7 Jan

CR IP TI ON BS SU

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

Islamists pursue agenda in Iraq’s Sunni protests

Venezuela faces uncertainty with Chavez health crisis

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Kuwaiti brothers blend Arabic flavor with rap

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Special forces break up opposition protest Women among many arrested, ex-MP wounded

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conspiracy theories

Priorities, priorities!!!

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

I

s it too late for me to take a loan? Will somebody from the authorities answer me? With an overwhelming majority the parliament agreed and asked the government to write off the citizens’ debts. These debts, according to my knowledge and to everyone around me, are personal loans. I am sure that the loan-takers were employed somewhere and their salaries were the bank guarantees.

God knows what they did with these loans? I am sure some needed the money for a good cause or an emergency. But I am sure on the other hand many others took it and enjoyed it for luxurious holidays and lavish lifestyle.

Luckily, Kuwait is a rich and small country that is not highly populated. Everyone of us should be living comfortably. It is parliament’s duty to ensure that. But there is a difference between spoiling the nation and serving the nation. To write off KD2 billion to pay individual loans is not logical. What about all those who did not take a loan and were struggling to get by with what they have and are still driving their old cars.

The four previous parliaments were asking for writing off the debts and no agreement was reached. Now what is the sudden passion for the indebted citizens?

If the government wants to scrap the debts, why weren’t they thinking of scrapping the business loans and debts? It should be a priority to help businesses. These are more serious. The whole world was hit by the money crunch. Many businesses suffered and many of them were serious, authentic businesses were giving jobs to people.

Unfortunately, with the world’s economic slowdown, these businesses were hit hard.

Why the parliamentarians are not thinking of this group? Why do they care only for the individuals? Are they doing it to get more votes in the coming elections? Do they just want to please the voters? Business owners, dear Honourable Gentlemen, are voters if this is the case.

If MPs think that scrapping the debts is healthy for Kuwait economy this should be studied thoroughly by professional economists from all walks of life who have expertise - such as bankers, owners of big companies and ministry staff. It should not be a decision taken after one week.

Such a decision affects people’s attitudes too. If I know that I will take a loan and the government will take care of me it will cause a grudge to the others who were not helped and who lost money in the crunch and had not had a helping hand. The third group would be those who did not take loans.

Such a decision has an economic effect too. If the Government’s financial assistance reaches local businesses, this will create jobs and will help the development process of Kuwait. It will make us a nation which is not dependent on its government to pay its bills.

Honourable Gentlemen, slow down and think wisely beyond your interests. Even if it is not for your interest this is not a joke. Ask the experts.

KUWAIT: The elite special forces fire teargas and stun grenades to disperse a small demonstration by the opposition yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat. ( See Page 2)

By B Izaak KUWAIT: The elite special forces yesterday fired teargas and stun grenades and used batons to disperse a small demonstration by the opposition to demand dissolving the national assembly and abolishing the electoral law amendment.

Police arrested a large number of protesters including several women as authorities deployed women police to arrest female demonstrators. Osama Al-Shaheen and Hamad Al-Matar, members of the scrapped national assembly and Fahad Al-Zamel, the reporter of the closed Al-Youm satellite channel, were among those detained.

At least two people were wounded, allegedly by rubber bullets, including former opposition MP Salem Al-Namlan who said on his Twitter account that he was hit by a rubber bullet on his thigh. Medics said they took two wounded people to hospital.

Organizers of the demonstration, Karamat Watan 5 (A

dignity of a Nation 5) had asked opposition supporters to gather at three sites in Keifan, Mansouria and Hawally, saying the protest will start from one of the three places which would be announced half an hour before the start.

The police closed the three areas and prevented any gatherings in the three places but the organizers surprised everyone by announcing a fourth place in Qurtuba as the launch point. Only a few hundreds turned out, the smallest demonstration by the opposition in over a year, and certainly much smaller than the four previous large rallies which started on October 21. Police warned the protesters to disperse because the gathering was illegal and then began firing teargas and stun grenades. It also used batons to beat up some protesters.

Then they chased the protesters inside Qurtuba streets and arrested many putting them in buses that were waiting.

Opposition supporters were protesting against the new national assembly and the amendment to the electoral law.

Police arrest a protester.

Tweeter gets 2-year jail for criticizing Amir

By B Izaak

Fans alter color of Kuwait flag

By A Saleh KUWAIT: People those who watched Kuwait National Soccer team playing with its Yemeni counterpart at the GCC Cup in Manama were shocked to see that the Kuwait national flag waved by some fans during the match showed orange color instead of its original red color.

MP Nabil Al-Fadhl, commenting on the alleged disrespect shown to the national flag by altering its color, said it was a ‘criminal act’ and ‘foolish impudence’ for which the culprits must be punished as per law. Al-Fadhl also urged Kuwait’s ambassador to Bahrain to take legal action against those who showed disrespect to the national flag.

He urged the interior minister to arrest the perpetrators on arrival from Manama and penalize them in accordance with the law.

MANAMA: A TV grab shows fans waving a Kuwaiti flag that displayed orange color in place of red color during the Gulf Cup tournament.

KUWAIT: The criminal court yesterday sentenced opposition tweeter Rashed Saleh Al-Enezi for two years with immediate effect after convicting him of writing tweets deemed critical to the status of HH the Amir. Minutes after issuing the verdict by judge Wael Al-Ateeqi, police arrested Enezi who was in the courtroom to hear the ruling.

According to court papers, Enezi had made the tweets on October 30 and he did not mention HH the Amir or his name in the tweet, but the court said that it was understood from the tweet that he meant to insult the Amir.

Enezi, a youth opposition activist, had categorically denied that he meant the Amir in his tweet.

It was the first ruling by the criminal

Rebels spurn Assad’s ‘roadmap for peace’ BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad rejected peace talks with his enemies yesterday in a defiant speech that his opponents described as a renewed declaration of war.

Although the speech was billed as the unveiling of a new peace plan, Assad offered no concessions and even appeared to hardDAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar en many of his positions. He ralAssad gestures as he speaks at the lied Syrians for “a war to defend Opera House in central Damascus the nation” and disparaged the yesterday. —AP prospect of negotiations.

“We do not reject political dialogue ... but with whom should we hold a dialogue? With extremists who don’t believe in any language but killing and terrorism?” Assad asked supporters who packed Damascus Opera House for his first speech since June. “Should we speak to gangs recruited abroad that follow the orders of foreigners? Should we have official dialogue with a puppet made by the West, which has scripted its lines?”

Continued on Page 13

court against a youth opposition activist since the government began clamping down on the opposition in September. A large number of youth activists and former opposition lawmakers are facing similar charges in court and the verdicts are expected to be issued within the coming few weeks.

Today, the court is slated to issue its verdicts against Osama Al-Munawer, a member of the scrapped national assembly, and Ayyad Al-Harbi, a youth activist, who were tried on similar charges of undermining the status of HH the Amir and criticizing him.

Under Kuwaiti law, HH the Amir is protected and criticizing him in public is a state security offense for which defendants face a jail term of up to five years.

Among those facing similar charges are Continued on Page 2

Egyptian shot dead in Jleeb

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: An Egyptian expatriate was shot dead by an unknown assailant yesterday in a bookshop in front of the telephone exchange, security sources said. The murder that took place in the busy shopping area, comes barely two weeks after the brutal killing of a dentist at the Avenues Mall. Police are looking for the killer, the sources added.

Separately, an expatriate, working for a telecommunication company in Kuwait fell from a telecom tower yesterday and succumbed to his injuries, sources said.

In another incident, an Asian laborer was killed after he fell from a building under construction, the sources added.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LOCAL

Ministers upbeat about NA-Cabinet cooperation Efforts to fulfill hopes of people KUWAIT: Several cabinet ministers have voiced optimism about future cooperation between both executive and legislative authorities with the goal of notching up more accomplishments. The ministers were speaking to reporters separately on the sidelines of a lunch banquet held by National Assembly Speaker Ali Al-Rashed in honor of both authorities’ members, in his farm in Wafra area, south of Kuwait.

Minister of Oil Hani Hussein said his ministry and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) have major strategies and plans until 2030 for exporting Kuwaiti oil to several markets.

He added his ministry has programs to overhaul its oil refineries with a view to producing high-quality petroleum byproducts.

On the current oil prices, the Kuwaiti minister said: “We have learnt from experiments that we should not count on continuing prices, especially as the supply and demand balance always goes through critical times when oil prices dwindle away.”

Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah,

appreciated the parliament speaker’s lunch initiative as a good gesture that would surely beef up and cement the executive-legislative relationship.

He expressed hope that both bodies would work hard to fulfill the expectations and hopes of the Kuwaiti people. “It’s now imperative for us to do so,” he said. The minister emphasized that close relationship between both authorities is the key for common action in the Kuwaiti Constitution, wishing that solutions to all issues could be found.

For his part, Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh said his ministry would give a top priority to draft laws on companies, a fund for small-sized enterprises and investment promotion.

He added that his ministry was currently pondering over a draft law aiming to tighten penalties on trade fraud and to introduce amendments to the existing trade law.

Meanwhile, some 34,000 people applying for Kuwaiti citizenship, recorded in the 1965 census, will have to pass certain criteria to be granted the documents, head of the body tasked with addressing the status of illegal

residents in Kuwait said yesterday.

“Those applying for citizenship, recorded in the 1965 census, must take into account that they should be residents in the country since that period”, said Saleh Al-Fedhala after having attended a meeting with the parliament on the issue.

Discussions with the parliamentary committee tasked with the issue of illegal residents and human rights was aimed at addressing these people’s difficulties from the first degree, he noted in a statement.

Illegal residents have been categorized according to three levels; those who carry legal offences or criminal records, those who will receive residency status after providing their original nationality - and will be provided a yellow card - and those who are in line to receive the citizenship - whom will be provided a green card, he said.

Meanwhile, head of the parliamentary committee on the issue MP Khaled Al-Adwa said that the names of those who fought in the name of Kuwait during the 1990 Iraqi invasion and the families of martyrs will also be considered. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Police use batons to disperse demonstrations by protesters yesterday.

—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwait to host conference on humanitarian law KUWAIT: Kuwait Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies (KIJS) will be hosting the fifth regional conference of the Arab judiciary and public prosecution members on the International humanitarian law (IHL) on Jan 13.

The conference aims to promote awareness about the IHL and debate the challenges facing its implementation, Director of the KIJS and Undersecretary of Kuwait’s Court of Cassation Justice Adel Al-Issa said Saturday.

“The gathering, being organized in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), provides an opportunity for the judiciary and the public prosecution members of the Arab countries and the GCC member states to discuss the latest developments in the IHL enforcement,” he told reporters here.

“The hosting of the conference stems from a memorandum of understanding signed by the Institute and the ICRC which recognizes the Institute as a regional center for training the Arab Judiciary and public prosecution members, “ Justice Al-Issa added.

The training focuses on the IHL and how to adapt the national legislations with the IHL, he said, noting that a large number of law experts, academics and judges from the ICRC and the Arab countries will take part in the event.

The gathering gains additional significance as it coincides with an active movement to promote and protect the basic human rights on the regional and international scales as well as the ongoing armed conflicts in several parts of the Arab region, he added. —KUNA

NA panel approves KAC privatization act KUWAIT: National Assembly (NA) committee on financial and economic affairs on Sunday approved an act on the privatization of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC).

Under the act, KAC will transform into a shareholding company, rapporteur of the committee Safa Al-Hashem told reporters after the committee’s meeting, which was attended by Communications Minister and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Salem Al-Utheina and KAC Board Chairman Sami AlNisf.

“The approval was taken after

both the Minister and KAC Chairman gave written statements obliging them to present a three-year action plan,” AlHashem noted, adding that related issues discussed in the meeting also included KAC’s rundown fleet, accidents, malfunctions, delays, as well as employees financial benefits.

Meanwhile, chairman of public utilities’ committee, MP Ali AlOmair, said that the committee approved amendments to Act 27 for 2012 on private sector contribution in constructing on state-owned land plots for housing welfare purposes. —KUNA

Horeca expo pushed to March KUWAIT: Opposition activists gather for demonstrations at Qurtuba yesterday.

Nabeelah Al-Anjari

KUWAIT: The 2013 Horeca Kuwait exhibition, meant to showcase hospitality and catering equipment, was postponed to March due to “urgent reasons” pertaining to Kuwait’s obligations to host the Syria donors’ conference, the organizers announced yesterday.

“After receiving an official letter from management of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, a decision was made to reschedule the 2013 Horeca Kuwait and hold it between the 18th and 20th of March, 2013,” said General Manager of the Leaders Group for Consultations and Development, Nabeelah Al-Anjari, in a press statement.

The event, held in cooperation with Lebanon’s Hospitality Services Company, was initially set to take place from January 28th to 30th, 2013. It would feature various companies in the catering, hospitality and hotel equipment fields from Kuwait and other countries.

KUWAIT: The capital ministry destroyed 180 kg of different kinds of fish due to change in its natural specifications and the fact that the fish smelled. The inspection started at the fish market at Sharq. On his part, director of capital municipality, Eng. Faleh Al-Shimmary, emphasized the importance of hygienic food storage and said the municipality will continue its inspection campaigns about different activities, particularly those concerning food stuff.

— By Hanan Al-Saadoun

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LOCAL

Iraq public protests on Kuwait MPs agenda Session to be held behind closed doors?

KUWAIT: While the parliament prepares for a special session on Thursday dedicated to discuss the security status in the country, one lawmaker believes that MPs should keep a close eye on the developments in Iraq in view of the public protests taking place there. “[The parliament’s] foreign affairs committee is monitoring the situation and plans to discuss it during the meeting,” rapporteur MP Tahir Al-Failakawi said, adding in statements to a local newspaper on Saturday that the panel “must open permanent channels with the Foreign Ministry to prepare for any development.”

Al-Failakawi further explained that Kuwait must stay in a state of “high alert” in case the demonstrations “reach areas close to Kuwait.”

“The option of holding a meeting with the Foreign Ministry remains open in light of the need to stay acquainted with the developments [in Iraq],” the lawmaker told Al-Rai. And while Al-Failakawi expressed support to the idea of holding Thursday’s session behind closed doors “especially if discussions required mentioning names,” MP Abdulhameed Dashty expected the session to feature “heated discussions” on issues including the measures taken by the government to curb the rising crime in the country.

Dashty also predicted “heated debate” on other key issues including the economy and voting on emergency decrees passed before the elections.

Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti lawmaker has called upon the interior ministry to ensure that the country will not be used as a platform by Muslim Brotherhood sleeper cells.

MP Abdullah Al Tamimi made the appeal days after authorities in the UAE said that they had uncovered an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood cell recruiting members in the country and collecting sensitive military information.

“We must be vigilant to ensure that we are immune to the threats of these cells,” the lawmaker said. “Kuwait must not be turned into an open field for such cells, especially that we have a large community of Egyptians.

They are our brothers, but we categorically reject all sleeping terror cells that might infiltrate the Kuwaiti society and state institutions,” he said.

Al Tamimi said that the arrest of three cells in the UAE meant that Kuwait was not immune to their presence in the country.

Article continues below “The arrests of the Muslim Brotherhood cells do confirm that Kuwait could also be used by such cells,” he said. “We have seen some action by some members of their community here, so we do urge caution and vigilance. My requests are based on my keenness on the stability of Kuwait.”

The dangers of sleeper cells are expected to be taken up by the Kuwaiti parliament when it holds a special session behind closed doors to discuss the security situation in the country.

Reports have emerged that the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood wanted to strengthen its presence in the Gulf countries. However, officials from the powerful religious group have denied the claims.

News

in brief

Medicine prices KUWAIT: While the health ministry announced it was prepared to supply any medicine not available in Kuwait free of charge to citizens, an official source said there is also a Gulf agreement to reduce prices to the level found in Saudi Arabia beginning in 2013, where prices remain 25 to 30 percent less than elsewhere in the region. Further, Dr. Omar Al-Sayyed Omar, Assistant Health Ministry Undersecretary for Medicine and Medical Supplies and chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee of the Unified Pricing Meeting, announced that a significant reduction in the prices of medicine in the private sector would occur in Kuwait and throughout the GCC countries in 2013. Al-Sayed said the decision covers all medicines, and prices will match the lowest medicine price in a Gulf country. He added that the agreement between the six countries is meant to standardize prices based upon the lowest priced country, which is Saudi Arabia, adding that the difference of medicines prices places Oman as the highest, followed by Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.

Hawally fight KUWAIT: An Egyptian expat was injured when a scuffle broke out between some Egyptian expats and another group of Syrian expats in Hawally on Shurhabeel Street after an argument over parking space. Sharp tools and sticks were used in the fight. An Egyptian driver and his companion who stopped in the middle of the road and ended up blocking the way for another car scuffled with its three Syrian occupants, exchanging fisticuffs and attacking each other with sticks and sharp tools. Later, police reached the spot and took all of them to the police station.

Visa restrictions KUWAIT: The higher authorities have instructed the acting director of immigration, Brig Adnan Al Kandari, to impose certain restrictions on issuance of commercial visit visas to young women from certain Arab and European countries in view of the National Day, Liberation Day and Hala February festivals, security sources said. Sources said that instructions were circulated to immigration directors in the six governorates about regulations governing commercial visas under which women under the age of 40 are not allowed such visas except through large and well known companies.

As far as family visas were concerned, the sponsor should be the father of the girl, or her mother should be a resident of Kuwait.

New shelter in Jleeb KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor said the new shelter center in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area was almost ready and will be opened next month. The center’s director, Hadi Al-Enezi, said SAL was coordinating with the Ministry of Public Works to resolve the water drainage issue. The center will be able to accommodate around 700 inmates. Al-Enezi said the issue related to electricity already stood resolved. The center now boasts of international standards and will prove to be best caregiver for inmates, particularly those requiring psychological counseling. Al-Enezi said the ministry will establish a separate men’s unit with a capacity of 400, adding that the center will be run with help from representatives of several ministries. Each ministry will assume responsibility for area relevant to it, and will help provide services to the laborers and remove any obstacles in meeting the needs of the inmates.

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received a letter from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, concerning latest regional and international developments, as well as bilateral relations. The letter was delivered by Saudi Ambassador to the country Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Fayez at Bayan Palace. Ambassador Al-Fayez was escorted during the encounter by Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah.

Moves on to privatize KSE KUWAIT: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is reviewing a stock marketrelated legislation to see whether there were any legal obstacles in privatizing the Kuwait Stock Exchange and whether an amendment can iron out these hurdles, if any.

A high ranking source at the Ministry said law “7” of 2010 regarding the stock markets was under review for the pur-

pose of hurdle-free privatization of the bourse. The source said the ministry will discuss the legal details before taking any final decision. Once it decides upon the legal amendments required, it will submit the issue to the Cabinet and then to the National Assembly to discuss it from a legislative point of view.

About the executive regulations of law 25/2012 regarding commercial com-

panies, the source said it will be done in two stages. First, the ministry will prepare a draft regulation and then the supervisory bodies and NGOs will be involved to discuss the rules in order to reach a consensus.

Meanwhile, the secretary of KAC employees union and subsidiary companies, Hussain Habeeb, called upon the MPs to ensure full protection to all

employees and guarantee their rights in Kuwait Airways Corp and its subsidiaries.

Habeeb said in a press release that the union handed over a draft of a law seeking amendments in some of the articles regarding law no. 6/2008 aimed at transforming KAC into a shareholding company. “We urge the MPs to stand up to their responsibilities and protect the rights of KAC employees,” he added.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LOCAL

‘Greater warmness’ in Kuwaiti-UK relations Envoy hails security agreement KUWAIT: Relations between the State of Kuwait and the United Kingdom were quite distinguished in 2012 and these warm ties were particularly depicted in the visit by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to London, said the British ambassador to Kuwait in remarks published yesterday.

Frank Baker, in an exclusive interview with the Arabic-language daily newspaper, “Al-Rai,” indicated that the high number of reciprocal officials’ visits to the two countries also constituted another manifestation of the special Kuwaiti-British relations, adding that further efforts were being exerted to bolster these ties, not only at the political, economic and defense levels, but also in the educational cultural and health sectors.

HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah paid the visiti to the UK in November, in response to an invitation by Queen Elizabeth II. It was the second by an Amir of Kuwait since 1995, when the late Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah travelled to London where he met top

officials. Asked about reported concerns by some quarters regarding the security pact with Britain, the ambassador noted that he personally sensed no such worries, affirming that the treaty was designed to protect Kuwait against “any terrorist attacks.” He also denied that it was aimed at tightening monitoring of cyber activities, reiterating that London, according to the agreement, would support Kuwait in face of external terrorism and help it in safeguarding its infrastructure.

Britain has stood on Kuwait’s side on various occasions throughout history, beginning in 1899 when the Britons protect the country against Ottoman expansionist schemes in the region. It also backed the Gulf country in 1961 vis a vis Iraqi threats as well as in 1991, when London took part in a large military force in a US-led operation that drove Iraqi occupiers out of the country.

Baker also denied reports about London’s intentions to increase number of British troops and personnel in Kuwait, but noted that in case changes occurred in regional conditions, such an

option would be on the table for consideration.

This issue is related to regional conditions, he reiterated.

On hanging issues between Kuwait and Baghdad, the diplomat expressed hope that this year, 2013, would witness resolution to such unresolved questions, and also hoped that Iraq would implement relevant UN resolutions, particularly with regard to “of the question of border farms.”

Britain is engaged, he added, in efforts for solutions to these issues within framework of the UN and the Security Council, with focus on the question of “missing Kuwaitis.”

Asked on internal affairs in Kuwait, the ambassador stated that Kuwaitis should boast having an elected parliament, freedom of expression, press and thinking, calling on citizens to consider struggle of Syrians and Egyptians for “sake of attaining the freedom which you already have in Kuwait.” He also praised existence of “diwaniahs” where citizens hold free conversations on diverse issues. —- KUNA

Real estate training programs for Kuwaitis KUWAIT: United Real Estate Company (URC), a leading real estate developer in the MENA region and headquartered in Kuwait, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Real Estate Association (REA), a local leading non-profit organization established to promote learning and development opportunities for real estate professionals in Kuwait.

URC and REA will explore opportunities to develop and conduct a series of real estate training programs for interested candidates in Kuwait throughout 2013. The

KUWAIT: URC’s CEO Mr. Mohammed Ahmad Al Saqqaf (left) with REA’s Secretary General Ahmed Fares Al Dowhees.

courses will include a broad range of topics related to the real estate sector and will be taught by international institutions. URC’s Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Ahmad Al Saqqaf said, “This agreement introduces a great number of new opportunities for employees in Kuwait’s real estate sector. The training programs we are jointly developing with REA will enhance the skills and knowledge of real estate professionals and be of practical use to them in developing their careers.

“URC’s corporate social responsibility strategy is designed to contribute to our society by actively promoting learning and growth opportunities, and today’s agreement with REA helps to underline our commitment in this area.” REA’s Secretary General Ahmed Fares Al Dowhees added, “Real Estate Association is pleased to cooperate with URC by signing this Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement emphasizes URC’s belief in the importance of training programs in areas of real estate development.”

Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences will have a prominent role in supporting these training programs by communicating with the REA and URC during the next phase. In line with the requirements of the development strategy, REA has extensive experience in managing and implementing development programs and is committed to providing activities and programs to increase skills and knowledge in the real estate sector.

Public Authority of Disabled, Bumper-to-Bumper ink agreement KUWAIT: In a new venture that highlights the company’s commitment to the many faces of society, Bumper-toBumper has signed on an agreement with the Higher Council of Disables to be the service provider to all the disabled vehicle owners.

The attendees of the signing ceremony included members from Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons Automotive including the Vice President, Ihab AlKhatib, and Mohammad AlDuwaihees, Group Manager of Governmental Relations, as well as Bumper-to-Bumper’s managers. The Public Authority of Disabled was represented by its General Manager, Dr. Jassim Al-Tamar, and the council’s Public and Governmental Relations Manager, Fawaz Al-Hasban.

This agreement between the two parties showcases Bumper-toBumper’s strategic business tactics that branch out to various sectors in Kuwaiti society in an effort to promote and develop the company’s services that work for the well-being and convenience of ever yone.

Bumper-to-Bumper is especially keen on its cooperation with the Public Authority of Disabled as it reflects the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts. The Public Authority of Disabled continuously, which was established in 2010, offers a variety of comprehensive services to its disabled members so as to assist them in their everyday lives, a nurturing factor that smoothly eases them into society

and aids them in successfully interacting and growing into their own in their communities, taking into consideration that the disabled members of the Council reached 42,000.

As part of its agreement, Bumperto-Bumper will be offering all members of the Higher Council of Disables its comprehensive suite of services that covers all the makes of the cars.

In addition to that, the center provides the Vehicle Fitness Test in Al-Rai branch which is certified by the Traffic General Directorate. Bumper-toBumper is now one of the leading serv-

ice centers in Kuwait with a record of development and improvement to serve all makes of cars. The center services include quick service, quick lubes, body shop, accessories, car wash and detailing, tire garage and diesel services, services that are performed by highly skilled professionals who are equipped with the talent and ability to provide timely solutions for any vehicle-related issue. Bumper-to-Bumper’s branches are strategically located in 6 areas across Kuwait including Shuwaikh, Sharq, Al Rai, Jahra, Shuwaikh Express Lube and Fahaheel.

KIB opens branch in Al-Zahraa KUWAIT: Kuwait International Bank (KIB) has recently announced the opening of its new branch in Al-Zahraa in South Surra under the patronage of Hawaly Governor Lieutenant Abdullah Abdul Rahman Faris, and in the presence of Chief Executive Officer Loay Maqamis, KIB reached 22 branches in all areas of Kuwait.

The opening of the new branch comes in line with KIB strategy in expanding and approaching its customers to provide them with more innovative Islamic banking products and services.

Commenting on the new opening Chief Executive Officer Loai Muqamis Said: “The importance of the new branch is in its significant location. Being close to the governmental organizations and institutions, this opening came to meet the desire of our customers and their needs, both individuals and corporates to provide them with innovative banking services with high level of quality, serving their requirements and facilitate their Islamic banking transactions. Maqamis Added “: “The opening of KIB second branch within one month reflects the continuity in the commitment to its customers to provide them with a leading banking services which are compatible with the Islamic Shariaa’ marked with high level of quality and accuracy.”

Maqamis assured that KIB continues to expand its branches’ network and to develop local Islamic products and services to serve its customers anytime, anywhere.

Meanwhile, the new branch in Al-Zahra is fully equipped with the latest technologies and banking services to meet the different needs of banking customers in addition to the highly qualified professional team which are ready to deal with customers’ requirements in a quick and flexible ways.

Maqamis mentioned that one of the goals of KIB’s strategy is to develop more branches and install more ATMs in many vital locations, stressing that the significant steps made by KIB’s management within last period have strengthened its position as a leading financial institution seeking to expand and reinforce its market share that has witnessed a remarkable growth over the last period.

Maqamis concluded that KIB is currently working with a new spirit, which seeks to establish a set of standards and rules that guarantee achieving excellence in work and innovation, these steps will ensure that the operations and its Islamic banking services will gain its customer satisfaction upon completion of their financial and banking transactions.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LOCAL

‘Vengeful’ shepherd held, faces attempted murder Girl complaints against ‘overprotective’ stepdad KUWAIT: The Ahmadi police arrested a man accused of stabbing his employer at his camp after a work-related dispute. The Ethiopian man was arrested late Friday night, 72 hours after he attacked his Kuwaiti employer and another Kuwaiti man at a Jlai’ah camp. The assault was prompted by the Kuwaitis’ criticism of his work.

The man, who was hired as a shepherd, was found hiding at a nearby camp guarded by a friend of his. During investigations, the suspect confessed that his actions were motivated by a desire to avenge his perceived insult since the victims had reportedly scolded him for allegedly failing to do his job properly. He said he lost his temper due to continuous reprimands. The man remains in custody pending further investigations and will face attempted murder charges.

Girl complaints A girl whom her stepfather had ordered not to move out of the house after he found her in the

company of strangers in a coffee shop called the police and questioned her guardians’ right to confine her since she had reached the legal age.

The 21-year-old Kuwaiti girl in Rumaithiya told the police that her stepfather was holding her hostage. When the police reached her doorstep, the man explained to the officers that reason why the girl was grounded and let her meet the officers. The girl questioned his authority to control her movements considering that she had already reached the legal age. Police escorted the two to the area’s police station and released them later after the man gave it in writing that he would not stand in his stepdaughter’s way again and the girl agreed not to press charges.

Infiltrators caught Three Iranian nationals who tried to swim their way into Kuwait and landed up on its beach after a boat dropped them were arrested by the Ahmadi police within two hours. Police found the

three hiding inside a chalet in Um Al-Haiman after it launched a search when a man reported witnessing three men in wet clothes, looking like infiltrators, running for shelter. The three admitted during investigations that they had paid an amount equal to KD150 each to a man in their native Iran who offered to smuggle them in his boat to Kuwait.

Convict nabbed A convicted rapist was arrested in Al-Fahaheel recently during an operation by Ahmadi patrol officers. The Kuwaiti man raised officers’ suspicions when he failed to produce his identity after being stopped at a police checkpoint. Eventually, he gave officers his driver’s license which they used to identify him and discovered that he was wanted to serve a three-year jail sentence in a case in which he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an Asian woman. The suspect was taken to the proper authorities for further action.

Kuwait to host API meeting

MINIEH, Northern Lebanon: Kuwaiti volunteers distributing aid to Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon.

Kuwait continues to aid Syrian refugees MINIEH, Northern Lebanon: A team from Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) continued here Sunday to deliver relief aid for Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon.

Head of the KRCS field team Mnawer AlAzmi said that the aid would hopefully cover the needs of some 12,000 Syrian families that fled violence in their country.

The official affirmed that Kuwait would continue to provide assistance and care to

their fellow Syrian brothers to ease some of their suffering.

A number of refugees told KUNA that they were grateful for the Kuwaiti leadership and people for the kind stance towards them.

According to some statistics here, the number of Syrian refugees has reached 165,000, with most seeking refuge in the northern regions in Lebanon. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Arab Planning Institute’s (API) Board of Trustees will convene next Saturday to assess the institution’s performance within the Arab sphere, API’s Director General Dr. Bader Malallah said here yesterday.

Malallah told reporters that the meeting will be held in Shuwaik area under the patronage and attendance of Minister of State for Planning and Development Affairs and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees Dr. Rola Dashti.

The Director hoped that the meeting would help to further bolster API’s status as one of the leading Arab institutions within the development and planning realm.

He added that the meeting would discuss training, research, consultant, and scientific activities carried out by the API. In 1966, Kuwait, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), established the Kuwait Institute for Economic and Social Planning in the Middle East as an independent Kuwaiti Institute.

In 1972, the Institute was converted into an independent Arab Institution called the Arab Planning Institute (API), a non-profit regional entity whose primary mission is to advance the cause of economic and social development in Arab countries through training, research, consultancy, expert-group meetings, and publication. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Fire-fighters in action after a massive fire broke out in Mina Abdullah yesterday.

Fire breaks out in Mina Abdullah

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A massive fire broke out in Mina Abdullah in the wee hours of yesterday and spread over 5,000 square meters but fire fighters were able to bring the flames under control without any casualties.

Personnel from five fire centers were instructed to proceed to the fire site. When firefighters from Shuaiba industrial fire center, Mubarak Al-Kabeer fire center for dangerous materials, Subhan fire center and the Support fire center arrived, they made

an estimate of the magnitude of the fire and decided to use land scrapers and some other equipments from municipality like wheel loaders in firefighting operations.

Twelve other fire centers also lent help in this huge fire-fighting operation and managed to bring the blaze under control without any causality.

Deputy General Director of fire department, Col Waleed Al-Ansari, hailed the firefightersí efforts and those of National Guards, Municipality, KOC, Ministry of Interior and Medical Emergency personnel.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LOCAL kuwait digest

In my view

A warning for teams in MPW

Who will fall first?

By Jassem Boodai

I

wish all of us a happy New Year, but unfortunately, happiness cannot be achieved only by wishing. The past year ended with US President Barack Obama sending us two messages, one economic and one political. These messages came like a bolt out of the blue, but as usual, we read these but did not understand, or understood but did not believe, or believed but could do little except to remain silent.

The economic message was that America is moving towards energy independence, and intends to become an exporter for markets which rely in the first place on exports from the Gulf. I am leaving the task of calculating its monetary dimension to auditors and officials who have been strategizing on the basis that the world still depended mainly on our oil. They must take this opportunity to consider, just consider, how much of an opportunity Kuwait wasted to develop its capacities in various fields during all that time when it enjoyed high oil prices. It failed to utilize the surpluses in alternative industries and mega projects.

The political message, which was closely related to the first one, was that America’s self-efficiency on energy and new export capabilities are going to impact the very reasoning that makes Washington support the ruling systems in the Middle East. The US may soon be addressing a different Middle East. Obama went so far as to target “dictators”, a term used in American politics to refer to many political factors, including the lack of devolution of power, the lack of authority for elected representatives, totalitarianism and autocracy.

And since we can read, understand, believe and analyze, objectivity requires that we stop fooling ourselves and see it the way it is. In his latest two messages, Obama meant the oil-rich Gulf States in specific.

Do Obama’s statements indicate that for decades, America had been short-selling its principles in exchange of economic interests? It does not matter because we have never been delusional as to believe that principles were the main motive behind America’s policies in the region. Were US presidents lying when they spoke about friendships, alliances, historical and strategic relations with the Gulf States? Well, they could be. Has Obama revealed now America was on the same page as us only because of our oil? Only a fool would think otherwise.

Regardless of what Obama’s messages have exposed, we have to consider the situation of our region, and specifically Kuwait, in the ‘post-Obama’s messages era.’

While we do not have to be concerned with the dictatorship issue, we are still in the middle of multiple dilemmas as well as many schemes and scenarios that we must not be ignorant of. The two messages could be the blueprint for how the region is going to be shaped for generations to come. We have to realize that Obama’s statements were not a coincidence or a ‘media mishap’; just as how America’s approach towards the Arab Spring was not sudden.

They contain certain key words, like change, supporting change, withdrawing support from certain regimes or sacrificing them, and waiting for results of public uprisings.

Meanwhile, there are many regional forces riding the wave of change, something that could be done through an unspoken alliance with one they deem as ‘the mother of principles.’ The relatively more democratic system prevalent in Kuwait has been one of the most distinctive features in the region over the past fifty years. A ruling family, an elected parliament, a government subject to monitoring, people living in mutual accord with their leaders, and a constitution that regulates the relationship between authorities.

We took it easy because some of us felt that this advantage that we enjoyed was endless, just as some of us felt that oil was an unending resource, while everyone else managed to keep up with Kuwait’s development. We are struggling to keep up with the pace of changes in the country’s political and constitutional aspirations. If the situation continues like this, Kuwait will no longer have any distinctive feature and it will be seen lagging behind other countries when it comes to political and constitutional fields, since they will be already ahead of us in development.

Moving towards a more advanced political system is the only way for Kuwait to survive. I say this with deep concern about the country’s situation, and because I see that neither the ruling family, nor state authorities or the people are the same. Fifty years after the constitution’s release, the ruling family is yet to be able to convince the public that they have a second or third line of members capable of taking the initiative and bear the responsibility of treating the public equally.

They have still to show that they can rise above conflict of interest and become a role model in commitment to the law and constitution. Of course, this does not apply to all members, but we have not seen an organized approach towards preparing younger ruling family members to take on those roles.

Meanwhile, the governmental and parliamentary performance continues to deteriorate after more than fifty years of constitutional practice. There is no need to wax eloquent on this subject because it would be like flogging a dead horse, but suffice it to say that the media tends to speak with pride about the level of capabilities and language used by members of the constituent parliament compared to those of lawmakers today. Between that and a government whose members face accusations of bribery and corruption, Kuwait has become a ‘safe haven’ for sectarian motivations.

Kuwaitis, and mostly young citizens, are paying the price today for what happened during the past fifty years. Are Kuwaiti young men and women who struggle with unemployment, poor politics and public movements, happy about the situation? It is a rhetorical question, because mismanagement breeds disarray, while cumulating experiences helps create a communication link between generations. Unfortunately, this link is disconnected in multiple places here.

The government has ignored young people as a strategic component for the state, and dealt with them the same way it deals with political movements and election candidates, that is, as per the circumstances and its vested interests. This left a huge void that any one could fill at the expense of young people themselves.

If Kuwait’s political system had foresight, it would have factored it all in its management strategy. Kuwait would have been able to precede its peers in improving democracy if it had allowed political parties to run as per national programs instead of sectarian agendas as is happening today. It could have opened the door for more participation in power, setting the basis for moving gradually towards constitutional monarchy as our statute allows. This would have helped provide channels for young people to move as per their own programs, goals and visions, forcing the government and lawmakers to adopt them.

While achievements require more than just hope, I do hope that officials read this article in a different way from how they read Obama’s statement, unless they believe that Kuwait would be the last Gulf state to be affected the US President’s statements. The truth is we could very well be the first one. I hope that I am wrong, and that achievements could be made by just hoping. —Al-Rai

By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

T

kuwait digest

Amir’s constitutional authorities

he “rainy and cold” winter in Kuwait, which is coming from the north east of the Mediterranean sea and caused not just a sharp drop in the temperature but also led to unexpected floods which complicated the problems, has underlined the need for all concerned parties to come up with well worked out plans to overcome these difficulties.

Such unexpected incidents, which caused loss of lives due to street accidents, should be a warning for the teams in the Ministry of Public Works to make a long term plan about better maintenance of the old and dilapidated drainage system.

We must put safety on the list of our priorities for the sake of thousands of citizens and expats living in Kuwait.

The existing drainage network needs to be renovated since it is past its expiry date.

Moreover, Kuwait must speed up its development plan budgeted with KD 145 billion and start new projects for new cities which are to be built from scratch.

That way we will be able to enjoy a more modern and safer Kuwait.

We do have local and foreign investors who can build and rebuild new drainage networks and make new rail and underground networks, too.

Without any doubt, public decisions and actions must shift towards acting in the interest of public safety, instead of remaining in a reactive mode and kicking in only when a tragedy occurs.

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

F

reedom of opinion has and still is targeted by many in Kuwait. If we take the parliament elected in February of last year as an example for an ‘over the limit’ animosity towards freedom of opinion, we find out that the majority of its members gave priority to regulating stricter punishments against people expressing opinion regarding their beliefs, and went as far as passing a law requiring the death penalty against a person committing an offense against their beliefs.

Meanwhile, MPs in the current parliament who claim to be supporting the civil state concept are trying to enforce stricter penalties against any person who offends the Amir’s rights or authorities. Not only that, but they expanded their proposed law to include opinions expressed through any means of expression.

Kuwait already has regulations penalizing the action of offending the rights or authorities of the Amir.

Said violations are punishable by Article 25 of the Penal Code, an article that in my opinion is unconstitutional and as a result MPs should work on eliminating it instead of making it stricter with regulations which expand to include hints or any statements that the government could interpret as an insult to the Amir’s status.

There was an incident that happened a few years ago when caricaturist Abdul-Wahab Al-Awadhi drew a cartoon showing an Arab

man with oil barrels as his teeth, which are falling to signify the drop in oil prices at the time.

Some people at the Information Ministry and Amiri Dewan went too far in their interpretation, and believed that the person intended with this drawing was the late Crown Prince at the time Sheikh Saad AlAbdullah Al-Sabah.

Needless to say, Al-Awadhi and the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Qabas where the cartoon was published were summoned by multiple departments for investigations, and finally the skeptics were convinced that the cartoon provides a metaphor suggesting that the Arab Nation is losing its power, or the ‘fangs’ by which they can intimidate others, now that oil prices dropped to as low as $9 per barrel at the time.

If the proposed law was effective back then, and if the interior and information ministries were as exaggerative back then as they are right now, Al-Awhadhi would’ve still been in jail for something he never even thought about to begin with.

Ar ticle 25 of the Penal Code which penalizes the action of challenging the Amir ’s rights and authorities is required to be abolished. As per the constitution, the Amir practices his authority through his ministers, while the general matters of the state are addressed in the democratic system by the people. Therefore, depriving people from the chance of discussing or even criticizing

what they feel is wrong or unsuitable should not happen, be it regarding a topic that was released directly by the Amir - who enjoys constitutional immunity - or indirectly by his cabinet or ministers.

The constitution immunizes the Amir’s person, but when it comes to his rights and general authorities, I believe those should remain a matter of general interest connected with people’s lives and behavior, and not be connected directly to the Amir himself.

If article 25 of the Penal Code is enforced strictly these days, this means that every Kuwaiti who voices their rejection to the emergency decree the Amir enforced to adopt the single vote system, must be put in jail! What’s left for democracy and constitution then if that happens?!

If MPs are serious about verifying the constitutionality of disputed laws, they should start with article 25 of the Penal Code which comes in violation to the essence of political work, an imposes restrictions on freedom. The article should not be associated with article 54 of the constitution which immunizes the Amir’s status, but not his authorities or jurisdictions which should remain subjected to debate and possible change. It’s worth mentioning as well that article 25 of the Penal Code was enforced in 1970, at which time Kuwait had no active parliament elected by the Kuwaiti people. — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

Year of hope, optimism

By Dr Salwa Al-Jassar

M

ay Allah be thanked that 2012 ended peacefully though it was full of fast-paced events, agonizing moments, chaos and tyranny. It was a year when we rarely saw a ray of hope, a year when all aspirations and the vision about a bright future were pushed aside by political chaos and consequent back-to-back miseries.

There was pessimism all around. People were full of despair. There was a feeling of loss, fear of the unknown and an atmosphere hardly conducive to wholesome development. It was a time when truth and values were being twisted. Liars enjoyed more credibility than the truthful, concepts were obfuscated and intentions were questioned by skeptics.

Hatred and grudges ruled the roost.

The year was full of crises.

One crisis followed the other, be it the issue of citizenship, citizens’ concerns and stability. It was a year of confusion for the nation as well as for its citizens, a year of administrative chaos and flawed enforcement of laws, a year of violation of human rights and negligence in some governmental establishments where those who worked hard were punished while the state turned a blind eye towards irresponsible employees, thus resulting in poor quality products and services in general and waste of public funds.

It was an absolutely weird year when devoted and hard working employees were alienated, when instances of grief outnumbered the joys because of lack of planning. Political and economic deterioration dominated the

year throughout.

As problems increased incessantly, there seemed no hope of any reforms in the short term. The time for applying any remedies in the field of health, education, economy and politics seemed to have run out, and all these domains ran only on the basis of a few sedatives and tranquilizers.

It was a year when major issues were pushed aside and the focus shifted on things that were trivial and petty, thus creating only more crises.

Where are the scheduled development plans? What happened to the plans formulated to solve economic, educational, political and security issues? What happened to the fight against corruption and rejecting hatred?

Why were these concepts not put into practice?

Things have become so complicated that they hardly seem amenable to any easy solutions. In fact, it has become difficult to even decipher them. Despite the enormity of the crises, there is need for more seriousness, persistence, determination, qualified manpower, follow up action, control and accountability.

So, here we are receiving the New Year still full of hope and optimism. We must remain in pursuit of security, stability, hard work, the tradition of giving, achievements, good citizenship and resolving citizens’ problems.

We look forward to a year when mysteries end and people’s aspirations can be realized. May 2013 prove to be the year of justice and equality before law for everyone. —Al-Watan

We are receiving the New Year still full of hope and optimism.

We must remain in pursuit of security, stability, hard work, the tradition of giving, achievements, good citizenship and resolving citizens’ problems. We look forward to a year when mysteries end and people’s aspirations can be realized.

kuwait digest

Importance of voluntary work

By Iqbal Al-Ahmad

T

he importance of voluntary work exceeds the benefits that it brings to society since its main advantage lies in shaping the individual’s character, especially when it comes to young people. Youth, at times, are lost about what they want or where they need to go.

They can benefit from someone’s guidance that can help steer them towards the right track. Otherwise, they can go in the opposite direction and society could lose them.

I can say for certain that the young group responsible for Avenues Mall crime never took part in any voluntary activity in which it could have learnt how to value humanity. Instead, they found the street and bullied others out of their way in order to prove their strength.

Idleness definitely led them to become a negative element in the society instead of a productive unit. It requires tireless work and dedication to achieve the goal of instilling a good value system.

The Cancer Awareness National Campaign is organized by volunteers including Ministry of Health’s employees who took upon themselves the cause of spreading awareness about the disease in a society that remains relatively uninformed about it.

The Cancer Awareness National Campaign (CAN) is organized by volunteers including Ministry of Health’s employees who took upon themselves the cause of spreading awareness about the disease in a society that remains relatively uninformed about it. This lack of awareness about preventive measures and early diagnoses leads to many cancer deaths.

The abbreviation ‘CAN’ is a symbol of people’s ability to overcome the disease, and the term in Arabic refers also to the verb ‘was’, to signify the misconception that people have about cancer being a lethal disease. The organization’s mission is to make more people believe they can be treated and can overcome cancer, utilizing efforts of many volunteers to achieve that goal.

Launched in 2006, the CAN campaign has so far done more than what the health and information ministry did jointly as far as spreading awareness about cancer was concerned. Today, volunteers and other people are doing a magnificent job in spreading awareness about breast cancer and self-examination in hundreds of schools, thus making its name synonymous with positive work in society.

The CAN campaign plans to host an international conference next February in cooperation with the World Health Organization, that will feature doctors and specialists from around the work who will talk about cancer awareness and early diagnoses strategies. The conference is being funded entirely by volunteers.

What makes a human being take out some of their time and effort, and work for a humanitarian cause without expecting anything in return? It is self motivation which makes serving others the ultimate goal. It is the sense of humanity which is present in some people to a great extent while it barely exists among others.

Such voluntary work needs to be supported by efforts and money. Funding is required to continue its message, while efforts are needed from young men and women as well as the government. They need to be trained so that the society can derive psychological and social advantages by adding this subject to school curriculums.

Let us help our youth by supporting voluntary activities and helping them expand these to play a greater role in society. I believe that an initiative that proves its seriousness and success should be entitled to government’s financial support since it actually does the government’s work. This financial support would be a token of appreciation for those who contribute their time and efforts while expecting nothing in return.— Al-Qabas

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

Indian rape victim’s father says he wants her named

Islamists pursue new agenda in Iraq’s Sunni protests Page 8

Page 10

KANACHAK: In this July 17, 2006 file photo, Border Security Force soldiers patrol the India-Pakistan border at Kanachak, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Jammu, India. Pakistan and India traded accusations yesterday, of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad accusing Indian troops of a cross-border raid that killed one of its soldiers and India charging that Pakistani shelling destroyed a home on its side. — AP

Indian troops kill Pakistani soldier Islamabad accuses troops of cross-border raid ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India traded accusations yesterday of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad accusing Indian troops of a crossborder raid that killed one of its soldiers and India charging that Pakistani shelling destroyed a home on its side.

The accusation of a border crossing resulting in military deaths is unusual in Kashmir, where a cease-fire has held between these two wary, nuclear-armed rivals for a decade. Tensions over the disputed region are never far from the surface, however, as the countries have fought two full-scale wars over it.

Pakistan and India have been in the midst of a tentative rapprochement in recent months that could be upset by the cross-border raid.

Just last month, the two countries announced a new visa regime designed to make cross-border travel easier. And they have been taking steps to facilitate economic trade as well.

Neither action would have been possible without the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military.

The developments show how tensions have eased a great deal since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which 10 Pakistani terrorists killed 166 people. India claims the terrorists had ties to Pakistani intelligence officials, which Islamabad denies.

The Pakistani military’s public relations office said in a statement that a Pakistani soldier was also critically wounded in the incident. It said troops exchanged gunfire after Indian forces crossed the “line of control” dividing the Indian

SANAA: Yemeni soldiers stand guard outside the state security court as suspected Yemeni al-Qaeda militants arrive in a truck for their trial yesterday in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. — AFP

Yemen court jails 5 Qaeda militants SANAA: A Yemeni court specialising in terrorism cases sentenced five Yemenis to between four and 10 years in prison yesterday on charges of membership in Al-Qaeda and for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks.

Key defendant Mohammed Muawada was jailed for 10 years while three accomplices were given a 6-year prison sentence each and the fifth one was sentenced to four years in jail, according to the verdicts announced by judge Hilal Mahfal.

Four other suspects were released on parole while two were set free. All 11 had

been arrested on charges of “membership in Al-Qaeda” and “plotting to attack vital installations, military camps, foreign embassies” as well as security officials across Yemen.

