25 Jul

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

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SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2010

Canadian jet crashes during air show practice

Raytheon unveils Scorpion helmet technology

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SHAABAN 13, 1431 AH

NO: 14800

Newly married Penelope Cruz is pregnant

150 FILS

Pakistan win thriller to end Aussie drought

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Iran eyes nuke fusion reactor Tehran has 100 vessels for each US warship

KUWAIT: Family, friends and well-wishers welcome young Kuwaiti sailors at the Kuwait Sea Sport Club in Salmiya yesterday as the 22nd pearl diving expedition came to an end. (Inset) Officials display the pearls harvested during the trip. — Photo by Joseph Shagra (See Page 2)

in the news Ramadan to start Aug 11 KUWAIT: The holy month of Ramadan will likely begin on Aug 11 in accordance to astronomic calculations, said astrologist Adel Al-Saadoun yesterday. Al-Saadoun said that the crescent of Ramadan would be formed on Tuesday, Aug 10 at 6:01 am, making Wednesday the first day of the holy month in Kuwait. However, the astrologist noted that this is a matter of huge debate amongst Muslims worldwide. The holy month of Ramadan is an annual occasion where Muslims around the global fast from dawn till dusk, refraining from food, water and marital activities. Muslims also perform extra prayers during this month in addition to other duties.

14 dead in Saudi floods RIYADH: Fourteen people were killed and one is still missing after flash floods hit several mountainous districts of southern Saudi Arabia, civil defence officials said yesterday. Rescue teams also helped some 440 people threatened by the flooding after days of heavy rain in Asir, Jizan, Najran and Taif, the country’s civil defence said in a statement. “Three bodies were recovered” in Najran, civil defence chief Saad Al-Tuwaijri said in the statement, adding that another six people died in Jizan, four in Asir and one in Taif. Another person was reported missing. The authorities were using helicopters to ferry emergency supplies of food, water, and medicine to the stricken areas because the flooding had washed away some roads.

N Korea threatens nuke response to naval games SEOUL: North Korea threatened yesterday to respond with nuclear weapons to a major US-South Korean naval exercise starting this weekend, saying it was ready for a “retaliatory sacred war”. The threat came from the powerful National Defence Commission (NDC), chaired by leader Kim Jong-Il, as tensions grew over the sinking of a South Korean warship which Seoul and Washington blame on Pyongyang. The North routinely threatens war in response to joint military exercises by the two long-time allies, calling them a rehearsal for war.

But tensions have been high for the past two months, since the US and South Korea accused the North of torpedoing the warship with the loss of 46 lives. The North denies involvement and says the “smear campaign” is a pretext for aggression. The United States and South Korea have announced four-day joint exercises beginning today - the first in a series in what they say is a bid to deter North Korea’s “aggressive” behaviour.

“All these war manoeuvres are nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by force of arms to all intents and purposes,” the NDC said in a statement on Pyongyang’s official news agency.

“The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the US and the South Korean puppet forces.” The exercise “is as reckless an act as waking up a sleeping tiger”, it said. The North’s people and army would “start a retaliatory sacred war of their own style based on nuclear deterrent any time necessary” to counter the US and South Korea, which were pushing the situation to the brink of war, it said.

In response to the warnings, the US administration called on North Korea to tone down its “provocative” statements. “We are not interested in a war of words with North Korea,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington. “What we need from North Korea is fewer provocative words and more constructive action.” Crowley told AFP the North’s comments were “irresponsible and precisely why we are committed to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned in Seoul Wednesday of possible further “provocations” following the warship attack as a succession process gets under way in the North.

Continued on Page 14

15 killed in German stampede

DUISBURG, Germany: Collapsed people get first aid after a stampede during the techno-music festival “Love Parade 2010” yesterday. — AP

DUISBURG, Germany: At least 15 people were killed and 10 were seriously injured after mass panic broke out at a “Love Parade” music festival in Germany yesterday, police said. Overcrowding at an entrance tunnel to a former freight rail station where the techno music festival was being held sparked a stampede and then a crush in the western city of Duisburg. The festival, attended by about 1.4 million people, was not immediately cancelled because authorities feared that could spark a second panic.

“It’s a horror situation especially because rescuers cannot get through to those injured,” ZDF TV reporter Thomas Muenten said. “The people literally trampled each other on the way into this tunnel.

Continued on Page 14

TEHRAN: A top Iranian official said yesterday that Tehran was conducting studies into building an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, which if successful would be the first such plant in the world. “St udies and examining the feasibility of a national plan titled ‘Designing and building experimental nuclear fusion reactor and plant’ are under way,” Asghar Sedighzadeh, head of Iran’s Nuclear Fusion Research Centre was quoted as saying

by ISNA news agency. He did not elaborate.

Earlier yesterday, Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said an eight-million-dollar fund had been set up to conduct “serious” research in the area of nuclear fusion. He said 50 people had been hired for the work, which the Islamic republic began nearly three decades ago but was initially “not very serious” about pursuing. “Fusion research has been launched seriously today,” ISNA quoted Salehi as saying.

“The start-up budget is 80 billion rials (eight million dollars),” he said. “It takes 20 to 30 years before this process can be commercialised but we have to use all the capacity in the country to provide the necessary speed for fusion research.”

The United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea Continued on Page 14

Cleric says women can take off niqab RIYADH: A leading Saudi cleric hit out at France for moving to ban Muslim face-veils, but approved Muslim women foregoing veils when visiting a country which outlaws them, a Saudi paper reported yesterday. “It is illogical and unreasonable that the French government undertakes such a thing, which is condemned by neutral people, not just Muslims, because the secular state assures freedom of religion,” Sheikh Aed Al-Qarni told Al-Hayat. “The state has to respect religious rituals and beliefs, including those of Muslims,” he said in an interview.

However, he added, if Muslim women are in a country that has banned the niqab, or full-face veil, or if they face harassment in such a place, “it is better that the Muslim woman uncovers her face”. Numerous scholars of various Islamic schools of thought agree on this point, Qarni said.

“For Saudi tourists who face such a decision, there is a point in Islamic law where God says: ‘So fear Allah as much as you can.’ We must not confront people in their own country or other countries, or bring hardship on ourselves.”

His comments followed France’s parliament voting on July 13 to ban the niqab.

Continued on Page 14

NATIONAL

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

KUWAIT: Family members running into the sea to welcome the divers. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

Diving for heritage: Pearl-divers return home

By Abdullah Al-Qattan KUWAIT: Hundreds of Kuwaiti families gathered yesterday afternoon to welcome back their sons from the annual pearl-diving expedition. AlDasha, or the beginning of the voyage, took place on July 15, with the sailors returning yesterday as planned, filled with memories of their adventures and enriched by a wonderful experience.

Fifteen sailing ships returned to Kuwait’s shores yesterday afternoon, with the sailors’ bags filled with precious souvenirs and memories.

Yesterday’s return is known as Al-Qaffal, an old Kuwaiti word meaning the day on which the pearl-diving vessels return from their long absence at sea, during which Kuwaitis’ forefathers struggled to make their income from such perilous diving trips.

The annual expedition is a way of embracing the country’s great heritage and reminding contemporary Kuwaitis of how harsh and difficult life was for their ancestors. This year’s event marks the 22nd anniversary of the expedition, with more than 190 volunteers of different ages taking part.

The 15 ships, five which were donated by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Sabah, and the other ten donated by HH the late Amir Sheikh Jaber, left the shores of Kuwait on the 15th of July and arrived yesterday as scheduled, with a number of other sponsors, including local banks and private firms, also

sponsoring the trip, helping to remind modern-day Kuwaitis of how simple their forefathers’ lives were and how hard it once was to make a living from the sea.

Fahad Al-Fahad, the chairman of the Kuwait Sea Sports Club which organizes the annual expedition, said the club usually dedicates all of its efforts to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all those on board the participating vessels by providing the best captains and marine experts to lead and assist in the event.

Ahmed Al-Kandiri, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Undersecretary Ahmad Al-Kandari expressed great pride on behalf of all Kuwait in the occurrence of such events, which remind the Kuwaiti people of their past and the country’s simple way of life before the discovery of oil. He voiced gratitude to all those who took part, congratulating the teenage participants, who made up the majority of the sailors, on taking such a great interest in their heritage.

Al-Kandari also thanked HH the Amir for providing the Kuwait Sea Sports Club with the 15 vessels as well as thanking the other main sponsors of the event, the Gulf Bank of Kuwait, and Bait AlTamweel, who made this achievement possible.

In conclusion, Al-Kandari voiced hope that more people would participate in the event in future, bearing in mind its immense importance and significance in keeping Kuwait’s proud heritage alive.

Al-Kandari (second left) and Hawally Governor Lt Gen (Rtd) Abdullah AlFares (left) and other officials are seen at the ceremony.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs Ahmed Al-Kandari kissing the Kuwaiti flag handed to him by one of the divers.

kuwait digest

Continuing naturalization problem

By Dr Abdulatif Al-Suraikh

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aturalization is still a persistent issue in Kuwait, which has worsened owing to intentional and unintentional practices carried out by successive governments since the enforcement of the naturalization law which classifies citizenship status into different categories.

The naturalization procedure itself has been affected by favoritism, as well as political influence.

The Ministry of Interior is the government body that oversees the naturalization process. This ministry is one that has never been led by a minister who is not a member of the Al-Sabah ruling family.

The minister is responsible for cases in

Holding the Kuwaiti flag high to welcome pearl divers.

The pearl divers taking part in an old dance that relates to the sea.

which citizenships are granted unlawfully, in addition to those that approve such decisions in the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, MPs exploited the fact that the Kuwaiti political system is riddled with flaws that escalate the problem.

This is because they were in a hurry to enforce the Constitution so that nonKuwaitis can be provided with Kuwaiti citizenship, and that is in order to increase popularity. In this manner, these MPs placed their personal interests above national unity.

That being said, a very important question comes to surface here. It pertains to those who approved the move that was forwarded by MPs, and allowed manipulation of people’s fates. While attempting to

answer this question, we realize that successive cabinets helped nurture this problem to the point that it has reached today.

While crafty individuals continue to obtain citizenships after they are provided with illegal documents. However, the real victims of political greed are stateless residents who truly deserve to be naturalized, especially those that possess documents to prove that their domicile in the country when the 1965 census was conducted, as well as the children of martyrs who laid down their lives for Kuwait.

This complicated problem needs to be solved by those that are genuinely interested in Kuwait’s prosperity. It should be dealt with thoroughly, away from the political and the media glare. —Al-Rai

No recognition for Bahrain private university degrees KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Embassy in the Kingdom of Bahrain is to withdraw its recognition of nine private universities in the country, henceforth only extending official recognition to Bahrain’s two state universities.

Acting on the instructions of Kuwait’s Ministry of Education (MoE), the embassy is to request that students not register at Bahrain’s private universities, either as regular students or for correspondence courses, it announced in a statement issued on Friday.

The embassy did not explain how this decision will affect the fate of the Kuwaiti students currently studying at private universities in Bahrain, who number over 2,000, reported Al-Aan. Bahrain’s Ministry of Higher Education last September annulled hundreds of university degrees awarded by three private universities there, saying that they were considered fraudulent and had been issued to students who had not even attended or studied for any university program.

Housing investment site KUWAIT: The cabinet has instructed Kuwait Municipality to reclassify Block 5 in Khaitan, changing its current status as a pri-

vate residential area, specifically for the ‘homes of police officers and military personnel’ to a housing investment site.

Human rights retreating in Kuwait, warns HRW KUWAIT: Human rights and freedoms in Kuwait are retreating rather than advancing, particularly in light of a number of rulings introduced by the current government, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Freedom of expression, as well as activists and media figures [in Kuwait] are under threat,’ warned Priyanka Motaparthy, a senior HRW expert in Middle East and North Africa affairs, in the report, which called on the Kuwaiti government to stop prosecuting nonviolent forms of expression and allow critics to express their opinions freely.

The report cited the recent arrests of newspaper columnist Abdulqader Al-Jassem and the Secretary General of the National Democratic Alliance as two examples of the current restrictions on freedom of expression in Kuwait, reported Al-Qabas. It also mentioned the deportation of a group of Egyptian residents for staging a gathering in support of potential Egyptian presidential candidate Mohammed El Baradei.

The report accused the Kuwaiti government of damaging the country’s international image as a tolerant country through its increasingly authoritarian approach.

It also described the government’s behavior as hypersensitive towards foreign governments, international organizations, local activists and members of the press.

kuwait digest

PM’s Latin America tour

By Hanan Al-Hajri

I

received several responses to a previous article in which I addressed His Highness the Prime Minister’s current Latin American tour and expressed some reservations concerning the possible desired political and financial outcomes of his visits to some of the countries on the tour schedule. A number of the responses were not very pleasant, basically instructing me to ‘mind my own business.’

I chose to address this subject in my article firstly as a Kuwaiti citizen, and also due to my expertise in Latin American affairs. Despite the fact that the column focused on analyzing and commenting on the countries of destination (and other which were left out of the tour schedule), some people pathetically attempted to defend the government by accusing me of targeting HH the Prime Minister personally.

Antigua and Barbuda, a country with which Kuwait has recently signed bilateral agreements in the political, economic, commercial, technical, cultural and aviation services fields, is a country that is incapable of saving itself from the natural and economic disasters which it is currently experiencing. So, how exactly is

Kuwait going to use its help in our development plan?

Before I start asking more questions, I’d like to point out that Antigua and Barbuda, in addition to two of the other countries listed on the tour which I had reservations about Trinidad and Tobago and Guiana - are not considered Latin American countries, due to the fact that English is their official language.

Therefore, the trip should be renamed ‘HH the PM’s tour of Latin America and the Caribbean Islands.’

On the other hand, a study into democracy in the region carried out by two economic experts for the period between 1971 and 2000, concluded that only three countries there have systems which deserve to be called democratic: Venezuela, Colombia and Costa Rica.

However, these three countries were not included in HH the PM’s trip, which instead focused on countries that suffer from spreading political corruption. Therefore, I believe that the agreement signed with Antigua and Barbuda will be unproductive, since that country is more willing to take than to give, while even its tourism field suffers from a severe deficit since the population figures there don’t meet with the local plans to provide citizens with a decent living income.— Al-Qabas

More retirement privileges needed KUWAIT: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) called for providing more retirement pensions for civil officials to encourage them to consider retirement. This would be similar to the procedures carried out with servicemen.

This step aims to persuade younger and able-bodied civilians to take charge of important posts at ministries and other public firms. Their competency and energy would add more value to the comprehensive state development’s plans.

The CSC indicated that they are yet to receive an official decision from the Cabinet with regard to retiring officers with over 30

years of service and elaborated that such a step cannot be taken without the Cabinet’s consent.

Meanwhile, it is believed that the Cabinet is not very keen on the proposal owing to the fact that the country lacks experienced personnel who are qualified to handle their duties.

The Cabinet is considering ‘refreshing’ ministries by recruiting younger staff, after providing them with ample training to handle their duties well, reported Al-Rai. “Nevertheless, financial encouragement is required to encourage officials to consider stepping down from their positions in favor of younger staff”, a CSC official said.

NATIONAL

Sunday, July 25, 2010

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Suspicions of price-fixing, manipulation

Municipality investigating increased costs of cleaning works contracts KUWAIT: A senior Kuwait Municipality official revealed on Friday that an investigation is currently underway into the reason for the disparity between the costs originally quoted by the municipality for the public cleaning tender and the far higher costs charged by the cleaning firms.

Municipality general manager Ahmad Al-Subaih stressed the municipality’s commitment to ensuring that all cleaning contracts for public areas are

KUWAIT: Egypt’s Ambassador to Kuwait Taher Farhat recently celebrated his country’s National Day in the presence of several dignitaries and diplomats at an event held in Salwa hall, Salmiya. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

Cecile Aziza product forms as cleanser, serum and cream. They will really help lighten skin tone. Soon, we plan to launch a professional facial care line, and expand into body care.

Many customers are also concerned about their body weight and cellulite problems. This is why I have to continue with Elemis treatments.”

Cecile feels that the spas in Kuwait are different in terms of the products they use, “The difference for me, between different spas in Kuwait, is in the choice of products used. It’s very important, and I see that as I was a therapist before becoming a Spa manager. I know the products. I know what is good and what is not. So, for me, the choice of products is important. Elemis is a very good brand, it is very famous in Europe, Asia. It’s becoming

the court sessions dates.

The sources said that an investigation is underway at the municipality to find out what transpired and the real rationale behind the lack of necessary documents before getting ready for the appeals court session.

In another development, a project to construct the 8th Ring Road has been canceled, informed an official source at the Ministry of Public Works.

The source said the ministry is waiting for the decision of the council of ministers and for it to break the contract it signed with the engineering advisor at a cost of KD 850,000.

This is expected to happen over the next two weeks. The source expressed his regret at the cancellation of the “vital project” which was expected to link Shuaiba port with the regional road towards the north and Abdaly and Salmy borders.

ty’s failure to reconsider the costs of additional materials and services in the process of estimating the total cost of public cleaning contracts.

“Given the fact that the new contracts won’t be ready for another six months, it seems likely that the current contracts will be extended,” she added.

Meanwhile, official sources said that two cases lost by Kuwait Municipality cost more than KD 3 million. Sources said

Inspection drive set to cover 4,500 facilities

Couples strive to ‘save’ Saturdays

KUWAIT: Officials at the Kuwait Municipality, the Environment Public Authority, the Industrial Public Authorities and other bodies are said to be under pressure from certain owners of industrial facilities in Shuwaikh to exclude their facilities from an inspection campaign scheduled to take place next year.

According to reports, the reason why some owners are breaking into a cold sweat over the inspection plans could be attributed to the fact that they have obtained the license for their business through illegal means. Therefore an inquiry could result in their business to be shut down.

Preliminary information received by the concerned authorities indicate that hundreds of illegally licensed or unlicensed facilities in Shuwaikh industrial area do not meet the necessary conditions. The inspection campaign which is set to take place in January 2011 is expected to cover 4,500 industrial facilities.

On a separate note, the EPA is currently co-ordinating with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to aid international experts to create a comprehensive program which will improve the quality of air in the country, reported Al-Rai.

KUWAIT: Saturday is the second day of the weekend; the last day before people return to their daily grind. Saturday is different from a Friday even though both offer a ‘break’ from week-long job-related stress in Kuwait, the country where families enjoy their time the most as the general atmosphere of the country is more suitable for family life.

However, responsibilities in the form of familial obligations can ruin weekends that are otherwise enjoyable in Kuwait.

Many young and middle-aged couples who have settled down in Kuwait experi-

By Rawan Khalid

is called ‘Mother to be’ massage.

It will be held for a duration of two hours. The package includes body scrub, milk bath, body mask and body massage,” Cecile added. “For men, we provide them with the same treatments like women. Male masseurs attend to them. I believe that the men love to take care of themselves too,” Cecile explained. “I prefer the Elemis ‘well-being’ massage. It is a signature massage from Elemis and is very relaxing,” she said.

“In October, we will launch the ‘four hands’ massage. As part of this package, two masseurs will attend to one customer, and I’ll be training therapists, We intend to design signature treatments as part of the package. It will be 60-minute-long session. I would like to generate more awareness among our customers on this type of treatment. This is because I do not think that a lot of spas in Kuwait that offer such treatments,” she added.

Cecile feels that there is more demand among Kuwaiti customers, “Mainly the customers here are interested in skin care, and whitening treatments. That’s why we have just launched the new whitening range from Dr Murad brand. The whitening program will be introduced in three

the reason behind losing the cases is negligence on the part of concerned authorities in following the two cases.

Those responsible for them did not present the required documents as they were missing without a plausible explanation.

They said the persons who filed the two cases against the municipality were ready, contrary to municipality officials who were surprised regarding

Meanwhile, Municipal Council member Jenan Bushehri has criticized the steps taken by the municipality to reassess the contractors’ bids, reported Al-Rai. Bushehri claimed that the investigation is simply a strategy aimed at diverting suspicion while ensuring that the current cleaning firms’ contracts are extended.

The councilor also raised questions over the municipali-

Movenpick Al-Bidaa re-launches ‘Terra’ KUWAIT: Movenpick Al-Bidaa Hotel in Kuwait, is re-launching its spa previously called ‘The Spa,’ as the newly christened ‘Terra.’ Also, new packages will be introduced which were previously unavailable in Kuwait’s spas. The new changes are being made under the supervision of Cecile Aziza, the Spa’s Manager.

Cecile Aziza, the Spa Manager said, “I have been working in Kuwait for nearly a year. I have nearly ten years industry experience. I have worked in a cruise ship back in the States for two and a half years. I moved to Hong Kong as trainer and Spa manager.

I left Hong Kong last year to be here in Kuwait. It’s my first time in the hospitality business.”

Talking to Kuwait Times about the spa’s name change Cecile said, “Actually, we really want to give an identity to the spa.

The spa was called the Spa and every one called it so. I wanted to call the Spa Terra, derived from Latin. The reason I chose it was because of the spa’s earthy tones of brown, red and orange.” She added, “We work with Elemis, a brand from the UK, and use very natural products which contain organic ingredients.”

Cecile explained about the facilities offered at the spa, “So far we have a Moroccan bath, two Cleopatra baths, we plan to import Thai massage beds soon, We have twelve rooms in total, out of which, five rooms have been dedicated for men, the remaining seven rooms are for women.” “We perform all kinds of treatments here: body massages, facials are done using product from the brands Murad and Elemis. We also offer body treatment services, especially the new ones using Thalgo products, it’s a French brand. Thalgo use a lot of seaweed extracts. It’s very good for the skin, and soon, we will be offering ‘swimming’ treatments.

We have special treatments for pregnant women and the package

closely monitored to ensure the highest standards of work. Concerns have been raised within the Municipal Council and the municipality over the sharp increase in the prices charged by the companies involved, said AlSubaih, adding that this has led to suspicions of price-fixing and manipulation, which prompted the investigation in order to prevent any squandering of public funds.

famous here in the Middle East.”

“Dr Murad is more medical care, so this is more suitable for women and men who have specific skin concerns,” Cecile added.

“In future, we plan to introduce five new treatments using coffee, chocolate, coconut, fruit, and the seasonal scrubs; we are trying to be different,” Cecile stated.

She also spoke about the other services that are offered at the spa, “We have a bridal package. It includes full body waxing, Spa manicure, Spa pedicure, Facial, Moroccan bath and massage. Of course, it’s a full day event, but the bride to be can split it into two days. Once the treatments are complete, we extend the couple an invitation to our sea food restaurant Beldani.”

The spa team in Movenpick Al-Bidaa consists of five masseurs in the women’s section and four in the men’s section. Cecile advises that people book sessions at least one night in advance, especially during the weekend. This is because every session is at least one hour long.

“Most of our customers are interested in packages,” Cecile added. “We have a VIP room called ‘The Rose Mary.’

However, the customer cannot spend more than 2 hours at the place,” she concluded.

By Nisreen Zahreddine

ence this more often. Their parents demand weekly visits and invitations to dinner or lunch.

Rima, a Lebanese wife said that she and her husband spend one evening (of their weekend) at her parents’ place and another at her husband’s family home. She explained that ‘adjustment’ satisfies both of them and does not spoil their weekend.

Meeting familial obligations might prove stressful to some couples to such an extent that it causes rifts between couples. Some wives demand that their husbands spend Saturdays at their parents’ place and the opposite holds true as well.

Sabeeka, a Kuwaiti housewife feels that

keeping up with social pressure not only ruins the couple’s weekends, especially Saturdays when they decide to spend some private time together, it also interferes with their travel plans.

She explained that she and her husband used to travel during weekends to Dubai or Bahrain. However, pressure placed by parents to share weekends turn out to be spoilers.

In Kuwait conventions play a major role in the life of married couples. Breaking traditional norms may disturb marital harmony and enjoyment. These days, married couples are striving towards saving their Saturdays.

Woman reports stalker trouble KUWAIT: Although reports of sexual harassment and stalking are regularly filed by women in Kuwait against men and a number of men have reported being pestered by women or girls, reports of women stalking women are rare in the conservative country.

One young Kuwaiti woman, however, recently grew tired of being pestered by a persistent female stalker who ignored her

polite disregard, lodging a complaint with police against the woman. The complainant told AlAnba that her stalker, another woman in her twenties, had followed her and bombarded her with romantic SMS text messages.

The victim said that her ordeal began when she was returning from university one afternoon. As she was walking down the street, the woman, also in her twenties, stopped her car and got out before

approaching her. At first, said the victim, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, but when she realized that the other woman was attempting to flirt with her, she immediately left and went home.

This did not deter the stalker, however, who persisted in following her for the next week.

Although the victim continued to ignore her stalker in the hope that she’d get the message, things then went from bad to worse when she

began sending the object of her unwanted affections romantic text messages. After three weeks, realizing that the woman was not going to go away of her own accord, the victim went to police and explained what had happening.

Police traced the number which the messages had sent from to a mobile registered with an Indian expatriate, which did not receive calls. The investigation into the case is continuing.

NATIONAL

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

500 grams of heroin recovered

Cross-dressing drug dealer in Mishref police custody

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A transvestite Kuw aiti drug dealer has been arrested follow ing a police operation, w ith 500 grams of heroin being recovered from his hom e in Mishref. The m a n w a s ca ught red-ha nded follow ing a sting operation in w hich an undercover officer arranged to buy 50 grams of Building site fall Six Asian construction workers were rushed to Sabah Hospital after falling from a high platform at the building site where they were working. None of the men were seriously injured in the incident.

KUWAIT: A massive blaze in Ahmadi’s industrial zone yesterday.

— Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Shuw aikh mugging An Iranian man was assaulted, tied up and robbed by four unidentified assailants as he was returning home after finishing work. The victim was stopped by the four men as he was walking through the Shuwaikh industrial zone, with the assailants getting out of the car they were in and threatening him with a knife, before two of them tied him up and a third threatened him with a knife.

They stole all the money he had on him, KD 30, before getting back into the car and fleeing.

After freeing himself, the man immediately went to the

Cheers, jeers for female MPs KUWAIT: A number of local female political activists have accused Kuwait’s female MPs of failing in their monitoring duties, although they acknowledged the four MPs’ success in introducing legislative changes.

In a programme broadcast on Al-Rai TV, the activists said that this failure had occurred due to the female MPs’ unswerving support for the cabinet.

Except for a few isolated occasions when MP Aseel Al-Awadhi dissented with government policy, this policy of uncritical support for the government had been unchanging since their election, the interviewees claimed. They also criticized the female MPs’ stance on various grilling motions.

Despite these points, however, the activists said that the female MPs’ time in parliament had overall been a great success, especially in terms of their role in the enforcement of several articles of equal rights legislation.

“The election of women corrected a long-lasting wrong,” said political and

economic activist Nadia Al-Sharrah, who emphasized the importance of supporting the efforts of all women working in the political field, whether in parliament or in ministries. Al-Sharrah also criticized the current early retirement policy for women, which she said would prevent women from attaining senior posts via promotion. She was also critical of the proposal to pay housewives an estimated KD 300 monthly allowance for staying at home, suggesting that this money would be better spent on vital projects in Kuwait.

Another of the female activists interviewed, National Islamic Alliance member Tahani Al-Muzaidi, reiterated her previous condemnation of female MPs being disproportionately criticized in comparison to their male colleagues. On the issue of the proposed payments for housewives, she expressed reservations, specifically on the vague nature of the criteria for recipients.

Peace and Justice Assembly member Fatima Al-Qallaf, meanwhile, called for

female and male MPs’ performance to be assessed purely on the basis of their effectiveness. She asserted that Kuwait’s next election would be the “decisive factor” in assessing the female MPs’ parliamentary experience and achievements.

On the issue of proposed amendments to the Islamic Studies curricula at local schools, Al-Qallaf said that these are not a critical issue, “given the fact that people obtain their religious education from their parents.”

The fourth interviewee, Islamic activist Fatima Al-Mutawa, said that the Islamist perspective on female MPs is based on respect for women, including liberal women. She said that both liberal women and conservative Islamist ones share a similar outlook on the need to achieve decent living standards, education and social stability, with their differences being marginal. Al-Mutawa did, however, urge the female MPs to abstain from blindly supporting the cabinet, in order to further demonstrate their independence and courage.

New Lulu Hypermarket to open at Al-Qurain KUWAIT: The new Lulu Hypermarket which will cover the residential areas of Jaber Al-Ali, Mubarak Al- Kabeer, Al-Qurain, Al-Qusoor, Ahmadi, Fahaheel, South Surra, Adan and Sabah AlSalam, will no doubt attract huge footfall of not only the local populace but also of neighboring suburbs.

The hypermarket with its extensively laid out counters, sprawling parking space that can accommodate in excess of 3,000 cars, play area for children, food court, money exchange and bank counters, alongside a panoply of international and regional brands, aptly justif y the brand’s

tagline of, “Lulu, where the world comes to shop”.

EMKE Group, the multinational, multidimensional business conglomerate with interests in wide-ranging industries, including import-export, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and operating across the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Kenya, Tanzania and Benin, is shortly opening their first shopping mall in Kuwait - Al Wahda Mall, which will be anchored by the Group’s immensely popular retail outlet, the Lulu Hypermarket.

With businesses that span

all aspects of the retail supply chain, EMKE Group has a distinct competitive advantage when it comes to understanding customer needs.

Leveraging this unique customer knowledge, the Group, which operates popular retail chain stores, including the renowned Lulu brand of supermarkets, department stores and hypermarkets, bases their success on their corporate philosophy of providing “right products in the right place at the right time”.

Catering to over 320,000 customers everyday, the Lulu brand has grown to become the shopping center of choice among discerning customers

looking for quality retailing.

This popularity is attested by over 75 retail stores spread across the region and by the fact that the brand enjoys 32 percent of the total retail market share in the GCC. Highlight of the 1 million sq ft of premium retail space at the Al-Wahda Mall will be a sprawling 15,000 sq m Lulu Hypermarket spread across three floors.

With its pleasant and novel variation from the usual supermarkets, Lulu Hypermarket at the Al Wahda Mall offers an ultra modern shopping ambience that integrates every conceivable need of consumers under one roof.

local police station and reported the incident, although he had been unable to see the car’s license plate number. A hunt is underway for the thieves.

Four fires Firefighters rapidly extinguished a massive blaze that broke out at a printing press facility in Ahmadi’s industrial zone yesterday. The fire in the 1,000-square-meter facility, which contained around 500 tons of paper products, was thankfully quickly contained, said Colonel Khalil AlAmir, the head of the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate’s (KFSD) public relations and media department.

Firemen from four local brigades participated in putting the blaze out, said Col. Al-Amir, adding that an investigation has been launched into the cause of the conflagration. Heavy power use, accompanied by a scorching and arid summer climate,

in the news New zoo relocated KUWAIT: A new zoo has been approved to be constructed at a location in the northern part of the Jahra governorate, which is usually used by campers to set their spring camps.

Municipal Council members have requested for the country’s main zoo to be relocated from its current place in Al-Omariya to a site which would be relatively far away from residential blocks, in order to protect people from health risks. As per the new decision, the zoo’s relocation project includes plans to expand the facility and enforce drastic improvement in quality and service. An urgent letter regarding the allocation has been sent by the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources to the Minister of Public Works and Municipality Affairs, Dr Fadhel Safar, who will dispatch it to the strategy department. Before the project is approved, it must be authorized by the Municipal Council, reported Al-Rai. KU smart IDs KUWAIT: A lawmaker recently posed several questions to the minister of education questions pertinent to a tender placed as per a request from the Kuwait University to import machines that produce smart university ID cards.

In his questions, MP Hassan Jowhar focused on the different processes that led to the tender being awarded to a certain company, despite the fact that it did not quote the lowest price. He inquired about the bodies that recommended the said company, and provided more details regarding the criteria according to which they were studied, reported Al-Qabas. Furthermore, Jowhar asked whether the Audit Bureau was consulted before the tender was placed after it was awarded.

The Cabinet was consulted before amendments were made to the said tender.

‘Accountability’ bill KUWAIT: Several MPs said that it is necessary to issue a legislation that will hold state leaders accountable for their annual performance. They explained that this move will help them gauge the performance of the leaders in the executive apparatus, “especially in the development plan”. Many MPs told Al-Watan that this law will be used as the main reference to renew the position of any leader, and it will help evaluate the execution of the development and annual plan.

pure heroin from him for KD 1,000. The man, w ho w as employed as a senior secreta ry for the director of a clinic in the Ca pita l a rea , w a s arrested at the meeting point w here he arranged to meet the undercover officer to hand over the drugs. He w ill also face charges of imitating the opposite sex, after police recovered a quantity of w omen’s clothes and make-up from his home, w hich he admitted w ere for his ow n use.

have led to the usual seasonal increase in the number of fires in Kuwait in recent weeks.

Firefighters from Shuwaikh and Farwaniya rushed to the scene of a blaze that broke out in an apartment block in Khaitan early yesterday morning, evacuating the building and putting the fire out. No casualties were reported in the incident.

Another fire broke out at an apartment block on the coastal road in Mahboula at around noon, with firefighters from Mangaf and Qurain, as well as officers from the support center, working together to extinguish the blaze. One fireman was taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation.

Also around noon yesterday, a fire was reported in a car parked on Restaurant Street in Salmiya. Firefighters from the Southern Salmiya brigade quickly put out the blaze before it could spread to adjacent vehicles.

KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti drug dealer pictured after his arrest yesterday.

Um Al-Hayman gas station theft victim ‘real thief’ KUWAIT: Ahmadi detectives quickly solved a case at an Um Al-Hayman gas station in which the cashier was ‘assaulted’ before being robbed of the takings, finding that the cashier himself took the money before falsely accusing two Kuwaitis whom he had fought with earlier.

The cashier had told police that two unknown thugs had smashed their way into his booth at the station, physically assaulting him before stealing KD 150 from the safe there.

Helped by the cashier’s description of the men’s vehicle, police quickly apprehended them, reported Al-Qabas.

While they admitted that they had broken into the booth and assaulted the cashier, however, they flatly denied stealing the money.

At this stage, the detectives returned to the gas station, but were thwarted in their attempt to confirm or disprove either account of events by the fact that the CCTV camera there was out of order, meaning that no

footage of the incident was available.

When they confronted the cashier with the details of their investigation, however, he eventually admitted that he had fabricated the robbery claim and ensured that the camera was not working in order to steal the money after the fight and blame it on his assailants.

The crooked cashier was taken into custody and faces several charges, including filing a false police report, robbery and attempted fraud.

KUWAIT: Abdullah Al-Fouzan, area manager congratulating Al-Danah weekly winner, Varia Manish Varia Jayantibhai Ahay.

Al-Danah KD 1000 winners of the week announced KUWAIT: Gulf Bank’s AlDanah 2010 now has more chances for its Al-Danah customers to win cash prizes throughout the year. The Bank holds weekly, quarterly and annual prize draws encouraging customers to keep their money in their account for as long as possible to enhance their chances of winning.

The bank held its twentyfourth draw on July 18, 2010, announcing a total number of eight Al-Danah weekly prize draw winners, each awarded with prizes of KD 1,000. The winners were: Ali Hassan Shadad Shenat, Mwafaq Maraai Al-Sarahin, Duha Ahmed Ali Makhseed, Varia Manish Varia Jayantibhai

Ahay, Abdulrahman Hasan Hmoud Al- Oteibi, Eid Ali Musallam Al-Shahoumi, Abdulaziz Mansour Abdullah Al-Muhaini and Iman Ganem Faraj Al-Ganem.

A minimum deposit of just KD 200 is needed to open an Al-Danah account.

Not only does Gulf Bank’s Al- Danah account allow customers to win, but it is also encourages customers to save money. The more money deposited and the longer it is kept in the account, the more chances there are to win.

Al-Danah also offers a number of unique services including the Al-Danah Deposit Only ATM card which helps account holders

deposit their money at their convenience; as well as the Al-Danah calculator which is now in operation to help customers calculate their chances of becoming an AlDanah winner.

To be part of the Al-Danah draw customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s 51 branches, transfer on line, or call the Telebanking service 1805805 for assistance and guidance.

Customers can also log on to www.e-gulfbank.com, Gulf Bank’s bilingual website, to find all the infor mation regarding Al Danah or any of the Bank’s products and services or log on www.e-gulfbank.com/aldanah, to find out more about Al Danah and who the winners are.

NATIONAL

Sunday, July 25, 2010

5

Envoy pins hopes on premier’s visit

Kuwait, Argentina plan to sign several joint agreements KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser AlMohammed Al-Sabah’s forthcoming visit to Argentina is expected to be marked by a number of joint agreements in several fields, said the Argentinean Ambassador to Kuwait Jorge O. A. Biga. “During the visit both countries will sign several cooperation agreements in the political, scientific, environmental and cultural fields,” he said, adding, “Kuwait aims to open new channels to

increase investment and trade.” The ambassador was speaking on the occasion of the Kuwaiti Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to Argentina, which is set to take place in the next few days, as part of his tour of Latin America and the Caribbean. The tour, which aims to further Kuwaiti cooperation with this dynamic region, has already seen HH Sheikh Nasser visiting Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and Guyana.

Asked about bilateral relations between Argentina and Kuwait, the ambassador described them as “excellent,” noting that the Kuwaiti premier’s visit “will bring new possibilities to bolster and reinforce them.”

Last month, Kuwait received both the Argentinean Minister of Scientific, Technology and Production Innovation and the Governor of Santa Fe. Ambassador Biga said, “Santa Fe is one of the most important provinces of Argentina, and benefits from a loan granted by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) that allowed the construction of roads in its territory. Both visitors had the chance to meet many of Kuwait’s officials.

This permitted study to be carried out in different fields where both countries can cooperate and improve their economical and commercial relationship. The visit of His Highness the Prime Minister will make these possibilities real.”

Asked about the significance of Brazil as an up and coming nation internationally, in relation to Argentina’s plans to catch up as the second largest South American country in size, he said, “Argentina is the second largest nation in South America, and is developing its international policy in integration with the G20 group of countries. Its relative importance and presence in the world will allow high-level discussions on global issues and will see decisions taken in this regard.”

The ambassador explained, “In the [South American] region, Argentina along with Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay form the MERCOSUR [Southern Common Market], the most important market in the region.

Argentina and Brazil are sister countries

the production of crops such as tobacco, sugar cane, banana, citrus, beans, grape, chili, potatoes, cotton, as well as beef and goat meat on one hand, while on the other it is a rich zone of oil and gas and has unexploited mineral deposits of gold, copper, lead, silver, lithium, tin, borax, potassium and others.”

Ambassador Biga went on, “The recent settlements of Argentinean and European enterprises in Salta are orientated to mechanical products, food, textiles, sugar and footwear. These provide a panorama of what Salta can offer and are evidence of how

Burglars busted in South Surra

KUWAIT: A passing out ceremony for outgoing graduates from the police academy was held recently under the patronage and presence of Acting Prime Minister, State Minister of Defense, and Acting Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. The event was organized by the Ministry of Interior. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Policewomen to guard schools KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education (MoE) seeks to recruit Kuwaiti female security officers to be deployed at girls’ high schools. The ministry has already begun to co-ordinate with the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program to place a tender for this purpose.

This step aims to maintain control where these schools are located to prevent any indecent and untoward incidents from taking place. The policewomen will be a part of a comprehensive security force which will be assigned to enforce law inside the school premises, whereas policemen will be in-

charge of maintaining order outside the schools.

The tender has been sent to the ministry’s imports and warehousing department before being placed for bidding. It plans to employ 54 Kuwaiti policewomen between the ages of 28 and 40 to work at schools in Hawally, Farwaniya, Jahra and other educational zones. The officers will be offered KD 250 per month as salary. There are also talks of expanding the tender to cover girls’ elementary and intermediate schools. The ministry undersecretary will be consulted for approval before the tender is officially forwarded, reported Al-Qabas.

KUWAIT: Hawally detectives have arrested a three-man Sri Lankan burglary gang, who broke into several homes in South Surra, stealing a large number of valuable items.

The arrests followed a lengthy investigation into the gang’s activities following a spate of burglaries in the area. The thieves apparently targeted homes whose residents were away on holiday.

Detectives discovered that the burglars had determined that the homes’ occupants were absent by surreptitiously leaving a piece of string tied between the front door handle and a nearby object, then returning a few days later to check whether the string had been disturbed or broken. If it had not, they would then burgle the house. Using this technique, the thieves successfully burgled 15 homes in the area, with their haul including jewelry, watches, laptops, cell phones, sunglasses and various electrical appliances.

KUWAIT: Abdulaziz Al-Balool, Abdulla Hijab Al-Mutairi (the winner) and Talal Al-Ajmi

Wataniya customer wins Mini Cooper KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom continues to give out prizes to the winners for its recent monthly draw conducted at the beginning of this month, in which it aims at providing each customer and subscriber with the opportunity to enter the draw if his/her number starts with 6.

Marking this month as the third one since the draw has started; thousands of customers have been anticipating the draw results and have been very enthusiastic about it.

Wataniya customer Abdulla Hijab AlMutairi is the third lucky winner who won the Mini Cooper Cab, as the raffle draw took place with the attendance of representatives from the Ministry of

Commerce and a number of Wataniya’s leading members.

The rewarding ceremony to deliver the car keys to the winner took place at Ali Al-Ghanim and Sons Showroom with the presence of Abdulaziz Al-Balool from Wataniya’s Public relations manager and the showrooms manager from Al-Ghanim Talal Al-Ajmi. On the occasion, Abdol Aziz Al-Balool PR Manager at Wataniya congratulated the winner and expressed his appreciation to the management of Ali Al-Ghanim and Sons Company praising the offers provided by the company by saying that: “The offers given to us by AlGhanim Company played an important role in attracting our customers to partic-

ipate in the Monthly draw campaign and we are surely looking forward to further cooperation with them.”

Al-Balool also added: “Our monthly draws have all resulted in great success and attracted a magnificent number of customers which encourages us to provide them with more offers and promotional campaigns with valuable prizes to our customers in the 9 months to come.”

From his end Mohammad Abdolqader showed his gratitude to Wataniya’s efforts and praised their latest marketing campaigns and stated: “We thank each and every person working on this campaign from Wataniya and also congratulate the winner for the MINI cooper”

BRASILIA: His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and his accompanying delegation pictured during their visit to Brazil yesterday.—KUNA with a good and close relationship. The importance of Brazil nowadays will reflect positively on Argentina as a partner.”

Asked about the significance of a remark made by Kuwaiti Ambassador to Argentina Saud Al-Roumi, who during a meeting with the governor of the Argentinean province of Salta last month spoke of agricultural and industrial cooperation, Biga said, “The possibilities of cooperation between Salta and Kuwait could be important as the ambassador said.

He continued, “The economy of Salta is based on the agricultural industry through

much Kuwait can do to develop new commercial and investment ties.”

The ambassador concluded by saying,, “The same scenario, in different fields, can apply to the rest of the provinces of Argentina, as you can realize there are many opportunities for trade and investment that could benefit both sides, Kuwait and Argentina.”

Argentina is the second largest country in South America, with a population of 40.13 million according to 2009 figures, with four percent of its population being of Arab and Asian heritage. —KUNA

NATIONAL

6

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Beggars assault police officer

Kuwaiti, Saudi killed in traffic accidents KUWAIT: A 25-year-old Kuwaiti man was killed in a traffic accident on the Seventh Ring Road, which took place after he lost control of his vehicle, causing it to overturn.

After the man was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, crime scene investigators inspected the scene before the body was removed for autopsy, reported AlWatan. An investigation has been opened into the incident

Body discovered The body of a 78-year-old Arab woman was discovered in her apartment in Nugra. Emergency personnel were quickly at the scene, with police identifying the dead woman, reported Al-Qabas. Initial investigations suggest that no foul play was involved and that the woman died due to natural causes.

The body was removed for autopsy.

Missing child An eight-hour search for a missing four-year-old boy ended happily when police found the youngster safe and unharmed. The boy had apparently wandered off from his family while they were shopping at a mall in Jahra, reported Al-Watan.

in my view

Time for reformation

By AbdulAziz Abou El Huda

W

hen I was a child, Friday prayers were the most exciting part of my weekend. The act of praying with its sacredness and spirituality had always provided me with a sense of belonging to a wider community. Friday sermons back then ranged from simple to vital topics like ‘How to be a good Muslim’, ‘How to be good to your neighbors’, and how to avoid the gates of hell.

As I grew older, I grew more and more concerned about the changes in the Friday sermons offered at our local mosque. Today, I avoid attending Friday sermons as much as I can as it angers me to listen to what the preacher discourses. My aversion began two years ago when the shaikh at our local mosque said that we should break contact with all non-Muslims, even if they were our family friends or neighbors. The logic the shaikh offered to support this mindless claim was that non-Muslims sought to poison our minds against God’s work. I left the mosque immediately without continuing the sermon.

What happened to ‘How to be good to your neighbors’? In my mind, I could only think of the terrible consequences this man’s words would have on the community; especially children who are yet to develop the capacity

to discern between right and wrong.

Two Fridays ago, upon my father’s insistence, I joined him at a different mosque nearby. But my hopes of listening to a sensible sermon received another blow. The shaikh claimed this time that “a woman must not travel more than 12 miles without a muhram’. And what was the wise rationale this time? He explained that women are more prone to committing sins than men and hence required constant supervision. This claim enraged my educated and moderate mind.

Furthermore, what left me furious was that this man screamed every word instead of saying it calmly. It appeared as if he wanted submission through fear that he was instilling into the audience. First of all, there is no proof that women are more prone to committing sin than men; in fact, it’s just the opposite. And secondly, screaming is not the right way to deliver a message to people who have come seeking guidance and comfort from their everyday troubles.

In my opinion, the extremist notions that have developed over the past few years must come to an end and we must take responsibility for the effect these people have had on our community. We must recognize and take into account that Islam is not the problem,

but some Muslims are. Changes must begin with the religious institutions that train these religious scholars; they need to impose more moderate teaching. Finally, Friday sermons must be approved by higher authorities and a council must be formed to oversee restraint and tolerance. Muslim society today is in dire need of this reformation to break away from the excesses that has developed by extremists who seek to misuse our religion for their political motives.

They derive their power from the fact that the Arab community is closely associated with religion and custom. The shaikh who has the authority to bless a person, or call them a heretic is someone who claims divine power - which no man on earth should assert.

Unless this matter is taken into consideration urgently, we are most likely going to witness a large number of youth being alienated from our mosques and the community at large. I wish to remind people that toleration and co-existence have always been elements of Islam, and that of Kuwaiti society and this is what has allowed this state to prosper.

These notions which our forefathers have instilled in us and raised us on remain the key to our region’s harmony and happiness which will, by the grace of God, continue to prosper.

Women attack A Hawally police officer was verbally and physically assaulted by three female beggars when he arrested them in Salem Al-Mubarak Street in Salmiya.

After assaulting him, the women fled, although the officer managed to recapture one of them before she could get away, reported Al-Rai. On being questioned, the woman admitted that she had recently entered the country using a visitors’ visa, telling the police that her two accomplices are relatives.

at the local police station. Meanwhile, a 26-year-old Saudi man sustained fatal injuries after a lorry hit his vehicle from behind for unknown reasons. The accident took place on Fahaheel Road. The dead driver’s body was removed for autopsy, while police took the truck driver into custody for questioning, and an investigation is underway into the accident.

Police are hunting for the two other women.

Drunken Kuwaiti in DUI Police in Hawally arrested a drunken 70-year-old Kuwaiti motorist after receiving several complaints from other road users about his reckless driving.

Al-Qabas reported that the man was apprehended on a street in Hawally before being taken into custody to sober up.

Hotel fire One hotel guest and a firefighter were treated for the effects of smoke inhalation at the scene following a blaze at a Mahboulah hotel. Firefighters immediately evacuated the guests on their arrival before tackling the blaze, which had spread throughout the 14th floor of the building, quickly putting out the fire. An investigation has been launched into what caused the blaze.

Bootlegger busted A security crackdown in Mangaf resulted in the arrest of a bootlegger, who Ahmadi police found in possession of a number of bags containing 51 bottles of homemade liquor, reported AlWatan. The crackdown also resulted in the arrest of seven fugitives of various

Asian nationalities and the discovery of 15 apartments being illegally used to make long-distance international calls via computer.

Farm thieves A three-man gang responsible for several thefts at local livestock farms in Kabad was arrested red-handed while loading farm equipment into a vehicle at another farm in the area. On being questioned, the three men - a Kuwaiti, a Saudi and a bedoon (stateless) resident - admitted that they were behind the spate of thefts from livestock farms in the area, reported Al-Watan. All have been taken into custody and referred to the relevant authorities.

Suicide bid A 37-year-old woman was rushed to Mubarak Hospital by family members after they discovered her writhing in pain in her bedroom at the family’s apartment in Hawally following an overdose of prescription medication.

Doctors confirmed that the woman had attempted to end her own life, with her medical records indicating that she had a history of psychological problems, reported Al-Rai. After her condition was stabilized, the woman was taken to the psychiatric hospital.

MP proposes free ads verification KUWAIT: A parliament member recently proposed a draft law for the formation of a technical system to examine free advertisements. This would keep a check on ads that attempt to sell unlicensed products which may pose a risk to public health and bring the violators to book.

The proposal, made by MP Dr Salwa Al-Jassar, calls for the system to be formed through co-ordination between the ministries of interior, health, education, higher education, the Kuwait municipality, as well as other concerned directorates.

Furthermore, the proposal includes a

suggestion to assign the ministry with the task of holding the owners of weekly free ads papers responsible for the content. The proprietors will also be required to verify whether the product they are offering for purchase is licensed or not before publishing its ads in their newspaper, reported Al-Qabas.

The blood bank’s team welcomed by TEC staff.

Al-Badr presents a memento to the medical team’s leader, Dr Hala Samuel.

TEC staff donate blood

Tariq Al-Askar

Saqr Al-Badr

Abdulwahab Al-Qabandy

Nicola Bumelheb

KUWAIT: Some staff members from the Touristic Enterprises Company(TEC) recently donated blood as part of a donation drive. It was held as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility policy and commitment towards humanitarian work.

Mobile units from the blood transfusion department, led by General Manager Dr Reem AlRadhwan, first carried out medical tests on the fifty volunteering staff

members, before mobile donation units from the blood bank arrived at the TEC headquarters building.

It began collecting donations from volunteers at 9:00 am which continued till 1:00 pm.

After the end of the donation period, Head of the TEC’s Public Relations and Media Department Saqr Al-Badr, presented the blood bank’s team with a memento, as a token of appreciation for their efforts.

Hamad Al-Fawzan

Anwaar Al-Rashid

Abdulatif Al-Khaldi

INTERNATIONAL

Sunday, July 25, 2010

7

UN-backed court may implicate Hezbollah in Rafiq murder

Hariri calls for calm after Hezbollah revelations CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meets with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul at the presidential place in Cairo on July 21, 2010.—AFP

Egypt's president not attending Africa summit CAIRO: Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak will not go to the African Union summit in Uganda despite officials earlier citing his planned attendance as proof of his good health, the state media reported yesterday. Mubarak delegated Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to represent Egypt at the summit in Kampala, which is expected to address the sensitive issue of sharing Nile river water, the official Al-Ahram daily reported. The government press earlier reported the president would be attending the summit and then on July 14 officials specifically cited the summit trip in order to discount rumors proliferating about the 82-year-old president's declining health.

"Presidency responds to rumors with an agenda packed with meetings and trips," read headline of the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper at the time, referring to his trip to Uganda. On Wednesday, presidential spokesman

Suleiman Awwad again dismissed reports Mubarak was ill, saying his staff was "out of breath" just trying to keep up with his schedule.

The president gave his annual live speech Thursday to commemorate the July 23 Free Officers revolution that ended the monarchy in 1952 and appeared health, albeit visibly thinner and pale than before.

Mubarak underwent surgery in Germany in March to remove his gall bladder and a benign growth in the lining of his small intestine, setting off speculation about how long he will stay in office. The rumors affected Egypt's stock market which witnessed sharp decline of just over 6 percent for three trading days, following the president's surgery. Mubarak, a close U.S. ally, has ruled Egypt for three decades. He has no clear successor and has never appointed a vice president. — AP

Hamas blasts UN over call for Gaza land aid deliveries GAZA CITY: Gaza's Hamas rulers yesterday slammed a UN call for aid bound for the Palestinian enclave to be delivered over land rather than by sea. "The UN call to international organisations to use the overland road to Gaza instead of the sea is unacceptable and illegal," said Sami Abu Zahri, spokesman for the Islamist movement. The United Nations said on Friday that groups delivering aid to Gaza should do so by land, as Israel warned it would intercept ships trying to bust its naval blockade of the impoverished enclave.

Hamas said the UN position was akin to "collaboration with the Israeli occupier." "Most of the residents of the territory are still banned from leaving the territory and this is why this call is considered a contribution to the blockade," Abu Zahri said, urging aid organisations to ignore the UN call. Groups trying to deliver aid to the coastal

enclave should "continue to reach Gaza by sea until the blockade is really broken."

Israel has warned its forces will prevent any attempt to dispatch aid to Gaza by sea despite a raid by its forces on a Gazabound aid flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists on May 31.

The Jewish state's UN ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, wrote to UN chief Ban Ki-moon to warn that her country "reserves its right under international law to prevent" two Lebanese ships from sailing to the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak renewed the warning on Friday, saying the navy would prevent the aid-carrying Lebanese ships from reaching the Palestinian territory. "If this flotilla does leave Lebanon and refuses to be led by our navy to the (Israeli) port of Ashdod, we will have no other choice than to arrest it at sea," Barak said.

Organisers announced plans in June to set sail for Gaza with

two ships, the Julia and the Junia, which they respectively renamed as the Nagi el-Ali, after a Palestinian cartoonist killed by gunmen in London in 1987, and the Mariam.

Yesterday one of the Nagi elAli's organisers told AFP that "preparations for the trip have progressed" but added that the departure "will not take place for weeks," citing "technical obstacles." He did not elaborate but a government official said that paperwork for the trip was proving problematic. The Mariam, on the other hand, has been docked at the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli since Tuesday, organisers and port officials said without elaborating.

Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after its soldier, Gilad Shalit, was captured by Gaza militants and tightened it a year later when Hamas seized power in the coastal strip.—AFP

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri called yesterday for "calm" in Lebanon Rafiq Hariri. His comments came two days after Hezbollah chief Hassan in the face of expectations that a UN-backed court may implicate members of Nasrallah revealed that he expected rogue members of his Shiite party to be the powerful Hezbollah group in the 2005 murder of his father, ex-premier indicted for Rafiq Hariri's assassination five years ago.

"There are those who fear or even hope that the (Hariri) murder case will unleash a Lebanese crisis or confessional strife," the prime minister said in a speech to members of his Future Movement. "There are attempts... to organize campaigns aimed at sowing confusion and concern in the minds of the Lebanese people," Hariri said. "There is no need for this fear... We call for calm," he added. The UN tribunal's president, Antonio Cassese, said earlier this year he expects an indictment in the case between September and December, sparking fears in already tense Lebanon of a repeat of the violence that brought the country close to a new civil war in 2008.

