5 May 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

Next Iranian president likely to have gentler touch

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Rolling Stones kick off North American tour to packed house

Obama ends Latin America trips with trade focus

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www.kuwaittimes.net

JAMADA ALTHANI 25, 1434 AH

Dortmund, Bayern draw in Champions League warm-up

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Israel bombs Hezb-bound missile shipment in Syria Warplanes did not hit Syrian chemical weapons conspiracy theories

What’s the problem?

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

T

he campaign against expats in Kuwait has not stopped. I do not know why the government had this sudden awakening and why everyone in the government went along.

Suddenly, everyone seemed to have realized that there are expats in Kuwait and that we have to trim their numbers by any means.

Every day we hear about new laws and regulations ranging from the traffic department and the traffic-related penalties, to technical inspection of cars and residency law violators. All of these are fair measures. Each country has a right to implement the rules that are in the interest of safety and security of that country. Each country has the right to implement laws that ensure economic growth in the country.

Unfortunately, in Kuwait, we are all obsessed with the idea that expats are the reason for our deterioration. I do not want to repeat myself every day. I have written many times on the topic. But every day, I read about new laws that are to be discussed in parliament that focus on expats. Don’t we have anything else to do in Kuwait but to draft laws against expats?

The latest one amazed me. State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah AlSabah gave a statement to the media with regards to a draft law referred for discussion in parliament. The law seeks to raise the service fee applicable to expats. According to the statement, the state spends KD 6 billion a year on subsidies for services like electricity and water, two thirds of which is utilized by expatriates.

Applying simple math, it means that the government is spending more on the Kuwaitis if we calculate this amount per capita considering that Kuwait’s population is 3.8 million, 1.2 million of whom are citizens.

This is not my main argument. You cannot make expats pay more for electricity and water because, in general, we Kuwaitis have a far higher income than expats. Plus, we are getting many other services which expats do not get such as free healthcare. Expats have to pay some healthcare fees. We do not pay school fees for our children. There are no free university placements for expat children. Expats pay rent. The money they make in the private sector is far less when compared to Kuwaitis working in the private sector. If a Kuwaiti works in the private sector, he gets a rent allowance from the government in addition to a national labour allowance.

We receive many allowances per child. We receive housing loans too. Expats are deprived of all this and they are not asking for that.

Is it fair to increase the fees for water and electricity and ask the poor to pay higher bills?

The poorer sections of society are not in the country for charity. They are working here. Their families live in the country. They spend their salaries here. In fact, they are helping our economy grow. They rent the houses we build. They buy food, cars and groceries. They spend in the schools that we own. They go to the clinics and hospitals which are owned by us. They are working for us in nearly every corner except for those few who are a minority and who might own their businesses. Still the latter group is partners with us - the Kuwaitis.

Where is the problem then?

BANIAS, Syria: This citizen journalism image provided released yesterday shows dead bodies in this coastal town. Thousands of Sunni Muslims fled Banias a day after dozens of people, including children, were killed by pro-government gunmen in the area. — AP (See Page 8)

Max 30º Min 19º High Tide 05:27 & 15:50 Low Tide 10:33 & 22:38

BEIRUT: Israel has carried out an air strike targeting a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon, an Israeli official said yesterday.

Israel had long made clear it is prepared to resort to force to prevent advanced Syrian weapons, including President Bashar Al-Assad’s reputed chemical arsenal, being handed over to Lebanon’s powerful Shiite guerrillas. Assad and Hezbollah are allied to Iran, Israel’s archenemy. With Assad battling a more than two-year-old Syrian insurgency, the Israelis also worry that the Sunni Islamist rebels could loot his arsenals and eventually hit the Jewish state, ending four decades of relative crossborder calm.

Lacking a side to support in its northern neighbour’s civil war, and worried about inadvertently fuelling escalation, Israel has exercised restraint. Its government did not formally confirm Friday’s air strike, which was disclosed to Reuters by an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There was an air strike. The target was not a chemical weapons facility. It was missiles intended for Hezbollah,” the official told Reuters. A US official told Reuters the target was apparently a building.

The attack - the second reported Israeli air strike on a target in Syria in four months - took place after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved it in a secret meeting on Thursday night, a regional security source said. CNN quoted unnamed US officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike “in the Thursday-Friday time frame” and its jets did not enter Syrian air space. The Israeli air force possesses socalled “standoff” bombs that coast dozens of kilometres across ground to their targets once fired.

Continued on Page 13

Egypt mob lynches son of Islamist CAIRO: An angry Egyptian mob has lynched the teenage son of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, accusing him of killing a man over Facebook comments critical of the Islamist movement, security sources said yesterday. The violence that took place on Thursday in the Nile Delta was the latest in a spate of vigilante killings in the region amid growing lawlessness since the 2011 revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak. Yussef Rabie Abdessalam, 16, pulled out a gun and opened fire indiscriminately, killing a passerby and wounding another after a heated argument with a man who had openly criticised the influential Brotherhood on the Internet, the sources said.

His action sparked fury in

Qattawiya, a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, where Yussef’s father, Rabie Abdessalam is an official at the local branch of the Justice and Freedom Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood of President Mohamed Morsi. An angry mob surrounded the Abdessalam house seeking revenge, but the family refused to give Yussef up and hurled stones from inside the residence at the protesters.

A man outside the house was fatally wounded.

Police tried in vain to contain the violence and attempted to evacuate the Abdessalam family but the mob set fire to the house and in the confusion grabbed Yussef and lynched him.

The mob beat him up “and dragged him across 500 metres to his death,”

the Freedom and Justice Party said on its Facebook page. “This is not a political incident,” the Islamist party said, calling on all sides to show restraint.

But a security source and local media said the violence was triggered after comments hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood were posted on Facebook. There have been several reports of lynchings in Egypt in recent months. In March, villagers in Sharqiya province beat up a man and then lynched him, accusing him of car theft days after residents of another town strung up two men accused of kidnapping a girl. Crime rates have increased across Egypt since the uprising and a police officer reported in March that at least 17 lynchings had taken place in Sharqiya since 2011. — AFP

Degree a must for new iqamas, job transfers KUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary for Labor at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour Jamal Al-Dousary said a circular will be issued to labor departments in all governorates today that will make university degrees a must when work permits are issued to foreign workers for the first time or when transferring from an employer to another. Dousary said this requirement is limited to specialized professions like managers, doctors, engineers etc and only when the permit is issued for the first time. When renewing the permit, the degree is not needed to be presented again.

Croatia opens Islamic centre RIJEKA, Croatia: Some 20,000 Muslims from Croatia and abroad gathered in the Adriatic port city of Rijeka yesterday to inaugurate an Islamic centre and the third mosque in the staunchly Catholic country. “Multiculturalism and diversity are among basic values on which the European Union is built,” the head of EU delegation here, Paul Vandoren, said in a reminder that Croatia was set to join the bloc on July 1. Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said the centre showed “that diversities are possible and good”. “Croatia is a coun-

try of the rule of law and religious freedom,” he said at the ceremony.

Almost 87 percent of Croatia’s 4.2 million inhabitants are Roman Catholics, while Muslims make up only some 1.5 percent of the population. Of Croatia’s 63,000 Muslims, around 10,000 live in the Rijeka region. “The building of this mosque was crucial for me because my daughter will go to kindergarten here,” Sadmir Kukuruzovic, a 27-year-old truck driver from Rijeka, told AFP. Continued on Page 13

MONTREAL: (From left) Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum, federal Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, and provincial Minister for International Relations Jean-Francois Lisee leave the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) headquarters following a meeting on Friday. — AP

Canada accuses Qatar of trying to buy UN agency

RIJEKA, Croatia: Muslims attend the opening ceremony of the Islamic Centre in this western Croatian town yesterday. — AFP

TORONTO: A bid by Qatar to relocate the United Nations’ civil aviation agency from Montreal to the tiny emirate has angered Canada, where politicians from all sides vowed Friday to band together to fight the proposed move. The International Civil Aviation Organization, which sets international civil aviation standards, has been in Montreal since its founding in 1946. Qatar presented ICAO with an unsolicited offer last month to serve as the new permanent seat of the organization beginning in 2016.

The proposal included construction of new premises, paying to move materials and staffers, and paying for all expenses

resulting from staff terminations and severance packages, according to the UN agency. Qatar did not tell Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird about the bid when he visited the Gulf nation last month. “They didn’t do us the courtesy of raising this with us directly when the minister was in Qatar last month,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Rick Roth said. He noted that the way Qatar has acted “demonstrates why they are not a suitable host for a United Nations organization.”

Baird reiterated with a jab to the Gulf country’s climate. “I, for one, would much rather have four seasons rather than a Continued on Page 13

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

LOCAL

News

in brief

Electronic legislation KUWAIT: Minister of Youth and Information Sheikh Salman Al-Hmoud has said the government is planning to introduce changes to the nation’s electronic legislation. He stated that both N.A. Speaker Ali Al-Rashed and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak support holding a conference on electronic legislation to focus on important issues in the field. He said the he, along with MP Yacoub Al-Sanie, would organise the conference. MP Yacoub Al-Sanie noted that the conference will be held from June 9 -11 this year. He said a meeting will be held among the organising team, the technical team and the media team ahead of the conference. MP Yacoub Al-Sanie explained that the objective of conference was to review the challenges facing the government with respect to electronic legislation in Kuwait, the biggest being in connection with electronic signature.

Gulf Bank paves way for future business leaders KUWAIT: Gulf Bank recently hosted two ‘More than Money ’ sessions at the American Creativity Academy (ACA) as part of the Bank’s strategic partnership with INJAZ Kuwait in 2013, which aims to help

both organizations progress towards their shared goals of investing in Kuwait’s future economic and social prosperity by directly creating and supporting youth education and development programs. During com-

prehensive sessions held, 56 students from ACA Girls School received presentations from Gulf Bank personnel about the ways to earn and consciously spend, share and save money in a responsible way.

MPs accuse govt KUWAIT: Some members of Parliament have accused government ministers of creating problems for N.A. Council and working towards a showdown with the council.

They have advised the government to put in place some ministerial amendment to make itself immune to accountability. MP Khalil Al-Saleh said: “We want ministers who have visions and programs, and not those who are just sloganeers.” MP Nawaf Al-Fazie emphasized that 90% of government ministers deserved to be replaced, while MP Adel AlKharafi said he was upset with some ministers because their behaviour was not in line with norms of the Parliament.

GCC finance meeting MANAMA: Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali arrived here yesterday to take part in the 95th GCC Committee on Financial and Economic Cooperation meeting, which is to tackle economic integration and assimilation of GCC countries. The one-day meeting is to address latest developments pertaining to the Customs Union’s Committee, and the impact entailed by creation of the Arab Customs Union regarding the final status of the GCC Customs Union.

Twitter not to reveal identity of users

KUWAIT: Official sources at the Twitter International Co. said that the Twitter website will not submit its comments for any prior supervision to any party, be it the US administration or any other country’s government.

The Twitter administrators said at no cost will the privacy of the users be allowed to be compromised, except through an obligatory US court order concerning a specific case in a clear and limited way. It could be a terror related case, or one about human trafficking, drug smuggling or a similar concern impacting the security of a state directly.

He pointed out that a number of countries have communicated with Twitter through legal mediators requesting or demanding that official authorities be allowed supervision of the content published on the micro blog website but all such attempts were totally rejected by Twitter. He revealed that Kuwait was among those countries which asked for information about some Twitter users.

He explained that the US emerged as a country asking for such information in maximum number of cases.

Fatima Al-Jassim and Yassmine AlRashdan from Gulf Bank conducted the sessions at ACA Girls School, presenting the fundamentals for making sound financial decisions, identifying characteristics of positive work ethic, identifying ways of earning money through personal businesses or jobs, calculating operating expenses and income for small businesses, and how to develop business plans based on job skills and interests.

The ‘More than Money’ program aims to teach students about earning, spending, sharing, and saving money, as well as ways of earning money from their jobs or businesses. The program also encompasses the school economics and business curriculum for students in grades five and six.

Gulf Bank seeks to equip students with practical business-related skills as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy.

Gulf Bank’s 2013 CSR strategy is focused on the critical areas of youth and education. The ‘More than Money’ program gives the Bank an opportunity to present itself to Kuwait’s future business leaders, increasing their understanding of the banking industry and demonstrating the importance of earning and saving money. Gulf Bank looks forward to building a prosperous future for Kuwait’s next generation and by joining forces with INJAZ Kuwait the Bank is confident of achieving great results.

MPs optimistic about allowances increase More role for private sector KUWAIT: The government is set to agree to a proposal to increase the rent and children allowances as well as the cap on housing loan from KD70,000 to KD100,000 , MP Dr Ali AlOmair said in a recent statement. “Cooperation with regards to these increments that have been due serves the public interest, and we call for providing insurance cover for children until they reach college,” Al-Omair told Al-Rai on Friday. He also said encouraging the economy by improving the private sector was important to help reduce the state spending.

There has been speculation that the Cabinet might reject any bills stipulating increases in social security categories as the Gulf state plans to avoid further exhausting the state’s budget which depends almost entirely on income from oil. In this regard, the head of the parliament’s financial committee, Dr. Yousuf Al-Zalzalah, said the government is required to explain how much the MPs’ proposals will cost the state as a result of increased allowances.

“Based on that, [the committee] can assess the recommendations and announce its position,” he said, adding that

the cabinet was invited to the panel’s meeting this week to discuss the issue. Financial committee member Ahmad Lari said in the meantime that today’s meeting is scheduled to discuss the government’s request for an authorization to increase the fees collected from public services.

“It is not a secret that we are against an increase unless (it is to be) within a limited and justified framework, which if presented, will be put under discussion,” he said in a statement Friday. In that regard, Al-Jarida reported yesterday that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mustafa AlShamali has sent letters to state departments requesting recommendations pertaining to increasing the fees for public services.

The letter, dated April 29, 2013, explains that the government has no plans to cut back on the current level of goods and services rendered, but seeks to “rationalize consumption and increase revenue as part of the state’s plans to increase non-oil income.”

These steps come as part of the cabinet’s endeavors to improve the quality of services and people’s living conditions,

the letter further indicates. “[Public] services and goods are currently rendered either free of charge or at nominal prices which are inadequate when compared to the cost incurred, as listed in the general budget,” the letter reads.

In other news, MP Nasser Al-Merri demanded that the government abstain from paying a $2.5 billion fine to Dow Chemical over cancelation of the K-Dow Petrochemicals project in 2008. The lawmaker vowed to “exercise constitutional tools against any official who has a hand in implementing this unjust ruling,” and threatened to “pass legislations to limit Dow Chemical’s profits in EQUATE and Qurain Petrochemicals which reach $700,000 annually if the company insisted on demanding the fine.”

Separately, Al-Rai reported yesterday, quoting sources close to the opposition, that a meeting that was scheduled to be hosted by former parliament speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun last night was set to come up with a road map as far as the opposition’s movement was concerned, covering the period till June 16th when the Constitutional Court is set to deliver its much anticipated ruling on the single vote system.

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LOCAL

Private school owners protest against decree Maximum fees hike 3 percent

By Nawara Fattahova

Municipality takes strict actions against violators menting all necessary regulations and thus check the violations. He said the KUWAIT: Capital govermunicipality officials carried norate director Eng. Faleh Alout several field campaigns, Shimmar y said that the removed neglected cars and Municipality’s supervision handed out citation to those section was making extensetting up grills at the beach sive efforts to implement the or in the green spaces. The municipality regulations. state authorities spent a lot Pointing out that several of money to set up these undesirable phenomena public spaces and ensure have been identified, he said that these remain in good the municipality plans to shape for recreation purposcheck these.

Faleh Al-Shimmary es. Al-Shimmary said that As per the law, setting up grills at the beach, foodstuff selling outlets protecting the environment was everyone’s committing certain violations, residents in responsibility. He said lately it has been some buildings or vendors dumping the noted that many people have been dumpleftovers in public yards or people leaving ing the leftover construction material in their cars unattended in different areas, public places not meant for that purpose. particularly in the Shuwaikh Industrial Area He said such people will be identified and necessary citations will be handed out. were among these violations.

Al-Shimmary said in a press release that Besides, they will be made to remove the the municipality will not hesitate in imple- dumped material to a proper place.

Al-Shimmary added that the municipality was focussing on carrying out checks on the food material being sold or exhibited for sale in the markets, restaurants, sweetsselling shops, pastry outlets, bakeries and food stores. Most of citations issued in the past were due to lack of proper health papers for laborers and failure to abide by norms governing cleanliness and health.

Saying that all due legal action was taken regarding such violations, he said as regarding the vendors, the municipality authorities were well aware of the places where they exhibit their goods. They are often checked by inspecting units and their goods are confiscated.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: According to a report published yesterday in a local Arabic newspaper, a group of private schools’ owners sent letters to the Ministry of Education protesting against a decree as per which the schools were prohibited from increasing the fee by more than three percent for the next two years. The report also mentioned that the protesting schools were mostly the private Arabic, Pakistani and Indian schools.

The owners of these schools claimed that these schools were facing problems in employing qualified teachers as the salaries were not attractive, compared to other foreign schools.

Some also said that many schools were not respecting the bar on fee hike set by the Ministry and have already increased the fees far more.

Waleed, who has two school going children, noted that the school had already informed him of an increase for the next school year. “My daughter studies in an Arabic private school, and

they informed me that the fee will be increased from KD 450 to KD 475. The KD 25 increase comes out to be more than five percent. I guess they do not respect the rules of the Ministry and are increasing their fees indiscriminately. I am forced to pay the same as I want my daughter to graduate,” he told the Kuwait Times.

On her part, Majida Abdeen, a teacher in a bilingual private school, said the three percent limit on increase in school fees is enough. “In my opinion, this bar was set by the Ministry after a study of the needs of the private schools. In fact, the fees there are already high, and if the schools face problems in employing teachers from outside, we have many highly qualified teachers in Kuwait who are looking for a job. In addition, these local and expat teachers living in Kuwait will care more for the students than those who come from outside just to make money and then leave the country,” she pointed out.

Abdul Moez Al-Khouli from the Ministry of Education said that the percentage hike allowed to the schools differs according to the school.

“The private schools are classified into three categories: Arabic, bilingual, and foreign schools.

Also the quality of services they provide also differs from one school to the other. So, for instance, schools that have 25 students in a classroom can set a higher fee that those with 35 students in a classroom,” he explained.

“The schools can demand an increase in the fee, but the Ministry will decide after a committee studies the demand and other related circumstances such as inflation, house rents, salaries, and other facts,” added Al-Khouli.

Another parent, Jon, was also against any further increase in the school fees. “Salaries are not increasing, and we are not happy about it. I would really mind if they increased the fee, especially since I have two children in the school.

We are already paying excessive school fees, compared to other countries, yet it seems it is not enough. I hope the government will implement the taxation system as long as the education system is good and free for the expats,” he stated.

KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait concluded a ‘School field trips’ program for American Creativity Academy students who visited the bank’s branch in South Surra to learn about the banking business.

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LOCAL

TEC continues its efforts to develop tourism in Kuwait KUWAIT: The Touristic Enterprises Company out that the possibility of launching cruises (TEC) is continuing efforts to promote and from Kuwait to other Gulf countries is being develop tourism in Kuwait by providing a studied, which if succeeded, will be applied on a larger scale in other Arab countries. variety of touristic services.

For her part, Director of the marketing The company, since its establishment in April 3, 1976, has been playing a leading and foreign relations (Tourism Sector) at the role in the field of entertainment and Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Majda amusement, which contributed significantly Behbehani said that Kuwait’s participation to the development of tourism in Kuwait in international festivals is of great importhrough several projects such as “Hala tance in the light of the current economic February” festival. TEC also contributed, with conditions and political changes.

She stressed the need to intensify efforts the private sector, to finding investment opportunities in various facilities by provid- and strengthen the cooperation between the public and private secing investors with adetors in this field to highlight quate information about the civilized image of tourism projects.

Kuwait culturally and hisMoreover, some compatorically. nies have employed There is a bunch of new cadres with experience as projects aimed at strengtha result of working in the ening the foundations and TEC. potentials of tourism in The company is lookKuwait through the estabing forward to attracting lishment of new hotels and more visitors through the resorts and the expansion offering of its services, of Kuwait International such as social and sports Airport as well as creating training schools, embrachighways linked to other ing talents by hosting Khaled Al-Ghanim Gulf states in the framework artists to motivate them, and organizing training programs and of cooperation between the GCC countries, Behbehani added. social, cultural and sports festivals.

TEC is developing its services by using eThe company also attracts investments and promotes tourism by participating at marketing social networking websites and international fairs, festivals and conferences applications on the Internet such as in order to raise Kuwait’s name and shed Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp.

The company has a magazine named light on the merits of tourism.

Kuwait is determined to make progress “Ibtesama,” which is a monthly magazine on the qualitative level of tourism to consol- that deals with the company’s activities and idate its position on the map of regional and facilities, supervised by the Department of international tourism, Deputy Chairman of Marketing and Public Relations.

For the summer of 2013, TEC has preTEC Khalid Al-Ghanim said.

He stressed importance of close cooper- pared various weekly programs and activiation with the Ministry of Commerce and ties with distinctive programs for the weekIndustry’s tourism sector to confirm the ends. The company is looking to offer the common desire to promote tourism, best of its beneficiary services, depending improve the sector and encourage invest- on Kuwait’s security and stability under the ments to enhance the role of Kuwait region- wise leadership, which has a crucial role in ally and internationally. Al-Ghanim pointed launching tourism projects. —- KUNA

KNPC receives Arch of Europe Quality Award KUWAIT: Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) received the IAE International Arch of Europe Quality Award in the Golden Category due to commitment to Quality, Leadership, Technology and Innovation. The company represents success for Kuwait in the business world as well.

The IAE International Arch of Europe Award acknowledges the strong commitment to quality and excellence by KNPC. Fahed Salem Al-Ajmi, Chairman and Managing Director, received the IAE award at the InterContinental Convention Hall of Frankfort, from the president of Business Initiative Directions (B.I.D) Jose Prieto. Furthermore, KNPC makes quality a core focus for continuous improvement of management to maintain leadership in its sector and community.

Meanwhile, KNPC Chairman said that the company is proud to obtain this international award which represents a global recognition of the role of KNPC in improving business management according to the international quality criteria, therefore KNPC is the sole oil and gas company that obtained this great global award.

On his part, the Director of Corporate Communication Department at KNPC Mohammad Mansour Al-Ajmi said, after the delegation’s return to Kuwait, we are happy to get such award that reflects the company commitment to the international quality criteria as well as showing excellency of Kuwaiti oil sector and its great role for spreading oil culture at the community, adding that the award is a clear example for leadership, creativity and preserving environment. We present this award to our dear country and its leadership, said Al-Ajmi.

However, B.I.D International Quality Convention and presentation of the 2013 International Quality Awards took place on April 28th in the Frankfort InterContinental

Convention Hall. The event was presided over

by Jose E. Prieto, President and CEO of B.I.D., along with outstanding personalities from the business world and diplomatic corps.

The B.I.D. quality symbol is present in 178 countries around the world, creating a firm ground for the implementation of integral quality processes through the technology and procedures of the QC 100 model of the Total Quality Management.

According to Jose Prieto “the Award recipients are symbols of commitment to leadership, technology and innovation, making them models for others in their sectors.”

The companies from Europe, American, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Middle

Eastreceived the B.I.D. International Quality Award in recognition of their achievements in spreading Quality culture. For their commitment to quality, those awarded join the historic group of prestigious B.I.D. Quality Award Winners. Among these outstanding companies are: KNPC, Kuwait; Ansaldo Energia, Italy; RAO- Unified Energy Systems of Russia; Turner Construction of the USA and manyotherleading companies. On the other hand, KNPC was the first national oil and gas company, founded in 1960, in a region once dominated by foreign companies and it is the sole oil and gas company that obtained this global award.

Today it employs over 5,000 workers and last year reported profits of over $ 1.6 billion.

Police officer arrested in Nugra for drunk driving KUWAIT: A police officer faces multiple charges after he was arrested on Friday for driving under the influence of alcohol. The Lieutenant Colonel was reportedly pulled over in Nugra for reckless driving. He showed the two traffic patrol officers his police ID, but he was placed under arrest and taken to the area’s police station where he was charged with driving while impaired, resisting apprehension and threatening police officers in duty. The Control and Inspection Department in the Ministry of Interior was notified about the case. Separately, a woman police officer was taken into custody after she was involved in a fight that ended with a person being hospitalized with a stab wound. Police had rushed to a building in Shaab after it was reported that two men and a woman were fighting outside the building. Investigations revealed that the three engaged in a quarrel following disputes that started when they were having a round of drinks at an apartment in the building. One of the men, a Kuwaiti, was rushed to the Mubarak Hospital while the other, a stateless resident, was taken into custody. The woman, who was identified as an officer in the Shaab police station, was referred to the proper authorities for further action.

Pedestrian killed A woman died in an accident reported on Friday in Al-

Fintas. The victim was pronounced dead on the scene shortly after paramedics arrived in response to an emergency call. The Indian woman had reportedly tried to cross a street in the area when a Kuwaiti man hit her accidently.

The body was taken to the coroner after detectives examined the scene, while the driver was taken into custody for legal procedures.

Photographer in trouble Kuwait City police arrested a national for taking snapshots of Saudi Arabia’s embassy. The Kuwaiti man told officers that he was taking pictures as he liked the scenery and the photographs were only for his album. Police reached the scene after receiving an emergency call from the embassy officials. The photographer was referred to the State Security Bureau for further investigation.

Forgery A Kuwaiti man forwarded proper paperwork to hire a domestic worker, only to discover that two housemaids were already registered under his sponsorship without his knowledge. It was found at a service center in Mubarak AlKabeer and the man was notified that a domestic worker was registered on Dec 12, 2012 and another on April 16, 2013. The man obtained information about a Kuwaiti

employee who had finalized both transactions, and headed to the Immigration Investigations Department to file a case of forgery.

Search for rapists Two men kidnapped a pedestrian and later assaulted him sexually in Mahboulah. In his statements to the police, the Filipino national explained that he had agreed to the two men’s offer to drive him to his place of work but, instead, they drove to the Mina Abdullah desert where they assaulted him sexually. They also robbed him of KD85 that were in his possession, before leaving him in the desert and driving away. The man managed to make his way to the Fintas police station and reported the case. Investigations are on.

Sexual assault A Jordanian woman accused her husband of molesting their two children as per a case filed at the Jabriya police station on Friday morning. The 44-year-old woman pressed charges against her husband, claiming he sexually harassed their seven-year-old daughter and six-year-old son inside their Jabriya apartment. The case was referred to the Public Prosecution for further investigations. A warrant was issued to summon the husband to hear his side of the story.

LOYAC to release summer program KUWAIT: LOYAC launches its new and improved summer program to attract youth and invite them to spend their summer holiday with what fits with their talents and professional requirements.

Fadya Al-Marzooq, Vice President of LOYAC, stated that LOYAC will release its new summer program in a creative shape with a content that is more exciting for both the youth and the companies. She also added that they expect the number of collaborating companies in the program will exceed 120 companies and institutions from the private sector.

Al-Marzooq continued on saying that this year’s summer program holds many surprises such as having many new and the diverse options to youth in the training field, plus the social, cultural, and entertaining activities through the weekends.

She also pointed at the obvious yearly development of the program from the intense workshops to prepare students for their new fields, and these workshops consists of teaching the basics of work skills, time management, and communication skills. Adding that they also developed the awareness committees and called them “Humanitarian Youth Initiatives”, and like each year, such initiatives will be called by the name of the companies that accept more than 20 interns like Zain Telecom, National Petroleum Institution, and other companies that receives a large number which exceeds 50 interns every year.

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LOCAL

Housing problems all set to increase Foreigners’ acquisition of plots KUWAIT: Allowing non-Kuwaitis to possess real-estate plots in the country entails negative consequences in shadow of land scarcity and housing plots as well as soaring demand, according to experts. Ahmad Al-Majed, board member of Al Masaken International Real Estate Development Company, said that giving permits to foreigners to acquire reality plots is a step in the right direction on the path of transforming Kuwait into an international financial and commercial hub.

However, such a move will negatively affect citizens, under current circumstances, for luring more foreign funds into the properties sector will lead to higher prices, Al-Majed cautioned.

In his conservative support for the idea, Al-Majed said encouraging the foreigners to possess plots would also lead to injecting investment funds into the

national economy, instead of being remitted abroad, “but Kuwait cannot tolerate this due to scarcity of mega housing projects.”

Al-Majed cautioned against hasty steps to allow foreigners invest in the domestic real-estate sector and follow suit of other GCC countries, noting “the local market is currently suffering from record hikes (of prices) and cannot tolerate bringing in new parties.”

Ahmad Al-Shehawi, the manager of sales at Dinar Co., said prospected negative results of allowing foreigners to hold real-estates in the country will be much more greater than the good outcome, warning that other states that went through this experience had to deal with substantial negative consequences. He has cited Turkey as an example where the national bears brunt of this approach, as a result of unprece-

dented hike of cost of real-estate, jumping 35 percent.

Al-Shehawi advised concerned authorities to take a well-calculated approach in this respect. “Imagine what will be the price of a land plot in Abu Fetairah, now in the range of KD 220,000, once foreigners have been given the right to possess land?”

Ali Al-Bloushi of Al-Jamal reality company concurred that such an approach should be phased adding that “now is the appropriate time to allow foreigners buy apartment houses because investment buildings are increasing in the country.” But he indicated that their acquisition should be restricted to this sector. A number of MPs presented a bill at the National Assembly, last month, proposing that foreign residents of the country be allowed to buy apartment flats. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Farea Bint Abi Al Salt High School students in a group picture.

NBK welcomes students KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) recently hosted students from Farea Bint Abi Al Salt High School for girls, who toured the bank’s head office to learn about the banking industry and the day-to-day work of the bank’s various departments. NBK Public Relations officers accompanied the students on their tour of the bank’s various departments and gave them a brief presentation about NBK in general and the role of marketing and public relations within the bank.

The students had the chance to learn about the broad range of NBK financial and banking products and services and were particularly interested in the multi-benefit Al-

Azraq and Al-Shabab accounts, exclusively designed for high school, college and university students.

NBK supports fresh graduates and Kuwait’s youth, listens to their interests and issues and offers a range of products and services to satisfy their needs. The tour is part of NBK’s ongoing commitment to its corporate social responsibility program and to promoting the education and development of the country’s youth. Other initiatives include providing summer training programs for students, hiring fresh graduates and offering professional development programs for new hires.

Celebration expenses ‘too high’ KUWAIT: Whether it was a wedding, a birthday party, or the welcoming of a new baby, expenditure for social celebrations in Kuwait more often than not exceed expectations, leading many to deem it as “abnormally extravagant.”

Speaking on separate occasions, a number of citizens and event organizers said that the expenses to hold a celebration has

become a social liability to many.

Social event organizer Farah AlMohammad said that weddings nowadays present a big challenge for those who were about to embark on this huge step in life, adding that the problem lied in people trying to outdo each other in holding the “biggest wedding ever.”

Similarly, Luai Al-Ali, another social

event organizer, said that any kind of celebration held these days should be carefully planned, adding that his customers are always looking for ways to make their celebration grand. From food to the choice of music being played at such celebrations, clients in general are always looking for the next big thing; thus, the expenses increase, said Al-Ali. —KUNA

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

LOCAL kuwait digest

Letters to Badrya

Naturalization regulations

A clear case of discrimination

By Abdellatif Al-Duaij

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

A

ccording to recent reports, the legislative committee in the parliament rejected a proposal to unify naturalization regulations saying Kuwait’s constitution ostensibly prohibits such a move. Such justification, if true, is very strange as I honestly do not know whether our constitution and democratic system professes discrimination between people. I also do not know how this could be possible in the light of a multitude of constitutional articles which establish the principles of equality and unity among people. But of course, the legislative committee’s members know better.

Maybe the constitution does contain restrictions on equality. Despite that, I believe that such restrictions - if these are indeed there - are a direct result of the members’ interpretation with regards to discriminatory naturalization regulations.

It is illogical to suggest that the constitution could be an obstacle between the people and in achieving equality among them. This further supports the notion that the whole issue pertains to attempts to keep the current system of having different classifications for Kuwaiti citizenship. There is a law that differentiates between a ‘First Class’ and a ‘Second Class’ Kuwaiti nationality, while a constitutional article that supports such differentiation does not exist.

This leads me to presume that the ‘constitutional blocker’ based on which the committee made its recommendation is based on conditions of running for parliament or be appointed in the cabinet. And while the differentiation in this case is based on the citizenship law, not the constitution, the same law defines a Kuwaiti citizen as a person born of a Kuwaiti father in or outside Kuwait. A person granted a ‘Second Class’ Kuwaiti citizenship is a Kuwaiti citizen according to the law, and is entitled to pass on the ‘genuine’ nationality to his or her children.

While the committee’s members failed to explain the constitutional reasons based on which the equal citizenship proposal was rejected, I could say for certain that such a constitutional obstacle does not exist. It is impossible that the constitution contains such a stipulation especially regarding Kuwaitis born in Kuwait.

Members of the legislative committee can continue to discriminate in granting citizenship to new citizens, but they certainly cannot, from a constitutional standpoint, block the citizenship law that determines that a person born of a Kuwaiti father in Kuwait is entitled to a ‘First Class’ citizenship.

The citizenship law have so far been applied incorrectly; and perhaps intentionally. The committee members who have vowed to honour the constitution, equality and justice were required to correct that mistake instead of standing between Kuwaitis and their efforts to rectify their situations. —Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

We share blame collectively

By Iqbal Al-Ahmad

W

astage of electricity and water has been frequently a topic of discussion for columnists, especially in recent years. Yet, extensive use of power continues which is something that we should not find strange, given that a consumer pays an average of 2 fils for a kilowatt that costs the government 40 fils to produce.

I was caught off guard by recent reports about government’s plan to increase the fee collected from expatriates for using public services. The reason for my surprise was that the same reports did not mention similar move regarding Kuwaiti consumers, who also share the blame when it comes to wastage. Most expatriates came to Kuwait looking for jobs in order to earn a living for themselves and their families. Therefore, they are most likely to save more, compared to nationals and use these resources carefully. On the other hand, wastage has unfortunately become a common feature for the local community as we hardly feel the pinch while paying for the power and water as what we pay is only a fraction of the cost of production.

It is wrong to blame only the expatriates for the high electricity and water consumption rates.

Kuwaitis, too, are required to bear some part of the responsibility. There are many simple and acceptable solutions to this problem. All these are primari-

ly aimed at making people aware of the importance of their role regarding what they can give to their country and do for its future.

It is time for taking some serious steps to rationalize energy consumption, in addition to collecting dues owed to the Ministry of Electricity and Water; something that can effectively be achieved by breaking down huge amounts that customers owe into simple installments.

The ministry needs to keep in mind the fact that there are many people who allowed the bills to pile up for years since no one asked them to pay up.

They currently find that they are required to pay a huge amount or else face service disconnection.

Also, there are people who failed to pay their fees regularly for multiple reasons, including the inability to check with the ministry’s office how to make their payment directly on a regular basis.

I came across an example of a senior citizen who found himself in a tough position after learning that his dues have grown to a large amount because he was unable to report to the consumer department regularly or find someone who can pay the bills on his behalf. Such a predicament can be avoided by having employees send the bills to people’s homes regularly or allow consumers to pay their bills online. — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

Govt playing hide and seek

By Saud Al-Sabeie

I

will not talk about how important the economy is or any such details because I do not know a thing about it, except its name. Also, I am neither Adam Smith nor Ibrahim Dabdoub. All that I know is that God created every living thing from water and that 90% of bread comes from trade, as Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) told.

As for us in Kuwait, our water is distilled and our economy comes in drops. Business sector as water makes every thing come alive, but it has stopped doing so. Nothing moves. Everything beautiful has been spoiled, every merchant has turned out to be a cheat, and every project a case of theft. Therefore, people have turned their face away from the stock exchange market, which has now become as scary as the Jewish cemetery at Sharq.

The market has dropped to an all time low, some of the old companies have gone bankrupt, differences have emerged among merchants who used to be like families and friends and there is a scare about a run on the banks. The rate of interest has dropped and real estate prices have risen to an extent that the price of a square meter of land is equivalent to that of an apartment in the French farms.

All this has happened but the government is playing hide and seek all the time as if the matter does not concern it.

The national economy remained dependent only on oil and the government ignored the vital role of the economy in ensuring progress across all walks of life.

Each company has left thousands of share holders, simple people who invested all their savings in the shares or participated in the small projects, hanging in the air. Economic downturn is leading to silly politics as people are frustrated with the stagnation in the economy and are duly fearful for their future.

Every economic crisis is accompanied by a concomitant political crisis. People under such circumstances search for whatever can keep them busy and look for sympathy. These are two sides of the same coin. Whenever economy flourishes, there is less political stagnation and you see smiles in the streets. People calm down whenever the green index climbs up, and become fearful and hysterical when it drops down. Fighting increases in the Deewanias and there are few friendly messages that go around, like the ones sent every Friday.

Therefore, economic situation should be addressed immediately, so that the society is not affected too badly. —Al-Anbaa

Good morning Badriya First and foremost, I would like to greatly appreciate your wisdom, truthfulness, vision and courage which came out so clearly and obviously as I read your article “Military Atmosphere”. I wish the country’s leadership should also think and take a broad spectrum view to find out a most desired solution to the problems of the state. Kuwaitis like you are a real asset to this country and Kuwait will keep on progressing until such voices remain loud and clearly convey to the top leadership through all means - be it the print or the electronic media.

I would certainly take this opportunity to request you to highlight the family visa ban on certain nationalities in Kuwait, imposed in 2011. I am a Pakistani national, by profession a chemical engineer and working through a local consultancy in Kuwait Oil Company. I came to Kuwait back in 2009 and married in 2011. Describing it as a matter of regional security, Kuwait government banned all types of visas for people of six nationalities only, including Pakistan.

Without doubt, this was a straight forward case of discrimination. Recently, this ban was partially lifted and some visas were issued to government employees to bring their wives and children.

I applied four times to the Minister of Interior for a visitor’s visa or a family visa for my wife in these two years and every time my application was rejected without mentioning any solid reason. You are well aware that government employees do not constitute more than five percent of the total workforce. Is it not punishing and victimizing the private sector employees who are more than 80 percent of the total workforce? My question is simple: are private sector employees not also humans like the government sector employees? Don’t they have the same affiliation and affection towards their families? What kind of laws are these that decide who will receive a visa and what type of criteria is involved?

I have rendered my services to this nation, being a highly qualified professional engineer with nine years experience including four years in Kuwait. I am humiliated to that level of loss of prestige and self respect which did not happen to me anywhere in the world. I cannot invite my wife and my new born baby boy to join me here. Their and mine social life is suffering. I am not allowed even a single visit visa for my sick mother, not even once in four years. On the contrary, some people of Asian origin, like India or Sri Lanka, are being accorded such a privilege and they can get visas up to second degree relatives categories. Besides, they are granted visas on the same day. We are not even treated as equal humans. Why? I am a Muslim by religion and I came to serve and earn in a Muslim state and I never ever dreamed of facing such discrimination and treatment at the hands of my fellow Muslim state authorities.

Under these circumstances, I would be leaving Kuwait very soon Inshallah but what memories would I be taking with me? If security reasons are the excuse and women and children can pose a serious threat to Kuwait’s security, then I have no doubt that I am a more effective security threat to this country but I am allowed to live and work here. I am already in the system. In case someone like me wants to wreak damage to the national interests of Kuwait, it would be easier for him/her who is already living here rather than those who would be coming to join. Above all, if I am a sponsor for my wife and child and they are a security threat to Kuwait, then I as a sponsor could be held responsible and made accountable easily as all my details are already there in the MOI’s records, including my finger prints.

I still remember the time when the leadership of my country sent our army to join hands with NATO forces and fight with Iraqi forces to liberate Kuwait from Saddam regime. I am sure that no one from Pakistan government expected this type of reward and return for their nationals.

Badriya, I would request you to write an article about this issue and you may please contact me any time if some more information is required. At least, on humanitarian grounds, family visa for spouses and siblings must be allowed to everyone meeting minimum visa requirements and who has been working in Kuwait.

Appreciate your understanding on the subject matter.

Best regards, Shahzad Ali Azmat

kuwait digest

Questions left unanswered

By Waleed Ibrahim Al-Ahmad

F

ormer Secretary General of Hezbollah, Subhi AlTufaili, exposed the current secretary, Hassan Nasralah, when he said that Hezbollah was not defending the tomb of Zainab. He said rather that he was defending the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. He said, “Let them return from Syria and the strife. There is “harm” in supporting the regime and killing Muslims in Syria.”

In fact, Al-Tufaili went further when he confirmed the party’s armed intervention in Syrian territory, and guaranteed that if the party was to pull out, no Shiite or nonShiite will be hurt there. This is what was confirmed by the opposition after more than 150 men from the party were killed in addition to tens of injured and kidnapped.

Whoever wants to know the extent of the party’s intervention in the ongoing war to topple the regime should go to YouTube and write “ Hezbollah intervention in Syria,” to see how Iran is backing the killings and sniping at the people from buildings and through bombings.

In a dangerous development aimed at diverting people’s attention from what was going on in Damascus, Hezbollah undertook a risky venture when it tried to cross the Israeli borders with a drone, which was shot down by the Zionist entity, and which confirmed that it was knocked down since it was coming from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, there are many questions left unanswered and risks undertaken by Nasrullah with the blessings of Tehran mullas in order to rescue Bahar’s tyrannical, even if the cost turned out to be the war moving to his own country.

On the other hand, European countries, donor and others, forgot their own support to efforts to oust AlAsad’s regime as the money went to the United Nations.

The US could then use it according to its own political objectives, after it guarantees and knows who the next ruler is.

As for now, let ophthalmologist Bashar al-Assad crush his people until Washington identifies the ruler who deserves to rule his country. — Al—Rai

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

Sunnis flee Syria city after killings

Israel’s Netanyahu, Palestine’s Abbas head to Beijing Page 12

Page 8

BOSTON: This FBI handout image shows fireworks tubes found in a backpack that was disposed of by friends of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. (Inset) Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Homeland Security Department ordered border agents ‘effective immediately” to verify that every international student who arrives in the US has a valid student visa. — AP

US tightens procedures for student visas Agents to check database; Visa terminated if student is dismissed

News

in brief

Notorious French bank robber commits suicide MARSEILLE: Marc Armando, the suspected mastermind behind one of France’s most spectacular bank heists two decades ago, has committed suicide in prison, sources close to the investigation said yesterday. Armando, 56, was sentenced to 18 years in jail for his role in the 1992 robbery of the Bank of France in Toulon when raiders got away with 146 million francs (22 million euros), only around a tenth of which was ever recovered. In April, he was arrested in the Netherlands under a European arrest warrant in connection with drug trafficking and was handed over to French authorities on Friday. Armando was found hanged in his cell within hours of arriving at a detention centre in Marseille on Friday evening, sources said. An investigation into the death is under way.

Armando was thought to have been the brains behind the Toulon bank robbery, known as “the heist of the century” in France. He was due to appear before magistrates yesterday in connection with a large seizure of cocaine in the port of Rotterdam. The illegal cargo was allegedly attached to a petrol tanker.

24 die in sectarian violence in Nigeria KANO: At least 24 people were killed in violent clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs in central Nigeria’s Taraba state on Friday, prompting a roundthe-clock curfew, an aid worker has said. “We have recovered 24 bodies from the violence so far,” the source said yesterday, adding that the unrest had occurred in the town of Wukari, some 200 kilometers from the state capital Jalingo. “We are still going round the town in search of more bodies,” he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about death tolls. Local residents said Friday’s violence erupted when the funeral procession of a traditional chief from the predominantly Christian Jukun ethnic group marched through a Muslim neighborhood chanting slogans, which Muslims viewed as an act of provocation. A Tabara state police spokesman and a spokesman for the state governor confirmed the unrest but declined to give a death toll.

Philippine rebels kill 5 in attack on mine MANILA: Communist insurgents attacked a major mining company in the central Philippines, killing five soldiers and burning equipment and buildings the military said yesterday, as hopes for peace dimmed further.

The attack came just days after the chief government peace negotiator said talks with communist rebels had collapsed, ending hopes of achieving peace after a 44year insurgency before President Benigno Aquino’s term ends in 2016. Fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA) attacked the Philex Mining site on the island of Negros, burning two bunkhouses and heavy equipment on Friday, said military spokesman Captain Leo Christopher Cunanan. The military pursued the attackers leading to a clash yesterday that left five soldiers dead and two others wounded, Cunanan said in a statement. The rebels took six firearms from the fallen soldiers, the captain said. The reason for the attack was not clear, but in the past the NPA have raided mining companies and other rural businesses which refused to pay their extortion demands.

WASHINGTON: The Depar tment of Homeland Security, criticized for failing to check the student status of a Kazakh man charged in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, has tightened procedures for admitting foreigners with student visas, a US official said on Friday. The Department’s Customs and Border Protection issued a memo ordering agents “effective immediately” to check all students against the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System database of international students and schools, according to an official who had seen the memo.

The department is under fire for not properly checking the student status of Azamat Tazhayakov, a friend of one of the bombing suspects, when he entered the country illegally on a student visa in January. Tazhayakov, who had a student visa that was valid until Aug 30, 2013, was allowed into the United States on Jan 20, 2013, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Tazhayakov was one of three 19-year-old men charged this week with interfering with the investigation into last month’s bombing by hiding a backpack and fireworks found in the dorm room of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The customs officer did not know that Tazhayakov, a classmate of Tsarnaev ’s, had been dismissed from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, for academic reasons on Jan 4, according to the department. A student visa is terminated when the student is dismissed from school or fails to enroll.

A US official said the customs officer did not check the SEVIS database - which was updated when Tazhayakov was dismissed from the university - when Tazhayakov arrived in Januar y. As a result, the officer allowed the Kazakh into the United States. “DHS is reforming the student visa system to ensure that CBP is provided with real time updates on all relevant student visa information,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement obtained on Friday.

The department was created after the Sept 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks in part to fix problems in the immigration system that allowed the hijackers to enter the United States on student visas and learn to fly airplanes. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday demanding answers to questions about the student visas of Tazhayakov and Dias K adyrbayev, another K azak h man who was charged with interfering with the bombing investigation.

Grassley asked if Kadyrbayev was also in violation of his student visa. He said he wanted to know what the government was doing to ensure that individuals with student visas were not violating the requirements of those visas. Authorities accuse Tsarnaev and his older brother of detonating two bombs at the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and wounding 264. Dzhok har Tsarnaev, 19, was arrested on April 19 after a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts, and charged with crimes that could bring the death penalty if he is convic ted. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was k illed in the shootout.— Reuters

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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

Afghanistan’s Karzai denies CIA cash ‘buys off warlords’ KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday denied that CIA cash delivered each month to his office was used to buy the support of warlords who could tip the country back into civil war.

The US Central Intelligence Agency has secretly handed over tens of millions of dollars to Karzai’s office over the last decade, the New York Times said recently in a revelation that provoked anger in both Washington and Kabul.

But Karzai said the bundles of cashallegedly packed in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags-were used for health care and scholarships,

and that full receipts are issued to the Americans. “This money was not given to warlords,” the president told a press conference in Kabul. “The major part of this money was spent on government employees such as our guards... it has been paid to individuals not movements. “It is used for different issues such as treating patients, scholarships for youths... we give receipts for all these expenditures to the US government.”

The New York Times alleged that some of funds were used to bribe warlords into suppor ting K arzai’s US-

backed government as the international coalition tries to stabilize the country before NATO troops withdraw next year.

Warlords who fought against both the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and Taliban regime retain huge influence, and many have close links to Karzai’s government that rose to power after the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

With the NATO-led mission winding down after more than 11 years of fighting, the warlords look set to renew their battle for power in Afghanistan and the weak central government faces a tough challenge to impose stability. Karzai,

who is due to step down next year, declined to confirm how much his office received each month from the CIA, and he repeated his gratitude to the US spy agency.

He said he had met yesterday with US officials and asked them not to halt the cash despite protests in Washington and criticism from Afghan opposition groups. “This is a valuable support to us. In Afghanistan’s situation, there is so much needed. It proves extremely helpful,” the president said. “This financial assistance should continue, we thank them for it.”

Much of the anger has focused on the cash fuelling endemic corruption that the US and other donor nations say is a prime threat to Afghanistan establishing a functioning state system.

When news of the CIA payments broke, K arzai immediately confirmed the reports and has tried to pass them off as a part of the international aid effort to help his countr y recover from decades of war. “This is an official deal between two governments,” he said. “I say that we should take every drop of money that comes to us so that our budget can be saved.”—AFP

Iran’s diplomat arrested over ‘misunderstanding’ No details on who arrested Asadi or why

SAVAR: A Bangladeshi woman sleeps as she holds the portrait of her missing relative, believed to be trapped in the rubble of an eight-storey building collapse in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka. —AFP

Bangladesh death toll mounts to 547 DHAKA: Ten days after the horrifying collapse of a garment-factory building, life has become still more gruesome for crews working to recover bodies at the site. The death toll rose to 547 yesterday and the stench of decaying flesh was sickening evidence that the work is not yet done. Rescue workers said some bodies have deteriorated so badly that they have found bones without flesh. Since the April 24 collapse in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, high temperatures have generally been 32 degrees C or above, and lows have rarely dipped below 27 C. “The bodies are smelling. We are using air freshener to work here,” said Mohibul Alam, a firefighter at the collapse scene.

The odor of decay is overpowering just the same.

Bodies have decomposed beyond recognition, Alam said, but he added that some could still be identified because the victims’ identification cards were found with them. Some of the victims who had been closest to escaping appear to be among the last to be recovered. Only now have rescuers dug deep enough, using cranes and other equipment, to approach the stairs of the ground floor.

The official death toll from the collapse reached 547 yesterday and was expected to climb. The official number of missing has been 149 since Wednesday, though unofficial estimates are higher. The disaster is likely the worst garment-factory accident ever, and there have been few industrial accidents of any kind with a higher death toll. It surpassed long-ago garment-industry disasters such as New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in 1911, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that same year that killed 112.