Until recently, Al-Qaeda militants held large swathes of territory in the country’s south, but after a month-long government offensive that ended in June, most have fled to the more lawless desert regions of the east. Though weakened, the militants continue to launch hit and run attacks on government and civilian targets throughout Yemen. — AFP

and Pakistani sides of Kashmir in the Haji Pir sector and raided a post called Sawan Patra.

The remote area where the incident occurred is up in the Himalayan mountain peaks. The closest town of Bagh, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, is itself about 260 kilometers (160 miles) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Col. Brijesh Pandey, a spokesman for the Indian army in Kashmir, called the allegations that Indian troops crossed the border “baseless.”

Instead, he said that Pakistani troops “initiated unprovoked firing” and fired mortars and automatic weapons at Indian posts early yesterday morning. He said Pakistani shelling had destroyed a civilian home on the Indian side.

“We retaliated only using small arms. We

believe it was clearly an attempt on their part to facilitate infiltration of militants,” Pandey said India often accuses Pakistan of sending militants into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, often under cover of these types of skirmishes.

The mostly-Muslim mountainous Kashmir region has been a flashpoint of violence between these two neighbors for decades.

Both claim the entire region as their own, and the countries fought two full-scale wars over control of Kashmir and some minor skirmishes.On Saturday, leaders of a Pakistan-based militant coalition held a rally in the city of Muzaffarabad near Kashmir, in which they pledged to continue the fight to gain control of the entire region.

The United Jihad Council is a coalition of 12

anti-India militant groups. Many of the groups were started with the support of the Pakistani government in the 1980s and 1990s to fight India for control of Kashmir. The rally was held to mark the Jan. 5, 1949 call by the United Nations for a referendum on Kashmir’s fate.

A 2003 cease-fire ended the most recent round of fighting. Each side occasionally accuses the other of violating it by lobbing mortars or shooting across the LOC. A number of Pakistani civilians were wounded in November due to Indian shelling, and in October the Indian army said Pakistani troops fired across the disputed frontier, killing three civilians. But accusations that one side’s ground forces actually crossed the LOC are rarer. — AP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

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

Canadian who sheltered Americans in Iran dead TORONTO: John Sheardown, the former First Secretary at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran who sheltered fugitive American Embassy staffers at his home during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and who had a lengthy career in Canada’s foreign service, has died at age 88.

His wife Zena said Sheardown passed away in an Ottawa hospital on Dec. 30 and had been treated for Alzheimer’s disease for the past four years but also suffered from other ailments.

Sheardown, a diplomat in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution, played a key role in the events depicted in Ben Affleck’s Oscar-contender film “Argo,” although he was not portrayed in the film.

Almost a week after militant Iranian radicals seized the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in retaliation for US support for the recently deposed shah, the Canadian diplomat received a call from one of the six Americans who had managed to evade capture. American consular officer Robert Anders was calling his friend Sheardown for help. “‘ What took you so long?’” was

Sheardown’s reply, said his wife. After that phone call, the Sheardowns agreed without hesitation to shelter four of the six Americans in secrecy in their 20-room house in Tehran. Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor, housed the other two Americans.

“It would have been selfish for us not to do so,” Zena Sheardown told The Associated Press from her home in Ottawa, Ontario. “There weren’t many places to hide in Iran, we had the room, they needed our help and it was just not in John’s nature to refuse help to anyone.”

For 79 days, the pair lived a low-profile life in tumultuous Tehran, facilitating a household that was comfortable and welcoming for the Americans, while helicopters streamed overhead, everyone’s nerves calmed only by boisterous dinners together and heartfelt hospitality.

“We have a lot of fond memories. We spent American Thanksgiving together, New Year’s Eve, together. Every night we would all sit around for dinner together.

There was a lot of humor and laughter. It was a nice time to have to spend together,” she said. “We tried to be protective, but we also went out of our way to make

them feel as if they weren’t imposing on us.”

She said her husband became the father figure of the household, whom everyone would turn to for advice when they went through moments of fear. “He kind of became our leader and since he was a pipe smoker and had more of a mature nature, he became known as ‘Big Daddy,’ everyone would wait for Big Daddy to come home,” she said chuckling.

While Sheardown might be best known for his role in what became known as the “Canadian Caper,” he was noticeably absent from “Argo,” which told the story of how the CIA used a fake Hollywood film crew to rescue the six US Embassy staffers sheltered by the Canadians. Affleck has apologized for leaving Sheardown out of the film, which he said was the result of time constraints and plot developments.

“It was frustrating,” said Zena Sheardown. “It would have been nice if the story was told correctly because basically, if the Canadians weren’t there to help, who knows what would have happened to those Americans.”

In a story posted in October on the

Slate magazine website, one of the rescued American diplomats, Mark Lijek, said Sheardown’s role was “indispensable.” “Without his enthusiastic welcome we might have tried to survive on our own a few more days. We would have failed,” said Lijek.

Sheardown was made a Member of the Order of Canada for his role in the rescue. His wife later also received the award for her role. Born in Sandwich, Ontario, later absorbed by Windsor, on Oct. 11, 1924, John Vernon Sheardown joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at age 18. He flew scores of Lancaster bomber missions in World War II. On one mission, he barely managed to get his flak-riddled plane back to Britain. With the Lancaster losing power, he told his crew to bail out. He tried to wrestle the aircraft under control before opting to leap at the last minute. His chute barely had time to open and he broke both legs upon impact.

“I often thought he had nine lives with the way he lived his life,” his wife said. He stayed in the Canadian Armed Forces after the war, serving in Korea, before joining Canada’s immigration service around 1962. He was posted in

London, Glasgow, New Delhi and Los Angeles, during his extensive 27-year diplomatic career.

“He was a proud, dignified man, proud to serve his country, a dedicated foreign services officer and well-respected by all,” his wife said. It was that dignified air that caught the eye of his future wife when she first spotted him in the Canadian High Commission in London, England.

“He looked like an English gentleman, he was smoking a pipe, very dapper,” she said. She asked a friend who that was and her friend replied: “ That’s John Sheardown, the kindest man I’ve ever known. If he was down to his last penny and he thought you needed it, he would give it to you.”

The two were married in Los Angeles in 1975. It was his second marriage. “It was a long love story,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “He lived a wonderful life and we shared many wonderful years together.”

Besides his wife, the former Zena Khan, he is survived by his sons, Robin and John; his sisters, Jean Fitzsimmons and Betty Ann Whitehead; six grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. — AP

Islamists pursue agenda in Iraq’s Sunni protests Sunnis frustrated with Shi’ite PM Maliki

MAFRAQ: Syrian refugees make bread at the Zaatari refugee camp, home to more than 55,000 Syrians, located close to the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria on January 3, 2013. A booming market selling goods from spices to electronics has sprouted in the desolate desert camp where Syrian refugees try to survive the war tearing apart their country. — AFP

Reprisal fears cloud Libya probe into US consulate attack BENGHAZI: Libya is pushing forward with its investigation into the deadly September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, but fear of retaliation by Islamist extremists has proved a hurdle.

Security reports point to the possible involvement of an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group in the attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, a source close to the case told AFP. “Therefore the case frightens local investigators, especially given the increased pace of assassinations targeting military and police officers in the east of the country,” said the source in the criminal investigations department. The case has now been passed to a judge based in the capital. “Judge Khaled alTurki from Tripoli was appointed last week to complete investigations into the case,” said a senior justice ministry official. Turki replaced Judge Salem Abdelati, who was appointed last year to head the investigation but never unveiled any formal findings.

The government official, who asked not to be identified, justified the switch, saying “investigations carried out by the appeals court in Benghazi were not advancing fast enough.” Benghazi-based analyst and political science professor Khaled al-Marmimi said: “Investigators are afraid to keep probing the case because they are concerned extremists will kidnap them at any moment.

“The authorities are ignoring the presence of Islamist extremists in the region. They are keeping silent on the issue and have not engaged them in any dialogue.” Libyan investigations are usually carried out by members of the state security apparatus and then referred to the judiciary authorities through the office of the prosecutor general.

“The investigations in this specific case are being carried out directly by the judiciary through a magistrate,” said Taha Baraa, spokesman for the prosecutor general,

adding that his office was not involved.

Mutaz al-Majbari, chief editor of a private Libyan television station, said: “The authorities want to expedite the case so they do not face American interference in the questioning of subjects like in Tunisia.”

A Tunisian suspected of playing a role in the attack, Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek, refused to be interrogated by FBI agents in December, according to his lawyer, who slammed what he called US interference in the probe. In Libya, another judiciary official said Libyan and US authorities are cooperating on the case. “US investigators have visited Libya many times but they have no connection with those being interrogated. Their role is logistical only,” he said.

A US Senate report published in late December judged that the State Department had made a “grievous mistake” in refusing to shut down its mission Benghazi, despite the deteriorating security situation.

Senators recommended that intelligence agencies “deepen their focus in Libya, and beyond, on nascent violent Islamist extremist groups in the region that lack strong operational ties to core Al-Qaeda or its main affiliate groups.”

President Barack Obama admitted on December 30 that a probe into a deadly assault on a US consulate in Libya had uncovered a “huge problem” in security procedures at the mission. Obama said all of the recommendations of a critical report into the State Department’s operation in Benghazi would be implemented, and said American agents were hunting down those responsible for the killings. “With respect to who carried it out, that’s an ongoing investigation. The FBI has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly,” the president said in the interview with NBC’s Meet the Press. “We have some very good leads, but this is not something that I’m going to be at liberty to talk about right now.” — AFP

Netanyahu appeals for right-wing votes JERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed in a rare interview yesterday to his right-wing base to cast ballots for his list, rather than hawkish alternatives, to prevent his being unseated by a potential center-left coalition.

His appeal reflects developments in recent weeks that have left Netanyahu more vulnerable ahead of Jan 22 elections: the emergence of a charismatic new, pro-settler leader; blistering criticism of his leadership by a respected former security chief; and over the weekend, feelers by three centerleft parties to unite ahead of the elections to form a bloc that would vie to form the next government. Still, he does not seem to be in real danger of losing the premiership in the upcoming balloting, so it’s not clear whether his comments reflected genuine nervousness or whether he was using the center-left unity talk to prod likeminded Israelis to rally around his hardline flag.

In interviews to Israel Radio and Army Radio, Netanyahu went on the attack against exploratory contacts among three

of his adversaries to form a bloc that would pose a stiffer challenge to his leadership.

The bloc would consist of the Labor party, which opposes Netanyahu’s economic policies; former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party, which thinks Netanyahu is jeopardizing efforts to make peace with the Palestinians, and former journalist Yair Lapid, whose Yesh Atid party thinks the prime minister has shortchanged the middle class. The center-left parties, Netanyahu told both stations, “have one objective: To topple the government I lead.”

The prime minister appeared to be falling back on his strong standing among hawkish Israelis to try to boost support for his troubled list. Polls show sizable numbers of right-wing voters withdrawing their support for Netanyahu’s Likud Beiteinu list and redirecting it to the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, led by high-tech millionaire Naftali Bennett. At the same time, the surveys show respondents overwhelmingly choosing Netanyahu as the best option for prime minister. —AP

BAGHDAD: Street protests in Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland pose a new challenge to Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as shock waves from the Sunni-led insurgency in nearby Syria strain his country’s fragile political balance. Over the past two weeks, tens of thousands of Sunnis have staged demonstrations, and in Anbar province they have blocked a highway to Syria in a show of anger against Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalising their community and monopolising power. The discontent is real, but the protests are driven by Sunni Islamist parties bent on carving out an autonomous region akin to the Kurdish one in the north, Kurdish and Sunni sources say.

They say the Sunni Islamists scent an opportunity to escape what they see as Shi’ite domination, counting on a victory by Sunni rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite minority has its roots in Shi’ite Islam.

Assad’s eventual demise would weaken the sway of Shi’ite Iran, Syria’s main regional ally and an influential player in Iraqi politics. Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have backed the Syrian leader’s adversaries. Heartened by a possible shift in the Sunni-Shi’ite balance of power in the Middle East, Iraq’s Sunnis are giving vent to the frustrations they have endured since the US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein and empowered majority Shi’ites.

Some waving Saddam-era Iraqi flags, protesters have echoed the chants of Arab uprisings that have brought down leaders in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen in the past two years. “We will never relent. Enough of Sunnis living in Iraq like outsiders. This time it’s do or die for us,” said Jamal Adham, a tribal leader from Saddam’s former hometown of Tikrit.

Their demands, fuelled by sectarian sentiment, range from mending crumbling public services to abolishing anti-terrorism laws they say are used to persecute Iraq’s once-dominant Sunnis. “What’s happening is not spontaneous,” said Mohammed Tofiq, spokesman for Kurdish opposition movement Gorran. “The forces behind the current protests are Sunni political parties.” Senior Sunni sources say the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), part of the Muslim Brotherhood, is the prime mover in a campaign to create an autonomous Sunni fiefdom, by force if need be. “Sunnism is our slogan and a region is our goal,” senior cleric Sheikh Taha Hamed al-Dulaimi told demonstrators in Anbar in a video on his website. “Do not scatter your demands.” The IIP exerts influence through mosques and clerics in Sunni strongholds such as Anbar province, which was almost completely controlled by al Qaeda at the height of

BAGHDAD:Shiite lawmakers Emad Tohme, center, Kamilh al-Musawi, left, Qasim Al-Araji, right, members of al Fadilah Parliamentary bloc attend a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. — AP Iraq’s insurgency in 2005-07 and arrests and alleged confessions of enough votes in a referendum. “This is bodyguards of the two senior Sunni the moment when we see whether shares a porous border with Syria.

Militants linked to al Qaeda appear leaders followed a strikingly similar Maliki has emerged as the strongman to be regrouping in the caves and val- pattern, but this time round, Maliki is of Iraq,” Stansfield said. “Either he enforces a centralised government on leys of Anbar, and some are crossing more isolated, analysts say.

One Shi’ite lawmaker said Maliki Iraq or allows federalism to be the the border to join Syrian rebels fighthad planned to target Esawi for some organising principle of governance ing to topple Assad’s police state.

The tribes of Anbar were instru- time and had calculated that it would across the country.

“The question is whether it’s done mental in subduing al Qaeda in 2007, be easier to strike now and contain making common cause with US the Sunni backlash than to do it later after fighting or instead of fighting.” troops to fight fellow Sunnis in what when Sunnis might be emboldened The central government in Baghdad is already at odds with the Kurdish came to be known as the “Anbar by events in Syria.

“Maliki told me he would go after region. Their long-running feud over Awakening” . Now, Anbar is awakening again, but this time the target is Esawi and his bodyguards more than land and oil rights recently escalated Maliki - and US forces who once held a month ago,” said the parliamentarian into a military build-up in the oil-rich the ring are long gone. “Anbar has on condition of anonymity. “He pre- territory along their contested internal always had the power to be very influ- ferred to burst the Sunni bubble, boundary. The Kurds and other rivals ential in Iraqi politics,” said Gareth rather than wait for it to blow up in his of Maliki are likely to use the Sunni Stansfield, an Iraq expert at Exeter face”. So far, Maliki’s response has protests to pile pressure on the Shi’ite leader without necessarily jumping on University. “This should be of great been cautious.

This week he said his patience was board, analysts and politicians say. concern to Maliki.”

Both Kurdish President Masoud The protests ignited after Maliki wearing thin and warned he would detained the bodyguards of Sunni not tolerate the Sunni rallies indefi- Barzani and influential Shi’ite cleric Finance Minister Rafaie al-Esawi last nitely, but made a small concession by Moqtada al-Sadr have voiced support month, just hours after Iraq’s Kurdish releasing 11 women detainees and for the protesters in Anbar and elsePresident Jalal Talabani, seen as a allowing others to complete their sen- where, as long as they drop sectarian slogans and stop glorifying Saddam’s steadying hand, suffered a stroke and tences in their home provinces.

That will not appease all the pro- Baath party. went abroad for treatment.

Sunnis are united against Maliki, Iraqi authorities said the body- testers. The provincial council of the guards had confessed to involvement predominantly Sunni Salahuddin gov- but many are wary of hardliners who in assassinations carried out in coordi- ernorate on Thursday re-submitted a they fear might revive the kind of nation with security men employed request to the electoral commission to inter-communal conflict that previby Sunni Vice President Tareq al- form their own region. Other Sunni- ously drove Iraq to the brink of civil majority provinces have previously war. Sheikh Hameed Turki al-Shook, Hashemi. a senior Sunni tribesman in Anbar, Hashemi fled into exile a year ago presented similar demands.

Under the constitution drawn up said: “ The demand to create the and was later sentenced to death in absentia for terrorism. Esawi himself after the US-led invasion, each regions is not ours and those workwas once a leader of an armed Islamist province or group of provinces is enti- ing to spread these ideas do not repgroup, Hamas al-Iraq, in Anbar. The tled to create a federal region if it wins resent us.” — Reuters

Israeli PM: Frontier fence with Syria needed JERUSALEM: Israel’s premier pledged yesterday to build a fortified fence along the frontier with Syria, warning that radical Islamist forces have taken over the area. Israel has largely stayed out of the civil war that has engulfed Syria and killed more than 60,000 people, but it is concerned that violence could spill over into Israel.

Israel worries that Syrian President Bashar Assad might try to draw Israel into the fighting as a distraction if his situation becomes desperate. An even greater concern is a scenario in which Assad is toppled, Islamic extremists take his place and gain control of Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke as Assad delivered a rare nationwide address in Syria, calling for a national reconciliation conference.

Assad claimed that “terrorists who carry the ideology of al-Qaida” were active in his country and demanding that foreign countries stop arming the rebels. Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting,

Netanyahu said the Syrian regime was “unstable,” and Israel was concerned about the country’s chemical weapons capabilities. Therefore, he said Israel needed a barrier on its frontier with Syria, similar to a structure it has nearly completed along its border with Egypt. That fence has largely stopped the flow of African migrants.

“We intend to erect an identical fence, with a few changes based on the actual territory, along the Golan Heights. We know that on other side of our border with Syria today, the Syrian army has moved away, and in its place, global jihad forces have moved in,” he said. “Global jihad” is the term Israel uses for forces influenced by al-Qaeda. Syria’s rebels include some al-Qaeda-allied groups.

“We are coordinating our intelligence and readiness with the United States and others so that we might be prepared for any scenario and possibility that could arise,” Netanyahu said. His office did not say long it would take to complete the proj-

ect. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the strategic plateau, a move not recognized by the international community. Despite constant hostility between the two countries, Syria has kept the border mostly quiet since the 1973 Mideast war. Israel has grown jittery since pro-Palestinian activists breached the frontier during two demonstrations in 2011.

Following that unrest, Israel began laying mines along the frontier and reinforcing the fence that already exists. Defense officials say they have already fortified 10 kilometers (6 miles) out of the planned 70 kilometer (45-mile) route it plans.

Since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, several mortar rounds and other light munitions have landed on the Israeli side of the frontier. Israel suspects these were cases of stray fire and were not intended to spark a new front, but Israel fired warning shots back to deter further incidents.—AP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

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

Obama to round out national security team next week WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama may round out his new national security leadership team this week, with a nomination for defense secretary expected and a pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency possible.

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is the front-runner for the top Pentagon post. Acting CIA director Michael Morell and Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan are leading contenders to head the spy agency.

White House aides said the president

has not made a final decision on either post and won’t until he returns from Hawaii, where he was vacationing with his family. Obama is due back in Washington yesterday morning. Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as his next secretary of state in December, his first step in filling out his second term Cabinet and national security team. Kerry, as well as the nominees for the Pentagon and CIA, must be confirmed by the Senate. Hagel, the former senator from Nebraska, is a contrarian Republican

moderate and decorated Vietnam combat veteran who is likely to support a more rapid withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. If confirmed, Hagel would give Obama a whiff of bipartisanship in his Cabinet if confirmed.

Even before his nomination, Hagel’s consideration for the top Pentagon job raised concerns among some of his former Senate colleagues, who questioned his pronouncements on Iraq, Israel and the Middle East. Troubling for some lawmakers are Hagel’s comments and actions

on Israel, including his reference to the “Jewish lobby” in the United States.

Hagel has also been criticized for comments he made in 1998 about an openly gay nominee for an ambassadorship. In an interview with the Omaha WorldHerald in 1998, Hagel said he believed that for a US ambassador, “it is an inhibiting factor to be gay” and referred to James C. Hormel as “openly, aggressively gay”. He has since apologized for those comments.

If nominated and confirmed, Hagel

would replace current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.Morell has served as the CIA’s acting director since early November, after David Petraeus resigned after admitting to an affair with his biographer. Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, worked at the CIA for 25 years, including a stint as station chief in Saudi Arabia.

He also served as chief of staff to then CIA Director George Tenet from 1999 to 2001, when he was named the agency’s deputy executive director. — AP

Venezuela faces uncertainly with Chavez health crisis Chavez’s allies stage a show of unity

AURORA: In this July 19, 2012 file photo, people gather outside the Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colo., following a mass shooting that killed 12 people during a midnight showing of the Batman movie “The Dark Night Rises.” Relatives of the majority of people killed at the movie theater last July rejected an invitation on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013 to attend its reopening later this month, calling it a “disgusting offer.” — AP

Four dead after police standoff at Colorado AURORA: A gunman barricaded inside his Colorado home fired shots at police from a second-story window before he was killed as SWAT officers stormed the home Saturday. Once inside, they found the bodies of three other adults, authorities said.

The suspect, whose name was withheld by police, held officers at bay for nearly six hours after neighbors reported gunfire at 3 a.m. inside the modest townhome in the Denver suburb of Aurora, said police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson. It wasn’t known if officers shot the suspect or if he shot himself.

Investigators said two men and a woman appeared to have been killed before officers arrived. The suspect shot at police who approached the front of the home with an armored vehicle and who fired tear gas around 8:15 a.m. He was killed when he fired at officers from the second-story window about 45 minutes later, Carlson said.

“After we arrived on scene, there were no more shots fired up until he fired at us,” Carlson said. “During this time he was all over the house. He moved furniture. He was throwing things. He was agitated. He was irrational.” A large front window was missing in the two-storey townhome, the window’s mini-blinds in disarray. Bullet holes marked two upstairs windows, and neighbors milled about outside. A fifth person escaped unharmed and called police to report that she saw three people inside the home who “appeared lifeless,” said Carlson, who

declined to elaborate about the woman’s escape. A motive for the killings was unknown, and police had yet to say what weapon or weapons were used.

Investigators wearing gloves and carrying evidence bags were going over the crime scene. Police declined to release the victims’ names. “We have an idea of who they are, but we obviously want to confirm their identities with the coroner,” said Carlson, who declined to release the relationship between the victims and the shooter.

Officers evacuated neighbors’ homes during the standoff and used a bullhorn to communicate with the gunman, urging him to surrender. Next-door neighbor Melissa Wright, a nurse who treated victims of the July movie theater shootings in Aurora, said she was in her second-floor bedroom when she saw the gunman start shooting from his own bedroom window. She said she didn’t know what he was shooting at, and that she quickly dropped to the floor.

“I hit the ground pretty fast,” Wright said.

Wright said she slid on her belly to the first floor of her home and told police what she saw upstairs. Officers quickly entered her home. Wright said she knew the gunman as Sonny Archuleta - a name used by police officers trying to negotiate with the man with the bullhorn. Wright said the townhome may have been inhabited by the gunman, the gunman’s wife, her father and another man. — AP

CARACAS: Venezuela faced growing uncertainty yesterday as President Hugo Chavez fought “severe” complications in Cuba following cancer surgery just four days before he is scheduled to be sworn in for an unprecedented third term in office.

Chavez was re-elected on October 7 despite his debilitating battle with cancer and the strongest opposition challenge yet to his 14-year rule in Venezuela, an OPEC member with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

But the government said last week that since undergoing surgery in December in Havana, the president has developed a “serious pulmonary infection” that has led to a “respiratory insufficiency.”

Under the constitution, new elections must be held within 30 days if the president dies or is permanently incapacitated either before he takes office or in the first four years of his sixyear term. And the country’s main opposition coalition insists that Chavez must take at least a temporary leave if his health keeps him from taking the oath of office on January 10 as established by Venezuela’s constitution.

However, on Saturday, Chavez’s allies staged a show of unity, re-electing the ruling party’s Diosdado Cabello as parliamentary speaker. The closing of ranks by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) came as it emerged as all but certain that illness will keep Chavez from being sworn in to a new six-year term on Thursday as scheduled.

“The president will continue being president beyond January 10, nobody should have any doubt about that,” said Cabello after his election, accusing the opposition of fomenting a “coup d’etat.” Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the swearing-in a “formality” and said he too would stay on in office without taking any oath until there was an opportunity to do so. Cabello’s reelection was intended in part to answer persistent rumors of a power struggle within the regime during Chavez’s more than three-week absence, the longest stretch in his 14-year presidency. “We will never defraud the people and we will get on our knees to defend the proposal made by comandante Chavez, I swear it,” Cabello said as he took his oath of office.

Chavez ’s health was invoked by both Chavistas and members of the opposition, who criticized the ruling party for refusing to engage in inclusive dialogue as the oil-rich country enters a period of high uncertainty.

“It is not only the head of state who is sick, the Republic is sick,” said opposition deputy Hiran Gaviria. “The public finances are exhausted, there are shortages, inflation, excessive

Idaho senator pleads guilty ALEXANDRIA: US Sen Michael Crapo pleaded guilty Friday to a charge of driving while intoxicated and then apologized for his actions and asked forgiveness from his constituents.

The Idaho Republican said nothing during a brief appearance in Alexandria General District Court, where he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and was ordered to pay a $250 fine and complete an alcohol safety program. He also agreed to a 12-month suspension of his driver’s license. The sentence is typical for first-time drunken-driving offenders in Virginia.

Outside of court and in a subsequent conference call with reporters in his home state, Crapo apologized and said he’d been drinking alcohol a few nights a week, in violation of the tenets of his Mormon faith.

Crapo said he tried alcohol for the first time about a year ago, though he couldn’t remember the details. It was a misguided attempt to relieve stress, he said, and he always kept his use of alcohol hidden, drinking alone in his Washington, DC, apartment.

The night of his arrest was the first time he had driven drunk, Crapo said.

“I was already thinking in my own mind that this had to end,” Crapo said. “I believe in my heart that I had already recognized that I was on a bad path and I needed to find a different path to follow.”

Crapo said he drank “several, probably two to three” vodka tonics at his Washington home on the night of Dec. 22 when he became restless, couldn’t sleep and went out for a drive. — AP

CARACAS: Female members of de Venezuelan Militia pray for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s health outside the National Assembly in Caracas yesterday. Venezuelan lawmakers gathered for a key leadership vote and debate as President Hugo Chavez’s battle with cancer appeared almost certain to delay his swearing-in for a new six year term. — AFP indebtedness, personal insecurity.”

In a display of legislative muscle, ruling party deputies used their majority to elect an allChavista leadership, beginning with Cabello, a former military officer who is regarded as the country’s third most powerful man.

Watching the vote and debate from the balcony of the chamber was Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked successor who has sought to squelch reports of a power struggle with Cabello. Outside the National Assembly, hundreds of Chavistas, dressed in the flaming red of his socialist revolution, chanted for their cancerstricken leader with almost religious fervor.

“I love him, I want him and I hope he recovers,” said Maria Mateus, chanting with friends outside the palatial Spanish colonial-style building: “Here the one who rules is Chavez, and the revolution.”

“And he will return! He will return! The comandante will return!” shouted another group of supporters. Chavez, 58, is recovering in Havana from his fourth and most difficult round of cancer surgery, his condition clouded by serious complications that have raised doubts about his fitness to serve. So far, he has refused to relinquish the office, leaving Maduro in charge of running the country without transferring the full

powers of the presidency. In a speech to supporters outside the National Assembly, Maduro said he would remain as vice president.

“I continue in office and some day when there’s an opportunity to swear me in-it’s a formality-it will be done,” he said. On Friday, arguing for continuity, Maduro laid out a legal rationale for indefinitely delaying Chavez’s swearing-in without his giving up the powers of the presidency, even on a temporary basis.

But Maduro rejected opposition calls for Chavez to be declared temporarily incapacitated if he fails to show up for the swearing-in on Thursday. With a pocket-sized constitution in hand, Maduro argued that the charter provides “a dynamic flexibility” that allows the president to take the oath of office before the Supreme Court at some later date.

Analyst Luis Vicente Leon said nothing can stop Chavez from staying in the presidency after January 10. “There are no independent institutions nor solid political organizations that can prevent a suspended swearing-in,” he said in a tweet Saturday.

Cancer was first detected by Cuban doctors in June 2011, but the Venezuelan government has never revealed what form of the disease Chavez is battling. — AFP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

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

Afghan detainees walk free from jail in push for peace KABUL: With tears streaming down their faces, scores of suspected Afghan militants embraced waiting relatives and walked to freedom-just one sign of increasing attempts at reconciliation after 11 years of war.

About 80 men, all wearing white skull caps, were released from jail on Friday at a ceremony inside Pul-e -Charkhi, Afghanistan’s largest prison located on dusty flatlands east of the capital Kabul.

Most had been detained by US-led foreign troops hunting down Taleban militants and were held at Bagram airfield, where the international force (ISAF) is based, before being transferred into Afghan custody.

President Hamid Karzai, who will hold talks with President Barack Obama in Washington this week, has insisted all prisoners are handed over as Afghanistan takes over security ahead of the pull-out of foreign troops in 2014.

But US officials have often expressed

fears that some detainees are released only to return immediately to the battlefield. “It has been 20 months I spent in jail,” one prisoner in his 30s told reporters, declining to give his name. “I was taken in (the southern city of ) Kandahar. I don’t know why I was arrested but I was taken by foreign troops.”

He said he had been treated well, but another man said he had been arrested in the northern province of Sari Pol and then abused by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).

“These prisoners released today were not criminals at all. I was accused of being a Taleban man, but I am innocent,” he said. “I spent two and a half years in jail. “We were treated very badly by the NDS, their behaviour was horrific,” he said as he prepared to leave the jail after a ceremony of speeches and prayers followed by a celebration lunch.

The men were among hundreds of

prisoners being freed this month as the government looks to build bridges with opposition groups, including militants who have waged a bloody insurgency against the US-backed government since 2001.

General Gulam Farooq, who took over running Bagram prison from the US last year, declined to say how many of the men were proven Taleban fighters but stressed that all had been carefully vetted before release.

“After many processes of investigation and evaluation by the defence ministry and the High Peace Council (which heads efforts to make peace with the Taleban), a total of 485 prisoners will be freed from Pul-e-Charkhi,” he said.

“They have also signed a pledge not to be involved in any militant activity.”

Such reassurances have failed to convince many analysts, who also point out that if the men are innocent or low-level Taleban they will be unable to encour-

age insurgent leaders to join future peace talks. Farooq insisted that US officials were fully supportive of Afghanistan taking unilateral decisions on the releases and added that the policy was in line with national law. But there are fears that the government in Kabul is taking increasingly desperate steps to kick-start peace moves before the Afghan army and police take on full responsibility for security. The High Peace Council said it was “premature” to assess the impact of the releases and added that it hoped the men would play their part in the peace process.

Among those being allowed home this month are prisoners who have already been taken back to provinces including Uruzgan, Khost and Kunar, the heartlands of Islamist violence.

The fate of Bagram detainees has become a symbol of Afghan sovereignty for President Karzai, who in November castigated the US for delaying the trans-

fer of all prisoners.

Karzai last year demanded full authority over Bagram prison and its 3,000 inmates as a condition for signing a pact covering Afghan-US relations after the 2014 withdrawal. Further negotiations on the pact will take place when the leaders meet in Washington, with the number of US troops remaining in Afghanistan to tackle Al-Qaeda militants high on the agenda.

Human rights campaigners have regularly criticised Bagram prison, saying it fails to comply with international norms as some inmates are detained arbitrarily without trial or knowledge of the charges against them.

Pakistan last week released eight Taleban prisoners, including Nooruddin Turabi who was justice minister during the extremists’ 1996-2001 regime, in another move designed to usher Afghan militants to the negotiating table. — AFP

Indian rape victim’s father says he wants her named ‘We want the world to know her real name’

VATICAN: (From top) Newly appointed bishops Nicolas Henry Marie Denis Thevenin, Pope Benedict XVI ‘s personal secretary Georg Gaenswein, Nigerian Fortunatus Nwachkwu and Angelo Vincenzo Zani lie during the Epiphany mass in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday. — AFP

Police under fire in fresh Belfast violence BELFAST: Police in Northern Ireland arrested a 38-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder on Saturday after reports that shots were fired at officers during fresh rioting in Belfast.

Police deployed water cannon and fired baton rounds in the third consecutive night of violence in the east of the city, facing off against more than 100 people throwing fireworks, bricks and other masonry, a spokesman said.

The rioting followed a largely peaceful demonstration by more than 1,000 people outside Belfast city hall against the city council’s decision last month to limit the days it flies the British flag each year.

The December 3 ruling was viewed by pro-British groups as a concession too far to republicans who want Northern Ireland to be part of Ireland and sparked weeks of street violence.

Several people were arrested for public order offences during Saturday’s disturbances, police said, and at least one officer was injured. “Police are also investigating reports that a number of shots have been fired at police lines on the Newtownards road (in traditionally pro-British east Belfast),” a spokesman said.

“A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.”

Thirteen people were charged with public order offences on Saturday, one of them in relation to that day’s rioting, during which at least one police officer was injured,

according to the spokesman.

The other 12 people were charged over disorder on Friday night, when up to 300 people hurled petrol bombs, fireworks, ball bearings and masonry at police, leaving nine officers injured.

On Thursday night, about 100 people were involved in the violence, which police and politicians have blamed on loyalist paramilitaries. Conall McDevitt, a member of the Northern Ireland assembly for the republican SDLP, said the apparent use of guns in Saturday’s unrest undermined the demonstrators’ claim to be involved in legitimate protests.

“Whatever grievance some people may have had, it is totally lost when they allow people to use these protests as cover for attempted murder,” he said.

“There is only one response possible, and that’s a firm policing response against everyone involved in illegal protests and anyone seeking to organise or encourage illegal or violent demonstrations,” he added. On Friday, First Minister Peter Robinson, the leader of the Protestant, proBritish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said attacks on police officers were a “disgrace, criminally wrong and cannot be justified”. The December flag vote has raised tensions in the province, which endured three decades of sectarian violence until 1998 peace accords led to a power-sharing government between Protestants and Catholics.— AFP

NEW DELHI: The father of an Indian student whose brutal rape provoked a global outcry said he wanted her name made public so she could be an inspiration to victims of sexual assault, in comments that may pressure authorities to allow her identity to be revealed.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died on Dec 28 in a Singapore hospital, two weeks after a gang rape on a moving bus in New Delhi that ignited protests across India and neighbouring countries, and prompted government promises for tougher punishments for offenders.

“We want the world to know her real name,” the woman’s father told Britain’s Sunday People newspaper.

“My daughter didn’t do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself,” he added. “I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter.”

There have been growing calls in India to name the victim.

Politician Shashi Tharoor last week questioned the merit of keeping her anonymous, and suggested naming new anti-rape law after her, a proposal her father supported.

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims’ privacy and keep them from the media glare in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

The father later told Reuters he had no objections to the media using his daughter’s name, but did not elaborate. Five men have been charged with gang rape and murder and will appear in a New Delhi court today to hear the charges.

Rajiv Mohan, a prosecutor in the case, said Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital gave the cause of death as “septicaemia from multi-organ failure due to multiple organ injuries”. Mohan said the prosecution had matched DNA from her blood to blood found on the accused’s clothes, and on hers, which one of the men had allegedly tried to burn to destroy evidence.

“The blood stain appearing on the burnt cloth has been tallied with the blood sample of the vic-

NEW DELHI: Indian protesters shouts slogans during a protest against a gang rape in New Delhi yesterday.

Claims of police incompetence and public apathy stirred new anger in the Delhi gang-rape case after the boyfriend of the victim recounted details of the savage attack for the first time. — AFP tim,” Mohan told reporters on Saturday. The British paper named the father and his daughter, saying that the father had given permission, but added that it would not publish a photo of her at the family’s request. Reuters has opted not to identify the victim.

Mohan told Reuters the police and prosecution still had no intention of revealing her identity. The spokesman for Delhi police could not immediately be reached for comment. “Even if family members have given their permission to disclose the victim’s identity for a greater cause, we can’t disclose her identity,” Mohan said, citing section 228a of the Indian penal code.

Legal experts consulted by Reuters said a situation could arise where Indian media, wary of legal cases, chose not name her while foreign publications do.

Citing the same law, Delhi police have started legal proceedings against TV network Zee News after it ran an interview with a friend of the victim who was with her during the attack.

He accused the police of

responding slowly and failing to cover the victim and himself after they were thrown from the bus without clothes and bleeding.

“The police is not taking any chances and wants to be in a controlling situation, scaring everybody off by filing (legal complaints)” said senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde, who predicted such complaints were unlikely to lead to prosecution.

Despite huge public pressure to move quickly, it might take several weeks to formally begin the trial against the five men, public prosecutor Mohan said. He said the case could be concluded within four to five months.

A juvenile also accused of the assault will be tried separately.

Mohan said police had recovered items stolen from the victim and her friend during the attack.

The protests and fierce public debate that followed the Dec. 16 rape have revealed fissures between conservatives who blame a wave of sex crimes on a loss of traditional values and a growing middle class used to women play-

ing a larger role in public life.

The head of a Hindu nationalist organisation linked to the main opposition force, the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Friday stoked debate by saying sex crimes and gang rapes mainly happened in urban India - a position not supported by facts.

“You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang rape or sex crimes. They are prevalent in some urban belts,” said Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

While per capita rape statistics are lower than in many nations, one case is reported in India every 20 minutes. A global poll of experts last year by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, showed India to be the worst place among G20 countries to be a woman.

Activists say most sex crimes in India go unreported, and official data show that almost all go unpunished. Reported rape cases rose nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011. — Reuters

Police fear deaths in Australia wildfires Italy’s centre-left leads in 3-way race ahead of vote ROME: Italy’s centre-left coalition, led by Pier Luigi Bersani, has a comfortable lead less than two months before the election, and outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti’s bloc may win up to 15 percent, a poll said.

Monti was appointed in November 2011 to lead an unelected right-left government of experts to save Italy from financial crisis after Silvio Berlusconi quit amid a sex scandal and a crisis that threatened the euro.

The 69-year-old’s centrist formation is now in a three-way race with the centreleft coalition, led by the Democratic Party (PD), and the centre-right bloc, led by fourtime prime minister Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party.

The number of voters who say they will vote for Bersani’s bloc in the Feb. 24-25 parliamentary election has stayed about the same, at between 38 and 39 percent, and the PD alone is seen getting 32-33 percent, polling institute ISPO said.

Monti’s bloc has gained to between 14 and 15 percent from just over 10 percent before he entered the race, and Berlusconi has boosted his own party’s share to 17-19 percent from 13-16 percent at the beginning of December, the poll, published on Sunday, said.

If Berlusconi can seal an alliance with the Northern League, his coalition could pull in as much as 28 percent of the vote, ISPO said. The two parties may hold talks later yesterday.

“The PDL has seen its consensus grow,

thanks to the ever more frequent presence of Berlusconi on the television screen,” said Renato Mannheimer, head of ISPO. Most of the PDL increase came from the large pool of undecided and disillusioned voters, Mannheimer said.

The number of undecided voters, or those who had planned to abstain, has fallen below 40 percent, down from almost 50 percent a few weeks ago, Mannheimer said.

Both Berlusconi and Monti have made multiple appearances on TV, in Twitter question-and-answer sessions, and in online video interviews over the past week as they seek to close the gap with the centre-left.

Monti is scheduled to speak in an interview with SkyTG24 television later yesterday.

The new “With Monti for Italy” formation presented on Friday would itself win 9 percent, the poll said, and is drawing votes mostly from the centre-left and the previously undecided, Mannheimer said.

“Most analysts see it as improbable that, as things now stand, the coalition led by Monti can win more than 20 percent,” he wrote. But if Berlusconi and the Northern League run together, the complexities of the electoral law might make a postelection alliance with Monti key to giving Bersani a stable majority in the Senate, Mannheimer said. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, led by comic Beppe Grillo, dropped to 13-14 percent from 17-19 percent a month ago, the poll showed. — Reuters

SYDNEY: Police were combing devastated towns for 100 people missing yesterday after wildfires tore through the Australian island state of Tasmania, with fears an untold number may have perished.

Acting Tasmania police commissioner Scott Tilyard said about 100 people were yet to be accounted for after fast-moving fires ravaged the south of the state, where residents described trees exploding and towering flames.

“That’s not to say that those people necessarily have come to any harm, but obviously we can’t totally

eliminate that until we’ve had confirmed contact with those individuals,” Tilyard told reporters.

“But we have to brace ourselves for the fact we may locate one or more deceased people.” Police and troops were going door to door in the worst-hit town of Dunalley, where about 70 homes were destroyed and the main street razed, with the local school reduced to ash in conditions described as catastrophic.

Tilyard said there had been no bodies discovered in the homes searched so far and “we hope certain-

DUNALLEY: This aerial photograph taken yesterday shows the devastated town of Dunalley after bush fires swept through the area.

Thousands of people have fled wildfires raging on the Australian island of Tasmania that have destroyed at least 80 properties amid fears that at least one man died in the blaze, police said. — AFP

ly that that continues.” “We also have to brace ourselves for the fact that we may locate one or more deceased people before we end the process.”

He had earlier expressed grave fears for the welfare of a “handful” of the 100 missing, which include locals and tourists. Prime Minister Julia Gillard will on Monday tour Dunalley, where resident Tony Young told ABC radio he saw trees exploding “like firecrackers”, with flames reaching 20 to 30 feet (6-9 metres) high.

The government has also warned of further danger across the nation from extreme heat predicted in several states this week. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Australia’s head of state, sent her condolences to Tasmania, expressing “deep concern” at the destruction and offering her sympathy to those who had lost homes and livelihoods.

“I offer my support and admiration for the firefighters, volunteers and emergency services officers who have been working tirelessly to contain the situation,” the monarch said in a written message published by the Australian Associated Press.

Almost 3,000 people were evacuated from their homes and many were stranded Sunday in emergency shelters as the fires raged to the east and west of the state capital Hobart, cutting off roads.

Residents returning to the wreckage of their homes described the devastation as “armageddon”, while

others recounted desperate moments as the fire tore through, forcing them to take shelter in the Dunalley canal.

One family was saved by a waterbombing aircraft which arrived overhead as flames surrounded their waterfront caravan. They were armed only with buckets. The Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) downgraded two major blazes from emergency to watchand-act status, with calmer conditions bringing a much-needed reprieve for crews ahead of worsening fire weather expected later in the week.

TFS chief Mike Brown estimated that there were “hundreds of kilometres of uncontrolled fire” still burning in heavily forested areas that are difficult to access. “We have got a lot of work ahead,” said Brown. “We are going to be in this situation for a number of days yet.” High winds which fanned the worst of the blazes had dropped off, giving crews a valuable opportunity to contain some 20 fires still active before conditions were expected to worsen again, said TFS spokesman John Holloway. “(Crews will be) doing some more active firefighting rather than just property protection,” Holloway told ABC Radio.

“We’re looking at some warmer weather again on Thursday, so if we’ve got this window to work on these fires and get some form of control around them, we’re going to take that opportunity when we can.”—AFP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

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

China orphanage vows to stay open after fatal fire BEIJING: An unlicensed Chinese caretaker vowed yesterday to continue sheltering orphans and other vulnerable children two days after a fire killed seven people staying with her, state media said.

The tragedy in central Henan province has sparked debate about the role of private operators like Yuan Lihai-who was looking after 18 people-and the government’s ability to regulate them or provide such services itself.

“Dozens of children would have died if I had not taken them in,” Yuan, 48, told

the Xinhua news agency. “I have a clear conscience.” “Do you think I can see a child die from cold and hunger out there on the street?... I will certainly give a hand as long as I am alive.”

Yuan, who has taken in more than 100 children over the past 26 years, never went through formal adoption procedures and would not have been legally allowed to do so because she already had children of her own, the Global Times reported.

Yet a local official praised Yuan for her

work despite its grey legal status, admitting that the relatively poor county of Lankao, with no orphanages, had allowed her to fill that role. “Some of our measures failed to meet regulations, and led to de facto recognition of her behaviour and today’s tragedy,” the deputy county chief Wu Changsheng told the Global Times.

Yuan told Xinhua that local officials sometimes brought food and money for the children and that she applied for government stipends of 5,000 yuan ($800)

every three months to provide for them.

She had left the house last Friday to take some adoptees to school when the fire broke out, killing six children and one 20year-old and leaving one 10-year-old boy in intensive care.

The rest have been sent to a welfare house. Yuan, who used to earn a living making snacks and now sells building supplies, rejected claims that she had taken anyone in to turn a profit. “Shoot me if you have evidence that I sold any children,” she said.

Child trafficking is a problem in China where the one-child policy and a preference for boys has led to girls being sold or abandoned, with some of the victims ending up in adoption centres.

Last month a police operation netted 355 trafficking suspects, including two government officials, and freed 89 children. The ministry of civil affairs will carr y out an inspection of private orphanages around the country over the coming month, Xinhua reported yesterday. — AFP

Twin suicide attack at Afghan tribal meeting kills five Taleban claims responsibility for attack

KATHMANDU: Nepalese activists shout slogans as they sit on protest near the Prime Minister’s residence in Kathmandu yesterday, during a protest demanding justice in rising cases of violence against women. Hundreds of Nepalese campaigners have protested over the alleged rape and robbery of a maid by government officials, echoing widespread anger in neighbouring India over violence against women. — AFP

Nepalese protesters stage anti-rape street drama KATHMANDU: Hundreds of Nepalese campaigners protested for a 10th day yesterday over the alleged rape and robbery of a maid by government officials and other cases of violence against women.

Demonstrators who began picketing the residence of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai in the upscale Baluwatar area of Kathmandu on December 28, demanding punishment of the accused, staged a street drama depicting scenes of abuse.

Sita Rai, an assumed name used by the 21-year-old to protect her identity, says she was robbed at Kathmandu’s international airport by officials and then subsequently raped by a policeman, as she returned to

the capital from Saudi Arabia.

More than 500 “Occupy Baluwatar ” activists, including rights workers, housewives and journalists, have been holding up photographs of victims of rape, murders and kidnappings, accusing the government of failing to act in each case.

Police have since made several arrests in Rai’s case and Bhattarai has spoken of his “shame” over the government’s response to her complaint.

Mass protests in India over the gangrape last month of a 23-year-old student who subsequently died have shone a light on an alleged culture of impunity over sex attacks in its Himalayan neighbour. — AFP

KANDAHAR: Two suicide bombers struck a meeting of community leaders in a southern Afghan town near the Pakistan border yesterday, killing at least five people and wounding 15, officials said. One gunman on foot opened fire on guards at the entrance of the council building in Spin Boldak, forced his way inside and detonated himself, while a second attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the outside walls.

The Kandahar provincial government said that the dead were a child, a health vaccinator, a member of the shura (council), a shopkeeper and a person there to register himself for an identity card.

“All the wounded were civilians who had come to the meeting to discuss their problems with shura members,” it said in a statement, adding that three people were being treated for serious injuries in Kandahar city hospital.

The building partially collapsed due the impact of the blasts, with some of the injured pulled from the rubble during a search operation to check for buried bodies. Taleban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed the militants were responsible, saying eight people, mostly police, were killed, though provincial officials reported no security forces had died or been injured.

Witnesses said two explosions were heard followed by small arms fire in Spin Boldak, a volatile town 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Kandahar city. “Every Sunday the local shura meets at the administrative building, that is where the attack happened,” said Mohammad Ali, the border police chief.

About 40 residents were attending the meeting to lodge complaints with tribal elders or to petition them for assistance. The Taleban have waged a bloody insurgency against foreign and Afghan forces since being ousted from power in a 2001 invasion led by the United States.

Spin Boldak sits on the road from Kandahar, birthplace of the Taleban movement, to the

SPIN BOLDAK: A US soldier with the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) investigates the scene after two suicide attacks in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday. — AP Pakistani city of Quetta, where the fugitive leaders of the insurgency are widely thought to mastermind many attacks.

The last major suicide blast in Afghanistan occurred on December 26 at a US military base near the eastern city of Khost, killing at least three Afghans and wounding seven others.

It came two days after an Afghan policewoman shot dead a US NATO adviser in Kabul police headquarters, the latest “insider” attack by a member of Afghanistan’s security forces on their foreign allies.