On Thursday, the Hezbollah chief told a news conference via video link that Hariri told him some members of the Shiite movement would be indicted by the Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the murder. "I was personally informed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri before his visit to Washington (in May) that the tribunal will accuse some undisciplined members" of Hezbollah, Nasrallah said.

"That's where things seem to be heading," he said, adding that the impending decision by BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri speaks during a conference in which he spoke of the the UN-backed court had reorganization of his party the 'Future Party', in Beirut yesterday. —AFP pushed Lebanon into a "very sensitive phase." Hariri did not confirm or deny Nasrallah's accounts of their conversation.

But MPs from the prime minisCAIRO: Two road accidents killed 16 Agency reported. The report said 11 car overturned on the highway connectter's bloc denied that he had people and injured 22 south of the people were killed, including the drivers ing the ancient monument cities of Luxor told Nasrallah Hezbollah memEgyptian capital, according to authori- of the car and the microbus in the south- and Awsan, said Gen. Mansour elbers would be indicted. ties. The first accident involved a head- ern province of Minya. The 21 injured Shenawi, the Luxor police chief. Road "Hariri did not inform on coalition between a car and a microbus were rushed to a nearby hospital for accidents are common in Egypt because Nasrallah about the indictment of bad roads and poor enforcement of filled with passengers on the desert high- treatment. sheet simply because he is not The second incident claimed the lives traffic laws. An estimated 6,000 people way connecting Cairo with the southern privy to its contents," MP Hadi die annually in such accidents.—AP of five people and injured one when the provinces, the official Middle East News Hbeich said in a radio interview on Friday. MP Ammar Houri confirmed that Hariri and Nasrallah had met in May but said they had discussed "only press reports" suggesting that the UN-back court could link Hezbollah to Rafiq Hariri's murder. Analysts have warned that Nasrallah's suprise announcement could trigger new violence in Lebanon like that in May 2008 in which more than 100 people were killed when Hezbollah staged a spectacular takeover of mainly Sunni west Beirut following a crackdown on the party. Oussama Safa, who heads the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, said the country had a "50-50 chance" of sliding back into chaos.—AFP

'Honor killing' in Jordan

MUKHTARA: Druze sheikhs and members of an Israeli-Arab Druze delegation attend a farewell lunch at Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's residence in Mukhtara, southeast of Beirut yesterday. —AFP

AMMAN: A Jordanian man confessed to killing his 16-year-old niece to save his family's "honor" after she was sexually assaulted, a judicial official said yesterday. The 43-year-old fired 30 machine-gun rounds in the direction of the girl on Friday, killing her instantly, at Deir Alla, west of the capital Amman, said the official who requested anonymity. The man confessed to the murder, saying he did it to "cleanse the family honor" over suspicions of "bad behavior" after the girl "lost her virginity a month ago in a sexual assault by a young man aged 17," said the same source.

The girl's family later married her off to a cousin "to conceal the facts," the official added, stressing that the suspect in the sexual assault was being tried. Prosecutors have charged the uncle with "premeditated murder." Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but in so-called "honor killings" courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim's family asks for leniency. Between 15 and 20 women are murdered in honor killings each year in the kingdom, despite government efforts to curb such crimes.—AFP

Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for attacks in Iraq BAGHDAD: Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for two attacks against its former Sunni Muslim allies which killed at least 43 people last Sunday. In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber struck members of the government-backed "Sahwa" militia as they lined up to be paid on Baghdad's southwestern outskirts, killing at least 39 and wounding 41, Iraqi security sources said. In the second, a suicide bomber killed four and wounded six at a meeting of local Sunni militia leaders in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, police in Anbar province said.

In a statement posted on a website often used by Islamists, Al-Qaeda said it had conducted the attacks as part of action against "leaders of apostasy", a term used for Sunni fighters who once allied with al Qaeda but

turned on the militant group in 2006/07, helping US forces turn the tide in the war. "A lion of the Islamic State managed to intrude among the cattle after they were blinded by pickings of money thrown by the ... government and they fell into the torture of God," the statement said.

Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda have sought to exploit the political vacuum created by a failure of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions to agree on a coalition government following an inconclusive March 7 parliamentary election, and have carried out a series of attacks since the vote. Sahwa leaders have been among the primary targets. Some of the attacks have been attributed to acts of revenge by former fellow insurgents, while others have been blamed

on long-running blood feuds between families. The sectarian conflict between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shi'ites that began after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has largely subsided but a Sunni Islamist insurgency persists. The U.S. military has increasingly taken a backseat role since pulling out of Iraqi urban centres in June last year and U.S. troops will end combat operations formally on Aug. 31, before a full withdrawal next year. U.S. military leaders say al Qaeda's capabilities in Iraq have been severely degraded in recent months.

General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said in early June that 34 of the top 42 al Qaeda leaders in Iraq had been killed or captured in the previous 90 days. — Reuters

Egypt: 16 killed in two road accidents

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INTERNATIONAL

Sunday, July 25, 2010

No news on fate of French hostage

France, Mauritania end Mali operation

MAGHREB: This image distributed by IntelCenter on May 13, 2010 from Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, shows French hostage Michel Germaneau who the group claims responsibility for the kidnapping. —AFP

Two killed, five hurt in Russian market shooting MOSCOW: Gunmen opened fire on security guards at a provincial food market in the southern Russian city of Samara yesterday, killing at least two and wounding at least five other people, investigators said. At least six attackers arrived at the market in three cars and opened fire before fleeing, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Five people were hospitalized, it said.

Even the smallest of Russian enterprises employs security guards, who are often in the line of fire when business disputes turn violent. State television reported the Samara market was changing ownership.

Russian news agencies earlier reported 14 had been hurt in the shooting.

Meanwhile, in the country's volatile North Caucasus region , where such violence is part of daily life , three soldiers in Dagestan were killed when assailants attacked their convoy in a drive-by shooting, according to police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov.

Around the same time, the top official in a village in Dagestan's Kizlyarsky region was in a separate attack, Gasanov said. The North Caucasus suffers from a militant Islamist insurgency seeking separatism from Russia. Human rights activists say many of their attacks are spurred by kidnappings, torture and extra-judicial killings of criminal suspects and civilians by the authorities, who deny

such allegations. Some of the violence is also attributed to criminality and business disputes. In another North Caucasus province, Ingushetia, a well-known local businessman shot dead a university official to whom he was related, the state ITAR-Tass news agency cited police as saying.

Ruslan Malsagov, who headed the Ingushetia State University's economics department, was killed outside his home in the province's largest city, Nazran, by entrepreneur Magomed Malsagov, Tass reported. The attacker was killed along with two other people, also relatives , in a shootout when police cornered him, the report said.—AP

NOUAKCHOTT: Frenchbacked Mauritanian military operations against Al-Qaeda fighters in the Sahara desert wound up yesterday after four days of hunting Islamists deep inside Mali, security sources said. Mauritanian forces, supported by French special forces and intelligence, killed six fighters from Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing in an attack on a base in Mali on Thursday, marking an escalation in African and European responses to the region's Islamist threat.

"The operation organized by the Mauritanian army against Al-Qaeda has just finished. The troops involved are on their way back after 4 days of operations," one security source said.

Another security source said that operations had continued some 200 km (124 miles) into Mali after Thursday's pre-dawn attack on a group of Islamists who are believed to be holding a 78-year-old French hostage in the desert Sahel region. The second source gave no details of any progress, but France said on Friday that it had no information on the fate of Michel Germaneau, a retired engineer who was kidnapped on April 22 and is in the hands of AlQaeda's North African wing, AQIM. The operation follows mounting calls for better regional and international cooperation in the fight against AQIM, which was previously focused on Algeria but now has two factions that are increasingly active in the remote desert regions of Mauritania, Mali and Niger. Paris said on Friday it gave technical and logistical support to Mauritanian forces in an operation aimed at preventing an attack by AQIM on Mauritania. But analysts said it could have been a failed bid to rescue Germaneau, who was kidnapped in Niger and is believed to be in the hands Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, leader of the more hardline of the two AQIM factions operating in the Sahara.

The operation appeared to anger official Mali, which was not involved, and Spain, which also has hostages held by another Al-Qaeda faction in the region. AQIM had set France a deadline of next week to agree to a prisoner swap, saying it would otherwise kill Germaneau. Islamists in the Sahara have so far not staged any large-scale attacks, and analysts say they have concentrated largely on collecting revenues from ransom payments and the smuggling of goods, including cocaine.—Reuters

Ugandan security on high alert ahead of AU summit KAMPALA: Ugandan forces imposed tight security in the capital yesterday as more than 30 heads of state began converging on Kampala for an African Union summit barely two weeks after deadly suicide attacks. Police and military deployments in Kampala are regularly enhanced during international conferences, but after the July 11 bombings that left 76 dead, security is such that entering a shopping mall is similar to boarding a plane.

"Following the recent attack in Uganda, we have stepped up our security measures to a level that has never been seen," Deputy Foreign Minister Okello Oryem told AFP. "Unfortunately, I think it has infringed on people's freedom to enjoy themselves," he added. Kampala was chosen to host the 15th African Union heads of state summit, which opens today, long before the region's deadliest attacks in 12 years gave the venue extra significance.

It is an AU force that Uganda has led in Mogadishu since 2007 to support the fragile Somali transition government.

That role was the reason the Al Qaedainspired Shebab group claimed responsibility for the Kampala attacks in a bid to force Uganda to withdraw from Somalia.

The Ugandan authorities immediately responded by assuring its fellow AU members that the summit was still on and should serve as a platform to muster

KAMPALA: Ugandan Police stand guard on July 21, 2010 on a road which connects Uganda's capital city with the resort where officials from the African Union will meet at the beginning of August for a regional African Union summit. —AFP more regional and international support for efforts to root out the Somali insurgents.

At a popular city centre shopping mall with several restaurants and Kampala's only cinema, motorists and pedestrians are now forced to join long queues while they wait for their handbags, bodies and

vehicles to be checked. A security official this week got into a verbal spat with a would-be shopper who was frustrated by the delays. "Others are not complaining!" the officer shouted, silencing the woman who was irked about her bag being thoroughly taken apart and inspected.

"All this is to ensure that all the dele-

gates that are here and all the Ugandans do have 100 percent security and there is no repetition of what happened on 7/11," Oryem said, justifying the inconveniences. Shortly after the attacks, Uganda's president balked at the notion that the summit should be rescheduled or relocated. "Africa Union not take place because of this incidence? No! That is all rubbish," Yoweri Museveni told reporters at his country home in western Uganda.

"The African Union is not going to take place in a pitch," he added, referring to the rugby club which was one of the two spots targeted by the blasts on July 11 as crowds gathered to watch the football World Cup final. A visible reminder of this contrast is the massive deployment of security personnel along the road that connects Kampala and the resort hosting the AU meeting.

Calling in re-enforcements from the anti-riot squads, the regular and military police, Uganda has positioned a two-person unit every 50 meters (55 yards) on both sides of the six-kilometre (3.7mile) road.

A spokesman for the Speke Resort that is hosting the AU meeting said that given the plethora of screenings and checks required to access the summit grounds, it is possible a high speed traffic accident poses the worst security risk. —AFP

ANKARA: A mourning family members embrace the flag-covered coffin of captain Ibrahim Baris Yurtseven, an army officer who was wounded last week when Kurdish rebels killed six Turkish soldiers in Hakkari at TurkeyIraq border and died Friday, in Ankara, Turkey yesterday.—AP

Kurdish bomb blast injures four Turkish soldiers: Report ANKARA: A bomb blast blamed on separatist Kurdish rebels in eastern Turkey left four Turkish soldiers wounded, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The bomb, planted by rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), exploded when a military vehicle carrying soldiers to an army station passed over it near the town of Dogubayazit in Agri province, the report said.

Security forces launched an operation to catch the attackers. The PKK has significantly stepped up attacks against Turkish targets after jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said in May that he was abandoning efforts for peace with Turkey and the rebels called off a unilateral truce last month.

Blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

In an interview with the BBC earlier this week, senior PKK commander Murat Karayilan said his rebels would disarm if Turkey agreed to a ceasefire, stopped military operations and ceased arresting Kurdish politicians. Ankara categorically rejects dialogue with the PKK and says it will keep up military pressure on the rebels while expanding Kurdish freedoms in the hope of persuading PKK militants to end the bloody 26-year campaign.—AFP

in the news Germany offers asylum to 50 Iranian dissidents BERLIN: The German government says it is offering asylum to 50 Iranian dissidents who took part in the massive street protests that erupted after elections there last year. A spokesman for Germany's Interior Ministry said 12 of the 50 Iranians have already arrived in Germany and one more is expected in the coming week. He said the others are mostly in Turkey waiting for Germany to finish examining their cases. The Interior Ministry spokesman spoke on a customary condition of anonymity required by many German officials. Germany had originally planned to take in up to 20 Iranians but raised the number to 50 after a group of Iranians already living in exile in Germany and the rights group Reporters Without Borders complained it wasn't doing enough.

Wilders anti-Islam party to enter government talks THE HAGUE: Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders has emerged as a possible member of the next Dutch government after the centrist Christian Democrats agreed to informal talks with Wilders and the VVD party that won recent Dutch elections. Wilders says the Christian Democrats' move is "positive news" and he is prepared to start the talks as soon as possible.

Shortly after inconclusive June 9 elections, nego-

tiators ruled out the possibility of Wilders' Freedom Party joining the Christian Democrats and rightist VVD party, which won the most seats at the polls. However, Dutch media report that Christian Democrats leader Maxime Verhagen said yesterday his party is now prepared for informal talks after two weeks of negotiations to form a centrist coalition collapsed Tuesday.

Ivory Coast PM resigns as head of rebel movement ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast's prime minister resigned from his post as the head of the country's main rebel movement in order to concentrate on organizing the country's long-delayed elections, his spokesman said Friday. Prime Minister Guillaume Soro became prime minister after the government agreed to a 2007 power-sharing deal with the New Forces, a coalition of rebel groups that had controlled the northern half of the country since a failed 2002 coup. Since his appointment, Soro became the symbol of the country's reconciliation process which was supposed to produce presidential elections within a year but have repeatedly been delayed. "(Soro) took this important decision to concentrate entirely, in his role as crisis mediator, on the intense tasks that lie ahead in order to hold presidential elections in Ivory Coast," said the statement released by his office late Friday.

Nigerian city on alert for Taleban uprising anniversary MAIDUGURI: Police searched for weapons and residents were on edge here yesterday ahead of the one-year anniversary of a deadly uprising by the Nigerian Taleban, with fears it would strike again. A sect leader believed killed appeared on video issuing threats recently, adding to concerns that the militant group was reforming, though local police dismiss the clips as digital mock-ups and insist he is dead.

Authorities have set up night checkpoints and are searching vehicles in a bid to keep weapons from entering the city of Maiduguri-the centre of the uprising. A dozen police vans escorted by a siren-blaring armored car had been regularly rumbling through the city's streets, but the show of force was halted recently because it rattled residents, a police officer said.

"This is part of the security strategy because these troublemakers may want to use the cover of night to bring in arms," said a police sergeant at a checkpoint on Friday night, where about a dozen cars waited. Last year's uprising began on July 26 and spread to four states, though it was centered in Maiduguri in the country's mainly Muslim north. It ended four days later with more than 800 dead, most of them sect members. The military and

police launched an assault on the sect's headquarters, leaving it in rubble.

The sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was also killed. Police were accused of killing him after he had been captured alive, but officers said he was shot while trying to escape from custody. His deputy, Abubakar Shekau, was believed killed as well, but video clips have emerged in recent months in which he threatens to "avenge the killings of our brethren." "What happened was only the prelude, the actual show has not started yet," he says in one clip.

While tomorrow marks the anniversary of the start of the insurrection, Friday may pose a larger risk since it is the date Yusuf was killed. The scale of the uprising and military assault last year shocked the country, Africa's most populous and where roughly half of the 150 million population is Muslim. The sect, while known as the Nigerian Taleban, is also called Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sin" in local dialect.

Its ranks had been filled by a range of recruits, including university drop-outs, unemployed youths and those seeking to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state. "Everybody is

apprehensive of what might happen in the next few days," Maiduguri resident Abdulqahhar Idrissa told AFP. "Rumours are all over the city that members of Boko Haram are going to strike during the anniversary and everyone is afraid because we know the agony we went through last year during the fighting."

Authorities have said in recent weeks that there were concerns the sect was reforming, and hundreds of anti-riot police reinforcements have been deployed in Maiduguri. Police have also guarded the destroyed mosque that had previously served as the sect's headquarters. One police officer at the site said recently that a suspected member of the sect had come to the mosque a couple weeks earlier to pray for Yusuf. Maiduguri resident Hajjo Madu, 30, said on Friday she planned to stay in her neighbourhood over the coming days out of fears of violence. "Because that was how the violence started last year, with rumours that later turned to reality," said Madu, a mother of three. A 32-year-old man recently told AFP in the city that he was ready for holy war if the sect's leaders ordered it. "Once the directive comes, nothing can stop us," he said.—AFP

Sunday, July 25, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

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38 bodies found at Mexico dumping site Remains suspected to be drug-gang related MEXICO CITY: Authorities found the remains of at least 38 people in a series of pits and scattered on the ground at a suspected drug-gang dumping site near the industrial hub of Monterrey in northern Mexico, an official said Friday.

ALBERTA: Pilot Capt Brian Bews parachutes to safety as his a CF-18 fighter jet crashes and explodes during a practice flight at the Lethbridge County Airport on Fridayfor the weekend air show in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.—AP

Canadian jet crashes during show practice ALBERTA: A Canadian jet rashed and exploded in a ball of flames during a training run for a weekend international air show in Alberta, but the pilot was able to eject from the plummeting plane before it hit the runway. The pilot, Capt. Brian Bews, who sustained a sore back and scraped-up arms, was treated at a hospital and released Friday.

Bews was practicing Friday in a CF-18 Hornet jet over Lethbridge County Airport for an international air show. The CF-18 he was flying is a model specifically used for air shows. “All of a sudden you could hear ‘pop, pop, pop,’ “ witness Roland Booth told CTV News. “I saw sparks come out of the one engine. The plane started banking over to the side. That’s when the pilot bailed out with his parachute.” Another witness, aviation buff Darren Jansens, says the pilot was just starting a maneuver known as a High Alpha pass before the accident.

“It’s a high-angle pass, very low speed, fairly close to the ground. It’s the lowest-speed maneuver the Hornet generally performs,” said Jansens.

“The pilot did eject safely but was dragged several hundred feet unconscious along the ground,” he added. The military and the Department of

Transport immediately launched an investigation into the accident. There was no indication of the cause of the accident. Air show president Robb Engen said the airport was briefly closed to all incoming and outgoing flights, but he said the event, which is in its 19th year, would go ahead as planned this weekend.

“We did have an unfortunate incident during a practice run this afternoon, but the military has given us their full support to continue for the weekend,” said Engen.

“The show is continuing as originally planned.

Thankfully the pilot, as we hear, is OK.” Bews, who was assigned to 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Bagotville, Quebec, was selected by the air force to join the CF-18 demonstration team for 2010. The accident will have no impact on CF-18 operations elsewhere in the country, 2nd Lt. Christopher Daniel said from Ottawa.

“It is one of the most reliable airplanes you can buy on the market. Its safety record is second to none. I have no problem getting in the airplane and I know that Capt. Bews will be eager to get back in as well,” Daniel said.—AP

Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said officials still had to inspect three more pits for bodies. He said 36 of the victims found so far are men and two are women. The state attorney general’s office in Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located, said more heavy equipment was being brought in to search the ground and pits where the remains were found. The bodies were too badly decomposed for immediate identification, the office said.

The clandestine grave site, which was discovered Thursday, was believed to have been used by drug gangs that operate in the area. The Mexican army did not offer any immediate information on how the site was detected.

Nearly 25,000 people have been killed in Mexico since the government launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

Cartel hit men have been known to use mass dumping sites to dispose of their victims. In late May, police in the central Mexico tourist town of Taxco discovered 55 bodies in an abandoned silver mine.

Mexico’s Defense Department said in a statement Friday that soldiers had seized 57 pounds (26 kilograms) of explosives from gunmen killed in two clashes with soldiers in the remote mountains of the border state of Chihuahua. State authorities first reported the shootout between troops and assailants Thursday saying eight gunmen had been killed near the rural town of Madera, about 145 miles (230 kilometers) south of the US border but gave no other details.

The Defense Department said nine gunmen were killed in two clashes and that troops had also seized army uniforms, seven satellite phones, two ATVs and ten cars. Last week, drug gangs introduced a new threat to Mexico’s drug war, detonating their first successful car bomb.

The attack killed a federal police officer and two others in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua’s largest city.

Speaking at a military academy graduation ceremony Friday, President Felipe Calderon praised the army’s role in the drug fight and called the drug cartels “the greatest threat to the well-being and progress of Mexican families, and the greatest danger to the liberties that our country’s founders gave their lives to obtain for us.” Calderon said that “our determination is not only not to take a single step backward, but to carry on decisively with this fight, to persevere in the effort until we reach the victory that Mexico deserves.” — AP

Democrats CARACAS: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, left, and South Ossetia’s President Eduard Kokoity, right, looks on during a welcoming ceremony at wary of Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela on Friday.—AP motivation Chavez warns Colombia amid tensions problem

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned Colombia against provoking a conflict, saying any attack on his country would trigger a reaction.

Chavez insisted he wants peace during a speech Friday night but raised the possibility of a conflict, saying his top generals were constantly evaluating the situation along the Colombian border and that he was in contact with commanders at border posts to make sure they don’t “fall for provocations.”

“Imagine a war between Colombia and Venezuela.

That would be something to cry over for a hundred years,” Chavez said. “But you understand that if we are attacked, we aren’t going to stay with our arms crossed.” Chavez announced he was breaking off diplomatic relations with the neighboring country on Thursday and placed his military on alert, accusing Colombia’s US-allied government of fabricating evidence showing Colombian rebel bases inside Venezuela.

Despite the tensions, cars and pedestrians moved between the countries as usual at border crossings Friday, officials on both sides said. Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua called the situation on the border normal. The diplomatic dispute over the presence of Colombian rebels in Venezuela has worsened just as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe prepares to leave office. Uribe has frequently feuded with Venezuela’s socialist leader, and Colombian officials have long complained, mostly in private, that Chavez has harbored leaders of its two main rebel groups.

President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, however, has stressed the importance of mending trade relations with Venezuela, which overwhelmingly benefit Colombia’s food producers. And Chavez has raised the possibility that relations could be restored under Santos. Trade between Venezuela and Colombia has fallen 70 percent since Chavez froze relations a year ago in response to Colombia’s decision to grant the

US military expanded access to its military bases.

The scaled-back relations have also hurt Venezuelan consumers, as sporadic shortages of items like beef , once imported from Colombia , have worsened.

At a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington on Thursday, Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos presented photos, videos, witness testimony and maps of what he said were rebel camps inside Venezuela and challenged Venezuelan officials to let independent observers visit them. Chavez has suggested the photographs presented by Colombia could be bogus. He also has suggested Uribe and the US “empire” could be attempting to provoke a war, and insisted Venezuela does everything possible to prevent members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the smaller National Liberation Army from crossing into Venezuelan territory.

“We have never supported movements in Colombia in any way, even though we could have.

And I’m not referring to the guerrillas,” Chavez said Friday night. He said he thinks the rebels “should reconsider their armed strategy” because they seem to have no chance of toppling the government and also because “they’ve become the main excuse for the empire to deeply penetrate Colombia.” Chavez has argued in the past that US officials are using Colombia to portray him as a supporter of terrorist groups to justify US military intervention in Venezuela. He warned that any aggression against Venezuela could “become a boomerang against the Yankee empire.” UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon expressed hope that Venezuela and Colombia will work out their differences in a peaceful manner.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called the dispute unfortunate and said it was a “petulant response by Venezuela to cut off relations with Colombia.” — AP

LAS VEGAS: The Democratic Party has a motivation problem.

Party officials acknowledged low morale within their left wing and urged liberal bloggers and activists Friday to keep faith with President Barack Obama in an election year as Democrats brace for losses in Congress. “We need to find a way to get our voters really engaged in this election,” Democratic National Committee executive director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said at the annual Netroots Nation convention. “It’s more important, every single day, to know what’s at stake.” Jon Vogel, executive director of the Democratic House campaign organization, predicted Democratic voters would get energized when they focus on what Republican gains would mean for the Democratic agenda.

“You start to educate folks as to differences in candidates, the enthusiasm gap certainly will close,” Vogel said.

Liberals who helped put Obama in the White House in 2008 are disillusioned over the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, slow movement on gay rights and the failure to create a government-run insurance option in the health care overhaul. —AP

Investigators were using heavy equipment to search for more bodies at the rural site outside Mexico’s third-largest city, local media said. Photographs showed charred spots on the soil suggesting some bodies may have been partially burned.

NEW YORK: In this photo released July 22, 2010 by the Suffolk County Police Department, a person wearing a Darth Vader mask and cape is captured on surveillance camera robbing a Chase bank in Setauket, NY on Thursday. —AP

Man decked out in Darth Vader mask robs NY bank New York: Times must be tough back at the Empire. A bank robber dressed as “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader made off with an undetermined amount of cash after pointing a handgun at startled tellers inside a Chase bank branch on Long Island. Detectives say the man walked into the bank shortly before noon Thursday wearing a full head mask and a blue cape. The only part of the uniform that was out of place were his camouflage pants. And that handgun, no light saber. Suffolk County police detective Sgt. William Lamb told reporters that at least one customer at the time didn’t think the theft was legit. The customer, whose identity was not released, can be seen cowering on the floor

in a surveillance camera photo, moments after the robber shoved him away.

“The customer thought it might have been a joke and not a serious attempt at a robbery,” Lamb told the Daily News. The suspect was last seen running across a parking lot. “I thought it was pretty comical, but I guess this guy was pretty serious about needing some money,” Michael Aloisio, who works at a nearby restaurant and saw the bandit run past, told the New York Post. “I think we need more police and more security here,” said Louie Lin, 24, who works at a Chinese restaurant in the shopping center where the bank is located and saw the robber. “People need money so bad

nowadays ... maybe next time they will come here and steal from us too.” Heather Apolo, 36, a Chase customer from Port Jefferson Station, said she was surprised the bank had been targeted. “It really is a good area,” she said.

“They’ll probably beef up security and make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.” Mike Fusco, a Chase spokesman, declined to comment other than to say bank officials were cooperating with the investigation. The holdup was the 15th in Suffolk County this year; 30 bank heists were reported in 2009. The robbery comes about a week after a so-called bouquet bandit held up a Manhattan bank. —AP

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Thai poll seen as referendum on political conflict BANGKOK: A by-election today with a contender campaigning from his jail cell will provide an opportunity to take Thailand’s political temperature barely two months after large-scale anti-government protests in the streets of the capital were put down with the use of deadly force. The poll is seen as a test of strength for the so-called Red Shirts, who from March to May camped out on some of Bangkok’s major thoroughfares to demand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and call a general election.

They charge he came to power illegitimately. There are six candidates vying for the House of Representatives seat in Bangkok’s Constituency 6, left vacant by the death of the incumbent, a member of the ruling Democrat Party.

Panich Vikitsreth, a former Bangkok deputy governor and vice minister for foreign affairs, will try to hold the seat for the Democrats. His only serious challenger is Kokaew Pikulthong, who to register his candidacy on behalf of the opposition Pheu

Thai Party had to be escorted from prison, where he is being held on terrorism charges for his alleged role in the violence that accompanied the recent protests. Kokaew was a leader of the Red Shirt protest movement.

“This by-election is Bangkok residents’ referendum on the government,” said Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit. Democrat campaign spokesman Thana Cheeravinij made the same point: “The Democrats’ triumph in this election would show people’s confidence in the

government and their approval for us to lead the country through the crisis.”

Thailand has been in a state of political turmoil since 2006, when a coup ousted then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was popular among the rural and urban poor. Since then, his supporters and opponents have staged a bitter struggle for power.

The Red Shirts, comprising Thaksin’s supporters and other opponents of the coup, staged violent protests in April last year and then relaunched their campaign against

Abhisit in March this year. An escalating series of confrontations ended on May 19, when the army moved in to sweep the Red Shirt demonstrators from the streets. Over two months, almost 90 people died and more than 1,400 were hurt in politically related violence.

After losing the battle of the streets _ and with a state of emergency providing the basis for continuing government repression _ the Red Shirts have been left with little to do except lick their wounds. Kokaew and most of the

group’s other top leaders are in detention, and government efforts at “reconciliation” pointedly dictate terms meant to discourage a Red Shirt resurgence.

A morale boosting opportunity for the Red Shirts came with the June 11 death from cancer of Democrat lawmaker Thiwa Ngernyuang. An election campaign opens up political space otherwise denied them under the terms of the state of emergency. The Pheu Thai Party is closely aligned with the Red Shirt movement by way of their

shared support for Thaksin, who is in self-imposed exile after fleeing ahead of a corruption conviction in 2007.

Polls suggest the Democrats will win an easy victory and Pheu Thai points out handicaps under which it campaigns _ generally hostile mainstream media, censorship of its own print, broadcast and Internet organs, and Kokaew’s detention. “We have to figure out how to win this fight with our hands and feet tied,” said party spokesman Prompong. Their opponents are unsympathetic. —AP

100,000 evacuated as rains swell rivers China says Three Gorges Dam not a panacea BEIJING: China has evacuated more than 100,000 people as a river burst its banks and heavy rains continued in flood-hit regions along the perilously swollen Yangtze river, state media said yesterday. China is grappling with its

worst flooding in a decade, with at least 1,100 people killed or missing this year, and Premier Wen Jiabao warned yesterday of possibly worse to come during an inspection tour of flood-hit Hubei province.

Warning the situation was at a “crucial stage,” Wen called for stepped-up flood prevention amid expected further flooding, according to a state TV report that showed him wading through knee-deep Yangtze floodwaters in the city of Wuhan. At least 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes in southwestern Sichuan province after torrential rains caused waters to rise sharply in the Jialing River, a provincial news website said.

The Jialing is a major tributary of the Yangtze, China’s longest river. In Shaanxi province, to the north of Sichuan, the Luofu river burst its banks in the city of Huayin, forcing 6,400 people from their homes, official Xinhua news agency said. About 16 square kilometres (six square miles) of land was expected to be flooded as a result, it quoted a city official as saying. The Luofu feeds into the Yellow river, China’s second-longest.

The flooding, mostly in the country’s southern half, has caused economic losses of at HUBEI: In this photo taken on Friday a Chinese man rides a tricycle at a bus station submerged in the flooded least 22 billion dollars and affected 120 million people, Yangtze River in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province. —AP the government has said. It has triggered fears of a repeat of disastrous Yangtze floods in 1998, the country’s worst in recent memory, which killed more than 4,000 people and forced the evacuation of 18 million. In Hubei, floods from torrential rains overnight Friday killed six people, left eight others missing, and forced the evacuation of 7,700 PHNOM PENH: Hav Sophea’s the taboo, piercing the topic of survived. One of them was tim-witnesses experience a around the city of Yichang near father was killed by the Khmer trauma,” said Theary Seng, a Norng Chan Phal, a child who boost immediately after testifythe Three Gorges Dam, death when ing,” he said. “But I always cauRouge just after she was born human rights lawyer and a vic- escaped Xinhua said. and she’s spent a lifetime trying tim. “People hear others talking Vietnamese troops rolled into tion on proclaiming that testifyThe massive hydroelectric to make him feel real. She even about these issues on the radio, the capital and ousted the ing necessarily will have longproject on the Yangtze river took the single photo she had of or in daily life, and they think, Khmer Rouge. When he told term benefits. Other events in has come under scrutiny as him , a black-and-white mugshot ‘Oh I’m not crazy. I’m not the the tribunal how, at age 8, he got their life, loss of a loved one, a dam authorities struggle to snapped at the regime’s notori- only one.”‘ Duch headed Toul a final glimpse of his mother job, for instance, could re-trigdrain its fast-rising reservoirous prison , and used a comput- Sleng, a former elementary holding onto the bars of her ger past trauma.” Four other swollen by upstream rainser to insert him into a family school that was transformed prison cell before she was led senior Khmer Rouge leaders while avoiding swamping comportrait. But nothing helped as into a top secret prison for peo- away to her death, he was cry- are expected to go on trial munities downstream. Its much as testifying before a ple deemed the worst enemies ing so hard the court had to call sometime next year. huge spillgates have gushed Duch is the only one to U.N.-backed war crimes tri- of the paranoid state: spies, trai- a recess. But afterward, he said, gigantic torrents of white responsibility, he felt his suffering “melt acknowledge bunal, which will issue a land- tors and saboteurs. water for days as the reservoir Many of the 16,000 people away.” Eric Stover, a human though he upset many on the mark verdict in its first trial on Friday rose to a high for the Monday. “That night, for the who passed through its gates rights expert at the University final day of his hearing by asking year, nearly touching the first time ever, I had a dream were tortured to extract confes- of California, Berkeley, said judges for an acquittal , and dam’s 159-metre mark, the about him,” said the 34-year- sions. They were electrocuted, many of the 22 people who tes- most believe he will be found government said. Its maxiold, adding the court, despite its had toenails pulled out, and tified at Duch’s trial reported guilty of war crimes and crimes mum is believed to be 175 flaws, has helped her deal with were nearly drowned. Today similar experiences. Some said against humanity. Now the metres. her grief. “He was holding my the prison is a museum, where it provided relief to face the for- problem, experts and victims In welcome news, authorihand and we were running out pictures of men, women and mer prison chief and to hear him say, is the sentence. Duch faces ties said the amount of water of Toul Sleng prison.” children, snapped moments admit his crimes. But, he cau- a maximum of life in prison, but pouring into the reservoir Cambodians are just emerging before they were killed, line the tioned, that does not always because the 67-year-old has upstream from Sichuan and mean they benefited psycholog- mitigated with the court and from more than 40 years of concrete walls. other rain-hit areas had already spent 11 years in detenOnly a handful of people ically. extreme violence , including US dropped to 34,000 cubic “I have found in my research tion, there is a chance he’ll get carpet bombing before the brought to Toul Sleng, also metres per second on Friday.

Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese known by its codename S-21, at other tribunals that some vic- less than that, perhaps even one That figure represents less day walking free, said Heather military occupation and a bloody than half the inflow seen earliRyan, who has monitored the coup d’etat after. er in the week, when it hit trial for the Open Society Many have long tried to bury 70,000 cubic metres per secJustice Initiative. memories about the 1975-79 ond-the greatest amount since That could leave people genocidal regime, when more the dam was built and the more cynical than before the than 1.7 million people, roughly biggest flood crest on the trial began. Legal analysts have a quarter of the population, died MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino is set to launch Yangtze since 1987. already criticized the process. from forced labor, starvation, a blistering attack on his predecessor and flesh out an anti-corHowever, the flows were The government, perhaps fearmedical neglect and executions. ruption drive when he makes his first “State of the Nation” expected to pick up again as ing a widening circle of defenIt wasn’t until the monthslong address on Monday. Aquino, who is enjoying record public supmore rain was forecast dants could reach into its own trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better port three weeks into the job, has signaled his speech to parliaupstream. The government ranks, has sought to limit the known as Duch, that the traument will outline the dire economic problems that he says he has long claimed that the damnumber of those being tried. matized nation started to speak inherited from former president Gloria Arroyo. the world’s largest hydroelecAnd its insistence that out publicly about those atroci“The work ahead will not be easy over the next few years. tric facility-would help tame Cambodians be among the panel ties. More than 28,000 people Nearly all the funds intended for use over the next few months the often unruly Yangtze, but of judges and prosecutors has attended the hearings in the have been stolen,” the straight-talking leader told an army officials have recently begun increased the likelihood of politcapital, Phnom Penh, and milparade on Friday in an apparent preview. Aquino later told to emphasize its limits. “The ical interference. lions more watched on TV. As reporters that his administration had discovered some major Three Gorges Dam is not a Some outreach workers said, part of outreach programs in the irregularities by Arroyo’s government, and that he intended to panacea,” Wei Shanzhong, as the verdict approaches, they countryside, emotional villagers use his speech to tell his countrymen about them. deputy director of the Yangtze have noticed stress levels rishave gathered beneath coconut “You will be very, very surprised at the things that we have River Water Resources ing.

“More and more they trees to tell stories about lost discovered,” Aquino said. “I think the common reaction was, Commission, was quoted remember traumatic events,” loved ones. Some angrily ask for among those who already know, the expression of the mouth Friday by state media as saysaid Judith Strasser, a clinical answers: Why did Cambodians was: ‘Ha, they did that! Why did they do that?’ There is really ing. He said authorities faced a psychologist with the Phnom turn on one another and where no sense, no rhyme, no reason.” Aquino spokesman Edwin delicate task in coming weeks Penh-based Transcultural was the international communiLacierda said yesterday there would be nothing personal in the in releasing water without Psychosocial Organization. ty then? Others complain about planned speech. “There is no intention to spite or to offend triggering devastating floods “They have extreme headaches, migraines and dizzy spells.

Congresswoman Gloria Arroyo,” he told reporters, describing it in already waterlogged comnightmares.

They can’t eat and “One of the beauties of this as an objective enumeration of facts. —AFP munities downstream. —AFP they feel they are alone.”

—AP process ... is that it is breaking

Cambodia awaits verdict in Khmer Rouge tribunal

Aquino set for angry State of Nation address

(File) Myanmar leader senior general Than Shwe salutes from a podium as he reviews troops during a military parade marking the country's 65th Armed Forces Day at a parade ground in Naypyidaw. —AFP

‘Pragmatic’ India hosts Myanmar military leader NEW DELHI: Myanmar’s military ruler Than Shwe arrives in India today for a state visit that underscores the growing strategic ties between the world’s largest democracy and one of its most repressive regimes.

The red-carpet reception planned for Shwe, who rarely travels abroad, has been sharply criticised by human rights groups as a betrayal of India’s democratic credentials and an implicit endorsement of Shwe’s junta. Shwe will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on economic and military cooperation and a series of trade deals are expected to be signed during the five-day visit.

Once a staunch supporter of Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, India began engaging the junta in the mid-1990s as security, energy and strategic priorities began to override concerns over democracy and human rights. As well as needing the junta’s help to counter ethnic separatists operating along their remote common border, India is eyeing oil and gas fields in Myanmar and fears losing out to China in the race for strategic space in Asia.

“India and Myanmar will work towards expanding engagements at all levels,” an India foreign ministry official said of Shwe’s visit. “It is crucial for India to cement its relationship with Myanmar to deal with the insurgency that plagues the northeast and to counter balance China’s influence,” the offi-

cial told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The European Union, United States and other countries have targeted Myanmar with economic sanctions and travel bans, but their impact on the military regime has been diluted by support from China, India and Thailand. The junta, which has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 50 years, has promised to hold Myanmar’s first elections since 1990 later this year. Western nations have dismissed the proposed poll as a sham, and Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is boycotting the ballot because of laws which would have forced it to expel her and other members in prison before it could participate.

Keen to obtain international legitimacy for the vote, Shwe is expected to seek India’s endorsement of the poll during his visit. A senior Indian foreign ministry official said India would stress the need for the ballot to be free and fair. “We will also offer our assistance in conducting the elections,” the official said.

On Wednesday, the International Federation for Human Rights, which represents 164 organisations across the world, wrote to Singh raising its concerns about his meeting with Shwe. “The long list of the junta’s well-documented human rights abuses includes acts that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law,” the

letter said.

Maintaining relations with Myanmar’s military leaders “without due regard to universal human rights is unbecoming of the world’s largest democracy and a responsible world power,” it added. Some Indian analysts defend what they see as New Delhi’s “pragmatic approach” that is dictated by national interest rather than moral considerations. “Engagement is not an endorsement,” said C Uday Bhaskar, director of National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi.

India is eager to boost its investment in gas and hydroelectricity projects in Myanmar and earlier this year its largest vehicle manufacturer, Tata Motors, agreed a deal to establish a heavy truck plant in Myanmar. “Economics is the key driving point and India does not enjoy the luxury to only deal with regimes with the same political, social values,” Bhaskar said.

However, critics of Myanmar’s military regime say India’s strategy is ill-conceived and damaging to its international profile. “India is basically hooking up with one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships,” said Benedict Rogers, author of “Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant.” “India will not benefit in the way it hopes. And it could risk losing out in terms of its reputation on the world stage,” Rogers, who works for the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide, told AFP. —AFP

Quake off Philippines; no damage reported MANILA: A strong earthquake and a series of aftershocks struck off the southern Philippines yesterday, officials said, but they occurred at such great depths that their impact dissipated and there were no reports of casualties or damage. No tsunami warning was issued. In just over an hour early yesterday, an earthquake and two aftershocks recorded at magnitudes of 7.3 to 7.6 by the US Geological Survey, at considerable depths of between 576 and 617 km (358 and 383 miles) southwest of Cotabato on Mindanao island.

An aftershock of 6.2 magnitude was measured in the same area at 1:35 pm (0535 GMT) yesterday, the USGS said, at a depth of 564 km (350 miles). The magnitude was initially reported at 6.7. “We expect these aftershocks, but we don’t expect them to cause any damage,” Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told Reuters, adding there had

been 68 aftershocks.

“These are too deep and the energy that it had generated weakened as it travelled up to the surface.” After the first set of quakes, Solidum had said they were felt only at intensity 2 in most parts of the southern island of Mindanao. The earthquake struck at 6.08 am (2208 GMT) about 103 km (64 miles) southwest of Cotabato. “The earthquake was not caused by movement in an active faultline, but by the sinking of the Moluccas plate,” he said.

“It has been sinking for some time, causing major tremors, but these were too deep to cause any damage. There’s nothing to worry about.” A quake of over 7.0 magnitude can cause widespread damage. People in Cotabato, where the tremor was felt at intensity 2, were unaware of the early morning quake. “There was no shaking, I never felt anything,” hotel worker Jap Rabino told Reuters. “It’s business as usual.” —Reuters

Sunday, July 25, 2010

INTERNATIONAL

11

Hide-out known to be frequented by foreign fighters

US missiles kill 16 militants in Pakistan KANDAHAR: US medics from 1st Platoon Bravo Troop of 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry check a sick Afghan villager during a patrol in Dand district of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan yesterday. —AFP

5 US troops die in blasts in southern Afghanistan KABUL: Five American troops died yesterday in bombings in southern Afghanistan where international forces are stepping up the fight against the Taleban, officials said. Four of the victims died in a single blast, NATO said in a statement without specifying nationalities nor providing further details. A fifth service member was killed in a separate attack in the south, NATO said. US officials confirmed all five were Americans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under rules regarding casualty identification.

The latest deaths bring to 75 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month, including 56 Americans. The US-led force is ramping up operations against the Taleban in their southern strongholds, hoping to enable the Afghan government to expand its control in the volatile region. Rising casualty tolls, however, are eroding support for the war even as President Barack Obama has send thousands of reinforcements to try to turn back the Taleban. On Tuesday, an international conference in Kabul endorsed President Hamid Karzai's plan for Afghan security forces to assume responsibility for protecting the country by the end of 2014.

Obama has pledged to begin removing US troops starting in July 2011, although he has linked the drawdown to security conditions on the ground.

In the eastern province of Khost, a candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections died late Friday of wounds suffered when a bomb exploded earlier in the day in a mosque in the Mando Zayi district, according to local health director Dr Amir Pacha.

The candidate, Maulvi Saydullah, was making a speech inside the mosque when the blast went off.

His bodyguards and at least 15 other civilians were also hurt, officials said. Afghanistan is due to hold national parliamentary elections Sept. 18 despite fears that they could provoke a surge in Taleban attacks.

Also yesterday, the Afghan Interior Ministry reported that five Afghan civilians were killed by a bomb in the Chora district of Uruzgan province. A total of seven militants died in clashes with Afghan and international forces since Friday night in the provinces of Khost, Uruzgan and Kunar, the ministry added without giving further details.

Four suspected insurgents were captured in two raids late Friday on Taleban hide-outs in Baghlan province of northern Afghanistan, NATO said.

Elsewhere, NATO said it was looking into conflicting reports of civilian casualties following a battle between international troops and Taleban fighters in southern Afghanistan. In Kandahar, a man named Abdul Ghafaar said he brought seven children to the city's Mirwais hospital after getting caught in crossfire Friday between NATO and Taleban forces in Sangin, a flash-point town in neighboring Helmand province.

Another man, Marjan Agha, said that he also brought injured people from Sangin and that the fight started Friday afternoon after civilians were caught between coalition and insurgent fighters.

He said villagers began walking with a white flag toward NATO forces but shots rang out and two people were killed on the spot. The NATO-led command it was aware of reports of civilian casualties in Sangin but said in a statement that it had "no operational reporting that correlates to this alleged incident."—AP

ISLAMABAD : US missiles hit a suspected militant hide-out, killing 16 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border before dawn yesterday, intelligence officials said. The strike came as the US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Adm Mike Mullen, met with top military officials in Pakistan, a key US ally in the battle against Islamist extremists. The six missiles struck a compound in the Nazai Narai area of South Waziristan. The hide-out was known to be frequented by foreign fighters who were among the dead, two intelligence officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to go on the record, said agents were trying to get more details about the identities and nationalities of the dead. Army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

US missile strikes regularly pound extremist targets in the northwest. South Waziristan has witnessed several major Pakistani military operations since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Washington has relied heavily on its covert missile campaign to take out al-Qaida, Afghan Taliban and their local supporters in North and South Waziristan tribal regions, which are hiding places for insurgents. Most of the strikes have hit targets in North Waziristan _ home to several militant networks that attack US forces in Afghanistan. Although Pakistan publicly condemns the missile strikes, it has secretly helped Washington in previous attacks.

Pakistan's importance to the American war effort in Afghanistan has been underscored by how frequently top US political and military leaders swing through Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani army has its headquarters. Mullen was expected to meet yesterday with Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was recently granted a three-year term extension, a sign of the desire for continuity in Pakistan's battle against Islamist extremists. In a press release, the US embassy described Mullen's visit as being part of "the regular bilateral consultations between the US and Pakistan."— AP

Dozens die after bus plunges into gorge GOVERDHAN: Hindu devotees travel on a crowded passenger train as they arrive for the Guru Purnima festival in the temple city of Goverdhan, about 145 kilometers (91 miles) southeast of New Delhi, India yesterday. Guru Purnima, or Guru's full moon day, is observed in many parts of India to pay respects to one's Guru, or teacher. —AP

Blast at a mosque kills Afghan election candidate KABUL: A candidate for Afghanistan's September parliamentary elections was killed and 20 others wounded by a bomb planted in a mosque in Khost, officials said yesterday.

Sayedullah Sayed, who also leads a small political party, was fatally wounded when a bomb detonated shortly before Friday's main prayers in the Ismail Khel of the province, provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaaqzai said.

Violence is a major concern for Afghan voters who go to the polls on Sept. 18 to choose from over 2,000 candidates standing for around 250 seats. "We don't want to blame anyone for this attack as the investigation is still going on," Eshaaqzai told Reuters. The Taliban, who frequently deny responsibility for attacks that target mosques, said the bomb could have been the work of Sayed's rivals.

The head of the provincial hospital, Amir Badshah Rahmatzai, said nearly 20 people were brought to the hospital along with Sayed, who lost both of his legs in the attack and later died.

Taliban insurgents carried out more than 130

attacks on polling centres and other targets during presidential elections last year, killing nine civilians and 14 Afghan security forces. In other violence, four members of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, (ISAF) were killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan, the alliance in a statement.

NATO did not disclose nationalities of the casualties nor the exact location of the incident.

Elsewhere, dozens of Taliban and "foreign fighters" attacked a district in mountainous Nuristan province near the Pakistani border, provincial governor Jamaluddin Badar said. Barge Matal district, which has already changed hands twice this year, has been the target of raids from Pakistani Taliban since the withdrawal of Americans troops last year.

Badar said the government troops, who are also backed by armed villagers, are outnumbered by the insurgents but expect reinforcements from nearby provinces soon. NATO troops only provide air support, he said.—Reuters

SRINAGAR: A minibus veered off a mountain road under construction and plunged into a river in Indian Kashmir, killing at least 17 people, a police officer said yesterday. Rescue workers were searching the fast-flowing waters of the Chenab River for any survivors, said Hemant Lohia. The accident occurred late Friday in the Kishtwar region, 120 miles (190 kilometers) southeast of Srinagar, the main city in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were traveling on the privately owned bus, or the cause of the crash. Three survivors who managed to climb out and swim ashore said about 20 people were inside, Lohia said. The minibus was negotiating a curve when the accident happened. "The entire road has been dug up for widening, and it was also slippery because of the rains," Lohia said. More than 110,000 people die annually nationwide in road accidents, according to police figures.

Badly maintained roads, overcrowding and aged vehicles are the cause of a majority of accidents in India.—AP

KARACHI: Burnt bus rest in a street after a mob set it on fire yesterday at a troubled area of Karachi, Pakistan. —AFP

Mullen arrives in Pakistan, holds talks with military ISLAMABAD: The US military's top officer arrived in Islamabad yesterday amid US concerns over the presence in Pakistan of Islamist militants blamed for attacks on NATO-led troops in Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, yesterday met General Tariq Majid, the ceremonial head of the Pakistan armed forces, and discussed regional security, an international conference held in Kabul this week and its effects on the region, Pakistan's statement said.

The statement issued in Islambad added that "India-Pakistan confidence-building, progress on efforts by Pakistan against terrorism and violent extremism and other matters of bilateral interest" were also discussed. Mullen will later meet US officers overseeing military assistance to Pakistan, as well as Pakistan's powerful army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, whose term was extended by three years on Thursday.

"This visit to Pakistan is part of the regular bilateral consultations between the US and Pakistan," the US embassy said in a statement. Mullen and US officials have praised Pakistan for moving against militants in the northwest but have urged the military to expand its operations to include the Haqqani network, which is based in North Waziristan.

On the eve of his one-day visit, Mullen

acknowledged US worries over sanctuaries in Pakistan for extremists, including the Haqqani network, who have attacked international forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Speaking at news conference in New Delhi, Mullen called the Haqqani militants "the most lethal network" faced by the US-led international force in Afghanistan and said he had repeatedly urged Pakistan to tackle the threat.

"I continue to address that with the (Pakistani) leadership as a very, very strong priority," Mullen told reporters at the end of a two-day visit to India. Kayani "is aware of that priority and in terms of what we think needs to happen," Mullen said. Created by Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani and run by his son Sirajuddin, the Haqqani group is one of the toughest foes for foreign forces in Afghanistan, particularly in the east of the country.

Mullen also said Pakistan's intelligence service needed to change its outlook, an apparent reference to charges that Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI sees Islamist militants as a hedge against its arch-rival India. "I believe the strategic approach, the overall strategic approach of ISI, needs to fundamentally change," he said. Mullen was due to take an aerial tour at an unspecified location in the north, where Kayani planned to brief him on Pakistani

operations against Taliban militants, US officers said.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced on Thursday he had extended Kayani's term for three years, a move welcomed by US officials who credit the general for launching offensives against Taliban militants last year. Mullen has gone out of his way to cultivate Kayani and aides said yesterday's trip was the admiral's 19th visit to see the Pakistani general.

Kayani assumed command of the Pakistan army in November 2007 after his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, relinquished command amid international pressure to end his eight years of military rule.

Arguably the most powerful man in nuclear-armed Pakistan, Kayani is a pivotal figure for the Obama administration as it seeks to contain Islamist insurgents fighting the Kabul government and Islamabad's authority. Washington calls the tribal belt on Pakistan's western border the global headquarters of the Al-Qaeda terror network and the most dangerous place on Earth.

Mullen's visit coincided with another apparent US drone strike in Pakistan, with unmanned aircraft firing four missiles into a compound used by Islamist fighters in the northwestern tribal belt. At least 12 militants were killed in the attack, security officials said.—AFP

Indian state seeks $1bn to counter Maoists NEW DELHI: An Indian state seen as a bastion of an increasingly deadly Maoist revolt said yesterday it was seeking one billion dollars to counter the left-wing insurgency with a development surge.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh told federal and state planners that the funds would be spent to rapidly build infrastructure and improve social conditions in

the worst-hit districts of the troubled central Indian state.

"We have submitted a scheme totalling 45.5 billion rupees (one billion dollars) for seven districts widely affected by left-wing extremism and I hope its sanction will be accorded soon," he told the National Development Council. Chhattisgarh says the insurgency has taken roots in 13 of the

impoverished state's 19 districts.

Additional "special assistance should also be made available to the six other districts in affected by the Maoist menace," the chief minister told the New Delhi meeting attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Some 80 percent of the state's 21.7 million population live in abject poverty, according to government figures.—AFP

MOINAGUDI: Villagers gather near part of the wreckage of an Indian Air Force MiG-27 aircraft which crashed in Moinagudi village, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Kolkata yesterday. A farmer died and at least 12 other people were injured on July 24 when a Soviet-era MiG-27 Indian war plane crashed into a village in eastern India, police said. —AFP

OPINION

12

Sunday, July 25, 2010

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issues

I understand Shirley Sherrod

By Dr James J Zogby

A

s an Arab American, I can empathize with Shirley Sherrod, the Georgia Department of Agriculture official who, last week, after being falsely accused of making anti-white racist comments, was forced to resign from her post. For those who don't know the story: On July 19th a right wing blogger posted a video excerpt of a speech Sherrod gave to a Georgia NAACP dinner in which she related an event that had occurred 24 years ago. A poor white farmer had come to Sherrod asking for assistance and she told her audience how she had dismissed his appeal thinking "his own kind would take care of him."

The video excerpt became a sensation and was highlighted by commentators on the Fox News Channel as evidence of the reverse racism tolerated by the Obama Administration.

Within hours of enduring these attacks, the Secretary of Agriculture, concerned that this would politically harm the Obama Administration, forced Sherrod to resign.

Only then did the entire story come to light. When the full speech was aired, it became clear that Sherrod had only told her audience about this episode as part of a confession of a painful mistake she had made that had caused her to reexamine her behavior and recognize her responsibility to all who were poor and in need.

In fact, she had helped that poor farmer, who came forward to tell the national media of the gratitude he and his family felt toward Sherrod.

By week's end, President Obama personally called Sherrod to apologize as did the Secretary of Agriculture, who offered her an elevated position. In the midst of this crisis, I wrote a number of short pieces on a few websites charging that Sherrod had been "lynched" and was a victim of a hysterical mob spurred on by lies and cowards in authority who, out of fear or political calculation, had sacrificed her to a mob refusing her right to a fair hearing.

I understood her plight because I, and many other Arab Americans and American Muslims, had endured similar treatment. Over the years a veritable industry has developed of anti-Arab groups and individuals whose job it has been to track our progress and to challenge our every advance with smear campaigns. Taking our quotes out of context, making patently false and sometimes bizarre claims that fabricate connections with terror groups and extremists, these characters and the websites and right-wing publications who use their work have directed their attacks against many prominent Arab and Muslim Americans and those in government or business who work with us.

This is what happened to my son more than a decade ago, when he worked for a time at the Department of State.

