal 2 provides a convenient start to their journey and a better customer experience. The transition has been smooth and we hope our passengers enjoy the range of new facilities available to them.”

The departure and immigration area is the first stage of an AED600 million two-year redevelopment of Dubai Terminal 2, which will see it able to handle more than 10 million passengers every year and is due for completion in 2014.

Richard Talian, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development at Dubai Airports said: “As the second largest airline operating out of Dubai International as well as being the main carrier at Terminal 2, we want to provide flydubai’s passengers with an enjoyable experience. We have worked closely with flydubai to ensure the terminal meets their needs as they continue on their rapid growth trajectory.”

As part of the opening, flydubai introduced its mascot, Maya, to her new home. Created exclusively

by the producers of the award-winning Emirati animation series FREEJ, flydubai’s most well-known cabin crew member took her co-stars from flydubai’s on board safety video to see the new terminal.

Whilst flydubai’s offering is pretty complete, aside of enhancing services on the ground it is also looking at improving the on board experience for passengers.

Earlier this year it became the first airline to offer daily updated digital newspapers through its In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system and it plans to unveil a new food menu later this year.

“Passengers will soon be able to pre-order their on board meal, reflecting flavours from across our network, ensuring that they know exactly what food they are about to enjoy with the quality that you expect from flydubai,” added Al-Ghaith. flydubai operates a simple model in which fares include the price of the seat, all taxes and 7kg hand baggage in addition to one small laptop bag or handbag. Checked baggage starts at AED 50 for 20kg, while a seat with extra legroom costs AED100. Once on board, passengers can choose from a range of optional extras, including in-flight entertainment packages priced from AED 10 or select from the varied menu of refreshments and Duty Free items.

More information about flydubai can be found on the airline’s website (www.flydubai.com).

KUWAIT: Fawzy Al-Thunayan, General Manager, Board Affairs at Gulf Bank presenting the contribution cheque to the Director of KACCH, Margaret Al-Sayer and the former Minister of Health, Dr Hilal Al-Sayer, during his visit to Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice.

Gulf Bank donates KD6,000 to KACCH KUWAIT: Gulf Bank has announced that it has donated KD6,000 to the Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospitals (KACCH) as part of its ongoing commitment to provide charitable support to medical institutions across Kuwait.

During his visit to “Bait Abdullah” Hospice, Fawzy Al-Thunayan, Gulf Bank’s General Manager-Board Affairs, presented the cheque to the KACCH Director Margaret AlSayer and former Minister of Health, Dr Hilal Al-Sayer who expressed their sincere thanks and appreciation for the pivotal role Gulf

Bank has made in caring for hospitalized children. KACCH is one of Kuwait’s leading NGOs, providing a wide range of services that are catered towards hospitalized children. The association organizes and conducts different activities for hospitalized children with an aim of reducing the adverse effects of hospitalization on their development and well-being. This donation is part of Gulf Bank’s annual contribution and ongoing commitment to help provide superior levels of health care and an enhanced stay for hospitalized children.

Lebanese PM-designate hails Kuwait’s support BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam praised Kuwait for always being in lead in support of Lebanon, namely its backing for reconstruction and development of the country.

Kuwait and Lebanon have been bound with intellectual, spiritual, and historical bonds that have been manifested in mutual cooperation and solidarity for years, said Salam in an interview. This relationship is unique in terms of the bonds of brotherhood and mutual cordial sentiments, Salam said, adding that these close relations have become an example to be followed, under the guidance of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah and other sagacious leaders of the Gulf State. The designate-premier, currently involved in intensive local consultations in preparation for forming his cabinet, expressed greetings to HH the Amir and to HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, addressing good wishes to the two top Kuwaiti figures.

He expressed deep gratitude to His Highness the Amir, the Kuwaiti Government, and the brotherly people for the assistance given to the people of Lebanon, affirming that the Lebanese have deep sentiments of

affection and respect toward HH Sheikh Sabah, the government, and people of Kuwait. Salam, son of the late premier of Lebanon Saeb Salam, also praised KUNA and the other Kuwaiti media for their role and keenness on cementing these ties and the mutual cooperation between the two countries.

Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has given Lebanon more than 20 loans worth $612 million, in addition to grants valued at $420 million. The Kuwaiti financial aid for Lebanon was used for financing projects in the health, education, communication, agriculture, and development sectors. Grass-root Kuwaiti associations and individuals have also backed Lebanon in diverse spheres. The close Kuwaiti-Lebanese ties go back a long way, with the Mediterranean country a favorite tourism destination for many Kuwaitis. Beirut supported Kuwait against the 1990 Iraqi aggression. Salam, recently picked up to head a new government, succeeded Neguib Mikati, a Sunni Muslim politician who hails from the northern city of Tripoli. Salam comes from a famous Beiruti Sunni family, traditionally close to decision-making and political quarters.— KUNA

Salem Al-Jeeran

Shaab Sea Club to host summer program KUWAIT: The Shaab Sea Club is preparing to organize a ‘summer club’ for children of all ages.

The club will feature various sports and entertainment related activities, a senior Touristic Enterprises Company official announced yesterday.

“The event includes swimming training, tennis, karate, football, table tennis and pool,” said Shaab Sea Club Supervisor Salem AlJeeran. He added that the program includes weekly trips to the Ice Skating Rink, Entertainment City, Messilah Beach and other TEC facilities, as well as tickets to the ‘Children Cinema’.

The program starts everyday from 8:00 am to 1:30 pm. Those desirous of participating will have to take KD40 monthly subscription for members and KD60 for non-members.

The Shaab Sea Club offers the families a 50 percent discount for every child registered after the second one. Al-Jeeran added that registration will be open for a limited period which will be announced soon.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LOCAL

News

in brief

Earthquake risk KUWAIT: The member of Kuwait Society for the Protection of the Environment, Dr. Fawziya AlRuwaih, said Kuwait was at risk of earthquakes resulting from human activities such as withdrawing underground water, oil production and injecting water into oil wells. Also, she said earthquakes could result due to movement of plate tectonics.

She said Kuwait was like a ship being rocked by waves, because it lies in the Arab plate which is close to the Asian-European plate, and away from the African one. She said there was no place safe from earthquakes, adding that they occur due to two reasons - either the movement of plate tectonics or due to increased activity of humans. She said Kuwait lies in the North-East of the Arabian Peninsula which is within the Arab plate that is moving towards the Asian-European plate as well as that of Iran, where medium scale earthquakes are taking place often.

Jaber Causeway Sources at the Ministry of Public Works said that the ministry has contracted with eight international consulting offices to super vise the Jaber Causeway and evaluate the project. Sources added that the ministry will publish this tender very soon after obtaining all necessary approvals from the concerned authorities in this matter, including from Central Tender Committee and Audit Bureau.

He said the consulting offices will help supervise the work on this project and will evaluate it, especially regarding sea related formalities that the local consulting offices find hard to execute.

Sources explained that the cost of this agreement for evaluation and supervision phase amounts to KD 46 million for five years. They said the eight companies which will evaluate and supervise the project are from the US and Europe. All of these are classified companies and have experience in this filed.

KUWAIT: British Ambassador to Kuwait Frank Baker held a reception at the Embassy garden on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s birthday. The reception was attended by a host of dignitaries and diplomats. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Interior denies requesting permission for visa transfer Fingerprint scanners to be used at checkpoints KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor denied news reports which hinted that the Interior Ministry rejected its request to allow domestic workers to transfer their visas to the private sector, a senior ministry official said in a statement made yesterday. “ The ministry had stopped transactions to transfer article 20 visas to article 18 visas for a few years as par t of its effor ts to regulate the labor market,” Undersecretary Abdulmuhsin Al-Mutairi told the Kuwait News Agency yesterday.

Local newspapers reported yesterday that the MSAL had contacted the Interior Ministry for permission to allow domestic workers to transfer their article 20 visas to an article 18 visa issued to a private sector employee. The reports quoted unnamed

Kin of Gitmo detainees renew plea KUWAIT: Families of the two Kuwaiti detainees in Guantanamo, Fayez Al-Kandari and Fawzi Al-Qudah, renewed their demand that Kuwaiti government make stronger efforts to ensure release of their sons, adding that the maltreatment the two Kuwaiti detainees were going through calls for immediate intervention to get them released.

Chairman of the popular committee of Gitmo detainees’ families, Khalid Al-Oudah, said the strikes inside the prison began in January when the Gitmo guards were changed and new guards from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries were posted. Also, the strictness displayed by the new guards triggered the wave of strikes, especially after some of their actions were considered as an insult to the Holy Quran.

Al-Oudah said there was no doubt that the wave of strikes at Gitmo was the most widespread since 11 years, adding that the statements of US President Barack Obama about shutting down the Gitmo detention center were like a scratched gramophone record that repeats itself every now and then.

He said, “We urge those who have the authority or influence to exert all efforts to stop the suffering of our sons and others in this center, and these detainees should be handed back to their countries.”

He said if the detained people were guilty, they can be tried in a court, but things cannot continue as they were now. He said while the US administration is knows for protecting people’s freedoms, justice and the state of law, and also has a highly respected civil constitution, even then it violates the same constitution, human rights and international principles.

MSAL sources who indicated that the request was denied “to avoid possible negative impact” of allowing the transfer such as prompting domestic helpers to flee their employers’ houses and seek jobs in the private sec tor. The MSAL had reportedly hoped to allocate a period starting June 1 during which domestic workers can legalize their status or find jobs in the private sector so that companies are not forced to recruit labor forces from abroad.

In other news, Al-Rai reported quoting security sources that police officers have been handed portable fingerprint scanners to be used at checkpoints whenever necessary for verifying anyone’s identity.

The device allows the police to retrieve information from the ministry’s database

instantly after a person’s fingerprint is scanned, said the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Suspected individuals are currently sent to the Criminal Evidence General Department for verification of their identity. The sources say that the new system allows policemen to see a suspec t ’s record, visa validity and other information “on the spot”, and thus helps the police arrest fugitives and deportees who reenter Kuwait using forged passports.

The sources identified the Friday market, the Jahra Industrial Area, the Abdullah Port, Al-Sulaibiya, Fahaheel, and Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh as the places where the new system is likely to be first introduced. Separately, Undersecretar y Assistant for the Labor Department in the

MSAL, Jamal Al-Dousary, announced that inspection campaign against outdoor labor during noon hours will be launched on June 1 and will continue till August end. A statement to this effect was published by Al-Jarida yesterday.

Since 2010, the labor department has been running annual campaigns at the construction sites and other places that require outdoor work, in order to ensure that workers are not made to work between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. The ministry had released a decision in this regard in 2010 to protect laborers from working under extreme weather conditions. The summer in Kuwait can be very hot and temperatures often reach as high as 50 degrees centigrade.

—Al-Rai, Al-Jarida, KUNA

Journalists Union The court of cassation finally approved the foundation of the Kuwait Journalists’ Union by issuing a final verdict in this regard after the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor had refused to accredit it.

In its verdict, the court stressed that since unions and syndicates were not restricted to laborers and since they also included ‘white collar’ professionals including journalists, the measures taken by the founders were fully within the framework of all legalities.

KAC to spend $124.8m to lease 22 aircraft KUWAIT: The cost of leasing 22 aircraft by Kuwait Airways during the transition period will be $124.8 million a year, starting 2015 and to continue for the next six years, reports Al-Watan, a local newspaper. Meanwhile, observers expected that a memorandum of understanding will be clinched between the KAC and Airbus to buy 25 aircraft with the right to request 10 additional planes when the 50th edition of Le bourget Air show in Paris happens on June 17th.

The purchase contract will be signed on the occasion of the unveiling and display of the most modern Airbus, A350XWB), which has the registration (MSN001) and which will start operating this summer.

Kuwait Airways plans to purchase 10 aircraft of this type at a cost of $2.6 billion, with the right to buy five more, in addition to buying 15 Airbus of model A320neo at a cost of $930 million, with the right to buy five additional aircraft.

The total value of the deal will be $3.6 billion, which equal to almost KD 1.03 billion.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LOCAL kuwait digest

kuwait digest

Searching for a scapegoat

Kuwait and good work ethics

By Dr Wael Al-Hasawi

By Aziza Al-Mufarrej

E

ngineer Farouq Al-Zanki was invited last We d n e s d a y b y t h e Fa c u l t y o f Te c h n o l o g i c a l S t u d i e s a t K u w a i t University to present a lecture about strateg i e s a d o p t e d b y t h e K u w a i t Pe t r o l e u m Corporation in its plans covering the period till 2030.

Al-Zanki is credited for making a lot of contributions to the faculty, including effor ts which led to the creation of a petroleum engineering section there. He also had a hand in several agreements signed between the faculty and the KPC, which opened the doors for students to find jobs immediately after graduation in oil companies that even paid them during their study period. The agreements have also allowed students to take part in researches sponsored by the KPC. It was very shocking to read news reports last Thursday which indicated that Farouq AlZanki was relieved of his duties as CEO of the KPC without giving him any explanation.

While I understand that the government has the right to reshuffle people in leading posts in any sector, I believe that such a change should happen at a gradual pace instead of abruptly terminating the services of senior officials who have spent a majority of their lives serving in their respective fields.

It looks as if the cabinet wanted to allay public’s fur y over the failure of the K-Dow deal by showing some ‘seriousness’ in holding accountable those responsible for the deal.

H owe ve r, t h i s s h o u l d n o t b e d o n e a t t h e expense of anyone’s dignity and sacrifice.

One might wonder about where was the government during the past five years since the deal was canceled? Why did it suddenly wake up and decided to suspend or fire senior oil s e c t o r o f f i c i a l s b e fo r e e v e n q u e s t i o n i n g them?

Former oil minister Mohammad Al-Olaim explained during an interview with Al-Rai TV last Thursday several details which revealed that the K-Dow deal was approved by five international consultation offices before it was signed, and that the $2.2 billion payment which Dow Chemical obtained was not a fine m e n t i o n e d i n t h e co n t r a c t , b u t p a r t o f a penalty clause which allowed the aggrieved party to seek damages through international tribunals.

M oreover, Al- Olaim explained that the pressure which MPs put on former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah to cancel the contract, were based on allegations that the deal was a loss-making one. On the other hand, he provided documents which showed that Dow Chemical had actually made double the profits it was supposed to make from the joint venture with Kuwait. He went on to reveal that several Supreme Petroleum Council members had resigned in protest when the deal was called off, and even pointed out that his signature against the cancelation decision was later changed as if he was in favor of the decision.

We have a strange situation on our hands that is similar to a conspiracy than anything else. The government is required to calm things down by looking for the real culprits instead of searching for a scapegoat. I am not t r y i n g to d e fe n d a nyo n e o r q u e s t i o n t h e efforts to hold oil sector officials responsible, but all I am asking is for logical steps to be taken. —Al-Rai

O

kuwait digest

Blackmailing Kuwait Airways

By Ahmad Al-Sarraf

S

tep by step, it seems that the Kuwait turing company.

Airways is coming back on the track after The lawmaker’s behavior perhaps provides it escaped apprehensions about going concrete evidence about the extent of corrupbankrupt, courtesy some assistance from the tion in the country’s most important institugovernment that breathed a new life into what tion. How could a person responsible for legiswas otherwise a dying venture. lation and supervising the government’s perThe government understood the serious- fo r m a n c e, re s o r t t o s u c h m e t h o d s t o g a i n ness of the impact on the Kuwait’s reputation wealth? How can he come up with an offer and economy if Kuwait Air ways was to fall regardless of the fact whether it was feasible apart. Therefore, it was or not - to a company he is necessary to not only to be super visParliament members are supposed p ro v i d e f i n a n c i a l s u p ing? And after all of that, p o r t t o t h e c o m p a n y, required to hold their fellow w e a r e s u p p o s e d t o but also introduce cerbelieve him when he lawmaker accountable if c l a i m s h e i s n e u t r a l a n d tain radical and positive changes in its manage they are really true to their has good intentions? ment.

Parliament members are promise of cleansing the As a result, it hardly required to hold their felsurprised anyone to see low lawmaker accountable National Assembly of all Captain Sami Al-Nisf, the i f t h e y a re re a l l y t r u e t o chairman of the board aberrations. Moreover, they their promise of cleansing of Kuwait Airways, take the National Assembly of are urged to put in place unprecedented steps in all aberrations. Moreover, fighting corruption that regulations that ban an MP t h e y a re u rg e d to p u t i n had permeated into the regulations that ban from dealing either directly place national carrier’s adminan MP from dealing either istration for decades. or indirectly with firms that directly or indirectly with The first sign of sucirms that fall under the fall under the parliament’s fparliament cess in his war against ’s super vision. corruption was the supervision. This will help This will help protect the expose about the presparliament from becoming s u r e t h a t M P S a a d A l - protect the parliament from a place for profiteering.

Bous brought upon on Meanwhile, MP Saad Albecoming a place for profiKuwait Airways to make Bous’ own confession that teering. i t a c c e p t a n o f fe r o f a he owned shares in thircompany he and his teen companies that have children owned. This offer quoted prices far deals with the government is a matter of conhigher than another competing offer made by cern. How can we guarantee that all the tenanother carrier, apart from the fact that the ders won by said companies were awarded folgovernment chose to purchase a new fleet lowing fair competition as he claims? through direct negotiations with the manufac—Al-Qabas

nce, during a meeting at the Ministr y of Electricity and Water, a person raised a question about why full salary was being paid to 200 employees who were not even aware of their official working hours at the ministry.

A high ranking official answered that there indeed was such a problem but it was the responsibility of the concerned undersecretaries and directors, and their conscience should force them to rectify the situation.

Coming from a leader, such a response not only underlined that we are forced to live with this problem, but it also showed that we had no desire to resolve it once and for all. Otherwise, is it realistic to depend on only people’s conscience when it comes to displaying commitment and sincerity in their work, or to rely on their sense of religiosity?

What if someone’s conscience had taken a permanent leave of absence? What if someone’s sense of religion was weaker than the web woven by a spider?

Then are we supposed to rest our oars and only pray to Allah that things become better? Should we simply accept that there is no possibility to improve things?

Must we shut our eyes towards a lax employee who does not even know what his job is? Or another who sleeps peacefully at home after making one of the expatriates agree to carry out his duties? Should we overlook someone whose work is pathetically slow or who does not perform properly because he is in a foul mood? Can we ignore an employee who comes directly to work after spending a long night in the diwaniya, and deals with people as if he is standing guard at a sewer opening? Should we ignore a selfish employee who goes missing from his work 30 minutes before he is to leave, all because he wants to pursue his interest in the stock exchange, or to tend to private matters or refresh his mood by making a visit to a cafÈ or a mall?

Why should we have to do any of this?

I am talking here in response to what the concerned official had to say. They have to take steps that will change the employees’ view towards work and its value.

Coming from an official about things being in such a sorry state of affairs, it is clear that we need to quickly salvage whatever can be saved.

We should be taking the initiative, like others, to solve the problems quickly instead of leaving them to linger and accumulate at the expense of our interests and nerves.

The employees who hate work and commitment are there in any country, and Kuwait is no exception.

The only difference is that other countries do not let a state of laissez faire continue and instead hold such employees to account.

Let us not go too far looking for examples. The UAE is next door and it too has similar circumstances, but we do not see such a state of affairs in the employment system there. The reason is very simple: supervision ensures that things are not left to accidents.

There is a keen focus on good work in the UAE. The concept of the “secret shopper” helps in ensuring that as it is used to catch malingering employees and workers. Such specially appointed employees frequent the working places pretending to be ordinary citizens who have a certain interest. They judge through such a method the others’ performance and commitment levels.

This is one of the reasons the UAE enjoys an outstanding status in many fields, in which it received international prizes. As for us, we are still captive to unfair Wasta culture and the excuse that someone is right because “this is our son.” No wonder, we are always in the back row. — Al-Watan

In my view

Salaries on time

By Labeed Abdal

labeed@kuwaittimes.net

T

he clear warning by the Ministry of Social Affairs telling the companies to ensure that salaries were paid on time was definitely needed as any responsible employer must ensure there were no bad files and the workers are paid in time.

It is good to ensure that both sides, the employees and the employers, are governed properly and regulated as per law. Furthermore, in all cases, we need to ensure that the law abiding person or company must not suffer due to the bad eggs in any basket. It pains one to see good individuals or companies suffering wrongly. The regulations, when applied properly, will ensure that the labour forces will be able to come into Kuwait lawfully, stay here or return as per law and residency permits, without turning it into an event.

I think His Highness the Amir was absolutely correct when he mentioned that in certain ministries, the corruption was so rampant that it would require several camels to dredge it out.

Surely, we need the new parliament to apply certain correctives, especially after the incidents that may affect our international financial reputation.

The approach should be two-pronged - weeding out the old who were part of the malfunctioning, and nurturing the young people who are good so that they can assume senior and topmost positions.

It is everyone’s responsibility now since new upcoming mega projects are in the pipeline and these will definitely reflect positively on the investors and the business communities besides underlining the power of the working class.

Employers only stand to earn profits and will earn even more, thanks to the huge new projects. Thus, there is a need to delay salaries of the employees; instead, they should use the money lying in the banks.

Achieving sound profits can be a good sign of success in the competitive market, and it makes little sense to put on hold the teams working and building these projects.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

Pakistan holds repeat poll despite killing

Netanyahu takes aim at weapons ‘leakage’ in Syria Page 8

Page 13

This undated handout file photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on January 5, 2009 shows a missile-firing drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea. North Korea yesterday test-fired a short-range missile off its east coast, its fourth in two days, despite pleas from South Korea and the UN chief to halt the launches at a time of high tensions. The guided missile was fired into the East Sea (Sea of Japan) in the afternoon, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP without elaborating, a day after the North fired three short-range missiles off its east coast, apparently as part of a military drill. — AFP

N Korea fires projectile into eastern waters UN chief calls for Pyongyang to ‘refrain from’ further tests SEOUL: North Korea yesterday testfired a short-range missile off its east coast, its fourth in two days, despite pleas from South Korea and the UN chief to halt the launches at a time of high tensions.

The guided missile was fired into the East Sea (Sea of Japan) on Sunday afternoon, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP without elaborating. On Saturday the North fired three short-range missiles off its east coast, apparently as part of a military drill.

The North’s short-range missile launches are not unusual but come at a time of heightened alert on the peninsula, following Pyongyang’s February nuclear test which sparked tougher UN sanctions.

Angered by the sanctions and by a joint US-South Korean military exercise, the North for weeks threatened nuclear or conventional attacks on Seoul and Washington. The South and its US ally had earlier been watching for any test by the North of mediumrange Musudan missiles. But a US defence official said early in May the two mid-range missiles had been moved from their launch site.

However South Korea’s unification ministry, which handles cross-border relations, said the short-range launches also pose threats to the region and should be stopped immediately.

“We find it deplorable that the North does not stop provocative actions such as the launch of guided missiles yesterday,” said unification ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Seok,

before the latest exercise.

“We call on the North to take responsible actions for our sake and for the sake of the international community.” UN chief Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Moscow, also called for Pyongyang to “refrain from” further missile tests. He said it was time for it to resume talks with the international community and reduce tensions.

The US State Department urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint, without specifically commenting on the launches. It was unclear what type of missiles were fired Saturday and Sunday. Seoul military officials quoted

by Yonhap news agency said they may be KN-02 surface-to-surface weapons with a range of up to 160 kilometres (99 miles), or rockets of at least 300mm in calibre fired from a multiple launcher.

Park Yong-Ok, a former South Korean deputy defence minister, described the short-range missile launches as an act of “desperation” by the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un, after his country’s recent threats met a strong response from Seoul and Washington. US President Barack Obama and the South’s President Park Geun-Hye, at a summit this month, vowed to offer no concessions in dealing with Pyongyang.

“Such a stern response must have baffled the North greatly and Kim Jong-Un... must have turned to missile tests to seek ways out of this deadlock,” Park said in a TV interview yesterday. Seoul said efforts to present a

united front were jeopardised by last week’s surprise visit to North Korea by an adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as “unhelpful” in trying to preserve a united front against Pyongyang.

Abe said yesterday he would seek talks with Pyongyang to try to settle the nagging issue of its kidnapping of Japanese, without risking his country’s alliance with Washington and Seoul.

Apart from security matters, interKorean relations have been soured by the suspension of operations at a jointly-run industrial estate.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex, established just north of the border in 2004 as a rare symbol of cooperation, fell victim to the two months of elevated military tensions. The North barred South Korean access to the zone and pulled out its own 53,000 workers early last month. Seoul withdrew the last of its nationals early this month.

When the South Koreans left, they loaded up cars with bundles of products, but were still forced to leave much stock behind. The North last week rejected the South’s call for talks on removing goods from the complex, calling it “a crafty ploy” to deflect blame for the suspension of operations.

“It is very regrettable that the North denigrates our offer for talks... and shifts blame for the suspension of the Kaesong complex to us,” unification ministry spokesman Kim said Sunday, urging Pyongyang to come forward for talks as soon as possible. — AFP

Syrian activists: Shelling near Lebanon kills 16 AMMAN: The Syrian military yesterday launched an offensive to retake a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, a government official said, as activists reported that regime airstrikes and shelling of the town have killed at least 16 people, including opposition fighters.

The western Syrian town of Qusair, home to about 20,000 residents, has been besieged for weeks by government troops. According to opposition activists, members of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group were fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces in the area. Hezbollah has been a staunch Assad ally throughout Syria’s conflict.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 people, including rebel fighters, were killed before noon in Qusair but that the death toll was expected to rise as fierce fighting is underway and the military’s operation intensifies.

Speaking over the telephone, a government official in Qusair said government forces have encircled the town, beefing up three offensive positions around it while leaving one “safe passage for fleeing civilians and the armed terrorists who want to surrender.”

“The offensive to liberate Qusair has begun,” the official told The Associated Press. He would not elaborate further, speaking on condition of anonymity because he

was not authorized to talk to the media. Officials in Damascus were not immediately reachable for comment on the offensive. Assad’s government and loyalists deny there is a civil war in the country but blame the conflict on “terrorists” - a term they use for rebel fighters - backed by a foreign conspiracy.

Qusair, close to the border with Lebanon and 164 kilometers (102 miles) northwest of the Syrian capital, is strategically important because it also links Damascus with Syria’s Western coast, where regime loyalists are concentrated. This includes Alawites, followers of a Shiite offshoot to which the Assad family belongs. The rebellion against Assad is largely driven by Syria’s majority Sunnis.

The push on Qusair may be an attempt by the regime to regain as much ground as possible before agreeing to any negotiations with the opposition in the wake of a recent USRussian effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war. Previous attempts to solve the conflict peacefully have failed.

The US-Russian plan, similar to one set out last year in Geneva, calls for talks on a transition government and an open-ended cease-fire. More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. —AP

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

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

Netanyahu takes aim at weapons ‘leakage’ in Syria Israel concern over Russian missiles for Assad

ETTADHAMEN: Radical Islamist movement Ansar Al-Shariah supporters clash with Tunisian police officers after Tunisia’s Interior Ministry on Friday banned their annual conference supposed to be held in Kairouan, in Ettadhamen, near Tunis, yesterday. —AP

Salafists in Tunis clash with police TUNIS: Clashes broke out between radical Islamists and police yesterday after Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia told its followers to gather “in large numbers” near Tunis for its annual congress, defying a government ban.

Hundreds of Salafists erected barricades in the streets of Ettadhamen, a poor neighbourhood 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of Tunis, and hurled rocks at police who responded with tear gas, an AFP journalist reported.

The security forces used armoured cars and bulldozers to destroy the barricades and gain access to Ettadhamen, which is considered a stronghold of the Salafist movement in conflict with the government. The Islamists retreated to the neighbouring district of Intilaka where clashes continued, with the police finally appearing to take control. “Five police were wounded and taken to hospital in Tunis,” an officer at the scene told AFP. Ansar al-Sharia had announced its decision to hold its congress in the Tunis suburb after the security forces deployed heavily in Kairouan, the country’s religious capital, to prevent the group meeting there as originally planned.

Salafists advocate an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam, and Ansar al-Sharia does not recognise the authority of the state.

It had made known its determination to hold its third annual meeting despite the official ban, and warned it would hold the government responsible for any violence, raising fears of a bloody showdown.

After brief clashes in Kairouan yesterday, in which the security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing Salafists, police and around 60 protesters faced off, with the militants

shouting insults at the police.

“We consider that our congress was held in Ettadhamen,” Ansar al-Sharia official Sami Essid told AFP. He was speaking after the hardline Islamist group called on its followers “to gather in large numbers” in the Tunis suburb, in a message posted on its Facebook page.

An AFP journalist and Tunisian media reported the arrests of Salafist militants in Kairouan and other cities, with Ansar alSharia’s spokesman Seifeddine Rais arrested at dawn on Sunday, according to a police source.

A resident of Ettadhamen had said earlier that hundreds of Ansar al-Sharia supporters were in the district, which is a renowned Salafist stronghold, some of them armed with sticks and knives and waving the black flag of their movement.

In the marketplace they chanted “we are going to Ettadhamen.” The area saw clashes last week between the Salafists and security forces as they moved to stop the extremists setting up tents from which to preach and disseminate their ideas.

Tunisia has been rocked by attacks blamed on militant Islamists since the uprising that toppled president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Ansar Al-Sharia is considered the most radical of the extremist groups that emerged after the 2011 revolution.

The government, led by moderate Islamist party Ennahda, has hardened its stance towards the extremists in recent months, announcing in early May that two groups the army is pursuing in the western region bordering Algeria are linked to Al-Qaeda.—AFP

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect yesterday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and other militant groups.

Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to topple him, Western and Israeli sources say it has launched air strikes in Syria to destroy weapons it believed were destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

In public remarks at the weekly meeting of his cabinet, Netanyahu made no direct mention of those attacks, but made clear Israel was prepared to take action in the future and said it was “preparing for every scenario” in the Syrian conflict.

Israel had set a policy “to prevent, as much as possible, the leakage of advanced weapons to Hezbollah and terror elements”, he said.

“We will act to ensure the security interest of Israel’s citizens in the future as well,” Netanyahu added, describing his government’s actions as “responsible, determined and level-headed”.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied reports it attacked Iraniansupplied missiles stored near Damascus this month that it believed were awaiting delivery to Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006 and is allied with Assad.

A Russian shipment of Yakhont anti-ship missiles to Syria was condemned by the United States on Friday, and Israel is also alarmed by the prospect of Moscow supplying S-

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, speaks during a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel, yesterday. — AP General Martin Dempsey, chair300 advanced air defence missile sys- with Hezbollah and threaten both man of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Israel and US forces in the Gulf. tems to Damascus.

“Yakhont is a cruise missile that said on Friday Russia’s delivery of Netanyahu held talks in Russia last Tuesday with President Vladimir can hit targets at sea and strategic anti-ship missiles to Assad was “illPutin on the Syrian crisis but gave no targets. (It is) a supersonic missile, timed and very unfortunate” and public indication whether Israel’s (with) a range of 300 km, very risked prolonging a war that has concerns over the Russian weaponry sophisticated,” Gilad said on Israel’s already killed more than 80,000 Syrians.

Channel Two television on Saturday. had been eased.

A spokesman for Putin, while not “ The Russians sent it to Syria, Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defence Ministry official, said on beside the strategic defence system responding directly to assertions Saturday the S-300 and the Yakhont, called the S-300. There are a number Russia had sent the anti-ship misweapons that could complicate any of versions, and they are sending siles, said Moscow would honour plans for foreign military interven- them one of the good versions,” he contracts to supply Syria, a long-time weapons customer. — Reuters tion in Syria, would likely end up said.

Iran road crash kills smuggled Afghanis TEHRAN: A car packed with Afghanis smuggled into Iran collided with another vehicle and burst into flames yesterday, killing nine Afghans and five Iranians, media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the crash occurred shortly after midnight in the southeastern province of Sistan Baluchistan, on a route Afghanis use to illegally cross the border in the hope of finding work in the Islamic republic.

“The Peugeot 405 was carrying 11 Afghans who had entered the country illegally,” traffic

official Colonel Farzad Malek Mohammadi said, quoted by IRNA, blaming the drivers for excessive speed and drifting from the road.

“Nine of them died on the spot due to the fire, while the remaining two have been taken to hospital for treatment to serious burns,” he said.

Three people in the other car, as well as the drivers of both vehicles, were also killed, he added. A similar accident in April saw a pickup truck smuggling fuel crashing into a car carrying 15 Afghans in southeastern Iran, killing all on

board as well as three Iranians.

Nearly a million Afghans live in Iran illegally, according to official figures released in 2012.

Iran is one of the world’s deadliest countries for road accidents. Some 20,000 people are killed each year in a nation with a little over 17 million vehicles for its 75-million-strong population. Despite the high number of crashes, the authorities say deadly accidents have decreased in recent years as police take a more rigid line on the rules of the road.— AFP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

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

After crushing Islamists, France pushes deal with Tuaregs BAMAKO: After winning adulation across Mali for a five month military offensive that crushed al Qaeda fighters, France is now frustrating some of its allies by pushing for a political settlement with a separate group of Tuareg rebels. A standoff over how to restore Malian government authority to Kidal, the last town in the desert north yet to be brought under central control, is sowing resentment with Paris and could delay planned elections to restore democracy after a coup.

Mali’s army has moved troops towards Kidal, a stronghold of the MNLA Tuareg separatists, but missed a selfimposed deadline this week to retake the Saharan town. France, which has its own forces camped outside, does not want Malian troops to march on the town, fearing ethnic bloodshed if it is taken by force.

“Paris blocks army at the gates of Kidal,” read a headline in Le Matin, a weekly in Mali’s capital Bamako.

Elections are planned for July in Mali to finally restore normalcy after a chaotic 18 months that saw Tuaregs launch a

revolt, the military carry out a coup, al Qaeda-linked Islamists seize the north and 4,000 French troops arrive to dislodge them. Many in government and on the streets of Bamako blame the January 2012 uprising by the Tuareg MNLA for unleashing the other calamities that nearly dissolved the country.

Nationalists now want the army to march into Kidal to disarm the rebels.

France is instead backing secretive talks being held in neighbouring Burkina Faso, designed to allow the July elections to take place, while urging Bamako to address Tuaregs’ long-standing demands for autonomy for their desert homeland. Clashes between Arabs and Tuaregs have shown that ethnic tension remains high.

The former colonial power, France won enthusiastic public support across Mali for its decision to send troops in January to crush the Al-Qaeda-linked fighters. French flags still flutter in parts of the dusty riverside capital, and President Francois Hollande was cheered as a liberator by huge crowds when he visited in February. But goodwill is giving

way to frustrations over Kidal, with many Malians questioning why France would not boldly confront the MNLA as it had done the coalition of al Qaeda-linked rebels.

Within the army, whose morale evaporated in a string of defeats last year, anger simmers over foreign interference.

“Our men are ready but we have not received the orders to enter the town. It is a political decision,” said a senior Malian officer, who asked not to be named. Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore, whom Paris has defended from military pressure, voiced support for dialogue with the MNLA on Friday in Paris ahead of a meeting with Hollande. He said plans for decentralisation should satisfy the MNLA’s demands.

But many in Mali, particularly those close to the army, are hostile towards dialogue. The official Twitter feed for Mali’s presidency refers to the MNLA as terrorists.

Hollande rejects that label, saying the MNLA fought alongside French and African forces against the Islamists, providing intelligence on Islamists’ posi-

tions. “We have said we will are willing to aid the return of Malian civilian administration to Kidal to organise elections,” Hollande said this week, appearing to rule out a military alternative. “We want a political dialogue, and I think that will happen.” The MNLA stole back into Kidal after France’s air and ground assault scattered the Islamists. The town has since been under awkward joint occupation by the MNLA with French troops and, for a time, their Chadian allies.

Defence Minister Yamoussa Camara promised parliament this month that Mali’s forces would be in the town by May 15. Residents in northern Mali have reported movement towards Kidal for weeks, but the force has yet to arrive.

The Kidal region is home to just 0.5 percent of Mali’s population - by far its least populated area - but the authorities say the national vote cannot take place without it. “Kidal will vote like the rest of the country ... That’s what Malians want,” said Gamer Dicko, spokesman for the territorial administration ministry, tasked with organising elections. “Not holding an election there would be a de facto

split of the country.” Diplomats say talks are quietly underway in Burkina Faso to find a way of allowing the elections to proceed in Kidal, as a stepping stone to political talks with the MNLA and other armed groups once a permanent, elected government is in place.

“It is about finding a gentleman’s agreement so the elections can take place in Kidal,” a West African diplomat said, asking not to be named. “The transitional government will not find a definitive solution to the problem.” President Traore has named a former minister, Tiebile Drame, as special envoy to coordinate talks with northern groups. Traore wrote in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Drame had been named so that “Mali can keep control of the process”, an apparent sign of frustration with the role played by a panoply of UN and African mediators. Another diplomat said recent discussions in Bamako had revealed divisions between the Western position that more regional autonomy was needed to resolve the conflict and African nations’ support for a tougher line on the rebels. —Reuters

Cameron ‘losing control’ as rift with party core widens Conservative grassroots accused of being ‘mad’

ZAGREB: A man casts his ballot at a polling station during the local election in Zagreb yesterday, in a vote seen as a test for the centre-left government and its austerity policies, six weeks ahead of the former Yugoslav republic’s EU entry. — AFP

Croatians vote in local polls ahead of EU entry ZAGREB: Croatians cast ballots yesterday for municipal officials in a vote seen as a test for the centre-left government and its austerity policies, six weeks ahead of the former Yugoslav republic’s EU entry.

The latest surveys showed that the popularity of Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s government, led by his Social Democrats (SDP), has hit the lowest point since it won late 2011 elections.In April, the rival rightwing coalition, led by the main opposition conservative HDZ, won six out of 12 seats that Croatia will have in the European parliament once it joins the European Union on July 1, compared to five for the SDP-led coalition. Slashing spending and raising taxes, the government has failed to revive Croatia’s economy that since 2009 has either been in recession or stagnated. The main challenge the SDP faces in Sunday’s vote is to win the powerful post of mayor of Zagreb, the country’s capital, which

incumbent populist Milan Bandic has held almost interrupted since 2000.

A failure to win in Zagreb would be another serious blow to Milanovic, analysts warn. Bandic, widely linked by the media to various corruption scandals in the capital, is a former veteran SDP official. He was expelled from the party in 2009 when he decided to run independently in Croatia’s presidential race that he later lost.

Bandic will face, among others, SDP candidate Rajko Ostojic, the current health minister, but the latest surveys showed the race would probably go to a run-off in two weeks. The SDP hopes to win in the second largest city Split and retain power in the northern port Rijeka. More than 3.7 million voters will elect some 9,500 mayors and other local and regional officials and deputies. Polling stations opened at 0500 GMT and were to close twelve hours later. — AFP

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron is “losing control of his party”, Conservative Party grandee Geoffrey Howe said yesterday, as a row raged over whether a close aide to Cameron had labelled grassroots activists “mad, swivel-eyed loons”.

The furore threatens to further alienate Cameron and his inner circle from the core of his party, with whom ties are already almost at breaking point. Differences with the grassroots over Britain’s membership of the European Union and Cameron’s support for legalising same-sex marriage have raised questions over his leadership and could hurt the party ’s chances in the next election, due in 2015.

“Sadly, by making it clear in January that he opposes the current terms of UK membership of the EU, the prime minister has opened a Pandora’s box politically and seems to be losing control of his party in the process,” Howe wrote in an article for the Observer newspaper.

Howe was former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving cabinet minister, but fell out with her over relations with Europe and is best remembered for a scathing resignation speech that helped topple her as leader in 1990.

Cameron’s Conservatives have been rattled by the surging popularity of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), whose main aims are to pull Britain out of the EU and curb immigration. Its rise has fuelled a heated national debate over whether Britain derives sufficient benefits from EU membership to outweigh the

financial cost and the ceding of some important powers to Brussels, like the ability to limit immigrants from the other 26 countries in the union.

An opinion poll by pollster ComRes for the Sunday Mirror and Independent yesterday newspapers put support for UKIP at 19 percent, which ComRes said was the highest level the party had achieved in any survey yet.

The opposition Labour party led with 35 percent, while the Conservatives were on 29 percent and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners on 8. “The ratchet-effect of Euroscepticism has now gone so far that the Conservative leadership is in effect running scared of its own backbenchers, let alone UKIP,” Howe said, referring to the hundreds of rank-and-file Conservative members of parliament who occupy the rows of seats behind Cameron and his ministers.

In January, Cameron promised that if the Conservatives won the 2015 election they would call a national referendum in 2017 on whether Britain should stay in or leave the EU. But that did not go far enough for many Conservatives, who last week forced him to back a new bill that would enshrine it in law.

