3 Sep

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

First Ring Road inaugural phase complete

No: 15198

SHAWWAL 5, 1432 AH

Japan PM Noda unveils youthful cabinet

Germany claim first Euro 2012 berth

150 Fils

3Syria forces 14 kill4714

as protests spread EU slaps oil embargo on Damascus

Ten Kuwaiti lawyers to defend Mubarak CAIRO: Ten Kuwaiti lawyers will join the defense team for Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak in his trial on charges of corruption and authorizing the killing of protesters, the state news agency MENA said yesterday. The Kuwaitis will be coming on board for the third session of his trial scheduled for Monday, MENA said without giving reasons for the move.

Analysts said close ties between Kuwait and the Mubarak family and respect for Egypt’s support of Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq in 1990 prompted the lawyers’ decision. “The Kuwaiti lawyers justified their participation as a gesture of gratitude to Mubarak’s support in liberating Kuwait ... during the war with Iraq,” said Sami Al-Faraj, head of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. Other countries in the Arab Gulf region also view the Mubarak trial with dismay, since was not only viewed as a friend of rulers there but a mainstay of the Arab political architecture during his three decades in power. “All the Gulf countries like and respect Mubarak and are sad to see this trial, but in Kuwait people really appreciate how he led the talks to liberate the country and that’s something they will never forget,” Al-Faraj added. — Reuters

in the

DAMASCUS: Syrian forces killed 14 people yesterday, activists said as protesters piled pressure on the regime to quit while the EU tightened the noose on Damascus by slapping it with an oil embargo.

Activists reported “huge demonstrations” after weekly Muslim prayers in response to calls from an Internet group that urged rallies against President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime under the banner “death rather than humiliation”.

France also announced plans to further isolate Assad, saying it would boost contacts with the opposition, echoing calls from Spain for international support for the opponents of the embattled president. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said eight people were killed when security forces intervened to disperse protests in several suburbs of Damascus including Douma and Erbeen.

And as ministers from the 27-member European Union gathered in Poland to discuss the Syrian turmoil, the EU yesterday adopted a ban on crude oil imports from

Syria to punish Assad’s regime for its brutal repression. The European Union expanded its list of about 50 — people-including Assad himself — targeted by an assets freeze and travel ban, adding four Syrian businessmen accused of bankrolling the regime and three firms, diplomats said.

The sanctions “will go straight to the heart of the regime,” Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said in Poland while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said there would be no let-up to press Assad to end the repression.

The oil embargo, to take effect from today, will deprive Assad’s regime of a vital source of cash, as the EU buys 95 percent of Syria’s crude oil although it accounts for a mere 1.5 percent of the bloc’s imports.

An EU statement said the oil ban “concerns purchase, import and transport of oil and other petroleum products from Syria.

No financial or insurance services may be provided for such transactions.”

Three other people died in rebellious Homs province and three in the eastern city

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of Deir Ezzor, said the Britain-based Observatory which earlier reported that a 16-year-old girl was killed in Erbeen and a civilian in Talbisseh, in the province of Homs.

Several people were also reportedly wounded, some in critical condition, when security forces opened fire on the protesters, activists said. Syrian state television reported, meanwhile, that security forces killed two armed men after coming under attack in Talbisseh.

Demonstrators also rallied in the southern province of Daraa, where the antiregime protests first erupted in mid-March, and in the northern province of Aleppo, activists said. Women took to the streets in the Daraa town of Jassem, the LCC said, while the Observatory said security forces blocked worshippers from leaving a mosque to take part in protests in nearby Nawa.

Meanwhile several European leaders called for more action to isolate the Syrian president, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday again insisted Assad “needs to step aside.”— AFP

news

12 Iraqi fishermen ‘detained’ BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say Kuwaiti forces have detained 12 Iraqi fishermen. Kuwait has often complained that Iraqi fishermen go into Kuwaiti waters, and relations between the Gulf neighbors have been tense over a host of issues. Waleed Al-Sharefi, the mayor of Faw, said Kuwaiti authorities detained the men yesterday morning. The deputy head of the Basra provincial council, Ahmed Al-Sulaiti, confirmed the 12 men had been picked up by Kuwaiti authorities. Both men claimed the fishermen were in Iraqi waters, but that could not be confirmed with Kuwait. The most recent point of tension between the countries centers on Kuwaiti plans to build a port on an island in the Arabian Gulf. Iraq claims the port will interfere with ships passing through Iraq’s only access to the Gulf.

Bahrain denies teen shot by police DUBAI: Bahrain’s interior ministry yesterday denied reports that police shot dead a Shiite teenager taking part in a protest two days ago and offered a $26,500 reward for information about his killers. “The ministry expresses regret over various statements issued by certain political and human rights organizations” claiming that Ali Jawad Ahmed Al-Sheikh’s death “resulted from a police tear gas projectile shot at his face.” “Ali died as a result of a serious blow to the back of the neck (blunt trauma) that culminated in a blood clot around his brain, which took his life,” said the ministry statement. “Although this is the subject of confirmation... the contusion on Ali’s neck is not consistent with being hit with a tear gas canister or rubber bullet,” it said, adding it has declared a reward of $26,500 for information about his killers.

AL AIN: UAE’s Hamdan Al-Kamali (right) vies with Kuwait’s Yussef Nasser (left) during their 2014 World Cup Asian zone qualifying football match in the Gulf emirate of Al-Ain yesterday. Kuwait won 3-2. — AFP (See Page 48)

LOCAL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

KUWAIT: The Aquapark hosted a celebration during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday featuring competitions and various other activities. The events were covered by Kuwait TV (KTV) and enjoyed by hundreds of visitors. —Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Kuwait unfazed by Iraq PM’s statement Uneasy calm on border near port KUWAIT: The situation remained calm at the northern border yesterday as a security insider confirmed that Kuwaiti authorities had not detected any abnormal activity on the Iraqi side of the border. Speaking to Al-Aan News website on condition of anonymity following reports that Iraqi groups were planning to stage a demonstration early yesterday (Friday), the insider urged local media outlets “to avoid reacting to unconfirmed information” concerning such events.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti authorities seemed unfazed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri AlMaliki’s recent assertion that his country would act to stop construction of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port should it pose any threat to Iraq’s national interests, with Kuwait’s leaders believing that Al-Maliki is aware that the port poses no threat to Iraq.

In a statement released by his office on Thursday, Al-Maliki had vowed that the Iraqi government would seek to take all measures through international regulations to stop the construction of the mega port which Kuwait is constructing on the east of Boubyan Island, if it were found that the facility harmed maritime activity in the nearby Iraqi territorial waters.

Speaking to Al-Qabas, a senior Kuwaiti diplomat said that the country’s leadership

found nothing negative in Al-Maliki’s statement, stressing the importance of Al-Maliki’s use of the term “if [the port] caused a threat”‘ the official maintained that the use of this phrase confirms Al-Maliki’s certainty that the Kuwaiti port will not hurt Iraq’s interests.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the diplomatic insider suggested that Al-Maliki’s commitment to maintaining procedures through international regulations, further eliminates any concerns that could arise from a misinterpretation of his statement.

In the meantime, a report on Friday quoting military sources claimed that three rockets fired from southern Iraq last week had in fact been targeted at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port, contradicting official reports which insisted that the shells were fired by Iraqi militants at other Iraqi targets.

A high-level military source indicated that senior military officials had informed the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah that the Kuwaiti radars detected the three directed missiles before they fell in Iraq, confirming that they were fired from a vehicle targeting the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port site.

According to the same source, the Ministry of Defense is studying aerial scans to determine the type of shells and their manufacturing

country. A Kuwaiti Army battalion is currently located on Boubyan Island to protect the port, the source further confirmed.

Meanwhile, Iraqi MP Aliya Nassif of the White Iraqiya Party called upon Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr to address the issue of the Kuwaiti port subject during a demonstration planned by his Sadrist Movement for September 9th. “Building the Mubarak AlKabeer port despite the negative impact that Kuwait knows it would have on the Iraqi economy requires that this subject be addressed as a major issue during the demonstration in order to give an opportunity for the Iraqi citizen to express his frustration regarding the continuous Kuwaiti violations against Iraq,” said a statement quoting Nassif.

On a related note, an official from Kuwait’s Ministry of Defense strongly rejected an Iranian news agency’s report which speculated that the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port is part of a Kuwaiti-Saudi plot to “destroy” the southern Iraqi province of Basra. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the MoD official described the Fars News Agency’s claim as “childish”, and insisted that the port project “will never be a source of conflict between Kuwait and its neighbors.” — Al-Aan, AlQabas, Al-Rai & Al-Anbaa

Five-year-old girl drowns off Zoor beach KUWAIT: A five-year-old girl was pronounced dead at Zoor Beach after being rescued from the waters there where she had been swimming during a family day out. Although paramedics battled to resuscitate the girl, they were unable to do so. The girl’s distraught father, an Indian expatriate, explained that he and his family had been enjoying a day out at the beach and his daughter had been enjoying herself splashing around in the water before going in too deep and drowning. The body was removed for autopsy.

Childbirth death Police are investigating the death of an Asian woman in childbirth. Emergency services personnel rushed to the scene when the woman’s distraught husband called them to report that he had found her unconscious and bleeding heavily in the corrugated iron shack in Sulaibiya where they lived, with the newborn

baby beside her. The man, also Asian, said that his wife appeared to have gone into labor whilst he was absent. Despite paramedics’ frantic efforts to save the woman, she was pronounced dead at the scene, whilst the baby, which was apparently healthy, was rushed to Jahra Hospital. The woman’s body was removed for autopsy to determine the cause of death. Meanwhile, her husband was taken into custody under suspicion of being involved in her death, although he has denied any involvement, insisting that he called the emergency services hotline as soon as he found her. Police are also questioning their relationship since the man was unable to provide any marriage certificate or other proof that they were married.

Baby abandoned Police are hunting for the parents of a baby approximately two months old who was recently found abandoned outside a home in

Abdullah Al-Mubarak. Police and paramedics rushed to a house in the area after a citizen reported finding the healthy baby boy left in a cardboard box at the front yard of his house.

The infant was rushed to Farwaniya Hospital to receive medical attention, and an investigation was launched into the case at the local police station.

Drive-by shooting A hunt is underway for an unidentified gunman who took potshots at a number of Kuwaiti shoppers outside the Salmiya Co-op before driving away from the scene. The traumatized victims, who fortunately escaped unhurt, immediately called police to report the incident, passing on the license plate details of the gunman’s vehicle. Police have identified the vehicle owner, a young Kuwaiti, and are currently seeking him in order to take him into custody.

Emergency services attend to 203 cases during Eid

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Police and paramedics responded to twelve different cases including traffic accidents, fights and incidents of public intoxication in the period between Thursday evening and Friday morning, as the Eid Al-Fitr holiday drew to a close. Two Kuwaiti teenagers aged 17 and 19, were rushed to Jahra Hospital after sustaining multiple injuries in a car accident on Jahra Road on Thursday night. Minutes later, paramedics took a 25-year-old Kuwaiti man to Adan Hospital after he suffered a head trauma and other injuries when he fell from his motorcycle after losing control of the vehicle on King Fahad Highway. Later in the evening, a 14-year-old Kuwaiti boy was taken to Mubarak Hospital when he complained of head and neck pain after falling from a height at an amusement park in Hawally. Less than an hour later, a 16-year-old Kuwaiti boy was taken to the same hospital after complaining of back pain when he fell from a height at another leisure park, this time in AlShaab.

Meanwhile, police responded to an accident on Wafra Road, during which a 28-year-old Indonesian woman sustained bruises while a 16year-old Kuwaiti man sustained an open fracture of his right foot. Both were quickly taken to Adan Hospital. An hour later, a 12-year-old Kuwaiti boy was taken to Farwaniya Hospital after he complained of pain in his right knee following a fall from a motorcycle in front of a house in Abdullah Al-Mubarak. Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Syrian man was taken to Al-Adan hospital for treatment of a stab wound to his right shoulder sustained in a fight in Al-Mangaf, while a 17-yearold Kuwaiti boy was taken to Mubarak Hospital with an injury to his left hand sustained during a fight in Salmiya.

According to official police reports, a total of 203 emergency calls were made on Thursday alone, including 119 cases in which injured people were hospitalized.

Yesterday, a 57-year-old Bangladeshi man sustained heavy bruising after falling off an all-terrain-vehicle (ATV) on Failaka Island a few minutes after midnight. He was taken to the Mubarak AlKabeer after being moved by coastguards to the mainland. Meanwhile, three Kuwaiti citizens aged 18, 20 and 23 were taken to the Mubarak Hospital with minor injuries sustained during a car collision in South Surra. Minutes later, a 57-year-old Kuwaiti man was arrested in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh where he was initially found passed out due to extreme intoxication. Similarly, a 33-year-old Indian man was arrested in Sharq after falling unconscious in a heavily drunken state.

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Blocs wrangle over date of ‘multimillion bribe’ session MPs seek to coordinate policy KUWAIT: As MPs continue to coordinate on formulating their policy on the allegations that sums totaling millions of dinars were deposited in some lawmakers’ bank accounts, reports suggest that not all the parliamentarians are in agreement over the date for an extraordinary parliamentary session to discuss the issue or over the expected request from the cabinet that another session be held in camera.

According to a parliamentary insider, while the Development and Reform Bloc (DRB) continues to support holding the session on the previously agreed date of September 11, the National Action Bloc (NAB) is pushing for the session to take place in early October.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the insider also indicated that independent MPs are working to bridge the gap between blocs in order to reach an agreement on the date for the extraordinary session, as well as to establish a parliamentary investigative committee to probe the allegations that two lawmakers received a total of KD25 million in bribes. The independent MPs are also reportedly hoping that the current discussion of the subject will provide an opportunity for the

parliament to enforce the anticorruption regulations.

Meanwhile, MP Musallam Al-Barrak, the official spokesman of the Popular Action Bloc (PAB), insisted in a recent statement that the parliament is “solely responsible” for uncovering the facts of the case, accusing the Cabinet of involvement and insisting that this involvement means that it is unqualified to take part in the investigative process. AlBarrak’s statement follows widespread speculation that the alleged payments were made by the government to ‘buy’ MPs’ allegiance, although no evidence has come to light to date to substantiate any of the allegations.

Al-Barrak also indicated that MPs will meet directly after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which officially ends today (Saturday), to settle all the details concerned with resolving the mystery behind the case, as well as to set a date for the extraordinary session.

The cabinet, however, seems distinctly less enthusiastic about addressing the subject, with reports already suggesting that the government will come up with ‘blocking tactics’ to thwart the extraordinary session or limit its effectiveness.

Another parliamentary insider, also speak-

News

in brief

Cell phone provider transfer services KUWAIT: The introduction of measures to allow cell phone users in Kuwait to transfer service providers while keeping their numbers is set to be delayed until late 2012 rather than the originally planned 2011, with talks between the various parties involved being put on hold for months. According to one insider, experts from the National Technology Enterprises Company - the Kuwait Investment Authority subdivision assigned to implement the project - have not met with representatives from the Ministry of Communications or any of the local service providers in five months. This has led to delays in the process of installing the equipment necessary to implement the transfer service, meaning that it will take at least another nine months for the new system to become operational. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the insider indicated that the delays mean that the new service is unlikely to be available until sometime around the end of 2012. - Al-Anbaa Ramadan donations surpass milestone KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL) is currently preparing the final reports detailing the official statistics on the total amount of money raised by local charities during Ramadan, with early estimates predicting that donations have already exceeded the KD86 million milestone recorded last year. The MSAL’s department of charity organizations and foundations has coordinated the special donations program for the eighth consecutive year, with the objective of organizing the fundraising process during the holy month. It has achieved this through the introduction of regulations that include monitoring donations made to charitable organizations as well as banning unlicensed activities of collecting cash donations. In addition to protecting charities in Kuwait from irregularities, this project has helped boost the amount raised by local charities by an astonishing 400 percent in recent years, said the head of the charitable organizations department, Nasser Al-Ammar, in a recent report. Al-Ammar also noted that measures were taken against individuals who were caught violating fundraising regulations by using proscribed methods such as visiting public gathering places, including diwaniyas, to collect donations without a license.

ing on condition of anonymity, expressed concern that the government could lobby MPs to force a lack of quorum to prevent the extraordinary session from being held. Antigovernment lawmakers have accused the Cabinet of using similar tactics to prevent holding a similar extraordinary session called last month to discuss the Kuwait University’s overcapacity problem; the session never took place due to lack of quorum after a number of pro-government MPs failed to show up.

According to the same insider, however, the Cabinet has a backup plan if this option does not work, with is to insist that the session take place behind closed doors, “which would make it easier for the Cabinet to avoid accountability.”

In the meantime, the sources also noted that the plan calls for MPs to ask during the extraordinary session for all lawmakers to sign an undertaking by which a parliamentary investigative committee would be allowed to look into their banking transactions, as well as examining the bank accounts of their family members.

While MP Walid Al-Tabtabaie confirmed that DRB will start coordinating with other blocs tomorrow (Sunday) on the extraordi-

nary session, his fellow bloc member Dr. Jamaan Al-Harbish indicated that the subject could eventually escalate into the formulation of another interpellation motion against His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah “if the government fails to take the necessary measures.” Meanwhile, a report quoting another parliamentary insider indicates that the ‘Nahj’ (approach) coalition plans to return to the spotlight, with calls to hold a demonstration on September 16 “in order to draw a political roadmap for the parliament.” Formed last year, the coalition of anti-government blocs is calling for a change in the Cabinet’s approach through electing new ministers and a new prime minister.

Meanwhile, a local bank reportedly notified the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) last week of two financial transactions suspected to be involved in money laundering, according to a PPS source. The source stressed that such procedures are a standard part of financial institutions’ efforts to tackle suspicious financial transactions, noting that local banks make an average of four complaints a month regarding similar cases.

— Al-Qabas, Al-Rai & Al-Watan

First Ring Road inaugural phase complete KUWAIT: The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) is set to open the first stage of the First Ring Road project within the next few days, when it officially inaugurates the bridge extending from the road’s junction with the Riyadh Road leading towards the Jamaal Abdul-Nasser roads, as well as the bridge opposite the Palace of Justice.

The plan was confirmed by MPW Undersecretary Abdulaziz Al-Klaib, who further revealed that the ministry is currently awaiting bids from contractors for the major project’s second phase.The First Ring Road development project is one of the major infrastructure projects carried out by the MPW as part of its plans to reduce traffic congestion on Kuwait’s streets.

The project, launched in May 2008 with the total cost to date estimated at KD28 million, aims to achieve a smoother flow of traffic in Kuwait City where regular tailbacks often lead to major congestion, especially during rush hour periods.

Al-Klaib also announced that the MPW is currently preparing to sign contracts for upgrading work on four main roads, including the second and third ring roads.

The MPW also recently completed studies to reassess the state’s road network and to draw up future improvement plans to find radical solutions to the state’s congestion problem, according to a separate report that quoted another senior ministry official.

“The ministry aims to ensure smoother traffic on Kuwait’s roads through plans that take into account the increasing population, growing construction levels and increasing number of vehicles”, said Assistant Undersecretary for Road Engineering Hussein Al-Mansour, who indicated that studies are underway to improve the fourth, third and second ring road, as well as the western part of the Fifth Ring Road, in addition to the Damascus and Cairo Roads, while also working on the construction of the Eighth Ring Road.

— Al-Watan & Al-Rai

KUWAIT: The first stage of the First Ring Road project will be open for traffic in the next few days.

— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

MEW to complete 18 projects this year KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) plans to complete work on up to 18 projects with an estimated total value of KD402 million during the current 2011-12 fiscal year as part of the state’s major development plan.

“The ministry’s commitment to fulfilling the development plan comes as

part of its obligation to complying with the instructions of His Highness the Amir to transform Kuwait into an international financial and commercial hub,” said an MEW insider, adding, “All of the ministry’s projects aim to boost productivity to meet the increasing demand for electricity and water.” The projects in question

include the construction of the South Zoor power plant which will have a daily production capacity of 800 megawatts, and is scheduled for completion in August of next year, as well as the north Shuaiba power plant project, which is set to begin operations before the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year. —Al-Qabas

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Worshippers greet each other on Eid.

Worshippers attend the Eid Al-Fitr prayers at Frawaniya on the first day of Eid.

Eid prayers at Khaitan. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KIA welcomes 63,000 passengers in 5 days

20 additional flights operated to carry people home KUWAIT: More than 63,000 passengers used the Kuwait International Airport (KIA) during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, according to figures from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which also revealed that 20 additional flights were scheduled to carry people returning to Kuwait during the annual break.

The state’s main airport saw the expected surge in activity during this period, welcoming travelers returning from destinations where they spent the short Eid holiday, as well as those returning home from their annual vacations ahead of the new school term, which starts later this month.

According to DGCA Director General Essam Al-Zamel, around 63,164 passengers were expected to arrive to Kuwait during the period between August 29 and September 3, including 59,369 on 542 standard scheduled flights and 3,795 others on 20 additional flights.

Al-Zamel suggested that the airport would remain extremely busy until at least the middle of this month, requiring double the usual number of staff to cope with the extra passenger numbers.

Meanwhile, airport security director Major General Ibrahim Al-Rashid emphasized that the KIA Security Department is entirely capable of handling all security threats. He explained that the department maintains close contact with national and international security bodies and has procedures in place when it receives

notification or warning of any suspicious activities, adding that its officers are careful to ensure that their operations avoid disrupting traffic at the airport.

In an interview with local daily AlRai, Maj Gen Al-Rashid indicated that airport security personnel undergo regular trainings to update their capabilities to handle all types of emergencies, which can change in their type and intensity. The senior security official also revealed that the airport’s CTX explosive detection devices will soon be fully operational.

Maj Gen Al-Rashid also noted that

authorities have arrested 320 previously deported people who tried using fake passports to reenter Kuwait, explaining that they were caught through the use of the fingerprinting security system installed three months ago.

Meanwhile, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Middle East carriers posted a 9.7 percent increase in demand for July, outstripping the 8.9 percent capacity increase. Load factors for the month stood at 81.4 percent.

In a press release IATA announced

KUWAIT: Passengers crowd the departure area prior to check-in at the Kuwait International Airport on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr on Tuesday. —Photo by Sajeev K Peter

traffic results for July which showed that passenger travel was up 5.9 percent over July 2010. Freight markets were stagnant, however, with a 0.4 percent demand decline over previous year levels. “Passenger travel bucked the gloomy economic outlook with a 5.9 percent increase in July. This increase was likely based on the much more optimistic economic outlook that marked the beginning of the year. With business and consumer confidence now tanking, sluggishness in international trade, and high fuel prices, the expectation is for a weaker end to the year. We are already seeing this in the shrinking air freight markets, which were 0.4 percent down on the previous year,” Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO was quoted in the press release as saying.

International passenger markets, which grew by 7.3 percent compared with July 2010, remain stronger on average than domestic markets which showed weaker growth of 3.5 percent year over year. Compared to pre-recession levels of early 2008, international passenger traffic has expanded by 12 percent. Had the industry continued to grow at the pre-recession pace of 8 percent, international markets would have been about 14 percent higher than today’s levels and a quarter higher than prerecession level. This confirms that the global financial crisis has cost airlines about two full years of growth, the IATA press release concluded.

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Investing in Kuwait’s human capital KUWAIT: As the number of Kuwaiti students leaving the country to continue their education continues to increase, a trend that looks set to continue, those students who choose to stay at home are likely to be affected by a recent decision to increase enrolment numbers at the state-run Kuwait University (KU).

Those considering overseas study had an opportunity to meet with representatives of international educational programs at the ‘Ambitious Future’ forum, held from July 11-13 in Kuwait City. Some 40 universities from the US, as well as European and Arab countries, participated in the event, which was targeted at high school graduates as well as post-graduate students. The forum was sponsored by the prime minister and organized by the executive authority of the National Union of Kuwait Students (NUKS).

Minister of Education and Higher Education Ahmad Al-Mulaifi spoke at the opening of the forum, calling upon Kuwaiti students to be “ambassadors” for their country, according to KUNA. Bader Al-Enezi, the chairman of NUKS Executive Authority, also spoke at the event, noting that every student can choose the program that best meets his or her needs.

The number of Kuwaitis studying abroad has risen in recent years. Stephen Forbes, the director of the British Council Kuwait, told reporters in January that more than 2,000 students from Kuwait were enrolled at UK tertiary educational institutions.

According to Forbes, the number of Kuwaiti students studying in the UK has increased steadily since 2004, reaching a record-breaking level in 2010. Similarly, data from the Institute of International Education, a private, non-profit US-based organization, reported that the number of Kuwaiti students studying in the US increased by 20.2 percent between the 2008/09 and 2009/10 academic years.

This growth looks unlikely to slow. In February, more than 3,000 students attended the annual Kuwait Study Abroad fair. Then, in early July, news reports stated that some 3,800 applications had been received for 1,800 student places at overseas academic institutions, according to comments by undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, Khalid Al-Saad.

The growing demand for overseas study programs, particularly during the last year, may have been driven by changes in government policies. Last November, the then-minister of education and higher education, Moudhi Al-Humoud, announced that grants for students studying abroad would be increased by 20 percent. Speaking at the 27th annual conference of the American branch of the NUKS, held in Miami, she said, “We look at any increase as an investment in the human factor and our students deserve more.”

The number of Kuwaitis who leave the country to continue their education may be increasing, but at the same time the number of students at KU, the country’s only state university, is also expected to grow this year.

However, this expansion was approved only after some extended debate among politicians and university administrators.

In early June, the KU Council, chaired by Al-Mulaifi, announced that the number of students for the 2011/12 academic year would be capped at 6,850. By comparison, in recent years more than 7,000 students were typically accepted.

In the days following the council’s decision, however, politicians and various organizations, including NUKS, criticized the policy change and demanded that the enrolment cap be lifted.

For its part, the university defended the move to reduce the number of students, with rector Abdullatif Al-Badr issuing a press statement which stated that the decision to cap enrolment numbers was the result of an effort to maintain the academic quality of courses at the university.

The issue was apparently settled in the weeks that followed with a u-turn by KU. On July 13, the university announced that the number of students would be

increased to 8,000. According to a report in the Kuwait Times, a “temporary campus” is to be established to accommodate the additional students, while new faculty staff may also be hired. During his speech at the “Ambitious Future” forum, Al-Mulaifi called for increasing the number of lecturers at KU. Any expansion at KU may be costly for the government, but MP Jamaan Al-Harbish, the chairman of the

parliamentary education committee, has stated that the government is ready to provide the necessary funding to allow all high school graduates to enrol at KU. Indeed, investing in education - whether by increasing the size of universities at home or by ensuring that students are financially able to study abroad - is an important step for Kuwait to take.

— Oxford Business Group

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

On the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the foundation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Vietnam: An emerging economy Hanoi enjoys friendly relations with Kuwait

By Bui Quoc Trung Ambassador of Vietnam to the State of Kuwait

S

ixty six years ago, on 2 September 1945, President Ho Chi Minh, the beloved Father of the Vietnamese nation, had solemnly read the Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi.

With this he proclaimed the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This event marked the beginning of a new era for the Vietnamese nation and opened a new chapter in the history of Vietnam’s national construction and defense. This event also ushered a new era for the Vietnamese people when they could enjoy independence, freedom, equality, love and happiness - almost everything that one can dream of in their life.

The Declaration of Independence is not only of great importance for the independence of the Vietnamese nation but it also marks the beginning of an era of independence and freedom for the nations in the colonial countries as well as the oppressed people around the world.

After its Independence Day of 2 September 1945, the Vietnamese people had to undergo great hardship of thirty years of war. However, with remarkable achievements recorded within the span of more than six decades international acclaim for Vietnam has been increasing. Vietnam has been known and recognized by the international community with its glorious victories over the foreign aggressions that culminated in the Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954 and the Great Victory in Spring 1975, leading to national liberation and reunification of the country.

Economic Reforms and International Integration Vietnam is a densely-populated developing country that in the last 66 years has had to recover from the ravages of war. While Vietnam’s economy remains dominated by state-owned enterprises, which still produce about 40% of GDP, the Vietnamese government has reaffirmed its commitment to economic liberalization and international integration. Vietnam has moved to implement the structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive export-driven industries. The face of Vietnam’s economy and society has changed significantly since the introduction of marketoriented reform and the opening of the economy in 1986.

Vietnam escaped from the crisis in the mid-1980s. Since then the economy has recovered strongly with the growth rate increasing steadily in the last 30 years. The high growth rates can be seen in all sectors of the national economy, especially industrial production. During the period of 1991-2010 Vietnam’s annual GDP growth rate averaged 7.4% making it one of the world’s fastest growing economies in the region and in Asia.

This figure is of great significance because it indicates that Vietnam has officially left the group of low-income countries, entering a new stage of development and becoming a

medium-class economy. The key social indicators of Vietnam improved significantly in the 1990s. Over 90 percent of the population is now literate and in 2000 Vietnam achieved universal primary education. Poverty rate has been reduced considerably, from 22 percent in 2005 to 9,45 percent in 2010. Poor people have gained better access to economic resources and basic social services such as education, healthcare, clean water and legal assistance.

In accordance with the current prices, the scale of the national economy has exceeded $100 billion and the average income per capital has reached $1169 while the figure for

Bui Quoc Trung 1988 was $86 when Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world. High export turnover has also been cited as an outstanding feature of the national economy in 2010.

The export turnover reached $71.6 billion in 2010 and is expected to be $86 billion in 2011. $222 billion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been registered from 1988 till July 2011 and so far $84.2 billion has been disbursed. $50 billion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been pledged by over fifty foreign donors and in 2010 $3.5 billion has been disbursed. Vietnam trade has been equally held responsible for achievements of Vietnam.

There has been extensive diversification of the import market as well as the export market in the country. More than 200 countries and territories share trade assignments with Vietnam while in 1986 the number was 43, among them the Asian countries are regarded as the biggest trading partners.

Besides rice, key exports are coffee, tea, rubber, fresh fruits, clothes, shoes, marine products, crude oil, electronics, wooden products and machinery. Vietnam’s chief export partners include US 20%, Japan 10.7%, China 9.8%, South Korea 4.3% (2010 est.), Australia, ASEAN countries and Western European countries.

Imports commodities are machinery and equipment, petroleum products, steel products, raw materials for the clothing and shoe industries, electronics, plastic material, automobile with major import partners from China 23.8%, South Korea 11.6%, Japan 10.8%, Taiwan 8.4%, Thailand 6.7%, Singapore 4.9% (2010 est.)

Agriculture’s share of economic output has continued to shrink from about 25% in 2000 to about 20% in 2010, while industry’s share increased from 36% to 41% in the same period. Deep poverty has declined significantly and Vietnam is working to create jobs to meet

the challenge of a labor force that is growing by more than one million people every year.

The Vietnamese government has embarked upon a series of programs to improve the quality of education and training. Much has been done in the area of science and technology, culture and social affairs. As a result, information technology and high-tech industries now form a large and fast-growing part of the national economy. Vietnam gets good marks in many areas of gender equity: primary and lower secondary enrolment rates are nearly equal for boys and girls; participation of Vietnamese women now can be seen in all aspects of the economic, social, and political life and their role has become increasingly important. Life of the people in general has been greatly improved.

In the area of foreign policy, Vietnam’s approach has been to establish mutually beneficial relations with all countries in the world.

The current Vietnamese foreign policy is to “implement consistently the foreign policy line of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development; the foreign policy of openness and diversification and multi-lateralization of international relations.

Development strategy Achievements in the past 66 years allow Vietnam to be optimistic about the future but the country will still have to make every effort in order to reach the objectives of its ten-year development strategy. The overall goal of the next ten-year socio-economic development strategy is for Vietnam to become an industrialized country by 2020. This goal is ambitious but obtainable and Vietnam needs comprehensive measures to assure success. Some of the important measures are: ● To accelerate the industrialization and modernization process. ● To combine economic growth with comprehensive plans for poverty reduction, substantial improvements in the Human Development Index, and infrastructure improvements to meet the requirements of socio-economic development. ● To continue with structural and administrative reforms, understanding that they may impose a significant adjustment cost, especially in the short run, on the economy and society. ● To improve the quality of human resources. ● To further integrate into the world economy which is expected to bring in substantial social benefits as well as more volatility and more risks for Vietnam.

Vietnam-Kuwait Relations With Kuwait, Vietnam always considers Kuwait a traditional friend and enjoys the friendly relations with the State of Kuwait and its people. Vietnam and Kuwait established diplomatic relations on 10th January 1976.

Vietnam inaugurated its trade office in June 1993 and opened its Embassy in Kuwait in October 2003. Kuwait officially opened its Embassy in Hanoi in August 2007 and General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City in September the same year.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the

establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Kuwait. In the past 35 years there have been frequent exchanges of visits by top officials from both sides which help strengthen the understanding and cooperation between the two countries.

These include the important visits of Vietnamese high-ranking officials paid by Prime Minister’s special envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach (1976); Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien (1992); Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh (1993 ); President of the S.R of Vietnam Le Duc Anh (1995); Vice-Chairman of the National Assembly Mai Thuc Lan (2000); Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Van Nganh (2001); Deputy Minister of Finance (May 2005); Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien (June 2005); Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Hang (September 2005); Minister, Chairman of Physical Education and Sports Committee (March 2006); Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc (July 2007); Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung (March 2009). The Kuwaiti delegations to Vietnam were headed by Kuwaiti Ambassador to Malaysia, special envoy of the First Deputy PM and Foreign Minister (1993); Prince Fahad J. Al-Sabah (1995); Delegations of Kuwait Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group (1995, 1998, 2002); Executive Director of Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (May 2006); General Director of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (November 2006); H.H. Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser AlMohammed Al-Sabah (May 2007); Minister of Oil and Minister of Information Sheikh Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah ( September, 2009); Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ahmed Rashed Al-Haroun (December, 2009); Minister of Oil and Minister of Information, Sheikh Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah (September, 2010).

Vietnam and Kuwait are committed to enhancing the political relations which so far happily exist between the two countries, creating a firm foundation for further development of relations in other spheres such as economics, investment and trade.

In economic field, the two countries have signed some agreements and Memos of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in different fields: Frame-work Agreement on Bilateral Cooperation in Economics, Science and Technology (May 1995); Agreement on Aviation Transportation (May 2001); Trade Agreement (May 2005); Protocol on Cooperation between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs (June 2005); Protocol on Establishment of the Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific and Technical cooperation between the Government of Vietnam and the Government of Kuwait; Agreement on Investment Promotion and Protection; Agreement on Cooperation between the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) (May 2007); Agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation and Fiscal Evasion; MOU on Agricultural Cooperation; MOU on Cooperation between the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) and the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) of Vietnam (March 2009).