The same types of attacks have

followed my every move for decades. When in 1993, Vice President Al Gore asked me to head up a project he was launching to support economic development in the West Bank and Gaza, one of the professional Arab bashers wrote a piece suggesting I had been supportive of terrorists. Using this material, a prominent liberal magazine editorialized that Gore should remove me from the post. To his credit, Gore defended me and arranged a meeting with the magazine's editor. When the editor produced the quote I was alleged to have made and I shared with him the full text of what I had said, he recognized his error and apologized.

But the attacks never stopped. When I was invited last year to deliver the closing remarks at a Department of Justice conference, a rightwing researcher published an article describing me as "[Attorney General Eric] Holder's Hezbollah Buddy" and when I addressed last year's Pentagon iftar dinner, another of these anti-Arab hatchet men wrote a piece in a conservative magazine noting that a "well known Wahhabi supporter" spoke at the Pentagon.

Much the same has been experienced by others in my community. An Arab American state legislator in Michigan, and even the newly crowned Miss USA were falsely accused of Hezbollah ties. Young attorney Mazin Asbahi was forced to resign from the Obama campaign over similar fabricated charges.

And even now a new storm is brewing. A new mosque is being planned in an area near Ground Zero, the site of the terrorist attack that killed 3,000 innocents on Sept 11, 2001. Some local groups have objected and have been supported by the likes of 2012 presidential aspirants Sarah Palin, who called the mosque a "stab in the heart", and Newt Gingrich, who saw the mosque as part of a larger challenge arguing that "America is experiencing an Islamist culturalpolitical offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization".

A conservative magazine accelerated the assault with a personal attack on the mosque project's leader, Imam Faisal Abdul Raouf - a truly honorable man with a long record of promoting peace and reconciliation. Using the now familiar tools of half quotes, fabricated connections (described by another writer as: "his wife has an uncle who used to be "a leader" of a mosque that now has a website that links to the website of an allegedly radical organization"), and innuendo, the article attempts to portray Imam Faisal as a suspicious and even dangerous threat.

And now Congressman Peter King, the Republican ranking member of House Homeland Security Committee has called for an investigation into Faisal Abdul Raouf.

NOTE: Dr James J Zogby is the President of the Arab American Institute.

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.

Angola's debt bombshell leaves bond plans in ruins

By Ed Cropley

O

il-rich Angola's shock admission that it has $9 billion in unpaid building bills has sunk any immediate chance of issuing up to $4 billion in foreign debt but may mark a turning point for its secretive rulers.

The mess stems from Angola's reliance on oil for more than 80 percent of its official revenues, and the building boom that has gripped the country, and especially its capital, since a long civil war ended in 2002. When oil prices collapsed in late 2008, revenue dried up but the construction wave that has turned Luanda into one of the world's most expensive cities churned on regardless.

Lots of shiny new stadiums for the African Cup of Nations football tournament in January only made matters worse. Even though it produces 1.5 million barrels or more of oil a day, $9 billion is a large sum for the country of 16 million, equating to a quarter of the annual budget and nearly two-thirds of stated foreign exchange reserves. A degree of fuzziness with official data is common in most of frontier Africa, and investors had known for months Angola had fallen behind with payments to the Portuguese and Brazilian firms rebuilding after the end of the civil war.

But the sheer size of the arrears around three times prior estimates and the cack-handed nature in which they became known, with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos putting the debt at $6.8 billion on Monday only to be trumped by the Finance Ministry with $9 billion on Tuesday, left outsiders speechless. "Wow. It's shocking.

These are huge amounts," said Coura Fall, an African frontier market analyst at Citibank in Johannesburg. "They can forget about any eurobond now."

"People are asking questions about the finances. What is the government revenue on a monthly basis? How much do they owe to other creditors? Who do you trust?"

In a rare news conference, dos Santos, who has been in charge for 30 years, said all debts would be honoured, with smaller firms being paid in full in two months and larger ones getting 40 percent this year and the rest "in one or two years". But his words are unlikely to fill prospective investors with confidence, especially since the chances of being paid depend on the direction of oil prices. Another sustained drop because of a "double-dip" world recession would be disastrous. "It would make you think twice about your ability to be paid," said Stuart Culverhouse of London-based brokerage Exotix. The bond issue, which already appeared to be dropping in Luanda's priorities, would "clearly be delayed", he added.

However, Alex Vines, an Angola expert at the Chatham House thinktank in London, said dos Santos' unprecedented admission suggested there were no other skeletons in the cupboard, and could usher in the honesty outside investors so crave. The Finance Ministry has already decided to impose "more rigour and transparency" on government departments. "The history of Angola is that it does pay - it's just quite slow," Vines said. "Of course this will be a reality check, but as long as it turns out to be accurate and isn't the tip of a greater iceberg of unpaid bills, investors should kind-of welcome this."

The revelations mark a rude return to earth for a country that sees itself as vying with Nigeria to be Africa's biggest crude producer, and a future darling of foreign investors with grand plans for a stock market and issuance of

up to $4 billion in dollar bonds. What makes it worse is that Luanda, with bond issuance in mind, had received credit ratings from S&P, Moodys and Fitch in May with a favourable 'B+' outlook based on strong growth prospects and low levels of government debt.

The agencies, though nervous about

the secrecy in which dos Santos' administration cloaks itself, assessed external debt at 18 percent of GDP, or around $18 billion. The ratings followed the approval by The International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a $1.4 billion loan program last year. In an assessment of the economy released in May, the IMF estimated Angola's 2009

external debt at $14.9 billion, and under "external arrears" - which should include late payments to foreign construction firms - listed a paltry $500 million. Yet the revelations of the debts scale was serious enough for Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva to fly to Luanda last week to press for payment. — Reuters

Australia economy at risk

By Wayne Cole

A

ustralia is reconsidering its love affair with rapid population growth, a change of heart that would risk slower economic growth, faster inflation and possibly higher interest rates. With a tight election looming on August 21 and voters in crammed cities getting nervous about immigration, politicians are now backing away from the "Big Australia" idea that had been promoted as a way to secure the economy's future. "I don't believe in a big Australia. I don't believe in simply hurtling down a track to a 36 million or 40 million population," said Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, herself an immigrant.

Conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott has pledged to introduce a population growth cap if elected. Analysts fear cutting migration would lead to a surge in wages at a time when the country's central bank is already on inflation-alert.

The country desperately needs more workers to satisfy booming Asian demand for its mining and energy riches. For the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) brisk population growth is one reason it has remained upbeat in the face of so much doubt abroad.

When RBA head, Glenn Stevens, talks of a golden era of prosperity, it is based in part on expectations the population would expand by at least 60 percent to 36 million by 2050.

Just this week, Stevens emphasised how slowing or falling populations in many other countries meant they might have no choice but to accept lower rates of growth in the future.

Australia covers as much area as the United States but with just 22.4 million people, has one fourteenth of the population. Yet much of the country is either desert or bone-dry bush. As a result it is the 11th most urbanised nation on the

planet, with around 88 percent of the population crammed into just 3 percent of the country, mainly in the southeast corner. Infrastructure spending has lagged far behind, leaving voters complaining of road gridlock and failing public transport.

"There is a massive frustration, because up until now people have said our infrastructure is stretched to the limit and all we can see is more people arriving," said Australia's Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke. The government has been tightening up migration. Over the 12 months to May, just over a quarter of a million people decided to call Australia home, but that was down almost 90,000 from the previous year. "The government-driven fall in the number of migrants coming to our shores is the biggest in 16 years, robbing vital spending power from the economy when the global outlook has become murkier," said Craig James, chief equity economist at CommSec. A fertile combination of rising birth rates and surging immigration had seen Australia's population grow by 2 percent on average over the past five years, twice the pace of the United States and four times that of the UK and France.

It was a major reason the country escaped the worst of the global financial crisis. "It was Australia's best defence," said Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank. "It helped underpin house prices and demand right across the economy".

Australia's ability in recent years to import skilled labour, especially for miners ramping up production to meet insatiable demand from Asia, has also avoided wages pressures.

The jobless rate is now 5.1 percent, less than Japan and almost half of that in Europe, and nearing levels typically associated with rising price pressures. —Reuters

Chad, Sudan cement ties with defiance of ICC

By Mark John

C

had's red-carpet welcome for Sudan's Omar Hassan Al-Bashir cements a new-found detente between the former foes with an act of brazen defiance towards Bashir's international indictment for genocide and war crimes. Although a new blow to the credibility of the International Criminal Court, Chad's failure to arrest the visiting Bashir is unlikely to bring censure among many African states who know when security interests win the day over human rights concerns.

"It would be counter-productive to go for an arrest ...

The relative stability of the border could be jeopardised," Eurasia analyst Rolake Akinola said of the uneasy calm since a February ceasefire in a yearslong proxy war fought through rebel groups. Bashir's threeday trip to Chad for a regional summit last week is the first time he has risked setting foot in a state that is a full member of the Hague-based ICC since the court demanded his arrest for war crimes and genocide charges in the western Darfur region. Chadian President

Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir (right) is welcomed by Chad President Idriss Deby Itno at Ndjamena airport for the 12th Community of SahelSaharan (CEN-SAD) states summit on July 21, 2010 in NDjamena. – AFP Idriss Deby welcomed Bashir off the plane with full honours on Wednesday and his government declared that he would return home "safe and sound", disputing any obligation it had

to arrest an incumbent head of state. In a well-timed show of good neighbourliness, Sudan expelled two prominent Chadian rebel leaders, Mahamat Nouri and Timan

Erdimi, on the eve of Bashir's arrival.

The move followed a pact this year to stop supporting each other's insurgents who have caused havoc since Darfur

rebels - many belonging to Deby's Zaghawa tribe - took up arms in 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglecting the arid region. Deby was among the leaders who watched Bashir sworn in as re-elected president in May and is now banking on the relative peace helping him and his allies to victories in parliamentary and presidential elections this year and next. "Both parties would like to remain on good terms and it is in their interests to do so," said Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa project director for the International Crisis Group.

That argument resonates beyond their borders too.

There are misgivings about the timing of the arrest warrants for Bashir, with the African Union asking the ICC to postpone any action against him for fear of heightening tensions in Sudan at a critical juncture in its peace efforts. Those who back the Jan 2011 vote on southern Sudan's secession as a chance to resolve the country's north-south conflict are equally phlegmatic about isolating Bashir.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, whose

country is part of the troika supporting Sudan's 2005 northsouth peace deal, told Reuters last month the arrest warrants should not "cripple" international efforts to support the peace process.

ICG's Hogendoorn said Deby could nonetheless face criticism from supporters of the ICC such as South Africa which warned Bashir he would face arrest if he turned up for the recent World Cup. Bashir did not show up for the football tournament.

While Uganda reversed its original decision not to invite Bashir to an AU summit in Kampala this week, the office of the ICC prosecutor said Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni had likewise warned that he would be arrested if he came.

Yet Eurasia's Akinola said solidarity among African leaders - four of whom occupied a list of the world's top ten "bad dude dictators" drawn up by US Foreign Policy magazine this month - is seen limiting the overall pressure. "There is the general sense of African camaraderie," said Akinola. "It would violate any sense that there was a gentleman's agreement - that you don't shop each other." — Reuters

ANALYSIS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

13

Obama administration stumbles on race

By Steven R Hurst

T

he Obama administration - one of the most deliberative in recent US history - has for a second time found itself politically embarrassed over a hair-trigger reaction on race. While denying direct involvement in the improper firing of an African American Agriculture Department official, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs apologized on Wednesday under a blizzard of questions from reporters.

"A disservice was done and an apology is owed," Gibbs said.

As the first black president of a country with a deeply troubled racial history - slavery, a civil war fought largely over that issue and a long period of segregation - President Barack Obama has tried to play down the divisive issue, to present himself as the post-racial leader. Gibbs denied that the president was overly sensitive to fears among some white Americans that his administration would show favoritism to blacks. Rather, he said, the forced resignation Monday of Shirley Sherrod was the result of action taken because of the administration's failure to "ask the right question." She was serving as the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia.

Although the administration has now apologized, Sherrod has said she was poorly used when quickly ousted

by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and condemned by the NAACP, America's leading black civil rights organization. Obama has ordered Vilsack to talk the matter out with Sherrod, Gibbs said, and Vilsack

Shirley Sherrod answers questions during an interview at her home on Friday in Albany, Georgia. Sherrod was fired from her job at the Agriculture Department amid accusations of racism. – AP offered her a "unique opportunity" for a new job. Sherrod said she was thinking it over. On Thursday, Obama called Sherrod to express his regret over the incident. "The president told Ms Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need," the White House said in a statement. "He hopes that she will do so."

The issue blew up after a conservative website posted truncated video remarks by Sherrod in which she said she had been disinclined to help a white farmer as much as she could have 24 years ago. At the time, she worked for a nonprofit rural farm aid group.

Conservative Fox television quickly began reporting the incident, spreading the issue across the country. Other cable outlets finally reached the farmer and his wife who came to Sherrod's defense, declaring her responsible for saving their farm from creditors.

Omitted from the Web posting and the initial reporting was the fullness of Sherrod's remarks in which she said her initial feelings about not helping the white farmer led her to examine that reaction and to understand that the issue involved poverty - not race.

Lingering racism bedevils the American national consciousness and some on the extreme right have used

the issue in tangential attacks on Obama. Those tactics have had their effect. While the White House said Obama was not aware of the Sherrod case until after she was forced to resign, the administration at first said the president supported Vilsack's decision to fire her. It has likewise now joined Vilsack in declaring the whole issue should be re-examined.

Obama had his first presidential stumble on the race issue a year ago this month. It involved arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black professor at Harvard University, by Sgt James Crowley, a white sergeant with the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police department who was sent to investigate a possible burglary at Gates' home.

Although Crowley determined Gates was in his own home, he arrested Gates anyway after their encounter grew heated.

The charges were quickly dropped, but Obama's remarks at a news conference - he said the police had "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates - inflamed the debate. The president later said he should have expressed his concerns with different language.

That's when he invited Crowley, who steadfastly denied race was a factor in the arrest, and Gates, a friend of Obama's, to the White House to thrash things out - face-to-face - over a beer.

Conservative media outlets and bloggers have also been trying to win points against Obama with complaints about the Justice Department's handling of New Black Panther Party members who allegedly threatened voters at a Philadelphia polling place on the day Obama was elected. A criminal investi-

gation into the episode was dropped by the Bush administration, but the Obama Justice Department obtained a narrower civil court order against the conduct than Bush officials had sought.

The issue of racism dogged Obama through his historic run for the presidency, especially his relations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Obama's Chicago church. Obama finally cut ties with Wright after his incendiary remarks became an Internet sensation in the spring of 2008. At a National Press Club appearance in April that year, Wright claimed the U.S. government could plant AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested Obama was keeping his pastor at arm's length for political purposes while privately agreeing with him.

Obama denounced Wright as "divisive and destructive" and later cut ties to the pastor altogether and left Wright's church. But he stood fast with his preacher for a long time, given that Wright's remarks were threatening Obama's campaign for president.

He did not stand by Sherrod by countermanding Vilsack's decision to fire her. Gibbs said the White House would act differently going forward.

"One of the great lessons you take away from this is to ask all the questions first," the press secretary said.

But he sought an excuse in the nearly warp-speed of the American news cycle. "I can't speak for everybody involved," Gibbs said. "But a I think we live in a culture in which things whip around. People want fast responses."

The White House was embarrassingly too fast this time. — AP

Brazil must slay bureaucracy to grow faster F

By Stuart Grudgings

or an idea of the bureaucratic obstacles that hold Brazil back, consider the around 200 people that major steelmaker Gerdau has to employ to handle its taxes. In its Canada office, headquarters for its vast North American operations, one part-timer performs that task. Brazil has emerged as a brash emergingmarket giant alongside China and India, but the "old Brazil" lives on in the stifling red tape that infuriates foreign investors, companies and individuals, and stunts its economic dynamism.

Reforming the maze of rules and regulations - a key reason why Latin America's largest economy has for long struggled to sustain fast growth compared to more dynamic countries - is central to a debate over the role of the state that is shaping the campaign for Brazil's presidential election in October. Excessive bureaucracy deters companies from investing in areas such as infrastructure that Brazil needs to raise its growth potential. The average of 120 days it takes to start a company and the complex

labor laws that make hiring workers an expensive minefield make it unlikely that the next Google will be Brazilian. Bureaucracy fuels corruption and ensures that Brazil's huge informal economy keeps thriving.

"Brazil will have to reduce bureaucracy, because if it doesn't it will lose its competitiveness in a short time," said Joao Geraldo Piquet Carneiro, director of the Helio Beltrao Institute, which campaigns against excessive red tape. "The opportunities for (global) investment in the coming years will be multiple, and the weight of bureaucracy will make the difference."

The World Bank's annual survey on the ease of doing business ranks Brazil 129th out of 183 countries, below Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh, among others. Its lowest ranking was in paying taxes, with the average company spending a mindnumbing 2,600 hours a year on tax bureaucracy. A key question investors are asking ahead of Brazil's presidential election is which of the two main candidates is more likely to push through a "second generation" of economic reforms after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva steps down.

The economy romped ahead at a 9

percent annual pace in the first quarter, but economists say it cannot grow much faster than 5 percent a year over the long term without reforms to its labor and tax laws, pension system, and bureaucracy. It remains unclear how far Lula's hand-picked candidate, Dilma Rousseff, or the opposition's Jose Serra would try to reduce bureaucracy, although Serra is seen as favoring a slimmer state.

Rousseff, who as Lula's former chief of staff has intimate knowledge of how the bureaucracy works, has spoken of the need to tackle Brazil's "chaotic" tax system and to reduce the burden on investment. Serra, who as Sao Paulo governor set up a state debureaucratization program, points out that Brazil has the highest tax burden of any big emerging economy. "It's a microeconomic agenda that the next president is going to have to tackle," said Christopher Garman, chief Latin America analyst for the Eurasia Group in Washington. "There are huge bottlenecks over the capacity of the government to execute infrastructure programs, and this is a particularly acute problem in the run-up to the World Cup and the (2016) Olympics."

Delays in preparations for the 2014

World Cup are showcasing Brazil's bureaucracy problem as stadium plans have been snarled in court cases and complex tender processes. Garman said Serra could probably make a stronger case as a bureaucracy fighter because of his record in Sao Paulo state and the strong team of technocrats that surrounds him, but he said both candidates would make reform a priority. "It (reform) has to be piecemeal because a lot of the inefficiencies are sector specific," Garman said.

Brazil's struggle with bureaucracy, which many believe is a hangover from its colonial past, is a long one.

President Joao Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo, who ruled Brazil in the last years of its military dictatorship from 1979-1985, created the oxymoronic and now-defunct Ministry of Debureaucratization in an attempt at reform. There have been some recent breakthroughs. Big states such as Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais have made strides in tackling local bureaucracy, and a national reform called the "Super Simples" that unified a clutch of taxes for small companies in 2007 has drastically reduced the bureaucratic burden on that sector.

Another law, introduced last year, allows the owners of small businesses with annual revenues of up to 36,000 reals ($20,000) to register their companies online in a matter of minutes.

"It's an enormous advance over what we had before," said Carlos Alberto dos Santos, the director of the SEBRAE group that represents and supports Brazilian small businesses.

"When we discussed the Super Simples, the finance ministry was scared they would lose revenue. We always said they wouldn't because more companies would come and pay taxes." He said the entrepreneur law passed last year had brought about 450,000 firms in from the informal economy to legality. Bureaucracy at the federal level has not been tamed, however. In one example of how vested interests slow reform, a bill to create a credit rating agency that would remove the need for Brazilians to produce multiple documents proving they are free of debt has been held up for five years in Congress. Among the forces opposing the bill is the country's huge network of notary offices, or "cartorios," which have long thrived on processing the mountain of documents that Brazilians need to survive

Chavez passes buck as Venezuela woes worsen

By Frank Jack Daniel

V

enezuelan President Hugo Chavez shot to fame when he took responsibility live on TV for bungling a 1992 coup, but after 11 years in office it's more common to see him blaming enemies for the OPEC nation's problems.

With parliamentary elections set for Sept 26 and the country in recession, Chavez is delaying his customary campaign spending spree in favor of invective against food companies, Catholic prelates, TV stations, brokerage firms and banks.

Following a day of violence in his Feb 4, 1992, putsch attempt, Chavez, then a paratroop officer, realized his soldiers had failed to seize power and surrendered, asking only that he be given a few minutes television time.

The resulting broadcast was an instant hit, with the young lieutenant colonel in a red beret striking a chord in a country sick of corrupt officials who never admitted to failures. "Sadly, for now, the objectives we set out were not met in the capital," Chavez said to his troops in other parts of the country.

"Before the country and before you, I take responsibility for this Bolivarian military movement."

Such frankness stands in stark contrast to the Chavez of today, who is preparing for the September elections with an unprecedented level of fingerpointing in an apparent attempt to shift attention from a shrinking economy and other woes.

Chavez remains popular and his socialist party is likely to emerge holding a reduced parliamentary majority, although some in the opposition are hopeful they can take most seats.

"There is a radicalization in the campaign that was not typical before," said Luis Vicente Leon of respected pollster Datanalisis.

"They are putting names and and

surnames to the people they blame."

Chavez accused Lorenzo Mendoza, the billionaire owner of the country's top brewer Polar of stockpiling corn flour. He excoriated Roman Catholic Cardinal Jorge Urosa for opposing his socialist project. Stubbornly high inflation? The fault of unscrupulous private businessmen hoarding food. A weak currency?

T h a t ' s because of a "parasitic b o u r geoisie". A deep recession? It's the "death throes of capitalism" in the OPEC nation. Problems at oil installations?

Blame the private companies who owned them before they were nationalized.

Chavez has fulfilled many of his coup-era plans, including nationalizing industries privatized in the 1990s. But with the exception of the telecommunications sector, the results have been less than stellar, and this year he has struggled with power shortages and collapsing industry output. In the first years after Chavez took office in 1999, he could credibly blame others for some of Venezuela's problems. He had inherited an almost bankrupt country and faced constant pressure from the

opposition: street protests, a coup bid and an oil industry shutdown that obstructed his government.

But by the time he was reelected in 2006 with 63 percent of the vote, Chavez had consolidated his power. He now controls many media outlets and his allies dominate parliament and courts - making it hard to credibly shift responsibility.

In a June study, polling company Hinterlaces, respected but seen as pro-opposition, said that 39 percent of respondents now blame Chavez for not resolving the country's principal problems, with another 29 percent blaming his collaborators.

Chavez officials have even tried to shift some of the fallout from arguably the biggest scandal to hit his administration - the case of tens of thousands of tonnes of food left to rot by a government importer.

While the government accepts errors were made in food imports and has arrested some officials, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, who headed the importer at the heart of the scandal, said recently that private dockside warehouse owners were part of the problem, e v e n though

ports are now run by the state.

Chavez, whose popularity has slid in the last couple of years but is still above 40 percent, has in the past moderated his attacks against the private sector and increased spending before elections. The tactic has generally been successful.

But this time, he is lashing out at enemies and keeping the purse strings tight in a contracting economy - and possibly to save up for the bigger battle of 2012 presidential elections.

"Now the social enemy is not the opposition but the bourgeoisie, which official propaganda has turned into an exploiter, a speculator, a hoarder and against the people," said Hinterlaces in its June survey.

Chavez has launched a noisy offensive against the local Catholic Church leadership, which he accuses of bias against his socialist policies.

Dozens of financial institutions have been shut on fraud charges, with several executives jailed, including those of the country's largest brokerage, Econoinvest, which was once favored by the government for financial operations.

Two owners of the nation's most important remaining opposition TV station have had a large part of their business empires dismantled in recent weeks, with the government confiscating yachts and houses it says will be used to pay customers of one of the businessmen's failed bank, Banco Federal. The TV station remains open, but Chavez says the government will place a representative on the board.

Analysts question whether Chavez's offensive will succeed. "It can work in the short term, but if you do not resolve the country's problems, you disinflate and everything can come down on top of you," Leon said. — Reuters

focus

Issues beset 'post racial' presidency

By Patricia Zengerle

M

any supporters of Barack Obama hoped his election as America's first black president might herald an era of postracial politics, but race has been an issue his administration just can't seem to avoid. Division and tension between black and white Americans has cropped up repeatedly over Obama's 18 months in office, hurting his popularity and distracting from his political agenda. The issue surfaced this week when the Agriculture Department pushed a black official to resign after allegations she discriminated against a white farmer, only to apologize a day later for acting too quickly and without the facts.

Some said the White House was too eager to prove to its critics on the right that it does not favor blacks. "The Obama administration lost some political capital because they acted without thinking things through," said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University. Obama and race relations have often grabbed headlines. Last July - in the heat of the White House fight for its healthcare overhaul - when Obama was subjected to scathing criticism for saying police had "acted stupidly" when they arrested Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, on charges he was breaking into his own home.

More recently, the Justice Department dismissed voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party, prompting criticism from conservative groups who said the black president was unwilling to prosecute fellow blacks for civil rights violations. "When the rightwing noise machine starts promoting another alleged scandal, you shouldn't suspect that it's fake - you should presume that it's fake, until further evidence becomes available," columnist Paul Krugman wrote in The New York Times.

It has been more than 40 years since landmark US civil rights laws banned discrimination against blacks. But race in America remains a forceful, divisive factor in areas from jobs to educational opportunity to banking and home ownership.

Blacks account for 13 percent of the US population and on average earn less and are more likely to be unemployed than other racial groups. They are also more likely to be arrested and

are given harsher sentences.

"Racial conflict is America's deepest wound, still poorly healed," columnist Michael Gerson wrote in Wednesday's Washington Post.

Both the right and left accuse each other of injecting race into the political discourse.

Experts say that's inevitable given Obama's position as the first non-white US president.

Obama's father was Kenyan and his mother a white American.

This week, Shirley Sherrod, a black official at the Agriculture Department, said her bosses pushed her to quit after conservative media repeatedly broadcast a tape that seemed to show her saying she had discriminated against a white farmer because of his race.

It was later found that the tape had been altered to misrepresent Sherrod's remarks at a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest black rights advocacy group. She had in fact been saying that race should not matter. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack publicly apologized and the department offered her another job. She said she had not decided whether or not to take it.

Whether intended or not, the furor over the Sherrod case distracted media attention on Wednesday from one of Obama's biggest achievements his signing of a historic reform of financial regulation that was opposed by conservatives.

Conservatives had linked the tape to the NAACP asking the conservative "Tea Party" political movement to denounce racism by some of its members.

Images such as Obama with a bone through his nose and the White House with a lawn full of watermelons have been displayed at Tea Party rallies.

Tea party leaders say the movement is not racist but concede there are racist fringe elements in its membership.

Gillespie said the stakes are higher for Obama because his presidential campaign sought to emphasize that it was would not be bogged down in racial disputes. "So when Barack Obama got elected ... this meant that he wasn't 'supposed' to address racial issues and that if he did discuss racial issues, there would be a whole backlash," Gillespie said. Such issues are a distraction from serious problems like racial disparities in US unemployment and education, she said. — Reuters

Chinese help key to pressuring N Korea

By Foster Klug

N

ew US sanctions may make life uncomfortable for North Korea's elite, but the North will not feel real pain unless the United States gets help from a reluctant China, Pyongyang's main economic and diplomatic lifeline.

The sanctions announced Wednesday by the Obama administration are a show of solidarity with Seoul over the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea. The measures are intended to shine a spotlight on shady North Korean business and weapons dealings.

Forcing the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions, however, will depend in large part on whether China joins tough measures meant to cut off the flow of cash North Korea gets from alleged money laundering, counterfeiting of cigarettes and US currency, drug smuggling, and the sale of missile and nuclear technology. Getting China to pressure a country it considers a buffer between itself and South Korean-based US troops will not be easy.

China worries that chaos from a collapsed North Korea could spill across a shared border, along with a flood of refugees.

To win support for its new measures, the Obama administration is sending Robert Einhorn, the State Department official in charge of enforcing sanctions against the North, to Asia next month. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will discuss the sanctions this week with Chinese Foreign

Minister Yang Jiechi. The United States already heavily sanctions North Korea.

American officials also have targeted private banks in Asia that might have North Korean ties, part of an attempt to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs.

The new US measures, which will not be ready to implement for another couple of weeks, aim to target arms sales that fund the North's nuclear program and luxury items bound for Pyongyang's ruling class. Juan Zarate, who helped develop US sanctions strategy in the George W Bush administration, said that even without Chinese help, the new sanctions could "keep the pressure on North Korea, both psychologically and in terms of the international financial scrutiny" of proliferation and banking activities.

He added, "It's incredibly important how the Chinese react." The sanctions show the Obama administration's determination to keep pressuring the North after Pyongyang responded to the White House's initial engagement offers last year by conducting nuclear and missile tests. The Obama administration is sensitive about publicly criticizing Beijing over North Korea, however, mindful that it needs Chinese cooperation on economic, environmental, diplomatic and military initiatives around the world. Republican Rep Ed Royce warns that the Obama administration "will have to be tough with Beijing, something it hasn't been willing to do to date". — AP

NEWS

14

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Taleban capture two US soldiers KABUL: Two US troops are missing in eastern Afghanistan, a military official said yesterday.

An Afghan official said one may have been killed and the other captured by the Taleban.

Also, five American troops died yesterday in bombings in the south where international forces are stepping up the fight against the insurgents. A NATO statement yesterday said the two service members left their compound the previous day in Kabul but did not return.

The statement did not identify the pair by nationality but US officials said they were American.

The military has dispatched vehicles and rotary-winged aircraft to search for them and their vehicle. Samer Gul, district chief of Charkh district in Logar province, said yesterday that a four-wheel drive armored vehicle was seen Friday night by a guard working for the district chief’s office. The guard tried to flag down the vehicle, carrying a driver and a passenger, but it kept going, Gul said. “They stopped in the main bazaar of Charkh district.

The Taleban saw them in the bazaar,” Gul said.

“They didn’t touch them in the bazaar, but notified other Taleban that a four-wheel vehicle was coming their way.”

The second group of Taleban tried to stop the vehicle, but when it didn’t, insurgents opened fire and the two occupants in the vehicle shot back, he said. NATO said a search is under way for the missing service members.

According to Gul, one may have been killed and the other taken hostage by the Taleban.

“Maybe they wanted to go to Paktia province or to the American base, but they came down the wrong road toward Charkh,” Gul said.

“They didn’t pay any attention to the police.

Otherwise we could have kept them from going into an insecure area and now this unfortunate incident has happened.” Military officials could not confirm the district chief’s account.

The only US service member known to be in Taleban captivity is Spc Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho who disappeared June 30, 2009 in Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan. He has since appeared on videos posted on Taliban websites confirming his captivity. Mohammad Nasir Medaruz, director of radio station in Logar called Meli Pegham, or “national message,” said he received a phone call from coalition officials who asked that he broadcast a message offering $10,000 for information about the whereabouts of each missing service member.

“I told them that Logar is not a safe area and if I broadcast that, I could get attacked,” Medaruz said. He said that if the military officials paid him, he would broadcast the information but say that it was an “advertisement.” He said he did not broadcast the information, but another radio station, sponsored by the military in Logar, did air the message.

The five troops died yesterday in roadside bombings - four in a single blast, NATO said in a statement without specifying nationalities nor providing further details. A fifth service member was killed in a separate attack in the south, NATO said. US officials confirmed all five were Americans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under rules regarding casualty identification. The latest deaths bring to 75 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month, including 56 Americans. — AP

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin: A Cadillac Escalade sits at the bottom of a sinkhole on Friday, still running almost 20 hours after the driver fell in. On Thursday, powerful storms pounded southeastern Wisconsin and caused widespread flooding. — AP

N Korea threatens nuke response to naval games Continued from Page 1 Ailing leader Kim Jong-Il, 68, is widely reported to be preparing to name his youngest son as eventual successor.

South Korea’s military said it was closely monitoring the North’s military moves in border areas but had not detected any unusual activities.

In a show of force, Seoul and Washington announced the exercise involving 200 aircraft, 8,000 service personnel and 20 ships including an aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan. And US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disclosed plans for new sanctions on the impoverished communist state to punish

it for the sinking and force it to scrap its nuclear weapons program. The North staged atomic weapons tests in 2006. It carried out another test in May last year, a month after quitting six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

In a separate statement, Pyongyang’s foreign ministry vowed “strong physical measures” against the sanctions and pledged to strengthen its nuclear deterrent. The comments came af ter the North on Friday threatened a “physical response” to the drills while the United States accused it of waging a campaign of provocation. The war of words dominated an Asia-Pacific security forum in Hanoi attended by Clinton and North Korean

Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun on Friday.

In Hanoi yesterday, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan called for stern measures against the North.

“For the time being, the international community should take stern measures in the face of North Korean provocations and make the North realise its armed provocations will face consequences,” Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying. Foreign ministers from the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), in a statement issued late yesterday, “expressed deep concern” over the sinking and support for a July 9 UN Security Council statement on the incident. — AFP

15 killed in German stampede Continued from Page 1 To prevent further chaos the event wasn’t cancelled. The people are being asked to leave the area quietly,” he added.

Ambulances rushed to pick up victims and police set up an emergency first aid station near the entrance, where live images from WDR television showed thousands of revellers streaming out of the festival and towards the city’s main train station.

“There was no escape,” one Love Parade participant named Marius told the Bild.de website. “People were pressed into the wall. I was afraid I’d die.” One woman

raver told Bild: “I was lucky. I found a hole to escape through but two women were killed right next to me.” Bild reporter Frank Schneider was quoted saying: “I counted 11 people dead. It was a shock.”

Official police figures put the number of dead at 15 people at 1720 GMT, with another 10 were resuscitated while at least 15 more were injured. Some media reported at least 100 injured.

Live images from the venue showed the music still playing as helicopters buzzed overhead, and WDR reported the main train station was closed and mobile phone networks were overloaded. “The emer-

gency workers have problems getting to the area due to the massive crowds,” a fire department spokesman from Duisburg told Reuters, declining to be named.

The Love Parade was once an institution in Berlin, but has been held in the industrial Ruhr region of western Germany since 2007. The original Berlin Love Parade grew from a 1989 peace demonstration into a huge outdoor celebration of club culture that drew about 1.5 million people at its peak in 1999. But it suffered from financial problems and tensions with city officials in later years, and eventually moved. — Agencies

Cleric says women can take off niqab Continued from Page 1 The French senate will vote on the measure in September, after which it could still be challenged on constitutional grounds.

Several other European countries are also debating possible bans on the face veil.

Nearly all women in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Muslim countries, don the face covering in public, although an increasingly large minority are daring to go without it.

Not all Islamic clerics agree that the face veil is an obligation, with some calling it a tradition. But most clerics agree a headscarf is a religious requirement. Beyond Saudi Arabia, the face veil is quietly spreading in other Arab countries. Some governments, like Egypt and Syria, have taken measures to limit its spread, such as barring it in universities and academic institutions. Qarni’s religious guidance, or fatwa, is an advisory opinion and not a law. It is significant because it comes from a Saudi cleric whose writings

are widely read. But other clerics in the kingdom did not see eye-to-eye with Qarni.

Mohammed Al-Nujemi, a Saudi professor at the Institute of Judicial and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, said it is best to avoid countries were the ban is enforced. “The Saudi woman should not go on tourism to nonMuslim countries,” he told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network. “Going to a non-Muslim country without a necessity is not permissible according to the sharia,” he said, referring to Islamic law. — Agencies

Iran eyes nuke fusion reactor Continued from Page 1 signed an accord in 2006 to build a $12.8 billion experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache, southern France, aimed at revolutionizing global energy use for future generations.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, members have said no single country can afford the immense investment needed to move the science forward.

Salehi, Iran’s nuclear chief, said Iran was willing to join any international grouping to offer its expertise to promote the project.

However, he said Iran will go its own way should the world not welcome it. “We are ready to enter into cooperation with any international group or country,” he told ISNA. Nuclear fusion has long been touted as the cheap, safe and clean energy source of the future, but efforts to harness it for power generation have so far failed to bear fruit. Fusion is used in the hydrogen bomb, in which fissile material like that in a simple nuclear warhead launches the process by which atomic nuclei fuse together to release energy. Iran has always rejected Western suspicions that its nuclear program is aimed at developing a weapons capability.

In May, North Korea said it carried out a nuclear fusion reaction that could lead to an almost limitless supply of clean energy, a process that scientists have so far yet to

achieve. Physicists worldwide are striving to develop a nuclear fusion power plant, a project which the International Atomic Energy Agency terms “a great challenge”.

Separately, the former naval chief for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the country has set aside 100 military vessels to confront each warship from the US or any other foreign power that might pose a threat, an Iranian newspaper reported yesterday. Such a military confrontation in the vital oil lanes of the Arabian Gulf would be of major global concern. The warning builds on earlier threats by Iran to seal off the Gulf’s strategic Strait of Hormuz through which 40 percent of the world’s oil passes - in response to any military attack.

“We have set aside 100 military vessels for each (US) warship to attack at the time of necessity,” Gen Morteza Saffari was quoted as saying by the conservative weekly Panjereh. The US and Israel have said military force could be used if diplomacy fails to stop what they suspect is an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Iran denies any aim to develop such weapons and says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes like power generation. The US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters is based just across the Gulf from Iran in Bahrain.

Saffari said more than 100 foreign warships were currently in the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, adding that their sailors were “morsels” for Iran’s military to target, the newspaper reported.

“Any moment the exalted supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) orders - or should the enemy carry out the smallest threat against (Iran’s ruling) Islamic system - the Guard ... is ready for quick reaction,” he was quoted as saying. By putting the number of foreign warships at 100, the general appeared to suggest Iran has 10,000 military vessels at the ready. Iran is known to have many speed boats used by the Guard, but there is no public information about how many larger military vessels it has.

In Jan 2008, five small high-speed vessels believed to be from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard briefly swarmed three US Navy ships passing near Iranian waters in the Gulf and delivered a radio threat to blow them up. The war of words has intensified between Iran and the West since the UN Security Council imposed tougher sanctions last month in response to Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or material for an atomic bomb. Iran put its most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, in charge of defending the country’s territorial waters in the Arabian Gulf in 2008.

“We believe the enemy, through extensive psychological warfare, wants to coerce us, but Iran ... is ready,” said Saffari, who was the Guard’s navy chief until early May. “The enemy won’t dare attack Iran.” — Agencies

Iran, Brazil, Turkey to discuss nuke fuel swap TEHRAN: The top diplomats of Iran, Brazil and Turkey will discuss nuclear fuel supplies for Tehran in Istanbul yesterday, in the first such gathering since the Islamic republic was slapped with new sanctions. Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was to meet his Brazilian and Turkish counterparts, Celso Amorim and Ahmet Davutoglu, “to discuss... the Tehran Declaration about the fuel swap,” his ministry’s spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

The Istanbul meeting would be the first between the three sides since the United Nations Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions against Iran on June 9 over its controversial nuclear drive. Iran, Brazil and Turkey reached the so-called Tehran Declaration on May 17. Hailed by the three, the declaration stipulates Iran is ready to send 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey to be supplied at a later date with high-enriched uranium by Russia and France.

But it was immediately cold-shouldered by world powers which went ahead and backed the fresh UN sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment program.

The deal was a counter-proposal by Iran

to an October plan drafted by the UN atomic watchdog in Vienna that envisaged sending 1,200 kg of Iran’s LEU in exchange of high-enriched uranium to be used at a Tehran research reactor. That plan got caught up in deadlock, with both groups insisting on conditions unacceptable to each other.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency drafted its proposal in collaboration with Russia, France and the United States, the trio since known as the Vienna group. The group raised several questions regarding the Tehran Declaration, and Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday that Tehran was prepared to answer them. “A response has been prepared and in the next two or three days it will be delivered to the Vienna group,” Salehi was quoted as saying by ISNA. He said Iran’s response was a “general response, but the technical response to their questions will be discussed probably in a meeting with the Vienna group”. Salehi did not specify when such a meeting would take place.

Iran meanwhile is expected to commence talks with the six world powers Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany - concerning its overall nuclear program from September.

Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under whose leadership Iran has aggressively pursued the nuclear program, has ordered a freeze on these talks until the end of August. The latest UN sanctions were followed by unilateral punitive measures from Washington, and on Thursday the European Union agreed on a package of punitive measures targeting Iran’s energy sector.

The sanctions are part of a twin-track approach with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton seeking to revive moribund talks between Iran and the six world powers. Western powers have demanded that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program, fearing Tehran would use the material to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran says its atomic program is a peaceful drive to produce energy.

Yesterday, it announced it was conducting studies into building an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, which if successful would be the first such plant in the world. Salehi said an eight-milliondollar fund had also been set up to conduct “serious” research in the area of nuclear fusion. Physicists worldwide are striving to develop a nuclear fusion power plant, a project which the International Atomic Energy Agency terms “a great challenge”.— AFP

Black-clad Putin roars on a Harley SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine: Leaving a cloud of dust in his wake, a black-clad Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin roared into a rally in Ukraine on a Harley-Davidson and hailed bikes as a “symbol of freedom”. Putin drove into the rally of bikers on the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea astride a gigantic threewheeled Lehman trike conversion Harley-Davidson motorbike, wearing dark glasses and waving his black gloved hands.

The Russian prime minister is on a one-day trip to the south of Ukraine for talks with President Viktor Yanukovych but rarely misses any chance to burnish his hard man image. “I greet you brothers!” he told the gathering of some 7,000 bikers after dismounting and taking to the stage for a speech. The motorbike is the “the most democratic means of transport,” declaimed Putin, who has been repeatedly criticised by activists for doing little to help political democracy in Russia.

“It’s the boldest, the quickest transport and gives the biker the sweet feeling of freedom,” said Putin.

“Without any exaggeration you can say that a bike is a symbol of freedom,” added the Russian strongman. He also warned bikers to “say no” to excessive speed and ended his speech with the unusual flourish of speaking in Ukrainian:

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin waves while riding a Harley-Davidson Lehman Trike as he arrives for the meeting with Russian and Ukrainian motorbikers at their camp in Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula yesterday. — AP “Khai Zhive Baik!” (“Long Live the Bike!”).

The rally outside the Crimean port of Sevastopol the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet -was organised by one of Russia’s oldest biking groups “The Night Wolves”. The location was not without political significance af ter Yanukovych’s shock decision this year to extend the lease

of the Black Sea fleet in Crimea by another quarter century rapidly warmed Moscow-Kiev ties. Putin, who earlier hailed the new atmosphere created in ties by Yanukovych, then went into talks with the Ukrainian leader at the presidential dacha in the Crimean resort of Foros.

Possibly with an eye to

burnishing his image ahead of 2012 presidential elections, Putin has over the last months engaged in an array of eye-catching media stunts.

These have ranged from caressing a wild polar bear in the Russian Far Nor th, attending an ultimate fighting match with Hollywood hardman Jean-Claude Van Damme. — AFP

Sunday, July 25, 2010

SPORTS

15

Overjoyed Vettel on pole for German Grand Prix HOCKENHEIM: German Sebastian Vettel was overjoyed yesterday after he clocked the fastest time in front of his home fans in qualifying for today's German Grand Prix. That completed a hat-trick of pole positions and gave the 23-yearold his sixth of the season, meaning Red Bull have now taken ten from eleven races this year. Vettel shouted, "Yeh baby!" after being given the news that he had won a close battle between himself Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

"It will be interesting to work out how much distance two thousandths of a second is! All session Fernando was very strong and Ferrari are generally very competitive," said the German. "It was very exciting and in Q2 I knew we had one lap to get it right. It was close and you push a little bit more and you lose the edge of the tyres and then feel you are losing time. My last run wasn't 100 per cent perfect, I had a bit here or there where I went above the limit but in the end it was enough by nearly nothing to stay ahead and get on pole."

Alonso, who will start second on the grid ahead of Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, said he was surprised to be challenging the Red Bulls for pole.

"We always expect the Red Bulls in Q3 to give something more ... in Q3 they are usually far away," said Alonso. "So we were surprised to be that close and finally fighting for a pole position after 10 races. It took a bit longer but now we are very close." Australian Mark Webber will start fourth and admitted that he had had a poor start to his final lap. He said: "I got a little bit wide on the entry to turn one, it wasn't good enough and I lost the position to Felipe which was a shame."

McLaren drivers Britons Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will start fifth and sixth respectively but are concerned that, despite their upgraded cars, they are not as fast as the Red Bulls. Button said: "I was happy with Q3 and my lap but I don't know where seven tenths are, we don't have the pace of the Red Bulls which is quite worrying." Pole Robert Kubica of Renault will start seventh ahead of Williams driver Brazilian Rubens Barichello and Germans Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and Nico Hulkenberg in the second Williams who completed the top ten.

After an overcast, cold and wet Friday, the track was clear and the sun was out at the Hockenheimring yesterday. Alonso relished the improved conditions from the get-go and was on top in Q1 while the three new teams were all eliminated along with Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi. Liuzzi crashed after running wide at the last corner just five minutes into the session, and Virgin driver Timo Glock narrowly escaped a stray wheel as he went past the Force India car.

Liuzzi claimed his accident was the result of a wet patch on the astro-turf. He said: "I came out of the last corner quite fast, and I think I hit a puddle in the artificial grass that was quite invisible."

Despite his accident, Liuzzi will start today's race in 22nd place. The biggest disappointment of the day was seeing crowd favorite and seven times champion German Michael Schumacher of Mercedes fail to make the top ten shoot out after fellow German Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg knocked him out of tenth in the final seconds of Q2.

The 42-year-old was eliminated ahead of 12th fastest Japanese Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber and Russian Vitaly Petrov of Renault. Sauber driver Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, Toro Rosso drivers Spaniard Jaime Alguesuari and Swiss Sebastien Buemi and Lotus drivers Italian Jarno Trulli and Finn Heikki Kovalainen were all boosted up a place after Force India driver Adrian Sutil was given a five-place grid penalty, he will start in 19th position. — AFP

Alonso lauds Ferrari team HOCKENHEIM: Fernando Alonso said that his Ferrari team should be very happy with their performance after qualifying second and third for today's German Grand Prix. The 28-year-old Spaniard was pipped to pole position by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel whose time was just 0.002 seconds quicker denying the Italian team their first pole since 2008. Double champion Alonso, who hasn't started from the front row since last year's Hungarian Grand Prix, was delighted with his car's pace and the positive step forward by his team.

"I think we have to be happy," he said. "We are in the first row for the first time this season so that is definitely a step forward for us. "We have been competitive all weekend, I'm very confident with the car. I was very happy with the car in Q1, Q2 and Q3." Alonso said he was not disheartened by losing out to Vettel and that the most important thing was to do well in the race. "Finally we made a perfect Saturday.

Obviously we lost pole position by a small margin, but the points are tomorrow not Saturday so we need to stay focused for tomorrow."

Alonso added that he had not expected to match the qualifying pace of the Red Bulls, as the Milton Keynes-based outfit have dominated almost every qualifying session so far this season. "We always expect the Red Bulls in Q3 to give something more," he added. "We saw this is very close in free practice but then in Q3 they are usually far away. "So we were surprised to be that close and finally fighting for a pole position after 10 races. It took a bit longer but now we are very close."

His Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa completed his team's best qualifying of the year after clocking the third fastest time.

Massa believes that he could have done even better and is anticipating a strong race from Ferrari today. "I think it was a good performance from us," he said. "It was a very tough qualifying. In Q3 I could not put all the sectors together. "I am happy to be back in Q3 and more focused for the race tomorrow. I hope we can do a good job and score many points for the team and myself." — AFP

HOCKENHEIM: Red Bull Racing Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel (inset) of Germany steers his car during a training session at the race track in Hockenheim yesterday. The race will take place today. — AP

Lorenzo tries to avoid Laguna Seca crash out LAGUNA SECA: Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo takes a 47-point lead over countryman Dani Pedrosa into today's US Grand Prix but the Laguna Seca circuit could be a place for Pedrosa to make a move. The ninth of 18 races this season takes place on a 3,610m layout where Honda-racer Pedrosa is the defending champion and Yamaha's Lorenzo has a history of crashing on cold tires. "I have some painful memories of this track," Lorenzo said. "In 2008 I crashed on cold tyres in the first corner and injured my feet. Last year I crashed twice on cold tyres, once on the front and once on the rear, but then went on to get pole and finish on the podium.

"Laguna is certainly a special place, very different to the rest of the circuits we race at, but I like riding here."

Casey Stoner posted the fastest practice time on Friday for today's race.

Stoner, of Southport, Queensland, seized the early lead with a time of 1'26:364, and later recorded a lap of 1'21.699.

Lorenzo was second in the session with 1'21.932 while Andrea Dovizioso was third in 1'22.225. Pedrosa was fourth (1'22.559) while American Ben Spies rounded out the top five (1'22.640).

Lorenzo, second last week in Germany, has finished first or second in the first eight races of the season, becoming the first rider since Italian teammate Valentino Rossi to reach the

podium in eight races to start a season.

Asked if the championship fight consumes him more than winning races, Lorenzo said the two go hand-in-hand.

"You have to pay a lot of attention to your limits, know where they are, try and stay within them and finish on the podium whenever it's possible," Lorenzo said. "We hope to have a good race this weekend."

Pedrosa won in Germany and has won twice at Laguna Seca. He has every intention of moving closer to Lorenzo.

"The Championship still isn't over as the gap to Lorenzo can be closed," Pedrosa said. "We have a lot of races to go, but we can only take things race by race and do the best we can. "The last few races have been good for us and I have good memories from this race last year. I hope that this weekend we will have more good memories to take away from Laguna Seca with us."

Rossi made his return last week from a broken leg suffered six weeks before at Mugello and settled for fourth when Stoner beat him at the last turn. He could also thrive at Laguna, where he won in 2008 and settled for second last year. "After the race in Germany I didn't have any extra problems, especially with my leg, so I'm in quite good shape," Rossi said. "If I can ride like at Sachsenring it's possible to have a good weekend here." — AFP

McLaren aim to overtake Ferrari as top F1 brand HOCKENHEIM: McLaren aim to overtake glamour team Ferrari as Formula One's leading brand within the next 20 years, team principal Martin Whitmarsh said. The 52-year-old Briton, who took over at the helm from Ron Dennis last season, told reporters at the German Grand Prix that what might once have been a fantasy could become a reality in his lifetime.

McLaren, he suggested, were riding a wave of support driven by British drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, the last two world champions who are first and second in the standings. "The biggest brand in Formula One today is Ferrari, and I acknowledge and accept it," he told reporters in the McLaren 'Brand Centre', an imposing glass-fronted structure in the Hockenheim paddock. "McLaren I think is the second biggest brand in Formula One by a reasonable margin from whoever is the third.

"They (Ferrari) have got 60 years of heritage, lots of world championships.

Rather than me be jealous of it or pretend its not there, it's much better to say they are fantastic, they have achieved so much, but we want to beat them one day," he continued. "It might not be even in my career but in 10 years, 20 years time why can't we

be the biggest brand? "Twenty years ago that would have sounded ridiculous to say, I don't think it sounds so ridiculous now and hopefully in 10 years time it will sound even more realistic and in 20 years time we'll have done it."

BIG CHANGE Whitmarsh said he had noticed a change at this month's British Grand Prix when he drove in to the circuit and had to wait for a stream of supporters to cross the road. More than half were wearing McLaren branding while there was barely a Ferrari cap or shirt in sight. That undeniably had much to do with Hamilton and Button competing at their home grand prix. The two Spanish races, home of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, had far more of the Italian team's branding on show, as will the season-ender in Abu Dhabi with a Ferrari theme park next door.

However, Whitmarsh said his team, who had champions like Ayrton Senna and James Hunt, were now more popular than ever. "I have never experienced in whatever, 22 years in this team, the feeling of support that we are enjoying," he said.

"I have to say it's largely down to the drivers. One, their performance in a car but also their performance out of a car.

They are both attractive personalities, honest human beings that I think people can relate to and there is a tremendous feeling.

"We've had times when we've been performing well, winning races, easily winning championships but we have never felt the support that we've had this year," said Whitmarsh. McLaren and Ferrari were once sworn enemies, their rivalry triggering bitter controversies, but that has softened since the departure of Dennis and former Ferrari boss Jean Todt.

They are now united in the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) led by Whitmarsh and on a far more friendly footing. "We talk much more affectionately about Ferrari now than we ever have, and I do have a lot of respect for Ferrari as a brand and as a race team and the people that run it," said Whitmarsh. "But nonetheless for years you saw Ferrari merchandise ... everywhere around the world in Formula One venues, and you've got to say there's considerably less now. "Go back 20 or 25 years and there was the Ferrari brand and the rest of us. I think McLaren has pulled itself up and therefore we are sharing some of that with Ferrari in a way that we weren't before." — Reuters

Stoner sets Laguna Seca pace, Rossi again shines

MONTEREY: Jorge Lorenzo, of Spain, races during practice laps for the Red Bull US Grand Prix MotoGP world championship motorcycle race at Laguna Seca raceway in Monterey, Calif. — AP

LAGUNA SECA: Australian Casey Stoner, winner here in 2007 when he went on to clinch the MotoGP world title, was quickest in first practice on Friday for the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. While world champion Valentino Rossi posted the sixth fastest time just seven weeks after breaking his right leg, Ducati's Stoner set a blistering pace on a sun-baked but breezy afternoon.

The 24-year-old Australian, who is bidding for his first win this season, completed 24 laps on the twisting, technically challenging circuit with a best time of one minute, 21.699 seconds. Yamaha's championship leader Jorge Lorenzo of Spain was next best on 1:21.932 with Honda's Italian Andrea Dovizioso third on 1:22.225.

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, fresh from victory at the German MotoGP and the winner at Laguna Seca last year, was fourth on the timesheets on a Honda.

Although delighted after dominating the first official practice session ahead of today's race, Stoner expressed a note of caution. "We have to be happy because we're setting the pace at the moment but we have to continue this tomorrow," he said in a team statement. "In a lot of races this season we've been fast on a Friday but not able to improve and lost ground to the others. "I'm not looking to be first in practice. I

would like to be first at the end of the race today."

HEFTY LEAD Lorenzo, who leads the championship by 47 points over second-placed Pedrosa, is aiming to extend his startling run of eight successive podiums this season, all of them in the top two.

"This was a good first practice and everything came quite easily," the 23-year-old Spaniard said. "We didn't find any big problems and I was able to be at the front from the start.

"That said, it looks like Casey is very strong here and we will

have to work hard to catch him.

I think I need to make some small changes to my riding style for tomorrow," Lorenzo added, referring to Saturday's qualifying.

In many respects, Rossi's performance was the most impressive of the day, the 31year-old Italian having missed four races since his leg injury last month at his home grand prix at Mugello. The nine-times world champion made a spectacular return to competition by finishing fourth in last week's German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring and he has lofty

expectations at Laguna Seca where he pipped Stoner to the title in 2008.

"If I can ride like at Sachsenring, it's possible to have a good weekend here," said Rossi, who was initially told by doctors he would be out for at least three months after breaking his leg in practice for June's Italian Grand Prix.