Bangladesh’s $20 billion garment industry supplies retailers around the world and accounts for about 80 percent of the impoverished country’s exports. The collapse has raised strong doubts about retailers’ claims that they could ensure worker safety through self-regulation. Five garment factories operated in the Rana Plaza building that collapsed, and many brand labels have been found in the wreckage, but only two retailers, Britain’s Primark and Canada’s Loblaw Inc., have acknowledged that their clothes were being made there at the time.

Loblaw’s CEO has decried the “deafening silence” from what he said were more than two dozen other international retailers who used garment factories in the collapsed building. Mainuddin Khandkar, the head of a government committee investigating the disaster, said Friday that substandard building materials, combined with the vibration

of the heavy machines used by the five garment factories inside the Rana Plaza building, led to the horrific collapse. Because of a power outage, heavy generators were turned on about 15 minutes before the building fell, he said.

The building developed cracks a day before the collapse, and Rana Plaza owner Mohammed Sohel Rana called engineer Abdur Razzak Khan to inspect it. Khan appeared on television that night and said he told Rana the building should be evacuated. Police also issued an evacuation order, but witnesses say that hours before the collapse, Rana told people that the building was safe and garment factory managers told their workers to go inside.

Rana has been arrested is expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, crimes punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added. On Thursday, Khan was arrested as well, on a charge of negligence. Police said he worked as a consultant to Rana when three illegal floors were added to what was supposed to be a five-story building.

The Bangladesh High Court also has ordered the government to confiscate Rana’s property and freeze the assets of the owners of the factories in Rana Plaza so the money can be used to pay the salaries of their workers. Savar’s mayor and another local official have been suspended in an apparent effort by higher levels of Bangladesh’s government to fend off accusations that it is in part to blame for the tragedy because of weak oversight of the building’s construction.

In New Delhi on Friday, Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith downplayed the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, which is by far the country’s biggest source of export income.

“The present difficulties ... well, I don’t think it is really serious - it’s an accident,” Muhith said. “And the steps that we have taken in order to make sure that it doesn’t happen, they are quite elaborate and I believe that it will be appreciated by all.”

The government made similar promises after the November garment factory fire that killed 112 people, saying it would inspect factories for safety and pull the licenses of those that failed. That plan has yet to be implemented. Retailers have been drawn to Bangladesh as a source of clothing largely because of its cheap labor. The minimum wage for a garment worker is $38 a month, after being nearly doubled this year following violent protests by workers. According to the World Bank, the per capita income in Bangladesh was about $64 a month in 2011.— AP

DUBAI: Iran’s foreign minister said he believed the detention of a former diplomat linked to the country’s reformists was caused by a “misunderstanding” and defended the man’s record, Iranian media reported. Bagher Asadi, who was a senior diplomat at Iran’s UN mission in New York before becoming a director at the secretariat of the D8 group of developing nations in Istanbul, was arrested mid-March in the Iranian capital, sources said this week.

It was not clear where Asadi was being held, who arrested the 61-year-old diplomat or on what grounds, the sources said. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi confirmed Asadi’s arrest, the ISNA news agency reported on Thursday. “It’s unfortunate that there has been a misunderstanding regarding

Bagher Asadi, one of the highly skilled and valuable experts in the foreign ministry who has a good track record and from whom we have seen nothing but efforts to secure the country’s interests, and we are hopeful this misunderstanding will be resolved,” Salehi said.

Salehi did not say who had arrested Asadi.

“From what we know of Bagher Asadi, we know him as a devout person ... and a very reputable official with a brilliant record,” Salehi said. “God willing, this misunderstanding will be resolved and by the grace of God he will be freed.” Iran’s reformists have been sidelined since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the conservative former mayor of Tehran, won the presidential election in 2005, replacing reformist Mohammad Khatami. Opposition

leaders Mehdi K aroubi and Mirhossein Mousavi, both candidates in the 2009 presidential election, are under house arrest following mass protests over alleged fraud in the re-election of Ahmadinejad that year.

Last month Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said Tehran’s silencing of journalists and opposition leaders could jeopardize the legitimacy of the presidential election in June. In January 2004, Asadi wrote an opinion piece that ran in the New York Times in which he made clear his affinities with the reformist philosophy of Khatami. Some analysts say Iran’s Islamic clerical leadership is worried about the risk of serious unrest in the June 14 election and is crack ing down in advance.—Reuters

Syrian rebels training for long conflict LATAKIA PROVINCE: Crouching, belly-crawling into sniper nests in their rugged mountain redoubt, Syrian rebels have started training for a prolonged guerilla war against stubbornly resilient regime forces.

With Western reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria’s civil war, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) hopes to topple President Bashar Al-Assad by creating a skilled fighting force from mostly civilian recruits, some as young as 16.

The FSA granted AFP access to one of its training camps, where a motley group of fighters-former shopkeepers, farmers, regime defectors-were training to fight Assad’s forces in the mountains and woods of northern Latakia province. Sprinting up a wooded knoll, crisscrossing between trees, and diving into firing positions, rebels weighed down with guns and bandoliers of ammunition put on a swaggering show of defiance within range of regime troops at a nearby garrison.

But the rebels of the Al-Ezz bin Abdul Salam Brigade acknowledged they face a tough fight against a better-armed foe that enjoys total air superiority-even above rebel-controlled areas-as the civil war drags into its third year.

“We need anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles, communication equipment, satellite technology to monitor the movement of regime fighters,” said brigade commander Abu Basir, rattling off a list of muchneeded hardware as his men practiced marksmanship behind him.

“If we had these, the war would be over by now,” said Abu Basir, the former owner of a meat processing business, who was dressed in olivegreen fatigues with a pistol tucked into his trousers. Latakia-the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect-has fluid frontlines, unlike those in hotly-contested cities like Damascus and Aleppo where fighting is largely being fought from sniper nests in civilian buildings.

Latakia’s guerilla war is inching from village to village, hilltop to hilltop as the regime fiercely guards the Mediterranean coastline that is expected to be the final refuge of the Assad family should Damascus fall.”If we attack from the front, we will be fodder for Assad’s long

Syrian rebels from the Al-Ezz bin Abdul Salam Brigade take part in training session at an undisclosed location near Jabal Turkmen in Syria’s northern Latakia province. — AFP range artillery,” said FSA rebel Abu Tareq. “We just don’t have that kind of military power. Our strategy is to attack covertly on multiple fronts, rattle them, tire them out.”

“This means that freedom won’t come tomorrow but, God willing, it will come the day after.” The rebels have made gains in recent months, capturing many Alawite-dominated villages, but have struggled to dislodge regime forces from their entrenched positions on strategic high ridges. FSA forces in the area lost several fighters in a fierce battle late last month to capture the regime-held peak of Nabi Yunis, Latakia’s highest point which offers a key vantage point over the battle zone.

Another growing challenge is regime spies and infiltrators, who have been launching mysterious red flares in the night from rebelheld territories to signal government forces, possibly to mark targets for bombing. The rebels have repeated calls for a no-fly zone over Syria, as the conflict has ground to

a stalemate. They are unable to assemble large platoons in one place for a targeted assault amid air raids by regime helicopters and fighter jets.

As the day wore on at the training camp, gunfire reverberated through the mountains and rebel commanders ordered the men to halt the mock exercises. “Stop!” barked senior commander Jamil Lala, as he sat on a boulder clutching his prayer beads. “Save your bullets.”He climbed into his SUV, ordering his guards to roll down their windows so that the glass would not shatter on to their faces if regime forces shell them. As the car wound its way down the mountain slopes, it passed terraced olive fields and villages littered with the mangled remains of burnt out vehicles and abandoned houses scarred by bullets.

The United States said on Thursday that the administration of President Barack Obama was taking a fresh look at arming Syrian rebels.

But rebels say Western dithering

over intervention has boosted foreign Islamist fighters who have flooded into Syria - including Libyan revolutionaries and AlQaeda-linked jihadists from Iraq, eager to create an Islamic Caliphate in the country. And while their battlefield prowess makes them an asset, some of their actions has created tensions with the ostensibly secular-leaning FSA, Lala said, back at the brigade base.

“Al-Nusra says this is haram (forbidden),” he said, drawing on an apple-flavored narghile, or water pipe. He was referring to fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated AlNusra Front who recently sought to impose a ban on public smoking in some rebel-held areas.” The Koran is a book from God, the Bible is a book from God. No one has the right to impose their interpretation on the word of God,” he said as smoke curled out of his mouth. “If you want to pray, go pray. If you want to smoke narghile, go smoke narghile. That is the kind of Syria we want to create.”—AFP

Sunnis flee Syria city after killings

BANIAS: Syrian army soldiers loyal to Bashar Assad (seen in the background) stand in front of dead bodies at Bayda village, in the mountains outside the coastal city of Banias, Syria. —AP

BEIRUT: Thousands of Sunni Muslims fled a Syrian coastal town yesterday, a day after reports circulated that nearly a dozen people including children were killed by pro-government gunmen in the areas, activists said. Elsewhere, President Bashar Assad made a rare public appearance in the capital Damascus and as Israeli officials confirmed the country’s air force carried out a strike against Syria, saying it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The violence in the coastal region shows the sectarian nature of the 2-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands and sent more than a million Syrians as refugees to neighboring countries.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said around 4,000 people were fleeing from the predominantly Sunni southern parts of the Mediterranean city of Banias amid fears pro government gunmen “might commit a massacre.” It said at least 10 people, including children, were killed in the city on Friday and the number could be as high at 60.

The Observatory said security forces were checking people’s identity cards and asking them to return to Banias so that the situation could appear normal. It said those fleeing were mostly heading to the city of Tartus to the south and the town of Jableh just north of Banias. The reported exodus from Banias came after activists said Friday that regime troops and gunmen from nearby Alawite areas beat, stabbed and shot at least 50 people in the Sunni Muslim village of Bayda, near Banias.

Syria’s crisis, that began in March 2011 with prodemocracy protests and later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, has largely broken along sectarian lines. The Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, anchors the regime’s security services and the military’s officer corps. Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime’s fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.

Syria’s mountainous coastal region is the Alawite heartland, although it is also dotted with Sunni villages An amateur video released by the Observatory yesterday showed a man and at least three children dead inside a room. A baby had burned legs and a body stained with blood. Next to him was a young girl whose face had been deformed after apparently being hit with sharp metal. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted. Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, identified the man killed as Haitham Sahyouni. He said Sahyouni was found dead along with his three children, his brother Hamid and mother Watfa. He said it was not clear if Sahyouni was an opposition supporter. Also yesterday, Syrian state TV said President Bashar Assad visited a Damascus campus, his second public appearance in a week. The report said Assad inaugurated a statue dedicated to “martyrs” from Syrian universities who died in the country’s uprising and civil war.—AP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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

Calls for Dutch Queen to clear father’s junta role THE HAGUE: Dutch Queen Maxima has reached the zenith of her popularity both in the Netherlands and in her native Argentina after ascending the throne with her husband King Willem-Alexander this week, but calls remain for her to come clean on her father’s murky role in his country’s former military junta.

Jorge Zorreguieta, now 85, served as agriculture minister under the notorious Argentine regime of Jorge Videla in the 1970s.

The junta, which Videla led from 1976-1981, is held responsible for the disappearance of up to 30,000 people during the so-called “Dirty War” against political opponents.

Many of the disappeared are believed to have been thrown from planes on “death flights” over the southern Atlantic Ocean. Queen Maxima’s father has in the past denied knowing of the disappearances and the Dutch cabinet even commissioned historian Michiel Baud to look into the extent of his involvement in the junta.

Baud concluded that Zorreguieta must have known something about the torture and the thousands that disappeared at the time, but was almost certainly not personally involved. “He obviously knew something,” said Pablo Jannes, a 56-yearold Dutch-Argentinean, who has been living in the Netherlands since 1987.”Why doesn’t Maxima simply say: ‘my father is lying when he says he doesn’t know,” Jannes said at his home just outside the port city of Rotterdam a few days after the enthronement.

“Of course Maxima did not take part in the dictatorship, but I don’t think she’s done enough to distance herself from her father’s past,” he said. As a 20-year-old Jannes saw Videla take power and back then, as a student active in politics and the son of a prominent unionist, already had a taste of the abuses of the repressive Peronist regime which ruled the South American country before Videla’s ascent. He still remembered the horror of his own arrest under Isabel Peron’s rule and says he survived five mock executions with guns pointed at his head and triggers being pulled-practices which continued when the junta took over.

Jannes spent the Videla years laying low, moving from one place to

another in Argentina and trying not to draw attention to himself. “Her (Maxima’s) father made a mistake by agreeing to be a minister under the dictatorship,” he said, sipping a cup of Argentinean mate tea. In 2006, Maxima did meet the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the iconic human rights organization representing the relatives of those who disappeared including babies-during the Videla years in a gesture that was widely appreciated by the movement.

But Jannes wants her to go further. “Maxima should publicly admit that her father was involved and this she hasn’t yet done. It sounds wrong when I hear her and WillemAlexander speak of human rights,” he said. In a press interview before her wedding Maxima said: “I regret that he did his best in a bad regime.

He had the best intentions.” While Zorreguieta has been accused of being involved in some of the disappearances and continues to be investigated, he has never been charged and put on trial like Videla and former military president Reynaldo Bignone.

He stayed away from his daughter’s wedding to then Prince WillemAlexander in 2002 in Amsterdam amid popular outcry in the politically-correct Netherlands. Her mother stayed away in solidarity. In an interview a few weeks before her husband became king, Maxima told the Dutch national broadcaster that her family made a joint decision that they would not attend WillemAlexander’s investiture, possibly to avoid further embarrassing questions from being asked.

“Just because he’s not coming to the (enthronement) ceremony and wasn’t at the wedding doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten,” said Claudia Piazza, 25, a waitress at an Argentinean restaurant in Amsterdam. “The theme of Maxima’s father has been dropped too quickly,” she added.

Juan Joaquin Medina, 61, who works at another of the Dutch capital’s Argentinean restaurants, Los Argentinos, remembers well the brutal dictatorship which he left behind to come to the Netherlands.

“There are many Argentineans who do not agree,” with the frenzy around Maxima and the enthronement, he said. — AFP

UK’s Conservatives lick wounds after poll rout

Cameron urged to shed ‘old Etonian’ elitist image LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron must shed his elitist image and connect with ordinary voters, a senior party member said yesterday, after the anti-EU UK Independence Party scored major gains in local polls at the expense of the ruling Conservatives. Discontent with immigration levels was a key factor behind UKIP’s dramatic victory in Thursday’s local council elections, in which it won over 25 percent of votes and recorded the best result for a party outside the big three since World War Two. Cameron, who once called UKIP supporters “fruitcakes and closet racists”, conceded his party had to work to win back disaffected voters, and he will try to regain the political initiative next week by outlining new measures on immigration. “We need to show respect for people who’ve taken the choice to support this party and we’re going to work really hard to win them back,” he said.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage demanded big cuts in immigration during his campaign, playing on public concerns about the prospect of large numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians coming to Britain after they have full rights to work in the EU next year. On Wednesday, Cameron’s coalition government will outline measures to restrict the welfare benefits available to immigrants, particularly in the field of health. But for the leader, who like several key advisers attended one of Britain’s top private schools Eton College, the problem is one of image as well as substance.

Prime Minister David Cameron

NO MORE OLD ETONIANS David Davis, a senior Conservative who chal-

lenged Cameron for the party leadership in 2005, said he risked appearing “out of touch” with voters he must win over if he wants to be re-elected in a national ballot in 2015. “The fact is that if we want to win the next election, we have to break this impression of being privileged and out of touch,” Davis wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“That means more straight talking and fewer focus groups ... and please, please no more Old Etonian advisers.”

The opposition Labor party has long accused Cameron’s inner circle of being “posh boys”, and the issue resurfaced last month when Jo Johnson, brother of London Mayor Boris and Cameron’s friend at Eton, was named head of the government’s policy unit. Davis also argued for bringing forward a referendum on membership of the European Union, something Cameron has already promised to do if he wins in 2015 and after he has renegotiated Britain’s position within the bloc.

Cameron may now go one step further and enshrine that pledge in law, ministers have hinted.

His Liberal Democrat coalition partners - one of Europe’s most pro-EU parties - would not allow him to simply introduce a government bill to that effect but, the ministers say, there may be ways around that obstacle. According to Davis, UKIP’s policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs and Europe were like those of a simplified 1980s Conservative manifesto. “So the electoral answers are Conservative ones,” he wrote, “but the test of our response is less about how right-wing we are than how relevant we are to ordinary people.” — Reuters

Moldovan parliament’s powers hurt EU chances CHISINAU: Moldova’s parliament gave itself powers to sack constitutional judges and change election rules, moves Brussels said would harm the country’s bid for closer ties with the European Union.

Politicians passed the new laws late on Friday in the latest round of maneuvering in a political crisis that has paralyzed legislation in the impoverished former Soviet republic for months.

Moldova’s last government, led by Prime Minister Vlad Filat, resigned in March after losing a confidence vote amid feuding among leaders of a dominant pro-European coalition. Filat set out to get his job back, but Moldova’s Constitutional Court wrecked his plans last month by barring him from running for prime minister or even heading a caretaker government. On Friday, Filat’s Liberal Democratic party and the country’s opposition communists joined forces to pass a law giving parliament the power to sack the previously untouchable Constitutional Court judges.

Another new bill said political parties had to get

at least six percent of the vote to get into parliament - up from the previous four percent - a change that could hurt the smaller Liberal party in the next election, scheduled for 2014. Parliament also voted to boost the powers of the interim government and its head, Filat’s former deputy Iurie Leanca, allowing him to sack ministers and other senior officials, some of whom were appointed by Filat’s erstwhile allies, the Liberal and Democratic parties.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Stefan Fuele, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, issued a joint statement late on Friday saying the new legislation was undemocratic. “This law (on Constitutional Court judges), as well as a number of other important laws, touching upon fundamental issues for the functioning of Moldova’s democracy, have been adopted with extreme haste, and without proper consultation with Moldovan society, or appropriate regard to European standards on constitutional reform,” they said. The laws were part of “a worrying

new pattern of decision-making in Moldova ... where the institutions of the state have been used in the interest of a few”, Ashton and Fuele said. The decisions could have a long-term impact on “Moldova’s aspirations”, they added. Until its breakdown this year, Moldova’s ruling coalition had focused on securing agreements on free trade and political association with the EU, tentatively scheduled for November this year.

But with the crisis likely to trigger an early election the fate of the deals has become unclear.

President Nicolae Timofti has yet to sign the laws passed by parliament - which some deputies said were illegitimate because of the absence of the chamber’s speaker Marian Lupu, sacked in a round of political wrangling last week. Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest countries with an average monthly salary of about $230. Heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies, its economy is kept afloat by remittances from several hundred thousand Moldovans working in Russia and EU countries. — Reuters

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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

Amazon Indians occupy controversial dam BRASILIA: Amazon Indians on Friday refused to end their occupation of a building site that has partially paralyzed work on the world’s third largest hydroelectric dam for two days. Some 200 people from various indigenous groups occupied one of three construction sites of the controversial Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River on Thursday, halting work by 3,000 of the 22,000 workers on the project. They are demanding that the Brazilian government hold prior consultations with indigenous peoples before building dams that affect their lands and livelihoods, an issue that has sparked

years of protests against the Belo Monte dam.

The latest protest includes 100 Munduruku Indians from the Tapajos river, the only major river in the Amazon basin with no dams but where the government plans to build a dozen to meet Brazil’s rapidly rising electricity consumption. The government sent police and soldiers to the Tapajos River earlier this year to guard geologists and biologists whose work surveying the area for a dam was opposed by the Munduruku. “We indigenous peoples are uniting in the fight against the hydroelectric dams because

our problem over there is the same as theirs here,” a leader of the group, Valdemir Munduruku, said by telephone from Belo Monte.

“We are united by the disrespect of the government, the lack of consultations, the destruction of our lands,” he said.

Under Brazil’s constitution, the government must hold public hearings with people affected by its projects and it maintains that consultations were held before Belo Monte was begun. President Dilma Rousseff’s government offered to send one of her ministers, Gilberto Carvalho, to speak to them on Monday as

long as they met in the local town of Altamira, Munduruku said, but the Indians are not budging from the occupied site.

He said members of the local Juruna and Arara indigenous peoples joined their protest yesterday. The Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River has a maximum designed capacity of 11,233 megawatts, equivalent to about 10 percent of Brazil’s current generating capacity. The dam, which will cost nearly $14 billion, would be the third biggest in the world, after China’s Three Gorges facility and the Itaipu dam on the border between Brazil

and Paraguay.

The government considers the dam essential for Brazil to meet the power needs of an expanding economy and for limiting the need for fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. A spokesman for the consortium building Belo Monte, which includes Brazil’s largest construction firms, said the number of protests have increased this year at the dam. But he said the brief disruptions have not upset work plans and the first of Belo Monte’s 24 turbines is still scheduled to start up in February 2015 with the rest following through 2019.—Reuters

South California wildfire threatens 4,000 homes Firefighters battle blaze; Residents evacuated CAMARILLO: A fierce, wind-driven wildfire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening 4,000 homes and a military base as residents were evacuated ahead of the flames and a university campus was closed. By nightfall more than 950 firefighters had built containment around about 20 percent of the inferno, which has blackened more than 43 square miles of dry brush and chap-

ings were destroyed, no residential structures were lost and no injuries had been reported.

Some 4,000 homes were considered threatened, with evacuations ordered for about a quarter of those residences, the Ventura County fire and sheriff’s departments said. The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes around the state this week marked a sudden start to a California fire season that some

The improved wind conditions allowed several air-tanker planes equipped for dumping payloads of fire-retardant chemicals to return to the air along with a fleet of eight water-dropping helicopters.

The Springs Fire, which may have been ignited by a tossed cigarette butt, broke out at 6:30 am local time on Thursday beside the US 101 freeway, less than 10 miles from the Pacific coast. It spread

CALIFORNIA: A man on a rooftop looks at approaching flames as the Springs fire continues to grow near Camarillo, California. —AFP arral since erupting on Thursday morning. More firefighters were said to be on the way and fire officials said they hoped that diminishing winds and higher humidity would help them make headway overnight and on Saturday.

Fire managers said they expected it would take until next Monday to fully contain the blaze, which sent a pall of thick smoke drifting over the beach community of Malibu and farther inland across Los Angeles County. Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were engulfed and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, along with five commercial properties. While 25 outbuild-

weather forecasters predict will be worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the US West.

‘IT’S ONLY MAY’ “We’re seeing fires burning like we usually see in late summer, at the height of the fire season, and it’s only May,” Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke said. The temperature in Camarillo hit a record high of 96 degrees F by late morning on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Strong, erratic winds that complicated efforts to combat the Springs Fire through much of the first day were calmer on Friday, officials said.

quickly to the edges of the communities of Camarillo and Newbury Park.

By Friday morning, flames had advanced to within a short distance of the ocean’s edge in some places, forcing authorities to close several miles of Pacific Coast Highway. At the Point Mugu US Naval Air Station on the coast, all non-essential personnel were ordered to stay home for a second day as flames encroached on a firing range at the extreme western end of the base, spokeswoman Kimberly Gearhart said. She said no ammunition was stored at that location, bordered on two sides by coastline and wetlands.

HORSES EVACUATED But a base housing unit that is home to 110 active-duty military personnel and their families was evacuated on Friday because of heavy smoke, Gearhart said, adding there was no immediate fire threat to that vicinity and military aircraft were continuing routine flights between the base and a communications post on San Nicolas Island offshore.

In mid-afternoon, residents were ordered to clear out of more than 900 homes in Hidden Valley, an enclave of ranches and estate-type properties southeast of Camarillo.

Some 200 dwellings were evacuated earlier along the coastal highway and adjacent canyon roads, sheriff’s Sergeant Eric Buschow said. Horse trainer Bryon Wilson, 36, and his wife drove two trailers into an area of multimillion-dollar ranches around Hidden Valley Road that was later ordered evacuated.

“As we were loading the horses in (the trailers) this afternoon, the fire was right at the back of the barn, so we were in amongst it already,” Wilson said. Previous evacuation orders for two housing subdivisions at the northern end of the fire zone closer to Camarillo were lifted, but those neighborhoods remained restricted to residents carrying identification, Buschow said.

California State University at Channel Islands campus, including student housing, was closed for a second day, the university said, although official evacuation orders for the school were lifted.

A separate late-afternoon brush fire in the hills above Glendale, a suburb just north of Los Angeles and about 50 miles (80 km) east of Camarillo, prompted the evacuation of a number of homes and an elementary school. But water-dropping helicopters and ground crews moved in to quickly contain it. A larger fire in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, on Thursday destroyed two houses and damaged two others before firefighters halted its spread, and at least five other wildfires burned in Northern California. Hot, dry conditions in Southern California were fed largely

by Santa Ana winds blowing in from desert areas to the east. —Reuters

NRA kicks off convention ‘Culture war’ more than gun rights

HOUSTON: The National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention Friday with a warning to its members they are engaged in a “culture war” that stretches beyond gun rights, further ramping up emotions surrounding the gun control debate.

NRA First Vice President James Porter, a Birmingham, Ala., attorney who will assume the organization’s presidency Monday, issued a fullthroated challenge to President Barack Obama in the wake of a major victory regarding gun control and called on members to dig in for a long fight that will stretch into the 2014 elections.

More than 70,000 NRA members are expected to attend the three-day convention amid the backdrop of the national debate over gun control and the defeat of a US Senate bill introduced after December’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn, elementary school. A small gathering of gun control supporters were outside of the convention in Houston. Porter’s remarks came in a short speech to about 300 people at a grass-roots organizing meeting and set the tone for a “Stand and Fight”themed convention that is part gun trade show, political rally and strategy meeting.

“This is not a battle about gun rights,” Porter said, calling it “a culture war.” “(You) here in this room are the fighters for freedom. We are the protectors,” said Porter, whose father was NRA president from 1959-1960. Rob Heagy, a former parole officer from San Francisco, agreed with Porter’s description of a culture war. “It is a cultural fight on those 10 guarantees,” he said, referring to the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution. “Obama said he wasn’t going after our guns. As soon as the Connecticut thing happened, he came after our guns.”

That theme carried throughout the day and reached a crescendo in a 3 1/2-hour political rally punctuated by fiery speeches from state and national conservative leaders. “You stood up when

freedom was under assault and you stood in the gap, you made a difference,” former U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told the cheering crowd of more than 3,500 at the rally. “This is a critical time in American history. Something big is happening in America,” Santorum said. “Stand for America. Fight for America.”

Texas Gov Rick Perry criticized gun control supporters as opportunists who prey on the raw emotions of tragic events. “You can almost set your watch for how long it takes for people who hate guns, who hate gun owners, to start a new campaign,” after a mass shooting, Perry said. Obama, who has pushed for gun control measures, was a prime target for criticism the entire day. NRA Executive Director Chris Cox bragged about the organization’s political victory. “It was great to see the president throw a temper tantrum in the Rose Garden,” Cox said.

Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, called the culture war reference a sign the NRA is worried about polls that show most Americans support some expansion of background checks. “They want to make it a culture war,” Horwitz said. “They have to make it into something bigger. On the issue of background checks, they can’t possibly win.” Gun control advocates were determined to have a presence outside the convention hall.

Across the street Friday, the No More Names vigil read the names of gun violence victims since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Gun control advocates also planned a petition drive to support expanded background checks, and a Saturday demonstration outside the convention hall. Erica Lafferty, whose mother, Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, was killed by the gunman, was outside the building and said she hoped to talk to as many NRA members as she could.

“I am not against people owning guns. I am asking for safe and responsible gun ownership and gun laws. I don’t understand where the problem is with background checks,” Lafferty said.

While national polls have shown that a majority of Americans are in favor of expanding background checks, many convention attendees said Friday they were not in favor of such efforts. “We already have something like those laws now. We don’t need new laws on top of the old laws. They need to enforce the laws that we have,” said Charles Henderson, 59, a farmer from Amarillo, Texas.

Inside the hall, visitors strolled past acres of displays of rifles, pistols, swords and hunting gear.

Under Texas law, attendees could conceal and carry weapons with a permit. Debbie and Daniel Ferris of Gun Barrel City, Texas, attended the grassroots organizing workshop and agreed with Porter’s assessment of a culture war. “It’s about fighting tyranny,” said Debbie Ferris, who has been an NRA member for five years. Her 35-year-old husband is a lifetime member.

“We don’t like to be pushed around,” Daniel Ferris said. “We are free Americans.” Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee and ex-Alaska governor, spoke to personal freedoms at the political rally as well, saying NRA members should “keep the faith” and “stand up and fight for our freedoms.” But gun control supporters promise to keep pressing the issue and have made significant strides at the state level.

Sen Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, has said he will re-introduce the bill to require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online. Colorado lawmakers recently passed new restrictions on firearms, including required background checks for private and online gun sales and a ban on ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. —AP

Sen Robert Menendez, D-NJ

In Menendez’s troubles, echoes of past scandals WASHINGTON: An ethical cloud is following Sen Robert Menendez in Washington, even as he plays starring roles in some of Congress’ most fraught domestic and foreign policy dramas. The New Jersey Democrat leads the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee as clashes with Syria, Iran and North Korea come to the forefront. At home, the Cuban-American senator is at the center of the immigration overhaul fight that’s captivating Capitol Hill.

All the while, a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into Menendez’s conduct persists, with many of the same questions about politics, money and influence that have dogged members of Congress through history: When does helping a supporter become a quid pro quo? At issue is Menendez’s relationship with Dr Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who is being investigated by the FBI. The two have long, deep ties and their relationship bears similarities to past congressional scandals, experts said. Menendez has acknowledged several instances when actions he or his office has taken appear to have benefited Melgen. Menendez insists he’s done nothing wrong.

“No one has bought me, No 1. No one.

Ever,” Menendez has said. “In the 20 years I’ve been in Congress, never has it been suggested that that could even be possible. Never in 40 years of public life. So I’m not going to reach this moment in my life to make that a possibility.” It’s a familiar Washington dance. From the “Keating Five” scandal, one of the more celebrated congressional ethics cases, to more recent investigations, members of Congress have regularly run into trouble over the question of when helping a supporter crosses a line into impropriety. “Most senators are doing this and you rarely get nailed for it,” said Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush and now a law professor at the University of Minnesota. Menendez has run into to trouble because “he didn’t dot the i’s and cross the t’s. That allows (the Senate Ethics Committee) to open up a file and investigate.” Painter said that is similar to how past ethical scandals have unfolded. During the Keating Five scandal, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, drew attention for flights he took on the plane of Charles Keating Jr, a top donor. Menendez’s flights on Melgen’s plane created a similar stir.

Ethical experts said Menendez’s publicized actions are similar to those that have brought censure in the past. “It’s clear to me he crossed the line,” said Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor and the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group. Sloan said Menendez’s advocacy for Melgen on numerous fronts - particularly with federal regulators - is what makes his situation stand out as ethically questionable.

Lawmakers consistently find themselves on slippery terrain by helping donors, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

She said that appeared to be the case with Menendez, too. “We certainly have run across our fair share of scandals inspired by or really cemented by actions taken on behalf of donors,” Krumholz said. “Often - too often there’s a nexus between top donors giving significant amounts of money and that money amounting to a significant return on investment.” She added, “Not a Congress goes by without there being some question of improper actions being taken.” Melgen is Menendez’s top political donor. Last year, Melgen’s practice gave $700,000 to Majority PAC, a super PAC set up to fund Democratic candidates for the Senate. Aided by Melgen’s donation, the super PAC became the largest outside political committee contributing to Menendez’s re election, spending more than $582,000 on the senator’s behalf. In January, Menendez reimbursed the doctor $58,000 for flights to the Dominican Republic aboard his private plane. Painter said Menendez’s flights with Melgen were a red flag that elevated his case. “It becomes a question

of what other stuff is there,” he said. Menendez has acknowledged at least three areas where his official work appeared to serve the interests of Melgen, though he has steadfastly denied wrongdoing. A staffer in Menendez’s office sent emails to the Homeland Security Department in January questioning potential US donations of cargo-screening equipment to the government of the Dominican Republic. At the time, donated screening equipment could have jeopardized a lucrative port security contract for a company owned by Melgen. The government told Menendez’s office that it had no plans to donate equipment. That came six months after Menendez himself raised concerns about the Dominican government’s port security in a Senate hearing with senior officials from the State and Commerce departments.

Menendez sponsored legislation with incentives for natural gas vehicle conversions that could have benefited a company that Melgen was invested in called Gaseous Fuel Systems Corp. of Weston, Fla. In another instance, Menendez has acknowledged that his office contacted US health agencies in a way that would help Melgen. Menendez said he contacted the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ask about billing practices and policies. The contacts came during a dispute between CMS and Melgen over millions of dollars in Medicare payments. It’s Menendez’s interactions with health officials that draw the most direct comparisons to the Keating Five case, Sloan said. “I think we’re always going to see stuff like this,” Sloan said.

“But it also opens a window into the way Congress operates. There may not be a quid pro quo in every case, but they’re very often taking actions for top donors and that’s why people are cynical.”

The Senate Ethics Committee also investigated the Keating Five case, wrapping up its work in 1991. It centered on five senators - four Democrats and one Republican, McCain. All took contributions from Keating, a real estate investor and savings and loan owner who became the face of the savings and loan crisis that cost many investors their life savings.

Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan was among many institutions that failed. McCain took $112,000 in donations from Keating, his family and associates for early political campaigns. Like Menendez, McCain also flew on a plane owned by his donor, traveling to the Bahamas among other places. McCain eventually repaid all of the donations tied to Keating to the US Treasury and reimbursed Keating for his travel. Again like Menendez, McCain said at the time he believed that Keating had previously been repaid for his travel, but he had not been.

An ethics probe was triggered after McCain and the other senators advocated for Keating with financial regulators in 1987, as they investigated Keating and considered referring criminal charges to the Justice Department. Keating eventually went to prison. The Senate Ethics Committee found three senators had interfered significantly and inappropriately with federal regulators. McCain was cleared of acting improperly, but the committee said he had “exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators.” None of the five senators involved resigned, and two - John Glenn, DOhio, and McCain - ran successful re-election campaigns.

Writing about the case in his 2002 book “Worth the Fighting For,” McCain said he vowed to never again intervene in regulatory decisions if “such interventions could be construed, rightly or wrongly, as done solely or primarily for the benefit of a major financial supporter of my campaigns.” In interviews about Melgen, Menendez has sought to distinguish between questioning policies he said he finds questionable and taking actions to benefit his top contributor. “The fact that someone is a donor does not do away with the right or the opportunity to consider whether something is correct or incorrect, to ask questions, raise concerns,” Menendez has said. —AP

SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

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

Pakistan’s tribesmen embrace historic poll Tribal belt dubbed the world’s most dangerous place

MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri’s shout slogans and wave placards while gathered around a burning Indian flag as they protest against the attack on Sanaullah Ranjay, a Pakistani prisoner in Indian jail. — AFP

Attack on Pakistani prisoner in Indian jail fuels protests Protesters call for jihad against India MUZAFFARABAD: Two hundred protesters took to the streets in Pakistan-administered Kashmir yesterday to demonstrate against an attack on a Pakistani prisoner in India. The injured man-a convicted murderer named Sanaullah Ranjay-was assaulted early Friday in the northern city of Jammu, a day after India’s home ministry ordered stepped up security for jailed Pakistanis.

The attack came after Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, convicted in Pakistan for spying and deadly bombings, died on Thursday following a savage beating in a Lahore prison, sparking a furious response from Indian politicians. The apparent tit-for-tat jail violence has strained relations between the neighbors.

An AFP reporter said around 200 people marched in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, against the attack on Ranjay.

The crowds chanted slogans against India and called for “jihad” to force Indian troops out of Kashmir. They burned the Indian flag and demanded Ranjay should be repatriated to Pakistan. Ranjay is being treated in a hospital in the north Indian city of Chandigarh, where he remains in a critical condition on a ventilator. Earlier, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of Jamaatud-Dawa, a hardline Islamic organization blamed for terrorist attacks by India, criticized India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for bestowing state honors on the

dead Indian prisoner.

“We are in favor of an action against those who tortured Sarabjit Singh. But there is no justification for Indian propaganda (on this issue),” he said. Saeed said India should review its own acts and should not promote terrorism in Pakistan.

“Sarabjit Singh admitted in the courts that he is responsible for the bomb blasts and that he was formally supported by India for these blasts. He has taken lives of so many people,” he said.

“We don’t think that torture in jail is a right thing. Nobody should take the law in hands. But there is no justification for that noise in India at this moment. India should correct its own acts,” he said. Singh was cremated with state honors on Friday in his native village in northwestern India where hundreds of angry demonstrators shouted “Down with Pakistan!” as they gathered to pay their tributes. The prison violence and resulting protests are likely to cause further friction between nucleararmed India and Pakistan, whose ties were hit by a border flare-up earlier this year that undermined efforts to build trust. The neighbors have fought three wars over the disputed region of Kashmir, which they control in parts but both claim in full. Sarabjit Singh was convicted 16 years ago for espionage and for his alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Pakistan’s Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.—AFP

MICHNI: Pakistan’s tribal belt may have been dubbed the world’s most dangerous place by the United States, but enthusiastic tribesmen are defying the Taleban to vote for change at next week’s polls. More than 60 people have been killed in militant attacks targeting politicians and political parties since April 11, but amazingly no one in the seven districts that make up the semi-autonomous region on the Afghan border. One of the most remote and undeveloped parts of the country, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) provide rear bases for the Afghan Taleban, the Pakistani Taleban and other Al-Qaeda-linked groups. But after years of army offensives designed to clear out Pakistani Taleban hideouts, some of the 1.7 million registered voters in FATA say they feel safe enough to vote and even that women, normally kept in purdah, will vote. For the first time political parties can campaign directly in FATA-a reform introduced by the outgoing government in 2011 in an effort to give tribesmen more of a stake in the country and curb militancy. “People want change. They want a change in the system not just a change of faces,” said Miraj Ali, a doctor who runs a clinic in the village of Michni in the district of Mohmand.

Tribesmen in the districts of Mohmand, Khyber, Bajaur and North Waziristan who spoke to AFP accused the outgoing government of doing nothing to improve their lives and blamed it for fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands. Instead they are looking to the religious parties, cricket star Imran

Khan, looking to make a political breakthrough at the May 11 polls, or opposition leader Nawaz Sharif bidding for an historic third term.

“The two party leaders with the most support are Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif,” admitted Ali. All main parties are visibly campaigning, but of the 339 candidates competing for 12 national assembly seats from FATA, only 81 represent parties the rest are officially independents, even if some privately favor one party over another. Party flags fly from rooftops, shops and markets. There are banners and posters everywhere. Despite Taleban threats that democracy is unIslamic, candidates hold street meetings, public rallies and open campaign offices.

Life here is perhaps harder than anywhere else. Power cuts can last as long as 21 hours, compared to eight hours in the capital.

Unemployment is rife. Schools have been bombed by the militants. Literacy is poor.

People complain about the arcane system of justice imposed under British-era laws and summary powers of arrest on weak terror charges. In 2007-8, most parts of Mohmand were under Taleban control until the military went on the offensive in November 2008, flushing out the militants but displacing thousands of families.

It is now largely peaceful but few people venture out after dark, vividly remembering public beheadings and the Taleban era of fear.

“We will elect honest representatives in this election who will solve such of our problems,”

said school teacher Mohammad Shah, 43. In neighboring Khyber district, where the military is fighting the Taleban and other homegrown militants, the campaign is also in full swing, party flags flying high from shops and rooftops. Many tribesmen are wearing party badges and insignia on their chests with every second vehicle is festooned in posters, stickers or flags. In the town of Jamrud, hundreds of people cram into the election offices of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N, the religious party Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Many candidates serve meals-rice with meat cooked in huge cauldrons-twice a day to supporters and offer cups of steaming green tea. “Our former representatives sold us in Islamabad. They were like wolves. Now we want change, a revolution which eliminate all these corrupt people,” said Raqeeb Ullah, 27, who works at a medical store. Ullah believes Imran Khan, who publicly opposes military operations and backs peace talks with the Taleban, is the man of the moment. “He has promised that he will end terrorism and provide education to all. Imran is a Khan and a Pashtun, he has proved his worth,” he added. In Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, the most notorious of the tribal districts, gunmen abducted one candidate on Wednesday. But even here, 34 candidates are fighting for one seat. “It is so good that we can vote on a party basis. It is creating political awareness among tribesmen,” shopkeeper Sher Khan said.— AFP

Musharraf detention extended for 14 days ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani antiterrorism cour t yesterday ordered former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to remain in custody for a further two weeks ahead of his trial for unlawfully sacking judges during his rule, officials said. “Pervez Musharraf’s remand is extended for judicial lock-up for 14 days, he should be presented before the court on May 18,” Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi, ordered.

Police had asked the judge to grant the custodial extension saying the investigation into Musharraf ’s activities was still

under way. Lawyers for Musharraf, who is locked in his own home, which has been declared a sub-jail while he is awaiting trial, filed a bail application in the court and the judge fixed a hearing for May 6. The cour t was also asked if Musharraf ’s trial could be held inside his plush villa, citing security reasons, but the matter was left pending.

“It has been brought into my notice that the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad issued a notification for the jail trial, but approval from

Islamabad high court is needed in this regard,” the judge said.

Musharraf was placed in police custody at his home following his arrest on April 19, in an unprecedented move against a former army chief of staff ahead of key elections. He was arrested for making a decision to sack judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007 - a move that hastened his downfall.

He also faces charges of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a rebel leader during a 2006 military

operation. The retired general has been humiliated since returning in March from selfimposed exile to contest elections. However, his par ty on Friday announced it will boycott next week’s historic election after a court on Tuesday banned him from standing for the rest of his life. The May 11 polls for the national and regional assemblies mark the first time that a civilian government completes a fullterm and hands over to another at the ballot box, in a country that has been ruled by the military for half its life. — AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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

In Malaysia, online election battles take a nasty turn Final push made ahead of tight vote KUALA LUMPUR: Ahead of Malaysia’s elections today, independent online media say they are being targeted in Internet attacks which filter content and throttle access to websites, threatening to deprive voters of their main source of independent reporting.

Independent online news sites have emerged in recent years to challenge the dominance of mostly government-linked traditional media. The government denies any attempts to hobble access to the Internet in the run-up to a close-fought election.

“During the 2008 election we were wiped off the Internet,” said Premesh Chandran, CEO of independent online news provider Malaysiakini. “Our concern is that we’ll see a repeat of that on May 5. Can we really live without independent media on election night, given that both sides might not accept the result?” Malaysiakini was set up in the late 1990s to test the government’s push to lure technology companies to the country by promising not to censor the Internet. Other news websites have followed, including The Malaysian Insider, which set up shop down the street from Malaysiakini in 2008.

Such websites have emerged as an important source of news to counter the traditional media, most of which are owned by interests linked to the ruling Barisan Nasional or BN coalition. The BN’s dominance of media is one of its crucial advantages as it fends off an increasingly potent opposition that made impressive election gains in 2008. Sunday’s election is expected to be the closest yet, though Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is favored to win.

Leading opposition politicians who attract big campaign crowds in cities say they get a much cooler reception in rural areas, where access to the Internet is rarer.

Malaysia ranked 145th on a list of 179 countries in this year’s World Press Freedom report released by Reporters Without Borders. It was Malaysia’s lowest ever ranking. A survey released on Friday by the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus and Malaysia’s Centre for Independent Journalism found that online media gave almost equal coverage to the opposition and government parties, while traditional media focused on the ruling BN coalition

and its parties “by a significant margin”.

POLICE RAIDS TO ONLINE ATTACKS Malaysiakini, the most popular of such websites, has weathered several storms, including police raids, denied access to press conferences, accusations of being linked to foreign agents and requests to take down content, Chandran said. But in recent years the tactics appear to have shifted towards knocking the site offline, primarily through distributed denial of service, or DDOS, attacks, where servers are deluged by thousands of requests at the same time.

Malaysiakini is not alone. Last month a DDOS attack brought down three related London-based radio web portals, according to Clare Rewcastle Brown, their Malaysian-born founder. Jahabar Sadiq, CEO of Kuala Lumpur-based The Malaysian Insider, said his news service had come under heavy DDOS attack shortly after six of his staff were summoned to the regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission or MCMC, a few weeks ago.

They were asked, among other questions, for technical details about their service

PENANG: The flag of Penang state is seen waved over a huge opposition rally attended by over 100,000 supporters in Penang.—AFP Harlan Mandel, CEO of New York-based Media Development Investment Fund, which has worked with Malaysiakini for more than a decade and is a minority investor, said in an email interview that Malaysiakini had become a focus for attack after “establishing itself as the go-to site for reliable election reporting for millions of Malaysians” in 2008. “Since then, it has come under repeated cyber attacks, generally coinciding with sensitive political events like local elections and political rallies, said Mandel.

provider. “It can’t be a coincidence,” he said in an interview. “They were asking questions about our architecture which weren’t required.”

BACKUP US SERVERS At least half a dozen news or political websites have now shifted their servers to US-based CloudFlare, which offers protection against DDOS attacks for a fraction of the cost other companies charge.

CloudFlare said that attacks on such sites had increased in the past week, mostly

from Malaysia-based computers or IP addresses it had not previously seen involved in attacks. Now, Malaysiakini’s Chandran and others say, their attackers appear to have shifted gear again.

The Malaysian Insider’s mail service, which allows users to email articles to others, was hacked two weeks ago, Sadiq said, triggering it to queue tens of thousands of emails to send to users within a couple of hours. Malaysiakini’s Chandran says the most recent wave of disruptions began late last month when users complained the site could only be accessed intermittently. One minute users could access the site, the next they couldn’t.

They figured out that only those using Internet service providers who channel their traffic through state-controlled Telekom Malaysia Berhad were affected, while those accessing through smaller ISPs who use an international gateway were still able to access the site. “It’s a smarter way to do it,” said Chandran. “It’s a guerrilla style in that it creeps up on you and it’s harder to detect.” Shortly after complaining informally to the MCMC, Chandran said, the attack stopped.

Since then, Malaysiakini discovered that some political sensitive videos it had posted on YouTube could not be viewed if accessed from some local ISPs and some Facebook pages featuring election-related content were also affected. Such tactics appear to be using what is called deep packet inspection, where Internet traffic is monitored and filtered via specific keywords, links or digital signatures, which would require access to the ISP. INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED The MCMC said on Thursday that it was investigating such complaints but that “preliminary investigations indicate that there were no such restrictions by ISPs as alleged by certain quarters”. Telekom Malaysia said in a written response to questions from Reuters that it had set up a taskforce and network operating centre to ensure that its network ran smoothly for its customers during the election period.

“Malaysia has a free, open and robust online media environment. The government does not censor the internet and

welcomes constructive criticism as part of the democratic process,” said a government spokesman told Reuters. “We deny any involvement in cyber-attacks. The government does not condone attacks against the media in any form.” Indeed, Malaysiakini’s Chandran and others are careful not to accuse the government or Telekom Malaysia directly. “We are an Internet-based company, we don’t want to pick a fight with a telco, we need them,” Chandran said. “Besides we can’t tell whether they’re doing it on purpose.”

It’s almost impossible to figure out who is behind the attacks and not easy to distinguish between a deliberate assault and the technical issues of handling large and fluctuating waves of traffic. Independent security experts said the available evidence appeared to confirm Malaysiakini’s conclusions. Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, Malaysian founder and CEO of the Hack In The Box conferences, said that “stuff is being filtered or slowed down or otherwise being messed around with for sure” on Telekom Malaysia’s network, but he said that it could have been done without the company’s say-so or knowledge.

In the meantime, websites are preparing for the worst by mirroring content on other domain names and on Facebook.

The Malaysian Insider has also set up a mirror outside the country at themalaysianoutsider.com. Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s election, Malaysia’s increasingly sophisticated Internet battleground reflects the future of struggles to control and influence of information. The election-related DDOS attacks in Malaysia “follows a trend we’ve seen elsewhere where DDOS is becoming a part of many elections”, said Matthew Prince, co-founder CEO of CloudFlare.

Malaysia illustrated how political parties and the powers-that-be are starting to use the Internet, said Mikko Hipponen, chief research officer of Helsinki-based internet security company F-Secure which has large lab in Kuala Lumpur. “They are taking a much more active role and, in some parts of the world, they are not afraid to use the more offensive technologies to get what they want,” said Hipponen. “I believe we’ll be seeing much more of this.” —Reuters

China tries to shore up its Mideast role Israel’s Netanyahu, Palestine’s Abbas head to Beijing BEIJING: China will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next week for separate bilateral talks as it tries to shore up its role in a region where its diplomatic influence is limited.

Netanyahu’s visit-the first trip by a top Israeli leader to China since former Prime Minister Ehud

has conducted an airstrike in Syria, apparently targeting a building, a development that is likely to worry Beijing. Netanyahu is set to arrive on Monday in China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, where he will meet business leaders, and fly to Beijing after for talks with Chinese leaders. Abbas will arrive in Beijing on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Olmert visited in 2007 - will be focused on trade, though experts have also said he is likely to discuss Iran’s nuclear program with China.

China, Iran’s top oil customer and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has opposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran such as those imposed by Washington and the European Union and has called repeatedly for talks to resolve the stand-off over Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu’s visit comes as a US official said Israel

It is unclear whether Netanyahu and Abbas will meet in China. China’s foreign ministry said the country “is willing to offer necessary assistance if the leaders of Palestine and Israel have the will to meet in China”. China has traditionally had a low profile in Middle East diplomacy, but is keen to assert its role as a key player in international politics. It has tried on and off over the years to mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian issue but with little apparent success.

The visits by Netanyahu and Abbas come nearly a month after US Secretary of State John Kerry and Abbas discussed reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. China believes that “strengthening its relationship with Jerusalem would be a sign that it gradually is coming to possess a foothold in the region, while somewhat offsetting, and perhaps even undermining, American political influence there”, the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS), a top Israeli think-tank, said in a paper on Thursday.

Beijing has maintained close relations with the Palestinians for decades. In recent years, it has also cultivated good ties with Israel, especially in the field of defense. In an interview with China’s state news agency Xinhua on Friday, Abbas said he will let the Chinese leaders know the barriers currently rooted in the Palestinians’ talks with Israel, as he “expects Beijing’s contribution to the stalled peace process”.