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Fighting erupts in Sudan’s Blue Nile border state

10

Taleban kidnap 30 Pakistani boys in Afghanistan

13

Japan PM unveils youthful cabinet

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TRIPOLI: Libyan NTC fighters perform the weekly Friday noon prayer at the Martyrs’ Square — called Green Square under Muammar Gaddafi — in Tripoli yesterday as the new leaders won massive international support for their plans to rebuild the war-shattered country. —AFP

Rebel forces press toward Gaddafi’s hometown Civil war disrupts supply lines, damaged infrastructure TRIPOLI: Rebel forces are advancing toward Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown despite the extension of the deadline for the town’s surrender, rebel officials said yesterday, as UN officials warned that Libya faces critical but short-term shortages of drinking water, food and other supplies. While fighting has subsided in much of Libya, including the capital Tripoli, the six-month civil war between rebels and Gaddafi’s forces disrupted supply lines and damaged infrastructure across the country, leaving many people in need of help.

In just the past few days, more than half a dozen UN agencies have returned to Tripoli to help with the country’s humanitarian needs, said the UN humanitarian coordinator for Libya, Panos Moumtzis. The UN has brought in 11 million bottles of water and will bring in 600 tons of food and 100 million euros ($140 million) worth of medicine. But Moumtzis also said the UN help is expected to be temporary.

“This country has a lot of resources and we view the humanitarian needs as short-term,” he said of the oil-rich nation of 6 million people. “I don’t foresee the humanitarian program going beyond the end of the year, maximum.” While rebel forces have seized most of the country, they have yet to capture Gadhafi or members of his family. Meanwhile, their forces have been advancing on the few remaining loyalist bastions, including the former dictator’s hometown of Sirte.

Rebel council spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga said that despite the extension of a surrender deadline - the rebels had originally demanded that Sirte surrender by today, but later gave the loyalists an extra week - rebel forces have not stopped advancing. Rebel brigades have pushed to the town of Wadi Hawarah, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Sirte, he said. “The rebels at the front line are very eager to move without delay. They live in harsh conditions there in the middle of

the desert, and in hot weather,” he said, adding the rebels preferred a surrender to a bloody attack. “Maybe tomorrow, or the day after, the people of Sirte will raise the independence flag and we can enter peacefully without fighting.” “One week is not a big deal,” he said, adding that talks were continuing with tribal elders inside Sirte. In a fiery broadcast from hiding, Gaddafi warned late Thursday that loyal tribes in his main strongholds were armed and preparing for battle - a show of defiance hours after rebels extended the surrender deadline.

The rebels have been hunting for Gaddafi since he was forced into hiding after they swept into Tripoli on Aug. 20 and gained control of most of the capital in days of fierce fighting. “We won’t surrender again; we are not women. We will keep fighting,” Gaddafi said in the audio statement, broadcast by Syrian-based Al-Rai TV. His voice was recognizable, and Al-Rai has previously broadcast

statements by Gaddafi and his sons. Gaddafi said the tribes in Sirte and the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid are armed and “there is no way they will submit.”

In a second late-night audio, also broadcast on the Syrian channel, Gadhafi called for a long insurgency. “We will fight them everywhere,” he said. “We will burn the ground under their feet.” He said NATO was trying to occupy Libya and steal its oil. “Get ready to fight the occupation. ... Get ready for a long war, imposed on us,” Gadhafi added. “Get ready for the guerrilla war.” He called Sirte “the capital of the resistance.” The rebels dismiss the threats as empty rhetoric. They believe Gadhafi may be in one of their three key targets: Sirte, Bani Walid, which lies 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, or the southern city of Sabha. Backed by NATO airstrikes, the rebels are pushing toward those three targets.al-Shaheibi reported from Benghazi, Libya.—AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

UN agency to host talks on nuke-free Mideast VIENNA: The UN atomic watchdog said yesterday it will host talks on creating a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East after countries in the volatile region showed willingness to attend after a decade of stonewalling.

Member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) request-

ed in 2000 that such a forum take place but agreement on holding such a meeting remained “elusive” for over a decade, the agency said, Now though, a letter from IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to member states in the Middle East “led to consultations indicating that a forum was possible this year”, a statement said.

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, although it has never admitted it.

Elsewhere in the region, Iran and Syria have been accused of seeking to follow suit. The November 21-22 forum at the IAEA in Vienna will study lessons learned in creating existing zones free of atomic

Thousands of Yemenis hold rival rallies across country SANAA: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis staged rival rallies yesterday, with massive crowds demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down and as many people turning out in support of the ailing leader. “The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh,” pro-regime demonstrators gathered in Sabiine Square in Sanaa’s southern district chanted, turning out in larger numbers than in previous weeks to mark what was dubbed “Yemen comes first” yesterday, an AFP reporter said.

Vast crowds of anti-regime protesters also turned out further north in the capital in support of what the opposition dubbed the Friday of “escalating the revolt.” “Sanaa revolt revolt towards the presidential palace,” they chanted.

“The people want to settle” the revolt.

Similar pro- and anti-regime demonstrations took place in several cities across Yemen, including Taez, Ibb, Hudaydah, Aden, Saada, and Marib, witnesses said.

Saleh, who has been in Saudi Arabia since early June for treatment after he was wounded in a bomb attack on his Sanaa compound, on Tuesday accused his opponents of being corrupt and arms dealers.

He also accused them of exploiting

IBB: Thousands of Yemenis take part in Friday noon prayers in the southeastern city of Ibb yesterday, as hundreds of thousands of Yemenis staged rival rallies, with massive crowds demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down and as many people turning out in support of the ailing leader. —AFP youthful protesters demanding his ouster, in a televised address after he had vowed earlier in August to return “soon” to his impoverished country.

Despite his absence, Saleh has not

transferred power to his Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, and his family members who lead strong army and security forces appear to be running Yemen. —AFP

‘No apology’ for flotilla raid after UN report: Israel JERUSALEM: Israel will not apologize for its deadly 2010 raid on a Turkishled flotilla of Gaza aid ships, an Israeli diplomatic source said yesterday after a UN report accused the Jewish state of using excessive force. “Israel once again expresses its regrets for the loss of human life but there will be no apology for this operation,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. The boarding of the Gazabound ships by Israeli special forces, which left nine Turkish activists dead and plunged ties with Ankara into a deep crisis, was criticized in a UN report leaked on Thursday.

The long-awaited report said Israel used excessive force during the raid, launched without warning in international waters, but endorsed the legality of the Jewish state’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli official said the Jewish state considered the UN report “a professional, serious and pro-

found document” but stressed that the Israeli government would not apologize for the actions of its troops.

“Israel, like every other country, has the legitimate right to defend its citizens and its soldiers,” he said. “Israel recognizes the historic importance of relations with the Turkish people and has made attempts to maintain them and hopes that a way will be found to overcome the differences.” The longawaited report is expected to be published soon after being delayed several times as Israel and Turkey sought a compromise that would allow them to repair once-warm ties.

But any possibility of healing the rift was dashed yesterday when Turkey said it was expelling Israel’s ambassador to Ankara and suspending military agreements. Ankara had called on Israel to apologize for the deaths, compensate the families of victims and lift its blockade on Gaza, terms all rejected

by the Jewish state. Israel had not ruled out compensation but flatly refused to apologize. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said his nation rejected the report, regarding it as “null and void”, and Ankara warned that it intended to take its protest about the blockade to The International Court of Justice in The Hague. A senior Israeli official said earlier yesterday, “We will announce our acceptance of the report after its official publication, with specific reservations.” The official stressed that the report had declared legal Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory.

“The report demonstrates that the naval blockade and its implementation conforms with international law,” he said. Israel’s reservations were expected to deal with the criticism that Israeli troops used excessive and unreasonable force when boarding the ferry Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010. —AFP

weapons and how they might be applied to the Middle East, the IAEA said, Nuclear-weapon-free zones already exist in Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia, as well as in uninhabited areas like Antarctica, outer space and the seabed. —AFP

Lebanon PM ready to fund UN Hariri tribunal BEIRUT: Lebanon will fund a UN-backed court that has charged Hezbollah operatives with the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in comments published yesterday. “Lebanon’s interest lies in financing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the government will act in Lebanon’s best interests,” Mikati told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.

“When the time comes for the government to make a decision on funding the court, my decision will serve the interests of Lebanon.” According to the tribunal’s 2007 founding text, Lebanon is responsible for 49 percent of the court’s finances. Beirut however has not yet paid its share for the year 2011 and in 2010 transferred the funds without government approval. The Netherlands-based tribunal, the only international court with jurisdiction to try an act of terror, has charged four Hezbollah operatives with the February 14, 2005 bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others in Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has slammed the tribunal as a US-Israeli conspiracy against the Shiite militant group and said the four indictees will never be found. In a recent interview with AFP, Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan, who represents Hezbollah in the Mikati government, said the movement would announce its position on funding the court “in due time”.

Lebanon’s pro-Western opposition says it doubts Hezbollah will allow any funds to reach the tribunal.

“In no way can Hezbollah approve (the decision to fund the court), and therefore the prime minister is headed for a serious problem in his cabinet,” said MP Ahmad Fatfat of the opposition bloc, which is led by Hariri’s son ex-premier Saad Hariri. The Iranianbacked Hezbollah and its allies hold the majority of seats in the cabinet of Mikati, who rose to premiership in January after the Shiite group forced the collapse of Saad Hariri’s unity government in a feud over the tribunal.

Hariri’s camp is also at loggerheads with the Hezbollah-led majority over the Syria crisis, with the Shiite group backing President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition throwing its weight behind anti-regime protesters. Asked whether Lebanon would implement international sanctions against Syrian figures, Mikati said Lebanon would not “turn its back on international will.” “We must separate the situation in Lebanon from that in Syria and refrain from interfering in the affairs of others, so that others will not interfere in our own affairs,” Mikati told Al-Hayat from Paris, where he attended Thursday’s “Friends of Libya” conference. “We cannot confront the international community, nor do we have the power to.” —AFP

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi man pierces a river fish with a skewer as he places it close to a wood burning fire to prepare the traditional local barbeque dish known as ‘Masguf’ in Baghdad yesterday. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Kosovo and Serbia resume stalled talks BRUSSELS: Serbia and Kosovo yesterday resumed talks stalled since July when an outbreak of violence inflamed ethnic tensions, spurring hopes of progress in a relationship that has seriously struggled since Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence three years ago. The European Union-mediated talks were expected to focus on a series of practical matters, including the thorny issue of customs stamps.

Whether Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s customs documents is a controversial question, because doing so would imply recognition of Kosovo as a separate nation. But EU spokesman Maja Kocijancic said the important thing was “that they return to the dialogue,” adding, “We hope progress will be

achieved today.” Kosovo declared independence unilaterally from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after a NATO intervention ended Belgrade’s rule in the former province. Belgrade has vowed it will never recognize the new state. The talks started in March, and by June, the two delegations had struck deals on several practical issues designed to make life easier for their citizens - the first accords between the two countries. In July, tensions caused by a partial trade blockage resulting from the customs stamps impasse escalated into violence after Kosovo’s government sent its police to seize control of two border crossings in the north of the country, which is controlled by the Serb minority. A Serbian mob attacked the

Berlusconi extorted by prostitute’s friend ROME: Italian police have arrested a businessman on charges of allegedly extorting money from Premier Silvio Berlusconi to ensure the man’s cooperation in a probe over recruiting prostitutes to attend wild parties at Berlusconi’s home. Giampaolo Tarantini and his wife Angela Devenuto were picked up in Rome on Thursday morning, and a third suspect is being sought, police in Naples said. Berlusconi is not under investigation in this case. Tarantini has admitted he paid a high-end prostitute, Patrizia D’Addario, and other women to attend parties at Berlusconi’s residences, but insists the premier didn’t know. Tarantini is under investigation in Bari for allegedly aiding and abetting prostitution. Naples Prosecutor Francesco Greco said Berlusconi had paid the Tarantini family’s legal and housing costs, with the end result aimed at securing Tarantini’s cooperation in the Bari prostitution investigation.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Rome, Greco alleged that the payment was aimed at ensuring that Tarantini enters a plea bargain rather than letting the case go to trial. Such a move would limit the publication of possibly embarrassing telephone intercepts concerning the women who went to Berlusconi’s parties. Greco didn’t specify the amount paid, but the Panorama news magazine, which broke news of the investigation last week, said Tarantini received ?500,000 ($722,000) and subsequent monthly payments from the premier. The alleged middleman, Valter Lavitola, is being sought. In a statement, Greco said Lavitola had intervened to facilitate the payments from Berlusconi and had conspired with Tarantini to make sure they kept coming. Berlusconi is not under investigation and is considered the victim in the case, a Naples policewoman said. The premier has said he didn’t feel victimized by Tarantini and says he was just helping a needy family. “I helped someone and a family with children who found themselves and continue to find themselves in very serious financial difficulty,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying by Panorama, a magazine in his media empire. “I didn’t do anything illegal, I limited myself to helping a desperate man without asking for anything in exchange. That’s how I’m made and nothing will change that.” Berlusconi himself is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying a 17-year-old for sex at some of his parties.

Both deny the allegations. The premier is known for handing out generous envelopes of cash and other gifts to women and his friends. Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy, unless the woman is under 18. Profiting off a prostitute is a crime.

Tarantini has admitted he recruited D’Addario and others and paid their travel expenses to come to parties at Berlusconi’s residences so he could win favor with the premier in hopes of improving his unrelated business dealings. He has insisted Berlusconi didn’t pay the women and didn’t know that he did.

D’Addario says she slept with Berlusconi at his Rome residence and tape recorded the encounter - recordings that were later leaked to an Italian news magazine. The conservative leader has said he has never paid anyone for sex but has made no apologies for his lifestyle. His penchant for young women prompted his second wife, Veronica Lario, to announce in 2009 that she was divorcing him. Berlusconi has repeatedly blamed his legal woes on probes by prosecutors he contends are left-leaning sympathizers intent on ruining his political career. —AP

police, killing an officer, and later torched one crossing.

In Belgrade, government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovich said he expected yesterday’s round of talks to result in “concrete solutions” to issues such as customs stamps, telecommunications, and the mutual recognition of school diplomas. But in Kosovo’s capital of Pristina, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci struck a defiant note, saying his government will not compromise on its demand that Serbia recognizes Kosovo’s customs documents. “We maintain our position that Belgrade will have to accept Kosovo customs stamps,” Thaci said. Kosovo has been recognized by about 80 nations, including 22 of the EU’s 27 member states. But

Serbia has successfully blocked its membership in the United Nations, where many countries share its rejection of unilateral declarations of independence by separatist regions. Washington and many in the EU insist Kosovo’s statehood is a special case, because it is the result of a brutal Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanian separatists that led to an international administration in 1999, when NATO ejected Serb forces. NATO still maintains about 5,000 troops in Kosovo to provide security more than a decade after that war. The EU has a separate police mission numbering about 650 officers. AP writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade, and Nebi Qena in Pristina contributed to this report.—AP

Medvedev urges regional solution to Afghan issues Karzai, Medvedev meet at four-nation summit

DUSHANBE: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday that the fate of Afghanistan and surrounding nations should be decided by regional powers, an apparent call for reduced US engagement. The remarks appear to mark a new effort by Moscow to make strategic and economic inroads in Afghanistan at the expense of the United States, whose relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai have become strained.

“What is happening in Afghanistan in the security sphere ultimately lies on our shoulders, so we need to strengthen cooperation within regional organizations” Medvedev said. In a sign of Russia’s effort to exert influence in the region, Medvedev announced that a deal will be signed early next year with Afghanistan’s northern neighbor, Tajikistan, to extend the presence of Russian troops in the country by 49 more years. Medvedev and Karzai met at a four-nation summit in the capital of Tajikistan that also included Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, whose countries both share porous borders with Afghanistan. Medvedev singled out the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, two Russia-dominated security blocs comprising mainly former Soviet Central Asian members, as being key to preserving stability.

The United States controls a strategically valuable military air transit base in Kyrgyzstan some 1,000 kilometers (650 miles) north of Kabul that is used to ferry troops in and out of the region. It also provides military assistance to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Central Asian nations along Afghanistan’s northern border have grown increasingly nervous about the prospect of regional unrest following the planned pullout of US troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Meanwhile, Russia has frequently criticized what it perceives to be NATO’s failure to quash Afghanistan’s multibillion dollar heroin trade. Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s opium, the raw ingredient used to make

TAKJIK: Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, left, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon, second left, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, second right, and Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari walk away after posing for a picture at a residence outside Dushanbe, Takjik capital yesterday.—AP heroin, much of which makes its way to the Russian market through Central Asia. While the governments of Russia and Central Asian nations have spoken frequently about the need for a coordinated military approach to deal with these challenges, progress has been hampered by diverging views on the specific responsibilities of the fledging security alliances. By securing a deal to maintain its military presence in Tajikistan for half a century, Russia ensures it will remain a stakeholder in Central Asian security for the foreseeable future. Under the existing arrangement, the base agreement was to expire in 2014. The 201st Motorized Rifle Division deployed in Tajikistan numbers 7,500 servicemen and is the largest current deployment of Russian troops abroad. It is based in three garrisons near Dushanbe and in the southern cities of Kulyab and Kurgan-Tube.

Russia’s military presence proved instrumental in negotiating an end to the civil

war that ravaged Tajikistan in the 1990s.

Moscow has been strongly pressuring Tajikistan to allow it to revive a 1990s-era arrangement whereby Russian border troops were posted on the Tajik-Afghan border. Rakhmon’s government has resisted those overtures, however, amid concerns that it could undermine the country’s sovereignty. Afghanistan and Pakistan are looking to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, both mountainous countries with a largely untapped potential for hydropower production, as a major future source of electricity.

One project, known as CASA-1000, envisions the creation of a 750-kilometer electricity line to transmit surplus electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Medvedev said the Russian government was willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the project, which is estimated will cost around $500 million to complete.— AP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Claims of dozens dead in central Nigerian clash KANO: Clashes between Christians and Muslims broke out in the tense central Nigerian city of Jos on Thursday that led to soldiers responding, with community groups claiming dozens were killed. There were claims of 22 people killed on the Muslim side and 20 more among Christians, but the military would not confirm any casualty figures.

The head of a search and rescue team for the local Muslim community alleged that most of the deaths of Muslims were from shootings by soldiers. Jos has been hit by waves of violence between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups that have left hundreds dead in recent years, and clashes that killed at least 13 broke out in the city this week.

“We now have 22 dead including children,” said Sabo Shuaibu, spokesman for the Jama’atu Nasril Islam group, an umbrella body for Nigerian Muslims. “Most of the victims are teenagers. The oldest of the victims was a 60-yearold man who was shot in the head.” Abraham Hassan of the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian group, said “we have 20 people that have been killed in the violence. Fifty others have also been injured. Most of the injuries were from gunshot wounds and machete cuts.”

Hassan Umaru, commander of a military task force in the region, would only confirm that “there was an incident in Dutse Uku neighborhood” that was contained by soldiers. As for claims that soldiers shot the victims, he said “all I know is that soldiers will respond if they see anybody carrying arms with the intent of harming others.” Shitu Mohammed, the head of the Muslim search and rescue team, said the clash started when a Muslim was robbed of his motorbike by youths believed to be Christians.

Muslims then mobilized to get the motorbike back, he said. Soldiers responded and, according to Mohammed, a Christian fired at one of them, prompting the heavy-handed reaction. “Most of these casualties were from military bullets because soldiers ran amok and began shooting anybody in sight,” said Mohammed. Jos lies in the Middle Belt region between the predominately Christian south and mainly Muslim north of Africa’s most populous nation.—AFP

Ethiopia rebels attack Ogaden ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian rebels said Thursday they killed 25 soldiers protecting a Chinese oil exploration company called PetroTrans. It was not possible to verify the claims made by the rebels. Bereket Simon, Ethiopia’s minister of communication, said he hadn’t heard of any skirmishes.

Ethiopian authorities usually deny claims made by the Ogaden National Liberation Front, or ONLF, which is listed as a terrorist organization in Ethiopia. The rebels said that 25 soldiers were killed and ‘a few’ members of the rebel ONLF during Tuesday’s skirmish. Abdirahman Mahdi, a London-based spokesman for the group, had earlier said at least three soldiers were killed in the incident. The soldiers they killed, “were dislodging farmers from their lands ... claiming that seismic lines pass through their farms. Three villagers from the area are missing,” said Thursday’s press release. Two other villagers had been beaten and left for dead, it said.

Human rights groups have long accused the Ethiopian government of committing atrocities in the Ogaden, which is largely closed off to outside observers. The ethnic Somali Ogaden region is home to the ONLF, who have been fighting for self-determination for more than 25 years. In April, 2007, the group attacked a Chinese-owned oil exploration field, killing nine Chinese workers and 65 Ethiopian workers. Thursday’s press release contained a warning that there might be another such attack.

“The Chinese are wearing army camouflages and as such, it is very had to differentiate than from the Ethiopian army personnel,” the email read. “It is the responsibility of civilians to be clearly distinct when traveling with combat military units in order to safeguard their rights.”—AP

PARIS: Muslims pray in the street during Friday prayer yesterday in Paris. Thousands of faithful pray each Friday in the Paris streets due to the lack of mosques, while French authorities have sought to find unoccupied state-owned buildings that can be converted into prayer halls. —AP

Fighting erupts in Sudan’s Blue Nile border state Attacks target residence of Agar KHARTOUM: Fighting erupted in Sudan’s Blue Nile border state between the army and forces loyal to the elected governor Malik Agar, both sides said yesterday, less than two months after the secession of the south. The clashes follow a build-up of troops in Blue Nile and warnings that the three month-old conflict in nearby South Kordofan was likely to spill along Sudan’s new international border with the south.

“In a new upsurge of aggression and in an extension of what happened in South Kordofan, forces allied to the Popular Defence Forces and the Sudanese Army instigated an all-out attack on the positions of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in Damazin” early yesterday, Agar’s SPLM-North party said.

The attacks targeted the residence of Agar, the chairman of the SPLMNorth, Sudan’s main opposition party, and the position of Al-Jundi Suleiman, commander of special joint units in Blue Nile state, at the entrance to Damazin, the state capital, according to the statement.

Agar was unharmed, but the offensive was later intensified to include all SPLA positions, the statement added, without giving details of casualties.

The SPLM-North said tensions had escalated in the past four days because of the Sudanese army’s

large-scale troop and weapons deployment in Damazin, which included 12 tanks and 40 trucks mounted with heavy machineguns.

Army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad confirmed that fighting had erupted in Blue Nile, but insisted the SPLA was responsible. “Yesterday (Thursday) evening, at 9 o’clock (1800 GMT), SPLA troops attacked army positions in Damazin,” he told AFP, adding that attacks also took place in five other areas. “Now we are in control of those areas, and our troops are pursuing the rebels,” he said.

“What happened yesterday confirmed the statement by Malik Agar on August 28, when he called for the youth of Blue Nile to prepare for war,” Saad added. The state minister for information, Sanaa Hamad, said the security forces had ordered the SPLM to hand over to the authorities all those involved in the clashes or face arrest. She also denied that Agar’s house had been bombed, in a statement to the official SUNA news agency, adding that the governor was currently in the border town of Kurmuk.

But an SPLM-North source said the former garrison town, a key battleground in the devastating 22-year war between Khartoum and the SPLA/M, the ex-southern rebels turned ruling party of the south, was

bombed yesterday morning along with other SPLA positions in Blue Nile.

Khartoum has sought to reassert its authority within its new borders in view of South Sudan’s formal declaration of independence on July 9.

Blue Nile and South Kordofan are both located north of Sudan’s new international border, but have large numbers of SPLM supporters. Since early June, clashes in South Kordofan, Sudan’s only oil-producing state, have pitted the Sudanese army against Nuba militiamen once allied to the southern rebels and now calling themselves the SPLA-North.

President Omar al-Bashir on August 23 declared a two-week ceasefire, but his government has since been accused of failing to respect its pledge and has come under heavy criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups.

The UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, said on Tuesday that more than 200,000 people affected by the fighting in South Kordofan faced “potentially catastrophic levels of malnutrition and mortality” because of Khartoum denying access to aid agencies. Also this week, two leading human rights groups said that deadly air raids on civilians in rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains may amount to war crimes.—AFP

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Policeman detained over Mexico casino attack Man captured on video

MONTERREY: Mexico has detained a policeman suspected of having taken part in the torching of a crowded casino last week which killed 52 people, federal prosecutors said late Thursday.

They said the policeman was apprehended after he was captured by security cameras that recorded the attackers arriving in several vehicles and entering the casino with cans of liquid. “Among the occupants of a gray van that pulled up in front of the casino was Miguel Angel Barraza Escamilla who... is in the Nuevo Leon state police,” Cuitlahuac Salinas, an

official in the prosecutor’s office, told reporters.

The video was previously used by authorities to identify another five detainees, accused of being members of the powerful Zetas drug cartel and of torching the casino because its owners refused to pay protection money. The attack-among the deadliest recorded in nearly five years of shocking drug violence-killed 52 people, including 42 women, one of them pregnant. By Thursday, exactly a week after the attack, people had left candles, wreaths, cards and toys at the

ruins of the casino. Some 35,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched a massive military crackdown on powerful, warring drug cartels in 2006. Earlier on Thursday, Calderon had defended his crackdown, saying it had taken down more than half of Mexico’s most wanted drug traffickers. But a report by the US-based Pew Research Center this week showed that only 45% of Mexicans saw progress in the government’s fight against organized crime, although 83% still supported military action against drug gangs. —AFP

2 Journalists killed in Mexico City MEXICO CITY: Two Mexican journalists were killed by asphyxiation and their bodies left naked with their hands and feet bound in Mexico City, Contralinea magazine reported Thursday. The bodies of Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros, the founder of the weekly investigative journalism magazine, and Rocio Gonzalez Trapaga, a freelance, former reporter for Televisa channel, were found in a park in Iztapalapa, a working class neighborhood in the southeast of the capital, according to the magazine’s website.

“They were brutally killed. For the moment we don’t have more information. We don’t know why they were killed,” Janet Alba, assistant to the magazine’s director, told AFP. “We call on the authorities to shed light on this sad event,” said the brief message on the website. The bodies “were found this morning (Thursday) and identified this afternoon,” an official from the city’s attorney general’s office told AFP, without giving further details. The magazine’s director, Miguel Badillo, told Formula radio that the women had been asphyxiated and their bodies were found naked with the hands and feet tied. — AFP

Cable recounts American’s first contact in Cuba jail HAVANA: A USAID subcontractor sentenced to 15 years in jail in Cuba told an American diplomat soon after his arrest that authorities had interrogated him for two hours a day and were well aware of his activities on the island even before the questioning, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable from Havana. Maryland native Alan Gross also said he had health problems but asked the US consular official to tell his loved ones he was in a good state of mind.

Gross asked the US Interests Section in Havana to “relay to his family that his sense of humor is intact, that he is worried about them and that he wants his name kept out of the press,” read the confidential dispatch from December 2009, leaked to WikiLeaks and separately obtained by The Associated Press. Made public this week, it gave new details of US consular officials’ first access to Gross during a jailhouse visit more than three weeks after he was detained. Another cable shows a growing frustration among American officials who said they issued several requests before the Cuban government allowed them to see the prisoner.

Despite Gross’ concerns about privacy, hundreds of news stories have been written about his arrest in early December 2009 and conviction earlier this year on charges of illegally importing banned communications equipment. His imprisonment has become a major sticking point between Cold War foes Washington and Havana, and dampened the prospects for improving relations.

Gross, 62, has said he was helping the island’s tiny Jewish community improve its online capabilities, although Jewish leaders in Havana have denied

working with him. Cuban officials including President Raul Castro have singled out the case to criticize US democracy-building programs that they say fund subversive activity on the island and aim to undermine the communist government.

During the jailhouse interview, Gross told a US consular officer “that (Cuban) officials quote, knew everything, end quote, before he was taken into custody and had asked for details of all his activities, i.e., the projects and companies he had worked for in the 54 countries he had traveled to during his 30 year career,” the cable said, an indication Gross felt the island’s security officials were monitoring him closely.

Gross asked whether any other US citizens were in the same situation and whether his case was comparable to that of the socalled Cuban Five, a reference to the Cuban agents serving long prison terms in the United States for spying on militant anti-Castro exile groups.

The consul general “did not respond to either of these questions,” the cable said. The message was dated Dec. 28, the same day as the visit, and sent out in the name of Jonathan Farrar, who at the time was the chief US diplomat on the island.

Another cable sent Dec. 14, 2009, described a meeting between Farrar and the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s director of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal, in which the latter promised consular access to Gross following two formal requests. In the meeting, Farrar mentioned that US diplomats “had sent two diplomatic notes requesting access to him, without response.”

“Josefina Vidal said she had acted upon the first note but hadn’t seen the second” - a story that the cable’s author called “unlike-

ly.” Farrar stressed that “we need access to him per international conventions,” and Vidal promised access later that week, the dispatch said. Gross told the consul

speak by phone to his wife, Judy, twice since his arrest in early December.

“However, he did reveal that the interrogation schedule had

In this file photo provided by the Gross family shows Alan and Judy Gross in an unknown location. Alan Gross, a 61-year-old Maryland native, was arrested in December 2009 and charged with undermining Cuba’s government by bringing communications equipment onto the island illegally. —AP during the Dec. 28 visit that he was suffering from hypertension and an ulcer, and had fallen down and fainted, according to the other cable. He said he was being treated well and respectfully, was not being physically abused, and had been allowed to

been very intense at first; he estimated that it had endured on average 2 hours daily,” the cable read. Gross said personal effects including his passport, two cell phones, an iPod and electronic adapters had been confiscated, and Cuban officials told him he

was being charged with “contraband.” Authorities ultimately tried and convicted Gross under a far more serious statute known as Article 91, which equated his activities with crimes against the state.

The missive did not say where Gross was incarcerated at the time, but said that he was sharing his cell with two other inmates and that the room had a television and a fan. More recently, Gross has been at a military hospital in the Cuban capital, according to people who have visited him. Gross’ final legal appeal was denied by the Cuban Supreme Court last month, leaving the US government and his family hoping for a possible release on humanitarian grounds since several close family members have serious illnesses and Gross has apparently lost about 100 pounds (45 kilos) while in custody.

The leak of a vast archive of diplomatic communication has embarrassed officials around the world and even cost some their jobs, including the US ambassador to Mexico. In Havana, US Interests Section spokeswoman Gloria Berbena declined Thursday to comment on specific cables or even confirm their authenticity as a matter of government policy.

Speaking generally, she said Washington “condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information,” which the government says puts individuals’ safety at risk, threatens national security, and harms diplomatic efforts to work with countries on shared problems. Cuba, meanwhile, has relished Washington’s predicament, with former Cuban President Fidel Castro hailing WikiLeaks and sites like it as the common man’s tool to greater worldwide transparency. —AP

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Grandpa charged with forcing Grand Canyon hikes FLAGSTAFF: A man forced his three young grandsons to hike 18 miles (29 kilometers) in triple-digit heat at the Grand Canyon and denied them food and water, authorities said. Christopher Carlson remained jailed Thursday on six counts of child abuse. The boys, ages 12, 9 and 8, told investigators that they had been hit, pushed, choked, pinched and squeezed during trips on a popular trail at the canyon’s South Rim last month.

On the latest hike over the weekend down the Bright Angel Trail, temperatures reached 108 degrees (42 Celsius) at Phantom Ranch along the Colorado River. A ranger spotted the group with binoculars on the trail and saw Carlson shoving the oldest boy and whipping him with a rolled-up T-shirt, authorities said. National Park Service Special Agent Chris Smith testified that Carlson told authorities that the boys had been overweight and that he thought the hike would get them into shape.

“He told me that he loved his grandchildren very much, but at the same time there were tough people in the world and his grandchildren needed to be tough as well,” Smith said. Authorities said Carlson tortured and beat the boys, and instructed them to lie to park rangers about any injuries. Rangers and passers-by noted the alleged abuse by Carlson, according to court documents.

The boys said Carlson also forced their fingers down their throats, making them vomit. Rangers fed and hydrated the boys inside an ambulance and they were placed in the care of child protective services.

One boy had symptoms of heat stroke, while the other two exhibited signs of heat exhaustion and dehydration.

Carlson took the children on the latest hike on Aug 28. A man died the same day on another trail at the Grand Canyon due to heat exposure. Defense attorney Luke Mulligan questioned the children’s statements, saying it seemed improbable that they could have completed the hike without food and water. He also said the rangers could have removed the children from the canyon had they believed the children were at risk of serious injury or death.

“If the rangers didn’t perceive it, are we going to put an extra burden on my client to perceive it?”

Mulligan said. But prosecutors said a ranger was successful in preventing Carlson from reaching the river on an earlier hike on Aug. 15, cooling down the children and giving a heads-up to other authorities in the park. Camille Bibles said Carlson was intent on avoiding rangers during the second trip. “We’re looking at the defendant’s actions here, not putting the rangers on trial,” she said. A federal magistrate found probable cause for allegations of child abuse and determined that Carlson, 45, was a flight risk and a danger to children.

The boy’s mother, Tara Danaher, of Indianapolis, sobbed at a court hearing Thursday. She said her children went on trips with their grandfather this summer, including to Central America and Jamaica, where they have family friends. The highlight of the latest trip that included the Grand Canyon was supposed to be Disneyland, she said.

Danaher, 28, said she talked with her children throughout the summer and that they never expressed any concerns. “I don’t want to say I can’t believe it because anything is possible in this world,” she said during breaks in the hearing. “I want to know what the hell happened.” August is the busiest month for search and rescue operations, with heat being the leading contributing factor, according to the Park Service. Of the 286 rescue operations last year, 75 percent of them occurred on the Bright Angel Trail. —AP

US flood victims still in the dark, stuck in mud

Northeast towns cut off, covered with water LUDLOW: Residents of several USNortheast states approached the Labor Day holiday weekend mired in mud and stuck in the dark on Thursday nearly a week after Hurricane Irene swallowed parts of the region with flooding. About 1.1 million homes and businesses on the East Coast were still without electricity after Irene knocked out power to more than 6.7 million customers on its rampage last Saturday and Sunday.

The upcoming long weekend, normally a celebration of the end of summer, will be a wet, stinky mess for hundreds of thousands of homeowners who suffered damage, their cities and towns submerged under floodwaters in states such as New York, New Jersey and Vermont. Hundreds of people were rescued in Paterson, New Jersey, one of several New York City suburbs that were under water while the city itself went relatively unscathed some 20 miles (30 km) away. In Vermont, the National Guard airlifted food and water to towns cut off by storm-damaged highways.

Upstate New York saw rural mountain resorts flooded, ruining business for the holiday weekend.

“Everything smells like sewer because the water got up so high. It stinks so bad,” Melody Hawkins, 55, said as she sat on the stoop of her home in Ludlow, one of more than a dozen towns in Vermont-an inland state normally protected from tropical storms-to face severe flooding. “The thing that gets me is the dust. Look at the cars, they’re all covered, and people still go barreling down the street, kicking it up,” Hawkins said. Lu Ann Wetherby, 67, said she had spent the past few days trying to clean the mud out of her basement. “The mud.

