16th May

RI PT IO N BS C SU THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF

40 PAGES

SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010

Awazem tribe: Contributor to Kuwait’s development, stability

JAMADA ALTHANI 2, 1431 AH

Karzai, Cameron agree to strengthen relations

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NO: 14730

Chelsea claim double with FA Cup victory over Portsmouth

Bittersweet return for Dutch crash survivor PAGE 14

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150 FILS

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Protesters demand Jassem be released Prosecutor detains ailing writer for 21 days • Barrak slams govt, Amiri Diwan

By Ahmad Saeid and agencies

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief Prince Turki AlFaisal delivers a speech during a conference yesterday. — AFP

Top Saudi prince blasts ‘inept’ US Turki slams Clinton, Maliki RIYADH: An “inept” United States cannot fix Afghanistan’s problems and should simply focus on “chasing the terrorists” there, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal said yesterday. The ex-Saudi ambassador to the United States also challenged Washington to produce results in juststarted Palestinian-Israel peace talks, and accused US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of undermining efforts to establish a Middle East nuclear-free zone.

In a speech to a Riyadh audience which included numerous diplomats, Turki said the US-led NATO troop presence in Afghanistan has irrevocably alienated the Afghan people and has no hope of rebuilding the country.

“What Afghanistan needs now is a shift from nation-building to effectively countering terrorists,” Turki said at the Arab News one-day media conference. US President Barack Obama “should not be misdirected into believing that he can fix Afghanistan’s ills by military means”. “Hunt down the terrorists on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, arrest them or kill them, and get out, and let the

Afghan people deal with their problems. As long as GI boots remain on Afghan soil, they remain targets of resistance for the Afghan people and ideological mercenaries.”

Turki, who has long served a central role in Saudi-Afghan relations, scolded Washington’s handling of relations with Kabul. “The inept way in which this administration has dealt with President (Hamid) Karzai beggars disbelief and amazement. Both sides are now filled with resentment and a sour taste in their mouths,” he said. “How can they both get out of that situation? I don’t know.”

The chairman of the King Faisal Center For Research and Islamic Studies, Turki has no official position but is believed to often reflect high level thinking in the Saudi government. He is the brother of Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, and analysts speculate he could become foreign minister when Saud retires.

Turki said Arab states have given Washington four months to show progress in US-guided PalestinianIsraeli peace talks.

Continued on Page 14

Aussie teen finishes round-the-world sail SYDNEY: Australian schoolgirl sailor Jessica Watson sailed into history yesterday as a noisy pink-bathed crowd welcomed her home as the youngest person to sail around the globe solo, non-stop and without help. Tens of thousands of people took to the harbour and lined the foreshore to celebrate as Watson, 16, crossed the finish line in her bright pink yacht, ending a remarkable 210 days at sea. Harbour

SYDNEY: Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson waves as she sails past the finish line at the entrance to Sydney Harbour yesterday. — AP

Master Steve Young sounded a pink hooter to signal the official end to her voyage, and a tugboat sent up a celebratory jet of water as the beaming teen steered through the harbour mouth, waving to the throng of onlookers.

It was a “daunting” change of scenery for Watson who said she’d grown used to the monotony of isolation and “empty waves”. “I haven’t seen a person for almost seven months and suddenly there’s people everywhere, faces, so much colour so much noise, so much everything,” Watson told reporters. “It was amazing and very overwhelming” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined the teenager’s emotional parents Roger and Julie to welcome her at the Sydney Opera House, where she took her first steps on dry land in almost seven months, to wild cheers and applause. “You may feel a little wobbly on your feet just now,” Rudd told Watson, who needed help to hobble on unsteady feet up the pink carpet from her boat. “But in the eyes of all Australians, you now stand tall, as our newest Australian hero.”

Watson appeared incredulous at her jubilant reception, broadcast live on commercial television to millions of Australians, and was quick to dismiss the prime minister’s praise. “I don’t consider myself a hero,” the schoolgirl said. “I’m an ordinary girl who believed in a dream. You don’t have to be someone special or anything special to achieve something amazing, you’ve just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard. I’d like to think that by sailing solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world I’ve Continued on Page 14

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s general prosecutor ordered that ailing writer Mohammad Abdulqader Al-Jassem be detained for 21 days on charges of instigating to overthrow the regime, his lawyer and family said yesterday.

They said the health condition of the top Kuwaiti writer, who is on hunger strike and has refused to take heart medication, has deteriorated, and that he was rushed to hospital from the prosecutor’s office.

Later yesterday, more than 200 Kuwaitis staged a sit-in outside the Palace of Justice to urge the general prosecutor to release Jassem whom they described as a “prisoner of opinion”.

Jassem, 54, was arrested on Tuesday and started a hunger strike late Wednesday in protest at the accusations he faces. He is accused of instigating to overthrow the regime, undermining the status of HH the Amir and instigating to dismantle the foundations of Kuwaiti society, and he faces a life term if convicted on any count, the lawyer said. The lawsuit against Jassem was filed by the Continued on Page 14

KUWAIT: Kuwaitis protest in front of the Palace of Justice in support of detained writer Mohammad Abdulqader AlJassem yesterday. (Inset) MP Musallam Al-Barrak addresses the crowd as a “gagged” protester raises his arms.

— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Urban warfare breaks out in Bangkok Abhisit defends crackdown as bodies lie on streets BANGKOK: Raging violence in the heart of the Thai capital claimed eight more lives yesterday as the embattled premier vowed no turning back and the army threatened a crackdown on thousands of protesters. Two days of street battles between soldiers and anti-government “Red Shirts” have left 24 people dead, all civilians, and 187 wounded. The military declared one area of Bangkok a “live fire zone” as troops struggled to regain control.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who last week shelved a plan to hold early elections

BANGKOK: The body of a protester shot in the head is dragged from the street under the fear of sniper fire yesterday. — AP

because the protesters refused to disperse, warned the government “cannot turn back” in the twomonth standoff. “I insist that what we are doing is necessary,” Abhisit said in a defiant broadcast on national television, making it clear he would not compromise. “The government must move forward.

We cannot retreat because we are doing things that will benefit the entire country.”

Scenes of urban warfare erupted on the southern and northern fringes of the Red Shirts’ sprawling encampment in the heart of Bangkok, after the army moved in

Thursday to seal off the area.

Soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, some of them armed or hurling Molotov cocktails, as plumes of black smoke billowed from burning tyres. Three bodies were seen lying on the ground in the area where the military posted a sign declaring live ammunition was being used, according to an AFP photographer. More than 50 people have been killed and 1,600 have been wounded since the protests began on March 12, according to figures from the emergency services and the public health ministry.

Continued on Page 14

Palestinians again mark ‘Naqba’ World’s largest keffiyeh laments ‘catastrophe’

BEIRUT: A Palestinian youth holds a national flag as the world’s largest keffiyeh is laid on the grounds of Beirut’s Sport City Stadium yesterday to form the number 194 during an event to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Naqba yesterday. — AFP

GAZA CITY: Palestinians marked yesterday another day of remembering the anniversary of the Naqba, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation in 1948, demanding the right of return of refugees. Some 4,000 people marched in Gaza City in response to a joint appeal by Hamas and Fatah, the two principal Palestinian political parties that are normally at loggerheads with each other. Marchers held Palestinian flags and a giant key symbolic of their hoped-for return. The names of the villages and towns emptied during the war were written across the key, alongside the slogan “We will return”.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers invited their Fatah rivals to participate in yesterday’s march, a rare gesture from the Islamic militant group since it seized Gaza and ousted Fatah forces in June 2007.

Continued on Page 14

HEBRON: Israeli soldiers argue with an activist as a Palestinian child who threw a stone back at Jewish settlers during a protest is detained during a rally marking the anniversary of the “Naqba” in this West Bank city yesterday.

Settlers threw stones at Palestinian and foreign peace activists and the boy picked one of the stones up and threw it back in their direction before the soldiers stopped him. — AP

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Parliament to discuss BOT draft law

Govt plans to go ahead with privatization law

By A Saleh KUWAIT: The Cabinet will discuss several topics during its meeting today, most important of which is its asking of the ministerial finance and legislative Official sources said the government will not return the privatization law, which was approved by the National Assembly last Wednesday, as was rumored in several newspapers.

The sources added that the government will start implementing the law after it is approved by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Sabah and its decree is published in the official gazette.

They said the government may present amendments in the future and that those amendments will be discussed in Parliament if there are any fur-

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah left here for Cairo on a state visit to Egypt as part of an Arab tour that will also take him to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. He was seen off at the airport by HH the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, senior sheikhs, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Jaber AlSabah, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Acting Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah and several other senior state officials. The Amir’s party comprises of Deputy Chief of National Guards Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad AlSabah, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad AlSabah, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of State for Development and Housing Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, Advisor at Amiri Diwan Mohammad Daifallah Sherar, Minister of Finance Mustafa AlShimali, and several other officials of Amiri Diwan and foreign and finance ministries.

NA plan delays to cause budget setbacks, warns insider KUWAIT: The parliamentary delay in passing the annual development plan will result in a subsequent delay in passing the budgets referred to the parliamentary budget committee, a committee member has warned, stressing that it is essential to approve the plan before the budgets can be discussed.

The parliament was previ-

ously warned about this issue, the committee member said, but the financial committee had failed to address it due to the large quantity of urgent draft laws and the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has not been in the country recently. Meanwhile, reports indicate

that parliament will approve the development plan during the May 25 National Assembly session, with the session being brought forward after a member of the parliamentary finance committee realized that there is only a short length of time remaining until the bill has to be passed.

On a separate issue, the parliament is today expected to see the fourth interpellation motion to be filed against HH the Prime Minister since last year, reported Al-Qabas.

The grilling motion, to be presented by MP Khalid AlTahous will focus on the Um AlHaiman pollution crisis and will enquire about the reasons behind the cabinet’s failure to implement anti-pollution regulations to protect the environment.

Al-Tahous is believed to have already prepared the draft bill for the grilling motion, which will be presented tomorrow (Monday) and is expected to be discussed in parliament during the May 25 session, unless the government takes steps to shut down the factories causing the pollution in the meantime. The Popular Action Bloc is also believed to be supporting the interpellation motion, and may include other issues in the grilling.

ther concerns. This means that any attempt to discuss concerns lobby to amend the law will be postponed for several years.

The sources also said there was an urgent request from the government asking the Parliament to discuss the BOT (build, operate, transfer) on an urgent basis because the current law proved inefficient and there are difficulties in its implementation. They said the government believes it is necessary to amend the law in order to better integrate with the five-year plan, attract foreign investors and turn Kuwait into an international

committees to prepare their comments on the financial liability law. The proposed law was returned by the National Assembly to the parliamentary legal committee for further discussion at the request of the government and several MPs.

financial center. The sources added that the Cabinet will discuss a report on the movement of trucks and the passing of goods from Kuwait to other Gulf countries, and vice-versa. The discussion will be an attempt to ease problems with trade between Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries as decided by previous summits, the latest of which was the leaders consultative meeting last Wednesday in Riyadh.

Sources said the government will speed up the implementation of what was mentioned in Kuwait’s report to the

International Committee on Human Rights, which was submitted by the Social Affairs and Labor Minister Mohammad AlAfasi last Thursday. They will also ask the Ministry to quickly submit the labor report so that the government can take legislative steps before the end of the year to boost Kuwait’s humanitarian credibility.

Meanwhile, informed sources said a government report was prepared by Kuwait to be presented to the international compensations committee, claiming its environmental dues of over $3 billion from Iraq. The sources

said the report includes projects to rehabilitate land and marine environments as well as to cleanup oil lakes that have destroyed underground water tables and farming soil.

Kuwait’s proposal coincides with Iraq’s recent claims that Kuwait does not need the allocated compensation and that Kuwait received compensation they do not deserve. A delegation from the compensations authority will present the report to the committee, supported by experts who will present an explanation of the damage done to Kuwait’s environment.

KNPC, KOTC to become private sector: Al-Haroun KUWAIT: Following pressure from MPs to exclude the oil sector from the government’s privatization plans, the Kuwaiti government has added a clause to the privatization bill explicitly forbidding the privatization of production and management in this sector.

The new clause states that “privatizing oil and natural gas production is not allowed,” meaning that the privatization of oil production and management of the oilfields will be illegal, although other facets of the oil business will be open to privatization.

The introduction of the new clause was confirmed

by Minister of Commerce and Industry Ahmad AlHaroun, who indicated that the implementation of the privatization law would shift command of several major local projects from the state to the private sector.

Those companies affected include the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) and the Kuwait Public Transportation Company (KPTC).

Al-Haroun stressed that the privatization legislation would provide several guarantees to those working on the projects affected, as well as entitling them to a number of new legal privileges.

The minister asserted that the new legislation aimed to transform Kuwait into an attractive environment for investors by encouraging the private sector to play a far larger role in participating in the country’s development.

On a separate note, it is understood that the cabinet and parliament are working closely together to complete all the country’s financerelated projects.

ANKARA: Kuwait Embassy in Ankara set up a pavilion at the 24th International Spring Festival, being organized here by the Middle East Technical University. The pavilion, held at METU campus, features exhibits that portray Kuwaiti heritage and modern aspects. The exhibits include artifacts, potteries, leatherwear, textiles and traditional costumes. They also included English books and publications with a view to introducing the Turkish public to the culture, history of Kuwait as well as the political, economic and social landscapes of the Gulf country. Traditional food such as “makbos dajaj,” confectionary such as “faqmaa,” “rahsh” and “ghoraiba,”and Arabian coffee were served to visitors at the pavilion.

‘MEW deliberately cutting water supplies’

By Nisreen Zahreddine KUWAIT: MP Khalid Al-Sultan has claimed that the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) is intentionally and systematically cutting off the water supply to certain areas of Kuwait. Al-Sultan attacked what he said was a premeditated disconnection of water services, asserting that this is a reflection of the corruption in the government and ministries.

Irrespective of the MP’s opinion and whether or not one agrees with it, it is unarguable that there have been a spate of water cuts recently. After all, while Kuwait is, of course, a desert environment, it is also a wealthy nation which is supposed to resolve the most basic problems of its residents, particularly in the crucial matter of providing water during the summer period.

The Kuwait Times interviewed a number of people to gauge local opinion on the issue.

One Egyptian expatriate, Wael, questioned how the Kuwaiti government could take the action it is accused of by Al-Sultan.

Wael said that this would be extremely

bizarre, especially in a wealthy nation like Kuwait, which has an excellent economy and infrastructure.

Rim, a Kuwaiti citizen, said that Kuwait should be better than other developing, Arab countries, since it’s supposed to be comparatively developed and to provide adequate utilities, being a rich nation. She expressed frustration at having to deal with power cuts every summer, saying that this was bad enough to deal with, let alone to have to deal with another shortage, especially in an essential item such as water.

Jacky, a Lebanese expatriate, said that her family faces a hard time every summer when they return to Lebanon due to power and water cuts there. She explained she had not thought for a second that one of the major factors that makes life easier in Kuwait than back home would disappear just like that, adding that Kuwait is not differentiating itself in services from other countries now such as Lebanon, which is poor and has a bad economic situation.

Khaled, a Jordanian expatriate, expressed amazement at the recent water shortages.

He and his family have lived in Kuwait for some years, he revealed, and had never previously seen such a decline in services as they have over the past few years, which he said he could find no sensible reason for. All the facts indicate that Kuwait is a developed country with a strong economy and good services, which should not be facing the same problems faced by poorer nations, he asserted.

Another expat, Fajer, said that these problems are a good argument for privatization, since it will mean that services and utilities will be better managed, because the recurrent problems are evidence that the ministries are not capable of handling them competently.

The private sector would do a far better job, she asserted, meaning that the country would not have to suffer these regular cuts and other problems.

While Al-Sultan is the only MP to have raised the issue so far, if these water cuts keep taking place serious steps will need to be taken to ensure that Kuwait’s citizens and residents do not have to go without it.

Attorney calls for specialist state security courts KUWAIT: An attorney has called for the reestablishment of Kuwait’s State Security courts to consider cases in which State Security officers are accused of crimes domestically or abroad.

Lawyer Abdulwahab AlMansouri further suggested that new regulations should be introduced to regulate this process if necessary, reported Al-Watan.

“This court would be more specialist regarding thorough research, expertise and resourcefulness in legal aspects, since it will look into certain regulations introduced by the legislators, AlMansouri explained.

Al-Mansouri further pointed out that the Constitutional Court has indicated that a State Security court would not differentiate between individuals in regard to legal protection.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

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Amiri visit to cement Kuwait-Jordan ties AMMAN: The visit of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to Jordan, set for tomorrow, is “historic” and will further boost relations between the two countries, said Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Faisal Al-Humoud AlMalek Al-Sabah yesterday. The ambassador highlighted the great development in Kuwaiti-Jordanian relations in recent years, under the directive of the leaderships of the two countries. He said that agreements were expected to be signed soon, aimed at boosting cooperation in different areas and to benefit from Jordanian expertise in the academic and health sectors.

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Autism Center recently welcomed an Albanian delegation that visited Kuwait in order to benefit from the country’s experience in this field, which it will make use of in an autism center that is shortly to be constructed in Albania.

Evaluation of census systems ‘important’ KUWAIT: Evaluating GCC census and statistics gathering systems would help in addressing the weak and strong points of such systems, leading to a unified procedure in collecting data in the region, said an official here yesterday.

Head of the Kuwaiti Central Census Department, Abdullah Sahar, said in the opening meeting of the GCC Committee for Undersecretaries and Heads of Census Departments that gathering data through statistics would aid in the GCC states’ social and economic development, adding that

addressing the problems facing such procedures of gathering information was a must.

Lack of coordination amongst apparatus carrying on the statistics gathering is one of the weaknesses that faced such procedures, said Sahar.

The 2010 census is an important step on the international scale, noted Sahar, saying that the reason for that was the census was supporting the International Census Program (ICP) of 2010.

He also noted that the GCC Supreme Council agreed in its 22nd session in Muscat

kuwait digest

For what purpose?

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bdullatif Al-Duaij, in his column with Al-Qabas yesterday, wrote on how the royal family has always promised to curb the influence of a religious direction in the country.

He pointed out that the statements of the ruling family have yet to be transferred into action and that some in the ruling family have been affected by this influence.

He added that the most recent example of this issue is the inclusion of a clause in the privatization law by which the privatization process is to be done according to Islamic regulations.

‘The main issue that should be taken into account is that the laws and the constitution should not be subject to the whims of religious extremists in Kuwait,’ he wrote. ‘They continue to maneuver and make media and political gains to help them spread their influence. This damages people’s rights. This happens while the Cabinet submits to their wishes,’ he added.

‘Their actions fool the public into believing that their efforts are for the benefit of the country and its economy. However, no economic reform should be made at the expense of the general system, constitution or people’s rights,’ he asserted.

Al-Duaij pointed out that privatization ‘according to Islamic regulations’ means that each person who does not believe in the Salafi or an Islamic approach to business will have their rights violated. This further violates a citizen’s democratic right to the freedom of diversity, he argued.

‘The Cabinet struggled to pass the privatization law, but with the help of Islamic influence the law seems well on its way to being enforced. To what purpose though? Only time will tell,’ he concluded.

in the news MP condemns MAIA ruling KUWAIT: MP Khalid Al-Adwa has slammed the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs’ (MAIA) recent decision rejecting graduates from Jordanian and Bahraini universities for prosecutors’ posts. AlAdwa said that the decision disregarded the affected applicants’ abilities and suitable academic qualifications, while favoring less qualified graduates from Kuwaiti and Sharia universities, reported Al-Watan. In a press release, the MP questioned the reasoning behind the ministry’s decision, especially, he said, since it benefited the graduates of certain universities in certain countries rather than those from others. He called on His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah to intervene and resolve the issue, and “restore justice to law and Sharia school students.”

Jassem case delayed KUWAIT: Prominent Kuwaiti writer Mohammad Al-Jassem’s health has worsened due to his continuing hunger strike, according to his lawyer. Al-Jassem, who is in custody facing three charges related to state security, was recently questioned at the Public Prosecution office, reported Al-Qabas. The questioning had to be cut short, however, due to his failing health, after he complained of a severe headache, said his attorney Abdullah Al-Ahmad. The lawyer expressed grave concern at his client’s health status, particularly in light of the fact that Al-Jassem has also been going without essential medication for existing health conditions ailments.

Bedoon birth certificate dilemma KUWAIT: The cabinet is expected to resolve the recurrent problems over bedoon (stateless) residents’ lack of birth certificates shortly, with an insider predicting that the government will issue a decision on the matter later this week. This came after the parliamentary committee assigned to examine this issue concluded its work, recommending that ‘Non-Kuwaiti’ should be written in the space reserved for nationality on birth certificates rather than leaving the space blank as is done at present. The decision followed lengthy consultation with representatives of the ministries of health and interior, reported Al-Qabas. If ratified by the cabinet, the committee’s recommendation is expected to end the suffering of thousands of families due to bedoons’ current indeterminate legal status. The committee issued the recommendation a few days before a deadline issued by the head of the parliamentary health committee MP Dr. Rola Dashti, who warned that if the cabinet did not find a solution it would face the introduction of a regulation for the issuing of special birth certificates specifically for bedoons.

2001 to conduct a census in the region on a somewhat unified basis.

On bolstering GCC census cooperation, the official stressed that such effort required much determination and dedication, adding that strengthening such cooperation would allow for GCC states to coordinate with other organizations on the statistics gather levels. The agenda of the event will shed light on economic statistics gathering and will also discuss recommendations of head of census centers and departments within the GCC region.— KUNA

The ambassador further noted the noticeable spike in Kuwaiti-Jordanian economic and commercial relations, saying that Kuwaiti investments in Jordan were close to USD eight billion, making it the number one Arab investor in the Hashemite.

Sheikh Faisal also underscored the important role played by Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), which funded development projects in Jordan, at a total of $471.7 million since the fund’s establishment in 1962.

“Coordination between Kuwait and Jordan includes all Arab concerns, headed by the Palestinian crisis and the interest in closing ranks and encouraging Arab solidarity,” he said.

He noted that Kuwaiti-Jordanian relations were back to their pre-1990 status, when Kuwait was invaded by the regime of Saddam Hussein, thanks to efforts on both sides at the official and popular levels in the best interest of the two peoples.

He said that proof of this improvement in relations were the facilitations made by Jordan for the Kuwaiti diplomatic mission, Kuwaiti offices, as well as students, patients and tourists. The ambassador noted that there were more than 3,000 Kuwaitis studying at universities and colleges here, as well as military personnel who came here for training. In the medical sector, Sheikh Faisal said that there were increasing numbers of Kuwaitis who came here to benefit from excellent health services. He also highlighted the great role played by Jordanian teachers now, and in the past.

In Beirut, Lebanese Information Minister Tareq Al-Metri underscored the important role that Kuwait, under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber

Al-Sabah, played in realizing Arab solidarity slogan, as reflected in its continuous support for Lebanon. “His Highness the Amir’s visit is of great importance, because it will strengthen the existing relations between Kuwait and Lebanon,” he said.

He also said that the visit was an occasion to express the appreciation that the Lebanese people had for Kuwait and its leader, who had always been a strong supporter of Lebanon.

“His Highness was always with us, and he constantly reaffirms his keenness for (Lebanon’s) unity and stability.” He noted that the Kuwaiti leader sponsored many dialogues and diplomatic initiatives aimed at bringing political and economic stability to Lebanon.

Al-Metri referred to the Arab Economic Summit hosted by Kuwait in January 2009, and the initiative launched by the Kuwaiti Amir to create a fund for decent living and to create another fund to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

“Lebanon realizes the role it had to play and its Arab commitments, and was thus one of the greatest supporters of the initiatives of His Highness Sheikh Sabah at the Arab Economic Summit,” the minister said.

The minister said that Kuwait was able to play an even greater role, not only in reconciling Arabs, but also to translate this into actual initiatives, as was the case at the Arab Economic Summit.

“Reconciliation is not just based on diplomacy or exchange visits, but is built through joint Arab action, and this is the track taken by the Kuwaiti Amir,” he said.

Al-Metri said Kuwait and Lebanon both enjoyed press freedom, and that this enriched the democratic practice in the two countries, as well as the press and cultural movements.

Meanwhile, Lebanese journalists and media personalities welcomed the upcoming visit of Amir to their country, and emphasized his efforts in the service of Arab issues.

General Manager of ‘Dar El-Sayyad’ newspaper, Ilham Fraiha, said that the Kuwaiti Amir was a “man of vision and generous initiatives,” and that his visit to Lebanon would further boost the warm relations at the official and popular levels.

She said that the Kuwaiti leader would be welcomed in a manner that reflected the deep appreciation and respect that Lebanon had for Kuwait and its leader, given the honorable stances of His Highness Sheikh Sabah and his support for Arab nations in good times and in bad at international conventions.

“Kuwait has always been generously supported by Kuwait in difficult times, as well as in times of stability,” she said, while noting as well the Amir’s interest in the Palestinian crisis and providing humanitarian assistance to people there.

National News Agency Director Lora Suleiman recounted the efforts of the Kuwaiti leader in critical Arab issues, adding that this visit would be “historic at all levels” and would be in the best interest of the two peoples. She said that Lebanon and Kuwait were bound through a relationship of mutual respect.

Moreover, she said that Kuwait stood by Lebanon and supported its development projects. As for Talal Suleiman, the owner and publisher of ‘Assafir’ newspaper, he said that the Kuwaiti Amir’s visit was “long awaited,” saying that the two countries enjoyed deeplyrooted relations. He said that His Highness the Amir’s tour to Cairo, Damascus, Amman and Beirut would serve the interest of Arab solidarity and joint action. — KUNA

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Long history of contributions

Praise for role of Amir in inter-Arab reconciliation DAMASCUS: His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah plays a highly constructive role in achieving inter-Arab reconciliation, said Secretary General of the Arab Parliament Adnan Omran yesterday. “The State of Kuwait has a long history of contributions to the Arab joint action, especially under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Sabah,” Omran, former minister of information of Syria and former assistant secretary general of the Arab League, said on the occasion of the Kuwaiti Amir’s forthcoming visit to Syria within a tour to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon to start today. “I have witnessed the active role of His Highness the Amir in solving the disputes among the Arab countries over the last 15 years during my tenure as Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League,” Omran affirmed.

KAC to offer holiday packages KUWAIT: Commercial state carrier, Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC), is set to offer internet booking next month for its holiday packages for the summer, a senior member of staff said here yesterday.

Head of the Holidays Department at the airline, Khalaf Al-Manea, said that the booking for the package tours will be open to travel agencies in June and customers in August, noting that the carrier was the first to make such a move in the Middle East.

The packages include a Kuwait Airways

ticket and hotel accommodation at any one of the airline’s selected destinations.

Al-Manea expected 60 percent of sales to be conducted via travel agencies. He also said that this year’s deals will start earlier in May, due to the short summer holiday period as a result of the Muslims’ holy month of Ramadan which starts in August.

In this regard, closer destinations in Gulf and Middle Eastern countries have been selected for these deals like Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh and Cairo, in

addition to Umra (mini-pilgrimage) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, which has received a highly unprecedented customer turnout.

The packages will offer lucrative and competitive prices, he said. Al-Manea also expected travel to Europe to increase, due to the drop of the euro and the pound sterling and the end of fears concerning the swine flu epidemic.

The packages will also offer trips to the South East Asia region, with very good deals to countries like Thailand and Malaysia. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The winners of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences award pose for a group photograph.

KFAS honors Research Award winners KUWAIT: Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) honored the winners of the 2008 Best Research Award, for research papers published in Kuwaiti periodicals, under the patronage of KFAS Director General Dr. Ali AlShamlan.

In a press release yesterday, KFAS said that the award for the ‘Iinsaniyat’ (humanities) periodical went to Dr. Salwa Baqer

KISR to take part in Qatar summit KUWAIT: Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) will be taking part in the ‘Qatar Alternative Energy Investor Summit’, set to take place in Doha on May 16-17.

Director of KISR’s Director General Dr. Salah Al-Mizeedi said that KISR would be presenting a paper on ‘Knowledge, innovation, partnership and investment in alternative energy’.

KISR’s participation is in response to an invitation by the organizing committee, he said, adding that the summit would be discussing several topics, including the role of governments in encouraging foreign investments to finance alternative energy research, marketing available opportunities in this area, as well as developing new technologies.

Al-Mizeedi said that many international companies working in this field would be taking part, adding that he would be participating in a roundtable discussion on the role of research centers, academic institutions and investment funds in supporting scientific innovation in this area.

He said that he would also be talking about cooperation between the public and private sectors in establishing companies that implemented alternative energy projects. Al-Mizeedi heads KISR’s innovation and creativity development committee. —KUNA

Johar of Kuwait, for her research paper on the impact of ‘language corners’ at kindergartens in assisting children acquire early reading and writing skills.

It was published in the June 2008 issue of the periodical. Johar lectures in kindergarten curricula and teaching methods at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET).

For the ‘Al-Oloum’ (Sciences) periodi-

cal, the award went jointly to Maha Atallah Al-Shimmiri, Dr. Saud Al-Shimmiri and Dr. Mansour Al-Rughaib for their research paper on scaling potential of a Doha beachwell at different operating temperatures.

All three Kuwaiti researchers work at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research’s (KISR) water resource department. The paper was published in the June 2008 issue. —KUNA

Metro networks help reduce traffic on roads in Dubai DUBAI: Dubai is an organized and flourishing emirate, offering various facilities to its residents and visitors.

Dubai metro is one of the eye-catching facilities in the modern emirate, which was opened by the UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Mohammad Bin Rashed Al-Maktum on Sept 9, 2009 (09/09/09).

Acting Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) Adnan Al-Hammadi, in an interview, said that the metro was established to serve the demands of the urban development in this busy economic and commercial city.

The metro has reduced traffic on Dubai’s roads, and decreased the number of personal vehicles used, according to statistics on traffic, he noted.

The driverless metro is operated by a control center, while the train host can partially operate the direction of the metro during emergency circumstances, for the sake of security and safety measures, Al-Hammadi added.

The metro covers most of the important areas in Dubai, while the total length of the so-called ‘red and green lines’ is 74.6 kilometers, with the ‘red

line’ is 52.1 kilometers and the ‘green line’ is 22.5, he explained.

The red line has two car parking areas, while the parking of the green line is still under construction, he added.

Al-Hamadi affirmed that the colors of the metro lines were made for the purpose of differentiating between the various metro networks by the residents of Dubai who came from different cultures.

The total number of metro stations is now at 29, and there are plans to open new ones during this year to pass by Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) and Noor Islamic Bank, he said.

RTA’s future projects include opening new blue and purple lines, and Dubai metro may be linked with other emirates when they build similar metro systems as part of the ‘Union Train’ project, he added.

The metro ticket prices depend on the class and destination, ranging from AED 1.8 to 5.8 inclusive of all stations, with ‘Nol” tickets are for AED 14.

Al-Hammadi stated that the usage of public transport in Dubai reached eight percent, and RTA planned to raise it to 30 percent. —KUNA

Scholar slams Abdulsamad KUWAIT: A prominent Islamic scholar has condemned MP Adnan Abdulsamad’s recent praise of the memorial service held following the death of senior Hezbollah figure Imad Mughniya.

Sheikh Radhi Habib said that Abdulsamad’s words could “attract people to Hezbollah and

drive people towards sectarianism,” reported Al-Watan.

Speaking to the press, Sheikh Habib urged Abdulsamad to adopt a more peaceful and persuasive approach in addressing the public and to refrain from damaging national unity.

The distinguished scholar

also criticized the MP’s expressions of pride in attending the event, which was unlicensed, saying that it had led to tensions within society. Sheikh Habib called on Abdulsamad to live up to his parliamentary oath and work instead to protect national unity.

Omran said he pinned high hope on the Arab tour of His Highness the Amir, saying, “We need to capitalize on such summitlevel contacts in building an integrated strategy for Arab cooperation and translating the previously-reached agreements into action.”

“His Highness the Amir’s visit to Damascus will give a strong impetus not only to Syrian-Kuwaiti bilateral ties, but to the inter-Arab ties because the two countries share the concern for the Arab causes,” he underscored.

His Highness Sheikh Sabah is the rotating President of the Arab Economic Summit and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“The Palestine question and Israeli aggressive policy are expected to feature prominently on the agenda of the talks His Highness the Amir plans to hold with Syrian leaders,” Omran said, noting that the visit had a regional nature beside its bilateral one.

Praising Kuwait’s support to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, he said he was honored to attend the first Arab Economic Summit, hosted by Kuwait in January 2009.

“I was greatly pleased to see the success of the summit which lived up to the aspirations of the Arab nation. Yet, we need more

efforts to realize the full integration among all Arab countries,” he went on to say.

Omran voiced confidence that the Arab countries would be able to overcome all points of disagreement, adding that all Arab countries shared the desire to achieve fair, permanent and comprehensive peace in the Middle East and contribute to international peace and cooperation.

In another development, Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Atiyya described reported Israeli planned international media and legal campaign against Saudi Arabia as “a position that illustrates political bankruptcy.”

According to Israeli daily Maariv, rightist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman plans to launch a global campaign against Saudi Arabia. The campaign, if launched, will include the use of various means of leverage and lobbies in the United States, Europe and other places around the world, raising select social issues in the US Congress, the European Parliament and other venues, a public relations campaign and even lodging complaints with international courts, according to Maariv.

In a statement to the press, Al-Atiyya said that the plan reveals “a pitiful attempt aimed at covering up facts,” and an attempt

to “avert attention from Israeli predicaments brought about as a result of continued aggressive and xenophobic practices against Palestinians, and which stand against initiatives intended for just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”

Al-Atiyya stressed that Saudi Arabia’s policies towards Arabs and Muslims are obvious and respected throughout the Arab, Islamic and international communities. He also said these policies were “above any taunts or suspicious plans cooked up in Zionist circles, drowning in a pool of arrogance, which expresses a mindset that opposes justice, equality and peace.”

He considered the Israeli plans a clear declaration that “proves without a doubt, the success, clarity and noble aims of Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy towards Arab and Islamic issues.”

The Arab Peace Initiative has put the Israelis against major challenges after scoring unprecedented Arab, Islamic and international support, he said.

It has also forced the Israeli government into committing to comprehensive peace concessions, “which is what makes it natural for Israel to fabricate these crises against Saudi Arabia, which has presented a sensible plan on the peace process and its success, he explained. —- KUNA

Canada hails democratic system in Kuwait OTTAWA: Kuwait’s Ambassador Ali Al-Sammak met Speaker of the Canadian Senate Noel A. Kinsella on the occasion of his appointment as the new ambassador of Kuwait to the country.

Kuwait Embassy, in a press release, quoted Kinsella as expressing his wishes for enhancing cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

Kinsella conveyed his regards to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, Speaker of the National Assembly Jassem AlKharafi and the Kuwaiti people.

He praised bilateral relations and the role of Kuwaiti democracy in the region, especially the election of four female members of the Kuwaiti parliament.

He stressed the importance of exerting more efforts in order to spread peace and stability in the region.

Kinsella is looking forward to meeting the Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly in Ottawa at the time he deems appropriate, the statement said.

Al-Sammak, on his part, conveyed to Kinsella the greetings of His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, wishing the Canadian people further progress and prosperity.

He praised the deeply-rooted relations between the two countries, stressing the importance of the visits of the Parliamentary Kuwait-Canada Friendship Committee, grouping MPs Dr Maasouma AlMubarak, Dr Rola Dashti, Dr Aseel Al-Awadi, Dr Salwa AlJassar, Hussien Al-Qallaf and Faisal Al-Duwaisan. —KUNA

Traffic safety forum in Oman MUSCAT: A five-day international forum on traffic safety kicked off in Oman yesterday, with the participation of worldrenowned field experts.

The forum will discuss issues of traffic safety and how traffic awareness campaigns could contribute to a decrease in road accidents.

The Omani experience in the field will be showcased as a case study during the forum, which will also discuss means to deliver traffic safety awareness messages to the general public.

Papers and proposals on traffic safety from participants will also be discussed during the event. Around 1,000 people perished last year in traffic accidents in Oman. —KUNA

ST PETERSBURG: Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah touring the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

Kuwaiti FM visits Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg ST PETERSBURG: Kuwait’s Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah toured yesterday the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. He was received at the venue by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko and Hermitage Museum’s Curator Mikhail Piotrovsky.

Sheikh Mohammad lauded the museum for hosting the exhibition of Kuwait’s Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah in August, while underscoring the importance of further boosting cultural relations between Kuwait and Russia.

Piotrovsky briefed the Kuwaiti minister and his accompanying delegation on the different pavilions of the museum, and walked them through it while explaining the cultural value and significance of the difference pieces on display.

He also explained the different stages that the museum went through, including World War II when the Soviet government had to relocate some of the displayed items to protect them against destruction.

In a statement to KUNA following the tour, the curator said that he was confident in the ability of cultural relations between the two countries to be further boosted, saying that there were plans for cooperation between Kuwait and Russia museums through lectures and publications.

He underscored the importance of such bilateral cooperation in boosting cultural dialogue and to acquaint people with each other’s artistic heritage.

Piotrovsky said that he was happy at this “important” visit to the museum by Sheikh Mohammad.

The Kuwaiti foreign minister was accompanied by his office director Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Ambassador in Moscow Nasser Al-Muzayyin, and top officials of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry.

Sheikh Mohammad arrived here last night, and will also be visiting Moscow, where he is set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. —KUNA

NATIONAL

Sunday, May 16, 2010

170 lawbreakers in custody

kuwait digest

The need to combat tribalism

O

n returning from school one day, a six-year-old girl says to her mother, “One girl in my class asked another, ‘Are you from so-and-so tribe? We are from that tribe.’ What does this mean?” writes Faisal Al-Zamel in Al-Anba.

Discussion among national unity among the old has been limited to official speeches, while in public among all the other age groups everything remains as its always been; we make jokes about each other and nothing really changes.

Passing laws certainly hasn’t changed anything and the religious culture has not moved that fast, the great culture which once said disapprovingly of a man, “Abu Thar, you have pre-Islamic habits”

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because he talked in a discriminatory way. In those times, issues were resolved in such a way that all were satisfied. This is a great method of treatment, which we have failed to maintain care for, although it is still far more effective than many of the contemporary laws passed by the parliament with no effect whatsoever.

Speaking of the parliament and national unity, MPs’ style and the words they use affect society since people use them as symbols, watching how they talk with one another and learning from it.

We should change these practices, however; if you hear someone telling you a joke about another tribe, you should realize that he will tell worst jokes about

you to others. So protect yourself and your family from harm. Please realize that the arguments that take place among the elders will be transmitted to the younger generations; this has now reached the level of gangs fighting one another, as well as individuals; these things don’t happen without support from one group or another. This support is simply evil and leads ultimately to Hell.

Clerics and social reformers bear some responsibility since they have close contact with the public, but those who deliver speeches in hotels are very far from the public. Religion is more effective in renouncing them than other tools since religious teachings predicted their deeds.

Police bust brothel in Farwaniya: 18 held KUWAIT: Farwaniya police raided a local brothel and arrested eight Asian prostitutes and 10 men of different nationalities, reported Al-Watan. The operation was carried out after police confirmed the illegal activities. The arrested were taken to the proper authorities. Meanwhile, police arrested two sisters found driving under the influence of alcohol in Salmiya, reported Al-Seyassah. The arrests were made after police pulled over the sisters for driving erratically only to find out that the two citizens were heavily intoxicated. They were referred to the proper authorities.

Bike accident A 26-year-old citizen suffered several injuries after he fell from his motorbike on the Gulf Road while speeding, reported AlWatan. He was taken to the hospital by a driver who witnessed the accident.

Fahaheel campaign During a recent campaign in the Fahaheel industrial zone, Ahmadi police arrested 170 expats found violating the labor and residency laws, reported AlWatan. They were taken to the proper authorities.

Ex-husband sued A case of neglect was filed against a man by his ex-wife after she accused him of beating his daughter, reported Al-Watan.

KUWAIT: The Afghani drug smuggler pictured after his arrest. —Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Drug smuggler caught at airport

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: An Afghan man who used a forged passport to come to Kuwait was quickly caught at Kuwait International Airport (KIA). Although no suspicious items were found in his luggage, an Xray picture revealed that he had swallowed 32 capsules filled with heroin, weighing a total of 500 grams. The man has been taken into custody.

Bus of death An unidentified Asian man fell unconscious and died shortly after getting onto a bus on Canada Dry Street.

The man’s body was removed for autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Six injured A 42-year-old Indian expatriate suffered a fracture to his right arm in a car accident at the Sheraton Roundabout. He was taken to Amiri Hospital.

In another accident, a 54-year-old Kuwaiti woman suffered fractured ribs and head injuries, while a 21-year-old Kuwaiti man fainted in a collision between Mubarak AlKabeer and Jaber Al-Ali. Both were taken to Adan Hospital.

In a separate incident, a 39-year-old Syrian woman complained of pain in her right arm, while two Egyptian women, aged 27 and 30, complained of pain in their back and shoulder respectively, following a crash on Istiqlal Road near the Daiya exit.

Briber busted A male Arab expatriate offered a bribe to a

female Ministry of Commerce and Industry employee in order to accept two files which did not meet the necessary criteria. The staff members immediately told her superiors about the offer, and it was agreed that she should pretend to accept it in order to set up a sting operation. Accordingly, when the man offering the bribe returned with the money and handed it over, the transaction was covertly monitored and he was caught red-handed by detectives. The man has been taken into custody and is awaiting trial.

Jleeb fights One Syrian man was taken to hospital with a knife wound to one shoulder following a fight that broke out in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh between a group of three Syrians and another of three Egyptians over a parking place. The other five men were taken to the local police station.

His ex-wife filed the complaint after he returned their daughter to her the following day and she noticed that the girl was hurt. The ex-wife explained that her daughter told her she was hit by her father.

Public shooting Police received an emergency call informing them that gunshots were heard during a fight that took place on Restaurants’ Road in Salmiya, reported AlWatan. Police responded to the emergency and found several bullet casings on the scene. They were told by witnesses that the brawl occurred between a group of people following a suspicious party in a nearby apartment. Police also arrested a drunk man who claimed he was injured while trying to break up the fight. All the other indi-

Weather expected to steadily improve KUWAIT: The weather is due to steadily improve over the next few days, according to local meteorologist Dr. Saleh Al-Ajairi. Dr. AlAjairi explained that the weather had begun to improve in the wake of the recent severe sandstorms, which resulted from a combination of a low pressure front and winds in excess of 50 miles per hour.

The meteorologist told AlAnba that dusty weather and sandstorms are perfectly normal occurrences during Kuwait’s summer, adding that they’re certainly preferable to the severe problems facing other countries, such as heavy storms, monsoons and volcanic eruptions.

Dr. Al-Ajairi urged those suffering from chest and lung diseases to remain indoors during the very dusty weather, adding that sailing trips should also be post-

poned until the clearer weather arrives.

The heavy sandstorms caused extremely poor visibility of no more than 100 meters on Friday night.

The recent severe sandstorms that hit Kuwait saw dust levels rise to three times their normal level, posing a risk to public health that saw medical experts advising the public to stay at home while the bad weather continues.

Meteorologist Issa Ramadan told Al-Watan that the concentration of dust in the atmosphere during the sandstorm period had reached 450 parts per million (ppm), three times the normal range of 150 ppm.

Ramadan indicated that the levels of dust have already begun to subside, predicting that the weather would stabilize shortly.

viduals involved in the fight avoided arrest.

The drunk man was taken to the police station for further questioning.

Cab theft Three thieves forced a taxi driver out of his car and stole his taxi at knife-point in Jahra, reported Al-Rai. The driver reported to the nearest police station and filed a case. Investigators are in pursuit of the thieves.

False alarm Firefighters and security officers rushed to the Sabah Hospital in response to a triggered fire alarm, reported AlSeyassah. They soon discovered that there was no emergency and that the heavy dust storm triggered the alarm.

kuwait digest

Servicemen’s salaries

D

uring the investigation of a retired lieutenant charged with laundering money, the accused explained that the reason he used a forged check was because he needed KD 11,000 to pay off his debts. The statement was brought up by Lt Ibraheem Al-Nughaimesh in his weekly column with Al-Watan. He said that this demonstrates the need for the state’s Ministries of Interior and Defense, as well as the National Guard, to reconsider their payroll, especially in regards to retired servicemen.

“The majority of servicemen’s salaries are composed of allowances, which will be dropped in retirement,” said AlNughaimesh.

Al-Nughaimesh also talked about the difference in privileges between police officers and military personnel. He pointed out that there is a clear advantage for the latter, especially considering their retirement benefits. The lieutenant urged the minister to address this issue.

Al-Nughaimesh concluded by speaking on the increasing trend of brawls amongst youngsters, which often include people of Arab nationalities. He pointed out the incident that took place last week in which more than 50 Arab youths clashed at a mall in Kuwait City. The lieutenant proposed that security points be established inside malls and markets in order for police officers to be able to handle the situation promptly.

NATIONAL

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

special report

Dr Maimouna Al-Sabah

T

he Awazem tribe has been a significant part of Kuwait’s history and demographic structure, as asserted in a recent study carried out by prominent Kuwait history researcher.

The study opens with a description of the country’s history before its establishment. Kuwait’s location has been important to Arab tribes who used to stay here and host markets. It was also home to an ancient presence, as demonstrated by the Greek ruins located on Failaka Island.

In her report, Dr Al-Sabah made sure to mention the findings reached by a committee that she led to study the country’s origins. She reported that the committee determined Kuwait was established in 1613, more than a century before 1756; the State’s officially documented year of establishment.

The year 1613 saw the establishment of the country and the selection of Sabah to be the first ruler, or Amir, of Kuwait.

The Sabah family was part of the Utub who settled in the area after emigrating from the middle of what is now Saudi Arabia. The immigrant tribes were welcomed to Kuwait by the Awazem tribe, who had long inhabited the place and are believed to be the first people to reside in Kuwait. The Sabah family integrated quickly with the Awazem tribe and showed loyalty to the Sabah family after

Kuwait was established. Since then, the Awazem tribe has been a main contributor to the development and progress of Kuwait throughout the years and participated in all battles against Kuwait’s aggressors.

Members of the Awazem tribe were among the first in the country to achieve scientific accomplishments, mainly in religious studies. Among them is Dr Musaed Al-Azmi, the first Kuwaiti to receive a PhD from the Al-Azhar University in Egypt, after which he made sure to teach his experience to Kuwaitis.

In the report, Dr Al-Sabah discusses where the Awazem tribe inhabited Kuwait. According to English Colonel

Knox, the first official political deputy in Kuwait, the Awazem tribe settled mostly along the coastal areas of Kuwait.

According to the report, in 1908 Col. Knox also stated that the Awazem lived on the Warba and Boubyan islands, as well as in the Um Qasr and Safwan areas.

The last two areas were occupied and annexed by the Ottoman Empire in protest of Kuwait’s treaty with Britain, as signed by Sheikh Mubarak Al-Kabeer

back in 1899. The occupation ended with a settlement between the English and the Ottoman Empire in 1913, in which the British agreed to surrender parts of the two areas in exchange for reconciliation, despite protests from Sheikh Mubarak Al-Kabeer and the British deputy.

The first ever documented border between Kuwait and Iraq was based on this treaty. Though Kuwait was wronged in the boundary process, several Iraqis throughout the years have falsely alleged that the border was drawn in favor of Kuwait.

Since the country’s establishment, the Awazem have participated in all parts of the country’s development, including the political, economic, and social fields. The

Awazem tribe emerged from the Hawazen Arabic tribe, which has three fragments: Hawazen Al-Hijaz, from which the Otaiba tribe descended, Hawazen AlYamama, from which the Subai’a tribe descended, and the Hawazem Al-Ahsaa, from which the Awazem tribe descended.

Origins of the tribe The Awazem tribe is an Arab tribe that inhabited the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula. They are said to have branched from the Hawazen tribe; one of the most prominent Arab tribes before and after Islam, according to professor Abdurrahman Al-Obaid in his book ‘The Awazem Tribe.’ The Awazem tribe stretched north into Iraq, north west into Jordan and Egypt, and south into Bahrain, and as far south as Yemen. Several other prominent scholars approved of this fact, including Kuwait’s first historian, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Rasheed.

Since the early ages of Islam, the Awazem are known to have inhabited the area between Ahsaa, east of Saudi Arabia, and Kazma in Kuwait. They also had a presence in the Najd, the middle of the Arabian Peninsula, and Al-Hijaz in the west, during the 12th and 13th Hijri century, according to scholars.

The Bedouin life The Awazem tribe has always been nomadic. They sought lands where water and food could be found. They roamed Kuwait, as well as east and north of Saudi Arabia. Today, the Awazem are most common in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where they inhabit areas west of Madinah, in Al-Sudair in Najd, and near Hael. Some of the tribe still live in Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen.

The Bedouin lifestyle has helped the Awazem tribe spread, which helped cement its history, existence and descent. Throughout their travels, the Awazem faced several dangers but were able to overcome any hardship.

The tribe’s ability to overcome adversity has allowed the Awazem to spread their influence over the areas they inhabit. This has helped them fend off foreign

aggressors. Soon enough, and specifically in the 11th century (Hijri), the Awazem were able to take control of the areas between Kuwait and as far south as AlQutaif. Throughout this period, they engaged in several battles with nearby tribes including seven main battles which are: Al-Dasma (1854), Al-Subaiha (1878), Al-Turaifah (1895), Marreekh (1915), AlNuqairah (1924), Ridha (1929), and Nuqair (1929).

The last two battles are considered the most important in the tribes history considering that if they lost many of its members would have been annihilated.

Additionally, it is believed that these two battles changed the political view of the Arab Peninsula.

According to witnesses who participated in these two battles, the first one occurred when a group of aggressors ambushed members of the Awazem tribe near a spring of water called Ridha in AlAhsaa, and tried to take them into custody. Their scheme was foiled by a prompt and strong intervention of Awazem men who were able to defeat and kill the assailants.

Two months later, the assailant’s tribe regrouped and attempted to carry out a similar attack.

The Awazem, were able to repel the second attack and again gain the upper hand. The assaulting tribe surrendered and asked for a reconciliation. Their ability to emerge victorious from these two battles enabled to Awazem to solidify their place in history.

Social life Aside from their travels, the Awazem are also known for their commitment to Arabic cultures, their great concern for communication and maintaining a healthy social life. Looking into their poetry throughout history, it is noticeable that there is a deep connection between the Awazem, their Bedouin lifestyle and Arabic heritage, including swordsmanship, horsemanship, traditional Arabic coffee and the Arabian camel. Moreover, the Awazem are known for breeding and

taking care of Arabian horses, which they used in their everyday lives as well as in their battles and sports. Several of the most famous horses that the Awazem tribe bred and trained descended from the Arabian Gulf and other Arab countries.

tance of precise and detailed documenting which he said was followed by several Kuwaiti historians, mentioning Dr AlSabah in particular. “Dr Al-Sabah has done a profound job in documenting the illustrious history of the Sabah family, as well as the history of the Kuwaiti people and those who lived in this great country”.

Al-Sawwagh commented on the study made by Dr Al-Sabah about the Awazem tribe. He concurred that the Awazem

“

The Awazem tribe has always been nomadic. They sought lands where water and food could be found. They roamed Kuwait, as well as east and north of Saudi Arabia. Today, the Awazem are most common in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where they inhabit areas west of Madinah, in Al-Sudair in Najd, and near Hael. Some of the tribe still live in Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen

Members of the Awazem tribe, living in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Levant, Egypt and Yemen, share a deep rooted connection and history as demonstrated by their commitment to their traditions throughout the years.

MP praises Dr Al-Sabah’s efforts Dr Al-Sabah’s recent research was acknowledged by Awazem tribesman MP Falah Al-Sawwagh, who praised her for researching the history of Kuwait thoroughly. Her dedication to the country’s history has helped shape it as a developed and independent country.

“Documenting history is an important aspect of a country’s development”, AlSawwagh said. He asserted the impor-

”

tribe settled in Kuwait before its establishment, that they quickly integrated newcomers and expressed their loyalty to the ruling family as soon as the State was established. He further noted the Awazem’s significant contribution to Kuwait’s development throughout history as well as their commitment to its welfare and security.

Al-Sawwagh concluded by reiterating the importance of taking care of the historical aspect of the country and using it to reinforce social ties by documenting and teaching it in schools. “We should learn patriotism from our ancestors and work against all efforts that aim to damage our national unity or disintegrate its cohesive unit”, Al-Sawwagh said.