“It is very good that Netanyahu will visit China too because it is a good opportunity that the Chinese listen to both of us,” Abbas was quoted

by Xinhua as saying. Abbas said he will urge the Chinese leadership “to use its relationship with Israel to remove the obstacles that obstruct the Palestinian economy”. Israeli officials say Netanyahu is expected to sign several bilateral deals with China in sectors such as agriculture and water during his five-day visit, with the aim of boosting bilateral trade worth about $10 billion.

Netanyahu will also raise the issue of Iran, according to the INSS. Israel, the United States, the EU and their allies say Iran is amassing the capability to produce a nuclear bomb, an allegation the Islamic Republic denies. Netanyahu, at the United Nations last September, set a “red line” of spring or summer for when Iran would be close to weapons capability, suggesting prospects for an Israeli attack around that time.

But Iran’s latest talks with world powers plus adjustments in Tehran’s uranium enrichment processes are widely thought to have pushed back that deadline. —Reuters

South Korean police, protesters clash over anti-North leaflet SEOUL: South Korean police yesterday stopped a planned launch of anti-North Korean leaflets across the tense border, sparking an angry protest from activists, witnesses said. A group of defectors from the North had said they would float 200,000 leaflets over the heavily militarized frontier by balloon yesterday to protest Pyongyang’s dire human rights record. Police set up road blocks on access routes to the planned launch site at Imjingak, and stopped a pickup truck loaded with the leaflets, towing it to a nearby police station. But the police allowed through roughly 50 people, including the defectors and other anti-North Korean activists from the United States, who gathered at Imjingak to protest.

“Let North Koreans know the truth,” an activist said during a speech as others unfurled banners

calling for an end to what they described as North Korea’s “hereditary dictatorial regime”. Police had said Friday they would block the launch in order to prevent possible clashes between the activists and local residents. Police stopped a similar launch by the same group on April 13. Local residents oppose such action because the North has threatened to shell sites used to launch leaflets, which carry messages such as calls for an uprising against the communist regime.

Pyongyang on Wednesday warned it would not stand idle if the launch went ahead, condemning the plan as an “intolerable provocative act” aimed at tarnishing its image and insulting its dignity. The police action coincided with a fresh warning from Pyongyang yesterday that the fate of a joint industrial zone in the North hinged on Seoul.

“It is totally up to the puppet regime’s attitude whether Kaesong industrial zone is closed for good or not”, the North’s official Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea said on its Internet website, Uriminzokkiri.

Pyongyang has repeatedly blamed the South for the deadlock over the Kaesong factory park, once a rare symbol of cross-border cooperation. South Korea on Friday withdrew its last remaining workers from the complex, which is at risk of permanent closure due to soaring military tensions. It is the first time that Seoul has pulled out all its workers from the flagship project since it was opened in 2004.

Tension has been high since the North conducted its third nuclear test in February, and issued a series of apocalyptic threats of war against Seoul and Washington in recent weeks. —AFP

SAN JOSE: US President Barack Obama (center) speaks during a working dinner at the Central American Integration System (SICA) Meeting in San Jose. —AFP

Obama, Central America leaders discuss drug war SAN JOSE: US President Barack Obama has vowed to work with Central America to improve the drug fight as he met with regional leaders, conceding that US addiction was partly fueling violence roiling their nations. Arriving in Costa Rica after visiting Mexico, Obama sought to turn the spotlight on trade ties-yet the drug war was at the center of his talks with the seven leaders of Central America, plus the Dominican Republic. Before heading into the summit in San Jose’s National Theater, Obama said it was important to ensure that US ties with the region are “not solely defined by this problem, because when it is we’re missing all the opportunities that exist out there.”

Obama had struck similar themes during his 24-hour trip in Mexico, highlighting the huge US-Mexican trade ties, vowing to push for immigration reform dear to Latinos and maintain the cooperation against drug cartels. With the cartels wreaking havoc in their nations and turning the region into a hub for US-bound cocaine, Central American leaders wanted to discuss ways to improve the battle against narco-trafficking. “ The United States recognizes that we’ve got responsibilities, that much of the violence in the region is fueled by demand for illegal drugs, including in the United States,” Obama said, adding that US demand was going down but that more progress was needed. The United States has provided $500 million in security aid to Central America since 2008, but positive effects are hard to see: the murder rate in the region is currently at a staggering 40 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, five times the world average.

The US military has sent ships to the Pacific and Caribbean to intercept drugs, deployed 200 Marines in Guatemala and shared radar intelligence with Honduras.

But top US generals warned that budget cuts could hamper the mission. Obama, however, said he was “not interested in militarizing the struggle against drug trafficking” and that part of the solution was

through effective law enforcement and coordination. The US leader said human and economic development must also be part of the strategy to combat drugs and gangs.

“We can’t just have a law-enforcementonly approach,” Obama told his Central American counterparts, adding that building up judicial systems and police forces were important, too. “We also have to have a prevention approach. We have to have an education approach. We have to think creatively because obviously some of the things that we’re doing have worked, but some things haven’t worked,” he said.

Chinchilla, whose nation does not have an army, said organized crime must be fought through a more “comprehensive and diverse approach” and “not just the instruments of war.”

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said: “It is clear that the fundamental issue of interest to all Central Americans is combating poverty. And this creates better conditions to combat drug trafficking.”

Guatemalan President Otto Perez, whose idea of legalizing drugs is opposed by Central American partners, said he would insist on finding “other alternatives” to combat trafficking. Before arriving in Costa Rica, Obama reiterated his opposition to legalization.

Thousands of people greeted the US leader as his motorcade rolled across the capital, which was under tight security with many shops, schools and government offices shuttered. His three-day trip ends Saturday. Before landing in San Jose, Obama addressed a young audience in Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology, saying a “new Mexico is emerging” and calling for an end to stereotypes about Mexican violence and illegal border crossings. Turning to a US domestic issue dear to Mexicans, Obama said he was “absolutely convinced” the US Congress would pass immigration reform to bring 11 million undocumented workers-a majority of them Mexicans-out of the shadows. —AFP

NEWS

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

Desirae Masterson, from Indianapolis, with her hat covered in a plastic bag to protect it from the rain, shares a mint julep with her husband Ray before the running of the 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs yesterday in Louisville, Kentucky. — AP

Croatia opens Islamic centre Continued from Page 1 The Islamic centre, on a hill overlooking Kvarner bay, consists of a large silver mosque with a 23-m minaret, as well as a kindergarten, school, library and clinic. The project was estimated to have cost about Ä10 million ($13 million), largely financed by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Aziz Emini, an ethnic Albanian from Macedonia now living in Germany, said his family “came to witness real peace among religions”. “Croatia, which tomorrow will enter the Europan Union, could serve as an example of integration of Muslims in Europe,” the 47-year-old baker said. Mufti Aziz Hasanovic, Croatia’s Islamic leader, said the centre was a “message to both Europe and the world how to build good relations in a multicultural society”.

Construction of the centre, designed by a prominent

Croatian, the late Dusan Dzamonja, began in Oct 2009 although the initial idea was launched back in 1968. Qatari Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs Ghaith bin Mubarak Al-Kuwari and a number of Croatia’s top officials and Catholic Church representatives attended the ceremony, as well as top Muslim clerics from the region and several European countries. “For Muslims, Croatia is good place to live in and could serve as an example to other European countries,” said the Muslim member of neighbouring Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic.

“Today’s event sends good signals to the whole world and notably to the region” of the Balkans, ravaged by inter-ethnic wars in the 1990s, he said. The Rijeka mosque is Croatia’s third. The biggest is in the capital Zagreb, while another is found in the eastern town of Gunja, on the border with Bosnia. — AFP

Canada accuses Qatar of trying to buy...

Continued from Page 1 crushing humid temperature of more than 40 degrees Celsius 12 months a year,” he said, speaking in French during a news conference in Montreal, where Baird presented an unusually united front with a minister from Quebec’s separatist provincial government.

The prospect of losing the U.N. agency from Montreal is so alarming that Jean-Francois Lisee, Quebec’s minister of international affairs, said Qatar’s bid to take ICAO may have prompted “one of the greatest political reunions in the history of Quebec and Canada.” Lisee said Qatar has noted Montreal’s cold winters as a reason to move ICAO. “So we have counter arguments and we will not be shy about the fact that winter is something that you can enjoy and it doesn’t last all year,” Lisee said. “And when you look at the heat in Doha all year, if you want to talk weather, we’ll talk weather.”

Qatar, one of the world’s richest countries with vast oil and gas reserves, has been pushing to become a major player on the global stage in the last few years. It shocked the sporting world by beating out the United States and others to host the World Cup in 2022 and is looking to host the 2020 summer Olympic games. It also has taken an active role in Mideast politics, providing weapons and funding to the Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime, promoting peace in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region and

pushing for a resumption of Israeli Palestinian peace talks.

ICAO said the offer must be considered at the agency’s triennial assembly meeting Sept. 24-Oct 4, where 60 percent of its 191 member states must vote in favor of it for Qatar’s proposal to become reality. “I’ve talked to at least two Arab countries who are very positive and supportive,” Baird said. “There is no doubt Qatar will fight to get the votes from each and every one of its neighbors and we’ll fight hard for votes in that part of the world.”

Baird’s remarks came a day after he accused Qatar of “offering a lot of money to bring this headquarters to Doha”, and said it should not be for sale. For Qatar’s bid to prevail, at least 60 percent of the ICAO’s 191 member states must sign off. A vote is set for September. Losing ICAO would be a blow for Canada and Montreal, the hub of Canada’s aviation industry. ICAO employs 534 people and says it generates about $80 million annually for Montreal’s economy. Its current headquarters were built in the 1990s at a cost of $100 million. “I’m certainly not aware of any serious complaints of how we host the organization,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. “Canada and Quebec have been great hosts for the organization. There is absolutely no reasonable case to move the center out of Montreal.” Opposition parties in Canada say the bid by Qatar is politically motivated and a reflection of Canada’s firm pro-Israel policy in the Middle East.

Roth said Canada’s Conservative government “will continue to promote a principled foreign policy.” — AP

Israel bombs Hezb-bound missile shipment...

Continued from Page 1 That could, in theory, allow Israel to attack Syria from its own turf or from adjacent Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities reported unusual intensive Israeli air force activity over their territory on Thursday and Friday.

A Lebanese security source said his initial impression was that Israeli overflights were monitoring potential arms shipments between Syria and Lebanon, potentially to Hezbollah. Syrian government sources denied having information of a strike. Bashar Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, told Reuters: “I’m not aware of any attack right now.” But Qassim Saadedine, a commander and spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said: “Our information indicates there was an Israeli strike on a convoy that was transferring missiles to Hezbollah. We have still not confirmed the location.”

Rebel units disagreed about what type of weapons were in the convoy. A rebel from an information-gathering unit in Damascus that calls itself “ The Syrian Islamic Masts Intelligence” said the convoy carried anti-aircraft missiles.

The rebel, who asked not to be named, said: “There were three strikes by Israeli F-16 jets that damaged a convoy carrying anti-aircraft missiles heading to the Shiite Lebanese party (Hezbollah) along the Damascus-Beirut military road.

One strike hit a site near the (Syrian) Fourth Armoured Division in Al-Saboura but we have been unable to determine what is in that location”. Saadedine said he did not think the weapons were anti-aircraft. “We have nothing confirmed yet but we are assuming that it is some type of long-range missile that would be capable of carrying chemical materials,” he said.

In January this year, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah, according to diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources in the region. Israel has not formally confirmed carrying out that strike. Lebanese acting foreign minister Adnan Mansour

was critical. “Attacks such as these will result in more tension and blow up the situation which it promoted,” he said.

“This will not give Israel the peace or security that it wants, in its own way, rather it will push the region into an inflamed struggle and into the unknown.”

Giora Eiland, a former Israeli army general and national security adviser, said the apparent deadlock in Syria’s civil war, now in its third year, meant the Netanyahu government had to be prudent in any military intervention. “I don’t anticipate far-reaching consequences in Lebanon or Syria (from Israel’s actions),” Eiland told Israel Radio. Israel captured Syria’s Golan in the 1967 Middle East war, built settlements and annexed the land. Their 1974 ceasefire has largely held, despite occasional firing across the Golan.

But Israeli security concerns have risen since Islamist fighters linked to Al-Qaeda assumed a prominent role in the insurrection against Assad. Israel fought an inconclusive 2006 war with Hezbollah and regards the Lebanese guerrilla groups as a potent threat. Yet a senior Israeli official, Amos Gilad, yesterday saw little risk of Hezbollah seeking to outfit itself with Syria chemical weapons, which he described as securely under Assad’s control. “Chemical weapons kill those who use them,” Gilad, a Defence Ministry strategist, said in a speech.

Gilad said Assad had huge quantities of chemical weapons, missiles and rockets. “The good news is that this is under full control (of the Syrian government),” he said. “Nor is a group like Hezbollah ... keen to take this (chemical) weaponry. It is keen to take weapon systems, like rockets that can reach, say, all the way here,” added Gilad, who was speaking in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Gilad suggested that Hezbollah, unlike a regular military, may not be equipped to handle chemical weapons. “There is a problem with chemical weaponry. It can also kill those who don’t know how to use it. It is not a sympathetic thing. So, for now it is under control. It is very important that it is under control,” Gilad said. — Reuters

Next Iran prez may have gentler touch TEHRAN: For eight years, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has played the role of global provocateur-inchief: questioning the Holocaust, saying Israel should be erased from the map and painting UN resolutions as worthless. His provocative style grated inside Iran as well angering the country’s supreme leader to the point of warning the presidency could be abolished. Now, a race is beginning to choose his successor and it looks like an antiAhmadinejad referendum is shaping up. Candidate registration starts Tuesday for the June 14 vote.

Leading candidates assert that they will be responsible stewards, unlike the firebrand Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again because he is limited to two terms. One criticized Ahmadinejad for “controversial but useless” statements.

Others even say the country should have a less hostile relationship with the United States. Comments from the presumed frontrunners lean toward less bombast and more diplomacy. They are apparently backed by a leadership that wants to rehabilitate Iran’s renegade image and possibly stabilize relations with the West.

The result however may be more a new tone rather than sweeping policy change. Under Iran’s theocratic system, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wields supreme power, making final decisions on nuclear and military questions. However, the president acts as the public face of the country, traveling the world. A new president might embark on an international image makeover and open the door to less antagonistic relations with Iran’s Arab neighbors and the West.

The vote comes at a critical time in Iran, a regional powerhouse with about 75 million people and some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers are at an impasse while the Islamic Republic barrels ahead with a uranium enrichment program that many are convinced is intended for atomic weapons. Iran also serves as the key ally of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, a mainstay so far helping keep him in power as rebels fight to oust him.

It is also in the middle of an apparent shadow war with Israel. Tehran has blamed Israel for deadly attacks on its nuclear scientists. Israel in turn has alleged Iranian attack plots on its diplomats or citizens around the world, including one where two Iranians were convicted of planning to attack Israeli, American and other targets in Kenya on Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned repeatedly that Iran must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons, through use of force if need be.

While polls in Iran are unreliable, the tenor of the candidates’ speeches reflects a sense among the public that Ahmadinejad’s belligerent stance toward the rest of the world has not helped. “Ahmadinejad has followed a policy of confrontation. He made a lot of enemies for Iran. What were the results?” asked Tehran taxi driver Namdar Rezaei, 40. “The next government should pursue a policy of easing tensions with the outside world.”

All the main candidates - including a top adviser and a former nuclear negotiator - are closely linked to the ruling clerics, since opposition groups have mostly been crushed.

They reflect the mood of Khamenei, himself a former president, who wants nothing more than to end the internal political rifts opened by Ahmadinejad. On Wednesday, Khamenei told prominent clerics to avoid “divisive” comments during the election. It is the clerics who will select a small group of hopefuls, probably no more than six, for the ballot.

The ultimate goal is to find ways to ease painful Western sanctions that have evicted Iran from international banking networks, brought public complaints over rising prices and cut vital oil exports by more than half. But what still stands in the way is a complicated dance: Maintaining uranium enrichment while addressing Western fears that Iran could move toward atomic weapons - a charge it denies.

For more than two years, Ahmadinejad has openly defied Khamenei in an attempt to expand the authorities of the presidency. The disputes reached a meltdown point in late 2011, when Khamenei’s loyalists mounted an impeachment campaign. Khamenei stepped in to call it off, but warned that Iran could one day eliminate the presidency for a system where the parliament picks a prime minister instead. “This is a chance for Iran to bring a new tone after eight years of Ahmadinejad,” said Ehsan Ahrari, a Virginia-based strategic affairs analyst. “There seems to be

a real interest in the ruling system to quiet things down.”

Of course, Ahmadinejad is not likely sit on the sidelines after he leaves office. He still carries significant populist support across Iran, particularly in rural areas that benefited from aid from his government. Whichever candidate he backs could get an Election Day bump. He is now trying to push his top adviser and in-law, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, onto the ballot, but will likely be rejected by the Guardian Council, the group that vets all candidates. Ahmadinejad has been traveling around Iran for weeks, sometimes along with Mashaei.

After the internal political upheavals he triggered, the clerics are expected to stick with safe and loyal candidates, and the candidates know it and are playing to that dynamic. Tehran’s mayor, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, chided Ahmadinejad for “controversial but useless” statements that undermined Iran’s international standing. “Where did the case of the Holocaust take us? We were never against Judaism. It’s a religion. ... No one could accuse us of being anti-Semitic,” he told Iran’s Tasnim news agency last month.

“But suddenly, without consideration for the results and implications, the issue of the Holocaust was raised. How did this benefit Iran or the Palestinians?”

Another prominent candidate, Ali Akbar Velayati, took a clear shot at Ahmadinejad by saying Iran needs a “principlist” as the next president - meaning a conservative who will not question the authority of Khamenei or the ruling clerics. Velayati, a senior adviser to Khamenei, has joined in an unusual three-way alliance with Qalibaf and parliament member Gholam Ali Haddad Adel. Each has promised to give key posts to the two others should he win the presidency.

“If we do not succeed, we have to try for another eight years in order to take back the country’s management,” Velayati said in a February speech in the seminary city of Qom. Velayati has deferred to Khamenei on any possible overtures to the US. But Qalibaf and others suggest they would urge the leadership to remain open for direct talks.

“Confrontation with the US is not a value by itself,” Qalibaf said. “At the same time, an alliance with or bowing to the US won’t meet our interests, too. These are two extremist views. We should follow a realistic approach. Dialogue (with the US) is not a taboo.”

Mohsen Rezaei, a former chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard chief who is seeking another chance at the presidency after losing four years ago, says only that he favors a “win-win dialogue”. “That means we won’t lose and they (West) won’t think Iran is a threat to the world,” he said. And candidate Hasan Rowhani, Iran’s former nuclear negotiator and Khamenei’s top national security representative, also disparaged Ahmadinejad’s grandstanding style, saying Iran needs a “government of prudence.”

Another candidate, former Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, said even restoring diplomatic ties with Washington is not out of the question as long as Iranian “interests are ensured”. “I believe there is no need for Iran to be at war with the US forever,” he said. “Iran has the capacity to protect and ensure its national interests while having ties with the US.” Ahmadinejad foe Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, appears unlikely to make one last presidential run, despite speculation to the contrary. The official IRNA news agency quoted Rowhani on Wednesday saying the 78-year-old Rafsanjani “will definitely not” be a candidate.

However, Rafsanjani still wields considerable clout, and his endorsement will carry weight. Earlier this week, Rafsanjani urged his nation to lower tensions with Iran’s archenemy Israel, which is considering military action over Tehran’s nuclear program. “We are not at war with Israel,” Rafsanjani was quoted as saying by several Iranian newspapers, including the pro-reform Shargh daily. He said Iran would not initiate war against Israel, but “if Arab nations wage a war, then we would help”.

Ahmadindejad’s role in this election stands in sharp contrast to the last, where he was front and center and backed by the clerics. Accusations that his re-election was clumsily rigged by a clerical establishment panicked by the possibility of reformers coming to power led to massive demonstrations and reprisals spanning weeks, the most serious unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution itself. — AP

14

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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Washington Watch

US and not Arab League should change direction

By Dr James J Zogby ast week an Arab League committee proposed a change in their 2002 peace initiative in which they promised to normalize relations with Israel following a complete Israel withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and an agreed upon resolution of the issue of the Palestinian refugees. Modifying this somewhat, what the Arab League committee did last week was reaffirm that the 1967 borders should be the basis for a final peace between Israel and Palestine, while acknowledging the notion that “land swaps” would be an acceptable part of such a deal. This gave Israel a major concession allowing it to keep massive settlement blocs that have been established since 1967 - some along the ‘67 border, others surrounding Jerusalem, and still others jutting out into the heart of the West Bank, dividing many areas of the Palestinian territories.

While some Palestinians decried the Arab League committee’s decision as an unwarranted concession, some in the Israeli peace camp heralded the move as an important breakthrough. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu poured cold water on the offer dismissing it as inconsequential, stating that the most important issues that have separated Israel from the Arabs have never been territorial.

This rejection should have been expected and it is surprising that it was not. It is an unfortunate fact that discussions of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and actions of some players are often misdirected since they all too often ignore important realities we know to be true.

In the aftermath of this Arab League meeting, I listened to a senior Arab official present an assessment of the current state of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. He began by noting “facts” which he said define the state of play: Israel has moved to the right, with a government beholden to the hard-line settler movement that is unwilling to surrender what they believe is their “divinely inherited” land; Palestinians are divided, with neither side demonstrating a willingness to commit to reconciliation - Hamas, because they don’t want to become marginalized, and the Palestinian Authority, because they don’t want to lose the international funding and support they are convinced would follow from any unity arrangement with Hamas; the US cannot be an “honest broker”, given the politics of Washington; and the Arab World is in chaos, with the Muslim Brotherhood in assent in some areas and Iran the preoccupation of other states in the region.

After laying out this rather stark and depressing portrait, the conversation moved, almost seamlessly, to a discussion of current state of the “peace process” and the steps being taken to restart negotiations.

What was most interesting to me was the near total disconnect between this phase of the discussion and the presentation of the “facts” that had preceded it. If Israel’s governing coalition has a determined hardline pro-settler bent that is not able to make territorial concessions; if the Palestinian movement is hopelessly fractured; and if the US is deemed incapable of pressing the Israelis to change course, then, one can reasonably ask “what is the point of offering Israel more concessions for a peace they won’t accept; especially when these concessions will result in cutting Jerusalem off from its Palestinian environs, and create even deeper fissures in the Palestinian polity?”

Ignoring reality in the Israeli-Palestinian context has consequences. In the lead up to the post-Gulf War Madrid Peace Conference, for example, the Arab states agreed to end their secondary economic boycott of Israel in exchange for Israel’s participation in the conference and their agreement to freeze settlements in the occupied territories. Twenty years later, peace talks have ended and the number of settlers in the territories has tripled. After surrendering their pressure, the Arabs found they had no leverage left to use with Israel, and without the US using its muscle to enforce the promised “freeze”, the peace process dragged on and settlements continued to grow. None of this speaks for inaction, but it does urge caution and a change in direction. One way forward, is to look again at what President Obama said in his recent speech in Jerusalem where he committed to support Israel, while challenging Israelis to recognize and deal with Palestinian need for justice. The President’s remarks were, I believe, born of his belief in the need to acknowledge the importance of reality in shaping policy.

Given this, the right course of action for the Obama Administration is for the president to put muscle behind his words to the Israeli public. His Jerusalem speech had two parts. He committed his Administration to fully supporting Israel’s security and he pressed Israelis to deal forthrightly with the matter of Palestinian rights.

Having delivered on the former (with unprecedented amounts of security assistance), he needs, as an Israeli peace activist recently suggested, “to take the bull by the horns” and make it clear to the Israeli public where their government’s policies are leading them. If the way forward, as the President suggested in his Jerusalem speech was for the Israeli people to demand a change in direction, then he must make a commitment to help change the politics inside Israel. If the US only makes more political concessions to the Netanyahu government and then presses the Arabs to make still more concessions, how will this ever change Israel’s calculations? The President has given Israelis love, now he must deliver tough love and hard truths.

And recognizing that peace isn’t possible with only one half of Palestinians in agreement, the US should provide an opening to the Palestinians to push for reconciliation making it clear that if Hamas accepts the well-established conditions for a Palestinian unity government, it will support such an agreement and urge the other members of the Quartet and Congress to support it as well. In short, given current realities, peace may not be possible. But if current conditions in both internal Israeli and Palestinian politics can be changed and if the United States can demonstrate that it can be an effective agent of this change, then doors, now closed, may be opened.

L

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

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

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

Turkey’s Jews worship quietly

By Steve Dorsey s visitors heave open the thick, vault-like metal door to the Neve Shalom Synagogue on a discreet side street in the Galata neighborhood of European Istanbul, a skittish guard confronts them.

Guests are shuttled through secure, windowless rooms to an X-ray machine and metal detector.

Pockets are emptied and passports surrendered. The guard questions the reason for the visit and the guests’ ethnicity. He then determines whether they can be allowed through. It’s hardly a welcoming experience, even as the city’s largest and most symbolic synagogue says it is open to tourists and foreign Jews during a several-hour period most days.

But visitors who actually make it to the synagogues’ inner-sanctum will see why the temple is so heavily guarded. Bullet holes pierce a wooden chair inside, just steps from the sacred Torah scrolls. They mark the site of a terrorist attack in 1986 where Palestinian gunmen opened fire on worshipers, killing 22. The temple was the scene of other attacks as well, including a car bombing in November 2003 targeting several Istanbul synagogues during weekly Sabbath prayers. The attack claimed 30 lives and 146 people were wounded. Authorities suspected Al-Qaeda was behind the attacks. Just this month, it was revealed that an Istanbul synagogue, along with the US embassy in Ankara, were included on an Al-Qaedalinked hit list uncovered in computer files found in a raid on two Turkish homes. The raid netted 12 suspects in the foiled plot, according to Turkish news reports. “That’s the burden we have to go through because we’re Jewish,” said Sami Magriso, who leads foreigners on historical tours here. In this country of 68 million Muslims, Istanbul’s shrinking community of 25,000 Jews shuns attention and often keeps a lowprofile. “As our synagogues unfortunately had been attacked in the past there are always tight security measures,” Deniz Saporta, spokesperson for Turkey’s Chief Rabbinate told The Media Line. “Of course it’s not fair,” tour guide Magriso said. “There was a time when synagogues were open like mosques. Of course I miss those times.” Magriso is a proud Turk with a large red Turkish flag tattooed on his left forearm. He

A

is not afraid to talk about his religion, but acknowledges many other Jews here are fearful.

The irony is that for centuries the Ottoman Empire was a safe haven for Jews, inviting thousands to settle here when they were expelled from Spain in 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Jews established the first printing presses in Turkey and were deeply involved with commerce and international trade.

Their communities were left to govern themselves under the Empire. Ataturk - the father of modern Turkey - granted Jewish scientists and teachers refuge from Nazi Germany. Even today kosher varieties of the traditional dessert called Turkish delight and coffee can be found here, and the Jewish community works to protect their culture, provide quality education for their children, and remember their history as modernization rapidly sweeps through the country.

Istanbul’s museum of Jewish history continues to sing the praises of Turkey’s tolerance and religious freedom. But recent terror threats to Turkey’s small Jewish community signal an ongoing struggle and an uncertain future. “This is a country which is secular, democratic, and modernizing, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Magriso said. Turkish Jews have also been affected by the tensions in relations between Israel and Turkey after the deadly 2010 raid by Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmara, a Gaza-bound aid flotilla from Turkey, trying to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed. Dozens of others were injured. At one point, Turkey even expelled the Israeli ambassador in Ankara. Last month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism a “crime against humanity”. Many here heralded news of a USbrokered apology from Israel’s Prime M inister Benjamin Netanyahu to Turkey. Israel has now promised compensation to the victims’ families. Turkish leaders hailed the apology as a diplomatic victory.

International observers praised the move as a positive step in helping to stabilize a fractured region, even as Turkey continues to build its own relationship with the emerging Palestinian state. Soon after the apology was issued, the Turkish prime minister’s office released a statement promising to use the repaired relationship to help solve the Israel-Palestine conflict:

In the statement Erdogan “reiterated Turkey’s support for all international and regional efforts to find a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the IsraelPalestine conflict on the basis of the two-state vision.”

Beyond rebuilding diplomatic ties between the two countries, Turks hoped the apology will restore lucrative Israeli tourism to the country. One Israeli analyst based in Turkey told the semi-official news agency here he expects the move to draw more visitors from the holy land as soon as this summer. Some here, like Jewish-Turkish tour guide Sami Magriso, said they have seen little impact from the normalization of relations and no increase in Israeli tourists. Israelis “don’t know this country, they don’t know the people in the country,” and they are afraid to travel here, he said.

Unlike many tourism industry leaders, Magriso does not expect a wave of Israeli visitors soon, which he blamed partly on the safety concerns for Jews here, which resonate with security-conscious Israelis.

“Can you imagine, going to pray and we have an army protecting us?” he said, referring to the usual sight of guards stationed outside Turkish synagogues, bombblast doors, and temple checkpoints unfamiliar to Jews in many other par ts of the world. At this moment, it seems as if the only immediate effect Israel’s apology has been diplomatic. “The relationship is between governments,” Simehtof El, a Jewish Turk who runs an antique store in Istanbul’s famed Grand Bazaar, told The Media Line.

Hidden in his collection are two metal menorahs for the holiday of Chanuk ah and a hand- drawn Hebrew wall piece in a dark corner - the extent of the Judaica in his shop named after his daughter Ziva. He said his store is one of the few with authentic - yet limited - Jewish art pieces, in a market crowded with Islamic and even Christian artwork. El said his family has been here for 500 years.

Despite the improved relationship between Turkey and Israel, like Magriso, he does not expect a flood of Israeli visitors. Yet even in this country that values its renewed friendship with Israel, as the Islamic call-toprayer trumpets through the ancient markets in one of the world’s largest former empires, it is as if the Torah is read with a whisper. — Media Line

Doubling US exports distant dream for Obama

By Jason Lange President Barack Obama reminded the world on Thursday of the lofty goal set early in his presidency to double American exports over five years. It looks like he won’t deliver. Trade data published earlier in the day underscored the uphill battle faced by the administration.

Weakness in the global economy is knocking down demand for US exports, which rose just 3 percent in the 12 months through March. At that pace, Obama’s mission won’t be accomplished until around 2024, nearly a decade later than promised. “The president’s exportdoubling goal seems less achievable than ever,” said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the US Business and Industry Council, a group that represents small American manufacturers.

Unveiling his nominations of Mike Froman to be US trade representative and Penny Pritzker to be commerce secretary on Thursday, Obama said one of their key tasks would be meeting the goal of raking in $3.14 trillion from sales abroad in 2015 - twice the 2009 level.

That seemed more plausible a year ago when exports were growing at about

US

four times the current rate. Now the global economy has taken a turn for the worse, with the euro zone mired in recession and even China posting slower rates of economic growth. In the first quar ter of 2013, US expor ts to the European Union fell 8 percent from a year earlier.

Also weighing against Obama’s mission, other nations are ramping up efforts to print money in order re-inflate their economies, which has put upward pressure on the US dollar. Japan launched a bold monetary stimulus program in April to double its money supply, while the European Central Bank lowered interest rates on Thursday. So far this year, the dollar has gained about 1.5 percent on a trade-weighted basis, which could cut into the competitiveness of US exports.

Still, there are a number of factors that might boost exports over the long term. Persistently large US trade deficits could return the dollar to the long-term weakening trend which began around 2002. A boom in US energy industry could eventually lead to more exports of natural gas, and potentially even crude oil. But analysts point out that the world’s biggest economies are pressing

forward with policies that tend to weaken their currencies, and it is not clear where that process will end. It also would take years to build the infrastructure and political will needed to significantly ramp up energy exports. The Obama administration so far has shied away from allowing unfettered exports of natural gas.

Add lackluster global economic growth to the mix, and all this suggests Obama will be hard pressed to meet his 2015 deadline. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we are going to make it,” said Thomas Duesterberg, a manufacturing researcher at the Aspen Institute in Washington and a former assistant secretary at the Commerce Department. A White House official acknowledged there was “more work to be done,” but said progress was being made. “We’ll continue to do everything we can to increase exports, promote growth and create jobs right here at home,” the official said.

Obama set the export goal in 2010 when the United States was just emerging from its worst recession since the Great Depression. It wasn’t the only ambitious target set early in his presidency. One month after taking office in

2009, Obama promised to halve the federal deficit in four years. That goal was frustrated by a persistently weak domestic economy. As part of its trade push, the White House lately has stepped up efforts to open up overseas markets. The administration notified Congress in April it will start free trade talks with Japan, part of America’s efforts to push a major free-trade deal with Asian and Pacific nations. The United States and the European Union are also preparing to launch talks on a free trade pact.

Yet even if Obama strikes these deals to help US exporters, it could be many more years before Americans notice there has been a big jump in exports.

Because Obama’s target to double exports is measured in nominal terms and doesn’t take into account inflation, stronger growth would be needed for companies and workers to feel twice as better off. Duesterberg calculated in March that even if the Asia-Pacific and European trade deals go through, as well as a number of export-boosting scenarios like a reduction in corporate tax rates and a depreciation of the dollar, inflation-adjusted exports would probably not double until 2020. “It will take time,” he said. —Reuters

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

S P ORTS

Lorenzo on pole in Spain

Els lurks behind Kataoka

Gambhir, Yuvraj left out

JEREZ: World champion and birthday boy Jorge Lorenzo will start from pole for today’s Spanish Grand Prix and will be joined on the front row by compatriots Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez as the home nation dominated qualifying yesterday.

Celebrating his 26th birthday, Yamaha rider Lorenzo, who was also fastest in Friday practice, set a best time of one minute 38.67 seconds at the sun-drenched Jerez circuit, with Pedrosa clocking 1:38.92 and Honda team mate Marquez 1:38.971.

Cal Crutchlow of Britain was fourth fastest on his Yamaha ahead of the third race of the season and the first in Europe with a time of 1:39.26 followed

by Italian former world champion Valentino Rossi, also on a Yamaha, in 1:39.30.

Lorenzo’s job was made easier after Pedrosa, Marquez, Crutchlow and Rossi all suffered crashes during an incident-packed afternoon.

Lorenzo and rookie Marquez top the championship standings on 41 points after two races, with Pedrosa on 33, Rossi on 30 and Crutchlow on 24. —Reuters

INDONESIA: South African Ernie Els continued his recovery from jet-lag to lurk just one shot off the lead behind little-known Japanese player Daisuke Kataoka after the third round of the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta yesterday.

The reigning British Open champion offset a single bogey with five birdies for a four-under par 68 and a three-day total of 10-under to share the second spot with Austrian Bernd Wiesberger at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club.

“My body felt good and my concentration was pretty good as well. I just try to hang in there. I hit a lot of good shots, missed a lot of putts and in the end I grinded out a 68,” Els told reporters after sinking a birdie on the last hole.

“I was pretty consistent the whole day. I played well and it was one of those days where I tried to stay in the tournament.

“I was trying to get to 12-under but that didn’t quite happen. I’m one shot behind and I just wanted to stay in the mix which I managed to do.”

Kataoka recorded eight birdies and two bogeys in a six-under-par 66 and was hopeful of bagging his first title on the Asian Tour.

“I’m striking the ball very good.

My putting was normal on the first two days but it was great today,” the 24-year-old said.—Reuters

MUMBAI: Experienced batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh were left out of India’s 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy, the country’s cricket board said yesterday. Left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan, who last played a 50-over match for India in June 2011, got the nod ahead of Gambhir while wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik, who can also open the batting, was recalled after almost three years. The other opener in the squad, Murali Vijay, was a surprise inclusion as the right-hander last played an ODI against South Africa in Jan. 2011 and has failed to score a fifty in his 11 matches in the format. Yuvraj, who made a fairytale comeback last year after battling a rare form of lung cancer, could not find a place in the Indian middleorder with selectors preferring right-handed batsman Rohit Sharma ahead of him. Fast bowler Umesh Yadav returned from his back injury while all-rounder Irfan Pathan also got a recall. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and leg-spinner Amit Mishra were the two specialist slow bowlers in the squad. Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, R. Vinay Kumar. —Reuters

Phillies thrash Marlins

MLB results/standings Cincinnati 6, Chicago Cubs 5; Cleveland 7, Minnesota 6 (10 innings); Oakland 2, NY Yankees 0; Philadelphia 4, Miami 1; Pittsburgh 3, Washington 1; Seattle 4, Toronto 0; NY Mets 7, Atlanta 5 (10 innings); Texas 7, Boston 0; St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 1; Detroit 4, Houston 3; Tampa Bay 7, Colorado 4 (10 innings); LA Angels 4, Baltimore 0; San Diego 7, Arizona 6; San Francisco 2, LA Dodgers 1.

Boston NY Yankees Baltimore Tampa Bay Toronto

American League Eastern Division W L PCT 20 9 .690 17 11 .607 17 13 .567 13 15 .464 10 20 .333

Central Division Detroit 17 11 Kansas City 15 10 Cleveland 13 13 Minnesota 12 13 Chicago White Sox 12 15

.607 .600 .500 .480 .444

GB 2.5 3.5 6.5 10.5

0.5 3 3.5 4.5

Texas Oakland Seattle LA Angels Houston

Western Division 18 11 .621 17 13 .567 14 17 .452 11 18 .379 8 22 .267

1.5 5 7 10.5

Atlanta Washington Philadelphia NY Mets Miami

National League Eastern Division 17 12 15 15 14 16 12 15 8 22

.586 .500 .467 .444 .267

2.5 3.5 4 9.5

St. Louis Pittsburgh Cincinnati Milwaukee Chicago Cubs

Central Division 18 11 17 12 16 14 14 14 11 18

.621 .586 .533 .500 .379

1 2.5 3.5 7

Colorado San Francisco Arizona LA Dodgers San Diego

Western Division 17 12 .586 17 12 .586 15 14 .517 13 15 .464 12 17 .414

2 3.5 5

PHILADELPHIA: Jonathan Pettibone pitched neatly into the seventh, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Domonic Brown hit solo homers and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 4-1 Friday night. Pettibone (2-0) allowed one run and five hits in 6 1-3 innings in his third start filling in for injured lefty John Lannan.

Donovan Solano hit a solo homer for the Marlins, who’ve lost three in a row after winning three straight. Ricky Nolasco (2-3) gave up four runs and eight hits in six innings.

PIRATES 3, NATIONALS 1 In Pittsburgh, AJ Burnett allowed one run and struck out nine in seven shutout innings, and call-up Jordy Mercer hit a tiebreaker home run to lead Pittsburgh to is fourth win in six games.

Burnett (3-2) gave up five hits and one walk in winning his third straight after going 0-2 in his first three starts. He also raised his NL-leading strikeout total to 57.

Mercer’s two-run home run off Ross Detwiler (1-3) in the fifth inning put the Pirates ahead 3-1. Mercer was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis before the game when second baseman Neil Walker was placed on the disabled list with a right hand injury. The Nationals lost for the fourth time in six games.

METS 7, BRAVES 5 In Atlanta, David Wright hit the tying home run in the ninth inning off closer Craig Kimbrel and New York scored twice in the 10th to rally for the over Atlanta.

The Mets, who have won two in a row after dropping six straight, scored four of their first five runs on homers before taking a two-run lead off Jordan Walden (1-1) in the 10th. Walden gave up two runs while getting just two outs.

Jeurys Familia earned his first save by retiring facing the minimum in the bottom half of the 10th. Closer Bobby Parnell (2-0) got two outs for the win.

CARDINALS 6, BREWERS 1 In Milwaukee, Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran homered and Shelby Miller pitched six strong innings to propel St. Louis to victory. Miller (4-2) gave up seven hits and a walk in six innings while striking out five.

He held Milwaukee scoreless through the first five innings before allowing a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Lucroy. Carlos Martinez, Seth Maness and Fernando Salas held the Brewers without a run over the final three innings. Martinez and Maness made their major league debuts. The Cardinals jumped in front in the third inning on a two-out, two-run home run by Holliday off Brewers starter Kyle Lohse (1-3). Allen Craig followed with a single but was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on a double

by Yadier Molina, one of three Cardinals thrown out at the plate.

PHILADELPHIA: Juan Pierre No. 9 of the Miami Marlins steals second base as shortstop Jimmy Rollins No. 11 of the Philadelphia Phillies reaches to catch the ball during the sixth inning in a MLB baseball game. —AFP REDS 6, CUBS 5 In Chicago, Jay Bruce had two RBIs and scored and Shin-Soo Choo drove in a run and scored twice to help Cincinnati hold off Chicago. The Cubs scored three runs in the ninth against Reds closer Aroldis Chapman before reliever J.J. Hoover came on and struck out Darwin Barney with the bases loaded to pick up his first save.

Mike Leake (2-1) gave up two runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings, earned his fourth straight decision over the Cubs with help from five relievers.

Devin Mesoraco, Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart also had run-scoring hits to help the Reds hand Carlos Villanueva (1-2) the loss.

GIANTS 2, DODGERS 1 In San Francisco, Buster Posey hit a game-ending home run into the left-field seats leading off the bottom of the ninth, and the Giants beat the Dodgers.

Sergio Romo (2-2) struck out two in the top of the inning and survived Matt Kemp’s nine-pitch single for the victory.

Posey connected for his first career game-winning RBI of any kind on a 3-2

pitch from Ronald Belisario (2-3), who hadn’t allowed a run in his previous four appearances over six innings.

Clayton Kershaw came off the bereavement list to pitch seven impressive innings for the Dodgers only five days after the death of his father, Christopher, and 56 hours following the funeral in Texas.

Kershaw allowed one run and three hits, struck out five and walked three in a 104pitch outing.

PADRES 7, DIAMONDBACKS 6 In San Diego, Yonder Alonso hit a goahead, two-run homer off Wade Miley in the fifth inning and the Padres held on to beat the Diamondbacks for their seventh win in nine games.

With the Padres trailing 3-2, Alonso drove a 2-2 pitch from Miley (2-1) into the Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 deck in right-center, his fourth. It would have been a home run even in Petco Park’s old configuration. The fences were moved in 11 feet from the home run porch in the right-field corner to the gap in an attempt to make the downtown ballpark play fairer. Jesus Guzman

was aboard on a grounder. The homer made a winner of Jason Marquis (3-2).

Marquis allowed three runs and four hits in six innings, struck out five and walked five.

INTERLEAGUE RAYS 7, ROCKIES 4 In Denver, Evan Longoria hit a tiebreaking single in the 10th inning and Kelly Johnson later added a two-run homer in the interleague game, helping Tampa Bay improve to 3-4 on their road trip after having a game in Kansas City snowed out the day before.

Desmond Jennings also had a two-run homer for the Rays. Ben Zobrist led off the 10th with a double to left off reliever Matt Belisle (1-2), setting the stage for Longoria.

Johnson provided some insurance by lining his fourth homer of the season just over the wall in right-center.

Kyle Farnsworth (1-0) earned the win by pitching a perfect ninth and Fernando Rodney picked up his fourth save in five chances, striking out Eric Young Jr. with two on to end the game. —AP

Mariners blank Blue Jays TORONTO: Felix Hernandez pitched eight shutout innings to win his third straight start, Kyle Seager and Jason Bay homered and the Seattle Mariners blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 40 Friday night.

Seager had three hits as the Mariners won for the sixth time in eight games. Hernandez (4-2) allowed five hits, walked none and struck out seven, improving to 3-0 with a 0.60 ERA in his past four starts. He’s 95-24 in his career when he receives two or more runs of support.

Tom Wilhelmsen pitched the ninth for the Mariners, who had lost seven of their previous eight road games. Blue Jays left-hander Ricky Romero (0-1) made his first start of the season, allowing three runs and three hits in four innings. He walked three and struck out four.

Kuwait ready for shooting tourney KUWAIT: Secretary General of the Arab and Kuwait Shooting Federations Obeid Al-Osaimi said, the club have completed its preparations for HH The Amir Annual Shooting Championship that concludes the 2012/2013 shooting season.

He said Kuwait shooters are expected to excel during this championship which includes all Olympic Shooting disciplines. He said the organizing committee of the championship which starts next Thursday held several meetings, and asked technical teams to examine the machines and ranges to ensure their readiness for this major event.

Al-Osaimi said Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex witnessed a large number of shooters expressing their wish to participate.

INDIANS 7, TWINS 6 In Cleveland, Drew Stubbs’ RBI double with one out in the 10th inning lifted Cleveland to its fifth straight victory.

Stubbs, who had four hits, drove a 1-0 pitch from Casey Fien off the wall in left-center to give Cleveland its first five-game winning streak since winning seven in a row from April 26May 3, 2011. Mike Aviles started the rally with a leadoff single off Fien (1-2). Pinch-hitter Ezequiel Carrera, claimed off waivers from Philadelphia on Thursday, moved Aviles to second with a sacrifice. Stubbs, who had two singles and two doubles, then drove in the game-winner. Chris Perez (1-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for Cleveland.

ATHLETICS 2, YANKEES 0 In New York, AJ Griffin pitched six-hit ball into the eighth inning, Adam Rosales homered on CC Sabathia’s first pitch, and Oakland opened its 10-game road trip with its fourth win in five games.

Coming off two losses in which he allowed 11 earned runs and 13 hits in 11 innings, Griffin struck out four, walked one and was removed for Sean Doolittle after Brett Gardner’s bunt single to start the eighth. The Yankees had two runners on base only once, in the third inning, and Griffin (3-2) needed only nine pitches in the each of the fourth through sixth innings.

Derek Norris hit an RBI single in the sixth inning to help Oakland and Grant Balfour got the final out for his fourth save this season and 22nd in a row since blowing one on April 29, 2012, securing the Athletics’ first nine-inning shutout of the year. Rosales was batting leadoff for the first time in his career because Coco Crisp is on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring. He hit an 89 mph fastball from Sabathia (4-3) deep into the to left field stands.

blown save in four opportunities. Jose Altuve’s RBI single in the seventh inning capped a three-run rally that gave the Astros a 3-2 lead. Houston, owner of the worst record in the American League, lost its fourth in a row and eighth in the last nine games. Tigers left-hander Drew Smyly (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the win, and Jose Valverde finished the ninth against his former team for his third save in three chances. —AP

RANGERS 7, RED SOX 0 In Arlington, Adrian Beltre had a three-run double among his four hits, Derek Holland pitched eight scoreless innings for his fifth consecutive victory over Boston. The Rangers had a season-high 18 hits while Holland (2-2) had a season-high nine strikeouts and held Boston to six singles. Red Sox starter Felix Doubront (3-1) allowed a career-worst 12 hits in 3 2-3 innings. Holland is 5-1 with a 2.41 ERA in his six career starts against the Red Sox. The lone loss came as a rookie at Fenway Park in June 2009, his third career start. After Holland threw 112 pitches, Derek Lowe worked a perfect ninth to wrap up the Rangers’ fifth shutout this season.

ANGELS 4, ORIOLES 0 In Anaheim, Jason Vargas pitched a three-hitter for his first victory with his new club, Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout homered and Los Angeles beat Baltimore. Vargas (1-3) threw 107 pitches, striking out three and walking two while getting 15 groundball outs. The shutout was the fourth by the lefthander in 136 career starts and his ninth complete game.

Miguel Gonzalez (2-2) gave up three runs and six hits over six innings and struck out five without walking a batter. The right-hander’s outing was shortened by a blister on his thumb.

TIGERS 4, ASTROS 3 In Houston, Alex Avila hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning to send Detroit to its second straight win and seventh victory in eight games.

After Houston closer Jose Veras (0-2) walked Don Kelly, Avila hit a 3-1 pitch to deep center field. It was Veras’ second

TORONTO: Kyle Seager No. 15 of the Seattle Mariners hits a single in the fifth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays. —AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

S P ORTS

Force defence hold Reds PERTH: Resolute defending by the Western Force helped the Australian Conference’s bottom side hold the Queensland Reds to a 11-11 draw in a fiercely contested Super Rugby clash in Perth yesterday.

The Reds dominated possession and territory for long periods but struggled to turn that superiority into points as the Force produced eye-catching big hits in a defiant display in front of their appreciative home crowd. Reds flyhalf Quade Cooper had the opportunity to win the game but his 75thminute conversion from near the right touchline was pulled wide.

“Our defence was great during that game ... they threw a lot at us and we were perhaps unlucky not to grab the win there,” Force skipper Matt Hodgson said in a pitchside interview.

“We play good when we play the big teams like the Crusaders and the Reds, we just need that consistency week in week out and we will be a great side.”

Despite surprising the seven-times champion Crusaders last month and the Reds in Brisbane in March, the Force were expected to provide little resistance after losing their eight other matches.

But they showed fighting spirit to collect two points in a competitive battle in which both sides tried to run the ball.

“They put a lot of pressure on us at the breakdown, which we knew they would, we adjusted well in the second half but we just needed to turn that possession into points.” a disappointed Reds scrumhalf Will Genia said. “They came out and were very enthusiastic and energetic and credit to them.” The Reds thought they had taken an

early lead through Digby Ioane, who announced a deal to join French club Stade Francais in the week. However, the impressive winger was denied the try by the television match official who ruled he was in touch before crossing.

The Force continued to scrap and took advantage of their rare forays forward with flyhalf Sias Ebersohn knocking over penalties in the 22nd and 26th minutes to open up a 6-0 lead.

Cooper responded with one of his own as the Reds went in behind at the break but their Wallaby skipper James Horwill failed to emerge for the second period after taking a heavy blow. The lock looking dazed as he played out the final phases.

More Reds pressure followed, though, before the Force scored the game’s opening try in the 52 minute after absorbing the wave of attacks. Collecting possession near their own line, the home side moved the ball to both flanks with winger Nick Cummins making big yards down the left and number eight Ben McCalman crashing over with Wallabies flanker Liam Gill in tow.

Ebersohn missed woefully with the straightforward conversion to leave the scores at 11-3 and Cooper cut the deficit by three with a second penalty.

The Reds continued to press against the blue wall and eventually the pressure told with replacement Chris Feauai-Sautia deemed to have touch the ball down on the line under a scrum of bodies in the 74th minute by the television match official.