The Conservatives’ restive right wing also last week voted to criticise the government’s legislative agenda for not including such a bill in the first place, an unusual move in British politics that embarrassed Cameron.

Compounding Cameron’s problems are media reports that an un-named close aide, at a private dinner last week, described the

Conservative grassroots as “swivel-eyed loons”.

Cameron’s office says the comment did not come from them, and insist the prime minister is still in charge of his party. The row comes at an especially bad time for Cameron, whose flagship bill to legalise same-sex marriage will be debated in parliament this week. Conser vative activists wrote to Cameron on Sunday warning that the move would boost UKIP’s membership.

“The prime minister seems to have gathered around himself a metropolitan elite who seem to inhabit a different planet to most of us ... Droves of previously loyal Conservative Party members are leaving,” Bob Woollard, chairman of the Conservative Grassroots umbrella group, told the BBC. Cameron says he would like to do more to satisfy the Conservative core, but is held back by being in coalition with the left-leaning Liberal Democrats. Ties between the two parties have frequently come under strain since they teamed up in 2010, but they have pledged to stay together to help revive Britain’s weak economy.

However, in an article published on Sunday, Cameron hinted that he could end the partnership before the 2015 election. “Can we improve the state of the country? Can we fulfil our manifesto? The best way to do that is to continue with the coalition, but if that wasn’t the case then we’d have to face the new circumstances in whatever way we should,” he told Britain’s Total Politics magazine. — Reuters

Briton arrested over child murders LYON: French police were yesterday questioning a 48year-old divorced Briton arrested on suspicion of slitting the throats of his two young children, judicial officials said.

The bodies of the two children aged five and 10 were discovered on Saturday afternoon in his apartment in Saint-Priest, a southeastern suburb of the central city of Lyon. He was arrested and placed in custody in the evening. A judicial source said a knife which is thought to have been the murder weapon had been found.

The source said the man had visitation rights but only in the presence of another person, adding that this was the first time he brought the children home to his apartment. Several witnesses said the man fled on roller skates after his former wife encountered him on the stairwell of the building and saw him with bloodstained clothes. She immediately alerted the police.

Ahmed Benguedda, a former neighbour of the couple, told AFP the couple had divorced “two or three years ago” and that the man had drinking problems and was a wife beater.

The wife moved out of the apartment after the divorce and was living in the Isere region of eastern France. But the children were “well-balanced”, said Benguedda, whose seven-year-old daughter often played with them. — AFP

ANKARA: Women pose for a photograph as tens of thousand of Turks take part in a march to the mausoleum of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to celebrate the Youth Day, marking the anniversary of Turkey’s War of Independence in 1919, in Ankara, yesterday. — AFP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

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Canadian PM’s top aide quits over expenses scandal OTTAWA: The top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper abruptly resigned yesterday over his role in an mounting expenses scandal which is threatening to undermine the Conservative government.

Nigel Wright, Harper’s chief of staff, quit after secretly giving a C$90,000 ($87,000) check in February to Mike Duffy, a member of the upper Senate chamber, to help him cover living expenses he had improperly claimed.

News of the gift leaked late on Tuesday.

Opposition legislators said the large check broke ethics rules forbidding senators from taking presents and made a mockery of the government’s repeated

promises to increase accountability in Ottawa. Duffy, a former national television journalist, resigned from the Conservative caucus on Thursday.

Wright’s departure reflects the pressure Harper is under. Officials told reporters on Friday that the chief of staff - who says he did not tell Harper about the check - would be staying.

“In light of the controversy surrounding my handling of matters involving Senator Duffy, the prime minister has accepted my resignation,” Wright said in a statement. “I regret the impact of this matter on the government, our caucus, and all of my colleagues,” added Wright, a businessman who had been on sec-

ondment to Harper’s office from private equity firm Onex Corp. He started work on Jan 1, 2011.

The expenses affairs is one of the biggest crises to hit the Conservatives since they took power in early 2006 promising to clean up government after a series of scandals helped bring down the previous Liberal administration.

Pamela Wallin, another Conservative senator whose expenses have been questioned, quit the caucus late on Friday. Wallin is also a former television journalist.

Opinion polls show the Conservatives trailing the Liberals, who have steadily grown more popular since Justin

Trudeau - the telegenic son of former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau was elected leader last month. Harper said he had accepted Wright’s resignation with great regret. “I accept that Nigel believed he was acting in the public interest but I understand the decision he has taken to resign,” he said in a separate statement.

A federal election is not due until October 2015 and the Conservatives have a comfortable majority in the House of Commons. But Harper could be in for a tough two years in parliament if he doesn’t move quickly to draw a line under the matter. Canada’s federal ethics commissioner is examining whether

Wright broke government rules about giving gifts. Duffy was named to the unelected Senate in December 2008 and was a popular and effective fund-raiser for the party.

The Conservatives initially said he had shown leadership by accepting the check rather than leaving taxpayers on the hook for the C$90,000.

They quickly changed their tune amid media repor ts that Duffy had claimed daily living expenses from the Senate while actually campaigning for the Conservatives ahead of a federal election in May 2011. Opposition parties are demanding a probe into the allegations. — Reuters

Chinese premier visits India to boost ties Tibetans burn Chinese flag near China’s embassy

BANGKOK: “Red Shirt” supporters shout slogans as they gather to mark the third anniversary of the military crackdown on anti-government protesters in Bangkok yesterday. About 90 people were killed and nearly 1,900 wounded in a series of street clashes between demonstrators and security forces, which culminated in a military crackdown in May 2010. Two foreign journalists were among those killed. — AFP

Thailand’s Red Shirts mark deadly crackdown BANGKOK: Around 12,000 Red Shirt protesters rallied in Bangkok yesterday to mark the third anniversary of a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests which exposed Thailand’s deep divisions, police said. About 90 people were killed and nearly 1,900 wounded in a series of street clashes in May 2010 between demonstrators and security forces, which culminated in the military crackdown.

On Sunday roads were blocked as Red Shirts, loyal to ousted self-exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, massed at an intersection in Bangkok’s glitzy shopping district. Central World, Thailand’s largest shopping mall which was torched in the final days of the 2010 protest, was also closed while the colourful rally took place.

“The protest is peaceful,” said Police Major General Chantavit Ramasut, adding some 12,000 people joined the rally with around 750 policemen keeping watch. Thailand has been racked by sometimes explosive political divisions since Thaksin was ousted by the army in a 2006 coup. Rights groups have called for the perpetrators of the 2010 violence to be prosecuted. They condemn

moves by the current government of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, to push through an amnesty for the political violence. Analysts say an amnesty would both appease the royalist army and pave the way for his bid to return to the kingdom. “Three years ago, the world saw soldiers shooting protesters and parts of Bangkok going up in flames,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “But instead of investigating and prosecuting those responsible, successive Thai governments and the army have politicised efforts for justice and are now backing an amnesty bill that would let everyone off the hook.”

The crackdown followed weeks of rallies by the Red Shirts which brought parts of central Bangkok to a standstill. Then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who oversaw the military crackdown, has blamed protest leaders for the violent denouement and said his government had no choice but to take tough action.

Courts have ruled that some protesters were killed by security forces, leading to charges of murder being laid against Abhisit-accusations he strenuously denies. —AFP

Police call fatal NYC shooting a hate crime NEW YORK: A gunman used anti-gay slurs before firing a fatal shot point-blank into a man’s face on a Manhattan street alive with a weekend midnight crowd, a killing New York’s police commissioner called a hate crime.

Before opening fire early Saturday, the gunman confronted the victim and his companion in Greenwich Village and asked if they “want to die here,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The violence follows a series of recent bias attacks on gay men in New York, but this was the first deadly one.

At a news conference, Kelly described the events leading to the violence that erupted in a lively social scene a few blocks from Washington Square Park and New York University: Late Friday night, about 15 minutes before the shooting, the gunman was seen urinating on a street outside a bar located blocks from the Stonewall Inn, a birthplace of the gay rights movement. He then entered, asking the bartender whether he would call the police after hav-

ing seen what is normally an act warranting only a summons.

He told both the bartender and the manager, “if you do call the police, I’ll shoot you.” The man then opened his gray hooded sweatshirt to reveal a shoulder holster with a revolver. The silver gun was used minutes later in the killing, the commissioner said.

While in the bar, the gunman also made anti-gay remarks, Kelly said. Out on the street, the gunman was joined by two friends as he approached the 32-year-old victim and a companion. One of the three men yelled out, “ What are you, gay wrestlers?” according to Kelly.

The two men stopped, turned and, according to Kelly, said to the group taunting them, “What did you say?” - then kept walking north. “There were no words that would aggravate the situation spoken by the victims here,” the commissioner said.

“They were confronted, they did not know the perpetrators, no previous relationships.” —AP

ATLANTA: US President Barack Obama greets well-wishers yesterday upon arrival at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Obama is in Atlanta to attend the commencement at Morehouse College and a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Just weeks after a tense border standoff, China’s new premier visited India yesterday on his first foreign trip as the neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and boost economic ties.

China says Premier Li Keqiang’s choice of India for his first trip abroad since taking office in March shows the importance Beijing attaches to improving relations with New Delhi.

“We think very highly of this gesture because it is our view that high-level political exchanges between our two countries are an important aspect and vehicle for our expanded cooperation,” said India’s external affairs ministry spokesman, Syed Akbaruddin.

Jasjit Singh, a defense analyst and director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in New Delhi, said last month’s border standoff was unlikely to overshadow Li’s three-day visit, the first stop of a foreign tour in which he will also visit Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany.

Singh said Indian and Chinese leaders are likely to review border talks that have failed to produce a breakthrough despite 15 rounds of discussions over the past 10 years.

The two sides also will probably discuss working together in Afghanistan after next year’s US pullout and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, he said.

But tensions run high between the two nations. China already sees itself as Asia’s great power, while India hopes its increasing economic and military might - though still far below its neighbor’s - will eventually put it in the same league.

While China has worked to shore up relationships with Nepal and Sri Lanka in India’s traditional South Asian sphere of influence, India has been venturing into partnerships with Southeast Asian nations.

Other irritants remain in the bilateral relationship. China is a longtime ally and weapons supplier to Pakistan, India’s bitter rival. Also, the presence in India of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile is a source of tension.

China accuses the Dalai Lama of wanting to split Tibet off from the rest of China, but he says he seeks more autonomy for Tibetans, not independence.

Unresolved border issues between the two nations have flared as well. In last month’s incident, India said Chinese troops

NEW DELHI: Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang (C) walks with Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahmed (L) and an unidentified member of Indian Protocol on his arrival at Palam Airport in New Delhi yesterday. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in India yesterday afternoon on the first stop of his maiden foreign trip, for talks on issues ranging from an unresolved border dispute to a festering tradeimbalance. — AFP crossed the countries’ de facto border on April 15 and pitched camp in the Depsang valley in the Ladakh region of eastern Kashmir. New Delhi responded with diplomatic protests and then moved its soldiers just 300 meters (yards) from the Chinese position.

The two sides negotiated a peaceful end to the standoff by withdrawing troops to their original positions in the Ladakh area.

Gautam Bambawale, a senior external affairs ministry official, said Saturday that India and China are negotiating a Border Defense Cooperation Agreement, but declined to give details. Indian media reports said the agreement proposes a freezing of troop levels in the disputed border region as the two countries make efforts to settle the issue.

Bambawale also said Indian and Chinese officials recently held talks in Beijing on the future of Afghanistan. China, India and Russia have discussed the matter trilaterally with the idea of giving full support to Afghanistan’s government as it makes the transition following the withdrawal of US forces in 2014.

Li was to meet with Indian Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh later yesterday and attend a dinner hosted by Singh. Delegation-level talks between the two sides are scheduled for today. Li is to attend a business summit in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, among other activities.

The border spat last month prompted the Indian opposition and media to pressure the government to take on China and call off Li’s visit. The government, however, chose to go ahead with the trip, highlighting its policy of trying to widen areas of cooperation with China while attempting to resolve key differences.

China has become India’s biggest trading partner, with twoway trade jumping from $5 billion in 2002 to nearly $75 billion in 2011, although that figure declined to $61.5 billion last year because of the global economic downturn.

Trade remains heavily skewed in China’s favor, another source of concern for India.

India and China have had chilly relations since they fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962.

India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) of its territory in the

Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, while China claims around 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Dorjee Tseten, director of Students for a Free Tibet, said yesterday that New Delhi police had declined permission for Tibetans to hold a demonstration against Li’s visit. “Tibetan activists are currently on the run evading imminent police arrest,” he said in a statement, complaining of a heavy police presence in a New Delhi area where a large number of Tibetansin-exile live.

Police detained a Tibetan man as he tried to burn the Chinese flag near China’s embassy in the Indian capital. Police, however, allowed about two dozen members of Shiv Sena, a Hindu right-wing political party, to demonstrate near India’s Parliament, where they burned an effigy of the Chinese premier. “Go back, go back,” chanted the protesters, who also carried placards urging the Indian government to respond toughly to China’s alleged border incursion. The powerful regional party held power in Mumbai from 1995 to 2000. —AP

Nigeria offensive on Islamists escalates MAIDUGURI: A key city in northeast Nigeria was on lockdown yesterday as the military enforced a 24-hour curfew and blocked supply routes in its sweeping campaign against Islamist insurgents.

The operation against Boko Haram, the group that wants an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, is aimed at retaking territory seized by the militants and ridding the country of “terrorist activities,” the miltary has said.

The offensive has included air strikes on Boko Haram strongholds in remote parts of northeastern Borno state, and has spread to the state capital Maiduguri, the insurgents’ traditional home base-which residents said Sunday was under a blockade.

Soldiers sealed roads heading out of Maiduguri, blocking supply routes to remote towns where Boko Haram Islamists have seized power, residents said. “There is a huge build-up of trucks loaded with essential commodities... along the Baga road on the way out of Maiduguri to the northern part of the state,” said resident Ibrahim Yahaya. “The drivers said they have been prevented by the military from going northward,” he told AFP by email. The phone network in Borno has all but collapsed since President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday declared a state of emergency there and in two neighbouring states, Adamawa and Yobe. The military on Saturday imposed a roundthe-clock curfew in 12 Maiduguri neighbourhoods considered Boko Haram bastions. The curfew was being enforced on Sunday, with most

roads deserted, an AFP journalist reported, while some living in areas not impacted by the curfew also stayed in doors. “My area is not affected but I have to stay at home with my family,” trader Ezekiel Adamu said. He explained that he was afraid of coming across soldiers, who “seem to have more power with the state of emergency.”

‘This is the challenge of emergency rule’Supplies were also running short in the city, where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago by the radical cleric Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in detention in 2009.

The price of basic goods has soared with supply lorries prevented from entering the city.

“We’ve been eating without meat since Friday... but there is nothing I can do. This is the challenge of emergency rule,” said resident David Olutayo.

Supply shortages and price hikes have also started to bite in the town of Gomboru Ngala, on the border with Cameroon, where some Borno residents have fled to escape the air raids. “Trucks bringing in goods from Maiduguri have ceased since last week,” said resident Grema Babagoni, adding that prices have soared as much as 25 percent. “If the blockade continues for some time we may completely run out of supplies,” he told AFP Residents in Gomboru Ngala can be reached by phone as the service uses Cameroonian lines.

The town has seen an influx of people fleeing the nearby Marte district, one of the areas where Boko Haram chased out the government and removed Nigerian flags.

Marte has been among the areas targeted by air strikes, residents have told AFP. A senior rescue official who requested anonymity told AFP that he had could not say what impact the offensive has had on civilians because his staff in Borno and Yobe have been unreachable.

“I have sent emails and texts but have not heard anything yet,” the official said. The operation could prove to be the largest ever against Boko Haram. A brutal crackdown on the insurgents in 2009, concentrated in Maiduguri, killed more than 800 people and forced the Islamists underground for a year.

Since re-emerging in 2010, they have carried out scores of attacks, including gun raids and suicide bombings. Many fear that like the 2009 crackdown, the current campaign may fail to crush the group.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and top oil producer, has been urged to tackle root causes of the conflict, including acute poverty and excessive government corruption which has helped radicalise many young Muslims in the north. There is also a risk of high civilian casualties, with Nigeria’s military having been accused of massive rights abuses in the past. The conflict is estimated to have cost 3,600 lives since 2009, including killings by the security services.

Jonathan has said that negotiations remain possible amid the sweeping offensive, but the Islamists have so far shown no signs of wanting to talk. — AFP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

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

Karzai seeks India military aid amid Pakistan row KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai will seek increased military aid from India during a three-day visit starting today and will discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan, India’s archrival, an aide said.

The comments follow a weekend report by the Times of India that said Afghanistan’s ambassador to India had said the country needs India’s help with “equipment and weapons to fight.” The Press Trust of India later quoted a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry as saying the country is ready to meet any such request.

“Yes, we will ask for assistance for the strengthening of our security forces,” Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi said in a briefing Saturday ahead of the trip. He did not comment on the Indian reports. Karzai’s visit could irk Pakistan, especially if any arms deal materializes. Pakistan considers Afghanistan its own backyard and suspects rival India of seeking greater influence there as a strategy to hem in the country from both sides. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since they were divided into two countries when they gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Afghanistan and India signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2011 that has included Indian military training of Afghan security forces. Faizi indicated Saturday that Karzai would seek to expand that cooperation.

“Whatever our Afghan security forces would

need for assistance and help, India would help us,” he said.

Afghan analyst Wadir Safi, a political science professor at Kabul University, says the timing of Karzai’s India trip is likely related to recent border skirmishes with Pakistan. Each side has been accusing the other of firing across the mountainous border region for months, including a skirmish earlier this month that killed an Afghan border policeman. Both countries have also accused each other of providing shelter for insurgents fighting on the other side of the border.

Afghan accusations that Pakistan is allegedly trying to torpedo efforts to start peace talks with the Taleban have also contributed to deteriorating relations. Pakistan is considered crucial to nudging Taliban leaders, many of which are in hiding in Pakistan, to the table - a key goal of the United States and its allies ahead of the final pullout of foreign combat forces by the end of next year.

Karzai has long been deeply suspicious of the motives of Pakistan’s government and military, which backed the Taliban regime before it was toppled in the 2001 U.S.-led intervention and has since seemed unable or unwilling to go after militant leaders taking refuge inside its borders. The killing of alQaida chief, Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan only strengthened Afghan wariness of his neighbor. —AP

Taiwan seeks probe into fisherman’s death TAIPEI: Taiwan yesterday repeated calls for a joint investigation into the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman

by Philippine coastguards, an incident which has ignited a major diplomatic dispute. A team of Taiwanese investigators returned to the island Saturday, accusing the Philippine government of failing to honour its agreement to conduct a joint probe. “The decision to send the investigators to Manila came only after the Philippine government had agreed to let us to do so,” deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang told reporters.

He said Manila’s de facto ambassador Antonio Basilio had agreed to such a move in Taipei on Wednesday, but Basilio’s country had now wavered on the proposal.

Chen said a joint inquiry was the only way to establish the truth about the May 9 fatal shooting of Hung Shihcheng, a 65-year-old crewman on the fishing boat.

“While our investigators can provide them with evidence they have collected, Filipino investigators can come to Taiwan to gather evidence, including talking to the other witnesses on board the fishing boat at the time of the shooting,” the deputy minister said. The coastguard has said the fishing vessel had intruded into Philippine waters and tried to ram their own patrol boat. Chen denied any intrusion, citing a voyage data recorder on the fishing boat. Taiwan has rejected

Manila’s apology and slapped sanctions on the Philippines, including a ban on the hiring of new workers, recalling its own envoy and staging a drill in waters off the northern Philippines. It is angry at Manila’s description of the death as “unintended”. Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou has termed the killing “coldblooded murder”, referring to more than 50 bullet holes in the fishing boat.

Amadeo Perez, a personal envoy from Philippine President Benigno Aquino was forced to return home Thursday after Taipei rejected the apology he conveyed from the president. Taipei has repeatedly pressed Manila to issue a formal government apology, to compensate the fisherman’s family and to apprehend the killer. In Manila, Perez said his country is waiting for tempers in Taiwan to cool before settling the dispute. Issues like Manila’s “one-China” policy and comments by Taiwanese investigators branding the incident as murder have complicated the situation, said Perez, chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office. “We are waiting for the right time because I was told by the secretarygeneral for Asian affairs, we should wait for the temperature in Taiwan to cool,” Perez said in an interview with DZMM radio. —AFP

Pakistan holds repeat poll despite killing Turnout more than 40% despite heat KARACHI: Under tight security, Pakistani officials yesterday held a repeat election in a district of violence-plagued Karachi, despite the killing of a senior politician in the city the day before.

Troops, police and paramilitary rangers backed up by armoured personnel carriers guarded the 43 polling stations in the NA-250 constituency, following claims of ballot-stuffing there during the May 11 general election.

An election official said turnout was initially assessed at more than 40 percent despite scorching weather and the gunning-down late Saturday of an official from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of Imran Khan.

Zohra Hussain, 59, vice president of the party’s women’s wing in Sindh province, was targeted by three men on a motorcycle outside her home in an upmarket part of Karachi. Her death was the latest following an bloody election campaign marked by more than 150 killings.

Former cricket star Khan was quick to pin the blame on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which represents the Urdu-speaking majority, and specifically its boss Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London.

“I hold Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he had openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts,” Khan said on his Twitter feed, describing the killing as “a targeted act of terror”. “I also hold the British Govt responsible as I had warned them abt Br citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats to kill PTI workers,” he said, adding that he was “shocked and deeply saddened by the brutal killing”.

Altaf Hussain condemned the attack in a statement and demanded a “judicial inquiry to get to the culprits”. In a video message released at a press conference in Lahore, Imran Khan said: “The party will hold a protest in Karachi against the killing as well as vote rigging on Monday.”

He added the protests would extend nationwide on Tuesday including in front of the election com-

mission’s offices in Islamabad on Friday. “Zohra Hussain’s sacrifice will not go waste,” he said.

Firdous Shamim, a local PTI leader, told AFP that Zohra Hussain “was leaving her home for some work when three gunmen attacked her.

She thought they wanted to snatch her purse and handed it over to them

cent of Pakistan’s GDP but is rife with murder and kidnappings and has been plagued for years by ethnic, sectarian and political violence.

Some 1,000 mourners including Hussain’s family members, friends, well wishers and party workers attended her funeral prayers in Defence area Sunday evening. At

of military coups.

“We want a change-a real change in our country because we are fed up with the current political set up, which is just disappointing,” housewife Arifa Aslam told AFP as she waited in a long queue yesterday to cast her vote. Polling was also held simultaneously yesterday for two seats in

KARACHI: Pakistani women display their identity cards during the re-poll of voters in the constituency known as NA-250 in Karachi yesterday. Hundreds of people queued up at 43 polling stations in a constituency of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi yesterday where a re-vote had been ordered over allegations of ballot stuffing. —AFP but they killed her.”

Police said all three gunmen escaped after the attack. “They shot her with one bullet near her chin and she could not survive,” senior police official Nasir Aftab told AFP. Police said the motive behind the shooting was unclear and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

“We are investigating all leads that we have got but cannot say at the moment whether it was an attempted street robbery or a targeted killing,” Aftab said. Karachi, a city of 18 million people, contributes 42 per-

least 200 party activists also held a protest rally in central city of Multan and condemned Hussain’s killing.

Tensions have been running high between the PTI and the MQM, Karachi’s dominant party, after Khan’s party accused it of widespread voterigging. The MQM denied the charge and announced a boycott of Sunday’s re-run.

The May 11 election marked Pakistan’s first democratic transition of power after an elected government had completed a full term, a milestone in a country with a history

the Sindh provincial assembly.

Latest official partial election results for the whole country confirmed centre-right former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as the winner nearly 14 years after he was deposed in a coup.

His Pakistan Muslim League (N) so far has 124 out of the 272 directly elected seats in the national assembly while the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party dropped to just 31. Khan’s PTI moved into third place on 27 seats compared to none in the last assembly. —AFP

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MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

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Issues

Saudis vie to avoid Syria blowback

By Assad Abboud hastened by the experience of Afghanistan, where hundreds of Saudis fought before returning to sow terror at home, the kingdom is battling to avoid similar blowback from the conflict in Syria, analysts say. In recent months, Saudi officials have issued increasingly stern warnings against volunteers from the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom heading off to fight alongside the mainly Sunni rebels trying to oust the Damascus regime. But diplomats say hundreds of Saudis, perhaps even several thousand, have gone regardless, and judging by death notices and other postings on social networks, their numbers show no sign of abating.

Earlier this month, an Islamist website announced the death of Rashid al-Shelwi, an engineer from the Saudi city of Taif, while fighting alongside the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army. On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a rebel fighter who appeared in a recent video posting executing captured government forces was a Saudi using the nom de guerre Qaswara Al-Jazrawi. Like a significant number of Saudi volunteers, Jazrawi fights in the ranks of the Al-Nusra Front, a US-blacklisted rebel group which has pledged its loyalty to Al-Qaeda, the Britainbased watchdog said.

The involvement of Saudis in jihadist groups has stoked concerns in Riyadh of a resurgence of the deadly Al-Qaeda attacks that rocked the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, and sparked a rare public intervention

by King Abdullah. Without specially referring to the conflict in Syria, the king warned against “those who deceive our children, some of whom have been killed and others imprisoned.”

Saudi Arabia’s highest religious official, grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Shaikh, chimed in last month with a warning that there was no religious justification for a jihad, or holy war, in Syria. “The situation in Syria is chaotic due to the proliferation of armed groups that do not fight under a unified banner,” the cleric said.

“This is not considered jihad... which must be approved by rulers.”

Last June, Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Ulema, which is headed by Shaikh, already issued a fatwa, or religious edict, prohibiting jihad in Syria without permission from the authorities. But similar measures failed to stop young Saudis from going to Iraq to fight US-led troops after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. Iraqi officials have said that hundreds of Saudis fought alongside the Sunni insurgents, some of them carrying out suicide attacks against US troops.

“Today, there is a similar issue in Syria - authorities and religious rulers discourage candidates from jihad,” said Stephane Lacroix, a specialist in Saudi Islamism.

Lacroix recalled the price Riyadh had paid for the involvement of thousands of its nationals fighting Soviet troops alongside the mujahedeen in the 1980s, most infamously now slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. “From the mid-80s, the Saudi authorities gave official support to young Saudis who wanted to go to fight the Soviets,” he said. “A number of these ‘Arab Afghans’ were later involved in acts of violence in Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi officials have sought to play down the number of volunteers in Syria. Interior ministry spokesman General Mansur Al-Turki said last month that he did not believe there were many, and that any that there were would face arrest and interrogation on their return.

General Saeed Al-Bishi, head of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care, set up to rehabilitate jailed extremists, said his organisation was helping to dissuade young Saudis from fighting in Syria.

“Sometimes parents call to tell us their sons want to go to Syria and we advise them against it,” he said.

Authorities are also trying to control the flow of donations from wealthy Saudis to Syrian rebel groups. Last month, the interior ministry warned against donations to “groups not authorised officially”, insisting that all aid must be chanelled through the Saudi Red Crescent and other official bodies. But Lacroix believes that “in reality, authorities are not capable of monitoring funds that go to jihadist groups fighting in Syria”. — AFP

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The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

Upgrade crowns Turkey rise, but pitfalls loom

By Paul Taylor urkey’s achievement of investment-grade status crowns a decade of rapid growth, financial stability and political reform by a “tiger” economy on the seam of Europe and Asia, but the rising power still faces pitfalls in a dangerous neighbourhood. Moody’s Investors Service raised its rating on Ankara’s sovereign bonds to Baa3, or investment grade, from Ba1 late on Thursday, following in the footsteps of Fitch credit ratings agency, which took that step last November.

The upgrade came on a day when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was showcasing Turkey’s global prestige on a visit to the White House, and in a week when the emerging nation of 75 million made a final loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund.

“It was a major strategic step for Turkey,” said Erdal Tanas Karagol, economic director of the SETA think-tank in Ankara.

“This will help the current ruling party prepare long-term plans, to set higher goals and will create a suitable international environment to carry out those plans.” The boost puts Turkey 11 notches on Moody’s rating scale above historic rival Greece, on the other side of the European Union frontier, and should drive more foreign direct investment (FDI) to an economy that still has great potential to grow.

“The ratings agencies are finally catching up with the fact that the Turkish government has done a huge amount of work in the last decade to put the country onto a stronger economic and political footing,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, head of emerging market research at Commerzbank in London. Government debt has fallen to 30 percent of gross domestic product from more than 100 percent in the crisis years early last decade. Inflation and the budget deficit are falling.

Turkey’s IMF program and candidacy to join the EU provided a strong policy anchor in the early years of Erdogan’s mildly Islamist conservative AK party government from 2003. But the pace of political reform has slowed as EU accession talks have run into the sand due to Cypriot and French obstruction. “There is a sense of a lost anchor,” said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Istanbul Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, EDAM. The EU had lost influence on issues

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such as media freedom, tolerance of dissent and freedom of expression because Turks no longer believed they were wanted inside the European bloc. Rights groups complain Erdogan is falling short on democracy.

Ulgen said the rating upgrade was a triple vote of confidence in the resilience of the Turkish economy despite Europe’s debt crisis, in sound economic and fiscal management, and in a strengthened geopolitical relationship with the West. “Turkey is a stable partner for the United States in a region which is likely to remain unstable for years to come,” Ulgen said of Washington’s NATO ally. So far, instability in Syria, Iraq and between Iran and Western powers has barely affected Turkey’s fast rising prosperity, even if has undermined the government’s declared policy of “zero problems with the neighbours”.

A double car bombing on its southern frontier last week highlighted the risk of Syria’s civil war spilling across the border, with the Turks harbouring more than 100,000 Syrian refugees, including military defectors and rear bases for rebels fighting former Turkish ally President Bashar Al-Assad.

Worsening internal strife in Iraq and the possibility of a Western or Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear program also pose security risks for Turkey. But Ulgen said it was the country’s internal political future that posed the biggest challenge to its peaceful rise as a regional power with global ambitions. “The biggest challenge is whether Turkey is going to succeed in reaching a settlement with its own Kurds,” he said. The conflict has killed 40,000 people in the last three decades. Talks between the Ankara government and jailed separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan led to a historic ceasefire declaration by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in March under which fighters began withdrawing from positions in southeastern Turkey last week. The peace plan, popular in opinion polls so far, is a gamble for Erdogan who could face a national backlash before elections next year if it stumbles. “An unstable environment, deriving from any political risk could jolt the economy to a strong and unexpected degree despite the positive outlook,” said Mehmet Altan, professor of political economy at Istanbul University.

A senior NATO source who has long dealt with Turkey said Ankara faced a deteriorating regional security environment

and had become a recipient of NATO protection with allied Patriot missiles deployed on its soil for the third time since 1991. The source said Washington was keen for Turkey to repair damaged ties with Israel and ease tension with Cyprus at a time when the discovery of new offshore gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean could be a win-win proposition for all sides. Ankara has the alliance’s second largest armed forces after the United States. A key achievement of Erdogan’s government has been gradually to cement civilian control over the military in a country which witnessed three coups between 1960 and 1981.

Quijano-Evans said the ratings upgrade should drive more FDI into Turkey, which had attracted less than its share compared to other emerging markets. That could help the country press ahead with import substitution policies in areas such as metals and petrochemicals to reduce its current account deficit, and diversify its exports away from its depressed core market in western Europe. It could also help with a number of ambitious grand projects including a third major international airport for Istanbul, a “Kanal Istanbul” shipping lane to be carved out parallel to the Bosphorus from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

In the economic as well as the political and diplomatic spheres, some analysts see a risk of “imperial overreach” as Turkey’s global ambitions rise. Ulgen said Erdogan’s effort to reshape the constitution to create a strong executive presidential system with himself at the pinnacle was one such risk. But dogged opposition, including within Erdogan’s own party, meant he was unlikely to succeed. “We see the risk of overreach very clearly in foreign policy on Syria, where Turkey thought it had much more ability to influence governments in the region and it hasn’t been able to push out Assad,” he said. But the NATO source, speaking on condition of anonymity because the alliance does not comment on its members’ policies, said there was a risk of hubris as Erdogan sought to build a legacy comparable with that of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman empire. “Turkey wants to call itself a global power,” he said. “It has great potential but it still has a lot of problems and difficult relations in the neighbourhood.” —Reuters

Jazeera in big gambit with US launch

By Rob Lever an Al-Jazeera win hearts and minds in America? The pan-Arab news giant is laying the groundwork for the launch of Al-Jazeera America after its purchase of Current TV, a struggling US cable channel. It will likely face an uphill battle for viewers but could solidify its journalistic brand, analysts say. “Al-Jazeera is going into extremely unfamiliar terrain,” said Adel Iskandar, a professor of communication at Georgetown University and co-author of a 2002 book on the Qatarbased news organization. Iskandar noted, however, that Al-Jazeera’s English-language operation around the world “has done a spectacular job” in areas of the world “where international broadcasters can’t afford to go”. He said that Al-Jazeera, with its “extremely deep pockets” thanks to funding by Qatar’s royal family, has the money to hire a solid team of journalists so that it can carve a niche in the difficult US market.

Al-Jazeera has not released details on the launch and declined a request for an interview. But it has announced plans to open offices in a dozen US cities, including Detroit and Chicago, and hired some respected journalists. Among those on board are Ali Velshi, a former CNN business news host, and Edward Pound, a former investigative reporter for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

“All Al-Jazeera America reporters will be fiercely objective, substantively strong and absolutely committed to the truth,” said a blog post from Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of Al-Jazeera international operations.

Deborah Potter, a longtime CBS News correspondent who now heads the journalism training center NewsLab, said Al-Jazeera has burnished its credentials in recent years. “The Arab Spring was a real turning point for AlJazeera,” she said. “Every single outlet used

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their news, and they got credit for it. They got a reputation as an organization that knows how to cover news.” Potter acknowledged, however, that Al-Jazeera America “will have a long way to go to build an audience” in the US market, facing rivals in the news segment like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. “I do think they have an opportunity to be distinctly different by not doing talk in primetime and by having a presence where other news channels don’t.” But in order to gain viewers, “they need some big names,” Potter said. “Because of the way American consumes television news, a lot of it is personality-driven. And so far, Al-Jazeera doesn’t have those names to draw an audience.”

Media analyst Ken Doctor said that even

without a large audience, Al-Jazeera can make a name for itself in the US and boost its prestige. “They will be able to break some news,” he said. “They will be all over the Internet, and I believe they will have a social (media) strategy. They are not going to have a huge audience, but their impact will be magnified by the Internet.” Al-Jazeera will be able to select from a wide range of journalists. The group said it received 22,000 applications for some 800 job openings.

The US launch was announced in January, when Al-Jazeera said it was acquiring Current, a channel co-founded by former US vice president Al Gore. Al-Jazeera, whose English service has been available on a handful of US cable systems, will be able to reach millions

Colleagues work in the newsroom at the Al-Jazeera English (AJE) studio headquarters in this Nov 22, 2006 in Washington, DC. — AFP

more US homes than it does at present. But the news channel could face a harsh reception from some quarters, with critics complaining about the network known previously for broadcasting videos from Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Republican Congressman Tim Murphy asked the Federal Communications Commission to review the deal for Current, citing “legitimate concerns about the sale of an American news channel to a media corporation owned by a foreign government”. The conservative activist group Accuracy in Media accused Al-Jazeera of being a “mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood and its various terrorist affiliates”. “Al-Jazeera has already been shown to play a role in radicalizing Muslims abroad to make Americans into terrorist targets,” AIM’s Cliff Kincaid said. “Is there any reason to believe its impact in America itself would be any different?”

The reasons remain unclear for Al-Jazeera’s US launch, likely to be a huge financial drain and unlikely to turn a profit anytime soon.

Georgetown’s Iskandar said the group appears to be seeking to boost the prestige and influence of Al-Jazeera, and of Qatar.

“They want to be able to project an influential image for their nation state,” he said. But he noted that “there could be a certain naivete” by its owners about the news business, and that things could backfire if Al-Jazeera trips up, or is seen as a mere tool of Qatar.

This has happened among Arabic-speaking audiences, Iskandar said, as the network lost credibility for its coverage of the Syria crisis. “Al-Jazeera made a name for itself doing investigative reporting but has lost a large amount of its audience in the Syrian conflict by being seen an extension of the Qatari foreign ministry,” he said. “In the US, there are a minefield of problems. They are walking into this blindfolded, but that may be why they might succeed.” — AFP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

S P ORTS

Griffin wins in South Korea JEJU ISLAND: Australian Matthew Griffin won the SK Telecom Open at South Korea’s Jeju Island by one shot after yesterday’s final round was called off due to heavy fog. A 40-foot putt from the back of the green on the 18th guaranteed him the third-round lead on Saturday and it turned out to be the winning shot at the 1 billion Korean won ($895,700) OneAsia event at the Pinx Golf Club.

“It’s unfortunate to finish like this, but I’ll take it,” Griffin, who leapt to the top of the OneAsia Order of Merit with the win, said.

“I thought my final putt yesterday was big as it gave me the lead, but I didn’t think it would be the winning putt. It just goes to show you really must try and make everything.”

South Korea has been a happy hunting ground for Griffin and it was in the same country that he won his last OneAsia title with victory in the Charity High1 Resort Open in September. “High1 was fantastic but this feels even better,” the 29-year-old from Melbourne said. “I never really played well in Korea in the past, which is surprising because I think the courses suit me but it looks like I’ve found my way here now.”—Reuters

Indian probe into spot-fixing

Folau to face Lions

NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India said yesterday it will wait for a verdict from its disciplinary committee before taking any action against three players arrested for alleged spot-fixing in the ongoing domestic Twenty20 league.

“We’ve asked (BCCI anti-corruption chief ) Ravi Sawani to submit a report to the disciplinary committee and if the committee says they are guilty, we will take stern action,” BCCI President Narainswamy Srinivasan said during a press conference in Chennai. “We have to observe all channels of natural justice. If the players are found guilty, we will not hesitate to act ruthlessly.”

Test player Shantakumaran Sreesanth as well as Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan have been provisionally suspended by the BCCI after their arrest by Delhi Police for spot-fixing, which involves performing in a predetermined way at set times for the benefit of gamblers.

All three players represented a Rajasthan-based team. Srinivasan said the BCCI would bolster its discipline program but was limited in how much it could do.

“Henceforth all player agents will have to be accredited by the BCCI and an anti-corruption official will travel with each team. But we’re handicapped when it comes to control over bookies. It is for the police to act, we don’t have the powers,” Srinivasan said.—AP

SYDNEY: Australia coach Robbie Deans has included code-hopper Israel Folau and two other uncapped players in his preliminary squad of 25 for the three-test series against the British and Irish Lions, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said yesterday.

Deans, who will add six more players to his squad on June 11, also found places in his party for uncapped number eight Ben Mowen and his ACT Brumbies team mate Christian Leali’ifano, who plays at centre and flyhalf. “Israel Folau, Ben Mowen and Christian Leali’ifano are the three uncapped players included in the Wallabies 25-man squad,” read a tweet on the Wallabies official feed.

Former rugby league international Folau, who has played 12 games of rugby union since switching from the Australian rules code for this season, was rewarded for his fine form at fullback for the Waratahs. T he Twitter feed said there were only three uncapped players in the squad, meaning disappointment for in-form Brumbies fullback Jesse Mogg and his team mate scrumhalf Nic White. The remainder of the squad will be named late yesterday.—Reuters

Broad bowls England to emphatic victory

BALTIMORE: Oxbow No. 6, ridden by Gary Stevens, leads the field to the finish line to win the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes. —AFP

Oxbow wins Preakness Stakes BALTIMORE: Oxbow, a 15-1 longshot ridden masterfully by 50-year-old Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, cruised to an easy, wire-to-wire victory in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, denying a Triple Crown bid for Kentucky Derby champion Orb. The D Wayne Lukas-trained bay bolted to the lead under cloudy skies and chilly temperatures at Pimlico Race Course and never tired, finishing 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Itsmyluckyday.

Rosie Napravnik guided Mylute to a thirdplace finish, while Kentucky Derby champion Orb finished fourth, tiring in the stretch and never getting into contention under Joel Rosario.

Oxbow finished sixth in the Derby two weeks ago on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs. On Saturday, Stevens steered clear of traffic in the opening furlong and never looked back.

“He didn’t get a lot of respect even after his great performance in the Derby,” said Stevens, who came out of retirement last year following a seven-year hiatus.

“We came back and breezed him on Monday and what you see now is exactly how he acted in his workout. “When I hit the halfmile pole, I said, ‘Are you kidding me? Is this happening?’ The race was over at that point. I just walked the dog to the half-mile pole.”