"There are a lot of left corners, which is not so bad for me (and) ... Laguna is a great track and one that I like a lot. I had one of the best wins of my career here in 2008, after battling with Casey." — Reuters

CALIFORNIA: Casey Stoner from Australia steers his Ducati during the free practice session of the US moto Grand Prix in Laguna Seca, California. — AFP

16

SPORTS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

MLB results/standings Major League Baseball results and standings on Friday: Chicago Cubs 5, St Louis 0; Baltimore 3, Minnesota 2; NY Yankees 7, Kansas City 1; Cleveland 3, Tampa Bay 1; Detroit V, Toronto (Postponed); Philadelphia 6, Colorado 0; San Diego 5, Pittsburgh 3; Florida 7, Atlanta 6; Texas 1, LA Angels 0; Cincinnati 6, Houston 4; Milwaukee 7, Washington 5; San Francisco 7, Arizona 4; Chicago White Sox 5, Oakland 1; Boston 2, Seattle 1; NY Mets 6, LA Dodgers 1.

American League Eastern Division NY Yankees Tampa Bay Boston Toronto Baltimore

W 61 57 55 48 31

L 34 38 42 48 65

PCT .642 .600 .567 .500 .323

GB 4 7 13.5 30.5

Chicago W Sox Detroit Minnesota Cleveland Kansas City

Central Division 53 42 .558 50 44 .532 51 46 .526 41 55 .427 41 55 .427

2.5 3 12.5 12.5

Texas LA Angels Oakland Seattle

Western Division 57 40 .588 51 48 .515 48 48 .500 37 60 .381

7 8.5 20

Atlanta Philadelphia NY Mets Florida Washington

National League Eastern Division 56 40 .583 50 46 .521 50 47 .515 48 48 .500 42 55 .433

6 6.5 8 14.5

St Louis Cincinnati Milwaukee Chicago Cubs Houston Pittsburgh

Central Division 54 43 .557 54 44 .551 45 53 .459 44 53 .454 39 57 .406 34 62 .354

.5 9.5 10 14.5 19.5

San Diego San Francisco Colorado LA Dodgers Arizona

Western Division 56 39 .589 54 43 .557 51 45 .531 51 46 .526 37 60 .381

3 5.5 6 20

Rangers extend lead over Angels ARLINGTON: CJ Wilson pitched eight scoreless innings to lead Texas to a 1-0 win over Los Angeles on Friday, stretching the Rangers' lead over the Angels in the American League West to seven games. Wilson (9-5) did not issue a walk, and retired 17 of his last 18 batters. Neftali Feliz got three outs for his 27th save and 18th in a row. For the second straight game, Michael Young's one-out solo homer in the first put Texas ahead, and from there pitching dominated.

Los Angeles starter Joe Saunders (6-10) took the loss despite an impressive seven innings, allowing one run and one walk while striking out six.

Yankees 7, Royals 1 In New York, AJ Burnett bounced back from a start cut short by a self-inflicted injury to pitch five scoreless innings and guide New York to victory over Kansas City. Burnett (8-8) was starting six days after he cut both hands on a plastic lineup-card holder when he slammed open double doors in the clubhouse out of frustration during a game against Tampa Bay. He was helped by two double plays. Robinson Cano hit a three-run double for the Yankees in a game that was halted for 1 hour, 25 minutes with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, when a deluge of rain made visibility difficult. Royals starter Brian Bannister (7-9) gave up four runs in the first before settling over 4 2-3 innings.

White Sox 5, Athletics 1 In Oakland, Mark Buehrle pitched strongly on the one-year anniversary of his perfect game, guiding Chicago over Oakland. Buehrle (9-8) was nearly flawless through six innings against Oakland before giving up a run in the seventh that ended a scoreless streak of 26 1-3 innings by White Sox starters. Buehrle pitched a perfect game against Tampa Bay last season. Chicago increased its lead in the AL Central to 21/2 games over Detroit. Oakland starter Trevor Cahill (9-4) allowed three runs over seven innings.

Indians 3, Rays 1, 7 innings In Cleveland, Fausto Carmona allowed one hit in five dominant innings as Cleveland extended its home winning streak over Tampa Bay to 18 straight in a game called off in the bottom of the seventh. The Rays haven't won in Cleveland since 2005 - the longest current losing streak in the majors. Carmona (10-7) was lifted following a 1-hour, 30-minute rain delay between the fifth and sixth innings. The Indians are 7-1 since the All-Star break. Rays starter Jeff Niemann (8-3) allowed two runs in five innings of a game that lasted just 2:06 with 2:44 in stoppages.

Red Sox 2, Mariners 1 In Seattle, Josh Beckett was in command in his return from two months on the disabled list, helping Boston edge Seattle. Beckett, throwing fastballs clocked at 152 kph, allowed one run in 5 2-3 innings. He struck out five in his first start since straining his lower back on May 18.

Boston's Bill Hall hit the first pitch of the seventh off Seattle starter Jason Vargas (6-5), getting one over his old team. Scott Atchison (2-1) pitched 1 1-3 scoreless innings behind Beckett to earn the win. Jonathan Papelbon worked the ninth for his 22nd save. The last-placed Mariners sunk to a season-low 23 games under .500 (3760).

Orioles 3, Twins 2 In Baltimore, Jeremy Guthrie allowed two runs over seven innings to earn his first win in two months and steer Baltimore to a tight win over Minnesota. Guthrie (4-10), who struck out six, was 0-6 in his previous nine starts. Luke Scott put Baltimore in front in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer off rookie Twins pitcher Anthony Slama (0-1). Alfredo Simon worked the ninth for his 14th save. — AP

LOS ANGELES: New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes (center left) and center fielder Angel Pagan (center right) celebrate as center fielder Carlos Beltran (left) and right fielder Jeff Francoeur look on after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in their baseball game. —AP

Phillies record another shutout, beat Rockies MIAMI: Donnie Murphy delivered his second game-ending hit of the week for Florida, giving the Marlins a 7-6 win over the Atlanta Braves in the National League on Friday. Atlanta closer Billy Wagner (51) loaded the bases in the ninth with one out. He struck out Dan Uggla for the second out before a passed ball by the catcher allowed the Marlins to tie the game.

Murphy, who hit a game-winning homer to beat Colorado on Monday, then drove a pitch from Wagner into center field for the victory. Florida's Jose Veras (2-0) earned the win despite squandering the lead in the ninth inning for the Marlins.

Phillies 6, Rockies 0 In Philadelphia, Roy Halladay cruised through eight innings and led Philadelphia over Colorado. Halladay (11-8) allowed only one walk and struck out nine. He threw 116 pitches in his first win since July 5. Philadelphia pitchers have tossed 20 straight scoreless innings the past two days. Raul Ibanez drove in three runs with

three hits for the Phillies. Colorado starter Aaron Cook (4-6) fell to 1-6 against Philadelphia.

Mets 6, Dodgers 1 In Los Angeles, Johan Santana tossed seven strong innings as New York ended a four-game losing streak with a rare offensive burst that was too much for Los Angeles. Santana (8-5) allowed just one run and one walk. He has allowed no more than one run while pitching at least seven innings in each of his past five starts. Ike Davis homered for New York while manager Jerry Manuel was ejected for arguing a call as the Mets ended a run of 13 games in which they'd not score more than four runs. New York ended a streak of 17 scoreless innings when they took a 1-0 lead in the first. Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla (4-3) allowed six hits in seven innings.

Cubs 5, Cardinals 0 In Chicago, Alfonso Soriano hit a tworun homer as Chicago shut out St Louis.

The Cardinals failed to score for the second straight day after outscoring opponents 4617 during an eight-game winning streak.

Randy Wells (5-7) pitched seven innings, striking out seven for Chicago, which trails St Louis by 10 games in the NL Central.

Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan (0-6) allowed five runs in six innings. He fell to 0-4 since rejoining the Cardinals last month after Milwaukee released him.

Reds 6, Astros 4 In Houston, Jay Bruce hit a go-ahead double in the eighth inning to lift Cincinnati over Houston. Houston's Tim Byrdak (1-1) allowed consecutive singles before giving up Bruce's grounder that rolled just inside the right field line. The Astros got two men on base with one out in the bottom of the ninth but Reds closer Francisco Cordero retired the next two batters. Cincinnati's Logan Ondrusek (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh inning to take the win.

Giants 7, Diamondbacks 4 In Phoenix, Kelly Johnson hit for the

cycle but it wasn't enough to overcome three costly Arizona errors that handed victory to San Francisco. Johnson, the third major league player to hit for the cycle this season, hit a solo home run in the first, doubled in the fifth and tripled in two runs when the Diamondbacks took a 4-3 lead in the sixth. He completed the feat with a linedrive single in the eighth, becoming the fourth Arizona player to hit for the cycle in the franchise's 13-year history. The Giants scored two unearned runs on consecutive throwing errors by starting pitcher Edwin Jackson. A third unearned run came home after right fielder Justin Upton misjudged a fly ball in the ninth inning. The throwing errors by Jackson (6-9) came on what were intended to be sacrifice bunts in the Giants' three-run seventh. San Francisco's Chris Ray (3-0) got one out for the win.

Padres 5, Pirates 3 In Pittsburgh, Aaron Cunningham's triple started San Diego's four-run second inning which set up victory over

Pittsburgh. Cunningham's leadoff triple in the second was followed by a walk, two singles including pitcher Kevin Correia's sharply hit RBI single, Chris Denorfia's run-scoring double and the sacrifice flies by Hairston and Gonzalez. Correia (7-6) gave up two earned runs over six innings. The Padres big second against Paul Maholm (68) ended the left-hander's streak of 16 consecutive scoreless innings.

Brewers 7, Nationals 5 In Milwaukee, Jim Edmonds replaced injured Corey Hart and hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the seventh inning to lift Milwaukee over Washington. Hart hurt his right wrist in the third inning when he crashed into the wall chasing a fly ball, and veteran Edmonds came in. The Brewers said Hart will undergo an MRI. Edmonds snapped a 5-5 tie in the seventh off Sean Burnett (0-5). The Nationals squandered a 5-1 lead. Milwaukee's Kameron Loe (1-1) got the win with two innings of scoreless relief. — AP

India's Tendulkar denies blood-in-book report NEW DELHI: Sachin Tendulkar has denied a report that his blood will be used in a special pictorial "celebration" book on the career of the Indian cricket legend. The mammoth book slated to appear in February is designed to be the "ultimate tribute to a living sporting legend" and "the definitive work on his life and career", publishers Kraken said. The 37-year-old Tendulkar, who is in Sri Lanka playing a Test series, denied reports which appeared last week in British newspaper The Guardian that his blood would be used on the book's signature page. "There is no truth in my blood being part of the book," Tendulkar told The Times of India in comments published yesterday.

Kraken chief executive Karl Fowler was quoted by the British broadsheet as saying 10 copies of the book would be printed using Tendulkar's blood.

Fowler, who had been earlier cited as

saying Sachin's blood would be "mixed into the paper pulp so it's a red resin" told the Times of India that his comments had been "misunderstood." "The Opus will not carry any blood as mentioned in the several articles/TV reports that have appeared over the past few days," The Times quoted Fowler as saying. "I believe my thoughts on this matter have been misunderstood," the publisher added.

News reports say around 1,000 Opus copies, each numbered and personally signed, will go on sale at 2,000 to 3,000 dollars. Each of the 852 pages are 50 centimeters square and edged in gold leaf.

The publication weighs 37 kilograms and contains around 1,500 images and more than 300,000 words. Tendulkar is the first cricketer to be given the Opus treatment. Previous works have been published on Ferrari, Manchester United, Diego Maradona, Michael Jackson and the Burj Khalifa. — AFP

NAGOYA: Sumo wrestler Satanoumi (left) defeats Yamamotoyama who weighs in at 265-kilograms to win their bout at a sumo tournament in Nagoya, central Japan. Yamamotoyama is the heaviest Japanese sumo wrestler in history. — AP

Hakuho grabs 15th career title COLOMBO: Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar catches a ball during a net practice session at The Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo yesterday, ahead of the second Test match against Sri Lanka scheduled to start tomorrow. — AFP

NAGOYA: Hakuho won his 15th career title at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament yesterday in an event overshadowed by a gambling scandal that has hit Japan's ancient

sport. The Mongolian defeated compatriot Harumafuji to improve to 14-0 but wrapped up the Emperor's Cup when Homasho fell to a third defeat to Tokusegawa in a previous

bout. Dozens of sumo's top wrestlers and coaches allegedly wagered as much as $50,000 dollars on professional baseball games, with gangsters reportedly acting as go-

betweens. The Japan Sumo Association considered canceling the 15-day tournament because of the scandal but decided to go ahead as scheduled.— AP

Sunday, July 25, 2010

17

SPORTS

Cav eyes Champs repeat and historic green jersey BORDEAUX: Thor Hushovd’s early abdication has given Mark Cavendish a boost as bids to close yet another impressive Tour de France campaign with the green jersey today. Norwegian sprinter Hushovd has been swapping the points classification’s prize with Italian Alessandro Petacchi throughout most of the race. But after his 14th place on the penultimate bunch sprint on Friday the big Cervelo sprinter no longer

believes in his chances of challenging for the prize he won in 2005 and 2009. “The green jersey is over for me,” Hushovd said after the 18th stage won in comfortable fashion by HTC-Columbia sprinter Cavendish.

“I just haven’t been good enough in the sprints.”

With Petacchi now leading the competition on 213 points, with a 10 point lead on Hushovd and 16 on Cavendish, the Italian is

in prime position to win the points classification.

However, with the points awarded in descending order for the first finishers - 35 points for the stage win, 30 for second place etc - the green jersey battle will really go right to the line. Lampre sprinter Petacchi rolled back the years to win two stages in the opening week as Cavendish misfired, only for the Isle of Man rider to come charg-

ing back.

The ease with which Cavendish won Friday’s stage, leaving Petacchi in third place, left the Italian doubting his chances of stopping the Manxman from becoming Britain’s first ever green jersey winner. “I am happy to have the green jersey again, but I know I need to make a strong sprint in Paris to win it. It will not be easy,” Petacchi said. Today’s 20th and final stage, a 102.5km

ride from Longjumeau in southwest Paris to the Champs Elysees, is usually a relaxed affair as most of the peloton celebrate simply surviving the race and the jersey winners drink Champagne.

Attacks are likely to come early once the peloton arrives in the capital, but they are likely to be brought to heel by the sprinters’ teams before the eighth and final lap.

Cavendish came into the race aiming to win

the green jersey, then lost hope only to be brought back into contention thanks to his stage successes. In what seems to be an effort not to break the winning spell, he is trying to keep all talk of winning the points classification to a minimum. “I’ve got to try and win on the Champs Elysees, whatever the situation,” said Cavendish, who annihilated his stage rivals to win on Paris’s most famous boulevard last year.— AFP

Contador virtually seals 3rd yellow jersey triumph Cancellara caps Tour campaign

PAUILLAC: US Lance Armstrong sprints at the end of the 52 km individual time-trial and 19th stage of the 2010 Tour de France cycling race run between Bordeaux and Pauillac, southwestern France yesterday. — AFP

Disgraced Landis steps up attack against Armstrong LOS ANGELES: Disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis says he witnessed firsthand former American teammate Lance Armstrong using performance-enhancing drugs, including receiving transfusions for blood doping.

Speaking on an episode of the American news magazine show, ABC’s ‘Nightline’ on Friday, Landis reiterated his sweeping allegations against Armstrong.

Landis, who at first denied then admitted using performance enhancing drugs, said it would take up too much time to go into specifics about every time he saw Armstrong using drugs. “Rather than go into the entire detail of every single time I have seen it yes, I saw Lance Armstrong using drugs,” Landis told Nightline. “If I am taking on Lance Armstrong then that should be evidence that there is a problem with the system, because I am saying it-a bunch of people did it. “Look. At some point people have to tell their kids that Santa Claus isn’t real. I hate to be the guy to do it, but it’s just not real.”

Asked during the 90 minute interview if he ever saw Armstrong receiving transfusions? Landis answered, “Yes.” When asked if he saw Armstrong transfuse more than once, Landis answered, “Yes, multiple times.”

Armstrong won a record seven Tour de France titles and is racing now in what he says will be his final Tour. Armstrong has vehemently denied the doping allegations. A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas to several members of the now-defunct Armstrong-led US Postal Service team.

Landis says he witnessed widespread cheating among the US Postal team members during his stint from 2002-04. “Lance Armstrong handed me some testosterone patches,” Landis said. “It’s just a little patch that you put on your skin. It is not like it’s aI mean, a blood transfusion is a bit more dramatic. It is a large needle. And it’s blood.

But a patch that delivers testosterone. A trans-dermal patch.” Armstrong has hired a criminal defense lawyer to represent him

against a federal probe looking into allegations of possible doping violations.

Armstrong’s lawyer Tim Herman told ABC that his client has undergone about 300 drug tests in his cycling career and has never failed one. “I know (Armstrong) to be an athlete that comes along once every couple of generations,” Herman said. “He is extremely focused. He’s gifted physically in ways that are very unique and he is disciplined, dedicated. He’s the hardest working athlete I’ve ever been around. But he is also extremely devoted and committed to his cancer work.”

The federal investigation was sparked by earlier accusations from Landis in a series of e-mails sent to cycling and doping officials earlier this year. Former Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton was issued a subpoena on Friday to appear before the grand jury.

Hamilton’s lawyer said they would co-operate with the grand jury. Landis is competing as an independent at an cycling event this week in Oregon. —AFP

Bacsinszky advances to Gastein Ladies final BAD GASTEIN: Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland rallied to beat Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the Gastein Ladies final. In her first final of the season, the second-seeded Bacsinszky will face either Alize Cornet or Julia Goerges, who play the second semifinal later yesterday. That start of that match was postponed due to rain. The 52nd-ranked Swiss player could win her second career title after

Luxembourg in 2009. Bacsinszky lost all four service games in the opening set when she struggled to find the right length in her ground strokes.

Bacsinszky, who was beaten by Meusburger at the Australian Open in January, took control afterward. She won the second set after saving two break points at 5-4. In the decider, Bacsinszky was 4-3 up and 15-40 down on her serve when she sud-

denly left the court, claiming that rain had made the clay surface too slippery.

However, the umpire persuaded her to play on.

Dacsinszky came back after a couple of minutes, won that game and broke Meusburger in the next with a return winner on her first match point. The Gastein Ladies is the last clay-court tournament of the WTA Tour season. —AP

PAUILLAC: Spain’s Alberto Contador virtually secured his third yellow jersey victory in the Tour de France yesterday following the penultimate stage time trial won by Swiss Fabian Cancellara.

Astana leader Contador went into the 52km race against the clock with only an eightsecond lead on Andy Schleck and the Luxemburger pushed him all the way before having to settle for second place overall.

Despite the threat of Schleck in the early stages, when he took his deficit down to almost two seconds, the Spaniard kept his composure to finish 31sec ahead of his closest rival. Contador will now go into today’s 20th and final stage, which is not usually contended by the yellow jersey rivals, with a 39sec lead on Schleck.

It means Schleck is set to finish runner-up for the second consecutive year, although after finishing 4min 11sec behind Contador in 2009, the Saxo Bank climbing specialist has set out his stall for next year’s challenge. If Contador and Schleck respect the final stage tradition the Spaniard’s winning margin will be among the fourth smallest in the history of the race. “It was a very hard day. I’ve worked so hard for so many years but today it really came right down to the wire.

That’s why I’m so emotional,” said Contador, who won the race in 2007 and 2009.

“In fact, I think it’s the first Tour I’ve won where I’ve been so emotional. “I want to thank all the people who have been there for me these last years.” Schleck had promised to give every last drop of energy in a bid to overturn his tiny deficit to Contador, whom he has yet to beat in a time trial.

Despite his defeat he admitted he still has work to do. “I always said I was going to give it everything till the end and I think I did that,” said Schleck. “I’ve made some progress in the time trial in the past year, but to beat Contador is not easy.”

Russian Denis Menchov won the battle for the third and final place on the Paris podium after outclassing Spaniard Samuel Sanchez.

Menchov started the stage with a 21sec deficit to the Euskaltel climbing specialist but the Rabobank rider’s superior time trialing skills paid off handsomely.

Menchov will now start today’s final stage third overall at 2:01 with Sanchez in fourth at 3:40. Completing the top five will be promising young Belgian Jurgen van den Broeck of Pharma Lotto, who is at 6:34 behind Contador.

Schleck’s teammate Cancellara capped his campaign the way he started it, having won the opening prologue in Rotterdam to take the race’s yellow jersey.

Olympic time trial champion Cancellara clocked a winning time of 1hr 00min 56sec for the largely flat 52km course between Bordeaux and Pauillac to push German Tony Martin into second place. HTC-Columbia rider Martin finished 17secs adrift with compatriot and teammate Bert Grabsch in third at 1min 48sec. — AFP

PAUILLAC: Alberto Contador of Spain, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, strains as he crosses the finish line during the 19th stage of the Tour de France cycling race, an individual time trial over 52 kilometers with start in Bordeaux and finish in Pauillac, south western France yesterday. — AP

Former tennis star in new sporting career Paradorn signs up for racing championship PATTAYA: Former world’s No 9 tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan has taken the next step in his new sporting career by signing up for a Thai motorcycle racing championship. Paradorn, who officially retired this year after a chronic wrist injury kept him off the tour for three years, plans to remain involved in tennis but also wanted to indulge a lifelong passion for racing.

This weekend he was entered in the 1000cc superbike category as an amateur in the Pro Series Thailand Championship. “I have loved motorcycle racing since I was young. I have been racing for three years but I made this announcement because I have an official sponsor” said the 31-year-old Paradorn, who represented the Elf Smart Sports Racing Team. Paradorn, who is married to a former Miss Universe, has tried his hand at several pursuits since being sidelined from tennis, including starring in a movie, opening a restaurant, selling dietary supplements and racing.

The former Asia no 1 made a brief comeback

last September at the ATP Thailand Open but lost a doubles match. He planned a serious comeback at Wimbledon this year but suffered his second motorcycle racing accident in April, injuring both arms and his left leg. “It was the most serious arm injury of my life. I can still hit the ball but not at the level that I would want to. I have been away too long from the circuit and I’m not young anymore,” he said. “At the same time I have some businesses and I want to enter motor racing.

So I decided to call it a day for tennis.”

Paradorn plans to make his official farewell to tennis at this year’s Thailand Open in September which he may enter as an amateur. He also will coach promising youngsters and skipper Thailand’s Davis Cup team. “As I said before, I will never feel sorry that I quit (tennis) because I achieved more than I expected. I’d rather move on and do what I love,” he said. His goals for racing are less ambitious. “I don’t aim to be a race champion, top three will do. But my real goal is to become a racing team manager one day.” — AP

18

SPORTS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Pressel eagles the last to snatch Evian lead EVIAN-LES-BAINS: American Morgan Pressel holed a six-foot putt for eagle at the long 18th to burst out of a logjam and take the third round lead in the Evian Masters yesterday. The Florida 22-year-old fired a 67 for 11 under par 205 and edged into a two shot lead over two South Koreans. Shin Jiyai, who held the world No1 ranking for seven weeks earlier this season, had a 68 and Jang Jeong, the 2005 Women’s British Open Champion, fired a 70. Pressel, who won the women’s major of the Kraft Nabisco Championship as an 18year-old, shared the lead after her opening 66 and her third round was highlighted by four birdies and the eagle that came courtesy of a superb hybrid second shot that lanaded six feet from the pin at the 18th.

“I’ve added 20 yards length this year thanks to working with my coach, Adam Scriber, and getting a longer Callaway driver,” she said. “It’s been two years hard slog and frustrating at times. But it’s definitely been worth it. It would be great to win tomorrow. We all love this tournament - one of the best.” Alexis Thompson, the 15-year-old American playing in her third professional event, had set her sights on a top ten finish

after a third round 67 that ended with a tap-in putt for eagle at the long 18th.

On eight under par and in a share of fourth place, her goal is now even higher. Tenth at the US Women’s Open two weeks ago, Thompson, with dad, Scott, on the bag, lives in Florida and is home schooled. “I will be playing in three more events this year, but I’ve not even thought about joining a Tour full-time,” she said. “At the moment, it is just one tournament at a time. “It’s been an awesome experience being here at Evian and today I played really good with five birdies and the eagle. I had a 198-yard second shot at the last and hit it with a five iron to just a few feet. It was the perfect way to finish.”

Shin had a solid round of five birdies to raise her hopes of a victory that could move her back to the head of the world rankings, while Jang, who has had a number of injury setbacks, had two birdies. “It would be great to win here,” said Shin, who has won numerous events in Korea before joining the LPGA Tour. “I played great today.” American Brittany Lincicome leapt up the leaderboard with a joint best of tournament 65 and was another in joint fourth on eight under. She

started with a bogey but hit back with six birdies and an eagle at the par four 16th where she holed her second shot with a wedge.

At the short 17th she nearly did it again when her tee shot landed past the hole and screwed back to a foot. “The eagle was fun and then to nearly have a hole in one was a great feeling,” said Lincicome, who won a major - the Kraft Nabsico Championship last year. “Today just felt so good and I just wish I could play like that all year round.

“Hopefully, I can keep it going tomorrow.

This is easily my best performance here and it’s partly because you begin to get to know the course better each year.”

France’s Gwladys Nocera, second overnight, slipped back with a disappointing 76 for three under par. In the last group out, the 35-year-old former European No.1 managed just one birdie - at the 12th - and had four bogeys. “It just wasn’t my day today,” said Nocera, who lives in Gland near Geneva and practices at Evian, after finding herself in 21st place. “But it is still great to play in front of so many home supporters and I hope I can do well tomorrow.” — AFP

EVIAN: Morgan Pressel of USA studies the ball on the fifth hole during the third round of the Evian Masters women’s golf tournament in Evian, eastern France yesterday. — AP

Clark puts familiar face on Canadian Open leaderboard TORONTO: Tim Clark finally put a familiar name atop the Canadian Open leaderboard - grabbing a share of the second round lead with Dean Wilson after a bogey free six-under 64. Until the South African’s name popped up late in the day to help push unheralded American Brent Delahoussaye from top spot, the $5.1 million event had been dominated by unknown names and faces.

Even Wilson, a journeyman American whose only PGA Tour win was in 2006, would qualify for celebrity status on a mostly anonymous leaderboard as many of the tournament’s bigger names were near the bot-

tom, with Briton Paul Casey, American Sean O’Hair and Canada’s Mike Weir all failing to make the cut.

For the second consecutive day Wilson returned a five-under 65 to leave him level with Clark on 10under 130. Delahoussaye, who fired a course record 62 to secure a two shot overnight lead, slipped back with a one-under 69 to sit one stroke off the pace alongside compatriot Steve Wheatcroft (66). “I certainly didn’t expect to be scoring on this course,” said Clark, who collected his maiden PGA Tour win earlier this year with a victory at the Players Championship.

“I felt like it was going to be pretty tough but I’ve been hitting the driver pretty well and driving the fair-

Golf way I think is huge on this golf course.” Overnight rain that delayed the start of second round play for two hours left St. George’s Golf Club defenseless with soft welcoming greens and lift, clean and place rules in effect allowing golfers to attack the pins.

Kevin Sutherland took full advantage of the conditions shooting an eight-under 62 to match Delahoussaye’s first round.

Sutherland mixed seven birdies with an eagle and a bogey to help undo some of the damage of an opening round 73 to move into contention five shots behind the leaders. The Stanley Thompson-layout with its tree-lined fairways, jungle like rough and undulating greens had been expected to provide a tricky test with many in the field predicting a score of between 10-to-12-under-par would be good enough to win. “If you’re driving the ball in the fairway, with

Springboks slump to 3rd loss BRISBANE: Australia left South Africa’s Tri-Nations title defense in tatters with a 30-13 win over the ill-disciplined Springboks yesterday. Flyhalf Will Genia celebrated his return from a thumb injury with a 75th-minute try to seal victory after South Africa scored two second-half tries to claw to within 10 points. Winger Drew Mitchell scored on the stroke of halftime and Matt Giteau slotted five penalties to maintain the Springboks’ winless record at Lang Park and leave their Tri-nations campaign on the brink of collapse after three straight losses. The Springboks did themselves few favours, having a man sin-binned at the start of each half and conceding a raft of first-half penalties to allow the Wallabies to open a 17-3 lead at the break.

The loss takes South Africa’s Tri-Nations title hopes out of their hands, and they will need favorable results from Australia and New Zealand to have a chance of retaining their crown. “Gotta be happy with the performance.

There was a lot of stuff to be proud of, particularly the defense,” Australia coach Robbie Deans told reporters.

Rugby Jacque Fourie and Gurthro Steenkamp scored South Africa’s first tries in 13 years at Lang Park after an indisciplined first half in which they managed only three points from a Morne Steyn penalty. Steenkamp’s try put South Africa within 10 points eight minutes before time and sparked hopes of an unlikely comeback but the Wallabies absorbed fierce pressure in their 22 in a performance Deans rated their best defensive effort in his tenure as Australia coach.

As with their two previous away defeats to New Zealand, the Springboks started miserably when outside centre Fourie was sinbinned in the third minute for lifting number eight Richard Brown in a tackle. Fourie was the third South African player sinbinned early in three consecutive matches. “I just couldn’t believe it could happen again for the third week in a row. This can’t keep happening, surely,” lamented Springboks captain John Smit.

The Wallabies appeared determined to squander the 10-minute advantage, however, with flyhalf Quade Cooper’s laser passes proving too slick for team mates on occasions. A number of promising attacks were botched with fumbles and passes missing their targets before a ruck infringement handed Giteau the first of his four penalty goals for the half.

Mitchell finally swooped on a messy pass flung out by a prostrate Giteau five metres from the goal-line, then juggled the ball three times while pirouetting over the line to give the Wallabies their first try on the stroke of halftime. Giteau’s fifth penalty two minutes after the break put the Wallabies up 20-3, shortly before BJ Botha was sin-binned for slowing the ball down at a ruck.

South Africa mounted a belated fightback when Cooper lifted Steyn in a tackle to be sent off, and the Springboks capitalized with a try to Fourie in the 62nd minute. The Springboks pushed hard but were repelled with some fierce tackling in the 22, but were too sapped from playing with 14 men for 20 minutes of the match to prevent Genia from crossing for the winner. Although deflated, under-pressure coach Peter de Villiers remained defiant about the Springboks’ flagging campaign. “The competition isn’t over yet ... It doesn’t mean we’re not part of the competition any more,” he said. “The result doesn’t matter to me as such.” — Reuters

BRISBANE: South Africa’s Gurthro Steenkamp (left bottom), Danie Rossouw (left top) and Schalk Burger (right) team up to tackle Australia’s James O’Connor during their Tri-Nations rugby union match yesterday. Australia won 30-13. — AP

Pacquiao mulls Margarito fight NEW YORK: The Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather mega fight talks took another twist Friday with Paquiao’s camp saying negotiations had stalled again and so they were looking to Mexico’s Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao was going to fight Mayweather in 2010, but the latest deal to fight in November appears to have fallen through.

Promoter Bob Arum told SI.com Friday that Filipino superstar Pacquiao will face Margarito for the vacant WBC junior mid-

dleweight championship on November 13.

The fight would probably have to take place in Mexico because Margarito doesn’t have a

Boxing license to box in Las Vegas. Arum mentioned Monterrey, Mexico as a possible location but says he isn’t ruling out Las Vegas either.

“Making a deal won’t be a problem,” said Arum, who promotes both Pacquiao and Margarito. “We’ll get it done.” Arum says he has asked Nevada officials for a conditional license to allow the suspended Margarito to fight in Las Vegas. Former welterweight champion Margarito was suspended by California officials after a plasterlike substance was discovered in his handwraps before a bout in January of last year, one he eventually lost to Shane Mosley.

Arum said he is growing tired of

Mayweather’s act.

“This kid (Mayweather) is so nuts,” Arum told SI.com. “His idea of being part of his team is having guys who when he says ‘jump,’ they say ‘how high?’ Why didn’t they just say we decided not to fight until next year?” Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, rekindled hopes of a megafight showdown with unbeaten US star Mayweather in May by agreeing to blood test terms that scuttled a showdown. — AFP

the greens being soft it’s not that hard,” said Sutherland. “But if you get in the rough, it’s going to beat you up.

“I got off to an unbelievable start, when you’re five-under after four holes it leads to a pretty good day usually.” It was anything but a good day for Casey, who was unable to carry any momentum from his British Open third place finish, returning a threeover 73 to miss the cut by two shots. O’Hair joined Casey on one-over 141 after limping to a second round 71, while Weir slumped to a four-over 74 and two-round total of 146. — Reuters

Hadwin leads Canadian charge TORONTO: Mike Weir’s 20th Canadian Open ended in a disappointing early exit on Friday, leaving it to PGA Tour debutant Adam Hadwin to lead the home grown charge into the weekend. For nearly two decades, Weir has been the golfer Canadians had pinned their hopes on to become the first home grown winner of the national championship since Pat Fletcher in 1954. Few of those Canadian Opens ended in more disappointment as Weir slumped to a second round four-over 74 and a two-round total of six-over 146 to finish ahead of only 11 players. With Weir gone, the spotlight shifts to Hadwin, a 22-year-old Canadian Tour rookie.

Playing in his first PGA Tour event, Hadwin has delivered a fearless performance carding rounds of 68 and 66 to leave him the best-placed Canadian sitting on six-under 134 and four shots behind co-leaders Tim Clark and Dean Wilson. “This right here is my dream,” a beaming Hadwin told reporters. “When I get out on the golf course it’s all business but off the course I kind of have to pinch myself and think is this really real. Am I really doing this right now.” Hadwin is just one shot ahead of Stephen Ames, the four-time winner on the PGA Tour, who has moved into contention with rounds of 67 and 68.

Jon Mills also survived the one-under cut but for most Canadian golf fans the weekend will not be the same without Weir. A dejected Weir, who has now missed the cut in three of his last four starts including the British Open, refused to blame a bout of tendonitis that flared up earlier in the week and forced the 2003 Masters champion to wear a brace on his right arm. “I just played poorly,” shrugged Weir. “No excuses I just didn’t play well. “If you’re driving the ball into the fairway you can score, if you’re hitting it where I was you can’t.”

The pressure on the diminutive left hander to deliver on home turf and end a 56-year drought has grown and having just turned 40, the expectations this year seemed to weigh heavier as he struggled with tendonitis and form. “When you have great support like that you want to give a better show,” said Weir. “The fans are great, I want to play well for them. I was trying as hard as I could and just struggled. “I’m at point in my game right now where I’m just struggling.

“Everyone goes through it at some point in their career. You just have to keep fighting and work your way out of it. “No one is immune.” — Reuters

Sunday, July 25, 2010

SPORTS

19

Delneri wants young Juve with winning mentality ROME: Coach Luigi Delneri wants to build a new Juventus team based on young players with a winning mentality ahead of the upcoming Italian season. Juventus were due to play Lyon in a friendly before beginning the serious business against Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League third qualifying round next Thursday.

And Delneri will be under the spotlight to see how he has turned around a team that last season crashed to their worst ever showing in Serie A, losing a club record number of games and conceding a record number of goals in a seventh-placed finish. But the former Atalanta and Sampdoria coach's plan is to put his faith in youth, just as the famous and successful Juve teams of the 1970s and 1980s did. "I'm thinking about the Juve of (Marco) Tardelli, of (Massimo) Bonini, of (Antonio) Cabrini," said Delneri. "Of a club that chose young players but ones blessed with a winning mentality. We need to construct a team that is strong, that will last for a long time."

One of the players Delneri is hoping will be a part of a successful future is one who was largely considered a flop in his first season at the club. Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo arrived a year ago with a big reputation and a bigger price tag but was regularly jeered by fans, many of whom blamed him, his compatriot Diego and Italy World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro for the club's poor showing.

Following that torrid campaign, Melo also suffered at the World Cup in South Africa, scoring an own goal and being sent off as Brazil crashed out

to Holland in the quarter-finals. But Delneri believes he will be able to get the best out of the former Fiorentina star. "By convincing him that he's an important player and convincing him to concentrate on regaining his form," said Delneri, when asked how he would achieve his aims. The new coach refused to set an objective for his team in the coming season, although he made it clear that they will be expecting to finish much higher than last time out.

"It could be finishing second or third but the final objective is irrelevant when there is one every Sunday," he said. "The objectives should be set every week because if you win your games then you'll also win the title." However, to do so Delneri first wants to improve his squad, particularly in defense. While the aging Cannavaro has left, Juve have brought in centre-back Leonardo Bonucci from Bari and right-back Marco Motta on loan from Udinese. But that's not enough for Delneri. "Our priority is to see if there are top level players to improve our defense," he said.

However he added: "But on the transfer front things have stalled." One area that Delneri seems to be happy with is his strike-force despite their goalscoring troubles last season. "There we have five players: (Vincenzo) Iaquinta, Amauri, (David) Trezeguet, Diego and (club captain Alessandro) Del Piero," he said. "They've proved themselves to be five players of a high level and I don't think any of them is in decline. "On top of that they have the desire to be committed and to put themselves forward, so we're on the right track." — AFP

Extras BAGHDAD: Iraqi men play soccer in central Baghdad, Iraq. — AP

Iraq football election split between 2 cities Didier Drogba Injured Drogba sidelined LONDON: Chelsea striker Didier Drogba is set to be sidelined for three weeks after surgery on a groin injury. Drogba, 32, had struggled with the groin problem for much of last season and Friday's surgery was needed to ensure his injury doesn't linger in the new campaign. The Ivory Coast star is unlikely to recover in time for the Community Shield clash against Manchester United at Wembley on August 8 and could miss the start of Chelsea's Premier League title defense as well. Drogba, who hit 37 goals last season to fire Chelsea to the double, was hindered by an arm injury at the World Cup and scored just once in three matches as his country crashed out at the group stage. A Chelsea statement read: "Didier Drogba successfully underwent minimally invasive surgery yesterday (Friday) on the groin injury that had troubled him for some of last season. "The decision to perform the procedure after his return from the World Cup was made to optimize his rehabilitation, and he is expected to return to full training in approximately three weeks."

Villarreal to replace Mallorca in Europa MADRID: Villarreal said yesterday it has been selected by UEFA to replace Real Mallorca in this season's Europa League after the European football's governing body banned the cashstrapped club for falling foul of financial regulations. Real Mallorca finished in 5th place in the Spanish league, ahead of Getafe which also qualified for the Europea League. Villarreal finished in seventh and under UEFA rules is the next in line for a sport in the lucrative tournament.

UEFA announced on Thursday that Real Mallorca would not be allowed to take part in the Europea League after the club in May went into voluntary administration. The decision has angered the club, which according to Spanish media has debts of over 60 million euros. "There are many clubs that have economic problems and they play in the Champions League or the Europea League. The players earned this qualification on the pitch and it its being pulled away from them," said the club's new coach, former Danish international Michael Laudrup.

Chealsea Carvalho wants to join Mourinho at Real MADRID: Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho says it would be "a dream" to join Jose Mourinho, who was his coach at the English club and at Portuguese side Porto, at Real Madrid. "If there was a possibility to sign with Real Madrid, I would go there right now swimming or running," he said in an interview published yesterday in Spanish sports daily AS. "It would be a dream to be able to play for Madrid, which I consider to be the best club in the world, and follow the orders of the best coach in the history of football," the 32-year-old Portuguese international added. "With Mourinho I experienced two marvelous stages at Porto and Chelsea. To have the opportunity to win another Champions League with him at Real Madrid would be tremendous." Carvalho won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 when Mourinho coached the club. He joined Mourinho at Chelsea that year for a fee of around 20 million

euros but last year he fell down the pecking order at the west London club.

Portugal federation probes Queiroz on alleged insults LISBON: The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) is investigating allegations that coach Carlos Queiroz insulted members of Portugal's anti-doping authority during the World Cup training camp in May, Secretary of State for Sports Laurentino Dias said. "The facts that have been discovered in an inquiry oblige the federation to ponder them," Dias told Radio Renascenca. "If they were not grave facts there would not have been an inquest or it would have been archived." Queiroz guided Portugal to the second round of the World Cup finals in South Africa last month, where they were knocked out by eventual winners Spain. "It is an extremely delicate matter, which the FPF will analyze in depth and will inform on at an opportune time, after having heard all the parties," the federation said in a statement. The federation last week said Queiroz's team had met its minimum target by reaching the second round and that he would remain as coach for the next two years, but local media said the inquest could raise calls for him to leave the job.

Raul, Guti to leave Real MADRID: Veteran Spanish internationals Raul and Guti will announce their departure from Real Madrid next week, Spanish media reported yesterday. Striker Raul will tomorrow announce that he is joining German side Schalke on a twoyear contract while midfielder Guti will join Turkish side Besiktas, sports dailies AS and Marca reported. The two players, who are both 33, have spent their entire careers at Real Madrid but they were little used last season.

New Real coach Jose Mourinho has indicated that he does not count on them for next season.

Raul, who has played for Real since 1994, has "broken all records" at the club according to Marca, having won six La Liga championships and three Champions League titles during his time with the Spanish giants. He has scored 323 times in 740 appearances for the club. Guti, a product of Real's youth system who made his pro debut in 1995, said repeatedly over the last season that he would like to leave the Spanish club.

Korean broadcaster fined SEOUL: South Korea's SBS TV has been fined 1.97 billion won ($1.64 million) by the state regulator for not sharing coverage of World Cup matches with other broadcasters, local media reported yesterday. SBS had exclusive rights to show the matches from South Africa but after complaints from rival television companies KBS and MBC, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) instructed them to negotiate a share of some games, Yonhap news agency reported. The KCC said SBS was fined as it did not "sincerely comply with the request" to negotiate and the company had not taken into account the "universal viewers' rights". South Korea reached the last 16 of the World Cup for the first time on foreign soil at the June 11-July 11 event in South Africa.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Football Association members held dueling meetings yesterday in two cities to elect a new president of the troubled federation, risking a FIFA ban on international competition due to government interference. The meetings were the latest development in the ongoing drama surrounding who will lead the governing body of the country's most popular sport.

The battle reflects the sectarian tensions still prevalent in a country where just a few years ago Sunnis and Shiites were battling in the streets. Football officials backing the government's candidate, a Shiite, met in Baghdad on Saturday, while supporters of the incumbent, a Sunni, gathered in the Kurdish city of Irbil. An official from the Iraqi Football Association, Abdul-Khaliq Massoud said that they had failed to form a quorum in Irbil and the vote was postponed until today.

At the Baghdad meeting, a vote on the new leadership was expected later Saturday, officials said. FIFA chose Irbil to stage the vote after deeming Baghdad too unsafe to send international observers to monitor the vote. But Iraq's government insisted on holding it in Baghdad as a way of showing the country is stable after years of war.

FIFA has warned Iraq it would be banned if the government interferes with the election. Last year, Iraq was suspended for five months after Iraq's Olympic Committee dissolved the association because of alleged financial and administrative irregularities and the repeated delaying of internal elections. The ban was lifted only in March.

Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has long wanted to purge sports of any officials with alleged ties to the deposed Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein. The Sunni candidate to run the association, Hassan Saeed, is a former striker for Baghdad's Al-Talaba club, and he is ranked 10th on FIFA's list of players with the most international caps.

But critics allege he has ties to the former regime and is suspected of corruption. Falah Hassan, a 60-year-old Shiite from Baghdad's slum of Sadr City and a former captain of Iraq's best team, al-Zawra, is Saeed's main rival for football's top job in Iraq. In one indication of how high the tension has been raised, men in militarystyle uniforms raided the federation's offices on Sunday carrying arrest warrants for several of its officials, including Saeed.

The government denied any responsibility for the raid. — AP

IRBIL: Hussein Saeed, head of the Iraqi Football Association, is seen at a meeting in Irbil, a city in the Kurdish controlled north 217 miles north of Baghdad yesterday. — AP

Big-spending Man City sign Kolarov from Lazio MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini continued his pre-season spending spree by signing Serbia defender Aleksandar Kolarov from Lazio yesterday.

Mancini had been keen on Kolarov for several months and completed a deal for the highly-rated left-back after Lazio accepted an offer of around 19 million pounds.

Kolarov, 24, had already been granted a work permit and put pen to paper on a fiveyear contract after passing a medical. City's Abu Dhabi-based owners have now backed Mancini with nearly 90 million pounds since the end of last season as they seek to establish the club as one of Europe's superpowers.

Mancini had already spent 25 million pounds each on Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure and Valencia winger David Silva, as well as landing German defender Jerome Boateng from Hamburg for 15 million pounds.

The City boss is convinced Kolarov's arrival will be a major boost as he tries mount a challenge for the Premier League title. "He has the ability to play in numerous positions and is very good in midfield," Mancini told the club's official website. "This is an additional benefit to the team. He has a fantastic international career ahead of him. I first saw Kolarov in his Lazio debut back in 2007. I was impressed by the speed and strength of

someone so young.

"I have watched him a lot since then and so have the Manchester City scouts. His attacking capability is very good. He is fast and can shoot with power and accuracy. "He was composed on the ball, had an excellent delivery with his left foot and was technically very able." Mancini also rejected reports that Kolarov's arrival meant the end for England defender Wayne Bridge at Eastlands.

Liverpool have been linked with a move for Bridge, but Mancini insists he wants to keep the former Chelsea left-back at City. "I want two top-class players for each position," he added. — AFP

Toure snubs United to Kashima retain play with his brother J-League lead LONDON: Manchester City's new signing Yaya Toure claims he rejected an offer from Manchester United because he wanted to hold out for the chance to play alongside his brother Kolo. Toure ignored United's attempt to sign him last year and opted to spend one more year at Barcelona in the hope that City would make a bid to take him to Eastlands, where Kolo Toure had just moved from Arsenal.

The Ivory Coast midfielder got his wish earlier this month as City agreed a 25 million pounds deal with Barca that will see Toure earn around 185,000 pounds a week - making him the highest paid player in the Premier League. Yet Toure is adamant it was the opportunity to link up with his brother and not the cash that persuaded him to quit the Nou Camp for City, who failed to qualify for the Champions League last season.

"Last year Manchester United were interested in signing me. When I was talking about renewing my contract, United asked if I wanted to sign for them," Toure said.

"United are a big club, one of the biggest in the world, but I chose City because they have not won anything for a long time. It's a very nice feeling to come in and see everything changing. "It's an interesting challenge for me and I hope everything goes well.

I saw a lot of things written about why I left but, for me, I wanted to play with my brother. "That was very important for me. Now I've signed for City I'm very happy. Now my brother and I want to make great things happen at this club and I'm sure we'll do it. "My motivation is to do great things with City, to finish second or third maybe, to get into the Champions League." — AFP

TOKYO: Brazilian striker Marquinhos yesterday scored the deciding goal as defending champions Kashima Antlers came back from two goals down to beat Jubilo Iwata 3-2 and extend their J-League lead. With only four minutes left on the clock, Marquinhos nodded home from close range off defender Masahiko Inoha's pass.

Earlier, Daisuke Nasu and Sho Naruoka gave Iwata a 2-0 lead in the first half, but Brazilian defender Gilton pulled one back in the 52nd minute and then assisted Koji Nakata's heading goal in the 68th minute. "We kept the initiative throughout, but we were unstable in our defence," said Kashima's Brazilian coach Oswaldo Oliveira, referring to key defender and Korean international Lee Jung-Soo, who left the team for Qatari side Al Sadd.

"We made mistakes to concede goals in the first half, but we regained stability in the second half.

The positioning of our players was also good and we were able to take those chances to score," he added. Kashima stretched their J-League lead to three points, with nine wins, three draws and two defeats giving them 30 points, ahead of Shimizu SPulse on 27, Nagoya Grampus on 26, Cerezo Osaka on 23 and Sanfrecce Hiroshima on 22. — AFP

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Pakistan win thriller to end Aussie drought First test win over Aussies in 15 years LEEDS: Pakistan held their nerve to claim a first Test victory against Australia in 15 years during a tense fourth-day finish at Headingley here yesterday.

Pakistan, set 180 to win, lost four wickets for 40 runs before finishing on 180 for seven and a three-wicket win as they leveled this two-Test series at 1-1. Left-arm quick Mohammad Aamer was five not out and Umar Gul, who hit the winning run off Mitchell Johnson, one not out as Pakistan ended a run of 13 straight Test defeats by Australia - a record for one country against another.

Pakistan were still five short when Australia’s Michael Hussey appealed for a gully catch against Kamran Akmal on 13, off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson but replays were inconclusive. And then leftarm quick Mohammad Aamer, who took seven wickets in the match, edged Ben Hilfehnaus through the slips for four to tie the scores. But there was one more twist with Kamran Akmal brilliantly caught by Hussey off Johnson and this time there was no doubt. Gul, though, hammered his first ball from Johnson through the offside and Pakistan had won with more than a day and two sessions to spare.

It meant Salman Butt, who replaced Shahid Afridi as skipper after the allrounder quit Tests af ter the 150-r un series-opening loss at Lord’s last week, tasted victory in his first Test as Pakistan captain. “It was a bit nerve-wracking, when you have this added responsibility,” Butt told reporters. “You tend to think more, thank God it went positively and we won. “It means a lot, it’s a new beginning for Pakistan.” Left-arm quick Doug Bollinger, starting Friday, took three wickets for five runs in 17 balls on his way to three for 51 and Ben Hilfenhaus three for 39 but even Australia could not turn this match around.

Ultimately, Australia paid the price for being bowled out for just 88 in their first innings - their lowest Test total since they were dismissed for 76 by the West Indies at Perth in 1984. Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who chose to bat after winning the toss, said: “At the end of the day, that’s had a big impact. It’s my responsibility to get those sorts of things right. “I think everyone was surprised at how much it seemed on the first day. Any decision like that is the captain’s and when you have a loss like that, it’s the responsibility of the captain as well.

Obviously, the buck stops with me.”

Australia ‘held’ Pakistan to 258, with medium-pacer Watson taking a Test-best six for 33, following his previous best of five for 40 at Lord’s, after the frontline quicks had been mostly ineffective. And Australia then made 349 with Michael Clarke and Steven Smith, in his second Test, both making 77. Ponting contributed 66 as he became only the second batsman, after India’s Sachin Tendulkar, to score 12,000 Test runs. But Aamer still managed to take four for 86, giving the 18-year-old lef t-ar m quick Test best match figures of seven for 106.

Aammer and Watson won their teams’ respective man-of-the-match awards.

Pakistan resumed yesterday on 140 for three, needing 40 more runs to win with Australia requiring seven wickets.

However, as recently as the Sydney Test in January, Australia bowled Pakistan out for 139, chasing a victory target of 176.

Azhar Ali resumed on 47 not out, with Umar Akmal unbeaten on two. Ali, off Bollinger’s third ball yesterday, coverdrove a full toss to the boundary to complete a maiden Test fifty off 108 balls with six fours.

But next ball, he could only edge Bollinger to keeper Tim Paine. Ali was out for 51 and Pakistan were 146 for four.

Bollinger appealed for caught behind and lbw against Kamran Akmal, still on nought, in successive balls but Rudi Koertzen, in the South African umpire’s 108th and last Test before retirement, correctly rejected both pleas. Shoaib Malik - on 10 - was brilliantly caught at the second attempt off a well-hit drive by Marcus North at short extra-cover off Hilfenhaus and Pakistan still needed 19 to win, with four wickets standing.

Kamran Akmal, with three boundaries, took Pakistan to the brink of victory.

Pakistan now have a short turnaround before a four-Test series against England star ts at Trent Bridge on July 29.

Australia have to two Tests away to India in October before attempting to regain the Ashes from England on home soil, in a five-Test campaign that star ts in November. This series was played in England after international cricket in Pakistan was effectively suspended after an armed attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in March last year. —AFP

Scoreboard LEEDS, England: Final scoreboard on the fourth day of the second Test between Pakistan and Australia at Headingley here yesterday: Australia 1st Innings 88 (Mohammad Aamer 3-20, Mohammad Asif 3-30) Pakistan 1st Innings 258 (S Watson 6-33) Australia 2nd Innings 349 (M Clarke 77, S Smith 77, R Ponting 66, Mohammad Aamer 4-86) Pakistan 2nd Innings (overnight: 140-3)

LEEDS: Pakistan’s team celebrates their victory over Australia during the fourth day of the second MCC Spirit of Cricket Test match at Headingley yesterday. —AFP

Imran Farhat b Bollinger 67 Salman Butt c Clarke b Hilfenhaus 13 Azhar Ali c Paine b Bollinger 51 Umar Amin c Paine b Bollinger 0 Umar Akmal c Paine b Hilfenhaus 8 Shoaib Malik c North b Hilfenhaus 10 Kamran Akmal c Hussey b Johnson 13 Mohammad Aamer not out 5 Umar Gul not out 1 Extras (lb7, nb5) 12 Total (7 wkts, 50.4 overs, 227 mins) 180 Did not bat: Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif Fall of wickets: 1-27 (Butt), 2-137 (Farhat), 3137 (Amin), 4-146 (Ali), 5-150 (Umar Akmal), 6-161 (Malik), 7-179 (Kamran Akmal) Bowling: Bollinger 13-2-51-3 (3nb); Hilfenhaus 13-2-39-3 (1nb); Johnson 10.4-141-1 (1nb); Watson 5-1-18-0; Smith 9-2-24-0 Australia: Shane Watson, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Marcus North, Tim Paine (wkt), Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger Result: Pakistan won by three wickets

PCB to pay victorious players $5,900 ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board is to pay 500,000 rupees ($5,900) in prize money to each player in the team that beat Australia in the second test in England and has former Pakistani test cricketers predicting the beginning of a new era. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said in a statement that the non-playing members of the squad and team officials will also receive 250,000 rupees ($2,950) after Pakistan leveled the two-test series at 1-1 yesterday under new captain Salman Butt when it chased down a target of 180 runs for the loss of seven wickets on the fourth day at Headingley.

Pakistan cricket had been going through a turbulent year and a half where the captaincy has been given to five players in three formats of the game. Two of those skippers - Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf - were not even selected for the series against Australia.

Butt was appointed captain just before the Headingley test after Shahid Afridi announced his retirement from test cricket after the loss to Australia in the first match. Young batsmen Azhar Ali and Umar Amin, replacing Younis and Yousuf, each scored a half-century. “I can see the dawn of new era in Pakistan

cricket with this victory,” former test captain Moin Khan said.

“Young players showed they can perform in tough conditions of Headingley where the ball swung and seamed. The way the team has gelled under the new captain, it shows that we are now on the right track.” Former chief selector Abdul Qadir believes Ali and Amin deserve an extended run in the team at the expense of Younis and Yousuf. “We should learn from this victory,” Qadir said. “Chapter of Yousuf and Younis should be closed and even rest of the senior players should be warned to

Utd ready to offer Rooney new deal

“Aamer has injected a new life in the (bowling) attack with his pace, while Asif’s line and length could tie down any world-class batsman.” Pakistan is scheduled to take on England in four-test series beginning next week, and Qadir advised the PCB to show patience with the present team instead of making changes. “We are capable enough to beat them (England),” Qadir said. “In case we lose, we should show some tolerance because of the history the team had made at Headingley. These boys will give a lot of services to the country in future, we just needed to be patient.” —AP

Menezes takes Brazil’s hotseat

Vidic agrees new ‘long term’ deal LONDON: Manchester United are set to begin negotiations with Wayne Rooney on a lucrative new contract, even though the England striker still has two years to run on his current agreement. United chief executive David Gill announced his plans after confirming Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic had agreed a new “longterm” contract of his own.