But Cooper failed to snatch the victory with the conversion and the Force held firm in the final minutes. —Reuters

Highlanders see off Sharks DUNEDIN: The Otago Highlanders ended a year of Super Rugby misery by bravely repelling a late Sharks rally to prevail 25-22 in Dunedin on Saturday, their first win of the season at the ninth time of asking.

Centre Shaun Treeby, scrumhalf Aaron Smith and flyhalf Colin Slade all crossed for tries as the Highlanders recorded their first win since beating the Auckland Blues on May 26 last season.

Slade missed four kicks at goal and the Sharks spent most of the final minutes camped in the Highlanders 22, but the home side bravely held with 14 men before forcing a turnover that brought the final whistle in the 83rd minute of a tense clash.

It was the Sharks who were down to 14 men first when winger JP Pietersen was sent to the sin bin in the seventh minute after a deliberate knock on from an offside position as the Highlanders sensed an early try. Taking advantage of the extra man, Slade’s clever grubber kick in behind the Sharks defence fell to centre Treeby who touched down by the posts in the 10th minute.

The Sharks were quick to respond, using a South African strength catch and drive move from the lineout that sucked in Highlanders defenders close to their line before the ball was spread in field with Meyer Bosman touching down by the posts.

Patrick Lambie converted and added a penalty before the flyhalf set up a second try in the 35th minute with a chip kick over the defence that Bosman collected and offloaded to winger Lwazi Mvovo, who outpaced fullback Ben Smith to the line.

Lambie missed the conversion but the Sharks went in to the break 15-7 ahead

after Slade was wayward with another penalty.

The Highlanders sprang out of the traps at the start of the second period, probing in the Sharks 22 before Aaron Smith dived over for the home side’s second try when his quick tap penalty caught the visitors napping.

Slade finally found his range and slotted the conversion to cut the deficit to one and then added two tricky penalties to put Super Rugby’s bottom side ahead 20-15 in the 53rd minute.

Now playing with confidence, Slade then started and finished a brilliant move that resulted in the Highlanders third try.

The flyhalf taking a high ball just inside his own half before offloading with Ben and Aaron Smith making telling breaks and passes before prop Chris King popped the ball free for Slade to sprint in.

Ten points down, the Sharks finally awoke. The visitors went through a breathless spell of more than 26 phases before turning over the ball which the Highlanders hacked clear only for the Sharks to return it from their own half with Bosman on hand to crash over after more good recycling. Lambie converted to cut the deficit to three with just over 15 minutes remaining and the Sharks racked up the pressure.

Twice the flyhalf rejected the opportunity to kick for goal and level the scores after the Highlanders gave away penalties in their own 22, one of which forced lock Brad Thorn to the sin bin.

But despite the numerical disadvantage the Highlanders, who have struggled defensively this year, held on for the rare win. — Reuters

PRETORIA: New Zealand’s Hurricanes Beauden Barrett (below) avoids a tackle by South Africa’s Bulls JJ Engelbrecht (top) during their Super Rugby match. —AP

BOSTON: Carmelo Anthony No. 7 of the New York Knicks keeps the ball away from Jeff Green No. 8 of the Boston Celtics in the second half against the Boston Celtics during Game Six of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs. —AFP

Knicks hold on to advance BOSTON: Carmelo Anthony scored 21 points and the New York Knicks held on after blowing most of a 26-point lead to beat the Boston Celtics 88-80 in Game 6 on Friday night and advance in the postseason for the first time since 2000.

Iman Shumpert scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, when the Celtics cut a 75-49 deficit to four points. But Anthony made a jumper to give New York an 81-75 lead and then sank a 3-pointer, then J.R. Smith converted a three-point play to restore the double-digit lead the Knicks had nursed most of the game.

Jeff Green scored 21 points for the Celtics, who were hoping to become the first NBA team to advance in the playoffs after losing the first three games.

The Knicks had not won a playoff series since Patrick Ewing and Latrell Sprewell (and current backup center Marcus Camby) helped them reach the 2000 Eastern Conference finals. They will open the second round Sunday at home against the Indiana Pacers.

Paul Pierce scored 14 points on 4-for-18 shooting, making one of nine 3-point attempts.

Kevin Garnett had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who now face another offseason of talk whether to break up the aging core that won the franchise’s record 17th NBA title in 2008 and returned to the finals two years later.

THUNDER 103, ROCKETS 94 In Houston, Kevin Durant scored 27 points and Kevin Martin added 25 to lead Oklahoma City over Houston, sending the Thunder to the second round of the playoffs for the third straight season.

The Rockets were looking to become just the fourth team in NBA history to force a Game 7 after trailing 3-0. But the top-seeded Thunder opened the fourth quarter with a big run to take the lead and cruised to the victory.

Martin finally gave the Thunder someone to take scoring pressure off Durant for the first time since All-Star Russell Westbrook had season-ending knee surgery. He had 21 points by halftime and Westbrook’s replacement, Reggie Jackson helped out by scoring 17. James Harden, who the Rockets said had strep throat on Thursday, led Houston with 26 points.

PACERS 81, HAWKS 73 In Atlanta, George Hill and David West each scored 21 points and Indiana withstood a furious Atlanta comeback in the fourth quarter, closing out the opening-round playoff series in Game 6.

The home team had won every game until the Hawks returned to Philips Arena and set a franchise record with just nine points in the second quarter on 1-of-15 shooting. The defense broke down in the third, allowing Hill and West to combine for 22 points, and the Pacers built a

65-50 lead going to the fourth. The Hawks showed some heart, slicing it to 76-73 on Al Horford’s dunk with 2:13 remaining.

But the comeback fizzled there, and the Pacers advanced to face New York. Roy Hibbert added 17 points and 11 rebounds. Lance Stephenson also had 11 rebounds.

GRIZZLIES 118, CLIPPERS 105 In Memphis, Mike Conley and Zach Randolph scored 23 points apiece, and Memphis beat Los Angeles to take the first-round series 4-2 and advance to its second Western Conference semifinals in three seasons. The Grizzlies had never won four straight postseason games before this series, and they became only the 10th team in NBA history to win four straight after trailing 0-2.

They will open the second round at Oklahoma City on Sunday.

Memphis finished with seven players in double figures. Tony Allen had a postseason-best 19 points, and Jerryd Bayless had 16.

Reserve Matt Barnes scored a career playoffbest 30 points for Los Angeles. Chris Paul had 28 points before being ejected with 2:29 left for crashing into Marc Gasol off a missed free throw, though he shook hands with several Grizzlies before going to the locker room. Blake Griffin didn’t start because of his sprained right ankle, and he scored nine points in 13:56. Caron Butler added 14. —AP

Mickelson leads at Quail Hollow CHARLOTTE: Phil Mickelson, spotless with his putter, surged into a two-shot lead at Friday’s halfway mark of the Wells Fargo Championship by firing a fiveunder-par 67 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The big lefthander made everything from inside 10 feet on the soft greens, making him 31-for-31 from those distances during the first 36 holes for a nine-under total of 135.

Tied for second on 137 were fellow Americans Nick Watney (70) and George McNeil (68), and Australian Scott Gardiner (67), who made four birdies in a row from the sixth in bouncing back after missing his last eight cuts on the PGA Tour.

Another stroke away was a group that included world number two Rory McIlroy (71) of Northern Ireland, Englishman Lee Westwood,

who shot a 68 despite feeling under the weather with a chest infection, and Australian Rod Pampling (69), the 10th and last alternate to join the field.

Mickelson, who considers the course one of his favorites and has finished 12th or better seven times in nine appearances, took advantage of greens softened by rain and cool temperatures, including two putting surfaces resodded just seven days ago.

“They’re slower so we can be more aggressive, and I’ve made a concerted effort to give myself uphill putts which allows me to take a lot of the break out and be aggressive,” Mickelson said after the round.

“On this course they have a lot of holes that are repelling, where if you miss it just a little bit it will kick

the ball away. When the greens are firm and fast you have to respect that and play about 20 or 30 feet away. But with the greens softer we’re able to fly it at the hole and stop it.”

McIlroy, looking for his first win this season after switching his ball and clubs this year, shared in a seven-way tie for the overnight lead after a first-round 67 but fell back after a one-under 71 on Friday.

“The greens were a lot faster today than they happened to be yesterday afternoon,” said McIlroy, who started in the morning wave.

“It took a little bit of time to get adjusted. But I think this week it’s all about fairways and greens.

“If you’ve given yourself the chances, you take a few of them and you’ll be right there,” he added after hitting 15 greens in regulation.

Mickelson praised the layout, which will host the 2017 PGA Championship, and said it would mean a lot to him to carry on to victory.

“I think from tee to green it’s one of the best we have, one of the best I’ve ever seen in the game,” said Mickelson, who hit only five of 14 fairways but rescued himself with fine recovery shots, and chips and sand shots from around the green.

Mickelson ranked a lowly 130th in the field in driving accuracy and just 103rd in hitting greens in regulation. “It’s a tournament I’ve had many opportunities, a lot of great chances to win,” he said. “I’ve had great finishes here but I haven’t capped it off. I enjoy playing here so much that it would mean a lot to win.” —Reuters

KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) organized a Bowling Tournament for its employees and their families at Cosmo Bowling Center in a fun and festive atmosphere. NBK employees participated in the tournament and competed in teams. The winning teams were awarded at the end of the event. The event entailed many activities for NBK staff family members. (Left) NBK Family in a group photo. (Right) Mazin Saad Al Nahedh, NBK General Manager, Consumer Banking Group and Emad Al Ablani, NBK Deputy General Manager, Human Resources Group in a group photo with NBK employees.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

S P ORTS

‘If he’s as lucky as us, he’ll win’ LOUISVILLE: The four of them will be sitting on Millionaires Row, which only begins to hint at their real worth, and rooting for a horse named Normandy Invasion.

“If he’s as lucky as the rest of us,” said 90-year-old Ray Woods, with a nod toward his friends, “he’ll win.” Bet the bay colt at the Kentucky Derby late yesterday, if only because you won’t find a backstory half this good.

For most of his 20 years in the business, ex-soldier and auto dealer-turnedthoroughbred owner Rick Porter has been naming horses to honor veterans.

Porter never saw combat - he served in Korea for two years in the 1960s - and never forgot a haunting visit to the Normandy beaches in 1994, the 50th anniversary of the invasion that turned the tide in World War II. Last year, after 10 years on the inactive list, the name became available again and Porter slapped the weighty moniker on his most promising 2-yearold. Once it began pinging around the Web, emails from veterans followed, a trickle at first and then a steady stream.

Porter answered as many as he could and finally settled on inviting four to be his guests. Awaiting their arrival at Churchill

Downs, Porter stood outside his barn Friday morning and looked over at the four folding chairs set up in the shade. “I wish,” he said finally, “I could have brought 40 of ‘em.”

Alan Reeves, 91, of San Diego was the principal organizer, which made plenty of sense. He worked for Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, assigned to the Supreme Command, and later saw action in southern France. With Porter’s help, he settled on three other soldiers who actually landed on the beaches at Normandy. The four gathered just down the road in Lexington and began telling war stories late into Thursday night at the bar of their hotel. With only so much sleep, they resumed beneath overcast skies in front of an audience and not far from where Normandy Invasion, a 12-1 shot, lolled in the grass alongside Barn 42.

“Carnage, that’s what I remember first.

Then elation that we could at least provide some help,” said Woods, a Navy man who was aboard the USS O’Brien, the first destroyer to reach water’s edge.

“Saved my fanny,” Bill Wilch, 89, an infantryman then and fellow Ohioan now, cut him off. “We were all young and gung-ho. We never knew what we were getting into.”

“We were pinned down for what felt like forever,” added J.J. Witmeyer Jr., the second infantryman. A marksman’s badge was pinned above the breast pocket of a natty tan sport jacket. Ten ribbons hung just below it. “When we finally decided to try and move, everything above here,” Witmeyer said, holding his left hand, palm down, at knee level, “was covered in fog.” The four went on like that for 10 minutes, hearing snippets of each other’s stories and sometimes finishing the sentences. One running joke involved the French Legion of Merit awarded Witmeyer, and how he’d had to stand still at the ceremony while being kissed by several generals.

“Some honor,” Reeves laughed. “Well,” Witmeyer shot back, “at least one of them was a woman. So it wasn’t all bad.” Porter stood off to the side, beaming.

At one point, he had trainer Chad Brown bring Normandy Invasion over to the group for photos. All four grabbed their canes and posed along one side.

“I’ve been in an assisted living home in Ohio,” Wilch said. “I play pinochle with a bunch of guys who used to be in the horse racing business. ... I’ve never been this close to a racehorse before. He’s beautiful.” By the time he regained his

seat, Reeves was similarly inspired. He looked over in Porter’s direction and began telling yet another story about Eisenhower.

“Just before the invasion was set to start, he called everybody together, looked around the room and just said, ‘Let’s go.’ When your horse gets to the head of the stretch,” he continued, “have the jockey whisper that in his ear.”

Wilch and Woods, meanwhile, were back to spinning stories about Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars and fallen comrades, ending nearly every one with a wish that more of them were around to drink in the VIP treatment. “I read somewhere 1,300 of us are dying every month,” Wilch said. “Well I read there were something like a million left,” Wood said. “Don’t believe it,” Wilch told reporters crowded around the two. “Him and me are the only ones I know.” The four men have been collecting money to wager from almost everyone they know. Nearly all of it will go on Normandy Invasion.

Whatever is left over likely will end up paying the bar bills that Porter’s largesse doesn’t cover. The owner was enjoying the scene too much to worry about the cost, though winning it all could prove to be a double-edged sword. If Normandy

Invasion finds his way to the winner’s circle, money won’t be a problem. On the other hand, that would touch off one hell of a celebration by a foursome whose hardiness should never be doubted. But Porter figures he’s ahead either way.

He got into racing seriously soon after one of the managers at a dealership took him to watch a horse he owned. Porter had been to Delaware Park several times as a kid, and when the first horse he ever owned - “Name of Dronetta, don’t ask me how she got the name” - won her first race, Porter was hooked. His toughest day in the racket came when his filly, Eight Belles, broke down just past the finish line in the 2008 Derby and had to be euthanized on the track.

“We throw the word ‘heroes’ around a lot these days,” he said. “But you don’t often run across guys who deserve it the way these men do.” Reeves threw the compliment back. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all this,” he said with a sweep of his arm. Two seats over, Wilch nodded in agreement. “Me and my wife watched the Kentucky Derby for years.

She always wanted to come,” he said.

Then Wilch tapped the breast pocket of his jacket, where a photo of Mary Rita sat.

“And now,” he said, “she will.” — AP

Longshots wins Oaks on eve of Kentucky Derby

NAPLES: British Mark Cavendish crosses the first stage of the 96th Giro díItalia.

British Mark Cavendish won the stage while Elia Viviani of the Cannondale team finished second after nearly three hours of frantic racing around Naples while Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni was third. — AFP

Cavendish in pink after storming Giro opener NAPLES: British sprint king Mark Cavendish won a chaotic opening stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday to pull on the race leader’s pink jersey for the third time in his career.

The Isle of Man rider, winning his 11th stage in the epic Italian race, dominated a small but hectic group sprint to leave Elia Viviani of the Cannondale team in second place after nearly three hours of frantic racing around Naples.

Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni was third while Australian Matthew Goss finished sixth after running out of steam in the final 200 metres of the 130-kilometre race opener. “I came here to win sprints and I’ve started the race the way I wanted to,” said Cavendish, who appeared on the podium with his baby daughter Delilah.

Cavendish admitted, however, his bid almost came unstuck when lead-out man Gert Steegmans suffered a late mechanical problem. “It was not easy with all the corners but the team did incredible to stay at the front. “We didn’t get it quite right at the end and Gert had a mechanical in the final kilo which we need to look at.” Cavendish, winning his first Grand Tour stage for his new team Omega-Pharma and his 102nd professional victory, will now wear the pink jersey into Sunday’s second stage-a team time trial over 17.4km on the island of Ischia. Despite his team not being built for such an exercise, Cavendish added: “Tomorrow we’ll go out to

try and protect the lead and respect the jersey.” Beginning on the Naples seafront in warm conditions, the opening stage featured two circuits - one 16.4km long with a short climb to be raced four times and a second, 8km circuit to be raced eight times.

With only 130km of racing it promised to be fast and after less than 15 minutes a small group of riders broke off the front to build a near two-minute lead on the peloton.

Eventually, Australian Cameron Wurf became the sole survivor from the leading pack, his efforts allowing the rest of his Cannondale team to forego participating in the chase. As the teams with sprinters moved to the front of the pack to up the pace in the closing 20km, Wurf’s lead evaporated and he was caught with just over 12km remaining. Cannondale, however, had not had their final word. Three of the limegreen clad riders, including Viviani, hit the front and rode a frantic pace which strung the group out on the tight, twisting turns on the circuit. A number of riders crashed, and Cannondale’s efforts left a dozen or so riders on their own on the 1km-long home straight. Goss was well-positioned on the wheel of a teammate, but despite the Green-Edge sprinter grinding away in the final 200m Cavendish came on the outside, where he said there was “less crosswinds”, to leave Viviani banging on his handlebars in frustration at the finish. —AFP

Pavlyuchenkova wins first clay title OEIRAS: Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-2 yesterday to win the Portugal Open and claim her first trophy on clay.

The third-seeded champion, coached by former Swiss great Martina Hingis, earned the fifth title of her career while leaving her opponent winless from five finals.

One of those was at the same venue a year ago, when Suarez Navarro went down to Kaia Kanepi, an opponent she beat in the semi-finals this week. Pavlyuchenkova has been working with Hingis officially for just a few weeks and the game style and fighting determination of Switzerland’s five-time Grand Slam champion may be rubbing off on the 21-year-old right-hander. “She was really happy with the win,” said Pavlyuchenkova of

OEIRAS: Russian player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova kisses her trophy after winning the Portugal Open tennis tournament women’s singles final match against Spanish Carla Suarez Navarro. —AFP

her mentor’s first win as a coach. The winner was less than thrilled with a slow start to her own game. “I was pissed with the way I started. But then I relaxed, and started waiting for my chances after she had pinned me to the baseline. “I was trying to dictate and wait for the right moment. It worked at the end.” Pavlyuchenkova was flying straight to Spain later Saturday for a first-round start at the Madrid Masters against world number three Victoria Azarenka, who has not played for more than a month due to injury and has yet to step on to clay. “It’s a really tough draw, but for both of us. She’s not played for a while and I already have some events on clay. “I can’t say what will happen but I’ll try my best. I won’t be scared, that’s for sure. I’ll just go out there and try to make her play.”

Pavlyuchenkova now owns five career titles, including two this season after winning the Monterrey event for a third time.

In the men’s event, Stanislas Wawrinka ended the run of Spanish qualifier Pablo Carreno-Busta as the second seed posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory to reach the final.

The Swiss, who lost at the semi-final stage a year ago on his debut against Juan Martin del Potro, will face off against the winner from top seed David Ferrer of Spain or Italian third seed Andreas Seppi.

Wawrinka was pleased to reach his second final of the season after losing to Ferrer in Buenos Aires in February. The number 16 complained to the chair umpire near the end of the second set over what he said was coaching of his 228th-ranked, 21-year-old opponent. —AFP

KENTUCKY: Princess of Sylmar, a 38-1 outsider, won Friday’s $1 million Kentucky Oaks in a major upset that left trainer Todd Pletcher with a real chance of completing one of American racing’s most prestigious doubles.

Pletcher has five runners in Saturday’s 139th Kentucky Derby and his chances of victory were marginally improved when the feature race was reduced to a field of 19 runners, one less than capacity, following the scratching of longshot Black Onyx.

A rank outsider at odds of 50-1, Black Onyx was withdrawn from the mile and a quarter classic at Churchill Downs after connections discovered a chip on his left front ankle on the eve of the race.

Trainer Kelly Breen said his colt was not lame and trained without any problems on Friday morning but was scratched as a precaution when X-rays showed he had a non-displaced chip.

“He actually looked pretty good training this morning,” Breen said. “But he was, just like anyone else, having a bad day, whether he wrenched his ankle or slept on it wrong.”

Black Onyx’s scratching came too late for Fear the Kitten to take his place in the first leg of the coveted Triple Crown. Fear the Kitten was listed as the first alternate if any of the 20 confirmed runners scratched before 9 am ET (1300 GMT) but Black Onyx was not withdrawn until after the deadline. Black Onyx had been drawn to start from pole position one, a notoriously awkward barrier which has not produced a Derby winner in more than a quarter of a century.

But race officials said the stall would remain open and the remaining 19 entrants would start from their assigned positions in a race which is looming as one of the most open in decades with at least four horses vying for favoritism.

Florida Derby winner Orb was installed as the early 7-2 favorite following Wednesday’s pole-position draw, just ahead of the unbeaten

LOUISVILLE: Horses race along the muddy backstretch during an undercard race prior to the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. —AFP

Verrazano (4-1), one of Pletcher’s five runners.

But when the markets opened on Friday, Revolutionary, yet another horse from Pletcher’s stable, was promoted to the top of betting charts, level with Goldencents, at odds of 5-1.

Orb drifted back to 6-1 while Verrazano was rated an 11-1 chance as he bids to become the first horse since Apollo in 1882 to win the Kentucky Derby after not racing as a two-yearold. Pletcher had four of the 10 starters in the

Oaks and duly completed the first leg of the Kentucky double but not with the filly most people expected.

Princess of Sylmar, ridden by Mike Smith, defied her long odds to storm up the center of track after passing the iconic Twin Spires and win the three-year-old fillies classic.

Beholder finished a close second ahead of Unlimited Budget and the 3-2 heav y favorite Dreaming of Julia, both trained by Pletcher. — Reuters

Islanders sink Penguins PITTSBURGH: Kyle Okposo’s first career playoff goal with 7:37 remaining lifted the New York Islanders to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, evening their playoff series at one game each. Matt Moulson, Colin McDonald and Matt Martin also scored for the Islanders, who spoiled Sidney Crosby’s comeback from a broken jaw by rallying from an early two-goal deficit.

Crosby scored twice in the game’s first eight minutes as the Penguins raced to a quick 3-1 lead.

But they couldn’t hold it as the Islanders bounced back from a lifeless performance in Game 1.

Evgeni Nabokov overcame a sluggish start to stop 30 shots as the Islanders won their first playoff game in more than six years.

Marc-Andre Fleur y made 38 saves for Pittsburgh, which allowed the speedy Islanders to effectively counterpunch all night. Game 3 is today in New York.

Canadiens 3, Senators 1 In Montreal, Ryan White started a three-goal second period and goalie Carey Price was back in top form with 29 saves as the Canadiens evened their playoff series. The best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal is tied 1-1 heading into Game 3 on Sunday in Ottawa. Brendan Gallagher and Michael Ryder also scored for Montreal. Milan Michalek scored for Ottawa, which was let down by a power play that went 0-for-4.

There was anticipation of rough play after Eric Gryba’s hit that saw Montreal’s Lars Eller carried off the Bell Centre ice on a stretcher with a

concussion and some missing teeth in Ottawa’s 4-2 win in the series opener on Thursday night. Eller spent the night in hospital and was released Friday morning. Gryba drew a two-game suspension from the NHL and sat out Game 2.

Blackhawks 5, Wild 2 In Chicago, Patrick Sharp and Michael Frolik had two goals apiece, and the Blackhawks took a 2-0 series lead over the Wild.

Patrick Kane added two assists as Chicago put together a strong start and impressive finish. Bryan

Bickell added an empty-net score to his winning goal in the Blackhawks’ 2-1 overtime victory in the postseason opener Tuesday night. Game 3 is today afternoon in Minnesota.

Devin Setoguchi and Marco Scandella scored for the Wild, who are making their first postseason appearance in five years.

Sharks 3, Canucks 2 In Vancouver, Raffi Torres scored at 5:31 of overtime to give the San Jose Sharks a 2-0 lead over the Vancouver Canucks.

The series shifts to San Jose for

games Sunday and Tuesday. San Jose was 17-2-5 at home this season. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, whose goal in the final minute of the third period forced overtime, also scored for San Jose.

The Canucks took their sixth consecutive loss in a home playoff game. Now, they might not get another one after winning their fifth consecutive Northwest Division title. Ryan Kesler scored two third-period goals for Vancouver, helping the Canucks overcome a 1-0 deficit that stood since the first period. —AP

PITTSBURGH: John Tavares No. 91 of the New York Islanders has his shot blocked by Marc-Andre Fleury No. 29 of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the third period of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. —AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

S P ORTS

Agbonlahor boosts Villa’s survival bid Norwich 1

Aston Villa 2

NORWICH: Gabriel Agbonlahor boosted Aston Villa’s Premier League survival hopes as his late winner secured a vital 2-1 victory at Norwich yesterday.

Agbonlahor had given Villa the lead early in the second half at Carrow Road and he produced the perfectly timed winner after Grant Holt’s penalty had drawn Norwich level.

The victory keeps Villa five points clear of the relegation

LONDON: Norwich City’s Jonathan Howson (left) and Aston Villa’s Fabian Delph (right) during their English Premier League soccer match at Carrow Road. — AP

zone and provided a moment of sweet revenge for boss Paul Lambert, who left Norwich to take charge at Villa Park in acrimonious circumstances last year.

Villa, who thrashed Sunderland 6-1 on Monday, will feel they are within touching distance of safety, while slumping Norwich are only three points clear of the bottom three.

Villa were forced into an early change on 27 minutes when Matthew Lowton hobbled off to be replaced by Eric Lichaj.

Norwich threatened for the first time when Robert Snodgrass hit a free-kick into the wall and then lashed the rebound at Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan.

Norwich full-back Javier Garrido got forward on the overlap down the left, and his cross was just missed by Anthony Pilkington before being headed over by Holt.

Villa opened up the Norwich defence at the start of the second half when Christian Benteke waltzed into the penalty area, only to then shoot tamely at Mark Bunn from 10 yards out.

The visitors broke the deadlock on 55 minutes when Agbonlahor picked the ball up just inside the Norwich half and as the defenders backed off, the England winger surged forward before unleashing a superb strike into the bottom corner from 25 yards.

Villa should have made it 2-0 when Agbonlahor darted away down the left and floated a lovely ball back across the face of goal, but Andreas Weimann somehow sent his halfvolley over the bar from two yards.

The Canaries equalised in the 74th minute as Snodgrass got away down the right and cut back into the area, where he was bundled over by Joe Bennett.

Holt had missed Norwich’s only other penalty this season, but he made no mistake this time as he crashed the ball into the bottom left corner.

But it was Agbonlahor who secured a crucial three points for Villa when he got ahead of Sebastien Bassong before rolling the ball into the far corner. —AFP

Photo of the day

Lars Enoekl performs at Red Bull Go with the Pro in Spielberg, Austria. www.redbullcontentpool.com

Hull clinch promotion on dramatic final day

LONDON: Wigan Athletic’s Irish midfielder James McCarthy (right) vies with West Bromwich Albion’s Isaiah Brown during the English Premier League football match. —AFP

Wigan’s escape plan on track West Brom 2

Wigan 3

WEST BROMWICH: Wigan Athletic could be poised to mount another improbable escape from Premier League relegation after twice coming from behind to claim a potentially crucial 3-2 win at West Bromwich Albion yesterday.

Callum McManaman netted the winner with 10 minutes to play, after goals by Shane Long and Gareth McAuley for West Brom had been successively cancelled out by Arouna Kone and substitute James McArthur.

FA Cup finalists Wigan have pulled off late escapes from relegation in the last three seasons and now trail fourth-bottom Sunderland by two points with three matches to play.

Sunderland host Stoke City tomor-

row, while Wigan have a game in hand at home to ninth-place Swansea City on Tuesday.

The relegation of West Brom’s local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers from the second-tier Championship earlier in the day had the home fans in full voice at the Hawthorns, and they saw home striker Romelu Lukaku volley an early chance over the bar.

Wigan’s need for points was far greater, however, and home goalkeeper Ben Foster was soon called upon to repel long-range shots from McManaman and Kone.

McManaman then headed wide from Kone’s cross, but it was the hosts who were to make the breakthrough in the 29th minute. After Paul Scharner conceded possession, Lukaku’s fine pass found Markus Rosenberg galloping down the right flank and his low cross was guided home at the back post by Long. In response, the influential Shaun Maloney curled a free-kick inches wide, before Jean Beausejour crossed from the left for Kone to score a 39thminute equaliser with a well-directed

header. Kone had out-jumped McAuley to score but the West Brom centre-back atoned after five minutes of the second period by climbing to head Graham Dorrans’ free-kick into the bottom-right corner and restore the hosts’ advantage.

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez responded by introducing McArthur and Roman Golobart in place of Jordi Gomez and Ronnie Stam, and McArthur made an immediate impact by netting an equaliser within moments of coming on. Maloney was the architect, sending in a cross that the Scottish midfielder dispatched with a fine diving header. West Brom threatened to immediately re-take the lead when McAuley headed narrowly over, before Wigan goalkeeper Joel Robles had to save with his legs from Billy Jones.

Maloney created the winner in the 80th minute, jinking to the byline on the left before cutting the ball back for McManaman to tap home, and the visitors survived a late scare when McArthur had to head the ball off his own line in injury time. —AFP

Relegated Reading give Adkins first win Fulham 2

Reading 4

LONDON: Reading showed the spirit that they will need next season in trying to regain their Premier League status with a fine 4-2 away win over Fulham in the Premier League yesterday.

A double by Hal Robson-Kanu provided the basis for what was Reading’s first win in 11 games-their last victory being on February 2 — and first under manager Nigel Adkins.

Defeat for Fulham puts at risk manager Martin Jol’s impressive record of always finishing in the top half of the table as they are presently 13th on 40 points. Reading took an early lead when Norwegian veteran John Arne Riise brought down Robson-Kanu.

The winger picked himself up and calmly converted the penalty past Australian veteran Mark Schwarzer, who was

making his 550th appearance in English football. The hosts went close to levelling but Rodallega-who had come on for injured Greek veteran Giorgos Karagounis-had his point blank effort brilliantly saved by Alex McCarthy in the 34th minute.

Riise, though, prevented his side from going 2-0 down when he headed off the line from Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak while Schwarzer did well to turn away for a corner an effort by Jem Karacan.

However, the visitors did deservedly double their lead just after the hour mark through Robson-Kanu as he collected a deflected Garath McCLeary shot and curled it past Schwarzer.

Brian Ruiz, though, pulled one back shortly afterwards after a neat one-two with Rodallega but Adam Le Fondre restored the two goal cushion with 15 minutes remaining after being found by a superb pass by playmaker Jem Karacan.

Fulham reduced the deficit again two minutes later as Costa Rican international Ruiz rose to head home Alex Kakaniklic’s cross to set up a nervy finale.

However, Reading producing the type of performance that if they had done earlier would have probably preserved their Premier League status added a fourth through Karacan seven minutes from time. —AFP

LONDON: Hull City won automatic promotion to the English Premier League after a dramatic 2-2 draw with Cardiff City on an extraordinary final day of the Championship season yesterday. Steve Bruce’s side had to endure an agonising wait as Watford their only rivals for the second and final automatic promotion place - succumbed to a late 2-1 home defeat by Leeds United in a match delayed by around 15 minutes.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” Bruce, the former Manchester United defender, told Sky Sports. “It’s put us through the wringer. Watford pushed us all the way but it was our day.”

Cardiff, who had already earned promotion to the Premier League as champions, finished the (second tier) Championship season on 87 points with Hull second on 79.

Watford ended in third on 77 and go into the playoffs, where they are joined by Brighton and Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Leicester City.

Hull, who had failed to win any of their last three games, thought they had done enough when Paul McShane’s 63rd-minute goal put them 2-1 ahead at the KC Stadium, but two penalties in stoppage time gave the afternoon an unexpected twist.

Nick Proschwitz missed his chance from the spot to give Hull a 3-1 lead after a pitch invasion by over-exuber-

ant home fans. Cardiff ’s Nicky Maynard then scored from the spot to make it 2-2 following Abdoulaye Faye’s handball. The equaliser stunned the KC Stadium into silence and meant that Watford, who were drawing 1-1 with Leeds at Vicarage Road 200 miles south, needed to find a winner to take them above Hull and into the Premier League. Gianfranco Zola’s side, reduced t0 10 men, poured forward but they were caught on the counter-attack in the dying moments as Ross McCormack raced clear and chipped substitute keeper Jack Bonham to give Leeds the points.

Bonham, making his senior debut, had come on in the first half following a lengthy delay to treat the injured Jonathan Bond, who had been drafted into the starting line-up after first choice Manuel Almunia picked up a knock in the warm-up.

It left both Hull and Bruce celebrating sweet returns to English soccer’s elite. Hull spent two seasons in the Premier League before dropping down to the Championship in 2010 and Bruce was sacked as Sunderland manager in November 2011.

“How many chances did we have today ... we could’ve put it to bed with the penalty for 3-1, and then they go down the other end and score,” said Bruce who took over at Hull last June.

“It was absolutely, totally ridiculous.

“Overall, after 15 years I’ve been

doing this, this is the biggest one because no one gave us a chance.”

Leicester sneaked into the top six with a stunning late 3-2 victory at East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest, who had started the day with hopes of earning a playoff place.

Anthony Knockaert’s stoppagetime winner took Leicester to 68 points, enough to oust Bolton Wanderers, who were in sixth place at kickoff. Bolton came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at home to Blackpool but it was not enough.

Brighton sent Wolverhampton Wanderers down to (third tier) League One with a 2-0 home win, and Palace came from behind with two goals in the last seven minutes - including one from former England striker Kevin Phillips - to relegate Peterborough with another remarkable 3-2 victory.

Bottom club Bristol City, who were already relegated, lost 4-1 to Charlton Athletic. Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson, Alex Ferguson’s son, said: “To be so close to what we had set out to do and have it taken away from us in the last few seconds is the worst way it could have happened.

We are all shattered.”

In the two-legged playoff semifinals this month, Watford play Leicester and Brighton face Palace.

The winners meet in the playoff final at Wembley on May 27 for a place in the Premier League. —Reuters

Newcastle mired in relegation battle West Ham 0

Newcastle 0

LONDON: Newcastle remain mired firmly in the Premier League relegation battle after a dour 0-0 draw at West Ham yesterday.

With relegation rivals Wigan and Aston Villa both winning, Alan Pardew ’s side are now just three points clear of the bottom three with only two matches left.

Pardew will have been grateful to see his team at least stop the rot after last weekend’s 6-0 thrashing by Liverpool.

The club’s worst home defeat for 88 years sparked talk of dressing room rifts between Newcastle’s large contingent of French players and the rest of the squad, but they gave a committed display at Upton Park, even if they badly lacked a cutting edge.

The Magpies were shored up at the back with the return of captain Fabricio Coloccini from a knee injury that had sidelined him since February 24.

Newcastle winger Hatem Ben Arfa, starting his first game since March 7, almost caught West Ham goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen off guard as he fired in a free -kick from an acute angle that fizzed over the top.

Papiss Demba Cisse went close to opening the scoring when he latched on to Yohan Cabaye’s ball and poked a shot past Jaaskelainen.

It looked to be enough to give the

visitors a crucial lead but West Ham defender Winston Reid managed to hack the ball away, with assistant referee Matthew Wilkes adjudging that the whole of the ball had not crossed the line.

Moments later Ben Arfa powered through the Hammers’ defence but his shot was too close to Jaaskelainen, who saved with ease.

Former Newcastle forward Andy Carroll had his first chance of the game just three minutes after half-

time, but the on-loan Liverpool striker headed Matt Jarvis’ cross wide from five yards.

West Ham midfielder Kevin Nolan, also playing against his old club, had a second half shot well saved by Rob Elliot, who then tipped Jarvis’ effort behind.

Carroll’s clever turn and shot forced another good save out of Elliot as West Ham pushed for the opening goal, but neither team could make the breakthrough. —AFP

LONDON: West Ham United’s English midfielder Kevin Nolan (center) and West Ham United’s French-born Senegalese midfielder Mohamed Diame vie with Newcastle United’s French midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa (left) during the English Premier League football match. —AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

S P ORT S Soccer results/standings Fulham 2 (Ruiz 70, 77) Reading 4 (Robson-Kanu 12-pen, 62, Le Fondre 75, Karacan 83); Norwich 1 (Holt 74-pen) Aston Villa 2 (Agbonlahor 55, 89); QPR 0, Arsenal 1 (Walcott 1); Swansea 0, Manchester City 0; Tottenham 1 (Bale 86) Southampton 0; West Brom 2 (Long 29, McAuley 50) Wigan 3 (Kone 39, McArthur 58, McManaman 80); West Ham 0, Newcastle 0.

English Football League results Championship Birmingham 1, Blackburn 1; Bolton 2, Blackpool 2; Brighton 2, Wolves 0; Burnley 2, Ipswich 0; Charlton 4, Bristol City 1; Crystal Palace 3, Peterborough 2; Derby 1, Millwall 0; Huddersfield 2, Barnsley 2; Hull 2, Cardiff 2; Nottingham Forest 2, Leicester 3; Sheffield Wednesday 2, Middlesbrough 0; Watford 1, Leeds 2.

Scottish Premier League results Dundee Utd 0, St Johnstone 1 (Craig 38); Hearts 3 (Walker 13, McHattie 43, Hamill 54pen) St Mirren 0; Inverness CT 4 (McKay 3, 27, 84, Shinnie 25) Motherwell 3 (McFadden 36, 64, Higdon 49-pen).

Scottish Football League results First Division Dumbarton 0, Partick 0; Dunfermline 1, Airdrie

2; Falkirk 4, Morton 1; Hamilton 1, Cowdenbeath 3; Livingston 2, Raith 3.

Second Division Albion 0, Queen Of The South 1; Arbroath 0, Alloa 1; East Fife 0, Brechin 3; Forfar 2, Ayr 1; Stenhousemuir 1, Stranraer 2.

Third Division Annan Athletic 1, Montrose 1; Clyde 1, Stirling 2; Elgin City 3, East Stirling 2; Queen’s Park 0, Peterhead 3; Rangers 1, Berwick 0.

German Bundesliga results VfB Stuttgart 0 Greuther Fuerth 2 (Sakai 51-og, Azemi 89); Hanover 2 (Sobiech 36, Diouf 70) Mainz 2 (Mueller 25, 79); Werder Bremen 2 (Hunt 2, de Bruyne 24) Hoffenheim 2 (Schipplock 85, 90+1); Nuremberg 0 Bayer Leverkusen 2 (Toprak 26, Kiessling 62-pen); Eintracht Frankfurt 3 (Meier 30, 87, Lakic 50) Fortuna Dusseldorf 1 (Schahin 78); Borussia Dortmund 1 (Grosskreutz 11) Bayern Munich 1 (Gomez 23).

Played Friday Borussia Moenchengladbach 0, Schalke 04 1 (Draxler 82) Serie A results Chievo 0, Cagliari 0.

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man Utd

35 27

4

4 79 36 85 - champions Man City 35 21 9 5 61 31 72 Arsenal 36 19 10 7 67 36 67 Chelsea 34 19 8 7 68 35 65 Tottenham 35 19 8 8 61 43 65 Everton 35 15 14 6 52 38 59 Liverpool 35 14 12 9 67 42 54 West Brom 35 14 6 15 48 47 48 Swansea 35 10 13 12 43 44 43 West Ham 36 11 10 15 41 49 43 Stoke 35 9 13 13 31 41 40 Fulham 36 10 10 16 46 57 40 Aston Villa 36 10 10 16 44 65 40 Southampton36 9 12 15 47 58 39 Norwich 36 8 14 14 34 56 38 Newcastle 36 10 8 18 43 66 38 Sunderland 35 9 10 16 39 51 37 Wigan 35 9 8 18 42 64 35 Reading 36 6 10 20 41 67 28 - relegated QPR 36 4 13 19 29 57 25 - relegated Note: Top four teams qualify for Champions League and bottom three clubs are relegated English Football League table Championship Cardiff 46 25 12 9 72 45 87 - champions Hull 46 24 7 15 61 52 79 - promoted Watford 46 23 8 15 85 58 77 - play-offs Brighton 46 19 18 9 69 43 75 - play-offs Crystal Palace 46 19 15 12 73 62 72 - play-offs Leicester 46 19 11 16 71 48 68 - play-offs Bolton 46 18 14 14 69 61 68 Nott Forest 46 17 16 13 63 59 67 Charlton 46 17 14 15 65 59 65 Derby 46 16 13 17 65 62 61 Burnley 46 16 13 17 62 60 61 Birmingham 46 15 16 15 63 69 61 Leeds 46 17 10 19 57 66 61 Ipswich 46 16 12 18 48 61 60 Blackpool 46 14 17 15 62 63 59 M’brough 46 18 5 23 61 70 59 Blackburn 46 14 16 16 55 62 58 Sheff Wed 46 16 10 20 53 61 58 Huddersfield 46 15 13 18 53 73 58 Millwall 46 15 11 20 51 62 56 Barnsley 46 14 13 19 56 70 55 Peterborough46 15 9 22 66 75 54 - Relegated Wolves 46 14 9 23 55 69 51 - Relegated Bristol City 46 11 8 27 59 84 41 - Relegated Scottish Premier League table Celtic 35 22 6 7 83 34 72 - champions Motherwell 36 17 9 10 65 49 60 Inverness CT 36 13 15 8 63 57 54 St Johnstone 36 13 14 9 43 40 53 Ross County 35 12 13 10 45 45 49 Dundee Utd 36 10 14 12 49 57 44 Aberdeen 35 11 12 12 39 41 45 Hearts 36 11 10 15 38 46 43 Kilmarnock 35 10 12 13 47 45 42 Hibernian 35 10 12 13 43 50 42 St Mirren 36 8 13 15 44 59 37 Dundee 35 7 8 20 25 61 29 Note: Teams in bottom half cannot finish above teams in the top half regardless of their points total as table splits in half in final weeks of the season

Third Division Rangers 36 25 Peterhead Queen’s Park Berwick Elgin Montrose Stirling Annan Clyde East Stirling

36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36

8

17 8 16 8 14 7 13 10 12 11 12 9 11 10 12 4 8 5

3 87 29 83 - champions 11 52 28 59 12 60 54 56 15 59 55 49 13 67 69 49 13 60 68 47 15 59 58 45 15 54 65 43 20 42 66 40 23 49 97 29

Serie A standings Juventus 34 25 5 4 66 20 80 Napoli 34 20 9 5 64 32 69 AC Milan 34 18 8 8 60 38 62 Fiorentina 34 18 7 9 65 42 61 Roma 34 16 7 11 68 54 55 Udinese 34 14 12 8 46 39 54 Inter Milan 34 16 5 13 51 46 53 Lazio 34 15 7 12 40 40 52 Catania 34 13 9 12 43 43 48 Cagliari 35 11 10 14 41 53 43 Bologna 34 10 10 14 44 43 40 Parma 34 10 10 14 39 43 40 Chievo 35 11 7 17 33 49 40 Atalanta 34 11 8 15 36 49 39 Sampdoria 34 10 9 15 38 52 38 Torino 34 8 13 13 43 51 36 Palermo 34 6 14 14 31 46 32 Genoa 34 7 11 16 34 51 32 Siena 34 9 9 16 34 49 30 Pescara 34 6 4 24 25 70 22 Note: Sampdoria (one point), Torino (one point), Atalanta (two points) and Siena (six points) all docked points for involvement in the “Calcioscommesse” illegal betting scandal.

German Bundesliga table Bayern 32 27 4 1 91 15 85 - champions Dortmund 32 19 8 5 77 37 65 Leverkusen 32 17 8 7 61 38 59 Schalke 04 32 15 7 10 55 47 52 Frankfurt 32 14 7 11 46 43 49 Freiburg 31 12 9 10 40 37 45 M’gladbach 32 11 11 10 38 43 44 Hamburg 31 13 5 13 37 50 44 Hanover 96 32 12 6 14 56 59 42 Mainz 05 32 10 11 11 38 38 41 VfL Wolfsburg 31 10 10 11 41 46 40 VfB Stuttgart 32 11 6 15 33 52 39 Nuremberg 32 9 11 12 34 44 38 Bremen 32 8 9 15 47 62 33 Duesseldorf 32 7 9 16 38 52 30 Augsburg 31 7 9 15 30 45 30 Hoffenheim 32 7 7 18 39 62 28 Fuerth 32 4 9 19 24 55 21 - relegated Note: Top three clubs qualify for Champions League, fourth goes into the Champions League play-offs; bottom two are relegated while third-bottom goes into play-off against third-placed side in Bundesliga 2.

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Liverpool v Everton Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 Man United v Chelsea Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5

15:30 18:00

Spanish League Scottish Football League tables First Division Partick 36 23 9 4 76 28 78 - champions Morton 36 20 7 9 73 47 67 Falkirk 36 15 8 13 52 48 53 Livingston 36 14 10 12 58 56 52 Hamilton 36 14 9 13 52 45 51 Raith 36 11 13 12 45 48 46 Dumbarton 36 13 4 19 58 83 43 Cowdenbeath36 8 12 16 51 65 36 Dunfermline 36 14 7 15 62 59 34 Airdrie Utd 36 5 7 24 41 89 22 Note: Dunfermline deducted 15 points for going into administration Second Division Queen of the South3629 Alloa Brechin Forfar Arbroath Shousemuir Ayr Stranraer East Fife Albion

36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 36

5

20 7 9 19 4 13 17 3 16 15 7 14 12 13 11 12 5 19 10 7 19 8 8 20 7 3 26

2 92 23 92 - champions 62 35 67 72 59 61 67 74 54 47 57 52 59 59 49 53 65 41 43 71 37 50 65 32 45 82 24

Mallorca v Levante Al Jazeera Sport +2 Zaragoza v Vallecano Al Jazeera Sport +2 Sevilla v Espanyol Al Jazeera Sport +6 Barcelona v Betis Al Jazeera Sport +2

13:00 18:00

22:00

13:30 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 21:45

German League Freiburg v Augsburg Dubai Sports Hamburger v Wolfsburg Dubai Sports

MADRID: Real Madrid forced Barcelona to delay their title celebrations as two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo helped them to a 4-3 win over Valladolid at the Santiago Bernabeu yesterday.

The result cut Barcelona’s lead at the top to eight points, although they can restore their advantage to 11 points with victory over Real Betis today. The visitors had taken a shock lead early on as Oscar Gonzalez slotted past Diego Lopez from a narrow angle. However, Marc Valiente’s own goal and a Ronaldo header put Madrid 2-1 in front before Javi Guerra finished off a flowing Valladolid move to ensure they went into half-time on level terms. Kaka restored the hosts’ advantage just after the break and Ronaldo looked to have sealed the points when he again found the net with his head 21 minutes from time.

Valladolid were given a late lifeline though when Oscar scored his second of the evening with a sensational long-range volley that found the bottom corner.

But Real held on to ensure a disappointing week given their failure to reach the Champions League final on Tuesday did end with some consolation. The hosts had been caught cold early on when a slack crossfield pass from Angel Di Maria was intercepted by Oscar and he galloped clear behind the Real defence before slotting past Lopez at his near post.

The goal seemed to spark Madrid into life though and after Kaka had forced Jaime Jimenez into a fine flying save, they were level on 26 minutes when Di Maria cut inside and saw his goalbound drive deflected into his own net by Valiente.

Jose Mourinho’s men continued to force the pace after drawing level as Ronaldo saw a free-kick deflected just wide and from the resulting corner

SPAIN: Real Madrid’s Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during the Spanish League football match against Valladolid. —AFP Jaime made a brilliant save to parry a Pepe header back in front three minutes after the restart as Benzema played in Kaka and Jaime couldn’t keep from close range.

However, there was nothing the Valladolid the Brazilian’s shot out despite getting a hand to it.

Ronaldo then just failed to get over Fabio keeper could do moments later as the Portuguese rose highest to meet Di Maria’s in-swinging cross Coentrao’s cross as another headed effort drifted over before Mourinho introduced Mesut Ozil and to flick home his 32nd league goal of the season.

Just three minutes later though Valladolid were Xabi Alonso in a bid to finish the game off.

And just two minutes later from Ozil’s corner level again as a wonder ful pass from Oscar released Omar Ramos down the left and his low Ronaldo again leapt highest to nod his second of the afternoon into the far corner. cross was turned in at the far post by Guerra.

However, some late slack ness from Real Madrid could still have easily gone into halftime in front as Karim Benzema had the ball in the allowed Valladolid back into the game and after net seconds after Valladolid’s equaliser only to Patrick Ebert could only turn Antonio Rukavina’s have been ruled very marginally offside and cross onto the roof of the net, Oscar did half the Ronaldo also saw an incredible free-kick came deficit with a sensational volleyed strike from fulback off the bar. The hosts started the second peri- ly 30 yards into Lopez’s bottom left-hand corod as they had finished the first though and were ner.—AFP

Marseille put PSG title party on ice

GERMANY: Bayern’s Emre Can (left) and Dortmund’s Moritz Leitner challenge for the ball during the German First Division Bundesliga soccer match. —AP

Dortmund, Bayern draw in warm-up to CL final BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund ended Bayern Munich’s 14-match winning streak in the Bundesliga yesterday as the warm-up for the Champions League final ended in a 1-1 draw.

For the first time since December, Bayern, who finished the match with 10 men, dropped league points, but both sides fielded just a handful of first-choice players set to start the Wembley final on May 25 — six from Dortmund and four from Bayern.

Although Bayern beat 1-0 Borussia in the German Cup quarter-finals in February, the Bavarians have failed to beat their rivals in six Bundesliga attempts-their last league win was back in February 2010.

Bayern had already been crowned Bundesliga champions four weeks ago and with Dortmund all but guaranteed second place, there was nothing more than bragging rights to play for at Signal Iduna Park.

An early goal by Dortmund wing Kevin Grosskreutz was cancelled out when Mario Gomez was left unmarked at the far post on 23 minutes and the Germany star headed Munich level. The game burst into life after the break as Dortmund were awarded a penalty when Munich centre-back Jerome Boateng blocked a shot with his hand, but Manuel Neuer saved Robert Lewandowski’s spot-kick. Bayern were reduced to 10 men for the final 25 minutes when right-back Rafinha was sent off. During his tussle down the right with Dortmund midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski, the Brazilian thrust his elbow up into the Poland captain’s face for a straight red. Blaszczykowski was also shown a yellow for remonstrating with the referee, while a heated discussion flared up on the sidelines between Bayern’s director of sport Matthias Sammer and Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp. Third-placed Bayer Leverkusen

sealed automatic qualification for the Champions League with a 2-0 win at Nuremberg.