Dear traveller: Make sure that your maid’s residency is valid for at least six months before taking them abroad

“With compliments from the security media department at the Ministry of Interior”

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INTERNATIONAL

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Court confirms death sentences of six activists

Iran clears French woman of spying BAGHDAD: In this Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010 file photo, Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks at a parade marking Police Day in Baghdad, Iraq. AlMaliki warned yesterday against militants using elections to gain power and endanger the country with sectarianism, in what could be a veiled reference to Sunnis with ties to the old regime. Nouri al-Maliki told tribal leaders that a letter from a captured militant detailed a plan to reignite sectarian conflict by getting al-Qaeda sympathizers elected. — AP

Maliki edges nearer power as rival warns of civil war NAJAF: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki took a major step toward staying in power yesterday when a leading Shiite cleric said he would not block him, as an arch-rival warned of civil war.

A spokesman for radical, anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr told AFP the movement would drop a veto against Maliki seeking a new term as premier as long as he met its condition that around 2,000 Sadrist prisoners be freed.

Sadr has previously opposed the incumbent keeping his job and several public statements delivered by spokesman or senior aides have been highly critical of him.

But yesterday’s conciliatory statement, which followed discussions between the two sides in the past 48 hours, would eliminate Maliki’s biggest hurdle.

“If he will give us sufficient guarantees to end our reluctance, especially concerning the arrests of Sadrists, then we will not block his candidacy for a second term,” spokesman Saleh al-Obeidi told AFP from the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq.

But he added: “Maliki has not yet succeeded in giving us assurances about these conditions.”

The Sadrist movement is part of a recently formed Shiite coalition that includes Maliki’s State of Law Alliance, but the cleric’s political bloc had long despised the premier, who had authorised an assault on its armed wing, the Mahdi Army, in 2008. Sadr, who is in self-imposed exile in Iran, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television after the election, said he had “tried not to have a veto against anyone, but the masses had a veto against Maliki.”

The new Sadrist stance was welcomed Maliki adviser Ali Mussawi who said it “paved the way to agreement with other blocs to solve the problem of forming a government.”

Turning to the Sadrist call for a release of prisoners, Mussawi said “committees have been

formed... to release innocent prisoners as soon as possible.”

Maliki could not intervene in the case of prisoners who have been formally charged with an offence, he said.

The latest announcement came as former premier Iyad Allawi, who narrowly beat Maliki in a March 7 general election, said if a “new wave” of violence sweeping Iraq were to continue then the country was headed for civil war.

“After the elections we have seen a new wave of sectarianism which is very dangerous and we have indications that we are heading towards a new peak,” Allawi told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

“We are just at the beginning, but if the violence continues we are heading towards civil war.”

Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in the election, two more than State of Law, with the Iraqi National Alliance, of which the Sadrists are a part, coming in third with 70 seats.

Meanwhile former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal accused Maliki of trying to hijack the results of the election.

“Adding to the brutal mayhem taking place there, we are watching a deliberate effort on the part of the incumbent prime minister, Mr alMaliki, to hijack the results of the election and deny the Iraqi people their legitimately elected government,” Prince Turki said in Riyadh.

“The consequences of that are more bloodshed and potential civil war,” the former Saudi ambassador to the United States and Britain told an audience of diplomats, journalists and businessmen.

Prince Turki, who has no official position but is believed to often reflect high-level Saudi thinking, also called for a UN Security Council guarantee of Iraq’s integrity, warning that both internal and external groups seek to carve up the country. — AFP

GAZA STRIP: A Palestinian child and a man sitting in an ambulance wait to cross into Egypt from the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. An Egyptian border post at Rafah was opened for the first time in 10 weeks, the Islamist movement Hamas which controls the blockaded Palestinian territory said. — AFP

TEHRAN: A French teacher arrested on spying charges after Iran’s election in J une last year w ill be allow ed to leave the country after her jail sentence w as commuted to a $285,000, her law yer said yesterday. “The case of Clotilde Reiss is finished ... I have paid a fine of $285,000 this morning. I w ill get her passport tomorrow and she w ill be allow ed to Judiciary officials were not available for comment. The lawyer said earlier that Reiss had been sentenced to “two five-year parallel (jail) sentences for various charges”.

Her case has raised tensions between France and Iran, already at odds over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“We have taken note of the legal decision regarding Clotilde Reiss and we await her return without delay,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said yesterday.

Reiss was arrested in Tehran in July when preparing to leave the Islamic state after working at the University of Isfahan for five months.

She was among thousands of people detained over widespread post-vote unrest. Most have since been freed, though dozens, including former senior officials, have been sentenced to up to 16 years and two people were hanged in January. At least nine others are appealing death sentences.

“The death sentences of six people who were arrested in post-vote protests have been confirmed,” said Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

“But they have asked to be pardoned.”

Defeated moderate candidates say the election was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

The authorities deny this.

The Reiss case has been running at the same time as that of Iranian engineer Majid Kakavand, who was arrested in March 2009 at a Paris airport and served five months in detention in a French jail after his arrest.

He was later freed on bail and a US request for his extradition was rejected by a French court on May 5 after authorities concluded he had not broken French law.

Washington had issued a warrant accusing him of illegally buying electronic equipment for military use in violation of a trade embargo on Iran over its disputed nuclear activities.

In the Reiss case, Ahmadinejad had called on France last September to consider a prisoner swap if Paris wanted to secure her release, without naming Iranian prisoners he wanted to see freed.

France dismissed the suggestion as “blackmail”.

An Iranian national, Vakili Rad, is serving a life sentence for the 1991 murder in France of Shapour Bakhtiar-Iran’s last prime minister under the Shah.

He was due for parole in July 2009 and his lawyer petitioned for his release. A French judge is due to rule on the parole request on May 18.

The United States and its European allies fear Iran is trying to acquire nuclear weapons under cover of a power programme and are negotiating a fourth set of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. Tehran says its nuclear work is aimed at generating electricity. — Reuters

N Korea blasts Israel FM as ‘imbecile’ SEOUL: North Korea yesterday blasted Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as an “imbecile” and denied his claims that it was supplying Iran and Syria with weapons technology. Lieberman, in a visit to Japan Wednesday, accused the North of creating a world-threatening “axis of evil” with the two Middle Eastern countries.

He mentioned the seizure in Bangkok in December of arms from North Korea “with huge numbers of different weapons with the intention of smuggling these weapons to Hamas and to Hezbollah,” the militant Islamist and Shiite movements.

The Israeli minister also alleged the North was giving “crucial” assistance to Iranian and

Syrian missile programmes.

A spokesman for Pyongyang’s foreign ministry described Lieberman as an “ultra-rightist” and “an imbecile in diplomacy”.

The spokesman, quoted by the North’s official news agency, said Israel was itself being criticised for its nuclear programme and the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories. The North “has nothing to do with any spread of WMDs” (weapons of mass destruction),” the spokesman said.

In 2008 the United States accused North Korea of helping Syria to build a nuclear reactor destroyed in an Israeli bombing raid the previous year.

Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s arms-

trading agency says the nation has signed contracts to deliver fighter jets, air defense systems and armored vehicles to Syria. Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation chief Mikhail Dmitriyev said Russia will sell MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsyr short-range air defense systems and armored vehicles. He didn’t give any numbers or provide any further details.

The statement late Friday carried by Russian news agencies confirmed earlier media reports that worried Israel. Previous Russian sales of advanced anti-tank missiles and other weapons to Syria have irked Israel, which said that some landed in the hands of the militant group Hezbollah. — Agencies

leave immediately after,” Mohammad Ali Mahdavi-Sabet told Reuters.

Reiss, w ho has been out of jail on bail and staying at the French embassy, w as accused of taking part in a Western plot to destabilise the Iranian government after the J une 12 vote in w hich President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad w as re-elected.

PARIS: People act as if they were Israeli soldiers (L) and Palestinian citizens (R) during a demonstration to commemorate the “Nakba Day” (stands for the day of the catastrophe, in Arabic), an annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian people of the anniversary of the creation of Israel, in Paris yesterday. — AFP

8

INTERNATIONAL

Sunday, May 16, 2010

German left-wing firebrand bows out on a high note BERLIN: Oskar Lafontaine, co-leader of the far-left party, quits the political stage this weekend because of illness: But he leaves the party he founded in rude health.

Lafontaine, one of the most colourful and controversial figures in German politics, steps down as leader of Die Linke party after undergoing cancer treatment last year.

But Lafontaine, 66, leaves as the party is performing well in the polls and is represented in the governments of 13 of Germany’s 16 states.

And one of his last tasks as joint leader was to oversee a successful regional election campaign in Germany’s most populous

state, North Rhine Westphalia, where the party won its first election to the state legislature.

Three years after its foundation, Die Linke, a mix of former East German communists and West German leftists, has established itself as a major force in national politics, shaking up the more well-established mainstream parties.

Before defecting from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in 2005 to set up Die Linke two years later, Lafontaine was one of the top SPD grandees, appointed finance minister in 1998 by then chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. In that position, he

pushed hard for tax harmonisation in Europe, leading the eurosceptic Sun tabloid in Britain to publish a famous front page with his picture and the headline: “Is this the most dangerous man in Europe?” He quit the ministry in 1999, angered over what he said were the Schroeder government’s “neo-liberal” policies. Even then however, he rarely left the headlines.

Nine years previously, in the country’s first post-reunification election, he ran unsuccessfully as the SPD’s candidate for chancellor against Helmut Kohl, seen as the architect of the end of the country’s decades-long division. During that cam-

paign, he was nearly killed in a frenzied attack by a deranged knife-wielding woman.

His abrupt and unexpected announcement in January that he would be stepping down at this weekend’s party conference left the party with a big hole to fill, but the pair tipped to take over vowed to continue his legacy. Klaus Ernst and Gesine Loetzsch “will stick to the successful course taken by our predecessors Oskar Lafontaine and Lothar Bisky,” Ernst told the Hamburger Abendblatt in an interview this week.

“We want to end the madness of privatisation, we need a country-wide minimum wage and we want to bring our young sol-

diers back from Afghanistan,” said Ernst.

With the latest poll putting them on 11 percent, roughly what they achieved in September’s national elections, Die Linke now plays a pivotal role in German politics.

Speculation has been rife that after Lafontaine leaves the political scene, the party could form a coalition at the federal level with the SPD, something the centreleft party has so far ruled out.

Die Linke must decide, SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel told Stern magazine on Tuesday, whether it wanted to become a “reforming party” or to remain “an opposition party with a basically Communist and anti-parlia-

ment platform.”

As for Lafontaine, it seems that, while the party conference will be his last appearance on the national stage, Germany has not heard the last of the him.

Asked by Die Welt daily what he planned to do in retirement, he said: “I have always had a close connection with nature. I am a passionate mushroom picker. I also love playing Canasta. I read a lot and go to the theatre.” He would keep out of leftist politics, he added, as long as his legacy was followed. “But on important topics at the federal level, I will continue to voice my opinion.” — AFP

Others are expected to join the race

Brothers battle to lead Britain’s Labour Party LONDON: Two brothers will fight for the leadership of Britain’s Labour Party after Ed Miliband announced yesterday he will stand against former foreign secretary David Miliband. Ex-energy secretary Ed, 40, said he would run against his 44-year-old brother in the contest to replace Gordon Brown, who quit as Britain’s prime minister and leader of the centre-left party as Labour

left office on Tuesday. The Milibands are the only candidates so far, though others are expected to join the race. After 13 years in power under Tony Blair and Brown, Labour has gone into opposition following last week’s general election, with the Conservatives, who won the most seats, entering a coalition with the third-placed Liberal Democrats.

LONDON: This file photo of June 28, 2010 shows brothers David Miliband, left, Britain’s former foreign secretary and Ed Miliband, right front, Britain’s former energy secretary. Yesterday Ed Miliband formally declared his intention to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party three days after his brother David Miliband announced his intention to run for Labour’s top post. — AP

UK, Germany eye possible ash travel disruptions LONDON: Volcanic ash from Iceland could disrupt air travel in both Britain and Germany in the next few days, officials said yesterday.

The British Department of Transport said there was a risk that parts of British airspace could be closed beginning Sunday and those problems could continue through Tuesday. The predictions are based on the continuing eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul volcano and current wind and weather conditions.

German air traffic control spokesman Axel Raab told The Associated Press that German air travel could see possible disruptions starting Monday. He cautioned, however, that indicators were still “very, very vague.” Germany will send up a test flight Sunday to measure the ash concentration, German Aerospace Center spokesman Andreas Schuetz said. Any decision on air space closures will be made after that flight and Sunday’s weather forecasts, said Raab.

A spokeswoman for Lufthansa, Germany’s biggest airline, Stefanie Stotz, welcomed the test flight and stressed that the situation so far didn’t seem dramatic. The Met Office, Britain’s weather forecaster, said Saturday the wind is expected to change direction Tuesday, which would lower the risks of travel disruptions.

Transport secretary Philip Hammond said five-day forecasts are now being published to give airlines and travelers “the best possible information.

However, he said the situation “remains fluid and these forecasts are always liable to change.” — AP

Launching his campaign, Ed Miliband called for a “fraternal” contest between all the candidates.

“I have talked to my family and friends and I have decided to stand to be leader of the Labour Party,” he told the Fabian Society think-tank in central London.

“My message to the British people is: we will learn from our mistakes, we will be part of your values again, we will be part of your community again and we will work with you to build the kind of country we want to see.

“And my message to our party is this: we have to use this leadership campaign as a first step on the road back to power because that is where we should be as a political party.”

Ed Miliband is a close ally of Brown and drafted Labour’s election manifesto.

He was among Brown’s inner circle in the final minutes as he quit office.

The Milibands were the first brothers to sit in the Cabinet since 1938.

Ed Miliband said he was “absolutely” prepared to

serve under his elder brother.

He said many people had suggested that the brothers strike a deal for one of them to stand aside, as Blair and Brown did in 1994.

But he said: “No deals.

Deals are the thing that got us into some of the problems we have had.

“David is my best friend in the world. I love him dearly and I think it is absolutely possible and necessary for this party to have a civilised contest.”

Bookmakers make David Miliband the odds-on favourite to become the leader, with his brother Ed leading the chasing pack, which includes former health secretary Andy Burnham, exschools secretary Ed Balls and leading backbench leftwinger Jon Cruddas.

Balls told The Guardian newspaper he would consult his local party branch before deciding whether to stand.

He offered to stand aside in favour of his wife, former work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper, but she has decided not to run for family reasons. — AFP

Clashes in Kyrgyzstan kill one, injure more than 60 JALAL-ABAD: Gunfire erupted in Kyrgyzstan as hundreds of interim government backers fought supporters of deposed President Kurmanbek Bakiyev for control over regional government buildings. At least one person was killed and more than 60 injured in the worst violence since last month’s forceful government change. The opponents exchanged gunshots, hurled stones and fought with sticks on a square Friday in front of the regional government building in Jalal-Abad, the administrative center of a province in southwestern Kyrgyzstan. Several hundred Bakiyev supporters, some armed with automatic rifles, had holed up in the building overnight after capturing it Thursday evening, but were driven out on Friday by backers of the interim government. The interim government’s backers also ejected a pro-Bakiyev crowd Friday from the regional government offices in Osh, the country’s second-largest city about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Jalal-Abad. The two sides threw rock at one another, but no serious injuries were reported there.

Both cities are in southern Kyrgyzstan, the power base for Bakiyev, who was ousted April 7 amid clashes between government forces and protesters that left at least 85 people dead in the capital, Bishkek.

Bakiyev fled to the ex-Soviet nation of Belarus. Witnesses in Teyit, the village hosting Bakiyev’s family compound, said about 500 pro-government supporters set fire to the deserted homes of Bakiyev’s relatives. Farid Niyazov, a spokesman for interim authorities, confirmed to The Associated Press that three houses had been torched. The prospect of further disturbances in Kyrgyzstan will cause alarm in Washington and Moscow, which both have military bases in the Central Asian nation.

The US Embassy in Bishkek voiced concern about the unrest and urged parties to refrain from violence, while the Kremlin sent former Russian Security Council secretary Vladimir Rushailo as a special envoy to Kyrgyzstan. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concern about the violence and urged all parties “to show

BISHKEK: Kyrgyz’s supporter of interim government argue near local administration office in Jalalabad, some 500 km south from Bishkek yesterday. Rival groups clashed in southern Kyrgyzstan yesterday as the interim government retook official buildings from backers of ousted leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev, leaving at least one dead and scores injured. — AFP restraint and to resolve issues peacefully through dialogue,” according to UN spokesman Martin Nesirky. In Moscow, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with US Ambassador John Beyrle to discuss coordinated efforts to help stability in Kyrgyzstan, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Russian Security Council current secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, said Moscow would not interfere as Kyrgyzstan’s interim government was capable of restoring order, according to Russian news wires.

About 4,000 backers of the Ata-Meken party that supports the interim government had arrived Friday in Jalal-Abad to try to evict the occupiers, but many dispersed when gunfire broke out, leaving a crowd of several hundred. Some men in the approaching mob returned fire, while others fought with sticks. At least 1 person died of wounds and more than 60 others

were injured, including 32 with gunshot wounds, the Health Ministry said. During a second wave of the gunfire exchange Friday afternoon, an Associated Press reporter saw one man hit by a bullet in the shoulder.

“The interim government has the situation under total control, with the exception of Jalal-Abad,” General Prosecutor Azimbek Beknazarov said. “Within one day, we will settle the situation in Jalal-Abad.”

There were no signs of disturbances in the capital, though about 400 Ata-Meken party supporters rallied in support of the interim government while others marched around Bishkek waving red flags, which they did before driving Bakiyev from power Prosecutors also disclosed details of what they called a wiretapped telephone exchange between Bakiyev’s former adviser Usen Sydykov and a lawmaker about organizing rallies in southern Kyrgyzstan.—AP

RIVERS STATE: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (R) arrives to attend the convocation of his alma mater at the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State yesterday. Nigeria’s new leader Goodluck Jonathan flew to the volatile Ogoniland winding up a historic two-day tour of the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta. — AFP

Nigeria president pledges better security in delta PORT HARCOURT: Nigeria’s president pledged to develop the impoverished, oil-producing Niger Delta and improve security in the region.

In his first trip to the Niger Delta as president, Goodluck Jonathan promised in a speech to hundreds of former militants in the oil hub Port Harcourt that the government would better coordinate efforts to educate and reintegrate them into society.

Thousands of former rebels surrendered their arms last year to participate in a federal amnesty programme that promised clemency, a monthly stipend, and job opportunities.

Although the programme has been plagued with months of delays, the amnesty has delivered a relative calm to the Niger Delta with no major militant attack for nearly a year.

“The federal government, strictly aware of the need for a properly coordinated amnesty programme, has achieved the much desired peace in the Niger Delta region,” Jonathan told a crowded stadium of security forces and former rebels.

“We will consolidate on the gains of the amnesty programme and do all that is humanely possible to prevent the Niger Delta from once again descending into a nightmare,” he added.

Timi Alaibe, presidential adviser on Niger Delta affairs, said on Wednesday the government would relaunch efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate 20,192 former militants, with the first 2,000

scheduled for training in the first week of June.

CRIME PAYS Although large and organised militant attacks have waned in the delta, security officials say former rebels fed up with the delays in the amnesty programme have turned to kidnapping, robbery and crude oil theft for alternative sources of income.

“We are waiting for the president to do something for us,” said Papakaye Evans, a former militant who is now unemployed. “Only the conclusion of the amnesty will make us happy.”

Oil thieves are suspected of being behind supply disruptions at Royal Dutch Shell and Agip facilities in the last few weeks, erasing recent gains in production made possible by the dissolution of key militant factions.

Years of insecurity in the Niger Delta have prevented Nigeria from pumping more than two thirds of its oil capacity, costing the government billions of dollars a year in revenue.

Former rebels said they could easily regroup and attack the oil industry if Jonathan, who is from the Niger Delta, fails to deliver on his promises.

“I assure you if the amnesty programme fails many of us will be tempted to take up arms, return to the creeks to resume fighting again. I just hope we do not get to that point,” said Clinton Ebiama, a former militant who says he now depends on handouts to feed his family. — Reuters

N Ireland unionist leader to step down BELFAST: Reg Empey said yesterday he would resign as leader of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionist Party after it failed to win any seats in the British general election.

The UUP formed an alliance with the Conservatives, who topped the polls last week’s election, but failed to win any of Northern Ireland’s 18 seats, with Empey among the losing candidates.

It is the first time the UUP has had no seats in the British parliament for more than a century.

Empey, 62, who has led the UUP since taking over from Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble in June 2005, will stand down before the next party conference, to be held in late October or early November.

“Following a disappointing election campaign I feel that the party needs to review its position,” the former businessman said.

“I remain confident by the fact that our vote held and indeed increased in most constituencies.

“However I know we have made mistakes. I take full responsibility for this.”

The UUP, moderate Protestant conservatives who favour keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, were the biggest party in the province, and the

BELFAST: A file photo taken on February 6, 2006 shows Sir Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) addressing the media at Hillborough Castle in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Empey said yesterday he would resign as leader of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionist Party after it failed to win any seats in the British general election. – AFP fourth biggest in the British parliament, but have been overtaken by the more hardline Democratic Unionists (DUP) in recent years.

They came fourth in Northern Ireland in the general election, with 15 percent of the vote.

The UUP’s decision to team up with the Conservatives angered some, including Sylvia Hermon, their only member of the British parliament, who

left and successfully defended her seat as an independent.

“We will continue to talk to unionists on the ground asking where they want our party to go,” Empey said.

“Over 100,000 people voted for us in this general election-we will not let them down.”Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson, the DUP leader, lost his British parliament seat in the biggest shock result of the election. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

Sunday, May 16, 2010

9

Parking attendants trained to watch for terrorists LAS VEGAS: Parking attendants and meter maids could be the nation’s latest line of defense against terrorist attacks.

A new government program aims to train thousands of parking industry employees nationwide to watch for and report anything suspicious — abandoned cars, for example, or people hanging around garages, taking photographs or asking unusual questions.

Organizers say parking attendants and enforcement officers are as important to thwarting attacks as the two Times Square street vendors who alerted police to a smoking SUV that was found to contain a gasoline-and-propane bomb. “We can no longer afford as a nation to say, ‘It doesn’t impact me or my family, so therefore I’m

not getting involved,”’ Bill Arrington of the Transportation Security Administration told parking industry professionals at a convention this week in Las Vegas. “We’re saying, ‘Please, sir, get involved.”’ The program has been in the works for about a year and gave its first presentation at the convention, attended by hundreds of people who run parking operations for cities, universities, stadiums and other places around the country.

Funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and administered by TSA, the program teaches parking lot operators to watch for odd activities that could precede an attack by days or months: strange odors such as diesel from gasoline vehicles, cars parked where they shouldn’t

be, people who seem to be conducting surveillance by taking photos or drawing sketches.

Would-be terrorists may attempt to gain access to sensitive places or materials by applying for jobs or asking employees strange questions, said Jeff Beatty, a former FBI and CIA agent who led the training in Las Vegas.

The program is part of a larger effort by the government since Sept. 11 to enlist ordinary people — airline passengers, subway riders, bus drivers, truckers, doormen, building superintendents — to serve as the eyes and ears of law enforcement.

Beatty said the idea is not to turn ordinary people into government agents.

“You’re not going to be Jack Bauer. You’re

not going to be James Bond,” he said. But he said terror attacks like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people often are preceded by warning signs.

For example, Timothy McVeigh parked a getaway car in an alley near the Oklahoma City federal building with a note asking that it not be towed. He practiced walking from where he would park the truck to his car to time how long it would take to escape.

Similarly, in the attempted Times Square bombing, the sports utility vehicle was parked illegally on the street, its engine running.

Garages nationwide stepped up security after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, in which terrorists parked an explosives-laden truck in an underground garage.

Six people were killed and hundreds injured. Many parking lot managers across the nation are already keenly aware of the threat and train their employees on what to watch for.

In New York, Jose Vega, manager of a Central Parking System garage near Times Square, said the police come by once a year to brief the employees.

“They tell us to look for abandoned cars,” Vega said. Tom Lozich, executive director of corporate security for MGM Mirage, which owns all or part of 11 casinoresorts on the Las Vegas Strip, said all new hires, including parking valets, housekeepers and casino cashiers, are trained to watch for signs of terrorism. City employees who write parking tickets and operate

lots in Boulder, Colorado, will go through the antiterror training. Molly Winter, the city’s parking services director, said: “A lot of this is just developing a sense of personal responsibility about things that just don’t seem right.”

But some parking lot attendants say they are not the best people to identify suspicious activity. Nancy Montanez, an attendant in a Miami parking garage, said she spends most of her time scanning tickets, running credit cards and printing receipts.

“It’s a good idea, but it would be kind of difficult because when the cars come here, they’re not here for really long,” she said.

“They’re here maybe not even a minute during the period of time that I charge them and they exit.” — AP

US raises specific detainee cases

US, China set 2011 rights meeting in ‘candid’ talks WASHINGTON: US and Chinese officials agreed after two days of talks on human rights to start exchanges of legal experts and hold another rights dialogue in China next year, a State Department official said. While Assistant Secretary Mike Posner said he valued the “candid and constructive” tone of the talks and raised specific cases of jailed lawyers and democracy activists, he indicated the meetings did not win the release of Chinese political or religious prisoners, as sought by the human rights community.

COLEBROOK: Emergency personnel respond to the MDM Muzzleloaders plant, Friday, May 14, 2010 in Colebrook, N.H. The New Hampshire Fire Marshal says two people were killed and another received minor injuries in an explosion at a gun and ammunition plant in the far northern town of Colebrook, near the Canadian border. — AP

Explosion at US gun factory kills two COLEBROOK: The New Hampshire Fire Marshal says two people were killed and another received minor injuries in an explosion at a gun and ammunition plant in the far northern town of Colebrook, near the Canadian border.

Multiple explosions at the MDM Muzzleloader building Friday afternoon shook buildings blocks away and forced the evacuation of dozens of homes. Fire Marshal Bill Degnan said the three were the only people in the building at the time.

A spokeswoman for the town says thick, black smoke filled the sky soon after 1 p.m. (1700 GMT), with a series of explosions that could be heard up to 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away.

She said about 40 nearby homes were evacuated so officials could analyze debris that shot out of the building. Displaced residents were offered shelter at a nearby hotel. “We did hear two dis-

tinct bangs,” said Karen Ladd, editor and publisher of The News and Sentinel newspaper in Colebrook. She thought something had hit the roof of her building. “It knocked a picture off of my wall, right next to my desk. I will admit I panicked and I said, ‘Get out!”’ Several communities in New Hampshire and Vermont sent fire crews.

“It’s just major, major explosions and black powder,” said Mishel Fenn, a bartender at the Colebrook House motel, who felt the blast two blocks away. “It shook the building, and I’m in a large building.”

According to a report in a January issue of The Colebrook Chronicle, a weekly newspaper, a worker at the plant suffered serious injuries to his face and wrist when he a machine that processes gunpowder flashed in his face. That fire was put out quickly. — Reuters

Ex-UCLA student’s kidnap hoax could be very costly GLENDALE: A young woman who faked her own kidnapping to avoid telling her parents she had dropped out of college could be sued for the costs of the extensive search, but she won’t face criminal charges, police said Friday.

The city attorney will decide whether to file a civil claim against Nancy Salas for overtime, helicopter fuel and other expenses, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said Friday, a day after she turned up in Merced and claimed she had been kidnapped at gunpoint.

The city attorney’s office might determine that it’s not cost effective to try to seek repayment of more than

$10,000, he said. Merced police didn’t take a report and immediately called Glendale investigators, so they won’t charge Salas with filing a false police report, said Merced police Lt. Andre Matthews.

Salas, 22, told friends and family that she was about to graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in sociology to prepare for a career in public health, but detectives discovered that she hadn’t been enrolled since September 2008. Salas stuck to her story about being kidnapped until she returned to Glendale and police told her that the game was up. Her parents - every-

one— knew the truth. “But up until that point she had no idea the extent of the search that was going on, nor did she have any idea that our investigators had unraveled the facade that she kept up for two years,” Lorenz said.

Salas told police she used her baby-sitting job in Westwood as cover, hung out on campus and complained about midterms on her blog, never letting on that she ran into academic and financial problems at school. Lorenz said Salas told detectives that she dropped out after her scholarship money ran out and her grades weren’t good enough to earn another one. — AP

SANTIAGO: Gabriel Carrion, defense lawyer of Pakistan’s Mohammed Saifur-Rehman Khan, 28, unseen, speaks to reporters in Santiago, Friday. Carrion and Khan, attended a hearing after a court was to decide Friday whether to present formal charges or free Khan who was arrested Monday after traces of explosives were detected on his phone and papers while he was at the US Embassy in Santiago because his US visa had been revoked. — AP

“We have, we will continue to raise our concerns about specific cases,” Posner told reporters.

He declined to discuss the cases in detail, including the hacking and censorship that prompted U.S. Internet search giant Google Corp to quit the Chinese market this year.

The cases of Liu Xiaobo, jailed last year for 11 years for advocating political reforms, and detained human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng were among those raised in the discussions that covered topics like religious freedom, labor rights, freedom of expression, the Internet and racial discrimination.

“I was encouraged by the degree to which we had a backand-forth dialogue,” Posner said.

The talks, last held in 2008 and before that in 2002, were the first under the Obama administration. They were viewed skeptically by rights experts, who complained that President Barack Obama has not been full-throated in support of the cause even as conditions in China have worsened in recent years.

China’s surging economic and political power make it less receptive to criticism, human rights experts said. China is the biggest holder of American government debt and an important, if difficult, US diplomatic partner in efforts to rein in the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

“The tone of the discussion was very much ‘we’re two powerful, great countries. We have a range of issues that we are engaged on. Human rights is part of that discussion and it’s going to remain so,’” said Posner.

Chinese officials did not make public comments on the talks, which Posner said also covered US issues, such Arizona’s draconian new policies on illegal immigrants, racial relations and the problems of Muslim Americans.

Posner said he would join the May 24-25 US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue in Beijing, an annual meeting of top officials expected to discuss global issues such as climate change and security, as well as bilateral disputes over Tibet, Taiwan, Internet freedom and the value of the yuan currency.

The legal program he and senior Chinese diplomat Chen Xu agreed to would cover rule of law, legal reform and the role of lawyers, said Posner. Those topics were aired in a presentation by retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, a US advocacy group, said the talks process has lost vigor compared to a decade ago, when China would at least free dissidents ahead of key US visits.

“The Chinese have done a good job of negotiating the dialogue down to a level that I’m sure they would rather not have, but that they now find much more manageable or bearable,” she said. Richardson said that law exchanges are useful and worthy, but no substitute for “passionate and precise” advocacy on behalf of China’s large ranks of political prisoners. — Reuters

SAN JUAN: Puerto Rican riot police block protesting students, one holding out a flower, in the road in front of the University of Puerto Rico, during an ongoing strike by students, in San Juan, yesterday. — AP

Univision forum held on Arizona’s immigration law MIAMI: Detractors and defenders of Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration aired their views in a lively town-hall style meeting broadcast nationally Friday night by the Spanish-language network Univision. The forum held in Phoenix and Miami comes in the wake of Arizona’s new law some critics fear could lead to racial profiling.

The measure requires police to ask a person about his or her immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally. Being in the country illegally would be a state crime under the law. Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio urged people to give the law a chance before passing judgment.

The measure is set to go into effect July 29. “This is just another law. I am not concerned about the hype, the threats, the racial profiling” accusations, Arpaio said. “We are talking about illegal immigration — that when you cross that border, you have broken the law.”

Experts on immigration law and public policy, representatives of national Hispanic organizations and advocates for tougher enforcement against illegal immigrants also attended. The White House also sent a representative.

If federal immigration reform depended “only on the will of the president, it would already be done,” said Cecilia Munoz, director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

“But we have to work with Congress.”

Arizona sheriff Antonio Estrada of Santa Cruz County criticized the new law, saying it requires local law enforcement to enforce what used to be a matter for federal authorities.

“In Santa Cruz, we don’t have the budget to add another level of authority,” he said.

“The Border Patrol doesn’t do the work for local officers. They don’t investigate robberies, assaults, homicides.”

Nevertheless, he promised to enforce the law. “We’re going to study this well and see how to apply it with the maximum compassion and common sense possible,” he said.

Arpaio, meanwhile, took to task U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez for his opposition to Arizona’s law. The Illinois Democrat was among 35 people arrested about a week ago during a protest at the White House.

“You were locked up in front of the White House. You were safer here in Phoenix,” Arpaio said. “We do not racial profile, we do not go on street corners and round up people because they look like different people.”

More than 200 seats at the Univision studios in Miami were filled, and the crowd spilled over into a media viewing room.

A group of students wore white T-shirts reading “30644” — a number people can text to show support for the DREAM Act, long-sought federal legislation that would provide relief to some illegal immigrants who arrived before age 16.

An Associated PressUnivision poll released Thursday found sharp contrasts between the views of Hispanics and others on immigration. A resounding majority of Hispanics say illegal immigrants are a boon to the country, while most non-Hispanics say illegal immigrants are a drain on society.

The poll also found most Hispanics condemn Arizona’s strict new law targeting undocumented immigrants, while only 20 percent of non-Hispanics oppose it. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said ethnic profiling will not be tolerated under the law she signed in April. — AP

INTERNATIONAL

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

HK democracy activists make final appeal for votes HONG KONG: Five Hong Kong democracy activists made a final appeal to voters yesterday before a special election they triggered as an attempt to pressure Beijing to make political reforms in this former British colony. Beijing opposes today’s election as a challenge to its authority, and Hong Kong’s leader said he and his senior offi-

cials won’t vote in the contest. The five activists, former legislators representing each of Hong Kong’s five major electoral districts, resigned from their seats in January. Their plan was to engineer a special election where they would compete against pro-Beijing candidates, effectively setting up a de facto territory-wide referendum

on democracy.

But with the Chinese government questioning the campaign, Beijing loyalists in Hong Kong decided to boycott the election. As a result, the five activists are expected to easily win against a smattering of unknown candidates. Now, the focus has shifted to voter turnout.

Political analysts say turnout

will be low because of the proChina boycott. But the five former lawmakers say that if their base — which they estimate at 25 percent of Hong Kong’s 3.4 million registered voters — turns out to vote, they will consider the campaign a success. “That would be a mandate,” Albert Chan, one of the five legislators who resigned, said on

the sidelines of a rally late Friday.

The activists want full democracy in Hong Kong. As part of its semi-autonomous status under Chinese rule, Hong Kong enjoys Western-style civil liberties, but its leader is chosen by an 800member committee with a proBeijing bias. The 60-member legislature is half-elected, half-chosen

by interest groups, many of whom represent the business sector.

About 1,000 supporters attended the rally late Friday, blowing whistles and chanting slogans like “I want universal suffrage” and “The people raise their heads.”

They sang along with a performance of John Lennon’s “Power to the People.” Hong Kong leader

Donald Tsang announced in a statement released late Friday that he and his top political appointees — including cabinet secretaries and deputy secretaries — won’t vote in the byelection. Tsang said he believes that many residents consider the poll unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer dollars. —AP

Estrada’s allies have raise doubts over accuracy of results

Aquino to be named president in 3 weeks MANILA: Philippine lawmakers will convene a week earlier than scheduled for official tallying of votes from national elections, officials said yesterday, enabling the early proclamation of Senator Benigno Aquino as president. The

smooth transfer of power in six weeks after a credible election process that produced a clear winner is widely seen as a positive development for improving long-term investor perception.

Prospero Nograles, speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters lawmakers will also look into allegations of fraud by losing candidates, including former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada, running second in the presidential contest.

Estrada has refused to concede despite Aquino’s more than 5 million votes margin in unofficial tallies, saying he will only accept defeat once the official tallying of votes is done by a joint session of Congress, which had been set to begin on May 31.

“Our target is June 4,” Nograles said, referring to when the president and vice president would be officially named.

“We will not sacrifice accuracy for speed.”

He added his counterpart in the upper house of Congress, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, had agreed to start tallying votes from 274 provinces, cities and foreign missions on May 24.

Estrada’s allies have raised doubts over the accuracy and credibility of results transmitted by machines after they found discrepancies in tallies produced by machines. The elections were the first to use a new autoMANILA: (L-R) Newly elected Philippine senators Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jnr, Jose Ejercito ‘Jinggoy’ mated system of collating Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile, Pia Cayetano, Ralph Recto and Vicente Sotto shows official certificates proclaim- results.

The Commission on ing them among the winners in the recently held elections, in Manila yesterday. The Commission on Elections Elections (Comelec) has said proclaimed nine of 12 winners of the senate race. The list included Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr., the son discrepancies only amounted to of the late Philippine dictator, who had said at the start of the campaign he will use the Senate as a platform around 150,000 votes, not nearly enough to affect the overall for the presidency. —AFP result of the presidential election.

“Many of us want to know and try to understand some of the areas where there are allegations of pre-programmed results by the machines,” Nograles said.

Estrada’s camp has also questioned Comelec’s decision to destroy memory cards used in the balloting because evidence of fraud might be lost.

Minister Katsuya Okada and Chief Cabinet TOKYO: Japan will postpone a deadline for while reining in massive public debt.

“If the Comelec so much as The heavy concentration of US military Secretary Hirofumi Hirano as well as resolving a row over relocating a US base by attempts to destroy the flash up to half a year to November, abandoning bases and 47,000 troops on Okinawa is a Hatoyama. cards, which will be the key to Analysts have said the next likely deadPrime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s original legacy of the US occupation of the island, determining these anomalies, end-May target, the daily Sankei Shimbun the site of a bloody World War Two battle, line after the end of May would be they would be principal suspect from 1945 to 1972. Saturday marked the November, when US President Barack said yesterday. in this massive electoral fraud,” The decision will be conveyed to the US 38th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Obama will visit Japan for an Asia-Pacific said Ernesto Maceda, a former leaders summit. side this week, the paper said, while Kyodo Japanese sovereignty. senator and Estrada’s campaign During the campaign that swept his party Many on the subtropical island have long news agency reported diplomatic sources manager. saying US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton resented bearing what they see as an unfair to power last year, Hatoyama raised hopes Analysts say despite some would visit Japan on May 21 to discuss the share of the burden for the US-Japan securi- the US Marines’ Futenma airbase could be controversy and challengesty alliance, seen by many as vital to region- shifted off Okinawa, despite a 2006 deal with base issue. entirely normal in the roughWashington to move the facility from a “In order to get the understanding of as al stability. and-tumble world of Philippine Resentment over the accidents, pollution crowded city to a less populous site on the many people as possible, we will keep seekpolitics-the smooth elections ing their cooperation even after the end of and crime many residents associate with the island. had been a boost for markets.

But with his self-imposed end of May May,” Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, bases intensified after the 1995 rape of a Still, political squabbling could who also holds the portfolio for Okinawa, Japanese schoolgirl by three US service- deadline for settling the feud looming, take some of the shine off Hatoyama shifted gears, saying he had come men. said on NHK television. recent market strength. to realise that some Marines must stay on NO LET-UP Public perceptions Hatoyama has mis“The euphoria over the relaThe Okinawa issue coincides with a the island to deter threats. handled the issue over a US Marine base on tively orderly and peaceful elecLast month, tens of thousands of the southern Japan island of Okinawa have mountain of other problems for Hatoyama tion appears to be wearing off,” eroded his popularity ahead of an upper including the economy, a scandal embroiling Okinawans rallied to demand the premier Accord Capital said in a weekhouse election, with a recent Jiji news the Democratic Party’s kingpin, more flip- keep his promise, and activists plan to form end market outlook report. agency poll showing support for his govern- flopping over a proposed sales tax hike and a human chain around Futenma airbase “We have begun to hear the ment had fallen below 20 percent for the an increasingly disillusioned and angry pub- today. familiar refrain from losing bets, Hirano yesterday visited the tiny island lic. first time. more so from their supporters.

The Sankei Shimbun, citing unnamed of Tokunoshima, where the government has Hatoyama’s Democratic Party needs a The tight race for vice president decisive win in the upper house vote government officials, said that the postpone- proposed shifting some Futenma functions, between Senator Manuel Roxas expected in July to enact laws smoothly as ment decision was made at a Friday meeting to try to woo support from residents, but and Mayor Jejomar Binay has Japan struggles to keep a recovery on track of cabinet ministers including Foreign many remain opposed. —Reuters provided the avenue to raise charges of electoral malfeasance,” it said.

“The road to the June 30 transfer of power from Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to her successor and beyond doesn’t seem YANGON: Myanmar’s pro- to create a new opposition reached by the majority is would not run in “unjust” be as smooth as what we may democracy icon Aung San Suu party known as the National against democratic practice,” polls, sparking anger among have felt after the May 10 elecKyi criticised a breakaway fac- Democratic Force (NDF) to said Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Nyan many of its supporters. tions.”

Critics say elected civilians Win, one of the few people tion of her now-defunct politi- participate in polls.

Yesterday, the Commissions will be offered only a minor Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace allowed to visit her. cal party, her lawyer said, on Elections (Comelec) The election, a date for role in the running of the counafter renegade former mem- Prize winner detained for 15 of declared the winners for nine of bers set up a party of their the last 21 years, called the which has not yet been set, try, with the ruling generals 12 seats in the upper house of own to contest this year’s splinter group “undemocrat- has been widely dismissed as retaining full control, either Congress after tallying about 93 ic”. Her own party did not reg- a sham to create a facade of directly or through proxies. election. percent of 35.27 million votes.

Analysts say the move by Suu Kyi’s own National ister its candidacy on May 7, democracy in a country ruled Only six of nine winners League for Democracy (NLD) saying unjust election laws by the military for almost five the NLD, which was seen as attended the proclamation cerethe only party capable of chalwas effectively dissolved after barred many of its senior fig- decades. mony. Five of the winners were The NLD, which won the lenging the military’s grip on deciding to boycott an upcom- ures from running. re-elected to a second term, “Aung San Suu Kyi said last election in 1990 by a land- power, could backfire and ing election in the militarythree are returning to the ruled southeast Asian country, that the minority going against slide but was denied the leave Myanmar with no crediSenate and one is a brand-new but several members broke off the decision unanimously chance to take office, said it ble opposition. —Reuters senator. —Reuters

HONG KONG: From front right, Wong Yuk-man, right front row, Tanya Chan, center, Alan Leong, left front row, and Leung Kwok-hung, second right back row, four of the five Hong Kong opposition legislators who resigned in January, perform Chinese drum during an election campaign in Hong Kong yesterday. —AP

Chinese man sentenced to death for school stabbing BEIJING: A Chinese man who stabbed 29 children and three teachers was sentenced to death after a half-day trial yesterday as the government sought to ease public dismay over a string of school attacks.

Xu Yuyuan, 47, an unemployed local man, was found guilty of attacking a kindergarten in Taixing city in eastern Jiangsu province last month, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A string of attacks at Chinese schools has killed a total of 27 people and injured more than 80 since March, prompting calls for better protection of students and worries about the social malaise that some see underneath China’s rapid economic growth.

Nobody died in Xu’s attack, but he was convicted of homicide, which in Chinese law also covers the intention to kill, said the Xinhua report.

The assaults on children have triggered public alarm, especially among parents and officials have vowed to “strike hard” against the problem, meaning swift trials and harsh punishment for anyone found culpable.

Xu told the court that his motive was to “vent

his rage against society,” said Xinhua, adding that “he was angry about a series of business and personal humiliations.”

Premier Wen Jiabao said last week the outburst of violence had deep-seated roots in the fast-changing country’s social tensions that need addressing.

Triggers for the attacks have included pent-up grievances over lost jobs, business failures, broken relationships, and a new home that officials had ordered torn down.

Psychiatric care in China, especially in the countryside, is scarce and the conditions in mental health wards are often primitive.

The country’s Minister of Public Security, Meng Jianzhu, praised parents who organised security patrols at schools, and said mentally ill people should receive more attention, the Ministry’s website (www.mps.gov.cn) reported yesterday.

“Enhance psychological counselling for people with paranoid characters and show more concern for the mentally ill,” Meng said while visiting northern Shanxi province to inspect schools, according to the report. —Reuters

Japan postpones US base decision, Clinton to visit

Suu Kyi irked by NLD breakaway group

SEOUL: South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, center, speaks to the media at a joint press conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi following the fourth trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting in Gyeongju, southeast of Seoul, yesterday. —AP

Two suspects still at large in Indonesia terror plot JAKARTA: Indonesian police may have foiled a massive attack against the president and made progress in its fight against terrorists, but at least two powerful militants who are still a threat to the country remain at large, officials and analysts said yesterday.

Police have arrested 58 suspected Islamic militants and killed 13 in a series of raids since February, when authorities broke up a training camp in the country’s west run by a previously unknown terror group calling itself Al-Qaeda in Aceh.

Police announced Friday that intelligence gleaned from the detained suspects and evidence seized from their hide-outs revealed an elaborate plot to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, conduct Mumbai-style raids on hotels and foreigners, and establish an Islamic state.

Authorities believe they have incapacitated

the group but National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri acknowledged they are still hunting at least two key suspects, Abdullah Sunata and Umar Patek. Sunata is suspected of leading the Aceh group after its chief was killed in March, while Patek is accused of helping to mastermind the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.

“The ones still at large are big fish and big threats to our community,” said Noorhuda Ismail, a terrorism analyst and head of the Institute for International Peace Building.

Sunata is the country’s mostwanted fugitive, Danuri said.

“Sunata is a man of capable anything. Sunata is our top priority,” Danuri said.

In 2006, Sunata was sentenced to seven years in jail for possession of weapons and for hiding the late Noordin Top, a

Malaysian wanted in connection with five major bombings in Indonesia who was killed by police in September. He was released in April 2009 on good behavior but returned to the terror network.

Ismail said both Sunata and Patek are a threat because of their ability to persuade supporters to join the militant cause.

“Both of these men have a strong network both overseas and in Indonesia,” he said.

“Their ability to get new recruits is strong, and they are protected by their network who see them as mujahid (freedom fighters).” When arrested, Sunata told interrogators he first met Patek and the late Dulmatin — who was shot dead by police in March — in 1999 in Indonesia’s Ambon region, where the two were prominent insurgent leaders in the fight against Christians. —AP

INTERNATIONAL

Sunday, May 16, 2010

11

Prominent Taleban commander captured

At least 30 militants dead in Afghan, coaliton raids KABUL: Afghan and coalition forces conducted sweeps across Afghanistan that left at least 30 militants dead, while insurgents in the east killed five security guards in an ambush on a convoy, officials said yesterday.

International and Afghan forces carried out an operation before dawn Friday in the Sangin district of Helmand province that killed 10 insurgents, accord-

WENDOVER: British Prime Minister David Cameron listens at the start of his meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, at Chequers, the country residence of the British prime minister in Wendover, England yesterday. A Downing Street spokeswoman said Karzai is stopping in Britain on his way back from the United States, where he met with President Barack Obama. — AP

Karzai, Cameron to strengthen ties LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed yesterday to strengthen ties between London and Kabul in the first meeting between the new British PM and a foreign leader. Karzai, on his way home from Washington, stopped off in Britain to meet Cameron, whose new government has put Afghanistan top of its foreign policy agenda.

The visit was the first to Britain by an international leader since Cameron’s ConservativeLiberal Democrat coalition took office on Tuesday, following the May 6 general election.

The meeting came the day after Britain’s new Foreign Secretary William Hague met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington for talks dominated by Afghanistan.

The president is to hold a “peace jirga” meeting of Afghanistan’s tribal and community leaders at the end of the month. Karzai and Cameron met at Chequers, the prime minister’s country resi-

dence.

“The prime minister was delighted to invite President Karzai to Chequers, the first formal visit by an international leader since the election,” a spokesman for the PM’s Downing Street office said.

“They discussed President Karzai’s very successful visit to Washington, and the prospects for the peace jirga in Afghanistan at the end of May. “Both the president and prime minister agreed that the relationship between Afghanistan and Britain should be further strengthened.

“The president and the prime minister expressed their admiration for the courage and skill of the British military in Afghanistan, and the sacrifices that British forces have made.” Britain has around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, largely battling Taleban insurgents in the southern Helmand Province. It has lost 285 personnel since operations began in late 2001. — AFP

War on Maoists needs to fight poverty first: Gandhi NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has spoken out in a mounting debate over a deadly Maoist revolt, saying poverty was at the root of the insurgency.

“While we must address acts of terror decisively and forcefully, we have to address the root causes” of the revolt, wrote the widow of assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in an open party letter.

The Maoists’ growing strength highlights the need for development efforts to reach the “most backward districts,” Gandhi said in the latest issue of the Congress party journal “Congress Sandesh,” which appeared at the weekend.

Gandhi is president of the

left-leaning Congress and regarded as the power behind the government. Analysts see her intervention as a sign the leadership is uneasy with the government’s “action-first” approach, in an increasingly heated party debate on ending the unrest that has spread to 20 of India’s 29 states.

The rise of the Maoists reflects the need “for our development initiatives to reach the grassroots,” said Gandhi, who has aggressively championed the left-leaning party’s pro-poor programmes.

Maoist influence is greatest in impoverished, remote areas, fuelling the arguments that growing social disparities thrown up by India’s blistering economic growth have been a major factor behind the rebels’

expansion.

Late last year, the Congress-led coalition government launched a large-scale offensive involving six states worst-hit by Maoist violence.

But the rebels’ superior knowledge of local terrain has thwarted efforts to take to take them on in large numbers.

In April, the insurgents massacred 75 policemen in a jungle ambush in central India, the deadliest attack by the Maoists in a single day.

The rebels insist they are fighting for the rights of the poor in India’s hinterland.

Gandhi has been seeking to strengthen the party’s propoor credentials in time for crucial state elections which may attract Maoist sympathisers or supporters. — AFP

Tribal tension rises in Bangladesh’s volatile hills BAGHAICHHARI: Bangladesh’s southeastern hills are again simmering with ethnic tension, raising concerns that a fragile peace reached 13 years ago will collapse.

Hundreds of ethnic Chakma, a Buddhist tribal group indigenous to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, lost their homes in February when violence broke out between them and Muslim Bengali settlers, prompting a harsh army crackdown.

“With the assistance of the army, the settlers came here to attack us,” said Joshna Chakma, who lost her house and says her village has been plagued by violence since Bengali settlers and an army post arrived around two years ago.

“Last year, there were 78 houses burned down by the settlers, helped by the army,” said Joshna, who is a member of the local council in the remote Baghaichhari district. “This year, it was the same: the Bengali settlers came into our village chanting slogans. We know that the chant is a signal, so we ran into the forests, and when we got back the houses were all burned down,” she said.

The three-day bout of arson, violence and arrests left three dead and scores injured in the impoverished area, while Joshna said 410 houses and several pagodas were torched.

Two tribal people were killed when the army opened fire on villagers protesting the arson attacks. A Bengali settler from a nearby village was killed in clashes with tribals two days later.

It was the worst violence since a peace deal was signed in 1997, ending the tribal groups’ slow-burning insurgency, which official figures say has claimed more than 2,500 lives since the early 1980s. Villagers say the episode and how it was handled by the Bengali-dominated army, with bullets and mass arrests, is proof tribal people are second-class citizens in Bangladesh.

“The army tell us: if you have courage, live here, if you do not then run away, as for us to kill you is like a tree losing its leaves in the winter,” said Ganandu Chakma, who is leader of a land committee in the area. Joshna’s account of settlerled, army-backed violence was supported by

Pornomas Bhikkha, a Buddhist monk, who said he was forced to flee when his temple was attacked by 35 settlers with help from around 50 soldiers.

“I could see the settlers, they had sticks, knives and other weapons. The army was just behind them. I went out and they tried to attack me, so I ran away and they broke into the temple and burned it to the ground,” he said.

The army had come back after the incident to cut down the teak trees on the grounds of the pagoda, he said.

Villagers say the settlers encroach on tribal land, including ancient burial grounds and fields which are periodically left fallow, and view the arson and army brutality as an attempt to drive the tribal community away for good.

“Where are our rights? Why does the state only respect the Bengali settlers not us?” asked Joshna, lowering her voice to point out the guntoting army patrols that inspect the dusty, burnedout village on a daily basis.

Bangladesh’s sprawling hills and their ethnic inhabitants have for decades been a source of tension in this majority-Muslim nation of 144 million, which is one of the most densely populated countries on earth. Since the early 1980s, successive governments pursued policies of Bengali settlement in the area, moving poor, landless farmers like Mohammad Abu Hamid, 47, to the hill tracts and giving them five hectares (12.4 acres) of land to farm. “This land was given to me by the government but the ethnics demand it, saying it was their forefathers’ land. But I have documents, they have none, and I have farmed this land for decades,” Hamid told AFP. Such policies meant that by 1991 49.5 percent of the local population was “non-tribal”, up from just 2.0 percent in 1947. No figures were given in the 2001 census, but tribal leaders say Bengalis are now likely the majority. The hundreds of thousands of settlers have been “used by the Bangladesh state as political pawns,” said Bhumitra Chakma, a tribal academic who teaches politics at England’s Hull University. —AFP

NATO said it had no information about the operation.