Orb, the 3-5 favorite who was riding a fiverace winning streak, broke from the inside post in the nine-horse affair and immediately fell back to sixth. Rosario was in striking position in the stretch despite sitting in sixth but his colt never fired.

“I’m disappointed,” said Orb’s trainer, Shug McGaughey. “It was a great opportunity. We were 3-5 and finished fourth. This was quite a run for a couple of weeks.

“We’ll pack it up and go back home (to

New York) and see what kind of horse we’ve got down the road and figure it out from there.” The victory was Lukas’s record 14th in Triple Crown races, including his sixth trip to the Preakness winner’s circle.

“I got a Hall of Fame ride,” Lukas said of Stevens’ effort. “We can plan this thing, we can talk about it, we can talk about strategy.

But once that gate is open, they have to make decisions.

“Gary made some great ones. I told him, ‘If you get on the lead, get into that cruising speed and just let it happen.’”

Oxbow’s triumph was the first wire-to-wire victory in the Preakness since Aloma’s Ruler in 1982. The winning time for the $1 million mile-and-three-16th race was a relatively slow 1:57:54.

Stevens said he thought he would see some company in the stretch. “I fully expected that Orb possibly departing and Will Take Charge would be making a run,” he said after his third Preakness triumph and his ninth victory in the Triple Crown series.

“But I came into the stretch so loaded. I couldn’t believe that no one challenged me going into the far turn, but when no one did, I said, ‘I think everybody’s in trouble right now.’”

Orb’s fourth-place finish ensures that a Triple Crown champion will have to wait at least another year. The last horse to win the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes was Affirmed in 1978.

“When I got to the half-mile pole, he had a hard time keeping up,” Rosario said of Orb. “I used my stick to try to get him going. He usually takes you there. He always runs hard.

“But today he never took off. He just steadied. Today was not his day.” The Belmont Stakes will be on June 8 at Belmont Park in New York.—Reuters

Pacers knock out Knicks INDIANAPOLIS: Indiana moved into the NBA Eastern Conference finals with a 10699 win over the New York Knicks on Saturday, with a Roy Hibbert block sparking a late 11-2 run that sealed a 4-2 series victory. Hibbert’s block on Carmelo Anthony midway through the fourth quarter shifted the momentum of the game, with Lewis Stevenson the prime beneficiary, scoring nine of his 23 points during the run.

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks this summer, so I have to protect the paint,” said Hibbert, who signed a $58 million contract last summer. “If all else fails, meaning the offense, I have to protect the paint.” Next up is a rematch with Miami, the team that eliminated Indiana last season. Game 1 will be Wednesday at Miami.

Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points and Iman Shumpert had 19 for New York, which had another poor shooting night.

The Knicks made just 40 percent of their shots, and again wound up on the wrong side of a 43-36 rebounding discrepancy. In the paint, New York was outscored 52-20, and Anthony scored just four points in the final 12 minutes when he went 2 of 7 from the field.

“They have a hell of a defense,” Anthony said. “They do a hell of a job of controlling the paint, closing it down, making it tough for guys.

“You’ve got to give them guys credit, especially when they got a chance to set.

Roy Hibbert gets to sit in the paint, causes havoc.” Guard George Hill returned after missing Game 5 with concussion, and he gave the Pacers a big boost.

Hill finished with just 12 points on 2-of10 shooting but had five rebounds and four assists, and kept the Pacers composed enough to commit only nine turnovers - 10

fewer than Thursday night’s loss in New York. The results showed up everywhere on the floor.

Paul George had 23 points, five rebounds and four assists. David West added 17 points, five rebounds and four assists, and Hibbert finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, none bigger than the stuff on Anthony that changed the game. Stephenson had 10 rebounds and three assists in his best postseason game ever. The reason: He wanted to avoid a trip home.

“I just didn’t want to go back to New York and play Game 7,” Stephenson said.

“Just get it done with now and I’d do whatever it takes to do that today. It showed tonight.” The New York native made sure of it. After George grabbed the rebound off of Hibbert’s block, Stephenson took a pass from West and scored on a layup to tie the score at 92 with 4:51 left in the game.

Stephenson followed that with a steal and drove in for a layup, drawing a foul and completing a three-point play. After grabbing another rebound and making two more free throws, West tipped in a miss and Stephenson closed the decisive spurt with another layup. Suddenly, the Pacers led 101-94 with 1:53 to go.

New York never got another chance to tie the score or take the lead again despite making a far more typical 13 of 30 from 3point range.

“It’s tough to go out this way,” coach Mike Woodson said. “I didn’t make it happen for us and that’s what’s disappointing.”

The Pacers have a far different goal now as they get ready to face LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Miami. “We’re not satisfied with where we’re at,” coach Frank Vogel said. “We feel like there’s no ceiling on this team this year.”—AP

LONDON: Stuart Broad took seven wickets to rip through the New Zealand batting order and bowl England to an emphatic 170-run victory on the fourth day of the first Test at Lord’s yesterday. The touring side were skittled for 68 in just 22.3 overs, putting England 1-0 up in the two-match series and giving them the perfect start to a summer in which they also host Australia in five Ashes tests. New Zealand, chasing 239 for victory after bowling England out for 213 in their second innings, collapsed to 29 for six at lunch and Broad and James Anderson finished them off 45 minutes into the afternoon session.

“It was a really good hour before lunch,” Broad told a news conference. “I was delighted with the way we stuck at it as a unit.

“It’s all about rhythm as a bowler. My stride pattern was pretty good. I knew if I got the ball up there there was enough in the pitch.”

Broad removed Peter Fulton (1), Hamish Rutherford (9), Ross Taylor (0), Kane Williamson (6) and Brendon McCullum (8) in the space of 32 balls in the morning session.

Fulton was caught by wicketkeeper Matt Prior in Broad’s first over and he then sent Rutherford’s off-stump cart-wheeling with a fine swinging delivery.

Taylor edged his second ball low to England captain Alastair Cook at first slip and Williamson, who survived 24 balls for his six runs, inexplicably drove Broad straight to Steven Finn at extra cover.

Anderson, who took five wickets in the first innings, found the edge of Brownlie’s bat and Cook took another easy catch.

Broad trapped McCullum lbw, the New Zealand captain trudging dejectedly back to the pavilion after he failed to get the decision overturned on review.

Tim Southee was dropped by Anderson at second slip off Broad but he heaved the next ball into the leg side and Joe Root ran round from deep square leg to take a good catch just inside the boundar y. BJ Watling edged Anderson low to Jonathan Trott at third slip for 13 to leave New Zealand on 54 for eight.

Neil Wagner pulled Broad over mid-wicket for the first six of the match but the tall fast bowler soon took out Bruce Martin’s middle stump to complete test-best figures of seven for 44. Anderson looked like claiming the last wicket when Wagner skied the ball towards long-leg but, after the difficult catch was dropped, the batsmen got in a mix-up and Wagner was run out for 17.

McCullum put New Zealand’s collapse down to quality bowling and a poor start. “Within an hour the game turned on its head,” he said.

“Stuart Broad’s spell of bowling was high class, impeccable length and he swung the ball.

“We were confident that 230 was achievable but we needed a good start and 29-6 was not it.

You need to find a way to stem the flow of wickets and we couldn’t do that today.”

The day started well for New Zealand when Southee removed Finn (6), Ian Bell (6) and Graeme Swann (1) in quick succession. After

England had resumed on 180 for six, Southee dismissed nightwatchman Finn in his first over, caught by substitute fielder Martin Guptill at second slip. Broad hit a few lusty blows to lift England past 200 but Bell, who spent most of Saturday in bed with the flu, became Southee’s fifth victim when he played a loose drive and Brownlie pouched a sharp catch at third slip.

Southee struck again when Swann flashed

wildly at a wide delivery and gave wicketkeeper McCullum, deputising for the injured Watling, a simple catch and the fast bowler completed figures of six for 50.

Off-spinner Williamson had Anderson caught

by Southee at cover after the ball cannoned up off short leg, leaving Broad stranded on 26 not out. The second and final Test starts at Headingley in Leeds on Friday.—Reuters

LONDON: England’s Stuart Broad holds up the ball as he leaves the pitch after New Zealand are bowled all out for 68 in their second innings, in their first Test match, at Lord’s cricket ground. —AP

SCOREBOARD LONDON: Scoreboard on the fourth day of the first test between England and New Zealand at Lord’s yesterday: England first innings 232 New Zealand first innings 207 (K.Williamson 60, R.Taylor 66; J.Anderson 5-47) England second innings (overnight 180 for six) A.Cook c Brownlie b Boult21 N.Compton b Wagner15 J.Trott b Williamson 56 J.Root b Southee 71 J.Bairstow b Southee 5 M.Prior c sub b Southee 0 S.Finn c sub b Southee6 I.Bell c Brownlie b Southee 6 S.Broad not out 26 G.Swann c McCullum b Southee 1 J.Anderson c Southee b Williamson 0 Extras (nb-2 w-1 b-3) 6 Total (all out, 68.3 overs) 213 Fall of wickets: 1-36 2-36 3-159 4-167 5-171 6171 7-183 8-200 9-210 10-213.

Bowling: Boult 15-3-56-1 Southee 19-4-50-6 Wagner 13-2-44-1 (1w 1nb) Martin 13-2-40-0

(1nb) Williamson 8.3-2-20-2.

New Zealand second innings P.Fulton c Prior b Broad 1 H.Rutherford b Broad9 K.Williamson c Finn b Broad 6 R.Taylor c Cook b Broad 0 D.Brownlie c Cook b Anderson 5 B.McCullum lbw Broad 8 BJ Watling c Trott b Anderson 13 T.Southee c Root b Broad 7 N.Wagner run out 17 B.Martin b Broad1 T.Bolt not out0 Extras (lb-1) 1 Total (all out, 22.3 overs) 68 Fall of wickets: 1-1 2-16 3-16 4-21 5-25 6-29 741 8-54 9-67 10-68.

Bowling: Anderson 11.3-5-23-2, Broad 11-044-7.

Result: England won by 170 runs

Pedrosa bags French GP LE MANS: Spain’s Dani Pedrosa claimed top spot in the world championship MotoGP standings when he won his maiden French Grand Prix on a wet Le Mans course yesterday.

The Honda rider took the lead midway through the race to beat Britain’s Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) and Spanish rookie Marc Marquez (Honda), who were second and third respectively.

Pedrosa has 83 points after the fourth leg of the 18-race championship and leads Marquez by six points while Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, a disappointing seventh on Sunday, is on 66 points.

It was Pedrosa’s second victory in a row after he rode to the limit in tough conditions. “It has been a great race for me because I didn’t expect it,” he told Eurosport.

“I always have problems here, with the temperature, the tyres are cold for me and I never get good grip. Last year I struggled a lot in the same race conditions but today I got some good grip on the tyres, especially in the front, so my braking was good. “When I was in front I made a couple of mistakes, almost ran out twice and was on the limit.”

Marquez, who started on pole as world championship leader, fell behind early in the race but pro-

duced a skilful performance to end up on the podium — a result he did not expect either.

The 20-year-old prodigy made a few mistakes, almost crashing once while fighting for position with Lorenzo but eventually managed to focus on his own performance. “At the beginning and in the first laps

the feeling was not so good,” he said.

“I was struggling a lot to get rear grip, I nearly crashed many times. I went wide one time so I didn’t expect to finish on the podium.

“But then I was focused on my race, tried to do my best and step by step I went towards the front.”

LE MANS: Spanish Dani Pedrosa jubilates on the podium after winning the Moto GP race of the French Motorcycling Grand Prix.—AFP

Nine -times world champion Valentino Rossi of Italy skidded out on a curve 11 laps from the finish and finished 12th.

Crutchlow, however, managed to stay on the bike this time. The Manxman had a medical before the race to check whether he was fit after he suffered a small fracture in his shinbone in a crash during a free practice session on Saturday.

“It’s nice to finally get that podium. Hopefully from now on we can be injury-free. I knew Dovvy (Italian Andrea Dovizioso) would crack in the end with some pressure,” he said after his best MotoGP result.

“He was slowing up quite a lot and he let Dani get away which was disappointing but I was happy enough. “It was a difficult race. I couldn’t see anything, that was the main problem. When you are behind the rider the stuff sticks to the visor so whatever Dovvy was spraying up, it was like mud and it was stuck to the visor and I couldn’t see much,” Crutchlow, who is now fourth in the world standings on 55 points, added.

There was more cheer for Britain when Scott Redding won the Moto2 race riding a Kalex. Maverick Vinales led a Spain/KTM one-twothree when he won the Moto3 race.—Reuters

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

S P ORTS

Nadal and Serena triumph in Rome

ITALY: US Serena Williams celebrates with the trophy during the ceremony of the WTA Rome Masters. World number one Serena Williams beat Belarusia’s Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3 to win the Rome Open title.—AFP

Fierce competition in Jet-ski race KUWAIT: As part of the Sea Sports Club celebrations on the return of HH The Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah in good health, and under the patronage of information minister, state minister for youth affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah, the third round of jetski race took place with the participation of 31 riders including several world champions. A large crowd was on hand, as competition was fierce in all categories.

The Pro Rider and Marco Marine teams took the first three places of the

sitting category as Khalid Burabee won first place, Mohammad Burabee second and Mohammad Al-Baz third.

The pro standing category was won

by Abdelwahab Al-Essa, followed by Abdelaziz Al-Omar and Yacoub AlHuwaidi.

In the sitting juniors, Fahad Ibrahim Al-Ghanim emerged first, followed by Tariq Al-Essa and Salem Al-Mutawe in third spot. Sheikh Salman along with President of the Sea Club Maj. Gen. Fahad Al-Fahad and other officials distributed prizes to the winners, and mementos were exchanged.

ROME: Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams underlined their French Open ambitions with convincing final victories in Rome yesterday.

In what was his 30th meeting with Roger Federer, clay court king Nadal outclassed the Swiss 6-1, 6-3 as he continued his stunning comeback following a seven-month injury absence.

Williams, who will head to Paris next week hoping to avenge her stunning first round defeat to Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano last year, was in equally imperious form as she swept aside Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3.

Nadal’s triumph means he now leads Federer 20-10 in their series, with 13 of his wins coming on clay.

He also now has 24 Masters titles in a career total of 56.

Ahead of his bid to extend his record run of seven victories in Paris, Nadal admitted he had never dreamed of such success-he now has 36 wins in 38 matches since his return to the tour in February. “If you’d told me that four or five months ago I would have said you are crazy,” said fifth-seeded Nadal.

“So after eight tournaments, six victories, and two finals, it’s a dream for me.” Federer, the second seed, had overcome French upstart Benoit Paire in a late semi-final on Saturday to make his first final of the season.

But despite winning the opening game on serve on Sunday the Swiss failed to really get a grip on the match. In all, Federer finished with 32 unforced errors to Nadal’s eight.

“He played very aggressively from the start, he didn’t make too many mistakes and had a good match overall,” said Federer, who admitted the change in class from his previous challengers this week had been a factor.

“Rafa has much more top-spin

than all the guys I played this week, so the change was quite a big one.

“I tried to play offensively, but unfortunately I didn’t have the best day. It didn’t go the way I was hoping it to go.”

Williams looked equally impressive on the red clay of centre court.

She broke Azarenka’s serve three times in a one-sided first set and despite a tighter second set the American prevailed to stretch her career-best winning streak to 24 matches. It was Williams’s 51st career title and took her victory tally over Azarenka, who beat the American earlier this season in the final of the Doha hardcourt event,

to 12-2 in their series.

Williams said the match was closer than the score suggested. “It was very close, the first three games were over 20-25 minutes or so, so it wasn’t really easy out there.

Nothing is really easy,” said the American.

“I just took the opportunities when I had them. I know she (Azarenka) did as well, but I came up with the good shots some times.”

Azarenka agreed the match had been closer than the score suggested but admitted: “She definitely showed some more incredible tennis today... she’s been playing her

best tennis for the past year and a half or so.

“But today she played much better in the key moments of the match.” It is Williams’s second title at Rome, having first won the event in 2002.

And after conceding defeat to Razzano in last year’s first round at Roland Garros, the American said she is taking a different approach this year. “It’s definitely different. It has to be,” she said. “I was feeling excellent last year and didn’t do great. This year I’m more cautious. I want to work hard and stay focused and win every point hard and not slack at all.”—AFP

ITALY: Spain’s Rafael Nadal bites the cup during the trophy ceremony of the ATP Rome Masters.

Nadal crushed Switzerland’s Roger Federer 6-1, 6-3 to win seventh Rome title.—AFP

Sharks beat Kings in OT

FRANCE: Italian Giovanni Visconti celebrates on the podium winning the 146 kms 15th stage of the 96th Giro d’Italia from Cesana Torinese to Col du Galibier in France. —AFP

Visconti takes victory in snow VALLOIRE: Giovanni Visconti won the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday after a mountain finish in the snow following a 149km ride from Cesana Torinese to Col du Galibier.

The Italian from the Movistar team held off a charge from the depleted peloton, made up of race favourites, to take his maiden Giro stage by 42 seconds from Carlos Betancur and Prezemyslaw Niemiec. Ahead of the second and final rest day, Vincenzo Nibali held onto the leader’s pink jersey after coming home in seventh, 54 seconds down.

The finishing line had been brought 4km down the mountain due to the adverse weather conditions at the top of the Galibier.

But given the thick sheet of snow around the riders as they tackled the final climb, and snow flakes peppering their faces, that would have been something of a relief.

Having broken clear of his six fellow breakaway companions on the penultimate climb up the Telegraphe, Visconti reached the Galibier with a couple of minutes on his chasers.

And the 30-year-old Sicilian held on up to the finish at 2,301 metres, alongside a monument to former Italian champion Marco

Pantani, before collapsing exhausted after the finishing line.

“There are no words to describe that, I’m delighted, I’m delighted,” said Visconti, who was briefly banned for three months last year due to his links to disgraced doctor Michele Ferrari.

“Today we saw who I am, not what I’ve shown this last year. I was born the same day as Marco Pantani, January 13. Maybe today he helped me.” Any hopes of fireworks amongst the overall contenders failed to materialise on the draining final climb. Nibali briefly stretched his legs but gained little and was quickly reeled back in before the favourites all came home in the same bunch.

Australian Cadel Evans remains second at 1min 26sec with Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran third at 2min 46sec. “They were extreme conditions, I tried to shake things up at the end but it was very difficult because of the cold,” said Nibali.

“It really was very cold. It was an important day but the result is good. I have a good advantage, although it would have been better iof I’d gained a bit of time. “Evans is still very close and Uran still needs to be taken into consideration.”—AFP

Johnson races to record win CONCORD: Cross another milestone off of Jimmie Johnson’s list. He stands alone in AllStar history. “Five-time” became the first fourtime winner of NASCAR’s annual All-Star race, breaking a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt and teammate Jeff Gordon on Saturday night.

“To beat Jeff and Earnhardt, two guys that I have looked up to my whole life, two massive icons of our sport, this means the world to me,” Johnson said. He also joined the late Davey Allison as only the second driver to win backto-back All-Star races.

It was fitting that he did it at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the track Johnson, the fivetime NASCAR champion, has dominated since his 2002 rookie season. Johnson has won six points races at Charlotte, led more than 1,600 laps and the win in the $1 million Sprint All-Star Race was his second straight, fourth in 12 years.

He also won in 2003 and 2006.

“The only four-time All-Star champion - I am very proud of you,” crew chief Chad Knaus

radioed after Johnson took the checkered flag.

A day after Johnson overshot his pit stall during qualifying to earn a poor starting spot, his Hendrick Motorsports crew changed four tires in 11 seconds on the mandatory final spot to send Johnson back onto the track in second place for the final restart.

He lined up inside of teammate Kasey Kahne for the final 10-lap sprint to the cash, and the two battled side-by-side for a little more than a lap before Johnson cleared Kahne completely. He then sailed away to an easy victory. “We are doing great things and we are amazing ourselves in the process,” Johnson said. Joey Logano finished second and Kyle Busch, who won two of the first four segments, was third as neither had a shot at running down Johnson once he got his No. 48 Chevrolet out front. “The 48, once he got that clean air, he was gone,” Logano said. “Second isn’t anything to hang your head, but it’s about the million bucks tonight.”—AP

SAN JOSE: San Jose’s Logan Couture returned from an injury to score in overtime and give the Sharks a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, cutting the deficit in their NHL second-round playoff series to 2-1.

Also Saturday, Detroit beat Chicago to square their series at 1-1. San Jose had suffered a couple of galling defeats in the opening two rounds of the series, but they responded on Saturday in a game they could not afford to lose. “ The transition from being down to, ‘Let’s get ready to go,’ was exceptional,” coach Todd McLellan said. “The leaders did a great job. But you always have to take that test. You find out a lot about your team.” Whereas the Kings had received some contentious calls in the opening two games, this time the Sharks were the beneficiaries.

Tommy Wingels drew a hooking penalty on Robyn Regehr with 41.7 seconds left in regulation. But the call that really had

the Kings steaming came when Trevor Lewis was called for goaltender inter ference when he crashed into Antti Niemi with 4.5 seconds remaining.

Los Angeles argued that Patrick Marleau pushed Lewis, and goalie Jonathan Quick got a game misconduct for arguing with the officials after the game.

“I find it very tough to believe that a player as intelligent as Trevor Lewis, that he’d run the goalie,” Kings for ward Dustin Penner said. “I asked him and he said he got pushed from behind.

I’m disappointed that the refs had enough confidence to make a gutsy call like that in the last 30 seconds of the period.”

That gave San Jose a 5-on-3 advantage for the first 1:19 of overtime. The Sharks couldn’t convert with two extra men, but got the winner when Marleau set up Couture in front, who beat Quick for the game -winner.

“They said we got a break last game, so now they got a break,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said.

Rookie Tyler Toffoli scored the lone goal for the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings, who had won six straight games since dropping the first two in the opening round in St. Louis.

Couture’s first career playoff over time goal came after he missed most of the second period when he limped off the ice favoring his left leg. He returned to an ovation in the final minute of the second and then got the Sharks back into the series in overtime. “ When you see someone leave after stepping on a puck like that, you don’t know if he’s going to come back or not,” Marleau said. “And now he has his stick back in the game. And he scores the overtime winner.

It’s huge. It’s to see him be able to push through that kind of pain.”

Meanwhile, Detroit’s Damien Brunner and Brendan Smith scored in the second period as the Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1. It was a strong

response by the Red Wings after Chicago handled them easily in the series opener by the same scoreline.

Just as the Blackhawks did in Game 1, Detroit took control in the second period and put the game away in the third. “We had more energy,” the Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg said. “We did a lot of the little things better than we did in Game 1 and when we got our chances we were able to put the puck in the net.” Patrick Kane gave Chicago a 1-0 lead late in the first, but the game changed markedly after that. Brunner tied it when he deflected a wrist shot by Jakub Kindl early in the second, and Smith gave the Red Wings the lead when he scored off a feed from Henrik Zetterberg on a 3-on1 late in the second. Johan Franzen made it 3-1 in the third when he fired a rising shot past Crawford after a perfect pass from Jonathan Ericsson in the Detroit zone. And Valtteri Filppula closed out the scoring with 7:57 left in the game.—AP

Li clinches world title PARIS: China’s Li Xiaoxia claimed her maiden world championship title in Paris yesterday to complete a career grand slam after defeating compatriot Liu Shiwen in an enthralling final.

Runner-up to Ding Ning in 2011 and four years earlier to Guo Yue, Li went one step further in the French capital with an 11-8, 411, 11-7, 12-10, 6-11, 13-11 victory at the Bercy Arena.

Liu appeared set to extend the match to a deciding game after saving two match points in the sixth game but Li would not be deterred, clinching the title at the third time of asking as Liu fired long. The triumph saw Li achieve a table tennis grand slam with the world championship crown adding to the World Cup she won in 2008 and the Olympic title she picked up last August in London.

“I won because of my really strong fighting spirit. Thanks to it I can control myself and calm down as well as play stronger when I need to,” said the 25-year-old Li. “I learned a lot from the London experience,” she added, referring to her win over topranked Ding Ning in the 2012 Olympic final.

Li also paid special tribute to her coach Li Sun, saying: “He gave me a lot of confidence, not just technically but also mentally. I really appreciate his help.”

Liu, who was playing in her first final at the event after two previous semi-final appearances, was philosophical in defeat. “I

think generally I played quite well.

I want to congratulate Li Xiaoxia.

She played better than me in several sets and I will continue to try and improve.

“Only one player can be champion. There is always a winner and

a loser,” added the beaten Liu. Bronze medals were awarded to losing semi-finalists Ding and teenager Zhu Yuling. Earlier, reigning men’s champion Zhang Jike remained on course to defend his crown after shrugging off

FRANCE: China’s Li Xiaoxia poses with her trophies on the podium Women’s Singles of the World Table Tennis Championships.—AFP

Germany’s Patrick Baum to reach the semi-finals.

Fourth seed Zhang recovered from a sluggish start to down Baum 9-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-2, 11-3 and ensure, just like in the women’s draw, a Chinese sweep of all four singles medals.

Next up for Zhang, also the Olympic title-holder, is a last-four showdown with top-ranked Xu Xin. Xu was given a real scare by Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira before he eventually prevailed 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 14-12, 11-5, 11-8.

Second seed Ma Long accounted for top European hope Timo Boll of Germany as he squeezed through a tightly-contested encounter 11-4, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9 for his 10th win in 13 meetings with two-time World Cup winner and fifth-ranked Boll.

“I’m pretty happy with my performance today. I think I’m in my best shape at the moment; I think Timo is as well and I was well prepared for the match,” Ma told the IT TF.com. “ The crowd was for Timo but I’m a professional player, it’s not new, I’m used it and there were some Chinese supporters in the crowd on my side.”

The 2009 champion Wang Hao awaits Ma in the last four after the third seed edged past Yan An 811, 11-9, 11-6, 12-14, 11-8, 11-2 in an all-Chinese affair. Austria’s Werner Schlager was the last man outside of China to triumph in the singles event when he beat South Korea’s Joo Se-Hyuk for gold here in 2003.—AFP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

S P ORTS

Tearful Beckham bids farewell to PSG, career PARIS: With the Beatles ringing in his ears and tears in his eyes, David Beckham admitted that his starring role in Paris Saint-Germain’s French title party was the last chapter of his colorful career.

The 38-year-old former England captain, one of the most high-profile players to shuffle between football and celebrity, made his final home appearance for the Ligue 1 champions on Saturday before heading into retirement.

Although PSG have one more game left to play, next weekend’s meaningless fixture on an unforgiving plastic pitch at humble Lorient will almost certainly see Beckham watching from the sidelines.

“We have one more game officially, but it’s a plastic surface and it was only a few years ago that I ruptured my Achilles (tendon). So whether or not I play, who knows?,” said Beckham after PSG marked their Ligue 1 triumph with a 3-1 win over relegated Brest.

PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi, the helmsman of Qatar’s huge financial stake in the Paris club, is convinced that the Beckham story is over.

“Up to the coach but basically, I think that will be the last match for him,” AlKhelaifi told the BBC. Beckham, who rose from modest beginnings in east London to amass a fortune of £165 million ($252 million, 195 million euros), has been linked with a raft of future career possibilities.

They range from promotional roles with PSG and China and British Sky Sports television, to buying a stake in an American club in Major League Soccer where he has already played for Los Angeles Galaxy.

But, as befits a sports diplomat in the making, Beckham preferred to concentrate on the end of his brief, five-month stay with PSG rather than the unfamiliar challenges of retirement.

The stadium gave him a standing ovation as he left the pitch 10 minutes from time in floods of tears at the end of an evening which had seen him handed the captain’s armband by coach Carlo Ancelotti.

He was saluted by a guard of honor

from his teammates before he climbed the podium to receive his Ligue 1 title medal.

Draped in an English flag and serenaded by the Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye”, a laser show accompanied a brief video highlights reel of his time with the club.

It concluded with the words: “Thank you David”. “The emotions started kicking in about 20 minutes before I went off.

It was hard to even run and kick the ball.

And to see the reaction of the players was really special,” he said.

With 25 members of his family looking on-including his parents and wife Victoria-Beckham admitted that his own sons had already made off with the match-day souvenirs.

“The boys nicked my boots and shorts and medal,” Beckham told Sky Sports.

“The experience has been the best. I feel so lucky to have had this profession for 20 years. It’s very special and to go out like this, it could not be any more perfect.” Beckham said he felt humbled by being named captain.

“When the manager told me, it was really special. To be an Englishman as captain on a night which meant so much to the fans. It was an amazing gesture and I will always be thankful for it.”

Last week, Beckham had helped PSG to their first league title since 1994 with a win over Lyon, and then announced he would retire at the end of the season having captured a championship in a fourth different league-he had already succeeding with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Galaxy.

“Thanks to everyone in Paris, to all of my teammates, the staff and fans,” said Beckham at the trophy presentation. “It’s been very special to finish my career here. I now want to enjoy time with my family. I have all the memories I need.

“Paris has always been one of the world’s most beautiful places for me and I am very sad to be leaving.” On the pitch, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice while Beckham had a hand in the other PSG goal, a trademark, inchperfect corner finding Blaise Matuidi to hit the target.—AFP

PARIS: Paris Saint Germain’s midfielder David Beckham from England, is thrown in the air by his teammate at the end of their French League soccer match against Brest. —AP

Enugu grab dramatic CAF Cup victory JOHANNESBURG: Enugu Rangers of Nigeria snatched a dramatic 1-0 win over CS Sfaxien of Tunisia yesterday in a CAF Confederation Cup play-off.

Severely weakened by the absence of stars Chigozie Agbim and Mba, Rangers broke the deadlock just three minutes from time.

Ugonna Uzochukwu was the toast of eastern city Enugu as he scored to keep alive hopes of the trophy coming to Nigeria for the first time.

Sfaxien, three-time finalists and the only club to successfully defend the Confederation Cup, host the second leg at the beginning of June.

Goalkeeper Agbim and midfielder Mba were recent additions to Rangers’ squad after lengthy transfer wrangles with fellow Nigerian club Warri Wolves.

And CAF Champions League-winning coach Okey Emordi was banking on their experience against battlesharpened African campaigners Sfaxien.

But Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi stunned Enugu by refusing to release the duo from a national squad training camp in Germany.

The 2013 African champions are preparing for a May 31 friendly against fellow FIFA Confederations Cup qualifiers Mexico in Houston.

Nigeria also play World Cup qualifiers in Kenya and Namibia before the mid-June kick-off of the World Cup dress-rehearsal in Brazil. Mba starred at the Nations Cup in South Africa, scoring the quarter-finals winner against Ivory Coast and the only goal of the

final with Burkina Faso.

No Egyptian club has won the nineyear Confederation Cup and the hopes of Ismaily or ENPPI creating history suffered serious blows.

Ismaily conceded a late goal to crash 3-0 at CA Bizertin of Tunisia while an early brace condemned ENPPI to a 2-0 defeat at Saint George of Ethiopia.

Bizertin, beaten by Egyptian giants Al-Ahly in the Champions League before dropping to the Confederation Cup, exacted sweet revenge.

A goal in each half, from Kamel Zaiem and Ali Machani, put them on top and a last-minute strike by Al-Arabi Gabir left Ismaily with little hope.

Shimeles Bekele and Abebaw Butako scored in Addis Ababa for the Saints, who hope to be the first Ethiopian team to reach the group stage.

Like Bizerte, Saint George were eliminated from the Champions League by an Egyptian side, losing to Zamalek on the away-goal rule.

Big spenders TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo whipped surprise qualifiers LIga Muculmana 4-0 in mining hub Lubumbashi.

But no scorer was Congolese with Zambians Given Singuluma and Nathan Sinkala, Ghanaian Richard Kissi-Boateng and Tanzanian Mbwana Samata on target. Return matches are scheduled for the weekend of May 31June 2 and the eight surivivors qualify for the group stage, which kicks off in mid-July.—AFP

Photo of the day

B-Boy Neguin performs during the Red Bull BC One All Stars on Tour 2013 at Estacao Cultura in Campinas. www.redbullcontentpool.com

Ancelotti wants to leave PSG for Real PARIS: Carlo Ancelotti has asked to leave Paris Saint-Germain for Real Madrid, PSG’s sporting director Leonardo said yesterday.

Ancelotti, who has long been rumoured to be a target for Real, whose current boss Jose Mourinho is tipped to return to Chelsea next season, had a meeting with club bosses earlier yesterday. A subsequent report on television channel BeInSport, whose Qatari owner Nasser al-Khelaifi is also PSG president, said Ancelotti would be leaving PSG. But Leonardo denied that, claiming the Parisians want to keep hold of the Italian. “What happened is that Carlo has asked to leave for Real Madrid. We want to keep him, he has (another) year on his contract with us. No decision has been taken,” said Leonardo.

Ancelotti has spent just 18 months at the club from the French capital and this season led them to a first Ligue 1 title since 1994.

But rumours that he is set to replace Mourinho at Real when this season finishes had been gathering pace in recent weeks.

Those were only enhanced yesterday morning when several Spanish newspapers claimed the Portuguese boss would leave before the end of the current campaign.

Madrid sports daily Marca ran the headline “he is going to Chelsea” on Sunday morning, adding that “Real Madrid could make his goodbye official this week”.

Another Spanish newspaper, broadsheet El Mundo, also reported that Mourinho may not even be in charge for Real’s final two games of the season against Real Sociedad and Osasuna.

“Madrid want to sack Mourinho now,” it claimed. “ The board and the president, Florentino Perez, have had enough after the defeat in the final of the Copa del Rey and the tense situation in the dressing room, and are planning to bring to an end the Portuguese’s reign immediately.”

With confirmation that Ancelotti has asked to be allowed to join Real, it would seem some

deal has already been done behind the scenes.

Saturday night, Ancelotti had refused to comment on his future, saying only that he would meet with the club’s president in the next few days.

That meeting took place on Sunday, after which BeInSport claimed a decision had indeed been made.

“Following a meeting with Nasser al-Khelaifi and Leonardo, Carlo Ancelotti will no longer be Paris Saint-Germain coach next season,” said a message that ran across the bottom of the screen on the TV channel. Ancelotti’s first six months at PSG were largely disappointing as he took over a team at the top of Ligue 1, only to see them overhauled by Montpellier to miss out on the title.

However, this season he delivered on the club’s twin objectives of winning the league and reaching the Champions League quarterfinals.

He was greatly aided, though, by a huge financial investment from the club that allowed PSG to sign the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Ezequiel Lavezzi, as well as bringing in David Beckham on a short-term deal in January.

Ancelotti won two Champions League titles and one Serie A crown with AC Milan while he also completed a league and cup double at Chelsea.

He has won titles in three different countries and is one of the most respected coaches in European football. —AFP

Carlo Ancelotti

Rayo stays in hunt for Europa League with win BARCELONA: Francisco “Piti” Medina scored a double yesterday as Rayo Vallecano won 3-2 at Levante to stay in the hunt for a Europa League berth. Also, Deportivo La Coruna beat visiting Espanyol 2-0 in a tense match featuring contrasting emotions.

Deportivo is provisionally out of the relegation zone, while Real Zaragoza fell into the drop zone after conceding two late goals to fall 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao.

Piti opened the scoring in the 20th minute by firing in a rebound. Robert Acquafresca leveled for Levante in the 52nd.

Franco Vazquez finished off a Rayo counterattack four minutes later, and Piti scored his teamleading 17th goal of the season from the penalty spot in the 72nd to make it 3-1.

Levante midfielder Vicente Iborra pulled one back in the 86th to add drama to the final minutes, but Rayo held on for victory.

“Piti is spectacular. Every time he touches the ball he creates danger,” said Rayo coach Paco Jemez, adding that his forward has scored more goals than Real Madrid stars Karim Benzema (10) and Gonzalo Higuain (14).

Rayo’s first win in six rounds lifted it into eighth place in the Spanish league, which currently earns a spot in the Europa League

with Malaga banned from UEFA competition next season. “We continue fighting for something that would be historic for this club,” Jemez said.

Espanyol made a good start at Deportivo with Christian Stuani heading Sergio Garcia’s cross

onto the bar. But Deportivo soaked up the pressure before going ahead five minutes after halftime when Bruno Gama struck with a curling strike from the edge of the area, sending coach Fernando Vazquez charging down the sideline with fists

Francisco “Piti” Medina

raised to celebrate.

Substitute Nelson Oliveira sealed the much-needed win in stoppage time. But he then provoked the ire of the Riazor Stadium crowd by holding his finger to his lips in an apparent response to previous criticism he had received from the home fans.

After gesturing for the stands to be quiet, the young Portugal striker shook off his teammate’s attempts to hug him in celebration of the goal.

Zaragoza bossed the match at La Romareda Stadium and went ahead thanks to Helder Postiga’s well-placed header in the 14th.

But Bilbao finally came alive when Fernando Llorente poked in a loose ball in the 80th, and Oscar de Marcos dribbled by his marker on the end line before crossing for Ibai Gomez to score the stoppage-time winner with a deft back-heeled flick.

After a disappointing season, Bilbao’s comeback victory secured its place in the top flight with two rounds to go.

Later, league champion Barcelona plays Valladolid without injured top scorer Lionel Messi. Barcelona can match Real Madrid’s record haul of 100 points from last season if it wins its remaining three matches. Lastplace Mallorca hosts Real Betis today.—AP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

S P ORT S

Celtic warm up for Cup final with closing win GLASGOW: Celtic ended a run of six away matches without a win as they warmed up for the Scottish Cup final with a comprehensive 4-0 defeat of Dundee United at Tannadice yesterday.

With places in next weekend’s showpiece final up for grabs a strong Celtic side impressed from the start as the champions brought down the curtain on a successful Scottish Premier League campaign.

Kris Commons opened the scoring in the 11th through a long-range free-kick that took a slight deflection before Georgios Samaras added another in the 17th minute.

Samaras had an effort ruled out for

offside before he headed in a third in the 27th minute as Celtic dominated. Celtic continued their onslaught in the second half and Gary Hooper thought he had added a fourth in the 53rd minute but his effort was also chalked off after the striker had strayed offside.

Substitute Anthony Stokes put the icing on the cake for Celtic in the 85th minute when he tried his luck from distance, and for the third time in the match, United keeper Radoslaw Cierzniak was beaten by a deflection.

The result and performance will give the Hoops a boost as they bid to complete a domestic double against Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final next Sunday at

Hampden. Elsewhere, Inverness Caledonian Thistle lost out on an historic first foray into European competition following a 1-0 defeat in the Highland derby against Ross County.

Canadian international Andre Hainault’s first half volley was enough to deny Terry Butcher’s side third place as goals from Liam Craig and Nigel Hasselbaink saw St Johnstone defeat Motherwell and leapfrog Inverness into the European spots.

At Victoria Park, Paddy McCourt, who is set to be released at the end of the season, was handed a rare start by manager Neil Lennon in what was an otherwise familiar starting line-up.

The Hoops hadn’t tasted victory away from Celtic Park since the end of February but they looked determined to put an end to that record from the start with Commons getting Celtic off to a flier. Jon Daly gave away a free-kick about 30 yards out and Commons drilled a low powerful effort past keeper Radoslaw Cierzniak with the aid of a slight deflection. Samaras added a second when he found room for a shot which took a big deflection off John Souttar as it looped into the top corner. The Greek striker had the ball in the net just over a minute later but his effort was ruled out for offside. Samaras wasn’t to be denied though and he got on the end of a

Commons free -kick to nod past Cierzniak from four yards out for his second of the match.

Celtic carried on after the break and soon had the ball in the net again when Samaras drilled a left-foot shot to the back post for Hooper to tap in, but the flag was up for offside.

Joe Ledley came close as he bulleted a header towards the top right hand corner from a Commons corner but Cierzniak somehow managed to claw it away. Celtic keeper Fraser Forster denied Daly and Stuart Armstrong before Stokes finished the scoring as his deflected shot flew into the bottom lefthand corner.—AFP

Gunners win CL race Newcastle 0

Arsenal 1

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale (right) goes down to the ground with Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson and earns a yellow card for diving during the English Premier League soccer match. —AP

Spurs suffer Euro agony Tottenham 1

Sunderland 0

LONDON: Gareth Bale scored another stunning late winner for Tottenham, but his side’s 1-0 victory over 10-man Sunderland was not enough to win the battle to qualify for the Champions League yesterday.

Andre Villas-Boas’s team knew only a victory at White Hart Lane, combined with Arsenal failing to take three points from their visit to Newcastle, would allow them to leapfrog their north London rivals into fourth place in the Premier League on the last day of the season.

But despite Bale’s superb long-range goal in stoppage-time following David Vaughan’s red card, there was only despair for Spurs as Laurent Koscielny’s strike gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory on Tyneside.