A first-half goal from defender Omer Toprak and a second-half penalty by Germany striker Stefan Kiessling sealed victory, while winger Sidney Sam fired a late penalty attempt wide for the visitors.

The win means Leverkusen are guaranteed to finish at least third. Schalke 04 closed in on the Champions League play-offs with a 1-0 victory at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday which kept them fourth.

Eintracht Frankfurt captain Alexander Maier kept his side in the hunt for fourth with two goals in their 3-1 win at home to Fortuna Duesseldorf yesterday.

With two games left, fifth-placed Frankfurt are three points behind Schalke and are all but guaranteed a Europa League spot ahead of their remaining games against Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg.

Werder are still locked in the relegation battle after throwing away a 2-0 lead at home to second-from-bottom Hoffenheim with substitute Svenn Schipplock scoring two goals in the last six minutes to rescue a point.

Already-relegated Greuther Fuerth picked up a shock win at 10-man Stuttgart only their fourth victory of the season-as an own-goal from the home side’s Japan centre-back Gotoku Sakai and a late effort from Ilir Azemi sealed a 2-0 win.

The hosts had defender Antonio Ruediger sent off for a foul in the area on 74 minutes, but Stuttgart goalkeeper Sven Ulreich managed to save the resulting penalty. In yesterday’s other game, Hanover 96 drew 2-2 with Mainz. Today, Augsburg can escape the bottom three with just a point at Freiburg while Hamburg host Wolfsburg.—AFP

PARIS: Marseille ensured champions-elect Paris SaintGermain will have to wait another week before they can clinch the Ligue 1 crown after beating Bastia 2-1 yesterday.

Andre-Pierre Gignac struck twice, either side of Florian Thauvin’s equaliser just after half-time, to take his season’s tally to 13 as Marseille closed the gap on leaders PSG, who host Valenciennes on Sunday, to six points with three games remaining.

Victory for Elie Baup’s side stretched their unbeaten run to nine matches and saw them strengthen their grip on the second automatic Champions League qualifying spot after moving seven points of third-place Lyon, who travel to Nancy today.

“We were really sick that people were only talking about these 1-0 (victories),” Baup said, referring to the talk about the club’s 12 wins by that scoreline this term.

“In this match we really showed we had opportunities to play, the fans weren’t let down. Since the start we’ve always wanted to do that, we haven’t always succeeded but today’s match was a pretty complete one,” added the Marseille coach.

A bright start from the hosts was punctuated by Gignac’s 12th-minute opener as he turned inside Fethi Harek after being picked out by Mathieu Valbeuna before deftly clipping the ball over Mickael Landreau.

Lucas Mendes narrowly missed doubling Marseille’s lead minutes later as he headed a Valbuena corner against the crossbar, while Gignac fired straight at Landreau after a poor clearance from the Bastia goalkeeper cannoned off Jordan Ayew into the France striker’s path.

Gignac was again thwarted by Landreau after a bustling run that took him past Sylvain Marchal before the former Lille ‘keeper scurried across his line to tip around an attempted pass that was inadvertently redirected goalwards by Harek.

The frame of the goal again came to Bastia’s rescue after Gignac volleyed an exquisite Valbuena cross against the bar just before half-time, and the visitors capitalised on their first-half fortune to level a minute after the break.

Rising star Thauvin, on loan from Lille, was afforded plenty of time as he collected the ball inside the centre circle with the 20-year-old winger advancing untroubled before unleashing a thunderous 25-yard strike beyond a helpless Steve Mandanda, halting his run without conceding a goal at 696 minutes. Morgan Amalfitano squandered a golden opportunity to restore Marseille’s lead just minutes later as his effort was brilliantly tipped over by Landreau.

Meanwhile Bastia, knowing a win would preserve their top-flight status, thought they had taken a 2-1 lead through Toifilou Maoulida only for his header to be correctly ruled out for offside before Julian Palmieri struck a venomous 25-yard volley narrowly wide of the post.

Modou Sougou appeared destined to net his first goal in Marseille colours after rounding Landreau on 67 minutes but Palmieri rushed back to make a critical block. Jordan Ayew was then expertly repelled by the palm of Landreau as Marseille’s frustration grew. But Gignac had the final say nine minutes from time as he raced onto a ball from Valbuena down the right, burst past Palmieri and steered the ball coolly into the far corner.—AFP

20:00

Italian League Udinese v Sampdoria Al Jazeera Sport +8 Milan v Torino Al Jazeera Sport +9 Parma v Atalanta Al Jazeera Sport +2 Lazio v Bologna Al Jazeera Sport +7 Juventus v Palermo Al Jazeera Sport +1 Catania v Siena Al Jazeera Sport +6 Genoa v Pescara Al Jazeera Sport +8 Napoli v Inter Al Jazeera Sport +1

Real keep Barca waiting

16:30 18:30

Inverness defeat Motherwell GLASGOW: Inverness Caledonian Thistle can still snatch second spot in the Scottish Premier League after Billy McKay scored a late winner to secure a hat-trick and a dramatic 4-3 win over Motherwell yesterday. The visitors arrived at the Caledonian Stadium needing just a point to clinch runners-up spot behind champions Celtic.

However, McKay got Inverness off to a perfect start when he fired in from close range in the third minute after Motherwell failed to clear a freekick into the box. Two goals in two minutes then put Inverness seemingly on easy street.

McKay, the Northern Ireland striker plucked from the English lower leagues, set up Andrew Shinnie to double their advantage in the 25th minute. A minute later, Shinnie then

returned the favour as McKay nicked in front of ‘keeper Darren Randolph to hammer his cutback into the net for the striker’s second of the match.

James McFadden handed Motherwell, who defeated Celtic last weekend, a lifeline 10 minutes before the break when his 20-yard strike found its way past Antonio Reguero in goal. Player of the year nominee Michael Higdon then slotted home his 27th of the season from the penalty spot just after the restart to give Motherwell hope.

Stuart McCall’s side then had Randolph to thank as he saved McKay’s 63rd-minute penalty after Shaun Hutchinson fouled Nick Ross.

And Motherwell equalised a minute later as McFadden got his second with a shot into the bottom right-hand corner from the edge of

the box. Henrik Ojamaa was sent off for the Steelmen in the 73rd minute after he was shown his second yellow card for a foul on Shinnie before McKay sealed the win and his hattrick when he pounced to prod home after Randolph parried a shot in the six-yard box. The win means Inverness, who remain on course to secure one of the SPL’s two places in the Europa League play-offs, are six points behind Motherwell with two games left, although the Fir Park side’s goal difference is vastly superior. St Johnstone remain just a point behind Inverness in fourth place after Liam Craig’s 38th minute strike secured a 1-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice.

Bottom side Dundee’s hopes of pulling off the great escape remain alive after Hearts thrashed second-

bottom St Mirren 3-0 at Tynecastle.

First-half goals from Jamie Walker and Kevin McHattie had Hearts in control before the visitors had defender Kenny McLean sent off for barging McHattie down to the ground after he burst into the box early in the second period.

Jamie Hamill drilled home the resultant penalty to make sure of the points that see Hearts leapfrog Edinburgh rivals Hibernian, who face Kilmarnock on Sunday.

Defeat leaves St Mirren, who haven’t won in the SPL since February, eight points ahead of Dundee in the relegation spot but the Dens Park side could reduce that to five with two games remaining if they can defeat Aberdeen today.

Celtic are in action away to Ross County today.—AFP

Newcastle mired in relegation battle

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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Real keep Barca waiting

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Cavendish in pink after storming Giro opener

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LONDON: Queens Park Rangers’ Jermaine Jenas (centre) attempts to clear the ball from Arsenal’s Lukas Podolski (right) and teammate Aaron Ramsey, during their English Premier league soccer match. — AP

Walcott lifts Arsenal into third spot QPR 0

Arsenal 1

LONDON: Theo Walcott fired the fastest Premier League goal of the season as Arsenal moved back up to third place with a 1-0 victory at relegated QPR yesterday.

England winger Walcott struck after just 20 seconds to help Arsene Wenger’s side establish a two-point gap ahead of fourth-placed Chelsea, 24

hours before Rafael Benitez’s side travel to Manchester United.

The Gunners were given a late scare when keeper Wojciech Szczesny was forced into a save from Loic Remy, but otherwise this was a comfortable step towards qualifying for the Champions League via a top-four finish. For QPR, there was only more disappointment following a painful week after last weekend’s relegation at Reading as they slipped to the bottom of the table.

Tottenham’s late victory over Southampton meant Arsenal had slipped back to fifth spot by the time they kicked off, but the news from White Hart Lane provided extra motivation for Wenger’s men.

And they were ahead in quick time

after unpicking the Rangers defence with a deceptively simple move that was capped by Walcott’s right-footed finish for his 20th goal of the season.

The home side had touched the ball just once before Tomas Rosicky’s right wing cross found Aaron Ramsey who headed down into the path of Mikel Arteta.

The midfielder feigned to shoot, wrong-footing centre back Clint Hill, then slipped the ball to Walcott breaking inside the area and the winger’s shot was powerful enough to find the net despite the efforts of keeper Robert Green.

Walcott had scored after just two minutes against Manchester United last time out but the Gunners had been

unable to hold onto the lead with the newly crowned champions recovering to force a draw.

This time, though, they were facing a side recently condemned to the Championship and the pattern of the first half suggested they were unlikely to suffer a similar disappointment.

Arsenal were in complete control and should have added a second long before the interval. In the 26th minute, Walcott produced a shot on the turn that struck the woodwork and would have led to the visitors’ second had Rosicky followed up with more determination.

QPR offered little by way of response and their efforts were summed up when Remy shot wasteful-

Spurs stay in hunt for CL place Tottenham 1

Southampton 0

LONDON: Gareth Bale enhanced his burgeoning reputation with another superb goal as Tottenham beat Southampton 1-0 yesterday to remain in the hunt for Champions League football next season.

Voted this season’s player of the year by both fellow professionals and sports writers, the Wales international broke the deadlock with a solo effort from outside the box with just four minutes remaining. And the goal means Tottenham can now head to Chelsea on Wednesday confident of getting something out of the game in hand both sides possess over Arsenal in their fascinating three-way tussle for the two available qualification places.

The result was nonetheless harsh on Southampton, whose performance had been worthy of at least a point.

But the south coast side know as well as anyone how potent Bale can be, having sold him to Tottenham for a fee rising to £7 million ($10.9 million, 8.3 million euros) in 2007.

Kick-off at White Hart Lane was

delayed by 30 minutes because of traffic problems caused by a chemical spillage that closed part of the M25 motorway.

When the game did get under way, there was an early chance for Spurs striker Jermain Defoe when the Southampton back line struggled to clear, but his shot ended up in the sidenetting.

Southampton’s reply was a move that caught Tottenham out as striker Rickie Lambert played right-back Nathaniel Clyne in behind the home defence.

Clyne flashed a powerful shot wide of the far post, but that was just the beginning of a spell of pressure from the away side, whose quick passing was impressive.

Tottenham captain Michael Dawson was forced to concede a corner to stop Guly Do Prado setting up Jay Rodriguez, who headed over from the ensuing setpiece. Tottenham were forced into a change 10 minutes before half-time when midfielder Mousa Dembele, who had been a pre-match injury doubt, was forced off.

The Belgian came off worse in a tussle with Rodriguez that saw Southampton awarded a free-kick, and Lewis Holtby came on to replace him.

Lambert blasted the free-kick past the wall, but Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris pulled off an excellent save to divert it onto a post and then did brilliantly to repel Steven Davis’ fol-

ly wide from 35 yards when he had team-mates in support.

Park Ji-Sung did little better when he found space inside the Arsenal penalty area only to send his effort high over Szczesny’s crossbar.

Rangers chairman Tony Fernandes had led the inquests into the club’s failure to stay out of the bottom three this season, condemning the efforts of some of the expensive recruits as unacceptable.

And there was little during the opening 45 minutes to suggest the chairman’s view was misguided. Boss Harry Redknapp attempted to spark his side into life with the half-time introduction of Shaun Derry for the unimpressive Stephane Mbia.

And the changes appeared to have the desired effect as QPR finally showed signs they could yet go down fighting. Andros Townsend tested the Arsenal goalkeeper with a powerful 25yard shot that Szczesny was forced to punch away. The revival didn’t last however, and it was Green who was by far the busier keeper as the second half progressed. The England international, recalled in place of Julio Cesar who was missing from the home squad after a week in which he has been linked with a move to Arsenal, was twice called into action, first to deny Santi Cazorla and then yet another effort from Walcott.

Arsenal maintained control and apart from Remy’s effort, they secured the points with ease. — AFP

Swans and City play out goalless draw Swansea 0

Man City 0

LONDON: Tottenham’s Jermaine Defoe tries an overhead kick but the shot is saved by Southampton’s Artur Boruc during their English Premier League soccer match. — AP low-up header. former Arsenal forward set up Clint Bale switched from a roving forward Dempsey for a good chance, but the role to his more usual left-sided berth for American scooped harmlessly over. the second period and immediately hit Referee Mark Clattenburg then twice the bar, but the whistle had already opted not to award Tottenham a penalgone for offside. ty, first when the ball hit Clyne on the Adam Lallana fired a Southampton arm and then when Bale went down reply straight at Lloris after getting the under Jack Cork’s challenge. better of Dawson, and it was not long But Bale was not to be denied and he before Lambert had another go from a won the game for Spurs in the 86th free-kick, this time firing wide from dis- minute with a superb effort. He cut tance. inside from the right flank and, having Tottenham were looking frustrated out-paced Luke Shaw, launched a blisand sent Emmanuel Adebayor on for tering low drive that flew past Saints Aaron Lennon on the hour mark. The goalkeeper Artur Boruc. — AFP

SWANSEA: A flat Manchester City played out a goalless draw with League Cup winners Swansea City in a typical end-of-season affair at the Liberty Stadium yesterday.

With little at stake for either side in south Wales, this encounter lacked any real intensity, although FA Cup finalists City had more chances to come away with the three points.

Substitute Edin Dzeko had the clearest opening of all, firing wide from six yards with the goal gaping after being set up by Pablo Zabaleta, and City’s failure to win means they could still be caught by second-placed Chelsea.

Swansea, meanwhile, have now gone seven Premier League games without a win and are struggling to hold on to their place in the top half of the table at the end of a campaign that will be forever be remembered for their triumph in Februar y ’s League Cup final against Bradford

City.

Michael Laudrup’s side were looking for a repeat of their 1-0 victory in last season’s corresponding fixture, and they star ted brightly, with Pablo Hernandez firing off target on two occasions in the first half. Michu let a great chance to add to his 17 league goals for the season go to waste when he missed the target from close range midway through the first period before the Spaniard saw appeals for a penalty waved away after appearing to be caught by Matija Nastasic inside the box.

City offered little in the first half but they might have taken the lead just before the interval when David Silva was denied by Ashley Williams and then Michel Vorm in quick succession.

After the break, City ‘keeper Joe Hart, who shook off a back injury to take his place in the visitors’ side, saved well from Hernandez, before Dzeko squandered two chances to snatch victory.

The Bosnian striker, who replaced Yaya Toure at the start of the second period, failed to convert Zabaleta’s cutback and then saw his header saved by Vorm in stoppage time. — AFP

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SEOUL: A long exposure photograph shows traffic commuting at night near South Korea’s landmark Namdaemun gate in Seoul yesterday. South Korea yesterday reopened its landmark Namdaemun gate to the public, five years after the historic jewel in central Seoul was burned down in an arson attack that shocked the nation. The 600-year-old Namdaemun (South Gate), which is listed as “National Treasure Number One”, has been painstakingly rebuilt at a cost of $24 million. —AFP

Dubai aims to treble tourism income Hospitality industry offers ‘mix of hotels’ DUBAI: Dubai aims to treble its annual income from tourism to 300 billion dirhams ($82 billion) by 2020, which would involve doubling the number of its hotel rooms, a senior official said. Tourism is crucial to Dubai’s economy, which had a gross domestic product of around $90 billion last year; it supports the emirate’s large retail industry as well as its hospitality sector.

Occupancy at Dubai’s 599 hotels, which have 80,500 rooms combined, was 78 percent in 2012 as the number of visitors rose 9.3 percent from a year ago to 10.16 million, according to data from the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

Helal Almarri, director-general of the

DTCM, told Reuters that the emirate was likely to have more than 160,000 hotel rooms by the end of the decade and aimed to attract 20 million tourists annually by then. Most decisions to build hotels would not be made by the Dubai government but by private companies. However, the Dubai government is active in supporting growth of the industry by providing infrastructure, marketing the emirate overseas, adjusting visa policies for visitors and expanding the network of the state-owned Emirates airline. Saudi Arabia, India and Russia will be the main contributors to expected growth in tourist numbers, Almarri told Reuters.

“With Emirates airline and other carriers we

focus very much on extending the routes to those markets,” he said.

Dubai’s main airport handled 5.85 million passengers in March, up 20.6 percent from a year earlier, according to airport authorities.

“Airport capacity is not on our critical list of issues to worry about,” said Almarri. “We can easily put on more flights at any time.”

Dubai is pressing ahead with a $7.8 billion plan to expand Dubai International Airport, and plans eventually to migrate traffic to an even bigger facility.

Traditionally, Dubai has been known for five-star hotels, but more budget hotels have been built in the last few years, appealing to a wider tourist base. Almarri

acknowledged this was an important trend.

“The importance in our growth is to have a mix of hotels,” he said. “Over the last five years the hotel offering in Dubai has become more diversified.”

At present, hotel guests stay for an average of 3.76 nights; hotel revenue was $5.13 billion in 2012.

Almarri said that to help increase the average length of stay, Dubai would build more entertainment facilities. Plans for several theme parks have been announced in the last few months by companies backed by the government or Dubai’s ruling family.

“I have every confidence that we will have over the next three to four years com-

Intel taps COO Krzanich as chipmaker’s next CEO NEW YORK: Intel, one of the pillars of Silicon Valley, is following its traditions and promoting an insider to the job of CEO. The world’s largest chipmaker is tasking Chief Operating Officer Brian Krzanich with steering it through an industry shake-up that is seeing tablets and smartphones overshadow Intel’s base in personal computers.

Intel announced that Krzanich will replace Paul Otellini on May 16. Six months ago, Otellini, 62, announced his surprise decision to resign and will end a nearly 40-year career with Intel, including eight years as CEO. Krzanich, who is 52 and spent his entire career at the company, comes out of a manufacturing organization where meticulous attention is required to churn out processors with billions of minute details.

Intel processors are the brains behind four out of every five PCs, but the company has been scrambling as PC sales plummet and people spend money instead on smartphones and tablet computers. Those mobile devices need processors that use less battery power, a technology Intel has only just mastered. In an interview, Krzanich said he will tackle the challenge of declining PC sales by relying on the assets that Intel is built on: its engineering prowess and enormous, billiondollar chip factories, which feature technologies that are years ahead of its competitors.

“Those assets will be focused more and more toward the ultra-mobility space ... tablets and phones,” Krzanich told The Associated Press. “These are areas that we need to build a presence in, and we have the assets to bring to bear on it. And those are the same assets that have made us so successful in the past.”

Krzanich’s appointment was not surprising. The chief operating officer job is the traditional stepping-stone to the CEO post at Intel. Both Otellini and his predecessor, Craig Barrett, held that job before becoming CEO. Krzanich isn’t inheriting Otellini’s title of president. It will go instead to software chief

Renee James, 48, creating a two-person “executive office” at the head of the company.

James had been another candidate for the CEO post, along with Stacy Smith, chief financial officer and director of corporate strategy.

Krzanich said the division of labor was his choice. He said he and James put together a strategy for getting into mobile chips, and when the board picked him as CEO, he requested that James become his second-incommand. “The best way to go implement (the strategy) quickly is to have two people in the leadership team going forward so you can work twice as fast,” Krzanich said.

Krzanich didn’t elaborate on the strategy he and James developed. Analyst Doug Freedman at RBC Capital Markets said that even though Krzanich is an insider and the expected CEO pick, he could still be preparing to steer the company in new direction, one where Intel is less focused on being a technology driver and more focused on helping its customers develop their products.

“Our view is Krzanich’s appointment was awarded as a result of changes in the future direction of the company, with these changes expected to become visible over the next few quarters,” Freedman said.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, said James’ promotion is a reflection of the importance of software at Intel today. Of the employees needed to create a new smartphone chip, 60 percent to 70 percent will be working on the software the chip needs to work and communicate with the rest of the phone, he said.

Krzanich started at Intel Corp in 1982 as a process engineer in New Mexico after graduating from college with a chemistry degree.

He worked his way up through the manufacturing side of the business to become COO in January 2012. Krzanich will be Intel’s sixth CEO since its founding 45 years ago. The relatively slow turnover reflects Intel’s success and its foundation as an operator of billiondollar factories that take years to pay off.—AP

ing on line a significant number of tourist attractions which are purely entertainmentlike theme parks,” said Almarri. Having been forced to provision heavily for bad loans following the collapse of Dubai’s real estate market in 2008-2011, banks have become more prudent about financing large-scale projects. Almarri said the theme parks would be funded largely through public-private partnerships.

“Theme parks are procured rather than built in many cases, so come with their own financing packages - the rides are built elsewhere, so you will probably find that many governments around the world are encouraging exports,” he said.—Reuters

Berkshire board in deal on next CEO

VERMONT: People fill out applications at the Green Mountain Flagging table at the annual Central Vermont Job Fair in Montpelier, Vt. The American economy and job market are moving in the right direction, just not very quickly.—AP (See Page 25)

Barroso defends Merkel on austerity BERLIN: European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso yesterday defended German Chancellor Angela Merkel against criticism that she is to blame for harsh austerity measures being implemented across Europe. “ What is happening in France or in Portugal is not the fault of Mrs Merkel or of Germany,” he is quoted as saying in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

“This crisis and the problems that go with it are not the result of German policies or the fault of the European Union.

They are the result of excessive spending policies, of lack of competitiveness and irresponsible action by the financial markets,” he said, according to the paper.

“The Eurogroup decisions are always taken unanimously. It’s totally unfair to present these measures as though they were imposed by a single country or a single institution,” Barroso is quoted as saying. He added that Merkel “invests a lot of time and energy into the European project. I wish we could say the same for all the other heads of government.”

Europe is becoming increasingly divided on the issue of austerity amid growing unpopularity with the public. An attack last week by French Socialists on Merkel’s drive for belt-tightening was the latest criticism of the German leader who is seen by many in Europe as the main driver of EU-imposed austerity.

OMAHA, Nebraska: Warren Buffett and the board of his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc are “solidly in agreement” on who should be the company’s next chief executive, he said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday.

But Buffett, as with past practice, did not actually name his successor as CEO. Speculation usually focuses on a small group of top Berkshire executives, among them insurance boss Ajit Jain and railroad leader Matt Rose. The 82-year-old Buffett, in response to a shareholder question, said he thinks all the time about what could go wrong at Berkshire after he is gone.

“The key is preserving a culture and having a successor, a CEO that will have more brains, more energy, more passion for it than even I have ... We’re solidly in agreement as to who that individual should be,” Buffett said.

Whoever ultimately takes over Berkshire will run a conglomerate that employs more than a quarter-million people in dozens of businesses worldwide, covering everything from ice cream to insurance and retail to railroads.

Its breadth means that its performance is often seen as a barometer for the broader economy. Earlier Saturday, one of Buffett’s top lieutenants said things were picking up but could improve further.

“It feels like a 2 percent economy. If we want to see GDP click up to 3.5 percent, 4 percent, you need to see more construction,” said Rose, CEO of the railroad Burlington Northern, in an interview.

Rose said BNSF was seeing “across the board” increases in demand to ship things like concrete, roofing tiles and cars. But as much as investors want to hear about Berkshire’s growth potential and the state of the economy, some also attend the meeting just for a good laugh.

The meeting opened, as it does every year, with a video montage. This year’s included a duet between Buffett and singer Jon Bon Jovi and a take -off on the T V series “Breaking Bad.” Some of the best comedy, though, usually comes in the verbal sparring between Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger over the course of the day. The two are close - they usually share an oversize box of peanut brittle during the meeting - but Munger’s acerbic tongue pops out from time to time.

“I come to see Charlie Munger needle Warren Buffett only he can,” said Sherman Silber, a doctor and shareholder.

— Reuters (See Page 22)

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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Bayt.com weekly report

NBK to reward customers with amazing Azimut Yacht

Hiring senior executives that last

By Lama Ataya

KD 180,000 in cash prizes in summer KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) launches its annual summer campaign offering its customers the chance to win an astonishing Azimut 40 Flybridge Yacht as well as up to KD 180,000 in cash prizes.

From May1st until September 15th, NBK Cardholders can participate in the promotion and earn unlimited chances in the three draws throughout the summer. In addition to the grand prize draw for the Azimut 40 Yacht, 18 winners will be reimbursed for all their spending using NBK Cards up to KD10,000.

For every cumulative KD20 spent in Kuwait with NBK Credit or Prepaid Cards, Cardholders will earn a chance to enter the draws. Cardholders will triple their chances by using their NBK Credit, Prepaid and Debit Card abroad or by shopping on international sites.

Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh “We always strive to reward our customers. Last summer we gave away a McLaren MP4-12C. This year, we are giving away the Azimut Yacht,” said Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh, NBK General Manager, Consumer Banking Group. “This is our biggest promotion of the year and we want our Cardholders to

enjoy the summer even more.”

“We are keen to always exceed our customers’ expectations and deliver superior value to them. We encourage our Cardholders to use their NBK Cards during the summer to enjoy this exclusive promotion,” added Al-Nahedh.

NBK cards are accepted worldwide and are the safest, most convenient and rewarding way to pay. For more

Buffett leads annual meeting like no other OMAHA: Before facing questions from a crowd of more than 30,000, billionaire Warren Buffett started yesterday by being mobbed by fans at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting.

Shareholders again treated the 82year-old investor like a rock star at yesterday’s annual meeting.

Admirers held their cell phones and iPads in the air as they surrounded Buffett in the meeting’s 200,000-square-foot (18,600-square-meter) exhibit hall. A pack of security guards created a buffer around Buffett as he visited displays selling Berkshire’s See’s Candy, explaining BNSF railroad’s virtues and highlighting some of the company’s other 80-plus subsidiaries. Andy Paullin, drove to Omaha from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday for attend the meeting and learn from Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, just as he has done nearly every year since 2007.

“It’s exciting to be here and listen to these guys,” he said. “I can’t believe more people aren’t interested.” At the See’s booth, Buffett got a lesson in making hand-dipped bonbons. Then See’s manufacturing manager Steve Powell got Buffett to autograph his white uniform coat, demonstrating that employees are nearly as excited about meeting Buffett as shareholders.

“He was right there. Why not? It’s Mr Buffett,” said Powell, explaining why he

W

information log onto nbk.com or contact Hala Watani on 1801801.

The Azimut 40 Flybridge is one of the most luxurious yachts designed by Azimut-Benetti, the world renowned yacht manufacturers, combining elegance and comfort.

Seas & Deserts Group is the exclusive Azimut Yachts dealer in Kuwait.

Kuwaiti crude rises to $100.10pb: KPC

asked for the autograph. “He’s wonderful.”

Powell said he’ll probably frame the coat and display it at work when he returns to California.

The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting began humbly in 1982 with a crowd of 15 in an insurance company cafeteria.

It has been growing steadily just as the company’s stock price rose to become the most-expensive in the US, reaching $162,904 for a Class A share on Friday.

Buffett will sit on stage with his 89year-old business partner, Munger, to answer questions from shareholders, journalists and financial analysts for six hours. Amaury Fernandez and his best friend Rick Cabrera traveled to the meeting from Miami because Fernandez is interested in investing and admires Buffett and Munger.

“They are two of the most remarkable men I’ve ever learned about,” Fernandez said. “We don’t know how much longer these gentlemen are going to be alive.”

Jim Weber, CEO of Berkshire’s Brooks Running company, said he has been reading Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders since the 1980s - long before Brooks became part of Berkshire. Weber had even attended four Berkshire annual meetings before Brooks was acquired in 2006 along with Russell Athletic.

“If you’re in the business world, it’s a bucket list item. There’s no other annual meeting like it,” Weber said. — AP

demand from the largest oil consumer in the world as the US Labor Department said “the new increase in employment pulled the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent.” Brent crude futures, June delivery, touched a high of $1.34, reaching $104.19pb while US light crude oil gained a high of $1.62, reaching $95.61pb. — KUNA

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti crude oil was selling for $100.10 per barrel (pb) on Friday on a gain of $2,05 compared to the previous rate of $98.05pb, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) yesterday.

The rise in oil prices in global markets was a result of unexpected employment growth in the United States as well as expectations of an increase in oil

Outlook grim in Venezuela’s essential oil industry recent weeks and Chavez’s heir, Nicolas Maduro, appears to have done little to address declining production, billions in debt and infrastructure deficiencies that have caused major accidents including a blaze that killed at least 42 people at Venezuela’s largest refinery last year. Maduro has retained Chavez’s oil minister and the head of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Rafael Ramirez. And he appears intent on continuing to send cut-rate oil to members of the 18-nation Petrocaribe alliance, for which Venezuela is hosting a summit yesterday.

Ramirez said Friday that Maduro would use the meeting to propose creating a special economic zone for group members. PDVSA, which accounts for 96 percent of the country’s export earnings, no longer “generates enough income to cover all its costs and finance its commitments,” said Pedro Luis Rodriguez Sosa, an energy expert at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Administration in Caracas.—AP

MORON, Venezuela: Only the filthy water from broken sewer pipes keeps the dust down in front of Ramon Boet’s shop, which sells statues of saints and other religious objects.

In the distance, massive tankers pull up to a half-century-old refinery that processes much of the oil that earns Venezuela more than $100 billion a year. “It doesn’t help us at all,” Boet, 58, says as a blackout snuffs the lights in his shop in this Caribbean coastal town. He closes before dusk. Too many robbers. The oil flowing from the El Palito refinery sells for more than five times what it cost when President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999. Yet when Chavez died in March he left Venezuela’s cash cow, its state-run oil company, in such dire straits that analysts say $100-a-barrel oil may no longer be enough to keep the country afloat barring a complete overhaul of a deteriorating petroleum industry.

The situation is more urgent than ever, analysts say. The price of crude has slumped in

ith Six in 10 professionals feeling that turnover among senior executives is lower than that among junior executives, as per the Bayt.com ‘Hiring Management in the MENA’ poll (August 2012), perceptions in the MENA are largely that senior executives in the region are more likely to remain stable in their jobs than their junior counterparts.

However, for companies that face the situation of a C-suite executive departing from the team repercussions can often be enormous.

These can include lower employee morale, new candidate sourcing, attraction and induction expenses, side-tracking of departmental growth and productivity objectives and more.

Here are three popular practices suggested by experts at Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 Job Site, to keep in mind when hiring senior executives: 1. Conduct good due diligence: Whether your company has its own internal recruitment team or you work with head-hunters or executive recruiters, don’t simply assume that they have done a thorough and complete research of the candidate’s professional profile. According to Bayt.com’s ‘Hiring Management in the MENA’ poll (August 2012), about 16 of professionals feel that senior candidates are rarely or never researched online before being hired.

A simple online search can reveal a lot about the candidate. Is the candidate fastidious about his/her online professional public profile? Are their professional views and accomplishments relevant to and in harmony with your company’s values and objectives?

Look for endorsements and try to get references and recommendations and to get in touch with people the candidate worked with previously. The more information you have the more accurately you can detect patterns that can relate to their potential success working within your company. After all, senior executives can either help sustain a healthy corporate culture or lower morale.

2. Go beyond the typical interview: Go beyond a typical interview and introduce elements that include ‘assessment’ mechanisms. These assessments could be asking to present on a particular project, devising a sales/marketing plan, role playing, team exercises etc. Such a comprehensive interview can help you assess the candidate’s ability to think on their feet and their analytical and problem solving skills as well as their team and leadership and communication skills 3. Source internally: Often it makes a lot of sense to try promoting from within rather than immediately casting the net very wide.

Bayt.com’s ‘Hiring Management in the MENA’ showed that 42.2 of professionals say that top talent is usually promoted from within the company. Beyond the monetary savings associated with attracting, sourcing and retraining external talent, an obvious benefit of this would be that an internally promoted hire is a product of the company’s work culture and has internalized the organization’s mission and vision and values. This newly appointed manager can now lead their team by example and motivate them in a more streamlined, cohesive and immediate manner as the induction and adjustment period normally associated with an external hire can be drastically reduced.

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

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2841000 .4338920 .3707360 .3043390 .2795430 .0497330 .0443660 .2963730 .0365940 .2291130 .0029600 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0773800 .7538810 .0000000 .0757800 .7382100 .0000000

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

ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.917 5.294 2.892 2.246 3.297 231.870 36.748 3.651 6.927

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000

.2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

Thai Baht Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

9.728 94.221 0.271 0.273

Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

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

ARAB COUNTRIES 39.950 40.618 1.331 177.970 402.291 1.914 3.100 34.238

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 285.200 Euro 374.750 Sterling Pound 443.340 Canadian dollar 282.940 Turkish lira 158.720 Swiss Franc 306.010 US Dollar Buying 284.000 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL DRAFT 299.45 285.97 306.21 376.06 284.60 444.81 2.98 3.675 5.263 2.245 3.313 2.896 77.55 757.78 40.62 405.45

Selling Rate 284.600 286.245 443.135 372.160 306.715 753.485 77.465 78.120 75.855 401.190 40.535 2.245 5.298 2.887 3.650 6.913 698.135 3.920 10.160 4.065 3.355 93.880

Bahrain Exchange Company

GOLD 298.000 150.000 77.500

CURRENCY

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 UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar

743.000 78.500 76.400

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

GCC COUNTRIES 76.084 78.395 741.070 757.810 77.690

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

740.69 78.59 76.02

SELL CASH 298.000 285.000 307.000 374.500 285.500 449.000 3.300 3.720 5.450 2.430 3.400 2.953 78.000 756.800 40.500 410.000

BUY Europe 0.4353931 0.0061368 0.0462920 0.3697939 0.0453316 0.4325910 0.0399861 0.3018575

0.4443931 0.0181368 0.0512920 0.3699359 0.0505316 0.4400910 0.0449861 0.3088575

Australasia 0.2819641 0.2339537 0.0001112

0.2939641 0.2439537 0.0001112

Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars

America 0.2755957 0.0001482 0.2825000

0.2845957 0.0001662 0.2846500

Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo

Asia 0.0036053 0.0031575

0.0036603 0.0033875

British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling

SELL

Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht

0.0450535 0.0164433 0.0000442 0.0341291 0.0052334 0.0000243 0.0028429 0.0028434 0.0033451 0.0881639 0.0031625 0.0028636 0.0064636 0.0000727 0.2267349 0.0022045 0.00932980

0.0500535 0.0195433 0.0000502 0.0372291 0.0052974 0.0000294 0.0038429 0.0030234 0.0035751 0.0951639 0.0033625 0.0029036 0.0069336 0.0000757 0.2327349 0.0022465 0.0098980

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

Arab 0.7486136 0.0389769 0.0128685 0.1481701 0.0000792 0.0001731 0.3959095 1.0000000 0.0001746 0.0221506 0.0012088 0.7283396 0.0775310 0.0753733 0.0462820 0.0031761 0.1762745 0.0760724 0.0012840

0.7571136 0.0405361 0.0193685 0.1499601 0.0000797 0.0002331 0.4034095 1.0000000 0.0001946 0.0461506 0.0018438 0.7393396 0.0783140 0.0760133 0.0468320 0.0033961 0.1822745 0.0775224 0.0013840

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

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 284.200 377.250 444.100 284.350 2.940 5.285 40.520 2.243 3.650 6.905 2.893 757.000 77.475 76.000

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

BUSINESS

ADB faces funding crunch, says India Bank must expand resource base: Chidambaram

SAN JOSE: President Barack Obama and Costa Rica’s President Laura Chinchilla shake hands at the end of their joint press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Friday. —AP

Obama: US, Latin America must strengthen economies SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: President Barack Obama came to Latin America eager to move the region’s relationship with the US beyond fighting drugs and organized crime, yet the pervasive problems still trailed him throughout his three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica.

In the Costa Rican capital Friday, Obama defended his administration’s efforts to stem US demand for drugs that many regional leaders see as a driving factor in their security issues. He said the US and Latin America share “common effects and common responsibilities” for the troubles and argued that his country has suffered from the drug epidemic as well.

“There’s a cost obviously in the United States as well,” Obama said during a joint news conference with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla. “It’s not as if we don’t have tragic drug problems in the United States.”

The president singled out the violence that has raged in his hometown of Chicago, where the murder rate has soared, saying there are young people killed there “every day as part of the drug trade.”

Obama’s visit is his first to Latin America since winning a second term, in part due to the overwhelming support he received from Hispanic American voters. His trip is being followed with great interest by Hispanics in the US as well as in Mexico, Central America and further to the south.

In both Mexico and Costa Rica, Obama cast economic growth as the best way to combat violence and keep drugs and organized crime from taking hold of another generation.

“We have to make sure that everybody feels opportunity,” the president declared in Costa Rica. “Even in countries that are doing well, the scourge of drugs and drug trafficking will still be there.

And there still needs to be a strong law enforcement component. But we can do better than we are currently doing. “ The president had sounded a similar message earlier Friday in Mexico, which he touted as a nation ready to take “its rightful place in the world.” During a speech to students, he urged Mexico’s young people to help the region move beyond “old stereotypes” and highlighted developments in technology and manufacturing.

While many people in Central America are also weary of the focus on the drugfueled violence, it remains an undeniable part of daily life in many parts of the region. Costa Rica has fared better than many of its neighbors, but it worries about spillover from nearby countries. Honduras, for example, now has the highest homicide rate in the world, with about 7,200 people murdered last year in the tiny nation of 8 million people, most in drug-related crime.

Obama acknowledged the role of US demand for drugs and said his administration has spent $30 billion to reduce demand in recent years. But he acknowledged that the US is a “big market” and that “progress is sometimes slower than we’d like it to be.” The president arrived in the capital of San Jose on a rainy afternoon but received a warm welcome from thousands of Costa Ricans who lined the road near the airport. Some waved American flags.

Others held homemade signs, including one that said “Fired Up!” - a reference to his campaign slogan - in a much more demonstrative welcome than he had received in Mexico.

After Obama met one -on-one Chinchilla, the first woman to head the Central American nation, the two leaders were serenaded by local schoolchildren waving US and Costa Rican flags. Later Friday, Obama met with leaders of the regional Central American Integration system, chaired by Chinchilla. The network also includes Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. He’ll speak to business leaders in Costa Rica on Saturday before returning to Washington in the evening.

Obama has also been pressed throughout his trip about the immigration debate raging on Capitol Hill. The president is largely supportive of the bipartisan bill, which would strengthen borders and provide a pathway to citizenship for many of the 11 million people already in the US illegally.

However, the draft legislation leaves out measures Obama has promoted on his own, including the recognition of gay and lesbian couples. Many Republicans are unlikely to support a bill that includes recognition of same-sex couples, raising the question of whether the president would fight for the provision if it meant losing out on a comprehensive bill. Obama tried to sidestep the issue Friday, saying that while he believes the provision is “the right thing to do,” it was premature for him to talk about what he’ll do before he sees a bill on his desk.

However, Obama said earlier Friday in an interview with Spanish-language television network Univision that he would not sign a bill that does not include the pathway to citizenship. Before traveling to Costa Rica, Obama wrapped up his two-day trip to Mexico, his fourth visit to the country since becoming president. He eagerly promoted Mexico’s improving economy and its democracy, saying “a new Mexico is emerging.”

“Mexico is also taking its rightful place in the world, on the world stage. Mexico is standing up for democracy not just here in Mexico but throughout the hemisphere,” Obama told a crowd of young people during a speech at Mexico City ’s grand National Museum of Anthropology.

“Mexico’s sharing expertise with neighbors across the Americas. When they face earthquakes or threats to their citizens or go to the polls to cast their votes, Mexico is there helping its neighbors.”

Despite Obama’s rosy portrayal, Mexico’s high poverty rates have barely budged in recent years. Its economy grew by only about a 1 percent rate in the first three months of 2013 and is not creating anywhere near the 1 million jobs annually it needs to employ young Mexicans entering the workforce.

The president has a domestic political incentive for trying to change America’s perception of Mexico. As Washington debates the immigration overhaul, Obama is seeking to convince the public and lawmakers that Mexico no longer poses the illegal immigration threat it once did. —AP

NEW DELHI: The Asian Development Bank is facing a funding crunch as the lending agency struggles to reduce widespread poverty in emerging market nations and improve ramshackle infrastructure, India warned yesterday.

The Asia-Pacific region, despite boasting the world’s fastest-growing economies, is still home to around two-thirds of the world’s poor, with some 1.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day.

Member countries of the Manila-based development bank need to consider ways to increase its resources to meet Asia’s massive needs for infrastructure, economic growth and to combat poverty, India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

“The support that the ADB can deliver for economic development and poverty reduction in the region will be seriously constrained by the lack of adequate capital,” he told the annual twoday meeting of the ADB’s board of governors.

“We may hit the wall (in funding) in about three years,” Chidambaram added, noting the amount of lending by Asia’s main development bank is expected to decline to $8 billion annually from $10.1 billion.

Some 5,000 delegates were at the two-day annual meeting, being held on the outskirts of New Delhi, of the board of governors of the lending agency that offers low-interest loans, grants and other support to fight poverty in Asia. The ADB’s support is also critically important to improve the quality of the region’s infrastructure, Chidambaram said, noting Asia needs a “humongous sum” of $8 trillion to $10 trillion over the next decade to upgrade its ports, roads and other infrastructure in order to fuel growth.

“The ADB has its work cut out,” said Chidambaram, who was speaking in his role as chairman of the ADB board of governors. The 67 members from the ADB are made up of 48 from the Asian region and 19 from elsewhere, mainly North America and Europe. Japan and the United States are its largest shareholders.

I f the ADB is to keep up its impor tant regional role, “its resource base has to expand

considerably”, Chidambaram said. India has a strong interest in seeing the ADB’s resource base strengthened as it is one of its biggest borrowers.

The ADB’s income from surplus resources

advanced countries,” said Nakao, Japan’s former vice finance minister for international affairs.

He was attending his first meeting as ADB head after being elected in April.

Japan has headed the ADB since its 1966

NEW DELHI: Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Tarao Aso (left) shakes hands with Senior Vice President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Sidharth Birla during a Japan-India Global Strategic Partnership Interactive meeting in New Delhi yesterday. Tarao Aso is in India to attend the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 46th Annual Meeting in India from May 2 - 5. — AFP invested in developed nations has fallen due to softening global interest rates aimed at spurring sluggish growth, the new president of the lending agency, Takehiko Nakao explained.

“Our income from surplus resources is lower than ever due to diminishing interest rates in

launch while an American is at the helm of the World Bank and a European leads the IMF, despite calls from some emerging nations for advanced countries to take more of a leadership backseat in global institutions. —AFP

US markets reflect economic optimism NEW YORK: Optimism about the economy swept through the stock market Friday, pushing two widely watched indexes past major milestones. After weeks of mixed signals about manufacturing and earnings, a surprisingly strong US jobs report gave investors confidence that the economy isn’t about to falter. The market jumped from the opening bell. Traders donned party hats, and a wave of buying helped the Standard and Poor’s 500 index crack the 1,600 mark for the first time. The Dow Jones industrial average broke through 15,000.

“There’s euphoria today,” said Stephen Carl, the head equity trader at The Williams Capital Group. “That’s what you’d have to call it.”

On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, brokers sported baseball caps emblazoned with “Dow 15,000.”

Jobs are crucial to keeping the stock market climbing. Big US companies are making record profits, but much of that has come from cutting costs, not boosting sales. More jobs, and more consumer spending, would help.

US employers added 165,000 workers last month and many more in February and March than previously estimated. The unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in four years, 7.5 percent. The Dow rose 142.38 points to close at a record 14,973.96, up 1 percent. The S&P 500 index climbed 16.83 points, or 1 percent, to 1,614.42, also a record. “We’re breaking through psychological barriers and that will continue to bring investors off the sidelines,” said Darrell Cronk, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. He called the jobs news “wonderful.”

Cronk, like many others on Wall Street, has been watching individual investors for signs they may finally have shed their fear of stocks. A surge in buying from them would help push

stocks higher. But individuals pulled more money out of stock mutual funds than they put in late last month, a reversal from the trend earlier this year, according to the Investment Company Institute.

They’ve had reasons to pull back lately. First came news of falling retail sales in March, then a series of weak manufacturing reports and signs of an economic slowdown in China. Other reports, including two out Friday, have

slow US economic growth, and pinch corporate profits. Friday’s jobs numbers suggested the private sector might be strong enough to overcome those obstacles.

In its report, the government revised its previous estimate of job gains up to 332,000 in February and 138,000 in March. The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April above the 138,000 added in the previ-

NEW YORK: A cleaner sweeps the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after the closing bell on Friday. The stock market surged, traders donned party hats, and the wave of buying drove three indexes through major milestones. —AP pointed to a slowdown. Factory orders sank in March and a gauge of growth in the service sector fell short of estimates. First-quarter earnings have been mixed, too. Though they’ve come in higher than expected, many companies have reported little or no revenue growth, which has spooked investors.

Investors have also been concerned that higher Social Security payroll taxes and sweeping government spending cuts that took effect earlier this year will

ous six months.

“Jobs are key,” said Randall Warren, chief investment officer of Warren Financial Service in Exton, Penn.

“Everyone is worried about things like fiscal policy, the government spending money it doesn’t have. If you want to turn that situation around, you have to get people off their couches.” On Friday, on market’s gains were broad. Eight of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 index rose. Nearly three stocks rose for

every one that fell on the NYSE. Companies that stand to benefit most from an upturn in the economy led the market. Those that make basic materials and produce oil and gas rose the most in the S&P 500 index.

US Steel rose $1.08, or 6.3 percent, to $18.14. General Electric rose 25 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $22.57. Dow Chemical rose 84 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $33.96. Utilities, consumer-staple companies and other safe-play stocks trailed the market as investors took on more risk.

The yield on the benchmark 10year Treasury note jumped from its lowest level of the year, as traders moved money out of the safety of government bonds. The yield rose to 1.74 percent from 1.63 percent late Thursday. Small-company stocks are more risky than bigger companies but can also offer investors greater returns.

On Friday, they outpaced the broader market. The Russell 2000 jumped 14.57 points, or 1.6 percent, to 954.42, a new all-time high.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 38.01 points to 3,378.63, an increase of 1.1 percent. Still, it remains well below its dot-com peak.

Stock markets overseas also rose on the US jobs report. The main indexes in France, Germany, Spain and Brazil climbed 1 percent or better. The S&P 500 is up 13 percent from the start of the year. The Dow is up 14 percent.

Some investors were skeptical. Tim Biggam, chief market strategist at the brokerage TradingBlock in Chicago, said he thought the market was being driven higher by people hoping that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to help the economy will keep working. Biggam said they’re ignoring troublesome trends. “This may be the time you want to avoid getting in the market in my opinion, rather than jump in,” Biggam said. —AP

US housing perks up, but too few homes for sale GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan: Beth Heinen Bell and her husband, Christian - like a rising number of Americans - are ready to jump into the real estate market and become homeowners. Yet they’re running into an obstacle that’s keeping the national housing recovery in check: There aren’t enough homes for sale. The housing shortage they face in Grand Rapids, Mich., a city known for its furniture industry and sleek downtown hospital complex, is fairly typical of what the country as a whole is facing this spring.

Some markets along the East and West coasts have grown red-hot. A handful of other cities remain depressed nearly four years after the Great Recession ended. But many more places are like Grand Rapids - a metro area of roughly 1 million that is strengthening slowly but steadily.

Like so many others, this Midwestern city 150 miles west of Detroit never experienced either the buyer frenzy or the price collapse that marked the boom and bust.

Yet it, too, was affected. Prices fell.

Homeowners lost equity. And now, many remain unable or unwilling to sell.

The shortage of homes is occurring just as ordinary Americans want to buy again.

More of them feel confident about their job and retirement account. Mortgage rates are

near historic lows. And prices are rising again, easing fears that new buyers might lose their investment in a home.

“The last four years have been rough,” says Christian Bell, a 31-year-old Presbyterian minister who has been renting a cramped apartment for the last decade. “But housing prices are starting to come back up.” A tight supply isn’t the only factor slowing what is otherwise shaping up as the strongest spring buying season since the housing boom ended nearly seven years ago. Some Americans have grown to prefer renting. Others who would like to buy lack strong enough credit or a large enough down payment to meet the stricter standards banks now impose.

Part of the reason for the supply problem is that when the housing market collapsed in 2006, many people lost so much equity in their home that they were unable or unwilling to sell. Prices have started to rise, but not enough to restore what many lost. Some still owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Even many who have enough equity to sell want to wait for further price increases.

“Every buyer wants to buy at the bottom, but no seller wants to sell at the bottom,” says Stan Humphries, chief economist at real estate information site Zillow.

“They’ve got this hypothetical price that they think the house is worth at the peak, and they don’t want to sell below that.”

Others don’t want to leave. During the depths of the recession, they chose to renovate their house instead of finding a new one. After paying for renovations, they now feel more invested and comfortable in their home.

That leaves many first-time buyers like the Bells - a group that makes up about one-third of buyers - competing for a small number of homes. Just a few years ago, the housing market was facing an oversupply of homes, one that eventually led prices to collapse. The bubble - and the bust - were worst in areas like Arizona, South Florida, Southern California and Las Vegas where developments kept popping up on vast tracts surrounding cities.

Banks offered absurdly low teaser rates to new homeowners who often bought with no money down.

When their loan rates climbed after the introductory period, many were left unable to pay. Banks foreclosed, home values fell and those homes ended up being sold for a fraction of their cost.

In the past two years, hedge funds, banks and other investors entered those

markets and helped soak up the supply and lift prices. Now, the country is facing a shortage of homes for sale.

In a few especially hot areas, such as around San Francisco and Seattle, some of the same kinds of bidding wars that inflated the housing bubble are back. Crowds of buyers are creating traffic jams outside open houses.