In southern Zabul province, a bridge was blown up on a highway linking it with neighboring Kandahar province, according to Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, spokesman for provincial governor of Zabul.

Traffic was being diverted around the explosion site in Shahrasafa district. No one was injured.

Violence in southern Afghanistan has been on an upswing in recent weeks, following an operation in the town of Marjah, Helmand province and as NATO and Afghan forces ramp up security efforts in neighboring Kandahar.

Eastern Afghanistan, along the Pakistani border, and parts of northern Afghanistan have also faced numerous attacks in recent weeks.

Also Friday, insurgents ambushed a convoy in eastern Ghazni province, killing five private security guards, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Three oil tankers in the convoy caught fire in the attack. The Defense Ministry said Afghan National Army troops and police tracked down the insurgents and killed six in the ensuing gunbattle.

Eight militants were killed and two others wounded in a joint raid by Afghan and coalition forces in Nangahar province Friday, the Defense Ministry said. A Taleban commander known as Shumsuddin was killed in the operation. A day earlier, a coalition raid in the area left at least eight people dead.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other government officials insisted those killed were civilians, and hundreds of people took to the streets to protest. NATO said only insurgents were killed.

Militants fired rockets Friday night toward a district government headquarters in Nangahar, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said. The rockets missed their target with one landing on a civilian home.

Four women were injured, one hospitalized in serious condition.

The Defense Ministry also said during the last 24 hours, allied forces led joint operations in northern Baghlan, eastern Logar, and southern Kandahar provinces, in which a total of seven insurgents were killed.

Soldiers detained five suspected militants armed with automatic rifles and hand grenades.

NATO said allied forces killed “several” militants during a gunfight in the Baghlane-Jadid district of Baghlan Friday. Two were injured, including a woman with an automatic rifle who allegedly tried to fire on soldiers. Allied forces also recovered one helicopter and destroyed another in Kandahar after they sustained damage while landing during military operations Thursday and Friday, NATO said.

“Enemy forces” were not responsible, it said. However, a Taleban spokesman, Qari Yousaf, said insurgents shot down a helicopter in Kandahar’s Arghandab district on Friday and all on board were killed. He didn’t say how many.

Without specifying, NATO said several coalition and Afghan service members were injured during a helicopter’s rough landing. They were evacuated to an alliance medical site. In another incident in Helmand on Friday, a roadside bomb targeting a vehicle in the capital Lashkar Gah wounded two civilians, the Interior Ministry said.

Militants also attacked a police vehicle in neighboring Marjah district it said, injuring four civilians. — AP

ing to Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the regional governor. Mullah Mohammed Hassan, a “prominent” Taleban commander who was involved in many insurgent attacks in northern Helmand province, was captured in the Sangin village of Pirqadam Kariz during the raid, Ahmadi said. No security forces or troops were injured, he added.

KANDAHAR: US soldiers from Bravo Troop 1-71 CAV walk on patrol in Belanday village, Dand district in Kandahar yesterday. NATO and the United States are deploying thousands of extra soldiers in a strategy designed to bring a swift end to the conflict, with foreign troop numbers in Afghanistan expected to peak at 150,000 in August. — AFP

US war veteran seeks Indian asylum: Report NEW DELHI: A former US soldier who says he fought in the Vietnam War has torn up his passport and is asking India to grant him political asylum, reports said yesterday. Jeff Knaebel, who has been living in the hill resort town of Shimla in northern India since 1995, appeared in India’s Supreme Court in New Delhi on Friday to seek asylum in the country.

Knaebel, 72, said he is a champion of Indian freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi’s

philosophy of non-violence, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper.

“I am stateless,” the daily quoted Knaebel as saying. Knaebel, who said he served as a US navy commander during the Vietnam War, said he wanted to remain in India to continue his “mission to bring a smile to every face I can.”

Known as “Sojourner Free” to friends, Knaebel said US political policies were based on war and destruction and “would

one day destroy this beautiful planet.”

He said he shredded his US passport in June 2009 at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Rajghat in New Delhi.

The Supreme Court directed the Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati to look into the matter. Knaebel’s lawyer, S.N. Jha, said he has filed the case in the Supreme Court after failing to get a response from the Indian Prime Minister’s Office to his client’s request for asylum. —AFP

OPINION

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

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Obama, Karzai and an Afghan mirage

By Bernd Debusmann

L

ast year, under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan slipped three places on a widely respected international index of corruption and became the world’s second-most corrupt country.

It now ranks 179th out of 180, a place long held by Somalia.

According to a United Nations report published in January, Afghans paid $2.5 billion in bribes in 2009, roughly a quarter of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (not counting revenue from the opium trade). The survey, based on interviews with 7,600 people, said corruption was the biggest concern of Afghans.

On the military front in a war more than halfway through its ninth year, attacks on US forces and their NATO allies totaled 21,000 in 2009, a 75 percent increase over 2008, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) a week before Karzai’s visit to Washington. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, noted that Taleban insurgents had set up a “widespread paramilitary shadow government...in a majority of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.”

The Pentagon, also in advance of Karzai’s visit (in the second week of May), reported that Afghans support his government in only 29 of the 121 districts the US military consider most strategically important. “The insurgents perceive 2009 as their most successful year,” the Pentagon said. “The Afghan insurgency has. ..a ready supply of recruits drawn from the frustrated population, where insurgents exploit poverty, tribal friction and lack of governance to grow their ranks.”

As to corruption: “Real...change remains elusive and political will, in particular, remains doubtful.”

In case all this has led you to the conclusion that the Afghan glass is half empty at best, that’s not the way President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton portrayed it during Karzai’s visit.

Yes, there were difficulties ahead, they said, but overall things were looking up. “We are steadily making progress,” Obama said. “Progress in Afghanistan is real,” echoed Clinton. Was this a matter of two leaders seeing a mirage, or a 21st century version of the “we see light at the end of the tunnel” assurance Americans heard during the Vietnam war? Or was it simply overdue recognition that Obama is stuck with Karzai no matter how unpopular he might be or how much credibility he lacks?

Karzai’s visit was almost cancelled after he responded to public rebukes from American leaders with antiAmerican and anti-Western tirades so over the top that one of his most prominent detractors, the former United Nations deputy chief in Afghanistan Peter Galbraith, raised questions over the

Afghan president’s stability.

“He’s prone to tirades, he can be very emotional, act impulsively,” Galbraith told the US TV network MSNBC. That prompted a flurry of international headlines on the Afghan leader’s mental state that did little to win support for the war. Polls show that slightly more than half the American public think the war is not worth fighting for. In Britain, Canada, Australia, France and Germany, the biggest contributors to the 43member coalition, poll after poll has shown majority opposition to the war. One of the problems in convincing reluctant partners to spend blood and treasure in Afghanistan is the lack of a clear answer to the question “what is success?”

Even a Washington think tank friendly to Obama, the Center for American Progress, singled out the absence of “clarity of purpose” in a report on the future of Afghanistan. “The Obama administration remains vague about what progress looks like in Afghanistan and what our objectives are over the next two to five years,” the Center said.

There has been no vagueness about the cost of the enterprise. It has been rising steadily as forces in Afghanistan were built up and troops in Iraq drawn down. In February, Pentagon monthly spending on Afghanistan exceeded spending on Iraq for the first time, $6.7 billion ($233 million a day) compared with $5.5 billion. Congress is almost certain to approve an additional $33 billion in the current fiscal year to fund the troop increase Obama announced last December.

It was his second escalation of what he calls a war of necessity. He ordered the first, of 21,000 troops, a few weeks after taking office. His rationale then: they were needed to secure the Afghan presidential election which, in the end, were so massively rigged that a UN-backed complaints committee threw out about a million Karzai votes.

That’s past history and no longer a subject, now that the Obama team has decided they need to live with Karzai, warts and all. What will be a subject is a promise, made halfway through his visit, that he would work for better government. It’s not the first such pledge.

Will word match deed better than in the past? That will be watched closely both in Washington and in Afghanistan. There, in the words of General Stanley McChrystal, the top US military commander, people “believe more of what they see than what they hear. Only when they experience security...and only when they benefit from better governance, will they begin to believe in the possibilities of the future.”The chances of that happening by July next year, the date Obama has set for the beginning of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, are close to zero. — Reuters

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

Amid sanctions drive, US lobbies foreign firms

By Ross Colvin

T

he Obama administration is waging a largely behind-the-scenes campaign to convince foreign companies that it is becoming too politically risky for them to do business with an increasingly isolated Iran. On the world stage, the United States and its allies are aggressively pushing for new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Out of the public eye, it has dispatched a top US Treasury official to foreign capitals to talk to governments, financial regulators, banks and business leaders.

Stuart Levey, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, is armed with US intelligence on how Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is controlling a growing swath of Iran’s economy and is setting up front companies to try to evade sanctions. His mission is part of a multi-pronged US effort to tighten the screws on Iran, running parallel to the drive for fresh UN sanctions. Levey, a silver-haired former white-collar criminal lawyer appointed in 2004, has been successful in persuading foreign banks

to cut ties with Iran. Now, he is widening his focus to include service providers, insurers and manufacturers.

“We view the business community as an ally and we talk to them in that sense. We have information regarding Iranian illicit conduct that they might not have, and we provide them with the advantage of our viewpoint so they can better assess their own risks,” Levey told Reuters in an interview.

Since March a spate of foreign companies have announced plans to cut, suspend or curb ties with Iran, including oil majors Eni, LUKOIL and Royal Dutch Shell, Indian refiner Reliance Industries, US construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar and luxury German carmarker Daimler.

Accounting giants KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young have also declared themselves free of any business ties to Iran. The US Government Accountability Office on Wednesday identified seven foreign companies involved in Iran’s energy sector between 2005 and 2009 that had received US government contracts. It had not probed whether any laws had been broken in their dealings with Iran.

“There is a tide setting in against doing trade with Iran and it is just becoming more difficult for everyone involved,” said Philip Roche, Londonbased partner in the shipping disputes and risk management team with law firm Norton Rose. It is hard to assess the economic impact of companies cutting their exposure. Experts say it depends on the type of business, but US officials say the collective action is significant. “As a result of our efforts to impose additional multilateral sanctions on Iran, as well as Iran’s own defiance, international companies are increasingly coming to the correct conclusion that the risks of doing business with Iran are high and have announced that they are withdrawing from Iran,” White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said.

The US government claims no direct credit for the rash of company announcements, but a German equities analyst said he believed the decision by German engineering conglomerate Siemens in January not to accept further orders from Iran was at least partly due to government pressure. Levey, however, portrays himself as a messen-

ger and takes issue with any suggestion that companies have been pressured into doing Washington’s bidding through threats of punitive action.

“Some people think it’s a better storyline to say we twist people’s arms. But we don’t,” he said. “One of the things that is changing is a growing awareness of the role that the IRGC is playing in the Iranian economy.”

Businesses, however, will also be mindful of the huge settlements that Britain’s Lloyds TSB Bank and Switzerland’s Credit Suisse agreed to in December after facing charges of violating US laws on doing business with countries like Iran. The decision by companies such as Caterpillar to instruct non-US subsidiaries not to sell goods to Iran will have a limited impact.

As Caterpillar has pointed out, it cannot stop its products from being sold on in the secondary market.

Competitors can also move in to fill the vacuum left by the companies, said Fariborz Ghadar, an Iran expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Ghadar said the decision by major oil companies to cut ties, however, was devastating. While

Iran has the world’s third-biggest oil reserves, it desperately needs foreign investment in its energy sector to improve refining capacity.

Levey is not the only one talking to business. New York advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, which keeps a database of companies doing businesses with Iran, has waged a letter-writing campaign urging them to cut their ties. “If we have 10, 15, 20 of these multinational companies pull out of Iran it will force that economy into the red zone,” said the group’s president Mark Wallace, a former ambassador under President George W. Bush.

Analysts warn that putting too much pressure on the Iranian economy could backfire, giving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a scapegoat for Iran’s current economic ills. “The broad goal is not to completely squelch all Iranian business activity,” Levey countered.

“My job is to design measures that will have the desired impact on the government of Iran and minimize the impact on the average Iranian citizen.” But, he added: “It’s hard to get it surgically precise.” — Reuters

Syria handles Scud row with eye on US

By Hamza Hendawi

F

aced with US accusations that it’s raising the risks of a new Middle East war by supplying advanced missiles to Hezbollah, Syria is moving carefully to try to avoid wrecking the slow process of improving ties with Washington. Syria has staunchly denied Israeli charges that it gave the Lebanese militant group powerful Scud missiles, and it has also been trying hard to show that it is not looking for any sort of escalation, insisting there is no crisis, whether on the ground with Israel or in its relations with the United States.

“Even if there is one percent risk of a war, we are working to eliminate that,” Syrian leader Bashar Assad reassured reporters while visiting Turkey last week. Syria’s handling of the affair reflects Assad’s resolve to prevent the crisis from snowballing and throwing the country back into the international isolation it endured under the Bush administration.

For Syria, a great deal rides on improved relations with the United States. Damascus wants Washington fully engaged as a mediator in future peace talks with Israel in hopes of reaching a deal that returns the Golan Heights, lost to the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.

Normalized relations with the US would also be a boost for Syria’s struggling economy, if it ended Washington’s sanctions on Damascus and signaled to the world the country’s rehabilitation.

The attempts at rapprochement have been frustrating for both sides.

The United States has been trying to push Damascus to leave its close alliance with Iran and stop its support for Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups, a step that Syria so far has refused to take. Syria, meanwhile, sees the prospects of renewed peace talks growing more distant under Israel’s

Syrians look at a Czechoslovakian-made tank which Syria used during Oct 1973 Arab-Israel war, displayed at the October War Panorama exhibition in Damascus yesterday. – AP hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is impatient with the pace of the thaw in relations with Washington.

The US has yet to send its nominated ambassador, Robert Ford, to Damascus to fill a post that has been vacant since 2005, and last week the Obama administration renewed sanctions on Syria for another year. While the flap over missile allegations has hiked tensions, it has also won for Damascus something it values: attention.

The office of Israeli President Shimon Peres said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to deliver a message to Assad seeking to ease tensions. Medvedev met with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, though he made no mention of the message in a joint

press conference with the Syrian leader. Netanyahu on Tuesday underlined that Israel wants “stability and peace,” and deflected blame to Iran, which he said is trying to provoke a conflict between Israel and Syria.

The Iranians “are spreading falsehoods in order to escalate tensions, and it has no basis,” he said. The crisis began last month when Israel accused Damascus of giving Hezbollah Scud missiles. Last week, the head of Israel’s military intelligence research department, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz went further, saying Syria had also supplied M600 missiles, a Syrian copy of the Iranian Fateh-110, with a 300-km range - capable of hitting Tel Aviv if fired from southern Lebanon. While not confirming the Israeli accusation, Washington followed up with one of its

own, saying Syria’s transfer of increasingly sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah could spark a new Middle East war.

Neither Israel nor the United States have produced evidence to back up their allegations, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said his Shiite guerrilla group has acquired more advanced rockets than what it used in its summer 2006 war with Israel. Still, Syria says the uproar over the missiles has no real impact on its ties with the US. “What is heard publicly from the Americans is exaggerated. What binds us together behind closed doors is entirely different from what is heard in the media,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad says.

The accusations raised fears in Lebanon, Syria and Israel that a new

war could erupt. But the flap may have more to do with sending signals in the maneuvering over the peace process and US-Syrian relations.

If the accusations are true, Syria may be aiming to show the danger if there is no movement on a peace deal with Israel. Syria has for years used its close ties to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and other radical Palestinian factions to strengthen its bargaining position, hoping that Washington and its Western allies would grant it some of its wishes in exchange for downgrading those alliances. While the US continues to keep Syria at an arm’s length, Assad has no one to turn to except Iran and neighboring Turkey, said Peter Harling, a Damascus-based Syria expert with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research center.

“Syria tends to respond only to concrete offers on the table. To date, there is no offer coming from the US,” he said. “Damascus is currently presented only two compelling bids: Iranian support in the face of increased risks of war with Israel, and a Turkish partnership toward greater economic and political integration in the region.”

But by going public with the accusations, US and Israel could gain a tool to pressure Syria to moderate its behavior - by signaling that they are watching its actions. “My take is that the charges are designed to press Syria to ... deliver in regard to Palestinian reconciliation and to be aware of the danger of using the Lebanese front,” said Amr Hamzawy, Middle East research director at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment. Bilal Saab, a Middle East expert from the University of Maryland at College Park who regularly briefs US officials on Lebanon and Syria, said the crisis “presents an opportunity to Washington.” “US officials have always needed leverage in their talks with the Syrians,” he said. “This might be the perfect leverage.” — AP

ANALYSIS

Sunday, May 16, 2010

13

Peace moves may come to nothing in Afghanistan

By Alistair Scrutton

A

fghan President Hamid Karzai’s two-pronged initiative to offer Taleban combatants jobs and cash while enticing insurgent leaders to the political mainstream may be a first, tentative step towards peace. It is also a minefield. The trip wires are so many that a touted peace assembly, or “jirga”, of tribal elders and powerbrokers on May 29 may bring little but talk, confirming reconciliation with the Taleban after a nineyear war may be a new priority, but a formidable task.

Even so, a new peace plan draft, offering Taleban leaders exile as well as removal from the UN sanctions list, does effectively recognise an end-game is in play, and that a negotiated deal with the Taleban appears increasingly the only way forward. “I think there will be an inevitable impetus to reconciliation,” said Matt Waldman, a Kabul-based Harvard University researcher. “The problem will be the level of mistrust is so high that it is impossible to move forward.”

There could be space for negotiation despite the Taleban’s initial rejection of peace offers, the conditions of which were seen as more of a surrender than a compromise by the insurgents, nine years after US-led troops overthrew the militants’ Islamist government. Two of the main reasons for optimism are the war weariness of the insurgents, and a belief the priority of many in the Taleban is not to take power but rather to battle foreign troops and provide security and Islamic justice in the face of corrupt national governance.

Obama and Karzai discussed reconciliation moves last week in Washington, but gave little signs of any progress over moving forward with any talks. Possibly the most immediate hurdle to any recon-

US President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai shake hands May 12, 2010 following a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington.— AFP ciliation moves is a US-led offensive against the Taleban in their southern heartland of Kandahar this summer.

Washington is cautious about talks with the Taleban leadership, and if there are any, wants to be in a position of strength when they take place.

That view calls for inflicting a major military setback to the Taleban by sending 23,000 Afghan and NATO troops into Kandahar this summer. But critics say that offensive may only lead to a stalemated guerrilla war, more civilian casualties, and greater polarisation between the two sides. Some reports and local polls say most residents in Kandahar want talks rather than war. “Now we are in a war situation and they want to rely on

war tactics in Kandahar,” said Arsala Rahmani, a parliamentarian who served as a cabinet minister under the Taleban and who mediated between Karzai and the militants in 2008.

But even without President Barack Obama’s troop “surge”, which is bringing an extra 30,000 troops into the country as a whole, the problems the reconciliation process would face are huge. Take, for example, Karzai’s government, widely criticised for corruption. In the eyes of the insurgents and many Afghans, both foreign forces and the government are painted with the same brush of mistrust.

And that raises the question of who could act as the negotiator.

“It is issues like corruption and preda-

tory government that pushed people into insurgency in the first place,” said Thomas Ruttig, a former diplomat and now head of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. “Why should people trust the government? Neither the international community not the government are honest brokers ... It is very difficult to find people trusted by both sides after 30 years of war.”

This is why the peace draft offers exile and removing insurgents from the United Nation’s sanction list, say experts.

The terms are not aimed simply at enticing the Taleban to lay down arms, but help bridge a huge trust deficit even before talks begin. History does not necessarily provide grounds for optimism.

For all the attention to reconciliation in recent months, the current moves are not the first. Karzai’s officials held thensecret talks with the Taleban in 2008.

There have also been contacts with UN officials.

They achieved little. The problem, experts say, is that there has been no coordinated effort to bring in countries like the United States and Pakistan, or respected and popular provincial - and possibly anti-Karzai - officials. Support of a so far noncommittal United States is critical because of its dominant role in foreign military support and economic aid, while Pakistan helped bring the Taleban to power in the 1990s and continues be a place where they have important bases despite Islamabad’s current official anti-Taleban stance.

Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the ISI, is widely believed to still provide support to the Afghan Taleban to leverage regional strategic influence against India. The recent capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior Taleban leader suspected by some of carrying out talks with Karzai without

Islamabad’s permission, confirmed many Afghans’ beliefs Pakistan was determined to control their destiny. “There is a fear that any reconciliation would be outsourced to Pakistan,” said Ruttig.

Some Afghans say a majority of Taleban foot soldiers and combatants are tired of war and would welcome offers of cash and jobs - backed by international donors - to leave the insurgency.

“The Afghan Taleban are Afghans.

They are our citizens,” said Moein Maraystar, a lawmaker. “Many on the lower level want peace.” Others say the plan to win over foot soldiers may hurt efforts to reconcile with the Taleban leadership, which could see the move as an attempt by Washington and Karzai to divide and rule. It is also doubtful a stretched government could protect converted insurgents from Taleban retaliation. Already the Taleban are flexing their muscles with killings of government officials in Kandahar. Some Taleban foot soldiers may be weary, but others remain motivated to fight by such factors as Islamist ideology and hatred of foreign troops. For fighters who are concerned about cash, there are ways to get it that do not involve joining the government side. Payments to insurgents from those who want to avoid trouble or receive “protection” are common. “There is no shortage of money and funding,” said Rahmani. “They are taking money from foreign contractors, from those who are involved in bringing logistics and supplies for the foreign forces, from TV channels, from mobile phone operators.” Harvard researcher Waldman had one final word of scepticism. A premature peace move may backfire unless the fundamental issues behind the conflict are resolved.

“Of all the peace accords to stop civil wars, half have collapsed within five years.” — Reuters

Karzai charm offensive may not be enough H

By Sue Pleming

e lunched at the White House, was feted at the State Department and dined with the vice president but will the special treatment lavished on Afghan President Hamid Karzai affect how he governs?

What is key will be whether the muchtouted good atmospherics during Karzai’s four-day trip to Washington will speed up what President Barack Obama calls “slow and steady” progress in Afghanistan. “What is being said in public is anodyne and choreographed. Talk is good but it is the actions that are taken that will be important,” said Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank in Washington.

The handshakes and uneasy smiles in the White House East Room on Wednesday contrasted with the war of words in recent weeks but that does not mean the Obama administration or US lawmakers, who hold the purse strings, are fully confident. Questions persist in Congress, and quietly among US officials, over whether the Afghan leader can be counted on to help momentum shift enough to allow US troops to start coming home in July 2011 as promised.

“He needs to work with the US in both word and deed to promote economic development, build the Afghan security forces, combat extremists, tackle the drug trade, eliminate corruption, and improve systems of governance,” said Senator Ted Kaufman, who was in Afghanistan last month.

Former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said Obama’s better ties with Karzai were just a start. “If the situation improves, I think things in terms of relations between Karzai and the administration will also improve.

But if they get worse or stay the same then I think we will come back to the same contentiousness,” Khalilzad told PBS. The Obama administration carefully planned Karzai’s trip so there would be limited contact with reporters who might ask delicate questions at a time

when US public support for the nineyear war is precarious. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were urged by the Obama administration not to come down too hard on Karzai and to offer praise rather than criticism, said one congressional source. In her public appearances with Karzai, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was effusive in her praise. “We are your friend,” Clinton said at a reception for the Afghan leader. “You’re so good with words and kind and the hospitality that you provide provides reassurance to the greatest of skeptics as well that Afghanistan is a friend,” said Karzai.

Obama did not dwell on problem areas such as corruption and lack of governance except to say that Karzai had worked hard but more needed to be done. Senior US officials cite the lack of governance in Afghanistan as a core challenge in turning around the war and military commanders bemoan the level of corruption.

Congress wants clear benchmarks to measure progress in Afghanistan and to see greater efforts to tackle corruption but pressure from the Obama administration will now be made in a quieter, more respectful way. “What they have decided is that the larger goal of stabilizing Afghanistan is more important than the corruption issue and some other issues,” said Lisa Curtis, an Afghanistan expert with the Heritage Foundation.

The plan is to live with the president now in Afghanistan and make the most of it, much as happened in Iraq when the Bush administration was exasperated with President Nuri alMaliki but decided to back him anyway.

“Almost by definition, counterinsurgency implies a problematic host government. If the local leadership were effective already, there would be no insurgency to fight,” said Stephen Biddle from the Council on Foreign Relations.

The issue is not whether Karzai is an adequate partner but how to make his government into one, said Biddle, adding Washington should continue to use “sticks” against the Afghan leader

but just in private. The Obama administration is already working around Karzai where need be, targeting ministers seen as more competent in trying to boost capacity in the government.

Most of Karzai’s cabinet was in Washington last week and the United States has also been leaning on opposition politician Ashraf Ghani, who was in the US capital days before Karzai to prepare for meetings. “We see Ghani

as a sort of interlocutor here,” said one senior US official, who asked not to be named.

One of the key issues where both sides are still trying to find common ground is how far Karzai will go in reconciling members of the Taleban, set to be discussed at a peace “jirga” or consultative meeting in Kabul on May 29.

Obama repeated US demands that militants brought back into the fold need to

renounce violence and any ties to AlQaeda as well as respect the constitution, including women’s rights. He also said there must be momentum on the battlefield for the Taliban to lay down their arms. “The timing, how the reconciliation process works ... is in part going to be dependent on our success in terms of carrying out our mission there,” Obama said at his news conference. — Reuters

A

fter the death of his national heroine mother, Benigno Aquino rode a wave of public emotion all the way to the Philippine presidency.

Now he needs to show that politically at least, he is not his mother’s son. He has a strong mandate to fight graft and investigate his unpopular predecessor, but must show leadership and assertiveness so far absent in his career to ensure his market-friendly agenda is not derailed by vested interests, internal and external.

If not he risks being distracted from reining in a large budget deficit, frittering away the electoral support which will be crucial in his reform drive, and wasting an opportunity to start rebuilding confidence in the economy and its institutions. “I think Aquino should learn some lessons from his mother’s administration,” said Earl Parreno of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms.

“She was surrounded by various power blocs, each with competing

interests, and I think that is also the problem that ‘Noynoy’ Aquino is going to face,” Parreno said.

Cory Aquino is a national heroine for taking on Ferdinand

Changes afoot in US-British ties?

By Steve Holland

US

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the USBritish special relationship has “built up over centuries and it’s not going away”. But most experts see some changes in ties on the horizon. Obama was quick to telephone his congratulations to new British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday after Cameron’s Conservatives took power and ended the Labour Party’s 13-year reign. “I find him to be a smart, dedicated, effective leader and somebody who we are going to be able to work with very effectively,” Obama said of the 43-year-old Cameron.

Both agreed US-British relations historically have outlasted “any individual party, any individual leader,” Obama said. The ties may in fact be headed for a realignment as both leaders pursue a more balanced approach to foreign policy. A key test will be in Afghanistan. Obama has signaled his intention to begin pulling US troops out of Afghanistan by July 2011. At a time when Britain is grappling with its own budget woes, London is under pressure to leave Afghanistan as well. “They’re going to really be interested in getting out of Afghanistan as quickly as they can,” said Gary Schmitt, a European expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “I think that could potentially be a source of real tension.”

The special relationship in recent decades was distinguished by three important chapters: Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill working together on World War Two, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher on the Cold War and George W. Bush and Tony Blair on the Iraq war.

Each pairing got along famously, despite some tensions, most notably when Thatcher urged then-President George H W Bush not to go “wobbly” and let Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein get away

with invading Kuwait in 1990.

Blair’s persistence in sticking with Bush on Iraq against all odds led to charges that he had become a US “poodle”. The British determination to resist a repeat of that image hangs over the relationship today. Robin Niblett, director of Britain’s Chatham House thinktank told the Council on Foreign Relations the election may prove to be pivotal in an ongoing structural shift in the bilateral relationship. “The British government has felt itself to be increasingly marginal to America’s long-term strategic bilateral relations,” he said.

Britain’s Conservatives, he said, remain staunch supporters of NATO for British security but they have suggested the country needs to build its own set of bilateral diplomatic relationships with such powers as India and China and with countries in East Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Obama’s approach to foreign policy is geared less toward personal relationships with his counterparts and more toward the policy itself.

He is perhaps mindful of the trouble George W Bush caused for himself by developing, for example, friendly ties with thenRussian President Vladimir Putin and later feeling hoodwinked by him. Obama and Cameron will meet face-to-face this summer when both attend a Group of Eight summit in Canada in June.

Obama has invited Cameron to visit the White House as well.

Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute said the two leaders may get along well personally, despite the differences in political approach between the Democratic president and the Conservative prime minister.

“Cameron is more likely to get along with Obama. (Former Prime Minister Gordon) Brown being the dour Scot, I’m not sure there was much of a connection,” Schmitt said. “I think Cameron’s style is more likely to fit easily with Obama.” — Reuters

Obama, Karzai paper over rift Europe ties could

By Steven R Hurst

I

n public, Afghan President Hamid Karzai smiled and thanked President Barack Obama for all the help. They appeared to have patched things up after an unusually deep and public rift between allies. The clever Karzai, however, also laced his message Wednesday at a White House news conference with the subliminal but steely reminder that he is and will remain president of Afghanistan for years to come, and he was not going to be pushed around, no matter how big the debt to Washington.

The US-Afghan relationship almost blew apart earlier this spring when Obama paid an unannounced visit to Kabul. At the time, Obama delivered an overt warning to Karzai to purge his government of corruption and cronyism.

That prompted a series of public outbursts by Karzai, including his declaration that he might join the Taleban insurgency if his US critics did not stop pressuring him. For a few days in April, it was not at all clear Karzai would be welcome on this long-planned visit. The troubles weren’t new. Obama had been heading for a collision with Karzai even before moving into the White House.

As a candidate, he criticized the “drifting” war effort under President George W Bush and likewise was hard on Karzai for governing poorly and failing to end endemic corruption. After the public brouhaha of recent weeks, however, somewhere in the administration voices began speaking to the reality that Karzai - like him or not - was Washington’s necessary partner. Instead of canceling the visit, the administration has treated the Afghan leader and his huge delegation with full honors and dignity.

Here’s why: “By the time my term of office completes in four years, four and a half years from today,” Karzai said, “Afghanistan is working hard to provide security for the whole of the country.” The important part of that statement is not Karzai’s ambition to take control of security. The Americans want that as much as he claims to. Instead, the sharp edge was the reminder from Karzai that he is at the helm and will be for some years to come. That, of course,

anticipates he survives in the violent world he inhabits survival that depends heavily on the US military.

Given the leverage he believes he holds, Karzai appears to have won reluctant support from Obama for an upcoming Afghan peace conference at which the Afghan leader hopes to entice Taleban fighters to lay down their arms. He said those willing to make peace would have to prove they were not part of Al-Qaeda or any terrorist group and would support democracy and the rights of women. “There are thousands of them who are country boys who have been driven by intimidation or fear,” Karzai said.

Fair enough, said Obama, whose administration has been leery of moving too quickly toward peace talks. There was, however, a “but”. “One of the things I emphasized to President Karzai,” Obama said, “is that the incentives for the Taleban to lay down arms ... and make peace with the Afghan government in part depends on our effectiveness in breaking their momentum militarily. And that’s why we put in the additional US troops.” Without mentioning it, the two men were publicly jousting over US plans next month to open an offensive in Kandahar, Karzai’s hometown and the Taleban birthplace. The Afghan leader has been trying to limit American plans in the insurgent stronghold.

In the end, the two leaders left their own peace conference able to assert that these kinds of spats just happen and the relationship is all the better for it. Karzai: “There are moments that we speak frankly to each other. And that frankness will only add to the strength of the relationship and contribute to the successes that we have.” Obama: “Our job is to be a good friend and to be frank with President Karzai in saying, ‘Here’s where we think we’ve got to put more effort.’ President Karzai’s job is to represent his country and insist that its sovereignty is properly respected, even as he goes about the hard task of bringing about these changes in both his government and his economy.” The message was diplomatically put by each leader, but the inherent tension oozed from the words of both men.

There was little assurance that one understood the other much better than before they met. — AP

Aquino needs to prove himself after election win

By John Mair

focus

Marcos after the assassination of her husband Benigno in 1983.

She became president in 1986 after the dictator was overthrown.

While her personal integrity was

Liberal party leading presidential candidate Benigno Aquino gestures as he speaks next to a portrait of his mother, former president Corazon Aquino, during an interview at the Aquino museum building in Tarlac City north of Manila on May 11, 2010, a day after the general elections. – AFP

never in question, she was not a political operator or strong leader, and her administration soon lost focus and faced a number of coup attempts. Her son shares her reputation for honesty, but his unremarkable career has raised doubts over whether he can run a government, keep the military onside and take on an opponent as experienced as outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“First of all, he cannot avoid the relatives and the people who campaigned for him. He has to pay his political debt whether he likes it or not,” said Benito Lim, political science professor at Ateneo de Manila University.

“The question is ... does he have that make up or personality to tell them off?”

Official results have not been declared, but election commission figures show Aquino with a decisive lead in the presidential vote with nearly 80 percent counted.

Media and watchdog groups say that has been maintained in further counting. However his

deputy, the politically experienced Mar Roxas, may not win.

Roxas a trade minister under former President Joseph Estrada and Arroyo, was expected to run for president until Cory Aquino’s death last August sparked an emotional push for her son.

A Roxas loss would be a hurdle - losing candidates cannot be appointed to a government position for a year and he would lose an experienced operator - but it is a manageable setback.

Moody’s Investor Services said the vice-presidential result was not as important for the country’s credit fundamentals as the calibre of Aquino’s cabinet and economic policy team. For investors, cutting a budget deficit of around 300 billion pesos ($6.7 billion) and improving government finances loom as the major issues for the new government.

Addressing the fiscal problem is a key requirement if the Philippines wants a ratings upgrade from junk status - which would lower the cost of issuing

and servicing the debt of Asia’s largest sovereign issuer of foreign debt. “Whoever Aquino selects to head Finance, Budget, Agriculture, Transportation and Communication and Public Works would be deemed a first test in Aquino’s ability to generate investor attention in the next administration’s upcoming policy agenda,” Citigroup analyst Jun Trinidad said.

Aquino needs to make sure he can focus on running the economy and keeping control of his team, as he pursues an election pledge to investigate allegations of graft, electoral fraud and rights abuses against the Arroyo administration that preceded him. Arroyo, who denies all allegations of impropriety, has shored up her power base through a raft of appointments to government agencies and bodies - from a new military head and new chief justice to putting her manicurist and palace gardener on boards - and won a seat in Congress’ lower house in Monday’s election.— Reuters

strain British govt

By Mohammed Abbas

B

ritain’s new government is likely to foster strong and possibly even better ties with the United States, but its attitude to Europe could strain the country’s first coalition government since 1945. Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague set out the new government’s foreign policy when he met US counterpart Hillary Clinton in Washington on Friday. Their centuries-old “special relationship” is unlikely to change much, with all the main parties keen to encourage good ties with Washington.

Europe, however, is a different story. Disagreement over how to deal with Europe was seen as a big stumbling block to joint rule between the Conservatives, wary of European integration, and proEU Liberal Democrats before Britain’s May 6 election. An initial outline of policies for their coalition government states that Britain will be a “positive participant” in the EU but there will be no further transfer of powers to Europe without a referendum.

Even within the Conservative party, integration with Europe has been a highly divisive issue. “The government knows it has to tread very carefully about the EU, because it’s not just potentially a friction point between the two coalition partners, but also within the Conservative party itself,” said Wolfango Piccoli, analyst at the Eurasia group thinktank.

Analysts say that, in contrast to Conservative leader Prime Minister David Cameron’s antiEU stance while in opposition, he is likely to be more pragmatic in power, especially now that he must rule with the Liberal Democrats.

Cameron pandered to antiEuropean sentiment during his election campaign, and has said he would try to negotiate the return of Britain’s opt-out in some areas of EU social and employment law, claw back powers on criminal justice and win a complete exemption from the EU’s charter of fundamental rights.

He withdrew the centre-right Conservative party from the main centre-right group in the European parliament last year in a move against greater European integration, and is now aligned with some of Europe’s more right-wing parties.

The initial policy laid out by the coalition suggests that Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has

limited influence on the issue, which is not surprising given that his party is by far the more junior member in the coalition, with 57 seats in parliament against the Conservatives’ 306. Closer ties to Europe would be a tough sell in any case, given Greece’s stricken economy and the money the EU has had to pledge to rescue it.

“Europe is where the coalition is probably at its unlikeliest because Clegg was quite frank during campaigning, dismissing Cameron’s European partners as a ‘bunch of nutters’,” said Jonathan Tonge, head of politics at Liverpool University. “It’s quite clear that that is an area where the Liberal Democrats have lost out most heavily,” he added. But for now the parties appear to be on the same page. Britain’s first clash with Europe could come soon as the EU formulates rules on hedge fund regulation, banking supervision and financial crisis management. Such rules could hit Britain hard given its reliance on the financial services industry.

Ties between Washington and London, on the other hand, are only likely to improve, at least on a personal level, given the lack of warmth between former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama. Obama was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Cameron after his party took power. Britain has been Washington’s closest partner in foreign military missions, and both the Lib Dems and Conservatives have pledged to stay the course in Afghanistan, where NATO-led British troops are fighting an unpopular war.

Both parties, like the United States, also want to seek further sanctions on Iran, which they accuse of trying to develop nuclear weapons, although the Lib Dems have said they would not support military action. “I think both parties would be very, very wary of going down that path. I wouldn’t see it as an issue fracturing the coalition, I would see it as an issue that would be difficult for the government in totally because of the Iraq experience,” said Richard Whitman of the Chatham House thinktank.

The Lib Dems opposed military intervention in Iraq, while former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to stick by the US in the unpopular war led to accusations that he was a “poodle”.

The Conservatives have said their relations with the US would be “solid, not slavish”. — Reuters

NEWS

14

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Bittersweet return for Dutch crash survivor AMSTERDAM: The 9-year-old Dutch boy who miraculously survived a plane crash in Libya returned to the Netherlands aboard an airborne ambulance yesterday and was whisked away to a hospital in his hometown, where he must begin to rebuild his life without his parents or brother. Ruben van Assouw was the sole survivor, pulled unconscious from the wreckage of an Afriqiyah Airways jetliner that plunged into the desert less than a kilometer short of the runway in Tripoli four days ago, killing 103 people.

Investigators from the US and other countries were on the scene of the crash near the Libyan capital Saturday trying to determine a cause. Others began identifying the dead, who include 70 Dutch nationals. Ruben returned with an aunt and uncle aboard a flight to a military air base in Eindhoven, then was taken to St Elizabeth Hospital in nearby Tilburg, the hometown of the Van Assouws. Patrick, 40, Trudy, 41, and their son Enzo died in the crash.

Ruben underwent more than four hours of surgery to repair multiple fractures to his legs Wednesday, but doctors say he has been recovering well. A statement by close relatives said the extended family will care for Ruben, and asked the media not to contact them while they are grieving. Ruben was shielded from the media at the air base and hospital. It was not yet clear where he will live, though much of the family, including grandparents, lives in Tilburg. “Let’s make sure he can catch his breath peacefully in the arms of relatives,” Tilburg mayor Ivo Opstelten said on Dutch television.

The boy and his relatives need to find “a

kind of balance with each other, so they can start sketching a future.”

The story of the boy’s improbable survival and tragic loss has moved people around the world. Hundreds offered condolences and wished the boy well on a blog set up by his father to chronicle the family’s vacation to South Africa. They were returning home when their flight from Johannesburg to Tripoli crashed. At the Yore elementary school in Tilburg where Enzo was in 6th grade and Ruben is in 3rd, many students returned early from spring break to sign a condolence register for Enzo - and prepare for Ruben’s eventual return.

“When he comes back - we don’t know exactly how things are going to go - but when he comes back to school, we’re going to take awfully good care of him,” school director Elly Sebregts said. “That’s the school’s job, I think. What we can do for him, in the school sphere, we will do.”

Investigators on a joint panel, which includes Americans, Dutch, French, South Africans and Libyans, met yesterday to plot their strategy to determine a cause of the crash. No findings were immediately released.

The US investigators are from the National Transportation Safety Board team since the plane’s engines were made by US manufacturer General Electric. The team also was to include technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration and General Electric. The plane’s black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder - were recovered intact and have been sent to Paris for review.

Naji Dhou, the head of the Libyan com-

mittee investigating the crash, told reporters that preliminary results indicate the plane had diverted about 4 degrees from the runway and landed about 400 yards in front of it. He said debris from the crash was scattered in an 800-squaremeter area, but investigators had only covered 150-sq-m of that so far. He said there was no explosion until the plane hit the ground. Libya has ruled out terrorism as a possible cause of the crash, although an investigation was still under way.

Forensics teams began identifying the bodies of crash victims yesterday. Most of those on board the Airbus 330-200 flight were Dutch tourists, and the Netherlands’ government has requested DNA and other information from victims’ relatives to help the process. The Dutch Ministry says investigators hope to complete the identification of the bodies within three weeks.

Rescuers responding to the crash found Ruben still strapped in his seat and breathing in an area of desert sand strewn with the plane’s shredded wreckage. Both his legs were broken, but he had no serious injuries to his neck, head or internal organs.

Libyan doctor Sadig Bendala said the boy was continuing to recover. “He’s OK, he’s fine today,” Bendala said before boarding the plane with his young patient, calling Ruben “a miracle”. Ed Kronenburg, the top Dutch foreign ministry official in Libya, called the boy’s return a “fantastic moment” despite his nation’s sorrow over the crash’s many victims. “I hope he will slowly ... recover and pick up his life again, although it will never be normal,” Kronenburg said. — AP

Protesters demand Jassem be released Continued from Page 1 minister of the Amiri Diwan, Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad, the elder son of HH the Amir, he said.

Addressing the gathering outside the Palace of Justice, opposition MP Musallam Al-Barrak said the action against Jassem aims to scare others in Kuwait and appealed to civil society groups and lawmakers to protest against the government.

“If he is indeed instigating to overthrow the regime, why didn’t the government move against him? The Amir of Kuwait is protected by the constitution, and he practices his authority through his ministers, then why then they are trying to intimidate us by depicting this issue as a personal conflict between the writer and the Amiri Diwan? And would they arrest someone now, if his book was approved to be published by the ministry of information four years ago?” Barrak wondered.

Barrak called on MPs and Kuwaiti NGOs to voice out their stance on this issue, and to reject the government’s attempts to “step on freedoms”, calling them “alarming”. “We are not an authoritarian country, we are a country that is supposed to be ruled by constitution, but if this is happening while we still have a constitution, what will happen if there will be a coup against the country’s constitution, and a suspension of parliament?” he wondered.

The lawsuit was based on articles written by Jassem on his website in the past five years that were deemed too critical, and also on three books he has written on the political situation in the Gulf state.

“The accusations are politically motivated since they are based on a political opinion and not a criminal offence,” said Jassem’s lawyer Abdullah Al-Ahmad, adding the books have been authorised by the information ministry. The Kuwaiti prosecution and government have made no comment on the case.

“Just before the interrogation session ended today, Jassem collapsed and was rushed to the (state) military hospital,” Ahmad, who attended the session, said.

Then, the prosecutor ordered him to be detained for 21 days for further investigation, the lawyer said. He will be held at the secret service department. “His health has deteriorated badly and I hold all those responsible for his detention of any consequences,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad said that he feels like he is fulfilling a historical task by defending Jassem. He stressed that the arrest of Jassem was politically motivated. “If these charges are true, and if these books indeed contain instigations to overthrow the regime, then the entire chain of people responsible for approving it should also be detained and prosecuted, starting from the lowest post, all the way to the then minister of information,” he said.

Omar Al-Jassem, the son of detained writer, said that this is a battle of a person against a regime, and that charges against his father are politically motivated. “My father only expressed his opinion, as allowed by the law, while there are others who instigate sectarian and territorial hatred in the Kuwaiti society, and no one is touching them,” he said.

Jassem’s daughter Summaya said her father was taken to hospital twice on Friday night after his condition deteriorated. “My father had undergone open heart surgery and other heart treatment and not taking medicine poses a real danger to his life,” she said. “The whole family is very concerned about his health and we call on the government and the general prosecutor to release him immediately. We weren’t allowed to visit him in hospital to check on his condition,” said Sumayya, who also urged international human rights groups to intervene.

Ahmad Al-Diyayn, a Kuwaiti writer said that this is a sad day in Kuwaiti history.

“We now have a prisoner of opinion in

Kuwait, detained by the secret service for false accusations,” he noted, adding that these accusations fall under the press and publication law that do not require such measures to be taken. Al-Diyayn called on the public prosecutor to use his authority to release Jassem. “Al-Jassem went by himself to the prosecutor when they asked of him to attend, and I went with him - he is not feared to be a fugitive, so there is no need to treat him in this way,” he said. AlDiyayn also called on the Kuwaiti people to gather on Tuesday evening in front of the National Assembly for another sit-in to demand the release of Jassem.

Muhammad Al-Dallal, the head of Islamic Constitutional Movement, said that he has faith in the Kuwaiti judicial system. He added the charges against Jassem should be dealt like other press and publication law cases. “We are in a free country, and the freedom of expression is a basic constitutional right in the Kuwaiti society, so the extreme measures taken in this case violate constitutional principles, and that’s why we urge the public prosecution to release Al-Jassem immediately,” he said.

Amnesty International meanwhile joined the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in condemning the arrest and calling for Jassem’s immediate release. “The constant hounding of Jassem makes a mockery of Kuwait’s much vaunted claim that they respect freedom of thought and opinion,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director. “He is a prisoner of conscience, held solely for expressing his views, and all charges against him must be dropped.”

Jasem Jade’a, a member of the legal committee representing Al-Jasem said that they will file a request to release Jassim to the public prosecution today morning. The protesters later marched from the Palace of Justice to the National Assembly.

Top Saudi prince blasts ‘inept’ US Continued from Page 1 “The Arab world has given (US President Barack) Obama until September to get things done,” said Turki. “It is not enough to talk the talk.

He has to walk the walk,” he said. “If he does not succeed... then I ask President Obama to do the morally decent gesture and recognise the Palestinian state that he so ardently wishes to exist. He can then pack up and leave us in peace and let the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese negotiate directly with the Israelis. No more platitudes and good wishes and visions, please.”

Prince Turki also faulted the US and European approach in trying to halt Iran’s alleged efforts to build a nuclear weapon, and he blasted Clinton for undermining efforts to create a Middle East nuclearfree zone.

“The discussions on Iran’s nuclear ambitions started off on the wrong foot.

The carrot and stick approach does not work,” he said. For one, he said, the US and Europe have had double-standards in dealing with Iran on the one hand, and other nuclear countries on the other. “You cannot ask Iran to play on one level while you allow Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea to play on other levels.”

Turki said a successful strategy toward Iran requires even-handedness, a “universal nuclear security umbrella” for the countries in the area, and “a good military option” against any regional country which does not cooperate in removing the

threat of nuclear weapons in the region.

He said Clinton had undermined efforts to move toward a regional nuclear free zone, after the UN Security Council’s five permanent members recently expressed support for the idea.

“Alas, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton then voided the issue of its value by stating that the conditions do not yet exist for establishing the zone,” he said.

“Why, then, did she join the other members of the P5 in issuing their statement?” Turki said he hoped Obama “will find the way to correct his secretary of state’s nullification of making our area free of weapons of mass destruction”.

Prince Turki also accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki of trying to “hijack” the results of Iraq’s March general election. “Adding to the brutal mayhem taking place there, we are watching a deliberate effort on the part of the incumbent prime minister, Mr Al-Maliki, to hijack the results of the election and deny the Iraqi people their legitimately elected government,” he said. “The consequences of that are more bloodshed and potential civil war,” Turki said. Maliki and his State of Law Alliance won 89 parliamentary seats, two less than the Iraqiya bloc of former prime minister Iyad Allawi.

State of L aw and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, which finished third with 70 seats, have sought to form a coalition.

But their alliance falls four seats short of a parliamentary majority, and recounts, nearly completed, so far have not changed the results.

Turki’s comments reflected Riyadh’s clear displeasure with Maliki since he became prime minister, with the Saudis refusing to open a full embassy in Baghdad and expressing suspicion of Maliki’s relations with arch-rival Iran.

Allawi, meanwhile, met King Abdullah on a visit to Riyadh just ahead of the polls, raising accusations that Saudis were supporting his party, which were denied by Saudi officials.

Prince Turki also called for a UN Security Council guarantee of Iraq’s integrity, warning that both internal and external groups seek to carve up the country. “With American forces due to leave Iraq next year, this is the only option that will meet the challenge posed by several Iraqi political factions whose main ambition is to partition Iraq,” he said. “Equally sinister are the designs of some of Iraq’s neighbors to take advantage of impending Iraqi internal conflict to advance their acquisition of Iraqi territories,” he said.

Turki pointed to what he said was Iran’s recent “encroachment” on land in southern Iraq. He did not elaborate, but might have been referring to an incident in December, when Iranian troops briefly occupied an oil well on land claimed by Iraq. “Imagine what will happen once internal strife and fighting escalates” in the wake of the US pullout, he said.

Without a Security Council effort to protect Iraq’s current borders, he said, the consequence could be “regional conflict on a scale not seen since the OttomanSafavid wars of the 17th and 18th centuries”. — AFP

TRIPOLI: Libyan medics wheel Dutch boy Ruben van Assouw out of a hospital yesterday. — AFP

Urban warfare breaks out in Bangkok Continued from Page 1 “The current situation is almost full civil war,” said a protest leader, Jatuporn Prompan. “I am not sure how this conflict will end.” Protesters rolled burning tyres at soldiers and launched fireworks at helicopters hovering over the capital, which is under a state of emergency. The army warned it would move against the demonstrators’ main rally site unless they disperse, but it gave no timetable for the action. “There is a plan to crack down on Ratchaprasong if the protest does not end,” said the army spokesman, Sunsern Kaewkumnerd. “But authorities will not set a deadline because without effective planning there will be more loss of life.”

For two months thousands of protesters have turned a large area of Bangkok into a virtual state within a state, crippling a retail and hotel district and disrupting daily life for residents in the city of 12 million people. The United States warned yesterday against all travel to Bangkok and authorised the evacuation of non-essential embassy staff and families. In the Silom business and tourism hub, close to the main rally base, two men were shot and left badly wounded yesterday after about 30 protesters, one armed with a small handgun, clashed with troops, an AFP photographer said.

The Red Shirts were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails when the shooting occurred. Numerous M-79 grenades had been fired at security forces in various areas on the edges of the protest site

overnight, a government spokesman said, and there were reports of more grenades exploding yesterday. The kingdom has been riven by years of political turmoil since the Reds’ hero, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006. Its society is deeply divided between the urban elite and rural poor.

The rally site, where demonstrators sleep on mats on the ground and listen to speeches and music blasted from giant speakers, stretches for several square kilometres and is fortified with razor wire, bamboo stakes and piles of tyres. The mostly poor and working class Reds say the government is elitist and undemocratic because it came to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court ruling ousted elected allies of Thaksin. A Thai court handed six-month jail sentences to 27 protesters arrested during Friday’s clashes.

A journalist, a photographer for The Nation newspaper, was injured and in a serious condition after a bullet shattered a bone in his leg while covering yesterday’s clashes, further underlining the risks facing media in Bangkok. He was the fourth journalist to be shot and injured in just two days in the capital, where a Japanese cameraman was killed last month during unrest.

On Thursday night renegade general Khattiya Sawasdipol, a key Red Shirt supporter, was shot in the head near the rally site. His condition had slightly improved yesterday but he was still in a critical state, said Chaiwan Charoenchokethavee, direc-

tor of the Vachira hospital. Protest leaders have called for the intervention of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 82. But the monarch, seen as a unifying force, has been hospitalised since September and has avoided commenting directly in public on the crisis.

