9th Oct

CR IP TI ON BS SU

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

Mourners shot at funeral as Syrian dissidents meet

Famed Islamic school fights forces of change

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THULQADA 11, 1432 AH

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Man with world’s largest feet finds fame

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Hat-trick star Higuain, Messi spark Argentina rout

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Yemeni president to quit in coming days Foes unimpressed by Saleh’s latest vow

in the

news

Saudis behead 8 Bangladeshis RIYADH: Eight Bangladeshis have been beheaded in the Saudi capital after being condemned for robbery and murder, local media said yesterday, citing the interior ministry. The ministry said the men executed on Friday were part of a group of 11 Bangladeshis who had stolen goods from a warehouse after tying up its Egyptian guard, who was left behind to die.

The other three Bangladeshis were sentenced to an unspecified number of years in jails and a lashing.

The ministry also announced the execution of two Saudis on Friday, which brought the number of beheadings for a single day to 10, and the total number in the kingdom to at least 56 this year.

Dow, Saudi firm sign $20bn deal RIYADH: Dow Chemical Co and the Saudi Arabian Oil Co said yesterday that they signed an agreement that advances their plan to build one of the world’s biggest chemical plants in Saudi Arabia. The $20 billion complex is expected to begin production in 2015. The two companies agreed to a joint venture for Sadara Chemical Co, which will own the plant being built in the desert kingdom. The companies estimate it will generate about $10 billion in revenue annually within a few years of operation. Dow and Saudi Aramco together are investing about $12 billion, and a portion of Sadara will be sold to shareholders in a public offering in 2013 or 2014.

SANAA: Anti-government protesters hold up placards that read in Arabic ‘He who kills us, does not rule us’ as they march demanding the ouster of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday. (Inset) An image taken off Yemen TV shows Saleh giving a televised speech yesterday where he said he is ready to step down within days. Saleh is wearing protective gloves following burns sustained during an attack on his compound in June 2011. — AFP

Max 37º Min 20º Low Tide 04:16 & 16:50 High Tide 10:22 & 22:55

SANAA: Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh said yesterday he would step down in the next few days after months of protests against his 33-year rule that risked tipping the dirt-poor nation bordering Saudi Arabia into civil war and economic collapse. “I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days,” Saleh said in a speech on state television. But opponents were sceptical of the wily political survivor who has backed out of a Gulf-brokered power transition plan three times this year.

They argue the speech is a manoeuvre to ease pressure ahead of a briefing to the UN Security Council by UN Yemen envoy Jamal Benomar, who left Sanaa empty-handed after days of shuttle diplomacy between the opposition and the ruling party. Protests against Saleh’s rule paralysed Yemen, weakening government control over swathes of the country and fanning fears AlQaeda’s regional wing may use the upheaval to expand its foothold near oil-shipping routes through the Red Sea. Diplomats have said they are close to getting international consensus for issuing a Security Council resolution which may add to pressures on the country to finalise a power transfer.

“This is new propaganda from Saleh before Yemen is discussed at the security council,” said Mohammed AlSabri, a spokesman for the opposition’s political coalition. “Four months have passed since he said he accepted the Gulf transition deal, so what is stopping him? He doesn’t even need a few days to do it.” The veteran leader has been clinging to power while opposition and ruling party representatives cast about for a formula to reach a deal. It has been deadlocked over a debate over Continued on Page 13

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Kuwait role in reactivating inter-Asian cooperation ACD Forum next week

KUWAIT: The drug dealer pictured after his arrest. —Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Dealer caught in sting operation

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A male expatriate drug dealer was arrested by undercover drug squad officers in a sting operation in Khaitan. The General Department of Drugs Control (GDDC) launched an investigation into the man’s activities after receiving a tip-off that he was dealing in hashish. Following a covert surveillance operation which con-

firmed the informant’s data, an undercover GDDC officer posing as a customer arranged to buy some hashish from him.

The dealer was caught during the handover near his home, with officers recovering a further 2.25 kilograms of hashish from his house.

He admitted to possessing and trading in the drug and was referred to the relevant authorities for further action.

Investigations, economic crisis delay Mishref plant reopening KUWAIT : A series of delays in the replacement of defective and damaged equipment at the Mishref sewage treatment plant is the main reason for the delay in reopening the major facility, according to the Minister of Public Works.

In a response to parliamentary questions over the setbacks from MP Mikhled Al-Azmi, the minister, Dr. Fadhil Safar, who is also Minister of Municipal Affairs, explained that after maintenance work

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s sponsorship of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Forum due in Kuwait next week comes in harmony with Kuwait’s pioneering diplomatic role, a senior Kuwaiti official said here yesterday. This shows HH the Amir’s keenness on ensuring a successful forum and reactivating inter-Asian cooperation, Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry Khaled Al-Jarallah said in an interview to Kuwait TV. Kuwait is taking over the forum presidency as of October for a year, he said. He vowed that his country would do its best to promote and highlight the message of this gathering, together with its great and pioneering role.

“We are seeking to work out a long-term continental strategy as there are interests for Asian countries that need to be translated and considered,” he said.

Established in 2001, this year’s mainly economic forum will be the 10th of its kind. Kuwait joined it in 2003, he added.

The gathering aims to allow Asian countries to play a role in the global economy amid international economic blocs thanks to their potential, he said, mentioning in particular China, Japan and India.

He stressed the pivotal and key role of Kuwaiti mass media in highlighting the significance of this event and in promoting Kuwaiti diplomacy which was laid down by the “pioneer of Kuwaiti diplomacy, HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah”.

Thanks to the fervent follow-up of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem AlSabah, Kuwaiti diplomacy is seek-

ing to reactivate Kuwait’s role, he noted.

He promised that Kuwait would seize the opportunity of this gathering as a jumping-off for its economic development blueprint.

Al-Jarallah went on to speak highly of cooperation between ASEAN and GCC member states as having made many accomplishments.

But, he said this cooperation, nevertheless, is not so enough that broader vistas need to be sought in order to boost Asian development and welfare.

Asked if the forum could be capitalized on to raise the Palestinian cause, he said: “Surely, we can never isolate the political aspect from the economic one, especially as we are seeking to create an appropriate economic atmosphere for Asian cooperation. This economic atmosphere cannot be appropriate, suitable or fruitful unless a congenial political climate is created.”

“Thus, the Asian countries will be interested in the region’s political issues, as they have their own interests in the region so they will be eager to provide a congenial political atmosphere. That atmosphere cannot be created as long as the Middle Eastern peace process is faltering,” he believed.

“This peace and this economic environment cannot be achieved amid such disputes and problems haunting Asia. Thence, these Asian nations will seek, willingly or unwillingly, to put an end to such disputes and to reactivate the international role in resolving them. The Palestinian cause in the Middle East, which is in the heart of Asia, is a relevant example,” he noted.

Back to the forum, the senior Kuwaiti official said the gathering

would come up with Kuwait Declaration, which is expected to include the concerns of Asian countries over world issues, chiefly economy, international crises, environment, energy, climate change and poverty in Asian countries.

However, he admitted that it is not so easy to create common harmony among the participating countries, but there is a minimum limit for agreement.

He vowed that his country, during its presidency of the forum, would work hard to reactivate cooperation and to set out binding common mechanisms.

It has taken very long years from the EU to reach the current level of cooperation among its member states, he said, hoping that the forum, comparatively, would reach the level of making recommendations. But, he regretted that a sufficient mechanism for implementing proposals to be mentioned in Kuwait Declaration has not been found yet.

Meanwhile, he pointed to Kuwait’s hosting of the Forum for the Future, which will attract 44 countries, including the G8, the EU and Arab countries.

Both gatherings reflect Kuwait’s eagerness to play its due role on the international arena, he boasted.

Asked if the forum could be a springboard for Asian countries to have a higher voice at international organizations, especially in the economic field, Al-Jarallah said: “Yes, I think so. We are seeking to help our countries have a voice heard at international organizations.”

For his part, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministr y ’s Protocol Chief Ambassador Dhari Al-Ajran, said the forum will discuss economic crises in Asian countries, available

investment openings and utilization of natural resources in Asia.

“It is a dialogue forum that deals with issues through ideas to be suggested by all delegations and countries. Eventually, Kuwait Declaration will be produced; including recommendations,” he said.

On the forum’s program and activities, Al-Ajran said the delegations are expected to arrive here on Saturday, and a troika meeting involving Kuwait, Iran, Tajikistan and Thailand will be held. A meeting of senior officials of the member states is to be held on Sunday under the chairmanship of the Foreign Ministry’s Undersecretary, he said.

HH the Amir will inaugurate the gathering on Monday. HH and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah will be addressing the event, he added.

A ministerial meeting will begin tomorrow and last until Tuesday. It will be followed by a concluding session where Kuwait Declaration is to be made.

The foreign ministers of Kuwait, the current chair of the forum, Tajikistan, the next chair, and the deputy foreign minister of Thailand, the general coordinator, will then hold a press conference, he elaborated. The forum is expected to thrash out an array of issues, chiefly the global financial crisis, transport, environment, culture, arts and youth.

It mainly aims to prop up common interaction among Asian countries to fight poverty, improve living conditions, broaden trade and financial markets and boost the competitive edge of the forum’s member states. — KUNA

began to repair the defective apparatus at the plant, the MPW found it necessary to purchase new, custom-made, high-tech equipment which is only available from a number of specialist European manufacturers. Dr Safar added that the temporary suspension of production by a number of these manufacturers in response to the economic crisis in Europe had led to delays in the reopening of the Mishref plant. —Al-Qabas

PACI denies data leak report KUWAIT: The General Manager of the Public Authorit y for Civil Information(PACI) denied reports which quoted him as claiming that some information was leaked so as to be used to serve election-related purposes.

“Some websites misquoted my interview with Kuwait T V ’s ‘Good Evening Kuwait.’ I have never mentioned any violations,” said Musaed Al-Asousy.

He asserted that all data at the PACI

remain secure with an advanced encryption system. This would make the leak “impossible to happen.”

“The PACI has a special department that protects data and monitors each employee to make sure that they do not access citizens and residents’ data out of job requirements,” he added.

Al-Asousi urged media outlets to verify all information before publishing them.

KUWAIT: The Defense Attache from the Polish Embassy Col Dariusz Kalbarczyk held a reception on Wednesday to mark Polish Armed Forces Day. The event was held at the embassy’s premises. A large number of diplomats and other dignitaries attended the event. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

‘Capital punishment for spoiled food sale’ KUWAIT: Municipal Council President Zaid Al-Azmi demanded that stricter penalties be imposed on businessmen who have been convicted of selling spoiled food. He asserted that capital punishment be given to “those who risk our health and our children’s health, even if the culprit is my own brother.”

Al-Azmi made these statements during an interview that was aired on Thursday on Al-Rai TV. He used the word ‘uncooperative’ to describe Minister of Public Works(MPW) and State Minister of Municipality Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar “who deliberately thwart the

Municipal Council’s achievements.” Lauding the Municipal Council for executing major projects like the Jaber Stadium, Al-Harir City and the Solar Power Project, Al-Azmi said that law number 5/2005 places obstacles “by allowing the Cabinet to control achievements,” reported Al-Rai. Al-Azmi also gave an exclusive interview to Al-Jarida daily, indicating that several areas in Kuwait including Al-Fahaheel, AlMangaf, Jleeb Al-Shuyuokh and Salmiya are overpopulated, and urged for these areas to be reorganized giving preference to citizens’ homes.

Black market diesel being smuggled to Iraq, allege boat-owners KUWAIT: Diesel fuel is being smuggled out of Kuwait into Iraq to be sold on the black market using trucks which cross into the neighboring country via the military border checkpoint at Abdally according to a number of boat owners who claim to have been buying the cheaper black market fuel.

The boat owners also alleged that some staff on tankers shipping the fuel from Kuwait are selling some of the diesel illicitly, claiming that they had bought fuel for their vessels in this manner.

Many of the boat owners said that they had ironically begun looking for illicit suppliers of diesel after the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) introduced new regulations to tackle smuggling, allowing a maximum of only 500 liters to be sold to the owners of each vessel.

This created problems for a number of boat owners, however, who explained that their vessels have a maximum tank capacity of 3,000 liters, making the KOC’s new limits inadequate to meet their needs. — Al-Watan

KIFCO preparing for December homes expo KUWAIT: The Kuwait International Fair Company (KIFCO) has already begun preparations for its major ‘Homes 2011 Exhibition,’ which opens at Mishref Fairground on December 21 this year, ending on January 1 2012.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mishal Al-Rashed, KIFCO’s Assistant Sales and Marketing Director, said that the exhibition is one of the most important in the company’s 2011 calendar due to the massive variety of household products on display and the leading companies who have confirmed they will be taking part in the event.

The list of firms participating in the expo includes a number of pioneering local and international companies in the field, such as Abdul A ziz Saud Al-Babtain Elec tronics Company (BEC), Behbehani Elevators and Interior Decoration Products, the Bed Center Co. for furniture and furnishings, the Industrial Company for beds, bedding and lounge suites, Al-Fares Industrial Co., National Roaya Co., the European Diwan for furniture, and SMS International Co., amongst many others.

The homes exhibition is a defining point in the annual exhibitions staged in Kuwait due to the importance of this sector for Kuwaitis, said Al-Rashed.

The senior KIFCO official added that the Kuwaiti market really needs events of this nature, featuring furniture, decorative household items, electronics, lighting, kitchenware and toilet suites, garden and swimming pool items and accessories, flooring, and furnishings for ceilings and windows.

Wataniya Telecom introduces new business bundle KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom continues to provide the best in value added services for the corporate sector in Kuwait. Wataniya is proud to announce its new business bundle specially designed for postpaid customers of the local business community. This innovative offer was designed to support and develop the business sector in the country. As always Wataniya is looking to serve the community with innovation and convenient solutions that will benefit the different segments of the population.

The new business bundle is cost effective for small, medium and large organizations and at the same time it attempts to lower communication barriers amongst employees. A company that signs up for this offer will enjoy free calls amongst its employees and the organization will also be able to choose sequential Gold and Gold numbers for their team.

Amer Hayat Senior Director of

Direct Sales at Wataniya Telecom ensures that this offer suits companies of all sizes. He states: “We are pleased to announce a distinctive offer which will add value to companies and organizations, whether they are large medium or small. This appealing offer is not restricted to any one industry, those operating in engineering and contracting firms, as well as hospitals, ministries and many others will be able to enjoy its benefits.”

Hayat also added: “The purpose of this package is to strengthen the ties between the corporate employees of the same team and to get the workforce closer together thus enhancing the daily communication amongst each other. Through the direct free calls, unique numbers and exclusive package provided to them we promise to deliver our customers in the business community with up-to-date, special offers and innovative deals that would benefit them in every way.”

Amer Hayat The offer runs until the end of December 2011, and potential corporate customers are welcome to register on Wataniya’s website and then they can choose from either the “Premium” or the “Saver” package.

Existing customers can simply call their personal Wataniya Account Managers to inquire about the offer.

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Residents divided over metro railway project’s viability ‘Social status’ a big problem

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Kuwait’s much talked about traffic congestion worsens every year. The government has been trying to resolve the issue by discussing a host of solutions. The metro rail-road project is touted to bring relief to the country’s woes.

Plans have been drawn up to realize the project in 2015. According to previous statements made by the general manager of the Kuwait Metro Company, KD 15 million will be spent on construction.

Many are skeptical about the

project’s realization, “I think it will take a long time to realize it in Kuwait. There are many projects on the anvil. It will take 20 years. I think the metro is impor tant because it saves expenses on cars.

It saves time because the passenger will reach his destination. The traffic jams will not delay work. It is a great option,” Bader, a 25-yearold citizen told the Kuwait Times.

Others feel that this project is flawed, “In the US, I used to take the metro train to reach the university. I used to love it because of its speed. I’m not sure that this

project will work because the country is small. There is no need for a metro system. It appears that it is out of place,” said Stacy, a 28year-old American.

“I wouldn’t mind taking a metro if it exists here. I don’t think Kuwaiti culture welcomes the idea of public transportation. The idea is about social status. I think taking another bus might be a better idea. This will alleviate traffic,” added Stacy. Some people are against using the metro, “It’s a small country and I’m not sure the metro will be suitable. In fact, I

don’t face problems with traffic. I don’t feel the need to use it. I don’t think I will use it. I like to hear my music in the car while driving. I also like to take my own space while driving to the work place. In the metro train, I will not find this,” noted 30-year-old Karen. Karen sees the metro as a good solution, “By using the metro, some people can avoid the rush hour traffic.

There are many people who will benefit from it. The laborers and low-income group cannot. I also think that the metro may harm income of taxi drivers,” she added.

ANKARA: Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Sabah pictured with Ankara bureau officials.

Sheikh Mubarak visits Ankara bureau ANKARA: The Chairman and Director General of Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) yesterday visited the agency’s bureau in Ankara to find out more about the work being done there.

The KUNA chief, Sheikh Mubarak AlDuaij Al-Sabah, was briefed on the Ankara bureau’s activities in order to look into ways of enhancing productivity levels.

During yesterday’s visit, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij listened to a presentation on the work being done at the Ankara bureau from its director, Muhammad Al-Mutairi, who stressed the importance of the cooperative ties between KUNA and Turkey’s state-run Anatolia News Agency.

Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij urged all the

27kg spoiled food seized

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: In raids carried out in Ahmadi governorate, 27 citations were issued and 27 kilograms of inedible food were seized.

Fahad Al-Dughaim, Director of Ahmadi Municipality emphasized on the importance of holding regular inspection campaign against food outlets. This is to ensure that consumers are safe. He said that citations were issued after expired health licenses were found.

He added that the Municipality carried out a campaign against vendors in cooperation with Ahmadi police. Five vendors were arrested, and 22 cartons of sweet watermelon, seven cartons of dates, and 1,000 pieces of watermelon were seized.

News

KFAS hosts award ceremony for best research in 2009

Confectionaries contain alcohol KUWAIT: Some confectionaries sold in chocolate shops contain traces of alcohol, the Ministry of Commerce inspectors have learnt. Samples that were sent for testing contains wine, reported Al-Anbaa. The ministry referred the offence to public prosecutor so that necessary legal action can be taken. The shop will be shut down in accordance with commercial supervision.

Young Kuwaitis split over military conscription bill KUWAIT: Young Kuwaitis are still divided over the proposed reintroduction of a period of compulsory military service, with opinion evenly split between supporters and opponents of the ‘Flag Service’ bill, which supports a return to conscription. According to a vox pop survey of young Kuwaitis conducted by local daily Al-Shahed, some respondents supported the idea of compulsory military service, believing that it would help in ridding the country of a number of negative contemporary phenomena. Others, however, voiced a preference for retaining the current system of voluntary military service, indicating that it would delay students’ graduation and be an unnecessary impediment to their career prospects.

‘Government has lost credibility’ KUWAIT: Ex-MP and Chairman of MPs against corruption Dr Nasser Al-Sanea said that the government has lost a lot of credibility thanks to its ways. He said that government has the ability to root out corruption, and not simply count its phases. He emphasized that citizens have lost faith in government, reported Alshahed. At the same time, Professor of Kuwait University Dr Wael Al-Hasawi said that the recent spate of strikes will not yield positive results. This can harm the entire society

KU students ignorant over national history: Study KUWAIT: Forty percent of Kuwait University students who took part in a recent survey failed to identify the date of the Iraqi Invasion, August 2, 1990, while 80 percent failed to correctly answer basic questions on the Kuwaiti constitution, according to the academic behind the study. Dr. Yaqoub Al-Kandari, who lectures in Sociology and Anthropology at the university, explained that he focused in the survey on determining the level of KU students’ knowledge of Kuwaiti history.

He said that it had exposed a massive lack of awareness of several crucial events

in Kuwait’s history, including the date on which the ‘Third Wall’ surrounding Kuwait City was constructed, and the crisis with Iraq over Kuwait’s declaration of independence in 1961, when the Iraqi president at the time, Abdulkarim Qassem, insisted that the state was part of Iraq.

The study also exposed glaring gaps in students’ knowledge of the Kuwaiti constitution and parliament, with 60 percent of those surveyed failing to correctly identify the number of MPs in parliament and nearly 40 percent unaware of the minimum age for candidacy as an MP. — Al-Watan

NA Speaker leaves Albania for Kosovo

in brief

KUWAIT: Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) has awarded researchers and magazine publishers, in a ceremony, for the best research conducted in 2009. Director General of KFAS Dr Adnan Shahab AlDin said that the award ceremony was held recently in the attendance of KFAS Board Member Osama Mohammad Al-Nesf and Award Board Member Shuaib Mohammad Shuaib, a press statement by KFAS said. The statement added that Sheikh Dr Hamad bin Hamdi AlSaidi, a Saudi national, won the award for his research in the humanities field. The award for the field of science was shared by Dr Hanafi Mahmoud Ismail, an Egyptian national and Dr Ahmad Mohammad Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti, for their research on electrical engineering.

staff at the Ankara bureau to highlight Kuwait’s leading regional role, as well as stressing the need for precision and accuracy in news reporting. The KUNA chairman, who is currently heading a delegation visiting Turkey, also asked that the bureau continue to maintain close ties with the Kuwaiti diplomatic mission there and with Turkish ministries and other government bodies. Given Turkey’s increasingly high profile regionally and internationally, which has made it a focal point of news gathering due to its auspicious location bestriding both Europe and Asia, it is important to maintain close contact with these sources in order to get the latest news, Sheikh Mubarak stressed. — KUNA

TIRANA, Albania: Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker, who is currently heading a delegation of Kuwaiti parliamentarians on a tour of Balkans nations, left Albania yesterday heading to Kosovo.

The three-day visit to Kosovo will be the last stop on the delegation’s Balkans tour, which also included Serbia.

Amongst those seeing the chief lawmaker off on his departure from Tirana’s

MANAMA: In a meeting here yesterday with the Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Azzam Al-Sabah, the Bahraini House Speaker Khalifa Al-Thahrani emphasized the firm ties between Bahrain and Kuwait. The Bahraini Speaker lauded Kuwait’s vital role in regional and international affairs.

He further noted that Bahrain is set to witness a number of major advances in growth, development, and reform in the near term, and that a number of laws are shortly to be adopted which will further serve the needs of the Bahraini people.

Kuwaiti teen accused of drug smuggling KUWAIT: The lawyer representing the Kuwaiti teenager detained in Turkey last month on drug-smuggling charges said yesterday that investigations into the case prove that her client was set up by a Lebanese taxi driver into carrying a suitcase which the naive youth did not realize had 20,300 narcotic tablets and a kilogram of heroin hidden in its base.

Lawyer Dalal Al-Mulla, who is also Kuwaiti, is representing the accused 19year-old, named only as Mansour. She told local daily Al-Anbaa that, according to her client, he had gone to Turkey on Friday September 9 with a friend, identified only as Bader, for a weekend break, only taking one suitcase for both of them due to the brevity of the holiday. After they checked into their hotel in the Turkish capital, Istanbul, they set out to explore the city, helped by a Lebanese taxi driver they met there, named as Ali Jaafar, who seemed pleasant and was keen to show them around. The t wo youngsters quickly became friends with the driver, who seemed trustworthy and open, the lawyer continued. Two days later, on Sunday September 11, Mansour said that he had decided to visit some friends in Qatar before returning home, while his friend Bader wished to come back to Kuwait. Since they were still sharing one suitcase, however, it then became necessary for Mansour to buy a new suitcase for his luggage during the trip to Qatar. He decided to call the taxi driver to help him in finding a decent and affordable case, with Jaafar apparently informing him that in the area they were

in there were few suitcases available but he would solve the problem by providing another case for him. Mansour said that an hour later, after Jaafar dropped him back at his hotel, an intermediary who he had not met previously dropped a case off at the hotel for him on the taxi driver’s behalf. Mansour did not spot anything strange about the suitcase and proceeded to put his clothes and other items into it before leaving for the airport to catch his flight to Qatar. When customs officials at the airport who checked the suitcase asked him about it, he told them that it belonged to him, after which they took him into custody, having found a large quantity of narcotic tablets and opium hidden in its base. M ansour, who claimed to be stunned at their discovery, was then questioned about the case before being transferred to a prison, said the lawyer, adding that her client had been wholly unaware that the case contained any drugs and had never thought to doubt the honesty of the taxi driver or his intermediary, let alone believe that they were drug smugglers.

The lawyer said that during the court hearing for Mansour’s case, she had met with the judge hearing the case and requested permission to delay the hearing until she could return to Kuwait to fetch some evidence to help substantiate Mansour’s account of events. She learnt from Turkish lawyers in the court, however, that she would not be allowed to represent Mansour there whilst wearing a hijab since these are banned from Turkish courts and other state institutions. —Al-Anbaa

Nene Tereza International Airport were Albania’s Deputy Speaker Ardian Turku, the head of the Albanian-Kuwaiti friendship committee and Albanian MP Othman Matala, along with other senior dignitaries and Kuwaiti diplomatic staff.

The Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation also consists of MP Ali Al-Omair, MP Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi and Faisal AlDuwaisan. — KUNA

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kuwait digest

kuwait digest

Kuwait is different!

Strikes and more strikes

By Sherida Al-Moasherji ariety is, in most cases, a good thing because it distinguishes the outstanding and highlights its rare beauty. It can also be a curse in highlighting problems and rare ugliness.

‘Kuwait is always different’. This is a statement we Kuwaitis usually use to express our pride in our country in preparation for proudly listing the reasons for our pride. While the sentiment still applies, however, it has, unfortunately, also become applicable to features that might be viewed as points of ugliness by others.

For example, it’s pitiful that those who break the law in our country are somehow ‘rewarded.’

Residency law violators are treated as Kuwaitis or at least as close to them, while the authorities are extremely strict with those who comply with the law and compel them to follow certain measures the violators are not asked to follow. Those violators are even entitled to demand getting citizenship while legal citizens are deprived of such a right!

Another example is that citizens actually believe they are partners in the state and in the disbursement of public funds. Some of them actually act accordingly, viewing themselves as owners of public facilities and establishments. For such people, it’s OK to be paid monthly without exerting any effort or showing basic respect on when they arrive at or

By Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar

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Kuwait might be the only place in this world where hypocrisy and ‘buttering up’ are directed at members of the opposition rather than the government and its officials. People worldwide ‘butter up’ and do their best to befriend influential public servants and statesmen; they laud them day and night, defend their decisions, value their views and highly commend their achievements. leave their work or what they do while they’re there.

They actually seem to believe they own the whole establishment, which has led to many organizing strikes and demonstrations at which they demand the abolition of systems for monitoring workplace attendance and absenteeism. For them, apparently, there is no need for employers to monitor employees’ attendance, timekeeping, absenteeism or shoddy work.

Kuwait is also different, and might be the only place in this universe where hypocrisy and ‘buttering up’ are directed at members of the opposition rather than the government and its officials. People worldwide ‘butter up’ and do their best to befriend influential public servants and statesmen; they laud them day and night, defend their decisions, value their views and highly commend their achievements. Doing this in Kuwait is considered to be treason and dishonesty while those praising the opposition are considered patriotic.

To become a public hero in Kuwait and make the people forget about one’s past and wipe out all one’s questionable actions, no matter how serious or disgraceful, however, it’s apparently enough simply to attend a public rally. Didn’t I tell you that Kuwait is DIFFERENT?! — Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

Who’s the victim here?

By Dr Mubarak Al-Therwa henever I read about a group of employees protesting against injustice in the payroll system, I come closer to realize that in Kuwait we have a problem with the poor distribution of wealth.

First, I must say that while the way in which strikes are used to force the government into approving financial demands has got out of control, nobody can stop workers from demanding their rights. At the same time, the state has the right to hold those who cause public losses as a result of labor strikes accountable for their actions. Therefore, we find ourselves in a dilemma today in which workers demand to be paid adequately for their work, while the state, which is committed to ensuring that public sector workers commit fully to complying with their duties.

So who is the victim here: the state or citizens?

Civil service regulations establish the duties that employees are responsible for performing and the fair wage they are entitled to in exchange. The real question that we as Kuwaiti citizens must ask ourselves is: is the productivity of our work equal to the financial demands being made today? In reality, we have in recent years become greedy consumers, always demanding more from our country then blaming the government for the waste of public funds!

The simple solution to this problem is to streamline the payroll system to eliminate the incorrect allocation of financial privileges. This requires a study by the Civil Service Council and other bodies to determine the Kuwaiti public and private sector workforce’s productivity level, based on which salaries and allowances can be paid fairly. The study must also bear in mind the state’s budget and expenses, as well as the increasing prices. — Al-Rai

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n tandem the ongoing escalation of political tensions, strike action has been accelerating in momentum regardless of the leadership’s approval or disapproval. Strike action is, of course, a constitutionally guaranteed right supported by all international pacts and treaties. The question is why the number of strikes and demonstrations has increased so sharply in recent times, to the extent that even those who never previously considered it have taken to the streets.

Retirees have applied logic in making their demands, arguing that their salaries would remain the same forever. Since the government is willing to yield to demands made through other strikes and demonstrations, they have to think of a way to put the government under pressure. The problem is that since they do not actually work any longer. Their best bet might be to threaten to return to their workplaces, to hold sit-ins and possibly even throw their successors out until they achieve their demands.

Regardless of my sarcastic tone, these strikes echo the state’s general inefficiency and its incompetent administration, whose actions encourage and motivate such strikes instead of reducing them. The way the government handled the oil sector personnel’s strikes might have encouraged more of them everywhere. Typically, however, the government had given remarkably contradictory statements on the issue, not helping to make its reasoning any clearer.

The government actually urged those demanding wage rises to show their ability to organize a strike or sit-in or, at least threaten to organize such action. The appearance of the ‘MP-gate’ issue, has only made things a lot worse amid the government’s total silence and abject confusion over handling issues of such magnitude. This has given many people the impression that as long as millions are distributed to MPs in such a manner, why not extend this approach and, at least, approve the rises demanded by various unions?

I don’t think the government can be taken seriously as an authority any longer and I’ll certainly be able to decide upon ‘MP-gate’ and many other issues without their help. Meanwhile, the number of strikes is steadily increasing and could become intertwined with rising political tensions leading to potentially devastating results. — Al-Jarida

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kuwait digest

Save the Arab region from terror

By Dr Ahmad Al-Duaij errorism does not have a commonly accepted harmony. In Kuwait, they are loyal citizens and supdefinition. The West tries to limit it by unleash- port the regime since the events of the legislative ing violence whenever its interests are hit or council in the thirties of last century. These days they threatened, including resistance against occupation strongly support the current government, but the sitof Afghanistan and occupied Palestine. They also uation of Shiites are not good in some Arab counconsider it their right to spread terror in the Arab and tries.

The Arab Spring is now creating turmoil in Syria, Muslim world. In recent years, terror was linked to Muslims and Arabs in par ticular, following the the Baathist regime continues to commit horrific massacres against the Syrian people who seek to events that took place on Sept 11, 2001.

Prior to that, there were operations that change their destiny. The regime in Syria is losing Palestinian organizations carried out such as hijack- some of its legitimacy every day, and a lot of blood is ing airplanes and exploding them. On 23/7/1968 the being spilled. From an Iranian point of view, it is Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Hijacked important to preserve the regime in Syria to ‘export an El Al aircraft, on 29/8/1969 they hijacked a com- their idea of theocracy.’ The pressure on the Syrian mercial American aircraf t and blew it up in regime is tremendous. If the Baathist regime falls, Damascus. On 6/9/1970, the PFLP hijacked three civil Hezbollah in Lebanon will be shaken. With the aircrafts American, Swiss and British then three days Iranian regime, it will lose strong allies in the area. later they hijacked a fourth plane then blew up the We see attempts made by the Iranian regime in American and British crafts. This heralded the begin- Tehran to undermine security in Gulf countries to ning of the ‘Black September’ war in Jordan between alleviate pressure on the Syrian regime. Al-Watan newspaper reported on the Palestinian guerillas and Tuesday that Western the Jordan army. No one can media published details forget the infamous incident The Arab Spring is now creatof talks between Bashar of 5/9/1972 when the ing turmoil in Syria, the Baathist Al-Asad Syrian President Palestinian Organization kidregime continues to commit horand Turk ish Foreign napped and k illed some Minister Ahmed Uglo durmembers of the Israeli rific massacres against the Syrian ing which Bashar said. He Olympic team in Munich durpeople who seek to change their is able to burn down the ing the Olympic games. entire region and destroy Some of the Sunnis who destiny. The regime in Syria is losthe Gulf region’s oil fields are considered extremists ing some of its legitimacy every if the international comcarr y out ‘terrorist ’ operaday, and a lot of blood is being munity decides to intertions that include ever y fere in Syria to protec t country, religion, creed and spilled. From an Iranian point of civilians. Last M onday, gender (Am e r i c a n s, view, it is important to preserve strange events unfolded Europeans, Asians, Africans, in Al-Awamiya town, AlArabs Sunnis and Shiites) the regime in Syria to ‘export Qateef province in the like Al-Qaeda that is being their idea of theocracy’ eastern area of Saudi fought by all world counArabia. Gatherings and t r i e s. As for t h e S h i i te extremists, when they carry out their terrorist opera- demonstrations were held by Shiites during which tions, they mainly target Sunni countries that are Molotov cocktails and firearms were directed at allied to the United States and the West (the attack Saudi security men, injuring 11 policemen and three on the motorcade of the Late Sheik h Jaber Al- civilians. Saudi Interior Ministry accused a foreign Ahmad, blowing the popular cafes in Kuwait located country, without naming it, of trying to undermine near the American embassy and the kidnapping of the kingdom’s security and stability. Conditions of Al-Jabriya airplane). Hezbollah carried out signifi- the Shiites in Saudi Arabia have improved during the cant operations against Israel. These are considered reign of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Saudi Arabia does terrorist activities by the West.

Shiites enjoy a strong position in Iran (Sunnis in not tolerate anyone to jeopardize with security, and Iran do not have any rights and are oppressed and that’s why there was a strict reaction. Shiite clergymistreated in a way nobody can deny). Their condi- men took the initiative to condemn what happened tions in I raq af ter the fall of Saddam Hussein, and promised to use influence to prevent more improved after forging stronger ties with Iran. clashes from taking place in eastern areas. We pray Conditions of the Shiites in Syria governed by the to Allah to preserve the Arab region and the entire Nusairi Shiite Baathists are excellent, and in Lebanon world from the danger of terrorists be them where various groups live are also excellent and the Americans, Europeans, Jews or Muslims both Sunnis same in Zaidi Yemen where Shiites and Sunnis live in or Shiites. — Al-Watan

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kuwait digest

Services over productivity

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij he smear campaigns carried out by the current antigovernment opposition against several projects planned by the state could be attributed to noble efforts to protect public funds - the same excuse used many times in Kuwait by those concerned about the state’s economy as well as those who have failed to obtain privileges as part of implementing state projects.

What should be noticed about the projects which the new oppositionists were able to thwart in recent years, is that they were all concerned with increasing the country’s productivity levels, as opposed to being service projects aimed to serve the public’s consumerist interests.

The Dow Chemical mega project was first proposed as a strategy to diversify sources of income and improve the general levels of production and the state economy. The same thing could be said of the fourth refinery project, and the plans to improve oil fields in the north of the country. However, all these productive projects were halted by efforts led by the opposition, who were, however, keen to see projects that add nothing to productivity such as the Jaber Stadium and new power plants advance without problems.

Is it a coincidence that the new oppositionists put a stop to productive projects while at the same time helping achieve service projects? Maybe it is, and I’m not trying to

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raise suspicions, but I usually look into subjects from a general perspective and carefully observe the interests and contradictions on all sides before making my mind up.

When I take a deeper look into the aforementioned productivity-boosting projects, I notice that they are not the type of projects that usually fall in line with the interests of the new opposition, simply because they lack commercial benefits. This individualistic ideology of the opposition, which puts personal benefit ahead of productivity, suggested that the prospect of the 5,000 new jobs that the Dow Chemical project could have provided, were an insufficient reason to stop these opponents from thwarting the project.

Being projects that would have required work and productivity instead of granting more services and privileges, the opposition found no personal benefit whatsoever in them, therefore they worked hard to stop them from going through.

The natural approach of the current opposition contradicts with the concept of investing billions of dinars in productive projects, but goes perfectly with the distribution of wealth in the form of salary increases, allowances, as well as dropping citizens’ bank loans because, in supporting such short-sighted policies, they boost their own social popularity. —Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

My country, Iraq and me

By Ahmad Al-Sarraf ’m fluent in the Iraqi dialect, and for some reason I enjoy using it in speech, especially in telling jokes. I know a great deal about Iraqi history and culture, more than I do about those of any other country, and have more Iraqi friends than friends of other nationalities with the possible exception of Lebanese. I’ve always been a supporter of the notion that Kuwait’s natural extension goes northwards not southwards, an idea supported by the belief that half of Kuwait’s population is descended from tribes that migrated from the desert of the Arabian Peninsula in previous centuries.

I thought this introduction was necessary before I discuss the main topic of my article today, which is the troubled relations between Kuwait and Iraq throughout the two nations’ history. These tensions have never served the interests of either country, mainly Iraq, and especially during the recent period.

Today we find that there are people who are trying to fuel hatred between Iraq and Kuwait through continuously talking about differences and alleged conspiracies, from a standpoint that of course doesn’t give priority to the general interest of the speaker’s country. These accusations eventually push both countries to go back to square one in their relationship, which might be the goal of those who spread them. In the meantime, voices of reason must spread in Kuwait and Iraq to silence the voices of hate, so that both countries can focus on development.

Iraq cannot gain Kuwait’s trust unless they achieve stability, economic growth and true democracy. Iraq is one of the region’s largest countries in size as well as natural, financial and human resources. These characteristics cannot be compared to those of Kuwait, which is why it is hard to believe claims that Kuwait is conspiring against Iraq and abusing its rights. Even if that was true, it must be restricted within its timeframe as to avoid using it as an obstacle rather than boosting relations between the two countries. It’s sad to see countries from very different parts of the world with long histories of bloody wars having great relations, while we in Kuwait and Iraq can’t achieve the same thing despite all the historical ties that bind us.

Some people in Iraq tend to use Kuwait’s support to former President Saddam Husain during the war with Iran as an excuse for the bad blood they have towards Kuwait. From their viewpoint, the financial and logistical support that the former Iraqi government received from Kuwait helped extend the eightyear war back in the 1980s and led to more casualties.

But if Kuwait had chosen to stay unbiased during the war, others might have claimed that Kuwait’s failure to support Iraq caused the war to be extended.

Therefore, we need instead to spread love and appreciation between people of both countries, and leave the disputes over formalities for technical teams to solve. Iraq doesn’t need a competitor in the form of Kuwait, while Kuwait has neither the ability nor the wish to become a foe to Iraq. Iraq should understand that Kuwait’s limitations in size and capabilities don’t even allow it to become an enemy to Iraq, and use that to build relations based on our best mutual interests which could provide billions of dollars in annual profit to both countries. These kind of agreements can further strengthen the peaceful relationships between Iraq and Kuwait, better than any international agreement could do. We must ensure that spiteful individuals in both countries don’t destroy our hope for peace between the two neighbors. —- Al-Qabas

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‘20 MPs may resign in protest at govt’ Assembly fight to continue KUWAIT: Around 20 Kuwaiti MPs will submit their resignations if the Cabinet continues to impose its control by lobbying to foil the use of constitutional tools, said veteran anti-government lawmaker Walid AlTabtabaie yesterday. In a statement issued as his Development and Reform Bloc (DRB) continues its joint preparations with the Popular Action Bloc (PAB) of a grilling motion against the Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed AlSabah, Al-Tabtabaie underlined, however, that “the mass resignation option will not be taken unless all others have been exhausted.”

The MP also insisted that the anti-government movement within parliament “will not give up...we will continue until the truth behind the multimillion dinar deposits scandal and those involved is exposed.”

The scandal, which has rocked Kuwaiti society in recent weeks, involves allegations of political bribes totaling millions of dinars being paid into some MPs’ bank accounts, with the DRB and PAB’s joint

grilling motion set to tackle the premier over the issue.

Al-Tabtabaie said that the option of mass resignation would be the best option “if the Cabinet is able to keep the truth hidden and prevents MPs from exercising their constitutional right [to hold the Cabinet accountable].”

The veteran MP, who is a member of the parliamentary legislative committee, also said that the committee would work on introducing amendments to the recent bill on the formation of an anticorruption authority recently submitted by the cabinet “if it doesn’t contain the wealth disclosure stipulation [called for by MPs] retroactively.” Members of both the DRB and PAB have continued to issue statements urging the Cabinet members to attend the parliamentary debate on the grilling motion which is set to be formally introduced there on Thursday.

Reports from parliamentary insiders suggest that the Cabinet will request that the grilling motion be referred to the Constitutional Court or the parliamentary

legislative committee prior to any discussion, or that it be debated in a closed session. Another MP and DRB member, Falah Al-Sawagh, told local daily Al-Jarida, “We need to hear responses from the Prime Minister regarding the steps taken by the cabinet with regard to the case [of the multibillion dinar bribe allegations],” whilst MP Ali Al-Deqbasi of the PAB insisted that the Cabinet must provide answers during the grilling debate “to questions shared by all the Kuwaiti people.”

In other news, the parliamentary health and social committee is apparently cautiously supportive of a draft law submitted by the Cabinet which would see a restructuring of Cooperative Societies’ working practices and a revision of how Co-ops’ managerial board elections are conducted.

According to a committee insider, the committee met last Thursday to discuss the bill, with the members agreeing on the conditions put forward, which include holding elections to the managerial board positions every three years. — Al-Rai, AlJarida, Al-Qabas

Pakistan calls on Kuwait for flood relief KUWAIT: With devastating monsoon rains continuing to flood an area nearly double the size of Kuwait and leaving nine million people homeless in only two months, Pakistan appealed to the people of Kuwait to come to its aid.

The land area currently being affected by the natural disaster covers a total of 23 districts of the country’s Sindh province, regarded as southern Pakistan’s breadbasket. So far, the rains have damaged over a million homes and destroyed most agricultural lands and roads in the region.

Also, the floods have contributed to the spread of fatal diseases like malaria and typhoid among families.

“We seek the support and assistance of the government of Kuwait, its people and the 130,000 expatriate Pakistanis employed in Kuwait,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kuwait, Iftekhar Aziz, told KUNA in an exclusive interview.

The ambassador described the types of assistance as immediate and long-term.

Immediate needs include tents, blankets, mosquito nets, drinking water and high energy foods, while long-term requirements are for the funds required for the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and agricultural property.

People in Kuwait can donate to the cause through depositing sums in an account, named

‘Pakistan Flood Relief Fund2011,’ opened by the embassy with the support of the Kuwaiti government, at the local bank, National Bank of Kuwait. Cash donations are also welcome at the Pakistani Embassy.

The South Asian nation has already asked for $357 million from the UN’s OHCA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) to provide care for the millions of displaced individuals and to rebuild the devastation that will continue to spread for months to come.

“Up until now I can report that a lot of countries have already sent aid including China, the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran, but we

need much, much more.”

The annually- occurring floods were more severe a year ago, as they affected the whole country with a population of 180 million, from the nor th right down to the south.

“Last year, over $25 million was given by the government of Kuwait - $10 million by His Highness the Amir and another $15 million was raised by a special telethon that was done for Pak istan,” said the Pak istani diplomat.

He concluded by expressing confidence the people of Kuwait would “come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in Pakistan, bound by a history of seafaring trade as well as a common religion.” —KUNA

KUWAIT: The Minister of Public Works and Municipality Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar inspected the project sites of Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Ring Roads. He was accompanied by Husain Al-Mansour, Assistant Undersecretary for Roads Affairs. The minister said that the road projects are part of plans to resolve the country’s traffic jam issues.

Cabinet under pressure as customs workers plan strike KUWAIT: While the government was able to prevent Kuwait Air ways Corporation(KAC) and civil employees at the Ministry of Interior from staging a strike by approving a part of their demands last week, it still faces a bigger challenge as Customs General Department employees plan to demonstrate tomorrow.

“The strike will take place. The risks are high. Activity at the ports will stop.

Our demands are legitimate. The solution lies in your hands,” stated Ahmad AlEnizy Head of the department’s Labor Union in a press statement. He insisted that the work be halted only “after a letter is sent to His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad detailing the unfulfilled rights of employees.” Al-Enizy argues that salaries that customs employees are paid are insufficient when compared to the difficulty

level of duties performed including protecting Kuwait from turning into a smuggling haven, in addition to collecting an approximate KD 265 million in customs fees. “We decided to strike after reaching a dead-end after asserting our demands for several years,” he said.

Last month, the Cabinet approved a pay rise to employees of public firms in the oil sector, after they threatened to down tools; a move that would have disrupted Kuwait’s oil exports. The government also agreed last week to hike, by 70 percent, KAC’s financial demands.

Meanwhile, the Labor Union at the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate(KFSD) released a statement urging it to not take legal action against firefighters who took part in a sit-in last Monday, insisting that the break-in took place because they were “provoked by an insult from a senior KFSD official.”

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Kuwait Development Plan between reality, ambition

By Osama Alduaij Kuwait Municipality Deputy Manager

KUWAIT: KALD Chairwoman Amal Al-Sayer received the sponsorship check from NBK CEO Shaikha Al-Bahar.

NBK sponsors conference on learning, behavioral disorders KUWAIT: The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) will sponsor the International Conference of the Difficulties of Learning Disorders, Hyperactivity and Attention Deficit that will be held between 4 and 5 December under the patronage of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The conference will be organized by the Kuwaiti Association for Learning Difficulties (KALD).

NBK CEO Shaikha Al-Bahar stated, “NBK’s efforts are part of its ongoing drive to promote education and development of Kuwait’s national workforce and fulfill its corporate social responsibilities,” Al-Bahar added. “NBK endeavors to shoulder its social responsibilities and share with the various governmental and public sector institutions and departments, the burdens and responsibilities of broader national efforts towards social advancement.”

Al-Bahar recently received KALD Chairwoman Amal Al-Sayer, and handed over the check. Al-Sayer expressed utmost gratitude to NBK for sponsoring the conference, as well as association’s activities.

Al-Sayer said, “KALD is a social welfare association that collaboratively works towards helping students with learning difficulties in private schools in Kuwait, and works towards identifying and developing the capabilities of these students and to support them academically, psychologically and socially through awareness, training, and entertainment programs for the students, their families and their schools.”

“NBK’s sponsorship and support also comes in line with the bank’s customary and ongoing spirit of corporate citizenship as well as the vital role it plays in supporting all students, youth and educational issues,” Al-Bahar added.

Sheikha Rima among 100 most powerful women in Washington WASHINGTON: For the second consecutive year, Sheikha Rima Al-Sabah, wife of Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah, ranked among the 100 most prominent movers and shakers on Washingtonian magazine’s annual list of most powerful women in Washington.

Al-Sabah, who raised $3 million to support the United Service Organization’s (USO) morale-boosting programs for US troops and their families, by hosting the highly-coveted Kuwait America Foundation dinner, ranked alongside other influential females such as First Lady Michele Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the newly appointed IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Sheikha Rima Al-Sabah said “I am honored and humbled to be included among such an impressive list of powerful women in Washington.”

She continued saying “it is thanks to my country Kuwait and the support it continuously gives me that I am able to do the philanthropic work that I do.”

Al-Sabah, who topped the list in the category of “International Powers,” added that the philanthropic work she does is a “continuation of a Kuwaiti tradition as Kuwait is a model for its philanthropic work and the assistance it provides to needy countries.”

This year’s gala dinner honored the 20th anniversary of the Liberation of Kuwait and the 70th anniversary of the USO. Donations gathered at the event will help build two new centers for wounded soldiers at Bethesda’s National Naval Medical Center and at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

It is the latest of many philanthropic endeavors that Al-Sabah has undertaken in the years she and Ambassador Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah have resided in Washington.

As for her future projects, Al-Sabah said that the next gala dinner will raise $2 million and will benefit the Women

immediate and long-term action to address these everlasting problems our projects suffering from during the stages of design, tendering and execution and our facilities through the stages of operation.

When we look at the nature of the tasks carried out by engineers employed by the concerned State authorities responsible for the design, tendering and execution of projects, it is clear that it does not exceed the scope of work of the owner representatives or contract administrators to ensure the project achievement for its purposes and commitment to contractual requirements, and review of financial cash flows, and this will not reach by any means the tasks of project managers, which is to provide systems, procedures and work process and computer aided management program to plan and control projects to ensure the timely completion of the project and the highest quality and within budget, in addition to assistance in identifying the best ways to complete the project and assess the possible risks occur and take the necessary action to prevent them, and deal with damage caused by the negative impact if it happened, and eventually achieve the project objectives efficiently.

When we look at the nature of the tasks and the work carried out by specialists working for government departments responsible for the operation and maintenance and the provision of support services it is clear that it will not exceed the scope of work of the owner representatives and contracts administrators to verify the extent of compliance with contractual requirements and review of financial cash flows, this will not reach by all means the functions of the facilities managers to provide systems, procedures and work processes and computer aided management program for the planning, coordination and follow-up work and quality control, measure and evaluate the performance of service contracts, to preserve assets and to achieve added value and increase efficiency and reduce operating costs and thus prolong the lifespan of the facilities.

When we shed light on the government authorities saving and cost reduc tion methodologies, it is clear that we are still following the traditional method, away from the modern methods that rely on the concepts of value and effectiveness, quality and efficiency, and the distinction between terms of savings and costs reduction and avoiding wrong decisions that may cost us a lot in the long term, as it becomes clearer that the style of traditional work, legislation and regulations to be followed during the stage of launching and awarding of tenders for consultancy and construction, which depends primarily on the selection of the cheapest prices was the result of the above, which has negatively impacted the quality, efficiency and sustainability of our projects and facilities.

We have briefly outlined some of the issues that may pose an obstacle to the state authorities and establishments agencies on the implementation of projects included in the development plan of the State of Kuwait. In spite of that, we emphasize our overall optimism for the existence of the development plan that we always called for as a starting point toward the correct path on the road map to achieve our ambitions and reach our goals. We do not expect a huge success, but we expect achievement and tangible positive results in the long run, and this will not be achieved without the presence of optimism, goodwill, concerted efforts and the provision of comprehensive support to all those involved in the state development plan.