NATO is handing over security duties to

Afghan forces as it prepares to withdraw the bulk of its 100,000 troops by 2014, but there are fears the country will descend into civil war when foreign soldiers leave. President Hamid Karzai travels to Washington this week for talks with President Barack Obama on a bilateral security pact, with the issue of some US troops remaining in Afghanistan after 2014 high on the agenda. The Taleban on Saturday warned of a prolonged war if any foreign troops are left as a “residual force”, though US media reports say that between 3,000 and 9,000 troops are likely to stay on to target militants. — AFP

Pakistani officials say US drones kill 9 militants DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts near the Afghan border yesterday, killing nine Pakistani Taleban fighters, intelligence officials said.

The strikes targeted the group’s hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, the three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The identity of the killed militants was not immediately known, they said, but two important commanders of the Pakistani Taleban - including the head of a training unit for suicide bombers - may be among them.

Yesterday’s drone attack was the third suspected US drone strike in five days.

One such hit late Wednesday night killed a top Pakistani militant commander, Maulvi Nazir, accused of carrying out deadly attacks against American and other targets across the border in Afghanistan. That attack was followed close on by another strike on Thursday in the North Waziristan tribal area.

Islamabad opposes the use of US drones on its territory, but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in past. The drone campaign also infuriates many Pakistanis who see them as a violation of their country’s sovereignty.

Many Pakistanis complain that innocent civilians have also been killed, something the US rejects.

But an attack like yesterday’s may be less likely to anger the Pakistani military and public because it targeted militants believed to have been going after targets in Pakistan and not in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani intelligence officials said that informants had told them one of the two dead commanders was Wali Muhammad Mahsud, also known as Toofan, who headed a wing of the group that trained suicide bombers. His predecessor, Qari Husain Mehsud, was believed to have been killed in a US missile strike in late 2011.

Mahsud was part of the Pakistani Taleban that have waged a bloody war against the Pakistani state by targeting

army, police, government officials, civilians and even religious leaders who wouldn’t agree to their interpretation of Islam. The Pakistani Taleban demand that the state should sever ties with the US and amend the constitution to enforce a Sharia based Islamic system in the country.

In December, a Taleban suicide bomber killed a top government minister, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, who came from an anti-militant political party in northwest Pakistan and abducted and beheaded several Pakistani paramilitary troops and tribal police.

The militant commander, Nazir, who was killed last Wednesday was also part of the Taleban but he led a faction that agreed to a cease-fire with the Pakistan military in 2009 and did not attack domestic targets.

As a result, while his death is likely to be seen in Washington as affirmation of the necessity of its controversial drone program, it could cause more friction in already tense relations with Pakistan.

Analysts say Nazir’s killing is likely to complicate the Pakistani army’s fight against the local and foreign al-Qaeda linked militants holed up in the country’s tribal region.

They say his fighters may turn their guns toward Pakistani troops and may join the Pakistani Taleban’s fight against the state.

Still, Nazir outraged many Pakistanis in June when he announced that he would not allow any polio vaccinations in territory under his control until the US stops drone attacks in the region.

Washington wants Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, believed to be the last stronghold of many of the militant groups. But Islamabad had been refusing, saying it does not have enough troops and resources to do that.

In absence of such an operation, the US relies more on drone strikes to take out militants. The program has killed a number of top militant commanders including Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was al Qaeda’s No. 2 when he was killed in a June strike. — AP

YANGON: British excavators arrive at Yangon International Airport yesterday, in Yangon, Myanmar. The team led by a British aviation enthusiast arrived in Myanmar to begin the first of several digs they hope will unearth dozens of rare British fighter planes said to have been buried in the Southeast Asian country at the end of World War II. — AP

British Spitfire team arrives in Myanmar YANGON: A search team led by a British aviation enthusiast arrived in Myanmar yesterday to begin a dig they hope will unearth dozens of rare British Spitfire fighter planes said to have been buried in the Southeast Asian country at the end of World War II. The 21-member team led by farmer and businessman David Cundall will start excavations soon near the airport in the main city, Yangon.

Cundall said the aircraft were buried in wooden crates around 30 feet under the ground and the project would take about four to six weeks to complete.” We are expecting them to be in firstclass condition,” Cundall said shortly after arriv-

ing at the international airport in Yangon.

The Spitfire remains Britain’s most famous combat aircraft. Its reputation was cemented during the Battle of Britain when the fast-moving single-seater aircraft helped beat back waves of German bombers.

Britain built a total of about 20,000 Spitfires, although the dawn of the jet age at the end of World War II meant that the propeller-driven planes quickly became obsolete. The planes believed to be in Myanmar were buried by American engineers as the war drew to a close.

Searchers hope they are in pristine condition, but Andy Brockman, a freelance archaeologist

who is part of the search team, said it was possible all they might find is a mass of corroded metal and rusty aircraft parts. Nevertheless, he said, “I’m very confident that we’ll have answers to the story of what happened ... in 1945.” The venture is being backed by the Belarusian videogame company Wargaming.net, which is best known for its multiplayer titles including “World of Warplanes” and “World of Tanks.”

The search team says 36 Spitfires are believed to be buried near Yangon airport, while another 18 are in Myitkyina in northern Kachin state and six more are buried in Meikthila in central Myanmar. — AP

Bangladesh police clash with anti-government protesters

DHAKA: Activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) shout slogans during a nationwide strike in Dhaka yesterday. Anti-government protesters set fire to cars and buses during the opposition alliance’s daylong countrywide shutdown strike protesting the latest hike in fuel oil prices. — AFP

DHAKA: Police in Bangladesh fired rubbers bullets and tear gas shells yesterday to disperse protesters trying to enforce a general strike called to denounce a fuel price hike. An alliance of 18 opposition parties, led by exPremier Khaleda Zia, is trying to enforce a dawn-to-dusk strike Sunday after the government announced a 9 percent hike in fuel prices, the fifth increase since 2009.

Yesterday was a working day in this Muslim-majority country. The government said the hike was needed to cut the subsidies estimated at more than $300 million a year - it pays on fuel. Critics said the latest hike will further increase inflation now running at 9 percent. “The hike will have a chain effect on transport fares, the cost of agricultural and industrial production,” said Mokaddes Akash, an economist. “This will thus compound pub-

lic suffering.” Dhaka’s Somoy TV and Independent Television reported that protesters exploded about a dozen homemade bombs - explosives filled in tin pots - in central Dhaka. At least six vehicles were set on fire.

Police say they used rubber bullets and tear gas to prevent protesters from attacking vehicles that defied the strike.

Nearly 25 people were injured in the clashes, said a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The strike shut down schools and shops in capital Dhaka, a city of 15 million people. Most transport went off the streets, but authorities said trains and river ferries operated without any disruptions. General strikes are a common opposition tactic in Bangladesh to highlight demands. — AP

NEWS

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

Assad ‘road map’ greeted with scorn Continued from Page 1 It was his first public speech to an audience in six months. Since the last, rebels have reached the capital’s outskirts. George Sabra, vice president of the opposition National Coalition, told Reuters the peace plan Assad put at the heart of his speech did “not even deserve to be called an initiative”: “We should see it rather as a declaration that he will continue his war against the Syrian people,” he said. “The appropriate response is to continue to resist this unacceptable regime and for the Free Syrian Army to continue its work in liberating Syria until every inch of land is free.”

The speech was seen by many as a response to UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who has been meeting US and Russian officials to try to narrow differences between Washington and Moscow over a peace plan.

Brahimi also met Assad in Syria late last month.

“Lakhdar Brahimi must feel foolish after that Assad speech, where his diplomacy is dismissed as intolerable intervention,” said

Rana Kabbani, a Syrian analyst who supports the opposition.

The United States, European Union, Turkey and most Arab states have called on Assad to quit. Russia, which sells arms to and leases a naval base from Syria, says it backs a transition of power but that Assad’s departure should not be a precondition for any talks.

Assad’s foreign foes were scornful and dismissive of the speech: “His remarks are just repetitions of what he’s said all along,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

“It seems he’s locked himself up in a room and only reads the intelligence reports presented to him.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said “empty promises of reform fool no one”. In a Twitter message, he added: “Death, violence and oppression engulfing Syria are of his own making.”

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Brussels would “look carefully if there is anything new in the speech, but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition”.

The 47-year-old Assad, tall and moustachioed, in a business suit and tie, spoke confidently for about an hour before a crowd of cheering loyalists, who occasionally interrupted him to shout and applaud, at one point raising their fists and chanting: “With blood and soul we sacrifice for you, oh Bashar!” At the end of the speech, supporters rushed to the stage, mobbing him and shouting: “God, Syria and Bashar is enough!” as a smiling president waved and was escorted from the hall past a backdrop showing a Syrian flag made of pictures of people whom state television described as “martyrs” of the conflict so far.

“We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word,” Assad said in the speech, broadcast on Syrian state television. “This war targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. Thus, this is a war to defend the nation.”

Independent media are largely barred from Damascus. Giving the speech in the opera house, in a part of central Damascus that has been hit by rebel attacks, could be intended as a show of strength by a leader

whose public appearances have grown rarer as the rebellion has gathered force. Critics saw irony in the venue: “Assad speech appropriately made in Opera House!” tweeted Rami Khouri, a commentator for Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper. “It was operatic in its other-worldly fantasy, unrelated to realities outside the building.”

The United Nations says 60,000 people have been killed in the civil war, the longest and bloodiest of the conflicts to emerge in two years of revolts in Arab states. Rebels now control much of the north and east of the country, a crescent of suburbs on the outskirts of the capital and the main border crossings with Turkey in the north. But Assad’s forces are still firmly in control of most of the densely populated southwest, the main north-south highway and the Mediterranean coast. The army also holds military bases throughout the country from which its helicopters and jets can strike rebel-held areas with impunity, making it impossible for the insurgents to consolidate their grip on territory they hold.

Assad, an eye doctor, has ruled since

2000, succeeding his late father Hafez, who had seized power in a 1970 coup. The rebels are drawn mainly from Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, while Assad, a member of the Alawite sect related to Shiite Islam, is supported by some members of religious minorities who fear retribution if he falls. The conflict has heightened confrontation in the Middle East between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arab rulers, particularly those in the Gulf who are allied with the West against Tehran.

The plan unveiled in yesterday’s speech could hardly have been better designed to ensure its rejection by the opposition.

Among its proposals: rebels would first be expected to halt operations before the army would cease fire, a certain non-starter. Assad also repeatedly emphasized rebel links to al Qaeda and other Sunni Islamist radicals.

Washington has also labelled one of the main rebel groups a terrorist organization and says it is linked to the network founded

by Osama bin Laden.

Diplomacy has been largely irrelevant so far in the conflict, with Moscow vetoing UN resolutions against Assad. — Reuters

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

ANALYSIS

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Issues

Obama wins ‘fiscal cliff’ victory, but at high cost

By Kathleen Hennessey and David Lauter

P

resident Barack Obama, who campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, has fulfilled that promise even before his next term starts. The announcement Monday night of Senate agreement on a compromise to avert part of the “fiscal cliff” meant that for the first time in two decades, Republicans in Congress were preparing to vote in favor of a bill that raised taxes, an extraordinary concession to the nation’s fiscal woes and the president’s re-election.

But Obama’s victory fell short of what he had campaigned for, and came at a high cost. Even if the House later Tuesday or Wednesday musters the votes to approve the bill that the Senate was to vote on in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the terms of this compromise guarantee another pitched battle over spending and taxes within months.

Whether the agreement announced Monday evening turns out to be truly a victory for Obama or a lost opportunity, as many of his liberal critics feared, will depend heavily on how that next battle turns out.

The agreement to freeze income tax rates for most Americans while allowing them to rise for the wealthiest dealt only with the most pressing elements of the fiscal storm Congress and the president created last year. A newly elected Congress will begin work in a few days and immediately will need to start negotiating yet another deal. That next fight will be aimed at further reducing the long-term deficit and raising the debt ceiling before the government runs out of money to pay its bills-a deadline that will hit sometime in late February or March.

The persistent battle over spending, which already has consumed Washington for two years, threatens to block Obama’s other major legislative priorities, including immigration reform and gun control.

Moreover, to get a deal, Obama had to accept far less new revenue than he had wanted. In his re-election campaign, Obama had called for raising taxes on income over $250,000. The compromise starts the increases at $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. Overall, the deal is projected to raise about $620 billion in new revenues over the next 10 years, almost $1 trillion less than Obama had asked for.

Without that extra revenue, White House officials have said, the nation eventually will face punishing cuts in Social Security, Medicare and other domestic programs. Concern that the deal included too little revenue led liberals in the Senate to threaten repeatedly Monday to pull the plug.

Obama, they said, was giving in too much to Republican demands at the point where he had maximum leverage.

“I just think that’s grossly unfair,” Sen. Tom Harkin, DIowa, a liberal leader, said in a Senate speech Monday objecting to the deal. “If we’re going to have some kind of a deal, the deal must be one that really favors the middle class-the real middle class.”

Even after most Democratic senators made their peace with the deal, influential liberal groups such as MoveOn.org denounced it for providing too little and conceding too much.

White House aides disputed that argument. They pointed to Democratic priorities included in the deal-tax credits aimed at students, parents and the working poor were extended for five years, for example, and long-term unemployment benefits were extended for a year.

They also argued that the current deal was not the final installment on revenue. The current deal postponed, but did not eliminate, the automatic cuts in defense and domestic spending _ known as the “sequester”-that Congress had put into place in 2011. Republicans don’t mind the domestic spending cuts, but bitterly object to the reductions in defense.

As the price for lifting those defense cuts, White House officials have said, the president will demand another round of revenue increases through closing tax loopholes and other measures. That would bring the overall revenue total close to what Obama had originally wanted-if he can prevail.

Obama made that point himself, in an afternoon statement that sought to reassure restive Democrats that he would not allow Republicans to push through a deal with only spending cuts.

“If Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone,” he said, “that’s not how it’s going to work. “Revenues have to be part of the equation in turning off the sequester, in eliminating these automatic spending cuts,” he said.

“If we’re going to be serious about deficit reduction and debt reduction, then it’s going to have to be a matter of shared sacrifice-at least as long as I’m president.” —MCT

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

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

Syria toll report sparks controversy

By David Enders

A

new United Nations-sponsored report that estimates more than 60,000 people have died in Syria’s political violence has touched off a new dispute that underscores how little is truly known about the toll from a civil war just weeks from beginning its third year.

One Syrian activist who provided some of the numbers for the study says he believes the new numbers are inflated, while another says he believes they underrepresent the dead.

“They are being used as propaganda,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who believes the new numbers overstate the number of dead. “ The UN is not a human rights organization, it is a political one.”

Rahman said he believed the report, made public Wednesday, was being used to pressure countries into working harder to reach a political deal to stop the fighting.

Rahman’s criticism is notable. His organization’s numbers, gathered from informants on the ground in Syria, are the most widely quoted source for information on the daily violence inside Syria. His is also the only organization that attempts to record casualties from all sides of the conflict-rebels, the government and civilians. To date, he’s logged about 46,000 deaths since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.

Megan Price, a senior statistician for Benetech, the California firm that compiled the report for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Rahman had shared his concerns with the

report’s authors. “We have nothing but the utmost respect for the groups doing this very hard work,” Price said, adding that Rahman’s concerns about the accuracy of some of the data used in the study “are valid.”

But she also said she still agreed with the report’s general conclusion that the data used to compile the report, gathered from six organizations and the Syrian government,

was endorsed by Radwan Ziadeh, the director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies, which is part of another group that tracks casualties, the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

The network, which only records deaths of rebel fighters and civilians, has reported the deaths of 42,343 people since March 18, 2011.

The likelihood that many deaths have gone unreported should spur

ALEPPO: Rebel fighters talk with a family trapped and awaiting their father’s return home, along the front line in Salaheddine neighborhood of Aleppo on Saturday. —AFP almost certainly missed a number of deaths that have yet to be counted. “The statistics presented in this report should be considered minimum bounds,” the report said.

“Based on our experience in other countries, and really just thinking about the way that violence occurs, there will inevitably be violence that is not recorded, especially if it leaves behind only the perpetrators or witnesses who don’t feel safe enough to report or they don’t have any reason to,” she said. That view

a push for international monitors to document the violence in Syria, said Ziadeh, a member of the Syrian National Council, an opposition exile group that has lobbied hard for international support for the rebels.

“This is why it’s important to have independent fact-finding on the ground,” he said. Syria’s death toll has long been a hotly debated topic. The United Nations stopped publishing a death toll nearly a year ago after officials realized that they

could not independently document the killings and that most of the groups purporting to have information were sympathetic to the rebels and did not delineate between civilian deaths and those of rebel combatants. For its part, the Syrian government provided statistics primarily for its supporters and police and soldiers killed in combat with the rebels. The government stopped publicizing those casualties late last spring as it became clear rebels were taking an ever greater toll on government forces.

The Benetech study was an effort to arrive at an accurate figure by comparing the reports provided by both Rahman’s and Ziadeh’s groups and four others as well as the Syrian government. The firm’s statisticians compared each of the databases with one another in an effort to weed out duplicates and insufficiently documented deaths.

Researchers included only casualties that had been identified with a first and last name and a date and place of death.

The process yielded a list of 59,648 unduplicated death reports from March 2011 through November. Of those, 76.1 percent were male and 7.5 percent were female. The sex of 16.4 percent could not be determined from the records, the report said.

But there were many questions that the report could not answer.

For one, the analysis could not determine how many of those killed were civilians and how many were combatants. It also said that more than 70 percent of the records did not provide an age for the victim, meaning that the study could reach no conclusions about the death toll among children and the elderly.

The lack of information about whether the dead were bystanders or combatants also leaves open the debate over Syrian government tactics. Anti-Assad groups have consistently accused the government of targeting civilians in its bombardment of urban areas, a charge the Syrian government answers by claiming that the areas were occupied by armed rebels.

The way the various groups account for civilian casualties varies widely, underscoring the difficulty.

Ziadeh says his group’s numbers “indicate that 90 to 95 percent of those killed are civilians.” But Rahman’s Syrian Observatory sees a less lopsided ratio, with its numbers for November and December —3,860 and 3,690, respectively-showing that only 42 percent of those were civilians.

Those variations exist even though both groups say they rely on the same basic methodology to gather their information: interviews with family members, photographic and video evidence, and evidence collected by activists on the ground to back up their statistics.

Both groups agree that violence peaked in August, when each counted more than 5,000 dead.

Rahman said, however, that he intends to present evidence to the United Nations that some of the death reports its study used included faked names and people who died from causes unrelated to the war.

He cited a recent attack on a gasoline station as example of the misrepresentation of some of the attacks that take place inside Syria.

“People said more than 30 people died,” Rahman said. “But no one had more than 12 names, or video of more than 12 bodies.” —MCT

Obama team used cable TV to outplay Romney

By Marcus Stern and Tim McLaughlin

A

s political experts assess Republican Mitt Romney’s failed US presidential bid, an analysis of how his campaign and President Barack Obama’s winning team used cable TV to target ads at specific groups of voters may offer some valuable tips for the future. During the final weeks before the Nov 6 election, with polls showing a tight race, Obama’s campaign exploited cable TV’s diverse lineup to target women on channels such as Food Network and Lifetime and men on networks such as ESPN. The Obama team used the fragmentation of cable TV’s audience to its fullest advantage to target tailored messages to voters in battleground states.

Meanwhile, Romney’s campaign relied on a more traditional mass saturation of broadcast TV. The Romney camp was entirely dark on cable TV for two of the campaign’s last seven days.

“We don’t know why. This was a week before the election and you’re in the fight for your life,” said Timothy Kay, political director for NCC Media, a cable TV industry consortium. The race had narrowed to key counties in several battleground states, the kind of isolation ideally suited for cable’s geographical targeting and niche-marketing capabilities.

Republican Party operatives dismayed by Romney’s defeat continue to debate what went wrong in a campaign awash in cash and run by a candidate with a business background. The former Massachusetts governor’s campaign, like Democrat Obama’s, spent a

record-setting amount of cash; in Romney’s case, it was $580 million in 20 months.

Obama’s campaign outspent Romney’s campaign on advertising by as much as $200 million, according to a Reuters analysis. But when spending by pro-Romney and pro-Obama outside groups is considered, Romney had the edge in overall TV advertising spending.

Republican consultants and advertising experts said Romney had enough money to compete with Obama’s final advertising effort. Yet Obama cruised to a commanding Electoral College victory after a final concentration on a small group of battleground states.

“In market after market, the Obama campaign ended up putting more ads on target than the Romney campaign did,” said Ken Goldstein, president of Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group, a nonpartisan consulting firm that tracked political ads and worked with both campaigns.

Stephanie Kincaid, who managed Romney’s advertising campaign, declined to answer questions and referred inquiries to top Romney campaign officials Stuart Stevens and Russell Schriefer, her bosses at The Stevens and Schriefer Group, a political consulting firm. They did not respond to phone calls.

Cable television political advertising jumped from $136 million in 2006 to $650 million in 2012, although broadcast TV still garnered 80 percent of the campaign advertising spending last year. Even with major broadcast networks and their affiliates, the Obama campaign appeared to out-perform

the Romney camp.

A campaign spending review shows the Obama camp frequently spent far less than Romney for ads aired by the same stations during the same shows. For example, a review of TV station filings with the Federal Communications Commission showed Romney, on the Sunday before Election Day, paid $1,100 for an ad aired during CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina. Obama paid $200 for a comparable ad on the same station during the same program.

Part of the reason for the Obama campaign’s pricing advantage is that the president faced no Democratic primary challenge and was able to buy autumn TV time months in advance when the slots - like airline tickets - were discounted. Romney faced a tough battle for the Republican nomination.

The Romney campaign also simply did not have enough bodies to handle the laborintensive business of planning, negotiating and placing ads on hundreds of TV stations simultaneously, according to several Republican consultants and media analysts who asked not to be identified.

Obama’s campaign had 30 full-time media buyers. The Romney campaign relied heavily on a single person, Kincaid, with help from one or two others from time to time, according to sources close to the campaign. Senior officials with the campaign declined to discuss its advertising staffing.

“It’s the equivalent of having a budget the size of a Coca-Cola commercial campaign and having two people managing it, where a

Madison Avenue agency might have 50 people,” said NCC’s Kay. Kincaid and her small staff were overwhelmed, according to numerous political vendors who dealt with them.

Jim Margolis, an Obama campaign senior adviser whose firm GMMB handled its advertising, said the campaign also took advantage of information provided by companies like Rentrak Corp, a Portland, Oregon-based company that monitors the digital boxes attached to TVs in households using satellite dishes.

In the past, political advertisers relied on the major networks rather than cable TV in a quest to reach the most television viewers.

But cable TV’s increasing popularity has brought dramatic fragmentation to television viewership. In many markets, cable offers a hundred or more channels, giving advertisers a chance to target specific demographics.

For instance, the Obama campaign identified zip codes surrounding Ohio tire-manufacturing plants and purchased cable ads touting Obama’s efforts to block tire imports from China.

Obama ran 600,000 cable ads to the Romney’s 300,000 around the nation during the campaign, said NCC’s Kay. Obama’s cable TV push started in April. Romney’s began in September. Obama’s team also mixed and matched its messages to sharpen the appeal in key counties.

“My impression was there was much more examination and analytics done with the Obama campaign,” Kay said. “The Romney campaign had the same rigid schedule in every state.” —Reuters

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

S P ORT S Berdych in Kooyong line up MELBOURNE: World number six Tomas Berdych has been confirmed as the final player in the eight-man invitational Kooyong Classic. Tournament director Colin Stubs had held the final spot in the field open until as late as possible, hoping to secure a top-10 player for the tournament that serves as warm up for the Australian Open.

Stubs had said earlier he had contacted representatives of the world’s top four players, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal, about filling the spot. Djokovic instead chose to play Hopman Cup in Perth, the 31-year-old Federer has not played any competitive warmup matches this year as he manages his schedule to improve his longevity, Murray is in Brisbane, while Nadal withdrew from the Australian Open due to illness.

Berdych, however, who reached the quarter-finals in Chennai earlier this week, felt he needed more match practice and asked to join the Kooyong tournament, Stubs said in a statement on Sunday. The 27-year-old Czech joins 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, world number nine Janko Tipsarevic, top-20 players Juan Monaco, Milos Raonic and Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Melbourne crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt in the Jan. 9-12 tournament. —Reuters

Wolves sack Solbakken

Warne, Samuels in ugly T-20 bust-up MELBOURNE: Australian star Shane Warne and West Indian international Marlon Samuels were involved in an ugly, foul-mouthed clash yesterday when a Twenty20 match boiled over in front of a record crowd.

Spin legend Warne, captaining the Melbourne Stars against city rivals Renegades in the domestic Big Bash tournament, was furious that Samuels had pulled back David Hussey when the batsman was turning for a second run.

And when it was Samuels’s turn to bat later in the game, Warne confronted the West Indian. In the next over, Warne, in the field, threw the ball at the Jamaican’s chest while Samuels reacted by tossing his bat down the pitch towards the Australian.

The two players squared up and had to be separated by the umpires.

Warne, who was wearing a microphone for on-field comments to aid TV coverage, told commentators: “What are you meant to do when someone throws a bat at you?” Samuels was later forced to retire hurt when he top-edged a Lasith Malinga delivery into his eye. With blood gushing from his face, he needed hospital treatment.

The only consolation for Samuels was that his Renegades team won by nine wickets in front of a record Australian domestic Twenty20 crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground of 46,581. —AFP

LONDON: Former Norway international Stale Solbakken was sacked as Wolverhampton Wanderers manager after the English second tier team slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat at minor league Luton Town in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.

“Wolves announce that Stale Solbakken has left with immediate effect,” the club said on their website (www.wolves.co.uk). Solbakken’s side are seventh from bottom of the Championship standings having won only three of their last 16 league games.

The 44-year-old Norwegian, who took charge in July last year, won 58 caps for his country between 1994-2000 and briefly played in the Premier League with Wimbledon in the late 1990s. Solbakken retired from playing after suffering a heart attack in training in 2001. He led FC Copenhagen to Danish league and cup titles during a five-year spell at the club and took them into the Champions League for the first time where they became the first Danish team to qualify for the knockout stage. Although Solbakken’s success in Denmark made him one of the most sought-after coaches in Scandinavia, his miserable run of results since leaving FC Copenhagen are a cautionary tale for any manager seeking a greater challenge. In November 2009, the Danish club announced that he was not renewing his contract because he was taking over as manager of his native Norway but his success saw other suitors come calling and Solbakken’s head was turned. —Reuters

Knicks end Magic spell ORLANDO: Carmelo Anthony scored 16 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter, helping the New York Knicks top the Orlando Magic 114106 on Saturday night.

JR Smith added 18 points for New York, and Tyson Chandler had 14 points and 12 rebounds. The Knicks have won two straight overall and four in a row over the Magic, dating to last season.

Arron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson each had 29 points for the Magic, and Nik Vucevic contributed 11 points and 18 rebounds. Orlando outrebounded New York 45-40, but had 14 turnovers as its longest losing streak of the season reached eight games.

The Magic flipped a four-point halftime deficit into an 89-81 lead entering the fourth.

The Knicks rallied using their size, going up 99-97 on a dunk by Chandler with 5:14 left.

SAN ANTONIO: Spurs’ Tiago Splitter (22), of Brazil, is fouled by Philadelphia 76ers’ Lavoy Allen during an NBA basketball game. —AP

Play again abandoned at wind-swept Kapalua HAWAII: The Hawaiian island of Maui was no paradise on Saturday when the official start of the 2013 PGA Tour was postponed for a second consecutive day because of strong gusting winds at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

First-round play in the PGA Tour’s season-opening event was entirely scrapped on Friday because of similar conditions and hopes of playing 36 holes on Saturday were abandoned after the rescheduled start had three times been pushed back an hour.

With the weather expected to improve slightly over the next two days, organisers said they planned to complete 36 holes yesterday and 18 today in a tournament now cut to 54 holes. Winds gusted up to 40mph (64.4 kph) across the Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course on Saturday, making the par-73 layout unplayable.

On some of the more exposed holes on the back nine, golf balls rolled uphill when dropped on the greens as a test by officials. “We tried as best we could,” Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competition, told reporters. “We got balls rolling all over the green, so we have cancelled play for the day, “I dropped a ball on the 10th green, on the back of the green ... and it rolled 20 yards off the front. We did have balls that were going uphill on (hole) 10 about foot and a half.

“Forecast for tomorrow is a little better, (winds) 15 to 25 mph with gusts, maybe, to 30. A little less moisture, more like pineapple showers than these downpours that we have had.”

While 24 players in the elite, winnersonly field of 30 were able to tee off on Friday before the first-round scores were

wiped out, not a single shot was struck on Saturday.

“If the course wasn’t so exposed, it wouldn’t be a problem but you have a lot of greens exposed to 40 mile-an-hour wind gusts,” said FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker.

“It’s tough to make that call. They (officials) did the right thing. We had to try to play today if we wanted to try to get 72 holes in. Unfortunately a short day, but hopefully we’ll get out tomorrow and get some golf.” Fellow American Hunter Mahan, a double winner on the PGA Tour last year, agreed that conditions had been unplayable.

“With these gusts, the ball is basically just moving on its own,” he said. “That doesn’t make for good golf and good scores or fun for anybody to be out there right now. “We all are trying to figure out what to do and what’s the best plan for us to get ready for the next two days or three days.” US Open champion Webb Simpson had been the early leader in Friday’s aborted round, moving to three under par after just seven holes before the players were summoned off the course.

Swede Jonas Blixt was at one under after five holes, a stroke in front of compatriot Carl Pettersson (after one hole) and Americans Kyle Stanley (four), Ryan Moore (three), Johnson Wagner (two) and Scott Piercy (one).

Veteran American Steve Stricker, who won last year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions by three shots to clinch his 12th PGA Tour title, was among the six players who did not tee off on Friday.

Weather permitting, play would begin at 7:10 a.m. local (1730 GMT) yesterday with a two-tee start. —Reuters

KAPALUA: Ian Poulter of England hits a tee shot on the third hole during the first round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course. —AFP

Hornets 99, Mavericks 96 In Dallas, Eric Gordon completed a threepoint play with 4.7 seconds left in overtime and New Orleans spoiled Dallas’ first game this season with Dirk Nowitzki in the starting lineup.

After a timeout, OJ Mayo was beyond the 3-point line when Gordon went up the air and by him. Gordon’s foot made contact with the ball, knocking it loose. Instead of a foul, officials called it a kicked ball. Dallas got one more chance but Vince Carter’s shot from the right corner ricocheted off the rim.

Nowitzki had a team-high 20 points in 34 minutes, his most extensive action this season. He missed a free throw with 18 seconds left in regulation that would have put the Mavericks ahead by a point. Greivis Vasquez had 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter for the Hornets, but missed a final shot at the end of regulation. Vasquez also had nine assists.

Pacers 95, Bucks 80 In Indianapolis, Roy Hibbert had 20 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots to lead Indiana past Milwaukee. Hibbert grabbed a career-high 11 offensive rebounds as the Pacers won their seventh straight home game.

George Hill added 14 points after missing Indiana’s previous three games with a right thigh contusion.

The Bucks scored the first six points of the third to grab a 53-52 lead. But the Pacers responded with an 8-0 run and cruised from there. Indiana, which lost in Boston on Friday night, hasn’t lost consecutive games since falling to Denver on Dec. 7 and at Oklahoma City on Dec. 9. Monta Ellis led the Bucks with 21 points.

Celtics 89, Hawks 81 In Atlanta, Rajon Rondo had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, and the Boston Celtics rallied to beat Atlanta. Paul Pierce scored 17 of his 26 points in the third quarter as the Celtics erased a 19-point deficit and went on to consecutive wins for the first time since late November against Oklahoma City and Orlando.

Boston, which beat Indiana 94-75 on Friday night, had lost four straight road games. Lou Williams scored 21 of his 28 points in the first half for Atlanta, which has lost two straight.

Nets 113, Kings 93 In New York, Brook Lopez scored 18 points in 17 minutes to lead six players in double figures, and Brooklyn got a nice effort from their reserves for its third straight victory.

One night after needing two overtimes to escape with a 115-113 victory in Washington, the Nets made sure the starters weren’t too taxed. Deron Williams and Joe Johnson both scored 15 points, but neither had to play even 30 minutes.

Reser ves MarShon Brooks and Andray Blatche each scored 15 points and Mirza Teletovic had a career-best 14 as the Nets scored a season-high 65 points in the first half and improved to 5-1 under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo.

DeMarcus Cousins had 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings, who had won four of five overall and two straight on the road but were defenseless in the finale of their fourgame trip.

Rockets 112, Cavaliers 104 In Cleveland, James Harden scored 29 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter, and Houston beat Cleveland. Jeremy Lin added 20 points for Houston, which has won 11 of its

DENVER: Utah Jazz forward Paul Millsap (24) and Denver Nuggets center Kosta Koufos go after a rebound during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game. —AP

last 14. Kyrie Irving led Cleveland with 30 points, including 11 in the final period, but the Cavaliers fell short of winning two in a row for the second time this season. Harden, who had four points in the first half, made 6 of 17 fieldgoal attempts, but was 14 of 15 at the line and had a career-high seven steals. He came into the game averaging 26.3 points and has topped the 20-point mark in each of his last 16 games.

Trail Blazers 102, Timberwolves 97 In Minneapolis, Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews each made five 3s and scored 26 points to lead Portland past injury-depleted Minnesota.

The Trail Blazers made a season-high 16 3pointers and withstood a fourth-quarter rally by the Timberwolves to win for the 10th time in 13 games and finish their four-game road trip with a 3-1 record.

Nikola Pekovic led the Timberwolves with 21 points but left the game in the third quarter because of a left hip strain. Only hours earlier, Minnesota learned it lost star forward Kevin Love to a broken right hand for the second time this season when an MRI confirmed the injury.

The banged-up Timber wolves - who dressed only 10 players - also played without point guard Ricky Rubio, who sat out with back spasms. Damian Lillard had 20 points for the Blazers.

Spurs 109, 76ers 86 In San Antonio, Tony Parker had 20 points and Manu Ginobili added 19 and San Antonio routed Philadelphia. Tim Duncan added 16 points, Danny Green had 13 and Gary Neal had 12 for San Antonio, which has won 10 straight at home. Tiago Splitter had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Spencer Hawes had a game-high 22 points for Philadelphia, which has lost three straight and five of six. Evan Turner added 12 points

and Thaddeus Young, Jason Richardson and Jrue Holiday each added 11. San Antonio rebounded from a blowout loss Thursday against the New York Knicks to improve to 14-2 at home.

Nuggets 110, Jazz 91 I n D e nve r, D a n i l o G a l l i n a r i s co re d 2 6 points and Denver rebounded from a rare home loss to beat Utah. Andre Iguodala added 18 points and Kenneth Faried had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who improved to 11-2 at home this season after their eight-game winning streak at the Pepsi Center was snapped Thursday in a loss to M innesota. The Nuggets ex tended their recent success against Utah at home, winning for the eighth time in the past 10 meetings between the teams at the Pepsi Center.

Paul Millsap had 15 points to lead the Jazz, who were without center Enes Kanter (ankle) and guard Mo Williams (right thumb surgery).

Clippers 115, Warriors 89 In Los Angeles, Chris Paul had 27 points and nine assists, Blake Griffin added 20 points and the Los Angeles Clippers set a franchise record with their 12th straight home victory.

The Clippers lead the NBA with a 27-8 record, a half- game ahead of Western Conference rivals Oklahoma City and San Antonio. The Clippers won a club-record 17 straight overall before back-to-back road losses at Denver and Golden State, then beat the Lakers 107-102 on Friday. Their previous best home winning streak was set in 1978-79, their first season in San Diego after the franchise left Buffalo.

DeAndre Jordan added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Clips, who built a 23-point lead through the first quarter and won for the 19th time in 21 games overall. Klay Thompson had a team-high 14 points for the Warriors, who had won 12 of their previous 15. —AP

NBA results/standings Boston 89, Atlanta 81; NY Knicks 114, Orlando 106; Indiana 95, Milwaukee 80; Brooklyn 113, Sacramento 93; Houston 112, Cleveland 104; Portland 102, Minnesota 97; New Orleans 99, Dallas 96 (OT); San Antonio 109, Philadelphia 86; Denver 110, Utah 91; LA Clippers 115, Golden State 89.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT NY Knicks 23 10 .697 Brooklyn 19 15 .559 Boston 16 17 .485 Philadelphia 15 20 .429 Toronto 12 21 .364

Indiana Chicago Milwaukee Detroit Cleveland

Miami Atlanta Orlando Charlotte Washington

Central Division 20 14 .588 18 13 .581 16 16 .500 13 22 .371 8 27 .229 Southeast Division 22 9 .710 20 12 .625 12 21 .364 8 24 .250 4 27 .129

GB 4.5 7 9 11

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City 25 7 .781 Portland 18 15 .545 Denver 19 16 .543 Minnesota 15 15 .500 Utah 17 18 .486

7.5 7.5 9 9.5

0.5 3 7.5 12.5

LA Clippers Golden State LA Lakers Sacramento Phoenix

Pacific Division 27 8 .771 22 11 .667 15 17 .469 13 21 .382 12 22 .353

4 10.5 13.5 14.5

2.5 11 14.5 18

San Antonio Memphis Houston Dallas New Orleans

Southwest Division 27 9 .750 20 10 .667 20 14 .588 13 21 .382 8 25 .242

4 6 13 17.5

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

S P ORT S

Confess? Armstrong may not have much to gain AUSTIN: Lance Armstrong may be considering a change in course, dropping his years of denials and admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs — though whether such a move would help him is uncertain. The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported late Friday that Armstrong has told associates he is thinking about the move.

However, Armstrong attorney Tim Herman says that the cyclist hasn’t reached out to USADA chief executive Travis Tygart and David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

A USADA spokeswoman declined comment on Saturday, while Howman was quoted by the Sunday Star-Times in New Zealand, where he is vacationing, saying Armstrong has not approached his group.

USADA stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles last year and issued a report portraying the cyclist as the leader of

a sophisticated doping operation on his winning teams. Public confessions and apologies have been the route of redemption for several athletes who have gotten in trouble.

For example, Tiger Woods said he was sorry for cheating on his wife in televised speech, and baseball slugger Mark McGwire eventually admitted to steroid use. Yet Armstrong faces serious legal entanglements those megastars didn’t, and a confession to doping could end up complicating matters for Armstrong — not making them easier.

The US Department of Justice is considering whether to join a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis alleging fraud against the US Postal Service during the years the agency sponsored Armstrong’s teams.

A Dallas-based promotions company

has also said it wants to recover several million dollars paid to Armstrong in bonuses for winning the Tour de France. And the British newspaper The Sunday Times is suing to recover about $500,000 paid to Armstrong to settle a libel lawsuit.

Armstrong has testified under oath that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, which could theoretically lead to charges if he confessed. Former US track star Marion Jones spent several months in federal prison for lying to investigators about her drug use.

And after so many years of vehement denials and sworn statements that he never doped, at this point, what would Armstrong gain from a confession? There would be no guarantee that his personal sponsors would return or that the public would accept it.

Is the public even interested in an Amrstrong confession? Gene Grabowski, executive vice president of Levick, a

Washington, D.C.-based crisis and issues management firm, said “it may be too little, too late because he’s been denying it for so long.”

A confession would only work to salvage Armstrong’s reputation if he accepted full responsibility and blamed no one else, Grabowski said. And it would have to include some public act of atonement. “If he does all three, he has a shot,” Grabowski said. “You have to show people you are willing to pay a price.”

The New York Times reported the 41year-old Armstrong may be considering a confession in an attempt to reduce his lifetime ban from cycling and Olympic sport so he can return to competing in triathlons and elite running events.

Armstrong lost most of his personal sponsorship worth tens of millions of dollars after USADA issued its report and he left the board of the Livestrong cancer-fighting

charity he founded in 1997. He is still worth about a reported $100 million.

Livestrong might be one reason to issue an apology. The charity supports cancer patients and still faces an image problem because of its association with its famous founder.

And if Armstrong did confess, the corporate sponsors who abandoned him might support him again, Grabowski said. “They’ll do what the public does,” Grabowski said.

Betsy Andreu, the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu, was one of the first to publicly accuse Armstrong of using performance-enhancing drugs.

She dismissed a potential confession from Armstrong as self-serving and too late.

“Sorry, your chance is over. You’re banned for life. It’s not with an asterisk, that because you are Lance Armstrong you get to come back,” Andreu said. “He does not belong in sport.” —AP

Hirscher wins World Cup slalom, takes overall lead ZAGREB: Defending champion Marcel Hirscher reclaimed the overall World Cup lead yesterday by winning a slalom for his third victory of the season. The Austrian trailed Jens Byggmark by 0.01 seconds after the first leg but took advantage of the Swede’s mistake in the second to win in a combined time of 1 minute, 56.17 seconds.

Andre Myhrer of Sweden was 0.57 back in second, and Hirscher’s

Austrian teammate Mario Matt came 1.09 behind to take third. “This result makes me really happy,” Hirscher said.

“I saw Andre’s run from the start, it was brutal so I knew I had to push from top to bottom to have a chance.

I managed to do just that.”

Byggmark nearly skied out in the final part of his second run and finished 26th, 3.46 seconds off Hirscher’s winning time. The Swede has been chasing his third career victory since

winning two slaloms in two days in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in Jan. 2007.

Hirscher overtook Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who usually skips slalom events, atop the overall standings. Hirscher has 740 points, followed by Svindal with 689 and American Ted Ligety, who skied out in the first run yesterday, with 552 points.

The race took part in rainy and partly foggy conditions, while mild

ZAGREB: Austria’s Marcel Hirscher (center) winner of an alpine ski, men’s World Cup slalom, celebrates on the podium with second placed Sweden’s Andre Myhrer (left) and third placed Austria’s Mario Matt. —AP

temperatures further softened the course. Despite the poor weather, 17,000 cheering fans were lining up on the slope and in the finish area.

“It’s so great to race here, the crowd really loves skiing and celebrates a super party,” Hirscher said.

The Austrian’s season is showing a remarkable resemblance to last year’s.

He also won the 2012 Zagreb race for his third victory of the season to take the overall lead. Hirscher then went on to become the first Austrian overall champion since Benjamin Raich in 2006.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia was fourth after the opening leg but dropped to eighth, 1.78 behind Hirscher. Kostelic, the 2011 overall champion, finished on the podium of his home race four times in the last five years but is yet to win it.

Felix Neureuther of Germany, who won the Munich city event on Tuesday and is runner-up to Hirscher in the discipline standings, finished 1.31 off the lead in fifth. Neureuther wasn’t skiing freely after hurting his back in a slalom training crash on Friday. Ligety was 0.47 off the lead when he straddled a gate about a third into his opening run.

“Straddling is part of the sport,” said Ligety, who slammed the conditions. “Not good. It was really rough already at (starting number) 11 ... It’s definitely a surface that is not easy to push on and when it’s foggy too, that makes it pretty difficult.” The men’s World Cup travels to Adelboden, Switzerland, for a GS and a slalom next weekend. —AP

NHL and union reach tentative agreement NEW YORK: Hockey is back, and it took nearly four months and one long night to get the game back on the ice. With the season on the line, the NHL and the players’ association agreed on a tentative pact to end a 113-day lockout and save what was left of a fractured schedule.

Commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Donald Fehr ceased being adversaries and announced the deal while standing side by side near a wall toward the back of the negotiating room and showing a tinge of weariness. “I want to thank Don Fehr,” Bettman said.

“We went through a tough period, but it’s good to be at this point.”

A marathon negotiating session that lasted

negotiation. That’s what it was.

“Players obviously would rather not have been here, but our focus now is to give the fans whatever it is - 48 games, 50 games - the most exciting season we can. The mood has been nervous for a while. You want to be playing. You want to be done with this.”

The collective bargaining agreement must be ratified by a majority of the league’s 30 owners and the union’s membership of approximately 740 players. “Hopefully within a very few days the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us,” Fehr said.

All schedule issues, including the length of the season, still need to be worked out. The NHL has

NEW YORK: This photo combo shows NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (left) talking to the media in Toronto, on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012, and at right is Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players’ Association, speaking to the media, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. —AP more than 16 hours, stretching from Saturday afternoon until just before dawn yesterday, produced a 10-year deal.”We’ve got to dot a lot of Is and cross a lot of Ts,” Bettman said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but the basic details of the agreement have been agreed upon.”

Even players who turned into negotiators showed the strain of the long, difficult process. “It was a battle,” said Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey, a key member of the union’s bargaining team. “Gary said a month ago it was a tough

models for 50- and 48-game seasons. The original estimate was regular-season games could begin about eight days after a deal was reached. It is believed that all games will be played within the two respective conferences, but that also hasn’t been decided.

The players have been locked out since Sept. 16, the day after the previous agreement expired. That deal came after an extended lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 season. “Any process like this is difficult. It can

be long,” Fehr said.

Time was clearly a factor, with the sides facing a deadline of Thursday or Friday to reach a deal that would allow for a 48-game season to start a week later. Bettman had said the league could not allow a season of fewer than 48 games per team.

All games through Jan. 14, along with the AllStar game and the New Year’s Day Winter Classic had already been canceled, claiming more than 50 percent of the original schedule.

Without an agreement, the NHL faced the embarrassment of losing two seasons due to a labor dispute, something that has never happened in another North American sports league.

The 2004-05 season was lost while the sides negotiated hockey’s first salary cap.

Under the new CBA, free-agent contracts will have a maximum length of seven years, but clubs can go to eight years to re-sign their own players.

Each side can opt out of the deal after eight years.

The pension plan was “the centerpiece of the deal for the players,” Hainsey said.

The actual language of the pension plan still has to be written, but Hainsey added there is nothing substantial that needs to be fixed. The players’ share of hockey-related income, a total that reached a record $3.3 billion last season, will drop from 57 percent to a 50-50 split. The salary cap for the upcoming season will be $70.2 million and will then go down to $64.3 million in the 2013-14 season.

All clubs must have a minimum payroll of $44 million. The league had wanted next season’s cap to fall to $60 million, but agreed to an upper limit of $64.3 - the same amount as last season. Inside individual player contracts, the salary can’t vary more than 35 percent year to year, and the final year can’t be more than 50 percent of the highest year.

A decision on whether NHL players will participate in the 2014 Olympics will be made apart from the CBA. While it is expected that players will take part, the IOC and the International Ice Hockey Federation will have discussions with the league and the union before the matter is settled.

After the sides stayed mostly apart for two days, following late-night talks that turned sour, federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh worked virtually around the clock to get everyone back to the bargaining table.

This time it worked - early on the 113th day of the work stoppage. George Cohen, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service director, called the deal “the successful culmination of a long and difficult road.” —AP

Kim Yuna

Yuna shines in qualifying SEOUL: Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yuna, who flirted with retirement after her gold medal at the Vancouver Games in 2010, won the South Korean nationals yesterday to qualify for the world championships.

The 22-year-old, skating in only her second competitive event in almost two years, stormed to victory with a total of 210.77 points after a dazzling free programme in Seoul.

“I settled down once the music started and I tried to skate like I had in practice,” Kim told local reporters after battling nerves following a rare fall in Saturday’s short portion.

“I didn’t think I could get over 200 points but I was able to stay composed. The world championships are coming up and I’m hoping to stay healthy and prepare the best I can.” The world championships take place

in London, Ontario from March 10-17. Kim won the world title in 2009 and took silver in 2010 and 2011.

South Korea’s ice queen, who stormed to Olympic gold three years ago with a world record 228.56 points total, announced her comeback to the sport after more than a year away last summer. Kim, who plans to hang up her skates after the 2014 Sochi Olympics, scored 201.61 points to win an event in Germany last month in her return to competition.

She blamed her silver behind Japan’s Miki Ando at the 2011 world championships on the weight of expectation in Korea, where she is arguably the biggest name in sport. Fifteen-year-old Park Soyoun finished runner-up behind Kim on Sunday with 161.88 points with Choi Dabin, just 12, third on a total of 153.09 points. —Reuters

2020 Games trio prepare for IOC file delivery PARIS: The three candidates to host the 2020 Olympics will take a huge step on the road to who will be designated the winner in Buenos Aires on September 7 when they present their candidature files to the International Olympic Committee today in Lausanne.

Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo will all be sending high profile delegations to hand over their dossiers which have been painstakingly put together and will be hoping the details meet with the approval of the majority of the 100 plus IOC members when they vote in eight months’ time. With IOC members visits a thing of the past, since the reforms brought in following the Salt Lake City bribes for votes scandal, the dossier will be carefully studied before the all-important visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission, headed by IOC Vice-president Craig Reedie, to the three cities for four day visits in March. The common perception has been that Istanbul has a fantastic chance to become the first country with a majority Muslim population to host the Games and has made great play on being situated on two continents.