By nightfall, at least 2,000 protesters had massed around an intersection in the working-class Klong Toey district, using a truck as a makeshift stage for protest leaders, in a possible move toward setting up a separate sit-in site. Residents were asked to show identification to prevent people from joining the crowd. Red shirt leader Nattawut Saikua told thousands still hunkered down in their main encampment that reinforcements were coming. “We have been contacted by leaders in several provinces that they will mobilise to help us pressure the government.”

Witnesses described the fighting as one-sided, as troops armed with automatic rifles easily dodged projectiles and opened fire. Soldiers can shoot if protesters come within 36 m, said army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd, adding more soldiers were needed to establish control. “I cannot say how many troops are deployed due to security concerns, but there will be reinforcements to help troops seal the area and step up pressure on protesters,” he said. “I am not scared,” said Sanae Promman, a 37year-old protester frying vegetables in a wok under a tent at the site. “Some of my friends have left because they are scared but many are still here to fight. We will fight until we die if we must.” — Agencies

Palestinians again mark ‘Naqba’ Continued from Page 1 In previous years, different Palestinian factions organized their own events, highlighting their inability to work together on key issues. No political speeches were made - an apparent nod to the fundamental ideological differences between Hamas and Fatah. Marchers also were asked not to raise the flags of their parties. Some Fatah women got around the ban by wearing yellow headscarves, the color of their movement.

In the West Bank, sirens wailed through the Israeli-occupied territory as residents marked a minute’s silence. Speaking outside Gaza’s UN headquarters, where the march ended, Hamas official Ismail Radwan said “the right of return is sacred”.

Meanwhile, Fatah official Zakaria Al-Agha said a letter from all the Palestinian movements to UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon had been presented at the UN office.

It asked him to “act as soon as possible to lift the injustice against the Palestinian people.”

More than 760,000 Palestinians - estimated today to number 4.7 million with their descendants - were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict that followed Israel’s creation 62 years ago.

On Friday, the actual anniversary, protests

were staged in Hamas-ruled Gaza and in Lebanon, home to about 400,000 Palestinian refugees, as chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat blasted Israel for its “disregard of international law.”

Some 3,000 people demonstrated in Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp in a protest organised by the Islamist Hamas movement, and a similar number joined a demonstration in the Nuseirat camp staged by the Islamic Jihad group. “We will never give up the right of return” of refugees to their towns and villages, a Hamas leader, Muin Mderes, told the crowd in Jabaliya.

He also called for the “resistance to unite” against Israel.

Yesterday, Lebanese and Palestinian activists also marked the “catastrophe” by setting a record for the world’s largest keffiyeh, or Arab headdress. The 6,552-m chain of scarves was laid out on the grounds of Beirut’s Sport City Stadium in a feat overseen by a Guinness World Records official. More than 100 volunteers placed the giant scarf to form the number 194, signifying the 1948 UN Security Council Resolution that grants Palestinians the right to return to their homes in Israelioccupied land. “On the anniversary of the Naqba we want to affirm that Resolution 194... calling for the return of Palestinians to their land must be implemented,” said

Jamal Kurdi, of the Campaign 194 group that organised the event. The feat, overseen by a Guinness World Records official, breaks a previous entry of a 2,932-m scarf set in Spain in Aug 2009.

Israeli governments have refused to allow Palestinian refugees to return to homes they fled in 1948 over fears a massive return would threaten the state of Israel and its 5.7 million Jewish population.

In a sign of the tensions that have gripped both sides, Israeli troops yesterday shot dead an elderly farmer and wounded another Palestinian near Gaza’s northern border with Israel. Fuad Abu Matar, 75, died after being “hit with several bullets fired by Israeli occupation soldiers,” Muawia Hassanein, head of the Gaza Strip’s emergency services, told AFP. An army spokesman told AFP soldiers had detected a man approaching the security barrier near the Nahal Oz road crossing and opened fire after warning shots. “The whole sector near the security barrier is considered a combat zone,” he said, accusing the Palestinians of “many provocations and attempted attacks.” On Friday an Israeli settler, whose car had been stoned, shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian youth in the West Bank and hours later the army said Palestinian gunmen raked a car with gunfire wounding two Israelis. -— Agencies

Aussie teen finishes round-the-world sail Continued from Page 1 proved that anything really can be achieved if you set your mind to it.

Anything really is possible,” she said.

Although the World Speed Sailing Council will not recognise Watson’s record, as its minimum age is 18, her seven-month voyage makes her the youngest person to achieve a solo, continuous and unaided circumnavigation.

Fellow Australian Jesse Martin set the current record of 327 days in 1999, then aged 18, and boarded Watson’s yacht to congratulate her and steer a course to shore so she could lap up the welcome.

“It took me 11 months and she’s done it in seven, she’s flown around the world,” an admiring Martin said. “I think you can say if she can do this she’ll be right; she can do anything.”

Watson’s 23,000 nautical mile journey

took her through some of the world’s most challenging and treacherous waters, pitting her bright pink 10-m yacht against 40-foot swells and gale-force winds. She twice sailed over the equator, crossed all meridians of longitude and passed the world’s four capes as she traversed the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The teen battled loneliness and boredom in her time at sea, sometimes going months without seeing another person, and had to stitch up torn sails and carry out ad hoc repairs to her fuel pump.

Authorities urged the teen to reconsider the attempt after she smashed into a massive coal freighter during a test sail last September, snapping her yacht’s mast and damaging its rigging and hull.

Watson said while the collision had been among her toughest moments, coming through adversities in defiance of her critics were precisely what kept her

going in darker moments. “The day I sailed in after the collision, holding my head high to the critics, I always looked back on that day when things were tough there was a storm and I’d been knocked down or I was lonely,” she said. “I always looked back on that day and (thought) ‘Well I held my head high then, I can do this’.”

Rudd presented Watson, who is keen to learn to drive a car, with a certificate for a free driving lesson, something he joked she was sure to have “no problem” with. The teen said she was looking forward to a few simple pleasures - walking on the beach, eating fresh fruit and reading some new books - and returning to life as a 16-year-old. “For now I’m just really happy to do some more slightly normal things, have a quiet few years to finish school, that sort of thing,” she said. — AFP

15

SPORTS

Sunday, May 16, 2010

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results on Friday.

Pittsburgh 10, Chicago Cubs 6; Baltimore 8, Cleveland1; NY Yankees 8, Minnesota 4; Boston 7, Detroit 2; Toronto 16, Texas 10; Seattle 4, Tampa Bay 3; Florida 7, NY Mets 2; St. Louis 4, Cincinnati 3; Atlanta 6, Arizona 5; Kansas City 6, Chicago White Sox 1; Philadelphia 9, Milwaukee 5; Colorado, Washington (postponed); LA Angels 4, Oakland 0; La Dodgers 4, San Diego 3; San Francisco 8, Houston 2.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT GB Tampa Bay 24 11 .686 NY Yankees 23 12 .657 1 Toronto 21 16 .568 4 Boston 19 17 .528 5.5 Baltimore 12 24 .333 12.5 Central Division Minnesota 22 13 .629 Detroit 20 16 .556 2.5 Chicago White Sox 14 21 .400 8 Cleveland 13 20 .394 8 Kansas City 13 23 .361 9.5 Western Division Texas 20 16 .556 Oakland 18 18 .500 2 LA Angels 16 21 .432 4.5 Seattle 14 21 .400 5.5 National League Eastern Division Philadelphia 21 13 .618 Washington 20 15 .571 1.5 Florida 18 18 .500 4 NY Mets 18 18 .500 4 Atlanta 17 18 .486 4.5 Central Division St. Louis 21 15 .583 Cincinnati 19 16 .543 1.5 Milwaukee 15 20 .429 5.5 Pittsburgh 15 20 .429 5.5 Chicago Cubs 15 21 .417 6 Houston 13 22 .371 7.5 Western Division San Diego 22 13 .629 San Francisco 19 15 .559 2.5 LA Dodgers 18 17 .514 4 Colorado 16 18 .471 5.5 Arizona 14 22 .389 8.5

ATLANTA: Arizona Diamondbacks’ Mark Reynolds (left) steals second base as Atlanta Braves second base Martin Prado leaps for the wild throw in the third inning of a baseball game. — AP

Cardinals end homer drought, edge Reds CINCINNATI: Albert Pujols ended St. Louis’ longest homer drought in three years with a two-run shot that helped the Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 in Friday’s clash of National League Central leaders.

Ryan Ludwick added a two-run shot off Aaron Harang (2-5) that also cleared the wall, sparking an offense that hadn’t homered in the previous nine games.

St. Louis starter Jaime Garcia (4-2) has gone at least six innings and given up two or fewer earned runs in all seven starts. It’s the best such opening streak by a rookie since the L.A. Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela did so in eight games in 1981.

Dodgers 4, Padres 3 In San Diego, Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning that a frustrated Tony Gwynn Jr. got his glove on as it

sailed over the wall, sending Los Angeles to a win over the NL West-leading San Diego.

Gwynn leaped at the center-field wall to take a stab at Kemp’s fly ball, but it hit the end of his glove and went over. After he came back down, Gwynn punched the padded wall.

The Dodgers won their fifth straight while the Padres had their three-game winning streak snapped. Kemp’s homer off Luke Gregerson (0-1) came with Russell Martin aboard on a double. It ended Gregerson’s scoreless streak at 16 1-3 innings.

Marlins 7, Mets 2 In Miami, Dan Uggla hit two of Florida’s four homers and drove in four runs, leading Florida over New York. Chris Coghlan hit the first home run by a left-handed batter for Florida this season, and Gaby Sanchez also

connected.

The Marlins got more than four runs for the first time in 10 games and scored first for only the second time in the past 14, building a 7-0 lead. All the homers came off struggling Mets starter Oliver Perez, matching his career high. He had given up only one previously this season.

New York managed only two runs against Marlins starter Anibal Sanchez (2-2), who pitched seven innings and struck out seven.

Phillies 9, Brewers 5 In Milwaukee, veteran pitcher Jamie Moyer overcame giving up three homers in one inning to steer Philadelphia past Milwaukee.

The 47-year-old Moyer (5-2) continued his strong season start, only struggling briefly when Prince Fielder, Jim Edmonds

and George Kottaras all hit solo homers in the second to tie the game.

Ryan Howard hit a two-run shot while Raul Ibanez and Chase Utley hit solo homers for the Phillies. Ibanez hit his homer and Shane Victorino drove in two with a triple in the fourth off Randy Wolf (3-3) to give the Phillies a 6-3 lead.

Giants 8, Astros 2 In San Francisco, Andres Torres had an RBI triple, doubled in a run and scored twice as San Francisco snapped Houston’s fourgame winning streak. The Giants produced the timely hits they lacked in recent days.

San Francisco starter Todd Wellemeyer (2-3) pitched into the eighth inning to help the Giants bounce back from a three-game sweep by San Diego and improved to 4-0 against the Astros this season.

Hunter Pence hit a solo homer in the

Pak leads Classic MOBILE: Se Ri Pak shot a 6under 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Brittany Lincicome and Wendy Ward after Friday’s second round of the Bell Micro LPGA Classic.

Pak had five birdies in a sixhole stretch on her final nine holes to move her to 9-under 135 after two rounds on The Crossings course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s Magnolia Grove complex.

Pak won events on the course in 2001 and 2002. “I have such a great memory about it,” Pak said. “I play really well and the scores are really low, too.

That helps a lot.

“I know so many holes, where to miss, how to play, how to make the shot. That actually helps a lot, especially during this week.” Ward had the low round with a 65, six strokes better than her opener.

Lincicome got off to a fast start with birdies on six of her opening seven holes, but had a finishing bogey for a 66.

First-round leader Azahara Munoz was in a group of four players three strokes back after a double bogey on No. 17 and a 73.

Pak is pushing $11 million in career earnings but hasn’t finished better than 15th in her first five events of 2010 or won since the 2007 Owens Corning Classic. She withdrew from the Tres Marias Championship in Mexico two weeks ago after an opening 84.

“I really have been struggling on the green, but golf is a patient game so I’m kind of patient myself and keep working exactly the same thing and change a little bit of routine,” Pak said.

“Finally, I make some putts here and there and then (that) gets me my feel back and then I have a lot of confidence back.

And then of course I have a great chance.”

Ward, a 15-year veteran who turned 37 last week, took a more dramatic step after a slow start in 2010. She turned to Lori Brock, her coach of about 10 years ago to jump-start her game. They reunited before the tournament in Mexico.

“It’s simple again,” said Ward, who birdied the final two holes. “It’s fun and it’s simple and that’s the way this game needs to be.” The longdriving Lincicome rapidly climbed the leaderboard with her fast start.

“I did really good on that nine (Thursday), so there’s definitely something about that nine that I like,” said Lincicome. “I made every putt that I looked at. I had about 10-footers every hole and I just rolled them in like they’re nothing.”

Lincicome lost a share of the lead with a finishing bogey after her approach shot from the fringe of the trees left of the fairway overshot the green. Then she two-putted from about 25 feet.

“I was driving it really well until that last hole,” Lincicome said. “I’m not really sure where that came from. I was a little nervous knowing I was near the top.” Jiyai Shin, who took over the world No. 1 for the retired Lorena Ochoa, was five strokes behind Pak after her second straight 70. Japanese star Ai Miyazato, coming off her third win in the first five events of the season, was another shot back after a 71. Michelle Wie made the cut by a stroke, following her opening 72 with a 73.

Many of the players wore purple ribbons and wristbands with “EB” and a heart honoring Erica Blasberg, a 25-year-old tour player who was found dead in suburban Las Vegas on Sunday. The flag was at halfstaff. — AP

fourth for one of his two runs. Matt Downs had an RBI double, Aubrey Huff and Nate Schierholtz singled in runs and Pablo Sandoval had an RBI groundout for the Giants.

Braves 6, D’backs 5 In Atlanta, Martin Prado’s bases-loaded bloop single drove in two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Atlanta over Arizona.

Arizona closer Chad Qualls (0-2) couldn’t hold a 5-4 lead in the ninth. It was his third blown save in nine chances, and the Diamondbacks’ bullpen is only 7 for 15 in save opportunities.

Eric Hinske led off the ninth with a single against Qualls. Omar Infante’s bunt single moved pinch-runner Brandon Hicks to second and Nate McLouth’s sacrifice left runners on second and third with one out.

Qualls issued an intentional walk to Melky Cabrera to load the bases before Prado punched the game-winning hit into shallow right.

Pirates 10, Cubs 6 In Chicago, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones both homered and set career highs with five hits each as Pittsburgh downed Chicago.

The Pirates broke loose at the plate after four straight losses and back-to-back shutouts at Cincinnati. They scored three runs in the first inning, then rallied from a 6-4 deficit.

Jones also doubled and drove in five runs. He broke an eighth-inning tie with a three-run homer off Carlos Zambrano.

McCutchen scored five times, stole two bases and hit a solo home run in the ninth. — AP

Yankees win over Twins NEW YORK: Alex Rodriguez hit his 19th career grand slam to power the New York Yankees to an 8-4 win over the Minnesota Twins in the American League on Friday.

Minnesota was leading 4-2 in the seventh when Mark Teixeira was intentionally walked and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire made the curious decision to introduce reliever Matt Guerrier, as Rodriguez had a 4-for-6 record with three home runs off him.

Rodriguez carried his bat all the way to first base, then raised a fist in triumph after the homer, which was 587th, moving him past Frank Robinson and into sole possession of seventh place on the all-time list. Joba Chamberlain (1-1) struck out the Twins in the eighth to take the win.

Blue Jays 16, Rangers 10 In Toronto, Aaron Hill, Travis Snider and Vernon Wells all hit three-run homers as Toronto outslugged Texas for a wild win.

The Blue Jays pounded out 15 total hits and boosted their major league lead in home runs (57) and extra-base hits (162).

Toronto reliever Josh Roenicke (1-0) worked 1 1-3 innings for his first major league win while Rangers pitcher Doug Mathis (1-1) took the loss, allowing eight runs in 1 1-3 innings.

Lyle Overbay went 3 for 3 with two walks and three RBIs for the Blue Jays, who rallied from an early 9-3 deficit.

Red Sox 7, Tigers 2 In Detroit, David Ortiz had his second multihomer game this month and drove in four runs, lifting Boston over Detroit.

Ortiz hit a three-run homer after Dustin Pedroia’s two-run drive in the first inning.

Ortiz added a solo shot in the fourth to restore Boston’s five-run cushion. He has hit five home runs in nine games after clearing the fence only once in his first 16 games.

Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz (4-3) gave up just one run in 6 1-3 innings to take the win. Detroit’s Max Scherzer (1-4) gave up six runs over five innings in his fourth poor start in a row.

MOBILE: Se Ri Pak tees off during the second round of the Bell Micro LPGA Classic golf tournament. — AP

Mariners 4, Rays 3 In St. Petersburg, Franklin Gutierrez, Adam Moore and Mike Sweeney homered, helping Seattle edge majors-leading Tampa Bay.

Seattle starter Doug Fister (3-1) allowed only one run in five innings for the last-place Mariners. Evan Longoria hit a two-run homer to pull the Rays to within 4-3 in the eighth. Seattle closer David Aardsma got the final three outs for his ninth save in 11 opportunities. Tampa Bay is a moderate 9-7 at home, compared to 15-4 on the road.

Angels 4, Athletics 0 In Anaheim, Joe Saunders pitched his second shutour and third complete game of his career to steer Los Angeles past Oakland.

Saunders (2-5) struck out six, walked two and stranded three runners in scoring position in a performance that partially made up for his disappointing four previous starts.

A’s starter Dallas Braden, who pitched the 19th perfect game in major league history last Sunday, held the Angels scoreless until Kendry Morales hit a go-ahead single in the sixth. Hideki Matsui followed with a threerun homer to help the Angels beat the Athletics.

Royals 6, White Sox 1 In Kansas City, the hosts made Ned Yost’s managerial debut a successful one, beating Chicago. The Royals looked like a new team, at least for one night, after Yost replaced Trey Hillman, getting good starting pitching, clutch hitting and a solid effort by the bullpen.

Mitch Maier lined a two-run single in Kansas City’s five-run seventh inning against White Sox starter Mark Buehrle (2-5).

Yuniesky Betancourt homered and saved a run with a stunning snag at shortstop, and Royals reliever Dusty Hughes (1-1) got his first win in the majors.

Orioles 8, Indians 1 In Baltimore, Jeremy Guthrie allowed only two singles in eight innings, guiding Baltimore past Cleveland. Guthrie (2-4) walked just one, and retired 16 consecutive Indians following Jhonny Peralta’s RBI single in the first inning.

Miguel Tejada drove in three runs for the Orioles, who matched a season high with his third straight victory. Indians starter Justin Masterson (0-4) is winless in 14 starts. He allowed six runs in 5 1-3 innings, walking five and hitting two batters. — AP

SPORTS

16

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Plenty of faces in new places for WNBA NEW YORK: Two big trades, several free-agent moves, the loss of another franchise and the relocation of a perennial powerhouse — there are plenty of faces in new places as the WNBA opens its 14th season this weekend.

After winning their second title in three years, the Phoenix Mercury were involved in one of biggest trades in league history, sending Cappie Pondexter to New York in a three-way deal that saw three AllStars change teams.

With Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor leading the way, and Candice Dupree — acquired from Chicago in the blockbuster trade — joining them, Phoenix is the favorite to reach the WNBA finals again.

Dupree, a 1.85-meter (6-foot-2)

forward who averaged 15.7 points per game last year, gives the Mercury an inside threat _ something coach Corey Gaines believes will make the high-scoring offense even better.

The league is down to 12 teams after the Sacramento Monarchs folded in the offseason, the third franchise in four years to shut down.

Also, the Detroit Shock were sold to a group in Oklahoma and moved to Tulsa.

The Shock, who shifted to the Western Conference, are not the same team that won three titles in a six-year stretch in Detroit, and return only five players from last season. Tulsa has a newcomer at the helm, with Nolan Richardson bringing the “40 Minutes of Hell”

he used to win a men’s NCAA title with Arkansas in 1994.

“Most of the starters are no longer on that basketball team,” he said. “I look at the team as a semiexpansion ballclub.” Tulsa also garnered attention by signing disgraced sprinter Marion Jones, who hasn’t played basketball since graduating from college in 1997.

Jones was stripped of her Olympic medals and spent almost six months in federal prison for lying about her use of performanceenhancing drugs and her role in a financial fraud. “She’s working extremely hard,” Richardson said.

“She’s a tremendous athlete, got some tremendous upside even though she hasn’t been in the game for a long time.”

The Mercury’s biggest challenge in the West will likely come from a Los Angeles Sparks club transitioning into the post-Lisa Leslie era following the retirement of the ninetime All-Star and three-time MVP. Leslie finished as the league’s career leader in scoring (6,263 points) and rebounding (3,307).

And the Sparks will be doing it under Jennifer Gillom, who led Minnesota to a 14-20 record last year in her first season as a head coach. Even without Leslie, Los Angeles has three Olympians: Parker, the 2008 MVP and Rookie of the Year; DeLisha MiltonJones; and Tina Thompson, the only remaining player from the WNBA’s first season in 1997. The Sparks improved their backcourt by signing

free agent Ticha Penicheiro. The WNBA’s all-time assists leader (2,178) had spent her 12-year career in Sacramento. In the other big deal of the offseason, the Lynx acquired Lindsay Whalen from Connecticut.

The Lynx received the second pick from the Sun in exchange for Renee Montgomery and the first pick — which Connecticut used to select Tina Charles.

Whalen joins a Minnesota team that has been on the cusp of reaching the playoffs the last two years.

However, the Lynx are expected to play the first month of the season without stars Seimone Augustus and Candice Wiggins while they recover from surgeries. Pondexter said her request for the trade to New York was about a career after basketball.

“It’s nothing negative about Phoenix, the organization, me not liking Diana Taurasi or being overshadowed,” she said. “I realized basketball is not going to be here forever and New York, and my plans off the court, is the best place.”

The Liberty also added Nicole Powell from the Monarchs and signed center Taj McWilliamsFranklin to provide a veteran presence in the middle. The shake-up, which included sending top scorer Shameka Christon to Chicago in the big trade, could make New York a contender in the East a year after it finished last with the second-worst record in franchise history.

Indiana, which lost to Phoenix in five games in the Fever’s first WNBA finals appearance, returns

mostly intact. “Expectations are very high,” Fever coach Lin Dunn said. “You come within a couple of minutes of maybe winning the championship ... the bar has been raised.”

Washington had a big free-agent signing in veteran forward Katie Smith, one of the players who left the Shock. However, the Mystics then lost Alana Beard for the season following ankle surgery. Seattle and San Antonio are also expected to contend in the West.

Although the Storm haven’t advanced past the first round of the postseason since winning the 2004 title, they have won at least 20 games in four of the past six seasons and still have their All-Star duo of Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird. —AP

Flyers soar over Bruins BOSTON: Just as they did in the series as a whole, the Philadelphia Flyers fought back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Friday, completing a stunning turnaround and booking a place in the NHL Eastern Conference finals.

Simon Gagne scored on a power play with 7:08 left to cap a comeback from a three-goal deficit as the Flyers became only the third team in NHL history to win a series after losing the first three games.

Philadelphia will start the next round at home today against another surprising conference finalist, the Montreal Canadiens.

Gagne, a major force since returning from a toe injury for Game 4, scored with only 18 seconds left in a power play after the Bruins were penalized for having too many men on the ice.

The Flyers capitalized when captain Mike Richards’ shot from the right circle hit players in front of Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask. The puck bounced and Gagne, stationed to Rask’s left, flipped the puck over the goalie’s right shoulder.

The only other teams to win a series after trailing 30 were the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who beat Detroit, and the 1975 New York Islanders, who eliminated Pittsburgh. The other 159 teams that won the first three games in a series all won them.

The Bruins shot out to a 3-0 lead on power-play goals

by Michael Ryder and Milan Lucic and another goal by Lucic, all within 14:10 of the first period. Then James van Riemsdyk scored for Philadelphia with 2:48 left in the first period before second-period goals by Scott Hartnell at 2:49 and Danny Briere at 8:39 to tie it.

Boston, having lost its previous two Game 7s, played aggressively at the start, and got a break when Hartnell was penalized for high-sticking and Ryder scored his fourth playoff goal on a rebound 8 seconds later.

Another Boston power play 3 minutes later led to another goal, this one by Lucic, who tipped in a pass across the crease from Dennis Wideman in the right corner. Lucic struck again, scoring his fifth playoff goal five minutes later, on a shot from the right circle.

Flyers goalie Michael Leighton, who took over in Game 5 when Brian Boucher sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee, didn’t let another goal past him.

Van Riemsdyk began the comeback with his first playoff goal on a soft shot that trickled by Rask.

That was the first of nine consecutive shots by Philadelphia. One of them was Hartnell’s second goal of the playoffs. Another was Briere’s seventh playoff goal — on a wraparound.

There were no more goals — until Gagne sent the Bruins into an offseason wondering how it all fell apart. —AP

GERMANY: Norway’s goalkeeper Ruben Smith (left) and Kristian Forsberg (center) fails to save Canada’s eighth goal by Canada’s Evander Kane (right) during the Group F match. —AP

Canada demolish Norway MANNHEIM: Olympic gold medallists Canada crushed Norway 12-1 on Friday, John Tavares netting a hat-trick as they edged closer to the world championship quarter-finals.

Canada, who were stunned by Switzerland in their last match, are now top of Group F. They next play Sweden and Czech Republic. It was the Norwegians who took the lead after only a minute and a half through Jonas Holos, who seized on a bad clearance.

Canada got down to business in the sec-

ond period, scoring seven times to end any short-lived Norwegian hopes of an unexpected victory.

The Canadians, who won the gold medal in Vancouver in February, added another four goals in the third period. “We didn’t control the game in the first period,” Canada’s Marc Staal told reporters. “But we were patient and then got some time on the powerplay and got some goals.”

In Group E, Slovakia slumped to a 6-0 defeat by Denmark who have proven to be the surprise team of the tournament after

earlier beating Finland and United States.

Denmark scored with their first three shots to set the stage for yet another unexpected rout. “We killed them right away,” said captain Jesper Daamgard. “We came out flying and it seemed like everything went in.”

Holders Russia, who will add Pittsburgh Penguins pair Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin to the roster after they end their playoff runs in the NHL, are in action on Saturday, taking on hosts Germany.

Meanwhile, Norway captain Tommy

Jakobsen was suspended for the remainder of the ice hockey world championship on Saturday for physically abusing an official.

Jakobsen, a 39-year-old defenseman playing at his 18th worlds, made shoulderto-shoulder contact with a referee at the center ice faceoff spot after being angry that a Canada player was not given a slashing penalty in a scrum in front of the Norwegian net in Friday’s game.

The IIHF disciplinary panel ruled that Jakobsen, who received a match penalty for the incident, did not make accidental con-

South Korea lift Uber Cup KUALA LUMPUR: South Korea stunned champions China 3-1 to win their first Uber Cup yesterday and snap a run of five final losses to the badminton powerhouse.

Unheralded Bae Seung-hee upset world number one Wang Yihan 23-21 21-11 in the first singles match before Lee Hyo-jung and Kim Min-jung ground out a comeback 18-21 21-12 21-15 win over top-ranked doubles pair Ma Jin and Wang Xiaoli.

Wang Xin kept China’s hopes alive with a 21-14 16-21 21-7 victory against Sung Ji-hyun but Lee Kyungwon and Ha Jung-eun sealed the championship when they toppled Olympic champions Du Jing and Yu Yang 19-21 21-14 21-19.

South Korea’s triumph broke their opponents’ unbeaten record in the prestigious biennial women’s team tournament, China having won all six titles since 1998.

The loss was also at odds with China coach Li Yongbo’s confident pre-match prediction. “The final will be tough but the outcome will be the same. We will win again,” Li told Chinese state news agency Xinhua. —Reuters

tact as the player had asserted. Jakobsen’s ban came one day after the IIHF panel handed down suspensions against two other Norwegian players.

Forward Martin Laumann Ylven was banned for two games following a hit to the head against France’s Antonin Manavian, who did not return to the Thursday game because of a concussion. Goalie Pat Grotnes was banned for one game after shoving and hitting in the head with his stick France’s Yorick Treille in the same game. —AP

Brawl erupts during weigh-in

MALAYSIA: South Korean team members pose for photographers with the winner’s trophy after defeating China in the finals round of the Uber Cup badminton championships. —AFP

NEW YORK: A shoving match broke out on Friday at the weigh-in for this weekend’s title fight between WBA super lightweight champion Amir Khan of Britain and challenger Paulie Malignaggi of New York.

The boxers nearly came to blows when tension between the fighters and their entourages sparked a hysterical outbreak of pushing and shoving that security officers had to break up.

Things got physical during the traditional nose-to-nose glare between the boxers that was staged for photographers ahead of the scheduled 12-round bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden Saturday.

With partisans from both camps chanting from opposing ends, the fighters pushed their heads hard against each other before Khan’s handler grabbed him by the head to wrench him away.

Malignaggi then took a swing at Khan before the boxers were hauled away while the crowded room at the midtown New York hotel erupted in a chaotic scene of pushing and shoving.

Khan (22-1) tipped the scale at 139.5 pounds (63.3 kg), while former champion Malignaggi (273) came in at 139 pounds. —Reuters

SPORTS

Sunday, May 16, 2010

17

Blues scalp Chiefs to finish season on high

FRANCE: Clermont’s French number eight Elvis Vermeulen (center) rides the ball during the French Top 14 semi final rugby match Clermont-Ferrand versus Toulon at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium. —AFP

Clermont win Toulon thriller PARIS: Australian fly-half Brock James emerged from weeks of torment to inspire Clermont to their fourth successive Top 14 final and 11th in all yesterday as they edged out three-time champions Toulon 3529 after extra-time.

Clermont, who saw a 10-point lead wiped out with just three minutes of regular time remaining by a resilient Toulon outfit, will face titleholders Perpignan - who beat Toulouse on Friday - in the final on May 29 at the Stade de France.

James, who was distraught after a dreadful performance with the boot in the European Cup quarter-final defeat

by Leinster in March, landed a penalty and then a stunning 50-metre drop goal in extra-time to turn the match their way once more.

The match had been a kicking contest between Morgan Parra and Jonny Wilkinson with two late tries in regulation time, by Clermont’s Georgian prop Davit Zhirakashvili and then Toulon’s Kiwi former rugby league star Sonny Bill Williams taking it into extra-time.

A tight opening quarter saw Toulon - unbeaten in their last 11 matches - shade it 6-3 with their points coming from Wilkinson, one a superlative drop goal in reply to Anthony Floch’s drop goal from 30 metres out in the fifth minute after being set up by Parra.

Wilkinson, who had a poor Six

Nations before being replaced in the starting line-up for the final match against France, had put Toulon ahead in the third minute with a penalty.

Parra - one of France’s players of their Six Nations Grand Slam win levelled matters with a penalty in the 27th minute only for Wilkinson to restore the three-point lead four minutes later.

Clermont - who trounced Toulon 39-3 in January and beat them twice in championship semi-finals on the two previous occasions they met should have been down to 14 men as Malzieu was fortunate just to get a ticking off rather than a yellow card for deliberately treading on a Toulon player.

Clermont, though, were to draw level and then take the lead for the first time in the match within the opening 10 minutes of the second-half thanks to two superbly taken penalties by Parra, the first from 50 metres out and then the second from 55 metres. Parra extended their lead with another penalty just before the hour mark, only for Wilkinson to land one of his own in the 63rd minute.

However, Clermont looked to have sealed their place in the final when they scored the first try of the match through Zirakashvili whose try was controversially awarded by the referee.

The Georgian dropped the ball over the line only to re-gather and

touch it down. Parra converted to make it 22-12 with just 10 minutes remaining.

Toulon, though, were level within seven minutes as first Williams went over from five metres out flattening Parra in the process who had to go off.

Wilkinson converted and then the England fly-half added a penalty to make it 22-22 and take the game into extra-time.

Clermont had all the possession in the first-half of extra-time and were parked on the Toulon five metres line but despite that all they came away with was a James penalty late in the period which gave them a 25-22 advantage going into the second-half.

James then trumped that as picking up a clearance by Wilkinson inside his half, he unleashed a stunning drop goal from over 50 metres out which sailed between the posts. Clermont then looked to have once again sealed their place in the final when Malzieu kicked deep into opposition territory and outpaced Gabriele Lovobalavu to touch down which James converted to make it 35-22 with five minutes remaining.

However, back came Toulon again and replacement scrum-half Fabien Cibray went over which he also converted. Only a last ditch tackle prevented Toulon from drawing to within a point as Lovobalavu was bundled into touch metres from the line. —AFP

Desert Scorpions lift TKS crown KUWAIT: In the finals of the Telugu Kala Samithi (TKS) cricket tournament held on Friday at Abbassiya grounds two teams, TKS and Desert Scorpions, battled it out in a tight match which resulted in the Desert Scorpions being crowned as champions beating the TKS by two wickets.

TKS skipper Ram Mohan won the toss and elected to bat first.

The final score was TKS 143 in 19.4 overs while Desert Scorpions scoring 144-8 in 20 overs.

Man of the Match Zulfiqar showed an all round performance with 36 runs in 28 balls and while bowling he took 4 wickets in 4 overs.

The chief guest of the tournament was Iqbal Vanoo (KOC Cricket General Secretary) and Special Guest was Hari Prasad (TKS President). The other guests who attended the tournament were TKS General Secretary MRK Raju, Treasurer Sridhar, TKS CC Manager Mulakala Subba Rayudu Naidu, Sports Coordinator Shiva, Programme Coordinator Rajashekar. BP Naidu and Srinivasa Chowdary were also present at the event. The huge turnout at the tournament, despite the bad weather, was an inspiration to the players who displayed a brilliant performance.

AUCKLAND: Winger Rudi Wulf scored two second-half tries to propel the Auckland Blues past the Waikato Chiefs 30-20 in their last Super rugby match of the season at Auckland yesterday.

The explosive All Black enlivened an otherwise scrappy encounter in which both teams were playing for pride having been ruled out of semi-final contention weeks before.

Chiefs skipper Liam Messam scored his team’s first try in the 58th minute, the conversion pulling the deficit back to 20-13 with just over 20 minutes remaining.

Wulf quelled the fightback three minutes later, however, after crashing over the line in a pile of bodies for his first try. He then streamed down the left wing to cross for his second and seal the win six minutes from time.

The Blues finished with seven wins and six losses, but the season’s end could not have come quicker for last year’s finalists the Chiefs, who managed only four wins.

In a first half plagued with handling errors from both sides, the Blues put the first score on the board after 25 minutes, when Wulf barged through four tacklers at midfield to allow Paul Williams to cross at the right hand corner.

The Chiefs were undermanned when number eight Colin Bourke was sin-binned for a dubious penalty and conceded a second try to inside centre Benson Stanley three minutes before the break. Chiefs flyhalf Trent Renata kicked a second penalty goal to trim the deficit to 12-6 at halftime.

Alby Mathewson scored the Blues’ third try six minutes after the break after wrenching himself out of Messam’s tackle on the goal-line to make it 17-6.

Winger Save Tokula scored a consolation try for the Chiefs a couple of minutes before time.

In Brisbane, the Queensland Reds ended a frustrating season on a high note with a thrilling 38-36 win over the Otago Highlanders yesterday.

But the six-tries-to-five win wasn’t enough to lift the Reds into the finals after an inconsistent season which saw them surprise with their good form for most of the campaign only to stumble in recent weeks.

Led by Wallabies hopeful Quade Cooper, the Reds completely dominated the Highlanders, who finished the season with just three wins, early in the match, but then had to come from behind in the dying minutes to snatch victory.

Up 24-3 at the break, with Cooper having a hand in all four of their first-half tries, the Reds found themselves down 36-31 late in the game before Cooper converted Poutasi Luafutu’s second try in the 78th minute to regain the lead.

Otago’s Israel Dagg then had a penalty attempt from beyond halfway to snatch the win after the final siren, but his kick fell just short. Cooper bamboozled the Highlanders with some outrageous passes in the first half, and it was his quick hands that led to Digby Ioane, in his 50th Super rugby match, opening the scoring in just the second minute with a converted try.

In the 12th minute, the Reds had a second try when their sustained pressure culminated in Radiki Samo reaching over out wide with his right hand after a Cooper pass.

Cooper was tormenting the Highlanders and decided to produce a party trick for the third try, his 20m back of the hand pass enabling Peter Hynes to cross with ease in the 19th minute.

When Cooper himself was able to reach and place the ball on the try line in the 33rd minute - the try confirmed by the video official - the Reds had a commanding lead at the break.

But the Highlanders produced an inspired comeback to run in five tries in the second half, two from Fetu’u Vainikolo.

His first, in the 64th minute, gave the Highlanders an unlikely lead as they stunned the home side. Luafutu came off the bench to put the Reds back in front with his first try in the 68th minute, before Jason Rutledge jammed the ball against the upright to put the New Zealanders back in front in the 72nd minute, setting up a frantic finale. —Agencies

CAPE TOWN: Stormers Gio Aplon (right) runs with the ball as Bulls Stephan Doppenaa (left) tackles him during a Super 14 rugby game in Cape Town. —AP

Evans grabs Giro’s seventh stage, Vinokourov in pink ROME: Australia’s Cadel Evans won a gruelling seventh stage of the Tour of Italy over 222km from Carrara to Montalcino yesterday as Alexandre Vinokourov regained possession of the race leader’s pink jersey.

Evans’s hopes of going on to battle for overall victory appeared dead and buried as early as the fourth stage following his BMC team’s disastrous performance in the team time trial.

However in grim weather the former two-time runner-up in the Tour de France produced the kind of gutsy ride that won him the world champion’s jersey in Mendrisio last year before dominating Italian Damiano Cunego of Lampre and Astana’s Vinokourov in a tough uphill sprint finish.

“Today was important but there are still many more mountains and decisive stages to come,” said Evans.

Vinokourov led the race for a day following stage three, and now leads Evans, in second, by 1min 12sec overall with Briton David Millar, of Garmin, in third at 1:29.

Overnight leader Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas lost more than two minutes after a crash just over 30km from home saw him lose touch with the leaders.

On an impressive day of racing pouring rain and tricky gravel roads over the last 25km added to the peloton’s challenge of what was a tough undulating stage.

To a man every rider came home covered from head to toe in mud.

Former Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre of Cervelo was among the most disappointed, the Spaniard trailing in more than five minutes behind.

Italian Nibali and team leader and

compatriot Ivan Basso had started the day in first and second place overall, and their crash proved a turning point.

It gave Vinokourov, who started fourth overall at 33secs behind, the spur to attack along with a small group of riders. Evans was initially absent from the breakaway but dug deep and eventually closed the gap.

Evans and Vinokourov drove the lead group on and in the final 10km Evans responded immediately when Vinokourov broke out of the front group. Cunego led the chasers with David Aroyo of Caisse d’Epargne and HTC-Columbia’s Marco Pinotti and one by one they joined the front two

as Nibali and Basso were forced to soldier on to try and limit their losses.

Coming into the final 2km Evans looked the strongest and he led out the five-man train before putting his head down and attacking in the final 500m. Cunego was perfectly placed on his wheel with Vinokourov behind him but neither had the strength to match the Australian. Nibali dropped to fifth overall at 1:33 with Basso eighth at 1:51.

Sunday’s eighth stage should mix up the overall standings even more following a 189km ride from Chianciano to Monte Terminillo which ends on the race’s first summit finish. —AFP

ROME: Australia’s Cadel Evans, his face covered in mud, crosses the finish line to win the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia, Tour of cycling race, from Carrara to Montalcino. —AP

Armstrong says not in top shape SACRAMENTO: Lance Armstrong may be among the favorites for the Tour de France, but the seven-times race winner is frustrated by his lack of fitness with the start of cycling’s biggest race about six weeks away.

“Personally, I’ve struggled to find the condition I’d like,” Armstrong said on Friday, two days prior to the start of the May 16-23 Tour of California.

“There were moments when I thought it was getting back and then I had physical or other health issues that came along and complicated things.”

The 38-year-old Texan made his North American return to cycling in 2009 at the Tour of California after 31/2 years in retirement and placed seventh overall while riding in a support role for team mate and compatriot Levi Leipheimer.

Leipheimer, third overall in the 2007 Tour de France, will seek his fourth straight Tour of California title when the eight-stage event begins Sunday with a 167.7-km road stage from Nevada City to Sacramento.

“I’d like to think I’m headed in the right direction now,” said Armstrong, who finished third in the Tour de

France last year to former teammate Alberto Contador of Spain. “But that’s why we’re here. It’s a good event to test yourself.”

Armstrong altered his early racing schedule several times this season. He missed some events due to illness and opted out of other races to spend more time with his four children and pregnant girlfriend.

“I’m close to 39 and I’m racing guys in their mid-20s,” said Armstrong. “I truly believe the current generation of riders is better than the guys I raced against when I was 30. —Reuters

18

SPORTS

DOHA: Jamaica’s Asafa Powell celebrates after winning the men’s 100m race at the IAAF Diamond League series in the Qatari capital Doha. — AFP

Sunday, May 16, 2010

DOHA: Russia’s Tatyana Polnova competes in the women’s pole vault at the IAAF Diamond League series in the Qatari capital Doha. — AFP

Powell sparkles in Diamond League opener DOHA: Jamaica’s Asafa Powell recovered from a poor start to take the plaudits in the men’s 100 metres at the opening Diamond League meet in steamy Qatar on Friday.

The former world record holder, who will face Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt and American rival Tyson Gay later in the season on the 14-meet circuit, won in 9.81 seconds.

Powell’s compatriot Nesta Carter was second in 9.88 with American Travis Padgett finishing third in 9.92 seconds.

Powell had run 9.75 in his semi-final heat, which would have been a world leading time if it had not been wind-assisted.

Michael Frater, the third member of

Jamaica’s triumphant Olympic 4x100 team, ran 9.94 behind Padgett who won here last year. Bolt had led the gold medal-winning team in Beijing. “What happened tonight was pretty exciting, a real fight with so many guys running under 10 seconds,” said Powell.

The Diamond League has replaced the Golden League as the governing IAAF’s top non-championship event. A diamondstudded trophy awaits all 32 season leaders in the various events.

“Carter was very fast. Frater was fast as well. It wasn’t as easy as people might think,” Powell told reporters. “I am obviously chasing the diamond. We’ll see in the

end.”

Powell and others got a boost from the warm Arabian Gulf wind at the sprinters’ backs. “Normally the wind doesn’t help me that much. I don’t really focus on the wind,” he said.

He added that his next race will be in Ostrava, then Rome and “probably the Jamaican championships”. The winners of each event earn four points with two points for second place and one for finishing third.

American Allyson Felix won the women’s 400 metres in 50.15 seconds ahead of Amantle Montsho of Botswana (50.34) with Britain’s Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu back in fifth.

“I ran a comfortable first 200 metres, relaxed until 250 metres and kicked home from there. The time was not anything amazing for my standards,” Felix told reporters. “Now I just need some speed work. Hopefully, I’ll be ready to go come New York.”

Felix, a three time world 200 champion, has won the 400 in Doha three times in the last four years and is considering adding the longer distance to her world and Olympic schedules.

Jamaican Kerron Stewart, also helped by the wind, won the women’s 200 in 22.34 seconds ahead of compatriot Sherone Simpson (22.64). Cydie Mothersill of the

Cayman Islands was third. American Lolo Jones took the women’s 100 hurdles in 12.63 seconds, despite hitting the first two barriers, finishing ahead of Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (12.67).

“I had a really bad start,” said Jones.

“The wind was pushing me too close to the hurdles and I was off balance. But I pulled it off in the end,” she told Reuters.

Olympic bronze medallist Bershawn Jackson gave an impressive performance in the men’s 400 hurdles, winning in 48.66 seconds ahead of fellow American Kerron Clement (48.82).

“I had excellent training recently, very consistent,” Jackson said. “It’s nice to beat

the Olympic champion (Angelo Taylor) and the world champion (Clement) in one race.”

Beijing gold medallist Taylor was fourth in 49.66. Several leading athletes were absent from the first meet of a series in which total prize money for the 14 meetings will top $6.6 million with millions more on offer in promotional fees.

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, the world’s dominant distance runner, and American Sanya Richards-Ross, the 400 metres world champion, are injured while Russian Olympic pole vault gold medallist Yelena Isinbayeva is taking a break from sport. — Reuters

Webber on pole

MONACO: Red Bull driver Mark Webber of Australia (right) steers his car next to Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg of Germany (left) during the qualifying for the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix. — AP

Truex clocks fastest time DOVER: Three years after he won his only NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover, Martin Truex Jr. set the fastest time in qualifying Friday to take pole for today’s race. Truex took his first pole of the season and fifth of his career.

Kasey Kahne was second and Mark Martin third. Points leader Kevin Harvick was down in 30th. “Hopefully, the best is yet to come and we’ll be in here talking to you today,” Truex said.

The native of Mayetta, New Jersey has long considered Dover his hometown track. He made his first career start in NASCAR’s second-tier series at Dover in the No. 56 _ the same number he uses now in his first season with Michael Waltrip Racing.

“All those little things make it special for me,” Truex said. Truex needs a good finish to jump into the top 12 and move closer to securing a spot in the Chase for the championship. He’s 13th entering today’s race, only 16 points behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 12th.

He’s had seven straight top-20 finishes this season and was sixth in the seasonopening Daytona 500. Truex has appeared to work well with new crew chief Pat Tryson and made an easy transition to MWR. “It took us a while to kind of put all that together and figure out what the cars at MWR wanted and what I wanted,” Truex said. “I feel like we’ve got a better understanding of the race cars now and what we need in them for us to be competitive.”

Kahne is still waiting to find out what team he’ll drive for next season. He signed a long-term deal with Hendrick Motorsports that ensures his departure from Richard Petty Motorsports after this season, even though he is not scheduled to replace Mark Martin in the No. 5 car until 2012. He has steady talks with team owner Rick Hendrick about where he’ll drive next season.

“We are about three or four weeks out from finding anything out,” Kahne said. “I know I am getting a little anxious about it.

They are working hard and want it to be the right decision. Whatever is decided they want to do the right way and make sure that they come up with the perfect place for me for next year.” Martin’s strong qualifying run at Dover was no surprise.

He’s a four-time winner on the concrete in the Cup series and won two more times in the second-tier series. He had two top10s at Dover last year, including second place in September. Martin has 29 career top-10 starts at Dover “We weren’t expecting to be a pole contender, for sure,” he said. “There are times when you think you’re going to be a pole contender, you’re not and you wind up sorely disappointed, and today we really got a great lap.” Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five. Casey Mears was 39th subbing for Brian Vickers, who is hospitalized with blood clots in his veins around his lungs and in his legs. — AP

MONACO: Australian Mark Webber dreamed of emulating compatriot and Formula One great Jack Brabham yesterday after putting his Red Bull on pole position for the showcase Monaco Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old’s second pole in the space of a week continued his team’s stranglehold on the top slot, with Renault-powered Red Bull chalking up six out of six races this season.

Webber secured it by three tenths of a second from Poland’s Robert Kubica in a Renault, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel pushed into third place.

“The first lap went ok, I brushed the Armco (barriers) pretty hard at the start of the second sector...I finished that one and then went for another. It just all came together,” said the Australian, winner in Spain from pole last weekend.

The pole was the fourth of Webber’s career and the first at Monaco by an Australian since triple world champion Jack Brabham in 1967.

Brabham, now the oldest surviving champion at 84, also took his first F1 win in Monaco in 1959 — the only time an Australian has won on the unforgiving streets of the Mediterranean principality.

“I wouldn’t be here without Jack Brabham,” said Webber, reminded of the fact. “My Dad followed Jack when he was a young boy and that started I suppose the dream in the Webber household.

“Jack is an absolute legend of the sport and he’s been very good to me over the years...of course it’s an honour to get the pole today but it would be the biggest highlight of my career if I can join him tomorrow.” Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa completed the second row in fourth place.

His team mate Fernando Alonso, a two times Monaco winner, watched qualifying from the garage after wrecking his car in final practice. The Spaniard, second in the championship behind McLaren’s Jenson Button, will start from the pit lane.

World champion Button, last year’s winner on the metal-fenced streets of the principality with Brawn GP, just sneaked through to the third and final phase of qualifying and secured eighth slot on the grid.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 winner, qualified fifth with Germany’s Nico Rosberg alongside for Mercedes and back in front of team mate Michael Schumacher.

The older German, a five times winner in Monaco and making a comeback at the age of 41 and after three years out, qualified seventh.

Fears that qualifying could be crashstrewn and chaotic, with three much slower new teams on the track and expanding the field to 24 cars since last year’s race, proved unfounded. The only casualty was Renault’s Russian Vitaly Petrov, who slewed into the barriers at Ste. Devote in the second session and starts 14th. — Reuters

MADRID: Rafael Nadal from Spain returns the ball during the semifinal match against Nicolas Almagro from Spain at the Madrid Open Tennis Tournament. — AP

Nadal rolls into Masters final MADRID: Rafael Nadal dropped his first set of the week but recovered to record a stirring 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 defeat of fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro to reach his second successive Madrid Masters final here yesterday. Roger Federer was playing later against Spain’s David Ferrer with the Swiss trying to set up a repeat of the final which he won at the Caja Magica over Nadal in 2009. That clay victory for Federer was just the confidence booster the Swiss required to propel him to his firstever French Open title three weeks later at Roland Garros.

Nadal stands one victory away from his third Masters 1000 crown of the season after winning Monte Carlo and Rome. Another

title at the elite ATP level would give him a record 18 for his career, one more than Andre Agassi or Federer. The event marked the third time in three spring tournaments that a trio of Spaniards have dominated Masters 1000 semi-finals after Monte Carlo and Rome.

Nadal improved to 14-0 on clay this season and will now return to world number two behind Federer by virtue of reaching the final.

“The match was very close to getting away from me in the second set,” said Nadal.

“Getting into another final is a huge joy. “It’s been a long spring season on clay and being in this final is a dream.”

Nadal rallied after dropping his serve three times in the opening set against Almagro, a winner this week over French Open finalist Robin Soderling, Nadal’s Paris conqueror a year ago in the fourth round.

The second seed from Mallorca powered through the second set in typical style and went up a break in the third to drain the life out of Almagro’s challenge.

Nadal raced away to 4-1 in the deciding set and broke for victory in the final game as Almagro saved a match point before going down in two and a quarter hours. Nadal earned his sixth victory without defeat against Almagro, the world number 35 whose last title came on clay in 2009 in Mexico.— AFP

Venus eyes 44th career crown MADRID: Venus Williams will bid for a 44th career title today when she tackles unseeded Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai in the Madrid Masters final, the day before her elevation to the world number two spot is confirmed.

Williams swept the last nine games in a dominant semi-final display yesterday as she crushed Israeli Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-0 and earn her fourth final from six events in 2010. Rezai won an unseeded match-up when Czech Lucie Safarova quit after one set trailing 61.

Their 24-minute affair came to a quick conclusion a day after Rezai had earned her third career win over a Top-10 opponent when she beat seventh seed Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals.

The ailing Safarova won just six points out of 16. American fourth seed Williams, who will move to second in the world behind her sister Serena on Monday, overcame a

minor niggle through an opening break of serve by the 22nd-ranked Peer, who upset fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the opening round.

Williams improved to 12-1 this season on clay, requiring just 66 minutes to complete her rout. “We exchanged a couple of breaks, she’s (Peer) a really tenacious player,” said Williams. “She’s very talented, with a never-say-die spirit.

“I was ready for that, and after those (early) games I just seemed to be able to find the corners. I can’t complain about being able to play that well against a player like her.

“To have come out on top so far feels good. I’ve been happy with my form and I’m going to try to keep it going tomorrow (Sunday).”

Williams, who turns 30 in June, now stands 5-0 against Peer, having never lost a set in their series.

The victory, marked by 17 winners and six breaks of serve, was also her third of the year over Peer after Dubai and Rome. —AFP

MADRID: Venus Williams from United States serves during a semi-final match against Shahar Peer at the Madrid Open Tennis Tournament. — AP

SPORTS

Sunday, May 16, 2010

19

Mphela hopes to end goal drought against Thailand JOHANNESBURG: Katlego Mphela hopes to get back on the goal trail when hosts South Africa launch their World Cup countdown today against lowly Thailand at tournament venue Nelspruit.

Lucky to win a place in the Confederations Cup squad last June, the Mamelodi Sundowns star made his first appearance as a substitute against Spain in the third-place play-off and scored twice.

Although Spain snatched an extra-time victory, Mphela had the consolation of scoring the goal of the tournament off a longrange free kick that proved too hot even for

world-class goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

More goals followed in friendlies against Serbia and Madagascar and South African supporters dreamt that a successor to problematic Benni McCarthy had been unearthed.

