4 feb 2013 by Kuwait Times

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

‘American sniper’ killed at Texas shooting range

Gallacher wins Dubai Desert Classic by 3 shots

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Court jails tweeter for 5 yrs for insulting Amir

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RABI ALAWAL 23, 1434 AH

Panel rejects Amiri decree on national election commission

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The criminal court yesterday sentenced Kuwaiti tweeter Mohammad Eid Al-Ajmi to ﬁve years in jail for writing tweets deemed insulting to HH the Amir and ruled that the sentence must be carried out immediately. Ajmi is the third youth tweeter to be jailed over the same charges after the criminal court last month sentenced two tweeters Ayyad Al-Harbi and Rashed Al-Enezi - for two years in prison each also for insulting the Amir. The two have since been in jail pending the appeals court verdict. The opposition warned at a public rally late Saturday that the continuation of this security method will not resolve the ongoing political problem in the country and the only solution to the crisis is by dissolving the National Assembly and scrapping the amendment to the electoral law that triggered the dispute. The opposition vowed that it will continue its protests until its demands are met and charges against its members are

abolished. In a related development, the interior and defense committee of the new Assembly yesterday rejected an Amiri decree issued in the absence of the Assembly to establish the National Election Commission provided that its actions remain effective. The commission supervised the Dec 1 election for the first time ever and its nine-judge panel had disqualified around 37 candidates over their “bad” reputation. Its decision was temporarily suspended by the court and a number of the disqualified candidates have won seats in the Assembly. This is the first Amiri decree to be rejected by one of the Assembly panels. The committee also rejected a proposal to amend an article in the nationality law to stipulate that people who have no passport of a third country cannot be granted Kuwaiti citizenship. The amendment is clearly directed against bedoons who have been fighting to get Kuwaiti citizenship for the last five decades. The Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee meanwhile discussed a number of proposed amendments to the privatization law of

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Kuwait Airways. The amendments focused on the rights of Kuwaiti employees who are working in the carrier, especially an amendment stipulating that Kuwaiti employees who do not want to join the new Kuwait Airways Company should be granted new government jobs. The committee also delayed giving its ﬁnal approval to a debt relief scheme. MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan said he will propose to form a parliamentary committee to probe who was responsible for “inﬂating” interest rates on bank loans and whether it was the Central Bank or commercial banks. Duwaisan also criticized reports indicating that a member of the ruling family, who allegedly led an assault against a local private satellite channel, will be appointed information ministry undersecretary. Duwaisan also renewed threats that he will “shortly” grill the interior minister. The legal and legislative committee meanwhile approved a draft law for the independence of the judiciary and approved another bill calling to grant Kuwaiti citizenship to the children of Kuwaiti women after they become adults.

Kuwait growth to slow KUWAIT: Oil-driven economic growth in Kuwait is forecast to slow down this year and in 2014 as crude output is expected to remain flat, the National Bank of Kuwait said in a report yesterday. After Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by a healthy 6.1 percent in real terms last year, thanks to continued strong oil income, it is forecast to drop to 3.2 percent in 2013 and to 2.5 percent in 2014, NBK said. Following a massive contraction of around 8.0 percent in 2009 due to the impact of the global financial crisis, Kuwait’s economy gradually rebounded to grow by around 8.0 percent in 2011 as oil output and price remained high. Oil income in the OPEC member contributes an average of 95 percent to public revenues. Kuwait ended the past 13 fiscal years in the black and is forecast to post a huge budget surplus in the current fiscal year which ends on March 31. Oil GDP, which grew by 15 percent and 10 percent in 2011 and 2012 respectively, is expected to remain flat this year and contract by around 1.5 percent in 2014, according to the NBK report. But the bank revised upward expected non-oil GDP growth from 4.0 percent to 5.0 percent this year based on signs of greater determination by the authorities to implement large infrastructure projects. Most projects under a $110-billion four-year development plan, that runs until 2014, have been stalled because of a political crisis in the emirate. The opposition has staged protests to demand the dissolution of parliament elected last month on the basis of an electoral law that was amended by HH the Amir, claiming that the change is illegal and aimed at electing a rubberstamp body. But over the past few months, authorities either signed or gave the green light for mega projects worth around $40 billion, mostly in the oil and power sectors. Inflation this year and next is expected to remain moderate at between 3-4 percent. Kuwait says it sits on around 10 percent of global oil reserves and pumps around 3.0 million barrels per day. It is estimated to have $400 billion in foreign assets run by the sovereign wealth fund. The state has a native population of 1.2 million in addition to 2.6 million foreigners, mostly Asians and Arabs. — AFP

CAMP DAVID, Maryland: In this photo released by the White House on Saturday, US President Barack Obama shoots clay targets on the range on Aug 4, 2012. — AP

White House releases Obama gun pic WASHINGTON: The White House has released a photo of President Barack Obama skeet shooting in an apparent bid to allay concerns by gun owners that he opposes firearms following a school massacre in December. The photo was made public as Obama prepares to hit the road today to push his plan to curb gun violence as he presses Congress to enact sweeping gun restrictions. The effort to ban assault rifles and high capacity magazines has become a centerpiece of the president’s second term agenda after a disturbed man gunned down 20 children and six adults on Dec 14 in the once quiet town of Newtown, Connecticut.

Iran hedges on talks with six powers or US MUNICH: Iran said yesterday it was open this is a step forward but ... each time we to a US offer of direct talks on its nuclear have come and negotiated it was the program and that six world powers had other side unfortunately who did not suggested a new round of heed ... its commitment,” nuclear negotiations this Salehi said at the Munich month, but without commitSecurity Conference where ting itself to either proposal. Biden made his overture a day Diplomatic efforts to resolve a earlier. dispute over Iran’s nuclear proHe also complained to Iran’s gram, which Tehran says is English-language Press TV of peaceful but the West suspects “other contradictory signals”, is intended to give Iran the pointing to the rhetoric of capability to build a nuclear “keeping all options on the bomb, have been all but deadtable” used by US officials to locked for years, while Iran has indicate they are willing to use continued to announce force to keep Iran from obtainadvances in the program. ing a nuclear weapon. “This Iranian Foreign Minister Ali does not go along with this Akbar Salehi said a suggestion gesture (of talks) so we will Ali Akbar Salehi on Saturday by US Vice have to wait a little bit longer President Joe Biden that Washington was and see if they are really faithful this ready for direct talks with Iran if Tehran time,” Salehi said. was serious about negotiations was a Iran is under a tightening web of sanc“step forward”. “We take these state- tions. Israel has also hinted it may strike if ments with positive consideration. I think Continued on Page 13

But his measures - both proposed legislation and executive orders - face stiff opposition from the firearms lobby, as well as from politicians, critics and gun enthusiasts who contend they will infringe upon the constitutional right to bear arms. In recent days, Obama has made efforts to show that he is no stranger to sports shooting despite his efforts to stem rampant firearms violence. The president said last week that he had picked up skeet shooting as a hobby, telling The New Republic that he shot at clay pigeons “all the time”. But his newfound love for the shooting sport was met with skepticism from conservative skeptics. Obama had not

A bug that lays the golden egg PARIS: Among the more peculiar organisms that inhabit our Earth exists a bacterium that turns water-soluble gold into microscopic nuggets of solid gold, scientists said yesterday. Chemists have often pondered why the germ Delftia acidovorans is frequently found on the surface of tiny gold nuggets. Its presence led scientists to speculate it may be creating the particles from soluble gold - ions of gold that are dissolved in water. But the puzzle was how D. acidovorans did this trick, as soluble gold is toxic. The answer, suggest researchers in Canada, lies in a molecule excreted by the microbe that both shields the organism and transforms the poisonous ions into particles. “This ﬁnding is the ﬁrst demonstration that a secreted metabolite can protect against toxic gold and cause gold biomineralisation,” the process by which living organisms produce minerals, they wrote in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. The molecule, delftibactin A, is capable of achieving this feat within seconds in pH-neutral conditions at room temperature. Study co-author Nathan Magarvey of Ontario’s McMaster University told AFP the study was not designed to show whether it would be viable to use germs to grow gold from water in the lab. But such processes seem “distinctly possible,” he said in an email exchange. Previous research had shown that another bacterium found on gold, Ischiadicus metallidurans, deals with toxicity by storing the ions inside its cells. — AFP

previously mentioned his skeet shooting habit in public. The newly released photo, taken on Aug 4 at the president’s Camp David retreat in Maryland and posted on the White House’s Flickr page on Friday, shows Obama firing at clay targets, according to the caption. The president, in jeans and a black polo shirt and wearing protective glasses and ear muffs, is seen looking down the barrel of a shotgun locked on his left shoulder moments after pulling the trigger, with smoke spewing out the barrel. There was no confirmation, however, of when Obama - an avid basketball player - took up the hobby and how regularly he practices. “It was a surprise to a

lot of people in the industry when we saw that and heard that,” National Skeet Shooting Association executive director Michael Hampton told The New York Times. His group’s 35,000 members do not include the president. The National Riﬂe Association made light of the photo. “One picture does not erase a lifetime of supporting every gun ban and every gun control scheme imaginable,” National Riﬂe Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told CNN. The NRA, America’s biggest gun lobby, has rejected Obama’s proposal to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Continued on Page 13

Assad lashes out as Israel admits strike MUNICH: Israel yesterday implicitly conﬁrmed it staged an air strike on Syria last week as President Bashar Al-Assad accused the Jewish state of trying to further destabilise his war-torn country. The foreign minister of Damascus ally Iran, meanwhile, said he welcomed Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz AlKhatib’s stated readiness to hold talks with representatives of Assad’s regime. Four days after an air raid which Damascus said targeted a military complex near the capital, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak spoke to reporters in Munich but refrained from explicitly conﬁrming that Israel staged the strike. Barak told the Munich Security Conference that it was “another proof that when we say something we mean it”. “We say that we don’t think that it should be allowable to bring advanced weapon systems into Lebanon, the Hezbollah from Syria, when Assad falls,” Barak said. Wednesday’s air strike targeted surface-to-air missiles and an Continued on Page 13

ALEPPO: A Syrian man carries a child’s body after a government air strike hit the neighborhood of Eastern Ansari yesterday. — AP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

LOCAL

Fire breaks out in Jleeb Al-Shuyouk, Amghara

KUWAIT: Fire fighters in action after fire broke out in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh yesterday. By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: The Arab drug duo pictured after their arrest.

KUWAIT: Fire fighters were called to fight a blaze in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area on Sunday afternoon. As soon as they arrived, the firemen found that the ground floor of the two-storey building spread over 1500 sq meters was being used for carpentry purposes and contained too much timber while the first floor was a bachelors’ residence. The fire had spread to the outer space which was being used as a storage area for clothes and some furniture. Firemen immediately ensured that the building was vacated and then fought the flames, bringing them under control before these could spread to the next building. No casualties were reported. A huge fire that broke out in a timber scrap yard at Amghara, engulfing a store spread over more than 2500 sq meter area, was still to be brought under control till the filing of this report even as personnel from three

fire centres fought the flames. Fire fighters, including those from Amghara fire center and Jahra were involved in the effort. The latest incident is part of a series of similar fires reported at the scrap area through all of last year’s summer. In more than ten such cases, the fire started from used tires’ yard, with one of them taking days before it could be brought under control. Drug arrests Drug enforcement agents in cooperation with customs administration arrested two Arab expats for possessing two kilograms of hasheesh and 3000 pills of tremedol drug. Earlier, information was received about the suspects being active in this business through Al Salmi border and also that they hide the drugs in secret cavities in their trailers. After taking necessary legal permission, they were arrested at the Al Salmi border. The suspects and the drugs were sent to concerned authorities.

New strategic plan for elderly care KUWAIT: Health Minister Dr Mohammad Al-Haifi said yesterday that the state has developed a strategic plan with a clear vision and mission aimed to create a leading regional and global role for Kuwait in the field of elderly care. Al-Haifi said in a statement after chairing a meeting of the national committee for the elderly at the Ministry of Health that the national program for the elderly care is designed to promote physical and mental health, as well as enacting laws and legislation and community awareness besides organizing social

activities and promoting the social environment for the elderly. He said the number of elderly persons over 65 years stand at 39,942 distributed over the six governorates. The Minister added that the meeting also discussed the issue of developing an implementation plan for the national program for the elderly care at different stages, which begin at the preparatory phase and includes the study of legislation and laws on this segment of society, as well as developing a plan and community awareness program. — KUNA

Abu Ghaith held after failed attempts to enter Kuwait Former Al-Qaeda leader in Turkish net KUWAIT: Osama bin Laden’s sonin-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith sought to turn himself in to Kuwaiti authorities and seek a possible return to his country of origin before he headed to Turkey where he was recently arrested, a Kuwaiti newspaper repor ted yesterday quoting Turkish security sources. The former Al-Qaeda spokesman had reportedly been detained following a tipoff by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which learnt that he had used a fake passpor t to enter Turkey from Iran where he had been staying since escaping from Afghanistan after the Sept 11 attacks, according to Turk ish media reports yesterday. “Abu Ghaith’s request to return to Kuwait was made through mediators to Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, which refused to receive him on the basis that he was no longer a Kuwaiti citizen,” the sources who spoke to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity said. Kuwait had stripped Abu Ghaith off his citizenship in 2001 shortly after he made internationally televised statements defending the Sept 11 attacks and vowing further retaliations

following the US Invasion of Afghanistan. The sources indicated that Abu Ghaith decided to go to Turkey after numerous failed bids to enter Kuwait. “He arrived two weeks (prior to his arrest) using an Iranian passport, then contacted the Saudi embassy in Ankara to notify them about his presence with his wife, Saudi citizen Fatima bint Osama bin Laden, and their children,” the sources said. They added that the Saudi embassy produced travel documents for Abu Ghaith’s family who left for the Arab Kingdom with his brother-in-law, whereas Abu Ghaith himself stayed in an Ank ara hotel before Turk ish authorities arrested him after coming to know of his true identity. On the other hand, another Kuwaiti newspaper report quoting “a source with knowledge of the case” suggested that Abu Ghaith was actually arrested at least two weeks ago while the announcement came only after Turkish authorities verified his identity. “Abu Ghaith used a forged passport to enter Turkey where he planned to seek politi-

cal asylum,” said the source who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity. The source also suggested a connection between Abu Ghaith’s arrest and the attack on the US embassy in Ankara on Saturday, which he said was likely “a retaliation of Abu Ghait’s ongoing detention for at least two weeks.” It remains unclear where Abu Ghaith will finally end up as the source quoted by Al-Qabas indicated that he was likely to be handed over to authorities in the United States where he is wanted for terrorism charges. On the other hand, Al-Rai’s report quoted Turk ish daily Hurr yiet which reported that he was likely to be sent back to Tehran. Kuwait’s AlWatan newspaper also covered Abu Ghaith’s arrest in a report in which they quoted an insider in the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry, who confirmed that Kuwait will not request to receive Abu Ghaith “since he is no longer a Kuwaiti citizen.” The source who spoke on the condition of anonymity also indicated that Kuwait was aware about Abu Ghaith’s arrest ten days before the news appeared in the Turkish media.

India enjoys outstanding relations with Kuwait Khurshid plans early visit BRUSSELS: Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said that he will be visiting Kuwait at the earliest opportunity to underline the excellent relations between the two countries and also to encourage Kuwait to boost investments in India. “Our relations with Kuwait are very good and outstanding. I want to take an early opportunity to visit Kuwait. I have been in touch with the leadership there,” Khurshid said during a visit to Brussels. “I am hoping to persuade the government of Kuwait to look at India seriously as an investment destination. I have spoken to the finance minister and deputy chairman of the planning commission. We would like to offer Kuwait an attractive opportunity to invest in India,” he said. Khurshid was appointed India’s Minister for External Affairs in December. He paid his first visit to Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday for talks with EU Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, to

strengthen the EU-India strategic partnership. Commenting on the current changes in the Arab world, Khurshid said “there are political winds in West Asia blowing in many directions.” “We have been cautious of some of those directions because we believe that change that comes naturally anywhere it should be allowed to happen naturally, “ said Khurshid who was law minister before being appointed in his new post. The Indian foreign minister said he was referring to what is happening in Syria, Bahrain, Egypt, etc. “The wind is not blowing in one direction everywhere. It is blowing in different directions. Everyone assumed that in Egypt issues were resolved. But they are not resolved,” he noted. “So there are cross currents taking place. Our view was that despite the cross currents we should allow each sovereign country and people of each sovereign country to decide

for themselves without outside interference and without outside dictation of one kind or other,” stressed Khurshid. “Outside dictation and outside pushing in a particular direction can lead to unacceptable outcomes,” Khurshid said. Commenting on Palestine, he said India had supported for its upgraded status in the UN. “Our sympathy and support for Palestine is undiluted. Wherever in international gatherings Palestine needs our support it will get it. And this is so despite the fact that we have established meaningful links with Israel. In the past we didn’t have links with Israel.” “We consider this unique ability that India has to be able to harmonize competing claims or divergent claims even where the divergences are of very serious nature. India has developed this ability to be able to provide communication links between people who are divergent,” added the very articulate Indian minister. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Capital governorate fire department organized a practical training event for Madina and Hilali fire centres yesterday morning at Mirqal area. The general director of fire department, Lt Gen Yousuf Al-Ansari, deputy director, Brig Khalid Al Mikrad, and Madina and Hilali center director, Maj Yacoub Al Qattan, were also present. The training is part of the monthly training that gives firemen an opportunity to practise to enhance their skills and test their physical fitness. They also learn to anticipate how to deal with different accidents. — Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

LOCAL

Falah urges interaction among Arab monetary systems KUWAIT: It is essential to enable smoother and easier trading among Arab stock markets and interaction among Arab monetary systems and to tighten supervision and legislation regulating this field, said President of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Saleh AlFalah here addressing a specialized meeting, yesterday. The official was addressing the seventh session of the Union of Arab Securities Authorities (UASA), and he stressed the Arab region is before great changes that bring about great challenge, which requires coordination and joint effort as well as unification of standards and legislation. We are in

need, he said, of flexible while specific guidelines and mechanisms, as well as transparency and foresight to prepare for possible hurdles and avoid crises and disruptions. Al-Falah said Arab securities authorities need to improve their transparency, data announcement, governance, and related systems. The performance of markets hinges upon the adequacy of legislation and of implementation mechanisms and on efficiency of follow up and supervision mechanisms. When it comes to data issued, he noted the purport as well as timing of data is critical to investors’ decision-making. Studies indicate many impediments to transparency in

Arab markets, he continued, including inadequacy of legislation relating to separating the legislative role of state-appointed market authority from the executive role of market management. There is also lack of financial and administrative independence. Other impediments relate to absence of binding regulations that require companies to heed accounting and auditing criteria, demands of transparency, and absence of legislation regarding credentials and professional requirements for auditors accountants, and there is also absence of professional criteria for brokerage firms and staff. — KUNA

Women to join Air Force? KUWAIT: Women in the Kuwaiti military could soon be allowed to join the Kuwaiti Air Force, a local newspaper reported yesterday quoting insiders familiar with the case. Speaking to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity, the sources indicated that a study to allow servicewomen to join the Air Force came after “only seven servicemen applied for pilot courses.” “The decision was made afterwards to shift attention to Kuwaiti women who have already proven their competency in the security

field,” they added. Once the study is concluded, it will be referred to the cabinet for a final decision on the matter, the sources said. They added that Kuwaiti women are likely to start flying helicopters and cargo planes if the decision was approved. Separately, Ministry of Defense insiders revealed that several senior military officials are reportedly “upset” by a recent decision to terminate the services of citizens of Gulf nations in Kuwait’s military, and are pushing to have the decision reverted.

The sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity indicated that the officials’ position stems from the fact that the decision was in conflict with the instructions given by Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. The latter had called to retain Kuwait army members who are citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The sources also indicated that the officials believe that releasing the GCC servicemen will reflect ‘ingratitude’ since they have served for over thirty years in the Kuwaiti military.

KUWAIT: As per the decision of municipal council affair ministers of GCC states, the assistant general director for planning and development sector in Kuwait municipality, Eng Ahmad Almanfouhi, inaugurated a workshop in the field of health services (unfit foodstuff) at Movenpick hotel. Almanfouhi hailed the role of imported foodstuff administration in this respect and hailed the good work being done to detect food items unfit for human consumption. Such items were being confiscated from the stores and destroyed, besides legal action in the matter. — Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Interior minister discusses MPs’ recommendations KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah discussed with leading security ﬁgures recommendations by a number of Members of the Parliament that aimed at achieving a high and profes-

sional level of security in the country. The meeting was attended by the Ministry’s Undersecretary Lieutenant General Ghazi Al-Omar, assistant undersecretaries and departments’ directors. During the meeting, the Minister

Water reserve stable KUWAIT: Water consumption exceeded production levels on most days last month, according to a Ministry of Electricity and Water insider who reassured that the ministry was able to keep the country’s strategic reserves stable. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source said in a press statement Saturday that the highest consumption rate was recorded on Jan 13 at 349,309 million imperial gallons, while 314,468 million were produced the same

day. The strategic reserve settled at 3,785,187 million imperial gallons by the end of that day, the source added. Meanwhile, the insider indicated that electricity load levels dropped significantly last month with the highest total level of consumption recorded on January 29 at 5610 megawatts. The lowest recorded on the same day was 3870 megawatts. The source attributed low temperature as the main reason behind the drop in electricity consumption.

gave clear directions on eliminating all obstacles and facilitating all means to bring those recommendations to light in order to achieve a high level of performance at the ministry’s various bodies. He also noted that means of technologies and advanced managerial systems should be applied in line with the ministry’s work in order to offer secured and smooth services to the public. He stressed that police and security personnel should be trustworthy and loyal so they could deal with events and circumstances objectively. Sheikh Ahmad expressed faith in the country’s security personnel and encouraged senior officers to take the security and safety of the homeland and its people seriously. He also urged them to persevere with unconditional loyalty and confidence towards their great duty to this country. On recurrent traffic jams, the minister promised to find permanent solutions for such daily problem.— KUNA

UAE funds study on food taste, depression ABU DHABI: The UAE’s National Authority for Scientific Research (NASR) has financed a fresh study on the connection between food taste and depression in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. The study, the first of its kind in the world, has been carried out by a constellation of researchers at the UAE’s Zayed University as part of a three-survey project. The study involves new innovative uses of taste as a sign of the possibility of having depression by means of looking

into the link between tasting food and tastelessness as a main symptom of depression and other mental health diseases. The head of the research team Dr Justin Thomas, assistant professor at Zayed University, said in news remarks that the study was the first of its kind in the world to find out the connection between tasting food and depression in the GCC member states. He said the findings of the study marked a basis for two scientific papers to be published in two scientific periodicals. The second study

focuses on the discovery of, and investigation into, two theories that, to a large point, have something to do with understanding the disease, he said. They are the theory of imbalances of mental attitudes and the “Becky” theory, which is the most common about knowledge imbalance. He noted that the project as a whole was mainly intended to ﬁnd out innovative understanding of depression symptom and points of knowledge weakness which marks factors of psychological dangers of patients. —KUNA

MADRID: The Touristic Enterprises Company is representing Kuwait at the International Tourism Fair in Madrid. The company participated in at all the events and the international activities of the festival in order to highlight Kuwait’s distinctive touristic characteristics.

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah receiving yesterday at Seif Palace Bassam Saed Fariha, Elham Saed Fariha and Mohammad Ali Ghabris on the occasion of ther visit to the country.

Fibre cables to all Kuwaiti areas ‘within two years’ Internet speed problem continues By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: While some in Kuwait complain about the slow speed of internet, others find it too costly. The local internet service providers agreed that the old infrastructure was partially responsible for this situation, but refrained from blaming the Ministry of Communication for the state of affairs. According to Mohammed from the Gulf Net, most complaints come from subscribers using the internet through landlines DSL. “Now, many Kuwait areas have fibre-optic cables instead of landline ones, and this has solved the problem to a significant extent. We usually do not receive complaints from customers using net through fibre cables, unless ten users were connected to a single modem which will definitely decrease the speed,” he told the Kuwait Times. The old landline cables are very old, in certain cases even up to 40 years. “These cables were installed alongside land telephone lines about 40 years ago and may be a cause of the problems, especially if laid next to drainage pipes. At times, these could be affected by

rains also, thus affecting the speed. Also, there could be other factors impacting the performance of these cables, such as the floor at which a customer uses the net, or the connecting cables. Any reconstruction activity along the roads may also affect the quality of service as it causes vibrations in case of landlines,” added Mohammed. Currently, there are some areas completely covered by fibre-optic cables, while work was in progress in others. “According to the Ministry of Communication, all Kuwait areas will be covered by fibre cables within two years. I think that the Ministry is doing a good job, and with the fibre cables, the internet speed has increased a lot when compared to what it was in the past. These days, the minimum speed is 1 MB, and it can reach even 40 MB or more, depending upon the service cost. Previously, the internet service providers were able to regulate the price but currently, the Ministry has set a limit which we cannot cross. Thus, the prices are unified and the companies only compete by offering promotions,” he concluded. Anas from Quality Net explained the difference in internet speeds in

different countries. “Countries such as the United States or the United Kingdome are themselves internet service providers. They do not have to pay for it but they sell it to other consuming countries such as Kuwait. Thus, we pay more for it. Also, since the number of users there is much more than in Kuwait, the companies can make big money even if the users were to pay a minimal fee. It is just like the GCC countries selling oil at a much higher price than the price at which people consume the fuel locally,” he explained. He also praised the role of the Ministry of Communication for executing projects such as the fibreoptic cables. “In fact, this project improved the internet service in Kuwait considerably. Currently, more than a quarter of the population in Kuwait is using fibre cables. The Ministry is currently working on Salwa and Rumeythia areas which are almost covered, and will very soon work on Adan and Salmiya, with the rest following later. Also, wherever an internet service providing company is able to connect the user to a fibre cable, he will have to pay extra money,” stressed Anas.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

LOCAL in my view

In my view

Egypt on a learning curve

$1.3billion from Iraq for Kuwait

By Amir Taheri

ntering its second year, the uprising that brought down President Mubarak is still trying to define itself. Would it evolve into full-fledged revolution with all the risks involved? Or will it be a parenthesis between two military regimes? Judging by events of the past week Egypt may appear to be bracing for a giant revolutionary leap into the unknown. Footage of hooded youths in street battles against the security forces, with burning vehicles in the background, depicted scenes of urban guerrilla. Groups using the Black Bloc brand name have been on hand to add colour, recalling anarchist violence in Europe in the 1960s.

By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

Mursi must never forget that he is president of all Egyptians and as such must bear even with those who challenge him with street riots. In the past week or so, however, he has overreacted, triggering the reflex of the old regime by calling in the army. However, the possibility of the second option, that of a new military-dominated regime, also looks serious if only thanks to General Abdul-Fattah Al-Sissi’s musings on his Facebook page. The general has warned that “differences concerning the management of the country could lead to a collapse of the state and threaten the future generations.” I think a third option may be possible and, hopefully, more likely. Egypt is neither moving towards revolution nor a new military dictatorship. The rioters, including Black Bloc, have nothing positive to offer the Egyptian people. As for the military, they would do well to find other subjects to play with on their Facebook page. Of the three options available, the third one, building the institutions of a pluralist state is hardest to achieve. It requires patience and imagination on the part of President Muhammad Mursi and those of his opponents who take a longer view of things. Mursi must never forget that he is president of all Egyptians and as such must bear even with those who challenge him with street riots. In the past week or so, however, he has overreacted, triggering the reflex of the old regime by calling in the army. Imposing the state of emergency was a mistake, not only because it reminded people of the bad old days but because it exposed his government’s nervousness. Facing opponents who want to provoke him, Mursi’s best bet was not to be provoked. Mursi, however, played into the hands of the party of provocation. The party of provocation is divided into two camps. One wants to pull the nation’s politics into the streets and provoke the Muslim Brotherhood into urban guerrilla. It would then use such an event as the excuse to call on the military to “save the nation from annihilation” as suggested on General Al-Sissi’s Facebook page. A second camp hopes to turn the “street” into a counter-weight to a presidency backed by the Brotherhood’s shadowy underground networks. In both cases, the politics of provocation could bring nothing but misery for Egypt. The last thing Egypt wants is another military dictatorship. Also, putting the “street” in the driving seat could prevent Egypt from dealing with its problems in a serious manner. Contrary to Al-Sissi’s claim, street riots do not threaten the survival of the state. The general should also know that “differences concerning the management of the country” are normal in any civlised society. Mursi and his government do not have a monopoly on wisdom and patriotism and should be challenged where and when necessary. However, the opposition also needs to review its copy. Right now, we have a great deal of dissent but little real opposition in Egypt. Dissent means rejecting the options offered by the power in place without subjecting them to critical analysis and offering alternatives. A dissenter says: I don’t like this! But he cannot say what he does want. In the politics of dissent those in charge of government are judged by intentions attributed to them. The dissident rejects the man in charge because of what that man did in the past or might do in the future. Opposition is something different. Real opposition is capable of indicating both what it does not like and what it does want. More importantly, it judges those in charge not on the basis of assumed intentions but concrete acts. Thus, Mursi should be judged not by what he might do but by what he has done and is doing. In virtually all circumstances, governments and oppositions learn from one another and modulate their respective strategies accordingly. An opposition that pushes politics towards violence is bound to end up facing violence from the state. Conversely, a government using violence against opponents sows the seeds of violence against itself. An intellectually lazy government breeds an opposition that is equally lazy intellectually. Birds of the same feather not only fly together but, in politics at least, also fight one another. Unleashing the police to bludgeon demonstrators into silence is a sign of intellectual laziness on the part of Mursi’s government. At the same time, setting dustbins on fire, to the chagrin of the zabbaleen in Cairo, exposes dissidents who cannot offer credible opposition to Mursi’s fragile government. Mursi and “street” dissidents are in the same boat. If the boots return to the presidential palace both Mursi and the Black Bloc could share the same dungeon. If on the other hand, Egyptian cities are turned into battlegrounds for rival armed bands there would be no place for Mursi, who is not a street-fighter, and the opportunist politicians who are trying to surf to power on a wave of “street” anger. New Egypt is on a learning curve. Both Mursi and those of his opponents who want a democratic Egypt must take a deep breath. Mursi should learn to behave like a president rather than a party leader. His opponents should learn to behave like an opposition not a bunch of dissidents.

kuwait digest

‘No shame, no blame’ By Dr Salwa Al-Jassar

nyone who keenly tracks what is being published in our newspapers day in and day out would surely feel sorry and sad about the unprecedented number of reports about violations of ethics and lack of the sound civic behaviour and traditions which were part of our upbringing in Kuwait. Social and cultural variables, our diverse origins, technological advancement and other rapid modern changes have directly or indirectly affected the conduct and morals of some among us. The problem is that in our modern Muslim society, some people have no manners and little shame, and as the wise saying goes: ‘No shame, no blame.’ The abundant material resources and state welfare which people are enjoying nowadays, coupled with weak religious commitment, easy access to certain websites and a lack of social or family control, is causing many people to err and be carried away by lusty forbidden joys. Since there is little shame involved these days, some people have no problem in indulging in certain acts in public which they would have only done in private earlier. Such practices

are quite evident in universities, schools, parks and malls and they all indicate a lack of shyness and undesirable boldness. What about shame before the almighty Allah? Where is the role of families in bringing up children with good manners, addressing any proclivity towards wayward behaviour and teaching them self-restraint? Whatever happened to the role expected of the schools? How is the entire educational process addressing this issue and why are our teachers not presenting themselves as the role models? Schools are not just meant to teach certain academic curricula, they should also play a part in inculcating morals and good behaviour practices among the students. The media also shared the same responsibility. Sections of audio-visual media have negatively affected individual conduct, undermined their shyness, jeopardized their morals and distracted them from their ideologies. Therefore, we need to cooperate on educational, familial, media and social levels to bring up our children to value good conduct, social shame and selfrestraint and avoid unnecessary temptations. — Al-Watan

The abundant material resources and state welfare which people are enjoying nowadays, coupled with weak religious commitment, easy access to certain websites and a lack of social or family control, is causing many people to err and be carried away by lusty forbidden joys.

kuwait digest

Syria donors conference By Dr Hassan Abbas

would not be exaggerating when I say that Kuwait made a very smart decision in hosting a conference to collect donations for Syria and inviting countries around the world to attend. The conference was a success because it achieved its goal. The conference succeeded because it achieved its target of collecting $1.5 billion, a target that the host country Kuwait had indicated beforehand. It is true that Kuwait donated fifth of that amount, and that the Gulf states (except for Oman and Yemen) have collectively donated nearly 60 percent of the total amount, but Kuwait’s displayed able leadership, given its long experience in foreign relations, in collecting donations from various countries and humanitarian groups until it achieved the desired figure. The conference can also be called successful given the number and variety of countries in attendance. The wide attendance was enough proof of the high level of importance the conference was given. Not only that,

but the conference saw parties with different takes on the Syrian crisis share the same table. Representatives of countries supporting the armed opposition were sitting face to face with countries supporting the Syrian regime; something that was never seen in other conferences including those which took place simultaneously with Kuwait’s such as Geneva’s. The conference was also able to diagnose the problem accurately. In other words, it was directed to help the suffering people of Syria and thus attracted wide participation. Notwithstanding the fact that I may seem biased since I am a Kuwaiti, I would like to add that I believe Kuwait was outstandingly successful through this conference in solidifying its orthodox position as a peace loving country which is found standing by people in need or suffering injustice. What a great deference between this conference and the efforts of certain other countries which resulted in more victims and bloodshed. — Al-Rai

kuwait digest

The ‘soft’ Parliament By Dr Wael Al-Hasawi

uring a recent conversation between a government official and a veteran lawmaker, the official praised the parliament for “approving a slew of draft laws that the government has been pushing for during the tenures of the previous parliaments.” The MP’s response was to urge the government to “seize the opportunity of working with a soft parliament and pass all pending laws.” Of course, it is a good thing to see through important regulations at the earliest which have been pending for years, such as the Kuwait Airways privatization law which would allow the carrier to renew its fleet. But I would like to take a minute and consider the MP’s description of the parliament as ‘soft.’ The MP was not complementing the parliament here, but was basically referring to the fact that it lacks such members in sufficient numbers who can oppose draft laws forwarded by the government. He was also referring to the fact that many lawmakers try to please the government at any cost, and that the government tries to maintain good relations with the parliament in order to

It is a good thing to see through important regulations at the earliest which have been pending for years, such as the Kuwait Airways privatization law which would allow the carrier to renew its fleet. But I would like to take a minute and consider the MP’s description of the parliament as ‘soft.’

keep the opposition in check. Of course, it is still too early to judge the parliament’s performance since it has not finished the first phase of its work. The parliament agreed with the government on 18 topics to be given priority in discussion before the end of the first parliamentary term. These topics are very significant as they include unemployment insurance, small projects, food security authority, telecommunications authority, authority to combat money laundering and anti-discrimination authority laws. But with only five months before the end of the first parliamentary term, MPs have already made their intentions clear and plan to file grilling motions against ministers. These include MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai who announced his plan to file an interpellation against the Finance Minister, Mustafa Al-Shamali, who opposed efforts to write off the interests accrued on Kuwaits’ loans. This grilling is likely to open the door for other motions, which eventually will take attention away from passing priority laws and send us back to square one. — Al-Rai

he latest payment towards the $1.3 billion in compensation to be paid by Iraq to Kuwait via the UN backed Compensation Commission in the wake of invasion of the state in 1990 to make up for the damages that Kuwait suffered on account of destruction of its oil wells can as well prove to be a step towards opening of new doors and leaving the past behind. Iraq, which is towards the north of the Kuwaiti borders, is an Arab and a Muslim neighbouring country. Both are members of the UN and the Arab League. Given the big difference in size and population between the two countries and their geographical standing, we in Kuwait must encourage all means of cooperation and coordination. Not only this, in times of international financial crisis, Kuwait can be a real hub for many countries willing to enter Iraq for more investments. Moreover, Kuwait can go in for a number of private projects in Basra or Om Qaser ports and enter into joined ventures with the government there and/or other international companies willing to secure, rebuild and operate many projects. Without doubt, new investments can help create jobs for thousands of unemployed youngsters and prevent them from veering towards terrorism or crime. If all parties worked diligently along these lines, it will surely help the cause of peace, security, development and a better future for all.

kuwait digest

The ‘Armstrong’ democracy By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

ome opposition enthusiasts are engaging in discussions on Twitter these days about what they believe is the hypocrisy of liberals and democrats when they refuse to acknowledge the victory of the other party in a democratic fight. I do not know how they even allow themselves to criticize the so called liberals as a way to show support to the other party. As long as there are other than liberals and democrats, should not these parties be considered illiberal and undemocratic? Where is the problem then?

The majority of these comments are posted by people who remain anonymous, or sometimes certain known people such as my dear fellow activist, Shafiq AlGhabra, who once described those who refused to accept the election results as ‘fake liberals.’ Of course, I have been mentioned in these discussions, given my support for the last elections’ results, which basically makes me as someone against the outcome of previous elections. The majority of these comments are posted by people who remain anonymous, or sometimes certain known people such as my dear fellow activist, Shafiq AlGhabra, who once described those who refused to accept the election results as ‘fake liberals.’ Of course, I have been mentioned in these discussions, given my support for the last elections’ results, which basically makes me as someone against the outcome of previous elections. In reality, I have never rejected the last parliament’s elections, despite announcing my general rejection of all election results, specifically those after the forged parliament in 1967. This coincides with the news of American cyclist Lance Armstrong who, after years of speculation, was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for violating the competition’s anti-doping regulations. I am using this as an analogy since it is similar to the action of not recognizing the election results. All parliaments in Kuwait’s history are basically much like the Lance Armstrongs winning with the help of some dope. All results and MPs are also like Lance Armstrong: they violated the election norms and are opposed to the democratic system and principles. I mentioned this simple example because one cannot be too brief to talk about conditions required for a democratic atmosphere based on freedom, aware voters and candidates who believe in the principles of freedom, justice and equality. We also have to mention the lack of equal opportunities for candidates in Kuwait, as tribal and sectarian groups have a better shot at the hustings, hanks to their financial assets, licensed headquarters, social blocs, as well as ideological dominance through school curricula and official media outlets, not to mention the press law protecting their beliefs. There is no real democratic atmosphere in Kuwait, nor is there any social freedom. We do have elections that are fair to an extent, but we do not have democracy. Democracy requires equal opportunities, a belief in pluralism and de-centralisation of power, respect for others’ freedoms and above all, a belief in freedom, justice and equality. This is seen neither during, nor before or even after the elections held in Kuwait. — Al-Qabas

LOCAL

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

$13bn infrastructure investment underpins tourism development KUWAIT: Kuwait’s $13billion investment in its transport infrastructure is driving its tourism sector, according to government officials. In a recent interview, Khaled Al-Ghanim, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, Kuwait Tourism Co. confirmed that in addition to government projects, Touristic Enterprises Co is also planning to launch a raft of entertainment, sports and tourism projects valued at up to $460m, boosting Kuwait’s regional status. Recognising Kuwait’s potential, Alpen Capital reported growth in CAGR for the hospitality sector at 8.1% over the period 2011-16. Alpen’s October 2012 GCC Hospitality Industry Report, estimates 2012-13 GDP growth of 3-5% and a strong business travel base. The development of Kuwait’s existing leisure and business infrastructure is also set to drive new inbound business, with steady tourism growth over the last decade, leading to an increase in international tourist arrivals of 13% for the period 2001-2011, and tourism receipts of $5.3bn in 2011. By 2015, Kuwait hopes to welcome one million tourist arrivals per annum, and Reed Travel Exhibitions, organiser of Arabian Travel Market (ATM), will meet with industry leaders to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the country as part of its annual GCC & Levant road show series, with the first event kicking off in Kuwait City at the JW Marriot on Feb 3. The road show will visit eight destinations over a two-week period, with similar sessions taking place in Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman and the UAE. “Kuwait is now midway through its latest five-year tourism plan, which has leisure sector growth as its primary focus. This is supported in the mid to long term by an investment of $6bn to expand the capital’s airport, with a second terminal by 2016, and a new $7bn metro system which will be operational by 2020,” said Mark Walsh, Portfolio Director, Reed Travel Exhibitions.

Zain offers discount on Sri Lanka calls KUWAIT: Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, has announced that it will offer a 50% percent discount on all SMS messages to Sri Lanka and 20% discount on International calls to Sri Lanka as they celebrate the Independence Day today (Feb 4) Zain Kuwait expressed its congratulations on this occasion to the people of Sri Lanka, represented in its leadership, the embassy and all Sri Lanka expatriates’ residing in Kuwait. The company said that Zain is a global company which is always keen to participate in the celebrations of nations. The Company stated that the offer is extended to all SMS and International calls sent to Sri Lanka only on Feb 4 for both post-paid and pre-paid customers.

Kuwait hosts meeting of GCC radio managers KUWAIT: The 12th meeting of radio managers at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries’ Joint Program Production Institution (GCCJPPI) kicked off here yesterday, where new media strategies were discussed. The Executive Director of GCCJPPI Abdulmohsen Al-Bannai said in his opening speech that the new strategies would focus on creating programs that would re-define the unified identity and culture of the GCC people in a lively and innovative manner to attract audiences’ attention. Al-Bannai expressed appreciation to the attention given by Kuwait’s Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah that facilitated holding this two-day meeting. The GCC radio managers’ meeting, chaired by Bahrain, discussed a report that included the institution’s last year’s programs, programs that are still under production and those that will be produced in 2013. It also tackled two draft documents. One was from Gulf Radio and TV Corporation on the joining of the Gulf radio stations and the internet radio to the membership of the Gulf Radio and TV body. The second draft document was presented by Bahrain on enlisting the production of programs on culture, arts and heritage, as well as children programs on the GCC Joint Program Production’s plan for 2013. — KUNA

Voters urged to register with listing committee KUWAIT: Ministry of Interior called on citizens and electors yesterday to present their queries to the Kuwaiti voter listing committee, each in their specific residential area by this month. The applicant should be a Kuwaiti national, of 21 years old by February of the year 2012. The Ministry said in press remarks that the First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud AlJaber Al-Sabah issued a decree of dividing and determining the locations of electoral lists commission. The commission will commence their activities by end of this month, the ministry added. The ministry edited the inscription process by listing 20-year-old Kuwaiti citizens of those meeting the conditions required by the suffrage law. This edition also includes listing voters who were unjustly neglected in previous electoral lists, as well as canceling the names of deceased citizens, those losing one of the voting conditions since the last review of voters who were illegally listed, and citizens who changed their residential address. —KUNA

“Tourist arrivals are also expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.9% between 2012 and 2022. Kuwait has the highest proportion of budget hotels in the region (around 22%) and the potential to capture a broad international target audience offers exciting prospects for leisure project developers looking at opportunities in and around Kuwait City,” he added. The Alpen Capital report noted a 1.9% drop in average daily rate (ADR) for Q1 2012 accompanied by a decline in occupancy over the same period, but forecasts mid-term occupancy rate growth to rise from 58% in 2011 to 62.5% in 2016, with ADR to grow at a CAGR of 1.3% to reach $260 by 2016. The report also stated that hotel supply in UAE is expected to increase at a CAGR of 5.3% from 96,992 hotel rooms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to 125,383 hotel rooms in 2016. Currently, there are 93 properties in the planning and construction phase in the UAE. According to the HVS Dubai 2012 report, Saudi Arabia and the UAE remain the most important regional source markets, with the UK accounting for around 15% of annual demand as the largest European source market. Held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai and set to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the show has grown to become the largest showcase of its kind in the region and one of the biggest in the world.