There’s so much mud,” Wetherby said.

“We lost everything in the basement, all our Christmas decorations. Some of them went back 60 years.” The weather was clear on Thursday, sparing the recovery efforts from more rain after an exceedingly wet summer.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was running low on disaster relief funds, forcing it

to suspend spending on long-term projects. FEMA officials said they would keep processing claims from states and individuals seeking reimbursement for uninsured disaster damage. But with $800 million left in the fund and potentially billions of dollars in damage claims to come in, the USCongress at some point will have to appropriate more money at a time of epic budget battles over taxation and federal spending.

“We expect that to be resolved as we get additional funding and as we

according to the Department of Energy.

While Pennsylvania had restored power to all but 39,458 customers, or 1 percent of households, more than 250,000 were still without power in Connecticut, or 16 percent of all households and businesses.

Connecticut Light & Power, the largest electricity provider in the state, said on its website it was bringing in additional workers to help restore power, with the number of line and tree crews working in the state expected

BERNE: Roads and buildings damaged along Rt 156 caused by Tropical Storm Irene in the Town of Berne, NY, Thursday. Utility companies continue to bring New York electricity customers back on line, but almost 182,000 are still blacked out four days after Irene pounded the state with drenching rains and high winds. —AP go into our next fiscal year,” FEMA chief Craig Fugate told reporters in New York. “My sense has been America always comes to America’s needs and disasters,” he said.

Connecticut has been the slowest of all the states affected by Hurricane Irene to restore power to customers.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Connecticut and Pennsylvania each had more than 700,000 households and businesses without power, representing 43.5 percent and 18 percent of all customers respectively,

to increase to 1,200 by Friday from 900 on Wednesday.

“We’ve made good progress today working with the state and towns and realize there’s still a lot of work to be done,” CL&P President Jeff Butler said a statement. “We understand how difficult the loss of power is on all our customers and appreciate their patience.” The priority would be restoring power to schools, waste water treatment plants, communication facilities and other town priorities, Butler said. — Reuters

quake risk to US reactors larger than thought WASHINGTON : The risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a US nuclear plant is greater than previously thought, 24 times as high in one case, according to an Associated Press analysis of preliminary government data. The nation’s nuclear regulator believes a quarter of America’s reactors may need modifications to make them safer. The threat came into sharp focus last week, when shaking from the largest earthquake to hit Virginia in 117 years appeared to exceed what the North Anna nuclear power plant northwest of Richmond was built to sustain.

The two North Anna reactors are among 27 in the eastern and central US that a preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission review has said may need upgrades. That is because those plants are more likely to get hit with an earthquake larger than the one their design was based on.

Just how many nuclear power plants are more vulnerable

will not be determined until all operators recalculate their own seismic risk based on new assessments by geologists, which the agency plans to request this year. The NRC on Thursday issued a draft of that request for public comment.

The review, launched well before the East Coast quake and the nuclear disaster in Japan in March, marks the first complete update to seismic risk in years for the 104 existing reactors in the United States, despite research showing greater hazards. The NRC and the industry say reactors are safe as they are, for now. But emails obtained in a more than 11,000-page records request by The Associated Press show that NRC experts were worried privately this year that plants needed stronger safeguards to account for the higher risk assessments.

The nuclear industry says last week’s quake proved reactors are robust. — AP

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Sri Lanka count finds more elephants than expected COLOMBO: The first national survey of Sri Lanka’s wild elephants found more than had been estimated - a sign the endangered species has a healthy, growing population on the Indian Ocean island. The count conducted last month in forests and wildlife parks found 5,879 wild elephants, of which 122 are tuskers and 1,107 calves, Wildlife Minister S M Chandrasena said yesterday.

Previous counts did not cover the entire island, but the end of a quarter-century civil war in 2009 opened former war zones to wildlife workers. The information gathered from the survey will be used to devise plans to protect the endangered species, Wildlife Department Director General H.D. Ratnayake said.

The previous population estimate was 5,350 elephants, he said. “These statistics show that Sri Lanka’s elephants are in good health and that their population is growing,” Ratnayake said. Ratnayake said other details of the survey are still being processed and would be released later. About 20 wildlife groups withdrew their support of the count, accusing the government of using it as a “smoke screen” for capturing the endangered animals and domesticating some of the young for use in Buddhist temples, tourism and labor. Their accusation came after Chandrasena was quoted as saying 300 young elephants would be captured and handed over to Buddhist temples after the

Aussie PM defends job amid reports of government rift CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended her job yesterday after newspapers reported rifts in government ranks over her leadership and a scuttled policy to send hundreds of asylum seekers to Malaysia. The government is reeling from a High Court ruling on Wednesday that thwarted its plan to send 800 asylum seekers to Kuala Lumpur in a policy aimed at deterring others from journeying to Australia by boat.

The ruling is a major blow to the credibility of the ruling Labor Party, which was already plumbing record lows in opinion polls. Anonymous government sources told newspapers Gillard could soon be overthrown as her party’s leader in an internal government coup. But Gillard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio yesterday that none of her colleagues had raised with her frustration with her leadership.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Gillard told ABC. “I’m the best person to do this job and I’ll continue to do it.”

Poor opinion polling prompted Labor lawmakers to dump then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in favor of Gillard in June last year. But Labor’s polling has now worsened to catastrophic lows under Gillard two years out from the next election.

Gillard was re-elected in August last year with a promise to send asylum seekers to a regional processing center that Australia would build on East Timor.

East Timor never agreed to the plan, so Gillard turned her attention to Malaysia with a policy that is now in tatters. The High Court ruling also casts doubt over another proposal to send asylum seekers to a malariaprone island off Papua New Guinea.

The government is also weighed down by Gillard’s broken promise to never introduce a tax on carbon gas emissions, and most commentators give her administration no chance of retaining power at 2013 elections. Instead, most argue that Labor must focus on limiting the looming loss. “The idea of replacing her is no longer pie in the sky,” an unnamed government minister told The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

The Herald Sun newspaper cited unnamed senior government figures as saying Gillard had “lost her authority” and must weigh up whether remaining prime minister was in Labor’s best interests. Senior government figures spoke out in support of Gillard yesterday.

“She’s the right person at the right time for this nation,” said government minister Bill Shorten, who is touted as a future potential prime minister. Under the deal with Malaysia, Australia agreed to accept 4,000 registered refugees in return for Malaysia processing the refugee applications of 800 asylum seekers. The government has indicated that Australia will honor the agreement by resettling those refugees over four years.

Authorities expect the High Court ruling will trigger a surge in asylum seekers leaving Malaysian and Indonesian ports by boat bound for Australia. —AP

census. Elephants in elaborate costumes are often used in Buddhist ceremonies where they parade through the streets carrying the sacred relics of the Buddha.

Chandrasena has said he was misquoted and no wild elephants would be captured.

In the early 1900s, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 elephants roamed wild on this tropical island off southern India. But poaching and the loss of habitat due to human activities such as deforestation for farming have taken their toll. Wild elephants are increasingly entering villages in search of food, rampaging through houses, destroying crops and killing an estimated 50 people a year.

Around 250 elephants are killed annually, mostly by farmers defending their crops or villages. The survey was conducted using the method known as “water hole count” and about 4,000 wildlife workers, farmers and villagers were deployed for three days at more than 1,500 locations across the country to survey the elephants as they come to water sources for a drink.

Previous elephant counts were confined to specific regions. One such census, in 1993, found 1,967 elephants, but it excluded the island’s north and east, where a civil war was raging at the time. With the war’s end in 2009, wildlife officials this time conducted the survey in the former war zones too. —AP

Taleban kidnap 30 Pakistani boys in Afghanistan: Officials Boys between 12 and 18-years-old

KHAR: Taleban militants have kidnapped more than 30 Pakistani boys who had mistakenly crossed the unmarked border in the country’s lawless northwest into Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. They said the incident took place on Thursday after the group of boys, aged between 12 and 18-years-old, visited the area of Gharkhi in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal region for celebrations marking the Muslim Eid holiday.

“These boys inadvertently crossed into Afghanistan while picnicking on the second day of Eid and were kidnapped by militants,” senior local administration official Syed Nasim told AFP. However, Afghan border police commander General Aminullah Amarkhel said he had no knowledge of the abduction, and the local Taleban commander in Kunar province, where the boys vanished, also said he was unaware of the incident.

Afghanistan shares a disputed and unmarked 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) border with Pakistan, and Taleban and other Al-Qaedalinked militants have carved out strongholds on either side. The Pakistani military has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the militant threat in Bajaur, one of seven districts in the semi-autonomous tribal belt that the United States sees as the global headquarters of AlQaeda. Two local intelligence officials said that the kidnappers were apparently from a militant group allied with Taleban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, who led insurgents in Bajaur but is believed to have fled to Afghanistan in 2010.

“The kidnappers were Taleban militants, belonging to Maulvi Faqir Muhammad group,” one official said, on condition of anonymity. Another Pakistani administration official speaking anonymously said security forces were stretched thin along parts of the frontier. “It is a porous border and security cover is not available everywhere,” he said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan blame each other for several recent crossborder attacks that have killed dozens and displaced hundreds of families. The Pakistani military have accused Faqir Muhammad of being

KHYBER: Pakistani relatives and local residents carry the body of a blast victim during a funeral ceremony following a suicide bomb attack near a police station in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province yesterday. A total of 12 people were killed in a suicide car bombing and a separate ambush on a vehicle in troubled northwestern Pakistan on September 1, police and officials said. —AFP

behind an attack on a Pakistani paramilitary checkpost last week, which killed 25 troops.

It said his group helped co-ordinate the raid, adding that the terrorists regrouped in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan with Afghan support after their expulsion from Pakistan. An escalating border war in the area is fanning tensions at a key juncture as Afghans and Americans reach out to the Taleban for peace talks. For years the neighbours have traded accusations over the Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants embedded in both countries, who criss-cross the porous, unmarked border and fight security forces from both governments.

Afghan officials say that since early May hundreds of rockets, mortars

and artillery shells have been fired from Pakistan into Afghan villages.

But the Pakistan military admits only that a few stray rounds may have crossed the border and complains that villages on its side of the border have been the victim of Afghanbased Taleban violence. The row is exacerbated by the fact that Afghanistan disputes the 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) Durrand Line, the 19th century demarcation of the border that separates Pashtun families and tribes.

US troops in Afghanistan earlier this year abandoned remote outposts in the far reaches of Kunar and Nuristan provinces, where they had failed to win over locals, in favour of concentrating on larger population centres. —AFP

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Japan PM unveils youthful cabinet Noda pledges to speed up efforts in reconstruction TOKYO: Japan’s new prime minister Yoshihiko Noda yesterday named a youthful cabinet lacking the usual political heavyweights, as he attempts to unite a divided party and safeguard a fragile post-quake recovery. Japan’s sixth new leader in five years gave the key posts of foreign and finance ministers to two allies in their 40s, considered young in Japanese politics for such roles.

MANILA: In this photo taken Aug 3, 2011 in Manila, Philippines, Felisa Morta, right, with her family pause outside their home in a village named after Marie Rose Abad who died during the Sept 11 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City. —AP

Poor Filipinos have 9-11 victim to thank for homes MANILA: A street sign in Manila shows an American businesswoman and Sept 11 victim smiling down on a community whose transformation would have warmed her heart: children frolicking on tidy brick alleys near brightly colored houses. Unlike many victims of the 2001 attacks who are remembered mostly by their family and friends, Marie Rose Abad’s legacy lives on half-way around the world in a once-notorious Manila slum now turned into an orderly village that carries her name.

Her Philippine-born American husband had the community of about 50 one-story houses built in her memory in 2004 as a tribute to their 26 years of marriage and her unfulfilled desire to help the poor in the Philippines. “She’s a hero around here,” said Nancy Waminal, a 37-year-old mother of two. The neighborhood used to be a shantytown rife with garbage, human waste and crime. But residents now see Marie Rose Abad Village as a bright spot spun out of the disaster thousand of miles away at Ground Zero.

“This used to be a dreaded area,” said Waminal, who heads the village homeowners’ association. “Now there is no more fighting, no more stabbings, no more drinking on the street.” The black-and-white image of Marie Rose is on the side of a framed, rectangular sign welcoming visitors to the community. Residents reverentially wipe the picture each day with cloth and refer to her as though she were family, though few know details of her life.

Before she became one of the nearly 2,800 killed in the unprecedented terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, Abad was a senior executive at the New York-based investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. She was at the twin towers when the second plane slammed below her 89th-floor office. In her final cellphone call that day to her Long Island home, then-49-year-old Abad urged husband Rudy Abad to pray before hanging up. Her husband froze a few minutes later as he watched her tower crumble on TV, ending what he called a fairytale marriage in an American dream.

A New York-born daughter from an Italian immigrant family, Marie Rose Abad had a soft spot for children and the underprivileged. The couple’s encounter with the crushing poverty that afflicts nearly a third of the 94 million people in the Philippines came as a surprise during a 1989 visit. It was the first time back home for Rudy Abad, who was from an affluent family, since he left Manila in 1963 to study in the United States, where he eventually acquired citizenship and married Marie Rose. He had told his wife that the Philippines was a paradise.

What they saw appalled them. “I could not believe what I was seeing because right there from the airport I could see the squatters, the shanties and everything,” he said during an interview at his home south of Manila. “We were looking at each other because my story to her was the Philippines is beautiful.” The childless couple were out jogging without cash near a cathedral one day when they were mobbed by street children aged 4 and 5 peddling lottery tickets. They were overcome with guilt that they couldn’t help the kids.

“That was the first time she felt the pain,” he said, recalling that Marie Rose asked him to take her to a bank, where she got about $12 worth of Philippine coins. They returned to the church, where she announced to the kids’ applause that she would buy all of their tickets. Later, he said she told him: “I don’t know when, where and how but some day, I’m going to come back and I’m going to do more than this.” —AP

In his inaugural press conference as prime minister after his cabinet was sworn in by Emperor Akihito, Noda pledged to speed up efforts in postquake reconstruction and resolving the Fukushima nuclear crisis. “Without the rebirth of Fukushima, there will not be a rebirth of Japan,” Noda said. He added that it would be “difficult” to build new reactors in the aftermath of the disaster but offline units should restart if deemed safe.

The position of finance minister went to relative unknown Jun Azumi, 49, against expectations Noda would pick a veteran from his ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to wrestle with the world’s biggest debt burden. Koichiro Gemba, 47, becomes foreign minister. Some party bosses, including former foreign minister Katsuya Okada, reportedly rejected Noda’s offer of key posts, while analysts said his choices were aimed at appeasing factions rather than building on individual experience. Noda has pledged to be a peacemaker in the ruling centre-left DPJ, which is deeply split between supporters and foes of veteran powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, indicted in a political funding scandal.

In doing so he is hoping to regain momentum lost since the DPJ ended half a century of conservative rule with their 2009 poll win, and help drive recovery from the March disasters that left more than 20,000 dead or missing. He inherits daunting challenges of disaster recovery, a nuclear crisis, a soaring yen and huge public debt. Analysts question his chances of overcoming a revolving door of political leadership.

Azumi, from the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi that was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, was a reporter for the state broadcaster NHK before entering politics. Seen as having strong ties with the opposition, he faces tough tasks in shielding the economy from a yen hovering near postwar highs and addressing a ballooning public debt as an ageing population increases social

TOKYO: Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, front row center, and his Cabinet members pose during an official photo session following their first Cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo yesterday. —AP security costs.

“Azumi is likely to follow Noda’s financial policy and to be controlled by finance ministry bureaucrats,” said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Waseda University in Tokyo. Noda intervened three times to weaken the yen as finance minister. Azumi yesterday stressed the importance of a third extra budget to finance the full-scale reconstruction of the disaster zone and warned the public would have to share some of the burden. Gemba, the new foreign minister, was state minister for national strategy in the outgoing cabinet. He will be tasked with handling protracted discussions over the relocation of a US military base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Japanese diplomacy was heavily tested last year by territorial disputes with China and Russia. In his press confer-

ence Noda vowed to deepen ties with both countries, as well as South Korea and key ally the United States. He also said he would not visit the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead, despite past remarks that were seen to support Japan’s war criminals.

Yoshio Hachiro, 63, was named Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. Motohisa Furukawa, 45, takes on the post of national strategy minister and minister for economic and fiscal policy. Goshi Hosono, 40, will continue overseeing the resolution of the Fukushima crisis as environment minister in charge of the nuclear power plant disaster. The cabinet features two women-Renho, 43, who goes by one name, and health minister Yoko Komiyama, a 62-year-old former NHK anchorwoman. —AFP

Philippine police accuse ex-president’s husband MANILA: Police in the Philippines filed a plunder complaint yesterday against the husband of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for allegedly conspiring to sell to police two helicopters he owned but passed off as new. Along with Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, police also filed charges against former Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, former national police chief Jesus Verzosa and 17 other retired and active duty officers and civilians while Arroyo was still in office two years ago.

The government ombudsman, who prosecutes alleged wrongdoing by state officials and their associates, will determine if there is enough evidence for an indictment. Samuel Pagdilao, head of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group that filed the complaint, said documents and testimony from a Senate investigation showed that the former president’s husband owned the helicopters when they were sold to police. Arroyo’s husband said the police had no documents to support allegations he owned the helicopters. In a statement, he said the police “never asked to get my side” and instead

relied on allegations made by an airline company official against whom he has filed perjury charges. Archibald Po, a director of Asian Spirit airline, testified in the Senate last month that his company bought the helicopters for the former president’s husband and that they were used during Arroyo’s 2004 presidential campaign. “This is clearly a pattern of harassment and persecutory tactics to vilify the Arroyos even without evidence,” Arroyo said.

In a separate comment, a spokesman for the former president, who is now a member of the House of Representatives, said the government of her successor, Benigno Aquino III, is “engaged in witchhunting against the Arroyos.” “This is part of the ongoing and massive vilification campaign against the Arroyos” to cover for Aquino’s alleged lack of achievements to improve the lives of Filipinos, said spokesman Raul Lambino. Aquino has denied claims by the Arroyos that they are being targeted in his anti-corruption campaign even though he has said corruption plagued the nine-year Arroyo administration. —AP

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REGUA: A worker loads grapes onto a tractor-pulled trailer at the Quinta dos Avidagos vineyard. Portuguese grape-growers protested yesterday against the economic crisis that is widespread in the Douro Region and in particular with the people who depend on it for their survival. — AP

Greece, EU/IMF at odds over deficit Greece says recession will affect 2011 targets ATHENS: Talks between Greece and international inspectors on whether it has met conditions for a new aid tranche have been put on hold, officials said yesterday, after disagreements over why and by how much its deficit cuts program has fallen behind schedule. The pause in discussions-a clear sign of tension between the debt-choked nation and its EU/IMF/ECB troika of lenders that hit sentiment on European markets-had not been planned.

The International Monetary Fund had initially said it wanted to wrap things up by Sept 5. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the talks had not been suspended and would resume on Sept 14, after technical experts had had a chance to study relevant data. Structural reforms needed to be accelerated as Greece’s economy would contract by around 5 percent this year and likely stay

in recession in 2012 too, affecting its ability to hit its fiscal targets, he told a news conference.

The government and its international lenders said on Thursday that Greece would miss this year’s budget deficit target, but they disagreed on how big the slippage would be and what was to blame. Shares in Greek banks fell as much as 7.3 percent yesterday after news of the deficit miss and the pause in talks, underperforming modest declines on European markets. Spreads on peripheral euro zone debt widened against benchmark Bunds.

The EU/IMF inspectors visiting Athens feel Greece is not pursuing reforms vigorously enough-and have in particular criticized the lack of progress on privatizations and on labor and pension reforms-while Greek officials cite the worse-than-expected

recession as the main culprit. Venizelos said Greece was not currently considering introducing extra austerity measures.

Stacking up the deficits “The first cycle of negotiations is completed. (The inspectors) will return in 10 days to see the budget plan for 2012 and conclude the procedure,” a Greek official told Reuters.

Both the European Commission and the IMF have Athens-based staff who can continue talks at a technical level after mission chiefs have left. There are no Greek government bonds maturing before March next year, which means the country will not be at immediate risk of default even if it does not get this month’s 8 billion euro tranche from the rescue package as planned.

But the country is continuing to generate large deficits and could at some point face

cash shortages. An official close to the inspectors said on Thursday the 2011 budget deficit will be at least 8.6 percent of GDP compared to a target of 7.6 percent. A Greek government official told Reuters Athens estimates the deficit at 8.1-8.2 percent of GDP and blames it on the bigger than expected recession.

The official said the troika believes only a quarter of the budget deviation is due to the recession. “A little after midnight the meeting between Venizelos and the troika chiefs was concluded without an agreement on the estimates on the 2011 deficit, nor on the way to deal with it,” Greek daily Kathimerini said yesterday. It said the move was aimed at pressuring the Greek side, which may now seek a solution on a political level with the Commission, the IMF and the euro zone. — Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

US puts direct pressure on China’s energy firms Despite slowdown in fields, China buys more Iranian oil

GIZA: An Egyptian camel rider looks on as he waits for clients at the historic site of the Pyramids. Egypt’s market, and its broader economy, have been hit hard after the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, undercutting productivity and manufacturing in the country while a general collapse in the security situation has battered tourism, a sector that generates billions of dollars in foreign currency for the nation. — AP

BEIJING: China has put the brakes on oil and gas investments in Iran, drawing ire from Tehran over a pullback that officials and executives said reflected Beijing’s efforts to appease Washington and avoid US sanctions on its big energy firms. The stakes are high for OPEC’s secondlargest producer, as China is one of the only powers on the international political stage capable of providing the billions of dollars of investment Tehran needs to maintain the capacity of its strategic oil sector.

Four energy executives in Beijing described retreats and slowdowns of Chinese ventures in Iran in recent months, even as China has bought more crude from its Middle East partner, which leans on Beijing for backing and investment to counter

concluding any new deals,” said Hayden.

US officials have literally come knocking at the doors of Chinese energy executives, one of the executives said. “The Chinese are quietly taking credit with U.S. officials for being cooperative” on Iran, a senior US Congressional aide who closely follows US-China relations told Reuters. “I really date it back to midto-late 2010, when they began to signal to us very clearly: ‘We can’t say it publicly, but you will notice that we’re not proceeding with these new contracts,’” said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of diplomacy with China.

Tehran has noticed and has warned Chinese firms they need to

sanctions over its disputed nuclear plans. The slowing of China’s energy investments in Iran was prompted, at least partly, by Beijing’s efforts since late 2010 to ease tension with the Obama administration and cut the risk of Chinese oil firms being hit

by US sanctions that Congress has vigorously backed, said officials.

President Barack Obama and key members of his cabinet have pressed Beijing to do more to help rein in Iran’s nuclear activities, and Vice President Joe Biden raised the issue during his recent visit to China, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told Reuters. Obama, Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “all have stressed the need for continued Chinese restraint in investing in Iran’s energy sector, by slowing down existing activities and by not

make progress on energy projects.

US pressure appears to have compounded commercial tension over the terms of Chinese energy investments in Iran, and those strains have grown this year. There are no signs China will risk rupturing its relationship with Tehran, but ties could become testier and harder to manage.

Beijing has worked to ensure United Nations sanctions on Iran do not imperil its energy investments and oil and gas purchases. But unilateral US sanctions could be invoked to punish Chinese firms with operations in the United States for their work in Iran. The Obama administration has avoided taking that step, mindful that such a move is likely to anger Beijing. Western powers believe Iran is using its

nuclear program as a means to build weapons. Tehran says it needs nuclear-generated electricity.

Double warning for CNPC Since June, CNPC, China’s biggest state oil and gas group, was twice warned by its Iranian counterpart to speed up work at the giant South Pars natural gas field or risk losing the multi-billion-dollar deal, Iranian media have reported. CNPC has delayed drilling exploration wells since it signed a $4.7 billion deal to develop phase 11 of South Pars in 2010.

The warnings to CNPC came after China’s third largest energy firm CNOOC pulled its team from Iran’s North Pars gas venture, two Chinese executives said. In late 2010, CNOOC was told by the Chinese government to stop work at the project, one said. The Chinese industry officials all spoke on condition of anonymity. Company spokesmen declined to answer Iran-related questions. China’s second-largest oil and gas firm Sinopec Group, which Beijing-based oil sources said has done more work on the ground than the other two, has delayed the start date of the $2 billion Yadavaran oil development.

Those moves could also reflect Chinese unhappiness with business hardships in Iran. International oil firms have long seen the terms of Iran’s contracts as unattractive. One Chinese executive described the Iranians as “tough negotiators”. But observers said an understanding between Washington and Beijing encouraged Chinese firms to slow down the Iran projects, reinforcing commercial reasons for doing so.

“My understanding is that there was a tacit agreement reached between the two countries, so that Chinese companies active in Iran would not undertake new investments- specifically, they would not backfill-and in return the U.S. would not sanction them for prior investments,” said Erica Downs, a Brookings Institution expert on Chinese energy companies.

Backfilling refers to firms jumping in to take over projects abandoned by rivals.

Chinese companies apparently hope they can keep their presence in Iran at “Goldilocks” temperature: neither too cold to risk a break, nor so warm as to risk sanctions from Washington, where Congress last year pushed through tougher potential penalties on companies that do business with Iran. Downs, a former energy analyst for the CIA,

said Chinese firms were playing for the longer term, biding time so they could be among those first in line when Iran opened back up.

Knock knock, sanctions man calling Iran’s other big Asian customers have cut back oil imports or are in payment disputes with Tehran. But China’s slowdown in investment and work at Iran’s fields have not been accompanied by any slowdown in the flow of crude. Instead, it has bought more. The volume of imports in the first seven months of 2011 rose almost half on the year. At nearly 560,000 barrels per day, the flow was about a quarter of Iran’s crude exports and is worth some $20 billion a year. China refining giant Sinopec has lined up a new import deal for 90,000 barrels per day of condensate, a super light crude oil, this year, boosting China’s Iranian oil buys to new peaks.

The Obama administration has probably not explicitly raised the threat of using unilateral sanctions against Chinese firms working on Iran’s oil and gas fields, said the Congressional aide. The implied risk could well have encouraged Beijing to be more accommodating to US pressure on Iran, he said.

US officials have taken their case directly to Chinese oil companies, going beyond the usual channel of dealing with China’s foreign ministry, said a senior Chinese oil executive and a Beijing-based researcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He flew twice from Washington to talk to me in my Beijing office,” the executive said of a US sanctions official he met.

“Whatever we do in Iran, the Americans were watching.”

US officials lobbying Chinese firms included Robert Einhorn, State Department special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control who helps steer policy over the Iran nuclear dispute, the researcher said.

“China places a high priority on energy security,” Einhorn told a seminar held by the Arms Control Association in Washington DC in March, according to a transcript on its website.

“But we believe, for whatever reasons, they have exercised voluntary restraint. They’ve adopted what we call a ‘go-slow’ approach,” Einhorn said of Chinese energy investments in Iran. Chinese oil companies have felt direct pressure from their own government, which has sought to steady ties with Washington after a chain of disputes in the first half of 2010 over Internet policy. — Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Brent treads at $114; awaits US jobs data Part of oil, gas production shut in GoM ahead of storm SINGAPORE: Brent crude hovered at $114 a barrel yesterday, on track for its second consecutive weekly gain, as investors eyed key US jobs data for clues on whether the world’s largest oil consumer will be able to dodge a recession and leave demand growth intact.

Weak data may prompt the Federal Reserve to start a fresh round of policy easing at a Sept. 20 meeting. Investors were also watching for potential supply disruption in the Gulf of Mexico as a brewing storm shut nearly 6 percent of output in the key producing region.

Front-month Brent fell 16 cents to $114.13 a barrel by 0501 GMT. It was on track for a weekly gain of more than 2 percent. US crude was down 16 cents to $88.77 a barrel, but was set for a nearly 4 percent rise this week, its biggest gain since early July. “The market is still expecting some concrete steps from the Fed to boost the economy,” said Yusuke Seta, a commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan,

adding that these hopes were helping to support oil prices.

But if the jobs data is weaker than expected, equity markets could fall and oil may follow, he said. The consensus forecast is for a 75,000 addition to jobs in August, but the market is discussing a smaller number after a decline in the employment component of the Institute for Supply Management’s factory activity index. Some analysts were still pessimistic about the macroeconomic outlook and were not pinning hopes on another bond buying, or quantitative easing, by the US central bank.

“The recent figures have been pretty poor, and we are not sure why so many prominent economists refuse to see the numbers trending back towards recession,” Peter Beutel, president of trading advisory Cameron Hanover, said in a note. “It seems to us that the belief that the Fed will ride to the rescue-even though not everyone wants it

to-is overly optimistic.” Latest data showed unexpected growth in the US manufacturing sector in August and fewer jobless claims last week, despite a slump in confidence that threatened to push the economy back into recession.

Eye on storms In the Gulf of Mexico, major oil and gas producers on Thursday shut down offshore platforms and evacuated workers ahead of a storm brewing offshore that was expected to bring flooding to Louisiana over the weekend. So far, only a fraction of Gulf output was shut as of Thursday — 5.7 percent of oil supply and 2.4 percent of gas supply, according to the US government. But those figures are likely to rise significantly within the next few days as the storm develops.

Investors were also concerned with outages in the North Sea and Nigeria, Newedge’s Seta said, referring to a force majeure of Nigerian Bonny Light,

production issues at the Forties and Ekofisk. This has pushed up October Brent futures and widened its gap with November contract, keeping the market in wide backwardation, he said.

Brent’s premium against US crude narrowed slightly to $25.36 a barrel from Thursday’s close. The premium hit a record $26.69 on Aug 19, according to Reuters data.

BP said on Wednesday that production at its Valhall platform, which pumps Ekofisk, would resume by mid-September, later than expected.

In Syria, looming European Union sanctions are unlikely to immediately impact oil supply from the producer as several tankers are sailing to the country this week to either deliver fuel or pick up crude. European oil companies are betting on the survival of President Bashar al-Assad, in contrast to their support for Libya’s anti-government rebels six months ago. — Reuters

Gold value dwarfed by euro zone debt scale

HONG KONG: Zhong Hua, CFO of CNOOC Ltd, Yang Hua, Vice Chairman & CEO, Wang Yilin, Chairman and Li Fanrong, President, pose for photo during the company’s 2011 Interim Result Announcement. — AP

HK shares poised for first loss this week HONG KONG: Hong Kong shares look set to snap a four-day winning streak yesterday with cyclicals leading losses after the Hang Seng Index ran into stiff resistance at around 21,000, with investors cautious ahead of fresh United States employment data.

Fears of the United States slipping into recession and the lingering euro zone crisis have combined to keep markets weak. Some market players are hoping the Federal Reserve will take measures to boost the economy at a policy meeting later this month. “We really need some kind of positive news for the Hang Seng Index to break this resistance,” Julius Baer’s Greater China Equity Analyst Alan Lam told Reuters. With China also not offering any respite after the central bank moved late last week to further decrease money supply , investors have little reason to hold long positions ahead of the weekend amid weak turnover.

The Hang Seng Index was down 1.32 percent at 20,313.99 by the midday trading break. The China Enterprises Index of top Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong lost 1.98 percent. Esprit Holdings Ltd was the top loser among HSI components, down 9 percent after the Europe-focused clothing retailer warned of a sharp drop in full-year profit due to one-off restructuring costs.

China Construction Bank Corp , Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd and CNOOC Ltd, with a combined 16.4 percent weighting on the benchmark index, were among top drags, with each falling well over 2 percent. Along with HSBC Holdings Plc , which has a 14.2 percent weighting, the four face stiff resistance on their own charts, making it unlikely that the benchmark will break through the 21,000 resistance level in the short term. —Reuters

LONDON: Europe’s most indebted nations are under heavy pressure from their richer neighbors to sort out their finances, but they are unlikely to mimic the impoverished gentlefolk of old by selling off the family silver — or in their case, gold-to do so. More than 750 tons of gold are currently sitting in the state coffers of Portugal, Greece and Spain alone, equal to about 17 percent of the 2010 annual supply of bullion from mining and sales of scrap.

Despite struggling with massive debt burdens and in some cases accepting multibillion-euro bailout packages, the socalled PIIGS-the countries above, plus Ireland and Italy — have not dipped into their gold reserves to service that debt.

At a time when gold prices have rallied to record highs near $2,000 an ounce, this has raised eyebrows elsewhere in Europe.

Senior German lawmaker Michael Fuchs, deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said earlier this month that Italy should sell its gold reserves to avoid taking on new borrowing. And back in May, German politician Frank Schaeffler told Bild newspaper that Portugal should sell its assets. “Before risking other people’s money, Portugal should first sell its family jewels, especially its gold reserves,” he said.

But these demands ignore the fact that this gold is not the property of the PIIGS’ governments to sell. “Foreign exchange reserves are held and managed by central banks, not by governments,” said Natalie Dempster, director of government affairs at the World Gold Council. “Forex reserves are set aside for specific purposes defense of currency, payment of external debt obligations and payment of imports.”

“In the past you could have had incidences where governments might try to overstimulate their economies by running exceptionally loose monetary policy

HYDERABAD: An Indian goldsmith checks jewelry after making it. — AP before an election,” she said. “That is a reason why it is critical, in an advanced economy, that central banks are independent.”

Two years ago the Italian government’s proposal to tax the unrealized gains on its gold reserves was promptly slapped down by the European Central Bank, which issued a legal opinion to block the plan in July 2009. The ECB said the move could violate a ban on using central bank resources to finance the public sector, risked breaching the Bank of Italy’s independence and threatened to weaken the country’s finances.

Gold value dwarfed And while gold prices are at record highs, the gold market is still dwarfed by the size of Europe’s debts. Between them Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain hold some 3,233 tonnes of gold, worth some 132 billion euros ($190 billion). Their combined outstanding public debt,

according to estimates from the IMF, is around 3,289 billion euros. If Portugal sold every ounce of its 382.5 tons of gold, it would only raise some 14.9 billion eurosless than a fifth of a recent EU bailout package. “The extent of the problem and the holes that need to be filled are so large that the gold doesn’t really provide a solution,” said Philip Klapwijk, executive chairman of metals consultancy GFMS. “If you look at the value of that resource against what they need to fund in terms of ongoing expenditure and debt issuance, it is not a solution for most of them.”

Italy, the biggest gold holder among the PIIGS and the world’s fourth-largest official sector holder of the metal, has 2,450 tons, worth 95 billion euros at today’s prices. But selling this gold in any volume would probably precipitate a crash in prices and would further undermine confidence in Italy’s ability to manage its finances. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Japanese PM pledges to target fiscal reforms Noda says must be realistic in reforming public finances

RASON: In this photo, a foreign photographer takes a photo of a North Korean woman as she ties a bunch of balloons to a rope of the North Korean leisure boat the “Mangyongbong” before it departs on its trial cruise to Mount Kumgang resort. — AP

N Korea seeks bold tourists for cruise ON BOARD MAN GYONG BONG: It has karaoke and fresh coffee, but the bathrooms on the lower decks are out of water and some guests sleep on the floor. Welcome aboard North Korea’s first cruise ship. Keen to boost tourism and earn muchneeded cash, authorities in the impoverished nation have decided to launch a cruise tour from the rundown northeastern port city of Rajin to the scenic resort of Mount Kumgang.