Gruesome accident on Sabhan Road KUWAIT: A motorist burnt to death when his car burst into flames following a crash on Sabhan Road. Although emergency services personnel rushed to the scene, with firefighters quickly putting out the blaze before pulling the man from the vehicle, paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. The body was removed for autopsy and an investigation is underway to determine what caused the fire.

Sheikha Rima Al-Sabah World Banking foundation and the establishment of endowment funds that will provide micro credit loans to women in Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon.

Every year, Kuwait’s Ambassador Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Sheikha Rima Al-Sabah hold a gala dinner to raise money for a different beneficiary.

Over $11 million has been raised in the past seven years for humanitarian, educational, health and environmental causes in the Asian, African and Latin continents.

Keynote speakers and special guests at the annual gala dinners have included former US Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former first lady Laura Bush, former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, Hollywood stars Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Douglas and Angelina Jolie. The AlSabahs’ gala dinners with their star-studded guest list have become one of Washington’s most sought-after and exclusive event. —KUNA

KIA presence crucial for further Kuwaiti investment in China BEIJING: The Kuwaiti Ambassador to China Mohammad Al-Thuwaikh said yesterday that the planned establishment of a Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) representative office in Beijing would be a significant step for his country to explore the massive investment opportunities in the Asian nation.

Ambassador Al-Thuwaikh said that the upcoming opening of the KIA representative office, which is due to take place soon, reflects the political and economic objectives in the development of Sino-Kuwait relations.

KUWAIT: The development plan of the State of Kuwait is a document defining the parameters and draw the road map to reach the social and economic development goals to be achieved during the next five years. This document has been drafted after careful analyses and consideration of existing conditions and identify the destination and the path to be followed to reach these goals.

This plan includes a secondary (tactical) objectives, which represent the developmental programs and projects that can be identified, measured and achieved through a specific timetable, these secondary targets which are related directly to the of development objectives and vision which identifies the future state to be achieved by the year 2035 and the mission described the basic goals and reason why, in addition to the values that represent the shared beliefs of the Kuwaiti society and the primary motivation for its culture.

Although it has not been more than one year since the development plan has been approved the sounds of critics have been heard and start questioning the government’s seriousness about its implementation and others asking about the ability of state agencies over executing the proposed programs and projects and adhere to the specified timetable.

There is no doubt that this development plan is a worthy experience waged by the government and harness all the potential to be translated into reality. It is a Charter committed by the government toward the legislative authority and the Kuwaiti society.

When we look at the efforts undertaken by the government concerned authorities no one will adopt or question over how serious the government to fulfill its promises.

But the question that arises is what the availability of resources and capabilities necessary to implement the plan, and whether the current legislation, work methodologies and administrative procedures is suitable to accommodate the program and projects, implemented the plan and deal with it.

When we shade light and demonstrate the government construction work program, which represents the largest share of the financial obligations, and review our past experience, it is clear that projects and facilities in the State of Kuwait, is suffering many of the problems that have impacted nega-

tively on development plans. The most important of these problems is the delay in completion of projects, large number of variation orders and claims in addition to the low level of efficiency, quality, durability and operational performance.

In spite of the unremitting efforts by the relevant government establishment to address these issues, which is characterized by applying a quick temporary solutions, in response to the occurrence of some crises or raised issues in the past. However, it did not arrive to find radical and comprehensive solutions. We cannot afford to keep the current situation as it is without taking any

“The move is also clear evidence of the enthusiasm of the two friendly countries’ leaderships, governments and people for strengthening bilateral cooperation,” the diplomat asserted.

Ambassador Al-Thuwaikh continued, “Moreover, it is inevitable for KIA to gain a foothold here, given that China has witnessed rapid economic growth with a stable environment, a high standard of living and diversity,” further noting that China is attracting huge amounts of investment from all over the world. — KUNA

Jet ski death A 26-year-old Kuwaiti jet skier died in a collision with another jet ski in the waters off Gulf Road Beach. Although coastguards and paramedics rushed to the location and pulled the man’s body from the water, he was pronounced dead at the scene. Three others involved in the collision were unharmed, with police detaining one of the three afterwards when it was revealed that the fatal accident took place when he lost control of his jet ski. The dead man’s body was removed for autopsy and an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Two suicides An Asian construction worker killed himself in the dormitory which he and his colleagues shared near the building site they were working on in Wafra. The man’s coworkers were shocked when they returned from work to find that he had hung himself from the ceiling of the room, immediately notifying police of their grim discovery. The body was removed for autopsy and an investigation has been opened to determine what drove the man to take his own life. In a separate incident, an Asian woman hung herself in the bedroom of the home in Jabriya where she worked as a maid. The body was removed for autopsy and an investigation is underway to find out the reasons behind her suicide.

Rape accusation Police are investigating a Kuwaiti woman’s claims that her erstwhile boyfriend, also Kuwaiti, raped her repeatedly after getting her drunk. The case began after police received a complaint from a man in Jabriya who said that a young woman was loitering outside his apartment. On arriving at the scene, the woman told the officers that the man was her former boyfriend and she wanted to confront him after he got her drunk in order to rape her. The man has denied the charges. The investigation is continuing.

Conman caught Salmiya police have arrested a fraudster who conned his victims out of around KD10,000 in total, misleading them into believing that their money would yield handsome returns after he invested it in the American stock market.

An investigation was launched after several of his victims, all expatriates, reported that the man, an American citizen of Arab origin, disappeared with their money and would not return their calls. Following his arrest, the conman signed a formal undertaking that he would return all the money to his victims in full within a month. He was released on bail on condition that he does so, with a travel ban imposed on him to prevent him from leaving the country until he fulfills his promise.

BEIJING: Kuwaiti Ambassador Mohammad Al-Thuwaikh receiving Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali at the Beijing Airport yesterday.

Al-Shimali arrives in Beijing BEIJING: Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali arrived here yesterday for an official visit to exchange views with Chinese financial leaders on issues of common concerns and enhance bilateral cooperation.

Upon arrival at Beijing airport, AlShimali was received by Kuwaiti Ambassador to China Mohammad AlThuwaikh and diplomats, as well as Kuwaiti business people.

Al-Shimali’s visit comes at a time when the two countries celebrate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year.

The two-way trade volume reached $8.54 billion in 2010, up 68 percent yearon-year, or 40 times more compared to the beginning of official diplomatic relations in 1971.

Kuwait was the first Arab country to invest in China, whose investments cover a wide range of areas, such as banking, energy and oil refining sectors.

Kuwait has also actively provided China with financial aid through the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED).

Since 1982, the KFAED has offered loans for 34 major projects with a total value of $880 million, which greatly contributed to the improvement and development of infrastructure in the country, especially in poor areas.

On the other hand, more than 20 Chinese companies are currently operating in Kuwait and contributing to its development through such projects as crude gathering systems, pipelines, Boubyan Island.

Meanwhile, Kuwait is China’s major crude oil suppliers, with its shipment to the world’s biggest energy user exceeding a record of 10 million tons (201,000 barrel a day) last year. The two countries also plan to build a USD 9 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in China’s south. —KUNA

MoI participates in ‘Kuwaiti Days in Milan’ event KUWAIT: Representatives from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information and other state bodies are participating in the ‘Kuwaiti Days in Milan’ event, due to take place in the Italian city from October 10-14, under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Mohammad AlSabah. In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Information explained that Sheikh Mohammad will be represented at the inauguration of the cultural event by

Undersecretary Sheikh Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, with the event, which showcases Kuwaiti arts, crafts and other cultural artifacts, being jointly coordinated by the ministry and the Kuwaiti Consulate in Milan.The event will also be attended by representatives of Beit Al-Sadu, as well as a number of Kuwait University lecturers, various prominent Kuwaiti figures, and a few traditional Ku waiti folk music groups. —KUNA

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Kenyans bid farewell to laureate Wangari Maathai

Feds vow crackdown on California pot operations Page 9

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SIRTE: Libyan revolutionary fighters attack pro-Gadhafi forces in Sirte, Libya Friday.

Rebel forces have besieged Sirte since September 15 but have not managed to penetrate the heart of the city because of fierce resistance from loyalists inside the home town of Libya’s ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi. —AP

Battle resumes for control of Gaddafi hometown SIRTE: Forces loyal to Libya’s interim government pounded Muammar Gaddafi’s diehards in Sirte yesterday as they resumed their battle for full control of the ousted despot’s birthplace. A senior US defense official said, meanwhile, that NATO chiefs believe the fugitive former Libyan leader no longer commands his loyalists, who are on the verge of defeat.

A day after launching what they said is a final assault on Sirte, the forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council unleashed a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft gunfire.

The fighting centred on Sirte’s Ouagadougou conference centre and nearby university, where holedup Gaddafi loyalists have been responding with only sporadic mortar and small arms fire. And after launching what they called a final assault on Sirte with a barrage of rocket and artillery fire, the NTC forces still faced stiff resistance late on Friday. “We are surrounding them in the centre of the city in an area of just a few square kilometers (miles),” NTC commander Nasser Abu Zian told AFP. An AFP correspondent said the NTC forces resumed the assault yesterday after a sandstorm eased, boosting visibility in and around Sirte, once a symbol of Gaddafi ‘s regime. Civilians trickled out on foot, including a woman who carried a child in her arms and a man lugging suitcases, as NTC forces stopped cars for identity checks and searches. “We just want to go somewhere that is safe. I hadn’t been out of my house for three weeks because of all the firing. Lots of houses in my area were hit,” said Sudanese labourer Abdulrahim Kabash.

Milad Gahnatri, whom the NTC forces suspected was Mauritanian, appealed to be let through to seek

medical treatment for two pale-looking men in the back of his car. “These are my brothers. They need kidney dialysis three times a week but the Ibn Sina hospital is damaged by bombing. There are many patients in there and they are all afraid of the firing from all sides,” he said. In eastern Sirte, NTC fighters overlooking the rectangular Ouagadougou centre said its concrete bunkers were proving tougher than they originally thought.

“It has been hit for days by tank guns and rockets, but it hasn’t budged. Its paint has hardly been scratched,” said one of them with a Kalashnikov. The number of NTC fighters at the front was lower than on Friday, when hundreds poured into Sirte at dawn on heavily armed pick-ups, following a ferocious artillery and rocket barrage. In Friday’s offensive, the NTC fighters came under sustained mortar, machinegun and sniper fire but took a 700-home complex west of the centre, they said.

Plumes of black smoke billowed from several parts of the city as the Ouagadougou centre was constantly shelled by 106 mm cannon and antiaircraft guns. NATO warplanes flew overhead, and the alliance said in its latest operational update that the only target it struck across the country on Friday was a firing on a vehicle staging point in Sirte. At least 12 NTC fighters were killed and 193 wounded, the military said, but there were no immediate casualty figures from the eastern side of the Mediterranean city, 360 kilometres (225 miles) east of Tripoli.

Late Friday, interim defence minister Jalal Al-Digheily said the end of the conflict was near. “We are very close to the end of the war and peace will be restored all over Libya,” he told reporters in Tripoli on the occasion of

visits by his British and Italian counterparts, Liam Fox and Ignazio La Russa.

“There are still some hot spots but they won’t resist very long,” he added of Sirte and Bani Walid, a desert oasis 170 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of the Libyan capital. Sirte and Bani Walid are Gaddafi ‘s last major bastions against the NTC, which has ruled most of the oil-rich country since its forces overran Tripoli on August 23. Gaddafi has since gone into hiding. On Thursday night, the elusive former strongman called “on the Libyan people, men and women, to go out into the squares and the streets and in all the cities in their millions” to reject the NTC. “I say to them, do not fear anyone.

You are the people, you belong to this land,” he said in an audio message broadcast on Syria-based Arrai television. However, a senior US defence official said NATO chiefs believe Gaddafi no longer commands forces loyal to him and his supporters are on the verge of defeat in Sirte. “He (Gaddafi) effectively doesn’t exercise command and control over militias loyal to him,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

An NTC commander outside Bani Walid told AFP on Friday a new mediation attempt was underway, but if it failed a fresh assault would be launched there.

“To avoid a bloodbath,” Omar Fifao said a delegation had been sent to negotiate with tribes in Bani Walid, some of whose number are fighting alongside Gaddafi forces. “We have asked for a meeting so we can enter Bani Walid without fighting, but if no deal is reached we will have no option but to attack,” Fifao said. NTC commanders have said Gaddafi’s most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, is in Bani Walid and possibly Gaddafi as well.— AFP

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Syrian army defectors tell of regime ruthlessness BEIRUT: When the Syrian army raided his village in the central province of Homs and began shooting at unarmed civilians, Amin knew it was time to join the growing ranks of soldiers defecting to the opposition. “I was off duty that day in June and I couldn’t bear what I saw,” the 25-yearold lieutenant told AFP, asking that his real name not be used. “I decided then to send my parents and siblings to a safe area and I slipped across the border into Lebanon.”

Several soldiers who have defected in recent months and fled to Lebanon gave similar harrowing tales, describing a “scorched earth” campaign by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its much feared “shabiha,” or pro-government thugs, to crush the seven-month popular revolt. The soldiers showed AFP their army ID cards as proof of their identity. Amin said that on one occasion, soldiers burst into the house of a suspected activist in his village and shot the man’s wife and daughter in the legs to force them to reveal his whereabouts.

“When the army carries out such operations, the shabiha are then given a free hand to loot

and destroy,” he said. According to reports that cannot be confirmed-as the Syrian government has restricted access to foreign journalists-more and more soldiers are defecting, with some forming an underground group called the Free Syrian Army. Apart from Lebanon, Turkey has also become a refuge for defectors.

Experts and diplomats say that while the phenomenon is not widespread, it indicates growing frustration over the regime’s fierce crackdown against a mostly peaceful uprising that has left nearly 3,000 people dead. The cities of Homs and nearby Rastan have become hubs for defectors who have joined the opposition. “I defected before being faced with the dilemma of having to kill someone or being killed myself for not obeying orders,” said Rami, who was with army intelligence and fled to Lebanon in June.

He described an army in which many soldiers are disillusioned with the regime and hesitate to shoot at demonstrators, but fear reprisals from their commanders. The army top brass usually hail from the ruling Alawite community, while the rank and file are mostly from the majority Sunni

Muslim community. “Soldiers are kept under close watch by their superiors and once they come under suspicion they become the target themselves,” said Rami, who, like others interviewed for this article, did not use his real name.

“When that happens, it’s time to quickly pack the family and get out.” He said soldiers whose loyalty is questioned are placed on the front lines when the army raids a town. “If you fail to shoot, then they kill you and tell your family that it was the work of an armed terrorist gang,” said Rami, in his 40s. Yussef, a frail-looking 20-year-old who fled to Lebanon in August, said his unit in Homs province would often be ordered to shoot at people even not taking part in a demonstration, just to sow terror.

“I saw with my own eyes an unarmed older farmer in a village in Homs province go by on a bicycle and we were ordered to shoot him in the back,” he said emotionally. “He was left there to bleed all day. “I have no idea why he was killed.

He didn’t represent a threat.” Yussef said members of his unit, known for not using up their ammunition, were sent on a mission once and

told to fire all their bullets or else. He also said security services often shoot at army units to uphold the regime’s “tale” that armed terrorist groups are behind the uprising.

Maher, an activist who is among some 5,000 Syrians who have sought refuge in Lebanon, said the opposition in Homs has organised to assist defecting soldiers and offer them safe houses. “If the international community really wants to protect the Syrian people without getting involved militarily, then it needs to supply these soldiers with ammunition,” he said. “And this needs to be done quickly before the regime carries out new massacres.” Amin, Rami and Yussef said they believe that as the Assad regime intensifies its brutal campaign, more and more soldiers will defect. But they also fear being tracked down in Lebanon by Assad’s men or by his supporters in Lebanon, where the government is dominated by the powerful militant group Hezbollah and its allies. “I got out because I need to live with a clear conscience,” said Amin. “I joined the army to protect my people and my land, to free the Golan, not Homs and Daraa.”— AFP

Twin blasts target oil pipelines in southern Iraq Attack causes temporary cut in production BAGHDAD: A pair of bombs struck two oil pipelines in southern Iraq, causing a temporary cut in production at the country’s largest oil field, officials said yesterday. The blasts took place late Friday at the Rumaila field, sparking a fire that took firefighters a few hours to extinguish, said the deputy head of the Basra provincial council, Ahmed al-Sulaiti.

No one was hurt.

Such attacks are rare in Iraq’s oil-rich south where international oil companies have begun flooding in to help develop the country’s vast oil reserves. Basra is Iraq’s secondlargest province and home to about 70 percent of the country’s proven oil reserves of

TEHRAN: A group of Iranian police special forces demonstrate martial art techniques during an exercise commemorating “Police Week”, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday. —AP

South Sudan’s Kiir in Khartoum for key talks KHARTOUM: South Sudanese President Salva Kiir arrived in Khartoum yesterday for his first visit since southern secession to discuss key unresolved issues, including Abyei and oil, that have undermined north-south relations. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir received his counterpart at the airport, alongside senior members of his cabinet, according to an AFP correspondent.

Kiir is accompanied by South Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, as well as the oil, finance and foreign ministers. South Sudan proclaimed formal independence from the north on July 9, after more than two decades of devastating civil war, a conflict fuelled by religion, ethnicity, ideology and resources, such as oil, that the south in ruins.

Negotiations to regulate Sudan’s political and economic division, both prior to and since partition, have made only limited progress.

Bashir, who attended the independence ceremony in Juba as a guest of honor, said last week that South Sudan was a “top priority” for the Khartoum government. “We are looking forward to fully agreeing to resolve the pending issues through dialogue and without foreign mediation,” he told members of his ruling National Congress Party. Diplomats in Khartoum say they are doubtful about the likelihood of any landmark agreements, instead viewing the two-day visit as a confidence-building exercise that could lead to meaningful negotiations in the coming weeks.

Others are hopeful that a breakthrough can be made on the future status of Abyei, which was occupied by the Sudanese army in May, and on equitably dividing the country’s oil industry, with

most of the crude produced in the south.

But neither side has so far shown any intention of making serious compromises on either of these two highly sensitive issues since partition. Other important agreements, including on border demarcation, trade and debt, have also proved elusive.

The lack of progress has aggravated the lingering mistrust between Khartoum and Juba, occasionally triggering pointed accusations by senior officials. Sudan’s failure to withdraw its troops from the bitterly disputed Abyei border region by September 30, as agreed, prompted a senior South Sudanese official to charge that Khartoum had no intention of doing so and was purposely blocking the return of displaced southerners.

Separately, disagreement over how much Juba should pay to use the north’s oil infrastructure has resulted in Khartoum blocking southern oil exports twice since July.

Further clouding the atmosphere has been the spread of violence in Sudan’s border region. Fighting in South Kordofan, where rebel militias who once fought alongside the ex-southern rebels have been battling the Sudanese army for months, spread last month to Blue Nile state, which also has strong political ties to the south.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday that the clashes in Blue Nile had caused more than 27,500 people to flee to Ethiopia and South Sudan in the past month. It said it had opened a new refugee camp in western Ethiopia to cope with the influx, after the other main camp in the area, at Sherkole, reached its full capacity of 8,700 people.— AFP

143.1 billion barrels. The attack forced officials to cut production by about 600,000 barrels from around 1.25 million barrels per day, said Dhia Jaafar, the director-general of the staterun South Oil Co. He said the country’s oil exports were not affected and production should be restored to normal levels in two days. “It is a terrorist attack and sabotage act,” he said. “It is a clear security breach and that we should all cooperate to catch and punish those behind it so that it will not be repeated.” The Rumaila field is Iraq’s largest with 17.8 billion barrels. It is being developed by Britain’s BP and China’s CNPC.

Abbas seeks support for UN bid in Latin America SANTO DOMINGO: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas started a Latin America tour in the Dominican Republic on Friday to harness support for his government’s bid to win a place at the United Nations. Abbas met with President Leonel Fernandez and was also to address the Dominican Congress over the quest for statehood, which he formally presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 23.

“We don’t hesitate to recognize the legitimate right of Palestine to be recognized as a free, independent and sovereign State,” Fernandez said, underlining that his country also had “excellent diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations with Israel.”

Abbas replied: “You’re not big militari-

ly but you’re big in faith, peace and solidarity with the Palestinian people.” The Palestinian president is also due to travel to El Salvador and Colombia, where President Juan Manuel Santos has already pledged to abstain in any UN Security Council vote.

Colombia, a close ally of Washington, is a non-permanent member of the 15member Security Council, which is expected to vote on the bid in the coming weeks. The move is strongly opposed by both Israel and the United States, which say a Palestinian state can only emerge through bilateral negotiations.

Six Security Council members-Brazil, China, India, Lebanon, Russia and South Africa-have publicly indicated their backing for the Palestinian bid. — AFP

News

in brief

Homeless Algerian mother sets herself, child on fire ALGIERS: An Algerian woman who had been evicted from her flat in Oran died after setting herself and her three-year-old son on fire, police said yesterday.

“She died at Oran university hospital” on Thursday, a policeman who spoke on condition of anonymity said, adding that the 35-year-old woman’s son survived but had serious burns. According to neighbors quoted in the Algerian press, the divorced mother of two had bought the flat with all her savings for 21,000 euros (28,000 dollars). They said it appeared the flat was bought without all the necessary legal documents and that the rightful owners had reclaimed their property, making the family homeless. A teenager set himself on fire after failing his exams earlier last week also in the western city of Oran. He is in critical condition.

Yemen president says ready to quit within days SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the face of more than eight months of street protests demanding his ouster, said yesterday he is now ready to step down within days. “I don’t want power and I will give it up in the coming days,” the veteran president said in a televised speech during which he launched a tirade against his opponents. “There are sincere men, whether they be military or civilian,” who are capable of governing Yemen, Saleh said.

Yemen policeman killed by Aden bomb ADEN: A Yemeni policeman was killed and five others wounded yesterday when a bomb exploded at their post in the southern city of Aden, a security official said. The station commander was among those wounded in the blast, in the Kolou neighborhood of the violence-plagued city. The source did not say who was suspected of having planted the bomb. The south and east of Yemen have been insecure amid a political crisis that has rocked the country for the past nearly nine months with mass street protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ouster.

SANTO DOMINGO: Palestine’s National Authority ‘s President Mahmoud Abbas, left, is decorated with the Duarte, Sanchez, and Mella Order of Merit by Dominican Republic’s President Leonel Fernandez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Friday.—AP

Syrian dissidents in Cairo to lobby for SNC recognition

KHARTOUM: Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir (L) inspects the honor guard with his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir yesterday upon the latter’s arrival in Khartoum for his first visit since southern secession to discuss key unresolved issues. —AFP

Iraq’s daily production stands at about 2.9 million barrels per day and oil exports average around 2.1 million barrels per day. Oil revenues make up about 95 percent of the state budget. Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals since 2008 to international energy companies in the first major investment in the country’s energy industry in more than three decades.

Baghdad aims to raise daily output to 12 million barrels by 2017, a level that would put it nearly on par with Saudi Arabia’s current production capacity. But many analysts say the target is unrealistic, given the decaying infrastructure due to many wars and more than a decade-long international embargo.— AP

CAIRO: Syrian dissidents were in Cairo yesterday to lobby for recognition of an exile opposition council seeking the ouster of President Bashar Al-Assad, Egypt ’s official MENA news agency reported. The delegation planned to meet Egyptian activists and party representatives as 90 members of the Syrian National Council-led opposition met in Stockholm to strategize their struggle against Assad.

Yasser Najjar, a member of the delegation, told MENA that the delegation sought support for the recognition of the SNC, after which the exile group would hold a meeting to elect a leadership. Ismail Al-Khalidi, a member of the council, told the news

agency that “technical problems” had delayed such a meeting in Cairo, which he said would be convened “immediately after” the unspecified problems were resolved.

The SNC meeting comes as Assad’s security forces continue a crackdown against an uprising which the United Nations says has cost at least 2,900 lives since it erupted in mid-March. The recently formed SNC includes most of Assad’s opponents, including the committees organizing protests on the ground, the Muslim Brotherhood as well as various Kurdish and Assyrian parties. The council has been touring capital cities to rally support from the Arab and Western world. — AFP

Iran hangs convicted rapist who filmed victims TEHRAN: Iran yesterday hanged a man convicted of multiple rapes of 37 women whom he coerced by filming acts with them, the Fars and ILNA news agencies reported.

The man, aged 67 but not otherwise identified, was executed in a prison in the central city of Isfahan after four years of repeated appeals against his sentence. Isfahan’s prosecutor, Mohammad Reza Habibi, was quoted by ILNA as saying the man “video-taped the victims at his home and used the films for future abuses.” He did not go into further detail.

The official issued a warning to women in the region to “not fall prey to tricksters ... who seek to sexually abuse them.” The hanging brought to 219 the number of executions reported in Iran so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on media and official reports.

Human Rights Watch tallied 388 execution cases in Iran in 2010, while Amnesty International put the figure at 252, ranking the Islamic republic second only to China in the number of people put to death last year.

Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order, and that it is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings. Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are among the crimes punishable by death in Iran. —AFP

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Feds vow crackdown on California pot operations Offenders using medical marijuana as cover

CHARLESTON: Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney speaks to Citadel cadets and supporters during a campaign speech inside Mark Clark Hall on The Citadel campus in Charleston on Friday.—AP

Doubtful conservatives giving Romney chance WASHINGTON: This year, pocketbook issues seem to matter more than pulpit preaching among cultural conservatives and at least some are willing to embrace Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, who many have long looked at skeptically for his reversals on some of their priorities and his Mormon faith. “No one’s perfect,” says Larry Smith of Newport Beach, Calif., one of thousands of conservatives gathering in Washington this weekend to hear from the slate of GOP candidates at the annual Values Voters Summit. Smith cast the choice before him as a compromise, and says he’s leaning toward the former Massachusetts governor.

Even though Romney has strayed from conservative orthodoxy on some social issues in the past, he still posts a strong record as a businessman.

“He has the skills to help us on this particular issue, at this particular time,” Smith said.By that, he means the economy, with its stubbornly high 9.1 percent unemployment rate and sluggish growth. If interviews with conference attendees are any indication, that’s what is giving Romney his best shot at winning over some of the social and Christian conservatives who he failed to attract in his first campaign in 2008. He couldn’t overcome skepticism of his Mormon faith and his record of reversing himself on issues like abortion rights and gay rights.

Both subjects are starting to percolate in this campaign. In a speech to the conservatives Friday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry criticized Romney for his shifting position on abortion, without ever using his chief rival’s name. “For some candidates, pro-life is an election-year slogan to follow the prevailing political winds,” Perry said in a speech that at times felt more like a sermon than a political pitch.

Later, the pastor who earlier had endorsed and introduced Perry spoke to reporters - and called Mormonism a cult.

“Rick Perry’s a Christian. He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ,” said Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas. “Mitt Romney’s a good moral person, but he’s not a Christian.

Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.” Perry quickly distanced himself from the comment. Asked by reporters Friday night in Tiffin, Iowa, whether Mormonism is a cult, Perry replied, “No.” Romney was speaking yesterday to the gathering.

It came same week that former Alaska Gov Sarah Palin and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie both announced they would not run for president, leaving donors and grass-roots conservatives up for grabs - and giving Romney an opportunity to try to cast himself as the candidate who can appeal to a broad swath of the GOP.

The cultural conservatives gathered here aren’t a natural fit for him with others like Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum - who have long championed their causes - in the race. But many of the roughly two dozen interviewed indicated that because the GOP field lacks a candidate that perfectly fits their wish list, they were willing to consider backing someone who doesn’t stack up perfectly but who may have the strongest chance at beating President Barack Obama. Many said Romney may well fit the bill. “If you go with your gut, that’s fine. But I would lean toward the person who is more electable,” said Johnny Lee, a 57-year-old federal worker from the Washington area. He is considering backing Romney, as well as Georgia business executive Herman Cain and Santorum. Among Lee’s many considerations is who would fare best at the ballot boxes against Obama.

“If you’re going with your values and there aren’t enough people who share those values, you’re not going to win the change in leadership this country needs,” Lee said. “And we need a change.” At this venue at least, it seems that activists aren’t heeding Bachmann’s warnings not to settle for a candidate who isn’t rock solid on their issues.

“It’s time for the Republican Party to nominate someone who will lead the whole country,” said Chris Balkema, a 40-year-old Caterpillar employee from Channahon, Ill. “We don’t need to settle. But we need someone will lead the left, right and center of this country, while defending the Constitution.”

Balkema said that could be Romney, although he wasn’t ruling out others. Even so, Bachmann - who is a favorite of tea partyers, home schooling parents and grassroots activists - pitched herself as a pure conservative voters need, and urged them not to choose a moderate candidate who might not share their values. “Conservatives, we can have it all this year because Barack Obama will be a one-term president,” she said, bringing the audience to its feel late Friday evening. “Let’s finally have one of us in the White House.”

She then hinted at Romney’s changing shape on abortion rights and gay rights. “You won’t find YouTube clips of me speaking in support of Roe vs. Wade. You won’t find me hemming and hawing when it comes to defining marriage as between one man and one woman.” Some agree with her. “We chose someone last time who was willing to cross the aisle on anything,” said Dwayne Owens, a 67-year-old from Southside, Ala., pointing to 2008’s unsuccessful presidential nominee Sen. John McCain. “We can’t nominate someone whose sole message is compromise. We need someone who is willing to get in a dogfight.”—AP

Plane ditches in ocean off Hawaii, pilot rescued HAWAII: A small plane ran out of fuel and ditched in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii, but the pilot was rapidly rescued by Coast Guard crews who had flown alongside and coached him on crash landing in the choppy seas. Dramatic video released by the Coast Guard shows the plane gliding low over the water and then splashing down. Within seconds the pilot climbs out onto a wing as a helicopter lowers a rescue swimmer, who helps him enter a basket and is hoisted to the hovering aircraft.

The 65-year-old man, who was not seriously injured, was flying solo from Monterey, Calif, when he radioed authorities Friday afternoon that he was running low on fuel about 500 miles from his destination of Hilo, Hawaii, the Coast Guard said. The cities are about 2,300 miles apart. The Guard sent a plane to rendezvous with the two-engine Cessna and dispatched a ship and helicopter to be ready for a possible rescue, spokesman Lt Gene Maestas told The Associated Press.

After meeting up with the plane over the Pacific, the Guard’s HC-130 Hercules flew alongside for more than an hour, until the aircraft’s fuel gave out and it went down 13 miles off Hawaii. “We were communicating to him the entire time,” Maestas told The Associated Press. “The pilots were telling him how to make the airplane ready ... to lighten, tie things down, adjust the seat.”

He was also urged to go in at a low angle to the water and touch down parallel to the waves - running at strong six feet rather than absorbing their power by plowing into them head-first. “We basically talked him down,” Maestas said. The pilot, whom the Coast Guard did not identify, ditched his airplane about an hour before sundown. In the two-minute video apparently shot from another Coast Guard aircraft, the plane skims lightly on the water for a few seconds before coming to an abrupt stop and spinning around in the foaming seas. It floats upright with the pilot clinging to it but appears to begin sinking within a minute, as the Guard swimmer is lowered to waters near the plane. “He was able to crawl out of cockpit and speak to the rescue swimmer; he didn’t appear to have any significant injuries,” Maestas said. The video shows the swimmer hanging onto the basket carrying the man as it moves upward, before dropping several feet back into the waters. It ends with the helicopter carrying the pilot flying off.

Maestas said the Cessna sank in just a few minutes.” We feel very fortunate that we were able to save this man’s life,” he said. The man was taken to a hospital but there was no further word on his condition.—AP

SACRAMENTO: Federal authorities in California vowed to shut down dozens of pot growing and sales operations in a major crackdown, saying the worst offenders are using the cover of medical marijuana to act as storefront drug dealers. The aggressive crackdown comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana.

Prosecutors Friday described it as the first coordinated statewide offensive against marijuana dealers and suppliers who use California’s 15year-old medical marijuana law as legal cover for running sophisticated drug trafficking ventures in plain sight. US Attorney Benjamin Wagner cited a 2009 federal study that 72 percent of marijuana plants eradicated nationwide were grown in California. “California’s marijuana industry supplies the nation,” he said.

The actions were geared toward stopping a proliferation that has led to thousands of pot shops opening their doors across the state. The spread was fueled partly by the Obama administration’s assurance two years ago that it did not plan to devote federal resources to countering marijuana outlets operating in compliance with state laws.

One example cited by the prosecutors Friday: In one Orange County strip mall, eight of the 11 secondfloor suites are occupied by dispensaries and doctors’ offices for doctors where healthy individuals obtain “sham” recommendations to use medical marijuana. It is “a Costco, Walmart-type model that we see across California,” said Andre Birotte Jr, US attorney in the Los Angelesarea. Some people making money from medical marijuana openly revel in what some have called “the new California gold rush,” he said.

Landlords leasing property to dozens of warehouses and agricultural parcels where marijuana is being grown and retail spaces where pot is sold over the counter are receiving written warnings to evict their tenants or face criminal charges or seizure of their assets, the state’s four US attorneys said. “The intention regarding medical marijuana under California state law was to allow marijuana to be supplied to seriously ill people on a nonprofit basis,” said US Attorney Melinda Haag, the top federal law enforcement officer for the San Francisco Bay area. “What we are finding, however, is that California’s laws have been hijacked by people

CALIFORNIA: A bag of medical marijuana prescription bottles turned over to federal prosecutor Laura Duffy, of the southern district of California, by a mother who found them in her teen’s possession is seen displayed during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif, Friday,.—AP who are in this to get rich and don’t care at all about sick people.”

For two years before the federal government’s toughened stand, officials had indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws in the 16 states where pot is legal for people with doctors’ recommendations.

The Department of Justice issued a policy memo to federal prosecutors in late June stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws. The effort to shutter California dispensaries appeared to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

Increased federal intervention will likely unify marijuana growers and sellers in a drive to change federal policy, National Cannabis Industry Association spokeswoman Melissa Milam said. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re mothers, we’re patients, we’re family members of patients,” she said. “We want to pay taxes, we want to be able to make deposits at our bank, we want to be a business.”

Not all of the thousands of storefront pot dispensaries thought to be operating in the state are being targeted in the crackdown, which also involves new indictments and arrests of marijuana growers and vendors

throughout the state over the past two weeks, said Wagner, who represents the state’s Central Valley. The strategies federal authorities are using vary somewhat, with warning letters issued by the US attorney in San Diego giving recipients 45 days to comply and property owners in Los Angeles, Orange County and the Central Coast given just two weeks to evict pot dispensaries or growers.

Haag said she is initially going after pot shops located close to schools, parks, sports fields and other places where there are a lot of children. Wagner, who represents the state’s Central Valley, also is targeting what he termed “significant commercial operations,” including farmland where marijuana is being grown.

Birotte is prioritizing dispensaries in communities where local officials have been trying unsuccessfully to shut down marijuana businesses.

Moreover, the four said their warnings were aimed at cities and counties that have started licensing and taxing marijuana shops. The California Board of Equalization has estimated medical marijuana generates between $53 million and $104 million in annual sales taxes on sales of between $700 million and $1.3 billion. “If it creates revenue and jobs and increases safety, with all that’s going on in the world and the nation, why is the federal government

mounting this assault - just because they can?” asked attorney Mark Reichel, who represents three licensed Sacramento dispensaries that face federal charges or civil forfeitures.

More than a dozen dispensaries named by officials either did not respond to telephone messages or refused to comment on the closure demands. Damian Nassiri, a lawyer for two of dispensaries inside the Orange County shopping center authorities cited, predicting it would not be long before the owner sends his clients packing. “These collectives had a hard time finding landlords who were willing to rent to them,” Nassiri said. Three of the four prosecutors declined to reveal how many dispensaries are subject to closure orders. Birotte said 38 property owners in his district were sent warnings.

Birotte said his office already had initiated property forfeiture proceedings involving three properties whose owners had received prior warnings. The effort was criticized by two Democrat state legislators who represent San Francisco.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said the crackdown “means that Obama’s medical marijuana policies are worse than Bush and Clinton. It’s a tragic return to failed policies that will cost the state millions in tax revenue and harm countless lives.”—AP

Venezuelan islanders say expropriation affects few CARACAS: Most people on Venezuela’s archipelago of Los Roques don’t seem concerned by the announcement of a government plan to seize homes on the islands, saying the measure will affect just a few property owners. Some members of the archipelago’s Communal Council, one of thousands of neighborhood based assemblies across Venezuela, said Friday that they expected the announcement and do not fear their homes or inns will be targeted for state takeovers.

Giorgio Serloni, owner of the Aquamarina, one of the many inns on the main island of El Roque, said he and other residents were informed by pro-government lawmakers of the

plan before President Hugo Chavez announced it Thursday. Serloni, a member of the assembly, said residents were told the government will target only vacation homes on Madrisqui, an islet near El Roque. “There’s been talk for a long time about the government expropriating the houses on Madrisqui,” Serloni said in a telephone interview from Gran Roque. In his announcement, Chavez gave no details, saying only that his government would expropriate homes on Los Roques. He said the targeted structures were built on plots bought in shadowy business deals.

“There are some houses that were illegally built.

We’re going to take them over,” he said Serloni said close to a dozen vacation homes on

Madrisqui were built in 1972, the same year the archipelago was classified as a national park.

Authorities prohibited the construction of homes on islands surrounding Gran Roque, where dozens of private homes and quaint inns, known in Spanish as “posadas,” are located.

Government officials have long suspected the mostly wealthy and influential owners of vacation homes on Madrisqui used legal loopholes and bribes so they could build there, Serloni said. Chavez said the government would build state-run inns on Los Roques, which is an archipelago of tiny islands offering snorkeling and scuba diving along numerous coral reefs and deserted white-sand beaches. — AP

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AU, Somali troops battle diehard rebels in Mogadishu MOGADISHU: African Union and Somali government forces yesterday launched an offensive to flush out remnant Shebab militia from a Mogadishu district, two months after the rebels pulled out of the city. The push comes after the AlQaeda-linked insurgents carried out their deadliest single attack in years when a suicide bomber on Tuesday detonated an explosives-laden truck at a government compound, killing at least 82 people.

“The Somali troops and the African peacekeep-

ers supporting them moved into new locations in Mogadishu to ensure full control of the city,” said Abdulahi Mohamed Roble, the head of the northern Karan district where the operation was launched. “The forces took control of Keysaney hospital early in the morning and advanced deep into the district. “The mission is aimed at eliminating remnants of the terrorist group from the whole city,” he added. According to the AU force commander Major General Fred Mugisha, the troops

now control 95 percent of the war-torn Mogadishu since the insurgents’ withdrawal.

While the Shebab abandoned positions in Mogadishu where they had waged a four-year war to dislodge the Western-backed Somali government, they remain a serious security threat as they resorted to guerrilla attacks. A Shebab commander who did not want to be named said they had repulsed the offensive.

“The allied enemy of Allah failed this morning

after attempting to take control of locations where Mujahidin fighters are. We have inflicted heavy casualties on them forcing them to retreat to their positions,” he said. Residents reported heavy fighting after the AU and government troops moved into the district in armored vehicles. “I saw tanks and joint Somali and AU troops moving into Keysaney area. There was a heavy exchange of fire, but I don’t know about casualties,” said Abdulahi Moalim, a witness.— AFP

Feuding Belgian parties strike key reform deal Deal to provide reassurance to markets

NAIROBI: People attend the funeral of environmentalist and Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai yesterday at the freedom corner in Uhuru Park in Nairobi, before her creamation. —AFP

Kenyans bid farewell to laureate Wangari Maathai NAIROBI: Kenyans yesterday bade farewell to the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in a colorful state funeral marked with prayers, praises and tree planting. Thousands of Kenyans, including President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, amassed at a landmark park in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to attend prayers held for the late Wangari Maathai.

Maathai, who won the Nobel in 2004 for her work in conservation and women’s rights, resisted a government plan to build a complex at Uhuru Park, where the funeral was taking place yesterday.

“Wangari’s legacy goes beyond Kenya - all over the world,” said Odinga. “We have lost a dedicated selfless Kenyan patriot,” and her work will continue to inspire the rest of the world.

Rev Phyliss Ochillo who prayed for Maathai yesterday said the laureate was concerned about the environment when he visited her in hospital only a day before her death. “She did not respond to anything but when I talked about the environment that’s when she responded,” Ochillo said. Maathai was seen as a threat to the rich and powerful. She was beaten, arrested and vilified for the simple act of planting a tree, a natural wonder she believed could reduce poverty and conflict.

Maathai, best known as the Tree Mother of Africa, believed that a healthy environment helped improve lives by providing clean water and firewood for cooking, thereby decreasing conflict. The Kenyan organization she founded planted 30 million trees in hopes of improving the chances for peace, a triumph for nature that inspired the U.N. to launch a worldwide campaign that resulted in 11 billion trees planted. Maathai died late last month after a long battle with cancer. She was 71. “The best way we can honor her is to carry on the great work she started especially in the fields of environmental conservation, social justice, human rights and democracy,” President Kibaki said.

Maathai asked to be cremated because burying her in a wooden coffin would mean that a tree was cut, even though cremation defies Kenya’s tradition of a burial. The casket carrying her body to be cremated yesterday was bamboo-framed, made of water hyacinth and papyrus reeds and draped with a Kenyan flag.

Although the family announced days earlier that the cremation would be private, thousands of Kenyans followed the ceremony up to the gate of the crematorium to try and catch a glimpse of the moments before she was reduced to ashes. But hundreds of police kept guard and pushed the crowd back from getting too close.

More than 5,000 tree seedlings are expected to be planted in her honor yesterday. Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

But on Friday three champions of women’s rights in Africa and the Middle East were also awarded the prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee split the prize between Tawakkul Karman, a leader of anti government protests in Yemen; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to win a free presidential election in Africa; and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who campaigned against the use of rape as a weapon in her country’s brutal civil war.

Maathai said during her 2004 Peace Prize acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life’s work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya.

There she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water. After Kenya’s former President Daniel arap Moi left government, Maathai served as an assistant minister for the environment and natural resources ministry.

Although the tree-planting campaign launched by her group, the Green Belt Movement, did not initially address the issues of peace and democracy, Maathai said it became clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy. Maathai’s work was quickly recognized by groups and governments the world over, winning awards, accolades and partnerships with powerful organizations.

Maathai was the first woman to earn a doctorate in East Africa - in 1971 from the University of Nairobi, where she later was an associate professor in the department of veterinary anatomy. She previously earned degrees from Mount St. Scholastica College - now Benedictine College - in Atchison, Kansas, and the University of Pittsburgh. Maathai is survived by three children. — AP

Polish police arrest two in IKEA bombings in Europe WARSAW: Polish police say they have arrested and charged two suspects in a series of bomb attacks at IKEA stores in several European countries this year. The attacks, made with homemade bombs, occurred from May to September in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic. Two people were injured in the German attack but there were no fatalities. Some of the bombs were potentially lethal, though not all detonated.

Andrzej Matejuk, police commander with the Central Bureau of Investigation, said yesterday that two Polish men, both aged 39, were arrested in the case. They were only identified as Mikolaj G and Adam K Their full names were not given, in accordance with Polish laws that protect the identities of suspects. “Significant

evidence was gathered on the men which clearly points to their guilt,” Matejuk said.

IKEA said it also faced an “extortion threat” after the bombing attacks.

Police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said that both men were charged with endangering the lives of many people, extortion and racketeering and could face up to 10 years in prison. He said the men were arrested after hundreds of Polish officers worked on the case along with counterparts in the countries where the attacks occurred.

“Because the bomb loads were getting stronger, there was a serious threat to the life and health of many people. Time counted,” Sokolowski told the news agency PAP. Last month, Europol said it believed the attacks were the work of a single man.— AP

BRUSSELS: Belgium’s feuding Flemish and Walloon parties agreed yesterday on an institutional reform aimed at ending a crisis that has left the kingdom rudderless for 18 months and on the brink of collapse. The deal will also provide some reassurance to the markets a day after ratings agency Moody’s threatened to downgrade Belgium over its failing bank Dexia.

Charles Michel, head of the French-speaking Reformist Movement, described the reform agreed early yesterday after marathon talks, which devolves more power to the regions, as “the most significant since World War II”. Belgium has been without a central government for a world-record 482 days and the country’s rival Dutch- and French-speaking politicians still have to agree on a common government platform.

That could yet prove difficult since the divide that negotiators need to bridge is no longer simply linguistic but increasingly political, with Flanders leaning heavily to the right and Wallonia to the left. The latest deal on devolution was seen as essential to any progress in the

Belgian crisis. “Dialogue eventually won the day over cynicism,” said Wouter Van Besien, the head of the Flemish Green party.

The eight parties taking part in the twomonth negotiations on devolution had reached a deal on some of the key points last month and have now ironed out their differences on the remaining issues. They are expected to clean up the document tomorrow, in time for the agreement to be presented to parliament the following day. While a caretaker government that lost last year’s June elections has reduced the deficit and even sent warplanes to join the NATO-led campaign in Libya, the political impasse has fed fears of a carve-up of the country.

The root of the crisis lies with the fact that many in the richer Dutch-speaking Flanders, which has 60 percent of the population, feel their taxes are financing the poorer French-speaking south, which therefore neglects to do what it takes to bolster its economy. Buoyed by the victory of the main Flemish separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), in the June 2010

polls, the north is seeking a higher degree of autonomy.

The Walloons for their part fear that a weakening of the central government will make them poorer and pave the way for the country to split up. Belgium’s regions had until now been financed by the federal government but the deal hammered out yesterday provides for income tax up to 10.7 billion euros ($14.5 billion) to be levied by the regions, giving them some of the fiscal autonomy the Flemish wanted. The regions’ increased powers will apply to various other fields, including health, welfare and traffic laws.

Special rights for thousands of French-speaking residents of majority Flemish suburbs of Brussels-an issue which caused bad blood between the communities for decades-will also be largely eliminated. The breakthrough was only achieved after the N-VA was excluded from the talks in August because of its intransigence.

But its leader Bart de Wever is still climbing in the opinion polls and Walloons fear he has not had his last word.— AFP

Poles prepare to vote in parliamentary elections WARSAW: Workers in Poland are putting out ballot boxes and hanging the national flag at polling stations the day before a vote to determine whether the centrist Civic Platform party gets another term after four years of strong economic growth. As the country prepares for parliamentary elections today, opinion polls show Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s party in the lead, but facing a tough challenge from Law and Justice, the conservative party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Several small parties are also vying for support.

However, the main battle pits Tusk’s pro-market and pro-European Union vision against that of Kaczynski. He favors strong state control over the economy and has recently accused Germany of trying to subjugate Poland. Aside from the preparation of polling stations, the only sign yesterday of the approaching election was the absence of any talk of parties and campaigning in the media. Under Polish law, no campaigning or publishing of opinion polls is allowed yesterday or today until polls close. The aim is to give people the chance to reflect calmly on their choices before they cast ballots.

Voters in this ex-communist country of 38 million will elect 460 lawmakers to the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and 100 to the Senate. Polling stations across the country will be open from 7 am to 9 pm local time (0500 to 1900 GMT). Exit polls will be released when polls close but official results will only come several hours later. — AP

WARSAW: Leader of the nationalist opposition Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, talks to supporters during a final pre election convention in Warsaw, Poland Friday the last day of campaigning before today’s parliamentary elections.—AP

CAPE TOWN: Nobel Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu (C) listens to the Dalai Lama speak over a live video-link from Dharamsala, in India, during the International Peace Lecture, at the University of the Western Cape yesterday in Cape Town. —AFP

Dalai Lama pokes fun at China slurs, slams censorship CAPE TOWN: The Dalai Lama yesterday slammed censorship in China as “immoral” and poked fun at denunciations of himself in a video chat with Desmond Tutu after he was not granted a visa in time to travel to South Africa. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s absence was symbolized by an empty chair at the event at the University of the Western Cape where he was meant to deliver an inaugural peace lecture to wrap Tutu’s 80th birthday celebrations.

“Some Chinese officials describe me as a demon so naturally some fear about the demon,” the Dalai Lama told Tutu via a live video link when asked why the Chinese feared him. “First I’m hurt. Now I feel nothing, so I immediately just go ‘yes I have horns’,” he added, miming horns on his head with his fingers. The furore over the visa overshadowed the run-up to Tutu’s birthday with the former anti-apartheid activist launching a virulent attack on President Jacob Zuma’s administration for kowtowing to its biggest trade partner China.

The Dalai Lama said “hypocrisy” had unfortunately become part of life in “the communist totalitarian system” and peo-

ple who spoke truthfully and honestly sparked discomfort. “I often tell him (Tutu) 1.3 billion Chinese people should have every right to know...reality, then 1.3 billion Chinese people also have the ability to judge what’s right, what’s wrong, so therefore censorship is immoral,” he added. The discussion between the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates who are close friends was filled with banter, after a last ditch attempt

by Tutu’s office urging the government to grant the Dalai Lama a visa failed.

“As a man of truth, a man of God, please live long,” the Dalai Lama told Tutu. “Your 90th birthday, I’m looking forward to. At that time, don’t forget send me an invitation. Then we can test your government.”

China has always sought to curb the Dalai Lama’s overseas travels, warning host governments that any visit would harm ties, especially if he is met by state officials. The Tibetan has lived in India since 1959 since fleeing an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. The talk wrapped up a threeday celebration for Tutu which included a book launch of a new biography and a church service in the cathedral where he fought the white minority regime. — AFP

Two physics observatory staff shot dead in Russian Caucasus MOSCOW: Suspected rebels shot dead two members of staff of a physics research facility in the volatile Russian North Caucasus, investigators said yesterday. Attackers shot dead at their home the chief engineer and systems administrator at the Baksan neutrino observatory in the Kabardino-Balkaria region, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. Two attackers entered the married couple’s apartment in the village of Neitrino and shot them and stole possessions, investigators said, with their bodies discovered at around 9 pm on Friday.

The couple were named as Dzhamal Guliyev

and Marina Kozhemyakina by Russian television. The couple’s possessions and documents were later found at a rebel camp after a special operation yesterday that killed two insurgents, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a statement from the region’s emergency centre.