KUWAIT: Ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) So Chang Sik visited the Kuwait Times on Thursday and held talks with Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dr Ziyad Al-Alyan.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

LOCAL

Businessman’s killer linked to two armed robberies Firefighters help heavyweight KUWAIT: Investigations into the killing of an Egyptian businessman last month are moving closer to zero-in on the suspect after sleuths found that similarities in the bullets found at the scene of the crime in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and those found at the scene of a previous robbery in the same area as well as one in Hawally. The discovery came during investigations into an armed robbery reported at a Hawally jewellery shop on Jan 23 in which a shopkeeper was injured when two bullets hit him. On Jan 29, a thief robbed KD 7,500 from a currency exchange shop in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh after firing two gunshots that hit the wall. The detectives found that the bullets recovered from both the crime scenes matched those recovered from the Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh real estate office where businessman Haroun Abdul-Aziz was shot dead on January 6th, and were fired from the same 22mm handgun. Detectives from the Criminal Investigations General Depar tment and Criminal Evidence General Department are reportedly working together to identify and arrest the suspect. Policeman’s attacker Police arrested a man identified as the person who attacked an officer during a demonstration in Sabah Al-Nasser a few weeks ago. The officer was reportedly attacked when his patrol vehicle was caught in traffic at the Sixth Ring Road after protestors blocked the road. The man was identified on the basis of a photo circulated on social media which showed him

kicking the patrol vehicle before the policeman was attacked. He remains in custody pending legal procedures while search is on for another person he said was his accomplice in the attack. Suicide attempts A middle-aged man tried to commit suicide inside the Khaitan police station where he was held pending investigations, but survived. The 45-year-old Kuwaiti reportedly tried to hang himself but police intervened to save him. He was taken to the Farwaniya Hospital for treatment. Meanwhile, a Khaitan resident who tried to bleed himself to death by slashing his wrists at his home was hospitalized in a critical condition. The 35-year-old Iranian was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Farwaniya Hospital where he was rushed in an ambulance even as he was bleeding heavily. Obese patient Firefighters rushed to a Mubarak Al-Kabeer home recently after a Kuwaiti family called for help in lifting an obese patient to take him to hospital for medical attention. The family was unable to move the heavyweight man out of his room, and he had to wait until firefighters from the Qurain Fire Station arrived and helped him into an ambulance. Drug smuggler A truck driver who came in from Iraq was arrested on Saturday at the Abdaly border

checkpoint on charges of drug smuggling. The Syrian man betrayed nervousness when and raised suspicions when he asked customs oﬃcials to hurry up with the entry procedures. He was placed under arrest after two plastic bags containing a total of 2000 drug pills were found hidden in the backlight of his truck. He was taken to the proper authorities to face charges. Bootlegger arrested A bootlegger was arrested in Al-Nugra after local police laid a trap for him. An undercover agent was reportedly tasked with buying alcoholic drinks from the American man, based on information received about his illegal activity in liquor trade. The man was caught red handed along with bottles of imported liquor and taken to the proper authorities to face charges. KD1,000 theft A company employee was arrested shortly after he disappeared with money that his employer had asked him to deposit in his bank account. The Kuwaiti man grew suspicious after his Arab employee failed to answer his phone when he called to check since he seemed to taking too much time. The employer checked his bank account and discovered that the KD1000 he had handed to his employee were never deposited. He headed to the Jahra police station afterwards and pressed theft charges against the suspect, who was later arrested from an apar tment shared by workers in Amghara.

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shimali and other officials at the opening the fifth branch of Warba Bank in Farwaniya.

KUWAIT: VIVA team with Amal Al-Sayer, chairwoman of the Kuwait Association for Learning Differences

VIVA sponsors Conference on Learning Difficulties KUWAIT: Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom operator, VIVA, announced the successful conclusion of its sponsorship of the Second International Conference on Learning Difficulties and Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder: Assessment and Intervention. The two day conference was organized by Kuwaiti Association for Learning Differences (KALD), in collaboration with Fawzia Sultan Educational Company (FAWSEC) and the Middle East Psychological Association (MEPA) and took place at the American University of Kuwait. This second conference was organized due to the outstanding success the inaugural conference witnessed in 2011, which was a huge attraction to the education sector in Kuwait and abroad. Commenting on this sponsorship, VIVA Chief Executive Officer, Eng. Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Badran said, “This conference is a life changing initiative that will only make a difference in the lives of so many students that have so much to offer. VIVA’s support stems from its belief in the value of the youth’s potential, and its capabilities to change the world if supported and backed with the necessary guidance and tools, and it is imperative that the three main elements; students, families and teachers, work hand in hand to achieve these farreaching results.” The conference was led by a leading

group of 67 professionals, experts and lecturers from Kuwait and the MENA region, India, US and the United Kingdom. A series of lectures, workshops and symposia were provided by this group that focused on parents, teachers and specialists and their significant role in the lives of these children. VIVA will continue to support such initiatives that, without a doubt, will only make Kuwait’s future brighter and better. VIVA is the newest, most advanced mobile telecommunications service provider in Kuwait. Launched in December 2008, VIVA makes things Possible for our customers by transforming communication, information and entertainment experiences. The company has rapidly established an unrivalled position in the market through our customer and employee centric approach. VIVA’s quest is to be the mobile brand of choice for Kuwait by being transparent, engaging, energetic and fulfilling. VIVA is growing its share of the market by offering an innovative range of best value products, services and content propositions, a state of the art nationwide network, and world-class service. VIVA is able to offer internet speed up to 42.2Mbpsdue to its investment in developing Kuwait’s most advanced third generation (3G and HSDPA) network. This delivers superior coverage, performance and reliability.

Kuwait’s economic situation good: Al-Shimali KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shimali underscored here yesterday that the economic situation in Kuwait is “good” and does not suffer any problems, calling for more efforts to consolidate and develop business dealings and take the necessary speed to implement developmental projects in the country. The minister said in a statement after opening the fifth branch of Warba Bank in Farwaniya in the presence of the Bank Chairman and Managing Director Jassar Dakheel Al-Jassar that the government is “working on the implementation of the directives of His Highness the Amir to boost the national economy.” He added that in parallel of that, plans made

by former and current ministers are also being taken into account to move the economy forward. He said that the opening of more branches for any banking institution operating in Kuwait “is an added value to support this sector,” pointing out that the opening of a new branch for Warba Bank in a short period of time is also an added milestone in building a banking base in Kuwait. On the government’s support for the banking sector, whether Islamic, conventional or foreign, Al-Shimali said that banks operate according to a ﬁxed system and speciﬁc criteria of the Central Bank of Kuwait, which regulates all Islamic and conventional banks.

For his part, Al-Jassar said the opening of this branch in Farwaniya completes the strategic expansion pursued by the Bank, which is the latest Kuwaiti bank that is compatible with the provisions of Islamic law, adding that the branch is the biggest among the Warba Bank branches that have opened so far. Asked about the arrangements made by the Bank recently with local and foreign banks to arrange the ﬁnancing of the National Industries’ Company’s compound; worth KD 100 million, AlJassar said that despite newness of the bank, “it was able to fund the National Industries Company’s project in coordination with other banks.” He anticipated that other deals outside Kuwait would be implemented soon. —KUNA

GCC should invest in renewable energy for viable growth ABU DHABI: Gulf oil producers need to pump funds into renewable energy sources and give more attention to conservation measures to ensure sustainable growth and manage their supplydemand balance, according to a key British business publishing group. The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which control over 40 percent of the world’s proven oil resources, already have plans to invest heavily in the conventional energy sector to meeting rising domestic power and water demand but they also need to focus on the other sources of energy. “In the coming years, far more attention will need to be placed on demand supply management. To ensure sustainable growth in the long-term, more investment needs to be channeled towards energy-eﬃciency measures such as clean fuel and renewable energy supplies, improving water eﬃciency, investing in new water

desalination capacity and buying or leasing agricultural land abroad,” said Debbie StanfordKristiansen, International Events Director at PennWell Corporation Middle East. “In view of the demand-supply gap and abundant availability of sunlight as a resource in the GCC, more emphasis needs to be placed on solar power as a viable energy source to meet emerging needs. In order to cater to peak loads, GCC Governments need to implement new projects to mitigate ageing power infrastructure and support new diversiﬁcation plans,” she said. Conservation measures, she added, such as energy eﬃcient buildings, district cooling, metering and grid interconnections which were slowly gaining higher priority, would also need to be pursued and enforced much more rigorously. Stanford-Kristiansen made the remarks to Iris Media ahead of the PowerGEN Middle East and

WaterWorld Middle East conference and exhibition, due to be held in Doha, Qatar, during Feb 46. She said multi-billion dollar projects are on the cards in the GCC and other Arab countries, including nearly $17 billion in Saudi Arabia in 2013. Projects worth about $4.2 billion are also planned in the UAE and Kuwait. She said that rising oil and gas prices combined with increasing domestic power requirements were prompting GCC governments to increase investments in the power and water sector, as well as secure alternative sources of energy. “For most Arab states, raising the contribution of solar and wind power in the energy mix is only one part of the renewables drive. Increasingly, governments realise the need for nurturing new solar-related manufacturing, which will not only create muchneeded employment but also assist in economic diversiﬁcation,” she added.

Stanford-Kristiansen said high oil prices allowed GCC countries to fund costly energy and industrial projects. “This is particularly evident in the GCC where now, the most pressing issue facing the utility market is obtaining new and competitively priced gas allocations,” she said. She noted that the increase in competition for the feedstock was forcing utilities in the region to consider new technology and alternative energy production, such as coal, nuclear and solar for the ﬁrst time. “Financing for future projects needs to come from private financial corporations such as the International Finance Corporation which is part of the World Bank Group, together with a consortium of international development finance institutions led by FMO. Lenders include other banks and Infrastructure Funds,” added Stanford-Kristiansen. —KUNA

Linden U.S. University Fair KUWAIT: The Linden U.S. University Fair will be held at the Marina Hotel in Salmiya today at 6:00 pm. The fair will host representatives from 12 universities throughout the U.S. This fair is organized by Linden Educational Tours in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy. Education USA advisers will be present at the fair to address students’ questions about education in the U.S. In addition, U.S. Embassy Consular Oﬃcers

will answer questions about the student visa process. The Linden University Fair gives Kuwaiti students a chance to meet with representatives from accredited U.S institutions so that they can explore possibilities and pursue their goals in higher education. More information about studying in the United States can be found at http://www.educationusa.state.gov/.

KUWAIT: Peter Ford, representative of the UNRWA Commissioner-General, pictured with Kuwait Red Crescent Society chief Barjas Al-Barjas and other officials.

UNRWA praises initiatives to limit Palestinians’ suffering KUWAIT: The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) lauded yesterday Kuwait’s humanitarian initiatives to limit the suffering of Palestinian people at home and abroad. Kuwait’s contribution to UNRWA comes under the framework of Kuwaiti leadership’s keenness in alleviating the suffering of Palestinians through providing assistance and contributing in the organization’s budget, Peter Ford, representative of the UNRWA CommissionerGeneral, said in a press statement following his meeting with Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) Chief Barjas AlBarjas, affirming Kuwait’s non-hesitant role in assisting the Palestinian people. Ford expressed UNRWA’s appreciation to KRCS for supporting the organization, as well as to its continuation in providing its services to refugees, pointing out at the same time the financial society’s support to UNRWA.

On his meeting with Al-Barjas, Ford indicated that they discussed number of KRCS’ relief and development projects provided for Palestinians in occupied lands, adding that the meeting has also addressed the urgent situation of Palestinian refugees in Syria resulted from escalation of fighting and violence in that country, and fleeing of around 10,000s of refugees to UNRWA’s facilities and refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. On his part, Al-Barjas said Palestine represents KRCS’ most important working areas, where it provide humanitarian aid in cooperation with several partners, including UNRWA, affirming KRCS’s seeking in providing all types of support and aid for the Palestinians, whether financial or spiritual. Also, he pointed out coordination between KRCS and UNRWA in alleviating the suffering of Palestinians. —KUNA

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Alabama hostage situation in secrecy

Fatal gang rape shatters Indian family’s dreams Page 11

Page 10

CAIRO: Egyptian anti-government protesters shout slogans holding candles outside the Presidential Palace during a demonstration on February 2, 2013 in Cairo. — AFP

Clashes outside Egypt presidential palace Beaten man in video shown blaming protesters CAIRO: Sporadic clashes broke out overnight between protesters demanding the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and security forces outside the presidential palace, witnesses said yesterday. There were no reports of casualties from the confrontations which follow violent clashes on Friday outside the presidential palace that left one person dead. Late on Saturday several hundred mostly young protesters again gathered outside the compound and threw stones and petrol bombs at its walls, an AFP correspondent said. One protester said they were there to pay homage to the young man killed on Friday, and they chanted “Leave!” and “The people want the regime to fall!”-slogans used two years earlier against ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak. Security forces deployed outside the palace grounds fired tear gas overnight when protesters tried to storm one of the gates, the witnesses said. The head of the military ’s Republican Guards, tasked with protecting the presidency, said his troops would ignore “provocation” from protesters, the official MENA news agency reported. The main opposition National Salvation Front (NSF), meanwhile, called for the resignation of Interior Minister Mohammed

Ibrahim after a video showing a naked man being beaten by police during Friday’s protest went viral on the Internet. The beating was “an inhumane spectacle... no less ugly than the killings of martyrs, which is considered a continuation of the security force’s programme of excessive force,” the opposition bloc said. Ibrahim ordered a probe into the incident and said he would resign if “that’s what the people want,” his office said. The presidency also scrambled to contain fallout from the footage. A statement said the presidency was “pained by the shocking footage of some policemen treating a protester in a manner that does not accord with human dignity and human rights” but described the incident as an “isolated act.” Prosecutors say Hamed Saber, a 50-year-old construction painter, was found carrying petrol bombs. Saber said on television that he had been set upon and stripped by protesters and that the police had saved him, but his daughter Randa disputed the account and said on television: “He’s lying; he’s scared.” A nephew of Saber added: “He is lying because there is a lot of pressure on him.” Yesterday, calm prevailed in Cairo but the widening gap between the presidency and the opposition was evident.

The Freedom and Justice and Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, accused the NSF, led by failed presidential candidates, of trying to take the presidency by force. “Being a witness to violence and the armed militias of the NSF, people now know the assailants trying to take over the presidency by force after being defeated in the vote,” wrote a commentator in the party’s newspaper. Meanwhile, Egypt’s top court the Supreme Constitutional Court yesterday postponed a ruling until March 3 on the legality of the Islamist-dominated commission that drafted a contested new constitution, state media reported. The legality of the panel that drafted the constitution is at the heart of Egypt’s worst political crisis since the overthrow nearly two years ago of former president Hosni Mubarak. The charter has divided Egypt, pitting Morsi and his backers against the opposition which includes secularists, leftists and Christians as well as Muslims. Since the start of the new wave of violence in Egypt on January 24, the eve of the second anniversary of the uprising that ousted Mubarak, nearly 60 people have been killed in the country. — AFP

Attack on north Iraq police HQ kills 33 KIRKUK: A suicide car bombing and an assault by grenade-throwing gunmen on a police headquarters in a disputed ethnically mixed city in north Iraq killed 33 people yesterday, security officials said. The vehicle that was detonated in central Kirkuk had been painted to look like a police car, and the militants who sought to seize the compound were dressed as policemen, witnesses said. The attack shattered a relative calm in Iraq, which has been grappling with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki against his erstwhile government partners amid weeks of protests calling for him to resign, all less than three months before key provincial elections. No organisation immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But local security officials blamed al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq, which often targets security forces and officials in a bid to destabilise the

country and push it back towards the sectarian bloodshed of 2005 to 2008. The suicide car bomb was set off during morning rush-hour and quickly followed by at least three gunmen wearing police uniforms, armed with hand grenades and suicide vests, bursting through the main gate of the Kirkuk police compound in the direction of the headquarters building. They threw multiple grenades as they sought to reach the building, but were killed before they could reach it, witnesses said. Brigadier General Natah Mohammed Sabr, the head of Kirkuk city’s emergency services, put the toll at 30 dead and 88 wounded. Among the casualties were four policemen killed and 12 wounded. Brigadier General Sarhad Qader, commander of police forces for areas surrounding the city, was one of the security force officers hurt. — AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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

Govt working hard after rape criticism: Somali PM MOGADISHU: Somalia’s prime minister yesterday said the authorities will do more to protect rape victims after foreign donors and human rights groups criticised the arrests of a woman allegedly gangraped by soldiers and a journalist who interviewed her. The trial of an unidentified 27-year-old woman, her husband, and the freelance journalist has sparked international concerns over sexual violence and press freedom in the country. The trio face prison terms of several years on charges including insulting a government body, making false accusations, and seeking to profit from the allegations. Human rights groups say the trial is

politically motivated, designed to cover up rampant sexual abuse of women by Somali security forces, while the UN and the United States have voiced concerns about the treatment of rape victims. Recently-appointed Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid promised to reform Somali armed forces and the judiciary once the trial has concluded, acknowledging “deep-seated problems” with both institutions. “We recognise the concerns of our international partners and we are only too aware of the enormous challenges our nation faces,” Saaid said in a statement. For two decades the Horn of Africa

state has been plagued by civil war, anarchy and Islamist insurgencies. However, September’s peaceful elections, the first since military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown by warlords in 1991, have been heralded as the dawn of a new era for Somalia. The UN’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, on Saturday called for the Somali government to deal with the country’s rape problems, saying the UN had evidence around 1,700 women were raped between January and November last year in camps for internally displaced

people around Mogadishu. Saaid, a former businessman who is married to an influential Somali peace activist, said the government has launched public campaigns designed to bring down instances of rape. However, he concedes more can be done. “I have since urged the government in the strongest terms to be much more responsive on this question, to take proactive measures, prosecute any such crimes and provide all appropriate care to the victims,” he said. Journalism organisations and human rights groups say arresting a journalist and putting him on trial for interviewing a rape victim is an attack on

media freedoms and free speech. Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists, with killings of reporters reaching and all-time high in 2012 when 18 media workers were killed, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists. But Saaid stressed the government’s support for press freedom, saying “journalists perform a critical role and we want them to be able to work without fear or favour”. Saaid said the government will soon form a new and independent task force on human rights which will investigate attacks against women and violence against journalists. —Reuters

Jordan staggers under fallout of Syria conflict King sees Qaeda gaining from Syria’s implosion AMMAN: Jordan has every reason to worry about the conflict in Syria, its bigger neighbour to the north. A flood of Syrian refugees and disrupted trade due to the 22-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad burden a frail economy that has already had to turn to the IMF. Any emergence of Islamist rule in a post-Assad Syria could embolden Islamists who are the main opposition group in Jordan. And rising Islamist militancy among Syrian insurgents threatens the security of the Western-backed kingdom next door. Jordan also frets that protracted sectarian turmoil might shatter Syria’s territorial integrity, with incalculable results for its neighbours in an already volatile Middle East. “The challenge we have is that the longer this conflict goes on, the more the country will implode,” King Abdullah said last month, describing any fragmentation of Syria as “catastrophic and something we would be reeling from for decades to come”. The king has taken a mostly cautious line on Syria, calling for Assad to go, but advocating a “political solution” and not arming the Syrian leader’s foes - even at the risk of irritating more gung-ho Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Since Israel’s creation in 1948, Jordan has absorbed waves of Palestinian refugees, as well as fugitives from the 1975-90 civil war in Lebanon and from Iraq, before and after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Time and again it has benefited from the talents and money the newcomers brought. Now it hosts more than 330,000 mostly impoverished Syrians, or nearly five percent of its own population of seven million, some housed in camps but most dispersed in its towns and cities. “We have reached the end of the line; we have exhausted our resources,” the king said last week at a meeting in Kuwait of international donors who pledged more than $1.5 billion to aid Syrians stricken by the civil war destroying their country. Economic burden The refugees impose an additional strain on arid Jordan’s scant water supplies, consume statesubsidised electricity and further stretch health, education and other services. The kingdom, which agreed a $2-billion standby loan from the International Monetary Fund last year, is struggling to cut its budget deficit by about a third to 5.4 per-

cent of gross domestic product from 7.9 percent in 2012, Finance Ministry sources say. Officials estimate that accommodating Syrian refugees cost the treasury $200 million in 2012, or about 8 percent of a budget deficit swelled by high social spending and soaring fuel import costs due to disruptions in gas supplies from Egypt. So far the government has not closed its 370km (230-mile) border with Syria to hold back the growing refugee influx - Information Minister Samih Al-Maaytah told Reuters on Wednesday that 60,000 had arrived in the previous 10 days alone. With so many refugees living outside the main Zaatari border camp, tensions are rising in host communities in northern Jordan, once an unquestioningly loyal tribal region where grievances about corruption and dwindling state benefits have already generated unrest against the Hashemite monarchy. The king, despite limited attempts at political reform, also faces a challenge from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose party boycotted this month’s parliamentary election over what it saw as an unfair electoral law favouring tribal, rural regions over the cities with their mostly Palestinian-origin populations. Jordan has escaped a full-scale uprising since the Arab awakening began two years ago. With Syria burning on its doorstep, it cannot feel it is immune from contagion, although Jordanians may well prefer the stability of an imperfect system to the violence convulsing their turbulent neighbours. The Muslim Brotherhood, sometimes a willing partner with Jordan’s rulers in the past, has watched as its counterparts gain power through the ballot box in Egypt and elsewhere. Success for the Brotherhood in Syria could put more pressure on Jordan’s frayed balance between tribesmen from clans based on the East Bank of the river Jordan, who have broadly backed the king in return for state patronage and jobs in the army and other forces, and Palestinians from the West Bank and beyond who have dominated private enterprise and acquiesced politically. Salafi radicals Even more worrying for Jordan is the increasing influence of Islamist militants in the mostly Sunni Muslim revolt against Assad and a state system dominated by his minority Alawite sect. “Al Qaeda is established in Syria, they have been there for

Missing NYC woman found dead in Turkey ANKARA: A New York City woman who went missing while vacationing alone in Istanbul was found dead on Saturday, and police were questioning 11 people in connection with the case, Turkey’s state-run news agency said. Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two, was last heard from on Jan 21, the day she was to fly home. Her disappearance attracted a lot of interest in Turkey, where the disappearance of tourists is rare, and Istanbul police had set up a special unit to find her. The state-run Anadolu Agency said the body of a woman was discovered Saturday evening near the remnants of ancient city walls and that police later identified it as Sierra’s. The agency

NEW YORK: In this image from files provided by the family, Sarai Sierra is shown in an undated family photo in New York. said she was found with a head wound and a blanket near her body. She was wearing jeans, a jumper and a jacket, and still had her earrings and a bracelet. Police reached by The Associated Press refused to comment on the case. Sierra, whose children are 9 and 11, had left for Istanbul on Jan. 7 to explore her photography hobby and made a side trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Munich, Germany. She had originally planned to travel with a friend, but ended up traveling alone when her friend canceled. She was in regular contact with friends and relatives, and was last in touch with her family on Jan. 21, the day she was due back in New York. She told them she would visit Galata Bridge, which spans Istanbul’s Golden Horn waterway, to take photos. The body was found not far from the bridge

and near a major road that runs alongside the sea of Marmara. Here tourists often photograph dozens of tankers waiting to access the Bosporus strait. On Saturday, police stopped traffic there as forensic police inspected the area. Anadolu suggested Sierra may have been killed at another location and that her body may have been brought to the site to be hidden there. At least 11 people were being questioned in Istanbul, Anadolu said, and a police official at the site told journalists that two of them were women. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters about the case. Earlier, Anadolu had said nine people were detained. It was not clear if a Turkish man Sierra had exchanged emails with during her stay in Istanbul was among those being questioned. He was detained for questioning Friday, then released. Turkish news reports said Sierra had arranged to meet the man on Galata Bridge, but he reportedly told police the meeting never took place. Shortly after her body was discovered, a woman came forward and told police she had seen a white car parked near the city walls as she was driving there the night of Jan 29, Anadolu reported. She said a man was trying to remove “something” from the car. “At that moment, I noticed a woman’s hand,” Anadolu quoted the woman as telling reporters after talking with police. The agency said she declined to give her name. Sierra’s husband, Steven, and her brother, David Jimenez, traveled to Istanbul to help search for her. Sierra’s mother, Betzaida Jimenez, said Saturday that she couldn’t talk about the case when reached in New York. Shortly after Sierra was reported missing, Turkey set up a special police unit which scanned hours of security camera footage in downtown Istanbul in search of clues. A Turkish missing persons association joined the search, handing out flyers with photos of Sierra and urging anyone with information to call police. While break-ins and petty thievery are common in Istanbul, the vast and crowded city is considered relatively safe compared to other major urban centers. Sierra’s death was unlikely to have a significant impact on tourism, a large component of the Turkish economy. In 2008, an Italian artist, Pippa Bacca, was raped and killed while hitchhiking to Israel wearing a wedding dress to plead for peace. Her naked body was found in a forest in northwest Turkey. A Turkish man was sentenced to life in prison for the attack. —AP

about a year,” Abdullah warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month. “They are getting certain supplies of weapons, materiel and financing.” He said Jordan might have to reconsider its military role in Afghanistan, where it joined the US-led campaign that began after al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. “The new Taleban that we’re going to have to deal with is actually going to be in Syria,” he said, adding it might take two years to “clean up the bad elements” in a post-Assad era. Ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists, some of whom favour armed struggle, represent a small but potentially dangerous current closely monitored by Jordan’s vigilant intelligence services. Mohammed Shalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf, is a Jordanian Salafi jihadi leader who encourages militants to go and fight in Syria for the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda-approved Islamist group that the United States classifies as a terrorist organisation. He told Reuters last week Jordan was trying to halt the flow of militants to Syria because it feared they would one day return home and pursue their jihad to enforce “true Islam”. Purist Salafis, who try to emulate the Prophet Mohammad’s early companions, dream of recreating a pan-Islamic caliphate cutting across national frontiers and replacing existing rulers. “As for Syria and Jordan, these borders don’t bind us. We don’t recognise these Sykes-Picot borders,” Abu Sayyaf said, referring to the lines drawn by colonial powers Britain and France to carve up the Ottoman Empire after World War One. Jordan has already suffered “blowback” from the conflict in post-Saddam Iraq when suicide bombings by a Jordanian-led al Qaeda affiliate killed nearly 60 people in Amman in 2005. And, as officials like to point out, Damascus is only a couple of hours’ drive from Amman, whereas vast tracts of desert stretch between the Jordanian capital and Baghdad. Nevertheless, for all the dangers posed by Syria, Jordan has survived many regional crises in the past, trading on its utility as a buffer between Israel and its Arab neighbours. “Syria is a worry, but I don’t think it will affect the stability of Jordan,” said Ali Shukri, a retired Jordanian general and an adviser to Abdullah’s late father King Hussein. “We have always managed to keep the country united and Fmanoeuvre our way away from a possible overspill into Jordan.” —Reuters

Morocco’s ruling Islamists target risky reforms RABAT: Morocco’s ruling Islamists are pushing ahead with much-needed reforms, notably of an unsustainable subsidies system and pension fund, to plug the hole in its budget, at the risk of alienating key supporters. A year after coming to power, the moderate Justice and Development Party (PJD) of Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane is battling sharp inflation and deteriorating public finances. Benkirane told parliament this week that the pension system was not working, that the pension fund had dipped into the red, and that it would not be viable by the end of the decade unless drastic measures were taken. With the number of people benefiting from the fund now outweighing contributions, the government’s plan to raise the retirement age, from 60 to 67, is seen as the only way out. “I will not abandon this reform... whatever the price to be paid,” Benkirane insisted. Weighing more heavily than the problem of pensions, however, is the pressing issue of subsidy reform, described by the International Monetary Fund as “urgent” during a recent visit. The cost of subsidised fuel and staples such as bread and sugar has spiralled, lumbering the government with a bill that it simply cannot afford. In 2012, it swallowed up 50 billion dirhams (around $6.1 billion), compared with just 4 billion dirhams in 2002, representing 20 percent of the budget and six percent of Morocco’s GDP. Current Economy Minister Nizar Baraka had said in a report as far back as 2009 that rationalising the system was “imperative, not to say urgent.” The PJD has vowed targeted handouts to compensate the more vulnerable sections of society. But the planned reforms, amid sharp price increases (inflation stands at seven percent) and a gloomy economic outlook, remain potentially explosive. At the end of December, protests in Marrakesh against high water and electricity prices led to clashes with the security forces that left more than 50 of them wounded. ‘No other choice’ Reforming the compensation fund, which subsidises fuel and other essential goods, “is to accept a social price first, which then becomes a political price,” said Baudouin Dupret, head of the Jacques Berque research centre in Rabat. “But they have no other choice, it is not tenable,” added Dupret, who argued that the main question was the scope of the proposed reform. Several models have been proposed by the governance minister, Nabil Boulif, who is in charge of the file, guided by the idea of replacing the current system with direct aid to the disadvantaged members of society. Boulif has described this targeted aid as a “cornerstone” of the government’s policy, and work in progress. The PJD came to power on the back of a historic election victory in November 2011 pledging to tackle widespread poverty, endemic corruption and a lop-sided economy, at a time of high hopes born of the Arab Spring. —AFP

GAO: A woman who under the Islamist rebels would have been forced to wear a full veil in public, sells items at the market yesterday. —AFP

Bitter memories of Islamist rule in Mali GAO: Gao, the largest town seized by Islamist rebels in northern Mali, also fought hard against their brutality, and residents remember the occupation bitterly now that French-led troops have reclaimed the city. The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which seized Gao in the chaotic aftermath of a March 22 military coup, ruled it for months with a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia. The northeastern city is still dotted with black signs with white lettering posted by occupiers, telling residents that sharia is “the road to happiness” and “to heaven”-though locals have begun to repaint these since French and Malian troops arrived on January 26. Gao erupted into violent anti-Islamist protests in May and June, leaving one person dead and many injured, and residents organised neighbourhood patrols to try to protect themselves against the occupiers. But they could not match the Al-Qaedalinked group’s Kalashnikovs and other weapons. Or their cash, which the groupimplicated in drug trafficking-had in abundance, buying them a vast network of questionable informers who helped implement a brutal system of justice. “There were patrols criss-crossing the city 24 hours a day and informers who reported the smallest gesture. As soon as you lit up a cigarette, the Islamic police came to take you away,” says teacher Youssouf Issaka. The Islamists cut off Algalass MoutkelWarata’s right hand on December 30 after someone reported he had stolen a mattress. “I had my hand cut off on the basis of a single accusation,” says Moutkel-Warata, sitting on an old mat on the floor of a rundown building on the outskirts of the city.

“It was a regime of bloodthirsty terrorists.” “It was when they started amputating people’s hands and feet in public that the people’s shock and panic set in,” says Ibrahim Abdoulaye, a civil society leader. In August, several hundred angry protesters managed to stop the extremists from cutting off the hand of an accused thief, storming into the central square where the sentence was to be carried out. The accused was a young MUJAO recruit who had allegedly stolen weapons to resell them. A radio journalist who reported on the incident, Abdoul Malick Maiga, was so badly beaten by Islamists that he had to be hospitalised. Moussa Boureima Yero ran a neighbourhood patrol that tried to protect residents from the extremists’ abuses. “One night, we stopped them from destroying a private villa. They fired into the crowd and killed one of our comrades, and wounded two others,” he remembers. “We don’t know where we got that determination, that courage.” But their resistance was short-lived.”It faded after a few months,” Yero says. Clubs and sticks were no match for MUJAO’s “sophisticated heavy weapons,” he says. Women, who were forced to wear full veils in public, found their own forms of resistance. Agaichatou, a mother of six in her 40s, says she tried to exploit the Islamists’ prudery to go about her daily life. “One day I was doing laundry by the river and they told me it was forbidden. So I took off my clothes and stood in front of them naked, and they ran away,” she says. “After that, lots of women used that weapon to continue washing by the river.” In this predominantly Muslim city, religious leaders also fought MUJAO’s extremism. “ —AFP

ANKARA: An embassy security guard asks for help at the US embassy just minutes after a suicide bomber has detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the US Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Feb 1, 2013. —AP

Embassy bombers cling to Cold War ideology: Turkey ANKARA: The suicide bomber who struck the US Embassy in Ankara spent several years in prison on terrorism charges but was released on probation after being diagnosed with a hunger strike-related brain disorder, officials said Saturday. The bomber, identified as 40year-old leftist militant Ecevit Sanli, killed himself and a Turkish security guard on Friday, in what US officials said was a terrorist attack. Sanli was armed with enough TNT to blow up a two-story building and also detonated a hand grenade, officials said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that police believe the bomber was connected his nation’s outlawed leftist militant group Revolutionary People’s Liberation PartyFront, or DHKP-C. And on Saturday DHKP-C claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on a website linked to the group. It said Sanli carried out the act of “self-sacrifice” on behalf of the group. The group called itself

“immortal” and said, “Down with imperialism and the collaborating oligarchy.” But it gave no reason for attacking the US Embassy. The authenticity of the website was confirmed by a government terrorism expert who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with rules that bar government employees from speaking to reporters without prior authorization. Turkey’s private NTV television, meanwhile, said police detained three people on Saturday who may be connected to the US Embassy attack during operations in Ankara and Istanbul. Two of the suspects were being questioned by police in Ankara, while the third was taken into custody in Istanbul and was being brought to Ankara. NTV, citing unidentified security sources, said one of the suspects is a man whose identity Sanli allegedly used to enter Turkey illegally, while the second was suspected of forging identity papers. There was no information about the third suspect. —AP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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

If I win, Italians get home tax back: Berlusconi Promises to reduce number of MPs ROME: Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi yesterday promised Italians that if they vote him back into oﬃce, he will abolish an unpopular tax on primary residences and refund property taxes Premier Mario Monti’s government made them pay in 2012 as a key austerity measure to rescue the country from the euro-zone debt crisis. Berlusconi abolished the tax in 2008, when he was elected for a third term as premier, to fulﬁll a campaign promise. But the tax was immediately revived when Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, replaced him in 2011 as Italy sunk deeper into the debt crisis. Berlusconi is a 76-year-old populist trying for a political comeback despite a recent criminal conviction for tax fraud and other judicial woes, including a trial in which he is charged with paying for sex with an underage teenage girl. He claims he is the innocent victim of prosecutors he contends sympathize with the left. He told a gathering of applauding supporters in Milan that the property tax so spooked Italians that they cut back on buying consumer goods, and quit investing, aggravating the economic crisis in recession-mired Italy. “This tax caused Italian families worry, anxiety, fear of the future,” Berlusconi said, contending that tax so depressed the real estate market that 360,000 people become unemployed, including bricklay-

ers, artisans, locksmiths and electricians. He insisted the revenue lost by reimbursing homeowners the $5.4 billion they paid in property taxes could be compensated by eliminating state financing for political parties, raising taxes on non-essential goods like cigarettes and lottery tickets, and taxing Italians’ financial instruments’ income in Switzerland. Cost-cutting measures to compensate the lost revenue would also include halving the number of legislators, a proposed reform that has gone nowhere including during Berlusconi’s tenure in the premier’s office. The populist’s center-right forces trail a center-left coalition in opinion polls before Feb 24-25 elections. Monti, heading a centrist ticket, trails even farther back, but his forces could prove to hold the key to forming a coalition since no one ticket is expected to get enough seats in Parliament to govern alone. Berlusconi didn’t mention that his Freedom People legislators in Parliament approved nearly all of Monti’s austerity measures, including the same property tax he is now vowing to eliminate at his first Cabinet meeting should he be victorious at the ballot box. With the economy stagnant, unemployment rising and Italians growing weary of sacrifices imposed by the government, Berlusconi withdrew his party’s support for

Monti late last year, forcing elections to be called about two months ahead of time. Monti sarcastically commented on Berlusconi’s promise to reimburse property owners for the tax paid last year. “He’s magniﬁcent,” Monti told reporters. “Berlusconi governed for so many years and maintained none, any of his promises,” including one to reduce income taxes. “What’s more, he created many problems, so much so that he had to leave” oﬃce, Monti added. While Berlusconi is trying to be elected premier for the fourth time, “Italians have good memories, I believe,” Monti said. Berlusconi has been coy on whether he would be premier again should his forces should win the election. Yesterday, he added a new twist, saying he would be economy minister, joking that he would hold that post if his top aide “would let him.” Front-runner Pier Luigi Bersani has seen a slight drop in support in the polls for his centerleft campaign coalition, possibly because of fallout from a widening scandal involving an Italian bank whose board included some backers from his Democratic Left Party. Running third in some polls and ahead of Monti is a comic and political agitator, Beppe Grillo. The same polls have found that roughly a third of eligible voters saying they are either undecided or won’t vote. — AP

Attacked Bolshoi chief set for Germany move MOSCOW: The Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director was preparing yesterday to move to a German clinic from a Moscow hospital where he is recovering from an acid attack he blames on a colleague at the storied but bitterly divided troupe. The 42-year-old Sergei Filin has already undergone three operations on his eyes since being rushed to the emergency unit on January 17 after being splashed in the face with acid by a masked assailant. The incident has shocked the global artistic community and revealed the acerbic inﬁghting and clan politics that continue to haunt one of Russia’s most treasured international brands. Filin has been replaced on an interim basis at the Bolshoi by the veteran ballerina Galina Stepanenko. But Filin’s importance to the ballet was conﬁrmed last week when the Bolshoi decided to drop one of its most eagerly

anticipated premieres of the year-a new version of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”. The artistic director himself appears remarkably cheerful as he metes out almost daily interviews to the world press while bandaged save for a few holes for his eyes and mouth. “Sergei Filin is feeling good,” chief hospital doctor Alexander Mitichkin told the Interfax news agency. The medic said Filin would probably ﬂy to Germany for further treatment after checking out from hospital early today. “We will check him out tomorrow morning,” Mitichkin told RIA Novosti. Doctors say Filin will require several plastic surgery operations and more treatment on his eye in the coming weeks. Filin has always said that his sight remained his main concern because it impacts directly on his work. “I never considered myself to

be handsome to begin with,” the former principal dancer joked in one recent Russian interview. It was not immediately clear which German clinic will treat the Russian star. Earlier reports said he was planning to check into an eye treatment centre in the spa town of Aachen. Russia’s law enforcement authorities are under intense pressure to make progress in the case after both Filin and Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov accused someone inside the theatre of being behind the attack. “I’ve said many times that what happened was connected solely with my work in the Bolshoi,” Filin told the BBC in an interview released yesterday. “Of course, I had received threats. I think I had brushed them aside too easily.” But he also refused to name the suspected culprit despite being “absolutely certain” he knew his or her name.