In a highly unusual move, the reclusive regime invited more than 120 journalists and Chinese tour operators on board the newly-renovated, 39-year-old Man Gyong Bong ship for a trial run of the 21-hour journey. The vessel left one of Rajin’s ageing piers on Tuesday to the sound of rousing music, as hundreds of students and workers holding colorful flowers stood in line and clapped in unison.

“The boat was only renovated one week ago,” said Hwang Chol Nam, vice mayor of the Rason special economic zone, as he sat on the top deck at a table filled with bottles of North Korean beer, a large plate of fruit, and egg and seafood dishes.

“But it has already made the trip to Mount Kumgang and back. I told people to test the ship to make sure it was safe,” said the 48-year-old, dressed in a crisp suit adorned with a red pin sporting late leader Kim Il-Sung’s portrait.

The project is the brainchild of North Korea’s Taepung International Investment Group and the government of Rason, a triangular coastal area in the northeast that encompasses Rajin and Sonbong cities, and borders China and Russia. Set up as a special economic zone in 1991 to attract investment to North Korea, it never took off due to poor infrastructure, chronic power shortages and a lack of confidence in the reclusive regime.

Now though, authorities are trying to revive the area as the North’s economy falters under the weight of international sanctions imposed over the regime’s pursuit of ballistic missiles and atomic weapons. The country is desperately poor after decades of isolation and bungled economic policies, and is grappling with persistent food shortages. In Rason, Hwang said authorities had decided to focus on three areas of growth-cargo trade, seafood processing and tourism. —AFP

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pledged to target fiscal reforms to curb the country’s huge public debt as he took power yesterday, but-in a nod to worries about tax hikes-said he would be pragmatic in how he went about it. Noda, 54, the latest of Japan’s revolving-door leaders, also said he’d seek to balance energy needs with public concerns about safety after a March earthquake and tsunami triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at the Fukushima power plant. Noda’s goal to balance competing policy priorities and build consensus among feuding factions in his own party and the opposition raises doubts whether the new government can achieve more than its shortlived predecessors.

Some optimists, though, say Noda may achieve more with his low-key style than more combative predecessor Naoto Kan. In a sign he plans to call the economic policy shots himself, Noda picked a relative lightweight lawmaker for the finance minister post. Noda’s government, Japan’s sixth in five years, must find funds to rebuild from the March disasters while trying to tame a surging yen, which has gained 5 percent against the dollar in the past two months.

“We can lose no time in reforming public finances. But I’m not putting fiscal reform on top of everything else,” Noda told a news conference after being formally appointed. “Achieving a good balance between fiscal reform and economic growth is our top priority.”

Finance brief Noda, who served as finance minister under Kan, tapped the 49-year-old Jun Azumi, a former parliamentary affairs chief, for the finance portfolio after his first choice turned it down. Several other lawmakers in their 40s, young by Japanese political standards, hold key posts in the new cabinet. “If he were a veteran lawmaker, the new finance minister might have clashed with Noda on some issues. But that appears not to be the case and the choice is likely a sign Noda will pursue his own policies on economic and fiscal issues,” said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.

Noda, an unassuming conservative

TOKYO: A man looks at an electric stock price display of a securities firm. — AP who has compared himself to the “dojo” loach, a bottom-feeding fish, faces a long list of challenges as the third premier since his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took power in 2009. Among them: dragging the world’s third-largest economy out of stagnation, forging a new energy policy while ending a radiation crisis at the crippled Fukushima plant, rebuilding the tsunami-devastated northeast and finding funds to pay for that and the vast costs of social welfare in an ageing society.

Japan’s public debt is already double the size of the country’s $5 trillion economy, the worst among advanced nations.

Moody’s rating agency cut the nation’s credit rating last week, citing revolvingdoor leadership as an obstacle to effective economic policies. Noda must also navigate a divided parliament where the opposition controls the upper house and can block bills, while trying to smooth over rifts within his party, which has failed to deliver on promises to change how the country is run.

His new finance chief, who hails from the tsunami-hit northeast, led the DPJ campaign in an upper house election in

2010 that they lost badly, handing the opposition a majority. The former public TV announcer had served as vice defense minister but little is known about his views on fiscal policy. His first task will be to oversee drafting of a third extra budget to fund reconstruction from the March disasters, the biggest rebuilding project since right after World War Two. Energy middle road Noda also sought to tread the middle ground on energy policy. He admitted it would be hard to build new reactors as planned under a 2010 national energy policy but said he wanted to restart offline reactors once safety checks were cleared. Nuclear power accounted for 30 percent of Japan’s electricity supply before the March disasters, but unless halted reactors resume operations, all 54 reactors will be off-line by April.

“I understand public trust has been lost over safety regulations under existing institutions,” Noda said, a reference to criticism that regulators were too cozy with utilities. “But I wonder if we can wait until April, when a new (safety) agency under the environment ministry is established. —Reuters

Chinese growth machine waning WASHINGTON: The sources of China’s stunning economic growth over the past 30 years are beginning to lose their punch, highlighting the need for reforms, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Thursday. If China is to continue to grow strongly, it can no longer rely simply on soaring exports and investment, Zoellick said, but must rebalance through greater domestic consumption. “The drivers of China’s meteoric rise are waning,” Zoellick said in an article published on the World Bank’s website and to be print-

ed in the Financial Times yesterday.

“By 2030, if China reaches a per capita income of $16,000 — a reasonable possibility-the effect on the world economy would be equivalent to adding 15 of today’s South Koreas,” he said.

“It is hard to see how that expansion could be accommodated within an export and investment-led growth model.”

Without fundamental changes, Zoellick said, China will only exacerbate the problems of the world’s economy and its own: greater imbal-

ances, higher food and resource prices, more environmental damage, difficulty supporting an aging population, and over-reliance on foreign markets. Writing on the eve of a high-level meeting in Beijing by Chinese and foreign experts, Zoellick said Beijing’s policymakers are well aware of what they need to do.

“The challenge is ‘how’ to do it,” he wrote. “A critical question is how China can complete its transition to a market economy. A broad agenda needs to include redefining the role of the government and the rule of law,

expanding the private sector, promoting competition, and deepening reforms in the land, labor, and financial markets,” Zoellick said. He called on Beijing to promote green industries, strengthen its fiscal system, and build better and more efficient public services, with the private sector taking part. Zoellick noted that China’s strengths have been crucial in helping the world stabilize in crisis, but that its growth model is unsustainable. “What happens in China is as important as Europe, Japan, or the United States,” he reminded. — AFP

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US to sue banks over securities WASHINGTON: The agency that oversees US mortgage markets is preparing to file suit against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold during the housing bubble, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is expected to file suit against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among other banks, the Times reported, citing three unidentified individuals briefed on the matter.

The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks last year. They could be filed the Times said, but if not filed yesterday it said the suits would come on Tuesday. The government will argue the banks, which pooled the mortgages and sold them as securities to investors, failed to perform due diligence required under securities law and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were falsified or inflated, the Times reported.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost more than $30 billion, due partly to their purchases of mortgage-backed securities, when the housing bubble burst in late 2008.

Those losses were covered mostly with taxpayers’ money. The agency filed suit against UBS in July, seeking to recover at least $900 million for taxpayers, and the individuals told the Times the new suits would be similar in scope.

A spokesman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency was not immediately available for comment.

The Times said Bank of America, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs all declined comment. A Deutsche Bank spokesman told the Times, “We can’t comment on a suit that we haven’t seen and hasn’t been filed yet.” The practice of subprime lending, wherein mortgage brokers lowered their standards to entice homebuyers to take out large mortgages to buy more expensive homes than they could afford, was a root cause of the mortgage market implosion.

News of the suit could have a negative impact on stocks of the banks in question. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, while Deutsche Bank is traded on the German exchange. S&P 500 stocks index futures were trading down 0.6 percent in Asia. US Treasury futures also ticked higher. The Times report said investors fear that if banks are forced to pay out billions for mortgages that defaulted, the suit could sap earnings for years and contribute to further losses across the financial services industry. — Reuters

Spanish lower house approves budget cap Spain’s biggest unions call for major protest MADRID: Spain’s lower house lawmakers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to put a budget deficit cap in the constitution after a stormy debate, cheering markets but infuriating many at home.

Lawmakers voted by 316 to five in favor of the constitutional reform, easily reaching the three-fifths support required. About 10 lawmakers from smaller parties walked out in protest before the vote, which approved only the second change to the 1978 constitution since it was drawn up three years after General Francisco Franco’s death.

To become law the reform must still be cleared by the Senate, which is expected to consider it next week. The reform push is a sign of Spain’s determination to prove to markets it will repay holders of its bonds and to shed its reputation as one of the usual suspects in the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Under the constitutional change, Spain must stick to a long-term deficit cap except in times of natural disaster, recession, or extraordinary emergencies and even then only with approval of the lower house. An accompanying law to be enacted by June 30 next year would set the actual figure for the structural deficit — 0.4 percent of annual gross domestic product from 2020. The governing Socialist party and conservative opposition Popular Party put aside their rivalry to draw up the proposed reform last week even as they battled in the run-up to November 20 elections. Even as investors and major European powers welcome the planned reform, many in Spain are furious at the change and demand the right to a referendum before it goes ahead.

Unions, some civil groups and many smaller parties say it is a hasty change to please markets that ties the hands of the government and squashes the rights of

the powerful regions. “Who do you think you are?” Rosa Diez, founder of the small Union, Democracy and Progress Party, angrily asked lawmakers of the big ruling and opposition parties. The Socialist and Popular Party groups had “expropriated the constitution,” she charged.”

Several thousand demonstrators from Spain’s “indignant” social protest move-

MADRID: Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, attends a extraordinary session at the Spanish Parliament yesterday. — AP ment took to the streets of Madrid on the eve of the vote and scores rallied nearby the parliament as lawmakers arrived. Spain’s biggest unions have called for a major protest in Madrid September 6.

The lower house rejected 18 proposed amendments to the reform before the overall vote. If the law is approved by the Senate next week, as expected, there will be a 15-day waiting period during which lawmakers can force a referendum if they can muster 10 percent support from either house of

Adults get new life-sized sandbox near Vegas Strip LAS VEGAS: Las Vegas has seen its share of heavy construction equipment as it bulldozed its way through one giant casino project after another. But with the recession having gutted the construction industry, excavators and bulldozers near the Strip are being put to use as toys for thrill seeking visitors. A

LAS VEGAS: Heavy equipment instructor Ruben Segura directs Daniel De La Garza of Austin, Texas, at picking up a basketball with an excavator. — AP

parliament. Germany and France had called August 16 on all 17 eurozone countries to adopt a “golden rule” on keeping the books balanced.

Spain, which already has a similar law on the books but not in the constitution, was the first nation to respond. German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis

business owner has created what amounts to a life-sized sandbox for adults, who pay up to $750 each to push around dirt, rock and huge tires with the earth-moving construction equipment. All it takes is a 10-minute classroom lesson and guidance from trainers through headsets. “I thought it would be much clunkier, and the lighter you are with the controls, the easier it worked,” said Mary Fitzsimons, an emergency room doctor from Walnut Creek, California, who spent roughly two hours digging a trench, moving tires and using the machine’s bucket to scoop basketballs atop cones.

“I thought I wouldn’t pick it up, I thought I would totally futz it up,” Fitzsimons said. Ed Mumm said he started Dig This after renting and operating an excavator for himself for two days while building a house in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

He quickly realized that toying with heavy construction equipment is a diversion that takes participants completely out of their everyday lives. “I thought to myself: If I’m having this much fun, imagine the amount of people that don’t get to do this stuff that would love to do this,” he said.

“When they’re in those machines, everything else doesn’t mean anything,” added Mumm, 45. “They’ve forgotten about all the stresses in their lives because the fact is, they’ve got to focus on that piece of equipment. When they get in there and they rev up that engine, they know they’ve got a serious program on their hands.” — AP

Rodriguez Zapatero on the swift action when they met in a Paris summit to discuss Libya on Thursday. Investors fear Spain’s big budget deficits and feeble economy-with a jobless rate of more than 20 percent and annual economic growth of 0.7 percent in the second quarter-will make it harder to pay off its debts. Latest figures yesterday showed Spain’s unemployment queue lengthened by 1.25 percent to 4.13 million people in August, snapping a fourmonth streak of job gains, as summer openings dried up. — AFP

Officials celebrate new BMW plant MOSES LAKE: German carmaker BMW AG and a European carbon manufacturing company celebrated the opening of a new plant to produce carbon fibers for the automotive industry on Thursday. Drawn to the region by cheap hydropower and Washington state’s renewable energy efforts, the SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers plant could become the largest facility of its kind in the world because of strong demand for the composites. The plant is a $100 million partnership of BMW and SGL Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of carbon-based products.

“We just might be witnessing a piece of industrial history that is being made here,” SGL Group CEO Robert Koehler said.

Depending on their application, carbon fibers can be lighter, stronger and far more durable than many metals. Boeing Co.’s new 787 jetliner is mostly made out of the material, and the composites long a force in some car racing circuits - are increasingly being used in the commercial automotive industry. Washington Gov Chris Gregoire lobbied hard for the plant to be built in her state, where cheap hydropower from central Washington’s Columbia River dams is drawing more high-tech companies and manufacturers to the region. “We share the same values,” she said. “We share the value of clean energy for tomorrow. That’s the future. That’s where jobs are.” Norbert Reithofer, BMW chairman, acknowledged that Washington’s cheap power from renewable resources and its renewable energy incentives were factors in the decision to locate in Moses Lake. — AP

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BUSINESS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

UK bank shares plummet

Analysts say Barclays, RBS most at risk from ICB reforms

CONCORD: In this photo, shoppers leave a Sam’s Club store, that is owned by Wal-Mart. Retailers are reporting solid sales as deep discounts and sweltering heat drove shoppers to air conditioned malls. But with growing concerns about the economy, analysts worry shoppers heading back to malls for back-to-school shopping will hold tight to some of the habits of the Great Recession - focusing on necessities and waiting for big discounts. — AP

ECB steps up pressure on Italy as debt worries grow ROME: European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told Italy’s struggling centre-right government to deliver on its promised austerity package, adding to international pressure on weakened premier Silvio Berlusconi. ECB support is vital because Trichet’s bank has been buying Italian bonds in markets to keep yields low enough for Rome to continue borrowing without needing to reach out for outright aid from the EU or IMF. Trichet said measures announced on Aug 5, when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged to balance the budget by 2013, were “extremely important.”

“It is therefore essential that the objectives announced for the improvement of public finances be fully confirmed and implemented,” he said in an interview with Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Trichet’s comments underline rising concern at Italy’s haphazard progress in agreeing measures to bring its strained public finances under control, joining the Bank of Italy, the European Commission and employers federation Confindustria. Hampered by deep political and personal divisions, the government has struggled to come up with a coherent plan since the Aug. 5 pledge, proposing and then rapidly abandoning a series of measures from a tax on high earners to changes on pension rules.

Ministers have insisted the pledges will be respected but critics from the hardline CGIL trade union to Confindustria have blasted the flip-flopping. The employers’ federation described the measures on Thursday as “weak and inadequate”. Berlusconi, already reeling from a string of scandals, was hit by fresh revelations from an extortion court case on Thursday. His isolation was underlined by bitter comments from a police wiretap in which he spoke in July of leaving “this shitty country” in a few months. Market doubts about Italy and its 1.9 trillion euro debt pile have been reflected in the yields on 10-year government bonds, which have crept up steadily since the ECB intervened last month to buy Italian paper. — Reuters

LONDON: Barclays and other leading British banks have launched a lastditch lobbying effort with the British government to try and fend off proposals to ringfence their retail operations, sources with knowledge of the matter said. Sources said it was likely that the banks’ top executives would seek talks with British Finance Minister George Osborne ahead of the Sept 12 publication of a report from a government-appointed commission that will propose tough new regulations and restructuring for the industry.

“We have a major report coming out that will have huge implications for the industry. Wouldn’t you expect the Chancellor to be in touch with the industry?” said one banking industry source. Asked to comment on the situation, a spokesman for the Treasury replied: “The Chancellor meets with a range of banks and financial services leaders on an ongoing basis.” Barclays declined to comment. The Independent Commission on Banking’s (ICB) findings on Sept 12 are set to back proposals made in an earlier interim report to ringfence banks’ retail arms from riskier trading operations to protect taxpayers from future financial crises.

However, Britain’s “Big Four” banks-Barclays, HSBC and part-nationalized lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds-have consistently warned that excessively tough regulation could harm the UK economy. The ringfencing approach would get banks to form separate subsidiaries for different retail and investment banking operations while keeping the same parent holding company. The ICB has also asked banks to hold more capital- targeting core Tier 1 capital of 10 percent of risk-weighted assetsand the overall impact of the reforms is expected to hit banks’ profits, which could make it harder for them to lend to businesses.

Earlier this week, the British Bankers Association (BBA) called for a

delay to the ICB reforms. “Ringfencing becomes unattractive to investors of all types as it reduces the benefits of diversification, gives borrowers a worse deal, and is inefficient from a capital, funding and operational per-

delayed, but those stocks slipped back yesterday. Lloyds and Barclays fell by 4 percent, RBS declined by 2.8 percent, and HSBC fell 2 percent in midmorning trade, amid a growing sense that some form of restructuring is

NEW YORK: In this photo, a trader Stock Exchange. — AP spective,” said BBA head Angela Knight. The ICB has said it expects the industry-wide costs of its interim proposals to be well below 12 billion pounds, while analysts say the industry would face a hit of about 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) a year, with Barclays and RBS most at risk.

Politicians keen not to let banks off the hook Britain set up the ICB after its banks got badly burnt during the 2007-2008 credit crisis. The government had to fully nationalize Northern Rock and ended up with stakes of 83 percent in RBS and 41 percent in Lloyds after having to rescue RBS and Lloyds with billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. Shares in Britain’s beaten-down bank stocks rose sharply on Thursday on hopes that reforms might be

works on the floor of the New York inevitable. The ICB’s proposed reforms could take years to implement. After the final ICB report is issued, it will be up to the government-through a Cabinet committee on banking chaired by finance minister George Osborne-to choose what to implement into law, probably starting later this year or early in 2012. British media reports this week said reforms may not come in until after the planned 2015 general election, while Britain would not want to be out of step with the 2013 introduction of tougher global bank capital and liquidity standards, known as Basel III. However, politicians will be keen to ensure that the general public does not think that they have let the industry off the hook by watering down the ICB’s proposals. — Reuters

Weak data point to US jobs doldrums in August WASHINGTON: The recent batch of US economic indicators is pointing to further weakness in the ailing labor market ahead of yesterday’s keenly anticipated monthly jobs data.

With nearly 14 million workers without jobs and the economy sputtering, the Labor Department’s report on August nonfarm payrolls numbers and the unemployment rate is expected to provide another dose of glum news.

The report comes amid political gridlock in Washington, as President Barack Obama’s Democrats and their Republican foes battle over how to achieve long-term deficit reduction. It also comes ahead of Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress next Thursday, in which he will lay out a plan to create jobs and stimulate the economy, which grew less than one percent in the first half of the year.

Jobs growth has been well below the approximately 250,000 new monthly payrolls some economists say the world’s largest economy needs to add for some time to make a dent in high unemployment. “Once again, it

appears there will be disappointing job gains, though that is hardly a surprise,” said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. “With the debt ceiling debate debacle, the S&P downgrade debacle, the equity market roller-coaster ride and Mr Bernanke’s warning that growth is likely to be subpar for as long as the eye can see, the real surprise is that business executives actually had the guts to hire anyone in August,” he added.

Most analysts expect the Labor Department will report a net nonfarm 70,000 jobs were added in August, according to the average estimate, down from 117,000 in July. That would be well below the 100,000 seen as necessary to support a steady unemployment rate, according to Briefing.com economists.

The private sector, which has been the main engine for jobs growth as revenue-strapped governments shed workers, also was projected to limp ahead, creating only 110,000 jobs compared to 154,000 the previous month. — AFP

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Bazaar editor-in-chief picks magazine’s ‘Greatest Hits’ Page 26

Reality TV show ‘Russian Dolls’ stirring controversy Page 27

MOSCOW: Visitors view artworks at the Salvador Dali in Moscow exhibition at the Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow, Russia, yesterday. — AP

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Kim Kardashian wants to be pregnant at same time as sister

T

Winslet’s kids loved watching her vomiting scene in movie

T

he British actress brought her children Mia, 10, and seven-year-old Joe on to the set of ‘Carnage’ while she worked on a scene where her character throws up all over a collection of rare art books and the kids haven’t stopped talking about it since. Kate said: “My kids came to work for the vomit day, and I am so thrilled that they were there because they literally have not stopped talking about it since. It was hysterical.”

However, Kate’s co-star John C. Reilly was not so impresses as he and actress Jodie Foster were left to clean up the mess. He explained: “While Kate was the one who threw up, Jodie and I had to clean up the vomit, so we had the more disgusting involvement with the vomit.” The new movie was directed in Paris by Roman Polanski - who is restricted by an Interpol warrant for extradition to the United States to face sentencing for having sex with a 13year-old girl in 1977 - but Kate was quick to praise the filmmaker’s work. She said: “If Roman Polanski invites you to join in any project, you really don’t say no. I had seen the play in New York so I was already very much a fan on the piece. I just felt extremely fortunate to be included.”

he 30-year-old reality TV star recently married NBA basketball player Kris Humphries and admitted it would be amazing if she could be expecting a baby at the same time as her older sibling - who already has a 21-month-old son Mason with her boyfriend Scott Disick. She said: “Hopefully, [we’ll be pregnant] at the same time! That would be ideal!”

Following their extravagant nuptials, Kim and Kris have now moved to New York and the newlyweds were welcomed to the city with a party, dubbed a ‘Night of Style and Glamour’, hosted by wedding planner Colin Cowie and Niche Media Holdings founder Jason Binn at Capitale. The socialite was thrilled with the reception she and her spouse got from guests and took to the microphone to thank everyone for coming. She said: “We usually say, ‘The Kardashians are here!’

But now I have to say, ‘The Kardashians and the Humphries are here!’ “ The couple have moved into the presidential penthouse at the Gansevoort Hotel on Park Avenue and the abode comes complete with its own private deck with a dining area and patio heaters, three en-suite bedrooms with a master suite on the upstairs level. The couple are set to spend around three months at their first marital home - which is reportedly costing $7,000 a night.

Colin Farrell

visits spas at 2am for role T

he 35-year-old actor says part of the inspiration for his ‘Horrible Bosses’ character Bobby Pellitt came from the early-morning body treatments he enjoyed before being cast in the film.

He said: “I was going through a period where I was going down the 24-hour spas in Koreatown, where you’d go in at 2am and have a steam or a sauna and get a really hard acupressure massage. It’s a very weird sub-culture and I thought maybe Bobby Pellitt would do this.”

Colin underwent a physical transformation for the film and says it was “liberating” to play such an unattractive character. He told the Independent newspaper: “I had a very clear idea of this guy that was obsessed with all things Asian, loved karaoke and drove a Firebird - and the bald cap and the comb-over. “I was totally creeped out when I first saw myself like that but is was also very liberating.”

Mila Kunis has no memories of starting school in US

T

he Ukrainian-born actress moved to the US with her family when she was seven years old and admits it was terrifying when she first had to mix with other children because she couldn’t speak English. She said: “It must have been frightening because I blocked it out. I don’t have any memories.

“Apparently, my parents tell me, I cried every morning and when I came back from school.

“When I wrote my essay for college, it was about imagining what it was like being blind

and deaf at the age of seven because that’s what it felt like.” Mila’s family had little money when she was growing up but she insists financial benefits have never been her motivation to do well. The 28-year-old beauty added in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “For me, it was never about the money because my parents had always instilled into me that money is the root of all evil. “I believe that 100 per cent. I was a happy nine year old and my family was p**s poor, I’m telling you.”

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Justin Bieber punks Taylor Swift

Beyonce Knowles T T

he ‘Never Say Never’ hitmaker managed to convince the singer she’d ruined a couple’s big day in an episode of prank show ‘Punk’d’ - on which he has replaced Ashton Kutcher as host - after inviting her to his house to write a track with him. A source told Hollywoodlife.com: “Justin called Taylor Swift and asked if she would come over to his beach house and help him write a song for Selena Gomez. Taylor agreed and even asked him to open for her at her show that night in Los Angeles.”

While they were at his house, Justin convinced Taylor to set off some fireworks with him, one of which ‘accidentally’ landed on a boat which was hosting a wedding party, setting fire to it and meaning the guests - who were all actors - had to swim to shore. Taylor was unaware of that fact it was all an elaborate stunt, leaving her distraught, until Justin revealed she was on the show.

The source added: “Taylor didn’t start crying but was very freaked out and was like ‘OMG I’m so sorry! Justin was trying to downplay the situation, When he said she’d been punk’d she started laughing and said, ‘How could you do this to me?’ (sic)”The pair made up, however, and Justin later joined Taylor at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where they performed his hit ‘Baby’ together. Taylor later tweeted: “You think you’ve heard LOUD screaming in your life.. Then @justinbieber comes out and does a surprise song during your show.

Woah. Unreal.(sic)” — BangShowbiz

he ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ hit maker announced at last weekend’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) that she and husband Jay-Z are expecting their first child together and insiders say they have since received messages and presents from their celebrity friends, including Rihanna, Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce’s former Destiny’s Child band mates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. A source said: “Her phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

She’s received dozens of bouquets of flowers, teddy bears, fruit baskets, you name it.”

Beyonce and Jay-Z tied the knot in 2008 and

inundated with gifts since pregnancy announcement while they have previously spoken of their desire to start a family, friends say they wanted to enjoy their first years of marriage before having children. The insider explained to America’s OK! magazine: “She and Jay wanted to focus on their careers and enjoy the first years of their marriage. “Now, with everything so perfect in both those regards, she can’t wait to be a mom.” Earlier this year,

Beyonce spoke of her desire to settle down into being a wife and mother. She said: “When you’re young - 18 or 19 - you have the energy and drive. That’s the time to work as hard as you can. “Now I’m a woman, and because I gave it my all, I can focus on my marriage. I can decide I want to have kids. I can be the mother I want to be and dedicate myself to my children.”

Angelina Jolie sent sons for fish pedicures

T Mel B ʻlaughed so

hardʼ she gave birth

T

he Spice Girls singer - who had her third child yesterday on September 1st, joining Phoenix, 12, and four-year-old Angel from previous relationships - admits the newborn is “amazing” but the birth was unusual, with her husband Stephen Belafonte close to fainting during the drama. She wrote on twitter: “Finally our baby arrives, Stephen nearly passed out, Phoenix screamed, I laughed so hard the baby popped out!!! She is just sooo amazing!!(sic)” A name for Mel’s third daughter has yet to be announced, but her former Spice Girls band mate Emma Bunton was quick to congratulate her. She wrote: “Well done Mummy!

Lots of love. Xxx(sic)” Mel previously revealed she was keen to get the birth over with quickly, and had been trying unusual techniques to induce labour. She said: “Ideally I want it to come naturally, but I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried the hot food, the running, the sex and violence. I’ve tried it all. And it just seems to be stuck and hibernating in there getting bigger and bigger, so it’s coming out this week for sure.”

he actress - who raises six children with partner Brad Pitt - says 10-yearold Maddox and seven-yearold Pax were “hysterical” with laughter when they had the treatment, which sees small fish eat away dead skin from the soles of the feet.

Describing a typical day on their recent trip to Malta, she said: “I hung out with the kids.

Usually we have swim class in the morning for the twins, then art class. The boys got this crazy fish pedicure. There are fish here that eat the dead skin off your feet and I thought it would be fun to send the boys. They were in hysterics, they said it was ticklish. “The rest of us hung out at the house. We have a nice house, and swim and paint and play with the turtle. There’s a turtle.” Though she and Brad are regularly pictured on outings with their children - Maddox, Pax, Zahara, six, Shiloh, five, and three-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne - Angelina admitted she sometimes sends them out in the care of other people so they can have “authentic” experiences. She told Vanity Fair magazine: The kids have been learning about the history of Malta and going to the catacombs. “I wanted them to have the full experience of traditional tourism, so I let them go without me.”

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

‘Call of Duty’ Duchess of Alba

convention kicks off in Los Angeles

I’m still

in control of fortune Spanish duchess

O

ne of Spain’s richest women, who is set to marry for a third time at 85, acknowledges she had to overcome opposition among her children to the wedding but insists she still controls her immense wealth. In her first comments on the wedding announced last week, the Duchess of Alba told Hola! magazine it was not outside pressure that made her divide some of her riches among her six children before the marriage.

“I made the share-out because I wanted to. Nobody pressured me,” she told the magazine. “Anyway, as long as I am alive everything remains in my hands.” The duchess divided up much of her wealth

among her children in July, assigning castles, palaces and other property of the 500-year-old House of Alba that they will inherit upon her death. Spain’s media reported the family is satisfied with the decision and within weeks the duchess had announced plans to wed 60-year-old civil servant Alfonso Diez, who she first met more than 30 years ago but only began dating three years ago when they met at a cinema. In this week’s edition of the magazine, she said that agreement “was a little difficult to obtain” but she had been determined.

“I achieved (my objective) of trying to persuade each one,” she told the maga-

Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr waves from the catwalk wearing a creation by designer Eva Brazzi for Liverpool department store’s Fashion Fest in Mexico City, Thursday Sept. 1, 2011. — AP

zine. “I am not a person who lets herself be managed: I have my own ideas and I try to convert them into reality.” The duchess, whose wealth is estimated between euro600 million and euro3.5 billion ($867 million and $5 billion), told Hola! the wedding would be a small affair and would take place in a chapel at her Duenas Palace in Seville in October. A date has yet to be set. The duchess, who is regularly featured in Spain’s gossip pages and magazines, is a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill. Her full name is Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca FitzJames Stuart y de Silva. — AP

A street dog popularly known as “Lengua,” or “Tongue” sits on a sidewalk in Havana. — AP

In this May 6, 2011 file photo, model Marisa Miller arrives at the Barnstable Brown Derby party in Louisville, Ky. Miller will be hosting the inaugural Call of Duty XP conference. — AP

“C

all of Duty” is coming to life. Fans of the shoot’em-up franchise are converged yesterday on the sprawling 12-acre compound where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose for the inaugural “Call of Duty XP” convention, a two-day event celebrating the Activision Blizzard Inc. military shooter with game previews, real-world recreations of “Call of Duty” levels and a performance by Kanye West. “It’s really in response to the strength of the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise and the passion of our fans,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, which organized the event. “We have fans who play our game every day - more than they go on Facebook - and enough fans in multiplayer every day to fill the 80 largest sports stadiums in the world.”

Hirshberg expects 7,000 attendees at the sold-out event, which will serve as the unveiling for the multiplayer mode of the upcoming “Modern Warfare 3.” Tickets cost $150 and include a special edition of “Modern Warfare 3.” Proceeds will go to the Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit organization that Activision founded to assist military veterans. Besides previewing “Modern Warfare 3” and the “Elite” online service, attendees will have the chance to zip around in a Jeep, spar on two paintball courses modeled after “Modern Warfare 2” levels, grab grub from an eatery resembling the game’s fictitious Burger Town fast food chain, and meet some of the franchise’s various developers and voice actors.

Hirshberg said the extravaganza was kept intentionally compact to avoid long lines and give hardcore fans “an A-plus experience.” For those who can’t attend but want in on the action, supermodel Marisa Miller will host streaming videos from “Call of Duty XP.” Miller said she’s no stranger to “Call of Duty.” Her father and husband are both die-hard players. “The way we play is my husband will show me what’s up in the specific map that we’re going to play through and then he’ll give me the controller, and I’ll have a go at it,” said Miller. “My husband is really intense about it. He’s really good. I’m just the type of player who likes to sit behind the wall with my sniper rifle and pick people off that way.”

For the past four years, the immersive “Call of Duty” franchise has enjoyed unprecedented success. The latest title, “Black Ops,” has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide since its launch last November, and more than 7 million people play online every day. The upcoming globe-trotting “Modern Warfare 3” edition is scheduled for release November 8th. — AP

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Madonna

identifies with Wallis Simpson

T

here may be few people better suited than Madonna to tell the story of the two-time American divorcee for whom Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated his throne. The star herself acknowledges the parallels with Wallis Simpson, the central figure in her sophomore directorial effort, “W.E.,” which made its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday. She ticked off their common traits: Americans married to Brits. A shared love of fabulous clothes. A sense of adventure. Tenacity, resourcefulness and resilience. But on a deeper level, Madonna can relate to the limitations imposed by enormous fame - or, in the case of Simpson, notoriety. “I think once you become famous, you have to pretty much relinquish the idea that people are going to see you for who you are, or look beyond the surface of things,” Madonna told a

US singer and director Madonna blows a kiss at the photo call for the film W.E. during the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

— AP photos

small group of reporters. “I think that was a source of great frustration for Wallis Simpson and for Edward VIII, because after he abdicated, they didn’t really have the opportunity to defend themselves. “So hopefully, I have been able to do that for Wallis Simpson through my film.”

Madonna spent several years researching before sitting down to write the film with Alek Keshishian, the director of her “Truth or Dare” documentary. What emerges is a sympathetic portrait of the oft-maligned Simpson that attempts to show what the American divorcee - and not just the king - sacrificed to marry in 1937.

“I think she felt an existential loneliness,” Madonna said. “W.E.” - short for Wallis and Edward, who are portrayed

by Andrea Riseborough and James D’Arcy - tells Simpson’s story through the eyes of a modern-day namesake who seeks solace from her unhappy marriage in the details of what in its day was considered the romance of the century. Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) becomes obsessed with a Sotheby’s auction of personal items that once belonged to Wallis and Edward, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The everyday objects - an engraved cigarette case, a martini shaker - become a sort of portal between the 1930s and 1998, the year of the real-life auction. In a testament to their enduring fascination, the sale totaled $23.4 million, three times Sotheby’s original estimate.

The movie covers the same historical period as last year’s Oscar-winning “The King’s Speech,” which focused on Edward’s brother Bertie, who strived to overcome a speech impediment as he was elevated to the throne in the wake of his brother’s abdication. “I view the success off that film as laying the ground work for my film,” Madonna said.

“There’s a little bit of history, and a little bit of knowledge. We are not starting from a blank slate.” Much of Simpson’s inner life in the film is revealed by the Duchess’s correspondence with the Duke and other confidantes. In the film, Wallace confides in a letter to her aunt, “You have no idea how hard it is to live out the great romance of the century, and to know I will have to be with him, always and always and always and always.”