That condemned Spurs to fifth place and a berth in the Europa League that will be little consolation after another narrow failure to qualify for Europe’s top club competition. To add to Tottenham’s frustration they had their highest-ever Premier League points total, their tally of 72 beating last season’s 69, when Harry Redknapp’s team finished fourth but failed to qualify for the Champions League because sixth-placed Chelsea won the competition and qualified as holders. For long periods of this game, it looked as though Tottenham would hand Arsenal the Champions League place as they struggled to find a way past a stubborn Sunderland, whose manager, Paolo Di Canio, had threatened to delay his players’ holidays if they did not perform to his satisfaction. Emmanuel Adebayor had an early chance when he ran onto Kyle Walker’s for-

ward header and forced Simon Mignolet to save at his near post, but otherwise neither side was capable of finding an incisive final pass in the opening 20 minutes.

Then Bale charged onto a forward ball from Tom Huddlestone and was wrestled to the ground by Sebastian Larsson.

With the crowd baying for a penalty, referee Andre Marriner instead showed Bale a yellow card for diving, Bale’s third this season for the same offence.

And Sunderland almost took a shock lead on the half hour. Danny Graham crossed low from the right and England under-21 forward Conner Wickham met the ball first time six yards out only for Tottenham’s France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to block his shot with an instinctive save.

Spurs were stung into action by that reminder that they had to earn a victory, and Bale nearly did so when his shot from Aaron Lennon’s cross cannoned back off Colback. Sunderland captain John O’Shea came almost as close when his headed back-pass nearly crept past his own keeper.

Spurs knew they could not let up in their search for a goal in the second half, but they were dealt two blows in the 52nd minute.

First Carlos Cuellar dived to block a shot

by Adebayor with his arm but no penalty was awarded. And almost immediately the Sunderland supporters began to chant the news that Arsenal had taken the lead at Newcastle. Tottenham still needed to score in case of an Arsenal slip-up, and they tried everything. Huddlestone volleyed wide, then in the 62nd minute Mignolet fumbled under challenge from Clint Dempsey and was rescued twice by Jack Colback, who blocked Scott Parker’s shot then a followup from Lennon, this time via a post.

Mignolet redeemed himself with a flying save from a header by Dawson, who was later denied by a third clearance from Colback, then Mignolet blocked another shot from bale. —AFP

Fitting send off for Carragher Liverpool 1

QPR 0

LONDON: Liverpool gave retiring stalwart Jamie Carragher a fitting send off by beating the Premier League’s bottom club QPR 1-0 at an emotional Anfield yesterday.

The game brought down the curtain on the 35-year-old defender’s illustrious career, and he was afforded a guard of honour from both sets of teams before being handed a memento from the opposition’s Liverpoolborn captain Clint Hill.

Supporters on the Kop created a mosaic in tribute to the popular defender, who played 38 times for England and was making his 737th and final appearance for his only club.

Carragher, who will become a television pundit next season, was urged to shoot whenever he had possession in the opposition half and almost crowned the perfect day with a long-range shot that hit a post in the second half. But the home team had to be content with a first-half goal from Philippe Coutinho to ensure their season ended on a winning note.

Liverpool were already guaranteed to finish seventh in manager Brendan Rodgers’ first season thanks to an unbeaten run of eight games since March 16.

QPR, by contrast, had long known they

would be relegated to the Championship after two seasons, despite significant investment under manager Harry Redknapp. Only an error from the officials prevented the home team from making a dream start yesterday. Coutinho’s fine diving header from a Stewart Downing’s corner in the second minute was over the line before QPR defender Michael Harriman hacked clear. Television replays confirmed the crowd’s suspicion but neither referee Martin Atkinson nor his linesman had a clear enough view to award the goal. The celebration of Carragher’s career inevitably lent an end-of-season air to the game. But Jordan Henderson was booked after just seven minutes for upending Park JiSung as a reminder that three points were still at stake. Coutinho, one of the January signings that lifted Liverpool’s season, went close again with a run and shot that was deflected past a post by a defender.

The Brazilian, who joined in a £8million deal from Inter Milan, eventually found the net after 22 minutes with a precise low drive from 30 yards which creeped just inside goalkeeper Robert Green’s right-hand post.

The referee appeared to be caught up in the mood after he failed to caution Carragher for a glaring handball during an aerial clash with Green. QPR, with only three League wins in a sorry campaign, offered little by way of attacking threat, although an elusive Armande Traore cross caused concern before Jose Enrique tidied up.

Downing showed a fine burst of pace to break into the penalty area and shot against the outside of a post as Liverpool looked to seal the result on the hour.—AFP

NEWCASTLE: Arsenal will be in the Champions League for a 16th successive year after Laurent Koscielny’s strike secured a priceless 1-0 win at Newcastle yesterday.

Arsene Wenger’s team looked likely to miss out on a lucrative top four finish in the Premier League when they were seven points adrift of north London rivals Tottenham with only 10 games to play. But the Gunners’ unblemished record of qualifying for Europe’s elite club competition under Wenger was extended thanks to Koscielny’s goal early in the second half at St James’ Park.

It brought Arsenal their fifth successive away win and maintained their excellent form in the second half of the season, a period when they have picked up more points than any team in the top flight.

There was an extra edge to Arsenal’s celebrations as their success came at the expense of Tottenham, who finished one point behind the Gunners in fifth place.

Newcastle’s third successive home defeat was a disappointment for a crowd of 52,354. But, following the victory at QPR that confirmed their Premier League status, the main focus for Newcastle was the final game of Steve Harper, the goalkeeper who has spent two decades at the club.

Captain for the day and wearing the No.37 jersey, Harper was applauded by the fans before and after the match and received a remarkable standing ovation in the 37th minute.

In truth, Harper must have expected a much more hectic exit because the odds were always

LONDON: Arsenal’s English midfielder Theo Walcott (left) vies with Newcastle United’s French midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa (right) during the English Premier League football match. —AFP loaded against Newcastle in view of Arsenal’s excellent form in recent weeks. They were unbeaten in their previous nine games and the confidence engendered by that run was soon obvious.

Newcastle were outnumbered and outmanoeuvred in midfield where Santi Cazorla, Thomas Rosicky and Aaron Ramsey prospered with the security of Mikel Arteta behind them.

But, for all their possession, Arsenal created few tests for Harper in the opening stages, although Koscielny did head narrowly wide from a 12th minute corner. Arsenal were forced to alter their midfield shape in the 28th minute when Arteta was injured and replaced by Alex Oxlade Chamberlain.

Ramsey was given a more defensive role but Arsenal retained their midfield edge and should have gone ahead in the 31st

minute. Cazorla was given time and space on the edge of the area to meet a cross from Kieran Gibbs, but his shot lacked conviction.

Newcastle’s more direct style, allied to the trickery of Hatem Ben Ar fa, brought another chance which the French international failed to steer under the bar.

Arsenal required only 30 seconds of the second-half to carve out a better opportunity than they had created in the entire opening 45 minutes. Ramsey seized on a poor clearance by Harper to send Theo Walcott clear, but Harper made amends with a low save, although he was fortunate that no Arsenal player was closing in on the rebound.

If Arsenal’s followers expected it to herald a more imaginative and aggressive second-half performance, they were quickly proved right as Wenger ’s team finally broke through in the 52nd minute.

Walcott’s free-kick was won by Lukas Podolski and fell perfectly for French defender Koscielny to turn and volley in via Harper’s head.

Newcastle’s earlier attacking instincts had faded by now and their prospects were further damaged by an injury to Yohan Cabaye, who went off after only 57 minutes. Arsenal, once notorious for their ability to grind out 1-0 wins, seemed content with that scoreline once again, although Oxlade Chamberlain did threaten with a long-range effor t in the 70th minute.

Ben Arfa remained Newcastle’s best hope of a reply but his final shot of the match was wayward in the 70th minute. It meant Arsenal were able to cruise to a vital victory without any late scares and it would have been more convincing if Walcott had taken a glorious chance in stoppage-time instead of hitting the post.—AFP

Torres gives Benitez happy Chelsea ending Chelsea 2

Everton 1

LONDON: Fernando Torres ensured Rafael Benitez’s troubled reign at Chelsea ended with a third place finish, striking a 76th-minute winner to secure a 2-1 over Everton at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the Premier League season yesterday. But while Benitez could reflect on a successful end to his six-month spell at interim manager, Everton’s David Moyes experienced defeat in his final game in charge of the Merseyside club before leaving to succeed Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Benitez has failed to win over many Chelsea supporters during his six month stint as interim manager but he will walk away have delivered the club into the group stage of next season’s Champions League as well as the Europa League trophy. Juan Mata put Chelsea on course for victory in the seventh minute and Torres secured the win that denied Arsenal the chance to move into third place after Steven Naismith had levelled for the visitors. Attention will now turn to who will succeed Benitez and Moyes a with Jose Mourinho strongly linked with a return to Chelsea while Phil Nevillethe Everton captain due to leave the club this summer and who missed this clash through injury-the latest name to be touted as a possible successor to Moyes. Benitez admitted before this game his preference would be to remain in England-although he distanced himself from the vacancy at Goodison Park-but while the Spaniard’s future remains uncertain, his immediate priority was to ensure his six month spell at Chelsea ended in success.

It was Chelsea’s 69th game of a gruelling season and three of Benitez’s side-Juan Mata, Fernando Torres and Oscar-were making a club record 64th appearance of the campaign.

There were few signs of fatigue though as they raced into a seventh minute lead when Mata capitalised on a mistake by Everton goalkeeper Tim

LONDON: Everton’s Nigerian forward Victor Anichebe (left) vies with Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder David Luiz (right) during the English Premier League football match. —AFP Howard. The chance came as the home team broke quickly following a spell of Everton pressure, with Oscar releasing Demba Ba on the right hand side of Howard’s area. The Senegal forward produced a low shot that the keeper was unable to hold and Mata reacted first to slot home from close range.

Guaranteed to finish in sixth, Everton had little to play for. But the desire to ensure Moyes’ lengthy reign did not end in defeat acted as a powerful motivator and the visitors quickly forced their way back into the match, drawing level seven minutes later. Naismith had been recalled in place of the injured Leon Osman and had already spurned a good opportunity when he skied an effort wide from Seamus Coleman’s cross.

But the Scotland international made sure with his next chance, pouncing onto a loose ball after a moment of poor control by David Luiz before exchanging passes with Victor Anichebe and clipping the ball past Petr Cech for the equaliser.

And Moyes’s side were desperately unlucky not

to force their way ahead in the 18th minute when Darron Gibson’s long range shot rebounded off the post and against the back of Cech’s head before hitting the post again and finally bouncing away to safety. Chelsea repeatedly threatened but the better chances continued to fall for Everton with Kevin Mirallas spurning a great chance when he tamely directed a close range volley straight at Cech.

The game was wide open with neither side showing any sign of producing a cagey end to the campaign. But it was also turning into an encounter marked by glaring misses with Frank Lampard-presented before the game with a goal boot to mark his feat in becoming the club’s record goalscorer-uncharacteristically failing to find the target after being set up by a Ba flick immediately before half time. And the pattern continued after the break with Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic denied before Everton substitute Nikica Jelavic somehow steering Leighton Baines’ low cross wide of the far post.—AFP

Ancelotti wants to leave PSG for Real

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

18

Gunners win CL race

19

Broad bowls England to emphatic victory

Page 16

LONDON: Manchester United’s Scottish manager Alex Ferguson applauds the crowd as he stands amid his players at the end of the English Premier League football match between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United at The Hawthorns. — AFP

United share 10-goal epic Ferguson bows out West Brom 5

Man United 5

WEST BROMWICH: English football witnessed the end of an era yesterday as Alex Ferguson signed off as Manchester United manager with an extraordinary 55 draw at West Bromwich Albion in his 1,500th and final game.

On a sun-kissed afternoon at The Hawthorns, the ground with the highest altitude in the Football League, the 71year-old Scot who propelled United to the summit of English football on 13 occasions bowed out with a hectic game full of the attacking football that he loves.

The champions led 3-0, and then 5-2, but West Brom scored three times in five minutes, with substitute Romelu Lukaku completing a second-half hat-trick in the 86th minute to prevent Ferguson from signing off with victory.

Ferguson, who amassed 38 trophies in 26 and a half years at Old Trafford, will be joined in retirement by 38-year-old midfielder Paul Scholes, who made his 718th and final appearance for the club as a 69th-minute substitute.

Prior to kick-off, fans queued to buy souvenir edition match-day programmes, which contained a fulsome 40page tribute to Ferguson from West Brom.

The Scot was welcomed onto the pitch with a guard of honour from both sides and the hosts’ generosity did not stop there, as slack defending enabled United to establish a 3-0 lead inside 30 minutes.

In the sixth minute, Javier Hernandez crossed from the right and the untracked Shinji Kagawa beat United old boy Ben Foster with a near-post header.

Three minutes later, United were again afforded space on the hosts’ left flank and a drilled cross from Antonio Valencia was inadvertently turned in by floundering defender Jonas Olsson.

United’s fans were predictably boisterous, throwing a red flare onto the pitch at one point, but their exuberance provoked an angry reaction from the home support, with stewards and police obliged to intervene. In contrast, the game itself was almost completely devoid of needle, and Alexander Buttner exploited further inattention from the home defence to dispatch a crisp shot into the bottom-right corner from Tom Cleverley’s pass on the half hour.

James Morrison pulled a goal back in the 40th minute by sweeping in a Graham Dorrans cross and Lukaku cut the deficit to a single goal by steering a low shot past United goalkeeper Anders Lindergaard five minutes after coming on at the break.

United responded immediately, however, with Robin van Persie converting a Valencia cut-back to claim his 26th league goal of the season before Hernandez turned in a low cross from substitute Ryan Giggs to make it 5-2.

Olsson compounded a dreadful afternoon by hoisting a volley over the bar from only four yards, before the selfeffacing Scholes came off the bench for the final game of his long and distinguished career.

Victory would have seen United equal their best-ever Premier League points tally of 91 in a 38-game season, but instead, Youssouf Mulumbu and Lukaku scored twice within a minute before Lukaku bundled in Marc-Antoine Fortune’s cross with four minutes left to complete an incredible comeback. It was a disappointing end to the game for Ferguson, who wore a rueful smile as he shook hands with opposite number Steve Clarke before walking onto the pitch to say goodbye to the United fans for the very last time. — AFP

EPL results/standings Chelsea 2 (Mata 7, Torres 76) Everton 1 (Naismith 14); Liverpool 1 (Coutinho 23) QPR 0; Manchester City 2 (Rodwell 29, 59) Norwich 3 (Pilkington 26, Holt 54, Howson 65); Newcastle 0, Arsenal 1 (Koscielny 52); Southampton 1 (Lambert 57) Stoke 1 (Crouch 47); Swansea 0, Fulham 3 (Kacaniklik 22, Berbatov 77, Emanuelson 90); Tottenham 1 (Bale 90) Sunderland 0; West Brom 5 (Morrison 40, Lukaku 50, 81, 86, Mulumbu 81) Manchester Utd 5 (Kagawa 6, Olsson, 9og, Buttner 30, Van Persie 53, Hernandez 63); West Ham 4 (Nolan 23, 79, 87, Vaz Te 34) Reading 2 (McCleary 53, Le Fondre 55); Wigan 2 (Boyce 21, Baker, 45-og) Aston Villa 2 (Bent 5, Vlaar 61).

English Premier League table after the season’s final round of fixtures on Sunday (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Manchester Utd 38 28 5 5 86 43 89 - champions/Champions League Manchester City 38 23 9 6 66 34 78 - Champions League Chelsea 38 22 9 7 75 39 75 - Champions League Arsenal 38 21 10 7 72 37 73 - Champions League Tottenham 38 21 9 8 66 46 72 - Europa League Everton 38 16 15 7 55 40 63 Liverpool 38 16 13 9 71 43 61 West Brom 38 14 7 1753 57 49 Swansea 38 11 13 1447 51 46

West Ham Norwich Fulham Stoke Southampton Aston Villa Newcastle Sunderland Wigan Reading QPR

38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38

12 10 10 14 11 10 9 15 9 14 10 11 11 8 9 12 9 9

1645 53 46 1441 58 44 1750 60 43 1434 45 42 1549 60 41 1747 69 41 1945 68 41 1741 54 39 2047 73 36 - relegated 38 6 10 2243 73 28 - relegated 38 4 13 2130 60 25 - relegated

Etihad Airways boosts services at Abu Dhabi Airport

Business

Page 24 Europe heads into longest recession since 1995

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

Page 23

Greece enters sixth year of recession

Page 23

Mercedes-Benz E-Class makes debut in Kuwait Page 26

NEW YORK: In this photo, Trader Kevin Lodewick works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. — AP

Germany perched close to recession Unemployment casts shadow over EU summit BRUSSELS: European leaders gather this week for a summit overshadowed by rampant unemployment and the deepening euro-zone recession, but with hopes of breaking down resistance to a planned crackdown on tax evasion. The one-day talks on Wednesday were dedicated weeks ago to the political fight to uncover unpaid taxes hidden away in Swiss or even EU bank vaults.

But days ahead of the talks, as it became clear that Austria and Luxembourg would not surrender precious bank records without a fight, a discussion on the EU’s energy ambitions was added to the agenda. When the leaders gather at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, overshadowing the talks will be the bloc’s 26 million jobless and the euro-zone’s longest recession in history - 18

months and counting. With regular protests in several European countries at what critics say is the devastating effects of national austerity programmes, governments and EU managers are feeling the heat. “They need to deliver something that sounds like it can translate into jobs and soon,” one veteran EU official who has been closely involved in summit preparations told AFP. “Money has been announced in the past few months, but the message doesn’t seem to have got through and there is no sign of things picking up overnight.

“The fight against tax evasion and moneylaundering is not just bluster, but it’s fair to say it won’t deliver tomorrow,” the official added.

In the past, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have

tried to use those areas where they differ the least as the basis for agreements among the 27 EU member states.

This time however, some diplomats think it will he harder for the two driving forces in the trade bloc to deliver.

Germany is perched perilously close to recession, France has just slipped back into recession and other EU states are also struggling. Economists stress that high unemployment lags long after the fundamentals of economic transformation have taken root.

But that is of little comfort to leaders heading into elections, as Merkel is in September.

That electoral battle may also act as a brake on significant EU policy efforts this year. For the moment, the opinion polls suggest that Merkel will return to power, but in any case

German domestic politics has paramount importance across the wider euro-zone.

And top officials in Berlin are candid enough to admit that Paris and Brussels remain easy targets for blame, as seen in weekend remarks on a TV debate by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. Usually among the most measured of decision-makers, Schaeuble told the audience that the EU institutions were “always the slowest to react” and that, in the fight against unemployment, it would be wise to see first what could be done bilaterally.

France and Germany have struggled to see eye-on-eye on the way forward for the shared currency area since Hollande took office just over a year ago. The Socialist French leader last week renewed longstanding calls for a euro-

Regional markets rally as gains trigger buying

Stocks rise on hopeful signs for US economy

MIDEAST STOCKS DUBAI: Regional shares rallied yesterday with markets in Kuwait and Doha breaking key psychological levels as gains in US equities and oil prices spurred renewed buying to top off an underlying bullish sentiment. In Saudi Arabia, the index climbed 1 percent, extending gains to hit a one-year high. Bluechips led the rally with eight of the 10 largest firms rising. Sentiment turned around from last week’s selling, as upbeat global markets buoyed hopes world demand will pick up.

Saudi petrochemicals index climbed 0.9 percent, helped by gains in oil price - a proxy for global economic activity and also demand for petrochemical products. US equities surged after consumer sentiment in the world’s largest economy hit an almost six-year high in early May. In Qatar, the main benchmark climbed 1 percent to make it the largest one-day gain in three weeks and finished just above the psychologically important 9,000 level. The market, up 7.8 percent year-to-date, is beginning to catch up with regional peers as attractive valuations draw in investors.

Doha’s market tumbled to a 2013 low in mid-April ahead of a planned listing of sovereign assets under a new firm called Doha Global Investment Co. Investors looking to subscribe in the initial public offering cashed out of existing positions, but delays on a May listing for the firm brought back buying interest.

“It’s a corrective move - there are some stocks undervalued after the strong selling pressure due to the IPO news and people are coming back to buy,” said Yassir Mckee, wealth manager at Al-Rayan Financial Brokerage. “The market momentum is picking up and we might stay over the 9,000 mark this year but we will have to see corporate earnings and performance of IPOs in coming months for further direction.” In the UAE, Abu Dhabi developers Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate rallied 14.7 and 15 percent respectively in heavy trading - hitting the maximum limit for daily gains of 15 percent. Analysts said market talk the firms may be awarded a mega government housing project ahead of their planned merger in June triggered the buying.

Aldar and Sorouh declined to comment on the price movement. Abu Dhabi’s benchmark climbed 1.4 percent, while Dubai’s index advanced 2.5 percent - hitting fresh multi-year highs. “(There’s) no looking back as regional markets, especially the UAE and Kuwaiti markets, seem to be catching a second wind in their momentum buying,” investment firm Al-Masah Capital said in a note.

Investors tend to sell in May ahead of a slow summer and travel abroad to escape the searing desert heat but, this year, the trend seems to have broken as chasing gains takes the lead. — Reuters

zone-wide “government” in terms of public finances and economic policymaking. Berlin reacted coolly however: Merkel’s spokesman said that the ideas set out in a series of speeches, although hardly new, were “interesting” but essentially premature.

Complicating matters is British Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan to hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership in 2017. Armed with that prospect, he wants to wring further concessions for London from the bloc. Italy’s high debt, the prospect of close EU surveillance for Spain or a new euro-zone bailout for Slovenia are also worrying the EU’s leaders. Leaders have one more, two-day summit late in June before the EU machinery winds down for the summer holidays. — AFP

MADRID: A protestor wears a mouth-guard reading “Public healthcare system” during a demonstration against government-imposed austerity measures and labor reforms yesterday. — AP

NEW YORK: Encouraging news about the US economy extended the stock market’s rally. Small-company stocks rose the most, a sign that investors are taking on more risk. Two companies soared in their stock-market debuts in the latest indication that the market for initial public offerings is reviving. A gauge of future economic activity rose more than analysts had expected, as did a measure of consumer confidence, adding to evidence that the economy is steadily recovering.

Stocks closed higher for a fourth straight week. Indexes are at record levels after surging this year on optimism about the economy and record corporate earnings. The market is also being supported by ongoing stimulus from the Federal Reserve, which is keeping longterm borrowing costs at historically low levels. “ This slow but relatively steady growth, that keeps inflation in check and keeps interest rates low, is actually a pretty healthy environment for the stock market,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co. “Right now we are very optimistic.”

General Motors rose $1.03, or 3.2 percent, to $33.42. The automaker’s stock is trading above the $33 price of its November, 2010 initial public offering for the first time in two years.

Northrop Grumman gained $3.17, or

3.2 percent, to $82.19 after the defense contractor said its board approved the repurchase of another $4 billion in stock, and that it plans to buy back a quarter of its outstanding shares by the end of 2015. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 121.18 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,354.40. The index gained 1.6 percent for the week and is up 17.2 percent for the year.

The index started higher, then drifted through the rest of the morning. The index added to its gains in the afternoon, climbing about 70 points in the last two hours of the day. The Standard & Poor’ 500 index rose 15.65 points, or 1 percent, to 1,666.12. The gauge is up 2 percent this week and has gained 16.8 percent this year. After some lackluster reports on the economy Thursday, including slowing manufacturing and an increase in applications for unemployment benefits, Friday’s reports were a tonic for investors.

The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent last month after a revised decline of 0.2 percent in March. The index is intended to predict how the economy will be doing in three to six months. The University of Michigan’s preliminary survey of consumer confidence climbed to 83.7. Economists had predicted that the gauge would climb to 76.8. — AP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

BUSINESS

AWB, NBK’s subsidiary in Egypt, reports 15.3% growth in profits

Int’l investors should focus on global small, mid-cap companies

By Hayder Tawfik

KUWAIT: Al-Watany Bank of Egypt (AWB), the subsidiary of National Bank of Kuwait Group (NBK) in Egypt, reported net profits of EGP 86.6 million in the first quarter of 2013 compared with EGP 75.1 million in the same period last year, an increase of 15.3 percent year-on-year.

As of end of March 2013, ROA increased to 1.98 percent compared with 1.82 percent at the end of March 2012, and ROE increased to 22.08 percent from 17.90 percent a year earlier. Isam Al-Sager, NBK Group Deputy CEO and AWB Chairman said that “AWB’s strong results reflect the success of NBK’s regional expansion despite the difficult operating environment in Egypt and the region.”

“AWB has once again proved its ability to post strong profits despite the unfavorable and challenging situation in Egypt, which reflects the bank’s strength and solid financial position,” added Al-Sager. “AWB has been one of the fastest growing banks in Egypt over the past few years and is moving forward with its strategy to

G

lobal small and mid - cap equities have been performing much better than big-cap companies throughout the world. Most investors are still concerned about volatility and liquidity so they still remain largely focusing on big cap stocks. Overall, since 2008 most equity markets have been on a roller coaster ride and this has put off investors from entering the markets. Unfortunately many international investors have missed out on a big rally that is still continuing till today.

Those who dared to enter the market invested mainly in the big multinational companies in the hope that their global business diversification will shield them from any economic down turn. At present, I advise strongly that they start investing in small and mid-cap listed companies around the world.

There are many potential advantages to investing in small-cap stocks. Historically, small-cap stocks have provided better long-term returns than large-cap stocks. Most international investors are more familiar with their domestic small and mid cap companies than international ones. Despite relatively poor performance in the past couple of years, small and mid cap stocks have shown stronger returns relative to large-cap stocks over longer periods of time. This outperformance is quite logical given that small and midcap stocks are mostly growth orientated and have the potential to grow their earning much faster than big companies.

The compelling long term returns of small and mid cap equities have been with some drawbacks. Risky, that is how most investors see them. The term risky is referred to the volatility accompanies small and midcap stocks. But for small investors the term risk means the loss of the capitalinvested. However, to be assured of principal protection, a long-terminvestment horizon is well advised. Apple Inc. can be a great case study. Therefore in my opinion investors with time horizon of more than say three years should allocate some money to global small and mid-cap stocks.

Investing in global small and mid-cap stocks gives investors the geographical flexibility and the availability of stocks on a much wider scale. This in itself is a form of country and sector diversification, hence lower volatility. The expanded universe of investable choice of companies offered by moving down to small and mid-cap stocks allows investors to look at a much bigger range of investment opportunities on a global scale. Most equity research houses focusing their attention on big cap stocks and as a result many smaller well run companies are simply not being covered.

This lack of research coverage tends to make small and mid-cap stocks less efficient portion of the market hence giving investors more opportunities to invest in potentially great mispriced stocks.

Remarkably, small and mid-cap stocks have performed well in inflationary times and performed even better when coming out of recession. So getting the time right before investing in those stocks can be very important.

Small-cap companies are generally more flexible and nimble so they can change or modify their business strategies and can easily reposition their business products to meet demands much faster when coming out of recession.

For investors who are thinking of investing in small and mid-cap stocks away from their domestic market, we recommend that they look at global small and mid-cap companies that are listed in the developed markets and have a good track record in earning growth and profitability.

Isam Al-Sager

strengthen its position in the Egyptian market.” AWB, a member of NBK Group, was established in 1980 and has a large branch network situated at strategic locations within the various Egyptian governorates and cities, including Cairo.

NBK has the widest banking presence with more than 170 branches worldwide.

NBK’s international presence spans many of the world’s leading financial centers including London, Paris, Geneva, New York and Singapore, as well as China (Shanghai).

Meanwhile, regional coverage extends to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Turkey.

NBK continues to collectively enjoy the highest ratings among all banks in the Middle East from the three international rating agencies; Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor’s. The Bank’s ratings are supported by its high capitalization, prudent lending policies, and its disciplined approach to risk management, in addition to its highly recognized and very stable management team.

China becomes leader in patent applications

UK opposition wants country-by-country biz tax reporting

KCIC WEEKLY ASIA ANALYSIS

C

hina recently became the world’s leader in patent applications, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In 2010 China surpassedJapan and, in 2011, the US. The surge in patents in China comes as a result of the steep increase in research spending that has been taking place over the last years. Rising wages havemade China lose part of its competitiveness.Since 2000 the cost of one hour of work in real terms has increased by 136 percent in China, whilst in a developed country like the US, it has come down by 13 percent.

Using other developing economies as a benchmark, Chinese wages are also rising fast. For instance in the 2003-2010 period, Chinese salaries rose twice as much as Indians’. By stepping up its spending on research and development, China wants to move away from competition in the low value added end of the manufacturing sector and attract more technological foreign direct investment. The country is on the right track; the percentage share of workers working in the higher value added products sector has increased from 34 percent of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999 to almost 50 percent in 2012.

The World Intellectual Property Organization is a UN body which monitors 125 patent offices. Applying for a patent is generally regarded as a good gauge of the level of technological innovation in major economies. In 2011, for the second year in a row, global filings growth was over 7 percent, due in large part to the surge in filings in China, which has dominated 72 percent of the world’s patent-filing growth between 2009 and 2011; the US contributed 16 percent. At least one-million patents were granted in 2011: Japan approved the most and the US had the most

patents in force. In Europe and the US, about half of the patent applications are filed by foreigners. In China, the number of foreigners applying for a patent has been in decline recently, but the number of filings by locals has jumped to three-quarters of the total. However, the quality of the patents may be at stake in China. There is no set way of measuring the quality of a particular patent, but a rough way of determining a patent’s value would be to find out the number of places applicants sought for a patent for the same product and/or technology. The more the number of places, the more the invention is deemed to be worth in value. However, if applicants are just after the subsidies attached to the patents, as it might be China’s case, then it is unlikely that they will seek for patents in more than one place.

Compared to Europe and the US, only a few Chinese inventors would apply for the protection of their ideas abroad.

Between 2005 and 2009, less than 5 percent of the total applicants did, whilst in the US and Europe, numbers were far higher, at 27 percent and more than 40

Yasser Hassan

percent respectively. Whilst China may have been contributing the most to the growth and may have become the world’s leading patent filing country, this does not necessarily mean that China has suddenly become the most innovative country in the world.The abnormally high numbers were no doubt driven by the government’s incentives to promote innovation, and the opportunity to get granted some extra cash in the form of subsidies may have spurred a rise in lower quality patent applications, which the local patent office has a tendency to approve without much scrutiny. Thus, whilst the level of US and Japanese patents may have fallen below that of China’s, they are of higher quality: patents in the US may be filed for more innovative ideas, in China they are increasingly being filed for minor improvements, utility models or design. Needless to say however, having lower quality patents occurs in transition phases, when an economy is gradually moving from being manufacturing-driven to being driven by innovation.

LONDON: Britain’s opposition Labour party, tapping into widening public anger over corporate tax avoidance, wants the government to push for new international rules to force companies to report profit and tax payments country-by-country.

Campaigners say the move, which is receiving increased support internationally despite strong opposition from business, would deter companies from shifting profit into tax havens where they have no staff or sales.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said corporate tax avoidance will be discussed at the annual summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial economies, which Britain is hosting next month in Northern Ireland. He has urged companies to be more transparent but has only proposed voluntary measures.

Companies say country-by-country reporting would impose unreasonable administrative burdens. But campaigners say firms fear being embarrassed by highlighting how they frequently pay low or no taxes in countries where they have big sales and how they report big profits in tax havens.

The standard could also lead to companies revealing that they earned no money in countries where they told investors they operated profitably. Coffee chain Starbucks received broad political, media and public criticism in Britain last year after a Reuters investigation showed it assured investors the United Kingdom was a profitable market after telling tax authorities its operations lost money.

The European Union agreed earlier this year to force European banks to report profit on a countryby-country basis as part of measures to ensure they hold enough capital. The U.S. and EU have also agreed measures to force companies in the extractive industries to publish tax and other payments to resource-rich nations, to reduce corruption. Labour yesterday issued a new policy document on corporate tax reform which backed forcing companies to publish figures on revenues, profit and taxes in each country that they operate.

Ernst & Young, one of the ‘big four’ accounting firms which audit most of the big multinational companies, has warned clients that country-bycountry reporting may become a global standard unless they come up with an alternative.

Britain’s CBI business lobby group has urged businesses to publish “narrative” reports explaining their tax affairs to the public. —Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Irani Riyal

Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2841000 GB Pound/KD .4338920 Euro .3707360 Swiss francs .3043390 Canadian dollars .2795430 Danish Kroner .0497330 Swedish Kroner .0443660 Australian dlr .2963730 Hong Kong dlr .0365940 Singapore dlr .2291130 Japanese yen .0029600 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0773800 Bahraini dinars .7538810 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0757800 Omani riyals .7382100 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal

ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.784 5.238 2.915 2.273 3.279 229.880 37.019 3.679 6.977 9.643 94.221 0.271

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000 .2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

0.273

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

GCC COUNTRIES 76.657 78.986 746.650 763.520 78.276

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 40.700 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.490 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.341 Tunisian Dinar 174.360 Jordanian Dinar 405.950 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.929 Syrian Lier 3.123 Morocco Dirham 33.806 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 287.350 Euro 372.690 Sterling Pound 439.930 Canadian dollar 282.270 Turkish lira 158.720 Swiss Franc 298.240 US Dollar Buying 285.850 GOLD 298.000 150.000 77.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL DRAFT 299.45 285.97 306.21 376.06 284.60 444.81 2.98 3.675 5.263 2.245 3.313 2.896 77.55 757.78 40.62 405.45 740.69 78.59 76.02

Selling Rate 286.550 284.780 447.730 371.435 297.210 758.655 77.995 78.655 76.375 403.940 40.620 2.265 5.235 2.904 3.675 6.969 702.930 3.800 9.730 4.095 3.365 95.500

Bahrain Exchange Company CURRENCY

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

SELL CASH 298.000 285.000 307.000 374.500 285.500 449.000 3.300 3.720 5.450 2.430 3.400 2.953 78.000 756.800 40.500 410.000 743.000 78.500 76.400

British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc

BUY Europe 0.4293386 0.0062612 0.0455934 0.3643485 0.0450000 0.4278415 0.0389760 0.2908204

SELL 0.4383386 0.0182612 0.0505934 0.3718485 0.0502000 0.4353415 0.0439760 0.2978204

Australasia 0.2699137 0.2243298 0.0001124

0.2819137 0.2343296 0.0001142

Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars

America 0.2726585 0.0001462 0.2850000

0.2816585 0.0001642 0.2871500

Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa

Asia 0.0036421 0.0031866 0.0457618 0.0166100

0.0036971 0.0034166 0.0507618 0.0197100

Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling

Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht

0.0000446 0.0344513 0.0051706 0.0000245 0.0028724 0.0027057 0.0033737 0.0905500 0.0031211 0.0028876 0.0065160 0.0000733 0.2253200 0.0022296 0.0092580

0.0000506 0.0375513 0.0052348 0.0000296 0.0038724 0.0028857 0.0036037 0.0975500 0.0033211 0.0029276 0.0069860 0.0000763 0.2313200 0.0022716 0.0098580

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

Arab 0.7552440 0.0384873 0.0129638 0.1460100 0.0000799 0.0001736 0.3994455 1.0000000 0.0001762 0.0218634 0.0012248 0.7348357 0.0782176 0.0760400 0.0466918 0.0031308 0.1723211 0.0767531 0.0012958

0.7637440 0.0405173 0.0194638 0.1478000 0.0000804 0.0002336 0.4069455 1.0000000 0.0001962 0.0458634 0.0018598 0.7458357 0.0790006 0.0766800 0.0472418 0.0033508 0.1783211 0.0782031 0.0013958

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 285.700 374.550 440.000 285.150 2.855 5.228 40.550 2.257 3.668 6.933 2.905 760.850 77.850 76.300

p23_Layout 1 5/19/2013 11:27 PM Page 1

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Europe heads into longest recession since 1995 NBK WEEKLY MONEY MARKET REPORT

T

he dollar continued its rally this week and took out 2012 highs aided by strong US consumer confidence. There was more talk of the ECB easing which helped global equity markets sustain a continuous increase. In the US, Sarah Bloom, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, said that the US Economy continues to recover from the effects of the financial crisis and deep recession, though at a slower than expected pace. Moreover, she added that the recovery appears to have picked up steam notably in the housing sector. Bloom noted that the latest tightening in the Federal Fiscal Policy that is represented in spending cuts associated with sequestration will likely hamper the improvement of the US GDP growth this year. Because of these factors, Bloom stated, “the Federal Reserve will continue to conduct monetary policy so as to promote a stronger economic recovery in the context of price stability”.

In Europe, the latest GDP data indicate that euro-zone is passing through the longest recession since 1995. Acting on Europe’s Financial Crisis, the French President Hollande outlined a two-year plan to give the euro-zone a centralized “economic government”. In the FX markets, the dollar maintained its upward momentum, with the USD index reaching a 3-year high of 84.37 against a basket of currencies. The strength in the dollar was attributed to the expectation that the European Central Bank could introduce negative deposit rate, which pushed the Euro currency to a six-week low of 1.2795.

The Sterling Pound started the week at 1.5384 only to lose momentum and drop to a low 1.5156 on worse than expected employment figures alongside comments from the Bank of England indicating that the UK economic recovery remains weak and uneven. The Japanese Yen continued its nine-month drop against the dollar, reaching a low of

103.30. On the Commodity side, gold started for the week at 1,448.19 only to find resistance and drop to a low of 1,355.10. The drop in gold was supported by worse than expected economic figures from China.

US consumer price index US Consumer Price Index fell in April by the most in over 4 years, as fuel prices retreated. The CPI dropped 0.4 percent, the biggest decline since December 2008, after falling 0.2 percent in March, according to Labor Department figures.

The data came better than 0.3 percent drop economists forecasted. Signs of light inflation pressures could strengthen the case for the Fed to maintain its monetary policy path.

points from 36.3 in April missing economists forecast of a rise to 38.3. The gain however was a significant improvement over last month’s steep fall from 48.5. The ZEW president said the sideways action was probably due to the latest interest rate cut by the ECB, however he expects a recovery to set in during spring and then continue towards the summer. He also said that the “conditions for Germany to enter recovery are very good”.

United Kingdom UK Unemployment Britain’s unemployment rate increased to 7.9 percent in the three months ending in February, and wages growth slowed down to a record low, suggesting that the labor market is facing problems at a time when BOE is split on whether or not it should implement an additional stimulus package to create jobs and spur economic growth. Those who oppose the stimulus package are worried that it might

Japan Gross domestic product better than expected Japan’s economy expanded for a second straight quarter, as consumer spending and export gains improve driven by private consumption as the government’s aggressive economic policies, started to have a positive effect on the economy.

Japan’s annualized GDP increase of 3.5 percent was better than median forecast of 2.8 percent growth. Private consumption that made 60 percent of GDP contributed 2.3 percent to the jump. Asian shares continued to climb after the Japanese economy indicated acceleration in the first quarter of 2013.

US producer price index Producer Prices had its largest drop since April 2010 as gasoline and food costs fell, pointing to weak inflation pressures that should give the Federal Reserve room to keep monetary policy very accommodative. The seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index fell 0.7 percent last month, marking the biggest decline in three years. Analysts had forecasted a drop of 0.6 percent.

US industrial production The US Industrial production declined in April by the most in eight months. A report from the Federal Reserve said that production at mines, factories and utilities dropped 0.5 percent, well below market expectations of a decline of 0.2 percent. The drop was attributed to the ongoing recession in the euro-zone and slower demand in China that has reduced the demand on US exports.

Europe German investment morals rise The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany has moved sideways in May 2013. Indeed, it rose to 36.4

Index, that BOE stated that “CPI inflation remains above the 2 percent target and is set to edge higher over coming months.

Inflation is likely to stay above the target for much of the next two years, bolstered by external price pressures. Inflation is however expected to fall back to around 2 percent in the latter part of the forecast period, as external price pressures fade and a gradual revival in productivity growth curbs increases in domestic costs”.

Euro-zones longest recession since 1995 The euro-zone’s Flash Gross Domestic Product fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 slightly worse than the 0.1 percent contraction expected by economists. This is the sixth straight quarter of contraction and marks the longest EU recession on records since 1995.

Economies in France, Italy, Spain, Finland and Netherlands shrank while the German economy managed to grow at 0.1 percent during the first quarter.

Commenting on Europe’s Financial Crisis, the French President, Francois Hollande, outlined a two-year plan to give the euro-zone a centralized “economic Government”.

cause an additional upward drift in inflation as well as weakening the Pound further.

Overview of the BOE Inflation Report May 2013 In its Inflation Report for May 2013, the Bank of England noted, “the economic recovery remains weak and uneven.

Domestic demand increased moderately during 2012, but this was largely offset by a pronounced fall in exports.

Employment continued to grow strongly.