But a long-standing South African inability to score heightened with just seven goals in as many friendlies against largely modest opponents since Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira took charge last November.

And Birmingham City-linked Mphela lost his predatory touch, managing to put the ball in the net just once to salvage a 1-1 draw at

home against southern Africa neighbours Namibia.

The powerfully built 25-year-old, who is expected to make the starting line-up when South Africa tackle Mexico in the June 11 World Cup opener, believes the drought can end against the Asians.

“Thailand are not that strong and this game offers a good chance for me to start scoring again,” he said ahead of a warm-up to be watched by a sell-out 30,000 crowd at Mbombela Stadium in the north-east city.

Anxious after the World Cup first-round draw pitted Bafana Bafana (The Boys)

against former champions France and Uruguay and street-wise Mexico, home supporters hope Mphela can deliver after so many false promises from the side.

Thailand may be ranked only 105 in the world, but that is one place higher than World Cup qualifiers North Korea, who forced a 0-0 draw against South Africa in Germany last month without great difficulty.

Parreira claims he will field most of the starting line-up from a 2-0 win over ill-prepared Jamaica in another Germany friendly, meaning no place for McCarthy, whose 32 international goals is a South African record.

A hot-and-cold relationship with officials has seen the player in and out of the national team and he ended an injury-marred season at English Premiership clubs Blackburn and West Ham overweight and unfit.

“Benni has not had much game time since joining West Ham last January owing to injuries and is not ready. I am prepared to get him fit by June 11, but he also has to show the desire to get into shape,” stressed Parreira.

Thailand are coached by former Manchester United and England midfield ace Bryan Robson, who is trying to stem a

flow of defeats having fallen at home against Poland and Denmark and in Iran since midJanuary.

Tranquil Nelspruit near the world famous Kruger National Park was in danger of being scratched from the nine-city World Cup venue list as it battled to create a pitch befitting the most watched global sport event. But Republic of Ireland-born expert Richard Hayden was hired and transformed a lunar-like surface into a green ‘jewel’ he predicts will be among the best in the world when the carnival arrives on June 16 with Chile playing Honduras. —AFP

Conway secures Scottish Cup dream for Tangerines

SPAIN: FC Barcelona’s coach Pep Guardiola gives a press conference at the FC Barcelona Joan Gamper sports center on the eve of Barcelona’s last Spanish League football match.—AFP

Barcelona eye title as Real pray for slip-up MADRID: Despite notching a record 96 points, Barcelona must defeat Valladolid at home today to retain their La Liga title and leave rivals Real Madrid empty-handed as an epic title race reaches its conclusion.

Going into the final day of the season, Real are just a point behind and preying Barca slip-up against troubled Valladolid.

Madrid are at Malaga, another team fighting for survival, knowing they need to win and hope Valladolid take points from the champions.

“It is the most demanding league (campaign) I can remember,” said Barcelona captain Carles Puyol. “The table speaks for itself finishing with 99 points is an incredible amount.”

“There are two teams that have been above the rest in recent years and Barcelona have certainly played the better football in recent years.”

Barcelona have the comfort of knowing their destiny is in their own hands but anything but a win could see them lose the title on the final day of the season.

Real must win to stand any chance of becoming champions as Barcelona would win the title due to their superior head-to-head record if the sides finished level on points.

It is a nervy moment for coach Pep Guardiola who comes up against Javier Clemente once his national coach with Spain and now Valladolid manager.

Valladolid are one of four teams on 36 points that could go down and are only in with a shout of survival after one defeat from seven matches under Clemente.

Guardiola must do without suspended playmaker Xavi and full back Maxwell but can call on Lionel Messi who is set to land the Pichichi crown for the league’s top-scorer with his 32 goals, five better than Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain.

Malaga are third from bottom but level on points with Racing Santander and Valladolid above them. “It is difficult to win the league but anything

can happen in football,” said Real superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

“We have to win in Malaga and see what happens in Barcelona.” Guti, 33, is poised to play his final game at Malaga ending his 15-year association with Real before an expected summer move to Galatasary.

Elsewhere there are Champions League and Europa League duels and slip-ups on final day could cost teams millions of euros.

Sevilla hold fourth place and the final Champions League qualifying spot but can’t afford to drop points against Almeria on Saturday with Real Mallorca just a point behind.

Mallorca are at home to Espanyol aiming for a 15th home win knowing a draw would not do even if Sevilla lost. Getafe are clinging to sixth and the final Europa League spot with Villarreal level on 55 points.

Getafe travel to city rivals Atletico Madrid who defeated Fulham on Wednesday to win the Europa League final for their first trophy since 1996.

Villarreal will hope Atletico, who have nothing to play for, put the effort in against Getafe and fulfil their end of the bargain by winning away at Real Zaragoza.

There is everything to play for at the bottom with no team relegated as five sides battle to stay in the top flight.

Bottom side Xerez are three points from safety and need to win at Osasuna and hope the four other teams in trouble all lose to pull off the great escape. Racing Santander, Malaga, Valladolid and Tenerife are all on 36 points.

Malaga and Valladolid have the toughest tasks against Real Madrid and Barcelona giving Racing and Tenerife more hope of staying up as they play against teams with nothing to play for.

Racing are at home to Sporting Gijon while promoted Tenerife travel to Valencia, who have already sealed third place, today.—AFP

Australia target Pietersen ahead of Twenty20 final BRIDGETOWN: Australia captain Michael Clarke wasted little time in upping the pressure on England’s Kevin Pietersen ahead of the World Twenty20 final between cricket’s oldest rivals here today.

Pietersen has led the way for England with 201 runs at an average of 67, including match-winning fifties in the Super Eights against both defending champions Pakistan, who lost to Australia in a thrilling semi-final, and his native South Africa.

Only a brief break to return to London for the birth of his son staunched the flow of runs and there was no sign of jet-lag as South Africa-born Pietersen made an unbeaten 42 off just 26 balls in England’s commanding seven-wicket semi-final win over Sri Lanka.

“Kevin Pietersen coming back into form plays a huge part,” Clarke told reporters after Australia had chased down a mammoth 192, thanks mainly to Michael Hussey’s superb unbeaten 60, to beat Pakistan by three wickets with a ball to spare.

“He (Pietersen) is a wonderful player in all three forms of the game. He’ll be a big part of the final.

“If we can get him out early it will hold us in good stead.” Pietersen’s was seen giving his teammates stick over some lax fielding during the match against Sri Lanka, last year’s losing finalists.

“There is a fine line between demanding high standards...and then stepping over that line into a petulant world, and a world that damages the team in any way,” said England coach Andy Flower.

But he was at pains to stress how Pietersen was a “good professional athlete” who was bound to

benefit from becoming a father for the first time.

“It can only be a positive experience. I think anything that our guys find to keep sport in perspective is a good thing.”

Perspective is set to be in short supply in a match now being billed as a scene-setter for England’s Ashes defence in Australia later this year.

The Kensington Oval pitch has suited Australia’s fast bowlers, with the trio of Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson not just quicker than their England counterparts, but quicker than any attack England’s batsmen have faced so far in this tournament.

However, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom and Tim Bresnan are more than mere ‘pie-throwers’, although they would love to be underestimated by Australia.

England, like Australia, have until now struggled to make an impact in Twenty20. In part this is because it is only recently that the world’s two oldest cricket cultures have taken the ‘upstart’ format seriously.

But while England have yet to have their batting depth truly tested at this event, the same cannot be said of Australia. Hussey, who oversaw recoveries against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, surpassed even his standards as Australia slumped to 144 for seven in the 18th over against Pakistan. He produced what Clarke labelled a “freakish” innings of 60 not out from 24 balls to see the team home. Do England have a Hussey? It doesn’t sound a pleasant question but it’s one Paul Collingwood’s men may need to answer.-—AFP

GLASGOW: A Craig Conway double helped Dundee United lift the Scottish Cup for only the second time in their history as they ran out 3-0 winners over First Division Ross County in the final at Hampden.

David Goodwillie got the party started for United in the 61st minute when he sent a well-taken lob into the net after collecting a poor headed clearance from keeper Michael McGovern 25 yards out.

As County committed men forward in search of an equaliser Conway used his pace to race beyond their defence and slot low past McGovern before adding a second five minutes from time.

United had dominated the match against their lower league opponents with County showing little of the flair that led them past Scottish Premier League sides Hibernian and Celtic on their way to their first ever appearance in the Scottish Cup final.

It is United’s first win in the competition since 1994 and only the second in their 101-year history. Tangerines manager Peter Houston said he felt the first goal was always going to be vital.

“It turned out that way and fortunately we got it and I think from then on there was only going to be one winner,” he said.

“I am very proud of the players’ efforts as all season they have worked ever so hard for it.”

Derek Adams admitted his side hadn’t deserved to win.

“It’s been magnificent that we’ve been able to reach the Scottish Cup final. Today we didn’t perform and that’s not taking anything away from Dundee United,” the County boss, only 34, said. “It’s been a great day for us other than we didn’t win.”

At Hampden County boss Derek Adams kept faith with the same starting 11 that clinched a historic win over Old Firm giants Celtic in the semi-final while United’s Paul Dixon and Darren Dods missed out through injury.

After a nervy start the game came to life in the 11th minute when Danny Swanson went down in the box claiming for a penalty, however referee Dougie McDonald adjudged he ran into County’s Alex Keddie.

A rampaging run from Swanson lit up a scrappy first-half when he collected the ball in his own half and twisted and turned his way through the County defence before unleashing a shot from the edge of the box which Keddie managed to block.

United upped the tempo and Prince Bauben headed Conway’s pinpoint cross from the left straight at McGovern before Andy Webster hit a header off the post.

As the game approached halftime Keddie came to the rescue again when he managed to get a block in as Goodwillie raced in on goal before Jon Daly sent a header into the arms of McGovern.

The second-half began with United again on top with Swanson just off target with a header from Morgaro Gomis’ cross.

A mistake from McGovern handed United the lead in the 61st minute. The keeper raced out his box to clear a United long ball but his header landed at the feet of Goodwillie.

The United forward took a touch to control it before sending a perfectly executed lob from 25 yards into the top right-hand corner of the net as three defenders raced back in vain.

The goal injected a little urgency into County’s play and Keddie sent a header wide before Martin Scott’s curling shot from just inside the box was held by Dusan Pernis.

However United doubled their lead in the 75th minute when the pace of Conway proved too much for County. Goodwillie headed on a throw-in to Conway who raced past the County defence to send a low shot under the advancing ‘keeper. —AFP

PRAGUE: Fans of Sparta Prague celebrate after winning the Czech soccer league title in Prague, Czech Republic Sparta Prague defeated Teplice 1-0.—AP

Gazans can’t go to S Africa, so ‘World Cup’ comes to them GAZA CITY: Passionate about football but cut off from the world, the Gaza Strip has its own World Cup, a popular initiative aimed at forcing a lifting of the Israeli blockade on the tiny Palestinian enclave.

The mock World Cup, in which 16 local teams posed as the national squads of countries like France, Serbia and the United States, came to a climax yesterday with “France” routing “Jordan” to take take the championship.

A crowd of 20,000 cheered as Ismail Haniya, the head of the Islamist Hamas movement’s government that controls Gaza, handed the trophy to the winning team.

The ceremony coincided with commemorations for Naqba, or the “catastrophe” of Israel’s 1948 creation that resulted in the loss of a Palestinian homeland.

“You want to go to South Africa but the borders are closed? From now on the World Cup will be held in Gaza,” announce billboards that have been up around Gaza since before the tournament.

With a dose of humor, similar billboards invited football fans to the games in Gaza, controlled by Hamas and blockaded by Israel since the Islamists seized power in the narrow coastal enclave in 2007.

“It is necessary that the world pay attention to Gaza,” said Ayman Mohieddine, an American of Egyptian origin.

“The blockade, that is enough. They like football, they deserve to be supported and helped to be able to live in dignity,” added Mohieddine, a television journalist with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, who together with many representatives of NGOs supported the initiative.

This week, hundreds of Palestinians attended the

match between the “United States” and “Serbia.” “USA! USA!,” fans chanted, some waving the star-spangled banner an odd sight in Gaza, where pro-American sentiments are not often witnessed.

“I felt like I was at a real match between the United States and Serbia,” said 26year-old Hisham Reda, an

American flag in his hand.

“I do not have any problem with this flag,” he said. “Yes, I took part in demonstrations during which American and Israeli flags were burned but this is different, because football is played between the people not between governments.” he added.

Modelled on the real World Cup trophy, the Gaza cup was

made from the metal debris of buildings destroyed by the Israeli army during an onslaught in the winter of 2008-2009. The games were the brainchild of Patrick McGrann, an American working in Gaza, and organised by the Palestinian football federation and the United Nations Development Programme.—AFP

GAZA CITY: Palestinian supporters of Rafah youth club and the “French” team wave flags and cheer during a mock World Cup match in Gaza city.—AFP

Todayʼs matches on TV (local timings) Spanish League Barcelona v Valladolid .................20:00 Al Jazeera Saport +2 Al Jazeera Sport +3 Malaga v Real Madrid..................20:00 Al Jazeera Sport +4 Racing v Sporting........................20:00 Al Jazeera Sport +7 Valencia v Tenerife.....................20:00 Al Jazeera Sport +5

Italian League Siena v Inter................................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +3 Catania v Genoa...........................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +4 Gagliari v Bologna........................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +5 Chievo v AS Roma........................16:00 Al Jazeera Sport +7

www.kuwaittimes.net

LONDON: Chelsea players celebrate with the trophy after winning the FA Cup final soccer match between Portsmouth and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium.—AP

Drogba delivers Chelsea double LONDON: Didier Drogba’s second-half free-kick ensured Premier League champions Chelsea completed a domestic double for the first time in the club’s history by beating Portsmouth 10 in the FA Cup final yesterday.

Drogba struck in the 59th minute, four minutes after Porstmouth’s KevinPrince Boateng had missed a penalty, and Carlo Ancelotti’s side held on comfortably to complete the win and retain the trophy they won last season.

Chelsea’s Frank Lampard also missed a penalty two minutes from time that would have added gloss to the scoreline, but after hitting the woodwork five times during the first half, there was little doubt Ancelotti’s team deserved the win.

These two sides have experienced

wildly different campaigns and finished the season at opposite ends of the league table.

While Chelsea cruised to their first Premier League title in four years by thrashing Wigan 8-0 in their final game the previous weekend, Portsmouth’s descent into the Championship had been signalled from the moment they lost their opening seven league games.

Pompey, though, have shown commendable spirit on the closing weeks of the season despite their plight, most notably when they beat Tottenham 2-0 in the FA Cup semi-final.

There seemed to be little chance of an upset yesterday when Chelsea quickly established control of the game and Lampard twice came close to giving the holders a nerve-settling early

goal. The England midfielder drilled a fourth minute shot narrowly wide after Aaron Mokoena had blocked Nicolas Anelka’s shot and then sent a long range effort against the outside of the post ten minutes later. Portsmouth were largely bystanders as Chelsea settled in their opponents’ half and the only way they appeared likely to unsettle Ancelotti’s team was by a series of bone-juddering challenges, particularly from Michael Brown on Lampard.

More commendable was the underdogs’ determined defending that was epitomised by Mokoena’s double block to deny Drogba after Chelsea had worked a slick passing move across their opponents’ penalty area.

Portsmouth’s threat was minimal although they should have taken the

lead in the 22nd minute when they mounted their first serious attack.

Aruna Dindane broke free on the right hand flank, worked his way to the Chelsea by-line and crossed for Boateng whose volley was diverted goalwards by Frederic Piquionne.

Had Chelsea keeper Petr Cech not reacted instinctively to swat the ball away one-handed, the favourites would have suffered an early blow.

Relieved, they responded by increasing the pressure on Portsmouth’s goal only for Salomon Kalou to conjure an astonishing miss following left back Ashley Cole’s forward run and cross.

The Ivorian was just five yards out and facing an open goal out yet he somehow contrived to lift the ball

against the bar. Three minutes later, Blues skipper John Terry headed Florent Malouda’s free-kick against James’ crossbar before the Pompey keeper tipped Drogba’s powerful shot against the woodwork.

And when Drogba hit the post three minutes before the interval - the fifth time Ancelotti’s side had hit the woodwork in the first half - there was a growing feeling this might not be Chelsea’s day.

By then Michael Ballack had also left the field injured following a crushing challenge by Boateng prompting concerns about his fitness ahead of the World Cup finals. Portsmouth’s confidence had clearly been boosted by their first half survival efforts and they started the second period much more posi-

tively. Boateng volleyed narrowly over in the 51st minute then had an even better chance to score four minutes later when Juliano Belletti - on for Ballack - brought down Dindane to concede a penalty. Once again, though, Cech came to Chelsea’s rescue, saving the Portsmouth midfielder’s penalty with his legs and the effect of the miss appeared to puncture Portsmouth’s self-belief. Having received a second warning, Chelsea finally took control of the game when Drogba curled a superb 20-yard free kick around the Portsmouth defensive wall and inside the far post. Portsmouth’s spirit weakened and Lampard blew the chance to wrap up the win when he missed from the spot after being brought down by Brown.—AFP

Cole makes FA Cup history LONDON: Chelsea defender Ashley Cole made FA Cup history yesterday when he collected a record sixth winners’ medal. The England leftback had tasted FA Cup glory three times with his former club Arsenal and yesterday’s 1-0 win over Portsmouth at Wembley made it three Cup triumphs with Chelsea. Cole, who had previously won the Cup with Chelsea in 2007 and 2009, has now surpassed the previous record of five FA Cup winners’ medals which he had shared with Charles Wollaston, —AFP

Jazeera Airways inaugurates Lahore route

22

Burgan bank offers discount at Optique

22

IAA Kuwait Chapter holds conference

24

Sunday, May 16, 2010

www.kuwaittimes.net

Europe economy in ‘deepest crisis’ ECB president calls for a ‘quantum leap’ BERLIN: The President of the European Central Bank (ECB) was quoted yesterday as saying that he still sees Europe’s economy in its deepest crisis since World War II, or even World War I. German news weekly Der Spiegel reported that Jean-Claude Trichet said that since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 “we have experienced and we are experiencing really dramatic times.”

Trichet was quoted as saying that there was no doubt the economy “is in its most difficult situation since World War II or perhaps even since World War I.” In an interview to be published tomorrow, Trichet said the recent exacerbation of the eurozone’s debt crisis had provoked a market reaction similar to that at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.

“The markets didn’t function anymore,

it was almost like in the wake of the Lehman (Brothers) bankruptcy in September 2008,” he was quoted as saying.

Even though European leaders last weekend agreed on rescue measures including a $935 billion loan guarantee package for troubled eurozone nations, Trichet urged further action to address the crisis’ underlying problems. The ECB’s president called for a “quantum leap” in control of financial and economic policy across the 16-nation currency zone, the magazine reported. “We need improved structures, to avoid and sanction wrongdoing,” Trichet was quoted as saying.

“We need an effective implementation of the mutual control, we need effective sanctions for breaches of the stability and growth pact.” In the wake of Greece’s debt crisis, the euro has come under intense

pressure, especially with fears that it will spread to other heavily indebted eurozone countries.

The euro sank to near a four-year low against the dollar on Friday in late New York trading, buying $1.2355. Trichet urged European leaders to accelerate the consolidation of their deficits. “They know what is at stake,” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s energy commissioner also cautioned that the euro’s crisis isn’t over yet. Pointing to the recent rescue measures, Guenther Oettinger told German daily Tagesspiegel: “We have won time with the past days’ decisions, but haven’t decided the battle’s outcome yet.” The top priority for the eurozone’s nations now must be to move ahead on deficit reduction, the former German state governor was quoted as saying. —AP

Unilateral UK banking reform a possibility LONDON: Britain’s new business minister Vince Cable said the coalition government was ready to act alone in restructuring the banking sector. In an interview published in yesterday’s Financial Times, Cable, 67, said change was inevitable. “We’re not going back to business as normal,” he said. “The banking sector is going to have to accept disciplines on the way it operates, regulatory disciplines, and there is going to be restructuring.” Cable said the government’s independent review into splitting up the banks retail and investment arms could result in specific changes, even if only in Britain. “We can’t close down the possibility that unilateral

action might have to be taken.”

The commission’s interim report is due within a year. Cable, a Liberal Democrat politician who shot to prominence during the global banking crisis two years ago when he gained a reputation for economic sagacity for his nononsense warnings of looming financial peril, said the new government was determined to force the banks to lend more to business. “The banks are just not performing.” Some bankers fear unilateral action by Britain to impose curbs will send clients abroad. The British economy relies heavily on the financial services sector.

In a separate interview in yesterday’s

Guardian newspaper, Cable said the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Bank Plc should be broken up to safeguard the economy. Cable is among the most outspoken critics of banker greed and excesses, and in the Financial Times interview said his plans to crack down on banks was “fully a joint exercise” with the Conservative finance minister, George Osborne.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition this week after the Conservatives narrowly missed winning an outright majority in parliamentary elections on May 6. — Reuters

HONG KONG: Two women smoke during their lunch break as a homeless man sleeps, in Hong Kong. — AFP

Wealthy HK battling over minimum wage HONG KONG: Yan starts work every afternoon cleaning clams and washing minced garlic before the hungry crowds descend on her employer’s popular Hong Kong seafood restaurant. The waitress, who grew up in a town in nearby Guangdong province on China’s mainland, works into the early morning of the next day for little pay and few if any tips.

“Life is hard here,” said Yan, which is not her real name. “At home, things were slower and I could have run a little restaurant.” Yan is among hundreds of thousands working for pay sometimes as low as 2.75 US dollars an hour, supplying the money-obsessed city known for its billionaire tycoons and glittering skyscrapers with a massive pool of cheap labor.

But concern about a growing income gappegged as the world’s biggest among wealthy economies by the UN Development Program last year-prompted the government to introduce the city’s first minimum wage, which is scheduled to

come into effect in 2011. Now, business and union leaders are locked in a pitched battle over whether that wage should be as low as 3.10 US dollars or as high as 4.25 US dollars, still far below other international cities in Europe and North America.

“The debate on minimum wage in other countries happened 50 or a 100 years ago, but the free marketers here have always argued against it,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a legislator and head of the Confederation of Trade Unions, who organized a recent weekend wage protest that drew thousands of workers. “Internationally, free marketers will feel they lost the last champion of the free economy, but so what? Even if we lost that image, if people can still make a profit they will come here.”

Lee said business is most concerned about whether a pay floor would open the door to maximum working hours and paid overtime, which don’t exist in a city regularly credited with having

the world’s freest economy. “It is quite absurdpeople can work 10, 12, 14 or even 16 hours a day without getting paid overtime,” he said. But life may not get much better for the city’s poorest citizens, with job losses and rising food prices a likely consequence of the new pay law, said Terry Miller, director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washingtonbased think tank. The Foundation’s annual list of free economies put Hong Kong at the top in 2009, the 16th year in a row, edging out regional rival Singapore. “It is likely that the least skilled workers in the Hong Kong economy will be priced out of the labor market by the setting of a minimum wage,” Miller said in an email. The proposed wage’s comparatively low level points to a decision that has little to do with economics, Miller added. “This is a clear indicator of a proposal that is essentially political rather than economic in nature,” he said. — AFP

22

BUSINESS

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Nonstop flight Dubai - Berlin BERLIN: Air Berlin, Germany’s second largest airline, announced a new nonstop service from Dubai to Berlin, commencing on 3rd November 2010. The new route will be operated three times per week, using Airbus A330-200. It is available for booking on www.airberlin.com now - fares from EUR 199 one way, including taxes and charges. The new route has been announced by Air Berlin’s CEO Joachim Hunold, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit and Berlin Airport’s CEO Dr. Rainer Schwarz, underlining its positive effect on both Arab-German business relationships and leisure tourism to/from Dubai.

Berlin 2010: Modern, trendy and entertaining Diversity is Berlin’s motto from restaurants to entertainment, fashion and music.

Visitors are thrilled by the legendary nightlife, the fascinating shopping scene, and the city’s unique history. Berlin also scores on great value and affordable prices. From hotel accommodation to event tickets or a simple cup of coffee - in Berlin, visitors get more for their money. There also is a lot to discover for little ones and their parents. Special sightseeing tours are organized for children.

Amusement and theme parks, such as Europe¥s biggest nonprofit children, youth and family centre “FEZ Berlin” or the

“Legoland Discovery Centre”, provide a place to explore. Many theatres and museums arrange extra events for families as well.

A pulsating city with tranquil green spaces While dreamily gazing into the soft rippling of water, let the sounds of the Berlin Philharmonic linger. Or take a stroll through Prussia’s history in the Baroque palace gardens.

The unique mixture of bustling urban life and the tranquil oases is characteristic of Berlin. With its vast array of public parks, extensive woodlands, and scores of lakes and rivers, this capital city is no doubt the greenest metropolis in all of Germany. A total of 2,500 public

green areas are the perfect setting for relaxation, sport and entertainment. But that is not the only green that can be found in Berlin: ecology, environmental friendliness, and sustainability all shape city life in this metropolis.

Shopping and fashion metropolis Berlin spawns fashion that is sometimes rebellious but it is at the same time elegant and sets trends. This attracts shopping tourists from all over the world.

The new collections are presented at shows that attract a great deal of attention at an international level. Berlin, the European capital of creativity, is well known as the place where a

great deal can be achieved with just a few resources. Young designers from all over the world succumb to the magnetic attraction of the city on the Spree; the city that sports more than 800 fashion labels that lend form to looking good.

Neither are the shopping facilities in Berlin any less varied than the fashions. It’s all there - from chic to trendy, from elegant haute couture right through to casual urban and street wear. The four big shopping complexes - Kurf¸rstendamm, Potsdamer Platz, Friedrichstrasse and Alexanderplatz - as well as numerous big shopping centres along with smaller trend shops

in the ‘scene’ districts of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain beckon, enticing the visitor with their enormous range of goods and the most liberal opening times to be found in Germany.

Berlin - trendy with legendary entertainment The capital city of Germany offers night owls and those who enjoy the scene lots of opportunities for going out, as Berlin is open 24 hours a day. You can dance and party until morning in the around 225 discotheques, bars and clubs with various styles - the majority of these in the centre, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg districts. The locations range from the old pre-fabricated slab buildings to noble designer clubs and cellar clubs. A further positive feature: buses and railways run 24 hours a day on a weekend and ensure that night owls can get home comfortably and safely.

Out and about in Berlin WelcomeCard 2010 Offers Lots of Discounts Cultural offers, shopping and nightlife can be enjoyed to the full with the easy-to-use Berlin WelcomeCard. Starting from 16,90 euros Germany’s favourite city ticket offers free travel on the capital’s busses and railways, as well as many reductions on visits to the city’s main tourist attractions and other highlights.

Doha Bank announces the winners of monthly draw Stay tuned for our new Golden Doha Lottery

Burgan Bank - Chief Retail Banking Officer Muneera Al Mukhaizeem

Burgan bank offers discount at the International Optique KUWAIT: Burgan Bank amongst the leading and most dynamic commercial banks in the state of Kuwait - is offering an exclusive 20% discount on all purchases made with their Burgan Bank credit cards at the leading optical outlet ‘International Optique’.

Highlighting about this new and exciting promotion Burgan Bank Chief Retail Banking Officer Muneera Al Mukhaizeem said: “Our partnership with International Optique has been very successful. This is the second time in less than a year we have partnered with them for the benefit of our loyal and growing customer base.

At the bank it is part of our continuous efforts to present our customers with exclusive offers and discounts. This is one of the many exclusive offers for our customers and we continue to develop such partnerships with renowned outlets to ensure our customers receive added value throughout their relationship with us”.

International Optique, one of the top optical stores in Kuwait offers customers the latest in eyeglasses and sunglasses.

Burgan Bank cardholders can visit any International Optique stores and avail exciting benefits; the offer is valid till August 31, 2010.

KUWAIT: In the continuation of our successful campaign that was launched 2010 especially for our Kuwait employees, ‘Doha Bank’, one of the leading Qatar banks delivering special services in Kuwait, has announced the winners of the monthly draw, winning 100 thousand Qatari Riyals and 10 thousand Q Riyals per month.

Ahmed Khraibit and Mohamed Mostafa Al Zayyat have each won a 100 thousand Qatari Riyals, while 10 other winners won 10 thousand each. These are Tomotio Roserio Perrera, Sirinvasan Krishnan, Ihsan Mahdy El Sayed, Mohamed Ahmed Abdullah, Adnan Ibrahim Adnan, Wisam Mohamed Taha, Anood Hamad Mohamed, Pravin Anthony, Sherel Krishnan, and Khaja Ahmed Shaikh. All employees of “Doha Bank” are going to enter the draw with equal chances of winning a 100 thousand Qatari Riyals. Employees who win must have a minimum KD 100 in their bank account and there is a monthly winner, in addition to 10 win-

ners of 10 thousand Qatari Riyals each.

To deliver more excellence to “Doha Bank” customers in Kuwait, we have decided to give our outstanding clients the opportunity to double their chances, giving the clients with bank accounts more than 500 KD for 6 months to enter the draw for every 100KD in their accounts. But if the customers keep a minimum of 500KD in their balances for 12 months or more, they will get three chances to enter the draw for every 100KD in their balances.

‘Doha Golden’ campaign The Chief Country Manager of the “Doha Bank” in Kuwait, Ahmed Al Mehza, has announced the latest offers for 2010, saying “This year will witness the launch of the first draw in Kuwait and the region, granting the bank’s clients in Kuwait the chance to win kilos of gold. Al Mehza also notes that, which will be launched next month, was launched exclusively for the “Doha Bank” clients to win

the gold throughout the year.

Mentioning that the chance is still attainable to win the million Qatari riyals in the “Doha Millionaire” draw which will take place next month.

Al-Mehza adds: “The bank doesn’t stop making the effort to enhance its position the Kuwaiti market, as it continually aims to ease the bank transactions for its clients, doing that though launching varied bank services, wide options for opening accounts, including current accounts, fixed deposit accounts, and savings accounts, in addition to demand accounts that suit the circumstances of our daily life.

Regarding the goal of launching the new campaign by “Doha Bank” for the years 2010/2011, Al-Mehza made sure that the bank pays good attention to client servicing for individuals and companies, through delivering special services from one side, and giving outstanding clients the chance of winning a 100 thousand Qatari riyals reaching awards up to a million Riyals.

Jazeera Airways inaugurates new Kuwait-Lahore route KUWAIT: Jazeera Airways, (KSE: Jazeera, Bloomberg: Jazeera KK, Reuters: JAZK.KW) the Middle East’s leading regional carrier, inaugurated its latest non-stop route between Kuwait and Lahore, Pakistan, with a celebration at Kuwait International Airport yesterday evening. This recent addition to the network the airline’s first destination in Pakistan marks Jazeera’s successful expansion across the region.

During a cake-cutting ceremony to mark the launch of the new route, the airline’s CEO Stefan Pichler and Mr. Essam Al-Zamel, Operations Director, Kuwait International Airport, delivered a welcoming speech to the Kuwaiti media and scheduled passengers on this route. In honour of the occasion, the Jazeera Airways team distributed Pakistani sweets and a ‘first flight’ certificate to all passengers joining the inaugural flight.

Pichler said during the inauguration: “In keeping with Jazeera Airways’ vision to expand our regional network, we are very pleased to inaugurate our latest non-stop

route to Lahore. Our convenient schedules and frequent flights combined with great low fare travel will enable those working away from home in Kuwait or the Middle East to travel home and visit family and friends with greater ease.” Guests can fly three times a week from Kuwait to the capital city known as the ‘cultural heart of Pakistan’ on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. To purchase tickets for non-stop flights to Lahore or any of Jazeera’s other destinations, visit www.jazeeraairways.com or call us on +965 222 48940 (Call 177 in Kuwait).

Jazeera Airways currently operates a fleet of 11 Airbus A320s. Each aircraft is fitted with the airline’s signature leather seating, while the Jazeera Business Class cabin offers business travellers a little extra convenience including easy booking, special check-in counters, 40 kilograms baggage allowance, access to airport lounges and exclusive in-flight service and entertainment. The airline flies to destinations in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.

Etihad signs codeshare deal with Olympic air ABU DHABI: Etihad Airways customers around the world will soon be able to fly to two of Greece’s leading holiday destinations as well as Romania and Bulgaria for the first time, following the signing of a new codeshare agreement with Olympic Air. The new deal, which comes into effect on Tuesday May 18, will also give air travelers in Greece greater and easier access to the Abu Dhabi-based airline’s network of 61 destinations.

Under the deal, Etihad will place its two-letter ‘EY’ code on services operated by Olympic Air between Athens and Rhodes and Thessaloniki in Greece, the Romanian capital Bucharest, and capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. In turn, Olympic Air will place its ‘OA’ code on Etihad’s flights between Athens and Abu Dhabi and in due time on flights to

Johannesburg, Cape Town, Sydney and Melbourne (pending government approval).

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Etihad continues to expand its codeshare strategy across the world. These codeshare agreements are a key element of our goal to expand into new markets, in a measured way. “We look forward to strengthening the Etihad customer base in Greece by including the Olympic Air code on our flights from Athens to Abu Dhabi, which have been performing strongly.” Etihad commenced services between Abu Dhabi and Athens in June 2009 operating three flights per week, which was increased to daily from January 2010. The flights were launched at the same time as Etihad began flights to Larnaca in Cyprus.

KUWAIT: Some dignitaries pictured during the inauguration of Al Saleh into the ABB family as a main distributor of low voltage products.

— Photos by Joseph Shagra

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2840000 .4270000 .3620000 .2570000 .2800000 .2550000 .0045000 .0020000 .0783700 .7635370 .4020000 .0750000 .7485160 .0045000 .0500000

.2940000 .4380000 .3710000 .2660000 .2890000 .2630000 .0075000 .0035000 .0791580 .7712110 .4170000 .0790000 .7560390 .0072000 .0580000

US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2888500 .4295540 .3644840 .2595510 .2821150 .0489770 .0378180 .2569580 .0371190 .2082610 .0031220 .0064180 .0025500 .0034510 .0042100 .0786810 .7665600 .4085090 .0770650 .7506280 .0064540

.2909500 .4325870 .3670580 .2613890 .2841130 .0493240 .0380860 .2587730 .0373820 .2097350 .0031440 .0064640 .0025680 .0034750 .0042400 .0791830 .7714470 .4114010 .0775560 .7554130 .0065000

US Dollar Sterling pounds Swiss Francs Saudi Riyals

TRANSFER CHEQUES RATES .2909500 .4325870 .2613890 .0775560

287.000 188.740 262.820 257.800 288.000 ASIAN COUNTRIES

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.137 6.422 3.453 2.548 4.024 210.600 37.310 4.187 6.431 8.991 0.301 0.292 GCC COUNTRIES

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

77.414 79.751 754.130 771.000 79.050 ARAB COUNTRIES

Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound Yemen Riyal Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

54.250 51.811 1.287 197.520 409.930 194.730 6.243 33.582 GOLD

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

235.000 119.000 60.000

Bahrain Exchange Company

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer Euro Sterling Pound

Canadian dollar Turkish lire Swiss Franc Australian dollar US Dollar Buying

290.150 370.520 437.300

COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash

SELL CASH 262.600 771.440 4.410 287.700 569.600 15.800 50.100 167.800 54.610 371.700

SELL DRAFT 261.100 771.440 4.190 286.200

210.600 51.864 370.200

Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

37.990 6.700 0.035 0.295 0.256 3.230 411.780 0.196 92.200 47.200 4.260 211.400 1.975 47.900 753.550 3.530 6.730 80.230 77.450 210.580 40.900 2.749 437.100 38.900 265.500 264.000 6.400 9.350 217.900 79.150 290.500 1.330

37.840 6.415

410.050 0.195 92.200 4.040 209.900

9.170 79.050 280.100

1,317.030

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Candaian Dollars

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 435.100 290.100

290.050 3.460 6.445 2.560 4.185 6.475 79.035 77.515 770.600 51.855 435.900 0.000035000 4.200 1.550 411.800 5.750 375.500 289.700

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Cyprus Pound Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees

2.547 4.194 6.427 3.129 8.966 6.326 4.007

Currency 753.370 3.460 6.440 79.800 77.450 210.560 40.900 2.550 435.100

GOLD 10 Tola

Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees

290.000 284.935 433.116 368.610 260.418 710.812 767.601 78.936 79.635 77.302 409.231 51.809 6.421 3.460

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 289.700 370.000 437.000 286.000 3.140 6.420 51.805 2.547 4.185 6.430 3.450 770.500 78.950 77.350

BUSINESS

Sunday, May 16, 2010

23

KSE regains balance after significant losses BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) was able to regain its balance and to register gains during last week after recording significant losses in the week before amid a huge drop in trading levels. And despite the continued overall weakness in the market’s activity, trading indicators considerably improved in comparison to previous week’s levels, when daily volume, value and number of deals reached their lowest levels for the current year.

Average daily turnover during last week grew by 19.64%, compared to previous week’s levels, to reach KD 40.27 million, whereas trading volume average amounted to 214.54 million shares, at an increase of 45.81%. KSE’s main indices recorded a severe drop on the first trading day of the week in light of international stock markets’ huge losses by the end of previous week due

to Greece’s debt crisis. However, the local market bounced back on the following day, just like all other GCC stock markets, when a new European economic plan, of one trillion US dollars in value, was approved to support the region’s economies.

On the other hand, as official disclosure period was coming to an end, 74% of companies listed in the regular market have announced their results for the first quarter of 2010, with total net profits amounting to KD 359.22 million, 75.47% higher than the same companies’ results for the same period in 2009.

By the end of the week, the price index closed at 7,154.9 points, up by 0.57% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 1.58% weekly gain after closing at 433.84 points.

Accordingly, the market’s year-to-date

gains grew as a result of last week’s outcome, as price index’s increase from the beginning of the year reached 2.14%, while weighted index’s gains became 12.47%.

is 11.14 Fils. On the other hand, and according to the announced results and last Thursday’s closing prices, KSE average P/E ratio is currently at 15.80.

1st Quarter Results 157 companies announced their results for the first quarter of 2010 with total net profits amounting to KD 359.22 million, 75.47% higher than the same companies’ results for the corresponding period in 2009, which amounted to KD 204.71 million. And as per the announced results, the Food sector came in first in terms of average earnings per share (EPS) for its listed companies, which amounted to 28.62 Fils. The Services sector was second with an average EPS of 12.92 Fils, followed by the Banking sector in the third place with 12.19 Fils, whereas the market’s overall average EPS

Sectors’ Indices All of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone except for one sector. Last week’s highest gainer was the Banks sector, achieving 2.11% growth rate as its index closed at 9,336.5 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Industry sector’s index closed at 5,670.2 points recording 1.55% increase. The Real Estate sector came in third as its index achieved 0.81% growth, ending the week at 2,623.5 points. The Investment sector was the least growing as its index closed at 5,492.3 points with a 0.01% increase. On the other hand, the NonKuwaiti companies sector was last week’s

only loser as its index declined by 0.49% to end the week’s activity at 7,464.4 points.

Sectors’ Activity The Investment sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 312.15 million shares changing hands, representing 29.10% of the total market trading volume.

The Services sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 20.01% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 214.63 million shares.

On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 55.77 million or 27.70% of last week’s total market trading value. The Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 55 million represented 27.32% of the total market trading value.

Market Capitalization KSE total market capitalization grew by 1.46% during last week to reach KD 32.92 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitalization except for one sector. The Services sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 9.37 billion, increasing by 3.26%. The Food sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 2.90% increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 738.72 million.

The third place was for the Real Estate sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 1.88 billion by the end of the week, recording an increase of 1.93%. On the other hand, the Non-Kuwaiti companies sector was last week’s only decliner as its total market capitalization decreased by 0.27% to reach, by the end of the week, KD 3.29 billion.

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BUSINESS

KUWAIT: Honorary president of the IAA, Adnan Al-Rashid (third from right) pictured with IAA board members (from right) Adnan Saad, Marwan Farah, Walid Kanafani, Hanan Ammar, Zeina Mokaddam.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

KUWAIT: Walid Kanafani hands the honorary shield to Adnan Al-Rashid on behalf of Ahmad Behbehani, the President of the KJA.

‘Bringing the industry together’ KUWAIT: Under the patronage of his Excellency the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information Sheikh Faisal Khalifa Al-Malek AlSabah, the IAA Kuwait Chapter held a conference on Tuesday, the 11th of May at the Crowne Plaza, Al-Andalus Hall. The title for the conference is “Bringing The Industry Together: Part One”.

More than 200 industry practitioners attended from various sectors.

Ad agencies, Media, MBU’s and Clients, all gathered under the one association that was built to serve them.

The program for the event was as varied as it was intense.

Starting by an opening speech from Omar Al-Houti who has reminded the audience of the importance of unity and camaraderie within the industry, Fawzi Al-Timimi, the Assistant Undersecretary for the Commercial and TV affairs, took the stage and spoke of the role of the industry in the society and the importance of maintaining and adhering to the professional Code of Ethics.

The IAA Board members represented by Louai Al-Asfahani, President, Iqbal Al-Haddad, Vice President and Walid Kanafani, treasurer took the stage to offer tokens of appreciation to the IAA Kuwait Chapter key supporters.

Tokens were presented to: The IAA Kuwait Chapter Patron for the evening, His Excellency the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information Sheikh Faisal Khalifa Al-Malek Al-Sabah, accepting on his behalf was Khaled Al-Obeid.

Fawzi Al-Timimi: Assistant undersecretary for the Commercial and TV affairs; Ahmad Behbehani: President of the Kuwait Journalists Association, accepting on his behalf Adnan Al-Rashid; RLP represented by Marwan Farah for sponsoring the event. And last but not least, the Board presented a token of appreciation to the IAA Kuwait Chapter’s Honorary President Adnan Al-Rashid whose efforts throughout the years have made the existence of the IAA in Kuwait possible.

Before starting the program, the master of ceremony and

KUWAIT: IAA board member Omar Al-Houti delivering his speech.

General Secretary of the IAA, Zeina Mokaddam, asked the audience to take a moment to remember and honor the legacy of one of

our industry’s greatest, Antoine Choueiri. The first part of the program comprised of honorary speakers who took time off their busy

schedules and flew to Kuwait to share their knowledge with us and shed light on the changes that the advertising industry is witnessing, the need to reestablish confidence and embrace transparency and adopt best practices methods.

Sami Raffoul, Founder and CEO of PARC gave a presentation entitled: ‘Tremors or Ash, We Live Volcanic Change’. Tarek Ammar, Managing Director of Ara Research & Consultancy gave a presentation on the ‘Role of Market Research in Improving Market Confidence & The Importance of ESOMAR’.

Aspen Aman, the Business Development Manager of BPA Middle East, gave a presentation on ‘Auditing Print Circulation Figures, Case Study of Kuwait’.

After a short coffee break, the second part of the program started at 7.30 pm. That part of the evening proved to be quite interesting as the IAA Kuwait chapter had taken the initiative to invite, for the first time, open round table discussions, not to talk about what is wrong in the industry, but to gather up thoughts and suggestions on possi-

ble solutions for better regulations and a smoother, professional environment. The first round table was moderated by Iqbal Al-Haddad, and around the table, were Dr Mohamad Albloushi from KU, Said Zaineldine from Horizon, Haitham Al-Hajji from Caviar and Pierre Asmar from D&H The second round table was moderated by Marwan Farah, and around the table, Nael Halabi from Publicis Groupe, Patrick Abi Fadel from Means, Zaher Shuheib from KUC and Fadi Antranic from Webtech. Topics that were discussed included the need for better briefs from clients to ad agencies, the possibility of charging for pitches, the importance of including qualitative research in any quantitative study, the need to maintain agency fees, the price wars that are making everybody lose...Had people not gone hungry, the night would have turned into day!

Towards the end of the evening, Iqbal Al-Haddad read out the 10 Codes of Ethics and invited the audience to sign their pledge to

live by them. The event was organized by the IAA Kuwait Chapter Board: Louai Al-Asfahani President; Iqbal Al Haddad- Vice President; Walid Kanafani Treasurer; Zeina Mokaddam General Secretary; Adnan Saad Board Member; Gilbert AsfourBoard Member; Hanan AmmarBoard Member; Marwan FarahBoard Member; Michel Barakat Board Member; Omar Al Houti Board Member; Rony AtallahBoard Member, in Collaboration with the Kuwait Journalists Association and sponsored by RLP International.

The IAA Kuwait Chapter Board thanked all those who attended the conference and reminded everyone that the more members the chapter has, the more active it can be.

Special thanks also go to the Management of Crowne Plaza, AlJarra Flowers, and Four Films.

Tuesday the 11th of May was part one of a series. Bringing the industry together is on the top of the Kuwait Chapter’s agenda and the board is committed to doing its best in serving the industry.

KUWAIT: Iqbal Al-Haddad, Vice President of the IAA, hands the IAA honorary shield to Fawzi Al-Timimi.

KUWAIT: KJA honorary president, Adnan Al-Rashid, receives his honorary shield from IAA board members (from right) Zeina Mokaddam, Iqbal Haddad, Walid Kanafani, Louai Al-Asfahani.

KUWAIT: Marwan Farah (RLP general manager) receives his honorary shield for supervising the event.

A view of the audience.

BUSINESS

Sunday, May 16, 2010 Louai Al-Asfahani (IAA President): “This open forum between media and advertisement personnel is the beginning of a series of similar meetings that aim to reinforce the basis of professionalism to be used as the base ground for the media and advertisement industry. I acknowledge the role of IAA’s honorary president, financial manager of the Kuwait Journalists Society and deputy editor-in-chief of AlAnbaa daily, Adnan Al-Rashid, on that regard”.

KUWAIT: IAA President, Louai Al-Asfahani, hands the IAA honorary shield to Khaled Al-Obeid on behalf of the information ministry undersecretary, Faisal Khalifa Al-Malek Al-Sabah.

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KUWAIT: Ministry of information undersecretary assistant for television affairs and commercial management, Fawzi AlTimimi delivering the inauguration speech.

Fawzi Al-Timimi (Ministry of Information undersecretary assistant for television affairs and commercial management): “Information and advertisement have an integral relation, as none of them can exist without the other.

Such events are essential due to the fact that they gather media and advertisement personnel under one roof to discuss point of views and support the main goal of developing both fields.

Furthermore, the code of conduct signed during this event is considered a significant step forward in regards to the professional work and placing the controls that maintains the atmosphere of fair competition”.

KUWAIT: Iqbal Haddad, Walid Kanafani, Louai Al-Asfahani sitting with other dignitaries.

KUWAIT: Photo shows some of the participants at the event.

KUWAIT: Danial Yonis, former president of IAA with the new members of IAA

KUWAIT: Some of the participants pictured during the conference.

Signing the Code of Conduct.

Tarek Ammar, managing director of Ara Research and Consultancy

Aspen Aman, the business development manager of BPA Middle East

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Latest population and the labor force NBK economic brief

Samsung raises the bar for flat-panel TVs KUWAIT: Samsung Electronics, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, raises the bar for flat-panel TVs everywhere with the launch of the eagerly awaited new line-up of 3D TVs including LED, LCD and PDP models, marking a new dimension in TV entertainment. With the new line-up of 3D TVs, Samsung will unveil the 3D LED TVs 8000, 7000 and 6000 series. Samsung 8000 LED TVs come fully equipped with the latest 3D HyperReal Engine and Clear Motion Rate technology, allowing users to enjoy the 3D contents in more three dimensional and realistic way.

“In the history of television there have been many improvements. The first was black and white TV. Then came color, stylish designs and bigger screens. Now we have the next breakthrough with the introduction of the revolutionary Samsung 3D TV line-up,” said Ram Modak, General Manager, Digital Media Business, Samsung Gulf Electronics. “Since its introduction at CES earlier this year, 3D has been regarded as next big thing in TV, and as always, Samsung is on the forefront of bringing the vision to life. As of mid-May, consumers in Kuwait will be able to enjoy 3D entertainment in their own living room,” added Modak.

A user-friendly feature to Samsung 3D TV technology in the Middle East is the 3D conver-

sion to create a deeper, more realistic 3D experience. Moreover, with 3D content played back on a 3D-enabled Blu-ray disc player, the Samsung 3D TV detects 3D input signals, which generate superior stereoscopic images.

“Samsung has been the leading company in the global TV market for four straight years, and we remain committed to leading the market by deploying new categories of entertainment like Full HD 3D LED TVs, on which consumers around the world will be able to enjoy their favorite content,” said Modak. “With the widest range of options for 3D home solutions ever, Samsung continues to lead the home entertainment industry by liberating 2D content to 3D, and creating new, immersive experiences for consumers.” Samsung’s new line-up includes innovative 2D to 3D conversion, one of Samsung’s key features for the Middle East line-up. With a combination of hardware and software, Samsung 3D TVs are able to convert the 2D content in real time that are translated by the glasses as a 3D image. Samsung is the first and only to offer the 2D to 3D conversion for the 3D TVs. The 2D to 3D conversion features are the first of its kind in the Middle East line-up.

Samsung’s HD 3D LED TV line-up deliver superior 3D picture quality with incredible depth and perfect clarity. Samsung’s HD 3D LED TVs

KSE price index ends the week with gain of 0.6% Weekly update KUWAIT: The KSE market price index started on a weak note as it open with downside gap of 85 points and touched an intraweek low at 6,937 level but thereafter it rallied to 7,161 level before closing at 7,154 level. The KSE price index ended the week with gain of 0.6% or 41 points, whereas the KSE weighted index moved up 1.6% at 433 level, post that it touched intraweek low of 414 level.

The Banking and the Industrial sectors were the top gainers, which increased by 2.1% and 1.6% respectively, while the Real estate and the Service sectors ended marginally up by 0.5% compared to

last week.

Among the large cap stocks, the major gainers were GBK +7.9%, BURGAN +5.8%, PIPE +5.6%, NMTC +4.7%, ZAIN +4.5%, FOOD +4.3%, NRE +3.1%, NINV +3%, AGLTY +1.8% and losers were KPROJ -3.6%, KFH -1.9%, NIG 1.4% on weekly basis. The stock of NBK remained unchanged over the week. The market breath was positive as 74 stocks gained against 51 stocks lost and 30 stocks remained unchanged over the week.

The most active stocks were ZAIN, NBK, GBK, KFH and AGLTY on value basis.

Wataniya awards 105 lucky winners KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom hosted a fun event at the Avenues Mall for its customers and a large audience last Monday. This is an exciting new campaign that gives every customer a chance to be a winner via a draw. Wataniya awarded 105 lucky winners with a number of valuable gifts ranging from Mini Coopers, FIFA World Cup tickets to South Africa, BlackBerry devices and much more. A live entertainment show was hosted by the famous MC Mishal Al Shayee, who engaged the audience with a thrilling Q&A about Wataniya and gave out instant prizes to the winners. The evening was a big success and all the people present there had a fantastic time.

Following the instant prize session, the monthly draw took place at 7:00 pm, in the presence of a ministry representative who monitored the selection process. 105 names were randomly selected and announced as the lucky winners of May 2010 draw. Riham Al Ayyar, the Senior Communication Manager from Wataniya expressed her gratitude to all the subscribers and congratulated the winners. Riham stated “We’re having such a great time with our enthusiastic audience and we are proud to provide them with this great opportunity to be selected and rewarded for being a part of the Wataniya family.”

Riham Al Ayyar There is a lot more coming up with Wataniya, in Riham’s words “Our monthly draw campaign promises everybody a chance to be a winner by simply using their Wataniya line, and it doesn’t end today! We will continue rewarding our customers on the 10th of every month for the next 11 months.” Wataniya continues to celebrate its tenth anniversary by giving all its customers several chances to become winners!

boast unsurpassed picture quality, with vibrant colors and higher contrast ratios. With a wideranging palette of materials and designs, Samsung offers something to meet anyone’s tastes and interior design preferences.

This year’s premium LED TV models, the C8000 and C7000, feature Samsung’s Clear Motion Rate(tm) technology and Samsung’s proprietary built-in 3D processor that is compatible with major 3D format standards. Samsung’s 3D technology and a faster panel optimized for 3D work together to deliver an immersive viewing experience. Using LEDs as its primary light source, the 3D LED televisions all feature ultrahigh contrast ratios as well as slim depths that allow for more artful designs, plus increased energy savings.

The 3D LED TVs come with the ability to stream content using AllShare and Internet@TV. AllShare allows content stored on a PC to be directly streamed to the Blu-Ray player.