Madonna read numerous books and viewed footage in her research and adamantly rejects contentions that Simpson was a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer, a point she seeks to rebut in the film. “In fact, I believed she was a Nazi too, when I started my investigation. But after years of research, I

could find no empirical evidence proving she was a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer,” Madonna said.

While she and her husband did have lunch with Hitler, and Simpson met with Hitler’s foreign minister, Madonna said they were far from the only ones in that era to do so. “There was nothing unusual about them having a meeting at that time,” Madonna said. “I believe people wanted to undermined their popularity once they abdicated.” The film is rich in sometimes dizzying visual detail, with a sumptuous wardrobe created by Arianne Phillips from photographs of the Duke and Duchess together and studies of fashion archives and museums. The jeweler Cartier also recreated copies of pieces that the Duke had commissioned for the Duchess, apparently an attempt to make up for the royal jewels that would never be hers.

Madonna said she wanted to indulge in the luxury as a counterpoint to the poverty of the inner lives of the two protagonists: “To make the point that no matter how beautiful and glamorous your surroundings, there is no guarantee for happiness.”

For the film’s press debut, Madonna wore a replica of a bracelet of Latin crosses made for Simpson by Cartier, with the birthstones of her four children, and a prim dark dress with a high white collar and white trim along the sleeves that she said would have appealed to Simpson. Madonna said she received support for the project from both her two director ex-husbands, Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie.

But she also acknowledged that that during her nearly 10-year marriage to Ritchie, she was intimidated from directing. “I didn’t think I had the right to make a film until I paid my dues, which I did by making “Filth and Wisdom” in 2008, she said. Madonna, the enduring pop icon who has been a dancer, singer, actress and now director, says all of her experience is coming together in “W.E.” “I see myself as a storyteller. Film has always informed the other areas of my work. I don’t think that being a filmmaker is such a big leap,” she said.

“I think all of my work before actually prepared me for the responsibility of filmmaking.” Her actors brimmed with praise for her directorial skills. “I never experienced a director more prepared, more inexhaustible, more excited about the subject material,” D’Arcy said. “There is no question because it is Madonna - it comes with an element of fear, which she dismisses instantly because there is work to be done.” —AP

US singer and director Madonna poses at the Venice Film Festival.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Bazaar editor-in-chief picks ‘Crazy’ magazine’s ‘Greatest Hits’

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s editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, Glenda Bailey has seen some pretty fantastic things; “epic moments,” she calls them. In her 10 years at the helm of the magazine, she has overseen fancy photo shoots with A-list stars, insider moments with top designers and the times the magazine hits the zeitgeist just right. Bailey highlights many of them in a new book about her decade in charge, “Harper’s Bazaar: Greatest Hits,” and in an interview with The Associated Press, she listed her favorites: Demi Moore’s 2010 cover, where she shared the coveted front-page real estate with a giraffe. Moore wore a dress and the 10-inch Armadillo heels from Alexander McQueen’s last collection on a staircase to nowhere. The image was shot a few weeks before McQueen’s suicide, but Bailey said she could think of no better tribute to him.

William Klein’s portraits of designers, shot in 2007, his first fashion photographs in more than three decades. Bailey said

Top models Amber Valletta, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Shalom Harlow, Kristen McMenamy and Nadja Auermann posing without makeup for Peter Lindbergh in 2007. The women - all in their 30s and 40s - showed they were embracing their looks and age, Bailey says. The gallery is still one of the most popular features on the Bazaar website.

“When people talk about Bazaar, they talk about a fun, fashionable, feel-good fashion magazine. They know we have a sense of humor,” says Bailey,” but I think we’re also renowned for our ideas.” The all-important September issue of 2009, which was going to press months earlier when news came of Michael Jackson’s death. Bailey went into action and had Agyness Deyn dress up in Jackson’s signature style in a red leather jacket, cropped black pants and military jackets. The next month the magazine scored an interview with Janet Jackson. “When Michael Jacket passed away, a lot of people wanted to talk to her. It was a sign of us being able to move quickly,” the editor says. Features that presented fashion as part of pop culture, incorporating art, music and movies. Over the years, Bazaar has paid homage to filmmakers Mike Nichols, Tim Burton and Pedro Almodovar. In one photo, Lagerfeld and Almodovar, guns in hand, recreate a scene from “Live Flesh.”

Kate Winslet’s “exquisite” white strapless gown by Ralph Lauren, peeled straight from the runway for a cover shoot in 2009. She stood on what looks like rooftop scaffolding high above Manhattan. “In reality, she’s not that high off the ground, but it looks like she’s risking life and limb, and that’s what you want from a fashion magazine. You want to dream.

You want to be aspirational and uplifting; literally in this particular case,” says Bailey.

She adds, “So often with celebs you see them doing the same thing time and time again. That seems dated. I want to see them in a new light. I’m buying a fashion magazine because I want to see the relevance of the time I live and I also want to see what’s coming next.” — AP

This April 2010 Harper’s Bazaar magazine cover image courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar/Mark Seliger shows actress Demi Moore wearing a design by Alexander McQueen and styled by Rachel Zoe. — AP the images captured the designers the way they chose to present themselves: Marc Jacobs practically having a party in the studio, Miuccia Prada all by herself, Karl Lagerfeld surrounded by his muses and the craftsmen who bring the vision to life, and Alber Elbaz with his entire staff, from the company president to the cleaner, doing a little dance.

Naomi Campbell’s stunning 2009 “Wild Things” spread by Jean Paul Goode, especially the supermodel wearing a Blumarine cheetah-print dress outrunning a cheetah. “When those pictures arrived on my desk, it was fashion heaven,” Bailey says. “I can’t remember ever being speechless, but I was.”

The animated characters of “The Simpsons” taking a tour of Paris in 2007 with Linda Evangelista as their tour guide. Marge met Lagerfeld, Jacobs, Elbaz, Donatella Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier. “Marc Jacobs loved his illustration so much, he had his made as a tattoo on his arm,” reports Bailey.

This book cover image courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar/Solve Sundsbo shows the cover of “Harper’s Bazaar: Greatest Hits,” by Glenda Bailey. As editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, Bailey has seen some pretty fantastic things _ “epic moments, — she calls them. Bailey highlights many of them in her new book. — AP

Knightley stars in ‘A Dangerous Method’

British actress Keira Knightley signs autographs as she arrives at the 68th Venice Film Festival yesterday. — AFP

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ritish actress Keira Knightley joked yesterday that she drew on her own madness to play a deranged heroine in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” which premieres at the Venice film festival. Knightley’s harrowing performance as Sabina Spielrein, a young woman who suffers from hysteria before she is treated by-and has relationships with-both the psychologist Sigmund Freud and his pupil Carl Jung, stole the film. “Did I enjoy playing a deranged character? It was great fun. I’m obviously crazy anyway, so I drew on that,” she quipped following an advance screening of the film, in competition for the Golden Lion award at the world’s oldest film festival.

It is Jung, played by Michael Fassbender, who first comes across the passionate and violent Sabina, an 18-year-old Russian who speaks fluent German. Intrigued by her intelligence and beauty, he begins trying out Freud’s talking cure on her, but is soon dangerously captivated by the beguiling woman. Jung’s budding friendship with his mentor Freud, played by Viggo Mortensen, is eventually compromised not only by increasing differences in opinion on the future of psychoanalysis, but also by his affair with his patient. Based on historical events and adapted from Academy Award winner writer Christopher Hampton’s stage play “The Talking Cure”, Cronenberg’s film plays heavily on the carnal drives which overpower rationality and learning.

Scenes where letters are written back and forth between two of the 20th century’s great minds-the letters on which the screenplay was then based-are followed by scenes of erotic violence, where ink is replaced by blood.

Cronenberg, whose works include the dark thrillers “Spider” and “A History of Violence”, acknowledged his latest film is different from the others, saying that it may well appeal more to Freud and Jung followers than to his fans. But he said: “My basic principle has always been the same: I give the movie what it wants. I just shoot the movie that asks to be shot.” With “A Dangerous Method”, Cronenberg said he had sought to make “an elegant film that trades on emotional horror but loses none of its power to seduce”. —AFP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Reality TV show ʻRussian Dollsʼ stirring controversy

In this image taken from AP Television video, “Russian Dolls” cast member Diana Kosov speaks with a reporter. — AP

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mother is lecturing her 23year-old daughter about her love life, flailing a kitchen knife above her head for emphasis. Mom’s point: She’d like her immigrant daughter, from the former Soviet republic of Moldova, to marry a man with similar roots, keeping the family’s East European tradition. Alas, the daughter informs mom that she’s already dating a Hispanic man. But she soon dumps him, on-camera, during a restaurant date. The scene is captured in a new TV reality show called “Russian Dolls,” which premiered on the Lifetime cable network in August and airs Thursdays. It’s been called the Russian “Jersey Shore” or “Real Housewives,” featuring six women and two men, plus colorful extras like Anna Kosov, the mother. They’re all from the former Soviet Union and either live or have lived in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. But only two actually hail from Russia.

The show has drawn the wrath of neighbors and community leaders who say it creates a caricature of their immigrant world, turning cast members into “Russians in tacky clothes who do little more than eat and party,” says John Lisyanskiy, founder of the new nonprofit Russian-Speaking American Leadership Caucus and a budget analyst for the New York City Council. The show’s characters do represent “a small portion of our community,” acknowledges Yelena Makhnin, executive director of the Brighton Beach Business Improvement District. But she says her neighborhood by the Brooklyn boardwalk is mostly “a very intelligent, very well educated, hardworking community.” Kosov, a hairdresser, had to mend relations with her Mexican-born boss over remarks she’d made on the show about her daughter, Diana Kosov, dating the Hispanic man. “I told her, ‘I’m not racist,’” she says. “I love any kind of

people.”As for the scene with the knife, “I am not killer!” says Anna Kosov, smiling with amusement.

Still, she’s serious about correcting any misunderstanding. She took time on a sunny summer afternoon to join the cast for interviews at the Rasputin nightclub and set things straight. “At that moment, I make borscht!” she explains. “Who is make borscht without knife? I cut vegetables.” The truth is, there’s reality TV - and then there’s reality. “Is that what it says?” asks Albert Binman, roaring with laughter as he reads a promo describing him as a spiffy 26-year-old, a “wheelerdealer” who “parties every night” and “wants to marry a nice Russian girl.” “I do not party every night,” he says.

“And I want to marry a nice Jewish girl, not necessarily Russian. Or else, why did my parents send me to yeshiva?” A yeshiva is an Orthodox Jewish school. Albert goes to work every day, doing medical billing. He lives in the New York borough of Queens. “I love to hang out with my younger brother; he’s 17 and he’s the love of my life,” he says. Real life may be more boring than TV, but not always.

A fight between two women in the cast erupted during interviews with The Associated Press at Rasputin. “Get the (expletive) out!” screamed Marina Levitis, 35, who runs the glitzy cabaret with her lawyer husband. The remark is aimed at Sveta Rakhman, a 47-yearold banker Levitis didn’t know before the series. The women developed a distaste for one another, displayed in a tense upcoming episode set in Rasputin. The latest faceoff was over

who would be interviewed first, with Rakhman ending up last “because she came last,” Levitis says angrily. In the series debut, she, her husband and two young children walk out in the middle of an amateur belly-dancing performance by her 56-year-old mother-in-law, Eva Levitis. She “is just my husband’s mother. She’s nobody to me,” Levitis says in the episode. In fact, “we’re a very close-knit family; everybody gets along just fine,” Marina Levitis later tells the AP. But “on TV, you have to shock people, otherwise they’re not going to watch it.” Her mother-in-law brushes off the “she’s nobody” comment with a burst of laughter, explaining that the seeming hostility between them “does not exist, actually.” When auditioning for the show and signing contracts, no one bargained for the negative reactions.

“Left the Volga, Kept the Vulgar,” read one newspaper headline. Anna Khazanova, a 22-year-old commercial model, is wearing an ultra-short dress that gives her few options for sitting politely in front of an AP television camera. But she says there’s much more to her than meets the lens, including mentoring teenage girls who attend the modeling school she started and runs. “Family means the world to me,” says Khazanova, who shared a bedroom with her older sister until the sibling went off to medical school recently. “I’ve been working since I’m 15, and helped support my family.” Rakhman, the banker, welcomes any punches and hits right back. —AP

Hanky time

5 movies that make me cry

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t’s my birthday this week. No need to concern yourselves with how old I am. But since it’s my party, I’ll cry if I want to. Here are five movies that consistently reduce me to a blubbering little girl:

“E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982): If you follow Five Most each week, you know of my nostalgic love of “E.T.” I’ve seen it a million times and I know what’s going to happen every time. I know E.T. is going to live, and that the little guy is going to phone home, and that his spaceship is going to swoop down in the middle of suburban Southern California to pick him up and take him back to his planet where he belongs. Doesn’t matter.

Those curious blue eyes of his, and the tenderness of the friendship between E.T. and Elliott, never fail to move me to tears. And it’s impossible not to feel overwhelmed by that big, iconic John Williams score. Yes, I realize I am a total dork. Moving on ...

“Nights of Cabiria” (1957): A personal choice, since my mom loved Federico Fellini, and this was her favorite of all his films. But what gets

me every time is that famous last shot.

Fellini’s wife and muse, Giulietta Masina, is irresistible as Cabiria, the girl with a heart of gold. She’s funny and feisty but eternally optimistic that she’ll find her true love on the streets of Rome. She finally thinks she’s found “the one,” only to discover that he’s trying to take advantage of her. Heartbroken, she returns to those same streets and gets caught up in a parade. Then she looks into the camera and smiles through tears as if to let us know she’ll be all right, and the Nino Rota score swells, and it’s just a perfect moment.

“Lassie Come Home” (1943): We had a collie named Bingo when I was growing up, so anything Lassie-related was always appealing.

But “Lassie Come Home” is heartbreaking no matter who you are with its themes of loyalty, struggle and perseverance. Featuring a young Roddy McDowell and Elizabeth Taylor, it tells the story of a destitute family that’s forced to sell its beloved dog. But Lassie not only breaks free from her new owners, she treks hundreds of miles (kilometers) through various dangers and rough conditions to

return home. Yes, it is manipulative, especially in that moment when young Joe Carraclough sees her again for the first time, but it works.

A faithful 2006 remake had me yelling, “Run, girl, run!” with tears streaming down my face.

(Thankfully, I was alone in the theater.)

“My Dog Skip” (2000): Again, anything having to do with a dog is going to turn me into a pile of mush. “My Dog Skip” also has that irresistible boy-and-his dog dynamic, which exponentially ups the cute factor. A young Frankie Muniz stars as a shy kid named Willie whose only real friend, a scruffy and lovable Jack Russell terrier, helps him open up to the world. Sure, Skip and Willie’s adventures may seem too contrived in their wackiness, and their bond is unrelentingly and shamelessly heart-tugging. Still, but you’d have to be a major cynic not to get choked up, especially by the final scene.

“Up” (2009): The whole film is lovely, of course the winner of two Academy Awards, including best animated feature. It’s easily one of Pixar’s best, and that’s saying something. But it’s that one poignant montage that makes

A scene from the film, “Up.” the tears come in torrents. It reveals the decades-long relationship between curmudgeonly, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen and the love of his life, his late wife, Ellie, who brought out the fun he never knew he had inside of him. It lasts just a few minutes without a single word spoken - just Michael Giacchino’s wistful, Oscar-winning score to accompany the images - but it’s so beautifully detailed and insightful, it tells a full and satisfying story. Don’t even bother trying to hold back. — AP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Hong Kong’s century-old trams roll into the future

HONG KONG: Passengers travel on a tram in Hong Kong. — AFP

HONG KONG: They shake, rattle and roll alongside flashy cars on streets lined with skyscrapers, but Hong Kong’s retro-look trams are as much part of life in the glitzy city as they were a century ago.

Known as “ding-dings” for the sound of their bells, the iconic double-decker trams are beloved of tourists and are being celebrated in a city exhibition-but for thousands of commuters and shoppers they remain daily workhorses. Office worker Eric Lee says they have a special place in his heart and he often chooses a tram over the quicker and more comfortable public-transit options in the modern metropolis, including a super-efficient subway system. The “ding ding” sound stopped Lee from crying when he was a child-much to his mother’s delight-and later set him on a path to becoming a collector of tram memorabilia, some of which are on show at the exhibition.

“When I was young, I was always crying,” the 26-year-old office worker told AFP, as he settled into a seat on a trolley’s upper deck, giving him clear views of Hong Kong’s teeming urban landscape.

“My mom brought me to the tram stop. When I heard the ding-ding sounds from trams, I stopped crying. I can’t explain why. But it’s such a good memory.” Lee has designed a tram-shaped wrist rest for computer keyboards, published a tram photobook and turned a tramcar into a coffee shop as part of the exhibition of some 300 items displayed at Victoria Peak, a tourist attraction overlooking the city and harbor. Not all Hong Kong residents are quite so taken by the former British colony’s 107-year-old system, the

HONG KONG: This photo taken on August 15, 2011 shows passengers looking out of the windows of a tram running in Hong Kong. — AFP

largest of its kind still in operation, which has survived despite heavy competition from cars, buses and subways. But at HK$2.30 (29 US cents) for a ride anywhere on the 118-stop system, which traces much of Hong Kong’s old shoreline along a 30 kilometer (18-mile) track, it remains popular while trams have disappeared from most major cities. ‘It’s our heritage’Apart from the price, a whiff of nostalgia blowing through the open windows in the sealed and air conditioned city also draws passengers to the teeth-chattering

HONG KONG: In this picture taken on August 23, 2011 a tram driver drives his decorated tram in Hong Kong. They shake, rattle and roll along streets full of flashy cars and pricey properties, but Hong Kong’s retro-look trams are still as much part of life in the glitzy city as they were a century ago. — AFP

and often crowded rides on one of the 163 trams. “It has become a part of Hong Kong, and it’s our heritage,” said local lawmaker Pan Pey Chyou. “I just couldn’t imagine what Hong Kong island would look like without the trams being there.”

British tourist Rupert Shield, 38, figured the system was “definitely worth two dollars and thirty (cents)”, despite the lack of air conditioning. “A bit hot, a bit crowded, but you know you get a good view from up top,” he said. “I’m surprised many people still use it other than tourists,” he added. In many European and North American cities, tram systems had disappeared by the mid-20th Century as critics dismissed them as too rigid and vulnerable to delays caused by a single accident.

But now some large urban centres, including Paris and Auckland, are taking another look, as they restore, upgrade or even expand their electric-powered streetcar system, citing its environmental and cultural heritage value.

French utility giant Veolia, which took over management of Hong Kong’s tram service in 2009 and bought the system outright in 2010, is upgrading the city’s system with more comfortable seating, while keeping the cars’ heritage facade.

“No one can say forever. But personally, I think that (the tram system) will stay here for a very, very long time,” said legislator Pan. “I think for the next century, probably it will still be there.” — AFP

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

BLACKPOOL: The Blackpool Tower (L) is pictured in Blackpool, north-west England. — AFP

British seaside icon

Blackpool Tower opens after revamp LONDON: The Blackpool Tower, a British seaside icon, reopened Thursday after a 10-month revamp, the centrepiece of a £250-million bid to breathe new life into the faded holiday resort.

The dark red structure in northwest England, inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, now boasts a tower-top viewpoint and a gruesome dungeon museum to attract visitors. Opened in the 1890s, the tower was a popular tourist attraction for years but its popularity declined as holidaymakers deserted British resorts in favour of

cheap deals in warmer climes. Blackpool Council, which decided to regenerate the tower after buying it, hopes its regeneration programme for the area, worth 280 million euros or $400 million, will return the seaside town to its heyday. The tower retains many original features such as the Tower Ballroom and Tower Circus, and new attractions include the Tower Eye, a viewpoint at the top of the structure with an entirely glass observation platform. The dungeon museum is described as a walk through

BLACKPOOL: Workmen working on the promenade improvements are pictured through the new glass walkway at the top of Blackpool tower. — AFP

BLACKPOOL: Amber Houghton, a competition winner, is one of the first people to walk on the new glass walkway at the top of Blackpool Tower in Blackpool, north-west England. — AFP Entertainments on the regeneration and comthe region’s “most horrible history”.

There is also a specially-commissioned film pany boss Nick Varney said the tower “looks of the history of the tower, including the story fantastic and has been restored with a great of former mayor John Bickerstaffe’s decision to deal of skill and care. “This, together with all build the landmark, which he took after being the other investment going on in the town, inspired by seeing the Eiffel Tower. The film fea- means this much-loved seaside town has the tures “sensory effects”, from sea spray splashing potential, and the vision, to once again become in viewers’ faces to the aroma of beach don- one of Europe’s leading family holiday destinakeys. The council has been working with Merlin tions.” — AFP

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Reliance on autopilot technology increasing Faltering autopilot leaves some pilots at a loss

WASHINGTON: Pilots’ “automation addiction” has eroded their flying skills to the point that they sometimes don’t know how to recover from stalls and other midflight problems, say pilots and safety officials. The weakened skills have contributed to hundreds of deaths in airline crashes in the last five years. Some 51 “loss of control” accidents occurred in which planes stalled in flight or got into unusual positions from which pilots were unable to recover, making it the most common type of airline accident, according to the International Air Transport Association. “We’re seeing a new breed of accident with these stateof-the art planes,” said Rory Kay, an airline captain and co-chair of a Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee on pilot training. “We’re forgetting how to fly.”

Opportunities for airline pilots to maintain their flying proficiency by manually flying planes are increasingly limited, the FAA committee recently warned. Airlines and regulators discourage or even prohibit pilots from turning off the autopilot and flying planes themselves, the committee said.

Fatal airline accidents have decreased dramatically in the US over the past decade. However, The Associated Press interviewed pilots, industry officials and aviation safety experts who expressed concern about the implications of decreased opportunities for manual flight, and reviewed more than a dozen loss-of-control accidents around the world. Safety experts say they’re seeing cases in which pilots who are suddenly confronted with a loss of computerized flight controls don’t appear to know how to respond immediately, or they make errors - sometimes fatally so. A draft FAA study found pilots sometimes “abdicate too much responsibility to automated systems.” Because these systems are so integrated in today’s planes, one malfunctioning piece of equipment or a single bad computer instruction can suddenly cascade into a series of other failures, unnerving pilots who have been trained to rely on the equipment.

The study examined 46 accidents and major incidents, 734 voluntary reports by pilots and others as well as data from more than 9,000 flights in which a safety official rides in the cockpit to observe pilots in action. It found that in more than 60 percent of accidents, and 30 percent of major incidents, pilots had trouble manually flying the plane or made mistakes with automated flight controls. A typical mistake was not recognizing that either the autopilot or the auto-throttle - which controls power to the engines - had disconnected. Others failed to take the proper steps to recover from a stall in flight or to monitor and main-

tain airspeed. The airline industry is suffering from “automation addiction,” Kay said. In the most recent fatal airline crash in the US, in 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y., the copilot of a regional airliner programmed incorrect information into the plane’s computers, causing it to slow to an unsafe speed.

That triggered a stall warning. The startled captain, who hadn’t noticed the plane had slowed too much, responded by repeatedly pulling back on the control yoke, overriding two safety systems, when the correct procedure was to

month, French investigators recommended that all pilots get mandatory training in manual flying and handling a high-altitude stall. The recommendations were in response to the 2009 crash of an Air France jet flying from Brazil to Paris. All 228 people aboard were killed. An investigation found that airspeed sensors fed bad information to the Airbus A330’s computers. That caused the autopilot to disengage suddenly and a stall warning to activate.

The co-pilot at the controls struggled to save the plane, but

to the unexpected loss or malfunction of automated aircraft systems “is the big issue that we can no longer hide from in aviation,” said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. “We’ve been very slow to recognize the consequence of it and deal with it.” The foundation, which is industry supported, promotes aviation safety around the world.

Airlines are also seeing smaller incidents in which pilots waste precious time repeatedly trying to restart the autopilot or fix other

AMSTERDAM: This file photo shows the wreckage of a Turkish Airlines aircraft after it slammed into a field while attempting to land at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Airline industry and safety officials are concerned that pilots’ flying skills are becoming rusty and their ability to handle unexpected situations is eroding because most flying is delegated to computers in today’s highly automated planes.— AP

push forward.

An investigation later found there were no mechanical or structural problems that would have prevented the plane from flying if the captain had responded correctly. Instead, his actions caused an aerodynamic stall. The plane plummeted to earth, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground.

Two weeks after the New York accident, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 crashed into a field while trying to land in Amsterdam. Nine people were killed and 120 injured. An investigation found that one of the plane’s altimeters, which measures altitude, had fed incorrect information to the plane’s computers. That, in turn, caused the auto-throttle to reduce speed to a dangerously slow level so that the plane lost lift and stalled. Dutch investigators described the flight’s three pilots’ “automation surprise” when they discovered the plane was about to stall. They hadn’t been closely monitoring the airspeed. Last

because he kept pointing the plane’s nose up, he actually caused the stall instead of preventing it, experts said. Despite the bad airspeed information, which lasted for less than a minute, there was nothing to prevent the plane from continuing to fly if the pilot had followed the correct procedure for such circumstances, which is to continue to fly levelly in the same direction at the same speed while trying to determine the nature of the problem, they said. In such cases, the pilots and the technology are failing together, said former US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, whose precision flying is credited with saving all 155 people aboard an Airbus A320 after it lost power in a collision with Canada geese shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport two years ago. “If we only look at the pilots - the human factor - then we are ignoring other important factors,” he said. “We have to look at how they work together.”

The ability of pilots to respond

automated systems when what they should be doing is “grasping the controls and flying the airplane,” said Bob Coffman, another member of the FAA pilot training committee and an airline captain.

Paul Railsback, operations director at the Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, said, “We think the best way to handle this is through the policies and training of the airlines to ensure they stipulate that the pilots devote a fair amount of time to manually flying.

We want to encourage pilots to do that and not rely 100 percent on the automation. I think many airlines are moving in that direction.”

In May, the FAA proposed requiring airlines to train pilots on how to recover from a stall, as well as expose them to more realistic problem scenarios. But other new regulations are going in the opposite direction. Today, pilots are required to use their autopilot when flying at altitudes above 24,000 feet, which is where airliners spend much of their time cruising. The required minimum verti-

cal safety buffer between planes has been reduced from 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet. That means more planes flying closer together, necessitating the kind of precision flying more reliably produced by automation than human beings.

The same situation is increasingly common closer to the ground.

The FAA is moving from an air traffic control system based on radar technology to more precise GPS navigation. Instead of timeconsuming, fuel-burning stair-step descents, planes will be able to glide in more steeply for landings with their engines idling. Aircraft will be able to land and take off closer together and more frequently, even in poor weather, because pilots will know the precise location of other aircraft and obstacles on the ground. Fewer planes will be diverted. But the new landing procedures require pilots to cede even more control to automation. “Those procedures have to be flown with the autopilot on,” Voss said. “You can’t afford a sneeze on those procedures.”

Even when not using the new procedures, airlines direct their pilots to switch on the autopilot about a minute and a half after takeoff when the plane reaches about 1,000 feet, Coffman said. The autopilot generally doesn’t come off until about a minute and a half before landing, he said. Pilots still control the plane’s flight path. But they are programming computers rather than flying with their hands.

Opportunities to fly manually are especially limited at commuter airlines, where pilots may fly with the autopilot off for about 80 seconds out of a typical two-hour flight, Coffman said.

But it is the less experienced first officers starting out at smaller carriers who most need manual flying experience. And, airline training programs are focused on training pilots to fly with the automation, rather than without it.

Senior pilots, even if their manual flying skills are rusty, can at least draw on experience flying older generations of less automated planes. Adding to concerns about an overreliance on automation is an expected pilot shortage in the US and many other countries. US airlines used to be able to draw on a pool of former military pilots with extensive manual flying experience. But more pilots now choose to stay in the armed forces, and corporate aviation competes for pilots with airlines, where salaries have dropped. Changing training programs to include more manual flying won’t be enough because pilots spend only a few days a year in training, Voss said.

Airlines will have to rethink their operations fundamentally if they’re going to give pilots realistic opportunities to keep their flying skills honed, he said. —AP

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Sony shows wearable 3-D personal theater Success of product offering solitary entertainment questioned

TOKYO: A model wears a 60,000 yen ($800) HMZ personal 3-D viewer during a news conference at Sony headquarters. — AP

TOKYO: Sony says it will start selling a head mounted display that provides a 3-D theater of music videos, movies and games, targeting people who prefer solitary entertainment rather than sitting in front of a TV with family or friends. Sony Corp. said Wednesday that the 60,000 yen ($800) “HMZ personal 3-D viewer” is set to go on sale Nov 11 in Japan, and is planned for the US and Europe, perhaps in time for Christmas, although dates have not yet been set. Resembling a futuristic visor, HMZ, which stands for “head mounted display,” is worn like chunky goggles-and-earphones in one. The footage before the viewer - a music video of a Japanese singer in the demonstration for reporters in Tokyo - is crystal-clear and feels like peering into a dolls house in which a real-life tiny singer is moving.

It seems unlikely that most people - or even technology enthusiasts - will want to buy a product that involves sitting alone and wearing a little helmet. The HMZ might not be Sony’s long awaited answer to Apple’s iPod or iPad but just another quirky device packed with cutting-edge technology that is headed for a limited niche following. A 3-D wearable gaming machine Virtual Boy from Nintendo Co, which went

on sale in the 1990s, bombed, partly because of the bulky headgear required as well as the image being all red. Sony’s latest product is far more sophisticated. Sony officials said the gadget delivers the immersive experience of a home-theater, or the equivalent of sitting in one of the best seats of a movie theater. The machine, which hooks up to your Blu-ray disc player or your game machine, is targeting people who want to enjoy movies or games alone.

It is not recommended for people 15 years old and younger because some experts believe overly stimulating imagery is not good for teenagers whose brains are still developing, according to Shigeru Kato, a Sony vice president. On the plus side, consumers are growing more accustomed to 3-D these days, with the arrival of 3-D TVs and game machines. Kato noted the most popular movies last year, including “Avatar” and “Toy Story 3,” were 3-D. HMZ uses Sony’s own OLED screen, a relatively new kind of display that relays superb image quality and color, compared to the more prevalent liquid crystal and plasma displays used in laptops and flat-panel TVs. Kato said the major challenge had been making a very small display without compromising image quality. — AP

Dissatisfied with school website, student pushed to take initiative SAN JOSE: When the San Jose Unified School District rolled out its new Web-based student information system earlier this year, students immediately noticed some shortcomings. For one, they no longer could view their current grades for all their classes at one glance.

Checking on several classes required several clicks - which for a 16-year-old is, like, so much work. Instead of settling, Daniel Brooks, then a senior at Pioneer High, came up with a Silicon Valley-style fix: He developed an iPhone app. Then he got Apple’s approval to hawk it on the App Store, handed out hundreds of fliers and now has 2,300 users who downloaded it across the country. “It ended up on every iPhone and iPad and portable device that any student and teacher had on campus,” said Scott Peterson, a Pioneer High English teacher who doubles as the campus tech support.

In the months since, Daniel has experienced the highs and lows familiar to many software developers who have created wildly popular apps - although he’s getting them a little earlier in his career than most. Daniel’s app is so successful that users want more; in particular, his teachers started pushing him to develop a version for them. But he’s received less enthusiasm from the company whose clunky technology he improved: software developer Infinite Campus, which developed the Web-based information system accessible by teachers, parents and students. Daniel said he didn’t write the app to get rich: The app is free. “A student is not going to want to pay 99 cents,” Daniel said. “They just want to see their grades nice and easy.” Users in 250 school districts across the country also downloaded Daniel’s IC Connector. Infinite Campus, the No. 2 maker nationally of K-12 school information systems, has contracts

with nearly 50 California school districts, including South San Francisco, San Ramon, Santa Cruz and Palo Alto.

Peterson embedded a link to IC Connector on the Pioneer High Web site. In the spring, the app was getting more than 200 uses daily on its busiest days. But Daniel, who developed the app without the cooperation of Minnesota-based Infinite Campus, found the company and school district less enthusiastic.

Both he and his father, software engineer Michael Brooks, emailed the company to seek its cooperation and later see if it was interested in purchasing the app. The elder Brooks received only one email in reply; it said using Infinite Campus’ name and logo in the app’s name confused users and constituted a copyright violation. Michael Brooks emailed offering to change the name, but asking for time to get Apple’s approval. Daniel also emailed and called. They got no response. Eric Creighton, Infinite Campus’ chief operating officer, said the company simply wanted the Brookses to make clear that they weren’t offering an official Infinite Campus app. The company doesn’t outsource software development nor encourage third parties, he said, and plans to release its own free iPhone app next month.

Creighton acknowledges receiving Brooks’ emails. “I didn’t respond. Our nonresponse was, ‘We’re fine,’ “ he said. “Silence on our part was the appropriate communication.”

Daniel and his dad said that being ignored was “just weird.” Daniel’s graduation compounded his difficulties, leaving him without an Infinite Campus school account, although his family has one for his younger sister.

Because he has no sample account to test how his app works in San Jose Unified and other school districts, IC Connector often

SAN JOSE: When San Jose Unified school district launched a student information system to track grades, test scores and attendance Daniel Brooks, 18, found the interface hard to manage. So he designed an iPhone app that other students and other parents have started using. — MCT

crashes, Daniel said. San Jose Unified’s Infinite Campus portal will reopen for the new school in a couple of weeks, allowing families to see grades, assignments, schedules and attendance.

The district’s technology director, Mitzi Macon, hopes it will include an updated version of Infinite Campus. The district purchased the system, which integrated all its student data, two years ago for $650,000.

Annual maintenance and support is about $280,000.