The weakness of productivity suggested that the financial crisis may still be weighing on the current effective supply capacity of the economy as well as on demand”.

In regards to the Consumer Price

Japans private sector machinery orders Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude volatile demand from electric utilities and for ships, jumped 14.2 percent in the month of March after a 4.2 percent jump in February, marking the second straight month-on-month gain, and the largest gain since April 2005. The improvement was due to the latest weakness in the Japanese Yen that helped increase exports and the rising stock prices that made investors more confident to invest.

Kuwait The USDKD opened at 0.28650 yesterday morning.

Greece enters sixth year of recession

BEIJING: This picture shows a man resting in front of a billboard at the China International Exhibition and Symposium on Police Equipment and Anti-Terrorism Technology and Equipment (CIPATE). — AFP

China eyes profit from police budget BEIJING: Mannequins in riot gear, armoured cars and drones line a police equipment and “anti-terrorism technology” trade fair in Beijing as vendors seek to profit from China’s huge internal security budget. The country is estimated to have more than 180,000 protests each year and the ruling Communist Party spends vast sums on ensuring ordermore even than on its military, the largest in the world.

Shields, batons, gun-sights on wooden rifles and more were on display at the event last week, where the capital’s own police force promoted a lie-detection system. Two men in black uniforms marked “SWAT” inspected a pair of night-vision goggles, while a group of policemen who said they were from Jiangxi province in the south looked on as a bomb-disposal robot was put through its paces. “The country is giving huge support to police spending,” said Lu Hui, a salesman for “Robostep”, a two-wheeled self-balancing scooter akin to a Segway, which he said was used by police patrolling Beijing’s Tiananmen square.

Another stall sold wireless microphones it claimed are used to pick up disturbances in the square, under tight security since 1989, when it was the scene of huge pro-democracy demonstrations later crushed by authorities, killing hundreds. “Our government makes an annual budget for public security, and we have a much bigger budget than before,” said salesman Ryan Fan, standing in front of a display of black security vests, bulletproof helmets and clear plastic shields.

“These products are mainly for anti-riot policemen,” he added.

China’s domestic security budget across all levels of government is 769 billion yuan ($125 billion) this year, more than the country officially plans to spend on its armed forces, and an increase of more than 200 billion yuan since 2010.

Billions of the internal security budget, which also covers mundane items such as food safety and running courts, is earmarked for “stability maintenance”, a term used to justify arresting protesters and surveillance of dissidents. “We have a lot more to spend, particularly on anti-terrorism,” said one of the Jiangxi police delegation, declining to be named because of the nature of his work.

Dozens of vendors offered the latest in surveillance technology, from scanners which

pick up mobile phone signals to secret bugging devices and drone aircraft. One remotecontrolled helicopter had a starting price of 100,000 yuan. “Police departments across China are already using it,” said a salesman for the Beijing-based company Seven Dimension Information. It is not only domestic firms who supply the market.

Inspirational music flowed from a display of Mercedes police vehicles, while Ford and Hyundai cars emblazoned with the word “Police” sat on raised white podiums. One stall displayed an apparently Australian-made drone with a built-in video camera, and pictures of residential districts taken by the lightweight craft lined the walls. Western companies have in the past been the focus of criticism for helping Chinese authorities set up vast surveillance systems. “I think surveillance technology is something that is growing in our concerns,” said Kaye Stearman, of Britainbased advocacy group Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

A ban on EU arms exports to China-introduced as a reaction to the Tiananmen crackdown-does not outlaw exports of many technologies which could be used for internal repression, she added. Analysts say that the rise in security spending has matched a growth in protests around China. The country had an estimated 180,000 demonstrations-or “mass incidents”-in 2010 and numbers have risen since, according to academics. Chinese authorities have to increase police manpower to “take care of fast-growing mass protests on the streets and ‘potential’ threats on the Internet”, said Chih-Jou Jay Chen, a researcher at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica. Government departments responsible for maintaining stability have “asked, seized, and fought for power and resources” in recent years, he told AFP. China‘s new head of public security Meng Jianzhu was not given a seat on the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, its highest-ranking body, during the country’s recent leadership transition, prompting speculation that the security apparatus may be reined in. But vendors at the fair did not expect any spending cuts.

“The money will continue to increase, the stability maintenance model will continue,” said Chen Dahai, a former detective who left the force to sell fingerprint-detecting devices.

“The police have a lot more money, they can barely spend it all.” — AFP

ATHENS: Data released last week showed Greece entered its sixth straight year of recession, but there is now cautious optimism about the economy’s prospects although unemployment is still hitting record highs and consumers are squeezed by pay cuts and tax hikes. On Tuesday, Greece’s battered debt ratings received a rare upgrade from Fitch which noted “clear progress” on eliminating deficits.

Relations with sceptical creditors have been repaired in recent months, permitting Greece to draw successive loan instalments from the eurozone in return for bringing reforms back on track. Foreign hedge funds are helping Greek banks to recapitalise after a damaging state debt write-down last year. And a long-delayed privatisation programme is finally getting off the ground, enabling Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to embark on a four-day journey to China this week in search of new investments.

“We are now more than half the way through to make a real comeback,” Samaras said in a speech at the Chinese academy of social sciences in Beijing. “I wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t turned in Greece our ship around,” the PM said, noting that Greek bond spreads-the gauge for country risk-have receded by about two-thirds from record levels a year ago.

In 2008, Greece signed with Chinese shipping giant Cosco a 35-year concession agreement to run two container terminals at Piraeus, the main Greek port. Now, Greece is hoping to entice Chinese interest in the privatisation of Athens International Airport and the sale of railways and real estate. “Greek ports, Greek airports, and Greek railways can be a part of large commercial network extending way beyond Greece in the European hinterland,” Samaras said.

Athens also hopes to pitch the state’s gas distributor to Russian investors and water companies to French firms. In return for two EU-IMF bailouts worth 240 billion euros ($309 billion), Greece has pledged to raise 9.5 billion euros in asset sales by 2016. But in addition to bringing

money into state coffers, Greek officials say privatisation is needed to bring investment into companies to help spur growth and job creation.

Unemployment in the country has climbed to 27 percent, a level unseen in Greece’s modern history, with the rate at over 64 percent among the young. Samaras said the austerity “is reaching a level of unbelievable social pain and dramatic problems in the area of social cohesion.”

Under the terms of its economic bailout, Athens must cut another 4,000 state-sector jobs this year and 11,000 in 2014.

On three occasions this year, Samaras’ government has enacted emergency decree to thwart strikes from sailors, transport workers and teachers. “Economic indicators should begin to slowly improve,” Natixis analyst Jesus del

Castillo said this week. “But major risks remain in terms of political stability, reform application and external shocks,” he added.

The state statistics agency on Wednesday said Greece’s economy had contracted by 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013 in an annual comparison. The equivalent contraction in the first quarter of 2012 had been 6.7 percent of output, the agency said. “The first-quarter estimate of Greek GDP and the credit rating upgrade by Fitch suggests that the economy may finally be turning a corner,” London-based analysts Capital Economics said in a note. “But we still think that the economic forecasts underpinning the rescue package are too optimistic, implying that doubts about the Greek bail-out may return again in time,” they added. — AFP

THESSALONIKI: A street musician sleeps on a bench at a busy street in Greece. — AP

Japan’s rebound a recipe for Europe?

PARIS: The recovery of the Japanese economy, just as a recession in Europe digs in, is renewing pressure on European policymakers to shift course from austerity to stimulus. Data released on Thursday showed Japan’s economy grew markedly in the first quarter, only weeks after a new government and a new team at the central bank set about stoking the world’s thirdbiggest economy.

The 0.9-percent quarter-onquarter growth-or 3.5 percent if the data were stretched over a yearconfirmed Japan’s exit from recession after a decade of lost growth and deflation. The Japanese economy has grown only an average of 0.85 percent per year over the past two decades. “What a difference,” remarked Berenberg bank senior economist Christian Schulz. “A day after the euro-zone announced another quarter of recession as it takes the hard route of austerity and reform, Japan’s Abenomics showed the easy way out,” he said.

“The policies of the new govern-

ment under Prime Minister Abe .. are working,” said Schulz. Under new leadership appointed by Shinzo Abe, the Bank of Japan has recently launched a programme of quantitative easing to double the money supply with massive purchases of assets including government bonds.

The programme has weakened the yen by over a quarter in the past six months, encouraging exports and leading the Japanese consumer to spend more. The government has also added fiscal stimulus and pledged reforms to boost competitiveness. Japan is taking a page out of the playbook of the US Federal Reserve, which also undertook a massive quantitative easing programme. But Europe has been the odd man out.

In Frankfurt, the European Central Bank operates under tight restrictions in its statutes which are heavily influenced by a strong German aversion to anything that smacks of printing money.

Germans remain highly suspicious

of any policy which could spark the hyperinflation that afflicted the country between the world wars.

And coupled with this Germanled caution on monetary policy, eurozone countries are pursuing austerity policies to cut budget deficits and debt while trying to make their economies more efficient and competitive. But instead of austerity and restructuring, Tokyo is pushing fiscal and monetary stimulus, even with a debt load more than twice the size of its economy.

Europe should give ‘further thought’ to quantitative easing “The monetary policy of quantitative easing has produced beneficial results in the United States...”

French Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg said recently.

“But the inflationary risk is zero and European monetary policy can finally do it,” said Montebourg at a debate with the former chief economist at the European Central Bank, Juergen Stark. Stark disagreed, say-

ing “even the Americans are asking themselves if the artificially created recovery is sustainable. Letting the printing presses roll won’t help! The excessive liquidity will create a new speculative bubble.”

Analysts at Capital Economics noted that the return to growth in Japan might induce tax increases, pushing down consumption and the economy back into recession.

But amid the praise for Abenomics, the EU has been moving to temper austerity, a policy now widely criticised for making the downturn worse. With this in mind, Portugal, Spain and now France have won more time from Brussels to cut their public deficits as growth in the euro-zone continues to languish, though on condition they still pursue reforms. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said last month that while the choice of austerity “is fundamentally right, I think it has reached its limits in many aspects, because ... it has to have the minimum of political and social support.” —AFP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Etihad Airways boosts services, operations at Abu Dhabi Airport with new acquisitions ABU DHABI: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has finalised the agreement to acquire three airport services companies which will accelerate and consolidate the development of in-flight catering services, ground handling and cargo operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Formerly part of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), the three companies, Abu Dhabi Airport Services (ADAS), Abu Dhabi In-Flight Catering (ADIFC), and Abu Dhabi Cargo Company (ADCC), are being incorporated, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, into Etihad Airport Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Etihad Airways.

The companies, which employ more than 4,000 people, are being integrated into the airline’s existing organisational structure to maximise synergies and operational scale. The re-engineered business units will continue to provide the full range of ground handling, catering and cargo services to Etihad Airways and other airlines at Abu Dhabi International Airport, dedicated to customer excellence and commercial viability.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “This acquisition follows international best practice and is critical to the continued growth of the airline, and more importantly to the sustained growth and development of

Abu Dhabi’s aviation industry in general as envisioned in the Abu Dhabi Plan 2030.

“It is once again in line with our strategy of working closely with our partners and service providers to achieve greater organisational and commercial alignment and a more consistent delivery of products and services along the entire value chain of the customer’s experience. Airline and cargo customers will also benefit from enhanced service levels and greater integration across hub operations.”

The acquisition will provide significant incremental revenue opportunities, cost savings, and operational efficiencies across the various busi-

ness entities. Mr Hogan added: “We are delighted to welcome employees from ADAS, ADIFC and ADCC to the growing Etihad family. The acquisition is a very positive development for the airline, for the three subsidiary companies, and for their employees, who will have access to increased benefits, career enhancement opportunities and training as the organisation continues to grow.”

A transition process is in place and it is ‘business as usual’ as Etihad continues to work closely with its new and existing employees and customers, ensuring that there is no disruption to existing services during the integration period while benefits are delivered immediately.

MENLO PARK: In this file photo, provided by Facebook, Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, (center) rings the opening bell of the Nasdaq stock market, from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. — AP

A year after IPO, Facebook aims to be ad colossus NEW YORK: It was supposed to be our IPO, the people’s public offering. Facebook, the brainchild of a young CEO who sauntered into Wall Street meetings in a hoodie, was going to be bigger than Amazon, bigger than McDonald’s, bigger than Coca-Cola. And it was all made possible by our friendships, photos and family ties. Then came the IPO, and it flopped. Facebook’s stock finished its first day of trading just 23 cents higher than its $38 IPO price. It hasn’t been that high since.

Even amid the hype and excitement surrounding Facebook’s May 18 stock market debut a year ago, there were looming doubts.

Investors wondered whether the social network could increase advertising revenue without alienating users, especially those using smartphones and tablet computers.

The worries intensified just days before the IPO when General Motors said it would stop paying for advertisements on the site. The symbolic exit cast a shroud over Facebook that still exists. Facebook’s market value is $63 billion, some two-thirds of what it was the morning it first began trading. At around $27 per share, the company’s stock is down roughly 30 percent from its IPO price.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 27 percent over the same period.

Despite its disappointing stock market performance, the company has delivered strong financial results. Net income increased 7 percent to $219 million in the most recent quarter, compared with the previous year, and revenue was up 38 percent to $1.46 billion. The world’s biggest online social network has also kept growing to 1.1 billion users. Some 665 million people check in every day to share photos, comment on news articles and play games. Millions of people around the world who don’t own a computer use Facebook, in Malawi, Malaysia and Martinique.

And much has changed at Facebook in a year. The company’s executives and engineers have quietly addressed the very doubts that dogged the company for so long. Facebook began showing mobile advertisements for the first time just after the IPO. It launched a search feature in January and unveiled a branded Facebook smartphone in April. The company also introduced ways for advertisers to gauge the effectiveness of their ads.

Even GM has returned as a paying advertiser. Now, Facebook is looking to its next challenge: convincing big brand-name consumer companies that advertisements on a social network are as important - and as effective - as television spots. “We aspire to have ads, to show ads that improve the content experience over time,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts recently. “And if we continue making progress on this, then one day we can get there.”

To achieve those aims, the company has rolled out tools to help advertisers target their messages more precisely than they can in print or on television. Companies can single out 18- to 24-year-old male Facebook users who are likely to buy a car in the next six months. They can target 30-year-old women who are researching Caribbean getaways.

Analytic tools like these weren’t available a

year ago. But last fall Facebook hired several companies that collect and analyze data related to people’s online and offline behavior.

Facebook’s advertisers can now assess whether a Crest ad you saw on Facebook likely led you to buy of a tube of toothpaste in the drugstore. The services take what Facebook knows about you and what ads you saw and combine this with the information retailers have about you and what you’ve purchased through loyalty cards and the like.

Advertisers are also making use of Facebook’s partnership with audience measurement firm Nielsen Co. Nielsen introduced a tool last fall that helps marketers discover “not only who saw their ad online and who saw their ad on TV, but also how these audiences match up,” says David Wong, vice president at product leadership at Nielsen.

Sean Bruich, Facebook’s head of measurement platforms and standards, believes the new tools are paying off. “What we can see conclusively a year after the IPO is that ads on Facebook really do help drive people into the store and help them make purchasing decisions, help influence their purchasing decisions,” he says.

A recent Nielsen analysis found that consumers are 55 percent more likely to recall “social ads” than traditional online ads. So powerful is Facebook’s new analytic arsenal that privacy advocates are growing concerned about the potential intrusiveness of merging consumers’ online and offline experiences.

People “are getting served ads based on things they didn’t put on Facebook and maybe wouldn’t be comfortable putting on Facebook,” says Rainey Reitman, activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit civil-liberties firm. Facebook says mechanisms are in place to protect privacy.

“We’ve never had anything like Facebook,” Reitman says. “We’ve never had an entity that was able to collect so much information on so much of the world’s population, ever.”

Advertisers aren’t complaining. “Anywhere that more than a billion people spend time with their friends each month is extremely valuable to us,” says Brad Ruffkess, connection strategist at Coca-Cola. At Procter and Gamble, the world’s biggest advertiser, “we saw almost from the start that social media is the world’s largest focus group,” says Marc Pritchard, the company’s global brand building officer.

Both companies are important advertisers on Facebook and members of the company’s client council, a group of more than a dozen brands and ad agencies that have met regularly with Facebook executives since 2011 to talk about advertising and marketing on the site. Other members include Unilever, AT&T, Walmart and GroupM North America, a subsidiary of advertising agency giant WPP. Still, some advertisers remain skeptical.

Ryan Holiday, director of marketing at American Apparel, is critical of Facebook’s “sponsored stories.” These are messages from marketers that are interwoven into users’ news feeds. He says the clothing company spends less than 10 percent of its online advertising budget with Facebook. One thing is increasingly clear: The future belongs to mobile advertising. —AP

S Africa’s NUM seeks 15-60% wage increase JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers said it would seek pay rises of up to 60 percent from gold and coal producers, raising the prospect of fresh strikes as firms battle higher costs and falling prices in an already heated labour climate. Africa’s biggest economy is hoping to avoid the 2012 wildcat strike action at platinum and gold mines that cost billions in lost revenue and production and killed over 50 people.

Mineworkers are mobilizing to assert themselves, with the NUM fighting a challenge to its once near monopoly in the shafts from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which has poached tens of thousands of platinum miners from it in a violent struggle for members. NUM said it was seeking an entry-level minimum monthly wage of 7,000 rand ($750) for gold and coal surface workers and 8,000 rand for those under-

ground in a submission to the country’s Chamber of Mines, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

Elize Strydom, the industrial relations adviser at the Chamber of Mines, said the minimum wage for surface workers is currently 4,700 rand and for underground miners it is 5,000 rand, so the demands for the latter are 60 percent. NUM also said it wanted 15 percent increases for “all other wage categories”, or more experienced and skilled workers. Sliding precious metals prices have raised the pressure on miners as they ready for pay talks. Spot platinum on Friday closed at $1,450 an ounce, down around 35 percent from a record high of $2,240 hit in March 2008, and most South African shafts are losing money at this price. Gold is down about 19 percent this year, losing its safe haven allure on concern the US central bank will end its extensive stimulus for the US economy.—Reuters

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

BUSINESS

Boosting Ethiopia’s growing economy, one shoe at a time Burgeoning enterprises transform expansion across Africa ADDIS ABABA: For Bethlehem Tilahun, the answer to ending poverty in Africa is not aid or sympathy or donations from the West. It’s shoes.

Specifically, building a successful shoe manufacturing business that creates jobs, empowers employees, like the one she foundedSoleRebels, the first ever global footwear company to come out of a developing country. “You don’t build your economy based on aid, you want to build your economy based on the way SoleRebels built its business, so that it’s sustainable,” Bethlehem told AFP. SoleRebels highlights how burgeoning enterprises can transform economies across Africa. By

also remains one of the top recipients of aid in Africa. Today, the Ethiopian government is keen on boosting private investment, increasing trade and transforming the agriculture-based economy into an industry-based one, mimicking development models from Asia, such as South Korea or China.

For Bethlehem, it is not only about moving from aid to trade, it is about building a savvy business and manufacturing a product that resonates with customers from France to Taiwan, not because its made in Ethiopia, but because it is a good shoe. “People see them and say ‘wow, cool shoes!’ without necessarily knowing they

ADDIS ABABA: SoleRebels CEO Bethlehem Tilahun is pictured at her flagship store. —AFP shifting away from a reliance on exporting raw materials to the production of premium products such as shoes, Africa can ease its dependency on aid and slowly move toward industrialised growth. Founded in 2004, SoleRebels now employs around 150 Ethiopians producing shoes with hand-spun Ethiopian cotton, rubber and leather for export in over 65 stores around the world. She believes creating jobs, supporting local industries and transforming Africa’s image abroad will have lasting impact on economies across the continent in ways that traditional aid cannot.

“That is sustainable, and that’s the only way of getting out of poverty,” she said, sitting in her flagship store in downtown Addis Ababa. With a growth rate of 7.2 percent, according to the World Bank, Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. But, paradoxically, it

are made in Ethiopia. To me, that is critical,” she said. She is intent on marketing her product in exactly the same way as longer-established Western-based companies market theirs.

“We are not saying... ‘we’re poor, we’re in Africa, we’re doing this to help the poor’. We have a brand, and we strongly believe in what we’re doing,” she said, lighting up at she gazes at the racks of shoes in her wood-lined store.

Trade, not aid Born in a poor neighbourhood in Ethiopia’s capital, Bethlehem said she was inspired at a young age to go against the grain, especially after seeing how little impact traditional aid had in her community and her country. “To follow everybody’s pattern is not something that I wanted to do from the beginning,” she said with a characteristic zeal in her eyes. “If I am doing the

same thing that everybody is doing and I don’t make a difference, there is no change.”

Shoes, she said, are the perfect homegrown product since they can be produced entirely from Ethiopian materials. The cotton and leather is sourced locally, while the rubber soles are made from recycled tires. Plus, the shoes and the company name resonates with Ethiopia’s rich history. Having never been formally colonised, Ethiopian rebels famously fought off Italian occupiers in 1941, inspiring a pride and spirit of independence Bethlehem sought to invoke with her company.

“We’re free, that’s why we call ourselves SoleRebels,” she said, sitting next to a display of colourful, rubber-soled shoes modelled after shoes worn by Ethiopia’s rebels. Her business ethos is one that succeeds where charitable retailers elsewhere do not. Tugging on philanthropic heart strings, Western companies often brandish products manufactured cheaply in Asia in order to help Africa, something the sociallyconscious founder of SoleRebels adamantly opposes.

She said too many companies “come up with ever more outrageous claims of how they are saving Africa or helping Africa as a marketing tactic to sell product,” adding that “most of it is pure ‘BS’.” “We strongly believe that people have to get a certain salary, so we don’t want to produce our products with cheap labour,” she added.

The first certified fair trade shoe company in the world, SoleRebels proudly pays their employees five times the minimum wage in a country where average per capita income is less than $1 per day, according to the World Bank.

The secret to her success lies in large part in her perseverance. She faced many financial and administrative challenges early on but refused to give up.

Bethlehem also stands out in a country where business is dominated by men. She built her company up from scratch with an initial investment of $5,000. Today, she is aiming to build the company’s net worth to $250 million by 2020.

Having received accolades internationally, including from Forbes and the World Economic Forum, Bethlehem admits she is sometimes surprised at how successful her business is, but having gained momentum in recent years, she is set on expanding her global empire now. “I am dreaming about it all the time,” she said.

SoleRebels will open over 50 stand-alone retail shops abroad over the next three years, adding to the 11 already in Taiwan, Singapore, Austria, Japan, Spain and Ethiopia. Her dream is to see Ethiopia’s economy transformed by supporting more businesses like her own. “Imagine we have hundreds or thousands of SoleRebels...,” she said, with a sly smile. —AFP

Angola’s skewed lending said to stifle economy

Honda power products celebrates 60 years KUWAIT: Alghanim Motors, one of Alghanim Industries group of companies, is now the sole distributor for Honda power products in Kuwait. Alghanim Industries has an 80+ year heritage of serving the Kuwaiti consumer and is renowned for the quality of their customer service. In 2013, Honda Power Products celebrates its 60th year of business around the world, based on the original spirit of the founder of Honda Motor, Soichiro Honda, to utilise technology to help people enjoy happier and easier lives.

Over this time, worldwide cumulative production of Honda Power Products has exceeded 100 million units, delivering useful innovation to help millions of people across the world at home and work. Honda Power Products was founded in 1953 with the release of the ‘H type’ general purpose engine, designed to reduce manual labour for farmers. Since then Honda has utilised its core technology, the engine, to gradually expand its line-up which now includes tillers, generators, outboard engines, water pumps, lawnmowers, snow throwers and most recently solutions for energy creation and conservation.

As the world’s largest engine manufacturer, Honda has always been at the forefront of engine development and innovation. Most notably it has for decades pioneered the use of four-stroke engines in power product markets heavily dominated by two-stroke machines. Some way ahead of its time, the company introduced the four-

stroke G-Series range of mini power product engines in 1977, with the GX OHV series following in 1983. This pedigree continued into the nineties, as it does today, with the world’s first electronically-controlled general purpose engine, in 1995, and the world’s first 360 degree multi-directional 4-stroke engine, in 1997.

True to its long history of working towards a low-carbon society, the last decade has seen Honda make huge strides in developing products for energy conservation and creation. In 2003, its fiftieth year, the company launched its first compact household cogeneration unit, which combined a gas engine with Honda’s inverter generation technology to more efficiently power homes. September 2012 saw the beginning of the next chapter in Honda’s domestic cogeneration units, with the launch of a new MCHP (Micro Combined Heat & Power) system, the ECOWILL PLUS, powered by natural gas or LPG. 2012 saw the pan-European launch of Honda’s first commercial domestic robotic product, following some 30 years of development of ASIMO and its predecessors.

Honda Miimo is an autonomous lawnmower which needs zero human interaction whilst working to give customers a beautiful lawn for every day of the mowing season. In the next few decades, Honda’s Power Products will continue the long tradition dating back to its founder of useful innovation which helps people get things done.

LUANDA: There is no shortage of cash or credit in Angola-Africa’s second oil producer-but the struggle small businesses face to get loans is stimying efforts to diversify the economy. According to the central bank there was more than $22 billion in credit issued in Angola last year, around a fifth of total economic output. A fledgling banking sector, prodded by the government to make loans available for businesses not related to the energy sector, is starting to take flight. The volume of credit grew by 25 percent in the year to June 2012 alone. With the economy growing at 10 percent the services, construction and mining sectors have been major beneficiaries, according to a recent report by consultancy firm Deloitte.

But all is not going to plan. “Officially the amount of credit has increased,” said Justino Pinto de Andrade, an economics professor at the Angolan Catholic University and an opposition member. “But just talk to business owners, they will tell you about the difficulties they face in funding projects.” Efforts to kick-start sectors like agriculture that have remained dormant since Angola’s 27-years of on-off civil war that ended in 2002 have faltered. Forty-eight-year-old Chimbili Henriques, a member of the agriculture cooperative Africole based in the southern province of Huambo benefited from a previous round of lending.

“We received a credit line from the government, which allowed us to borrow from a local bank for nine months and then pay back for the following nine months,” said Henriques. “But it was stopped in 2006 and since then things have been very hard.” “We tried to negotiate credit leveraged on the cooperative’s funds and our own assets, but the banks refused, saying we did not have sufficient collateral or discouraging us with overly bureaucratic procedures.”

Henriques’s story is not unique according to many observers. “The issue of credit continues to be the Achilles heel of our economy,” said Jose Severino, president of the Industrial Association of Angola.

Whatever the industry, providing collateral remains difficult in an economy where most of the population makes a living in the informal sector.

The majority of Angolans live on less than $2 a day and only 20 percent have a bank account, according to a study by the African Development Bank.

Unsubsidised interest rates can run at 18 percent according to the latest World Bank figures, making good collateral a sine qua non for banks.

“The banks’ demands — high monthly payments and repayment in a short time are impossible to meet for most people,” lamented Emilio Manuel, a 42-yearold Luandan who tried in vain to get a loan for an apartment. Banks also complain that a lack of training has resulted in low quality loan applications.

“Since the launch of (the government-backed loan guarantee programme) Angola Investe, we received sixty proposals and we approved eight projects,” said Emidio Pinheiro, chairman of BFA, the country’s second largest private bank. But the government is confident progress will be made, despite the setbacks.

“We are far from an ideal situation, but we have made great progress in recent years,” said Jacinto Domingos Ferreira of the Ministr y of Public Administration. —AFP

Eye Boutique opens at The Avenues KUWAIT: Following in the success of its locations at 360 Mall and Dubai Mall, Eye Boutique invited the media and press representatives in Kuwait for the opening of its third store located in The Avenues III. This latest addition to the Eye Boutique network features collections of some of the world’s finest eyewear brands, catering to a variety of lifestyles in both medical frames and sunglasses.

Eye Boutique’s vision and philosophy has always been focused on the delivery of extraordinary service, bolstered with an exceptional collection of world-class eyewear pieces. A team that is not only technically proficient, but also well versed in fashion, style and the demands of modern life, complete the uniqueness of the Eye Boutique experience.

Choosing eyewear that compliments your appearance is becoming increasingly important, and Eye Boutique provides the perfect platform for discovering what works best, regardless of occasion. One does not attend

opera recitals in casual shoes, as much as one does not jog in high heels, for example.

Eye Boutique takes traditional eyewear services a step further; its team ensures that every pair of glasses matches perfectly with your complexion, the shape of your face, your lifestyle and the occasion where it will be used. It is imperative for Eye Boutique that every patron finds that perfect piece of eyewear, every time.

The team is also constantly exploring the global marketplaces in glasses, always expanding Eye Boutique’s diverse collection of eyewear pieces. Coupled with exceptional services, Eye Boutique provides the perfect opportunity for those seeking truly sophisticated and perfectly matched glasses. Eye Boutique extends an open invitation for all to visit its new showroom located in The Avenues - Phase III, next to the entrance of the Gold Market; and enjoy a cup of espresso as you experience a uniquely sophisticated service first hand, and as you discover the new you.

Al-Tijari announces winners of Najma draw KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al-Najma Account Daily Draw yesterday. The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry represented by Abdulaziz Ashkanani. The winners of the Najma Daily Draw who get KD 7,000 are: Yousif Saleh Abdullah Al-Eidan, Farah Majed Ashour Othmany, Adel Esam Abdulghani Abdulaal, Shaver Gasper Pinto and Ahmed Mohammad Abdulhakeem Abdultawab.

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait with the launch of the new Najma account. Customers of the bank can now enjoy a KD 7,000 daily prize which is the highest in the country and another 4 mega prizes during the year worth KD

100,000 each on different occasions: The National Day, Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha and on June 19 which is the date of the bank’s establishment.

With a minimum balance of KD 500, customers will be eligible for the daily draw provided that the money is in the account one week prior to the daily draw or two months prior to the mega draw. In addition, for each KD 25 a customer can get one chance for winning instead of KD 50. Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners and also extends appreciation to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their effective supervision of the draws which were conducted in an orderly and organized manner.

Burgan Bank announces Yawmi account winners KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced the names of the five lucky winners of its Yawmi account draw, each taking home a prize of KD 5,000. The lucky winners for the daily draws took home a cash-prize of KD 5,000 each, and they are: Hashem Sayed Mohd Shareef Zareee, Emad Abdulrazzaq Ahmad Alfahad, Zeba Naweed Naweed Abdulghani, Mohamad Zaitoun, and Elias Nicola Al-Hani.

With its new and enhanced features, the Yawmi Account has become more convenient, easier, and faster for customers to benefit from. Now, customers will be eligible to enter the draw after 48 hours only from opening the account. Customers are

also required to deposit KD 100 or equivalent only to enter the daily draw, and the coupon value to enter the draw stands at KD 10. The newly designed Yawmi account has been launched to provide a highly innovative offering along with a higher frequency and incentive of winning for everyone. Today, the Yawmi account is a well understood product, where its popularity can be seen from the number of increasing account holders. Burgan Bank encourages everyone to open a Yawmi account and/or increase their deposit to maximize their chances to becoming a daily winner. The more customers deposit, the higher the chances they receive of winning the draw.

FRESNO: Emilio Sandoval, president of Helados La Tapatia, stands near one of the ice cream and fruit bar company’s trucks in front of their downtown Fresno production facility. —MCT

Ice cream company gets a sweet taste of expansion FRESNO: Emilio Sandoval moved to Fresno in 1986 to work at his uncle’s ice cream factory. It didn’t take long for the deliveryman to realize the company’s growth potential. “I started doing some projection analysis and research of this Mexican ice cream product,” he said. “That’s when I decided to purchase the company from my uncle.”

Today, Sandoval is president of Helados La Tapatia, which makes and sells 24 types of ice cream fruit bars from a cramped 8,800-squarefoot manufacturing plant in downtown Fresno.

Business has been, well, fruitful. Sandoval was one of only three employees - all relatives - in 1986. Within 10 years, it had a work force of 15.

Today, it has 55 workers - and Sandoval plans to open a new manufacturing plant on 4.1 acres he bought at Roeding Business Park in southwest Fresno.

The new plant will be almost twice the size of the current operation and could double his work force. The $3 million plant could be under construction by June, following city approvals, he said. A fleet of 13 trucks ships about 1 million bars per month to retailers in the central San Joaquin Valley, but the company also supplies the all-natural dessert to outlets in the San Francisco Bay area, Nebraska, Nevada and Arizona. Sandoval estimates his company has about 5 percent of the market in the other states.

The bars are sold in packages of 24 or as singles. They can be found in coolers and ice boxes in FoodsCo and other stores, including those catering to Hispanic customers. Helados La Tapatia is one of a handful of ice cream manufacturers in the vicinity. Others include La Reina de Michoacan, which also uses fruit in its product, and Braun’s California Style Gourmet Ice Cream. —MCT

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

BUSINESS

KUWAIT: AR Albisher and Z Alkazemi Co officials are pictured during the launch. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

Mercedes-Benz E-Class makes debut in Kuwait KUWAIT: AR Albisher and Z Alkazemi Co - the exclusive distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait launched the revamped E-Class at the Shuwaikh showroom. With new, efficient engines, new assistance systems and a new design idiom, MercedesBenz has comprehensively modernised the E-Class to extend its leading position in the luxury segment even further.

Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co General Manager, Michael Ruehle, officially debuted the new E-Class and presented the latest innovations and specifications that postion it as the best EClass ever. No less than eleven new or optimised assistance systems were unveiled, which combine a host of comfort and safety features, all of which Mercedes-Benz refers to as ‘intelligent drive.’

“As with every new generation of this quintessential Merceds-Benz, the new E-Class brings a breath of fresh air to the luxury class with innovations in the areas of safety, design and efficiency. The E-Class is the segment leader. The German luxury executive vehicle achieved over 15,000 sales across the region in 2012 - that’s a 19% increase from the previous year alone. We are expecting the new E-Class to impress our customers even more and can confidently say that we expect even greater demand for the new model,” said Ruehle.

The new E-Class includes systems which for the first time can help to prevent accidents with crossing vehicles or pedestrians, active Lane Keeping Assist which can help to prevent accidents with oncoming traffic, or anti-glare continuous high-beam headlamps. As such, Mercedes-Benz is underscoring its leading position as a safety pioneer. The new E-Class makes a significant step forward when it comes to efficiency and ecology too. This comes courtesy of new, powerful BlueDIRECT four-cylinder petrol engines featuring sophisticated direct injection technology. This powerful development boost is reflected to exciting effect in the design of the EClass. With its new design the E-Class encapsulates efficiency, intelligence and emotional appeal in a visually superior manner.

Mercedes-Benz has revised all of the model series

of the E-Class more comprehensively than ever before, to make the latest technical advances available in practice at an early stage. This is why it even makes advance use of developments from the future S-Class. In addition, the new E-Class offers a considerably sharpened design with a cultivated, elegantly sporty look, as well as significantly enhanced comfort, high-quality appointments, efficiency and driving pleasure. As a result, the E-Class is continuing to consolidate its leading position in the luxury class.

Design: Two new front-end designs to choose from The E-Class features a new front-end design as well as new proportions through intelligent changes. When it came to the modifications, the designers followed the new Mercedes design idiom and reinterpreted the classical design values of the brand using the existing basis. The result is a superior and refined, sporty appearance.

The front has been completely revised with new headlamps, which comprise all functional elements with a single headlamp lens. Flowing light elements within the headlamps help to ensure that the “foureyed” look which is typical of the E-Class has been graphically retained. In terms of light and sight the EClass sets a measuring bar: The dipped beam as well as the day-time headlamps are fitted with partial LED lights as standard, while full LED headlamps are available for the first time in this class as an option.

The bonnet and front bumper have also been completely redesigned too. With its flowing lines, the bonnet follows the new design idiom in a smooth, very straightforward manner. The bumper, which boasts a new shape and is free of all light functions, has a modern appearance and, along with the wing design of its spoiler lip, discreetly underscores the sporty credentials of the E-Class.

Dynamic, elegant proportions A new feature line and a repositioned threedimensional trim strip deliver visually exciting proportions. The feature line runs below the structure

line from the rear door through to the tail light.

Visually this benefits the vehicle in terms of length. It underscores the side trim, which has been shifted downwards. Overall the E-Class looks more elongated and elegant, yet at the same time both dynamic and composed.

Broad, distinctive rear end At the rear, the lights and bumper have been revised. The new horizontally structured LED tail lights with new two-tone look emphasise the width and feature a characteristic night design.

High-grade interior The interior of the E-Class has also been visible reworked and harmonised with the expressive exterior. High-quality materials and refined, subdivided areas with precise joints and sharp curves underscore the high-quality overall impression of the generous interior. A new feature is the two-part trim which stretches across the entire dashboard. It can be selected in a wood or aluminium look, irrespective of the equipment line. Also new is the design of the air vents as well as an analogue clock between the two central air vents. The harmonious interior is characterised by the redesigned centre console without selector lever, as well as a new multifunction steering wheel with direct select lever and shift paddles in conjunction with automatic transmission.

Limitless individual appointments As ever, there are attractive design packages to visually enhance both the interior and exterior. In addition to the basic appointments, there is also a choice of Elegance and Avantgarde equipment lines - with the latter highlighting the sporty character of the Saloon models in particular. Furthermore, the new E-Class offers a variety of individualisation options, currently unique in this class.

“Intelligent drive” with new assistance systems What started with PRE-SAFE and continued

VIVA opens 15th branch in Mahboula

Osama Al-Ghoussein

Masaud Hayat

KIPCO announces senior appointment KUWAIT: KIPCO - the Kuwait Projects Company has announced the appointment of Osama AlGhoussein as Senior Vice President, Banking. AlGhoussein has over 30 years of global and regional banking experience. Before joining KIPCO, he was Senior Vice President in the Dubai office of the Swiss-based private bank, Pictet & Cie. Previous to this, Al-Ghoussein was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai office of Standard Chartered Private Bank. For 12 years, he was the Regional Manager Middle East for Citigroup Global Markets. Al-Ghoussein has also held senior positions in Qatar, Bahrain, New York and London.

Al-Ghoussein will join KIPCO’s banking team headed by Masaud Hayat, KIPCO’s Chief Executive Officer, Banking. The team oversees the company’s holdings in the commercial and investment banking sectors currently in eight countries across the MENA region.

Al-Ghoussein said: “I am very pleased to be joining KIPCO’s

banking team. There is large untapped potential in the regional financial services marketand the companies within the KIPCO Group are ideally placed to increase their market share through a combination of innovative products and excellent customer service. I look forward to working with my team members and helping operating company management achieve their objectives.”

Commenting on the appointment, Hayat said: “We are delighted that Osama has joinedthe company. His appointment will strengthen our team and help us achieve our objective of developing KIPCO’s presence in the region’sbanking sector. In particular, his broad international and regional experience in both commercial and investment banking will be a great benefit to KIPCO Group financial services companies. We expect him to play a major role in our expansion and development within the regional banking sector.”

KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom operator, announced that it has opened its 15th branch located in Mahboula district. The new branch located in Marina Towers began operations as of May 14, 2013, and provides a full range of VIVA services including bill payments, and creating new customer contracts.

Commenting at the opening on VIVA’s latest branch, VIVA CEO Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Badran said: “We are very proud to have opened our 15th branch in Kuwait, as this is part of our expansion strategy to ensure that all our customers get the best service available, and are served swiftly, efficiently and courteously. By opening this latest branch in Mahboula, we are seeking to satisfy a constantly growing demand for VIVA’s products and services. Each and every customer is important to us and VIVA will continue to take steps to provide customers with the best telecommunications experience in Kuwait.” VIVA’s latest branch in Marina Towers (Mahboula, Block 4 - Coastal Road) will be open throughout the week from 10 am until 10 pm, and on Friday it will be open from 4 pm until 10 pm.

with Distronic Plus has resulted in a new dimension of motoring at Mercedes-Benz: comfort and safety are merged into one. Mercedes-Benz refers to this as “intelligent drive”. In the E-Class a whole host of new or optimised systems from the future S-Class celebrate their world premiere, making motoring more comfortable and safer.

The basis for all this is formed by new, state-of-the-art sensors and appropriate algorithms. Mercedes-Benz has made a major step forward with the introduction of the Stereo Multi-Purpose Camera. Just like the Mono Multi-Purpose Camera fitted previously, it is positioned behind the windscreen in the vicinity of the rear-view mirror. However, this camera features two “eyes” set at an angle of 45 degrees and with an overall range of 500 metres that produce a three-dimensional view of the area up to around 50 metres in front of the vehicle. In this way, the stereo camera provides data for processing by various systems. Intelligent algorithms perform an evaluation of this three-dimensional visual information in order to detect and carry out a classification, both spatially and in terms of their movement, of vehicles that are driving ahead, oncoming or crossing, as well as pedestrians and a variety of traffic signs within a large field of vision.