“While searching the dead bandits, certain possessions and documents were found belonging to the family of the neutrino observatory staff killed yesterday,” the statement said, RIA Novosti reported.

The observatory is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Nuclear

Research. Located in a valley close to the Elbrus mountain, it is an underground laboratory with tunnels that are used for particle physics and neutrino astrophysics research, according to the institute’s website. Kabardino-Balkaria, a mountainous region known for its popular ski resorts, has seen growing violence recently, some of it targeting infrastructure, as the North Caucasus battles an armed Islamist insurgency.

In July last year, rebels attacked the Baksanskaya hydroelectric power station, killing two guards and setting the facility on fire with a string of blasts.— AFP

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Philippine communists free four hostages DAVAO: Communist insurgents in the Philippines freed four jail guards who they took hostage two months ago, the rebels and officials said yesterday, helping ease tensions in peace talks with the government. The four guards, seized by New People’s Army guerrillas on July 21, were turned over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the isolated town of Magpet on the southern island of Mindanao, an NPA spokeswoman said.

The four were released for “humanitarian reasons” and were all healthy, NPA spokeswoman Rubi del Mundo said in a statement. “Today, the

New People’s Army undertakes the safe and orderly release of four of its prisoners of war in compliance with the political decision reached by the National Democratic Front,” del Mundo said. The National Democratic Front is the rebels’ political wing.

Magpet Mayor Efren Pinol said a district chairman in his thickly-forested town confirmed to him the four jail guards had been released but that he had no further details. Regional military spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon also said the four were freed by the NPA late Friday and were now in the custody of a Protestant church leader.

He did not elaborate. Government peace negotiator Jurgette Honculada welcomed the release, saying “it will help lighten the atmosphere” as the two sides move the talks forward.

The abduction of the four jail guards as well as the kidnapping of a town mayor and his two security escorts by the NPA on August 6 were a major irritant in the on-and-off-again peace talks between the government and the rebels. The government negotiators had demanded the release of the hostages. But the communists in turn demanded the government free 13 captured insurgents in order for the talks to go for-

ward. Honculada said the captured insurgents might be freed later but denied that this was part of any “prisoner-swap” for the hostages. The communists have been waging a Maoist campaign to seize power since 1969. Informal peace talks began in 1986. From a peak of over 25,000 fighters in the 1980s, the military and other defense experts believe the guerrillas now number less than 5,000. Rebel attacks last year killed 187 government forces and dozens of civilians were caught in the crossfire, according to Brussels security think-tank the International Crisis Group.— AFP

US, Pakistan spies rebuild ties: Clapper Pakistani forces arrest Qaeda suspects at CIA’s request

JALALABAD: Afghan border police officers carry a bag of Hashish to display captured drugs at a police station in Jalalabad, Afghanistan yesterday. Afghan border police seized 2500 kilograms of Hashish during an operation in Shinwar district. —AP

US envoy regrets sex tourism remarks about Philippine MANILA: The US ambassador to the Philippines has apologized for his recent statement that 40 percent of male tourists visit the country for sex, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Ambassador Harry Thomas sent a cellphone text message Friday to Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who was on a visit to Vietnam, expressing regret for his comments, foreign affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said.

“I should not have used the 40 percent statistic without the ability to back it up. I regret any harm that I may have caused,” Thomas said in the text message, which Hernandez forwarded to journalists. US Embassy spokeswoman Tina Malone said yesterday that Thomas “offered his deep regret” for his comment. She said the United States would continue to be a “strong and dedicated partner of the Filipino people in combating the global scourges of human trafficking and sexual tourism.”

Thomas’ remark last month angered some officials who questioned its basis and said it tarnished the country’s image.

After addressing a discussion on human trafficking in the Philippines on Sept 22, Thomas also told journalists that the sex tourists included Americans and that it was “something I’m not proud of.” He urged Philippine authorities to prosecute all foreign sex tourists, including Americans.

The Philippines is trying to revive its tourism industry and erase its 1980s reputation as a major destination for sex tourists. As a former US colony, the Philippines hosted American bases until the early 1990s, and communities around the military facilities became liberty towns and havens for prostitution that catered to American service members. Earlier last week, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima wrote Thomas seeking data to back up his remarks after the ambassador said the Justice Department was the source of his information. De Lima told reporters such comments from a diplomat were offensive and demeaning since they portrayed the Philippines as a “country of sex workers.” —AP

WASHINGTON: In what could mark a turning point in US-Pakistani relations, Pakistani forces have arrested a handful of Al-Qaeda suspects at the CIA’s request and allowed the US access to the detainees, US and Pakistani officials said. Pakistan has also stopped demanding the CIA suspend the covert drone strikes that have damaged Al-Qaeda’s militant ranks in Pakistan’s tribal areas, officials on both sides say - though the Pakistanis say they have simply put this on the back burner for now. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic matters.

Only one of the Al-Qaeda figures who was arrested is considered senior, but US and Pakistani officials called the combined moves a trend in the right direction. “They are doing things to cooperate and be helpful,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Clapper would not comment on the details shared by other US and two Pakistani officials, but confirmed there has been some progress restoring the joint intelligence cooperation that used to be routine, prior to the covert US raid that killed Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan in May. The raid inflamed antiAmerican sentiment in Pakistan and embarrassed its intelligence services, who were already angry over an incident in January, when a CIA security contractor shot dead two Pakistanis he said were trying to rob him.

For a time, Pakistan’s Inter-Ser vices Intelligence agency refused to carry out any joint operations with American intelligence officers, nor would they allow the Americans access to question militant detainees. Visas as well were hard to come by for US officials of any stripe. The breakdown in relations took on a tit-for-tat quality, with Pakistan expelling most of the US military trainers in the country, and the US cutting off several hundred million dollars in military aid. There are still bumps, including over recent high-level US criticism of Pakistan’s ties to militant groups.

Pakistan considered halting some of the increased cooperation after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen accused

Pakistan’s spy shop of complicity with the militant Haqqani network’s attack on the US embassy in neighboring Afghanistan. Mullen levied that charge, the most serious US allegation against Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks, within a few days of leaving his post last month.

President Barack Obama was more circumspect on Thursday, saying “there is no doubt

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani explosive experts defuse ammunition and suicide vests they recovered from a house yesterday in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistani police say they have foiled a terror plot in the capital by seizing suicide vests, rockets and other ammunition from a militant hideout. —AP that there is some connection that the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling.” Obama said he does not want to yank humanitarian aid or take other punitive measures just to make a point, but some in Congress are demanding a major retrenchment in US engagement with what many see as a reluctant and inconsistent anti-terrorism partner.

More fallout from that clash arose Thursday, when a Pakistani government commission concluded a Pakistani doctor should be prose-

Australian teen locked up in Bali ‘feeling better’ DENPASAR: A 14-year-old Australian boy arrested for drug possession on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali began his fifth night in a police cell in higher spirits yesterday, his lawyer said. Police said the teenager, who was on a family holiday, was found with 6.9 grams of marijuana in the tourist area of Kuta.

Earlier last week a psychologist said the youngster, who is detained alone in a police cell, was highly stressed and depressed.

But his lawyer, Muhammad Rifan, told AFP yesterday: “Psychologists have visited him again and he is in a much better condition, much better than before. He is calmer and has accepted the situation.”

Rifan said that after pressure from lawyers, Balinese police were now adhering to juvenile justice laws, which they had previously ignored.”For example, the police had informed him that the maximum sentence would be 12 years, when in fact for minors, the sentence is halved, so he now knows the maximum is six years,” Rifan said.

Police now understand that the examination of a minor in this situation must be finished as quickly as possible, in no more than 20 days, Rifan said. The Australian government has made the boy’s release “top priority”, with ambassador Greg Moriarty arriving in Bali from Jakarta yesterday on Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s instructions. “We and the Australian community are trying to immediately bring the boy home, as soon as possible. But we still respect the law that applies here,”

Moriarty said. Rudd told Australian reporters the ambassador would first make contact with local and national police, as well as the boy’s legal team and family. “People should be very, very aware that this may take a considerable period of time, and we are not guaranteed of success but we are working through the system,” he said. “I spoke to his dad yesterday and we are working our way through the legal system with the single objective of getting this young fellow home as soon as we possibly can.”

The boy’s father has been allowed to sleep in an office adjacent to the police cell. The family had been due to return home today after the week-long holiday. The Australian media has said the arrest was part of a police sting, with witnesses saying that plain-clothes officers swooped on the boy and a friend after an alleged tip-off from the drug dealer.

Police said the boy admitted paying 250,000 rupiah ($29) to a man, who reportedly told him he had not eaten for a day and needed money. Children face the same cour ts as adults in Indonesia, although juvenile justice laws offer some concessions to minors.

Children are often jailed with adults, although Kerobokan prison, where the boy would spend his term, has a separate children’s cell. Several Australians are housed in Kerobokan, including a man arrested last month in possession of methamphetamine, and several convicted drug traffickers two on death row and six serving life sentences. — AFP

scandals over recent years, China is particularly keen to curb the tainting of food products to reassure citizens and restore faith in government. A Shanghai court this month jailed three executives of a food company for five to nine years after they were found responsible for illegally adding yellow dye to a type of steamed bun made of corn flour.

One of the biggest safety scandals

and candid meetings,” with Pakistan’s intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha both in the US and Islamabad since the bin Laden raid.

The improved cooperation is a byproduct of mutual need, rather than shared trust at this point, officials concede. Pakistan does not want to risk losing US diplomatic and financial support, and the US needs Pakistani cooperation to continue counterterrorist operations against Al-Qaeda in one of its key safe havens. The US military also needs Pakistani consent to use the country’s roads to resupply US forces in Afghanistan. — AP

News

in brief

3 killed in Lankan election violence COLOMBO: Three people including an adviser to Sri Lanka’s president were killed yesterday in election-related violence just outside the capital, police said. A police official said former lawmaker Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and two of his supporters were killed in an intraparty shootout during local council elections. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media. Another lawmaker from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance who was involved in the clash was hospitalized with serious head injuries, Dr Shavindra Gamage said.

Bus crash kills 3 Dutch in Indonesia JAKARTA: A minibus crashed into a cliff on Indonesia’s Java island, killing three Dutch and one Indonesian national, and injuring a dozen others, police said yesterday. “The brakes on the bus failed when it was going down a steep road and it ran right into a cliff near a farm,” Aiptu Nasib, head of the local police post, told AFP. “Most of the 12 injured victims are also Dutch. The bus was full of mostly Dutch tourists and one Belgian.” The crashed minibus-with a capacity of 10 — was packed with 17 people Friday as it travelled north from West Java’s provincial capital Bandung to Ciater, a recreational mountainous area with hot springs.

BALI: Australian ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty (C) speaks to journalists during a press conference at a police station in Denpasar on the resort island of Bali yesterday. —AFP

China arrests 17,000 in major crime drive BEIJING: Chinese authorities arrested 17,000 suspects for offences including illegal food production, gambling, and drug trafficking in a nationwide crackdown, state media said yesterday. In a sweeping campaign launched on August 22 officials investigated over 36,000 cases and shut down over 7,000 venues, Xinhua news agency reported.

After several high-profile food safety

cuted for treason, for running a vaccination program to help the CIA locate bin Laden. Dr Shakil Afridi Afridi has been in the custody of Pakistan’s ISI since the bin Laden raid.

Yet against the backdrop of public claim and counterclaim, intelligence officials on both sides say they have labored to restore communication. Clapper and three top CIA officials have held what he described as “frank

emerged in 2008 when huge amounts of the industrial chemical melamine were found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.

The 36,000 cases investigated since August included the sale of clenbuterol, an illegal fat-burning drug sometimes used as an additive in pig feed, and “gutter oil,” or cooking oil made from left-

overs taken from gutters, the statement said.

Police officers received over 28,000 tip offs from the public, it said. In September last year, authorities in China-including the Supreme People’s Cour t and the Ministr y of Public Security-called for tougher penalties including the death sentence in serious food safety cases. —AFP

Pakistani web journalist murdered in Lahore LAHORE: Pakistani police have found the body of a journalist working for a London-based online news site in the eastern city of Lahore, police said yesterday. Faisal Qureshi, 28, who worked for Internet publication The London Post, was murdered early Friday, senior police officer Razzaq Cheema told AFP. “His throat was slit and there were stab wounds on his body,” Cheema said, adding that Qureshi, a bachelor, lived alone in his family home where he was found, and no arrests had yet been made. “The motive is not clear.” His laptop and mobile phone were missing, another police officer said, adding that Qureshi had also been working for an IT firm in Lahore. One of his brothers, Zahid Ahmed, told police Qureshi had been “receiving threats” from unidentified people over some news reports in his paper.

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NEWS

A Jordanian man waits for customers at his roadside cafe at the Dead Sea, southeast of Amman, yesterday. — AP

Mimes tackle traffic chaos in Venezuela CARACAS: A part of Venezuela’s capital is giving dangerous drivers the silent treatment, sending mimes into the streets to do what police alone have not: tame the lawless traffic. About 120 mimes dressed in clown-like outfits and white gloves took to the streets of the Sucre district this past week, wagging their fingers at traffic violators and at pedestrians who streaked across busy avenues rather than waiting at crosswalks. They found plenty to keep them busy in a city where motorcycle riders roar down sidewalks, buses drop passengers in the middle of busy streets and drivers treat red lights and speed limits as suggestions rather than orders.

“Most people are collaborating, but bad habits are usually hard to break and some drivers just don’t change their ways,” said Neidy Suarez, an 18-year-old mime wearing fluorescent yellow overalls and a bright red ribbon wrapped around her pigtails. Suarez frowned, thrust her hands forward in a “stop” motion and then pointed to a red light as a motorcyclist raced toward a crosswalk filled with pedestrians. “Some people get angry when we reprimand them,” Suarez said.

Some drivers have shouted insults after a silent rebuke.

“But most people react agreeably and some have offered compliments,” Suarez said, raising her voice from time to time so she would be heard amid the honking horns, ambulance sirens, rumbling bus engines and music throbbing from car stereos. Mayor

Carlos Ocariz of Sucre, in the eastern part of Caracas, turned to the mimes to encourage civility among reckless drivers and careless pedestrians. He is following the example of Antanas Mockus, a former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, who combined mimes and stricter police enforcement in a program that was widely seen as a success.

Caracas’ streets, though, may be even more chaotic than those of Colombia’s capital. Drivers who miss a highway exit often simply put their cars in reverse and return through oncoming traffic. Motorbike riders charge the wrong way up one-way streets and honk pedestrians aside as they roar onto sidewalks, sometimes with small children tucked precariously between an adult passenger and driver.

Alex Ojeda, president of the Jose Angel Lamas Foundation, a cultural organization that employed professional actors to train the mimes, said he is confident the mimes will help, although he conceded that changing the behavior of motorists will be a longterm task. Generations of attempts to enforce traffic laws have largely failed. “Many times, the mimes can achieve what traffic police cannot achieve using warning and sanctions in their efforts to maintain control,” he said. “Mimes, on the contrary, often achieve the same objective by employing artistic and peaceful actions.” At a ceremony for newly trained mimes, Ocariz vowed to keep up the effort “until the streets of Sucre are full of creativity and education”. — AP

Yemeni president to quit in coming days Continued from Page 1 whether Saleh should relinquish power before or after an early election.

Yemen’s new Nobel Peace Prize laureate, leading women’s activist Tawakkul Karman, said Saleh’s latest offer could not be trusted and protests would continue. “We don’t believe this man and if he wants to step down, okay, that belongs to him,” she told Al-Jazeera television.

“He has to hand over the power; he has to give the power that he has stolen to the revolution people, the revolution rule. We don’t believe him,” Karman said. “We are continuing our peaceful revolution.”

Widespread demonstrations in Yemen have been inspired by this year’s uprisings across the Arab world with citizens fighting to replace autocratic leaders with democratic governments and the rule of law. Saleh recently made a surprise return to Yemen after three months convalescence in Saudi Arabia from a June assassination attempt. Many in the capital, which has been wracked with violence in recent weeks, feared his return might signal a move towards asserting power through military might. “I call on my supporters to persevere and to confront any challenges,” Saleh said, in his first television appearance with his head uncovered since the bomb attack on his compound. He also wore thick tan gloves, probably to cover skin grafts he had for severe burns he suffered in the explosion.

Abdulghani Al-Iryani, a Yemeni political analyst, said: “This is just Saleh’s latest line. I don’t think it is really anything new. I remember he once before said he would be ready to leave any day, so I don’t think he means what he said.” Saleh has made many verbal concessions during the protests against him which began in January, including promising to step down in return for immunity from prosecution.

Frustration with Saleh’s intransigence had pushed Yemenis, many of them heavily armed and with experience of wars and insurgencies, closer to a violent power struggle that could give al Qaeda’s regional wing more room to operate. All of these factors spark concern for stability in a country that sits on a shipping lane through which more than three million barrels of oil pass each day.

Saleh is a clever operator who has survived many tussles with rivals, and skilfully used bribes and favours to keep tribal and political backers loyal. But keeping his allies’ loyalty has become more difficult as Yemen sinks into an economic crisis.

More than 40 percent of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day while a third face chronic hunger.

Dwindling water and oil supplies are also a problem.

Many opponents of Saleh said the latest loophole in the president’s speech may be found in the growing militar y escalation in Sanaa, which is now carved into spheres of influence between Saleh’s forces and the pro-opposition troops of defected general Ali Mohsen. Mohsen dealt a major blow to Saleh by throwing his weight behind the protesters in March. His troops clashed with forces lead by Saleh’s son and nephew in recent weeks, rocking the capital with days of heavy shelling. Some major streets are still shut due to sporadic gunfights.

Analysts said Saleh’s handover and early elections may be meaningless if the capital and much of the country is still under de-facto military control by his relatives.

“There was something about this speech that made me nervous,” said Yemeni political analyst Ali Seif Hassan. “Unifying the army is the problem now...it’s clear he wants to run the elections while his son and relatives are still running most of the military.”

In his speech, Saleh signalled

that he was backing the vice president for future leadership. In footage shown after the speech, it was Vice President Abd-Rabbu Hadi Mansour, not Saleh, who greeted parliamentarians who were gathered at the presidential palace.

Mansour has long been seen as the ideal consensus candidate acceptable to the opposition, though hardliners in the ruling party have shunned him. “I want to praise the vice president for his leadership in my absence... He is an experienced military man,” Saleh said.

Saleh’s opponents said even if he stepped down, they feared the military situation was beyond politicians’ control. “The seriousness of Saleh’s speech will be tested by his agreement to form a neutral committee to reorganise the military before early elections. But elections will be meaningless if our army is divided.”

Saleh pledged cooperation with the United States after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on US cities and received military and economic aid in return. But by 2004 Al-Qaeda appeared to be in disarray and US interest waned. In 2006 Washington cut aid to mark its anger at Yemen’s perceived lenience towards militants and US counter-terrorism officials rank Yemen as a top concern after Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia is the Yemeni government’s biggest financial donor and most important ally, along with the United States, but some Yemenis resent the influence of their wealthy neighbour.

The Saudis fear that Al-Qaeda’s local wing, renamed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is trying to relaunch armed attacks from Yemen to destabilise the kingdom and possibly other US allies in the Gulf. Even before the wave of prodemocracy protests against his nearly 33-year rule, Saleh was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and a Shiite insurgency in the north. — Agencies

Christians fear Islamist pressure in new Egypt CAIRO: On her first day to school, 15year-old Christian student Ferial Habib was stopped at the doorstep of her new high school with clear instructions: either put on a headscarf or no school this year.

Habib refused. While most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, Christians do not, and the move by administrators to force a Christian student to don it was unprecedented. For the next two weeks, Habib reported to school in the southern Egyptian village of Sheik Fadl every day in her uniform, without the head covering, only to be turned back by teachers. One day, Habib heard the school loudspeakers echoing her name and teachers with megaphones leading a number of students in chants of “We don’t want Ferial here,” the teenager told AP. Habib’s was allowed last week to attend without the scarf, and civil rights advocates say her case is a rare one. But it stokes the fears of Egypt’s significant Christian minority that they will become the victims as Islamists grow more assertive after the Feb. 11 toppling of President Hosni Mubarak. It also illustrates how amid the country’s political turmoil, with little sense of who is in charge and government control weakened, Islamic conservatives in low-level posts can step in and try to unilaterally enforce their own decisions.

Wagdi Halfa, one of Habib’s lawyers, said the root problem is a lack of the rule of law. “We don’t want more laws but we want to activate the laws already in place,” he said. “We are in a dark tunnel in terms of sectarian tension. Even if you have the majority who are moderate Muslims, a

minority of extremists can make big impact on them and poison their minds.”

In the past weeks, riots have broken out at two churches in southern Egypt, prompted by Muslim crowds angered by church construction. One riot broke out, near the city of Aswan, even after church officials agreed to a demand by local ultraconservative Muslims, called Salafis, that a cross and bells be removed from the building.

The violence is particularly frustrating for Christians because soon after Mubarak’s fall the new government promised to review and lift heavy Mubarak-era restrictions on building or renovating churches. The promise raised hopes among Christians that the government would establish a clear legal right to build, resolving an issue that in recent years has increasingly sparked riots. But the review never came, and Salafi clerics have increased their rhetoric against Christians, including accusing them of seeking to spread their faith with new churches.

Habib’s experience was startling because in general, Egypt’s Christians, who make up at least 10 percent of the population of 80 million, have enjoyed relative freedom in terms of dress and worship. The vast majority of Muslim women in Egypt put on the headscarf, known as the hijab, either for religious or social reasons, but there’s little expectation that Christians wear it. The demand that all students wear the hijab was a decision by administrators and teachers at the high school in Sheik Fadl, 180 km south of Cairo in Minya province. They said the headscarf was part of the school uniform, necessary

to protect girls from sexual harassment.

A top provincial Education Ministry official, Abdel-Gawad Abdullah, said in an interview with CTV, a private Egyptian Christian television network, that the ministry gives schools the right to decide on school uniforms, and that parents during screening and application can either accept or refuse. “And if the father wants to move his daughter to another school, it is OK,” he said. “All the girls, including the Christians, put on the head cover and they have no problem,” he added.

Habib’s father Sorial complained to officials, demanding his daughter be allowed to attend without a scarf. “After the revolution, there are no administration and no officials to go to. The system is lax and there is no supervision from the ministry,” he told AP. “If things were under control, extremists would not have a free hand to act as they wish.” Habib was finally allowed to attend last Tuesday. “I am happy I did what I want and that no one can force something on me. But I am afraid of the students and the teachers,” she told AP. “The teachers are not normal with me and I am sure they will give me low grades at the end of the year.”

Hossam Bahgat, head of the Cairobased Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which tracks religious discrimination and other civil rights issues, said he had not seen a case like Habib’s before.

“We know that there is pressure on Muslim girls to put on the hijab, especially in secondary school, not from the administration but from the girls.” He said some Muslim girls in general put on the veil to distinguish themselves from Christians. — AP

Mourners shot at funeral as Syrian dissidents meet DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces killed at least two mourners and wounded several others when they fired on the funeral of murdered Kurdish opposition figure Meshaal Tamo yesterday, activists said. Dissidents, meanwhile, lobbied in Cairo for recognition of their newly-formed opposition front, the Syrian National Council (SNC), of which Tamo was a member, and on a day which saw 10 deaths reported across Syria. Two people were killed in the shooting on the funeral procession for the slain Kurdish leader in the city of Qamishli, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP, adding that several others were wounded.

The funeral for Tamo, who was gunned down on Friday in Qamishli in the north, became a mass rally with more than 50,000 demonstrators calling for the fall of President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, activists said.

Tamo founded the liberal Kurdish Future Party, which considers Kurds an integral part of Syria, and had been recently released after three and a half years in prison.

His killing also sparked indignation abroad. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton firmly condemned the murder. “The High Representative condemns in the strongest terms the murder,” a statement issued on her behalf said, adding that Tamo’s death “follows other targeted assassinations in the past days, which are totally unacceptable”. “These appalling crimes further add to the EU’s grave concern over the situation in Syria. All those responsible for and complicit in these crimes must be held accountable.”

In Beirut, 50 activists gathered outside the Syrian embassy to demand that Assad step down, and in Vienna 11 people were arrested overnight for invading Damascus’s embassy and demonstrating on a balcony.

Police arrested seven protesters outside the Syrian embassy in London, including three men who climbed onto the roof and waved the Kurdish flag. The United States on Friday charged that Assad’s regime was escalating its tactics against the opposition with bold attacks on its leaders, and France said it was “shocked” by the news of Tamo’s murder. The Local Coordination Committees inside Syria, meanwhile, accused Assad’s

regime of trying to “physically eliminate” opposition figures and “taking advantage of the laxity of the international community”. The official SANA news agency reported “the assassination” of Tamo and said he was killed “by gunmen in a black car who fired at his car”.

Elsewhere yesterday, cell phone and landline communications were cut in Qusayr near the central city of Homs, raising fears of a military operation after checkpoints were set up and tanks deployed, the Observatory said. It reported one killed by security forces in Homs and another three in Hama, and said that the bodies of two people who had been arrested were returned to their families. In addition to the two killed at the Tamo funeral, two people were killed and 10 others wounded when security forces opened fire at a funeral for three people shot dead in Douma near Damascus on Friday, the rights group added. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has reported that at least 187 children have died in Syria among the estimated total of more than 2,900 people killed since Syria launched its brutal crackdown on dissent in mid-March.

On the diplomatic front, Syrian dissidents were in Cairo to lobby for recognition of the SNC. Yasser Najjar, a member of the delegation, told official Egyptian news agency MENA the delegation sought support for the recognition of the SNC, after which it would meet to elect a leadership. Another 90 members of Syria’s opposition gathered in Stockholm for a strategy meeting.

“Members of the opposition approached us for help to set up a meeting with the opposition’s different factions,” Olof Palme International Centre secretary general Jens Orback said. “They were looking for methods on how to agree on certain issues in order to make progress in their struggle,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russia said it would host opposition figures next Tuesday after President Dmitry Medvedev unexpectedly piled pressure on Damascus to implement reforms announced by Assad. “If the Syrian leadership is unable to undertake these reforms, it will have to go. But this is something that has to be decided not by NATO or individual European countries but by the people and leadership of Syria,” he said. — AFP

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Bashir faces dire economic crisis

By Ulf Laessing hree months after the south seceded, Sudan’s economy is floundering, with rampant food inflation, lost oil revenue and costly military campaigns combining into a serious crisis for veteran President Omar Hassan AlBashir. Bashir has not faced a popular uprising like those that have deposed other Arab leaders this year, but ordinary people are fuming as prices of sorghum, a staple food, have doubled. Khartoum lost most of its oil reserves when former civil war foe South Sudan became independent in July. The plunge in oil income, the mainstay of state coffers, has sent the Sudanese pound into free fall, driving up the cost of imports.

The north lost 75 percent of Sudan’s oil production of 500,000 barrels per day after South Sudan gained independence in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Abda Al-Mahdi, a former state minister of finance, said the economic crisis was very grave.

“We’re suffering from inflation. Urgent measures are needed,” he told Reuters. Annual inflation hit 21 percent in August. On the black market, the pound is trading 60 percent below the official rate despite central bank dollar sales to bolster the local currency.

Central bank monthly reports give no figures for foreign reserves. The bank has said it sold $500 million in July alone. Perhaps in desperation, the central bank governor asked his Arab colleagues in September to deposit $4 billion in the central bank and commercial lenders. None responded publicly. Sudan is roiled by instability in the joint border area with the south. The army has battled rebels in South Kordofan for months. Fighting spread to nearby Blue Nile state last month. Bashir, who seized power in 1989, has ruled out talks with insurgents, but the conflicts drain resources and stretch an army already fighting rebels in the western region of Darfur.

Sudanese households also feel the impact. Meat prices soared 41 percent in August because fighting disrupted transport links to the cattle markets of South Kordofan.

The United Nations says grain harvests in the violence-hit states are now at risk. “Blue Nile and South Kordofan are two of Sudan’s main sorghum-producing areas. The latest fighting coupled with erratic rainfall means next month’s harvest is expected to generally fail,” the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation said this week. “The price of a 90 kg bag of sorghum, which cost 70 Sudanese pounds ($26) earlier this year, is now 140 pounds.”

The Sudanese Consumer Protection Society, which staged a meat boycott for a few days last month, plans more protests against food inflation. Analyst Ali Verjee at the Rift Valley Institute said the economic crisis was worsening, but was not yet as dire as during the hyperinflation of the 1990s, adding: “As expected, the first quarter after secession has proved economically difficult for Khartoum.

The depreciation of the currency and accelerating inflation is increasingly concerning.”

The International Monetary Fund expects Sudan’s economy to shrink this year and next. Experts have long urged Khartoum to prepare for the loss of southern oil, but the government has been in denial, blaming a US trade embargo or insisting that all is under control. After secession, Sudan’s parliament approved a budget based on unchanged oil revenue. But diplomats say southern oil sales - worth $2 billion until October - now go directly to Juba, while the small northern output mainly serves local consumption.

In September, the central bank governor said expenditures would have to be cut by more than 25 percent this year. Officials hope gold exports will compensate, predicting an output of 74 tonnes in 2011, a target analysts say is out of reach - Sudan’s biggest mine produces just 2.3 tonnes a year. Instead of pinning its hopes on gold, the government should focus on industry, agriculture and animal wealth, said Mohammed Siddiq, a Sudanese financial journalist.

Mahdi said things would get worse unless north and south agreed on sharing of oil revenues by the end of the month. The landlocked south should pay transit fees for using northern oil export facilities, but has paid nothing yet, in the absence of an agreement, diplomats say. More trouble looms in November when 40,000 Sudanese will head for the Muslim pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, fuelling demand for dollars and piling more pressure on the pound. Instead of devaluing to bridge the gap with black market rates, authorities threatened to punish moneychangers, which only stalled the dollar’s rise for a couple of days. “They should have learned from previous crises that you won’t end the dollar scarcity by rounding up black market dealers,” said a local economist. — Reuters

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Turkey takes sides on Syria, faces risks

By Jonathon Burch and Simon Cameron-Moore urkey is piling pressure on Syria with border military exercises, economic sanctions and the harbouring of Syrian opposition groups and army defectors, but Ankara must tread carefully to avoid arousing the suspicion of Arab states or spurring Syrian counter-measures. Turkey has shifted, in the space of six months, from being Syria’s new best friend forever to a centre of gravity for opposition to President Bashar Al-Assad outside the country. Having started out by advising Assad to exercise restraint and make reforms when pro-democracy unrest first erupted in March, Turkey is now on the verge of invoking sanctions against a government it once sat down with for joint cabinet meetings.

Syrian dissidents abroad, and some who have managed to sneak out of the country, have flocked to Istanbul over the past few months to give the revolution a united political front.

And Turkey has given sanctuary to the most senior Syrian military officer to defect, while this week it began manoeuvres in a province over which Syria has had longstanding claims.

“Turkey is clearly taking sides now,” said Cengiz Aktar, professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University. “Turkey expects this opposition and the upheaval in the country will eventually finish the job and the revolution will bring an end to the regime.”

But Turkey’s policy shift, which has aligned Ankara more closely with the West, comes with risks. “Syrian intelligence might use every opportunity to instigate Kurdish violence,” Aktar said, referring to Turkey’s restive minority population.

Aktar said Turkey, whose clout in the Middle East has grown out of a combination of economic growth and secular democracy, could see goodwill evaporate if it is perceived to be meddling in Syria. “At the end of the day, Turkey risks being told to mind its own business and to first put its house in order. The more it wants to be a soft power the more it is going to be told by the international community to apply the same standards with its Kurds minority.”

For all their closeness over the past decade, the two countries almost went to war in the late 1990s over Syria giving refuge to Kurdish militants fighting the Turkish state. Living under Turkish protection, Syrian Colonel Riad Al-As’aad

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exhorts his former comrades to desert to organise the armed struggle he believes is needed to drive Assad from power. “We assure them (the Syrian people) they should be patient, and God willing, very soon, Bashar will be between their hands,” As’aad told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. “We must be patient. We hope the Syrian people will be stronger and remain committed to continue to bring down the regime.”

Revolted by the killing of Syrian civilians, and seeing the tide of history turn with the “Arab Spring” of popular uprisings, Turkey has calculated that its long term interest lies in supporting the Syrian people’s struggle for democracy. That Syria, like Turkey, has a Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad and his clique belong to the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiism, made that choice even simpler. The breakdown in their relationship leaves Iran as Syria’s closest backer, though the Russian and Chinese vetoes earlier this week of a UN Security Council draft resolution censuring Syria showed Assad retains some support elsewhere.

Anti-Assad factions meeting in Istanbul - ranging from Islamists through liberals, along with ethnic and tribal leaders - have coalesced under a revolutionary Syrian National Council with a stated aim of ousting Assad within six months.

Offering itself as a potential future interim government, this broad-based opposition group has helped instil some confidence among governments, like Turkey, who disapprove of Assad but had not known who to support. Hitherto, they have feared Assad’s fall would leave Syria without a central authority capable of stopping the country sliding into religious, sectarian and ethnic violence.

One Western diplomat, asked about Turkey’s hesitation in the past to ditch Assad, said Ankara had come to see Assad as “the devil we know”. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who had previously enjoyed a close rapport with Assad, is expected to visit a camp in the border province of Hatay sheltering some of the 7,500 Syrians who have fled the violence at home. Due to the death of his mother, Erdogan delayed a visit that had been set for today, but he has already promised to announce sanctions against the Syrian government.

Turkey is expected to freeze bank accounts held by members of Assad’s inner circle, cut ties with Syrian state banks,

and halt deals between state-run companies, notably in oil and gas, while avoiding measures that could hurt the people.

Erdogan predicted last month that Assad will be ousted “sooner or later”, but how far he is willing to go to make it happen is an open question. “What we have at the moment ... is a war of words between Assad and Erdogan,” said Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based security analyst. “It’s a bit like two jilted lovers, because they were very, very close. There is a lot of personal spite.”

Compounding tensions this week, Turkey began military exercises in Hatay province, which Syria has had longstanding claims over since it was ceded to Turkey in 1939 when France controlled Syria and Lebanon. The exercises, relatively smallscale logistical drills involving a large contingent of less experienced reservist troops, are seen as a symbolic reminder to Damascus that the second largest army in NATO is just across the border. “It is part of the Turkish government’s campaign to apply increased psychological pressure on the regime in Damascus because previous warnings have gone unheeded,” said Fadi Hakura, analyst at Chatham House think-tank in London.

Turkey has begun intercepting arms bound for Syria passing through its waters and air space. Some analysts say it is easy to foresee Turkey eventually helping to equip and organise Syrian rebels, like Colonel As’aad, who want to wage an armed struggle against those units of Assad’s security forces leading the repression of protesters. Other analysts believe it would be a mistake for Turkey to go beyond support for peaceful protests by letting itself become a rear base for an armed opposition or being seen as a provocateur in Syria’s internal conflict, especially if it developed a stronger sectarian dimension. Turkey, after all, is vulnerable to mischief-making among ethnic Kurds and developments that could cause unease within its own Alevi minority community. Speculation keeps resurfacing that Turkey’s military could end up entering Syria to create a buffer zone for the protection of Syrians from Assad’s security forces. During the 1991 Gulf War, about half a million Iraqi Kurds fled to Turkey, returning only after Western powers, along with Turkish contingents, set up a safe haven across the border. — Reuters

Deoband fights forces of change

By Rupam Jain Nair ife for students at Darululoom Deoband, one of the world’s most influential Islamic seminaries, has changed little in the past 150 years, and its staff want it kept that way. A cradle of conservative Muslim thought in north India, Deoband was recently and reluctantly flung into the public spotlight by an internal showdown between a new reform-minded rector and the school’s traditionalist old guard. The struggle over the seminary, founded in 1866, was closely watched across the Muslim world.

A large number of Islamic schools - especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan and as far afield as Britain, the United States and South Africa - are either affiliated or ideologically linked to Deoband. The school curriculum is based on a 17th-century syllabus that focuses on Islamic law, jurisprudence and spirituality, and its 6,000 students follow an austere lifestyle which keeps much of the modern world at bay. “Everything here is for the religion, by the religion, of the religion,” said the school’s press spokesman Adeel Siddiqui.

“This has been our pattern for over a century and we have produced the finest Islamic scholars to guide the world about Islam. Our model is perfect, so where is the need to modernise it?” he said.

One person who thought he had an answer to that question was Maulana Gulam Mohammed Vastanvi, an MBA holder, Facebook user and forward-looking educator who was appointed rector of the Deoband school in January. Vastanvi was chosen despite opposition from the Madanis, a family of arch-conservatives whose members have held key positions on the school board for decades. His reform plans included improving living conditions in the spartan student dormitories and, more controversially, introducing medical and engineering courses into the almost exclusively Quranic-focused Deoband curriculum.

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In July, barely six months after his appointment, he was kicked out by the school’s governing council. The main reason given was Vastanvi’s apparent support for the chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi - a hate figure for many Indian Muslims who believe he encouraged communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 that left 2,000 Muslims dead. But Vastanvi told AFP he was the victim of a hardline backlash against his

Barbara Metcalf, a professor at the University of California who undertook a special study of the Deobandi movement, said Vastanvi, for all his reformist plans, had always remained fully committed to the conservative principles on which the school was founded.

“So it is very hard to judge what mattered most in Vastanvi’s losing out, and one never wants to underestimate the simple fact of

In this picture taken on Sept 8, 2011, Muslim students prepare for entrance exams on campus at the school of Islam, Darul Uloom Deoband. – AFP planned reforms. “They expelled me and my ideas,” Vastanvi said, adding that his only aim had been to foster “rational and independent thinking” among the students and encourage their all-round development.

Some observers say the row over Vastanvi reflected a wider challenge faced by conservative Muslims worldwide in seeking to guard their traditions while adapting to the challenges of the modern world.

power struggles and vested interests,” Metcalf said. “Opponents may have feared his entrepreneurial style and commitment to technical education; he was also of a different regional and class background than earlier rectors had been,” she added.

Deoband’s conservative reputation and the success of its alumni in spreading its teachings abroad have led to accusations in the media of links to radical Islamist groups.

Deobandi madrassas in Pakistan have been labelled “Taleban nurseries” but the school has always denied any connection with or support for the radicals in Afghanistan. “We have no links with the Taliban. If they associate themselves with us then tell me what can we do about it?” said spokesman Siddiqui.

In 2008, the seminary issued a muchpublicised fatwa condemning all forms of terrorism as un-Islamic. Education, food and accommodation at Deoband are all provided free of cost and the institute relies on donations. Students are restricted from watching television or films. They are not encouraged to read anything except religious texts and must adhere to an all-white dress code with skull cap. Admission is very competitive and many aspirants come from poor backgrounds and see an education at Deoband as a life-changing opportunity.

“Getting into Deoband is like finding the door to heaven,” said Muzamil Haq, 17, one of 3,000 hopefuls preparing to take the entrance examination this year. “Who respects a poor man? But if I become a religious teacher then even the rich will hold my hand, they will call me maulvi (scholar) and listen to what I say.” Many graduates end up travelling overseas to take up teaching posts. “There is a great demand for maulvis in Europe and in the Middle East. We get jobs quickly as Deoband’s education model is regarded as the most authentic and toughest among all the other schools of Islam,” said Ahmed Siddiqui, 34, a student.

“More and more Muslims want to learn about their religion. It is our duty to take Allah’s message far and wide.”

For an orphan, like 12-year-old Mohammed Aseem, the school can open doors to a future that would otherwise be firmly shut. “My parents died and my uncle decided to send me here. I want to learn to recite the Quran but I also want to be a doctor,” said Aseem who sleeps on a torn rug which he shares with four men in a unfurnished room. — AFP

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O’Brien suffers power cut NEWMARKET: Aidan O’Brien’s hotly-fancied Power suffered a surprise defeat in Europe’s top two-year-old colt’s race the Dewhurst Stakes here yesterday. Power — going down to only his second defeat in six races — failed to justify his 15/8 favorite’s tag as he found fellow Irish raider Parish Hall too good for him in a race won by the peerless Frankel last year. Parish Hall was giving trainer Jim Bolger his fourth success in the race in the past six years with the winner’s sire (father) Teofilio having won in 2006.

However, Bolger said that he would class his winner in the same category as another of his previous winners of the race - 2008 Espom Derby winner New Approach.

“He’s in that league,” said 69-year-old Bolger. “I would be looking all being well on Parish Hall being an Espom Derby

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

sp orts

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horse. “He’s been improving all the time and when you think this time last year he was rolling around in a paddock he’s done a lot in those 12 months.” O’Brien had captured the other juvenile colts Group One race the six furlong Middle Park Stakes - won last year by 10 lengths

by Dream Ahead, who went on to beat miling legend Goldikova in last Sunday’s Prix de la Foret - but with the lesser fancied of his two runners, 25/1 shot Crusade, for his fourth win in the event.

Viviani wins Tour stage

Worthington waits on future BELFAST: Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington admits he faces an anxious wait to discover if he will be sacked for his country’s failure to qualify for Euro 2012.

Worthington’s side wasted their last chance to stay in the hunt for a play-off place after allowing Estonia to come from behind to win 2-1 in Belfast on Friday. That disappointing result left Northern Ireland with no chance of finishing second in Group C and increased the pressure on Worthington, who had to endure calls for his resignation as angry northern Irish fans showed their frustration after the final whistle at Windsor Park.

Worthington, who has been in charge since Lawrie Sanchez’s departure in 2007, is out of contract at the

end of the year. He has one more qualifier to play-against Italy in Tuesday-and he knows that could be his last match as Northern Ireland manager.

“The fans are as frustrated and disappointed as I am,” he said. “That’s the game and I’ve been in football long enough to get on with it. There’s no excuses, no hiding places.

“I haven’t got a clue (about the future). That’s the million dollar question. “A win is what myself and the players wanted. What other people make decisions about is up to them. I’m employed until December 31 and I’ve enjoyed the role.

“I’m working with a great group of players and you try and make the most of that group. I think over the course of this campaign we have.” — AFP

SHUNYI: Italian Elia Viviani of Liquigas dominated a bunch sprint to win the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing yesterday. Viviani finished the 189.5 km ride ahead of Slovakian teammate Peter Sagan, with Argentina’s Juan Jose Haedo of Saxo Bank in third place.

Germany’s Tony Martin (HTC) retained the race leader’s red jersey going into today’s final stage of the race, which is appearing on the elite WorldTour calendar for the first time.

Liquigas had worked tirelessly on the opening stage of the race, but in vain as a late surge by Australian Heinrich Haussler (Garmin) left Viviani in sixth place.

On Saturday the Italian outfit made similar efforts, but got their timing right in placing both Sagan and Viviani among the four men they had driving the peloton over the final kilometres.

Liquigas’s pace-setting went unrivalled, and in the end 22-year-old Viviani came off Sagan’s wheel to claim a deserved win.

“We’d agreed that Peter would set me up for the sprint, and I came off his wheel with 150 metres to go,” said Viviani, who thus claimed his eighth victory of the season. Amid a season which has been largely fruitless for many compatriots, Viviani’s win gives a much needed boost to the Italians.—AFP

Carpenter nails Phillies PHILADELPHIA: Chris Carpenter’s teammates clutched champagne bottles and eagerly waited for him to enter the clubhouse before popping the cork.

The ultimate ace, it turned out, belonged to the St. Louis Cardinals. So there’s no way Carpenter wasn’t going to be in the middle of this celebration.

Carpenter tossed a three-hitter to outpitch old pal Roy Halladay in a duel for the ages and St. Louis edged the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 Friday night in the deciding Game 5 of their NL playoff series.

a grounder. Howard was next, and Carpenter got the big slugger to end a most improbable series win.

Catcher Yadier Molina threw his mask toward the mound, Carpenter turned to the left of first looking for someone to celebrate with before his teammates finally got there, led by Pujols. The congregation settled at second base, as just off to the right, while Howard was carried off the field and into his dugout.

Howard took a called third strike with the tying

PHILADELPHIA: St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Chris Carpenter throws a pitch during the second inning of baseball’s Game 5 of the National League division series. — AP “That’s Carp in a nutshell for you. That’s just what he does, and who he is,” Cards outfielder Jon Jay said.

“No one in here is surprised at what he did out there.

We owe it to him tonight. He was just doing everything right. We just had to make sure we caught the ball behind him.”

The wild-card Cardinals scored in the first inning when Rafael Furcal led off with a triple and Skip Schumaker followed with a double. And that was it.

Heavily favored Philadelphia, which featured four accomplished aces in baseball’s best rotation, never broke through against Carpenter. Ryan Howard grounded out to end the game and hurt his leg coming out of the batter’s box - he limped a couple of steps and crumpled to the ground as St. Louis started to celebrate. Howard has a left Achilles’ injury and won’t know more about the severity of it until he has an MRI. “Actually, I don’t know what to say,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I just got through talking to our team, and basically when I look at it, we played 162 games, and definitely we had the best record in baseball.”

“I know that we’re capable of going farther in the playoffs. Our goal was to get to the World Series. It’s been that way for two years now,” he said.

The Cardinals needed a monumental collapse by Atlanta in the final month and major help from the 102-win Phillies just to reach the playoffs. Now they’re heading to Milwaukee for the NL championship series starting Sunday following a stunning upset in which they beat three of Philadelphia’s four aces: Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.

“This is a nonstop feeling in there for them, and I all I can tell them, at this point, is let’s go keep it going,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Three of the majors’ four opening-round matchups went to a deciding Game 5, and all of them were pitching-rich thrillers. Detroit held off the New York Yankees 3-2 on Thursday night, and Milwaukee beat Arizona in 10 innings earlier Friday.

Then, the showdown between Carpenter and Halladay topped them all. “Roy Halladay is, at this time, probably the best pitcher in the game and we were able to go out and jump ahead, which was huge,” Carpenter said. “It was some kind of fun. He’s a great friend of mine, and like I said, he did a great job tonight also.”

To some, the Phillies seemed destined for the World Series because of their big arms. But in a city where the collapse of 1964 is still never too far from memory, and in a town that has endured more than its share of heartbreaks, jinxes and bad luck, a sure thing is never a sure thing.

Trailing two games to one, the Cardinals began their comeback with a win in Game 4. That night in St. Louis, a squirrel scampered across home plate as Schumaker batted in the middle innings - if the Cardinals keep winning, their fans will certainly go nuts, thanks to their “Rally Squirrel.”

Coincidentally, a squirrel was caught at Citizens Bank Park before Game 5. Not a good omen, apparently, for the Phillies.

“This is the best feeling in the world for a lot of these guys, and it’s something that we just can’t describe it,” slugger Albert Pujols said. “It’s hard not to celebrate now, but this is just the start, and we know it’s only going to get tougher from here.”

Carpenter was over 100 pitches when he took the mound in the ninth. He retired Chase Utley on a fly to the warning track in center and got Hunter Pence on

run on second base to end the Phillies’ season last year in the NLCS against San Francisco.

The expectations for Philadelphia were even higher this year after Lee returned. The loss meant the teams with the top two records and payrolls in the majors - the Phillies and Yankees - were gone in the first round, even while holding home-field advantage.

“We had a great team this year. We had a great opportunity,” Pence said. “When you have a team like this, it’s definitely disappointing to not come through.”

Carpenter walked none and struck out three in the matchup of Cy Young Award winners who were longtime teammates in Toronto. The aces had already agreed to take a fishing trip together after this season. Halladay was outstanding, too, but his year is over. Tagged by the first two batters, he

allowed six hits overall, striking out seven in eight innings. It wasn’t good enough, and now the Phillies will certainly be considered a disappointment in their own town after failing to win a World Series in an all-or-nothing season. The Phillies cruised to their fifth straight NL East title and were hoping to add to the crown to the one they won in 2008.

But nothing less than a second World Series championship in four years was going to be acceptable this season. Everyone from management to players to fans expected the Phillies to win it all.

A sellout crowd that stood and screamed from the first pitch held their heads in disbelief and silently walked out without even booing.

“It’s hard to have it end like that,” Halladay said. “It won’t sit well this winter.” The pesky Cardinals looked nothing like an underdog. They were the best team in the NL down the stretch.

St. Louis trailed the Braves by 101/2 games on Aug. 25, but went 23-8 the rest of the way and earned a wild-card berth after Game 162 when Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep in Atlanta.

The Cardinals scored three runs off Halladay in the first inning of the series opener on Lance Berkman’s three-run homer. They got to him again quickly in this one. Furcal lined a triple to the gap in right-center. He did the same off Lee in Game 2, but was stranded that day. Not this time.

Schumaker then lined a double to right to put the Cardinals up 1-0, stunning a crowd that expected Halladay to be lights-out.

One run wouldn’t seem enough against a lineup that features seven regulars who’ve been All-Stars.

But nearly everyone except Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino struggled.

Fans in the parking lot before the game talked about trying to unnerve Carpenter the way they famously did to Burt Hooton in Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers at old Veterans Stadium. They made plenty of noise and waved their white-and-red rally towels Carpenter never flinched.

After Victorino lined a one-out double in the second, Carpenter retired Raul Ibanez on a foul pop and Placido Polanco on a grounder. The Phillies had runners on first and third with two outs in the fourth, but Ibanez flied out to the warning track in right.

Carpenter allowed a one-out single to Utley in the sixth, but Molina threw him out trying to steal second. Carpenter pumped his fist and hollered at Molina, who became the first catcher to nail Utley stealing this season. Utley had been 14 for 14 and 56 for 58, dating to 2009.

Furcal made an outstanding play to rob Ruiz of a hit in the eighth, diving to his left on a grounder up the middle and throwing out the slow-footed catcher. This “dream matchup,” as La Russa called it, lived up to the hype. Halladay and Carpenter grew up together with the Blue Jays, have remained best buddies and often vacation together.—AP

Ukraine top boxing medal table in Baku BAKU: Ukraine’s boxing squad finished top of the medal table at the amateur world championship as four of their fighters won final bouts here yesterday.