“I will only speak about this when investigators are ready to announce this,” he said in the BBC interview. The police had said they would use lie detectors to question witnesses about the incident and have already interviewed Nikolai Tsiskaridze-a top dancer and Russian television celebrity who has fought with Filin for many years. But both Tsiskaridzewho denies all involvement-and the other stars have refused to submit to the polygraphs as is their right under Russian law. The decision has only raised further suspicion in the Russian media about the honesty and moral integrity of some of dance’s biggest international stars. The country ’s mass circulated Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid remarked hat “lie detector tests are a standard procedure that are used for the sole purpose of helping the investigation.” —AFP

Spain’s opposition tells Rajoy to quit MADRID: Spain’s opposition Socialist Party called for the resignation of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal yesterday as a poll showed the lowest support on record for his centre-right People’s Party (PP). Media reports over the past two weeks alleged at least a dozen senior PP oﬃcials, including Rajoy, received payments from a slush fund operated by its former treasurer. Rajoy denies wrongdoing, but the scandal has provoked fury among Spaniards already disenchanted by deep recession and high unemployment, as support for the two biggest parties slumps. “Rather than the solution for this country, Rajoy has become yet another problem,” Socialist leader Alfredo

Perez Rubalcaba, who ser ved as deputy PM under the Socialist government which lost a landslide election in 2011, told a news conference. An opinion poll published in the country’s biggest-selling newspaper El Pais yesterday showed neither of the two big parties could win a clear majority in an election. The Metroscopia poll showed 23.9 percent support for the PP the lowest on record and down from 29.8 percent in the same survey last month. The PSOE was little changed at 23.5 percent. Spain has suﬀered ﬁve years of recession or economic stagnation and unemployment - already the highest in the European Union at 26 percent continues to grow. The United Left

Party, on 15.3 percent in the poll, double its level of support at the last election in late 2011, has also urged Rajoy to resign. But the PP’s parliamentary majority so far rules out any chance of a vote of no conﬁdence. The survey showed 77 percent disapproved of Rajoy as head of government, and 85 percent had little or no faith in him. Eighty percent said PP leaders named by the media as alleged recipients of k ick backs should resign. Almost all respondents - 96 percent - said corruption was widespread and not adequately punished, according to the survey which was carried out between Jan. 30 and Feb 1 and interviewed 1,000 people across Spain. —Reuters

Kenyan soldier dies in grenade attack NAIROBI: A soldier was killed and three people injured in a grenade attack in Kenya, police said yesterday, adding that the dead man was not a suicide bomber as previously thought. An anonymous police official said earlier that the blast, which occurred in the northeastern town of Wajir on Saturday, was caused by a suspected suicide bomber who died when his explosives blew up before reaching his apparent target. It was not a suicide bomber as earlier thought,’ Charlton Mureithi, the regional police chief, said. ‘It was actually an attack on the officers.’ Two police officers and one civilian were injured in the blast after attackers hurled the grenade at the soldier. Military spokesman Bogita Ongeri confirmed that a Kenyan trooper had died in the blast. ‘We lost an officer during the attack,’ he said. Attacks have increased in Kenya since Nairobi sent soldiers into Somalia to fight AlQaeda-linked Shebab insurgents in late 2011.— AFP

MILAN: Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi delivers a speech during a rally of his party the Popoplo della liberta (PDL) yesterday. —AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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

Efforts to end Alabama hostage situation shrouded in secrecy Authorities ‘in constant communication’ with suspect

MIDLOTHIAN, Texas: In this photo, former Navy SEAL and author of the book “American Sniper” poses. — AP

Ex-SEAL/author fatally shot GLEN ROSE: Former Navy SEAL and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle was fatally shot along with another man Saturday on a Texas gun range, a sheriff told local newspapers. Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said Kyle, 38, and a second man were found dead at Rough Creek Lodge’s shooting range west of Glen Rose, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Glen Rose is about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Bryant did not immediately return phone calls to The Associated Press seeking comment late Saturday and early Sunday. A woman who answered the phone at the lodge where the shooting occurred declined comment and referred calls to the sheriff’s office. Investigators did not immediately release the name of the second victim, according to the newspapers. Witnesses told sheriff’s investigators that a gunman opened fire on the men around 3:30 pm. Saturday, then fled in a pickup truck belonging to one of the victims, according to the Star-Telegram. The newspapers said a 25-year-old man was later taken into custody in Lancaster, southeast of Dallas, and that charges were expected. Lancaster police did not immediately return calls for comment. The motive for the shooting was unclear. Kyle wrote the best-selling book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History,” detailing his 150-plus kills of insurgents from 1999 to 2009. Kyle was sued by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura over a portion of the book that claims Kyle punched Ventura in a 2006 bar fight over unpatriotic remarks. Ventura says the punch never happened and that the claim by Kyle defamed him. Kyle had asked that Ventura’s claims of invasion of privacy and “unjust enrichment” be dismissed, saying there was no legal basis for them. But a federal judge said the lawsuit should proceed. Both sides were told to be ready for trial by Aug 1. — AP

US medication for fire victims lands in Brazil SAO PAULO: Some 140 medical kits flown in from the United States arrived in southern Brazil on Saturday to treat survivors of the deadly disco fire who were exposed to dangerous fumes, authorities said. The medication, called Cyanokit, was requested by the Brazilian health ministry to treat victims of last Sunday’s fire who inhaled cyanide poison after the fire ignited acoustic foam insulation inside the “Kiss” nightclub. The blaze left 236 people dead in the college town of Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul state. About 20 people have been hospitalized with symptoms of chemical pneumonitis. Another 123 people were hospitalized for other injuries sustained during the fire, which was ignited by a cheap flare lit by musicians as part of an illegal pyrotechnics display. The medical kits flown into Santa Maria by a Brazilian Air Force plane were to be delivered to hospitals where survivors are being treated. US Southern Command said it coordinated the transport of the medication, valued at $97,000, from the United States to Brasilia. SOUTHCOM is responsible for US military operations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Several Santa Maria parishes held services in memory of the fire victims. In Rio, Archbishop Dom Orani Tempesta also celebrated Mass in their honor at the foot of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain. And officials reported that investigators have interviewed a total of 72 witnesses in connection with the tragedy. On Friday, Rio Grande do Sul authorities extended for 30 days the detention of four people blamed for the Santa Maria tragedy. The two owners of the “Kiss” nightclub and two musicians of the Gurizada Fandangueira group who allegedly took part in the ill-fated pyrotechnic show are also behind bars. — AFP

MIDLAND CITY: Efforts to free a 5-year-old boy from a gunman in an underground bunker, where the man took him after killing the boy’s school bus driver, were shrouded in secrecy on Saturday as the standoff in rural Alabama dragged into a fifth straight day. Police sources said the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team was leading negotiations aimed at securing the boy’s safe release. But FBI officials have declined to comment, referring calls to local authorities who have been extremely tight-lipped, providing few official updates on the situation. Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson, chief spokesman for local law enforcement officials in Midland City, told a brief news conference on Saturday that authorities had been in constant communication with the suspect, who was officially identified on Friday as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes. Police believe Dykes, a retired trucker and Vietnam War veteran, fatally shot bus driver Charles Albert Poland, 66, on Tuesday and then took one of Poland’s more than 20 child passengers hostage during their ride home from school. The incident came against the backdrop of a debate about gun control that has galvanized the nation since the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school in December. Olson declined to disclose any specific demands made by Dykes, saying only that he had allowed authorities to provide coloring books, toys and medication for the kindergartner, who reportedly suffers from autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Dykes also assured authorities he had blankets and electric heaters in the bunker to protect the boy from cold overnight temperatures, Olson said. “I want to thank him for taking care of our child. This is very important,” Olson said. He offered no further comment but one law enforcement source, explaining perhaps why so little information is being shared with reporters, told Reuters that Dykes has access to television news inside his bunker. According to his neighbors, Dykes moved into the

Midland City area about two years ago and often was seen patrolling his property at night with a gun and a flashlight. He kept mostly to himself and had spent a lot of time building the subterranean bunker near the trailer where he lived, several neighbors have told reporters. Ronda Wilbur, a neighbor who has described Dykes as a “mean man” who beat one of her dogs to death with a lead pipe, said she thought he had been planning something for a long time. “I had always figured he was more or less a wacko survivalist but it’s obvious that this had been very well thought out and arranged,” Wilbur told an ABC televi-

sion news affiliate. About 50 people gathered on Saturday near Midland City United Methodist Church to pray for the boy, his family and the Poland family. Michelle Riley, a participant in the vigil, said the killing and hostage taking was the kind of tragedy residents never expected in their small town. “I mean this is the community where our kids ride up and down the street” on bicycles, she said. Dykes had been scheduled to appear for a bench trial on Wednesday after his arrest last month on a menacing charge involving one of his neighbors.— AP

MIDLAND CITY: Members of the FBI team wait, Saturday, Feb 2, 2013, in Midland City, Ala.— AP

Alabama town mourns for bus driver amid standoff MIDLAND CITY: The Alabama bus driver sprinkled with red earth; most of the resislain at the beginning of a multi-day dents commute to Dothan or to a nearby hostage drama was known for his acts of Army post. And many knew Poland. “He’s probably the nicest guy you’ll ever kindness, from fixing someone’s tractor to tilling the garden of a neighbor who had a meet,” said Lonnie Daniels, the 69-year-old heart attack. Charles Albert Poland, Jr, was owner of the NAPA Auto Parts store, one of mourned by hundreds who gathered at a three establishments in town that was funeral home not far from the under- open Saturday. Daniels said Poland had ground bunker where police say an been married to his wife for 43 years. Alabama man was still holding a 5-year-old Poland was from Idaho, but his wife was boy early yesterday. Friends remembered from Newton. The couple lived there for Poland as a humble hero who gave his life decades in a small mobile home, and to protect the children on the bus - and Poland enjoyed gardening and clearing someone who went out of his way to help brush from his property. “I knew that he was always there if I neighbors. “You don’t owe me anything,” Poland, of Newton, once told a recipient of needed,” said Daniels, adding that Poland was an excellent mechanic with an array of his good deed. “You’re my neighbor.” The 66-year-old Poland was driving a tools that he lent to people in town. school bus carr ying 21 children last Skipper said Poland and his wife would Tuesday when an armed man boarded the often sit on their porch, drinking coffee, bus and demanded two boys between 6 praying and reading the Bible. “They loved and 8 years old. Poland tried to block his to be together,” Skipper said. On Saturday way, so the gunman shot him several times morning, Poland’s wife wasn’t home. A rack and abducted a 5-year-old boy - who police of worn trucker’s caps sat on hooks on the say remains in an underground bunker porch, and two freshly baked pies were laid with the suspect, identified as 65-year-old atop a cooler. The victim’s son, Aaron Poland, told NBC Jim Lee Dykes. William Lisenby, a school bus driver who also taught Sunday School News that he wasn’t surprised by his with Poland, was flanked by other area bus father’s final act, trying to protect a bus full of kids. “He considered drivers as he arrived at them his children,” Poland Saturday night’s viewing. said, choking back tears. Lisenby spoke in Biblical “And I know that’s the reaterms when referring to son why my dad took Poland, whose funeral those shots, for his chilwas yesterday afternoon. dren, just like he would do “If you’ll notice the for me and my sister.” As similarities there, of what Newton grieves, residents Chuck did was the same are praying for the safe thing that Jesus Christ return of the boy being did. These children, even held hostage. “The comthough they were not munity is real concerned,” Chuck’s, he laid down his said Fred McNab, mayor of life to defend those chilPinckard, Ala. “You can tell dren. My hat’s off to him by the food that’s been carfor that,” he said. Dykes is ried over there to the a Vietnam-era veteran church. It’s just devastatdescribed by some neighJimmy Lee Dykes ing. We want it to come to bors as a menacing figure with anti-government views. Neighbors a resolution. We want to save that little said Dykes built the bunker on his rural child.” Police have used the pipe for comproperty, and police have been communi- munication and to deliver the boy medicacating with Dykes through a ventilation tion for his emotional disorders. State Rep Steve Clouse, who visited the boy’s mother, pipe into the bunker. Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson told said the boy has Asperger’s syndrome - a reporters Saturday that Dykes has told mild form of autism - and attention deficit them he has blankets and an electric heater hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. But police in the bunker. Authorities have been con- have not revealed how often they are in ferring in a nearby church. Olson also said touch or what the conversations have been Dykes has allowed police to deliver color- about. Local officials who have spoken to ing books, medication and toys for the boy. police or the boy’s family have described a “I want to thank him for taking care of our small room with food, electricity and a TV. boy,” Olson said. “That’s very important.” The Sheriff Olson would not say Saturday shooting and abduction took place in whether Dykes has made any demands. Midland City, a small town near Dothan, Olson added that he is limited in the details Ala, in the state’s southeastern corner. he can release. Dykes had been scheduled Newton is about three miles away, a small to appear in court Wednesday to answer hamlet with fewer than 2,000 residents. It charges he shot at his neighbors in a dissits amid cotton farms and rolling hills pute last month over a speed bump.— AP

For US gun clubs, NRA membership has rights CAPE ELIZABETH: Things are looking up at the Spurwink Rod and Gun Club. The junior marksmanship team now has matching jackets and Olympic-style rifles. There’s a new video security system. And the shooting range has been rebuilt, with a rubber roof and double-thick plywood walls to dampen the crack of rifle fire - not that that’s likely to satisfy the neighbors who keep complaining about the noise. There’s another change as well: One year ago, the private club required all 300 of its members to join the National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun-rights group. Some club members objected, and a dozen or so quit. But most had their NRA cards already, and the rest signed up. The decision offers a glimpse of how the NRA - best-known in Washington as a bareknuckled gun advocacy group - plays a prominent role in the nation’s gun culture in a way that helps expand its membership, which it says is now 4.5 million. The NRA’s on-the-ground effort brings in members who might not join otherwise - and allows the group’s lobbying arm to claim that it represents a broad range of gun-owning Americans as it pushes back against calls for gun restrictions following a shooting massacre at a Connecticut school that killed 26 people. In return for registering NRA members, shooting ranges like Spurwink - little more than a caboose-red cabin and a shed at the edge of some woods - get a little more assurance that they will be able to keep their doors open. Now that the Spurwink Rod and Gun Club is a 100 percent NRA Club, its junior shooting team can participate in official tournaments and the club is eligible for thousands of dollars in NRA grants. There’s also legal help available, if it’s needed. It hasn’t gotten to that point yet, but it might. This affluent seaside community is more crowded than it used to be, and the gun club had to hire a lawyer last year when some of its new neighbors began complaining to the town council about noise from the gun range. “We just want to be left alone to do what we’re doing,” club President Mark Mayon said on a recent weekday, as the crack of rifle fire echoed through the falling snow. “We’ve been here for 63 years, and we want to be here another 63.” The NRA’s involvement in gun activities ranging from safety instruction and tournaments to financial support for shooting ranges dates to the 141-year-old group’s roots as an organization dedicated to promoting marksmanship. Since the 1970s, the NRA has ramped up its political operations as activists have worried that gun-control efforts threaten Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The NRA has rejected President Barack

Obama’s efforts to ban the sale of militarystyle assault rifles like the one used in the killing of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14. Gun-control advocates say that some metrics, such as circulation figures for magazines that the NRA sends to its members, suggest that the group’s claim of 4.5 million members might be inflated. Gun ownership has fallen sharply from 54 percent of U.S. households in 1977 to 32 percent in 2011, according to the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey. In that context - and amid calls for new restrictions on guns - it’s important for the NRA to show that its membership is rising, said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control group. “It’s in the NRA’s interest to show that although gun ownership is decreasing, their membership is rising. They can’t in any way be interpreted as a fading movement in a political context,” Sugarmann said. The NRA did not respond to several requests for comment. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association, estimates there are 10,000 shooting ranges in the United States. Ranges that are open to the public can’t exclude customers who do not belong to the NRA, but private clubs may set membership rules as they wish. Only the NRA knows how many private clubs require NRA membership, but gun owners who object to the organization’s ties to conservative politics say it can be difficult to find a place to shoot that doesn’t require membership in the gun group. “It’s this sort of self-fulfilling thing where the NRA continually gets money from people who would rather not give it to them, because it’s the only game in town,” said Mark Roberts, president of the Liberal Gun Club, a left-leaning gun owners group. The NRA says it has awarded more than $11.3 million for safety improvements and equipment upgrades at nearly 2,200 public and private ranges since 1994. For a $35 annual fee, more than 14,000 affiliated organizations also get access to attorney referral services and discounts on business services such as credit-card processing. More than 8,000 clubs get their insurance through the NRA, according to the group’s promotional materials. In return, the NRA gets a recruitment channel to reach millions of gun enthusiasts who aren’t already members. Clubs can earn up to $10 for each new NRA member they sign up and $5 for each annual renewal, according to an online manual for club officers. Clubs that require all of their members to join the NRA get another important benefit: the chance to apply for grants of up to $5,000 per year to help improve and develop shooting facilities.— Reuters

US winter almost over: Phil the groundhog

PUNXSUTAWNEY: Groundhog co-handler John Griffiths holds Punxsutawney Phil after Phil did not see his shadow and predicting an early spring during the 127th Groundhog Day Celebration at Gobbler’s Knob on February 2, 2013 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.— AFP

NEW YORK: It’s official, at least according to America’s most celebrated groundhog: spring is around the corner. In an annual ritual with early roots in German folklore and rather more in US media-showbiz, a Pennsylvania groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil was interpreted Saturday as predicting an early end to winter. According to his handlers at the ceremony in the town of Punxsutawney, Phil was brought out of his burrow and did not see his shadow, meaning, obviously, that the seasonal shift is in the offing. Had he seen his shadow, winter would have gone on another six weeks. “And so ye faithful,/ there is no shadow to see/ An early Spring for you and me,” Phil announced on his website: www.groundhog.org.

Last year, Phil was said to have seen his shadow and predicted a long winter-a verdict that caused some controversy among groundhog and weather cognoscenti, given that at the time it felt practically like spring already. The groundhog, or rather his long line of ancestors and look-alikes bearing the same name, is a national media star and was at the center of the 1993 Bill Murray comedy “Groundhog Day.” Groundhog Day falls each year on February 2, attracting large crowds to the little Pennyslvania town. It started with a German tradition in which farmers monitored the animal’s behavior closely to make decisions about when their fields should be planted. Punxsutawney, which claims to have held its first Groundhog Day in the

1800s, is the undisputed headquarters for the unscientific experiment. But several wannabe groundhog prognosticators hold sway in other parts of the country, notably in New York City, and also in Washington, albeit with a stuffed Potomac Phil. The New York rival, Staten Island Chuck, or more properly Charles G Hogg, agreed with Phil, also missing his shadow on Saturday. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn petted the furry weatherman, appeared to listen to him, then whooped as she held aloft a banner reading: “S I Chuck says spring is coming.” Quinn is widely seen as a front-runner to replace Michael Bloomberg as the mayor of America’s largest city later this year. In 2009, Phil bit the mayor’s hand. — AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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

Lanka rescues 138 from sinking boat Rescued hospitalized with acute dehydration

NEW DELHI: In this file photo, an Indian participates in a candlelight vigil to mourn the death of a gang rape victim in New Delhi, India. — AP

Fatal gang rape shatters Indian family’s dreams NEW DELHI: Her parents called her “bitiya,” or little daughter. She was her family’s biggest hope. In a country where women are routinely pushed into subservience, this 23-year-old who dreamed of becoming a doctor was going to lift them out of poverty. “Without her we are lost,” said her father, rocking on the edge of a bed in the family’s tiny basement apartment, hugging himself as if to hold in the grief. The sadness enveloped him as he talked of his daughter, who died after she was gang-raped in a moving bus in New Delhi in December, a case that galvanized public anger in India over sexual attacks and the inability of authorities to stop them. Indian culture has a deeply rooted preference for sons, and many daughters are expected to spend their lives caring for first their brothers and later their husbands. Yet these parents encouraged their bright, hardworking daughter to shine. The time for the two younger boys would come later, when their sister had a toehold in life. “I never discriminated between my sons and daughter. I could see nothing else in this world but my children. They had to study at any cost,” the father said, gracious even in his loss, handing steel cups of tea to a reporter. Because of a legal gag order, the victim and her family cannot be identified until the end of the trial of alleged rapists. The family reflects a small but growing part of Indian society that is changing. When their daughter said she wanted to go away to study physiotherapy in a hill town far from New Delhi, her father didn’t think of holding her back. He asked the older son, who is in his late teens, to delay enrollment at an engineering college until his sister finished her studies. Money was scarce, and she was first in line. “She was the hero of the film in our family. Always happy. Always laughing,” the father said. For most women in this country of 1.2 billion, there are few real choices. Tradition says they will get married and become mothers, preferably of boys. If they work, the money will go to their fathers or their husbands. The mistreatment starts early - with sex-selective abortions and even female infanticides that have skewed India’s gender ratio to 914 girls under age 6 for every 1,000 boys. Girls get less medical care and less education than their brothers. Twenty-five years ago, the victim’s father got through high school, left his north Indian farming village and moved to New Delhi to escape poverty. He is still poor, he admits freely, gesturing around the tiny bedroom that passes for a living room when guests arrive. But he was able to give his children something else. “My own father could not educate me very much. He had no means. I wanted different things for my children.” He struggled for years, working as a security guard and making parts for washing machines. Three years ago, he got a job as a baggage handler at the New Delhi airport. Since then he has worked 16 hours a day, six days a week for about 12,000 rupees ($220) a month. “We were struggling, but life was good,” said the father, a heavyset man with graying hair in his mid-50s. The poor in India often don’t have family photographs, and there are no pictures of the young woman in the damp two-room basement the family calls home. There are also no closets. Almost all their belongings - clothes, blankets, towels, sheets - hang on nails hammered into the thin brick walls. A naked bulb is the room’s only light, except for a tiny window that opens at street level. The kids fought, as siblings do, but also loved spending time together. After dinner they would crowd into the room where they slept or watched “Bigg Boss,” a reality show, and laugh at the contestants locked inside a house for several months. In the

father’s absence, it was the daughter whom both parents trusted most. “She was the head of the family in the real sense,” he said. “Now that she is gone I can’t even see tomorrow clearly. I have no idea about the future.” It was a responsibility she took seriously. By the time she was in the ninth grade she was already working - tutoring younger children in her neighborhood - to help pay her school fees. She also watched over her brothers to make sure they weren’t falling behind in class. “She gave us direction. She would ask us about our studies. We would ask her for help,” said the brother who gave up his place in an engineering college. The father had big dreams for her. But her dreams were bigger. “She wanted to become a doctor. A really good doctor,” he said. Maybe that dream would have come true eventually. But she chose a less expensive route. Four years ago, she enrolled in a physiotherapy course at a school in Dehradun, a tiny town in the Himalayan foothills. She got an overnight job working at a call center to help pay for rent and school fees. On most days she slept only a few hours in her rented room. “We would have to call her every morning to make sure she got to class,” said the brother. Relatives in their home village, not used to a family giving a girl so much freedom, pestered the father to get her married. Such things are wrong, they told him. She was not behaving as a woman, as a daughter, is expected to behave. He ignored them. “College cannot be in your home. If you have to go out then you do,” he said. With a job as a hospital physiotherapist, her salary would have started at 12,00015,000 rupees ($220-270) a month, already more than her father’s pay. By December, she was nearly finished. She was back in New Delhi, living at home and awaiting the results of her final exams. On Dec. 16, everything changed. As they did every Sunday, the parents washed everyone’s clothes. The daughter cooked a family meal of kidney bean curry and lentil fritters soaked in spicy yogurt. “Everything was so normal,” her brother said. Later, she went to a mall to see a movie with a male friend. Ordinarily she rarely came home after 8 p.m., and always called if she was late. But that night the family heard nothing. When they called, her cellphone was switched off. By 8:30 p.m. her brother had called all her friends. At 11:10 pm the police called. They were told their daughter had been in an accident. The truth was much worse. The woman and her friend had gotten on a bus after the movie, looking for a way back to her home. But the bus turned out to be driven by six men out for a joy ride, according to police documents. For nearly an hour, they were driven through the city. He was beaten. She was gang-raped, and penetrated with metal rods, causing such severe internal injuries that doctors found parts of her intestines floating inside her abdomen. Eventually, the two were dumped, naked and bleeding, by a busy road on the cold December night. “Imagine how much she must have suffered,” her brother said. “We would fight, you know. Brothers and sisters fight too. And if I pushed her too hard she felt pain.” But still, she fought to live. “For almost 10 days her brain was alert,” said her mother, a slim woman wrapped in a sari, her eyes red from weeks of weeping. Police and a magistrate took statements from her in a New Delhi hospital. She remembered the names of her attackers. She recognized the faces in the photographs police showed her. She broke down only once. “She told me, ‘Mummy, they beat me a lot.’ That was the only time she showed her pain,” the mother said. — AP

ALLAHABAD: An Indian Hindu Sadhu plays a traditional snake-shaped musical instrument at his camp during the Maha Kumbh festival yesterday. — AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy yesterday rescued 138 Bangladeshis and Myanmar nationals from a sinking fishing vessel off the island’s east coast, officials said. One passenger was found dead while many of the 138 plucked from the boat were dehydrated, said navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya, adding that the vessel had been adrift for 10 days before it sank yesterday. “We sent three ships for the rescue at a location 50 miles (80 kilometres) off the eastern coast of Akkaraipattu,” Warnakulasuriya told AFP. “Some have been admitted to a local hospital.” Police said 14 were Myanmar nationals while the others were Bangladeshis. Fifteen of the survivors, including two women and two children, were hospitalised with acute dehydration, police said in a statement. “We have difficulty in communicating with the survivors so we have asked the two embassies to send us translators,” police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody told AFP. He said statements of survivors would be recorded and they would be moved to a temporary shelter in Colombo under judicial supervision. In the meantime, the authorities at Oluvil fishing harbour were giving them shelter. “We are certain that they were not trying to enter Sri Lanka, but their boat developed trouble in mid-sea and they drifted close to our shores,” Jayakody said. The early-morning rescue came amid stepped up naval patrols to deter Sri Lankan fishing boats from taking would-be illegal immigrants to Australia. Authorities arrested more than 1,200 people trying to leave the island illegally last year. Many of those who make the perilous journey pay up to $3,000 for a place on trawlers run by people-smugglers. Warnakulasuriya said the passengers rescued yesterday identified themselves as Bangladeshi and Myanmar nationals but it was not yet known where they came from or were headed. Reports from local fishermen alerted fishing authorities who in turn asked for help from the navy which mounted a 20-hour search and rescue operation,

OLUVIL: In this photograph, Sri Lankan sailors assist rescued survivors at Oluvil fisheries harbour in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday. — AFP officials said. They said it was unclear if those identified as Myanmar nationals were Rohingyamembers of a stateless Muslim minority described by the UN as one of the world’s most persecuted groups-who had fled Myanmar. An explosion of tensions between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Myanmar’s western state

of Rakhine since June 2012 has triggered an seaborne exodus of Rohingya. Thailand’s navy blocked more than 200 Rohingya boat people from entering the kingdom late last month as part of a new policy, under which they will be given food and water but barred from landing if their boat is seaworthy. — AFP

Taleban bombs kill Afghan family KANDAHAR: Taleban roadside bombs killed five civilians, including a family of four, and two police officers in the country’s troubled south at the weekend, officials said yesterday. The family-mother, father and two daughters aged eight and nine-died along with their driver in Helmand province’s Khanishin district when their vehicle hit an improvised bomb late Saturday. “The blast was so powerful that nothing was left of the bodies, they are shattered in small pieces,” district governor Shah Mahmoud said, blaming Taleban insurgents for the attack. Two police officers were killed on the same day in a similar bomb attack in Musa Qala district, another restive part of Helmand where insurgents have an active presence, the local district governor Nemat Khan said. The officers were on a routine patrol when their pick-up truck was blown up. Roadside bombs are favourite weapons of Taleban Islamists fighting to oust the Westernbacked government and the indiscriminately placed explosives regularly kill civilians. — AFP

Australian PM ‘not done yet’ SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard rallied her Labor party yesterday, saying her government was “not done yet” despite a turbulent week in which two of her most senior ministers resigned. Gillard, who is struggling in opinion polls, last week announced that the next election will be on September 14, a surprising tactic in Australia where poll dates are usually announced only weeks in advance. Addressing Labor candidates in Canberra, the prime minister said she was committed to creating jobs and improving opportunities and it was important that voters heard this message. “I’m looking to you to be out there in your communities explaining to them that this is the work of governing and we are not done yet,” she said. Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister, on Wednesday took the unprecedented step of giving the nation eight months’ notice of the federal election. Three days later she announced that two key ministers were resigning. Attorney General Nicola Roxon and Minister for Tertiary Education Chris Evans, two of Gillard’s most trusted colleagues, have quit cabinet and will retire from politics this year because of family reasons. The shock departures come just days after ex-Labor MP Craig Thomson was arrested on fraud charges. The conservative opposition has declared Labor has had a “horror start” to the year. “It is going to be very important in the days and weeks ahead that there is a strong and stable government in Canberra and I regret to say that just at the moment that doesn’t appear to be the case,” opposition leader Tony Abbott said. “Now I hope the prime minister can steady her ship and offer stable government.” The government has brushed off the suggestion that it is in chaos, with Transport Minister Anthony Albanese saying the resignations were understandable. “Let’s get real. We have had a couple of people step down for family reasons, there is no suggestion that there is any reason other than personal ones and understandable ones,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Mark Dreyfus will be sworn in as attorney general, Brendan O’Connor as immigration minister and Chris Bowen as tertiary education minister in parliament today. Gillard leads a minority government with the support of one Greens MP and several rural independents after the last election in 2010 ended in a hung parliament. — AFP

SHABTOI: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan (left) talks with new TTP member Adnan Rasheed following a press conference in Shabtoi, a village in Pakistan’s South Waziristan yesterday. — AFP

Pakistan army battles mistrust CHAGMALAI: In a Pakistan army base high in the mountains on the Afghan frontier, a general explains a strategy for fighting the Taleban he calls simply “WHAM”. The name has a distinctly bellicose ring. But the soldiers are learning to fight a new kind of war in a region US President Barack Obama has called the most dangerous on Earth. “ WHAM - winning hearts and minds,” explains the straight-talking General Nazir Butt, in charge of converting the army’s gains on the battlefield into durable security. “The plan is to turn militant sanctuaries into safe havens for the people.” The term WHAM has been used before, but the focus this time is South Waziristan, an enclave on the Afghan border once the epicentre of a spreading Pakistan Taleban insurgency that shocked the country with its challenge to the authority of the nuclear-armed state. According to the army narrative, the campaign includes winning over the region’s ethnic Pashtun tribes through dialogue, creating commercial opportunities and providing education in new schools and colleges. During a three-day trip with the army, Reuters got a rare glimpse not just into the scale of the army’s state-building project in South Waziristan, but also the challenges that lurk in the inhospitable territory. However well-meaning the new approach, there are problems that won’t go away threats of retaliation by the al Qaeda-linked militants, a lack of effective civilian administration and endemic corruption. And the campaign to win hearts and minds has an ignoble track record in other conflict zones which serve as a reality check for even the most optimistic Pakistani officials. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Western nations poured in millions of dollars to rebuild militant strongholds and win affection. Results have been limited: many residents view the armies as occupiers and militants remain a danger. The goal won’t be any easier in South Waziristan. The area forms one-fifth of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas which are roughly the size of Belgium and governed under a system inherited from British colonialists. Government-

appointed political agents rule through the Pashtun tribes and collect and distribute revenue with little oversight. The people have limited rights. While the Pakistani army backed the Taleban in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and supported militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, in South Waziristan it found itself under attack. Decades of resentment felt by the population and the U.S. bombing campaign on the Afghan border following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States spawned a generation of Pakistani militants who used South Waziristan to launch assaults against the Pakistani state and US-led forces in Afghanistan. Unsure how to respond, Pakistan seesawed between brief military campaigns and appeasing the militants with shortlived peace deals. Then, in 2009, Pakistan’s army chief ordered the biggest offensive yet, pouring 40,000 troops into South Waziristan in a bid to tip the balance. The 2009 offensive displaced almost half a million people as homes, schools and hospitals were turned into hideouts by militants and meagre civic amenities were destroyed. Today, a combination of the offensive and US drones has helped drive the Pakistan Taleban leadership out of South Waziristan and the army is looking for ways to convince people it is safe for them to return. But after having spent close to three years in camps, only 41,000 refugees have come back. “The people can only feel fully secure if there is social and economic uplift,” said a brigadier who commands a cliff-side compound near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. “It took some time but we know now that 1,000 bullets can’t do the work of one school.” Many of the refugees have resettled in Chagmalai, a village close to Jandola, where the army is headquartered in a fort built by the British in the nineteenth century - a reminder of a centuries- old polic y of ruling the area through a mix of intimidation and armed intervention. — Reuters

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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

Myanmar rebels, govt to hold talks in China LAIZA: Myanmar’s government and ethnic Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar will hold talks in China this week after some of the worst fighting in the country in years, even as fresh shelling boomed across the frontline. The talks will begin Monday in the Chinese border town of Ruili, officials on both sides said yesterday. The meeting comes after the army captured several strategic guerrillaheld hilltops this month in the hills around Laiza, which serves as a headquarters for the rebel movement. The army used fighter jets, helicopter gunships and intense artillery barrages to seize the rebel outposts during its offensive, and there has been speculation that the

government launched the assault to strengthen its hand at the negotiating table. Laiza has been largely quiet since Myanmar’s army took control of Hka Ya Bhum, the highest hill in the area, on Jan. 26. However, Kachin Independence Army officers say government troops still sporadically shell rebel posts, some of which have been newly dug as the guerrillas retreated. The rebels say fighting is still occurring in other parts of Kachin state. Khon Ja, an activist with the Kachin Peace Network, said the army fired four artillery shells at one rebel post a few kilometers (miles) west of Laiza yesterday. A day earlier, they attacked a rebel post at Lawa Yang, just to the

southwest. Government forces are “trying to harass us,” said Sgt. Brang Shawng, who is deployed at Lawa Yang. “They are trying to draw us into a fight, but we are under strict orders not to fire back.” He said army troops on a hilltop overlooking Lawa Yang attacked his position with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and bursts of gunfire twice on Saturday. Referring to Monday’s talks, Brang Shawng said: “We hope there will be a truce so peace will come, but nobody thinks this is going to end soon.” Since the conflict resumed in June 2011 after a 17-year cease-fire, the two sides have held at least 10 rounds of

talks to try to end it. Monday’s meeting was confirmed by a Kachin Independence Army officer and a civilian official working with the government’s negotiation team. The officials declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. The Kachin, like Myanmar’s other ethnic minorities, have long sought greater autonomy from the central government. They are the only major ethnic rebel group that has not reached a truce with President Thein Sein’s administration, which has been praised by world powers for making political and economic strides toward democratic rule over the last two years. — AP

N Korea military meet hints at nuclear test DPRK issues guidelines on strengthening military

JOLO: Roland Letriro (left) and Ramel Vela, Filipino members of a Jordanian TV journalist’s crew believed to have been kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in June, recuperate in a hospital yesterday after being freed the night before on the volatile island of Jolo, Sulu province in southern Philippines. — AP

Qaeda-linked militants free 2 Filipino hostages MANILA: Abu Sayyaf gunmen have freed two Filipino crewmen of a Jordanian TV journalist who were kidnapped last year but the Al-Qaeda-linked militants continued to hold the reporter and four other foreigners in a jungle where a fierce clash between the extremists and another Muslim rebel group erupted Sunday, officials said. Police found frail-looking cameraman Ramel Vela and audio technician Roland Letriro late Saturday and brought them to a hospital in southern Sulu province, where they were kidnapped in June along with Jordanian Baker Abdulla Atyani, Sulu police chief Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra said. Atyani is believed to be held by Abu Sayyaf gunmen in the jungles of Suluís mountainous Patikul town, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of Manila. ìWeíre so happy. We never thought weíd make it out alive,î a teary-eyed Vela said from his hospital bed, adding he and Letriro had not seen Atyani since the kidnappers separated them shortly after they were taken hostage. Visibly thinner with overgrown hair and beards, the two were examined by doctors and given bread and water. An unspecified amount was paid to secure their freedom, according to three security officials who have been monitoring the kidnappings. The three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Military officials say Abu Sayyaf militants had demanded 130 million pesos ($3.1 million) for the release of Atyani and his two crew members. Muslim rebels from the larger Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a 1996 autonomy deal with the government, meanwhile, clashed with the Abu Sayyaf on Sunday in Patikulís jungles after they failed to convince the extremists to release all their hostages, including Atyani and two European men, after more than two weeks of negotiations, Freyra told The Associated Press. At least six Moro rebels have been killed and scores have been wounded from both sides, officials said. It was the first major bloody confrontation between the two insurgent groups, which have co-existed for years and at times were suspected of col-

laborating on kidnappings and backing each other in clashes against government troops in predominantly Muslim Sulu. Moro commander Khabir Malik said his group had taken the initiative to seek the freedom of the hostages to help the government clean up the image of Sulu, where the Abu Sayyaf has carried out deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, primarily in the early 2000s. US-backed military offensives have crippled the Abu Sayyaf in recent years, but it remains a national security threat. Washington has listed the group, which has about 380 armed fighters, as a terrorist organization. Moro National Liberation Front rebels were not disarmed when they signed a peace deal with the government. They have settled back to their Sulu communities but have clashed with government troops periodically while negotiating for more concessions under the 1996 peace deal with the government. Atyani, who interviewed Osama bin Laden and his aides in Afghanistan about three months before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, traveled to Sulu with Manila-based Vela and Letriro to work on a documentary about the countryís volatile south and possibly interview Abu Sayyaf militants in impoverished Sulu, Freyra and other officials said. The other hostages believed to be still held by the Abu Sayyaf include two European bird watchers, who were seized in February last year, a Japanese treasure hunter, a Malaysian national and a Filipino resident of Sulu, according to officials. A former Australian soldier was separately being held by the Abu Sayyaf either on nearby Basilan island or the Zamboanga peninsula, also in the south. On Friday, Washington renewed a longstanding warning to Americans not to travel to Sulu ìdue to the high threat of kidnapping... and violence linked to insurgency and terrorism there.î The Abu Sayyaf is an extremist offshoot of a Muslim rebellion that has been raging in the predominantly Catholic nationís south for decades. The violence has been fueled by abject poverty, corruption, proliferation of illegal weapons and weak law enforcement. — AP

Illegal fireworks blamed for deadly blast in China BEIJING: A truck that exploded and caused an elevated stretch of highway to collapse in central China, killing 10 people, was loaded with holiday fireworks that were illegally produced and transported, authorities said Saturday. Local authorities have shut down the company that made the fireworks, Hongsheng Fireworks Manufacturing Co Ltd, and detained four company officials following Friday ’s blast, state media reported. It remained unclear what set off the fireworks as they were shipped eastward on a major highway through Henan province. State -run China Central Television said witnesses believed a collision caused by heavy smog might have triggered the blast, which occurred about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the ancient city of Luoyang. The Ministry of Public Security said Hongsheng, based in the neighboring province of Shaanxi, had illegally produced the explosives, packaged them in disguise and contracted with a trucking company unlicensed to handle hazardous commodities. It said the factory had failed to check the credentials of the trucking company’s personnel. The state-run China News said the explosives had been declared as general commodities. Preliminary investigations blamed the explosion for the col-

lapse of the 80-meter (260-foot) stretch of the elevated highway in Mianchi county, sending trucks and sedan cars plummeting 24 meters (79 feet) to the ground, according to a statement by the provincial government of Henan. Most of those who were killed died from the fall, CCTV said. Eleven people were injured. Photos by state media and television footage showed hunks of concrete, overturned trucks and crumpled cars in the debris. In one photo, a truck’s back wheels were perched at the edge of a shorn-off section of the highway. “It was horrible. It was horrible,” survivor Hou Chunlin murmured from his hospital bed in an interview by CCTV. Fireworks are a major part of the festivities surrounding the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 10 this year. To meet the demand, fireworks are made, shipped and stored in large quantities, sometimes in unsafe conditions. As a result, there are periodic catastrophes. In 2006, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a storeroom filled with fireworks exploded at a temple fair in Henan, killing 36 people and injuring dozens more. In 2000, an unlicensed fireworks factory in southern China exploded, killing 33 people, including 13 primary and secondary school students working there. — AP

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has chaired a high-level meeting that discussed a “great turn” in military capability, state media said yesterday, fuelling expectations of an imminent nuclear test. Kim made a “historic” speech at the ruling party’s Central Military Commission meeting, attended by the heads of the army, the National Defence Commission and the strategic rocket force, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The meeting discussed “bringing about a great turn in bolstering military capability”, said KCNA, which gave no date for the meeting or details of Kim’s speech. Experts and intelligence sources believe the country has completed preparations for a third nuclear test which it threatened in response to tightened UN sanctions imposed for a longrange rocket launch last December. Over the past week Pyongyang has issued a series of daily warnings threatening action over the sanctions, including a promise Saturday of the “toughest retaliation”. Several observers in South Korea believe the nuclear test will come before Lunar New Year starts on February 10. In his “important” speech to the military commission, Kim Jong-Un issued specific guidelines for “defending the security and sovereignty of the country”, KCNA said. It did not elaborate but said participants vowed to “thoroughly implement the military tasks set forth”. The North insists its December rocket launch was a purely scientific mission to put a satellite into orbit. But the US and its allies, including the South, viewed it as a pretext for a ballistic missile test that violated UN resolutions prompted by the North’s rocket launches and nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak urged officials to “stand well prepared” for any test after a meeting yesterday with his top security advisers, the South’s Yonhap news agency said. Seoul’s chief nuclear envoy Lim Sung-Nam left for Beijing yesterday to meet his Chinese counterpart as part of last-minute diplomatic efforts to dissuade Pyongyang from another atomic test, it said. China is the isolated North’s sole major ally and economic lifeline. It chairs long-stalled six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament, which have been at a standstill since December 2008. Recent satellite imagery showed unusually busy activity at the northeastern nuclear test site at Punggye-ri. The North has covered the entrance to a tunnel there in an apparent attempt to block satellite monitoring, Yonhap said last week. Today South Korea and its ally the United States will start a joint naval exercise seen largely as a warning to the North. The three-day drill involving a US nuclear-

PYONGYANG: This photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un speaking at a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea.— AFP powered submarine and other warships is expected to be held in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off the South Korean port city of Pohang. The North Saturday slammed the drill as “war exercises” aimed at invading the isolated state. Pyongyang also bestowed a new round of awards and medals on thousands of scientists behind the latest rocket launch, after making more than 100 awards last December. Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued guidelines on how to bolster the army and protect the nation’s sovereignty at a high-level ruling Workers’ Party meeting, state media said yesterday, an indication that Pyongyang may be ready to conduct an atomic test anytime. North Korea said last month that it would conduct its third nuclear test to protest international sanctions toughened over its long-range rocket launch in December. The US, South Korea and other countries have urged the North to scrap its nuclear test plans or face grave consequences. North Korea says US hostility and the threat of American troops in South Korea are important reasons behind its nuclear drive. The country also says it has the sovereign right to launch rockets to send satellites into orbit under a space development program; the US says the December launch was a disguised test of banned missile technology. Pyongyang’s two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, both occurred after it

was slapped with increased sanctions for similar long-range rocket launches. Recent satellite photos showed North Korea may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be exploded. Analyst Hong Hyunik at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said he believes Kim’s guidelines refer to a nuclear test and suggest that North Korea appears to have completed formal procedural steps and be preparing to conduct a nuclear test soon. By publicizing the Workers’ Party meeting, North Korea also aims to “employ pressure on the West and unite its people” behind Kim, Hong said. Kim took power after the December 2011 death of his father, Kim Jong Il. US and South Korean troops are to conduct naval drills involving a nuclear-powered American submarine off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula this week. South Korean military officials said the maneuvers are part of regular joint military training that the allies had scheduled before the latest nuclear tensions began. But they still could be used as a show of force against North Korea. North Korean state media on Saturday described the drills as a joint exercise for a pre-emptive attack on the country. North Korea has said similar things when South Korea and the US conducted other drills, but the allies have repeatedly said they have no intention of attacking the North. — Agencies

Nuclear safety chief probed over Fukushima Japan PM vows to defend isles TOKYO: Japanese police have questioned a former head of the nuclear safety body regarding possible criminal charges over the Fukushima nuclear crisis, news reports said yesterday. Prosecutors have interviewed Haruki Madarame, former chief of the Nuclear Safety Commission who was responsible for giving the government technical advice about the crisis, national broadcaster NHK quoted sources as saying. It said Madarame appeared voluntarily for questioning and was apparently asked to explain how he dealt with the disaster triggered by the March 2011 tsunami. Fukushima residents have filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors against Madarame on suspicion of professional negligence which resulted in deaths and injuries, the public broadcaster said. The complaint alleges that Madarame was responsible for a delay in announcing data predicting how radiation would spread from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, it said. It also reportedly faults him for failing to take necessary measures to shield the plant against the tsunami in the first place. When he resigned in September, Madarame hinted that his commission had failed in its responsibility to avert the nuclear disaster, saying: “We have to sincerely reflect on it. We apologise to people.” Madarame, who became the body’s chief in 2010, accompanied then prime minister Naoto Kan as they monitored the plant from a helicopter days after the tsunami struck the plant. NHK said prosecutors have separately questioned executives of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co including former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, but it was uncertain if individuals could be charged over the disaster. The Yomiuri Shimbun said prosecutors were likely to decide on whether to charge Madarame and others as early as March. The huge tsunami, which was triggered by a 9.0magnitude earthquake, crashed into the Fukushima power station and swamped cooling systems, sparking meltdowns. The reactors were out of control for months, spewing radiation over a wide area and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. Japanese experts said they brought the wrecked

units under control in December 2011. But melted fuel remains inside their cores and their full decommissioning and cleaning-up is expected to take decades. In July last year a parliamentary report said Fukushima was a man-made disaster caused by Japan’s culture of “reflexive obedience” and not just by the tsunami that hit the plant. TEPCO has admitted it had played down known tsunami risks for fear of the political, financial and reputational cost. It says no one has died as a direct result of radiation. In another development, Japan’s prime minister vowed Saturday to defend disputed remote islands from threats by China after a series of confrontations that have raised the risk of an armed clash. “The security environment surrounding our country is increasingly becoming more severe as we face provocation to our territorial rights,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. “I will take the lead to stand up against the present danger and protect the people’s lives and asset, as well as our land, the seas and the air at all costs.” His comments, made in a speech to Japan’s SelfDefense Forces in the country’s south, apparently referred to China’s growing presence near the disputed islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The uninhabited islands are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. Japan’s nationalization of the islands in September triggered violent protests across China, hurting Japanese companies there and the economy. China has sent surveillance ships regularly to waters near the islands, and aircraft from the two sides have trailed each other, raising the risk of missteps that could trigger a clash. Japan has recently launched diplomatic efforts to ease tensions, with China-friendly officials visiting Beijing for talks. Abe’s government last week endorsed a budget bill for this year that included 4.75 trillion yen ($51 billion) in proposed defense spending partly aimed at beefing up Japan’s coastal and marine surveillance around islands also claimed by China and Taiwan. The government also plans to beef up Coast Guard deployment in the area. Later Saturday, Abe was to visit the regional Coast Guard office on the southern island of Okinawa, which is in charge of patrolling in the

waters around the disputed islands, to meet the officers. Also Saturday, Coast Guard officials said they arrested the Chinese captain of a 100-ton boat earlier Saturday off the northeastern coast of Miyako island, about 200 kilometers southwest of the disputed islands, for suspected illegal fishing inside Japanese exclusive economic waters. The captain Chang Long, 63, along with his 12 crewmembers and his boat, was taken to the nearby Hirara port for further investigation. —Agencies

TOKYO: Sumo grand champion Hakuho of Mongolia throws small bags containing beans during a bean-throwing ceremony to drive away evil and bring good luck at the annual Setsubun Festival at Shinshoji temple in Narita, suburban Tokyo yesterday. The Setsubun festival is to greet the coming of spring, according to Japan’s lunar calendar. — AFP

NEWS White House releases...

Iran hedges on talks...