“People have been wanting to move for a very long time,” says Glenn Kelman, CEO of online real estate broker Redfin. “Somebody rang a bell and said the boom is back, and nobody wants to be late to the party.” The market in Grand Rapids is more subdued but still driven by a supply shortage.

The Bells recently toured a 142-yearold home. Calling it a “fixer-up project” would be generous. Floors drooped. Doorways tilted. The master bathroom had a comically low ceiling. The only thing working in the living room was a mouse trap. It was the only affordable house for sale in the small historic Heritage Hill neighborhood the Bells love. Within walking distance are shops and a church converted to a brewery.

Restaurants are packed on weeknights with young professionals snacking on bacon cheddar meatballs, polenta fries and chick-

en fried livers.

The only thing harder than finding a seat at the bar during happy hour is finding a home for sale nearby. Nationally, there were just 1.93 million homes on the market in March, down 16.8 percent from the prior year, according to the National Association of Realtors. In a healthy market, there’s roughly a six month supply. This March, that number had fallen to 4.7 months - a situation stacked against buyers.

As more would-be buyers bid on fewer properties, prices are being forced up at a rate that might be overstating the market’s health. Prices in the top 20 cities have risen 9.3 percent in the past year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index.

That’s the fastest year-over-year increase since May 2006. Homes now sit on the market for just 62 days, down from a median of 91 days last year. Would-be buyers who like a home are being urged to act fast.

The tight supply is a key reason that Susan Wachter, a real estate and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, estimates a full recovery is still three to five years away. Even so, Wachter calls this “a breakout spring.” The public now recognizes, she says, that the housing recovery will last. —AP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

BUSINESS

Ernst & Young report

Growth of middle class in emerging markets Hitting the sweet spot

consumers can help rescue the global economy.

Meanwhile, companies used to serving the middle-income brackets of the old Western democracies need to decide how to supply the new bourgeois of Africa, Asia and beyond.

By Nadeem Shafi KUWAIT: Since 1800 the world has seen two great middle class expansions, and we are living through a third. The nineteenth century industrial revolution created a substantial Western European and American middle class, which grew again after the Second World War - a spurt which this time included Japan. Today this is happening in the emerging markets (EMs).

In Asia alone, 525 million people can already count themselves middle class more than the European Union’s total population. Over the next two decades, the middle class is expected to expand by another three billion, coming almost exclusively from the emerging world.

Based on our research today we will discuss how this growth will change both developing and developed worlds. By 2030, so many people will have escaped poverty that the balance of geopolitical power will have changed completely, and global trade patterns will also be unrecognizable.

The twenty years in between will see more and more people entering the middle classes with new money and demands, and economists hope these

Who are the middle classes?

“Middle class” is a broad term; in many countries it is loaded with political, social and historical implications. For both economists and business executives, who need accurate and quantifiable information, it’s not really an issue of “class” at all, but rather income and spending power.

But even when reduced to pure economics, quantifying the middle class is still a remarkably contentious issue; for instance, depending on the standards used, estimates of the size of India’s current middle class range from 30 million to 300 million. One way to measure the middle class is to define it in relation to other “classes.” This is useful when looking at a single country, in which case you can define the middle class as simply all those except the richest and poorest 20%. But this makes comparison between countries very difficult, because every country has a different median income level. A wage that affords somebody a comfortable lifestyle in developing nations might barely cover basic expenses in much of the developed world. For “middle class” to be a useful term for economists and businesses, it needs to have a global definition. There is a surprisingly wide range of income brackets currently used for this purpose. For instance, the World Bank uses the range $2-$13 per day. In 2011, the African Development Bank claimed that a third of Africans had entered the middle classes using the range $2-$20 per day. Since 1995, the remarkable growth of the EM economies has brought millions

out of abject poverty, but has put far fewer people into the “global middle class”.

Only a quarter of the world’s population (1.8 billion) earns $10-$100 - 60% in the developed world and 20% in the BRIC countries. By this definition, rather than the World Bank’s, a sobering 70% is poor (i.e., earn less than $10 per day), and only 2% rich.

But it is this richer, global middle class that we believe will grow rapidly over the next 20 years. This growth will completely change global wealth distribution By 2030, we believe two-thirds of the global middle class will live in the AsiaPacific region, up from just under onethird in 2009. On the other hand, although North America’s and Europe’s middle class populations will stay roughly constant, their share of the population will be drastically reduced - Europe’s by more than half, to 14% by 2030.

A significant proportion of the new Asian middle class are also expected to be at the upper end of the income bracket, with impressive spending power.

Large populations and rapid economic growth mean China and India will become the powerhouses of middle class consumerism over the next two decades.

Emerging markets growth will also dramatically redistribute the bourgeois around the world.

Today, China has around 150 million people earning between $10 and $100 per day. As long as China continues to grow, and necessary economic reforms are made, we expect as many as 500 million Chinese could enter the global middle class over the next decade.

By 2030 around one billion people in China could be middle class - as much as 70% of its projected population.

India’s global middle class, meanwhile, at around 50 million people, or 5% of the population, is much smaller. We expect

this to grow steadily over the next decade, reaching 200 million by 2020.

After this, we expect growth to really accelerate, reaching 475 million by 2030 and adding more people than the Chinese to the global middle class worldwide after 2027.

China’s middle class will grow quickly earlier because it has more people on the verge of earning over $10 per day.

Currently, around 25% of China’s population earns $5-$10 per day and 40% earn $2-$5.

The idea of a growth “sweet spot” extends beyond a simple trigger-threshold of rapid consumer growth. For economists, this happens when people start leaving poverty and entering the middle class in their millions.

But for businesses, a more useful sweet spot occurs when significant numbers begin earning the equivalent of over $10 per day, and enter our global middle class. At this point buying habits should attract the attention of companies used to supplying the developed world’s middle class markets.

The sweet spot also produces a “middle class effect”, where the size of the middle class is directly proportional to economic growth. Hitting the sweet-spot accelerates growth, which, in turn increases the middle class, producing a virtuous circle. Projecting economic growth is important, but companies hoping to tap EM middle class markets need more specific information. Different markets have different sweet spots; for instance, for the motor vehicle market this occurs between per capita income levels of $5,000 and $12,000, with a peak of around $8,500.

China is a good example of this.

In 2001 its automobile market was tiny, with total annual sales of less than a million units. As per capita incomes increased, reaching $6,000 in 2008, the

market underwent massive expansion. In 2004, General Motors sold 1 car in China for ever y 10 in the US; by 2009 this reached parity.

In 2009 total automobile sales in China were over 10 million units.

Although inequalities remain, over the last few decades the rapid growth of emerging nations like China and India has brought millions out of poverty. However, we are only beginning to see the effects of middle class expansion. Regardless of how the forecasts play out, it’s clear that by 2030 there will have been radical shifts in wealth distribution and the economic and political balance of power.

But what are the shorter term implications? A key question for economists is whether or not EM consumers’ new-found spending power is enough to rescue the global economy.

Our research suggests that, although EM consumption will not produce a return to pre-2008 global growth rates, it may be enough to prevent a return to global recession in the next few years (providing consumption in developed markets does not decline).

There is no doubt, however, that the emergence of a new middle class, with spending power to match developed nations, will offer tremendous business opportunities.

The emergence of a wealthy middle class will open up new markets not just in consumer goods, but also for financial services or the health sector, for instance.

As these graphics show, there is still plenty of room for businesses to expand in these sectors in the emerging world before parity with the developed world is reached.

I wish you a peaceful week!

— Nadeem Shafi, Partner Assurance, Ernst & Young Training Center, Ernst & Young

Bangui market tills ring empty amid poverty

A specialist wears a “Dow 15,000” hat as he works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday.—AP

Dow breaks 15,000; Is it too late to buy?

NEW YORK: Are stocks worth buying now? With the Dow Jones industrial average break ing through 15,000, it’s natural to worry that stocks have gone up too far. But higher priced stocks aren’t necessarily overpriced. They may still be a good deal if corporate earnings are rising fast, and you think that trend is likely to continue. A solid April jobs report on Friday is a sign the economy is strengthening. That could lead to higher profits. What’s more, many of the traditional threats to bull markets - rising inflation and interest rates, a possible recession - don’t seem likely soon.

That said, stocks are no bargain.

Buy them only if you’re willing to ride the inevitable ups and downs and hold on for a while. A look at some forces that could push stocks higher in the coming months: HIGHER EARNINGS: Stock investors cheered when employers added 165,000 jobs in April and unemployment fell to a four-year low. More people working means more money flowing into the economy. That could help companies extend a remarkable streak of ever-higher profits.

Companies in the Standard and Poor’s 500 index posted a record $102.83 earnings per share last year, or 17 percent higher than in 2007, when stocks were last near this level before the financial crisis.

How do stock prices compare with those earnings? To answer that, experts look at what’s called price-earnings ratios, or P/Es. Low P/Es signal that stocks are cheap relative to a company’s earnings; high ones signal they are expensive. P/Es are calculated by divid-

ing the price of each share by annual earnings per share. So a $100 stock of a company that earns $10 per share trades at 10 times. The lower the P/E, the cheaper the stock.

There are various P/Es. Some use past earnings and other future earnings. They give a mixed picture, but together suggest that stocks are reasonably priced.

If you look at earnings from the past year, the S&P 500 is trading at 15.6. That is slightly lower, or cheaper, than the 17.2 average for this P/E since World War II, according to S&P Capital IQ. Using forecast earnings for the next 12 months, you get a P/E of 14.2, the same as the average over ten years, according to FactSet, a provider of financial data. Another measure shows stocks are somewhat expensive, however. Some investors think you should look at annual earnings averaged over 10 years instead of just one year. This eliminates any surge or fall due to changes in the business cycle.

Dividing stock prices by a 10-year average of earnings yields a P/E of 23 times. That is higher, or more expensive, than the average 18.3 since WWII. A word of warning: You shouldn’t invest just by looking at P/Es. They are more guide than gospel. There have been long periods when stocks traded at lower or higher P/Es than the averages.

ECONOMIC EXPANSION: With Friday’s job report, the odds for continued expansion got better.

The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April, above the 138,000 average for the previ-

ous six months. The report follows news that the pace of economic growth picked up in the first three months of this year, home prices rose at the fastest pace in nearly seven years and automakers had their highest sales for April since the recession.

Tally it up, and financial analysts see earnings for the S&P 500 rising 12 percent in the last three months of the year, a big jump from an estimated 4.8 percent gain in the first three months.

There’s plenty of reason for caution, though. For starters, analysts tend to overestimate earnings several quarters in the future, and may be doing that again. Early last year, they expected a 13-percent jump in earnings in the last three months of the year. They got four percent instead.

And some experts believe Wall Street is underestimating how much the sweeping federal spending cuts that kicked in March 1 are going to slow the economy as government workers are furloughed and contractors lose business. If they’re right, that could erode earnings.

Investors also have to keep on eye overseas. Half of revenues at big US companies are abroad and some key economies are slowing or contracting. This can hit stocks hard, as General Electric shows.

Last month, when GE reported a 17 percent fall in revenue from Europe, its stock dropped four percent in a day. Many European countries are mired in recession, and the outlook has only gotten worse. Unemployment in the eurozone just rose to an all-time high of 12.1 percent. China has put

investors on edge, too. On April 15, news that it grew more slowly than expected in the first three month of this year helped push the Dow down 266 points, the biggest drop for the year.

Nervous yet?

One thing to keep in mind is that big, sustained drops in stocks - ones that end bull markets - are most often caused by US recessions, and that doesn’t appear likely soon.

Four of the past five bull markets ended as investors dumped stocks before the start of a recession. They sold stocks two months before the star t of the Great Recession in December 2007 and a year before the March 2001 recession.

The US economy has grown between 1-2.5 percent in the past three years. That’s pitiful compared with the long-term average of 3 percent. Still, it’s growth.

LOW INTEREST RATES: If recessions cause stocks to plummet, what causes recessions?

In most cases it’s the Federal Reserve raising short-term interest rates because it fears high inflation from an overheated economy. Fed hikes were the trigger for three of the past four recessions.

But today, the greater fear is too little inflation, not too much. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation rose only 1 percent in the year through March. The Fed’s target is 2 percent.

What’s more, the Fed has said it would keep key short-term rates nearly zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent. It is 7.5 percent now.—AP

BANGUI: Oils, soap and smoked fish may have returned to Bangui’s colorful market stalls, but underneath the luring smells and lively buzz of haggling vendors, the tills ring empty, a sign of the Central African Republic’s crippling finances and the constant fear of looters. “I’ve been open since seven this morning, but at noon, I barely have 3,500 CFA francs (5.34 euros, $7) in my till. It’s pathetic. Civil servants aren’t being paid, the money doesn’t circulate.

We don’t know what will become of us unless the situation in the countr y improves,” said merchant Anour Tokis.

Just over a month after the Seleka rebel coalition entered the capital and seized power, the economy of the Central African Republic, already one of the world’s poorest nations, has plunged even further.

While civil servants are still waiting for their March pay cheques, the countr y ’s new interim president Michel Djotodia last month announced that the CAR’s financial situation is about to go from bad to worse. “ The coffers are empty,” he said. “We’re broke. We can no longer keep going. No money. Our families are suffering. We don’t know when the salaries will be paid,” finance ministry worker Olivier Darnaye said.

The rebels who ousted president Francois Bozize and took control of the landlocked nation on March 24 have not been paid either. And most of them are still carrying arms.

“Even if the workers were to be paid, the armed men need to be disarmed before we can resume work,” government worker Fernand Ndjapou said. He added that many civil servants had left their jobs while waiting for their salaries.

In the justice ministry, “there’s no one, except for the magistrates and lawyers...”, he said. On the back of the dire financial situation, Bangui has been badly hit by looting and criminality, some of which has allegedly been car-

ried out by rebels.

“You see us selling at the market, but it’s with fear in the pit of our stomachs that we are here,” vegetable vendor Annette Ngozo explained. “The Seleka constantly patrols around us. Yesterday, three armed men robbed a telephone credit seller. They took three mobile telephones and some money on the pretext that the young merchant was a soldier,” she said.

Rebel patrols have infiltrated more than just the marketplace. “How do you want us to go back to work when part of our offices is occupied by Seleka members who are still armed and continue to threaten us?” asked Leon Modomale, head of a service to fight malaria.

Bangui’s police force, which is supposed to ensure the safety in the capital, has also been hit by the lack of funds, leaving many officers disheartened. “We obeyed the call by our minister, we went to work. But (...) in what conditions are we supposed to work when you can see for yourself that everything is destroyed? We have no means to work at the moment,” one officer said on the condition of anonymity.

The rebel takeover has even left the country’s children out in the cold as their schools have been occupied by the fighters, who witnesses say have looted and ruined many of the buildings.

The new government in a bid to restore normal life has called for students and teachers to return to class next week and appealed to the rebel forces to leave the schools. “I appeal to my brothers in the Seleka coalition who have occupied and continue to occupy the schools or the offices of education officials, to leave them without delay, in order to allow the (scholastic ) activities to resume in these establishments,” said education minister Marcel Loudegue.

“I am counting on everyone... to put their energies toward saving the country,” he added.—AFP

BANGUI: Women buying vegetables in a market of Bangui. Oils, soap and smoked fish may have returned to Bangui’s colourful market stalls, but underneath the luring smells and lively buzz of haggling vendors, the tills ring empty, a sign of the Central African Republic’s crippling finances and the constant fear of looters.— AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

BUSINESS

The MINI Paceman arrives in Kuwait Fasten your seatbelt...

KUWAIT: Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, the exclusive importer of BMW Group vehicles in Kuwait, revealed the allnew MINI Paceman at a unique activity at Avenues Mall, where visitors and media got the chance to interact with the brand.

With all the driving excitement of a Sports Activity CoupÈ and the hallmark MINI go-kart fun driving experience, the seventh addition to the MINI family is set to turn heads in Kuwait.

The activity which continues to May 4th allows importer shoppers will have the chance to interact with the brand’s newest addition and experience the new MINI Paceman for themselves via a host of fun, creative, eye-catching stunts,

including pop art and interactive drawing screens,. Entitled “Design with Bite,” the activation will form part of a regionwide road show, which includes visits to six countries across the Middle East.

Commenting on the launch of this car in Kuwait, Yousef AlQatami, General Manager of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, said: “MINI has achieved phenomenal success in Kuwait over the years, helping to make it the most successful small premium car brand in the world and across the Middle East. Unique, yet typically MINI, the MINI Paceman opens up the brand to a whole new audience segment that has been looking for a MINI

that combines the sportiness and space of an SUV, with the sleek design of a coupÈ. We are confident that this new addition will prove highly popular among MINI fans here in Kuwait and will mark a new and exciting chapter in MINI’s illustrious history.”

Customers can choose from four powerful engine variants including the Cooper, Cooper S, Cooper S ALL4 and from June, the John Cooper Works will also then be available. Endless exterior and interior customisation options will also be available to ensure that the MINI Paceman suits customer’s individual lifestyle needs. And with plenty of room for three passengers, MINI Paceman owners can escape from the urban jungle with three friends in tow too.

Sporty and irresistible design The seventh model in the MINI family has a unique character all of its own, while displaying clear ties to the inimitable style of the British brand. On the outside, the MINI Paceman offers a unique combination of sporty and extrovert design with two elongated doors, large new horizontal taillights and sloping roofline. The fresh and individual character of the MINI Paceman comes across most prominently when the car is viewed from the side. It is also highly customisable, and available in eight body finishes and a choice of seven light alloy wheels in four colours. The roof and exterior mirror caps can be painted in the chosen body colour, white or black.

Entertainment on demand The MINI Paceman takes the lead when it comes to in-car technology and entertainment. When on board the advanced interface technology allows the extensive integration of Smartphones and music players into the car. And the newest member of the MINI family can even be ordered with a range

Job gains in April ease fears about economy WASHINGTON: The US economy showed in April that it’s healthier than many had feared, adding a solid 165,000 jobs and driving the unemployment rate down a notch to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

Not only that, but many more people were hired in February and March than previously thought, the Labor Department said Friday. The job gains came despite a global slowdown, Social Security tax increases and federal spending cuts, which some have thought would drag on the economy.

The stock market soared on the news. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 142 points, or nearly 1 percent, after briefly breaking 15,000 for the first time in history.

Coming after a poor March jobs report and some recent data showing economic weakness, the figures helped ease fears that US hiring might be slumping for a fourth straight year. The job market is benefiting from a resurgent housing market, rising consumer confidence and the Federal Reserve’s stimulus actions, which have helped lower borrowing costs and lift the stock market.

“Businesses haven’t lost confidence yet,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State

plans to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent.

One cautionary note in the employment report: Most of the biggest job gains were in lower-paying fields, such as hotels and restaurants, which added 45,000 jobs, and retail, which added 29,000. Temporary-help firms gained 31,000 positions.

By contrast, construction companies and governments cut jobs. Manufacturing employment was flat.

Some higher-paying sectors added workers.

Professional and technical services, which include accounting, engineering and architecture, added 23,000 jobs. Education and health services gained 44,000. Average hourly pay rose, but the average workweek for private-sector employees dipped 0.2 hour to 34.4 hours. That meant average weekly paychecks declined.

But over the past year, total pay after adjusting for inflation is up a healthy 2.1 percent, economists said. That should help boost consumer spending in coming months.

The job growth is occurring while the US economy is growing modestly but steadily. It grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, fueled by the strongest consumer spend-

ALBANY: People wait in line at the Dr King Career Fair at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany. — AP University. “Consumers are feeling better. The decent employment gains will add to the optimism and help lift future spending.”

The Labor Department revised upward its estimate of job gains in February and March by a combined 114,000. It now says employers added 332,000 jobs in February and 138,000 in March.

The economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month from November through April well above the monthly average of 138,000 for the previous six months. The unemployment rate edged down from 7.6 percent in March and has fallen 0.4 percentage point since the start of the year, though it remains high. The Fed has said it

ing in two years. The housing recovery is helping drive more hiring. Rising home sales and construction help create jobs and increase spending on furniture, landscaping and other services.

One company that’s benefited is SolarCity, based in San Mateo, Calif. Rising home building has helped increase demand for the solar-power systems the company installs in homes and businesses.

CEO Lyndon Rive said SolarCity added 177 jobs in April and will welcome its 3,000th employee Monday. It is hiring engineers, installers and administrative support staff and still has 400 openings.

Consumers have been spending more even though their take-home pay was shrunk this year by a Social Security tax increase. On top of that, the economy has been under pressure from the across-the-board government spending cuts that began taking effect March 1. And some small and midsize companies are concerned about new requirements under the federal health care law.

Americans’ confidence in the economy jumped last month, lifted by a brighter outlook for hiring and expectations for higher pay, according to the Conference Board, a research group.

Cheaper gasoline, the booming stock market and rising home values are also no doubt making people more confident.

Home prices rose 9.3 percent in February compared with a year ago, the most in nearly seven years, according to the Standard & Poor’s/CaseShiller 20-city index.

Still, prices nationwide remain about 30 percent below their peak during the housing bubble in 2006. They’re back only to where they were in 2003. Yet the global economy, by contrast, is slowing. The European Union warned Friday, for example, that the 17 countries that use the euro will shrink by a collective 0.4 percent this year. And unemployment in the euro-zone is expected to hit an average of 12.2 percent. In Greece and Spain, it is forecast to reach 27 percent.

Both Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi have suggested that governments need to focus on stimulating growth and not just on spending cuts and deficit reduction.

Economists have forecast that the US economy will grow roughly 2 percent this year, below last year’s 2.2 percent. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the tax increases and government spending cuts will have shaved about 1.25 percentage points from growth this year. That means that without those measures, the economy could have grown a strong 3.3 percent in 2013.

In April’s employment report, more Americans said they had part-time jobs even though they wanted full-time work. That figure rose 278,000 to 7.9 million, reversing a steep drop the previous month. Some economists worry that restaurants, retailers and other companies are hiring more part-timers in preparation for the start of health care reform. Companies with more than 50 full-time employees in 2013 will be required to provide health insurance to their full-time staff next year.

Retailers, restaurants and hotels added 48,000 more jobs in February than previously reported.

They accounted for three-quarters of that month’s revision.

The government revises each month’s job totals twice in the following two months. The revisions occur because many companies in the survey submit their responses late.

Friday’s report said the number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months dropped 258,000 to 4.4 million. Over the past year, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 687,000. Some analysts cautioned that April’s job gains don’t necessarily point to faster hiring ahead. “There is little sign in these data to suggest that a marked acceleration in monthly job creation in the months ahead is in the cards,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West. — AP

of MINI Connected features, which include features such as the Web Radio which allows you to tune into your favourite home country radio station, plus specially developed apps which open the door to a unique and constantly expanding variety of functions such as Facebook and Twitter usage.

Sophisticated, sporty and highly customisable Under the bonnet, the well-known MINI 1.6 litre powertrains will be available from launch, each with four cylinders and a zesty power delivery and remarkably low fuel consumption and emissions. The high-powered engine boasts lowered sports suspension as standard, which accentuates the trademark MINI go-kart feeling. All engine variants, which include the MINI Cooper and Cooper S, come with a six-speed automatic gearbox, with an output spread from 122 hp to 184 hp respectively, ensuring that the MINI Paceman gives passengers the drive of their life.

The MINI Paceman will be the second model (after the MINI Countryman) to offer the option of ALL4 all-wheel-drive system on the Cooper S variant, which allows the driver to switch from automatic to manual at the touch of a button. From June a MINI John Cooper Works MINI Paceman model will also be available with a 218 hp output, lowed sports suspension and 18 (standard) and 19 inch alloy wheel options.

Every MINI Paceman is equipped with DSC (Dynamic Stability Control), ABS anti-lock brakes, Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD), Cornering Brake Control (CBC), Brake Assist and Hill Assist. In addition, safety is of paramount importance in the new MINI The MINI Paceman is equipped with front, side and full length curtain airbags. Front seat occupants also benefit from belt tensioners and belt force limiters, while in the rear seat, ISOFIX child seat attachments are fitted.

US job market showing gains But healing is slow WASHINGTON: The American economy and job market are moving in the right direction, just not very quickly. The news Friday that US employers added a solid 165,000 jobs in April and unemployment fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent came as a relief.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 142 points, or 1 percent, on the news to close at a record 14,973. The betterthan-expected April numbers erased worries that the US economy was stalling for the fourth year in a row - a fear that had emerged after a disappointing jobs report for March.

Friday’s report also showed job growth in March and February was stronger than first estimated. Nearly four years after a devastating recession, the US economy and job market are far from a full recovery, but they have made steady progress. Here is an overview of America’s economic health: HIRING The US economy has been adding 196,000 jobs a month this year, up from a monthly average of 179,000 in 2011 and 2012. Given how far it needs to go, the job market is recovering more slowly than people had hoped. The US still has 2.6 million fewer jobs than it had when the Great Recession began in December 2007. At the current pace of hiring, total US jobs won’t reach the pre-recession level of 138 million for more than another year.

Account for population growth, and the jobs ditch is even deeper: Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, says the economy needs to add 8.6 million jobs, not 2.6 million, to keep up with a rising population.

UNEMPLOYMENT Unemployment has improved dramatically since peaking at 10 percent in October 2009. But by any normal standard, April’s 7.5 percent unemployment was still a recession-level figure - higher, for example, than it ever got in the short recession of 2001.

The Federal Reserve doesn’t expect the unemployment rate to reach a healthy level - 6 percent or lower - any sooner than 2015.

At least unemployment fell last month from 7.6 percent in March for the right reasons: More Americans reported having jobs and fewer reported being unemployed.

A big part of the drop in unemployment the past 3 1/2 years has come because people have given up looking for work. Only 63.3 percent of working-age Americans were working or looking for work last month and in March. That is the lowest “labor force participation rate” since May 1979. People without a job who stop looking for one are no longer counted as unemployed. If the participation rate were at the pre-recession level of 66 percent, the unemployment rate could have reached 11.3 percent last month.

THE ECONOMY The economic recovery from the Great Recession is the slowest since World War II. Growth has been hobbled by lingering

damage from a housing bust and financial crisis. The economy expanded just 2.4 percent in 2010, 1.8 percent in 2011 and 2.2 percent in 2012. It grew at an annual pace of 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter this year.

If the economy were healthy, 2.5 percent growth would be fine. But generating enough jobs to bring unemployment down quickly requires faster growth.

Economists had originally hoped the economy would expand at a brisker pace this year - 3 percent or 4 percent. But across-the-board government spending cuts, which began taking effect March 1, are forcing federal agencies to furlough workers, reducing spending on public projects and making businesses nervous about investing and hiring. Growth is expected to slow to 2 percent in the April-June quarter.

Budget cuts have already been a drag on the economy. Government spending at the local, state and federal levels fell at an annual rate of 4.1 percent from January through March and 7 percent the last three months of 2012. Normally, government spending contributes to economic recoveries. The damage from government austerity has been offset in part by the Federal Reserve, which has kept short-term interest rates near zero since the end of 2008 and has been pumping $85 billion a month into the economy by buying bonds.

CONSUMERS Some of the US economy’s fundamentals are looking healthier. Consumers have shrugged off an increase in their Social Security taxes this year and the budget shenanigans in Washington: From January through March, they spent at the strongest pace in two years. That’s good news because consumers account for 70 percent of US economic activity.

Fueled by near-record low mortgage rates, the housing market has been bouncing back. New-home sales in March were up 18.5 percent from a year earlier. Sales of previously occupied homes were up 10.3 percent. For the first time in five years, homebuilders started work on more than 1 million homes in March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Investors have celebrated rising corporate profits and other good news. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 1,870 points, or more than 14 percent, so far this year, including Friday’s gain.

Rising stock and home prices help feed consumer spending by making people feel wealthier and more willing to spend.

EUROPE The American economy and job market look a lot better when you compare them with Europe’s. Across the Atlantic, governments have been cutting spending and raising taxes even more aggressively. The 17 European Union countries that use the euro currency slid back into recession in the fall of 2011 and have been stuck there since. Euro-zone unemployment hit a record 12.1 percent in March, reaching 27.2 percent in Greece and 26.7 percent in Spain. — AP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

BUSINESS

NBK Capital sells stake in Sama Education Co Successful exit to Al-Razzi Holding

Exchange’s Remit Tronics promotion More winners at Al Mulla KUWAIT: Al Mulla International Exchange, the premier exchange company in Kuwait, announced 14 more lucky winners in the 11th draw of their ‘Remit Tronics’ mega promotion, which was held on 30 April, at their Farwaniya 4 branch.

The three-month long promotion that began in February and will run until tomorrow, picks 14 winners at the end of each week from all transactions done at any branch of Al Mulla Exchange during the previous seven days.

Last week’s big winner was Sudesh Migara Majjawaarachchi who won KD400 for his transaction with Al Mulla International Exchange. The list of the other thirteen winners and the prizes they won are as follows: Ebrahem Elsaied Mohamed, Muhammed Sayed Ahmed Suhailam, Marie Antonie O Belchez, Shaik Shabbir Ahamad each of whom won a Samsung Tab 2. Ahmed, Madan Bahadur Bishoakarna, Mohsin Ejaz Ejaz

Hussain, Danilo H. Pasaylo, Edu Kondalu Mamidisetty who received a Samsung Duo mobile each.

Imbulgoda A Priyadharshana, Sanjay Kumar Vimal, M S Kamal Deen, Jameen Shaik who each took home a Samsung 32” LCD television. The Remi Tronics promotion that draws to a close on 6th May provided more than 155 electronic items that could be won by customers sending their remittances from any Al Mulla Exchange branch.

Remi Tronics promotion was yet another reason for customers to remit their money through Al Mulla Exchange which offers, free insurance and loyalty points on every transaction, as well as SMS confirmation on delivery of remittances. Besides making money transfer a quick, safe and relaxed experience for customers, Kuwait’s premier exchange also offers the facility to send money from the comfort of one’s home or office through their online service.

KUWAIT: NBK Capital announced yesterday the successful sale of its stake in Sama Educational Company KSCC (SAMA) which manages and operates a diversified portfolio of educational assets serving the K-12 market. The investment was made through the firm’s Kuwait Investment Opportunities Fund (KIOF) and this represents the culmination of a multitude of initiatives that have resulted in strong growth and operational excellence for SAMA over the last five years.

SAMA was established with a capital base of KD15 million, and aimed to target niche educational needs in the secondary school (K-12) levels by providing the highest level of quality education whilst maintaining a gender segregated educational environment. The Company with the help of NBK Capital’s Kuwait Investment Opportunities Fund (“KIOF”) was able to double its capacity, and to increase the student count from approximately 2,400 to over 4,000 at exit. SAMA has grown to become one of the largest operators of K-12 schools offering the American curriculum in Kuwait.

Dr Anwar Al-Mudhaf, CEO of Al-Razzi Holding Company which acquired the asset believes that SAMA is poised for further growth and plans to further invest in its academic excellence, ‘Our development plan includes diversifying the sources of operating income through acquisitions of shares in companies that are in promising sectors such as health services, which continues to enjoy a high

growth targeted at maximizing the return on shareholder’s equity. This plan is expected to raise the profitability of Al Razzi Holding by not less than 70 percent of net profit by the end of the fiscal year’. Dr Al-Mudhaf further added, ‘We continue to believe in the importance of enhancing the quality of services within the educational sectors and this will be illustrated by further development of institutes such as SAMA’. He also extended his gratitude to the Al-Razzi staff, encouraging them to continue their efforts in expanding and upgrading the level of service excellence within the education sector.

Faisal Al-Hamad, Executive Director at NBK Capital stated: “We are proud that the collaboration between the KIOF and the National Offset Company enabled SAMA to significantly increase its Kuwaiti student count and to upgrade its offering by expanding its facilities and enhancing its IT infrastructure. We were able to offer Kuwait’s youth the best academic environment whilst generating healthy returns to our investors. “ NBK Capital was established in July 2005 as a subsidiary of the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK),one of the region’s oldest and highest rated banks. NBK Capital focuses on four principal lines of business: Alternative Investments, Asset Management, Brokerage & Research and Investment Banking. With offices in Kuwait, Dubai, Istanbul and Cairo, NBK Capital’s team of more than 170 professionals offer superior products and services to clients and investors.

VIVA launches ‘inbound roaming’ campaign

Free gold coins and other exciting offers at Joyalukkas New Nissan Sentra defies sales expectations in ME DUBAI: The popularity of the new Sentra among Middle East customers has strengthened Nissan’s position as market leader in the highly competitive C segment.

Impressively, in the first 50 days of sales, nearly 1,500 Nissan Sentras have been sold, underlining the appeal of the compact sedan which offers spaciousness and comfort usually found in the segment above, as well as spirited 1.6-litre or 1.8-litre engines.

The C-segment is the largest single car category in the Middle East with 24 different models currently vying for the top spot, held by the Nissan Sentra.

Nissan will now use the strong initial response from the region’s car buyers as a platform on which to build towards an ambitious sales target of 25,000 Sentra sales per year in the GCC region in the next three years.

“Nissan Sentra was launched with the clear intent to reinforce our strong leadership position in the C segment and the start of sales is living up to our expectations,” said Samir Cherfan, Managing Director, Nissan Middle East. “Since its launch, on average more than one Sentra is sold every hour. This proves customers recognise that we are producing cars of the highest quality, cars that people are buying in ever-increasing numbers.”

“Nissan has a proven record of success in this segment with Sentra being its 13th generation sedan,” continued Samir. “This highvalue choice features unexpected spaciousness and many technologies not seen before in cars of this class, along with an ability to over-deliver on the basics. These qualities have immediately found favor with Middle

Eastern customers looking for an aspirational and upscale compact sedan.”

“I recently purchased a brand new Nissan Sentra and was extremely happy. The all new Sentra is a class apart,” said Rohan Kumar, a proud owner. “Expect more and pay less. The Nissan Sentra has so much space and is comfortable. I am also connected with all the technologies like Navigation and Bluetooth that the car offers,” he concluded.

Scott Dylan another Sentra buyer added: “I commute every day from Sharjah to Jabal Ali and am quite impressed with my Sentra’s fuel consumption. The drive experience itself is enjoyable with comfortable leg space, latest technology, and I now enjoy driving.”

Nissan Sentra is the all-new nameplate in the Middle East’s compact sedan segment but the 13th generation Nissan sedan in its model line globally Seductive design with high-end details such as LED accented headlamps and tail lamps and upscale interior craftsmanship Unexpected spaciousness including classleading legroom and boot space Class-above convenience including dual zone climate control, intelligent key and rear view camera Over-delivering on the basics due to 10% reduction on maintenance cost and classleading fuel economy of 6.2l/100km and 6.7l/100km for 1.6-litre and 1.8-litre respectively.

Efficient 1.6 and 1.8-litre engines and next-generation Xtronic CVT delivering optimal performance Seamless connectivity including Bluetooth and satellite navigation

• • • • • • •

Faisal Al-Hamad, Executive Director at NBK Capital

KUWAIT: Joyalukkas, the world’s favorite jeweler is all set to celebrate Akshaya Tritiya, with a variety of attractive offers, free gifts and exclusive designs that has been specially tailored for this auspicious occasion.

Akshaya Tritiya, is considered as a very auspicious occasion by the Indian community, who believe that valuables bought on this special day will bring them prosperity, good luck and success.

The highlight of this years’ Akshaya Tritiya offer at Joyalukkas is a Free 2 g gold coin on every purchase worth KD 400 of Diamond and Polki jewelry. Under this special offer customers will be eligible to gold coins based on the value of their purchase of Diamond and Polki jewelry. For example, 2 g for KD400 worth of purchase, 4 g for KD800 worth of purchase and 6 g for every KD1200 worth of purchase and so on. In addition to this customers will also get to enjoy a whopping 50 percent off on Diamond and Polki jewelry purchase. This offer will be valid from 1st May to 18th May, 2013 across all Joyalukkas showrooms.

On the auspicious days of 12th, 13th and 14th May, 2013, every customer shopping for jewelry worth KD.350 or more will receive the gift of a free gold coin. This offer is very popular since the gift of gold is considered very auspicious and lucky on this special day.

“Majority of Indians considers gold as the ultimate symbol of wealth and prosperity and celebrates the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya by purchasing gold and jewelry. It is believed that purchase of gold and jewelry during Akshaya Tritiya brings in good luck and prosperity. Also getting a gift in gold is considered as a blessing for prosperity, so we have tailored our Akshaya Tritiya campaign in such a way that the customer gets many opportunities to take

home a gift in gold. I take this opportunity to wish our customers and all the Indian community celebrating Akshaya Tritiya, good health, wealth and prosperity on this auspicious occasion,” said Joy Alukkas, Chairman & MD, Joyalukkas Group.

With respect to products, Joyalukkas has taken this occasion to time the launch of their brand new collections and designs across all brands and generic offerings. The complete collection has been showcased in their latest brochure which will be distributed en masse through various channels and will also be available across all Joyalukkas showrooms. Joyalukkas has also planned an exciting collection of 15 plus special necklace sets, bangles, earring and pendants, which have been specially designed for the celebration. The celebratory designs will be available under their popular brands like Tyohaar, Eleganza, Bouquet, Mayukha, and Masaaki. Special prices have been planned on each of the celebration designs and collections to make the occasion extra special for customers.

“Akshaya Tritiya is special for our customers and so we have taken all steps to ensure they get the best for the celebration at Joyalukkas. Our offers and choice of products have been designed to meet all jewelry shoppers’ expectation and make the occasion special for them. We have also planned the launch of our brand new collections and our latest brochure during this occasion to ensure people gets to enjoy the latest collections and choices from around the world,” said John Paul Joy Alukkas, Executive Director, Joyalukkas Group. Joyalukkas is an ISO certified group with 85 showrooms in nine countries across the world. Joyalukkas has been awarded the Superbrand status 4 years in a row in the UAE.

KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom operator, has launched a new ‘inbound roaming’ draw for visitors to Kuwait using the VIVA mobile network to make local or international calls. Visitors using the VIVA network in Kuwait for five minutes or more will be automatically entered into a draw to win $50,000 in cash. The draw campaign commenced on April 1st 2013 and will end on March 31st 2014.

Visitors are simply required to choose the VIVA network when they are in Kuwait, and for every five minutes of talk time when roaming, they will earn one chance to enter the quarterly draw for the $50,000 cash prize. Visitors will get additional chances to win in one of VIVA’s four draws for each additional five minutes they spend on outgoing local or international calls. The announcement of the first quarterly draw winner will take place on July 3rd 2013.

VIVA is always looking for new ways to reach out to its customers and reward them for using its network, even those visiting Kuwait from abroad. With this latest promotion, VIVA’s aim is to reward inbound visitors roaming on its network and giving them the chance to win one of the four quarterly cash prizes of $50,000.

VIVA urges visitors to take advantage of this draw by making their calls using the VIVA network; the more calls they make, the more chances they earn to enter and win the draw. Visiting customers will receive a weekly SMS notifying that they have been entered into the next draw and will receive updates of the number of chances to win they have accumulated.

To find out more about VIVA’s numerous competitions, promotions, products and packages visit any of the 14 VIVA branches, visit one of the authorized distributors (X-Cite, Al Babtain, Future Communication, i2), or visit the company ’s website at www.viva.com.kw or contact its 24 hour call center at 102.

FASTtelco launches Wi-Fi services in many key locations

Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Nakib

KUWAIT: FASTtelco, the leading internet service provider in the State of Kuwait specialized in providing innovative internet and data communications solutions, proudly announced that its Wi-Fi services are now available in many key locations in Kuwait.

FASTtelco further announced that it has completed the installation of fast and user friendly internet networks in major key locations accommodating a great number of visitors. The users are now able to connect to FASTtelco’s Wi-Fi networks thanks to the company’s developed infrastructure and high expertise.

In the framework of its continuous efforts to serve its

clients and enable them to complete tasks, business work, or simply for leisure, the company confirmed that it has successfully launched the Wi-Fi service and portals in more than 70 locations across Kuwait.

Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Nakib, Chairman and Managing Director of Al-Deera Holding, and CEO of FASTtelco, expressed the company’s keenness to install Wi-Fi networks all over the country. “Our clients and potential Wi-Fi users will have the possibility to be connected to the highspeed internet at all times and at key, highly visited locations through their mobile phones, tablets, and laptops”.

He added that FASTtelco cares about its clients’ productivity and highest satisfaction, it is hence dedicated to ensure that the general public will have the flexibility and the connectivity they need anywhere they go.

In the end, Al-Nakib emphasized that FASTtelco is on a continuous mission to meet the emerging and increasing need for internet connectivity, reflecting FASTtelco’s keenness to enhance its role and presence in Kuwait, stemming from its responsibility to sustain the high quality of its services and affirm its leading position and role in the internet and data communication industry in the State of Kuwait.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

technology

Casinos brace for impact of Internet gambling New source of tax revenue

Robotic fly takes off at Harvard HARVARD: The smallest flying robot in the world has completed its maiden flight in a US laboratory.

The tiny machine, named RoboBee, took off, hovered and performed basic manoeuvres, to the delight of scientists at Harvard University.

Inspired by the common fly, the carbon fibre robot has a wingspan of three centimetres and weighs less than a tenth of a gram.

Flies are among the most agile flying creatures on Earth. The robot mimics their airborne abilities by tweaking the movement of two wafer-thin wings that flap at 120 times a second.

More advanced versions of the robot may help with search and rescue missions, monitor the environment, and even assist with crop pollination, its developers claim.

“I want to create something the world has never seen before,” said Kevin Ma, a researcher on the team.

The robot’s two wings are powered separately by tiny pieces of ceramic piezoelectric material, which expand and contract rapidly

when wired to an alternating voltage.

For the maiden flight, researchers attached tiny reflective patches to the robot that could be picked up by eight infrared cameras mounted around the room. The cameras worked out where the robot was, and in which direction it was facing, and sent the information to a controlling computer that sent movement commands to the machine over a wire tether. To move left, for example, the robot increased the stroke of its right wing.

The robot was hooked up to an electrical supply because there are no batteries small or light enough to be carried by the machine.

The scientists described how they built the robot in the US journal, Science. “No such vehicle has been demonstrated to date because of the severe miniaturisation challenges that must be overcome for an insectsized device,” they wrote.

After the first tentative flight, the researchers aim to put the robot through its paces, with more aggressive manoeuvres and landings. —AP

Algerian faces US charges linked to computer virus ATLANTA: An Algerian man pleaded not guilty Friday to helping develop and market a computer program that drained millions of dollars from bank accounts around the world.

A 23-count federal indictment charges Hamza Bendelladj, 24, with wire fraud, bank fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy. He was extradited from Thailand. It was unclear if he has a lawyer.

Bendelladj is accused of being involved in a conspiracy to develop and sell SpyEye. The program is a banking Trojan, which was implanted onto computers to harvest financial information and drain bank accounts. Authorities said the malware impacted 253 financial institutions and is responsible for untold amounts of financial theft.

“We’re talking millions,” US Attorney Sally Yates said. “We don’t have the precise number quantified at this point.”

Investigators say SpyEye is still active, and authorities are trying to track down computer hackers who are still using the virus.

Although authorities say he never set foot on US soil, Bendelladj is accused of leasing a virtual server from an unidentified Internet company in Atlanta to control computers that were impacted

by SpyEye. The company was unaware the man was allegedly using the server for illegal purposes, Yates said. A second person is named in the indictment but hasn’t been identified.

Investigators could not disclose whether the person was in the US or abroad.

Trojans such as SpyEye can be profitable for cybercriminals. A small group of hackers in Eastern Europe arrested in 2010 was able to steal about $70 million from companies, municipalities and churches in Europe and the US. SpyEye was designed to automatically steal sensitive information - such as bank account credentials, credit card information, passwords and PIN numbers - after being implanted in victims’ computers. After the program took control of a computer, it allowed hackers to use a number of covert techniques to trick victims into giving up their personal information - including data grabbing and presenting victims with a fake bank account page. The information was then relayed to a command and control server, which was used to access bank accounts.

Bendelladj was indicted in December 2011 and was on a trip from Malaysia to Egypt when he

was arrested during a layover at an airport in Bangkok on Jan. 5. Police seized two laptops, a tablet computer, a satellite phone and external hard drives.

“The federal indictment and extradition of Bendelladj should send a very clear message to those international cybercriminals who feel safe behind their computers in foreign lands that they are, in fact, within reach,” Mark F. Giuliano of the FBI’s Atlanta field office said in a news release.

If convicted, Bendelladj faces up to 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and up to five years for conspiracy to commit computer fraud. The 21 counts of wire and computer fraud carry maximum sentences of between five and 20 years each. He may also be fined up to $14 million.

Bendelladj and others allegedly developed and sold various versions of SpyEye and its components on the Internet between 2009 and 2011.

Cybercriminals were able to customize their purchases to choose specific methods of gathering personal information from victims. Bendelladj and others also allegedly advertised SpyEye on Internet forums focused on cybercrime and other criminal activity.

Yates said that Bendelladj is not accused of being part of a specific criminal organization and that he and his associates are not accused of carrying out cyber terrorism.

Cyber security experts said there is still a vast network of cybercriminals finding more sophisticated ways to remain anonymous and create malware resistant to antivirus programs.

“At the end of the day, this one arrest, unfortunately, won’t cause a lot of reduction in online fraud attempts,” said George Tubin, senior security strategist at Boston-based Trusteer, a provider of cybercrime prevention programs. “Hopefully it sends a message maybe to the fraudsters that you can be caught and you need to think twice.”

Hackers have developed a mobile version of SpyEye called Spitmo, which targets victims’ smart phones, Tubin said. Cybercriminals can steal personal information through victims’ computers and forward themselves text messages from the victims’ cell phones to fraudulently verify the person’s identity and lock them out of bank accounts and other personal accounts. That method is more widely used in Europe, Tubin said. —AP

ATLANTIC CITY: With legal gambling now moving beyond the casinos and onto the Internet, the industry is bracing for the most far-reaching changes in its history. A Las Vegas firm, Ultimate Gaming, on Tuesday became the first in the US to offer online poker, restricting it, for now, to players in Nevada. New Jersey and Delaware also have legalized gambling over the Internet and expect to begin offering such bets by the end of this year.

And many inside and outside the industry say the recent position taken by the federal government that states are free to offer Internet gambling - as long as it doesn’t involve sports betting - will lead many cash-hungry state governments to turn to the Web as a new source of tax revenue.

Ten other states have considered some form of Internet gambling so far this year, but none has legalized it yet. Efforts to pass a national law legalizing online poker have sputtered, leaving states free to pass laws as they see fit.

“It’s no longer a question of if Internet gaming is coming; it’s a question of when,” said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the trade organization for the nation’s commercial brick-and -mortar casinos.

“Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the United States. I don’t think that’s what anyone intended, but it is what we’re seeing.”

The brave new world for gambling brings with it a host of questions and concerns. Will letting people bet online result in fewer visits to casinos, and therefore fewer dealers, beverage servers and hotel and restaurant workers at the casinos? Will Internet bets create a new revenue stream from new players, or will it simply redirect money from gamblers who otherwise would have visited a casino, and might have eaten dinner and seen a show, as well? And will it create even more problem gamblers?

Michael Frawley is chief operating officer of The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, perhaps the most endangered of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos. A deal for it to be sold to the parent company of PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker website, is up in the air. The Atlantic Club’s owners said Wednesday the deal was dead, but PokerStars said the next day it still wants to salvage the purchase. It was not immediately clear whether the deal will ultimately get done.

Frawley said the Internet’s vast reach could help double business at his casino, provided the right balance is struck between the online and physical gambling experiences for customers.

“If you go to the movies, you can watch one at home, or you can watch one in the theater,” he said. “Both of them can be a great experience.”

Regardless of whether PokerStars buys The Atlantic Club, Internet gambling is expected to take off in New Jersey before long. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has said it is preparing to offer online gambling later this year, and Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, has also said he expects his company’s four Atlantic City casinos to grab a large share of New Jersey’s online market.

Geoffrey Stewart is general manager of Caesars Online Poker. Parent company Caesars Entertainment’s World Series of Poker brands, as well as its 37 casinos across the US, make it an early favorite to be a leader in online gambling. He said brick-and-mortar casinos such as Caesars Palace can use Internet play to complement their physical casinos.

“Someone comes to play with us online, we

will be able to offer them seats to the real World Series of Poker, or offer them hotel rooms at Caesars Palace,” he said. “Like any other business, you’re always looking for what is the next distribution channel.”

Not everyone in the industry is all-in, however.

The American Gaming Association conducted a study a few years ago on whether poker-only Internet gambling - which it supports - would cannibalize the existing brick-and-mortar casinos.

The study determined that it would not. But when Internet gambling allows for casino games, such as in the bill recently adopted by New Jersey, the traditional casinos could suffer, Fahrenkopf said.

The most popular form of Internet gambling is online poker.

When the Justice Department charged executives of three online poker sites in April 2011 with conducting illegal transactions, it was a $6 billion a year industry. After the crackdown, it was largely on hiatus, because at the time, taking online bets from US customers was illegal. But not long afterward, the US Justice Department revised its stance, allowing states to take online bets so long as they didn’t involve sporting events.

Eric Baldwin is a professional poker player who’s eager to get back online again now that poker is once again available over the Net. “The money’s good when things are good,” he said. On the other hand, he acknowledges, “Most people don’t go to work for 12 hours, do their best and come home down a couple thousand dollars.”

He plans to at least try out legalized Internet poker to see if the player pools are big enough to make it worthwhile.

Lawrence Vaughan, chief operating officer of South Point Poker, one of the first Nevada online licensees, said legalizing Internet poker removes the stigma some people had associated with it.

“You had to move money in shady ways around the world to even play online,” he said.

“Now it’s the sort of thing your mom could sign up for.”

Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior, whose firm started taking poker bets Tuesday in Nevada, added, “Players won’t have to worry if their money is safe. They are going to be able to play with people they can trust and know the highest regulatory standards have been applied.”

PokerStars, one of the parties charged in the 2011 crackdown that came to be known in the industry as “Black Friday,” later bought Full Tilt Poker, another defendant, and reached a settlement with the federal government, paying $547 million to the Justice Department and $184 million to poker players overseas to settle a case alleging money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. It admitted no wrongdoing and says it is in good standing with governments around the world.