Vasyl Lomachenko in the lightweight, Taras Shelestyuk in welterweight, Ievgen Khytrov in middleweight and Oleksandr Usyk in heavyweight all finished as top dogs, while Denys Berinchyk won a silver light welterweight medal. Beijing Olympic light flyweight champion and two-time world champion Zou Shiming of China added third world crown to his trophy cabinet, confidently beating 20-11 this year’s Asian champion Jong Hoon Shin of South Korea.

The 30-year-old veteran Shiming, top ranked here, was in complete command in the final, winning all three rounds (4-3, 9-3, 7-5) to pocket the gold medal. European flyweight champion and top seed here Misha Aloyan of Russia clinched the world’s gold in a tough bout against Welsh European champion Andrew Selby winning it 13-12.

“I already met Selby in February and won that fight easily,” Aloyan said. “Today, in my first ever world championship’s final, it was much, much harder. Selby is very strong and skilled opponent and performed very good boxing today.”

In the bantamweight category Cuba’s cadet world champion and Pan-American qualifying tournament winner Lazaro Alvarez Estrada outscored England’s European champion Luke Campbell for a 14-10 win.

The pair began cautiously but the Cuban was slightly more precise in winning the round 4-2. In the second he was still looking the stronger, winning it also 6-4. The third round ended a 4-4 draw for an overall win for the Cuban.

“I’m very pleased with the result I achieved here at the world’s championships,” Alvarez said. “I worked very hard for this win and I’m

very happy to clinch it. I believe I won deservedly today.”

Ukraine’s living legend, Beijing Olympics winner and world champion Lomachenko overcame Pan-American champion Yasniel Toledo Lopez of Cuba 17-12 in the lightweight category.

Lomachenko knocked his rival down with a right hook in the first round for a 6-3 lead and never looked back on the way to his second world title. In the light welterweight Everton Lopes, the first Brazilian to reach the final, beat Ukraine’s hard-hitter Berinchyk 26-23 for an historic victory.

Kazakhstan’s two-time world champion and Asian Games winner Serik Sapiyev missed out on a third world title in suffering a 16-10 defeat to Ukraine’s Shelestyuk in the welterweight.

“I lost both of my previous meetings with Sapiyev. It makes my today’s win even more sweet,” Shelestyk said. “I hope to continue my winning streak against him at London Olympics.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s European cup winner Khytrov beat 24-22 Japanese middleweight Ryota Murata, who had stunned world champion Abbos Atoev in the opening bout.

Khytrov was trailing 7-6 after the first round but in the second he stepped up a gear with a series of punches to come from behind.

In the light heavyweight Cuba team’s captain Julio De La Cruz Peraza beat Adilbek Niyazimbetov of Kazakhstan 17-13 to collect the second gold medal for his team.

Ukraine’s heavyweight European champion Usyk won the fourth gold medal for his squad, confidently beating Azerbaijan teen Teymur Mammadov 25-15 under the watchful gaze of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev. In the super heavyweight another local favorite Magomedrasul Medjidov just edged English teen Anthony Joshua 22-21. — AFP

ARLINGTON: Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland catches the ball during batting practice on Friday. The Tigers and the Texas Rangers are scheduled to play in Game 1 of baseball’s American League championship series late yesterday. — AP

Tigers have ace Verlander set for AL opener against Texas ARLINGTON: So what that the Texas Rangers won their only game this season against Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander.

That was six months ago. This is Game 1 of the AL championship series.

“Too long ago,” manager Ron Washington, dismissing any advantage the win in April might give his Rangers in the ALCS opener. “He throws about 120,” Josh Hamilton, last season’s AL MVP, said with a grin. “First of all, he’s human. So he can either be on or be off. But what makes him good is he locates his pitches when he’s on. He’s got a 12-to-6 hammer and he throws 95 - 101 when he wants to.

So it puts a lot of different things in your mind if you allow it to.” Even though Verlander lost at home to the Rangers in April, that was in a 2-0 complete game.

Plus, the big right-hander who won 24 games during the regular season has never lost at the hitter’s paradise known as Rangers Ballpark, where Verlander is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in his three starts and will face the defending American League champions Saturday night.

After remaining a spectator and cheering teammates in the Tigers’ AL division series clincher Thursday night against the Yankees in New York, Verlander is back on his normal routine.

The ALCS opener comes on the fifth day after his Game 3 start in the AL division series. He struck out 11 over eight innings in a victory that was a restart of sorts since rain halted the series opener of aces after only 11/2 innings.

“It was definitely a little odd situation we ran into. But that’s behind us,” Verlander said Friday. “It was definitely tough (watching). Any time that you know you’re not going to have anything to do with the outcome of the game, it’s difficult. It’s just like being a fan, except there’s a little bit more in it for me personally being on the team.”

Detroit manager Jim Leyland was steadfast in sticking with the decision not to use Verlander, who had volunteered to pitch in relief in the ALDS clincher.

“Obviously that was important for him starting Game 1 for us,” catcher Alex Avila said. “You can’t ask for anything more.” The

Rangers, in their second consecutive ALCS after having never won a postseason series before last year, counter with C.J. Wilson.

The left-hander won 16 games in the regular season, but he allowed eight runs (six earned) in five innings in losing the playoff opener against Tampa Bay on Sept. 30, the same day the initial matchup between Verlander and CC Sabathia got wet. “That particular game was my first bad game I had in a while. I had of lot of really good games leading up to the playoffs,” Wilson said. “It was unfortunate. I had extra rest. ... I feel like it gives me a chance to get back in my routine and execute.”

Sabathia, who didn’t make it through the sixth inning Monday, made the first relief appearance in his professional career in Game 5 of the ALDS. The only pitching Verlander did Thursday was a bullpen session before the game. He said he “felt normal, felt great” three days after some of the last of his 120 pitches in Game 3 were still hitting 100 mph on the stadium radar gun.

“I was definitely a little bit more sore than normal,” Verlander said about how he felt the day after the game. “More so my body and everything than my arm.

My arm was pretty normal.”

Leyland never wavered on his decision to hold out Verlander, even though they were seen smiling in the dugout near the lineup card during the game.

“I thought that was basically a common sense decision,” Leyland said. “There were also some combinations that played in that. (Max) Scherzer won two games at Yankee Stadium this year. Scherzer was more rested. ... Verlander was real assertive in the game he pitched. He was throwing 100 mph in the eighth inning.

That’s real dangerous. The combination that was a no-brainer.”

In the middle of their clubhouse celebration after the game, Leyland approached Verlander.

“He came up to me and said something along the lines, ‘You never trust your skipper, do you? It worked out all right, didn’t it?’” Verlander said, smiling.—AP

WASHINGTON: Boxers Amir Khan (left) and Lamont Peterson pose for a photo following a news conference. The pair are scheduled to fight in a unified super lightweight title bout late yesterday in Washington. — AP

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Fowler leaves pack behind SEOUL: Rickie Fowler moved four strokes clear after the third round of the Korea Open yesterday as US Open champion and joint overnight leader Rory McIlroy slipped down the field.

Fowler, the 2010 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, started the day in a five-way split for the lead along with McIlroy and defending champion YE Yang, before posting an eight-under 63 that leaves the American at 13 under for the tournament.

Yang, playing in front of his home crowd, is four shots back after a fourunder 67 left him clear in second, two strokes ahead of fellow South Korean Kim Meen-whee, who went round in 66.

McIlroy struggled round the course to post a two-over 73, leaving him tied for fourth, 10 shots off the pace. A nightmare run of four bogies and one double bogey between the 9th and 16th holes all but rules out the prospect of the Northern Irishman improving on his third-place finish in 2009.

Fowler had no such problems as his eight birdies put him out of sight of the chasing pack. “It’s long been a dream of mine to win a professional title,” Fowler said. “I want to take the opportunity that I have at the moment.”

Casey takes the lead as Woods gets to weekend

SOUTH KOREA: Rickie Fowler of the United States lines up a putt on the second hole during the first round of the Korea Open golf tournament. —AP Yang, the only Asian to win a major, birdied six holes but bogies at the 3rd and 17th left the Korean with much to do today. Bronson La’Cassie of Australia, also five under after two rounds, emulated McIlroy by shooting a 73. —AP

Liukin says she’s going to London TOKYO: Olympic champion Nastia Liukin is going to London. The gold medalist told The Associated Press yesterday that she has resumed training with the hope of making the US team for next summer’s London Olympics.

She doubts she’ll do the all-around next year, focusing instead on uneven bars and balance beam, her best events.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I want to go out there at the end of 2012 knowing I did everything I could and not have any regrets,” Liukin told the AP. “I know it’s definitely going to be a push and I know there are going to be days when I’m struggling and thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But because of the passion burning inside of me, I think I just owe it to myself to see if I can do this.”

Liukin, only the third US woman to win the Olympic title, has taken most of the past three years off. She’s trained off and on - her family does own three gyms - but wasn’t sure as recently as earlier this summer if she wanted to make the commitment another Olympic bid will take. She has a heavy travel schedule because of personal appearances and commercial endorsements, and she’s also the athlete representative for the International Gymnastics Federation.

Even at previous gymnastics meets, she was conflicted at the prospect of competing again. But within the last two months, something changed and Liukin realized she still had that competitive spark.

“I’m not just going to be going back to just try and make an Olympic team,” she said. “That’s never been enough for me, and it’s still not enough for me. I feel really different. I feel like a new person this go-round. I’ve never felt this committed to trying to achieve this goal.” And Liukin’s father and coach, Valeri, is on board - even if he may not have been initially.

Liukin said she began dropping

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

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hints to her father earlier in the summer, and his reaction at first was to say how glad he was that his only child was done competing. But he realized she was serious about a comeback when he saw her at the gym day after day after day, without any prompting from him.

And when he saw Liukin start working on uneven bars again, he began putting together a “crazy” uneven bars routine for her. Liukin had one of the most difficult uneven bars routines in the world in 2008, and she tied China’s He Kexin in the event finals in Beijing.

He got the gold medal on a tiebreak, and Liukin got the silver.

“Actions speak much louder than words and I think by showing him I was committed and I was going to gym every day and he didn’t have to push me and he didn’t have to make me do that, made him believe in it,” Liukin said. “He was like, ‘I really think you can do this but you have to figure it out, you have to give 100 percent.’”

Liukin plans to start two-a-day workouts when she returns from the world championships. Though she is appearing at the Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular later this month in Moline, Illinois, she’s curtailed her travel schedule beyond that. She is targeting the CoverGirl Classic next spring for her return to competition.

Though Liukin hasn’t told national team Martha Karolyi officially that she’s coming back - she wanted to wait until worlds are over - her announcement isn’t likely to come as a surprise. When Liukin was at the world selection camp last month - she was on the selection committee - Karolyi walked in while Liukin was working on uneven bars one day.

Bars is the Americans’ weakest event, and Liukin’s return would give them a huge boost. “I think it’s great,” USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said. “Her being back in the game elevates our program once again.” — AP

SAN MARTIN: Tiger Woods has never missed consecutive cuts in his 15 years on the PGA Tour, a streak he kept intact at the Frys.com Open when he made a small step toward normalcy by breaking par for the first time in seven rounds.

Missing the cut was never a measure of success for Woods, and he wasn’t about to look at it that way Friday. “I don’t like missing cuts, period,” Woods said after a 3-under 68 at CordeValle. “If I miss the cut, that means you can’t win the tournament on the weekend.

I’ve got a shot at it this weekend.” A long shot, at that.

The good news for Woods is that he made it to the weekend in his first tournament in seven weeks. But he had some three dozen players ahead of him, starting with Paul Casey and including Ernie Els. Casey is making a revival of his own. He has been battling an injury to his right foot for most of the summer, one reason why he finds himself at No. 135 on the money list and in jeopardy of losing his PGA Tour card. This is 14th tournament, and Casey will play next week in the McGladrey Classic, hopeful of getting into the top 125 at the very least.

He did win in Korea last week, flew straight to California and dealt with jet lag while throwing away shots at the end of his opening round for a 70. He hardly gave up anything Friday, making eight birdies for a 7under 64 that put him atop the leaderboard.

“Yesterday, I actually played great golf, and the mistakes you saw and the bogeys I made really were myself, maybe a lack of concentration, a bit of fatigue,” Casey said. “And today was maybe an example of another day to get over that jet lag. And I eliminated those mistakes.” He was at 8-under 134.

One shot behind was Bud Cauley, the 21year-old who left Alabama early to turn pro this summer and now has an outside chance of making enough money to avoid Q-school.

Ernie Els, a surprise entry to this Fall Series event, also was at 7 under with two holes left in his second round.

The second round was to finish late yesterday because of a quick fog that delayed the start by 2 hours, 20 minutes. Woods was barely visible walking to the range, although his mood was much improved from when he looked as ordinary as ever in the opening round with a 73 and a terrible time on the greens. That evening, he was on the putting green under a gloomy sky, two tees separated enough to fit the head of his putter, rapping 5-foot putts with one or two hands on the club. He also put two strips of lead tape on the bottom of the putter to help him cope with greens slightly slower than what he’s used to, and he adjusted his posture. “When I

did that, I was able to see the line,” Woods said. “And I was struggling to see the lines yesterday, and on top of that I couldn’t get the putts to the hole. It was a tough combo platter yesterday.” It was different Friday.

He had a 4-foot birdie putt on No. 11 that he missed badly on Thursday. He made it from the same distance on Friday, then made a putt from about 25 feet on No. 14, the start of three straight birdies.

Woods had a 64 in mind when he arrived at CordeValle to a thick fog, twice warming up on the range as the delays dragged out.

His three straight birdies included an 8-foot

however, he drilled one down the middle on a far more difficult driving hole, and missed only one fairway after that.

UCLA sophomore Patrick Cantlay, who beat Woods by four shots in the opening round, three-putted twice and had to made a 4-foot par putt on the last hole for a 74. He was at 1-over 143, and would not find out until late yesterday if he was able to stick around.

It was the first time since the Masters that Woods made a 36-hole cut, and the first time in two months that he broke par. That speaks only to the kind of stop-and-start year he has

SAN MARTIN: Paul Casey, of England, tees off on the tenth hole in the second round at the Frys.Com Open golf tournament. —AP putt on the 15th after driving into a bunker, and a 7-iron to 3 feet on the 16th. “I had it going early there, three in a row to get to 3under par for the day, and if we could just keep it going, I could shoot my number,” Woods said. “I made a couple mistakes there at 18 and 1. But overall, I’m still within seven shots of it right now.”

His 3-wood on the 18th went just enough left to find a hazard, and he had to get upand-down just to save bogey. It really looked ugly on No. 1, when he snap-hooked his tee shot and threw his driver to the ground. With the ball on the side of a hill and his feet on the cart path, Woods slipped badly on the swing and tumbled over, coming up well short of the green. He pitched only to 25 feet.

That was his seventh consecutive tee shot without hitting the fairway. On the next hole,

had, missing three months this summer to let injuries to his left leg fully heal, and missing the last seven weeks when he failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.

And while the 68 was what he needed to make it to the weekend, the pleasant sunshine over CordeValle allowed for good scoring. He wasn’t the only one who took advantage, and several others did far better, starting with Casey. Casey came up just short of the green on the par-5 15th, and then rolled in birdie putts of 40 feet and 25 feet on the next two holes, before finishing the back nine with a shot into 12 feet on the 18th. He added a pair of birdies on the front nine to put himself atop the leaderboard and raise his hopes going into the weekend. “To be honest, it’s probably the best I’ve hit the golf ball all year,” Casey said. —AP

Yang equals record, takes lead INCHEON: Local youngster SooJin Yang tied the course record as she took over the lead of the LPGA’s Hana Bank Championship yesterday, one stroke ahead of world No. 1 Yani Tseng.

Yang shot up to the top of the leaderboard with a round of 65 and a two-round total of 10under 134 at Sky 72 Golf Club’s Ocean Course.

The 20-year-old took advantage of ideal weather conditions to tie the course record set by Tseng just a day earlier. Yang, who is playing on a sponsor’s invitation this week, had seven birdies and no bogeys.

“I felt good starting yesterday,

but the difference today was that I was able to capitalize on my chances,” Yang said.

Tseng shot a 70, recovering from two bogeys on her first three holes to fire off four straight birdies and claim a share of second place with two-time defending champion Na Yeon Choi, who had another bogey-free round.

On the par-3 eight hole, Tseng got into trouble again after pushing her tee shot to the right into an unplayable lie. After taking a penalty stroke, she got up and down for a bogey.

On the back nine, Tseng birdied Nos. 11 and 15 before dropping another stroke on No.

16. “I’m very disappointed. I made a lot of mistakes today, especially with putting,” Tseng said. “If I can reduce the three-putts and not think too much I will do well tomorrow.”

Today’s final group will be a rematch of the 2009 final round.

That year, Choi and Tseng were also paired in the same group, with Choi outdueling Tseng by one stroke to win the tournament with a birdie on the final hole.

South Koreans Jimin Kang and Chella Choi were at 7 under and compatriot Meena Lee was at 6 under. Americans Angela Standford and Brittany Lincicome were part of a group of five play-

ers tied another stroke back.

Meanwhile, veteran Se Ri Pak was disqualified after the first round for inadvertently signing an incorrect scorecard. Pak signed for a three instead of a four on the 17th hole.

“This was an honest mistake,” Pak said. “I am sure my fans are disappointed, but no one is more disappointed than I am.”

LPGA vice president of Tournament Business Affairs Mike Nichols said Pak came forward to acknowledge her mistake, and said her “honesty and integrity in bringing this to the attention of the rules officials should be applauded.” —AP

Strong field for Chicago Marathon CHICAGO: Kenyan Wesley Korir figures to have one eye on the finish line and the other on the cause when he competes in the Chicago Marathon today. As sweet as winning a major marathon would be, he’ll be running for something even bigger.

Korir is trying to complete a hospital in his poverty-stricken village so people back home might not have to experience the sort of loss his family suffered when his younger brother Nicholas died from a snake bite.

“I just wish even part of what we have here could be in Kenya,” he said, “because people suffer a lot.”

Korir is helping to pay for the facility, and with $100,000 going to the marathon winners plus potential performance bonuses, there’s quite a bit for the taking in this one.

There’s also a strong field that includes countryman Moses Mosop, one of the favorites, and top American Ryan Hall along with twotime New York City Marathon winner Marilson Gomes Dos Santos and former Chicago champion Evans Cheruiyot.

On the women’s side, Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova is trying to become the first three-peat champion - male or female - in Chicago and nail down a spot on the Olympic team. Her country’s federation will select its team based on the two fastest times posted by runners

between Sept. 1 and the end of the year, and the flat course in Chicago could play in her favor.

“All this is making my huge basket of goals. The Olympic Games, it’s something (I’ve) been dreaming of since (I’ve) been a kid athlete,” Shobukhova, who placed sixth at Beijing and 13th at Athens in the 5,000 meters, said Friday through an interpreter. “To win a third in a row here in Chicago, it’s a privilege and exciting to do something that nobody has ever done.”

Mosop comes into the men’s race after a string of impressive performances but he said he’s still a bit hobbled by pain in his left Achilles tendon.

Even so, he still hopes to break the course record of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 41 seconds set by the late Sammy Wanjiru in 2009, when he won the first of two straight Chicago Marathons.

Mosop ran the second-fastest 26.2 miles in history at the Boston Marathon this year but finished behind fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2:03:06, with a tailwind on the substantially downhill course.

He set a world record in the 30,000 meters at the Prefontaine Classic in June, but his Achilles issue kept him from training in July.

Korir, a two-time winner of the Los Angeles Marathon, would love nothing more than to capture his first major victory in Chicago.

He made an impressive marathon debut here in 2008, when he started five minutes behind the elite runners and wound up with the day’s fourth-fastest time. He placed sixth the following year, fourth in Chicago in 2010, and he

comes in this time eyeing some big goals on and off the course.

Korir, who attended Louisville and still lives there, is trying to give back to his village of Kitale in a big way, hoping to provide the sort of care that might have saved his 10-

year-old brother after a black mamba bit him.

His family didn’t have a car. There were no ambulances. His mom and uncle had to wait for a bus and Nicholas died on the way to the clinic more than 20 miles away.

BERLIN: Patrick Makau from Kenya crosses the finish line to win the 38th Berlin Marathon in this file photo. —AP

The village started building the hospital about five years ago, but there wasn’t enough money to finish it and the project was abandoned, Korir said. He decided to revive it, and with the help of Hall, has raised about $13,000 of the $30,000 he needs.

“I’ve been feeling a call to take up that project, and then I talked to Ryan about it,” he said. “We took it over and now, I think it’s going to be done pretty soon. I’m excited about it.”

The dollar goes a long way in Kenya and, over time, he envisions expanding. He sees it eventually becoming a major hospital.

He plans to work with the government and attract volunteer doctors from other countries, along with the five he figures to have fulltime on staff.

“When I went to Kenya last year, I decided to visit hospitals run by the government and hospitals run by private people,” Korir said. “Just comparing the hospitals we have here, it’s desperate. It’s miserable. You go there, the corruption is very high.

People don’t care about people.

“I went with my wife and we looked and said, ‘We want to make an example using this hospital, to show people in Kenya that if people give their time and if people really care about other people, we can give the best health care that we can ever imagine.’” —AP

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Kings top Rangers in OT

ATLANTA: Dream’s Angel McCoughtry (35) and Sancho Lyttle (right) play for a loose ball against Minnesota Lynx’s Rebekkah Brunston (32) and Taj McWilliams-Franklin (second from right) during the first quarter of Game 3 of the WNBA basketball finals. —AP

Lynx defeat Dream ATLANTA: Seimone Augustus and the Minnesota Lynx turned up the defensive pressure on Angel McCoughtry and the Atlanta Dream.

The result was the final entry in a nearperfect postseason as the Lynx beat the Dream 73-67 on Friday night to complete a three-game sweep of the WNBA championship series.

Augustus had 16 points and Maya Moore, returning to her Atlanta home, had 15 - including a key 3-pointer late in the game - to lead a balanced scoring attack as the Lynx won their first WNBA title.

McCoughtr y had a game -high 22 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. McCoughtry made only 9 of 25 shots as the Dream were held to 34.6 percent shooting from the field.

“We felt we didn’t show them what a good team we were defensively in the first two games,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, who was soaked by a bubbly spray before her postgame news conference.

Augustus had the primary defensive assignment on McCoughtry, who set a WNBA finals record with 38 points in Game 2. “Tonight we just kind of smothered her and forced her into bad shots,” Augustus said.

Minnesota closed the postseason with six straight wins, including sweeps of Phoenix in the Western Conference finals and Atlanta in the championship series.

Most Minnesota players celebrated in a pile of hugs on the court. Taj McWilliamsFranklin, the 41-year-old starting center, headed to the bench to engulf Reeve in a hug.

Erika de Souza, who had 11 points, was Atlanta’s only other scorer in double figures. “I’m just glad we were able to finish playing Lynx basketball by being a good defensive team,” Moore said.

Minnesota had four scorers in double figures as Rebek k ah Brunson had 13 points and nine rebounds and Candice Wiggins had 10 points. Atlanta was swept

by Seattle in the 2010 WNBA finals.

The Dream trailed by eight points in the final quarter before making a late charge. Two free throws by McCoughtry cut Minnesota’s lead to 64-40. Following a turnover, Iziane Castro Marques hit a 3pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one with 1:17 remaining.

Poor shooting from the field forced Atlanta to foul in the final minute. Two free throws by McWilliams-Franklin and another by Lindsay Whalen pushed the lead to 67-63. Following a miss by Castro Marques, McWilliams-Franklin added two more free throws with 35 seconds remaining.

McCoughtry had two late layups, but the Dream could come no closer than four points in the final 30 seconds. The Dream held a 19-12 lead in the first quarter and led 37-33 at halftime.

There were two ties in the third quarter, the last at 41. Minnesota closed the period with an 11-4 run to lead 52-45 entering the final quarter.

The Dream opened the fourth quarter with consecutive baskets by Alison Bales and Castro Marques to pull within three points. Augustus quickly came off the bench, and Atlanta’s comeback bid ended.

A 7-2 run gave the Lynx a 59-51 lead.

After McCoughtr y ’s basket cut the Minnesota lead to 61-56, Moore answered with a big 3-pointer that went through the net as the shot clock sounded.

“If Maya Moore’s shot doesn’t go in, who k nows what ’s going to happen,” Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors said. “We had the momentum and we had them backpedaling.”

McWilliams-Franklin’s status as starting center had been uncer tain after she sprained her right knee, forcing her to leave Wednesday night’s game. She did start, wearing pads on both knees, and had seven points, four rebounds and four assists. She made four free throws in the final 1:07.

“Maybe now they’re sore,” Reeve said of McWilliams-Franklin’s knees, “but when you’re in a close -out moment for the WNBA finals, you don’t feel a thing.”

With the health of McWilliams-Franklin a concern, Reeve was upset when backup center Jessica Adair was called for her second foul late in the first quarter. After receiving a warning from official Michael Price to return to the bench, Reeve added another complaint and drew a technical foul.

After there were a combined 78 free throws in the Game 2 at Minnesota, there were only 34 - 17 for each team - called in Game 3.—AP

NBA won’t talk without 50-50 deal NEW YORK: The NBA players’ association wanted a meeting and said the league would grant one - under one condition. Just agree first to a 50-50 split of revenues.

Players already rejected that offer once.

The league confirmed it wasn’t moving beyond that number but wanted to meet about other issues, and it said the union wasn’t interested. All that matters: An on-time start to the NBA season now seems even less likely. Commissioner David Stern has said the league will cancel the first two weeks of the regular season if the sides can’t reach a labor agreement by Monday, and it now appears the sides won’t even talk before then.

According to a person close to the union, players were seeking a session before the deadline, but were told it came with a precondition of agreeing to the 50-50 revenue split.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because talks are being kept private, told The Associated Press the union will go on with plans to meet with players Saturday in Miami, where a number of AllStars are playing in a charity game, and Monday in Los Angeles. The league discussed a 50-50 split with union officials Tuesday, but talks broke down soon after it was rejected.

Players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income under the previous collective bargaining agreement and have proposed lowering it to 53 percent in a new deal.

No further talks have been scheduled, and union executive director Billy Hunter has said it could be a month or two before the sides meet again. And while there had been no formal discussions since Tuesday, there was an expectation they would try to talk sometime before the end of the weekend.

“We told the union today that we were willing to meet as early as Sunday,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said. “We also advised them that we were unwilling to move above the 50-50 split of revenues that was discussed between the parties on Tuesday but that we wanted to meet with them to discuss the many remaining open issues. The union declined.” If things don’t change, the NBA will have its first shortened season since the 199899 schedule was reduced to 50 games by a work stoppage. The entire preseason schedule

NEW YORK: Miami Heat’s Lebron James attends a news conference after a meeting between the NBA Players Association and owners to discuss a new labor deal. —AP already has been scrapped. Each BRI percentage point is worth about $40 million, so the sides are some $120 million apart in the first year of a deal, with the union proposing 53 percent and the league suggesting the 50-50 split. Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver seemed to leave hope the league would improve its offer when he said after Tuesday’s meeting that “our indication today to go to a 50-50 deal demonstrates even more potential movement on our part. So we haven’t made a secret of the fact that we’d very much like to make a deal.” Hunter reiterated that 53 percent was the players’ number. And if they were planning to reconsider the 50-50 offer, that didn’t seem to be the case in the letter that he and union president Derek Fisher of the Lakers sent Wednesday to players and obtained by The Associated Press and other media outlets. “Reducing our share of BRI by 7 points to 50 (percent) - a level we have not received since the early 1990’s - is simply not a fair split. We refused to back down,” they wrote. “As we have done since the beginning, we again indicated a willingness to compromise, and asked the owners to do the same.

They refused.” —AP

STOCKHOLM: It was supposed to be Henrik Lundqvist’s evening in the limelight, but Anze Kopitar stole the glory. Kopitar scored on Lundqvist in the first period and assisted on the game -winning overtime goal as the Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers 32 in the two teams’ season opener Friday in Europe.

Jack Johnson scored on a power play goal with one minute left in overtime, tapping in a pass from recently acquired center Mike Richards.

The sell-out crowd had cheered wildly for the Rangers and goaltender Lundqvist, a legend in hockey-loving Sweden, though the performance by Kopitar - who moved to Sweden when he was 16-yearsold to train - didn’t go unnoticed and was also appreciated by local fans.

“I did play in Sweden for three years, so I feel good here,” the Slovenian-born Kopitar said. “It was good to get that first (goal), to get it out of the way - for me and for the team.”

Mike Richards had scored with five minutes to go in regulation time to even the game at 2-2 and keep the Kings in the game.

The goal and the overtime assist

by Richards seemed to lend immediate justification to the recent deal that saw the former Philadelphia Flyers captain traded to Los Angeles in a bid to improve the Kings’ offense and power play chances. “Mike Richards’ line - I thought they played well,” Kings coach Terr y Murray said. “ They were energized, and they did a good job overall in their checking responsibilities.”

Despite the defeat, Lundqvist didn’t let his fans down, displaying the kind of game that has made him one of the NHL’s best.

Among memorable plays, he made a superb glove save on a blistering shot by Dustin Brown with less than one minute to go in the first period, and blocked a wraparound attempt by Justin Williams halfway through the second. The Rangers were spotty on defense in the first period, making several clearing mistakes that turned into scoring chances for the Kings - one of which led to a goal.

Ruslan Fedotenko and Artem Anisimov botched a clearing attempt in the Rangers’ zone in the first period. That allowed Williams to steal the puck and feed Anze Kopitar, who beat Lundqvist with a wrist shot.

The Rangers quickly regrouped, scoring their first goal of the season five minutes later when captain Ryan Callahan hit a toughangled shot after a pass from Anisimov. The Kings had failed to capitalize on four power plays in

LOS ANGELES: Kings defenseman Jack Johnson ( left) moves the puck around Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Mathieu Brodeur during the second period of an NHL preseason hockey game. —AP regular time, but scored a goal when it mattered most - after Rangers’ defenseman Ryan McDonagh was sent off for holding with just over two minutes remaining in overtime. According to NHL rules, the five minutes of overtime are played four-on-four, so McDonagh’s departure meant four Kings scated against three Rangers

outside the crease. He was assisted

by Brandon Dubinsky and Rangers newcomer Brad Richards - the line with which much of the Rangers’ hopes ride this year.

The Rangers will remain in Stockholm to play the Anaheim Mighty Ducks late yesterday, while the Kings travel to Berlin to play the Buffalo Sabres.—AP

- opening up a lot of ice.

“Two minutes left - they shouldn’t get a penalty like that,” said Rangers center Brian Boyle.

“They’re a good team - you don’t want to give them that kind of momentum in that position.”

Marian Gaborik had put the Rangers up 2-1 halfway through the third period on a shot from just

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings yesterday game.

Philadelphia 2, Boston 1; Toronto 2, Montreal 0; Pittsburgh 4, Vancouver 3, (SO); Buffalo 4, Anaheim 1; Los Angeles 3, N.Y. Rangers 2, (OT); Detroit 5, Ottawa 3; Tampa Bay 5, Carolina 1; Nashville 3, Columbus 2; Dallas 2, Chicago 1.

Pittsburgh Philadelphia N.Y. Rangers New Jersey N.Y. Islanders

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OT Pts GF 50 25 8 108 242 48 23 12 108 261 44 33 6 94 235 38 39 5 81 174 30 39 13 73 229

Boston Buffalo Montreal Toronto Ottawa

46 44 44 38 32

Northeast Division 26 11 103 247 29 10 98 249 31 8 96 216 34 11 87 220 41 10 74 195

Washington Tampa Bay Carolina Atlanta Florida

48 47 40 34 30

Southeast Division 23 11 107 224 25 11 105 252 32 11 91 237 36 12 80 223 40 12 72 195

GA 202 224 201 209 264

197 230 211 251 255

197 241 244 269 229

Detroit Nashville Chicago St. Louis Columbus

Western Conference Central Division 48 25 10 106 266 45 27 11 101 222 44 30 9 97 259 38 33 11 87 240 34 36 13 81 217

244 196 227 234 261

Vancouver Calgary Minnesota Colorado Edmonton

54 41 39 30 25

Northwest Division 19 10 118 265 29 12 94 250 35 8 86 206 44 8 68 227 45 12 62 193

189 237 233 288 269

Pacific Division San Jose 48 25 9 105 248 213 Los Angeles 47 30 6 100 222 200 Anaheim 47 31 5 99 240 239 Phoenix 43 26 13 99 231 226 Dallas 43 29 11 97 229 234 Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss or shootout loss.

Sabres see off Ducks HELSINKI: Thomas Vanek scored two powerplay goals, leading the Buffalo Sabres past the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 in their NHL opener Friday in Helsinki.

Vanek, the top goal scorer for Buffalo the last five seasons, set the tone with his first goal at 4:02 in the first period. Finnish player Ville Leino, back at his former home stadium, then made it 2-0 on his debut for the Sabres.

Nate Guenin replied for Anaheim in the second period, but Vanek helped restore the Sabres’ two-goal lead by setting up Jason Pominville.

Vanek then scored his second of the night in the same period. Pominville also finished with two assists, as did Luke Adam. “ The puck was bouncing for us a bit tonight and we played a good first period with the two goal lead,” Vanek said. “We tried to get pucks to the net and it paid off early on.”

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff was also happy with the way Leino played on a line with Brad Boyes and Tyler Ennis. “Leino did a heck of a play, taking the puck from his own skates before scoring,” Ruff said.

Doing so in his first game for a new club was nothing new for Leino, who dominated the ice for Finnish team Jokerit in the same arena before leaving for the NHL. “I have done it for every team where I’ve played, and was lucky to do it again,” Leino said. “It was cool to do it here in Finland.”

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle felt his team had allowed Buffalo an easy game.

“We did not do a very good job of transferring the puck from our defense to the forwards, and had to spend the first half of the game too much in our own end,” he said.

“We played more as individuals in parts of the game versus a team.” Anaheim, however, hit the posts twice in the last period, through MONTREAL: Canadiens’ David Desharnais (51) is sandwiched between Buffalo Sabres’ goaltender Ryan Miller (30) and Ville Leino (23) during first period pre-season NHL hockey action. —AP Francois Beauchemin and Luka Sbisa.—AP

Four-wicket Malinga fires Mumbai into final CHENNAI: Lasith Malinga grabbed four wickets to bowl Mumbai Indians to a 10-run victory over English county Somerset in their Twenty20 Champions League semi-final on yesterday.

The Sri Lankan paceman, known for bowling accurate yorkers with a slinging action, finished with 4-20 off four overs as Mumbai restricted

Somerset to 150-7 after posting 1605. Australian opener Aiden Blizzard top-scored for Mumbai with a 39-ball 54 and New Zealand paceman James Franklin took two vital wickets in one over. Craig Kieswetter made a fighting 62 off 46 balls with the help of one six and seven fours for Somerset.

“We got to a total where we could defend. Malinga and Franklin were

fantastic in the end. It is a matter of a wicket or two in this format,” said Mumbai skipper Harbhajan Singh.

“The 19th over was important and Franklin bowled his heart out.” The English county needed 22 runs to win off the last two overs with seven wickets in hand, but Franklin dismissed well-set Kieswetter and Jos Buttler (19) in the penultimate over

while conceding only seven runs.

Kieswetter and James Hildreth (39) added 83 for the third wicket after man-of-the-match Malinga had jolted the top order with two quick wickets in his lively opening spell.

Somerset required 15 to win in the final over, but managed only four runs as Malinga removed Nick Compton and Murali Kartik.—AFP

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France demolish England as Welsh roll over Ireland

TOKYO: Britain’s Elizabeth Tweddle performs on the uneven bars during the women’s qualifying of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. —AP

Britain qualifies for London Games TOKYO: The British gymnasts are headed to London. The London Olympics, that is.

Britain secured the eighth and final spot for next summer’s games that was available at the world gymnastics championships yesterday, scoring 220.553 points to finish almost a point ahead of Italy.

The Italians and the teams that finished 10th through 16th now must go to a second qualifier in January at the O2 Arena to determine the final four spots for London.

“We’re over the moon,” Jennifer Pinches said. “That long wait at the end was just agonizing. When we saw we’d made it, we all started crying.”

The British were seventh at last year’s worlds. But the pressure this year was far greater, with fans back home tracking their every move and hoping - expecting - them to qualify.

They got off to a rocky start when Beth Tweddle, a two-time world champion on uneven bars, stalled on her opening move.

She stayed on the bars and completed a routine that was packed with difficulty, flying from the high bar to the low bar as if she was weightless. But her score of 14.433 was more than a point lower than she normally scores.

“The main aim coming into this championship was getting that top eight spot,” said Tweddle, who was still in the running for a spot in the bars final until late in the meet. “I had the mistake on bars. But had it been anyone else, they could have dropped off and messed it up completely for (the) team. The fact I could keep it

going, that was the main aim, just to keep it going for the team.”

After solid showings on balance beam and floor, the British went into the vault, their final event, in seventh place. But Japan was a spot behind them and finishing on uneven bars, its best event, and France still had an outside chance to leapfrog either of the teams.

The first four British gymnasts all landed their vaults cleanly, so much so that Rebecca Downie scratched. Five gymnasts compete on each event in qualifying, but only the top four scores count.

But with France and Japan still competing, the British could do nothing but wait and wait some more, huddled together and peering at the scoreboard.

“We knew Japan would go ahead of us because they were finishing on bars and we saw their sets were pretty clean. And then we saw France needed something like 17 marks from their last to go in,” Tweddle said. “You still want to see it in writing that you qualified that team spot. Until it’s up on that scoreboard, you don’t take it for granted.”

Once the final standings were posted, however, the party was on. Even the British men, watching in the stands, could be heard screaming in celebration.

Japan wound up fifth. France dropped to 10th, one spot behind Italy.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” Danusia Francis said, unable to stop grinning. “To be on the team that’s got us a place in 2012 is absolutely amazing.”—AP

AUCKLAND: A shambolic loss last weekend and a squad in disarray set the scene perfectly for one of those French wins that defies explanation.

A week after an upset loss to Tonga that almost cost it a place in the knockout rounds, France raced to a 16-0 halftime lead over England and then hung on for a 19-12 victory yesterday to reach the World Cup semifinals for the third consecutive time. In 2007, France rallied for a shocking win over the top-ranked All Blacks in the quar ter finals. Other epic, unexpected wins include the 1987 semifinal against Australia and the famous second-half resurgence at the same stage against New Zealand in ‘99. Problem for the French - a loss has followed immediately after each of those big wins. “We’ve often seen French teams surpass themselves in the past and then mess up afterward,” France coach Marc Lievremont said. “We need to know if this team wants to write its own history.”

They ’re playing regular Six Nations rival Wales next. The Welsh reached the semifinals for the first time since the inaugural World Cup in New Zealand with a 22-10 win over Ireland in Wellington.

The French have also lost in the semifinals of the past two Worlds Cups, both times to England. They came into the 2011 quarterfinals in the worst form of all eight teams, yet were always considered the most likely to inflict an upset because of it.

Lievremont had openly criticized his players for their lack of commitment and clashed with the French press during a pool stage that involved losses to New Zealand and Tonga - one of the biggest ever World Cup upsets and uninspiring wins over over Canada and Japan.

The players and staff cleared the air in a bonding session Monday and practiced with renewed vigor and sense of purpose, with the sole aim of restoring French honor. So far, so good.

“The players honored their side of the contract tonight,” Lievremont said. “They’ve done the equivalent of their predecessors. It depends if they want to stop there or carry on.” France has lost two World Cup finals. Now they won’t meet a high-ranked team unless they reach the championship match.

Defending champion South Africa takes on No. 2-ranked Australia at Wellington in Sunday’s

first match - both are aiming to be the first to win three World Cup titles - before No. 1-ranked New Zealand meets 2007 semifinalist Argentina at Eden Park. The All Blacks are aiming to end a World Cup drought that has dragged on since they won the first edition in ‘87 with a lopsided victory over France in the final.

The French have inflicted some bitter defeats on the New Zealanders since then, including one four years ago in Cardiff.“It’s a

really,” England manager Martin Johnson said. “It’s a brutal way to end it. It ’s so disappointing.”

Johnson wouldn’t answer questions on his immediate future in charge at England, which won the 2003 World Cup and reached the 2007 final. Jonny Wilkinson, who kicked the winning dropped goal in extra time to beat Australia in 2003, likely has played his last World Cup game.

He didn’t have a particularly inspiring match and was replaced

of a resurgence of its running game, with an attack-minded halfback pairing of Mike Phillips and Rhys Priestland directing a young and vibrant backline.

Veteran winger Shane Williams gave Wales a third-minute lead with a try in the right corner and, after Keith Earls crossed in the corner to level the scores at 10-10 early in the second half, the Welsh responded with Phillips’ individual snipe down the blindside for a try and Jonathan Davies’ solo effort

AUCKLAND: France’s Julien Bonnaire holds onto the ball as he is tackled by England’s Ben Youngs during their Rugby World Cup quarterfinal match at Eden Park. —AP different context but just as intense as beating the All Blacks in 2007,” France captain Thierr y Dusautoir said of Saturday’s win over England.

The victory in front of 49,105 people epitomized the best elements of French rugby - flamboyant, exhilarating and full of passion, typically inspired by a woeful previous performance.

Two penalties from scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili and tries to fullback Maxime Medard and winger Vincent Clerc gave France a 16-0 lead. The English scored secondhalf tries through fullback Ben Foden and winger Mark Cueto, but Francois Trinh-Duc’s second-half dropped goal put the match beyond them.

“Games like this are winnable but not when you’re 16-nil down,

in the second half. He stands at No. 2 in the list of all-time international scorers with 1,246 points, and has the record for most points scored in the World Cup. Now it could be England in disarray after a campaign that was overshadowed by some unsavory off-field incidents and allegations of cheating.

As for Dusautoir, he just wanted his team to show some resolve and prove the critics wrong, resorting to the French running game and dispensing with the play-it-safe Anglo-Saxon game.

“We didn’t want to go out like this, we wanted to show our true value,” he said. “ We wanted to show how we can play rugby. I think we did it tonight. We need to keep it up.”

Wales has also had something

through some feeble defense in midfield.

“It’s an historic win for Wales today. The boys have been outstanding,” Phillips said. “We were superb today. we’ve worked our socks off for this - we deserve the win.”

There were big expectations on Ireland after an upset pool win over Tri-Nations champion Australia and a thumping victory over Italy.

“We had high hopes going into the game. We thought we were in good form and we just got outplayed on the day,” said Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll, a veteran of four World Cup campaigns. “It’s disappointing, collectively and personally. I won’t get this opportunity again, and that really sucks.”—AP

Last-gasp Vettel snares Japan pole

VIVA honors Kuwait Youth National team KUWAIT: Kuwait Telecommunications Company VIVA held a ceremony to honor the members of the Kuwaiti Youth National team (under 16 years old) who qualified to the Asian Cup Finals that will take place next year, following the great results the team has achieved in the qualifying stage, during which they managed to qualify from the second group that Kuwait hosted its competitions lately.

The president of the Kuwaiti Football Association Sheikh Talal Al-Fahad and the management of the National team were present in the ceremony in addition to the team members, their families & VIVA key executives.

This ceremony comes in line with VIVA’s support for the National team, as the company is always keen to honor & support all the youth sport achievements that raises the name of Kuwait high in all forums. It also comes as a part of the continuous support that VIVA provides for the sport in general & particularly to the National team that is currently playing in

the group stage of World Cup qualifying rounds.

Salman Abdulaziz Al-Badran, VIVA’s Chief Executive, took this opportunity to praise the accomplishments of the Kuwaiti youth team & the players who made ever yone proud of this great achievement. Al-Badran added that the qualifying of the Youth National team to the Asian Cup Finals next year is an opportunity everyone should take to support them. He also thanked all the people who participated in reaching this stage that was crowned by qualifying of the National team.

It is noteworthy to mention that on the 23rd of September of this year, the Kuwaiti National team was able to reserve a place in the finals by coming second in the second group of Asian Cup qualifying round, behind Yemen who topped the group by goal difference.

VIVA will continue to support the Kuwait National Team throughout their journey and wishes them all the best and more of success.

SUZUKA: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel snatched pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix in thrilling fashion yesterday as he closed in on a historic second consecutive world title.

The German, winner of the last two races at Suzuka, scorched round the challenging lay-out to take his 12th pole of the season with a qualifying time of 1min 30.466secs, edging Briton Jenson Button of McLaren by just 0.009sec.

The 24-year-old Vettel, who crashed on Friday and trailed Button in all three practice sessions, needs to finish just 10th or better in Japan to become the youngest Formula One driver to win back-to-back world titles.

Vettel can also clinch the championship if Button doesn’t win today’s race. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile found himself at the heart of more controversy after he claimed Michael Schumacher’s driving was “dangerous” and “ridiculous” following a near collision between the pair at the end of qualifying.

And in late drama, home favorite Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber was bumped up three places to seventh on the grid due to a technicality. Vettel’s pole was the 27th of his career, and maintained Red Bull’s perfect 2011 record with a 15th pole in as many races this season.

He was ecstatic to bounce back from a difficult start to the weekend after his crash in the final minute of the opening practice session on Friday.

“Yesterday I went off in practice and damaged the car, and I didn’t have the afternoon to prepare the car for today,” Vettel said.

“We sat down after the practice session this morning and tried to put everything together, and we were able to get every single thing out of the car, which is crucial.

“It was a hard qualifying but I enjoyed it a lot.

It’s a long lap... and I had a bit of a wobble in sector one. But then I made up for it in the second sector. All in all, it’s fantastic.”

Vettel, who started his final qualifying lap in provisional third place, recovered from a ragged first sector to edge ahead of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton’s leading time in the second section of his last-gasp run.

The German then ran wide at turn 14 but recovered superbly through the 300 kilometres (186 miles) per hour turn 15 to take top spot.

Button crossed the line an agonising nine one-thousandths of a second adrift, narrowly missing his first pole for McLaren and his first since the Monaco Grand Prix of 2009 for Brawn GP. Button was disappointed to miss out by such

a tiny margin after topping the timesheets in all three practice sessions ahead of the top-10 shoot-out for first place on the grid.

“I’m disappointed to be so close and not get the pole, but it’s been a good weekend for us, and I hope that it continues tomorrow,” he said.

“Sebastian’s going to win the championship this weekend, but my aim is to beat him in the race.”

Button’s McLaren team-mate Hamilton was third after failing to complete a second final flying lap in the dying stages of qualifying, while Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth ahead of fellow Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton led the times after the drivers completed their first laps of the third and final part of qualifying, but didn’t start a second lap before the chequered flag was waved after an incident with Australian Mark Webber of Red Bull and Schumacher of Mercedes.

“Mark out of nowhere shot up the inside and nearly crashed with me, so I had to avoid him,” the Briton said. “Michael was on the outside trying to do something-I don’t know what the hell he was doing-and went off onto the grass. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever experienced at the beginning of qualifying.

“It was quite dangerous.” Seven-time world champion Schumacher said Hamilton had

pushed him onto the grass as the trio prepared for their final lap. “I made it through, but it was a bit of an awkward start of a qualifying lap,” the German added.

Webber was sixth for Red Bull, 0.69sec slower than team-mate Vettel. Sauber’s Kobayashi was one of four drivers not to set a flying lap time in the final session of qualifying.

But because he was the only one of the four to have embarked on a flying lap, which he aborted, he was promoted to seventh on the grid after being provisionally listed as 10th.

As a result Schumacher and Renault teammates Bruno Senna of Brazil and Vitaly Petrov of Russia, the other drivers who failed to post a time, each dropped down a place on the grid.

Before the top-10 shoot-out, both entries from Force India, Williams and Toro Rosso were eliminated in the second 15-minute period of qualifying.

German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was a shock elimination in the first 20-minute period of qualifying after failing to record a timed lap because of a hydraulics failure.

It was the first time in 15 races this season that the German failed to reach the top 10, and leaves him starting today’s race from 23rd position.—AFP

JAPAN: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany steers his car on his way to taking pole position in the qualifying session for today’s Japanese Formula One Grand Prix.—AP

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S P ORT S

Boise State dominates Fresno State

Carl Edwards

Edwards qualifies at Kansas Speedway KANSAS CITY: Carl Edwards doesn’t like sneaking up on people. He’d rather have a big lead and let everyone else try to track him down. Maybe that’s why he was so giddy over his qualifying run Friday.

The Chase co-leader turned a lap of 174.571 mph, putting him on the front row with Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle for today ’s race at Kansas Speedway. Biffle had the fast lap at 174.887, giving Edwards an ally up front with Chase contenders Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth making up Row 2.

“This is the best I’ve ever qualified here, so I’m not going to be frustrated about it,” Edwards said. “I’m proud of our qualifying effort and pretty excited to have an all-Ford front row. That’s pretty neat. There’s a lot of pride for that in our shop.”

Busch will roll off third after a lap of 174.447 mph, while Kenseth will start fourth. The top nine drivers in the Chase are separated by just 19 points.

“I felt like the car had decent speed,” Busch said. “Starting up front is beneficial, getting a good pit selection is beneficial, so carry those things into Sunday.

My next closest competitor for the Chase starts right in front of me, so other than that, we’re not worried who’s behind us.”

There’s a bunch of them back there.

Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch are tied for third in the standings, though both will have ground to make up. Stewart, who won the first two Chase races, will roll off 23rd after struggling all day Friday; Busch will start 17th after his victory last week at Dover.

“The front end just wouldn’t settle like it needed to,” Kurt Busch said. “But tomorrow is a new day. We’ve got two more cracks at practice to try and dial the

car in.”

Denny Hamlin will start seventh, Jeff Gordon qualified 10th, Ryan Newman will start 11th and Brad Keselowski 12th among Chase contenders. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 18th and Jimmie Johnson 19th.

“If it ain’t us winning,” Edwards said glibly, “hopefully it’s not another Chase guy.” The native of Columbia, Mo., has fared well at Kansas Speedway, which he still considers his home track. Edwards has three top-5 finishes in nine starts on the 1 1/2-mile trioval.

He’s coming off a frustrating race at Dover in which a pit road speeding penalty cost him a chance at victory.

After the race, Edwards brashly told his team over the radio, “We’re going to Kansas and we’re going to win, and let’s just go do it.”