Continued from Page 1

It also dismisses plans to require background checks for all gun purchases, saying existing gun laws should be better enforced first. The release triggered mockery online. Twitter users circulating montages of Obama shooting at the Constitution or at Disney’s Bambi, ignoring a stern White House warning that the photograph “may not be manipulated in any way”. “Attn skeet birthers. Make our day - let the photoshop conspiracies begin!,” former White House senior adviser David Plouffe tweeted earlier. He then posted: “Day made. The skeet birthers are out in full force in response to POTUS pic. Makes for most excellent, delusional reading.” In his interview with The New Republic, Obama expressed respect for US hunting traditions and urged gun control advocates to listen more to the other side. “I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake,” he said. Pointing to how differently guns are handled in urban and rural areas, Obama added: “So it’s trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months. And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes.” — AFP

diplomacy and international sanctions fail to curb Iran’s nuclear drive. In Washington, Army General Martin Dempsey, the top US military officer, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the United States has the capability to stop any Iranian effort to build nuclear weapons, but Iranian “intentions have to be influenced through other means.” Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his comments on NBC’s program “Meet the Press”, speaking alongside outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta said current U.S. intelligence indicated that Iranian leaders have not made a decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon. “But every indication is they want to continue to increase their nuclear capability,” he said. “And that’s a concern. And that’s what we’re asking them to stop doing.” The new US secretary of state, John Kerry, has said he will give diplomacy every chance of solving the Iran standoff. With six-power talks making little

progress, some experts say talks between Tehran and Washington could be the best chance, perhaps after Iran has elected a new president in June. Negotiations between Iran and the six powers - Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany - have been deadlocked since a meeting last June. EU officials have accused Iran of dragging its feet in weeks of haggling over the date and venue for new talks. Salehi said he had “good news”, having heard that the six powers would meet in Kazakhstan on Feb 25. A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who coordinates the efforts of the six powers, confirmed that she had proposed talks in the week of Feb 25 but noted that Iran had not yet accepted. Kazakhstan said it was ready to host the talks in either Astana or Almaty. Salehi said Iran had “never pulled back” from the stuttering negotiations with the six powers. “We still are very hopeful. There are two packages, one package from Iran with five steps and the other package from the (six powers) with three steps.” — Reuters

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Assad lashes out as Israel... Continued from Page 1 adjacent military complex believed to house chemical agents, according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Damascus has threatened to retaliate, further fuelling fears of a regional spillover of the country’s 22-month conflict which the UN says has already left more than 60,000 people dead. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, quoted in Hurriyet newspaper, mocked Syria for its failure to retaliate against its longtime arch-foe. “Why hasn’t the Syrian army, which has attacked its own innocent people with planes, tanks and shells for 22 months, respond to this Israeli operation?” he asked “Why doesn’t it throw even a pebble?” In the wake of the strike, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told AFP that Washington was increasingly concerned that Syria’s “chaos” could allow Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement to obtain sophisticated weapons from Damascus. Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz yesterday started a visit to Washington with the Syrian conflict and Iran’s controversial nuclear program on his agenda. In Damascus, Assad accused Israel of seek-

ing to “destabilise” Syria, state news agency SANA reported. The raid “unmasked the true role Israel is playing, in collaboration with foreign enemy forces and their agents on Syrian soil,” he told Saeed Jalili, who heads Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Key Damascus and Hezbollah backer Tehran also said yesterday that it welcomed opposition chief Khatib’s overture for talks with regime representatives. “It’s a good step forward,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference, where he said he had held a “very good meeting” with Khatib. Iran has joined UN Security Council members Russia and China in consistently backing Assad’s regime throughout the almost two year-long conflict which has also forced more than 700,000 people to flee Syria. After Khatib met Iranian and Russian representatives in Munich, opposition spokesman Walid AlBunni told AFP by telephone that Moscow must now pressure Assad to end the spiralling conflict. “The ball is now in Russia’s court,” the Syrian National Coalition’s Bunni said, although he conceded that there has been “no breakthrough in Russia’s stance”. Syria’s state-owned daily Ath Thawra also said there has been no shift in Moscow’s stance. — AFP

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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Eurogroup chief Dijsselbloem passes first test By Jan Hennop and Nicolas Delaunay ew Eurogroup chief and Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem passed his first test on Friday by saving his country’s fourth-biggest bank, setting an example in Europe of how the banking crisis should be handled, analysts said. Dijsselbloem announced the state was to nationalise SNS Reaal at a cost of €3.7 billion ($5 billion) after a deadline to find an alternative solution to bail out the troubled banker expired late on Thursday. Otherwise financially relatively healthy, SNS Reaal found itself in trouble after suffering recurring losses in recent years linked to its Property Finance subsidiary, bought from ABN Amro bank in 2006. “This is a good example ... to show that even in a (financially) healthy country like the Netherlands these situations of unaccountability will no longer be tolerated,” said Tom Muller, analyst at Theodoor Gilissen private bankers. “I am convinced that other countries are closely watching how he (Dijsselbloem) is handling this,” Muller added. Chosen as Dutch Finance Minister barely three months ago, Dijsselbloem, 46, was elected two weeks ago to lead the key eurozone finance ministers’ forum, despite French reservations over his inexperience. As a relative newcomer, Dijsselbloem past his first major test, said Ivo Arnold, economics professor at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University. “Although this (Dijsselbloem’s decision) was inevitable, I think it’s important that early on in his tenure as minister to solve this problem,” Arnold told AFP. “It could have been much more damaging for his position as chairman of the Eurogroup if he did not intervene and this problem kept popping up again-and-again.” Also to the credit of the minister, “he does ask for a substantial contribution from the private sector,” Arnold added. Friday marks the first time the Dutch state used its so-called Intervention Law to nationalise a bank. The law came into force in June 2012 and allows the state, in consultation with the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), to demand that those holding bonds issued by a bank contribute to the bank’s rescue when it fails. In SNS Reaal’s case, the state is expropriating shareholders and subordinated bond holders, but it did not go all the way by taking over common bond holders’ investments. Nico van Geest, analyst at the Amsterdambased Keijser Capital told AFP he was disappointed that once again - as in 2008 - the Dutch state had to intervene to bail out a troubled bank. The government paid € 16.8 billion in Oct 2008 to nationalise the Dutch assets of Fortis, which it later merged with ABN Amro which it also bought. ING received Ä10 billion and SNS Reaal itself a €750-million boost. Friday’s intervention means that two of the four major banks in the Netherlands, ABN Amro and SNS Reaal, the other t wo being ING and Rabobank, are now in state hands. Van Geest however praised the new intervention law, saying it was a useful tool to put the brakes on banks going bad before it was too late. Dijsselbloem’s decision backed by this law should be “the norm to save a situation such as this,” added Van Geest. Dijsselbloem has been in his post for barely three months. His baptism of fire will serve him well in future when as Eurogroup president he will have to deal with other countries where banks are in crisis, said former Dutch statistics office analyst Thomas Cool. “It’s good for him to have this learning experience. It will allow him to relate better to other countries where banks are having similar problems and have more empathy,” Cool said. — AFP

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Beckham at PSG - playing for free? ven after donating his estimated Ä800,000 ($1 million) monthly salary to charity, Paris Saint-Germain new signing David Beckham will still be in the money.

• How much is “Brand Beckham” worth? According to Forbes magazine in April 2012, Beckham, 37, was the highest-paid footballer in the world with $46 million a year, just ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid ($42 million) and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi ($39 million). The Sunday Times Rich List said he had a net worth of £190 million last year. The face of clothing retailer H and M, sportswear manufacturer Adidas and electrical giant Samsung, Beckham is the eighth-highest earner in all sports but unusual in that the majority of his earnings - $37 million - came from advertising contracts. • Has he given up some of his image rights to PSG? Probably. This practice, uncommon in France, is widespread in England and Spain, where Beckham played for Manchester United and Real Madrid, and involves players giving a share (often 50 percent) of advertising earnings to a club in exchange for a higher salary. The share given to the club only involves contracts signed after the player has put pen to paper. In practice, Beckham will continue to receive most of the advertising earnings on his contracts with H and M, Adidas and Samsung but will give to PSG half of any contract he may sign in the next five months. In France, Yohan Gourcuff negotiated such a contract when he joined Lyon, which was disastrous for the club, who paid him an enormous salary (Ä480,000 a month) in the expectation of advertising returns which never

materialised. At PSG, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is likely to have such a clause in his contract. • How much is Beckham likely to benefit from any profits PSG might make by using his image? Every player earns royalties on products based on their image or name. “After that, it’s a question of negotiation,” said Franck Hocquemiller, a football image agent. “The market price is between 10 and 20 percent. Are we talking about profit margin or revenue? In Beckham’s case there’s no reason it would be less than 20 percent logically on the revenue PSG gets on its products. That could be huge.” At €110 per replica jersey, Beckham could get a minimum of €10 given that he helped sell one million replica shirts with his name on them during his four years at Real Madrid from 2003 to 2007. • Are there any tax implications for his plan to donate all his salary to charity? Not really. At least not anything sufficiently significant to explain the gesture. Giving his estimated

Ä800,000 a month to charities that help sick children would certainly make him eligible for a reduction in tax on the rest of his earnings but the tax ceiling for charitable donations is fixed at 20 percent of overall revenue. “He’ll certainly pay a bit less tax but it (the donation) is above all a good PR stunt,” said Hocquemiller. “He’s arriving in a country in a financial crisis and this is how he is trying to silence his detractors.” Whatever happens and taking into account his additional revenue sources in his overall earnings, Beckham won’t be paying completely for free at PSG. • Have PSG and Beckham achieved the perfect marketing coup? Pretty much, although the length of Beckham’s contract is the only sticking point, as it gives PSG only five months to exploit his image to the full through replica kit and other items for supporters. “Five months is very short,” said Hocquemiller. “A 12 or 18month contract with a getout clause after six would have been more comfortable. This really seems like short-term marketing.” - AFP

Deadly Pemex blast tests Mexico’s new prez By Michael O’Boyle and David Alire Garcia deadly blast at Mexican state oil firm Pemex’s headquarters is the first key test of new President Pena Nieto’s promise that his party has broken with a past of shady cover-ups, and if handled properly, could help him overhaul the lumbering giant. The disaster on Thursday struck two months into Pena Nieto’s presidency, just as Congress was preparing to discuss his plans to open up the state-run energy industry to more private investment. The government has said it is still too early to say if the explosion that killed at least 34 people at Pemex’s main offices in Mexico City was due to an attack, an accident or negligence. If it was an accident that points to insufficient investment in Pemex, it could convince more Mexicans that something has to be done to make the monopoly more efficient and safer. “The opportunity here is to make everybody aware that unless Pemex does something about this, things are only going to get worse,” said a recently retired senior Pemex executive, asking not to be named. “I think these are very savvy politicians and they will look for arguments based on this in favor of opening up the industry.” However, if the government fails to deliver a transparent investigation and the Pemex explosion turns into a scandal, Pena Nieto may have a much tougher sell. In one apparent early misstep, Pena Nieto faced criticism on social media after local media reported he was vacationing on Saturday. He returned to the scene of the blast at night, said he was overseeing rescue efforts and announced that one more body had been found. Three more remain missing, he said. Leading lawmakers told Reuters on Saturday that they would continue to push for changes to the oil industry while still keeping Pemex under state control. “We are going to back a reform that strengthens Pemex and helps it secure the capital it needs,”

said Juan Bueno Torio, a former Pemex executive and a lawmaker for the opposition National Action Party (PAN) in the lower house’s energy committee. David Penchyna, the head of the Senate’s energy committee from Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said there should be no link made between the blast and the planned energy overhaul, part of a wider economic reform package. “There’s no reason to postpone or speed up the energy reform due to an unfortunate event,” he said. However, some saw a risk the incident could cast a pall over reform plans, and that the discussion could be pushed back. “This is a very delicate discussion because there are 33 people dead in a frankly tragic situation,” Javier Oliva, a political analyst at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said before the death toll rose to 34. Over the years, Mexicans have watched a long parade of farcical, inconclusive investigations into high profile crimes and devastating accidents, leaving them deeply skeptical of official explanations. Pena Nieto, 46, took power on Dec 1 promising to clean up the PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the last century. Decades of corrupt and bumbling administrations have left him a legacy of distrust to overcome. “I hope they tell us the truth, there are so many doubts,” said Edilberta Ramirez, a 47year-old maid, who lives outside the capital. “Before, the PRI got away with whatever they wanted.” Decades of mismanagement and a heavy tax burden have hobbled Pemex and its oil output has slumped. If major reforms are not undertaken, the

government warns one of the top oil suppliers to the United States could itself be importing crude by 2018. Pemex has been Mexico’s oil monopoly since the PRI expropriated oil wells from US and British companies in 1938. Politicians have long portrayed it as a cornerstone of national pride for Latin America’s No. 2 economy but the case for reform has grown stronger in recent years as production has fallen and people were angered by its poor safety record. More than 300 people were killed when a Pemex natural gas plant exploded in 1984. Around 200 others died in a series of underground gas explosions in the city of Guadalajara in 1992 and Pemex was found partly to blame. In the last year, an explosion killed around 30 at a gas facility and an ocean rig burned. Pena Nieto announced last week that Pemex would explore joint ventures with Brazilian oil firm Petrobras, which sold public shares and transformed itself from a shoddy state-run shop into a leader in deep water exploration. Many Mexicans jumped on that news as a sign that Pena Nieto wants to sell Pemex, despite his repeated claims that he will maintain government control of the oil industry. And some believe the government will use its investigation into the explosion for its own purposes. “They’re going to cover everything up ... It will be the same old farce,” said Carlos Cruz, 53, a chauffeur from Mexico City who said he voted for Pena Nieto in the election last July. “This is all about the privatization of Pemex.” For decades, Mexican presidents have bled Pemex’s profits to fund government spending. The oil money finances about a third of the federal budget but Pemex has often been unable to plow enough profits back into modernizing its infrastructure. If the cause of the blast comes down to faulty maintenance, Pena Nieto will have more ammunition to push for making Pemex more like a private company and cutting its tax burden. “If it’s not sabotage, it’s very poor management. And it should make clear that Pemex needs to modernize,” said Miriam Grunstein, an energy specialist at Mexico City’s CIDE research center. “This just can’t happen to the one of the biggest oil companies in the world.” If sabotage or a bomb are to blame, the government will need to quickly catch the culprits and prosecute them, although it is hamstrung by a justice system widely seen as failing. Any evidence that a drug gang or a radical leftist group was behind the explosion would likely undermine growing investor interest in Mexican assets. — Reuters

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

S P ORTS Schmeichel calls for help for troubled Gascoigne

Keita driven by search for peace in Mali

Simon d’Artois suffers concussion

LONDON: Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has urged the Professional Footballers’ Association to help troubled ex-England midfielder Paul Gascoigne overcome his personal problems. “This is not fun watching. Gazza needs help. Come on PFA & (PFA chief executive) Gordon Taylor, time to step up,” Schmeichel wrote on Twitter after Gascoigne’s agent Terry Baker told BBC radio on Saturday that the former Newcastle United, Tottenham, Lazio and Rangers star urgently needs help. After photos appeared in the tabloid media showing Gascoigne looking the worse for wear at a charity appearance, Schmeichel added: “We are all responsible for how we live our lives. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t step in and help, and I think the footballing community, as the family we at times claim to be, must do more to help Gazza and others like him. “Instead of getting great deals on cars & other luxury goods for members, PFA should commit more time and funds to help the like of Gazza. “So what if he’s had help before and has messed it up, does that mean that we just give up on him? “He needs help, they should be there to provide that for him, regardless.” Baker said the 45year-old, seen looking bloated and dishevelled in Britain’s Sunday Mirror newspaper, must get help. “I heard from Paul this evening (Saturday) and my best assessment would be and I’ve told him this-he immediately needs to get some help,” said Baker. He added Gascoigne had seemed “fairly incoherent” when they spoke. “Maybe no one can save him,” added Baker. “His life’s always in danger because he is an alcoholic, as he says.” —AFP

DURBAN: Seydou Keita’s sixth African Nations Cup tournament could turn out to be his best yet as the conflict in Mali drives his search for success on the pitch. The former Barcelona midfielder turned in yet another inspiring performance to lead his country to the semi-finals after edging hosts South Africa in a penalty shootout on Saturday. For Keita, victory continued the opportunity to spread a message of peace and to offer Mali a joyous diversion from the conflict that has beset the west African country over the last year. French troops are leading an assault on al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels and taken back territory in the north in a three-week-old intervention. “Our win ensures that Mali can hold their heads high. They will all be celebrating and for us to provide the joy is an honour,” the 33-year-old told reporters. Keita wore a Mali flag draped over his shoulder to the post match press conference after knocking out the hosts. “I’m wearing the flag that is flying in the north now as proudly as it is flying in the south,” he said in a reference to towns recaptured in recent days. “It has been as important for us to win for the people as it has been for ourselves.” At the start of the African Nations Cup Keita had turned up at a press conference wearing a tee-shirt with a peace slogan, risking possible punishment for displaying political messages at the tournament. Official chose to turn a blind eye. —Reuters

PARK CITY: Halfpipe skier Simon d’Artois is expected to make a full recovery after suffering a concussion and blacking out for about 10 seconds Saturday when he smacked his head during a fall at the US Grand Prix. Kelley Korbin, manager of media relations for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, said a CAT scan was normal but d’Artois continues to experience concussion symptoms. He will remain in the hospital, likely overnight, until he feels better. The skier’s father is with him at the hospital. D’Artois fell near the top of the 22-foot superpipe and slid to the bottom unconscious. Ski patrol immediately was on the scene and attended to him for about 20 minutes before taking him off in a sled. He was wearing a neck brace but flashed a “rock on” sign with his right hand as he left the venue. Five of the 12 men in the finals fell Saturday. France’s Benoit Valentin appeared to injure his left knee. American David Wise won the event. Canadian freestyle pioneer Sarah Burke crashed on the same halfpipe last year while training and died a week later from the injuries. The dangers of winter action sports came into focus again this week when freestyle snowmobile rider Caleb Moore died after a crash at the Winter X Games. —AP

Officials and participants in a group photo.

KSF organizes referees course Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdallah Al-Sabah shooting tourney By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: President of Kuwait Shooting Federation, Vice President of Kuwait Shooting Federation Duaij Khalaf AlOtaibi opened the International Air Weapons Referees (B) course at the Sheik h Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex lectures hall Friday. The course is being held under the super vision of the I nternational Shooting Federation and organized by Kuwait Shooting Sport Club from Feb 1st until Feb 4th, 2013. Australian lecturer Ado Maranic will lecture to participants from UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nepal, in addition to Kuwait.

Engineer Duaij Al-Otaibi welcomed participants as well as lecturer Ado Maranic. He also thanked the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS) for supporting the organization of this course. He said the development of the sport of shooting makes it necessary for officials of shooting federations to develop their technical staff to enhance this noble sport, and that’s why KSF is keen to organize such courses in cooperation with the ISSF. Engineer Duaij Al-Otaibi asked participants to interact with this course to reflect positively on their federations. Meanwhile, tournament of Sheikh

Phoenix fans applaud Phil, Paddy’s kicks LOS ANGELES: Record crowds of more than 179,000 at the Phoenix Open on Saturday had plenty to celebrate during an action-packed third round as their favourite son, Phil Mickelson, charged into a commanding six-stroke lead. Twice champion Mickelson, who attended the nearby Arizona State University, piled up seven birdies in a flawless seven-under-par 64 at the sun-splashed TPC Scottsdale to strengthen his hold on the PGA Tour event. The loudest roar of the day came after the American left-hander struck a nine-iron to inside two feet at the par-three 16th where nearly 20,000 fans were crammed into the massive grandstands surrounding the “noisiest hole in golf”. When Mickelson tapped in the birdie putt to move five ahead of the field, the decibel level again spiked as further cheers echoed around the course. “It’s hard to describe,” Mickelson, who ended the day by tying the tournament’s 54-hole record of 24-under 189, told Golf Channel of the atmosphere inside the ropes at the Phoenix Open. “It’s one of those things you just need to experience with the way the people are here and the size of the crowds at this tournament, unique to any event on Tour. “It’s pretty cool and to have gone to school (university) here, the way they treat me, it’s awesome.” Earlier in the day, the fans packed around the 16th hole were treated to an impromptu display of football kicking by Padraig Harrington after the Irishman had eagled the 15th to trim Mickelson’s lead, briefly, to three shots. As the crowd erupted with chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole”, triple major winner Harrington place-kicked an American football from the tee and then punted the next few before setting off toward the green. After Harrington had two-putted from 15 feet for a rock solid par, cheers of “Paddy, Paddy, Paddy” reverberated across the green. “I have actually thrown an American football before but I’ve never kicked one before,” Harrington said. “I attempted to throw one and I know my throwing is so poor I had better start kicking it.” The footballs were official Super Bowl models and provided by Harrington’s equipment manufacturer, Wilson. “When I kicked a couple out of my hands, I pulled the first couple because I wasn’t used to it, then I hit one sweet and actually kicked it over the grandstand,” the Dubliner said. “Once you get used it to it, it’s okay,” smiled the Irishman, whose 63 was the day’s best score and lifted him into a share of third place at 16 under, a distant eight strokes behind the pacesetting Mickelson. FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker was alone in second at 18 under after shooting a 65, though his six-birdie display was not good enough to close the gap on the tournament leader. “Obviously you need to shoot low if you want to catch Phil right now,” said the fast-talking Snedeker, who has twice finished in the top three in his first three PGA Tour starts of the year. “Any time you shoot six under par on a golf course you’re gaining ground, unfortunately I didn’t do that today on Phil. “I’ve got to go out and shoot something low tomorrow and hope Phil doesn’t have quite as good a day as he’s had the last three,” added Snedeker, a fourtimes winner on the PGA Tour. —Reuters

Jaber Al-Abdallah Al-Sabah will begin Thursday Feb 7th at Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Olympic Shooting Complex. The Higher Technical Committee at Kuwait Shooting Sport Club decided to include the skeet, trap , double trap, 10 meter air pistol and rifle, 50 meter rifle and 25m pistol events in the competition in the men, women and juniors categories. KSSC Secretary general Obaid AlOsaimi said this tournament has a special status at the Kuwait shooting community as all recall the tremendous support Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdallah gave to shooters and the club since its launching at Al-Ahmadi Governorate

ranges. He said Kuwait Shooting Club is keen on holding this tournament each year in appreciation of Sheikh Jaber’s contributions. Obaid Al-Osaimi said this event proceeds HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad International Shooting Grand Prix to start on March 1st and concludes on March 9th, 2013’ which KSSC is honored to organize every year. A large number of shooters who won olympic medals in London 2012 as well as Arab and friendly countries shooters will participate. Registration for Sheikh Jaber AlAbdallah Tournament will continue until Tuesday, Feb 5 at 6 pm.

Obaid Al-Osaimi

Gallacher wins in Dubai DUBAI: In a tournament in which he could do no wrong, Stephen Gallacher of Scotland fired a timely eagle two on the par-4 16th hole and comfortably won the $2.5 million Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the end by three shots. On a difficult day at the Majlis course of Emirates Golf Club, Gallacher battled it out gamely against South Africa’s Richard Sterne before the magic second shot with a sandwedge from 115 yard changed the complexion of the tournament. It was Gallacher’s fifth eagle of the tournament and it helped him close the tournament with a one-under par 71 round. That gave him a four-day tally of 22-under par 266, matching the all-time lowest winning total in the history of the tournament (Thomas Bjorn in 2001). The victory was only the second European Tour win for the 38-year-old Scotsman. His last win came way back in October 2004 when he won the Dunhill Links Championship. Sterne (71) had a back nine wobble and was second at 19-under par 269, while Chile’s Felipe Aguilar (69) and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (71) were tied third at 17-under par 271. World No8 Lee Westwood (68) of England looked good to create some drama, but after reaching 17-under par with four holes to play, he missed a birdie chance from five feet and made two bogeys and a birdie to finish tied fifth at 272 alongside Australian Marcus Fraser (67). “I knew it was going to be a difficult day given the gusty wind and I knew I just had to stay patient throughout. Anything could have happened out there if you caught a bit of wind,” said Gallacher, who is expected to rise to No60 in the world from his present ranking of 111. “I didn’t realise it is 201 tournaments since my last win, but now that I have got it, it is even sweeter.” It was a tentative beginning from Gallacher, who lost his three-shot lead in the second hole itself after missing a four-footer par putt on the first and pushing his tee shot into the trees right of the short par-4 second

DUBAI: Stephen Gallacher of Scotland poses with the trophy after winning the Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai, yesterday. Gallacher fired a timely eagle two on the par-4 16th hole and comfortably won the $2.5 million Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the end by three shots. —AFP

green. Sterne, on the other hand, chipped it to two feet for his first birdie of the day on the second. Both players made birdies on the par-5 third hole and were tied at 20-under par. Sterne made the turn after six consecutive pars, while Gallacher kept mixing brilliance with the mediocre. On the eight hole, he made a bogey after hitting his tee shot into the waste area, and then hit a stunning second shot to three feet from the rough and in between the trees to an unsighted pin for a birdie on the ninth. Sterne edged ahead with a birdie on

the par-5 10th, but Gallacher limited the damage with a par putt from 20 feet. One ahead after 10, Sterne then dropped shots on consecutive holes to hand over the lead once again to Gallacher, only to tie again on the par-5 13th when he birdied the hole and his rival made a par. The key moment, obviously, was his eagle on the 16th, coupled with another brace of dropped shots on the 15th and 16th from Sterne. The win is almost certain to qualify Gallacher for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, and put him in a good position to get into the top-50 of

the world and a first start at the Masters in April. “ That would be something. The Masters is the only Major that I haven’t played and have always watched it on TV. But this win certainly changes my schedule a wee bit and I am very happy about that,” added Gallacher. England’s Robert Rock, winner of last year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, showed glimpses of his old form when he shot a 68 and moved into a tie for seventh place at 15-under par along with Portugal’s Ricardo Santos and England’s Steve Webster. —AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

S P ORTS

Maze, Hirscher ready to shine at ski worlds

SOCHI: Canada’s Perianne Jones (R) competes during 6 x 1,25 km Ladies’ Classic Team Sprint of FIS Cross Country skiing World Cup at Laura Cross Country and Biathlon Center in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi yesterday. Finland’s Mona-Lisa Malvalehto and Anne Kylloenen took the first place ahead of Russia’s Julia Ivanova and Natalia Matveeva and Canada’s Perianne Jones and Daria Gaiazova. —AFP

SCHLADMING: Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Austrian tyro Marcel Hirscher have set the World Cup circuit alight this season, and the duo seem well set to do the same at the February 4-17 World Ski Championships. The Austrian resort of Schladming is host to the 42nd world championships which kick off tomorrow with the women’s super-G race, when Maze will come up against United States starlet Lindsey Vonn. Ten individual gold medals are up for grabs with the world’s top men and women racing for downhill, slalom, super combined, super-G and giant slalom titles, plus the team competition. The men’s competition will focus on the affable Hirscher, the 23-year-old Austrian, keen to perform on home snow in front of an expectant crowd. Hirscher dramatically snatched the overall World Cup title last season and currently leads the standings this year on the back of six slalom victories. The technical specialist cedes his superiority in the speed events, Norwegian colossus Aksel Lund Svindal bearing the favourite’s mantle. Canada will be hoping it’s third time lucky in the downhill after Erik Guay mirrored John Kucera in the blue riband event in the last two editions, but the Italian team, led by Christof Innerhofer and Dominik Paris, will be in the mix. Didier Cuche’s retirement will not help the struggling Swiss men’s team, with Patrick Kueng’s 15th-placed finish in the downhill and Carlo Janka’s disappointing

10th in the super combined the sorry highlights of a disastrous weekend in Kitzbuehel. The Swiss ski federation were moved to announce the creation of a new post to oversee its alpine skiing branch. It argued that the current competition head could not marry all the different tasks needed, something the federation said was manifested in the “crisis gripping the men’s national team at the moment”. Another notable absentee from the men’s events will be American Bode Miller. The two-time World Cup overall winner will not be competing after failing to recover from a knee injury, and has instead turned his focus on making a comeback in time for the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year. Miller’s teammate Vonn has also had a drama-filled start to the season, including a nasty fall, one month out, hospitalisation for an intestinal ailment and a divorce. She proved, however, with a giant slalom victory in Maribor last month that she is back near her competitive best. The runaway leader in the women’s overall standings is Slovenian Maze, seemingly hell-bent on matching Austrian legend Hermann Maier in going beyond 2,000 points for the season. Maze’s all-round skiing ability should see her pose a threat in all of the women’s events, while eyes will be on the slalom to see if US teen sensation Mikaela Shiffrin can deliver on her budding promise. —AFP

Battling Pakistan hold up S Africa victory bid De Villiers hits 15th test century JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan batsmen Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq held up South Africa’s push for victory with a defiant fifth wicket partnership on the third day of the first Test at the Wanderers Stadium yesterday. Pakistan were 183 for four at

the close after being set to make an improbable 480 to win. The match seemed headed for an early finish when the first four wickets fell for 82 runs, but Pakistan captain Misbah (44 not out) and the stocky Shafiq (53 not out) defended grimly for more than three

hours, adding an unbeaten 101. South Africa remained in a strong position to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, however, with a second new ball due after five overs on Monday and only wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed of the remaining batsmen likely to

JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan’s Asad Shafiq hits a four during their cricket test match against South Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday. —AP

SCOREBOARD JOHANNESBURG: Scores at stumps on the third day of the first Test between South Africa and Pakistan at the Wanderers Stadium yesterday: Pakistan, second innings South Africa, first innings 253 Pakistan, first innings 49 Mohammad Hafeez c De Villiers b Philander 2 South Africa, second innings Nasir Jamshed c Peterson b Steyn 46 (overnight 207-3) Azhar Ali lbw b Kallis 18 A. Petersen c Mohammad Hafeez b Umar Gul 27 Younis Khan c De Villiers b Morkel 15 G. Smith c Sarfraz Ahmed b Umar Gul 52 Misbah-ul-Haq not out 44 H. Amla not out 74 Asad Shafiq not out 53 J. Kallis c Asad Shafiq b Saeed Ajmal 7 Extras (lb2, nb3) 5 A. de Villiers not out 103 Total (4 wkts, 75 overs) 183 Extras (lb4, nb5, w3) 12 Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Hafeez), 2-64 (Jamshed), 3-70 Total (3 wkts dec, 62 overs) 275 (Azhar), 4-82 (Younis) Fall of wickets: 1-82 (Petersen), 2-87 (Smith), 3-99 (Kallis) Bowling: Umar Gul 14-2-58-2 (3w), Junaid Khan 13-1-63- Bowling: Steyn 18-7-26-1, Philander 17-3-39-1 (1nb), 0 (5nb), Rahat Ali 11-1-44-0, Mohammad Hafeez 5-0-32- Morkel 18-5-65-1 (2nb), Kallis 12-3-27-1, Peterson 10-3-24-0. 0, Saeed Ajmal 18-1-74-1, Younis Khan 1-1-0-0

offer sustained resistance to the South African fast bowlers. Both Misbah and Shafiq had let-offs. Shafiq edged an outswinger from Vernon Philander to Graeme Smith at first slip when he had 40 and the total was on 155. Shafiq had almost reached the boundary edge when his dressing room alerted him to a television replay which showed that Philander had bowled a no-ball. Four balls later, Misbah, on 31, sliced a drive against Jacques Kallis to backward point, but Robin Peterson, diving to his right, could not hold a waisthigh chance. Before Misbah and Shafiq came together everything had seemed to be going South Africa’s way. AB de Villiers hurried to a century before South Africa declared on 275 for three, leaving Pakistan with an hour ’s batting before lunch. De Villiers needed only 33 balls to move from his overnight 63 to 103 not out. He and Hashim Amla added 68 in nine overs before the declaration, which came immediately after De Villiers punched Umar Gul to the cover boundary to reach his 15th Test century off 117 balls. He hit 11 boundaries. Amla was unbeaten on 74 off 114 balls with seven fours. The pair put on an unbeaten 176 for the fourth wicket, easily the best partnership of the match. After being routed for their all-time low total of 49 in the first innings, Pakistan made a more confident star t to the second innings and Mohammad Hafeez was somewhat unfortunate to fall to a diving catch by AB de Villiers when he glanced Philander to leg. Nasir Jamshed and Azhar Ali put on 57 for the second wicket but tight bowling by Dale Steyn and Philander after lunch slowed the scoring rate down. The lefthanded Jamshed, playing in his first Test match, looked solid before he was out for 46 when he pulled Steyn tamely to midwicket. Azhar followed three overs later for 18. Having been subjected to some hostile short-pitched bowling from Steyn he was trapped in front of his stumps when he played across a full delivery from Kallis. Morne Morkel took his first wicket of the match when Younis Khan was caught behind for 15, nibbling at and then attempting to withdraw his bat from a fast delivery outside his off stump. —AFP

Women’s World Cup results NEW DELHI: Results from the Women’s World Cup matches yesterday:

Sri Lanka 159 all out in 40 overs (Deepika Rasangika 28, Prasadani Weerakkody 22; Shaquana Quintyne 3-32, Shanel Daley 2-35)

In Mumbai Group A England beat India by 32 runs England 272-8 in 50 overs (Charlotte Edwards 109, Arran Brindle 37 not out, Sarah Taylor 35, Lydia Greenway 29, Katherine Brunt 21; Jhulan Goswami 2-50, Nagarajan Niranjana 2-56) India 240-9 in 50 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 107 not out, Karuna Jain 56; Katherine Brunt 4-29, Danielle Wyatt 2-52)

In Cuttack Group B Australia beat South Africa by three wickets South Africa 188-9 in 50 overs (Marizanne Kapp 61, Trisha Chetty 59, Shandre Fritz 24 not out; Ellyse Perry 3-35, Megan Schutt 2-42) Australia 190-7 in 45.4 overs (Rachael Haynes 83, Lisa Sthalekar 29, Jodie Fields 21, Erin Osborne 20 not out; Shabnim Ismail 4-41, Susan Benade 2-38)

Group A West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 209 runs West Indies 368-8 in 50 overs (Stafanie Taylor 171, Deandra Dottin 50, Merissa Aguilleira 47 not out, Kyshona Knight 44, Kycia Knight 30; Shashikala Siriwardene 2-58, Sharina Ravikumar 2-69, Chamani Seneviratna 2-72)

Group B New Zealand beat Pakistan by seven wickets Pakistan 104 all out in 41.2 overs (Asmavia Iqbal 21, Bismah Maroof 20; Rachel Candy 5-19, Nicola Browne 2-12) New Zealand 108-3 in 29.4 overs (Suzie Bates 65 not out, Katie Perkins 25 not out; Sana Mir 2-26). —AFP

PERTH: West Indies batsman Kieran Powell slides into his crease during the one-day international cricket match between Australia and the West Indies at the WACA ground in Perth yesterday. —AFP

Mitchell Starc bowls Australia to victory PERTH: A maiden century from George Bailey and another inspired bowling performance from the emerging Mitchell Starc helped Australia beat the West Indies by 54 runs in the second one-day international at the WACA Ground yesterday. Set 267 to win after Bailey’s unbeaten 125 rescued the Australian innings, the West Indies were cruising at 159 for three in the run chase, before the return of Starc to the attack turned the match again as the tourists were bowled out 212 in the 39th over. Starc (5-32) had claimed the first three wickets in the West Indian innings, all lbw, to have them reeling at 33 for three, but when he came back into the attack the Australians were struggling, with opener Kieran Powell and Dwayne Bravo putting on a century partnership for the fourth wicket. However, the left-armer, who took 5-20 as the Australians routed the West Indies for 70 in Friday’s opening game en route to a nine-wicket victory, struck two more telling blows. After spinner Glenn Maxwell ended the Powell and Bravo partnership at 126 runs by having the latter caught behind for 45, Starc removed Powell, adjudged lbw for 83 on a decision review and Devon Thomas (0) in successive balls to claim his second five-wicket haul in as many matches. Thomas was given out in quite bizarre circumstances, with umpire Nigel Llong giving the batsman not out on a caught behind appeal, but third umpire Asad Rauf reversing the decision despite the apparent lack of any evidence at all to suggest

the West Indian hit the ball. When Darren Sammy fell for eight a short time later, the West Indies had lost 520 and slumped to 179 for eight. Sunil Narine (24) briefly lifted West Indian hopes when he belted four sixes in a row off Maxwell (4-63), before being stumped from the last ball of the same over. Earlier, brilliant catching by the West Indies had Australia in deep trouble at 98 for six, before Bailey steered a spirited fightback that saw the home team make 266 for seven from their 50 overs. Bailey, who described Starc as an “extraordinary talent”, said Australia’s total exceeded even their own expectations after the poor start. “When James (Faulkner) came out we thinking let’s get it to 200,” he said. “To end up with more than 260 was a bonus.” Bailey reached his century by blasting Kemar Roach over mid-wicket for six in the 49th over. He then finished the innings in style, hitting three sixes in the final over from Bravo as the Australians plundered 25 runs. Bailey hit 30 runs from the last six balls he faced in the innings, facing 110 deliveries overall and hitting 10 fours and four sixes. Having had the Australians under pressure with both bat and ball, Powell was pleased with the improved performance, but said the West Indies didn’t make the most of their efforts. “We didn’t take the opportunities we had,” he said. “But there are lessons to be learned and lots of positives.” —AFP

SCOREBOARD PERTH: Scoreboard after Australia beat West Indies by 54 runs in the second one-day international at the WACA in Perth yesterday: West Indies won the toss and elected to West Indies innings bowl first. C. Gayle lbw Starc 4 Australia innings K. Powell lbw b Starc 83 A. Finch c DM Bravo b Holder 11 R. Sarwan lbw Starc 0 U. Khawaja c Powell b Roach 3 DM Bravo lbw Starc 14 P. Hughes c DM Bravo b Sammy 21 DJ Bravo c Wade b Maxwell 45 M. Clarke b DJ Bravo 16 K. Pollard c Finch b Maxwell 1 G. Bailey not out 125 D. Thomas c Wade b Starc 0 M. Wade c Sammy b Narine 16 D. Sammy c Faulkner b Maxwell 8 G. Maxwell b Sammy 0 J. Holder run out 9 J. Faulkner c Powell b Sammy 39 S. Narine st Wade b Maxwell 24 M. Johnson not out 16 K. Roach not out 0 Extras (lb-10, w-9) 19 Extras (lb-13 w-11) 24 Total (for seven wickets, 50 overs) 266 Total (all out, 38.1 overs) 212 Did not bat: M. Starc, C. McKay Fall of wickets: 1-10 2-10 3-33 4-159 5-166 6Fall of wickets: 1-16 2-25 3-56 4-56 5-93 6-98 166 7-168 8-179 9-209 7-198 Bowling: Mckay 6-0-32-0 (w-3), Starc 8-1-32Bowling: Roach 10-0-51-1, Holder 10-1-56-1 5 (w-4), Faulkner 7-0-40-0 (w-1), Johnson 9(w-5), Sammy 10-0-48-3 (w-2), DJ Bravo 10- 0-32-0 (w-3), Maxwell 8.1-1-63-4 0-67-1 (w-2), Narine 10-0-34-1 Australia lead five-match series 2-0.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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Balanced 49ers offense aims to lead Super Bowl win NEW ORLEANS: Colin Kaepernick is a mystery man under center, a strongarmed passer one moment and a 25year-old kid who can run right out of the pocket for a huge gain the next. Baltimore must brace for the unexpected on every snap in today’s Super Bowl. There’s flashy Michael Crabtree on the edges and Vernon Davis down the middle, Frank Gore and LaMichael James clogging things up in the running game. The creative, switch-it-up San Francisco offense sure keeps opposing defenses guessing. The 49ers hope to do it again at the Superdome, when the Ravens will face an array of looks from Jim Harbaugh’s team. “With Kaepernick, it’s like pick your poison,” Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice said. “Are you going to try to shut down that pistol and not let him get outside, where you’ve got Frank Gore and LaMichael James going downhill? Then, Crabtree and Vernon Davis on the outside. I think the secondary of Baltimore, right there in the middle, is where they’re going to get exposed. ... If you double team Crabtree, it’s going to be Vernon Davis. If you get Crabtree one on

one - for some reason he’s playing with a swagger right now that’s unbelievable.” Kaepernick has shown two drastically different styles in two postseason games. What he’ll show the Ravens is anybody’s guess. In a 45-31 rout of the Packers in the divisional round, Kaepernick ran for a quarterback playoff record 181 yards and two touchdowns and also threw for 263 yards with two TD passes to Michael Crabtree. A week later at Atlanta, everything looked different in a 28-24 win that sent San Francisco to its first Super Bowl in 18 years. Kaepernick only ran the ball twice, instead handing off to his go-to guy, Gore, and the Niners rallied from a 17-0 deficit for the biggest comeback in an NFC championship game. “He’s very good, he’s very accurate,” Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees said of Kaepernick. “They’ve done a great job with putting him into a system and building a system to make him successful, but to be able to throw the ball deep you have to have guys that can run deep. Crabtree and Vernon Davis and Randy Moss can run deep.” And Gore can grind out

yards. Gore, coming off his franchiserecord sixth 1,000-yard rushing season, ran for second-half touchdowns of 5 and 9 yards in the comeback in his first career postseason performance with two TDs against the Falcons. He has three touchdowns and 209 yards rushing during this postseason run. A balanced offense, indeed. “There’s a lot,” Crabtree said. “I could go on talking about the talent that we have around here. On the tight ends, running backs, you have to remember we have three people injured that played a major part in our offense. But I would say that with all of these weapons, I don’t think that you can go wrong.” After a quiet year in which he faced double-teams and constant attention by defenses, Davis broke out at Atlanta with five catches for 106 yards with a 4-yard TD grab. “He does it all. He’s a beast,” Ravens safety Ed Reed said. “He’s one of those guys that you all say has it. He catches touchdowns, he’s blocking. I’m surprised they haven’t ran him yet, handing him the ball, but he’s somebody you really

have to know where he is at all times and be mindful of what he’s doing, because they give him the ball, for one. You have to give him the ball. Why wouldn’t you? But whoever is covering him, whether it’s me, (safety) Bernard (Pollard), or anybody on our team covering him, you have to be really mindful of where he’s at.” Crabtree had six catches against the Falcons and Randy Moss - who this week proclaimed himself “the greatest receiver ever to play this game” only to have Hall of Famer Jerry Rice beg to differ - made three. San Francisco’s offensive line will have to do a better job than in a 16-6 loss at Baltimore on Thanksgiving night 2011, when the unit allowed the Ravens to match a franchise record with nine sacks. “We’ve seen enough film to kind of know what to expect, unless they come up with something different,” center Jonathan Goodwin said. “But definitely a talented group up front, and that’s what makes them a good defense. They try to do some things to confuse you.” If Crabtree and Kaepernick can pull off another outstanding outing in the

game of their lives, they’ll take the podium together again for an entertaining back and forth of compliments and good-natured ribbing. After one game, they held a joint postgame news conference. All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis, a member of San Francisco’s stingy, run-stopping defense, regularly offers a pat on the back and hug to Kaepernick. “In a close game, we would win because our defense doesn’t give up,” Davis said. “Our offense is always aggressive and eager to win.” Hoisting the Lombardi Trophy is the plan now. In the Niners’ rooting section: Rice, Roger Craig, Joe Montana and Steve Young. The current 49ers are fully aware of the history, most notably a perfect Super Bowl record that they must protect. San Francisco is 5-0 in championship games and trying to match the Pittsburgh Steelers for most ever. “This is incredible, man,’ Davis said. “Just being a part of this franchise is legendary - Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Steve Young - and to be able to bring a ring back, that’s something that you can cherish for the rest of your life.” —AP

Italy stun France in Six Nations thriller Italy join England, Ireland on two points

GENEVA: Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic returns a shot during a Davis Cup World Group first round game against Switzerland yesterday in Geneva. —AFP