Internet@TV offers several benefits of downloading widgets and apps like Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter and more. Consumers have the simplicity of adding and deleting the TV widgets. “With Samsung’s AllShare, consumers can wirelessly sync their PC or Samsung mobile phone with their TV, streaming content and even keeping tabs on who’s calling and texting with real-time monitor-

ing on the screen. Samsung’s AllShare makes staying connected easy and enjoyable,” said Modak.

The 3D LED TVs are also the highest performing and most eco-conscious HDTV products Samsung has ever released, all exceeding the more stringent EnergyStar 4.0 guidelines.

“Samsung has proven LED technology is a viable choice for consumers desiring the best picture possible from an LCD television. Samsung’s latest LED televisions redefine the standards for viewing quality, energy-efficiency and home entertainment dÈcor,” said Modak. The Samsung HD 3D LED TVs are the highest performing and eco-conscious HDTV products Samsung has ever released, all exceeding the more stringent EnergyStar 4.0 guidelines. “Samsung stays committed to developing technology and products that go beyond current expectations of value, quality and innovation. And, we are excited to be at the forefront of this exciting point in TV evolution,” concluded Modak. Samsung’s 3D TV wide range of LED, LCD and PDP TVs, range from 40 to 46, 50, 55 and 63 inch. To complete the 3D viewing experience, Samsung will offer a 3D Blu-ray disc player and 3D glasses as a promotion during the launch. The new Samsung 3D TV line-up will be available in all major electronics stores across the UAE, starting mid-May, 2010.

ihaveanidea announces Memac Ogilvy as host of Portfolio Night 8 KUWAIT: ihaveanidea, the world’s first and largest community of the international advertising industry, proudly announces Memac Ogilvy Kuwait as Host of Portfolio Night 8 in Kuwait.

This year Portfolio Night 8 is scheduled to occur around the world on May 20, 2010. ihaveanidea’s Portfolio Night is the largest simultaneous advertising portfolio review ever held in the world, featuring a uniquely designed portfolio review process in a “speed-dating” setting. The event helps students and aspiring young creatives around the world break into the ad industry and involve the top creative directors in each participating city. ihaveanidea is pleased to have Memac Ogilvy Kuwait as the Portfolio Night 8 Host in Kuwait.

Portfolio Night Hosts are integral in bringing this monumental industry event to their city.

They are the local partners in charge of the colossal task of making this event happen each year and are the center of Portfolio Night in their city. Without them on the ground, spearheading Portfolio Night in their city we really couldn’t make this event happen” says Ignacio Oreamuno, president, ihaveanidea. The Kuwait event is set to happen at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, located in Kuwait City.

Memac Ogilvy Kuwait, Managing Director, Nabil Touma said: “We are extremely proud to host the first ever Portfolio Night 8 event in Kuwait. The event is aimed at giving a platform to the bright and upcoming creatives a platform to showcase their work to the best creative directors in the country.” Highlighting the significance of the event, Eli Bouchaaya, Creative Director Kuwait said: “At Memac Ogilvy we always try to bring innovative and fresh ideas to the advertising industry. Although we are hosting the event for the first time, our objective will be to judge the creativity honestly and try to give our passion to the upcoming talent in the country.”

Portfolio Night 8 will see hundreds of industry professionals mentoring aspiring creatives in cities like Athens, Atlanta, Barcelona, Beirut, Brussels, Cairo, Chicago, Dubai, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuwait, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manama, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Mumbai, New York, Philadelphia, Quebec City, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Stockholm, Taipei, Toronto and Tunis.

LG reports solid growth in first quarter earnings Nabil Touma Students enrolled in advertising programs, recent graduates, and up-and-coming creatives will have the opportunity to spend valuable faceto-face time with their city’s most prestigious creative directors. Young creatives are encouraged to attend this event in one of the participating cities to have the opportunity to speak with three or more world-class creative directors. All aspiring creatives or juniors with an advertising portfolio must register online at www.portfolionight.com About Portfolio Night Started in 2002, Portfolio Night (www.portfolionight.com) is ihaveanidea’s annual event, where advertising’s top creative talents come together to review the portfolios of students, juniors and creative hopefuls in an exciting and engaging environment. For eager up-and-comers, Portfolio Night is an incredible opportunity to meet with the industry’s most acclaimed creative directors and have their work critiqued, gain advice - and possibly a job. For agency creative directors, Portfolio Night represents a chance to give back to the advertising community, and to meet or recruit the most talented young people trying to enter the business. Since its inception, Portfolio Night has always been held on one evening, simultaneously in all cities.

This year, Portfolio Night 8 will be held on Thursday, May 20, 2010, around the world.

Isys launches ‘Pay - it. Mobi’ KUWAIT: During its participation in “Zain City” Exhibition, Isys launched its latest surprise to its audience ‘Pay - it. Mobi’ service to credit recharge and local calls payment through K-Net As its strategy always to create all what’s new in the communications and information world Isys launched its latest surprise to its audience ‘Pay it. Mobi’ service to credit recharge and local calls payment through K-Net The Managing Director and CEO of Isys for information and technology Eng. Mohamed AlRishidi declared that ‘pay-it.mobi’ service is the latest in Kuwait and it’s a unique service in the Middle East because it allows the clients to pay the value of their calls and recharge their phones, and its available for all Zain’s clients wither Kuwaitis or non Kuwaitis, through k-net, and it allows all residence in Kuwait to send credit to their families in their countries through the same way, pointing that they can use this service through its website www.pay-it.mobi through their mobiles and then follow the instructions, and that the clients will be able to use this service through the internet soon. Eng AlRishidi Added

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s population reached 3.48 million at the end of 2009 according to the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI). The population grew by 1.3% on the year. The number of Kuwaiti nationals continued to increase but at a slower rate than the average of the previous five years. The number of non-Kuwaiti residents increased by 0.5%. There were 1.11 million Kuwaitis, or 32% of the total population.

The slow growth of Kuwait’s population since 2008 was caused in large part by the much slower growth of the expatriate population, due to the fallout from the economic crisis. The number of expatriates grew only 11,700 in 2009, versus an average yearly gain of 109,000 in the years 2001-08. Nearly 1.2 million people were added to Kuwait’s population over the last ten years, of which 73% were expatriates, reflecting the strong economy of the boom years.

Kuwait’s total adult population (over 20 years of age) reached 2.25 million, 65% of the total population. For Kuwaitis, the data show that 49% are under 20-years old. Also the Kuwaiti population splits almost evenly into men and women at 51%-49%. In 2009, labor force growth in Kuwait remained weak, with the number increasing by a small 0.3% to reach 2.1 million. For expatriate workers, the numbers were up in the public and domestic (household) sectors, while they fell slightly in the private sector.

The number of employed Kuwaitis rose by over 19,000 compared with 15,000 in 2008. Nearly 60% of these jobs were in the private sector with Kuwaitis employed in the sector reaching 68,200. Thus in 2009, 20% of Kuwaitis worked in the private sector, up from 18% in 2008 and 16% in 2007. The rising private sector share is partly the result of the National Labor Support law of 2000. The law provides Kuwaitis working in the private sector with the same benefits available in the public sector. Of course, the expansion of the private sector during the boom years was also a helping factor.

The services industry employs more than 66% of Kuwait’s labor force. Most of it is in the community, social and personal services sector, which includes the government/public sector. Services also accounted for 71% of the net increase in jobs during 2009. The wholesale and retail trade and restaurant sector is another major employer accounting for over 15% of the country’s labor force.

The construction and industrial sectors, 8% and 7% of the labor force, respectively, are the sectors most heavily reliant on expatriate labor; 95% of workers in the construction sector are non-Kuwaiti. The number of non-Kuwaitis working in the construction sector fell by 2% in 2008 and 4% in 2009. This trend appears to be a result primarily of a contracting construction sector with many new projects on hold.

Companies seem to have reduced their staff.

Crude oil production and manufacturing, including refining, employ 8% of nationals in the workforce. The electricity, water and gas (‘Utilities’) industries mainly employ Kuwaiti nationals, who represent 83% of the workforce in this sector.

Meanwhile, 37% of the expatriate labor force works in the community, social and personal services sector. These total over 649,000 nonKuwaitis and include household workers, drivers, and unskilled domestic labor. More than 308,000 expatriates are employed in trade and hospitality sector, down 1% from 2008. The number of expatriates employed in the financial and business services sector also fell by 2%, and this sector now employs 89,000 non-Kuwaitis. Meanwhile, the construction sector employs 9% of the total expatriate labor force, down 4% from the previous year. Almost 113,000 non-Kuwaitis work in the manufacturing industry, including refining.

Military A breakdown of the top ten largest jobs by professions shows that the biggest gains by Kuwaitis, 88% of total net gains, were in clerical and secretarial positions, which represent one-third of all jobs held by Kuwaitis. The NBK report concluded: the Kuwaiti national population is still growing near its 3% trend rate. On the employment side, private sector employment of Kuwaitis continues apace. The current 20% share of Kuwaitis in the private sector is bound to rise further as the trend continues and as it is reinforced by upcoming measures mentioned in the current 5-year economic plan.

that the new service is a part of Isys’s new strategy “One” which is to offer new creative solution that would have a great impact on the company’s performance as well as on its solution providing performance that would make it raise above the information wave that is coming from the global companies that now in the web that stormed into the communications’ world intensively.

Eng AlRishidi Said that Isys accomplished a huge audience during its participation in the exhibition in which it provided free services and prizes for its client, clearing that Isys used this opportunity to show its audience the latest in the communication technology confirming that Isys presented through its participation a huge meal of services and promotions that are presented for the first time in Kuwait.

Eng AlRishidi concluded that the company is sure that the visitors who participated in its service will enjoy the services that Isys provides clearing that Isys’s participation targeted opening more than window to come through to its audience pointing out that Isys’s aim is to build a strong relationship with its clients for a long time.

KUWAIT: LG Electronics (LG) yesterday announced unaudited earnings results based on IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) for the three-month period ending March 31, 2010. LG posted consolidated first quarter 2010 sales of KRW 13.7 trillion ($11.9 billion) and operating profit of KRW 529 billion ($462 million), increasing sales 3.7 percent (up 28 percent in USD) and operating profit by 2.6 percent (up 26 percent in USD) year-over-year.

The LG Home Entertainment Company’s revenues grew 20 percent from a year ago as demand for flat panel TVs surged, resulting in sales of KRW 5.2 trillion ($4.5 billion) and operating profit of KRW 182 billion ($159 million). LCD TV shipments jumped 62 percent to 5.2 million units compared to the same period last year. An aggressive product line-up led by Full LED LCD TVs and a higher proportion of premium products will continue to drive profits for the LG Home Entertainment Company.

The LG Mobile Communications Company posted a sales revenue decrease of 19.4 percent year over-year as a result of the low season and a drop in mobile phone prices. Handset shipments reported 27.1 million units while its sales dropped 19.7 percent year over-year.

Operating profit dropped to 0.9 percent year-over-year due to investment and marketing expenses. The company expects to improve sales and profitability through new smartphone launches and expansion of global platform models.

The LG Home Appliance Company showed consistent positive performance with eight percent year-over-year growth (33 percent growth on a USD base) on sales of KRW 2.4 trillion ($2.1 billion) and operating profit of KRW 207 billion ($181 million). Sales from overseas markets grew 34 percent compared to the first quarter of 2009 led by solid sales in China, India and North America. Market demand in the second quarter is expected to slow down but the company will secure profitability and market leadership through aggressive cost reduction and sustainable sales growth.

The LG Air Conditioning Company saw sales decreased six percent (15 percent growth on a USD base) year-over-year to KRW 1.2 trillion ($1.0 billion) and operating profit came at KRW 43 billion ($38 million).

Growth led by emerging markets is expected as the peak season approaches and the global economy continues to recover. The LG Business Solutions Company recorded a strong increase in sales of 15.4 percent year-over-year with sales reaching KRW 1.3 trillion ($1.1 billion) on stronger demand for IT products and solid demand in emerging markets. Sales of car infotainment products grew with the recovery of the automobile market and monitor sales also picked up, especially in Europe and South and Central America.

Financial statement Net profit for the first quarter of 2010 rose significantly to KRW 675 billion ($590 million), compared to a loss of KRW 200 billion ($142 million) a year earlier. Equity method gain of KRW 219 billion ($191 million) from affiliates helped push up net profit. In particular, LG Display booked an equity method gain of KRW 230 billion ($201 million). LG adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2010 with the objective of unifying its global accounting and financial reporting standards. The 104 subsidiaries of which LG owns more than 50 percent of voting shares have been consolidated under IFRS, including overseas subsidiaries and LG Innotek. As a result, LG Display, in which LG Electronics owns a 37.9 percent stake, will no longer be consolidated in LG Electronics’ earnings results.

2010 2Q business direction and prospects The company expects to see growth in the second quarter of 2010 with the global economic recovery and the start of the high season for air conditioning business. LG will continue to introduce new products in major categories including smartphones, invest aggressively in R&D and marketing and develop premium products in order to secure its position in respective categories.

2010 1Q exchange rates explained Amounts in Korean Won (KRW) are translated into US Dollars (USD) at the average rate of the three month period in each corresponding quarter: KRW 1,145 per USD (2010 1Q) and KRW 1,409 per USD (2009 1Q).

TECHNOLOGY

Sunday, May 16, 2010

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Google ends WiFi collection after personal data captured WASHINGTON: Google is halting the collection of WiFi network information for its controversial “Street View” mapping service after admitting it mistakenly gathered personal data sent over unsecured systems.

The Internet giant had insisted previously that it was only collecting WiFi network names and addresses with the Street View cars that have been cruising cities around the world taking photographs for the Google Maps service.

“It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (ie nonpassword-protected) WiFi networks,” Alan Eustace, Google senior vice president for engineering and research, said in a blog post Friday. Eustace said Google was “profoundly sorry for this error,” which is likely to intensify criticism of Street View by privacy advocates and officials. The Mountain View, California-based Google said it will end the collection

of WiFi network information entirely by the Street View cars which have been used in over 30 nations, and was taking steps to delete the private data.

Street View, which is available for the United States and certain other countries, allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps and “walk” through cities such as New York, Paris or Hong Kong. WiFi network information allows Google to build location features into mobile versions of Street View such as directions or nearby restaurants. Amid concerns that thieves could use pictures of private houses to gain access and that photos of people were being published without their consent, Street View already blurs faces and car registration plates.

The collection of WiFi network information by Street View, which began in 2006, has already come in for criticism, particularly in Germany. Eustace said a coding error was responsible for the collection of per-

sonal data sent by people over unsecured WiFi networks. Google did not specify what data was gathered but it could potentially include emails or details about which websites a person had visited, for example.

Eustace said Google discovered that personal data had been swept up a week ago following a request to audit WiFi data from the Data Protection Authority in Hamburg, Germany. “As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible,” he said. “We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it,” Eustace said.

“Given the concerns raised, we have decided that it’s best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely,” he added. A Google

spokesperson said about 600 gigabytes of personal information had been gathered, roughly the amount as in a standard computer hard drive. Eustace said the data was just fragments. “Because our cars are on the move, someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by, and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second,” he said.

“Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short,” he said. “We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.” John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that is a frequent critic of Google, said the company had demonstrated a “lack of concern for privacy.” “Its computer engineers run amok, push the envelope and gather whatever data they can until their fingers are caught in the cookie jar,” Simpson said.

“The takeaway from this incident is the clear need for government oversight and regulation of the data all online companies gather and store,” he said. Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said “Google has placed data collection before user privacy-the DNA of the company is to harvest data for online marketing. “Top management needs to ensure that privacy-not data collection-come first,” Chester said.

Google said Street View cars have been collecting WiFi data in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States. — AFP

Google dumps online store for Nexus One smartphone Nexus One released to combat iPhone, BlackBerry WASHINGTON: Google said Friday it w as closing dow n the online store for its Nexus One smartphone in a strategic shift that signals the failure of its bid to market the device directly to consumers on the Web. The move comes just four months after the Internet search and advertising giant launched the

TOKYO: A woman walks past curved plasma display panels (PDP) showing videos to introduce the new technology during the Fujitsu Forum in Tokyo on May 14, 2010. The world’s first curved PDP, made of glass tubes 1mm in diameter, was recently developed for such use as ‘motion-picture posters’ that can be fitted on pillars and other cylindrical objects. — AFP

Using your mobile phone to navigate BERLIN: GPS navigation software for the mobile phone received a big boost with the advent of the smartphone but is this trend a gimmick or a real help? Along with the pay-todownload versions there are also navigation software packages available for free but there is one thing they all have in common: none of them can match the quality of a conventional GPS navigator and should be regarded as an addition.

To turn your mobile phone into a navigator it must be equipped with a GPS receiver.

“That’s a basic requirement,” explains Florian Stein from the German technology magazine Connect. The receiver tells the phone where it is positioned within a few meters.

In addition to a GPS receiver you will also need navigation software installed on your phone.

Some free versions provide functions such as live information on traffic jams but not all of them can be installed on all phone models. Nokia has a free software package for its customers called Ovi Maps with information on 70 countries. However, Ovi Maps can only be installed on certain types of Nokias.

When choosing free software take into consideration that there may be costs to pay later.

Many free programs do not install maps on the phone and have to download the graphics from the provider every time you enter a new destination.

That can lead to extra phone charges that become apparent when you get your next bill.

Mobile phone customers with flat rate data transfer deals, however, will not have to worry about extra charges.

If you only occasionally need to quickly orientate yourself in a new location, then you probably do not need navigation software at all. A free service available on most smart phones is Google Maps and will satisfy most basic needs. “But it’s only useful for short journeys,” says Stein.

Almost all of the big navigation software makers offer programs for mobile phones. iPhone users have a range of offers to choose from in the App Store. Navigon can be downloaded onto Android, Windows and Symbian phones. In some countries T-Mobile customers can even download a free version of the software.

The programmes’ user interfaces often resemble those of classic GPS devices but there are a few differences. TomTom has designed an app for the iPhone which does not include the TomTom Home application available on its conventional device, according to Tom Murray, Vice President of Market Development at TomTom. TomTom Home automatically downloads updates to the GPS device. “TomTom Share, which allows users to make changes to maps, is also missing from the app version,” says Murray.

But there are a few things that are better on a mobile phone such as providing the user with information that frequently changes such as the locations of bars and cafes, according to Gerhard Mayr from Navigon. They are also good at downloading information on current traffic conditions.

Florian Stein says the maps on GPS navigation devices and those supplied to mobile phone users are the same. The main differences are in the hardware: “Most navigation devices have a 4:3 screen or even bigger. A smartphone screen is usually smaller,” says Tom Murray.

“When driving a car the quality of the device’s voice function takes on even greater significance. But most smartphones cannot match the quality of a conventional GPS navigator.”

Mayr also agrees that smartphone voice navigation is not of a high standard.

Another consideration is that smart phones have a relatively short battery life and are often drained of power after two hours when used to navigate, according to Stein. A smartphone will also need a good holder so it won’t move about when you brake.

Most portable navigation devices come equipped with a car mount but a smartphone user will have to make do with a universal holder that does not always fit a phone 100 per cent.

Are mobile phones good enough for navigating on foot?

Florian Stein is sceptical; he thinks they are still in the experimental stage. Relying solely on a mobile phone to find your way in a strange environment can end up turning into an adventure. “As a pedestrian you can walk 100 meters in the wrong direction before your phone realizes what’s wrong,” says Stein. — dpa

“As with every innovation, some parts worked better than others,” Google vice president of engineering Andy Rubin said in a blog post. “While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the Web store has not,” Rubin said of the open-source mobile phone operating system that Google offers for free to handset makers. “It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters,” Rubin said of the Nexus One store. “But it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.”

When Google launched the Nexus One, which carries the Google brand but is made by Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC, in January it said it would be supported by the major US wireless carriers.

Google’s plan allowed customers to purchase the Nexus One for more than 500 dollars-a price well above that of many carrier-subsidized smartphones-and then sign up with a carrier of their choice.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless, the biggest US wireless carrier, declined, however, to offer the Nexus One, dealing a setback to Google’s plans. Rubin said Google would sell the Nexus One through existing retail channels. “Once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores, we’ll stop selling handsets via the Web store, and will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally,” he said.

Google does not release sales figures for the Nexus One but it reportedly trails far behind the iPhone and other handsets such as Motorola’s Droid. Android devices on the whole, however, are doing well according to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. Schmidt told shareholders on Thursday that manufacturers were shipping at least 65,000 Androidpowered mobile phones a day.

Schmidt said Android is now being used on 34 models of mobile device in 49 countries and “is going to be either the number one or number two player” in the mobile phone market. A number of analysts and technology blogs questioned whether the closure of the Web store could signal the end of the Nexus One and the foray into branded hardware by a company that has made billions through innovative software.

The move “makes me wonder if that’s it for Google doing devices,” Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, said in a blog post, adding it now “seems likely that there won’t be a Nexus Two.” “They may come back and try this again but clearly it’s not their strentgth,” said technology analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group. “They just weren’t very good at selling phones,” he said. “They tried to bypass the carriers and that flopped.” Dan Frommer of BusinessInsider.com said pulling the plug on the online store was the right move by the Mountain View, Californiabased company. “Google should be supporting its carrier and other distribution partners, not competing with them,” Frommer said. — AFP

touchscreen Nexus One as a rival to Apple’s iPhone and the BlackBerry from Canada’s Research in Motion. In a country w here mobile phones are generally tied to specific w ireless carriers-Apple w ith AT&T, for example-Google took a novel approach to selling the Nexus One-one that may have upset carriers.

SAN FRANCISCO: A full page ad by Adobe Systems is displayed on the back of the San Francisco Chronicle business section May 13, 2010. Adobe Systems has fired back at Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ recent denouncement of Adobe’s Flash technology and is running advertisements in major newspapers saying “We Love Apple”. — AFP

Jobs contacted Gizmodo to retrieve lost iPhone SAN FRANCISCO: Brian Hogan’s world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday. By April 19, Hogan’s roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple’s top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone’s return.

The ordeal has set off ethic debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts until now. On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written

by San Mateo Sheriff’s Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor.

Broad’s statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen’s home and car. According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert “Gray” Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City’s Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Now, Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation. Nobody, including Chen, has been charged with any crime, “The events have taken on a life of their own,” said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan’s attorney.

“He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable and he regrets not doing more to return it.” Bornstein said Hogan always intended to return the phone and didn’t believe he was breaking the law in dealing with Gizmodo.

Bornstein also denied the affidavit’s suggestion that Hogan was trying to get rid of evidence on April 21. That’s when, shortly before midnight, Hogan’s roommate Katherine Martinson called investigators and told them

that Hogan and Warner were removing evidence from their apartment, the document said.

Investigators found Hogan at his father’s Redwood City house and he directed them to nearby Sequoia Christian Church, where they recovered Hogan’s computer and monitor.

Bornstein said that Hogan was in the process of moving out of the apartment and that Warner ended up with Hogan’s computer, panicked and dropped them off at the church. The investigation has prompted debate over whether he should be shielded from prosecution by California’s so-called shield law, which protects journalists from having to turn over to police unpublished notes and the names of anonymous sources. But the shield law doesn’t immunize journalists from breaking the law.

The investigators themselves have come under fire as well for apparently launching the investigation at Apple’s behest. Detective Broad belongs to a special high technology task force called the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, which is comprised of investigators from several jurisdictions and investigates crimes against technology companies.

According to Broad, task force investigators met with two high-ranking Apple executives and outside lawyer George Riley on April 20, the day Gizmodo published the images.

Riley told the task force that Gizmodo’s action were “immensely damaging to Apple,” because consumers would hold off buying iPhones until the new version was released.

Riley didn’t estimate a dollar figure, but said losses were “huge,” according to the affidavit.

Apple is a member of the technology crime task force’s board, but the company said it didn’t use its influence to pressure law enforcement to investigate. “We reported what we believe was a crime, and the D A of San Mateo county is taking it from there,” said Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton. San Mateo County prosecutors had argued to keep the affidavit under seal to protect the identities of witnesses and the ongoing investigation. But The Associated Press and several other media companies convinced a San Mateo County superior court judge to make the document public, arguing disclosure was necessary to ensure that the raid of a journalist’s home was proper. — AP

Lime Wire found liable for file-sharing damages SAN FRANCISCO: File-sharing service Lime Wire may be a hit with music fans who want their favorite songs for free, but it is getting thumbs down in the US courts.

A federal judge gas ruled that the service’s makers are liable for damages because they knew that their technology was being used to illegally download copyrighted music and took no meaningful steps to combat the practice.

The 59-page decision by US District Judge Kimba Wood issued late Wednesday found that Lime Wire marketed its software to people “predisposed to committing infringement” and assisted those people, according to a report Thursday in the publication Information Week. The ruling exposes Lime Wire creator Mark Gorton to potentially astronomic damages as the 13 record companies who filed the lawsuit now plan to demand a fine of 150,000 dol-

lars per violation. The Recording Industry Association of America welcomed the ruling as an “important milestone” in its battle against online piracy. “By finding Lime Wire’s CEO personally liable, in addition to his company, the court has sent a clear signal to those who think they can devise and profit from a piracy scheme that will escape accountability,” the RIAA said in a statement. “We are gratified by the court’s careful and thorough analysis of the facts and applicable law.”

Lime Wire chief executive George Searle issued a statement saying the company “strongly opposed the court’s recent decision,” but did not say it would appeal the ruling. Lime Wire, launched in 2000, is one of the largest remaining commercial peer-to-peer services left on the Web, with a claimed user base of 50 million monthly users. — dpa

HEALTH & SCIENCE

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Atlantis heads off on NASA’s third-to-last shuttle flight Shuttle carries Russian modules, spare parts for station CAPE CANAVERAL: US shuttle Atla ntis speeded tow a rd the International Space Station yesterday after a successful lift-off on the final mission for the 25-year-old spacecraft. The shuttle blasted off from

Cape Canaveral, Florida into a clear blue sky on Friday afternoon.

Several minutes after the launch, Atlantis’s tw in w hite solid rocket boosters w ere separated and dropped into the Atlantic Ocean.

in the news Faster, stronger, deadlier: The MRSA superbug NEW YORK: When she first described it in 1961, Patricia Jevons, a British bacteriologist, may have had a hard time imagining that the tiny bug she was staring at would soon become a penicillin-mocking juggernaut-a superbug that kills an estimated 19,000 Americans a year and make millions more sick. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-or MRSA for short-is the subject of journalist Maryn McKenna’s new book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA (Free Press, March 2010). She spoke with Reuters Health on Thursday about the bacteria’s toll on public health and how we may, unwittingly, be helping a new strain along with-maryn-mckenna-author-of-superbug-the-fatal-menace-of-mrsa/).

Combating childhood obesity in the womb NEW YORK: Children whose mothers developed diabetes while pregnant are at increased risk of being overweight by age 11, a new study shows. The study also found that children born to obese mothers are more likely to have a weight problem than children born to lean mothers.

Does eating too much lead to urinary incontinence?

NEW YORK: Women who consume a lot of calories or favor saturated fat over “good” fats may have an increased risk of urinary incontinence, regardless of their body weight, a new study suggests. The findings don’t prove that diet changes can help prevent or manage urinary incontinence, the researchers say.

Diet soda for preventing kidney stones?

NEW YORK: Certain diet sodas may have the potential to prevent the most common type of kidney stone, if new lab research is correct. In the study, researchers found that the diet versions of several popular citrus-flavored sodas — like 7Up, Sunkist and Sprite-contained relatively high amounts of a compound called citrate. Citrate, in turn, is known to inhibit the formation of calcium oxalate stones, the most common form of kidney stone.

USDA toughens guidelines for ground beef purchases WASHINGTON: Companies that sell ground beef used in federal food and nutrition programs, including school lunches, will need to meet tougher food safety guidelines beginning this summer, the US Agriculture Department said on Friday. USDA said ground beef purchased by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service will now be subjected to more frequent testing and it will ban the use of certain trimmings.

Neighborhood violence may raise kids’ asthma risk NEW YORK: Children who live in neighborhoods plagued by violence may have a higher risk of asthma than those who grow up in more peaceful surroundings, a new study hints. Researchers found that among more than 2,000 Chicago children age 9 or younger, those from neighborhoods with moderate to serious problems with violence were about 60 percent more likely to develop asthma in the next few years than children from less violent neighborhoods.

Russia confirms first polio case in 13 years MOSCOW: Russia has confirmed its first polio case in 13 years in an infant visiting from Tajikistan, but there is no immediate threat of a wider outbreak, the country’s main public health body said Friday. The 9-month-old girl was diagnosed with the disease after arriving in the Siberian region of Irkutsk from the Central Asian state, where at least 12 people have died from a polio outbreak, said Rospotrebnadzor spokeswoman Lyubov Voropayeva.

First birds were poor flyers LONDON: The earliest birds did not have strong enough feathers to take to the air by flapping their wings and were gliders at best, researchers said Thursday. While modern birds have feathers with a strong central shaft that is hollow to reduce weight, the earliest-known bird Archaeopteryx and another ancient ancestor had feathers that were much thinner and weaker.

Scientists capture more ‘spooky’ light particles LONDON: Scientists working with a feature of light described by Albert Einstein as “spooky” have managed to link, or entangle, up to five particles in an advance that may lead to better measuring instruments and faster computers. Israeli researchers said Thursday their technique could be scaled up to create even larger quantum entanglements, in which light particles, or photons, exist in two possible states simultaneously.

Genes explain why Tibetans thrive in high places HONG KONG: Researchers have identified two genes that appear to explain why Tibetans are able to live comfortably in rarefied air at very high altitudes. Dubbed the roof of the world, Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average elevation of 4,900 meters (16,000 ft).

Lizards face extinction from global warming MEXICO CITY: Lizards are in danger of dying on a large out scale as rising global temperatures force them to spend more time staying cool in the shade and less time tending to basic needs like eating and mating. Scientists warn in a research paper published on Thursday that if the planet continues to heat up at current rates, 20 percent of all lizard species could go extinct by 2080.

Pest munches up China fields after GM crop sprays halt HONG KONG: A once minor pest has ravaged fruit orchards and cotton fields in China after farmers stopped spraying insecticide in crops of a genetically-modified type of cotton resistant to bollworms, experts said. China started growing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton in 1997 because it gave better yields and stood up to bollworms, but a key fallout has been a thriving population of mirid bugs, which were earlier just an insignificant pest.

Dolphin, turtle deaths eyed for links to oil spill PORT FOURCHON: Scientists are examining the deaths of at least six dolphins and over 100 sea turtles along the U.S. Gulf Coast in recent weeks to see if they are victims of the giant oil spill in the region, wildlife officials said on Thursday. All of the deaths are being looked at as possible casualties of the oil gushing unchecked since April 20 from a ruptured wellhead on the floor of the Gulf off Louisiana because of their proximity in time and space to the spill.

CAPE CANAVERAL: The Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off May 14, 2010 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. — AFP

P&G fights allegations of Pampers ‘chemical burns’ NEW YORK: Procter & Gamble sought Friday to squelch allegations that some of its top-selling diapers are causing chemical burns, describing assertions in a lawsuit against the firm as “completely false.” The Cincinnati, Ohio firm is battling a lawsuit and a vigorous Facebook campaign over accusations its “Drymax” equipped Pampers contain harmful chemicals. “Our hearts go out to any mom and dad whose babies suffer from diaper rash,” said P&G spokesman Bryan McCleary.

“We have great sympathy.”

But he added “the claims made in this lawsuit are completely false.”

That is disputed by angry parents who have posted photos on the social networking website, purportedly showing their children with skin rashes caused by the Pampers Cruisers and Swaddlers diapers, which went on sale in the United States and Canada in March.

One Facebook page had gar-

nered 7,323 members by Friday evening, asking “how do we now get rid of this rash/chemical burn.”

“Two billion Drymax have been sold,” said McCleary. “America has voted with their purchases. “We saw a big increase in sales, a big increase in consumer acceptance... they will be appearing in other Pampers markets soon.”

He said complaints about the diapers were not above normal levels of one per five million sold. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is investigating the claims, said it was speeding its probe, which began this month.

“We’re working on a very expedited timeline, we have the same sense of urgency that the firm and the parents have,” said spokesman Scott Wolfons. “The safety of babies is at the heart of the mission of the agency.” Procter’s baby products represent around 14 billion dollars in sales each year. — AFP

The shuttle’s three engines propelled the vehicle on its eight-and-a-half-minute climb to orbit, assisted by the two orbital maneuvering system engines.

“Launch was just phenomenal,” said associate NASA administrator Bill Gerstenmaier during a postlaunch news conference.

The 32nd and final voyage for Atlantis, first launched in 1985, will take the astronauts to the orbiting space research facility, delivering an integrated cargo carrier and a Russian-built mini research module.

Before it gets there, the shuttle may have to dodge a piece of space debris that NASA is tracking, Gerstenmaier said.

“I think the maneuver will be today if we determine we need to do it,” he said. Just before liftoff, launch director Mike Leinbach wished the Atlantis crew “good luck and goodspeed,” encouraging them to “have a little fun up there.”

Based on current plans, the Atlantis launch is one of the last three missions of NASA’s shuttle program, which is due to be mothballed at the end of the year. After this mission, only two more shuttle launches remain, one in September for Discovery and the final blast off for Endeavour in November.

Early Friday the shuttle’s external tank was filled with over 500,000 gallons (two million liters) of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in an operation lasting some two hours, NASA said. In a poignant moment for NASA as the US space agency counts down towards the end of an era in human spaceflight, Atlantis will be retired upon its safe return home after a quarter-century career. During a 12-day mission largely spent moored to the ISS, Atlantis and the crew will deliver over 12 tons of equipment, as astronauts seek to complete the 100-billion-dollar orbiting outpost. “Twelve days, three (spacewalks), tons of robotics.... We’re putting on spares that make us feel good about the long-term sustainability of the ISS, replacing batteries that have been up there for a while, and docking a Russianbuilt ISS module,” said space shuttle program manager John Shannon. “This flight has a little bit of everything, and it’s been a great preparation for the team.”

President Barack Obama effectively abandoned in February plans by his predecessor George W Bush to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020 and perhaps on to Mars.—AFP

PINGTUNG: In this file picture, rescuers on rubber boats search for residents trapped by the rising flood waters sparked by typhoon ‘Morakot’. — AFP

Rising sea levels threaten Taiwan TUNGSHIH: When worshippers built a temple for the goddess Matsu in south Taiwan 300 years ago, they chose a spot they thought would be at a safe remove from the ocean. They did not count on global warming. Now, as the island faces rising sea levels, the Tungshih township is forced to set up a new temple nearby, elevated by three meters (10 feet) compared with the original site.

“Right now, the temple is flooded pretty much every year,” said Tsai Chu-wu, the temple’s chief secretary, explaining why the 63-million-dollar project is necessary. “Once the new temple is completed, we should be able to avoid floods and the threat of the rising sea, at least for many, many years,” he said. The temple of Matsu, ironically often described as the Goddess of the Sea, is only one example of how global warming is slowly, almost imperceptibly piling pressure on Taiwan.

Mountains cover two thirds of Taiwan, but the heart of the island’s economy is concentrated in the remaining third, which stretches down the west coast and consists mostly of flat land near sea level. This part of Taiwan is home to a string of populous cities, several industry zones, three nuclear power plants-and a petrochemical complex, built in the 1990s by Formosa Plastics Group for over 20 billion US dollars.

And unlike the temple, none of these crucial economic establishments can possibly be lifted, leaving them exposed to the elements. “If the sea levels keep rising, part of Taiwan’s low-lying western part could be submerged,” said Wang Chungho, an earth scientist at Taiwan’s top academic body Academia Sinica. An influential Taiwan documentary released earlier this year argued the risk to the petrochemical complex was very real.

However, a Formosa Plastics official told AFP stringent construction measures meant there was no danger.

Still, environmentalists consider the risk too high to ignore, and they point out that it is compounded by the overpumping of groundwater both for traditional agriculture and for fish farming. This has caused the groundwater level to fall and land to subside below sea level in some coastal areas, experts warn. The greatest extent of seawater encroachment has been estimated to be as far as 8.5 kilometres inland with an affected area of about 104 square kilometres (40 square miles) in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung county, according to a

study co-written by Wang.

Once low-lying areas are routinely invaded by sea water, it is very hard to turn back the tide, analysts warned. “They may not be restored and become wastelands within 100 years,” warned Hsu Tai-wen, the head of the Hydraulic and Ocean Engineering Department of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan city in the south of Taiwan. In its 2007 assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations said that due to the global warming, the world’s sea level is projected to rise by up to 0.59 meters before the end of this century.

However, Wang was more pessimistic, citing recent findings that greenhouse gas emissions are growing faster than previously believed. “As more records show that the global warming is turning for the worse, we estimate that the sea level would rise by up to two meters before the close of the century, or up to 10 times that of the last century,” he said. The residents of the capital Taipei may be among the first to suffer, due to the risk posed to Tamshui, a town within day-trip distance popular because of its lively and picturesque waterfront.

“The streets of coastal cities like Tamshui would be invaded by saline water,” said Wang. The authorities have started drafting the island’s first climate change whitepaper, which aims to come up with comprehensive measures to prevent natural disasters caused by rising temperatures. Apart from rising sea levels, scientists at Academia Sinica warned late last year that global warming would cause the amount of heavy rain dumped on Taiwan to triple over the next 20 years.

The projection was based on statistics showing the incidence of heavy rainfall has doubled in the past 45 years, which the scientists say has coincided with a global rise in temperatures. The torrential rains unleashed by a typhoon could burst the Shihmen Dam, a reservoir on a river that flows past Taipei county, where millions of people reside, Wang warned. The whitepaper draft calls for raising existing coastal embankments, constructing dams, improving conservation of river water and soil upstream, and laying idle some areas reclaimed from the ocean and rivers. “This should have been done earlier,” said Hsu, a member of an academic panel that reviewed the whitepaper.—AFP

Moving through midlife CHARLOTTE: Hot flashes. Headaches. A tummy that won’t go away no matter how many crunches you do. Menopause can be especially vexing for women trying to lose weight. As their estrogen levels drop, their testosterone exerts more influence.

Because of the ensuing havoc, a woman’s body will do what it can to retain whatever stores of estrogen it has. Alas, estrogen is stored in fat.

Don’t despair, says Leigh Shipman, an instructor with the Simmons branch of the Charlotte, NC, YMCA. She’s been working with “active older adults” for 17 years, and she’s seen both men and women lose weight and get fit. “The average American woman should do just fine with one hour of moderate exercise a day,” says Shipman, 51.

The key is finding the right exercise regimen - one you enjoy, one you look forward to doing and will stick with, says Mary Petters, an exercise physiologist with the University of North Carolina Wellness Center at Meadowmont in Chapel Hill, NC. “There’s something out there for everyone,” says Petters. “You’re never too old to start.”

We polled health and fitness experts Mary Petters at the wellness center, Leigh Shipman with the Charlotte YMCAs and Gerald Endress with the Duke Diet & Fitness Center in Durham, NC, to find the most popular exercise classes for women 50 and older at their facilities.

1. Zumba This Latin dance workout originated in Colombia in the 1990s and then became popular in the United States. Classes are almost everywhere.

Benefits: It’s a full-body aerobic workout that gets you sweating, gets your heart rate up, burns calories - and it’s fun.

Popular exercises help women lose weight and get fit in their 40s and 50s set: You may not have arthritis, but at 50 your joints still need more TLC than they did 20 years ago; exercising in water relives the pressure on your joints.

2. Walking Walking is the preferred exercise for 25 million women ages 45 and up, making it by far the most popular form of exercise for that group.

Benefits: A vigorous daily walk of at least 30 minutes can manage weight, control blood pressure, decrease the risk of heart attack, boost “good” cholesterol, lower the risk of stroke, reduce risk of breast cancer and type 2 diabetes, and protect against hip fracture.

Why it’s popular with the 50-plus set: You can do it on your own schedule, it’s cheap, and it can be a social activity walking groups, formal and informal, are especially popular with older walkers.

CHARLOTTE: Becky Hopkins, 59 (center) participates in a Zumba class at the Simmons YMCA in North Carolina, April 23, 2010. Zumba is a high energy Latin dance style aerobic workout. — MCT Why it’s popular with the 50-plus set: Unlike other dance and aerobic routines, Zumba is less choreographed, more free-spirited. No tricky footstep combinations to memorize.

2. Water aerobics /swimming Ten years ago, says Duke’s Endress, water exercises focused on folks with arthritis and other joint issues. That’s changed. “Water aerobics has really

taken off - it’s a much more vigorous exercise. ... We even have an aqua boot camp.”

Benefits: Good cardio, good toning.

Why it’s popular with the 50-plus

3. Pilates Exercises done with or without equipment that focus on core strength, flexibility and balance - the main areas we worry about as we age.

Benefits: It can make you leaner and stronger, but the benefits can also help people move more gracefully and efficiently, making it possible to do some of the basic functions of day-to-day life that can become a challenge as we age.

W hy it’s popula r w ith the 50plus set: It’s adaptable. Pilates classes can be grueling enough to benefit a professional athlete or scaled back to accommodate people with less strength and flexibility. — MCT

Sunday, May 16, 2010

HEALTH

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BP oil gusher much more than official estimates WASHINGTON: Oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig at least 10 times faster than the official estimate of 5,000 barrels a day, said scientists who separately analyzed the underwater oil gusher.

“Conservatively, the official rate is off by a factor of 10,” said Steven Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University who analyzed a grainy video of the underwater oil geyser. “‘Leak’ is definitely not the right word for this. It’s a serious mess. We’re looking at somewhere in the range of 56,000 to 84,000 barrels a day” of oil pouring into the Gulf each day, Wereley told AFP. Wereley used a technique that involved breaking the 30-second video of oil gushing into the Gulf near the sea-floor into about 2,000 pictures, and then comparing the images to calculate the flow rate from the well at the bottom of the Gulf. The video was released by BP this week.

Wereley’s mid-range calculation was that around 70,000 barrels a day were spewing into the sea from the underwater well — 14 times more than the figure put forward by the US government and BP.

56,000-84,000 barrels a day of oil pouring into the Gulf each day Another scientist, Timothy Crone of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, analyzed the undersea oil gusher using a different method. “The video was poor quality ... so there’s fairly large uncertainty. We could be talking about anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 barrels a day,” Crone told AFP. “But there’s a very good chance that it’s more than the official estimate,” he said. Florida State University professor Ian MacDonald analyzed the slick formed by the underwater geyser of oil using US Coast Guard aerial maps. He estimated that 26,000 barrels of oil were spewing every day from the destroyed well on the sea-floor-five times more than original estimates.

There are 42 gallons of oil per barrel.

The official estimate would mean that 210,000 gallons of oil are spewing into the Gulf each day. If the scientists’ calculations are closer to the mark, the amount would be closer to a million gallons a day.

Doug Rader, chief ocean scientist at the

BERKELEY: A young girl stands in front of a banner during a demonstration outside of a building that is being constructed on the UC Berkeley campus and in California. — AFP

Environmental Defense Fund, did not scientifically analyze the video footage but concurred that the official estimate of 5,000 barrels a day flooding into the Gulf was probably a low-ball figure.

“Five-thousand barrels is like having 15 garden hoses, each delivering around 10 gallons a minute, going full bore,” Rader told AFP. “Visually comparing the video with what would happen if you turned 15 garden hoses on and had them going full bore, it’s not hard to understand how people think there’s more than that,” he said. MacDonald’s research also suggests that 13 million gallons of oil had poured into the Gulf as of last week.

That would make the BP spill the worst environmental disaster in US history, eclipsing the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska. But BP disputed the experts’ analyses, saying there is no reliable method to calculate how much oil is flowing from the broken well on the sea floor.

BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said Friday on the CBS Early Show that

he thought the official estimate of 5,000 barrels of oil pouring into the sea was “reasonable but highly uncertain.

“Since the beginning, we’ve said it’s very difficult to put a precise number on this,” Suttles said. “What I can tell you is that we’re mounting the biggest response ever done and it’s not related to whether it’s 5,000 barrels a day or a different number. We’re applying every single resource possible,” he said. BP has tried unsuccessfully to lower a dome onto the ruptured well pipe and was Friday attempting to attach an “insertion tube” to it, to funnel the oil up to a container vessel.

The oil company has also floated the idea of plugging the broken pipe up with “junk”. Werely urged BP to take seriously the scientists’ findings on the flow rate of the oil. “This information might help to figure out the means required to plug the hole at the bottom of the Gulf, because ideally what we want is not a good number but for the hole to be plugged,” said Werely. “If they’re thinking they’re going to just stick a cork in a bottle, if our flow rates are correct, it’s going to be at least 10 times harder to push that cork in than they thought,” he said. — AFP

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WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Sunday, May 16, 2010

KU holds Japanese Speech Contest T he Embassy of Japan in Kuwait, in co-operation with the Centre for Community Service and Continuing Education - Kuwait University, held the fourth Japanese Speech Contest on May 11, 2010 at 7 pm at the Memorial Hall No 119 Khaldiya Campus.

The event was held under the patronage of Masatoshi Muto, Ambassador of Japan to the State of Kuwait, and Dr Ahmed Al-Munayyes, Vice President for Academic Support Services Kuwait University, and under special patronage of Etihad Airlines.

The event started with a welcome speech by Japanese DCM, Yukihiro Nikaido, who welcomed the audience and gave some valuable advices for Japanese language learners. He mentioned that the year 2011 will witness the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Japan and expressed his wish to further deepen the mutual understanding between the two countries. After that, Fawzeya Marafie, Director of Center

for Community Service and Continuing Education delivered a speech on this occasion.

Contestant’s speeches verified between different subjects like Kuwait history, Japanese animation which was delivered in Japanese language. Even though only five minutes were given to the contestants to present their speech, however they were satisfied because they were able to put out this result.

Awards included round trip ticket to Japan for the winner of level three offered by Etihad Airlines, Japanese English electronic dictionary for the winners of the first level. In addition, a Japanese kimono was awarded for the winner of the Special Jury Award.

Audience enjoyed enthusiastic Japanese song and kendo (one of the Japanese martial arts) demonstration performed during the contest.

Japanese speech contest is the opportunity where students can practice and improve their Japanese language ability and exchange different views and topics related to both countries culture.

Release of music album

Sahara Kuwait Resort hosts HH Sheikh Nasser

new music album “Mishiha Rajan” with lyrics and music

by K J Joseph was presented to Jacob Thomas (former President of KTMCC) senior member of IPC Kuwait, Varghese Mathew (Minister in Charge of Indian Penthacostal Church Kuwait). This album was released on the occasion of PYPA anniversary. Sung by most renowned melodious singers of Kerala and recorded at “Pattupetti” Chenganoor by Suresh Valiyaveedan and Nebu Alex Kuwait.

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His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah visited Sahara Kuwait Resort and was received by Nabila Al-Anjeri, General Manager of Al-Jazeera Real Estate Development Co and Hassan Bayerli, General Manager of Sahara Kuwait Resort. His Highness planted a tree in the green field of the resort to commemorate his visit to the resort.

AUK presents ‘Waiting for Godot’ he American University of Kuwait Theatre Program proudly announces their next production “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett on May 19, 20, 21, and 22. This internationally famous post-modern tragicomedy depicts the struggle of two men trying to reconcile the meaning of their own existence while waiting for the enigmatic and mysterious Godot to arrive. Performances are in the Black Box Studio on the AUK campus. Doors open at 7:30 pm, and performance begins at 8 pm. Tickets cost KD 5. For ticket reservations, please contact Christopher Gottschalk: 1802040 or 22248399 ext 541.

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Blood donation camp RI Telugudesam Kuwait branch is organizing a blood donation camp to commemorate Late N T Ramarao’s 88th birthday on Friday, May 28 at Central Blood Bank, Jabriya. Those who are interested to donate blood, kindly contact us at: 97125420, 99396711, 99996851, 97809251, 99560433, 99964891, 99410315.

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Brigadier General supports BSK Traffic Week L

ast week the students at The British School of Kuwait were fortunate to be visited by Brigadier General Mahmoud Mohamed AlDossari, Asst Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior. The Brigadier General spoke to the students of tutor group 2.2 about road safety and how to avoid getting hurt in an accident. He supervised the young students as they ‘drove’ their Porsche cars around the track in BSK’s newest sports facility, aptly named Marble Arch due to it’s arched shaped roof and was impressed by the way that Kuwait’s future road users handled their vehicles. The students, in turn, were enthralled to have been visited by a real General and promised to help make Kuwait’s roads safer. Later, the Brigadier General visited the Year 4 and Year 5 students in their weekly assembly and talked to them about drivers and passengers always wearing their seatbelts, about how dangerous it is for drivers to use their mobile phone whilst driving and how they should not be eating food whilst at the wheel of a car. He then handed out certificates to over 50 BSK students for their work during the BSK Road Safety Week campaign.

Rezidor Hotel Group launches summer GCC road show he Rezidor Hotel Group - one of the fastest growing hotel management companies worldwide - announces the launch of its 2010 summer Gulf road show.

During the week-long event, representatives from Rezidor hotels across Europe, Middle East and Africa will be visiting Riyadh, Kuwait City and Doha.

The road show, which began at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Riyadh on May 9, provides an ideal opportunity for travel agents and corporate clients to meet with a number of representatives from hotels in several key tourist destinations including; Paris, London, Vienna, Edinburgh and Dubai. The show is currently in Kuwait and the main event took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Kuwait on May 11 before finishing in Doha on May 13.

Speaking of the road show, Yigit Sezgin, Global Director of Sales & Marketing, Rezidor Hotel Group, said “This annual whistle-stop tour gives us a great chance to meet with key people in three extremely important locations for us in relation to outbound business and at the same time, we have the ideal platform to showcase a carefully

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selected group of our hotels from Europe and the Middle East”.

Despite the global economic downturn, Rezidor is currently experiencing an impressive growth period, with the group opening 36 hotels in 2009, despite the challenging economic conditions. In the Middle East, the firm’s portfolio grew from 17 to 25 open hotels with new additions in destinations including: Abu Dhabi, Alexandria, Al -Khobar, Al-Madinah Cairo, Muscat and Tripoli.

This year will see the Middle East debut of Hotel Missoni, the newest member of the Rezidor family, combining the unique style of the iconic Italian fashion & interiors house with the expertise of The Rezidor Hotel Group and redefining the lifestyle hotel.

Hotel Missoni Kuwait, the region’s first, is currently scheduled to open in Q4 2010.

The Rezidor Gulf road show, open to travel agents and corporates on an exclusive invitation only basis, enables visitors to meet with representatives from a number of Rezidor hotels and brands under one roof and provides a unique insight into some of Europe’s leading hotels.

Sudanese ambassador honors PhD holder he Sudanese ambassador to Kuwait, Ibrahim Merghny Ibrahim, held a dinner party recently to honor Mohammad Nassir Al-Hamdhan, for gaining an honorary PhD from the International University of Africa in Sudan. The event was attended by former Sudanese

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President Swar Abu Dahab, Sudanese President consultant, Mustafa Othman, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Undersecretary, Adel Al-Falah, in addition to Dr Khalid Al-Mathkoor, former MP Nassir Al-Duwailah, the head of the Islamic Heritage Revival Society Tariq Al-

Fun-filled funfair

Essa, Abdullah Haidar from the Zakat House, and Abdullah Al-Mutawa’a. The ambassador acknowledged in a speech he delivered as part of the event the contributions made by the Kuwaiti government with regard to projects and investments held in Sudan.

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OW (Women’s Overall Welfare) and Asian Ladies group had a fun fair with lot of activities and tantalizing Asian delicious foods. Special thanks to Tam, wife of Vietnam Ambassador for sponsoring the event. Congratulations to Dr Iqbal for winning the first prize of the Raffle Draw.

WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Envoys sign Nigerian President’s condolence register

hotos show ambassadors and other dignitaries signing the condolence register at the Nigerian embassy in Kuwait. The condolence register was opened at the Embassy’s premises at Block 4, Malik Bin Anas Street, Avenue 44, House 31, Along Al-Aqsa Road, Rumaithiya from 9 am- 2 pm (Sunday May 9 and Tuesday May 11, 2010).

Meanwhile, the Nigeria government declared a seven-day mourning period. In his remark, the

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new Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said “Nigeria has lost the jewel on its crown and even the heavens mourn with our nation tonight”. The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua became the first civilian leader in Nigeria to take over from another after winning elections in 2007. Yar’Adua died on 5 May 2010 at the Aso Rock presidential villa. An Islamic burial took place on May 6, 2010 in his hometown.