“That’s still my plan,” he said. “I hope I can come through with that. I feel that we can do it and I really felt like we could do it at Dover. I was really amped up at the end of that race. We are running pretty well now. We’ll find out in race trim tomorrow how confident I am.” He sounds plenty confident.

It helps having a two-time winner at Kansas starting right next to him. Biffle, who won the 2007 and 2010 races, said he’ll do whatever he can to help his teammate in the Chase. Biffle said he’d even let Edwards lead a lap, though he acknowledged that the No. 99 car is strong enough that it will probably get to the front on its own.

“You know what? If you look back, we’ve been pretty dang strong on all the mile-and-a-half and two-mile tracks as an organization,” Biffle said. “Carl is going to have a fast car. I don’t think it will be an issue with him leading a lap.” —AP

Berdych ousts Tsonga BEIJING: Tomas Berdych ousted topseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 yesterday to set up a China Open final against Marin Cilic.

In the women’s draw, Agnieszka Radwanska will be seeking her second title in two weeks when she takes on Andrea Petkovic in today’s final.

Tsonga had been aiming to reach consecutive finals, after winning the Moselle Open last month, but the Frenchman’s baseline drives too often went long against Berdych. Despite taking the second set, he seemed to lose focus in the third as Berdych broke him twice to set

BEIJING: Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych reacts after scoring a point against France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga during their singles semifinal match of the China Open tennis tournament. —AP up the win.

“The chance was here. I’m happy to take this chance to be in the final,” said the third-seeded Berdych, who progressed to his first final of the season.

A win today would be a major boost toward the Czech’s hopes of securing one of four remaining spots at the seasonending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

“This match could really change my sea-

son from a good season to a really good season,” Berdych said.

Cilic for his part continued his recent run of good form with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ivan Ljubicic. The two big-hitting Croats combined for 22 aces.

“Today was a really tough match, especially that first set,” Cilic said. “You could feel the tension in the air.” Winning against the player who beat him in the first round at Wimbledon was a further confidence boost, he said.

“That means a lot, that I can beat those guys and my tennis is at a good level and on a level that’s high enough to play against those guys and beat them,” Cilic said.

Radwanska, the winner of last week’s Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, beat Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-4, to improve her career record against the Italian to 3-1.

“I knew she’d been playing well the last couple of weeks so I was really focusing on my game from the beginning,” Radwanska said. “I was just happy to close this game in two sets.”

The Polish player has won her four previous meetings with Petkovic, including twice this year, but Radwanska said she wasn’t expecting an easy time on Sunday.

“It’s always very tough and very tight against Andrea,” the 11th-seeded Radwanska said. “She’s playing very well, very consistent. I think I’ll have to play even better than today to beat her tomorrow.”

Earlier in the day, ninth-seeded Petkovic downed Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-0. Petkovic said she drew confidence from her increasingly steady performances, having reached the quarterfinals at each of this year’s Australian, French and U.S. Opens. Yesterday’s win marked her first victory in three meetings with the Romanian.

“I was really satisfied with the intensity and the focus I managed to have with each and every point and I think that made the difference today,” the German said. —AP

FRESNO: The return of Geraldo Boldewijn proved to be just what Boise State needed to revive its passing game.

Kellen Moore bounced back from a rare off day a week ago to throw two of his three touchdown passes to Boldewijn and the fifth-ranked Broncos extended their dominance over former WAC rival Fresno State by handing coach Pat Hill his worst home loss in 15 seasons with the Bulldogs, 57-7 on Friday night.

Boldewijn missed the first four games because of an NCAA suspension, including last week ’s 30-10 win against Nevada when Moore threw for just 142 yards and was intercepted twice.

He was back and so was the potent offense for Boise State (50), with Moore going 23-for-31 for 254 yards. “He’s a big-time player. Obviously ever yone knows that after tonight,” Moore said. “He’s another piece to the puzzle in the wide receiver crew.

He’s a big-body guy, a long strider. He does a great job going up and making plays.”

Boise State led 30-0 before Fresno State (2-4) even crossed midfield, and took a 43-0 lead early in the third quar ter on Doug Mar tin’s 1-yard run to ex tend a run of 104 straight points against the Bulldogs.

DJ Harper added a 3-yard TD run later in the quarter after an interception by Derek Carr and the streak finally ended at 111 straight points when Devon Wylie returned a punt 79 yards for a score on the first play of the four th quar ter for the Bulldogs.

The Broncos scored the final 10 points in a 51-34 victory here in 2009 and beat the Bulldogs 51-0 at home last year. They then scored the first 50 points of this game.

“I t was just one of those nights where we wanted to do so much as a team and as a program, for our community, and for our fans, and we fell flat on our face,” Fresno State coach Pat Hill said. “This was probably the hardest game I have gone through since I’ve been here.”

Boise State nearly scored as many touchdowns (eight) as Fresno State had first downs (nine) with the final score com-

ing on Grant Hedrick’s 23-yard run with 17 seconds left.

Mar tin ran for 94 yards, Harper had two short TD runs, Mitch Burroughs scored on a 25yard run and Matt Miller caught a TD pass for Boise State’s first score of the game. The only problems for the Broncos came on special teams where they had two missed extra points by Dan Goodale and allowed the long

game we have been a very competitive team all the way through against very competitive teams.”

The teams spent the past decade together in the WAC with Boise State winning nine of the 10 meetings starting with a 35-30 win over the then-No. 8 Bulldogs in 2001. Boise State left for the Mountain West Conference after last season and

being counted on to replace Titus Young as the team’s deep threat.

Boldewijn caught an 11-yard pass on Boise State’s second play from scrimmage. He dropped a potential touchdown pass later in the first quarter, forcing the Bulldogs to settle for a 32-yard field goal by Goodale that made it 10-0.

Boldewijn got his first touch-

FRESNO: Boise State’s Geraldo Boldewijn (right) catches a touchdown pass over Fresno State’s Isaiah Green in the first half of an NCAA college football game. —AP punt return.

Carr struggled in his first game against Boise State, completing 17 of 30 for 126 yards with one interception and a lost fumble. Robbie Rouse was held to 72 yards rushing to end a streak of four straight 100-yard performances as Fresno State lost its 15th straight game to a ranked opponent and suffered the worst home loss in Hill’s 15year tenure.

“We spent the whole night inside our 20 and we were never in a position to dic tate the game,” Hill said. “Except for this

will be joined in its new conference by Fresno State next year.

But the Bulldogs haven’t been in the Broncos’ league. Boise State has outscored Fresno State 220-51 in the last four meetings, topping 50 points each time.

They took control early this game, getting a boost on offense from the return of Boldewijn, who was suspended for the first four games for taking impermissible benefits.

Boldewijn, the biggest and fastest member of the Broncos’ receiving corps, had 11 catches for 160 yards last year and was

down early in the second quarter when he made a one-handed, 18-yard grab with cornerback Isaiah Green draped over him to make it 23-0.

Hunter White’s blocked punt set up Harper’s 6-yard TD run that made it 30-0 and Boldewijn added his second TD on a 4-yard catch with 20 seconds left in the half to make it 37-0.

“He adds a whole new dynamic to our offense,” Miller said. “It’s great to have him back.

He adds a deep ball threat we really needed. It helps stretch the defense.” —AP

Nadal to face Murray in Japan Open final TOKYO: Top-seeded Rafael Nadal will take on Andy Murray in the final of the Japan Open after both recorded straight-sets victories in yesterday’s semifinals.

Nadal powered past Mardy Fish in the second set to beat the American 7-5, 6-1 while Murray was a 6-2, 6-3 winner over David Ferrer.

The Nadal-Fish match was on serve until the 11th game in the opening set, when the Spaniard broke and then served out to love at Ariake Colosseum.

The first set was marked my several long rallies, but as the match progressed Nadal took control and imposed his will with a combination of crisp ground strokes and a strong serve.

Nadal, the defending champion, won 85 percent of his second serve points in the match which lasted 1 hour, 35 minutes. He broke Fish in the first and third games of the second set and held serve throughout.

He concluded the match with another break which included a scintillating shot.

Nadal ran down a crosscourt shot from Fish and then whipped a sublime winner down the line that curled just inside to paint to reach match point. The contest ended on the next point on an unforced error by Fish, who hit a smash into the net.

Murray broke Ferrer in the third and fifth games of the first set and never looked back in advancing to his fifth final of the season.

The Scot was never broken and closed out the match in 1 hour, 21 minutes.

Murray, who had the trainer retape his right foot after the third game of the first set, overpowered Ferrer with strong play from the baseline.

One of the highlights for Murray was his quick, reflexive return near the net of a powerful shot from Ferrer to go up 15-0 in the fifth game of the first set.

The fourth-ranked player in the world has won three titles this season, at Queen’s Club, Cincinnati and Bangkok, and lost in the final of the Australian Open to Novak Djokovic.

Nadal holds a 13-4 advantage over Murray in 17 career meetings, including victories in the last five matches. Murray’s last victory over Nadal came last year in the semifinals in Toronto.

Nadal said he played closer to the baseline against Fish and sought to press home his advantage after taking a hard-fought

TOKYO: Rafael Nadal of Spain serves the ball to Mardy Fish of US during their semifinal match at the Japan Open tennis tournament. —AP opening set.

“Anytime you lose the first set 7-5, it’s painful,” he stated. “At the beginning of the second set I was solid and he made some mistakes. I played better and he played worse.” Nadal has a chance of being the first man to defend the Japan Open title since

Pete Sampras in 1994.

“Rafa played very well today and the first set was pretty high quality,” Fish said. “It could have gone either way as far as the end of the (first) set, but he picked up his game and broke me at 5-5 and the second set got away from me really quickly.” —AP

France demolish England

Lynx defeat Dream in WNBA action

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Strong field for Chicago Marathon

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BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s striker Lionel Messi (left) drives the ball past Chile’s footballer Cristobal Jorquera during a Brazil 2014 World Cup South American qualifier match. —AP

Messi, Higuain spark Argentina win Uruguay defeat Bolivia 4-2 in World Cup qualifier MONTEVIDEO: Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi enjoyed a commanding debut as Argentina skipper as his country opened their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with a 4-1 win over Chile on Friday.

Messi scored once while Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain hit a hat-trick to give new coach Alejandro Sabella a triumphant start in his first competitive match in charge.

Argentina’s Spanish club influence was completed by Angel Di Maria setting up two of the goals for his Real Madrid teammate Higuain.

“It was important to get off on the right foot and we did just that,” said Higuain. “I liked a lot of what we did tonight. Now we have to keep this up.”

The 1978 and 1986 world champions, rebuild-

ing after a poor Copa America which saw them exit in the quarter-final, were ahead after eight minutes at Buenos Aires’ Estadio Monumental where they haven’t lost a World Cup game for 18 years.

Di Maria slipped in a pass to Higuain who drove the ball high into the net past Claudio Bravo in the Chile goal. Messi then scored his 18th international goal in his 63rd appearance in the 26th minute when he was released by a fine pass from Higuain before beating Bravo with a low shot from the edge of the box.

Chile, who were without key players Alexis Sanchez and Gary Medel through injury, came close to cutting the deficit in the 42nd minute when Humberto Suazo was unfortunate to see his effort deflected wide by the foot of Pablo Zabaleta.

Di Maria set-up the third for Argentina in the 51st minute when he found Higuain with a smart cross which his Real Madrid teammate converted with a shot on the turn.

Nine minutes later Matias Fernandez pulled one back for Chile before Messi teed-up Higuain for a his hat-trick in the 63rd minute after a poor Bravo clearance.

Copa America winners Uruguay got their qualifying campaign off to the perfect start as they beat continental outsiders Bolivia 4-2 in Montevideo.

With Argentina rebuilding and Brazil having qualified automatically for the tournament that they will host, Uruguay came into the marathon South American campaign as favourites.

The combination of an early kick-off and miserable weather conditions meant there was a sparse

crowd at the Centenario stadium, but Oscar Tabarez’s side did not disappoint the fans who did turn out.

“I believe we were superior to our rivals in almost all areas and we created many chances,” said Tabarez. Uruguay took the lead with just three minutes on the clock when Liverpool striker Luis Suarez netted from inside the six-yard box after the Bolivian defence had failed to deal with a Diego Forlan corner.

Bolivia came up with a shock equaliser when Rudy Cardozo clipped the ball over goalkeeper Fernando Muslera and into the net off the far post.

La Celeste, World Cup winners in 1930 and 1950, reacted well to restore their lead before the half-hour mark when captain Diego Lugano rose highest to head a Forlan free-kick past Carlos Arias

Libya, Niger qualify as Nigeria, S Africa crash Africa Cup of Nations JOHANNESBURG: Angola, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Zambia qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations yesterday while Nigeria and South Africa were eliminated after a day of drama and confusion.

South African footballers, coaches, supporters and media celebrated after a 0-0 home draw with Sierra Leone believing Bafana Bafana (The Boys) had made it only to discover later that little Niger had topped the table on the head-to-head rule despite a 3-0 drubbing in Egypt. The eight qualifiers join co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal at the biennial African football showcase during January and February with the final two slots to be filled today. Although Zambia and Libya failed to score in Copperbelt town Chingola, the 0-0 draw took the home team through as a group winner while the North Africans took one of two places reserved for the best runners-up. It was a remarkable achievement for the Libyans as fighting between pro and antiMoamer Kadhafi forces meant the national team played only one of three home fixtures in Tripoli with Mali and Egypt hosting the others.

Only results against first and third-place finishers in four-nation groups count in the battle for the runners-up slots and Libya amassed eight points by taking four each off Zambia and Mozambique.

Nigeria took a maximum six points from Madagascar after

2-0 victories at home and away, but these were not considered because the Indian Ocean islanders finished bottom of the pool with a solitary point.

Sudan will be the other runners-up to make it to the finals unless Group D leaders Morocco defeat Tanzania in Marrakech today but drop to second place behind Central African Republic in Group D and Algeria come last.

Early goals from Asamoah Gyan and John Mensah earned four-time champions Ghana a 2-0 victory in near 40 degrees celsius temperatures in Sudan and top place in their group with 16 points from six match- MONROVIA: Seydou Keita (left) of Eagles of Mali, the Malian national football team, vies with Liberian Martin K during their African Cup of Nations 2012 qualification football match. —AP es.

Ibrahima Traore levelled in against Togo, were grateful to minnows Chad, whose last-gasp 2the final minute as Guinea salvaged a 2-2 draw against Nigeria 2 draw prevented Malawi qualifying. after a dramatic second half in Abuja saw Ismael Bangura put the Ethiopia completed a miserable campaign for win-less visitors ahead before goals from Obinna Nsofor and Ikechukwu Madagascar with a 4-2 win in Addis Ababa, Mozambique finally Uche swung the game in favour of the home team. found their scoring boots to outclass Comoros Islands 3-0 in Angola won 2-0 in Guinea Bissau via goals from ‘Manucho’ Maputo and Congo Brazzaville defeated Swaziland 1-0 in and ‘Mateus’ to finish a point ahead of long-time group leaders Lobamba in other early yesterday games.

Uganda, who could only draw 0-0 at home against Kenya and so Even the early second-half dismissal of defender Isaac Vorsah a 33-year wait to get back to the Cup of Nations continues. could not knock star-studded Ghana off course as they proved Mali drew 2-2 in Liberia to pip Cape Verde Islands on the too strong for Sudan, who had surprisingly taken a point away head-to-head rule and Tunisia, who triumphed 2-0 at home from Kumasi last October.—AFP

in the Bolivia goal. And it was 3-1 before the interval with Napoli’s Edinson Cavani diving to head home a right-wing Maxi Pereira cross at the far post.

Bolivia are not the same side when they leave the rarefied atmosphere of their La Paz home and they could have conceded a fourth shortly after when Forlan saw his header from close range saved by Arias.

The Inter Milan player needs just one goal to become Uruguay’s all-time leading scorer, but he will have to wait at least another few days as it was Lugano that got his second and his team’s fourth from close range midway through the second-half.

Marcelo Martins pulled another goal back for the visitors from the penalty spot. Elsewhere on Friday, Ecuador defeated Venezuela 2-0.—AFP

Capello unhappy after ‘silly’ Rooney red card PODGORICA: Fabio Capello is preparing for life without Wayne Rooney after the striker’s dismissal marred England’s successful qualification for Euro 2012.

Rooney was shown a straight red card for violent conduct after aiming a needless and petulant kick at Montenegrin defender Miodrag Dzudovic during England’s 2-2 draw at the Gradski Stadium on Friday.

Rooney’s sending off capped a miserable week for the player following the arrest on Thursday of his father and uncle in connection with allegations of a football betting scam.

But more seriously for Capello, Rooney’s moment of madness means England will kick off their campaign in Poland and Ukraine next summer with their most important player serving a suspension.

Rooney’s red card also reopens all the old question marks about the striker’s temperament, echoing his 2006 World Cup quarter-final dismissal for a similarly reckless foul on Portugal’s Ricardo Carvalho.

An unhappy Capello said Rooney had been guilty of a “silly” mistake, and revealed Friday that he plans to use next month’s friendly against world champions Spain at Wembley as an opportunity to plan for the player’s absence.

“I think all the players are important. But we will find the solution to play without him. We will try something the next game, the next friendly game that we play,” the Italian said.

Capello however defended his decision to play Rooney, just a day after the allegations concerning his relatives had emerged. “(Rooney) made a silly mistake when he kicked the opponent.

And he will not play the first match of the Euros because he’ll be suspended,” Capello said.

“He was not happy because he missed some control and some passes and I think it was for this reason that he kicked the opponent.” Capello admitted however that Rooney’s behavior was indefensible. “It’s a red card. I can’t defend that. I’m not happy. Absolutely. I spoke with him, he made a silly mistake. He said ‘yes, sorry’,” Capello said.—AFP

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Leaders meet for European banking on crunch weekend Page 26

Samsung unveils new generation of notebooks Page 23

DALLAS: Protestors chant and hold signs outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas building in downtown Dallas. — AP

Obama calls for passage of jobs bill WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is pushing in his weekly radio and Internet address for Senate passage of his nearly $450 billion jobs bill as senators prepare to vote Tuesday on moving to debate on the measure. Obama also asked listeners to yesterday’s address to tell their senators to support the bill, which he’s been lobbying for aggressively against Republican opposition since unveiling it a month ago. With the economy listless and unemployment stuck above 9 percent moving into the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama said the bill “can help guard against another downturn here in America.”

“But if we don’t act, the opposite will be true,” the president said. “There will be fewer jobs and weaker growth. So any senator out there who’s thinking about voting against this jobs bill needs to explain why they would oppose something that we know would improve our economic situation.” Obama’s jobs plan would reduce payroll taxes on workers and employers, extend benefits to long-term unemployed people, spend money on public works projects and help states and local governments keep teachers, police officers and firefighters on the job. He proposed paying for the plan mainly by closing tax loopholes for oil and gas companies and raising taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. Those proposals were rejected by Senate Democrats who substituted a tax on millionaires, with Obama’s agreement.

But with Republicans opposed to much of the new spending in the bill and to tax

hikes even on millionaires, the legislation stands no chance of getting through the Republican-controlled House in its current form, even if Senate Democrats were able to muster the necessary Republican support for Senate passage. Despite the opposition Obama intends to keep pushing for the plan in an effort to show the public that Republicans are standing in the way.

“The proposals in this bill are steps we have to take if we want to build an economy that lasts; if we want to be able to compete with other countries for jobs that restore a sense of security for the middleclass,” Obama said. “There are too many people hurting in this country for us to simply do nothing,” he said. “The economy is too fragile for us to let politics get in the way of action.” Despite opposition to the overall bill, individual elements of it may well get through Congress, particularly an extension and expansion of a payroll tax cut that took effect Jan 1.

Republicans used their weekly address to criticize the plan Sen John Thune, R-SD, called it “nothing but a rehash of the same failed ideas he’s already tried, combined with a huge tax increase.” “This is a cynical political ploy that’s designed not to create jobs for struggling Americans, but to save the president’s own job,” Thune said. He also accused Obama of promulgating excessive regulations and too much red tape, to the detriment of business. “We’re calling for a regulatory time-out, an affordable energy plan, broad-based tax reform including lower rates, and policies that provide the certainty and stability our economy desperately needs,” Thune said. — AP

Tough measures needed: Spain MALAGA: The leader of Spain’s main opposition conservative party yesterday vowed a rigorous programme to get the country out of its economic crisis if elected in legislative elections in November. Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy, the front-runner in the election, set out the broad lines of his policy in a speech closing his party’s annual convention in Malaga, southern Spain. He paid particular attention to the country’s record unemployment levels, running at 20.89 percent of the workforce, and promised to make job creation a priority if elected. “The plight of the five million Spanish people who want to work and cannot and the anguish of the one million households all of whose members are unemployed-worries me, as it does everyone,” he told delegates.

“Our country is going through a serious social, economic and institutional crisis which is going to oblige us to make a great effort in future,” he said. But Spain can and will emerge from the crisis, he argued. On Friday, Fitch Ratings slashed Spain’s sovereign credit rating by two notches, blaming regional government spending, weak economic growth and the eurozone debt crisis.

That decision pushed the country’s already expensive borrowing costs even higher.

Rajoy has denounced the outgoing socialist government, in power since 2004, for leaving “the worst legacy that any government has ever left its successor”. To get the country’s finances in order, Rajoy proposed a coherent economic policy that

would be based on “austerity and reforms”.

“We want to defend social cohesion, the welfare state and public services ... but with good economic management,” he said.

“Administrations should not spend what they do not have,” he added. The 56-year-old politician has yet to set out his own policies in detail.

Since July however he has made it clear that Spain’s 17 regions, whose poor economic management was a contributory factor in Friday’s ratings downgrade, could no longer be allowed to have a budget deficit. And the two main themes of his program to date have been an austerity program to tackle the economic crisis; and job creation to bring down the country’s rampant unemployment. The socialists’ new leader, 60-yearold Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, also acknowledged last weekend that unemployment was the major challenge facing the country, in a speech setting out his own program.

But he has denounced the budget cuts pushed through by regional government’s controlled by the right. Right-wing leaders of some regions, most of whom won power in May regional elections, have imposed swinging cuts in key areas such as health and education, provoking protests on the streets. But the Popular Party nevertheless looks set to win next month’s election as the ruling socialists have seen their popularity fall with each austerity measure they have introduced since 2010 in their struggle to get the country’s finances in order. —AFP

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Transferable skills at work ensure employment resilience Bayt.com survey n this era of high employment turnover and mobility, your transferable skills are the arsenal that ensures your marketability, increases your professional competitive advantage and eases your transition into any new role. No matter how specific, specialized and limited you may think your past or present role to be, you are likely to have a set of highly valuable skills that are transferable across workplaces and hence essential to your career success. Transferable skills are the skills that employers look for when they are interviewing you so it is essential that you take stock of these and are able to cultivate them, add to them and recite them freely and confidently at job interviews. Some highlights below are from Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 Job Site.

Definition of transferable skills:

I

Lama Ataya Very simply explained, transferable skills are those versatile skills that you can apply and make use of in a number of different roles.

Why are transferable skills important?

Transferable skills are the inventory of assets that help you transition into and excel in a new role.

They ensure your professional resilience and the robustness and longevity of your career. Moreover, they allow you to more easily and readily explore lateral dimensions in your career and acquire added skills and expertise. While highly specialized skills may be essential to building your own personal competitive advantage and ensuring success in a particular role or organization, it is the transferable skills that ensure you do not become professionally redundant or obsolete over the long term.

How do you acquire transferable skills?

Everyone has transferable skills

and they are acquired all through a person’s life from infant and grade school through to college via formal courses, informal education, personal reading, social activities, professional activities and life in general.

Once you have identified the set of essential skills that you can take with you and apply anywhere you go, you can embark on a dedicated mission to cultivate these skills further and add to their inventory.

How do you identify transferable skills?

Self-awareness gained through rigorous, systematic and ongoing self-assessment is essential to ensuring your marketability. There are plenty of sophisticated self-assessment tests that allow you to analyze your own personal strengths and weaknesses. You can also go through a skills checklist and tick all

the ones that you are confident apply to you. Enlist the help of your boss or peers or professors or family if you would like a sounding board or external feedback and advice.

Five main categories of transferable skills: Soft skills: Also known as interpersonal or people skills, these entail the set of skills that allow you to positively relate to, communicate with, influence and inspire others.

Some examples: Delegating skills, coaching skills, listening skills, presenting skills, co-operation skills.

Analytical skills: These are the intellectual skills that enable you to identify and analyze problems and find creative, innovative and feasible solutions. Some examples: Research skills, data gathering skills, data analysis skills, creativity, risk analysis.

Technical skills: These are the practical hands-on skills like computer proficiency, ability to work with specific machinery, softwares, hardwares, ability to build or repair etc. Some examples: C++ Programming, HTML coding, SQL knowledge, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator proficiency.

Organizational skills: These are the skills that allow you to sort data, plan, arrange projects or resources, maintain accurate, effective and user-friendly records and coordinate multiple resources or tasks. Some examples: Prioritizing, time management, task management, resource management, coordination.

Personal skills: These are the set of skills to do with workplace character. Some examples: Integrity, reliability, punctuality, diligence, decision-making ability.

The outlook for gold

By Jonathan Spall s the dramatic events in Athens unfold, investors continue to look for safe havens: investments that need not perform heroically in the midst of so much uncertainty but are expected to at least conserve wealth. In the past, this has meant government bonds, currencies such as the US dollar and Swiss Franc and, perhaps most notably of all, gold.

However, the recent substantial gyrations in the Jonathan Spall metal’s value threaten to damage one of gold’s most important credentials. I have previously stated that the biggest long-term threats to the gold price were rising interest rates (demonstrating that governments and monetary authorities believe that they have avoided recession) and parabolic price action (a stratospheric and rapid rise in the price followed by a catastrophic slump). To that can now be added a third caveat: excessive price volatility, meaning that investors might no longer view gold as a safe haven, thus undermining one of the most potent arguments for owning the metal.

In August, gold made its first move above $1,900. Its rapid rise to that level was followed by a somewhat quicker decline of $200. On September 6, the metal once more scaled the peaks and posted an all-time nominal high above $1,920. However, once more a lack of fresh buying, and fears that gold might indeed constitute a bubble, saw a similar wave of liquidation but this time the fall was twice as large with gold trading as low as $1,530 just three weeks later and a

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$200 fall being recorded in the last two days of that slump.

So is gold indeed a bubble and are we witnessing the last vestiges of the rally?

Certainly, the Asian general public does not seem to think so. At lower levels, demand, and particularly from India, was extremely strong, and while some of the more recent buyers of gold might have exited the market it looks as though stronger hands now own the metal. However, it has to be noted that this is not fresh demand for gold that has been tapped, but it is more likely to have cannibalised future flows: such that purchases that might otherwise have been left to November were completed in September to take advantage of the lower prices. This does mean that if gold were to fall sharply again the bargain hunters that were so evident on this occasion may well have had their needs met already. For many people though, it will seem irrational that the value any investment which is thought of as a safe haven could fall as politicians continue to debate the outcome for Greece - and by implication Portugal, Italy and Spain. The situation made even more unstable in that the problems are economic in nature but all the solutions are heavily invested with political significance.

Investors reason, naturally enough, that if the outlook is so uncertain, then why should gold drop along with shares, bonds, the euro, etc? Unfortunately, the markets rarely tend to act with logic in the face of negative headlines and the knee-jerk reaction is generally to sell everything except for the US dollar. After a period of reflection, though, gold does tend to benefit and rise strongly once more as it did in the aftermath of the Bear Stearns’ and Lehman’s bankruptcies and the concerns raised over the size of the sovereign debt crisis.

Normally, the end of September is a time to reflect on European central banks’ attitudes to gold and what their selling plans are likely to be. After all, on September 26,

1999, 15 of these institutions were forced to issue a statement clarifying their intentions and timetabling their gold sales - such was the negative sentiment surrounding gold which had slumped to 19-year lows. The first five-year agreement allowed for 2,000 tonnes of sales; the next five years saw 2,500 tonnes as the maximum quota. In the last year, which finished on Sunday, the signatories to the latest accord could have sold 400 tonnes but instead managed less than one tonne. The International Monetary Fund did “borrow” some of the allocation, but the total from them was just 52 tonnes. Clearly, the notion of selling gold is a dead issue at the European central banks. Conversely, there has been much media speculation that countries with gold will be forced to sell their holdings and so reduce the potential costs of any bailout. In my opinion, this is extremely unlikely to ever occur for a number of reasons, not least that such asset sales are forbidden under the Maastricht treaty as a way of reducing debt.

Unfortunately, there is a wide body of opinion that sees governments as willing to do anything to avert the current crisis, whether or not any rules are broken. So a perhaps more compelling argument is that while the gold holdings for some countries are relatively large in comparison to the gold market - the Banca d’Italia’s are equivalent to one year’s global annual production - they pale into insignificance when compared to the size of the debt that each of these countries have. Consequently, any state sales would have the efficacy of trying to bale out a sinking ship using a teaspoon while saddled with the additional disadvantage of being extremely unpopular domestically.

I have previously asserted that there were few alternatives to gold as a safe haven, and I still believe that to be the case. However, a period of quiet reflection and consolidation would be extremely helpful before gold goes on to make fresh all-time highs.

Final filter change promotion draw held KUWAIT: As part of its summer activities, Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Company conducted a promotion for its Oil & Filter Change customers until September 30. Every customer who brought in his Mercedes-Benz car for an oil and filter change during this period entered a draw to win Gift Vouchers worth KD 550 every month which can be redeemed in the Mercedes-Benz Accessories and Boutique items area in its Service and Parts center in Shuwaikh.

There were a total of 3 winners every month for the gift vouchers worth KD 50, KD 100 and the grand prize of KD 400 This promotion was valid in the Mercedes-Benz Quick Lube Center in Shuwaikh, ExpressService Centers in AlRai and in Ahmadi “We wanted to ensure that our customers use the recommended Oil and Filter for their Mercedes-Benz cars and also to make their Quick Lube visit a rewarding experience this sum-

mer!” said Ralph Geyer, Service Manager, Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Company. The fourth and final draw of this promotion was held on October 3, and the three lucky winners are: Mabashr Ahmeallah Rak’ha- Gift Voucher KD 50; Saad Marzouq Saad Al-Muteiri- Gift Voucher KD 100; Wasmia Mohammed Jassem Kenaie - Gift Voucher KD 400. We hope all our customers availed this opportunity to win the Gift vouchers. To serve our customers better, the Quick Lube Service Center located in Shuwaikh is now open from 7:30 am to 8:00 pm.

For more information about this offer and Mercedes-Benz products and services, please visit www.mercedes-benz.com.kw or become a friend on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MercedesBenzKuwai.

You can also download the iPhone application for Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Company by searching for ‘MBKuwait’ in the App Store.

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Philippine peso Egyptian pounds

.2740000 .4250000 .3670000 .2960000 .2630000 .2660000 .0040000 .0020000 .0749700 .7304140 .3810000 .0700000 .7160390 .0040000 .0430000

.2806000 .4360000 .3760000 .3110000 .2725000 .2755000 .0072500 .0035000 .0757240 .7377550 .4010000 .0760000 .7232350 .0072000 .0530000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2761500 .2782500 GB Pound/KD .4275910 .4308420 Euro .3698620 .3726740 Swiss francs .2988310 .3011040 Canadian dollars .2657590 .2677800 Danish Kroner .0496780 .0500560 Swedish Kroner .0405450 .0408530 Australian dlr .2689840 .2710290 Hong Kong dlr .0354770 .0357470 Singapore dlr .2125210 .2141370 Japanese yen .0036030 .0036300 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 .0056790 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 .0025310 Pakistan rupee .0000000 .0031980 Bangladesh taka .0000000 .0036950 UAE dirhams .0752140 .0757860 Bahraini dinars .7327850 .7383570 Jordanian dinar .0000000 .3935640 Saudi Riyal/KD .0736600 .0742200 Omani riyals .7175520 .7230090 Philippine Peso .0000000 .0063820

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - Transfer Irani Riyal - Cash

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.652 5.643 3.176 251.450 3.554 214.110 35.675 3.674 6.367 8.990 0.271 0.273

GCC COUNTRIES 74.043 76.292 721.190 737.480 75.606

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES 49.500 46.546 1.270 194.230 392.100 186.300 5.994 33.055

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 277.550 Euro 375.800 Sterling Pound 436.110 Canadian dollar 270.940 Turkish lire 150.240 Swiss Franc 304.400 Australian dollar 271.140 US Dollar Buying 276.350 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

GOLD 303.000 153.000 79.000

4.270 217.500 1.797 48.800 720.550 3.220 6.590 76.740 74.070 215.700 37.320 2.620 436.000 41.800 302.800 5.600 9.310 198.263 75.630 277.800 1.220

3.560 216.000 720.370 3.190 6.370 76.310 74.070 215.700 37.320 2.514 434.000 301.300 5.600 9.160 75.530 277.400

GOLD 1,701.260

10 Tola

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 434.000 277.400

Sterling Pound US Dollar

UAE Exchange Centre WLL

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY SELL CASH Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY SELL CASH Australian dollar 275.400 Bahraini dinar 737.750 Bangladeshi taka 3.890 Canadian dollar 270.700 Cyprus pound 544.900 Czek koruna 36.800 Danish krone 51.000 Deutsche Mark 167.800 Egyptian pound 48.510 Euro Cash 376.000 Hongkong dollar 36.330 Indian rupees 5.870 Indonesia 0.032 Iranian tuman 0.239 Iraqi dinar 0.241 Japanese yen 3.700 Jordanian dinar 393.830 Lebanese pound 0.188 Malaysian ringgit 89.890 Morocco dirham 46.200

Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

SELL DRAFT SELL DRAFT 273.900 737.750 3.679 269.200

215.700 45.549 374.500 36.180 5.645 0.032

392.080 0.187 89.890

Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

273.77 270.70 304.72 373.74 432.21 3.67 3.713 5.620 2.516 3.547 3.168 75.50 737.74 46.55 394.58 720.81 76.48 74.06

272.00 270.00 304.20 373.00 432.50 3.62 3.710 5.930 2.621 4.200 3.220 75.70 738.00 48.50 393.97 720.81 76.77 74.09

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank

Selling Rate 277.300 267.145 428.465 372.390 300.730

Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

735.220 75.475 76.115 73.905 390.335 46.541 2.513 5.647 3.188 3.683 6.335 680.198 3.710 9.000 5.840 3.605 92.110

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co. Currency US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Yemeni Riyal Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

Rate per 1000 (Tran) 277.300 3.175 5.635 2.525 3.690 6.380 75.595 74.095 737.200 46.545 432.900 3.190 1.550 394.000 5.750 375.300 271.000 3.690

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) US Dollar 276.950 Euro 372.400 Pound Sterling 429.900 Canadian Dollar 267.700 Japanese Yen 3.635 Indian Rupee 5.620 Egyptian Pound 46.535 Sri Lankan Rupee 2.513 Bangladesh Taka 3.653 Philippines Peso 6.330 Pakistan Rupee 3.183 Bahraini Dinar 737.650 UAE Dirham 75.400 Saudi Riyal 73.950 *Rates are subject to change

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business

Pain of job crisis goes well beyond unemployed Breaking into job market increasingly hard for graduates

KUALA LUMPUR: Arun Ratra, Head of Global Markets Groups in GIC, receives the award.

GIC awarded at Finance Forum KUWAIT: On the occasion of the 8th Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum, Islamic Finance Awards Ceremony 2011, which took place in Kuala Lumpur on October 4, 2011, Gulf Investment Corporation, (GIC) was the recipient of the Panel of Judges award for: The Most Outstanding Sukuk Product - Sukuk Wakalah Bi Istithmar - for the year 2011. The awards ceremony is to honor and recognize the significant efforts and contributions by individuals and institutions in developing the Islamic Finance industry. The award was presented to GIC

by Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

“This landmark transaction is the first of its kind, which meets the Shariah requirements of both Malaysia and investors in the

GCC” stated Hisham AL-Razuqqi GIC’s Chief Executive Officer. He also added that “ Gulf Investment Corporation will continue to develop and introduce to the market innovative products and services.”

GIC was established under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with the mandate to promote private enterprise and support economic growth in the GCC region. In 2010 GIC mandated the Royal Bank of Scotland Berhad to act as the arranger for GIC’s MYR Sukuk Program which would appeal to both Middle Eastern and Malaysian investors. The Sukuk utilizes the contracts of commodity Murabahah denoting the debt portion and Wakalah (agency) denoting the equity component.

KSE weighted index stays unchanged MARKAZ WEEKLY UPDATE KUWAIT: The KSE market price index moved in narrow ranges between 5,846 and 5,791 levels before closing at 5,826 level, a loss of 7 points or 0.1 percent, while the KSE weighted index remained unchanged and closed at 409 level compared to last week. There was mix trends among sectoral indices as the food, the services and the real estate sectors gained 4.6 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.1 percent respectively, while the industrial, the banking and the investment sectors declined 1.5 percent, 1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively on weekly basis. The market sentiment was negative as 55 stocks declined against 45 stocks gained and 37

stocks closed at same level as the last week. Among the large caps stocks, Agilty was the star of the week as it rose 16.1 percent followed by NMTC +3.2 percent, NIG +1.9 percent, NBK +1.9 percent, Mabnee +1.6 percent and the losers were Burgan -6 percent, GBK -3.8 percent, KPROJ -1.6 percent, while the stock of KFH, NINV, BPCC, Zain and Food remained unchanged on weekly basis. The KSE weighted index faces upside resistance at 412 levels and if it crosses then it may reach 424 level. It has downside support at 402 level. Whereas the KSE price index has upside resistances at 5,900 and 6,050 levels and support remains at 5,750 level.

For Greeks, future is a void ATHENS: To find symbolism in the Greek financial crisis, just go to the source. The national image on the two-euro coin in Greece depicts an ancient myth about the abduction of Europa, a Phoenician princess,

by Zeus, the king of the gods in the form of a bull. The saga known as the “Rape of Europa,” whose protagonist rides the bull’s back in an image reproduced by artists over the centuries, mirrors the turbulent journey of Greece and the rest of Europe, hitched together in an agonizing spiral that seems to go on and on and on. The crude parallel ends there, however - Zeus turned into a human, had his way with Europa, and she bore him children. The last chapter in modern Greece, meanwhile, is still blank. Will there be a debt default, with its ominous implications for the global economy? How long will Greeks endure the erosion of what was a good life?

The future is a void, and anger and helplessness dig deep in the Greek psyche.

Joblessness is climbing and essential services such as health care and policing are losing resources. The crisis may pale beside the bloody conflict or poverty in Libya or Afghanistan, but the hardship is as much psychological as economic. It is the shock of undercut expectations, the loss of benefits and prospects once taken for granted as part of the European contract. The mood now resembles the plot of “Groundhog Day,” a 1993 movie about a man who wakes up to the same day over and over again.

“We don’t see how we can escape from this problem,” said Kostas Theofanides, engineering manager for British Petroleum in Greece. He spoke Thursday evening at a resort hotel on the Athenian coast, where Greek and German business executives, nametags on their suits, mingled during a

forum that hummed with talk of investing in a country on the edge. Greeks, whose previous governments were accused of hiding the extent of the country’s ballooning budget deficit, now talk with withering honesty about their problems. Even at investment forums. Theofanides said his compatriots are angry, unsafe and depressed, and wonder how long they have to put up their daily stew of taxes, austerity, unemployment and general uncertainty.

He ticked off the possibilities: Two years?

Three years? Ten years, 25 years? Who knows.

But there is plenty of blame to go around, and nobody is exempt - from free-spending Greeks, to the politicians they elected, to Germany and the international lenders with their dire prescriptions of cuts and then more cuts. With a sly smile, Dimitrios Gardikiotis, director at an information technology company, suggested Germany had been plotting Greece’s downfall for the past 20 years, luring its junior economic partner into dissolute ways so that it could barge in and buy assets on the cheap. “‘I’m preparing your economic death. Then I will buy you and your wife and your children,’” said Gardikiotis, imagining what he thought might be a German viewpoint. He said it in such a disarming manner that it was hard to tell what he really thought. “Greeks actually point their fingers at others, not at themselves,” Gardikiotis said. “Of course, there are certain mistakes, and everybody has to recognize their responsibility.”

History is to blame as well, in some Greek quarters. Its students point to centuries of Ottoman rule that ended in independence in 1829, giving other European nations a headstart in building democracy. Then bouts of civil strife stunted progress. —AP

WASHINGTON: Unemployment has been stuck near 9 percent since the recession ended more than two years ago. The jobs report for Last month on Friday sent the clearest signal to date that the crisis will last through next year’s elections. The pain isn’t confined to the 14 million officially unemployed Americans. Among those hurt by today’s 9.1 percent jobless rate are people forced to work only part-time and those who’ve given up looking for work in frustration.

Count many people with jobs, too. Their pay, home values and employment prospects have been diminished by the lack of good-paying, full-time work. Include, too, communities where services have been slashed, small businesses struggling with weak sales and young adults who can’t find jobs to repay student loans. The ailing job market is both a symptom and a cause of troubles elsewhere in the economy from a depressed housing market to cash-short governments to sluggish consumer spending.

Here’s a look at the wide-ranging consequences of chronically weak job growth.

Wages A crippled labor market shifts bargaining power to employers. Workers have little leverage to seek raises. When adjusted for inflation, pay was nearly 2 percent less in August than it was a year earlier, according to the Labor Department. “People are much more compliant and willing to take extra work assignments because they’re afraid,” says Carl Van Horn of Rutgers University ’s Center for Workforce Development.

Government budgets High unemployment squeezes government finances in at least two ways. Lost jobs mean governments collect less tax revenue. And they have to spend more on unemployment benefits, food stamps and other social programs. The federal government’s tax collections this year are expected to fall to the lowest level since 1950 as a percentage of the economy. More than 40 million Americans - a record 1 in 8 - are receiving food stamps. Enrollment in Social Security’s disability program has shot up by more than 1 million people, or nearly 16 percent, since the recession struck in 2007. In part, that’s because those who can’t find work are seeking government benefits instead. If the economy were strong enough to reduce unemployment to a healthy 5.2 percent, next year’s federal budget deficit would be one-third lower than forecast, the Congressional Budget Office

said this week. Worst off are local governments.

They’ve been cutting services and jobs for the past two years. Over the past 12 months, localities have slashed 210,000 jobs.

Young people Breaking into the job market is increasingly hard for high school and college graduates.

Businesses aren’t creating many jobs. And workers who have jobs are holding on to them. That leaves young people with few openings to apply for. To find work, new college graduates have to settle for lower pay and jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. That’s painful for those who took on big debts to pay for their college education. “Young people who enter the labor market under these conditions pay a wage penalty for quite a long time,” says Harry Holzer, former chief economist at the Labor Department. College grads hired in 2009 and 2010 earned 10 percent less than those who found jobs in 2006 and 2007, before the Great Recession, the Rutgers researchers found. And economist Lisa Kahn of Yale University found that young people who graduate in a poor economy will still be saddled with lower wages 15 years later.

The underemployed and the hopeless Last month, nearly 9.3 million Americans had to settle for part-time work even though they wanted full-time jobs. That was up 440,000 from August. An additional 2.5 million want to work but have given up looking. Add those parttimers to the workforce dropouts and the unemployed and nearly 26 million, or 16.5 percent, of working-age Americans want full-time work and can’t find it.

Baby boomers Aging boomers are less likely to lose their jobs than younger workers. But when they do, they have a tougher time finding new ones.

Would-be employers tend to choose younger, cheaper applicants. Some fear that older workers will bolt for a better-paying job once they can. In a survey of the unemployed, the Rutgers researchers found that 80 percent of those older than 50 have been out of work for more than a year. And half have been unemployed at least a year. Many have drained their retirement savings and lack health insurance. Nearly half plan to apply for Social Security benefits earlier than they had intended to. Peter Cohen, 59, a veteran Hollywood video producer, has been out of fulltime work since October 2008. Cohen, who spe-

cialized in using Apple equipment as a producer since the 1980s, was shocked to be turned down recently for a retail job at an Apple store.

“The savings account has been depleted, and we are now living out of our stock market account, which might get us through another year,” Cohen says. “After that, it will be time to hit the 401(k), which might get us to Social Security.”

Small businesses Unemployment, job insecurity and dwindling wages are preventing consumers from spending freely. Many big companies can turn to fast-growing markets overseas to compensate for slumping U.S. sales. But most small businesses can’t. Small companies surveyed by the National Federation of Independent Business have cited weak sales, rather than perennial gripes like high taxes and burdensome regulations, as their No. 1 problem.

Politics Among those sweating the jobs crisis is President Barack Obama. He’s up for re-election in just over a year. Last month’s 9.1 unemployment rate and tepid job growth suggest he’ll be presiding over an economy so weak it could feel like a recession. No president since World War II has faced reelection with unemployment this high. “Until we see a consistent trend suggesting progress (on the economy), it’s going to remain the dominant issue and a pretty big negative for Obama,” says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.

Housing The unemployment crisis is helping depress the housing market. Many homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth. Others can’t afford to sell their homes and trade up to new ones. And a backlog of foreclosed homes is keeping supplies high and prices low. Not even record-low mortgage rates have helped. Analysts say that housing won’t recover as long as unemployment remains stuck at recession levels. Sales won’t pick up until Americans are confident enough in their job prospects - and have the wages to support a down payment - to consider buying a house. “It used to be that housing led the recovery, and jobs would come after,” says Lisa Ann Sturtevant, a public policy professor at George Mason University. “It has to go the other way now. The jobs have to come first.” So far, they aren’t coming fast enough to make a difference. — AP

Samsung launches new generation of notebooks KUWAIT: Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, yesterday launched the new Series 3, 300V notebook.

The new range of notebooks offers premium design, extensive battery life of up to 7 hours and is available in a choice of vivid colors. The new range of Series 3 300V notebooks features the latest second generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processor, Windows 7 Home Premium and a new-generation NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, thus, allowing users to stay connected, socialize and enjoy brilliant entertainment on the go vir tually all day long. With Samsung’s unique Fast Start technology, the Series 3 300V wakes up within a few seconds.

“Our young consumers require a notebook that delivers a high performance and power while at the same time is attractive in its packaging. With its elegant slim bezel display, choice of vivid colors and high-speed performance, the Samsung Series 3 300V is designed to fit the unique demands of students and the younger generation of the Gulf,” said Raj Varma, General Manager IT Sales Group at Samsung Gulf Electronics.

Samsung has designed the new notebook with a bezel that is 5560 percent slimmer than previous models*3. The Series 3 300V ’s ultra-portable design features an extremely narrow display bezel of 10.3mm on the sides and 14.5mm on the top - slimmer than an average finger. The new notebook is designed with a fashionable, modern style that is accentuated with a high quality finish in a choice of vivid colors ( Vital Orange, Raspberry Pink, Alaska Blue, and Mock Black).

The Series 3 300V includes a

high quality, full-size, island-type keyboard that makes it easier to type and reduces typing errors. Its ergonomic, premium-style design features isolated keys with optimized spacing for maximum com-

seconds of opening the display or pressing the power button. An innovative hybrid sleep mode combines the Fast Star t-up of sleep with the stability of hibernation, so users don’t have to wait

fort. Each key has also been extensively tested for durability and reliability 10 million times (equal to 6 years of writing).

The attractive encasing of the notebook does not over-shadow its performance. With Samsung’s innovative Fast Start technology, the Series 3 300V boots faster. It provides an ‘Instant on’, allowing users to get started within a few

30-60 seconds for the notebook to boot.

With the latest second generation I ntel Core i7 (up to Quad Core)/i5/i3 processor, users can fully optimize their computing experience. The notebook also comes with Intel Wireless Display which enables users to connect their notebooks to TVs or monitors in a hasslefree wireless way

IKEA recalls BUSA tent for risk of serious injury KUWAIT: IKEA kindly asks customers who have a BUSA children’s folding tent to immediately take away the tent from children and bring it back to any IKEA store where they will receive a full refund.

The steel wire frame of the tent can break in use. This can cause sharp wire ends to protrude through the tent fabric, creating a risk of a laceration or puncture injury

to a child playing with the tent.

IKEA is aware of three reports where the wire frame has broken and protruded through the tent fabric. One of the incidents resulted in a minor injury. BUSA children’s tent has been sold on all IKEA markets since August 1, 2011. For more information, please visit www.IKEA.com or contact IKEA toll-free 1840408.

simply by connec ting a WIDI adapter. Additionally, the powerful graphics performance of the new-generation NVIDIA GeForce graphics card provide excellent graphic performance, making the notebook ideal for casual gaming, watching High Definition movies and picture editing.

To achieve the best possible fit with users’ unique mobile computing needs, the 300V offers a choice of either gloss or antireflective displays. The gloss display is per fec t for games and movies as it ensures that images are brilliantly clear and vivid, while the anti-reflective display provides much better readability, even when your outdoors in sunlight, resulting in less eye strain when working for long stretches.

Users can, additionally, enjoy extended battery life of up to 7.0 hours (4400mAh battery) on a single charge on the new Samsung Series 3 300V. Samsung’s Power Plus intelligent battery charging technology also enables the battery to keep 80% of its original capacity for up to 1,000 recharges - up to 3 times longer than a typical battery which is normally just over 300 cycles. Hence, the 300V is much more economical and environmentally friendly as fewer batteries need to be replaced over the lifecycle.

The 300V ’s lightweight and compact design also means that users can take it vir tually anywhere. But as life on the move can be challenging some notebooks can easily become scratched even after a small amount of use. So the 300V’s robust Samsung Duracase casing, with a special scratchresistant sur face, will protec t against the risk of ever yday bumps and knocks and keep your notebook looking stylish and like new for longer.

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BUSINESS

Selling trend continues dominance KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week with variance on its indices performance. The price index ended last week with a decrease amounted to 0.12 percent, while the weighted index raised 0.07 percent compared to the closings of the week before. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 36.65 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 15.25 million, whereas trading volume average was 130.90 million shares, recording decrease of 24.08 percent.

The selling trend continued to be dominant during the last week. The selling operations, which included a wide variety of stocks, caused speculations in KSE performance in most of the sessions, and as a result, the market indices started with positive performance on many days last week due to the random purchasing transactions, yet it was soon driven back by profit taking pressure.