Berdych wins battle of Davis Cup marathon PARIS: Tomas Berdych defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in a battle of Davis Cup marathon men yesterday as defending champions Czech Republic reached the quarter-finals. The Czechs led Switzerland 2-1 overnight after Berdych and Lukas Rosol beat Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 in the longest-ever Davis Cup match, an exhausting doubles which lasted a minute over seven hours. World number six Berdych and Wawrinka, the 17th-ranked player, returned on Sunday for the first of the reverse singles in Geneva and three hours 15 minutes later it was the Czech who triumphed again, claiming a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) win. “Stan is one of the players who I don’t like to play. He has a dangerous game,” said Berdych, of a player who also featured in a five-hour defeat to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open last month. “The match on Saturday will go down in history. I was ready to play. This is a team event and the guys in the team have magic hands and told me I would be OK to play. “You play tennis for moments like this. I will have the memories which can’t be taken away,” added ironman Berdych, who won all three rubbers he played this weekend. Wawrinka insisted that despite his three matches-he had also won his opening singles on Friday-he would have been able to play a fifth set yesterday. “I care about this competition and love to play for my country,” said Wawrinka, who was Switzerland’s top player in the absence of Roger Federer. “We were really close. I was up in the tiebreak today but Tomas played better and showed why he is number six in the world. Physically, I felt OK and could have played another set.” The Czech Republic will now travel to Kazakhstan in April for the quarter-finals for their second meeting with the former

Soviet nation. The Kazakhs, who beat Austria 3-1 in their World Group clash on Sunday in Astana, knocked the Czechs out in the first round in 2011 when they squeezed out victory in the deciding rubber. Later Sunday, five-time champions Spain will look to overturn a 2-1 deficit and beat Canada. Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez kept the injury-depleted Spaniards’ hopes alive as they battled to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 victory over Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in Vancouver on Saturday. Missing top players Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco, Spain still face an uphill task. Granollers, the world number 34 who was beaten in straight sets by 166th-ranked Frank Dancevic on Friday, will have to dig deep to find the energy to take on Canada’s world number 15 Milos Raonic, while Dancevic will take on Albert Ramos. The winners of that tie will meet either Italy or Croatia, who were standing at 2-2 in Turin, in the last eight. Italy had led 2-1 overnight but Marin Cilic won his second singles of the tie by easing past Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. Fabio Fognini will tackle Ivan Dodig later in the decisive rubber. The United States, a record 32-time champions, are 2-1 ahead of Brazil in Florida after squandering the chance to wrap up the tie on Saturday when Bob and Mike Bryan suffered a stunning loss in the doubles. Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares claimed a famous 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win to keep Brazil alive and condemn the American brothers to only the third defeat of their Davis Cup partnership. The winners of that tie will meet 2010 champions Serbia who took an unassailable 3-0 lead over Belgium on Saturday. The other quarter-final will see Argentina facing France after they also completed victories on Saturday. —AFP

Lopez wins in return to ring BAYAMON: Juan Manuel Lopez stopped Aldimar Silva Santos in the ninth round Saturday night in his first fight following a suspension for accusing a referee of having a gambling problem. Known for his brawling style, Lopez waited for the right moment and knocked Santos down with an impressive flurry with 1:04 left. The Brazilian fighter was unable to continue. “I won’t deny that I went through a period of frustration but you have to pay attention to your corner,” Lopez said. “What I was used to doing is hitting them high but in this case what we’ve been working on in the gym is not to fight like that. More calm, take it round per round, three or four combos at most.” Lopez, a former junior featherweight titleholder, was in the ring for the first time since losing his featherweight belt to Orlando Salido in March 2010, an epic slugfest that saw Salido go down in the fifth

round and Lopez knocked down in the 10th round. It was what happened after the fight that generated controversy, though. The fight, close on all three scorecards, was appropriately stopped by referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. when Lopez was clearly dazed in the 10th round. Moments later, Lopez was interviewed in the ring by Showtime’s Jim Gray and, still appearing confused, accused Ramirez of having a gambling problem. In a sport with a long history of murky characters and questionable decisions, the accusation was not well received by the Puerto Rican Boxing Professional Boxing Commission. So despite an apology from Lopez and his promoter, Bob Arum, revealing that the fighter had sustained a concussion in the fight, the commission suspended the popular Lopez for a year and fined him $10,000. —AP

ROME: Italy produced a stunning all-round performance to shock France 23-18 at the Stadio Olimpico yesterday and blast the Six Nations wide open. More usually contenders for the competition’s wooden spoon, Italy proved their victory over the French two seasons ago was no fluke as they defended well and took their chances against the 2011 World Cup runners-up. Tries from captain Sergio Parisse and Martin Castrogiovanni, plus 10 points from man-of-the -match Luciano Orquera and three from substitute Kris Burton led them to victory, just their third ever over the French. France were far from their best and despite tries from Louis Picamoles and Benjamin Fall and eight points from a rejuvenated Frederick Michalak, they were deservedly beaten by Jacques Brunel’s effervescent side. “I’m really happy for the team and the fans, after two years we’ve beaten France again in Rome,” Orquera told reporters. “We were mentally extremely strong right from the beginning, we wanted to win at any cost and we were always in the match. We never gave up.” Italy joined England and Ireland on two points and sit in third place after the first round of games, which included another upset as holders Wales lost 30-22 to Ireland on Saturday. Italy captain Parisse led from the front, putting his team ahead with only four minutes gone with a spectacular counter-attacking try. The move was started when Luke McLean recovered a France kick and burst through the first line of defence. The ball was fed to the magnificent Orquera, who offloaded to his captain and then converted the try. France responded with intense pressure, and a try bundled over the line by Picamoles looked to have levelled the scores, only for Michalak to miss an easy conversion. Orquera extended Italy’s lead to

10-5 with a smart drop goal on the quarter hour and the number 10 continued his hot form three minutes later with a converted penalty given for Maxime Mermoz’s offside offence. Italy’s defence did brilliantly to hold back France’s powerful attack in the first half hour, only conceding a 27th-minute Michalak penalty

a 15-13 halftime lead. Flyhalf Michalak, who was brought back into the international fold by Saint Andre last year after several seasons in the wilderness, gave France a five-point advantage with a penalty for collapsed scrum with 50 minutes gone. He nearly made it eight two minutes later when he narrowly

as flyhalf, gave his side a five-point lead 12 minutes later with a deft drop goal which had Italy fans dreaming of a repeat of their 2011 heroics when they beat France 2221 for their first Six Nations win over them. As the match moved to its close, France turned the screw, and with a minute left Davide Giazzon was sin-

ROME: France’s full-back Yoann Huget is tackled by Italy’s hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini (R) during the Six Nations international rugby union match Italy vs France in Rome’s Olimpic Stadium yesterday. Italy defeated France 23-18. —AFP after France had a Yoann Huget try denied by the TMO a minute before. However, Philippe Saint Andre’s team took the lead three minutes later, Benjamin Fall taking the ball from Huget and scoring a try under the posts which Michalak had no problem converting to give France

missed another penalty from near the halfway line. France looked to be dominating but a sudden burst of pressure from Italy resulted in Castrogiovanni scoring his 12th international try on 56 minutes which was comfortably converted by Orquera for a 20-18 scoreline. Burton, who replaced Orquera

binned, leaving the home fans to suffer for the excruciating final seconds. But with a huge crowd roaring their team on they kept their opponents at bay for an incredible win and a dream start to the Six Nations for their French coach Brunel against his countrymen. —Reuters

Brazil upset Bryans, cuts US lead to 2-1 JACKSONVILLE: Brazil’s doubles team of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares upset the top-ranked Mike and Bob Bryan 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 6-4, 36, 6-3 and kept the United States from clinching the first-round Davis Cup match. The Bryan brothers have been the most successful doubles duo in Davis Cup history, with a record 20 wins and only two losses when playing together. But Melo and Soares beat the US duo for the third time in four meetings overall. “(The Brazilian team) came out with something to prove and played an extremely high level of doubles and made some great gets,” U.S. team captain Jim Courier said. “I’m sure (our) guys can play at a higher level. I’m not sure that those guys can. To their credit, they played great today and they deserved to win.” The tone of the match may have been established in the first set when the Bryan brothers held a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker. They lost the next couple points but won the next point for a 6-3 lead and a triple-set advantage. But they failed to convert on any of the next three chances as the Brazilians gained momentum and won five consecutive points for the set win. With neither side able to break the other’s serve, the second

set also went to a tiebreaker. Brazil looked as if it would jump to a 2-0 set lead when it had three setpoint opportunities at 6-3. But this time the Brazilians couldn’t convert on any of their chances and when

Melo and Soares hit consecutive shots into the net with a 7-7 score, the US team evened the match at one set. Brazil rebounded and went on to win the third and fifth sets to record a

JACKSONVILLE: The United States’ Mike Bryan returns at the net during the fifth set as Brazil’s Marcelo Melo covers during their Davis Cup doubles tennis match in Jacksonville, Fla. on Saturday. —AP

win that Soares called, “this ranks number one for sure. It’s very special.” The Bryans entered the match with momentum, having captured their 13th Grand Slam title two weeks earlier by winning the Australian Open. “There’s no doubt on paper, they’re a better team than us,” Soares said. “But we got a good record against them. “To beat these guys you have to be 110 percent. Today we showed we were 110 percent, most important for five sets.” The Bryans rallied in the fourth set. They broke Melo’s serve in the sixth game with Bob Bryan’s backhand volley winner giving them a 4-2 lead. They went on to hold their serve to close out the set at 6-3. The Bryans lost a chance to gain a break, but couldn’t convert two break points in the third game. In the eighth game with Brazil holding a 4-3 lead, things fell apart for the two Americans who lost Mike Bryan’s serve at love. In the ninth game with the score at 30-30, both Bryans hit shots that sailed long or wide, leaving the Brazilian team and its small but raucous crowd to erupt in celebration. “Hats off to the Brazilians,” Bob Bryan said. “I thought they served well pretty much of the four hours. We’re obviously disappointed. I feel we’re capable of playing at a higher level.” —AP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

S P ORTS

Sissoko enthused by match-winning Newcastle debut LONDON: New Newcastle United star Moussa Sissoko has challenged his side to repeat the display that saw them beat Chelsea 3-2 as they seek to put daylight between themselves and the Premier League relegation zone. A January signing from Toulouse, Sissoko immediately endeared himself to the fans of his new club by completing a brace with a last-minute winner against the European champions on his first appearance at St James’ Park.

Sissoko’s all-action display helped Alan Pardew’s side move six points clear of the bottom three but the France international midfielder says they cannot afford to rest on their laurels. “I am very happy, but we can’t forget the fact that this was a team performance,” he said. “The team worked together. I played well, but it was a team effort. “We came away with three points as a team and I hope we can go away and continue to perform like that to climb up

the Premier League as high as we possibly can.” Goals from Frank Lampard and Juan Mata put Chelsea 2-1 up in Saturday’s game, but Sissoko equalised in the 68th minute by following up after Petr Cech parried a shot from another French home debutant, Yoan Gouffran. The 23-year-old then capped a memorable performance by drilling home the winning goal from Davide Santon’s cutback in the final seconds of normal time. “I gave 100 per cent, the very best I could,”

said Sissoko. “I was signed to do that, to give everything to fight from the first to the 90th minute. “That’s what I tried to do, even though it’s not always easy. I went out there from the very first minute until the very last minute and worked as hard as I could.” Sissoko was one of five French players to join Newcastle last month, swelling the number of Frenchmen in the squad to 10. Newcastle’s fans have responded enthusiastically to the French invasion,

with many supporters donning berets and comedy moustaches and brandishing Tricolour flags in the stands. Sissoko, who reportedly cost less than £2 million ($3.1 million, 2.3 million euros), says the welcome he has received from local fans has helped him feel at home. “I’m settling in really well,” he said. “When I am not training, I walk around the city and the supporters will come over and ask me for an autograph, and it makes me feel fantastic when that happens.” —AFP

Juventus beat Chievo, move 3 points clear Lazio, Inter lose ground after defeats MILAN: Two classy first-half goals gave Juventus a 2-1 win at Chievo yesterday, restoring their threepoint lead at the top of Serie A as Lazio and Inter Milan lost touch after defeats by lowly opponents. Alessandro Matri volleyed home

slumped to their second successive league defeat despite coming back from two goals behind. Marco Borriello and Andrea Bertolacci struck in a six-minute spell in the first half to put Genoa in control before Sergio Floccari pulled

again, as we are still the team who in November were a point off the leaders and had great ambition.” There were three goals in a fourminute first-half spell as Siena’s debutant Innocent Emeghara tapped in from close range, Antonio

VERONA: Juventus’ forward Alessandro Matri, right, scores during a Serie A soccer match against Chievo Verona at the Bentegodi stadium in Verona, Italy, yesterday. —AP after 10 minutes and Switzerland midfielder Stephan Lichtsteiner finished a well-worked move three minutes before halftime for Juventus whose new signing Nicolas Anelka was left on the bench. Genoa’s Marco Rigoni headed in from a corner in the fifth minute of stoppage-time to give them a 3-2 win over third-placed Lazio, who

one back and Stefano Mauri levelled with an 82nd-minute penalty. Inter produced a dire performance in a 3-1 loss at table-propping Siena which left coach Andrea Stramaccioni fuming. “It was an ugly defeat and an ugly performance and there is no justification for it,” he told RAI television. “We’ve got to find ourselves

Cassano levelled almost immediately and Alessio Sestu put the hosts back in front with a long-range effort. Siena wrapped things up 10 minutes after the re-start, Inter’s Cristian Chivu hauled down Emeghara, was sent off and Alessandro Rossina converted the penalty. Champions Juventus restored their three-point lead after

Celtic romp into Cup quarter-finals GLASGOW: Celtic scored three second half as they progressed to the quarterfinals of the Scottish Cup with a 3-0 win over First Division Raith Rovers at Starks Park. The Hoops dominated the first half but the closest they came was when Charlie Mulgrew’s in swinging corner came crashing off the post. After having a series of earlier penalty claims turned down the Hoops were finally awarded a spot-kick in the 54th minute which Commons won and expertly dispatched. Substitute Scott Brown missed a golden chance to add another before fellow sub James Forrest made it 2-0 with a fine finish in the 83rd minute. Charlie Mulgrew’s curling 86thminute effort sealed victory as they made sure there was no repeat of last weekend’s shock League Cup exit to St Mirren. Celtic manager Neil Lennon was delighted with his side. “It was excellent from the first whistle. Our attitude was a lot better and overall it was a very professional performance from us,” Lennon said. “We just felt that once we got the first goal the game would open up for us and that’s exactly what it did.” Raith Rovers manager Grant Murray was proud of his players. “We created a few chances in the second half but Celtic’s quality shone through. “The boys enjoyed it and battled hard,” Murray, whose side were also knocked out of the League Cup by Celtic earlier this season, said. “We are disappointed to lose any game but we put a lot of effort into the game and we can take a lot of belief from it. It was a great challenge against a Champions League team.”

The Hoops had their First Division opponents pinned in their own half from the start and were appealing for a penalty early on when Tony Watt’s cross into the box appeared to hit the arm of Eddie Malone but referee Steven McLean ignored their pleas. Raith finally managed an effort at goal on the half hour mark but Brian Graham’s header was weak and didn’t trouble Lukasz Zaluska. Celtic came close to taking the lead direct from a corner when Mulgrew swung in a kick from the right and it missed everyone in a congested penalty area before clipping the far post. Mensing had survived an earlier penalty claim when he clashed with Commons in the box but the defender wasn’t so lucky in the 55th minute when referee McLean pointed to the spot after he clipped the ankles of the Scotland international just inside the box. Commons dusted himself off to take the kick himself and planted it in the bottom right-hand corner giving McGurn no chance. Substitute Brown spurned a glorious chance to put Celtic further ahead when McGurn could only push Gary Hooper’s stinging shot into his path but the midfielder snatched at the rebound and his shot went wide from six yards out. On his return from injury Forrest, who had replaced Watt, made it 2-0 in the 83rd minute. Forrest and Hooper exchanged passes before the winger raced into the box and clipped the ball beyond the advancing McGurn. The Hoops made sure of their quarter-final place when Mulgrew added a third in the 85th minute. Joe Ledley teed up his team mate to curl a strike into the top right-hand corner past the helpless McGurn.—AFP

Napoli had briefly pulled level with a 2-0 win over Catania on Saturday. Juve have 52 points from 23 games, Napoli 49, Lazio 43 and Inter are fourth with 40. Siena’s win took them off the bottom of the table on goal difference from Palermo who lost 2-1 at home to Atalanta, despite fielding four new signings. Both teams have 17 points, three adrift of Pescara who twice led but lost 3-2 at home to Bologna in a game of three penalties. Vladimir Weiss won and converted the first for Pescara on the half hour mark Alessandro Diamanti replied four minutes later with another spot-kick and the third was converted by Gaetano D’Agostino for the hosts on the stroke of halftime with Weiss injured. Second-half goals from Alberto Gilardino and Panagiotis Kone sent Pescara to a fourth straight defeat. Juventus, who had won only once in their previous four league games and were knocked out of the Italian Cup by Lazio in midweek, went ahead when Arturo Vidal sent a diagonal chip into the path of Matri who volleyed into the far corner. Right wing-back Lichtsteiner popped up on the left of the penalty area to provide an emphatic finish after Matri rolled the ball to Sebastian Giovinco who teed up the Swiss with a clever backheel. Cyril Thereau pulled one back for the Flying Donkeys early in the second half but Juventus, with coach Antonio Conte barred from the touchline for his furious outburst over the refereeing against Genoa last week, held out comfortably. “It is very motivating to know you cannot afford to get anything wrong,” said Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. “There are 15 games to go and everything is still up for grabs. I am glad to have more title rivals.” —Reuters

Owen in hot water for Arsenal ‘punch’ LONDON: Michael Owen faces an anxious wait to discover if he is to be punished for throwing a punch during Stoke City’s 1-0 defeat at Arsenal on Saturday. The former England forward, 33, appeared to strike Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta on the back after reacting angrily to a full-blooded challenge by the Spanish midfielder. Referee Chris Foy awarded a free-kick to Arsenal but did not punish Owen with either a yellow or red card, which means retrospective action by the Football Association is possible. Owen, who has been capped 89 times for England during a stellar career with Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United and Manchester United, had come on as a late substitute for the Potters. “Arteta’s challenge was a poor challenge but Michael shouldn’t do that,” admitted his manager, Tony Pulis. “That should be left to the referee. “We will see what they say. Obviously I’m going to be biased because this is my football club, my team. If Michael has done what they say he has done, then they will look at it.” Arsenal’s 78th-minute winner was also controversial as initially it seemed as though it would be ruled out for offside, only for Foy to point to the centre circle following consultation with an assistant. Germany international Lukas Podolski, who had come on as a substitute for hosts, had seen his free-kick deflected into the net off Geoff Cameron, Stoke’s American international defender. Arsenal forward Theo Walcott had been in an offside position, but Foy ruled he had not been interfering with play. Pulis was critical of the officials, and of the Arsenal players’ initial reaction when it appeared the goal would not be given. “You will have to get someone to explain it to us because you are either offside or you’re not,” he said. “Are they active or not active? I don’t know, I haven’t got a clue. It’s very ambiguous in lots of ways. “The disappointing thing for me was that the linesman has given the decision and the Arsenal players surrounded him. I thought you weren’t allowed to surround officials today.” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said he had not seen the Owen incident but he made it clear he was satisfied that the officials had made the correct call over Podolski’s goal. “We were a bit lucky with the goal but overall we deserved this win,” he said. “I thought the linesman had given offside or maybe somebody from us had handled the ball. I have heard Walcott was offside but he was not interfering with the game. Then it is a normal goal.” The controversy is the latest chapter in a long-running feud between the two clubs. Wenger has likened Stoke’s playing style to a rugby team and the bad blood reached critical mass in February 2010 when a challenge from Potters captain Ryan Shawcross left Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey with a badly broken leg. —AFP

GRANADA: Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo reacts to a pain during the Spanish league football match Granada CF vs Real Madrid at the Nuevo Los Carmenes stadium in Granada on Saturday. —AFP

Ronaldo own goal sends Real to shock defeat MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo scored the first own goal of his career to send Real Madrid to a shock 1-0 defeat at lowly Granada in La Liga on Saturday, further damaging their already slim hopes of retaining the title. Ronaldo has scored 21 league goals this season but headed into his own net at a corner in the 22nd minute and his side rarely threatened after that in the face of resolute opposition. The result left the champions 15 points adrift of leaders Barcelona, who can extend their advantage over their great rivals to 18 with a win at Valencia on Sunday. Real have 43 points from 22 games and remain four points behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, who host Real Betis. “We played a bad game, the responsibility is mine,” Real coach Jose Mourinho told a post-match news conference. “The result bothers me. The first half was horrible, and although we improved in the second half, it wasn’t enough. “Granada defended with heart and soul, and a lot of motivation, and it was a great night of football for them.” Wednesday’s King’s Cup semi-final first leg at home to Barca, when Real recovered to grab a 1-1 draw, seemed to have taken its toll as Mourinho’s side struggled to get going. Their hard-running hosts, inspired by a change of coach from Juan Antonio Anquela to Lucas Alcaraz on Wednesday, took advantage of a familiar failing for Real this season when they went ahead at a corner. Ronaldo rose at the near post and skimmed the ball past Diego Lopez and into the roof of his own net. The visitors slowly found their feet but failed to register a single shot on target before halftime. Mourinho threw on forwards Karim Benzema and Jose Callejon in a double substitution to try and pep up his team,

and Ronaldo became more involved in the game. The Portugal forward tested goalkeeper Tono on a few occasions but it was Callejon and Benzema who had the best chance between them to level in the 84th. Callejon dribbled into the area and was denied by Tono but when the ball broke to Benzema he scuffed his shot wide of the far post in front of an open goal. Real have now lost five games on the road this season, four of them in Andalusia after setbacks at Sevilla, Real Betis, Malaga and Granada. The other one they lost at Getafe. Levante missed the chance to move into the Champions League places when they lost 3-2 at improving Espanyol. An own-goal from Vicente Iborra put the visitors behind just before the break. Ruben Garcia headed Levante level after an error in the home defence, but Javier Aguirre’s Espanyol struck twice in two minutes to seal the win. Sergio Garcia crossed for Christian Stuani to head Espanyol’s second, and then scored from the edge of the area before Obafemi Martins burst clear to pull one back for Levante at the end. Troubled Deportivo La Coruna remain rooted to the foot of the standings after a 3-1 defeat at Getafe, despite taking the lead against 10 men at the Coliseum. Home keeper Miguel Angel Moya was sent off after 10 minutes and Pizzi netted with a penalty but Diego Castro levelled with another spot kick at the other end in the 25th. Depor had midfielder Abel Aguilar sent off in the 71st and Getafe took all the points when Alvaro Vazquez and Adrian Colunga grabbed well-taken goals near the end Osasuna climbed out of the bottom three with a 1-0 home win over Celta Vigo in the day’s other game. —Reuters

LEVERKUSEN: Leverkusen’s defender Philipp Wollscheid and Dortmund’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski (L) vie for the ball during the German first division Bundesliga football match Bayer Leverkusen vs Borussia Dortmund in the western German city of Leverkusen yesterday. Dortmund won the match 3-2. —AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

S P ORT S

Our best was not good enough, admits Tshabalala JOHANNESBURG: M idfiel der Siphiwe Tshabalala said yesterday that hosts South Africa did their best but it was not good enough to overcome Mali in an Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final thriller. Mali won 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 stalemate late Saturday to reach the semi-finals and confirm a reputation for being party poopers having ousted co-hosts Gabon on penalties in the 2012 tournament. The Eagles face title favourites Ivory Coast or two-time champions Nigeria, who play later Sunday, at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Indian Ocean city Durban on Wednesday

with a place in the February 10 final at stake. “We did our best, but on the night our best was not good enough to take us through,” admitted the 28year-old wide midfielder from popular South African club Kaizer Chiefs. “The team wanted the victory, the team wanted to qualify, but it was not to be. All of us are very disappointed and sad about the result because we played with so much passion. “We faced a great team in Mali and we matched them. We even dominated them at some stages of the game but, unfor tunately, we

could not score the goals that would have taken us through.” Tshabalala, who took the first kick of the shootout after South Africa won the toss, was the only Bafana Bafana (The Boys) player to score as he fired the ball past Soumbeyla D i a k i te. D e a n Fu r m a n a n d M ay Mahlangu had shots to the left side of the goal saved and Lehlohonolo Majoro blazed a spot kick that had to be converted well off target to leave Mali 3-1 shootout winners. Tshabalala, whose earnings last year were estimated at 3.6 million rand ($407.182/298.038 euros) and is involved in a fish-and-chips chain,

said he respected the decision by coach Gordon Igesund to axe him. The 1.70-metre dreadlocked midfielder flopped in the drab, drawn tournament opener against Cape Verde, did not feature against Angola and Morocco and came on halfway through ex tra time for Bernard Parker against Mali. “No footballer likes sitting on the bench and anyone who is happy in that position does not deserve to wear the national jersey. However, the coach did what he thought was best for the team.” The star called ‘Shabba’ is upbest about this year with South Africa

f a c i ng Ce nt r a l Af r i c a n R e p ub l i c (home/away), Ethiopia (away) and Botswana (home) in 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Held at home by Ethiopia a nd away by B ot s w a na , B a f a na Bafana lie only third in a group they were expected to dominate, two points behind Ethiopia and one adrift of Central African Republic. “We proved at the Cup of Nations that we can compete against the best teams in Africa. We must focus on the World Cup qualifiers with c o n f i d e n c e ,” s a i d t h e s t a r w h o s c o re d t h e o p e n i n g g o a l o f t h e 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. — AFP

Nigeria shock I Coast to reach semi-finals Nigeria to play Mali in Durban RUSTENBURG: Supposed underdogs Nigeria downed favourites Ivory Coast 21 here yesterday in an absorbing Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final to set up a last-four meeting with Mali. Yesterday Mba grabbed the winner 12 minutes from time after Ivory Coast’s Cheik Tiote had cancelled out Emmanuel Emenike’s first-half opener. Mba’s strike brought the curtain down on Didier Drogba’s Nations Cup career, sending the African legend home without the title he and his teammates craved. “I want to thank God for this wonderful victory, and sincerely thank my players for everything they did today. I hope we can keep going to the final,” said Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi. “Ivory Coast are the top team on the continent with lots of quality, so we tried to speed up and try to catch out players like Drogba and Yaya Toure. “I’m glad my team is progressing in every game-there is great discipline in the team and I just hope we keep going that way. “The boys showed character. When I played for Nigeria I had to fight, fight, fight and they did that today. “When the Ivorians levelled we tried to defend and work out our tactics, and we scored again. Yesterday came up with a beautiful, beautiful goal.” The 34-year-old Drogba, who was dropped to the bench in the Elephants’ second group game, led the Ivorians at the expense of Anzhi Makhachkala striker Lacina Traore. Goalkeeper Boubacar Barry, Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure and in-form Arsenal goal poacher Gervinho returned after being rested in the ‘dead’ game against Algeria. For Nigeria, midfielder Fedor Ogude was suspended, with goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama wearing the captain’s armband as its normal owner, veteran defender Jospeh Yobo, struggling with an injury, was on the bench. A lively start saw Victor Moses test Barry with a venomous shot on 10 minutes, the Ivorian keeper punching the danger away with the palms of his hands. Two-time former champions Nigeria were giving as good as they got against the top-ranked team on the continent. With a handful of

RUSTENBURG: Ivory Coast’s defender Souleman Bamba (R) vies with Nigeria’s forward Sunday Mba during the African Cup of Nation 2013 quarter final football match Ivory Coast vs Nigeria, yesterday in Rustenburg. — AFP

English Premier League stars on show, the colourful 20,000 crowd could have been forgiven for thinking they were at the Emirates or Stamford Bridge rather than the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace. Chelsea old boy Drogba had his first real chance after the half hour, neatly controlling a high ball from the left only for his shot to take a deflection. Then, two minutes from the break, Nigeria took command, Emineke’s superbly struck right-foot 25-yard free -kick flying through the Ivorian wall and past the

We are dreaming of glory: Mali coach JOHANNESBURG: French coach Patrice Carteron says Mali will continue to dream of glory as they prepare to confront Nigeria for an Africa Cup of Nations final place. The Eagles played party poopers for the second consective tournament when they eliminated hosts South Africa 3-1 on penalties after a tense, tight quarter-final finished 1-1 after extra time in Durban Saturday. A year ago almost to the day, Mali dumped co-hosts Gabon out of 2012 Africa Cup in identical fashion, winning on penalties after coming from behind during regular time to force a 1-1 draw. While the team was in Gabon there was a military coup in Bamako and as they took on South Africa, Malian troops supported by forces from France and other African states had Islamist extremists on the run. The militants, who banned citizens in centres like historical Timbuktu from watching football on TV during a 10-month reign of terror, had seized control of the vast morthern region and were closing on Bamako until France intervened. Mali finished third a year ago under 1980s France star Alain Giresse and younger compatriot and former Sunderland defender Carteron has taken the baton and impressed in his first major coaching challenge. “We do not know what lies ahead-but we know that we are involved in the semifinals of the Africa Cup,” said the man whose track-suit pants and t-shirt contrasted with the suit and tie of South Africa coach Gordon Igesund. “Who knows? The squad are allowed to dream of winning and playing in the final,”

added the 42-year-old, who displayed touchline calmness when his team were under the cosh during the opening half against South Africa. Tokelo Rantie put South Africa ahead in a first half dominated by Bafana Bafana (The Boys) only for veteran Mali captain Seydou Keita to nod an equaliser just short of the hour mark. While Cheick Tidiane Diabate, Adama Tamboura and Mahamane Traore dispatched shootout kicks into the net, only Siphiwe Tshabalala scored for South Africa with Soumbeyla Diakite saving two while another was fired wide. “South Africa were very tough to play against and once again we conceded an early goal, but my players showed high levels of concentration and managed to come back into the game,” said Carteron. “I had to make my contribution-we changed some things during half-time but our success was achieved through contributions from every player. We always play to win.” Diakite from Banako-based Stade Malien-one of only three locals in the 23man squad-faced South Africa only because first choice Mamadou Samassa was suspended having picked up two yellow cards during the group phase. He also faced Gabon a year ago, stopping a penalty from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to take Mali into a semi-final against Ivory Coast, decided by a superb solo goal from Arsenal midfielder Gervinho.Ghana were first to reach the semi-finals, ending the fairy-tale run of Cape Verde with a 2-0 win in Port Elizabeth. —AFP

head of the motionless Barr y. The Spartak Moscow attacker’s third of the tournament, putting him joint top of the 2013 scoring charts, was no more than the Super Eagles deserved. With coach Sabri Lamouchi watching stony-faced from the dug out, Ivory Coast levelled on 50 minutes when Drogba swung in a free-kick from the left for Newcastle’s Tiote to head in at the far post for his ﬁrst goal for his country. It was game on again for the Elephants. Moses then ﬂashed in a corner but Barry

kept out Brown Ideye’s header, the keeper cradling the ball as he would a baby. Down at the other end, Enyeama produced a first-class save to deny Toure. An absorbing encounter between two titans of African football was living up to its headline billing. But with the clock ticking towards extra time, Mba, advertising the intelligence his surname suggests, weaved his way through the Ivorian defence to put Nigeria into the semifinals, his 20-yard shot taking a deflection on the way. — AFP

Dortmund survive Leverkusen scare to grab second spot BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund withstood a late rally from Bayer Leverkusen to win 3-2 and move above the home side into second in the Bundesliga yesterday. Robert Lewandowski set up one goal, earned two penalties and scored the winning goal in the 64th minute - just after Stefan Reinartz had pulled Leverkusen level with two goals in four minutes.”It was a meeting of the highest level ... in the end the team that won was the one that made the one mistake less,” said Leverkusen defender Philipp Wollscheid. Marco Reus opened the scoring in the third minute when he chipped Bernd Leno after Lewandowski played the Germany international through. Leno brought Lewandowski down five minutes later and Blaszczykowski stepped up to make it 2-0 from the penalty spot. “They were always dangerous. I told the guys at halftime that 2-0 is a very dangerous score (to defend),” Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said. Leverkusen responded with tremendous pressure - the home side had 26 efforts on goal altogether - only to find reserve goalkeeper Mitch Langerak in fantastic form. Langerak denied Stefan Kiessling from point blank before Mats Hummels blocked Andre Schuerrle’s effort on the line.Then Kiessling controlled the ball on his chest, lifted the ball over a defender with one touch and away from the goalkeeper with his next for Reinartz to score his first goal of the season in the 58th. He got his second four minutes later, only for Lewandowski to reply straight away with his 13th goal of the season at the other end.

Blaszczykowski had the chance to make it 4-2 in the 71st, after Sebastian Boenisch brought Lewandowski down in the area, but this time Leno saved the Pole’s penalty and kept his side in the game - albeit to little avail. “I think it was an interesting game to watch,” Blaszczykowski said. The result means Bayern Munich’s lead stretched to 12 points after the 20th round of games. Earlier, Nuremberg ended Borussia Moenchengladbach’s sevengame unbeaten run in the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win that lifts the club above former coach Dieter Hecking’s new side Wolfsburg. Nuremberg took an early lead through Timmy Simons’ fourthminute penalty. It was given for an adjudged foul by Thorben Marx on Mike Frantz, which appeared to be a dive. “You have to be careful when making decisions like that, because it can change the whole course of a game. That one’s unbelievable,” said Moenchengladbach coach Lucien Favre. “ We’ve had such situations go against us, we don’t need to excuse ourselves for it,” said Michael Wiesinger after his first win as Nuremberg coach.Tomas Pekhart made it 2-0 in the 30th with a well-drilled low shot to the far corner after Hiroshi Kiyotake capitalized on a Marx mistake to set him up. Raphael Schaefer made two great saves to keep the visitors scoreless in the first half, but Patrick Herrmann finally beat him for Gladbach’s consolation in the 58th, when he shot high into the roof of the net. The result lifts Nuremberg one point above Wolfsburg, which Hecking joined on Dec. 22.— AP

Nigeria shock I Coast to reach semi-finals

Italy stun France in Six Nations thriller

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Juventus beat Chievo, move 3 points clear

Page 18

VALENCIA: Barcelona’s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (2nd R) vies with Valencia’s Portuguese defender Ricardo Costa (2nd L) during the Spanish league football match Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia yesterday. — AFP

Messi penalty helps Barca draw BARCELONA: Lionel Messi extended his record streak by scoring in his 12th consecutive Spanish league game to give leader Barcelona a 1-1 draw at Valencia yesterday. Midfielder Ever Banega struck first for Valencia in the 33rd, only for Messi to level for the visitors from the penalty spot six minutes later. Former Valencia star David Villa had Barcelona’s best chance late but failed to finish on the break before goalkeeper Victor Valdes made an excellent save to deny Roberto Soldado two minutes from time and ensure a point for each side. Barcelona leads

main rival Real Madrid by 16 points after the defending champions’ 1-0 loss at Granada the day before from Cristiano Ronaldo’s ﬁrst career own goal. Atletico Madrid is second, trailing Barcelona by 12 points ahead of its game against Real Betis later. Elsewhere on Sunday, Malaga was held to a 1-1 home draw by Real Zaragoza in the return of forward Julio Baptista after a 16-month layoﬀ with a broken right foot, while Sevilla beat visiting Rayo Vallecano 2-1 as it continued to show improvement under new coach Unai Emery.

Barcelona was coached by assistant Jordi Roura with manager Tito Vilanova reportedly back in New York for further treatment after throat surgery to remove a tumor. Roura only made one change in the starting 11 from Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Madrid in the Copa del Rey, with Javier Mascherano replacing Carles Puyol in defense. The lack of fresh legs gave the better rested Valencia the advantage early on. Valencia pressed Barcelona high up the pitch from the start, and succeeded in deactivating its passing attack for the most part until Banega

put the hosts in front. Valencia was peppering Barcelona’s area with high balls when Gerard Pique’s clearance fell to Banega unmarked in the box for him to ﬁre low into the net to take the opener. Messi had his part in provoking the equalizing penalt y when he dribbled for ward and passed to Pedro Rodriguez, who was subsequently bulled over by Joao Pereira inside the area. Messie blasted the spot kick into the upper corner to take his league-leading tally to 34 goals in 22 rounds this season. The four-time world player of the year

has 45 goals in all competitions. Best known for his goal scoring feats, Messi displayed his playmaking abilities 10 minutes after halftime when he placed a perfectly weighted pass between five defenders to reach the streaking Cesc Fabregas, who could do no better than fire into the side netting. Valencia reclaimed the initiative thanks to its defensive effort which led to Soldado coming close three times before substitute Sergio Canales forced Valdes into a diving parry to push his shot beyond the post. Roura sent on Villa for Fabregas

with just under 20 minutes left, and the little-used Spain striker shot wide from an angle to squander Barcelona’s single counterattack in the 77th. Soldado had his best opportunity to grab the three points in the ﬁnal stretch of the game when Pique lost possession, but Valdes sprung to smother his close-range try. Later, Mallorca is at Real Sociedad. On Saturday, Osasuna edged out Celta Vigo 1-0, Getafe defeated Depor tivo La Coruna 3-1, and Espanyol held on to beat Levante 3-2. Athletic Bilbao drew 2-2 at Valladolid on Friday. — AP

SOCCER BRIEFS

United nine points clear after Liverpool hold City Man City 2

Liverpool 2

LONDON: Manchester City hit back to draw 2-2 at home to Liverpool in an engaging game yesterday but the result left Manchester United with a daunting nine-point lead at the top of the Premier League. After City old boy Daniel Sturridge cancelled out Edin Dzeko’s opener for the hosts, a 73rd-minute Steven Gerrard thunderbolt gave Liverpool a glimpse of victor y, only for Sergio Aguero to level moments later. While Liverpool can take heart from a bold display at the Etihad Stadium that followed their 2-2 draw at Arsenal in midweek, City are left to contemplate the unenviable task of reeling in United. “We didn’t play well. In the last month we played well in all the games, but we were so nervous in this game and I don’t know why,” said City manager Roberto Mancini, who refused to concede defeat in the title race. “Is the title race over? No. Seven or nine points (deficit) don’t change. I think we can recover it,” he said. Liverpool took the game to City in the early stages, with Pablo Zabaleta sliding in to thwar t Sturridge after he had rounded Joe Hart and Luis Suarez shooting wide, but it was

the hosts who took the lead in the 23rd minute. David Silva found James Milner motoring down the left flank and his low cross was turned home from close range by Dzeko. It was the Bosnian striker’s 11th league goal of the campaign but he was to play an unwitting role in Liverpool’s equaliser six minutes later. Believing he had been fouled by Daniel Agger, Dzeko stayed down on the pitch but play continued and a Liverpool attack culminated in Sturridge beating Hart with a crisp low strike to peg back his former club. Gerrard put Liverpool ahead with the kind of goal upon which he has built his reputation, chesting down a high ball 30 yards out and letting rip with a stunning half-volley that flashed past Hart into the bottom-left corner. It was fitting reward for the visitors’ enterprise, but a rush of blood to the head from Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina helped Aguero to equalise just five minutes later. The Spaniard raced out to the left-hand edge of his area to challenge the City striker but Aguero neatly eluded him before brilliantly curving a shot into the empty net from a prohibitive angle. “It should have been a win for ourselves,” said Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers. “I thought we played terrific and were the dominant team. We scored two wonderful goals and I am disappointed with the goals we conceded.” Earlier, Tottenham Hotspur lost Jermain Defoe to injur y but won 1-0 at West

Balotelli scores on debut MILAN: Mario Balotelli scored 25 minutes into his AC Milan debut yesterday, three days after completing his move from English champions Manchester City. Balotelli was included in the starting line-up at the last minute after Giampaolo Pazzini pulled out during the warm-up. The maverick striker opened his account by turning the ball in from six metres in the Serie A game against Udinese after Stephan El Shaaraway’s cross from the left was deﬂected to his feet. He nearly added another two minutes later with a dipping shot which was turned over by the bar by Udinese goalkeeper Daniele Padelli.

MANCHESTER: Manchester City’s Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero (R) vies with Liverpool’s Danish defender Daniel Agger (L) and Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva (2nd R) during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Liverpool at The Etihad stadium in Manchester, north-west England yesterday. — AFP Bromwich Albion through a fine Gareth Bale took his tally for the season to 11 Bale goal to bolster their push for league goals with a vicious strike from just outside the 18-yard area. On playing in a Champions League qualification. Emmanuel Adebayor’s commitments more central role, Bale told Sky Sports: “I with Togo at the Africa Cup of Nations enjoy it. It’s a role that I’m learning season have left Defoe as Spurs’ only senior strik- by season. “I’ve come in (from the wing) more er, but he had to go off in the 39th minute at The Hawthorns after appearing to twist often than in previous seasons and I enjoy it. It’s a new experience for me, a chance his ankle. Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas to improve my game and add a new later revealed that he had been withdrawn dimension.” Victory took Villas-Boas’ side from England’s squad for their friendly to within a point of third-placed Chelsea in the Premier League table, while West against Brazil on Wednesday. Spurs were given a helping hand early Brom stay in ninth place. West Brom coach Steve Clarke said in the second half when West Brom’s Macedonian left-back Goran Popov, on Popov would face punishment over his loan from Dynamo Kiev, was shown a actions. “There are no excuses at all for straight red card for spitting towards Goran Popov, he has let everyone down,” Clarke told the BBC. “It would be a strong Spurs right-back Kyle Walker. The visitors made their numerical case for him to receive disciplinary action, advantage count in the 67th minute as but it will be dealt with internally.” —AFP

England trio to miss friendly LONDON: Jermain Defoe, Daniel Sturridge and Michael Carrick are all set to miss England’s friendly with Brazil on Wednesday because of injuries. Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas told reporters that striker Defoe could be out for two to three weeks with an ankle problem sustained in a 1-0 win at West Bromwich Albion yesterday. Liverpool forward Daniel Sturridge also hurt his thigh after scoring in a 2-2 draw at Manchester City. “Daniel has a dead thigh. I think he will struggle to make the friendly against Brazil,” Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers told the BBC. In the absence of Defoe and Sturridge, England boss Roy Hodgson would have just Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck from the original squad to call on as out and out strikers although Theo Walcott was also named. Media reports also said Rooney and Welbeck’s Manchester United team mate Carrick would miss the Wembley fixture with an unspecified injury. Kruse warms-up for clash BERLIN: Australia midfielder Robbie Kruse is looking forward to Wednesday’s friendly against Romania after scoring two goals for Fortuna Duesseldorf in the Bundesliga. The 24-yearold winger netted twice in Saturday’s 3-1 win at home to VfB Stuttgart before linking up with the Socceroos, having made the last of his 21 international appearances in October’s 2-1 World Cup qualifier win over Iraq. The former Melbourne Victory star admitted it was more a relief to get three points than to score two goals as Fortuna, 13th in the German league, picked up their first win in four games. “It’s good for me personally to score two goals, and it’s good for the team,” he said. “Now I’m looking forward to going to Spain to play for the national team.”