At the same time, along with the Stereo MultiPurpose Camera, Mercedes-Benz is also introducing enhanced versions of the multistage radar sensor system.As standard, both the Saloon and Estate models are fitted with collision prevention assist, a radar-based collision warning system with adaptive brake assist systems. It helps to significantly reduce the risk of a rear-end collision. Also forming part of the standard equipment is attention assist, which is now able to warn of inattentiveness and drowsiness across a wider speed range, and also inform the driver about his level of fatigue and the amount of driving time which has elapsed since the last break.

It also offers an adjustable sensitivity level.

Qatar Airways has codeshare flights with Bangkok Airways BANGKOK: Qatar Airways today announced a new codeshare agreement with Bangkok Airways to destinations across Thailand and the capital cities of neighbouring Cambodia and Myanmar. The agreement sees Qatar Airways’ QR flight code on services beyond the Thai capital wiith Bangkok Airways to a raft of destinations giving passengers more convenient and greater access to markets.

The domestic Thai codeshare destinations to and from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport are Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Trat, Sukhothai, Lampang, Krabi. In addition, Qatar Airways will also codeshare with Bangkok Airways on flights from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Yangon, the capital cities of Cambodia and Myanmar respectively.

Customers can now make bookings through their local travel agent, any Qatar Airways office or through the airline’s website. Passengers travelling from many of Qatar Airways’ key markets in Europe, North America, South America, Africa and the Middle East to and from southeast Asia can take advantage of the new codeshare agreement with Bangkok Airways for greater access to more markets.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Airways’ hub in Doha is strategically well placed to connect East and West, and through this new partnership with Bangkok Airways we are able to cater to passengers who wish to seamlessly connect onwards to further destinations

in countries where the airline already has an established presence - in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

“This new codeshare with Bangkok Airways gives our passengers greater and easier access to more points across Thailand which is one of our most popular destinations in Asia.” Qatar Airways currently operates non-stop flights between Doha and Bangkok four-times-daily and also serves Phuket in Thailand daily from the Qatari capital. In addition, Qatar Airways serves both Phnom Penh and Yangon daily from Doha.

Bangkok Airways Senior Vice President Network Management Peter Wiesner added: “This new partnership will offer better flight connectivity for passengers travelling on long-haul routes with Qatar Airways to Bangkok for their onward journey within Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

“Moreover, Thailand’s key destinations, namely Samui, Phuket and Chiang Mai always have great potential which attract a large number of tourists.

Therefore, we believe this partnership will offer a unique service for Qatar Airways’ passengers and will strengthen Bangkok Airways’ extensive network as well as boosting tourism in Thailand and Asia.”

Qatar Airways is one of the world’s fastest growing airlines currently operating a modern fleet of 124 aircraft to 126 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America from its strategically located hub in Doha, capital of the State of Qatar. The airline has an aggressive growth strategy, with four new routes already launched this year - Gassim (Saudi Arabia), Najaf (Iraq), Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Chicago (USA).

Over the next few weeks and months, the network will grow further with Salalah (Oman on May 22); Basra (Iraq on June 3); Sulaymaniyah (Iraq on August 20); Chengdu (China on September 3); Addis Ababa (Ethiopia on September 18); Clark International Airport (Philippines on October 28); and Philadelphia (USA on April 2, 2014).

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

technology

Internet in ‘coma’ as Iran election looms Authorities refuse to confirm new restraints

Messages sent with mobile apps such as WhatsApp are not limited to 160 characters the way traditional text messages are, and they can include scribbled notes, doodles and emoji pictograms. —MCT

The war for mobile messaging is on SAN FRANCISCO: WhatsApp is one of Silicon Valley’s most buzzed-about companies, yet it actively avoids the spotlight, operating out of a small office in Mountain View, Calif, with no sign on the building entrance or on the office door. Unlike most startups eager for media attention, WhatsApp Inc. says it doesn’t want or need it. Its popular mobile messaging application has spread so quickly by word of mouth that in just four years it has amassed hundreds of millions of users who collectively send as many as 18 billion messages a day.

WhatsApp belongs to a new generation of messaging services that are revolutionizing 20-year-old text messaging technology and escalating the mobile messaging wars.

“In many countries, consumers have decided they prefer these mobile messaging apps,” said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst with mobile diagnostics firm Alekstra.

Now they are taking the US by storm.

That’s particularly worrisome to wireless carriers that have already lost billions in revenue from customers shifting from text to so-called instant messages such as Apple Inc.’s iMessage service, which each day delivers 2 billion messages free of charge.

But the growing popularity of these mobile apps is not good news for the Silicon Valley tech giants either. Analysts say people use the apps to connect with their closest friends and relatives, creating a new more intimate social network that could rival Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. for the attention of hundreds of millions of users and, eventually, advertising dollars.

Messages sent using the mobile apps, which are offered by third-party developers and downloaded to smartphones, are not limited to 160 characters the way text messages are. They also enable users to be more creative with scribbled notes, doodles and emoji pictograms that express thoughts and emotions that the typed word sometimes cannot. Some apps are adding games and other distractions to hold people’s attention even longer.

Many of the apps are free or charge a small subscription fee - WhatsApp charges $1 a year. When Nick Meyer, a 22-year-old graduate student at North Carolina State University, is on his iPhone 4, he’s mostly using an app called Kik to chat with friends, he says. Each day he sends a few hundred messages, yet never messages friends on Facebook unless he’s sitting at his computer.

“Mobile is going to be the main form of communication. In some ways, it already is,” Meyer said. With the explosion in worldwide sales of smartphones, these apps are already the go-to messaging tool in Europe and Asia, where they have taken a big bite out of texting traffic and profits that text messages generate for wireless carriers.

Wireless carriers lost a total of $23 billion in texting revenue as of the end of 2012, research firm Ovum estimates.

Research firm Informa says people are now sending more messages over mobile apps such as WhatsApp than they are text messages - and the trend is accelerating. By the end of this year, traffic from mobile messaging is expected to be more than double that of traditional SMS texts. CTIA, a wireless communications industry group, recently found that Americans sent 2.2 trillion SMS text messages last year, down 5 percent from 2011.

The trillions of messages from around the globe that run through WhatsApp alone each year already surpass the texting volume of all top four US wireless carriers combined, telecommunications consultant Chetan Sharma said. MessageMe, a free app, launched in March. A week later it had 1 million users. Its most active users send 30,000 messages a day, the San Francisco company said.

“I didn’t know that was physically possible,” MessageMe co-founder Arjun Sethi said. In mobile, messaging has emerged as the “killer” app, said Ted Livingston, chief executive of Kik Interactive Inc., a Canadian startup that last month announced it had raised an additional $19.5 million in funding. Kik has 50 million users and adds 200,000 users each day, Livingston said.

Popular apps in the US include

WhatsApp, Kik and MessageMe. Kakao Inc’s KakaoTalk and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat are hot in Asian markets. One popular Asian app is making aggressive moves into the North American market. Line, an app with which users can play games and send virtual “stickers,” reached 100 million users in 19 months. Facebook took about three times as long to reach that level. Both Facebook and Google reportedly approached WhatsApp about a possible buyout. WhatsApp declined to comment on that but said it plans to remain independent.

Mobile messaging apps work like this: Users download the app to their smartphone and set up a personal profile. They invite friends and family members to download the app to their devices. Then they send one another elaborate messages, which travel over Internet data networks, not over cellular networks the way standard text messages do. Jan Koum, co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp, says mobile messaging apps make communication richer by making it more personal.

“Fundamentally mobile messaging is personal and real time,” Koum said. And more creative, said Jessica Jiang, 23, a Web graphic designer from San Jose, Calif Jiang uses Line for the virtual stickers and MessageMe to draw pictures or to doodle on the pictures her friends send to her.

“I use these apps mainly for the convenience and efficiency - the way that you can stay in the same app while sending videos, iTunes music and also photos. It also gives us a personality and expression that you can’t get with just plain text,” Jiang said.

That’s a big driver behind the success of mobile messaging apps, said Dave Morin, CEO and co-founder of mobile social networking service Path. “People desire a more expressive way to communicate with mobile phones than through basic text messaging,” Morin said.

Mobile messaging began sweeping Asia and Europe as data networks became more robust and the global economic crisis in 2008 spurred interest in cheaper alternatives. Gradually in market after market, mobile messaging began to cannibalize standard texting, analysts say. Then it started to grab time and attention away from popular messaging services from Facebook, Google and Apple too. “The smartest, brainiest companies in the world were completely out to lunch,” Kuittinen said. “These tiny startup companies have taken hold of the market.” Now, he said, technology giants have made mobile messaging a top priority.

In 2011, Facebook bought group messaging app Beluga and tasked the founders with building a stand-alone Messenger app for the iPhone and devices running Google’s Android software. In December, Facebook rolled out Poke, its own version of a popular messaging app called Snapchat, which lets users send messages that vanish seconds later. Last month, the giant social network made its biggest move yet, launching Facebook Home. The software takes over the user’s Android smartphone and puts the social network ahead of almost anything else on the phone’s home screen, including mobile messaging apps.

“Facebook ignored messaging for a long time until the realization sank in that some of the eyeballs are actually shifting from checking the News Feed to communications, especially in the younger demographics,” Sharma said. Google is getting close to unsheathing its own weapon in the mobile messaging wars. It’s working on a messenger service dubbed Babel, which would work on multiple smartphone and tablet brands, so the conversation could sync across a user’s devices. Anyone with a smartphone or tablet running Android or Apple’s iOS operating system would be able to start a “hangout” to chat face to face, reports say. Google declined to comment.

MessageMe’s Sethi predicts that mobile messaging apps will eventually shove aside other forms of electronic communication and that texting, like snail mail, will become more of a utility. “We want to be the replacement for everyday communication,” Sethi said. —MCT

TEHRAN: Iran is tightening control of the Internet ahead of next month’s presidential election, mindful of violent street protests that social networkers inspired last time around over claims of fraud, users and experts say. The authorities deny such claims, but have not explained exactly why service has become slower. Businesses, banks and even state organisations are not spared by the widespread disruption in the Internet, local media say.

“The Internet is in a coma,” said the Ghanoon daily in a report in early this month. “It only happens in Iran: the election comes, the Internet goes,” it said, quoting a tweet in Farsi. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and numerous other sites, including thousands of Western ones, have been censored in Iran since massive street demonstrations that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. Those protestsstifled by a heavy-handed crackdown that led to numerous arrests and even deaths-were instigated online and observers say the authorities are choking the Internet to prevent a recurrence.

One DVD vendor, who sells illegal copies of Western movies downloaded online, said “you can forget about downloading stuff; the bandwidth drops every other minute.” A network supervisor at a major Internet service provider in Tehran said his company had been unable to address complaints about slower speeds, particularly accessing pages using the HTTPS secure communications protocol.

“Browsing (the net) is difficult due to the low speed. Even checking emails is a pain,” he said.

“Sometimes, loading a secure Google page takes a few long seconds,” he added. Like others interviewed for this article, he did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. The problem is not limited to slower speeds, but also affects what people can actually access in a country whose rulers take great care in seeking to ensure that people do not see or read things deemed to be inappropriate.

Earlier this month, an Iranian IT website reported that the last remaining software that enables users to bypass filters imposed on net traffic “has become practically inaccessible.”

Among such software is the virtual private network (VPN), which lets people circumvent the filtering of websites. VPN uses certain protocols to connect to servers outside Iran. In that way, the computer appears to be based in another country and bypasses the filters.

Blocking these protocols could theoretically contribute to slower speeds. Use of VPN, or its sale, is illegal in Iran on the official grounds that it is insecure and allows access to material deemed as depraved, criminal or politically offensive. Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, head of the

parliamentary communications committee, said VPN was blocked in early March, which has contributed to slowing the Internet, media reported.

He did not elaborate.

Authorities refuse to officially confirm the new restraints, but former officials and media reports have accused the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of ordering them. The council, set up in March 2012, is tasked with guarding Iranians from “dangers” on the Internet while enabling “a maximum utilisation of its opportunities.” The

secure and clean of “inappropriate” content, observers say.

Critics say the unfinished “National Information Network” could expose Iranians to state monitoring once operational. They argue that a “National VPN” service launched in March could be a test run. Users of the state-approved VPN service, available to select businesses reportedly at a monthly rate of 4,000,000 rials ($115, 88 euros), say it provides a relatively fast connection to select global websites.

TEHRAN: A picture taken of the screen of a laptop shows a webpage that appears when an Iranian user tries to visit websites which are blocked by the government. —AFP information and communication technology (ICT) ministry did not respond to AFP requests for an interview on the issue.

The complaints come as Iran prepares to elect its new president on June 14, but the authorities reject claims that there is any link with that and the current problems. “Many parameters are involved in the Internet’s speed, but the election drawing near is not one of them,” a deputy ICT minister, Ali Hakim Javadi, said in early May. His remarks have failed to allay concerns among an officially estimated 34 million net users out of a population of 75 million. “Even if I wanted to believe it, I cannot ignore the timing,” said Ali, a computer engineer. The disruptions are also linked to Iran’s stated plan of rolling out a national intranet that it says will be faster, more

The illegal VPN was available for as little as $50. “You can actually get some work done with this VPN. But it is almost as if you are paying the government to spy on you,” said one business user wary that his privacy could be violated. The intranet could theoretically enable the regime to shut down the Internet at sensitive times, or effectively slow down it to a point where it is unusable.

But the authorities insist the network will coexist with the Internet. And a Tehran-based Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, was also sceptical. “It is unlikely that Iran would implement more restrictions, as that would render its Internet inoperable to its people, businesses and even (governmental) organisations that heavily rely on it,” said the diplomat. —AFP

Patent filing claims solar ‘breakthrough’ WASHINGTON: In a US patent application, a little-known Maryland inventor claims a stunning solar energy breakthrough that promises to end the planet’s reliance on fossil fuels at a fraction of the current cost - a transformation that also could blunt global warming. Inventor Ronald Ace said that his flat-panel “Solar Traps,” which can be mounted on rooftops or used in electric power plants, will shatter decades-old scientific and technological barriers that have stymied efforts to make solar energy a cheap, clean and reliable alternative.

“This is a fundamental scientific and environmental discovery,” Ace said. “This invention can meet about 92 percent of the world’s energy needs.” His claimed discoveries, which exist only on paper so far, would represent such a leap forward that they are sure to draw deep skepticism from solar energy experts. But a recently retired congressional energy adviser, who has reviewed the invention’s still-secret design, said it’s “a no brainer” that the device would vastly outperform all other known solar technology.

Ace said he is arranging for a national energy laboratory to review his calculations and that his own crude prototypes already have demonstrated that the basic physics for the invention work. If the trap even comes close to meeting his futuristic vision, its impact could be breathtaking: It could reorder the world’s energy landscape, end the global economic drag of soaring energy costs, and eventually curb greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for climate change.

That all might sound rather rosy, since the previously undisclosed invention has yet to be constructed and fully tested. But John Darnell, a scientist and the former congressional aide who has monitored Ace’s dogged research for more than three years and has reviewed his complex calculations, has no doubts. “Anybody who is skilled in the art and understands what he’s proposing is going to have this dumbfounding reaction: ‘Oh, well it’s obvious it’ll work,’ “ said Darnell, a biochemist with an extensive background in thermodynamics.

“Ron has turned conventional wisdom about solar on its head,” he said. “He thinks outside the box.”

An independent inventor working from his home outside the nation’s capital, Ace said that his filing culminated years of research into ways to efficiently capture and store solar energy.

In recent interviews and redacted excerpts from his patent application, he said that his invention can be used to retrofit conventional nuclear- or fossil fuel-fired power plants to produce electricity at about 2 cents per kilowatthour. That alone would be a staggering advance, slashing the average wholesale cost of power by two-thirds and the cost of solar energy by up to ninefold _ estimates that Ace called conservative.

But that’s just the beginning. A separate rooftop version, which Ace believes ultimately will power most homes and businesses, would initially provide cheap heating and hot water. Soon, he said, equipment for those traps will be able to convert solar energy to electricity, air conditioning and, if enough panels are installed, to produce excess energy to sell to utility companies. Consumers will be able to reap enough savings on their utility bills to recover their costs within two to four years, a performance that far surpasses photovoltaic solar panels that are gaining a market toehold worldwide, Ace said. —MCT

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Brooke Chaffin, Senior Vice President of the Women & Family business at Disney Interactive, speaks during the MamaBear family tech conference at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View, California —MCT

Mothers drive family tech boom At the place where motherhood meets entrepreneur and play dates collide with iPads, a new market for parent- and kid-friendly technology is exploding. Family tech - Web services and applications for parents and kids - is a new market driven largely by mothers creating technology to solve problems that have plagued parents for decades, such as how to find a baby sitter, choose the right summer camp, and capture the memories of their child’s first year.

Family tech was the focus of a recent allday event in Mountain View, Calif., the second conference of its kind backed by seed fund and startup accelerator 500 Startups, which is led by Silicon Valley celebrity investor Dave McClure. Several of the hundreds of entrepreneurs gathered at the Microsoft Conference Center said that the busy and buzzy MamaBear Family Tech Conference validates the rising strength of the family tech market.

Like many entrepreneurs there, Brooke Chaffin, 42, left a tech job to pursue a project inspired by her kids. She had accumulated thousands of photos of her 1-year-old twin boys, but never moved them off her camera and into new photo albums, which still lay wrapped in plastic and collecting dust.

Wracked with guilt, and knowing she was not alone, she set out to create an app that would help organize and share photos and videos.

She pitched the idea to Disney Interactive, where she now runs the women and family division. Last week, her brainchild was released as an app called Story. For Andrea Barrett, one unexpected struggle of motherhood was her son’s marathon sleeping habits, which often meant she often would be stuck at home for hours.

“We didn’t have a baby sitter that we trust-

ed. We ended up staying in a lot,” said Barrett, 35. “Word-of-mouth is the way people want to find a caregiver, but it’s very inefficient.” In 2011, Barrett launched UrbanSitter, an online service that connects parents with trusted baby sitters. No more Friday nights on the couch. The service is in 14 cities and raised $6 million in the fourth quarter last year, she said.

But it’s not just women in this burgeoning space. Men, too, have recognized the potential of the market, among them the three founders of BabyJunk, an online marketplace to buy and sell baby and maternity goods.

After becoming a dad, co-founder Garth Humbert watched barely worn children’s clothes and toys pile up in his garage.

“It’s just something that we needed or could use,” Humbert said. Women say they have taken the lead in family tech because they know how to design products that mothers, want - technology that is simple, helps them juggle their many responsibilities and supports their priorities - namely, their families. Business leaders say they’ve barely touched the potential for family technology.

Women are “the superusers of technology,” Chaffin said. “Women are the early adopters.

When you make something that’s a hit with women, you have a breakthrough.” Mothers are more likely to have a smartphone than teenagers, and 93 percent of them don’t leave home without it, according to data from the conference. About one-third of mothers own a tablet. Women are online an average of almost three hours a day, and when a woman finds out she is pregnant, her Internet usage skyrockets. More than 70 percent of mothers have a Facebook page, and check it on average about five times a day. —MCT

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Honeybees trained in Croatia to find land mines

PETRINJA: Ante Ivanda, a de-miner, searches for land mines in Petrinja, central Croatia. (Right) A scientist inspects bees during a scientific experiment at the Faculty of Agriculture at Zagreb University.

Croatian researches, working on a unique method to find unexploded mines that are littering their country and the rest of the Balkans, are confident they can use bees for detecting land mines. —AP ZAGREB: Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on a fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined.

Now, unlikely heroes may be coming to the rescue to prevent similar tragedies: sugar-craving honeybees.

Croatian researchers are training them to find unexploded mines littering their countr y and the rest of the Balkans. When Croatia joins the European Union on July 1, in addition to the beauty of its aquamarine Adriatic sea, deep blue mountain lakes and lush green forests, it will also bring numerous un-cleared minefields to the bloc’s territory. About 750 square kilometers (466 square miles) are still suspected to be filled with mines from the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Nikola Kezic, an exper t on the behavior of honeybees, sat quietly together with a group of young researchers on a recent day in a large net tent filled with the buzzing insects on a grass field lined with acacia trees.

The professor at Zagreb University outlined the idea for the experiment: Bees have a perfect sense of smell that can quickly detect the scent of the explosives. They are being trained to identify their food with the scent of TNT. “Our basic conclusion is that the bees can clearly detect this target, and we are very satisfied,” said Kezic, who leads a part of a larger multimillioneuro program, called “Tiramisu,” sponsored by the EU to detect land mines on the continent. Several feeding points were set up on the ground around the tent, but only a few have TNT particles in them. The method of training the bees by authenticating the scent of explosives with the food they eat appears to work: bees gather mainly at the pots containing a sugar solution mixed with TNT, and not the ones that have a different smell.

Kezic said the feeding points containing the TNT traces offer “a sugar solution as a reward, so they can find the food in the middle.”

“It is not a problem for a bee to learn the smell of an explosive, which

‘Gap’ for HIV vaccine efforts after setback WASHINGTON: The hunt for an HIV vaccine has gobbled up $8 billion in the past decade, and the failure of the most recent efficacy trial has delivered yet another setback to 26 years of efforts.

With the next attempts expected to be years away, top researchers now say there is a “void” or a “gap” in current clinical trial efforts to test whether a vaccine may be safe and effective in people.

A kind of ongoing autopsy of the last four major bids to make an HIV vaccine has informed the field as to what does not work, with the latest casualty being a trial called HVTN 505 that was halted early because it did not prevent HIV. “It leaves us with a gap in several years before we have another HIV vaccine efficacy trial under way, and that is unfortunate,” said James Kublin, executive director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network.

Another concern for researchers is that two vaccine trials-HVTN 505 and a previous trial known as STEP that ended unsuccessfully in 2007 — both revealed apparent increases in the number of vaccinated patients who got HIV. HVTN 505 showed 41 cases of HIV were acquired in the vaccine group, compared to 31 in the placebo group. Among some 2,500 participants, the difference was not statistically significant, and so researchers found that no harm was caused by the trial.

“But the number is in the wrong direction,” said trial leader Scott Hammer, who described the trial’s outcome as a “disappointment.” Researchers are still investigating why this may have happened, but some theorize the cold virus known as Ad5 that served as a vector to deliver the vaccine may have somehow caused more infections by making it easier for HIV to penetrate the body. “You scratch your head,” said Hammer, a professor of medicine at

Columbia University, adding that Ad5 may now be considered too risky and other options are being investigated.

“No one is going to want to a do a major trial with this sort of vector in the future,” he told AFP. The key puzzle in the vaccine search has been the nature of the human immunodeficiency virus itself, which has managed to fool modern medicine by changing its genetic makeup so often that a single weapon cannot silence it. “The virus is a very elusive foe,” said Wayne Koff, chief scientific officer at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

“It is more variable than almost any other virus that a vaccine has been attempted for. So if one wants to make antibodies against a virus that is variable, one has to have a broadly reactive antibody,” he told AFP. A small number of HIV-positive people have been found to produce antibodies that can neutralize a broad range of HIV variants, but scientists have not yet figured out how to make a vaccine from that information.

“Lots of people are working on that very hard. I would have thought we would have that immunogen to test in phase I trials by now, but hopefully soon,” said Hammer, a leading HIV researcher. About 34 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, and AIDS has killed 30 million people since the epidemic began 30 years ago.

The vaccine field has fallen short of expectations since 1984, when Margaret Heckler, who was then US secretary of Health and Human Services, declared a vaccine would be ready for testing in about two years’ time. The first phase I trial of a vaccine began in 1987 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and included 138 healthy volunteers. The first large-scale trials did not begin until the late 1990s. —AFP

PYONGYANG: Wearing gym-provided workout clothing, North Koreans rest near the gym at the Haedanghwa Health Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea yesterday. The newly opened complex houses a cooking school, multiple banquet rooms, swimming and wading pools, a billiards room and other recreational facilities. —AP

it can then search,” Kezic said. “You can train a bee, but training their colony of thousands becomes a problem.”

Croatian officials estimate that since the beginning of the Balkan wars in 1991, about 2,500 people have died from land mine explosions. During the four-year war, around 90,000 land mines were placed across the entire country, mostly at random and without any plan or existing maps. Dijana Plestina, the head of the Croatian government’s de-mining bureau, said the suspected devices represent a large obstacle for the country’s population and industry, including agriculture and tourism. In the nearly two decades since the end of the war, land mines have taken the lives of 316 people, including 66 de-miners, she said.

“While this exists, we are living in a kind of terror, at least for the people who are living in areas suspected to have mines,” she said. “And of course, that is unacceptable. We will not be a country in peace until this problem is solved.” In 2004, Filipovic and her boyfriend were on a fishing trip that

took them to a river between Croatia and Bosnia. “As we were returning hand-in-hand, my boyfriend stepped on a mine,” the 41-year-old Filipovic said. “It was an awful, deafening explosion ... thousands of shrapnel parts went flying, hundreds ending up in my body. He was found dead several meters away, while I remained in a pool of blood sitting on the ground.”

She sued the Croatian government, saying the area wasn’t clearly marked as a former minefield. “At first I thought I was asleep,” she recalled. “ Then I heard the voice of my father. I opened my eyes, and saw nothing. I thought I lost my eyes.” The government admitted guilt in the case for failing to keep the minefield sign, but the court has yet to determine financial compensation.

It may be a while before the honeybees hit real minefields, Kezic said.

First, they will conduct controlled tests, with real mines but which are marked.

Kezic said American researchers have in the past experimented with mine-searching bees, but TNT - the

most common explosive used in the Balkan wars - wasn’t par t of their experiment because its smell evaporates quickly, and only small traces remain after time. Rats and dogs are also used to detect explosives worldwide, but unlike bees, they could set off blasts on the minefields because of their weight.

Even after the de-miners have done their job in an area, some land mines are missed and remain in the soil, and they are most often the cause of deadly explosions. Once the experiment with bees proves scientifically reliable, the idea is to use them in the areas that have already been de-mined, where their movement would be followed with heat-seeking cameras, Kezic said.

“We are not saying that we will discover all the mines on a minefield, but the fact is that it should be checked if a minefield is really de-mined,” he said.

“It has been scientifically proven that there are never zero mines on a demined field, and that’s where bees could come in.” — AP

Alzheimer’s leaves bilingual victims stranded in Canada Bilingualism can delay onset of dementia TORONTO: The devastating effect of Alzheimer’s disease on bilingual people has been thrown into focus in Canada, where the sudden loss of a second language can leave sufferers feeling like strangers in their own country. Despite increasing evidence that bilingualism can actually delay the onset of dementia, those grappling with the ravages of the disease often find themselves isolated by the lack of essential services in their language of choice.

When Alzheimer’s strikes, an people’s ability to communicate in their second language often erodes rapidly. Sylvie Lavoie told AFP she noticed a steady deterioration in her mother’s ability to speak English fluently after she was diagnosed with the disease.

Her mother, Helene Tremblay-Lavoie, later took a test to measure her deterioration that provided conclusive evidence.

She scored nine marks out of 30 for a test in English contrasted with 19 out of 30 for the same test in French. “The result was a terrible shock, a huge surprise,” Lavoie told AFP. “Talking in French to my mother I had not noticed that she had lost her English.

“I noticed that she was speaking less and less English to my husband, who is anglophone, but I attributed that to the illness and general fatigue.”

The case garnered attention in Canada.

Tremblay-Lavoie was born in the French-speaking province of Quebec and lived in Toronto for 30 years, becoming fully bilingual. However, when it came to finding a facility capable of car-

ing for her mother, Lavoie discovered nothing was available for her mother in Toronto.

She eventually found a spot in a Frenchspeaking hospice in the town of Welland, near Niagara Falls.

In response to the shortfall of spaces, the Helene Tremblay-Lavoie Foundation was set up last year with the goal of creating long-term care

for francophones in the Toronto region. “People who lose the ability to speak English are unilingual francophones who have learned English later in life,” said Guy Proulx, a professor at York University who specializes in the assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive disorders in people suffering from strokes or dementia.

Proulx, a director of the foundation, cautioned that individuals who had been bilingual since childhood were less likely to lose the use of their second language. “A bilingual from childhood won’t lose it because it is automated, it is anchored in. When it is automated, it is more resistant to diseases like Alzheimer ’s,” he explained. Proulx and the foundation are hoping to set up a dedicated francophone clinic in the Toronto region that will feature a research center in the field of cognitive health and therapy for diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Nearly 90 percent of francophones in Toronto-some 125,000 people out of a population of 600,000 across Ontario-are in relationships with non-francophones. The aim is to ensure these people can stay together when the disease strikes.

“Health care services in French are available in Toronto but they are scattered. They need to be structured,” said Proulx. Jean Roy, who chairs the foundation’s board, said it had the support of the provincial and federal governments. “The project will cost Can$200,000 per year for three years and we already have the money. It is only going to be a matter of months.” —AFP

Acne pill benefits outweigh blood clot risk: EU agency PARIS: Europe’s medicines watchdog said the benefits of acne drug Diane-35, also widely used as a contraceptive, outweigh the risk of developing blood clots in the veinswhen correctly prescribed.

The clot risk was “low”, said a European Medicines Agency (EMA) ruling on a French-initiated review of the drug’s safety. But it stressed Diane-35 and its generics should be used only for acne treatment, as indicated by the pill’s German manufacturer, Bayer.

It should only be prescribed when alternative acne treatments had failed, and measures must be taken to minimize the blood clot risk. “These medicines should be used solely in the treatment of moderate to severe acne... in women of reproductive age,” the agency said in a statement.

“Since Diane-35 and its generics are hormonal contraceptives, women should not take these medicines in combination with

other hormonal contraceptives”this would expose them to high doses of the female hormone oestrogen, which has been linked to thrombosis.

Diane-35 is authorized in over 100 countries and used by millions of women. According to the package insert on Bayer ’s website, Diane-35 is indicated for hormonal skin conditions, in cases that other treatments had not worked. The leaflet seeks to discourage the drug’s use for birth control alone — although Diane-35’s hormone make-up means it acts as a contraceptive by blocking ovulation.

The insert does warn of a higher risk of blood clots in the blood vessels, which can break off and lodge in the lungs, obstructing blood flow to key organs and cause hear t attacks or strokes, even death.In Januar y, French health regulator ANSM suspended sales of the hormone tablet which it linked to four thrombosis deaths

and more than 100 cases of blood clots in the past 25 years. In France, Diane-35 is authorized for acne treatment — about 315,000 women used it in 2012.

In some European countries it is authorized for use as a dual acne treatment-contraception solution.

The EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) made its ruling on Diane-35 in a sitting this week.

“Based on all available data, the PRAC concluded that Diane-35 and its generics have a place as a treatment option for certain women suffering from the above-mentioned (skin) conditions,” said the statement. But it “acknowledged that there is a need to take further measures to better address and minimise the risks of thromboembolism associated with these medicines.”

The committee recommended that new warnings be developed, and said patients must be made

aware of the risks, signs and symptoms of blood clots. The PRAC’s recommendation will be considered by the agency’s drug authorization coordination group, which will take a final position within weeks. The EMA is also reviewing the clot risk posed by so-called third- and fourth-generation birth-control pills, which do not include Dianeagain at the request of France which announced last year these drugs would no longer be reimbursed by the social security system. France’s move was partly triggered by the case of a 25-year-old woman left badly handicapped by a stroke that, in a lawsuit, she attributed to later generation birth control pills.

A Danish study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 2011 found women who took one of the newer types of the pill ran twice the risk of blood clots in the veins than those who used oldergeneration drugs. —AFP

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

Russia retrieves mice, newts from space Scientists hope for a manned flight to Mars MOSCOW: A Russian capsule filled with 45 mice and 15 newts along with other small animals returned from a month’s mission in orbit yesterday with data scientists hope will pave the way for a manned flight to Mars.

Russian Mission Control said the Bion-M craft landed softly with the help of a special parachute system in the Orenburg Region about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Moscow.

The capsule was also carrying snails and gerbils as well as some plants and microflora.

Rossiya state television said not all the animals survived but provided no other details.

“This is the first time that animals have been put in space on their own for so long,” said Vladimir Sychov of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ institute of medical and biological research.

The TsSKB-Progress space research centre’s department head Valery Abrashkin said on the day the mission took off in April that the study was aimed at determining how bodies adapt to weightlessness “so that our organisms survive extended flights.” The space mission has been widely praised by Russian state media as a unique experiment

that no other country has yet pulled off.

France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) space centre said 15 of the 45 mice came from a French research lab that is cooperating with the study. CNES life science department head Guillemette Gauquelin-Koch said the project took “a further decisive step in human adaptation to weightlessness.” Another flight with other animals would probably take place next year, she added.

“They might be microorganisms,” she said.

A field research lab was deployed near to where the capsule landed to quickly test the animals’ response to their journey and return to Earth. Officials said the small menagerie composed of dozens of individual cages would now be flown to Moscow for more tests.

Scientists said the animals were needed because they were subject to the kinds of experiments that are impossible to conduct on the humans who are currently operating the International Space Station (ISS). They added that the mice would have posed a health risk if simply placed on board the ISS for a month. The experiment’s designers said

the tests primarily focused on how microgravity impacts the skeletal and nervous systems as well organisms’ muscles and hearts.

The animals were stored inside five special containers that automatically opened after reaching orbit and closed once it was time to return. Also on board were over two dozen measuring devices and other scientific objects, some of which were stationed outside the capsule to measure radiation levels.

The capsule spun 575 kilometers (357 miles) above Earth. Russia has long set its sights on Mars and is now targeting 2030 as the year in which it could begin creating a base on the Moon for flights to the Red Planet. But recent problems with its oncevaunted space program-including the embarrassing failure of a research satellite that Moscow tried sending up to one of Mars’s moons last year-have threatened Russia’s future exploration efforts. Russia’s trials and tribulations are watched closely by other space-faring nations because the Soyuz rocket on which the animals went up represents the world’s only manned link to the constantly-staffed International Space Station. — AFP

Shrinks, critics face off over psychiatric manual CHICAGO: In the new psychiatric manual of mental disorders, grief soon after a loved one’s death can be considered major depression. Extreme childhood temper tantrums get a fancy name. And certain “senior moments” are called “mild neurocognitive disorder.”

Those changes are just some of the reasons prominent critics say the American Psychiatric Association is out of control, turning common human problems into mental illnesses in a trend they say will just make the “pop-a-pill” culture worse. Says a former leader of the group: “Normal needs to be saved from powerful forces trying to convince us that we are all sick.”

At issue is the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, widely known as the DSM-5. The DSM has long been considered the authoritative source for diagnosing mental problems.

The psychiatric association formally intro-

duces the nearly 1,000-page revised version this weekend in San Francisco. It’s the manual’s first major update in nearly 20 years, and a backlash has taken shape in recent weeks: Two new books by mental health experts, “Saving Normal” and “The Book of Woe,” say the world’s most widely used psychiatric guide has lost credibility.

A British psychologists’ group is criticizing the DSM-5, calling for a “paradigm shift” away from viewing mental problems as a disease.

An organization of German therapists also attacked the new guide.

Even the head of the US National Institute of Mental Health complained that the book lacks scientific validity. This week, the NIMH director, Dr Thomas Insel, tried to patch things up as he and the psychiatrists group issued a joint statement saying they have similar goals for improving the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. —AP

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Announcements AIP shaam-e ghazal he Association of Indian Professionals (AIP), Kuwait, forthcoming event has been scheduled for the evening of May 25, 2013 at 6 pm at the auditorium of Indian Community Senior School, Salmiya and is titled as AIP Shaam-e-Ghazal. We have invited Raghuram Krishnan, a Ghazal singer from Cochin, India to make this evening more melodious and vibrant.

He will be supported by few local musicians also. Ambassador of India, Satish C. Mehta will be the Chief Guest. Admission is by invitation and children below 10 years of age will not be allowed.

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The TIES Center’s ‘trip’ he TIES Center cordially invites those who are interested in its trip to the Historical, Vintage and Classic Car Museum, which is the first museum in Kuwait specializing in old cars on May 30th at 6:00 pm. Revisit past memories or learn something new. If you love cars then this is the trip for you. Even if you don’t love cars, come anyway; you will enjoy the trip.

For more information/registration, log onto: www.tiescenter.net.

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Photography exhibition he Embassy of India, Kuwait in association with National Council of Arts, Culture & Letters is organizing an exhibition of photographs of Islamic monuments of India by Benoy K Behl, Art - Historian & Photographer at Al-Edwani Hall, Dahiyat Abdullah Al-Salem. The exhibition is being inaugurated at 1900 hrs tomorrow 21 May, 2013. The exhibition shall be kept open till 27 May 2013 from 0900 hrs to 1230 hrs and 1700 hrs to 2100 hrs. All are cordially invited to the exhibition.

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My Experience in Kuwait he Aware Diwaniya tomorrow, May 21 will be given by two German Expats, Jan Koeppen and Detmar Ruediger. They will talk about their experience in Kuwait as well as intercultural aspects including sharing their tips and advice on spending leisure time in Kuwait. Please join us at 7 pm at Aware Center, Villa 84, Street 50, Block 3, Surra. For more information please call 25335280 or visit www.aware.com.kw

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IMAX

IMAX film program Monday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 8:30pm Tornado Alley 3D11:30am, 5:30pm, 7:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 9:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 6:30pm Tuesday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Tornado Alley 3D10:30am, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 11:30am, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 5:30pm Wednesday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups To The Arctic 3D 10:30am Tornado Alley 3D11:30am, 6:30pm, 9:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Journey to Mecca 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 8:30pm Thursday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 5:30pm, 8:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 11:30am Tornado Alley 3D12:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 6:30pm Friday: Fires of Kuwait 2:30pm Tornado Alley 3D3:30pm, 5:30pm, 8:30pm To The Arctic 3D 4:30pm, 7:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 9:30pm

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

Maha Sharaa, an outstanding student at the Arab Open University, was honored along with other students last Wednesday, in the presence of university officials, teaching faculty and parents were on hand. Maha’s proud parents and uncles congratulated her on such an achievement and wished her all the best.—Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Al Manshar Rotana Hotel wins Kuwait Business Hotel award

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l Manshar Rotana Hotel has been recognized for its continued resounding success by winning the award of “Kuwait’s Leading Business Hotel 2013” at this year’s Annual World Travel Awards, the premier global awards event that promotes excellence in the travel and tourism industry.

Al Manshar Rotana Hotel, and for the second time, manages to obtain this prestigious award as a result for its commitment towards all guests, and it’s continues attempts to provide the best personalized service. Therefore and after winning the prize of “Kuwait’s Leading Hotel 2010” now Al Manshar Rotana receives this award in 2013. Pierre Zayoun, General Manager of the hotel expressed his great pride on receiving the award. “All credit goes to the hard work and dedication of our hotel’s team which continually exceeds the expectations of our guests, as evidenced by this award. With thousands of votes cast by noteworthy industry professionals across the globe, and the great support we always receive from hotel’s owning company in

Kuwait (Tamdeen Real Estate Company) and all its management” “This award stands testimony to the passion and commitment we have as a management to play a pivotal role in awarding Al Manshar Rotana Hotel. The enthusiasm and sheer professionalism that our entire team shows towards their work is what has allowed us to achieve our success and we are delighted that our efforts have been recognized”, concluded Mr. Zayoun.

Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the “Travel industry’s equivalent to the Oscars”, World Travel Awards are considered the most comprehensive and prestigious in the global travel industry today. Each year the World Travel Awards hit the travel industry community.

Zayoun also announced the opening of hotel’s fully renovated swimming pool located on the rooftop, along with the new services and facilities which will add more comfort and satisfaction to all hotel’s guests and health club members. He also explained about the great offers the hotel designed for summer and Ramadan 2013.

AUK students discover the wonders of Andalusia

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he Department of Arabic and Foreign Languages at AUK organized a trip to Spain to discover the wonders of Andalusia.

On the night of 28 March, 20 AUK students and faculty, along with some family members, departed Kuwait heading to their first stop, Granada. “We found Granada in a festive spirit, as our arrival there coincided with Good Friday and the beginning of the Easter weekend. Colorful processions filled the streets,” said Dr Raymond Farrin, Chair of the Department of Arabic and Foreign Languages at AUK and the trip chaperon.

The highlight of the Granada stay was the visit to the Palace of Alhambra (Qasr Al-Hamra’).

A notable feature of Alhambra is plentiful water, such that its fountains are always supplied by means of aqueducts and pipes.

According to Dr. Farrin, the day of the tour was rainy and the group was soaked. “But the rain did not dampen our spirits, and we forgot it as we became increasingly amazed at the wonders of this monument built by the Arabs many centuries ago,” said Dr. Farrin.