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TV PROGRAMS

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Orbit / Showtime Listings 18:00 E! Investigates 19:40 E! Investigates 20:30 E! Investigates 21:20 Pretty Wild 21:45 Pretty Wild 22:10 E! News 23:00 Dr 90210 23:50 Bank of Hollywood

00:00 Burn Notice 01:00 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 02:00 Life on Mars 03:00 ER 04:00 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 05:00 The Closer 06:00 CSI New York 07:00 Burn Notice 08:00 Glee 09:00 Drop Dead Diva 10:00 Life on Mars 11:00 ER 12:00 CSI New York 13:00 The Closer 14:00 Life on Mars 15:00 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 16:00 Glee 17:00 Drop Dead Diva 18:00 Burn Notice 19:00 CSI New York 20:00 Criminal Minds 21:00 Cold Case 22:00 Supernatural 23:00 The Ex-List

00:15 Going Ape 00:45 Human Prey 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Untamed & Uncut 03:30 Animal Cops Miami 04:25 Human Prey 05:20 Animal Cops Phoenix 06:10 RSPCA: Have You Got What it Takes?

06:35 Jockeys 07:00 Lemur Street 07:25 Meerkat Manor 07:50 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals 08:15 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals 08:45 Animal Cops Phoenix 09:40 Pet Rescue 10:05 Corwin’s Quest 10:55 Miami Animal Police 11:50 Austin Stevens: Most Dangerous...

12:45 Animal Precinct 13:40 SSPCA: On the Wildside 14:05 SSPCA: On the Wildside 14:35 Safari Sisters 15:00 Safari Sisters 15:30 Dogs 101 16:25 Into the Pride 17:20 Dark Days in Monkey City 17:45 Dark Days in Monkey City 18:15 The Animals’ Guide to Survival 19:10 Orangutan Island 19:40 Going Ape 20:10 In Search of the Giant Anaconda 21:05 Untamed & Uncut 22:00 Untamed & Uncut 22:55 Animal Cops Miami 23:50 Orangutan Island

00:15 Hyperdrive 00:45 Blackadder II 01:15 Doctor Who Confidential 01:30 Manchild 02:00 The Life And Times Of Vivienne Vyle 02:30 Suburban Shootout 03:05 Teletubbies 03:30 Me Too 03:50 Fimbles 04:10 Teletubbies 04:35 Me Too 04:55 Fimbles 05:15 Teletubbies 05:40 Me Too 06:00 Fimbles 06:20 Teletubbies 06:45 Me Too 07:05 Fimbles 07:25 Teletubbies 07:50 Me Too 08:10 Fimbles 08:30 Teletubbies 08:55 Me Too 09:15 Fimbles 09:35 Teletubbies 10:00 Coast 11:00 Doctors 11:30 Doctors 12:00 Doctors 12:30 Doctors 13:00 Doctors 13:30 Bargain Hunt 14:15 The Weakest Link 15:00 The Weakest Link 15:45 Cash In The Attic 16:15 Doctor Who 17:00 Doctor Who Confidential 17:15 Robin Hood 18:05 Casualty 18:55 Casualty 19:45 The Monastery 20:37 Doctor Who Confidential 20:55 Space Race 21:45 Silent Witness 22:45 Dalziel And Pascoe 23:35 Hotel Babylon

00:15 Saturday Kitchen 00:45 Saturday Kitchen 01:15 Living In The Sun 02:00 Cash In The Attic 02:45 Cash In The Attic 03:30 Cash In The Attic 04:15 Bargain Hunt 05:00 Chuck’s Day Off 05:25 Chuck’s Day Off 05:50 Chuck’s Day Off 06:15 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 07:00 Saturday Kitchen 07:30 Saturday Kitchen 08:00 Living In The Sun 08:45 Cash In The Attic

00:00 M1 Challenge 01:00 M1 Challenge 02:00 M1 Challenge 03:00 Dr Danger 03:30 The Dudesons 04:00 Untracked 04:30 Untracked 05:00 Ticket To Ride 2009-10 05:30 Ticket To Ride 2009-10 06:00 Cape Epic 06:30 Cape Epic 07:00 FIM World Motorcross MX3 Championships 2009 07:30 FIM World Motorcross MX3 Championships 2009 08:00 Untracked 08:30 Untracked 09:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 10:00 X Games 15 2009 11:00 LG Action Sports World Championships 2008 12:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 13:00 X Games 15 2009 14:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 15:00 Untracked 15:30 Untracked 16:00 X Games 15 2009 17:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 18:00 Ticket To Ride 2009-10 18:30 Ticket To Ride 2009-10 19:00 X Games 15 2009 20:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 21:00 Pro Bull Riders 22:00 Continuum 23:00 Dr Danger 23:30 The Dudesons

Cadillac Records on Super Movies 09:30 Cash In The Attic 10:15 Cash In The Attic 11:00 Saturday Kitchen 11:30 Saturday Kitchen 12:00 Saturday Kitchen 12:30 Saturday Kitchen 13:00 Living In The Sun 13:45 Cash In The Attic 14:30 Cash In The Attic 15:15 Cash In The Attic 16:00 Bargain Hunt 16:45 Come Dine With Me 17:35 Come Dine With Me 18:25 Chuck’s Day Off 18:50 Chuck’s Day Off 19:15 Chuck’s Day Off 19:40 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 20:05 Gino D’Acampo - An Italian In Mexico 20:30 The Naked Chef 20:55 The Naked Chef 21:20 The Naked Chef 21:45 Come Dine With Me 22:35 Come Dine With Me 23:25 Come Dine With Me

01:00 The Basketball Diaries-18 03:00 Croupier-18 05:00 Le Prix A Payer-PG 07:00 Heights-PG15 09:00 Bopha!-PG15 11:00 Napoleon Part 2-PG 13:00 Run Papa Run-PG15 15:00 L’age Des Tenebres-PG15 17:00 Stolen Summer-PG 19:00 A Walk In The Clouds-PG15 21:00 Charlotte Gray-PG15 23:00 Intersection-18

00:00 Deadly Women 01:00 Undercover 02:00 Prototype This 02:55 Brainiac 03:50 Nextworld 04:45 How Does it Work?

05:10 Ultimate Survival 06:05 Mythbusters 07:00 Fifth Gear 07:30 Fifth Gear 07:55 Sturgis: Motorcycle Mania 08:50 Overhaulin’ 09:45 How Does it Work?

10:10 Destroyed in Seconds 10:40 Destroyed in Seconds 11:05 Ultimate Survival 12:00 Mythbusters 12:55 Mythbusters 13:50 Mythbusters 14:45 Mythbusters 15:40 Mythbusters 16:35 Mythbusters 17:30 How Does it Work?

18:00 Extreme Fishing 19:00 River Monsters 20:00 Prototype This 21:00 Mythbusters 22:00 Tornado Road 23:00 MacIntyre: World’s Toughest Towns

00:30 Da Vinci’s Machines 01:20 The Colony 02:10 Cosmic Collisions 03:00 Nextworld 03:50 Da Vinci’s Machines 04:45 What’s That About?

05:40 How Does That Work?

06:10 Mighty Ships 07:00 Scrapheap Challenge 08:00 The Gadget Show 08:30 The Gadget Show 09:00 Nextworld 09:55 Robocar 10:50 Robocar 11:45 Robocar 12:40 Robocar 13:35 Robocar

14:30 Robocar 15:25 Savage Planet 15:55 Eco-Tech 16:50 Mighty Ships 17:45 Engineered 18:40 How Does That Work?

19:05 How Does That Work?

19:30 What’s That About?

20:20 Space Pioneer 21:10 Da Vinci’s Machines 22:00 Future Weapons 22:50 Future Weapons 23:40 Extreme Bodies

00:00 Iron Chef America 04:00 Teleshopping 04:30 Teleshopping 07:00 30 Minute Meals 07:25 30 Minute Meals 07:50 Giada At Home 08:15 Giada At Home 08:40 Daily Cooks Challenge 11:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics 11:30 Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics 12:00 Everyday Italian 13:00 30 Minute Meals 14:00 Rescue Chef with Danny Boome 15:00 Barefoot Contessa 15:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 18:00 Everyday Italian 19:00 Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin 20:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics 21:00 Iron Chef America

00:00 Suite Life On Deck 00:20 A Kind Of Magic 00:45 Phineas & Ferb 01:10 Fairly Odd Parents 01:35 Replacements 02:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 02:25 Imagination Movers 02:45 Handy Manny 03:10 Jungle Junction 03:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 04:00 Suite Life On Deck 04:25 Wizards Of Waverly Place 04:50 Jonas 05:15 Hannah Montana 05:35 Sonny With A Chance 06:00 Lazytown 06:25 Imagination Movers 06:45 Handy Manny 07:10 Jungle Junction 07:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 08:00 Fairly Odd Parents 08:25 Suite Life On Deck 08:50 Wizards Of Waverly Place 09:15 Jonas 09:40 Hannah Montana 10:00 Sonny With A Chance 10:30 Dadnapped 12:00 Hannah Montana 12:25 Jonas 12:50 Replacements 13:15 Fairly Odd Parents 13:40 Sonny With A Chance 14:00 Suite Life On Deck 14:25 A Kind Of Magic 14:50 Phineas & Ferb 15:15 Fairly Odd Parents 15:35 Replacements 16:00 Wizards Of Waverly Place 16:25 Hannah Montana 16:45 Fairly Odd Parents 17:00 Suite Life On Deck 17:25 Wizards Of Waverly Place 17:50 Jonas 18:10 Hannah Montana 18:35 Sonny With A Chance 19:00 Go Figure 20:35 Hannah Montana 21:00 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 21:25 The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody 21:45 The Replacements 22:00 Hannah Montana 22:25 Jonas 22:50 Replacements 23:15 Fairly Odd Parents 23:40 Sonny With A Chance

00:30 Crime Scene Psychics 00:55 Crime Scene Psychics 01:20 Ghost Lab 02:10 A Haunting 03:05 Psychic Witness 04:00 Crime Scene Psychics 04:25 Crime Scene Psychics 04:55 Crime Scene Psychics 05:20 FBI Files 06:10 Ghosthunters 06:35 Ghosthunters 07:00 Forensic Detectives 07:50 FBI Files 08:40 CSU 09:30 Diagnosis: Unknown 10:20 Forensic Detectives 11:10 FBI Files 12:00 Impossible Heists 12:50 Fugitive Strike Force 13:40 Diagnosis: Unknown 14:30 Forensic Detectives 15:20 FBI Files 16:10 CSU 17:00 Diagnosis: Unknown 17:50 Forensic Detectives 18:40 FBI Files 19:30 Impossible Heists 20:20 Fugitive Strike Force 21:10 Diagnosis: Unknown 22:00 Murder Shift 22:50 On The Case With Paula Zahn 23:40 Deadly Women

00:40 THS 01:30 THS 02:20 Sexiest 03:15 25 Celebrity Near Death Experiences 05:05 Dr 90210 06:00 THS 07:45 Extreme Hollywood 08:35 E! News 09:25 E!ES 10:15 THS 11:05 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 12:00 E! News 12:50 Pretty Wild 13:15 Pretty Wild 13:40 THS 14:30 Kendra 14:55 Kendra 15:25 E! Investigates 17:10 Behind the Scenes 17:35 Behind the Scenes

01:35 Something Wild (Orion) 03:30 The Pope Must Die 05:10 Livin’ Large 06:44 After Midnight 08:20 The Pride And The Passion 10:30 Napoleon 11:55 Crusoe 13:30 Access Code 15:00 The Mechanic 16:40 The Winter People 18:20 Man In The Moon 20:00 Mandela 22:00 American Heart 23:50 Hidden Agenda

00:00 Word Of Mouth 00:30 Weird And Wonderful Hotels 01:00 Weird And Wonderful Hotels 01:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 04:30 Treks In A Wild World 05:00 Pressure Cook 05:30 Food School 06:00 Word Of Mouth

06:30 Weird And Wonderful Hotels 07:00 Weird And Wonderful Hotels 07:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet 10:30 Treks In A Wild World 11:00 Wild Rides 11:30 Cruise Ship Diaries 12:30 Bondi Rescue 13:00 Bondi Rescue 13:30 The Best Job In The World 14:00 Weird And Wonderful Hotels 14:30 Jailed Abroad 15:30 Jailed Abroad 16:30 Positive Footprints 17:00 Wild Rides 17:30 Cruise Ship Diaries 18:30 Bondi Rescue 19:00 Bondi Rescue 19:30 The Best Job In The World 20:00 Weird And Wonderful Hotels 20:30 Jailed Abroad 21:30 Jailed Abroad 22:30 Positive Footprints 23:00 Wild Rides 23:30 Cruise Ship Diaries

00:00 Watching Ellie 00:30 Gary Unmarried 01:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 01:30 The Colbert Report 02:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 03:00 Entourage 03:30 Curb your Enthusiasm 04:00 Saturday Night Live 05:00 Watching Ellie 05:30 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 06:30 Everybody Loves Raymond 07:00 Dharma & Greg 07:30 Three sisters 08:00 Frasier 08:30 Tyler Perry’s House of Payne 09:00 Married with Children 09:30 Family Biz 10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 10:30 Dharma & Greg 11:00 Frasier 11:30 The Bernie Mac show 12:00 Saturday Night Live 13:00 Gary Unmarried 13:30 Yes dear 14:00 Married with Children 14:30 Malcolm in the Middle 15:00 How I met your mother 15:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Drew Carey 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:30 Frasier 18:00 Hope & Faith 18:30 Just Shoot me!

19:00 Better Off Ted 19:30 The Office 20:00 Curb your Enthusiasm 20:30 Entourage 21:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:30 South park

00:00 The Martha Stewart Show 01:00 Downsize Me 02:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 03:00 The Monique Show 04:00 The Tonight show with Jay Leno 05:00 GMA Weekend (Repeat) 06:00 Moms Get Real / Now you know / Amplified 07:00 GMA Health 07:30 What’s the Buzz 08:00 The Martha Stewart Show 09:00 Downsize Me 10:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

11:00 The View 12:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 13:00 The Martha Stewart Show 14:00 Parenting 14:30 Popcorn 15:00 GMA Weekend Live 16:00 Ahead of The Curve 16:30 Chef’s Table 17:00 The Tonight show with Jay Leno 18:00 Downsize Me 19:00 The View (repeat) 20:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 21:00 The Best of Jimmy Kimmel 22:00 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Best Of) 23:00 Moms Get Real / Now you know / Amplified

00:00 The Hunting Party-PG15 02:00 Drawn-PG15 04:00 The Perfect Child-PG15 06:00 Jonas Brothers Concert-PG 08:00 Perfect Holiday-PG 10:00 Dragonlance-PG 12:00 Eagle Eye-PG15 14:00 Cassandra’s Dream-PG15 16:00 Perfect Holiday-PG 18:00 The Express-PG 20:05 Genova-PG15 22:00 Max Payne-PG15

01:00 Fight Night-PG15 03:00 Dead Water-PG15 05:00 Charlie Valentine-PG15 06:50 Die Hard-PG15 09:00 Final Encounter-PG15 11:00 Dead Water-PG15 13:00 Broken Arrow-18 15:00 Final Encounter-PG15 17:00 Enough-PG15 19:00 The Perfect Witness-18 21:00 The Cottage-18 23:00 Bronson-R

00:00 Run Fatboy Run-PG15 02:00 Callback-PG15 04:00 Kingdom Come-PG 06:00 Touch And Go-PG 08:00 Christmas At The Riviera-PG 10:00 Rat Race-PG15 12:00 Faintheart-PG15 14:00 In Memory Of My Father-PG15 16:00 Run Fatboy Run-PG15 18:00 National Lampoon’s: Electric Apricot-PG15 20:00 Soul Men-PG15 22:00 Doctor Detroit-18

00:00 Yogi And The Invasion Of The Space Bears-FAM 02:00 Curious George: Follow That Monkey-PG 04:00 Alice Upside Down-PG 06:00 D2: The Mighty Ducks-PG 08:00 Barbie As The Princess And The Pauper-FAM 10:00 Alice Upside Down-PG 12:00 Scooby-Doo And The Loch Ness Monster-FAM 14:00 Curious George: Follow That Monkey-PG 16:00 Tommy And The Cool Mule-PG 18:00 Labou-FAM 20:00 First Kid-PG 22:00 Scooby-Doo And The Loch Ness Monster-FAM

00:00 Psych 01:00 Law & Order: Criminal Intent 02:00 In Treatment 03:00 Saving Grace 04:00 Every Body Loves Raymond 04:30 Home Improvement 05:00 Beauty and the Geek 06:00 Emmerdale 06:30 Coronation Street 07:00 In Treatment 07:30 In Treatment 08:00 Every Body Loves Raymond 08:30 Home Improvement 09:00 Saving Grace 10:00 Beauty and the Geek 11:00 In Treatment 11:30 In Treatment 12:00 Emmerdale 12:30 Coronation Street 13:00 Every Body Loves Raymond 13:30 Home Improvement 14:00 Psych 15:00 Law & Order: Criminal Intent 16:00 Beauty and the Geek 17:00 Saving Grace 18:00 Emmerdale 18:30 Coronation Street 19:00 Ashes to Ashes 20:00 Law & Order: Criminal Intent 21:00 Spooks 22:00 Beauty and the Geek 23:00 Saving Grace

00:30 Premier League Golas Of The Season 01:30 Premier League Season Review 02:30 Scottish Premier League 04:30 Premier League 06:30 Premier League World 07:00 Live Nrl Premiership 09:00 Scottish Premier League 11:00 Premier League 13:00 Scottish Premier League 15:00 Premier League Season Review 16:00 Premier League 18:00 Premier League Golas Of The Season 19:00 Scottish Premier League 21:00 Premier League World 21:30 Premier League Season Review 22:30 Premier League Classics 23:00 Premier League

01:00 Cadillac Records-18 03:00 Dog Days Of Summer-PG 05:00 Last Mimzy-PG 06:45 Genghis Khan-PG15 09:00 Northern Lights-PG 11:00 Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium 13:00 All Roads Lead Home-PG 15:00 Where God Left His Shoes-PG 17:00 Northern Lights-PG 19:00 All Good Things-PG15 21:00 Living Out Loud-18 23:00 Adventureland-PG15

03:30 The Screening Room 04:00 Easy Money 05:35 Strictly Business 07:00 Where The Spies Are 08:55 Khartoum 11:00 Skyjacked 12:40 Viva Las Vegas 14:05 Canadian Bacon 15:40 Anchors Aweigh 17:55 The Screening Room 18:25 40 Carats 20:15 The Wheeler Dealers 22:00 Grand Prix

00:30 Dead Men’s Secrets 01:20 Cities of the Underworld 02:10 Ancient Discoveries 03:00 Extreme Marksmen 04:50 Ancient Discoveries 3 05:40 Conspiracy?

06:30 Dead Men’s Secrets 07:20 Cities of the Underworld 08:10 Ancient Discoveries 09:00 A Global Warning 10:50 Ancient Discoveries 3 11:40 Conspiracy?

12:30 Dead Men’s Secrets 13:20 Cities of the Underworld 14:10 Ancient Discoveries 15:00 A Global Warning 16:50 Ancient Discoveries 3 17:40 Conspiracy?

18:30 Dead Men’s Secrets 19:20 Cities of the Underworld 20:10 Ancient Discoveries 21:00 Lost Worlds 21:55 Seven Deadly Sins 22:50 Life After People 23:40 The Crusades

00:00 Dallas Divas & Daughters 00:30 Dallas Divas & Daughters 01:00 My Celebrity Home 02:00 Split Ends 03:00 How Do I Look?

04:00 Dr 90210 05:00 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 05:30 Area 06:00 How Do I Look?

07:00 Style Star 07:30 Style Her Famous 08:00 Clean House 09:00 My Celebrity Home 10:00 Ruby 11:00 Dallas Divas & Daughters 11:30 Dallas Divas & Daughters 12:00 Peter Perfect 13:00 Style Special 14:00 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 19:30 Stylemaker: Andre Leon Talley 20:00 Kimora’s Home Movies 20:30 Growing Up Fabulous 21:00 How Do I Look?

22:00 Clean House

01:00 Code 01:04 Sound System 10 01:45 Playlist 02:00 Urban Hit 02:45 Playlist 05:00 Code 05:04 Playlist 08:00 Code 08:04 Africa 10 08:45 Playlist 13:00 Code 13:04 Urban Hit 30 15:00 Code Compilation 15:24 Playlist 16:00 Code 16:04 New 16:35 Playlist 17:00 Focus 18:00 Urban Hit 18:45 Playlist 20:00 Code 20:04 French Only 20:45 Playlist

00:00 Tokyo Revealed 01:00 Chef Abroad 01:30 Chef Abroad 02:00 Planet Food 03:00 Top Travel 03:30 Destination Art 04:00 Distant Shores 04:30 Distant Shores 05:00 Distant Shores 05:30 Distant Shores 06:00 Down the Line 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Swiss Railway Journeys 09:00 Swiss Railway Journeys 10:00 The Soller Railway 11:00 Think Green 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Planet Food 14:00 Chef Abroad 14:30 Chef Abroad 15:00 Secrets of Ancient China 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Grannies On Safari 17:30 Spring 18:00 Distant Shores 18:30 Wild At Heart 19:00 Angry Planet 19:30 Culture Shock 20:00 Inside Walt Disney Studios - Paris 21:00 Think Green 22:00 Down the Line 23:00 Globe Trekker

01:00 Vh1 Music 05:00 Chill Out 07:00 Smooth Wake Up 09:00 Vh1 Music 11:00 Vh1 Pop Chart 12:00 Top 10 Nirvana 13:00 Cover Power 14:00 Beautiful and Young Weekend 17:00 Music For The Masses 18:00 Vh1 Music 19:00 VH1 Viewer’s Jukebox Love Request 20:00 VH1 Viewer’s Jukebox Love Request 21:00 Top 10 Nirvana 22:00 Sunday Soul 23:00 Storytellers ZZ Top

00:30 Super 14 02:30 Super 14 04:30 Guinness Premiership 06:30 World Sport 07:00 Premier League World 07:30 ICC Cricket World 08:00 Live NRL Premiership 10:00 NRL Premiership 11:30 Guinness Premiership 13:30 V8 Supercars championship 15:30 Super 14 17:30 Super 14 19:30 V8 Supercars championship 21:30 PGA European Tour

00:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 01:00 WWE Bottom Line 02:00 WWE NXT 03:00 NRL Premiership 05:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 06:00 Live V8 Supercars 08:00 WWE Bottom Line 09:00 WWE NXT 10:00 WWE Smack Down 12:00 WWE Vintage Collection 13:00 Premier League World 13:30 ICC Cricket World 14:00 European Tour Weekly 14:30 Live PGA European Tour 18:30 UFC 113 21:00 UFC Wired 22:00 UFC Unleased 23:00 UFC Unleased

The Express on Show Movies

Star Listings (UAE Timings) STAR Movies 21:35 Total Eclipse 23:00 Saving Sarah Cain 00:45 Happy Texas 02:25 X2: X-Men United 04:40 Soul Food 06:30 Saving Sarah Cain 08:15 Comebacks, The 09:45 X2: X-Men United 12:00 Soul Food 13:50 Shining Through 16:00 Yeti 17:30 Full Monty, The 19:00 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers STAR World 20:00 American Idol 21:00 October Road 22:00 [V] Tunes 23:00 [V] Tunes 00:00 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

01:00 [V] Tunes 02:00 Kyle XY 03:00 Scrubs 03:30 Scrubs 04:00 The King Of Queens 04:30 According To Jim 05:00 Prison Break 06:00 Grey’s Anatomy 07:00 Samantha Who? 07:30 Rules Of Engagement

08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:50 11:00 11:50 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:50 17:00 17:50 18:00 18:50 19:00 19:50

Australia’s Next Top Model The King Of Queens The Bold and the Beautiful Kyle XY Charlie’s Angels Grey’s Anatomy Who’s The Boss?

[V] Tunes Asia Uncut Scrubs Scrubs The King Of Queens According To Jim 90210 Jackie Chan Adventures Mental Charlie’s Angels The Listener Who’s The Boss?

Eli Stone Jackie Chan Adventures

Granada TV 21:30 Motoring Madness 22:00 Art Crime 23:00 Come Dine With Me (Primetime Series 2) 00:00 Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (Series 3) 01:00 Stars In Their Eyes (Series 12) 02:30 Prime Drama: A Class Apart 04:00 60 Minute Makeover (Series 3) 05:00 Warzone

06:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:30

Coronation Street (WEEKEND OMNIBUS) Miranda Revenge TV Airline (Series 6) Motoring Madness Confessions Of Forger’s Masterclass Vroom Vroom (Series 2) Hell’s Kitchen (UK Series 3) I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! (Series 7) Cold Blood (Series 2) Vroom Vroom (Series 2) Hell’s Kitchen (UK Series 3) I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! (Series 7) Cold Blood (Series 2)

Channel [V] 21:00 [V] Tunes 21:30 [V] Tunes 22:00 Loop 23:00 [V] Tunes 23:30 [V] Tunes 00:00 [V] Tunes 01:00 XO 01:30 Loop 02:00 Backtracks 03:00 [V] Countdown 05:00 [V] Tunes 05:30 [V] Tunes 06:00 Loop 07:00 [V] Tunes

07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00

[V] Tunes [V] Special XO Loop Backtracks Videoscope [V] Special [V] Tunes [V] Tunes Loop Amp Around Asia [V] Tunes [V] Special XO Loop Backtracks Videoscope [V] Special

Fox News 20:00 America’s News HQ Host Shannon Bream 21:00 America’s News HQ Hosts Kelly Wright and Jamie Colby 22:00 The Journal Editorial Report 22:30 Fox News Watch 23:00 The Passion: Facts, Fictions and Faith with Lauren Green 00:00 America’s News HQ hosts Gregg Jarrett and Harris Faulkner 02:00 America’s News HQ hosts Rick Folbaum and Juliet Huddy

03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00

FOX Report Saturday host Harris Faulkner Huckabee with Mike Huckabee Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck Geraldo At Large with Geraldo Rivera The Journal Editorial Report Fox News Watch FOX Report Saturday Geraldo At Large with Geraldo Rivera Huckabee with Mike Huckabee FOX Report Saturday host Julie Banderas Geraldo At Large with Geraldo Rivera Glenn Beck with Glenn Beck The Journal Editorial Report Fox News Watch FOX and Friends Sunday FOX and Friends Sunday FOX and Friends Sunday America’s News HQ America’s News HQ

National Geographic Channel 20:00 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet -Tuscan Basics 20:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet -Hawaiian Fusion 21:00 Animals Like Us -Tool Use 22:00 Mega Factories -Apache Helicopter 23:00 Monster Fish -Sawfish 00:00 Interpol Investigates -Rising Sun 01:00 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Billy The Kid 11 01:30 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Abraham

Lincoln 12 02:00 The Dark Side Of Elephants 03:00 Monkey Thieves -Heroes & Villains 12 03:30 Hayden Turner’s Wildlife Chall -Salt Water Crocodiles 9 04:00 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet -Tuscan Basics 04:30 Food Lovers Guide To The Planet -Hawaiian Fusion 05:00 Rescue Ink -Biting Back 2 06:00 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Billy The Kid 11 06:30 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Abraham Lincoln 12 07:00 Monster Fish -Sawfish 08:00 Cruise Ship Diaries -Magic And Mayhem 3 09:00 Dive Detectives -Ghost Ship 10:00 Air Crash Investigation -Crash Course 11:00 Monster Fish -Sawfish 12:00 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Billy The Kid 11 12:30 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Abraham Lincoln 12 13:00 Wild Africa -Hyena Queen 14:00 Theme Week -Fight Masters : Silat 15:00 Theme Week -Fight Masters : Mixed Martial Arts 16:00 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Billy The Kid 11 16:30 Mystery Files 30min -Mystery Files : Abraham Lincoln 12 17:00 Monster Fish -Sawfish 18:00 Theme Week -Fight Masters : Silat

Sunday, May 16, 2010

33 Flight Schedule Arrival Flights on Sunday 16-05-2010 Airlines Flt Route Time Arian 405 Kabul/Dubai 00:05 Royal Jordanian 802 Amman 00:05 Jazeera 263 Beirut 00:10 Kuwait 788 Jeddah 00:30 Wataniya Airways 188 Bahrain 00:30 Kuwait 544 Cairo 00:50 Wataniya Airways 306 Cairo 00:50 Gulf Air 211 Bahrain 01:05 Wataniya Airways 408 Beirut 01:05 Jazeera 241 Amman 01:15 Turkish A/L 772 Istanbul 01:15 Wataniya Airways 322 Sharm El Sheikh 01:20 Ethiopian 620 Addis Ababa 01:45 Jazeera 513 Sharm El Sheikh 02:00 DHL 370 Bahrain 02:15 Emirates 853 Dubai 02:25 Etihad 305 Abu Dhabi 02:55 Qatari 138 Doha 03:25 Falcon 201 Dubai 05:25 Jazeera 503 Luxor 05:30 Jazeera 527 Alexandria 06:10 Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok 6:15 British 157 London 06:30 Jazeera 481 Sabiha 06:40 Kuwait 206 Islamabad 07:15 Kuwait 382 Delhi 07:20 Jazeera 531 Assiut 07:30 Iran Air 615 Shahre Kord 07:35 Kuwait 302 Mumbai 07:50 Kuwait 332 Trivandrum 07:55 Fly Dubai 053 Dubai 07:55 Kuwait 676 Dubai 08:00 Kuwait 284 Dhaka 08:10 Emirates 855 Dubai 08:25 Arabia 121 Sharjah 08:40 Kuwait 286 Chittagong 08:45 Qatari 132 Doha 09:00 Iran Air 603 Shiraz 09:20 Etihad 301 Abu Dhabi 09:25 Iran Aseman 6801 Ahwaz 10:15 Jazeera 425 Bahrain 10:25 Falcon 203 Dubai 10:30 Gulf Air 213 Bahrain 10:45 Wataniya Airways 182 Bahrain 10:45 Wataniya Airways 102 Dubai 11:05 Jazeera 113 Abu Dhabi 11:10 Jazeera 165 Dubai 11:15 Jazeera 447 Doha 11:20 Egypt Air 610 Cairo 12:55 Oman Air 645 Muscat 13:15 Kuwait 672 Dubai 13:15 Kuwait 774 Riyadh 13:20 Royal Jordanian 800 Amman 13:35 United A/L 982 Washington Dc Dulles 13:35 Wataniya Airways 432 Damascus 13:35 Wataniya Airways 422 Amman 14:10 Jazeera 257 Beirut 14:10 Kuwait 512 Tehran 14:20 Kuwait 562 Amman 14:20 Saudi Arabian A/L 500 Jeddah 14:30 Qatari 134 Doha 15:05 Jazeera 173 Dubai 16:00 Bahrain Air 344 Bahrain 16:40 Etihad 303 Abu Dhabi 16 50 Emirates 857 Dubai 16:55 Wataniya Airways 402 Beirut 17:15 Gulf Air 215 Bahrain 17:15 Saudi Arabian A/L 510 Riyadh 17:20 Arabia 125 Sharjah 17:40 Jazeera 367 Deirezzor 17:40 Jazeera 239 Amman 17:45 Jazeera 637 Aleppo 17:50 Jazeera 511 Sharm El Sheikh 18:00 Wataniya Airways 304 Cairo 18:35 Kuwait 166 Paris/Rome 18:40 Wataniya Airways 106 Dubai 18:45 Kuwait 502 Beirut 18:50 Kuwait 542 Cairo 18:50 Kuwait 618 Doha 18:55 Kuwait 786 Jeddah 18:55 Jazeera 177 Dubai 19:05 Kuwait 744 Dammam 19:15 Kuwait 614 Bahrain 19:20 Kuwait 674 Dubai 19:20 Singapore A/L 458 Singapore/Abu Dhabi 19:25 Kuwait 102 New York/London 19:25 Kuwait 552 Damascus 19:40 Srilankan 267 Colombo/Dammam 20:00 Fly Dubai 061 Dubai 20:05 Oman Air 647 Muscat 20:15 Middle East 402 Beirut 20:20 Wataniya Airways 612 Sabiha 20:20 Jet A/W 572 Mumbai 20:30 Rovos 081 Baghdad 20:30 Wataniya Airways 404 Beirut 20:50 DHL 372 Bahrain 21:00 Gulf Air 217 Bahrain 21:05 Emirates 859 Dubai 21:15 Kuwait 172 Frankfurt 21:20 Qatari 138 Doha 21:35 United A/L 981 Bahrain 21:55 Jazeera 459 Damascus 21:55 Indian 981Chennai/Hyderabad/Ahmedabad22:05 Jazeera 429 Bahrain 22:10 Jazeera 449 Doha 22:30 Safi A/W 215 Kabul 22:30 Lufthansa 636 Frankfurt 22:35 Jazeera 185 Dubai 22:40 India Express 389 Kozhikode/Mangalore 23:10 KLM 0447 Amsterdam/Bahrain 23:10 Pakistan 205 Lahore 23:55 Wataniya Airways 108 Dubai 23:55

Departure Flights on Sunday 16/05/2010 Airlines Flt Route Egypt Air 607 Luxor India Express 394 Cochin/Kozhikode Indian 994 Mumbai/Chennai Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt Jazeera 530 Assiut Ariana 406 Dubai/Kabul Turkish A/L 773 Istanbul Ethiopian 621 Addis Ababa DHL 371 Bahrain Emirates 854 Dubai Etihad 306 Abu Dhabi Qatari 139 Doha Wataniya Airways 101 Dubai Jazeera 164 Dubai Royal Jordanian 803 Amman Jazeera 112 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 422 Bahrain Jazeera 446 Doha Gulf Air 212 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 181 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 431 Damascus Jazeera 256 Beirut British 156 London Iran Air 614 Shahre Kord Fly Dubai 054 Dubai Kuwait 171 Frankfurt Kuwait 671 Dubai Wataniya Airways 421 Amman Kuwait 561 Amman Arabia 122 Sharjah Emirates 856 Dubai Qatari 133 Doha Kuwait 117 New York Kuwait 511 Tehran Kuwait 773 Riyadh Etihad 302 Abu Dhabi Iran Air 602 Shiraz Iran Aseman 6802 Ahwaz Gulf Air 214 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 401 Beirut Falcon 204 Baghdad Wataniya Airways 303 Cairo Jazeera 172 Dubai Kuwait 541 Cairo Jazeera 636 Aleppo Wataniya Airways 611 Sabiha Jazeera 510 Sharm El Sheikh Jazeera 366 Deirezzor Jazeera 238 Amman Kuwait 103 London Kuwait 501 Beirut Kuwait 785 Jeddah Egypt Air 611 Cairo Oman Air 646 Muscat Kuwait 551 Damascus Royal Jordanian 801 Amman Wataniya Airways 105 Dubai United A/L 982 Bahrain Jazeera 176 Dubai Kuwait 673 Dubai Wataniya Airways 403 Beirut Kuwait 617 Doha Saudi Arabian A/L 503 Medinah/Jeddah Qatari 135 Doha Kuwait 613 Bahrain Kuwait 743 Dammam Jazeera 458 Damascus Rovos 082 Baghdad Bahrain Air 345 Bahrain Etihad 304 Abu Dhabi Gulf Air 216 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 305 Cairo Emirates 858 Dubai Arabia 126 Sharjah Saudi Arabian A/L 511 Riyadh Jazeera 184 Dubai Jazeera 448 Doha Jazeera 428 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 107 Dubai Wataniya Airways 321 Sharm El Sheikh Jazeera 434 Mashad Kuwait 283 Dhaka Jazeera 266 Beirut Kuwait 361 Colombo Fly Dubai 062 Dubai Singapore A/L 457 Abu Dhabi/Singapore Kuwait 343 Chennai Kuwait 351 Cochin Srilankan 267 Colombo Oman Air 648 Muscat Middle East 403 Beirut Jet A/W 571 Mumbai Wataniya Airways 187 Bahrain Gulf Air 218 Bahrain DHL 373 Bahrain Kuwait 675 Dubai Emirates 860 Dubai Falcon 102 Bahrain Kuwait 381 Delhi Qatari 137 Doha Kuwait 203 Lahore Kuwait 301 Mumbai Jazeera 526 Alexandria Jazeera 502 Luxor United A/L 981 Washington Dc Dulles Kuwait 411 Bangkok/Manila Kuwait 415 Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

Time 00:15 00:25 00:50 00:50 01:00 01:45 02:15 02:30 03:15 03:45 04:00 05:00 06:50 07:00 07:00 07:15 07:25 07:40 07:45 07:50 08:10 08:25 08:25 08:35 08:40 08:55 09:00 09:10 09:15 09:20 09:40 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:10 10:20 11:15 11:35 11:35 11:45 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:20 12:25 12:30 13:00 13:30 13:55 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:30 14:50 14:55 15:10 15:10 15:35 15:45 16:20 16:20 16:25 16:50 17:00 17:25 17:35 18:05 18:05 18:05 18:20 18:35 18:35 18:50 19:10 19:40 19:45 19:55 20:00 20:05 20:20 20:50 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:20 21:30 21:35 21:55 22:00 22:10 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:20 23:30 23:40 23:40 23:50

ACCOMMODATION Accommodation available for non-smoking executive bachelor in a 2 bedroom CA/C flat near Integrated School, Abbassiya. Contact: 60049556. (C 2265) Sharing accommodation available for a non-smoking Keralite bachelor in Abbassiya, rent KD 40.

Contact: 66577233. (C 2263) Sharing accommodation available in Hawally, 1 single room, separate bathroom with central A/C flat, for only Indian family/2 bachelors, near Plaza building, backside petrol pump.

Phone: 99968871. (C 2264) 16-5-2010 Sharing accommodation available for a decent Christian or Hindu family/ or two bachelors. Rent KD 80 in Abbassiya, call 97980907.

(C 2261) Flat for rent in Farwaniya 2 rooms water, electricity, and A/C, Indian family only, no children. Call: 97409556.

(C 2257) Room with kitchen/ bathroom for Indians/ Sri Lanka working ladies, central A/C, satellite facilities, near Lulu hyper market.

Tel: 65152017. (C 2259) Single room accommodation available for an executive, non smoking bachelor in a two bedroom flat in Abbassiya with Keralite family. Contact: 66576595.

(C 2260) Bachelor accommodation available near United Indian school, Abbassiya in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom C-A/C flat from 1st June onwards, interested please contact: 66601442/ 99327100.

(C 2256) 15-5-2010 Fully furnished single room with separate bathroom available with small Muslim family in Hawally, Tunis Street, near Sadique roundabout behind Commercial Bank of Kuwait, for single executive. Contact: 97794619. (C 2225) 13-5-2010 A decent Pakistani bachelor looking for a room with Indian or Pakistani Muslim family, work timings: 8 am to 10 pm. Please contact: 55088901. (C 2245) Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya,

building, family or decent bachelors.

Phone: 66720969, 97284369.

(C 2246) 11-5-2010 Sharing accommodation available for bachelors with an Indian family near Mecca street, Fahaheel. Contact: 23927458.

(C 2235) Sharing accommodation available for 1 bachelor to share with another bachelor in a 2 bedroom flat in Abbassiya near Unique store no. 2 opp Uduppi palace from May/June 2010, kitchen facilities available. Contact: 66110593 or after 3 pm on 24313908.

(C 2241) Sharing accommodation in Jabriya Mulhaq separate room near Al Hadi hospital, phone and kitchen facilities, rent KD 65, bachelor only.

Contact: 99546413.

(C 2237) 10-5-2010

FOR SALE Bank manager leaving Kuwait 30.06.2010 2 BHK flat opposite Salmiya Catholic church for sale rent KD 225, new IKEA furniture.

Entire things KD 1500/-ono.

Call 66863850. (C 2262) 16-5-2010 Toyota Corolla XLi 1.8, model 2007, white color, excellent condition, done 60,000 km only, cash price KD 2,850.

Contact: 97213518. (C 2252) Sony car audio CD MP3, CD-R/RW front aux, speaker front-50Wx4, back 300W - 4 way, look new, computer table with multi rack. Tel: 66063764. (C 2254) 13-5-2010 Mitsubishi Jeep Nativa, model 2008, 6 cylinder engine, alloy rim, 4x4 excellent condition. Price KD 2,850. Contact: 66211779.

(C 2244) 10-5-2010 Pathfinder 2001, price KD 1400, Pajero 2001, KD 1600, red color, good condition.

Tel: 99537769, 99439512.

(C 2236)

No: 14730

MATRIMONIAL Proposals invited for 27year-old Orthodox girl, Gen. Nurse (+BSc Comp Science), from Kollad, KTM, slim, 163 cms, medium complexion, working with Kolenchery MM. Girl is in Kuwait on visit. Mail with detailed profile to: digitaldreams.001@gmail.com (C 2249) 16-5-2010 Sunni Muslim north Indian male, 47/165cm divorce good job having two children looking a religious Urdu speaking life partner.

Contact: ahmadhindustani@yahoo.com (C 2258) 15-5-2010 Proposals are invited from professionals or post graduates for RC Engineer (31) hailing from Kollam, working in Kuwait.

Email: reggie.advert@gmail.com (2251) Re-marriage, Indian Sunny Muslim girl, age 35, head supervisor in Kuwait need Indian Muslim boy well settled in Kuwait, age not less than 40 years. Email: mahboob_khan49@yahoo.com / azam_khan61@yahoo.com (C 2255) 13-5-2010 Proposals are invited for a 25-year-old Catholic girl from TVM with B.Tech, MBA, currently working as HR in Technopark TVM, B/B in Kuwait, having Kuwait residence, preference for highly qualified persons doctors, engineers, working in Kuwait. Catholics, Ortho-

dox, Marthomites acceptable. Email: mimarriagein@gmail.com / cvarghese@rediffmail.com (C 2247) 11-5-2010

SITUATION WANTED

I need full/part time job as accountant. My qualification is B.Com + MBA, 3 years experience in Kuwait. I can use different financial packages. I have valid driving license.

Please call: 55355954. (C 2253) 13-5-2010 Indian female (MBA in HR), 10 years experience in HR/ administration, specializing in recruitments, PMS, MIS reports & overall Admin functions, Proficient in MS Office. Good communication skills, Please contact: 66634322. (C 2226) 10-5-2010

CHANGE OF NAME I, Fatenus Fazal Khan, holder Pakistani Passport No. KG 245598, hereby change my name to Yunus Khan Fazal Khan.

(C 2242) 10-5-2010

SPECTRUM

34 CROSSWORD 990

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Calvin Aries (March 21-April 19) This is a lucky day. You should be successful in most any undertaking.

Stimulating conversations begin before you even have time to begin your own project. Participation in group activities is favored you could learn something of value from others. Spend time in review of your plans for the future. Perhaps while listening to other people’s ideas of where they want to be in a few years, you will form your own goals; personal or professional. Projects that you have already begun will come to a completion by the end of the day. You could be knitting a sweater or tutoring a child; all is good. Watch your spending habits this evening; you could become a bit more generous than the checkbook would allow. Music fills the air tonight; enjoy.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You are likely to feel restless and bored with normal routine matters today but you are good to follow through with a promise you have made to yourself. Today you will make sure other projects are completed before going ahead with new ones. You will probably introduce some new personal guidelines into your fun activities. This may mean that the people in your life want to be included in your activities and vice-versa. You have the power to break out of any rut from the past. You are good at respecting others and you should easily be able to achieve your objectives at this time. Creative ventures can be quite successful. An unexpected visitor brings good news this afternoon. This news saves you a lot of money.

Pooch Cafe

ACROSS 1. An informal term for a father.

5. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

8. A Kwa language spoken by the Yoruba people in southwestern Nigeria.

11. An elaborate song for solo voice.

12. (Judaism) Sacred chest where the ancient Hebrews kept the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

13. The money risked on a gamble.

14. Perceive sound.

15. The longer of the two telegraphic signals used in Morse code.

16. A religious belief of African origin involving witchcraft and sorcery.

17. Filled with a great quantity.

18. The Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Dali region of Yunnan.

19. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

22. A software system that facilitates the creation and maintenance and use of an electronic database.

25. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

27. The month following July and preceding September.

28. Jordan's port.

32. A unit of elastance equal to the reciprocal of a farad.

33. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

36. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

37. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

41. The compass point that is one point west of due south.

42. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

43. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

44. Of a light yellowish-brown color n 1.

45. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

46. Two items of the same kind.

47. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

DOWN 1. Tropical woody herb with showy yellow flowers and flat pods.

2. A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography).

3. An ornamental jewelled headdress signifying sovereignty.

4. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

5. An interest followed with exaggerated zeal.

6. Any of numerous low-growing cushion-forming plants of the genus Draba having rosette-forming leaves and terminal racemes of small flowers with scapose or leafy stems.

7. A Loloish language.

8. A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

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

10. A city in central New York.

20. A radioactive transuranic element.

21. (old-fashioned) At or from or to a great distance.

23. A island in the Netherlands Antilles that is the top of an extinct volcano.

24. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

26. An overland journey by hunters (especially in Africa).

29. A Bantu language spoken by the Kamba people in Kenya.

30. (Welsh) Lord of Annwfn (the other world.

31. A genus of Ploceidae.

34. A small cake leavened with yeast.

35. Two items of the same kind.

38. An informal term for a father.

39. A doctor's degree in education.

40. The chance to speak.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You are apt to spend a great deal of time communicating with neighbors today.

This is a good time to take stock of the neighborhood and decide on whether you want to help contribute to a few improvements around the area. Once you begin, others will follow. Who knows, you might be able to get some money donated for a covered bus stop or request that the city create some sort of wall to block loud noises from the neighborhood. This is the type of creative ideas coming into your life; there is improvement. There are volunteer programs that interest you and you wanting to make a difference. If positive changes are not needed on the home front, it could be the community would benefit from your abilities. Consider attending a future town meeting.

Non Sequitur

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Your mind is stimulated and there is great wit at hand today. Your inclination and ability to solve complex problems and puzzles amaze others. If you are able to channel this mental enthusiasm productively, you will accomplish much today. You display an urge to be recognized and if you are patient, you will hear the praises.

Perseverance is crucial during this, fortunately, short period. Your disposition is open and welcomes all you meet. You are in tune with your own convictions and beliefs as well as those of your friends. If you accept loved ones for the people they really are, you will greatly enjoy their company, now and in the future. Interactions with the opposite sex are stimulating and delightful this evening. Be prepared to dress to the max tonight.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You are at your mental best today and may enjoy working with word puzzles, helping someone with their homework, or involving yourself in some construction project. You add creative and unusual touches to whatever you are working with today. This is an excellent time to make decisions and take care of any loose ends. You are motivated when it comes to possessions and material things; shopping for a special item or just what you want that is going to be a good investment may be on your mind this afternoon. When you purchase a gift, your attitude is the very same and you always look for that very special item that fits a person’s personality. A short journey with friends or family could be in your plans for this evening perhaps stargazing.

Zits

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This is a good time to initiate a feeling or sense of going with the flow. There is a definite need for security. This strong desire encompasses most areas of your life at this time. Try to see that respect and true understanding of others will achieve the positive responses you are looking for now. You may find a volunteer service most beneficial as a means to express your talents and help others at the same time. Some of the ways in which you could feel quite useful in a volunteer situation would be in a medical, counseling or clergy type organization. You will be teaching someone techniques of a sensible diet as well today. This evening you will be popular with your friends and someone will help you learn a new game, you are in for hours of fun.

Libra (September 23-October 22) There may be an occasion today that you could experience hurt feelings.

It could be difficult to let go of these feelings. However, it would be best to express to another that their actions are not acceptable. Perhaps it was only a tone of voice, unfounded criticisms or a personal slight. Accusations are unnecessary but acknowledgment of hurt feelings brings a better understanding of how someone can treat you. If you do this, you will not experience this problem from this person again. A new person will enter your life today and you may find some common beliefs or ideas that will promote good friendship. Now is a good time to begin making changes for some ethnic cause in your community. Remember to consider your time and do not go overboard.

Mother Goose and Grimm

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Quick answers, great wit and a surplus of insights and solutions are ready for you to use. This is a good time to write and communicate with real originality. It is important to speak up and let your voice be heard. Insert your good sense of humor to get through some of the more sensitive subjects and people that may have been a problem in the past. Today is a great time to be with others and to work together in a team effort. You may be sought after as just the person for a particular job. Your management and directional abilities are in high focus. If you give your best effort now, you may unconsciously help another person.

Success is within your reach. A loved one needs your support this evening.

Make yourself available to listen.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Work issues are particularly easy to manipulate today. You work with the public quite a lot and you give people more than they expect and with a cheerful attitude. This is a good time to get many things accomplished. As soon as you can take a break with some friends, a philosophical subject grabs your interest. What you learn could be the answer to a special problem you have been working on lately. Later this afternoon you will find an opportunity to invest or purchase items that could increase in worth. This is a good time to be judicious in your personal decisions about finances. However, you should expend great zest in your moneymaking abilities. Your money can go a long way if you plan carefully. You are ready for the weekend to move forward.

Yesterday’s Solution

yester

Yesterday’s Solution

to

INTERNATIONAL CALLS Kuwait Qatar Abu Dhabi Dubai Raas Al Khayma Al-Shareqa Muscat Jordan Bahrain Riyadh Makkah - Jeddah Cairo Alexandria Beirut Damascus Allepo

00965 00974 009712 009714 009717 009716 00968 009626 00973 009661 009662 00202 00203 009611 0096311 0096321

Tunisia Rabat Washington New York Paris London Madrid Zurich Geneva Monaco Rome Bangkok Hong Kong Pakistan Taiwan Bonn

0021610 002127 001212 001718 00331 004471 00341 00411 004122 0033 00396 00662 00852 0092 00886 0049228

Word Sleuth Solution

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) There is definitely a romantic atmosphere on the job today. You will not have to deal with it unless you want to, but if you act too quickly, there are repercussions careful.

You may also need to make a conscious effort to keep play and work in balance. You will seem to be a bit sloppy with details on projects at this time. Work hard now to remain in focus.

You will strive to become more dedicated to your work . . . play time will come count on it. Let both your own feelings and the reaction of others guide you when seeking a balance. Now is a good time to set long-range goals.

Whether the evening works out as you planned or not, being flexible is the key to the good times. You enjoy the company of friends. Tell or hear a new joke this evening.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) At this time you will be inclined to dig deep into some mysterious subject. You will enjoy the success that is coming your way. You will learn much from a boss or mentor today. Take your time and study what is presented. Conversations have the potential to profoundly affect your belief system. Viewpoints depend upon experience, family traditions, news source and all sorts of input. Today you will attend an enjoyable social function and become quite involved in a variety of subjects. Absorb and remember the rules of order. If you have recently been involved in a dispute with someone close, you will tend to make positive compromises now. This evening you enjoy spending time with your sweetheart. Balance and harmony are present.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) There are deep feelings of respect and affection, especially for the women in your life. People around you will respond favorably to this attitude. This does not mean you would engage yourself in a relationship when you or someone else is already in a relationship, it does mean you respect others. People, co-workers in many cases, enjoy having you as a boss or partner. This afternoon you may busy your mind about a vacation or upcoming trip. You may also concern yourself with making improvements to your home, especially in making the rooms a lighter color. There could be some decisions to make about which thing you will want to do the most. If you go ahead with the repair work, you could still enjoy short weekend excursions.

INFORMATION

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw

STATE ST TAT TE OF K KUWAIT KUW WA AIT DAY: DA AY Y: Saturday

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

F AX: 24348714 FAX: WWW .MET.GOV V.KW . W WWW.MET.GOV.KW

15/05/2010

Issue Time Time

19:00

Expected W Weather eeather for the Next 24 2 Hours

HOSPITALS Sabah Hospital

TEL: 161 ext. 2630 - 2627

DIRECTORA DIRECTORATE AT TE GENERAL GEN NERAL OF CIVIL A AVIATION VIA V ATION T METEOROLOGICAL L DEPARTMENT DEP PA ARTMENT

For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

35

BY Y NIGHT NIGHT::

Visibility V isib i bility will decrease due to sus suspended spended dust and will impro improve ove later on with light variab variable le wind changing too light to moderate north we sterly wind, with speed of 0088 - 30 km/h and some scatte red clouds will westerly scattered

BY Y DA AY: DAY:

Hot with light to moderate becom becoming ming fresh later on north we westerly esterly to northerly wind, wit with th speed of 15 over - 40 km/h k causing raising dust ov ver open areas No Current Warnings Warnin a ngs

WARNING W ARNING A

STATION ST TAT TION

24874330/9 CLINICS

MAX. REC.

MIN MIN. N. EXP EXP. P.