Business

Starbucks tax offer ‘too little, too late’ Page 22 BEC Exchange opens new branch at Grand Avenues Page 23

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Qatar gears for opening of Hamad Int’l Airport Page 26 Page 25

China’s looming worker shortage hurts economy

SEOUL: Currency traders monitoring exchange rates in a dealing room at the Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul. A surging won and waning yen are eroding the bottom lines of South Korea’s export powerhouses who are feeling the pinch after years of gobbling up global market share from their Japanese rivals. — AFP

High anxiety in S Korea over surging won SEOUL: A surging won and waning yen are eroding the bottom lines of South Korea’s export powerhouses who are feeling the pinch after years of gobbling up global market share from their Japanese rivals. The South Korean currency has soared 27 percent against the yen since the beginning of 2012, as anticipation of monetary easing promised by Japan’s new leader Shinzo Abe weakened the yen across the board. And the won gained 8.6 percent against the US dollar over the same period, touching a 17-month high of 1,054.49 on January 15. In contrast, the yen slumped this week to its weakest level against the greenback. The trend is being watched anxiously in business circles in South Korea, where overseas sales account for nearly half of the country’s export-reliant economy. In the past decade South Korea has made sizeable inroads into Japan’s export market where the two countries compete head-to-head in the electronics, auto, shipping and steel product sectors. While only 20 percent of their top 50 export products overlapped in 2000, the figure now stands at more than 50 percent, according to data from the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. “The impact of the weak yen will have a limited impact on IT industries like smartphones where South Korea has a wide lead,” said Shin Hyon-Soo of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade. “But industries like auto, home appliances and steel, where slight currency swings play a pivotal role, face a pretty tough road ahead from now on,” Shin said. Industry giants like Samsung, the world’s biggest technology firm, and the nation’s top automaker Hyundai are already feeling the squeeze, as reflected in their recent fourth quarter earnings reports. Hyundai Motor, the world’s number five automaker with its smaller affiliate Kia, saw its fourth quarter operating profit tumble nearly 12 percent from a year ago despite an 11 percent increase in sales. Japanese rivals like Toyota and Honda are set to “actively take advantage of the weakening yen” in competitive markets like Australia and Russia, Hyundai’s chief financial officer warned last week. Kia said the stronger won was partly to blame for a 51 percent plunge in its fourth-quarter operating profit from a year earlier. “We are considering raising export prices of our vehicles if the strong won persists,” Kia chief financial officer Park Han-Woo said, while speaking of a “difficult year” ahead. Even the country ’s flagship conglomerate, Samsung, is not immune. The world’s top maker of smartphones, memory chips and flat-panel TVs reported a record operating profit of 8.84 trillion won in the fourth quarter, but said the figure would have been higher by 360 billion won but for the strength of the currency. It also warned that a stronger won could slice 3.0 trillion won off its operating profit this year-a prediction that pushed Samsung’s share price to a two-month low on the day of its stellar earnings announcement. Although Samsung enjoys a formidable advantage in the mobile device market over long-struggling Japanese giants like Sony and Sharp, its memory chip business is more vulnerable. “The weak yen won’t overly impact on Samsung’s phone sales for a while, but the semiconductor segment is a different story,” said an industry source in Seoul who declined to be named. The source said it would be “problematic” if the yen remained weak against the dollar in the long term. —AFP

ABK records KD 80.4m operating profits in 2012 KUWAIT: Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) announced operating profits of KD 80.4 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2012, compared to KD 79.6 million in 2011. The earnings per share was 20 fils, and return on assets was 1%, while Return on Equity was 6%. Net profit amounted to KD 30 million. The decrease in profits compared to the previous year is mainly attributed to the increase of general and specific provisions taken by the Bank against the irregular credit facilities, and to face the difficult operating conditions. The total credit provisions taken during 2012 amounted to KD 41 million. The capital adequacy had improved to 27.7% v/s 25.1% in 2011 and was highest in the banking sector in Kuwait, and possibly among the highest in the region. This indicates the strong position of the Bank to cope with the difficult economic circumstance and absorb any future shocks. The board of directors has recommended to the general assembly a cash dividend 6% of the nominal value per share (6 fils per share), and 7% bonus shares (7 shares per 100 shares)

to be distributed to the shareholders registered in the bank’s records as on the date of the general assembly meeting. Such recommendation shall be subject to the approval of the ABK general assembly meeting and the competent regulatory authorities. Commenting on these financial results, Ahmed Yousuf Behbehani, the chairman of the board, stated: The good performance of our bank is the fruit of the conservative strategic policies and decisions adopted by the Bank to face the prevailing difficult market conditions and challenges as well as the weak operating environment. ABK succeeded in strengthening its balance sheet by taking more provisions, replacing assets with better and more secured alternatives. The Bank also managed to reduce the cost of funding, maintain its investment grade with “Stable” outlook as evidenced by credit ratings recently released by the international credit agencies. Commenting on the precautionary provisions policy, Behbehani said:”ABK has been following a conservative policy, with more provisions taken against the irregular credit facilities amid the market condi-

Dubai hopes to become global hub for sukuk DUBAI: Dubai aims to become a top global centre for Islamic bonds by introducing more detailed standards that ensure issuance and trading obey not only the letter but also the spirit of Islamic rules, a securities market official said. The emirate hopes the new standards will reduce disputes between scholars, issuers and investors over what types of debt structures are permissible and attract more business to its market. Mabid Ali Al-Jarhi, a member of the board overseeing Islamic business at Dubai Financial Market (DFM), said the rules would provide assurances for sukuk holders and traders. “In this manner, Dubai and DFM will set the tone for financial instruments’ standards all over the world,” Jarhi said in an interview via email late last week. Last month DFM, which runs Dubai’s securities markets, published a draft of its proposals and gave the industry until Feb. 28 to comment. DFM plans to hold a hearing in early March and then issue the final version of the standards later that month. That schedule is lightning-fast compared with the slow pace of discussions on reform in most of the Islamic finance industry - a sign that Dubai sees a business opportunity in the strong growth of the global sukuk market. New issues of sukuk, which under religious principles are structured to avoid the payment of interest, jumped to about $121 billion worldwide in 2012, according to Thomson Reuters data, from around $85 billion in 2011. Kuala Lumpur and London are major trading centres. Early last month, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said he was launching a drive to develop the emirate’s Islamic business sector. —Reuters

tions and operating environment which are still unstable, whether locally, regionally, or at an international level.” “Prudence is the core of the Bank’s operat-

Ahmed Yousuf Behbehani

ing philosophy and has been instrumental in the results we have achieved. We maintained our strengths in corporate banking - by far our main source of revenue, expanded our retail branch network, and grew the retail customer base to serve our customers in all areas in Kuwait. We also concentrate on increasing our business in Dubai and Abu-Dhabi in the UAE to provide corporate and retail services to Emirates and Kuwaiti companies, and individual customers”, added Behbehani. Behbehani also explained that the efficiency and quality customer service were the driving factors to achieve these goals. The Bank also invests considerably in its human resources. ABK employees are highly trained to be qualified for providing quality customer service. As for the operating environment during 2013, Behbehani pointed out that in spite of the difficult conditions prevalent during 2012, yet we are optimistic for 2013 as we expect the launch of development and mega projects to move the wheel of economic activities, in the light of good oil revenues and balance surplus which can be invested in such projects.

Emaar drags down Dubai after Q4 miss MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Shares in Dubai’s Emaar Properties dropped nearly 4 percent yesterday after its fourth quarter earnings results missed analysts’ estimates, dragging down the emirate’s bourse from a 37-month peak. Emaar shares fell 3.7 percent but are still up 25 percent in 2013. The stock had rallied ahead of earnings on investor optimism about a recovery in Dubai’s beleaguered property sector. The developer posted a 28-percent drop in fourth-quarter profit as costs soared amid the revival of stalled projects in the emirate. “Emaar is still cheap in my view but after the rally we saw in January, the stock has to take a breather,” said Reda Gomaa, portfolio manager at Mashreq. “Revenues are strong but margins were significantly lower.” Gomaa said the stock is unlikely to see any major further gains until Emaar announces its dividend later in the quarter. Market participants expect a cash dividend of 0.1 dirhams. Anything above that will boost the shares, Gomaa added. Heavyweight Emirates NBD bank also weighed on the index, falling 2.1 percent. The bank said it will start repaying part of the 12.6 billion dirhams ($3.43 billion) it received from the government in 2008. Dubai’s benchmark dropped 2.1 percent, down from Thursday’s 37-month high, in its largest one-day fall since March 7. Abu Dhabi’s measure ended little changed, easing 0.03 percent from Thursday’s near three-year high. In Egypt, the index rose 1.6 percent, up for a third session after slumping to a four-week low last Tuesday.

At least one protester was shot dead and dozens wounded on Friday when riot police clashed with demonstrators demanding the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi. Eight days of protests have killed nearly 60 people. A video of one demonstrator stripped naked, dragged across the ground and beaten with truncheons by helmeted riot police has fired Egyptians to a new level of outrage. “There is a famous saying - buy when there is blood in the streets - that’s exactly what we are seeing in Egypt,” said Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor. “If you are a risk taker, it makes sense to have a small exposure to Egypt these days. Even if the situation is becoming shaky from a political point of view, a lot of investors are betting that things will improve.” Commercial Bank International rises 1.4 percent, Orascom Construction Industries gains 1.2 percent and Talaat Mostafa Group adds 3.3 percent. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s bourse slipped 0.3 percent, down from Saturday’s near three-week high as petrochemical stocks weighed. Bellwether Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) declined 0.3 percent to 93.8 riyals. The world’s largest chemicals firm said a workers strike at its unit SABIC Europe Chemicals Geleen’s plant in the Netherlands has cut production.SABIC said it did not know what impact the strike would have on profits or production. “At the extreme, this could imply a shutdown or reduction in production operations in the Netherlands if it was unable to come to terms with the employee union,” Riyad Capital said in a note. —Reuters

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

BUSINESS

Starbucks tax offer ‘too little, too late’

Bayt.com weekly report

Weak US economy and strong stock markets! By Hayder Tawfik

Despite flak, UK consumers remain loyal LONDON: Despite pledging to pay millions of pounds in extra tax in Britain, Starbucks faces a battle to restore its reputation over its fiscal stance, with analysts saying the offer is “too little too late”. With 760 Starbucks outlets dotting Britain, coffee lovers need not travel far to find the familiar green signage and grab a frothy latte or a flat white. But surveys suggest British consumers may be losing appetite for the US chain following the revelation last year that it has paid just £8.6 million ($13.8 million, 10.6 million euros) in British corporation tax since 1998, despite generating £3 billion in revenues. The revelations sparked a stream of negative publicity plus protests outside coffee shops which analysts say hit the brand hard, though Starbucks itself insists “UK customers have remained loyal”. Under the weight of pressure from lawmakers and consumers, the company pledged in December to pay an additional £20 million in corporation tax over two years. But Sarah Murphy, director of market researchers YouGov BrandIndex, said the offer “has done little to slow down negative sentiment surrounding the brand.” BrandIndex has tracked public perception of the coffee giant over several months. Its “Buzz” index gives companies a score based on what people have been hearing about the brand, with zero representing equal levels of positive and negative. In early October Starbucks’ Buzz score stood at +1.9, but this plummeted to 28.4 following the tax headlines, and reached -45.2 in mid-December. “That was quite a significant decline,” said Murphy, adding that measures of perceptions of Starbucks’ quality and value

also sank during that time. In November, Britain’s parliamentary accounts committee grilled top executives from Google, Amazon and Starbucks over their tax affairs. The apparent peak in negativity surrounding Starbucks in December came after the committee’s chairman Margaret Hodge slammed companies involved in tax avoidance schemes as “totally immoral”. Since then, Murphy says the brand “does seem to be making a slow recovery”, but that the company “did too little too late.” Social media agency Yomego identified similar patterns. It tracked online conversa-

sumers to shop elsewhere? Restaurant manager Julia Stypik said she’s “not a huge fan of Starbucks... There’s much better coffee and plenty of competitors.” However this did not stop her frequenting a busy London branch of the chain one lunchhour. On the tax issue, she told AFP: “I think they have been very clever but this should end at some point. It’s unfair. Everyone has to pay taxes.” Some critics argue Starbucks is being unfairly targeted; Britain needs to tighten up on loopholes which allow companies to pay less corporation tax by moving profits abroad. Starbucks has acknowledged paying no corporation tax for three years on sales worth £400 million owing to fees paid to other parts of its business. Executives insist its British division is unprofitable. Despite operating within the law, the multinational has borne fierce criticism from lawmakers, including Prime Minister David Cameron who told the World Economic Forum in Davos last month that tax-avoiding companies must “wake up and smell the coffee”. The swipe was ill-received by Starbucks, according to the Sunday Telegraph which claimed it threatened to pull £100 million of British investment, though a source close to the company told AFP “no threat was made”. A Starbucks spokesman said: “Starbucks agrees with the prime minister that all businesses should pay their fair share. “In the UK, we employ 9,000 people, contribute £300 million a year to the economy and are foregoing tax deductions that will make the Exchequer at least £20 million better off.” Starbucks says it remains “fully committed” to opening 300 new stores and creating 5,000 new jobs by 2016. — AFP

tion over the same period and found negative comments about Starbucks increasingly outweighed positive. Some 95 percent of comments on Starbucks UK’s Facebook and Twitter pages made reference to tax evasion, analysts said. Yomego managing director Steve Richards said: “The outrage over tax avoidance can’t help but have an impact on a company’s reputation in social channels. “The old adage that ‘bad news travels fast’ has never been more true. Now news has so many channels to travel through, with the potential to multiply as people comment on and share stories.” But does negative chatter cause con-

LONDON: Customers leave a branch of Starbucks in central London. Despite pledging to pay millions of pounds in extra tax in Britain, Starbucks faces a battle to restore its reputation over its fiscal stance, with analysts saying the offer is “too little too late”. — AFP

Shuaa targets Islamic credit business in Saudi DUBAI: Investment bank Shuaa Capital, hard hit by the global financial crisis, plans to provide sharia-compliant lending to businesses in Saudi Arabia as part of a new strategy to help turn around losses. Shuaa, which has laid off a third of its staff since 2011 and slashed operating costs, will focus on small and medium enterprises in the kingdom. Saudi-based Gulf Installments Company will be operated by Shuaa’s subsidiary Gulf Finance Corporation under a management contract with Shuaa, the Dubai-based firm said in a statement. It named David Hunt as chief executive officer of the Saudi venture. One of the Arab world’s largest investment banks and once a symbol of the sector’s potential in the region, Shuaa is among a group of regional investment firms struggling to stay afloat after a slump in the value of its investment portfolio. The firm hired ex-ABN Amro banker Colin MacDonald as chief executive in April and is counting on the lending business as part of a turnaround plan under Chairman Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher al-Maktoum, a member of Dubai’s ruling family. Shuaa, which helped float ports operator DP World several years ago, is hoping that the strategy shift will return the bank to “positive territory” in 2013 after reporting losses for most of 2012. The Saudi Arabian economy, the largest among Gulf Arab states, is expected to see 4 percent growth in 2013, according to a Reuters poll in January, down from 6.8 percent in 2012. — Reuters

District cooling firm Tabreed Q4 profit up ABU DHABI: District cooling firm Tabreed, which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala, reported a 30percent rise in quarterly profits yesterday fueled by higher revenues from its core chilled water business. The Dubailisted firm posted a net attributable profit of 68.7 million dirhams ($18.7 million) in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 52.9 million dirhams in the prior year period. Tabreed provides cooling systems to residential and commercial properties in the Gulf region, including Dubai’s metro network. Revenue from its chilled water business for the quarter was 263.4 million dirhams, up 13 percent. Tabreed, also called National Central Cooling Company, made 2012 net profit of 236.3 million dirhams, up 29 percent. “Tabreed continues to evaluate new projects with key entities in the UAE and Abu Dhabi,” said Jasim Thabet, Tabreed’s chief executive on a conference call. The firm has 560 million dirhams cash available and has no need to secure funding immediately, Thabet said. Tabreed, in which state fund Mubadala has a 27.3 percent stake, is among several Gulf firms which has had to restructure its debt after the property market boom ended abruptly in 2009. It secured 3.1 billion dirhams of financing from Mubadala in March 2011 to help tackle its debt pile. In December, the cooling firm agreed to issue 1.13 billion dirhams in convertible bonds to Mubadala as part of a recapitalization plan. Tabreed currently has 59 plants in the UAE with 52 wholly-owned and operated by the company while seven are operated through its affiliates and subsidiaries. It also has six plants across Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, operating through affiliates and subsidiaries.

Tabreed shares were up 0.61 percent on the Dubai bourse yesterday, up 37 percent on the year. — Reuters

Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - transfer Irani Riyal - cash

UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

UAE’s Dana Gas 2012 net profit rises 20% DUBAI: Dana Gas, the Abu Dhabi-listed energy firm which defaulted on an Islamic bond, said yesterday its full-year net profit for 2012 rose 20 percent on the back of higher oil prices and lower costs. Dana’s 2012 net profit rose to $165 million from the $138 million it posted in 2011, the company said in a statement. The company, hit by delays on payments for its supplies of natural gas to Egypt and Iraq’s Kurdistan region, reached an agreement with creditors in December to amend terms of a $920 million Islamic bond, which it had failed to pay at maturity in October. “ With the agreement with the sukuk-holders announced, the focus now is on receivables collection, boosting the management team, and realising the value of the assets through an international listing,” Crescent Chief Executive Majid Jafar, who is also a board member of Dana, told Reuters by phone. Dana, in which Crescent Petroleum has a 20 percent stake, said it collected $301 million from its share of receivables in Egypt and Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2012. The company’s cash balance rose by 47 percent to $165 million by the end of last year, while total assets reached $3.5 billion at the end of Dec. — Reuters

KUWAIT: The underlying trend in the US economy is ver y good and the month on month figures may indicate otherwise but investors should focus on more accurate numbers such as quarter on quarter as they give much better picture. On that basis the US economy has been creating about 200,000 jobs on monthly basis. This is something we all should be pleased with but I am not sure if the Federal Reserve chairman is happy with. In normal times investors would react negatively to weak economic numbers but we don’t live in normal times. This time Mr. Ben Bernanke is in charge and we should all back him and investors should ride the stock market higher. Investors should be aware that when normality comes back to the market then that means the Federal Reserve’s job is done. The good news now is that corporate earnings have been very good and they may indicate good times ahead. I think what Ben Bernanke is looking for or what is normal in economic terms is unemployment of say 6 percent and inflation below 2 percent. As of now we have the unemployment figure of 7.9 percent and inflation just below 2 percent. So, the inflation target has been achieved and that is no surprise. The US always had low inflation even at times of weak US dollar and higher fuel and commodity prices. We can say that the US economy is a self-sufficient economy. As for the unemployment number, the Federal Reserve is not happy with it and they will continue with their aggressive quantitative easing and the purchase of $85billion of bonds on a monthly basis. If the stock market does not get a sell off on the back of weak economic numbers and even more so on the back of a 10% sell off in Apple shares, the biggest company in the world and the market just ignored it and actually went up then we are in a very strong bull market indeed. Some investors are hoping for some very weak either corporate news or economic news but they are ignoring Ben Bernanke. I think as they say in the financial world, do not buck the trend and just go with it as we are not in normal times. Investors should not wait for worse than expected economic or to be precise job numbers so they can get their latest fix of monetary stimulus. It is there on a monthly basis. The Federal Reser ve action is creating big headache in the foreign exchange market around the world. I am not sure if Ben Bernanke really care where the level of US dollar is or where it is heading. The bank of Japan is happy for the Yen to devalue more but the European Central Bank is coming under pressure from politicians and the business community to stop the Euro rising against all currencies. It has gone up against the Japanese Yen by 20 percent in a couple of months. The only way for the ECB to weaken the Euro is to cut rates and do an aggressive Quantitative easing, something they do not like to do. I think investors around the world got the message and they will drive the Euro to a much higher level and will force the ECB to take action. All, these are good for the stock markets as they mean that lower rates are here to stay and more monetary easing is on the way. In the coming months, markets are going to adjust to the reality that the stock markets do not reflect the weakness in the economy. As long as interest rates stay low and going lower and the central banks around the world take more aggressive actions to stimulate their economies, I think the markets will carry on going up. — Hayder Tawfik Executive Vice President of Asset Management, at Dimah Capital

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 .4410000 .3750000 .3010000 .2770000 .2910000 .0040000 .0020000 .0762440 .7428190 .3900000 .0720000 .7282020 .0430000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2808000 .4423580 .3799500 .3052670 .2802120 .0509340 .0441470 .2931410 .0361940 .2271110 .0030730 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0764810 .7451240 .0000000 .0749000 .7296350 .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.192 5.241 2.885 2.221 3.309 230.340 36.424 3.539

.2840000 .4540000 .3830000 .3130000 .2910000 .3010000 .0067500 .0035000 .0769960 .7501510 .4050000 .0770000 .7353900 .0510000 .2829000 .4456670 .3827920 .3075500 .2823070 .0513150 .0444780 .2953330 .0364650 .2288090 .0030960 .0053270 .0022430 .0029060 .0035790 .0770530 .7506970 .4001410 .0754600 .7350920 .0070110

6.948 9.486 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 75.337 77.625 733.790 750.370 76.927

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 282.400 Euro 377.290 Sterling Pound 448.450 Canadian dollar 285.400 Turkish lire 159.590 Swiss Franc 304.970 Australian dollar 298.500 US Dollar Buying 281.200 GOLD 311.000 157.000 81.500

SELL DRAFT 297.48 287.10 315.18 387.61 281.30 445.67 3.11 3.563 5.286 2.226 3.315 2.882

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling 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 282.250 285.310 450.050 377.280 301.730 747.250 76.825 77.475 75.230 397.875 42.694 2.227 5.236 2.885 3.540 6.948 692.360 4.125 9.540 3.970 3.320 93.365

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

77.000 747.000 46.750 398.000 733.000 78.500 75.400

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 43.700 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 42.468 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.318 Tunisian Dinar 182.550 Jordanian Dinar 398.870 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.895 Syrian Lier 3.069 Morocco Dirham 34.230

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

76.66 749.01 41.89 400.76 732.11 77.68 75.22

SELL CASH 296.000 286.000 313.000 381.800 282.000 445.000 3.750 3.800 5.350 2.520 3.450 2.933

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 298.500 749.290 3.960 286.000 563.300 45.900 52.500 187.800 42.650 388.100 37.030 5.410 0.032 0.161 0.245

SELLDRAFT 295.000 749.290 3.539 284.500

228.600 41.896 386.600 36.880 5.289 0.031

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

3.140 399.270 0.191 93.750 46.800 4.330 241.700 1.825 52.900 731.850 3.000 7.240 77.930 75.230 228.640 33.740 2.664 446.600 45.100 314.000 3.400 9.760 198.263 76.820 282.100 1.360

10 Tola

GOLD 1,763.740

Sterling Pound US Dollar

399.240 0.190 93.750 3.320 240.200

731.670 2.885 6.924 77.500 75.230 228.640 33.740 2.228 444.600 312.500 3.400 9.650 76.720 281.700

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 444.600 281.700

Al Mulla Exchange 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) 281.300 386.300 444.200 284.250 3.075 5.286 41.870 2.227 3.545 6.898 2.880 749.050 76.600 75.150

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

BUSINESS Commodities weekly update

Strong January for commodities By Ole Hansen

ost of the major global commodities have begun 2013 with solid gains with both the major indexes showing strong returns, especially the energy-heavy S&P GSCI index due to strong per formances in gasoline and crude oil. The drivers were numerous and the main ones were increased economic growth expectations, reduced political risk premiums, and continued aggressive monetary policies and, not least, a weaker dollar against most currencies apart from the JPY which weakened dramatically during January. Some rotation Increased growth (both realized and expected) will naturally spur expectations about a change in the loose monetary policies currently being applied by some of major economies, especially the US. Such a change - when it happens could prompt some uncertainty among investors. Some bond markets and possibly gold have already seen an impact from such forward expectations as some investors have rotated out of bonds and gold and into equities during the past month. However, as long as some or all of these drivers remain in play commodity investors sees little reason to reduce an overall long exposure. This will obviously carry the risk that some of these markets will overextend themselves and subsequently run into profit-taking but such a scenario could still be weeks away if the previous three years are anything to go by. The average return for February on the broader based DJ-UBS commodity index has been 2.6 percent from 2010 to 2012. RBOB Gasolinewasa strong performer during January mainly because of technical reasons on concerns that inventories on the US East Coast would dwindle from already low levels during the coming weeks as refineries swing into their annual maintenance and repair season. During the previous couple of years, very high refinery margins due to the availability of cheap WTI crude oil which could be refined into products priced on the back of more expensive Brent crude, meant that many refineries kept up production eventually culminating in an urgent need for maintenance this year. Another strong performer was Cottondue to the outlook for lower supply from the US - the world’s largest exporter - this summer as farmers switch to more profitable crops. The demand side has been kept up by Chinas National Cotton Reserve Corporation (NCRC) which through massive purchases has reached an inventory level from where it can influence domestic prices. At recent auctions, the price at which the NCRC sold cotton back into the market has been at a sufficiently high level to make US export profitable - hence the rise in prices during January. The prices of key crops such as corn and soybeans began to climb in January following a dramatic sell off during the second half of 2012 as the supply outlook improved. While we wait for the new planting season to begin on the Northern Hemisphere the focus has switched to weather developments in South America where wet conditions in Brazil has stalled the soybean harvest while dry weather has negatively impacted corn and soybeans crops in Argentina. Should this dryness persist both crops could see higher prices over the coming

weeks as speculative investors will continue to rebuilt net-long positions after having reduced them dramatically during the last quarter of 2012. This past week we saw the downtrends from last year’s highs being broken on both crops which could signal further gains ahead. March soybeans could be targeting $15 /bushel while March corn could be heading towards $7.62 /bushel. January proved another disappointing month for investors in natural gas as the price once again, just like last year, succumbed to selling pressure as US winter temperatures once more were milder than seasonal averages. This reduces demand and the speed at which inventory levels are drawn, thereby raising the specter of once again having too much gas in storage once the injection season begins inside a few weeks. Sugar has been the worst performer as large harvests in Brazil and India have kept a lid on any attempt to follow other commodities higher because of expectations for a global surplus in 2012/13. Near-term we see the potential for some support returning to sugar despite the headwinds created by the large harvest. A bottom on the chart could be forming within a descending wedge on the NYBICE sugar futures for March delivery and this, together with a switch to positive momentum (also seen this past week) has the potential of triggering some short covering among money managers holding the biggest net-short in more than five years. The Brazilian government has announced that it will allow the ethanol content in gasoline to rise to 25 percent from 20 percent starting 1 May which could add to the demand for sugar. Gold succumbs The lack of investor conviction currently seen in gold has resulted in traders swinging from hot to cold depending on which piece of economic news has emerged from the US. The chart below gives a clear picture of what has been driving markets this past week and it shows how obsessed the market has become in trying to guesstimate the thinking process within the walls of the US Federal Reserve. While we wait for a convincing catalyst to drive this market higher (still our preferred direction of gold) there is a danger that opportunistic sellers may succeed at times in driving it lower which invariably triggers renewed long liquidation. The US job report on Friday was a tad weaker than expected but still showed that job creation continues at a good pace. The unemployment rate move higher and away from the Federal Reserve’s target and this gave gold and especially silver a lift on the assumption that loose monetary policies would not go away anytime soon. Technically, gold is stuck between 1700 and 1650 with many of the more speculation-driven investors patiently waiting for a break either side before committing to the market. Silver has shown some teeth given its dual role as an investment and an industrial metal. This has helped the metal to outperform gold with the market being very focused on the current outlook for growth in US and China. The ratio between the two has moved to the lower end of the range for the past month with one ounce of gold costing 52.4 ounces of silver compared with 55 a month ago. — Saxo Bank

Foreign buyers snap up shares in Iraq’s Asiacell BAGHDAD: Foreign investors bought more than two-thirds of Iraqi mobile operator Asiacell’s $1.35 billion share sale, with parent Qatar Telecom expected to have increased its stake. The share offer was one of the Middle East’s biggest in the last few years, and was seen as a test of investor confidence for future deals as Iraq recovers from years of war, political instability and financial sanctions. Domestic rivals Zain Iraq, a subsidiary of Kuwait’s Zain , and France Telecom affiliate Korek are also required to sell shares under the terms of their licences, having missed an August 2011 deadline, along with Asiacell. Taha Abdulsalam, chief executive of the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX), told Reuters on Sunday it had received orders for all 67.5 billion Asiacell shares on sale, comprising 25 percent of the company’s share capital. Qatar Telecom (Qtel), which owned 53.9 percent of Asiacell before the sale, was expected to increase its holding, Layth Sulaiman, head of the exchange’s board of governors, said last week. Ali Al-Mukhtar, a local broker, yesterday said most buyers were foreigners, with Qtel the main acquirer. Qtel was not immediately available to comment. Qtel in June agreed to pay $1.5 billion to raise its stake in Asiacell to 60 percent from 30 percent, with the remaining 6.1 percent pending regulatory approval. Firas Mechael, a member of the ISX board of governors, said foreign investors placed orders for more than 47 billion shares, with Iraqis accounting for the rest. In total, there

were 2,900 separate orders. The shares were sold at 22 Iraqi dinars ($0.02) each. A breakdown of purchases by foreign investors was not available. The share sale is technically not an initial public offering (IPO), with Asiacell having earlier completed a nominal IPO so that it could convert to a joint stock company as required under Iraqi law to be able to list on the local bourse. As a secondary offering, some shareholders offloaded their shares - Faruk Group Holding, owner of an estimated 40 percent, stake was thought to be a main seller - and they will receive the proceeds, rather than Asiacell. Trading had been expected to start on the exchange yesterday, but it will now begin today Monday, ISX officials said. Investors on the trading floor of the Baghdad bourse, which has a daily turnover of about $4.9 million, gave a mixed reaction. Some cheered and congratulated each other. Yaseen Al-Dulaimi, a local investor who had bought 10 million shares, said he expects the share price to rise when trading starts on Monday, but Ammar Jassim, 32, was more wary. “I feel afraid to buy, its price is too high it could go down in tomorrow’s session,” said Jassim. “Even my colleagues in the market did not buy.” Banking and financial companies make up most of the 85 stocks quoted on the ISX. Asiacell’s listing values the telecom operator at $5.4 billion and will more than double the bourse’s market capitalization when it starts trading. — Reuters

KUWAIT: Dignitaries with BEC officials during the cake-cutting ceremony at Grand Avenues.

BEC Exchange opens new branch at Grand Avenues Symbolic event marks opening of 5 new branches By Sajeev K Peter KUWAIT: BEC Exchange, a leading money exchange house in Kuwait, yesterday opened its new branch during a symbolic, but grand event at the Grand Avenues in the presence of a host of guests and customers. Sri Lankan Ambassador Cahm Wijeratne and Nepal Ambassador Madhuben Paudel joined BEC Exchange Director and General Manager E D Titus to cut the ribbon to officially inaugurate the branch. “This branch opening at the Avenues symbolizes the opening of five new BEC Exchange branches and we have specifically chosen Grand Avenues for the inauguration because it is the most prestigious location in Kuwait today,” said Titus during the opening ceremony. BEC Exchange, a forerunner in the exchange house business in Kuwait, has a network of 29 branches in Kuwait today. It was the first to introduce the door-to-door delivery of drafts in the country as a fool-proof remittance system that ensures that drafts are not lost in transit. “We are the only money exchange house that functions in a souk area. Traditionally, money exchange is part of the Arab culture and being in the souk area, this branch could very well signify the old association of money changing and the Arab culture of travelling,” he added. “We see a good need of a money exchange house in a mall like the Avenues in view of the large number of people visiting it every day,” Titus said giving the rationale for opening a branch in the Avenues. “Similarly, more than 12,000 employees are working in various offices and outlets in the mall. Providing a money exchange facility close to their offices will be very useful to them,” Titus explained. “BEC has earned a name for itself in Kuwait for its service and we will keep innovating new services and products to keep our customers happy. We have also cut down on

KUWAIT: Sri Lankan Ambassador Cahm Wijeratne, Nepal Ambassador Madhuben Paudel and BEC Exchange Director and General Manager E D Titus jointly cut the ribbon to open the new branch at Grand Avenues yesterday. the exchange rates recently for the benefit of our customers,” he pointed out. BEC Exchange Legal Advisor Abu Abdullah, Marketing Manager Jose Thomas, the Avenues representative Zahira A, prominent businessmen Sunny Mathews, Gulfmart Country Head T A Remesh, renowned physicians Dr C G Suresh, Dr Murali Gopal and Brand Manager-Geely, Rexzcy Williams were among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony. A huge crowd of customers rushed into the office as soon as the doors of the branch opened for business after the official inaugural ceremony as they sought to take advantage

New measures to lift veil on banks’ capital ratios LONDON: The game may soon be up for banks that have made themselves look healthier by understating how risky their businesses are, which should help pension funds, savers and companies to decide which institutions to invest in. Bowing to pressure from regulators and investors, some of the world’s biggest banks will soon implement a landmark initiative that promises to reveal far more detail on how banks calculate how much capital they need to guard against potential future losses. It’s designed to restore faith in the capital ratios that are the global benchmark for banks’ financial health, ratios that are highly sensitive to banks’ risk judgments since they are determined as a percentage of banks’ own measure of assets as weighted by risk. “We’re expecting a lot of good disclosure from the banks, and where it’s not happening we’re expecting institutional investors to challenge management on why they’re not doing so,” said Russell Picot, chief accounting officer at bank HSBC and co-chair of the industry taskforce that came up with the new standards for what banks should tell investors. The initiative was instigated by global financial rules setter the Financial Stability Board (FSB). A study by the Basel Committee last week showed precisely why it is necessary, revealing that the most aggressive banks assign just one eighth of the risk weighting applied by their most conservative competitors, making their capital position appear far more robust. Deutsche Bank came under fire on Thursday when it told investors that it managed a better-thanexpected improvement to its capital ratio in the fourth quarter, despite losing 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion), largely by changing its approach to risk-weighted assets (RWAs). Even analysts who specialize in banks’ finances are unable to unravel the figures and work out which banks are really the healthiest or making the most progress, because of inadequate disclosure. The new measures, which have been publicly endorsed by industry giants including HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Santander , will reveal key insights on the RWAs that feed into the banks’ capital calculations. Newly available information will include how much of their RWA improvements come from “optimization”, or model changes such as Deutsche Bank revealed last week.“There may be a bank that is neither well capitalized nor liquid, and they may feel concerned that by publishing in greater detail, it will become even more obvious,” Picot said. “The message for them has to be that the market is pretty good right now at understanding banks’ shortcomings.” Some banks will show their hands in the 2012 annual reports they will publish in the coming weeks. Stragglers are expected to follow suit later in the year as the transparency drive intensifies. — Reuters

of the early bird incentives and gold gifts on offer. As banking remittance activities improved and new remittance products evolved, BEC also adapted to the change and it was the first in the Middle East to introduce online remittances. Belonging to the BFC Group of companies, BEC is one of the biggest international groups in money exchange business. With a history stretching back to 1917, the BFC Group is the oldest organized money changer in business. Presently owned by Bank Al-Khair, the BFC Group is expanding its business interests in the Far East and other parts of the GCC.

ECB likely to hold rates steady amid market calm FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank is set to keep interest rates on hold next week as it takes stock of the newfound calm on the financial markets, analysts predict. “The continued improvement in financial market conditions and surveys of economic activity has taken some of the pressure off the ECB this month,” said Capital Economics economist Jennifer McKeown. “We expect the bank to strike a relatively hawkish tone after its forthcoming meeting, stating that no further policies are needed at present,” she said. With ECB interest rates currently at a record low of 0.75 percent and its latest anti-crisis weapon ready and primed for action, central bank chief Mario Draghi believes the bank has already done its utmost and it is up to governments to resolve the long-running crisis, economists said. “Draghi will again call on politicians to use the calm on the financial markets for structural reforms,” suggested Commerzbank economic Michael Schubert. “We do not expect any further measures from the ECB.” Evidence appears to suggest that the eurozone could finally be emerging from its three-year-old sovereign debt crisis with confidence indicators all across the single currency area pointing upwards. Last week, the clouds of economic gloom lifted when the EU’s euro-zone confidence index rose markedly for the third month running. And Germany, the region’s biggest economy, appears to be unflappable, with investor, business and consumer confidence all on the rise and unemployment close to historic lows. Experts and analysts attribute much of the calm to the ECB’s own anti-crisis measures, which have spanned a safety net under the single currency area’s most vulnerable countries. In addition to slashing interest rates, the bank set up a scheme to buy up the sovereign bonds of debt-wracked nations and also

ECB chief Mario Draghi

pumped an unprecedented 1.0 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of liquidity into the banking system via ultra-cheap three-year loans, known as LTROs. An indication of just how successful the LTROs have been came last week when the ECB announced that many banks are already starting to repay some emergency loans ahead of time. ECB watchers see that as a sign that banks are enjoying better access to funding. But McKeown at Capital Economics warned that the LTRO data were not necessarily all good news. “Announcements made so far suggest that repayments have been made almost exclusively by strong banks in the region’s core as they have sought to prove their financial health to outsiders,” she said. “But banks in the periphery remain reliant on ECB funding and repayment by others is only highlighting their problems and risks further intensifying the fragmentation in the sector,” the expert warned. McKeown also suggested that the fact that banks were choosing to repay the loans was because demand for credit by both households and firms remains weak and the banks are struggling to find profitable ways to use the money. That is backed up by the ECB’s own latest data which showed that euro-zone bank loans to the private sector declined by 0.7 percent in December, after already shrinking by 0.8 percent in November. The decline comes despite an improvement in banks’ own access to funding. Economists point out that the positive mood on the markets is currently all coming from forward-looking sentiment indicators and has yet to translate into an improvement in hard data. “It is clear that the improvement in financial markets is not yet being felt in the wider economy,” McKeown said. UniCredit economist Marco Valli agreed. Draghi would thus “most likely stick to his cautious tone on the real economy,” said Valli. The euro’s recent rise against the dollar-to its highest levels since November 2011 — could also turn into a headache in the longer run, as it could prove a drag on the region’s exports, analysts warn. UniCredit’s Valli said the ECB’s governing council meeting on Thursday would therefore be “an interesting one.” While he was “virtually certain that rates will be left unchanged... Draghi’s tone on improving sentiment, the stronger euro as well as the larger-than-expected early LTRO repayments should deserve close monitoring,” he said. — AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

BUSINESS

US shale gas revolution Throwing down the gauntlet to Europe MUNICH: The United States is enjoying an energy bonanza thanks to shale gas, making it a magnet for industry, reducing import dependence and challenging Europe as it battles to dig itself out of recession, energy officials say. Panelists at a weekend security conference in Munich warned Europe must develop a strategy on how to tap its own resources in order to keep

energy costs competitive, or risk seeing powerintensive industries locate elsewhere. “The shale gas and oil boom is already underway. As Europe continues to debate it, North America is reaping the advantages,” said Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell. Just a week ago Shell signed a $10 billion shale gas deal with Ukraine - the biggest contract yet in

Europe - which could help Ukraine ease its reliance on Russian gas imports. Ukraine is said to have Europe’s third-largest shale gas reserves at 42 trillion cubic feet (1.2 trillion cubic metres), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.Its reserves are dwarved by those of France however, estimated to be Europe’s largest at 180 trillion cubic feet.