“The athletes will have the unique experience of sleeping on the European continent and competing on the Asian continent,” their chief executive Hasan Arat told AFP. Now their emotive and effective message will have to be backed up by the facts in the dossier if they are to maintain momentum in what is the most competitive of the five bids the city has put up. Istanbul too is making great play out of their relative upbeat economic situation exemplified

by a record breaking mark on their stock exchange just before the New Year which edged over the 78,000 points mark.

Turkey’s government is aiming to take the country into the top ten world economies by GDP in time for the republic’s 2023 centenary, and in 2012 Turkey’s credit rating was upgraded to ‘Investment Grade’. “This news proves that our spectacular Games vision is founded on an economy that offers delivery security and the capacity to take the Olympic Movement forward in partnership with the IOC,” said Arat.

Tokyo, who are the only one of the three cities to have previously hosted the Games in 1964, have been seen as the main rivals to Istanbul and importantly received the full backing of the newly-elected national government. “I was elected in Tokyo, so this bid means very much to me,” said Hakubun Shimomura, the new Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, after meeting with members of the bid team. “I plan on attending the Candidature File submission press conference in Tokyo (January 8) to reiterate the unequivocal support our newly formed national government will continue to provide the bid.”Madrid too will travel in a confident frame of mind. Despite having had people question their ability to host the Games, given the parlous state of Spain’s finances, they have a ready answer as their bid leader Alejandro Blanco told AFP last year. “Some host cities were in a totally different economic situation when they were awarded the Games to when they actually delivered them,” he said. —AFP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

S P ORT S

New Jersey betting should be a sure thing LAS VEGAS: The bookies in this gambling city are grumbling a bit, which is always good news for those inclined to wager a few bucks on their favorite NFL team. Profits are down this season, thanks to some top teams that fans couldn’t stop putting money on.

Nothing particularly innovative about their winning strategy. Not with quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers covering the spread almost every time they took the field the last half of the season.

“It’s easy to pick teams that are doing good,” said Jimmy Vaccaro, a longtime oddsmaker who has seen just about every trend - except a losing year for bookies - in 38 years behind the betting counter.

No reason to worry. The playoffs will surely be money makers, and tonight’s BCS game with a dream betting matchup of Notre Dame and Alabama could draw the most money ever bet on a college game.

Football fans love to gamble, and they’ve been doing it in this city’s legal sports books for decades now. Millions of dollars change hands every NFL weekend

between gamblers who think they know more than oddsmakers and the bookies who usually do know more than the people handing them money.

But what happens in Vegas doesn’t just stay in Vegas. The lines are made here, but it’s not hard to find illegal bookies in most major cities who will offer the same bets.

Add in the online sports books and the money wagered on an NFL season is generally measured in the billions, not millions.

Huge sums ride on every pass, every call and every missed tackle.

Yet somehow the integrity of the NFL remains intact. There’s not a whiff of scandal, not a reason to suspect anything might be amiss. That’s what makes the reaction of America’s biggest sports leagues to attempts to legalize sports betting in New Jersey so laughable.

From the NFL to the NBA, they’re united against efforts by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to sidestep a federal ban and allow wagering on games. The NCAA has joined the fight in a federal court in Newark, and baseball Commissioner Bud Selig seems to take it as a personal affront.

“I have to say to you I’m appalled,” Selig said in a deposition filed in the case. “I’m really appalled.” It’s hardly surprising that the leagues are lined up against sports betting, mostly because their thought process is so rooted in the past. They see gambling on their games as a threat cooked up in a back room somewhere by shady criminals just waiting for the chance to blackmail a troubled quarterback and fix the outcome of games. Somehow, though, London - which has at least one betting parlor on every major street - managed to hold an entire Olympics without any problems, while offering bets on everything from Usain Bolt winning the 100 to Michael Phelps getting seven golds. The NFL, meanwhile, hosts a game in London every year and hasn’t complained yet about fans being able to bet their favorite on their way to the stadium.

There’s nothing more immoral about it than betting on the stock market. Nothing more criminal than cashing in on your fantasy league’s pot of cash. The reality is that people want to bet on games and will do so whether it’s legal or not. And if there is ever an attempt to fix a game, it’s going to be

discovered first by the legal bookies in this city that track every dollar on every game and know before anyone that something fishy is going on.

“It defies common sense that somehow the leagues are better off and the world is a better place where hundreds of billions are being wagered illegally,” said Joe Asher, who runs United States operations for the British betting house William Hill. “The idea that it is of benefit to a league when their fans are wagering with criminals rather than having a system where sports betting is regulated and run by honorable people who have undergone thorough investigations is ridiculous.”

Don’t tell that to NBA Commissioner David Stern, who seemed nearly apoplectic when asked in his deposition on how legal betting in New Jersey could hurt his league.

“The one thing I’m certain of is New Jersey has no idea what it’s doing and doesn’t care because all it’s interested in is making a buck or two, and they don’t care that it’s at our potential loss,” Stern said.

Just what that loss would be is hard to understand. If anything, major sports

leagues - the NFL in particular - have benefited from legal sports betting, with the betting line always a prominent part of any discussion leading up to a big game. It’s part of the fabric of big-time sports, and without it we’d never know that Alabama is a 9.5-point favorite over Notre Dame in the BCS game.

Still, allowing legal betting in New Jersey would be a game changer. It would give millions of fans easy access to the betting counter in an area of the country where the passion for sports runs deep and remove much of the stigma still attached to an industry that grew up on the fringe of respectability. It will also make some people a lot of money. Legal sports book operators would surely profit, as would New Jersey in the taxes it collects on the bets.

About the only ones who won’t make money are the leagues themselves, at least not directly. Unlike almost everything else they’re involved with, they won’t get a cut of the action. That means millions - and potentially billions - of dollars going into someone else’s pockets.

And maybe that’s the real reason why they protest so loud. —AP

Texans beat Bengals, Packers rout Vikings HOUSTON: The Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans both won their NFL wild-card playoff games on Saturday, and both now have scores to settle in their upcoming matches.

Green Bay routed the Minnesota Vikings 2410, setting up a trip to San Francisco. The 49ers beat the Packers at Lambeau Field to open the season. The Packers didn’t let season 2,000-yard rusher Adrian Peterson run over them again.

Adrian Peterson and the Vikings didn’t bring their best to Green Bay. One week after he rushed for 199 yards to lift Minnesota into the playoffs, the 2,000-yard runner was held to 99.

And Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder was sidelined by an elbow injury; backup Joe Webb couldn’t manufacture much offense.

On Sunday, the Beltway will be buzzing. First, the AFC North champion Baltimore Ravens host

GREEN BAY: Packers outside linebacker Erik Walden (93) sacks Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joe Webb (14) during the first half of an NFL wild card playoff football game. —AP Indeed, Packers fullback John Kuhn had a bigger impact with two touchdowns.

The Texans beat the Cincinnati Bengals 19-13 and are heading back to New England, where their season began to unravel with a heavy loss to the Patriots last month.

Houston lost three of its last four regularseason games to blow home-field advantage in the conference, slipping to third overall. “I’m not a big believer in momentum,” Houston’s Arian Foster said. “Every Sunday you have to come out and bring your best or you can get beat on any day.”

the Indianapolis Colts. Then the NFC East-winning Washington Redskins play the Seattle Seahawks.

While Houston heads to Foxborough next weekend, AFC West winner Denver (13-3) will host either Baltimore or Indianapolis next Saturday. NFC South champ Atlanta (13-3) gets either the Redskins or Seahawks next Sunday.

Ten Green Bay receivers caught passes from Aaron Rodgers, tying a playoff record, with Kuhn scoring on a 9-yarder. DeJuan Harris also had a 9-yard TD run, and Green Bay kept Peterson in check. It was a turnaround from what the star

running back did in his last trip to Lambeau, when he rushed for 210 yards.

It was Rodgers’ first home playoff victory.

Minnesota’s late touchdown was a 50-yard pass to Michael Jenkins. Next, the Packers get the Niners, who won 30-22 at Lambeau to start the season. San Francisco is a narrow favorite with bookmakers. “ They’re different as well,” Rodgers said.

“They’re a great defense. Very talented offense as well. It’s going to be a very tough challenge for us.” Houston’s Foster gained 140 yards against the Bengals, becoming the first player with at least 100 yards rushing in his first three postseason games. He scored on a 1-yard run and also had eight receptions.

“It only takes one week to turn things around in the NFL and we did that,” said Foster, whose team lost to Minnesota and Indianapolis to slip to the AFC’s third seed.

Cincinnati gained only 198 yards and had 12 first downs. Its touchdown came on Leon Hall’s interception return. “It’s hard to put it into words,” Hall said. “It’s disappointing. I mean, we had a good year, but it didn’t end how we wanted it to and how we planned it to. At the end of the day, they made the plays that won the game for them.”

With a second straight wild-card loss in Houston, the Bengals extended one of the NFL’s longest playoff droughts. They haven’t won a postseason game since the 1990 season.

They got two field goals from Josh Brown, and Andy Dalton overthrew an open AJ Green in the end zone late in the fourth quarter. Along with Foster’s touchdown, the Texans got four field goals from Shayne Graham. Indianapolis’ visit to Baltimore is full of intriguing story lines.

Baltimore’s Ray Lewis announced this week he will end his 17-year career as one of the NFL’s premier players, let alone linebackers, after the playoffs. He’s hoping for a long run duplicating the 2000 season, when he was Defensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP. “ That moment I walk out of that tunnel Sunday, every person that was a Ravens fan” 1996 to this day” we will all enjoy that moment,” he said. “It will probably be one of the glorious moments in my life.”

Colts coach Chuck Pagano spent four seasons coaching defense in Baltimore, then landed the head coaching job in Indy. He missed 12 games while undergoing treatments for leukemia and came back last week in a win over Houston.

Seattle’s visit to Washington is a match of two streaking teams with sensational rookie quarterbacks.

Washington took its final seven games to grab its division title. QB Robert Griffin III (102.4) had the best single-season rookie passer rating in NFL history; Seattle’s Russell Wilson was next at 100.0. Griffin also set a league mark for yards rushing by a rookie QB (815).

Wilson threw 26 TD passes, tying Peyton Manning’s NFL rookie record set in 1998. “He’s a playmaker. He’s a football player. He makes plays running around, like a video game, buying time for the receivers, taking off with the football himself,” Redskins veteran linebacker London Fletcher said. —AP

Arab Drag Race Championship QATAR: The first round of the five round Arab Drag Race Championship 2013, organized by Qatar Racing Club (QRC) under the presidency of Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Thane, will kick off next Thursday and last till February 10 with participants from GCC states and the US. Sheikh Khalid Al-Thane welcomed the Kuwaiti, GCC and US teams taking part in the competition and pointed that QRC was always keen on organizing various local and international championships in order to promote the concept of automobile and bike races in the Gulf region. “Following the success of the championship achieved in 2010, QRC has exerted considerable efforts in preparation for this year’s championship”, he stressed.

The Kuwaiti competitor and the holder of the title for the Promod bike races, Mesh’al Al-Sabr emphasized that Kuwaiti participants would show fierce competition in view of the preparations they had undergone. He also stressed that Sheikh Khalid AlThane was personally taking very good care of the Kuwaiti teams. “Being the cradle of this sport, the second US participation in this championship proves the success of its organizers”, said AL-Sabr pointing that the Kuwaiti teams include over 40 contestants.

SYDNEY: Australian team members celebrate after they won their third cricket Test match against Sri Lanka in Sydney. Australia won the match and the series 3-0. —AP

Hussey finishes on a high as Australia sweep series SYDNEY: Michael Hussey ended his Test career on a high yesterday when Australia beat Sri Lanka by five wickets with a day to spare in the third test to sweep the series 3-0.

The 37-year-old was deprived of the ultimate fairytale ending when his batting partner Mitchell Johnson scored the winning run but Hussey, ever the team man, was not remotely concerned. “It couldn’t have ended any better,” he said after being applauded off the pitch by both teams at the end of his 79th test. “I feel very proud to have worn the baggy green cap and I’ve probably achieved a lot more in my career than I ever dreamed I could.”

Australia, chasing 141 runs to win the test, lost three wickets in quick succession just before tea to bring Hussey out for his final test innings before retirement.

The break came with the hosts just five runs shy of victory and when Johnson pushed the ball wide of point for his only run of the innings, Hussey was already halfway down the pitch to secure the winning run.

“I was telling Mitch the over before if it comes up that you hit it, then I’m more than happy to let us get this over and done with,” said Hussey, who finished unbeaten on 27 for a career average of 51.52.

“But I was more than happy to be out there when the winning run was hit. A dream come true. The important thing was making sure we won the test match.” Australia had dismissed the tourists for 278 before lunch to set up the run chase but they inched nervously towards the target after David Warner had departed for a duck without a run on the board.

Seamer Suranga Lakmal had the opener caught in the slips by his captain Mahela Jayawardene but it was the spin-bowling of Tillakaratne Dilshan and particularly Rangana Herath that was always going to provide most problems on a turning wicket.

The peace of a hot afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground was punctuated by the loud appeals of the Sri Lankans pretty much any time the ball came near a batsman’s front pad.

Jayawardene, so profligate with his appeals to the TV umpire in this series, made the most of his first of the innings to remove Phil Hughes for 34 with Australia still 96 runs

short of their target.

There was some confusion as to whether they were appealing for a catch or lbw off the Herath delivery. The TV pictures showed no nick or glove but did reveal that the ball would have hit the stumps so Hughes was out.

Clarke, the most prolific test batsmen of last year and later named Player of the Series, came to the crease for another duel with Herath, who took more Test wickets than any other bowler in 2012.

In the end though, it was the spin of Dilshan which removed the Australia skipper for 29 although opener Ed Cowan (36) and Matthew Wade (9) did then quickly fall victim to Herath.

The crowd had already started chanting Hussey’s name before Clarke’s dismissal in the hope he would get out to bat again in his final test after being run-out in the first innings and they got their wish.

“What a place to finish. The SCG is probably my top three favourite grounds in the whole world,” Hussey said. “The crowd support and the support in general has been a bit overwhelming and I’ve been a bit embarrassed by it. In a way I’m quite relieved that it’s over now.”

Sri Lanka had resumed on 225-7 in the morning looking to bulk up their lead of 87 and give their bowlers something to work with. Dinesh Chandimal hit a defiant 62 not out off 106 balls but ran out of partners when Jackson Bird had Nuwan Pradeep caught behind for nine half an hour before lunch.

Chandimal and Pradeep had put on 41 for the final wicket after Herath (10) and Lakmal (0) had departed relatively cheaply. Bird, the least experienced of the four paceman deployed by Australia in the test, was named Man of the Match after bagging figures of 7117.

Australia won the first Test in Hobart by 137 runs and the second by an innings and 201 runs inside three days in Melbourne last week. “I think we fought really well, but it wasn’t good enough,” said Jayawardene, who is stepping down as captain after this series.

“When you are competing at this level, I think we need to be much better prepared and show more character to win test matches in these conditions.” —Reuters

SCOREBOARD SYDNEY: Scoreboard after Australia beat Sri Lanka by five wickets after tea on the fourth day of the third test at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday: (nb-3), Johnson 15-3-34-3 (w-1), Siddle 17-4Sri Lanka first innings 294 42-1, Lyon 15-1-66-1, Hussey 1-0-6-0.

Australia first innings 432-9 dec.

Sri Lanka second innings (overnight 225-7) Australia second innings D. Karunaratne c Wade b Bird 85 E. Cowan lbw Herath 36 T. Dilshan c Hughes b Johnson 5 D. Warner c Jayawardene b Lakmal 0 M. Jayawardene c Clarke b Siddle 60 P. Hughes lbw Herath 34 L. Thirimanne c Bird b Johnson 7 M.Clarke c Thirimanne b Dilshan 29 T. Samaraweera c Hussey b Lyon 0 M. Hussey not out 27 A. Mathews run out 16 M. Wade b Herath 9 D. Chandimal not out 62 M. Johnson not out 1 D. Prasad c Wade b Starc 15 Extras (lb-5) 5 R. Herath b Bird 10 Total (for five wickets, 42.5 overs) 141 S. Lakmal b Johnson 0 Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-45 3-104 4-108 5-132 N. Pradeep c Wade b Bird 9 Did not bat: P. Siddle, M. Starc, N. Lyon, J. Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-1, nb-3) 9 Bird.

Total (all out, 81.2 overs) 278 Fall of wickets: 1-24 2-132 3-155 4-158 5-178 Bowling: Dilshan 18-2-57-1, Lakmal 6-1-18-1, Herath 16.5-0-47-3, Pradeep 2-0-14-0.

6-178 7-202 8-235 9-237 Bowling: Starc 12-1-49-1, Bird 21.2-5-76-3 Australia win the three-match 3-0

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

S P ORT S

Murray beats Dimitrov to clinch Brisbane title BRISBANE: Scotland’s Andy Murray called on all his experience to defeat rising Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7/0), 6-4 and retain his Brisbane International title yesterday.

In a high-class final, Murray came from 4-1 down in the first set and a break in the second to subdue the challenge of the tal-

ented Dimitrov. “I thought the standard of tennis was good today,” Murray said, admitting he had to change tactics during the first set after Dimitrov’s lightning start. “There were a lot of highquality rallies and I had to change a few things.

He started the match off very well and was extremely aggres-

sive. “I needed to change things around a little bit and I managed to start dictating a lot of points and use my forehand well. So my groundies worked well today.”

The 87-minute victor y gave Murray his 25th ATP career title and was the perfect preparation for the Australian Open beginning in just over a week. But he was

BRISBANE: Andy Murray of Britain holds the winner’s trophy after winning the men’s final match against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6, 6-4 during the Brisbane International tennis tournament. —AP

made to work hard for the win by Dimitrov, whose playing style and classical one-handed backhand has drawn comparisons with the great Roger Federer.

It was Dimitrov’s backhand that initially caused problems for the reigning US Open champion, who had trouble dealing with the amount of slice the Bulgarian was getting on the ball.

Dimitrov, playing in his first ATP final, broke Murray’s first service game and looked untroubled on his own serve until serving for the set at 5-4, when he faltered and allowed the Scotsman back into the match.

Murray took his chance and stormed through the tie -break without dropping a point, his powerful groundstrokes forcing Dimitrov onto the back foot and into error.

Dimitrov had another great chance in the second set when he broke Murray in the seventh game to go ahead 4-3, only for the world number three to hit back immediately.

Murray held his own serve to go to 5-4, then broke again to take the title when a Dimitrov backhand sailed long. The 21-year-old Bulgarian conceded Murray ’s experience had been the difference. “I was up a break and I was actually not playing bad tennis at all I thought,” he said.

“But he’s one of the best returners in the game by far. He picked up a couple of my serves on big points, so I think that gave him extra confidence.

Then he stepped up with his serve. “When he has to play good, he plays good. He pulled out some really, really good shots when he had to.

“I didn’t feel that I was far from winning the set or even the match, but still that was a little margin that he had covered.” —AFP

Kvitova out, Wozniacki through SYDNEY: World number eight Petra Kvitova’s Australian Open preparations were dealt another blow yesterday when she was trounced in straight sets at the Sydney International by Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova.

Fifth-seed Czech Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, continued her form slump in Sydney, losing 6-1, 6-1 to Cibulkova in little more than an hour. It follows her surprise secondround exit from this month’s Brisbane

International, where she fell 6-4, 7-5 to Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and her withdrawal from November’s WTA Championships in Istanbul due to illness.

“I played really badly and I wish I knew what I could say but I don’t know,” Kvitova said after the Sydney match. “I’m not feeling very well right now, in my confidence, but I’m always looking forward to playing grand slams and I hope everything will be

better there than here.” Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki had more luck, downing Urszula Radwanska 6-1, 6-2 in a powerful return to form that saw her take the first set in just 26 minutes.

Russians Maria Kirilenko and Ekaterina Makarova also posted wins, progressing to the second round by overcoming, respectively, Australian wild card Olivia Rogowska 7-5, 6-2 and America’s Varvara

SYDNEY: Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia plays a shot to Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at the Sydney International tennis tournament. —AP

Lepchenko 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

Seventh seed Wozniacki was ousted at Brisbane after an epic firstround battle with Kazakh qualifier Ksenia Pervak, losing valuable practice time for the Australian Open. The Dane said she was relieved to notch a win ahead of the season’s first Grand Slam, which begins in Melbourne Monday week. “It was quite hot out there, especially towards the end of the second set you could really feel it was starting to heat up,” said the former world number one.

“I’m just happy to get the first win of the season under my belt and just move on.” Wozniacki said she was hopeful of regaining top ranking despite an inconsistent 2012 in which she exited Wimbledon and the US Open in the first round.

“Within myself, I believe I can get back there,” she said. “But it’s a lot of hard work and there are a lot of great players so you never know what’s going to happen,” she added.

“The most important thing is that you’re healthy and I’m going to play as best I can and win as many tournaments as I can and the ranking will come if you play well.” Wozniacki’s boyfriend Rory McIlroy, golf’s world number one, watched her victory from the stands. The pair fuelled speculation they were engaged last month when Wozniacki was photographed with a large ring on her left ring finger ahead of the Brisbane International.

In November McIlroy skipped the $7 million WGC-HSBC Champions to watch Wozniacki play tennis in Bulgaria, and she then followed him to tournaments in Singapore and Hong Kong. However Danish women often wear wedding rings on their right hand, and Wozniacki is also known for her penchant for practical jokes. McIlroy was due to fly out of Australia late yesterday to start preparing for the Abu Dhabi golf championship later this month. —AFP

Hopman heartbreak for Serbia PERTH: Serbian duo Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic suffered another painful dose of Hopman Cup heartache when they were edged out by Spain in the final which finished in the early hours yesterday.

Playing together in the mixed teams tournament for the third time, the pair went into the final as the favourites, but the Spanish duo of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Fernando Verdasco claimed the title by winning the deciding mixed doubles.

Djokovic had given the Serbians the lead in the final with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Verdasco, but Medina Garrigues levelled the decider with a 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 win before the Spaniards took the doubles 6-4, 7-5.

Any doubt about the commitment of the quartet was dispelled by Spain’s jubilation at

winning, and the obvious emotion of Djokovic and Ivanovic as they realised the doubles clash was slipping away. The Serbian pair were desperate to win after having come just short at their two previous Hopman Cup appearances.

In 2006, representing Serbia and Montenegro, the pair missed the final on a countback of sets won during the round robin matches. Then in 2011, they qualified for the final only to be forced out of the tournament when Ivanovic suffered an abdominal injury.

To make matters worse for Djokovic, he was also a beaten finalist with Jelena Jankovic in 2008. The Serbians provided great entertainment during the week, hamming it up for the crowd and media between matches and during mixed doubles rubbers.

As enjoyable as the tournament had been

CHENNAI: Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia lifts the trophy after winning the ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament. Tipsarevic defeated Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in the final game. —AP

Tipsarevic ends title drought CHENNAI: World number nine Janko Tipsarevic won the ATP Chennai Open with a masterful fightback to defeat young Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the final yesterday.

The second-seeded Serb came back strongly after losing the first set to beat the 80thranked Agut 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in an hour and 49 minutes at the Nungambakkam tennis stadium. Tipsarevic conceded just four games in the last two sets to end the giant-killing run by the 24-year-old Spaniard, who defeated top-seed Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals.

Tipsarevic won the Chennai title for the first time after five unsuccessful attempts, including a loss to big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in last year’s final. Tipsarevic earned $69,500 and 250 ranking points for the morale-boosting win ahead of the season’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on January 14.

Agut took home $36,650 and 150 points after making his first-ever tour final. “I am extremely proud of finally winning in Chennai,” Tipsarevic said. “I just love this place and was desperate to win. It also gives me just the start I need for the season.

“To be fair to Roberto, I did not play my best tennis. I was too passive in the first set and waited for him to make mistakes. But I am happy I was mentally stable and came back in the final two sets.” Tipsarevic, asked if his next

goal was the Australian Open title, said he was realistic enough not to dream about it.

“Men’s tennis is tougher than ever before.

Its not easy to beat the top players. To win a Grand Slam I will have to beat at least three of the top four. I hope I can achieve that some day.”

Agut, who was treated for an abdominal strain in the second set, said the injury hindered his movement later in the match. “I hope it is not too serious,” he said. “I will rest for a few days and pray that it does not stop me from playing in the Australian Open.

“I may have lost the final, but I am very happy about the way the whole week went. It really makes me feel good about my game.”

Agut gained early control of the match when he broke Tipsarevic’s serve in the second game and then held his own comfortably to run away with the first set in 36 minutes.

Tipsarevic hit back with a break in the second game of the second set and then broke the Spaniard again in the fourth on the way to drawing level in the match.

The Serb played safe but solid tennis in the decider and secured breaks in the third game and the ninth that helped him wrap up the match. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old tournament, South Asia’s only ATP event, was given a three-year extension and will continue till 2016, the organisers announced. —AFP

Indian officials move to defuse Davis Cup row NEW DELHI: India’s tennis chiefs yesterday attempted to end a simmering Davis Cup row with the country’s players by agreeing to most of their demands ahead of next month’s tie against South Korea.

Eight India players, headed by Somdev Devvarman, had last week threatened to boycott the Asia-Oceania group one tie in New Delhi from February 1-3 if a slew of demands made by them were not accepted.

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) yesterday accepted the demand for higher prize money, a change in the squad’s support staff, appointment of a full-time physiotherapist and the players’ involvement in the choice of venues for ties.

It announced that former Davis Cup competitor Zeeshan Ali will replace Nandan Bal as the India team’s coach, but decided that Shiv Mishra will continue in his role as non-playing captain at least for the Korean tie. The association, in an email to players

that was also released to the media, said it had written to the sports ministry to appoint a new team doctor in place of Vece Paes and a new physiotherapist in place of Sanjay Singh.

It also agreed to give the players 70 percent of the prize money earned from home ties instead of the former 50 percent. For away ties, the entire prize money will paid to the players as before. Players will be consulted on deciding the choice of courts and venues for future Cup ties, the AITA statement said.

There was no immediate response from the players on the AITA’s decisions. The association’s selection committee is due to meet on January 11 to pick the squad for the Korean tie.

Among those supporting Devvarman’s stance were senior players Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, but former captain Leander Paes was not part of the group. —AFP

Harlequins defeat London Welsh LONDON: Defending champions Harlequins held onto top spot in the English Premiership after a hard-fought 31-26 bonus-point victory at third-bottom London Welsh yesterday.

Harlequins dominated the first period and led 21-6 at the interval, but a stirring reaction from the hosts saw the visitors’ lead whittled down to 24-19. However, with the stage set for a memorable comeback, Harlequins gathered themselves together and put the game beyond their opponents.

Nick Evans went over for a bonus-point try with 13 minutes to play and the fly-half took his personal tally to 16 points by successfully landing the subsequent conversion.

Ed Jackson’s converted interception try brought Welsh back to within touching distance, but the visitors held on. Saracens remain Harlequins’ closest rivals after England fly-half Owen Farrell kicked 22

points in a comfortable 32-12 win over basement club Sale in the last ever Premiership match at Vicarage Road.

Farrell successfully landed eight kicks from eight attempts, while David Strettle and Charlie Hodgson registered second-half tries to seal a one-sided victory. Danny Cipriani hit four penalties in response for Sale, who finished the weekend five points below London Irish at the foot of the table.

In yesterday’s other game, Wasps beat Bath 29-15 to climb into the play-off places.

The catalyst for Wasps’ victory was a superb solo try on the stroke of half-time by 21-yearold wing Christian Wade, who will hope to earn a place in Stuart Lancaster’s England squad for the Six Nations on Wednesday.

Third-place Leicester enjoyed a 19-14 success at Worcester on Friday, while Northampton won 30-19 at Exeter on Saturday and London Irish were 18-12 victors at Gloucester. —AFP

for the duo, however, Djokovic said they had again been left lamenting unfinished business.

“It’s a disappointment because we haven’t won the title, and that’s something that was a goal of ours,” he said.

“We had a chance a few years ago but it was unfortunate because of Ana’s injury we had to pull out in the finals. Today we were just beaten by a better team in the mixed doubles and also Anabel played an incredible singles match.”

Ivanovic, who struggled to adapt to the mixed doubles in the final, said she was keen to return for a fourth time with Djokovic. “It’s disappointing we were so close, but I really hope Novak will agree to play with me again even after today, and we can come back and then win a trophy,” she said. —AFP

Nick Evans

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MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

SPORTS

Suarez in dock as Reds avoid FA Cup upset New handball storm, Arsenal held

TURIN: Sampdoria’s Nenad Krstcic of Serbia (right) vies for the ball with Juventus’ Claudio Marchisio during the Italian Serie A football match.—AFP

Sampdoria stun Juve MILAN: Juventus’s hopes of dropping Inter Milan virtually out of the Serie A title race were ended after the champions suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat to Sampdoria yesterday.

Inter had been stunned 3-0 by Udinese in yestrday’s early match, handing Juventus the chance to take their lead over the Nerazzurri-widely considered Juve’s main title rivals-to a massive 12 points.

But after Sebastian Giovinco had given the Bianconeri a 24th minute lead from the penalty spot the hosts were stunned by a double from Argentine striker Emanuel Icardi in the 52nd and 68th minutes. Giovinco stepped up to convert Juve’s penalty with relative ease after Claudio Marchisio was adjudged to have been fouled in the box.

But Sampdoria came fighting back in the second half and when Icardi broke free in the 52nd minute he beat Gianluigi Buffon with an impressive angled strike from the edge of the area. Italy ‘keeper Buffon was then left clutching at thin air when, from a tight angle, the Argentine blasted the ball inside the near post and into the roof of the net on 68 minutes.

Sampdoria held on to record a famous win at Juventus Stadium and hand the champions only their third defeat of the season, which will be seen as a missed chance to leave Inter behind for good.

At the halfway stage champions Juventus, on 44 points, now have a fivepoint lead over Lazio, who secured a late 2-1 win over Cagliari on Saturday.

Fiorentina, in third, had hoped to close the gap to Lazio to one point, as well as further distance fourth-placed Inter only to suffer a shock 2-0 defeat at home to visiting Pescara.

AC Milan, who hit the headlines midweek after midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng led his team off the pitch during a friendly to protest racist chants from fans of fourth division side Pro Patria, secured a precious 2-1 win at home to Siena.

Milan were whistled off the pitch after a scoreless first half, but Boateng provided the cross for Spain international Bojan to head their opener just after the hour mark. Giampaolo Pazzini stepped up to convert a penalty in the final 10 minutes, but Michele Paolucci made it a nervy finish for Massimiliano Allegri’s men at the San Siro when he reduced arrears in the closing minutes.

Milan held on to remain in seventh and sit two points behind Roma, who visit Napoli later yesterday needing a win to leapfrog the Partenopei into fifth place.

Elsewhere, Chievo secured a precious 1-0 win over Atalanta to leapfrog the Bergamo side into 11th while Genoa moved away from the relegation zone thanks to a Marco Borriello double in a 20 win over Bologna.

Parma moved up to eighth, meanwhile, after Amauri’s winner in injury time secured a 2-1 win over visiting Palermo, who had levelled Ishak Belfodil’s opener for the hosts thanks to Igor Budan’s 85th minute header.—AFP

EPINAL: Epinal’s players celebrate after beating Lyon during their French Cup football match at the Colombiere Stadium. —AFP

Lyon knocked out by minnows Epinal French Cup PARIS: Holders Lyon, currently flying high in Ligue 1, were sensationally knocked out of the French Cup yesterday in a penalty shoot-out with third division club Epinal.

The round-of-64 match had ended 3-3 after extra-time, and Epinal went on to spring the biggest upset of the weekend when they beat the seven-time French league champions 4-2 on penalties.

Epinal coach Fabien Tissot, a former French second division journeyman, said the result showed the “magic” of Cup football at its best. “We pulled off an extraordinary performance,” said Tissot.

“It’s the best victory in my career be it as a player or coach.

“The lads let nothing go and were rewarded for their efforts. At 2-0 up, I tried to calm everyone down but it was difficult.” Lyon coach Remi Garde called the result “disappointing”. “It’s always a massive disappointment when you’re eliminated by an inferior team. I’m disap-

pointed for the players,” Garde said. “We knew Epinal were a team that could perform. You must give this team credit.”

Epinal took a shock 2-0 lead in the first quarter of an hour through Tristan Boubaya capitalising on two Romain Chouleur corners. Bafetembi Gomis and Gueida Fofana drew the score level for Lyon within seven minutes.

And OL must have thought they had the game wrapped up when Argentinian striker Lisandro Lopez converted a 62nd penalty, but the eastern club hit back with a Valentin Focki goal with 13 minutes of regulation time to play. Epinal goalkeeper and captain Olivier Robin made a handful of crucial saves as the two sides battled through a goalless extra 30 minutes.

The penalty shoot-out then went Epinal’s way after misses by Fofana and Bakary Kone, belying the club’s secondlast position in the “National” division, 58 spots below Lyon.—AFP

LONDON: Luis Suarez sparked a new handball storm by helping Liverpool edge non-league Mansfield Town 2-1 in the FA Cup third round yesterday, after Arsenal were held to a 2-2 draw

by Swansea City.

Suarez came off the bench to double Liverpool’s lead after Daniel Sturridge had opened the scoring on his debut, but his goal prompted an angry reaction from the fifth-tier hosts, who later replied through Matt Green.

The Uruguay international, who famously used his hand to block a goal-bound shot in a World Cup quarter-final with Ghana in 2010, appeared to stop the ball with his hand in the process of scoring, but the officials let the goal stand.

Liverpool will now face thirdtier Oldham Athletic for a place in round five and manager Brendan Rodgers admitted there was more than a touch of fortune to their winner.

“There is no doubt it was handball, but the officials have seen it was not deliberate,” he told ESPN. “I asked the fourth official if it was handball and he said it was. It is unfortunate for Mansfield and lucky for us we got the goal.”

Sturridge, a £12 million ($19.6 million, 14.8 million euros) signing from Chelsea, broke the deadlock in the seventh minute at Field Mill, running onto Jonjo Shelvey’s pass and beating Mansfield goalkeeper Alan Marriott.

Marriott denied Sturridge a second goal on two occasions in the first half, but the Stags could have drawn level in the 36th minute when Green’s rising drive forced Brad Jones into a flying save. Mansfield put Liverpool’s goal under sustained pressure early in the second half before the visitors turned to Suarez, who doubled his side’s lead in controversial circumstances in the 59th minute. After squeezing between a pair of challenges, the Uruguayan saw an initial shot saved by Marriott but the ball rebounded against his right hand and he stroked it into an empty net despite protests from the nearby defenders.

Green finished on the turn from 12 yards with 11 minutes to play, but Liverpool held on to steer clear of a famous upset.

Mansfield manager Paul Cox said he would give Suarez “the benefit of the doubt”. “Goal-scorers want to put the ball in the net, and that’s what they do. He’s a fabulous talent and I’d pay to watch him,” he said. Earlier, Danny Graham poached an 87thminute equaliser to earn Swansea a 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium in a game that finished amid a rapid exchange of goals.

Arsenal fought back from behind to lead through a quickfire pair of strikes from Lukas Podolski and Kieran Gibbs in the last 10 minutes, only for Graham to pounce at the death to take the tie to a replay.

Swansea had led through a 58th-minute effort by Michu, scorer of both goals in a 2-0 Premier League win at the Emirates Stadium in December, but Swansea appeared to be heading out until Graham found the roof of the net with three minutes to play.

“We should have won this game,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. “It’s frustrating to concede a goal just like that

TURIN: Sampdoria’s Nenad Krstcic of Serbia (right) vies for the ball with Juventus’ Claudio Marchisio during the Italian Serie A football match.—AFP

Heavyweights kept apart in FA Cup fourth round LONDON: Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and holders Chelsea all avoided each other in yesterday’s FA Cup fourth-round draw at Wembley, but only Chelsea and City are assured of a future in the competition.

While several of their Premier League rivals floundered in Saturday’s third-round ties, Chelsea thrashed Southampton 5-1 and now face a trip to either fourth-tier Southend United or third-division Brentford.

City, 3-0 victors over Watford, will face either Premier League rivals Stoke City or Championship side Crystal Palace. United needed an injury-time Robin van Persie equaliser to earn a 2-2 draw at West Ham United, with either Fulham or Blackpool awaiting the winners of the replay in round four. Second-tier Brighton and Hove on a corner, where we couldn’t clear the ball before the corner.

Even on the corner, we were first to the ball and didn’t win the ball. “We have shown quality and heart and it’s quite good if we can repeat that.” Michu began on the bench for Swansea, perhaps with an eye on Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final first leg against Chelsea, but he rose from the dug-out to tip the tie in the hosts’ favour in the 58th minute.

The Spaniard had only been on

Albion’s reward for eliminating Newcastle United, meanwhile, is a tie with either Swansea City or Arsenal, who drew 2-2 at the Liberty Stadium yesterday. Liverpool, 2-1 victors against non-league Mansfield Town on Sunday, will visit third-tier Oldham Athletic, who reached the semi-finals in 1994. Fifth-division Macclesfield Town, conquerors of Championship leaders Cardiff City, could face Premier League opposition in the fourth round if Wigan Athletic come through their replay against League One Bournemouth.

Fellow Conference National representatives Luton Town will definitely face a side from the English top flight, however, having been drawn to face Norwich City after their upset win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. The ties will be played on the weekend of January 26-27.—AFP

the pitch for a minute and 13 seconds when he collected Nathan Dyer’s knock-down, lobbed the ball over Per Mertesacker, and then beat goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to claim his 15th goal of the campaign. Podolski swivelled on a loose ball to level in the 81st minute and Gibbs then slammed in a sumptuous volley from Olivier Giroud’s chipped pass to put Arsenal ahead two minutes later, but Graham had the final

say. The winners of the replay will face a trip to second-tier Brighton and Hove Albion, who eliminated Newcastle United for the second season in succession on Saturday.

Holders Chelsea will face lower-league opposition in the form of either Southend United or Brentford, while either Fulham or Blackpool will await the winners of the replay between Manchester United and West Ham United.—AFP

Blatter: Walking off is not the answer to racism ABU DHABI: Walking off the field in the face of racist abuse, as AC Milan players did last week, is not the solution to the problem according to FIFA head Sepp Blatter.

Ghanaian midfielder KevinPrice Boateng led his team mates in a walk-out of a friendly match in Italy on Thursday in a gesture widely praised by players and politicians.

Milan president Silvio Berlusconi later said the team

would leave the field of play whenever they suffered racist abuse but Blatter, speaking to Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper yesterday, indicated that was not the answer.

“Walk off? No. I don’t think that is the solution,” said the Swiss, adding that the Italian federation had yet to provide FIFA with a full report. “I don’t think you can run away, because eventually you can run away if you lose a match,” he added.

“This issue is a very touchy subject, but I repeat there is zero tolerance of racism in the stadium. We have to go against that.

“The only solution is to be very harsh with the sanctions and the sanctions must be a deduction of points or something similar.” Blatter, who is on a tour of the Middle East, said Boateng’s action was a reminder to spectators that they must behave at matches.

Milan were playing lower

division side Pro Patria when Boateng stopped playing in the face of abuse, collected the ball and kicked it towards the stands.

He then took his shirt off and walked away, followed by his team mates.

Blatter last November described racism in football as “a devil” after being criticised in 2011 for denying it was a problem in the sport and saying any incidents could be settled with a handshake. —Reuters

Murray beats Dimitrov to clinch Brisbane title

Hussey finishes on a high as Australia sweep series

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MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

Confess? Armstrong may not have much to gain

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Kuwait defeat Yemen MANAMA: Kuwait national football team defeated Yemen 2-0 in Group A of the 21st Gulf Cup of Nations being played in Bahrain.

Youssef Al-Sulaiman opened the scoring for Kuwait in the 63rd minute while Bader Al-Mutawa sealed the match in the 82nd to pick up three points. The second match of the day saw Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 with Salam Shakir and Osama Hawsawi finding the net for Iraq.

In a post-game news conference, coach Goran Tufegdzic said Yemen were tough in the first half of the game. Tufegdzic said Yemen were defensive and relied on fast-breaks. What made things worse, he added, was the penalty kick that was missed by striker Bader Al-Mutawa. “The missed penalty affected the players and inspired the Yemeni team to advance and form attacks.” However, in the second half, Tufegdzic sent in Fahad Al-Enezi to exploit the empty spaces within the Yemeni defense. The Yemeni team coach said he was disappointed at the defeat, saying his players were not focused.

Al-Mutawwa, expressed content in grabbing the first three points of the clash. He said missing the penalty affected him but he succeeded in scoring a goal in the second half.

Speaking to reporters after the match, Al-Mutawa, named best player of the game, said he was looking forward to score more goals but Yemen tightened up their defence. —KUNA

MANAMA: Bader Al-Mutawa (left) of Kuwait escapes a tackle from Mohammed Ahmed Buqshan of Yemen during the two teams football match in the 21st Gulf Cup.—AFP

Bort takes moto stage Dakar Rally PISCO: Spanish motorcyclist Joan Barreda Bort, riding a Husqvarna, won the second stage of the Dakar Rally yesterday and took over the overall lead. Barreda Bort won the 242km timed section in and around Pisco in a time of 2hr 42min 31sec with compatriot Juan Pedrero Garcia, on a KTM, in second place, 3min 12sec behind.

Australia’s Matt Fish, on another Husqvarna, was third, 5min 53sec behind the leader.

Meanwhile on Saturday, former champion Carlos Sainz opened his campaign for a second Dakar Rally title by taking the opening 13km special stage between Lima and Pisco.

The Spaniard, who won the gruelling race in 2010 in a Volkswagen, drove his Buggy to victory in a time of 7min 40sec, beating Argentina’s Lucio Alvarez, in a Toyota, into second, with French driver Guerlain

Chicherit, in an SMG, claiming third.

Sainz enjoyed an eight-second advantage over Alvarez and a 10second gap on Chicherit. His Qatari teammate, Nasser al-Attiyah, who was the 2011 champion, also in a Volkswagen, but was forced to retire in a Hummer 12 months ago, finished fourth.

The two Buggys, backed by the financial might of Qatar but prepared in California, gave an early glimpse of their strengths. That was bad news for defending champion Stephane Peterhansel whose bid for an 11th Dakar title, after collecting four wins in the auto section and six on two wheels, got off to a disappointing start.

The French driver was down in sixth place in his Mini, 34sec behind Sainz. “It feels great to be racing after spending so much time on test drives. So I’m quite

happy just to start the Dakar with this car,” said al-Attiyah.

“I put the pedal on the metal from the start and I’m happy with the time I posted in such a short special. Of course, everyone drove really hard today, but I think we’re well placed for tomorrow’s stage.”

America’s Robby Gordon, who was fifth last year after coming close to a disqualification, was in 87th place in his Hummer after experiencing trouble with his vehicle’s GPS. Peterhansel said his Mini would improve as the race progressed towards its January 19 finish.

“The special was quite fun, with nice dunes and high speeds, but it wasn’t easy because it’s been a few months since the last time we drove a race car, so we need two or three days to get used to all this again,” he said.

“We hit the brakes for no good

reason at the top of the dunes quite a lot, which cost us some time. We’re going to ease into the rally.” Chile’s Francisco Lopez, riding a KTM, won the opening motorcycling stage.

Dutchman Frans Verhoeven, on a Yamaha, was second, with another Chilean, Pablo Quintanilla, claiming third place for Honda who are making their Dakar return after a 24-year absence.

Lopez covered the 13km stage in 7min 51sec, with Verhoeven a second further back and Quintanilla five seconds off the pace. French rider Cyril Despres, the defending champion, was in fifth place, 13sec behind Lopez.

In all, 449 vehicles (183 motos, 153 autos, 38 quads and 75 lorries), left the starting line on Saturday. yesterday’s second stage is a 327km (242km timed) stage in and around Pisco.—AFP

PISCO: Christian Lavieille and co-driver Jean-Michel Polato of France compete in the 2013 Dakar Rally. The race finishes in Santiago, Chile, on Jan. 20. —AP

MADRID: Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo (center) vies with Real Sociedad’s defender Mikel Gonzalez during the Spanish League football match.—AFP

Ronaldo rescues Real, Barca cruise to victory MADRID: Goalkeeper Iker Casillas came off the bench for 10-man Real Madrid who needed a second half double from Cristiano Ronaldo to beat Real Sociedad 4-3 while leaders Barcelona cruised to a 4-0 win over Espanyol.

Barcelona, whose goals all came in the firsthalf against their city neighbours, remain 16 points clear of their bitter rivals and 12 ahead of second-place Atletico Madrid, who play Mallorca later yesterday.

Madrid captain Casillas was left out for the second consecutive game but was called upon after just five minutes following a penalty conceded by his replacement Adan Garrido who was red carded.

Xabi Prieto, who was to grab a hat-trick, scored from the spot-kick to equalise after Karim Benzema had put Madrid ahead in the second minute with Sami Khedira then restoring the lead for Jose Mourinho’s side after 35 minutes.

Prieto struck again before half-time before Ronaldo came to the rescue with a brace after the restart. Prieto hit his third with 14 minutes to go but Sociedad also finished with 10 men as Daniel Estrada was given a second yellow card.

After the game Mourinho said he was unconcerned about receiving abuse from the crowd.

“Perfect. Let them whistle me before the match and then support the team as they are doing. I think the whistles are for leaving Casillas out and also because we are not achieving our aims in the championship,” he said.

“There are others who didn’t applaud and are not happy with his (Casillas’) performances.

If I am not doing well it is normal that they whistle and it is something you have to live with. I don’t want to be a hero independently of my performances.”

Madrid faced an injury crisis at the back with

Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Marcelo and Raul Albiol all injured and Sergio Ramos suspended. They got the perfect start with Khedira finding Benzema in space in the centre of the penalty area and he found the corner with a clinical finish.

But if the Bernabeu crowd were expecting to then see a comfortable victory after such an inconsistent season they were badly mistaken as only three minutes later Adan conceded the penalty for the visitors to draw level.

Adan’s poor pass to Ricardo Carvalho went to Carlos Vela who bore down on goal and was upended by the shot-stopper. The referee pointed to the spot and also dismissed Adan which meant Casillas would play after all.

The player nicknamed ‘Saint Iker’ by Spain fans for his exploits in the recent successes of the national side was unable to make the perfect start as Prieto fired home the penalty.

Madrid went back ahead with Khedira flicking in a shot by Carvalho from the edge of the area but they were never comfortable at the back and Prieto got his second when a Vela strike fell to him and he drove the ball past Casillas.

After the break the game hit a lull before Ronaldo responded with a double. Benzema hit a ball over the top and he finished clinically and then a couple of minutes later he struck a freekick into the top corner.

Sociedad didn’t give up with Xabi Prieto latching onto a Chory Castro pass before beating Casillas but their hopes of an equaliser were hit by a red card for Estrada.

At the Camp Nou, Pedro Rodriguez hit a double with Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi also scoring in a rampant first half as Barca welcomed coach Tito Vilanova back after cancer surgery.—AFP

ECB set to ring in New Year with rates on hold

Business

Page 23 Hostess in talks to sell bread brands Page 26

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

Iran still spending to defend key OPEC role

Pak share bounce belies dire straits Page 25 Page 24

CAIRO: An Egyptian woman exits an exchange store in the capital yesterday. — AFP

Egypt eyes IMF deal to avert crisis Reshuffle expands Islamist control of bureaucracy CAIRO: Egypt reshuffled its government yesterday to strengthen Islamist control and pledged to complete talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan deal to stave off a currency crisis that risks igniting more unrest. A senior IMF official is due in Cairo on Monday to meet Egyptian leaders over the deal, which was postponed last month to give Egypt more time to tackle political tensions before introducing unpopular austerity measures. Finance minister Al-Mursi AlSayed Hegazy was sworn in by President Mohamed Morsi as part of a reshuffle that expanded the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood’s direct control over ministries.

Morsi fired his finance and interior ministers after promising a reshuffle to assuage anger at an economic crisis which has seen the currency lose more than a tenth of its value since a 2011 uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak. Political unrest over a new Islamist-tinged constitution had

delayed tax increases believed to be key to the IMF deal, but in a brief statement to journalists, Hegazy said he was “completely ready to complete discussions” with the Fund. The political conflict triggered lethal street protests last month that added to pressure on the Egyptian pound as speculators worried about the instability began exchanging their local currency for dollars.

As he spoke yesterday, the pound reached a new low, trading at 6.45 to the US dollar. It has lost more than 4 percent of its value against the dollar since the central bank brought in a new system of currency auctions on Dec 30 in to preserve the countr y ’s dwindling foreign reser ves.