The group’s next stop was Cordoba, former capital of AlAndalus, site of the Great Mosque (now converted into a cathedral), and scene of the famous, high-drama love affair between Princess Wallada and the poet Ibn Zaydun. As the hotel was conveniently located right next to the Great Mosque, the group enjoyed numerous strolls in the old city. They also spent an afternoon visiting the ruins of Madinat Al-Zahra’ and got invited for lunch by a Muslim family at their farm “that seemed more like a little paradise”.

An interesting discussion followed about the state of Muslims today in Christian Spain. “Memorable as well was a lively and colorful Flamenco performance witnessed one night in Cordoba,” said Dr. Farrin.

From Cordoba, the group also took a day-trip to Seville, former home of the poet king Al-Mu’tamid ibn ‘Abbad, where they toured the palace and the large cathedral, and then took the opportunity to see more of the city by way of horse-drawn carriage.

“Particularly beautiful was Seville’s park, which might remind one of an orange grove,” Said Dr. Farrin.

On the last day in Spain, the group rode the bus north to Toledo, once a center for translation of Arabic books into Latin. Many of the group then chose to spend the afternoon and evening in Madrid.

In that city, some of the group members visited the Santiago Bernabeu and even descended to the field where the Real Madrid players sit during matches. The tour ended at the press room and led into the team’s store. There, and also in the fashionable shops of Madrid, and likewise elsewhere during the visit, shopping opportunities were not missed by the group; “our suitcases came back fully packed,” said Dr. Farrin On Friday morning, April 5, it was time to return to Kuwait. The group left Madrid, excited and happy to be seeing family and friends again but sad to be leaving Spain, and filled with memories of a unique educational experience.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy

TIES Centre events

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he TIES Center cordially invites you to the following events:

1- Discussion regarding the issue of Islam and Progress: Islam came as a message of guidance from Allah (SWT) to all creation at a time when ignorance and corruption were universal. It opened peoples’ minds and souls to learning, development, refinement and morality. The achievements of Islamic thought in the early period were sufficient to bring ethics, guidance and knowledge to humanity. Despite these facts, many Muslims today are characterized by laziness, dishonesty and untrustworthiness.

Join Hassan Bwambale today May 20 at 7 pm for a discussion of the reasons for such weaknesses despite the magnanimous teachings of Islam.

Place: The TIES Center.

2- A diwaniya presentation entitled, “Criminal laws in Islam.” Criminal

laws in Islam aim to safeguard the community and exist when there is potential harm to a second party. Join Dr. Teresa Lesher on Tuesday, May 21 for a discussion of Islamic law (shariah) regarding the penalties for the major crimes, including murder, manslaughter, armed aggression, theft, rape, adultery, slander and intoxication, and how these rules protect the citizens’ material, spiritual and social development. Q&A follows a 20-minute presentation, which begins at 7 pm at the TIES Center.

Dr. Teresa holds her PhD in Information Science from the UK and is now associate professor at the Kuwait College of Basic Education.

She held the position of General Manager of the AWARE Center for three years. If you are interested in the topic, Ties Center is the best place to visit on May 21, 2013 at 7:00pm.

Sebamed on Instagram

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e are glad to inform you that we launched our site on instagram.

Follow us on @sebamedkuwait and (hashtag)#sebamedkuwait and send us your shots involving all family members and be the lucky winner of a valuable prize from Sebamed products.

Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-imenquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. nnnnnnn

Ruby Tuesday hosts food tasting for the British Business Forum

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he Executive Team of National Arabic Company headed by Bill Robinson, Vice President held a food tasting event at Ruby Tuesday Sharq for the esteemed members of the British Business Forum. The members were invited to a delectable three course meal.

Bill Robinson related facts to the history of the origin of Ruby Tuesday and how the name came about.

The guests were pleased to know the history about Ruby Tuesday’s growth over the past 41 years since its

inception in 1972. Ruby Tuesday is defined by it fresh handcrafted burgers, USDA Choice beef, premium cuts of meat, and the best choices in shareables and main courses.

The executive team headed by Adel Kayed, Director of Operations, Essam El Sanea Senior General Manager, Sathyaseelan Senior General Manager, Reyana Mahesh PR & Marketing, the chefs and restaurant staff were applauded for the great hospitality given to the ‘taste’ committee of the British Business Forum at Ruby

Tuesday last night. The committee was inspired by the amazing ability of the staff to create such lovely meals with care and attention to detail and flavour. The event was signed off with serving of the Cheesecake dessert which many exclaimed as, ‘something to die for’.

Paul McKay, Chairman of BBF said, “The story of the ‘journey of taste’ stimulated not only our taste buds but offered some great ideas which the Forum will take forward for closer ties with you in the future. Your team and passion is truly an inspiration to us all.

GUST hosts Springer author workshop

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS In its capacity as EU Local Presidency in the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Member States of the EU and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, would like to announce that as from 2nd October 2012 all Schengen States’ Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa Information System (VIS). The VIS is a central database for the exchange of data on shortstay (up to three months) visas between Schengen States. The main objectives of the VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures and checks at external border as well as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all the Schengen visa applications lodged by an applicant over five years and the decisions taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This will allow applicants to establish more easily the lawful use of previous visas and their bona fide status. For the purpose of the VIS, applicants will be required to provide their biometric data (fingerprints and digital photos) when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a simple and discreet procedure that only takes a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the data provided in the Schengen visa application form, will be recorded in the VIS central database. Therefore, as from 2nd October 2012, first-time applicants will have to appear in person when lodging the application, in order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent applications within 5 years the fingerprints can be copied from the previous application file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency would like to assure the people of Kuwait and all its permanent citizens that the Member States and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, have taken all necessary technical measures to facilitate the rapid examination and the efficient processing of visa applications and to ensure a quick and discreet procedure for the implementation of the new VIS. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF SOUTH AFRICA

T

he A. M. Al-Refai Library along with Springer and Edanz hosted a scientific authors’ workshop on Wednesday, May 15 in GUST auditorium.

The workshop was attended by VP for Academic Affairs, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Assistant Dean of the College of Business Administration, faculty members, representatives from KISR, and a few GUST staff members. The lecture was presented by two speakers: Chris Bendall and Warren Raye.

Dr. Ali Ansari, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences welcomed the speakers and the attendees, and thanked them for attending the workshop. He specifically thanked Mrs. Shobhita Kohli, Library Directorfor her exceptional workin arranging events as such. Thelecture sessions were split in three parts: a) Research and Scientific Publishing b) How to Write for and Get Published in Scientific Journals and Publish Manuscripts c) Author Services: Support When You Publish With Springer. The speakers covered some important topics such as: how non-nativeEnglish authors could overcome the language barrier, write a title that would attract readers, develop cover letter, how to handle peer review comments, etc.

The workshop was mainly designed for authors to help them write quality manuscripts that would be attractive to SCI indexed journals. The attendees found the lecture to be informative as it gave them a good insight to submitting research articles in quality journals. The session was interactive and the attendees were seen to be enthusiastically asking questions in the end, which the speakers happily answered.

The Embassy of the Republic of South Africa will be closed on Tuesday, 28 May 2013, for an official event. The Embassy will resume it’s normal working hours on Wednesday, 29 May 2013, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the Working hours will be from 8h00 to 16h00 & the Consular Section operation hours will be from 8h30 to 12h30, for any emergencies please contact: 94924895. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF SOUTH KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait will organize 2013 K-POP Contest on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 6:00 pm. The aim of the contest is to provide an opportunity to the participants to showcase their exciting talents to the audience. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the contest. Application forms can be downloaded from the Embassy’s website: http://kwt.mofa.go.kr (Select English from the menu at the top of the page then Bilateral Relations) or visit the “Korean Culture Diwaniya” Facebook Group. Interested applicants must send their application forms to Kuwait@mofa.go.kr by 24 May 2013.

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Squid Invasion 01:35 Animal Cops Philadelphia 02:25 Roaring With Pride 03:15 Wildest Africa 04:05 Biggest And Baddest 04:55 Animal Cops Philadelphia 05:45 Wildest Islands 06:35 Wildlife SOS 07:00 The Really Wild Show 07:25 My Cat From Hell 08:15 Dogs 101 09:10 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 10:05 Safari Vet School 10:30 Safari Vet School 11:00 Animal Cops Phoenix 11:55 Shamwari: A Wild Life 12:20 Wildlife SOS 12:50 Clinically Wild: Alaska 13:15 Clinically Wild: Alaska 13:45 Animal Precinct 14:40 Safari Vet School 15:05 Safari Vet School 15:30 Cheetah Kingdom 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Dogs 101 17:25 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 17:50 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 18:20 Must Love Cats 19:15 Escape To Chimp Eden 19:40 Bondi Vet 20:10 Shamwari: A Wild Life 20:35 Cheetah Kingdom 21:05 Safari Vet School 21:30 Safari Vet School 22:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 22:25 Karina: Wild On Safari

00:20 Cash In The Attic 01:05 Gok’s Fashion Fix 01:55 Design Rules 02:20 Daily Cooks Challenge 02:50 Daily Cooks Challenge 03:20 Celebrity MasterChef 04:10 Vacation Vacation Vacation 04:30 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 05:15 Design Rules 05:40 Antiques Roadshow 06:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:00 Design Rules 07:25 Cash In The Attic 08:10 Homes Under The Hammer 09:05 Bargain Hunt 09:50 Antiques Roadshow 10:40 Gok’s Fashion Fix 11:30 Celebrity MasterChef 12:25 Come Dine With Me 13:15 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 14:00 Cash In The Attic 14:45 Antiques Roadshow 15:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 17:00 Homes Under The Hammer 17:55 Food And Drink 18:25 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 18:55 Food Poker 19:40 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:25 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Homes Under The Hammer 23:55 Cash In The Attic

00:15 00:45 01:30 01:55 02:20 02:45 03:00 03:20 03:45 04:10 04:35 05:00 05:25 06:00 06:25 06:50 07:15 07:40 08:05 08:30 08:55 09:20 09:45

Duck Dodgers Wacky Races What’s New Scooby-Doo? What’s New Scooby-Doo? The Flintstones Tom & Jerry Tales What’s New Scooby-Doo? Taz-Mania The Looney Tunes Show Tom & Jerry Tales Johnny Bravo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Ha Ha Hairies Bananas In Pyjamas Lazytown Krypto: The Super Dog Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Cartoonito Tales Ha Ha Hairies Lazytown Baby Looney Tunes

10:10 Krypto: The Super Dog 10:35 Cartoonito Tales 11:00 Jelly Jamm 11:25 Gerald McBoing Boing 11:50 Lazytown 12:15 Baby Looney Tunes 12:40 Jelly Jamm 13:00 Tom & Jerry Kids 13:25 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo 13:50 Moomins 14:20 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 14:45 The Looney Tunes Show 15:10 The 13 Ghosts Of ScoobyDoo 15:35 Taz-Mania 16:00 Tiny Toon Adventures 16:25 Moomins 16:50 Tom And Jerry Tales 17:15 What’s New Scooby Doo 17:40 The Looney Tunes Show 18:05 The Garfield Show 18:30 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 18:55 The 13 Ghosts Of ScoobyDoo 19:20 Tom And Jerry Tales 19:45 What’s New Scooby Doo 20:10 Tiny Toon Adventures 20:35 Puppy In My Pocket 21:00 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 21:25 Looney Tunes 21:50 Dexter’s Laboratory 22:15 Tom & Jerry Tales 23:05 Pink Panther And Pals 23:30 Pink Panther And Pals

00:30 Grim Adventures Of...

01:20 Johnny Test 02:10 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 02:35 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Regular Show 03:50 Ben 10: Omniverse 04:15 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 04:40 Powerpuff Girls 05:05 Evil Con Carne 05:30 Cow & Chicken 06:00 Casper’s Scare School 06:30 Angelo Rules 07:00 Dreamworks Dragons Riders Of Berk 07:25 Johnny Test 07:45 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 08:10 Evil Con Carne 08:55 Adventure Time 09:45 Regular Show 10:35 Angelo Rules 11:25 Ben 10: Alien Force 11:50 Ben 10: Alien Force 12:15 Hero 108 12:40 Hero 108 13:05 Mucha Lucha !

13:30 Angelo Rules 14:20 Evil Con Carne 15:10 The Amazing World Of Gumball 15:35 Adventure Time 16:00 Regular Show 16:30 Johnny Test 17:00 Ben 10: Omniverse 17:25 Dreamworks Dragons Riders Of Berk 17:50 Gormiti New 18:15 Young Justice 18:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 19:05 Total Drama Island 19:30 Total Drama Island 19:55 Mucha Lucha !

20:20 Ben 10: Omniverse 20:45 The Amazing World Of Gumball

00:00 Bloodwork 01:00 Private Crimes 01:30 Private Crimes 02:00 Evil Up Close 03:00 Haunted Encounters: Face To Face 04:00 Bloodwork 05:00 Private Crimes 05:30 Private Crimes 06:00 Crime Town USA 06:30 Crime Town USA 07:00 Cold Case Files 08:00 The FBI Files 09:00 Crime Stories 10:00 Crime Stories 11:00 Crimes That Shook Britain 12:00 Psychic Detectives 12:30 Curious & Unusual Deaths 13:00 Nightmare In Suburbia

14:00 Vanished With Beth Holloway 15:00 The First 48 16:00 The FBI Files 17:00 Crime Stories 18:00 Crime Stories 19:00 Psychic Detectives 19:30 Curious & Unusual Deaths 20:00 Snapped: Women Who Kill 21:00 Psychic Detectives 21:30 Crime Stories 22:30 Private Crimes 23:00 Private Crimes

00:40 You Have Been Warned 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 Soul Food Family 08:45 Gold Rush 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Auction Hunters 10:30 Auction Kings 10:55 How Machines Work 11:25 How It’s Made 11:50 Wheeler Dealers 12:45 Wheeler Dealers: Trading Up 13:40 Fifth Gear 14:35 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 15:05 Auction Hunters 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Robson Green’s Extreme Fishing Challenge 16:55 Gold Rush 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Sons Of Guns 19:40 How Machines Work 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Auction Hunters 21:00 Storage Hunters 21:30 Gold Divers: Under The Ice 22:25 Alaska: The Last Frontier 23:20 Flying Wild Alaska

00:05 00:30 01:00 05:15 05:40 06:05 06:30 07:00 07:50 08:15 08:40 09:05 09:30 10:25 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:25 13:50 14:20 14:45 15:10 16:00 16:55 17:45 18:35 19:30 20:20 20:45 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50 23:40

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

How Tech Works Sci-Fi Science What’s That About?

The Gadget Show How Tech Works James May’s 20th Century James May’s 20th Century X-Machines Things That Move Things That Move The Gadget Show How Tech Works Da Vinci’s Machines What’s That About?

Superships Prophets Of Science Fiction Things That Move Things That Move Sci-Fi Science The Gadget Show How Tech Works X-Machines Scrapheap Challenge What’s That About?

Superships Meteorite Men X-Machines Things That Move Things That Move The Gadget Show How Tech Works X-Machines Sport Science The Gadget Show

Zero Hour Zero Hour Bone Detectives Bone Detectives Timewatch Timewatch Timewatch Jurassica Classic Car Club An Mg Is Born Circus Treasure Quest The Storms Of War I Shouldn’t Be Alive Alaska’s Great Race Timewatch Bone Detectives Alaska State Troopers Land Of The Mammoth Great Battles Great Battles The Road To Le Mans The Road To Le Mans

18:25 19:20 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

Survivorman Reign Of The Dinosaurs Alaska’s Great Race Timewatch Reign Of The Dinosaurs Zero Hour FBI Case Files

00:00 Chelsea Lately 00:30 Dirty Soap 01:25 E! Investigates 02:20 20 Acts Of Love Gone Wrong 04:10 THS 05:05 Extreme Close-Up 05:30 Extreme Close-Up 06:00 THS 07:50 Style Star 08:20 E! News 09:15 Married To Jonas 09:45 Married To Jonas 10:15 15 Remarkable Celebrity Body Bouncebacks 12:05 Playing With Fire 13:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:30 Extreme Close-Up 17:00 Fashion Police 18:00 E! News 19:00 E!es 20:00 Ice Loves Coco 20:30 Ice Loves Coco 21:00 Chasing The Saturdays 21:30 Chasing The Saturdays 22:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 23:00 THS

00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Food Wars 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Iron Chef America 03:50 Food Crafters 04:15 United Tastes Of America 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Iron Chef America 06:10 Unwrapped 07:00 Guy’s Big Bite 07:50 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 08:15 Kid In A Candy Store 08:40 Unique Sweets 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 Food Network Star 10:45 Extra Virgin 11:10 Cooking For Real 11:35 Food Crafters 12:00 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 12:50 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Food Wars 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Food Wars 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 19:30 Chopped 21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes 22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:50 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:40 Food Wars

00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:15 08:40 09:05 09:30 Zahn 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:30 Zahn 15:20 15:45 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 Zahn 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Haunted Dr G: Medical Examiner Blood Relatives Couples Who Kill Scorned: Crimes Of Passion The Haunted Dr G: Medical Examiner Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Disappeared Murder Shift Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill Deadly Sins Blood Relatives I Almost Got Away With It

01:30 Valley Girl 03:10 Sketch Artist 04:40 Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert 06:25 Retroactive 08:00 Hidden Agenda 09:49 Thunder Alley 11:20 Shadows And Fog 12:49 Tom Sawyer 14:20 Return Of The Seven 15:55 In The Time Of The Butterflies 17:30 New York, New York 20:10 Kuffs 22:00 Yanks

THOR ON OSN MOVIES ACTION

00:15 Market Values 00:45 Living With The Amish 01:40 Into The Drink 02:35 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 03:30 Travel Oz 03:55 Deadliest Journeys 04:25 A World Apart 05:20 Long Way Down 06:15 Graham’s World 06:40 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 07:10 Market Values 08:05 Living With The Amish 09:00 Into The Drink 09:55 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 10:50 Travel Oz 11:15 Deadliest Journeys 11:45 A World Apart 12:40 Long Way Down 13:35 Graham’s World 14:00 My Sri Lanka With Peter

Kuruvita 14:30 Market Values 15:25 Living With The Amish 16:20 Into The Drink 17:15 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 18:10 Travel Oz 18:35 Deadliest Journeys 19:05 A World Apart 20:00 Market Values 21:00 Graham’s World 21:30 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 22:00 Long Way Down 22:55 Graham’s World 23:20 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 23:50 Earth Tripping

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Doomsday Preppers 80s: The Decade That Made Us 80s: The Decade That Made Us Banged Up Abroad Naked Science Shark Men Banged Up Abroad Alaska State Troopers Doomsday Preppers 80s: The Decade That Made Us 80s: The Decade That Made Us Banged Up Abroad Naked Science Shark Men Banged Up Abroad Alaska State Troopers Doomsday Preppers Situation Critical Blowdown Trapped Naked Science Dangerous Encounters Trapped Alaska State Troopers

00:00 Ultimate Animal Countdown 01:00 Speed Kills 01:55 Monster Fish 02:50 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 03:45 Built For The Kill 5 04:40 World’s Deadliest Animals 05:35 Wild Amazon 06:30 Monster Fish 07:25 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 08:20 Built For The Kill 5 09:15 Fish Warrior 10:10 World’s Worst Venom 11:05 World’s Weirdest 12:00 I, Predator 13:00 Monster Fish 14:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 15:00 Built For The Kill 5 16:00 Fish Warrior 17:00 Moray Eels: Alien Empire 18:00 World’s Weirdest 19:00 Monster Fish 20:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 21:00 Built For The Kill 5 22:00 Fish Warrior 23:00 Moray Eels: Alien Empire

00:00 Seventh Moon-18 02:00 Amphibious-18 04:00 True Justice: One Shot, One Life-PG15 06:00 The Stool Pigeon-PG15 08:00 Season Of The Witch-PG15 10:00 Green Lantern-PG15 12:00 Thor-PG15 14:00 Season Of The Witch-PG15 16:00 Goal!-PG15 18:00 Thor-PG15 20:00 Mad Max-18 22:00 Hustle And Flow-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30

00:00 02:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

The Artist-PG Espions-PG15 What’s Wrong With Virginia A Dog Named Duke-PG15 The Artist-PG The Way-PG15 Call Of The Wild-PG15 Ghost Machine-PG15 Teen Spirit-PG15 The Darkest Hour-PG15 Horrible Bosses-18 That’s My Boy-R

The Cleveland Show The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Saturday Night Live The Ricky Gervais Show Guys With Kids 1600 Penn Seinfeld The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Hope & Faith Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Seinfeld Hope & Faith Guys With Kids Two And A Half Men The Office The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Arrested Development Seinfeld Hope & Faith 1600 Penn The Office Two And A Half Men The Daily Show With Jon Stewart The Colbert Report Arrested Development Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Breaking In Malibu Country How I Met Your Mother Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 Brickleberry The Daily Show Global Edition The Colbert Report Global Edition

24 Good Morning America Good Morning America 24 Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show 24 Emmerdale Coronation Street Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street 24 C.S.I. Miami The Carrie Diaries The Newsroom Rescue Me

00:00 Eureka 01:00 Scandal 02:00 Grimm

HORRIBLE BOSSES ON OSN CINEMA 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

Necessary Roughness Grimm Eureka Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. New York Scandal Burn Notice Necessary Roughness Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Eureka Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Alphas Top Gear (US) Once Upon A Time Game Of Thrones

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

AVP: Alien vs Predator Seventh Moon Amphibious True Justice: One Shot, One Life The Stool Pigeon Season Of The Witch Green Lantern Thor Season Of The Witch Goal!

Thor Mad Max

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 PG15 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Extract-PG15 Big Fat Important Movie-PG15 The Waterboy-PG15 Desperately Seeking SantaRaising Arizona-PG15 Good Boy!-PG The Waterboy-PG15 Cheaper By The Dozen-PG Good Boy!-PG I Think I Do-PG15 The Hangover 2-18 Extract-PG15

01:15 Ironclad-18 03:15 Martha Marcy May Marlene-18 05:00 Project Nim-PG15 07:00 A Woman-PG15 09:00 1941-PG15 11:00 The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom-PG 13:00 Love Finds A Home-PG15 15:00 1941-PG15 17:00 Water For Elephants-PG15 19:00 The Wild Hunt-PG15 21:00 The People vs Larry Flynt-R 23:15 Black Snake Moan-18

01:00 The Company Men-PG15 03:00 Call Of The Wild-PG15 04:30 Marley & Me: The Puppy YearsPG 06:15 Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon-PG15 09:00 Johnny English Reborn-PG15 11:00 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close-PG 13:15 The Way-PG15 15:30 Tim Richmond: To The LimitPG15 17:00 Johnny English Reborn-PG15 19:00 How I Spent My Summer Vacation-PG15 21:00 American Reunion-18 23:00 Pariah-18

01:15 The Ugly Duckling In Tales Of Mystery 02:45 The Great Bear 04:15 Turtle Hero: Part I 06:00 Kong Return To The Jungle 08:00 The Three Bears: The Amazing Adventurers 10:00 Dr. Seuss’The Lorax 11:30 The Muppets 13:15 Turtle Hero: Part II 14:45 The Great Bear 16:00 Easter Egg Escapade 18:00 Dr. Seuss’The Lorax 20:00 Rh+ The Vampire Of Seville 22:00 Turtle Hero: Part II 23:30 Easter Egg Escapade

00:00 A Mother’s Choice-PG15 02:00 Waiting For Forever-PG15 04:00 Shark Tale-PG

06:00 A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song-PG 08:00 Big Miracle-PG 10:00 Outlaw Country-PG15 12:00 Waiting For Forever-PG15 14:00 Jesse Stone: Innocents LostPG15 16:00 Big Miracle-PG 18:00 A Thousand Words-PG15 20:00 Albert Nobbs-18 22:00 The Perfect Host-PG15

00:00 01:00 08:00 13:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Trans World Sport Cricket PGA Tour Live Cricket AFL Premiership Highlights PGA Tour Highlights PGA European Tour Highlights

01:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 12:00 14:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:45 23:45

PGA European Tour NRL Premiership NRL Premiership Trans World Sport Live NRL Premiership Premier League Darts Futbol Mundial PGA Tour Highlights PGA European Tour Highlights Super Rugby ICC Cricket 360 Live Super League NRL Premiership

00:30 03:00 04:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:30 13:30 16:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30

European Challenge Cup Trans World Sport Super Rugby ICC Cricket 360 Futbol Mundial Golfing World Champions Tour Top 14 Highlights World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool Golfing World AFL Premiership NRL Premiership World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool Top 14 Highlights Premier League Darts

00:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 23:00

UFC Prelims UFC NHL WWE Bottom Line WWE Experience Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL Mass Participation Ironman Mobil 1 The Grid UIM Aquabike Champs WWE SmackDown Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing UFC Countdown UFC Prelims UFC

00:05 00:30 01:45 03:00 04:15 05:30 07:00 Shots 08:15 09:30 Shots 10:45 12:00 13:15 14:30 15:45 17:00 18:15 19:30 20:45 22:00 Shots 23:15

Excalibur’s Deer City USA Elk Chronicles Bow Madness Excalibur’s Deer City USA Elk Chronicles Bow Madness Shooting USA’s Impossible Stihl’s Reel In The Outdoors Shooting USA’s Impossible Legends Of Rod & Reel Outdoors In The Heartland Bill Dance Saltwater Legends Of Rod & Reel Outdoors In The Heartland Bill Dance Saltwater Legends Of Rod & Reel Outdoors In The Heartland Bill Dance Saltwater Shooting USA’s Impossible Stihl’s Reel In The Outdoors

01:55 Sweet Bird Of Youth 03:50 A Streetcar Named Desire 05:50 Tribute To A Bad Man-PG 07:00 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre-U 09:05 The Human Comedy-FAM 11:00 The Wonderful World Of The...FAM

13:10 14:35 16:00 17:50 19:35 22:00

Postman’s Knock-FAM Captain Sindbad-FAM East Of Eden-PG Come Fly With Me-FAM The Brothers Karamazov-PG The Fixer

00:00 Big Rich Texas 01:00 Fashion Police 01:55 Empire Girls: Julissa And Adrienne 02:50 Empire Girls: Julissa And Adrienne 03:45 Videofashion Daily 04:40 Videofashion Specials 05:10 Videofashion News 05:35 Videofashion Collections 06:05 Open House 06:30 Open House 07:00 Videofashion News 07:30 Videofashion News 08:00 Videofashion Daily 09:00 Open House 09:30 Dress My Nest 10:00 Built 10:55 Tia And Tamera 11:55 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 12:50 Videofashion Specials 13:20 Videofashion Collections 13:50 Chicagolicious 14:45 How Do I Look?

15:40 How Do I Look?

16:35 Giuliana & Bill 17:30 Giuliana & Bill 18:25 Tia And Tamera 19:25 Tia And Tamera 20:20 Kimora: House Of Fab 21:15 Kimora: House Of Fab 22:10 Built 23:05 Tia And Tamera

00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:20 03:45 04:05 04:30 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 11:25 11:50 12:15 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:20 17:45 18:10 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35

Stitch Stitch A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Prankstars Suite Life On Deck Cory In The House A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally Jessie Good Luck Charlie Doc McStuffins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse A.N.T Farm Jonas So Random Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Kim Possible Shake It Up Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Jessie A.N.T Farm Suite Life On Deck So Random Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck Cory In The House A.N.T Farm A.N.T Farm Code: 9 Code: 9 Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place So Random Hannah Montana Jonas Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck

Classifieds MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 PHANTOM (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG)

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 5:30 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 1:00 AM

SHARQIA-2 THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

1:45 PM 4:30 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

SHARQIA-3 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

MUHALAB-1 THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM

MUHALAB-2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM

MUHALAB-3 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) FANAR-1 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) FANAR-2 PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) FANAR-3 JAVA HEAT (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) AURANGZEB (DIG) (HINDI) JAVA HEAT (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) MARINA-1 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED MARINA-2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 2:15 AM 2:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM 1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (16/05/2013 TO 22/05/2013) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

10:15 PM 12:30 AM

MARINA-3 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-1 JAVA HEAT (DIG) RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:45 PM 11:00 PM 1:15 AM

AVENUES-2 WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:15 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

AVENUES-3 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 11:45 PM

360ยบ- 1 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

360ยบ- 2 WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

360ยบ- 3 JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

1:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM 12:05 AM

AL-KOUT.1 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) 2:00 PM STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) 4:30 PM STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) 7:15 PM IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) 10:00 PM STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) 12:30 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM

AL-KOUT.2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM

SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)

12:45 AM

AL-KOUT.3 THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

BAIRAQ-1 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D)

12:45 PM 3:30 PM 6:15 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM

BAIRAQ-2 PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

BAIRAQ-3 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

PLAZA STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG)

5:30 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM

LAILA IRON MAN 3 (DIG) NO WED THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) NO WED STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) NO WED AJIAL.1 EMMANUEL (DIG) (MALAYALAM) EMMANUEL (DIG) (MALAYALAM) AJIAL.2 TADAKHA (DIG) (TELUGU) THU+FRI SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO THU+FRI SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO THU+FRI SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)

5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:45 PM

6:30 PM 9:30 PM 6:45 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM

AJIAL.3 NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL) NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL)

7:00 PM 10:00 PM

AJIAL.4 AURANGZEB (DIG) (HINDI) AURANGZEB (DIG) (HINDI)

6:45 PM 9:45 PM

METRO-1 NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL) NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL)

6:30 PM 9:30 PM

METRO-2 TADAKHA (DIG) (TELUGU) THU+FRI EMMANUEL (DIG) (MALAYALAM) NO THU+FRI TADAKHA (DIG) (TELUGU)

6:45 PM 6:45 PM 10:00 PM

FOR SALE Chevrolet Captiva (LT ) Jeep, black color, model 2008, very good condition, 135,000 km, price KD 2,600/-. Contact: 50994848.

(C 4419) Mazda Zoom (6), model 2011, white color, 40,000 km, excellent condition, price KD 2,800/-. Contact: 66729295. (C 4420) 20-5-2013

MATRIMONIAL I am an American Muslim man looking for a Muslim woman from ages of 23 to 33. Please only Muslim woman reply. My email is: ibngrant2000@hotmail.com (C 4417) 18-5-2013

Leaving Kuwait permanently after retirement. All households including fridge, electrical items, jogging machine, furniture etc or full flat on sale. Contact: 99798432. (C 4418) 19-5-2013 Nissan Infiniti G37 2009 model, 3.7 liter, excellent condition, automatic, original paint, 6 cylinder, 6 CD changer, mobile connectivity, rear view camera and scanner, sunroof, sand color, cruise control, GPS, as good as new. Has run 60,000 kms, Price KD 6,500/-. Contact: 99742340.

(C 4414) 13-5-2013

Prayer timings

112

Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:23 04:53 11:44 15:20 18:36 20:04

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines QTR JZR JZR THY ETH GFA AFG UAE ETD FDB RBG MSR QTR KAC KAC KAC JZR THY DHX FDB BAW FDB UAE ABY KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR QTR FDB ETD GFA IRC MEA MSC UAE MSR THY QTR FDB MPH SVA KNE

Arrival Flights on Monday 20/5/2013 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 416 JEDDAH 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 302 MUMBAI 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 503 LUXOR 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 53 DUBAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 672 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 546 ALEXANDRIA 284 DHAKA 118 NEW YORK 344 CHENNAI 561 SOHAG 165 DUBAI 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 6521 LAMERD 404 BEIRUT 403 ASSIUT 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 93 AMSTERDAM 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH

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

OMA QTR RJA GFA QTR JAI FDB AIC UAL TAR DLH PIA JAI KLM THY KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR ETD UAE ABY SVA GFA UAL QTR FDB GFA MSC JAI FDB OMA ABY MEA MSR AXB MSC ALK UAE ETD QTR

645 134 640 217 146 576 59 975 981 327 636 205 574 411 772 674 786 774 542 104 742 618 777 177 135 239 185 303 857 127 510 215 982 144 63 219 405 572 61 647 129 402 618 489 401 229 859 307 136

MUSCAT DOHA AMMAN BAHRAIN DOHA COCHIN DUBAI CHENNAI BAHRAIN TUNIS FRANKFURT LAHORE MUMBAI AMSTERDAM ISTANBUL DUBAI JEDDAH RIYADH CAIRO LONDON DAMMAM DOHA JEDDAH DUBAI BAHRAIN AMMAN DUBAI ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH RIYADH BAHRAIN WASHINGTON DC DULLES DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SOHAG MUMBAI DUBAI MUSCAT SHARJAH BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA COCHIN ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA

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

Airlines AIC JAI UAL DLH PIA JZR THY THY ETH AFG UAE FDB RBG MSR ETD QTR QTR JZR FDB GFA THY KAC JZR BAW FDB KAC ABY UAE FDB ETD QTR GFA KAC KAC IRC MEA JZR KAC MSC KAC JZR MSR THY UAE FDB QTR KAC

Departure Flights on Monday 20/5/2013 Flt Route 982 AHMEDABAD 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 206 PESHAWAR 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 416 KABUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 70 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 164 DUBAI 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 133 DOHA 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 6522 LAMERD 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 103 LONDON 406 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 767 ISTANBUL 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI 141 DOHA 673 DUBAI

Time 00:05 00:20 00:25 00:30 00:55 01:30 02:20 02:40 02:45 03:15 03:45 03:50 03:55 04:15 04:20 04:25 05:15 05:35 06:30 07:00 07:10 07:20 07:25 08:25 08:25 09:25 09:30 09:50 09:55 10:15 10:25 11:25 11:30 11:45 11:50 11:55 12:25 12:30 12:35 13:00 13:20 14:00 14:10 14:15 14:30 14:55 15:05

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

MPH KNE OMA SVA KAC KAC KAC RJA JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE SVA GFA JZR JZR UAL QTR FDB GFA JZR MSC JAI FDB ABY KAC OMA KAC MEA MSR DHX MSC ETD ALK UAE QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC JAI QTR KAC KAC TAR KAC

93 473 646 501 617 773 741 641 238 135 304 538 128 858 511 216 184 266 982 145 64 220 134 404 571 62 120 331 648 351 403 619 171 402 308 230 860 137 301 218 60 205 575 147 411 283 328 415

AL MAKTOUM JEDDAH MUSCAT JEDDAH DOHA RIYADH DAMMAM AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ASSIUT MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT KOCHI BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD KOCHI DOHA BANGKOK DHAKA DUBAI KUALA LUMPUR

15:25 15:30 15:40 15:45 15:45 16:00 16:30 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:20 17:40 17:50 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 19:25 19:35 19:50 20:05 20:15 20:35 20:40 20:45 20:50 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:30 21:50 22:05 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:00 23:05 23:15 23:40 23:45 23:45 23:50

34

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

stars CROSSWORD 195

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) There could be a personal issue that has you stumped but change will come eventually and simple answers will be available soon. Ambition is a powerful motivation and can lead you into conflict if you let it get out of control; relax. With your focus properly channeled you will find achievement and recognition. Some plumbing or technical event could delay your activities today. You may find yourself able to put your schedule on hold with little or no problem. You are particularly gregarious and your social life should blossom this coming week. Avoid extravagance and self-indulgence that also accompanies this time. This evening is a good time for letter writing, talking to friends and visiting with young people. Smile; it is contagious.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You place a high value on your dreams and ideals and do not consider them impossible. You experience the unity around you—that which joins things together.

There is a love of the sea and of whatever heals that which separates us. Others may find you especially witty and eccentric just now. Mysticism, mythology, poetry and music are natural. People who encounter you may sometimes feel deceived by your remarkable vision, which they enjoy when they are with you but find hard to maintain alone. They wish the world were as you say it is. You have a natural sense of what the public wants at this time. Clear decisions affecting others will prove most successful. You may join some sort of animal study this evening; take a camera.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

4. Pertaining to loss of hair or wool or feathers.

12. (computer science) A computer that is running software that allows users to leave messages and access information of general interest.

15. Relating to or containing the azo radical.

16. A lace used for fastening shoes.

17. A former agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States.

18. Preserve of crushed fruit.

19. A persistent attacker.

20. The cry made by sheep.

21. Distant in either space or time.

23. A natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth.

25. A member of an agricultural people of southern India.

27. German organist and contrapuntist (16851750).

28. 16 ounces.

30. The biblical name for ancient Syria.

34. Serving as or forming a base.

37. God of death.

40. Any of numerous low-growing cushionforming plants of the genus Draba having rosette-forming leaves and terminal racemes of small flowers with scapose or leafy stems.

41. (folklore) Fairies that are somewhat mischievous.

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

45. A federally sponsored corporation that insures accounts in national banks and other qualified institutions.

46. Designating a solution containing 1 mole of solute per 1000 grams of solvent.

48. A complex red organic pigment containing iron and other atoms to which oxygen binds.

49. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

50. A fragment of brick used as a weapon.

55. A member of the Algonquian people of southern Ontario.

56. (Greek mythology) One of the three Graces.

59. Tall coarse perennial American herb having small white flowers followed by blackishred berries on long drooping racemes.

61. A hymn derived from the Bible.

65. Cereal made of especially rolled oats with dried fruits and nuts and honey or brown sugar.

68. Fairly small terrestrial ferns of tropical America.

69. Guinea fowl.

73. The rate at which heat is produced by an individual in a resting state.

74. The largest continent with 60% of the earth's population.

75. A tiny cavity filled with fluid in the cytoplasm of a cell.

77. Used of a single unit or thing.

78. A bluish shade of green.

79. Relating to ocean depths from 2000 to 5000 meters.

80. A boy or man.

DOWN 1. The seventh month of the Moslem calendar.

2. United States conductor (born in Japan in

1935).

3. A member of a people who have no permanent home but move about according to the seasons.

4. The residue that remains when something is burned.

5. The sacred city of Lamaism.

6. Dutch astronomer who proved that the galaxy is rotating and proposed the existence of the Oort cloud (1900-1992).

7. Relating to or resembling or made of or adorned with pearls or mother-of-pearl.

8. Other than what is under consideration or implied.

9. Melon having yellowish rind and whitish flesh.

10. Someone who cuts and delivers ice.

11. An emotional response that has been acquired by conditioning.

12. A small cake leavened with yeast.

13. Any of various edible seeds of plants of the family Leguminosae.

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

22. A university in Connecticut.

24. A platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by piles.

26. A unit of magnetomotive force equal to 0.7958 ampere-turns.

29. A very young child (birth to 1 year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk.

31. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to detect and locate distant objects.

32. A promontory in northern Morocco opposite the Rock of Gibraltar.

33. Long-tailed brilliantly colored parrot of Central and South America.

35. (archaic) Utterly cast down.

36. Being divided or separated.

38. A Loloish language.

39. A long noosed rope used to catch animals.

42. Small deciduous open-crowned tree of eastern North America having creamy white flowers and large leaves in formations like umbrellas at the ends of branches.

44. Before noon.

47. Relating to or demonstrating acapnia.

51. Rich Middle Eastern cake made of thin layers of flaky pastry filled with nuts and honey.

52. South African statesman who was released from prison to become the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994 (born in 1918).

53. A stronghold into which people could go for shelter during a battle.

54. A quantity that is added.

57. 1,000,000,000 periods per second.

58. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

60. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

62. A clique that seeks power usually through intrigue.

63. Minute aquatic herbs floating on or below the water surface of still water consisting of a leaflike frond or plant body and single root.

64. Worn or shabby from overuse or (of pages) from having corners turned down.

66. A deceptive maneuver (especially to avoid capture).

67. Type genus of the Amiidae.

70. Devoid of warmth and cordiality.

71. Type genus of the Muridae.

72. Wild and domestic cattle.

76. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

Everyone seems to be getting outside or going somewhere today. You may just want to rest and hibernate with a good book. Sometimes your desire for knowledge is in so many different directions that you lose focus and become scattered. Think about creating a new habit that will help you create a little balance in your life. You like to work with words and ideas and have a natural appreciation for anything that is literary or artistic.

Your sense of discernment when it comes to matters of literary and intellectual taste is very refined. You may decide to create some poetry or prose. There could be an opportunity to attend a concert. Whatever the case—you are right—this is a day to rest and enjoy. A loved one may be surprised by your antics this evening.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Your favoritism to colors and wonderful accents carries through to your ability to arrange flowers and decorate a room. Today you have the house all ready for a friendly gathering . . . Perhaps a shower for a young couple that are looking forward to a marriage or a new child. All the plans are made and food is ready for your company to enjoy. You can make the dullest spot seem pleasant. The same is true, when it comes to matters of literary taste—sophisticated. A born coach or teacher, you may find yourself guiding and teaching a group of young people later this afternoon. Your own growth and success may be linked to questions of security—home and family.