Its parent company, The Rational Group, based on the Isle of Man in the UK, would not say whether it plans to try to buy another casino or partner with one to gain entry into the US online gambling market.

Introducing new players to poker over the Internet makes it less scary and potentially more popular, said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

“It was mostly old guys with cigars,” he said. “It was very intimidating to walk into a poker room and see a guy who’s a thousand years old, smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day, giving you dirty

TED tailors ‘ideas worth spreading’ for TV

HOUSTON: A young man who chose not to give his name sizes-up an assault style rifle during the National Rifle Association’s annual convention on Friday in Houston. —AP

How green is your cloud?

BERKELEY: The server farms that make up the cloud - that fashionable place where individuals and companies increasingly store and process their data - are power-hungry places. The largest data centres consume as much as 100 megawatts, enough to keep 100,000 homes running.

But that power is not used efficiently. Much of it is wasted as heat and keeping idle servers ticking over. For many of these centres, energy bills are becoming a bigger burden than buying new kit.

Eager to get more computations for their watts, cloud providers and IT researchers are moving away from a onesize-fits-all approach to computing in these centres towards an era of specialisation in which resources are better matched to the tasks at hand. A range of technologies, in both hardware and software, is being designed to handle the task.

The basic energy hog is the transistor, the building block of digital logic. A central processing unit (CPU), the “brain” of the computer, consists of uniform arrays of transistors, all consuming power to flip from 0 to 1. This homogeneous design means that a typical CPU is flexible enough to tackle anything from 3D graphics to database queries. But such versatility comes at a cost: not all the transistors are needed for every task, but they still drink up juice.

In the past, as transistors shrank in size the energy they

looks because you’re taking the wrong card,” he said. “What online poker did was let people get familiar with the game, feel a little bit of confidence and then they said, ‘I want to go to Vegas and do the real thing.’”

Every week, it seems, a new study comes out touting the promise of Internet gambling for cash-strapped casinos and even more cashstrapped state governments.

Gambling Compliance, which tracks the online gambling industry, predicts Internet gambling in New Jersey will bring in nearly $262 million in its first year and nearly $463 million after four years.

The group said that figure could go as high as $575 million after four years if online gambling takes off in New Jersey.

H2 Gambling Capital, a UK consultancy for the Internet gambling industry, predicts 17 states will have approved Internet gambling by 2017, led by New York, California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.

And Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2020, online gambling in the US will produce the same amount of revenue as Las Vegas and Atlantic City markets combined bring in today: $9.3 billion.

Indian tribes are also moving to get into the online gold rush.

Two groups of tribes have already formed alliances to explore offering Internet gambling, and in April, the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribe reached a deal with Oklahoma allowing the tribe to offer Internet gambling to customers outside the US through its pokertribes.com web site. The Shoshone tribe in Nevada has a deal with an online company to offer similar Internet gambling to foreign customers in a venture that could go live in May. States across the country are also turning to the Internet to boost sales of their lottery tickets.

Twelve states have either approved or are considering selling lottery tickets online, and Georgia and Illinois are already doing it.

What types of games can be played for money online varies by state.

New Jersey will offer people within the state all the games patrons can play in physical casinos.

Delaware will do the same, along with bingo.

Nevada only offers poker. A proposed Internet betting law in Massachusetts would prohibit online slot machine games.

But in most cases, the games can be accessed through computers, portable tablet devices and smart phones - putting a casino or a card game within reach at 3 a.m. in the kitchen, in the middle of the day at the beach, or on a crowded commuter train.

With the Internet putting legal gambling directly into so many more hands, some are concerned about an increase in problem gambling, particularly when social media sites offer realmoney gambling in the U.S., as some do already in other countries. Zynga, for instance, began taking real-money bets earlier this year in England, and its stock price jumped 15 percent in a day.

“Compulsive gambling is an impulse disease: you get an urge, you jump in your car and drive to Atlantic City or you call your bookie and then wait to see the result of the game you bet on,” said Arnie Wexler, the former chairman of New Jersey’s Council On Compulsive Gambling and himself a recovered problem gambler. “Now you have Internet gambling and you wake up in the middle of the night and in your birthday suit, you can blow a lot of money. I know one guy who lost $30,000 in one night of Internet gambling.” —AP

consumed fell even faster. But no longer. Today we’ve reached a point where the energy needed to power smaller transistors stays roughly the same, says John Shalf, a computer scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Consequently, as we squeeze more and more transistors onto a chip, it is becoming difficult to power them all without the chip overheating. To cope, designers are increasingly leaving areas of a processor unpowered, or “dark”. Not an ideal solution.

Dark silicon Happily, dark silicon has inspired a way to make chips more energy efficient. Researchers are working to replace dark transistor arrays with low-power circuits dedicated to specific functions, such as network interfaces or digital signal processors (DSPs), which are used for image analysis among other things. Because these circuits are not needed all the time, they can sit “dark” for long periods without significantly affecting overall performance.

Some of these specialised circuits use as little as onethousandth of the energy of a general processor. What’s more, locating tasks such as signal processing on the CPU saves the energy needed to transfer data onto a separate DSP chip, as happens now. It also eliminates the need for a

separate chip. These factors all cut the energy bills.

This shift in design, blending versatility and specificity, echoes the trend of building “systems on a chip” (SOCs), which have been developed particularly for mobile applications. Here, the aim is to integrate CPUs with network interfaces, graphics processors, and other formerly separate components. According to Lakshmi Mandyam of ARM Holdings in Cambridge, UK, SOCs are increasingly attractive for data- centre servers because of their inherent low-power consumption.

The ultimate in specialised chips, meanwhile, are the application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that have long been staples of consumer electronics - in TV remotes, say - where the range of tasks is narrow. ASICs can have energy efficiencies a million times those of CPUs, yet for now their abilities are too limited for most computing and are too costly to develop, says Jason Cong, Director of the Center for Domain-Specific Computing at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Cong’s team is working to strike a balance between the efficiency of ASICs and the versatility of general computation. Their goal is to create SOCs that can be reconfigured for different applications using the same underlying hardware. “We want to make sure the architecture itself can change with the workload,” says Cong. —MCT

SAN FRANCISCO: The prestigious TED gathering known for perspective-shifting presentations by the brilliant and famous is tailoring “ideas worth spreading” for a television audience.

TED teamed with the US Corporation for Public Broadcasting to create an education-focused version of its real-world conferences for a show set to air on PBS stations nationally on Tuesday and again on Thursday.

“Re-imagining education is the key to a more hopeful future,” said TED curator Chris Anderson.

“What better time to gather some of the country’s most respected and forward-thinking education advocates, and make this the theme of TED’s first-ever original television broadcast special.”

The program is hosted by Grammy-winning musician John Legend and features presentations by Microsoft cofounder turned philanthropist Bill Gates as well as by social activist Ken Robinson, the most watched speaker at Ted.com.

Online videos stemming from TED conferences-which are renowned for mind-bending mixes of creativity, passion and innovation-passed the billion-view milestone late last year.

The number continues to rocket, with more than a million TEDTalks watched daily, according to the organization behind the prestigious TED gatherings that give rise to the presentations made available free on the Internet.

The nonprofit Sapling Foundation behind the conferences began making its recordings of talks available online as podcasts in 2006, then began streaming videos free at a TED.com website the following year to reach a global audience.

The move to original television programming is another step on the path to reaching as many people as possible with ideas for making the world a better place.

“TED, at its core, is about spreading ideas,” said Juliet Blake, who produced the “TED Talks Education” program.

“Public television reaches a huge audience,” she continued. “I hope people who watch the show on PBS come graze more videos at the ted.com website.”

The PBS broadcast will be the first of more television programs to come, and a project is already in the works in Europe, according to Blake.

“The plan is not necessarily to do a lot of television; but to do tough, provocative, exciting television,” Blake said.

The TED program on PBS will live on at public broadcasting and TED websites, available to anyone in the world with Internet access. Funding for the PBS program came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to TED. “This collaboration between PBS and TED is a natural fit as our organizations both aim to educate, engage and inspire,” said PBS chief programming executive Beth Hoppe. —AFP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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

Surgical sleeve gastrectomy key to beat obesity!

By Dr Stephane Andre Clement Theys

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eing overweight and obesity are one of the first healthcare concerns in Kuwait and GCC countries (affecting more than 70 percent of the adult population). It kills a lot of people every year. Escalating levels of overweight and obesity is also seen among children and adolescents. Obesity is often associated with Type 2 diabetes (affecting 23 percent of the population in Kuwait) and both can be reduced by surgical operations such as sleeve gastrectomy.

Common obesity related diseases are: diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, gastro-esophageal reflux, high blood pressure, cancers. At the Al Zuhair Medical centre we are launching a new surgical weight loss program with a multidisciplinary team based on international guidelines. Cultural habits, genetic factors, overeating and the prevalence of snacking on salty, fatty food all the day and drinking sugar-heavy fizzy drinks appear to be a part of the problem. Seven percent of our calories come from soda; it is the biggest single source in our diet and the most harmful. And the added sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup increases the body fat over natural sugar due to faster absorption and doesn’t prevent us from being full. That may lead to overconsumption of total calories.

All the GCC countries have hot temperatures which limits outdoor activities. The sedentary lifestyle with a lack of exercise is a major cause of obesity.”Economic growth” is also a big cause of the illness, especially in fast developing countries where societies have grown more prosperous in the space of 20 years, compared with hundreds of years in some Western countries. The body-mass index (BMI) - weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared - is an imperfect measure because it does not account for sex, race, age or fitness and says nothing about the distribution of fat in the body. Visceral fat packed around the organs (tummy fat), seems to be the most harmful with higher cardio-vascular risk.

Being overweight is defined as having a BMI between 25 and 30. People with a BMI of 30 or more are considered obese. Obese individuals have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of premature death compared to healthy weight individuals as well as an increased risk of developing more than 40 obesity-related diseases and conditions including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

I recognize how difficult it is for people to decide to take the outrageous step of opting for bariatric surgery (obesity surgery). Therefore, in the Al Zuhair Medical Centre, we are very thoughtful to patient’s anxiety and fear to go for an operation. We do a rigorous preoperative workup based upon international standards (including upper GI endoscopy, diet and lifestyle assessment) supporting them through the different steps of the surgical route. Surgery has been shown to be the most effective and long lasting treatment for morbid obesity and many related conditions, and results in significant weight loss comparing to slimming diets (“Yo-yo” effect) or intra-gastric balloons (weight regain after removal).

The risk of death after surgery is up to 0.5 percent and the overall likelihood of major complications is about 4 percent comparing to non operated obese patients who have a 6,17 percent risk of death (89 percent higher). Sleeve gastrectomy has benefits comparable to the other procedures in terms of weight loss, resolution of obesity-related conditions and rate of complications. Data have emerged on other procedures including gastric plication, electrical neuromodulation, and endoscopic sleeves, but the guidelines continue to classify them as investigational because of a lack of sufficient outcomes evidence. The updated surgical indications include now patients with BMI from 30 and over with diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

The real advantage of sleeve gastrectomy is to avoid to take long life daily vitamin supplements such as in gastric bypass surgery. The guidelines also provide recommendations on patient screening and selection, pre- and post-operative management, psychological and dietician assessments before surgery and during the postoperative follow-up.

Women should avoid pregnancy before surgery and for 12 to 18 months after surgery; and a team approach to perioperative care is mandatory with special attention to nutritional and metabolic issues. In the Al Zuhair Medical Centre, this one of our highest concerns.

With our French and European expertise in the coordination of a centre of excellence for obesity surgery it is necessary to pursue in this way: rigor, safety and closed follow-up.

Once the operation is finished, all the work is not done: the patient has to modify his bad diet behaviours/habits - need to be assessed by a dietician - and has to fight against sedentary lifestyle making regular physical exercices.

What are the results of such operations?

Gastric bands, sleeve gastrectomies and gastric bypasses have respectively an excess of body weight loss around 50 percent, 60-70 percent and 75 percent.

What are the possible complications of such operations?

Death up to 0.5 percent, pulmonary embolism 1 percent, suture leaks 1-3 percent, bleeding 2 percent, stricture 2-4 percent, bowel obstruction 3 percent, ulcer >2 percent, vitamin deficiencies more with malabsorptive procedures.

What is a sleeve gastrectomy?

In sleeve gastrectomy the surgeon reduces the size of the stomach. That limits the amount of food you can eat and helps you feel full sooner. The reducing of Ghreline hormone - due to the removed stomach - contribute to reduces the feeling of hunger. The remaining stomach “sleeve” is roughly the size of a small banana. It allows for normal digestion and absorption. Food consumed passes through the digestive tract in the usual order, allowing it to be fully absorbed in the body. Laparoscopic surgery usually results in a shorter hospital stay, faster recovery, smaller scars, and less pain than open surgical procedures. With the sleeve, there is no foreign object implanted within the body and no malabsorptive component to the operation, nutritional deficiencies are uncommon.

What is important to notice is that you are not alone if you struggle with serious weight problems. Our support groups can help you through this process. After surgical weight loss control (so called bariatric surgery), you will enjoy a new quality of life. It is scientifically confirmed that bariatric surgery improves or cure life-threatening diseases, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, severe sleep apnea, and cancers and helps to prolong the life, boost the quality of life and the mental health. Weight loss begins quickly after surgery and continues for 18 to 24 months. It is also necessary to understand that such a surgical option is not an cosmetic procedure.

On the other end, when the patient lose weight, he might be a potential candidate for further tummy tuck, thigh or arm lifting, mammoplasty. This is one of the reasons why the indications for this kind of surgery have to be well thoughtful by the patient. The other reason is the possibility of complications and mortality (0.5 percent) that has to be held in mind all the time although the mortality rate of obesity alone without surgery is higher (6.7 percent) but arrives later. At Al Zuhair Medical Centre we ensure to give you all the information you will need and a closed follow-up after surgery following the international recommendations.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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

Perfecting emergency response An additional proficiency from London reaches Dar Al Shifa’s Emergency Room Department KUWAIT: Amongst the many fields of medical expertise offered at Dar Al Shifa Hospital, is the level of professionalism, turnaround time and accuracy at the hospital’s Emergency Response room. Dar Al Shifa Hospital is currently the only private hospital that houses a triage room equipped to evaluate cases according to patient complaints and does not exceed more than 3 minutes. Due to the unexpected nature of patient attendance at the ER department, doctors must be well experienced in this field and able to deal with emergency cases, such as cardiac arrests, strokes, and accidents of all types.

The highest standards of medical expertise have always been deployed as part of its long term commitment to offer the best in overall health care services. For that reason, Dar Al Shifa Hospital recently appointed Consultant Emergency medicine and Head of Emergency Room Dr Mohammed Ziad Al-Alyan, believing in his capabilities and the wealth of experience he will bring with him, through his many years of expertise in London and Kuwait.

Raising the bar in the ER department Dr Al-Alyan, specialized in all medical and surgical emergencies along with trauma cases and other cases requiring intensive care treatment said , “What makes our responses to emergencies systematic is our triage system, a unique concept that has perfected the action of attending to the severity in a timely and effective man-

ner as the first few moments is crucial to the stability of any patient. And so, Dar Al Shifa Hospital ensures that we adopt the latest of methodologies in treatment, equipment and entrust our ER facility with the best skills available.” The triage room is mainly used to evaluate the level of urgency of the cases that come for emergency treat-

Dr Mohammed Ziad Al-Alyan

ment, after which they are immediately placed into their appropriate color code. Color codes of yellow, green, orange, red and blue are given to prioritize the different cases and waiting period. The nursing team at Dar Al Shifa check the patients’ vital signs in order to assess the requirements for their cases.

patients admitted. For this purpose, following treatment, patients are requested to provide feedback on their experience at Dar Al Shifa Hospital’s emergency response department. “To date, evaluations have been excellent.

With over 7,500 cases submitted each year, the hospital takes that as a strong vouch of confidence from the patients in our promise to provide the best in healthcare. “added Dr Al- Alyan.

Resourcefulness of the emergency room Having helped establish the emergency medical board in Kuwait, while also helping to develop the committee for advanced trauma life support (ATLS) training program and committee for advanced cardiac life support training course in Kuwait added that the emergency room department offers many services that are available 24 hours a day, which include a diagnostic imaging and laboratories that work with various specialties available such as pediatric, internal medicine, obstetrics, cardiology, general surgery, ENT and dermatology.

Future of the ER room Implementing updated ER best practices improves care and reduces unnecessary emergency room visits .Working together with a team of professionals at Dar Al Shifa hospital, Dr Al-Alyan states that new creative approaches in collaboration with a team of professionals can enhance the quality of health care by making sure patients receive treatment that is both appropriate, costeffective and timely any time of the day.

Ensuring patient satisfaction Committed to adding to the standard of care at Dar Al Shifa Hospital through his past tenure at National Health Service (NHS) in London for 9 years as an emergency physician, treating many trauma cases, as well as an orthopaedic and trauma physician and as an ICU (Intensive-care unit) physician at the Royal free hospital, one of London’s busiest ICU departments, relays the hospital’s belief in complete medical satisfaction for the

NOTE: Contributed by Dr Mohammed Ziad Al-Alyan Consultant Emergency medicine and Head of Emergency Room at Dar Al Shifa Hospital. A graduate from St. Mary’s hospital in London with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), and a receiver of three-post graduate degrees in emergency medicine: Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons in Accident and Emergency; Membership of the College of Emergency Medicine; and Fellowship of the College of Emergency Medicine.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

‘Ganga Mix Feat Heol’ SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Announcements The TIES Center’s ‘trip’ he TIES Center cordially invites those who are interested in its trip to the Historical, Vintage and Classic Car Museum, which is the first museum in Kuwait specializing in old cars on May 30th at 6:00 pm.

Revisit past memories or learn something new. If you love cars then this is the trip for you. Even if you don’t love cars, come anyway; you will enjoy the trip. For more information/registration, log onto: www.tiescenter.net.

GRAMOLSAV on May 10 ottayam Association, Kuwait is conducting Malayalam Arts competitions - Gramolsav’ 2013 on 10th May 2013 at United Indian School by 4:00pm. The winners of this prestigious competition will be awarded with trophies and medals. The competitions are for Solo Nadan Pattu, Poetry Recitation and Kadaprasamgam. The competitions are meant for children as well as adults. The group is divided as SubJunior, Junior, senior and Super Senior where as Kadaprasamgam is only for Junior and Senior groups.

The closing date of receiving entry forms is 7th May, 2013. For entry forms please email to gramolsav2013@gmail.com and the entry forms are available at Family Super Market and Al-Watan Restaurant, Abbassiya.

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show entitled GANGA Mix is coming to listeners at Gust University on May 6th at 7:00pm. This event will bring on stage 2 musicians and 1 live painter from France. It will be given on the occasion of “Fete de la musique”, the International music day. The evening will start with local bands and an exhibition of pieces of arts made by Gust students.

Ganga Mix featuring Heol, a unique show in Kuwait Ganga Mix is a duet of 2 French musicians composed of PIERRE-YVES PROTHAIS on drum and percussions and “NOUNOURS” LHOUMEAU on trumpet and Key boards.

The duet creates a hybrid beat by mixing world rythms, jazz influences and electronic samples, with improvisation while Heol will perform live painting.

Composing in the instant, building live polyrythms thanks to samples set, Ganga Mix plays with sound matter in order to favor freshness and surprise. The sounds images of GANGAMix plunges you into a limitless journey, a spellbinding moment

which allows interaction with other artistic forms, especially with the painting of Heol. HEOL is an atypical painter passionate about live painting on oversize formats and happenings. On the duet’s music, Heol propels his art even further by projecting his moving painting. In a very original way, from abstract to concrete, colors spring up from everywhere showing a shape, an object, a face... “La Fete de la musique”, a free popular event.

The Fete de la Musique is a live music celebration which gives an opportunity to communicate and share a very special moment through music.

Launched in 1982 by the French Ministry for culture, the Fete de la Musique is held in more than hundred countries over the world. This Music day allows the expression of all styles of music in a cheerful atmosphere. It aims at a large audience, working to popularize musical practice for young and not so young people from all social backgrounds.

IWA organizes ‘Commit to be Fit’ seminar

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NAFO ‘Samanwayam’ he 10th anniversary of NAFO Kuwait will be celebrated on May 10 at the American International School Auditorium from 6pm onwards. Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta will inaugurate the event. Former Indian Ambassador to the US and the United Nations T P Sreenivasan and NSS Director Board Member Pandalam Sivankutty will be guests of honor. NAFO will also present an eclectic dance drama ‘Krishna’ which is conceived and choreographed by Padmashri Shobana. She will be accompanied by a 15-member troupe from Kalarpana Chennai and supported

by Oscar winner Rasool Pookkutty. It has voiceovers in English by film personalities such as Irrfan Khan, Konkonasen, Shabaana Azmi, John Abraham, Prakash Raj, Stephen Devassy and P Rajeevan.

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Konkani musical show nited Friends Club - Kuwait presents Kuwait Trio’s Konkani Songit Sanz (a Konkani musical evening) with fun filled comedy and songs, starring: Gracy Rodrigues, Clemmie Pereira, Irene Vaz, Lucy Aranha, Espy Crasto, Bab. Agnel, Katty de Navelim, Salu Faleiro, Gasper Crasto, Braz de Parra, Anthony D’Silva, Agnelo Fernandes, Seby & Seby, Zeferino Mendes, Lopes Bros., Comedian Nelson, Laurente Pereira & Cajetan de SanvordemMichael D’Silva-Mario de Majorda (Kuwait Trio). The show will be held on Friday, 10th May 2013 at 4 pm at the Indian Community School (Senior), Salmiya, Kuwait. Music will be provided by Maestro Shahu.

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IMAX

IMAX film program Sunday ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Tornado Alley 3D10:30am, 6:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 11:30am, 8:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30pm, 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 7:30pm Monday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 8:30pm Tornado Alley 3D11:30am, 5:30pm, 7:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 9:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 6:30pm Tuesday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Tornado Alley 3D10:30am, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 11:30am, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 5:30pm

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

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he Indian Women’s Association (IWA), under the patronage of Preeti Mehta, wife of the Ambassador of India to Kuwait, organized a seminar at the Holiday Inn, Salmiya on Monday, April 29 under their ‘Reach for Health’ initiative titled ‘Commit to be Fit’. ELM Wataniya graciously sponsored the event.

The Ambassador of India to Kuwait HE Satish Mehta was the honorable chief guest at the seminar, which was well attended by a host of dignitaries.

Muriel Alphonso, President of IWA welcomed the guests and said: “At IWA we believe in ‘lending a helping hand’ extending to the spheres of education, health and humanitarian causes, among others. Through ‘Commit to be Fit’ we aim to build awareness about important health issues, so we deal with them from an informed viewpoint.” ‘Commit to be Fit’ had three significant health issues that were under discussion.

ShireenKanchwala, Executive Consultant, IWA introduced each speaker in turn. The eminent panel of doctors comprised Dr Mohammed Al Jarallah, former Minister of Health, Consultant Surgeon, and Specialist in Obesity who detailed the salient features of ‘Weight Loss Surgery’. He outlined the fact that weight loss surgery becomes an option when obesity becomes morbid, and excess weight puts life at risk. Dr Riaz Ahmed Khan, Consultant Neurologist, spoke on the ‘Truth about Pain’. He defined pain as an unpleasant sensation, the intensity of which could be perceived differently by different people. It affects the quality of life of the sufferer and those around, hence pain should be diagnosed and treated effectively.

Dr KashifRizwi, Consultant Endocrinologist discussed Osteoporosis’ under the title ‘Invest in Your Bones’, an important health ailment that mainly afflicts women. Dr

Kashif highlighted the fact that investing in your bones from an early age could help in the control of Osteoporosis. An interactive question and answer session followed that gave guests an opportunity to ask specific questions about the three topics for the day.

Dr Tahseen Khan, Vice President, IWA accompanied the Patron, Preeti Mehta, as they felicitated each speaker with a plaque. Reynna Vas, Public Relations, IWA gave the vote of thanks, with special gratitude to the doctors for sparing their precious time and expertise, and a very big thank you to ELM Wataniya for supporting IWA and believing in their cause. In the past, under the Reach for Health initiative, IWA has organized health awareness campaigns and seminars on topics ranging from stroke, breast cancer, menopause, cosmetic surgery, diabetes awareness and other health issues affecting the general population in Kuwait.

Shaastrotsav draws huge crowd

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he most popular science and technology event in Kuwait ‘Shaastrotsav’ - Festival of Science, was held fabulously on Friday, 26th April, 2013 at Salmiya Indian Model School (SIMS), Kuwait. Indian Ambassador HE Satish C Mehta inaugurated Shaastrotav. Former chairman of Institution of Engineers (India) Kuwait chapter, Joseph Panikker welcomed the audience.

Kuwait Engineers forum general convener Bala Subramaniyam, Dr Khalid Hassan - Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness & Creativity, Wijdan Ali Al-Oqab - Secretary General-Kuwait Environment Protection Society, Dr Rumane- Chairman Institution of Engineers(India), Kuwait chapter, Safarulla KT- President NSS college of Engineering was also attended the inaugural function. Shaastrotsav program convener Justin Joseph delivered an introductory speech on Shaastrotsav 2013.

Shaastrotsav have come a long way since the first Shaastrotsav held in 2009, organized by NSS College of Engineering Alumni (Kuwait Chapter). This year it was conducted in association with The Institution of Engineers (India) Kuwait Chapter. More than 400 Students from various schools in Kuwait and the members of Kuwait engineers forum displayed their science and technology skills in the science project exhibition.

Well known Quiz Master Varun Rajive from KQA, India conducted the Science & Technology quiz which has enthralled the audience. Computer animation contest and Rubik cube solving contest are the unique and major attractions of shaastrotsav. Many Science and technology enthusiasts and organizations in Kuwait participated in this year’s event, displaying latest technologies including Robotic show and workshop by Sabah Al-Ahmad Centre for Giftedness & Creativity, Holographic show and 3D Projection by Spider Max Kuwait etc.

Dr Manaf Behbahani, Chairman of the Wildlife Protection Committee at the Kuwait Environment Protection Society presented The Hidden Beauties of Kuwait’s Wildlife, in the evening program.

Shaastrotsav was a day full of informative and entertaining programs for children and adults. Prizes were distributed to the winners in the valedictory function held after the evening show.

Following are the winners in various competition categories: SCIENCE PROJECT EXHIBITIONS INTERSCHOOL SENIOR CATEGORY FIRST PRIZE: Integrated Indian School, Abbasiya (Anuvind Asokan, Abdul Wahab, Faris T.P) Second prize Indian Community School, Senior Branch, Salmiya

(Agam Deep Singh Dogra, Akhil Nambiar, Ali Zakir Thakur)and third prize Gulf Indian School, Fahaheel.( Charu Asthana, K R Dheivameena, Bhakti R Nanda) SCIENCE PROJECT EXHIBITIONS INTERSCHOOL JUNIOR CATEGORY FIRST PRIZE: Indian Community School; Amman Street, Salmiya (Lakshmi Thampachen, Rintu Mary Roy, Rachel Minu Shyla). Second prize Indian Educational School (Bharathiya Vidhya Bhavan), Abbasiya(Akshaya Srinivasan, Nived .S. Lal, M. Yogesh Balaje) and third prize Fahaheel Al Wataniah Indian Pvt. School (DPS), Ahmadi.

(Abhishek Chauhan, Mantavya Sharma, Saphalya Pattnaik) SCIENCE PROJECT EXHIBITIONS INTERSCHOOL SUB JUNIOR CATEGORY FIRST PRIZE: Fahaheel Al Wataniah Indian Pvt. School (DPS), Ahmadi (Aditya Ashok, Cyril Justin). Second prize shared between Gulf Indian School, Fahaheel (Aditya Anil, Badhri Narayanan Raghuraman, Avani Anil) and Integrated Indian School, Abbasiya,( Abdullah Shimlan, Cherryn Bijoy , Saurab K Abraham ).Third prize Indian Community School, Junior Branch, Salmiya.( Vyshak Vinod Nair, Joel Anto, Advait Vinod) SCIENCE PROJECT EXHIBITION OPEN CATEGORY WINNERS ARE FIRST PRIZE: Shruti Ajithkumar and Naime Vinay, Second prize Natasha Martha Fernandes and Marushka Fernandes, Third prize Lubna A Thakur, Fizza Yawari and Annette Elsa Vargheses.

WINNERS FOR RUBIK’S CUBE SOLVING CONTES: first prize Melvin Varughese Thottungal (25.19 seconds), second prize Saurabh Raveendranath (31.38 seconds), Third prize Shasank Cheekala (33.18 seconds); COMPUTER ANIMATION CONTEST WINNERS ARE FIRST PRIZE: Abishek Chauhan, second prize Joji K Regi and third prize Heba Hanna Philip.

WINNERS FOR INTERSCHOOL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY QUIZ FIRST PRIZE: Fahaheel Al Wataniah Indian Pvt. School (DPS) team Rahul Raju and Yatharth Agarwal, second prize Indian Community School, Senior Branch, Salmiya team Sharan Sunil Kumar Yadav and Diya Ann Varghese, third prize United Indian School team Thomas Johncy and Adith Hari.

SCIENCE PROJECT EXHIBITION FOR KEF FIRST PRIZE: M A College of Engg (MACEAA),( Binu Varghese, Dilip Stephen, Joice Peter, Shaji Prabhakaran, Ajith kumar) second prize Govt Engg College, Trichur (TECAA) (Ravindran P Vasu, Sunil N S, Meghna P R, Vijai Krishnan R, Nanda Kumar Amalath) Third prize NSS College of Engg (NSSCEA) (Vidya Devaduttan, Cini Pramod, Lakshmi Santhosh, Irin Sebi, Rishika Rajesh).

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy

Australian Ambassador visits KLTT

Sebamed goes Instagram

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LTT’s Faisal Saud Al-Bader on Wednesday 1st May 2013 hosted His Excellency the Australian Ambassador Robert Tyson and Linda Trigg - Deputy Head of Mission & Consul at Livestock Transport & Trading Company (KLTT) where they discussed ways to promote and facilitate the activities of the Company with regards to import of live sheep, chilled and frozen meat from Australia. The Australian Ambassador briefed KLTT on the procedures and conditions the Australian Ministry of Agriculture (DAFF) intends to apply with regards to the Australian Livestock export to ensure its compli-

ance to the Supply Chain Guarantee Controls.

Bader assured the utmost attention and care of KLTT in continuing to maintain the full implementation of Supply Chain Safety measures compatible with the World Health Organization Standard (OIE). After the meeting, the Ambassador visited the Company’s factory for meat products and viewed the outstanding equipment and facilities as well as highquality international standard products.

HE then visited the Company farm and viewed all its sections including the loading and unloading areas as well as the fodder and fertilizer factory.

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e are glad to inform you that we launched our site on instagram.

Follow us on @sebamedkuwait and (hashtag)#sebamedkuwait and send us your shots involving all family members and be the lucky winner of a valuable prize from Sebamed products.

Kuwait University certifies 170 Financial Market Traders

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 Embassy of 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, UAE. 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

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he College of Business Administration (CBA) at Kuwait University certified 170 CBA students as Financial Market Traders. This follows intensive training throughout 2012-2013 under the CITI-Financial Market Trading Program (CITI-FMTP) which aims at training CBA’s top students on real-life dealing room simulations. When the program first commenced in late 2009, a total of 51 students completed the program. Today, 170 students have completed the program reflecting the increased interest in programs that enhance graduates’ skills and prepares them to enter the job market in Kuwait and the region. With this batch of graduates, the total number of students who completed the program over the last 4 years is 391.

Funded through a grant from the Citi Foundation, Citi’s social investment arm, the Citi-FMTP ran ten intensive sessions and employing the following tools: Applied fundamental and technical analysis; Financial and economic indicator for financial market forecasting; Kuwaiti Stock Market Trading rules & regulation; Opening brokerage account, placing order and execution; Strategic investment and short term positioning; Financial modeling & dynamic portfolio using Excel Pro & using Reuters models for stock trading; Complying with Capital Markets Authority rules and regulation; Risk Management.

Established in 1967, The CBA is one of KU’s 14 colleges, and offers the follow-

ing majors: Management & Marketing, Finance & Financial Institutions, Accounting, Quantitative Methods and Information Systems, Economics and Public Administration. CBA prepares graduates for professional positions in public and private sector businesses, organizations, institutions and corporations using English as the academic language.

Dr Abdullah Alsalman, Founder & Director of Financial Trading Center commented: “Citi Foundation has continued to support a program that enhances the skills of students that are needed for training in the stock markets.

This will give the Kuwaiti human capital the added skills and knowledge needed to enter the job market in Kuwait and the region and showcases Kuwaitis as leading candidates. We are proud of our graduates who have completed the program and their success encourages Kuwait University to continue partnering with corporate players like Citi to offer programs that impact students’ career decisions and lives positively”.

Dr Abdullah added that the Financial Trading Centre continues to work with Citi to develop the program with the aim of increasing the number of specialized technical analysts in the financial markets. These analysts and through continued development of the CITIFinancial Market Trading Program, will also have chance attend the Certified Financial Technician examination (CFTe) level 1 which is recognized internationally.

“I would like to congratulate the 4th batch of graduates from the intensive CITI-Financial Market Trading Program (CITI-FMTP). Citi looks forward to seeing these graduates take up senior positions in leading banks in and outside Kuwait and more importantly to apply the skills and knowledge they learned in the program in their daily jobs,” said Ozgur Kutay, General Manager of Citibank in Kuwait. “Citi is keen on developing Kuwait’s talent pool and our partnership with Kuwait University underscores Citi’s

commitment to supporting financial education at top academic institutions.”

Over 500 young Kuwaitis have so far received certified training on financial literacy, life skills and personal economics through Citi’s sponsored training programs. Citi has been in the Arab World for nearly 50 years and continues to view the region as critical to its global franchise. It is currently present in ten Arab countries including Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.

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 shortstay (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

EMBASSY OF VATICAN The Apostolic Nunciature (Embassy of the Holy See, Vatican in Kuwait presents its compliments to Kuwait Times Newspaper, and has the honor to inform the same that the Apostolic Nunciature has moved to a new location in Kuwait City. Please find below the new address: Yarmouk, Block 1, Street 2, Villa No: 1. P.O.Box 29724, Safat 13158, Kuwait. Tel: 965 25337767, Fax: 965 25342066.

Email: nuntiuskuwait@gmail.com nnnnnnn

ISP 20th Kindergarten graduation ceremony

T

wentieth Kindergarten graduation ceremony was held at International School of Pakistan, Khaitan on Tuesday, April 09, 2013. At this propitious occasion, a great number of guests and parents were present to acknowledge the achievements of the young graduates.

Madam Nadia Al-Hufaiti, the director, Anjum Masood, Principal (senior/junior), Bushra Karamat, Principal (KG & Primary Section), Nadiya M Arshad, Vice Principal (KG & Primary) welcomed the guests. They were presented with bouquets of flowers by the kindergarten students.

The chief guest was Sheikha Sheikha Al Abdullah Al Sabah and the guest of honor was Madam Susane Ahmed Khaleel, the director of primary section, Ministry of Private Education. Other special guests include Madam Christine, and Madam Maham, from the Ministry of Private Education. The ceremony commenced with the recitation of Quranic verses by Amro Khalid of UKG-E. The translation into English was by Ayesha Irfan of UKG-F. The National Anthem of Kuwait was played the audience stood to pay homage to the anthem with full national and patriotic fervor.

EMBASSY GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF NORTH KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait will organize 2013 K-POP Contest on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 6:00 pm. The aim of the contest is to provide an opportunity to the participants to showcase their exciting talents to the audience. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the contest. Application forms can be downloaded from the Embassy’s website: http://kwt.mofa.go.kr (Select English from the menu at the top of the page then Bilateral Relations) or visit the “Korean Culture Diwaniya” Facebook Group. Interested applicants must send their application forms to Kuwait@mofa.go.kr by 24 May 2013.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

03:15 03:40 04:05 04:55 05:20 05:45 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 09:10 09:35 10:05 11:00 11:55 12:20 12:50 13:15 13:45 14:40 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:25 Baker 18:20 19:15 19:40 20:10 20:35 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50

Shamwari: A Wild Life Shamwari: A Wild Life World Wild Vet Call Of The Wildman Baboons With Bill Bailey Shamwari: A Wild Life Shamwari: A Wild Life Wildlife SOS The Really Wild Show Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer Dogs 101 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Wildest Africa Animal Cops Houston Call Of The Wildman Wildlife SOS RSPCA: On The Frontline SSPCA: On The Wildside Animal Precinct Wildest Africa Baboons With Bill Bailey The Really Wild Show Dogs 101 Weird Creatures With Nick Groomer Has It Monkey Life Rescue Vet Call Of The Wildman Baboons With Bill Bailey Wildest Africa Wildest Islands Wild France Animal Cops Phoenix

03:10 Coastal Kitchen 03:35 Cash In The Attic 04:20 Bargain Hunt 05:05 Britain’s Dream Homes 05:55 Gok’s Fashion Fix 06:45 New Scandinavian Cooking 07:15 The Roux Legacy 07:50 Nigel Slater’s Simple Cooking 08:15 Homes Under The Hammer 09:05 Bargain Hunt 09:50 Antiques Roadshow 10:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:25 Masterchef: The Professionals 12:10 Come Dine With Me 13:00 The Roux Legacy 13:30 New Scandinavian Cooking 13:55 Bargain Hunt 14:40 Cash In The Attic 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:00 Homes Under The Hammer 17:55 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 18:20 The Good Cook 18:45 Baking Made Easy 19:10 New Scandinavian Cooking 19:40 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Homes Under The Hammer 23:55 Cash In The Attic

03:00 03:30 03:45 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 07:45 08:00 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:30 09:45

Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Hardtalk BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News

10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 BBC World News 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 BBC World News 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 16:30 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 Hardtalk 18:00 Global With John Sopel 18:30 Global With John Sopel 19:00 Global With John Sopel 19:30 World Business Report 19:45 Sport Today 20:00 BBC World News 20:30 BBC Focus On Africa 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 23:30 Hardtalk

03:00 03:30 03:55 04:20 04:45 05:00 05:25 05:45 06:00 06:25 06:50 07:15 07:40 08:05 08:30 08:55 09:45 10:10 10:35 11:00 11:25 11:50 12:40 13:00 13:25 13:50 14:20 14:45 15:10 15:35 16:00 16:25 16:50 17:15 17:40 18:05 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:45 20:10 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:15 23:05 23:30 23:55

Dexter’s Laboratory Wacky Races Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Bananas In Pyjamas Gerald McBoing Boing Jelly Jamm Ha Ha Hairies Bananas In Pyjamas Lazytown Krypto: The Super Dog Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Cartoonito Tales Lazy Town Baby Looney Tunes Krypto: The Super Dog Cartoonito Tales Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Lazy Town Jelly Jamm Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Moomins Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tiny Toon Adventures The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Taz-Mania Tom & Jerry Tales Moomins The Garfield Show The Looney Tunes Show Tiny Toon Adventures Taz-Mania Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Pink Panther And Pals The Looney Tunes Show Taz-Mania Puppy In My Pocket What’s New Scooby-Doo? Looney Tunes Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Tales Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals Moomins

03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Regular Show 03:50 Ben 10: Omniverse 04:15 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 04:40 Powerpuff Girls

05:05 Evil Con Carne 05:30 Cow & Chicken 06:00 Casper’s Scare School 06:30 Angelo Rules 07:00 Dreamworks Dragons: Riders Of Berk 07:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 07:45 Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated 08:10 Evil Con Carne 08:55 Adventure Time 09:45 Regular Show 10:35 Angelo Rules 11:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 11:50 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 12:15 Hero 108 12:40 Hero 108 13:05 Mucha Lucha !

13:30 Angelo Rules 14:20 Evil Con Carne 15:10 Ben 10 15:35 Ben 10 16:00 Johnny Test 16:35 Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated 17:00 Ben 10: Omniverse 17:25 Dreamworks Dragons Riders Of Berk 17:50 The Amazing World Of Gumball 18:15 Adventure Time 18:40 Regular Show 19:05 Total Drama World Tour 19:30 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 19:55 Starwars: The Clone Wars 20:20 Ben 10: Omniverse 20:45 Hero 108 21:10 Young Justice 21:35 Green Lantern: The Animated Series 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Ben 10 22:50 Mucha Lucha !

23:15 Mucha Lucha !

23:40 Powerpuff Girls

03:00 Anderson Cooper 360 04:00 Piers Morgan Live 05:00 Quest Means Business 06:00 The Situation Room 07:00 World Sport 07:30 News Special 08:00 World Report 09:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Inside Africa 11:00 World Business Today 12:00 World One 12:30 Inside The Middle East 13:00 Amanpour 13:30 CNN Newscenter 14:00 Piers Morgan Live 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today 17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 19:00 World Sport 19:30 Inside The Middle East 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Amanpour 22:30 CNN Newscenter 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson

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

Mythbusters Border Security Auction Hunters Baggage Battles How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Sons Of Guns Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Flying Wild Alaska Border Security Auction Hunters Baggage Battles How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Dual Survival Finding Bigfoot Border Security

15:05 15:30 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:30 22:25 22:50 23:20

Auction Hunters Baggage Battles Futurecar Flying Wild Alaska Mythbusters Sons Of Guns How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Auction Hunters Baggage Battles You Have Been Warned Magic Of Science Magic Of Science Mythbusters

03:35 Prototype This 04:25 Man-Made Marvels Asia 05:15 Gadget Show - World Tour 05:40 The Tech Show 06:05 Race To Mars 07:00 Space Pioneer 07:50 NASA’s Greatest Missions 08:40 Gadget Show - World Tour 09:05 The Tech Show 09:30 Smash Lab 10:25 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 11:15 Kings Of Construction 12:05 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 13:00 NASA’s Greatest Missions 13:50 Patent Bending 14:20 Gadget Show - World Tour 14:45 The Tech Show 15:10 Space Pioneer 16:00 Punkin Chunkin 2010 16:55 Ecopolis 17:45 Man-Made Marvels Asia 18:35 Race To Mars 19:30 Space Pioneer 20:20 NASA’s Greatest Missions 21:10 Gadget Show - World Tour 21:35 The Tech Show 22:00 Space Pioneer 22:50 The Colony 23:40 Gadget Show - World Tour

03:05 03:30 03:55 04:20 04:45 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:40 07:10 07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:10 09:35 10:00 11:30 11:40 12:05 12:30 12:55 13:20 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:15 16:40 17:00 18:30 18:45 19:10 19:35 20:00 20:25 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:05 22:30 22:55 23:20 23:45

Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Brandy & Mr Whiskers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Doc McStuffins Suite Life On Deck A.N.T Farm A.N.T Farm Jessie Jessie Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Austin And Ally Bolt Prankstars Suite Life On Deck Hannah Montana Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Jessie A.N.T. Farm A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally Austin And Ally Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T. Farm Toy Story 2 Prankstars That’s So Raven Cory In The House Good Luck Charlie Jessie Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Phil Of The Future Hannah Montana Jonas Los Angeles Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana

03:15 Style Star 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 THS 05:05 THS 06:00 THS 07:50 Style Star 08:20 Opening Act 09:15 Opening Act 10:15 15 Remarkable Celebrity Body Bouncebacks 12:05 Khloe And Lamar 12:35 Khloe And Lamar 13:05 Married To Jonas 13:35 Married To Jonas 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 E!es 16:30 Extreme Close-Up 17:00 Chasing The Saturdays 17:30 Chasing The Saturdays 18:00 E! News 19:00 Fashion Police 20:00 E!es 21:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 22:00 Chasing The Saturdays 22:30 E! News 23:30 Chelsea Lately

BURNING BRIGHT ON OSN ACTION HD

03:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 03:25 Unique Eats 03:50 Kid In A Candy Store 04:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Iron Chef America 06:10 Food Network Challenge 07:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 07:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 07:50 Unique Eats 08:15 Kid In A Candy Store 08:40 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 The Next Iron Chef 10:20 Extra Virgin 10:45 Extra Virgin 11:10 Everyday Italian 11:35 Unwrapped 12:00 Chef Hunter 12:50 Grill It! With Bobby Flay

13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Extra Virgin 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Symon’s Suppers 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Guy’s Big Bite 19:30 Chopped 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Iron Chef America 22:00 Charly’s Cake Angels 22:25 Charly’s Cake Angels 22:50 Unique Sweets 23:15 Unique Sweets 23:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives

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

I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner A Haunting Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Disappeared Murder Shift Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill Nightmare Next Door Nightmare Next Door I Almost Got Away With It

03:30 Texasville 05:35 The Amityville Horror 07:30 Gate II 09:00 The Unforgiven 11:05 The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course 12:35 Saved 14:05 Swamp Thing 15:35 Lights! Action! Music!

16:35 Viva Maria!

18:30 Mgm’s Big Screen 18:45 A Star For Two 20:20 Kid Galahad 22:00 True Blood 23:40 Alice

03:30 Banged Up Abroad 04:25 City Chase Rome 05:20 Departures 06:15 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 06:40 Earth Tripping 07:10 Exploring The Vine 07:35 Kimchi Chronicles 08:05 Somewhere In China 09:00 Making Tracks 09:55 Banged Up Abroad 11:45 City Chase Rome 12:40 Departures 13:35 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:00 Earth Tripping 14:30 Delinquent Gourmet 14:55 Kimchi Chronicles 15:25 Somewhere In China 16:20 Market Values 17:15 Banged Up Abroad 19:05 City Chase Rome 20:00 Delinquent Gourmet 20:30 Kimchi Chronicles 21:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 21:30 Earth Tripping 22:00 Departures 22:55 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 23:20 Market Values 23:50 Travel Madness

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 PG15 10:00 11:45 13:30 PG15 15:15 17:30 19:15 22:00 23:45

Burning Bright-18 Fright Night-PG15 Ip Man 2-PG15 The Ring-PG15 True Justice: Lethal JusticeInterview With A Hitman-PG15 Secret Window-PG15 True Justice: Lethal JusticeX-Men: First Class-PG15 Secret Window-PG15 Saving Private Ryan-18 Paintball-18 Botched-18

01:00 John Carter-PG15 03:15 Take Shelter-PG15 05:15 Morning-PG15 07:00 Ties That Bind-PG15 09:00 John Carter-PG15 11:15 Once Brothers-PG15 13:00 Battle For Terra-PG 15:00 Ceremony-PG15 17:00 Madea’s Big Happy FamilyPG15 19:00 Something Borrowed-PG15 21:00 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard-18 23:00 Locked In-PG15

03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 Leno 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00

Breaking In Friends Seinfeld The Tonight Show With Jay Til Death Arrested Development Gary Unmarried Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Seinfeld

CEREMONY ON OSN CINEMA 08:30 Til Death 09:00 Breaking In 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 10:30 Gary Unmarried 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Arrested Development 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Til Death 13:30 Gary Unmarried 14:00 Friends 15:00 How I Met Your Mother 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Arrested Development 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Ben And Kate 18:30 The Simpsons 19:00 Modern Family 19:30 The Mindy Project 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Weeds 22:30 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 23:00 Entourage 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

Greek House Of Cards Grey’s Anatomy Supernatural Emmerdale Coronation Street The Closer The Ellen DeGeneres Show Grey’s Anatomy The Americans Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Closer Supernatural Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Closer Touch Bones Castle The Client List Treme

03:45 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 17:45 20:15 22:00

RoboCop 2 RoboCop 3 Season Of The Witch True Justice: Brotherhood True Justice: Blood Alley Barricade True Justice: Brotherhood Kingdom Of Heaven Barricade Alien

04:00 The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom-PG 06:00 Hop-PG 08:00 The First Wives Club-PG 10:00 Ernest Scared Stupid-PG15 12:00 The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom-PG 14:00 In Her Shoes-PG15 16:15 Ernest Scared Stupid-PG15 18:00 Turner & Hooch-PG15 20:00 The Switch-18 22:00 High School-18

03:00 05:00 07:15 09:00 11:00 PG15 13:00 15:00 17:00 18:45 21:00 23:15

Sleepy Hollow-PG15 Water For Elephants-PG15 Courage-PG15 Separate Lies-PG15 Taken Back: Finding HaleyKings Ransom-PG15 Separate Lies-PG15 Yona Yona Penguin-PG Mr. Nobody-PG15 The Preacher’s Wife-PG15 The Intouchables-U

04:30 Take Shelter-PG15 06:30 B-Girl-PG15 08:00 Into The Wind-PG15 09:00 The Adventures Of Tintin-PG 11:00 Lady And The Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure-FAM 12:30 Ring Of Deceit-PG15 14:15 The Phantom Of The Opera At The Royal Albert Hall-PG15 17:00 The Adventures Of Tintin-PG 19:00 Contagion-PG15 21:00 Locked In-PG15 23:00 The Five Year Engagement-18

04:30 Turandot 06:00 Tinker Bell And The Secret Of The Wings 08:00 Everyone’s Hero 10:00 Robots 11:30 The Adventures Of Don Quixote 13:00 Crab Island 14:30 Tinker Bell And The Secret Of The Wings 16:00 101 Dalmatians (1961) 18:00 Robots 20:00 Teo: The Intergalactic Hunter 22:00 Crab Island 23:30 Everyone’s Hero

03:00 MSNBC All In With Chris Hayes 04:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 05:00 MSNBC The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell 06:00 NBC Nightly News 06:30 ABC World News With Diane Sawyer 07:00 Live NBC Nightly News 07:39 ABC Nightline 08:06 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 09:00 MSNBC The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell 10:00 ABC World News Now 10:30 Live ABC World News Now 11:00 NBC Early Today 11:30 ABC America This Morning 12:00 ABC America This Morning 12:30 Live ABC America This Morning 13:00 Live ABC America This Morning 13:30 MSNBC First Look 14:00 Live NBC Today Show 17:57 Live MSNBC Hardball With Chris Matthews 18:38 Live MSNBC The Ed Show 19:19 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20:00 MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports 21:00 MSNBC Newsnation 22:00 MSNBC The Cycle 23:00 MSNBC Martin Bashir

04:00 Crisis Point-PG15 05:45 The Tree Of Life-PG15 08:00 A View From Here-PG15 10:00 The Big Year-PG 12:00 Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows-PG15 14:15 Rio-FAM 16:00 A View From Here-PG15 18:00 Damsels In Distress-PG15 20:00 Coriolanus-PG15 22:15 Outlaw Country-PG15

03:30 NRL Full Time 04:00 NRL Premiership 06:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 07:00 Snooker World Championship 11:00 Champions Tour Highlights 12:00 Live Snooker World Championship 16:00 NRL Full Time 16:30 Live Snooker World Championship 20:00 Futbol Mundial 20:30 PGA European Tour Weekly 21:00 Live Snooker World Championship

07:00 08:00 10:00 10:30 11:30 13:30 14:30 15:30 19:00 21:00 21:30 22:30 23:30

AFL Premiership Highlights Super Rugby NRL Full Time AFL Premiership Highlights European Challenge Cup Super Rugby PGA Tour Highlights Premier League Darts NHL Inside The PGA Tour Trans World Sport AFL Premiership Highlights Super Rugby

03:00 Super Rugby 05:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 09:00 World Pool Masters 10:00 World Cup Of Pool 11:00 Trans World Sport 12:00 Top 14 Highlights 12:30 ICC Cricket 360 13:00 Golfing World 14:00 Futbol Mundial 14:30 AFL Premiership Highlights 15:30 World Pool Masters 16:30 World Cup Of Pool 17:30 European Challenge Cup 19:30 Asian Tour Golf Show 20:00 Super League 21:30 Ladies European Tour Highlights 22:30 Champions Tour Highlights 23:30 Golfing World

03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 20:30 22:30 23:30

Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL WWE Vintage Collection WWE NXT Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL WWE SmackDown European Le Mans Series UIM Powerboat Champs UIM Powerboat Champs UIM Powerboat Champs UFC NHL European Le Mans Series UIM Powerboat Champs

03:45 04:40 05:10 05:35 06:05 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:55 11:55 12:50 13:20 13:50 14:45 15:40 16:35 17:30 18:25 19:25 20:20 21:15 22:10 23:05

Chicagolicious Open House Videofashion News Videofashion Collections Clean House: New York Videofashion News Videofashion News Videofashion Daily Open House Dress My Nest Giuliana & Bill Tia And Tamera Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Videofashion Specials Videofashion Collections Chicagolicious How Do I Look?