Importers have warned that the weakening currency and uncertainity about how low it will go could lead to sharp rises in the prices of imports including food. Hegazy, who replaces Mumtaaz Al-Saeed, a career bureaucrat, is an Islamic finance expert who teaches economics at Alexandria University.

He obtained doctorate in 1985 from the University of Connecticut for a study on how oil contributed to Kuwait’s economic growth, according to a copy of his CV sent to Reuters by Alexandria University. It listed two dozen research papers on Islamic economics which he had either written or reviewed. Though he is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood - the movement that propelled Morsi to power in a June election - he is seen as sympathetic to the group’s aims.

Morsi swore in a total of 10 new ministers as par t of the reshuffle of Prime Minister Hisham Kandil’s government. It brought new parts of the bureaucracy under direct Muslim Brotherhood control, including the supply ministry. The new cabinet has a total of eight ministers who are members of the Brotherhood or the Freedom and Justice Party, its political arm, a spokesman for the party said. The previous cabinet had five Brotherhood ministers. “Dr Morsi would like to be sure that he

has a cabinet that shares his major orientations,” said Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University. “He wants to be surrounded by like-minded ministers.”

The IMF signed the loan deal at staff level in November, but final ratification was postponed last month at Cairo’s behest because of the unrest set off by Morsi’s drive to fast-track a controversial new constitution. Fearing further public anger at the time, Morsi cancelled tax increases believed to be part of a package of austerity measures agreed as part of the IMF deal.

The constitution was approved in a popular referendum and signed into law on Dec 26. The IMF said on Saturday its Middle East and Central Asia director, Masood Ahmed, would visit Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials to discuss recent economic developments and “possible IMF support for Egypt in facing these challenges”. The Brotherhood is wary of any government measures that could damage

its popularity ahead of parliamentary elections due to get underway by the end of February. The IMF deal is seen as vital for boosting investor confidence and staving off a financial crisis.

Having spent more than half the country’s foreign exchange reserves defending the pound, the central bank has warned the reserves had fallen to a critical level.

Economists say the country’s readily available foreign reserves will cover just over two months of imports. The central bank said the reserves had slipped to $15.015 billion in December - little changed from November’s level. The pound slid by half a percent yesterday at the central bank’s fifth auction of foreign currency under the new auction system designed to preserve the reserves. The bank sold all of the $60 million it had offered to banks at Sunday’s auction. Last week, the bank sold $300 million at four similar auctions which bankers have described as a move towards a free float of the currency. — Reuters

Turkey to discuss LNG plant with Qatar ALGIERS: Turkey will discuss building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal with Qatar on its Aegean coast to help meet rising domestic needs and as Turkey’s role as an energy supplier to Europe grows, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said yesterday. Yildiz said the planned terminal on the Gulf of Saros, an inlet in European Turkey, would have an annual capacity of 5 to 6 billion cubic metres (bcm) and could help supply Bulgaria and Greece as well as help Turkey meet its own rising LNG demand.

“We think it would be appropriate to build an LNG terminal on the Gulf of Saros to meet the needs of Turkey and the region.

Qatar would carry out the feasibility work and evaluate the project,” Yildiz told reporters in Algiers on the first day of a visit to Algeria, Libya and Qatar. “This would help relieve the (Bosporus) Straits traf-

fic and Bulgaria and Greece could benefit from the facility as well.”

Turkey is becoming an increasingly important player in global energy markets, both as buyer and as transit hub linking producers to its south and east with European economies keen to diversify supplies.

The country of 75 million people is set to overtake Britain as Europe’s third-biggest electricity consumer within a decade.

Turkey’s daily gas demand was about 125 million cubic metres in late 2012 and is likely to rise to nearly 220 million during the harsh winter months, energy ministry officials say. It buys natural gas from Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan and LNG from Nigeria and Algeria under long-term contracts. Qatar is the world’s largest LNG exporter but mainly sells to Asian markets. Turkey currently has no long-term contracts with

Qatar but is starting to negotiate them, Yildiz said.

Yildiz said Turkey had agreed to extend its contract to buy an annual 4 billion cubic metres of LNG from Algeria for 10 years from Oct 2014, when an existing contract will expire.

“We will also discuss the pricing mechanism. Turkey has a growing demand for LNG. We need long-term contracts for this,” Yildiz said. Yildiz said Turkey’s demand for natural gas peaked in January and February and that it would ask for at least two or three spot cargoes from Qatar in that period, and would also request two spot cargoes from Algeria.

“We will not have issues meeting the demand even if these cargoes are not received,” he said.

Turkey is also seeking to diversify its crude oil suppliers, particularly as US sanctions on Iran have forced it to reduce imports from

that source. Washington says Tehran is enriching uranium to levels used in nuclear weapons and has imposed sanctions on global trade with Iran’s energy and shipping sectors. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Turkey cut its Iranian oil purchases by at least 20 percent last year in order to win an exemption from the sanctions.

“We can meet the oil demand (via) Libya now that supply from Iran is decreasing. The amount of oil we buy from there may increase above 1 million tonnes,” Yildiz said, adding that Turkey was also negotiating for higher oil imports from Russia. Yildiz said he would also discuss oil purchases from Algeria during his trip, and that Turkey’s state-owned energy company TPAO planned to take part in upcoming Algerian oil exploration tenders together with its Algerian counterpart Sonatrach.— Reuters

SURABAYA, Indonesia: Workers unload cattle by using ropes hanging around their necks in East Java yesterday from a ship to a truck for local distribution between provinces in the country. Australia halted all live cattle shipments to Indonesia in June 2011 for several weeks after a documentary showing graphic acts of cruelty to cows in the Southeast Asian nation’s abattoirs sparked an angry public backlash.

Australia only resumed the trade in Aug 2011 after Indonesia agreed to a strict new licensing system designed to protect animal welfare. — AFP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

BUSINESS

‘Fiscal Fudge’ provides short term relief to commodities SAXO BANK WEEKLY COMMODITIES REPORT

By Ole S Hansen

T

he dreaded US fiscal cliff which suppressed prices during December was this first week of 2013 replaced by what some choose to call The Fiscal Fudge. The US budget was agreed at the eleventh hour. But with many of the contentious issues, such as finding the necessary funding, not resolved, the market was left unimpressed which meant that the relief rally lasted less than 48 hours. The US president will be facing further fiscal wrangling with congress over coming weeks as the debt ceiling will have to be raised again because the debt level continues to rise.

Right on the heels of this, the US Federal Reserve surprised the markets by expressing some hawkish views in the minutes from its December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting. In this, some members were showing increased unease about the side effects, such as financial stability and continued expansion of the central bank’s balance sheet. Some members felt it would be appropriate to slow or even stop further asset purchases well before the end of 2013. This was the first sign that the unease that has been growing outside the Federal Reserve for months is now also being felt within, and it makes 2013 an even more interesting year as the markets will have to decipher the effects of a transition away from cheap money.

As a result of this, the dollar appreciation gathered further pace and commodities lost support, especially precious metals such as gold and silver which both had the rug pulled from underneath as they both have been thriving on the back of negative real yields caused by the low interest rate environment.

Supporting the metals is the US budget compromise which will cause a drag on growth during the first couple of quarters. Nevertheless, the coming weeks will now seriously test the resolve of investors in precious metals and as a consequence, we may have to lower our 2013 average price projections for the two metals which are currently at 1840 and 34 respectively.

The monthly US jobless reports are now even more important as every potential improvement in those numbers will help bring forward the markets’ expectations of when quantitative easing will cease.

The numbers for December, which were released on 4 January, did not have any major impact given the fact the non-farm payroll came out in line with expectations while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.8 percent.

Re-cap of 2012 Before moving on, let us take a moment to look back on how the sector performance table for 2012 ended up. Overall, the two major commodity index funds finished pretty much unchanged for the year, a disappointing result for long-only investors compared with other asset classes, especially stocks. A major correction in grains such as corn, wheat and soybeans during December resulted in a much reduced return for the grains sector but it still manage to outweigh the losses witnessed in softs, especially from the one-third drop in coffee, bringing the overall agriculture sector return up into second position.

Despite a decent rally across industrial metals during the final quarter, which were driven by an improved outlook for Chinese demand, the sector as a whole finished third ahead of the energy sector

which suffered losses primarily from the negative performances of WTI Crude and Natural Gas which, on a (negative) roll adjusted basis, lost 30 percent. At the top spot we find precious metals not because of great individual performances but more due to the fact that all four components showed gains, especially silver and platinum.

Mixed performances during the first week of trading Nervous trading best described performance during the first shortened week of 2013, not helped by the fact that the dollar was up by more than one percent. Currency traders had overextended their long exposure to the euro, and it triggered a sharp reversal which led to a stronger dollar thereby creating some early headwind for commodities with the DJ-UBS

index losing almost one percent.

The only sector showing a positive return according to these indices was industrial metals, such as copper, which were helped by continued improved economic data out of China. The worst performing sector was agriculture with gains in livestock being offset by continued losses in grains and softs.

Precious metals also experienced losses with gold, silver and palladium all in negative territory. The energy sector was also in negative territory, as gains in crude oil and products were offset by another heavy loss on Natural Gas. Gold’s multiyear rally under threat Almost before 2013 has kicked off in earnest precious metals have been confronted by several obsta-

cles making this year one for a potential transition following twelve consecutive years of positive returns.

Most damaging has been news about the unease within the US FOMC with regard to the duration of the current asset purchase programme. Continued improved economic US data will help bring forward the markets expectations of when QE will cease and this will knock the confidence among investors in precious metals.

Gold did kick off the new-year with a rally inspired by the US budget deal but within 48 hours it fell to the lowest level since August 2012 and it has now been sliding almost continuously from 1800 USD/oz.

- its October peak. ETP investors, who had begun the year holding a record amount of gold, and who up until now had used correction to accumulate, on Thursday pulled 327,000 ounces, the biggest one-

ket moves during the first couple of weeks of a new year often prove to be the wrong ones. But should 1525 USD/oz. be broken we will have a new situation and as a consequence we would have to lower our 2013 average price projections for the two metals which are currently at 1840 and 34 respectively.

day decline since September 26 according to Bloomberg.

Technically, gold has moved back to the 1630 USD/oz. area from where it broke higher last August following a couple of months of sideways trading.

This level coincides with the 61.8% retracement of the May to August rally and further weakness below this area would bring the next area of support at 1590 USD/oz. back into play. Gold investors’ and traders’ resolve and believe in higher prices over the year is about to face a big challenge in coming weeks as the current price action could indicate that a major top has now been established and one we potentially will not see again for a while.

For now though we still believe that the current move is just a correction also given the fact that mar-

Spread to WTI Crude narrowing The spread to WTI crude meanwhile has begun to narrow as expansion on the Seaway Pipeline connecting Cushing, the delivery hub for NYMEX WTI crude oil, with refineries around Freeport on the Mexican Golf coast is near completion. Once fully operational within the next couple of weeks the capacity of the pipeline will rise to 400,000 barrels per day from the current 150,000 and this should help alleviate some of the pressure on Cushing where supplies have risen to a record 49.2 million barrels due to increased production from unconventional methods. This supply glut has been one of the main reasons behind the dislocation in price between WTI and Brent crude which, although not perfect, currently best describes the global price lev-

Crude oil range-bound despite signs of underlying strength The price of Brent Crude has moved to the higher end of its current range not least helped by the improved outlook for US and Chinese growth and despite a rising dollar. Further support has come from the continued tightness in the spot market which has seen the premium of spot crude over the three month deferred move out to 2.8 USD/barrel.

el of crude oil.

OPEC’s oil production fell in December to the lowest level in a year according to a Reuters survey.

The drop of more than 1.1 million bpd from the April peak was due to dwindling supplies from Iran, now at the lowest since 1988, due to US and European sanctions while Iraq and Saudi Arabia reduced production amid slower global demand. This underlines the current state of the global market which looks well balanced and this should, barring any geopolitical event, keep the price range bound in the near term. Further upside seems limited beyond 115 while support can be found at 109.40 and 107.50.

Natural gas sees biggest drop in three years The abundance of US natural gas in underground storage together with an early January call

for milder than normal winter weather up ahead sent natural gas prices over its own cliff on Wednesday. Within minutes the February contract flash crashed by almost 9 percent, the biggest drop in three years, reaching a low of 3.05 before recovering half of what was lost. With mild weather expected over coming days, demand could fall below the seasonal norm thereby potentially raising the level of available gas in storage when the injection season begins in two months’ time. Elevated levels of natural gas in underground storage following last year’s mild winter triggered a slump in prices before a major switch from coal to gas helped stabilize prices.

Concerns of a repeat will keep traders nervously looking out for changes in weather projections over the coming weeks.

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 Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2740000 .4500000 .3660000 .3030000 .2830000 .2930000 .0040000 .0020000 .0764470 .7447980 .3880000 .0720000 .7301420 .0430000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2816000 .4527420 .3680230 .3046300 .2851210 .0493430 .0430670 .2951310 .0363340 .2295030 .0031950 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0766990 .7472470 .0000000 .0751130 .7317140 .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.211 5.137 2.900 2.216 3.217 232.630 36.517 3.529

.2840000 .4630000 .3770000 .3150000 .2930000 .3020000 .0067500 .0035000 .0772150 .7522840 .4060000 .0770000 .7374810 .0510000 .2837000 .4561190 .3707680 .3069020 .2872480 .0497110 .0433880 .2973320 .0366050 .2312140 .0032190 .0051930 .0022340 .0029220 .0035710 .0772710 .7528190 .4012730 .0756740 .7371700 .0070010

Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - transfer Irani Riyal - cash

UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

6.915 9.293 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 75.497 77.790 735.350 751.960 77.091

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 283.000 Euro 372.850 Sterling Pound 457.610 Canadian dollar 289.810 Turkish lire 159.010 Swiss Franc 309.630 Australian dollar 299.330 US Dollar Buying 281.800 GOLD 311.000 157.000 81.500

SELL DRAFT 300.69 290.98 310.73 372.89 282.40 457.54 3.28 3.550 5.139 2.219 3.214 2.901

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar terling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Selling Rate 281.850 283.480 456.305 373.085 309.060 746.190 76.715 77.365 75.125 397.310 44.735 2.213 5.144 2.900 3.496 6.847 691.380 4.270 9.370 3.695 3.370 92.045

SELL CASH 300.000 289.500 310.000 372.000 283.500 457.500 3.7500 3.690 5.450 2.500 3.560 3.000

COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar

SELL CASH 299.900 752.210 3.850 290.000 555.500 46.100 50.400 167.800 47.470 373.900 37.190 5.500 0.032 0.162 0.243

Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

3.310 400.830 0.191 96.070 45.800 4.350 238.800 1.832 51.700 734.710 3.040 7.290 78.240 75.520 231.950 35.330 2.694 458.400 44.200 309.700 3.400 9.630 198.263 77.120 283.200 1.370

400.790 0.190 96.070 3.240 237.300

734.530 2.905 6.931 77.810 75.520 231.950 35.330 2.220 456.400 308.200 3.400 9.490 77.020 282.800

GOLD 10 Tola 1,770.620

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Bahrain Exchange Company

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee

77.700 751.000 47.300 402.000 735.000 77.800 76.000

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 46.700 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 43.980 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.321 Tunisian Dinar 181.640 Jordanian Dinar 399.350 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.899 Syrian Lier 3.076 Morocco Dirham 33.811

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

76.96 751.93 43.99 402.32 734.97 77.98 75.52

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 456.400 282.800

Al Mulla Exchange

SELLDRAFT 298.400 752.210 3.538 288.500

231.900 43.992 372.400 37.040 5.140 0.031

Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 282.400 372.100 456.200 288.200 3.225 5.135 43.970 2.216 3.530 6.899 2.893 752.000 76.850 75.450

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Could Japan start a global currency war?

By Hayder Tawfik Executive VP of Asset Management, Dimah Capital

W

hile the world attention has been on the US fiscal cliff the Bank of Japan with the backing of the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister has successfully managed to weaken the Japanese Yen by at least 10 percent against the US dollar and more so against some other major currencies mainly the euro. This was a quite big achievement but has not gone without notice. We will shortly hear from some angry politicians and business men about some nations deliberately stepping up their efforts to weaken their currencies and hence be more competitive.

I have mentioned before in my previous articles and do so again that I am a strong believer that the world’s major super economies, ie US, Japan and Germany are and will carry on managing their currencies with a common agreement for the benefits of all.

The biggest casualty of this will be the emerging companies and mainly China. By managing their currencies the super economies are forcing those developing currencies to strengthen further and hence forcing them to stimulate their domestic economies and suck in more foreign imports. To be honest this is not bad at all in particular for China and India.

Back in 2012 the Swiss national bank was so worried by the strength of the Swiss Franc that it literally linked the Franc to the Euro and successfully managed the currency with a small band to operate within.

Again, this was forced on the Swiss to protect their economy. Now it is the turn for Japan to do the same.

However, for Japan the effect of a weaker currency will be so significant that it will raise alarm among its major export competitors such as China, US and Germany. Over the last 10 years Germany did benefit a lot from a weak euro and now it is the turn of Japan to benefit from a weaker currency and hopefully generate some inflation in the process. All should be good for the global economy in 2013 and in particular for Japanese main exporters such auto makers, electronics and electrical manufactures and chemical producers. I am not sure how China will react to this but time will tell. The significant weakening of the Yen is a god send for the Japanese exporters who have been priced out of the world consumer markets over the last 10 years.

We all remember very well how some of the emerging economies in particular China, Russia, Brazil and India accusing the Federal Reserve by in 2012 of deliberately introducing measures to weaken the US$. However, the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative Easing and printing money was to save the US economy and save the rest of the world and it successfully done so. I think Japan deserves the right to weaken its currency and no one in the developed world should lecture Japan about any deliberate policy to weaken the Yen. After all if a weaker yen means that the Japanese economy can grow faster in 2013 and help the world economy in the process so let it be indeed. After all the Japanese economy is the third biggest economy in the world. I think the euro will strengthen much further in particular against the Japanese Yen and this even will force the euro zone to restructure their economy much faster and be more competitive which is not bad after all. Other developed nations are also concerned that their strong currencies will make their goods more expensive thus hurting exporters at a time when global growth is slowing.

The recent weakness of the Japanese Yen has helped the Japanese stock markets to rally by at least 20 percent. It does show how sensitive the Japanese economy is to big movement in its currency. The impact has even been greater for some of the main Japanese auto manufacturers such as Toyota which has seen its share price rallying by at least 35 percent.

Other exporter such as Panasonic Corp has seen its share price rising by nearly 40 percent. Investors who have been underweighting Japanese equities have been caught out on the back of these big moves. The big move in those share prices are quite justified indeed. Take for example Toyota Motors and BMW, both manufacture very good quality cars and their products are very popular with consumers and suddenly you give one manufacturer a 10 percent devaluation of their products against the other. I am not sure how the German auto makers will react to this but they did suffer in the past whenever there was a devaluation of the Yen against the old Deutsche Mark.

At the end of the day it is a pure strategy game played by the big super economies and each one trying to protect their domestic economy. As for the smaller economy or the emerging economies it is a tough medicine to sallow.

Cameron plays down status of credit rating LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron said the credibility of his deficit-cutting policy was more important than the judgment of credit rating agencies, as the threat of third recession since the financial crisis looms. Britain has held onto its top triple-A credit rating while the United States and France have suffered downgrades, but that endorsement has looked increasingly shaky as the economic outlook darkens. A loss of the rating would be a blow to Cameron and his Conservativeled coalition, which has staked its political reputation on maintaining the top rating and nursing Britain’s economy back to health by cutting its deficit.

Cameron told BBC television yesterday the opinion of the international debt markets was more significant than a credit rating. “What matters most of all is are you able to pay your debts, maintain your debts at a low rate of interest,” he said.

“The ratings you have are all hugely important, but in a way the real test is, what are the interest rates the rest of the world is demanding in order to own your debt.”

Ministers have been increasingly playing down the significance of credit ratings as the economy struggles and the crisis in the euro zone, Britain’s largest trading partner, reduces the near term prospects for growth. Cameron said the key to keeping the faith of financial markets was the government’s program of cutting state spending to bring its deficit under control. “You can only keep your interest rates low if you have a credible strategy for getting on top of your deficit and getting on top of your debt,” he said. —Reuters

STUTTGART: (From left) Free Democratic Party (FDP) faction leader Rainer Bruederle, German economy minister, vice-chancellor and party chairman Philipp Roesler, vicechairwoman of the party Birgit Homburger and development minister Dirk Niebel attend a meeting of the FDP yesterday. — AFP

ECB set to ring in New Year with rates on hold Pressure on governments to solve debt crisis FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank will usher in 2013 with steady interest rates at its first policy meeting this year to keep up the pressure on governments to solve the debt crisis, analysts predict. With ECB interest rates currently at record lows and its latest anti-crisis weapon ready and primed for action, central bank chief Mario Draghi will not pass up the opportunity to insist once again that only governments can resolve the long-running crisis, economists said.

“Whilst a (rate) cut cannot be entirely ruled out, we do not expect the governing council to change interest rates at its meeting on Thursday,” said Commerzbank economist Michael Schubert. “On the one hand, ECB executive board members have tried to dampen rate cut speculation over recent weeks, and on the other, important sentiment indicators have increased once again,” he said.

On Friday, the closely watched Purchasing Managers Index or PMI for the entire euro area hit a nine-month high, offering hope the single currency area

could be moving out of its deep doubledip recession. Recent data for Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, have also come in better than expected. And German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble even went so far as to say he believed the embattled eurozone was now past the peak of its three-year-long debt crisis.

Market tensions have indeed eased since the ECB unveiled its anti-crisis bazooka in September, the so-called OMT bond-purchase program. The scheme is credited with marking a turning point in financial market sentiment towards the crisis-wracked euro even though it has not actually been used. With markets now calmer, the ECB has been able to keep its gunpowder dry, keeping interest rates at their all-time low of 0.75 percent and holding fire on other emergency anti-crisis measures as well, after pumping vast amounts of liquidity into the markets at the beginning of last year.

Nevertheless, at last month’s meeting, ECB chief Draghi appeared to open the door to further rate cuts, crucially revealing

that there had been “wide discussion” of such a move on the decision-making governing council and that the decision to keep rates on hold was anything but unanimous. Commerzbank’s Schubert pointed out, however, that top board members such as Yves Mersch, Peter Praet and Joerg Asmussen - have all sought to play down possible rate cuts recently. Deka Bank chief economist Ulrich Kater was similarly convinced that Draghi would not announce any monetary easing at his first press conference of the year. “The policy of low interest rates is finally making itself felt in the periphery countries, thereby taking the pressure off the monetary policy actors to come up with new stimulus measures,” he said. “For the time being, there is no immediate need to act,” he said.

In the United States, the US Federal Reserve hinted last week that its own huge program of stimulus measures was under review and could be brought to an end sometime this year. Capital Economics economist Jonathan Loynes cautioned, however, that “having prevented catastro-

phe in 2012 by pledging to do whatever it takes to save the euro, the ECB will have to follow words with actions in 2013”. While Loynes said he was expecting no policy changes to be announced on Thursday, “the pressure for action may soon be irresistible”.

Postbank economist Thilo Heidrich said the likelihood of a rate cut was “wide open”, but that he was betting on a further quarter-point reduction in the key refi rate to 0.5 percent in the early months of this year and the ECB would keep it there “for some time to come”. Loynes at Capital Economics said that “despite the sizeable challenges facing the ECB (in 2013), it appears unlikely that it will take any steps towards meeting them at its meeting in January. “No doubt Draghi will reaffirm that the ECB is ready to implement OMTs...and he may even show signs of warming to the idea of a cut in interest rates,” Loynes said. “Either way, though, he is likely to keep the onus on governments by stressing once again that the ECB cannot solve the region’s debt crisis single-handedly,” he concluded. — AFP

US pushes to finish Afghan dam KAJAKI, Afghanistan: In the approaching twilight of its war in Afghanistan, the US is forging ahead with a giant infrastructure project long criticized as too costly in both blood and money. It’s a $500 million effort to refurbish the massive Kajaki dam and hydro-electric power system with an extensive network of power lines and transmission substations. It is supposed to bring electricity to 332,000 people in southern Afghanistan, increase crop yields and build up a cohort of trained Afghan laborers in a region badly in need of them.

But completion, which originally was envisaged for 2005, now is projected for some time in 2015, the year after most combat troops will have left the country. And there are some crucial ifs: If a convoy carrying 900 tons of concrete can make it up a dangerous road to the dam site without being attacked by the Taleban. If the Afghan army can hold out in an area that took thousands of US Marines to secure. If the Afghan government can take on the management of the dam.

“It’s a long-term bet. I’ve said to people: We have to be patient and we have to persevere,” said Ken Yamashita, the head of USAID in Afghanistan. The desire to succeed is understandable. The Kajaki dam on the Helmand River symbolizes for both the Afghans and their American backers what they had hoped the infusion of US troops and cash would produce nationwide: an Afghan government that can provide for its people and in turn count on its support against the Taliban insurgency.

The US has spent $22.34 billion on governance and development in Afghanistan since it invaded the country following the Sept 11 attacks, much of that on projects to build roads, schools, power plants and irrigation systems.

In the past two years alone, $800 million was earmarked for infrastructure projects.

Kajaki is also a symbol of the American presence in Afghanistan dating back to the 1950s and the Cold War. That was when the US built the original dam, with a powerhouse added in the 1970s. But before the three turbines could be installed, the Soviets invaded and construction stopped. The dam was still squeezing out a bit of power in 2001 when the US attacked and, ironically enough, bombed the dam’s power transmission line.

In the latest phase of the Kajaki saga, fighting as well as limited oversight of spending has led to huge delays and cost overruns. Now Helmand province, home of the dam, is seeing the first and largest wave of U.S. troop reductions, with 10,000 of 17,000 US Marines already gone. That means most of the Kajaki project is going forward with Afghan forces providing nearly all the security in an area that was a Taliban stronghold until a year ago.

Afghans here are already hedging their bets. The number of workers on a US-funded construction project next to Kajaki has dwindled from 200 to 20 since last fall, and those remaining say workers feel the risk isn’t worth the $6 daily paycheck. “They can’t come here because all the routes to the district are controlled by the Taliban,” said Abdul Razziq, a 28-year-old villager working on construction of a new district government center next to the dam.

His family supports the government, so he at least doesn’t have to lie to keep his place of work secret. Not so Timur Shah, who spends a couple of months at a time working at Kajaki. “My immediate family knows I am here. But if anyone else asks they will make something up,” he said. Shah said security improved when US Marines flooded the province, but is deteriorating as the Marines leave. “Just at the time the American forces started leaving here, the Taleban started to appear again, in the whole area,” Shah

This Nov 15, 2012 aerial photo shows the Helmand River in Helmand province. — AP said. Cellphone service also stopped working in Kajaki district in late fall. It is common for insurgents to disrupt service in areas they control, though the construction workers say they’re just as ready to believe to say the Americans blocked calls. US officials say the wariness is to be expected at a time of transition. They point out that Afghan security forces have increased their presence around the dam and that attacks, while still regular, appear to be decreasing.

“There’s an ebb and flow,” said Marine Capt Glen Baker, one of a small group of Marines who continue to hold an outpost in Kajaki and advise Afghan forces in the area.

“There was an increase when the Marines pulled out and there has been a decrease subsequently.” The company working on building the dam has also been able this year to send supplies via road - four convoys of trucks have made the trip without incident. Previously, equipment was being helicoptered in at enormous cost.

The core of the project is the installation of a third power-generating turbine at the dam, an effort that planned since 2002. The installation was originally budgeted at $18 million. Now it is getting another $85 million and is scheduled to be installed in March, after being delayed by efforts to weed out subcontracting applicants suspected of having Taliban ties.

But many in Afghanistan have already given up on Kajaki. “It is 10 years now that Kajaki dam has been as it is.

Too much money has been spent there in the name of reconstruction ... all of that money wasted,” President Hamid Karzai said in a speech in December. Shah, the construction worker, echoed the complaint. “When the international forces first came here they told us, ‘In one year you will have the dam, you will have power, you will have roads.’

But that didn’t happen. ... and we are still waiting,” he said.

Even if the project now overcomes the security and logistical barriers, there are questions about whether it’s worth the cost. The dam can’t provide enough power to sustain the main city in the region - Kandahar - and the price tag is steep for the extra irrigation it brings to the Helmand River valley. And there are also signs of the difficulties the Afghan government may face when it takes

over the management of the dam. One area already controlled by the Afghans is the management of irrigation water. The water has to hold to a certain level through the winter to keep electricity flowing, but last year the manager in charge of irrigation yielded to pressure from farmers and kept the water valve open.

“He ignored the need to close it in September. So the level of water was reduced,” said Shaqib Nassar, the utility’s chief operations officer, which oversees the dam. As a result the dam can only produce 24 megawatts, rather than 33 megawatts, he explained. And the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, the US government watchdog for spending in the country, said in a report in December that $12.8 million in electricity distribution equipment provided to the Afghan energy utility in Kandahar was sitting unused because the Afghan staff “lacked the technical and operational capacity to properly install and manage it.” The Kandahar utility also oversees Kajaki dam.

As recently as mid-2012 the US was considering scrapping the whole project and switching the money to less unwieldy projects. Then it doubled down. “Several months back we had a lot of discussion about whether continued investment in this would be worthwhile ... There are certainly voices that say, ‘We’ve invested this much, let’s finish it,’ and there are others that say, ‘We’ve invested this much, however the additional investment just won’t get us there,’” said Yamashita, the USAID official. “In the end, the discussion and the conclusion was that the output of electricity plus the development programs in the Helmand valley, plus the security it brings, equals a risk worth taking.”

From the air, the Helmand River is a narrow turquoise ribbon through the desert. The dam is a stacked concrete wall that bisects the river, creating a reservoir ringed with trees - a few spots of green in a vast field of brown. The helicopters that fly to the dam are owned by a US contractor and depart from a US military base. As resources and Americans become fewer, the US Army Corps of Engineers and USAID say they expect oversight to depend increasingly on Afghan partners. —AP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Iran still spending to defend key OPEC role Despite sanctions, agro exports booming DUBAI: Iran has spent almost $25 billion on upstream oil and gas projects since last March but needs to keep investing to keep its influence in OPEC, Iran’s oil minister said yesterday. Iranian oil production fell sharply last year, as Western nations tightened sanctions to starve Tehran of funds for its disputed nuclear program, allowing Iraq to overtake Iran as the oil exporting group’s second-largest producer. The sanctions, aimed at stopping what the West says is a weapons program but which Tehran says is purely peaceful, have slashed tens of billions off Iranian oil revenues over the past year and weakened OPEC price hawk Iran’s influence in a group now effectively steered by Saudi Arabia.

Iranian officials have maintained a brave face as exports have fallen to about half levels seen in 2011, arguing that selling less crude is good for the economy while calling for more investment to boost capacity and refine more crude into finished fuels. “We should raise production capacity in the mid-stream sector and protect our place in OPEC with regard to sensitivity of the oil market and at the same time try to curb selling materials

in raw form,” oil ministry news website Shana reported oil minister Rostam Qasemi as saying at a finance conference in Tehran.

Qasemi said as much as $400 billion dollars of energy sector investment was needed over five years, although Iran already struggles to sell the oil it already produces because of pressure from Washington on big Asian customers to buy less.

International banking restrictions have made it very difficult for Iranian oil buyers to send funds to an isolated Islamic Republic seen by many investors as high risk. Qasemi said foreign investment in Iran’s oil and gas sector had nevertheless risen to $20 billion dollars recently, according to Shana.

Iran’s central bank has also agreed to channel funds it has been holding in foreign banks - largely because of difficulties repatriating export earnings - into oil industry projects in Iran, Qasemi said, without explaining how it could be done.

Isolated from international credit lines and western technology during a long standoff with Washington, Iran has resorted to issuing bonds to generate funds for energy projects. In the latest

sale, Iran Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) plans to issue rial denominated bonds on Monday, offering 20 percent interest over four years, Shana reported on Sunday.

Shana said that under this year’s annual budget, several government ministries had also been given permission to issue billions of dollars worth of bonds to fund oil projects. Even investors who specialise in high risk debt say the many banking obstacles are likely to deter any foreign investors in Iranian bonds.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that Iranian oil exports have slumped from 2.2 million bpd at the end of 2011 to just 860,000 bpd in September 2012.

Separately, Iran’s agricultural exports grew last year, with pistachio and saffron sales almost doubling, despite Western sanctions on trade with the country, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Iran’s deputy agriculture minister as saying yesterday.

Between March 21 and Dec. 20, Iran’s pistachio exports doubled to $587 million, making the nuts Iran’s biggest agricultural expor t by value.

Exports of saffron rose 87 percent to $213 million, Fars reported. “Export of farming products has increased 15 percent compared to the previous year, while the agricultural exports are still on the increase on a daily basis,” Far quoted Jahangir Pourhemmat as saying. “Over 95 percent of Iran’s needed products are produced inside the country which is highly important for the country’s political independence.”

Western sanctions on banks dealing with Iran, which are intended to force Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment program by preventing it from selling oil, have made it difficult for exporters of many other Iranian goods to get paid. Despite tighter controls on trade with Iran in 2012 compared to 2011, Fars said exports of everything from tomatoes and potatoes to water melons, kiwi fruit and apples all grew significantly last year. It did not say how exporters of agricultural goods were paid for their goods, but Iran has struck several barter deals over the past year to secure goods it needs in exchange for products it cannot sell easily due to banking restrictions. — Reuters

HONG KONG: In this photograph taken on Saturday, visitors from mainland China wait in a queue with their goods outside the Sheung Shui train station. An influx of parallel traders in Hong Kong who purchase items tax-free such as baby milk formula, diapers, soft drinks and cosmetics and then resell it in mainland China at a profit is causing growing unrest with local residents who say retail prices are being driven up by the practice. — AFP

Vietnam trade deal sparks a running battle on shoe tariffs BEN LUC, Vietnam: This is where many of Nike’s Deep Fusion running shoes are born. When a pair of them reaches the end of the assembly line at the huge Taiwanese-owned factory here, the cost of production is about $20 to $25. At malls across the United States, the retail price ranges from $59.99 to $107. About $3 of that reflects a tariff on US imports of athletic footwear.

Vietnam wants to eliminate the 8 percent to 15 percent tariff as part of a free-trade negotiation with the United States and nine other Pacific nations. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk leads those negotiations for President Barack Obama, and he got Vietnam’s perspective on the tariffs when he went to Hanoi in August.

More engagingly, the tariff is the center of a dispute between Nike and New Balance, two US firms that are exchanging blows and waving flags over whether it still makes sense for Americans to manufacture running shoes. Both companies get more of their shoes made in Vietnam than anywhere else. But Boston-based New Balance Athletic Shoes Inc is the last company left making some of its mass-market running shoes in the United States.

The privately owned firm had $2.04 billion in revenue last year and employs 1,350 workers at five factories in Massachusetts and Maine.

“Vietnam is the fastest-growing producer of footwear in the world, second only to China in total production,” said New Balance spokesman Matt LeBretton. “The way we look at it, Vietnam is already winning in footwear. Reducing the tariffs would be like giving the Yankees an extra outfielder. They don’t need it.”

Nike Inc, with annual revenue of $24.1 billion, is the biggest athletic shoe maker in the world. Virtually all of those shoes are made overseas for the Beaverton, Oregon-based company. Company officials say cutting the tariff on Vietnamese-made shoes would allow Nike to cover higher raw materials costs and invest more in maintaining competitiveness.

Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas, went to a New Balance plant in Maine in September. He has listened to Nike’s arguments as well. “We have two, interestingly enough, iconic names in the sports world

who happen to be not of the same position,” he said. “So we’re trying to meet with all the parties. “Under this president, it’s my job to care about those (New Balance) jobs and see if we can strike the balance. Those 1,300 jobs may not be much in a big city with 5 million people, but in a state like Maine, that’s a big deal,” he said.

Americans buy 2.2 billion pairs of shoes a year - about seven pairs each, according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association.

This $66.1 billion retail market relies overwhelmingly on foreign manufacturers. Importers, meanwhile, are paying $1.9 billion a year in tariffs to bring those shoes into the United States. “As 99 percent of sports shoes sold in the US are imported, it is clear there is no correlation between high duties on footwear and the creation of a US manufacturing industr y,” argued Greg Rossiter, a Nike spokesman. “Given that there is no connection between high duties and US jobs, the question is why high duties should be maintained at a high cost to US consumers and businesses.”

Making shoes is labor-intensive, and Vietnam has plenty of low-cost labor. At the Ching Luh Group factory in Ben Luc, 24,000 Vietnamese make roughly 20 million pairs of shoes a year for Nike. They are paid between $150 and $200 a month, factory officials said. On the factory floor, women in blue jeans and white work shirts stamp and polish pieces of synthetic leather, plastic and mesh fabric, then pass those along to other women who sew them together. These become the neon green, navy, gray or white shoe uppers, which are shaped on the line in heaters. Grinders shave away stray bits.

The assembly line merges with another carrying white, pink and black rubber soles. Tops and bottoms are glued and heated, then passed before women who slip in sole inserts. Quality control inspectors have a look. Shoes that pass inspection are filled and wrapped with brown paper, then dropped in red-orange and white boxes. The shoes and shoe boxes are the only signs of Nike’s trademark “swoosh”.

The factory has almost no signs identifying what goes on behind its guarded gates.

A building housing some of the

assembly lines is clean, well-lit and spacious. The work is steady but does not seem rushed. Workers are paid by the month rather than by how many shoes they make, and they can take breaks when needed by signaling a supervisor. Nike wouldn’t allow photographs of the work because of what its spokesmen called competitive reasons.

“Literally dozens of pairs of hands touch each shoe, with some footwear having over 100 pieces,” Rossiter said.

New Balance spokesman LeBretton said his company’s workers outperform the Vietnamese.

New Balance makes 6 million to 7 million pairs of shoes a year with its 1,350 US workers, while Nike produces 20 million a year with 24,000 workers in Ben Loc. New Balance says it also stays competitive by taking less profit out of every pair of shoes it makes. (In its most recent quarterly report, Nike reported a gross margin of 42.8 percent.)

“Profitability is a wonderful thing, but it’s not always our No. 1 motivator,” LeBretton said. “When everybody else made the decision to move overseas, we redoubled our efforts at home.”

If the tariffs are removed, New Balance executives have warned that they might close the New England factories. What makes this perplexing, LeBretton admits, is that New Balance would benefit from eliminating the Vietnamese tariffs because it sources more of its shoes from there than anywhere else.

Vietnam has more than 700 of its own shoe manufacturers, which fret that they don’t have the access to cheap capital enjoyed by the global firms. Vietnam exported $2 billion of shoes to the United States last year.

The tariffs on less-expensive leather and canvas shoes mean more to them in their competition with China, which dominates the US shoe market, than do the running shoe tariffs that are so important to Nike and New Balance. Kirk has told Congress that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal means more to the United States than access to “cheap T-shirts and tennis shoes.”

“This is a huge opportunity,” he said.

“First of all, it will enable Vietnam to achieve its own goals for transforming its economy while at the same time it becomes a huge potential market for us.” — MCT

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Austere rhetoric may play role in Czech downturn PRAGUE: Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek admits to asking himself a frequent question about his hard line on budget cuts: “Have we frightened people too much?” His determination to preserve the country’s reputation for sound finances is widely blamed for an economic contraction that has lasted since the middle of 2010. But Kalousek’s question, disclosed in an interview this week with Ekonom magazine, begs another: why has the Czech contraction lasted so long when the country’s emerging European peers have suffered less?

In terms of slashing the budget deficit, the government here has not been as fast or aggressive as Poland’s or Slovakia’s. Yet these other economies are growing, the Czech Republic’s is not, and data suggests that notoriously thrifty Czech consumers have reacted more anxiously to spending cuts and tax hikes than Poles or Slovaks. Some people say the government’s approach may play a role. “The recession is definitely because of the government,” said Daniel Nosek, a 68-year-old private business owner.

“People are very bitter and they are busy counting how much every new government measure will cost them.”

In the third quarter of last year, a 2.4 percent annual fall in household consumption and a 9.4 percent drop in gross capital formation undercut a rise in exports, creating a third straight quarter of recession. Czech consumer confidence is also at its lowest point in 13 years, highlighting a palpable sense of fear that has caused Czechs to hunker down and companies to stop spending, worsening the downturn. “The small Czech saver is so terrified and so afraid of the future and this concerns companies too - that to a certain extent we are worsening an already not-so-good situation,” Mojmir Hampl, deputy governor of the central bank, said on Czech Radio on Tuesday.

The government has prided itself on its deficit cutting zeal, noting that its borrowing costs have fallen to below those of many euro zone countries, saving it billions each year in debt maintenance.

Investors agree, paying just 13 basis points over equivalent German bunds for

two-year Czech debt, well below the 320 and 550 basis point premiums that investors demand to hold comparable Polish or Hungarian paper. All these debt cost measures have been at record lows, due at least in part to a “wall of money” created by the world’s big central banks trying to revive their economies.

But economists say the Czechs’ stringent approach to belt-tightening has bolstered its image as a safe bet, even if Necas and his close ally Kalousek have cut the budget deficit less than their neighbours. Kalousek has shrunk the budget deficit by almost 40 percent, to an estimated 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year, since the shortfall was biggest in 2009. But the total 2.3 percentage points of consolidation is less than Slovakia’s 3.4 points over the same period, helped by one of the highest growth rates in the European Union. Poland, the region’s biggest economy, has cut by 4.4 points to the same level as the Czechs even though they started a year later.

Those two countries have benefited

from other factors, including an expansion in car production in Slovakia and billions of euros in infrastructure spending partially funded by the European Union in the run-up to the Euro 2012 football tournament in Poland. But government rhetoric has also appeared to play an important role in keeping confidence up and the economy rolling ahead. While Kalousek has warned the Czech Republic could go the way of Greece if it did not cut its fiscal overhang, Polish officials have mostly focussed on trying to find ways to keep the country’s economic expansion alive.

“Clearly it doesn’t make sense for (Czech) consumers to be as pessimistic in 2012 as they were in 2009, and they are.

They are that or worse. That seems puzzling,” said Daniel Hewitt, an economist at Barclays Capital.

“I think it’s what the government did.

They not only said they were going to do austerity. They did it in ways that was consumption limiting... by cutting wages, affecting pensions and social expenditures. Then they said there will be more

to come, lots more to come.”

Kalousek and his ally Prime Minister Petr Necas backed off their hard line near the end of last year and allowed the 2012 deficit to widen slightly to an expected 3.5 percent of GDP, from an earlier target of 3 percent. The finance minister also conceded in the Ekonom interview that harsh rhetoric may have played some role in depressing Czech spending, saying he was able to accept criticism that the government’s austerity drive should have also included “some glimpse of hope”.

But when asked whether the government could change its rhetoric, he did not abandon his cautious stance. “This government is, in short, convinced that the consolidation of public finance is essential,” he was quoted as saying. “We have faced a crisis, and ahead of us there is probably a relatively long period that I would mark as a great stagnation. Most of Europe will probably see that for a number of years to come. Everyone will therefore think twice about spending every crown.” — Reuters

Pak share bounce belies dire straits Dealers hope for better prospects in the new year

HOLLY, Colorado: This Sept 28, 2011 file photo shows the sign leading to Jensen Farms. — AP

US FDA says new rules will make food safer WASHINGTON: The Food and Drug Administration says its new guidelines would make the food Americans eat safer and help prevent the kinds of foodborne disease outbreaks that sicken or kill thousands of consumers each year. The rules, the most sweeping food safety guidelines in decades, would require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to include making sure workers’ hands are washed, irrigation water is clean, and that animals stay out of fields. Food manufacturers will have to submit food safety plans to the government to show they are keeping their operations clean.

The long-overdue regulations could cost businesses close to half a billion dollars a year to implement, but are expected to reduce the estimated 3,000 deaths a year from foodborne illness. The new guidelines were announced Friday. Just since last summer, outbreaks of listeria in cheese and salmonella in peanut butter, mangoes and cantaloupe have been linked to more than 400 illnesses and as many as seven deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The actual number of those sickened is likely much higher.

Many responsible food companies and farmers are already following the steps that the FDA would now require them to take. But officials say the requirements could have saved lives and prevented illnesses in several of the large-scale outbreaks that have hit the country in recent years. In a 2011 outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe that claimed 33 lives, for example, FDA inspectors found pools of dirty water on the floor and old, dirty processing equipment at Jensen Farms in Colorado where the cantaloupes were grown. In a peanut butter outbreak this year linked to 42 salmonella illnesses, inspectors found samples of salmonella throughout Sunland Inc.’s peanut processing plant in New Mexico and multiple obvious safety problems, such as birds flying over uncovered trailers of peanuts and employees not washing their hands.

Under the new rules, companies would have to lay out plans for preventing those sorts of problems, monitor their own progress and explain to the FDA how they would correct them. “The rules go very directly to pre-

venting the types of outbreaks we have seen,” said Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods. The FDA estimates the new rules could prevent almost 2 million illnesses annually, but it could be several years before the rules are actually preventing outbreaks.

Taylor said it could take the agency another year to craft the rules after a four-month comment period, and farms would have at least two years to comply - meaning the farm rules are at least three years away from taking effect. Smaller farms would have even longer to comply.

The new rules, which come exactly two years to the day President Barack Obama’s signed food safety legislation passed by Congress, were already delayed. The 2011 law required the agency to propose a first installment of the rules a year ago, but the Obama administration held them until after the election. Food safety advocates sued the administration to win their release.

The produce rule would mark the first time the FDA has had real authority to regulate food on farms. In an effort to stave off protests from farmers, the farm rules are tailored to apply only to certain fruits and vegetables that pose the greatest risk, like berries, melons, leafy greens and other foods that are usually eaten raw. A farm that produces green beans that will be canned and cooked, for example, would not be regulated.

Such flexibility, along with the growing realization that outbreaks are bad for business, has brought the produce industry and much of the rest of the food industry on board as Congress and FDA has worked to make food safer. In a statement Friday, Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the country’s biggest food companies, said the food safety law “can serve as a role model for what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to achieve a common goal.”

The new rules could cost large farms $30,000 a year, according to the FDA. The agency did not break down the costs for individual processing plants, but said the rules could cost manufacturers up to $475 million annually. —AP

Platinum solution to US fiscal woes WASHINGTON: If you had to flip a coin over whether Congress will raise the debt ceiling, here’s the ultimate one - a freshly minted trillion-dollar platinum coin. A formal petition has been started asking the White House to create such a coin in order to avoid another highstakes fiscal battle to raise the debt ceiling. The Treasury secretary has the authority to mint platinum coins in the denomination of his choosing, but likely would run into stiff opposition from lawmakers who have been trying to reduce the budget deficits.

Creating the cash would also completely override the independence of monetary policy, something the Obama administration has been very careful not to do in the past. The coin petition is one of many wacky requests to alight on the White House’s website. People have petitioned the President to nationalize the Twinkie industry, deport British CNN talk show host Piers Morgan for gun control comments he made on air, and give Vice President Joe Biden his own TV show.

About 4,000 signatures have been collected for the coin petition, which was created two

days after lawmakers passed a bill to avert austerity measures of higher taxes and spending cuts. Shown are the petitioner’s first name, first initial of surname, and in most cases, the city. In order to get a formal response from the White House, 25,000 signatures must be collected by early February. “While this may seem like an unnecessarily extreme measure, it is no more absurd than playing political football with the US - and global - economy at stake,” the petition said. The US Treasury began shuffling funds in order to pay government bills after the country hit the $16.4 trillion legal limit on its debt Dec 31. However, the Treasury’s accounting maneuvers will last only until around the end of February, giving Congress two months to raise the debt limit before the US defaults on its debt. Last week’s deal forced Republicans to forgo their anti-tax pledges and give in to Democratic demands to raise taxes on the wealthiest. Now Republicans want to use the debt limit increase to win spending cuts from Democrats as well as major changes to Social Security retirement and Medicare healthcare programs. —Reuters

KARACHI: Pakistan share prices jumped nearly 50 percent last year in a staggering development that belies major problems in an economy where falling foreign exchange reserves and turmoil could spell trouble in 2013. Its biggest share bazaar, the Karachi Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 Index founded in 1948, reached a record 17,031 points during trading on Dec 31, 2012, raising hopes among dealers for better prospects in the new year. Average daily volumes rose from 79 million shares in 2011 to 173 million shares in 2012, rising in value from $40 million to $50 million.

“Pakistan’s total return has been one of the best performing markets in the world,” said Mohammad Sohail, who heads brokerage firm, Topline Securities. By the end of 2012, trade on the KSE-100 was bettered by only Caracas, Istanbul and Cairo. Sohail attributed the growth to a 4.5 percentage point decline in interest rates in the past 18 months, from 14 to 9.5 percent, which he said had boosted earnings and encouraged funds to flow from government securities into equities.

But other experts warned that the boom was an oddity “engineered by local giants” given the worrying state of the economy in a country dogged by Taliban and Al-Qaedalinked violence. On Jan 1 and 2 stocks lost 2.46 percent - the worst fall in 14 months - which analysts attributed to the start of potential turbulence linked to Pakistan’s approaching general election. Religious scholar Tahirul Qadri returned from exile in Canada to urge a march on Islamabad to demand electoral reforms, mimicking the protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square that brought down president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

“The rise in the KSE-100 is... not supported by any significant foreign inflows. I t is a manoeuvred boom,” said independent economist A B Shahid. Last year, he said the Pakistani rupee depreciated eight percent against the dollar and it is still under pressure because of depleting forex reserves. In Nov 2008 the IMF bailed out Pakistan with an $11.3 billion loan package to stave off a balance of payments crisis. But Pakistan abandoned the deal in 2011, refusing to carry out strict financial reforms.

It has since paid back more than $2 billion and owes $6.3 billion between February 2013 and September 2015, according to a spokesman at the central State Bank of Pakistan. But analysts say the repayments strain the rupee and drain reserves, which neither remittances nor US payments for services against terrorism in the form of a Coalition Support Fund can replenish. Reserves held by the central bank fell from $12.8 billion in January 2012 to $9 billion in January 2013.

KARACHI: (Top) In this photograph taken on Jan 2, 2013, Pakistani stockbrokers watch share prices on a digital board during a trading session at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). (Above) A Pakistani stockbroker talks on his mobile phone while watching share prices on a monitor. —AFP Pakistan last week received $688 million from ued slide of (the) rupee and higher inflation,” said a finance ministry official.

Washington under the Coalition Support Fund.

Official figures put inflation at 8.3 percent Overseas citizens remitted $5.98 billion in the first five months (July - November) of the current and the export target for the year is $25.6 bilfiscal year ending June 30 - 14 percent more lion, but persistent fuel and energy crises than the same period of the previous last fiscal have crippled industry and commerce, forcing year, official figures show. No date has been set up unemployment and racking up costs. The for elections, although the government has All Pakistan Textile Mills Association predicts insisted the ballot - which would mark the first that outages could cost the country $3 billion democratic transition of power in Pakistan - will in textile exports this fiscal year. “The governbe held on time after parliament disbands in ment has projected a textile export target of mid-March. “A delay in elections could strength- $16 billion. However, this target appears to be en the prospects of exchange reserves falling difficult to realise, said association chairman steadily, more money being printed, the contin- Ahsan Bashir. — AFP

Wall Street cheers ‘cliff’ deal, but only for now NEW YORK: When lawmakers delivered a longdelayed, last-minute agreement on the budget, Wall Street celebrated. And it would be easy to think that the surge in the Dow the following day meant that investors had put their concerns about Washington’s political gridlock behind them. The Dow Jones industrial average surged on the news, but that doesn’t mean the volatility is over. In fact, there could be more turmoil in the market soon because decisions on cutting the federal budget deficit have been put off until March, when the government will reach its borrowing limit. Republicans have already said they will demand cuts to spending as a condition for extending the limit.

“The uncertainty is still there, the key issues are spending cuts and entitlement reforms and, for the most part, those were not addressed,” says Terry Sandven, chief equities strategist at US Bank Wealth Management. “This sets the stage for sharper rhetoric and increased market volatility as these discussions evolve.” The last time lawmakers tussled over the debt limit, the stock market plunged and the US government lost its AAA debt rating. The Dow fell almost 7 percent in the two weeks before an agreement was reached Aug. 3, 2011.

Many business leaders objected to the agreement lawmakers reached late Tuesday. The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading US companies, said that although it addressed some of the immediate negative consequences that the economy would have faced going over the “fiscal cliff,” it failed to address the “serious and fundamental” reforms the economy needs. The National Retail Federation said that the deal was wel-

come, though it was only the first step in necessary tax reform.

Companies are likely to remain wary of investing until they get more clarity from Washington, says Joe Heider, a principal at Rehmann Financial in Cleveland, Ohio. He likens the current U.S. business climate to a sporting event where the referees tell the players to take the field before telling them that the rules of the game will only be decided on once the final whistle has been blown. “Washington needs to get out of the way of the financial markets and American business,” said Heider. “They need to create some certainty over how businesses should best deploy all the cash that they’re sitting on.”

And corporations are sitting on a lot of cash.

Companies have been steadily building up their reserves over the last five years and are now sitting on record cash piles. By the end of the third quarter of last year, S&P 500 companies had accumulated more than $1 trillion in cash, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. At least for now, companies are unlikely to invest much of that money back into their businesses simply because demand just isn’t strong enough, says US Bank’s Sandven. Instead they will spend it on acquisitions, stock buy-backs and pay higher dividends. Those are all actions that should boost stock prices in the near term, despite the ongoing uncertainty and increased volatility that will be caused by political wrangling.

Investors should take advantage of any volatility in the market created by the political wrangling to seek out stocks that have a history of growing their dividends, says Sandven. He estimates that half of the

stocks in the S&P 500 have a dividend yield that is higher than the current 10-year US Treasury note. The 10-year Treasury note was at 1.90 percent Friday. He also recommends that investors buy the stocks of companies that have exposure to emerging markets that have a growing middle class and don’t have the same debt issues as the US. Joseph Tanious, a global markets strategist at JP Morgan Funds, says investors would be wise to remain calm when the negotiations in Washington around the debt ceiling start to heat up this spring. The stock market dropped sharply in the weeks after the election Nov. 6 as investors worried that a divided government wouldn’t get a deal done in time to meet a budget deadline by the end of the year, but it has rebounded since then. The S&P 500 is now 2 percent higher than it was on election day, even after falling by as much as 5 percent in the two weeks following the vote. On Friday it closed at 1,466, the highest since December 2007. “When push came to shove, Congress did come together to reach an agreement,” says Tanious. “Many people were saying you should be out of the market ... (that) markets are going to capitulate, and that didn’t happen.” Stocks have rallied over the last three years as investors remain optimistic that the economy will maintain a slow, but steady, recovery from recession, as the housing market improves and as the outlook for jobs gets better. And while investors also see the wisdom in addressing the nation’s longterm debt problems, they also point out that businesses and consumers have been aggressively paying down their own debts in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. —AP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

BUSINESS

Mixed outlook for US manufacturing as momentum slows CHICAGO: Some manufacturers are hunkering down, others are marching on and a few are moving out of their comfort zones. This mixed pattern is likely to stretch through the middle part of next year, when the fog of uncertainty is expected to lift.

In the interim, many manufacturers appear to be stalled. “There is a bit of disconnect between manufacturing in 2012 and 2013,” said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial. He explained that the past year’s momentum largely has hit a wall.

Manufacturers worry that expiring tax cuts, the possibility of tax hikes and government spending cuts could push the US into another recession.

Manufacturers that export also are dealing with Europe’s economic crisis and the slowdown of emerging economies, such as China and Brazil.

“Overall, the entire global economy is still weak,” Laurenti said. “We don’t have one growth engine.

It’s clear that the US faces a lot of uncertainty.

Europe is problematic. If there isn’t a shock, we can get by.” But if something does go wrong, Laurenti added, the ramifications could be devastating.

Deb Oler, a vice president and general manager with W W Grainger Inc, a supplier of industrial goods ranging from machine parts to trash bags, said some businesses are purchasing just enough to keep their factories open. Many customers, she said, have said that capital projects and hiring have been on hold for the last 60 to 90 days. “They all lived through 2008-2009 and do not want to go through that again,” Oler said.

Michael DeWalt, Caterpillar Inc’s director of investor relations, said during a recent conference that the Peoria-based maker of earthmoving equipment will not spend as much in 2013 as it had expected to upgrade its factories or to build new ones. The company has said its spending will be lower than in 2012 but has not divulged specific numbers. Spending during 2012, the company has said, was lower than the $4 billion it had projected.

Tom Wujek, chief operating officer of Downers Grove, Illinois,-based Flexco, said he sees growth opportunities outside the US, mainly by increasing market share. In the US, Flexco, which makes cleaning systems, belt positioners and other products for belt conveyors, has increased sales by adding to its

product line. Next year Flexco plans to spend between $4 million and $5 million on new equipment and staff at its US facilities, Wujek said, but noted that the final figure hangs on how Congress deals with the “fiscal cliff” and whether taxes are raised. “We are being very cautious. We still have investment planned for 2013 but we are a bit, sort of, in a wait-and-see mode until Congress sorts it out,” Wujek said.

That wait-and-see mode has Scott Eisen, president of Chicago-based Ideal, a corrugated box and displays maker, projecting slower growth in 2013.

This year, sales of boxes and displays, the kind typically found near the registers at big-box retail stores like Target, rose by 15 to 17 percent from 2011.

Eisen expects sales to grow “north” of 10 percent in 2013. Eisen said the company’s sales could decline if retailers push back product launches because of the

economic uncertainty and, as a result, hold back on orders for displays. Still, Eisen plans to move ahead with his spending about $6 million in factory equipment.

The investment is part of Ideal’s two-year spending plan totaling $12 million in equipment and installation costs. About half of that money was spent on the purchase and installation of a machine that prints and cuts corrugated sheets into parts for a display or food packaging. The corrugated sheets are made in-house by a machine that glues a ridged sheet of paper between two flat ones. In 2013, Eisen plans to purchase a die cutter and a machine that glues additional material to targeted sections of boxes or displays, making them stronger.

Eisen said that at one point he questioned whether he should hunker down instead of investing more in machinery. He said he also reflected on

CHICAGO: Machine operator Adam Kogut works at Ideal, manufacturers of corrugated boxes and displays for retail stores, on Dec 13, 2012. — MCT

a time before the recession, when he and his brother took a leap of faith and hired graphic designers to increase sales. The decision was based on the fact that retailers are more likely to buy Ideal’s products if they are presented displays adorned with their logos.

The Eisen brothers stuck with their plan during the recession and once companies started investing again, their team was ready to pitch ideas. Ideal employs 320 people, most of them working at the company’s factory and headquarters near Midway Airport. Annual sales are “north” of $100 million, Eisen said. “We are entrepreneurial. We have to see some opportunity in this climate and stay with the strategic vision,” Eisen said.

Al Powers, chief executive of Now Foods, a maker of vitamins, tea and lotions, plans to ramp up production of Better Stevia, a sweetener, to sell in Canada and Europe in 2013, but he said he expects slower growth overall. This year sales rose by 22 percent from 2011. To increase production, Powers hired 220 workers, bringing total employment to about 1,000. Powers said he is tapping into a growing demand for alternative health care and vitamins, especially vitamin D. Still, Powers said his company won’t create as many jobs next year.

As an S corporation, Now Foods shareholders report the company’s income and losses on their personal tax returns. That means that if President Barack Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on high earners solidifies, Now Foods’ shareholders would be among those faced with higher tax bills. “We are not fat cats,” Powers said, adding that profits are reinvested in the business and if taxes take a cut out of those profits, there would be less money for hiring and expanding Now Foods.

On hiring expectations for next year, Robert Livingston, chief executive of Dover Corp., a diversified manufacturer of industrial products based in Downers Grove, Illinois, said, “I can’t think of a single project that we have planned for the first few months of 2013 that would require additional labor or to expand our capacity.” He later added, “Most of us looking at 2013 see modest growth for the general economy in the US with a low of 1.5 percent and a high of 2.5 percent. But if we go off the (fiscal) cliff, all bets are off.” — MCT

Hostess in talks to sell bread brands Iconic brands could command $350m

Dr Abdulmutab Behbahani and Dr Farah receive the house from Walid Al Qadoumi and Katren Hill.

Completion and handover of 45 villas in Milton Keynes ALQADOUMI: Added Value for the Projects as Creating the Proper Neighborhood Enhancing Social Communication and Strengthening The Relationships Walid Al-Qadomi, managing director of Top Real Estate Group, expressed his satisfaction about the smooth and easy manner upon which the houses have been handed over to their new owners from Kuwait and Qatar. The project is executed by Barratt Homes Real Estate Group at Milton Keynes In Britain. Al Qadoumi added “up to the end of the previous year, 45 villas and houses were already handed over to their owners”.

The handing over process has featured cooperation and accountability among the developing company and the new owners who expressed their comfort and happiness as their houses have been handed over to them in the scheduled dates and with the agreed upon specifications.

Al-Qadoumi said “the distinguishing factor of these projects is not only being in vital locations in the city near the train station, downtown and shopping malls but also the number of families from Kuwait and Qatar who shall live in the villas and houses of the projects. This matter shall be an added value as creating the proper neighborhood enhancing better social communication and strengthening the relationships between such families during their stay in Britain.”

“It was very nice to see such large number of these families in the city dur-

ing the process of handing over who reacted with each other by sharing their best advices and ideas not only about handing over but also on the furniture and decoration aspects,” he added.

Some of the new owners expressed their opinions about the projects and the developing company.

Captain Mohammad Al-Masoud said “I would like to thank Top Real Estate Group and its management for what has been and is rendered to us of services made and makes owning a house in Milton Keynes is an easy and smooth process. The Group from the first day exerted all its best efforts to support and help all the new owners in having the proper houses in Britain. For me, the house is great and is entirely in compliance with the agreed upon specifications and the neighbors are of the best Kuwait people.

The comment of Dr Abdulmutab Behbahani was “since long time I was thinking to own a property in Britain, thanks God, at last help and support was provided to me by Top Real Estate Group in all the stages starting from introducing the project through financial and legal procedures up to rendering all after possession services.

Frankly, what have been provided to us of services from Top Real Estate Group are beyond professional and reaching some sort of personal care between family members. I feel that I am fully satisfied with the house I own now in Milton Keynes and I am happy to have such new friends”.

Captain Mohammad Al-Masoud receives the key of the house from Al-Qadoumi.

NEW YORK: The makers of Thomas’ English muffins and Tastykake snacks are emerging as two of the bidders for Wonder Bread and other Hostess bread brands as the company tries to sell off its assets under bankruptcy-court oversight, a newspaper reported Saturday. The Wall Street Journal said Hostess Brands Inc could reveal as early as next week that Flowers Foods Inc and Grupo Bimbo SAB are in discussions to acquire its bread brands, which also include Nature’s Pride. The report said the brands could command $350 million.

Grupo Bimbo’s brands include Arnold breads, Thomas’ English muffins and Entenmann’s cakes.

Flowers Foods Inc’s brands include Nature’s Own breads and Tastykake snacks. Hostess sells Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos, along with Dolly Madison cakes, which includes Coffee Cakes and Zingers. Hostess also sells Devil Dogs, Funny Bones, and Yodels under the Drake’s brand.

Hostess, which is based in Irving, Texas, announced in November that it was shutting down its business and selling its bread, snacks and cakes brands along with its 33 bakeries and other operations. The company’s demise came after years of management turmoil and turnover. Workers said the company failed to invest in updating its snack cakes and breads.

Hostess filed for its second bankruptcy protection in less than a decade last year, citing steep costs associated with its unionized workforce.

The company was able to reach a new contract agreement with its largest union, the Teamsters, but the bakers union rejected the terms and went on strike Nov 9. A week later, Hostess announced its plans to liquidate, saying the strike crippled its ability to maintain normal production. In 2011, the company’s revenue was $2.5 billion. Hostess declined to comment, as did Grupo Bimbo’s US division, Bimbo Bakeries USA. Bimbo’s parent company is headquartered in

UAE, Qatar markets hit multi-month highs MIDEAST MARKET REPORT DUBAI: Markets in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates hit multi-month highs on Sunday as investors took positions ahead of dividend and fourth-quarter earnings announcements. In Dubai, Emaar Properties was the main support, rising 2.6 percent.

Builder Arabtec and courier Aramex climbed 2.1 and 1.5 percent respectively. “If Q4 numbers are solid, expect the market to continue doing well compared to the rest of the region we saw retail investors trigger the rally and institutional buying followed, which is healthy,” said Amer Khan, fund manager, Shuaa Asset Management.

Institutions tend to trade more on company fundamentals and typically hold positions for longer than retail investors. UAE companies will begin reporting fourth-quarter earnings in February, when dividends are also announced. Mortgage lender Tamweel fell 4.2 percent to 1.14 dirhams, down for a second session. Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) said late Thursday its board approved plans to fully acquire the mortgage firm through a share swap each Tamweel shareholder will be offered 10 DIB shares for every 18 Tamweel shares. After closing the offer, DIB will apply to the regulator to delist Tamweel from the Dubai Financial Market. DIB shares dipped 1 percent to 2 dirhams.

“For Tamweel shareholders, (it’s) not so good on the short-term as the book value is higher than the market value,” said Nabil Al-Rantisi, managing director at Menacorp in Abu Dhabi. “For Tamweel as a company and the shareholders on the long run, it will be positive as they will have access to cheap funding - DIB is a bank that has lots of deposits.” Dubai’s index rose 0.7 percent to its highest close since April

2012. It hit an intraday peak of 1,708 points and remains technically bullish after last week’s break above October’s high of 1,656 points, which is now a support level. Abu Dhabi’s benchmark climbed 0.9 percent to 2,710 points, its highest close since July 2011. Lenders led gains, with National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank climbing 3.4 and 1.9 percent respectively.

Elsewhere, Doha’s index rose 0.8 percent to finish at its highest level since May 2012. Industries Qatar climbed 2.8 percent, Qatar National Bank added 1.1 percent and Barwa Real Estate added 0.9 percent. In Saudi Arabia, the bourse slipped from Saturday’s 15-month high amid slight profit-taking. The index slipped 0.1 percent, halting a three-day gain.

Investors are waiting for fourth-quarter earnings, which will begin to trickle in later this week. Banks weighed with Samba Financial Group declining 0.7 percent, Banque Saudi Fransi down 0.3 percent and heavyweight Al Rajhi Bank eased 0.4 percent.

Banks shares posted flat growth in 2012, underper forming the main benchmark, which rose 6 percent.

Lending growth failed to translate to profit as provisioning took its toll.

Analysts are expecting impairments to trail off in the fourth-quarter, which should help the sector and the overall market’s performance. NCB Capital said quarterly net income for stocks under its coverage are expected to rise 10 percent year-on-year. “The key reason behind the expected increase is the 12.8 percent year-on-year increase expected in the banking sector’s earnings to an estimated 6.7 billion riyals... due to strong growth in lending and lower provisioning,” it said in a note. — Reuters

Mexico. A message left with Flowers Foods, which is based in Thomasville, Georgia, was not immediately returned.

Hostess said in bankruptcy court proceedings in December that it was narrowing down the bids it had received and that it expects to sell off its snack cakes and bread brands to different buyers. Hostess said in December that it expects to file binding bids for many of its brands this month, followed by a four-week auction process to allow competing bids. Closings for many brands could come as soon as mid-March, according to Joshua Scherer of Perella Weinberg Partners, which is advising Hostess.

An attorney for Hostess said in court in December that 1,100 employees had been retained to shut down plants and perform other tasks as it winds down its operations. The liquidation of the company will ultimately mean the loss of 18,000 jobs, not including those shed in the years leading to the company’s failure. —AP

3 days to announce Danah Millionaire KUWAIT: The upcoming 1 million dinar Al Danah draw will take place on Thursday 10 Jan 2013, at the Avenues, where an exciting event will be hosted by Khaled Al-Ansari and Ossama Fouda. During the event the winner of the 1 million dinars will be announced in the presence of a Ministry of Commerce representative, the 2013 Al Danah draw line up will be disclosed, and Gulf Bank invites the public to enjoy an evening filled with on the spot prizes.

Every Al Danah account holder with a minimum of KD 200 maintained in their account before the closing date is eligible and automatically entered into the Al Danah draws. Conditions of opening an Al Danah account are very simple as no salary transfer is required. Minors require their parents or their legal guardian to open the account on their behalf.

Al Danah also offers a number of unique services including the Al Danah Deposit Only ATM card, which helps account holders deposit their money at their convenience; as well as the Al Danah online calculator to help customers calculate their chances of becoming an Al Danah winner.

Al Tijari names winners of Najma Daily Draw KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al Najma Account Daily draw yesterday. The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry represented by Saquer Al-Manaie. The winners of the Najma Daily Draw are : Ali Najaf Mohammed Reda (KD 7000), Majeed Sahoud Al-Mukehet (KD 7000), Khalid Hasan Jamal Othman (KD 7000) and Nawwaf Nassar Medghesh Al-Azmi (KD 7000).

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait with the launch of the new Najma account. Customers of the bank can now enjoy a KD 7,000 daily prize which is the highest in the country and another 4 mega prizes during the year worth KD 100,000 each on different occasions: The National Day, Eid Al Fitr, Eid Al Adha and on the 19th of June which is the date of the bank’s establishment.

With a minimum balance of KD 500, customers will be eligible for the daily draw provided that the money is in the account one week prior to the daily draw or 2 months prior to the mega draw. Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners and also extends appreciation to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their effective supervision of the draws which were conducted in an orderly and organized manner.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

technology

Innovation can come from anywhere

By Antonio Regalado

W

here does innovation come from? For one answer, consider the work of MIT professor Eric von Hippel, who has calculated that every year US consumers spend $20 billion in time and money trying to improve on household products-for example, modifying a dog-food bowl so it doesn’t slide on the floor. Von Hippel estimates that these backyard Edisons collectively invest more in their efforts than the largest corporation anywhere does in R&D. The low-tech kludges of consumers might once have had little impact. But one company, Procter & Gamble, has actually found a way to tap into them; it now gets many of its ideas for new Swiffers and toothpaste tubes from the general public. One way it has managed to do so is with the help of InnoCentive, a company in Waltham, Massachusetts, that specializes in organizing prize competitions over the Internet. Volunteer “solvers” can try to earn $500 to $1 million by coming up with answers to a company’s problems.

We like Procter & Gamble’s story because the company has discovered creative, systematic ways to pay for ideas originating far outside its own development labs. It’s made an innovation in funding innovation, which is the subject of this business report.

How we pay for innovation is a question prompted, in part, by the beleaguered state of the venture capital industry. Over the long term, it’s the system

that’s most often gotten the economic incentives right. Consider that although fewer than two of every 1,000 new American businesses are venture backed, these account for 11 percent of public companies and 6 percent of US employment, according to Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner. (Many of those companies, although not all, have succeeded because they’ve brought new technology to market.)

Yet losses since the dot-com boom in the late 1990s have taken a toll. In August, the nation’s largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees Retirement System, said it would basically stop investing with the state’s venture funds, citing returns of 0.0 percent over a decade.

The crisis has to do partly with the size of venture funds—$1 billion isn’t uncommon. That means they need big money plays at a time when entrepreneurs are headed on exactly the opposite course.

On the Web, it’s never been cheaper to start a company. You can outsource software development, rent a thousand servers, and order hardware designs from China. That is significant because company founders can often get the money they need from seed accelerators, angel investors, or Internet-based funding mechanisms such as Kickstarter.

“We’re in a period of incredible change in how you fund innovation, especially entrepreneurial innovation,” says Ethan Mollick, a professor of management science at the Wharton School. He sees what’s happening as a kind of democratization-the bets are getting smaller, but also more spread out and numerous. He

thinks this could be a good thing. “One of the ways we get more innovation is by taking more draws,” he says.

In an example of the changes ahead, Mollick cites plans by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to allow “crowdfunding”-it will let companies raise $1 million or so directly from the public, every year, over the Internet. (This activity had previously been outlawed as a hazard to gullible investors.) Crowdfunding may lead to a major upset in the way inventions get financed-especially those with popular appeal and modest funding requirements, like new gadget designs.

Citizen crowds have far less to offer in capital-intensive domains such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and energy.

Innovation in these sectors requires investments in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. What’s more, the payoff time is more often measured in decades than in months. Yet R&D funding in these industries is also in transition. Manufacturers, for example, are pooling resources with government help to try to gain an R&D edge in newer areas such as 3-D printing.

So what’s at stake in all this? The case of the pharmaceutical industry is instructive. In 2010, half of the top 10 corporate R&D spenders, including all of the top three, were drug firms. Yet despite huge budgets (in some cases $9 billion annually), the industry is famished for new products. It simply can’t get its R&D to pay off.

Last year, the head of strategy for drug maker GlaxoSmithKline warned that if the innovation problem isn’t

fixed, this might mark “the last generation of R&D spending” for large drug firms. The giant pharmaceutical research divisions, in other words, are in danger of getting cut back and broken up. The drug industry’s answer is also to try to decentralize its spending. Glaxo is pushing nearly half its R&D dollars into the hands of academics and biotech

companies, hoping they have the insight or intuitions it doesn’t. Other drug companies are doing the same.

Because of the scale of pharmaceutical research spending, the shift is taking years. Given the importance of drug research to human well-being, we should all hope they find the innovations they’re looking for. —MIT

2013 will be a year of science on the space station: NASA Critics question delay in $100bn space station program

NEW YORK: This NASA image released on Friday shows a solar eruption as it gracefully rose up from the Sun on Dec 31, 2012, twisting and turning.

Magnetic forces drove the flow of plasma, but without sufficient force to overcome the sun’s gravity much of the plasma fell back into the sun. The length of the eruption extends about 257,495 km out from the Sun. With Earth about 7,900 miles in diameter, this relatively minor eruption is about 20 times the diameter of our planet. —AP

Irish newspapers on defense over links DUBLIN: The body representing Ireland’s leading newspapers was forced to defend the way it enforces copyright law on Friday after revelations that it charges websites that link to its articles.

National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), which represents 16 of the most popular national papers, said it believed “that the display and transmission of links does constitute an infringement of copyright” under current Irish law.

However, it insisted that “there is a distinction between the sending and receipt of links for personal use on the one hand and the sending and receipt of links for commercial purposes on the other”.

“NNI and its newspaper members never have had any difficulty with people displaying links for personal use,” it said in a state-

ment. The row was sparked by the revelation that Women’s Aid, a charity combating domestic violence, had been told by an NNI subsidiary that it must pay 300 euros ($400) to display up to five links to newspaper articles on its website.

The fees relate to hypertext links to the original article on a newspaper’s website, not a reproduction of the text-either totally or partially. The case was highlighted by Dublin-based solicitor for Women’s Aid, Simon McGarr, in a blog entry on Sunday entitled, “2012: The year Irish newspapers tried to destroy the web.”

He said NNI sub-company Newspaper Licensing Ireland Limited (NLI) told Women’s Aid that the rates increased to 1,350 euros for displaying 26 to 50 links, while the cost for 50 or more was “negotiable”. —AFP

Google maps New Year’s resolutions SAN FRANCISCO: Google is letting people peg their New Year’s resolutions to an online map and see what promises others around the world have set out to keep in 2013. By Friday, a resolutions section at the California Internet giant’s 2012 Zeitgeist website had logged half a million entries, more than a third of which involved desires to love or be loved.

Vows to improve personal health were rife in the United States, while Russia was at the head of the class when it came to education-focused resolutions, according to Google.

Pledges mapped at google.com/zeitgeist/2012/resolutions were divided into categories that included love, health, finance, career, education and family. —AFP

WASHINGTON: Right before Christmas, a Russian rocket carrying three astronauts — one American, one Russian and one Canadian — launched from a chilly spaceport in Kazakhstan to begin a five-month mission to the International Space Station.

Unlike many of its predecessors, this crew’s job is straightforward: Do science — from studying solar rays to investigating how microgravity affects fish and their bones, which could provide insight on why astronauts lose bone density while in space.

“Twenty-thirteen really promises to be a productive one,” said Chris Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, after arriving at the outpost. If that’s true, NASA will get one step closer toward finally fulfilling the promise of the $100 billion space station that was intended to be a groundbreaking laboratory circling about 220 miles above Earth.

Although critics have questioned why it has taken so long — work began on the station in 1998 — NASA said the new emphasis on science and the arrival of new equipment mean the future looks bright.

“As the coming year unfolds, NASA will continue to conduct important research on the International Space Station, which continues to yield scientific benefits and provide key information about how humans may live and thrive in the harsh environment of space,” NASA leaders wrote in a year-end status report.

Key is the addition of new equipment. By next fall, NASA plans to send to the station an “Animal Enclosure Module” that will allow scientists to study the effects of weightlessness on rodents — which could help doctors develop better medicines for bone and muscle ailments. The 60pound module had flown 23 times aboard the space shuttle.

Marybeth Edeen, NASA manager of the station’s national laboratory, said the rodents could be used to test drugs intended to treat osteoporosis or illnesses that degrade the muscles, such as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “A 30-day-old mouse on the station has the bone and muscle structure of a 60-to-70-year-old woman,” said Edeen, adding that rapid changes brought on by weightlessness enable drug companies to quickly assess the results of experimental medicines.

“You start to get some quick models to test different pharmaceuticals,” she said.

Similarly, NASA plans to increase the number of plant test beds on the station and add a new “atom lab” in the next couple years that will be cold enough to slow atomic particles _ giving scientists a chance to better study their makeup.

Edeen said 2013 also promises to yield results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a vansized device that’s essentially a tube wrapped in powerful magnets. Designed to study interstellar particles, it was flown to the station in 2011 and attached to the outside of the observatory. So far, it has tracked more than 27 billion cosmic rays.

The hope is AMS can provide new insight about the universe and its formation, particularly as it relates to a mysterious substance called antimatter. Scientific theory holds that the universe was formed from equal parts of matter and antimatter, but finding traces of antimatter is difficult — it’s annihilated when it comes into contact with matter. But more could be known in six months. “The first (AMS) papers will come out in summer 2013,” Edeen said.

Getting to this point, however, hasn’t been easy. Though crews have staffed the station since 2000, astronauts were averaging only three

hours of science work a week as late as 2008.

Two events changed that: NASA and its partners finished the station, and the crew in 2009 expanded from three to six. Last year, astronauts spent about 50 hours a week on science, including research on how microgravity affects the spinal cord and observations of Earth’s environment, such as melting glaciers.

effects of living in weightlessness and close quarters.

“As NASA gets ready to go to places like asteroids or Mars, the space-station experience will be very useful,” he said. Still, Washington said that NASA gets more bang for its science buck from unmanned spacecraft, such as Earth-monitoring satellites that circle the globe or the Mars rover

The Japanese Pressurized Module (foreground), the Japanese Logistics Module, top right, and a portion of the Harmony node of the International Space Station.

In orbit: The Kibo Module is moved from Space Shuttle Discovery to the side of the International Space Station.

Still, there has been lingering criticism of why NASA didn’t better prepare for the station’s completion and whether the scientific returns are worth the roughly $1.5 billion spent annually to operate it.

Climate researcher Warren Washington, who recently served on a National Academies board that reviewed NASA’s direction, said the station likely will be remembered more for its technological achievements than its scientific ones.

In particular, he expected the station to teach NASA a great deal about keeping astronauts alive in space. In 2015, Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos begin a yearlong mission — about twice the usual stay — to measure the physiological and psychological

now probing conditions on that planet.

What’s more, NASA is using only about 72 percent of the space station’s science racks, which house experiments — though the agency plans to up that figure to 80 percent this year.

In addition, the group that NASA picked in 2011 to develop a pipeline to get experiments to the station has suffered from internal strife, prompting Congress to warn it to get its act together.

The Florida-based organization, known as the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, has revamped its board and now claims to be ready to move on to the next phase: “Maximize utilization of the ISS,” said CASIS leader France Cordova. —MCT

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Poll: Fight obesity crisis but keep the junk food WASHINGTON: Everyone could use a little help keeping those New Year’s resolutions to slim down. But if it means the government limiting junk food, the response is an over whelming, “No.” Americans call obesity a national health crisis and blame too much screen time and cheap fast food for fueling it. But a new poll finds people are split on how much the government should do to help - and most draw the line at attempts to force healthier eating. A third of people say the government should be deeply involved in finding solutions to the epidemic. A similar proportion want it to play little or no role, and the rest are somewhere in the middle, according to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Require more physical activity in school, or provide nutritional guidelines to help people make better choices?

Sure, 8 in 10 support those steps. Make restaurants post calorie counts on their menus, as the Food and Drug Administration is poised to do? Some 70 percent think it’s a good idea. “That’s a start,” said Khadijah Al-Amin, 52, of Coatesville, Pa. “The fat content should be put up there in red letters, not just put up there. The same way they mark something that’s poisonous, so when you see it, you absolutely know.” But nearly 6 in 10 people surveyed oppose taxes targeting unhealthy foods, known as soda taxes or fat taxes.

And when it comes to restricting what people can buy - like New York City’s recent ban of supersized sodas in restaurants - three-quarters say, “No way.” “The outlawing of sugary drinks, that’s just silly,” said Keith Donner, 52, of Miami, who prefers teaching schoolchildren to eat better and get moving.

“People should just look at a Big Gulp and say, ‘That’s not for me.’ I think it starts when they are young and at school,” he added. Despite the severity of the problem, most of those surveyed say dealing with obesity is up to individuals. Just a third consider obesity a community problem that governments, schools, health care providers and the food industry should be involved in. Twelve percent said it will take work from both individuals and the community.

That finding highlights the dilemma facing public health experts: Societal changes in recent decades have helped spur growing waistlines, and now a third of US children and teens and two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese.

Today, restaurants dot more street corners and malls, regular-sized portions are larger, and a fast-food meal can be cheaper than healthier fare. Not to mention electronic distractions that slightly more people surveyed blamed for obesity than fast food. In the current environment, it’s difficult to exercise that personal responsibility, said Jeff Levi of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health, which has closely tracked the rise in obesity.

“We need to create environments

where the healthy choice becomes the easy choice, where it’s possible for people to bear that responsibility,” he said.

The new poll suggests women, who have major input on what a family eats, recognize those societal and community difficulties more than men do. More than half of women say the high cost of healthy food is a major driver of obesity, compared with just 37 percent of men.

Women also are more likely than men to blame cheap fast food and to say that the food industry should bear a lot of responsibility for helping to find solutions. Patricia Wilson, 53, of rural Speedwell, Tenn., says she must drive 45 minutes to reach a grocery store - passing numerous burger and pizza joints, with more arriving every year.

“They shouldn’t be letting all these fast-food places go up,” said Wilson, who nags her children and grandchildren to eat at home and watch their calories.

She recalls how her own overweight grandmother lost both her legs and then her life to diabetes. More than 80 percent of people in the AP-NORC poll said they had easy access to supermarkets, but just as many could easily get fast food. Another 68 percent said it was easy for kids to purchase junk food on their way to school, potentially foiling dietconscious caregivers like Wilson, who doesn’t allow her grandchildren to eat unhealthy snacks at home.

“If they say they’re hungry, they get regular food,” she said. Food is only part of the obesity equation; physical activity is key too. About 7 in 10 people said it was easy to find sidewalks or paths for jogging, walking or bike-riding. But 63 percent found it difficult to run errands or get around without a car, reinforcing a sedentary lifestyle. James Gambrell, 27, of Springfield, Ore., said he pays particular attention to diet and exercise because obesity runs in his family. He makes a point of walking to stores and running errands on foot two to three times a week.

But Gambrell, a fast-food cashier, said he eats out at least once a day because of the convenience and has changed his order at restaurants that already have begun posting calorie counts. He’s all for the government pushing those kinds of solutions. “I feel that it’s a part of the government’s responsibility to care for its citizens and as such should attempt to set regulations for restaurants that are potentially harmful to its citizens,” he said.

On the other side is Pamela Dupuis, 60, of Aurora, Colo., who said she has struggled with weight and has been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. She doesn’t want the government involved in things like calorie-counting. “They should stay out of our lives,” she said. The AP-NORC Center survey was conducted Nov 21 through Dec 14. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,011 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. —AP

GEORGIA : Julie Long (top right) works out in AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise) owner Jacob McLendon’s BodyPump/CXWORK combo class in Chamblee.—MCT photos

GEORGIA : Michael Knopf works on his abs in AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise) owner Jacob McLendon’s BodyPump/CXWORK combo class.

Back-to-basics exercises are hot for 2013

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orget fancy workout gear. One of the hottest trends of 2013 suggests you need nothing more than your own body weight.

Body weight training includes back-to-basics exercises-pushups, planks, pullups, squats and other exercises-and using the body as resistance is a leading trend this year. A survey recently released by the American College of Sports Medicine says among fitness trends, body weight training appears in the top 10 for the first time. “ The reason body weight exercises are

Julie Long works out in AGX becoming popular is because it’s a proven way to get and stay fit,” said Walt Thompson, associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Education at Georgia State University.

He authored the study. “And it’s related somewhat to the economy. Our mentality is more back to the basics.”

Thompson said using your own body weight to work out has been around for centuries. Gyms are repackaging body weight training by adding lights, music and fitness instructors to make it seem “fun, exciting, new.” And body weight training is something people can do in the comforts of home for free. The American College of Sports Medicine survey, now in its seventh year, was completed by 3,346 health and fitness professionals worldwide. Other fitness trends rounding out the top 10 include strength training, sharing personal trainers and incorporating more diet programs into fitness programs.

So, what’s fallen off the list? Pilates, spinning and stability balls. Thompson believes while Pilates is still popular in some pockets of the country, enthusiasm has waned in Atlanta and elsewhere in recent years. He said it raises the question of whether Pilates was ever a real trend or more of a passing fad. Meanwhile, yoga, while not in the top 10 in this latest survey, appears to have staying power. Yoga secured No. 14 in this latest survey. Thompson believes yoga’s evolution to include many variations, such as hot yoga and power yoga, helps keep this form of exercise seeming new and fresh-and ultimately convinces people it’s worth paying for these classes even during lean economic times.

Jacob McLendon, owner of AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise), has seen interest in body weight training build for years now.

McLendon said people are more likely to com-

bine intense cardio with strength training to achieve more well-rounded fitness. Some of his fitness clubs’ most popular classes include a mix of exercises such as leg squats, pushups and plyometrics, which involves high-intensity jumping moves.

“People are getting more educated on the body and how it operates, and how body weight training not only makes you strong, but can help you with everyday movements in life like lifting your groceries into the car, walking up that flight of stairs,” said McLendon, who has fitness centers in Chamblee and Sandy Springs, Ga. “The aesthetic benefits of working out and how you look in the mirror is one thing,” he said, “but the main fact people need to focus on is and are paying more attention to is what’s going on under the surface-your muscles, your whole internal system and how your organs work, the strength of your bones.” Meanwhile, Laura Wilkinson Sinton shares a personal trainer with a friend three days a week. Doubling up on the trainer makes it less expensive than one-on-one sessions, and having a workout buddy gives her accountability.

“I know if I am not there, my workout buddy is there expecting me to be there,” said Wilkinson Sinton of Atlanta. The intense, 60-to-90-minute sessions begin with a one-mile run and then include a wide range of exercises designed to make the body sweat and build muscles _ lifting weights, lunges, pushups and bench presses, and the list goes on. Her personal trainer devotes one session a week to body weight training.

Wilkinson Sinton, 55, started the three-timesa-week sessions with the personal trainer more than three years ago. While her weight has remained the same, her body fat percentage has dropped sharply. “I recently had my checkup, and my doctor said, ‘Whatever you are doing, keep doing it,’” she said. It’s not particularly cheap, with Wilkinson Sinton estimating she spends about $500 a month on the personal trainer.

“It’s an investment in myself,” Wilkinson Sinton said. “I can cut out shopping for clothes and other things. The way I look at it is this is preventive health care. I can spend the money now or spend the money later on health problems.” So as Wilkinson Sinton starts the new year, she plans to keep her fitness routine intact. “It is the best stress reliever and makes me feel great,” she said.

The top 10 fitness trends predicted for 2013 are: 1. Educated, certified and experienced fitness professionals: Educated and experienced fitness professionals claimed the top spot in 2013 for the sixth consecutive year. Fully accredited education and certification programs for health/fitness professionals are on the rise.

2. Strength training: Remaining in the No. 2 spot for the second year in a row, this trend is important for men, women, young and old to improve or maintain strength.

3. Body weight training: This is the first appearance of this trend in the survey. Body weight training uses minimal equipment, making it more affordable.

4. Children and obesity: With nearly one in three children ages 10 to 17 considered overweight or obese, childhood obesity continues to be a serious public health problem. A growing number of commercial and community-based programs are teaming up with schools to fight the obesity epidemic.

5. Exercise and weight loss: Incorporating diet and exercise is of growing interest among fitness

Matea Matthews works out at AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise). professionals. A growing number of fitness programs are offering everything from meal planning to onsite nutritionists to regular lessons on nutrition.

6. Fitness programs for older adults: The baby boom generation is growing older and living longer. With this group typically having more discretionary money and time than others, fitness programs for older adults will remain a strong trend for 2013.

7. Personal training: As more professional personal trainers become certified, they are more accessible and available in a wide variety of settings from corporate wellness programs to community-based programs to medical fitness programs.

8. Functional fitness: Functional fitness uses strength training to improve balance, coordination and endurance in order to participate in daily activities without any stress. Often, this program is created for older adults.

9. Core training: Core training stresses strength and conditioning of the stabilizing muscles of the abdomen, thorax and back. It typically includes exercises of the hips, lower back, and abdomen, all of which provide support for the spine and thorax.

10. Group personal training: This trend, fueled by the economic downturn, allows the personal trainer to provide individualized service catered to small groups of two to four people. This allows groups to have a discounted rate, while still giving the trainer a full schedule of clients. — MCT

NEW YORK: In this June 26, 2012, photo, two overweight women hold a conversation.—AP

Tehran air pollution leaves 4,460 dead: Health official TEHRAN: Air pollution in Tehran has left 4,460 people dead in a year, an Iranian health official said in reports yesterday, with another sounding the alarm over high dose of carcinogens in domestically-made petrol. Hassan Aqajani, an adviser to the health minister, made the announcement on state television, and said the Tehran residents died in a year-long period since March 2011. High air pollution is a constant woe for the eight million residents in Tehran. It forced the city ’s closure on Saturday, the second time in a month.

“In recent days, the number of patients who have visited Tehran hospitals with heart problems has increased by 30 percent,” Aqajani said. Tehran’s pollution is mainly blamed on bumper-to-bumper traffic in a city wedged between two mountains which trap fumes.

But major Iranian cities also struggle with pollution on a seasonal basis.

Pollution is also exacerbated by increasing reliance on domestic production of petrol

of a lower grade, and therefore more polluting, a byproduct of Western sanctions on Iran’s fuel imports. Youssef Rashidi, director of Tehran’s air quality monitoring services, yesterday warned carcinogens in Iranianmade petrol is higher than international standards.

“Based on Euro 4 standard the amount of carcinogens in petrol should be less than one percent but the level of our domestically-produced petrol is between two and three percent,” Rashidi said in remarks reported by Bahar daily.The level of sulfur in the petrol is three times higher than the standard, he said.

Iran produces around 60 million litres of petrol on a daily basis, corresponding roughly to its national consumption, according to figures from the oil ministry.

Officials have promised to increase the production of higher grade petrol with Euro 4 and 5 standards, used in European countries, from nine million litres per day to around 25 million by March 2013. —AFP

AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise) owner Jacob McLendon.

GEORGIA: AGX (formerly Adrenaline Group Xercise) owner Jacob McLendon (center, with microphone) leads a group in dips at the stage during his BodyPump/CXWORK combo class.

Swine flu kills Jordanian: health minister AMMAN: The H1N1 influenza strain known as swine flu killed a 26-year-old Jordanian man yesterday, Health Minister Abdullatif Wreikat said yesterday.

“The 26-year-old died in hospital today in Irbid,” in northern Jordan, Wreikat told state-run

Petra news agency. “He was taken to the Princess Basma (public) Hospital three days ago suffering from severe pneumonia.

Medical tests showed H1N1 infection, which led to the man’s death.”

H1N1 influenza has killed 25 people in Jordan

in recent years. In 2009, an H1N1 epidemic erupted in Mexico and spread into a worldwide pandemic that caused at least 17,000 deaths.

Spreading from live birds to humans through direct contact, the flu causes fever and breathing problems. —AFP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

CALIFORNIA: File photo shows Zendi Solano, second from left, trains with her running club inPasadena. —AP photos

Zendi Solano, right, exercises

Your medical chart could include exercise minutes CHICAGO: Roll up a sleeve for the blood pressure cuff. Stick out a wrist for the pulse-taking.

Lift your tongue for the thermometer. Report how many minutes you are active or getting exercise. Wait, what? If the last item isn’t part of the usual drill at your doctor’s office, a movement is afoot to change that. One recent national survey indicated only a third of Americans said their doctors asked about or prescribed physical activity.

Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health insurance plans, made a big push a few years ago to get its southern California doctors to ask patients about exercise. Since then, Kaiser has expanded the program across California and to several other states. Now almost 9 million patients are asked at every visit, and some other medical systems are doing it, too.

Here’s how it works: During any routine check of vital signs, a nurse or medical assistant asks how many days a week the patient exercises and for how long. The number of

minutes per week is posted along with other vitals at the top the medical chart. So it’s among the first things the doctor sees.

“All we ask our physicians to do is to make a comment on it, like, ‘Hey, good job,’ or ‘I noticed today that your blood pressure is too high and you’re not doing any exercise. There’s a connection there. We really need to start you walking 30 minutes a day,’” said Dr Robert Sallis, a Kaiser family doctor. He hatched the vital sign idea as part of a larger initiative by doctors groups.

He said Kaiser doctors generally prescribe exercise first, instead of medication, and for many patients who follow through that’s often all it takes. It’s a challenge to make progress. A study looking at the first year of Kaiser’s effort showed more than a third of patients said they never exercise.

Sallis said some patients may not be aware that research shows physical inactivity is riskier than high blood pressure, obesity and other health risks people know they should avoid.

As recently as November a government-led study concluded that people who routinely exercise live longer than others, even if they’re overweight.

Zendi Solano, who works for Kaiser as a research assistant in Pasadena, Calif, says she always knew exercise was a good thing. But until about a year ago, when her Kaiser doctor started routinely measuring it, she “really didn’t take it seriously.” She was obese, and in a family of diabetics, had elevated blood sugar.

She sometimes did push-ups and other strength training but not anything very sustained or strenuous.

Solano, 34, decided to take up running and after a couple of months she was doing three miles. Then she began training for a half marathon - and ran that 13-mile race in May in less than three hours. She formed a running club with co-workers and now runs several miles a week. She also started eating smaller portions and buying more fruits and vegetables. She is still overweight but has lost 30

pounds and her blood sugar is normal.

Her doctor praised the improvement at her last physical in June and Solano says the routine exercise checks are “a great reminder.”

Kaiser began the program about three years ago after 2008 government guidelines recommended at least 2 1/2 hours of moderately vigorous exercise each week. That includes brisk walking, cycling, lawn-mowing - anything that gets you breathing a little harder than normal for at least 10 minutes at a time.

A recently published study of nearly 2 million people in Kaiser’s southern California network found that less than a third met physical activity guidelines during the program’s first year ending in March 2011. That’s worse than results from national studies. But promoters of the vital signs effort think Kaiser’s numbers are more realistic because people are more likely to tell their own doctors the truth.

Dr Elizabeth Joy of Salt Lake City has created a nearly identical program and she expects 300 physicians in her Intermountain

Healthcare network to be involved early this year. “There are some real opportunities there to kind of shift patients’ expectations about the value of physical activity on health,” Joy said.

NorthShore University HealthSystem in Chicago’s northern suburbs plans to start an exercise vital sign program this month, eventually involving about 200 primary care doctors. Dr Carrie Jaworski, a NorthShore family and sports medicine specialist, already asks patients about exercise. She said some of her diabetic patients have been able to cut back on their medicines after getting active.

Dr William Dietz, an obesity expert who retired last year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said measuring a patient’s exercise regardless of method is essential, but that “naming it as a vital sign kind of elevates it.” Figuring out how to get people to be more active is the important next step, he said, and could have a big effect in reducing medical costs. —AP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Cruise Center honours top selling travel agents

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Promoting Star and NCL Cruises

Announcements

Shirva feast

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hirva Welfare Association Kuwait (SWAK) will be celebrating their Shirva Parish feast-2013 here in Kuwait. On this occasion there will be a mass offered at 9.15 am on February 8, 2013 at the Holy Family Cathedral. Kuwait and the celebration / gettogether with a of variety entertainment programme will he held from 4:30 pm - 9 pm on the same day at the Indian Community School, Salmiya. SWAK members or their children who would like to participate in the variety entertainment programme and show their talent are requested to contact any of the SWAK committee members listed below to avail the opportunity before January 10, 2013. Likewise if any of members children have excelled in academics or any other extra curricular activities in the past 1 year will be appreciated and hence are requested to inform any of the SWAK committee members listed below before the 10th of January.

Last date for enrollment in the talent show is January 15, 2013.

Arabic courses

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WARE will begin Winter 1 Arabic language courses with new textbooks and curricula on from December 2, 2012 until January 24, 2013. AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. For more information or registration, please log-on to our website.

Charity show

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n the occasion of New Year Hangama 2013, which will be held tomorrow from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am at Carmel School, Khaitan. Rak Dance Academy is conducting dance competition in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. The winners will be rewarded.

Goan Culinary Club

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he Goan Culinary Club - Goa encourages you to log on to their website where you can find a video of Odette and Joe Mascarenhas sharing their thoughts on Goan cuisine. These videos were recorded at the launch of the Goan Culinary Club in Goa on March 3, 2012. Thanks to support from all at the Goan Culinary Club, we have made great progress in six months.

Basketball Academy

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he new Premier Basketball Academy offers coaching and games every Friday and Saturday from 10 am onwards for 6 to 18 year olds, boys and girls. Located in Bayan Block 7, Masjed Al-Aqsa Street by Abdullah Al-Rujaib High School. Free Basketball and Tee Shirts for all participants, with certificates and special awards on completion of each 6 week course. Qualified and experienced British and American Coaches, Everyone Welcome.

Thomas Sebastian, Cruise Specialist, Cruise Center.

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ruise Center, a subsidiary of Caesars Holidays and an exclusive division for cruise packages, was recently honoured as their top selling travel agents with awards for their contribution towards selling Star and NCL cruise packages in Kuwait.

“The remarkable diversity and variety of cruises gives consumers a unique opportunity to find a vacation that fits their budget even during the economic downturns and we expect that more Kuwaitis and expatriate population of Kuwait will respond positively this year as Star and NCL cruises are coming out with exciting itineraries and more activities on board. We are grateful to our travel partners for their great support during 2012 and we are so pleased to recognize them for their contribution which I am sure, will be more in this year”, said Najeeb Mithwani, Second Assistant Vice President-Sales & Marketing of Star and NCL Cruises, Middle East and East Africa, while distributing the awards to the top selling travel agents.

As a result of increased itineraries and fleet, the cruise sector is opening a new window to the global tourism, especially in the Middle East it is a new notion and emerging destinations are being given more exposure than ever before. “This is an industry that plans ahead and invests in the future, as evidenced by the impressive number of new ships. Cruise Center will be targeting the whole market of Kuwait, creating an awareness of cruising which is still not explored by the majority of passengers. Our cruises target mainly families, both expatriate and local. Another market that we will be looking at is the honeymoon and weddings market especially for Kuwaitis. As for the business market, cruising is a wonderful platform, particularly for meetings and incentives. The new trend in cruising is attracting youngsters to go as groups, especially from schools and colleges as a unique break from their usual, traditional holidaying. For the vacationers, we have the exciting offers that combines our signature style of cruising with fascinating destinations”, said Business Development Manager, Caesars Holidays, Vivek Kumar Shetty.

“The Middle East is fast becoming a new cruising hotspot, with cruise lines increasing their itineraries around the region. This introduction of new mega ships and the entertainment offered on

Najeeb Mithwani, Second Assistant Vice President-Sales & Marketing, Star Cruises and Vivek Kumar Shetty, Business Development Manager, Caesars Holidays, distributing the awards to top selling travel agents for promoting Star and NCL Cruises. board is another main reason for the world including Royal Caribbean, ent that the high disposable income increased interest. Lastly, cruising is Princess, Crystal, Carnival and many client is switching from the traditional becoming very popular as you only have more. Caesars Travel Group is very excitresort holiday and realizing the benefits to unpack once”, added Thomas ed by the announcement of this new and convenience of cruising as a way to Sebastian, Cruise Specialist of Cruise division as cruising is currently the achieve multi-destination holidays. With Center. fastest growing sector in the travel more varied and exclusive destinations Cruise Center exclusively representing industry, especially in the Middle East. being added to itineraries every year, it is world’s most leading cruise companies “Cruising trend is likely to increase, predicted that this trend will continue to Star, NCL, MSC and Costa. Apart from with more lines expanding their range of grow and Cruise Center has got a big role these cruises, it is also a platform to all onboard facilities and activities to attract in Kuwait cruise market”, concluded P.N.J. other leading cruise companies in the passengers and families. It is also apparKumar, CEO, Caesars Travel Group.

FOCUS Kuwait holds Revit Workshop

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orum of cad users (FOCUS) Kuwait, conducted Revit classes on 21st Dec 2012, (Friday) at Ebeniz Auditorium Abbasiya from at 1:30 pm onwards under the leadership of Focus Cad & Revit training team. S Ratheeshkumar inaugurated the function, which was presided by Focus Acting President, Manoj George. General Secretary Saleem MN gave the welcome speech and Mathew Thomas the Treasurer expressed the vote of thanks.

The classes were conducted by subject expertise Disilva John, Prasanna Kumar Biju Mathew.

AIP honours meritorious students

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Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

ssociation of Indian Professionals (AIP) organized a grand function at the Indian Community School to felicitate the meritorious Indian students. Awardees were selected based on the CBSE examination results declared for the academic year 2011 - 2012 from all Indian schools in Kuwait. Ambassador of India to Kuwait, Satish C. Mehta was the Chief Guest.

The event started off with ‘Meet your seniors program’ and was followed by the ‘AIP Awards distribution’. ‘Meet your seniors’ program was elegantly conducted by Dr T S Srikumar of Kuwait University teaching faculty and was well attended by many senior students currently pursuing higher education in US, Canada, UK, Australia and India. The program provided an excellent opportunity for the aspiring students and their parents to interact with the senior students and rendered very useful information

about careers and institution options.

General Secretary of AIP, Umesh Sharma welcomed the guests and audience. He highlighted that the AIP awards have now become the symbol of excellence. The chairman of AIP, Dr C.G. Suresh appreciated the support of all the sponsors and requested the audience to join AIP to serve the Indian community on a wider platform. Satish C. Mehta, Mrs Preethy Mehta, prominent businessman and community leader Kuldeep Singh Lamba, chairman of Indian Business Council, S.K.Wadhawan, chairman of ICSK, Ashok Kalra, manager of Air India, Ajay Sinha, manager of Oriental Insurance, Anil Parasher, along with all EC members of AIP, distributed the awards.

Fahaheel Al-Watanieh Indian Private SchoolFAIPS (DPS) was adjudged as the winner for school performance Award and the runners up where Indian Educational School.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Y A Alghanim & Sons Automotive announces winners of ‘Free Safety Check-up campaign’

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usuf Alghanim & Sons Automotive, the exclusive distributor of Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles in Kuwait, is pleased to announce the names of lucky customers who benefited from the “ Free Safety Check-up” promotion that was initially launched from the 11th of December until the 31 across the company’s service center in Shuwaikh and Fahaheel on all Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles. The free check-up provided vehicle owners the opportunity to know more about their cars’safety features. Chevrolet and Cadillac owners who brought in their vehicles for the check-up enjoyed a free safety vehicle inspection of the brake system, steering system, wheels and tires, suspension system, supplementary restraint systems, exhaust system and other safety-related items along with a detailed condition report that included an approximate cost of work required as well as special discounts on parts and labor, in addition to a free wash and vac-

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

uum. Every Chevrolet and Cadillac owner who took advantage of the free check-up was automatically entered in a draw to win cash vouchers for service & parts. The final draw took place on Wednesday January 2nd in the presence of a representative from the ministry, and provided the first place winner with a KD 500 voucher, the second place winner with a KD 250 voucher while the third place winner won a KD 100 voucher Mohsen Ali Kahlaf KD 500 voucher for service and parts.

Bader Hamad KD 250 voucher for service and parts.

Intissar Hamoud KD 100 voucher service and parts.

Yusuf A. Alghanim & Sons Automotive operates under a simple philosophy to excel ownership experience for owners of Chevrolet & Cadillac vehicles and will continue to launch initiatives to suit all of its customers’ needs to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction.

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EMBASSY OF CANADA he Embassyof Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada†should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca†or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca.

The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00†until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday.

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Tulu Koota Kuwait holds 13th annual meeting

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EMBASSY OF CYPRUS In its capacity as EU Local Presidency in the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Member States of the EU and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, would like to announce that as from 2nd October 2012 all Schengen States’ Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa Information System (VIS). The VIS is a central database for the exchange of data on short-stay (up to three months) visas between Schengen States. The main objectives of the VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures and checks at external border as well as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all the Schengen visa applications lodged by an applicant over five years and the decisions taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This will allow applicants to establish more easily the lawful use of previous visas and their bona fide status. For the purpose of the VIS, applicants will be required to provide their biometric data (fingerprints and digital photos) when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a simple and discreet procedure that only takes a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the data provided in the Schengen visa application form, will be recorded in the VIS central database. Therefore, as from 2nd October 2012, first-time applicants will have to appear in person when lodging the application, in order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent applications within 5 years the fingerprints can be copied from the previous application file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency would like to assure the people of Kuwait and all its permanent citizens that the Member States and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, have taken all necessary technical measures to facilitate the rapid examination and the efficient processing of visa applications and to ensure a quick and discreet procedure for the implementation of the new VIS. � � � ��� � �

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform the Kenyan community residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that the Embassy has acquired new office telephone numbers as follows: 25353982, 25353985 - Consular’s enquiries 25353987 - Fax Our Email address: info@kenyaembkuwait.com. � � � ��� � �

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he Tulu Koota Kuwait held its annual general body meeting on December 14, at the Indian Community School auditorium in Salmiya. Ramesh Kidiyoor, was once again unanimously elected as President of Tulu Koota Kuwait for the year 2013.

The grand evening was inaugurated by an invocation song by Santhosh Kunder followed by the lighting of lamp by the managing committee members of 2012.

The General Secretary, Satyanarayan Salian, presented the annual report and the TKK treasurer, Vinay Kumar presented the financial report for the year 2012, which were approved by the members of the association. TKK President, Ramesh Kidyoor expressed his gratitude & appreciation towards the efforts of the outgoing Committee and thanked every member for their constant support.

The managing committee of 2010 applauded by the committee of 2012. Laxmish Ami was felicitated by the president for his spectacular performance “Tulu Nada Vaibhava” which was held during the Tulu Parba 2012.

Mementos were presented to Wilson D’souza, Vinay Bhandary, and Foustine Pinto in appreciation for their valuable contribution in collecting maximum funds during the Tulu Parba 2012. The managing committee for the year 2013 was elected. The newly elected managing committee members were called upon on stage to introduce themselves by the election officer, A.K Ravindra.

The committee members for the year 2013 are: Ramesh Kidiyoor - President; Tharendra P Shettigar Vice President; Wilson D’souza - General Secretary; Mrs

Shobha Harish - Joint Secretary’ Vinay Kumar - Treasurer; Vishweshwar Karkal - Internal Auditor; Suresh Salian - Cultural Secretary; Ronald D’souza - Sports Secretary Foustine Pinto - PRO officer; Ramesh Bhandary Welfare officer The President, Ramesh Kidiyoor called upon the Tulu Koota members to extend their whole hearted support to the new Committee.

Tulu Koota Kuwait gave a warm but heavy hearted farewell to the outgoing General Secretary Sathyanarayan Salian who will be leaving Kuwait soon.

He was felicitated by the President and Ex-Presidents of Tulu Koota Kuwait.

Various cultural programs were arranged for the evening. Spectacular solo dances by Denika D’Souza, Jolita Fernandes, Shravya, Karthikeya, Viola Martis, Arjun & Chandan followed by a comedy dance by Lucy Aranha and Purandara Manchi entertained the audience. The Melodious songs by Purandara Manchi, Santhosh Kunder, Laveena Prapulla, Jolita Fernandes, Suresh Salian and Vichitha charmed the crowd. The stand-up comedy

by Lionel Mascarenhas & Team, Lucy Aranha, Purandra Manchi, Rajesh Poojary and Chandrahas Shetty regaled the audience. The crowd was drawn into the festive mood with Christmas carols, welcoming Santa Claus and the ‘Baila’ Dance. Later in the evening, a delicious dinner was served by White Rose Restaurant. The program was compered by Manoj Kumar. The annual general body meeting came to an end with the vote of thanks by the newly elected General Secretary, Wilson D’souza.

Calligrafitti workshop

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free workshop has been organized by CAP, led by French artist Vincent Abadie Hafez for the public as a platform for artists, students, graffiti and calligraphy lovers to express themselves, to portray their talent and to reveal their passion, ambitions and wishes for the new year. This workshop will take place at the CAP warehoure and Cap’s exhibition space, both indoors and outdoors.

It is open to people of all ages and all walks of life who have a flair for art. The workshop is divided into two levels, namely: Level 1 - “You, a wall and some colors”. Level 2 - “Palimpsest Participation- indoors/outdoors”. The intake for the workshop is limited to 15 artists only. This level is open for all - students, beginners, art lovers, to join the workshop from the 10th of January 2013. It will be held at the CAP warehouse or CAP exhibition space where walls will be allocated for the participants which will be designed by their ideas and thoughts in their own aesthetic ways. All the materials required will be provided by CAP.

EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, Al-Salaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com. � � � ��� � �

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk. � � � ��� � �

EMBASSY OF PERU The Embassy of Peru is located in Sharq, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Al Arabiya Tower, 6th Floor. Working days / hours: SundayThursday /9 am - 4 pm. Residents in Kuwait interested in getting a visa to travel to Peru and companies attracted to invest in Peru are invited to visit the permanent exposition room located in the Embassy. For more information, please contact: (+965) 22267250/1.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

00:50 01:45 02:35 03:25 04:15 05:05 05:55 06:45 Baker 07:35 08:00 08:25 09:15 10:10 11:05 12:00 12:55 13:20 13:50 14:45 15:40 16:35 17:00 17:30 18:25 19:20 20:15 20:40 21:10 21:35 22:05 23:00 23:55

Untamed & Uncut Animal Cops Philadelphia Biggest And Baddest Shamwari: A Wild Life Wildest Islands Wildest Africa Animal Cops Philadelphia Weird Creatures With Nick Wildlife SOS The Really Wild Show Baby Planet Cats 101 Bad Dog Profiles Of Nature Animal Cops Philadelphia Call Of The Wildman Wildlife SOS Wild Africa Rescue Animal Precinct Profiles Of Nature Cheetah Kingdom The Really Wild Show Cats 101 Crocodile Hunter America’s Cutest...

Monkey Life Bondi Vet Call Of The Wildman Cheetah Kingdom Wildest Africa Karina: Wild On Safari Bad Dog

01:15 10 Years Younger 02:05 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 02:50 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 03:35 Antiques Roadshow 07:05 House Swap 07:50 DIY SOS 08:15 Home Cooking Made Easy 08:40 The Hairy Bikers Ride Again 09:35 The Boss Is Coming To Dinner 10:25 Bargain Hunt 11:10 Antiques Roadshow 12:05 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 13:25 The Hairy Bikers Ride Again 14:20 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 15:05 Bargain Hunt 15:50 Antiques Roadshow 16:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 18:05 Britain’s Dream Homes 19:00 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 19:50 Rhodes Across China 20:35 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 21:30 Vacation Vacation Vacation 21:55 Vacation Vacation Vacation 22:20 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Bargain Hunt

00:00 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:30 06:45 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:30 09:45 10:00 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:30

BBC World News Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday India Business Report Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Hardtalk BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report

11:45 BBC World News 12:30 Hardtalk 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 BBC World News 15:00 GMT With George Alagiah 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 BBC Focus On Africa 21:00 BBC World News 21:30 World Business Report 21:45 Sport Today 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 23:30 World Business Report 23:45 Sport Today

00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:40 04:00 04:20 04:45 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:25 07:00 07:30 07:55 08:10 08:35 08:50 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:20 10:45 11:10 11:35 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:00 13:15 13:40 13:55 14:20 14:35 14:50 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:25 17:50 18:15 18:40 19:05 19:30 19:45 20:00 20:15 20:30 20:55 21:20 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15 23:40

Yogi’s Treasure Hunt Duck Dodgers Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Dastardly And Muttley Popeye Wacky Races Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones The Jetsons What’s New Scooby Doo? Taz-Mania The Looney Tunes Show Tom & Jerry Tales Dexter’s Laboratory Moomins Dexter’s Laboratory Dexter’s Laboratory Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Ha Ha Hairies Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Puppy In My Pocket Wacky Races Looney Tunes Duck Dodgers Popeye Top Cat The Flintstones Dastardly And Muttley Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Cartoonito Tales Moomins Dexter’s Laboratory Johnny Bravo Tom & Jerry Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show What’s New Scooby-Doo? Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry Tales The Looney Tunes Show Taz-Mania Moomins Pink Panther & Pals The Garfield Show Jelly Jamm Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Baby Looney Tunes Bananas In Pyjamas Puppy In My Pocket The Garfield Show What’s New Scooby-Doo? Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry Tales The Looney Tunes Show

00:40 Chowder 01:30 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 02:20 Foster’s Home For...

03:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 04:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 04:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Powerpuff Girls 05:40 Generator Rex 06:05 Ben 10

06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Angelo Rules 07:00 Casper’s Scare School 07:30 Casper’s Scare School 08:00 Mucha Lucha 08:25 Johnny Test 09:05 Total Drama Island 09:30 Total Drama Island 09:55 Ben 10: Omniverse 10:20 Young Justice 10:45 Thundercats 11:10 Adventure Time 12:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 12:50 Foster’s Home For...

13:15 Foster’s Home For...

13:40 Courage The Cowardly Dog 14:30 Powerpuff Girls 15:20 Angelo Rules 16:10 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 16:35 Young Justice 17:00 Ben 10: Omniverse 17:20 Johnny Test 18:00 Level Up 18:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 18:50 Adventure Time 19:15 Regular Show 19:40 Mucha Lucha 20:05 Total Drama Island 20:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 21:20 Young Justice 21:45 Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge 22:10 Grim Adventures Of...

23:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:50 The Powerpuff Girls

00:40 How We Invented The World 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 08:45 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Scrappers 10:30 Property Wars 10:55 How Stuff’s Made 11:25 How It’s Made 11:50 Fast N’ Loud 12:45 One Car Too Far 13:40 Wheeler Dealers 14:35 Border Security 15:05 Scrappers 15:30 Property Wars 16:00 Is It Possible?

16:55 Secret Service Secrets 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Sons Of Guns 19:10 Sons Of Guns 19:40 How Stuff’s Made 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Auction Kings 21:00 Property Wars 21:30 Gold Rush 22:25 Deadliest Catch 23:20 Gold Divers

00:10 00:35 01:25 02:15 03:05 03:55 04:45 05:35 06:00 06:15 07:05 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:10 09:35 10:00 10:25 11:15 12:05 12:30 12:55 13:45 14:35 15:25 15:45 17:00 18:20 18:45

Stitch A Kind Of Magic Replacements Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Replacements Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Doc McStuffins Suite Life On Deck A.N.T. Farm Jessie Jessie A.N.T. Farm Wizards Of Waverly Place Jonas Los Angeles Austin And Ally Shake It Up Phineas And Ferb Doc McStuffins Art Attack Jessie A.N.T. Farm Wizards Of Waverly Place Shake It Up My Babysitter’s A Vampire Radio Rebel Austin And Ally Girl vs Monster

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II ON OSN ACTION HD

20:10 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:05 22:55 23:45

Jessie That’s So Raven Cory In The House Kim Possible Hannah Montana Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Fish Hooks

00:20 Little Einsteins 00:50 Special Agent Oso 01:15 Lazytown 01:40 Jungle Junction 02:10 Handy Manny 02:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 02:55 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 03:00 Lazytown 03:25 Special Agent Oso 03:50 Imagination Movers 04:15 Handy Manny 04:40 Special Agent Oso 05:00 Timmy Time 05:10 Lazytown 05:35 Little Einsteins 06:00 Jungle Junction 06:30 Little Einsteins 07:00 Special Agent Oso 07:15 Jungle Junction 07:45 Handy Manny 08:00 Special Agent Oso 08:15 Imagination Movers 08:45 Handy Manny 09:00 The Hive 09:10 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 09:35 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 10:05 Doc McStuffins 10:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 11:00 Mouk 11:15 Animated Stories 11:20 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 11:45 Art Attack 12:10 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 12:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 13:00 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 13:10 Doc McStuffins 13:25 Handy Manny 13:40 Jungle Junction 13:55 Timmy Time 14:05 The Hive 14:15 Mouk 14:30 Little Einsteins 14:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 15:20 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 15:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 16:00 The Little Mermaid 16:25 Art Attack 16:55 Imagination Movers 17:20 Handy Manny 17:35 The Hive 17:45 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 18:10 Doc McStuffins 18:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 19:10 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 19:35 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 20:00 Animated Stories 20:05 Timmy Time 20:15 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 20:25 Doc McStuffins 20:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 21:10 The Hive 21:20 Timmy Time 21:30 Mouk 21:45 Handy Manny 22:00 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 22:25 The Hive 22:35 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 23:00 Timmy Time 23:10 Animated Stories 23:15 A Poem Is...

23:20 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 23:30 Jungle Junction 23:45 Handy Manny 23:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

00:00 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:35 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:20 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:15 16:40 17:05 17:30 18:00 18:25 18:50 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:55 21:20 21:45 22:10 22:35 23:05 23:30

Programmes Start At 7:00am Kickin It Phineas And Ferb Ultimate Spider-Man Pokemon: BW Rival Destinies Slugterra Scaredy Squirrel Almost Naked Animals Pair Of Kings Lab Rats Zeke & Luther Lab Rats Kickin It Mr. Young Pair Of Kings Zeke & Luther Rekkit Rabbit I’m In The Band Phineas And Ferb Pokemon: BW Rival Destinies Rekkit Rabbit Pair Of Kings Almost Naked Animals Lab Rats Slugterra Kickin It Scaredy Squirrel Phineas And Ferb Slugterra Mr. Young Zeke & Luther I’m In The Band Rated A For Awesome Rekkit Rabbit Phineas And Ferb Ultimate Spider-Man Kick Buttowski Scaredy Squirrel

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

Scouted Cheating Death E! Investigates E!es Extreme Close-Up Extreme Close-Up THS Behind The Scenes E! News A-List Listings Married To Jonas THS Ice Loves Coco Ice Loves Coco Giuliana & Bill Kourtney & Kim Take New Kourtney & Kim Take New

York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:30 Behind The Scenes 17:00 Fashion Police 18:00 E! News 19:00 E!es 20:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:00 Opening Act 22:00 Ice Loves Coco 22:30 Ice Loves Coco 23:00 Nicki Minaj: My Truth 23:30 Chelsea Lately

00:15 Unwrapped 00:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:30 Heat Seekers 01:55 Food Network Challenge 02:45 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:35 Unwrapped 04:20 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 05:15 Unique Eats 05:40 Chopped 06:30 Iron Chef America 07:10 Unwrapped 08:00 Iron Chef America 08:50 Kid In A Candy Store 09:15 Unwrapped 09:40 United Tastes Of America 10:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 10:55 Cooking For Real 11:20 Hungry Girl 11:45 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 12:10 United Tastes Of America 12:35 Unwrapped 13:00 Iron Chef America 13:50 Tyler’s Ultimate 14:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 14:40 Everyday Italian 15:05 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 15:30 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 15:55 Hungry Girl 16:20 United Tastes Of America 16:45 Chopped 17:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 18:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 18:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 19:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 19:40 Tyler’s Ultimate 20:05 Guy’s Big Bite 20:30 Chopped 21:20 Iron Chef America 22:10 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:00 Chef vs Britain 23:50 World Cafe Asia

00:15 00:40 01:30 02:20 03:05 03:55 04:45 05:30 06:20 07:10 08:00 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:15 14:40 15:30 16:20 16:45 17:10 18:00 18:50 19:40 20:05 20:55 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:25 23:50

Great Crimes And Trials Deadly Affairs Police Women Of Memphis Deadly Women Exorcist Files Great Crimes And Trials Deadly Affairs Police Women Of Memphis Mystery Diagnosis Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Undercover Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Undercover Disappeared Forensic Detectives Mall Cops ‚Äì Mall Of America On The Case With Paula Zahn Stalked: Someone’s Watching Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill I Married A Mobster I Married A Mobster Blood Relatives

00:15 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 00:45 The Frankincense Trail 01:40 On Hannibal Trail 02:05 On The Camino De Santiago 02:35 Street Food Around The World 03:00 Market Values 03:30 Travel Madness 03:55 Travel Madness 04:25 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 04:50 Young Global Hotshots 05:20 Somewhere In China 06:15 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 06:40 Delinquent Gourmet 07:10 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 08:05 The Frankincense Trail 09:00 On Hannibal Trail 09:25 On The Camino De Santiago 09:55 Street Food Around The World 10:20 Market Values 10:50 Travel Madness 11:15 Travel Madness 11:45 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 12:10 Young Global Hotshots 12:40 Nomads 13:35 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 15:25 The Frankincense Trail 16:20 On Hannibal Trail 16:45 The Green Way Up 17:15 Street Food Around The World 17:40 Market Values 18:10 Travel Oz 18:35 Graham’s World 19:05 On The Camino De Santiago 19:30 Young Global Hotshots 20:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 21:00 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 21:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 22:00 Somewhere In China 22:55 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita

THE WARRIORʼS WAY ON OSN CINEMA 23:20 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 23:50 One Man & His Campervan

00:00 Leopards of Dead Tree Island 01:00 Wild Case Files 01:55 Secret Brazil 02:50 I, Predator 03:45 Caught In The Act 04:40 Swamp Men 05:35 Wild Chronicles 06:30 Secret Brazil 07:25 I, Predator 08:20 Caught In The Act 09:15 Squid vs. Whale 10:10 Salmon Wars 11:05 In The Womb 12:00 Mother Warthog 13:00 Zambezi 14:00 Animal Superpowers 15:00 Built for the Kill 16:00 Jaguar: Catching the Cat (aka Hunt for the Shadow 17:00 Africa’s Deadliest 18:00 Crimes Against Nature 19:00 Secret Brazil 20:00 I, Predator 21:00 Caught In The Act 22:00 Squid vs. Whale 23:00 Salmon Wars

00:00 Kalifornia-18 02:00 Circle Of Eight-18 04:00 Legendary Assassin-PG15 06:00 True Justice: Vengeance Is Mine-PG15 08:00 True Justice: Blood Alley-PG15 10:00 Mission: Impossible-PG15 12:00 True Justice: Urban Warfare14:00 True Justice: Blood Alley-PG15 16:00 Mission: Impossible II-PG15 18:15 True Justice: Urban WarfarePG15 20:00 Constantine-PG15 22:15 Wake Wood-18

01:00 03:00 PG15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Eva-PG15 The Deep End Of The OceanThe National Tree-PG15 Largo Winch 2-PG15 Eva-PG15 Ghost Machine-PG15 Pina-PG15 The Warrior’s Way-PG15 Life In A Day-PG15 S. Darko-PG15 Dirty Girl-18 Safe House-PG15

00:00 Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Community 02:00 American Dad 02:30 Weeds 03:00 Two And A Half Men 03:30 Two And A Half Men 04:00 Hope & Faith 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Til Death 06:00 Samantha Who? 06:30 Seinfeld 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Hope & Faith 08:30 Last Man Standing 09:00 Til Death 09:30 Samantha Who? 10:00 Two And A Half Men 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 12:30 Hope & Faith 13:00 Til Death 13:30 Samantha Who? 14:00 The Simpsons 15:00 Two And A Half Men 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Seinfeld 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Last Man Standing 18:30 The Simpsons 19:00 Melissa & Joey

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

The Closer Sons Of Anarchy Burn Notice Homeland Good Morning America Covert Affairs Emmerdale Coronation Street Smallville Covert Affairs Eureka Burn Notice Smallville Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Burn Notice Revenge Justified Sons Of Anarchy Homeland

00:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 07:30 11:00 12:00 12:30 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00 22:00 23:00

Grimm Six Feet Under Burn Notice Emmerdale Coronation Street Burn Notice Emmerdale Coronation Street Parenthood Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. Burn Notice Sons Of Anarchy Six Feet Under

00:00 Analyze That-PG15 02:00 The Waterboy-PG15 04:00 Jumping The Broom-PG15 06:00 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15 08:00 Rebound-PG 10:00 How The Grinch Stole Christmas-PG 12:00 Jumping The Broom-PG15 14:00 The Family Stone-PG15 16:00 How The Grinch Stole Christmas-PG 18:00 The Breakfast Club-PG15 20:00 Happy Gilmore-PG15

00:45 03:30 05:45 08:00 PG15 09:30 11:30 PG15 13:15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00

The Insider-PG15 Vincere-PG15 Thelma And Louise-PG15 The LXD: The Uprising BeginsWaiting For Superman-PG15 The LXD: Secrets Of The RaAlabama Moon-PG15 Waiting For Superman-PG15 Jane Eyre-PG15 The Weather Man-18 John Rabe-18

01:00 Ondine-PG15 03:00 Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story-PG 05:00 Once Brothers-PG15 07:00 Take Shelter-PG15 09:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 11:00 Elevator Girl-PG15 13:00 Henry’s Crime-PG15 15:00 Certain Prey-PG15 17:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 19:00 A Dog Named Duke-PG15 21:00 Albert Nobbs-18 23:00 Paranormal Activity 3-18

01:15 Olentzero And The Magic Log-FAM 02:45 The Smurfs-PG 04:30 Winner & The Golden Child: Part II-FAM 06:00 Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2-PG 08:00 The Adventures Of Scooter

The Penguin-FAM 09:45 Queen Of The Swallows-FAM 11:15 Little Secrets-PG 13:00 Freddy Frogface-PG 14:30 The Smurfs-PG 16:15 Looney Tunes: Back In ActionFAM 18:00 Queen Of The Swallows-FAM 20:00 Pacific Pirates-PG 22:00 Freddy Frogface-PG 23:30 The Adventures Of Scooter The Penguin-FAM

01:00 02:30 10:30 11:30 14:30 15:00 22:00

Volvo Ocean Race Highlights Live Test Cricket Trans World Sport Live Cricket Twenty20 ICC Cricket 360 Test Cricket Cricket Twenty20

01:00 ICC Cricket 360 01:30 Live PGA Tour 06:00 The USPGA Championship Official Film 07:00 Cricket T20 10:00 PGA Tour 15:00 Inside the PGA 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 Cricket T20 19:00 Top 14 21:00 Top 14 23:00 Futbol Mundial 23:30 Inside the PGA

00:00 01:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 13:30 14:30 15:00 16:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

World Cup of Pool Trans World Sport Top 14 Pro 12 Futbol Mundial Asian Tour Golf Show Golfing World Top 14 Highlights Extreme Sailing World Pool Masters World Cup of Pool Top 14 Top 14 Highlights Golfing World Extreme Sailing Trans World Sport PGA Tour Golfing World World Pool Masters World Cup of Pool

00:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter The Smashes 01:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 02:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 03:00 UFC Unleashed 04:00 UFC Unleashed 05:00 NHL 07:00 WWE Bottom Line 08:00 WWE Experience 09:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 10:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 11:00 NHL 13:00 UAE National Race Day Series 14:00 WWE NXT 15:00 WWE SmackDown 17:00 European Le Mans Series 18:00 European Le Mans Series 19:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter The Smashes 20:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 21:00 UFC Prelims

00:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 Us 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 19:00

Rise & Fall Of The Third Reich WWII: Europe’s Secret Army Rise & Fall Of The Third Reich Mankind The Story Of All Of UFO Hunters Pawn Stars Storage Wars Mud Men Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars American Restoration Mud Men Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars

Classifieds MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

FOR SALE Toyota Camery GLX full option model 2011 white metallic color, sunroof, alloy rim, rear sensor, cruise control, CD wooden interior etc. (installation possible) 28,000 km, cash price KD 4,450/-. Contact: 66507741.

(C 4278) 7-1-2013 Ford Mondeo, maroon color, model 2003, very good condition, price KD 800, kilometer 200,124. Phone: 99839184. (C 4276) 3-1-2012

SITUATION WANTED M.A in English Literature having two years job experience, looking for a suitable job in HR & Admin.

Please contact: 66342097.

(C 4270) 6-1-2013 TUITION Learn Holy Quran in perfect way, private tuition available for elders and children by Hafiz-E-Quran.

Contact: 66725950.

(C 4262) Tuition available for Web Designing & Professional Graphic Designing. Learn to create your own website just in 3 months. Flexible schedule, join us to build your career as Web Designer. Call 60078629, 22403408.

(C 4264) 25-12-2012

Looking for a part time cleaning lady, 1-5pm 6 days/week.

Contact: 96942874. (C 4274) Looking for a part time nanny to help care for 2 young children. (4 1/2 + 1 1/2) 1pm - 6pm, Filipino preferred.

Contact: 96942874. (C 4275) 1-1-2013

CHANGE OF NAME I, Jafar Mohammed Hussain Warekar, holder of Indian Passport No: E8758097 hereby change my name to Zafar Mohammed Hussain Warekar. (C 4266) I, Raguri Subbaiah Reddamma holder of Indian Passport No: F0419527 hereby change my name to Ravuri Reddamma Venkata Subbaiah. (C 4258)

GOVERNMENT WEB SITES Kuwait Parliament www.majlesalommah.net

The Public Institution for Social Security www.pifss.gov.kw

Ministry of Interior www.moi.gov.kw

Public Authority of Industry www.pai.gov.kw

Public Authority for Civil Information www.paci.gov.kw

Prisoners of War Committee www.pows.org.kw

Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw

Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw

Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affair www.islam.gov.kw

Kuwait Municipality www.municipality.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Oil) www.moo.gov.kw

Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Electricity and Water) www.energy.govt.kw

Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.kw

Public Authority for Housing Welfare www.housing.gov.kw

Ministry of Commerce and Industry www.moci.gov.kw

Ministry of Justice www.moj.gov.kw

Ministry of Education www.moe.edu.kw

Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw

Ministry of Information www.moinfo.gov.kw

Supreme Council for Planning and Development www.scpd.gov.kw

Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org

Prayer timings Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

SITUATION VACANT Required cook for house, good knowledge of cooking all kinds of food, good salary, good facilities, full time or part time. Phone: 23901053, 66519719.

(C 4273)

112

05:19 06:43 11:54 14:46 17:05 18:27

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines PIA JAI THY JZR JZR QTR ETH QTR GFA UAE ETD AFG QTR FDB MSR DHX THY JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB ETD KAC GFA BAB KAC JZR MSC IRC MEA MSR UAE FDB KAC KNE KAC SVA QTR JZR KAC JZR KAC QTR

Arrival Flights on Monday 7/1/2013 Flt Route 205 LAHORE 574 MUMBAI 772 ISTANBUL 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 148 DOHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 6130 DOHA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 416 JEDDAH 138 DOHA 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 503 LUXOR 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 855 DUBAI 121 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 352 COCHIN 213 BAHRAIN 436 BAHRAIN 344 CHENNAI 165 DUBAI 403 ASSIUT 6521 LAMERD 404 BEIRUT 610 CAIRO 871 DUBAI 57 DUBAI 672 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 546 ALEXANDRIA 500 JEDDAH 140 DOHA 561 SOHAG 788 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 284 DHAKA 134 DOHA

Time 0:15 0:30 0:35 0:45 0:50 1:00 1:45 1:45 1:50 2:35 2:45 2:55 3:01 3:05 3:10 5:15 5:30 5:55 6:40 6:45 7:40 7:45 7:55 8:40 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:50 9:55 10:05 10:40 11:20 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:45 12:50 13:50 14:10 14:10 14:30 14:30 14:45 14:50 14:55 15:05 15:10 15:30

OMA JZR KAC UAE ETD RJA GFA SVA JZR QTR ABY UAL KAC JZR RBG KAC BAB FDB MSC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC OMA FDB JAI AXB MSR ABY QTR MSC ALK MEA QTR GFA ETD UAE JZR JAI DHX FDB AIC TAR JZR GFA PIA JZR UAL BBC DLH

645 535 118 857 303 640 215 510 777 144 127 982 542 177 3553 786 438 63 405 618 742 674 104 774 647 61 572 389 618 129 146 401 229 402 136 221 307 859 135 576 372 59 975 327 239 217 205 185 981 43 636

MUSCAT CAIRO NEW YORK DUBAI ABU DHABI AMMAN BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO DUBAI ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI SOHAG DOHA DAMMAM DUBAI LONDON RIYADH MUSCAT DUBAI MUMBAI MANGALORE ALEXANDRIA SHARJAH DOHA ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO BEIRUT DOHA BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN COCHIN BAHRAIN DUBAI CHENNAI TUNIS AMMAN BAHRAIN LAHORE DUBAI BAHRAIN DHAKA FRANKFURT

15:40 16:25 16:35 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:45 17:50 17:55 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:45 19:15 19:20 19:30 19:35 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:20 20:25 20:35 20:45 20:50 20:55 21:20 21:25 21:30 21:35 21:40 21:50 21:55 22:00 22:00 22:30 22:45 22:45 22:50 23:00 23:05 23:25 23:45 23:55

Airlines AIC UAL DLH JAI PIA KAC ETH THY QTR FDB UAE ETD AFG MSR QTR QTR JZR GFA THY KAC JZR FDB BAW JZR JZR KAC KAC ABY UAE FDB ETD QTR GFA BAB KAC KAC JZR KAC MSC IRC MEA KAC MSR JZR UAE FDB KAC KNE

Departure Flights on Monday 7/1/2013 Flt Route 982 AHMEDABAD 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 573 MUMBAI 206 PESHAWAR 283 DHAKA 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 6131 DOHA 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 306 ABU DHABI 416 JEDDAH 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 560 SOHAG 54 DUBAI 156 LONDON 256 BEIRUT 534 CAIRO 787 JEDDAH 671 DUBAI 122 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 133 DOHA 214 BAHRAIN 437 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 776 JEDDAH 103 LONDON 406 SOHAG 6522 LAMERD 405 BEIRUT 785 JEDDAH 611 CAIRO 176 DUBAI 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI 673 DUBAI 473 JEDDAH

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

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

SVA KAC QTR KAC KAC OMA JZR ETD JZR QTR UAE RJA GFA JZR SVA ABY JZR QTR RBG JZR UAL FDB BAB MSC FDB OMA KAC KAC KAC JAI ABY MSR MSC DHX ALK MEA ETD QTR GFA KAC FDB UAE JAI DHX KAC QTR JZR TAR GFA KAC

501 617 141 773 741 646 238 304 538 135 858 641 216 184 511 128 266 145 3554 134 982 64 439 404 62 648 331 361 351 571 120 619 402 171 230 403 308 137 222 301 60 860 575 373 205 147 502 328 218 411

JEDDAH DOHA DOHA RIYADH DAMMAM MUSCAT AMMAN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI RIYADH SHARJAH BEIRUT DOHA ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN ASSIUT DUBAI MUSCAT TRIVANDRUM COLOMBO KOCHI MUMBAI SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN COLOMBO BEIRUT ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN MUMBAI DUBAI DUBAI KOCHI BAHRAIN ISLAMABAD DOHA LUXOR DUBAI BAHRAIN BANGKOK

15:45 15:45 16:15 16:25 16:30 16:40 17:15 17:35 17:40 17:45 17:50 17:55 18:15 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:00 19:05 19:10 19:25 19:30 20:15 20:40 20:55 20:55 21:00 21:10 21:10 21:15 21:25 21:50 21:50 21:55 22:20 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:50 22:55 23:00 23:00 23:10 23:35 23:45 23:50 23:55

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 62

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19)

ARIES This is the time to take a sentimental journey down memory lane with a loved one. If you are not with a loved one, this may be the perfect time to visit with a close friend. Until April, most of your concerns will be with the family. Your finances may be a concern today but another door will open soon and finances will not be as much of a problem. This is the month to prepare for the year ahead and set dates to act on the first of your goals. You will be able to work with your loved one in a combined goal. A local restaurant might be fun later tonight but another option might be to think about a light dinner at home and a movie or music. Your sense of appreciation is sharpened and you want to show that special person in your life—you care.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You may want to give advice to a young one this morning but it would be better to hold back until asked—and you will be asked. You may spend much of this morning preparing for some activity that will take your quick thinking and your careful words. A special social affair, perhaps a charity or spirit-filled type of gathering, creates a feeling of inner peace this afternoon. There are some hands-on opportunities to help the community today. One is often healed when there is a sacrifice of time and energy to help another. The pursuit of a new hobby is fun and makes a good transition into the evening, particularly if you can have a little time to yourself for creative expression. There is time later this evening to prepare for the workweek ahead.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

4. Either of two flat triangular bones one on each side of the shoulder in human beings.

11. A book of the New Testament.

15. A workplace for the conduct of scientific research.

16. The state capital and largest city of Arizona.

17. Of or relating to or characteristic of Thailand of its people.

18. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

19. Resembling air or having the form of air.

20. A light clear metallic sound as of a small bell.

21. Deep-bodied sooty-black pelagic spinyfinned fish of North Atlantic and North Pacific.

23. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

25. A short introductory essay preceding the text of a book.

28. A colorless explosive liquid that is volatile and poisonous and foul-smelling.

30. Of or relating to or characteristic of Afghanistan or its people.

32. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

36. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

40. (psychoanalysis) An idealized image of someone (usually a parent) formed in childhood.

44. Remove the claws from (a cat).

46. A cord fastened around the neck with an ornamental clasp and worn as a necktie.

47. Inspired by a feeling of fearful wonderment or reverence.

48. Small space in a tissue or part such as the area between veins on a leaf or an insect's wing.

49. A spirit believed by Muslims to inhabit the earth and influence mankind by appearing in the form of humans or animals.

51. A twisted and tangled mass that is highly interwoven.

54. Piece of solid food for dipping in a liquid.

55. Having a long narrow cut.

58. Sole genus of the family Naiadaceae.

60. A dialect of Chinese spoken in southeastern China.

64. Relating to the blood vessels or blood.

66. Dyed with henna.

68. 1 species.

71. A master's degree in business.

72. The compass point midway between east and southeast.

73. Italian painter and sculptor and engineer and scientist and architect.

75. A decree that prohibits something.

76. An American doctorate usually based on at least 3 years graduate study and a dissertation.

77. Relating to abdominal delivery.

78. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

DOWN 1. A sudden very loud noise.

2. The villain in William Shakespeare's tragedy who tricked Othello into murdering his wife.

3. A unit of current equal to 10 amperes.

4. Thin and fit.

5. Most important element.

6. The large trunk artery that carries blood from the left ventricle of the heart to branch arteries.

7. (computer science) The smallest discrete component of an image or picture on a CRT screen (usually a colored dot).

8. An agency of the United Nations responsible for programs to aid education and the health of children and mothers in developing countries.

9. Resembling or similar.

10. An edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle.

11. To gain with effort.

12. A sharp sound made by small birds or insects v 1.

13. A form of Japanese poetry.

14. (Norse mythology) Wife of Loki.

22. A republic in central Europe.

24. The cry made by sheep.

26. Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc..

27. Informal terms for clothing.

29. A person who gives a name or names.

31. A Gaelic-speaking Celt in Ireland or Scotland or the Isle of Man. 33. Any competition.

34. Sluggish tailless Australian arboreal marsupial with gray furry ears and coat.

35. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

37. The first light of day.

38. German naturalist whose speculations that plants and animals are made up of tiny living `infusoria' led to the cell theory (1779-1851).

39. The basic unit of money in Ghana.

41. Of or relating to or produced by the glottis.

42. An Asian peninsula (off Manchuria) separating the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan.

43. An island in the southern Mariana Islands that is the administrative center of the United States Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

45. An ambitious and aspiring young person.

50. English writer and lexicographer (17091784).

52. United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters.

53. Being one more than fifty.

56. Restraint consisting of a rope (or light chain) used to restrain an animal.

57. To fix or set securely or deeply.

59. Any of the equal portions into which the capital stock of a corporation is divided and ownership of which is evidenced by a stock certificate.

61. A Bantu language spoken by the Kamba people in Kenya.

62. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

63. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

65. A fine grained mineral having a soft soapy feel and consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate.

67. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

69. A nucleic acid that transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm.

70. An implement used to propel or steer a boat.

74. A mouth or mouthlike opening.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

This morning there is a false sense of urgency. You may feel that you want to dive into waters that could be over your head and then wonder what got you into the water in the first place—money matters or some touchy subjects. Pay attention to those feelings that have you wanting to jump into a heated discussion. You can quickly halt these energies before they get out of hand. Your altruistic spirit may stimulate you to lead in some special cause. Your vision will likely lead you into the unknown without others’ support or understanding—walk softly. Your timing is improving, almost as though you have enhanced your psychic powers. If you have an opportunity to go out and socialize, do it. You could shine brighter than the streetlights.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) You will appreciate the people around you now. You will be successful in evaluating input from a family meeting and can find solutions that satisfy everyone.

An interplay of ideas can spur your creative side, which you may feel is your calling this day.

You have a natural ease when it comes to communicating clear thoughts to others. This evening you could express a sense of connection through your artistic endeavors. You expand your artistic talents when one idea easily leads to another. There is almost nothing that you cannot do artistically. Perhaps the medium of oil, watercolor, wood or clay is how you desire to express your creative side. Regardless of how you express yourself you can enjoy monetary rewards for your efforts.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Religion, law, politics, travel and higher education are some of the areas where you might invest your time. This is a time of testing your limits to see how far you can go.

You seem to have a clear understanding of where you are going and what you need to do when you get there. This may mean you are in front of the public or you are a writer. Your and other people’s emotions are very clear today. Patience with your own progress may not be adequate. It would be good for your health to take precautions against stress at this time. If you are single, love will seek you out—you just may find that special person today. Married lovers will become more romantic than usual. Affection and optimistic attitudes are just oozing from the atmosphere.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Be wise and know your subject well before trying to convince someone to your way of thinking. A subject you know a little about is a passionate subject for some people. This could be in a family or religious surrounding. Some volunteer organization may have your full attention this afternoon. You want to make a difference—little steps lead to much progress. A love for those that struggle is the type of energy that is now just beginning. You have a yen for a soul-stirring romance, a weakness for the weak and a tendency to idealize people and relationships . . . very aesthetic, very otherworldly. Learning what makes people tick is absorbing. Your instinctive orientation is toward creating opportunities for people that do not have a job or a home.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) You can be a restless person and you seem to always be in search of something new. Today is no exception. You will be feeling this restlessness but you will also be moving toward a balance in your life—and this is good. Variety is the spice of life and during this time, you might involve yourself with repairs and updates around your place.

It is time to build wonderful memories by spending time with the ones you love later today. It does not mean you are without a thing to do just because you might not be able to go out-ofdoors. Try beginning a story and letting someone else pick it up from there—you might record it. This is particularly fun with young people in the home. Shopping later today is for groceries and staples.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) An important relationship, perhaps with an older person or someone in authority, may come into focus today. There could be some tension or sense of opposition requiring compromise or negotiation on your part. There is an opportunity for understanding and even growth. You may have the opportunity to improve your home surroundings or plan a move. These energies are strong through this whole month, especially if you are looking to sell your home. Your best buys and improvement toward repairs could be made now if you so desire. The importance of a good foundation in home and finances is what makes you happy and this is the time to make sure all is as you want it to be. You could find yourself feeling in a stay-at-home mood tonight.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Your day seems focused around the family. There is an opportunity to gain input for ideas on redecorating and updating from the people that really care: your housemates, family, etc. There is growth and gain through these things. Generally, a fruitful period for real estate investment, if you do not bite off more than you can chew. Emotional security and a sense of belonging and nurturing are felt. You want your family to see the home as a place of safety and refurbishment. There may be an interest in research and fun times of accumulating facts for a family tree. Making your home situation more pleasant and attractive plays a part in this and the sale or purchase of real estate could bring you gain before this cycle is complete.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) You may have found a great way to make a little extra money today. You will be successful in your efforts. A friend or family member may want to join you in this work endeavor, short-lived as it may be; it is fun to share in the fortune. Good surprises happen in many sectors of your life. Any frustrations heal quickly today and it may even seem as though the frustration was set up as an example of how you handle certain matters. Your timing should be perfect however and those around you should find you most understanding and full of optimism. Spend a little time in expressing your talent this evening and encourage others to do the same. A talent contest might be fun and prizes could sweeten the incentive for others to join in and be expressive.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You may enjoy getting away from routine and doing something completely different for a change. You may feel that you are in touch and in harmony with others; the lines of communication are open. The mood for today is travel. In fact, this could be the best time to treat that little child in you to some long desired activity from your childhood.

Perhaps a visit to the zoo, park and planetarium or hobby shop will be beneficial. You may find yourself and a friend or family member traveling a short distance to a tourist or community affair today. If you are giving a party, you may be traveling to pick up a specialty item. If you are not going on a trip you will be visiting with someone who has widely traveled, perhaps to places you will visit.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) If you have not traveled much you could be yearning to wander or roam and see other parts of the world. Although there is no indication of a long trip at this time, you could start planning your next vacation—get everyone involved. Go somewhere really fun and away from the same-old, same-old. You may be asked to teach others a hobby or some skill. This is a great boost for you—there are many people that would like to follow or learn your methods, techniques or style of working. You have plenty of chores to clear away before you can start this project but it is something you might consider for a future venture. While you are out shopping today, drop by the library and gather information on the stock market. You have luck in your corner.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

ST TATE T OF KUW K WAIT A

Te el.: 161

DIRECTORA AT TE GENERAL GENE OF CIVIL AVIA V AT TION METEOROLOGICAL DEP PARTMENT A DA AY Y: Sunday

06/01/2013

BY Y DA AY:

Partly cloudy with light variable wind changing to light to moderate north westerly wind, with speed of 06 - 22 km/h

BY Y NIGHT:

Cold with light variable wind, with speed of 06 - 20 km/h with a chance for fog forming at night

No Current Warnings arnin a

WA ARNING

12 °C

KUW WA AIT AIRPOR RT

19 °C

08 °C

NUW WA AISEEB

21 °C

10 °C

WAFRA A

21 °C

08 °C

SALMI

18 °C

08 °C

ABDAL LY

19 °C

06 °C

JAL ALIY YA AH

18 °C

05 °C

25623444

FA AILAKA

17 °C

11 °C

Bayan

25388462

AHMADI POR RT

18 °C

15 °C

Mishref

25381200

UMM AL-MARADEM

19 °C

19 °C

W Hawally

22630786

WARBA A A - BUBY YAN A

16 °C

13 °C

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

Thursday

North Jleeb

24311795

ST TAT TION

SFC. CHART

06/01/2013 0000 UTC

4 DA AY YS FORECAST Temperatures DA AY

DA ATE T

WEA AT THER

MAX.

MIN.

Wind Direction

Wind Speed

Monday

07/01

partly cloudy + blowing dust

19 °C

08 °C

VRB-SE

15 - 40 km/h

Tuesday Wednesday e

08/01

cold

18 °C

09 °C

NW-NE

08 - 28 km/h

09/01

cold

18 °C

07 °C

SE

15 - 38 km/h

10/01

cold + blowing dust

18 °C

10 °C

NW

20 - 45 km/h

PRA RA AY YER TIMES

RECORDED YESTERDA AY AT KUW WAIT A AIRPORT

Fajr

05:19

MAX. Temp.

18 °C

24884079

Sunrise

06:43

MIN. Temp.

06 °C

24892674

Zuhr

11:54

MAX. RH

84 %

Asr

14:46

MIN. RH

41 %

Omariya

24719048

Sunset

17:04

MAX. Wind

N Khaitan

24710044

Isha

18:26

TOT TAL AL RAIINF FA ALL L IN 24 HR.

Fintas

23900322

All times are local time unless otherwise stated.

SE 25 km/h 00 mm V1.00

06/01/13 02:42 UTC

T1.06

PRIVATE CLINICS Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

Dr. Salem soso General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Al-Jahra

25610011

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Expected Weeather for the Next 24 Hours

19 °C

Psychologists /Psychotherapists

22545171

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

07:00

Issue Time

KUW WA AIT CITY

Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427

Al-Shuhada

WWW.MET.GOV V..KW

MIN. REC.

Firdous

Ext.: 2627 262 - 2630

22418714

Fax: 24348714

MAX. EXP P.

Ardhiya

PHONE

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Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands) 0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

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MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Johansson gets ‘weird’ rashes T

he ‘Hitchcock’ actress initially wanted to train as a dermatologist and loves helping people with skin conditions, something she feels she can relate to, as she suffers skin complaints herself. She said: “I’ve had every problem, I always get these weird things [rashes].At least I know how to cure them. “When you help someone to heal their skin it gives them a new lease of life. Have you ever met someone with a horrible skin condition? I’m good with that.” The 28-year-old beauty - who was previously married to actor Ryan Reynolds - added she gets a lot of her

insider knowledge on keeping skin healthy from watching documentaries about it. She told the February edition of Britain’s Elle magazine: “I’m pretty good at diagnosing other people. Fungal issues are pretty obvious. It usually an infection combined with poor hygiene.

“It comes from watching a lot of medial programs. Real medical programs, like documentaries.”

Pattinson and Stewart house-hunting in the UK

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obert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have been house-hunting in the UK. The ‘Twilight’ co-stars - who recently reconciled after the brunette beauty admitted cheating on him with her ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ director Rupert Sanders last summer - are keen to purchase a plush property in London, where the 26-year-old hunk was born, to be close to Robert’s roots. A source told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: “Ever since Kristen’s affair last year, Rob has realized just how much his friends and family in the UK mean to him.”After spending more time here in recent months, Rob’s decided he wants to split his time more between London and Los Angeles.”He wants to put down roots in London and he’s doing it with Kristen.”He’s told her that if she wants to make things work, she’s going to have to accept that he wants to spend much more time in London.” The couple already have their heart set on one luxury Victorian house in South West London, which has an “LA feel” to it and is close to Robert’s parents’ home. The source added: “It’s on the market for millions. Unlike the others they saw, this is suited to their tastes and needs very little work.” With their hectic filming schedules they want somewhere they can live in straight away and it has a beautiful garden too.” They both fell in love with the property as soon as they saw it.” They decided to base themselves in Richmond, South West London, so Rob can be close to his parents’ home in Barnes. Rob knows the area as he attended Tower House, a prep school near Richmond Park. So his dad Richard put him in touch with an estate agent who lined up appointments.” Kristen, 22, is said to be “really excited” about spending more time in the UK and is even eyeing up a role in a West End production. The source explained: “Kristen’s really excited about the prospect of spending more time in the UK and has been saying how she’d love to star in a West End show.”

Schwarzenegger always hungry for success

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rnold Schwarzenegger says the secret of his success is he is “always hungry”. The body building champion, actor and politician knows how people see him, but admits he is not as confident as he appears underneath. He said: “I may come across as confident, but the reality is I’ve really never felt I’ve made it. I always have been very critical of myself. I think that the secret for my success has been that I’ve always been hungry. I’ve always felt like I was not good enough, that I have not got there yet.” The 65-year-old Austrian - who spent seven years in office as Governor of California - also said he believes he is so popular because he is a living embodiment of The American Dream, and built up everything he has from scratch. He added to FHM magazine: “There are many types of people who come to America and have been successful, not just me. But I’m the symbol of what is possible, simply because I’m more famous. When I came here I had literally nothing - I only had the dream and the determination to never stop until I achieved what I set out to achieve - whether it was the ultimate body building champion or a career in politics.”

Jailed Moroccan rapper awarded ‘integrity’ prize

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oroccan rapper Mouad Belghouat, aka Al-Haqed (The Rancorous One), jailed in July for a year for defaming the police, was on Saturday awarded a prize for integrity by NGO Transparency Morocco. “This prize is awarded for his honesty and the justice of his fight for an integrated and transparent society,” said TM chief Mohammed Sadok, presenting the award to the singer’s father. Belghouat, 24, is considered to be a public face of the February 20 movement, born in 2011 during the Arab spring, which is demanding sweeping political reforms in Morocco. He was first convicted in May last year over a song he wrote called “Dogs of the State,” which denounced police corruption and was deemed an affront to the entire police service. During the trial, his defense team argued that the song was an artistic creation that should not draw punishment. The main evidence against the rapper was a

Watson is obsessed with being perfect

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he ‘Harry Potter’ actress has inherited her hardworking nature from her lawyer parents, but although she takes pride in every project she undertakes, she admits she can be very hard on herself. The 22-year-old beauty told Britain’s Marie Claire magazine: “My parents have very strong work ethics and have instilled that in me; a love and a respect for what you do and taking pride in it. And then - and this is sort of irritating at times - I’m a bit OCD about perfectionism. “I’m my own worst critic. I always want to do better. I’m always striving towards the next thing.” The petite star is due to return to her studies at Brown University this January and can’t wait to head back to the Ivy League institution as she feels studying keeps her grounded in the midst of her crazy Hollywood lifestyle. She mused: “I think having time to step away and study really, really helps. It helps to give me perspective on things. To be around people who are living their lives in different ways, who have different aspirations.

“It is a strange thing that I do and I can feel quite unnerving. It’s good to remember that it’s a bit mad. “[Happiness] for me, its about finding satisfaction in the work that I do; it’s to do with having healthy relationships with the people I care about.”

Walsh not feeling marriage pressure

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YouTube video containing a photo-montage of a policeman whose head had been replaced by that of a donkey. According to Human Rights Watch, Belghouat denied any connection with the video other than that it was set to his song. The New York-based HRW said the conviction “shows the gap between the strong free-expression language in Morocco’s 2011 constitution and the continuing intolerance for those who criticize state institutions.” More than 70 activists from the February 20 movement are now in prison or awaiting trial, according to the independent Moroccan Association for Human Rights.

imberley Walsh doesn’t feel “pressure” to get married. The Girls Aloud beauty has been with her boyfriend Justin Scott for nine years and although she is constantly asked when they plan on getting hitched, Kimberley feels their time together is a “marriage” in itself.

She explained: “I’ve had [people ask] for a long time, since I was about 25. In this industry, people assume that if you’re together more than a year then you’re going to get married. “But we don’t take on the pressure of the outside world; we know where we’re at in our relationship. Besides, I think being together nine years is almost a marriage in itself ...” Although Kimberley, 31, feels she and Justin are “compatible” and is comfortable with the “dynamic” of their relationship, she still makes sure they still make an effort with one another to show their appreciation through meaningful gestures. She added in an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine: “We’re both quite chilled out. We like watching the same things and doing the same things - we’re very compatible. We don’t clash over stuff and we don’t really argue. It’s just a dynamic that’s worked for so long that I don’t even think about it anymore. “We still have to make an effort. I think in any longterm relationship you have to take time to show that you’re not taking each other for granted.

But we do that in small, thoughtful ways, like letting the other know we’re thinking of them, and trying to make each other’s lives better and easier.” —Bang Showbiz

Seyfried desperate for ‘Les Miserables’ role

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manda Seyfried wanted to be in ‘Les Miserables’ “more than anything” she has “ever wanted” in her life. The actress has been obsessed with the musical since even before she was a teenager, and is so proud to have landed the role of orphan Cosette. She said: “I was only 11 when I first saw it, and ever since I’ve been hoping and wanting to be a part of it.

Playing Cosette is proof that life has a way of making things come full circle if you want something badly enough. I wanted the role more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life.”

Amanda, 27, studied opera for five years before switching to acting and landing roles in ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Mean Girls’, but she feels her latest part will be her most definitive yet. She added to HELLO! magazine: “This is the highlight of my career and my life so far. And it’s hard to explain how much it all means to me. ‘Les Miserables’ has been a big part of my life. “I sang Cosette’s ‘A Heart Full of Love’ when I was 15 and gave my first recital, now to have made the film is the most amazing feeling in the world.”

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MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

LIFESTYLE F e a t u r e s

This picture taken on January 5, 2013 shows people visiting Ice and Snow World during the opening ceremony of the 2013 Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. This year’s “Ice and Snow World” features majestic ice castles and sculptures of fairytale characters equipped with LED lights, bringing a colorful and warm aura to the icy wonderland. —AFP

Design with a difference: Parsons school comes to Paris

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rom Marc Jacobs to Alexander Wang, star alumni of New York’s Parsons design school have long made inroads in Paris. But now the faculty is going a step further, opening a full-fledged branch in the world capital of fashion. Many of the industry’s most sought-after names learned the ropes at Parsons The New School for Design, from Tom Ford to Proenza Schouler’s Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, Jacobs or Wang, newly named at the house of Balenciaga. Joel Towers, Executive Dean of Parsons, says the school learned how to use New York city as a “laboratory”, and hopes to achieve the same in Paris, picked as a European hub of art, craft and heritage.

Paris is destined to become one of a network of teaching hubs, with Parsons programs in the pipeline for Mumbai, Shanghai, and Latin America, allowing an international student corps to draw on the resources of each. “We are not just running after where the money is-we are not going to Qatar and Abu Dhabi,” said Tim Marshall, Provost of the New School university to which Parsons belongs. “These are global cities, cities that make sense as a comparative set.”

“It’s also about the movement of ideas,” added Towers. The century-old New York school first set up shop in Paris in 1921, but ties with its French offshoot dwindled over time to little more than a licensing deal, now expired. “We want a much more embedded school, integrated into the local culture, that is drawing on the real design talent here,” explained Marshall.

“We are all trying to find the right balance between heritage and innovation, and between local and global,” added Renaud Dutreil, a former French government minister and member of the Parsons board.

From the old-school artisans in Louis Vuitton’s historic workshops, to the luxury brand’s current, thought-provoking designer Jacobs, Paris encapsulates two ends of that spectrum in design terms, he said. From September, Parsons Paris will welcome 150 students to its new premises a stone’s throw from the Louvre, delivering US undergraduate and graduate degrees in fashion design, design management or history of the decorative arts. Tie-ups are in the works with France’s ENSAD school of decorative arts, with the IFM fashion institute, HEC business school, Sciences Po and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, as well as with both the LVMH and PPR luxury giants.

Parsons prides itself on offering a fluid, broadbased curriculum, drawing on its position as part of the New School to train its students in the social sciences as well as pure design. “You have to have a minimum of broader skills and knowledge base to function as a designer in the 21st century,” said Towers. “Our students are much more literate as a generation around environmental questions, science and social science, than 10 or 20 years ago.” Today’s fashion designers, for instance, will inevitably be confronted with issues such as resource limitations, greenhouse-gas production as a result of the vast movement of materials, or ethics in manufacturing.

“These are pieces that need to be in your toolkit.”

By way of example, Marshall cites the case of a Parsons’ student who recently supplied a dress to Lady Gaga: she holds a master in psychology, a PhD in public health and a master in fashion. “She is from Chile and working on women’s rights, and her clothes are completely about that,” he said. “You didn’t see that terribly often before, somebody like that moving into fashion.”

Looking beyond fashion, the scope of contemporary design has widened considerably as the discipline is turned to as a way of engaging with issuesrather than producing artefacts. “Through design you can deal with all kind of issues, environment, sociology, culture, diversity, immigration, industry, job creation-everything today has a design dimension,” said Dutreil. “A design team can include a business management person, some ethnographers and engineers as well as designers,” Marshall added. —AFP

Historic Iraqi building gets new lease on life I

t served as an Ottoman headquarters, a prison, an ice factory and a mill before falling into neglect. Now Najaf’s historic and much loved Khan Al-Shilan is getting a new lease on life-as a museum. Local authorities in Najaf plan to turn the structure into a museum featuring antiquities and archaeological pieces, as well as statues of rebels and some of the actual weapons they used in a 1920 Iraqi uprising against the British, during which captured soldiers were held at Khan AlShilan.

In addition to its long history, Khan AlShilan is significant due to the remains of drawings and dates left by the captive British soldiers, which are still visible on its walls.

According to Hassan al-Hakim, a history professor at Kufa University, Khan Al-Shilan was originally intended to be a rest house for pilgrims visiting Najaf, which is home to the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam, and visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year.

But it was used as an Ottoman military headquarters before the defeat of the empire in World War I, and then as a local government administrative building. When the British occupied Iraq, they dispatched forces from Baghdad who took control of Najaf, and Khan Al-Shilan. But when Iraqis launched their 1920 uprising, Khan Al-Shilan temporarily reverted to local control and was used as a prison to hold British troops captured in several battles. In 1933, the first electrical gener-

ator in the city was installed at Khan Al-Shilan, providing power for the old city and the Imam Ali shrine, Hakim said.

Khan Al-Shilan was later used as a site to grind wheat, and then as an ice factory, he

as rooms arrayed around its courtyard. Its walls and entrance are decorated with Islamic designs. Ahmed Kaabi, a 50-year-old who lives near Khan Al-Shilan, said that “our memories are linked to it and we consider this

The interior of the Khan Al-Shilan building after renovations. —AFP said. It was rented out in the late 1990s and parts of it were destroyed, while others were used for rubbish disposal. Khan Al-Shilan measures about 1,500 square meters (16,000 square feet) and features three cellars, as well

place one of the symbols of Najaf.” The plan “to turn the Khan into a museum is a good project, despite the delay, because this place is very dear to us,” Kaabi said.

After more than half a century of neglect,

“this building tells a lot of the history of Najaf,” said Hamza Al-Khalidi, the director of Khan AlShilan. It is of “major importance with respect to the heritage of Najaf.” Local authorities decided to turn Khan Al-Shilan into a museum as part of the city’s role as the Arab world’s Islamic Capital of Culture for 2012. But when the problem-plagued culture capital project was scrapped, the Najaf Archaeological and Heritage Directorate took over, and Khan Al-Shilan is still slated to become a museum in 2013.

Najaf, the centre of Shiite religious scholarship worldwide, holds archaeological sites dating from a number of different periods.

But like many such sites in Iraq, not all are well cared-for, including the remains of the celebrated ancient Christian city of Hira, which lie neglected and moldering a stone’s throw from the Najaf airport because funds for excavation have dried up. Khan Al-Shilan has also suffered from a lack of attention. It “was subjected to negligence since the departure of the British occupation until the last two years, in a way that affected the building and general structure,” said Mahdi Al-Saigh, a member of the Popular Heritage Committee in Najaf. He called for the “formation of a commission to take care of Najaf’s heritage, much of which has been lost.”“We have a complete list of the heritage sites and houses in Najaf and the surrounding areas,” and request that the places be cared for, Saigh said. —AFP

As churches grow in the South, stained-glass windows from the North follow

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he Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, NC, is still months away from breaking ground on its new cathedral off Western Boulevard, but already it has bought the windows. Fortytwo stained-glass windows are being removed from a church in Philadelphia and painstakingly restored so they can be installed in Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, NC. The 85-year-old windows from Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church tell the story of Jesus’ life, from the angel’s visit to Mary to the resurrection and ascension, in vivid colored glass held together by lead. Ascension of Our Lord closed Oct 1, one of countless once-thriving churches and synagogues in the Midwest and Northeast whose congregations have shrunk as members move to the suburbs or beyond.

Their buildings are often filled with ornate windows, statues, carved woodwork and other works of art that sometimes find new homes in the growing churches of the South.

Raleigh Bishop Michael Burbidge knew about the Ascension windows from his days as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and asked about them when he heard the church was closing. Burbidge grew up in the city, attending a church that itself closed a decade ago, and is familiar with what can get left behind when a parish dies.

“Some of those parish churches-they’re like cathedrals themselves,” Burbidge said. “They’re very beautiful.” The Ascension windows are large-as tall as 17 feet 8 inches and more than 4 feet wide-and it takes a big church like the planned Raleigh cathedral to hold them.

Architect James McCrery of Washington, DC, said he made only minor modifications to his design for Holy Name of Jesus, increasing the height and width of the windows by a few inches. Three panels from one of the windows, standing about 7 feet tall and depicting the

Adoration of the Magi, have been restored and are on display in the lobby of the Catholic Center, the diocese headquarters on the site where the cathedral will stand.

The diocese paid $320,000 for the windows, and is spending another $1 million to have them restored. It hopes to sell naming

rights to cover those costs, Burbidge said. To commission new windows of this quality and size and beauty would be cost prohibitive, McCrery said.

“You always have your eye out for beautiful art that’s available,” he said. “But for us being able to find windows that were big enough,

A restored section of one of the 17.5foot-tall windows from the historic Ascension of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia, which have been acquired by the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh for use in the new cathedral they plan to build in Raleigh, is displayed at the Diocese’s office in Raleigh, North Carolina. —MCT photos

A detail photograph of a portion of a restored section of one of the 17.5foot-tall windows from the historic Ascension of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia.

great enough in number, and available, the likelihood is essentially nil. So when this came to us, we embraced it immediately.”

Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church was built in 1914 in the largely Irish, blue-collar Harrowgate neighborhood in North Philadelphia. The granite building has a row of columns over the front door, a red-tile roof and a domed bell tower that can be seen for blocks over the two-story row houses that line the narrow streets. The neighborhood teemed with workers in nearby textile plants and later the complex where they made Philco radios and TVs down the street. Enrollment in Ascension’s parish school peaked in 1963 at about 1,800 students, and the number of registered parishioners topped out at 13,500 in 1974, according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

But as Catholics left the city, Ascension, along with other Philadelphia churches, declined. Enrollment in the school was under 200 when it closed two years ago, and only 188 people attended weekend mass on average last year, according to the archdiocese.

The church’s imposing sanctuary had deteriorated so much that it wasn’t safe to hold services there anymore, and those who did show up gathered in the rectory or the former school building.

The contraction of the Philadelphia archdiocese is an ongoing process, said spokesman Kenneth Gavin. There are now 256 Catholic parishes in Philadelphia and four surrounding counties, down from 302 in 1990, and more closures are expected to be announced in the spring. By contrast, the 54county Catholic Diocese of Raleigh is growing; Burbidge says he has dedicated 8 new churches in recent years, with two more on the horizon. —MCT

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

lifestyle M U S I C

&

M O V I E S

Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai (4th L) poses for the media with the cast during a press conference for his new film “The Grandmaster” ahead of its premier in Beijing yesterday. Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s long awaited new film The Grandmaster, about battling martial artists, received its first public showing in Beijing yesterday. — AFP

Wong Kar Wai returns with new film ‘The Grandmaster’ H

ong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s long-awaited martial arts film “The Grandmaster” was shown in public for the first time in Beijing yesterday, after more than six years in production. The film spans several decades of Chinese history to tell the story of legendary martial artist Yip Man, who went on to train Bruce Lee, and features lengthy battles between rival kung fu masters.

Wong, 54, is best known for his 2000 slowburn drama “In the Mood for Love”. His new film, packed with Chinese stars including Hong Kong actor Tony Leung and Beijing-born starlet Zhang Ziyi, appears well placed to capture the local audience.

In his first press appearance to promote the film, Wong was also confident that “ The Grandmaster”, which runs for over two hours in its current edit and is steeped in traditional martial arts culture, would be well received

abroad. “There is no such thing as a Western or Eastern audience... the elements of cinema is the same worldwide, although their expression is different,” said Wong, wearing his trademark dark glasses. The film, set to hit Chinese cinemas on Tuesday, follows its lead character through some of China’s most tumultuous recent history including the Japanese invasion in the 1930s. It has been delayed several times, amid rumors of extensive reshooting and injured actors, but Wong shrugged off claims that the filming had taken too long.

“It felt like three years of university... we didn’t want filming to end,” he said. Leung, 50, who plays the eponymous “Grandmaster” and has also starred in several of Wong’s most acclaimed films, praised his co-star Zhang, 33, for her persistence while filming long fight scenes, which they enacted themselves. “I fought with her a lot of times,” he said. “She

was injured several times, and I knew it was tough for her, but it wasn’t possible for me to fight less intensely.” Shanghai-born Wong, who was raised in Hong Kong, enveloped himself in Chinese martial arts while researching the film’s script, travelling across the country to meet kung fu masters and historians, a process he described as “like discovering a completely new world”. He also defended the length of his final edit, which contains extended stretches of dialogue between the main characters. “The film could have lasted four hours, but I deleted a lot of scenes... a one hundred and thirty minute film is normal these days,” he said. Wong made his international breakthrough in 1994 with “Chungking Express” and was the first Chinese director to sit on the jury at Cannes. In February he will lead the jury of the Berlin film festival, which traditionally highlights Asian cinema. — AFP

Actor Zhang Zhen, actress Zhang Ziyi and Hong Kong actor Tony Leung (L) pose for media during a press conference. —AFP

Depardieu in Mordovia for keys to a new home

Soosan Feroz singing during a session at a recording studio in Kabul.

File photo shows Soosan Feroz, 23, Afghanistan’s first female rap musician, practicing with Afghan pop musician Farid Rastagar at a recording studio in Kabul. — AFP photos

‘First’ Afghan female rapper seeks reason with rhymes S

porting a long leather coat and western jeans under a headscarf, Soosan Feroz looks like many modern women in Kabul. But she is a surprising new phenomenon in this conservative Islamic country the nation’s first female rapper.

Her lyrics though are not unfamiliar to many of her fellow countrywomen-she raps about rape, abuse and atrocities that Afghan women have endured during decades of war in a country gripped by poverty. “My raps are about the sufferings of women in my country, the pains of the war that we have endured and the atrocities of the war,” Feroz

Soosan Feroz posing during an interview.

told AFP in an interview in the office of a local company that is helping her record her first album, in between local performances including at the US embassy in Kabul.

Like most fellow Afghans, the 23-year-old says her life is filled with bitterness-memories of war, bombing and refugee camps in neighboring Iran and Pakistan. She was taken to Pakistan as a child by her parents and later to Iran, escaping a bloody civil war at home in 1990s. Two years after the 2001 US-led invasion of her war-scarred nation that toppled the Taliban, the then-teenager returned home with her family.

She worked as a carpet weaver with her other siblings for a living until she discovered her new talent. Told that rap and hip hop had become a way for many artists around the world to express

daily hardships in their lives, Feroz says: “If rap singing is a way to tell your miseries, Afghans have a lot to say. “That’s why I chose to be a rapper.” She recalls her woes at Iranian refugee camps in her first recorded piece of music, “Our neighbors”, which has been posted on YouTube and viewed nearly 100,000 times: “What happened to us in the neighboring country? “We became ‘the dirty Afghan’. “At their bakeries we were pushed at the back of the queue.” The lyrics are borne from personal experience, Feroz said. “As a child when I was going to bring bread from our neighborhood bakery, the Iranians would tell me, ‘go back, you dirty Afghan’.

“I would be the last one in the line to get my bread,” she said. Millions of Afghans still live in Iran and Pakistan, which together hosted about seven million refugees after the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Feroz was too young to remember the bloody battles of the 1980s between the Russian soldiers and freedom fighters known as mujahedin but her first song is full of war tales, with one line proclaiming: “We went to Europe for a better life (but) in refugee camps we rotted.” Thousands of Afghans put their lives on the line every year to reach Europe through dangerous and illegal routes on land and sea. Those who make it often spend years in isolated refugee camps.

‘I’m not deterred’ Afghan pop star Farid Rastagar has offered to help the young artist release an album, the first song of which will be released in January. One of the songs is called “Naqis-Ul Aql” which can be translated as “deficient-in-mind”-a common belief about women among Afghan men. “In this rap, she sings about the miseries of the women in Afghanistan, about abuses and wrong beliefs that still exist about women,” Rastagar told AFP. Afghan women have made some progress since the fall of the Taliban but many still suffer horrific abuse including so-called ‘honor killings” for perceived sexual disobedience.

Feroz, the daughter of a former civil servant and an illiterate housewife who remarkably let their daughter sing, has already made scores of enemies not only among conservatives but within her own family. After releasing her first song on the

Soosan Feroz posing with her father Abdul Ghafaar Feroz outside a recording studio in Kabu.

Internet, Feroz’s uncles and their families have shunned her, accusing her of bringing shame on them.

Others, mostly anonymous callers, have threatened to kill her.”What’s my fault?” she asks. “I always receive phone calls from unknown men who say I’m a bad girl and they will kill me,” she says, her dark eyes welling with tears. Sitting next to her is her father, Abdul Ghafaar Feroz, who says he prides himself on being her “personal secretary”. “I’m not deterred,“ Feroz says, her father nodding his head in agreement. “Somebody had to start this, I did and I don’t regret it and I will continue. I want to be the voice of women in my country.” — AFP

In this video grab taken from TV Russia 1, French actor Gerard Depardieu shows his Russian passport to the press on arrival in Saransk yesterday. —AFP

F

rench actor Gerard Depardieu, who received a Russian passport in a move to avoid higher taxes for the rich back home, travelled yesterday to Mordovia in central Russia where he was offered to set up a residence, local television reported. Television showed the actor, fresh from his meeting with President Vladimir Putin the previous day, arriving in snow-covered Mordovia, a region known for its harsh climate and a network of Stalin-era prison camps.

Depardieu was seen on television showing off his new red passport to his hosts in the regional capital Saransk, a city of around 300,000 people located some 600 kilometers to the southeast of Moscow.

Upon arrival Depardieu, who wore no hat and left his coat unbuttoned, was greeted by young women wearing national costumes and served blini, or pancakes, before touring a local history museum. “Gerard Depardieu was greeted as a hero,” a correspondent said on Russian television. The television report said the French actor was also expected to receive keys to a new home and to be granted official residence registration in Mordovia. The Interfax news agency reported from Saransk that local governor Vladimir Volkov had made the French actor an offer to pick an apartment or a place to build a house in Mordovia.

“I am very happy, it’s very beautiful here, beautiful and soulful people live here,” Interfax quoted the actor as saying.

Depardieu also complimented local women on their beauty, it added. The French film star also expressed a desire to see a monument to Yemelyan Pugachev, the leader of one of most violent peasant revolts in the 18th century who he reportedly wants to play.

Among the gifts the star of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Green Card” received in Mordovia were a pair of felt boots, or valenki, and two kittens for his new Russian home, television said. Mordovia is famous for its often unforgiving climate and a large number of prison camps, which appeared in the 1930s as part of the Stalin-era GULAG system of labour camps. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot punk band, is serving her two-year prison sentence in Mordovia, after she and her band mates performed an antiPutin song in a church last year.

Depardieu was travelling to the region on the eve of the Orthodox Christmas which Russia celebrates on January 7 and was also taken to a cathedral. On Saturday, Depardieu met Putin over a meal at the Russian strongman’s residence in Sochi on the Black Sea and was handed a Russian passport. When Depardieu first announced he would leave France to avoid a proposed higher tax on millionaires, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded the move “pathetic”.

Depardieu, the Russian television said, was so angry with France that when he learnt that two French reporters were in Mordovia to cover his visit he told them to leave. — AFP

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

lifestyle A W A R D S

Mary Hart, center, and David O. Russell, right, sing happy birthday to Bradley Cooper, left, on stage at the 24th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Saturday. — AP photos

The

Tom Hanks, left, and Robert Zemeckis appear on stage.

glamorous night traditionally sets the ball rolling for the Oscars

Diane Lane appears on stage.

A

wall-to-wall serenade isn’t a bad way to kick off awards season. That’s the reception Bradley Cooper received on Saturday night at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Gala, alongside Oscar hopefuls Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Naomi Watts, Richard Gere and Helen Mirren, who were all lauded for their work in this season’s most criticallyacclaimed films. The Silver Linings Playbook star turned 38 in front the large crowd, which sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Cooper after director David O. Russell presented him with the Desert Palm achievement award.

“Hearing his speech was the ultimate birthday present, I have to say,” said a friendly Cooper backstage shortly after, while checking

Helen Mirren

Sally Field

Ang Lee

Actors Richard Gere and Bradley Cooper

Richard Gere out his award. “It just reminded me of the trust he put me to tell the story. And how deeply personal it was for him.” Earlier, on a red carpet backed by towering palm trees and snowcapped mountains, Eddie Redmayne was similarly plotting to “muster up a few stray Brits” to ring in his 31st birthday the next day with his Les Miserables director Tom Hooper. “In fact, I think Hugh Jackman gave Amanda Seyfried a lapdance last year (for her birthday), so tomorrow’s a big day,” he said with a grin.

There was a festive vibe at the Mary Harthosted black tie affair, which kicks off a crush of events this week, including the Critics’ Choice awards, Oscar nominations and Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony. “Palm Springs is sort of the beginning (of Oscar season), it’s true,” said Mirren in a Hitchcock-red Escada gown, there to be honored with the gala’s international star award. (On stage, Mirren asked attendees to take in more subtitled films. “It’s not so difficult,” she urged.)

“I’ve come here my whole life,” said Helen Hunt, who picked up a Spotlight award from her Sessions co-star John Hawkes. “I’ve burned my skin here. I’ve left a few brain cells here. I’ve come here to be happy and sad. I love it.” Naomi Watts, like Cooper, was awarded a Desert Palm achievement award for her work in The Impossible, a film she says changed her life.

Refreshed from the holidays, Watts admitted her looming schedule was intimidating. “I’ve got five nights (of events) in a row, I’m like, ahh!” she said on the red carpet. “I haven’t done that in so many years, even when I was a teenager.”

Inside, a newly bearded Ben Affleck took the stage with Alan Arkin and Bryan Cranston when the Argo cast was honored with a best ensemble award. “Alan wanted to try singing live, but we said no,” cracked Affleck from stage. Earlier, Affleck said he embraced the season’s hobnobbing. “For me, these events are especially exciting because I don’t hang around with a bunch of different movie stars and directors and actors in L.A. So it’s really special for me to get to talk to Helen Hunt, or Helen Mirren. Anyone named Helen, really,” he joked.

Stars also got serious throughout the night.

With just a day’s notice, Martin Sheen arrived in Palm Springs to present his longtime friend Sally Field with a lifetime achievement award.

“She’s an extraordinary woman,” he said on the red carpet. “In a very critical time in my life when I was slipping away she kind of grabbed me and brought me back a little bit.” Today, his money’s on Field for an Oscar for Lincoln. “I already voted for her,” he said.

Field earned the only standing ovation for

Helen Hunt the night when she got up to accept her Chihuly-designed glass award. “Easy is overrated,” she told the crowd. It was a message echoed by many. Ang Lee, there to honor his composer Mychael Danna, said onstage he cried uncontrollably at the end of a four-year journey creating Life of Pi. Tom Hooper, who was given the Sonny Bono Visionary award, said the thought of losing his own father drove him

Sally Field, left, and Martin Sheen appear on stage.

Ben Affleck to take on the story of Les Mis and Jean Valjean.

And David O. Russell spoke openly onstage of why he fought for five years to make Silver Linings Playbook: his son, now 18, suffers from bipolar disorder. “I thought it would make my son...feel more apart of the world,” shared the director. “The fact that it’s universally connecting with people is a reflection of what his intention was every day on set,” added Cooper backstage. “It was so wonderful that that has been confirmed. That was the biggest gift I got from this movie.”

For some, the gala marked a homecoming after years out of the spotlight. Richard Gere’s reaction to his career montage (which featured many a makeout scene)? “I was really skinny then,” the Arbitrage star laughed onstage, after pal Diane Lane presented him with the

Director Ang Lee and Composer Mychael Danna

Naomi Watts Chairman’s award for his film work and humanitarian efforts. “It’s really kind of amazing. You never imagine watching your life like this last clip that was up here, watching yourself grow up.”

On the red carpet, Gere spoke of the “strange alchemy” that drives him to choose his projects sparingly now. “You know, I don’t have to do this anymore. Arbitrage came along kind of out

Actor Bryan Cranston

of nowhere. And it was such a good script. And (it) seemed to speak to the times. It was an easy choice.”

After spending eight years focusing on digital animation, Robert Zemeckis was honored with a best director prize for his work on Flight.

“For me, making a digital movie is the same as making a live-action movie,” Zemeckis said on the red carpet. “But it’s perceived to be different, so I’m glad that people still accepted my live-action work.”

Backstage, Tom Hanks and Zemeckis threw an arm around each other. “While you were up there talking, I just missed working with you so much,” Zemeckis told his Forrest Gump and Castaway star, who presented to him.

New projects abounded for this crop. “It’s sort of a crazy month, isn’t it?” said Mirren, who is flying to London on Monday following the Globes to begin work on The Audience, her new play about Queen Elizabeth II. Mirren was still glowing after receiving her star on the Walk of Fame last week. “It was fantastic,” she raved.

“When I was young I thought Hollywood was just so far out of reach, it was really up in the galaxy.” Plus, she’s got hot real estate. Her star’s neighbors are Colin Firth and Sylvester Stallone.

“So I’m surrounded by hunky, fabulous men,” she winked.

Bryan Cranston, who smartly packed a fedora to block the desert chill, said he has big plans to direct a feature this year. “There’s two things that I want to do after Breaking Bad ends in March,” he said. “I want to shoot (my) movie and then I want to do a play. And that’ll be the end of my 2013.” Sheen was readying to enter Spider-Man 2’s web next month, and Affleck talked about going back in front of the camera for Terrence Malick’s upcoming film, To the Wonder. “I really wanted to watch how he shot movies,” said Affleck. “His movies are unbelievably beautiful.” Plus, “I wanted to be able to rip it off, if I had the opportunity,” he joked.

But before those new projects, there’s “fittings and second fittings” for glam Globes nominees like Naomi Watts, who hasn’t chosen a dress for the big day yet. “I’ve got things simmering but I haven’t made a decision. I wonder if anyone has.”

Hardly. “Not yet,” said Mirren. “We’re working on it,” said Field. Affleck has different hurdles.

With two girls and a baby boy at home with his wife, Jennifer Garner, he shared his simple strategy for the weeks to come. “I have a good wife, she’s down there with our kids. I’ll scoot in and come back tonight. It means that you curtail some of the late night excitement, but that’s OK. I’m happy to be where I am.” — USA TODAY

‘First’ Afghan female rapper seeks reason with rhymes

38

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013

Ya’koob

and

By Sahar Moussa

“R

ap actually stands for “Rhythm and Poetry”. It is a way of expressing yourself. You can use it in a negative or a positive way. It is up to the writer really. I guess we can call it modern day poetry, say Ya’koob and Humble Abdul, two Kuwaiti brothers who have taken rap and hip-hop music to a different level in a country like Kuwait, trying through their music to deliver a positive image regarding Islam and Arabs.

Born in Kuwait but brought up in Los Angeles, Ya’koob and his younger brother Abdul’Rahman aka “Humble Abdul” Al-Refaie were introduced to the Western music culture and blended it with their Arabic flavor.

As an Arab growing up in California, Ya’koob was introduced to hip-hop culture and was able to express himself and introduce people to Arabic and Islamic culture in the streets of LA with his freestyle and creative lyrics. Whether these were humorous or political, Ya’koob always knew how to capture people’s attention and change their minds about stereotypes in the Middle East.

“I love LA from the bottom of my heart. It is where I grew up and had my first bike, my first fight, my first crush. I learned a lot growing up as an Arab and a Muslim in the States.

Everybody was a rapper back then, so being an Arab gave me the advantage to stand out a little. People used to go crazy when I would say something in Arabic in my freestyle lyrics, even though they did not know what it meant. Or I would use Arabic characters or stereotypes like “Aladdin” or say something like “We used to ride camels, now we ridin’ Ferraris,” said Ya’koob.

“But now that we are back in Kuwait, I notice how everybody here wants to dress up and look like people in the United States, while people there are interested in what we have to say and where we come from. So it made me reach across to my background and do my research.

Every day I am learning something new and I try to share it with the people through my music,” said Ya’kboob.

Influences and inspiration At the age of 14, Ya’koob signed with the record label “Alien Records” and released the first official hip-hop album in the Middle East, entitled “Reprezentin” with hip- hop group “Army Of One.” The album was sold out all over the Middle East and helped push the hip hop culture in Arabia. Their love for music made Ya’koob to start making his own beats at age 16, which was influenced by producers such as J Dilla and Kanye West and inspired him and his brother to learn to play musical instruments.

“I picked up many instruments as a child like the trombone, the drums, and the “oud”. Now I like to think I am a percussionist, but mainly I create hip hop/R&B beats. I was able to get my music to score on an HBO series and a short film directed by Joslyn Rose Lyons, called “The Hand Off.” I still work with sound engineer Mike Chav from Detroit, Michigan, to make beats for artists such as Erykah Badu and Jay Electronica. I also play “mirwas”, the traditional Kuwaiti drums,” said Ya’koob. “My father encouraged me to play the saxophone when I was young. We all loved jazz music in our home. I played it for a good couple of years but stopped when I met the microphone. I love instruments though.

I might still learn to play something new one day. It is never

Humble Abdul Kuwaiti brothers blend Arabic flavor with rap

too late,” said Humble Abdul.

Influenced by their father Yusuf Al-Refaie who always used to take Ya’koob to the studio as a child, where he would always be surrounded by musicians and jazz music, he encouraged him to pick up his first instrument and write his own music. “My father is my biggest influence.

He always told me to think big and follow my dreams. He always believed in us. Thanks Yuba!” said Ya’kboob. “I remember watching Ya’koob do it probably when I first started walking, and enjoyed doing what he did. I started writing poetry at the age of 13 though. Growing up in California, I was just a smart kid who could rap and freestyle with his friends in the neighborhood and in school. A career in music? I guess I “officially” started only last month. I am actually encouraged by people’s feedback when they hear my music or poetry. That made me want to

Part of a poem written

by Abdul’Rahman Al- Refaie

“T

he Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Islam initiated as something strange, and it will revert to it’s old position of being strange, so, glad tidings to the stranger” I am a stranger in my generation, I have found what I need! Purity, obedience, submission, belief, peace. Those words define Islam, those words define me. I am young but the Qur’an helps me grow, be pure, and believe.

The knowledge of the book is like a lustrous pearl from the ocean of a spiritual and inspirational knowledge, to which all other forms of knowledge are just as islands in the sea. Keep reading! They never teach that in college. I always try to be creative, think of God’s creation. Knowledge is the founder of existence, if you’re not dropping knowledge than you should probably just listen. I’m off

to be prolific. Learning from scholars, I’m honest, so proud, and so gifted. And I can still be vicious. Don’t push me to my limit, cause I love all people and I’m myself, look down to the ones who think they’re bigger.

Change since you are living, with a chance of forgiveness. I usually speak on a beat cause that’s what they want to hear in my speech. I’ve been around the rich with “green” but the lives get so cheap. Some think like swine, but get blind as well as filthy, now I know loneliness is way better than bad company. Our minds are full of thoughts, but our thoughts get empty. If you know truth then speak it, and keep discovering, ask, seek, believe. I know right now, this is all that we need: purity, obedience, submission, belief, peace.”

— Humble Abdul

Part of a poem written by Ya’koob Al- Refaie entitled “Why Wait?”

“W

start doing something about it and keep writing and learning,” said Abdul.

“He used to constantly take us to the studio where he and his friends would jam and record jazz or reggae music. He used to take us to go and see live performances too. I remember Sade was one of his favorites. As we look back now, seeing how everything connects and makes sense, it is only right that me and my brother are doing what we do now. The word “youth” in Arabic is “shabab”, which also means “the ignition of a flame.” That is what we are right now.

That is what we are doing, trying to spark something new for the people. This is our time,” said Ya’koob and Abdul.

As young and promising artists, Ya’koob and his brother were inspired by everything around them. The smallest details that usually people disregard matter to them which enable them to transform it into a piece of art with their lyrics and music.

“I receive my inspiration from God, from the fact that I grew up in different places across the world. From everything really. I love writing.

Even rain inspires me to write something new or make music. Seeing my mother or father can inspire me. Traveling and seeing all these different cultures and backgrounds, seeing how people live, how they eat, pick up different instruments, listen to different music. Poetry and music can inspire anyone if you ask me,” said Ya’koob.

“I mostly receive my inspiration from Islam, and living as an Arab and a Muslim in America in today’s world. Inspiration comes from the experiences my generation has endured. It can come from anywhere,” said Abdul. “Also (it can come from) life, knowledge, and imagination.

But a book or a movie can inspire me as well. It comes from the heart really. I see what is going on in the world today and try to bring it out through my writing. Whatever I learn, I try to teach. Anything can inspire me. That’s the beauty of art, it’s never-ending,” he added.

Kuwait as a musical background Although Kuwait is considered to be a sort of conservative country due to its Islamic laws, music is a major and important aspect for Kuwaitis and Kuwait’s culture and history. “I think Kuwait has a beautiful musical background. For example, the “mirwas” plays a big part in Kuwaiti culture and history. I think our problem today is that it is not being passed on to the next generation anymore like it used to. I remember when I was a child, everybody had to know how to play something,” Ya’koob said.

“Most children today do not even know what a mirwas is. People used to play music out in public or in family gatherings, but unfortunately I don’t think things are the same anymore. I think we as Kuwaitis

hy wait till every end of the month so we can get our money? And why wait to you grow old to fear god and know that his day is coming? Why wait till you get in a car accident to stay focused? Or only when you’re on a plane, you start praying, or wait till you end up in a hospital and then you stop smoking? Is it just me or time keepsgoing faster? What are you waiting for, if you wanna marry her then go ahead and ask her. Wouldn’t you want to see your kids?

Then Why Wait till you have to get your

Kuwait Towers. We did not really put much effort into it due to the fact that it was a remix song, but we love the feedback. It is good to hear that it reached different countries around the world. Most people have not heard of any Arabs that do rap music. The video was shot by Reda Al- Banna and edited by Ya’koob,” they added.

Not just a rapper...but a poet too

should bridge the gap between the old and new generation and carry on our tradition, in schools and in our homes,” he added.

“Kuwait already has a good musical standing in the Middle East. But most people outside the Middle East know little about music of Kuwait. I had friends in LA who had never heard of my country for example. So I think it can still grow and connect with people everywhere at least through music and art. I believe we all have that in us here,” said Abdul.

‘Arabs in Paris’ The two brothers write their own lyrics. They design their own website, edit their videos, and make their own beats at their own studio. “The Base Productions” was their office, playground and home. They hope it will be their production company soon. Their latest record “Arabs in Paris” received a lot of attention from their fans and hip hop lovers.

“Arabs in Paris was fun to record. We actually wrote the song in about 10 minutes while being with our friends in the studio. It is a remix of a Jay-Z & Kanye West song called “Ni**as in Paris”. But we twisted the lyrics and made it about Arabs. We each wrote our own lyrics.

Everyone connected to it. It was cool, and different. We wore dishdashas because it is Arabic.”

“And a lot of people like to think that all Arabs drive expensive cars and have a certain conception of “the stereotypical Arab look”. We wanted to use that thought and turn it into a story. We were not trying to criticize anyone.

We captured people’s image about Arabs in general and made it fun in our own way. You can watch the video on our website www.thebaseproductions.com or search it on YouTube,” they said.

“We actually shot the video in three days.

Even though we have a couple of scenes of Paris and Dubai, and shot a scene by the Eiffel Tower and one near Burj Khalifa to connect to the song, our main theme was Ferraris and the

Abdul’s love for poetry and words increased after competing in a PoetrySlam contest in Kuwait, where he won the first place, surprising American judges and audience. He expressed his ideas about Islam and the crisis in the Middle East and the world.

“It is a blessing. I actually joined the competition at the last minute after I read about it on the Internet. They squeezed me in because they needed some Kuwaiti participants. The audience and the judges were mostly American, some from the army. Honestly, that made we want to share my poems even more, knowing there are people from different backgrounds. It took place at the Rotana Hotel around the middle of September last year and was sponsored

by The Taste Of Jamaica,” Abdul said.

“I spoke about Islam and issues that we are facing today in the Middle East and the world.

Honestly, my intention was not to win. I just wanted to share our side of the story and change the “terrorist” stereotype about Muslims. At the same time I want to encourage young Kuwaitis to be involved in poetry. I believe it is one of the best ways to speak your mind. Also, Arabs earlier were known for poetry. It was nice to take that trophy home with me though. It was a night I will never forget,” he said.

Challenges, future plans and messages The young talented musicians in Kuwait face a lot of problems and challenges because of lack of support from the music industry that is more interested in controlling the music industry and does not consider music and art as an essential and major aspect of daily life.

“We do not get together anymore, we do not collaborate. We need more music schools, teachers, and role models. We have major talent here in Kuwait. People want to be heard but there is not much support. You just have to keep doing what you do and believe in yourself.

We cannot just sit and wait for something to happen. If we have to build schools and studios ourselves then we will.” “Somehow, Kuwaiti artists always find a way to spark something new in the Gulf and the Arab world. It has been a while since anything came out of the Middle East though. But we hope to inspire people and see change happen as soon as possible,” the

PHD’s or Masters? We all belong to god and to him we will return eventually. Im going to build the relationship, that I have with my parents before God takes them away from me, and for that Im going to cherish this each and every minute. The clock keeps ticking. Everyday somebody’s dying, what if you’re next? Think of all the things you’d be leaving behind! How are you living? So keep it moving if you want to sit around or waste my time. Why Wait man?”

—Ya’koob two brothers said.

Ya’koob and Humble Abdul believe in their dreams and have a lot of faith that their music can make a change. “We will keep doing what we do. We want to keep spreading our message and connect with more people around the world. We do not know what God has planned for us. We pray for the best every day, for everyone, inshallah. We want to make a change,” they said.

“To all the children watching TV at home, we have this to say: Do not believe everything you see on TV. Always follow your dreams and be yourself. Be good to your family and to all the people,” the two brothers said, sharing a message they wanted to send.

To get the latest news about us check out our websitewww.thebaseproductions.com Also add us on twitter @yakoobPhelony, @MoozlumX. — sahar@kuwaittimes.net