Daniel, who heads to California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo this fall as a freshman, continues to try to improve the app and hopes to put out an Android version soon. Still, he feels snubbed

by the company and school districts for not cooperating more. “I have a working app that could be really useful, but they don’t want to use it.” Infinite Campus maintains that it isn’t hostile to Daniel. “We have a soft spot for kids hacking out tech solutions for the betterment of schools,” Creighton said. The company’s founder, Charlie Kratsch, began his IT career in high school, developing software for school districts in Minnesota. In the spring, the company even offered Daniel a summer internship at its suburban Minneapolis headquarters. No thanks, said Daniel. “I already have a good job here” - a paid internship creating apps and doing other programming for marketing services firm SolutionSet. “And,” he said, “I can work from home.” — MCT

TV listings SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

00:45 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Killer Crocs 03:30 Whale Wars 04:25 Maneaters 05:20 Animal Cops Houston 06:10 Must Love Cats 07:00 Lemur Street 07:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 08:15 The Really Wild Show 08:40 Natural Born Hunters 09:10New Breed Vets With Steve Irwin 10:05 My Cat From Hell 11:00 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 11:55 Crocodile Hunter 12:50 Cats Of Claw Hill 13:45 Animal Cops Houston 14:40 Animal Planet’s Most Outrageous 20:10 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 21:05 Natural World 22:00 Killer Jellyfish 22:55 I’m Alive 23:50 The Animals’ Guide To Survival

00:00 2 Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps 00:30 The Weakest Link 01:20 True Dare Kiss 02:10 Robin Hood 03:00 Gavin & Stacey 03:30 Doctors 04:00 Last Of The Summer Wine 04:30 Tweenies 04:50 The Roly Mo Show 05:05 Me Too 05:25 Jackanory Junior 05:40 Poetry Pie 05:50 Tweenies 06:10 The Roly Mo Show 06:25 Me Too 06:45 Jackanory Junior 07:00 Tweenies 07:20 The Roly Mo Show 07:35 Me Too 07:55 Jackanory Junior 08:10 Poetry Pie 08:20 Tweenies 08:40 The Roly Mo Show 08:55 Me Too 09:15 Jackanory Junior 09:30 Poetry Pie 09:45 Last Of The Summer Wine 10:45 Untold Stories Of A Royal Bridesmaid 11:35 Robin Hood 12:20 Eastenders 14:20 After You’ve Gone 14:55 The Weakest Link 15:40 Untold Stories Of A Royal Bridesmaid 16:30 Robin Hood 17:15 The Weakest Link 18:00 After You’ve Gone 18:30 Holby City 20:10 Robin Hood

00:10 The Naked Chef 00:35 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 01:00 What Not To Wear 01:50 Masterchef Australia 02:40 The Naked Chef 03:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 04:55 Masterchef Australia 05:40 The Naked Chef 06:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:00 Saturday Kitchen 11:05 Daily Cooks Challenge 16:30 Antiques Roadshow 20:30 What Not To Wear 23:05 Antiques Roadshow

00:40 01:35 02:30 03:25 03:55 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:50 08:15 08:45

Dirty Jobs Miami Ink Ultimate Survival Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Mythbusters How Do They Do It? How Stuff’s Made Dirty Jobs Wheeler Dealers Wheeler Dealers On The Road Fifth Gear American Chopper: Senior vs

00:40 X Games Heroes 01:30 World Combat League 02:20 Eddie Jordan’s Bad Boy Racers 03:10 M1 Selection 2010 04:00 Summer Dew Tour 2010 05:40 World Combat League 06:30 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 08:00 Cape Epic 09:40 Tread BMX 11:20 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

12:10 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

13:00 BMX Megatour 13:50 Mantracker 14:40 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2009 16:20 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

17:10 Mind The Addiction 18:00 Mantracker 18:50 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships...

20:30 BMX Megatour 21:20 Mind The Addiction 22:10 Mantracker 23:00 FIM World Motocross MX3 2011 23:50 Wrestling With Reality

SHUTTER ISLAND ON OSN MOVIES ACTION Junior 09:40 10:30 11:25 12:20 12:45 15:05 17:20 18:15 19:10 20:05 21:00 22:50 23:45

Nextworld Weird Or What?

Mythbusters How Does It Work Auction Kings Border Security Mythbusters River Monsters Man, Woman, Wild Ultimate Survival Deadliest Catch - Best Of Season 6 River Monsters Sharkman

00:05 00:55 01:45 02:35 03:25 04:15 04:45 05:40 06:10 07:00 07:55 07:58 08:25 08:55 09:45 10:35 13:05 13:55 14:45 14:48 15:15 15:45 16:10 17:00 17:50

Smash Lab Man Made Marvels China The Tech Show 2012 Apocalypse Da Vinci’s Machines How Stuff’s Made Man Made Marvels China One Step Beyond The Future of...

Inside the Space Station Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Brainiac Prototype This Cosmic Collisions Last Flight of the Space Shuttle Mission Critical: Hubble Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Bang Goes the Theory The Gadget Show Prototype This Brainiac

18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:50

Smash Lab Da Vinci’s Machines The Gadget Show Sci-Fi Science The Tech Show Smash Lab Catch It Keep It

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

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Emperor’s New School Stitch Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Fish Hooks Suite Life On Deck Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Stitch Fish Hooks Suite Life On Deck Shake It Up Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up Fish Hooks Good Luck Charlie Hannah Montana Shake It Up Phineas And Ferb

17:10 17:30 19:10 20:35 21:25 21:50 22:15 22:40

Wizards Of Waverly Place Fish Hooks Luck Of The Irish Wizards Of Waverly Place Fish Hooks Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Behind The Scenes 01:25 E!es 02:20 THS 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 10:15 Khloe And Lamar 11:10 The Dance Scene 12:05 E! News 13:05 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 14:05 E!es 15:00 Holly’s World 15:55 Khloe And Lamar 16:55 Extreme Close-Up 17:25 Fashion Police 17:55 E! News 18:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 19:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 19:55 E!es 20:55 The Soup 21:25 The Dance Scene 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 The Soup

00:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Paula’s Party 01:45 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 02:10 Barefoot Contessa 02:35 Paula’s Home Cooking Special 03:25 Food Network Challenge 04:15 Good Eats - Special 04:40 Unwrapped 05:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 05:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 05:50 Paula’s Party 06:35 Barefoot Contessa 07:00 Chopped 07:50 Guy’s Big Bite 08:15 Everyday Italian 08:40 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 09:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 09:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 09:55 Barefoot Contessa 10:20 Aarti Party 10:45 Boy Meets Grill 11:10 Unwrapped 11:35 Paula’s Party 12:25 Everyday Italian 12:50 Paula’s Best Dishes 13:15 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 13:40 World Cafe Asia 14:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 14:30 Good Eats - Special 14:55 Unwrapped 15:20 Boy Meets Grill 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Guy’s Big Bite 17:00 Barefoot Contessa 17:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 17:50 Aarti Party 18:15 World Cafe Asia 18:40 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 19:05 Good Eats - Special 19:30 Food Network Challenge 20:20 Bobby Chinn Cooks Asia 21:10 Food Network Challenge 22:00 Chopped 22:50 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 23:40 World Cafe Asia

00:00 Departures 01:00 Graham’s World 02:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 02:30 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody UK 03:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 Somewhere In China 06:00 Departures 07:00 Graham’s World 08:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 08:30 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody UK 09:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 10:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 11:00 Somewhere In China 12:00 Departures

13:00 Planet 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 Planet 19:30 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Food Lover’s Guide To The Pressure Cook A World Apart Ultimate Traveller Don’t Tell My Mother Long Way Down

By Any Means Food Lover’s Guide To The Pressure Cook A World Apart Ultimate Traveller Don’t Tell My Mother Long Way Down

00:00 Departures 01:00 Graham’s World 02:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 02:30 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody UK 03:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 04:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 05:00 Somewhere In China 06:00 Departures 07:00 Graham’s World 08:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 08:30 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody UK 09:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 10:00 Extreme Tourist Afghanistan 11:00 Somewhere In China 12:00 Departures 13:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 13:30 Pressure Cook 14:00 A World Apart 15:00 Ultimate Traveller 16:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 17:00 Long Way Down 18:00 By Any Means 19:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 19:30 Pressure Cook 20:00 A World Apart 21:00 Ultimate Traveller 22:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:00 Long Way Down

00:17 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:45 11:00 13:00 13:17 13:45 15:00 15:17 16:00 16:45 17:17 18:00 18:45 20:00 20:45 22:00 23:00 23:40

Playlist New Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Urban Hit 30 Playlist Playlist Focus - Lil’ Wayne Guest Star - David Guetta Playlist French Hit 10 Playlist Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Africa 10 Playlist Trace Video Mix Club 10 Playlist

00:00 02:15 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 15:45 18:00 20:00 22:00

Shutter Island-18 Tracker-PG15 The Forsaken-18 Panic Room-PG15 Annihilation Earth-PG15 Against The Ropes-PG15 The One-PG15 Annihilation Earth-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 The One-PG15 Zombieland-18 The Siege-PG15

01:45 The Burning Plain-18 03:45 The Answer Man-PG15 05:30 The Making Of Plus One-PG15 07:15 My Son, My Son, What Have You Done?-PG15 09:00 Private-PG15 11:00 The Nutty Professor-FAM 12:45 Good Hair-PG15 14:45 Me And Orson Welles-PG

TV listings SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

The Client List-PG15 At Risk-PG15 Tron: Legacy-PG15 2:22-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 02:00 Family Guy 02:30 Rita Rocks 03:00 Mad Love 03:30 The Office 04:00 Will And Grace 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Two And A Half Men 06:00 Two And A Half Men 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Will And Grace 08:30 Mad Love 09:00 Two And A Half Men 09:30 Modern Family 10:00 Outsourced 10:30 Coach 11:00 The Drew Carey Show 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Two And A Half Men 16:30 The Drew Carey Show 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Melissa And Joey 18:30 Mr. Sunshine 19:00 Outsourced 19:30 How I Met Your Mother 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

American Idol Burn Notice American Idol Boston Public Good Morning America Psych One Tree Hill Burn Notice Kojak The View American Idol Kojak Live Good Morning America Boston Public The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. C.S.I. New York Justified Desperate Housewives Psych

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Downton Abbey Burn Notice The Gates American Idol American Idol Downton Abbey Hot In Cleveland Special Persons Unknown Burn Notice American Idol American Idol The Ellen DeGeneres Show Persons Unknown Downton Abbey Happy Endings Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Hawthorne C.S.I. C.S.I. New York Justified Criminal Minds Covert Affairs

01:15 Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels-18 03:15 District 13: Ultimatum-18 05:00 Shutter Island-18 07:15 The Bodyguard 2-PG15 09:00 Dragon: The Bruce Lee StoryPG15 11:00 Phone Booth-PG15

13:00 15:00 PG15 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

S.W.A.T.-PG15 Dragon: The Bruce Lee StoryThe Fan-PG15 Killshot-18 The Siege-PG15 Clive Barker’s Book Of Blood-18

02:00 Marci X-PG15 04:00 Rugrats In Paris: The MovieFAM 05:45 Mean Girls-PG15 08:00 Julie And Julia-PG15 10:15 Sleepover-PG15 12:00 Bandslam-PG15 14:00 Imagine That-PG 16:00 Did You Hear About The Morgans?-PG15 18:00 Leaving Normal-PG15 20:00 Garage Days-18 22:00 Magicians-18

01:00 Alfie-18 03:00 Inside Job-PG15 05:00 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie-PG 07:00 Amelia-PG15 09:00 My Last Five Girlfriends-PG15 11:00 Gasland-PG15 13:00 Saved!-PG15 15:00 Remember Me-PG15 17:00 My Last Five Girlfriends-PG15 19:00 Lower Learning-PG15 21:00 City Of Life-PG15 23:00 Assassination Of A High School President-18

00:00 A Simple Wish-FAM 02:00 Scooby-Doo And The Loch

Ness Monster-FAM 04:00 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie-PG 06:00 Babe-FAM 08:00 Inspector Gadget’s Biggest Caper Ever-FAM 10:00 True Story Of Puss’n Boots-PG 12:00 A Simple Wish-FAM 14:00 Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation-FAM 16:00 Marmaduke-PG 18:00 True Story Of Puss’n Boots-PG 20:00 Tooth Fairy-PG 22:00 Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation-FAM

00:00 Futbol Mundial 00:30 Football Euro 2012 Qualification 02:30 Rugby Union ITM Cup 04:30 Rugby Union Currie Cup 06:30 Total Rugby 07:00 Super League 09:00 Football Euro 2012 Qualification 11:00 Futbol Mundial 11:45 ICC Cricket World 12:15 Live Cricket One Day International 20:30 Football Euro 2012 Qualification 22:30 European PGA Tour

00:00 04:30 05:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:30

PGA European Tour Rugby World Cup Classics NRL Premiership Live AFL Premiership Total Rugby Live Rugby Union ITM CUP Trans World Sport Euro Tour Weekly

14:00 18:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

Live PGA European Tour Live Rugby Union Currie Cup Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Live Super League

00:00 WWE Tough Enough 01:00 WWE SmackDown 03:00 WWE Bottomline 04:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 05:00 UFC Unleashed 06:00 UFC Unleashed 07:00 WWE SmackDown 09:00 WWE Tough Enough 10:00 V8 Supercars Extra 10:30 Live NRL Premiership 12:30 Live NRL Premiership 14:30 Football Euro 2012 Qualification 16:30 SPL Highlights 17:00 Live Football Euro 2012 Qualification 19:00 WWE Vintage Collection 20:00 WWE Tough Enough 21:00 WWE SmackDown 23:00 WWE Bottomline

00:00 01:00 01:30 01:55 02:25 03:20 04:15 05:10 05:35 06:05 07:00 07:30

Jerseylicious Videofashion News Videofashion News Big Boutique How Do I Look?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Homes With Style Area Clean House Big Boutique Big Boutique

THE FORSAKEN ON OSN ACTION HD

08:00 09:00 12:50 13:45 14:15 14:45 15:40 16:35 17:30 19:25 20:20 21:15 21:40 22:10 23:05 23:30

Clean House Ruby Clean House Videofashion News Videofashion News Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Big Rich Texas Jerseylicious How Do I Look?

Clean House Glam Fairy Fashion Police Clean House Comes Clean Jerseylicious Top 10 Top 10

01:45 03:40 05:25 07:00 09:20 11:50 13:25 15:00 16:40 18:20 20:30 22:00

Zabriskie Point Cat On A Hot Tin Roof The Catered Affair-PG All This, And Heaven Too-PG The Comedians-PG Gaby-PG Crest Of The Wave-FAM The Wizard Of Oz-PG King Solomon’s Mines-FAM The Hill-PG Ride, Vaquero!-FAM Lust For Life-FAM

00:00 Ancient Discoveries 01:00 Ice Road Truckers 02:00 Battle Against Rome 03:00 Egypt: Land Of The Gods 04:00 Ancient Wonders 05:00 America’s Lost Sub 06:00 Ancient Discoveries 07:00 Ice Road Truckers 08:00 Battle Against Rome 09:00 Egypt: Land Of The Gods 10:00 Ancient Wonders 11:00 America’s Lost Sub 12:00 Ancient Discoveries 13:00 Ice Road Truckers 14:00 Battle Against Rome 15:00 Egypt: Land Of The Gods 16:00 Ancient Wonders 17:00 America’s Lost Sub 18:00 Ancient Discoveries 19:00 Engineering Disasters 20:00 How The Earth Was Made 21:00 Lost Worlds 22:00 America: The Story Of The Us 23:00 How The States Got Their Shapes

00:00 00:30 00:40 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:30 05:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:10 11:30 12:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:10 15:30 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:15

BBC World News Sport Today Weekend World BBC World News America Our World BBC World News Peschardt’s Business People BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News My Country BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News Third Eye BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News Click BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News World Features My Country BBC World News The Health Show Newsnight BBC World News Our World BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News Final Score BBC World News Third Eye BBC World News Sport Today

00:00 Cow & Chicken 00:30 Cramp Twins 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Courage The Cowardly Dog 01:45 Eliot Kid 02:10 Ed, Edd n Eddy 02:35 Ben 10: Alien Force 03:00 The Powerpuff Girls 03:15 Chowder 03:40 The Secret Saturdays 04:05 Samurai Jack 04:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:55 Best Ed 05:20 Skunk Fu! 05:45 Cramp Twins 06:10 Eliot Kid 06:35 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 07:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 07:25 Chop Socky Chooks 07:50 Chowder 08:15 Ben 10: Alien Force 08:40 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 09:00 Hero 108 10:15 Cow & Chicken 10:30 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 10:36 Hero 108 10:40 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 11:00 Hero 108 13:50 Flapjack 14:12 Hero 108 19:50 Cow & Chicken 20:10 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 20:35 Courage The Cowardly Dog 21:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy

00:30 01:20 02:10 03:00 03:50 04:45 05:15 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Haunted A Haunting Nightmare Next Door Disappeared Dr G: Medical Examiner Crime Scene Psychics The Haunted Mystery ER Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol Disappeared FBI Files On The Case With Paula Zahn CSU Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift FBI Files Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn CSU Ghost Lab The Haunted A Haunting

00:00 Trabant Trek 00:30 Word Travels 01:00 Globe Trekker 02:00 American Civil War Trail 03:00 Globe Trekker 04:00 Globe Trekker 05:00 Trabant Trek 05:30 Word Travels 06:00 Dream Destinations 07:00 Globe Trekker 08:00 Culinary Asia 11:00 Planet Food 12:00 Globe Trekker 14:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 15:00 Secrets of Bangkok 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 Essential 17:30 Journey Into Wine...

18:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 How To Holiday Greener 20:30 Essential 21:00 People of the Sea 22:00 Essential Specials 23:00 Globe Trekker

what’s on

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

IMAX film program Effective 4th September 2011 to 10th September 2011 Sunday Sea Rex 3D: 10:30am, 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D: 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 7:30pm,9:30pm Arabia 3D: 12:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 5:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 8:30pm Monday Born to be Wild 3D: 10:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 8:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 11:30am Sea Rex 3D: 12:30pm, 9:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 6:30pm Arabia 3D: 7:30pm Tuesday Legends of Flight 3D: 10:30am, 7:30pm Born to be Wild 3DL: 11:30am,

AWARE diwaniya

1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 9:30pm Arabia 3D: 12:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 5:30pm, 8:30pm

5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 4:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 6:30pm Sea Rex: 8:30pm

Wednesday Born to be Wild 3D: 10:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 11:30am, 6:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 12:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 8:30pm

Saturday Born to be Wild 3D: 10:30am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Legends of Flight 3D: 11:30am, 5:30pm, 9:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 12:30pm, 7:30pm Journey to MECCA 3D: 2:30pm Arabia 3D: 4:30pm

Thursday Legends of Flight 3D: 10:30am, 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D: 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Sea Rex 3D: 12:30pm; 9:30pm Arabia 3D: 7:30pm Friday Fires of Kuwait: 2:30pm Born to be Wild 3D: 3:30pm,

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Notes: All films are in Arabic EXCEPT “Fires of Kuwait” For English, Headsets are available upon request Film schedule is subject to changes without notice.

For information call 1 848 888 or visit www.tsck.org.kw

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Adopt a pet

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he AWARE Center cordially invites you to its diwaniya presentation Tuesday September 6, 2011 entitled, A Muslim’s journey through the stages of life” by Dr Teresa Lesher. Take a journey through the life of a Muslim with Dr Teresa Lesher, who will discuss the Islamic perspective and traditions related to infancy, childhood, puberty, marriage, parenthood, old age and death. Discussion and Q&A will follow and all are welcome. All those interested are most welcome at the AWARE Center on September 6, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

(Teresa is an Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait.) For more information, call 25335260 ext 0/104/105 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw or email: saleha.aware@gmail.com.

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onar is a sixmonth-old Domestic Short Haired (DSH) male cat.

Nonar is a friendly little boy who loves to play, gets along great with other cats and likes a good cuddle. Nonar will be a great addition to a family with children over five. To adopt Nonar, contact K’S PATH at (+965) 6700 1622 or visit the website www.kspath.org.

red is a social fiveyear-old Golden Retriever male.

Fred loves playing chase with other dogs.

He’s very responsive and ever-ready to retrieve his favourite toy in exchange of his favourite treat. Fred will do great in a family with older children. To adopt Fred, contact K’S PATH at (+965) 6700 1622 or visit the website www.kspath.org.

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

Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq : Rekha Sachu65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana- 66585077 Sanath Shetty- 67712409.

Pathanamthitta Onam The executive committee of Pathanamthitta District Association has decided to hold 2011 Onam Festival celebrations on Friday October 28, 2011 with a grand public function attended

by Member of Parliament from Pathanamthitta Loksabha Constituency, Anto Antony and other prominent dignitaries from Kerala and Kuwait. All residents of Pathanamthitta District and persons of Pathanamthitta District origin are hereby invited to attend this function and friends and families.

Art salon Bouhshari Art Gallery Exhibition runs through 15 September. Daily working

hours: 10am - 1pm and 5 - 9pm, except on Friday and on Thursday evening.

Konkani musical show Comedian Philip, the 1st NRI Goan comedian, is all set to entertain you with a Konkani music show titled “Ani, Anik Zaiem?” to be presented by the United Friends Club on September 9 at 4pm at the AIS (American International School) Auditorium, Maidan-Hawalli.

This is Kuwait-based comedian Philip’s third musical show after the overwhelming success of staging “Tum Vhoir Aum Sokol” and “Hem Kazar Koslem” in Kuwait and overseas.

Arpan Onam on Sept 23 Arpan Kuwait will celebrate Onam, Kerala’s harvest festival, on September 23 at the Indian Community School, Salmiya (Senior Girls) from 10 am onwards. Various cultural programs have been scheduled to make the celebration a success. Traditional attractions

like athappookkalam, mohiniyattom, kaikottikali, folk songs, dance and songs and skits will be presented by Arpan members. A program committee headed by K Mahadevan is overseeing the preparations. The celebration will come to an end with a sumptuous ‘Onasadya.’

NAFO Onam celebration NAFO Kuwait to celebrate Onam on September 30, 2011 at the Indian Community School (Senior for Girls) auditorium Salmiya. Cultural activities such as dance,skit, nadan pattukal, vallapattukal etc will be held which will be followed by the traditional onasadhya.

All NAFO members are requested to make this program a grand success by participating in various activities. Please register your name at Contacts@nafoglobal.com.said the convener of the program Rajasekaran Nair.

For details please contact Nandakumar 99559416, Udayakumar 66464577 or Rajasekharan Nair 97824780.

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

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

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NBK Internship Program 2011 a grand success

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Abdulmohsen Alrushaid

ational Bank of Kuwait (NBK) celebrated recently the conclusion of its 2011 Summer Internship Program for high school and college students. NBK honored the interns after successfully completing the summer training period.

NBK Public Relations Manager, Abdulmohsen Alrushaid said that more than 300 students participated in the Summer Internship Program of 2011.

Students participated in field activities including visits to the NBK Hospital and other public and private institutions.

Alrushaid stressed that NBK views the Summer Internship Program as an extension of NBK’s education outreach services. “This program is a demonstration of NBK’s long-standing social involvement and commitment towards providing Kuwait’s younger generation

with appropriate opportunities to experience firsthand the banking profession.

The five-hour daily sessions featured a mixture of theoretical and practical training dedicated to providing the interns with valuable knowledge on a variety of subjects including team work, creative thinking, means of self expression and modern banking procedures, in addition to providing interns with greater exposure to daily banking practices and norms,” Alrushaid added.

The 2011 Summer Internship Program follows several successful years of NBK Summer Internship Programs. NBK regularly organizes and designs events and packages for the youth of the country to familiarize them with the world of banking and make them responsible citizens.

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

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

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

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

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

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EMBASSY OF UNITED STATES The Embassy of the United States of America will be closed from Tuesday, August 30, 2011 to Sunday September 4, 2011, in observance of Eid Al-Fitr Holiday in Kuwait and Labor Day in the US. The Embassy will reopen for normal business on Monday, September 5, 2011. regular working hours are 8:00 am - 4:30 pm, Sunday to Thursday. The embassy’s telephone number is 2259-1001; fax number is 2538-0282.

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Soldiers’ brains bear scars of emotional wounds WASHINGTON: Eighteen months after they have returned from a war zone, soldiers bear an unmistakable sign of emotional trauma deep inside their brains. But in most, a key node of the brain’s fear circuitry returns to normal, perhaps keeping mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, from developing, says a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The study, a follow-up to an earlier brain-imaging study conducted by Dutch researchers, put two groups of Dutch soldiers into a brain scanner called a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, and had them look at pictures of people expressing anger or fear. One group of 23 soldiers was scanned just after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. A second group of participating soldiers had not been deployed to any war zone.

In the first study, immediately following the first group of soldiers’ return, the two groups showed very different brain patterns in response to the angry and

fearful faces. In the post-deployment soldiers, the amygdala, an almond-shaped region deep in the brain where fear and other highly charged emotional reactions are processed, became highly active when they looked at faces demonstrating fright or anger. In the non-deployed soldiers, the pictures did not elicit strong activity in the amygdala.

When the amygdala of a healthy, normal individual becomes highly active, suggesting a strong emotion such as fear, imaging studies usually show a sudden drop in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex _ a brain structure that has been linked to emotional regulation.

Once the fear has passed, that structure kicks back in _ keeping us, perhaps, on an emotional even keel. This was the pattern Dutch researchers saw consistently in non-deployed soldiers.

But immediately after returning from the war zone, Dutch soldiers showed an altered pattern in the brain scan: The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex tended to stay

online even when the amygdala was working overtime, suggesting an ongoing struggle for control.

Eighteen months after returning home from a war zone, according to the study published Tuesday, deployed soldiers showed markedly less activation in their amygdalae in response to the fearful and angry faces - a sign that suggests the “hypervigilance” that soldiers rely on in combat situations (and which persists in people with post-traumatic stress disorder) had receded.

But in one key way, their emotional responses did not return to a normal push-pull pattern. These soldiers’ emotional regulation response - high activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex - still did not automatically go quiet when the amygdala became active, or kick back in when the amygdala returned to its resting state. The authors suggested that this disturbed state may be a remnant of their stress response to combat - a scar that may heal in some and reopen in others, possibly leading to PTSD. — MCT

Study tackles prostate cancer-pesticide link Critics question findings, definition of exposure LOS ANGELES: Researchers at the University of Southern California have found an increased prevalence of prostate cancer among older men exposed to certain pesticides in California’s Central Valley neighborhoods. The authors used the state cancer registry to recruit 173 white and Latino seniors in Tulare, Fresno and Kern counties who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer between August 2005 and July 2006. They compared them with 162 men without prostate cancer, found through Medicare and tax records.

Researchers then traced where the men lived and worked from 1974 to 1999 and compared those locations with state records of pesticide application. Those who lived within 500 meters of places where methyl bromide, captan and eight other organochlorine pesticides had been applied, they found, were more likely to have developed prostate cancer.

“This is some evidence that we’re doing a very bad job of controlling how you apply pesticides,” said Myles Cockburn, an associate professor of preventive medicine at USC’s Keck School of Medicine who was among the authors of the study published this spring in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The researchers chose to examine prostate cancer in part because, unlike other forms of cancer, the risk factors are relatively few, Cockburn said.

They chose to focus on residential rather than occupational pesticide exposure because of the Central Valley’s demographics and because they suspected that previous studies

were skewed toward those who handle pesticides, a population also more likely to have worn protective gear, he said. “California’s Central Valley has by far the largest use of pesticides and the largest population potentially exposed to them in the United States,” he said.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program.

Critics questioned the study’s findings and definition of pesticide exposure. “Pesticide use doesn’t equal pesticide exposure of bystanders,” said Robert Krieger, a toxicologist at the University of California-Riverside, who said “contact with potential for absorption” would be more accurate.

“Just because you lived in the vicinity of an application doesn’t guarantee you were exposed,” Krieger said. He questioned whether the men involved in the study could accurately report details that might skew the results, such as whether

they used household pesticides. “The attempts to reconstruct exposure in retrospect is extremely uncertain,” he said, adding that he and other researchers have focused on workplace pesticide exposures that they can more easily quantify and trace.

Krieger said state air monitoring has confirmed that so-called pesticide drift occurs from fields into neighborhoods but that people working with pesticides face much greater exposure than bystanders.

Officials at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation had not reviewed the USC study, but a spokeswoman defended efforts to guard against pesticide drift.

“California’s drift regulations are the toughest in the nation,” said Lea Brooks, a department spokeswoman.

“They include buffer zones to address urban encroachment of agricultural lands and labor-intensive crops.” She said the department works with county agricultural commissioners to track pesticide drift, immediately investigate reports and issue civil penalties. —MCT

9/11 firefighters more likely to get cancer LONDON: Firefighters exposed to the World Trade Center attacks are more likely to get cancer, while 9/11 rescue workers still suffer high illness rates generally, according to studies published yesterday. In a 10th anniversary edition of medical journal The Lancet, scientists said however that death rates among emergency staff and civilians who survived the disaster were lower than those of the wider New York City population.

“The events of that day changed the historical trajectory of America and the world. They have had-and continue to haveprofound consequences for health,” the Lancet journal said in an editorial. One study showed that New York City firefighters who rushed to the doomed Twin Towers a decade ago are 19 percent more likely to have cancer than their non-exposed colleagues and a comparable section of the city’s population.

There were 263 cancer cases in the exposed firefighters compared with 238 expected from general population data, while from the non-exposed group there were only 135 compared with 161 expected from the general population. The study, led

by David Prezant, chief medical officer of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), and colleagues, looked at 9,853 male firefighters with health records dating back to well before 9/11.

Another study in the Lancet showed a high burden of both physical and mental illness in the estimated 50,000 rescue and recovery workers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York by Al-Qaeda. Data gathered from more than 27,000 of those workers, who enrolled in a federally funded monitoring program, showed that 28 percent had developed asthma, 42 percent sinusitis, and 39 percent gastrooesophageal reflux disease.

Twenty-eight percent had depression, 32 percent had post traumatic stress disorder and 21 percent had panic disorder, said the study by Juan Wisnivesky, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York state. “Our findings show a substantial burden of persistent physical and mental disorders in rescue and recovery workers who rushed to the site of the WTC and labored there for weeks and months 10 years ago,” the study said.

But World Trade Center-exposed rescue workers and civilians have had lower death rates than New York City general population, a third study by researchers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. They said the fact that most of those exposed were employed and that they had volunteered for the study-both employed people and study volunteers are largely healthier than the overall population-could account for the result.—AFP

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CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

I The costliest hurricane of all time was Andrew, which struck Florida in 1992.

The storm caused $26.5 billion in damages.

I The 1900 hurricane that slammed into Galveston, Texas, killing 8,000 people is the deadliest on record.

“Snakes can sense things that humans can’t. So, I thought I should give you the heads up. I think it might rain.”

— From the Twitter account of the The Bronx Zoo’s elusive cobra, just before Irene hit New York City. The venomous snake, now named Mia, escaped in March, becoming a media sensation before she was found a week later.

— World Almanac for Kids

Scary tales

DESPITE THE WEAKENING STORM, IRENE LEFT A PATH OF DESTRUCTION

S T E V E N M . FA L K / M C T

A tree falls on a house in Camp May, N.J.

C H R I S S E WA R D / M C T

Floodwaters surround a pickup truck outside New Bern, N.C.

East Coast residents braced for the worst from Hurricane Irene. Before it hit the United States, the major hurricane had winds exceeding speeds of 110 mph. When Irene made landfall on the morning of Aug. 27, over North Carolina, it had become a Category 1 hurricane, with wind speeds of 75-95 mph. The next day, Irene was reduced to a tropical storm near New York.

While Irene did not end up being as devastating as folks worried it might, the immense storm still caused significant damage. It uprooted trees, toppled power lines, smashed homes and contributed to extreme flooding from New Jersey to Vermont. In Rockingham, Vt., a 141C OV E R E D B R I D G E S I T E . C O M year-old covered bridge The Bartonsville covered bridge, in Rockingham, was swept away by the Vt., before it was destroyed by flash flooding from roiling, muddy Williams River. And worst of all, the Irene, shown below. The 158 foot long bridge was storm is being blamed for built in 1870.

Every kid and grown-up who enters this ageless collection of life’s scary moments will howl in recognition and sympathy.

In “Some Things Are Scary,” Florence Parry Heide nails those stomach-lurching times, such as “brushing your teeth with something you thought was toothpaste but it isn’t” or “getting hugged by someone you don’t like ... can be scary.”

Illustrator Jules Feiffer is a genius at seeing the funny side of these 32 scary scenes. His inline skater who hasn’t learned to stop nearly drops his drawers as he screams downhill with his mouth wide open.

This new edition sparkles with all the edgy humor of the 1969 original. (Candlewick, $7, — Judy Green, McClatchy Newspapers ages 5-9.)

I M AG E S C O U RT E S Y O F S U S A N H A M M O N D

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F DAV I D M U N YA N

Flash flooding washes out a road in upstate New York leaving residents stranded.

more than 40 deaths.

Before Irene hit, officials had worried about the destructive power of high winds and the storm surge. But the biggest problem turned out to be the amount of rain dumped in parts of the country already soaked with water. Normally calm creeks and streams turned into raging torrents in Vermont and upstate New York causing roads to be washed out, mudslides and flooding. — TimeForKids

BY TIM NEWCOMB Timeforkids.com

Forecasters often get blamed for blowing hot air when the weather doesn’t turn out as they predicted.

But nobody accuses the National Hurricane Center of anything of the sort. Residents across the entire East Coast rely on the team in Miami for information on how to protect their homes — and when to flee.

Already, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center has one correct forecast: a batch of early storms over the Atlantic Ocean. And while you might not have taken notice of the recent rainy spell until now — Hurricane Irene was the first storm to reach hurricane status this period — this season already boasts nine storms. It’s a troublesome number for so early on.

Eric Blake is a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center.

He says a combination of factors already have contributed to a rise in storms in 2011. Blake answers our questions about the hurricane season.

TFK: When is the hurricane in the way winds and ocean currents season, and what does an average travel across the Pacific Ocean. It season look like? happens every few years and has a BLAKE: August through October huge effect on weather around the is the busiest time, and September is world causing some usually wet the peak month. But we can still see areas to suffer droughts, while heavy damaging landfalls in October and it rains often surprise other areas.)

TFK: Has the Atlantic Ocean is not out of the question to have a been unseasonably warm? hurricane into November. An averBLAKE: Year after year over age season has about 12 storms. the longer term of 20 to 30 years, TFK: How has the early season we have seen the Atlantic warmer played out? than average ...

BLAKE: Things are going as TFK: Do you gauge the power of expected. We have already had nine a season on quantity storms and a lot of or intensity of storms? seasons don’t have BLAKE: Actually nine (the official Naboth. The strength and tional Hurricane Cenduration of the storms ter seasonal averages is the formula we use are for 11 named and we combine them storms, six hurricanes N AT I O N A L H U R R I C A N E C E N T E R into Accumulated Cyand two major hurriclone Energy. If you canes). We are on track Eric Blake for the active season we forecasted. get 10 short-lived storms, a couple of big ones count a lot more.

TFK: What factors lead to an TFK: Any surprises this season? active season forecast?

BLAKE: There are a variety of BLAKE: There are always factors. One of the things is, how things that are a little unexpected. warm is the Atlantic Ocean (comWe had a lot of storms that didn’t pared to an average year)? The other make hurricane status early on. It factor is the status of El Niño (el will be easier to assess the season neen-nyo). (El Niño is a natural shift after we have hit the middle of it.

Stick to removable decorations

If you want to decorate your room, but your parents don’t want you painting or drilling holes in your walls, Dorm Co is here to help. The online store sells “Peel N Stick” decorations that the company promises won’t damage walls. You can use the stickers to get a painted-on look without the hassle of actually painting your walls. The flower stickers, which include sunflowers, daisies and tulips, look like they could be growing out of the floor and up your wall. You also can cover your wall with the Manhattan skyline if you want, piecing the 29 stickers together.