This evening may be a good time to have fun in the kitchen, baking ahead for the week.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You create pleasant surroundings in the home. Public activities that take place should be well received. The need for emotional security is emphasized, though you should not pressure a partner into doing things just to please or satisfy you.

Your tendency to partake in group activities is strong just now. Mental stimulation from others is key for you and it is a good idea to make every effort to cooperate and compromise with others. Have fun today! Take your loved ones to a movie, play, zoo or perhaps a picnic in the park with a little fun exercise as well. Take pictures for posterity. Passions, handicaps and negative attitudes are cast aside. An understanding is formed and a positive day is for your taking.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) New information is coming to your attention now. The mind and all that is mental will be the source of continued change and adjustment. Letters, writing and speaking assume a great deal of importance. You will often be asked to guide others. Your mind tends to be engrossed with thoughts, ideas and concepts, and remains in almost constant flux. Mental learning is an area of preoccupation and may involve hours of involved conversations with highly educated people. Perhaps a professor or an educated friend wants to talk computers this afternoon. You have very clear insight, even genius, when it comes to discovering or inventing things. You seem to have been born with this talent—fully operational. Your timing should be perfect.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) You have much eagerness today. This is a time where some project may come under scrutiny from people in your vicinity. You should enjoy your hobby and not worry about what others think; the involvement with your hobby helps you to relax and it is not taking your time away from the family. Enjoy the art of creating. Who knows; you could make some interesting discoveries or some fun handmade gifts. This could mean that you have an adventure—learning the art of dance, magic, sewing or some other creative activity. You teach young people to make good use of their talents and not be afraid to try new things. There are positive thinking, mental stability, good feelings, relaxation and opportunity. It is a pleasant time.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Habits are in a cycle of change; variety satisfies a deep inner need. Being on the go and keeping a finger to the winds of change make you feel in touch. Learning and communicating scratch an instinctive itch. You may find yourself at a home show or a computer exhibit; whatever is new and creates the ability to have-comfort-and-fun-while-working is something you investigate today. There are many sensual and personal pleasures awaiting you as well. The urge for good food, lovely clothes and more beautiful surroundings is strong. You somehow work thriftiness into the picture and find yourself calculating prices that will fit in your budget. This evening, a friend or relative gives good news, which will open a few doors of job opportunity soon.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You are charming, kind and popular but this morning you look for ways to enjoy some time to yourself, to just take pleasure in a little solitude. A walk or a coffee taken out-of-doors this morning may be just what is needed. A friend or relative becomes more of a fascinating individual today as you discover some hidden skill.

Fun conversations and pictures may be enjoyed. Some project started long ago is about to become completed. Let’s face it, you need help with this project and an unexpected helpful hand becomes a blessing this afternoon. The ability to be flexible is important. Young people learn by watching the way you handle difficult situations. You may find yourself enjoying the evening while visiting with neighbors or friends.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN Spiritual matters are important today. You may enjoy the group gatherings that happen when one attends a religious service. A gathering of young people in some sports or picnic activity may give you opportunities for long discussions and fun opportunities to meet and enjoy new people. You are warm and genuine and attracted to art, music, singing and dancing. Perhaps you will be coordinating some event or organizing and administering to people today. It would not be unusual to find you in the middle of some sort of charity project. Your inner resources and emotions are accented. Expect a sense of support and goodwill from those around you. Perhaps you feel this day was made for you; all is good.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You are in a great mood today. You enjoy visiting with friends and driving around and just feeling in touch. Learning and communicating creates awareness. You may find yourself teaching, taking a class or attending a lecture. You can really communicate and convey your ideas to others quite easily. You have a lot of drive and come across as assertive at times. This is a great day that should just flow along. In particular, you will do well in activities that include family members this evening. You may find that board games teach and encourage the young people in your family. You could feel real support and harmony for circumstances and those around you. You enjoy close relationships and you have noticed more emotional depth recently.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) The art of patience and the ability to control the tendency to exaggerate are very important today as misunderstandings could be the cause of some difficulty.

If you take a particular situation too seriously you could miss a lighter and more imaginative approach to a solution. Open up your mind to new ideas and fill your life with the possibilities of new opportunities by attending educational pursuits, traveling, trying your hand at writing or learning new ways of interacting. Your confidence and optimism are strong, even though you will be faced with the need to direct your efforts in ways that will increase your effectiveness. You are in an excellent cycle to learn or teach. You will enjoy a little work in the garden before evening.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

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36

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Furlong arrested in West Hollywood

A

Los Angeles sheriff’s spokesman says ‘Terminator 2’ star Edward Furlong has been arrested on suspicion of violating a restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said that deputies responding to the scene Thursday in West Hollywood found Furlong hiding in a nearby property. Jail records show he was released Saturday just after noon after being held on $100,000 bail. In March, the 35-yearold actor had been sentenced to six months in jail for violating his probation in a 2010 case for violating a similar restraining order. He has been the subject of such orders taken out by both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend. Furlong was also charged in January of battery of an ex-girlfriend.

Bieber buying engagement ring for Gomez

J

ustin Bieber is reportedly buying a diamond ring for Selena Gomez. Beverly Hills jeweller Neil Lane has been tasked with designing the £650,000 item with friends close to the ‘As Long As You Love Me’ hitmaker believing he is getting ready to propose to his on/off girlfriend. The jeweller has created engagement rings for a number of stars - including Britney Spears - and although he won’t comment on clients, an insider has revealed Justin’s plans. The source told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: “Justin is planning to go through final designs with Neil in the next week. “At the moment his favorite idea is a huge, canary yellow, princess-cut diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds and set in white or yellow gold.” It is said Justin’s schedule is being kept clear for Selena’s 21st birthday in July - and it seems he’s “relentless” pursuit is paying off. The insider added: “Justin kept relentlessly pursuing her with text messages, emails and phone calls, despite the fact that she dumped him last year. “Justin’s mum Pattie also put pressure on Selena after coming to the conclusion she was the only one who could keep him on the straight and narrow.”

Ozzy

moving back to UK to save marriage

O

zzy Osbourne is set to move back to the UK to save his marriage to Sharon. The couple - who have been married for 31 years - have had their arguments recently stemming from the Black Sabbath rocker’s drink and drug abuse, but according to reports Sharon is willing to give him another chance if he leaves Los Angeles with her. With the 60-year-old star set to return as a judge on ‘The X Factor’ UK later this year, it seems the best chance of saving their relationship is a return to their homeland. An insider told the Sunday People newspaper: “Ozzy loves living in LA but he knows that if he doesn’t return to England with Sharon it could be disastrous for their relationship. “By supporting Sharon in the UK it means they can work through their problems and she can help him with his issues.” The pair will be living in their mansion in Buckinghamshire, south east England and escaping to the “countryside” could be what their marriage needs. The source added: “They will be staying at their house in Buckinghamshire which is in the countryside and very peaceful, like a haven.

“This is something they need to do for each other. LA is where all the problems began so they feel it will be good to live in the UK together.”

Styles sets on royal romance H

arry Styles is reportedly desperate to date royalty to improve his credibility. The One Direction heart throb is said to have told friends he wants to “move up in the world” by getting into higher class circles. An insider told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: “Harry is so bored of the showbiz set and thinks it’s time to move up in the world. “Backstage before he gigs he was even trawling the internet, asking his band mates what they thought of each girl. He drew up a ‘hit list’ and the only rule was they couldn’t be married.” It is reported Harry, 19, has set his sights on British Princess Eugenie, but he also isn’t ruling out Kate Middleton’s sister Pippa although he knows she is in a “serious” relationship. The source added: “Needless to say, Pippa Middleton’s on his list - at number two - but he’s aware she has a serious boyfriend. “He also has a thing for Princess Beatrice, even though he said she’s not his ‘typical type of girl’. “But he’s totally fascinated with Princess Eugenie. He thinks she’s got the full package of class, looks and status.” The ‘Little Things’ pop star is apparently obsessed with the idea of getting into the high-class circles and is willing to date those with royal connections to work his way in. The insider revealed: “Harry has even secured a few phone numbers already through his high-flying contacts. “He hasn’t ruled out latching on to some of Pippa’s party pals to try to help him manoeuvre his way in there. “Harry really likes Pippa’s friend Camilla Campion-Awwad, and is trying to get involved in her elite little circle.”

Timberlake not in rush for kids J

ustin Timberlake “still has time” before having kids. The ‘Mirrors’ hitmaker isn’t in a rush have children with wife Jessica Biel - who he wed in October 2012 - and thinks it is best to leave starting a family “to fate”. He said: “I’m not against the idea at all, but I think I still have some time ahead of me. Let’s leave it to fate.” The 32year-old heartthrob feels settling down with his actress spouse is a “normal” progression of entering his thirties and believes Jessica, 31, brings out the best in him. He told Britain’s OK! magazine: “Life didn’t change overnight. Marriage, family - it’s all part of the normal steps you take when you reach your thirties. “She’s brought me stability and an inner force. The most important thing for me is that we’re able to communicate so well and talk about absolutely everything. It’s beautiful to have that kind of closeness and understanding.” Despite a successful musical comeback with his new album ‘The 20/20 Experience’, a blossoming movie career and an A-list actress wife, Justin thinks it’s important to remain humble and received advice on handling fame from Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood. He said: “I remember spending time with Clint Eastwood and he taught me some lessons about dealing with success. He was so cool and generous on the set even though he’s a Hollywood god.”

Stewart’s advise to daughters

R

od Stewart advises his daughters to have their own room while travelling with rockstars. The 68-year-old musician is an “easy-going dad” when it comes to his girls - Sarah, 40, Kimberley, 33, Ruby, 25, and Renee, 20 - and their love lives, but insists they take caution if choosing to date a musician and makes they are safe before the jet off around the globe by confirming they have separate rooms at hotels and a return ticket. He said: “I’m a pretty easy-going father; sometimes a little too easy-going ... I did warn my daughter when she was going out with a would-be rock star - I won’t say which one, hell of a nice fellow and she asked to travel with him. I said, ‘Whatever you do, before you even get on the plane, a return air-fare, first class and your own room.’ I would always send a return air-fare but never their own room unless it was someone really special. My kids have read the book - they know what I like.”

Rod - who also has sons Liam and Sean from previous marriages and Alastair and Aiden with current wife Penny Lancaster - feels 100 per cent content in his own skin and is “proud” of his journey to fame and large family. He added in an interview with Mojo magazine: “Yeah [being Rod Stewart is still fun]. I must admit I absolutely love it. I don’t think there’s one aspect of being me I don’t like. “I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve kept my feet on the ground and I’m very close to my family and friends who are not in show business.”

David styles Harper

D

avid Beckham loves “dressing up” his daughter. The 38-year-old soccer star - who recently announced his plans to retire from the sport - is smitten with his and wife Victoria’s 22-month-old girl Harper and loves nothing more than treating her to a cute new outfit which makes her stand out from other celeb tots. A source said: “Victoria has always dressed Harper beautifully, but lately it’s been David who’s taken the reins. David tends to pick her bright clothes, whereas Victoria is a fan of a more conservative, neutral palette. He adores doting on her and dressing her up.” David - who also has sons Cruz, eight, Romeo, 10, and 14-year-old Brooklyn with the fashion designer - is so dedicated to styling his only daughter in fashionable pieces that he has a selection of clothes for her in his room at Le Bristol hotel in France, where he stays during his training with French team Paris Saint-German. The insider added to Grazia magazine: “He’s always trying to pick up cool things for her to wear.” David has previously admitted Harper takes after both her parents by being into “soccer and handbags”. He said: “She is a mixture of us both. She is walking and running around and the boys are running with her to make sure she doesn’t fall. “She is also kicking the ball around while she is carrying handbags.” —Agencies

37

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LIFESTYLE M u s i c

&

M o v i e s

Indian director Amit Kumar arrives with actors Tannishtha Chatterjee (third left), Nawazuddin Siddiqui (third right) and Vijay Verma (second right) for the screening of the film ‘Monsoon Shootout’ presented Out of Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes.—AFP

Indian cinema

I

on a mission at Cannes to dispel Bollywood image

ndian movie actors and a new wave of directors are on a mission at the Cannes film festival - to show that their industry, which turns 100 this year, is more than just Bollywood. The largest Indian contingent to date is on the French Riviera at the world’s leading cinema showcase to promote their country, which has the world’s biggest film industry, making over 1,000 films a year compared to about 600 in Hollywood. Movies from Mumbai-based Bollywood and other regional India films have struggled at the global box office with Indian cinema largely dismissed as lengthy, song-and-dance numbers.

But the industry sees the 66th Cannes festival, where India is “guest country” to mark its centenary, as a chance to showcase a new genre of Indian movies globally and to promote India as a place to both make films and win a massive audience. “If you use the term Bollywood it really represents the song-anddance, credibility-stretched story kind of film,” director Amit Kumar, whose gangster-cop thriller “Monsoon Shootout” held its premiere at Cannes on Sunday, told Reuters.

“We need to portray Indian cinema as more international and I hope our presence at Cannes will make the world realise that Indian cinema is most than just about Bollywood.” The Indian visitors to Cannes are also keen to lure investment to their film industry, which is forecast to grow to $5 billion by 2014 from $3.2 billion in 2010, according to a report by Ernst & Young.

India’s presence has been high-profile since the start of the 12-day festival with acting legend Amitabh Bachchan on the red carpet on opening night to mark his Hollywood debut in Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. Actress Vidya Balan also walked the red carpet in the pouring rain that night as one of nine members of a jury led by US filmmaker Steven Spielberg that will decide the coveted Palme D’Or award for best picture on the final day, May 26.

A gala dinner to mark Indian cinema’s centenary was due to be held on Sunday and

(From left) Dutch producer Marc van Warmerdam, actors Annet Malherbe, Jan Buvoet, Hadewych Minis and Jeroen Perceval and director Alex van Warmerdam pose yesterday during a photocall for their film ‘Borgman; presented in Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. —AP

attended by a list of stars including actresses Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Freida Pinto.

‘Shackles’ There is no Indian film in either of the two main competitions at Cannes. The last Indian film selected to vie for the coveted Palme D’Or was “Swaham” in 1994 while “Udaan” competed in Un Certain Regard for emerging filmmakers in 2010. But four Indian films will be screened “Monsoon Shootout”, another thriller “Ugly”, a tribute to the industry centenary called “Bombay Talkies”, and love story “Dabba” (Lunchbox).

Anupama Chopra, Bollywood author, columnist and critic, said Bollywood was a tag that independent film-makers had to fight.

“Maybe one day (Indian filmmakers) will break free of the shackles of Bollywood and make a completely global film in terms of aesthetics,” he said.

In 2011 India saw a 42 percent jump in the number of Hollywood movies shot there with several Hollywood studios such as Disney, News Corp’s Fox, and Sony entering deals with or buying stakes in Indian companies. There has also been a surge in the number of Hollywood movies released in India, where 3.6 billion film tickets were sold last year.

Hollywood studios have been releasing their films in India simultaneously with their North American releases and also dubbing films in various regional Indian languages.

Uma Da Cunha, program advisor at the 2012 Mumbai Film Festival, said studios wanted a slice of the huge Indian market. “The big and significant change in Cannes is that the Indian film industry is being given space and attention on the international film scene and it is attracting business and ties from global film interests,” she told Reuters. —Reuters

Dark Dutch fairy S

tale spooks Cannes

hape-shifting home invaders terrorize a wealthy family of five in a Dutch thriller tinged with black comedy that sent a shiver through Cannes yesterday. “Borgman” by Alex van Warmerdam is a dark fairy tale that explores the guilty conscience of a cosseted modern wife living in a luxurious suburban home like a gilded cage. An opening sequence sees feral-looking men emerging from secret chambers hidden underground in a wood, while an armed search party led by the local priest tries to hunt them down.

A bearded figure called Borgman, straight out of a Grimm Brothers’ tale, improbably pulls out a mobile phone and tries in vain to contact his fellow forestdwellers to warn them, in an early scene that drew laughs. Borgman emerges from the trees and walks up to the door of a sprawling contemporary house. He knocks and says he needs a bath as it’s been ages since he washed. The media executive home owner, Richard, demands he leave, but his wife, Marina, takes pity on Borgman and later secretly lets him in to wash up.

He quickly insinuates himself into the home, appearing as a dreamlike figure to their three children and mesmerizing them with spooky stories. His forest

friends also turn up, in the form of greyhounds prowling the house and sniffing the pretty Danish au pair while she’s fallen asleep in the bathtub. Meanwhile Marina starts having recurring violent nightmares in which Richard tries to kill her. She is sexually attracted to the mysterious Borgman, who has taken pains to kill their gardener, put on a disguise and get himself hired to tend their grounds in the dead man’s place.

The increasingly irritable Marina scolds her husband for buying her an expensive necklace, saying she feels ashamed of their wealth while others in the world suffer in poverty. “We can’t help we’re from the prosperous West,” a baffled Richard tells her. “It’s not our fault.” And Marina flies into a rage when their odd young daughter Isolde destroys her teddy bear, scolding “someone sewed it by hand, possibly a child,” in another pitch-black laugh line. Borgman and his friends launch a final assault on the family, the body count rises and in a shocking finale, Marina is forced to choose between the forest demons and her husband.

The actress who played Marina, Hadewych Minis, said she saw her character as a perfectly normal European wife and mother who is lured to the dark side by the pressures of everyday life. “That’s what

happens when magic comes over you,” she quipped.

Van Warmerdam said consciousness was full of dark surprises that could sneak up on the best of us.

“I read something about the Marquis de Sade... that your mind is much bigger than you think and that there are rooms you’ve never been before, maybe rooms where there are nasty, creepy things to find,” he told reporters. “That was more or less the starting point of this movie.”It was the first Dutch film in competition in nearly four decades at the world’s top cinema showcase and one of 20 pictures from around the world vying for the Palme d’Or top prize.

Jury president Steven Spielberg was grilled by a Dutch reporter at the start of the festival whether he was familiar with Van Warmerdam, best known for European arthouse hits such as “Grimm” and “Waiter”.

Spielberg admitted he was not but laconically added: “We’ll become aware of the maker if the film causes us to be made aware of the maker.” —AFP

Russian cult film director Balabanov dies at 54

A

lexei Balabanov, a director who captured the essence of Russia’s early post-Soviet years with cult films about crime and the war in Chechnya, has died at the age of 54 following a long illness. “The films of Alexei Balabanov are a collective portrait of our country at its most dramatic time in history,” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Facebook. “I liked his work.

The passing of a talented director is a great loss for friends and fans alike. Condolences.”

Balabanov, who made 16 films and died while working on a new production in Saint Petersburg on Saturday, was most famous in Russia for his classics “Brat” (Brother) and “Brat 2”. The graphic films follow the story of a youth who is forced to lead a life of violence and crime on the streets of Balabanov’s native Saint Petersburg at a time when Russia had few postSoviet laws and life seemed in a permanent state of flux. “Brother 2” moves a part of the action to Chicago, reflecting the steady flow of

shadowy but rich Russians to the West.

Balabanov’s 2007 film “Cargo 200”-the name assigned to bodies returned from the Soviet Union’s deeply unpopular 1980s war in Afghanistan-was especially praised by critics. It “is a special movie,” tweeted popular Russian television personality and opposition movement member Ksenia Sobchak. “It is about (human) indifference, which is hell.” Balabanov was also highly praised for the movie “War”, about Chechnya, where Russia fought two brutal campaigns in the past two decades. “This is a tragedya huge tragedy for Russian film,” the Kommersant business daily wrote yesterday. Balabanov’s friends said the director was aware of being gravely ill several months ago, but the cause of his death was not made public. —AFP

This file picture shows Film director Alexey Balabanov posing during the photocall of ‘Ja tozhe hochu (Me too)’ during the 69th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. —AFP

From left, actors Garrett Hedlund, Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, and directors Joel and Ethan Coen pose for photographers during a photo call for the film Inside Llewyn Davis at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, yesterday. —AP

US actor and singer Justin Timberlake and British actress Carey Mulligan pose.

Gatsby star swaps flapper dresses for duffel coats “G reat Gatsby” actress Carey Mulligan traded in her Tiffany jewellery and Prada-designed flapper dresses for polo necks and duffel coats in her second star turn at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday in the Coen brothers’ eagerly anticipated “Inside Llewyn Davis”.

Mulligan stars with Justin Timberlake and Oscar Isaac as folk singers chasing fame and success in early 1960s New York in a bleakly comic film greeted by one critic as the “best so far at Cannes” while another hailed a “stupendous soundtrack”.

Mulligan transforms herself into dowdy ratbag Jean, who has just discovered she is pregnant, not by boyfriend Jim, played by Timberlake, but by Llewyn Davis.

“Where were we?” Llewyn asks a furious Jean after he interrupts yet

another of her tirades to chase down a street after a cat he has lost. “You were calling me a careerist and I was calling you a loser,” she tells him to laughs from the Cannes audience before he sets off on a trying road journey to Chicago in search of work. In another scene, Llewyn sings his heart out under the stony gaze of a hard-bitten club owner.

As his career dreams slip away, his would-be employer tells him flatly: “I don’t see a lot of money here.” Guatemalan-born US actor Isaac as Llewyn sang and played guitar live on set for the film, the Coen brothers’ first movie in competition for the Palme d’Or since “No Country for Old Men” in 2007.

The film was met with warm applause at a press preview on Saturday. “What an intense pleasure this film is, one of the Coens’

best, and the best so far at Cannes,” said the Guardian.

“Above all ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ is a revelatory showcase for Isaac, who sings with an angelic voice and turns a potentially unlikable character into a consistently relatable, unmistakably human presence,” said US entertainment trade magazine Variety. The Hollywood Reporter praised a “gorgeously made character study leavened with surrealistic dimensions both comic and dark”. The latest offering from brothers Joel and Ethan was as “stunning and singular as anything in the Coens’ canon”, it added.

Joel Coen won the Palme d’Or in 1991 for “Barton Fink”, and the brothers have made frequent trips to the French Riviera festival with other films selected for the invitation-only competition. “Inside

Llewyn Davis” is Mulligan’s second Cannes outing this year after her performance as Daisy in Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby”, which opened the festival on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old British actress, who as a teenager ignored advice to forget acting and “marry a banker”, came to the attention of Hollywood after a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in Chekhov’s “The Seagull”. She went on to win a best actress Oscar nomination before she was 25 and has since starred in a string of Hollywood movies including “Drive” with Ryan Gosling. —AFP

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MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LIFESTYLE F e a t u r s

Shabana Azmi as Manjula is encountered by her ‘alter-ego’ (on screen, also played by her in 44 minutes straight shot), in ‘Broken Images’, an English play about the roles we play and downplay in this age of images. The play is successful largely because of Shabana’s image as an arthouse actress.

Shabana Azmi exhibits multiple personality symptoms in ‘Broken Images’, a play written by Girish Karnad and directed by Alyque Padamsee.

Indian actress and theater activist Shabana Azmi is honored after her one-woman play ‘Broken Images’ was staged organized by Al-Mulla Exchange at American International School, Maidan Hawally, Saturday, May 18, 2013.

Shabana Azmi’s Broken Images, wordy but compact Azmi comes alive and on-screen in Al-Mulla one-hour one-woman play

By Sunil Cherian

T

here is only one actor on stage, but there are two characters, one alive and another on a screen. But anyone could argue and agree, like many in the audience did at the American International School, Maidan Hawally on Saturday, May 18, during a question-answer session after the play, that the two characters were two sides of the same woman - writer Manjula Sharma who stole her sister’s novel.

Manjula, the novelist who achieved overnight-fame, the play’s central character, is shattered as she confesses how she stole the novel but her revelation becomes dramatic when we come to know there is more than name and fame behind the plagiarism she is accused of. To add more drama to the complicated story of Manjula and Malini, her sister, Shabana Azmi, outrivaling both the sisters, threw the question to the Al-Mulla audience on Saturday: who do you sympathize with, Manjula or Malini?

‘Broken Images’, the scandal behind a world famous novelist, penned

by Girish Karnad and directed by Alyque Padamsee, is worth watching as a statement of the life and the drama we live and play everyday.

More than just image-reality dichotomy, the play throws some light on our own inner dramas scripted by us, others or time. The play is word-packed, almost like a radio drama, written in elegant Indian English - sounding meticulous just like the aspiring writer Manjula - and its dialogues, rather monologues, delivered in crystal clear diction by

The sister war Manjula, the emotionally dependent wife - typically Indian - of Pramod Tiwari, an IT-crat, achieves her husband’s status after her debut English novel ‘Cry of the River’ gets rave reviews abroad. ‘Broken Images’ begins when the star writer, in an attempt to shield her image, speaks at a TV studio. Just as she leaves, an image appearing on the studio TV, stops her for the stream of consciousness flashback of her success, err, failure in life. The image on TV could be her inner voice, super-alter ego or could it be Malini, her dead sister?

The play unfolds through conversations or confrontations between the characters, both dressed alike - they pour water at the same time.

There are sympathizing and friendly moments between the characters like when the image on TV sneezes, the character alive on stage says bless you and there is a perfectly timed hi-five moment too. Manjula was jealous of her intellectual and talented sister Malini who shared ‘profane’ moments with her husband. ‘Once when I returned home I saw my husband and my sister squabbling like couples debating on ethics

This undated photo provided by the South Dakota Department of Tourism shows Art Alley in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota. —AP photos

5 free things in Mount Rushmore National Memorial may be the most famous landmark in the Black Hills of South Dakota, but it’s not the only one. Covering approximately 8,000 miles (nearly 13,000 kilometers), the Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range with a big Native American influence. The Lakota took over the mountains from the Cheyenne in the 1700s and named it Paha Sapa (translated to Black Hills.) The Lakota signed a treaty with the US government in 1868 exempting the hills from white settlers. But when gold was discovered in the mountains, the US government broke the treaty and moved the tribes to reservation lands in other areas of the state. The Lakota influence can be seen not far from Mount Rushmore in the still-unfinished mountain carving of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse. Farther south, visitors can see buffalo up close as they roam the prairie in Custer State Park. Here are five free things to do in the Black Hills: Walk through historic Deadwood Established during the Black Hills’ gold rush in the 1870s, Deadwood is known for gambling and lawless-

and I caught them as if they were making love’. Malini who was paralyzed below her waist was ‘never exposed to sun or wind, never grew obese, but was supple and translucent’.

Shabana Azmi with lots of psychological concepts weaved in and geopolitical jokes sprinkled throughout.

Living a lie is a central theme spiced by sibling rivalry and ego-centrism. The play is not necessarily built upon multiple personality disorder, Shabana Azmi said while answering a question on Saturday, but “the character on the screen could be one’s conscience.”

A sneak peek of the famous presidents’ faces of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Other characters The typical Indian husband, ‘caring but useless’ well-to-do Pramod, his friend Lucy with whom he shared cyber jokes, and the nurse who Manjula suspects visiting her husband are other characters who are revealed in the confession - all to strengthen the weak marital life of Manjula-Pramod. The villain is Manjula who publishes her sister’s novel in her name because the real life novel portrayed Manjula as a pretentious mediocrity and she worried about becoming the laughing stock of the community. Now that the real author is dead, Manjula twists the course of events and becomes the super lady, surpassing the insignificant nothing she was terrified of.

The punch in the play comes when the inner voice tells a seemingly triumphant Manjula that it is Malini who has ultimately succeeded if she wanted to prove that Manjula was a fraud. We see the shadow behind the character alive (Manjula), now seated below the TV image (Malini?), shattered and the TV image is blurred (Manjulalini?).

Epilogue A TV image is skillfully used in a play about how an image is unmasked making use of the image of Shabana Azmi’s stature.

Motorcycle riders on Main Street in downtown Sturgis, SD. Hundreds of thousands of bikers descend on the town of Sturgis, South Dakota every August for the annual Sturgis Rally gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts.

South Dakota’s Black Hills

ness. Only the gambling remains today, but street shows and memorabilia at stores lining the brick streets evoke the town’s wilder days. Deadwood’s history is so unique that it’s the only city in the United States to be named a National Historic Landmark.

and children and families are invited. This year’s rally is scheduled for Aug 5-11.

Sneak a peek at Mount Rushmore There is no entrance fee to see Mount Rushmore National Memorial, but parking will set you back $11.

Instead, stop on a nearby side road with a scenic view area to snap a photo of the faces of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Jefferson. The monument may be farther away, but the views can still be just as breathtaking. Head to US Route 16A for a good view.

Stop by wall drug On the cusp of the Black Hills along Interstate 90 in the tiny town of Wall is this sprawling tourist attraction consisting of a drug store, gift shop, restaurants, a chapel and several other stores.

Pharmacist Ted Hustead bought the drugstore in 1931. Business was slow until his wife, Dorothy, came up with the idea to advertise free ice water to parched travelers. Today, signs dot Interstate 90 enticing travelers to stop at the famed drug store.

And the water remains free.

Spend a day at the Sturgis motorcycle rally Hundreds of thousands descend on the town of Sturgis (population: 6,600) every August for this annual gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts. Alcohol, leather, bare skin and ramped up engines take over during the weeklong event. Many riders will drive their motorcycles from all the country for the event,

Gaze at Rapid city’s art alley Located in downtown Rapid City near the historic Hotel Alex Johnson, Art Alley is a place where artists can showcase their talent through graffiti, paintings and sculpture. Stroll between Sixth and Seventh streets to see how creativity can take hold along a city block. —AP

A sneak peek of the famous presidents’ faces of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The exterior of Wall Drug in Wall, SD Wall Drug is a sprawling attraction in the tiny town of Wall, South Dakota.

US lottery winner scoops $590.5-million jackpot

O

ne ticket-holder won a record Powerball lottery jackpot of more than $590 million, organizers said yesterday, ending a days-long American quest for a life-changing payout. The winning numbers — 10, 13, 14, 22, 52 and a Powerball of 11 — were drawn just before 11:00 pm eastern time (0300 GMT yesterday) and the winning ticket was sold in Florida, according to the competition’s website. US media quoted lottery officials as putting the winning purse at $590.5 million. Powerball did not name the winner but said further details would be released later yesterday. Americans by the droves plunked down their cash Saturday in a last-minute push for a chance at scooping the top prize, snapping up the $2 tickets at supermarkets, corner stores and gas stations.

The jackpot had been trailed as “the largest in the 21-year history of the game,” the Iowa state lottery agency said in a statement before the draw. The prediction proved accurate, narrowly surpassing a November 2012 Powerball jackpot of $587.5 million. “Strong sales across the country are the reason the prize is taking big jumps now,” the organizers said-particularly after the May 15 draw, when the jackpot stood at $363.9 million and there was no winner. Sales were also boosted after Powerball tickets became available in California starting in April, the 43rd US state to join the competition.

Powerball-a shared jackpot coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL),

formed by the participating state lotteries-cannot be played from outside the United States or outside participating states. The game presents a choice of five numbers from a pool of 59, plus a Powerball number from a separate pool of 35.

Like all US lotteries, the winnings are subject to tax. The richest US lottery jackpot of all time is $656 million, won in a Mega Millions draw in March 2012 and split between three tickets in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.

Back then, when entering cost $1, big lines of customers formed for three days, said Rajendra Prasad Bhusal, an employee at the Continental drink store in downtown Washington. In recent days, hopefuls have again streamed in to buy Powerball tickets, but the crowd is only a third of the numbers seen in March last year, according to the liquor salesman. “Now, people complain that the tickets cost too much,” he added. The Powerball website had put the odds of winning at one in 175,223,510. For a comparison, the chance of getting struck by lighting in the United States is one in 280,000, according to the National Lightning Safety Institute.

The main Powerball website advised that “swinging a live chicken above your head while wishing for the future numbers does NOT work” to improve the chances of winning. Buying more tickets helps, “but the odds are still high and hitting the jackpot is still a question of fate,” it added. —AFP

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MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

LIFESTYLE F a s h i o n

Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons for Christian Dior acknowledges the audience at the end of his collection show entitled ‘Croisiere 2014’.

Models present creations by Belgian designer Raf Simons for Christian Dior during the collection show entitled ‘Croisiere 2014’- (Cruise), on May 18, 2013 in Monaco. —AFP photos

Dior presents cruise fashions amid stars in Monaco T

he glittering star power of Cannes migrated up the coast to Monaco for front-row seats at Dior’s colorful, sexy cruise fashion show. With the Mediterranean Sea the picturesque backdrop, Dior showcased its 2014 collection on Saturday night. It was a wet, cold and generally miserable outside the white stage, but Raf Simons’ designs provided the shimmering summery lift for the evening. Among those on hand were Oscar-winner and Dior spokeswoman Marion Cotillard, actresses Ruth Wilson and Jessica Biel, and Prince Albert of Monaco, along with his fashionable wife, Princess Charlene.

Before the show, Biel called Dior’s fashions beautiful, saying she also appreciated them because they were made for real woman. If that was the case, such women are dynamic gazelles who even in their downtime have multiple agendas. There were sheer lace coverups, brightly colored dresses, and jackets and coats made of wool.

In press materials provided at the show, Simons explained his inspiration to prominently feature lace in the collection. “I never worked with lace before,” he said. “It was about transforming the meaning of the material; not romantic, not historical, not old, to something light, playful, colorful and modern - with energy.” Many of the pieces had an effervescent feel, like the metallic blended with sheer lace and a strip of a coral floral print in one dress; a wool jacket and pants were made vibrant with bright red color. But there were other outfits that had a more traditional look, like a flowing spaghetti-strap red dress that hit mid-calf at the front but draped near the floor in the back, and the one-piece bathing suits that harkened back to old-style Hollywood glamour - particularly a brilliant blue piece with ruching in the back. After an enthusiastic ovation for the show, guests such as Liv Tyler were shuttled to the Oceanographic Museum nearby as Prince Albert and his wife threw a reception that showcased some of the fashions - including Dior - worn by his late mother, Princess Grace. —AP

In Miami, Donna Karan showcases Haitian artisans

T Visitors check art, furnishing and accessories at the Discover Haiti Exhibition in the Little Haiti area of Miami. —AP photos

Fashion designer Donna Karan smiles as she talks to guests and visitors at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.

he handbag Donna Karan was showing off Friday lacked her signature logo, or any designer’s logo. It was made of paper mache and, the fashion designer said, represented Haiti’s handmade carnival masks - in wearable form.

She said the tote bag and other similar fashion and decorative items made by Haitian artisans are part of her “dressing and addressing people” campaign: taking art to where the most people will buy it. “A painting can say anything, but let’s get it out there in the world where people buy Tshirts,” Karan said at the opening of a Little Haiti Cultural Center exhibition of art, accessories and furnishings produced by artisans in Haiti and sold through Karan’s Urban Zen Foundation.

It’s no charity craft fair. The items artfully displayed in the Miami gallery would sell in any mainstream home furnishings store.

What sets them apart is their origin: handmade in Haiti from stone, wood, metals and textiles sourced or repurposed in the Caribbean country. Tobacco leaves are molded into neutrally colored vases.

Strings of crystals dangle from wroughtiron chandeliers. Naughty, charming, seahorse-shaped figures cut from tires strut in lines across a wall.

Discarded cartons and wrappers have been coiled into beads for multi-strand, statement necklaces. Fully functional tote bags are made from recycled cotton Tshirts or paper mache (“It’s so durable, it’s

scary,” Karan said). The exhibition also includes oversized metal work by contemporary Haitian artist Philippe Dodard. He also is the director of Haiti’s national arts school and is working with Karan to train Haitian artisans with techniques that will help them bring their traditional skills to a global marketplace. “What we have to do is give them the tools to produce a product that is equal to their competition. That doesn’t mean factory. That means artisanal,” Karan said.

Karan started her Urban Zen Foundation after the death of her husband in 2001. A Haitian employee at the foundation urged her to turn her focus to the Caribbean country after Haiti was devastated by an earthquake three years ago. Karan is among the designers, celebrities and retailers who have advocated for Haitian artisans amid ongoing, sputtering reconstruction efforts. Many of the artisans lost tools, studios, homes and loved ones in the earthquake.

“She understands what we as a people, what we as a government, want to do with our art: show the world the riches of Haiti and commercialize it,” said Haiti’s consul general in Miami, Francois Guillaume. “But, we don’t want to lose our identity. We don’t want to lose whatever it is that makes Donna Karan like Haiti that much.” The “Discover Haiti Exhibition” will run at the Little Haiti Cultural Center for two months.—AP

US lottery winner scoops $590.5-million jackpot

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2013

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Denmarkís Emmelie de Forest raises her prize next to her team after winning the final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmoe, Sweden, yesterday. —AFP Photos

Denmark’s de Forest wins Eurovision song contest D

Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest raises her prize.

enmark’s Emmelie de Forest has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune “Only Teardrops,” despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, hippie-chic de Forest for the catchy love song that is driven by her deep, Shakira-like voice. She received a total of 281 points in the glitzy music battle, which also featured a bizarre opera pop number from Romania, the comeback of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” star Bonnie Tyler and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.

“It was overwhelming and I could really feel the fans and the audience and the people in the arena,” the 20-year-old de Forest told reporters after the winners were announced early yesterday. “I’m really, really excited and happy.” De Forest was followed by second-place winner Farid Mammadov of Azerbaijan, who got 234 points for the song “Hold Me,” which he performed on top of a glass cubicle containing a male dancer.

The Ukraine’s Zlata Ognevich and her song “Gravity” finished third with 214 points.

Ognevich was carried onstage in Saturday

Malta’s Gianluca performs.

Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest performs. Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest addresses a press conference after winning the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

night’s finals by the tallest man in the US Ukrainian-born Igor Vovkovinskiy. Vovkovinskiy who stands 7 feet, 8 inches (234 centimeters) wobbled onstage in a fur and feathers, placing the fairy-like Ognevich on a rock where she stood for the rest of the performance. The televised extravaganza, with an audience of 125 million worldwide, is now in its 58th year. Once again without fail, it produced a mix of bubble-gum pop songs, somber ballads, bagpipes, accordions and bizarrely kitsch musical productions.

In an opening video, soccer great Zlatan Ibrahimovic welcomed the viewers to the competition in his hometown Malmo, in southern Sweden. The Nordic country hosted the event because its contestant Loreen won last year with “Euphoria.” This year’s event also saw the return to the international stage of two seasoned European stars. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” singer Bonnie Tyler represented Britain with the sleepy love ballad “Believe In Me,” while Anouk, whose song “Nobody’s Wife” was a big hit in Europe in the 1990s, performed the song “Birds” for The Netherlands. Tyler ended in 19th place, while Anouk finished in the 9th spot.

Finland’s Krista Siegfrid provided this year’s controversy, ending her bouncy pop number “Marry Me” with a girl-on-girl kiss that some interpreted as a stance promoting gay marriage. While it did not raise eyebrows in most parts of Western Europe - where Eurovision has long been a bastion of gay culture - the act jarred sensitivities in parts of eastern and southern Europe. Her cheesy tune didn’t win the hearts of Europeans, however, and she ended up third to last with only 13 points.

Romanian opera singer Cezar gave one of the more remarkable performances. He resembled a Dracula reborn as a high-pitched vocalist, attempting a crossover opera pop number with techno beats and pyrotechnics that landed him in 13th place. Three muscular male dancers in red body paint were delivered out of a large red cape.

Two semifinals this week had whittled down the contestants from 40 to 26. The voting is shared equally between professional juries in all participating countries and viewers using their telephones to pick their favorites. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who watched the competition in Malmo Saturday, called it a unique event that unites Europe.

“We see the old Yugoslavia, now independent

Supporters of Denmarks singer celebrate after the final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

states, after a decade of war they always vote for each other in Eurovision, “ Bildt told The Associated Press. “That I think is fun.” Having won five times, most famously with ABBA’s Waterloo in 1974, Sweden is a veteran of Eurovision. It took the opportunity on Saturday to showcase some of its big music acts. At the opening of the competition, contestants marched into the stadium with flags, Olympics-style, accompanied by a choir singing a song especially composed by Swedish super DJ Avicii and ABBA members Bjorn Ulveaus and Benny Andersson. While contestants waited for the votes to come through, Swedish singer Sarah Dawn Finer sang ABBA’s hit tune “The Winner Takes It All.” Yet the event - with a price tag of around 153.5 million Swedish kronor ($23 million) - didn’t measure up to last year’s lavish competition hosted by oil-rich Azerbaijan in its capital, Baku. “We have attempted to host Eurovision with less money to show that it is possible to do this without it being too painful for the host country,” said JanErik Westman, a spokesman for host broadcaster SVT. The festive atmosphere was visible throughout the city of Malmo on Saturday, where residents and visitors blended on the sunny streets waving the flags of their favorite countries. —AP

Ukraine’s Zlata Ognevich performs.

Britain’s Bonnie Tyler performs.

French designer Jean Paul Gaultier attends the final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo.

Ukraine’s Zlata Ognevich performs.

Georgia’s Nodi Tatishvili and Sophie Gelovani perform.