“The current intention is to meet with Wayne and his advisors when we’re back from tour (in the USA) and he’s back from holiday with a view to sorting out a new deal for him,” Gill said. “It’s clear from what he has said and what the club have said that both parties are very keen to sort things out and secure his long-term future at United. “Given his desires and what he means to the club we’re very confident that can be achieved.” Rooney scored 34 goals for United last season and will be a key factor in Sir Alex Ferguson’s campaign to snatch the title back from Chelsea when the new season starts on August 14.

Vidic had repeatedly been linked with a move away from Old Trafford over the last 12 months and it was reported that Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho was ready to launch a bid to sign the Serbian. But United’s offer of an improved contract has persuaded Vidic to commit his future to Old Trafford. Vidic’s current deal has two years to run and it is believed United don’t usually negotiate new contracts until there is only one year left, but that rule has been changed to keep the centre-back happy.

“There was a lot of speculation about Nemanja’s future, but in my view it’s been the media drumming some old stories because they certainly didn’t come out of the Manchester United camp and I’m confident they didn’t come out of Nemanja’s camp,” Gill said. “We sat down with Nemanja and his advisor at the end of last season and started discussions. “They broke up when Nemanja went away to the World Cup, but resumed when Serbia were knocked out and I’m very pleased to confirm that we agreed terms with Nemanja three or four weeks ago on a new long-term deal with the club. “It’s yet to be signed - the paperwork is now being sorted by our lawyers and being checked by Nemanja’s advisors.” —AFP

either perform or be left out.”

Qadir said he respected all the senior players in the team including Yousuf and Younis “but when you think about as a nation you have to give sacrifices.” Another former test captain, Rashid Latif, compared Pakistan’s present young bowling attack of Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif with the former pace combination of Wasim Akram and current national team coach Waqar Younis. “It is only after Wasim and Waqar that I have seen such a lethal bowling attack of Pakistan,” Latif said.

Wayne Rooney

RIO DE JANEIRO: Five-times world champions Brazil offered Mano Menezes the coach’s job on Friday shortly after original choice Muricy Ramalho’s club Fluminense refused to release him. If he accepts, Menezes, who has lifted two of the country’s most popular clubs out of the doldrums, will have the huge task of trying to rebuild Brazil’s national team and win a sixth world title when they host the 2014 World Cup. Winning their own World Cup is seen as an obligation by Brazil’s 190 million inhabitants. The job, one of the toughest in international soccer, has been vacant since Dunga quit following the World Cup Mano Menezes quarter-final defeat to Netherlands three weeks ago. Ramalho, who has considerable domestic success but like Menezes is little known outside Brazil, sat down for talks on Friday with Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira, who praised the gruff 54-year-old’s track record. But hours later, Fluminense said that they wanted Ramalho to see out his contract, which runs until 2012. “Muricy is going to continue at Fluminense, fulfilling his contractual commitments,” club president Roberto Horcades told reporters.

In another twist, the CBF then said in a statement that Menezes had been approached and gave the impression his appointment was a mere formality. “Mano Menezes will announce his decision at a news conference organized by his club Corinthians, tomorrow (Saturday), in Sao Paulo,” said the statement on the CBF’s website. “Mano Menezes was one of a shortlist of three coaches and had his name ratified after a conversation with Ricardo Teixeira, when he showed himself to be in tune with the rebuilding project drawn up by the CBF for the 2014 World Cup.” Menezes, 48, made his name in 2005 when he led former South American champions Gremio out of the second division.

In an extraordinary decisive game, Gremio had four players sent off, survived a penalty miss by opponents Nautico and then snatched a goal to win 1-0 and clinch promotion. Two years later, he took them to the final of the Libertadores Cup, the South American equivalent of the Champions League. The following year he led Corinthians, another hugely popular team, out of the second division. Former Brazil, Portugal and Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, currently with Brazilian side Palmeiras, was believed to be the other coach on the shortlist.

Fluminense’s move is almost unprecedented as Brazilian clubs are usually happy to oblige if their coach is picked for the national team. Ramalho took over at Fluminense in April and on Thursday night his side beat Cruzeiro 1-0 to go top of the Brazilian championship. Club president Horcades praised Ramalho for not leaving. “People with Muricy’s standards are necessary in football,” he said. The down-to-earth Ramalho won three consecutive Brazilian championship titles with Sao Paulo between 2006 and 2008, although he was never able to win the Libertadores. —Reuters

Rolls-Royce delivers more cars in ME than ever before

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30 Jazeera/Visa users win weekly draw

Maruti posts surprise profit fall

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

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Focus shifts to EU banks to scrape test pass 17 banks just pass Europe’s stress test LONDON/FRANKFURT: So few banks failed Europe’s long-awaited stress tests on Friday that investors will likely focus instead on the dozen or so banks that just scraped through when markets reopen next week.

Seven banks failed the unprecedented test of Europe’s banking system-including five small regional Spanish lenders — and need to plug a much smaller-than-expected combined capital shortfall of 3.5 billion euros.

But the health check on 91 banks in 20 countries was criticized as being too soft. It was also overshadowed somewhat by a slew of data on European economies that suggested the banks may face less pressure and loan defaults than earlier thought.

That leaves investors to make up their own minds about particular banks, armed with the extra adata the tests provided, including on sovereign bond holdings, to judge where further weak spots may be.

“With so few banks failing, investors will question whether the economic scenarios are sufficiently severe,” said Jon Peace, analyst at Nomura in London.

“It will be natural for investors to consider the margin by which banks passed,” he added, citing a good pass margin for Scandinavian and British banks, but Greek, Spanish and Italian banks faring less well.

Banks were tested on how they would withstand another recession in the next two years, including some losses on government bonds. They failed if their Tier 1 capital ratio dropped below 6 percent.

There were 17 banks whose ratio fell to between 6 percent and 7 percent. They included Deutsche Postbank, Greece’s Piraeus Bank, Allied Irish Banks, Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UBI Banca, Spain’s Bankinter and eight smaller Spanish banks.

Even in the hours before the results

MUNICH: People with umbrellas standing in front of the headquarters of troubled Hypo Real Estate bank in Munich, southern Germany. Hypo Real Estate is one of many banks in Germany that failed the so-called ìstress-testî by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors.—AFP were released National Bank of Greece, Slovenia’s NLB and Civica in Spain all announced plans to raise capital.

Piraeus has already hired three invest-

ment banks to underwrite a capital increase of more than 1 billion euros, a Greek newspaper said yesterday, although much of that may go on the acquisition of state stakes in

Syria primes itself for key ME role OGB launches new country report The steady progress Syria has made in liberalizing its economy while also carving out a key role for itself on the international stage is mapped out in a wide-ranging report just published by Oxford Business Group (OBG).

The Report: Syria 2010, which offers in-depth coverage of the country’s economic activity and investment opportunities, is available now. As the government prepares to introduce its 11th Five-Year Plan for the country, The Report: Syria 2010 explores its bid to build public-private partnerships, particularly in the oil industry, and tap investors for key projects earmarked for the transport sector.

The leading global publishing, research and consultancy firm’s report includes a detailed, sector-by-sector guide for investors, together with a wide range of interviews with the most prominent political, economic and business leaders.

President Bashar Al-Assad’s views on Syria’s economic development are featured in The Report: Syria 2010, together with those of many high-profile international personalities, including David W Lesch, Professor of Middle East History, Trinity University, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and Neighborhood Policy and Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League.

The report also features interviews with key figures from politics and business, including Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdullah Al-Dardari, Minister of Industry Fouad Issa Al Jouni, Minister of Transport Yarob Badr and the CEO of Damascus Securities Exchange Mohamad Al Jleilati. A first-time chapter dedicated to the extensive developments taking place in health and education includes an exclusive interview with First Lady Asma Al-Assad.

With the Damascus Securities Exchange marking its first year of operations, The Report: Syria 2010 looks back on its initial performance while considering the possibility that an easing of trading restrictions could be on the horizon. In its Capital Markets chapter, which contains share analyses, the report also looks at plans to develop a government bond market and explores how the Exchange hopes to rise to the challenge of persuading the country’s family businesses to list.

OBG’s report maps out the overhaul earmarked for Syria’s transportation system, which forms part of a broader bid to improve connectivity both nationally and across the region.

There is detailed coverage of the government’s bid to bring the private sector on board for the extensive developments planned for roads, rail projects and ports in line with Syria’s bid to carve out a role for itself as a regional transport hub.

With oil reserves continuing to play a key role in Syria’s economic growth, OBG’s new report highlights the new developments taking place in the industry which the government is looking to tap. It outlines the country’s plans to seek out new partners as it considers exploring opportunities in gas production, complex extraction and mid- and downstream segments.

The Report: Syria 2010 has been produced in partnership with the Syrian Enterprise and Business Centre (SEBC).

Contributions have also been made Bemo Saudi Fransi Finance as its capital markets partner, Karawani Law Firm as OBG’s legal partner, ASAS for Business Consultancy as accountancy partner and Bank Audi Syria as its banking partner.

Paulius Kuncinas, OBG’s Regional Editor for Asia and the

Levant, said that Syria had made impressive progress with its economic reform while also managing to boost foreign trade and sidestep the global financial crisis.

“The successful steps which Syria has taken in liberalizing its economy have been matched by its achievements on the international stage, where it is enjoying revived relations with the US and has forged key trade partnerships with the EU,” he said. “I am confident that OBG’s new report accurately and comprehensively reflects Syria’s growing regional prominence and steady economic progress.”

Kuncinas also acknowledged the key role that OBG’s partners had played in contributing to The Report: Syria 2010.

“Oxford Business Group has long recognized the importance of teaming up with leading local partners with detailed knowledge in their field,” he said. “With Syria in the midst of significant economic development, their contribution has undoubtedly helped OBG to produce an unrivalled report which documents the exciting investment opportunities Syria has to offer.”

The Report: Syria 2010 marks the culmination of more than six months of field research by a team of analysts from OBG, assessing trends and developments in all major sectors of the economy, including energy, industry, finance, banking, tourism, transport and real estate.

The Report forms part of the range of OBG’s publications, which are renowned as leading sources of information on developing and emerging economies around the world. The Report: Syria 2010 will be available in print form and online.

two other Greek banks.

Postbank, Germany’s largest retail bank by clients, identified its own capital shortfall months ago. The Bonn-based lender last

year took drastic measures to improve capital, including scrapping its dividend, cutting staff and shrinking assets. It said it will continue with the overhaul.

Franz-Christoph Zeitler, Bundesbank’s vice president, said: “In the regulators’ view no other German bank (other than Hypo Real Estate) needs further capital as the level of 6 percent is clearly above the regulatory minimum, but the markets could see that differently.”

Italy’s smaller banks will also come under scrutiny.

“As we expected, bigger banks have higher capital ratios, while the market will probably say that banks such as Monte dei Paschi and Banco Popolare still lack adequate ratios,” said Centrosim analyst Luca Comi. A main aim of the test was to open up funding markets for banks who have been shut out in recent months. Those still deemed too risky could still have problems unless they raise more capital. “This isn’t necessarily the last word, and if funding costs do not improve for some banks then we would not be surprised to see additional stress tests by some national central banks in the future,” Nomura’s Peace said.

Europe’s so-called “stress tests” were never expected to show massive capital shortfalls, as its banks have also already raised about 300 billion euros since the start of the crisis.

That includes about 170 billion euros of government support to 34 banks. Just as investors take a view when markets reopen tomorrow, Central bank governors and heads of supervision will meet in Switzerland to review proposed capital reforms, and the resilience shown by Europe’s banks could make it harder for them to argue they cannot implement tough new rules. “The banks are ready to start implementing the new rules which are necessary to reinforce the capital provision and liquidity management of the banks,” Vitor Constancio, ECB Vice President, told Reuters Insider af ter Friday’s results. —Reuters

Obama derides Republican economic plan as job-killing WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama says an economic plan by the House Republican leader just repeats job-killing policies of the past and would take the country “backward at a time when we need to keep America moving forward.” In turn, House Republican leader John Boehner said the president had stooped to partisan attacks because he can’t sell his own plan at a time when millions of people want to know what happened to the jobs Obama promised to create. Days after imposing new regulations on the financial industry, Obama said yesterday that the new law is a “key pillar” of his overall economic plan to reverse the recession that began on Wall Street and build a stronger economy overall.

“It took nearly a decade of failed economic policies to create this mess, and it will take years to fully repair the damage,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “But I am confident that we are finally headed in the right direction. We are moving forward. And what we can’t afford right now is to go back to the same ideas that created this mess in the first place.” Previewing one of the arguments he’ll be making as he campaigns for Democratic candidates heading into the November elections when control of Congress is at stake, Obama acknowledged that the economic growth on his watch isn’t nearly enough to replace the millions of lost jobs. But he said essentially that the Republican alternative — repealing the health care law, continuing tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and rejecting investments in clean energy — would be much worse.

“They are the same policies that led us into this recession,” Obama said. “They will not create jobs, they will kill them. “ Boehner countered that Republicans have better solutions and will stop Democratic tax hikes and spending sprees. “The fact is that Washington Democrats’ policies have created uncertainty that has undermined our economy, shaken the confidence of the nation and cost millions of American jobs,” the Ohio Republican said.

“Our nation needs leadership, not excuses.” In the Republican’s weekly address, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana promised a fight against a tax increase that he said is coming next year.

Tax cuts enacted under Republican George W Bush’s presidency are scheduled to expire in January and — partly out of voter concern over the rising federal budget deficit — Democrats are undecided over whether to extend them as Republicans advocate. “The American people know we can’t tax and spend and bail our way back to a growing economy,” Pence said.

“House Republicans opposed the Democrats’ failed stimulus bill, their national energy tax, their government takeover of healthcare and House Republicans will oppose this tax increase with everything we’ve got.” — AP

OHIO: President Barack Obama holds up a document of Republican solutions given to him by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio on Friday, before he spoke to Republican lawmakers at the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore. — AP

Qatar regulator wants Virgin launch changes: Vodafone DUBAI: Qatar’s regulator has asked for “significant changes” in Virgin Mobile’s launch into the Gulf state in partnership with rival Qatar Telecom (Qtel), Vodafone Qatar said yesterday.

Vodafone Qatar said in a statement that it may still bring a lawsuit in the dispute.

“Vodafone Qatar ... welcomed ictQATAR’s, the country’s telecommunications regulator, landmark decision in response to Vodafone Qatar’s complaint against Qatar Telecommunication’s (Qtel) introduction of Virgin Mobile in Qatar...,” the company, a unit of Vodafone, said in a statement. “In this decision, ictQATAR determined that Vodafone Qatar was correct in its complaint that Qtel had illegally violated the Qatar telecoms law...,” the statement said.

There was no immediate comment by Qtel and Virgin. The regulator earlier said it had informed the parties in the dispute about its decision, without giving details. In May, Virgin Group [VA.UL] signed a partnership with Qtel to launch Virgin Mobile Qatar in a brand licensing agreement to offer a prepaid mobile phone service.

Vodafone Qatar had said it saw Virgin Mobile’s

entry as a violation of the conditions to its licence, which cost shareholders 7.7 billion riyals ($2.12 billion), and the telecoms law in Qatar.

“Vodafone Qatar has noted that ictQATAR has requested Qtel to change significantly how the Virgin Mobile brand in Qatar is represented compared to what was launched on 13 May 2010.

Vodafone Qatar is carefully reviewing ictQATAR’s decision to determine if they (will) take further legal action with courts...,” the statement said.

Vodafone won the bid for Qatar’s second mobile telephone license in 2007 to break the monopoly of Qtel in the small Gulf Arab state, which is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter. “Our lawyers are reviewing the decision and will shortly advice Vodafone Qatar’s board on our options for legal action that are in the interest of our shareholders and for damages resulting from Qtel’s behaviour which has been found to be illegal by ictQATAR,” Vodafone Qatar chairman Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Saud Al-Thani said in the statement. In May, Vodafone Qatar said it would take legal action against the regulator if it allowed Virgin Mnbile’s entry. — Reuters

22

BUSINESS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Corporate results buoy KSE stocks, index advances KUWAIT: The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) closed last week’s closing on a positive note reaching its highest level since June 8. The week saw heavier flow of first half corporate results with some being better than expected, generating more confidence in the market. The financial sector also witnessed much better performance indicating that a positive sentiment is developing towards the local market and the banking sector. However, the Islamic companies dominated the bulls with notable increase seen on most of their equities taking the Islamic Index to a much higher level.

Kuwait Stock Exchange concluded the week up by 1.95 percent at 190.66 point, as measured by Global’s weighted General Index. On a year-to-date basis the market gains escalated to 2.38 percent at week end. On the other hand, Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) price index was also up by 69.90 points (1.07 percent) and closed the week at 6,582.6 points. Total market capitalization reached KD31.52bn. Market breadth skewed towards advancers side with 72 stocks advancing against 46 declining out of 148 shares traded last week.

Trading activity was higher last week.

Volume traded was up by 27.71 percent reaching 1.51bn shares changing hands at a total traded value of KD193.83mn (63.35 percent increase compared to the week before) with interest being witnessed on the large capitalization stocks in the market.

The trading volume was highly seen in the Real Estate Sector which accounted for 33.29 percent (502.53mn shares) of the total market traded volume. High demand on Investors Holding Group Company’s share continued for several weeks now, and saw alone 312.96mn shares traded, accounting for 20.73 percent of the overall weekly traded volume. The scrip topped the volume list and ended the week down by 4.44 percent. On the value side, the Banking Sector saw the most value traded with KD52.58mn exchanged, accounting for 27.13 percent of the total market traded value. Zain stayed on top of the value list for many weeks with KD17.99mn traded on its share last week, accounting for 9.28 percent of the total weekly traded value. The scrip of the largest listed company in the bourse concluded the week flat at KD1.180.

Looking at the market sectors’ performances, Global Insurance Sector Index was the only loser last week, shedding 0.24 percent of its value. For the third week, the retreat is caused by the drop in the share price of First Takaful Insurance (-9.43 percent) causing the index retreat.

All other market sectors concluded the week with gain. Global Banking Sector Index was the biggest advancer, adding 3.48 percent to its value with six of the nine Kuwaiti banks ending the week at higher note. Kuwait Finance House (KFH) was a major gainer in the sector, adding 8.33 percent to its share price after announcing better than expected earnings for the six months ending in June 2010.

Global Industrial Sector Index came second, adding 2.87 percent to its value.

Salbookh Trading Company led the gainers’ list last week with 33.33 percent increase in its share price. Despite having three of its constituents in the top losers list for the week, Global Investment Sector Index came third as it closed high-

emergency management and other issues, which will enable the department to cope with the country’s development oriented aspirations.

GLOBAL WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

er by 1.98 percent.

Al-Salam Group Holding Company topped the losers list, shedding 13.21 percent of its share value. Also Housing Finance Company (Iskan) and The International Investment lost 12.05 percent and 9.43 percent of their share values respectively. However, the increase of the share price of Global Investment House of 25 percent to close at KD0.065 helped lifting up the index. This increase came after the company announced winning a court order to regain a down payment of $250mn plus interest from a bank in the United Arab Emirates followed by announcing repaying $50mn of its bank dept. Global’s special indices closed with mixed performances. Global Large Cap (Top 10) Index rose by 2.05 percent while Global Small Cap (Low 10) index retreated by 0.79 percent. Global Islamic Sharia Index was a notable advancer after most of the Islamic Kuwaiti companies recorded increase in their share values. The index added 5.02 percent to its value by the end of the week.

Macroeconomic news The Central Bank of Kuwait’s (CBK) governor said that Kuwait’s real GDP is expected to grow this year after dropping 4.6 percent in 2009. Sheikh Salem AbdulAziz Al-Sabah said that real GDP for 2009 was estimated to be KD18.8bn ($64.83bn), compared to KD19.7bn in 2008. He said that real GDP for the oil sector was expected to grow by 1 percent in 2010 and the non-oil sectors by around 2.5 percent.

The governor did not provide figures or an overall percentage for this year.

Real oil sector GDP for 2009 was forecast to drop 11.4 percent to KD7.1bn, and real non-oil sectors were forecast to record “no significant growth” at KD11.7bn, he said. Demand for oil dropped in 2009 because of the slowdown in the world economy after the economic crisis.

Inflation rate in the Gulf Arab state was expected to stay at “relatively stable levels” of 4 percent for 2009, Sheikh Salem added. Kuwait, which invests a large chunk of its foreign exchange reserves in US assets, has no flexible monetary policy to control inflation which climbed to record, double-digit peaks in 2008. CBK surprised the markets in February, cutting its key interest rates by 25 to 50 basis points to support growth, expecting inflation to stay low. The Gulf state’s discount rate is currently at 2.5 percent.

The Central Bank of Kuwait data showed this week that Kuwait’s M3 money supply growth was steady in June from the month earlier, staying at an 11year low of 0.3 percent. While M2 was higher at 0.5 percent. The M1 was 11.3 percent in June compared to 13.6 percent recorded in May. Oil related news The Kuwaiti crude oil price last revealed was at $70.46 per barrel (pb) on Monday, July 19, down by $0.65 for July 2010 as per the prices revealed by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). On a Yearto-day, oil prices had dropped by $6.25 compared to December 31, 2009 of $76.71. The decline in oil prices lately is due to the report published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) expecting a slowdown in the global

demand on oil by more than 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2011.

Other local news Ministry of Public Works has announced that the investment expenditure on all the ministry’s projects, 553 projects in total, during the coming years of development plan is marked at around KD3.14bn. The projects of constructional and development plan, includes investment expenditure on sewage engineering service, amounts up to KD237mn for 77 project, in addition to 131 roads services projects at a total value of KD951mn.

Investment expenditure on 17 major projects is marked at KD388mn, KD1.213bn for 248 construction projects and 80 maintenance projects at the value of KD312mn. The plan is divided into two parts: in the first, the ministry is the beneficiary of investment expenditure up to KD1.552bn. While in the second part of the plan, the ministry will implement projects for other bodies with an investment expenditure up to KD1.587bn.

Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) and officials of Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) discussed this week KIA funding for six construction and expansion projects, coming to an overall sum of KD700mn and to be listed as part of the state’s development plan. Acting head of KPA and Public Relations Director Abdullah Al-Jassas said that the meeting was attended by investment manager Mohammad Al-Abhoul and investment analyst Mishari Al-Musallam to consider mechanism to provide the requested funding. Al-Jassas pointed out the general presentation on the projects was met very

favorably by KIA representatives and the next stage would be detailed studies for the projects and, possibly, specialized meetings.

Kuwait Airport Corporation (KAC) announced that it had signed a unified code deal with Singapore Airlines which will be set in motion as of August 1, 2010.

Deputy Head of Planning and International Affairs Saud Al-Mukhaizeem said that the deal would increase air travel and cargo activities between Singapore and Kuwait, adding that services would be improved on board KAC’s flights. This deal would expand the operation network of KAC to accommodate the growing demands in the local market for such destinations, stated the official. KAC signed similar deals with the Indian, Yemeni, Italian, Ethiopian, Saudi, as well as Etihad airline companies.

Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) investment funds specialized in Gulf bonds and equities revealed a positive performance in the first half (H1) of 2010.

Returns of the GIC’s Bond fund in Kuwaiti dinar and Gulf Bond Fund in US dollar reached approximately 8.20 percent and 6.79 percent respectively.

Highlights of the week The customs Department’s new organizational structure will be revealed after the end of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday at the conclusion of the holy month of Ramadan, said Ibrahim Al-Ghanim, the general manager of the department. He explained that the restructuring of the new department involved a number of procedures, including the establishment of several new sections dealing with development, planning,

Kuwait Stock Exchange Global Investment House announced that it has made a $50mn principal repayment of its bank debt value July 21, 2010.

Till date the total principal repayments to the lending banks reached $78.9mn representing 46 percent of the total repayments due by December 10, 2010. In another related issue, Global Investment House announced this week that the court of first instance in the Emirate of Dubai passed a judgment ordering National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain (NBQ) to repay Global $250mn towards the refund of a deposit placed by the Company with the Bank in August 2008 plus interest until the date of payment and all expenses. Further the court rejected all the counter claims made by NBQ. A day after the bank said that it will appeal against the Dubai court decision.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company (KGL) said that the United States government has agreed to look into an objection filed by the company regarding the award of a military supply contract to its competitor. The firm said in a statement to the bourse on Wednesday that it was awaiting a decision on the matter. KGL filed the objection in April after the US military awarded the contract to the Dubai-based ANHAM FZCO LLC in the wake of fraud charges against its main long-time supplier Kuwait’s Agility. The company said ANHAM did not meet minimum bidding requirements for the contract.

Agility announced its appointment as the official logistics provider for the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC). As per the agreement, Agility will be responsible for handling the logistics requirements for the New Zealand teams competing in events such as the Commonwealth Games in Delhi later this year through the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Burgan Bank was granted the approval from the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) to repurchase or divest up to 10 percent of its issued shares for further 6 months, as of the current approval expiry on August 8, 2010.

Burgan should abide by CBK buyback rules and regulations, in addition to the provisions of Article No 115 bis of Corporate law.

Ahli United Bank (AUB) has acquired 3,314,819 shares of Ahli United Bank Egypt, thus increasing its holding to 51,084,087 shares, or 85.14 percent. AUB Egypt had earlier offered 6,230,732 shares for sale through a voluntary purchase bid for minority stakes. The Securities Committee of The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has decided on July 14th to delist shares of AUB Egypt voluntarily from schedules, as per Article No. 358 of Chapter No. 12 of the Executive Regulation in Law No. 95/1992. This move was in pursuance of the purchase bid offered by AUB and endorsed by the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA).

Al-Mal Investment Company announced selling its stake of 23.26mn shares, or 46.52 percent of Safwan Trading & Contracting Company at a price of 325fils per share, totaling KD7.560mn. The deal resulted a sales profits of KD16,027. Knowing that the buyer was Ali AbdulWahab & Sons Company.

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 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 US Dollar Sterling pounds Swiss Francs Saudi Riyals

.2830000 .4370000 .3680000 .2710000 .2740000 .2510000 .0045000 .0020000 .0780720 .7606340 .4020000 .0750000 .7456690 .0045000 .0500000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2876000 .4395750 .3705880 .2728870 .2763350 .0497270 .0391120 .2536340 .0369690 .2095980 .0033000 .0061050 .0025540 .0033730 .0041680 .0783410 .7632490 .4067440 .0767320 .7473850 .0062510 TRANSFER CHEQUES RATES .2897000 .4426790 .2748190 .0772210

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.333 6.119

.2930000 .4440000 .3760000 .2790000 .2820000 .2590000 .0075000 .0035000 .0788570 .7682790 .4180000 .0790000 .7531630 .0072000 .0580000 .2897000 .4426790 .3732050 .2748190 .2782920 .0500790 .0393890 .2554250 .0372310 .2110820 .0033230 .0061490 .0025720 .0033970 .0041970 .0788410 .7681160 .4096250 .0772210 .7521510 .0062960

Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

3.377 2.555 3.850 210.720 37.136 4.161 6.215 8.939 0.296 0.310 GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal 77.022 Qatari Riyal 79.351 Omani Riyal 750.310 Bahraini Dinar 767.050 UAE Dirham 78.644 ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 53.750 Egyptian Pound 50.700 Yemen Riyal 1.266 Tunisian Dinar 198.410 Jordanian Dinar 407.830 Lebanese Lira 193.700 Syrian Lier 6.168 Morocco Dirham 34.163 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 288.680 Euro 375.860 Sterling Pound 442.260 Canadian dollar 275.720 Turkish lire 187.980 Swiss Franc 275.460 Australian dollar 253.170 US Dollar Buying 287.195 GOLD 20 Gram 235.000 10 Gram 120.000 5 Gram 62.000

Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal 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 10 Tola Sterling Pound US Dollar

SELL CASH 263.300 759.050 4.280 282.800 587.900 14.100 49.400 167.600 53.570

376.700 37.730 6.155

408.770 0.195 92.490 3.870 213.000 751.210 3.390 6.240 79.550 77.210 212.190 41.400 2.560 448.000 276.500 9.150 78.810 289.200

GOLD 1,285.920 TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 448.000 289.800

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound

378.200 37.880 6.490 0.035 0.274 0.255 3.410 410.650 0.196 92.490 45.700 4.520 214.500 1.970 46.700 751.210 3.550 6.550 79.980 77.120 212.190 41.400 2.740 450.000 39.600 278.000 6.400 9.310 198.263 78.910 289.600 1.320

SELL DRAFT 261.500 769.050 4.171 281.300

212.200 50.518

Rate for Transfer 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

Selling Rate 288.750 278.610 444.944 374.987 273.634 707.744 764.287 78.595 79.292 76.969 407.465 50.724 6.136 3.381

Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees

2.557 4.175 6.207 3.310 8.927 6.299 3.819

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency 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

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 288.800 3.385 6.120 2.570 4.170 6.250 78.730 77.220 767.700 50.725 445.600 0.00003280 3.890 1.550 410.200 5.750 377.800 283.300

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 288.800 Euro 376.800 Pound Sterling 444.350 Canadian Dollar 280.200 Japanese Yen 3.350 Indian Rupee 6.160 Egyptian Pound 50.750 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.562 Bangladesh Taka 4.163 Philippines Peso 6.225 Pakistan Rupee 3.385 Bahraini Dinar 768.000 UAE Dirham 78.670 Saudi Riyal 77.150 *Rates are subject to change

BUSINESS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

23

Rolls-Royce Ghost and Phantom

Rolls-Royce - The spirit of ecstasy

Rolls-Royce delivers more cars in Mideast than ever before DUBAI: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has seen sales in the Middle East region in the first half of 2010 increase by 98 per cent in comparison to the same period in 2009.

This achievement marks record sales for the manufacturer of luxury cars in the region.

The importance of the Middle East is underpinned by the fact that

four out of the top ten selling dealerships are located in the region, the same number as in 2009.

“This is a clear sign of the unparalleled appeal of Rolls-Royce, in particular following the challenging economic environment in 2009,” said James Crichton, who was recently appointed Regional Director for the Middle East. “Both

sales growth and Bespoke results underpin our business expansion and individual customer experiences go hand in hand at RollsRoyce,” he concluded.

The top selling Bespoke dealers are based on the Arabian peninsula as well, Abu Dhabi is selling globally the richest Bespoke specifications, three additional Middle East

dealers are amongst the worldwide Bespoke top ten. Bespoke is RollsRoyce¥s offer for a further individualization of the motor car beyond the option list.

Mohammed F Alghanim, Group General Manager of the sole dealer in Kuwait, said, “It is very rewarding for Ali Alghanim and Sons to be currently amongst the ten best sell-

ing dealerships in the world. We are anticipating further growth with the ultimate expression of the brand, Phantom, and the more informal aura of Ghost.”

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars recently announced that due to unprecedented demand June saw the highest production figure for an individual month since 2003. All Phantom

and Ghost models are sold out until September.

Rolls-Royce has 83 dealerships around the world, including eight showrooms in the Middle East region: in Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi Motors), Dubai (AGMC), Doha (Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Doha), Jeddah (Mohammed Yousuf Naghi Motors), Kuwait City (Ali Alghanim

& Sons Automotive), Manama (Euro Motors), Muscat (Al Jenaibi International Autmobiles) and Riyadh (Mohammed Yousuf Naghi Motors).

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars offers five models: Ghost, Phantom, Phantom Extended Wheelbase, Phantom Drophead Coupé and Phantom Coupé.

Qatar Airways confirms order for Bombardier jets Airline capitalizes on growing Mideast corporate market FARNBOROUGH: Qatar Airways has announced it has purchased two Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft in a deal worth $90 million as part of plans to further develop its 12-month old corporate jet subsidiary, Qatar Executive.

Salman Al-Badran

VIVA Kuwait continues to invest in ISO 9001 Certified Network 1000 cell sites go on air within one year of operation KUWAIT: VIVA Kuwait recently activated its thousandth cell site at strategic locations all over the country. Salman Al-Badran, VIVA’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) said, “ We have been working very hard to build out our network so this is a significant milestone for VIVA, one which translates in an improvement of coverage for our customers.” “We intend to enhance our network and introduce next generation telecommunications solutions, “Al-Badran added, “VIVA Kuwait is also committed to engaging with Kuwaiti companies and individuals to enhance their economic and financial capabilities. Our accomplishments were possible only because of our collaboration with the Kuwaiti companies, which played a significant role in building such an advanced network, along with the government personnel and specifically the Ministry of Communication that supported VIVA Kuwait in providing the society with telecommunication alternatives.”

In April, 2010 VIVA Kuwait received the ISO 9001 Quality Management System certificate for information technology and our state of the art network, attaining global status by meeting applicable regulatory requirements from two leading certification entities: SAI Global, and the Global

Experience Consulting Company.

The company has the most technologically advanced network in the country, and is optimizing our network to provide customers with the best experience possible.

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

Launched in December 2008, VIVA makes things Possible for our customers by transforming communication, information and entertainment experiences. The company has rapidly established an unrivalled position in the market through our customer and employee centric approach. VIVA’s quest is to be the mobile brand of choice for Kuwait by being transparent, engaging, energetic and fulfilling. VIVA continues to take a considerable share of the market by offering an innovative range of best value products, services and content propositions; a state of the art, nationwide network and world-class service. VIVA offers Internet speed up to 21.6Mbps due to the implementation of the most advanced third generation (3G and HSDPA) network in Kuwait resulting in superior coverage, performance and reliability.

For more information, visit VIVA at one of our store locations or on www.viva.com.kw

How to become next Al-Danah millionaire KUWAIT: Gulf Bank is offering the single largest prize draw in the Middle East and thus encouraging all its customers, existing and new, to open an Al-Danah account and to deposit more now to be eligible to enter the Al Danah 1 million draw, in which one lucky Al-Danah customer will win the prize of 1 million dinars.

It is easy to open an AlDanah account as no salary transfer is required. Minors require their parents or their legal guardian to open the account on their behalf.

Maintaining a minimum balance of KD 200 will automatically allow Al-Danah account holders to enter the weekly draws of KD 1000 each to ten winners as well as the 1 million dinar draw.

Gulf Bank would like to assure its customers that all Al-Danah draws are conducted in the presence of a representative from the Ministry of Commerce who supervises the process which randomly and electronically selects the winner.

Gulf Bank is not only offering customers the

biggest single prize draw but providing them with the best and most convenient way to open an Al-Danah account and deposit their money, through our 51-branch network, online banking, telebanking at 1805805 or through the bank’s “Al Danah Deposit Only ATM Card” service at any of Gulf Bank’s deposit ATM machines.

Customers can also log onto Gulf Bank’s bilingual website, www.e-gulfbank.com to receive more information on Al Danah or any of the Bank’s products and services.

Saudis see barley imports inching down by 2.6% RIYADH: Saudi Arabia expects its barley imports to decline 2.6 percent in the 12 months to July 2011, in line with a predicted drop in global trade in the commodity, its trade and industry ministry said.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest importer of barley and most of it is used as animal feed. Its imports in the 12 months to July 2010 stood at 7.7 million tons, the ministry said in a report issued late yesterday on its website. “It is expected that the international trade in barley will stand at 16.5 million tons over the July 2010-2011 period, a decline of 0.5 million tons from 2009,” it said. “Saudi Arabia’s imports are set to decline from 7.7 million tons to 7.5 million tons.”

The agriculture ministry has been encouraging private investors to start plants that manufacture feed concentrates to reduce reliance on barley imports while other investors have started obtaining land abroad to provide the Saudi market with fresh grass feed.

After they gradually reduced it by 83 percent, Saudi authorities have repeatedly said they might altogether axe a subsidy paid to local barley importers which now stands at 200 riyals ($53.33) per ton.

Analysts say concern over the impact such a move can have on domestic prices of meat prevented the government from eliminating the subsidies.

Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf has said Saudi Arabia’s dependence on the global barley trade made it vulnerable to price manipulation by traders.

While Saudi wheat supplies are managed by the state-run Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organization (GSFMO), barley is imported privately. A US report said in April the kingdom’s barley imports fell about 19 percent to 1.18 million tons during the first quarter of 2010 due to good pasture conditions in some areas of the desert country and the availability of subsidized and competitively priced feed concentrates. —Reuters

Announcing the order on the opening day of the Farnborough Air Show, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker also hinted at possible further acquisitions as the airline continues to take advantage of the Middle East region’s growing corporate jet market.

“We launched Qatar Executive last year because we had identified a huge gap in the market and are now well on the way to filling that void,” said Al Baker, adding that the corporate jet division formed part of the airline’s robust growth strategy worldwide.

“The additional capacity and non-stop range capabilities of the Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft allows us to offer increased flexibility to our customers.

“Despite the current global economic climate, there remains a strong need for corporations to conduct face to face business meetings in the shortest possible time and with a hassle-free travel experience.”

With a flying range of up to 5,200 nautical miles, the 13seater Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft will have the longest range of any of the jets currently in the Qatar Executive fleet.

These aircraft can fly to destinations as far as Hong Kong nonstop from Doha.

The Qatar Executive fleet currently comprises two Bombardier Challenger 605 jets featuring 11 seats, and the eight-seater Challenger 300 aircraft. The new aircraft will feature high class specification interiors offering passengers the comforts of luxury travel working, relaxing and sleeping inflight.

Added Al Baker: “At Qatar Airways, we are responding to the sustained regional demand to have larger private jets available to our corporate customers. Our passengers are paying a premium to fly privately and at their leisure, so this is a market segment that we are keen to develop since entering this sector 12 months ago.

“While low cost carriers in the region are pushing budget travel, we are doing the opposite and targeting high end travellers. Qatar Executive has been operating extremely successfully since we officially launched Qatar Executive at the Paris Air Show last summer.”

The two additional Bombardier aircraft will be based in Doha and can operate non-stop to anywhere in Europe, as well as most places in Asia and Africa. All Qatar Executive jets can reach North America with a fuel stop in Europe.

The corporate jet market in the Middle East has grown at an average of 13 per cent a year since 2000. Nine years ago, there were 200 corporate jets based in the Middle East, more than doubling in size to 450 in 2008 with estimates of further growth over the next few years.

The new business jets are scheduled for delivery in October 2010 and August 2011 - and will join three Bombardier Challenger jets currently operating within the Doha-based Qatar Executive fleet.

FARNBOROUGH: Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker (right) and Bombardier President of the Business Aircraft division, Steven Ridolfi pose with a Qatar Executive Bombardier model jet.

Mobivision launches MOBIMAG First of its kind mobile application in Middle East KUWAIT: Mobivision, a media company specializing in providing digital media solutions, yesterday announced the launch of Mobimag, a first of its kind application to be introduced in the Middle East.

Mobivision is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arabi Holding Group Company KSC, one of the leading companies in Kuwait established in 1981.

Mobimag is a digital application that allows users to access regional newspapers and magazines through their smartphone and handheld devices. It serves as a mobile home and media hub for print publications. The application is multilingual with Arabic support and is available to download free of charge.

Mobimag not only provides users with the same experience of printed media, but also enhances the original material by adding interactive methods and new presentation capabilities like video, audio and animations, making it an effective and intuitive advertising platform.

The mobile publication has the same look and feel as the physical copy, with no compromise made to the publication’s design, layout and advertisements. It is simple and user friendly and allows subscribers to browse articles and pages with ease.

The value added services

(VAS) and mobile applications industry in the Middle East is projected to experience an accelerated growth owing to proliferation of 3G networks, untapped potential and increasing adoption of smartphone devices by consumers.

Commenting on the launch, Ibrahim Darraz, General Manager, Mobivision said “While web-based news services have been available in the region for sometime now, accessing news content on your mobile phones as it appears in print is a new concept. The launch of Mobimag is timely as the Middle East region sees promising growth in 3G mobile subscription and internet usage. The application is one of

its kind and we are confident that it will open up new opportunities and further push the region’s growth in digital media.”

The benefit of this application is not limited to consumers alone, in fact Mobimag offers a new, untapped business model for publishers and advertisers in the region.

Businesses can benefit from maximum exposure to their fast growing audience.

Mobimag allows users to interact and respond to promotions, advertisements and sponsored content by simply clicking on “click to call” button featured on the digital publication.

It works as a tool for publishers to further understand

the demographics of their readers and their preferences.

“With new technological advancements taking place in the print media it is vital for publishing companies to stay on top of these changes to remain competitive and relevant to their readers. Our customized solution will enable publishers to easily extend their reach and interact with a wide range of subscribers that was hardly possible before,” said Feras Younes, Product Manager, Mobimag.

The application supports majority of the smartphones available in the market today and offers a consistent interface and user experience across all devices. According to a recent IDC report, the worldwide Smartphone market grew over 56 percent in the first quarter of 2010 with the Middle East and Africa set to be amongst the top two global Smartphone markets with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39 per cent over the next four years.

As the market for buying apps and downloads continues to increase, industry analysts predict that emerging markets such as the Middle East is where most of the growth in the mobile applications market is expected to come from in the near future.

BUSINESS

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

KSE ekes out gains, investors remain cautious KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) continued to, cautiously, record gains during the past week amid growth in trading levels. Last week’s average daily turnover grew by 30.68%, compared to previous week’s levels, to reach KD 38.77 million, whereas trading volume average amounted to 301.95 million shares, at an increase of 2.17%.

Market activity during the week was volatile within a narrow range, as KSE price index fluctuated around the 6,500 points level in the first three trading days of the week as a result of speculations, then started to register gains with renewed statements from government officials about taking measures for the support of local economy in general and KSE in particular. Optimistic sentiments were also supported by the first half results of some listed companies that were announced during the week, especially the ones pertaining to the banking sector, as the banks that have declared their results managed to record a 13.52% increase in total net

BAYAN INVESTMENT WEEKLY REPORT profits compared to same banks’ results for the first six months of 2009.

By the end of the week, the price index closed at 6,582.6 points, up by 1.07% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 1.91% weekly gain after closing at 411.15 points.

And as a result of last week’s outcome, price index’s losses, compared to previous year’s closing level, reached 6.03%, while weighted index’s yearto-date gains reached 6.58%.

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 2.58%

growth rate as its index closed at 9,347.5 points.

Whereas, in the second place, the Food sector’s index closed at 4,585.7 points recording 1.90% increase. The Industry sector came in third as its index achieved 1.46% growth, ending the week at 5,370.6 points. The Non Kuwaiti companies sector was the least growing as its index closed at 6,779.1 points with a 0.28% increase. On the other hand, the Insurance sector was last week’s only loser as its index declined by 0.38% to end the week’s activity at 2,295.7 points.

Sectors’ activity The Real Estate sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 502.53 million shares

changing hands, representing 33.29% of the total market trading volume. The Investment sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 22.95% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 346.52 million shares. On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 52.58 million or 27.13% of last week’s total market trading value. The Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 52.05 million represented 26.85% of the total market trading value.

Market capitalization KSE total market capitalization grew by 1.99%

during last week to reach KD 30.54 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitalization except for one sector.

The Banks sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 11.43 billion, increasing by 3.47%. The Industry sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 2.95% increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 2.64 billion. The third place was for the Investment sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 2.65 billion by the end of the week, recording an increase of 2.10%. The Services sector was the least growing with 0.18% recorded growth after its market capitalization amounted to KD 8.22 billion. On the other hand, the Insurance sector was last week’s only decliner as its total market capitalization decreased by 0.24% to reach, by the end of the week, KD 272.05 million.

— Prepared by the Studies & Research Department, Bayan Investment Co.

BUSINESS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

25

Egypt: Strong recovery in 1Q10, though risks remain KUWAIT: Egypt has largely avoided the negative fallout from the global financial crisis and economic recession, with real GDP in 2009 and early 2010 continuing to show strength. Thanks in part to reforms implemented since 2004 and the fiscal and monetary policy response to the crisis, the latter’s impact was cushioned. Limited financial integration in the global financial system has also helped protect the Egyptian economy from financial contagion. Figures for 1Q10 indicate a recovery is gathering momentum as a number of key indicators picked up and real GDP growth jumped to 5.8% from 4.7% in 4Q09.

Tourism revenues moved higher for the second consecutive quarter, while non-hydrocarbon exports and imports both saw double digit growth in the quarter compared to a year ago. Suez Canal receipts and net FDI inflows were also up.

Despite the positive picture, some risks remain.

Inflation is high and reforms are still needed to reduce the structural deficit. Parliamentary elections later in 2010 and presidential elections in 2011 also present heightened political uncertainty. Nonetheless, these risks are limited and are unlikely to derail the economic recovery.

Recovery gradual While the impact of the crisis on Egypt’s economy was muted, the recovery is expected to be gradual and growth is unlikely to return to pre-crisis levels.

Important drivers of activity have only just turned upwards and proof of a sustained recovery remains limited. While first quarter figures reveal some improvement, this remains dependent on continued recovery in the global economy.

Growth during the first nine months of this fiscal year1, which ends in June 2010, held at 5.1%, from 4.9% a year ago, thanks to a stronger 1Q10. We expect a pick up to 5.2% in this fiscal year and 5.5% in FY10/11. As the recovery takes hold in FY11/12, we see growth rising to around 6%.

edly helped reduce the impact of the global slowdown on the domestic economy. The government also postponed a number of fiscal reforms expected to have a contractionary affect on the economy including the introduction of a property tax, widening the scope of the value-added tax and the continued phasing out of energy subsidies.

NBK GCC BRIEF

Inflation benign Inflation has been on a downtrend following a spike in 2008 sparked by reductions in fuel subsidies and rising food prices. Inflation picked up again in late 2009 due to sharp rises in fruit and vegetable prices. The general inflation rate has since eased to 10.6% in May 2010.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile fruits and vegetables as well as regulated items, stood at 6.7%, mostly unchanged from the start of this year. We expect inflation to ease slightly to 10% in FY10/11 and to 9% in FY11/12. However, additional reductions in fuel subsidies, which remain substantial, could push inflation higher again, albeit temporarily.

Current Account Receipts (FY08/09) Policy response During the global economic slowdown, the Egyptian economy was mainly impacted through five key channels: lower exports (mostly oil), tourism revenues, remittances from Egyptians working abroad, Suez Canal receipts, and FDI flows. More specifically, lower oil prices, weaker demand in key export and tourist mar-

kets, and a more cautious investment mood all weighed on the economy.

The government responded to the slowdown with two stimulus packages in December 2008 and in March 2009, which included capital expenditures, export subsidies, and tariff exemptions for capital goods. The packages injected a total of $5.4 billion, equivalent to 2.9% of GDP, to prop up economic activity. The move undoubt-

Fiscal deficit One of the key concerns is Egypt’s budget deficit, which despite strong economic growth has remained relatively high. Since the crisis erupted, the deficit has deteriorated slightly rising to 6.6% of GDP in FY08/09.

Additional measures to bolster tax revenues through modernized collection and more efficient structures are planned. However, the crisis has delayed many of these measures that are now expected to be in place by FY14/15.

Before the financial crisis, real GDP had been growing at around 7% for three consecutive years thanks to a successfully implemented reform program. Reforms, which were launched in 2004, included the liberalization of trade, investment and foreign exchange. The government also privatized a number of state entities and bolstered the banking sector with new policies and regulations.

Foreign investors have been drawn to a number of sectors including oil and gas, petrochemicals, banking, and power. In order to support investment, the government established an independent investment authority, the General Authority for Investment (GAFI), and launched an ambitious program in a number of sectors including petrochemicals, and oil and gas development.

Banking sector The banking system in Egypt was shielded from contagion in the wake of the global financial crisis thanks in part to significant reforms undertaken since 2004. The government was pushing reforms aggressively in an effort to reduce high levels of nonperforming loans (NPLs) and to improve poor governance at domestic banks. These reforms also included enforcing minimum capital requirements, which induced mergers and improved the sector’s capitalization. The government also restructured and privatized one of the large state owned banks, the Bank of Alexandria. Efforts have also focused on improving the governance of state owned banks. The central bank is expected to remain committed to reforms in the sector, improving supervision, standards and implementing Basel II. Efforts will also likely continue to improve the efficiency of state banks.

Another key goal is to reduce banking sector concentration and spur competition.

Positive outlook The NBK report concluded: The outlook for the Egyptian economy is positive with a robust reform program likely to bolster growth in the years ahead. The economy has emerged from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed. High inflation is expected to ease slightly, though we expect it to remain high by international standards. An area of concern is the fiscal deficit, which remains large. Additional reforms are expected in the coming years in order to reduce it to a more sustainable level.

Facility to complement supply of oil products to Mideast

VTTI plans to build new oil product terminal in Cyprus iGenie offers magical prices for launch campaign “Exclusive offers...magical prices” was the headline featured on the distinctive ad announcing the launch of iGenie, the latest electronics and accessories retail outlet in Kuwait. iGenie’s strategy is based on the vision of fruitful interaction with the customer. To achieve this vision, iGenie is offering only the best electronic brands accompanied by unprecedented customer service under a highly-trained team and unique services, all in a modern and exciting shopping atmosphere. iGenie goes beyond the traditional electronics shop to offer customers integrated technological solutions. Besides computers, servers, desktops, mobile phones, digital cameras and home entertainment/gaming, iGenie offers solutions for hardware, networking, security control for small to medium-sized projects, connectivity and video conferencing. The showroom also features a section dedicated to brand name accessories.

Commenting on the current campaign, Hani Ayoub, Department Manager, stated, “Customers during this special offer period will enjoy a unique shopping experience where iGenie gives them the opportunity to get

acquainted with our products first-hand in total freedom. Our highly-capable team will be on call to answer all their inquiries covering our 1,500plus high-quality international products.”

Hani added, “We strive to provide the utmost convenience to our customers by giving a stunning first impression and following up with unparalleled point-of-sale and after-sales service. Our showroom is designed according to the highest standards in the electronics retail sector, both in terms of presentation style, colors, and lighting to give iGenie a unique, modern character. Furthermore, we have a bold expansion strategy set for the near future that is geared to establish ourselves in close proximity to our valued customers in all the areas in which our products are in demand. Our first expansion is set to be in a high-end shopping mall in Hawally.” iGenie is a subsidiary of Zak Solutions, a leading technology solutions provider that has earned a reputation characterized by experience, high-quality, professionalism and the unique ability to understand the needs of the client, both on the consumer and corporate levels.

NICOSIA: Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI), announced plans to build a major oil import and distribution terminal in the industrial area of Vassiliko, Cyprus.

The terminal, which is set for completion in 2012, marks an initial investment of more than Ä100 million and will establish the island as a major oil trading hub. It will also complement the supply of oil products to the Middle East region, linking in with VTTI’s storage and refining asset in Fujeirah, one of the largest oil bunkering ports in the world.

Built to world class standards, with the highest safety and environmental standards in place, it will be 100% owned, funded and operated by VTTI and will provide

around 340,000 cubic metres of storage for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil.

VTTI has extensive experience of building and managing oil terminals, with a network of 11 terminals in five continents, including a major new terminal in Florida, USA, which opened in April 2010. In Europe, VTTI has major terminals in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Ventspils, Latvia.

Speaking about the new Vassiliko terminal, CEO of the Vitol Group Ian Taylor said: “We are pleased to be proceeding with this major project. While global trading conditions remain challenging, a world class terminal built and operated in a professional way, will provide jobs and potential for long term investment. The termi-

India, EU in new bid to clinch free-trade deal NEW DELHI: India and the European Union are to hold a fresh series of free-trade talks next month in Brussels in a bid to clinch a deal by the end of the year, an official said.

Chief negotiators for India and its largest trading partner will meet at the European Union headquarters in Brussels in August as part of a push to conclude negotiations on the India-EU free-trade pact by December.

“We hope we will keep that (December) date,” Daniele Smadja, the head of India’s delegation to the EU, said late on Friday.

“Concluding the FTA negotiations will send a clear signal of engagement on both sides. It would boost both trade and investment between EU and India. We need to seize the opportunity-a one-in-a-lifetime for both of us.”

As part of the drive to wrap up talks, the two sides will meet in Brussels in the last week of August, she said. Around the same time, Indian Commerce Minister Anand

Sharma and the EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht will meet on the sidelines of an international meeting in Vietnam, she added to reporters.

India and the 27-member EU have been negotiating the market-opening pact since June 2007 to boost bilateral commerce. But progress has been stymied by differences over intellectual property rights and efforts

by Brussels to link trade with climate and India’s social sector performance in such areas as child labor. India has opposed incorporation of what it calls “extraneous” nontrade issues into the EU talks.

Other issues include the seizure of Indian generic drugs meant for Third World countries as they pass through European ports. India claims developed countries are using the cover of a fight against counterfeit medicines to protect pharmaceutical giants and suppress legitimate generic drugs. —AFP

LG Mini maximizes your mobile web experience KUWAIT: LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, officially launched its new LG Mini (LG GD880), a pocket-size communication hub that maximizes the mobile web experience.

LG Mini is the first phone to use LG’s HTML 5-compatible Phantom Browser, which offers a much faster and more stable internet experience. Mini also includes special internet applications and social network connection features that make keeping in touch with online friends easier than ever.

LG Mini is a 3.2-inch full touchscreen phone that feels solid in the hand and is small enough to fit into any pocket. A button-free face contributes to Mini’s simple and sleek personality while textured metal accents on the sides add to the phone’s visual appeal without detracting from its clean look. This design won LG Mini a red dot award and if product design award in March.

“Our research shows that most people think current full touchscreen phones especially smartphones-are too bulky, too clunky and too difficult to use,” said H S Paik, President of LG Electronics Gulf FZE. We developed LG Mini to deliver the smartphone-like features that people want in a beautiful and compact package that is also user-friendly.”

LG Mini is the first phone to offer LG’s new Phantom Browser. Built for speed

using the latest Webkit standards, the Phantom Browser delivers an on-the-go web experience without any limits. Not only is Phantom faster, it is also fully compatible with today’s most popular websites. Mini’s expanded memory allows for advanced multitasking, supporting up to 10 browsers windows open simultaneously.

As the first HTML 5-compatible feature phone, Mini fully supports Google’s Latitude, Gmail, Calendar, Google Maps and Google Buzz services, with the same func-

nal will play an important part in supplying regional markets to meet growing energy demand.

Work is scheduled to start on the Vassiliko facility in the next few months. In addition to storage tanks, a jetty will be constructed to handle seagoing vessels.

Oil products will arrive at the new terminal from the international oil markets and current plans for the terminal are focused on re-exporting to regional markets, as well as supplying the inland market in Cyprus.

VTTI has a proven track record in the successful operation of terminals and the company has already made it clear that it intends to make a number of investments in key local projects to provide additional benefits for the community.

tionality and speed as on a desktop PC. Improved JavaScript and Flash performance means flawless video playback from sites such as YouTube. With navigation tools Intelligent Zoom and Touch-to-Zoom, web pages load at a size optimized for reading on Mini’s screen.

Maximum connectivity Social network connectivity is fully integrated into LG Mini so keeping in touch with online friends and making updates on

popular social networks sites including Facebook and Twitter is simpler and faster.

LG Mini also supports LG Air Sync, which wirelessly synchronizes information and data to a computer, the web and the phone.

Even if the phone is misplaced, important data can still be accessed from any PC. LG’s new On Screen Phone feature makes controlling Mini even easier. It shows the phone’s interface on a computer screen so files can be dragged and dropped directly from the phone to a computer.