“Stickr Frames” surround your favorite pictures to give your wall an upscale look without needing a hammer and nails. Useful “Peel N Stick” decorations include reusable dry erase sheets and stick-on mirrors. For more “Peel N Stick” decoration options, go to dormco.com. The — Michaelle Bond, MCT prices run $9-$50.

Visit “Fun for Girls” at americangirlmagazine.com to get or give advice. © 2011 American Girl, LLC. All rights reserved.

Sharing accommodation available in Khaitan in a studio flat with a Mangalorean R/C bachelor, close to bus stop and Jamiya. Rent KD 25.

Contact: 66036893.

(C 3591) Sharing accommodation available one room with separate bathroom available in old Riggae for family, working women, executive bachelor. New C-A/C 2 bedroom & maid room spacious flat near Al Dallah Supermarket closer to Avenues. Interested please contact: 55114836 / 99065356. (C 3592) 28-8-2-2011 One room available in two bedroom flat in Farwaniya behind Crowne Plaza in front of Dar Al-Quran. Please call: 50129393.

(C 3589) 25-8-2011

99 model Toyota Prado 6 cylinders company paint, accident free, alloy wheels, wood decoration, remote, CD, USB, zenon sensor, 4x4, cash KD 2400. Contact: 60451292. (C 3596) 3-9-2011

Learn to control your frustration DEAR AMERICAN GIRL: I’m going through a hard time, and I need someone to talk to. My mom and I are having problems, and my friends won’t really listen.

— Need to talk I Try talking to your mom one more time. Let her know how important it is for you to talk about what’s going on. If that doesn’t work, find another adult that you trust. It could be a teacher, a relative or a school counselor. Let the person know that you have some problems you’d like to talk about. Having someone listen will make you feel better, so don’t put it off.

Sharing accommodation available for decent Indian Christian couple or bachelor in Salmiya. Behind Mr. Baker from 1st September 2011.

Dish TV and landline facility available. Contact: 97233167.

(C 3593) 29-8-2011

FOR SALE

© 2011 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. TIME FOR KIDS and Timeforkids.com are registered trademarks of Time Inc.

DEAR AMERICAN GIRL: I get frustrated easily, and sometimes I yell at people I love. I’m not sure why it happens, but I have no control over it. How can I stop?

— Frustrated I You can control your anger. You just need to learn how to identify what is frustrating you and then learn to calm yourself down. The next time you feel frustrated, stop what you’re doing and breathe deeply. Count to 10. Clear your mind before you come back to the frustrating task. If you keep a cool head, you’ll be less likely to snap at others. And if you do yell at someone?

Apologize and admit that it’s not that person’s fault that you’re frustrated. Then calm down and try again.

ACCOMMODATION

It’s no secret that singing can lift your spirits. And now, scientists are finding that it also has health benefits. Researchers at the University of California at Irvine tested choral singers before and after performances and found that the act of singing raised levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that boosts immunity. Carrying a tune can also strengthen the lungs and the circulatory system. Find a great database of family sing-along songs (lyrics and music included) on the National Institute of Environmental Health’s website at kids.niehs.nih.gov/music.htm.

— Disney FamilyFun magazine

Fridge, cupboards, double bed, dining table, sofa set, TV-2 Nos for sale. All in good condition. Contact: 24340141 / 99818982.

(C 3594) Mitsubishi Galant 2008 model, 2400 CC, liquid silver color, single owner accident free, Al-Mulla maintained, service history available upon

request, full option, serious buyer contact: 97264236.

(C 3595) 30-8-2011

SITUATION WANTED

Engineer with 4 years experience as Data Analyst / operation support (Telecom / Retail). Good working knowledge in Oracle, Unix and MS Office. Contact: 65794224. (C 3583) MBA (Finance) with bachelor’s degree in Engineering and 2 years experience in Kuwait looking for further experience in Finance.

Contact: 67731590. (C 3584) 22-8-2011

SITUATION VACANT A Kuwaiti family looks to hire a driver, 35 years older, Christian, good behavior.

Contact: 99199020.

(C 3590) 25-8-2011

CHANGE OF NAME I, Thiru V. Muthu Kumar (Hindu) son of P. Veeraperumal born on 2nd May 1984 residing at No: 8/59, Madhavan Street, Paramakudi, Ramanathapuram - 623707, has converted to Islam with the name of V. Muthu Mohamed. (C 3587) 23-8-2011

MATRIMONIAL Christian Orthodox girl 33 years BSc nurse, divorced, no liabilities working in Kuwait MOH, seeking alliance from professionally qualified God fearing person with details and photos to: mathewt27@yahoo.com (C 3597) 3-9-2011

information SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 3/9/2011 Flt Route 642 AMMAN 215 KARACHI 772 ISTANBUL 620 ADDIS ABABA 239 SIALKOT 853 DUBAI 2144 ALEXANDRIA 410 BEIRUT 370 BAHRAIN 305 ABU DHABI 614 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 2100 CAIRO 412 BEIRUT 211 BAHRAIN 138 DOHA 529 ASSIUT 770 ISTANBUL 503 LUXOR 2104 CAIRO 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA / BANGKOK 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR 201 BAHRAIN 1541 CAIRO 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 132 DOHA 125 SHARJAH 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 3407 MASHAD 6130 DOHA 165 DUBAI 6807 SHIRAZ 3551 ALEXANDRIA 623 SOHAG 711 BAGHDAD / NAJAF 201 DAMASCUS 5066 MASHAD 123 SHARJAH 672 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 703 MEDINAH 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 640 AMMAN 621 ASSIUT 57 DUBAI 786 JEDDAH 357 MASHAD 93 DUBAI / KANDAHAR 140 DOHA 562 AMMAN 500 JEDDAH 552 DAMASCUS 745 JEDDAH 1546 ALEXANDRIA 257 BEIRUT 792 LUXEMBOURG 134 DOHA 3427 MASHAD 535 CAIRO 6791 MASHAD 6706 PARIS 118 NEW YORK 712 NAJAF 1121 DUBAI 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 341 DAMASCUS 154 ISTANBUL 178 GENEVA / FRANKFURT 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 777 JEDDAH 239 AMMAN

Time 0:05 0:15 1:15 1:45 2:05 2:25 2:45 2:50 2:55 2:55 3:05 3:10 3:10 3:15 3:15 3:20 3:35 4:10 5:15 5:25 6:10 6:15 6:30 6:35 7:00 7:10 7:15 7:20 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:10 8:20 8:20 8:25 9:00 9:10 9:30 9:35 10:20 10:25 11:10 11:35 11:45 12:10 12:20 12:45 12:50 13:10 13:15 13:20 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:40 13:50 14:00 14:10 14:15 14:15 14:20 14:30 14:35 14:45 15:00 15:10 15:15 15:15 15:20 15:50 16:00 16:15 16:15 16:20 16:45 16:50 16:55 17:00 17:00 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:25 17:35

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

127 550 63 227 177 104 502 542 618 8067 607 674 774 458 572 975 790 61 647 179 402 789 788 618 372 445 859 217 136 981 614 135 606 513 408 185 612 636 1109 393 406 539

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

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 3/9/2011 Flt Route 2141 CAIRO 1540 CAIRO 637 FRANKFURT 976 GOA / CHENNAI 447 AMSTERDAM 2143 CAIRO 216 KARACHI 773 ISTANBUL 620 BAHRAIN / ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT / ISLAMABAD 854 DUBAI 2145 CAIRO 411 BEIRUT 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 306 ABU DHABI 615 CAIRO 2101 CAIRO 413 BEIRUT 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 2105 CAIRO 164 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 1545 ALEXANDRIA 785 JEDDAH 356 MASHAD 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 153 ISTANBUL 671 DUBAI 551 DAMASCUS 256 BEIRUT 561 AMMAN 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 101 LONDON / NEW YORK 549 SOHAG / SHARM EL SHEIKH

17:40 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:00 18:35 18:45 18:50 18:55 18:55 19:05 19:25 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:55 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:25 20:55 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:30 22:35 22:50 23:00 23:05 23:15 23:20 23:30 Time 0:10 0:20 0:40 0:50 0:55 0:55 1:05 2:15 2:30 3:30 3:45 3:45 3:50 3:50 3:55 4:05 4:05 4:10 4:15 5:00 5:10 6:25 6:55 7:00 7:10 7:15 8:00 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:40 8:50 8:55 9:00 9:10 9:10 9:15 9:40 9:50 9:55 9:55

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

133 107 302 214 3406 165 6131 541 776 238 3552 6808 501 624 712 176 124 702 5065 611 641 58 622 982 673 787 789 746 617 178 505 512 773 141 3462 538 792 6792 713 1122 304 135 6706 342 858 216 128 184 266 511 64 613 134 228 283 8068 604 1541 571 62 331 268 351 648 790 403 457 619 543 373 445 860 218 102 381 137 301 205 188 554 607 502 409 411 981 613 1110

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

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

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C R O S S W O R D

4 2 7

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. Misery resulting from affliction.

4. A drug (trade names Atarax and Vistaril) used as a tranquilizer to treat anxiety and motion sickness.

10. System of measurement based on centimeters and grams and seconds.

13. A drug combination found in some over-the-counter headache remedies (Aspirin and Phenacetin and Caffeine).

14. An English noblewoman.

15. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

16. A Mid-Atlantic state.

17. Relating to the blood vessels or blood.

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

19. Of or relating to a directionless magnitude.

22. Compelled forcibly by an outside agency.

24. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (19021984).

25. A kind of person.

26. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

29. (old-fashioned) At or from or to a great distance.

33. (Irish) Mother of the Tuatha De Danann.

37. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

38. A magnetic tape recorder for recording (and playing back) TV programs.

39. An indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary having one or many seeds within a fleshy wall or pericarp.

40. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

42. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

44. A doctor's degree in theology.

46. Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment.

47. A small cake leavened with yeast.

54. A former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia.

57. Step on it.

59. A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.

60. A local computer network for communication between computers.

61. A formal expression of praise.

62. By bad luck.

DOWN 1. A large number or amount.

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

3. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

4. A member of the Semitic speaking people of northern Ethiopia.

5. A crown-like jewelled headdress worn by women on formal occasions.

6. Fermented alcoholic beverage similar to but heavier than beer.

7. The most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on.

8. (of tempo) Leisurely n.

9. A colorless flammable volatile liquid hydrocarbon used as a solvent.

10. Wearing or provided with clothing.

11. A measuring instrument for measuring and indicating a quantity or for testing conformity with a standard.

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

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

21. Capital and largest city and economic center of Peru.

23. Jordan's port.

27. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

28. One of a set of small pieces of stiff paper marked in various ways and used for playing games or for telling fortunes.

30. A piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred.

31. United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (1880-1957).

32. Having been read.

34. Being one more than three.

35. (informal) Of the highest quality.

36. Make less active or intense.

41. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

43. A native of ancient Troy.

45. Realistic Norwegian author who wrote plays on social and political themes (1828-1906).

48. The largest continent with 60% of the earth's population.

49. Small European freshwater fish with a slender bluish-green body.

50. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

51. The food served and eaten at one time.

52. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

53. A river that rises in northeastern Turkey (near the source of the Euphrates) and flows generally eastward through Armenia to the Caspian Sea. 55. The cry made by sheep.

56. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

58. A person forced to flee from home or country.

Yesterday始s Solution

sports

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Samoa set pace among minor nations LONDON: Samoa sent a tremor through the established order with their 32-23 win over Australia in July while giving fresh inspiration to the minor nations who comprise exactly half the 20 teams in the 2011 rugby World Cup. Australia fielded an experimental side in advance of the TriNations tournament but the twice world champions had no excuses after a win which ranks with the Samoans’ epic World Cup victories over Wales in 1991 and 1999 in Cardiff. “The ‘91 victory is a special one, it has a special place in history,” Samoan Rugby Union vice-chairman Harry Schuster said. “This one will be celebrated in its own perspective.” Samoa’s win over Australia, a side they could meet in the quarter-finals in New Zealand, follows the 2007 tournament in France and Wales where rugby union finally presented a genuine case to be considered a global game with some spirited performances by the minor nations.

Fiji were the pick of the Pacific Island sides, beating Wales 38-34 in the match of the tournament while Tonga gave the Springboks’ second XV a fright before los-

ing 30-25. Four year on it is Samoa, a country of fewer than 200,000 people, who are setting the pace with an eye on qualifying for the quarter-finals in New Zealand from a group including Wales and Fiji. “Wales will definitely be ready. I think Fiji will be in the same position and all three of us are in that desperate situation where all three of us need to get to the quarter-finals,” Schuster said.

MIXED BLESSING Schuster said professional rugby had been a mixed blessing for Samoa. “The problem for us is that our players are spread out from New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Europe and they all play different types of rugby and when we get them back it’s trying to mould these guys all playing different styles into a Samoan style.

“Our players in Europe, they deliberately keep them big and use them as impact ramming rods and they don’t play for the full 80 minutes, they are pulled off for the final 30 minutes of the second half. “When they come to play for us we want them to play for the 80 minutes, or most of it and

the physical condition they’re in doesn’t suit our game. That’s a real difficult for us.

“We try to mould them into a unit playing our style of rugby in what little time we have.”

Jonah Lomu, the giant All Blacks winger who caused such a sensation at the 1995 World Cup, said the Pacific nations would have a definite advantage at a New Zealand-based tournament. “As much as it is home for the New Zealanders, it is home for the Pacific Islanders,” Lomu, whose parents are Tongan, told Reuters. “They (Samoa) will turn some heads at this World Cup, as well as Tonga, as well as Fiji. It sort of fires a warning shot for a lot of teams not to take the Pacific teams too lightly.

“The thing is these players go off-shore to actually learn their trade and earn a livelihood and they bring that experience back.”

FINANCIAL INTEREST Samoa’s pool also includes the might of South Africa, the defending champions, and the Springboks’ African neighbors Namibia. Namibia has no professional

New Zealanders get ready to host Rugby World Cup WELLINGTON: Ox and his mates are hitting the road to watch their beloved All Blacks play in the Rugby World Cup, making a trip they’ve been working on for months.

Shortages of hotel accommodation and reports of high prices for anything still vacant haven’t bothered Ox, Horny, Snapper or Cookie, either, because they’re traveling in a $3,000 delivery truck they’ve converted into a makeshift motorhome.

In many ways, the four blokes, all in their

international teams that will compete for the title of rugby world champion have begun arriving in New Zealand. The tournament, which is held every four years, will include 48 games and run for six weeks starting Sept 9. Long shots like Russia and the US will compete against rugby powerhouses like England and South Africa.

So far, 1.1 million match tickets have been sold - nearly three-quarters of the total available - making it by far the biggest

AUCKLAND: A bungy jumper free falls against the back drop of Auckland, photographed from the Sky Tower, as the country gears up for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, in Auckland. The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be played September 9 to October 23. —AFP 50s, represent the spirit of rugby in New Zealand. In this isolated nation of 4 million people, rugby has been the most important game for more than a century. It has become entwined with the attributes New Zealanders most value in each other - loyalty, brotherhood, ingenuity and humility. It appeals to a rugged physicality that New Zealanders identify with. Already the 20

event New Zealand has ever staged. The country is planning a big party. But there have been some hiccups along the way.

On the international stage, rugby doesn’t attract the following of sports like basketball or football. But in New Zealand it dominates. Some 147,000 men, women and children play the game competitively - more than three percent of the entire population.

The game crosses cultural and economic boundaries.

The roots of its popularity here trace back to the All Blacks 1905-06 tour of Britain, France and North America. The team from the colonial outpost made an impression by winning 34 out of 35 matches. “Winning. That’s how it all came about,” says Ron Palenski, an author and historian who runs New Zealand’s Sports Hall of Fame. “We were a small country, and there were not that many things that we were better at than anybody else in the world. It was established very early on ... and it became a rallying point for New Zealand, a point of pride.”

Indeed, the All Blacks continued to dominate. The 1924-25 team became known as “The Invincibles” after winning all 32 of their matches. In all, the All Blacks have won three-quarters of their international games - although they have won just one World Cup. The four buddies hitting the road next week hope that will change. Danny “Ox” Mather, Greg “Snapper” Vreeburg, Grant “Horny” Hornblow and Gavin “Cookie” Cook are all self-employed tradesmen who’ve juggled their work schedules and family life to accommodate four weeks on the road. They plan to stay in van parks with the idea of meeting other fans from across the world.

They’ve installed insulation, a sink, a power system, and an old shower door to provide some light in their home on wheels. Oh, and they’ve crammed four beds into a 10-foot long interior - a squeeze, but they aren’t planning to spend much time indoors. They’ve stashed provisions in friends’ freezers along the way to keep them fed. They’ll be taking plenty of beer. They’ve bought tickets to every All Blacks group match plus the finals, and plan to see some other teams play, too.

And they believe they’ll save at least $10,000 on accommodation. —AP

structure and their governing body was taken over by the International Rugby Board (IRB) this year. Of their two international class players, Blue Bulls and Castres prop Kees Lensing has retired because of injury but flanker and captain Jacques Burger enjoyed an exceptional season with Saracens and was named the Premiership champions’ player of the season. Namibia gave Georgia their first World Cup victory in 2007, a 30-0 thrashing in Lens, but the Georgians’ best performance, and one of the standout matches of the tournament, was a 14-10 loss to Ireland in Bordeaux. A 32-strong Georgia squad trained in the southern French town of Mandelieu-LaNapoule in preparation for a warmup tournament against club sides Bourgon, Clermont and Llanelli Scarlets in Issoire.

Russia coach Nikolai Nerush believes his team can win their opening match on their rugby World Cup debut against their old cold war rivals the United States on Sept 15. Russia then face Italy, Ireland and Australia in Pool C. “We go to New Zealand with a simple goal in mind, hoping to win one match,” Nerush said. —Reuters

Wales seek right blend to improve poor Cup record LONDON: Wales are banking on their youngest ever captain and a nucleus of experienced stalwarts in key positions to improve on a poor record in the rugby World Cup. Flanker Sam Warburton, 22, will lead the Welsh in New Zealand where they reached the semi-finals in 1987, their best performance in six World Cups. “He puts his body on the line and he leads by example,” Wales coach Warren Gatland said.

“We think he’s world class and I’m sure he will do a great job.”

Wales also reached the quarter-finals in 1999 and 2003 but they failed to get past the group stage in France four years ago and although they claimed the Six Nations grand slam in 2008 their form since has been patchy. An impressive victory over England in a warm-up match last month should boost confidence, however, and coach Gatland returns to his homeland with a talented and experienced squad.

“We can take a lot from our three performances over the past weeks,” Gatland said. “We’re in good shape physically and have won five of our last seven games. We can take a lot confidence. “It’s the best start Wales have had going into a World Cup which gives us momentum and confidence-we have to believe.” Wales underwent a rigorous training camp in Poland to prepare for the tournament.

MENTAL EDGE “It was tough physically, it was tough mentally and the players were pushed hard,” Gatland said. “They responded extremely well. It was about building that mental toughness-something we’ve been criticized for. “We know we’ve got good footballers and they’re in pretty good shape physically but sometimes it’s that mental edge that has cost us games in the past when we haven’t quite switched on or had a little lapse in concentration or haven’t quite nailed a critical moment in a game and it’s been incredibly costly.”

Wales face a tough start to their World Cup campaign when they take on champions South Africa on Sept. 11 and then face Samoa, Fiji and Namibia but should have enough to advance to the last eight from Pool D. However, Welsh supporters will need no reminding of the struggles their team has had with the Pacific Islanders. Samoa, buoyed by last month’s surprise victory over Australia in Sydney, have twice upset Wales in Cardiff during a World Cup (1991 and 1999) while Fiji beat them in the game of the tournament four years ago. —Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

Martin’s 2-run double lifts Yanks Pujols and Cardinals slam Brewers again MILWAUKEE: Albert Pujols hit a grand slam and a solo home run to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Brewers 8-4 on Thursday and complete a three-game sweep of National League Central leading Milwaukee.

Rafael Furcal led off the game with a home run for the second game in a row. Pujols also went deep in the first, then hit a slam in the third for his NL-best 34th homer.

Matt Holiday connected for his 200th career homer in the fifth as the Cardinals won for the sixth time in seven games and moved within 7 1/2 games of the Brewers, who hadn’t been swept at home since the Dodgers did it Aug. 24-26, 2010. Prince Fielder, Jonathan Lucroy and Corey Hart went deep for Milwaukee. Fielder became the first player in Brewers history with 30 home runs in five consecutive seasons.

Phillies 6, Reds 4 At Cincinnati, Ryan Howard hit his 30th homer and Vance Worley pitched into the seventh inning as Philadelphia completed an historic four-game sweep of Cincinnati. Michael Martinez added a two-run homer as the Phillies (87-46) moved 41 games over .500 for the first time since Aug. 26, 1976, when they improved to 8342 with a win at Cincinnati. It was Philadelphia’s first four-game sweep at Cincinnati since May 13-16, 1916.

Howard hit a solo shot to left-center on a 3-1 pitch from Mike Leake (11-9) in the sixth, giving Philadelphia a 4-1 lead and extending his streak of consecutive seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs to six.

Dodgers 6, Pirates 4 At Pittsburgh, Dana Eveland pitched eight crisp innings as Los Angeles survived a shaky ninth inning to get to beat Pittsburgh. Eveland (1-0) gave up one run and six hits in his first major league game since he pitched 2 2 3 innings for Pittsburgh at Texas on June 23, 2010. The journeyman left-hander was promoted from Triple-A Albuquerque earlier Thursday. Eveland struck out three, walked none and retired 11 in a row after giving up consecutive singles to start the second inning.

Dee Gordon hit a two-run double and Aaron Miles had a two-run single for Los Angeles, which has won four straight and nine of 10. Gordon was activated from the disabled list before the game. Alex Presley hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning for the Pirates, who has lost five straight and seven of eight.

Braves 5, Nationals 2 At Atlanta, Tim Hudson gave Atlanta’s ailing rotation a lift and Brian McCann and Chipper Jones hit home runs in a win over Washington. The Braves are 8 1/2 games ahead of St. Louis in the NL wild-card race but face growing concerns about the health of their rotation. Righthander Jair Jurrjens said Thursday an MRI on his sore right knee showed a bone bruise and he plans to see a specialist. Jurrjens could join right-hander Tommy Hanson (sore right shoulder) on the disabled list. Hudson (14-8) allowed one run and five hits in six innings while passing Jurrjens for the team lead in wins. The right-hander improved to 5-1 with a 2.03 ERA in his last seven starts.

Mets 7, Marlins 5 At New York, Miguel Batista pitched six serviceable innings to earn his 100th win, and David Wright hit a two-run single in a four-run third as New York downed Florida. Making his first start since April 22 for St. Louis, the 40-year-old Batista scattered six hits while becoming the third active pitcher to play for at least 10 teams.

Filling in for injured Jonathon Niese, Batista (4-2) induced two double-play grounders in helping New York take four of five in the series against its NL East rival.

Emilio Bonifacio had three hits and three RBIs for Florida, including a two-run single during a three-run ninth. But the Marlins committed three errors in losing for the 20th time in 25 games.— AP

BOSTON: Mariano Rivera struck out Adrian Gonzalez with the bases loaded for the final out and Russell Martin hit a go-ahead double in the seventh inning that to send the New York Yankees past the Boston Red Sox 4-2 on Thursday. New York won despite stranding 12 runners in the first six innings. The lack of clutch hitting cost AJ Burnett a potential victory as he began September with a solid performance after compiling an 11.91 ERA in five August starts. He gave up two runs and five hits in 5 13 innings. The Red Sox led 2-1 on Dustin Pedroia’s two-run homer after Alfredo Aceves (9-2) escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. But he allowed three runs in the seventh and took his first loss in relief after winning 18 straight decisions out of the bullpen. Rivera loaded the bases in the ninth but threw a called third strike past Gonzalez to earn his 36th save in 41 opportunities.

Rangers 7, Rays 2 At Arlington, Texas, C.J. Wilson was perfect for five innings before exiting in the seventh inning with a finger injury and Ian Kinsler homered twice to help AL West-leading Texas beat Tampa Bay. Wilson (14-6) gave up two runs and two hits in six-plus innings with eight strikeouts and one walk. He got back on track after he was knocked around in his previous start, an 8-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. The left-hander retired his first 15 batters before Casey Kotchman led off the sixth with an infield single that deflected off Wilson’s index finger when he reached out in an attempt to field the sharp grounder. After a double play, Kelly Shoppach ended the shutout bid with a homer, and Wilson came out in the seventh when the numbness in his finger began causing control problems.

Michael Young added a solo homer for the Rangers.

Angels 4, Mariners 3 At Seattle, Torii Hunter and Howie Kendrick homered for Los Angeles to help a wild Ervin Santana overcome seven walks in a victory over Seattle.

Hunter hit a three-run shot in the first inning and the Angels remained 31/2 games behind Texas in the AL West. Santana (10-9) was not nearly as sharp he had been lately. He entered 6-1 with a 2.06 ERA and three complete games in his previous nine starts, and 4-0 with a 1.68 ERA in his last four road starts. Yet he walked a season-high seven against Seattle, with two scoring. Santana went 6 2-3 innings while allowing four hits and three runs. He struck out five.

Athletics 7, Indians 0 At Cleveland, Gio Gonzalez pitched seven sharp innings as Oakland avoided a four-game sweep by beating Cleveland, which added another player to its overflowing disabled list. Gonzalez (12-11) allowed

LOS ANGELES: Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Charlie Furbush throws in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday in Seattle. — AP

four singles while improving to 5-0 with a 0.72 ERA in six career starts against Cleveland. He hasn’t given up a run to the Indians in 27 2-3 consecutive innings, and handed them a loss they can’t afford. Cliff Pennington had four hits and three RBIs as the A’s did just enough against Fausto Carmona (6-13) to snap a five-game losing streak. The Indians began September trailing first-place Detroit by 51/2 games in the AL Central. The teams will meet in a critical three-game series starting Monday at Progressive Field.

Outfielder Choo Shin-soo was placed on the 15-day disabled list, the latest tough break for the South Korean, whose 2011 season has been marred by injuries, an arrest on drunken-driving charges and sub-par stats.

Royals 11, Tigers 8 At Detroit, Jeff Francoeur homered for his 1,000th career hit and drove in three runs as Kansas City salvaged a split of its four-game series against Detroit. Johnny Giavotella hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the seventh inning against Luis Marte, who was making his

major league debut. Eric Hosmer added a solo shot in the eighth.

Hosmer also had two singles and two walks. Francoeur opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the second. Aaron Crow (4-4) allowed three runs in the sixth, his only inning of work, but was credited with the win. Phil Coke (2-9) got the loss. Magglio Ordonez homered, doubled twice and even stole a base for the first-place Tigers.

Blue Jays 8, Orioles 6 At Baltimore, Brett Lawrie hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning and Yunel Escobar had his second straight four-hit game to lead Toronto over Baltimore. Kelly Johnson also homered for the Blue Jays, who had 26 runs and 42 hits in taking two of three at Camden Yards.

With the score 6-all, Johnson drew a walk from Willie Eyre (1-1) and Lawrie followed with his seventh home run. Lawrie, a rookie, went 3 for 5 and scored twice. Escobar was 4 for 5 with two RBIs. The four hits matched a career high. Vladimir Guerrero and Matt Wieters homered for the Orioles.— AP

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Mickelson mulls going belly up at TPC Boston NORTON: Taking a leaf out of fellow American Keegan Bradley’s book, Phil Mickelson sprang a surprise on the eve of this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship by using a belly putter in the pro-am competition. Bradley became the first player to win a major title with a long putter at last month’s PGA Championship in Atlanta and Mickelson thought he would give it a try at the TPC Boston on Thursday. “I just got it (the putter) Monday,” fourtimes major winner Mickelson told reporters while preparing for the opening round.

“Last week I didn’t have any idea about the idiosyncrasies of it, and I played with Keegan Bradley and I asked him a bunch of questions. “It’s awkward to me, but so many guys have had success with it that I thought I’d give it a try,” added Mickelson, who has been a mentor to Bradley this year.

Other than Bradley, Australian Adam Scott and American Webb Simpson have won PGA Tour events recently with long putters. Their success has helped persuade some players to abandon the traditional short putter and switch to the longer version which

has been viewed suspiciously by many in the past.

LONG OPTION After using the belly putter on Thursday, Mickelson said he was seriously considering leaving the club in his bag for the first round. “Probably, yeah, probably,” the 41-year-old added. “I was a little shady with it on the front nine today but a little bit better with it on the back. “I don’t mind trying new things.

I’ve hit two drivers and no drivers in (US) Opens, and I don’t mind trying something different. We’ll see.” Mickelson has long been regarded as one of the best

short-game exponents on tour but he has struggled on the greens this year, ranking 89th in the PGA Tour’s total putting charts and 84th from inside 10 feet.

Scott, who won last month’s WGCBridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club with a long putter, seems to have officially started a trend. “I heard a rumor this morning that he had a long putter, but I haven’t seen it,” the Australian said of Mickelson’s strategy on the greens for the pro-am. “I might have to see it to believe it. That’s the thing. It’s the fad at the moment, so why not?” — Reuters

Donald wary of the young guns NORTON: British world number one Luke Donald will start this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship hungry for a second PGA Tour victory this year but wary of some of the game’s successful young guns.

Going into the second of the four lucrative FedExCup playoff events, Donald occupies fifth spot in the standings and is in good position to make a run at the overall title and its $10 million bonus.

However, the Englishman trails FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson by 1,583 points and probably needs to record another triumph on the US circuit if he is to take over at the top. “The goal is to win,” Donald told reporters while wrapping up his preparations at the TPC Boston on Thursday.

“I think winning is more important than ever during the playoffs than it is during the regular season. “I mean, with the (FedExCup) points times by five, there’s a lot more volatility, and winning is very important. Hopefully I’ll have a good chance come Sunday.” Last week, Donald tied for 18th at The Barclays, the opening playoff event. During that tournament, he played in the company of American rookie Keegan Bradley, winner of the PGA Championship and yet another in a long line of exciting young players emerging across the globe.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD With Bradley and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy both claiming major titles this season, the changing of the guard seems to be underway and Donald is both aware of and motivated by this development. “I played with Keegan last week and I was impressed,” the 33-year-old said. “He’s had a great year. As a rookie to win twice and one of them be a major, that’s an unbelievable year.

“All the youngsters doing well, I think that’s good. It keeps me working hard, keeps me on my toes and it’s exciting to see a lot of new talent coming through.

“People enjoy watching them, and it’s good for the game,” added Donald, who won the elite WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February and has posted nine other top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season. Ahead of yesterday’s opening round at the TPC Boston, big-hitting American Johnson lead the FedEx Cup standings by 784 points over compatriot Matt Kuchar.

Nick Watney, who entered the playoffs in the top spot, is third with fellow American Webb Simpson close behind in fourth and Donald in fifth. The leading 70 players in the standings after this week move on to the

BMW Championship at Cog Hill before the top 30 qualify for the Tour Championship finale at East Lake.

Defending champion this week is Charley Hoffman, who fired 11 birdies in a

final-round 62 last year to claim his second PGA Tour title. “Obviously it’s a good feeling coming back to Boston,” the long-haired American said. “Last time I left the media centre here, I was pretty happy.” — Reuters

BOSTON: Luke Donald hits his second shot on the ninth hole during the Pro Am round of the Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass. —AP

Westwood, Clarke in Seve Trophy boost PARIS: After US Open champion Rory McIlroy announced this week he would not contest this month’s Seve Trophy in France the tournament has been given a boost with World No 2 Lee Westwood and British Open Champion Darren Clarke now committing to the event. The inclusion of Westwood and Clarke at St-Nom-la-Breteche near Paris was confirmed by their manager, Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler.

McIlroy is missing the event as he indicated he needed two weeks rest ahead of 12 weeks ‘on the road’ with the Seve Trophy taking place during his break. Westwood is currently ranked second on the qualifying table that ends this Sunday at the close of the Swiss event. It will be Westwood’s fourth appearance in the now biannual event but a first since 2003. Clarke will forgo commitments at Archerfield in Scotland on September 18th, and the final day of the Vivendi, to also take his place in Paul McGinley’s Great Britian and Ireland team.

Clarke was concerned in breaking promises to be present to greet Archerfield to guests ahead of a two-day charity fund raiser starting Monday and the day after the final round of the French event. However Chandler indicated: “I know Darren was worried about breaking promises but we’ve organised a private jet straight from France to Edinburgh after the Vivendi, so he shouldn’t be too late for the tomorrows evening function at Archerfield.”

Clarke currently heads the second of two Seve Trophy qualifying tables but hasn’t represented GBR & IRL in the 10-man team’s event since 2002. As well, it’s believed World No. 18 Paul Casey will make himself available given he was cut last week from the FedEx Cup series. He indicated following the recent PGA Championship in Atlanta not only a desire to compete but also to be on hand to honor Ballesteros’ memory. Casey is lying fourth behind Clarke on the points table and should be assured of automatic selection.

The inclusion of three Ryder Cup stars in the Seve Trophy is also a big lift for European Ryder Cup captain, Jose Maria Olazabal who had chosen McGinley and Continental Captain, Jean Van de Velde for the event.

Olazabal revealed he had written a letter some two weeks ago to all 10 current qualifiers, along with those on the fringe of selection, asking them to compete. He said: “I wrote to all the players who look like qualifying asking them if they would consider playing not only because we need them competing but also as this year it’s very much a tribute to Seve. “So you will hear some good news in a couple of days.” — AFP

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Harris wickets put Aussies in control Sri Lanka face uphill task to chase down 379 runs

GALLE: Fast bowler Ryan Harris made quick work of dismissing three of Sri Lanka’s top batsmen to put Australia in command on the third day of the first test in Galle and make the home team’s task of chasing down 379 runs look even more daunting yesterday. Sri Lanka closed on 120 for five wickets as Mahela Jayawardene’s battling half century sought to repair some of the early damage done by Harris. The right arm pacer captured Tharanga Paranavitana with the first ball of the second innings for lbw and then bowled Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan in his fourth over for 12, leaving Sri Lanka struggling at 15 for two wickets.

Replays showed Paranavitana would have survived had he called for a review as more than half the ball pitched outside the leg. “To me, it looked out,” Harris told reporters. “But obviously the batsman got the opportunity to refer, but he didn’t. Bad luck for him.” Harris later bowled wicketkeeper-batsman Prasanna Jayawardene for a duck as the home team found themselves on 68 for five. Sri Lanka lost Kumar Sangakkara for 17 shortly after tea when he was forced to edge a short pitch ball by Shane Watson, giving a catch to Michael

Hussey at gully. Thilan Samaraweera, who was caught behind off Mitchell Johnson, and Prasanna Jayawardene did not add to the score.

Mahela Jayawardene, however, held the Sri Lankan innings together with the support of Angelo Mathews. He ended the day with an unbeaten 57, sharing an unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 52 with Mathews who was on 32 at the close. Sri Lanka face an uphill task as they need 259 more runs to win the test. But while Australia seem on course for victory, they may be forced to wait for it with rain forecast for today. “A couple of days are to come and they (Sri Lanka) are in their own conditions, so you never take that for granted,” said Harris. “But we are in a very good position. Hopefully we can clean up those wickets tomorrow.”