KUWAIT KUW WA AIT CITY

38 °C

2 °C 29

KUWAIT KUW WA AIT AIRPORT AIRPOR RT

40 °C

2 °C 28

NUWAISEEB NUW WAISEEB A

37 °C

2 °C 28

WAFRA W A AFRA

41 °C

2 °C 25

SALMI

41 °C

2 °C 26

ABDALY ABDAL LY

42 °C

2 °C 26

Roudha

22517733

ALIYAH JAL ALIY YAH A

41 °C

2 °C 28

Adhaliya

22517144

FAILAKA F A AILAKA

38 °C

2 °C 27

Khaldiya

24848075

PORT AHMADI POR RT

34 °C

2 °C 28

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

AL-MARADEM UMM AL-MARAD DEM

34 °C

27 2 °C

Shuwaikh

24814507

W A ARBA A - BUBY YAN A WARBA BUBYAN

34 °C

2 °C 27

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

SFC. CHAR CHART RT

15/05/2010 120 1200 00 UTC

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayhaʼa Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

4 DA DAYS AY YS FORECAST T Temperatures emperatures DAY DA AY

DATE DA ATE T

WEATHER WEA AT THER R

Sunday

16/05

Monday

17/05

Tuesday Tuesday

18/05

Wind Direction Direction Wind

Wind Wind Speed

MAX.

MIN.

A Hot+Dust at AM

41 °C

28 °C

NW-N NW-N

15 - 40 km/h

Hot+haze

41 °C

30 °C

NW-N NW-N

12 - 32 km/h

Hot

43 °C

31 °C

NE-SE

15 - 35 km/h

A Hot+Dust at AM

42 °C

30 °C

S-SE

20 - 40 km/h

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Al-Mirqab

22456536

Fajr

03:27

MAX. Temp.

M Temp.

39 °C

Sharq

22465401

Sunrise

04:56

MIN. Temp.

M T emp.

30 °C

Salmiya

25746401

Zuhr

111:44 1:44

MAX. RH M

32 %

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W.Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Al-Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

4892674

Al-Omariya

4719048

N.Kheitan

4710044

Rabiya

4732263

Fintas

3900322

Wednesday e 19/05 Wednesday

PRAYER P PRA AY YER TIMES

Asr

15:20

MIN. RH

18:33

MAX. Wind M Wind

Isha

20:00

TOTAL TOT TAL AL RAINFALL RA AINF FALL A L IN 24 HR.

All times are local time unless otherwise stated.

12 %

15/05/10 15:30 UTC

NE 50 km/h 00 mm V1.00

T1.06

PHARMACIES ON 24 HRS DUTY GOVERNORATE Ahmadi

PHARMACY Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

ADDRESS Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

PHONE 23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists: Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea Dr. Masoma Habeeb Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy Dr. Mohsen Abel Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly

25622444 25752222 25321171 25739999 25757700 25732223 25732223

Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT): Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners: Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists: Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Plastic Surgeons: Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf 22547272

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari Dr. Abdel Quttainah

22617700 25625030/60

Family Doctor: Dr Divya Damodar 23729596/23729581

Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr.

Zahra Qabazard Sohail Qamar Snaa Maaroof Pradip Gujare Zacharias Mathew

25710444 22621099 25713514 23713100 24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari 22635047 Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan 22613623/0 Gynaecologists & Obstetricians: Dr Adrian Harbe 23729596/23729581 Dr. Verginia s.Marin 2572-6666 ext 8321 Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan 22655539 Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami 25343406 Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly 25739272 Dr. Salem soso 22618787 General Surgeons: Dr. Abidallah Behbahani 25717111 Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer 22610044 Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher 25327148

Paediatricians: Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed 25340300

Physiotherapists & VD: Dr. Deyaa Shehab 25722291 Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees 22666288 Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi 25330060 Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah 25722290

(2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535 Dentists:

Dr Anil Thomas

3729596/3729581

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Neurologists:

Internist, Chest & Heart: DR.Mohammes Akkad 24555050 Ext 210 Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Tel: 25339667 Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Consultant Cardiologist Tel: 2611555-2622555 Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri 25633324 Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

Internists, Chest & Heart: Dr. Adnan Ebil 22639939 Dr. Mousa Khadada 22666300 Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan 25728004 Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra 25355515 Dr. Mobarak Aldoub 24726446 Dr Nasser Behbehani 25654300/3

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988 AIRLINES

RECORDED RECORDE ED YESTERDAY YESTERDA AY AT AT KUWAIT KUW WA AIT AIRPORT AIRPOR RT

Sunset

EMERGENCY 112

FIRE BRIGADE Operation Room 112 Al-Madena 22418714 Al-Shohadaʼa 22545171 Al-Shuwaikh 24810598 Al-Nuzha 22545171 Sabhan 24742838 Al-Helaly 22434853 Al-Fayhaa 22545051 Al-Farwaniya 24711433 Al-Sulaibikhat 24316983 Al-Fahaheel 23927002 Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh 24316983 Ahmadi 23980088 Al-Mangaf 23711183 Al-Shuaiba 23262845 Al-Jahra 25610011 Al-Salmiya 25616368

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly 25322030 Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Endocrinologist: Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman 25339330 Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari

25658888

Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr

25329924

Psychologists/Psychotherapists Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688 info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677 William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Kuwait Airways Wataniya Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines

22433377 24379900 177 22477631 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22425566 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/2433141 22456700 22412284/5 22453820/1

INTERNATIONAL CALLS Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK)

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345 00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044

Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Holland (Netherlands) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Ibiza (Spain) Iceland India Indian Ocean Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia

00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689 00241 00220 00995 0049 00233 00350 0030 00299 001473 00590 001671 00502 00224 00592 00509 0031 00504 00852 0036 0034 00354 0091 00873 0062 0098 00964 00353 0039 00225 001876 0081 00962 007 00254 00686 00965 00996 00856 00371 00961 00231 00218 00370 00352 00853 00389

SPECTRUM

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Lohan crashes an Iggy Pop concert indsay Lohan crashed an Iggy Pop concert on Wednesday night. The troubled actress made her way into a Ray-Ban sponsored event with a large number of friends after swearing at door staff to let her in. A source told the New York Post newspaper: “She crashed at 9:30 pm and demanded to be let in, even though the venue was closed. “She started arguing with the security guy and screaming for him to ‘f**k off’.

Finally they ushered her in through the side door.” Onlookers believe the side entrance had been prepared for Josh Hartnett to arrive, and party organizers were further left annoyed by Lindsay’s large entourage of 30 guests. Another source told the New York Daily News newspaper: “If they expected Lindsay, they certainly didn’t expect her to come with that many people. Most celebrities brought one or two guests - her crew was inappropriately large. “It caused a huge commotion, because the VIP area was definitely not

L

Kerr can’t resist fried chicken

equipped to handle that amount of guests. Event staff were running around like crazy trying to accommodate her.” Not all guests at the concert were so badly behaved in the VIP area - Kelly Osbourne and her boyfriend Luke Worrall were said to be “patient” while waiting to glimpse Iggy on stage. The source said: “It took her a while to get into the VIP area because everyone was crowding it but she was patient. She and her boyfriend Luke didn’t have the best view once they got inside, but they craned their necks like the rest of the crowd.” Lindsay was reportedly shunned by the other celebrities at the show which took place to promote a new range of designer sunglasses created by Iggy for Ray-Ban including Kate Bosworth and her rumored boyfriend Alexander Skarsgard. The spy added: “It’s fair to say that the other celebs ignored Lindsay. She’s not someone who people are trying to be associated with right now.”

Sir Anthony Hopkins gets rid of guests by going to bed he 72-year-old actor hates socializing with friends or family and if people are boring him at one of his own dinner parties he simply leaves them and goes to sleep. In an interview with German TV station TELE 5, he said: “If my guests go by car I already tell them on arrival that they immediately can start the engine again. Recently some friends visited us and my wife Stella warned them, ‘Tony is impossible. If he is bored he just leaves and goes to bed.’

Sometimes I show them my drawings or give away some of my paintings to get rid of people.” As well as finding his friends tedious, ‘The Wolfman’ star also finds his fellow actors impossibly dull and he avoids spending time with his peers if her can. The Oscar-winning star said: “Actors are the worst bores. You can’t talk with them about anything except old movies. I generally don’t go out for dinner with my colleagues if I can avoid it. It’s always the same in the film business. Everybody must go out for dinner or lunch together but nobody feels like doing it.” Hopkins’ aversion to socializing is not something that has developed as he has gotten older - he insists he has always disliked parties and gatherings. He explained: “I have always hated parties. When I was a child and I had my birthday party at home I used to hide in the garden and my mother yelled, ‘What are you doing out there?’ I’ve always been a strange fellow.”

T

he ‘Gossip Girl’ actress insists she feels “relaxed” by playing with the weapon, which she takes “everywhere” with her. She admitted: “I have a knife collection. I have my favorite black knife with me all the time. It’s a switchblade. It relaxes me to flick it. I close it and open it.” The 16-yearold star even came close to sparking a security alert after carrying blades on a recent flight from New York to Los Angeles. She told the Metro newspaper: “I flew from New York to Los Angeles and still had a couple of knives in my purse. I thought I took them all out but they got tucked up in the folds. “I went through security, took them on the plane, opened my bag to get

T

my wallet in Los Angeles and they fell out. I was like, “Holy s**t!’” Taylor has previously admitted she hates being viewed as a “role model” and has “no interest” in what other people think of her. She said: “I smoke, so what? Why do people give a s**t what a 16-year-old girl who they’ve never met does? It’s not like I’m sitting there going, ‘Kids, you should go buy a pack of cigarettes.’ “When I walk outside with a cigarette and someone takes a picture of it and puts it on the internet, it’s not my problem. I’m just living my life and I’m not gonna live my life for other people. “I didn’t get into this to be a role model for seven-yearolds. I have no interest in doing that.”

he Victoria’s Secret model - who is dating Orlando Bloom - has to stay in shape for her career but does indulge in the calorific treat on occasions.

She said: “I do eat healthily and am careful with my diet but not all the time. There are times when you want that piece of fried chicken. That’s my big weakness and there’s nothing wrong with that.”The 27-year-old Australian beauty insists the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is to treat yourself on occasions. She

T

Jennifer Aniston is a solid eater T he ‘Bounty Hunter’ star was reported earlier this month to have taken up the Baby Food Cleanse diet - which involves eating 14 portions of pureed food a day followed by a healthy adult dinner - to lose weight, but Jennifer insists she likes to chew her food. The 41year-old actress told People magazine: “I’ve been on solids for about 40 years now. Sorry, but the last time I had baby food, I believe I was one.”

Jennifer was said to have decided to go on the extreme diet, on the recommendation of celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson, because she wants to look her best for new movie ‘Just Go With It’ - which she is shooting in Hawaii with Adam Sandler and stunning Sports Illustrated model Brooklyn Decker. A source said: “While in Europe last month, Jennifer relaxed her usually strict diet regime.

She knew she had been indulging, and seeing as her upcoming role required her to wear lots of little dresses, she wanted to be at her physical peak.” Since the reports broke, the former ‘Friends’ star admits she has been left confused by different people asking her about baby food. She said: “I’ve been asked lately, ‘Jen, what’s this baby food diet all about?’ I kept thinking, ‘That’s the strangest question ever.’

added: “Everything in moderation, that’s the trick.”

Miranda - who practices yoga to maintain her enviable figure - recently revealed healthy eating is not something she has had to train herself to enjoy because her diet was always packed with fresh fruit and vegetables when she was growing up. She said: “It’s something that I’ve always believed in growing up. We always ate organic vegetables. Taking care of my mind, body and soul is very important.”

Diaz doesn’t care about money

he ‘Knight and Day’ actress insists she never thinks about the fee when choosing what her next project will be as it is more important to her to be stimulated creatively. She said: “I can read 40 scripts and they can all be huge movies that will make me tones of money, but if it doesn’t speak to me I’m not going to do it.” The 37year-old star can next be seen in ‘Knight and Day’ alongside her ‘Vanilla Sky’ co-star Tom Cruise and insists she took the role just to have fun, not to raise her profile. She told Total Film magazine: “I don’t consider this

T

film a vehicle. I consider it a time of my life when I want to go out and do some action, have some fun and work with Tom again.

“I’m not interested in playing the same girl over and over again.” Cameron also admitted she isn’t worried about the critical response to the movie as her priority is her own happiness. She explained: “You can’t worry about what other people say. You can’t make everybody happy, it’s impossible.

The only person you can make happy is yourself, so why not put your energy into that?” —Bang Showbiz

he ‘Robin Hood’ actor - famed for his fiery temper and bad behavior - has been tamed since becoming a father to Charlie, six, and three-year-old Tennyson, according to his wife Danielle Spencer. She said: “I don’t think I’ve tamed Russell, I just think there’s a natural progression when you become a parent - you’re relaxed and happier. There’s a pretty big shift in your focus when you have children. You can’t really be selfish any more, and I think that’s a good shift.

Having children is grounding and very

T

Crowe is a ‘softie’ when it comes to children

Taylor Momsen carries a knife

36

humbling. But I’m the tough one with them, let me put it that way. He’s the softie.” Singer Danielle - who married the Hollywood star in 2003 - and Russell have made a pact to go everywhere as a family, even when the actor is filming in foreign countries. She added in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Generally we try to stick together so there’s usually a period of the year where we might be away for three to four months. When we came over to the UK last summer for the filming of ‘Robin Hood’ we put Charlie in a lovely school in Surrey. I worried about it being disruptive for him but he was fine.” The family currently live in Australia.

SPECTRUM

Sunday, May 16, 2010

37

Fashion

Kuwaiti designer Al-Rifai launches

By Nawara Fattahova

seriously thinking of adding sport-chic designs to my Autumn-Winter 2011 collection.

I don’t work on swimsuits, underwear or any other styles.”

None of Al-Rifai’s designs are repeated. “I make each daraa in three sizes: small, medium and large. If the model is sold out we don’t repeat it.

We design new models instead.

I produce 30 designs each season and there are some special seasons where I launch additional models,’ she added.

The materials used in Baan’s designs are brought from different countries. “I buy the textiles from Kuwait because there is a wide and good selection.

Sometimes I need special fabrics so I bring them from Lebanon, France or India. Of all textiles, I prefer silk, which I use in most of my daraa designs,” Al-Rifai explained.

According to Al-Rifai, the most popular colors this summer are silver, kermes (grenadine red) and beige daraas. “I also used other fancy colors in my new spring/summer 2010 collection. This collection also includes some special and attractive designs with the use of materials such as peacock feathers and others,” she noted.

Baan Al-Rifai launched her 2010 spring/summer fashion collection at the fashion show on Wednesday at the Al-Raaya Ballroom. The fashion show was held under the auspices of Sheikha Sheikha Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and attended by about 500 women.

The spring/summer collection was titled ‘My Own Dream’ and included traditional daraas and short and long evening dresses. The dresses combined different romantic colors from pink, kermes, turquoise, yellow, white, black and others. The dresses were decorated with pearls, leather, butterflies, precious stones and embroideries.

The fashion show also included a raffle draw for numerous valuable prizes presented by the sponsors of the fashion show. Awards were also presented to the sponsors. The evening concluded with a dinner buffet.

2010 collection

KUWAIT: Fashion is a passion in Kuwait. Most Kuwaiti women, and even the men, are obsessed with fashion, brands, new models and designs. They always like to be chic and well dressed. Kuwaitis like to wear unique styles and be different.

The fashion business is very prosperous in Kuwait and that is why the number of Kuwait fashion designers has increased.

Baan Al-Rifai, a female Kuwaiti designer, became popular after spending several years working in fashion design. For her, designing began as a hobby and a talent. She later improved her skills by passing specialized design courses in Lebanon. She enjoys improving her skills by enrolling in new courses regularly.

Baan Al-Rifai began her fashion career designing Daraas 10 years ago. Two years ago though, she acquired the fashion agency Joco Roco from Lebanon and has been designing evening dresses ever since. “All the Daraas are designed and made here in Kuwait in the sewing workshop,” Al-Rifai told the Kuwait Times. “I design the evening dresses and produce them in Lebanon in cooperation with Joco Roco.”

She currently has one shop in Layla Gallery, ‘Tall Bano,’ and works exclusively on Daraas and evening dresses. “Maybe in the future I will expand my collection,” she said. “In fact, I am

Models present creations by Kuwaiti designer Baan Al-Rifai.

—Photos by Joseph Shagraa

Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show

Models present creations by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier during his fashion show at Kazanskiy railway station in Moscow on May 14, 2010. Gaultier arrived in Moscow to promote his products. —AFP

SPECTRUM

38 R

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Music

eviews

ARTIST: MERLE HAGGARD ALBUM: I AM WHAT I AM t’s not so much that Merle Haggard has established himself as an American gem on his ambitious releases in the past decade; it’s that we finally took notice. He’s gone from the angry “Okie From Muskogee” to a weathered everyman poet with a Western twang and a California kind of country swing that puts melodic heft behind musings on the human condition. On the new set, “I Am What I Am,” he sings about seeing “our greatest leaders break people’s hearts” and his own shortcomings (“Bad Actor,” “How Did You Find Me Here”). The waltzing “Oil Tanker Train” is evocative enough to put listeners right on the tracks, while “Mexican Bands” serves up a guided tour along the Tex-Mex border. On the title track Haggard delivers the hall-of-fame-worthy couplet, “I believe Jesus is God/And a pig is just a ham.” Toward the end of the set, he intones, “I do what I do ‘cause I give a damn.” We’re damn glad he still does.

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ARTIST: B.O.B ALBUM: B.O.B PRESENTS: THE ADVENTURES OF BOBBY RAY eaving together hip-hop, rock influences and futuristic sounds, Atlanta newcomer B.o.B addresses beautiful girls, ambition and all things sci-fi on his vibrant guest-heavy debut album, “B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray.” The opening track, “Don’t Let Me Fall,” showcases the rapper’s smoothed-voice singing talent and vulnerability (“They say what goes up must come down/But don’t let me fall”) over a booming guitar, while “Magic” (featuring Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo) takes a more pop-driven direction. In contrast, on the aggressive “Bet I” (featuring T.I. and Playboy Tre), B.o.B exhibits rawer vocals with a Southern flavor, and standout “Airplanes, Part II” (featuring Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Eminem) touches on the rapper’s hopes and drive for success. But the set’s most dynamic song is “5th Dimension,” which finds Ricco Barrino belting in Motown fashion. On the track, B.o.B channels his inner Lil Wayne circa “Phone Home”: “They try to hold me down/But man it’s me they can’t contain,” he raps.

Syrian singer Waad Bu Hassun performs at the “Angham min al-Sharq” (Sounds of Arabia) festival in Abu Dhabi late on May 14, 2010.

The event is organized by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).

—AFP

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ARTIST: MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER ALBUM: THE AGE OF MIRACLES or more than 20 years, Mary Chapin Carpenter has consistently blended insightful observation with melodic hooks and folk-country arrangements. Her 10th studio album, “The Age of Miracles” (and second on Rounder after a run with Columbia that yielded five Grammy Awards), adds a familiar yet essential new chapter to her rich catalog.

Musically, the set’s highlights include the uptempo “I Put My Ring Back On” (featuring Vince Gill) and first single “The Way I Feel,” the latter being the perfect radio soundtrack to carefree drives in the upcoming summer months.

As the album title suggests, Carpenter contemplates world issues with optimism. “You think you’re just standing still/One day you’ll get up that hill,” she sings on the joyous, swaying title track. With “The Age of Miracles,” Carpenter’s talents remain timeless.

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ARTIST: WIDESPREAD PANIC ALBUM: DIRTY SIDE DOWN he recording studio is generally considered anathema to those in the jam band community. But Georgia sextet Widespread Panic has quietly discovered how to make very good albums that carefully balance its chops as players and songwriters.

Its new album, “Dirty Side Down,” plays to all the band’s strengths, from the intricate weaving of John Bell’s and Jimmy Herring’s guitars with John Hermann’s keyboards to a stylistic sweep that spans from the epic, prog-like opening suite, “Saint Ex,” to breezier fare like the title track and the spritely gallop of “Clinic Cynic.” The band shuffles in a bluesy vein on “Visiting Day” and “Shut Up and Drive,” while dipping into jazz on the instrumental “St. Louis” and taking an R&B turn with the bouncy “Jaded Tourist.” A rootsy cover of the late Vic Chesnutt’s “This Cruel Thing” and the classic lament “When You Coming Home” are quieter and more atmospheric. This is an accomplished work from a group that understands itself completely, deftly straddling the line between instinct and craft.

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ARTIST: PETER FRAMPTON ALBUM: THANK YOU MR CHURCHILL eter Frampton’s newest album, “Thank You Mr Churchill,” reinforces the artist’s status as a rock guitar veteran and finds him exploring new plateaus. Sculpted around Frampton’s fret work, the new set has a heavier, more immediate sound that deviates from the melodic flow of his Grammy Award-winning 2006 release, “Fingerprints.” Against a persistent guitar riff on the title track, Frampton thanks Winston Churchill for bringing his father back from World War II, which ultimately allowed him to be born, but he places it in a broader context of “waging peace, instead of waging war.”

The autobiographical track “Vaudeville Nanna and the Banjolele” features a mellow ukulele groove combined with soft percussion, and on the two-part instrumental “Suite Liberte,” Frampton sticks to what he does best: playing beautiful, Pink Floyd-like guitar melodies. The Funk Brothers join in on “Invisible Man,” a Motown tribute that incorporates a number of Hitsville USA titles and surprisingly finds Frampton getting funky on the guitar. —Reuters

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S Africaʼs vuvuzela orchestra pulls harmony from the din

By Fanuel Jongwe ive youths blow different tunes on long plastic vuvuzela trumpets, prompting onlookers to wince and then giggle as the band begins rehearsals in a hall in downtown Johannesburg. But minutes into the practise session, the small audience cannot resist stomping and singing along as the sounds of the horns, loved as much as they are hated, fuse into familiar tunes.

This vuvuzela orchestra is one of four formed by musician Pedro Espi-Sanchis to take an instrument synonymous with a deafening din at football stadiums into a maker of melodies.

“The 2010 World Cup was coming and it felt bad to me that when people around the world switch on their television set to watch their favorite team, all they can hear is the noise,” Espi-Sanchis told AFP. The spark for the orchestra came as debate raged over whether vuvuzelas should be allowed during the championship, which kicks off on June 11.

“The vuvuzela is going to

appeal to more people. “You can’t imagine football in South Africa without the vuvuzela,” said Espi-Sanchis, whose band has performed at several international and local league match-

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The vuvuzela (large colored plastic trumpet) orchestra performs at a Johannesburg hotel May 4, 2010.—AFP

reach its full power in music as we give visitors a taste of the cultural side of Africa, where rhythm, humanity and music were born,” he said. The instrument drew complaints from European television stations and some Spanish players who lobbied for its ban at the 2009 Confederation Cup and the World Cup.

Some critics called on FIFA to ban the instrument during matches, saying its sound drowns out voices rendering communication impossible for the teams. Others said the blasting noise, compared to the sound of trumpeting elephants, intimidated foreign players.

But FIFA president Sepp Blatter has defended the

vuvuzela as part of “African football culture.” A University of Pretoria study buttressed the critics, warning that repeated exposure to the blare of the vuvuzela risked hearing loss.

Espi-Sanchis said there was nothing wrong with people expressing their joy by blowing the vuvuzela, but playing in a co-ordinated way would make it

Band of Horses opens ‘Arms’ to indie, major labels

By Cortney Harding hen Band of Horses’ deal with Seattle indie label Sub Pop came to an end, its members found themselves with a familiar dilemma and two choices. Some of their peers, Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie among them, had chosen the majorlabel route-a path that promised more resources but could result in backlash from fans and the risk of getting lost in the majorlabel shuffle. Others, like the Thermals and the Shins, chose to remain on indies, keeping their cred intact but limiting their chances of mainstream success. Band of Horses split the difference and signed to both an indie and a major. The rock act’s new album, “Infinite Arms,” will be released Tuesday on Brown/Fat Possum/Columbia.

“When we started recording, we didn’t have a deal,” says lead singer Ben Bridwell, who also founded and runs Brown Records. “As we got to the point where we were doing overdubs in LA, we started inviting people to hear the songs.” One of those lucky few who heard the tracks was Fat Possum Records founder Matthew Johnson. “I was a fan of the band, and I got introduced to them last October,” he says. “I liked the fact that after they made records in Seattle,

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Band of Horses they hauled ass back to South Carolina and were hanging out getting drunk with their friends at the furniture factory. We definitely bonded over drinking in the morning.”

For his part, Bridwell says he felt “a kinship” with Johnson and also appreciated the fact that Fat Possum has strong relationships with indie retailers.

But he also knew that a major could provide other benefits and struck a deal with Columbia, too. “This situation is really the best of all worlds,” says Ed Alexander, the band’s product manager at Columbia. “We are all working together, but each using our areas of expertise to make sure the band does well.”

Areas of expertise Johnson says Fat Possum will focus on distributing the deluxe boxed-set version of the album, which will feature both

CD and vinyl copies of the record as well as photo prints by longtime band collaborator Christopher Wilson. The set will be exclusive to indie retail stores. Alexander says Fat Possum will help promote the record to college radio.

Columbia will concentrate on NPR, adult alternative album and modern rock stations.

“Infinite Arms” will also be stocked at Starbucks stores nationwide. If the experience of former labelmates Fleet Foxes is any indication, the coffee chain should help drive sales- in the case of the Foxes, sales of their self-titled debut rose 149 percent the week the album became available at Starbucks, sending it up nearly 100 places on the Billboard 200 chart.

Alexander says the band has licensed three songs to the season finale of NBC’s “Chuck”

and adds that more deals are likely forthcoming. “Music supervisors love them,” he says, noting that the song “The Funeral,” from the band’s first album, appeared in a Ford Edge ad as well as numerous films and TV shows. “They certainly don’t take everything, but they are willing to consider offers.”

The supervisors and fans who loved the band’s simple, honest, Americana sound won’t be disappointed with the new album. Much like the group’s two previous efforts, the songs are primarily driven by smart, sentimental lyrics, although the band isn’t afraid to deploy a strategic string section or sweeping solo here and there.

“The album is our most collaborative effort by far,” Bridwell says. “It’s not a oneman show anymore. Other people are taking on vocal and songwriting duties. And while we started working with Phil Ek, who had produced our previous albums, we wound up taking the reins from him and producing it ourselves.” The band is currently opening for Pearl Jam, an experience Bridwell describes as “exciting and nerve-racking. We’ve played big festival stages before, but the shows on this tour are the biggest indoor spaces we’ve ever played.” After a month with Pearl Jam, Bridwell says he expects to spend the rest of the summer touring. —Reuters

es, including the opening of the new Cape Town stadium.

“Every society has a carnival where they make noise. It’s quite fun to make noise for a while. No one has strived to coordinate the whole stadium to create an organized rhythm with the vuvuzela.” “We work with a group of fans before the match. After that we perform and play during the match. The fans join in and within a short time we have one song reverberating across the stadium.

“The songs we play are all traditional songs people know

and sing every day. The idea is to get the fans to co-operate.”

In addition to the core instrument, the vuvuzela, the band also plays drums, flutes, a trombone and kudu horn. The kudu horn, once blown by village heads to summon their subjects to a meeting, is believed to be the ancient precedent of the vuvuzela.

An enterprising South African firm has found another solution to complaints about the din: vuvuzela-shaped earplugs.

“We believe the vuvuzelas are cool and we embrace them,” the African Earplug Company said.

“Rather than entertaining complaints about the noise from vuvuzelas, we thought we would do something positive.

We believe all South Africans should get with the World Cup party, embrace it and have fun at the same time.” But members of the orchestra believe their music will win over critics.

“The songs belong to the people and when fused with the music from a popular instrument, the people easily get hooked to the concept,” said Samora Ntsebeza, a member of the Johannesburg orchestra. —AFP

R&B singer Isley back on the road, in the studio

By Gail Mitchell n Mother’s Day weekend, Ronald Isley was back doing what he does best: performing. Kicking off with shows in Atlantic City, NJ, and the Bronx, the R&B legend is back on the road for his Celebration tour, having completed a three-year, one-day sentence for tax evasion earlier this year.

His return to the public eye isn’t the only thing Isley is celebrating during tour stops in St Louis, Dallas, Houston and on syndicated radio host Tom Joyner’s annual Sea Cruise. The singer is also wrapping up a new solo album for Island Def Jam, slated for release in late July or early August. The yet-untitled set finds Isley collaborating with songwriter/producers Chris “Tricky” Stewart, Greg Curtis (Keyshia Cole) and, once again, R. Kelly and Burt Bacharach. Isley says featured guests include Lauryn Hill (on the Bacharach/Hal David classic “Close to You”), TI and Ludacris. Still in the works: a Ronald Isley possible teaming with Aretha Franklin. “Every time I go in the studio, I try to feel the pulse of the people and figure out what they want to hear,” says Isley, who turns 69 May 21. As lead singer of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members the Isley Brothers, Isley notched a string of crossover hits dating back to the group’s first R&B top five in 1962, “Twist and Shout.” His last Def Jam release under the Isley Brothers moniker, 2006’s “Baby Makin’ Music,” has sold 395,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Isley’s upcoming set marks his first solo outing since 2003’s “Here I Am: Isley Meets Bacharach.” The DreamWorks/Interscope tribute album has sold 156,000.

Asked if he’ll be working again with brother Ernie, Isley notes that his guitar-playing sibling is busy “doing his own thing” as a member of the 2010 Experience Hendrix tour.

Early in his career, Jimi Hendrix was a touring member of the Isleys’ backup band. “But Ernie can come back and join me any time,” Isley adds. He is, however, reuniting with another fan favorite: his alter ego, Mr Biggs. “You’re going to be really shocked when you hear it,” he says with a hearty laugh. “But it will be a good shock.” — Reuters

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SPECTRUM

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Movies

Polanski controversy casts shadow at Cannes he controversy surrounding filmmaker Roman Polanski hung over the Cannes Film Festival yesterday after fresh allegations that the increasingly divisive fugitive director abused a minor. One of Polanski’s most prominent defenders, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, rejected the new allegations by British actress Charlotte Lewis, while Cannes Film Festival president Gilles Jacob said no one was above the law.

Polanski, who is fighting extradition to the United States to face sentencing in a 1978 child sex case, was accused Friday by Lewis, now age 42, of abusing her just after her 16th birthday. “I am also a victim of Roman Polanski. He sexually abused me in the worst possible way when I was just 16 years old,” Lewis said in a prepared statement at a Beverly Hills press conference with her lawyer.

“Mr. Polanski knew I was only 16 years old when he met me and forced himself upon me in his apartment in Paris. He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behavior ever since it occurred,” she said. “All I want is justice,” added Lewis, best known for her leading role opposite Eddie Murphy in the 1986 adventure comedy “The Golden Child.”

Polanski, 76, is currently under house arrest in Switzerland where he is fighting extradition in his 1977 case. He is alleged to have given 13-year-old Samantha Geimer champagne and drugs during a 1977 photo shoot at the Hollywood Hills home of actor friend Jack Nicholson before having sex with her despite her protests.

The director was initially charged with six felony counts, including rape and sodomy. The charge was later reduced to

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(From left) screenwriter Enda Walsh, British actor Aaron Johnson, British actress Imogen Poots, British actor Matthew Beard, British actress Hannah Murray and producer Laura Hastings Smith arrive for the screening of ‘Chatroom’ presented in the Un Certain Regard selection at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2010 in Cannes.—AFP

No cyberspace for British star of Internet thriller

By Claire Rosemberg aron Johnson, the young upcoming British actor who stars in “Chatroom”, a cyberspace thriller playing at Cannes, is no fan of the virtual world. His real world is enough of a challenge. “I’m not stuck in that sort of world, I grew up very differently,” he told AFP, as “Chatroom”, blurring reality and cyberspace, screened Friday at the Cannes film festival.

Johnson, who plays the villain in the movie directed by Japanese horror master Hideo Nakata, also stars in current teen superhero spoof “Kick-Ass”, a boxoffice hit. And he has already picked up a best newcomer acting award for his performance as the young John Lennon in “Nowhere Boy”.

At only 19, he is also about to become a father, which to his annoyance has made a splash in the British press. His partner, renowned contemporary artist Sam Taylor-Wood, is a celebrity at home and is 24 years older. “Why don’t you press ask Michael Douglas why his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is 20 or 30 years younger?” he said. “If you’re in love you’re in love, you know. It doesn’t matter about race or what age you are.”

In Cannes briefly for the release of “Chatroom”, Johnson talked at length on the other hand about his character in the emotionally devastating “Chatroom”, based on a play by award-winning Irish playwright Enda Walsh. “My character is this insecure guy who goes online and tries to be this sort of charismatic guy

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who people look up to.”

In the pyschological thriller, five unhappy teenagers meet in virtual space but one dysfunctional memberJohnson’s character-singles out the most vulnerable to manipulate him.

“What sort of drives him,” Johnson added, “is to get one over on them.”

Nakata, maker of the iconic Japanese “Jhorror” genre “Ring”, did not show up in Cannes for the release of the movie, which screens in a section of the festival showcasing movies with a difference, “Un Certain Regard”.

But in production notes, where he cites multiple cases of Internet violence that also feature in the movie, Nakata says the virtual world is “increasingly amplifying negative emotions: anxieties, fear, envy, hatred and anger.” “It is now proven that this can result in the most extreme acts, either of killing yourself or other people,” he said. Playwright Walsh told AFP he penned the story back in 2005 because “I felt the Internet is a tool for drama, an unusual stage.”

“As a writer you’re always looking at the world for things that are interesting dramatically,” he said. “But I don’t think teenagers are in a bigger mess than previously.” “Today’s world makes everything quicker, and broadcasting somehow makes everything more lasting. An insult in a school playground is something kids can get over but once it’s engraved on the Internet it’s there to stay,” he added.

“People die but their Facebook page still exists,” he said. “It can be a cemetery of souls.”—AFP

This file picture taken on May 8, 1986 shows Film director Polanski, center, with British actress Charlotte Lewis and French actor Cris Campion for the presentation of his film ‘Pirates’, during the Cannes International Film Festival. — AFP unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal agreed in part to spare his victim the ordeal of a trial. Polanski later served 42 days at a secure unit undergoing psychiatric evaluation but fled the United States on the eve of his sentencing in 1978 amid fears that the trial judge planned to go back on a previously agreed plea deal.

Levy, a staunch supporter of Polanski, said Lewis’ allegations did not change his views one bit. “This doesn’t change my position and my anger at the methods used

Minimalist drama ‘Here and There’ right on target

By Natasha Senjanovic

By Kirk Honeycutt

Mike Leigh’s boozy singletons move Cannes

By Roland Lloyd Parry tale of families and hard-drinking singletons by Britain’s Mike Leigh impressed critics at the world’s top movie festival yesterday as Hollywood heft gave way to a lighter touch in Cannes. As the rumble faded after Ridley Scott’s blockbusters “Robin Hood” and Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” sequel stomped up the red carpet, the acclaimed director presented “Another Year” in competition for the festival’s top prize.

The film’s story looks undramatic on paper: a year in the life of a happily married, middle-aged, middle-class couple, Tom and Gerri, played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen. But Leigh insisted that the slow-burning family dramas which have made his name were all about finding the fascination and drama in people’s socalled “ordinary” or “boring” lives.

“People are not boring-life is fascinating,” he said after the first screening yesterday.

“They’re boring if you let them be boring,” he added, in an at-times prickly exchange with journalists during which he refused to answer one question due to an unspecified dispute with the reporter who asked it. “This film is about how we come to terms with life-how we face ourselves and each other, how we face what we are,” he added.

Lesley Manville’s performance as Tom and Gerri’s insecure single friend Mary puts the actress, along with Leigh’s film overall, high in the running for prizes at the Cannes awards on May 23. As the seasons roll by, Mary drinks her way through Tom and Gerri’s wine, clinging to them for comfort and rejecting the advances of

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their old friend Ken, a fellow lonely heart similarly fond of alcohol.

“Another Year” faces competition from another acclaimed British director, Ken Loach, as well as 17 other worldwide entries by the likes of US director Doug Liman and Japanese cult screen veteran Takeshi Kitano. Loach is also known for dramas of “ordinary” British people, but his stories typically have a harder, sometimes political edge. His latecomer entry for Cannes this year is “Route Irish”, about security contractors in the Iraq war.

Several critics poured warm praise on Leigh at a news conference after the initial screening, ahead of yesterday night’s red-carpet premiere at the Riviera town’s waterfront festival hall. Leigh, 67, has already won the awards at Cannes twicethe top Palme d’Or prize for “Secrets and Lies” in 1996 and the best director trophy for “Naked” in 1993 — and has been nominated for several Oscars. Out of competition, 74-year-old director Woody Allen yesterday presents his latest comedy, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”.

Yesterday also sees the screening of “A Screaming Man”, a competition offering by Chadian director Mahamet-Saleh Haroun, about a swimming pool attendant at a Chad hotel which gets taken over by Chinese owners. In the race for the Palme award on May 23, Asia has a strong showing, with two entries from South Korea-”Poetry” by Lee Changdong and Im Sang-soo’s “The Housemaid”. China and Thailand are also represented. The festival also features premieres of films by Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and French New Wave icon Jean-Luc Godard, 79. — AFP

aving passed below the radar despite winning two significant awards at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, Darko Lungulov’s “Here and There” deserves all the attention it can get for its limited release. Beautifully executed, the semiautobiographical film is set between the director’s adopted New York and his native Belgrade, Serbia. Audiences wanting the brash or dark storylines often associated with films from the former Yugoslavia should look elsewhere. “Here and There” is a minimalist operation, yet what starts out looking like hip Jarmusch melancholy assuredly sets deeper emotional roots. Art-house all the way, the surprisingly warm film, which opened Friday , will appeal to anyone looking for a low-key love story and glimpse into contemporary Serbia.

The dialogue is sparse, the colors unobtrusive (“Here and There” seems just a few shades off from black-and-white) and the characters each in their own way typical but never stereotypical. Lungulov also delicately captures the differences between East and West, and not only in the characters’ personalities. For instance, the protagonist’s bohemian poverty is a luxury against the Serbs’ modest lifestyles, which help jar the man out of his emotional hibernation.

After being evicted from his apartment, Robert (David Thornton), a penniless, middle-aged saxophonist suffering from years of musician’s block, meets Branko (Branislav Trifunovic), a 20-something

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‘Wall Street’ a powerfully told sequel (From L) British actor Jim Broadbent, British actress Lesley Manville, British director Mike Leigh and British actress Ruth Sheen pose during the photocall of ‘Another Year’ presented in competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival yesterday in Cannes. — AFP

by California courts,” Levy told AFP on yesterday. One of Polanski’s defence attorneys Georges Kiejman told French news channel i-Tele he was “absolutely astonished” by Lewis’s allegations, and that if she repeated them “it is probable that we take her to court”. Kiejman said he found it “quite disturbing” that Lewis appeared in Polanski’s 1986 period flop “Pirates” three years after the director allegedly forced himself upon the actress.

Another of Polanski’s lawyers, Herve

Timime, was more direct in challenging Lewis’ credibility: “Everything that has been said is a web of lies.” Lewis’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said the actress was speaking out to counter suggestions from Polanski’s legal team that his earlier case was an isolated incident. Levy’s drive to rally support for Polanski suffered a setback on Friday when Hollywood star Michael Douglas said he would not sign a petition against his extradition.

In Cannes to promote Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street-Money Never Sleeps”, Douglas told French radio station RTL that despite his fondness for Polanski, it would not be right for him as an American to sign a petition in favor of someone who had broken the law and “jumped bail.”

The festival president meanwhile tried to calm the speculation and distance the festival from the controversy. “There is the filmmaker and the citizen. The filmmaker is a great filmmaker. There is the citizen.

No one is above the law,” Jacob told RTL yesterday. “It is not for us-one does not know the case-it is not for us to judge,” he said.

The Polanski case was not mentioned during press conferences by filmmakers Mike Leigh and Woody Allen yesterday and Leigh declined to comment on the case in an interview with AFP. French President Nicolas Sarkozy inquired about the case of Polanski, who is a French and Polish national, during a phone conversation Friday with his Swiss counterpart Doris Leuthard.

“Federal President Leuthard also informed the French President about the state of extradition proceedings in the case of the United States against Roman Polanski,” her office said in a statement yesterday. — AFP

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liver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street” took viewers into an exotic world.

Those were the days when financial news occupied the gray back pages of newspapers. Suddenly, here was a movie about banking that looked like a thriller-traders talked a mile a minute, brokers did deals between gulps of coffee, millions of dollars moved in the twinkling of an eye, people talked on cell phones (albeit the size of a brick), and men could change destiny through insider trading. You also learned that, in the by-now iconic phrase uttered by its antihero, Gordon Gekko, “greed is good.”

Stone returns to this world in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” but there’s nothing exotic about it anymore. It’s featured on the nightly news in every unemployment statistic and freshly announced corporate downsizing.

The bank bailout debate still rages, and arrogant banking kingpins looks less like antiheroes than out-and-out villains. So Stone and his savvy writers, Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff, have crafted a tale that takes advantage of viewers’ newfound knowledge and cynicism.

At its heart is a pair of good young people wanting to put money into green energy while all around them there revolves, like an evil planetary system, gravitational forces that know only unregulated (in every sense of the word) chicanery.

“Money Never Sleeps” is that rare sequel that took its time 23 years-so it not only advances a story but also has something new to say. The film overheats now and then, but blame this on filmmaking passion. One senses a fully engaged filmmaker at the helm, driving the movie at a lightning pace as if in a hurry to get to the next scene or next aphorism that further illuminates this dark world.

How audiences will react to revelations that may no longer be revelations is hard to say. But Stone has cast his movie well with Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin and Carey Mulligan to attract younger viewers while Michael Douglas’ return as Gekko can’t help being a major lure. The 20th Century Fox film, which premiered out of competition at the Cannes festival, opens in the fall. Wisely, Gekko becomes a subplot. While the opening sequence details his release from prison in 2001, along with some good jokes about that ancient cell phone and the limo that pulls up being for a rapper, not him, the story settles quickly on a young proprietary trader, Jake Moore (LaBeouf), who just happens to be in love with Winnie Gekko (Mulligan), Gordon’s estranged daughter.

The focus thus shifts to the pre-2008 bub-

ble, where Jake gets caught off-guard by a meltdown in his own investment banking firm. Its head and his mentor (Frank Langella) takes a huge fall when a governmental bailout never materializes and an old nemesis, Bretton James (Brolin), a partner in a rival bank, pounces on the firm like a vulture smelling carrion. Jake finds a small way to get revenge for his old boss, which catches James’ attention. Rather than settle the score, James offers Jake a job.

Which only postpones Jake’s determination to avenge his mentor.

Meanwhile, Jake takes in a lecture by Gekko, who is promoting his new book, “Is Greed Good?” Jake approaches the author and offers to help facilitate a rapprochement between father and daughter. Gekko agrees but, as is his nature, plays things cagey.

So a story about the new Wall Street gets entwined with one about Gekko struggling to rehabilitate his image and regain respect in financial circles. Prison hasn’t softened Gekko up, but it has perhaps sharpened his moral perceptions. Looking at the new Wall Street, he remarks, “I was small-time compared to these crooks.” His book anticipates the meltdown, but-shades of the old Gekko-he wishes he had $100 million to take advantage of it.

Can you win two Oscars playing the same role? An actor rarely gets the opportunity to revive a breakthrough role in a way that allows him to rethink the character in terms of changes time has wrought and to reflect on where fatal flaws once lay. Douglas does this brilliantly. He does so by carrying on with a character very reminiscent of the original, with the same mannerisms and slicked-back hair, but instead of a defiant, cocky pirate, he is now a man with patience, one willing to wait for the opportunity to strike and to put family first-if it can be arranged on his terms.

LaBeouf nicely balances his character’s idealism with cold-eyed pragmatism. He gets the earnestness but also the steely determination. Mulligan and Brolin deliver extremely strong supporting roles with attention-grabbing characters that could star in other movies.

Veterans Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon and, of course, Langella make vivid impressions with their screen time. Stone gets too fancy here and there. He and his “Alexander” cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto, swoop the camera around Manhattan as if it were attached to a bird. A heavy reliance on multiple screens, graphics and digital tricks makes it feel like you’re watching CNN with all its computerscreen busy-ness. This often distracts from what the characters are saying. With most movies, this may not be a bad idea, but the dialogue here is so forceful you want to savor every zinger. — Reuters

Serbian immigrant eking out a living in the Big Apple as a one-man moving company.

Desperate for cash and against his better judgment, Robert eventually accepts $5,000 from Branko to go to Belgrade and marry the younger man’s girlfriend (Jelena Mrdja) so that she can get her U.S. immigration papers and join Branko in America.

Things go awry on both sides of the Atlantic, but in the meantime the handsome, monosyllabic Robert gingerly warms to his hostess in Belgrade, Branko’s mother, Olga (Mirjana Karanovic of “Esma’s Secret,” in yet another faultless performance), who knows nothing of the real reason for his visit. Robert is adrift, his gruffness a self-conscious front for frustration and zero self-esteem. Olga is centered and teeming with pride, but just as vulnerable as Robert in her loneliness.

Performances are everything in such an understated film, and all are superb. There is as much depth and honesty to Branko’s desperation as there is in the unexpected connection that blooms between two weary middle-aged people.

Thornton infuses his grouch with sparks of comedy and a hint of the pathetic that slowly grow on us, so that the slightest of smiles is all that’s needed for the film’s graceful ending. Antone Pagan as a street-smart mechanic and Fedja Stojanovic as Olga’s neighbor also stand out in their smaller parts. The score’s title track was written for the film by Cyndi Lauper, who has a cameo in “Here and There” and is Thornton’s real-life wife. — Reuters

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In this May 10, 2010 photo Andreas Richter as Jesus, center on donkey, performs with laymen during a dress rehearsal of the passion plays 2010 in the theatre of Oberammergau, southern Germany. More than 2000 citizens of this Bavarian village participate in the century-old play of the suffering of Christ, staged every ten years and dating back to 1634. —AP

Horne remembered as conflicted, inspired entertainer

By Verena Dobnik ena Horne, whose signature song was “Stormy Weather,” was remembered at her funeral on Friday as a shy girl from Brooklyn who fought racism for decades to emerge as a world-class singer and social activist.”She was so many ideas existing all at the same time in the same space and they were all conflicting and they were all true,” her granddaughter, screenwriter Jenny Lumet, told hundreds of mourners at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan.

They included fellow entertainers Chita Rivera, Diahann Carroll, Dionne Warwick, Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams. “I’ve tried to sum her up and I can’t sum her up,” said Jenny Lumet, daughter of director Sidney Lumet.

“To sum something up means it’s over-and I think that she’s not over and that she’s quite infinite.” Horne, who died Sunday at 92, was one of the first black performers hired to sing with Charlie Barnet’s white orchestra in the early 1940s, playing the Copacabana nightclub in New York City. When she signed with MGM, she was one of the rare black actors to have a contract with a major Hollywood studio.

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In 1943, MGM lent Horne to 20th Century Fox to play the lead role in the all-black movie musical “Stormy Weather.” Her rendition of the title song became a major hitreflecting the ups and downs of her life, which included a second marriage to Lennie Hayton, a Jewish musician working for MGM with whom she shared the social pressures of being an interracial couple.

For years, Horne entertained white audiences with her impressive musical range, from blues and jazz to such Rodgers and Hart songs as “The L ady Is a Tramp” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” But she was often not allowed to socialize with whites, especially in the segregated South.

“I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept,” she once told an interviewer. “I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed.” Horne plunged into activism after 1945, when she performed at an Army base and saw German prisoners of war sitting in front while black American soldiers were consigned to the rear.

Aging members of the so-called Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black World War II pilots who broke racial

which won a special Tony for the fierce passion of her truths in music.

In Washington on Friday, US Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, paid tribute to Horne by

barriers, attended the funeral.

Among them was Roscoe Brown Jr, who commanded an Air Force squadron and now directs the Center for Urban Education Policy at the City University of New York. “This wonderful, beautiful lady, Lena Horne, came to visit us,” he told

mourners. “She sang, she talked with us and she made us all her boyfriends.” The men took her picture “and put it on our barracks, on our planes, and she became our pinup girl,” he said. During the twohour funeral, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and U.S. Rep.

John Lewis, also delivered eulogies for a woman who was blacklisted in the 1950s for her activism and unable to perform.

But Horne emerged as a major cultural figure, capped by her 1981 one-woman Broadway show, “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music,”

(Left)Pallbearers carry the casket of entertainer Lena Horne at St Ignatius Loyola Church on May 14, 2010 in New York City. —AFP introducing a bipartisan Senate resolution that passed unanimously, recognizing the Brooklyn native’s legacy as a Hollywood trailblazer and

civil rights activist. Horne’s funeral was held in the Upper East Side church where she brought her family each Easter for years. The former pastor, the Rev. Walter Modrys, recalled in his eulogy how shy the seemingly bold performer really was in private. But onstage, she shifted into her “performance mode,” he said.

When Horne turned 80, New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts staged a tribute to her. At the end, she was asked to sing. “She started slowly, but one could see her confidence was rising, and I thought to myself, here comes that persona,” Modrys said. “And sure enough, we watched the transformation of an elegant 80-year-old woman into the 25-year-old starlet that no one could ever forget.” Jenny Lumet smiled as she recalled being “a small child loved by this woman.”

“Her beauty was so deep you could swim in it,” with hands “like orchids or lilies” that were graced by “all these gold bracelets so she’d jingle like a cat when she walked, so if I was in her stuff, you always knew if she was coming ‘cause of all her ... her bling!” Standing at the altar, Broadway star Audra McDonald sang “Amazing Grace” over Horne’s white-and-gold-draped casket. —AP

Julianna Erdesz, Miss Nevada USA 2010 and Cassady Lance, Miss Georgia USA 2010, rehearse with country music star Trace Adkins for the 2010 Miss USA Competition at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Friday May 14, 2010.

The 51 delegates will compete for the title of Miss USA 2010, LIVE on the NBC Telecast tonight. —AP

‘Taste Buds’ program introduces vegetables, fruits to students in a fun way

By Michele Munz ick Delashmit had two volunteers hand out large, white napkins to their fellow third-graders sitting on the gym floor. He told the students, “This is your landing pad for the fruits and vegetables you will be eating today.” The kids looked at each other with apprehension.

Delashmit-a short, stocky man with a commanding voice-stood in front of stacks of ice cube trays holding 10 different fruits and vegetables he cut that morning and explained the rules of the game.

Delashmit, 38, the general manager for Belleville Farmers Market, has developed Taste Buds, a novel but effective way for children to include more fruits and vegetables in their diets. He’s

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Newly-elected Miss World Hungary 2010, 22year-old university student Agnes Dobo poses as she won the Miss World Hungary title in Budapest late on May 13, 2010 after the final of a joint beauty contest, dubbed ‘Queen’ organized by Miss World Hungary and Miss Universe Hungary associations. Dobo will represent Hungary in the next Miss World competition in Vietnam. —AFP

presented the free program to almost 1,500 students in St Clair County over the past two months, and kids are loving it. It’s caught the community’s attention as well.

Delashmit has garnered sponsorships from Memorial Hospital and the YMCA of Southwest Illinois.

In February, his idea won the most votes out of 1,000 grassroots initiatives nationwide to win a $25,000 Pepsi Refresh Project grant. Pepsi likes the idea so much, the company is helping him develop a prototype to help other farmers markets start a similar program in their communities.

Delashmit says Taste Buds is appealing because it’s simple and fun. He doesn’t hit the students over the head with how fruits and vegetables are good for you. He doesn’t lecture about how they are important for optimal child

Sixth grader Alexis Mallery reacts negatively to a bite of fruit during a presentation by Rick Delashmit.

growth, weight management and preventing chronic disease. He doesn’t show pictures of the food pyramid.

“You want kids to eat more fruits and vegetables? Then take them fruits and vegetables and find an exciting way to get them to eat them,” Delashmit said. As Delashmit began his program with about 40 dubious third-graders at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School this week, he told them they didn’t have to eat every bit.

He wanted them to learn one important thing.

“We will show all the grownups and family we know that we’re not afraid to try new things,” he said. “That’s what this is all about.”

Learning about fruit In September, Delashmit’s wife, Jennifer, brought items from

the farmers market and helped serve a fruit salad at the nearby Westhaven Elementary School.

Afterward, she talked about how amazed she was that some kids had no idea what cantaloupe and honeydew were. The same month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing less than 10 percent of adolescents eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day. In addition, other studies show, they don’t eat the necessary variety.

Potatoes and iceberg lettuce make up half of Americans’ vegetable consumption. “For me it was like a light bulb went off,” Delashmit said. “I became aware that there are a lot of kids out there who aren’t being exposed to this at a young age and aren’t going to develop healthy eating habits as they get older.” —MCT