30 Jazeera/Visa users win weekly draw KUWAIT: Jazeera Airways, the Middle East’s leading regional carrier and Visa have identified 30 winners for their first three weekly draws. The winners will each receive travel vouchers worth $200. The vouchers will be held in credit for the winners to use against future purchases of Jazeera Airways tickets and will be valid until 31 December 2010.

“We launched this promotion so that everyone could enjoy their vacation with added bonuses. We are happy to see it has been so popular. It reinforces our commitment to providing our valued customers with a great value offer as they travel during the summer period,” said Stefan Pichler, CEO of Jazeera Airways.

The promotion, during which 10 lucky winners receive $200 travel vouchers each week, is running from 20 June to 10 August 2010. Customers are entitled to entries into the weekly draws every time they make a purchase with Jazeera using their Visa Credit or Visa Debit cards. Visa cardholders will receive one entry with an Economy Class purchase and two entries with a Business Class purchase, while Premium Visa card holders will receive two entries for an Economy Class purchase, and three entries for a Business Class purchase.

Maysara Ghadban Traboulsi, Visa’s Head of Marketing Communications for MENA, said: “This is an exciting draw for our clients and these travel vouchers are the perfect gifts for the summer.

Visa continuously works to enhance our cardholders travel experiences with memorable incentives and rewards combined with the convenience and security which comes with using a Visa card.”

Winners in the first three draws, who have been contacted by Jazeera Airways, have come from the following banks; Citibank, Central Bank of Kuwait, National Bank of Kuwait, Saudi British Bank, Al-Ahli Bank, Trade Bank of Iraq, Burgan Bank and Boubyan Bank.

“We hope that our winners will enjoy our friendly and high quality services and become loyal Jazeera Airways customers” added Stefan Pichler, CEO of Jazeera Airways.

Jazeera Airways owns 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, Pakistan and Iran.

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BUSINESS

Sunday, July 25, 2010

US stocks on brink of breakout, profits key NEW YORK: Wall Street enters next week on the cusp of a breakout in US stocks, but it will need another spate of convincing earnings reports to feed the rally that sprouted at the end of this week.

The markets endured malaise with poor economic data and downbeat testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday but turned decisively after a number of strong results pointed to better times ahead. Next week brings more results from bellwethers like Chevron, DuPont and Boeing. The trick will be turning the whipsaw action into accumulated gains-and hoped-for improvements in volume-that would signal an upturn in sentiment.

"There's a constant struggle between the bulls and the bears when in fact the answer is in the middle ground. This market is more like a turkey and not a bull or a bear," said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Fund Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Investors have been forced to readjust their expectations for the economy, with data showing the pace of the recovery has gone from a sprint to a crawl.

It has also prompted a divisive argument over the likelihood of an encore recession. But if worries over a double dip are starting to be washed out of the market, an unexpected

positive could fuel the market higher.

The broad S&P 500 also finds itself standing on top of a key resistance level that could turn into a floor for the market. The index closed at 1,102.66, just above the psychologically important 1,100 level for the first time in a month. The level has been a hard one to hold and could buoy the market if the move is ultimately a decisive one.

With the S&P 500 edging out of official correction territory, trading down about 9 percent from this year's April high, analysts appear to have reconciled themselves to a slower recovery than they had hoped for. A correction is generally defined as a 10 percent decline from the top.

"All the indicators still indicate growth, we're just not growing as quickly as we were when we were coming off the bottom, and that makes total logical sense," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at BTIG LLC in New York.

O'Rourke added he believes the selloff has run its course, and the early July low will prove to be the low for the year. Analysts will be hoping to see more earnings season cheer from industrials companies next week after a slew of manufacturers this week topped expectations and raised full-year profit forecasts.

General Electric Co added positive sentiment to the sector on Friday by raising its dividend by 20 percent, illustrating the conglomer-

WALL STREET WEEKLY OUTLOOK

Raw-material costs hit automaker

ate's confidence it has put the worst of the recession behind it.

Options traders are betting on positive momentum for Boeing and DuPont following their earnings next week, said Andrea Kramer, analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Boeing's 10-day call/put ratio shows investors have bought calls over puts in the open market at a faster clip only 6 percent of the time during the past year. In DuPont, near-term traders have been more optimistically aligned toward the stock only 1 percent of the time during the past year, according to Kramer.

The options market also points to wide overall price movements next week as options volume continues to be low, said Steve Claussen, chief investment strategist at online brokerage OptionHouse.com in Chicago.

As of Thursday's close, 13.8 million options traded overall versus 16.6 million in mid-June.

"Summer rallies start because of low volume, since not a lot of people want to get in the way of selling anything, and then it suddenly builds, as people say, it starts to chase performance," Claussen said.

But the economy will remain the wild card, with the potential to pour cold water on investor enthusiasm and a round of top-tier economic data will be looked at to determine the strength of the economic recovery.

New critical forecast of Dow Jones future path

India carmaker Maruti posts surprise quarterly profit fall M

By Kamel Mansour

NEW DELHI: India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported yesterday quarterly net profit fell by a surprise 20 percent as the company was pummeled by a surge in raw-material costs. Maruti, majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said net profit during the fiscal first quarter slid to 4.65 billion rupees ($99 million) from 5.84 billion rupees a year earlier, despite a While car sales have soared, the sector has been under pressure from rising prices of raw materials, such as steel, aluminium and rubber, that have been driven by growing demand in emerging market giants such as China and India.

Maruti, which has been producing to maximum capacity and sells nearly every second car in India, reported it had paid 60.80 billion rupees for raw materials-a 26 percent rise from same quarter last year.

Some companies have passed on the higher raw material costs to consumers, but others, such as Maruti, have held the line in the face of increasingly fierce competition from domestic and global rivals.

Foreign companies from South Korea's Hyundai Motors to General Motors of the United States have launched a slew of new cars in India to grab a larger slice of the fastgrowing market and counter sluggish demand in developed countries.

Domestic competitors such Tata Motors also are stepping up pressure on Maruti.

Maruti's net sales jumped to 80.51 billion rupees from 63.40

27 percent leap in sales. The fall was a shock for financial analysts who had forecast Maruti would report a profit of around 6.6 billion to seven billion rupees for the three months to June 30. "The drop in net profit is due to higher commodity prices" along with other factors such as a fall in earnings from European exports due to a weaker euro, the company said in a statement.

HYDERABAD: Indian sales promotion assistant stands between Maruti Suzuki cars on display at The Hyderabad International Auto Show 2010 at The Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) in Hyderabad on Friday. The event in the southern Indian city will continue until today.—AFP billion rupees while unit sales grew by 25 percent to 283,324, including exports of 40,437 units, a 38 percent rise over the same year-ago period.

The slide in first-quarter net

profit contrasted with a 105 percent profit leap Maruti posted in the 2009-10 fiscal year. It marked Maruti's first decline in quarterly profit in five quarters.

Higher royalty payments for

use of Japanese technology, of 1.89 billion rupees, including a one-off back payment of 651 million rupees, to parent Suzuki Motor, which holds 54 percent of the company, also

dragged down profits.

An analyst who did not wish to be named said the royalty payments raised questions about how much profit Suzuki plans to take out of the company and had implications for Maruti shareholders.

"It's a big issue," he said.

The fast-growing Indian car market has become increasingly key to Suzuki. Eighty percent of its nearly $370-million operating profit in the half year to September 2009 came from Asia, with Maruti kicking in the lion's share.

India is now Asia's thirdlargest car market, outstripped only by China and Japan, and is one of the few countries where automobile sales are rapidly increasing. India remains a highly under-penetrated market with about eight cars per 1,000 people compared with around 850 vehicles per 1,000 people in the United States, according to industry estimates.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers expects car sales to increase by 12 to 13 percent to 1.7 million units in the fiscal year ending March 2011. — AFP

US bank failures in 2010 surpass 100 WASHINGTON: US bank failures this year have surpassed a bleak milestone of 100 as regulators shut down banks in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kansas, Nevada, Minnesota and Oregon.

The seven bank seizures announced Friday bring to 103 the failures so far in 2010. The pace of bank closures this year is well ahead of that of 2009, which saw a total of 140 banks shuttered amid the recession

and mounting loan defaults.

That was the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis. The pace has accelerated as banks' losses mount on loans made for commercial property and devel-

Agility, official logistics provider for New Zealand Olympic Committee WELLINGTON: Agility, a leading global logistics provider, yesterday announced its appointment as the official logistics provider for the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC).

The partnership agreement means that Agility will be responsible for handling the logistics requirements for New Zealand teams competing in events such as the Commonwealth Games in Delhi later this year through the London Olympic Games in 2012. "I am proud Agility will be able to contribute to the success of New Zealand teams competing in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games," said Anthony Browne, CEO of Agility New Zealand. "As sports fans we love following the achievements of our New Zealand athletes competing on the world stage and we will play our part in ensuring that the teams are well prepared."

"It is exciting to partner with Agility, known globally as a market leader in specialized logistics," said Terry Daly, commercial director of the NZOC. "Our teams and campaigns create some fairly unique demands on our logistics provider - we transport everything from ice machines, medical

supplies and racing bikes to bean bags and coffee.

Agility handles some of the most challenging logistics jobs in the world so we know our equipment is in good hands."

Daly added, "It was important that we were able to work with a company that had a strong local presence here in New Zealand, but also a global network, taking Delhi for example, Agility has traded there since 1982 and they employ over 1,500 people across India.

"At Agility, corporate social responsibility is integrated into our corporate culture," said Browne. "The goals of the Olympics are to promote sport as a means of peace and to uphold a set of values that include excellence, friendship and respect.

We feel a real alignment between our corporate social responsibility goals and the ideals of the Olympic movement."

As well as helping New Zealand teams to compete at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Agility will also assist other elite teams competing at the Paralympics and Youth Olympic Games. The agreement will run through the end of 2012.

opment. Many companies have shut down in the recession, vacating shopping malls and office buildings financed by the loans. That has brought delinquent loan payments and defaults by commercial developers.

By this time last year, regulators had closed 64 banks. The number of bank failures is expected to peak this year and

The Federal Reserve's Beige book of economic conditions will also be scrutinized for any illumination of Bernanke's comment that the outlook is "unusually uncertain."

Analysts will also digest the results of the European stress tests on banks. But if Friday's session is an indication, market movement will likely be muted.

New home sales will kick off the week, with data expected to show a rise to 320,000 units in June, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.

More housing data on Tuesday includes the Case-Shiller home price index, which is expected to rise 4 percent year-over-year in May. Also on Tuesday, consumer confidence is expected to come in at 51 for July, a slight dip from the month before. Durable goods orders on Wednesday are forecast to rise 1 percent in June.

Weekly initial jobless gains on Thursday are expected to ease to 460,000 from 464,000 the week before. Investors will get another look at the consumer on Friday with the final July reading of consumer sentiment, which is forecast to rise from the preliminary July reading.

Lastly will be the first reading for second-quarter gross domestic product. Investors are expecting the economy to grow by 2.5 percent, compared to 2.7 in the first quarter. —Reuters

be slightly higher than the 140 that fell in 2009. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force, and only three succumbed in 2007. The growing bank failures have sapped billions of dollars out of the deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year, and its deficit stood at $20.7 billion as of March 31. — AP

NEW YORK: Trader John Bowers uses his handheld device as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Stock futures are barely off their highs of the morning after the government says weekly jobless claims jumped more than expected last week.—AP

any throughout the decades have ventured into the study of the stock market to unravel the secrets of this mysterious domain fueled by the present and expected psychology of human behavior in order to establish entry and exit targets for maximum profits with controlled risk.

R N Elliott was one of the few whose methodology had withstood the course of time and yours truly is a dedicated Elliott follower.

I am bringing forth my views on the Dow Jones Industrial Average using Elliott Principles. I have expanded on one of the Principles of Elliott, the only additional approach devised by your writer and invented outside the original Elliott parameters. It was the re-plotting of full data series in a new graphical methodology that discounted the inflation factor embedded throughout the price history since the Great US Industrial Revolution.

A recap with a new look It was believed that the stock market breathed life during the Great Industrial Revolution in 1776. Since then, it has moved in 5 distinctly delineated Grand Super Waves.

(The latter and subsequent terminologies were originally classified by Elliott himself).

The First Grand Super Cycle went from year 1776 to year 1835. The Second Grand Super Cycle Consolidated for a period of 22 years where the market retraced 37% of the First Grand Super Cycle as per the new plotting methodology.

The Third Grand Super Cycle went from year 1857 to year 1928. Then the Dow moved higher to make, in 1929, an Irregular Top, ie a new high which was part of the subsequent wave and not the end of the previous wave.

The Fourth Grand Super Cycle retraced down 45% of the Third Grand Super Cycle to bottom in 1932; a year that marked the beginning of Fifth Grand Super Cycle. The Fifth Super Cycle began in 1974 and from 1987 the Fifth Cycle finished in 1998 at a High of 9,457.

During this Final Cycle Wave, the first extension commenced during 1993 and 1994 between a range of 3,200 and 4,000 followed by a second extension during 1996 and 1997 between a range of 6,315 and 6,625 before the Orthodox or Final High of the Final Fifth wave in year 1998 was reached.

Many believed that the Third Grand Super Cycle commenced in 1942 or even 1949. Your writer, based on the newly plotted historic prices, strongly believes that the Third Grand Super Cycle cannot be called a Third Grand Super Wave had we commenced at either of these two dates. To ear-mark the Third Grand Super Cycle, it should commence in 1932; a date justified by very few Elliotticians during the 20th Century. This is an important key element to identify whether the Dow will move further Higher crossing the Old Time High of July 2007 or retrace downward to the levels of the 1980's or, even possibly, the 1970's.

Where next?

Since 1998, the market started its Consolidation ending its First Three-Wave Cycle at 6,440 in Mar 2009, even though new Highs were attained during that period.

Thereafter, the market has been in the Second Three-Wave Cycle formation expected to consolidate till mid 2012.

Subsequently, the market has to finish its Third and Final Five-Wave Cycle to take us down to the beginning of the Extension in 1993; the second logical stopping point in the

Directional Downward Trend. The first stopping point, reached in Mar 2009, corresponded to the final extension of the Fifth Cycle before the Orthodox High in year 1998.

This Second Cycle that commenced in Mar 09 will be divided into Three Primary waves; the First of which commenced from a low of 6,440 in Mar 2009 and reached a high of 11,308 on 26th April 2010 in a Zig-Zag (5-3-5) wave formation.

The Second of which (where we are currently in) will be in three Intermediate waves expected to drive the market down to the lows of Mar 2009.

The Last Primary Leg will be composed of Five Waves which will push back the market around the levels of April 2010.

Current Wave Between April 2010 and July 2010, the market gave signs to indicate the formation of ZigZag wave.

3,200 On The Dow ! - A Dream or An Eventual Reality In 1998, the market finished the Fifth Grand Super Cycle. Since then, the Consolidation commenced which, when measured both in time and price, will eventually surpass all previous reactions.

This Consolidation in time had, so far, exceeded all the Cycle corrections in the Final Grand Super Cycle, an indication that the market is bound to move downward.

In terms of amplitude, the Second Super Cycle from 1937 to 1942 retraced 43% of the First Super Cycle. If this percentage were applied to the amplitude of the Fifth Super Cycle of the Fifth Grand Super Cycle, and particularly from the All Time High in July 2007, the market would end at around a Dow level of 3,100.

Moreover, the beginning of the Extension in 1993 provided a base at around 3,200, making this level mark in the Dow a very Strong Support for the First Major Retracement from the Orthodox High in year 1998 and from the Irregular High of July 2007. This retracement was inevitable when the Fifth Cycle of the Fifth Super Cycle of the Fifth Grand Super Cycle extended twice.

Final major bull/bear phases Once the First Major Retracement settles at circa 3,200 marks, the market should Double Retrace, in Three Major Waves, and recover all the grounds lost on the way down to reach the Highs of July 2007 or even Further.

Thereafter, the Major Bear Phase, and the Final C Wave to correct all the years since the Industrial Revolution, will unfold its gruesome nature.

Dow 1,000 in H1 of 2020s Historically, the Fourth Super Cycle of the Fifth Grand Super Cycle posted a range 570 1,070 on the Dow, a logical stopping area for the Dow. This range is more emphasized by the Grand Historic Dow Retracements which moved down between a minimum of 37% and a maximum of 45% of their previous Grand Corrective Waves.

If we were to apply these percentages to the Fifth Grand Super Cycle and, particularly from the July 2007 Irregular High, we would obtain a range 520 - 850 marks on the Dow. Thus, the 1,000 mark on the Dow is believed to be attained by the first half of the 2020's. Such a level is assumed to be the Final Support of the Last C Wave of this Final Consolidation Correction since the Great US Industrial Revolution.

TECHNOLOGY

Sunday, July 25, 2010

27

‘TRON:Legacy’ movie brings video game world to life SAN DIEGO: Back in 1982, first-time director Steven Lisberger brought mainstream audiences into the world of videogames with the sci-fi thriller “TRON”, using early computer-generated imagery that paved the way for today’s 3D movie blockbusters.

Now the long-awaited sequel “TRON:Legacy”, out in December from Walt Disney Pictures, is poised to push 3D technology and digital performance capture a step further.

“TRON;Legacy” finds the son of videogame developer Kevin Flynn being pulled into the digital world that has trapped

his father for 20 years. Director Joe Kasinski took the technology that was introduced in the backward aging 2008 movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” to create a completely virtual human character, Clu, played by Jeff Bridges who was also the star of the original “TRON”.

“One of the big technological leaps we’re trying to take with this film is in our villain, Clu, who is played by Jeff Bridges, but he looks like Jeff Bridges did in 1982,” Kasinki said. “Jeff is driving his performance, but he is a digital character,” Kasinski told thousands of fans at the annual Comic Con con-

vention this week.

Bridges said one of the things that had always bothered him as an actor was that, before now, a different actor would be cast to play a younger version of a character in the same film. “Now you can play yourself at different ages, whether it’s a younger version of yourself or an older version of yourself, digitally,” said Bridges.

In many ways, filmmakers found that making the new “TRON” movie was helped by the kind of technology that was introduced as science fiction in the original film.

“The irony here is that 28 years ago we

Shi Yigong tinued academic problems repel potential returnees. They include rampant research plagiarism, a lack of political autonomy at universities, and a sclerotic academic system marked by infighting and an overemphasis on connections, which stifles innovation. “You have a large number of incompetent scientists that get lots of funding because they work the system,” said Rao Yi, who returned in 2007 from a top research position at Northwestern University to head life sciences at Peking University.

“Sea turtles” also encounter resistance from their Chinese peers, who view them as overpaid interlopers, Shi said. Shi and Rao have spoken out for change. They authored a commentary in the government mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, in February urging reforms such as more independence for universities.

But accusations and insults have followed such suggestions, said Shi, who admits it has been a “tough adjustment”. “Suffice to say that my last two and a half years, in terms of dealing with the media and the blogosphere, were not enjoyable,” he said.

Cong Cao, a professor of international relations at the State University of New York and an expert on the Chinese academic elite, says China has the “hardware”, in terms of research facilities, to succeed.

“But in terms of the software - whether the system is really ready to produce first-class work - I’m still not sure,” he said. Cao, who is renouncing his US citizenship to retake a Chinese passport, said patriotism was only a small factor in his return. “It’s more a question of what side of history you want to be on,” he said, noting China’s rise. But it will be decades until China rivals the West in innovation, he adds. —AFP

user’s head. FCC limits this specific absorption rate, or SAR, to an average of 1.6 watts per kilogram. Measurements for phones sold in the US are available on the agency’s site, but not usually in stores. “Nobody should be suggesting to consumers that they ought to be shopping for phones based on a difference in SAR values,” said John Walls, vice president for public affairs at CTIA. “There’s no scientific basis to suggest, as the ordinance does, that two phones with different values have a safety distinction between them,” as long as they’re below the FCC’s limit.

Under the law, larger chains will have to place SAR notices starting in February, while other stores will have until 2012.

The lawsuit is not the first response from CTIA. The association, which represents all major wireless carriers, usually holds a trade show in San Francisco in the fall. After the law was passed, CTIA announced that it would hold the show as planned this year, then look for another host city.

“We thought it was a clear message from the mayor that we weren’t wanted there,” Walls said.

San Francisco is known for novel legislation. It has banned plastic grocery bags, ended municipal use of bottled water, made composting mandatory and required the posting of nutrition information in restaurants. — AP

Online tool launched to find aliens in US custody SAN FRANCISCO: US immigration officials on Friday launched an online tool to help people find illegal aliens who have been placed in US custody.

The Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS) is designed “to assist family members, attorneys and other interested parties in locating detained aliens” being held by

PlayStation 3.

Lisberger said that the fact that Disney is releasing a film sequel after 28 years connects to a line from Bridge’s character in the original film: “You just keep doing what you think is right and hope it works out in the end.”

Actor Bruce Boxleitner said he believes there are more “TRON” stories to be told, should audiences embrace the new film.

Based on the reception of fan boys at Comic Con this week, the odds are good that fans won’t be waiting another 28 years for a third installment. — Reuters

America looks to improve disabled access to Internet

US phone group sues San Francisco over radiation law NEW YORK: The wireless industry sued the city of San Francisco on Friday to stop a law that requires cell phone stores to post how much radio energy each model emits. It’s the first law of that kind in the US The industry trade group known as CTIA — The Wireless Association said the law will mislead consumers into thinking that one phone might be safer than another on the basis of radiation measurements.

Studies have not conclusively found that cell phone radiation is a health risk. Research continues on brain tumors. In its lawsuit filed in US District Court in San Francisco, the industry group said the city is usurping the authority of the Federal Communications Commission, which sets limits for phone radiation.

Dennis Herrera, the city attorney, said the ordinance gives cell phone buyers access to the same information at stores that they could get from other sources, such as the FCC’s website.

“I think San Francisco is on solid legal ground in its effort to inform and protect consumers,” he said. Previously, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office has said that the ordinance is “a quite modest measure that will provide greater transparency and information to consumers for whom this is an area of interest or concern.” The local ordinance requires cell phone retailers to disclose a measure of much energy will theoretically be absorbed by a

Kasinski said the end result will be a 3D experience that immerses audiences even deeper in the on-screen action.

“TRON: Legacy” is set within the world of video games and, of course, audiences will be able to learn about some of the happenings within this universe through a new video game prequel from Disney Interactive Studios.

“TRON Evolution,” which will ship just before the movie opens, will feature actors from the movie and serve as a bridge between the two films. The game will be available in stereoscopic 3D on PC and

Blind and deaf would benefit

Glimmer of hope in ‘brain drain’ battle BEIJING: Two years ago, molecular biologist Shi Yigong was a prize-winning Princeton University professor with annual research funding of more than two million dollars and a seemingly limitless US academic career. But Shi did exactly what China’s leadership hopes to see more of - he turned his back on all that to return to his homeland after two decades abroad. The recent return of people like Shi, who now heads the life sciences department at Tsinghua University in Beijing, has provided a ray of hope for China in its uphill battle to reverse a long-term “brain drain” of top experts.

“China has contributed disproportionately to the advancement of science and technology in the United States, for example,” Shi said of the steady stream of China’s best and brightest who left for greener pastures in decades past.

“Behind China’s shiny glass skyscrapers, it has an extreme shortage of top talents and that is really regrettable.”

With aspirations of becoming a science and technology power, China has tried for years to halt an exodus of top minds, a lingering legacy of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when campus upheavals closed universities for years.

The chaos severely set back Chinese science and academia. Afterwards, many of China’s best and brightest - with official encouragement - opted for study abroad, where most have stayed. Many took foreign citizenship.

But Shi, 43, said China’s growing clout and rapidly modernising research institutions make it an increasing draw for returning scholars, known here as “sea turtles” swimming back to their home beaches. “For talented people to apply their talents, the sky is the limit now in China in terms of innovation,” Shi told AFP after a tour of a lab where he studies cell proteins, with possible implications for cancer drug development.

The “sea turtle” response, however, has been weak so far. From 1978 through 2009, 1.62 million Chinese went abroad for graduate studies, according to the government. Only 460,000 have returned. Last year 229,000 left, up 27.5 percent from 2008. But returnees leapt 56 percent to 108,000 last year, many drawn by increasingly lucrative enticements and growing research funding.

One current program offers recruits a basic one million yuan ($147,000) in government funds - plus additional money from their employers and other sources. The government this year promised even more attractive policies in the future in its bid to close the technology gap with the West. The issue resonates in China. Nationalist pioneer Sun Yat-sen and later revolutionaries like Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai, among other notables, were educated or radicalised abroad before returning to shake the halls of power. Yet experts say con-

were trying to figure out how we were going to get Jeff Bridge’s character into cyber space, and I made up this crazy idea that he gets scanned by a laser and ends up on the game grid,” said Lisberger, who directed “TRON” in 1982.

“Now, we’re making ‘TRON: Legacy’ and they scan Jeff with a laser in real-time and boom, he pops up.”

Even the 3D technology powering the film, that was developed by James Cameron and Vince Pace for “Avatar,” has received an upgrade through new cameras that hit the market right before filming began.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The search service is available at the ice.gov website.

“The ODLS is an easy, accessible tool that allows family members and counsel to locate an individual in ICE custody in a matter of minutes,” said Phyllis Coven, acting director of ICE’s office of detention policy and planning.

People can search by alien registration number or by name, birthday, and country of birth to learn where a person is being held, and telephone numbers to the facility as well as the ICE office in the region.

ICE said that the tool is part of a promised effort to modernize and improve operations at the agency, including reform of its detention systems. — AFP

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration on Friday proposed trying to enhance access for people with disabilities to websites for hotels, retail stores and other public sites as well as improve access to movie theaters.

Most of the proposals are aimed primarily at improved access for the deaf and the blind.

With the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on Monday, the Justice Department issued four proposals for public comment aimed at finding ways to keep up with advancing technologies so people with disabilities are not left behind.

“Just as these quantum leaps can help all of us, they can also set us back-if regulations are not updated or compliance codes become too confusing to implement,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

However, the proposals could draw criticism from the business community, which already has a rocky relationship with the Obama administration over issues including new regulations on the financial industry.

One key proposal focused on improving access for people with disabilities to websites of state and local governments as well as those sites of private businesses like restaurants, hotels and other commercial outlets.

Noting that the Internet has evolved substantially since the 1990 law went into effect, the department asked for comment on what resources are available to help those with disabilities access existing websites as well as what the costs would be for making them accessible.

“We’re generally supportive of the Americans with Disabilities Act but we need to come up with a reasonable way to provide these services,” said Randy Johnson, a senior vice president for the US Chamber of Commerce and worked on the 1990 law while a congressional staff member.

“It’s a matter of concern, but we’re going to work with them on it,” he said.

The Justice Department noted that the federal government has encouraged self regulation of the Internet, but said that in this case there was a potential need to intervene to improve access for those with disabilities.

“It is clear that the system of voluntary compliance has proved inadequate in providing website accessibility to individuals with disabilities,” the proposal said.

The Justice Department set a six-month comment period and said it planned to hold a public hearing on the subject.

The department said it was also considering requiring movie theaters to show movies with closed captions and video descriptions at least 50 percent of the time and sought comments on the benefits and potential costs.

That could have a big impact on national chains like Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment, because the Justice Department said those technologies are not generally made available in theaters.

The department also proposed improving furniture and equipment like ATM cash machines and communications with 911 emergency call centers. — Reuters

FARNBOROUGH: Todd A. Lovell, Avionics Department Manager at Raytheon Inc. speaks to the Associated Press about their pilot helmet display technology at the Farnborough International Airshow, Farnborough, Thursday. — AP

Raytheon unveils Scorpion helmet technology for jets FARNBOROUGH: As the desert landscape unfolds ahead, the jet fighter pilot glances to his right. Spotting an enemy target, a sensor attached to his helmet relays the information straight back to his flight controls, allowing him to fire immediately without turning his aircraft.

US defense company Raytheon Inc. is giving the first glimpse of its Scorpion helmet technology for F-16 and A-10 combat jets on a simulator at the Farnborough International Airshow after this week announcing a $12.6 million contract with the US Air Force.

Raytheon is marketing the technology, which transmits data on a single-eye monocle attached to an existing helmet, as a more advanced but also cost-effective alternative to current full visor offerings from its competitors — reflecting belt-tightening in the defense aerospace sector amid large cuts to national military budgets. The monocle is both cheaper to produce than a full visor, and reduces operational costs because it is interchangeable between standard existing helmets.

That means a unit can be equipped to full capacity by purchasing a smaller number of monocles that can be shared, instead of having to buy more expensive visor helmets to fit every pilot. The monocle also improves on existing helmet vision technology by adding both color and night capability to a pilot’s field of vision, allowing him to cue up weapons and access data from both on-board and remote sensors. The small size of the unit means that there’s no noticeable extra weight on the pilot’s head during long mis-

sions. “On the modern battlefield, there is way more data out there than most people can use. If you are just trying to see it all through your eyes and read it in bits and bites, you’re never going to understand it,” said Todd A. Lovell, Avionics Department Manager at Raytheon, as he gives a demonstration of the Scorpion technology. “So the key to the modern technology is to take all that data and turn it into useful information that the pilot can recognize very quickly and act upon it.”

That includes deploying weapons. Unlike pilots using a fixed display who must turn the nose of the plane to line up a shot, the helmet vision sends coordinates sighted by the wearer directly to the weapons system — leaving pilots simply to confirm a decision to fire by joystick. “If I get a symbol, I don’t have to turn my plane all the way over there to get a sensor locked on it,” says Lovell. “It reduces the amount of time and energy the pilot has to spend in acquiring a target, making sure he has the right target, and then taking a shot.” Raytheon revealed at Farnborough that it has won a contract for an initial integration and qualification of the helmet-mounted system for F-16 and A-10 aircraft flown by the US Air Force and Air National Guard.

The contract, won against competition from US, European and Israeli companies, is part of a program with five one-year production options worth up to $50 million. Beyond the 1,000 F-16 fighters flown by the US Air Force, Raytheon hopes to capture the market for the estimated 4,000 F-16 aircraft operated by foreign air forces. Raytheon

had also put in a tender to the Air National Guard for its central pedestal display for F16s, an interactive display that allows the pilot to switch through different screens of information, including a moving map.

Tender results are due in September. Cuts to defense budgets have been the talk of the weeklong air show outside London _ almost overshadowing some $29 billion worth of commercial plane sales as the global economy recovers from recession.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox used his appearance at the biennial event to warn the industry to lower costs or see programs slashed.

And while analysts note that British and US plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan within the next five years could be good news for companies like France’s Thales and its unmanned Watchkeeper drone, the implications for other defense companies is less certain.

Raytheon is confident its offering adds necessary benefits, add Col. Paul Mancini, chief of the Air National Guard’s Operational Requirements Division, agrees.

Mancini, who has flown F-16s in Afghanistan, says the addition of color was crucial to “separate things out and interpret them.” “It turns the whole world into a display,” he says. “In the F-16, I have my small 4x4 displays. You spend a lot of time looking at this display and trying to do the mental gymnastics to convert what am I looking at and what does that mean, how does that translate to the world around me.

With the helmet-mounted display, the whole world is my display.” — AP

Tablets may allow a ‘re-set’ for news industry: News Corp ASPEN: Tablet computers such as Apple’s iPad may allow the news industry a “re-set” and to start charging for content after years of giving it away for free, a senior News Corp. executive said Friday.

News Corp. chief digital officer Jon Miller also said it was too early to make any judgements about the experiment of News Corp.’s The Times with a paid website but charging online readers was “an idea whose time has come.”

“A year ago, we were pretty out front with the idea that con-

tent has value,” Miller told an audience of top technology and media executives at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference here.

Now, he said, “it’s accepted at a variety of levels. It’s more about how it gets done.”

News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal already charges a subscription fee for full access to WSJ.com and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has said he eventually plans to charge online readers of all of the titles in his newspaper stable. “Dual revenue streams are good businesses,” Miller said

of a combination of subscription fees and online advertising. Miller said tablet computers such as the iPad offer great opportunities for news organizations to develop paid applications. “You see apps being consumed that are paid-for apps,” he said.

“I think we’re seeing a fundamental shift in where content is consumed and it’s on to these kinds of devices,” he said. “These tablets are heavy media consumption devices, much more than the Web by itself and even smartphones.”

He said the iPad and other

tablets being developed offer “very media rich experiences that I think do allow a re-set, perhaps a do-over for the media industry, a chance to get it right.”

Consumers need to understand that “there is investment being made in this content,” the News Corp. executive said.

Miller declined to give specifics when asked about the number of paid subscribers to Britain’s The Times, but said they were “about in line” with what was expected.

“It is early,” he said. “It’s just a few weeks in.” —AFP

HEALTH & SCIENCE

28

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The good news about getting old - better mental health NEW YORK: Which age group in your extended family would you guess is most likely to be mentally healthy?

The answer is a well-kept secret. In consecutive surveys of nationally representative samples of our adult population - most recently in 2007 - as a person got older, there was a linear increase in the likelihood of them enjoying mental health. Whereas 68% of 16-24-year-olds did so, this rose to 89% among the over-75s.

Put the other way around, an over75 is three times less likely to be mentally ill: 11% were, compared with

32% of 16-24-year-olds. While nearly one in three of the young were suffering, only one in 10 of the old were.

Why would this be? A separate, but related, body of research provides some persuasive answers because it proves that young people have become about five times more likely to be mentally ill today, compared with 60-70 years ago. The biggest factor may be that they have also become much more materialistic.

Jean Twenge identified a large number of studies of the mental health of American secondary school

pupils and undergraduates where the same method (the MMPI) had been used. These studies dated back to 1938.

The nearer to today that you got, on almost all measures there was a steady and increasing likelihood of young people having high mental-illness scores. In the case of hypomania (a manic, febrile state of mind), for example, whereas only 1-5% of undergraduates scored highly 70 years ago, today it is 40%. It’s very likely that this would apply in the UK as well.

Twenge used further evidence to test the three main hypotheses explaining this huge difference. She showed that fluctuations in the economic cycle did not do so, nor did an increased readiness to define oneself as mentally ill - it is not due to Woody Allen psychobabble.

Rather, she showed that there was a huge shift from “intrinsic” to “extrinsic” (materialism - doing things for reward or praise) values, which had also been measured using the same questions in these surveys.

Hence, the young were increasingly

likely to say that they placed a high importance on “having lots of money”. At the same time, they became decreasingly likely to subscribe to intrinsic, non-materialistic values such as the importance of “developing a meaningful philosophy of life” and “making a contribution to the community”.

It seems probable that the greater mental health of elderly people relates to their values. As Twenge shows, the older you are, the less materialistic you are likely to have been when young. It may be that

when people retire, they breathe a sigh of relief that they no longer have to compete in the work rat race or worry so much about the size of their house or the modernity of their kitchen compared with other families - comparisons, alas, that plague too many of us in younger age groups.

Today’s young are under unprecedented pressure to worry about school performance, status as indicated by gadgets (phones, computer games) and numbers of “friends” on social networking sites. They are also plagued by debt, a major cause of

mental illness.

Compared with the 1950s, we have many more friends yet far fewer intimates. The elderly still achieve this vital aspect of human relatedness.

A crucial impact of growing materialism on family life has been that we work longer hours and place less value on caring, whether that be for children or elderly relatives.

Reinvestment in the domestic household economy has to be one of the great goals for this century - as much by men, as by women. —Guardian

Therapies include radiation regimens designed to target breast tumors

Cancer specialists look to expand clinical trials

Beach umbrellas do not block all solar radiation MADRID: Hiding out under a beach umbrella may offer you far less protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation than you expect, according to a new study by Spanish researchers.

As much as 34 percent of ultraviolet radiation, found to cause skin cancer and cataracts, reaches the ground covered by a beach umbrella, the University of Valencia researchers found.

This is because the umbrellas catch almost all of the

direct rays but not the diffused radiation that penetrates through from the sides, according to the research published in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology this week.

To carry out the study, researchers placed an ultraviolet ray sensor on the base of a blue and white canvas umbrella with a radius of 80 centimetres (12 inches) and a height of 1.5 metres.

“The umbrella intercepts the direct radiation that comes

from the sun, but part of the diffused radiation, which makes up approximately 60 percent of the total, reaches the sensor from the sky not covered by the umbrella,” study co-author Jose Antonio Martinez-Lozano said.

In addition to the use of umbrellas, doctors recommend people use sun creams, hats and clothing when at the beach to guard against ultraviolet radiation, and avoid hours when the sun is at its highest. —AFP

Cancer a concern with Medtronic device WASHINGTON: US reviewers are concerned about cancer cases in some patients implanted with an experimental Medtronic Inc device developed to treat lower back pain, documents released on Friday said.

The Amplify device contains a genetically engineered form of a protein to help fuse vertebrae by spurring bone growth.

Approval could help Medtronic boost its spine business, which now accounts for 22 percent of the company’s sales.

“The primary safety concern is the increased numbers of cancer events in patients treated with Amplify compared to the control group,” Food and Drug Administration reviewers said in an analysis prepared for an advisory panel that will review the device on Tuesday.

At five years, cancer rates were 5 percent with Amplify and 1.8 percent in a control group that had standard fusion surgery using a piece of their hip bone implanted in the spine, FDA reviewers said.

Medtronic said there was “no plausible biological mechanism” to suggest Amplify causes cancer. The company also said cancer rates for the device and a comparison group were not statistically different. That means the findings may have been due to chance.

The agency will ask the outside experts

on the advisory panel for input on the cancer findings and other issues, including whether the product might harm fetuses.

The FDA wants another animal study to evaluate if Amplify may lead to birth defects, the documents said. Medtronic proposed a strong boxed warning with the product saying women of child-bearing age should be warned about “potential risk to a fetus” and the device should not be implanted immediately before or during pregnancy, agency reviewers said.

The company said it would present to the panel “extensive and compelling reproductive toxicity testing” that addresses FDA concerns.The protein used in Amplify is called recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2, or rhBMP-2. It also is used in Metronic’s InFuse device, which is already on the market for spinal surgery and other uses.

Spinal products accounted for $3.5 billion of Medtronic’s $15.8 billion in fiscal 2010 sales.

The advisory panel is expected to vote late Tuesday on whether to recommend approval of Amplify. The FDA will make the final decision in the coming months, but usually follows panel recommendations.Medtronic shares rose 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $36.87 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. —Reuters

BREWER: Maine women with breast cancer may be among the first to about new treatment options being investigated at the world-class cenbenefit from the collaborative relationship between the CancerCare of ter, which is closely affiliated with Harvard Medical School. The conMaine program and the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and ference took place at the headquarters of Eastern Maine Healthcare Health. At a daylong conference on Friday, Maine cancer specialists Systems in Brewer, with about 30 clinicians attending from Bangor and heard from colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston Augusta areas.

The cancer treatment program at Eastern Maine Medical Center has a decades-long relationship with Dana-Farber, said Dr. Thomas Openshaw, medical director of clinical research at CancerCare of Maine, an affiliate of EMMC. While EMMC has been able to offer patients participation in a limited number of clinical cancer trials, he said, collaboration with the new research institute opens new horizons.

“For 30 or 40 years, [DanaFarber] has been the place we refer our patients to for clinical trials we can’t offer,” Openshaw said. “Now, we’re looking to expand that collaboration and draw closer together to identify more clinical research opportunities we can bring to Bangor to benefit our patients without their having to travel.”

CancerCare of Maine recently moved into a spacious new clinical facility next to the Research being done on a Bull Shark EMHS headquarters. Space in the same building is being developed for the Maine Institute of Human Genetics and Health, which now is housed in Bangor.

Collaboration between the two programs is expected to bring OAK BLUFFS: The 203-pound mako shark other marine species such as cod, which dent working on a master’s thesis comparcutting-edge treatment options didn’t give up easily. It fought for a couple scientists can constantly sample from what ing diet and mercury content in large predato cancer patients in northern tory fish such as sharks and tuna. of hours before it was finally landed. When fishermen land.

Maine.

“We got the glamour job,” said Mae Monster Shark Tournament 2010 in Oak the boat returned to port, Monster Shark Among the clinical trials preTaylor of Florida’s Nova Southeastern Tournament officials hoisted it high. It was Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard. sented Friday were treatments While scientists can get some sharks University. Fellow researcher Rachelle weighed, photos taken of the lucky angler aimed at avoiding the serious from fishermen who catch them while tar- Steabler spread the folds of a mako shark’s with his catch. medical and cosmetic complicaThen the real work began, as fishery sci- geting other species or from research cruis- intestine, and Taylor deftly plucked tiny partions of mastectomy, or breast entists crowded around to take what they es, large, sexually mature sharks are main- asites out of the green fecal matter with removal. These “breast conly seen only at tournaments. Natanson tweezers. A strong, condensed smell of the needed for research. serving therapies” include surBefore tournament sharks are credits tournaments such as the one in Oak sea rose out of the slime. gical options that limit tissue “There’s not a lot of information on parbutchered and the meat carted off in totes Bluffs for welcoming researchers and for loss, as well as radiation regiby fishermen, tournament officials and encouraging fishermen to land only large asites,” Taylor said as she dropped a specimens designed to target breast anglers allow researchers to slit open the animals. Penalties are assessed for landed men into a plastic container. tumors with a high degree of There’s not a lot of information on white belly and take what they need of vis- sharks that are under the weight limit, specificity, thereby limiting cera and other tissue samples needed in which is between 200 and 250 pounds, sharks, period, said Joanna Borucinska, a damage to surrounding tissue.

University of Hartford biology professor. depending on the species. their work.

Early trials of partial breast “It’s terra incognita. Everything we dis“Without these tournaments, we’d have “It’s a beautiful animal,” said Craig irradiation, not only at DanaO’Connell, admiring what he called the to go out and hire a boat and kill them our- cover is new,” Borucinska said. She pointed Farber but also at other clinical blueberry color of the topside of the mako. selves, and that would be expensive,” said to new research that found three types of sites in the United States, O’Connell’s company is developing a shark Greg Skomal, the state Division of Marine cancer in sharks, debunking the belief that Canada and Europe, look repellent it hopes will discourage sharks Fisheries’ shark expert. Tournaments also they were cancer-proof. “attractive and compelling,” said As the dissection continued, Borucinska from becoming entangled in fishing gear. offer college students the chance to do Dr. Jennifer Bellon, assistant His nose wrinkled as he peeled back the research necessary for advanced degrees. hefted the mako’s olive-colored liver, dragprofessor of radiation oncology body cavity that scientist Lisa Natanson Skomal did his thesis on blue sharks with ging it over to where it could be packaged at Harvard Medical School. But for transport and analysis by a team she had opened up with one deft slice of a sharp- information gathered at shark contests. there are not enough data yet to With the mako laid out on what is essen- assembled for the tournament. ened knife. know how well the treatment While she appreciates the information Natanson, a biologist with the Apex tially an oversized cutting board, graduate works at destroying existing Predator Program for the National Oceanic student Amy Koske peered over the shoul- she is able to glean from tournaments, tumors, preventing new ones, and Atmospheric Administration at der of Natanson as she worked, and she Borucinska said she would not be saddened and prolonging life, she said.

Narragansett, R.I., has been a regular at whisked away the stomach once it had been if they went away. The crowd cheered when Dr. Eric Winer, director of a big thresher shark was hoisted overhead. shark tournaments for 25 years, and she removed. the Breast Oncology Center at “Without this, I would have to get on a But the sight brought her no cheer. goes to as many as nine of the events a Dana-Farber, spoke about the “I never get excited (about seeing a year. Large sharks are not caught commer- boat and go out fishing, and I’m not a very emerging science of “personalcially, so there are limited opportunities to good fisherman,” said Koske, a University shark on display), especially a big one,” she ized” medicine, which allows study them the way researchers can study of Massachusetts-Amherst graduate stu- said. “I get sad.” —MCT doctors to custom-design effective chemotherapeutic drugs based on the patient’s genetic makeup.

Other clinical researchers from Dana-Farber presented studies on treating metastatic cancers that have spread from site of origin to other parts of the body, and the ways in which various cancer treatments affect the heart.

Dr. Janet Hock, director of the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health, spoke about the relationship between laboratory studies and clinical trials in the patient care setting.

The research institute, an affiliate of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, specializes in “translational research” designed to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the bedside. The institute also is developing a comprehensive collection of frozen tumor samples available to EMHS researchers as well as to scientists at its partner instiVIENNA: Canada’s Julio Montaner (R), president of the International Aids Society (IAS) delivers a speech next tutions, including The Jackson to incoming president of the IAS Uganda’s Elly Katabira (L) on Friday in Vienna, during the closing Session of Laboratory in Bar Harbor and the 18th International AIDS Conference. More than 33 million people live with the virus and each year 2.7 milthe University of Maine in lion more cases of HIV occur. —AFP Orono. —MCT

Sharks feed science studies

Sunday, July 25, 2010

HEALTH & SCIENCE

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Barriers leave blacks vulnerable to cancer Lack of access to routine checkups, poverty increase rates ALBANY: Poverty, bad health, no family doctor and poor care all contribute to the fact that black Americans are more likely to die from cancer than white Americans, according to an article co-written by an Albany Medical College surgeon.

“Available data would suggest that for a multitude of reasons blacks do worse than whites,” said Dr. Steven C. Stain, chief of surgery at Albany Med. “And it starts from the beginning. Black patients are often diagnosed later which means they may or may not had access to appropriate screening.

“The second issue is there’s a complex relationship between the health care system and the patient and, said in the worst way, if a patient doesn’t trust the system they may not come in for care.”

The article written by Stain and three other surgeons appears in the July issue of Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The article is a “collective review” that summarizes the latest research in a particular

area of study.

Black Americans have higher death rates in nearly every category of cancer, the article said.

The five-year survival rate for colorectal cancer, for example, is 56 percent for blacks and 66 percent for whites, according to the article.

“I think it is mostly socioeconomic,” Stain said. “I don’t think doctors purposely treat patients different. I think sometimes the more affluent patients are able to get better care.”

Higher-income patients have better access to primary care doctors, cancer screening and specialists, and tend to be healthier, he said.

Low-income patients are less likely to have a primary care doctor or access to cancer screening, resulting in mismanaged chronic diseases and late cancer diagnoses.

In addition, black and low-income patients cluster at different hospitals-hospitals with a lower quality of care-than white patients.

“Hospitals with a high Medicaid use rate served a disproportionately high percentage of minority patients and showed significantly higher 30-day and 1-year mortality compared with all other hospitals,” the article said.

The researchers found that all races suffered worse outcomes at those hospitals.

In hospitals systems where black and whites have equal access to quality care like the Veteran Affairs Hospitals, disparities in cancer mortality disappear, Stain said.

“Which would suggest that a patient’s ability to pay has something to do with the disparities,” he said.

Stain said hospitals need to do a better job helping minority patients navigate the complicated care often required for cancer. Many hospitals are hiring “patient navigators” to do this, he said.

For patients, Stain recommended they have a family doctor. “It starts with a primary care doctor who will make sure you have the proper screening.” — MCT

Two more swine flu deaths NEW DELHI: Two more people have succumbed to the swine flu virus in the national capital, taking the total number of deaths in Delhi this season to five.

The total number of swine flu cases has gone up to 38.

“There have been five swine flu deaths in Delhi but only three of them were Delhi residents. Among the others, one who died at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital was from Bihar and the second was a young child referred to us from a Ghaziabad hospital,” said Dr Debashish Bhattacharya, Delhi government appointed nodal officer for swine flu.

“No new cases were reported today but till yesterday the total count of swine flu patients was 38 cases,” he said.

“The situation is not that bad. Those dying are people with underlying conditions like renal problems or heart disease,” he added.

The latest victim to the H1N1 Influenza A virus was a 45 year old woman who breathed her last at

Safdarjung Hospital on Friday afternoon.

A 40 year old man died at Sitaram Bhar tia Institute of Science and Research on July 15 but his reports confirming that he had succumbed to swine flu came only on Friday.

State Health officials, who were relaxed till June 10 this year as no cases were reported in the summer months, are beginning to gear up to tackle the H1N1 virus.

“The health department is better prepared than last year when the virus first struck. All our hospitals are well equipped to handle any kind of situation,” said Kiran Walia, Delhi health minister.

“There is nothing to panic. We have started our tracking exercises, where we are giving preventive fluvir doses to suspected cases,” she added.

Dr Bhattacharya said, “Ever since the monsoon hit Delhi, there is lot of humidity in the air, which makes the environment conducive to the growth of this virus.” — MCT

HEALTH & SCIENCE

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Ban sought for pesticide used widely by California farms CALIFORNIA: A pesticide popular with California farmers is facing legal attack from environmentalists.

Two national groups sued the US Environmental Protection Agency this week in an effort to ban the use of chlorpyrifos, a chemical sprayed on wine grapes, walnuts, almonds and scores of other crops.

The groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pesticide Action

Network North America, say the chemical can cause neurological problems and can even be fatal. But its manufacturer, Dow Chemical Co., said Friday the product is safe.

Although it was banned by the US government for household use in 2001, chlorpyrifos is used widely by farmers in California and elsewhere. Some 1.3 million pounds were applied to California crops in

2008, according to state records compiled by Earthjustice, a public-interest law firm that filed the suit.

The figures show that the state’s biggest agricultural counties, such as Fresno, have been the heaviest users, although the product has been sprayed on wine grapes, corn, asparagus and other crops in Sacramento and Yolo counties. “This one’s been around a long time and we use it safely,” said

Cynthia Cory, environmental affairs director at the California Farm Bureau Federation.

“It’s important.”

But she said usage has dropped by about half in the past decade because farmers are trying to cut costs. Dow Chemical defended chlorpyrifos and called it “important to U.S. agriculture.” The manufacturer said the EPA is conducting a regular review of the product and the environmentalists’ chal-

lenges “contribute nothing to the thorough health, safety and environmental regulatory evaluations already underway.”

In May, the EPA took steps to limit the product’s use. The agency announced it was restricting the spraying of chlorpyrifos and two other products around streams in the West. The limits were announced after government scientists determined the pesticides were hurting endangered salmon in

California and the West.

The two environmental groups have been seeking a complete ban on chlorpyrifos since 2007, when they made a formal petition to the EPA. This week’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, seeks a court order forcing the EPA to respond to the 3-year-old petition.

The EPA said it “has just received the lawsuit and is evaluating it.” — MCT

US data doubts hang over AstraZeneca heart drug Brilinta doesn’t work when patients get high dose of aspirin after heart treatment LONDON/WASHINGTON: US experts studying AstraZeneca’s new heart drug Brilinta face a dilemma: should a pill with clear overall efficacy be approved, even when it fails to show a benefit in North America? Many ana-

lysts think the answer is “yes” and that Brilinta, for preventing heart attacks, will be waved through because the regional anomaly may just be a statistical fluke from a relatively small subset analysis.

NEW YORK: Mike Schade from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice stands with a box emblazoned with the symbol for PVC plastics during a rally outside the Toys R Us store at Times Square July 22 in New York City. Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC, a common material used in plastic toys, has been targeted by some scientists and activists as dangerous for children, and the groups were seeking for Toys R Us and other toy distributors to eventually ban them altogether. —AFP

Vaccines wearing off for whooping cough SAN LUIS: As San Luis Obispo County reported this week that it has one of the highest numbers of whooping cough cases in the state, local health officials said it’s likely due to waning immunizations among children and young adults.

As of Wednesday, the county reported 258 cases, compared to Marin County, with 232 cases. The two counties had the highest numbers of whooping cough cases in a statewide survey earlier this month.

“Typically, outbreaks have to do with high numbers of susceptible populations,” Ann McDowell, an epidemiologist with County Public Health, said Friday. “There appears to be some waning immunity (locally).”

Waning immunity is the term often used when vaccines begin to lose their effect,

making a person susceptible to disease or infection absent another dose of vaccine.

Susceptible populations also include those that haven’t been vaccinated.

McDowell said cycles of outbreaks occur every three to five years and that in the past two years only 19 cases were reported in the county.

Of the current local cases, about half — 122 — are children between ages 6 and 15.

Some parents choose not to have their children immunized, which can leave them susceptible to infections, McDowell said.

Children should receive five doses during childhood.

Others don’t realize children should receive a booster shot around age 10 or 11 — leaving those who don’t get the booster vulnerable around that age.

Whooping cough can be transmitted through the air.

McDowell stressed that “anyone around a baby should get shots because infants have the highest risk and can die.”

San Luis Obispo County had the secondhighest number of whooping cough cases in the state as of July 13 with 193. That number rose to 258 as of Wednesday.

Marin County, with 232 cases, was the highest in the state as of July 13 in the most recent statewide reporting.

Marin County Public Health Officer Fred Schwartz said waning immunity appears to be a problem there as well.

“We see our greatest numbers among children and teens,” Schwartz said. “It’s very important for kids to be brought up to date (with shots).” — MCT

Loons provide clues to avian disease ST. PAUL: Dozens of loons will be outfitted with transmitters and tracked to their winter grounds in the oil-choked Gulf of Mexico to study the spread of a deadly avian disease, scientists said on Friday.

Avian botulism has killed 80,000 birds of various species in the Great Lakes since 1999, which spreads among fish and birds, and scientists want to know the deep-diving loons’ habits.

“This information will help shed light

on how avian botulism may work in the food web on the Great Lakes,” US Geological Survey biologist Kevin Kenow said.

It will also reveal how the loons hold up in the Gulf Coast region contaminated by oil from BP Plc’s ruptured deepwater well.

Ten of the birds have transmitters implanted in their abdomens and 70 others have them attached to their legs.

Besides the birds’ location, scientists will receive data on body temperature, light levels, and water pressure.

Loons have greater bone density than other birds, allowing them to dive as deep as 250 feet in search of prey.

Avian botulism outbreaks have caused periodic die-offs of birds since the 1960s but they have become more common in the last decade, especially in Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. — Reuters

BEIJING: A Chinese child receives traditional treatment to prevent illness during the current heatwaves at a hospital in Beijing on July 20. Traditional treatments have been a major part of primary healthcare in China for the last 5,000 years, used extensively for a variety of medical purposes ranging from the prevention and treatment of diseases, relieving pain and anesthetizing patients for surgeries. — AFP

But it is clear AstraZeneca’s biggest new drug hope faces tough questions when a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel reviews it on July 28.

The day-long meeting is likely to overshadow second-quarter results on July 29, when some analysts believe AstraZeneca could announce an increased share buyback.

Ira Loss, an analyst who follows the FDA for Washington Analysis, said the lack of benefit seen in North American patients in a pivotal study should not bar approval.

“It’s an established precedent that there are drugs on the market that have this anomaly and they still get approved,” Loss said. He pointed to AstraZeneca’s Toprol XL as an example.

That drug won FDA clearance for the additional use of congestive heart failure based on a trial which found Toprol XL sharply reduced deaths in patients overall, although US patients saw no advantage.

In that case, the FDA reviewers concluded the results might be due to chance or differences in medical care and patient demographics in various countries, and the agency cleared the new use in light of the strong overall results.

Toprol XL was also helped by data showing a reduction in hospitalisations of US patients that worked in its favour.

Brilinta, though, may be different.

Tim Anderson, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, believes the FDA is struggling with the North American findings and it remains to be seen how much weight will be given to them.

“If they are weighted heavily and there is felt to be no easy explanation, then Brilinta’s approvability might be at risk,” he said.