PLAY DELAYED Earlier, Australia were all out for 210 with Sri Lanka left arm spinner Rangana Herath collecting a career-best five-wicket haul in their second innings. Herath captured five wickets for 79 runs, taking his tally to eight wickets in the match for 133 runs on a pitch that has historically favored spinners, espe-

cially in the final two days of a test match.

Australia, resuming on 115 for six, added a further 95 runs on the third day after play was delayed due to a wet outfield. The tourists were helped by their lower order, with the last three batsmen adding 80 runs after the team had been struggling on 130 for seven at one stage.

Pakistan-born left-handed batsman Usman Khawaja and Harris added 40 runs for the eighth wicket, while debutants Trent Copeland and Nathan Lyon scored 32 runs

for the last wicket. Herath dismissed Johnson for eight runs as the Australian paceman tried for a sweep but lofted after edging and was caught by wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene. Herath also caught Harris off his own bowling for 23. On Thursday, Sri Lanka were all out for a paltry 105 with debutant right arm spinner Lyon taking five wickets for 34 runs including a wicket on his first ball. The tourists beat Sri Lanka 3-2 in the one-dayers ahead of the three-match test series. —Reuters

Scoreboard GALLE, Sri Lanka: Scoreboard at the close of the third day of the first test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle yesterday.

Australia first innings 273 (M. Hussey 95; S. Lakmal 3-55, R. Herath 3-54) Sri Lanka first innings 105 (N. Lyon 5-34; S. Watson 3-11) Australia second innings 210 (M. Clarke 60; Herath 5-79) T. Paranavitana lbw Harris 0 T. Dilshan b Harris 12 K. Sangakkara c Hussey b Watson 17 M. Jayawardene not out 57

T. Samaraweera c Haddin b Johnson 0 P. Jayawardene b Harris 0 A. Mathews not out 32 Extras (b 1, lb 1) 2 Total (For five wickets; 52 overs) 120 Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-15 3-52 4-63 5-68 Bowling (to date): R. Harris 9-2-24-3, T. Copeland 9-5-8-0, M. Johnson 10-3-20-1, N. Lyon 12-2-41-0, M. Clarke 2-0-6-0, S. Watson 8-4-14-1, R. Ponting 2-0-5-0.

Mawoyo carries bat as Zimbabwe rack up 412 BULAWAYO: Tintotenda Mawoyo became the third Zimbabwean player to carry his bat as the opener made 163 not out in his side’s first innings total of 412 on the second day of the Test against Pakistan at Queens Sports Club yesterday. After the early loss of Taufeeq Umar, the Pakistan batsmen settled well on an easy pitch and by the close had reached 116 for one with Mohammad Hafeez on 79 and Azhar Ali on 27. They trail by 296 runs with nine wickets in hand. The day, however, belonged to the 25-year-old Mawoyo who picked up where he left off on Thursday as he stone-walled the Pakistan attack. Resuming on 82 he went on to reach his maiden Test century and then, as wickets

fell around him, pushed on past the 150mark. When last man Chris Mpofu was bowled by Aizeez Cheema to signal the delayed tea interval, Mawoyo had become the 47th batsman in the history of Test cricket this is the 2006th Test match-to carry his bat. The only two Zimbabweans to do it before him also achieved the feat against Pakistan. Mark Dekker made 68 not out in Rawalpini in 1993 while Grant Flower hit 156 not out on this ground in 1998. Starting the day on 245 for four, Zimbabwe lost Craig Ervine early when he gave Juanid Jhan his first Test wicket, caught and bowled for 49, ending a fifth wicket partnership of 94 with Mawoyo. Debutant Greg Lamb, however,

Scoreboard BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe: Scoreboard at close of play on the second day of the one-off Test between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club yesterday:

BULAWAYO: Zimbabwean bowler Christopher Mpofu bowls to Pakistan batsman Azhar Ali at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo yesterday. —AP

Zimbabwe first innings (overnight 245-5) T. Mawoyo not out 163 V. Sibanda st A. Akmal b S. Ajmal 45 H. Masakadza b S. Ajmal 11 B. Taylor lbw b S. Ajmal 10 T. Taibu c A. Akmal b S. Khan 44 C. Ervine c and b J. Khan 49 G. Lamb lbw b S.Ajmal 39 R. Price c Azhar Ali b Cheema 6 B. Vitori c Y. Khan b Cheema 14 K. Jarvis b Cheema 0 C. Mpofu b Cheema 8 Extras (7b, 13lb, 1w, 2nb) 23 Total (all out, 150.4 overs) 412 Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-91, 3-111, 4-176, 5270, 6-365, 7-374, 8-394, 9-394, 10-412.

Bowling: Cheema 28.4-11-79-4 (2nb); S. Khan 24-8-62-1; J. Khan 29-14-55-1 (1w); S. Ajmal 41-9-100-3; M. Hafeez 9-1-30-0;

A. Ali 6-1-23-0.

Pakistan first innings M. Hafeez not out 79 T. Umar lbw b Jarvis 4 A. Ali not out 27 Extras (6lb) 6 Total (for 1 wkt, 29 overs) 116 To bat: Younis Khan, Misbah ul Haq, Umar Akmal, Adnan Akmal, Junaid Khan, Sohail Khan, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema Fall of wickets: 1-8 Bowling: Vitori 8-0-55-0; Jarvis 7-3-16-1; Mpofu 3-0-12-0; Price 9-3-19-0, Lamb 2-0-8-0 Match position: Pakistan trail Zimbabwe by 296 runs with nine first innings wickets left in hand at the close of the second day.

dug in to add another 95 with the opener for the sixth wicket.

Mawoyo had a major stroke of luck when he was on 98 as Adnan Akmal missed a straightforward stumping off Saeed Ajmal. It was his second chance as Sohail Khan dropped him on the boundary when he had made 25. There was a little bit of uncertainty as he reached his century. Mawoyo thought he was running a leg-bye only to realise it was his all-important 100th run when the umpire failed to signal the extra. Mawoyo faced 453 balls and spent a total of 645 minutes at the crease, hitting 20 boundaries during the course of his innings.

Only David Houghton, who made 266 in 675 minutes against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo in 1994 and Flower, whose 201 not out against Pakistan in Harare in 1995 spanned 654 minutes, have produced longer innings for Zimbabwe. When Lamb fell for 38, the Zimbabwe tail fell apart but they still got the side across the psychological 400-odd mark.

Saeed Ajmal bowled with guile and variation, his doosras a constant torment to the Zimbabwe batsmen but he was out of luck, finishing with four for 143. It fell to Aizaz Cheema to clean up with tail and he helped himself to four for 79. When Pakistan came out after tea, they were quickly in trouble as Taufeeq Umar was given out leg before to Kyle Jarvis even though the ball pitched outside leg stump. Hafeez, however, made light of the setback, hammering one six off Lamb and 15 fours-three of them off successive deliveries from Brian Vitori-as he raced to 79 from just 93 deliveries. His partner Azkar Ali was more circumspect, nudging his way to 27 from 72 deliveries but by the close the stand was worth 108 and both batsmen were looking forward to another dig on this batting-friendly pitch. —AFP

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Djokovic, Wozniacki shine at the US Open Djokovic sends ominous warning

NEW YORK: World number one Novak Djokovic sent an ominous warning to his rivals about his plans to complete one of the most dominant years in professional tennis by winning the US Open. The Serbian, at the top of his powers and at ease with the world after winning two grand slam titles already this season, produced a masterful display at Flushing Meadows on Thursday to defeat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-0 6-0 6-2 and sail into the third round.

It was as one-sided as the scoreline suggested, with Djokovic completely overwhelming his opponent with power and accuracy. One spectator at the Arthur Ashe Stadium asked the Serbian for his money back. Berlocq could only smile and play along, helpless to stop the hottest player in the world. When he finally won a game in the third set, he raised his arms as though he had won the championship final. The crowd roared their approval, disappointed they did not see a real contest but consoled by the fact they saw a near-flawless display.

“I tell you, as a tennis player, as any athlete, when you’re playing perfectly, everything seems so good,” Djokovic said.

“You’re so happy because that’s exactly where you want your game to be, at the top, at the highest possible level.”

Roger Federer and Serena Williams had earlier swept into the third round with the same sort of ruthless performances that made them the king and queen of tennis.

UNFORGIVING Federer, already a five-time champion on the hardcourts of New York, demolished Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-3 6-2 6-2 in 77 minutes. The Swiss master was untroubled and offered a blunt assessment of the contest. “When it’s like that, obviously it’s tough for the opponent,” Federer said. “But I just think I was superior today.” Williams was just as unforgiving.

She thrashed Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands 6-0 6-1 in less than an hour, racing around like the court like a teenager instead of a 29-year-old on the comeback trail. “One way to get faster is you can pretend there’s a check for a million dollars there tax-free, and just go run it down,” she explained.But Williams, like Federer, is now being hunted by younger rivals. Women’s world number one Caroline Wozniacki was also impressive in her second round match against Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. After a slow start in which she dropped early service games, she ran away with the match 6-2 6-0 in 63 minutes. “I feel like I’m on a roll and I’m playing well,” Wozniacki said. “I believe I can beat anyone on a good day. But I have to play on a high level for seven matches, and that’s not easy.” There were no major surprises Thursday although four lower seeded players were knocked out. Michael Llodra of France was beaten and Czech Radek Stepanek retired with an injury, while on the women’s side

Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and Shahar Peer both fell. Mardy Fish, one of the few men given any hope of challenging Federer, Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray, sailed through with a clinical 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri. “I haven’t really been tested that much,” said the eighth-seeded American. “I can’t do anything about that. I can’t do anything about who I come up against. Just happy to move on.”

HEALTH PROBLEMS Victoria Azarenka, the fourth seed from Belarus, also impressed with her 6-4 6-3 win over Argentina’s Gisela Dulko and now faces Serena Williams, seeded 28th, in the third round. Williams spent almost as long in her news conference talking about her sister Venus’s health problems than she did on court, but said she had not allowed herself to be distracted. “It really wasn’t that difficult, to be honest. I mean, she wants me to do the best, she wouldn’t want me to suffer,” Serena said. — Reuters

NEW YORK: Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns a shot against Arantxa Rus of Netherlands during Day Four of the 2011 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. — AFP

Age no barrier for Ferrero and Haas NEW YORK: Juan Carlos Ferrero rolled back the years at the US Open on Thursday when he ruined flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils’s 25th birthday celebrations.

Ferrero, 31, a former French Open champion and world number one, belied his 105 ranking to shock the seventh seed Monfils 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-4 in the second round. The Spaniard, who was runner-up to Andy Roddick here in 2003, is playing in his first Grand Slam event of 2011 having missed the Australian and French Opens as well as Wimbledon through injury.

On Thursday, his frail recent past threatened to stall him again when he needed treatment for blisters on his right foot and right hand before subduing Monfils, a 2010 quarter-finalist. “It’s been a long time since I have enjoyed playing,” said Ferrero, who recalls the 2003 tournament with fondness. “I beat Agassi in the semi-finals to become world number one. I had a big opportunity that year, it’s a shame that I couldn’t go on to win the title.”

Ferrero has now played two five-set matches in four

days, and is carrying a hip injury into his third round match with compatriot Marcel Granollers. “I have tested it in two five-set matches now so I should be OK.” Monfils shrugged off the defeat and insisted he would celebrate his birthday in style in New York. “Of course. My mum is here. It’s not often she comes to a tournament with me. I lost but that’s life,” said Monfils. Haas, the 33-year-old German, has also suffered an injury-blighted career.

A former world number two, he has required shoulder surgery on four separate occasions and came into his 14th US Open and 46th Grand Slam with a ranking of 475. The three-time US Open quarter-finalist reached the third round with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-1, 7-5 win over Colombia’s Alejandro Falla and next tackles Juan Monaco of Argentina.

“You know, if you count up all the months I’ve missed due to injuries or surgeries that I’ve had, I’m probably 29 years old really,” said Haas. “But like I said, you have to just take everything the way it is and make the best of it and go from there.”- AFP

Kaman lifts Germany as France rout Israel SIAULIAI: Germany made it two wins out of two at the European basketball championship with a 76-62 Group B victory over Italy thanks to an impressive performance

by American-born centre Chris Kaman on Thursday. On a day of fast-flowing and high-scoring action from the big guns, France blew away Israel 85-68 with another majestic display by point guard Tony Parker while hosts Lithuania crushed Poland 97-77 and holders Spain beat Portugal 87-73.

Serbia, the 2009 runners-up, enjoyed a 92-77 success against Latvia after romping to a 19-2 lead and Macedonia stunned Croatia 78-76 thanks to point guard Lester Bo McCalebb who scored 19 points and had five assists. Usually overshadowed by team mate Dirk Nowitzki, who helped the Dallas Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title, Kaman stepped up at crunch time to swing a gripping encounter Germany’s way. With the score tied midway through the final period and Nowitzki struggling from mid-range, Los Angeles Clippers centre Kaman sparkled to finish the game with 17 points and as many rebounds.

Nowitzki, who had 21 points and 12 rebounds but made only seven of 15 shots from the field, was full of praise for Kaman and shooting guard Robin Benzing who chipped in with 14 points. “They had a great game, they made clutch plays when the going got tough and this showed we are a complete team,” Nowitzki told Germany’s Sport 1 television. Parker, a triple NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs, again demonstrated the credentials of the world’s top point guard after shining in Wednesday’s win over Latvia, gathering 21 points and eight assists for France against the Israelis.

His superb vision also allowed several other players to get a barrage of open shots as Nicolas Batum scored 15 points, Mickael Gelabale added 13 and Chicago Bulls centre Joakim Noah had nine and as many rebounds.

The Serbs also took a big step towards advancing to the second stage from Group B as centre Nenad Krstic scored 23 points and forward Dusko Savanovic put up 19 to go with five rebounds against the battling Latvians. Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic was unhappy with his team playing in fits and starts though.

“We should not be allowing our opponents to fight for their national colours harder than we do and the players have to show more vigilance in their personal battles on the court if we are to excel in this tournament,” Ivkovic said.

Spain, who lost three times in the two group stages before they turned up the heat to win the 2009 event in Poland, are unlikely to suffer the same early setbacks although they are still to move out of second gear in Group A. Having scraped a win over Poland on Wednesday, they were in cruise control against Portugal as 11 of their 12 players got on the scoresheet, led by Los Angeles Lakers centre Pau Gasol who had 20 points and point guard Juan Carlos Navarro with 17.

“In the fourth quarter we ran the clock down and saved our energy for a very difficult game (against Britain) tomorrow so we achieved our goal of beating Portugal and rotating as many players as we could on the court,” said Spain coach Sergio Scariolo. However, judging by their 90-61 defeat by Turkey, Britain stand a slim chance of bringing the best out of the resourceful Spaniards. Lithuania are more likely to test Spain’s credentials on Sunday, having buried 69 percent of their shots from the field against the Poles.

Point guard Mantas Kalnietis led the charge with 19 points, six assists and as many rebounds, forward Darius Songaila added 14 points in 17 minutes on the court and Rimantas Kaukenas had 11 without missing a shot from the field. In Group C, Macedonia produced the first shock of the tournament after Croatia’s Bojan Bogandovic missed a three-pointer on the buzzer and Bosnia rallied to earn a 94-86 victory over Montenegro.

Russia, the strongest team in Group D, suffered a late scare in an emotional clash with neighbours Georgia and came out on top 65-58 thanks to Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko who finished with 20 points. — Reuters

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DAEGU: (From left) USA’s Darvis Patton, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, Brazil’s Bruno de Barros, Norway’s Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, Trinidad’s Rondel Sorrillo and Japan’s Hitoshi Saito compete in a Men’s 200m semifinal at the World Athletics Championships yesterday. — AP

Bolt coasts into finals; Cheruiyot hits double Pistorius ends world odyssey with historic silver

DAEGU: Usain Bolt powered into the world 200m final yesterday, staying firmly on course for redemption after his shocking 100m false-start as Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot sealed a distance double. A full house in Daegu gave the Jamaican reigning world and Olympic champion, and world record holder (19.19sec), a rapturous reception when he arrived on the track and the relaxed sprinter played to the gallery as he prepared to race. Bolt made an impeccable start in the semi-final and came off the bend well in front of the field, easing to victory in 20.31sec, finding the time to cast several glances over his shoulder at his rivals. The 25-year-old, who admits he is not in world record shape this season, had insisted he would not dwell on the disappointment of his 100m disqualification as he focuses yesterday’s 200m final.

“Does it look like it?” a smiling Bolt replied when asked whether he was over his 100m disaster. “You win some, you lose some, I’m over that now - I made a mistake, I’ve got to move on.” He added: “The race was great. I tried to execute like my coach told me to do and I did that. I’m focused on getting everything done. I’m happy with myself. Always expect the best from me. I always go out there and do my best.

“For me the 200m is my favourite,” Bolt added. “Everyone, all seven people in the final, are my competitors, but there’s nobody to beat me because I’m the best and I’ve got to be really out of shape (for anyone to beat him).” As introductions were made on the stadium big screen, Bolt danced, gave a sixgun salute and even performed some karate moves, also motioning to the crowd with a finger to his lips to be quiet in tandem with the automated tannoy system - a world away from the desolate figure disqualified from the 100m.

As he made his way off the track after qualifying, Bolt once more played up to the screaming fans, hurling his spikes into a gaggle of young fans on the tier above. Bolt, world leader over the 200m this season with a run of 19.86sec in Oslo, was second in qualifying behind European champion Christophe Lemaitre (20.17sec). In yet another show of Kenyan power, Cheruiyot claimed the women’s 5000-10,000m double, timing 14min 55.36sec in the 5000m, with compatriot Sylvia Kibet taking silver and Meseret Defar of Ethiopia claiming bronze.

Defending champion Cheruiyot becomes only the second woman to achieve this particular distance double after Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba at the Helsinki worlds in 2005. “My race was OK,” an understated Cheruiyot said. “I am incredibly happy to be a double medallist at this point. Both events were

very hard.” Asked what the secret was to Kenya’s distance running prowess, Cheruiyot, unbeaten at any distance on the track this year, said: “The secret to our success is that we normally do teamwork.”

Jamaica’s two-time Olympic champion Veronica CampbellBrown stormed to victory in the women’s 200m, denying American Allyson Felix a historic fourth consecutive world title when she crossed the line in a season’s best of 22.22sec.

Daegu 100m champion Carmelita Jeter took silver and Felix claimed bronze. “It’s been a long season and finally after many years of trying I get the victory at the world championships and the only thing missing now is the (Olympic) 100m gold medal so we’ll see if it’s my destiny next year,” said CampbellBrown. The United States won their fourth consecutive 4x400m title, with LaShawn Merritt opening up the throttle on the anchor leg to beat South Africa, for whom double amputee Oscar Pistorius will win a silver medal by virtue of his participation in the heats. Jamaica were third. Pistorius’ history-making participation at the world championships ended with a silver medal after his teammates guided South Africa to second in the men’s 4x400m relay yesterday. The controversial ‘Blade Runner’, who runs with carbon fibre prosthetic running blades and was the first amputee to compete at the worlds, finished last in his semi-final heat in the individual 400m. He was omitted from the relay team for the final, having run the first leg in qualifiers on Thursday, when South Africa finished third quickest.

“Haven’t been included in the final for the SA men’s 4x400m. Pretty Guttered,” Pistorius said earlier on his Twitter account. “Thats me for the @Daegu2011org World Champs!

Gods blessed me! Semifinals in the 400m and a National Record in the 4x400m semi!Thank u all!x” As a relay squad member, however, Pistorius will mark a memorable championships by returning home with a world silver medal in his pocket after his teammates battled off Jamaica for second behind a strong US quartet.

But there would be no celebrations for Pistorius. “Well done to the SA 4x400 relay team, they got a silver. Was really hard watching knowing I deserved to be part of it. Off to my bed, nyt all,” he tweeted after the race. Also yesterday, Russian Maria Abakumova won the world women’s javelin title with a championship record throw of 71.99m, American Dwight Phillips retained his long jump title and Germany’s David Storl won the men’s shot put. —Agencies

World Athletics Championships medal table World Athletics Championships medal table after the seventh day of action yesterday: Country Gold United States 9 Kenya 5 Russia 5 Germany 2 Jamaica 2 Britain 1 China 1 Ethiopia 1 Botswana 1 Brazil 1 Grenada 1 Japan 1 New Zealand 1 Poland 1 Ukraine 1 Cuba 0 South Africa 0 Belarus 0 Australia 0 Canada 0 Czech Republic 0 Estonia 0 Hungary 0 Kazakhstan 0 Puerto Rico 0 Sudan 0 Tunisia 0 Colombia 0 France 0 Bahamas 0 Belgium 0 Iran 0 Latvia 0 St Kitts and Nevis 0 Slovenia 0 Spain 0 Trinidad and Tobago 0 Zimbabwe 0

Silver Bronze 5 2 4 3 3 5 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1

Total 16 12 13 5 5 5 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Berto seeking a new crown against Zaveck BILOXI: Andre Berto, whose unbeaten status and welterweight reign of nearly three years were ended in April by Victor Ortiz, returns to the ring today trying to dethrone Slovenia’s Jan Zaveck.

Zaveck, 31-1 with 18 knockouts, defends his International Boxing Federation crown against Berto, 27-1 with 21 knockouts, in his first US fight and only his second start outside Europe. “I’m unknown here, of course, but after the fight you will all write about me,” Zaveck said. Berto, 27, has

not fought since dropping a 12-round unanimous decision in April to fellow American Ortiz, who will defend the World Boxing Council welterweight crown against unbeaten US star Floyd Mayweather later this month. Berto, who won the title in 2006, made five successful defenses before falling to Ortiz, ending his unbeaten career run of six years. “I didn’t lose nothing that night. The only thing I lost was my undefeated record,” Berto said.

“I firmly believe that whatever doesn’t kill you

makes you stronger. “It was a small bump in the road and we are just going to keep on climbing.”

Zaveck, 25, made his first foray beyond Europe to fight in December of 2009 at South Africa and took the IBF crown by stopping host-nation hero Isaac Hlatshwayo in the third round. Since then, he has defended the crown three times in Slovenia, twice winning by knockouts, including a fifth-round KO of American Paul Delgado last february in his most recent prior start.

Adamek, Haye, Klitschko World heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko said yesterday WBC challenger Tomasz Adamek of Poland will be a tougher opponent than Britain’s David Haye. Klitschko, 40, defends his WBC heavyweight belt against Adamek, 34, in Wroclaw, Poland on September 10, but Klitschko is eager to set up a bout with former heavyweight champion Haye who has said he plans to retire in October. —Agencies

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Germany claim first Euro 2012 berth Dutch lash 11 goals past poor San Marino GELSENKIRCHEN: Germany became the first team to book their Euro 2012 place through the qualification groups as they hammered neighbors Austria 6-2 here yesterday. This was the Germans’ eighth straight qualification victory, giving Joachim Loew’s side an unassailable 24 points at the top of Group A to leave secondplaced Turkey 11 points adrift.

Plucky Austria, however, exposed some weaknesses in the Germany defense and both Austrian goals ere scored by players who ply their trade in the German league. Despite the hosts making an explosive start to the game, it suggested Loew still has some fine-tuning to do if Germany are to challenge at the finals in Poland and the Ukraine next June. Germany cruised into a 3-0 lead after 28 minutes thanks to goals by Miroslav Klose, Mesut Ozil, who added a second after the break, and Lukas Podolski.

Austria got back into the game as first Werder Bremen’s Marko Arnautovic, then Stuttgart’s Martin Harnik scored to keep the guests in the chase. But German replacements Andre Schuerrle and teenage star Mario Goetze scored in the final ten minutes to add luster to the win. This was the first time Germany had conceded two goals in their qualification games since their Euro 2012 campaign began almost exactly a year ago. The hosts took the lead after just eight minutes at Gelsinkirchen’s Veltins Arena when Klose latched onto an Ozil volley and, with the slightest of touches, deflected the shot into the net past Austrian goalkeeper Christian Gratzei.

Netherlands 11 San Marino 0 Robin van Persie hit four goals to inspire Netherlands to an 11-0 annihilation of San Marino in Euro 2012 qualifying yesterday. The Dutch, the number one team in the world, never looked back after making a flying start with three goals in the first 17 minutes against soccer’s lowest-ranked side. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Wesley Sneijder scored twice apiece and John Heitinga, Dirk Kuyt and Georginio Wijnaldum completed a record win for the home side who lashed eight goals in the second period. The Dutch are top of Group E with 21

points from seven matches, six ahead of Sweden and Hungary. “I never thought about a record win,” Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk told reporters. “I only really care about the implementation of our game plan against weak opposition. “This match said my team is still developing. Outside of the last 15 minutes of the first half our performance approached perfection.

United, struck in the 21st and 45th minutes after England had taken the lead through Bolton defender Gary Cahill at the Vasil Levski Stadium.

The win left Fabio Capello’s men three points clear at the top of Group G, after Wales defeated second-placed Montenegro 2-1 in the pool’s other game yesterday. If England pick up a further three points against Wales at Wembley next

2012 Group C qualifiers after Antonio Cassano’s early goal earned a narrow 1-0 victory over bottom of the table Faroe Islands yesterday.

Cassano pounced in the 11th minute, controlling a superb Andrea Pirlo pass before rounding goalkeeper Rene Torgard and slipping the ball into an empty net for his seventh international goal. The Faroes fought back valiantly and were unlucky not to equalize, Suni Olsen hitting the post midway through the first half and Christian Lamhauge Holst thumping the bar with 20 minutes to go.

Portugal 4 Cyprus 0 Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals and set up another as Portugal thrashed a 10-man Cyprus side 4-0 away to stay top of Euro 2012 qualifying Group H on goal difference.

Portugal’s first spell of pressure started on 13 minutes when the lively Joao Moutinho put Joao Pereira through with a fine pass but the right back’s shot was blocked by keeper Antonis Georgallidis. Just as Portugal’s menace was starting to wane, Cyprus midfielder Sinisa Dobrasinovic stretched out his arm inside the box to deflect a Moutinho shot, received a second booking and allowed Ronaldo to slot in coolly from the resulting penalty on 35 minutes.

Portugal took advantage of the added space in midfield, with both Moutinho and striker Helder Postiga coming close to doubling their lead with fierce, long-distance efforts just before the break.

GELSENKIRCHEN: Germany’s midfielder Mario Goetze scores a goal past Austria’s striker Marko Arnautovic (right) during their Euro 2012 qualifying football match yesterday. — AFP England 3 Bulgaria 0 A resurgent Wayne Rooney scored twice as new-look England edged closer to Euro 2012 qualification with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Bulgaria yesterday. Rooney, building on his scintillating early season form for Manchester

week, Capello’s men will need only a point from their final game in Montenegro on October 7 to guarantee qualification.

Italy 1 Faroes 0 Italy collected their sixth win in seven Euro

France 2 Albania 1 Karim Benzema grabbed one goal and set up another as France claimed a sluggish 2-1 win over Albania in Group D yesterday to stay on course for a place at the Euro 2012 finals. France top the standings with 16 points from seven games, three points ahead of Bosnia who beat Belarus 2-0 away. Benzema opened the scoring from inside the area in the 11th minute and set up midfielder Yann Mvila for the second goal seven minutes later. France struggled in defense and a mix-up allowed Erjon Bogdani to reduce the arrears just after the break but they held on to take the points after surviving constant pressure. — Agencies

Messi powers Argentina to victory KOLKATA: Lionel Messi marked his first game as Argentina captain with a 1-0 win over Venezuela in a friendly encounter played before thousands of delirious fans in the Indian city of Kolkata yesterday. The 24year-old Barcelona striker enthralled the crowd at the 120,000-capacity Salt Lake Stadium with his dribbles and his magical left foot and the crowd came to life every time he touched the ball.

It was from a Messi corner that full-back Nicolas Otamendi headed in the game’s only goal on the 67th minute. Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella rushed out from the dugout to hug his team and savor the win in his first match in charge of the two-time World Cup winners. Messi came close to scoring twice in an entertaining first-half, while Angel Di Maria failed to convert a Messi assist in the ninth minute despite having only Venezuela goalkeeper Rafael Romo to beat.

Venezuela provided more of a threat after the break, with Sergio Romero forced into action to deny Cesar Gonzalez. That helped ease the anxiety of Sabella, who was looking

to get off to a good start after replacing Sergio Batista as coach in the wake of Argentina’s disappointing performance at the Copa America on home soil in July. The 14-time Copa winners were knocked out on penalties in the quarter-finals by Uruguay, triggering a wave of criticism from home fans desperate to see their team break an 18-year title drought.

Yesterday’s game marked a new start for Argentina as they seek to rebuild ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and if they ever needed any extra motivation for winning this game, it came from the fans in Kolkata who waved Argentina flags and brought the house down with their constant cheering of Messi’s men. Less fancied Venezuela were fresh from reaching the semi-finals of the Copa America for the first time but they failed to capitalize on the chances that came their way. Argentina, hoping to build up a loyal following across southern Asia, now head to the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for another friendly with Nigeria on September 6.—AFP

KOLKATA: Argentina’s Lionel Messi takes the ball past Venezuelan defenders during a friendly match in Kolkata, India yesterday. — AP

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GOYANG: South Korea’s player Park Chu-Young (right) jumps for the ball with Lebanon’s Ramez Dayoub during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying soccer match yesterday.

South Korean won the match 6-0. — AFP

Kuwait stun UAE in WCup qualifier South Korea demolish Lebanon 6-0

AL AIN: Yousef Naser scored a brace to lead Kuwait to a nervy but crucial 3-2 away win over Group B rivals United Arab Emirates yesterday. Naser opened the scoring in the seventh minute and Bader Al Mutawaa made it 2-0 in the 51st, before Naser made the most of a defensive blunder to put Kuwait in complete control in the 65th. A goal in the 84th by Ismail Al Hammadi and another by Ahmad Khalil in the 89th made it a nervy finish for the visitors, who had been dominant for most of the match.

South Korea and Lebanon are the other two teams in Group B, and Kuwait Coach Goran Tufegdzic said the result would give his side confidence ahead of the home clash with powerhouse South Korea on Sept. 6. “I am satisfied with the result,” the Serbian coach said. “We played a team whose players play in a professional league in the UAE and one that is very, very strong. “Overall we had more chances to score and we created a lot, but that lapse in concentration in the last five minutes allowed them to score.”

It was not such a positive night for UAE’s Slovenian coach Srecko Katanec, who was subjected to chants calling for his dismissal from the home crowd. Kuwait took the lead early when Yousef Naser’s shot came off defender Hamdan Al Kamali and beat goalkeeper Majed Naser. Katanec’s side had a penalty plea turned when Ismail Al Hammadi went down in the box a minute later.

Kuwait could have doubled its lead in the 38th, but UAE defender Waleed Abbas cleared off the line

with a spectacular overhead kick after Mutawaa lobbed Majed Naser following a pass from Fahad Al Enezi. Kuwait started the second half like the first, confident and looking dangerous and they were rewarded in the 51st when Mutawaa’s shot clipped the bottom of the crossbar before hitting the net.

Yousef Naser seemed to have wrapped up the win in the 65th when he slid in and scooped the ball over Majed Naser following a defensive error by defender Yousef Jaber. Al Hammadi and Khalil’s late goals provided consolation, but they will do little to ease the pressure on Katanec, who could now find it difficult to hold on to his job.

Bahrain 0 Qatar 0 Meanwhile, Bahrain was held to a 0-0 draw at home by Qatar in their opening match of the third round of Asian qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup. Bahrain was clearly the more polished side in the Group E contest but failed to capitalize on a string of scoring chances. Mahmood Abdulrahman and Ismaeel Abdullatif had Bahrain’s best chances, while Sebastian Soria and Bilal Mohammed had opportunities for Qatar. Bahrain’s next qualifier is against Indonesia in Jakarta on Sept. 6, when Qatar is at home to group favorite Iran.

Asian big guns Asian big guns Australia and Japan left it perilously late before snatching vital winners in World Cup qualifying yesterday, as South Korea got off to a roaring start against Lebanon. Australia were just

four minutes from a humiliating home draw with Thailand before Alex Brosque’s late strike, while Japan had to wait until the 94th minute to overcome fierce rivals North Korea in rain-lashed Saitama. China also had to fight back from a goal down before beating Singapore 2-1 at home in former Real Madrid and Spain boss Jose Antonio Camacho’s first game in charge. But South Korea hit six past stunned Lebanon in Goyang to take a decisive first step on the road to Brazil 2014 as Asia’s top-ranked sides entered the lengthy qualifying process, which winds up next year. Aussie goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer admitted the Socceroos’ 2-1 win felt more like a defeat against unfancied Thailand, who lie some 98 places lower in the FIFA rankings.

Teerasil Dangda gave the visitors a shock lead on 15 minutes and Australia were not back on terms until Josh Kennedy’s 58th minute strike, before Brosque’s last-gasp decider relieved Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium crowd. “It feels like a loss,” Schwarzer said. “It was one of our worst performances for a long time and there are no excuses, we weren’t good enough at times, but at least we won which is the positive.” Japan put their fans through even greater agony before defender Maya Yoshida rose to head home a cross on 94 minutes as the Asian champions’ quality finally told.

South Korea 6 Lebanon 0 In Goyang, Park Chu-Young celebrated this week’s move to Arsenal with a hat-trick as South

Korea ran riot against the Lebanese. Park, who was signed from AS Monaco, set the Koreans on their way with two goals in the first half before completing his treble on 67 minutes. Sunderland forward Ji Dong-won scored twice and Kim Jung-woo once. In Kunming, China relied on the heroics of ex-Charlton Athletic and Celtic midfielder Zheng Zhi as they overcame a shock first-half deficit against Singapore.

Aleksandar Duric capitalized on a break to put the visitors in front on 33 minutes, but the arrival of Zheng from the bench in the 67th minute swung the game in favor of the Chinese. Zheng slotted a penalty-China’s second of the night, after Qu Bo’s effort was saved 10 minutes earlier-with virtually his first touch, and he was also involved in the move that led to Yu Hai’s winner with 12 minutes remaining. Tensions flared and incensed Singapore manager Raddy Avramovic was sent from the bench by referee Andre El Haddad after questioning a decision not to award Duric a penalty when he seemed to have been brought down in the area. Meanwhile the ever-reliable Maksim Shatskikh’s 72nd-minute goal gave Uzbekistan a 1-0 away win against Tajikistan, who are only in the draw after Syria were disqualified for fielding an ineligible player. The winners and runners-up of the third round’s five groups will be drawn into two pools for the round-robin fourth stage, with the eventual top two in each section earning a ticket to Brazil. The two third-placed teams will then face each other for the right to contest an intercontinental play-off. —Agencies