France has banned the procedure, known as fracking which is used to extract shale gas and which involves pumping vast quantities of water and chemicals at high pressure through drill holes to prop open shale rocks. Environmentalists fear it could increase seismic risks and pollute drinking water. U.S. officials question this and say that thanks to the higher proportion of gas use the United States has had its lowest carbon dioxide emissions in 20 years. “Observing this from across the Atlantic it is really quite remarkable that there should be a ban or a go-slow on this development in Europe, really without any facts,” said Daniel Yergin, Vice-Chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research. Fracking is used to produce a third of US natural gas he said, showing the environmental impact can be managed. World energy market flows already reflect North America’s scramble to exploit shale oil and gas and highlight the potential prize Europe is ignoring. “The US internal energy revolution and the radical increases in production of oil and gas have boosted gas production by 25 percent and seen oil import dependence drop from 60 percent to 40 percent, and expected to decline further to 30 percent,” said Carlos Pascual, the US special envoy for energy affairs. While Europe retains deep environmental concerns it also acknowledges that with the price of gas in the United States just a third of that in Germany, its industry is already suffering the effects. German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said: “Many German firms have opted for (relocation to) the United States, saying energy prices were the decisive factor...We are already seeing that we are suffering with our higher energy prices it affects our own com-

petiveness.” Addressing the panel in Munich European Union Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Europe should be in a position to produce enough shale gas to replace its depleting conventional gas reserves, so as not to become more dependent on imports. A greater abundance of gas could threaten the dominance of Russia’s gas exports and pressure prices. The United States seized Russia’s spot as the world’s largest gas producer in 2012, and is due to produce significantly more from 2015. “I believe that the shale revolution is something positive, a chance for all of us to launch technologies, intensify competitiveness, make our countries more energy secure, and reduce costs,” said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Russia is focusing on boosting exports to energy-hungry Asia and developing infrastructure to transport gas eastwards. A recent confidential study by the German intelligence agency (BND) suggested the United States could turn from being the world’s greatest energy importer into an oil and gas exporter by 2020, reducing its dependence on the Middle East and thereby giving it much more freedom in policy making. China by contrast would become much more dependent on Middle East oil to fuel its rapid expansion. Illustrating just how rapidly the shale revolution has taken hold, shale gas accounted for just 1 percent of gas production in 2005, whereas today it is a third, and by 2040 it will be 50 percent, US special envoy Pascual said. “Developing a greater capacity to reduce import dependence does not diminish our commitment to stability,” he stressed. “It will not affect our engagement for global security, peace and security in the Middle East.” — Reuters

Ukraine eyes IMF, Russian rescue from recession MOSCOW: Recession and crippling energy inefficiency compounded by a stiff Russian gas bill are turning Ukraine into an economic headache on the eastern edge of Europe with few prospects for a recovery this year. The ex-Soviet nation of 46 million-a one-time breadbasket with historic ties to Russia but aspirations to become a part of the EU-is now hosting an IMF mission in the hope of securing relief. The International Monetary Fund’s prescription for Ukraine is simple: end wasteful gas subsidies so that big businesses can stop burning through state cash and turn into competitive exporters of metals and machines. But Ukraine’s ability to comply with the IMF is limited by an indecisive government and a muscular business lobby that has no interest in seeing its energy bill balloon. The year “2013 is going to be a particularly challenging one for the Ukrainian economy,” the Vienna-based Erste Group warned in a country report. At issue is $12 billion in IMF assistance that has been approved but not fully disbursed because of Ukraine’s refusal to swallow a painful remedy of cuts and spending freezes. The size of the country’s energy problems is on a scale unseen elsewhere in Europe. Standard and Poor’s called Ukraine “one of the most gas-intensive economies in the world.” “Currently, Ukraine is believed to suffer between 30 percent and 50 percent loss of energy used, mainly due to outdated and inefficient communal systems and pipes,” the S&P country report said. “Without reform, the gas market will compromise credit quality,” the ratings agency cautioned. Kiev’s recipe for solving its energy troubles implicitly involves eastern neighbor Russia-a supplier of more than half of Ukraine’s energy and a country frequently accused of using pipelines as a diplomatic weapon. Russia has not only rejected Ukraine’s request for lower prices but also tabled a startling $7 billion bill for gas that Kiev allegedly promised but failed to buy. The claim came on the same day Ukraine struck a $10 billion “unconventional” shale gas development project

with Shell-timing that most viewed as more than mere coincidence. “Quarter after quarter, (state oil company) (Ukraine state energy company) Naftogaz failed to consume all the gas under contract-and Gazprom said nothing,” Sberbank Investment Research analyst Valery Nesterov observed. Ukraine has already rejected the Russian gas giant’s fee and the matter is unlikely to be settled by the courts before the end of the year. But analysts said Gazprom’s demands drove home Russia’s intent to pile the pressure on Kiev just as it teeters on the edge of outright economic collapse. “Fitch expects that Gazprom will maintain high import prices for Ukraine over the medium term,” the Fitch Ratings noted. Ukraine has already seen what failure to act can do. Year-on-year GDP growth slowed to 0.2 percent in 2012 — the last six months witnessing quarterly contractions of 1.2 and 2.7 percent. Its industrial production imploded by 7.4 percent in December while construction fell nearly 14 percent on the year. Things look gloomy for 2013 as well as Ukraine combs for cash to pay off $10 billion in maturing debt while bridging its gaping balance of payments deficit. Analysts worry that the combined effect of these problems and Ukraine’s dual standoff with the IMF and Russia could deplete central bank reserves and send the hryvnia currency into a devaluation that wipes out savings and sees protests on the streets. Some note that reforms may in fact be more difficult to achieve this year than they were in 2012 when the country’s growth was boosted by tourism and investment in the summer’s Euro 2012 football championship. Erste has already revised down its 2013 growth forecast to 1.5 from 3.0 percent. All this gloom may be lifted should the IMF report positive progress after completing its latest review in Kiev on February 12. But economists point out that the IMF missions have been coming to Kiev and leaving with hollow Ukrainian promises for the past two years. “It is likely that this visit will end without the parties reaching an agreement,” Moscow’s VTB Capital investment house said. —AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

BUSINESS

Large swings in currency markets NBK WEEKLY MONEY MARKETS REPORT KUWAIT: The US Federal Reserve Bank kept their monthly $85 billionr bond-buying stimulus plan, and repeated a pledge to keep purchasing securities until the US employment levels improve significantly. They also kept overnight interest rates near zero since the financial crisis started and tripled its balance sheet to about $3 trillion dollars through bond-buying program, under which it currently purchases $45 billion dollars of longer-dated Treasuries and $40 billion dollars of mortgage-backed bonds a month. The Fed’s commitment to loose monetary policy pushed the dollar to a one-year low against the Euro reaching a high of 1.3711, alongside the Feds Loose policy the euro maintains its strength supported by last month’s ECB President Mario Draghi’s upbeat assessment of the euro-zone health that has dampened hopes for any further interest rate cuts . The euro started the week at 1.3460. The single currency then advanced against the US dollar reaching a 15-month high of 1.3711 before settling down and closing for the week at 1.3640. The sterling pound endured a volatile week. Cable opened the week at 1.5800, only to drop to 1.5676 after disappointing economic data, The sterling pound then recovered to 1.5878 only to lose steam and closed for the week at 1.5693 level. The Japanese yen opened the week at 90.90 weakening against the US dollar throughout the week, to touch a two and a half year high of 92.96. The Yen’s weakness was supported by the Bank of Japans big fiscal spending and open-ended monetary easing policy that would be in effect from January 2014, aiming at doubling Japans inflation target to 2.0 % .The Swiss Franc opened the week at 0.9274, only to strengthen against a weakening US dollar reaching a high of 0.9019, The Swiss Franc closed the week at 0.9077. US durable goods orders The US Commerce Department announced last week, that overall orders for durable goods increased 4.6% in December compared with November. The gains were led by a 56.4 % increase in military aircraft orders and a 10.1 % increase in commercial aircraft orders. Yet orders for core capital goods, a key measure of privatesector business investment, only rose a 0.2% despite market uncertainty over the fiscal cliff, which had been scheduled to kick on January 2013. The US Congress ultimately struck a last-minute deal to avoid or postpone most of the austerity measures. The US Pending Home Sales Index ,based on contracts signed last month, fell 4.3% to 101.7 in December from 106.3 in November but is 6.9% higher than December 2011 when it was 95.1.The Drop was attrib-

uted to supply limitation, as it appears to be the main factor holding back contract signing in the past month. Market analysts are expecting that the housing market will remain the economy’s bright spot, and is it expected to support growth this year. US consumer confidence The US Consumer Confidence Index fell in January to 58.6 from an upwardly revised 66.7 in December, erasing all of the gains made through 2012.Consumers are more pessimistic about the ongoing economic outlook and, in particular, their financial situation after the latest increase in the payroll tax. Gross Domestic Product dropped at a 0.1% annual rate, weaker than any economist forecast and the worst performance since the economy emerged from recession in 2009, but analysts said there was no reason for panic given that business investment and consumer spending and picked up. The large drop in the Gross Domestic Product was due to slower inventory growth

and the largest drop in defense spending in 40 years, other than that the economy would have grown at a reasonable 2.5% rate. In addition, analyst said Super storm Sandy that struck the east coast in late October might have reduced the index by 0.5 a basis point. Economist say a growth pace in excess of 3% would be needed over a sustained period to significantly lower high unemployment. The Non-Farm Payroll numbers for January came out at 157K, missing the forecast of 161K while unemployment rate rose at 0.1% to read 7.9% the report also showed an increase in hourly earnings and a solid gain in retail and construction employment. The ISM Manufacturing registered 53.1%, an increase of 2.9% points from December’s seasonally adjusted reading of 50.2. Indicating that the US economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in January for

the second consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 44thconsecutive month. Europe’s M3 money supply Loans to, households, and companies in the 17nation euro region contracted for the eighth month running in December. European Central Bank data showed that Loans to the private sector fell 0.7 % from the same month a year ago after dropping and annual 0.8% in November. Lending remains weak, in spite the fact that the ECB has cut interest rates to a record low of 0.75% and pumped more than 1 trillion Euros into the banking sector. The cheap funds the ECB is pumping through the monetary system are not reaching businesses and households evenly across the euro-zone, market data showed that the private sector lending in Spain dropped by 22 billion euros also in Portugal it fell by 2.6 billion euros, while on the other hand Italy posted a rise of 12.6 billion euros. Euro-zone M3 a general measure of cash in the economy, slowed to annual

growth of 3.3 % in December from 3.8 % in November. Spain’s GDP Spain’s recession deepened in the fourth quarter, as austerity program hammered public spending and weak domestic demand exerted pressure on the country to seek international aid. Spain’s GDP fell 1.8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the data came worse than economists’ forecasts for a fall of 1.7%.Also on a quarterly basis the economy contracted by 0.7% down from 0.3% in the previous quarter, also below economists’ forecast for a drop of 0.6%. German unemployment Germany’s unemployment unexpectedly decline January, it fell by 16,000 in January, taking the jobless rate down to 6.8 %, not far from a post-reunification

low. However, the positive development of the labor market was over shadowed by the retail sales that had dropped by its largest amount in over three years in December and a new forecast by the HDE retail association showing it expects sales to fall in real terms in 2013. UK mortgage lending Loan approvals for house purchase in Britain rose last month to their highest level since January 2012, and net mortgage lending rose by 1.7 Billion Pounds their biggest amount since April. The data suggests that the Bank of England’s’ new Funding for Lending Scheme that aims to prompt banks and other lenders to make money more available to homeowners has proven to be effective. The new FLS was introduced to the market as mean of averting a “triple-dip” recession. UK house prices rose more than expected this month compared with December, helped by the central bank’s scheme to boost lending .The house prices increased by 0.5% in January, though prices were unchanged compared with January 2012 ,the data was welcomed by investors as the housing market managed to avoid a decline for the first time since last February. UK Consumer confidence index rose to -26 from December’s -29, beating analysts’ forecasts for it to remain unchanged and moving back towards to the 18month high of -22 hit in November, as people are more optimistic about the year ahead and more willing to undertake major purchases. However, households’ own financial situation worsened over the past 12 months, and the outlook appeared no better than in December. Japans factory orders Japan’s December Industrial Production rose at the fastest pace in a year and a half; it rose to 2.5% but was below analysts’ forecast of a 4.5% rise. The production data should encourage Prime Minister Abe’s government that supports a big fiscal spending program, aiming at doubling Japans inflation target to 2.0%, which can help the export market. Japan housing starts Housing starts in Japan rose 10.3 % in December from a year earlier, increasing for the fourth straight month, helped by a rush in demand prior to possible sales tax hikes and because of reconstruction in areas hit by last year’s earthquake and tsunami. Another rise of 13.6 % is anticipated. Kuwait Dinar at 0.28100. The USDKWD opened at 0.28105 yesterday morning.

China’s looming worker shortage hurts economy Demographic time-bomb ticking much louder

WASHINGTON: The US government and Mexican tomato growers reached a tentative agreement on Saturday.

US, Mexico reach tomato deal to avert trade war WASHINGTON: The US government and Mexican tomato growers reached a tentative agreement on Saturday that reduces the threat of a costly trade war stemming from a US decision last year to pull out of a 1996 bilateral tomato trade pact. “I am pleased that we were able to come to an agreement on fresh tomato imports from Mexico that restores stability and confidence to the U.S. tomato market and meets the requirements of US law,” US Commerce Under Secretary for International Trade Francisco Sanchez said in a statement. The draft agreement substantially raises the minimum “reference” price at which Mexican tomatoes can be sold in the United States and accounts for changes that have occurred in the tomato market since the original agreement, Sanchez said. For some Mexican tomatoes, the new reference price is more than double the current such price, Sanchez said. The deal is expected to take effect on March 4, after a public comment period, he said. The US Commerce Department made a preliminary decision in September to termi-

nate the 1996 tomato agreement after Florida growers complained the arrangement no longer protected them against Mexican tomatoes sold below the cost of production. That angered Mexican growers, who argued the pact had benefited US consumers and brought stability to the North American market. Mexican officials said the US move appeared motivated to help President Barack Obama carry Florida in his election battle against Republican Mitt Romney. Obama won the state in the November contest. Mexican growers export about $1.9 billion worth of tomatoes to the United States each year. They say Florida producers have not kept pace with new growing techniques that produce tastier tomatoes and have propelled Mexican sales. The proposed agreement spares Mexican growers from having to wage a costly legal battle against a new anti-dumping case brought by Florida producers. It also averts the possibility of a broader trade war. US business groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce feared Mexico could retaliate if the United States slapped hefty duties on Mexican tomatoes. — Reuters

Iceland’s hard line on Icesave pays off REYKJAVIK: Iceland celebrated a major victory this week in its four-year battle with Britain and the Netherlands over failed bank Icesave when a European court vindicated its controversial stance that taxpayers don’t have to pay for bankers’ mistakes. In a move that stunned financial observers, the Court of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) on January 28 sided with Reykjavik and against powerhouses London, The Hague and the European Commission. Icesave, the online British arm of Icelandic bank Landsbanki and which had 340,000 Dutch and British account-holders, went under when tiny Iceland’s bloated financial sector collapsed in 2008 and the country was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. Reykjavik refused to use taxpayers’ money to compensate Icesave’s Dutch and British savers, a decision that infuriated then-British prime minister Gordon Brown to the point that he used anti-terrorism laws to freeze the assets of failing Icelandic banks in Britain to protect British deposi-

tors. The Hague and London had to step in and shell out 3.9 billion euros ($5.5 billion) to compensate Dutch and British accountholders. Embroiled in a bitter row, Reykjavik finally hammered out two agreements with the Dutch and British governments to refund the debt. But Icelanders protested fiercely against deals that would have left the country drowning in debt for decades, estimated at 12,000 euros ($16,200) per citizen. They rejected the agreements in two referendums in 2010 and 2011, which meant the only way to pay back the money was to wait until the assets of failed parent Landsbanki had been recovered. Britain and the Netherlands, together with the European Commission, took Reykjavik to court over its refusal to pay. But the court ruled that European Economic Area nations like Iceland “enjoy a wide margin of discretion in making fundamental choices of economic policy in the specific event of a systemic crisis.” — AFP

BEIJING: China’s demographic time-bomb is ticking much louder with the first fall in its labor pool for decades, analysts say, highlighting the risk that the country grows old before it grows rich. The abundant supply of cheap workers in the world’s most populous nation has created nprecedented cost efficiencies that underpinned its blistering economic expansion over the past 35 years, propelling the global economy forward. But now the inexorable consequences of the one-child policy imposed in the late 1970s are beginning to appear, and threaten to impact its future growth. China’s working-age population, defined as 15-59, fell 3.45 million last year, official data showed earlier this month-the first decline since 1963, after tens of millions died in a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward. The immediate effect may be small in a nation of 1.35 billion people, but the cumulative effects will accelerate over the coming decades. The number of people aged between 15 and 64 will drop by around 40 million between 2014 and 2030, said Wang Guangzhou, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think-tank-more than Poland’s entire population. “The population is aging so fast that we are running short of time to deal with it,” said Li Jun, also of CASS, adding the family planning policy had exacerbated the problem. China’s proportion of over-65-year-olds is projected to double from seven to 14 percent over only 26 years-a key demographic measure that took the United States 69 years to complete. “Undoubtedly it will substantially slow down China’s potential growth rate,” Yao Wei, an economist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told AFP. An ageing population not only means fewer people available to employ and higher labor costs, but investment-a key driver of China’s growth-will be harder to maintain as families spend their savings on health care, she said. Chinese authorities maintain that controlling its population growth has been key to increasing its prosperity. But while China has risen to become the world’s second-largest economy, on a per capita basis it still lags far behind the US and other developed countries. Industrial disputes have become more common in recent years, as workers demand higher pay and better working conditions on the back of growing awareness of their rights

and the shortage of skilled staff. Multinational companies are looking to other developing economies with lower wages for further expansion, with some already moving production bases out of China to rivals such as Indonesia and Vietnam. In a survey of 514 Japanese manufacturers by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation last year, the number of respondents voting China as the top destination for overseas business fell by more than 10 percentage points on 2011. Economists said China must look to speed up the transformation of its economic model and move

challenge for the ruling Communist Party, said Ren Xianfang, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm IHS Global Insight. “Delivering growth and delivering social security to the general public are the key things for the state to (maintain) its legitimacy.” Analysts said the medical services are increasingly expensive and hard to access, while the country’s flagship public pension plans are crippled by problems including insolvency risks, difficulties in expanding coverage and mismanagement. A rural areas program was introduced in 2009 to provide people from the countryside with

Laborers work at an umbrella factory in Shanghai up the value chain. “The golden period of the manufacturing industry, particularly those depending on exports, has gone,” said Yao. At the same time, she said, the country was woefully underprepared to meet the burden of caring for the elderly. “The fiscal situation is not prepared and the social security network is not complete,” she said. By around 2060, every three Chinese workers will have to support two people above 60, compared with a ratio of five to one now, according to Li’s projections. It is a crucial

their first ever state-subsided retirement scheme, but its payouts are particularly meagre-in many areas as low as 55 yuan ($9) a month. The husband of Du Wenlan, a farmer from Chongqing, gets 80 yuan a month from the plan. She only buys new clothes once every three years, she said, and tries to save money by diluting their rice porridge. “What can 80 yuan do?” she asked. On the streets of Beijing, Su Xu, 30, who works for a cosmetics company, told AFP: “I panic when I think about my retirement.” — AFP

Argentina to launch new inflation target BUENOS AIRES: Argentina said Saturday it will start using a new method of measuring inflation after the International Monetary Fund censured Buenos Aires over the quality of its economic data. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino told C5N television that it would be “a new consumer price index to replace the current measure that has supposedly caused so many problems for the IMF.” Lorenzino said that officials expect to begin using the new method starting in the last quarter of 2013. On Friday, the IMF’s executive board took the unprecedented measure of issuing a “declaration of censure” against Argentina, opening the way for one of Latin America’s largest economies to lose its voting rights at

the multinational lender, or even lose its membership. But the board put off that decision, giving Buenos Aires until September 29 to resolve the problem. “It’s an ongoing process and the Fund is aware of that,” said Lorenzino, who criticized the decision as a “double standard.” In a statement, his ministry suggested that “many countries” have changed their unemployment and CPI measures, as well as they way they compile this data. Official Argentine statistics are sharply different from those private sector economists issue. For instance, last month the government said that inflation in 2012 was 10.8 percent, while a group of private economists who collate their data put the rate at 25.6 percent. Buenos Aires benefits

from understating the data because a large part of its sovereign debt is indexed to inflation. In rejecting the IMF’s decision, President Cristina Kirchner’s government demanded that the lender’s board hold a special meeting to review its policy toward Argentina and “its role in the origin of the global economic and financial crisis.” Brazil, an IMF board member and strategic ally of Argentina, criticized the censure as “counterproductive.” In a tweet, Kirchner herself suggested that her government’s debt reduction policy “seems to be the real cause of anger from the IMF.” Argentina defaulted on some $100 billion in debt in 2001, and has since restructured its debt twice, cov-

ering around 75 percent of the nominal value of the bonds. But the country is embroiled in a legal battle in the United States with hedge funds demanding that Buenos Aires repay $1.3 billion in bonds held by investment funds NML and Aurelius because they refused to take part in a 2005 restructuring agreed to by most of the other bondholders. The IMF and Argentina have a long history of troubled relations, with successive governments blaming the Fund for domestic economic failures and the country’s deep troubles in international debt markets. In January 2006, the government paid off Argentina’s debt with the IMFsome $9.5 billion-and cut links with the Fund.— AFP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

BUSINESS

Qatar prepares for opening of Hamad Int’l Airport in Doha $15.5bn airport to become world’s newest aviation hub DOHA: The State of Qatar is ready to welcome a new chapter in the country’s remarkable aviation industry with preparations well underway for the April 1 first phase opening of the new Hamad International Airport to be operated by national carrier Qatar Airways. Details of the soft launch opening were unveiled to an audience of more than 100 airport officials and airline executives in Doha today at an event jointly organised by Qatar Airways, the Hamad International Airport’s Operational Readiness and Airport Transition (ORAT ) team and Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA). QCAA Chairman Abdul Aziz Al Noiami, spelled out the plans for the airport’s readiness, in which Qatar Airways will play a pivotal role. The first phase of the $15.5 billion project involves 12 international passenger airlines becoming the launch carriers of the new facility from April 1. These include low-cost airlines. Qatar Airways will move its entire operations to Hamad International Airport in the second half of the year. Until recently, the airport was known under the project working name New Doha International Airport (NDIA). Qatar Airways will work closely with the first movers to ensure a smooth transition of flights from the current Doha International Airport. With the phased approach, Doha will have a dual airport operation until full operations begin at Hamad

International in the second half of 2013. Abdul Aziz Al Noami said: “Hamad International Airport will truly be a global showpiece that the State of Qatar will justifiably be proud of. “I am delighted to say that we have indeed succeeded in living up to the vision of His Highness The Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani to create a world-class international gateway that will firmly put our country on the global stage. “The airlines that we will shortly welcome to Hamad International Airport will make history becoming the first commercial operators of flights to and from the world’s newest aviation hub from April 1. “2005 seems like only yesterday when the foundation stone was laid for work to start on the new airport project. Eight years on and we are just weeks away from the latest chapter in the airport’s history with the start of operations. “A new workplace and stunning architectural masterpiece will enhance the skyline of Doha providing new surroundings for airport employees and the travelling public from around the world.” Al Noaimi went on to explain that the cargo operations and catering facilities will be ready for operations within weeks. From March, freight forwarders and agents in Qatar will process import and export consignments at Hamad International Airport. Cargo uplift and arrivals will remain at Doha International Airport from where shipments will be transported by road to

the new facility. Cargo flights operated by Qatar Airways and other freighter companies are expected to begin to and from Hamad International from the summer. Al Noaimi explained the next few months will see the new catering facility open in phases at Hamad International, initially handling meals for airlines operating from the new airport. Starting in the summer the catering facility, capable of handling almost 100,000 meals a day, will supply meals for all flights operating from both airports. He went on to say that trials of various facilities involving passengers and cargo have been in place for over six months. He added that mass trials involving hundreds of passengers at a time will soon begin at the passenger terminal complex of Hamad International ahead of the April opening. “By working with Qatar Airways and the various stakeholders, live trials have been carried out to validate all operational flows in the airport as if the airport is totally functional,” said Al Noiami. “We are confident that we will have a fully functional and highly efficient airport to welcome our national carrier Qatar Airways when they move to their spectacular new home towards the second part of the year.” Hamad International Airport will accommodate 28 million passengers annually when it opens this year, increasing to 50 million beyond 2015. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “2013 is an historic year for the State of

Qatar, Qatar Airways and the country’s young aviation industry. “Qatar Airways, as the operator of the new Hamad International Airport and main user of the facility, looks forward to welcoming airlines and passengers to the airport in just a few weeks’ time opening up a new era for our country. “This will be a world class facility that promises to propel our nation further on the international stage. Of course the story doesn’t end here. “Later this year, Qatar Airways will move its entire operations to Hamad International Airport, as all airport lounges are expected to be ready and fully operational by then ensuring that all our passengers have a truly world class experience that they fully deserve. “These are exciting times for our aviation industry and the people of Qatar, so let us relish the moment.” One of the world’s fastest growing airlines, Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 16 years of operations, currently flying a modern fleet of 118 aircraft to 123 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas with the aggressive expansion continuing well into 2013. Over the next few weeks and months, Qatar Airways will launch services to a diverse portfolio of new routes, including Najaf, Iraq (January 23); Phnom Penh, Cambodia (February 20); Chengdu, China (March 19); Chicago, USA (April 10); and Salalah, Oman (May 22) with many more new start-ups planned.

The key to success for Mideast’s oil firms

The father of Abdulmohsen Mohammad Al-Dashti receives the prize from Ahmed Al Khader, NBK’s Assistant General Manager, Consumer Banking Group.

Abdulmohsen Al-Dashti wins KD 125,000 in NBK Al-Jawhara draw KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announces the winner for January’s KD 125,000 Al-Jawhara monthly prize, Minor Abdulmohsen Mohammad Abdulmohsen Al-Dashti. The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. NBK re-launched Al-Jawhara account offering customers more chances to win bigger prizes; KD 5,000 weekly, KD 125,000 monthly and a grand prize of KD 250,000 quarterly draw. Minor Abdulmohsen Mohammad Abdulmohsen Al-Dashti, the winner of January’s KD 125,000 draw and his family expressed their happiness in winning Al Jawhara monthly prize. “Winning KD 125,000 came as a complete surprise. We truly thank NBK for its great services and offers and for always being number one in the market,” they said. Al-Jawhara account offers numerous benefits to NBK customers. Not only is it an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, but also entitles account holders to enter the weekly, monthly and quarterly Al-Jawhara draws. Each KD 50 in an Al-Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance in any of the draws. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in your Al-Jawhara account, the greater your chances of winning. Al-Jawhara accounts are available to both Kuwaitis and Expats and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait.

DUBAI: Today, the Middle East’s NOCs are no longer simply energy producers, they serve as geographically dispersed corporations with global interests. The stakes for these organizations are especially high given that new sources of energy are becoming significantly important and that success for the oil sector strongly impacts the overall economy. In recent years, NOCs have responded to these shifting circumstances by raising their level of professionalism in major competencies. However, they still tend to approach planning and performance management in a disaggregated fashion. With this lack of integration negatively affecting business, Management consulting firm Booz & Company has found that an integrated strategy to planning and performance management is imperative for NOCs to reap clear and tangible benefits. In this day and age, NOCs in the Middle East are navigating through a series of challenges. After all, the region’s governments -the main beneficiaries of the NOCs’ success - are asking for greater fiscal contributions to fund vital social and educational programs and to diversify their economic base. As a result, NOCs have established intensive programs of capital investment, better planning, and improved performance management. “During this decade we expect the main Arab oil producers to invest over $800 billion in capital projects,” explained Sean Wheeler, a Partner with Booz & Company. “So, most NOCs have installed Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to make a broad range of management information available to executives and senior managers. They have also introduced detailed, multiyear strategic plans as standard, along with balanced scorecards, KPIs, and other best-practice planning and performance management approaches.” Although these advances are important, what is still missing is the capability to undertake integrated planning and performance management- as the scale and complexity of NOCs’ activities grow. “Best practices are often used, but the positive effects are mitigated because plans and performance, along with reports and recommendations, are not fully aligned,” said Alain Masuy, a Principal with Booz & Company. “This can cause systemic underperformance, a failure to achieve targets, and potentially serious problems in terms of health, safety, and environmental compliance.

Alain Masuy NOCs need to manage performance in a more intelligent and intuitive manner, to bring all their sophisticated management and other planning tools together in a coherent whole.” The most effective means of addressing these performances and planning weaknesses is to fully align planning with performance management activities in a continuous, integrated planning cycle. This method works for the oil and gas sector because of its long-term horizons and near-term operational complexity. This continuous cycle of integrated planning and performance management comprises five steps. 1) Strategic plans Strategic plans in the energy sector generally begin with a processing capacity target. All aspects of the strategic plan flow from this fundamental determinant of effective capacity which clearly articulates the future vision and positioning of the company. In effect, the company needs to give careful consideration to its current internal capabilities and future objectives to specify the capacity target. These capabilities and objectives are what will distinguish the company in whichever market it aims to serve; the key elements of the strategic plan are then developed to reach this capacity target. It is precisely at this point that the first link in the planning and performance cycle has to be made as the company must ensure that the strategy itself is grounded in the reality of the current state of the

Al-Tijari announces winners of daily draw with Najma Account KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al Najma Account Daily draw on 3rd February 2013. 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: • Abdul Jalil Hussain Hussain— KD 7000, • Ali Mahmoud Ben Nakhi— KD 7000, • Mohammed Salah Saleh Taqi— KD 7000, • Mohammed Gamal Mahmoud Abdulaal— KD 7000, • Sama Adel Abdulnaby Mahmoud— 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. In addition, for each KD 25 a customer can get one chance for winning instead of KD 50. 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.

business. There are four aspects to marrying the strategic plan to reality. First, the capacity profile identifies precisely where the business stands today. Second, any changes in the capacity profile are planned on a realistic time frame from inception to delivery. Third, the capacity profile should reflect ongoing work and project commitments, as well as potential expansion. Fourth, all projects relating to the strategic capacity profile or supporting functions should be defined with terms of reference, including clear objectives, activities, and time lines. “In truth, this approach involves a mix of cross-functional expertise brought together through interactive working sessions,” added Wheeler.”These utilize the knowledge and experience of the wider organization early and actively in the planning process. The result is that appropriate consideration is given to the business functions’ capabilities and options, providing them with ownership of their part of the plan and a sense of loyalty to the overall strategy.” 2. Operational Planning The operational planning and budgeting step achieves the simple task of aligning strategic planning with operational realities and targets. This is the most involved step in the planning and performance cycle -and the phase where plans can start to come apart. The capacity profile should show very clearly when production increments are due and when activities must begin for projects to deliver on time. “The operational plan should be a short and influential communication of the company’s intent, accompanied by data that describes deliverables and needs,” said Masuy. “To achieve this, the operational planning process must be a cycle in itself; it must cascade strategic mandates sequentially, topdown through the organization.” The mandates should start with the allimportant strategic capacity profile. The cascade reinforces the “customer-to-service provider” relationships that will deliver the desired strategic outcomes. The operational plan then incorporates any constraints in the system. This, in turn, forces the planners to prioritize until a final document can emerge that is aligned with the strategy and that is explicit

Sean Wheeler about its risks and resource limitations. 3. Target setting The planning function becomes responsible for reflecting the outcome of the operational planning process in the targets that drive activities during the year. The purpose of annual targets is to motivate an organization to move toward a long-term goal by breaking it down into viable steps. Yet, it is precisely at this stage of the cycle that failure to integrate strategic and operational planning disciplines most often occurs. 4. Performance conversations The remaining components of the cycle relate to performance management and ensuring the delivery of the mandates that cascaded to business functions during the process. Acquiring management information is easy. What is more challenging -and critical -is explaining facts and giving them value. In line with this, NOCs’ planning functions should dig deeper for explanations; they need to excavate the root causes of the facts, which will lead to performance insights, in turn prompting recommendations. The Art of Performance Conversations The next step in the integrated cycle is turning good quality management information into meaningful performance conversations. Performance reviews of any kind fall within this phase of the integrated cycle.

Burgan Bank announces winners of Yawmi Account KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced yesterday the names of the five lucky winners of its Yawmi account draw, each taking home a prize of KD 5,000. The winners for the daily draws took home a cash-prize of KD 5000 each, and they are: 1. Jassim Mohammad Awadh Alenezi 2. Anthony Bernard Jones 3. Bashayer Mohamad Jassim Alshatti 4. Bushra Abdulaziz Alnaqeeb 5. Anoud Rashed Khalaf Aabeh With its new and enhanced features, the Yawmi Account has become more convenient, easier, and faster for customers to benefit from. Now, customers will be eligible to enter the draw after 48 hours only from opening the account. Customers are also required to deposit KD 100 or equivalent only to enter the daily draw, and the coupon

value to enter the draw stands at KD 10. The newly designed Yawmi account has been launched to provide a highly innovative offering along with a higher frequency and incentive of winning for everyone. Today, the Yawmi account is a well understood product, where its popularity can be seen from the number of increasing account holders. Burgan Bank encourages everyone to open a Yawmi account and/or increase their deposit to maximize their chances to becoming a daily winner. The more customers deposit, the higher the chances they receive of winning the draw. Opening a Yawmi account is simple, customers are urged to visit their nearest Burgan Bank branch and receive all the details, or simply call the bank’s Call Center at 1804080 where customer service representatives will be delighted to assist with any questions on the Yawmi account or any of the bank’s products and services.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

technology

Canada to roll our rules for cellphone contracts ONTARIO: Canada’s telecommunications regulator is developing a set of guidelines for cellphone contracts to make them easier for consumers to understand and manage. The vast majority of Canadians own a cellphone, and judging by the ubiquitous sight of people constantly fiddling with their touchscreens, the technological devices have become an integral part of daily life. Nearly 80 per cent of Canadian households have a cellphone, according to a 2010 survey conducted by Statistics Canada. But one thing Canadians would gladly do without is the phenomenon of “cellphone shock” - being hit with unexpected charges and large bills, in part due to confusing and complicated cellphone contracts. Well, here’s some good news: a remedy might be in the works. ‘Canadians haven’t had the benefit of any type of wireless regulation... This is the first time that we’re seeing the regulator step up.’ The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released a draft “wireless code” that would establish rules for cellphone contracts across the country.

Proposals in the draft code include allowing customers to cap their monthly bill and giving them tools to monitor their usage and avoid incurring extra fees before it’s too late. “Canadians haven’t had the benefit of any type of wireless regulation, really, in memorable history,” said Janet Lo, of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa. “This is the first time that we’re seeing the regulator step up and try to level the playing field by providing clearer contracts and clarity around any number of issues that, clearly, consumers are frustrated about.” Here are five things you need to know about the proposed regulation: What exactly is the ‘wireless code’? It is a set of mandatory guidelines that wireless providers will need to follow when providing services to customers in Canada. In general, these are national regulations aimed at making cellphone contracts straightforward and easy for Canadians to understand. The new rules will apply to cellphone customers on a fixed-term contract as well as to those who purchase cellphone services on a

month-by-month basis. The CRTC released a set of draft regulations on Jan. 29, 2013, based on thousands of comments submitted by Canadians to the commission in writing and online and is seeking public feedback on the draft proposal before finalizing the rules. What are some of the proposed changes in the code? The draft regulations address a wide range of issues, including how much wireless companies can charge to unlock customer’s wireless devices and tools to help consumers monitor and control the fees and charges they incur. In 2009, Quebec was the first province to roll out legislation to better protect customers when they sign up for cellphone contracts. As part of Bill 60, which amended the province’s Consumer Protection Act, wireless service providers are prohibited from renewing contracts without a customer’s written approval. Quebec providers are also required to disclose the total cost of goods and services offered to ensure that customers aren’t caught off guard by expensive text messaging fees or charges for services

they don’t want. In Manitoba, new rules governing cellphone contracts came into effect in September 2012. The provincial legislation is similar to that of Quebec and to the rules the CRTC has proposed. For example, companies are required to fully disclose and explain all fees, charges and terms and must allow customers to cancel their contracts at any time for a “reasonable cancellation fee.” As well, the minimum monthly cost on a cellphone contract must be included in all advertisements. Newfoundland and Labrador passed legislation governing cellphone contracts in April 2012. Under the new law, service providers must outline the terms and conditions of cellphone contracts in plain language and disclose the total monthly cost in all advertising. Nova Scotia introduced plans in April 2012 to regulate cellphone contracts with legislation that would cap cancellation fees at $50 and force wireless providers to seek a customer’s permission before changing fees or service options. The bill, amending the provincial

Consumer Protection Act, received royal assent in May 2012. In Ontario, the provincial government in April 2012 committed to introducing legislation governing cellphone contracts. A private member’s bill proposed new regulations that would oblige wireless providers to use all-inclusive pricing in their advertisements and notify consumers of any change to their contract. However, when the Ontario government was prorogued on Oct. 15, 2012, progress of the bill stalled. The legislature is expected to be recalled by Feb. 19, but the bill will have to be reintroduced if the government wants to pursue the regulation. “It’s actually, effectively, dead in the water,” said Lo of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. In New Brunswick, a private member’s bill regulating cellphone contracts with clauses similar to those in Quebec and Manitoba has been tabled. The multitude of rules in different provinces has been complicated and costly for wireless service providers, which is what prompted the companies to seek clarity from the CRTC.

Sony set to unveil next PlayStation on Feb 20 Japan giant may get a head-start

Inventor of Etch A Sketch dies in France at 86 BRYAN: Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the Etch A Sketch toy that generations of children drew on, shook up and started over, has died in France, the toy’s maker said. He was 86. Cassagnes died on Jan. 16 in a Paris suburb, said the Ohio Art Co, based in Bryan in northwest Ohio. The cause wasn’t disclosed Saturday. “Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that. His invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time,” said Larry Killgallon, president of Ohio Art. Then an electrical technician, Cassagnes came upon the Etch A Sketch idea in the late 1950s when he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face, the Toy Industry Association said. Ohio Art saw his idea at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959. The toy, with its gray screen, red frame and two white knobs that are twisted back and forth to create drawings, was launched in 1960 and became the

top seller that holiday season. More than 100 million have been sold worldwide since. Though passed over in popularity for video games and gadgets, the toy has a steady market, the company has said. It got a big jump in sales after Etch A Sketch was featured in the first two “Toy Story” movies, and Ohio Art capitalized on a much-publicized gaffe by a Mitt Romney aide during last year’s presidential election, who was asked about his candidate’s views during the primary season versus the general election. He likened the campaign to an Etch A Sketch: “You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.” Democrats and Republicans alike seized on the remark as evidence that Romney was willing to change his positions for political gain. And Ohio Art seized on the publicity, creating a politically themed ad campaign and manufacturing blue versions of the famously red toy. Etch A Sketches were made in Ohio until 2000, when the company moved production to China because of increasing costs.

Fiat boss eyes merger with Chrysler in 2014 ROME: Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne said yesterday that he expected the merger of the Italian car giant and its US partner Chrysler will take place in 2014. “We will succeed in doing it,” he said in an interview with the editor of the Repubblica newspaper. ìWe and VEBA (the United Auto Workers pension fundóa Chrysler shareholder) have different opinions on the value of Chrysler but we will resolve the problem in 2014.” Marchionne, who heads both companies, had said on January 30 that the ties between the two automakers were ‘irreversible’ and would merge ‘as soon as I can afford it’ but did not put date on the merg-

er. Asked yesterday if Fiat would keep its Turin headquarters, Marchionne said: ‘We are a big group present throughout the world, it will depend on access to financial markets and the choices of the Agnelli family’ who founded Fiat. He had ‘not thought’ about the future name of the new entity, he said. The deal will ultimately give Fiat a 65 percent stake in Chrysler and full ownership by 2015. Boosted by increased sales at Chrysler, the Italian giant on Wednesday reported a profitable 2012, announcing a fourth quarter net profit that rose to 388 million euros ($525 million) from 265 million euros the year before. — AFP

TOKYO: Wikimedia Foundation head of communications Jay Walsh speaks at the “Wikimedia Conference Japan 2013” at the University of Tokyo yesterday. Walsh delivered a keynote speech about the present conditions and the future of the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia at the conference. — AFP

NEW YORK: Sony is poised to unveil the next PlayStation game console on Feb. 20, a date that would give the Japanese electronics company a head start over Microsoft’s expected announcement of an Xbox 360 successor in June. Sony Corp. invited journalists to an evening press event in New York City. The company has not said what it plans to show off, but signs indicate that it’ll be the PlayStation 4. Sony would only say that it “will deliver and speak about the future PlayStation business.” Such a console would follow Nintendo’s Wii U, which launched last fall, and precede Microsoft Corp.’s next Xbox game console, which will likely be unveiled in June at the E3 video game conference in Los Angeles. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said it’s a “super smart” move for Sony to pre -empt Microsoft. This way, the PlayStation 4 will get the spotlight without much competition. The currently available PlayStation 3 went on sale in 2006, a year after the Xbox 360. But Xbox 360 has been more popular, largely because of its robust online service, Xbox Live, which allows people to play games with others online. The Wii is still the top seller among the three consoles, though it has lost momentum in recent years. The Wii U was the first of the newest generation of video game consoles to launch, but sales so far have been disappointing. Nintendo Co’s president, Satoru Iwata, acknowledged recently that the Wii U and the handheld Nintendo 3Ds didn’t do well over the holidays, but he ruled out a price cut for the new console. All three console makers are trying to position their devices as entertainment hubs that go beyond games as they try to stay relevant in the age of smartphones and tablet computers. Such hubs can deliver TV shows, movies and music.

The Wii U has a TV-watching feature called TVii. With it, the console’s touch-screen GamePad controller becomes a remote control for your TV and set-top box. TVii groups your favorite shows

and sports events together, whether it’s on live TV or an Internet video service such as Hulu Plus. And it offers water-cooler moments you can chat about on social media. — AP

Homeless stay connected in virtual community FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: At times during her day, Daletha Brown feels like any typical 23year-old. She catches the bus to Broward College for class. She calls or sends texts on her smart phone. She boots up her laptop to log into Facebook where her profile page states that she lives in “Hollywood, Florida.” But many of her 173 online friends probably don’t know she’s homeless. “People are shocked when I tell them,” Brown said from the Homeless Voice shelter in Hollywood where she collected some bottles of shampoo and soap recently. “I don’t tell them until I know I can trust them. They are shocked at first because you don’t normally see a homeless person going to college.” Or posting on social media. Whether they’re in shelters or on the streets, some of South Florida’s homeless say they’ve found a cyber home and a sense of belonging and community through social media. They log into their accounts so their friends and family can keep track of their whereabouts. They share information on where to find shelter and a shower. Mostly though, these homeless folks find they can escape and temporarily forget that they’re homeless through Facebook, Twitter and other online social networks. “They are still trying to maintain certain parts of their life,” said Mike Long, chief development officer at the Broward Partnership for the Homeless in Fort Lauderdale, which has a computer lab with 30 monitors. The proliferation of cellphones and smart phones also has made it easier for the homeless to stay plugged in. The devices help them look for jobs and social services while allowing them to stay connected to friends and loved ones. “Having a cellphone can give them at least a little bit of access of what we consider social media or social norms,” Long said. “I do believe the cellphones are important, social media as a whole is important especially if they are teenagers ... They do their best to avoid getting in a conversation of where-do-you-livekind-of-thing.” Chris McNeil lives with her 16-year-old son at The Lord’s Place family shelter in West Palm Beach, where she is training to become a chef. Her son encouraged her to create a Facebook account as a social outlet. A self-described recovering opiate, cocaine and alcohol addict, she uses

Facebook to connect with other recovering homeless people and to share homeless-related news from her native Washington, DC. “You don’t know what somebody is going to say to help you get through the day,” she said of the 38 friends on her page. “I have friends that I am talking to that kind of disowned me 20 years ago because of my life choices. Now we are friends because of Facebook. It’s a motivating thing.” Mark Targett, co-director at Homeless Voice in Hollywood, agreed, adding that social media can help bring a sense of normalcy to transient lives. “It may be the only time they feel a part of society without being looked at differently because of their living situation. It’s a way of escape,” said Targett, who sees clients arrive with laptops and Android smart phones. On Facebook, he has friended some of the 182 clients in this crowded and dank two-story facility off North Federal Highway. As he scrolls down his own iPhone, Targett rattles off some of their recent updates: how they answer quizzes on the New England Patriots, play Farmville or wish one another Happy New Year. “Just normal stuff that you would kind of see on anyone’s account, just like we do,” Targett added. Websites also have emerged to help people become social media savvy. One, called WeAreVisible.com, provides tutorials on how to use Facebook and Twitter. Yet some people may ask: How can a homeless person afford cellphones or even smart phones? Where do they find Internet connections? “The stigma of carrying a smart phone or cellphone when you’re homeless pisses the public off a great deal,” said Sean Cononie, who runs Homeless Voice. “They use the cellphone for safety. It’s also a good way to look for a job.” Some qualify for a free cellphone and up to 250 minutes a month through the government’s Lifeline Wireless program, which is associated with TracFone’s Safelink Wireless and Virgin Mobile’s Assurance Wireless. Others carry phones they owned prior to plunging into poverty. A friend or relative may pay the service. For free Internet access, they visit McDonald’s, Starbuck’s, Dunkin’ Donuts or a library. For power, they recharge at Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport, 7-Eleven stores

and electric outlets found on lamp posts along the New River. And of course, there are the homeless shelters themselves. Merritt Thomas shares a Dell laptop with a friend at the Homeless Voice. During the day, he helps gather clothing donations. But he’s also checking his Facebook for updates from his 254 friends, some from his native Jacksonville. “I get to keep in touch with a lot of people from home,” said Thomas, 52, who has been homeless since 2004 since moving to South Florida. He said he receives monthly disability checks for chronic back issues. On Facebook, he also enjoys reading posts from gay political organizations and President Barack Obama. And, “I also get updates from the Kardashians. They are bourgeois,” he said with a grin. As she visited a sick friend at the shelter one afternoon, Brown, the college student, recalled why she joined Facebook _ to stay in touch with her sister who lives in Vero Beach and high school friends she had lost track of. Her sister, who has two young kids, pays for her BlackBerry service. She described her story this way: She was in foster care since she was 5 years old and then adopted at 16. “My adopted mom told me I had to move out at 18,” recalled Brown, who found help at Covenant House Florida in Fort Lauderdale, a youth homeless shelter. A year later, she arrived at Homeless Voice. She now lives in one of the shelter’s satellite properties. In 2009, she was featured in a New York Times article about homeless couples tying the knot. At a small ceremony at ArtsPark in Hollywood, she married an unemployed cook she had met at the shelter. The couple divorced last year. At night, Brown logs into her Facebook page, which captures a sense of home: happy photos of her hugging her new boyfriend and nephew and niece. She also uses the laptop to search for work. “It’s hard when you have a homeless address on your application. People think ‘Oh, the homeless are lazy or they’re on drugs,’ which is not true. A lot of people know this address as a homeless shelter.” With help from grants and financial aid, she’s studying at Broward College. She wants to be a nurse. On Facebook, she posted that she’s planning to graduate this year. “I don’t want to be homeless forever.” —MCT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in US schools WASHINGTON: Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation’s schools. For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful. Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers. The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government’s effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods. Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and

lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have “a la carte” lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated. “Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools. The standards will cover vending machines, the “a la carte” lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake

sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption. The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reducedcost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids. Sen Tom Harkin has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a “loophole” that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches. “USDA’s proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture

not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well,” Harkin said. Last year’s rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn’t be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted inschool fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion. The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren’t working. Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the

2014 school year. Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom. “Parents aren’t going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch,” she said. The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines. A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the highcalorie sodas. — AP

China’s oil giants take a choke-hold on power Politics of pollution BEIJING: The search for culprits behind the rancid haze enveloping China’s capital has turned a spotlight on the country’s two largest oil companies and their resistance to tougher fuel standards. Bureaucratic fighting between the environment ministry on the one hand and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinopec Group on the other has thwarted stricter emission standards for diesel trucks and buses - a main cause of air pollution blanketing dozens of China’s cities. To be sure, many sources contribute to air pollution levels that hit records in January, but analysts say the oil companies’ foot-dragging and disregard of environmental regulations underscore a critical challenge facing a toothless environment ministry in its mission to curb air pollution. With widespread and rising public anger changing the political calculus, it also poses a broader question of whether the incoming administration led by Communist Party chief Xi Jinping will stand up to powerful vested interests in a country where state-owned enterprises have long trumped certain ministries in the quest for economic growth at all costs. “I think the Communist Party’s new government should weaken CNPC and Sinopec,” said Wang Yukai, a professor from the National School of Administration. “These interest groups have too much power.” Delays in implementing stricter emission standards are rooted in money - chiefly, who should pay for the price of refining cleaner fuels? By some estimates, auto emissions contribute as much as a quarter of the most dangerous particles in Beijing’s air. To supply cleaner diesel, the oil firms must invest tens of billions of yuan (billions of dollars) to remove the sulphur content, said Xiaoyi Mu, a senior lecturer in energy economics at the University of Dundee in Scotland. PetroChina, the listed arm of CNPC, said in a statement sent to Reuters that all automotive diesel produced by PetroChina in 2012 met exisiting Chinese emissions standards. It added PetroChina would “push forward upgrading of fuel quality, and supply clean, good quality and diversified products”. Sinopec did not respond to repeated phone calls from Reuters seeking comment.