With consensus 2014 sales forecasts for Brilinta standing at $1.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data, and the drug central to AstraZeneca’s strategy for overcoming patent losses, a lot is riding on next week’s panel.

Deutsche Bank analysts believe the shares could fall as much as 10 percent if there is no recommendation for final approval and gain 5 percent on a positive vote, since the U.S. market represents 70 percent of the Brilinta sales opportunity.

Citigroup puts the downside at 5-7 percent and the upside at 2-5 percent. In practice, the panel meeting may not provide a definitive answer given the perplexing clinical evidence. The new blood thinner showed impressive overall superiority to Sanofi-Aventis and BristolMyers Squibb’s $9 billion-a-year blockbuster Plavix in an 18,000patient study last August that compared using the two drugs alongside aspirin.

But among the relatively small number of North American patients on Brilinta plus aspirin there was actually a non-significant trend towards a worse outcome.

One possibility is that Brilinta doesn’t work as well when patients get a high dose of aspirin after heart treatment, as is common practice in the United States but not other countries. Questions about aspirin as well as uncertainties about different doses of Plavix used among some patients might prompt calls for more studies, either before or after approval.

Alternatively, some analysts think the FDA panel could approve Brilinta as a new treatment option but not allow any claims about its cardiovascular benefits. — Reuters

TOKYO: A Hitachi engineer displays a portable optical topography device, equipped with eight pairs of lasers and optical sensors contained in a flexible headband that measures prefrontal cortex activity, at the company’s hightech exhibition in Tokyo yesterday. The brain-machine interface (BMI) device utilizes a Li-ion battery and can transmit data using wireless LAN, analyzing activity of the brain. —AFP

Consumer gene test results misleading CHICAGO: People who send off their saliva to genetic testing companies to find out their risk for prostate cancer or diabetes are likely to get different results, depending on the company they choose, government investigators told lawmakers.

Their undercover investigation of four unnamed genetic testing companies, in which five people sent away their DNA for testing, showed that the tests produced inconsistent results for the same disease 68 percent of the time.

Four out of five donors got test results that conflicted with their actual medical conditions and family histories.

The tests the GAO studied ranged from $300 to $1,000.

“Assuming these tests are credible, one would expect that identical DNA would receive identical predictions,” Gregory Kutz of the Government Accountability Office said in prepared testimony before a US House of Representatives panel investigating direct-to-consumer genetic tests.

Kutz told the panel, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, that the test companies use deceptive marketing practices and said the results “are misleading and of little use to consumers.”

Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said his agency is preparing to regulate the sale of these tests, which are offered by companies such as Navigenics Inc, Pathway Genomics Corp and 23andMe Inc, which is backed by Google Inc <GOOG.O>.

Shuren said the agency has sent letters to Pathway Genomics, Knome Inc, Navigenics Inc, deCODE Genetics and 23andMe-all of which have been selling their tests directly to consumersinforming them of the move to regulate them.

He said products by all five of these companies, in his view, meet the definition of a medical device, based on the companies’ claims about their test results.

For more than three decades, the FDA has chosen not to regulate simple diagnostic tests developed in individual laboratories. But it does regulate tests considered medical devices-which are used to diagnose disease or other conditions

or to prevent disease.

This week, the FDA hosted a two-day meeting with experts and companies about how the agency should begin regulating lab-developed tests.

Shuren said the FDA plans to draft a framework for regulating lab-developed tests, which it will phase in based on the level of risk to patients.

None of the genetic tests now offered directly to consumers has been cleared by the FDA to ensure the results are “accurate, reliable and clinically meaningful,” he said.

Shuren said the FDA has also sent a letter to Illumina Inc, a maker of genetic testing equipment, for “supplying unapproved reagents and instrumentation” labeled for research purposes to direct-to-consumer testing companies.

All six companies have been asked to meet with the FDA to discuss the regulatory status of their products.

23andMe Inc said in a statement that the GAO had refused to discuss its report with the company.

“We are confident in our service’s accuracy, reliability and value. However, we embrace the ideas that the FDA offered today and look forward to helping to develop a regulatory framework that provides standards and transparency across the industry,” it said.

Shuren said the FDA has been watching the activity of companies selling genetic tests directly to consumers for some time, but grew concerned with the “aggressive” marketing practices of Pathway Genomics, which had announced a pact with Walgreen Co in April to distribute its tests through its network of more than 6,000 neighborhood pharmacies.

Pathway has since stopped selling its tests directly to consumers.

Representatives from Pathway, 23andMe and Navigenics defended their tests before the panel, saying they are useful in helping consumers change their habits to help avoid problems like diabetes.

But Dr. James Evans of the University of North Carolina, who advised the GAO, told the panel they are of little use to consumers.

“No one knows how to interpret these data.

That is quite clear,” he said. — Reuters

Bangladesh zoo mourns 100-year-old elephant DHAKA: Bangladesh’s biggest zoo has declared three days of mourning following the death of a 100-year-old elephant which was its top attraction and “loyal servant,” an official said yesterday.

Pabantara collapsed Thursday after a heart attack and died hours later, plunging her fans into grief, A.H.M Shahidullah, head of the stateowned Dhaka Zoo, told AFP. The female Asian elephant had lived at the zoo since it was founded in 1957 and had carried hundreds of thousands of children and adults on fun rides-a key activity at the zoological garden.

“All the mahouts (caretakers) and those who knew Pabantara cried like babies over her death,” Shahidullah said.

“Some mahouts who retired from the zoo came all the way from their villages to be at her side. They prayed and lit candles and incense at her grave,” he said.

During the mourning period, which began on Friday and will finish yesterday, “there will be no fun-rides on the other elephants,” he said.

“We will hold special prayers at a mosque to

seek eternal blessings for Pabantara and other animals who are ill,” Shahidullah added.

Pabantara had been a huge money spinner for the zoo on the northern outskirts of Dhaka, capital of the mainly Muslim country.

“She also was one of the oldest Asian elephants in this region. She was always peaceful and friendly. She was one of the most favourite animals and a loyal servant of the zoo. She deserves respect,” Shahidullah added.

Shahidullah said veterinarians had examined her teeth and concluded that Pabantara was aged “around 100 years”.

The elephant had been buried on the zoo grounds, Shahidullah said.

Asian elephants normally live between 60 and 90 years, said Mohsinuzzman Chowdhury, the country’s top elephant expert, but can live beyond 100 years.

The zoo is home to about 2,000 animals and stretches over a 753,000-square-metre (186acre) park. It is one of the few open spaces in a crowded city that is home to more than 12 million people. — AFP

WHATʼS ON IN KUWAIT

Sunday, July 25, 2010

31 Embassy information EMBASSY OF US The United States Department of State announces the increase in various visa fees to ensure sufficient resources to cover the increasing cost of processing nonimmigrant visas (NIVs).

US law requires the Department to recover the cost of processing nonimmigrant visas through the collection of the application fees. The increased fees are to take effect June 4, 2010. Under the new rule, applicants for all visas that are not petition-based, including B1/B2 tourist and business visitor visas and all student and exchange-visitor visas, will pay a fee of $140. Applicants for petitionbased visas will pay an application fee of $150, as each of the below categories requires a review of extensive documentation and a more in-depth interview of the applicant than other categories, such as tourists.

These categories include: H visa for temporary workers and trainees L visa for intra-company transferees O visa for aliens with extraordinary ability P visa for athletes, artists and entertainers Q visa for international cultural exchange visitors R visa for religious occupations The application fee for K visas for fiance(e)s of US citizens will be $350.

The fee for E visas for treaty-traders and treaty-investors will be $390.

EMBASSY OF INDIA

Summer program 2010

T

he summer program organised with the active support of the management of ISCP to provide the opportunity for young students in recreational activities while staying in Kuwait during their vacations. The program was very well

organised by Amir Uzma and Nadia Arshad focusing creative aptitude in Arts & Crafts, Language, Computer Literacy, Karate and Swimming.

Participants of the program showed enthusiastic interest in outdoor activities particularly in

Swimming and Karate.

Educational trips to museum and a beverage factory was highly admired. It is observed that the young children were reluctant in their routine studies of academic subjects. Sajid managed the

Karate classes in his professional style that was very much encouraging among the participants.

The program was concluded with the distribution of certificates to recognise their keen interest in creative activities.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday Diane Zoleta. Wish you all the happiness, success in life and good health. God Bless always! Greetings from: Rachelle, Cia, Arnold, family and friends!

PABAK tourney: The PABAK organizing committee would like to announce the opening of the PABAK/Western Union 24th Conference Basketball Tournament in the second week of August 2010. Registration in the following categories: Open 5’9” & under, non-leaguers, veterans and inter-company, is now going on at the Kuwait Sports Club for the Disabled gym in Hawally every Friday, through email at: rodcerezo@yahoo.com; or call: 6668954. Early entries: IKEA, Kuwait Cement Co, Wataniya AW, Unisteel, POLO and Caboria Restaurant. ✦✦✦

Dar Al-Athar survey: Dear friend, we would like to know your opinion for DAI workshops to he held during the upcoming 16th Cultural Season (20102011). To make a difference click on the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/ Please note that your responses will remain completely anonymous. Thank you for taking part in our survey. Wishing you happy summer holidays looking forward to see you during the 16th Cultural Season. Latest issue of Canvas is available in the Museum Shop. Dar Al-Athar Al-lslamiyyah.

Please note the new summer timings for AlMaidan Cultural Centre urea 9:00-15 hours Sunday through Thursday. Al-Maidan Cultural Centre Abdullab Al-Salem School, Maidan Hawally, near Al-Sha’ab Leisure Park. Tel: 25636528 /25636561; Fax: 25653006; Email: membership@darrnuseuimorg.kw; Website: www.darmuseum.org.kw July 27 Aware Diwaniya: The Aware Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya about, ‘Islam between culture and religion,’ by Dr Ibrahim Al-Adsani.

The Arab culture. as is the case in any culture, dominates the lives of Arabs. Culture and religion are often confused, and this confusion is quite apparent to people who are new in Kuwait. In his 25 minute presentation, Dr Ibrahim will shed some light on some practices which many nonMuslims deem Islamic yet they are cultural. The presentation will be followed by a general discussion. You are all welcome at the AWARE Center on July 27 at 7 pm. For more information, call 25335260/80 or email: Htaware.hassan@gmail.com or log onto:www.aware.com.kw

IFRA elects new managing committee

I

ndian Football Referees Association (IFRA), the only recognized and registered expatriate qualified football referees’ body in Kuwait held their 29th Annual General Body Meeting on Friday 09-07-2010, at the Winner’s Restaurant, Salmiya and elected new office bearers and members of the managing committee for the year 2010-2011.

Sarto Baptista is elected as the resident of IFRA and C.O. John got elected as Vice-President. Other

members were elected as follows: Junifer M. Rodrigues (Hon. Secretary), Francis Fernandes (Hon. Treasurer), Milagris Crasto, D. Sharma, Midas Fernandes, Alvaro Dias, Philip Ferrao and Christopher Fernandes are elected as committee members. Michael Dias is the Hon. Auditor.

The Football Association and The Referees’ Association - U.K., who provide/supply with the “Laws of the Game”/Referees Charts and other neces-

sary referees’ accessories, including visual presentations onscreen during the refresher courses. The Bombay Referees’ Association, provides the association members with the “Soccer Magazine” and other relevant information of latest changes of the Laws of the Game, etc. The certificates issued by IFRA to its members are recognized in India, by all State Referees’ Associations, according to a press release

by IFRA.

Sports August 6 Soccer tournament: St Francis Xavier Unity Cup Football Tournament, a 8-a-side football tournament, open for all Indians in Kuwait will be held during Ramadan, starting from Aug 6, at Digital Grounds, Kuwait City. Teams wishing to participate are kindly requested to contact 99663252/66625567 or email: joepcreiral25@hotmail.com for further details.

FAST Shoot: Filipino Action Shooting Team (FAST) officials, with the support of Gen. Ahmmed Al Saleem would like to invite everyone to their Fun Shoot every Tuesday from 17:00-21:00 hours.

For details contact: Butch Alinea

99816563, Danny San Juan 99540595 Carlos Gutierrez 97270371 and FAST Adviser Manny Cornelio 66737298. ✦✦✦ FPSC Fun Shoot session: The Filipino Practical Shooting Club (FPSC) is inviting its members and non-members who are gun sports enthusiast to join us every Thursday at 17:00 hours to 21:00 hours (5 pm to 9 pm) for a fun shoot in practical shooting target continues FPSC will hold a sanction tournament for the Philippine Practical Shooting Association (PPSA) as a requirement for the club affiliation for the year 20l0. All FPSC/PPSA members are obliged to participate in these

disciplines. For particulars, please call the following officers: Tony 66600481, Eric 99570689, Jovi 66742419, Rommel 66850748, Dadz 66634012, Sunny 99545917, Joseph 99517467, Ramon 97433824, Ramir 99629631. ✦✦✦ Football referees coaching classes: Football referee coaching class for new recruits and refresher classes for active members will be conducted by the Indian Football Referees’ Association (IFRA) Kuwait from today at the Indian English Academy School (Don Bosco Salmiya from 9:30 am onwards).

Audio visual aids will be used to

enhance the understanding of the laws of the game better. All new candidates desiring to qualify as football referees are requested to contact Sarto Baptista on tel 25611621 (after 6pm), Junifer Rodrigues on tel 25633261 (after 5 pm) and also C O John on 66274017 (Mangaf/Fahaheel/Ahmadi area) for more information. ✦✦✦ Kuwait Netball Association games: The Kuwait Netball Association games are played on Tuesday evenings between 7:00 pm and 8:30 pm. To register or for more information email: kuwaitnetball@hotmail.com. New players are always welcome.

Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

The Embassy of India has further revamped and improved its Legal Advice Clinic at the Indian Workers Welfare Center, and made the free service available to Indian nationals on all five working days, i.e. from Sunday to Thursday every week.

Kuwaiti lawyers would be available at the Legal Advice Clinic daily from Monday to Thursday, while Indian lawyers would be available on Sundays.

Following are the free welfare services provided at the Indian Workers Welfare Center located at the Embassy of India: [i] 24x7 Helpline for Domestic Workers: Accessible by toll free telephone no.

25674163 from anywhere in Kuwait, it provides information and advice exclusively to Indian domestic sector workers (Visa No. 20) as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. [ii] Help Desk: It offers guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal, and other issues (Embassy premises; 9 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4.30 PM, Sunday to Thursday); (iii) Labour Complaints Desk: It registers labor complaints and provides grievance redressal service to Indian workers (Embassy premises; 9 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4.30 PM, Sunday to Thursday); (iv) Shelters: For female and male domestic workers in distress; (v) Legal Advice Clinic: Provides free legal advice to Indian nationals (Embassy premises; Kuwaiti lawyers 3 PM to 5 PM, Monday to Thursday; Indian lawyers 2 PM to 4 PM on Sunday); and (vi) Attestation of Work Contracts: Private sector worker (Visa No. 18) contracts are accepted at the Embassy; 9 AM to 1 PM; Sunday to Thursday; Domestic sector worker (Visa No. 20) contracts are accepted at Kuwait Union of Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO), Hawally, Al-Othman Street, Kurd Roundabout, Al-Abraj Complex, Office No 9, Mezzanine Floor; 9 AM to 9 PM, Saturday to Thursday; 5 PM to 9 PM on Friday.

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria wishes to invite all Nigerians residing in Kuwait to come and register with the Embassy. The registration is compulsory for all Nigerians residing /visiting Kuwait. Kindly bring the following documents along with you: • A photocopy of the Nigerian passport • One passport photograph • Copy of the civil identification card or visa For additional information please call: 25620278 or visit the Embassy at Block, 4, Malik Bin Anas Street, Avenue 44, House 31, Along Al-Aqsa Road, Rumaithiya. The Consular Section opens Sunday - Thursday from 9 am - 3 pm Your prompt response is highly solicited.

EMBASSY OF BANGLADESH Bangladesh Embassy closure: The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will remain closed on Tuesday July 27, on the occasion of Holy Shab-eBarat. The Embassy is located in Khaldiya, Block 2, Street 29, House 11.

TV PROGRAMS

32

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Orbit / Showtime Listings 11:00 Crusty Night Of World Records 12:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 15 13:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 16 14:00 Very best of maverick’s Best Surf 15:00 Shack Therapy 1 16:00 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships 20 17:00 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships 20 18:00 Motocross, Malcolm And More 19:00 Disposable Hero - The Brian Deegan Story 20:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 15 21:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 16 22:00 Very best of maverick’s Best Surf 23:00 Shack Therapy 1

00:00 Ugly Betty 01:00 Without a Trace 02:00 Ghost Whisperer 03:00 Kings 04:00 Without a Trace 05:00 The Ex-List 06:00 Bones 07:00 Ugly Betty 08:00 Glee 09:00 Smallville 10:00 Ghost Whisperer 11:00 The Ex-List 12:00 Bones 13:00 Kings 14:00 Ghost Whisperer 15:00 Without a Trace 16:00 Glee 17:00 Smallville 18:00 Ugly Betty 19:00 ER 20:00 Damages 21:00 Cold Case 22:00 The Murdoch Mysteries 23:00 Nip/Tuck

00:15 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals 00:45 Pit Bulls and Parolees 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Untamed & Uncut 03:30 Animal Cops Philadelphia 04:25 Pit Bulls and Parolees 05:20 Animal Cops South Africa 06:10 SSPCA: On the Wildside 06:35 Dolphin Days 07:00 Animal Crackers 07:25 Meerkat Manor 07:50 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals 08:15 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals 08:45 Cats 101 09:40 Wildlife SOS International 10:05 Amba the Russian Tiger 10:55 Gorilla School 11:20 SSPCA: On the Wildside 11:50 Animal Precinct 12:45 E-Vets: The Interns 13:10 Pet Rescue 13:40 Gorilla School 14:05 Gorilla School 14:35 Wildlife SOS International 15:00 SSPCA: On the Wildside 15:30 Cats of Claw Hill 15:55 Cats of Claw Hill 16:25 Dogs 101 17:20 Cats 101 18:15 Animal Cops Houston 19:10 Weird Creatures with Nick Baker 20:10 Into the Dragon’s Lair 21:05 Untamed & Uncut 22:00 Untamed & Uncut 22:55 Animal Cops Phoenix 23:50 All New Planet’s Funniest Animals

00:15 The League Of Gentlemen 00:44 The League Of Gentlemen 01:15 Extras 01:45 Ideal 02:15 Doctor Who Confidential 02:30 Green Green Grass 03:00 Teletubbies 03:25 Me Too 03:45 Tellytales 03:55 Tweenies 04:15 Teletubbies 04:40 Me Too 05:00 Tellytales 05:10 Tweenies 05:30 Teletubbies 05:55 Me Too 06:15 Teletubbies 06:40 Me Too 07:00 Tellytales 07:10 Tweenies 07:30 Teletubbies 07:55 Me Too 08:15 Tellytales 08:25 Tweenies 08:45 Teletubbies 09:10 Me Too 09:30 Mastermind 2006 10:00 Coast 11:00 Doctors 11:30 Doctors 12:00 Doctors 12:30 Doctors 13:00 Doctors 13:30 Mastermind 2006 14:00 Mastermind 2006 14:30 Doctor Who Confidential 14:45 The Weakest Link 15:30 The Weakest Link 16:15 Doctor Who 17:00 Doctor Who Confidential 17:15 Inspector Lynley Mysteries 18:00 Casualty 18:50 Casualty 19:40 Sorted 20:30 Rough Diamond Sd 21:30 New Tricks 22:20 Doctor Who Confidential 22:35 Hotel Babylon 23:30 Waterloo Road

00:35 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 01:20 The Home Show 02:05 Home For Life 03:00 Fantasy Homes In The City 03:40 Glamour Puds 04:05 Glamour Puds 04:30 Glamour Puds 04:55 Saturday Kitchen 05:20 Saturday Kitchen 05:50 James Martin’s Brittany 06:10 The Home Show 07:00 Come Dine With Me 08:40 Come Dine With Me 10:20 Come Dine With Me 11:10 Saturday Kitchen 11:35 Saturday Kitchen 12:00 Saturday Kitchen 12:30 Saturday Kitchen 12:55 Living In The Sun 13:45 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 14:30 The Home Show 15:20 Ty’s Great British Adventure 16:05 Fantasy Homes In The City 16:50 Come Dine With Me 17:40 Come Dine With Me 18:30 James Martin’s Brittany 18:55 Come Dine With Me 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Come Dine With Me 21:25 Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes 23:05 Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes 23:55 Saturday Kitchen

01:00 Nathalie...-PG15 03:00 The Bucket List-PG15 05:00 Diamond 13-18 07:00 Save The Last Dance-PG 09:00 Jump Tomorrow-PG15 11:00 Brassed Off-PG15 13:00 Looking For Richard-PG15 15:00 October Sky-PG15 17:00 Solaris-PG15 19:00 The Good German-18 21:00 Ocean’s Thirteen-PG15 23:00 L’affaire Farewell-PG15

Red Riding on Show Movies

00:00 Deadly Women 01:00 Undercover 02:00 Prototype This 02:55 Brainiac 03:50 Nextworld 04:45 How Stuff’s Made 05:10 American Loggers 06:05 Mythbusters 07:00 Wheeler Dealers 07:55 Ultimate Car Build-Off 08:50 Construction Intervention 09:45 How Stuff’s Made 10:10 Ultimate Survival 11:05 American Loggers 12:00 Miami Ink 12:55 Miami Ink 13:50 Miami Ink 14:45 Miami Ink 15:40 Miami Ink 16:35 Miami Ink 17:30 How Stuff’s Made 18:00 Wild Swimming Adventure 19:00 Alone in the Wild 20:00 Prototype This 21:00 Mythbusters 22:00 Storm Chasers 23:00 Moments of Terror

00:30 Engineered 01:20 The Colony 02:10 Nextworld 03:00 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 03:50 Da Vinci’s Machines 04:45 What’s That About?

05:40 How Stuff’s Made 06:10 Mighty Ships 07:00 Junkyard Mega-Wars 08:00 The Gadget Show 08:30 The Gadget Show 09:00 What’s That About?

09:55 Catch It Keep It 10:50 How Stuff’s Made 11:15 How Stuff’s Made 11:45 Green Wheels 12:10 Green Wheels 12:40 Green Wheels 13:05 Green Wheels 13:35 Mean Green Machines 14:00 Mean Green Machines 14:30 Mean Green Machines 14:55 Mean Green Machines 15:25 Savage Planet 15:55 Perfect Disaster 16:50 Mighty Ships 17:45 How Stuff’s Made 18:10 How Stuff’s Made 18:40 Nextworld 19:30 The Future of...

20:20 Engineered 21:10 Da Vinci’s Machines 22:00 Nextworld 22:50 The Future of...

23:40 Science of Beauty

00:00 Wizards of Waverly Place 00:25 Wizards of Waverly Place 00:50 Suite Life On Deck 01:15 Suite Life On Deck 01:40 Sonny With A Chance 02:05 Jonas 02:30 Hannah Montana 02:55 Hannah Montana 03:20 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 03:45 The Suite Life of Zack & Cody 04:10 Sonny With A Chance 04:35 Sonny With A Chance 05:00 Sonny With A Chance 05:20 Sonny With A Chance 05:45 FAIRLY ODD PARENTS 06:10 A KIND OF MAGIC 06:35 Replacements 07:00 Phineas & Ferb 07:25 FAIRLY ODD PARENTS 07:50 Replacements 08:15 Sonny With A Chance 08:35 Hannah Montana 09:00 SPECIAL AGENT OSO 09:25 JUNGLE JUNCTION 09:45 HANDY MANNY 10:10 IMAGINATION MOVERS 10:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 11:00 SUITE LIFE ON DECK 11:25 Wizards of Waverly Place 11:50 Jonas 12:15 Hannah Montana 12:40 GOOD LUCK CHARLIE 13:00 Sonny With A Chance 13:30 BROTHER BEAR 2 15:00 Hannah Montana 15:25 Jonas 15:50 Wizards of Waverly Place 16:15 SUITE LIFE ON DECK 16:40 FAIRLY ODD PARENTS 17:00 A KIND OF MAGIC 17:25 Replacements 17:50 Phineas & Ferb 18:15 FAIRLY ODD PARENTS 18:35 Replacements 19:00 Sonny With A Chance 19:25 Hannah Montana 19:45 SUITE LIFE ON DECK 20:10 Wizards of Waverly Place 20:30 Jonas 20:55 Hannah Montana 21:20 GOOD LUCK CHARLIE 21:45 Sonny With A Chance 22:10 TWITCHES TOO 23:35 Hannah Montana

00:40 Bank of Hollywood 06:00 Forbes Celebrity 100: Who Made Bank 07:45 Bank of Hollywood 08:35 E! News 09:25 THS 10:15 THS 11:05 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 11:30 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 12:00 E! News 12:50 Dallas Divas & Daughters 13:15 Dallas Divas & Daughters 13:40 E!ES 14:30 Kendra 14:55 Kendra 15:25 THS 16:15 Style Specials 17:10 E! News 17:35 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 18:00 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 18:50 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 19:15 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 19:40 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 20:05 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 20:30 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 20:55 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 21:20 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 21:45 Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane 22:10 E! News 23:00 Kendra 23:25 Kendra 23:50 Extreme Hollywood

00:00 Kick Ass Miracles 00:30 Kick Ass Miracles 01:00 Kick Ass Miracles 01:30 Kick Ass Miracles 02:00 Kick Ass Miracles 02:30 Kick Ass Miracles 03:00 Kick Ass Miracles 03:30 Kick Ass Miracles 04:00 Kick Ass Miracles 04:30 Kick Ass Miracles 05:00 I-Ex 05:30 I-Ex 06:00 I-Ex 06:30 I-Ex 07:00 Tread Bmx 07:30 Tread Bmx 08:00 Uci Bmx World Championships 2008 08:30 Uci Bmx World Championships 2008 09:00 Uci Bmx Supercross World Cup 2008 09:30 Uci Bmx Supercross World Cup 2008 10:00 Smp Shanghai Showdown 1

00:00 Iron Chef America 01:00 Iron Chef America 02:00 Iron Chef America 03:00 Barefoot Contessa 03:30 Everyday Italian 04:00 Iron Chef America 05:00 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 05:30 Guys Big Bite 06:00 Chopped 07:00 30 Minute Meals 07:25 Tyler’s Ultimate 07:50 Guys Big Bite 08:15 Barefoot Contessa 08:40 Everyday Italian 09:05 30 Minute Meals 09:30 Tyler’s Ultimate 10:00 Guys Big Bite 10:30 Barefoot Contessa 11:00 Everyday Italian 11:30 Food Network Challenge 12:30 30 Minute Meals 13:00 Tyler’s Ultimate 13:30 Guys Big Bite 14:00 Barefoot Contessa 14:30 Everyday Italian 15:00 30 Minute Meals 15:30 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 16:00 Iron Chef America 17:00 Barefoot Contessa 17:30 Everyday Italian 18:00 30 Minute Meals 18:30 Guys Big Bite 19:00 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 19:30 Tyler’s Ultimate 20:00 Iron Chef America 21:00 Iron Chef America 22:00 Iron Chef America 23:00 Iron Chef America

00:30 Crime Scene Psychics 00:55 Crime Scene Psychics 01:20 A Haunting 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 Mystery ER 10:20 Forensic Detectives 11:10 FBI Files 12:00 Impossible Heists 12:50 Final Days of an Icon 13:40 Diagnosis: Unknown 14:30 Forensic Detectives 15:20 FBI Files 16:10 CSU 17:00 Mystery ER 17:50 Forensic Detectives 18:40 FBI Files 19:30 Impossible Heists 20:20 Final Days of an Icon 21:10 Diagnosis: Unknown 22:00 I Almost Got Away With It 22:50 Dr G: Medical Examiner 23:40 Deadly Women

00:30 Racing To America 01:30 Respect: Ski Movie 02:30 Nomads 03:30 Nomads 04:30 Word Travels 05:00 Wild Rides 05:30 Danger Men 06:30 Racing To America 07:30 Respect: Ski Movie 08:30 Nomads 09:30 Nomads 10:30 Word Travels

11:00 Graham’s World 11:30 Long Way Down 12:30 Bondi Rescue 13:00 Bondi Rescue 13:30 The Best Job In The World 14:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 14:30 Banged Up Abroad 15:30 Banged Up Abroad 16:30 Wild Rides 17:00 Graham’s World 17:30 Long Way Down 18:30 Bondi Rescue 19:00 Bondi Rescue 19:30 The Best Job In The World 20:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 20:30 Banged Up Abroad 21:30 Banged Up Abroad 22:30 Wild Rides 23:00 Graham’s World 23:30 Long Way Down

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

20:10 Evolve 21:00 Hi Tech Hitler 21:55 Tales of the Gun 22:50 Declassified 23:40 Mountbatten: Death of a Royal

00:00 Dallas Divas & Daughters 01:00 My Celebrity Home 02:00 Split Ends

01:15 State Of Grace 03:25 Hidden Agenda 05:10 Betrayed 07:15 The Program 09:05 The Cure 10:40 True Heart 12:10 The Black Stallion Returns 13:50 Far North 15:15 Woman of Straw 17:10 Dreamchild 18:40 The Playboys 20:25 High Spirits 22:00 Species 23:45 Martin’s Day

00:00 How I met your mother 00:30 Gavin & Stacey 01:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (repeat) 01:30 The Colbert Report (repeat) 02:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 03:00 SNL one hour version 04:00 South park 04:30 George Lopez 05:00 Just Shoot me!

05:30 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 06:30 Everybody Loves Raymond 07:00 Gary Unmarried 07:30 The Fresh Prince of Bel Air 08:00 Frasier 08:30 Just Shoot me!

09:00 George Lopez 09:30 Ten Things I hate about you 10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 10:30 Gary Unmarried 11:00 Frasier 11:30 The Simpsons 12:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 13:00 Ten Things I hate about you 13:30 Just Shoot me!

14:00 George Lopez 14:30 Two and a half men 15:00 How I met your mother 15:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (repeat) 16:00 The Colbert Report (repeat) 16:30 The Drew Carey show 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:30 Frasier 18:00 New Adventures of old Christine 18:30 Eight Simple Rules 19:00 Better Off Ted 19:30 Will & Grace 20:00 Entourage 20:30 How to make it in America 21:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (repeat) 21:30 The Colbert Report (repeat) 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:30 New Adventures of old Christine

00:00 The Martha Stewart Show 01:00 Downsize Me 02:00 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

03:00 The Monique Show 04:00 The Tonight show with Jay Leno 05:00 GMA Weekend (Repeat) 06:00 Parenting 06:30 Job Club 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

Familiar Strangers on Super Movies

00:00 The Kingdom-18 02:00 Eva-PG15 04:00 From Mexico With Love-PG15 06:00 Red Riding 1974-PG15 08:00 Einstein And Eddington-PG15 10:00 Call Of The North-PG 12:00 Welcome Home Roscoe JenkinsPG15 14:00 Gracie-PG15 16:00 Einstein And Eddington-PG15 17:45 The Express-PG 20:00 You Don’t Know Jack-PG15 22:15 Taken-18

01:00 Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead-18 03:00 Star Runners-PG 05:00 Twins Effect 2-PG15 07:00 -PG15 09:00 Stargate: The Ark Of Truth-PG 11:00 The Purifiers-PG15 13:00 Merlin And The Book Of BeastsPG15 15:00 Stargate: The Ark Of Truth-PG 17:00 Ghost Image-PG15 19:00 Polar Storm-PG15 21:00 Return To House On Haunted Hill18 23:00 Hush-PG15

00:00 Satellites And Meteorites-PG15 02:00 Fever Pitch-PG15 04:00 Santa Baby 2-PG15 06:00 Fifty Pills-PG15 08:00 Ghostbusters II-PG 10:00 Ping Pong Playa-PG15 12:00 Big Daddy-PG15 14:00 The War Of The Roses-PG15 16:00 Satellites And Meteorites-PG15 18:00 Prelude To A Kiss-PG15 20:00 Miss March-18 22:00 How High-18

00:00 Barbie In A Mermaid Tale-FAM 02:00 Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius-FAM 04:00 Magic Sport 2-PG 06:00 The Jungle Book II-FAM 08:00 Moomin And Midsummer MadnessFAM 10:00 Magic Sport 2-PG 12:00 Casper Haunted Xmas-FAM 14:00 Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius-FAM 16:00 Curious George: Follow That Monkey-PG 18:00 How To Eat Fried Worms-FAM 20:00 The Jungle Book III: Mowgli’s Adventure-FAM 22:00 Casper Haunted Xmas-FAM

Santa Baby 2 on Show Movies Comedy

13:00 Three Sisters 13:30 Home Improvement 14:00 CSI 15:00 Dollhouse 16:00 Psych 17:00 Dawson’s Creek 18:00 Emmerdale 18:30 Coronation Street 19:00 The Philanthropist 20:00 Dollhouse 21:00 Desperate Housewives 22:00 Psych 23:00 Dawson’s Creek

00:00 CSI 01:00 Dollhouse 02:00 Desperate Housewives 03:00 Dawson’s Creek 04:00 Three Sisters 04:30 Home Improvement 05:00 Psych 06:00 Emmerdale 06:30 Coronation Street 07:00 Desperate Housewives 08:00 Three Sisters 08:30 Home Improvement 09:00 Dawson’s Creek 10:00 Psych 11:00 Desperate Housewives 12:00 Emmerdale 12:30 Coronation Street

01:00 The Senior Open Championship 05:30 Triathlon 06:30 Futbol Mundial 07:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 07:30 World Sport 08:00 Live NRL Premiership 10:00 NRL Premiership 12:00 Triatholn ITU 13:00 ICC Cricket World 13:30 Live PGA European Tour 17:30 Mobil 1 The Grid 18:00 Tri-Nations 20:00 Futbol Mundial 20:30 Brazil League Highlights 21:00 Live Masters Football

00:00 WWE Vintage Collection 01:00 WWE Bottom Line 02:00 WWE NXT 03:00 WWE SmackDown 05:00 UFC Unleashed 07:00 WWE Vintage Collection 08:00 WWE Bottom Line 09:00 WWE NXT 10:00 WWE SmackDown 12:00 Red Bull X-Fighters 13:30 World Sport 14:00 Live The Evian Masters 18:00 Red Bull X-Fighters 19:30 World Sport 20:00 WWE Vintage Collection 21:00 WWE Bottom Line 22:00 WWE NXT 23:00 WWE SmackDown

01:00 Balibo-PG15 03:00 Take The Lead-PG 05:00 Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollars Mutts-PG 07:00 Shadows In The Sun-PG15 09:00 Familiar Strangers-PG 11:00 Bring It On 5: Fight To The FinishPG15 13:00 Sins Of The Mother-PG15 15:00 Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollars Mutts-PG 17:00 Familiar Strangers-PG 19:00 Babylon A.d-PG15 21:00 December Boys-PG15 23:00 Imagine That-PG

01:45 03:30 04:00 05:25 07:00 09:30 11:05 12:55 14:20 16:35 18:20 20:05 22:00

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof The Screening Room The King And Four Queens Angels With Dirty Faces Where Eagles Dare Angels With Dirty Faces Please Don’t Eat The Daisies The King And Four Queens Anchors Aweigh 3 Godfathers The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Mogambo Castaway

00:30 Journey to 10,000 B.C. 02:10 Evolve 03:00 Giganto: The Real King Kong 03:55 Prehistoric Monsters Revealed 05:40 Dinosaur Secrets 06:30 Journey to 10,000 B.C. 08:10 Evolve 09:00 Giganto: The Real King Kong 09:55 Prehistoric Monsters Revealed 11:40 Dinosaur Secrets 12:30 Journey to 10,000 B.C. 14:10 Evolve 15:00 Giganto: The Real King Kong 15:55 Prehistoric Monsters Revealed 17:40 Dinosaur Secrets 18:30 Journey to 10,000 B.C.

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 12:00 Ruby: My Australian Adventure 13:00 Ruby 17:00 Peter Perfect 21:00 How Do I Look?

22:00 Clean House: Search For The Messiest...

23:00 The Dish 23:30 Tacky House

01:04 Sound System 01:45 Playlist 02:00 Urban Hit 02:45 Playlist 08:04 Africa 08:45 Playlist 13:04 Urban Hit 30 15:00 Code Compilation 15:24 Playlist 16:04 New 16:35 Playlist 17:00 Focus 18:00 Urban Hit 18:45 Playlist 20:04 French Only 20:45 Playlist

00:00 Julian and Camilla’s World Odyssey 01:00 Chef Abroad 01:30 Sophie Grigson In The Orient 02:00 Planet Food 03:00 Top Travel 03:30 Destination Art 04:00 Distant Shores 05:30 Travel Today 06:00 Julian and Camilla’s World Odyssey 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Swiss Railway Journeys 09:00 The Big Fish 10:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 11:00 People of the Sea 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Intrepid Journeys 14:00 Cutting Edge California 14:30 Hollywood and Vines 15:00 Distant Shores 16:30 Travel Today 17:00 Oregon Uncovered Special 18:00 Planet Food 19:00 Working Holiday 20:00 Great Scenic Railways-US & Canada 20:30 Budapest to Bamako 2010 21:00 People of the Sea 22:00 Travel Notebook 23:00 Globe Trekker

01:00 Vh1 Music 05:00 Chill Out 07:00 Smooth Wake Up 09:00 Aerobic 10:00 Vh1 Hits 11:00 Vh1 Superchart 12:00 Top 10 Santana 13:00 Cover Power 14:00 European Music  Weekend 17:00 Music For The Masses 18:00 The Album Chart Show 19:00 Music For The Masses 20:00 European Music  Weekend 22:00 Behind The Music 50 Cent 23:00 Vh1 Rocks 23:30 Smells Like The 90s

Sunday, July 25, 2010

33 ACCOMMODATION

Flight Schedule Arrival Flights Sunday 25/07/2010 Airlines Flt Route Ariana 405 Kabul/Dubai Wataniya Airways 188 Bahrain Jordanian 802 Amman Kuwait 306 Cairo Kuwait 544 Cairo Wataniya Airways 434 Damascus Wataniya Airways 408 Beirut Gulf Air 211 Bahrain Turkish 772 Istanbul Ethiopia 624 Addis Ababa Air Arabia Egypt 551 Alexandria Kuwait 108 Geneva/London Egypt Air 614 Cairo Jazeera 267 Beirut DHL 370 Bahrain Emirates 853 Dubai Bulgaria Air 7029 Varna Etihad 305 Abu Dhabi Jazeera 513 Sharm El Sheikh Qatari 138 Doha Jazeera 241 Amman Falcon 201 Dubai Jazeera 503 Luxor Kuwait 412 Manila/Bangkok Jazeera 527 Alexandria British 157 London Kuwait 206 Islamabad Kuwait 382 Delhi Iran Air 615 Shahre Kord Kuwait 302 Mumbai Kuwait 332 Trivandrum Fly Dubai 053 Dubai Kuwait 676 Dubai Kuwait 286 Chittagong Kuwait 284 Dhaka Emirates 855 Dubai Arabia 121 Sharjah Qatari 132 Doha Iran Air 603 Shiraz Etihad 301 Abu Dhabi Iran Aseman 6801 Ahwaz Jazeera 425 Bahrain Falcon 203 Dubai Jazeera 497 Riyadh Gulf Air 213 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 182 Bahrain Jazeera 113 Abu Dhabi Wataniya Airways 102 Dubai Jazeera 165 Dubai Jazeera 447 Doha Egypt Air 610 Cairo Kuwait 672 Dubai Oman Air 645 Muscat Kuwait 774 Riyadh Wataniya Airways 432 Damascus United 982 Washington DC Dulles Jordanian 800 Amman Fly Dubai 057 Dubai Jazeera 257 Beirut Wataniya Airways 422 Amman Kuwait 562 Amman Kuwait 512 Tehran Saudia 500 Jeddah Kuwait 554 Damascus Ethiopian 2620 Addis Ababa Qatari 134 Doha Jazeera 173 Dubai Bahrain Air 344 Bahrain Etihad 303 Abu Dhabi Emirates 857 Dubai Gulf Air 215 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 402 Beirut Saudia 510 Riyadh Wataniya Airways 202 Jeddah Jazeera 239 Amman Arabia 125 Sharjah Jazeera 367 Deirezzor Srilankan 227 Colombo/Dubai Jazeera 511 Sharm El Sheikh Wataniya Airways 304 Cairo Kuwait 166 Paris/Rome Wataniya Airways 106 Dubai Kuwait 502 Beirut Kuwait 542 Cairo Kuwait 618 Doha Kuwait 786 Jeddah Jazeera 481 Sabiha Jazeera 177 Dubai Kuwait 744 Dammam Kuwait 674 Dubai Kuwait 614 Bahrain Singapore 458 Singapore/Abu Dhabi Kuwait 102 New York/London Kuwait 552 Damascus Fly Dubai 061 Dubai Oman Air 647 Muscat Middle East 402 Beirut Jet A/W 572 Mumbai Rovos 081 Baghdad Wataniya Airways 642 Vienna Wataniya Airways 404 Beirut DHL 372 Bahrain Gulf Air 217 Bahrain Emirates 859 Dubai Kuwait 172 Frankfurt Qatari 136 Doha United 981 Bahrain Indian 981 Chennai/Ahmedabad Jazeera 459 Damascus Jazeera 449 Doha Safi 215 Kabul Lufthansa 636 Frankfurt Jazeera 185 Dubai Jazeera 429 Bahrain KLM 0447 Amsterdam/Bahrain India Express 389 Kozhikode/Mangalore Kuwait 1804 Cairo Egypt Air 612 Cairo Wataniya Airways 108 Dubai Pakistan 205 Lahore

Time 00:05 00:30 00:30 00:50 00:50 00:55 01:05 01:05 01:15 01:50 02:00 02:05 02:05 02:10 02:15 02:25 02:50 02:55 03:05 03:25 03:20 05:25 05:50 06:15 06:20 06:30 07:15 07:20 07:35 07:50 07:55 07:55 08:00 08:05 08:10 08:25 08:40 09:00 09:20 09:25 10:15 10:25 10:30 10:40 10:45 10:45 11:05 11:05 11:15 11:20 12:55 13:15 13:15 13:20 13:35 13:35 13:35 13:50 14:05 14:10 14:20 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:05 16:05 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:35 17:40 17:40 17:55 18:00 18:15 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 18:50 18:55 18:55 19:00 19:05 19:15 19:20 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:40 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:30 20:30 20:45 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:20 21:35 21:55 22:05 22:20 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:10 23:10 23:25 22:45 23:55 23:55

Departure Flights on Sunday 25/07/2010 Airlines Flt Route Egypt Air 607 Luxor Bangladesh 044 Dhaka India Express 394 Cochin/Kozhikode Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt Indian 994 Mumbai/Chennai Ariana 406 Dubai/Kabul Turkish 773 Istanbul Ethiopian 625 Addis Ababa Air Arabia Egypt 552 Alexandria Egypt Air 615 Cairo DHL 371 Bahrain Emirates 854 Dubai Bulgaria Air 7030 Varna Etihad 306 Abu Dhabi Qatari 139 Doha Wataniya Airways 101 Dubai Jazeera 112 Abu Dhabi Jordanian 803 Amman Jazeera 164 Dubai Jazeera 496 Riyadh Jazeera 422 Bahrain Jazeera 446 Doha Gulf Air 212 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 181 Bahrain Jazeera 256 Beirut Wataniya Airways 431 Damascus British 156 London Iran Air 614 Shahre Kord Fly Dubai 054 Dubai Kuwait 171 Frankfurt Kuwait 671 Dubai Kuwait 117 New York Wataniya Airways 421 Amman Kuwait 553 Damascus Kuwait 561 Amman Arabia 122 Sharjah Emirates 856 Dubai Wataniya Airways 641 Vienna Kuwait 773 Riyadh Kuwait 511 Tehran Qatari 133 Doha Etihad 302 Abu Dhabi Iran Air 602 Shiraz Iran Aseman 6802 Ahwaz Jazeera 480 Sabiha Wataniya Airways 401 Beirut Gulf Air 214 Bahrain Falcon 204 Baghdad Wataniya Airways 303 Cairo Jazeera 172 Dubai Kuwait 541 Cairo Jazeera 510 Sharm El Sheikh Jazeera 238 Amman Jazeera 366 Deirezzor Wataniya Airways 201 Jeddah Kuwait 103 London Kuwait 501 Beirut Kuwait 785 Jeddah Egypt Air 611 Cairo Oman Air 646 Muscat Kuwait 551 Damascus Jordanian 801 Amman Wataniya Airways 105 Dubai Fly Dubai 058 Dubai United 982 Bahrain Jazeera 176 Dubai Kuwait 673 Dubai Wataniya Airways 403 Beirut Ethiopian 8614 Dhaka Kuwait 617 Doha Saudia 503 Medinah/Jeddah Qatari 135 Doha Kuwait 613 Bahrain Kuwait 743 Dammam Kuwait 1803 Cairo Jazeera 458 Damascus Rovos 082 Baghdad Bahrain Air 345 Bahrain Etihad 304 Abu Dhabi Gulf Air 216 Bahrain Emirates 858 Dubai Wataniya Airways 305 Cairo Emirates 858 Dubai Arabia 126 Sharjah Wataniya Airways 321 Sharm El Sheikh Jazeera 184 Dubai Saudia 511 Riyadh Jazeera 448 Doha Srilankan 228 Dubai/Colombo Wataniya Airways 407 Beirut Wataniya Airways 107 Dubai Jazeera 428 Bahrain Jazeera 434 Mashad Kuwait 283 Dhaka Kuwait 361 Colombo Fly Dubai 062 Dubai Singapore 457 Abu Dhabi/Singapore Kuwait 343 Chennai Kuwait 351 Cochin 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 636 Aleppo United 981 Washington DC Dulles Jazeera 502 Luxor Kuwait 411 Bangkok/Manila Kuwait 415 Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

Time 00:15 00:15 00:25 00:50 00:50 01:45 02:15 02:35 02:40 03:05 03:15 03:45 03:50 04:00 05:00 06:50 07:00 07:00 07:05 07:15 07:30 07:40 07:45 07:50 08:05 08:10 08:25 08:35 08:40 08:55 09:00 09:05 09:10 09:10 09:15 09:20 09:40 09:45 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:10 10:20 11:15 11:20 11:35 11:35 11:45 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:05 12:10 12:15 12:25 12:30 13:00 13:30 13:55 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:30 14:35 14:50 14:55 15:10 15:10 15:10 15:35 15:45 16:20 16:20 16:25 16:40 16:55 17:00 17:25 17:35 18:05 18:05 18:05 18:05 18:20 18:20 18:30 18:35 18:50 19:10 19:25 19:40 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:20 20:50 20:55 21:00 21:05 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 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:40 23:50

Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya for working ladies, 2 bedroom/2 bathroom CAC flat with Keralite family. Contact: 66013882. (C 2500) 25-7-2010 Sharing fully furnished flat, C-A/C 2 bedroom 2 bathroom for rent, nice location, specially for families on visit. Phone: 67060429.

(C 2494)

available for a couple or bachelors to share with Keralite Christian family in a CA/C flat, one bedroom with attached bathroom, Salmiya near garden. Contact: 99360073. (C 2496) New Riggae, only for Keralite people, two bedroom flat, single bathroom, sharing from August 1st week, only couples or executive bachelor lady. Contact: 66889615. (C 2495) 24-7-2010 SITUATION WANTED

Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya near Highway Center for bachelor or family, bachelor rent KD 50, family rent KD 80.

Contact: 99645213.

(C 2499) Accommodation available in Abbassiya with Keralite family, single room for a single bachelor, Rent KD 50.

Contact: 99379165, 24319893. (C 2497) Accommodation available for a family or bachelors in Abbassiya near Highway Center and Paradise hotel in a two bedroom, two bathroom flat.

Contact: 66558927/ 66720897.

(C 2498) Sharing accommodation

Indian male secretary is looking for immediate placement. 12 years Kuwait experience - complete secretarial/office administration works. Well experienced in independent correspondence/coordination / local purchase/ construction tendering works. Call: 66597087.

(C 2501) 25-7-2010

SITUATION VACANT

English-speaking maid wanted.

Please call 60055305, 23741548 25-7-2010

I At about 350,000 years old, Mount Etna, on Italy’s island of Sicily, is considered the oldest volcano.

I Indonesia is said to have the most volcanoes — more than 80 have erupted in its history.

“Now that I’m older, people can say what they want and I’m like, ‘Whatever.’ Love me or hate me, I don’t care. I’m doing what I like.

I’m happy.”

— Singer/actress Miley Cyrus, 17, in People magazine

— World Almanac for Kids

A volcano in Iceland spews volcanic ash causing major problems around the world Thick ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland, an island-nation in the North Atlantic Ocean, grounded thousands of flights in Europe and has stranded millions of people around the world.

The cause of all this trouble is Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul (ay-ahfyat-la-yuh-kut) volcano which first erupted on March 21 sending lava and ash into the air for many days. The latest eruption

on April 14 forced more than 700 Icelanders from their homes near the volcano.

The ash cloud then drifted east across most of northern and central Europe. Because the fine, powder-like volcanic ash can damage airplanes, officials canceled almost all flights to and from 25 European countries. Air travelers are not the only ones affected by the ash. Businesses suf-

fer because they cannot import and export goods that are sent by air. The crisis costs airlines about $200 million a day.

In addition, the falling ash is a health issue. Health officials are warning people with asthma and other breathing problems to stay indoors while ash is falling and to wear masks so they don’t inhale the particles.

— Claudia Atticot, Time For Kids

© 2010 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. TIME FOR KIDS and Timeforkids.com are registered trademarks of Time Inc.

Papel Amate — Mexican bark paper — has been hand-crafted for centuries and is still made today throughout Mexico, especially in the state of Guerrero. Many papel amate paintings, such as this colorful example, depict native animals and plants, or scenes of everyday life.

Take a look beneath the volatile surface Crafts around the world

HOW ARE VOLCANOES FORMED? Volcanoes are a direct result of the Earth’s unstable crust. They form in several ways, but all are created from molten rock, or magma, pushing up and breaking through the Earth’s crust and erupting onto the surface.

As volcanic remains settle on the surface, the landform grows taller, forming mounds and mountains. Most volcanoes are 10,000 to 100,000 years old and are formed in one of three main shapes — shield volcanoes, cinder cones or composite volcanoes.

The crater of a volcano is a deep, circular hole that forms at the top and is where the volcanic matter is released, including water vapor and carbon dioxide. Poisonous chemicals also are expelled causing pollution problems.

A volcano can be explosive, producing ash and lava. Volcanic eruptions can hurl hot rocks up to 20 miles. Floods, airborne ash or noxious fumes can spread more than 100 miles.

HOW MANY VOLCANOES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED? Scientists say they know of at least 1,500 active volcanoes around the world.

A volcano is considered active if it has erupted in the last 10,000 years.

The United States has more than 200 volcanoes, with most located in Alaska, Hawaii and the Cascade Range of Washington, Oregon and Northern California.

There are volcanoes beneath the sea as well; some scientists estimate the ocean contains 10,000.

HOW ARE VOLCANOES MEASURED? Scientists who study volcanoes are called volcanologists. Although there is no single feature used to determine how big a volcano is, volcanologists do use an eruption magnitude scale called the Volcanic Explosivity Index, or VEI.

Bark paintings Celebrate Cinco de Mayo by making a version of a Mexican papel amate (bark paper) painting. The “canvas” used in this folk art is made by boiling bark and pounding it flat. For our no-sweat substitute, we used a section of a brown paper bag.

YOU WILL NEED I Scissors I Brown paper grocery bag I Water I Iron I Wide-tipped black marker I Acrylic, tempera or craft paint 1. Cut a large rectangle from a grocery bag, wet it with water and crumple it up. Squeeze out the extra water, then flatten out the paper. Use an iron set on low to dry the paper and to smooth it further.

2. Draw the outline of your design using a wide-tipped black marker, then fill in the spaces with colorful acrylic, tempera or craft paint. To make your paint colors brighter against the brown paper background, mix in a bit of white paint.

— Disney FamilyFun magazine

ARE THERE WARNING SIGNS OF A VOLCANIC ERUPTION? When a volcano is about to erupt, several things happen. Some of the key signs to watch for are an increase in the number and size of earthquakes around the volcano; “bulges” at the eruption site; and an increase in gases spewing from the volcano.

— Karalee Miller, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

S O U R C E S : W W W. U S G S . G O V, W W W. F S . F E D . U S , H T T P : / / V U L C A N . W R . U S G S . G O V / V O L C A N O E S / F R A M E W O R K . H T M L , U N I V E R S I T Y O F N O R T H D A K O TA , W W W. N P S . G O V, H T T P : / / V O L C A N O E S . U S G S . G O V, S TA R - T E L E G R A M A R C H I V E S

I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y L E E H U LT E N G / M C T

PHOTOS BY ED JUDICE/ COURTESY OF D I S N E Y FA M I LYFUN MAGAZINE

11-year-old writes iPhone app for charity

Honestly good

Apple, something many adults can’t seem to manage.

The app, iSketch (99-cents, iTunes), is a drawing and painting program that lets you choose brushes and colors, then, you can e-mail your drawings to friends.

The best part of the story is not just that Cameron is wicked smart, but that he hasn’t forgotten all of the help he received in recovering from his injury.

“Inspired by the care I received at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical

Summer for us doesn’t just mean beaches and warm weather — it means the return of our favorite sunny drink. Half and half, Arnold Palmer, whatever you call it, lemonade mixed with tea is a match made in heaven. Honest Tea, an organic tea company based in Bethesda, Md., has released its own version of the classic creation. And it’s good. Really good. The best part is that it’s refreshing while not being too sweet. It’s also “green.”

Aside from being organic, it’s packaged in a more eco-friendly plastic bottle.

— Sally Dadisman

Last year, Cameron Cohen had an injury that had him down and out of sports and activities for a few months. During that time, Cameron started learning about computers. According to his father, he was reading “anything he could get his hands on” on the topic. The result?

The 11-year-old taught himself several different programming languages and decided to write his very own iPhone app.

Cameron’s app was approved by

Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, I have dedicated a portion of the proceeds from the sales of iSketch to purchase entertainment and electronic items for Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA’s Child Life/Child Development programs in Westwood and Santa Monica so that pre-teens and teens will have additional age-appropriate options available to them during their hospital stays,” says Cameron in a statement on his website, CCC Development.

— Jenn Savedge, Mother Nature Network

34

SPECTRUM

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Calvin

CROSSWORD 32

Aries (March 21-April 19) You might like to ignore responsibilities and do some socializing today, but realities demand that you tend to some personal business first. In the late afternoon, you may feel more like sharing some time with your lover or with close friends. Close relationships take on depth, power and importance. Your surroundings, circumstances and support system are the crucial link in the chain of your life. When things get hectic, it is in these areas that you can expect pressure and the greatest activity. This is a great time to reflect and understand your own situation, just how you feel about yourself. Your emotions and the feelings of those around may be very clear. Much can be accomplished and enjoyed today. Share some time with a friend this afternoon.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) There is a feeling that you will soon have control of something important in your life.