How Do I Look?

Built Built Chicagolicious Jerseylicious Giuliana & Bill Giuliana & Bill Kimora: House Of Fab Fashion Police

03:20 05:10 07:00 09:45 12:15 14:10 16:00 17:40 19:35 22:00

Ziegfeld Follies-FAM Never So Few-PG Raintree County-PG The Comedians-PG Bronco Billy-PG White Heat-PG Billy The Kid-PG Guns For San Sebastian-PG Anchors Aweigh-FAM Get Carter-18

Classifieds SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

SHARQIA-2 TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) SPIDERS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

SHARQIA-3 OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:15 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

MUHALAB-1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM

MUHALAB-2 THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 4:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM

MUHALAB-3 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

12:30 PM

FOR SALE

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (02/05/2013 TO 08/05/2013) TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) FANAR-1 THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG)

3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 1:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

FANAR-2 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:45 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 2:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 4:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 6:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 8:00 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 9:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 11:45 PM FANAR-3 THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

MARINA-1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 1:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 3:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 5:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 7:15 PM WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 9:00 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 11:00 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:45 AM MARINA-2 THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 6:15 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM

THE CALL (DIG)

12:15 AM

MARINA-3 TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM

AVENUES-1 WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM

AVENUES-2 OBLIVION (DIG) 12:45 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 3:15 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 5:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 8:15 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 10:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 1:15 AM AVENUES-3 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

2:15 PM 4:15 PM 6:15 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

360ยบ 1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:15 PM 7:15 PM 9:15 PM 11:15 PM 1:15 AM

360ยบ 2 FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)

2:30 PM 4:45 PM

FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)

7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:30 PM

360ยบ 3 EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

AL-KOUT.1 TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) SPIDERS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.2 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 2:45 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 4:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 6:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 8:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 10:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:15 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED AL-KOUT.3 OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:15 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

BAIRAQ-1 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM 12:05 AM

Nissan Infiniti G37, 2009 model, 6 cylinder, automatic, 6 CD changer, mobile connectivity, rear view camera, sunroof, sand color, GPS, excellent condition, 60,000 Kms. KD 7,000.

Contact: 99742340.

(C 4394) 4-5-2013 For sale car Corolla model 2000, price KD 700/-. Contact: 99017342. (C 4402) 2-5-2013

CHANGE OF NAME Rajaraman Sundarraj son of Sundarraj and Janaki bearing an Indian Passport No. K2091792 and having an address No. 4A-1, Moongikollai Street, Kumbakonam PO, Tanjore DT, Tamilnadu 612001 had embraced Islam and changed the name as Raja Mohammed. (C 4401) 4-5-2013

MATRIMONIAL Proposals invited for a Jacobite Christian girl, 27 years, 160cm, massager in occupational therapy, from parents of professionally qualified boys working in India or Abroad. Contact: lalu@kic.com.kw (C 4404) 5-5-2013 27 year Roman Catholic girl, 158cms, BSN MOH invites proposals for a suitable groom - Male nurses expetional. Email: rosammaantony72@gmail.com (C 4400) 2-5-2013 SITUATION WANTED

112

Storekeeper, experience 4 years, Civil ID expir y 4/8/2013. Contact: sanalkumartm12@gmail.com / 69966306. (C 4403) 5-5-2013

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines BBC QTR JZR JZR RJA THY ETH GFA UAE ETD FDB MSR QTR KAC DHX THY CLX FDB KAC JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD IRC GFA MEA JZR JZR KAC UAE MSR THY KAC KAC QTR KAC FDB IRC SVA KNE OMA

Arrival Flights on Sunday 5/5/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 642 AMMAN 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 544 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 792 LUXEMBOURG 69 DUBAI 412 MANILA 555 ALEXANDRIA 157 LONDON 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 352 COCHIN 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 603 SHIRAZ 301 ABU DHABI 6666 AHWAZ 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 165 DUBAI 561 SOHAG 284 DHAKA 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 742 DAMMAM 672 DUBAI 140 DOHA 774 RIYADH 57 DUBAI 6507 SHIRAZ 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 645 MUSCAT

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

RJA QTR JZR ETD SYR UAE ABY SVA GFA UAL JZR JZR KAC KAC QTR KAC KAC FDB GFA KAC AXB KAC MSR JAI KAC AFG OMA FDB ABY JZR MEA KAC KAC KLM ALK UAE KAC ETD QTR QTR GFA DHX QTR FDB AIC JZR UAL JZR JZR DLH JAI PIA THY

640 134 787 303 341 857 127 510 215 982 177 777 502 542 144 786 166 63 219 618 393 674 606 572 102 415 647 61 129 481 402 562 514 417 229 859 172 307 136 6130 217 372 146 59 981 239 981 185 135 636 574 205 772

AMMAN DOHA RIYADH ABU DHABI DAMASCUS DUBAI SHARJAH RIYADH BAHRAIN WASHINGTON DC DULLES DUBAI JEDDAH BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH PARIS DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA KOZHIKODE DUBAI LUXOR MUMBAI NEW YORK KABUL MUSCAT DUBAI SHARJAH SABIHA BEIRUT AMMAN TEHRAN AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI FRANKFURT ABU DHABI DOHA DOHA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI LAHORE ISTANBUL

15:55 16:15 16:15 16:35 16:45 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:25 17:30 17:50 18:00 18:15 18:25 18:30 18:40 18:55 19:05 19:10 19:15 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:35 19:45 20:00 20:00 20:05 20:10 20:15 20:45 20:50 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 21:45 22:00 22:00 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:40 22:40 23:00 23:10 23:20 23:40 23:45

Airlines AIC AXB JAI UAL DLH BBC THY THY ETH UAE FDB MSR ETD QTR QTR JZR FDB RJA GFA THY JZR CLX BAW FDB KAC KAC ABY UAE FDB QTR KAC ETD IRA KAC KAC IRC GFA KAC MEA KAC JZR JZR KAC JZR KAC JZR MSR THY UAE FDB

Departure Flights on Sunday 5/5/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 490 MANGALORE 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 44 CHITTAGONG 773 ISTANBUL 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 70 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 792 GIALAM 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 171 FRANKFURT 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 117 NEW YORK 302 ABU DHABI 602 SHIRAZ 773 RIYADH 741 DAMMAM 6667 AHWAZ 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 405 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 480 ISTANBUL 103 LONDON 786 RIYADH 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 767 ISTANBUL 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI

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

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

QTR KAC IRC KAC KNE OMA SVA KAC KAC RJA JZR QTR ETD JZR SYR ABY UAE SVA GFA JZR UAL JZR QTR FDB GFA JZR AXB MSR JAI FDB ABY AFG OMA MEA DHX KLM ETD ALK UAE KAC QTR KAC GFA DHX FDB KAC QTR KAC QTR KAC KAC KAC

141 673 6508 561 473 646 503 617 513 641 238 135 304 538 342 128 858 511 216 184 982 266 145 64 220 134 394 619 571 62 120 415 648 403 171 417 308 230 860 343 137 301 218 373 60 205 147 351 6131 411 283 415

DOHA DUBAI SHIRAZ AMMAN JEDDAH MUSCAT MADINAH DOHA IMAM KHOMEINI AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO LATAKIA SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH JEDDAH MUSCAT BEIRUT BAHRAIN DAMMAM ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI CHENNAI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA KOCHI DOHA BANGKOK DHAKA KUALA LUMPUR

14:55 15:05 15:25 15:30 15:30 15:40 15:45 15:45 16:20 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:20 17:40 17:45 17:50 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 19:25 19:35 19:50 20:05 20:15 20:30 20:35 20:40 20:45 20:45 20:55 21:15 21:50 22:05 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:00 23:00 23:05 23:10 23:15 23:40 23:45 23:50

34

stars CROSSWORD 180

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) Whether you are working in a business or at home, your attention is in getting things accomplished. If you find yourself working within a group today, all will be productive. It may be that all the masterminds would like a break by mid afternoon. If you are not working a time limit, you could order pizza and stop to enjoy each other’s company. Next weekend is another opportunity to put the finishing touches on everything. After everyone is gone you might want to just relax for a while but knowing your energy, you may have time before dark to do a little weeding in the yard. Have you got a vegetable garden tonight is a good time to use your writing skills. You enjoy sending out birthday cards.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Study, if you are a student, can be very productive this morning.

Perusing a bookstore that sells used books might be fun later today. You might even find some old classic video films to give as gifts for upcoming birthdays. Conversations today with strangers can surprisingly lead to better business contacts, as well as a mutual interest in hobbies. A preoccupation with your appearance, how you come across to others and social life in general may become most important to you. A little shopping expedition may help you add to your wardrobe. You find yourself most communicative, but pay attention to those closest to you—they are the most important people in your future.

Social contact today or this evening shows you at your most elegant.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS

1. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

4. A mountain peak in south central Sri Lanka (7,360 feet high).

12. The longest division of geological time.

15. The cry made by sheep.

16. An extinct Semitic language of northern Syria.

17. South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers.

18. Having undesirable or negative qualities.

19. A cry of sorrow and grief.

20. Realistic Norwegian author who wrote plays on social and political themes (18281906).

22. Fragrant resin obtain from trees of the family Burseraceae and used as incense.

24. Of or relating to Mahatma Gandhi or his teachings.

26. A liquid used for printing or writing or drawing.

29. A former copper coin of Pakistan.

30. A large fleet.

33. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

34. A flexible container with a single opening.

36. A man who serves as a sailor.

41. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

43. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

44. Electronic warfare undertaken to prevent or reduce an enemy's effective use of the electromagnetic spectrum.

48. A Bantu language spoken by the Chaga people in northern Tanzania.

51. Fertility goddess in ancient Greek mythology.

52. Acute lung injury characterized by coughing and rales.

53. (physiology) Of or relating to or producing normal tone or tonus in muscles or tissue.

55. (Welsh myth) The other world.

58. The Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Dali region of Yunnan.

61. A waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water.

65. Functioning correctly and ready for action.

67. A card game for 2 players.

69. United States architect (born in England) whose works include the chambers of the United States Congress and the Supreme Court (1764-1820).

71. Edible starchy tuberous root of taro plants.

73. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

74. Being one more than fifteen.

75. Roar louder than.

78. British informal term.

79. A deciduous tree of the family Ulmaceae that grows in the southeastern United States.

80. An independent group of closely related Chadic languages spoken in the area between the Biu-Mandara and East Chadic languages.

DOWN 1. A French abbot.

2. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

3. (of a young animal) Abandoned by its

mother and raised by hand.

4. A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (trade name Clinoril).

5. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

6. Black honeycreepers with yellow feathers around the tail.

7. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

8. (Akkadian) A goddess.

9. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

10. Being one more than fifty.

11. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

12. A red fluorescent dye resulting from the action of bromine on fluorescein.

13. A large body of water constituting a principal part of the hydrosphere.

14. Wife of Balder.

21. God of wealth and love.

23. A member of the extinct Algonquian people formerly living in northern Indiana and southern Michigan.

25. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools.

27. A historical region of southwestern India on the west coast.

28. (British) A waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric.

31. Echo repeatedly, echo again and again.

32. An insane person.

35. A defensive missile designed to shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.

37. The visual property of something that shines with reflected light.

38. A mound of stones piled up as a memorial or to mark a boundary or path.

39. A United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments.

40. A platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it.

42. A law passed by US Congress to prevent employees from being injured or contracting diseases in the course of their employment.

45. A form of address for a man.

46. The capital of Australia.

47. A crime syndicate in the United States.

49. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

50. 1,000,000,000 periods per second.

54. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

56. A city in east central Texas.

57. The capital and largest city of Afghanistan.

59. (Greek mythology) A Titan who was forced by Zeus to bear the sky on his shoulders.

60. A long noosed rope used to catch animals.

62. Rock that in its molten form (as magma) issues from volcanos.

63. Of or relating to near the ear.

64. A farm building for housing poultry.

66. A member of the Siouan people inhabiting the valleys of the Platte and Missouri rivers in Nebraska.

68. Type genus of the Ranidae.

70. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

72. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

76. A radioactive gaseous element formed by the disintegration of radium.

77. A metric unit of weight equal to one thousandth of a kilogram.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

Friends and neighbors occupy most of your day today. You appreciate your friends and enjoy the interactions that occur. You can be very charming and enchant others to come under your spell. Periods of intense creativity will help you to go through changes and inner growth. This creative intensity is good for music, poetry and art.

There is a great intensity of emotions and purpose. A class at a nearby art store might be fun, as long as you do not enter into a project with the attitude of competitiveness. Later today there is time to tend to your favorite pet; perhaps you will shampoo and dry this animal. Relaxing around your home this evening just smells especially good—cookies, flowers, etc. You enjoy family and rely on each other for encouragement.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Reading or attending a lecture on law, politics, education, travel or religion may be part of your day. Your creative side is showing this afternoon when you help a friend decorate or purchase a colorful scarf, shirt or some other accessory. Your environment becomes simplified and your friends receive encouragement. Friends are a great source of information. Ask the right questions to get the answers you need. Some misunderstanding from the past is better understood now; things seem almost magical in the way they work out in your favor. This evening is a good time to respond to some long overdue correspondence; perhaps a relative or friend has been out of town for a very long time. This is the evening you finishing reading your novel.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You may find that you have plenty of vigor for whatever you plan today. You appreciate each moment of the day and seem anxious to move on to the next adventurous chapter. Your current appreciation for just about everything may lead you to overspend—careful. Shopping at a unique store today, you find many opportunities to check out new produce or see a demonstration of a new product. You may enjoy a massage while you wait for a friend to finish shopping. Later, you will enjoy conversations about the experiences of this day. You also appreciate art and music and may enjoy talking about a popular movie star or new music.

Before it gets too late you will probably want to clean out your car and give it a wash. You like things neat, clean and in order.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This is a time of good fortune—when things open up in a very natural way for you. Situations are almost perfect for what you want to accomplish. You will prosper as you pursue your ideals and plot the path to your goals. Don’t be afraid to project yourself—make those dreams real. Opportunities to improve and enlarge your friendships are available and you may find yourself wanting and able to do almost anything. Overall, this is a good time to project your image. You are very other-oriented at this time. Be careful, however, and give thought to new or different ideas before making promises. You could find it difficult to move away from your regular way of doing things but your efforts will be rewarded; you are ingeniously inventive.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) Flow with the tide instead of pushing against it today. You will experience some positive feedback regarding a creative project—but when you least expect it. Perhaps you are working on improving a product or you are creating your own product, whatever the case your perseverance pays off. The solution to a gnawing mystery comes from a family member today. This impressive individual is from your own blood and you are proud. A person that you were close to in the past may contact you with some information. An earnest effort in letting go of hard feelings can free you to move forward where emotions are concerned. Learn to dismiss the past so that you can concentrate on today—no sense in giving up all your days!

There is a free feeling.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) In-depth discussions and probing conversations find you at your mental best this day. Your analytical abilities are at a high point. Perhaps you have a part-time job in helping a friend to proof or grade papers. You might consider work at home for a publisher as an editor for writers. This can be an expansive, creative and even a romantic phase, a time you will look back on with fondness. Your need for admiration and appreciation will certainly be meet as you entertain and visit with friends this afternoon. This could be a time to make or plan for some changes in your environment. You are ready for some positive changes. Any work along this line will help set your subconscious to work toward helping you each day to achieve a balance.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You are ambitious, self-confident, self-reliant, loyal, honorable and generous in money matters. You might, however, be tempted to overspend or indulge too much if you are shopping. Everything is beautiful! You are fond of your home life and will strive to create a harmonious environment. Being fashion-conscious, you may decide to create a cover for a couch or a pillow or perhaps you will be inspired to get out some stored away sheets for the upcoming summer. Making life comfortable for others is a pleasure. You also like to have your home looking nice, in case someone drops by for a visit. Family, home, relatives and real estate play a big part in your life this year. You want to belong on a private, intimate and personal level.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN You are in a position to show your trust and respect to a loved one today.

You will also employ any manner of means to change a negative to a positive.

You have probably become tired of hearing negative comments as you are ready to create positive changes. You are able to promote a healing where emotional concerns are involved. You enjoy a peaceful home. Tomorrow, you might allow complaints, but today you will not accept any sounds but from a person with a grateful spirit. You may reserve the right to find other ways to occupy your time, but it will not be necessary. Visiting with an older person is enhanced today. You may enjoy being guided through a game of trivia or a rummy hand with these young at heart friends.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Today is good for performing renovations or spring-cleaning. Unexpected company won’t stay long if you don’t stop your work. You may get a little help from a friend later today; perhaps a trade situation is in the making. This can be a productive time physically and emotionally; penetrating conversations bring insights if a friend or friends stay for a visit.

Your emotions and the feelings of those around you become clear; life is good. You are a hangar full of happiness and creativity and there is much pride and positive input in which you choose to become involved. You may value your experiences this day. Another visitor in your home this evening compliments you on your art. This is a time of deepening relationships and positive feelings.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) This can be a very superficial day. It may not be possible for you to penetrate anything remotely meaningful or moving. Perhaps there is a sense of the senselessness or wasteful use of time. Instead of pushing to accomplish the regular chores, you move to do the essentials. Take some time to just enjoy the day. This can be a day of healing and nurturing for the body and spirit. It just may be beneficial to learn more about herbs and ways to determine the types of useful plants that grow in your area. You may be surprised to know that dandelions make a beautiful, nutritional and healthy addition to a tossed salad. Someone in your family needs a helping hand and you may join in and find much laughter and camaraderie in this team effort.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Sabhan

24742838

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Al-Helaly

22434853

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Al-Faiha

22545051

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Hawally

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

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SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

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he 32-year-old former reality TV star - who was jailed in 2007 after being caught driving with a suspended license while on probation for driving under the influence - says she is no longer a party girl and hopes to have children in the near future with model River Viiperi.

The blonde heiress told ‘The Wendy Williams Show’: “I’m staying out of trouble. I’ve grown up.”

Asked if she is ready to start a family, she said: “I think that’s every woman’s dream. I think that’s the meaning of life to have children and have a

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he 36-year-old actress - who starred in the western movie alongside Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio has admitted found it extremely tough to play a woman trapped in slavery in the controversial film. She told Parade magazine: “I feel like I barely survived ‘Django’ emotionally. The violence. Hearing the N-word every day. It cost me a lot psychologically, but it was worth it to tell that story.” The ‘Scandal’ star - who won an acting scholarship to attend George Washington University but decided to major in sociology and anthropology - also revealed she previously thought about being a psychologist. She said: “I wanted to study people. I thought I would either teach or be a shrink.” The actress has been extremely busy lately and has found

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he couple - who began dating more than a year ago after a decade long friendship - will welcome their baby in early July and have reportedly set a date for a low-key wedding shortly afterwards.

A source told gossip website RadarOnline.com: “Kim’s choice at the moment is a starlight ceremony in California’s Big Sur.” The 32-year-old beauty - whose divorce from Kris Humphries was settled last month after a long battle that began in November 2011 when they split after 72 days of marriage - plans to wear an “ethereal white wedding dress”. But the 35year-old rapper has warned Kim, who was also previously married to music producer Damon Thomas when she was 20 - that it cannot be a media circus and their wedding photos will not be sold for a profit.

The insider said: “Instead, Kanye says they should consider a donation to one of Kim’s charities like the Skin Cancer Foundation, or Mattel Children’s Hospital in a deal around the wedding for a short film.” The source also said the couple have been talking “about marriage for a long time, so it’s not like Kanye is going to propose and they’ll get engaged-it’s been something they’ve been looking forward to for a while during the divorce. “Now that Kim’s almost a free woman, she wants an immediate wedding-she wants to marry the father of her baby as soon as possible, but the birth must come first.”

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twice in the past to shipping heir Paris Latsis and to model Jason Shaw but plans to focus on her growing her own brand instead of putting pressure on River to propose soon. She said: “I just opened my 44th store in Colombia last week and we’re expanding all around the world. I’m getting into the hotel business and following in my family’s footsteps. I love it.”

it tough switching between her complex characters. She said: “I had two days between finishing ‘Django’ and starting up again on ‘Scandal’. It was nuts. That first day back I had to walk across the Rose Garden in heels. I thought, ‘I don’t remember how to walk like Olivia Pope anymore. ‘ I’d been barefoot in the woods for months playing a slave.” But Kerry is looking forward to her fans seeing a different side of her in Tyler Perry’s new romantic comedy ‘Peeples’. She said: “I’m a goofy person.

That’s how I ended up in ‘Peeples’. Tyler Perry saw me joking around...and said, ‘I had no idea you were this silly.”

he 26-year-old hunk -who played Dan Humphrey in teen drama ‘Gossip Girl’ for six years - admits his ideal role would be as the ‘Purple Rain’ hitmaker because he has been his musical idol for as long as he can remember. Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Penn said: “Let’s put that out there. I’d love to play Prince. I could confidently play his hair.” Penn is no stranger to musical biopics, starring as Jeff Buckley in ‘Greetings From Tim Buckley’, and he admits he was worried about the “responsibility” of playing late singer - who died aged 30 in 1997 from accidental drowning - but didn’t really care about what people thought of his performance in the film as he felt so confident about it.

He explained: “Taking on a role like this, and the story itself, will surprise people. It’s a strange, quiet meditation on two artists, and I was much more worried about the responsibility of playing a dead artist than worrying about what people would think about the kid from ‘Gossip Girl’ playing Jeff. “I’m well aware that no one would have any reason to think I could do it. But I knew this slice of Jeff that we were trying to convey, I could do. I felt it could be easy.”

he ‘Dead Man Down’ star - who has been sober for eight years - revealed his new movie has made him think a lot about gun ownership and he would never want to own a weapon in case his life ever spun out of control again. The 36-year-old Irish actor told the MailOnline website: “I wouldn’t trust myself to have a gun. What if I got drunk again? What if my heart is broken and I go crazy for a bit, or, even worse, what if I forget to lock my gun away somewhere safe and someone has an accident? I forget my car keys all the time, so why not that? “Americans say: ‘Oh, but it’s our constitutional right, we’re all grown-ups, give us guns.’ “Well, don’t give me a gun, because

he pop star and her soccer player fiancÈ Wayne Bridge have announced they are expecting their first child together and the pair are completely overjoyed with the news. Writing on her Twitter page, Frankie said: “Some big news from me today! Wayne and I are having a baby. We are both SO happy and can’t wait for his or hers arrival! (sic)” Frankie was inundated with messages of congratulations on the social networking site and one person who was particularly happy she’d finally shared her pregnancy news was her sister

family one-day. “I am so in love. I feel so lucky to have met him. He’s one of the kindest, most loyal men I’ve ever met in my entire life, and he treats me like a princess. “He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in my life.” The socialite met the Spanish hunk when she attended the Marlon Gobel show last year at the Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week with DT Model Management owner David Todd and the pair hit it off. Paris, who previously dated DJ Afrojack, Benji Madden and Nick Carter, was engaged

I’m a human being!” Colin - who has a nine-yearold son, James, with model Kim Bordenave, who has Angelman Syndrome, and a three-year-old son, Henry, with Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curus also revealed he hopes to scale back his career in eight years. He said: “I’ll be 45 then, and I don’t want to be making films back to back. “People working on films miss important things. They miss weddings and funerals, and some of them even miss the births of their children. It affects their marriages. But there is another life out there. “The idea of being a celebrity means very little. On a practical level, it’s come to me in conjunction with earning a certain amount of money so I can take care of my boys, particularly James because we can afford certain therapies that some other parents can’t. “But for me, one of the greatest gifts of achieving fame is it means you don’t have to sit around wondering if being famous will bring you happiness, because you quickly find out it won’t! “But I’ll tell you one thing. I think that if when I was 17, I’d had the level of emotional health that I have now, I would not have become an actor. “I mean, yes, I love film, but when I was younger the acting stuff was to do with wanting to be the centre of attention!”

Victoria Sandford. Victoria tweeted: “Finally I can tell everyone IM GONNA BE AN AUNTY!!!!! (sic) Frankie and Wayne got engaged in April and the romantic sportsman dressed up his lover’s pet dogs as a bride and groom for when he popped the question. Frankie recently revealed: “Wayne took me to a hotel and he got my dogs involved. I didn’t know my dogs were there and they came in in little bride and groom outfits. And Pixie had the ring around her neck on a ribbon.” Frankie is the latest member of The Saturdays to get pregnant. Una Healy

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he 59-year-old actor - who portrayed the suave spy in four movies until 2002’s ‘Die Another Day’ - believes his successor is the perfect choice for the character at present because he is so “hard” and the franchise has moved on to a different era, thanks largely to competition from the ‘Bourne’ movie series.

He said: “Bond was a glorious time for me. I have nothing but gratitude for having played such a role. And Daniel is magnificent. He’s a very hard man. Daniel gives 150 percent of himself to it constantly, both physically and emotionally. He’s a Bond for this age and this time. “Once I saw Matt Damon come onto the stage with ‘The Bourne Identity’, I could see that the stakes had been upped. My era of playing Bond was still a cross-pollination of Sean Connery and Roger Moore. They hadn’t made that leap into the next phase; the huge action, and a more brutal Bond.”

Despite being impressed with Daniel’s portrayal of Bond, Pierce admits to feeling envious when he saw recent film ‘Skyfall’, which saw the spy’s boss M meet her end, as he would’ve loved to have shot the moving scene with Dame Judi Dench. He told Yahoo! movies: “I would have loved to have held her in my arms myself. I would have loved to have played that scene with her. But it was not meant to be for me. It was Daniel’s moment and his time. “Dame Judi is such a magnificent lady in every sense of the word: as a human being and as an actress. Her presence on stage and screen is so magnetic. Her graciousness in life is so beautiful. So there you go. Sic transit gloria mundi [Thus passes the glory of the world].”

and her husband Ben Foden welcomed their daughter Aoife into the world in March 2012, while Rochelle Humes and her husband Marvin Humes are due to have their first baby in the coming weeks. The trio are joined in the band by Vanessa White and Mollie King. — Bangshowbiz

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LIFESTYLE

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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n 2013, Vilebrequin, the famous Saint-Tropez swimwear brand, renowned for its luxury yet fun and functional image, gives to its customers for one week only the unique opportunity to personalize their own swimwear.

Pushing the boundaries of haute-couture, they are the ultimate in sophistication and elegance.

The ultimate mark of prestige: By selecting their preferred trunk design, colors, and embroidery thread, the customers are able to personalize their swim wear according to their tastes, by writing their names, initials, in Latin symbols or in Arabic. Personalized embroidery trunks will be made in Italy where all the refined Mistral and Motu designs are created, in order to ensure the ultimate finest embroidery quality. The spoilt of choice in terms of personalization transforms the simple beachwear into an unique and original artwork combining technical innovation, comfort, elegance and creativity.

One-of-a-kind luxury: Items will be exclusively made on order in (men’s sizes S to 5XL), as each item has been individually designed. This first personalization offering from Vilebrequin is introduced in Kuwait for the first time.

The event is taking place in the Vilebrequin Store in The Avenues Mall from Wednesday, May 1 and will last for one week. Tuesday, April 30, was for

Gap

launches Summer 2013 collection F or summer 2013, Gap has introduced a burst of colors including gorgeous pastels, sunny orange, pinks, neons and some tie-dye - along with beautiful prints. Summer essentials for her include knitted dresses, tops and skirts in an assortment of stripes and solids and elevated casual styles in bold colours, indigo washes and cool linen pieces.

Standouts include the skinny mini silhouette pants in bright colours, maxi dresses, slim crop pants and woven plaid shirts teamed up with pops of neon accessories. Scarves in a range of prints, braided and rope belts and the leather tote; an all-time Gap favourite, are the season musthaves.

Inspired by the fun and sun of summer, the ever popular boyfriend roll up short now comes in a range of solid colours and a mix of stripes.

And as the days get longer and the sun sets are steeped in orange and pink, a sun-kissed collection of peach and orange grounded in khaki and linen come together that include key items like textured tees, tanks and cardigans as well as knit Maxi dresses.

For men, there is dominant play on pattern, style and colour with emphasis on detailing. Shorts dominate with a range of basic cargo shorts, classic flat front and Bedford cord shorts now available in a range of colours and washes. Other essentials include the GAP Logo Polo, fitted classic Polo, lived in slim and skinny chinos and a denim story.

There is also expansion of work wear bringing together tailored slim khakis in solids and yarn dyes with an array of woven shirts in non-iron, oxford and chambray. For kids, there is a bright and optimistic collection for both boys and girls. For toddler girls, there is a mix of shorts, tees, lace skirts, dresses, printed leggings coupled with pretty, feminine accessories that include headbands, jelly shoes and fun sunglasses. While for boys, key items include coloured shorts, solid tees, knit and pique polos and a range of denim options.

So visit any of your nearest Gap stores today and check out the new collection to refresh your wardrobe and welcome summer with a smile.

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

lifestyle

Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones performs at Staples Center launching of their ‘50 & Counting’ tour on May 3, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. - AFP

Rolling Stones rock packed house after price cuts in LA T

he Rolling Stones rocked a packed house in Los Angeles on Friday on the opening night of their North American “50 and Counting” tour, but only after websites slashed ticket prices and the band released additional cheap seats at the last minute. The 17-date tour is the veteran British rockers’ biggest in six years and follows a handful of dates in London, Paris and New York at the end of 2012 marking 50 years since they burst on to the music scene at London’s Marquee Club in 1962.

“We first played LA in 1965.Thank you for coming to see us.

We really appreciate it,” frontman Mick Jagger said late on Friday during the show at Staples Center. The 69-year-old strutted and gyrated in his trademark style through a string of classic Stones hits including “Gimme Shelter,” “Paint it Black” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Melanie Griffith attended the show, which also featured guest

performances by singer Gwen Stefani on “Wild Horses” and Keith Urban on “Respectable.”

Days before the show, hundreds of seats were still available and secondary sellers scrambled to unload tickets by slashing prices from the original $250 to $600 price range which had irked many of even the most die-hard Stones fans. The band also released additional seats at a modest $85 on its official website this week, the only price point that quickly sold out for the May 3 concert. Buyers who opted to buy the $85 seats online were instructed to line up at the arena just before the show, and were told they would be notified of their locations which could range anywhere for prime seating to further back in the venue.

“It’s very thrilling. It’s like gambling and the Stones all rolled into one,” said Los Angeles realtor Kelley Miller, who had bought a pair of $85 seats along with some friends, and stood

T

in line to find out where they would be sitting. Miller and her friends said they were happy to be seated anywhere at that price.

Satisfaction Among the highlights of the evening were the show’s opening number “Satisfaction”, performed by the UCLA Marching Band and the Stones’ rendition of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” accompanied by the Cal State Long Beach Cole Conservatory choir. The Rolling Stones last went on tour from 2005 to 2007, playing 144 shows globally and grossing more than $550 million, one of the world’s most lucrative tours.

Guitarist Mick Taylor, who played with the Stones from 1969 to 1974, sat in on Friday to join Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts during

he crew of USS Enterprise beamed into London for the premiere of the sci-fi sequel “Star Trek Into Darkness” with critics saying on Friday that the eagerly-awaited film proved the franchise could still live long and prosper. The film, starring Chris Pine as Captain James T Kirk and Zachary Quinto as First Officer Spock, is a 3D follow-up to director JJ Abrams’ 2009 reboot of the popular franchise starring a new cast of spacefarers.

The action kicks off with a terrorist attack in London against Starfleet and the man responsible is the one-man killing machine John Harrison played by up-and-coming British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Soon the crew of the Starship Enterprise, including Nyota Uhura played by Zoe Saldana and Keith Urban as Bones, are on his tail but things are not all what they seem with some moral dilemmas and life-changing decisions to be made.

Early reviews have been positive about Abrams’ second movie but he is unlikely to direct a third Star Trek film as he has signed up to start work on

P

N

o trendy restaurants. No fancy equipment. No hard-to-find hipster ingredients. The pages of this year’s top food publication don’t read like your average gourmet glossy. That’s because the only trend ChopChop magazine - named publication of the year by the James Beard Foundation on Friday - cares about is how to get America’s children eating healthier.

In this file photo, Anthony Bourdain attends “On The Chopping Block: A Roast of Anthony Bourdain” in New York. — AP photos Billed as the “fun cooking magazine for families,” ChopChop was launched in 2010 by cookbook author Sally Sampson to give parents and kids the tools to fight childhood obesity. Though the magazine is available by subscription, one of its primary methods of distribution is by pediatricians giving copies to their patients.

The foundation’s awards honor those who follow in the footsteps of Beard, considered the dean of

American cooking when he died in 1985. The ceremony was held in New York, where the Beard Foundation is based. Friday’s ceremony honored winners in media and publishing; a separate ceremony on Monday will be held for chefs and restaurants.

Earlier this year, tough talking television chef Anthony Bourdain made news for his jump to CNN. But on Friday, he was honored for his work on public television. His “The Mind of a Chef” was named best on-location television program. Meanwhile, Andrew Zimmern of Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods America” was named outstanding host.

The cookbook of the year honor went to Maricel E Presilla’s massive ode to the food of Latin America, “Gran Cocina Latina.” The 912-page book covers a tremendous swath of cuisines and cultures, explaining the common threads that run through the region’s many foodways. Prolific cookbook author Anne Willan was named to the foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame. Willan has written extensively on the foods of France, including the cookbook “The Country Cooking of France,” which won two Beard awards in 2008. In 1975, she founded the Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne cooking school in Paris.—AP

“Midnight Rambler.” Later this summer, The Rolling Stones will play London’s Hyde Park, and for the first time in their career, the Glastonbury music festival in England, both of which sold out.

The band played a more reasonably priced $20 “surprise” gig in Los Angeles the previous weekend at the 320 person capacity Echoplex club. But even fans who coughed up the $600 asking price for the Friday night show seemed to find satisfaction. “I wasn’t one of the lucky ones who waited. I paid face value, about $620,” said Los Angeles-based financial adviser Jim Cain. “But I don’t have buyer’s remorse,” he added, grinning. — Reuters

the next “Star Wars” movie. Abrams was named in January by Walt Disney Co as the director of “Star Wars: Episode VII” due out in 2015, but he said he would like to stay involved in future Star Trek films

by Viacom Inc studio Paramount Pictures.

“No matter what, if the third is in the offering, if they do a third, definitely we’d be involved as producers on the movie,” he told Reuters television on the red carpet at the premiere. “Depending on what the timing would be and everything but there would be no more fun thing to do than work with this group again. They’re amazing.” Critics gave positive reviews to “Star Trek Into Darkness” that opens in Britain on May 9 and in the United States on May 17, the 12th film in the Star Trek franchise that was created about 50 years ago by Gene Roddenberry and led to six TV series.

To date, the 11 Star Trek movies have grossed more than $1 billion in the United States since 1979, including $256 million from Abrams’s 2009 film. But critics were not as glowing in their praise as for Abrams’ 2009 movie “Star Trek”, describing it was an exciting action movie that did not take itself

epsiCo is bowing to public pressure for the second time in a week and cutting ties with Lil Wayne over the rapper’s crude lyrical reference to civil rights martyr Emmett Till. Lil Wayne, one of the biggest stars in pop music, had a deal to promote the company’s Mountain Dew soda.

Earlier this week, PepsiCo also pulled an online ad for the neon-colored soda that was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and making light of violence toward women. That ad was developed by rapper Tyler, the Creator. On Friday, PepsiCo said in a statement that Wayne’s “offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does not reflect the values of our brand.” It declined to provide any further comment.

A publicist for Lil Wayne, Sarah Cunningham, said that the split was due to “creative differences” and that it was an amicable parting. “That’s about all I can tell you at this time,” she said.

Wayne had sent the Till family a letter offering empathy and saying that he would not reference Till or the family in his music, particularly in an inappropriate manner. But the Till family said the letter fell short of an apology. “It’s mindboggling to me that they partnered with him in the first place,” said the Rev Wheeler Parker Jr, a Till cousin and witness to his abduction.

“Major corporations should scrutinize who they endorse, don’t let greed or money determine who you sponsor.”

Parker’s written statement said Wayne’s lyrics not only insulted Till’s memory but degraded women as well. Rev Al Sharpton, who had been working with the Till family to arrange a meeting with Lil Wayne and PepsiCo officials, said in a telephone interview that he hopes the decision ultimately is less about punishing individual rappers and more a cultural “teaching moment.”

“Otherwise we’re just waiting on the next train crash instead of trying to really resolve our problem and learn from these experiences and set a tone in the country that’s healthy for everybody,” he said. Sharpton said that he and the Till family still plan to meet with PepsiCo officials next week.

The controversy erupted after Wayne made the reference to Till on Future’s song “Karate Chop” earlier this year. He refers to a violent sexual act on a woman and says he wants to do as much damage as was done to Till. The black teen from Chicago was in Mississippi visiting family in 1955 when he was killed, allegedly for whistling at a white woman. He was beaten, had his eyes gouged out and was shot in the head before his assailants tied a cotton gin fan to his body with barbed wire and tossed it into a river.

Two white men, including the woman’s husband, were acquitted by an all-white jury. Till’s body was recovered and

too seriously. “People are unlikely to charge out of the cinema with quite the same level of glee as they did in 2009; but this is certainly an astute, exhilarating concoction,” wrote Andrew Culver in The Guardian. Time Out London wrote: “The result [this time] is a stop-gap tale that’s modest, fun and briefly amusing rather than one that breaks new ground or offers hugely memorable set pieces.”

The new villain, Cumberbatch, 36, who shot to fame playing the detective Sherlock Holmes in the BBC television drama “Sherlock”, received glowing reviews. Critic Chris Tookey writing in the Daily Mail, said Cumberbatch was a worthy successor to some illustrious forebears. “(He) delivers a silky, sinister baddie with commendable, if computerenhanced, athleticism and an attitude that makes him one of the great movie villains,” he wrote.

— Reuters

returned to Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till, insisted on having an open casket at his funeral. The pictures of his battered body helped push civil rights into the cultural conversation. Music and media industry executive Paul Porter, who comments on music issues on his website RapRehab.com, said he thought PepsiCo’s decision was an effort by the company “to do the right thing now.”

Porter, who had complained publicly and to PepsiCo about Lil Wayne and the Mountain Dew video by Tyler, the Creator, said the company is “doing a whole evaluation of the process” involving its commercials and musicians. His comments were based on his conversations with the company. —AP

This file photo shows Tyler the Creator posing backstage with the award for best new artist backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. — AP

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

lifestyle

People look at an art installation displayed during a “Le Vieux Port entre flammes et flots” (The Old-Port, between flames and waves) lighting night at the Port of Marseille as part of the Marseille-Provence 2013 European capital of culture. The entire Vieux-Port will be under the spell, illuminated by candles and presenting a mobile sequence aof living flames on both harbour and quayside. — AFP

Jeff Hanneman

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layer guitarist Jeff Hanneman thought he was on the mend after a spider bite followed by an infection.

He’d been writing songs with the band in anticipation of recording a new album later this year. But in an unusual chain of events, a representative for the band said the bite may have contributed to Hanneman’s death more than two years later. Hanneman died Thursday morning of liver failure at a Los Angeles hospital with his wife, Kathy, by his side, according to Slayer spokeswoman Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald. He was 49. Family members and doctors were not immediately available to discuss the cause of death. Robinson-Fitzgerald said Hanneman had been slowly recovering from necrotizing fasciitis, a flesheating disease that nearly cost him his arm. Such an infection can develop from a minor cut or scratch; Robinson-

Fitzgerald blamed the spider bite, for which he failed to seek immediate treatment. She said he was bitten while in a friend’s hot tub.

Infections by flesh-eating bacteria are rare. The affliction can destroy muscle, fat and skin and may require surgery to remove the diseased tissue to save a patient’s life.

Hanneman had several operations to remove dead and dying tissue from his arm, the band said on its website last year. It’s unknown if Hanneman was bitten by the dangerous brown recluse spider. Robinson-Fitzgerald said the spider that bit the Slayer guitarist was never recovered. The government estimates roughly 750 flesh-eating bacteria cases occur each year, usually caused by a type of strep germ. About 1 in 5 people with the most common kind of flesh-eating strep bacteria die.

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rammy-winning singer Usher believes his dancing skills will help him in his upcoming role as Sugar Ray Leonard in “Hands of Stone,” a new boxing film about the great brawler Roberto Duran. Usher said he has been preparing to play Leonard - a fighter with fast hands, smooth feet and a wide smile for more than a year and still needs to lose nearly 25 pounds (11 kilograms) before Usher Raymond

shooting begins in October. The movie is based on Duran, a world champion in four weight divisions over a career that spanned five decades. Duran, whose nickname was “Hands of Stone,” rose from the slums of Panama to defeat an unbeaten Leonard in 1980 and claim the WBC welterweight title, only to lose the rematch several months later in the infamous “no mas” fight.

Usher said he was honored to play Leonard in the film. “You couldn’t find a more stylized boxer than Sugar Ray Leonard,” Usher said by telephone. “He was an incredible motion guy, the way he moved around the ring, and I think my dancing will make it easier for me to pick up his moves. I’ve been working on familiarizing myself with the ring, sparring and

just understanding how to move in the ring.”

The role will mean dropping some weight. Usher said he’s currently about 172 pounds (78 kilograms) but will need to get down to about 150 pounds (68 kilograms). The cast also includes Robert De Niro as Duran’s Hall of Fame trainer, Ray Arcel. Edgar Ramirez, who was recently in “Zero Dark Thirty,” will play Duran. The biopic, written and directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, is a love story and sports drama that includes the “Brawl in Montreal,” the first fight between Duran and Leonard, and the “no mas” fight, which took place in New Orleans. In the eighth round of that fight, Duran inexplicably quit, saying in Spanish “no mas,” which means “no more.”

They fought one more time, with Leonard winning again.

Usher said the rivalry between Leonard and Duran was one of the most exciting and unforgettable in sports. “It’s an incredible story to be told,” he said. “ The metaphor of determination and struggle is one we can all relate to.” Usher said he has had long conversations with Leonard and will meet him in person in coming weeks. “He had such incredible discipline, and he was flashy and classy at the same time,” said Usher, who’s been studying videos from Leonard’s boxing days. “I want to be as passionate and dedicated in preparing for this role as he was every time he stepped into the ring.” Usher is an eight-time Grammy-winner with more than 50 million records sold worldwide.

He serves as a celebrity mentor on the reality TV show “The Voice.” He made his Broadway debut in 2006 in “Chicago” as lawyer Billy Flynn and recently appeared in the off-Broadway play “Feurza Bruta.”

This will be his first leading role in a feature film. —AP

People with weakened immune systems can be more at risk. Flesh-eating bacteria, by itself, doesn’t cause liver failure. But at least one type of strep bacteria can cause streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, which can lead to liver failure. It is unclear whether an autopsy will be scheduled. No funeral arrangements have been made. “Jeff Hanneman will always be a metal god,” rocker Andrew WK posted on Twitter. Hanneman co-founded the thrash metal pioneers in Huntington Beach, Calif in 1981. — AP

hinese film director Wong Kar Wai will join one of the art world’s most exclusive clubs today when he is appointed a Commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. The renowned filmmaker is to be presented with the medallion awarded to recipients of France’s highest cultural honour by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius at the opening of the French May arts festival in Hong Kong.

Wong’s work has long been acclaimed in France. He won the Best Director award at the 1997 Cannes film festival for “Happy Together” and picked up a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar, in 2001 for “In the Mood for Love.” His induction into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres sees him follow in the footsteps of fellow stars from the film

world Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery and Michael Caine, as well as other illustrious artists including the poet TS Eliot and singer David Bowie.

As well as honouring Wong, Fabius is due to sign a visa accord with the Hong Kong authorities intended to facilitate travel and business links between France and the territory, which is home to up to 20,000 French expatriates. The foreign minister is also hoping to stimulate investment in France by Hong Kong business figures and will deliver a speech on Europe-China relations at a lunch hosted by the Asia Society on Monday. — AFP

”Dustheads” by Jean-Michel Basquiat is on display during a preview of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern†Art†sales in New York. Christie’s is scheduled to hold its Impressionist and Modern Art sales May 8-9. — AFP

Rolling Stones rock packed house

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013

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Headbanger’s Ball

Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan performs at the 2013 Revolver Golden Gods Award Show at Club Nokia on Thursday, May 2, 2013 in Los Angeles. —AP photos

Lzzy Hale (left) and Arejay Hale of the band Halestorm perform.

(Left to right) Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett of Metallica, recipients of the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award, pose together after performing.

The band Slipknot accepts the Best Live Band award.

Danzig performs.

Corey Taylor of the band Stone Sour performs.

Ashley Costello of the band New Year’s Day poses.

Metal fans call out for Metallica as they work the press line.

Alice Cooper (left) and Marilyn Manson pose together.

Singer Sebastian Bach poses.

Robert Trujillo of Metallica swings his bass around during the band’s set.

Metallica members hope for more sports nights

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etallica bassist Robert Trujillo sure could get used to this: a tour of sorts, with stops at the Bay Area’s professional and college sporting venues. Or even some travel to ballparks and arenas beyond Northern California. AT&T Park was a nice start Friday night as the reigning World Series champion Giants hosted the rival Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time this year. “What’s special about this is you can actually merge the two worlds together,”Trujillo said.“I feel that music is such an inspirational form of energy, as baseball is. And especially with Metallica, believe it or not, our shows are very physical. Sports is a very physical thing, too.”

Whether Trujillo’s idea really takes off, time will tell though he is already hoping for an Oakland Raiders game across the bay down the road.

“We’ll see, maybe the Raiders are around the corner, you never know,”Trujillo said.“I think we could be starting something here. Maybe this transitions into other bands uniting with their local team and representing and bringing that kind of excitement into

the sport.”After playing the national anthem with Kirk Hammett to roaring cheers from the crowd, lead singer and guitarist James Hetfield led cheers of “Let’s go Giants!”before first pitch. The band members reside in Marin County.

The band would love to make this an annual thing, and appreciated the Giants’invite. “Extremely grateful. I think the Grateful Dead have their day,” Hetfield said.“And we have a pretty loyal following ourselves. So I think we might be in the territory of the Dead as well. We’re very grateful to be a part of this. Hopefully it can continue and we’ll do it as long as we can.”Drummer Lars Ulrich threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Giants closer Sergio Romo. On the main scoreboard in center field, Giants players’ photos were shown with Metallica-like hairdos when they batted.

With the Giants still early in their season, Hetfield is cheering for the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup playoffs.“Any sports team is a little tough for me to follow all the time,”he said.“We’re pretty busy our-

selves. But I love it, especially when Bay Area teams are doing well. I just love what it does to people.”

Trujillo insists he is the band member with the most baseball experience having played three years in his youth mostly at second base and in center field and, at 48,“I’m actually the baby of the band, scary, huh?”

“I’ve been a baseball fan in the early part of my life, so through the 70s and the 80s I was a huge fan,” he said.“I actually followed the Dodgers back then, back in the Kirk Gibson years, Steve Garvey... It means a lot to me. It’s an honor to be here at this park, it’s one of the most beautiful ballparks in the US and probably in the world even. It’s incredible. I don’t think any seat’s a bad seat here.”Trujillo is thrilled that Yankees closer Mariano Rivera makes his way to the mound to the Metallica hit“Enter Sandman.”

“To have a song that’s so relevant to kind of getting the energy going and people fired up, that’s really special,”Trujillo said.“That doesn’t happen. It’s really a rush and a thrill to feel you’ve been part of a

body of music that’s inspiring.”And this heavy metal band hopes to keep fans head banging for years to come. They’re still having a blast coming up with new tunes even decades later as their lives have changed with spouses and children.

“We’re still in there, and I hope we’re still relevant,” Trujillo said.“At a certain point, you go through the phase in your early years where you’re drinking a lot and doing all of the wild stuff and then there’s a certain point in your life, and it usually comes with family, marriage and your responsibilities to that, and then all of a sudden that transitions into‘You need to be responsible for your art’and how you’re going to perform and how you treat your body. “If you choose to take care of yourself, you’re going to get more mileage for your career. I think the biggest reason for Metallica is we’re very inspired. Usually you get 30 years into your career and songwriting doesn’t become a priority anymore and you’re just kind of banking on the hits. Basically when we put on our instruments we’re like teenagers again.”—AP

Metallica’s James Hetfield performs the national anthem before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants on Friday, May 3, 2013, in San Francisco. —AP