On the other hand, the last minute deals succeeded in enhancing KSE performance, as it managed in few times to support the market

BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT indices to record green closings, other times it helped only to lighten the losses. Nevertheless, some selective deals were noted, especially by the end of the week, the price index closed at 5,826.1 points, down by 0.12 percent from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 0.07 percent weekly gain after closing at 408.82 points.

Sectors’ indices Five of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other three recorded increases. The industry sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 1.53 percent to end the week’s activity at 4,222.5 points. The banks sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 1.01 percent, closing at 11,656.9 points, followed by the Investment

sector, as its index closed at 3,638.3 points at a loss of 0.39 percent. The insurance sector was the least declining as its index closed at 2,582.7 points with a 0.21 percent decrease. On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Food sector, achieving 4.55 percent growth rate as its index closed at 4,217.8 points. Whereas, in the second place, the services sector’s index closed at 13,078.7 points recording 0.30 percent increase. The Real Estate sector came in third as its index achieved 0.10 percent growth, ending the week at 2,031.9 points.

Investment sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 29.21 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 191.18 million shares. On the other hand, the services sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 33.08 million or 43.38 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Banks sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 13.96 million represented 18.31 percent of the total market trading value.

Sectors’ activity The services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 254.92 million shares changing hands, representing 38.95 percent of the total market trading volume. The

Market capitalization KSE total market capitalization grew by 0.11 percent during last week to reach KD 28.81 billion, as four of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitaliza-

tion, whereas the other four recorded declines.

The food sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 711.22 million, increasing by 1.85 percent. The services sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 1.16 percent increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 7.23 billion. The third place was for the non-Kuwaiti Companies sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 1.74 billion by the end of the week, recording an increase of 0.96 percent.

On the other hand, the Industry sector headed the decliners list as its total market capitalization reached KD 2.24 billion, decreasing by 1.72 percent. The Investment sector was the second in terms of recorded decline with 0.84 percent decrease after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 2.13 billion. The third place was for the Insurance sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 299.75 million by the end of the week, recording a decline of 0.29 percent.

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business

World economy wobbles as markets push policymakers LONDON: The message from this week’s market rout is crystal-clear: investors have lost confidence in their politicians, who urgently need to do something dramatic to reduce risks to the global economy. By some measures, the world economy is in better shape to withstand shocks than it was in the aftermath of the failure of investment bank Lehman Brothers nearly three years ago. Corporate earnings are robust, banks have thicker capital cushions, big emerging markets are still expanding strongly and there has been no repeat of the global liquidity squeeze that sent the dollar soaring in late 2008.

Indeed, after this week’s 8.5 percent slump in global equities , a rebound might not be far off. Wall Street initially rose on Friday after the US economy created 117,000 jobs last month, more

than expected, only to slide back into the red. Any relief is likely to be shortlived until politicians get ahead of the markets and show they are tackling the root cause of the malaise-excessive sovereign debt. “People have just become spooked by a crass failure of political leadership,” said George Magnus, senior economic adviser at UBS in London.

In Magnus’s view, the first-half slowdown in US growth- an important contributor to the current loss of confidence- was inevitable given how long it will take households to reduce their own debt mountain and rebuild savings. But he said markets wanted an end to the “political dysfunction” all too evident in the protracted wrangling over the US debt ceiling and the euro zone’s inadequate response to the debt crisis gripping the periphery

of the 17-member group. “There are economic solutions to economic problems, but no politicians are stepping up to the plate,” he said.

No urgency The Group of 20 leading economies and the Group of Seven rich nations impressed investors in late 2008 and 2009 by coordinating interest rate cuts and expanding fiscal policy to cushion the post-Lehman freefall in the global economy. But now, deficit-spending is the perceived problem, not the solution, in both the United States and the euro zone, while interest rates are already close to zero. With little ammunition left in the armoury, governments are displaying concern but not enough urgency for the likes of impatient investors. “There is probably no consensus within the G7 on how to

address this,” said a source in Japan familiar with G7 negotiations. “Each country is too busy with their own problems to talk about cooperation.”

Market mayhem leading to weaker growth in the rich world would naturally be negative for emerging economies. Jun Ma, an economist with Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, estimated that a downward revision of 1 percentage point to growth in the United States and the European Union would trim Chinese growth by 1 percentage point, too. So what happens next? In the United States, with budget policy now effectively off limits until after the November 2012 presidential election, some analysts believe the Federal Reserve will eventually embark on a third round of large-scale asset purchases, dubbed quantitative easing (QE), if unemployment remains too

high for comfort. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent from 9.2 in July, but that was because discouraged job-seekers gave up the hunt for work. “ With fiscal policy close to exhaustion and any remaining scope for flexibility apparently compromised by the recent bipartisan agreement on the debt ceiling, the responsibility for providing any additional support to the US economy rests very much with the Fed,” said Russell Jones, an economist with Westpac in Sydney. In a note to clients, Jones said it was probably too early for the Fed to announce a full programme of QE at its policy-setting meeting next week. But he said the central bank could reinforce its easy policy stance in the interim by taking steps to anchor long-term interest rates in order to spur investment and spending. — Reuters

Companies forge lean biz models to tap rural India Rural market of 700 million is huge opportunity

When Kelly Lyles of Aventura, Florida, launched a website in July to begin selling her invention, “Tip Top Shoe Savers,” she went immediately to social media to get the word out, garner feedback and drive people/customers to the website. — MCT

Social media fuel small ideas from startup stage MIAMI: Laid off after 23 years in the mortgage lending business, Dede Parise couldn’t find a job. So she took a marketing class to reinvent her career, and before long she turned an assignment into a company. Parise invented “The Bandee,” a headband women wear while playing golf and other sports. She sells her product mostly on the Internet, working from home. Her audience is vast, and growing.

In a year, using Facebook, she has parlayed her reach into 15,000 fans. For small businesses like Parise’s, social media has become a portal to success. “It’s really important,” said Parise, 49, of Weston, Fla. “It’s just the way the market has gone.” No question, the use of social media by businesses is booming. According to a recent study by EMarketers, 80 percent of leading companies will participate in socialmedia marketing in 2011, nearly double the number from just three years ago.

And a 2011 Social Media Marketing industry report by SocialMediaExaminer.com found that 90 percent of marketers said social media is important for their business. Eighty-eight percent said it generates more business exposure, and 72 percent said it brings increased traffic to their site. The most commonly used social media tools, the 2011 report found, are Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn and blogs, in that order. Parise didn’t have - or even want - a personal Facebook page a little over a year ago. But she knew she needed one for business.

Now, she says Facebook is the main contributor to the worldwide reach of her sales.

“Sometimes they say, ‘I saw you on Facebook,’ “ she said. When Kelly Lyles launched a website in July to begin selling her invention, “Tip Top Shoe Savers,” she went immediately to social media to get the word out, garner feedback and drive people/customers to the website. She posted on Twitter and Facebook to pique interest in her product - small shoe forms that women can place inside their pointy shoes to avoid creases and preserve the tips.

“One person putting a ‘like’ on your product or your page reaches hundreds of people because someone will see it on their page and say, ‘I like that,’ “ said Lyles, 34, of Aventura, Fla. What’s more, Facebook gives her a weekly update of how many people visited her site and how many people “liked” her product.

And she can link Facebook and Twitter, so that her postings go out on both. “So, if I say, ‘Come visit Tip Top Shoe Saver at the Summer Sale,’ it goes out to Twitter,” Lyles said. “It’s cross-promoting.” — MCT

Firms that connect network must ensure more security NEW YORK: Telecom equipment maker Ericsson has famously predicted there will be 50 billion devices connected to data networks by 2020.

Those connected devices won’t include just computers and smartphones, but cars, homes and industrial devices, constantly sending and receiving a flood of data. That convenience comes with a potential dark side. For hackers, cybercriminals and even armies, all those newly networked machines represent billions of new targets for mischief, thievery and assault.

“We understand that as our lives move into a completely digital connected world, it has to be secure and safe,” said Geoff Hollingworth, Ericsson’s Plano, Texas,-based head of Internet protocol services strategy for North America. “It’s no different than the real world, where you have to feel you can move down the street and not get attacked.” The security problem will be much broader than securing your laptop or even your smartphone.

Soon, the car in your garage, the electrical meter on the side of your home, the products you buy at the store, and the industrial controls at the factory that made those products will all be connected to various networks and the Internet. And each new networked device is a potential entry point for a hacker. Addison, Texas,based Revere Security Corp. develops security software for that new wave of connected devices. About a year ago, the company moved from perfecting its algorithms to pitching its products

to customers, which include everything from the US military to power companies.

One of Revere’s biggest opportunities is in the new wave of high-tech smart power meters. “The industry is luckily moving toward security controls on smart meters,” said Chris Hanebeck, vice president of product management and marketing at Revere.

Dallas-based power line operator Oncor has installed about 1.7 million digital smart meters in Texas over the last year or so, and its goal is 3.4 million by the end of 2012. The technology has benefits for both consumers and electricity providers. For example, if you have a smart meter, you can go to SmartMeterTexas.com to see nearly real-time data on your electricity usage. And your provider can turn your power on and off with the flick of a software switch, rather than spending hundreds of dollars to dispatch trucks and technicians to individual homes.

But the high-tech meters are much more like minicomputers than the simple measuring devices they’re replacing. So Oncor now has to focus on digital security in a way it never had to before. “When we started this project, from Day 1 we have foundationally built this with securing the system and securing the data in mind,” said Oncor chief technology officer Mark Carpenter. Carpenter said Oncor uses layers of security, including encryption, firewalls and data traffic monitoring, to keep bad guys from tapping into its meters. — MCT

SITAPUR: Carrying two worn bags full of toothbrushes and toothpaste, Raj Verma rides his battered bicycle around villages in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, leaving fresh supplies of Colgate products at the small shops he visits. For centuries, Indians cleaned their teeth with a piece of bark from the Neem tree, known for its antiseptic properties.

While most urban Indians have long used toothpaste, many of the 700 million rural Indians still brush with a Neem twig or their fingers. While that represents an obvious opportunity for toothpaste brands, the marketing and distribution methods to reach those remote customers are not so clear. Enter blue-sky thinking Indian style. India has pioneered the science of breaking up complex products or business models into their most basic forms and then rebuilding them in the most economic manner possible to tap the bottom of a market.

The term was coined by Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault and Nissan, to describe the automotive engineering that went into Tata Motors’ Nano, a small car that retails for just $2,000 in India. Tata itself sometimes refers to its low-cost innovations as “Gandhian engineering” in honour of India’s independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, a renowned proponent of self-sufficiency. Over the past few years, India has gained a reputation for creating a wide range of products sturdy enough to handle its demanding environment, easy enough for a wide range of people to use-and most importantly, affordable-from solar-powered ATM bank machines to a detergent requiring little water.

But getting these mean, lean products to consumers is not as easy as distributing them in the developed world. Anil Gupta should know. He started the Honey Bee Network to support India’s grassroots innovators and is an advisor to the National Innovation Council. He can rattle off a list of fantastic bricolage inventions, from an amphibious bicycle to a washing-cum-exercise -machine, that had no chance in the market. “Innovators are not necessarily good entrepreneurs,” he noted.

This is where big corporations have the advantage. Domestic and multinational companies based in India are taking that frugally motivated mindset and applying it to their entire business models.

Sachet marketing One of the earliest and most simple business process innovations was started by a south Indian health and beauty company, Velvette, in the 1980s. Keen to reach Indians who aspired to use shampoo but could not afford to buy a bottle of it, Velvette began putting small quantities, enough for one or two washes, into plastic sachets. The idea spread. Multinationals such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble, which distributes Colgate products, adopted it. Now in small shops throughout India you can find streams of sachets dangling from crowded shelves and filled with anything from detergent and cough syrup to potato chips and mobile

phone minutes.

“The aspiration for these products was there, but consumer ‘money in the pocket’ to afford a large cash outlay was not there. So success at the lower cash-out lay in these sachets,” said Geetu Verma, Executive Director of Innovation with Pepsico India, which sells small packets of its sports drink powder.

Sachets worked in markets where people were familiar with the products. But 10 years

Verma who rides his trusty bicycle around Sitapur district (named after Lord Ram’s wife Sita), ‘shakti maan’ (empowered man), ride from village to village. They cover much more ground than the women, who do not like to travel outside their villages on their own. That has added an additional 23,000 rural shakti distributors, helping HUL triple their rural reach in 2010.

The program is now being used in

BHUBANESHWAR: In this photo, an Indian artist paints masks of demon king Ravana to be used in Dussehra festivities. For many multinationals, doing business in India means being the first to set up new distribution networks that developed countries take for granted. — AP ago when Hindustan Unilever Ltd wanted to reach people in “media blackout zones” where its commercials weren’t seen and its products unknown, it had to think of an entirely new marketing method. Who better to promote its personal and home hygiene products but women looking to increase their household income? “This is a great way to talk to consumers in those areas,” said K. Adarsh, HUL’s Head of Customer Marketing.

People power In a project called Shakti Amma (empowered woman) that started in 2002, HUL tapped an existing network of women’s micro-financing groups, in which women get loans to buy something that can help them earn an income. In this case, the usual cow or weaving loom was replaced with R20,000 worth of HUL shampoos, detergents. “Shakti entrepreneurs go from home to home talking about relevant brand benefits-like hygiene and healthcare-of our products,” Adarsh said.

They sell products not only to households but also small village shops and kiosks-often the front room of a family home-becoming a marketing and distribution tool in one go. Today 45,000 shakti ammas push HUL products in India.

Last year, the company decided to diversify the network and include husbands and sons in the distribution process. Like Colgate’s Raj

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Pradeep Kashyap, founder and CEO of MART, a rural market consultancy company, helped HUL create Project Shakti. He has worked with many multinationals, including Colgate and Dupont, which are keen to tap India’s growing middle income families. If companies want to succeed in an emerging market, they must link up with India’s vast social networks to reach remote customers, he said.

“In a country like India, or any developing economy, the physical infrastructure is weak, but the social infrastructure is very strong,” Kashyap said. “Unlike in the west, where the physical infrastructure is very good-the roads, the electricity-but the social infrastructure doesn’t need to be strong. So we have to leverage on our social infrastructure.” India’s historical tradition of swadeshi (self-reliance) has provided a social incubator for today’s frugal engineering and business innovation.

Mahatma Gandhi adopted swadeshi as an economic strategy in the independence movement, boycotting British products in favour of Indian-made products and production techniques.

Nuclear family For many multinationals, doing business in India means being the first to set up new distribution networks that developed countries take for granted. — Reuters

Bangkok’s neighbors shoulder flood burden

BANGKOK: A motorcyclist makes his way through a flooded street caused by heavy overnight rain yesterday. — AP

BANG PAHAN: As Thailand battles to keep its worst floods in decades from swamping Bangkok, anger is growing among residents upriver who say their homes are being sacrificed to keep the capital dry.

“I pay the same tax as the people in Bangkok, why didn’t they think of me too?” said a teary-eyed Wanpen Rittisarn, standing kneedeep in brown water in the centre of Bang Pahan, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital.

The 41-year-old said she had to abandon her home after it was inundated by two metres (six feet) of water, seeking the relative safety of the nearby town, which has now also been overrun by floodwaters. “I’m having a hard time here. Who will care for me?” she said.

More than 250 Thais have died after two months of heavy rainfall which have inundated large swathes of the country and hit provinces on the northern outskirts of the capital particularly hard.

Huge efforts are now under way to stop the waters from reaching low-lying Bangkok, home to 12 million people, prompting pleas from some residents north of the city for sluice gates be raised to release floodwater. But Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra warned in a

nationally televised address on Friday that the country faced a deepening crisis and the floods would “directly affect Bangkok.”

The authorities have defended their emphasis on the capital at a time when millions of people elsewhere have seen their homes or livelihoods damaged by the floods, which have hit three-quarters of the country. “Bangkok is the heart of Thailand and is the heart of our economy,” said a disaster prevention official who asked not to be named. Walls of sandbags have been erected along the Chao Phraya river that flows through the city. Boats, their engines running, are also being used to help push the excess water out to sea.

And thanks to a complex irrigation system of canals and reservoirs, the authorities have been able to divert rain water away from the capital to “empty agricultural land”. “We are not trying to overprotect Bangkok to give the burden to others,” the official insisted, but “we try to avoid an influx of a huge amount of flood (water) that could ruin our whole economy.”

Already economists at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce estimate that the floods have caused damage of 104 billion baht (3.4 billion dollars) and will curb annual economic output by about one percent. — AFP

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

business

Leaders meet for European banking on crunch weekend France fears losing top notch AAA credit rating PARIS: International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde arrived in Paris yesterday for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy on a crunch weekend for the European debt crisis. She made no comment as she went into the Elysee palace. After their talks, Sarkozy was to head to Berlin today to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as eurozone leaders cobble together a plan to recapitalize banks overexposed to risky sovereign debt. On Friday the European Commission gave member states 10 days to agree a plan to shore up their lenders, which Lagarde’s IMF thinks will need between 100 and 200 billion euros ($135 billion and $270 billion) to cover potential losses.

French banks in particular are seen as overexposed to Greek, Italian and Spanish debts, and leaders fear a default in a weaker Mediterranean economy could trigger a financial crisis across the continent. Highlighting the urgency of the task, ratings agency Moody’s downgraded a dozen British banks over concerns government support for lenders could be withdrawn, and the Fitch agency downgraded Italy’s and Spain’s credit ratings.

The debt crisis, which began in Greece, has snared Ireland and Portugal and now put Italy and Spain in the firing line too, threatening to sink the entire euro project as banks find it hard to raise funding. The French, German and Italian employers’ federations yesterday appealed for greater European integration, calling for a new treaty to get over “the current shortcomings of the euro zone.” “So that the foundations can be laid for a prosperous and politically strong 21st century Europe, we call on the European Union to start work on a new treaty, which would be a new step towards closer political and economic union,” France’s Medef, Germany’s BDI and Italy’s Cofindustria said.

Fears of a resulting “credit crunch” have raised the spectre of 2008, when US giant investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed and could have taken the global financial system with it but for massive government support. Merkel, whose country is Europe’s strongest economy and effective eurozone paymaster, insisted Friday that under-pressure banks must first turn to investors for funds before appealing for national or European cash. France, the eurozone’s next biggest player, is reportedly more ready to turn to public funds to shore up its at risk lenders, and a state investment fund has already drawn up plans to rescue Franco-Belgian bank Dexia.

But officials at the finance ministry in Paris insisted there was no rift with Berlin, and said that the eventual bail-out plan would be

agreed on a European level after Sarkozy’s meeting with Merkel. Diplomats said France, in fear of losing its top notch AAA credit rating, would prefer to recapitalize banks with the existing but already stretched 440-billioneuro European Financial Stability Facility.

Germany is more cautious on using the fund, originally set up to help Greece directly, but has agreed to expand it. Of the 17 eurozone members, only Malta and Slovakia have yet to approve its expansion. Malta is expected to give the go-ahead tomorrow and Slovakia’s deadlocked coalition will meet on the same day, one day before Tuesday ’s unpredictable parliamentary vote that could save or sink the rescue fund. The European Commission said it would offer a framework in “coming days” for EU nations to recapitalize banks in a coordinated fashion. — AFP

PARIS: French president Nicolas Sarkozy (center) shakes hands with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde after a meeting yesterday at the Elysee Palace in Paris. — AFP

health security plans question feasibility AL-SHALL WEEKLY ECONOMIC REPORT

Wal-Mart’s new ‘arty’ role gets consumers skeptical HARTFORD: Wal-Mart Stores Inc has always competed with Main Street clothing and hardware stores, but this spring, the retail giant may be going head-to-head with specialty stores that sell handmade arts and crafts. WalMart will begin selling one-of-a-kind handicrafts made by women artisans in developing countries online at Walmart.com.

It’s a surprise move for a retailer whose empire is built on offering mass-produced items at discount prices. But for a West Hartford nonprofit, Aid To Artisans Inc., whose mission is helping Third World artisans develop and sell their handicrafts to buyers in North America, Wal-Mart’s new venture represents a major new market. WalMart isn’t talking prices yet, but by 2016 it plans to offer up to 500 items by 20,000 women artisans in twodozen countries. Among this spring’s offerings: dresses from Kenya and jewelry from Guatemala and Thailand.

Wal-Mart’s announcement has startled many and raised the concerns of importers and retailers who say they follow the precepts of fair trade, including Ten Thousand Villages, the nation’s oldest and largest fair trade retailer. “It certainly does seem in sharp contrast to Wal-Mart’s typical business model,” said Michele Loeper, a spokeswoman at the Akron, Pa., headquarters for Ten Thousand Villages.

“I’m not sure what their model will be,” Loeper said. “From our point of view we work with the artisans to identify a fair income, one that will benefit them and be sustainable. We’re the

anti-Wal-Mart, a nonprofit company dedicated to providing sustainable income opportunities to artisans in developing countries - I doubt that is what Wal-Mart is doing here.” Down the road, does Ten Thousand Villages view Wal-Mart as competition?

“That remains to be seen,” Loeper said. Wal-Mart said it plans to procure some products from Ethical Fashion Africa and Full Circle Exchange, a program within the International Trade Centre. ITC is a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. The e-commerce site is an “ideal venue” for artisans who “may not have the size or scale to sell in our brick-and-mortar stores,” and giving them “the benefit of the company’s knowledge about customers, packaging and promotions,” Leslie Dach, WalMart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, said.

Aid To Artisans has asked Wal-Mart to include in its selection a group of handicrafts made by women artisans in Colombia. The group has been helping the Wayuu artisans of Colombia develop a line of cup and bottle sleeves made from colorful yarn, recycled plastic bottles and inner tubes.

“We have reached out to Wal-Mart. We inquired and are waiting for a response,” Alfred Espinosa, president of ATA said. We are squarely in the target group they ’re trying to benefit,” Espinosa added.

ATA has helped artisans sell their products to Crate & Barrel, Coldwater Creek , Anthropologie and other retailers. —MCT

CONNECTICUT: Some of the handicrafts produced in Haiti are displayed at Aid To Artisans in West Hartford. — MCT

KUWAIT: It seems Kuwait is moving in the direction of committing another sin which is similar to the early handling of the bedoon crisis or trafficking in humans or the demographic structure. We believe that it is the appropriate time to warn against expatriates’ health security hospitals. There are intentions to establish a company -companies- to build three hospitals with a capacity of 300 beds each and with land area of 50,000 square meters for two and 36,000 square meters for the third. These hospitals will provide integrated medical services even dispensing of some drugs. This will cost KD 130 million in the first two years, KD 150 million for the third and forth, KD 170 million for the fifth and sixth, KD 180 million for the seventh and eighth, and KD 190 million for the ninth and tenth.

The project is not financially feasible unless it turns to providing quality service; it is a failure in humanitarian terms and will put the country’s reputation at stake especially when all Kuwaitis receive medical treatment in the best hospitals abroad as long as they pay for treatment. The financial failure comes from two sides. First, the insured category is small after excluding domestic servants and non-Kuwaiti civil servants and the professional labor in the private sector and any other exceptions approved by the government. The bracket that will benefit will be about 1.5 million, which is inadequate.

Second is estimating the cost versus the comprehensive services, from cold to major surgeries including the regular dental care services. Besides, insurance premium has been kept to the minimum because it will be borne by the employer. This would mean either the project will go broke and will be rescinded after sustaining heavy losses, or the provided services will be of bad quality and below the minimum level in human competence, quality of drugs and equipment, which is a crime. The human parameter remains more important. The first classification Kuwait will get is racial discrimination.

Medical services or needs and depriving a group because of its race from medical care and directing it to accepting a high risk service are a discriminatory action which also involved Kuwaitis. The Kuwaiti citizen’s wife has the right to report to government hospitals while the husband of a Kuwaiti wife reports to expatriates’ hospitals.

This discrimination is difficult to comprehend and is unjustifiable in terms of numbers, which are limited. Time is still available to revoke this sin.

There is a neutral professional Kuwaiti team of doctors and academicians who work sincerely to stop the project. Officials should listen to them. Law No. (1) for the year

1999 does not legalize this discrimination as some may brag. The team wants to suspend the project and it owns a different vision that is consistent with the law provisions.

In its monthly follow up reports to the State’s accounts for June 2011, the Ministry of Finance indicates on its web site sustained rise in revenues. Until 30/06/2011 (the first quarter of the current fiscal year 2011/2012), total received revenues scored about KD 7.1531 billion, which equals 53.2 percent of total estimated revenues for the entire current fiscal year at KD 13.4453 billion, with a notable rise of about 39.7 percent over total received revenues during the same period of last fiscal year 2010/2011 in the amount of KD 5.120 billion.

In details, the bulletin estimates actual oil revenues until 30/06/2011 by KD 6.7726 billion, or 55 percent of estimated oil revenues for the entire present fiscal year in the amount of KD 12.3071 billion and by 94.7 percent of total received revenues due to the continued rise in oil prices. Achieved oil revenues in the first quarter of the current fiscal year were higher

by KD 1.967 billion, 40.9 percent higher than its value during the same period last fiscal year. KD 380.484 million, or a monthly average of KD 126.828 million, was achieved from non-oil revenues against KD 1.1382 billion estimated for the entire current fiscal year.

This will make the total amount for the entire fiscal year KD 383.7 million higher than the estimated assuming that revenues would continue at the same monthly average.

Expenditures allocations for the current fiscal year were estimated at KD 19.435 billion. According to the bulletin, an amount of KD 1.5292 billion has been actually spent until 30/06/2011, a monthly spending average of KD 509.728 million. We however do not recommend relying on this figure because there are expenditures which have become due but have not been spent. Besides, spending in the late months of the fiscal year is usually higher than in the early ones.

Though the bulletin concludes that the budget surplus in the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year scored about KD 5.6239 billion, we publish the figure without endorsement because we believe that the actual surplus in the first three months will be less than the published figure. There are due expenditures but have not been paid. Besides, monthly spending average will be ascending which will reduce the surplus the further we move forward in the fiscal year. Eventually, it will be less with the issuing of the final account.

Kuwait Clearing Company issued its report titled “Trading Volume in KSE According to Nationality and Category” for the period from 01/01/2011 to

30/09/2011 and published on Kuwait Stock Exchange web site.

The report informed that individuals still form the larger dealers’ group at KSE and acquired about 46.9 percent of the total value of sold shares and 42.4 percent of the total value of purchased shares.

Individual investors sold shares worth KD 2.2312 billion and bought shares worth KD 2.0189 billion with a net trading balance, for more selling, by KD 212.3 million.

Companies and corporations sector formed 25.9 percent of the total value of purchased shares and 19.9 percent of the total value of sold shares. The sector purchased shares worth KD 1.2302 billion and sold shares worth KD 948.1 million, with a net trading balance, for more buying, by about KD 282.1 million.

The third contributor to the market’s liquidity is the clients’ accounts (portfolios) sector which acquired about 22.3 percent of the total value of sold shares and 21.2 percent of the total value of purchased shares. The sector sold shares worth KD 1.0619 billion and purchased shares worth KD 1.0067 billion, with a net trading selling balance, by KD 55.1 million. The last contributor to liquidity is the investment funds sector which acquired 10.9 percent of the total value of sold shares and 10.6 percent of the total value of purchased shares. The sector sold shares worth KD 518.8 million and purchased shares worth KD 504.1 million, with a net trading selling balance, by KD 14.7 million. Kuwait Stock Exchange continues to be local as Kuwaiti investors still take the lead and purchased shares worth KD 4.3702 billion forming 91.8 percent of the total value of purchased shares and sold shares worth KD 4.2835 billion contributing 91.8 percent of total value of sold shares. Thus, their net trading buying balance was worth KD 86.7 million.

Percentage of other investors’ share of the total value of sold shares scored about 6.6 percent, worth KD 315.1 million versus KD 266.9 million, or 5.6 percent, of the total value of purchased shares.

Thus, their net trading selling balance, was worth KD 48.2 million.

GCC investors share out of the total value of sold shares formed about 3.4 percent, worth KD 161.4 million while percentage of their total value of purchased shares formed about 2.6 percent worth KD 122.9 million, with a net trading selling balance, worth KD 38.5 million.

Comparing trading features during the first nine months of 2011 -from January to September 2011- the relative distribution among nationalities remained unchanged: 90.9 percent for Kuwaitis, 6.1 percent for traders from other nationalities, and 3 percent for GCC traders. This means KSE remained local stock exchange

market with investors from outside the GCC out-weighing investors from within GCC, with individuals’ trading exceeding corporations’ trading. Number of active trading accounts dropped by -30.2 percent during the same period. Number of active trading accounts in the end of September 2011 settled at 16,101 accounts or 6.7 percent of total accounts. Continued drop in the number of active accounts confirms the phenomenon of refrain from market trading, as extension to its weak liquidity.

September ended and the stock markets’ performance still contradicts our forecasts of sharp upward volatility, as this volatility is still sharp but with a downward direction. After fears about the United States and Italy in August, Greece returned with its likely default and exit from the Euro zone -the unified currency- coming back to the scene and the talk about French and German banks’ involvement surfaced. A main reason for the panic stems from Europe’s failure, which is united monetarily but disunited financially and politically, of adopting the rescue an appropriate decision in the appropriate time.

With the end of September, 14 out of 14 selected markets were in the negative zone while 7 markets were in the positive zone in the end of April. In the end of July, only two were in the positive zone and only one in the end of August.

Performance was mixed as in the attached table. The Qatari market was the best by losing -3.3 percent of the index value vis-a-vis the end of last year. The French index CAC 40 was the worst losing -21.6 percent. The US Dow Jones, the British and the Japanese markets shared 4 Gulf markets in the 7 markets zone with the least losses, while the French, the German, the Indian and the Chinese markets shared 3 Gulf markets in the other 7 markets zone with the most losses.

In the last week of September, when the Euro zone -the unified currency- called for confronting its problems and the Greek Prime Minister visited Germany to emphasize Greece commitment to the Euro coupled with austerity measures in a political attempt to support the German Chancellor’s orientations before the German parliament, markets began their breath taking pace. It seems we prematurely anticipated that. We still reiterate our estimate in August that the world is inevitably will restore its consciousness aware of the disastrous slip into the and with it the ascension of the stagnation phase which it experienced fluctuating markets performance, after the 1929 great depression when its however, in an upwards direction. This politicians failed to adopt the might be achieved in the current month. appropriate and timely decisions.

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TECHNOLOGY

Smartphone war pauses as world mourns Steve Jobs SAN FRANCISCO: The launch of a hot new Google smartphone was delayed on Friday as the world mourned the loss of legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and sales began of the latest iPhone. Unconfirmed word also spread that a private funeral was taking place for Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 after battling cancer. Apple has indicated that no public memorial is planned. People touched by the death of the Apple cofounder have made pilgrimages to Apple stores, the company’s Cupertino headquarters, and even his family’s two-story brick home in an old section of the Silicon Valley city of Palo Alto.

Apple security and local police have discretely ringed the house, clearing the way for dark vehicles bearing flowers or friends to get through the barricaded intersection and into a driveway

of the corner property. On the far side of the slate-roofed house is an apricot orchard. Jobs bought the neighboring property a long time back and knocked down the house there to put in a swing set for his children and an apricot orchard because he so loved the fruit, according to neighbors.

People, some with children, came to pay tribute to Jobs and a collection of orchids, roses and other flowers grew.

“I just wanted to know I could do something,” Judith Sallot said of how she and others around the world sought ways to express their sense of loss since no public event is expected.

“People just want to do something,” she explained. Sallot, who recently turned 65 years old, confided that she was computer illiterate until she got an iPhone. “I am computer savvy now,” she said with a smile. “I feel so much

better about myself, and it’s because he made it easy.” Grim-faced people came and went, pausing to gaze thoughtfully at a growing shrine that included a classic white iPod with the words “Stay hungry” and “Stay foolish” written on it in black marker.

A pile of apples, each with one bite taken out in tribute to Apple’s famous logo, was growing and heartfelt messages written in colored chalk coated the sidewalk. On the other side of a low wooden-post fence lining the front yard, a small apple orchard laden with fruit stood in a sea of orange poppies. Pictures of Jobs were tacked to the fence, along with messages including “Often imitated, never duplicated.”

“It is sad, especially for the family,” said a neighbor who asked only to be identified by her first name, Karelle.

“He was part of the neighborhood.” As

was the case with many of the others who stopped to leave notes, flowers, or other tributes to Jobs, Karelle snapped pictures with her iPhone.

Samsung and Google on Friday postponed a “Mobile Unpacked” press event planned for next week at an international wireless telecommunications industry conference in Southern California.

“Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product,” Samsung said in a statement at its official blog.” We will announce a new date and venue in due course,” the South Korean consumer electronics titan promised. Samsung was expected to unveil a Galaxy Nexus smartphone powered by a yet-to-be released version of Google-backed Android soft-

ware and designed to challenge market-leading iPhone.Postponing the launch was seen as a temporary truce of sorts in honor of Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 after battling cancer. Apple on Friday began taking online pre-orders for an updated iPhone 4S that is to be available on October 14 in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain. The iPhone 4S features a speedier processor, a “personal assistant” that responds to voice commands and a more powerful camera.

It remained to be seen whether the legions of people from around the world touched by the death of Jobs would buy the iPhone 4S in tribute to the man who altered lives with iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macintosh computers. Apple did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.—AFP

Apple’s mystique may grow with Steve Jobs’ death SAN FRANCISCO: In the end, Steve believe it will remain business as usual Jobs left the world to his own devices. at Apple. Apple Inc. shares dipped only As macabre as it might seem, Jobs’ slightly on the first day of trading after death Wednesday will only add to the this death, down 88 cents Thursday to Apple mystique - and profit. The $377.37. The sedate reaction repreiPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac will, no sents a vote of confidence in the mandoubt, get a sales boost as consumers agement team that Jobs assembled to pay the ultimate tribute to one of carry out his vision. In his final years, America’s creative geniuses. That could Jobs increasingly shared the stage be especially true for the latest iPhone, with his lieutenants in a move that scheduled to go on sale Oct 14. The telegraphed Apple wasn’t just a onelines were going to be long anyway, man show. Jobs also had ensured an but now there are bound to be even orderly transition by resigning as CEO more people clambering for the six weeks ago and turning over the job to his protÈgÈ, Tim iPhone 4S - the last Cook. device to be unveiled As soon as he took while Jobs was alive.

Jobs was a rock the job, Cook vowed It’s a commercial star, someone on to maintain “a comphenomenon that has happened many the scale of Franklin pany and culture that is unlike any other in times before, most and Edison the world.” He will recently when have plenty of help Michael Jackson’s from Jobs-groomed album and song sales rocketed after the pop singer died in executives dubbed a management “dream team” by some analysts.

2009.

The other key players include mar“Steve Jobs was a rock star, someone on the scale of Benjamin Franklin keting guru Phil Schiller, design chief and Thomas Edison,” said Steven Jonathan Ive, software mastermind Osinski, a marketing professor at San Scott Forstall and the head of finance, Diego State University. “I think it’s very Peter Oppenheimer. Nearly all the key likely there is going to be an upsurge Apple executives have been at the in Apple’s sales for a while.” Anything company for years, many of them joindesigned by revered figures invariably ing around the time of Jobs’ 1997 become hotter commodities after return. It’s widely believed that Apple’s their death, said Michael Bernacchi, a plans for the next two or three years marketing professor at the University already had been largely worked out before Jobs died. It’s a given that a of Detroit Mercy.

“These products have significant third-generation iPad will be released emotional value, they have sentimen- next year, but most analysts believe tal value, they’re connected, if you will, the logical next step will be for Apple to the bloodstream of the person to introduce a large-screen television who’s likely to be the purchaser,” that runs on the same operating sysBernacchi said. “There’s a certain nos- tem as its computer tablet, phone and talgic value attached to that. “Mr Jobs touch-screen iPod. The only question seems to be really continues to exist in a much different manner through these prod- whether the still-hypothetical iTV will ucts,” Bernacchi said. It can’t hurt that hit the market next year or 2013. many of Apple’s 357 stores already “Steve’s style and his vision will live on, have turned into shrines, attracting and it could soon permeate the living people who want to mourn together. room,” predicted Sterne Agee analyst It’s not hard to imagine some of them Shaw Wu. After Walt Disney died in wandering into the stores and buying December 1966, the company seemed to be in good shape. Within a few an iPad or Mac. Consider the scene Thursday at months, Disneyland opened another Apple’s San Francisco store. A memori- popular attraction - the Pirates of the al of flowers lined the sidewalk and Caribbean - and released a hit movie, handwritten notes were plastered on “The Jungle Book.” But Walt Disney had the window. One note read: “You approved and was involved in both made the world a better place.” projects before he died. After the Another proclaimed “hungry and fool- pipeline went dry, Walt Disney Co. ish 4 ever,” a nod to one of Jobs’ went through a long creative malaise favorite sayings. Inside the store, it was that lasted until it hired Michael Eisner business as usual. Upbeat rock-and-roll in 1984 to engineer what proved to be music played, and shoppers clustered a successful turnaround. Forrester around the iPad display. Javier Research CEO George Colony is worMartinez, a medical doctor vacation- ried that Apple will eventually lose its ing from Spain, passed by and way, causing historians to look back on snapped pictures of the scene with his Jobs’ tenure as a golden age of techiPhone 4. Although he has no immedi- nology.

“I hope that I am wrong,” Colony ate plans to buy the new version, he is committed to continue buying the wrote in a Thursday blog post. “My products that are a testament to Jobs’ hope is that Steve inspires all of us in the technology business to stop creatgenius.

“He’s dead, but his soul is alive,” ing confusing, poorly-designed, slow, Martinez said. “He was the soul of an complex, ugly, maddening products idea for many people who want to do that weigh down rather than lift up things better, differently.” Investors the work and souls of people.” —AP

AT&T sells 200,000 new iPhones in first pre-orders NEW YORK: US telecom giant AT&T said Friday it has seen an unprecedented demand for the updated iPhone, with over 200,000 pre-orders of the latest Apple gadget in the first 12 hours alone.

The iPhone 4S, unveiled on Tuesday on the eve of the death of legendar y Apple founder and leader Steve Jobs, goes on wide release on October 14 in the United States and six other countries, but customers seeking to reserve the new device could start pre-orders Friday.

Two other US carriers-Verizon Wireless and Sprint-also released the iPhone for pre-order, but did not post sales figures late Friday.

The device has disappointed some analysts due to its similarity with the earlier iPhone 4, released last year, but the processor is said to be as powerful as the Apple iPad, and comes with a sophisticated voice command system, called Siri.

In addition to its stand-alone appeal, as latest incarnation of the revolutionary device, sales of the iPhone 4S are also expected to benefit from the enormous outpouring of sympathy for Jobs, who died this week at age 56, after years battling prostate cancer. In the United States, iPhone 4S prices will start at $199 for a 16 gigabyte model and top out at $399 for a model with 64GB of memory. —AFP

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H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Study seeks to prove theory humans evolving OTTAWA: Rare evidence of the long-held belief that humans are still evolving has been unearthed in the parish records of a French-Canadian island on the Saint Lawrence seaway, researchers say. Ile aux Coudres is located 80 km northeast of Quebec City. Between 1720 and 1773, 30 families settled there and the population reached 1,585 people by the 1950s.

Poring over church registers containing detailed records of dates of births, marriages and deaths, researchers found the age of women when they had their first

child fell from about 26 to 22 years over 140 years from 1799 to just before 1940.

After discounting environmental and social factors, they concluded this substantial change from one generation to the next “largely occurred at the genetic level”. “It is often claimed that modern humans have stopped evolving because cultural and technological advancements have annihilated natural selection,” says the study led by Emmanuel Milot at the University of Quebec in Montreal. “Our study supports the idea that humans are

still evolving,” it concludes. “It also demonstrates that micro-evolution is detectable over just a few generations in humans.”

The age when women have their first child is a “highly heritable” trait. The researchers point to reports of other insular pre-industrial societies showing that natural selection favored an earlier age for women to have their first child, allowing bigger families and often better health. Ile aux Coudres’s population is very homogeneous, particularly in traits

known to correlate with the timing of reproduction such as social class, education and religion. This made it ideal for statistical analysis.

The study notes that the observed reproduction changes might be responses to improvements in nutrition, observed in the 19th and 20th centuries in Western societies. “Better fed women grow faster, mature earlier and in a better physiological state, and are more fecund.”

But that would then have lead to “an increase in infant and juvenile survival

rates” whereas in fact over the 140 years those remained stable, the study said.

The researchers also dismissed the possibility that the trend was the result of genetic drift - the random sampling of genes between generations - as it was too strong to be random.

The study, “Evidence for evolution in response to natural selection in a contemporary human population,” is to be published in the next print issue of the journal “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” on Tuesday. — AFP

Climate talks inch ahead on aid despite discord PANAMA CITY: Climate negotiators said Friday they made progress on laying out ways to help poor countries but deep differences remained on core issues ahead of a make-orbreak talks in South Africa. With scientists warning that the planet is far behind on meeting pledges to control climate change, officials from around the world held a week of talks in Panama City to float ideas before the Durban conference opens on Nov 28. UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said that the talks made “good progress” and pointed to technical work on the shape of a Green Climate Fund that will assist the poorest nations seen as worst impacted by climate change.

Figueres acknowledged a “rough start” on the issue, as developing nations accused the United States and other major donors of blocking discussion on how to raise the $100 billion a year promised for the fund by 2020.

But a draft text produced in Panama City for governments’ review reiterates the $100 billion figure and says most will come from public money. It leaves open the idea of a levy on airline and shipping emissions to raise revenue. The Panama talks “made clear progress on how efforts to limit emissions by developing countries will be matched with necessary support from developed countries in a transparent way,” Figueres said. The developed countries said, “Look, we’re in a financial crisis right now but we do recognize that this is our long-term commitment. We’re not shying away from the commitment,’” she told reporters. Tim Gore of aid group Oxfam was also cautiously upbeat, saying: “We started the week with developed countries not wanting to talk about it and we’ve ended up with the basis for negotiations.”

But there was no sign of a solution on a pressing issue - what to do after 2012, when obligations run out for rich nations to cut carbon emissions which scientists warn spell dire consequences for the planet’s health. “You’ve got what seem to be irreconcilable differences and the question is whether there is some way forward that at least continues that conversation further down the road,” said Alden

Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The European Union is the main champion of the Kyoto Protocol and is willing to pledge new post-2012 emissions cuts under the treaty to avoid any gap. But Canada, Japan and Russia have refused to continue Kyoto and say that any future accord must all major economies including China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, which in turn wants binding action from wealthy nations. One way forward, according to the UN climate chief, would be for some nations make new pledges under Kyoto while other offer separate but clear commitments. “That is going to be the crux of Durban,” Figueres said.

But the United States, where many of President Barack Obama’s opponents question the science behind climate change, said the time was not right for a binding treaty.

America rejected Kyoto, so the world’s largest economy would have no obligations if there is a new round. “We can only consider an agreement that applies with equal legal force to all the major economies - by which we mean unconditional commitments, not commitments depending on funding,” US negotiator Jonathan Pershing said.

The United States was committed to contributing to the $100 billion fund but wanted freedom to determine its own sources, such as private money, he added. With parts of the European Union in a debt crisis, the bloc’s climate negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said it was unrealistic for developing countries to expect money on the table before more clarity on how the aid fund will work. “We are willing to talk about initial capitalization (to the fund) but I don’t think that we can lead people up the garden path and say this money is going to be there in Durban,” he said.

But negotiator Colin Beck of the Solomon Islands - which like many low-lying nations fears that climate change threatens its survival - pointed to last year’s 110 billion-euro ($150 billion) EU-IMF bailout of Greece. “If you look at the economic crisis, more money is being spent on Greece, one country alone, than for the long-term health of the planet,” Beck said. — AFP

PARIS: Morocco’s Brahim Takioullah, who has the largest feet of the world according to the Guinness Book of Records, poses on a bench in front of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees on Sept 29, 2011. — AFP

Man with largest feet finding fame PARIS: The first thing that people notice about Brahim Takioullah is not his feet - which he hopes will make him famous - but his enormous height. He stands more than eight foot (246 cm) tall. As he strolls through downtown Paris people gasp, stare, take his picture and ask: “Are you the tallest man in the world?” He’s not, not quite, but he does have the biggest pair of feet on the planet - and that’s official. Judges from Guinness World Records came to France to measure him and confirmed his suspicion that he had recordbreaking feet - his left measuring one foot three inches (38.1 cm) in length and his right, one foot 2.76 inches.

Takioullah cannot stand up straight in the small flat he shares with his mother in the Paris suburbs, has difficulty getting into a taxi or the Metro, and can never move around without attracting attention. But he is surprisingly good humoured about his situation, smiling and posing for cellphone snaps and politely answering questions about his condition, a rare medical problem that he hopes to cure through surgery.

Takioullah is from Morocco, and grew up in a small village - grew up fast. In one year in his teens he put on more than three feet (one metre) in a spurt. Now 29, no-one thought to investigate his unusual size until he was 18.

“The school doctor noticed that I was this enormous size and asked me to get some blood tests. I did that, and I was diagnosed with a very rare condition called acromegaly,” he told AFP. Acromegaly is a pituitary gland disorder that causes the body to produce excessive growth hormone. The brain tumour can lead to other problems aside from great

size, and Takioullah was advised to seek surgery.

But first he decided to finish his university studies in geography. When he began treatment, he was already huge and closing in on the world’s tallest man, eight-foot three-inch (2.51 m) Sultan Kosen of Turkey. Five years ago, a French doctor brought him to Paris for treatment, and he is not expected to reach Sultan’s height record. Takioullah contacted Guinness himself to challenge for the record, and says he is proud to have it recognised, though daily life is not without its problems.

He hopes one day to have a specially built car he could drive himself, but for now even getting a pair of shoes stretches his budget he takes a European size 58, which no shop has ever stocked. “I always need them madeto-measure and they’re very expensive. I once asked a cobbler to make me some shoes and he said it would cost €3,500 (5,270 dollars),” he sighed. Last week he met an orthopedic podiatrist to be fitted with a specially made pair designed to support his huge weight.

“The thing is, when you have a very, very large foot, even the machine to make the components isn’t necessarily big enough. So we really had to work right on the edge of the machinery.” said Jerome Liegeon.

French doctors are working to reduce Takioullah’s brain tumour, and he hopes his newfound fame will help him find the specialist treatment he needs. “The record now will be known around the world, and experts anywhere around the planet may be able to help,” said Craig Glenday of Guinness World Records, publisher of the famous guide to the world’s extremes. — AFP

TAURANGA, New Zealand: Vet Baukje Lenting (left) and Wildlife Response Centre Director Brett Gartrell wash oil from a penguin yesterday. — AFP

N Zealand navy called in for oil slick cleanup Container ship on verge of breaking apart WELLINGTON: The New Zealand navy was called yesterday to help clean up an oil slick in the pristine Bay of Plenty that leaked from a stranded container ship which now threatens to break apart on an offshore reef. The navy had deployed four ships to assist efforts to contain pollution from the 47,000 tonne container ship Rena, which hit a reef off the North Island town of Tauranga earlier last week, Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said. It said 300 defence personnel were on standby while a further 200 people, including specialists from Australia, Britain, Holland and Singapore, were part of the team hoping to contain the fivekilometre oil slick.

The toxic discharge has already killed a number of seabirds, while five Little Blue Penguins and two shags were being treated after being found coated with oil on the Bay of Plenty’s beaches and islands, MNZ said. The government has warned the accident could become the country’s worst maritime pollution disaster in decades if the Rena sinks on the reef. The massive bay at the top of the Nor th Island is regarded as one of New Zealand’s environmental jewels. It contains two marine reserves and is home to whales, dolphins, seals and penguins.

The reef which the Rena struck is 22 km off-

shore and MNZ said that while the oil slick had not yet reached the coast, computer modelling showed this was possible in coming days. MNZ on-site controller Rob Service said a monitoring flight early Saturday showed oil appeared to have stopped leaking from the stricken vessel and much of the slick had been reduced to a “sheen” of thinly-spread oil. Some new oil was spotted later yesterday but this appeared to have dispersed.

But the problem of dealing with the 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on board the ship remains. A worst-case scenario would see the 21-year-old vessel, which is already badly damaged, sink on the reef, spewing the oil into the sea. With the weather forecast to deteriorate next week, Service said removing the oil from the stricken vessel was the top priority. He said caps were being placed on the ship’s fuel tanks to try to prevent the oil leeching out even if it sank. Service said criticism that the fuel transfer was taking too long was uninformed. “This is not like removing fuel from a dinghy,” he said. “It’s not even like removing fuel from a 30-metre fishing vessel.

We’re talking about an extensively damaged 236 metre-cargo vessel - this is a challenging and complex operation.” He said a state-ofthe-art tanker normally used to refuel visiting

cruise liners was steaming to Tauranga from Auckland to help salvage the Rena. The salvage operation is complex because the vessel is in the unique situation of having one end stuck hard on the reef while the other half of the ship was floating, officials said.

MNZ’s salvage adviser Captain Jon Walker said an international team was working on a salvage plan. “I’ve worked with these people, they are the best,” Captain Walker said, as he admitted that the operation would be difficult because the ship is listing at an 11-degree angle and the decks are covered in containers.

With no cranes on the ship, specialist heavy lifting equipment will also have to be brought to the vessel to remove the cargo.

As teams of naval architects are working around the clock to assess the strength of the ship, salvors are looking at how to safely refloat the vessel once the oil is removed and the ship lightened of some of its containers. Officials hope the salvage team can start pumping oil today, but this depends on the damage to the ship and the prevailing weather conditions. The weather is expected to remain fine today but winds are expected to build, making the salvage difficult, from early next week. Prime Minister John Key will visit the accident site today. — AFP

First diabetes-cholesterol combo pill gets FDA nod TRENTON, New Jersey: The first combination pill for the millions of people with the dangerous combination of diabetes and high cholesterol won US approval Friday, offering convenience - and savings - to patients taking multiple pills.

Juvisync, a probable blockbuster developed by Merck & Co Inc, will be launched in a few weeks. It combines Merck’s Type 2 diabetes pill Januvia with Zocor, a former Merck blockbuster in the widely used class of cholesterol drugs called statins.

The combination pill will sell for the same price as Januvia alone, about $215 per month.

Generic versions of Zocor cost roughly $30 a month. That should make Juvisync attractive for the millions of diabetics currently not taking a statin.

Guidelines from the American Diabetes Association recommend that diabetics who have heart disease or are over age 40 take a statin pill daily. “This provides a way to simplify their regimen and improve adherence,” said Dr Susan Spratt, an endocrinologist at Duke University Medical Center.

Spratt said many diabetes

patients are taking six or more pills a day, including different types of pills for diabetes, blood pressure and high cholesterol. It can be hard to consistently take them all at the right time, and even with health insurance, patients’ out-of-pocket costs for their medications and diabetes testing supplies can be very high. “Anything to reduce the cost is going to be helpful to patients,” Spratt said, adding, “When you improve medication adherence, you actually lower health care costs because patients don’t end up in the ER or the hospital.” Merck shares rose 19 cents to close at $31.61 Friday, after rising nearly 3 percent.

In Type 2 diabetes, the body either does not produce enough of the hormone insulin or does not use it efficiently, allowing excess sugar, or glucose, to accumulate in the blood. Over time, that damages blood vessels and crucial organs. Many of the more than 25 million US diabetes patients also have high cholesterol, partly because both conditions often are linked to being overweight. The combination increases risk of heart disease,

stroke, kidney disease and other chronic conditions. Diabetics also are at risk of blindness, amputations from wounds that do not heal and heart attacks.

Despite those dangers, Merck scientists estimate that up to 4 million diabetes patients over 40 are not following the medication recommendation.

“Perhaps one third of the nation’s eligible patients with type 2 diabetes are not being treated with a statin, so here’s a convenient tool for doctors to target glucose as well as cholesterol levels,” Dr Sethu Reddy, Merck’s director of clinical affairs for diabetes, said in a statement.

Juvisync will be available in six different dosage strengths, to accommodate patients with varying levels of cholesterol and diabetes. Common side effects of the drug include stuffy nose and sore throat, headache, muscle and stomach pain.

The approval revives Zocor, which had been Merck’s topselling medicine before it got generic competition in June 2006. It’s now available in nearly a dozen generic forms as simvastatin. Januvia, Merck’s thirdbest-selling drug, was approved in Oct 2006. It was the first dia-

betes drug in a new class called DPP-4 inhibitors that now includes Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s Onglyza and Tradjenta, made by Eli Lilly & Co and Boehringer Ingelheim. The drugs work by making the body produce more insulin after meals, to reduce levels of glucose in the blood, and by limiting the amount of glucose made by the liver.

Januvia brought in $1.5 billion in the first six months of this year and had sales of $2.4 billion last year. Merck already sells a pill that combines Januvia with a widely used generic diabetes pill, metformin. That combo pill, called Janumet, had sales of $626 million in the first half of this year.

With Merck’s top seller, asthma and allergy drug Singulair, getting generic competition next August, the Januvia franchise becomes even more important for the company, which is the world’s third-biggest drugmaker by revenue. Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, is planning to seek approval of Juvisync in many other countries in the near future, according to spokeswoman Pam Eisele. —AP

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he a lt h & s c ie n c e

One in 10 US parents skip, delay kids’ shots CHICAGO: By age 6, children should have vaccinations against 14 diseases, in at least two dozen separate doses, the US government advises. More than 1 in 10 parents reject that, refusing some shots or delaying others mainly because of safety concerns, a national survey found. Worries about vaccine safety were common even among parents whose kids were fully vaccinated: 1 in 5 among that group said they think delaying shots is safer than the recommended schedule. The results suggest that more than 2 million infants and young children may not be fully protected against preventable diseases, including some that can be deadly or disabling.

The nationally representative online survey of roughly 750 parents of kids age 6 and younger was done last year and results were released online Monday in the journal Pediatrics. They are in line with a larger federal survey released last month, showing that at least 1 in 10 toddlers and preschoolers lagged on vaccines that included chickenpox and the measles-mumpsrubella combination shots. That survey, also for 2010, included more than 17,000 households.

The Pediatrics survey follows other recent news raising concerns among infectious disease specialists, including a study showing the whooping cough vaccine seems to lose much of its effectiveness after just three years - faster than doctors have thought - perhaps contributing to recent major outbreaks, most notably in California. Also, data reported in September

show that a record number of kindergartners’ parents in California last year used a personal belief exemption to avoid vaccination requirements.

Kandace O’Neill is a Lakeville, Minn., mom whose views are shared by many parents who don’t follow federal vaccine advice. Her 5-yearold son has had no vaccinations since he turned 1, and her 7-month-old daughter has received none of the recommended shots. “I have to make sure that my child is healthy, and I do not want to put medications in my child that I think are going to harm them,” said O’Neill, who was not involved in the survey appearing in Pediatrics. O’Neill said she’s not an extreme antivaccine zealot. She just thinks that parents - not doctors or schools - should make medical decisions for their children.

Study author Dr Amanda Dempsey, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of Michigan, said vaccine skepticism is fueled by erroneous information online and media reports that sensationalize misconceptions. These include the persistent belief among some parents about an autism-vaccine link despite scientific evidence to the contrary and the debunking of one of the most publicized studies that first fueled vaccine fears years ago.

Some parents also dismiss the severity of vaccine-preventable diseases because they’ve never seen a child seriously ill with those illnesses.

But vaccine-preventable diseases including flu and whooping cough can be deadly, especially

in infants, said Dr Buddy Creech, associate director of Vanderbilt University’s Vaccine Research Program. Creech has two school-aged children who are fully vaccinated and a newborn he said will be given all the recommended vaccinations.

“From being someone in the trenches seeing children die every year from influenza and its complications ... I would not do a single thing to risk the health of my kids,” he said. Creech has served on advisory boards for vaccine makers and has accepted their research money.

Dempsey, the survey’s lead author, has been a paid adviser to Merck on issues regarding a vaccine for older children but said that company made no contributions to the survey research.

Knowledge Networks conducted the survey, which had an error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points. Dr Larry Pickering, an infectious disease specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the new survey is important and well done, and indicates that doctors need to do a better job of communicating vaccine information to patients.

Pickering said he supports the idea of parents being actively involved in medical care for their children, but cautioned: “If they’re going to do that, they need to be fully informed about the risks and benefits of vaccines and need to obtain the information from a valid source.” The CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians are among groups that provide online vaccine information based on medical research. — AP

LAKEVILLE, Minnesota: In this Sept 29, 2011 photo, Kandace O’Neill poses with her 7month-old daughter. Her 5-year-old son has had no vaccinations since he turned 1 and the baby girl has received none of the recommended shots. — AP

US listeria toll up to 21, matches 1998 outbreak NEW YORK: Three more people in the United States have died from a listeria outbreak caused by tainted cantaloupes linked to a Colorado farm, bringing the toll to 21 deaths across 11 states, health officials said yesterday.

Deaths from the deadliest US food borne outbreak in more than a decade have now reached Indiana, New York and Wyoming, in addition to those reported in New Mexico,

Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. That matches the death toll from a multi-state listeria outbreak linked to hot dogs and deli turkey from a Michigan processor that started in 1998 and stretched into 1999.

A total of 109 people across 24 states have been infected with one of the four strains of listeria involved in the latest outbreak, the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. One woman who was pregnant when she became sick had a miscarriage, the CDC said.

Because listeria bacteria can cause illness as long as two months after a person has consumed contaminated food, health officials have warned that the cases of illness related to the cantaloupes likely will rise through October.

Several companies have recalled fruit fol-

senses' harmony ... with life

lowing the original recall from Colorado’s Jensen Farms on Sept 14. New York-based Fruit Fresh Up Inc became the latest on Friday, recalling mixed fresh fruit that included cantaloupe. No illnesses have been reported in connection with this recall of fruit that was distributed to Buffalo, New York, and surrounding areas. Listeria monocytogenes is a frequent cause of US food recalls in processed meats

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and cheeses, but contamination in fresh produce is a new and worrisome development.

People most at risk are the elderly, the pregnant and people with a weakened immune system, such as people who have had an organ transplant or cancer. Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. — Reuters

17 th - 2 th 4 Oct

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Announcements BEC T10 Cricket tournament The BEC T10 Tennis Ball Cricket Tournament will be organized & played from 7th October to 11th November, 2011. The Tournament being organized by RED N BLACK CRICKET CLUB and sponsored by BEC EXCHANGE will be played out in Abu Halifa cricket grounds. For registration and other queries please mail at mail@rednblack.org or call 66820148/ 66130940/ 66841653.

Laif annual convention Here comes LAIF Annual Convention. The Life Abundant International Fountain Kuwait is holding its first annual convention at the National Evangelical Church, Kuwait (Neck CompoundHall of Faith), Near Parliament House, Kuwait City from Thursday, October 6-9, 2011. It will commence on Thursday at 7 pm, Friday at 10 am, Friday at 10 pm, Saturday at 6 pm and Sunday at 6:30 pm. For more information, contact and transport, call 66332844 50611737, 66922052, 665SO209 or e-mail: laifkuwait@yahoo.co.uk, www.facebook.com/L.A.I.F.CHURCH. 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 Alva- 23726164, Suma Bhatt- 97834578 Salmiya & Hawally: Swarna Shetty- 99006934, Kripa Gatty- 66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq: Rekha Sachu- 65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana66585077 Sanath Shetty- 67712409.

Brain Bang Calling all students aged 11 and above, Support Group for Accelerated learning under the umbrella of FOCC (Friends of CRY Club, Kuwait), BRAIN-BANG invites you to join us in our fortnightly Friday Class from 11.45 am to 13.45 pm in Salmiya starting October 7th for the next 6 months. Successfully running for the seventh consecutive year.

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

Limited seats. Register early to avoid disappointment. Website: www.focckwt.org E-Mail: brainbang@focckwt.org Phone no: 25660835/25618471/97677820 Annual competition Tulu Koota Kuwait has great pleasure in inviting its valuable members to Tulukoota Kuwait annual competitions on 14th October 2011. It’s a unique opportunity to our members & their children to showcase their talent at the varied competitions. There will be singing, dance, fancy dress competitions for all age group, cute baby photo contest etc. Competitions will be held on Friday 14th October from 10 am onwards in Indian Community School (Senior Girls), Salmiya.

For details, competition rules and registrations please contact 65044521, 65013887, 66958848, 97834578 Or visit our website www.tu1ukootakuwait.org or mail us at secretary@tulukootakuwait.org.

AIP celebrates Gandhi Jayanthi

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ssociation of Indian Professional (AIP) organized a colorful event to commemorate the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India. The Ambassador of India, Satish C Mehta was the chief guest and S K Wadhawan was the guest of honor. The program was attended by a large number of people including more than 200 participants from all Indian schools in Kuwait. The evening kicked off with a debate of contemporary relevance “Is satyagrah the right tool to fight corruption in modern times” which received overwhelming participation and appreciation from the audience. Renowned academician Prof Raj Raghupathy, acclaimed journalist Chaitali Roy and Ms. Bina Alexendra of Kuwait University were the esteemed judges and the stage was efficiently mod-

erated by Dr TS Srikumar. This was followed by a Fancy Dress Competition (solo and group) based on the life events of Mahatma. In this competition, the participants displayed their immense talent and ardent patriotism. Sujatha Rajendran, Renu Wadhawan and Najida Abdulla were the judges. The children of FAIPS and ICSK added color to the event with their group patriotic songs.

The ambassador was delighted that AIP organized this event in memory of his mentor, the Great Mahatma. He was full of appreciation for the organizers and happily commented that the “AIP Gandhi Jayanthi Celebration” was the best public function he attended in Kuwait. At the outset, General Secretary of AIP, Eng Umesh Sharma highlighted the field of activities

undertaken by AIP and emphasized on the doctrine of Mahatma Gandhi. In his speech, AIP Chairman, Dr. CG Suresh stated that the young generation should follow the path of the father of nation and keep up honesty and integrity in all their future endeavors.

Chief Guest, S K Wadhawan praised AIP for their efforts to serve the Indian Community in Kuwait and assured his full support for all AIP activities. Anil Parasher, Dr Kamlesh Kumari, Umesh Sahni, Murali Manohar, Anita Parasher and Anita Suresh coordinated the event. The program was efficiently compeered by Ajish Sam George and Noora Khan of ICSK. Following are the results of the competitions held that evening: Interactive debate: 1st Prize: Bhakti Priya - Gulf Indian School

2nd Prize: Jade Pais - Carmel School 3rd Prize: Soundarya Lahiri - Indian Educational School Fancy Dress Competition (Solo) 1st Prize: Nanda Shajan - Indian Educational School 2nd Prize: Adil Mohammed YC- Indian Community School, Amman Branch 3rd Prize: Preeti Suvarna - Carmel School Fancy Dress Competition (Group) 1st Prize: Indian Educational School 2nd Prize: Indian Educational School 3rd Prize: Indian Public School All participants were presented with the certificate of honor. The main sponsor of the event, SK Wadhwan, Veena Wadhwan and co-sponsor TA Remesh of awarded the winners with trophies and certificates.

Disney-branded area unveiled at Lulu Hypermarket

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ulu Hypermarkets, the most preferred shopping destination among locals and expatriates, recently unveiled their exclusive Disney-branded area for customers in Kuwait. The Disney branded area, which brings to Kuwait a colorful range of Disney products and favorite cartoon characters like Mickey, Minnie, Woody and Buzz, to delight fans of all ages, was inaugurated at the Al Rai and Al Qurain branches of the Hypermarket.

Speaking on the occasion, Lulu Hypermarket officials in Kuwait commented that, “We are honored and delighted to bring the magic of the Disney brand to our valued customers in Kuwait. As always, we are committed to serving the customers here with the best possible line-up of products and services and to treat them to an experience that truly reflects our tagline of,

‘Where the world comes to shop’. “ Since opening their doors in Kuwait, Lulu Hypermarket has given a new dimension to shopping and changed

the shopping experience for people in the country. Lulu Hypermarket in Kuwait has consistently been ranked among the top in its category and has

always keenly upheld the Lulu philosophy of ‘Good quality products at affordable prices with best service’.

According to Hypermarket officials, “The Disney branded area is another way of showing our commitment towards building a world-class shopping experience. The retail experience at Lulu is driven by this commitment and is enriched by a demanding diversity that brings the largest range of product categories under one roof.”

The main attraction in the Disney area is the large collections of toys, garments, footwear, stationery, cups, mugs and household accessories, sportswear, party wear, related accessories and cartoon CD’s and DVD’s including video games. The new Disney area, which includes a unique mix of good quality and wide range, will be a rewarding experience for customers.

AALE Awards Program Accreditation to AUK Tulu Parba Merit scholarship

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ulu Koota Kuwait is pleased to announce its Merit Cum Means Scholarship Award to be awarded during Tulu Parba which will be held on 4th November 2011 in American International School Auditorium, Maidan Hawally.

Tulu Koota Kuwait firmly believes in the great value of education and is strongly committed to helping needy students to achieve their educational goals. Application accepted from minimum one year valid members children studying either in State of Kuwait or in India, scoring high grades at X and XII standard Board Examination held during Academic year 2010-2011. Contact Tulukoota Kuwait Welfare officer Suresh Shyam Rao on 65976789 or email: shyamson@yahoo.com to submit the copies of marks sheet & proof of income with the application. Candidates obtaining high grades but not eligible for merit cum means scholarship shall be honored with Merit Certificate and Medal. For further information please contact: Harish Bhandary Tel. 50264416

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he American Academy for Liberal Education’s (AALE) Board of Trustees awarded the American University of Kuwait International Program Accreditation for its Arts and Humanities Division, Social Sciences Division as well as the University General Education Program.

The Academy certifies and accredits institutions and programs worldwide that are concerned with liberal education and the liberal arts. Accreditation by AALE signifies institutional integrity and a strong commitment to liberal education. Membership certifies that the institution meets or exceeds the Academy’s independently established Education Standards.

The AALE Board, Council of Scholars and Site Evaluation Visit Team all agree that, “The University’s commitment to provide liberal education extends from AUK’s administrators and Board of Trustees to the faculty and students.” They added that AUK students “are strongly enthusiastic about inquiry, reflection, critical evaluation, debate and preferring thoughtful critique over memorization.” Further, the Visiting Team Report added that “the AUK Faculty is commended for the many ways they seek out and implement additional learning opportunities that enhance the quality of

education and global experiences of their students.”

AALE accreditation demonstrates that AUK utilizes the best traditions of liberal education, and certifies that the Divisions of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the General Education Programs meet International Accreditation standards.

AUK President Dr Winfred Thompson recognized the significance of this step forward saying,

“Our aim is to aspire to the highest standard of quality, and with this award we are one step closer to ensuring that AUK provides the highest quality education in Kuwait and the region.”

The Academy’s Education Standards provide stakeholders in higher education, including parents and prospective students, with a clear means of identifying colleges and programs with focused, well-articulated goals for liberal learning in areas such as history, mathematics, science, literature, languages and philosophy, and with coherent approaches to liberal education.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor Nizar Hamzeh, thanked all those who have contributed to the AALE Self-Study, and in particular members of the AALE Steering Committee chaired by Dr Rawda Awwad, Assistant Dean for Accreditation and Curriculum. He added, “From my own experience, receiving international program accreditation is not only a tremendous academic achievement but is a testimony to the excellent qualifications, hard work, and leadership and integrity enjoyed by the University faculty, administration and staff.”

AUK has already received program accreditation from The Accreditation

Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) for its Business and Economics Division. The Intensive English Program (IEP) at AUK has also been accredited by the Commission on English Language Programs Accreditation (CEA). AUK is the first private university in Kuwait to have received program accreditation from International accrediting agencies.

The American University of Kuwait (AUK) is an independent, private, equal opportunity, and co-educational liberal arts institution of higher education. The educational, cultural and administrative structure, methods and standards of AUK are based on the American model of higher learning. The lanuage of instruction is English.

AUK and Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (USA) have worked closley together since 2003, when the two institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding that facilitated a serios of advisory, consultative and cooperative projects. Dartmouth College is a member of the group of universities in the United States known as the “Ivy League”, more information on Dartmouth College can be found at www.dartmouth.edu.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

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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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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, Al-Mutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca.

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

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

All previous Temporary Resident Visa application forms will no longer be accepted by CIC and instead will be returned to applicants. Should old applications be submitted prior to January 15, 2011 they will continue to be processed. To ensure that the most recent version of the Temporary Resident Visa application form is being utilized, applicants should refer to the CIC website. As of January 15, 2011, forms are to be filled in electronically.

The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday.

The forms are available on the internet at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM 5257E.PDF. ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF GERMANY The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com ■■■■■■■

‘IPBWL’ holds farewell reception

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Embassy of India will remain closed on October 26, 2011 (Wednesday) Diwali.

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reception was held for the occasion of having the 2nd meeting of International Professional and Business Women League prior to the celebration of the German week which was organized by the German embassy and local government / private organizations and enterprises in Kuwait. During the reception participants bid farewell to Marwa Barakat the wife of the Egyptian Military attache and acknowledging her distinguished efforts as one of the founding members of the league. The reception was attended by more than 70 professional, business women and ambassadors / diplomats’ wives.

Coaching program begins

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boys and girls from the Hawally Pakistan English School have just begun a five week coaching program with the Premier Goal Academy in association with Everton FC. The course is being held at Shaab Park every Thursday afternoon under the expert guidance of Coaches Alfie, Peter, Mike, Bader and Yousaf. The young players are following the www.evertonway.com curriculum, developing individual moves and skills, understanding team play and covering the topics of dribbling, passing, control, shooting, running with the ball, tackling, heading and goal keeping. The program is sponsored by Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company,

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy. We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area - Block 6 - Street 9 Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316.

Study in Canada Fair 2011

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rganized by the Embassy of Canada, the sixth annual Middle East Education Initiative (MEEI) will be visiting Kuwait from Oct 1 to 4, 2011. Representatives of 20 leading Canadian universities and colleges will be available to meet students, parents, teachers and guidance counsellors to present the advantages of studying in Canada. The Canadian institutions will also be visiting local schools to speak to interested students about opportunities to study in Canada.

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00:45 Cats 101 01:40 Jaws Comes Home: Return Of The...

02:35 Into The Lion’s Den 03:30 Your Worst Animal Nightmares 04:25 Untamed & Uncut 05:20 Cats 101 06:10 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 07:00 Meerkat Manor 07:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 08:15 Breed All About It 08:40 The Really Wild Show 09:10 Baby Planet 10:05 Natural Born Hunters 10:30 Jeff Corwin Unleashed 11:00 Crocodile Hunter 11:55 Cats 101 12:50 Speed Of Life 13:45 Speed Of Life 14:40 Must Love Cats 15:35 Bad Dog 16:30 My Cat From Hell 17:25 Into The Pride 18:20 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 19:15 Swarm Chasers 20:10 Cats 101 21:05 Killer Whales 22:00 Wildest Africa 22:55 Whale Wars 23:50 Untamed & Uncut

00:00 Robin Hood 00:50 The Jonathan Ross Show 01:40 Blackadder II 02:10 Blackadder II 02:40 The Weakest Link 03:25 As Time Goes By 04:00 One Foot In The Grave 04:30 Balamory 04:50 Gigglebiz 05:05 Me Too 05:25 Charlie And Lola 05:40 Buzz & Tell 05:45 Buzz & Tell 05:50 Balamory 06:10 Gigglebiz 06:25 Me Too 06:45 Charlie And Lola 06:55 Buzz & Tell 07:00 Buzz & Tell 07:05 Balamory 07:25 Gigglebiz 07:40 Me Too 08:00 Charlie And Lola 08:10 Buzz & Tell 08:15 Buzz & Tell 08:20 Balamory 08:40 Gigglebiz 08:55 Me Too 09:15 Charlie And Lola 09:30 Buzz & Tell 09:35 Buzz & Tell 09:45 As Time Goes By 10:15 One Foot In The Grave 10:50 Robin Hood 11:35 The Weakest Link 12:20 Casualty 13:10 Incredible Journeys With Steve Leonard 14:00 The Weakest Link 14:45 The Weakest Link 15:35 Doctors 18:05 Robin Hood 18:50 As Time Goes By 19:20 One Foot In The Grave 19:55 Life On Air 20:50 Incredible Journeys With Steve Leonard 21:40 Lark Rise To Candleford 22:35 The Fixer 23:20 Dalziel And Pascoe

00:25 Antiques Roadshow 03:50 Holmes On Homes 06:50 Cash In The Attic USA 07:15 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 07:40 Come Dine With Me 08:30 Come Dine With Me

11:55 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 12:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 16:40 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 17:05 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 17:30 Design Star 18:15 Design Star 19:00 Gok’s Fashion Fix 19:50 Gok’s Fashion Fix 20:35 Masterchef Australia 23:25 Design Star

00:00 BBC World News 00:10 World Features 00:30 World Challenge 2011 01:00 BBC World News 01:30 Middle East Business Report 02:00 BBC World News 02:10 World Features 02:30 Newsnight 03:00 BBC World News 03:10 World Features 03:30 BBC World News 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Dateline London 05:00 BBC World News 05:10 BBC World News 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Click 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 Newsnight 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 India Business Report 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 Fast Track 10:00 BBC World News 10:10 The Health Show 10:30 BBC World News 11:00 BBC World News 11:10 World Features 11:30 Dateline London 12:00 BBC World News 12:10 World Features 12:30 Horizons 13:00 BBC World News 13:10 World Features 13:30 BBC World News 14:00 BBC World News 14:30 Newsnight 15:00 BBC World News 15:10 World Features 15:30 BBC World News 16:00 BBC World News 16:15 Sport Today 16:30 Click 17:00 BBC World News 17:30 World Challenge 2011 18:00 BBC World News 18:10 BBC World News 19:00 BBC World News 19:30 India Business Report 20:00 BBC World News 20:30 BBC World News 21:00 Sports World Have Your Say 21:30 Sports World Have Your Say 22:00 BBC World News 22:30 BBC World News 23:00 BBC World News 23:10 This Week With Christiane Amanpour

00:00 00:25 00:50 01:15 01:40 02:05 02:30 02:55 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:35 05:00 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:15 06:40 07:00 07:25

The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Droopy: Master Detective The Flintstones Johnny Bravo Duck Dodgers King Arthur’s Disasters The Scooby Doo Show Popeye Classics Tom & Jerry Popeye The Jetsons The Flintstones Looney Tunes Pink Panther & Pals Tex Avery Yogi’s Treasure Hunt The Garfield Show The Addams Family Popeye Paddington Bear Scooby Doo Where Are You!

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:55 09:20 09:45 10:10 10:35 11:00 11:30 13:05 13:30 13:50 14:15 14:40 15:05 15:30 15:55 16:20 Doo 16:45 17:10 17:35 17:55 18:20 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:00 20:30 20:50 21:05 21:40 22:05 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:35

Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Pink Panther & Pals Puppy In My Pocket Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Yogi’s Treasure Hunt The Garfield Show Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Scooby Goes Hollywood New Yogi Bear Show Tex Avery The Addams Family Droopy & Dripple The Flintstones The Garfield Show Duck Dodgers Wacky Races Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDastardly And Muttley The Jetsons Wacky Races Scooby Doo Where Are You! Popeye Classics The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Pink Panther & Pals Top Cat Dastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Wacky Races The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Johnny Bravo Dexters Laboratory The Garfield Show Scooby Doo Where Are You!

00:05 Robotboy - Elements 00:30 Squirrel Boy 00:55 George Of The Jungle 01:20 Cramp Twins 01:45 Chop Socky Chooks 02:10 Best Ed 02:35 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 03:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 03:25 Generator Rex 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Flapjack 04:40 Chowder 05:05 Powerpuff Girls 05:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 05:55 I Am Weasel 06:20 Squirrel Boy 06:45 Cow & Chicken 07:00 The Life & Times Of Juniper Lee 07:04 Cow & Chicken 07:25 Powerpuff Girls 07:50 Cartoon Network Dance Club 08:05 Angelo Rules 08:30 Chowder 08:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 09:20 Adventure Time 09:45 Gumball 09:55 Cow And Chicken 10:05 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:27 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 10:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 11:20 Generator Rex 11:45 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 12:10 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 12:35 Hero 108 13:00 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 13:25 Robotboy - Elements 13:50 I Am Weasel 14:15 Best Ed 14:40 Chowder 15:05 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 15:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 15:55 Cow & Chicken 16:20 Adventure Time 16:45 Codename: Kids Next Door 17:10 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 17:35 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 18:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 18:25 Flapjack 18:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 19:15 Adventure Time 19:40 The Grim Adventures Of Billy

THE KARATE KID III ON OSN ACTION HD

& Mandy 20:05 Chowder 20:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 20:55 Cow & Chicken 21:20 Best Ed 21:45 I Am Weasel 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 22:50 The Secret Saturdays 23:15 Samurai Jack 23:40 Megas XLR

00:00 The Best Of Backstory 00:30 World Sport 01:00 World Report 01:30 Living Golf 02:00 World Report 02:30 Inside Africa 03:00 Your Money 04:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 05:00 The Best Of The Situation Room 06:00 World Sport 06:30 Living Golf 07:00 World Report 07:30 The Best Of Backstory 08:00 World Report 08:15 CNN Marketplace Middle East 08:30 Inside The Middle East 09:00 World Report 09:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 09:30 Eco Solutions 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Living Golf 11:00 African Voices 11:30 Talk Asia 12:00 News Special 12:30 World View 13:00 World Report 13:30 World Sport 14:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 15:00 Fareed Zakaria Gps 16:00 State Of The Union 17:00 International Desk 17:30 Inside Africa 18:00 Eco Solutions 18:30 World Sport 19:00 Prism 19:45 CNN Marketplace Middle East 20:00 International Desk 20:30 Inside The Middle East 21:00 World Report 21:30 Living Golf 22:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 23:00 Fareed Zakaria Gps

00:40 Deadliest Catch 01:35 Deadliest Catch 02:30 Deadliest Catch 03:25 How Do They Do It? 03:55 How Stuff’s Made 04:20 How Do They Do It? 04:50 How Stuff’s Made 05:15 How Do They Do It? 05:40 How Stuff’s Made 06:05 How Do They Do It? 06:35 How Stuff’s Made 07:00 American Chopper: Senior vs Junior 07:50 Ultimate Car Build-Off 08:45 Wheeler Dealers 09:40 Extreme Fishing 10:30 Extreme Fishing With Robson Green 11:25 Ultimate Survival 12:20 How Do They Do It? 12:45 Cash Cab Us 15:05 Cake Boss 17:20 Mythbusters 18:15 Ultimate Survival 19:10 Deadliest Catch 20:05 Dual Survival 21:00 Mythbusters 21:55 Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero 22:50 Science Of The Movies 23:45 Science Of The Movies

00:05 Green Wheels 00:30 Race to Mars 01:20 I, Videogame 05:40 Green Wheels 06:10 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 07:00 Race to Mars 07:55 Head Rush 07:58 Sci-Fi Science 08:25 Weird Connections 08:55 Da Vinci’s Machines 09:45 Prototype This 10:35 Build It Bigger: Rebuilding Greensburg 13:55 Engineering Thrills 14:45 Head Rush 14:48 Sci-Fi Science 15:15 Weird Connections 15:45 Bang Goes the Theory 16:10 The Gadget Show 16:35 The Gadget Show 17:00 Future Weapons 17:50 Human Body: Ultimate Machine 18:40 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 19:30 When Aliens Attack 20:20 Race to Mars 21:10 Invisible Worlds 22:00 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman 22:50 When Aliens Attack 23:40 Bang Goes the Theory

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

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

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

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

00:25 Fashion Police 00:55 Chelsea Lately 01:25 25 Most Memorable Swimsuit Moments 03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Reality Hell 05:30 Wildest TV Show Moments 06:00 15 Remarkable Celebrity Body Bouncebacks 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kendra 09:45 Kendra 10:15 Giuliana & Bill 11:10 Giuliana & Bill 12:05 E! News 13:05 Fashion Police 13:35 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:05 THS 15:00 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:30 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:55 The Dance Scene 16:25 The Dance Scene 16:55 Behind The Scenes 17:25 Behind The Scenes 17:55 E! News 18:55 Bridalplasty 19:55 Giuliana & Bill 20:55 Ice Loves Coco 21:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 22:25 E! News 23:25 The Soup 23:55 Chelsea Lately

00:30 A Haunting 01:15 The Haunted 02:05 Ghost Lab 02:50 A Haunting 03:40 A Haunting 04:25 True Crime With Aphrodite Jones 05:15 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 06:10 Mystery ER 07:00 Forensic Detectives 07:45 Murder Shift 08:35 Mystery ER 09:20 Real Emergency Calls 09:45 Real Emergency Calls 10:05 The Prosecutors 10:50 FBI Files 11:40 Murder Shift 12:25 True Crime With Aphrodite Jones 13:15 Disappeared 14:00 Mystery ER 14:50 Real Emergency Calls 15:15 Real Emergency Calls 15:35 The Prosecutors 16:20 Forensic Detectives 17:10 Murder Shift 18:00 FBI Files 18:45 Real Emergency Calls 19:10 Mystery ER 19:55 Street Patrol 20:20 True Crime With Aphrodite Jones 21:10 Disappeared 22:00 Nightmare Next Door 22:50 I Almost Got Away With It 23:40 Couples Who Kill

00:00 Racing To America 01:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 01:30 Pressure Cook 02:00 A World Apart 03:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 04:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 05:00 Long Way Down 06:00 Racing To America 07:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:30 Pressure Cook 08:00 A World Apart 09:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 Long Way Down 12:00 Racing To America 13:00 Cooking The World 14:00 Going Bush 14:30 Bluelist Australia 15:00 Food School 15:30 Banged Up Abroad 16:30 Banged Up Abroad 17:30 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 18:00 Travel Madness 18:30 Madventures 19:00 Cooking The World 20:00 Going Bush 20:30 Bluelist Australia 21:00 Food School 21:30 Banged Up Abroad 22:30 Banged Up Abroad 23:30 Weird & Wonderful Hotels

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:15 10:15 12:30 14:30 16:30 18:30

Rage: Carrie 2-PG15 Blood And Bone-18 Tupac: Resurrection-18 Spiderman 2-PG15 Kiss The Girls-PG15 What Lies Beneath-PG15 Patriot Games-PG15 Kiss The Girls-PG15 The Karate Kid III-PG Patriot Games-PG15

TRIAGE ON OSN CINEMA 20:30 Gothika-18 22:15 Jennifer’s Body-18

01:15 Mother And Child-18 03:30 The Sunset Limited-PG15 05:15 The Spy Next Door-PG 07:00 Parlez-Moi De LA Pluie-PG15 09:00 The Brothers Bloom-PG15 11:15 Skellig-PG15 13:00 Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea-FAM 15:00 Attack On Leningrad-PG15 17:00 The Boys Are Back-PG 19:00 Leap Year-PG15 21:00 Triage-18 23:00 Biutiful-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Neighbors From Hell 02:00 Saturday Night Live 03:00 Melissa And Joey 03:30 Mr. Sunshine 04:00 Two And A Half Men 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Malcolm In The Middle 06:00 Coach 06:30 Weird Science 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Two And A Half Men 08:30 Melissa And Joey 09:00 Malcolm In The Middle 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:00 Outsourced 10:30 Coach 11:00 Weird Science 11:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Two And A Half Men 13:00 Mr. Sunshine 13:30 Malcolm In The Middle 14:00 Coach 14:30 How I Met Your Mother 15:00 Outsourced 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Weird Science 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Friends 18:30 Friends 19:00 8 Simple Rules ...

19:30 State Of Georgia 20:00 Happy Endings 20:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 Neighbors From Hell 23:30 Happy Endings

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

C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami Scoundrels C.S.I. One Tree Hill The View Good Morning America The Good Guys Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Martha Stewart Show The View C.S.I. New York C.S.I. C.S.I. Miami Live Good Morning America One Tree Hill The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Law & Order: Los Angeles Charlie’s Angels Pan Am Scoundrels The Good Guys

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30

Psych Any Human Heart C.S.I. Miami C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Terriers Psych According To Jim Coronation Street

08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

White Collar Terriers C.S.I. New York C.S.I. Miami According To Jim Coronation Street White Collar Psych According To Jim Coronation Street Body Of Proof Law & Order: Los Angeles Charlie’s Angels Pan Am Any Human Heart Terriers

01:00 03:00 05:00 06:45 PG15 09:00 PG15 11:00 13:00 15:00 PG15 17:00 19:15 21:00 23:00

Juice-18 Tupac: Resurrection-18 The Final Destination-18 The Hunt For Red OctoberStonehenge ApocalypseThe Bannen Way-PG15 Ransom-PG15 Stonehenge ApocalypseSherlock Holmes-PG15 The Gene Generation-18 4.3.2.1.-18 Timber Falls-18

00:00 It’s A Wonderful AfterlifePG15 02:00 Four Last Songs-PG15 04:00 The Open Road-PG15 06:00 I Love You Beth Cooper-PG15 08:00 Checking Out-PG15 10:00 500 Days Of Summer-PG15 12:00 The Big Green-PG 14:00 The Prince And Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon-PG15 16:00 It’s A Wonderful AfterlifePG15 18:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 20:00 Serial Mom-18 22:00 Couples Retreat-18

01:00 03:15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:15 15:00 16:45 18:45 21:00 23:00

Shining Through-PG15 Enid-PG15 Flying By-PG15 Free Style (2008)-PG15 End Of The Spear-PG15 Capitalism: A Love Story-PG15 Enid-PG15 Tuck Everlasting-PG Sweet Liberty-PG15 Dance With Me-PG A Simple Twist Of Fate-PG15 The Damned United-PG15

00:45 02:30 04:30 06:15 09:00 11:00 13:00 14:45 17:00 18:45 21:00 23:00

Wake-PG15 Paper Man-PG15 Good Hair-PG15 Avatar-PG The Tempest-PG15 Amelia-PG15 Glitter-PG15 Tron: Legacy-PG15 The Tempest-PG15 The Hurt Locker-18 Shanghai-PG15 Predators-18

00:00 Legend Of Sleeping BeautyPG 02:00 Ulysses-PG 04:00 Dinosaur Island-PG 06:00 The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle-FAM 08:00 Queen Of The Swallows-FAM 10:00 Nanny Mcphee And The Big Bang-PG 12:15 Legend Of Sleeping BeautyPG 14:00 Inspector Gadget’s Biggest Caper Ever-FAM 16:00 Lego: The Adventures Of Clutch Powers-FAM 18:00 Nanny Mcphee And The Big Bang-PG 20:00 Shipwrecked-PG15 22:00 Inspector Gadget’s Biggest Caper Ever-FAM

02:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:30 14:00 15:00 17:00 18:00 20:00 20:30 22:30 23:30

UFC 136 Countdown The Ultimate Fighter Live UFC 136 Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup Live RWC Matchday RWC Matchday Trans World Sport WWE SmackDown RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup RWC Matchday The Ultimate Fighter

01:30 02:00 04:30 06:30 07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:30 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 20:00 20:30 22:30 23:30

RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup 2011 Euro 2012 Qulaifiers RWC Matchday Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup 2011 Live RWC Matchday Live Rugby World Cup 2011 Live RWC Matchday Euro 2012 Qulaifiers RWC Matchday Trans World Sport RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup 2011 RWC Matchday Rugby World Cup 2011 RWC Matchday Darts Grand Prix

01:00 RWC Matchday Highlights 01:30 AFL Highlights 02:30 Live V8 Championship Series 09:30 Super League 12:00 Darts Grand Prix 15:00 Live European PGA Tour 19:00 Live Tentative European Challenge Cup 21:00 Live Darts Grand Prix 23:00 RWC Weekly Highlights

00:30 01:30 02:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 23:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC All Access UFC 136 Countdown Live UFC 136 Prelims Live UFC 136 WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE SmackDown WWE Tough Enough Speedway FIM World V8 Supercars Championship V8 Supercars Extra Live Super Formula UFC 136 Countdown UFC 136 Prelims UFC 136 Super Formula

00:00 Short History of Convict Australia 01:00 Cruising the Spirit of Adventure 02:00 Trabant Trek 02:30 Word Travels 03:00 Tall Ship Explorers 04:00 Globe Trekker 06:00 Globe Trekker Special 08:00 Intrepid Journeys 09:00 Glutton For Punishment 09:30 Flavours of Greece 10:00 Short History of Convict Australia 11:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 12:00 Globe Trekker 13:00 Floyd On Africa 14:30 Travel Today 15:00 Essential Specials 16:00 Globe Trekker 17:00 People of the Sea 18:00 Cruising the Spirit of Adventure 19:00 Globe Trekker 20:00 Planet Sports 21:00 Cruise Today 21:30 Essential 22:00 Essential Specials 23:00 Globe Trekker

Classifieds SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Room for rent in Farwaniya behind Crowne Plaza Hotel near Dar Al-Quran, Pakistani and Indian bachelor. Contact: 66490857 / 50129393. (C 3676) 9-10-2011

hereby change my name to HAZEM MOHAMMAD ZIAD SHOASHAH. (C 3674) 8-10-2011 I, Shina Kurian holder of Indian Passport No. E8470284 here by change my name to SHYNA KURIAN. Hence forth all my dealings and documents will be known by my new name.

(C 3669)

FOR SALE Motor cycle Honda Africa V-Twin 750cc, 99 model, 20,000km only, American owned, with all spares, KD 850/-. Call: 99434036 / 66274034.

Email: jeevesej@yahoo.com (C 3675) 9-10-2011

No: 15234

SITUATION VACANT Manager (Asian) in Maiden Hawally looking for a maid on part time duty. Please call 97263962 for details.

(C 3673) 5-10-2011

CHANGE OF NAME I, HAZEEM MOHAMMAD ZAID S/O MOHAMMAD ZAID holder of Indian Passport No: Z1842542

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines RJA MLR JZR THY ETH UAE DHX ETD MSR FDB GFA QTR JZR KAC JZR FCX JZR KAC BAW KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC UAE IRA QTR ABY IRA ETD GFA FCX MEA RBG IRC JZR JZR KAC MSR UAL RJA KAC FDB QTR

Flt 642 1405 267 772 620 853 370 305 614 67 211 138 529 544 503 201 555 412 157 206 382 284 302 332 53 678 352 855 615 132 125 603 301 213 203 404 3555 6801 561 201 672 610 982 640 774 57 140

Arrival Flights on Sunday 9/10/2011 Route AMMAN COLOMBO/DUBAI BEIRUT ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA ASSIUT CAIRO LUXOR DUBAI ALEXANDRIA MANILA/BANGKOK LONDON ISLAMABAD DELHI DHAKA MUMBAI TRIVANDRUM DUBAI MUSCAT/DUBAI COCHIN DUBAI SHAHRE KORD DOHA SHARJAH SHIRAZ ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA AHWAZ SOHAG DAMASCUS DUBAI CAIRO WASHINGTON DC DULLES AMMAN RIYADH DUBAI DOHA

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

KAC SVA KAC JZR QTR ETD UAE GFA SVA JZR RBG JZR ABY JZR FDB JZR ALK KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI SYR FDB OMA MEA VOS KAC DHX UAE KAC GFA QTR UAL AFG AIC JZR JZR JZR MSR DLH AXB JZR KLM JZR PIA

562 500 746 257 134 303 857 215 510 777 3557 239 127 213 63 177 227 166 542 618 786 614 674 102 572 341 61 647 402 81 512 372 859 172 217 136 981 405 981 135 787 185 612 636 389 539 447 481 205

AMMAN JEDDAH ABU DHABI/DAMMAM BEIRUT DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH SOHAG AMMAN SHARJAH DEIREZZOR/ALEPPO DUBAI DUBAI COLOMBO/DUBAI PARIS/ROME CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI NEW YORK/LONDON MUMBAI ALEPPO DUBAI MUSCAT BEIRUT BAGHDAD TEHRAN BAHRAIN DUBAI FRANKFURT BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN KABUL/DUBAI CHENNAI/AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI CAIRO FRANKFURT KOZHIKODE/MANGALORE CAIRO AMSTERDAM/BAHRAIN SABIHA LAHORE

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

Airlines KAC AXB DLH AIC MLR THY ETH VOS UAE FDB DHX ETD MSR QTR JZR RJA GFA JZR BAW FDB KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC IRA UAE ABY QTR KAC ETD GFA KAC IRA JZR FCX RBG MEA KAC JZR JZR IRC KAC KAC JZR

Flt 677 394 637 976 1405 773 621 94 854 68 371 306 615 139 560 643 212 200 156 54 171 671 745 256 561 614 856 126 133 117 302 214 773 602 212 204 3558 405 541 776 238 6802 103 785 176

Departure Flights on Sunday 9/10/2011 Route DUBAI/MUSCAT COCHIN/KOZHIKODE FRANKFURT GOA/CHENNAI COLOMBO ISTANBUL ADDIS ABABA DUBAI/KANDAHAR DUBAI DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA SOHAG AMMAN BAHRAIN DAMASCUS LONDON DUBAI FRANKFURT DUBAI DAMMAM/ABU DHABI BEIRUT AMMAN SHAHRE KORD DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA NEW YORK ABU DHABI BAHRAIN RIYADH SHIRAZ DEIREZZOR/ALEPPO DUBAI SOHAG BEIRUT CAIRO JEDDAH AMMAN AHWAZ LONDON JEDDAH DUBAI

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

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

MSR RJA FDB UAL KAC KAC SVA JZR QTR KAC KAC JZR ETD QTR UAE GFA RBG ABY JZR SVA FDB JZR JZR ALK KAC KAC JAI FDB SYR KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC DHX UAE GFA FCX QTR KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR UAL KAC MSR KAC

611 641 58 982 673 617 503 480 141 613 511 538 304 135 858 216 3556 128 184 511 64 786 134 228 283 361 571 62 342 343 351 648 403 543 373 860 218 102 137 301 205 502 554 530 981 411 613 415

CAIRO AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI DOHA MEDINAH/JEDDAH SABIHA DOHA BAHRAIN TEHRAN CAIRO ABU DHABI DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI/COLOMBO DHAKA COLOMBO MUMBAI DUBAI ALEPPO CHENNAI COCHIN MUSCAT BEIRUT CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ISLAMABAD LUXOR ALEXANDRIA ASSIUT WASHINGTON DC DULLES BANGKOK/MANILA CAIRO KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA

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

34

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 463

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) Your emotions are not in tune with the more sensitive and private areas of your life. Push on now without gaining some kind of focus, and you risk some very turbulent emotional scenes. Take some time to enjoy a hobby or exercise your talents. This is a very contemplative day as you delve back into your memories and reassess many of the pivotal events of your life. This would be a good time to go through the old photograph albums.

You are looking for some level of meaning now and will examine your past looking for patterns. Look for the achievements that you have made. With a new focus on your goals, the time is positive for new beginnings. Refreshed and refurbished, you could even go dancing this evening.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You seem to be in a hurry today—which may place yourself at odds with others. You could make mistakes you regret. Pace yourself—others want to help you. You have a lot of energy for making improvements in your surroundings or life situations. You are motivated to improve. This could also involve repair or decoration of your home. A short trip into the country for natureís artistic gifts—colored leaves, berries, herbal seeds—may involve the whole family.

Your support system—family, home, those who give you nourishment—becomes more secure these days. You are able to dispense with some of the unessential and develop what is most true in your environment. You encourage better support and are able to lend a helping hand.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

4. A port city and resort in Andalusia in southern Spain on the Mediterranean.

10. A doctor's degree in dental surgery.

13. Of or relating to or characteristic of Thailand of its people.

14. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

15. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

16. Discharge bad feelings or tension through verbalization, in psychoanalysis.

18. Talks a great deal about uninteresting topics.

20. Uttering in an irritated tone.

21. A Polynesian rain dance performed by a woman.

23. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells.

24. Excessively fat.

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

28. Haddock usually baked but sometimes broiled with lots of butter.

33. Food made from dough of flour or meal and usually raised with yeast or baking powder and then baked.

35. Inflammation of the female pelvic organs (especially the Fallopian tubes) caused by infection by any of several microorganisms (chiefly gonococci and chlamydia).

38. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

40. Selected as the best.

42. An informal term for a father.

44. 1 species.

45. A state in the western United States.

47. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

50. Being one hundred more than three hundred.

51. Not only so, but.

53. Ulcerated chilblain on the heel.

58. A city in northern India.

61. A boy or man.

63. A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.

64. The part of the nervous system of vertebrates that controls involuntary actions of the smooth muscles and heart and glands.

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

66. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

DOWN 1. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

2. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

3. Affected manners intended to impress others.

4. A master's degree in business.

5. A city in western Germany near the Dutch and Belgian borders.

6. Native to eastern Asia.

7. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

8. Mentally or physically infirm with age.

9. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

10. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

11. Any of numerous low-growing cushion-forming plants of the genus Draba having rosette-forming leaves and terminal racemes of small flowers with scapose or leafy stems.

12. United States sculptor (born in 1924).

17. (possibly Roman) Goddess of horses and mules and asses.

19. A detailed description of design criteria for a piece of work.

22. A chronic inflammatory collagen disease affecting connective tissue (skin or joints).

25. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

26. (prosody) The accent in a metrical foot of verse.

29. A self-funded retirement plan that allows you to contribute a limited yearly sum toward your retirement.

30. A less than average tide occurring at the first and third quarters of the moon.

31. A state in northwestern United States on the Pacific.

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

34. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

36. A hospital unit staffed and equipped to provide intensive care.

37. Acute delirium caused by alcohol poisoning.

39. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

41. Either of two folds of skin that can be moved to cover or open the eye.

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

46. Someone who eats no animal products at all.

48. Jordan's port.

49. Tropical Asian starlings.

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

52. Acute lung injury characterized by coughing and rales.

54. A small cake leavened with yeast.

55. Located in or toward the back or rear.

56. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

57. Decapod having eyes on short stalks and a broad flattened carapace with a small abdomen folded under the thorax and pincers.

59. A recurring sleep state during which dreaming occurs.

60. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

62. A blow that renders the opponent unconscious.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) There are many meaningful days this month. You will be reaping the rewards of your hard work, even though it may only be the good feeling that comes when you do your best. This is a rewarding day. Everything conspires to value and to bring out your unique and unusual qualities. You may find that someone close to you understands and is supportive of your ideas or wishes. You could be very inventive at this time. There is a desire to explore all kinds of new horizons. Travel, education and other ways to stretch your horizons open new doors of opportunity. Today is a good day to take off for a vacation or just take the time to relax.

Time away from regular responsibilities gives you new insight and a renewed appreciation of your own status in life.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

Friends and distant family members have a need to stay in touch today. The phone is ringing and an accidental sighting of a friend may have everyone talking about the next reunion or holiday. This is a great time to be with friends or family members. If you are visiting in-laws or family members today, make it a point to give thanks to your host or hostess. Forgetfulness may be the earmark of todayís energies; keep notes. You find inspiration for a creative talent—art, poetry, etc.—and may find yourself encouraged to teach a creative class during the holidays: perhaps greeting cards, thank you notes or handmade gifts. You are positive and will encourage others to either keep up their good work or make whatever changes they need to make to improve their life.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Challenges provide you with many choices and this is one of those days in which there should be thinking before acting. Stay as focused as possible on whatever projects you have set out for yourself; you will be quite satisfied at the results. You could be building the model of the next super airplane or spaceship. Conversations with friends this afternoon could get into things like time travel or a psychic premonition. There is the possibility of new visions or sudden insights into your self-image or into your ideals and dreams. You may find breakthroughs in understanding as you view a situation from a different angle. You put a lot of consideration into reshaping and renewing your philosophy or religion, during which your imagination is at full tilt.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This is the best time this month to start a diet or a new exercise plan. You have an instinctive urge to get serious about taking care of yourself. Diet, exercise and work somehow mean more now: you want to feel good about yourself and the way you do things. You could have difficulty getting outer recognition for your efforts or accomplishments. This does not mean they are worthless but it does mean you should throw your efforts into work or a venture you really love doing. A friend wants your approval on an upcoming decision. This evening would be a good time to spend with a loved one. Emotions are up and you may even find yourself pondering a bit on the meaning of life. Generally, this may prove to be a very satisfying day.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Emotional security, a sense of belonging and nurturing are felt instinctively now. You want roots, and you want a sense of intimate connection. You make every effort to improve your living conditions as well as relationships. You value what is factual and straightforward and have a particular repugnance to anything secret. You know you must be willing to listen in order to have the best communication between hard-to-understand people. Making a good impression and putting your best foot forward takes on greater importance now as you receive many social invitations this fall. You may be reassessing your wardrobe as appearances and styles are important to you. Romance, the arts and life’s other pleasures take center stage now.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) There is a more outgoing quality to your life style now. Besting others in the heat of competition and taking on a leadership role means more to you now than in the past: second best is not good enough! This may mean some sort of competition involvement. Meeting yourself in another person is the keynote of a new cycle that begins for you now. Relationships—romantic, business, social—are the arenas where this drama is played. In coming to know the other person and forging ties that bind two people, you come to a better understanding of yourself. It’s easy in theory, but it’s only in practice that it comes to mean anything real—so practice until you get it right! Family and friends have plenty of hugs for you today. A partner is quite amorous tonight.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

This seems to be a very superficial morning. It may not be possible for you to comprehend anything remotely meaningful or moving. There is perhaps a sense of the artificial, repetitive and senseless. You cannot seem to begin a project. Perhaps the out-of-doors is calling. Allow yourself some time to develop a working plan. While contemplating the day, you could come up with new solutions or inventions. This afternoon you seem better able to contend with any previous sluggishness. You are in a great mood this evening and can appreciate your own better qualities. You may see value in or feel love for an older person or someone in authority this afternoon. Everything works together to bring out your unusual qualities.

You are in control today and it is up to you to keep the peace.

This may mean you have more seniority than your peers or it could mean you have been appointed a particular responsibility. This is called power and it is not a bad word! Once you adapt to the concept of power, you may acknowledge that you are able to successfully make a positive difference in whatever you are trying to accomplish. You may spend much of today in tearing down what does not work and building it up again. Harmonious ties to others are what you yearn for; refinement and elegance are what you seek. With all of this energy you may find romance and social interactions become greatly important to you. Tell someone of your love in a romantic way this evening.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Today you may be moved to taking risks. When we become truly inspired by something that we consider to be extraordinary then truly extraordinary things begin to happen for us—particularly in our thought process. Today you are inspired. You will be most creative in some artistic way and you use that creativeness now to enjoy the company of loved ones. Your attention is greatly appreciated. You bring helpful insights for each individual to enjoy. Late this afternoon you may decide to dive into a little exercise. Staying active feels natural and will improve your vitality. Taking a long walk, jogging or biking can benefit your body and you will get to know the neighborhood! You can be very romantic tonight.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Practical matters are uppermost in your mind—you sort out anything that needs doing. Taking care of personal business may be the major theme where your emotional orientation is concerned. You like organization and practicality and you want to get things accomplished. After the bills are written and the letters are answered you may decide today is the perfect time to pay a visit to a museum or library or to attend a lecture. There are some profound changes available for you now, on a personal level—psychologically and perhaps physically as well—as if you are transforming into an entirely new person. Friends want to socialize tonight and you may join them—keep an eye on your diet. Good feelings, laughter and hugs come easily this evening.

A

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Years

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

i n f o r m at i o n

FIRE BRIGADE

112

Al-Madena

22418714

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22545171

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24810598

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22545171

Sabhan

24742838

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22434853

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22545051

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24711433

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24316983

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23927002

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24316983

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23980088

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23262845

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25610011

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24843100

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25312700

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24849400

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24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

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24840300

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24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station Al-Murqab Police Station Al-Daiya Police Station Al-Fayha’a Police Station Al-Qadissiya Police Station Al-Nugra Police Station Al-Salmiya Police Station Al-Dasma Police Station

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4732263

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22517733

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25316254

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25381200

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24810221

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24311795

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24884079

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24892674

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24719048

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24710044

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3900322

22434064 22435865 22544200 22547133 22515277 22616662 25714406 22530801

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Capital

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22655539

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25722291 22666288

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25722290

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Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

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LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

McCartney weds for third time

Beckham’s son swears in Spanish avid and Victoria Beckham’s youngest son can swear in Spanish. The soccer star has four children - sons Brooklyn, 12, Romeo, nine, Cruz, six, and 12-week-old daughter Harper with wife Victoria and admits Cruz is quite cheeky and has learnt some expletives from the country he was born in. David - who was playing for Spanish side Real Madrid when his youngest son was born said: “Cruz was born in Spain and he’s got that personality where he walks around saying, ‘I’m Spanish.’ I’ll say, ‘Go on then, say something in Spanish,’ and he’ll come out with a swear word. I’m like, ‘Oh no, where did you learn that?’ “ David also

D

ormer Beatle Paul McCartney is to marry his American fiancee Nancy Shevell in London today, media reports said. It would be the 69year-old pop legend’s third marriage, and is thought to be taking place at the same office for civil ceremonies in Marylebone, central London, where he wed his first wife Linda in 1969.

McCartney posted the legally required 16 days notice of his forthcoming marriage on September 16. According to The Sun and the Daily Mirror, he and New York heiress Shevell will marry today at Westminster Register Office. It will be a low-key affair with only about 30 guests, the Daily Mirror reported, followed by a relaxed reception in the garden of McCartney’s home in London’s upmarket St John’s Wood district. Weddings normally take

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place from Monday to Saturday but the newspaper said the couple had been granted special dispensation to marry on a Sunday. Officials at the register office were unable to confirm the reports, and a spokesman for McCartney refused to comment.

McCartney and Shevell, 51, began dating four years ago and announced their engagement in May. The former Beatle’s first wife Linda, a photographer and animal rights campaigner, died from breast cancer in 1998. He then wed former model Heather Mills in a lavish ceremony in Ireland in 2002, but their marriage ended in a bitter divorce six years later.

Bloom wants to be ‘hands-on parent’ he ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor - who has 10month-old son Flynn with wife Miranda Kerr - admitted spending time with his baby has “gazumped” everything else in his life, as he always wants to be by the tot’s side. He told Radio Times magazine: “I just don’t want to be away from him - at all. We are trying to schedule our lives so that, when I’m working, Flynn and Miranda can be with me. And if she’s working I can be with them. Being a hands-on parent is important to me. “Time with my son has pretty much gazumped everything else that makes me happy. We’ll be going to New Zealand soon for ‘The Hobbit’ and they’ll all come with me.” Orlando explained while he is still a fan of extreme sports, he has curbed his passion for thrill-seeking activities since becoming a father. He added: “I’m much more conscious of my health and safety. I still ride a motorbike and go mountain biking, but I’m quite aware that I do not want to kill myself here. I don’t want to take any risks.”

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her family was ‘odd’ emma Arterton used to think her family was “odd”.

The actress was slightly embarrassed of her home life when she was growing up because she came from a broken home and her “hippy” mother wasn’t a conventional parent. Gemma - whose parents Sally-Anne and Barry separated when she was five - said: “My home life was very dysfunctional. I remember thinking, ‘God, my family is so odd.’ My mum and dad split up when I was very young and I had lots of brothers and sisters and my mum had lots of boyfriends. She was a hippy and had loads of stuff from her travels. When I’d go to my friends’ houses, they’d have B&Q wallpaper and we had drawings all over the wall. It’s fabulous now but at the time I remember being embarrassed.” However, Gemma insists it was a very happy household and she hasn’t been affected by her parents’ split. She said: “My best friend is going through a divorce now, but for years she’s been putting it off because of her eight year old. I keep saying to her the best thing is to bring up a child in a loving household, even if that means divorce. I can vouch that he’s not going to turn into some down-and-out kid. And when you’re younger you just sort of live with it.

Plus, you get two sets of Christmas presents!”

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irsten Dunst has gotten “angry” when she has been made to feel like a “puppet” on movie sets.

The actress - who has had leading roles in numerous films, including ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Marie Antoinette’ - admits she has struggled to work with some directors, but her recent experience shooting ‘Melancholia’ with Lars Von Trier was not like that. She said: “I’ve felt like a puppet on films before and have been really frustrated and angry. “I mean, Lars might see himself as some master manipulator but that’s not how he comes across. I mean, most of the scenes were improvised and he doesn’t even say that much. How can that make me his puppet?” Kirsten’s breakthrough role came when she was just 10 in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ as bloodsucker Claudia, and she admits working with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt on the movie was both educational and fun. The 29-year-old star said: “It never felt like work, that’s for sure. Brad and Tom treated me like their little sister, their little princess. But I think children handle things better than adults. As an adult, you get insecure. You’re tired, you’re worried about how you look and what it all means. “When you’re a kid, you just think, ‘Oh I like my dress. Let’s go and play!’ “

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we complicated it with too many other characters. And there’ll be more women this time, which is good. The last one was so masculine! “The new film will go more into the character. I don’t think we’ve ever seen his rage expressed properly. We’re letting go with this one of the whole, ‘Who am I? Where did I come from? Oh no, I’ve lost my memory,’ thing. I feel like that’s sent us all to sleep. ‘Yeah, whatever pal. We’re bored! Fine, you were a sushi chef, whatever it was, can we just get on with the story now?’ “ The film has had some setbacks and it was recently revealed the script is being rewritten. Director James Mangold has hired Mark Bomback to rework the screenplay before shooting starts next year. Production on the movie was initially due to begin later this year, but a combination of Hugh’s commitment to ‘Les Miserables’ and the weather in Japan means it may now not begin until spring 2012. It may now move to Canada instead of Japan, or a combination of the two. The movie has been beset with various problems - Darren Aronofsky dropped out of filming due to personal issues and a recent earthquake in Japan also caused delays.

Kristin Davis has adopted a baby girl he ‘Sex and the City’ actress took on the care of little Gemma Rose a few months ago and says she feels “blessed” to be a mother. She told People: “This is something I have wanted for a very long time. Having this wish come true is even more gratifying than I ever had imagined. I feel so blessed.” The 46-year-old actress has previously spoken of her desire to have children, either biologically or through adoption. She has said: “I would love to have children. I would love to adopt. And I would still like to find a man and have a baby with him. I haven’t given up.

“My friends have children and I love them. I’m like Auntie Kristin - I love it. I have nieces and nephews as well.” Last year, Kristin admitted she had grown used to the idea she may never marry but refused to give up on her personal

Arterton thought

Dunst is angered by controlling directors

Jackman all praises for new Wolverine film

ugh Jackman believes the new ‘Wolverine’ movie will do the character justice and show his uncontrollable “rage”. The actor - who has played the titular character in several movies - believes the last movie, 2009’s ‘XMen Origins: Wolverine’, about the superhero was “too complicated” and he is hoping the next installment will be action-based and easier to understand. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, he said: “I think we’ve got the chance to nail the character this time, to do the holein-one. We haven’t managed that yet. On the last movie,

revealed Cruz steals his aftershave and slaps it on before going to school. The 36-year-old sportsman - who has his own fragrance, DB Homme - said: “I take the boys to school in the mornings and make their breakfast before they go. The other day I was making breakfast when all of a sudden I got a strong whiff of DB Homme. Cruz had literally sprayed himself from head-to-toe. I told him, ‘Miss Bernard (his teacher) is going to love you today.’ “

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hopes. She said: “I don’t know if I’ll ever get married. I don’t say never, but I just might not. I’m 44, but I think you can have what you want no matter how old you are!”

Anderson wrote album in a week rett Anderson wrote all the songs for his new album in a week. The Suede frontman has just released his fourth solo LP, ‘Black Rainbows’, on which he collaborated with musician-and-producer Leo Abrahams. When Brett went into the studio with Leo - who has previously worked with Paul Simon, Jarvis Cocker and Brian Eno, among others - he had no material ready but the music started to come quickly once the pair started jamming. In an interview with i-D magazine, he said: “We didn’t actually write any songs before we went into the studio. First of all I thought, ‘You’re insane.’ But once we set up we had over 16 hours of music. Then everything fell into place, five or six songs later we suddenly started writing interesting stuff, it was quite an amazing way to work, there’s something to be said about being slightly out of control. That’s the whole thing about collaborative work and how that’s how I work best.

Working with Leo was very inspiring, we jammed a lot. It was very spontaneous, we took all these improvisations away and edited them, putting them all together in three days.”

The 44-year-old rocker looked to his own life for inspiration for the tracks on ‘Black Rainbows’ and he admits when he revisits

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some of the darker moments in his life the experiences naturally lend themselves to songs. Brett - who has battled alcoholism and drug addiction - explained: “I’m slightly loathe to admit this but if you’re an artist people believe that you’re meant to be damaged. Sometimes when I’m writing, I use my memory to recall the experience of bad situations. In that sense I can almost fictionalize my life. Not every song I write is in the first person, I use moods and moments in my life.” —Bang Showbiz

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LIFESTYLE F e a t u r e s

Darkened screens at Benghazi multiplex await war’s end he day after the Libyan revolution erupted in February, Benghazi’s posh Al-Feel multiplex cinema closed its doors, its screens likely to remain dark until the war ends and the boys come home. “We can’t open until fighting ends on the front line where our brothers are battling Kadhafi’s men,” said Helmi Ali Hassan of the locals risking their lives to capture the hometown of the deposed leader, hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the west across the vast Gulf of Sirte.

Hassan, a security guard at the cinema, said the mood in the eastern city is “revolutionary and sombre at the same time,” as the rebellion has killed tens of thousands since February. The closure of the Al-Feel is testimony to the sombre mood still prevailing in this eastern Libyan city as it awaits the return of movie lovers.

The cineplex, which only opened its doors last October, is part of a modern seaside resort that has two swimming pools, cottages and cafeterias. But for months now the entire resort has been virtually deserted, with just a few families visiting and only on weekends. In the initial months of the rebellion, the resort even sheltered fleeing families from towns such as Ajdabiya and Brega, where fighting raged.

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The multiplex has one 218seat theatre and two small cinema halls-one with 40 seats and the other with 20. The outside wall of the main theatre is decorated with frame photos of popular Egyptian actors. “Not a single movie has been screened here since the revolution began. How can we show a movie? People are still engaged in the revolution,” said Majid Omar, a caretaker who comes daily to the theatre, gets it cleaned and waits for news from the front line. “Almost every family in Benghazi has someone or the other on the front line. So you can imagine what the mood is like. Entertainment is the last thing people are thinking about,” he told AFP. Omar takes pride in explaining the details of the multiplex, which he says is one of only two in Libya, the other being in Tripoli. The three projectors are imported from Germany.

Of the Arabic-language movies screened in during those few months, most were Egyptian.

Some Hollywood blockbusters were shown in the smaller halls, largely to private audiences.

“Harry Potter and the Twilight series were very popular and also cartoons, as large groups of children used to regularly visit.

Tickets were priced at five dinars,” Omar said, a poster of The

Jurors hear

Twilight Saga: Eclipse adorning the facade of the smallest hall.

“But these days it is all quiet here.

The theatres are closed; the cafeterias are closed and the entire resort is closed. Fighting has to end for people to return to the movies,” he said, adding that Libyans loved Egyptian films and the multiplex possessed prints of several of them. But there is a voice of dissent amid the sombreness.

Popular Libyan actor Maylood al-Amroni feels that it is time cinemas open.”Cinema halls must open now. I know fighting is still going on in Sirte and Bani Walid, but life goes on too,” he told AFP. Opening Al-Feel and other cinemas would actually help keep the Libyan revolutionary ferver alive, he argues. “Cinema should focus on revolutions. We can show revolutionary movies if theatres open and so people can know what a revolution means,” said the tall, 50-year-old bearded Amroni with one of the most recognized faces in Libya. Popular for his comic acts, mostly criticizing Moamer Kadhafi’s administration in the past, Amroni is sad that Benghazi’s theatres are closed, especially as Libya does not have its own movie industry.

“We don’t have our own film industry. We should then keep

A picture shows a screening hall at the Al-Feel multiplex cinema in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. —AFP our theatres open so we can show good cinema from Egypt, Hollywood, India,” he said. And he lamented that, despite a new Libya in the making since Kadhafi’s fall, the North African country will probably never have its own film industry. “We are a small country. For a flourishing

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Dr Conrad Murray, center, sits at the defense table with his attorneys JMichael Flanagan, left, and Nareg Gourjian during his trial in the death of pop star Michael Jackson, Monday, Oct. —AP account, in an interview played publicly for the first time Friday, was so detailed and graphic that Jackson’s sister, Rebbie, arose and rushed from the courtroom during the description of the singer’s death scene. Murray sounded calm. As he neared the end of his story, emotion crept in. “I loved Mr Jackson,” he told the detectives. “He was my friend. He opened up to me in different ways. I wanted to help him ... I cared for him. I had no intention of hurting him. I did not want him to fail.”

He added, “I realized Michael Jackson had a dependency and I was trying to wean him off it.” The June 27, 2009, interview outside a noisy hotel ballroom gave police their first hint that Jackson’s death was not from natural causes and that he had been given the powerful anesthetic propofol in an effort to cure his extreme insomnia. “He’s not able to sleep naturally,” Murray told the detectives early in the interview. Prosecutors contend that Murray was reckless by giving Jackson propofol outside a hospital setting and without proper monitoring equipment. They claim he gave the singer a lethal dose of the drug and other sedatives on the day Jackson died.

Defense attorneys say Jackson gave himself the lethal dose after Murray left the room.

Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he could face up to four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license. Jurors got about two-thirds of the way through the interview and will hear the remainder of the interview - and some of its most emotional moments - when the trial resumes on Tuesday. According to a transcript released Friday, detectives asked Murray about his actions at the hospital after Jackson was declared dead, which led the doctor to describe telling the singer’s mother and children that the singer had died.

Paris Jackson, the doctor said, was worried about being an orphan and expressed questions about why her father was dead. “‘Dr Murray, you said you save a lot of patients, you know, you save people with heart attacks and you couldn’t save my dad,’” Murray told the detectives Paris Jackson, then 11-years-old, said.”‘I know you tried your best, but I’m really sad,” he continued, recounting her words. “‘I will wake up in the morning, and I won’t be able to see my daddy.’”

Murray’s account disclosed a long history of Jackson’s reliance on propofol.

Jackson told him he had received the drug from doctors in Germany and then from a Las Vegas physician, Dr David Adams, who came to Murray’s office and put Jackson to sleep for hours with the anesthetic. Adams is slated to testify later in the trial. Adams’ lawyer, Liborius Agwara, previously said Adams administered propofol to Jackson four times in 2008 to assist a

Actor in ‘The Raven’ honors Edgar Allan Poe A

A Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter keeps watch outside the Al-Feel multiplex cinema in Benghazi .

Jackson doctor detailing treatments

r Conrad Murray says in a police interview played for a jury that he spent months trying to help Michael Jackson with his insomnia, giving him nightly infusions of an anesthetic until realizing the singer was becoming addicted. Given two days after the King of Pop died, Murray is heard in the morethan two hour recording describing his relationship with the star, the medications he gave him and the efforts to save his life. Murray’s

ctor Luke Evans and director James McTeigue laid a wreath at Edgar Allan Poe’s grave as they paid their respects and talked about their upcoming film “The Raven,” which reimagines the American writer’s last days. Evans, 32, plays a young Baltimore detective hunting for a killer who is using Poe’s grisly stories as the inspiration for a string of murders. John Cusack plays Poe, who joins the hunt. Poe died in Baltimore on Oct 7, 1849. Evans said he was captured by Poe’s biography and considers him the “godfather of American literature.” He said he learned of Poe’s heartbreak and alcoholism and his unique role in history as the first American writer who tried to make a living by writing. “This man started something that’s still thriving today, the murder stories and the detective,” Evans told The Associated Press. “He was the beginning of all of that.”

The movie is a blend of fact and fiction, marrying Poe’s tumultuous life with his stories, which sets it apart from other Poe films, McTeigue said. Poe’s

movie industry, you need a large population. We don’t have those numbers.”—AFP

famous poem, “The Raven” figures into the script in a scene where he gives a dramatic reading of the poem to a lady’s society luncheon. It’s clear, though, that Poe is just “going through

the motions because he has to make a living,” McTeigue said. Both Evans, who is Welsh, and McTeigue, who is Australian and known for his film “V for Vendetta,” were eager to visit Baltimore

In this film image released by Relativity Media, Luke Evans is shown in a scene from “The Raven.” —AP

dental surgeon. Murray sat next to his lawyers as the tape played in the hushed courtroom. The only sound came from jurors turning pages of the 125-page transcripts given to them. The doctor’s story, interrupted infrequently by detectives’ questions, was probably his substitute for testifying in the two-week old trial. It offered him the chance to describe his treatment of Jackson without cross-examination.

The interview made clear that detectives knew nothing about propofol before Murray mentioned Jackson’s dependence on it. When Murray said that Jackson had demanded “his milk,” his nickname for the drug, Detective Scott Smith asked, “Hot milk?” No, the doctor said.

Murray then described the anesthetic. Jackson remained awake for hours after returning home around 1 a.m. on June 25, 2009, after rehearsals.

“It was 4 o’clock in the morning, and then he complained,” Murray said. “‘I’ve got to sleep Dr Conrad. I have these rehearsals to perform.’”

Jackson threatened to cancel that day’s rehearsal, so Murray gave him some more lorazepam. Over the course of the interview, Murray told police that other doctors had given the anesthetic before. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff told the detectives that Jackson was familiar with how the drug was administered through an IV and certain dosages. Murray said Jackson actually asked him if he could “push it” through the IV himself and said he had done it before. The doctor said he did not allow Jackson to do it. At times during later portions of the interview that will be played Tuesday, Murray expresses his frustration that he didn’t know what other doctors were giving Jackson.

But by the end of the interview, it becomes clear that Murray and his attorney sat down with detectives because they thought they had already found three bags filled with medical equipment, syringes and propofol bottles in Jackson’s closet. Detectives wouldn’t find the items until two days after the interview with Murray. Murray told the detectives he always put the medications and equipment he used on Jackson away “because he wanted me not to have anything hanging around.” Smith then asked, “Where’s your bag where those syringes would be now?”“Oh, really?” Chernoff replied, according to the transcript. “I don’t have them,”

for the first time. McTeigue said he researched Baltimore scenes for the film, but it was shot in Budapest, Hungary, for its older architecture.

Visual effects were used to add the historic Baltimore Harbor, Fell’s Point and the city’s Washington Monument to the film. “The Baltimore of 1849 doesn’t exist anymore,” McTeigue said. Still, he said, “it’s nice to come and walk the streets and be where Poe is.” Evans also stars in the upcoming films “The Three Musketeers” and “Immortals,” in which he plays Zeus, king of the Greek gods.

His film career is less than four years old after starting his career on stage in London’s West End. His role in “Clash of the Titans” put Evans on the film map.

“The Raven” opens nationwide on March 9. While Evans had to create an American accent for “The Raven,” he didn’t try to adopt that unique Maryland way of saying “Bal-more” for his detective character, he said.

“I didn’t want to embarrass myself because it’s quite a specific accent,” he said. After Evans and McTeigue laid a wreath at Poe’s downtown grave in a one-time church cemetery, Evans rubbed the nose of Poe’s likeness in a penny that’s part of his tombstone as tourists and locals gathered around to snap pictures. The filmmakers also toured the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum. They bemoaned the possible closure of the Poe House after the city cut off funding for the museum this

Murray replied, before telling the detectives exactly where to find the bags.

During the interview, Murray also told detectives how he took all possible precautions keeping oxygen and a pulse monitoring machine nearby - and constantly warned Jackson that using propofol was an artificial way to sleep. Murray said Jackson told him before he agreed to be his personal physician that he might need help. The physician said Jackson told him that he expected to sleep for 15 to 18 hours at a time. Jackson had battled insomnia before he came to Murray. Repeatedly, Murray said, Jackson talked of cancelling his landmark “This Is It” comeback concert in London if he could not sleep. “He said he would not satisfy his fans if he was not rested,” Murray said. “There was a lot of pressure.”

In his account of Jackson’s final hours, Murray told of how he infused Jackson with lorazepam and another drug, Versed, during a 10-hour struggle to get the singer to sleep. At one point, he said, he checked to make sure the sedatives weren’t leaking out of the IV bag. “Where was this medicine going? Why was this man not responding?” Murray asked. When Jackson stopped breathing, Murray added flumazenil, a drug designed to reverse the effects of the two drugs. There is no antidote for propofol. In the interview, Murray acknowledged that he had left Jackson’s side to go to the bathroom “for two minutes.” He never mentioned the series of phone calls he made that were later detected on his cell phone records.

Murray recounted how the singer’s assistant sought him out in early 2009 to accompany Jackson on his upcoming series of comeback shows. Then he got a call from Jackson, “telling me how elated he was that I was going to join the trip,” Murray said. The doctor said there was no commitment yet, but indicated how impressed he was about the request.

“Michael Jackson asked me to be on his team,” Murray said. “I was talking to Michael Jackson himself.” —AP

Evans is shown in a scene from “The Raven.” —AP year and said they hope the movie can draw attention to his life in Baltimore.

“He left such an incredible legacy and this city sort of owns it,” Evans said.

“It’s a really special thing.” Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House, said the museum has enough money to stay open until June but will need at least $85,000 a year to continue beyond then. The city has hired consultants to find a way to make the museum selfsustaining and perhaps transfer its ownership to a private group.

Few groups are looking to acquire a

museum house, though, Jerome said.

Attention generated by the movie in the months ahead will be good for the Poe House, which continues to raise private funds on its own, he said. “This movie hasn’t even opened yet, and it already has generated a lot of controversy” over its fictionalization of Poe’s final days, Jerome said. “You have to suspend your belief when you see a film like this. I’m very excited about it.”—AP

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t’s not the engines that make the airplane fly. It’s James Steinhagen’s finger circles. “As the plane begins the takeoff roll, I whirl my finger around in a small circle faster and faster as the plane accelerates down the runway,” the Troy, Mich, man, 62, said.

“My thinking is that this will help keep the engines running as we prepare to climb into the air.

Fortunately, I have not had a situation where this didn’t work-at least not yet.”

It may sound crazy. It may sound strange. But Steinhagen is definitely not alone in his flying superstitions. “My wife and I have this superstition that we always lift our feet while the plane is accelerating down the runway until it leaves the ground. This helps the plane into the air,” said Carl Steinecker, 64, of South Lyon, Mich. “I lift up on the armrest to get the plane into the air,” said Dr Thomas Harding, 53, a Milwaukee psychiatrist.

“I never told anybody about my strange superstition. So far, however, it works; it has kept hundreds of planes from crashing,” said Margie Reins Smith of Grosse Pointe, Mich. “Somewhere, when I was very young, I read that most plane crashes occur during the first 15 seconds of flight. So I start counting when the wheels leave the ground-one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand-up to 15. Works like a charm.”

Flying superstitions help otherwise-sensible travelers gain an illusion of control when they are in a tin can suspended in the sky, experts say. “Since people look into the air and see nothing holding the plane up, it all seems like magic anyway, right? So if you lift up on the arm rest, it might help the plane rise,” said Tom Bunn, a psychologist and pilot who runs SOAR, a program to conquer the fear of flying.

“In addition, there is an anthropomorphism going on-the plane is not just a mechanical object, but it has feelings. You think the plane is trying and struggling, and you need to help it, so there is the spinning of the finger to help the engine turn.

There’s the lifting of the feet off the floor, which is really kind of cute.” Flying superstitions are not the same as the fear of flying. People are willing to fly.

They just have rituals and charms to make sure everything goes well.

“When my son Matt was 6 years old, he started patting the exterior of the airplane as we entered it.

It always reminded me of patting the head of your dog to be a good boy,” said Gail Cotter, 59, of Howell, Mich. “He made sure we all patted the airplane before we stepped into the plane. We have done that for the past 22 years.” Linda Emerson, 61, of

Farmington Hills, Mich, must buy a crossword puzzle book at the airport before her flight. She also must be holding the in-flight travel magazine during takeoff.

“I actually sort of panic if there isn’t one in my seat pocket,” she said. Liz Walters, 71, brings an elephant for luck. “I have a gold elephant charm on a chain, which is the first thing I put on the day I am flying,” said Walters of West Bloomfield Township, Mich. “If I got to the airport and did not have it, I don’t think I would get on the plane.” One woman has been repeating the same superstitious phrase on her flights for 24 years.

“In 1987, a Northwest airliner crashed at Detroit Metro (Airport), killing all aboard except for one child,” said Linda Ogden, 60, of Macomb Township, Mich. “The cause of the crash was determined to be the flaps and slats not being extended during takeoff. As a result, my silent mantra, as the plane is lumbering down the runway, is ‘flaps and slats, flaps and slats, flaps and slats.’ “ Ogden’s superstition has an odd logic, Bunn said.

“It’s like by saying ‘flaps and slats’ she can get the message to the pilot,” he said. “It’s like a superstition that overlaps with self-calming.” As a psychiatrist, Dr Thomas Harding, 53, of Milwaukee often works with those afraid to fly or who have other phobias. His own lifting up on the armrests is about “being in control,” he said. “When you are in that plane, whatever you do to kind of personalize it and take control back, it will be a calming strategy.”

Bunn, a former commercial pilot, said pilots use self-calming methods, such as thinking of a favorite song or doing the same preparation every time. Selfcalming affects people’s own moods. But superstitious acts are aimed at the plane and its fate. Years ago, Michael Konesko, 57, of Saginaw, Mich, started listening to Bonnie Raitt music on a Sony Walkman cassette while in the air. He now has an iPod, but his superstition still requires him to listen to Raitt.

“I listen to Bonnie as the first group of music, even before moving to other artists or even watching a movie,” he said. “I have never been on a plane that crashed while listening to her, so why risk it?”

Then, there are the superstitions to ward off the possibility you might not come back. “I have specific good-byes for my kids, but not my wife. I say nothing to her,” said Jeff Flowers, 37, of Oak Park, Mich.

“Every tragedy, you see someone saying, ‘The last thing he said to me was how much he loved me.’ If I don’t say that, nothing will happen.” Cindy Pendleton of Anchorage, Alaska, 67, always brings a

Superstitious about flying, Liz Walters, 71, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, wears a gold elephant charm given to her as a gift for her 30th birthday. — MCT photos small bag of M&Ms for luck. Jacqueline Carr, 58, also of Anchorage, wears the exact same clothes on every leg of a flight, even on the return.

Bunn said people need to believe that constant preparation for disaster can ward it off. Esther Rosner of Bloomfield Hills, Mich, 52, always steps onto the plane with her right foot first. She and her husband hold hands on take off until the seat-belt sign turns off. But before they even leave for the airport, they do one more superstitious thing. “We sit on the same couch and say the same thing, then kiss before we leave. (We) say, ‘Go safely, return safely, and have the best time,’” she said. “Me superstitious?

No way!” — MCT

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protest of Utah’s uptight laws that featured people running through the streets of Salt Lake City in their underwear has set a new world record.

Guinness World Records says the Utah Undie Run broke the previous record for largest gathering of people

wearing only underpants or knickers by 1,720 people.

Records officials say 2,270 people stripped to their underwear during the Utah Undie Run on Sept 24. The previous record of 550 people was set last year in Great Britain. Utah Undie Run organizers are planning another

run next August. The event’s goal is to protest the state’s conservative politics. Organizers prohibit nudity.

Participants donned bras, panties, nightgowns, swimwear or colorful boxer shorts. — AP

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Minnesota food editor’s game of Clue surmising that restaurant critic Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice is the cheeky, anonymous Ruth Bourdain on Twitter set the food world aflutter Friday. Denying the claim from Lee Svitak Dean of the Star-Tribune, Sietsema told the food blog Grub Street: “It’s not me. I have enough of a handful doing my own tweets.” The Twitter parody is a mashup of former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl and foodie TV adventurer Anthony Bourdain with more than 45,000 followers and a surreal profile melding the two real life titans on the feed (at)RuthBourdain.

The feed, a mix of Reichl-like flowery flourishes on Twitter and the salty language of Bourdain, surfaced in March 2010 and won a James Beard Foundation award for humor this past May. The Twitter account’s motto is a good example of its style: “Comfort me with offal.” So how does Svitak claim to know who’s behind Ruth Bourdain? She said she was sitting in a room listening to a couple of speakers at a conference of the Association of Food Journalists in Charleston, SC, when she noticed a quick comment posted on the Ruth Bourdain feed about the talk.

“How do I know who Ruth Bourdain is? He was tweeting while listening to the same speaker I was, in a closed room in Charleston, SC, at a conference with the Association of Food Journalists. Ruth, Ruth, Ruth. You wanted to be found out!” Svitak wrote on the StarTribune website. For what it’s worth, Sietsema is a native of Eden, Minn., and he used to contribute to Gourmet.

But what makes Svitak think it was Sietsema posting on the Ruth Bourdain feed and not one of the other 60 or so journalists attending the conference? “It’s like playing the game of Clue. You eliminate all the possibilities until you have the most reasonable person,” she told The New York Times, one of dozens of media outlets that jumped in on the mystery and Svitak’s claim Friday. “It could have been someone else in the room,” she told the Times, “but this was clearly a New York writer, the voice and the references that are made.”

Ruth Bourdain often mocks Reichl’s tweets in real time and skewered ABC’s “All My Children” replacement “The Chew” during a trash fest on Twitter when the food chat show premiered Sept 26. Sietsema did not immediately return calls for comment Friday from The Associated Press, nor did Ruth Bourdain respond to a query sent to an email address listed on the Twitter account. The usually lively feed was silent for seven hours until this was posted late Friday afternoon: “Just woke up from a nap. Had the weirdest dream I was (at)robertsietsema.”—AP

A hat worn by actor John Wayne in the 1975 film, “Rooster Cogburn” is shown.

one of the eye patches worn by actor John Wayne in the 1969 film, “True Grit” is shown.

John Wayne auction fetches more than $5m O

rganizers say a two-day auction of more than 700 costumes, scripts, awards and memorabilia from the estate of film star John Wayne brought in $5.4 million. Heritage Auctions said Friday that the auction included items such as Wayne’s last driver’s

license, a holster and gun belt from the film “El Dorado” and an eye patch from the 1969 movie, “True Grit.” The green wool beret Wayne wore in “The Green Berets,” went for $179,250 and a cowboy hat worn in “Big Jake” and “The Cowboys” fetched $119,500. The items had

been kept by Wayne’s family since his 1979 death from cancer. A portion of the proceeds will be used by the John Wayne Cancer Foundation to help fund cancer research, treatment and education. — AP

Issued in 1977, two years before he died, John Wayne’s California driver’s license sold for $89,625 in a public auction conducted in Los Angeles.

The Golden Globe award John Wayne won for his role in the memorable 1969 film, True Grit, sold for $143,400 in an auction conducted in Los Angeles and online by Heritage Auctions.

— AP photos

A saddle custom made in the 1960s for actor John Wayne is shown.

John Wayne’s American Express card is shown.

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A fairy garden yurt made from bark and feathers in the woods at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

This undated photo courtesy of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens/William Cullina shows a fairy garden in the woods at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. — AP photos

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airy gardens - hidden beneath stout trees at botanical gardens, or proudly displayed on tabletops at garden centers and in homes - are captivating the imaginations of children and adults, providing an escape into a tiny world. Young kids get caught

up in the magic, industriously building homes for the fairies they believe are real. Older children enjoy working on the tiny scale: 2-inch(5-centimeter) plants and diminutive garden furniture. Adults enjoy the creativity, too.

“You see how real it is for the children,” says Donni Webber of Long Beach, California. “For the parent, it becomes real, too. It takes us all back into that magical time when it was all for real.” Webber writes occasionally about fairy gardens on her blog, The Magic Onions.

In a recent posting, she announced the winners of a fairy garden contest she sponsored, and posted more than a dozen images of the winning gardens.

A fairy garden can be made in most anything - an oak barrel, terracotta pot, even old luggage and basins.

They also can be planted straight in the garden, on a patch of soil or a tree stump, or hidden beneath a bush.

Melissa Michaels, who lives near Seattle, built a tabletop fairy garden in a wooden crate. A decorating consultant, she proudly displays it on her covered porch and on her blog, The Inspired Room.

Meg Holloway, of Overland Park, Kansas, builds fairy gardens with her 8-year-old daughter, Miranda. Besides creating and maintaining the gardens, the two enjoy hunting for tiny accessories at garage sales and thrift stores. “It is very special Mommy time,” Holloway says. “I really love that.” She and Miranda often hide their fairy gardens outside for others to find. “Little kids always notice,” says Holloway. “Adults always walk on by.”

This undated photo courtesy of Melissa Michaels/The Inspired Room shows a tabletop fairy garden created by Michaels.

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hey come in slippery, tongue-twisting names such as “spandauer,” “hyldeblomst sorbet” and “gelehallon.” And they are spreading across America. They are the sweets of Scandinavia, treats once relegated mostly to the Midwest, where Norwegians and Swedes have settled for generations. But in recent years stores specializing in the confections have increasingly shown up in urban areas, such as Los Angeles and New York City, ushering in a growing curiosity among foodies.

These stores represent the exotic new kid on the block in places long dominated by Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Thai and Indian foods. “My thing, when I opened, was that everybody here knows what a ‘Danish’ is, quote, unquote, but they don’t really know what a real one is,” said Copenhagen-born Rasmus “Ray” Lee, 41, co-owner of two-year-old Hygge (pronounced “hyoo-geh”), believed to be the first Danish bakery to open in Los Angeles.

“A real one has marzipan in it. It’s got custard,” he said.

“Normally, a ‘Danish’ here is very heavy and kind of glutinous. The flour we use is local flour, lighter.” What

Americans call “Danishes,” Scandinavians call “wienerbrod” (“vee-nuh-bro”), which means “Vienna bread,” since the pastry style has Austrian roots. “Hygge” is a concept central to all Scandinavian cultures: a focus on relaxation and enjoyment, also related to eating and food.

Scandinavians, when asked why sweets are so popular in their part of the world, may chalk it up to needing comfort through long, cold winters. But they also have an appreciation for whole, natural ingredients and smaller portions. Ice-cream is made from fresh fruit, and candy is sculpted out of real sugar instead of corn syrup. It’s common for people to munch on sweets with almost every meal. Lee wanted to create what he’s always loved in Denmark. When he moved to the US, he couldn’t find worthy pastries or cakes, he said. Visiting his family, he used to go straight from the Copenhagen airport to a bakery. In Scandinavian countries, he also noted, an active lifestyle offsets an active sweet tooth.

“Also, this stuff isn’t too fattening,” said Lee. “It’s low gluten, low cholesterol.” At Hygge, a large glass display

Customers and employees in the Hygge Bakery in Los Angeles.

The hide-and-seek appeal of fairy gardens has led some public gardens to encourage visitors to build fairy houses in out-of-the-way spots. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine, for instance, provides two building sites - along the shore and in the woods.

“What you notice a lot is the dads really get into it,” says Acting Executive Director William Cullina. “They like the construction, building things.” So many fairy structures are built that garden employees periodically go through and knock some down, Cullina said, returning the materials - such as sticks, pine cones and rocks to the “Gnome Depot.”

“It gets kind of like suburbia after awhile,” says Cullina. “It sprawls - we get ‘fairy sprawl.’” The Coastal Maine gardens hold an annual fairy festival the first week of August that draws thousands, says Cullina.

Other gardens have a less formal arrangement. Webber and her two children leave simple stick houses, log tables and acorn dishes when they visit an arboretum in California. “Other people who walk past and see it, we’re putting a little magic in their day,” says Webber.

Getting started is easy. Krystal Keistler-Hawley, area manager for Echter’s Greenhouse & Gardens in Arvada, Colorado, teaches a class on indoor fairy gardens. She says any pot or aquarium will do, but shallow bowls with drainage work best. Use hardy plants with small leaves; herbs such as thyme and small-leaf basils work well, as do succulents, cacti, Irish moss and plants normally used for bonsai.

Garden centers also sell miniature flowering plants, such as African violets, cyclamen and fuschia. Fill your pot with lightweight, sterile potting soil, leaving space for watering. Mound the soil in places to mimic realistic terrain. Have four sizes of rock on hand for pathways and landscaping. Keistler-Hawley recommends small

case boasts dozens of pastries ranging from kringle bars square and crisp, also popular in Norway - to round vanilla-, raspberry- and apple-filled spandauer (“span-dowuh”).

The pastries are made from a combination of dough and softened margarine which then is flattened and folded into 27 thin layers, frozen overnight, then steamed, shaped and baked. Hygge sells several hundred pastries a week, said Lee, who plans to open satellite shops.

In Manhattan’s West Village, six-month-old Scandinavian bulk candy store Sockerbit Sweet & Swedish carries 140 different types of colorful candy and chocolate in bins contrasted by sleek white walls. Offerings include classic Swedish raspberry gelatin bits dusted with sugar, called gelehallon, and banana marshmallow dipped in chocolate. Everything comes from factories in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, said co-owner Stefan Ernberg, 36.

He plans to open more stores, including in Los Angeles.

Licorice is popular, he said, with sweet flavors for American customers, such as Finnish red licorice, and

Rasmus Lee works in his Hygge Bakery in Los Angeles. — AP photos

gravel, aquarium rock, larger stones and rock collection specimens - they make great boulders.

She sinks her tiny flowering plants into the soil still in their plastic pots so she can exchange them for allyear blooming. An indoor fairy garden needs light, like any other houseplant, so station it near a window. “It’s very much like dollhouses for adults,” says KeistlerHawley. “It’s a way to create a mini world, have a visual escape from the day-to-day norm.”

Heather Fogg of Peoria, Illinois, builds fairy gardens out of found objects, such as chipped metal basins and old dresser drawers, and uploads pictures of some of her finished gardens on Flickr. She scatters her minigardens among her outdoor gardens, “hidden like I imagine fairies would accidentally be found.” For children, making the furniture and accoutrements out of found objects is half the fun. But some adults prefer to buy their accessories, which they can do online and at garden centers and specialty shops.

Two books offer inspiration: “Fairy Houses of the Maine Coast” (Down East Books, 2010) by Maureen Heffernan, which asserts that the recent fairy housebuilding craze began in Maine, and “Fairy Houses and Beyond!” (Light Beams Publishing, 2008) by Tracy and Barry Kane, which features photographs of elaborate fairy houses. — AP

Photo shows chokladboll in Concord, N.H. Each of these balls gets rolled in shredded coconut before serving. — AP salty, traditional flavors for Scandinavians, such as black Danish licorice. A much wider variety of non-packaged candy exists in Scandinavia, said Ernberg, a Swede. Native Dane Mia Pedersen, 30, opened the first US offshoots of the Danish ice-cream chain Paradis in Southern California two years ago with her brother and her boyfriend. They had fallen in love with the product back in Denmark and approached the company about bringing it to America.

Made on-site, the low-fat ice-cream includes traditional Danish flavors, such as elderflower, known as hyldeblomst (“hyoole-blomst”), with its light flowery taste, and orange buttermilk. “In some ways we educate people a little bit,” said Pedersen. “A lot of my customers ask about the black dots in the vanilla. They’re used to artificial vanilla. In Denmark, people know ingredients because you grow up seeing your parents cook. The kids here learn a lot from coming here. I bring out a bag of vanilla beans from the kitchen, let them smell it and see it.”

As for why Scandinavian sweets stores have just started to reach out to coastal American urban centers, Lee has one theory, citing “Jante law,” a Scandinavian concept of self-deprecation and modesty.

“Danish stuff should be all over the world. Thai food, pizza, is all over the world,” said Lee. “But you have to be ‘Jante law.’ You’re not supposed to stick out. You’re supposed to blend in. You can’t be too ambitious, or people start ridiculing you. People have very high skills, but they’re not allowed, culturally, to admit it.” — AP

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Darkened screens at Benghazi multiplex await war’s end

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011

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Hermes launches luxury sari

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Newly crowned Miss Indonesia 2011 Maria Selena, left, and Miss Universe Leila Lopes of Angola wave to spectators after Selena won the final of Miss Indonesia beauty pageant in Jakarta, yesterday. —AP

Chiang starts off big with

Ponchos and capes make a nice alternative to a jacket on cool autumn days

T

he word “poncho” can conjure up visions of the Old West or of a garbage bag with a circle cut through the top — a common solution for rainy day recess or unexpected showers during a marathon. But for fall, ponchos of a more posh variety glided down designer runways looking sleek, elegant and ladylike.

The poncho and its cousin, the cape coat, are trickling into stores now.

They offer a stylish alternative to the typical fall coat, providing just the right amount of warmth when the weather cools in LA The terms cape and poncho may seem interFidelity Sportswear changeable, but they are two different plaid duffle cape at www.steve- kinds of outerwear. nalan.com/Steven Alan.

According to the “Fairchild Dictionary of Fashion,” a cape is sleeve—MCT photos less, cut as a circle or half circle with slits for the arms. A poncho is shaped like a square or small oblong with a hole in the center for the wearer’s head to go through.

Both have a dramatic, swooping silhouette that makes the wearer look something like a chic superhero. And both could be thrown over something as simple as pajamas and still look great. For something more sophisticated, you could go with the ‘70s-inspired, camel-colored cape as seen on the Lanvin runway or something straightup preppy, such as a plaid duffle cape with toggle buttons from Fidelity Sportswear.

A solid piece will be more versatile. Punch it up by layering a long-sleeved striped or printed shirt underneath. A patterned cape or poncho, on the other hand, is a statement piece, and everything else with which it is worn should be solid or subdued.

For a petite frame, watch the bulk and the length. If the garment is too long, you’ll look like a little igloo with feet. The great thing about a poncho or cape is that it can be dressed up or down and it’s a nice departure from the usual outerwear. —MCT

H&M coat at H&M stores/H&M.

rench luxury brand Hermes has launched a limited edition Indian sari range as it seeks to “connect” with Indian culture and the country’s elegant traditions, it said yesterday. Indian women may wear Western dress during the day but for weddings and other formal occasions they often prefer to wear six-yard (five and a half meter) saris, reflecting the strong pull of tradition.

“This is part of our effort to connect to India’s culture and to the tradition of elegance of Indian women,” Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermes India, told AFP. “We have put all our skills into making them to pay homage to the Indian tradition.”

Michaud said the sale of the 28 saris was an effort by the Paris-based company “to associate itself with the country”. “It is not a marketing tool, we won’t make a fortune with them,” he said. One line of saris is priced at 300,000 rupees ($6,120) while another is priced at 400,000 rupees ($8,158), Michaud said. Hermes last year offered a highly successful luxury Chinese brand-Shang Xia-aimed at raising its profile in the Chinese market and using China’s craft tradition. This is the second time Hermes has offered a line of limited edition saris. Their first batch was released for their millennium collection in 2000. The company said there are no plans yet to make the new collection permanent.—AFP

her debut line and boutique

M

onika Chiang doesn’t do things on a small scale. The statuesque beauty with the cascading black locks has just launched her eponymous debut line, and it’s no capsule collection. In fact it’s closer to the amount of merchandise that would fill a substantial chunk of a department store rather than just a 1,300-square-foot boutique. The size of her first collection (which includes bags, shoes, jewelry and clothing) and planned move Oct 5 into a free-standing store in Los Angleles, called Monika Chiang, may seem gutsy. (A New York store is scheduled to open later this fall.)

Chiang is a fashion designer newbie, and the economy is still shaky.

But she has some solid financial backing from J Christopher Capital, owned by Christopher Burch. If the name seems familiar, it’s probably because of his financial involvement with another fashion line, designed by his ex-wife Tory, at whose company he remains board co-chairman.

The deja vu doesn’t stop there. Chris Burch and Chiang are dating, and her store is doors away from a Tory Burch boutique. Chiang’s prices hit a sweet spot similar to that of the Tory Burch brand - $105 to $345 for accessories, $255 to $995 for shoes, $85 to $495 for jewelry and $20 to $1,875 for clothing.

Is this a Tory part deux? (Not a bad idea, considering the success of that brand.) But the two lines are night and day. Chiang’s collection is edgy, dark and full of decidedly “downtown” items such as fitted leather motorcycle jackets, leather pants and oversized “hole-y” cashmere sweaters that, she says, are based on the sweaters that hang in Christopher’s closet. Burch’s spring 2012 collection is an ode to romance in seaside pales.

“The aesthetic of (Chiang’s) line is a lot like (French labels) Sandro and Zadig & Voltaire,” says Catherine Moellering, vice president of the Tobe Report, a New York-based retail trend consulting firm. “Those are full-fledged lifestyle brands that are coming to the US soon, so I think that those brands are her biggest competition.” Chiang’s approach of debuting such a large initial offering and two stand-alone stores may not be conventional, but it gives her an edge in terms of merchandising and securing all the floor space she desires.

“The biggest challenge in com-

ing out with a line this big is capital,” Moellering says.

“It has to be wellfinanced purely just to get it produced.” Moellering adds that starting with free-standing stores is not such a bad idea.

“Department stores are rough.

You don’t know how much floor space boutique. The light, white floral you’ll get, and scent seems to fit with the posh and you lose some serene atmosphere control in how your product is merslated for the store’s chandised.” interior. The signature The signature element running colors of the emporium through Chiang’s robust offering is will be gray, white and dusty blue. height, seen in heels on boots and Brass fixtures will add some hard stilettos that reach about 6 inches. edges, but not enough to compete Even “flats” like ballet slip-ons and with the sharp lines and toughsneakers have a hidden wedge heel yet-feminine items housed in to give a wearer that extra lift. the boutique. —MCT Not that Chiang, at 5-foot-9, needs the lift, but she is often seen wearing heels, and she says that she has patterned much of the line on her own closet. Tailored buttondown shirts and smart-looking blazers pair well with more aggressive accessories, such as crocodile-skin etched cuffs, layered chain necklaces with long, sinewy spikes and gold-studded, thigh-high leather wedge boots.

Chiang is already thinking about her next category: candles. She says she has been formulating a A Platform signature Pump with scented Strap Grey candle that will ($445) is part burn in of Monika her Chiang’s exten-

sive fashion collection.

This Platform Pump with Strap Plum Gold is part of Monika Chiang’s extensive fashion collection.

—MCT photos

The statuesque beauty of her Sneaker Black Grey ($385) sports cascading black locks.