This could mean your own place of business or your own apartment or home. This does wonders for your self-esteem and gives you a feeling of belonging, so to speak. The feeling that anything is possible is always present for you and you are not afraid to try new things. There is optimism, faith and a tendency to take chances at the deepest emotional levels. Where a marriage partner or significant other is concerned, you will probably be more attentive. You may work with your loved one on some community project this afternoon. You love most community projects and group work.

You turn your attention to a loved one this evening.

Pooch Cafe

ACROSS 1. Thin fibrous bark of the paper mulberry and Pipturus albidus.

5. Metal or plastic sheath over the end of a shoelace or ribbon.

10. Not reflecting light.

13. South American armadillo with three bands of bony plates.

14. An act punishable by law.

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

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

17. (in Gnosticism) A divine power or nature emanating from the Supreme Being and playing various roles in the operation of the universe.

18. The federal agency that insures residential mortgages.

19. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

22. Made agreeably cold (especially by ice).

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

25. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

28. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

32. Hormone secreted by the posterior pituitary gland (trade name Pitressin) and also by nerve endings in the hypothalamus.

36. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

39. (South African) A camp defended by a circular formation of wagons.

40. A wall hanging of heavy handwoven fabric with pictorial designs.

42. The compass point midway between east and southeast.

44. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

45. A round bump on a bone where it forms a joint with another bone.

53. 100 aurar equal 1 krona.

54. Type genus of the Majidae.

57. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

58. The act of using.

59. (prosody) Of or consisting of iambs.

61. Government agency created in 1974 to license and regulate nuclear power plants.

62. Your general store of remembered information.

63. Absence of an enzyme.

64. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

DOWN 1. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

2. Someone who copies the words or behavior of another.

3. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells.

4. A peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

5. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

6. The father of your father or mother.

7. The function or position properly or customarily occupied or served by another.

8. Give expression or emotion to, in a stage or movie role.

9. Being one more than nine.

10. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

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

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

20. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

21. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

24. Belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler.

26. The sixth month of the civil year.

27. (Norse mythology) God of thunder and rain and farming.

29. Kamarupan languages spoken in northeastern India and western Burma.

30. The right to take another's property if an obligation is not discharged.

31. Decrease gradually or bit by bit.

33. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

34. (botany) Of or relating to the axil.

35. (folklore) A corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living.

37. English monk and scholar (672-735).

38. An ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia which is in present-day Iraq.

39. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

41. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

43. Angular distance above the horizon (especially of a celestial object).

46. Remove from office.

47. A recurring sleep state during which rapid eye movements do not occur and dreaming does not occur.

48. An annual award for outstanding achievements in television.

49. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

50. A stick that people can lean on to help them walk.

51. A chordophone that has a triangular frame consisting of a sounding board and a pillar and a curved neck.

52. Type genus of the family Arcidae.

55. A defensive missile designed to shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.

56. Being one more than two.

60. The azimuth of a celestial body is the angle between the vertical plane containing it and the plane of the meridian.

61. A public promotion of some product or service.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You may have difficulty expressing yourself and getting your ideas across to others. What you do communicate is very clear and practical. You may want to remember that a few words are sometimes the best path on days like this. You avoid routine and cannot seem to find the right environment for growth and development. Do something nice for yourself. A massage, a trip to your favorite playground or a new hairdo is what you may enjoy. Perhaps this is the best time to enjoy a good book, a movie or sign up to volunteer to watch the kids for your friend(s). Perhaps you can take them to a nearby park and swing on the swings with them--be a kid again for a while. There could even be a flavored shaved ice stand somewhere close.

Non Sequitur Cancer (June 21-July 22) You have deep commitments and appreciate sacrifice and duty on the part of others. At home in the world of the dreamer and mystic, you have great intuition. You may be using your energies today to inspire and encourage someone.

Being domestic at heart, you love family life--a true romantic. You will enjoy music, psychology or some form of poetry. You draw emotional sustenance and a sense of security from ideals, friends and social involvement. A feeling that anything is possible if you set your sights high enough characterizes the cycle you have just begun. There is optimism, faith and a tendency to take chances at the deepest emotional level. This is a time of exploring your feelings, a kind of restlessness for new emotional experience.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Your own growth and success are linked to questions of security--home and family.

This may be a time during which you can get ahead by finding your limits and establishing a home base from which to move forward. Real estate may be the biggest thought-provoking topic of the day. You have a natural sense for communicating with others, especially those younger than yourself.

There are clear thoughts about the past flowing in today that may cause you to seek out an old friend. Fun conversations about old times will certainly be enjoyed. There is much laughter and plans for future gettogethers. Close relationships take on more emotional depth, power and importance. A hot date with someone you know is memorable.

Zits

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You may enjoy entertaining or being entertained by your friends today. All of this day should go rather smoothly. You are most original when concentrating on areas of home and family where you feel most secure. You enjoy family members and find interactions with loved ones most enduring. A social event late this afternoon or rather, early evening, brings out the best in you. There is plenty of time to buy a particular gift or to shop with a friend or just purchase that special item you want to wear to this social event. You are the life of the party, able to loosen up even the most sober. You are great at bringing out the best qualities of others, discovering hidden talents. You bring new and innovative ideas into the social scene. You are spontaneous.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Happy days bring pleasant memories. You enjoy being with a group of people that have the same interest as you.

Just now, your interest is in some new dance group or some hobby group. You have a lot to offer and a lot to learn. Although you may not be involved with anything spiritual today, you will pass on peaceful, easy-to-get-along with and interested-in-others type of attitude.

Your sense of direction is perhaps the key element in your personality make-up. How you manage difficulties, find that diplomatic solution, or come up with the right approach are all built around your essence. There are opportunities to relax this evening. You will get a turn before the night is over to share your experiences of the day with loved ones.

Mother Goose and Grimm

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) The hallmark of the cycle you have just begun is thinking, learning and communicating with style. This is a period of great mental activity and energy. You have a lot on your mind and feel a strong need to communicate and gather ideas. Writing, creating a new plan, program, design, recipe, etc., is where you enjoy spending your time and energy. Possibly, the library will have the things you need to complete your tasks. Changes in the neighborhood may get on your nerves; an excess of mental energy can be distracting. Let it go, focus; pay attention--or take a break! You do not have to do everything in one day.

If your art is writing and you are afraid that you might forget the flow of expression, make an outline or take notes for remembering later.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Secrets, conspiracies and the hidden links that unite all things take on greater importance in your life now. Digging into the past for hints about the present and future uncovers a lot of answers to the questions that will not go away. "The unexamined life is not worth living." This could mean you are on a quest to find your roots--traveling, making phone calls, doing research. It could just mean that you have taken some time to travel and study the museums and places of interest you usually don't see. This evening, as the Sun goes down, stop to take a deep breath . . . it is a great time to reflect and understand your own situation, just how you feel about you. Emotions in particular, or the feelings of those around you, may be very clear--a nice time.

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INTERNATIONAL CALLS Kuwait Qatar Abu Dhabi Dubai Raas Al Khayma Al-Shareqa Muscat Jordan Bahrain Riyadh Makkah - Jeddah Cairo Alexandria Beirut Damascus Allepo

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Word Sleuth Solution

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) You may find yourself more than a little acquisitive and your current appreciation for just about everything may lead you to overspend or indulge too much today-careful. You can be the perfect socialite. You can rest assured; with your many talents, you will have success in gaining contributions toward a favorite charity endeavor today.

Always welcome in a group--you are a connoisseur of things bright and kind. You are a peacemaker--sometimes superficial--you avoid all harsh and crude actions, people or things. You appreciate life, equality, gentleness and acceptance. A frank discussion with a confidant you trust may help you both to make better sense out of some difficulty. You may find yourself in a creative mood this evening--music, crafts, etc.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) There is that feeling that anything is possible. You will accomplish whatever you set out to do today. There is optimism, faith and a tendency to take chances at the deepest emotional level. This is a time of exploring your feelings and perhaps those of a loved one. You can find new ways to relate and may be innovative in marriage, love relationships and social conventions.

You are very tolerant and accepting of differences--there are good insights into all social values available. You like to compromise and otherwise show your expansive knowledge--like a coat of many colors.

You are independent and value freedom and the ability to move around and avoid routine. You admire the unconventional and your friends could be eccentric authority figures.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) Someone could challenge you today but you can be proud of the way you react to this situation, however, as you may have learned some problemsolving skills that will speed up a needed healing. You may touch upon some very emotional parts of you and find yourself analyzing and interpreting behavior, or psychoanalyzing. Sharp and penetrating insight into your own inner workings--what is hidden or going on behind the scenes, has helped you help yourself and others. The study of the human mind is interesting to you and you may look for new studies. A new hobby may bring more pleasure than just the time and fun that is involved.

This could mean a prize or award or it could mean you meet a special friend through some club get-together.

INFORMATION

Sunday, July 25, 2010

35 FIRE BRIGADE Operation Room 112 Al-Madena 22418714 Al-Shohada始a 22545171 Al-Shuwaikh 24810598 Al-Nuzha 22545171 Sabhan 24742838 Al-Helaly 22434853 Al-Fayhaa 22545051 Al-Farwaniya 24711433 Al-Sulaibikhat 24316983 Al-Fahaheel 23927002 Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh 24316983 Ahmadi 23980088 Al-Mangaf 23711183 Al-Shuaiba 23262845 Al-Jahra 25610011 Al-Salmiya 25616368

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22617700 25625030/60

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Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr.

Zahra Qabazard Sohail Qamar Snaa Maaroof Pradip Gujare Zacharias Mathew

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Dr Anil Thomas

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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

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SPECTRUM

36

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Music

back into the Walmart fold, as the two will now team to promote local food banks. In 1996, the singer had a falling-out with the retail giant over the lyrics to her song “Love Is a Good Thing,” which include: “Watch out sister/Watch out brother/Watch our children as they kill each other/With a gun they bought at the Walmart discount stores.”

Walmart refused to carry the album that contained the song, “Sheryl Crow,” although it still displayed her other records. Amends have been made, Crow says. “Since that time they’ve become very stringent about making sure that people buying guns are registered and that it’s lawful,” she says. “I would feel better if we would have stricter gun laws, and I’m not ashamed to say it.”

By Ann Donahue s a young child one Christmas in Kennett, Mo, Sheryl Crow received a present that would change her life: a copy of the Jackson 5’s “ABC.” It was the first record she ever owned. “Every Saturday morning, we were in front of the TV watching the Jackson 5 cartoon,” she recalls. “I grew up watching ‘American Bandstand’ and learning all the current dances ... my parents were in a swing band.

When they came home after gigs they were listening to a lot of rhythm and blues. The music that lured me was the music that came out of Memphis-a lot of Al Green, and obviously Elvis and Sun Studios.”

After a two-decade career, Crow has the credibility and star power to record an album in any genre she wants. “100 Miles From Memphis” (released July 20 on A&M Records), whose title refers to the distance from her hometown to the music mecca, is an ode to her formative memories of music-and one that the label hopes can inspire young music fans to investigate the landscape beyond processed pop and AutoTune.

“She came of age in an era that can too easily define you by your hits, which she’s had a lot of,” says Crow’s manager, Scooter Weintraub of W Management. “We both thought this is a good time to not be so concerned when radio looks at you a little bit differently than they did when you were 25 or 30.

Younger audiences are learning about the Black Keys and the Raconteurs and the White Stripes, and that music is steeped in the same thing.”

A

New promotional partners But even classic soul requires new marketing techniques. “We looked at places where her audience

Sheryl Crow performs a song from her latest album ‘A Thousand Miles From Memphis’ during the Good Morning America summer concert series in Central Park, Friday. — AP may be that may not be traditional music spots,” Interscope Geffen A&M vice chairman Steve Berman says. Crow made appearances at the corporate headquarters of top companies-in particular, at Starbucks and at the shareholders’ meeting for one-time sparring partner Walmart- and both retail giants have committed to promoting the album in-store. “It’s funny, because (Starbucks) is kind of a throwback for me

since the record-store tradition is dying,” she says.

“The fact (that) you have a social place where you can be a part of that is great.”

Crow, who has long been vocal in her support of environmental issues and charitable organizations, recorded a public service announcement for the Humane Society that will be played extensively on TV. It’s the charity element, in fact, that brought Crow

‘Bad’ beginning Crow’s first big break was as a backup singer for childhood hero Michael Jackson, and it was on Jackson’s Bad world tour in the ‘80s where she met longtime manager Weintraub. “We were both kids. I was like 26 years old or something,” he says. “I’ll never forget the first time I saw her sing a solo note rather than with the background singers. It was during a sound check and she sang an Aretha (Franklin) song- and right then and there, I thought, ‘Sheryl sounds like Bonnie Bramlett from Delaney & Bonnie.’

A white, Southern soul singer with a little bit of a country rock twang. It’s funny because her previous records allude to these styles sometimes, but this is the first time she full-on embraced it.”

Overall, the 12 tracks of “Memphis” meld the kick-back boho vibe of Crow’s early work with Staxlike instrumentation. “My last record was very commentary-driven, very sociopolitical, as opposed to pop tunes,” Crow says. “I kept running into (producer/gui-

tarist) Doyle Bramhall II, who’s this very dear friend.

Doyle was working on this Eric Clapton record with Justin Stanley and I was loving what they were doing.”

Bramhall and Stanley encouraged Crow to improvise. Doing a take on Marvin Gaye’s “It’s a Desperate Situation,” she broke into a bit of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” That one-take moment of inspiration is now the bonus track on the album. Most of “Memphis” was recorded at Henson Studios in Hollywood, where Crow inadvertently met up with Justin Timberlake, who was working with Jamie Foxx in the same building. “There’s something really wonderful about working in a commercial studio,” she says. “The last five records I made was in my own studio, so I don’t run into a lot of people unless I invite them over.

So I dragged (Timberlake) into the studio and said, ‘You have to check out my Al Greenish version of Terence Trent D’Arby’s ‘Sign Your Name,”“ and he loved it. He volunteered to sing background on it.”

That little girl who danced along to the Jackson 5 and grew up to sing alongside Michael Jackson now has two children of her own, Wyatt and Levi. Crow dedicates the album-and “all else”-to them in the liner notes. In part, Crow says, “Memphis” is inspired by the course of a full life well lived, and an acknowledgement that with wisdom comes a new creative perspective.

“Soul music typically pulls from emotion and vulnerability and desire,” Crow says. “In these last few years I’ve become much more of an emotional person.

I’ve had kids. I’ve gone through a lot that’s been very transformative ... it was just something so effortless about making this record for me. It was truly an extension of where my soul is at right now.”— Reuters

Black Eyed Peas

By Ed Christman an anticipation is already building for Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now,” after the pop-country superstar revealed on Ustream that the follow-up to her multiplatinum album “Fearless” will be out Oct 25.

But anticipation of a different sort is building among music retail and label executives: Can “Speak Now” top US debut-week sales of 1 million units? And if Swift can’t attain that now-elusive milestone, can anyone? The last album to do so was Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III,” which sold slightly more than 1 million units in its first week, the period ended June 15, 2008, and has sold 3.5 million units to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Since then, the closest any album has come to matching that performance was AC/DC’s “Black Ice,” which bowed with 784,000 units in the week ended Oct 24, 2008, and has sold a total of 2.2 million, according to SoundScan. Eminem’s “Recovery,” the sales champ of 2010 so far, debuted with 741,000 units in the week ended June 27 and has racked up total US sales of 1.5 million, according to SoundScan. Other highly anticipated albums to be released later this year include titles from Susan Boyle, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Linkin Park, Kid Rock, Norah Jones, Diddy and Lil Wayne.

In an informal survey of a dozen recording industry executives conducted by Billboard, Boyle, West and Wayne each drew votes as contenders for million-unit debut weeks. But most said they believe Swift has the best shot.

F

‘She could be the one’ “It feels like if anybody can do it now, she could be the one,” said Will Botwin, president/CEO of Red Light Management and ATO Records. “She has the sales base and heat from the last few albums. And with all

Taylor Swift the amazing things she has going on, she is as likely as anybody to reach a million units, especially with the efforts of Big Machine and Universal behind her.”

Executives at Swift’s label, Big Machine Records, and her distributor, Universal Music Group Distribution, couldn’t be reached for comment. But retail sources said UMGD expects to ship 1.5 million units for the album’s release date and that it’s projecting first-week sales of 750,000 units.

Swift’s self-titled debut album, which came out in the final week of October 2006, has sold 4.8 million units, and “Fearless” has sold 5.9 million after debuting with 592,000 units sold in the week ended Nov 16, 2008, according to SoundScan.

But since the release of “Fearless,” Swift

has proved to be not only a countrycrossover star, but a media superstar as well.

A major-label sales executive who asked to remain anonymous said the perception in Nashville is that Swift’s popularity has peaked, adding, however, that the 1 million mark is still within reach. “She has created mass appeal, she has a bigger profile than anybody in music,” the executive said. “I am betting that as we get closer to the release date-with all the deals that Big Machine is probably working on falling into place-she will be so in-our-face everywhere we turn that she will hit the critical mass that could see a million-unit week.”

Sales slide continues According to SoundScan, US album sales

are down another 12.1 percent so far this year from the corresponding period in 2009.

Given the continued sales slide, another major-label sales executive who asked to remain unnamed said he doesn’t believe anyone-”not Jay-Z, not U2, not Eminem”will ever again reach 1 million units in their debut week.

The specific challenges facing Swift are threefold, the executive said. “I don’t think she can get enough (radio) formats,” the executive said. “She may have three-country, some AC (adult contemporary), depending on the song, and maybe top 40. But that’s always the dilemma because there are not many slots for nonrhythmic music on top 40 radio in the major markets.”

Secondly, the executive speculated that Big Machine probably will price the album at a full $18.98 list price. That means it won’t be price-friendly to Walmart, the largest US physical music retailer, and thus won’t be heavily discounted by the mass merchant to drive sales, unless it wants to forgo its profit margin. Finally, the executive didn’t think Swift’s digital sales will be strong enough. Digital sales accounted for 21.8 percent of the debut-week sales for “Fearless,” short of the 34.4 percent digital share for first-week sales for Eminem’s “Recovery,” according to SoundScan. But that may not be a fair comparison, given that digital album sales have surged since the release of “Fearless.”

A distribution executive at a major label suggests that a better barometer of debutweek performance may be to include trackequivalent album sales, where the sale of 10 digital tracks equals an album. “I would still bet that she comes under a million units,” the executive said, adding, “It’s not our album, but I would be the first guy to stand up and cheer if it does happen.”— Reuters

By Ann Donahue t’s been almost 25 years since John Rzeznik and Robby Takac formed the Goo Goo Dolls. In that time, they’ve scored such hits as “Iris”which spent 17 weeks at No 1 — “Slide” and a cover of Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit.” Their ninth studio album, “Something for the Rest of Us,” will be released Aug 3 on Warner Bros Records. And while the album is full of the hooky pop-rock that has sustained the band for decades, lead singer/guitarist Rzeznik’s songwriting takes on a more somber, serious tone. In the middle of a 37-stop summer tour, Rzeznik talked to Billboard about the changes in the music industry during his career-and the joy of blowing stuff up.

I

Billboard: The band is known as a touring workhorse, so when did you find the time to record?

John Rzeznik: During the last leg of the Let Love In tour we had an old recording studio built in Buffalo (NY) for us. We went in there and started pounding out for a few months doing writing sessions, messing around with studio equipment that we finally owned. When you go into someone else’s studio you can’t blow anything up-but now that it was our place, we sat around twiddling knobs and blowing things up, and that was really fun.

Billboard: The new album is very topical-it seems like there’s an undercurrent of anxiety to it.

Rzeznik: I can’t do what Green Day doesmake some blatant political or social statement. I tend to write a little more obliquely and try and leave some room for interpretation, which can work against you when people don’t understand.

Billboard: What inspired the tone?

Rzeznik: I went through a period of time when I was working on the record, looking at where the record business is and everything, and just feeling sort of lost”What is my purpose?” I’m in my 40s, and the music business has become about instant pop stars, very disposable music. I thought, “Wow, what is going to happen to me when I don’t have this job anymore? What am I going to do with myself all day?” I think a lot of guys that have other jobs think the same way: “I’ve been doing this job for 10 years.

Now what? Where do I go? How do I take care of my family?” People derive

their self-esteem and their identity from what they do in life.

Billboard: You’ve had a long career with Warner Bros. How have things changed in your time there?

Rzeznik: Nobody is making money selling records. For me it hasn’t really hit that hard, because I have an old-school record deal and I’ve been around long enough.

When I went to Warner Bros. (originally) there were people there who nurtured us through difficult periods and didn’t just drop us and let us go because we didn’t have a huge hit right away. They had faith in us. They believed in us and

that their investment would bear fruit.

Now every musician is in sudden death overtime.

Billboard: But touring still seems to provide a solid base.

Rzeznik: I always love to tour during the summer, and we always play outside. It sort of became a tradition for us-we always go out and play the sheds during the summer. I like being there when people have their big night out. Everybody has a good time and everybody is having a few drinks and enjoying the music and it’s a beautiful night. People really cherish those kind of memories. — Reuters

By Mariel Concepcion itting in an Athens hotel room on a humid summer day in early July, Will.i.am recalls the days when he and his fellow members of the Black Eyed Peas made a collective $150 per show-and were ecstatic about it. “We would jump up and down because we got paid, even though it meant we had to split it with each other and the band, meaning about $20 a piece,” he says. “Then we got paid $2,000 for a show.

And then I remember the first time we got paid a million bucks for an hour. I was like, ‘Wow!’ That was only four years ago.”

Today, Will.i.am, Fergie, Apl.de.ap and Taboo have much more to be excited about.

In a tough touring climate, the Peas continue doing sellout business. While other marquee acts are canceling shows and suffering from poor ticket sales this summer, the Black Eyed Peas are in the midst of their most ambitious concert outing yet, the E.N.D. world tour, promoting the album of the same name.

Through the end of June, the E.N.D. tour has grossed $47.7 million and drawn 740,000 fans to 54 shows, including 53 sellouts, according to Billboard Boxscore.

North American summer shows will further boost those numbers, assuring that the E.N.D. run will rank as one of the most successful tours of this year.

S

Contagious ‘feeling’ The “E.N.D.” album, released in June 2009 on Interscope Records, has sold 2.6 million copies domestically, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and 4 million outside the United States, according to Tom Land, international marketing director at Universal Music Group International. It has yielded a run of Billboard Hot 100 hits including “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling,” which commanded the top of the Hot 100 for half of the 2009 chart year.

Although the Peas have a wealth of hit singles internationally, “I Gotta Feeling” emerged as their signature tune for this campaign, according to Land. The track broke a UK record last month by becoming the first download to sell 1 million copies, according to the Official Charts Co. It peaked at No 1 in Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It also went top five in Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

The song also became an unofficial anthem for the Portuguese soccer team after coach Carlos Queiroz revealed on national TV that the players listened to the track as motivation before the 2009 qualifying matches for the World Cup. The group’s May 30 concert at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon was effectively a sendoff for the Portuguese team before it headed to South Africa. The Peas also performed at FIFA’s World Cup Kick-Off Concert June 10 at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.

This summer’s North American tour began July 16 in Quebec. After a performance in the “Good Morning America” Summer Concert Series in New York’s Central Park July 30, the US tour will begin Aug. 3 in Boston.

Really big show When it came to creating a concept for the tour, “Fergie was the one pushing everyone,” says William Derella, one half of the Peas’ management team and producer of the concert outing. “When her solo (album) came out (2006’s “The Dutchess”) and it was her time to tour, she was worn out. She had been touring with the Peas for four years, and so instead she took a break-got married, made a movie and worked with the Peas.

But when it came down to this tour, she said, ‘I want to step this up. We should do a big production.”“ Will.i.am agreed. “We wanted to tour bigger than we’ve ever toured before,” he says. “We started off doing California campuses in 1996, and then after our record deal, our first tour was the Smokin’ Grooves tour, our second tour was the Vans Warped tour-we were the first hiphop group on a punk tour. Then we did the Honda Civic tour. In ‘99 we went to Europe and toured in small clubs, maybe 200seaters, followed by a House of Blues tour in America. We toured on this smaller scale for a long time, so it was important to learn how to do a big production for our fans.”

According to Derella and partner David Sonenberg, a couple of important elements needed to be in place in order to avoid getting caught in the summer touring slump and to take the Peas’ live show to new heights. First, a set list was created that included a large portion of the new album.

“Usually you only incorporate four or five songs of the new album, but this album was so special we felt it had the ability to carry most of the tour even if the songs weren’t singles,” Derella says, adding that 10 of the 13 songs on “The E.N.D.” are performed during the shows.

Bells and whistles The production team was revamped, including a new production manager, Tim Miller. Miller, along with production designer Bruce Rodgers and creative director Fatima Robinson, put together the “bells and whistles for each song, including dancers, videos, special effects and cool gadgets,” Derella says. “The concept of having a futuristic, space-like club feel came to mind almost immediately,” Sonenberg says. The stage design features a 60-foot expanse that extends into the audience, as well as a curved bandstand with “big, huge steps that are 20 feet high and eagle ramps on the left and right side of the stage,” Derella says.

Additionally, stylist B. Akerlund, who has worked closely with Lady Gaga, was brought in, as was lighting designer Marc Brickman and a video crew of six cameramen. Their images are displayed on two side screens, as well as the stage, the bandstand, a 15-foot-high riser, a high-definition video wall and in the center of the venues on a circular medallion with two high-definition video panels. Two other parts were incorporated into the Peas’ live show this time around: dancers and rehearsals.

“There was some resistance at first, because the Peas pride themselves on being spontaneous,” Sonenberg says about bringing in dancers. —Reuters

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Movies

By Jason Gutierrez ndie film director Jim Libiran was looking for personal salvation when he gatecrashed Philippine cinema with a movie tackling Manila’s violent gangland culture. Three years later the former journalist is among a handful of emerging Filipino directors leading a renaissance of the local movie industry, yet his motives for tackling gritty social issues remain the same. “I would like to say there is a deeper philosophy why I am doing this,” the animated and passionate 42-year-old told AFP in an interview.

“But really there are only two reasons-one is I wanted to find relevance-my own place under the sunand two, trying to get a message out to my son.”

Libiran has not seen his young son in two years after a bitter separation from his former wife. “My movies will serve as the vehicles to impart lessons to my son, to help him understand what is happening around him,” he said. Libiran said he is never at ease being compared with big-budget Filipino directors specialising in what he calls mindless, song-and-dance movie formulas that rake in millions.

“I am a gatecrasher. I was a journalist who dove into film making. I was never invited (by big studios) and yet I arrived,” said Libiran, who spent 23 years as a newspaper and television reporter before venturing

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into film. “I do not make perfect films. A new voice? I don’t know. What I try to say in the movies are the same things I have been reporting all along as a journalist.” Libiran left his job as news director of a television station in 2006 after becoming frustrated by what he felt was a general sense of apathy from a public numbed by corruption and poverty blighting this country of 92 million.

“It was frustrating. No one was listening to journalists anymore, nobody cared,” he said. “But journalism is not the only way to tell the truth, so I tried my hand at another craft, entered a new career.”

Shortly after quitting his television job, Libiran enrolled in an advanced script writing class where he would meet future collaborators, some of whom have also carved out a name for themselves. Libiran was among the oldest in the competitive class, and probably the most experienced when it came to storytelling.

For his thesis, Libiran revisited a story on warring gangs in Manila’s sprawling Tondo slum district which he had previously done as a television reporter.

He gathered members from 52 gangs and asked them to appear as real life characters in the movie that depicted their lifestyle. The film, which was titled “Tribu”-the Filipino term for gang gave the public a glimpse of a very graphic, brutal underbelly of

In a picture taken on June 23, 2010 Philippine Indie Film director Jim Libiran is seen during an interview at his house in Manila. —AFP

Manila’s gang culture. It was visceral, dark and raw, pricking the public conscience about the crucial social issue of pervasive poverty and crimes related to it.

“Tribu” also pulsated with Filipino street rap as the soundtrack that showcased the talent of local gangs as lyricists. After winning the top prize in the

local Cinemalaya film festival in 2007, “Tribu” made the cut in independent film roadshows internationally.

It received critical acclaim at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2008, and in the same year won the Le Pari de L’Avenir (Youth Jury Prize) at the Paris Cinema Festival. However Libiran’s fame

remains confined to die-hard indie film followers in the Philippines, and his venture into the movie industry has cost him money. “Tribu” was so shocking that major cinemas in malls refused to show it, he said.

Libiran said that even when one arthouse movie theater showed it on a limited run, only a handful of patrons came to watch each day.

“There is a problem with access. The businessmen and marketing people tell us that people dont want to watch our film because it is art house,” he said. “You also can’t see a DVD of Tribu, because we don’t have the money. We don’t want to surrender this to the businessmen for mass distribution. This is ours.”

Labiran said “Tribu” cost him about five million pesos (110,000 dollars) in production and marketing costs, a huge sum for a director with no major studio support. Yet he remains committed to his new career and is busy putting the finishing touches to a second movie called “Happyland”, which chronicles the story of a group of priests using football to woo children away from gangs. The narrative again takes place in Tondo, and uses the same group of social outcasts as protagonists. “Tondo is the story of the Philippines.

We are dirt poor, but we fight and persevere as a people,” Libiran said. “These are local stories, but they resonate loudly abroad.”— AFP

By Christy Lemire ittle kids and tweens-girls, specifically - probably will eat up “Ramona and Beezus,” or at least be suitably amused by it. They will not be troubled with things like a lack of plot or narrative momentum. It will not bother them that a character’s hair gets awkwardly hacked up after a battle with peanut butter, then appears magically restored to its original length soon after. They will not think twice about the backyard that is covered with gaping, muddy holes after a massive water fight and pipe explosion, then is miraculously landscaped to perfection in a day.

Speaking of a day, that apparently is how long it takes to organize a wedding for dozens of guests, including altering a gown to fit a bride who is several inches shorter than the woman who walked down the aisle in it the first time. This all sounds like uptight, grown-up nitpicking, probably. But it also is a reflection of a weakness in storytelling, which is sad given the strength of the source material.

“Ramona and Beezus” is based on Beverly Cleary’s beloved children’s books, which have been around for more than 50 years and vividly capture the playfulness and awkwardness of youth. Laurie Craig and Nick Pustay’s script features tales from several of Cleary’s books, and as a result it feels like a series of individual episodes, both madcap and heart-rending, rather than a cohesive story with any real drive. Elizabeth Allen, who also directed “Aquamarine,” plays up the antics for maximum wackiness, and they are amplified by the uncharacteristically jaunty, intrusive score by Mark Mothersbaugh.

Newcomer Joey King has a likable way about

Zsa Zsa Gabor in ‘critical condition’

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sa Zsa Gabor, the 93-year-old actress and tabloid fixation, was in critical condition Friday following hip replacement surgery, her publicist said. “She is still in the hospital in critical condition,” her publicist John Blanchette said. “Her husband talked to her doctors yesterday and they said that she is not responding and not communicating.” However her daughter, Francesca Hilton, issued a statement shortly afterward insisting that her mother was indeed talking and adjusting to the “healing process” after undergoing surgery following a bad fall on July 17 when she broke her hip.

“My mother Zsa Zsa Gabor is in guarded condition, is not in a coma, is talking and is adjusting to the medications and healing process. There are no surprises and I am with her now,” she said. Blanchette had said earlier this week that the surgery “was very successful,” and that Gabor would be out of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center within days. Gabor-a serial marrier, cop slapper and Hollywood star of yore-fell from her bed at her posh Bel Air, California home last Saturday when she reached for a ringing phone while watching her favorite television show, “Jeopardy.”

The Hungarian-born actress and former beauty queen was left partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound after a 2002 car accident. She also had a stroke in 2005.

Her lengthy film career includes spots in a dozen films and television series, including John Huston’s 1952 “Moulin Rouge” and the 1958 film noir “Touch of Evil”

by Orson Welles. She lent her voice to several animated films and TV series. But Gabor is especially known for her flamboyant lifestyle, legal troubles, nine marriages and a propensity to call just about everyone “darling” with her distinctive accent. — AFP

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Steve Doocy, co-host of the ‘Fox & friends’ television program, presents actress Selena Gomez with a cake and tiara for her 18th birthday, on the program in New York. — AP her, though, as the high-spirited, accident-prone Ramona Quimby. She is a natural young actress, and she even gets a chance to show some range in a couple of tearjerker moments. But the repeated fantasy sequences, which depict her imaginative interior world, have an intentionally rough-hewn

By Melissa Rayworth he rumors started early last year. Girls at Hampton High School gathered around their lockers, debating whether it could be true: Was heartthrob Taylor Lautner, the sexy werewolf from the “Twilight” movies, actually coming to their school to shoot a movie? Amber Beemer, finishing her junior year, was skeptical. Things like this don’t happen in Hampton, she says. Her little sister Kaylee, a freshman, put it this way: “We’re really not that popular.” But soon location scouts were poking around classrooms, making notes for the filming of “Abduction,” a thriller in which Lautner’s character discovers his own photo on a list of missing persons.

He was really coming. Lautner, for the uninitiated, is an 18-year-old actor with the exact blend of boyish sweetness and rippling muscles that can leave teenage girls speechless. His “Twilight” character, Jacob Black, is both deeply sensitive and capable of tearing limbs off bad guys. In the world of fan magazines and celebrity websites, he is a prized commodity. Girls at Hampton High have daydreamed about Lautner in these classrooms. Now he would sit in these rooms himself, walk these hallways, wrestle in this gym. He would film at their school for just two days but remain in suburban Pittsburgh all summer.

Whose locker might he open? Whose homeroom would he hang out in? Senior Vicki Reitlinger heard Lautner would film in the art classroom and reasoned that since she has taken many art classes, “he has to sit in a chair I sat in.” She cannot explain why that means so much. But it does. For teenagers, especially in a pros-

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Farmer takes on despot in ‘Mugabe’

By Frank Scheck ts awkward title notwithstanding, “Mugabe and the White African” offers the sort of narrative drama rarely found in documentaries. The account of the efforts of a white farmer in Zimbabwe to defy the forced redistribution of his property by the regime of the country’s despotic president, Robert Mugabe, has more urgency than most Hollywood thrillers. First Run Features released the film Friday. Mugabe’s so-called “land reform”-devised to seize land from white owners and give it to poor blacks, but which actually served to benefit his friends and cronies-is the subject of Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s film, which centers on the plight of 75-year-old white farmer Michael Campbell.

When Campbell’s farm, which employed about 500 black workers, was seized by the government, he took the unprecedented step of fighting back, accusing the regime of racial discrimination and human rights violations in an international court.

The resulting epic legal battle posed great risks to the resolutely dignified Campbell and his family, who suffered numerous home invasions and who at one point were savagely beaten and tortured by unknown assailants. The highly repressive government essentially bans all media coverage, which meant that much of the film had to be shot on the sly, adding yet another level of drama to the proceedings.—Reuters

aesthetic and end up looking more cheesy than charming. Back in the reality, the movie follows the adventures of the 9-year-old, her teenage sister, Beezus (Disney star Selena Gomez), baby Roberta, dad Robert (John Corbett) and mom Dorothy (Bridget Moynahan).

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By Frazier Moore n the season finale of “Mad Men” last fall, Don Draper’s wife was seen flying to Reno for a quickie divorce. Draper, Sterling Cooper’s creative director, was jumping ship with a few other expats from that advertising agency to form their own shop camped in a Manhattan hotel suite. They and everybody else were still reeling from the assassination of President John Kennedy just a month earlier.

And “Mad Men” viewers were left to await eagerly the return of this zeitgeist-seizing drama, to find out how its bygone world would rise from the rubble. Answer: Engrossingly, in unexpected, chancy ways, adhering to the AMC series’ steadfast lack of formula.

You can check last season’s finale,

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available online at the AMC website.

Then the fourth season begins today at 10 pm EDT, setting the stage for a new round of discovery with the episode’s first words: “Who is Don Draper?” A mighty good question, but one aptly dodged by the magnetic, enigmatic and tormented Draper (series star Jon Hamm), who, it turns out, is being interviewed by a writer from Advertising Age magazine. Draper does not like this kind of grilling. He believes his work should speak for him.

Almost a year has passed. It is nearing Thanksgiving 1964, with the strain of the holidays soon to be visited on many of the characters. By now, Don’s frosty ex-wife Betty (January Jones) has remarried. Don has largely lost custody of their three kids and dwells in a somber flat in Greenwich Village where, at least on Thanksgiving, he

prefers the company of a stranger to more traditional companionship. The scrappy startup agency (whose team includes characters played by co-stars John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, Rich Sommer, Jared Harris and Robert Morse) has lately taken space in Rockefeller Center.

And, as ever, Don is pitching new business with silver-tongued defiance, as with Jantzen swimsuits, which, he declares, must meet the bikini craze with a less prudish marketing strategy.

Bluntly challenging the stubborn Jantzen bosses, he poses this mindtwister: “You want women who want bikinis to buy your two-piece, or do you just want to make sure women who want a two-piece don’t suddenly buy a bikini?” Very smooth, Don! In sum, “Mad Men” is back.—AP

This July 13, 2010 photo shows Hampton Middle School female students, from left to right, Tori Leya, Lauren Mullarkey-Williams and Maryah Rosenwald, and Hampton High School incoming male freshman students, from left to right, CJ Arch, Jayden Korber, Tim Rosenwald and Gino Ionadi. — AP

Ramona’s Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin) seemingly has no job because she is around constantly to lend the sweet-but-clumsy middle child support. This is also a good thing, though, because Bea’s subplot with next-door neighbor Hobart (Josh Duhamel) is probably the most intriguing aspect of the movie, at least for anyone over the age of 12. Bea and Hobart were high-school sweethearts; 15 years later, he wants her to accompany him to Alaska. Goodwin and Duhamel (who co-starred in “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!”) are extremely cute together and have tons of chemistry, but most of their moments are upended by Ramona’s silliness.

She ruins Hobart’s car by spilling paint all over it in a rainbow of colors. She nearly burns down the kitchen trying to make dinner. She cannot even do show-and-tell right in class (Sandra Oh has some deadpan zingers as her strict teacher).

Then she falls though the upstairs floor and into the living room while a real estate agent is showing the Quimbys’ house.

Yes, the family may have to move from their idyllic Portland neighborhood when dad’s job gets downsized, and mom’s part-time job is not enough to keep the family afloat. Ramona tries to help raise money, which always ends in disaster. In theory, this could have been useful for families to watch together if they were going through similar troubles in these trying economic times. Instead, “Ramona and Beezus” opts for cliches, right down to playing “Walking on Sunshine” during an obligatory zany montage. Kids and grown-ups both deserve smarter entertainment. “Ramona and Beezus,” a Fox 2000 Pictures release, is rated G. Running time: 104 minutes. One and a half stars out of four. — AP

perous suburb like this one barely 10 miles (16 kilometers) from downtown Pittsburgh, life is all about possibility. What will you be someday? Who will you fall in love with? More to the point: Who will fall in love with you? Could he be handsome and famous and fresh from the cover of “Tiger Beat”?

At Hampton, if you were not going to be in the movie, you knew someone who was. The cheerleaders, dance drill team and marching band were hired as extras. In the movie, Lautner’s school will have the same name, same colors, same mascot as theirs.

Wrestling team members were cast as Lautner’s fictional teammates and opponents. Students spoke reverently about the fact that their math teacher and wrestling coach, Joe Bursick, a Hampton grad, would train Lautner for the movie and appear in it. “My guys are pretty excited,” Bursick said of his team. “Even some who graduated came back for this.” Wrestling Hollywood’s sexiest werewolf has not exactly hurt their popularity.

Last week, shooting finally began. A sheet with “Welcome Taylor!” printed in enormous letters was draped over a fence outside the school. By late morning, as a crane hovered above and bright lights drew their eyes to filming in the cafeteria, about 100 girls (and, yes, women) had arranged lawn chairs and blankets to watch the making of this movie as though it were, well, a movie. It got better. Lautner shot a scene right there in the parking lot. Riding a motorcycle. Wearing tight jeans. He even blew a few kisses to the crowd between takes (cue screaming). And at 6 pm, this impossibly cute object of their affection walked toward them. —AP

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Fashion private memorial service will be held for Alexander McQueen at London Fashion Week in September. The designer was found dead in his London home in February after committing suicide and now an event will take place at the city’ St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate his life and work. Family, friends and colleagues are all set to attend the service. In May,

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McQueen’s ashes were scattered in Scotland as his family fulfilled his wishes by making the region of Kilmuir on the Isle of Skye his final resting place. A statement by the family, who refer to him as his real name Lee, said: “Lee cherished the times that he was able to spend on the Isle of Skye - he enjoyed the beauty, peace and tranquility.

It was Lee’s final request that his ashes should be buried at Kilmuir. “The McQueen family would like to make a special acknowledgement to Isabella MacDonald and her family of Kinloch Lodge Hotel, whose support at this sad time was of immense help in making it possible for them to carry out Lee’s wishes.” Although McQueen was born in London, he regarded

the Scottish island as his ancestral home and told his family he wanted it to be his final resting place. McQueen often paid homage to his Scottish roots with one of his most famous collections, Highland Rape, being inspired by the Highland clearances and when he collected his CBE in 2003 he wore his full Highland dress.

— Bang Showbiz

Models present creations by Indian Designer Varun Bahal during the Pearls Infrastructure Delhi Couture Week 2010 in New Delhi yesterday. — AFP

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SPECTRUM

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Fashion

ow do you sell a perfume without letting consumers smell it? Mary J Blige may be just the woman to find out. The nine-time Grammy winner, goes on HSN July 31 to pitch My Life, the fragrance she developed with the brand Carol’s Daughter. It’ll be a live interview supplemented with video of the last seven months creating the scent that is for women “who love tuberose, love jasmine, love fruit,” she says. “It’s all there.”

“It’s all a reflection of my personality. Me and a lot of my fans want to smell soft and a little fruity-but not too fruity with bees chasing us

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around-and also strong and beautiful,” Blige says. Shoppers will be taking Blige’s word for it.

Trying to sell fragrance without giving consumers a chance to smell it first is a new strategy in the industry. “No one is convinced at the point of purchase because someone sprays a fragrance on them that they are going to love it and buy it,” says Steve Stoute, chairman of Carol’s Daughter. “It might have used to work but not anymore.”

Stoute says fragrances are different from lipsticks or body lotions-you make a commitment to a fragrance, he explains, with most women not

owning a drawer full of them. “A year ago, we were strategizing and asking, ‘What could we do to differentiate ourselves in the beauty business?’” adds HSN CEO Mindy Grossman. “The whole experience of buying fragrance now: I don’t find it compelling. I think it’s a big opportunity. ... Buying a scent is buying a smell, but you’re also buying what it means to you, what went into it.”

Blige says she has put a lot into it, working on it daily-and, of course, wearing it daily. “I knew exactly what I wanted it to smell like. I needed to love it and be able to live with it for a few years. I

am not impressed with the hot thing.” She resurrected the title, My Life, her successful ‘94 album because, she says, it’s the one that put her in such close touch with her fans. Expect more beauty products down the road from Blige.

“Being in the beauty business-and this is my first time ever-I’m developing my understanding of how it makes women feel and it’s everything I’ve ever wanted to do: make women feel good.”

For every bottle of My Life sold, $1 will be donated to FFAWN, a foundation headed by Blige and Stoute that promotes the advancement of women. — AP

This product image provided by Carol’s Daughter shows My Life by Mary J Blige.

—AP

(From Left) Bollywood Actress Kangna Rawat presents a creation by Indian Designer J J Valaya .

Models present creations by Indian Designer J J Valaya during the Pearls Infrastructure Delhi Couture Week 2010. — AFP photos

Lara Stone he Dutch supermodel model - who married British funnyman David Walliams earlier this year in a lavish London ceremony attended by Sir Elton John, Russell Brand and Geri Halliwell - admits she never considered herself to be model material because she was always unsure about her looks. She said: ‘When I was a little girl growing up in Holland, I remember seeing the posters of Kate Moss in the Calvin Klein Obsession campaign and thinking, “Oh my God, she is amaz” ‘I never looked at those pictures thinking, “One day I want to do that” or I want to be like her. It’ didn’t enter my head that modeling could be

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something I could do.

It wasnít even on my radar because I look exactly like a boy. ‘But I love it. Itís still strong and sexy and amazing.’

However, the 26-year-old beauty - who herself is now the face of Calvin Klein - claims she no longer worries about the way she looks as she does not strive for ‘perfection’. She told Britain’s Grazia magazine: ‘I am not nervous about taking my clothes off. For this Calvin Klein campaign I felt extremely comfortable, strong and sexy. ‘When I was younger, I was told to get my teeth fixed, but I didn’t.

Nobody’s perfect so there is no point striving for that.’

— Bang Showbiz

hristian Louboutin is to create Alicia Keys’ wedding shoes. The ‘Empire State of Mind’ hitmaker’s fiance Swizz Beats has revealed the iconic designer will supply footwear for both himself and his bride-to-be, which the pregnant singer will team with a Vera Wang gown.

Swizz - real name Kaseem Dean - said: “I’ll give a shout-out to Vera Wang for doing the dress and Christian Louboutin for doing her shoes.

Louboutin’s doing my shoes too!” However fans will have to wait a while to see Alicia’s outfit, after the producer dismissed speculation they will marry this weekend.

He told Life and Style magazine: “I’m not getting married this weekend. It’s interesting though, seeing the stories. People are very creative!” Swizz - who has two sons with ex-wife Mashonda Tifrere - is excited about the impending arrival of his third child and insists he doesn’t have a preference of gender. He added: “Whatever God brings my way. I’ll go for a boy; I’ll go for a girl. I just want a healthy baby who will be blessed.” — Bang Showbiz

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www.kuwaittimes.net

Report: Penelope Cruz is pregnant Eds P

enelope Cruz was back in the headlines yesterday, after her secret marriage to co-star and fellow Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, with reports that the couple are expecting a child.

The 36-year-old Spanish actress is four months pregnant, the Madrid-based El Mundo newspaper reported. She was taking better care of herself and has quit smoking, according to the report.

Cruz is starring in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, in which she plays a former lover of pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, played

by Johnny Depp. Action scenes were filmed using a double because of her pregnancy, El Mundo said.

The Madrid-born Cruz and 41-year-old Bardem, who was born in Gran Canaria, were secretly wed in the Bahamas at the beginning of the month. About two dozen relatives and close friends attended the week- long celebration on an island owned by magician David Copperfield.

Cruz and Bardim first met on the set of the Spanish film Jamon, Jamon in 1992, in which they co-starred. They became romantically linked in 2007.

Cruz won an Oscar last year for her supporting role in Woody Allen’s film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a year after Bardem won an Oscar in the same category for his role in the Coen brothers’ film No Country for Old Men. —dpa

Folk-rock duo takes its Warhol soundtrack on tour

By Evie Nagy

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Penelope Cruz

Taiwan magician casts spell in China

By Amber Wang

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aiwanese magician Lu Chen has cast a spell over millions of television viewers in China, breaking into the big time with a mix of classic illusions and modern trickery. China’s vast showbiz market is the focus of a growing number of Taiwanese entertainers hoping to take their name recognition and money-making potential to a whole new level-and Lu has charmed his way onto the charts. He ranks 13th on the list of Chinese celebrities produced by Forbes magazine, which also lists him as the seventh most searched for on the Internet and puts his annual income at 43 million yuan (6.3 million US dollars).

Lu’s big break came in 2009 when he joined the elite list of entertainers to appear on China’s most-watched program-the Lunar New Year evening show, which boasts a billion viewers. “For many performers it’s a top honor and a life-long goal to get on the show,” Lu told AFP after performing recently in Taipei. “I didn’t expect my chance to come so fast.”

His eight-minute gig was voted one of the most popular segments of the show, ensuring a spot for the following year while bringing him lucrative performing and endorsement deals.

Lu, slim and eloquent, attributed his success to giving a modern look to his profession, a relatively overlooked area in Chinese-language entertainment. “In China there is a stereotype that a magician must either wear a tuxedo to pull rabbits from a hat or don a long Chinese robe to produce a goldfish tank out of thin air. They perform in silence over classical music,” he says. In contrast, Lu talks to the audience and uses common items that can be seen everywhere every day so that “the impact of the magic trick is stronger,” he said. One of his popular close-up tricks is to appear to put a ring which he borrows from a member of the audience into an egg, which he then

breaks to take it out. Lu said the illusion is his original idea and the result of three years of work.

Since last year, Lu has staged over 50 shows in China and other countries, also performing classic illusions such as escaping after being chained and locked in a box, or ‘levitating’ members of the audience. It has been a dream come true for a boy who fell in love with magic at first sight. “I saw a coin trick at a department store when I was seven years old and I thought it was fascinating. I couldn’t help thinking about it every day and wondering how it was done.”

Lu went on to win a young magicians’ championship five years later in Taiwan, receiving the trophy from his idol, American illusionist David Copperfield, who was hugely popular on the island in his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. While the award encouraged him to continue studying magic, Lu admitted he had doubts about earning a living as a magician as “it’s not a normal steady job”.

“But I decided to give it a try because I liked entertaining myself and others.

In a picture taken on May 25, 2010 Taiwanese magician Lu Chen performs at a press conference in Taipei.—AFP

Besides, I didn’t want to be stuck in a boring office job.” However, Lu’s speedy rise to fame in China has its costs, as he is constantly forced to fend off criticism from viewers who claim to have cracked his tricks or fellow magicians who challenge his skills, he said. Even his appearance on a Japanese variety show sparked a controversy in China, where anti-Japan sentiment remains strong over Japanese wartime aggression. “Some people think magicians are all liars and magic is trickery so they get disappointed and angry, but this is not the right attitude for watching a magic performance,” Lu said.

“Magic is about creating a dream world and realizing people’s desires, such as being able to make people fly or predict future events... Magic is about surprising the audience and making them laugh.” Lu is now also planning to take his talents in a new direction and open a magic school in Beijing in addition to performing.

“Magic is also an art of talking so it will help people be more successful at their jobs by enhancing their speech and communication skills. It can even help young men court girlfriends,” he said.—AFP

etween 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol created nearly 500 “screen tests”-short, silent, filmed portraits of the famous and unknown personalities who made their way through the Factory, Warhol’s Manhattan studio. In 2008, the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust commissioned the dreamy folk-rock duo of Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (former members of indie-pop band Luna) to provide music for 13 of these silent clips and perform the songs as part of a live, multimedia presentation of the shorts.

Wareham and Phillips viewed hundreds of the screen tests in the museum’s archives and chose 13 subjects, including Lou Reed, Nico, Edie Sedgwick and Dennis Hopper.

Sponsored by the museum, the project has toured since September 2008 and released a DVD last year, but now Dean & Britta are responding to demand for the music itself. A double-CD package, “13 Most Beautiful Songs ...,” including a disc of remixes and a 12-page booklet of essays by Wareham, will be available from the duo’s own label, Double Feature Records, in a limited run of 3,000.

Wareham says that creating the songs presented a new kind of challenge. “It was kind of like scoring a film in that you’re subservient to the picture,” he says, “but in a way it was more like making a music video backward, because of the length- each film was four minutes, 16 seconds. We also had to be very mindful that we were creating these soundtracks to perform live, and that was tricky. There are a couple of songs I have to run a stopwatch on.”

The album comprises brand-new, unused and unfinished Dean & Britta songs, plus two covers-Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine” and the Velvet Underground’s “Not a Young Man Anymore.” Dean & Britta released their 2007 album “Back Numbers” on Rounder, but the label “didn’t really want this, because it was a soundtrack, and traditionally they’re harder to sell,” Wareham says. “They said, ‘We’ll do your next “real” album.”

Physical distribution of the Double Feature release will focus in part on museum stores, as most performances of the multimedia show are booked in museums or affiliated venues.

Wareham says they’re considering issuing single-disc versions of the album beyond the run of 3,000 deluxe editions, as preorders have been high-fans who purchase the album on the duo’s website (DeanAndBritta.com) receive a free poster designed by graphic designer/illustrator Frank Olinsky.

Tracks also will be available from digital outlets including iTunes.

Dean & Britta will continue the Warhol tour into 2011, playing venues and museums across the United States and Europe. Interspersed with these dates, Wareham will make stops with members of the Dean & Britta band to play the songs of Galaxie 500, his former Cambridge, Mass.-based dream-pop band that broke up in 1991. Wareham says that in addition to the honor of being selected for the project, “13 Most Beautiful Songs ...” has provided performance opportunities that few pop musicians will ever experience.

“I never in my life would have thought I’d play at the Sydney Opera House or a 16th-century church in Paris,” he says. “I was kind of shocked they let us in ... but apparently someone liked that Warhol was a Catholic.”—Reuters

Andy Warhol

Gossip news Bon Jovi donates match tickets to Aussie fans

Bret Michaels cited for marijuana on tour bus

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rocker Jon Bon Jovi will donate seats to fans as part of his association with new Australian A-League football club Melbourne Heart this season, the club said yesterday. Lifelong sports fan Bon Jovi has taken on the role as the club’s number one international ticket holder and in a gesture has purchased four premium memberships and will donate seats for each home game to football fans.

Bon Jovi, whose band is touring Australia in December, was until recently the owner of American professional indoor football team Philadelphia Soul and is keen to help out the Heart in their inaugural season, starting on August 5. “I like to think I pour my heart into whatever I do, so supporting Melbourne Heart FC seemed pretty natural, but I wanted to see if I could share that feeling with Heart fans,” Bon Jovi said in a club statement.—AFP

ret Michaels ran into trouble with the law Wednesday night in DeKalb County, Ind, when police found marijuana and other drugs on the rocker’s two tour buses.

According to the Fort-Wayne NewsSentinel, the Poison frontman and his crew were pulled over for a “lighting violation” by a DeKalb County Sheriff’s deputy on Interstate 69.

Police dogs searched the tour buses and turned up marijuana as well as an unidentified controlled substance.

Citations were handed out before the buses were allowed to proceed to their destination.

Michaels’ representative said in a statement to Billboard.com, “Officers on the scene claimed there were no trailer tag lights. No arrests were made. Mr Michaels allowed an open search of the buses and everything was handled in a professional manner.”

The 47-year-old musician won the reality contest “Celebrity Apprentice” earlier this year after facing a number of health challenges, including a brain hemorrhage.—Reuters

Bon Jovi

Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan collapses onstage

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Bret Michaels

mashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan collapsed onstage Thursday night in Tampa, Fla, falling into his drummer’s kit as the band performed its 1995 hard rock hit “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” Almost immediately after falling, Corgan got back to his feet and continued playing.

The lead singer and guitarist later commented on the incident on his Twitter page. “For those that saw me fall last night during Bullet, that wasn’t a stage move or clumsiness, that was me blacking out and wiping out,” Corgan wrote. “I have no memory of falling against the drum riser and my guitar cabinet, but I can tell you I’ve got quite a good bruise am moving slow.”

The Smashing Pumpkins embarked on a summer club tour in early July; the trek continues Friday night in Knoxville, Tenn., and wraps Aug. 28 at the Sunset Strip Music Festival in Los Angeles. The ‘90s rockers are also raffling off tickets to a July 27 benefit concert in Chicago ofor Madina Lake bassist Matthew Leona, who remains in critical condition after trying to break up a fight in the street in June.—Reuters

Billy Corgan