Sinopec chairman Fu Chengyu, quoted in state news agency Xinhua last week, acknowledged that China’s refineries are one of the main parties that should bear responsibility for air pollution. Even so, he added that was not because fuel failed to meet standards but rather because fuel standards were not sufficient. The bureaucratic tug-of-war has been going on for years. Frustrated by the repeated delays in enforcing existing environmental standards, China’s deputy environment minister, Zhang Lijun, called a meeting in late 2011 with officials from the country’s two biggest oil companies. In unequivocal statements, he sought to lay down the law: The ministry was not going to further delay the cleaner China IV emission standard for trucks and buses, despite reluctance by CNPC and Sinopec to supply the fuel that would cost more to produce. “If the sulphur content in your oil is too high and does not meet the standards, and if cars break down, it’ll be your responsibility. The environment ministry will have nothing to do with it,” Zhang said, according to Tang Dagang, director of the Vehicle Emission Control Center, who was present at the meeting. The officials from the oil companies responded by promising to supply the cleaner fuel after the Lunar New Year in 2012, a traditional holiday that fell in January that year. But a few months later, a spot check by the environment ministry showed the companies were still supplying ordinary diesel, said Tang, whose policy research group is affiliated with the ministry. With media focusing on a sudden worsening of the air quality in Beijing at the start of 2013 - 21 days in January recorded “heavily polluted” levels or worse - urban residents are increasingly impatient with the political wrangling. “The air pollution is terrible,” said Beijing resident Zhang Shuqing on a recent very polluted day. “They need to sort it out, the department responsible needs to sort out the environment.” The environment ministry, however, faces formidable odds in the face of China’s complex bureaucracy and weak enforcement of laws. At least 10 government entities such as the powerful National Development and Reform

Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) shape policies that affect the environment. Unlike the US Environmental Protection Agency, the environment ministry has no power to set fuel emission standards, and sometimes it is not even consulted on decisions taken by other government departments that would affect the environment. For example, when the MIIT and the NDRC held a meeting to deliberate on a policy subsidising energy-saving cars, they never contacted the environment ministry, said Ding Yan, deputy director of the Vehicle Emissions Control Center. As it turns out, some of these cars are actually relatively heavy polluters. In 2008, China promoted the State Environmental Protection Administration to a full ministry in a bid to give it more weight in the country’s fight against pollution. Yet the ministry still lacks the authority to force big state-owned enterprises and local governments to toe the line. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment. “Even a powerful environment minister is of no use,” Ding said. “You need the highest leaders like Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang to really value the work of the environment ministry.” Excessive pollution levels have already prompted the Beijing government to roll out a series of temporary emergency measures such as shutting down 103 heavily polluting factories and taking 30 percent of government vehicles off roads, but the capital’s air has remained hazardous. It remains unclear whether Xi will restrain the influence of the oil firms, but with public anger rising, and with a normally compliant media joining in the calls for action, political pressure is growing. The problem for oil firms such as PetroChina, the listed arm of CNPC, and Sinopec is that central planners set prices at the pump, even when global energy costs remain high. Tang said both CNPC and Sinopec have told the environment ministry that they would have supplied the fuels “if they had gotten a reasonable price”. Jiang Kejun, research professor at the NDRC’s Energy Research Institute, says it is unreasonable to demand that CNPC and Sinopec bear the cost of refining cleaner fuels. “I’m an environmentalist and I

also hate the actions of CNPC and Sinopec,” Jiang said. “But we have to tell the public: energy prices will rise significantly. To enjoy both low energy prices and also fresh air, there’s no way you can have both.” With no supply of cleaner diesel fuel, Beijing had to delay the implementation of the China IV emission standard for diesel trucks and buses twice - first in 2011 and then later in 2012, when it was extended to this July. The new standard aims to cut emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides - two key components of urban smog - from trucks and buses by 80 percent and 30 percent, respectively, said Vance Wagner, a senior researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation. “Diesel vehicles, especially trucks and buses, are a disproportionately large source of emissions,” Wagner said in emailed comments. He cited environment ministry data that showed large trucks comprise only about 5 percent of China’s vehicle fleet, but emit over 60 percent of particulate matter emissions. In response, China’s finance ministry has stepped in to negotiate preferential tax policies with the oil firms to help offset the higher costs of producing cleaner diesel fuel, say people close to the environment ministry. Chinese media reported last week that new cleaner diesel fuel standards, similar to Euro IV standards that restrict sulfur content, could be issued soon in addition to the existing emissions standards. Even the new requirements, however, could give oil companies a twoyear window for full compliance. Without intervention at a higher level, the delays are likely to go on. Yue Xin, head of the vehicle fuels and emissions lab at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, has spent more than three years sparring with CNPC and Sinopec on a committee that sets fuel standards. Yue is one of two members representing the environment ministry on the panel while about 70 percent of the representatives are from the oil firms. Now, Yue, whose group is affiliated with the environment ministry, is lobbying for the oil firms to put “detergents” in its gasoline, which will burn fuel cleanly. The oil firms oppose it because of the costs, Yue said. — Reuters

Warming imperils US wolverines BILLINGS, Montana: The tenacious wolverine, a snow-loving carnivore sometimes called the “mountain devil”, could soon join the list of species threatened by climate change - a dubious distinction putting it in the ranks of the polar bear and several other animals the government says will lose crucial habitat as temperatures rise. Federal wildlife officials Friday proposed Endangered Species Act protections for the wolverine in the Lower 48 states. That’s a step twice denied under the Bush administration, then delayed in 2010 when the Obama administration said other imperiled species had priority. It likely means an end to trapping the animals for their fur outside Alaska. But federal officials said they won’t use the animal’s status as a means to regulate greenhouse gases blamed in climate change. And other human activities - from snowmobiling and ski resorts to timber harvest and - would not be curtailed because they do not appear to be significant threats to wolverines, officials said. There are an estimated 250 to 300 wolverines in the contiguous US, clustered in small, isolated groups primarily in the Northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington. Larger populations persist in Alaska and Canada. Maxing out at 40 pounds and tough enough to stand up to grizzly bears, the animals will be no match for anticipated declines in deep mountain snows female wolverines need to establish dens and raise their young, scientists said. In some

areas, such as central Idaho, suitable habitat could disappear entirely, officials said. Yet because those losses could take decades to unfold, federal wildlife officials said there’s still time to bolster the population, including by reintroducing them to the high mountains of Colorado. “This is a species there is still time to do something about,” said Mike Thabault, ecological services director for the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s mountain-prairie region. Wildlife advocates, who sued to force the government to act on the issue, said the animal’s plight should be used by the Obama administration to leverage tighter restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. As with the polar bear, the government is sidestepping that thorny proposition with the wolverine, and said in Friday’s proposal that listing the animal as threatened “will not regulate greenhouse gas emissions”. Thabault said the agency would be on tenuous scientific grounds if it tried to draw a link between specific emission sources and impacts on wolverines. Advocates expressed disappointment, with Noah Greenwald from the Center for Biological Diversity saying the administration “should not be exempting greenhouse gas emissions from the Endangered Species Act”. A Washington, DC, attorney, John Martin, who represented the energy industry during litigation over polar bears, said he expects no change in the administration’s policy against using endangered wildlife to regulate emissions. — AP

This undated image provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service shows a wolverine. — AP

STS-107 crewmembers, from left (bottom row), wearing red shirts to signify their shift’s color, are astronauts Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Rick D Husband, mission commander; Laurel B Clark, mission specialist; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist. From left (top row), wearing blue shirts, are astronauts David M Brown, mission specialist; William C McCool, pilot; and Michael P Anderson, payload commander. The astronauts were killed on Feb 1, 2003, in the final minutes of their 16-day scientific research mission aboard Columbia. — AP

NASA marks 10 yrs since loss of Columbia, crew CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Schoolchildren joined NASA managers and relatives of the lost crew of space shuttle Columbia on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy and remember the seven astronauts who died. More than 300 people gathered at Kennedy Space Center for the outdoor ceremony, just a few miles from where Columbia was supposed to land on Feb 1, 2003, following a 16-day science mission. It never made it, bursting apart in the sky over Texas, just 16 minutes from home. Representing the families of the Columbia seven, the widow of commander Rick Husband told the hushed audience that the accident was so unexpected and the shock so intense, “that even tears were not freely able to fall”. “They would come in the weeks, months and years to follow in waves and in buckets,” said Evelyn Husband Thompson. She assured everyone, though, that healing is possible and that blessings can arise from hardships. She attended the ceremony with her two children, her second husband and Sandra Anderson, widow of Columbia astronaut Michael Anderson. “God bless the families of STS-107,” said Thompson, referring to the mission designation for Columbia’s last mission. “May our broken hearts continue to heal and may beauty continue to replace the ashes.” A pair of songs added to the emotion of the day. The young nephew of a NASA worker performed a song he wrote, “16 Minutes from Home,” on the keyboard, along with a vocalist. And Grammy awardwinning BeBe Winans, an R&B and gospel singer, performed “Ultimate Sacrifice,” which he wrote for soldiers serving overseas. As it turns out, Anderson had taken a CD of Winans’ music into orbit with him. It was recovered in the debris that rained down on East Texas that fateful morning. Winans did not know that until it was mentioned at Friday’s ceremony. “I honor you today, I really do honor the families and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice,” he added. Some in the crowd wiped away tears as he sang. Also present were 44 students from Israel, the homeland of Columbia astronaut Ilan Ramon. He was Israel’s first astronaut. The teenagers were proud to note that they go to the same school as Ramon once did. They wore white sweat shirts with an emblem of their nation’s first spaceman and the religious items he took into orbit. “He represented Israel in the best way pos-

sible, so I think it’s an honor for us to be here,” said Eden Mordechai, 15. The other Columbia crew members were co-pilot William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Dr Laurel Clark and Dr David Brown. NASA’s human exploration chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, said no single person or event caused the Columbia disaster. Rather, “a series of technical and cultural missteps” were to blame, dating back to the first shuttle launch in 1981 when fuel-tank foam insulation started coming off and doing damage. A chunk of foam punched a hole in Columbia’s left wing during liftoff, leading to the catastrophic re-entry. The astronaut who led the charge back to shuttle flight two years later, Eileen Collins, stressed that the 30-year shuttle program had its share of successes along the way and achieved its ultimate goal, building the International Space Station. The shuttles were retired in 2011. “We still miss you,” Collins said of the Columbia seven. “How can we ever thank you for your contributions to the great journey of human discovery.” The hour-long ceremony was held in front of the huge black granite monument bearing the names of all 24 astronauts who have died in the line of NASA duty. The three-man crew of Apollo 1 died in the Jan 27, 1967, launch pad fire. The Challenger seven were killed Jan 28, 1986, during liftoff. Husband and his crew honored them during their own flight, just four days before dying themselves. On Friday, the names of each of the dead were read aloud. Afterward, mourners placed carnations and roses on the grating in front of the mirror-faced monument. “I felt compelled to be here to memorialize those who were a big part of my life,” said David Nieds, 39, a grocery store manager who got up early to drive from Fort Lauderdale with his mother and 16-yearold nephew. He attended dozens of launches. Some people like sports, he explained, while he follows the space program. Memorial services also were held at Arlington National Cemetery, where three of the Columbia crew are buried; in East Texas, where the shuttle wreckage fell; and in Israel. “Space exploration and the sacrifice these pioneers made benefits us all,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “Today, we honor their lives and recommit ourselves to living up to their shining example.” — AP

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Dar Al Shifa welcomes Dr Ibrahim Al Enezi KUWAIT: Dar Al Shifa Hospital has announced the arrival of Dr Ibrahim Al Enezi, head of the new Super Obesity Unit in its surgical department. This new appointment is in line with Dar Al Shifa’s strategy in providing optimum healthcare

Dr Ibrahim Al Enezi services to its patients and enhancing patients’ experience and standards to meet their utmost needs. Dr Al Enezi was the first consultant in Kuwait to perform laparoscopic colectomy, which is a surgery in need of high skills and techniques. He is a pioneer in performing bariatric surgeries for super obese patients in Kuwait and the Gulf region and is an expert in advanced bariatric surgeries (for

those whose weight exceeds 200 kg). Dr Al Enezi is directing a team of specialists to undergo surgeries for extremely obese patients at Dar Al Shifa Hospital. He has also prepared a variety of special programs to rehabilitate obese patients that successfully underwent the surgery and lost excess weight while not losing the vitamins and bringing back the patient to his diet routine. Each program is precisely prepared for each patient individually. Dr Al Enezi is considered to be one of the few experts in advanced laparoscopic surgeries involving oesophageal reflux, hernia, intestines, colon, and spleen. He also specializes in conducting tummytuck surgeries. A gold medal award-winner in his surgical fellowship program in the United Kingdom, Dr Al Enezi also received awards for being a former member of the Canadian Board for General Surgery and a member of the surgical fellowship program in Canada. He has also received a higher diploma in laparoscopic and bariatric surgeries. Dr Enezi expressed his utmost pleasure to become part of a wellestablished and reputable medical institution such as Dar Al Shifa Hospital. I look forward to provide more success to the surgical department through leading the newly launched obesity unit, with the team of medical professionals.

Young dolphin lures pod to safety in Australia SYDNEY: A young dolphin has been used to lure a pod of 100 to 150 others to safety after they were in danger of stranding themselves, Australian officials said yesterday. Western Australia’s Department of Environment and Conservation said the dolphins were milling in shallow water at Whalers Cove near Albany on the south coast and in danger of a mass stranding when found on Saturday. One dolphin had already died.

Local conservation leader Deon Utber said wildlife experts moved a juvenile dolphin by boat to deeper waters at high tide on Saturday to entice the others to follow. “The juvenile was sending out distress signals, which was calling the dolphins in, as soon as it was translocated to deeper waters the pod followed it out and last we saw they were swimming out to sea,” he said in a statement. Officials said there was no sign of the pod by yesterday morning. — AFP

New Mowasat Hospital adopts US Dental Implant Protocol

Mersiha Avdic, Periodontal Diseases Consultant at New Mowasat Hospital, described the astonishing, new developments now available for the treatment of gums and teeth, notably for implants. Dr Avdic emphasized that the American Dental Implant Protocol states that implant surgeries must be performed by a group of three specialists - a periodontist, a prosthodontist, and a lab technician - a procedure that has been long adopted by New Mowasat. “While in healthcare practices, the implant surgery is conducted by a single dentist, the gums and teeth are largely compromised since a single dentist, in no way, can be adequately knowledgeable of all the protocols guiding the proper handling of the post-implant problems or complications.” Dr Avdic proclaimed. Dr Avdic indicated that conducting an implant surgery by an integrated group of specialists is essential. While a periodontist anchors the dental post into the jawbone, a prosthodontist places the crown, and the lab technician creates a suitable crown. The combined knowledge of these specialists ensures the success of the implant procedure every time. According to the Protocol, Dr Avdic added that periodontists are the dentists who are most knowledgeable of the protocols on periodontal diseases, recovery and implants, and are qualified to diagnose and treat the gingival soft and hard tissues. Speaking about the key implant procedures, Dr. Avdic recommended that the patient’s gums be examined by a periodontist in order to evaluate how healthy the gum is and how solid the bone is. If a disease or infection is reported, the patient may go through a minor surgical procedure, microsur-

gical therapy, or a set of regenerative and reconstructive procedures of the gingival soft and hard tissues. Depending on the zone of the implant, some essential examinations like panorama radiography or CT scan may be prescribed for the patient so that the volume of bone where the implant is going to be placed is assessed.

odontal plastic surgery, Dr Avdic indicated that patients who lost part of the periodontium (soft tissue) with a long tooth (teeth) and have unpleasantly-looking exposed roots, can now benefit from wellestablished set of microsurgical procedures aimed at rebuilding the periodontium (soft tissue) to restore the aesthetics of their gums.

Dr Mersiha Avdic Dr Avdic forewarned against the potential risks if the implant surgery is conducted by a single dentist or non-specialists who do not usually comply with the implant protocol guidelines. Such noncompliance will certainly cause postoperative complications such as sinus perforation, improper implant placement in inadequate soft and hard tissues, or placing the tooth in an infected gum. Adverse complications include peri implantitis, bleeding, pain and the potential loss of the implanted tooth eventually. Periodontal Plastic Surgery Procedures Speaking about the state-ofthe-art techniques used in peri-

“ This procedure is not only designed for aesthetic purposes, it also protects the root of the tooth and improves the prognosis of the tooth,” Dr. Advic added. Gummy Smile While the gummy smile (short teeth with excessive gingival tissue appearing upon smiling) causes many people to be truly perplexed and even reluctant to smile, Dr Avdic revealed comforting news that this issue can effectively be managed by virtue of a simple surgical procedure in which a minimal amount of the gum tissue is removed. The surgery is administered in less than one hour at New Mowasat Hospital. A patient with any gingi-

val disease must be properly treated prior to any surgical procedure. You may have Good Looking Teeth; Yet Dr Avdic forewarned that many people apparently do not realize that they have gingival diseases. “Although you may have apparently good-looking, problem-free teeth, you still may have gingivitis or periodontitis. If you do not have your teeth diagnosed and treated properly and in a timely fashion, the inflammation may worsen until it touches the jawbones, causing tooth mobility and subsequent tooth loss. Successful Treatment of Gingival Diseases Dr Avdic always urges everyone to visit the dentist every 3-4 months for dental scaling and polishing in order to get rid of plaque build-up and harmful bacteria which can lead to tooth decay. Dr Avdic is astonished of the high prevalence of gingival diseases in the Kuwaiti population and attributed the phenomenon to the fact that most dentists mistakenly believe that the gum infection is the mere bacterial inflammation of the gum tissues that is called “gingivitis”. There is a misconception that this h can be easily treated by scaling and polishing at 3-4 month intervals; although the gingival diseases have different factors, types and separate treatment techniques. Such treatments, Dr Avdic added, have proven to be widely successful in the US over the past thirty years and have been recently adopted and applied in the New Mowasat Hospital. Dr Avdic concluded by encouraging everybody to have his/her gingival diseases properly diagnosed and treated in a timely manner as to avoid tooth loss and risk factors associated with many systemic diseases.

W H AT ’ S O N

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Omani ambassador hosts open day for diplomats

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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

Greetings

appy birthday to our beloved daughter Veronica who is celebrating her 18th birthday today. May God be with you and bless you with many more candles to blow. We love you. Greetings come from loving sister Christina, mother Dina, father Ranjith and all your near and dear ones in Kuwait and Sri Lanka and lastly from KN Office Services family.

Announcements ECC organizes Omra trip for Egyptians

ecretary general of the Egyptian Community Council (ECC), Dr Azmi Abdul Fattah congratulated all Egyptians on the second anniversary of the January 25 revolution urging everybody to consolidate and unite for the best of Egypt as a whole. On this occasion, Abdul Fattah announced that the council would organize its annual Omra trip pointing out that it would last eight days in the period of February 21 till 28. Shirva feast hirva Welfare Association Kuwait (SWAK) will be celebrating their Shirva Parish feast2013 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 / get-together 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.

Goan Culinary Club

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 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.

APAK Xmas-New Year celebration ngamaly Pravasi Association Kuwait (APAK) will conduct its Christmas and New Year celebrations tomorrow Friday at Abbassiya United Indian School Auditorium from 5:30 pm 10 pm. The meeting will be chaired by the Advisory Board Chairman Jacob Pynadath in the presence of President Bacon Joseph, Secretary Martin Kurian, Treasurer Sajeev Paul and other famous personalities in Kuwait.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

he Omani Ambassador to Kuwait Salem Al-Mesh’ani hosted an open day for fellow ambassadors and their families on Saturday at the embassy’s spring camp, featuring various activities and competitions. State officials, political and social activists as well as media figures also attended the event.— Photos by Joseph Shagra

W H AT ’ S O N

GUST organizes first aid course for employees

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The 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-imenquiry@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. nnnnnnn

he Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST) organized the first run of a certified First Aid course for its employees in coordination with the Kuwait Medical Association Training Center, Gulf CPR Training Institute and the American Heart Association (AHA). It was an AHA course, internationally recognized and meeting OSHA requirements with advanced information and more practical sessions. GUST regards safety very highly and believes it is highly beneficial for employees to be prepared in

case of an emergency. The course is seven hours total split over two days and to be attended by 50 GUST employees for the first round The course is an instructor-led course that teaches participants critical skills and knowledge needed to respond to and manage an emergency in the first few minutes until emergency medical services take over. The training staff is certified and authorized Heart Saver First Aid instructors from AHAUSA. The first day covers CPR through the AHA’s research-proven practice-

while-watching (PWW) method of instruction for CPR which improves trainees learning and retention. They also discussed automated electrical defibrillators (AED), where the class discusses: Adult cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, child cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, use of masks for adults and children, using AEDs, special situations in AED including practice sessions on mannequins. The second day covers first aid basics including rescuer duties, victim and rescuer safety, phoning for help and sam-

ples of a first aid kit. It also goes through environmental emergencies, injury emergencies and medical emergencies like breathing problems, choking, bad allergic reactions, heart attacks, fainting, seizures and more. GUST employees will be awarded with a Heart Saver First Aid CPR AED Course Completion card from internationally recognized AHA-USA as well as a certification from Kuwait Medical Association Training Center. A mass CPR training for students is being finalized and will be announced in the next few weeks.

MEPI alumni visit NBK Cancer Hospital

s part of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Alumni Network-Kuwait Chapter mission, there was a visit organized to the NBK Cancer Hospital on February 2, 2013. The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Alumni Network-Kuwait Chapter, in conjunction with Gulf Bank and AMIDEAST, organized a visit to the NBK Cancer Hospital to endorse the con-

cept of social responsibility within the alumni. “Gulf Bank provided us with funds to provide the kids in the hospital with gifts and giveaways, as well as, get necessary games required during their stay” said Salma Tayeh, MEPI Alumni Coordinator The MEPI Alumni Network objective is to engage youth in Kuwait by providing civic engagement and developmental opportunities to its alumni.

Spectacular 10th Mega Carnival at ICSK

he Indian Community School, Kuwait, set another milestone in its illustrious history as it celebrated the 10th Mega Carnival on Friday, 25th January, 2013. The most eagerly-awaited event among the Indians in Kuwait, the Mega Carnival drew huge crowds during the day-long event. Preeti Mehta, the Chief Guest of the occasion, inaugurated the grand carnival celebrations. Satish C Mehta, Ambassador of India to Kuwait, was the Guest of Honour on the occasion. The Honorary Chairman to the ICSK Board of Trustees, Ashok Kalra; Honorary Vice-Chairman, Rajan Daniel; Honorary Secretary, Vijay Karayil; Honorary Treasurer, Dinesh Kamath; Honorary JointSecretary, Dr Kamlesh Kumari and other members of Board of Trustees of ICSK graced the inauguration of the 10th Mega Carnival. The principals and vice-Principals of all the branches of ICSK were present for the ceremony. The elected members of the parent body, the Parent Advisory Council, rendered their support to the carnival. The inauguration ceremony opened with an impressive band display of ICSK that captivated the hearts of all. Preeti Mehta, the chief guest, released the colourful souvenir and the commemorative Tshirts and caps marking the 10th mega carnival. The highly entertaining cultural programme began with the entry of the carnival float and the lovely rhythmic dances welcoming the people to the mega show. The dancers brought all the elements of nature on the Salmiya campus. The trees, the plants, the flowers and butterflies swayed in unison to greet the gathering.

The Masters of Ceremony for the day, Fayaz Sheikh and Reyanna Mahesh, who are also members of the Parent Advisory Council, kept the visitors enthralled throughout the day with a wide variety of activities like games and competitions, onthe-spot questions, talent shows etc. The ICSK Salmiya campus was transformed into a fascinating land that charmed all the agegroups. The excitement continued throughout the day as all the four branches had varied entertainment programmes lined-up. The flash-mob dancing, fusion dancing, singing, all interspersed with the bingo games ensured a wholesome family outing. Apart from the merriment that was visible among the audience near the center-stage, high-spirited crowds thronged the multifarious stalls that offered a vast variety of food items, array of interesting games of chance, face-painting, hair-colouring, hair-styling etc. Many items of interest like clothes, books, bags etc. were also put up for sale. The fun-filled day drew to a close with the raffle draw that offered 70 prizes for the lucky winners. The ICSK Mega Carnival is one of the largest of its kind that is driven by the noble purpose of creating a “School Welfare Fund” to meet the educational needs of the less privileged students. The success of the Mega Carnival, an event of unparalleled scale and grandeur, is commendable. The management and staff of the Indian Community School, Kuwait, thank all the esteemed sponsors, the Indian community in Kuwait, the participants and the parents who contributed to make the event a huge success.

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. nnnnnnn

Sri Lanka Embassy announcement On the occasion of the National Day of Sir Lanka, Flag Hosting Ceremony will be held at the Embassy of Sri Lanka premises at Jabriya at 9:00 am today by conducting religious observances reading of the messages of the President, Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs and an open house reception. All Sri Lankan nationals in Kuwait are cordially invited to attend the ceremony. nnnnnnn

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. Linden US University Fair The Linden US University Fair will be held at the Marina Hotel in Salmiya today at 6:00 pm. The fair will host representatives from 12 universities throughout the US This fair is organized by Linden Educational Tours in conjunction with the US Embassy. EducationUSA advisers will be present at the fair to address students’ questions about education in the US. In addition, US Embassy Consular officers will answer questions about the student visa process. The Linden University Fair gives Kuwaiti students a chance to meet with representatives from accredited US institutions so that they can explore possibilities and pursue their goals in higher education. Additional information about the fair can be found at http://www.facebook.com/LindenFairs. More information about studying in the United States can be found at http://www.educationusa.state.gov/. Visit us online at kuwait.usembassy.gov.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

00:50 Untamed & Uncut 01:45 Crocodile Feeding Frenzy 02:35 Animal Cops Philadelphia 03:25 Wildest Arctic 04:15 Untamed China With Nigel Marven 05:05 Sharkman 05:55 Animal Cops Philadelphia 06:45 Wildest Arctic 07:35 Wildlife SOS 08:00 The Really Wild Show 08:25 Bad Dog 09:15 Cats 101 10:10 Baby Planet 11:05 Wildest Africa 12:00 Animal Cops Phoenix 12:55 Call Of The Wildman 13:20 Wildlife SOS 13:50 Clinically Wild: Alaska 14:45 Animal Precinct 15:40 Wildest Africa 16:35 Animal Battlegrounds 17:00 The Really Wild Show 17:30 Cats 101 18:25 Crocodile Hunter 19:20 Too Cute! 20:15 Bondi Vet 21:10 Call Of The Wildman 21:35 Animal Battlegrounds 22:05 Wildest Africa 23:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 23:55 My Cat From Hell

01:15 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 02:00 Design Rules 02:55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 04:10 Antiques Roadshow 05:05 Design Rules 05:30 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 06:20 Rhodes Across The Caribbean 07:05 Design Rules 08:50 Bargain Hunt 09:35 Antiques Roadshow 10:30 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 11:50 Come Dine With Me: Supersize 13:20 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 14:15 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 15:00 Bargain Hunt 15:45 Antiques Roadshow 16:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 18:00 Homes Under The Hammer 18:50 The Hairy Bikers USA 19:15 Home Cooking Made Easy 20:10 New Scandinavian Cooking 20:35 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 21:35 Fantasy Homes By The Sea 22:20 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Bargain Hunt

00:00 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:30 05:45 06:30 06:45 07:30 07:45 08:30 09:00 09:30 09:45 10:00 11:00 12:00

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 World Business Report BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News Hardtalk BBC World News World Business Report Sport Today BBC World News GMT With George Alagiah Impact With Mishal Husain

12:30 Impact With Mishal Husain 13:30 Hardtalk 14:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 BBC World News 16:30 BBC Focus On Africa 17:00 BBC World News 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 19:30 World Business Report 19:45 Sport Today 20:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 20:30 Hardtalk 21:00 BBC World News America 22:00 Newsday 22:30 Asia Business Report 22:45 Sport Today

00:20 Yogi’s Treasure Hunt 00:45 Duck Dodgers 01:10 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 01:35 Dastardly And Muttley 02:00 Popeye 02:25 Wacky Races 02:50 Scooby Doo Where Are You! 03:15 The Flintstones 03:40 The Jetsons 04:00 What’s New Scooby Doo? 04:20 Taz-Mania 04:45 The Looney Tunes Show 05:10 Tom & Jerry Tales 05:35 Dexter’s Laboratory 06:00 Moomins 06:25 Dexter’s Laboratory 07:00 Ha Ha Hairies 07:25 Baby Looney Tunes 07:50 Lazy Town 08:15 Krypto The Superdog 08:40 Jelly Jamm 09:05 Gerald McBoing Boing 09:30 Cartoonito Tales 09:55 Bananas In Pyjamas 10:20 Ha Ha Hairies 10:45 Lazy Town 11:10 Krypto The Superdog 11:35 Baby Looney Tunes 12:00 Jelly Jamm 12:25 Gerald McBoing Boing 12:50 Cartoonito Tales 13:15 Krypto The Superdog 13:40 Lazy Town 14:00 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo 14:25 Tom And Jerry Tales 14:50 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 15:20 Johnny Bravo 15:45 Tom & Jerry 16:10 Pink Panther And Pals 16:35 The Garfield Show 17:00 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 17:25 Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries 17:50 Tom And Jerry Tales 18:15 The Looney Tunes Show 18:40 Taz-Mania 19:05 Moomins 19:30 Pink Panther & Pals 19:45 The Garfield Show 20:00 Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries 20:20 Tom And Jerry Tales 20:45 Moomins 21:10 Dexters Laboratory 21:20 Johnny Bravo 21:35 Puppy In My Pocket 22:00 The Garfield Show 22:25 What’s New Scooby-Doo?

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 06:55 Angelo Rules 07:00 Casper’s Scare School 08:00 Mucha Lucha 08:25 Johnny Test 08:45 Adventure Time 08:55 Adventure Time

09:05 Total Drama Action 09:55 Ben 10: Omniverse 10:20 Young Justice 10:45 Thundercats 11:10 Regular Show 12:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 12:50 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 Transformers Prime 17:40 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 Action 20:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 21:20 Hero 108 21:45 Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge 22:10 Grim Adventures Of... 23:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:50 The Powerpuﬀ Girls

00:40 Unchained Reaction 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 08:45 Finding Bigfoot 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Auction Kings 10:30 Auction Kings 10:55 How Do They Do It? 11:25 How It’s Made 11:50 Fast N’ Loud 12:45 One Car Too Far 13:40 American Chopper 14:35 Border Security 15:05 Auction Kings 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Life On A Wire 16:55 Finding Bigfoot 17:50 Mythbusters Dirty Dozen 18:45 American Guns 19:40 How Do They Do It? 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Auction Kings 21:00 Auction Kings 21:30 Gold Rush 22:25 Gold Divers 23:20 Around The World In 80 Ways

00:10 00:35 01:25 02:15 03:05 03:55 04:45 05:35 06:00 06:15 06:40 07:05 07:30 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:00 09:25 09:35 09:45 10:00 10:25 10:50 11:15 11:40 12:05 12:30 12:55 13:20 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:45 15:50

Stitch A Kind Of Magic Replacements Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Replacements Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck My Babysitter’s A Vampire A.N.T. Farm Phineas And Ferb Jessie Good Luck Charlie Doc McStuﬃns Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Mouk Jonas Los Angeles So Random Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Kim Possible Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas And Ferb Austin And Ally Art Attack A.N.T. Farm Suite Life On Deck My Babysitter’s A Vampire Shake It Up Minnie And You Austin And Ally

16:15 16:40 17:00 17:25 17:30 17:55 18:20 18:45 19:10 19:35 20:00 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:05

Jessie A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Minnie And You Gravity Falls Suite Life On Deck Austin And Ally Phineas And Ferb A.N.T Farm Good Luck Charlie Jessie That’s So Raven Cory In The House Phil Of The Future Hannah Montana Good Luck Charlie

00:20 Little Einsteins 00:50 Special Agent Oso 01:15 Lazytown 01:40 Jungle Junction 02:10 Handy Manny 03:00 Lazytown 03:25 Special Agent Oso 03:50 Imagination Movers 04:20 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 06:50 Special Agent Oso 07:15 Jungle Junction 07:45 Handy Manny 08:00 Special Agent Oso 08:15 Imagination Movers 08:40 Cars Toons 08:45 Handy Manny 09:00 The Hive 09:10 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 09:35 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 10:05 Zou 10:35 Doc McStuffins 10 11:00 Lilo And Stitch 11:30 Cars Toons 11:35 Timmy Time 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 Zou 14:30 Zou 14:40 Timmy Time 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 Lilo And Stitch 16:55 Imagination Movers 17:20 Handy Manny 17:35 The Hive 17:45 Lilo And Stitch 18:10 Doc McStuffins 18:25 Doc McStuffins 18:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 19:10 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 19:35 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 20:05 Timmy Time 20:15 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 20:25 Doc McStuffins 20:40 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 21:10 Zou 21:25 Zou 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 23:20 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship

00:00 Programmes Start At 7:00am KSA 07:00 Kickin It 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 07:50 Almost Naked Animals 08:15 Pokemon: BW Rival Destinies 08:40 Slugterra 09:05 Scaredy Squirrel 09:30 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:55 Zeke & Luther 10:20 Kick Buttowski 10:45 I’m In The Band 11:10 Rekkit Rabbit 11:35 Rated A For Awesome 12:00 Iron Man Armored Adventures 12:25 American Dragon 12:50 Kick Buttowski 13:15 Cars Toons 13:20 Pair Of Kings 13:45 Zeke & Luther 14:10 Rekkit Rabbit 14:35 I’m In The Band 15:00 Phineas And Ferb 15:25 Kickin It 15:50 Rekkit Rabbit 16:15 Pair Of Kings 16:40 Almost Naked Animals 17:05 Lab Rats 17:30 Slugterra 18:00 Kickin It 18:25 Scaredy Squirrel 18:50 Phineas And Ferb 19:40 Mr. Young 20:05 Slugterra 20:30 Zeke & Luther 20:55 I’m In The Band 21:20 Rated A For Awesome 21:45 Rekkit Rabbit 22:10 Phineas And Ferb 22:35 Ultimate Spider-Man 23:05 Kick Buttowski

THE DESCENDANTS ON OSN CINEMA

00:30 Opening Act 01:25 E! Investigates 03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 E!es 05:05 Extreme Close-Up 05:30 Extreme Close-Up 06:00 15 Remarkable Celebrity Body Bouncebacks 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Married To Jonas 09:45 Married To Jonas

10:15 THS 12:05 Ice Loves Coco 13:05 Giuliana & Bill 14:05 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 THS 20:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:00 Opening Act 22:00 Ice Loves Coco

00:15 Unwrapped 00:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:30 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 01:55 Food Network Challenge 02:45 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:35 Unwrapped 04:20 Kid In A Candy Store 04:50 Unique Sweets 05:15 Charly’s Cake Angels 05:40 Chopped 06:30 Iron Chef America 07:10 Unwrapped 08:00 Food Network Challenge 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 Easy Chinese: San Francisco 11:45 Easy Chinese 12:10 Mexican Made Easy 13:00 Iron Chef America 13:50 Tyler’s Ultimate 14:15 Unique Sweets 15:05 World Cafe Asia 15:30 Easy Chinese: San Francisco 15:55 Easy Chinese 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 18:50 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 Chopped 22:10 Iron Chef America 23:00 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:25 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:50 World Cafe Asia

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 Jones 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:15 14:40 15:30 Jones 16:20 16:45 17:10 18:00 18:50 19:40 Jones 20:30 21:20 22:10

Deadly Aﬀairs Ghost Lab Dr G: Medical Examiner Reel Crime/Real Story Fatal Encounters Deadly Aﬀairs Ghost Lab Dr G: Medical Examiner Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? True Crime With Aphrodite Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives True Crime With Aphrodite Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? Disappeared Murder Shift Forensic Detectives True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill

00:15 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 00:45 Ultimate Traveller 01:40 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 02:05 The Green Way Up 02:35 Roam 03:00 Market Values 03:30 Travel Oz 03:55 Graham’s World 04:25 On The Camino De Santiago 05:20 A World Apart 06:15 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 06:40 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:10 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 08:05 Ultimate Traveller 09:00 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 09:25 The Green Way Up 09:55 Roam 10:20 Market Values 10:50 Travel Oz 11:15 Graham’s World 11:45 On The Camino De Santiago 12:40 A World Apart 13:35 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita 3 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 15:25 Ultimate Traveller 16:20 Walking The World 17:15 Roam 17:40 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 18:10 The Green Way Up 18:35 Graham’s World 19:05 The Frankincense Trail 20:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 21:00 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita 3 21:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet

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

Tiger Man Hunter Hunted Wild Mississippi Night Stalkers Built for the Kill Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy Restless Planet Wild Mississippi Night Stalkers Built for the Kill Killer Dragons Crocs Of Katuma

FRIGHT NIGHT ON OSN MOVIES ACTION 11:05 Crimes Against Nature 12:00 Planet Carnivore 13:00 Journey Into Amazonia 14:00 Night Stalkers 15:00 Caught In The Act 16:00 Big Cat Wars (aka Lion vs Cheetah) 17:00 Africa’s Lost Eden 18:00 Crimes Against Nature

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

The Running Man-18 The Daisy Chain-PG15 Taxi-PG15 The Warlords-PG15 Reign Of Fire-PG15 Dangerous Flowers-PG15 Metro-PG15 Reign Of Fire-PG15 Jackie Chan’s Who Am I?-PG15 Metro-PG15 Fright Night-PG15 Kalifornia-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Teen Spirit-PG15 Lord Of The Dance-PG Game Of Death-PG15 Uncorked-PG15 Teen Spirit-PG15 Soapdish-PG The National Tree-PG15 The Darkest Hour-PG15 Ip Man 2-PG15 Cowboys & Aliens-PG15 Straw Dogs-18 The Descendants-PG15

00:00 Breaking In 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Saturday Night Live 02:30 Entourage 03:00 Last Man Standing 03:30 Baby Daddy 04:00 Less Than Perfect 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 Less Than Perfect 08:30 Last Man Standing 09:00 Til Death 09:30 Two And A Half Men 10:00 Hot In Cleveland 10:30 Samantha Who? 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 12:30 Less Than Perfect 13:00 Til Death 13:30 Samantha Who? 14:00 Baby Daddy 14:30 Hot In Cleveland 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 Raising Hope 19:00 How I Met Your Mother 19:30 Hot In Cleveland 20:00 Napoleon Dynamite 20:30 Wilfred 21:00 The Daily Show Global Edition 21:30 The Colbert Report Global

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 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

Eureka Grimm Scandal Breakout Kings Six Feet Under House Good Morning America The Bachelor Emmerdale Coronation Street House The Bachelor Eureka Breakout Kings House Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

00:00 The Lonely Guy-PG15 02:00 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard-18 04:00 Hey Arnold! The Movie-PG 06:00 Jumping The Broom-PG15 08:00 Austin Powers In Goldmember-PG15 10:00 Joe Dirt-PG15 12:00 Hey Arnold! The Movie-PG 14:00 Cheaper By The Dozen-PG 16:00 Joe Dirt-PG15 18:00 Wayne’s World-PG15 20:00 28 Days-PG15

00:15 Any Given Sunday-18 02:45 Black Snake Moan-18 04:45 The Godfather II-18 08:00 Trust-PG15 09:30 The Art Of Getting By-PG15 10:50 Roger And Me-PG15 12:20 The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom-PG 13:50 Ike: Countdown To D-DayPG15 15:15 Roger And Me-PG15 16:45 Sunshine State-PG15 19:00 Personal Eﬀects-18

01:00 The People vs George LucasPG15 03:00 Christmas Comes Home To Canaan-PG15 05:00 Courageous-PG15 07:15 Three Inches-PG15 09:00 Blackthorn-PG15 10:45 Les Miserables 25th Anniversary-PG15 13:45 Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure-PG 15:45 Muhammad And Larry-PG15 17:00 Blackthorn-PG15 19:00 The Tourist-PG15 21:00 Killer Elite-18 23:00 Shark Night-PG15

01:15 Olentzero Christmas Tale-FAM 02:45 The Three Bears: Dreadful Dangers-FAM 04:30 Paciﬁc Pirates-PG 06:00 Zathura: A Space Adventure 08:00 Olentzero Christmas Tale-FAM 10:00 Valentina-PG15 11:30 Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown-PG 12:45 The Great Bear-PG 14:15 Zathura: A Space Adventure 16:00 Cats Don’t Dance-FAM 18:00 Valentina-PG15 20:00 Princess Sydney: The Legend Of The Blue Rabbit-FAM

02:00 Futbol Mundial 02:30 Anglo Welsh Cup 04:30 Rugby Union 06:30 ICC Cricket 360 07:00 World Cup of Darts 10:30 World Cup of Darts 14:00 City Centre Races 14:30 Dubai World Cup Carnival 19:00 European PGA Tour Highlights 20:00 PGA Tour Highlights 21:00 World Cup of Darts

01:30 NFL Game Day 02:00 Live Super Bowl Pre-Show 02:30 Live NFL

06:30 Inside The PGA Tour 07:00 PGA European Tour 11:30 PGA Tour 16:30 Anglo Welsh Cup 18:30 NFL Game Day 19:00 NFL 23:00 PGA European Highlights

01:30 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00

Tour

European PGA Tour Trans World Sport Golfing World Top 14 Highlight ICC Cricket 360 World Pool Masters World Cup of Pool Anglo Welsh Cup Spirit of Golf Spirit of Golf Golfing World World Pool Masters World Cup of Pool Trans World Sports Golfing World Anglo Welsh Cup Top 14 Highlight Futbol Mundial World Pool Masters World Cup of Pool

01:00 UFC 156 Countdown 02:00 UFC 156 Prelims 04:00 UFC 156 07:00 WWE Bottom Line 08:00 WWE Experience 09:00 Ping Pong World Championships 10:00 US Bass Fishing 11:00 NHL 13:00 UAE National Race Day Series 14:00 WWE NXT 15:00 WWE SmackDown 17:00 Ping Pong World Championships 18:00 US Bass Fishing 19:00 UFC TUF 21:00 UFC 156

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

Mountain Men Ancient Aliens Mud Men Pawn Stars American Restoration Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Pawn Stars Storage Wars Seeking Salvage Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Mountain Men Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars American Restoration Seeking Salvage Mountain Men Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars American Restoration Seeking Salvage Pawn Stars Storage Wars Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Nazi Titanic

01:05 The Wonderful World Of The...-FAM 03:10 Get Carter-18 05:05 Tom Thumb-FAM 06:35 The Honeymoon MachineFAM 08:00 Conagher-PG 10:10 Ride Him, Cowboy-FAM 11:05 The Wonderful World Of The...-FAM 13:10 Mogambo-PG 15:05 Little Women-FAM 17:05 The Honeymoon MachineFAM 18:35 Yolanda And The Thief-U 20:20 The Golden Arrow-FAM 21:30 Tom Thumb-FAM 23:00 Born On The Fourth Of July-U

Classifieds MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013

THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988

FOR SALE Used Laptop HP Envy, core I7, RAM 6, HD 500, in box, KD 125. Call 66888103. (C 4294) 3-2-2014 Required used car in good condition. Contact: 96955168. (C 4290) 28-1-2012

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw

112 Prayer timings Fajr: