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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
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Victim’s plea to die exposes acid violence in India
Dodgers down Giants; Rangers overpowered
Batman shooter a psychiatric patient
16 13 9 7 140 dead as Syria troops
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150 FILS
Emsak: Fajer: Shoruk: Dohr: Asr: Maghreb: Eshaa:
US sees Israel as spy threat
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RAMADAN 10, 1433 AH
launch Aleppo assault Battle for Aleppo seen as potential turning point Ramadan Kareem
Introduction to glorious Quran By Hassan Bwambale
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he word, ‘Quran’ comes from the Arabic root word, ‘Qaraa’ which means to read, recite. Muslims contend that the Quran is remarkable for its poetry and grace, and its very literary perfection is evidence of its divine origin. Since this perfection is apparent only to those who speak Arabic, this stands as one reason why only the original Arabic text is considered the real Quran. God says: “...Thus We (God) have revealed it an Arabic Quran...” (20: 113). The Quran is partly rhymed, partly prose. Traditionally, the Arabic grammarians consider the Quran to be a unique genre. The Quran can neither be described as poetry nor prose. Translations are considered mere glosses and as interpretations of the Quran and not the direct word of God.
COMPILATION OF QURAN By the time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the Quran was already written on parchments, scapulae, fronds of palm trees, stones, leather, etc. It was also memorized in its entirety by a great number of Muslims - it was complete both in memorized and written form. Before the death of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he repeated the recitation of the Quran with his companions so as to be sure that what they memorized was correspondent to what was revealed to and memorized by him. MEMORIZATION OF QURAN The Arab tradition of memorizing lengthy poems made the process of memorizing the Glorious Quran much easier. Owing to the fact that writing materials were then scarce, they resorted to memorizing whatever was important to them. In this manner, most of the early Muslims memorized the entire Quran. Many Muslims today make similar efforts to memorize the entire Quran. It is worthy mentioning that even nonArabic speaking Muslims memorize the Holy Quran from cover to cover - and some times win Arabic speakers in Quran memorization competitions. RECORDING VERSES OF QURAN As the prophet’s companions memorized the Holy Quran, in like manner they used to record the revealed verses on whatever material was available at the time. It should be clear that before Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) died, some of his bona-fide companions had already memorized the Quran verbatim from cover to cover. Careful measures have been taken since the Quran was revealed to preserve it from alterations, corruption and omissions. This was achieved so successfully that the Quran in print today is exactly the same as was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Not a single letter has changed during the passage of centuries. — Courtesy, AWARE Center
QUSAYR: A handout picture shows a man mourning over the body of a person killed during government forces bombardment in Qusayr, 15 kilometers from the city of Homs. — AFP
ALEPPO: The Syrian army launched a massive assault on rebels in Aleppo yesterday amid growing world concern about the risks of reprisals against civilians in the country’s commercial capital. At least 29 people were killed in Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, contributing to a figure of at least 140 nationwide. The watchdog said more than 20,000 people, the majority civilians, have now died since the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime erupted in March 2011. Military helicopters pounded a rebel-held district yesterday and armored units positioned themselves for an onslaught that could determine the fate of Syria’s biggest city, opposition sources said. Turkey, once a friend but now a fierce critic of the Syrian government, joined growing diplomatic pressure on President Bashar Al-Assad, calling for international steps to deal with the military build-up. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group which collects information on the 16-monthold uprising against Assad, reported helicopter attacks on the central Salaheddine district of Aleppo and fighting elsewhere in the city. “Helicopters are participating in clashes at the entrance of Salaheddine district and bombarding it,” the group said in an emailed statement. “There are also violent clashes at the entrances to Sakhour district.” One opposition activist said he had seen tanks and armored carriers heading for Salaheddine. On the approaches to Aleppo from the north many villagers were still shopping or tending their fields. But fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) were also in Continued on Page 13
Saudis hail women in Olympic parade Commentators criticize placing females behind men RIYADH: Saudi commentators yesterday hailed the first ever participation of women from the ultra-conservative kingdom in the Olympics, but criticized placing female athletes behind the men in the opening ceremony. “The kingdom is shining with its sons and daughters in London,” wrote columnist Jamal Khashoggi on his Twitter page. “Finally, the Saudi team has men and women,” wrote female journalist Haifa Al-Zahrani on her page. Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict version of Islamic sharia law and imposes constraints on women, agreed to send women athletes to the Olympics on condition that they respect a strict dress
code. During Friday night’s opening ceremony at the Olympic stadium in London, the two women, judoka Wojdan Shaherkani and US-raised 800m runner Sarah Attar, walked behind their male colleagues in the Saudi team. “Saudi women came behind, while other delegations had women in the front, with some even carrying the flag,” lamented rights activist Manal Al-Sharif. Sharif has become a symbol of Saudi women’s struggle to be allowed to drive after being arrested last year for getting behind the wheel. “Saudi Arabia will remain in the back seat as long as its women are in the back seat,” she wrote. Continued on Page 13
Saudi returns after 7 years in Israel jail RIYADH: A Saudi man who spent nearly seven years in an Israeli jail after he got “lost in Egypt’s Sinai desert” has returned home, local daily Al-Watan reported yesterday. Abdulrahman Al-Atwi arrived in Riyadh on Thursday from the United States to where he was deported by Israel several months ago, the newspaper said, adding that it met him at his lawyer’s residence in the Saudi capital. But he “did not say a word,” the newspaper said. Atwi’s lawyer Kateb Al-Shimmari said that his client returned through the United States as there were no diplomatic links between the Muslim kingdom and Israel. He said that Atwi’s deportation was arranged through the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. — AFP
Max 48º Min 33º High Tide 06:59 & 21:09 Low Tide 00:02 & 14:24
LONDON: A member of the Saudi Arabia’s delegation waves national flags as she parades during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games yesterday at the Olympic Stadium. — AFP
Delegates fail to agree on arms-trade treaty One dies every minute from armed violence UNITED NATIONS: Delegations from around the world have failed to agree a landmark UN arms-trade treaty to regulate the more than $60 billion industry, opting for further talks and a possible UN General Assembly vote by the end of the year, diplomats said. More than 170 countries have spent the past month in New York negotiating a treaty, which needed to be adopted by consensus, so any one country effectively could have vetoed a deal. Instead, no decision was taken on a draft treaty. But this leaves the door open for further talks and a draft arms-trade treaty could be brought to the 193nation UN General Assembly and adopted with a two-thirds majority vote. Diplomats said there could be a vote by the end of the year. “We feel that we could have agreed (a treaty). It is disappointing that more time is needed. But an arms-trade treaty is coming - not today - but soon. We’ve taken a big step for ward,” said a spokesman for Britain’s delegation. One person every minute dies from armed violence around the world, and arms control activists say a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones
and fueling wars and atrocities. They cited conflicts in Syria and elsewhere as examples of why a treaty is necessary. While most UN member states favored a strong treaty, activists said there was a small minority of states, including Syria, North Korea, Iran, Egypt and Algeria, who loudly voiced opposition to global arms control throughout the negotiations. But ultimately, arms-control activists blamed the United States and Russia for the inability to reach a decision on Friday, as both countries said there was not enough time left for them to clarify and resolve issues they had with the draft treaty. “Moving forward, President Obama must show the political courage required to make a strong treaty that contains strong rules on human rights a reality,” said Scott Stedjan, a senior policy advisor at Oxfam America, which fights poverty and other injustices. The draft arms-trade treaty under negotiation required countries to assess if a proposed arms export could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian or human rights law. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Continued on Page 13
in the
news
Pakistan busts India spy ring in Kashmir
Japan ukulele ensemble crowned world’s largest
14 pilgrims killed in southern Nepal
3 shot dead in Pennsylvania
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani intelligence agencies have busted an Indian spying ring in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) which was being run by operatives across the Line of Control (LoC), the disputed border between India and Pakistan, said a report yesterday. Citing sources, local The Express Tribune (TET) said that members of the ring which included an ex-soldier and two civilians - were providing military-related sensitive information of Pakistani defenses to their Indian operatives across the border. Their data covered locations of border check-posts, number of posts, number of secret bunkers with locations, deployment and type of weapons installed at these locations to their Indian handlers named Saddique, Sharma and Ismail, said TET.
YOKOHAMA: More than 2,000 musicians strummed ukuleles in a Japanese port city yesterday to set a new world record for the largest ever ensemble of the Hawaiian guitar. Their effort was recognized by Guinness World Records officials who listened to them play “Aloha Mahalo A Hui Ho”, a song written by Hawaiian-born former sumo wrestler Konishiki, in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. The ensemble consisted of 2,134 people, eclipsing the previous largest ensemble in Sweden in August last year, which was made up of 1,547 players. The Japanese performance was part of Ukulele Picnic Week which also featured hula dancing.
KATHMANDU: At least 14 pilgrims were killed when a jeep carrying them to a sacred Hindu site in southern Nepal swerved off a highway and fell 100 meters into a stream below, police said yesterday. The jeep was taking the devotees to Ridi, a pilgrimage town in Palpa district, 120 kilometers west of Kathmandu, late Friday when the driver lost control, Nepal Police spokesman Rajendra Singh Bhandari said. “Locals came to know about the accident in the morning and informed the police. The death toll is likely to rise as the police rescue team is searching for bodies,” he said. Ridi, which lies at the confluence of the Ridi Khola and Kali Gandaki rivers, is visited by thousands of Hindus who bathe, worship at temples and cremate their dead.
QUINCY: A man in south-central Pennsylvania confronting his wife about custody arrangements for their daughter shot to death three people, then fled with the 4-year-old girl before the two were found about 250 miles away in Ohio, authorities said yesterday. Kevin Matthew Cleeves was trying to contact his wife Friday to make arrangements to pick up his daughter Leia, but she didn’t answer the phone, so he went to a home in Quincy Township, the (Waynesboro) Record-Herald reported, citing court records. Police said Cleeves, 35, found a woman and man sitting in a car and began arguing with them, then was ordered to leave. He then shot to death both of them and another woman and took the girl, authorities alleged.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
local
JW Marriott organizes Ramadan Ghabqa for media
KUWAIT: The JW Marriott, Kuwait City Hotel held an exclusive Ramadan ghabqa for members of the press at the hotel’s distinctive Ramadan tent “Layaly JW Marriott El Ramadaniya.” The elegant annual event, held at the hotel’s large Al Jahra Ballroom on the first floor was sponsored by - KEMS Zajil, Boadicea The Victorious (part of Al-Arbash Group), Etihad Air ways, Tanagra, Obagi Medical, Jothens Galler y, Yacoub Behbehani and Sons, Damas Jewelers, Fresh Look Contact Lenses, Sebamed, FRED sunglasses, IKEA, Kefan Optics and Kuwait Swiss Centre . The annual Ramadan Ghabqa was organized to thank the members of the press for their continuous suppor t towards all activities undertaken by the JW Marriott Kuwait City Hotel. The guests were welcomed by George Aoun, Cluster General Manager along with the entire team at Kuwait Marriott Hotels. The guests enjoyed shisha with different flavors, traditional Ramadan drinks served during the holy month and much more. In the background, musicians played authentic Arabic numbers to the delight of the audience. A raffle draw with expensive gifts like airline tickets, jewelry and spa treatments was conducted as well. The ballroom was transformed into an authentic, luxurious
Arabic tent setting complete with rich drapery, comfortable cushions and seating. The members of the press enjoyed a lavish buffet in addition to live cooking stations serving made-to-order Arabic bread, all-time favorite stations providing shawarma wraps, pasta and risotto, hummus balila, and foul medames with condiments. “It gave us
great pleasure in hosting our media partners as they have served as pillars of support over the year. We wish Ramadan Mubarak to all residents and expatriates in Kuwait. We look forward to serving our guests and diners with delectable Ramadan Iftar and Sohour delights at our properties in Kuwait,” said Amal Mikahil, Director of Marketing Communication at Kuwait Marriott Hotels.
KUWAIT: Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Kuwait Ali Ahmad bin Shukr Al-Zaabi hosted a Ghabqa recently on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan, featuring ambassadors, media representatives and other dignitaries.
NBK shares Girgian moments with children at NBK Hospital KUWAIT: On the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) held a Girgian event at NBK Hospital at Sabah Medical district to share with the children the happy moments of Girgian and present them with felicitations and gifts. The event was attended by NBK Public Relations Team and a number of NBK Staff. Commenting on the occasion Manal Al Mattar, NBK Public Relations Executive Manager stated: “Sharing with sick children residing at NBK Hospital on major social and religious occasions comes as part of an extensive social outreach program specifically
mapped out and implemented by NBK.” Al Mattar explained that helping sick children and their families is an integral part of the Bank’s culture and practices that reflect its deep commitment to its corporate social responsibility. This was the main reason that led NBK to build its children hospital at Sabah Medical district many years ago. NBK’s visit to the hospital was emotional and overwhelming for both the children and NBK Team. It is a well rooted tradition that has been carried out by NBK each year in its efforts to continuously have an active role in Kuwaiti society.
NBK Public Relations Team with one of the children.
NBK Public Relations Team and a number of NBK Staff in a group photo with the children.
local
KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah visited the diwan of Sheikh Faisal Al-Hmoud Al-Malik Al-Sabah on the occasion of the Holy Month of Ramadan. HH the Amir and HH the Crown Prince were accompanied by Minister of the Amiri Diwan Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh
American praise for Kuwait’s donation NEW YORK: Kuwait Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mansour Ayyad AlOtaibi lauded, yesterday, Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs for its generous donation to fund an Iftar meal program carried out annually at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. Al-Otaibi, who is also the center’s Chairman of Trustees, said that the annual Kuwaiti donation is appreciated since it greatly contributes in handing out more than 700 Iftar meals daily. For more than 10 years, the Islamic center has been customarily providing Iftar meals for Muslims who flock to the center, located at the eastern side of Manhattan. The program has been a major success and has allowed Muslims to engage in other religious activities carried throughout the holy month of Ramadan. Kuwait has been chairing the center for five consecutive years since it provides larger portion of the donations. — KUNA
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
LOCAL kuwait digest
Local Spotlight
War drums are beating!
Spectacular opening
By Dr. Mubarak Abdullah Al-Therwa
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o one can deny hearing ‘War drums beating’, except those who know nothing about history and cannot follow international changes. War drums are so loudly declaring an imminent war within a month or a year, more or less. So, how have we prepared for it?
By Muna Al-Fuzai
A confrontation is doomed, so what do we have to do in this regard? It’s going to be a universal confrontation between East and West; between two axels: Iran, China, Russia and their allies on the one hand, and the Arabs, the West and their allies on the other. A confrontation is doomed, so what do we have to do in this regard? It’s going to be a universal confrontation between East and West; between two axels: Iran, China, Russia and their allies on the one hand, and the Arabs, the West and their allies on the other. What we are witnessing nowadays in the bloody conflict in Syria, where innocent people are being killed and the Free Army heroically fights the tyrant regime, tells that Damascus will be the battlefield! So, both the cross and the crescent will unite against the Russian and Chinese coalition and its allies. Muslims and Christians will form a great temporary military alliance against the Russians and the Chinese, the people of Polytheism and hypocrisy. Reviewing the traditions (Ahadith) of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), one can realize our responsibility today. Yet reviewing the recent changes, we can know that they were not planned centuries ago. We’ll find that Arab peoples are mainly opting to set up Islamic regimes, despite skepticism and suspecting whoever calls for a Muslim state. The people’s will is not random, it builds up over time and what is happening today is but an introduction to future stages. Naturally enough, some people are taking very good advantage of the conflict to achieve personal economic or political gains. This includes some countries, as well, and what is happening in Syria is an introduction of a bloody war between the East and West to prevent Russian penetration in Iraq, Syria and the Gulf......and it’s going to be a war of interests in our lands to use our oil! — Al-Rai
muna@kuwaittimes.net
I
kuwait digest
Meat prices remain high By Khaled Al-Arafah
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he ministry of commerce and industry (MCI) recently began a media campaign in which it claimed to control meat prices during the Holy Month of Ramadan and stressed that consumers and citizens had nothing to worry about. However, those promises were soon violated by some merchants who have never respected any laws MCI made. The funny thing is that all the vibrant statements by MCI about meat prices were made for propaganda reasons, since the ‘honorable’ ministry had announced that meat prices would be set at a maximum of KD 1.5 per kilo, but the fact is that many butchers and meat vendors have been refusing to sell meat by the kilo and insist on selling either half or whole sheep, which violates MCI regulations. Even when any of them sold meat by the kilo, they would charge KD 3 per
kilo. The people are so let down. MCI should have watched butchers and meat vendors more closely before Ramadan, especially those located within Co-ops and those in Shuwaikh industrial area. It should have been more strict with them and taken all needed measures against them to stop their violations. The situation is very bad and calls for immediate intervention by MCI to rescue the people from this greed. Even the hotline set up by MCI to receive all complaints seems to be useless, as many complaints have already been made about meat prices, yet received no responses. I wish MCI had activated its control tools the way it had when people complained about paying service fees in various restaurants. I believe the minister, himself, should go out into the streets to see for himself how butchers are selling meat. —Al-Anbaa
kuwait digest
More than just an honoring ceremony!
believe that the London Olympic 2012 has made history fresh in our minds, as well as for billions of people around the globe who viewed it on TV or attended the opening ceremonies when the UK welcomed the world with its stunning surprises, fireworks, world leaders and music celebrities. In Kuwait local time, the ceremonies started late at night and were over around 4 am. So, for those who go to bed early it was a late night, but it was worth every minute. Such events do not happen every day. So who would wish to miss such an opportunity? I believe no one. The show had pictured British history and developments with thousands of children and young people participating. I think the opening ceremonies were inspired by the UK’s culture and traditions of people from around the world. That I think is pure talent, especially when dealing with such large numbers of performers! For me, the opening was perfect. But, I have seen some comments on Twitter that the show was only about Britain! Well, I believe the host country is entitled to express itself and introduce all its achievements to the world, especially if that country is the UK with its ancient history and accomplishments, and focus on peace and humanity. This historic sports event is being held at the right place and at the right time. I could not think of any other country that is more capable, even during times of regional and international tensions, to receive and welcome all key leaders and their teams and yet keep them secure and content. Nothing should interrupt or disturb the organizing of this sensitive and essential Olympic games, that for years everyone has waited for. As for the players, some have been training since birth for this moment and waited years to be admitted to join the Olympics. This is not just a local game, as everyone is right to feel proud of the UK and to see his country team be part of this event. Kuwait has been given the right to participate and I personally felt happy to see a Kuwaiti team with a young lady swimmer joining them. For a moment, I wondered who would be there to salute the Kuwait team. I have seen Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah there and it made me feel more happy that we had someone who cares to be available. I wish them all well. The 2012 Summer London Olympic Games are to last until 12 August 2012. I’m sure there will be more fun and super games to be watched until that date.
By Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar
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e are a people who adore honoring ceremonies more than life itself. Our honoring ceremonies are endless and they are held for, or for no occasion. We have so many honoring ceremonies that they have become very dull and boring, they have become meaningless, and are performed as if they were part of a compulsory assignment, rather than showing appreciation and gratitude for the honorees. Some honoring ceremonies may still be different, with a more friendly atmosphere and people who come to actually take part in the ceremony and share their joy with the honored, rather than just being there as a courtesy, to show up or check in. Those ideas kept racing in my head while I was attending the fabulous ceremony organized by the ‘29 Group’ to honor the outstanding Bedoon students during the school leaving certificate, after the ministry of education could not find a place for them in the ceremony it held, performed in a most boring and traditional way. I believe it would be useless to ask about why Bedoon students were not included in the official honoring ceremony, because this is but a small segment of the chronic ‘institutional discrimination’ illogically practiced by some of our officials. Honoring Bedoon students surely goes way beyond the ceremony itself and is considered a victory that would turn a state of depression into optimism, and aspirations for a better future with the hope to live in a ‘discrimination-free’ society-at least officially! The ceremony was purely public, held and organized by young Kuwaiti volunteers who reject the society-destroying discrimination and call for equality, justice and granting everybody equal opportunities. Those who attended the ceremony saw what I saw. Those who saw the quality of the audience and how many of them were outstanding Kuwaiti figures will surely understand what I mean. It was one of the rarest ceremonies held without patronage from an official and without meaningless speeches that even the speakers, themselves, do not believe in. This was a different kind of honoring ceremony, and that’s why the Othman Abdul Malik auditorium in Kuwait University was filled with spontaneous positive power that replaced depression, even for a short while this was certainly an audience brimming with optimism...and why not? What happened last Thursday night can hardly be described as an honoring ceremony. It was much more than that. It was a real convention for those wishing to see a more loving, equal, stable, fair and just society. And thus, the society is divided into two groups; one that fully believes in justice, equality, dignity, and freedom, and the other that justifies its discrimination by all possible means. — Al-Jarida
kuwait digest
Kuwaiti policy on Gulf unity By Abdellatif Al-Duaij
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hen some people called for the unification of the GCC countries, or to develop current relations with a union that includes the council countries, we objected, of course, and then our objection was condemned and rejected by many, though it was, and still is, built on a realistic and true basis. These days, due to the influence of the socalled Arab Spring, or rather with the influence of the increasing Kuwaiti movement in the form of a heated debate over everything these days...for all that there is a movement in the GCC countries, and the temperature of dealing with the political affair is rising, and it expresses itself in more than one area in the Gulf in the form of arrests, and sometimes by repressing citizens who express their political interests in public. There may be some political prisoners, or oppressed citizens, due to their opposition to the methods of repression and curbing freedoms, as practiced by most GCC countries. We, of course, have our opposing views for all forms of oppression, regardless who the oppressor or the oppressed is. All those who opposed our rejection of the proposed Gulf unity, and due to their backwardness they also oppose our interest or even our sympathy with those arrested Gulf citizens, claiming non-inter ference in the internal affairs of brotherly countries. They forget that these countries, including themselves, were promoting a joint fate and similar circumstances, and that is why it is necessary to join a union or Gulf confederacy. Whoever accepts or calls for the necessary Gulf unity and persuades Kuwait to join this union, must accept our outspoken approach. We do not come alone, without brains, opinion or tongue, rather, the uncomfortable feeling of some people towards criticism or even dealing with what goes on in the Gulf is evidence that the required Gulf unity is not suitable for us or even those who are calling for it, especially if they insist on having Kuwait join in. So, we hope that our brothers leave us alone so that we leave them alone...although we can not guarantee that, because it is difficult for any human being to stand idle while watching his human brother being oppressed and mis-
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
local
Three drug dealers escape after shooting in Fahaheel Fight breaks out in Hawally mall KUWAIT: Three drugs dealers fired their guns in a residential area in Fahaheel when detectives stormed their home. The three were able to escape with what is thought to be more than 2kg of drugs. It took detectives two weeks to determine the location where one of the suspects lived. The area was placed under surveillance, as two other persons were seen frequenting the home, and they were discovered to be his partners. The sources said the plan was to storm the building and arrest those inside, but when detectives began entering, one of the suspects began firing an AK-47 at the officers, so detectives backed away. The suspects then escaped through a back door. Detectives are investigating the case. Naked woman Salmiya police are questioning an Egyptian expat after his wife accused him of forcing her out of their house while nearly naked after midnight. A security source said the victim claims her husband beat her due to a family dispute then forced her from their
home while she was wearing inappropriate clothing. She said that she took a taxi to Mubarak Hospital, obtained a medical report and filed a complaint with the police. The man was later summoned to the police station, where he claimed his wife insulted him verbally, and he could not control himself and beat her, but he denied forcing her from the house. The husband has been summoned for further questioning.
Citizens attacked Jealousy apparently made a muscular Egyptian man beat two citizens he thought were harassing two Egyptian women. Investigations showed that one of the women is the manager of one of the victim’s offices, and that nothing inappropriate occurred. Police detained the attacker for further investigation before he was sent to concerned authorities.
Camel rescued A citizen called for help when his camel became stuck in a muddy area. The citizen, however, was able to free the camel before policemen arrived, though the case was documented.
Flirting messages A man sent a series of flirting messages to a female citizen, prompting her to file a complaint at Rawdha police station, accusing him of urging her to commit sexual crimes. A security source said the woman told officers that a person continually sent romantic messages and pictures to her phone, adding that she called him and told him to stop, but he did not. Police are investigating.
Ahmadi theft Ahmadi police are searching for a thief who broke into a phone store in Fahaheel and took phones and cash worth KD 8,000. A worker in the store discovered the theft and told his sponsor, who is turn called police. Detectives are investigating and hope to identify the thief.
Hawally fight A fight broke out in a Hawally Mall after Iftar resulting in the injury of three
men who were taken to Mubarak Hospital for treatment. Security men at the mall told police that seven young men had been fighting, and after police arrived they discovered that the fight was caused when a young man was chasing a girl along with three of his friends, angering another group who had been pursuing the same girl. Missing woman A bedoon woman who was shopping with her husband and 18 monthold son in Jleeb Co-op disappeared last November and police had treated the case as a kidnapping. The woman has since been spotted with a Syrian man on the second day of Ramadan and claimed she had been kidnapped by unknown men who raped her. Following this, the Syrian man took her in, as she was afraid her family might hurt her. The Syrian man, however, denied what she said, adding that the two had been living in his flat for seven months as a couple. Both were charged with adultery and sent to the public prosecution.
$5.7 billion projects to be exhibited in new expo KUWAIT: A Ramadan real estate exhibition where projects worth $5.7 billion will be showcased will begin today, Al-Masar Group announced yesterday. Al-Masar Director General Saud Murad told the press that a number of countries are participating
in the exhibition; most importantly Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Turkey and Jordan. The exhibition will provide rich opportunity of investment for a large segment of the society. This year, the event will see new purchasing regulations being issued to prevent fraudulent practices
NBK Staff participating in paper recycling program
NBK continues paper recycling initiative KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) continues its unprecedented bank-wide paper recycling program following the huge success of its previous phases which was implemented within NBK Head Office. The new phase will embrace NBK offices at Arraya II Tower, in corporation with Green Target Company. Yacoub Al-Baqer NBK Public Relations Officer said, “The unprecedented in-house paper recycling program initiated by NBK constitutes a milestone within the bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and positioned the bank as the first environYacoub Al-Baqer ment friendly financial institution in Kuwait.” Adding, “The huge success of the previous phases of the paper recycling program mostly attributed to the cooperation, enthusiasm and creative ideas of our NBK staff has encouraged us to further expand it to embrace all NBK’s branches and premises.” NBK supports a variety of activities and initiatives to encourage greater awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection in Kuwait including beach clean ups, water and electricity conservation awareness campaigns, under the ‘Think Twice’ program and paper recycling at NBK head office and branches.
MoE to devise alternative solutions to save power KUWAIT: Following the failure of the power conservation campaigns that cost the state about KD 10 million, the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has cancelled a tender to create special advertisements by a private company at the cost of KD 3 million, said sources. Instead, the expertise of the MEW employees and officials will be utilized in organizing a special awareness campaign. They added that the Ministry was working hard to save power without burdening the state’s budget. They stressed that in view of the failure of the previous campaign, the waste of KD 10 million and the dangers Kuwait is facing through high consumption rates of both water and electricity, the ministry has to devise other non-traditional solutions. Furthermore, sources stressed that high-ranking competent MEW PR advertisement coordination officials have set a ‘road map’ to save millions, reduce consumption rates by 40 percent, directly address the people through advertisements in various co-operative societies and clinics, seeking help from governors. They also noted that MEW officials found out that they had forgotten about using street banners, billboards to promote the campaign since the ministry began charging the advertisement companies KD 400,000 annually plus the right to use them for their own advertisements.
regarding the showcased projects, he noted. It will be held under the patronage of Anas AlSaleh, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Housing Affairs. More than 30 international and local participatory companies will be present at the event. —KUNA
KUWAIT: Municipality officials carry out an inspection campaign in Jahra yesterday. — Photos by Hanan Al-Saadoun
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
LOCAL
Cooperation only way to overcome stalemate Political stability ‘urgent requirement’ By A Saleh KUWAIT: Kuwait can achieve political stability only if various factions unite to overcome the political crisis it is facing today, a minister said yesterday in a press release. “Political stability in the critical period that Kuwait is going through today, is an urgent requirement. It necessitate to act with reason and seek cooperation in order to overcome the subsequent challenges,” Minister of State for Planning and Development, Minister of State for Parliament Affairs Dr Rola Dashti said, insisting that a recent speech by HH the prime minister “outlined precisely the elements of an approach that establishes for a correct constitutional system.” The minister further indicated that the approach described in Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak’s speech “maintains and implements legal verdicts” while at the same time “reinforces public participation [in power]” and “protects voters’ choices from any potential legal appeals.” Dashti also mentioned ‘transparency’ and ‘cooperation’ as the approach by which the legislative and executive authorities work together towards achievement. “This requires opening the doors of open and productive dialogue between all parts of society,” she said, further insisting that the government must not “fall under political pressure that aims to achieve stability for the time being, which is an approach that has already proven to be a failure. ‘Electoral system is constitutional’ Dr. Obaid Al-Wasmi, a lawmaker in the annulled 2012 parliament, believes that the
Constitutional Court has already ruled the current five-constituency system to be constitutional. “Seeking a verdict from the Constitutional Court over the legality of an MP’s membership cannot be allowed because it conflicts with an authenticity achieved in a previous verdict,” Dr Al-Wasmi, a Kuwaiti Law professor, said in a recent statement. He further called law professors around Kuwait to debate this issue publically in order to reach a legal solution for the current issue pertaining with questioning the legality of the constituencies system. ‘Interior’ adds to arsenal The Ministry of Interior is seeking to obtain military vehicles for the Special Task Forces Department, as well as interceptor boats for the Coastguards General Depar tment, according to insiders. “Meetings have already been held with companies who offered to supply the ministry with its demands,” said sources. They added that the contracts are expected to be signed within a couple of months, while supplies are expected to arrive by the beginning of next year. Sources explained that the new vehicles are needed to “meet needs as a result of recent state of high alert,” while the interceptor boats are required to “maintain sea border security”. NGO slams US arms deals to Gulf states An international organization condemned recent arms deals signed between the United States of America and Arabian Gulf states, calling for an inter vention from the
International Security Council to “stop deals that can leave catastrophic consequences on civilians in case of a military struggle taking place in the region.” “Recent news revealed a wide range of deals by the [US President Barack] Obama administration to sell weaponry to Arab states, including a $29.4 billion deal to supply Saudi Arabia with 84 F15s fighter jets,” read a statement released by Nonviolence International recently. The Washington DCbased organization mentioned Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman who either ‘publically or secretly’ held recent arming deals with America. “This alarming development indicates to the possibility of a potential human catastrophe in the Arabian Gulf ] region, the responsibility of which falls primarily on states supporting wars both politically and logistically,” the statement adds. ‘Iraqi parliament legitimizing Kuwait’s violations’ An Iraqi political bloc accused the country’s parliament of “legitimizing Kuwaiti violations” by failing to supervise the work of an Iraqi - Kuwaiti committee that is assigned to resolve pending issues between the neighboring countries. “The [Iraqi] Parliament failed to request clarification from the committee about results of a series of meetings held with Kuwait,” said Aliya Nusayef, official spokesperson of the Free Iraqi Bloc. “This stance could in the future become a reason to legitimize Kuwaiti violations against Iraq when Kuwait demands for so-called Kuwaiti rights,” the lawmaker argued.
Appoint UN official to deal with Iraq’s obligations New Kuwaiti suggestion UNITED NATIONS: As the UN high-level coordinator for missing Kuwaitis and property Gennady Tarasov relinquishes his post at the end of this year, Kuwait suggested to the Security Council that it appoint another high-level coordinator or a special representative of the Secretary-General to deal with ‘all’ Iraq’s outstanding obligations towards Kuwait. In a letter to Security Council President, Ambassador Nestor Osorio of Colombia issued late Friday to Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, “appreciates the great efforts” made by Tarasov to fulfil his mandate and “wishes him all success” in his future endeavors. “Kuwait therefore hopes that the Security Council will appoint another highlevel Coordinator or a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to replace Ambassador Tarasov, in order to continue taking follow up implementation on obligations set out in (relevant) Security Council resolutions (and) would appropriate if such a high-level coordinator or special representative were to follow up on all of Iraq’s outstanding international obligations (towards Kuwait),”Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Sabah,” added in his letter. If the Council agrees with the Kuwaiti proposal, it will have to adopt a resolution by changing the high-level coordinator’s mandate from dealing with only the issues of the missing Kuwaitis and property to a wider mandate that would include, besides these two humanitarian issues, all Iraq’s other outstanding obligations towards Kuwait, ranging from compensation to maintenance of border markers. The mandate of the high-level coordinator for missing Kuwaitis and third country citizens and missing Kuwaiti property was
established in 1999 by council resolution 1284. The first UN official to occupy the post was late Yuli Vorontsov, succeeded by Tarasov. In his letter, conveyed to the Council President by Kuwaiti Charge d’affaires Abdulaziz Aljarallah, Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Sabah mentioned, among Iraq’s outstanding obligations towards Kuwait pursuant to Council resolutions adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, maintenance of the border markers, compensation owed to Iraqi farmers, residual compensations owed by Iraq to Kuwait and the question of Kuwait prisoners, missing persons and property. The Council called on Iraq and Kuwait in a press statement issued last month “to explore other arrangements to ensure continued cooperation in the search for missing persons, property and the Kuwaiti archives” and agreed to finance the continuation of Tarasov’s activities until the end of this year. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah expressed regret in his letter that “despite the significance and the sensitive nature of the question of the missing persons, a humanitarian issue that the Council has been following for many years, and despite the great efforts that have been made since 2004 by the Tripartite Commission and the Technical Subcommittee, which operates under the patronage of International Committee of the Red Cross, the remains of only 236 Kuwaiti prisoners out of 605 missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals have so far been identified.” He added that “while we appreciate the cooperation demonstrated by the government of Iraq and its efforts to resolve this question, we believe that it is possible to make significant progress if efforts were redoubled and agreed-upon plans were implemented in the framework of the technical subcommittee.”—KUNA
Diseases, car accidents on the rise during Ramadan By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Since the beginning of the month of Ramadan, the rate of blood sugar, blood pressure, and heart diseases have increased noticeably. It is believed that the main reason is because patients failed to get used to new treatments during the first few days of Ramadan. Car accidents have also been on the rise during the month of Ramadan. This is due to the fact that people have begun paying social visits and shopping after Iftar. Traffic jams increase after Isha prayers, so do car accidents. Therefore, all are invited to cooperate with traffic department and medical emergency men.
KUWAIT: Visitors at Al-Ahmad Diwan and Al-Shebani Diwan in Kaifan are seen signing a petition released by the Opposition Bloc, against the notion of amending the state’s electoral constituencies system and prolonged dissolution process for the 2009 parliament. The petition calls for boycotting elections if the current 5-constituency system is changed. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat
Car accidents A car accident took place between AlRumaithiya and Salwa, resulting in a 17year-old citizen suffering from a case of cardiac arrest. He was admitted to the
Intensive Care Unit at Mubarak Hospital. A car accident took place on the Seventh Ring Road opposite Abdullah AlMubarak towards Al-Jahra, resulting in a 19-year-old citizen losing consciousness and another 31-year-old compatriot injuring his left foot. Both were admitted to Farwaniya Hospital. A car accident took place on the Arabian Gulf Street opposite Plaza, resulting in a 17year-old citizen suffering multiple injuries. He was admitted to Mubarak Hospital. A motor cycle accident took place on the Arabian Gulf Street near Al-Marina, resulting in a 30-year-old citizen sustaining multiple injuries. He was admitted to Amiri Hospital. A car accident took place along Airport Road opposite Al-Farwaniya, resulting in three Filipino men aged between 33 and 42 suffering multiple injuries. Also, a 29year-old Egyptian expat was injured. All were admitted to Farwaniya Hospital.
KOC employees, Gulf Bank celebrate Girgian KUWAIT: Gulf Bank announced yesterday that it will hold its annual Girgian event with Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) employees at its KOC branch between July 30 and Aug 2, as part of the Bank’s activities to celebrate the Holy month of Ramadan. Gulf Bank has celebrated this Kuwaiti mid-Ramadan tradition with KOC employees for four consecutive years to share the blessings of Ramadan and express gratitude for their support. Yaser Sulaiman, Executive Manager, Consumer Banking Group at Gulf Bank commented: “One of the greatest blessings of the Holy
month of Ramadan is the spirit of giving and sharing with the community, and at Gulf Bank we do not only celebrate with the less fortunate but also with our business partners, such as KOC. We are happy to have KOC employees as our customers and we thank them for their loyalty and trust in our services and look forward to continuing our partnership. On behalf of Gulf Bank I wish everyone a blessed Ramadan.” Gulf Bank has tailored a special salary package for KOC employees and provides unique banking services through its branch at KOC to address their specific needs.
Yaser Sulaiman
Decrease in number of visitors to zoo By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The Kuwait Zoo is still operating during the holy month of Ramadan from 1:30 pm - 5:30 pm every day, with Sunday being a holiday. According to a member of the management, the zoo closes at sunset so the animals will rest, and this is an international practice or tradition. The entrance fee is 500 Fils and there are two par ts to the zoo. Visitors may choose to only view the garden and not the zoo by purchasing a ticket for 250 Fils. The garden is open till 8 pm daily. Though the weather has been hot, there are visitors coming to the zoo. An employee noted that primarily people arrive after 3pm, though there are rarely 100 visitors
per day. Thus, during the weekends (on Fridays and Saturdays) about 200 visitors come. The number of visitors are now fewer because there are no school trips and people are fasting. Also, the hot weather is affecting the number. Currently, there are no facilities offering food or beverages inside the zoo. The employee stressed that the cafeteria, baqala, and the juice shop will be ready for Eid. Although the majority of visitors are usually expats, during Ramadan most visitors, if not all, are Kuwaitis. The zoo has some problems during the year. According to the employee, the greatest problem is caused by uncivilized visitors teasing animals. They throw stones or other objects and hurt the animals. Also, some animals become scared
from this throwing and hurt themselves. There are security guards inside the zoo, though there are not enough, and visitors do not always respect them since they are Arab Nationals. The employee said that during each shift there are 12 security guards, which are not enough to cover the entire zoo. The management has sought to hire Kuwaiti guards, though none applied. Animals lovers have the chance to acquire some zoo animals. In October, an auction will be held to sell some animals that have become over-abundant. The employee stated that there are about 60 to 70 deer in the zoo and there is not enough space to house all of them. Perhaps officials can exchange them for other animals.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
Romney can expect warm Israeli reception Page 8
China cancels waste project after violent protests Page 12
NABLUS: A Palestinian woman and a man walk through the destroyed home of the Haruf family after Israeli forces carried out a raid on the house in this West Bank city yesterday. Israeli troops arrested Abdallah Haruf, a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, at his family home as well as another four people in the area, residents said. — AFP
US sees Israel as spy threat WASHINGTON: The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in. The incident, described by three former senior US intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched. In a separate episode, according to another two former US officials, a CIA officer in Israel came home to find the food in the refrigerator had been rearranged. In all the cases, the US government believes Israel’s security services were responsible. Such meddling underscores what is widely known but rarely discussed outside intelligence circles: Despite inarguable ties between the US and its closest ally in the Middle East and despite statements from US politicians trumpeting the friendship, US national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat. In addition to what the former US officials described as intrusions in homes in the past decade, Israel has been implicated in US criminal espionage cases and disciplinary proceedings against CIA officers and blamed in the presumed death of an important spy in Syria for the CIA during the administration of President George W Bush. The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that US national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel. Israel employs highly sophisticated, professional spy services that rival American agencies in technical capability and recruiting human sources. Unlike Iran or Syria, for example, Israel as a steadfast US ally enjoys access to the highest levels of the US government in military and intelligence circles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the sensitive intelligence and diplomatic issues between the two countries. The counterintelligence worries continue even as the US relationship with Israel features close cooperation on intelligence programs that reportedly included the Stuxnet computer virus that attacked computers in Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities. While the alliance is central to the US approach in the Middle East, there is room for intense disagreement, especially in the diplomatic turmoil over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “It’s a complicated a relationship,” said Joseph Wippl, a former senior CIA clandestine officer and head of the agency’s office of congressional affairs. “They have their interests. We have our interests. For the US, it’s a balancing act.” The way Washington characterizes its relationship with Israel is also important to the way the US is regarded by the rest of the world, particularly Muslim countries. US political praise has reached a crescendo ahead of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s scheduled meeting Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Their relationship spans decades, since their brief overlap in the 1970s at the Boston Consulting Group. Both worked as advisers for the firm early in their careers before Romney co-
founded his own private-equity firm. Romney said in a speech this past week that Israel was “one of our fondest friends”, and he criticized Obama for what he called the administration’s “shabby treatment” of the Jewish state. “The people of Israel deserve better than what they’ve received from the leader of the free world,” Romney said in a plain appeal to US Jewish and pro-Israel evangelical voters. Obama, who last year was overheard appearing to endorse criticism of Netanyahu from then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has defended his work with Israel. “We’ve gotten a lot of business done with Israel over the last three years,” Obama said this year. “I think the prime minister - and certainly the defense minister - would acknowledge that we’ve never had closer military and intelligence cooperation.” An Israeli spokesman in Washington, Lior Weintraub, said his country has close ties with the US. “Israel’s intelligence and security agencies maintain close, broad and continuous cooperation with their US counterparts,” Weintraub said. “They are our partners in confronting many mutual challenges. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless and contrary to the spirit and practice of the security cooperation between our two countries.” The CIA declined comment. The tension exists on both sides. The National Security Agency historically has kept tabs on Israel. The US, for instance, does not want to be caught off guard if Israel launches a surprise attack that could plunge the region into war and jeopardize oil supplies, putting American soldiers at risk. Matthew Aid, the author of “The Secret Sentry,” about the NSA, said the US started spying on Israel even before the state was created in 1948. Aid said the US had a station on Cyprus dedicated to spying on Israel until 1974. Today, teams of Hebrew linguists are stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, at the NSA, listening to intercepts of Israeli communications, he said. CIA policy generally forbids its officers in Tel Aviv from recruiting Israeli government sources, officials said. To do so would require approval from senior CIA leaders, two former senior officials said. During the Bush administration, the approval had to come from the White House. Israel is not America’s closest ally, at least when it comes to whom Washington trusts with the most sensitive national security information. That distinction belongs to a group of nations known informally as the “Five Eyes.” Under that umbrella, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand agree to share intelligence and not to spy on one another. Often, US intelligence officers work directly alongside counterparts from these countries to handle highly classified information not shared with anyone else. Israel is part of by a second-tier relationship known by another informal name, “Friends on Friends.” It comes from the phrase “Friends don’t spy on friends,” and the arrangement dates back decades. But Israel’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, and its FBI equivalent, the Shin Bet, both considered among the best in the world, have been suspected of recruiting US officials and trying to steal American secrets. Around 2004 or 2005, the CIA fired two female officers for having unreported contact with Israelis. One of the women acknowledged during a polygraph exam that she had been in a relationship with an Israeli who worked in the Foreign Ministry, a former US official said. The CIA learned the Israeli introduced the woman to his “uncle.” That person worked for Shin Bet. Jonathan Pollard, who worked for the Navy as a civilian intelligence analyst, was convicted of spying for Israel in 1987
when the Friends on Friends agreement was in effect. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Israelis for years have tried to win his release. In Jan 2011, Netanyahu asked Obama to free Pollard and acknowledged that Israel’s actions in the case were “wrong and wholly unacceptable”. Ronald Olive, a former senior supervisor with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service who investigated Pollard, said that after the arrest, the US formed a task force to determine what government records Pollard had taken. Olive said Israel turned over so few that it represented “a speck in the sand”. In the wake of Pollard, the Israelis promised not to operate intelligence agents on US soil. A former Army mechanical engineer, Ben-Ami Kadish, pleaded guilty in 2008 to passing classified secrets to the Israelis during the 1980s. His case officer was the same one who handled Pollard. Kadish let the Israelis photograph documents about nuclear weapons, a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet and the US Patriot missile air defense system. Kadish, who was 85 years old when he was arrested, avoided prison and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. He told the judge that, “I thought I was helping the state of Israel without harming the United States.”
In 2006, a former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat and two pro-Israel lobbyists. Despite the Pollard case and others, Olive said he believes the two countries need to maintain close ties “but do we still have to be vigilant? Absolutely. The Israelis are good at what they do.” During the Bush administration, the CIA ranked some of the world’s intelligence agencies in order of their willingness to help in the US-led fight against terrorism. One former US intelligence official who saw the completed list said Israel, which hadn’t been directly targeted in attacks by Al-Qaeda, fell below Libya, which recently had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program. The espionage incidents have done little to slow the billions of dollars in money and weapons from the United States to Israel. Since Pollard’s arrest, Israel has received more than $60 billion in US aid, mostly in the form of military assistance, according to the Congressional Research Service. The US has supplied Israel with Patriot missiles, helped pay for an antimissile defense program and provided sensitive radar equipment to track Iranian missile threats. —AP
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Libya poor mark Ramadan in rubble of Gaddafi base TRIPOLI: Dozens of Libya’s poor are celebrating the country’s first free Ramadan since the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in the shattered remains of the late dictator’s infamous Bab Al-Aziziya military compound. “We can’t believe that we have a home and are celebrating Ramadan in a place that was once completely out of bounds,” says one of them, Surur R abti. The vast militar y complex was Gaddafi’s main base of operations until NATObacked rebel forces stormed it on August 23, 2011 in a decisive battle for the capital. It is now a giant field of gutted structures, trash and debris. Rabti and her family moved into the compound in October, the same month that rebels captured and killed the strongman who ruled the oil-rich north African nation with an iron grip for more than four decades. The family of eight, including three who earn paltry wages, is among the better off in a stretch of Bab Al-Aziziya where decent homes have been carved out of rubble but where fresh coats of paint do little to conceal thick layers of soot. Some of the tiles in Rabti’s spacious yet basic house - once the residence of a high-ranking
officer living just a stone’s throw from Gaddafi’s own quarters - are still cracked from the impact of explosives. Yellow plastic sheets make up for missing windows. A recycled wooden door hangs on shaky hinges. Other doorways have been left gaping open or sealed off with cream curtains. There is no breeze or air conditioner to take the edge of the summer heat. The family says it is happy although its joint income is barely enough to cover the cost of food in general, let alone allow for the lavish meals that traditionally accompany the sundown breaking of the Ramadan fast. “We are happy because the blood of the martyrs didn’t go to waste” says Rabti, who gave up her medical studies two years ago to help feed her family and now works as an administrative assistant. Her mother, Zobra, says “this is the first time we celebrate Ramadan feeling relaxed and without fear, even if we are living it simply.” That simplicity includes a garden patch of mint, tomatoes and bell peppers that she will use to flavour her feasts. Other families are struggling in this maze of roughly 40 housing units. Without
glass in their windows to stave off the chill of the past winter, they are now growing restless in harsh summer temperatures, with thermometers pushing up to 40 degrees Celsius. “We’ve been here almost a year - since September 13,” Umm Seif tells AFP. “We endured a winter without windows and now we don’t have power for the air conditioner. We’d like a solution, just a small gesture from the state to know we have hope,” adds the housewife. Umm Seif says the 400 Libyan dinars ($320) earned each month by her fireman husband is barely enough to feed their children and that before setting up camp in Bab Al-Aziziya they had no choice but to live with her father-in-law. Electricity and water are both in short supply, she complains, pointing to a thin cable that connects her home to the main power grids outside Bab AlAziziya and to plastic containers of water drawn from a pump outside the complex. “My hope is for stability, whether the government moves me or keeps me here,” she says, adding that she is getting through Ramadan thanks to the “kindness of neighbours”.
Abdel Salam Segayer, a father of two, gets up early in the hope of getting odd jobs painting or fixing homes in wealthier areas. He takes great pride in what residents of Bab Al-Aziziya have achieved since last Ramadan. “When we arrived it was all destroyed,” he remembers. “We’ve cleared the corpses from the rubble and buried them. We’ve set up our own power lines and pipes. We have painted our houses. In the beginning, I couldn’t sleep because I was so overjoyed to have my first home.” Ramadan, he says, has been a simple but joyful affair with men in the neighbourhood taking turns to host each other for tea and games of cards at night after breaking the fast with the family and prayers at the mosque. “This Ramadan is completely different because we are unshackled,” he says. In another area of Bab Al-Aziziya, residents living in destitute homes in a row of badly damaged barracks within the bombed out complex, are in no mood for visitors. They only want concrete help. “We don’t want media, we want solutions,” one man snaps. — AFP
Golan Druze start to turn against Assad Secretive sect finds itself caught in the middle
LONDON: Aide Charlie Pearce examines an Israeli flag on the charter plane of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney before he boards at Stansted Airport yesterday as he travels to Israel. — AP
Romney can expect a warm Israel reception JERUSALEM: Mitt Romney’s support for Israel will likely earn the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a warm welcome from Israeli leaders when he visits today - and a frosty reception from Palestinians, who fear he would do little to advance their stalled statehood dreams. Romney is visiting Israel as part of a threenation foreign tour that includes Britain and Poland. He hopes it will boost his credentials to direct US national security and diplomacy. The visit to Israel comes at a time when its leaders are weighing a military attack on Iran, the neighboring regime in Syria is looking increasingly shaky and Mideast peace talks are going nowhere. Romney, a longtime friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is expected to play up his critique of President Barack Obama’s posture toward the Jewish state and his handling of Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons ambitions. Israeli political scientist Abraham Diskin says Romney can expect an “enthusiastic” reception, both because of his solid record of pro-Israel comments - and because he’s not Obama. “What interests Israelis is Israel,” Diskin said. “Romney has a very pro-Israel stance. He is very suspicious of the Arab world. (Israelis) are very suspicious of Obama.” In an effort to upstage Romney a day before he landed in Israel, the White House announced it was signing legislation expanding military and civilian cooperation with Israel. Still, with polls showing a close race, Romney hopes this showcase for his pro-Israel stance will help him to woo votes from traditionally Democratic Jewish voters and evangelical Christians who zealously defend Israeli government policy. Obama has not visited Israel since he became president. Romney already has stumbled in his first international swing as presidential contender by suggesting that British officials might not be prepared to pull off a successful Olympics. In an interview with NBC News, he called London’s problems with games preparation “disconcerting,” and the remark sparked sharp responses from Britain’s top officials. Romney attended
swimming events in London on Saturday morning ahead of his planned flight to Tel Aviv. In Israel, Romney will be meeting with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, President Shimon Peres and Israeli opposition leaders. He will not see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Abbas aide Nimr Hamad said, though he will be sitting down with the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, in Jerusalem. The Romney campaign said the likely GOP nominee only had time in his schedule to meet with one Palestinian leader and that Fayyad has an existing relationship with Romney. The Abbas camp did not offer an explanation for why no meeting was planned. Romney’s relationship with the US-educated Netanyahu dates back decades, when they briefly overlapped in the 1970s at Boston Consulting Group, and the two men share conservative outlooks. A Romney bankroller, Sheldon Adelson, is financing a free Israeli newspaper that reflects Netanyahu’s views. Netanyahu has refused to endorse either presidential candidate, although his ties with Obama have been fraught. “I will receive Mitt Romney with the same openness that I received another presidential candidate, thenSenator Barack Obama, when he came almost four years ago, almost the same time in the campaign, to Israel,” he said when asked about the visit last Sunday on Fox News. “We extend bipartisan hospitality to both Democrats and Republicans.” Romney - like most politicians who make the trek to Israel - is likely to face questions such as whether he would endorse calls by some fellow Republicans to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his stance on Israeli calls for Washington to release convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. Romney has consistently accused Obama of putting too much pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians and of being too weak on Iran. He says he wants to present a clearer military threat to the Islamic Republic, with a stronger naval presence in the Gulf. Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons. —AP
Hitting PKK in Syria dangerous for Turkey ISTANBUL: Turkey this week cranked up its already-heated rhetoric against Kurdish militants in northern Syria, saying it would not hesitate to go after PKK fighters, just as it has in northern Iraq. Analysts warn such a move would be dangerous for Turkey and further complicate Syria’s deadly conflict and the volatile regional situation. “If you implement a hot pursuit against the PKK militias in northern Syria, the government in Syria will react very differently from the Iraqi government,” Osman Bahadir Dincer of the Ankara-based USAK thinktank said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said it was a “given” that Turkish troops would pursue fleeing Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants inside Syria if they struck Turkey. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives. Turkey regularly bombs suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, with both Baghdad and the government in the
autonomous Kurdish region forced to accept the military strikes. Relations between the former close political allies Turkey and Syria have disintegrated as Ankara has lashed out against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s bloody response to the ongoing uprising against his rule, which so far has led to the deaths of about 19,000 people since mid-March 2011. The relationship soured further after Syria shot down a Turkish jet on June 22. Though Syria is facing isolation from many Western powers, analysts warn that Turkish military action in Syria risks the wrath of some of the country’s powerful allies. “If Turkey brings soldiers onto Syrian soil by itself and not as part of an international operation, it would be an open provocation to Russia and Iran,” said Cengiz Candar of the daily Radikal newspaper. Hurriyet daily news writer Semih Idiz said any military operation would be doomed to lead Turkey into “new and unwelcome adventures, which will not only ruin the ongoing rapprochement with Kurdish northern Iraq, but also aggravate the Kurdish problem in Turkey.” —AFP
BUKATA, Golan Heights: The raging civil war just across the ceasefire line in Syria is posing an uncomfortable political choice for the Druze people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Do they maintain their traditional loyalty to the government of Bashar Assad, whose family has vowed to take back the territory? Or should they support the burgeoning Arab revolt against Assad’s harsh rule? In the shifting sands of the Middle East, the Druze again find themselves a people caught in the middle. In Druze villages close enough to hear the fighting, families and friends are divided between backers of the revolt and supporters of the regime. A Druze doctor predicted his people would demand Assad’s downfall, while a butcher in a nearby town denounced the Syrian uprising as a foreign conspiracy. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. In 1981 it annexed the strategic plateau, 65 km long and 20 km wide, because militarily, it commands Israel’s north. The international community has not recognized the Israeli annexation. In negotiations, Israel has offered to exchange the territory for full peace, but talks broke down a decade ago over exact borders and other issues. The Druze residents of the Golan Heights were offered Israeli citizenship, but only a few accepted. Many assumed that someday the territory would revert to Syria, by peace or by war, and those who identified with Israel might be treated as traitors. Most Druze identified as Syrians and the older generation in particular found the offer of Israeli citizenship an affront. The Druze - there are 20,000 in the Golan Heights - follow a secretive offshoot of Islam whose adherents live primarily in Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. Over the centuries, they have tried to keep to themselves, offering allegiance to whoever was in control of their territory. The four main Golan Druze villages are near the ceasefire line with Syria. In the early weeks of the uprising against Assad last year, only a tiny minority of Golan’s Druze would publicly support the rebels. Now those voices are getting stronger. “Most of the people here cannot distinguish between Assad and their homeland. They are looking to him as the face of the homeland and waiting for him to liberate us from the (Israeli) occupation,” said Ali Abu Awad, a doctor in the village of Bukata. “But these days, when they can see what Assad is doing there, the big lie has started to fall. I think they will demand the fall of Assad.” Over the past week, he said most people in Bukata have climbed nearby hills to watch the fighting nearby. “It’s a different feel-
BUKATA: In this photo taken July 24, 2012, a Druze man looks toward the nearby Syrian village of Jebata al-Khashab from an Israeli army post near this village in the Golan Heights. — AP ing to see with your eyes. You feel very useless, very empty, to see this army demolishing the civilian population,” Abu Awad said. In nearby Majdal Shams, Assad supporters spoke out. Hasan Fakhr Deen, a butcher, called the Syria conflict “a conspiracy of outside states”. He insisted that Syrians remained united and felt the nearby shelling and smoke across the border were legitimate attacks against “people who want to change the regime in Syria”. Besides its strategic importance, the Golan Heights are also a major source of water and recreation. Israelis flock there for hikes, an Israeli winery and the country’s only ski resort. The Druze are a part of that landscape, and Israeli tourists as well as soldiers frequent their restaurants. Still, the Druze stay in touch with their Syria relatives and are sometimes allowed to cross for weddings, university studies and religious pilgrimages. Golan-grown apples are also annually transferred over land to Syria to help Druze farmers market their crop. Golan Druze who marry Syrian nationals automatically lose their right to live in the Golan, tearing families apart. The bloody crackdown in Syria has led the Golan Druze to begin speaking more freely. Mahmoud Amasha, a Bukata apple farmer and insurance agent, said he was “convinced that the number of people opposing this regime grows every day”. But he said divisions over Assad’s populari-
ty in Bukata have “cast a shadow over the people in this town”. Syria’s Sunni majority makes up the backbone of the opposition, and minorities such as the Druze and Christians fear they will be marginalized - or even targeted - if Sunnis take over. Assad and the ruling elite also belong to a minority sect, the Alawites, a Shiite offshoot. Assad’s regime always pushed a secular ideology, which was seen as giving minorities a measure of protection. Residents say demonstrations break out every few weeks, some in favor of the regime and some against. The divisions have even pitted family against family and friend against friend. Three teenage girls walking through Bukata’s central square held differing views, with two supporting Assad and one opposing him. Ruba Amasha, 17, said the three have remained friends, but that is not always the case. “For instance, a pro-Assad person will say ‘hi’ to a friend on the street, and if the other person’s against (Assad), they’ll just keep walking,” she said. Alaa Alwely, a driver, said the Syrian civil war would likely delay any chance of the Golan returning to Syria. Given what was happening across the border, he said he was fine with that. “I’ve lived a respectful life here,” he said. “I was born under occupation. I’m not sure if Syrian rule would be better or not.” — AP
Firestorm hits rebel-held Salaheddin ALEPPO: Dawn in the Salaheddin district of Syria’s second city Aleppo brought a firestorm with four buildings quickly set ablaze as rebels and foreign fighters battled a longanticipated army offensive. “It started at 4:00 AM (1:00 GMT) and eight hours later it’s still hell. This is madness,” an AFP correspondent reported on Saturday. Four helicopters launched salvoes of rockets before the rebelheld district, which has been surrounded by President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces and was bombarded by artillery and tanks. The opposition fighting against regime forces includes both Syrian rebels and foreign fighters, who said they belonged to the Liwa al-Tawhid al-Mujahedeen (United Mujahedeen Brigade). The foreigners told AFP they hailed from from Chechnya, Algeria, Sweden and France. When the correspondent was about to pass the phone to a French fighter, the line went dead. An attack on the Hamdaniyeh district, where the correspondent was stationed, was repelled. On the road were three tanks and two armoured vehicles destroyed by the opposition, as well as the bodies of five or six soldiers and four rebels. A senior Free Syrian Army (FSA) colonel, Abdel Jabbar Al-Oqaidi, told AFP that 100 tanks were massed on the outskirts of Salaheddin. In the large district in the southwest of the city, rebels had mounted a machinegun on a red pick-up truck with the words “United Mujahedeen Brigade” spraypainted on its side. A video posted online by activists shows them shooting frantically at the helicopter gunships above, spurred on by the rallying cries of other rebels in the street. Another video shows flames licking from a building as gunfire crackles in the background and verses from the Koran can be heard from a nearby
SUKARI, Syria: Syrians carry the body of a man allegedly killed in the bombardment of this town southwest of the restive city of Aleppo by regime forces on Friday during his funeral in the Shaar neighborhood of the city. — AFP
mosque. Women and children have been evacuating the Salaheddin area since Friday, seeking refuge in other areas of the city. Those residents who have opted to stay behind have sought refuge in the basements of houses. According to the AFP correspondent, there is no electricity and water in the city, and food stocks are so low that it is nearly impossible to find bread supplies. “There are thousands of people in the streets fleeing the bombardment. They’re being terrorised by helicopter gunships flying at low altitude,” said one
activist who identified himself as Amer. “There’s a large number of civilians who have taken refuge in public parks in safer areas, but most took refuge in schools,” he told AFP via Skype. “They cannot get out of town and there is no safe place left for them in Syria,” he added. Until recently, both Aleppo and the capital Damascus had been considered to be relative safe havens. A Syrian security source told AFP: “Hotspots have been completely blocked off to stop the terrorists from escaping,” the term the regime uses when it refers to the rebels. — AFP
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
American Jewish vote gets Romney’s eye WASHINGTON: Republican challenger Mitt Romney is traveling to Israel to win over a tiny sliver of a small - but powerful - section of the American electorate. President Barack Obama is doing the same at home. Although Romney’s trip is unlikely to change the broader presidential campaign, he’s hoping to close the gap among Jewish voters. Romney hopes to oust Obama in the November election. Yet for all the wooing of American Jews in US presidential campaigns, those who say Israel’s fate drives their vote make up only 6 percent of a reliably Democratic bloc. The tiny numbers are overlaid with an outsize influence, however: Campaign donations from Jews or Jewish and proIsrael groups account for as much as 60 percent of Democratic money, and groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee can bring strong pressure on candidates. “This is going to be a close election. We are in a tight, tight race,” said Democratic pollster Jim Gerstein. “But this race will not swing on the Jewish vote.” The notion of being an American Jew has changed over the years. Jews have married outside their faith and ethnic enclaves have given way to integrated cities. In the process, Israel has faded as a driving issue in their homes and seems to have faded as a flashpoint in politics. “They’re disconnected from their ancestral roots,” Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based consultant, said of Jewish voters. “People are becoming less observant so they’re less tied to Israel, less tied to their faith, less tied to their history.” In turn, Jewish voters look at the election through secular lenses. Although the campaign rhetoric skews toward them when the candidates talk about Israel, assuming that Jews vote based on US policy toward Israel is a losing proposition. Romney also needs to show his commitment to Israel because the reliably Republican evangelical Christian vote also holds candidates to account on that topic.
“Jewish Americans, like most Americans, have come to assume that mainstream politicians and elected officials will stand strongly with Israel so there’s oftentimes no urgency that is reflected in the polling,” said Robert Wexler, a former Democratic congressman from Florida whose district was heavily Jewish. “Even partisan people who cherish the American-Israeli relationship cringe when Israel is used as a political football,” said Wexler, who was a co-chairman of Obama’s 2008 campaign and now leads the S Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. That hasn’t stopped Romney. “I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite,” Romney said earlier this year when asked about Israel. Obama has riled
his critics, including Romney, by urging the Israelis and the Palestinians to make good on their promises to bring peace to the troubled Middle East. Specifically, Obama publicly has chastised Israel for continuing to build housing settlements in disputed areas and has pressured both sides to begin a new round of peace talks based on the land borders established after the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict. That has raised the ire of groups such as AIPAC, which feel he’s been disloyal to Israel. Obama’s strained relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‚Ä” a longtime Romney friend hasn’t helped that perception. Previous presidents have sided with Israel on all points, at least in public. “This is the most hostile president since the state of Israel was created,” Romney supporter and for-
BOCA RATON, Florida: In this Jan 22, 2008 file photo, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney speaks to the Republican Jewish Coalition of Florida. — AP
mer US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said recently. “He’s demonstrated that hostility right from the beginning of his administration.” Such language is designed to whittle away at the Democrats’ long-held advantages and nip away at the 78 percent support Obama enjoyed among Jews on Election Day 2008. The Gallup polling organization reported Friday that Obama’s standing stood at 68 percent among Jews, while 25 percent favored Romney. “They elected him with historic numbers but they have to look at how President Obama has handled the whole situation,” said Rich Beeson, Romney’s political director. “Voters can say, ‘I’ve not made a mistake, but he has not lived up to what he promised and it’s OK to (vote for someone else).’ Every vote that we can peel off from Barack Obama helps.” That approach fuels the on-the-ground effort to continue Jewish voters’ slide away from the Democratic fold. Romney allies at the Republican Jewish Coalition are planning a $6.5 million campaign to help Republican candidates, and Romney himself is looking to reach into Jewish communities in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Nevada. But the Jewish vote won’t make a difference in this election. Exit polls show Jewish voters typically make up between 2 percent and 4 percent of the electorate nationwide. In 2008, they were 2 percent of voters nationwide and Republican Sen. John McCain won just 21 percent of them. In 2004, George W Bush fared a bit better, winning 25 percent of the vote, the largest share of the Jewish vote any Republican has earned since 1988. It’s not as though Israel alone will even decide Jewish voters’ preference. A survey earlier this year by the American Jewish Committee found only 6 percent of American Jews listed US-Israel relations as their top priority. The economy was the top concern, at 29 percent, followed by health care, at 20 percent. — AP
Batman shooter was psychiatric patient Prosecutors dispute accounts of material mailed by suspect
SEATTLE: (From left) Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Thomas Perez, city attorney Pete Holmes, and Seattle Police Department Chief John Diaz listen to Mayor Mike McGinn discuss the Department of Justice agreements to implement police department reforms at a press conference Friday at City Hall. — AP
Seattle, federal officials agree to police reforms SEATTLE: Seattle officials agreed to an independent monitor and court oversight of the city’s police department as part of an agreement announced Friday with the Justice Department following a damning report that found officers routinely used excessive force. City and federal negotiators were involved in tense talks over the scope of a deal for months, and Justice Department lawyers had threatened to sue the city if a deal was not reached by July 31. “It’s no secret there were a few bumps in the road to get here,” Mayor Mike McGinn said. “We do have a lot of work in front of us.” The Justice Department launched its civil rights investigation early last year after the fatal shooting of a homeless, Native American woodcarver and other incidents involving force used against minority suspects. In December, a DOJ report found officers were too quick to reach for weapons, such as flashlights and batons, even when arresting people for minor offenses. The agreement was announced at City Hall by McGinn, Jennifer Durkan, US attorney for Seattle, and Thomas Perez, the Justice Department’s chief civil rights enforcer. The deal also calls for a special commission, appointed by the mayor, to concentrate on use of force issues. Talks between Seattle officials and the Justice Department had been hung up after city officials initially balked at some federal proposals for reform. The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, requires the Seattle Police Department to revise use of force policies and enhance training, reporting, investigation and supervision for situations involving use force. Police also would have to change policies and training concerning “bias-free” policing and stops, and create a Community Police Commission, which would be a civilian oversight body. Court oversight would continue for five years, but the city could ask to end the scrutiny earlier if it has complied with the agreements for two years. “This city is committed to eliminating bias,” McGinn said. Perez said the agreement could serve as a way to help reduce crime and increase public confidence in the city’s police officers. “We must continue to be well aware of the very raw feelings that many Seattle residents continue to have toward the Seattle Police Department,” Perez said. Surveillance cameras and police-cruis-
er videos had captured officers beating civilians, including stomping on a prone Latino man who was mistakenly thought to be a robbery suspect, and an officer kicking a non-resisting black youth in a convenience store. The earlier Justice Department report found that force was used unconstitutionally one out of every five times an officer resorted to it. The department failed to adequately review the use of force and lacked policies and training related to the use of force, it said. The American Civil Liberties Union and other community groups called for scrutiny of the department after a Seattle officer shot and killed the woodcarver, John T Williams, in 2010. Video from Officer Ian Birk’s patrol car showed Williams crossing the street holding a piece of wood and a small knife, and Birk exiting the vehicle to pursue him. Off-camera, Birk quickly shouted three times for Williams to drop the knife then fired five shots. The knife was found folded at the scene, but Birk later maintained Williams had threatened him. Birk resigned from the force and was not charged. A review board found the shooting unjustified. Seattle Councilman Tim Burgess, a former city police officer, said the agreement was a good one. The fact that a federal judge and federal monitor will be involved was key, Burgess said. “That will provide the muscle behind the reforms that will be necessary,” he said. Doug Honig, spokesman for the ACLU of Washington, was also pleased. “The city and the DOJ appear to have taken our concerns about excessive force, racially biased policing and flaws in the oversight system seriously,” Honig said. “The implementation is what’s going to matter.” Since the beginning of 2010, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has previously reached settlements to reform police practices in New Orleans and in Warren, Ohio. It has sued the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff’s office and the East Haven, Connecticut, police department for a pattern and practice of discrimination against Latinos and Hispanics. It is also investigating the Newark, New jersey, police department for a pattern and practice of excessive force and unconstitutional stops, searches, arrests and seizures, and discriminatory policing; the Miami, Fla., police department and the Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau over patterns of excessive deadly force; and Missoula, Montana, police over handling of sexual assault cases. — AP
DENVER: A former University of Colorado graduate student accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in a shooting rampage at a Denver-area movie theater last week had been under the care of a psychiatrist who was part of a campus threat-assessment team. The disclosure came in court documents filed on Friday by lawyers for James Holmes, 24, who is accused of opening fire last Friday on a packed showing of the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” in the Denver suburb of Aurora. The defense attorneys, in their request to an Arapahoe County district judge, are seeking a court order requiring prosecutors to turn over the contents of a package that Holmes sent to Dr Lynne Fenton and was later seized by investigators. “Mr Holmes was a psychiatric patient of Dr. Fenton, and his communications with her are protected,” the filing said. Fenton, medical director for student mental health services at the University of Colorado-Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, provides medication and psychotherapy for grad students in addition to her teaching duties, according to a school website. A professional biography of Fenton posted on the site said she had conducted research on schizophrenia, including a two-year grant to work in the schizophrenia research department of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 2008 to 2010. Fenton also is a member of the campus-based “behavioral assessment and threat assessment team,” which helps faculty and staff deal with “individuals who may be threatening, disruptive or otherwise problematic,” according to that group’s website. It could not be ascertained if Fenton was caring for Holmes under the threat-assessment program or under routine counseling she provided to students on campus. Under Colorado law, mental health professionals cannot be held liable in civil suits for failing to predict a patient’s violent behavior unless it involves a “serious threat of imminent physical violence against a specific person or persons.” When such a threat is made, the mental health professional is required to take action, which may include notifying those targeted or a law enforcement agency. Fenton could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment, and a spokeswoman for the University of Colorado medical school declined to comment, citing restrictions under a gag order issued by the judge presiding over the case. The university, where Holmes had been enrolled as a doctoral student of neuroscience, confirmed earlier this week that a suspicious
DENVER: Chantel Blunk, wife of Jonathan Blunk, waits Friday on the tarmac at Denver International Airport as her husband’s body is about to be loaded into a plane to fly to Reno, Nevada for his full military funeral. Blunk, a five-year US Navy veteran, was killed during a July 20 shooting rampage at a movie theater in Aurora. — AP package was delivered by mail on Monday and that it was “immediately investigated and handed over to authorities within hours.” Fox News has reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement source close to the investigation, that two packages were sent by Holmes to a psychiatrist on the faculty of the University of Colorado, and that one contained a notebook detailing the shooting scenario. According to Fox News, the notebook contained hand-drawn illustrations of stick figures shooting at other stick figures. The defense motion accuses the government of leaking information to the media in defiance of a gag order, thereby jeopardizing Holmes’ rights to due process and fair trial by an impartial jury. It says his lawyers will request a hearing to determine “appropriate sanctions for this misconduct.” Prosecutors, responding to the discovery motion, disputed various elements of media accounts as being erroneous, suggesting that anyone who had provided information to Fox News and other outlets lacked real knowledge of the case. “These factual errors lead (the government) to believe ... that the media is getting information from hoaxers, fraudsters, or maybe from nobody at all by creating fake ‘law enforce-
Under restrictions, F-22 fighters arrive in Japan TOKYO: A group of US F-22 stealth fighters arrived in Japan yesterday in what the Air Force hopes will be a step toward proving that its prized aircraft are safe after a mysterious oxygen problem that was making pilots sick. The F-22s arrived at Kadena Air Base from the United States and were expected to remain on the base, on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, for several months. Japanese media said eight of the aircraft had arrived by Saturday evening. Another four were expected to arrive later. Base officials were not immediately available for comment. The F-22, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp, is the Air Force’s most advanced stealth fighter. It was built to evade radar and is capable of flying at faster-than-sound speeds without using afterburners. But the fleet has been under tight flight restrictions since mid-May because pilots were reporting dizziness and other symptoms of hypoxia. The Air Force
says the deployment to Japan is a first step toward returning to normal. Before they left, the Air Force said the aircraft would take a special route to ensure they had possible landing sites along the way and would fly at lower altitudes, where the cockpit oxygen issue is less problematic. On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta approved a plan to send the fighters to Japan and begin lifting the restrictions because he said the Air Force has identified the cause of the problem and has taken measures to fix it. The Air Force believes the troubles stemmed from a valve in the pilots’ pressure vest that caused it to inflate and remain inflated, triggering breathing problems. The Air Force is replacing the valve and increasing the volume of air flowing to the pilots by removing a filter that was installed to check for contaminants in the system. The flights to Japan were to be flown at low altitude so that the vests would not have to be used. — AP
ment sources’ out of whole cloth,” prosecutors said in their filing. Formal charges against the suspect, who dyed his hair bright orange and was said by authorities to have referred to himself as the Joker - Batman’s comic book archenemy - are expected to be filed in court on Monday. The judge in the case, William Sylvester, set a hearing on the defense discovery motion to be held as part of Monday’s proceedings. Sylvester also said he would consider a pleading by news media organizations to make public court documents the judge has sealed in the case. Arrested within minutes of the shooting rampage at his car in the theater’s parking lot, Holmes is being held in solitary confinement in the local jail. In addition to charges stemming from one of the worst outbursts of US gun violence in recent years, he is accused of wiring his apartment with enough explosives to have leveled the entire building if they had been detonated. The apartment house was evacuated when the booby traps were discovered. But the explosives were later safely dismantled and removed by authorities, and Holmes’ neighbors began returning to their homes on Wednesday night. —Reuters
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Punk band becomes cause celebre in Russia MOSCOW: In February, five women walked silently into Moscow’s Church of Christ the Saviour before clambering over railings, pulling on balaclavas and yelling out a protest song against Vladimir Putin. The “punk prayer” by the all-woman group Pussy Riot lasted around a minute. But the echoes of their action are set to resound around Russia for years to come. Three women arrested in March over the incident face up to seven years in a prison colony after being charged with hooliganism and have already spent four months awaiting trial behind bars. Their case has been taken up by celebrities including pop star Sting and US rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers. By acting with the utmost harshness, the authorities have turned the obscure group into a household name in a case that, according to some observers, risks becoming a publicity disaster for both Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. The women were arrested ahead of March’s presidential polls, after which newly elected President Putin signed harsh new laws cracking down on opposition activity. Opinion polls show growing support for the women, whose trial began on July 20 with the judge remanding them in custody until Jan 2013 and will continue next week with the legal arguments starting tomorrow. Independent Levada pollsters this
month found that 50 percent of Russians took a “negative” view of the trial, while 36 percent said they saw it positively. That shows a change in public opinion since March when 46 percent said the women should be jailed. In June, more than 100 mainstream Russian actors and cultural figures including several who officially backed Putin’s presidential bid signed an open letter calling for their release. Even one of the Buranovskiye Babushki, the elderly village women who sang for Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest, voiced her pity. The case has prompted serious comparisons with that of Yukos oil company founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was convicted of fraud after backing opposition to Putin and then re-sentenced for tax evasion. In a stunning irony, the case is being heard in the same courthouse in Moscow. “Three daring girls have provoked a grandiose court case comparable to the Yukos case”, the politics editor of Vedomosti business daily wrote Thursday. “Maybe it’s even bigger than the Khodorkovsky case because it’s obvious and it’s straightforward,” Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of one of the women on trial, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, told AFP. The women’s song called for Virgin Mary to “drive out Putin” and said that that the Patriarch should believe in God, not
Putin. The case raises uncomfortable questions over close ties between the Church and state. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill publicised the case with a mass prayer service outside the
spiritual wounds on Orthodox Christians”. By pursuing the women, the authorities are returning a favour to a key ally, the Russian Orthodox Church, argued Alexei Makarkin, an
MOSCOW: A picture taken July 20, 2012 shows members of the all-girl punk band “Pussy Riot” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (center), Maria Alyokhina (right) and Yekaterina Samutsevich sitting behind bars during a court hearing. — AFP church, saying the women had desecrated holy relics, backed by video messages from celebrities. Prosecutors in their indictment used religious language, accusing the women of “blasphemous acts” and inflicting “deep
analyst at the Centre of Political Technologies. “The church has made it clear that it is completely on the side of the government and approves its anti-opposition position, saying protests are dangerous for society. The
government feels indebted to those who helped it out.” Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of the Sova Center for Information and Analysis, said he believed the authorities made a test case out of the protest because offence to believers was “easier to explain to society, to its conservative part.” “In a sense the state made use of the Church,” Verkhovsky said. The Church can rally huge support. In November it took a relic from Greece on a tour of the country, attracting some three million worshippers and a five-kilometre queue in Moscow. But Verkhovsky argued the Church was the ultimate loser. “I think this plays against the Church. It is a major failure. It is simply a big mistake by Patriarch Kirill that he waded into this.” One outspoken and influential priest, Andrei Kurayev, told Rossiiskaya Gazeta state daily last month that “every day the group’s members spend in detention works against the Church”. “This case has pushed educated and modern people away from the Church,” said Makarkin. But he argued that the trial did not reflect badly on Putin, since his supporters would “actively back harsh punishment or simply would not care”. Previously, Pussy Riot had sung a political protest song on tightly controlled Red Square, but the worst that happened to any of them was a fine. — AFP
Malian prez returns to crisis-hit nation US hails ‘important step’
BAYAMO, Cuba: A journalist films the trunk of a tree struck by the driver of the rental car carrying Cuban activist Oswaldo Paya in this July 25, 2012 photo. — AP
Driver error blamed for Cuban dissident’s death HAVANA: Cuban authorities on Friday blamed driver error for the car crash that killed a prominent island dissident, saying the Spanish man behind the wheel was speeding and braked too quickly upon entering an unpaved construction zone, causing the vehicle to careen out of control. An Interior Ministry statement aired on the afternoon news also said government opponent Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero, another, lesserknown dissident who died in the July 22 crash, were not wearing seatbelts and were in the vehicle’s rear, which suffered the brunt of the impact when the car hit a tree at high velocity. Still photographs broadcast with the report and posted on government-run websites showed a blue subcompact Hyundai Accent with rental car plates, its rear half crumpled. Driver Angel Carromero and Swedish citizen Jens Aron Modig, who were riding up front, suffered only minor injuries. Authorities are continuing their investigation and evaluating whether a criminal case may be warranted, the statement concluded. Cuban law allows prosecution of people found to have caused a deadly crash. Island media seldom report on either the dissidents or traffic accidents, and the 1,200-word notice read verbatim on state TV and simultaneously emailed to foreign journalists appeared aimed at countering speculation about possible foul play, such as unconfirmed reports that a second vehicle might have been pursuing the car or even forced it off the road. Cuba said from the outset that it was a single-car accident, but dissidents and family members nonetheless demanded a transparent investigation. Oria Acevedo, Paya’s sister-in-law, told AP that she had seen the televised report and the family “reserves the right to doubt”. “She is not accusing anybody,” Acevedo said, adding that she could not speak on behalf of her sister and Paya’s wife, Ofelia. “But one has a right to certain things like interviewing the witnesses, which has not been granted.” The report said the travelers left Havana at 6:00 am Sunday bound for the eastern city of Santiago, and the accident happened just before 2:00 pm in La Gavina, 800 km from the capital. Based on the accounts of three named witnesses, an analysis of their timetable, which included multiple stops, and forensic evidence from the car and the scene, investigators concluded
that Carromero must have been driving at more than 120 kph when he entered the highway section under repair. Cuban traffic laws set a speed limit of 60 kph for unpaved road. The Interior Ministry statement said visibility was good and there was a sign warning of the upcoming roadwork, though Carromero told police he didn’t remember seeing one. It also said he was not keeping an eye on the speedometer and could not say how fast the car was going. When Carromero realized he was driving over gravel, he slammed on the brakes and the car skidded sideways down the road until it hit a tree, the statement said. “His lack of attention to control of the vehicle, the excess velocity and the incorrect decision to apply the brakes abruptly on a slippery surface were the causes that determined this tragic accident,” the statement said. Modig said he was sleeping in the passenger’s seat and only awakened when the vehicle abruptly braked and fishtailed, and he lost consciousness on impact. Both Europeans have been given consular access from their respective embassies, but neither has spoken to the news media. A spokesman for the Spanish Embassy in Havana said Carromero was being held at a police detention center in Bayamo, near La Gavina, and there was nothing in the official report that took consular officials by surprise. “He is very shaken up by what happened, “Francisco de Borja said. “We are waiting for prosecutors to make a decision.” Swedish Foreign Ministry official Anders Jorle said Modig was doing well and would remain in Cuba as long as necessary while the investigation plays out. Jorle said Modig has not been detained, but it was not clear when he might return to Sweden. Paya, 60, was a leading government opponent who in the late 1990s and early 2000s headed up the Varela Project, which gathered thousands of signatures calling for political and economic change. The petition drive was considered the biggest nonviolent challenge to decades of Communist rule under Fidel Castro, and in 2002 the European Union awarded Paya its Sakharov human rights prize. Cuban media reports about Paya’s death have not mentioned that he was a member of the opposition, which officials label foreign-backed “counterrevolutionaries” out to topple the Communist-run government. — AP
BAMAKO: Mali’s interim president Dioncounda Traore returned to Bamako on Friday amid tight security after a two-month stay in Paris for medical treatment after he was attacked by a mob in his office. “I forgive my attackers,” the 70-year-old said at Bamako airport, as he landed late Friday afternoon in the west African nation, which is in a worse state of crisis than when he left it. “The Malian people are going through a very difficult period, starved for unity. I will apply myself to that,” Traore said, adding that he would address the nation tpday. Armed, masked men kept watch on roofs to secure Traore’s arrival, and he was greeted at the airport by embattled Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra, who is facing calls for his resignation from the main political parties. Ex-junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led a March 22 coup which plunged the previously stable democracy into crisis, was also present. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Traore’s return “represents an important step in moving Mali back onto a path leading to the restoration of a freely elected democratic government”. The United States called on all “parties to draw on the Malian tradition of consensus, tolerance, and good will to form an effective unity government by July 31, 2012,” she added in a statement. Traore said he was getting “better every day” after suffering a head injury when a mob of protesters against his appointment burst into his office on May 21 and beat him. He has been recovering in Paris ever since. “As you can see, I am doing very well,” he said. The interim president has a heavy workload awaiting him. Hardline Islamists have strengthened their hold on the vast desert north of Mali, which they seized after the coup. The interim government which took over from the junta has proved powerless to deal with the occupation. Diarra is trying to cobble together a wider unity government on the orders of mediators from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc to deal with the mounting crisis. ECOWAS wants to send a 3,000-strong military force to Mali, but is waiting for United Nations approval and a formal request from Bamako from a more inclusive government. Mali has until July 31 to form the unity government, a process which
faces further hurdles after key political parties called for Diarra to step down, accusing him of “incompetence and amateurishness”. They also accuse him of having no clear plan to win back the north, saying his roadmap out of the crisis was “concocted under the pressure of events”.
concern will be reuniting a country which has been effectively split in two by Islamists acting under the aegis of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, who are in control of an area larger than France. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, the current rotating head of ECOWAS, said on
BAMAKO: Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore (left) is greeted by Mali’s Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra upon his arrival at Bamako airport on Friday. — AFP Traore - whose own party was one of the signatories to the statement demanding the prime minister’s resignation - will have to decide whether to keep him in the post. Burkinabe Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole, who has been involved in mediation efforts, said Friday that if Traore needed more time to form the inclusive government “he can approach his fellow heads of state”. Traore also faces the continued influence of ex-junta leader Sanogo, who has been accused by the African Union of meddling in political affairs, and by rights bodies of overseeing torture and enforced disappearances. Prime Minister Diarra, who has worked for NASA and was also the Microsoft chairman for Africa, is the son-in-law of Moussa Traore who became president of Mali after ousting a previous regime and ruled for 23 years until 1991. Many in Mali see him as too close to the former putschists led by Sanogo. Traore’s main
Thursday he hoped for a resolution “in the coming days” on an eventual military intervention in northern Mali. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday his country was prepared to act as a “facilitator” in efforts to end the crisis. “If we can be a facilitator of that which can be done in the interest of Malians and the sub-region, we will play this role of facilitator, no more, no less,” Fabius said in Niamey after meeting Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou. The French foreign minister is on his first tour to sub-Saharan Africa, which will also take him to Senegal, Burkina Faso and Chad. He underlined that Mali needed to first restore security in the south, through the unity government, before turning to the north. Fabius said that if the armed groups in the north refused dialogue, African forces must act “in a secure manner on the basis of international arrangements”. — AFP
Venezuela envoy to Kenya killed
NAIROBI: Kenyan police stand outside the Venezuelan charge d’affaires’ residence in Runda estate on Friday July 27, 2012. — AP V
NAIROBI: The acting Venezuelan envoy to Kenya was found dead at her official residence in Nairobi, and police said Friday she was murdered by strangulation. Nairobi police chief Anthony Kibuchi said that the diplomat killed has been identified as Olga Fonseca Gimenez, the charge d’affaires and acting ambassador of Venezuela in Kenya. Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Fonseca reported to the Embassy in Nairobi on July 15 to replace Ambassador Gerardo Carillo-Silva. Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry mourned Fonseca’s death in a statement, saying she had a “brilliant and committed diplomatic career.” It said President Hugo Chavez’s government trusts that the criminal investigation by Kenyan authorities will determine what happened and who was responsible. Kibuchi said investigations into the death had begun and police had
questioned two staff members at the residence. Fonseca arrived in Kenya in July to replace Carrillo-Silva, who had fled the country after three male workers at the ambassador’s residence filed a complaint with the police accusing him of sexual harassment, a lawyer representing the workers said. Ngure Mbugua said he started representing the workers after police did not act against the complaints. He said he pressed Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask the Venezuelan government to waive the diplomat’s immunity against prosecution so that the envoy could be arrested and charged in Kenya or Venezuela. Mbugua said Carrillo-Silva fled before the process was complete. He said after her arrival the workers told him that Fonseca demanded that the workers withdraw their sexual abuse complaints against her predecessor. — AP
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Cambodia town with gruesome past lures tourists ANLONG VENG, Cambodia: Want to see Pol Pot’s grave or his broken toilet seat? How about a visit to the house of a feared Khmer Rouge commander known as “The Butcher”? Welcome to the town of Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold which hopes to become the next mustsee destination on Cambodia’s dark tourism trail, but which faces calls not to glorify its role in the country’s bloody past. A rectangular mound of earth lined with half-buried glass bottles and protected by a corrugated iron roof marks the spot where Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was hastily cremated in 1998. Aside from a sign asking visitors to “please help to preserve this historical site” there is no information on offer, leaving Cambodian tourist Pov Dara, 27, to ponder the significance of the low-key grave. “I feel sad for the people but not for him,” she decides, after snapping a photo of her relatives flashing the peace sign. Up to two million people died from overwork, starvation or execution when the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, attempted to create a communist utopia in the late 1970s. His cremation site, which attracts some 10 visitors a day, is one of 14 tourist spots the government intends to “preserve and develop” in northern Cambodia’s Anlong Veng. Other places of interest include leaders’ old homes and a rusty radio truck used to broadcast Khmer Rouge propaganda. Impoverished Cambodia is no stranger to genocide tourism, with the Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh and the nearby Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where thousands died, among the nation’s most popular attractions. But while the focus at those sites is on victims
of the 1975-1979 regime, Anlong Veng is populated by one-time loyal Khmer Rouge followers, giving it the feel of a town that has found itself on the wrong side of history. As locals relish the lucrative prospect of welcoming more tourists to the once isolated area, observers stress the need to educate guests about Cambodia’s history - and avoid turning the destination into a Khmer Rouge nostalgia tour. To that end, the tourism ministry has teamed up with the esteemed Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities. The centre is preparing to publish a guidebook based on the stories of long-time residents and it is training tour guides to provide meaningful information about “what happened and why during the Khmer Rouge regime’s final days”, said the group’s director Youk Chhang. A museum is also planned. But it is important not to exploit the country’s tragic past, he told AFP. Cambodia’s memories are “not for sale”, he said. “We have the responsibility to ensure that Anlong Veng is a historical and responsible site to educate the public.” The Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese forces in 1979, though regime leaders and supporters continued to wage a low-level guerrilla war against the government. Anlong Veng, near the Thai border, was the Khmer Rouge’s last rebel centre before the movement disintegrated in the late 1990s. One of the best-preserved visitor sites in town is the lakeside home of late military commander Ta Mok, known as “The Butcher” for allegedly orchestrating brutal massacres that killed thousands, although locals remember him as a generous leader who
ANLONG VENG, Cambodia: This photo taken on May 13, 2012 shows a Cambodian family looking at Pol Pot’s grave in Oddar Mean Chey province, some 400 km northwest of Phnom Penh. — AFP
gave the town a road, a bridge, a hospital and a school. Ta Mok, who briefly led the Khmer Rouge in its final days, was the only rebel who refused to surrender or strike a deal with the government after Pol Pot’s death. He was arrested a year later and died in prison in 2006 awaiting trial. His airy house is little more than a shell today, its furniture looted long ago. But several walls are still adorned with colourful yet amateurish murals of temples and a map of Cambodia - symbols of Ta Mok’s patriotism, according to the site’s caretaker San Roeung, himself an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier. “A lot of people here liked Ta Mok. When the enemy came, he took people to safety,” said the 60-year-old, who helped
build the house as well as the two cages outside used to hold Ta Mok’s enemies. He added that he hoped an influx of visitors would improve living standards for locals, who could “grow mangoes or jackfruit to sell to tourists”. Few are more excited about the town’s tourism potential than Anlong Veng district deputy governor Nhem En - who was the chief photographer at Tuol Sleng, where he endlessly captured images of inmates awaiting certain death. A Khmer Rouge insider until he defected in the mid-1990s, Nhem En has built up a huge archive of photos, as well as a bizarre collection of keepsakes such as Pol Pot’s sandals, his uniform and his shattered toilet seat.
Now he is looking for a partner to help set up a private museum to display his treasures, he said, having apparently given up on the idea of selling key items in the hope of earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. “These items might not be worth much financially but, in historical terms, they’re invaluable,” he told AFP at his home, after showing some of his favourite possessions. “This camera, if I put it in a museum, I would call it the killing camera,” he said, as he held up a vintage Rolleicord, “because all of the people in Tuol Sleng who came before it died.” Nhem En insists he was not in a position to help any prisoners, all he could do was “follow orders” and “mind his own business”. Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch was in February sentenced to life in jail by Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court, the first person to face justice for horrors committed under the regime. The court is now trying the three most senior surviving Khmer Rouge members, but Nhem En has little interest in the proceedings, preferring to muse about Anlong Veng’s nascent tourism industry. The ancient temples of Angkor, which attract more than a million visitors a year, are a mere twohour drive away, and Nhem En believes that if a fraction of those visitors added Anlong Veng to their itinerary, his town, with its plentiful guesthouses and restaurants, would benefit considerably. “Anlong Veng will not go backwards,” he said, though he emphasised that his own collection of memorabilia is about more than just profiting from his time with the Khmer Rouge. “I’m doing this to make the world understand more about the Khmer Rouge regime,” he said. — AFP
Pollution protesters, police clash in China China cancels waste project after protests turn violent
BEIJING: A man lights candles yesterday near flowers placed under a railway bridge where a motorist drowned a week ago. — AP
Beijing victims remembered BEIJING: A small group of people laid down white chrysanthemums and lit candles yesterday in Beijing to honor those who died in the storm that ravaged Beijing one week ago, killing at least 77. The tribute took place under a railway bridge in central Beijing where a motorist drowned. Mourners also placed a plaque with the names of identified victims. The police peacefully dispersed the crowd after about 20 minutes, after it swelled with dozens of media members and blocked a lane on a major road. A 27-year-old man held up a sign calling for transparency and accountability from the government. He declined to give his name. “Yes, I am afraid,” the man said, when asked if he feared retribution for his public act. “But someone has to do it. I must have the conscience to act, and government officials should have a conscience.” Local resident Chen Qilin said he was there to remember the dead. He says the deaths “are related to the lack of action by the government.” The gathering was in response to an online call, and Guangqumen - the suggested location for the memorial was a banned search term on the popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo. Days after the storm, the city government updated the death toll to 77 from 37. Residents have questioned the delay, the quality of infrastructure in the fast-growing capital, and the government’s handling of the floods and rescue work. — AP
QIDONG, China: Thousands of people demonstrating over fears of pollution from a sewage pipeline at a paper factory in east China clashed with police yesterday, the latest in a series of environmental protests. The protestors overturned two cars and ransacked local government offices in the coastal city of Qidong, near Shanghai, an AFP photographer said. Demonstrators seized bottles of liquor and wine from the offices along with cartons of cigarettes, items which Chinese officials frequently receive as bribes, according to messages on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service. Thousands of people had gathered in a square in front of the government offices and in adjacent streets yesterday morning, with armed police arriving at the scene at 9:00 am, AFP witnessed. But the crowds dispersed after local authorities used television, radio, the Internet and text message to announce that the waste water pipeline project at the mill, which belongs to Japanese company Oji Paper, would be “permanently cancelled”. Oji Paper denied it was causing pollution and said closing the 110 km pipeline would not affect operations at the plant, located in Nantong, Jiji Press reported. “We don’t release ‘polluted water’ as we are currently releasing water after purification that meets the local environmental standards,” the news agency quoted a company public relations official as saying. Protests against environmental degradation have increased in China, where three decades of rapid and unfettered industrial expansion have taken their toll. The sewage pipe from the paper mill would have discharged into the sea in the port of Lusi, one of four fishing harbours in Qidong, one protestor, who for safety reasons only gave her name as Qin, told AFP. Discharges were set to climb to 150,000 tonnes of sewage a day
when the mill was fully operational, according to residents quoted Friday by the staterun Global Times newspaper. Qin said there had been about 50,000 demonstrators but that “almost everyone left after the government’s promise to stop the project”. A Nantong official, who gave his name as Chen, denied rumours that an 18-year-old man had been beaten to death by police. “It must be a rumour, if true we would know,” Chen told AFP by phone. A photograph posted on the Internet showed a man, identified online as Sun Jianhua, the party secretary of the city, protected by police. He had apparently been stripped to the waist by protesters. One microblogger using the name Qidong Longhuisheng estimated numbers at 100,000. “There are people everywhere, on walls, cars, rooftops, in streets,” said another Internet user writing under the name Jiaojiaotaotailang earlier in the day. “The air is filled with the smell of alcohol, and there are sounds of breaking glass.” Searches including “Qidong” were blocked yesterday on Sina Weibo, which has more than 250 million subscribers. The move to close the paper mill’s waste water pipeline comes after Chinese authorities this month scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion metals plant in the southwest province of Sichuan following violent protests by local residents concerned about the planned factory’s environmental impact. Similar incidents are reported regularly around China, many over environmental concerns that locals say are linked to corruption, but authorities typically quash the protests and push ahead with the projects. The Chinese government warned Friday that security would be tightened throughout the country ahead of a major Communist Party Congress this autumn, which should see a new generation of leaders take over the reins of power. — AFP
QIDONG, China: (Top) Local residents surround a vehicle after they overturned it as they gather to protest against plans for a water discharge project yesterday. (Above) Protesters beat a policeman during the protest. — AP/AFP
North Korea floods kill 88, leave thousands homeless
PYONGYANG: Fireworks are displayed on the banks of the Taedong River to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the ‘victory’ of the Korean War at the People’s Theatre on Friday. — AFP
SEOUL: Flooding across impoverished North Korea this month has killed 88 people, left tens of thousands homeless and devastated swathes of farmland, state media said yesterday. A week of floods “caused by typhoon and downpour... claimed big human and material losses”, Pyongyang’s official news agency said. The new death toll was a dramatic increase from the figure of eight reported Wednesday. A total of 134 people were injured and almost 63,000 people were left homeless by the floods, which started on July 18, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, with thousands of houses damaged or destroyed. The biggest loss of human life was in two counties of South Pyongan province, which were hit by torrential rains on Monday and Tuesday, it said. More than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land for growing crops was “washed away and buried” or “submerged”, KCNA said, a potential blow for a state that is beset by persistent severe food shortages. With rugged terrain and outmoded agricultural practices, the country faces serious difficulties in feeding its 24 million people. Hundreds of thousands died during a famine in the mid to late1990s. UN agencies, after a visit to the North, estimated last November that three million people would need food aid in 2012. Some 300 public buildings and 60 factories
were damaged in the floods, as well as large stretches of road, KCNA said. State media reported earlier this week that 60 flood victims were rescued thanks to a helicopter urgently sent by leader Kim Jong-Un. The victims, including children and women, were trapped Monday on a hillock in the northwest of the country after a river flooded due to heavy rain, the official news agency said. “Isolated incommunicado, they did not find a way out, in panic at rising water. At that time a helicopter appeared,” it said. “After receiving an urgent report, the dear respected Kim Jong-Un issued an emergency sortie order to a unit of the Air Force of the Korean People’s Army.” After decades of deforestation, the impoverished North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding. Dozens were killed or injured by a storm and torrential rain in the North in June and July last year. Thousands were also made homeless and large areas of farmland were flooded. The United States reached a deal on February 29 this year to offer North Korea badly needed food aid in return for a freeze on nuclear and missile tests. But it rescinded the plan after the North’s failed rocket launch in April, seen by the United States and its allies as an attempted ballistic missile test. The North has been developing nuclear weapons for decades and staged two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. — AFP
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
NEWS
LONDON: Kuwait’s flagbearer Fehaid Aldeehani (center) leads his delegation during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in London. — AFP (See Pages 17-20)
Victim’s plea to die exposes India’s acid violence Concentrated acids cheaply and easily available in India
Egypt president faces backlash from allies CAIRO: An alliance of pro-democracy advocates yesterday criticized Egypt’s new Islamist president for unilaterally choosing a prime minister with no track record, while leading without transparency and alienating political groups with liberal leanings. The National Front alliance - an umbrella group of democracy advocates, secularists and moderate Islamists behind the uprising that drove longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak from power last year said Mohammed Morsi has reneged on campaign promises to form a national unity government. On Tuesday, Morsi surprised the country by choosing an unknown technocrat and former water minister, Hesham Kandil, as his prime minister. Many advocates see Kandil, a US-educated engineer in his 40s, as a political lightweight. The new government faces a mounting crisis amid alarming lawlessness, a flagging economy, and public frustration. Hospitals have come under attack
by angry Egyptians, while demonstrators block roads in frustration over frequent power outages and a lack of running water. Labor strikes are widespread. Morsi picked Kandil a month after assuming his post as Egypt’s first elected civilian president. Observers say the delay reflected hesitation by Morsi and his group the Muslim Brotherhood to reach out to strong consensus figures. In a news conference, the Front said Morsi’s decision-making “lacks transparency and clarity,” creating “a clouded political scene.” They reminded the president of his debt to allies who supported him last month in the decisive round of voting, helping him beat old-guard rival Ahmed Shafiq. In return for the support, Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, had pledged inclusiveness. In a meeting with the Front last month, he said he would choose an independent, nationalist politician to be Egypt’s prime minister. — AP
NEW DELHI: They came in the dead of night, broke into her home as she slept and poured a cocktail of acids over her face-burning her skin, melting her eyelids, nose, mouth and ears, and leaving her partially deaf and almost blind. Her crime? She had spurned their sexual advances. Nine years on, Sonali Mukherjee, 27, is appealing to the Indian government for medical support for skin reconstructive surgery as well as tougher penalties on her three assailants, who were released on bail after only three years in prison. Either that, she says, or authorities should give her the right to kill herself. Euthanasia is illegal in India. “For the last nine years, I am suffering ... living without hope, without future. If I don’t have justice or my health, my only way out is to die,” she says, sitting on a bed in a sparsely furnished room above a Sikh temple in south Delhi. “I don’t want to live half a life, with half a face.” Sonali’s desperate plea highlights the heinous crime of throwing acid on women in India, the lack of support for victims, and lax laws which have allowed attackers to get away with what activists say is the equivalent of murder. Acid violence - where acid is intentionally thrown to maim, disfigure or blind - occurs in many countries across the world, and is most common in Cambodia, as well as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India where deeprooted patriarchy persists. Around 1,500 acid attacks are reported globally each year, with 80
140 dead as Syria troops launch Aleppo... Continued from Page 1 evidence, while a military helicopter clattered overhead in the distance. One man in his forties, carrying his family on a motorcycle, said he was fleeing the fighting in Aleppo and heading to the town of Azaz near the Turkish border. “We are living in a war zone,” he told Reuters. “I and my relatives are just going back and back and forth, trying to stay away from the fighting. We left Aleppo when we saw smoke and helicopters firing.” On the road south from the Turkish border to Aleppo rebel soldiers had set up checkpoints bearing the sign: “This is an FSA checkpoint. May God protect you.” The battle for the city of 2.5 million people is seen as a crucial test for a government that has committed major military resources to retaining control of its two main power centers, Aleppo and the capital Damascus. While neither side has managed to gain the upper hand, the outcome of the uprising is being watched anxiously in the region and beyond, amid fears that sectarian conflict could spread to neighboring countries. Military experts believe that while Assad’s more powerful military will overcome the rebels in Aleppo and other major cities, it risks loss of control in the countryside because the loyalty of large sections of the army is in doubt. “Assad’s forces are likely to achieve a tactical victory that will represent a setback to opposition forces and allows the regime to demonstrate its military dominance,” said analyst Ayham Kamel of the Eurasia Group, adding however that the rebels were getting stronger while the military was on the wane. Three rebel fighters were killed in clashes before dawn yesterday in Aleppo, the Observatory said. It said 160 people were reported killed in Syria on Friday, adding to an overall death toll of around 18,000 since the uprising began. Video footage provided by the Observatory showed smoke rising over apartment blocks in the city into a hazy sky yesterday. The sound of sporadic gunfire could be clearly heard. Fighting was reported in other towns across Syria: Deraaa, the cradle of the revolution, Homs, the scene of some of the bloodiest combat, and Hama, where a revolt against Assad’s father in the early 1980s was suppressed with thousands of deaths. At least 10 people were killed yesterday when Syrian security forces went into Maadameyat Al-Sham near Damascus, the Observatory said. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said late on Friday that international institutions needed to work together to address the military assault on Aleppo and Assad’s threat to use chemical weapons against external enemies. “There is a
build-up in Aleppo, and the recent statements with respect to the use of weapons of mass destruction are actions that we cannot remain an observer or spectator to,” he said at a news conference in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron. “Steps need to be taken jointly within the United Nations Security Council, the Organization of Islamic Countries, the Arab League, and we must work together to try to overcome the situation,” he said. Cameron said Britain and Turkey were concerned that Assad’s government was about to carry out some “some truly appalling acts around and in the city of Aleppo”. Russia said international support for Syrian rebels would lead to “more blood” and the government could not be expected to willingly give in to its opponents. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Assad, said Western and Arab nations should exert more influence on rebels to stop fighting. Russia also said it would not allow searches of Russian-flagged ships under new European Union sanctions governing vessels suspected of carrying weapons to Syria. UN rights chief Navi Pillay urged both Syrian government forces and rebels on Friday to spare civilians in Aleppo, voicing deep concern at the “likelihood of an imminent major confrontation” in the city reminiscent of other deadly assaults. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply concerned about reports that Syria could use chemical weapons and demanded that the government should state it would not use them “under any circumstances”. But the White House said such a promise from the Syrian president was “certainly not enough” given Assad had paid only lip service to a UN-backed peace plan. “Assad’s word is not worth very much,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “Any use of those weapons, any failure to safeguard those stockpiles would be a very serious transgression that would result in those responsible being held accountable.” In stating this week that it would not use chemical weapons against its own people, but might do so against external threats, Syria caused major international concern about its stockpiles of non-conventional weapons. The increase in fighting in Aleppo follows a bomb attack on July 18 that killed Assad’s defense minister and three other top officials in Damascus, a development that led some analysts to speculate that the government’s grip was slipping. Since then, Assad’s forces have mounted a strong counter-attack against rebels in Damascus as well as concentrating forces for an expected assault on Aleppo — Agencies
percent of them on women, says Londonbased charity, Acid Survivors Trust International, adding this is a gross under-estimate as most victims are scared to speak out. There is no official statistics for India, but a study conducted by Cornell University in January 2011 said there were 153 attacks reported in the media from 1999 to 2010. Many of these attacks, said the study, are acts of revenge because a woman spurns sexual advances or rejects a marriage proposal. “These men feel so insulted that a woman could turn them down and have an attitude of ‘If I can’t have you, no one can’,” says Sushma Kapoor, deputy director for UN Women in South Asia. ISOLATED AND DISFIGURED With a bright future ahead of her, Sonali was a 17-year-old sociology student in the city of Dhanbad in India’s central state of Jharkhand when the attack happened back in April 2003. The three men were her neighbors and harassed her as she left for college every morning. When she threatened to call the police, they took revenge, leaving her with 70 percent burns to her face, neck and arms. An Indian court handed down nine-year jail terms to each of her attackers. But within three years, the men were out on bail. Her appeal against their release has yielded little results, says Sonali, and she continues to worry about her safety. Unlike countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, where acid violence has in recent
years been listed as a specific offence, India still categorizes it as grievous hurt, dolling out penalties which are lenient and jail-terms which are bailable. “The actual attack is just the start of a life of suffering. Most are disfigured and blind. They face years of physical and mental pain and need rehabilitation,” says Sushma Varma, founder of the Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW), a Bangalore-based voluntary group. “In most cases there is no help, no support, no money.” With a rising number of reports of such attacks, the cabinet this month approved a proposal to make acid attacks a separate offence, making it punishable by 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to 10 lakh rupees ($180,000). This will now have to be approved by parliament. But victims and activists say the government must also look at regulating the sale of locally produced household cleaners, which contain highly concentrated acids, that are easily and cheaply available in local markets across the country. Acids are increasingly being used as weapons, like guns, they say, but there are no licensing laws for those who sell and purchase these deadly chemicals which also include neat hydrochloric and sulphuric acids. “You can buy highly concentrated chemicals like those used on me in most markets for less than 50 rupees a bottle,” says Sonali. “This is enough to ruin a woman’s life. They may not have killed me, but I might as well be dead.” — Reuters
Saudis hail women in Olympic parade Continued from Page 1 Not everyone in Saudi Arabia greeted the move as a step forward. People who opposed female participation in the Games started a Twitter hashtag saying “Stop women participation in the Olympics,” while others went even further with the hashtag “The prostitutes of the Olympics.” Yesterday’s Saudi newspapers did not report the landmark participation of women in the Olympics amid poor coverage of the opening ceremony, possibly due to the time difference with Britain. Princess Bassma bint Saud bin Abdul Aziz cheered the Saudi team, but also wondered: “I don’t understand how men walked in before women!” Some Tweeters posted a picture of Attar wear-
ing the traditional black abaya cloak and brandishing a Saudi flag during the parade. The country’s most senior sports official, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, had said that women would be allowed to compete so long as they were “wearing suitable clothing that complies with sharia.” He also added other stipulations, including that “the athlete’s guardian agrees and attends with her,” and that “there must also be no mixing with men during the Games.” However, men and women share the judo training venue, the warm-up area in the competition arena and also fight side-by-side on the various mat areas. On Thursday, the International Judo Federation banned Shaherkani from wearing the Islamic hijab headscarf during her bouts, triggering a complaint from the Saudi delegation. — AFP
Delegates fail to agree on arms-trade... Continued from Page 1 expressed disappointment the meetings were inconclusive but was encouraged UN members will continue pursuing “this noble goal.” “The conference’s inability to conclude its work on this much-awaited ATT, despite years of effort of member states and civil society from many countries, is a setback,” Ban said. “There is already considerable common ground and states can build on the hard work that has been done during these negotiations,” he added. It covered all conventional arms in the categories of battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small arms and light weapons. The treaty would only have come into effect after it was ratified by 65 countries. “Today was the day for political courage - not delays and dithering,” said Anna Macdonald, head of arms control at Oxfam. “Some 50,000 people lost their lives through armed violence during the course of these month-long negotiations. The out-of-control arms trade must - and will be stopped.” The negotiations on the treaty in New York were delayed for the first week by a dispute over Palestinian participation, which was eventually resolved by allowing the delegation to sit at the front of the
negotiating hall but without the right to participate as states with voting rights. Such procedural bickering was typical of the armstrade talks, diplomats say, as countries that would prefer not to have a strong treaty tried to prevent the negotiations from moving forward. In February, preparatory talks on the rules nearly collapsed due to procedural wrangling and other disagreements. One of the reasons this month’s negotiations are taking place is that the United States, the world’s biggest arms trader accounting for over 40 percent of global conventional arms transfers, reversed US policy on the issue after Barack Obama became president and decided in 2009 to support a treaty. But US officials say Washington insisted in February on having the ability to veto a weak treaty. It wanted to protect US domestic rights to bear arms - a sensitive issue in the United States that has been back in the national spotlight after a gunman opened fire in a movie theater a week ago, killing 12 people and wounding 58 other. A UN arms trade treaty would not “interfere with the domestic arms trade and the way a country regulates civilian possession,” the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs has said. The other five top arms suppliers are Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.— Reuters
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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
opinion
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Issues
US dilemma in South China Sea response By Matthew Pennington hina has heightened tensions in the South China Sea with its new, remote island city and planned military garrison in a contested area viewed as a potential flashpoint for conflict in the Asia-Pacific. How might the United States respond? Criticize Beijing too strongly and the Obama administration will strain its relationship with the emerging superpower. Let it pass and undermine two years of intense diplomacy that has promoted the US standing among Southeast Asian nations that are intimidated by China’s rise. A key plank of the administration’s engagement in the Asia-Pacific since 2010 has been its declaration of a US national interest in the maintenance of peace and stability in the South China Sea, where China and five of its neighbors most notably the Philippines and Vietnam - have competing territorial claims. But tensions have only escalated. China’s raising of the flag this week at Sansha municipality, on tiny Yongxing island, 220 miles from its southernmost province of Hainan, come as claimants jockey for influence in the resource-rich region. China will not be able to project much military power from such a small outpost - with a population of just 1,000 people and scarcely room for an airstrip - but it has symbolic importance. Beijing says the municipality will administer hundreds of thousands of square miles of water where it wants to strengthen its control over disputed - and potentially oilrich - islands. In Washington, lawmakers interested in Asia policy have been quick to respond. Republican Sen. John McCain called the move provocative and reinforced worries that China would attempt to impose its territorial claims through intimidation and coercion. Democratic Sen. Jim Webb said China’s attempt to assert control of disputed territories may be a violation of international law. While the State Department was careful in its reaction, it also criticized China’s “unilateral moves.” “I think there is a concern here, that they are beginning to take actions when we want to see all of these issues resolved at the table,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday. President Barack Obama will not want to appear soft on China as he fights for re-election against Republican contender Mitt Romney, who has accused the incumbent of being weak on Beijing and has vowed to get tough, in particular, on China’s trading practices. However, the United States walks a fine line in its diplomacy on the South China Sea, always stressing it does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims. Defining it as a US national interest in 2010 helped galvanize Washington’s standing in the region and revive its ties with treaty ally Manila and build a relationship with former enemy Hanoi. As part of its broader push, or “pivot,” toward Asia, the US elevated its engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and strongly supports the 10-nation bloc’s efforts to negotiate collectively with China on the issue and draft a code of conduct to help manage South China Sea disputes. That’s annoyed China, which claims virtually the entire South China Sea and its island groups and would prefer to negotiate with the other claimants individually. Beijing also views US intervention on the issue as encouraging Vietnam and the Philippines to be more confrontational in asserting their own claims. When Chinese fishing boats were stopped by the Philippine vessels at the disputed Scarborough Shoal in April, inside what Manila regards as its exclusive economic zone, it deployed a navy ship - supplied by the US the previous year - prompting China to send more vessels of its own, escalating a standoff that rumbles on. And the establishment of Sansha municipality in another portion of the South China Sea follows Vietnam’s passing a law in June stating its jurisdiction over the Paracel and Spratly Island chains and declaring that all foreign naval ships entering these areas must notify Vietnamese authorities. The chance of such disputes spiraling into a major conflict still appears slim, but the stakes could rise in the years ahead as competition intensifies for the oil and gas resources in the South China Sea. China recently put out for tender exploration offshore blocks that overlap with areas already tendered by Vietnam, and Philippine drilling plans could also put it on collision course with China. The US strategy for managing and eventually resolving these disputes largely hangs on the efforts of ASEAN. — AP
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Fight over Islam, money, power brings violence to Volga By Thomas Grove ot far from glitzy boulevards where an oil boom has sent up stadiums and high-rises overlooking the Volga River, women in headscarves wander through Islamic bookstores selling pamphlets on the institution of sharia in Russia. Kazan, capital of Russia’s mainly-Muslim Tatarstan region, has long had an image as a showcase of religious tolerance. But that reputation was shattered last week by car bomb and shooting attacks carried out only hours before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. On the wall outside the bookshop, a flyer in the local Tatar language calls Muslims to unite against the region’s top religious leader, Mufti Ildus Faizov, who was wounded in the attacks which also killed his deputy. “Things will only get worse here and Muslims will be the ones who suffer the most,” said Anisa Karabayeva, 43, her face framed by a white hijab, or traditional headscarf. “Will there be more bombs? Probably,” she says flatly, standing in front of a display case stocked with Korans and prayer rugs. The attacks came against a background of anger among many Muslims who complain that the authorities in Tatarstan are restricting Islam in the name of fighting radicalism. It is a dispute that also involves a struggle for money and influence in the increasingly prosperous oil-producing region. President Vladimir Putin, who started a new six-year term in May, has repeatedly called for national unity and religious concord in a predominantly Orthodox Christian nation with deep-rooted ethnic minorities, many of them Muslim. For decades, Russia has endured violence in mostly Muslim provinces in the North Caucasus on its southern fringe, where tens of thousands of people were killed in two separatist wars in Chechnya after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and insurgents are still fighting to set up an Islamic state. But booming Tatarstan - 2000 km away from the war zones - had largely avoided unrest until now. Moderate Muslims in Tatarstan blame the violence on the arrival of radical groups, such as followers of Sunni Islam’s strict Salafi movement and the outlawed organization Hizb utTahrir which seeks an Islamic caliphate. Last week’s attack resembles strikes against moderate muftis in places like the Caucasus region of Dagestan next door to Chechnya. Kazan is now on increased alert for more attacks. Outside of mosques, police rifle through the belongings and bags of the faithful, who line up in front of metal detectors. “Today Islam is growing strongly in Kazan... But there are different sects and movements that you simply cannot control,” said Ramil Mingarayev, an imam at the al Marjani Mosque. “We try to fight radicals, we have tried to clean our city of them, but there are hidden mosques, where they gather and distribute forbidden literature, in basements and in the forests.” Some of those fears arise from threats made by North Caucasus militants far away. Russia’s most wanted man, Chechen Islamist guerrilla leader Doku Umarov, called for an uprising among Russia’s Muslims last year, mentioning Tatarstan by name. “I want to appeal to the Muslim brothers who live on Russian-occupied Muslim land... I call on you to destroy the enemies of Allah wherever you are. I call on you to destroy them where your hand reaches and to open fronts of jihad,” he said in a video posted on insurgency-affiliated website Kavkaz Centre.
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SELLING TOURS Since becoming head of the Tatarstan branch of the Russian state’s Spiritual Directorate of Muslims in April last year, Faizov has been praised by Kremlin authori-
ties for what they say are measures to clamp down on radical sentiment and encourage traditional forms of Islamic practice seen as more moderate. Religion is also a big business, which has made him enemies. Four months ago Faizov gave nearexclusive rights in Tatarstan to sell tours to Makkah for the annual haj pilgrimage to Tatar Business World, a company his office’s web site says it controls. Many Muslims complained that the price went up. Rustem Gataullin, the chairman of the company that previously had rights to sell pilgrimage tours, was one of between 40 and 100 people who were detained in relation to last week’s attacks, according to Interfax. “He had his enemies,” said Gabid Hayruddinov, 73, who reads prayers for the Muslim faithful who come to him in search of help in the city’s main mosque of Kul Sharif. “He promised to make the haj tours cheaper, but instead they became even more expensive: they went from 120,000 to 150,000 roubles ($4,600),” he said, his light blue eyes set deep against his dark wizened skin. Small protests against Faizov had bubbled throughout the year in Kazan, culminating with an open letter to him published in Russian and Tatar in various newspapers and on the Internet, calling for the price of haj tours to be cut. Faizov was unavailable to talk when Reuters called his office. His deputy was likewise unavailable as was another imam with strong ties to the directorate. A MORE JUST SOCIETY Beneath the 18th century Al Marjani mosque a dark tunnel leads from the room for prayer to the Islamic school across the street. Five times a day the dozens of students make their way through the stone entrance, perform ablutions, pray and return. For those who experience Russia’s failing social welfare programs and chroni-
cally corrupt court system and police force, stricter versions of Islam hold out the hope for a more just society. “It’s good we have the authorities - without them there would be chaos,” said Zakhid Anovarov, a burly 20year-old student with a thin black beard. “But it’s not a just system, because it’s a man-made system. If we were governed by shariah, then life would be better, more just,” he said of the Islamic law code. Many of the students are migrants from elsewhere in Russia or other former Soviet states to Kazan, where construction money has created new jobs, including sprucing up the city to hold the World University Games next year. Zarifa Kamilova came to Kazan in 2004 to escape the aftermath of the second Chechen War in her hometown of Grozny, where federal forces had toppled a separatist government. Like other Chechens in Kazan, she was drawn to its Muslim majority and the possibility to find work. But she says she fears pressure by the authorities will marginalize Muslims, leading more and more of them to radicalism. “I have already taken five books off my shelves this year because they were considered too radical,” she said, referring to an ever-expanding list of literature outlawed by Russia’s Justice Ministry. She and other Muslims say they have felt increasing pressure since Faizov assumed his post. “This alone is turning normal people into radicals. It’s not that more people are becoming radical it’s that their definition is encompassing more and more people,” she said. She says she fears a government crackdown on Muslims that will ban more religious literature she would otherwise sell in her store, where everything from electronic Korans to prayer rugs to Chinesemade clocks with prayers on them is on offer. Referring to previous crackdowns on illegal groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, which thrives in Central Asia and has been
brought to Russia by immigrants, she says she has never faced arrest. But: “I have learned one thing, never think it can’t happen to you”. Muslims in Kazan say Faizov also launched a bid to take over leadership at the Kul Sharif Mosque, a visual symbol of the renaissance of Islam in Kazan. Completed in 2005, it sits on the site of a medieval mosque destroyed in the 16th century by Ivan the Terrible, who conquered the Kazan Khanate, a Tatar state ruled by descendents of Genghis Khan. TAKEN IN THE NIGHT In his battle with radical Islam, perhaps none of Faizov’s efforts were as divisive as his demand that imams of all mosques undergo a course in traditional Hanafi Islam, the movement traditionally associated with Tatarstan. In December, angry Muslims stormed the main mosque in the town of Almetevsk, 270 km and for hours refused to let local religious authorities enter. The confrontation was eventually defused by Faizov, but resentment still burns. Near Almetevsk, in the village of Novoye Nadyrovo where roosters and chickens wander freely along gravel paths, authorities removed the local imam, Ilnar Kharisov, from his post a few months ago. Friends say he was detained on Friday night, the day after the explosions in Kazan. Kharisov, a young scholar who had studied abroad and taken the name Abdulmalik, still has a religious following in the village and his sacking as imam split the community. Neighbours say a former communist functionary has been placed in charge of the village mosque. They speak darkly of Kharisov’s arrest. “They’ve taken all the good imams away and they ’ve replaced them with clowns in their places, and they protect them there with police. People are very unhappy here,” said a neighbor of Kharisov who gave his name only as Ramil. — Reuters
Trial shows China eager to draw line under scandal By Claire Cozens hina’s decision to try fallen politician Bo Xilai’s wife for murder underscores Communist leaders’ determination to draw a line under a scandal that has engulfed the par ty ahead of a power handover, analysts say. China announced Thursday that Bo’s wife Gu Kailai and an aide to the couple had been charged with poisoning British businessman Neil Heywood, who was found dead in a hotel room in the southwestern city of Chongqing last November. It was the latest development in a sensational case that has brought down one of the country’s most high-profile political leaders and exposed deep divisions in the ruling Communist party ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership handover. Bo, the son of a revered Communist revolutionary, won national fame with a draconian crackdown on criminal elements in Chongqing and a “red revival” campaign marked by the mass singing of old Maoist-era songs. The rapid unravelling of his fortunes earlier this year exposed a harsh factional reaction against the charismatic Chongqing party secretary, who had ambitions to join the elite nine -member group that effectively rules China. Analysts said Thursday’s announcement indicated that senior Communist chiefs, keen to settle the Bo affair before a new generation takes the reins of power later this year, had reached broad agreement on his fate. “There won’t be any more surprises. They are trying to shift the focus to Gu Kailai, so it is quite possible that Bo Xilai will not be treated harshly,” said Willy Lam, a China expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This could be out of necessity for party unity, for the sake of harmony before the party Congress.” Several academics said the announcement indicated that Bo, who is being investigated by the party for “violating party discipline”-usually code for corruption-would be spared criminal charges. This was likely the result of a deal between competing factions within the party ahead of the upcoming Congress, when China’s most senior officials will relinquish
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their party positions to a new generation of leaders, they said. “With these cases being dealt with at this time, I expect there to be smooth sailing to the 18th Party Congress,” said Boston University international relations expert Joseph Fewsmith. “There may be some bargaining to go, but most of it has been done.” Joseph Cheng, political analyst with Hong Kong City University, said the Party’s determination to present a united front before the handover meant Gu’s trial would “demonstrate that the case has nothing to do with Bo Xilai”. “I think the political considerations are more important to the authorities than ensuring a fair trial,” he added. Thursday ’s announcement on state news agency Xinhua said there was “irrefutable and substantial” evidence that Gu had poisoned Heywood after he threatened her son following a row over “economic interests”. The British businessman reportedly had commercial dealings with Bo and his wife going back several years. China’s state-run media have positioned Bo’s downfall and Gu’s trial as evidence that no leader is above punishment for misdeeds, in a country where official corruption remains a major source of public discontent. An editorial in both the English and Chinese-language editions of the state-run Global Times daily on Friday said the trial would test “whether the principle that everybody is equal before the law truly stands”. Beijing is also under pressure from London to ensure that justice is done following the murder of a British national. But analysts said the wording of the Xinhua announcement indicated that Gu was certain to be found guilty. If convicted of murder she faces the death penalty, although this is often commuted in the case of high-profile defendants. It is not yet clear when the trial, to be held in the eastern city of Hefei, will take place, but experts, including City University’s Cheng, said it would likely be next month. “The leadership wants to have the issue settled publicly in response to domestic and internal pressure before the Congress,” he said.— AFP
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
sp orts
Lewis and Park share lead at Evian Masters FRANCE: American Stacy Lewis rescued her day with a birdie on the last hole to share a one-shot lead with South Korea’s Inbee Park after the third round of the Evian Masters yesterday. Lewis, who is chasing her third US LPGA Tour title of the year, posted a 1-over 73 to finish the day at 11-under. The overnight leader had a nightmare run on the back nine with two bogeys and a double bogey before sinking a much-needed birdie on the 18th. “I feel like I’m still in the tournament, and just got to make some putts tomorrow,” said Lewis, who equaled the course record with a 9-under 63 in her opening round on Thursday. “I shot 63 the first day, so I know I can play good out here. I’m not too worried about it.” Park, who was three shots behind Lewis in third place overnight, had four birdies and two bogeys for a patchy 2-under 70. Sitting just behind Lewis and Park on the leaderboard are a trio of players, including 17-year-old amateur player Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea. After making a birdie on 11, Lewis teed off into the rough on the next hole and could only make bogey.
“I was staying pretty patient, but then kind of struggled in the middle and left a few out there,” she said. Things got worse, with
being wet from the rain obviously affected that shot.” That setback made her even more relieved to get that crucial
FRANCE: Natalie Gulbis of USA reacts on the 18th hole during the third round of the Evian Masters womenís golf tournament. —AP another bogey on hole 14 and then a double bogey on the next hole pushing her out to 2-over on the day. “I think I was trying to be a little too cute with my third shot and just really hit a bad shot,” Lewis said about her double bogey. “The first chip actually had a pretty good lie, but just the grass
birdie on 18. “I knew I needed to make birdie to get in the last group,” Lewis said. “It’s also nice just to see a putt go in.” Former champions Karrie Webb of Australia and Natalie Gulbis of the United States are tied with Kim at 10-under. “Amazingly it was my best round of the week, but prob-
ably not my best ball-striking day,” said Webb, the 2006 Evian winner, after making six birdies in her 5under 67. “Today I made a couple of nice long ones.” Gulbis, the 2007 champion, finished with a 68. “The change in my round (was) that I eagled (hole) nine,” Gulbis said. “So that definitely turned my round in the right direction.” Both under threat from Kim, who celebrated her 17th birthday earlier this month. She hit a 3-under 69 after posting 69 and 68 on Thursday and Friday. There seems more to come from the teenager, who qualified through the Rolex rankings. Kim has won two pro tournaments this year, the Lotte Mart on the Korean KLPGA circuit and the Suntory Ladies on the Japanese JLPGA. She became the youngest ever winner on the JLPGA when she won the Suntory title, and won the Lotte Mart by a massive nineshot margin. “A lot of Korean media are talking about her,” Park said. “But I’ve never played with her before, so I don’t know what her game is like.” Drizzle persisted throughout the morning, followed by a heavy downpour at lunchtime. — AP
Piercy leads Canadian Open CANADA: Americans Scott Piercy and William McGirt held a one-shot lead after Friday’s second round of the Canadian Open while Ernie Els missed the cut five days after winning the British Open. Piercy, who shot a course-record 62 in the opening round at the Hamilton Golf and Countr y Club, returned a three-under-par 67 for an 11-under 129 while McGirt joined the overnight leader with a fourunder 66. The duo were one shot clear of American Robert Garrigus (66), who is alone in third at 130 while compatriot Bo Van Pelt (66) was a further shot back. “”It’s kind of a boring 67 to be honest,” said Piercy. “There was not a lot of excitement like yesterday. I made a putt or two for birdie, made a couple of nice par saves. “”I wasn’t really in a whole lot of trouble most of the day and it was solid overall.” Former world number one and 2004 Canadian Open champion Vijay Singh, who started on the back nine, bogeyed two of his first four holes and made five consecutive birdies from the par-four third, his 12th, for a three-under 67 that left him three shots back of the leaders.
South African Tim Clark (62), who equalled the course record set by Piercy on Thursday, and American Josh Teater (65) were tied with Singh in fifth place. Clark, who started the day eight shots off the pace, was flawless as he carded six birdies and holed out for an eagle on the par-four second. Piercy looked set to go low again when he claimed back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth holes but a bogey on the eighth and some regulation pars kept him in check. McGirt was also on track to attack the new record when he was four under through eight holes but managed just one more birdie in his last 10 and also picked up a bogey. Els, fresh off his British Open triumph on Sunday, offset four bogeys with four birdies for an even-par 70 but his two-day 142 total left him three shots outside the cut. Two-time Canadian Open winner Jim Furyk (70) and defending champion Sean O’Hair (72) also missed the cut. David Hearn, hoping to become the first homegrown tournament winner since 1954, was the top Canadian in the field at 136, seven shots adrift. He was just one of five Canadians to make the cut. —Reuters
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
sp orts
Shevchenko leaves soccer for politics KIEV: Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko has quit football to begin a career in politics, he said in a statement from his club Dynamo Kiev late on Friday. “Perhaps, I will shock everyone: my future has nothing to do with soccer” Shevchenko was quoted as saying in the statement. “...It is related to politics.” The 35-year-old former AC Milan and Chelsea forward ended his international career when Ukraine failed to progress from the group stage at June’s Euro 2012, which they co-hosted with Poland. Shevchenko did not say if he planned to join one of Ukraine’s existing political parties or create his own ahead of October’s parliamentary election. He promised to announce the details on Saturday. Another famous Ukrainian athlete, heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, already runs a political party called Udar (Strike). Shevchenko started his career in Dynamo and then moved to Milan, becoming one of the most famous Ukrainian players. His following stint with Chelsea was less successful and since 2009 Shevchenko has been playing for Dynamo again. — Reuters
Torres confident he can fill Drogba’s boots at Chelsea LONDON: Spain striker Fernando Torres is certain he can fill Didier Drogba’s shoes for Chelsea following the Ivory Coast international’s transfer to Shanghai Shenhua. Drogba joined the Chinese club last month after plundering 157 goals in eight years at Stamford Bridge, including a late equaliser and the winning penalty in a shootout against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final on May 19. Torres, who has had his share of ups and downs since leaving Liverpool for a British record fee of 50 million pounds ($78.57 million) in Jan. 2011, said he was looking forward to taking on the pressure of leading the line for the European champions. “I like the responsibility and it’s a thing I’ve been doing all my life,” the 28-year-old told the club’s website (www.chelseafc.com) on Saturday. “Didier did everything for this club, scoring the winning goal in the Champions League was an inspiration for us,” added Torres, who was on target in Spain’s 4-0 victory over Italy in the final of Euro 2012 at the start of this month. “Our relationship was great and I was talking to him when he decided to leave. He wished me all the best and hopefully one day, Chelsea fans will remember me as they are going to remember him.” Chelsea play their first game of the Premier League season at Wigan Athletic on Aug. 19. —Reuters
Harding joins Notts Forest LONDON: Southampton defender Dan Harding yesterday became the fourth signing in a week as Championship side Nottingham Forest continued to build for the new season. The 28-year-old left-back signed a three-year deal and joins Adlene Guedioura, Danny Collins and Greg Halford, who all completed moves this week. “It’s brilliant, I’m really pleased,” Harding told the club’s official website. “I spoke to the gaffer Sean O’Driscoll and liked what he had to say. I’m really excited.” Harding made 25 appearances for Southampton last season as they secured promotion to the Premier League. Kuwaiti-based Forest chairman Omar Al Hasawi said: “We’re delighted with the way things are taking shape. “Like Adlene, Danny and Greg, Dan is an experienced performer and knows what it takes to gain promotion from the Championship.” Fawaz Al Hasawi, a member of one of Kuwait’s richest families, bought Forest, now in English football’s second-tier Championship, with the assistance of his brothers earlier this month. The new owners immediately replaced sacked manager Steve Cotterill with former first team coach O’Driscoll. —AFP
Hamilton on pole at Hungarian GP
SAN FRANCISCO: Giants’ Brandon Belt hits a two-run single against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the eighth inning. — AP
Dodgers down Giants in NL SAN FRANCISCO: Los Angeles newcomer Hanley Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-3 win over the San Francisco Giants on Friday in a match of the top two teams in the National League West. Two days after being acquired from Miami in a trade meant to boost the Dodgers’ offense and playoff hopes, the slugging infielder went hitless in his first four at-bats against the Giants before the decisive homer off reliever Sergio Romo (3-2). Ramirez’s 15th home run extended a stellar start to his Los Angeles career. He had three hits in the first two games with his new club and is batting .364 since the trade, helping the Dodgers move within two games of the Giants. Los Angeles’ Shawn Tolleson (1-0) pitched one inning for his first win in the majors. Brewers 6, Nationals 0 Milwaukee’s Corey Hart and Aramis Ramirez homered to help the Brewers snap a seven-game losing skid with a 6-0 win over the Washingto Nationals in the National League on Friday. Hours after trading ace Zack Greinke to the Los Angeles Angels for rookie shortstop Jean Segura and two minor-league pitchers, the Brewers ended Washington’s six-game winning streak. Milwaukee starter Mike Fiers (4-4) has been one of Milwaukee’s most consistent pitchers in recent weeks. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and retired 14 of his first 17 batters. Washington’s Ross Detwiler (5-4) lasted 4 2-3 innings for the Nationals, giving up four runs. Braves 6, Phillies 1 In Atlanta, Brian McCann hit a three-run homer in Atlanta’s win over Philadelphia. McCann’s shot came off Cole Hamels (11-5), who was making his first start since signing a six-year, $144 million contract on Wednesday. The Phillies star set a career worst with six walks in his shortest start of the season. He allowed five runs in five innings. The loss ended Philadelphia’s four-game winning streak and cost the Phillies a chance to move out of last place in the NL East. Atlanta’s Ben Sheets (3-0) won his third straight start in his comeback from a longterm arm injury, allowing one run and one walk in six innings. D’backs 11, Mets 5 In Phoenix, Josh Collmenter pitched six innings and drove in a run during Arizona’s six-run second as the Diamondbacks beat reeling New York. Collmenter (3-2), who allowed seven hits with five strikeouts, got stronger as the game
continued. He retired his final seven batters. Willie Bloomquist had two RBI singles for the Diamondbacks, who have won six of seven. Mets starter Jonathon Niese (7-5) allowed eight runs as New York slumped to its 13th loss in 15 games. Reds 3, Rockies 0 In Denver, Bronson Arroyo pitched effectively into the seventh inning, guiding Cincinnati past Colorado. Arroyo (6-6) retired his first 11 batters before Gonzalez singled with two outs in the fourth. Ryan Ludwick scored twice for the Reds, who have won 12 of 14 since the All-Star break and tied Washington for the best record in the National League. Rockies starter Drew Pomeranz (1-6) took the loss after giving up three runs in 5 1-3 innings. Cardinals 9, Cubs 6 In Chicago, Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina and Lance Berkman were part of St. Louis’ power show as the Cardinals became the first team in eight years to hit a home run in each of the first five innings and went on to beat Chicago. Matt Carpenter and Allen Craig also connected off Travis Wood (4-6), whose five homers allowed matched the Cubs record. The previous team to homer in each of the first five innings was Houston against Colorado on Oct. 2, 2004, according to STATS LLC. St. Louis starter Lance Lynn (13-4) allowed six runs in five innings as the Cardinals won for the seventh time in eight games. Pirates 6, Astros 5 In Houston, Drew Sutton scored on a wild pitch in the ninth inning to propel Pittsburgh over hapless Houston. The Astros (34-67), who own baseball’s worst record, tied the club mark with their 11th straight loss - matching a run in 1995. Houston led 5-4 entering the ninth inning before rookie Starling Marte’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly tied it. It was the third time in four games that Houston has lost after entering the ninth with a lead. Pirates relieverTony Watson (5-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win, and Joel Hanrahan earned the save. Rhiner Cruz (1-1) came in for Houston with one out in the ninth inning and took the loss. Padres 7, Marlins 2 In Miami, Yasmani Grandal and Yonder Alonso powered San Diego over Miami. Grandal hit a bases-clearing triple, and Alonso drove in two runs to back the pitching of Kip Wells (2-3). Marlins starter Carlos Zambrano (5-9) allowed five runs in five innings as slumping Miami lost for the eighth time in nine games. San Diego scored five runs in the sixth to turn the game around. — AP
BUDAPEST: Lewis Hamilton of McLaren will start from pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix after winning yesterday’s qualifying session ahead of Romain Grosjean and world champion Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton clocked 1 minute 20.953 seconds to put .413 seconds between himself and Lotus driver Grosjean, who achieved his first front-row start of the season for today’s race. Red Bull’s Vettel finished in 1:21.416, just ahead of Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button. “It’s been a really positive weekend so far,” said Hamilton, who was fastest in Friday’s two practice sessions and second behind Mark Webber of Red Bull in yesterday’s morning practice. “Still, we have a very long race tomorrow so lots can happen, but we just need to keep our cool.” It was the third pole of the season and third pole at the Hungaroring, too, for Hamilton, who has one victory in 2012 and is fifth in the standings. “It’s the same as everyone else when they win races,” Hamilton said when asked about the secrets to his success in Hungary. “You just have to keep your head cool and make sure you look after your tires. Tire strategy is going to be important.” It was the 150th pole position for McLaren, which contested its first Formula One race in 1966. The team has dominated at the Hungaroring in recent years, winning five of the last seven events. Hamilton triumphed here in 2007 and 2009, while Button - who won his first race here in 2005 while racing for Honda - is the defending champion on the famously winding Hungarian circuit, where passing is difficult. World championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was sixth, behind Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen. “We were expecting a very difficult qualifying and so it was,” said Alonso, winner of two of the last three races. “All things considered,
HUNGARY: British McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton celebrates after winning the qualifying at the Hungaroring circuit outside Budapest. — AP
sixth place is not to be sneered at, far from it. It’s true that overtaking is not easy here, but tomorrow it might rain and we know that can change everything.” Rounding out the top ten on the starting grid were Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, the Williams duo of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna, and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India. Alonso has 154 points after 10 of 20 races, 34 ahead of Webber, who will start from 11th place. Vettel is 44 points behind the Ferrari driver. Grosjean, a Formula One newcomer, was thrilled about beating Vettel for second place on the grid just as the checkered flag came down to mark the end of qualifying. “Being here on the front row is something special ... we know overtaking is very difficult,” Grosjean said. “‘We’ll need to start from
the front,’ we’ve said that for a long time, so first job done.” Vettel, the two-time defending champion, was confident about achieving a good result on Sunday. “With the progress we made since this morning and through qualifying, I think we should be in a good position tomorrow for the race,” Vettel said. “The car is quick and sometimes really quick but it’s a bit difficult to get it out of the car all the time.” Michael Schumacher, a four-time winner in Hungary, had a disappointing run in his Mercedes and will start from 17th place, his second-worst qualifying spot so far this season. Today’s race at the Hungaroring leads into a month long summer break before the Belgian Grand Prix on Sept. 2. —AP
White Sox beat Rangers ARLINGTON: Chicago’s Alejandro De Aza hit a two-run single before leaving the game after an outfield collision, as the White Sox beat the Texas Rangers 9-5 on Friday in a series opener between American League division leaders. Chicago’s Chris Sale (12-3) gave up four runs in the first inning before settling, giving up only one more as he pitched into the seventh, striking out six. The White Sox got homers from Kevin Youkilis and Alexei Ramirez in their fourth straight victory. Texas starter Yu Darvish (117) gave up six runs in 6 1-3 innings. Yankees 10, Red Sox 3 In New York, Curtis Granderson capped the scoring with an eighth-inning grand slam as New York beat Boston in Ichiro Suzuki’s Yankees home debut. Raul Ibanez and Russell Martin hit tworun homers. Martin’s two-run shot off Aaron Cook (2-4) scored Suzuki who went 1-for-4 with a single. New York starter Phil Hughes (10-8) gave up three solo homers but little else in seven innings to help the Yankees beat Boston for the sixth time in seven games this year New York’s best start to a season against their arch rival since 1994. Athletics 14, Orioles 9 In Baltimore, Jemile Weeks hit an RBI single to give Oakland the lead during a six-run ninth inning that lif ted Oak land over
Baltimore. The Athletics led 5-0 in the second inning and 8-6 in the eighth, yet fell behind on each occasion before rallying in a see-sawing contest that featured 31 hits and lasted four hours. After Baltimore scored three runs in the eighth to go up 9-8, Oak land pounded Orioles closer Jim Johnson (1-1) in the ninth. It was the first time Baltimore had lost a game this season when leading after eight innings, having won the previous 41. A’s reliever Jerry Blevins (4-0) was given credit for the win by the official scorer because Oakland closer Ryan Cook was ineffective in the eighth. Angels 3, Rays 1 In Anaheim, California, Albert Pujols had three hits, including a two-run double, as Los Angeles beat Tampa Bay for the first time in seven attempts. Angels starter Dan Haren (8-8) won his second straight start since coming off the disabled list, allowing five hits in six-plus innings and striking out six. His strong performance came just hours after the Angels solidified their rotation with the acquisition of 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke from Milwaukee. Rays starter Alex Cobb (4-8) gave up eight hits in seven innings. Blue Jays 8, Tigers 3 In Toronto, Carlos Villanueva won his
fourth straight start, guiding Toronto past Detroit. Villanueva (6-0) yielded two homers in a three-pitch span in the first inning, but didn’t give up any other runs. Unbeaten in five starts after 22 relief appearances, he allowed four hits in five innings. Travis Snider hit a two-run home run for the Blue Jays. Detroit’s Rick Porcello (7-6) allowed five runs in six innings. Twins 11, Indians 0 In Minneapolis, Scott Diamond notched the first shutout of his career as Minnesota routed Cleveland. Diamond (9-4) was perfect through 4 2-3 innings before giving up two singles. He allowed just one baserunner the rest of the way, striking out six. Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham hit three-run homers for the Twins, who rebounded from being swept by the White Sox. Twins starter Josh Tomlin (5-8) allowed a career-worst eight runs in four innings. Mariners 6, Royals 1 In Seattle, John Jaso drove in four runs to power Seattle past Kansas City. Mariners starter Blake Beavan (6-6) pitched 6 2-3 innings, allowing one walk and a run. He is 3-0 since being recalled from the minors earlier this month. Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie (0-2) remained winless with Kansas City and is 311 this season between Colorado and the Royals. He threw 5 2-3 innings, allowing six runs.— AP
India defeat Sri Lanka in third ODI
COLOMBO: India’s batsman Gautam Gambhir celebrates after scoring a century during the third one -day international cricket match against Sri Lanka. — AP
COLOMBO: India defeated Sri Lanka by five wickets in the third one-day international in Colombo yesterday to gain a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Opener Gautam Gambhir scored an impressive 102 and Suresh Raina a brisk 65 not out as India achieved a 287-run target with two balls to spare in the day-night match. Paceman Lasith Malinga took two wickets for Sri Lanka. Kumar Sangakkara (73), Angelo Mathews (71 not out) and skipper Mahela Jayawardene (65) were the main scorers for Sri Lanka, while fast bowler Zaheer Khan bagged two wickets for India. Brief scores: Sri Lanka 286-5 in 50 overs; India 288-5 in 49.4 overs KUWAIT: Al-Qadisiya team and the Late Sameer Seaed team qualified to the second round of the Late Abdullah Musharie Al-Roudan Indoor football championship. Both teams defeated their opponents Hassan Optics and UAE Al-Wasl team, while the team of Sheikh Talab AlMohammad were close to qualification after defeating Manchester team 10-0.
17 SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
IOC warning as Games hit by first dope case LONDON: Olympic athletes using drugs were warned “we are going to catch you” yesterday after the London Games were hit by their first doping case on the opening day of full competition. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the case of Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku, who tested positive for a banned steroid in London this week, showed drug cheats will be found out. “Of course, it is always a sad day when a cheating athlete is caught. We hope
there will be no more, but the message is very clear: if you are doping we are going to catch you,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “There are going to be 5,000 tests during these Games and all the medallists will be questioned and no one can think that they can get away. It’s disappointing.” More than a dozen other athletes have already been expelled for precompetition doping offences, but Pulaku, 19, is the first to fail a test since arriving for the Games.
The 77kg contender tested positive for stanozolol in London on July 23, becoming the 10th weightlifter caught doping at an Olympics since 2000. Two Turkish weightlifters have also been kicked out of the London Games over pre-competition tests. European silver-medallist Fatih Baydar and Ibrahim Arat were expelled from Turkey’s squad after failing dope tests on July 7. Among the other pre-Games doping casualties were Morocco’s Mariem
Alaoui Selsouli, one of the favourites for the Olympic women’s athletics 1500m gold medal, who failed a test for a banned diuretic. World anti-doping chiefs have unveiled a new test for human growth hormone, with a detection window of weeks rather than hours, which they hope will snare drug cheats at the Games. A total of 15 athletes were caught doping at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the most at a Summer Games since the IOC began outlawing drugs at the 1968 edition in Mexico City.
Doping tales at the Olympics are legion. This week, China’s lead doctor at the Los Angeles, Seoul and Barcelona Games admitted testing hormones, blood doping and steroids on elite athletes-but said other countries were doing the same. “The United States, the Soviet Union and France were all using them so we did as well,” Chen Zhanghao, who retired in 1992, told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald. “So how can you condemn China but not the USA or Soviet Union?”—AFP
Galstyan, Menezes make judo history
LONDON: Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns the ball to Colombia’s Alejandro Falla during the menís single tennis match at the London 2012 Olympic Games.—AFP
Federer survives scare as Serena demolishes Jelena LONDON: Wimbledon champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams took contrasting routes into the second round on the opening day of the Olympic tournament at a revamped All England Club yesterday. While Serena produced a polished display in a brutal 6-3, 6-1 demolition of Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, Federer was made to sweat before finally beating Colombia’s Alejandro Falla 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 on Centre Court a few hours later. Federer appeared to be cruising to victory in his first match since defeating Andy Murray to win a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon crown. But the world number one allowed Falla back into the match after wasting three match points in the second set and was pushed hard by the world number 51 in the decider before sealing a tougher than expected win on his fifth match point. Two years ago, Federer had to come back from two sets to love down to beat Falla in the Wimbledon first round. Federer will face France’s Julien Benneteau in the last 32 in a rematch of their third round clash at this year’s Wimbledon when the 30-year-old Swiss star agains had to come from two sets down to win. “It’s great coming back (after winning Wimbledon), but it’s so much harder to do it again in the first round knowing that every match for me is like a final. I’m really relieved and hoping to keep it up,” Federer said. It was much easier for five-time Wimbledon winner Serena, who was cheered on from the players’ box by US First Lady Michelle Obama. Williams ended a two-year Grand Slam title drought with her Wimbledon final victory over Agnieszka Radwanska 21 days ago and the American fourth seed, who plays Urszula Radwanska in the second round, looks in the mood to add Olympic singles gold to the two doubles
golds she won with sister Venus. “It was great seeing Michelle there,” Serena said. “It just made me want to play better and I felt even better.” The genteel surroundings of Wimbledon have a well-earned reputation for a rather sedate atmosphere, but there was a sense the famous old venue has let its hair down for the Olympics, which are back in south-west London for the first time since 1908. A concert by British band the Pet Shop Boys on Henman Hill opened the event, and all the courts were decked out in the purple Olympic livery, while players were allowed to break the Wimbledon tradition of wearing allwhite and instead donned the colours of their nations. Former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych was the first big name to tumble in the men’s singles as the Czech sixth seed lost 6-4, 6-4 to Steve Darcis, an unheralded Belgian ranked 75th in the world. “It’s an amazing feeling,” Darcis said. “When you’re young you watch Pete Sampras playing on Centre Court and you think maybe one day. Today it was my day. I played a great match.” Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic defeated former Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, while John Isner, the 6ft 9in American 10th seed, won his little and large battle with Olivier Rochus, defeating the 5ft 6in Belgian 7-6 (7/1), 6-4. In the women’s singles, Belgium’s Kim Clijsters enjoyed her first taste of the Olympics as the four-time Grand Slam champion moved into the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Italy’s Roberta Vinci. The 29-year-old next faces world number 45 Carla Navarro Suarez of Spain, who enjoyed a shock 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 victory over Australian fifth seed Samantha Stosur. Serbian 11th seed Ana Ivanovic, like Clijsters a former world number one, also won on her Olympic debut, beating American Christina McHale 6-4, 7-5. But Chinese 10th seed Li Na slumped out, losing 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 against Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova.—AFP
Brazil on course after defeating N Zealand LONDON: A late goal by Cristiane saw Brazil keep their bid for a first gold medal in women’s Olympic football on track as they beat New Zealand 1-0 in Cardiff yesterday. Victory meant the Samba Queens, silver medallists at the last two Olympics, made it two wins out of two at London 2012 after thrashing Cameroon 5-0. But this was a far more gruelling contest against a New Zealand side who, as in their opening 1-0 defeat by hosts Great Britain, proved a tough team to break down. It looked as if this latest Group E fixture would end as a goalless draw until, four minutes from time, Cristiane struck. New Zealand goalkeeper Jenny Bindon came off her line to punch clear but only knocked the ball to the edge of the box and Cristiane lobbed the ball into the net, despite desperate attempts by Kiwi defenders to head clear. “New Zealand are a very good team, very organised,” said Cristiane. “Nobody said any of these matches at the Olympics were going to be easy.” This match also saw 34-year-old midfielder Formiga, the only women’s footballer to have competed in all five Olympics since the sport was introduced to the Games, make her 100th international appearance for Brazil. “It makes me really proud to reach 100 matches for Brazil, but my mind is only set on
winning the gold medal,” Formiga insisted. Elsewhere Japan, bidding to add Olympic gold to the World Cup title they won last year, were held to a goalless draw by Sweden. Both sides came into the Group F clash on the back of wins, with Japan having defeated Canada 2-1 in their opener and Sweden thrashing South Africa 4-1. But clear chances were in short supply at the City of Coventry Stadium in the English Midlands, although it needed some sound saves from Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl to keep this match scoreless. Disappointed Japan captain Aya Miyama said: “We are not very happy. We want to get a gold medal and win all our matches so we are quite disappointed.” Japan saw Aya Sameshima try her luck midway through the first half before Sweden striker Sofia Jakobsson’s effort just drifted wide of the post. Lindahl did well to deny Nahomi Kawasumi early in the second half and the Sweden keeper was quickly off her line to snuff out a break by Yuki Ogimi. Also in Group F Canada proved too strong for South Africa, winning 3-0 thanks to two goals from captain Christine Sinclair and one from fellow forward Melissa Tancredi. The United States, the reigning Olympic champions, are in action later Saturday against Colombia, having had to come from two goals down to beat France 4-2 in their opener, while Great Britain face Cameroon. —AFP
LONDON: Russia’s Arsen Galstyan and Sarah Menezes of Brazil made history for their respective countries as they won gold medals on the opening day of the Olympic judo competition yesterday. Galstyan won Russia’s first Olympic gold in the sport since the break-up of the old Soviet Union while Menezes became the first woman from her country to climb the top step of the judo rostrum at the Games. For Galstyan it was an especially poignant moment as the 23-year-old is from Krasnodar, the town that suffered flash flooding earlier this month that resulted in 170 deaths. “My medal will mean a lot and talking of people who suffered from the flood I wish to express my condolences to them,” he said. “My medal will show that Russian judo athletes and Russian sport should be number one. “I feel absolutely wonderful and I’m very happy that I’m the person who’s brought the gold medal to Russia because we’ve waited for a very long time. I dont have enough words to explain my feelings.” Having stunned world champion Rishod Sobirov in the semifinal, the Russian beat Japan’s second seed Hiroaki Hiraoka in just 40 seconds in the under-60kg final. The fourth seed produced a stunning finale to flatten Hiraoka with a sweeping, winding throw (harai-maki-komi). He had been forced to hold on in the semi-final against Uzbekistan’s world number one but he survived and when Sobirov made a mistake in the suddendeath golden score period, Galstyan pounced to take his
LONDON: Brazil’s Sarah Menezes (top) celebrates after winning against Belgium’s Charline Van Snick during their women’s -48 kgs contest semi-final match of the judo event at the London 2012 Olympic Games.—AFP opponent over backwards and secure a place in the final. Sobirov went on to win bronze alongside Brazil’s Felipe Kitadai. Menezes’s victory was the culmination of a meteoric rise in Brazilian women’s judo since the Athens Games eight years ago. That was when coach Rosicleia Campos took over, at a time when winning any Olympic medal was a distant dream. But now Brazilian women are one of the leading nations in the sport and Menezes is at the forefront of that. “I’m delighted and I believe this medal will change my life, I waited and hoped for this medal and now I have it at just 22 so I’m very hap-
py,” she said before paying tribute to her inspirational coach. “I’m very happy for Rose because she’s the one that is always there for everyone, she travels with us and is at the competitions and training and I’m very proud of her. “She doesn’t just support me but supports all of the fighters. “I’ve already started to realise what this medal means but the penny has only half dropped. “I want to thank everyone who has helped me in my life and in my career and I’m exceedingly happy.” Menezes had been far from her best in the early rounds, but she proved a dogged competitor, sneaking through each bout
before the final by the minimum yuko score. There she faced the reigning champion Alina Dumitru of Romania but she was the one who made all the running and when she scored a yuko in the final minute she forced Dumitru to open up. Ten seconds from the end, Menezes countered the Romanian with a shoulder throw (seoi-nage) for a waza-ari half point, which proved enough for gold. Hungary’s Eva Csernoviczki came back from being strangled out cold in the quarterfinals to win a bronze medal alongside Belgium’s Charline van Snick.—AFP
Germany one and two but Aussies have team edge LONDON: Olympic three-day event champions Germany began their title defence with a first day dressage one-two yesterday that saw Ingrid Klimke leading on 39.30 points, just ahead of Dirk Schrade (39.80). But a poor performance from Peter Thomsen, the first German rider into the dressage ring, meant it was Australia who had provisional pole position in the team event competition. Britain’s Mary King, the 51-year-old veteran competing in her sixth successive Olympic Games, was third in the individual standings after posting a score of 40.90 on Imperial Cavalier, with Australia’s Andrew Hoy fourth on 41.70. Klimke was thrilled with her day’s work at London’s Greenwich Park. “I did not think about any pressure. I focused only on turning in a good test that showed our strong points. That was my duty and luckily I did it.” Schrade, cheered on by former England rugby captain and friend Mike Tindall, the husband of British Olympic eventer Zara Phillips, described his performance on his horse King Artus, a cross-country specialist, as the best dressage performance of his life. “I am delighted with King Artus,” Schrade, competing in his first Olympics, said. “I expected him to be much more nervous, as it is unusual for eventers to perform in front of such large crowds. “But the competition is not over and we will keep fighting to the end.” Ireland’s Aoife Clark had the dubious honor of following Schrade into the ring and admitted the experience had given her the jitters. “I was waiting in the training area and when I saw Dirk’s score, my heart sank. I was so nervous that I got goosebumps, so I’m thrilled with my horse. He (Master Crusoe) really tried.” Schrade meanwhile conceded Germany’s position as favourites was an additional burden. But he added: “We try to keep in our bubble, concentrate on our own performance and put the pressure away. “All of the team are experienced at doing this-even me. I have done this so
LONDON: Australia’s Andrew Hoy on Rutherglen competes in the Dressage event of the Eventing competition of the 2012 London Olympics. —AFP far and hope I can keep doing it for the rest of the competition.” Germany’s title defence got off to a rocky start when Thomsen’s mount Barny lashed out with his leg. “He was bothered badly by flies during the canter work and this must have been why he did that,” Thomsen said. “He has never behaved like this before. He is normally calm and safe and easy to ride. I am really disappointed.” Another rider with regrets about her day’s work was Jamaica’s sole equestrian competitor Samantha Albert, lying a lowly 33rd of 37. Yet she was still smiling at her good fortune to be in the Olympic mix after a little help from her illustrious compatriot, Usain Bolt. Sprint superstar Bolt, the reigning Olympic
100m and 200m champion, donated three shirts and two signed books for a raffle the 41-year-old Albert staged in her local pub in Highclere, Hampshire, southern England. Meanwhile Australia’s triple gold medal winner Hoy, competing in his seventh Games said after his round on Rutherglen: “It was a good start and if I can finish like that it would be great.” On his veteran status, the 53-year-old joked: “I’m much quicker in the bathroom now because I don’t have my hair to do.” Today’s action sees Phillips, the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, make her Olympic debut as 56-year-old New Zealand legend Mark Todd-twice an Olympic eventing championcompetes in his seventh Games.—AFP
18 SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
China shoot to first Games gold LONDON: Shooting powerhouse China launched their Olympic campaign in style yesterday by taking the first gold of the London Games while South Korea’s Jin Jong-Oh survived a late attack of nerves to win. World number one Yi Siling edged the women’s 10m air rifle competition at London’s Royal Artillery Barracks in a tense morning con-
test witnessed by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge. With Pang Wei due to defend his title in the men’s 10m air pistol in the afternoon match, and the fancied Tan Zongliang also in the frame, China looked set to make a serious statement of intent on day one in London. But sharpshooter Jin, winning his second Olympic gold medal and his fourth overall, entered the final with a sizeable lead and
LONDON: China’s Yi Siling celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. —AP
negotiated an untimely wobble to lift the title and turn 2008 Olympic silver in the event to gold. Yi, 23, who won the women’s 10m air rifle competition at the 2010 world championships, had a total winning score of 502.9, 0.7 points ahead of Poland’s Sylwia Bogacka. Yu Dan of China clinched bronze. Yi held her nerve in a nail-biting final, taking advantage of some slips from Bogacka. Defending Olympic champion Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic finished fourth. A delighted Yi said it felt good to be the first gold medal winner of the 2012 Games. “It’s very exciting. Very happy. I’m very grateful to China. And to my mother and father who I love very much,” she said. “I am pleased, not nervous like I was in the competition. I have been up since five this morning. There was a lot of pressure on me,” she added. China were top performers in Beijing in 2008 with five shooting golds but South Korea’s Jin said he gained extra motivation by seeking to make sure he would not finish second again. The 32-year-old entered the final two points clear of Pang and stretched his lead still further but a nasty run of scores of 9.3, 9.0, 9.4 and 9.7 gave his closest competitors renewed hope. The maximum score is 10.9. Italy’s Luca Tesconi roared back into contention as Pang faded but was unable to close the gap and ended up 2.4 points behind the champion, who finished on 688.2 points. Serbia’s Andrija Zlatic took bronze. “I concentrated more because the Chinese athlete (Pang) won the gold medal last time and I promised myself not to let it happen this time,” said Jin. “I was so nervous about this event. I think I did my best because I overcame the anxiousness but I’m trying to get better for the coming event,” added the relieved Korean, who will also be taking part in the 50m pistol. Jin won silver in the 10m air pistol in 2008 and gold in the 50m pistol in Beijing. He also grabbed silver in the 50m pistol in Athens in 2004. In both of yesterday’s shooting events the top eight competitors from the qualification round reached the final, shooting a further 10 shots-each fired individually under timed conditions. The score in the final was added to the score achieved in the qualification round to determine the winner. —AFP
Britain, USA pounce as China, Japan wobble LONDON: The United States and hosts Great Britain exploited error-strewn displays from Japan and defending Olympic champions China to set the pace in men’s artistic gymnastics qualifying yesterday. Two Chinese men slipped off the pommel horse and one of them fell on his face in the floor routine, while Japanese superstar Kohei Uchimura fell twice as Japan finished the second qualifying session in third
China were particularly disappointing on the pommel horse, with Guo Weiyang and Zhang Chenglong both falling, while Zou Kai also failed to convince. Guo, a late replacement for the injured Teng Haibin, also produced a poor floor display, with a clumsy face-first fall in his final tumble contributing to a dismal score of 12.266. “One of the gymnasts is a substitute, and he made quite a few mistakes due to a lack of experience,” said Chen Yibing of team-
LONDON: German gymnast Plilipp Boy slips off the horizontal bar during the Artistic Gymnastics men’s qualification at the 2012 Summer Olympics. —AP place overall. The USA were the chief beneficiaries, finishing with a total score of 275.342 that put them above Britain (272.420), with China (269.285) down in fourth. Britain are now set to feature in their first final since 1924, ahead of the day’s final qualifying session late yesterday.
mate Guo’s display. “We think that we should beat Britain, but because of the substitute and various other things, we didn’t per form as we should have.” Three-time world champion Uchimura has been tipped to sweep all before him in London, but he came off the high bar and
earned a score of just 12.466 on the pommel horse following a fall and an incomplete dismount. He was nonetheless awarded a mark of 15.766 on the floor, a 16.033 on the vault, and a 15.533 on the parallel bars to finish the second session in fourth place in the individual all-around standings. His Japan team-mates endured similarly mixed afternoons, with Kazuhito Tanaka also falling twice and almost sliding off the mat during his floor exercise. “There were a couple of mistakes that happened at different stages, notably on the high bar, and that created a bit of uncertainty,” said Uchimura. On his own errors, he said: “I’ll try not to make any more mistakes. We’ll practice tomorrow (Sunday), so I’ll try to improve.” Britain were solid throughout, and saw Kristian Thomas and Daniel Purvis make the early running in the individual standings. Olympic bronze medallist Louis Smith delivered an impressive 15.800 routine on the pommel horse, prompting huge cheers from the home crowd that brought tears to the British star’s eyes. “I knew that if I got through my routine I’d break down, because it’s been such an emotional four years,” he said. On the reaction of the supporters, he said: “It was magical, it really was. When they announced us and the crowd erupted, it blew your socks off.” American fans replaced their British counterparts in the afternoon session and they, too, had plenty to cheer about. Jonathan Horton made up for falls on the pommel horse and the parallel bars with a fine 15.566 routine on the high bar, while Danell Leyva and John Orozco claimed first and second place in the individual allaround standings. “I didn’t see China’s score, but I was aware that Japan was having a rough day,” said US team captain Horton. “I watch routines all the time and I see Kohei struggling and some other guys struggling, but I wasn’t really focusing on that at all. “We did a good job and managed to stay within our own little team container.” —AFP
LONDON: Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Vinokourov (center) bites the gold medal while posing for photographs with Rigoberto Uran of Colombia (left, silver) and Alexander Kristoff of Norway (right, bronze) after winning the Men’s Road Cycling race at the 2012 Summer Olympics. —AP
Vinokourov stuns Britons in road race LONDON: Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan claimed an unexpected but deserved win in the men’s Olympic road race yesterday, wrecking Mark Cavendish’s hopes of delivering a first gold of the Games for the hosts. Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran won the silver with Norway’s Alexander Kristoff taking the bronze after 249.5 km of racing which finished in the shadow of Buckingham Palace on The Mall. Race favourite Cavendish finished well off the podium as Britain’s highly fancied team were undone by a combination of tactical racing and some incisive, late attacks. Vinokourov, 38, who immediately announced his retirement, wrote the last chapter of a turbulent career. He only returned to cycling in 2009 after serving a two-year ban for his part in a drug scandal at the 2007 Tour de France. But the blond-haired racer, who is also known for his tactical nous and aggressive style, said his shady past was now behind him. “I closed that chapter of my life in 2007 and I’ve proved today that I didn’t come back for nothing. I’ve come here today and achieved a dream,” said Vinokourov. Despite the pre-Olympics hype of a British outfit labelled the “Dream Team”, a disappointed Cavendish was philosophical in defeat. “I can be proud of how the lads rode today. I’m proud of my country as there was incredible support. The guys are sat there, they are spent. They have got nothing left in the tank. It’s incredible to see that,” he said. For Belgian Tom Boonen, who also missed out on a medal, Britain’s strength was their downfall. “They lost the race a little bit because they were so strong,” Boonen told AFP. With no race radios and teams of a maximum five riders, Britain were constantly tested throughout the race which took in nine laps of the hilly 15.4 km Box Hill cir-
cuit, to the south of London. After an early 12-man breakaway went on to build a lead of six minutes and was eventually joined by 10 counter-attackers, Belgian Philippe Gilbert attacked solo only to be reeled in 42 km from the finish. However his capture only served as the springboard for an attack which, with 32 riders and some big names including Swiss Fabian Cancellara and Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez, was far more dangerous for Britain. Vinokourov was also in the group, but despite his past pedigree most of the peloton did not pay him enough attention. Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, the recent Giro d’Italia winner, later told AFP: “Usually when Vino goes, I make sure to go with him. I wish I had that time.” They eventually built a lead of around 50 seconds on the peloton and despite Cancellara crashing, it proved enough to end many teams’ hopes of a bunch sprint battle for the gold. With around 10 km to race, Uran rocketed out of the leading group, a move Vinokourov believed decisive. Surprisingly, they were left unchallenged and in the final 300 metres Vinokourov took advantage of Uran looking behind him for their pursuers to launch a winning sprint. Later, the Colombian played down suggestions he had given up the fight. “No, I didn’t lose my concentration. We’d done the last 10km at full speed,” said Uran. “I looked to my right and suddenly Alexandre took off. I didn’t have anything left for a sprint. “It’s a very important medal for me. We didn’t think we had any chance of winning a medal today because there were a lot of big teams with five riders.” Kristoff said he “didn’t expect to get a medal” but now that he has he can step out of the shadow of more famous Norwegians like Thor Hushovd and Edvald Boasson Hagen. “For my career it’s important as I’m not as well known as Thor and Edvald. Of course I’ve (now) got a bronze medal at the Olympics and everyone watches the medallists.” —AFP
Russia shocks China LONDON: A pair of Russian newcomers upset Beijing bronze medallists Zhang Xi and Xue Chen of China in a close Olympic women’s beach volleyball opener yesterday that set pulses racing. The surprise result spiced up the first day of competition, in which the top attraction will be a clash between double gold medallists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States and Australians Natalie Cook and Tamsin Hinchley. Low-ranked Anastasia Vasina and Anna Vozakova beat the Chinese pair, who are among the favourites to win gold in London, in three sets. “We won’t look back on this match. I wear a lucky jade necklace but it wasn’t lucky for me today,” said Zhang. The Chinese still have a chance for a medal as the tournament starts with a pool stage before progressing to a knock-out one. Beach volleyball is scored using a best-of-three-sets system. The first two sets are played to 21 points and if each team wins one, a third set is played to 15. All sets require a two-point advantage to win. Vasina and Vozakova beat Zhang and Xue 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 16-14). Later in the day, the home crowd suffered disappointment when Britain’s first ever entrants in Olympic men’s beach volleyball, Steve Grotowski and John Garcia-Thompson, lost their match to Canada’s Martin Reader and Josh Binstock. Pumped up by pop music blaring from loudspeakers in between points, the crowd cheered the Britons who put up a determined fight in the first set, which they lost narrowly after a long rally went the Canadians’ way. After that turning point, Reader and Binstock dominated, winning the match 2-0 (21-19, 21-13). But the Britons, who have set themselves the goal of making it to the knock-out phase, were never-
theless thrilled with their Olympic debut. “What I was expecting was probably about 30 notches lower. It was amazing,” Grotowski told reporters. “To walk out there and just see seas of people and everybody cheering and getting behind us, it was a really special experience.” The Olympic beach volleyball event is being staged at Horse Guards Parade, a vast esplanade in the heart of London’s government district of Whitehall. The venue is right next to Number 10 Downing Street, official residence of British prime ministers, and a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. From the 15,000-seat stadium, the biggest in Olympic beach volleyball history, spectators enjoy a stunning view including the tip of the Big Ben clocktower and the London Eye Ferris wheel gently spinning by the Thames river. As the sunset neared, Brazil’s women’s world champions Juliana Felisberta and Larissa Franca made fast work of Natacha Rigobert and Elodie Li Yuk Lo, a relatively inexperienced team from Mauritius, beating them 2-0 (21-5, 21-10). The Brazilian pair have won every prestigious trophy in their sport except for an Olympic medal after Felisberta had to pull out of Beijing with a knee injury. Beach volleyball is a popular sport in Brazil and a small but very loud contingent of fans from the Latin American countr y sang and cheered for their champions, while the British crowd, always fond of an underdog, took sides with the Africans. After dark, the focus will be on the showdown between MayTreanor and Walsh, who won gold in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, and Cook and Hinchley, which is scheduled for 11:00 pm (2200 GMT). Cook, the first Australian woman athlete to compete in five Olympic Games, won bronze in Atlanta in 1996 and gold in Sydney in 2000 with her then team mate, Kerri Pottharst. —Reuters
19 SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
Olympic Games Results SWIMMING Men 400m individual medley: Final 1. Ryan Lochte (USA) 2. Thiago Pereira (BRA) 3. Kosuke Hagino (JPN) 4. Michael Phelps (USA) 5. Chad Le Clos (RSA) 6. Yuya Horihata (JPN) 7. Thomas Fraser-Holmes (AUS) 8. Luca Marin (ITA)
4:05.18 4:08.86 4:08.94 4:09.28 4:12.42 4:13.30 4:13.49 4:14.89
400m freestyle: Final 1. Sun Yang (CHN) 2. Park Tae-Hwan (KOR) 3. Peter Vanderkaay (USA) 4. Hao Yun (CHN) 5. Conor Dwyer (USA) 6. Gergo Kis (HUN) 7. David Carry (GBR) 8. Ryan Napoleon (AUS)
3:40.14 3:42.06 3:44.69 3:46.02 3:46.39 3:47.03 3:48.62 3:49.25
100m breaststroke: Semi-finals 1. Cameron Van Der Burgh (RSA)58.83 Q 2. Fabio Scozzoli (ITA) 59.44 Q 3. Brenton Rickard (AUS) 59.50 Q 4. Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) 59.69 Q 5. Daniel Gyurta (HUN) 59.74 Q 6. Brendan Hansen (USA) 59.78 Q 7. Ryo Tateishi (JPN) 59.93 8. Felipe Lima (BRA) 1:00.08 Final 1. Christian Sprenger (AUS) 59.61 Q 2. Giedrius Titenis (LTU) 59.66 Q 3. Michael Jamieson (GBR) 59.89 4. Eric Shanteau (USA) 59.96 5. Felipe Silva (BRA) 1:00.01 6. Craig Benson (GBR) 1:00.13 7. Glenn Snyders (NZL) 1:00.15 8. Andrew Scott Dickens (CAN) 1:00.16 Women 100m butterfly: Semi-finals 1. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) 57.27 Q 2. Lu Ying (CHN) 57.51 Q 3. Jiao Liuyang (CHN) 58.04 4. Li Tao (SIN) 58.18 5. Yuka Kato (JPN) 58.26 6. Aliaksandra Herasimenia (BLR)58.41 7. Francesca Halsall (GBR) 58.52 8. Katerine Savard (CAN) 59.22 Final 1. Dana Vollmer (USA) 56.36 Q 2. Alicia Coutts (AUS) 56.85 Q 3. Jeanette Gray (DEN) 57.25 Q 4. Claire Donahue (USA) 57.42 Q 5. Ellen Gandy (GBR) 57.66 Q 6. Ilaria Bianchi (ITA) 57.79 Q 7. Kristel Vourna (GRE) 58.31 8. Martina Granstrom (SWE) 58.95 400m individual medley: Final 1. Ye Shiwen (CHN) 2. Elizabeth Beisel (USA) 3. Li Xuanxu (CHN) 4. Katinka Hosszu (HUN) 5. Hannah Miley (GBR) 6. Stephanie Rice (AUS) 6. Caitlin Leverenz (USA) 8. Mireia Belmonte Garcia (ESP)
6-4, 6-3 Francesca Schiavone (ITA) bt Klara Zakopalova (CZE) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 Vera Zvonareva (RUS) bt Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) 76 (7/3), 6-4 Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) bt Li Na (CHN) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 Alize Cornet (FRA) bt Tamira Paszek (AUT) 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) bt Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) bt Anne Keothavong (GBR) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 Carla Suarez (ESP) bt Samantha Stosur (AUS) 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 Kim Clijsters (BEL) bt Roberta Vinci (ITA) 6-1, 6-4 Elena Baltacha (GBR) bt Agnes Szavay (HUN) 6-3, 6-3 Ana Ivanovic (SRB) bt Christina Mchale (USA) 6-4, 7-5 Petra Kvitova (CZE) bt Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 Peng Shuai (CHN) bt Hsien Su-Wei (TPE) 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5 Flavia Pennetta (ITA) bt Sorana Cirstea (ROM) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 7-6 (7/4), 6-2
CYCLING Men’s road race 1. Alexandr Vinokurov (KAZ) 5h45:57. 2. Rigoberto Uran Uran (COL) at 3. Alexander Kristoff (NOR) 0:08. 4. Taylor Phinney (USA) 0:08. 5. Sergey Lagutin (UZB) 0:08. 6. Stuart O’Grady (AUS) 0:08. 7. J¸rgen Roelandts (BEL) 0:08. 8. Gregory Rast (SWI) 0:08. 9. Luca Paolini (ITA) 0:08. 10. Jack Bauer (NZL) 0:08. 11. Lars Boom (NED) 0:08. 12. Jakob Diemer Fuglsang (DEN) 0:08. 13. Rui Costa (POR) 0:08. 14. Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (ESP) 0:08. 15. Roman Kreuziger (CZE) 0:08. 16. Sergio Luis Henao Montoya (COL) 0:08. 17. Andriy Grivko (UKR) 0:08. 18. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (ESP) 0:08. 19. Philippe Gilbert (BEL) 0:08. 20. Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) 0:08. 21. Janez Brajkovic (SLO) 0:08. 22. Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN) 0:08. 23. Robert Gesink (NED) 0:08. 24. Alexandr Kolobnev (RUS) 0:08. 25. Lars Petter Nordhaug (NOR) 0:08. 26. Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (ESP) 0:16. 27. AndrÈ Greipel (GER) 0:40. 28. Tom Boonen (BEL) 0:40. 29. Mark Cavendish (GBR) 0:40. 30. Arnaud DÈmare (FRA) 0:40.
72. Gonzalo Garrido (CHI) 0:40. 73. Daniel Girmazion (ERI) 0:40. 74. SÈbastian Langeveld (NED) 0:40. 75. Jan B?rta (CZE) 0:40. 76. Gustav Larsson (SWE) 0:40. 77. Vegard Stake Laengen (NOR)0:40. 78. Branislau Samoilau (BLR) 0:40. 79. Grega Bole (SLO) 0:40. 80. Cadel Evans (AUS) 0:40. 81. Daniel Schorn (AUT) 0:40. 82. Niki Terpstra (NED) 0:40. 83. Simon Gerrans (AUS) 0:40. 84. Maciej Bodnar (POL) 0:40. 85. Matthew Harley Goss (AUS) 0:40. 86. Tony Gallopin (FRA) 0:40. 87. Michael Sch?r (SWI) 0:40. 88. Timothy Duggan (USA) 0:40. 89. Nicolas Roche (EIR) 0:40. 90. Daniel Martin (EIR) 0:40. 91. Michael Rogers (AUS) 0:40. 92. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) 0:40. 93. Christopher Horner (USA) 0:49. 94. Ian Stannard (GBR) 0:50. 95. Bert Grabsch (GER) 0:50. 96. Michael Albasini (SWI) 0:50. 97. Lieuwe Westra (NED) 0:50. 98. Denis Menchov (RUS) 0:54. 99. Sacha Modolo (ITA) 0:54. 100. Stijn Vandenbergh (BEL) 0:54. 101. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) 0:56. 102. Marcel Sieberg (GER) 1:11. 103. Bradley Wiggins (GBR) 1:17. 104. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) 1:34. 105. John Degenkolb (GER) 2:52. 106. Fabian Cancellara (SWI) 5:43. 107. Marco Pinotti (ITA) 8:07. 108. David Millar (GBR) 9:19. 109. Christopher Froome (GBR) 12:27. 110. Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE) 12:27. DNF: Azzadine Lagab (ALG), Vasil Kiryienka (BLR), Gregory Panizo (BRA), Magno Prado Nazaret (BRA), Spas Gyurov (BUL), Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (COL), Mickael Bourgain (FRA), Giorgi Nadiradze (GEO), Tony Martin (GER), Manuel Rodas Ochoa (GUA), Krisztian Lovassy (HUN), Alireza Haghi (IRI), Amir Zargari (IRI), Park Sung Baek (KOR), Soufiane Haddi (MOR), Mouhcine Lahsaini (MAR), Muhamad Adiq Husainie Othman (MAS), Amir Rusli (MAS), Oleg Berdos (MDA), Dan Craven (NAM), Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR), Greg Henderson (NZL), Michal Golas (POL), Andrei Nechita (ROM), Omar Hasanin (SYR), Mirac Kal (TUR), Kemal Kucukbay (TUR), Jorge Soto Perera (URU), Muradjan Halmuratov (UZB)
12-10, 5-11, 12-10) Paul Drinkhall (GBR) bt Ibrahim Alhasan (KUW) 40 (11-9, 12-10, 11-9, 11-4) Oleksandr Didukh (UKR) bt Marcelo Aguirre Benitez (PAR) 4-3 (11-7, 7-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9) Jean-Michel Saive (BEL) bt Marko Jevtovic (SRB) 4-1 (11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-8) Elsayed Lashin (EGY) bt Par Gerell (SWE) 4-3 (7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9) Moshad Alamiyan (IRI) bt Justin Han (AUS) 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-7, 13-11) Zengyi Wang (POL) bt Hugo Hoyama (BRA) 4-3 (8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 12-10) Jorgen Persson (SWE) bt Segun Toriola (NGR) 4-1 (11-8, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6) Daniel Zwickl (HUN) bt Allan Bentsen (DEN) 4-1 (11-9, 11-7, 12-10, 4-11, 11-8) Women’s singles 1st rd Tetyana Bilenko (UKR) bt Paula Medina (COL) 4-1 (11-4, 11-2, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7) Cornelia Molnar (CRO) bt Lily Zhang (USA) 4-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5) Mie Skov (DEN) bt Nadeen Eldawlatly (EGY) 4-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9) Wenling Tan (ITA) bt Olufunke Oshonaike (NGR) 4-0 (11-7, 11-5, 12-10, 11-1) Krisztina Toth (HUN) bt Fabiola Ramos (VEN) 4-3 (11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 12-14, 11-5, 11-9, 12-10) Nanthana Komwong (THA) bt Lei Huang Mendes (POR) 4-3 (4-11, 3-11, 11-6, 12-14, 11-8, 11-2, 12-10) Jian Fang Lay (AUS) bt Ligia Silva (BRA) 4-1 (8-11, 11-1, 11-5, 11-6, 11-1) Aleksandra Privalova (BLR) bt Xing Han (CGO) 4-2 (11-2, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9) Mo Zhang (CAN) bt Melek Huang (TUR) 4-3 (8-11, 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4, 13-11, 16-14) Miao Miao (AUS) bt Dana Hadacova (CZE) 4-2 (11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7) Joanna Parker (GBR) bt Caroline Kumahara (BRA) 4-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-9, 11-5) Dina Meshref (EGY) bt Yana Noskova (RUS) 4-3 (12-10, 8-11, 4-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-9, 11-9) Sara Ramirez (ESP) bt Ankita Das (IND) 4-1 (11-9, 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 11-2)
TENNIS Men’s singles 1st round Roger Federer (SUI) bt Alejandro Falla (COL) 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 Julien Benneteau (FRA) bt Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 7-5, 6-3 Gilles Muller (LUX) bt Adrian Ungur (ROM) 6-3, 63 Denis Istomin (UZB) bt Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 6-4, 7-6 (11/9) John Isner (USA) bt Olivier Rochus (BEL) 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 Malek Jaziri (TUN) bt Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) 7-6 (12/10), 4-6, 6-3 Philipp Petzschner (GER) bt Lukas Lacko (SVK) 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) bt David Nalbandian (ARG) 6-3, 6-4 Gilles Simon (FRA) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 64, 6-2 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) bt Lukasz Kubot (POL) 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) Andreas Seppi (ITA) bt Donald Young (USA) 6-4, 6-4 Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) bt Ivan Dodig (CRO) 6-4, 6-1 Steve Darcis (BEL) bt Tomas Berdych (CZE) 6-4, 64 Santiago Giraldo (COL) bt Ryan Harrison (USA) 75, 6-3 Alex Bogomolov Jr (RUS) bt Carlos Berlocq (ARG) 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) Nicolas Almagro (ESP) bt Viktor Troicki (SRB) 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) Women’s singles 1st rd Serena Williams (USA) bt Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 63, 6-1 Urszula Radwanska (POL) bt Mona Barthel (GER)
China Italy United States Brazil South Korea Australia Kazakhstan Russia Japan
Gold 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
Silver 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 2
Bronze Total 2 6 1 5 2 5 1 3 1 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 3
BASKET-WOMEN China 66 Czech Republic 57 Canada 53 Russia 58 Turkey 72 Angola 50 United States 81 Croatia 56
FENCING-WOMEN Gold medal Elisa Di Francisca (ITA) bt Arianna Errigo (ITA) 1211 Bronze medal Valentina Vezzali (ITA) bt Hyun Hee Nam (KOR) 13-12
ARCHERY Men Team final Italy (Michele Frangilli, Marco Galiazzo, Mauro Nespoli) bt United States (Jacob Wukie, Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski) 219218 Bronze medal South Korea (Oh Jinh-Yek, Im Dong-Hyun, Kim Bubmin) bt Mexico (Juan Serrano Gutirrez, Luis Velez Sanchez, Luis Alvarez Murillo) 224-219
TTENNIS Men 1st rd Quadri Aruna (NGR) bt Carlos Machado (ESP) 4-2 (6-11, 11-6, 3-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-6) William Henzell (AUS) bt Adam Pattantyus (HUN) 4-1 (13-11, 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9) Matiss Burgis (LAT) bt Pierre-Luc Hinse (CAN) 4-3 (14-12, 11-2, 7-11, 9-11, 13-11, 15-17, 11-8) Soumyajit Ghosh (IND) bt Gustavo Tsuboi (BRA) 4-2 (11-9, 14-12, 7-11,
Yuan Tian (CRO) bt Berta Rodriguez (CHI) 4-0 (116, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7) Ariel Hsing (USA) bt Yadira Silva (MEX) 4-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-3, 11-5) WEIGHTLIFTING Women’s 48kg (final standings) 1. Wang Mingjuan (CHN) 205 kg (91,0 + 114,0) 2. Hiromi Miyake (JPN) 197 (87,0 + 110,0) 3. Ryang Chun Hwa (PRK) 192 (80,0 + 112,0) 4. Sirivimon Pramongkhol (THA) 191 (82,0 + 109,0) 5. Nurdan Karagoz (TUR) 187 (83,0 + 104,0) 6. Honami Mizuochi (JPN) 176 (80,0 + 96,0) 7. Soniya Chanu Ngangbam (IND) 171 (74,0 + 97,0) 8. Betsi Gabriela Rivas Arteaga (VEN) 168 (70,0 + 98,0) 9. Beatriz Piron (DOM) 167 (77,0 + 90,0) 10. Melanie Bardis (FRA) 166 (73,0 + 93,0) 11. Lely Berlitt Burgos Ortiz (PUR)157 (65,0 + 92,0) 12. Harinelina N Rakotondramanana (MAD) 135 (55,0 + 80,0) 13. Panida Khamsri (THA) Abandon 14. Marina Sisoeva (UZB) Abandon SHOOTING Men’s 10m Air Pistol Final: 1. Jin Jong-Oh (KOR) 2. Luca Tesconi (ITA) 3. Andrija Zlatic (SRB) 4. Wei Pang (CHN) 5. Oleg Omelchuk (UKR) 6. Pablo Carrera (ESP) 7. Joao Costa (POR) 8. Kai Jahnsson (FIN) Women’s 10m Air Pistol Final: 1. Yi Siling (CHN) 2. Sylwia Bogacka (POL) 3. Yu Dan (CHN)
688.2 pts 685.8 685.2 683.7 683.6 683.3 682.3 679.1
502.9 pts 502.2 501.5
1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
BRONZE —Yu Dan, China.
CYCLING Road Race GOLD—Alexandr Vinokurov, Kazakhstan. SILVER—Rigoberto Uran Uran, Colombia. BRONZE—Alexander Kristoff, Norway.
400 Individual Medley GOLD—yan Lochte, United States. SILVER—Thiago Pereira, Brazil. BRONZE—Kosuke Hagino, Japan.
FENCING Women Individual Foil GOLD —Elisa Di Francisca, Italy. SILVER—Arianna Errigo, Italy. BRONZE —Valentina Vezzali, Italy. JUDO Men 60Kg GOLD—Arsen Galstyan, Russia. SILVER —Hiroaki Hiraoka, Japan. BRONZE —Felipe Kitadai, Brazil. BRONZE—Rishod Sobirov, Uzbekistan. Women48Kg GOLD—Sarah Menezes, Brazil. SILVER —Alina Dumitru, Romania. BRONZE —Eva Csernoviczki, Hungary. BRONZE —Charline van Snick, Belgium.
500.3 499.7 499.1 499.0 498.5
JUDO
31. Francisco Jose Ventoso Alberdi (ESP) 0:40. 32. Murilo Antonio Fischer (BRA) 0:40. 33. Tyler Farrar (USA) 0:40. 34. Peter Sagan (SVK) 0:40. 35. Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (CRC) 0:40. 36. Bernhard Eisel (AUT) 0:40. 37. Kam Po Wong (HKG) 0:40. 38. Elia Viviani (ITA) 0:40. 39. Hector Hugo Zamarron Rangel (MEX) 0:40. 40. Daryl Impey (RSA) 0:40. 41. Radoslav Rogina (CRO) 0:40. 42. Matti Breschel (DEN) 0:40. 43. Assan Bazayev (KAZ) 0:40. 44. Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (ESP) 0:40. 45. Miguel Ubeto Aponte (VEN) 0:40. 46. Borut Bozic (SLO) 0:40. 47. Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU) 0:40. 48. Yukiya Arashiro (JPN) 0:40. 49. Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso (POR)0:40. 50. RenÈ Mandri (EST) 0:40. 51. Jackson Rodriguez (VEN) 0:40. 52. Vladimir Isaichev (RUS) 0:40. 53. Yauheni Hutarovich (BLR) 0:40. 54. Ivan Stevic (SRB) 0:40. 55. David Mccann (EIR) 0:40. 56. Aleksejs Saramotins (LAT) 0:40. 57. Nicki Sorensen (DEN) 0:40. 57. Martin Elmiger (SWI) 0:40. 59. Gediminas Bagdonas (LTU) 0:40. 60. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) 0:40. 61. Danail Andonov Petrov (BUL) 0:40. 62. Adil Jelloul (MOR) 0:40. 63. Ryder Hesjedal (CAN) 0:40. 64. Laurent Didier (LUX) 0:40. 65. Jussi Veikkanen (FIN) 0:40. 66. Dmytro Krivtsov (UKR) 0:40. 67. Arnold Alcolea (CUB) 0:40. 68. Kristijan Durasek (CRO) 0:40. 69. Nelson Santos Simoes Oliveira (POR) 0:40. 70.TomasAurelioGilMartinez(VEN) 0:40. 71. Lars Ytting Bak (DEN) 0:40.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ARCHERY MenTeam GOLD—Italy (Michele Frangilli, Marco Galiazzo, Mauro Nespoli). SILVER—United States (Jacob Wukie, Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski). BRONZE—South Korea (Oh Jin Hyek, Im Dong Hyun, Kim Bubmin).
4. Katerina Emmons (CZE) 5. Jamie Lynn Gray (USA) 6. Elaheh Ahmadi (IRI) 7. Sarah Scherer (USA) 8. Daria Vdovina (RUS)
LONDON: Sweden’s pivot Ulrika Agren (left) shoots under the look of Denmark’s left back Trine Troelsen during the women’s preliminaries Group B handball match. —AFP
Colombia Netherlands Poland Romania Belgium Hungary North Korea Norway Serbia Uzbekistan
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Olympic Medalists
SHOOTINGMen10m Air Pistol GOLD —Jin Jongoh, South Korea. SILVER —Luca Tesconi, Italy. BRONZE —Andrija Zlatic, Serbia. Women10m Air Rifle GOLD —Yi Siling, China. SILVER—Sylwia Bogacka, Poland.
4:28.43 4:31.27 4:32.91 4:33.49 4:34.17 4:35.49 4:35.49 4:35.62
4x100m freestyle relay Final 1. Australia (Coutts, Campbell, Elmslie, Schlanger) 3:33.15 2. Netherlands (Dekker, Veldhuis, Heemskerk, Kromowidjojo) 3:33.79 3. United States (Franklin, Hardy, Neal, Schmitt) 3:34.24 4. China (Tang, Qiu, Wang, Pang) 3:36.75 5. Great Britain (Smith, Halsall, Lloyd, McClatchey) 3:37.02 6. Denmark (Blume, Nielsen, Friis, Gray) 3:37.45 7. Japan (Ueda, Matsumoto, Uchida, Ito) 3:37.96 8. Sweden (Coleman, Sjostrom, Marko-Varga, Fagundez) disqualified
Medals Table
Men’s -60kg Last 32 Rishod Sobirov (UZB) bt Ludwig Paischer (AUT) ippon Javier Guedez (VEN) bt A Lamusi (CHN) waza-ari Felipe Kitadai (BRA) bt Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj (MGL) waza-ari Eisa Majrashi (KSA) bt Raul Lall (GUY) ippon Arsen Galstyan (RUS) bt Zakari Gourouza (NIG) ippon Yann Siccardi (MON) bt Ali Khousrof (YEM) ippon Gwang-Hyeon Choi (KOR) bt Ludovic Chammartin (SWI) yuko Valtteri Jokinen (FIN) bt Yassine Moudatir (MOR) ippon Hiroaki Hiraoka (JPN) bt Ashley Mckenzie (GBR) ippon Artiom Arshansky (ISR) bt Jeroen Mooren (NED) decision Sofiane Milous (FRA) bt Betkili Shukvani (GEO) ippon Tony Lomo (SOL) bt Neuso Sigauque (MOZ) ippon Elio Verde (ITA) bt Georgii Zantaraia (UKR) yuko Nabor Castillo (MEX) bt Ratanakmony Khom (CAM) ippon Hovhannes Davtyan (ARM) bt Ilgar Mushkiyev (AZE) wazaari Yerkebulan Kossayev (KAZ) bt Sergio Pessoa (CAN) — penalty Last 16 Rishod Sobirov (UZB) bt Javier Guedez (VEN) ippon Felipe Kitadai (BRA) bt Eisa Majrashi (KSA) ippon Arsen Galstyan (RUS) bt Yann Siccardi (MON) ippon Gwang-Hyeon Choi (KOR) bt Valtteri Jokinen (FIN) waza-ari Hiroaki Hiraoka (JPN) bt Artiom Arshansky (ISR) waza-ari Sofiane Milous (FRA) bt Tony Lomo (SOL) ippon Elio Verde (ITA) bt Nabor Castillo (MEX) ippon Hovhannes Davtyan (ARM) bt Yerkebulan Kossayev (KAZ) ippon Quarter-finals Rishod Sobirov (UZB) bt Felipe Kitadai (BRA) ippon Arsen Galstyan (RUS) bt Gwang-Hyeon Choi (KOR) decision Hiroaki Hiraoka (JPN) bt Sofiane Milous (FRA) decision Elio Verde (ITA) bt Hovhannes Davtyan (ARM) yuko Semi-finals Arsen Galstyan (RUS) bt Rishod Sobirov (UZB) yuko Hiroaki Hiraoka (JPN) bt Elio Verde (ITA) ippon Bronze medals Felipe Kitadai (BRA) bt Elio Verde (ITA) yuko Rishod Sobirov (UZB) bt Sofiane Milous (FRA) waza-ari Final Arsen Galstyan (RUS) bt Hiroaki Hiraoka (JPN) ippon Women’s -48kg Last 16 Tomoko Fukumi (JPN) bt Kelly Edwards (GBR) ippon Paula Pareto (ARG) bt Elena Moretti (ITA) yuko Alina Dumitru (ROM) bt Dayaris Mestre (CUB) ippon Urantsetseg Munkhbat (MGL) bt Alexandra Podryadova (KAZ) waza-ari Sarah Menezes (BRA) bt Laetitia Payet (FRA) yuko Wu Shugen (CHN) bt Lisa Kearney (EIR) ippon Charline Van Snick (BEL) bt Jung-Yeon Chung (KOR) ippon Eva Csernoviczki (HUN) bt Birgit Ente (NED) yuko Quarter-finals Tomoko Fukumi (JPN) bt Paula Pareto (ARG) yuko Alina Dumitru (ROM) bt Urantsetseg Munkhbat (MGL) waza-ari Sarah Menezes (BRA) bt Shugen Wu (CHN) yuko Charline Van Snick (BEL) bt Eva Csernoviczki (HUN) ippon
SWIMMING Men 400 Freestyle GOLD —Sun Yang, China. SILVER —Park Taehwan, South Korea. BRONZE—Peter Vanderkaay, United States.
Women 400 Individual Medley GOLD—Ye Shiwen, China. SILVER—Elizabeth Beisel, United States. BRONZE—Li Xuanxu, China. 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay GOLD—Australia (Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie, Melanie Schlanger, Emily Seebohm, Yolane Kukla, Libby Trickett). SILVER—Netherlands (Inge Dekker, Marleen Veldhuis, Femke Heemskerk, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Hinkelien Schreuder). BRONZE—United States (Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, Lia Neal, Allison Schmitt, Amanda Weir, Natalie Coughlin). WEIGHTLIFTING Women 48Kg GOLD—Wang Mingjuan, China. SILVER—Hiromi Miyake, Japan. BRONZE—Chun Hwa Ryang, North Korea.
Semi-finals Alina Dumitru (ROM) bt Tomoko Fukumi (JPN) waza-ari Sarah Menezes (BRA) bt Charline Van Snick (BEL) yuko Bronze medals Charline Van Snick (BEL) bt Paula Pareto (ARG) yuko Eva Csernoviczki (HUN) bt Tomoko Fukumi (JPN) ippon Final Sarah Menezes (BRA) bt Alina Dumitru (ROM) waza-ari FBL-WOMEN At Cardiff Group E New Zealand 0, Brazil 1 Great Britain 3, Cameroon 0 At Coventry Group F Japan 0, Sweden 0 Canada 3, South Africa 0 At Glasgow Group G USA 3, Colombia 0 France 5, North Korea 0 EQUESTRIAN Individual three-day event (Dressage) 39.30 pts 1. Ingrid Klimke (GER/BUTTS ABRAXXAS) 2. Dirk Schrade (GER/KING ARTUS) 39.80 3. Mary King (GBR/IMPERIAL CAVALIER) 40.90 4. Andrew Hoy (AUS/RUTHERGLEN) 41.70 5. Ludvig Svennerstal (SWE/SHAMWARI 4) 43.70 6. Jock Paget (NZL/CLIFTON PROMISE) 44.10 7. Sam Griffiths (AUS/HAPPY TIMES) 45.40 8. Christopher Burton (AUS/LEILANI) 46.10 9. Karen O’Connor (USA/MR MEDICOTT) 48.20 10. Virginie Caulier (BEL/NEPAL DU SUDRE) 48.30 11. Hawley Bennett-Awad (CAN/GIN AND JUICE) 48.70 12. Aoife Clark (EIR/MASTER CRUSOE) 48.90 13. Marc Rigouts (BEL/DUNKAS A) 50.70 13. Boyd Martin (USA/OTIS BARBOTIERE) 50.70 15. Lionel Guyon (FRA/NEMETIS DE LALOU) 50.90 16. Nicola Wilson (GBR/OPPOSITION BUZZ) 51.70 16. Tim Lips (NED/CONCREX ONCARLOS) 51.70 18. Tiana Coudray (USA/RINGWOOD MAGISTER) 52.00 19. Carl Bouckaert (BEL/CYRANO Z) 53.00 20. Ronald Zabala (ECU/MASTER ROSE) 53.30 21. Toshiyuki Tanaka (JPN/MARQUIS DE PLESCOP) 55.00 22. Joseph Murphy (EIR/ELECTRIC CRUISE) 55.60 23. Aurelien Kahn (FRA/CADIZ) 55.90 24. Jonelle Richards (NZL/FLINTSTAR) 56.70 25. Michelle Mueller (CAN/AMISTAD) 57.00 26. Marcio Carvalho Jorge (BRA/JOSEPHINE) 58.50 26. Peter Thomsen (GER/BARNY) 58.50 26. Takayuki Yumira (JPN/LATINA 43) 58.50 29. Linda Algotsson (SWE/LA FAIR) 59.80 30. Michael Ryan (EIR/BALLYLYNCH ADVENTURE) 60.20 31. Denis Mesples (FRA/OREGON DE LA VIGNE) 61.50 32. Peter Barry (CAN/KILRODAN ABBOTT) 61.70 33. Samantha Albert (JAM/CARRAIG DUBH) 67.20 34. Alena Tseliapushkina (BLR/PASSAT) 69.10 35. Harald Ambros (AUT/O-FELTIZ) 69.50 36. Alexander Peternell (RSA/ASIH) 70.40 37. Andrei Korshunov (RUS/FABIY) 80.20 BASKETBALL WOMEN China 66, Czech Republic 57 Canada 53, Russia 58 Turkey 72, Angola 50 United States 81, Croatia 56 Brazil 58, France 73
Brazil’s Menezes clinches historic women’s judo gold
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
17
LONDON: China’s Sun Yang competes in the men’s 400-meter freestyle swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics.—AP
Chinese Sun shines in London Lochte dethrones Phelps LONDON: Swimming’s new world order was unveiled in spectacular fashion on the opening day of Olympic competition yesterday as Ryan Lochte dethroned Michael Phelps and China’s Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen provided irrefutable evidence that the sport’s sleeping giant has woken up. Lochte showed why he has surpassed Phelps as the world’s best all-round swimmer with a masterful display of raw power and precision as he cruised to victory in the men’s 400 metres individual medley final. Phelps, a shadow of the swimmer won eight gold medals at Beijing four years ago, was unable to offer any real challenge and finished fourth, missing a medal for the first time at the Olympics since he was a 15-year-old at Sydney in 2000.
“I felt fine for the first 200 metres. They just swam a better race than me,” said Phelps. “They were better prepared. It was a frustrating race for me. I was lucky to get into the final.” Sun unleashed a devastating late burst to win the men’s 400 freestyle final ahead of South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan, who only got into the final after winning an appeal that was lodged when he was disqualified for a false start in the morning heats. Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen also turned on the power to win the women’s 400 individual medley final and set the first world record in London’s sparkling Aquatic Centre. The 16-year-old left her rivals dead in the water as she stopped the clock at four minutes 28.43 seconds, wiping more than a second off the world
record set by Australia’s Stephanie Rice in Beijing four years ago. Rice finished out of the medals but Australia’s women’s team were celebrating soon after following a surprise victory in the 4x100 freestyle relay over the highly fancied Dutch and American teams. Lochte added the Olympic gold medal to the world title he won in Shanghai last year when he sailed to victory in 4:05.18, with Brazil’s Thiago Pereira taking second and Japanese teenager Kosuke Hagino third. Lochte already has three gold medals from his two previous Olympics but is primed for a bigger haul this time with three more individual events and at least one relay still to come. “I’m ready to rock this Olympics,” said the
American. Sun became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming title with an eye-popping last two laps to win gold in 3:40.14. The 20-year-old is the overwhelming favourite to win the 1500, which he already holds the world record in, and is also targetting the 200, where he will square off with Lochte and Park. “I believe this gold medal shows that the Chinese people are really good,” he said. Ye became the first woman to break a longcourse world record since the ban on polyurethane bodysuits at the end of 2009 as she surged away from America’s Elizabeth Beisel, the reigning world champion, over the concluding freestyle leg. Beisel held on for second while China’s Li Xuanxu came third giving China their third medal
Probe launched as empty seats leave fans fuming
Persson eyes table tennis medal at 46 LONDON: Former world champion Jorgen Persson has not ruled out challenging for an Olympic medal at the age of 46 after scoring a notable first round victory in the men’s singles yesterday. The wire-slim Swede has played in all seven Olympics of which table tennis has been a part and began his last Games with a four games to one victory over Segun Toriola, the former Commonwealth champion from Nigeria. “I was calm and confident, and this will be my last chance,” said a smiling Persson after his 11-8, 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-5 win over an opponent who until recently had been the best player in Africa for an entire decade. “The Chinese are very good but stopping them is not impossible. They have only two players in this event now (because of a rule change) and not three which will put more pressure on them. “Timo Boll (the former world number one from Germany) can do it, and maybe Michael Maze (the former European champion from Denmark) can do it too.” Asked if he could do it Persson hesitated, and then declined to rule it out, saying he still remembered the pain of losing in the semifinals in both Beijing in 2008 and Sydney in 2000. “I am feeling strong and I read the game better than I used to,” he said. “And I think I am a more complete player than I was in Beijing. The
game is much more powerful now than it was, so I have to be. And I am still in, so you never know.” Persson’s game was also notable for being stronger on the backhand side than he was in his more forehand-dominated halcyon days. This enabled him to be more economical when covering the court and multiplied his tactical options. Happily for the veteran, there was little sign of the calf injury which seemed to have become a problem in training two weeks ago. “He is one of the most dedicated players to his job,” said Ulf Carlsson, the Swedish coach. “He is in many ways unique. He has adapted cleverly to the modern game which is heavier and quicker.” But asked if the Chinese could be stopped, Carlsson seemed less sure. “They will still be very difficult to beat, even with only two players,” he said. “But of course it is possible.” Persson today plays Andrej Gacina, the world number 58 from Croatia. Boll starts tomorrow against an opponent yet to be decided, while Zhang Jike, the topseeded world champion, and Wang Hao, the second seeded Olympic silver medallist also begin their bids. The other two leading Chinese players, Ding Ning, top-seeded world number one, and Li Xiaoxia, the second-seeded former world number one, start in the third round of the women’s singles today.—AFP
on the opening night at the pool. “I didn’t think about it too much,” said Ye. “The moment I jump in the water my mind goes blank.” The US won medals in all four finals yesterday with Missy Franklin, the emerging star of the women’s team, picking up a bronze in the relay. The Colorado teenager is chasing seven medals in London, which would be a record for any female swimmer. The gold went to the Australian quartet of Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger, who won with a combined time of 3:33.15. “That’s the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life and I can’t wipe the smile off my face,” said Elmslie.—Reuters
LONDON: Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou keeps her eye on the ball during a first round table tennis match against France’s Yifang Xian at the 2012 Summer Olympics.—AP
LONDON: Olympics organisers were urgently investigating why several venues had swathes of empty seats yesterday, the first full day of competition at the London Games. Organisers LOCOG were overwhelmed with demand for Olympics tickets when they first went on sale more than a year ago. But there were rows and rows of unoccupied seats at some venues yesterday, notably the Aquatics Centre and the Wimbledon tennis complex, causing fans to vent their fury outside venues and on social media. The embarrassing sight was blamed on accredited bodies, which include the International Olympic Committee, sponsors and the media. “We are aware that some venues have empty seats,” a LOCOG spokesman told AFP. “We believe the empty seats are in accredited seating areas, and we are in the process of finding out who should have been in the seats and why they weren’t there.” There were entirely empty blocks at Wembley Arena for the badminton and plenty of unoccupied seats at Greenwich Park for the equestrian events, and at Earls Court for the volleyball. Britain’s Olympics minister Jeremy Hunt called the situation a “shame” and “very disappointing”. One angr y punter at the Olympic Park told BBC television he blamed
corporate ticketholders. “It’s not fair. There’s thousands of people who would have got into that swimming pool to watch the races this morning and couldn’t get in. “They’ve (now) panicked about the political situation of the stadium being empty. We couldn’t even get in but people were coming out saying how the stadium was halfempty. “There were thousands of people stood outside wishing to go in.” During the Wimbledon championships, a match between British hopeful Anne Keothavong and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki on the 15,000-seater Centre Court would normally be played before a packed house. But Centre Court was half-empty for the match yesterday. “Very surprised at amount of empty seats on Wimbledon Centre Court, especially as I applied for some! It can’t be more than 50 percent full,” wrote frustrated fan Alex Dover on Twitter. “We’re looking at this very urgently,” Olympics minister Hunt told the BBC. “We want to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen.” If sponsors are not going to turn up and take their seats, “we want those tickets to be available for members of the public,” he said. “It’s a shame this happened but we’re going to do everything to make sure that we fill up those stadia.”—AFP
Business
Critics say new Argentine banknote not bill enough Page 22 German minister rejects talk of Spain aid request Page 23
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
Stocks fly on central bank hopes
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Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II arrives in Kuwait Page 26
NEW YORK: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on July 27, 2012 in New York City. — AFP
White House lowers growth forecasts Jobless rate seen lower, medium-term deficits slimmer WASHINGTON: The White House cut its outlook for US growth in 2012 and 2013 on Friday, hours after data showed the economy grew at a tepid pace in the second quarter, raising concerns about a slowdown that could mar President Barack Obama’s re-election chances. In its semiannual budget review, the White House said it expected gross domestic product to rise 2.3 percent this year and 2.7 percent next year - less than the 2.7 percent and 3.0 percent growth projections it made in February. “The economy still faces significant headwinds that have held down growth and limited gains in employment,” Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement accompanying the review. But the White House brightened its forecast for unemployment one of the key barometers of Obama’s economic leadership - to a 8.0 percent rate this year and 7.7 percent next year, from its first estimate of 8.9 percent in 2012 and 8.6 percent in 2013. It also said the deficit would be slimmer this fiscal year from October through September - than first anticipated, at $1.211 trillion instead of $1.327 trillion, and be slightly wider than first projected in fiscal 2013. Over the next decade, the White House said cumulative deficits would be
$240 billion lower than it forecast in February. ‘Optimistic’ The mid-session review, like the original White House budget proposal released in February, assumes Obama’s economic and job growth proposals will be enacted despite the stark partisan divisions in election-year Washington. Zients said it also “reflects the administration’s belief that Congress can and must enact a comprehensive and balanced deficit reduction package” to avoid mandatory spending cuts that are due to take effect in January. Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut, said the deadlock in Congress had kept many White House economic plans from being passed, and raised questions about the basis of Friday’s figures. “These numbers can be a bit deceptive,” he said. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a Washington think tank, said the lower growth forecast was a major reason deficits were seen decreasing in the review, averaging 3.2 percent of gross domestic product over the next decade, compared to a 3.3 percent average projected in February. But it warned: “these estimates may turn out to be over-
ly optimistic ... and still fall short of putting the debt on a clear and unequivocal downward path over the mediumand long-term.” Obama’s 2013 budget proposal was not passed by Congress, where Republicans controlling the House of Representatives oppose raising taxes and Obama’s fellow Democrats who control the Senate want to collect more revenue alongside spending cuts. An agreement struck last August to avert a sovereign default set spending levels for this year. Another fight is brewing over tax hikes and spending cuts slated for the end of 2012, a convergence of timing referred to as the “fiscal cliff.” Fiscal fight Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said after the mid-session budget review was released that lawmakers needed to be ready to compromise to avoid damaging the economic outlook. “The solution must include a comprehensive and balanced long-term deficit reduction plan. That can only happen if both sides agree to move off their fixed positions,” he said. But Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin who chairs the House Budget Committee, seized on the mid-session
Facebook’s stock sinks, so who should buy it? NEW YORK: Investors are dumping Facebook’s stock, spooked by slowing revenue growth, the lack of a financial outlook and plans to spend more money in the coming months. Are they right? Only if they are thinking in the short term. Investors can expect Facebook’s stock to be volatile for a few years. But analysts say those willing to wait will likely be rewarded - someday. “I view it as a tomorrow stock,” says Christian Bertelsen, chief investment officer at wealth management firm Global Financial Private Capital. “The whole thing on Facebook is, look, if your time horizon is hourly, weekly or even monthly, this is not the stock for you,” he adds. “You need to take a much longer-term view on it.” That’s about three or four years, he says. Founded in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room in 2004, Facebook was a product of the PC era. Now, in the age of mobile computing, a growing number of people are accessing Facebook through their iPhones, Android gadgets and tablet computers. Yet Facebook is only now starting to figure out how to make money from its mobile audience. “The company is going through an almost painful transition from desktop to mobile,” Baird analyst Colin Sebastian says. He calls Facebook “a speculative investment,” but one with plenty of potential. “With almost one billion users, Facebook is amassing the most comprehensive user profile database in existence,” Sebastian says. This, he adds, offers a “significant opportunity” to reap a big chunk of the global advertising market, which is currently at $500 billion a year. “Amazon comes to mind immediately,” Bertelsen says. After that company went public in 1997, at the time mainly just an online bookstore, critics were quick to cry dot-com bust, call its busi-
ness a broken, and so on. Today, it is the world’s biggest online retailer, selling everything from DVDs to vacuum cleaners to Web storage. “Now they are the retailer to the world,” he adds. Amazon.com Inc.’s stock price grew to more than $200 a share, from less than $2. Of course, Facebook has started out much higher, at $38. Facebook’s first earnings report since its rocky initial public offering on May 18 was the second coming that didn’t quite materialize. So investors sent Facebook’s stock to its lowest level ever on Friday. Shares fell $3.14, or nearly 12 percent, to close at $23.71 after hitting $22.28 in the morning. The previous low was $25.52, reached on June 6. The stock dropped despite the fact that Facebook’s second-quarter results met Wall Street’s expectations, with revenue one-third higher than last year. Given the rocky economy and investors’ heightened sensitivity to a stock’s value, betting on a company becomes a “show-me story” for many of them, Sebastian says. That means investors want proof rather than Facebook’s word that it can grow its revenue and make a profit. Facebook, for now, is more of a tell-me story, one whose success or failure will play out in the coming quarters, or even years. The company hasn’t shown all it can do. Its revenue growth slowed. The company’s revenue nearly tripled in 2010, compared with 2009. In the first quarter of this year, revenue climbed 44 percent, higher than the 32 percent increase in the second quarter. Following in Google’s footsteps, it did not offer financial guidance for the coming quarters, which makes it a riskier bet for investors. Facebook also said it plans to increase its investments in the coming quarters. Higher
expenses could mean lower profits. Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, California, was valued at $104 billion when it went public two months ago. That means investors placed a higher value on its stock than established companies such as McDonald’s, Pepsi and even Amazon. With Facebook’s stock hitting a new low on Friday, the company lost as much as 39 percent of its value. It’s now around $66 billion, a little more than 3M, the company that makes Scotch tapes, stethoscopes and sandpaper. It’s also in the same range as American Express. Despite the doubts, Mike Magan of Carmel, Indiana, plans to keep the 10 shares he bought at $34.25 each a few days after Facebook went public. “I bought this thinking it was going to be something I was going to pass down to my kids,” said Magan, who works for an industrial marketing firm. “I see this as a company that will be an Apple.” Other stocks he owns include Apple, naturally, which he bought a decade ago. Back then, it was trading at around $8 to $10. Now, it’s pushing $600 as the world’s most valuable company, thanks to successes with the iPhone and the iPad the same devices confounding Facebook. “My purchase of Facebook was a vote of confidence,” Magan says, adding that he buys stock about every three to four years. Analysts are generally positive on Facebook. Of the 27 analyst ratings available from FactSet, 15 are “Buy” or equivalent, while just three are a “Sell.” Analysts tend to have longer-term views of stocks than many dayto-day investors. “We don’t view these results as dramatically good or bad,” Citi analyst Mark Mahaney says. “Key questions remain: the future of Facebook mobile monetization and the future of Facebook user engagement.” — AP
review as showing strained growth with budget deficits remaining above $1 trillion for a fourth consecutive year. “The administration’s lack of seriousness when it comes to responsibly prioritizing taxpayer dollars is unconscionable,” Ryan said. “Instead of taking more from hardworking Americans and small businesses, policymakers must advance principled pro-growth solutions that spur job creation, lift the crushing burden of debt and expand opportunity for generations to come.” Earlier on Friday, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate between April and June, the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2011. The budget was a searing political issue last summer, when a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over deficits and taxes brought the country to the edge of sovereign default and led to a credit rating downgrade. Friday’s weak second-quarter growth figure and continued concerns about unemployment are major political worries for Obama ahead of the Nov. 6 presidential election. His presumed Republican opponent Mitt Romney has criticized the Democrat as lacking the experience needed to straighten out the economy. — Reuters
Iran expands oil tanker insurance TEHRAN: Iran is expanding its insurance on its fleet of 47 oil tankers through a multi-billion-dollar line of credit as it seeks to get around EU sanctions crimping its crude exports, reports said yesterday. “Iran is ready to give total insurance for the transport of its oil... and the commitments by Iranian insurers are no different from those by Western insurers and therefore all risks and dangers are insured,” Iran’s OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper IRAN. The Fars news agency cited an “informed source” it did not identify as saying that the government had given the central state insurance agency, Bimeh Markazi, a line of credit worth several billion dollars to insure the tankers. It said 10 percent of the money had already been transferred. The measure, apparently aimed at any buyer of Iranian crude worldwide, expands on a promise of insurance for deliveries of its oil using Iranian tankers to major customers China and India. South Korea is also mulling joining the offer. Iran is suffering a cut in oil sales abroad of up to 40 percent, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), because of an EU embargo on Iranian crude imports and a related ban on European insurers providing cover for deliveries of Iranian oil anywhere in the
world. European insurers accounted for 90 percent of coverage for Iran before the EU sanctions took effect on July 1. Iran, which is striving to maintain a semblance of business as usual over its oil exports, is attempting to fill the insurance gap itself, but it faces several obstacles. US sanctions targeting Iranian financial transactions make it unclear how Iran could pay out any claims arising from accidents involving its tankers. Oil tankers are typically insured for up to $1 billion because of the risk of oil spills. A European analyst in Tehran noted that the 40 tankers in Iran’s fleet owned by the NITC, formerly known as the National Iranian Tanker Company, each had a longdistance capacity of up to two million barrels of oil. Iran, before the EU sanctions, exported around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. The IEA estimates that has now been cut to around 1.5 million barrels per day. Several of the NITC vessels were being used in June to store Iranian offshore crude that Tehran has not been able to sell because of the sanctions, according to industry specialists. Iran has announced plans to quickly expand its onshore storage capacity, which has been saturated, including by subcontracting to private firms. Tehran has also ordered 12 new supertankers from China and should receive the first in December. — AFP
22
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
BUSINESS
Jordan’s Arab Bank Group H1 net profits rise 10% Geographic spread cushions impact of regional turmoil AMMAN: Jordan’s Arab Bank Group saw its first-half net profits rise by 10 percent to $360 million compared with the same year-ago period due to lower provisions and a rise in operational income despite political upheaval that hit the region, a bank statement said yesterday. Chairman Abdel Hamid Shoman said the bank, one of the Middle East’s major financial institutions with a strong presence across the region, saw deposits rise 3.6 percent to $32 billion at the end of June 2012 against the same period last year. “The results reflected the strength of the bank and its ability to benefit from its global
reach and also its success in dealing with the regional and international uncertainty and adopting prudent credit polices,” Shoman said. Bankers say the bank’s geographic diversification which has helped it weather turmoil in the past helped it to partially offset the impact of a wave of unrest in the region. Most Jordanian banks have set aside higher provisions to cover possible defaults and non-performing loans by businesses and realestate firms reeling from the impact of the global downturn and regional uncertainty on the aid-dependent economy. Bankers said while the credit provisions weighed on profit,
the Arab Bank was cushioned by a healthy capital base and $7.7 billion of shareholders equity. Total capital adequacy ratio reached 14.81 percent at the end of June 2012, well above regulatory standards. The firm is one of the Arab world’s largest privately owned banks, with nearly 20 percent owned by the family of Lebanon’s former prime minister, Rafik AlHariri, who was assassinated in 2005, and a similar size stake held by Jordan’s social pension fund. The rest is mainly held by long-term investors. Arab Bank owns 40 percent of Saudi Arabia’s Arab National Bank ANB. — Reuters
US warns China on review of oil deal WASHINGTON: Senator Charles Schumer said on Friday that the Obama administration should use a bid by China’s state-run CNOOC for Canadian oil company Nexen Inc as a chance to take China to task for long-standing trade and investment issues. Schumer, who has made criticism of China’s economic policies a hallmark of his career, laid out a powerful political warning that the United States expects China to open its doors to reciprocal investments, even as he made it clear that he does not object to CNOOC’s $15.1 billion bid on its merits. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Schumer suggested the United States should withhold its blessing for the deal unless China addresses complex disputes over government procurement, foreign investment reviews and intellectual property rights. The Obama administration gets to weigh in on the US. portion of the deal because Nexen has about 10 percent of its assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and US law requires a formal national security review when a foreign company buys energy and other sensitive assets. “It is rare that we have so much leverage to exert upon China,” said Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, who has argued that China fixes the value of its currency too low, creating unfair trading conditions. Schumer, of New York, was among the most vocal critics in Congress of a proposed 2005 merger between CNOOC and the oil company Unocal, which was withdrawn under pressure. His statements on Friday have been the strongest criticism thus far of the CNOOC-Nexen deal, but overall the deal has not yet produced a reaction in Washington anywhere near the Unocal controversy. Ottawa in driver’s seat The Canadian government will review the bid, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said there should be no assumptions about whether it will receive approval. But Schumer’s request to intervene in a deal involving a Canadian company caught many off-guard. Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird sidestepped questions on Friday about Schumer’s statements, saying his government would work to negotiate lower trade barriers in China “independently” from its decision on the takeover. “Decisions about the Canadian economy, about our relationship - our economic relationship with China - will be made in Ottawa and not in Washington or New York,” Baird told reporters in Ottawa. The provincial government of Alberta, home to Nexen and its oil sands operations, is also watching the development closely, officials said. — Reuters
OPEC seeks to rebuild global crude inventories NBK GCC BRIEF KUWAIT: GDP growth could reach a healthy-looking 5.4 percent in 2012, but growth in the non-oil sector, at 4 percent, will remain below the regional average. Two key factors are holding the economy back: the slow pace of execution of the government’s four-year development program (2010/11-2013/14), and lingering effects from the financial crisis, which have undermined business confidence. In addition, structural reforms are needed in labor and product markets to improve the economy’s underlying growth potential. Crude oil output jumped by 16 percent y/y to 2.9 million barrels per day (mbpd) in mid-2012, its highest level for years (other sources put output at 3 mbpd, closer to its maximum capacity of 3.3 mbpd). Despite the recent fall in oil prices, we assume that output remains close to current levels throughout the year and next as OPEC seeks to rebuild global crude inventories and support global growth. This translates into a strong 8 percent increase in real oil GDP this year but no growth in 2013. High output levels increase the importance of implementing the sector’s expansion plans, which have been held up by technical and political factors. The consumer sector remains the bright spot of the non-oil economy, supported by high employment levels and large government-inspired salary and benefit increases for nationals. New retail
developments have provided an outlet for spending growth. Activity in other sectors remains more subdued, with firms hesitant to take on more debt and lacking a major trigger to invest. One notable exception has been the residential property sector, where land and building sales have surged. Targeted public development plan spending for 2012/13 has been set at KD 5.5 billion, up 5 percent y/y. Based on estimated spending rates in previous years (58-62 percent of targeted), this could boost total fixed investment by 0.3 percent of GDP, though some of this may leak abroad. The increase in planned spending comes largely in the electricity sector. Proposed public-private projects (PPPs) continue to be delayed by administrative and bureaucratic hurdles, though the first - the Al Zour power station - could start in 3Q12. Consumer price inflation is expected to average 3-4 percent this year and next, little changed from recent levels. Previously high food price inflation has decelerated as the lagged effect of falls in global food prices has taken hold. Although consumer spending will remain strong, soft monetary conditions and a strong US dollar are expected to help keep inflation low. Despite a projected dip in oil prices, budget and external surpluses will continue to be very large.
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez unveils an archetype of the new 100 Argentine pesos bill bearing the profile of former late first lady Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, better known as “Evita,” during a ceremony. — AP
Critics say new Argentine banknote not bill enough BUENOS AIRES: Critics of President Cristina Fernandez say she missed a perfect opportunity to ease strains on Argentina’s currency supply when she unveiled a new 100-peso note honoring Evita Peron this week, shunning calls for bigger bills as inflation erodes the value of the paper in people’s wallets. The 100peso note is still Argentina’s highest denomination, worth just $22 at the official exchange rate and about $16 in the illegal exchanges that most people have to use to buy dollars amid ever-tighter currency controls. With rampant inflation, that forces people to handle increasingly large wads of cash. Consumers are more frequently running up against cash limits at automatic teller machines, going from bank to bank to get enough bills to pay the rent and buy food. Highway tolls and subway and train rides also jumped in price this week, and “everybody’s asking to raise the limit on their credit cards, which is no small factor, because there are 37 million credit cards in a population of 40 million Argentines,” said Enrique Dentice, an economist at the private University of San Martin. Bills are racing off Argentina’s printing presses as the government stimulates consumer spending and job growth, with salaries rising 25 percent or more a year to keep pace. The overall money supply has grown 23 percent and the nominal peso value of the bills and coins in circulation has jumped 36 percent in the last 12 months, to nearly 176 billion pesos. As she unveiled the new bill Wednesday night to honor the country’s iconic former first lady, Fernandez made no mention of inflation, now running at some 25 percent annually according to private economists, though only 9.9 percent according to the widely discredited government statistics agency. “Evita was the perfect excuse to bring out a bill, but at 500 pesos,” said Alfonso Prat-Gay, a former central bank chief and current congressman with the Civic Coalition party, on a political talk show on Canal 26. “This devalues Evita by putting her on a bill of 100 and not recognizing the phenomenon behind all this, which is inflation.” But some say a sudden
five-fold increase in the nation’s largest bank-note could itself feed inflation. “The problem is that if I put out a bill like that, expectations of inflation will take off. It would be like throwing gasoline on a fire. You have to be very careful with these matters,” Dentice said. “Otherwise you create doubt, and nobody invests ... Saying that things are going to get worse is like writing a chronicle of a death foretold.” As other major economies slow to a crawl and endure painful austerity measures, Argentina’s government seems convinced that counter-cyclical investments and an accomodating monetary policy is the best antidote to recession, and it has failed to do anything to stem inflation, according to Lorenzo Sigaut Gravina, chief economist at the Ecolatina consulting firm. “Beyond changing the face on the bill, what’s really important here is recovering confidence in the nation’s currency, by changing its monetary policy,” Sigaut Gravina said. For now, the currency controls are only getting tighter. On Friday, the central bank announced that anyone sending more than $1,500 dollars a month to family members in other countries must get its approval first, and that anyone buying dollars to pay for travel outside Argentina must file a sworn declaration about the purposes of their trip. The tax agency meanwhile announced that it had discovered that 6,800 people bought dollars for travel but then stayed at home. The agency said such money must be returned within five days, or civil penalties will ensue. Pressure on the money supply should ease somewhat after Aug. 3, when Argentina plans to pay off $2.28 billion in Boden 2012 bonds, thus resolving nearly all the debts remaining from its worldrecord default and devaluation in 2001. With another large bond issue due in December, the government has sought to limit capital flight and hoard dollars, so that the payments can be made without taking on more foreign loans that might limit the nation’s efforts at economic independence. Some economists argue that inflation isn’t a problem as long as productivity, salaries and overall economic growth keep pace. — AP
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
.2797210 .4341140 .3390920 .2822760 .2747220 .2880150 .0050240 .0021460 .0761870 .7422620 .3956460 .0746120 .7268320 .0466200
CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2812000 GB Pound/KD .4364080 Euro .3408850 Swiss francs .2837680 Canadian dollars .2761740 Danish Kroner .0458160 Swedish Kroner .0405370 Australian dlr .2895380 Hong Kong dlr .0362490 Singapore dlr .2233160 Japanese yen .0035930 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0765900 Bahraini dinars .7461850 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0750070 Omani riyals .7306740 Philippine Peso .0000000
Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES
Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Malaysian Ringgit
3.553 5.072 3.053 2.141 3.173 220.090 36.173 3.425 6.439 8.876 89.338
.2851140 .4424830 .3456290 .2877180 .2840180 .2935680 .0051200 .0021880 .0776560 .7565720 .4032730 .0760500 .7408440 .0475190 .2833000 .4396670 .3434300 .2858870 .2782360 .0461580 .0408400 .2917000 .0365200 .2249840 .0036200 .0050880 .0021740 .0030080 .0034780 .0771620 .7517580 .4007070 .0755670 .7361310 .0067920
Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham
GCC COUNTRIES 74.883 77.158 729.380 745.850 76.464
ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 48.250 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.466 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.309 Tunisian Dinar 176.65 Jordanian Dinar 396.190 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.884 Syrian Lier 4.899 Morocco Dirham 32.64 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 280.700 Euro 354.52 Sterling Pound 441.820 Canadian dollar 274.79 Turkish lire 152.400 Swiss Franc 295.01 US Dollar Buying 279.500 GOLD 293.000 148.000 75.250
20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram
Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria
47.700 734.190 3.100 6.980 78.180 75.470 225.390 36.490 2.692 442.000 41.500 287.700 4.400 9.290 198.290 77.060 283.000 1.360
10 Tola
GOLD 1,705.960
Sterling Pound US Dollar
734.010 3.002 6.715 77.750 75.470 225.390 36.490 2.155 440.000 286.200 4.400 9.100 76.960 282.600
COUNTRY
TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 440.000 282.600
SELL CASH
SELL DRAFT
292.700 751.680 3.730 278.700 555.100 46.000 46.900 167.800 48.140 345.600 37.140 5.330 0.032 0.161 0.237 3.710 400.540 0.191 91.700 43.600 4.340 224.900 1.831
291.200 751.680 3.449 277.200
225.400 46.571 344.100 36.990 5.050 0.031
SELL DRAFT
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 Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal
SELL CASH
294.51 281.95 289.17 345.07 282.00 441.81 3.68 3.455 5.030 2.161 3.168 2.990 76.85 750.87 46.52 401.76 733.93 77.87 75.41
294.00 282.00 288.00 344.00 282.85 442.50 3.63 3.580 5.295 2.380 3.650 3.150 77.35 750.00 48.10 399.00 736.00 78.00 75.65
Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 400.510 0.190 91.700 3.180 223.400
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
286.125 747.650 76.865 77.515 75.270 398.085 46.538 2.151 5.053 2.991 3.451 6.705 692.730 4.605 9.010 4.400 3.265 88.875
Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.
UAE Exchange Centre WLL
Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY
Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal
Selling Rate
282.400 282.280 438.165 344.215
Currency
Rate per 1000 (Tran)
US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Euro Canadian Dollars
282.400 2.984 5.060 2.160 3.454 6.750 76.990 75.460 750.700 46.545 443.800 2.990 3.205 1.550 348.800 285.000
Al Mulla Exchange Currency
Transfer Rate (Per 1000)
US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change
282.350 349.200 444.850 281.710 3.655 5.098 46.550 2.149 3.440 6.735 2.995 751.040 76.900 75.400
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
BUSINESS
Real crisis doubts take root among German firms Confidence slides, frustration over lack of action mounts
BERLIN: In this file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) talks to new French President Francois Hollande. — AP
German minister rejects talk of Spain aid request BERLIN: Germany’s finance minister is rejecting talk of a possible application from Spain for the euro-zone’s bailout fund to buy the struggling country’s bonds, a newspaper reported yesterday. This week, European Central Bank head Mario Draghi promised to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. The German and French leaders then said that they were “determined to do everything to protect the eurozone.” Neither mentioned any specific action. But those comments raised expectations that the ECB - or the eurozone’s temporary rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility - might step in to buy Spanish government bonds and lower the country’s borrowing costs, which have been at worryingly high levels in recent weeks. Still, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as telling the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Spain’s shortterm financing needs are “not so big.”
Asked about talk that Spain could soon make an application for the euro-zone rescue fund to buy bonds, he replied: “There is nothing to this speculation.” “The high interest rates are painful and they create a lot of concern - but it’s not the end of the world if one has to pay a few percent more at a few bond auctions,” Schaeuble was quoted as saying. He added that an aid package worth up to €100 billion ($123 billion) to help Spain’s banks, which are laden with soured investments following a property sector collapse, is “sufficiently large.” Spain’s budget-cutting and economic reform efforts will have positive effects, “on the financial markets too,” he insisted. Spanish officials have been adamant that the country, the euro-zone’s fourth-largest economy, will not seek a fullscale bailout along the lines of those given to Portugal and Ireland as it battles with a persistent recession. — AP
ALPEN: The ploughs that made German farm machinery firm Lemken its name line the factory forecourt like a row of modernist sculptures, with jutting spokes and sinister-looking blades. Based in an agricultural region close to the Dutch border, this is an archetypal German “Mittelstand” company, family-owned over seven generations and still catering to the same farmer clientele served by its founder, blacksmith Wilhelmus Lemken, in 1780. But after strong growth last year, Lemken, like the wider German economy, is losing its immunity to the debt crisis sweeping Europe and beyond, devouring investor confidence in its wake. Sales will slow sharply in the second half of the year, as European markets shrink or stagnate and the pace of growth stalls in emerging economies which helped power record German exports in 2011. “Farmers, our customers, worry like every other citizen about the scale of the crisis and the chances of recession,” Lemken chief executive Franz von Busse told Reuters from his modern office in the flat Alpen countryside. “This affects their willingness to make major investments in agricultural machinery like ploughs.” He expects sales to fall 5 percent in the second half of 2012, after rising 15 percent in the first, giving an annual rise of just 5 percent and mirroring a broader slowdown in Germany’s agricultural machinery sector. The looming slowdown in Europe’s powerhouse economy is a blow for the continent’s recovery hopes. A lengthy period of stagnation or worse beckons if the debt crisis deepens. Recent economic reports point to rapidly deteriorating sentiment among German businesses as new orders falter and frustration at political inertia over the crisis mounts. A survey of purchasing managers showed Germany’s factory output contracted at its fastest pace in nearly three years in May. Closely watched business sentiment surveys from the Ifo and ZEW think tanks have also slumped. The reports show building firms with a high reliance on public spending, and retailers, who depend on the mood of German consumers, are being hit hardest. German healthcare firms such as Fresenius or Biotest have found themselves facing unpaid bills from Greek hospitals, for which they were given Greek government bonds, only to find these written down. Elsewhere in the economy, growth is tailing off as order books take longer to fill. “We will see a flattening this year. Growth is slowing as
orders slow, but we should still see mild growth,” said Arndt Kirchhoff, head of the Mittelstand division of the Federation of German Industry, and chief executive of an automotive company. Germany remains in a better position than its European peers. Its firms have confidence in their products, if not in their political leaders, and are better positioned for external shocks, having reduced their exposure to Europe’s crisis-hit periphery. But the situation is beginning to look more fragile, with worrying implications for Europe. Germany’s economic momentum will be a key factor in the duration and severity of the crisis. Political inertia In a recent study of 4,000 Mittelstand, or small and medium-sized firms, by Commerzbank, three in four said political uncertainty arising from the euro zone crisis was making it difficult to make plans, adversely affecting their business. It is a frustration shared by Ralf Saatkamp, 33, founder of System Trailers GmbH, which makes commercial vehicle trailers. “We see no solutions being put forward. Politicians just come up with ways to push problems aside for a time even if this actually increases them,” said Saatkamp, who is also deputy president of Germany’s Association of Young Entrepreneurs. “Things improve for a few months but then deteriorate. I feel a big economic shake out is looming.” The crisis hasn’t yet hit his orders, but could soon. “As businesses we have to take responsibility for running a sustainable budget, keeping ourselves financed. If we can’t then we shouldn’t be running businesses. Governments need to display similar discipline.” The Commerzbank study showed two thirds of firms expect growth to weaken and a third worry about repaying loans. Josef Schlarmann, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), and head of the party’s Mittelstand wing, acknowledges political intransigence is souring sentiment. But he urged firms to separate fears of what may happen from what is actually is happening. “Expectations reflect all kinds of psychological factors. In politics there are many things which leave little room for optimism. We have fears about the euro zone crisis, changing energy policy. Firms reading about this and feel anxious.” “But the opposite could happen. We could see economic activity focusing in northern and central Europe, with business transferring from the periphery. That would benefit Germany.”
“Made in Germany” While the immediate prospects are increasingly uncertain German manufacturers still expect stronger demand for the “Made in Germany” label in future. Businesses say they are better placed for rocky times ahead than during the 2009 downturn. Exporters now earn only one euro in ever y ten from Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain, and firms are now less dependant on loans. Saatkamp for example is dealing with Kazakhstan and Poland and has avoided southern Europe altogether. Another factor is that unlike in 2009, consumer demand in Germany is holding. Hefty wage hikes for workers should spur more spending and Berlin is under pressure to encourage wary Germans to consume more freely to help euro zone partners. At Lemken, given the world’s mounting food needs, demand for more intensive farming, and farmers’ higher investment power as food prices rise, the long-term prospects are brighter. “We learned lessons from the 2009 financial crisis and we have exposure to a range of markets. We don’t see any need to reduce working hours. But we also are sure we can react rapidly if necessary,” Von Busse added. “We can’t compete on price. So we have to be ahead with the technology and the quality.” Like Lemken the German economy staged a strong recovery from the global financial turmoil. It grew 3 percent in 2011, and an enviable 3.7 percent in 2010. The first quarter of 2012 was surprisingly strong at 0.5 percent, even if the Bundesbank sees GDP rising a modest 0.6 percent this year. Eyes open Moreover, Germany does not look set to suffer a liquidity crunch like some of its peers or indeed like it did during financial crisis. A study released this month by trade credit insurer Atradius showed that as much as 30 percent of bills are now paid late by Germany’s business customers in Western Europe due to liquidity problems, creating squeeze for those trying to recover their debts. But Andreas Tesch, chief market officer at Atradius, notes firms are better prepared now. “I think the difference between now and the previous global financial crisis is that we are entering this with our eyes wide open. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers things came to a very abrupt standstill. We have learned lessons and our clients are better prepared,” he added. — Reuters
At least three banks seen central to Libor rigging
Slowing Korean growth spurs expansionary policies KCIC WEEKLY ANALYSIS The South Korean economy has been slowing down for over a year now. The latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures show that growth in Asia’s fourth largest economy continued to trend downwards, easing to 2.4 percent yearon-year in the second quarter of this year, down from 2.8 percent in the previous quarter. A recessionary euro-zone and a US economy that has been losing momentum in the past few months have had a significantly negative impact on Asian trade. Just like China, South Korea is an economy highly dependent on its export sector. And just as the Chinese economy isdecelerating on falling external demand, so is South Korea, which exports forty percent of its goods to the US, EU and China. Domestic demand in South Korea has also beensoftening, saddled with high levels of household debt in an economy whose housing sector is weakening. In anticipation of an economic slowdown, the government has increased spendingconsiderably in the first half of the year, resulting in anexpansion of public debt. Spending was mostly aimed at maintaining some infrastructure-led growth through large-scale state projects such as in facility investments, but was also directed atcurbingrising consumer prices by controlling electricity rates and other public utility charges. Even though growth has continued to ease, the government has managed to keep inflation in check. With more room to support growth, the Bank of Korea (BoK), South Korea’s central bank, cut its policy rate by 25 basis points to 3 percent in July. The last time BoK cut its policy rate was three years ago in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Real GDP is a measure of the economic outputof an economy - adjusted for inflation or deflation. It is the sum of the adjusted values of all final goods and services produced by that country or region over a given time period. The values depend on the quantities (volume) of the goods produced and their prices (value). Real GDP is a measure that holds prices constant by using a given year’s value (the base date) for all items and
services. Then, these values are used to calculate GDP for years prior to the base year and subsequent years. GDP can be measured in several ways, with the Bank of Koreapublishing GDP both by sector and expenditure. The three main sectors are the primary (raw materials and basic foods such as agriculture); secondary (mining, manufacturing, processing, construction, etc.); and tertiary (the services industry such as retail, transportation, entertainment, tourism, etc.). On the other hand, the four sources of expenditures are private consumption, government consumption, investments and trade. Despite supportcoming throughboth fiscal and monetary expansionary policies, growth in the East Asian economy is still trending downwards. The government, BoK, the IMF and many other institutionshavealready downgraded their outlook on the Korean economy for this year. However, further stimulus is expected. The government has already decided to allocate an additional seven billion dollars in spending through its state budget and public funds.A large part of the fiscal stimulus will continue to aim at keeping consumer inflation contained, which has already decelerated to a 23month low of 2.2 percent year-on-year in June, around BoK’s target of 2 percent. The slowing consumer prices will leave some room for further easing, with more stimuli aimed at encouraging growth expected in the second half of 2012, in the form of both fiscalinvestmentfocused spending and monetary easing. Though the expansionary policies could exacerbate the rise in household debt, strengthening the weakened domestic demand has become the priority, especially if the slowdown in developed economies continues to dampen South Korea’s export sector. If the euro-zone continues to muddle through at the current pace, at least another rate cut is expected for the year. In the short-term, Asia’s fourth-largest economy is expected to bottom up, most likely by the end of the year, driven mostly by the strengthening domestic sector. Expect positive returns in financials, infrastructure and mostly in the consumer sector.
New details from court documents and sources close to the Libor scandal investigation suggest that groups of traders working at three major European banks were heavily involved in rigging global benchmark interest rates. Some of those traders, including one who used to work at Barclays Plc in New York, still have senior positions on Wall Street trading desks. Until now, most of the attention has involved traders at Barclays, which last month reached a $453 million settlement with US and UK authorities for its role in the manipulation of rates. Now, it is becoming clear that traders from at least two other banks - UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Switzerland’s UBS AG - played a central role. Among them, the three banks employed more than a dozen traders who sought to influence rates in either dollar, euro or yen rates. Some of the traders who are being probed have worked for several banks under scrutiny, raising the possibility that the rate fixing became more ingrained as traders changed jobs. The documents reviewed by Reuters in analyzing the traders’ involvement included court filings by Canadian regulators who have been investigating potential antitrust issues; settlement documents with Barclays filed by the US Department of Justice and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington and by the Financial Services Authority in the UK; and a private employment lawsuit filed by a former RBS trader in Singapore’s High Court. The scandal, which began to come to light in 2008, has become a time bomb for regulators and a big focus for politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. At issue is the manipulation between at least 2005 and 2009 of rates that are used to determine the cost of trillions of dollars of borrowings, including everything from home loans to credit card rates. One former Barclays employee under scrutiny, Reuters has learned, is Jay V. Merchant, according to people familiar with the situation. Merchant, who oversaw the US dollar swaps trading desk at Barclays in New York, worked for the bank from March 2006 to October 2009, according to employment records maintained by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Merchant currently holds a similar position at UBS, where he works out of the Swiss bank’s offices in Stamford, Connecticut, according to FINRA. He did not return requests for comment. People familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at whether some individuals on Merchant’s trading desk tried to influence the rate on Libor by communicating with other traders in London to get a higher return on certain swaps the desk was trading. His specific role is unclear. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Merchant’s attorney, John Kenney of Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney, did not respond to requests seeking comment. A UBS spokeswoman said that the bank has “no reason to believe Mr. Merchant has engaged in any improper conduct at UBS.” The spokeswoman, who noted that Merchant is on a two-week vacation, declined to comment on the broader investigation. Barclays declined to comment. In a statement, an RBS spokeswoman said the bank is cooperating with the investigation. Spread from Barclays Earlier this week, Reuters reported that federal prosecutors in Washington have begun reaching out to lawyers for some of the individuals under scrutiny as they get closer to bringing possible criminal charges. The dollar and euro raterigging appears to have begun in earnest in early 2005 in the dollar market, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters. By August of that year, Barclays traders were reaching out to traders at other big global banks to manipulate their rates to make them favorable to Barclays’ trading positions.—Reuters
FREMONT: Workmen assemble Model S sedans at the Tesla auto plant in California. — MCT
Tesla prepares for Model S launch SAN JOSE: Many in the traditional auto industry doubted that Tesla Motors could build an all-electric sedan from scratch in Silicon Valley. But this week the skeptics will witness the tech industry’s most disruptive product launch of the year. Tesla is counting down the hours to Friday, when CEO Elon Musk will hand over the keys to a small group of customers who placed early reservations for the Model S sedan. It’s a watershed moment for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, manufacturing in California and the nascent electric vehicle industry, which has been struggling to live up to ambitious expectations. “This is a tech product,” said Theo O’Neill, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities who has been bullish on Tesla because the company is delivering the Model S ahead of schedule, something unheard of in the electric vehicle industry. “And it is bad news for the naysayers in Detroit who can’t find their way out of a paper bag.” Tesla is building the Model S at the former NUMMI plant in Fremont, Calif., the site of a former Toyota-GM venture that it bought in 2010 and transformed. Invited for a rare visit to the plant, the first thing a reporter and photographer from this newspaper noticed were the vast parking lots. Empty when NUMMI shut down, they are now filled with cars and have dedicated spots for electric vehicle charging. Fresh orchids in a large vase greet visitors in the sleek lobby, where Tesla-branded T-shirts and jackets are for sale. Much of the cavernous facility has been painted a gleaming white, giving it a bright, clean and futuristic feel. The office space looks like a social media startup: an open floor plan filled with employees on computers, with no cubicles or private offices. On the factory floor itself, workers zip around on red bicycles or in electric golf carts because it takes too long to walk. “People used to think we were a joke,” said Gilbert Passin, Tesla’s vice president of manufacturing, as he stood on “the bridge,” a second-floor walkway overlooking the assembly line. “But there’s no way you can come into
this factory and not know we are completely serious. You cannot do this in your garage.” The Model S begins as a massive roll of aluminum that is cut into large sheets. From there, the aluminum is “stamped” into threedimensional pieces, including doors, fenders, panels and roofs, using massive, 40-ton molds known as “dies.” State-of-the-art robots from Kuka, a German company, feed the sheets into the hydraulic press line. Aluminum is far lighter than steel, allowing Tesla to increase the overall range of the vehicle. The Model S seats five adults with two child seats in the rear. “Stamping is basically the structure of the vehicle, and 95 percent of it is made right here,” said Passin, a native of France who joined Tesla after being general manager of production engineering for Toyota in North America. “It’s very exhilarating to be able to produce a car. We have been working very hard to beat our internal targets. We do not have to rush, but we are working extremely fast.” Tesla is purchasing parts and raw materials from more than 100 U.S. suppliers, including from companies in California, Michigan and Tennessee. After the vehicle is framed, painted, and goes through final assembly, each new Model S is subjected to a rigorous series of quality tests. Vehicles take what is essentially a shower with recycled water to check for sealing and leaks. There’s also a “squeak and rattle” test that mimics the motion of driving on real roads. Because electric cars don’t have tailpipe emissions, the test can be done inside the factory, without fear of fumes. The Model S will come in 10 vibrant colors, but not all of the hues have been publicly revealed. The paint gloss on each car is so shiny that Tesla employees wear black patches over their wedding rings and watches to prevent even the slightest scratches. The first 1,200 Model S vehicles delivered in North America will be from the limited-edition “Signature” series, which comes with an 85kWh battery that Tesla said is capable of 300 miles per charge.—MCT
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business
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
KSE continues negative trend BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone. The price index ended last week with a decrease amounted to 1.15 percent, while the weighted index declined by 1.25 percent compared to the closings of the week before, whereas KSX-15 Index dropped by 1.29 percent. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover increased by 23 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 16.41 million, whereas trading volume average was 99.62 million shares, recording decrease of 24.94 percent. The stock market continued its negative performance last week amid powerful selling trend to many small and large-cap stocks of different sectors, despite the positive start at the beginning of the week which was a result of the purchasing power witnessed on small-cap stocks of investment groups. However, all realized gains were lost due to the return of selling operations actions, which caused the three indices to decline, especially the price index, which closed at its lowest level since last January 12 session. On the other hand, Kuwait Stock Market is still living a cautious state in general, due to the investor’s watch for the listed companies’ semi-annual financial results, among great pessimistic expectations, especially after the latest banks’ announcements that showed a decline in growth, and raised the traders’ concerns. As far as the annual indices performance, all of the market main indices recorded losses. While the price index recorded decrease of 1.16 percent; the weighted index recorded loss amounted to 2.35 percent and KSX-15 index retreated by 4.21 percent. However, market capital value reached KD 26.83 billion by the end of the week, recording a decrease of 6.04 per-
cent compared to KD 28.55 billion by the end of 2011. By the end of the week, the price index closed at 5,746.97 points, down by 1.15 percent from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 1.25 percent weekly loss after closing at 396.10 points. Moreover, the KSX-15 index recorded 1.29 percent weekly loss after closing at 957.92 points. Sectors’ indices Ten of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other two recorded increases. The oil and gas sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 6.87 percent to end the week’s activity at 824.83 points. The healthcare sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 5.95 percent, closing at 1,034.91 points, followed by the basic materials sector, as its index closed at 922.66 points at a loss of 3.35 percent.
The financial services sector was the least declining as its index closed at 836.02 points with a 0.50 percent decrease. On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the technology sector, achieving 3.15 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,054.38 points. Whereas, in the second place, the consumer services sector’s index closed at 935.40 points recording 0.42 percent increase. Sectors’ activity The financial services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 270.71 million shares changing hands, representing 54.35 percent of the total market trading volume. The real estate sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 15.70 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 78.22 million shares. On
the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 37.27 million or 45.41 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 19.59 million represented 23.87 percent of the total market trading value. Market capitalization KSE total market capitalization declined by 1.32 percent during last week to reach KD 26.83 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded a decrease in their respective market capitalization except for three sector. The oil and gas sector headed the decliners list as its total market capitalization reached KD 316.83 million, decreasing by 8.51 percent. The basic materials sector was the second in terms of recorded decline with 4.72 percent decrease after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 579.94 million. The third place was for the Health Care sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 190.53 million by the end of the week, recording a decline of 3.49 percent. The real estate sector was the least declining with 0.66 percent recorded decrease after its market capitalization amounted to KD 1.30 billion. On the other hand, technology sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 68.78 million, increasing by 1.51 percent. The consumer services sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 0.35 percent increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 741.84 million. The insurance sector was the least Industrials with 0.10 percent recorded growth after its market capitalization amounted to KD 307.53 million.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
BUSINESS
Stocks fly on central bank hopes NEW YORK: Stocks rallied on Friday on expectations the European Central Bank will tackle high borrowing costs hitting Spain and Italy, but the euro pared gains on market uncertainty about the specific action to be taken. The benchmark S&P 500 closed at its highest since early May, climbing further after Bloomberg News said ECB President Mario Draghi will meet with Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann to discuss several measures, including bond purchases, to help the euro zone. The French and German governments said they are “determined to do everything to protect the euro zone” and its single currency. The joint statement echoed similar remarks by Draghi on Thursday, but in comments on Friday, Germany’s Bundesbank pushed back against Draghi’s pledge. Adding to hopes for decisive action, US Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner will meet separately with his German counterpart and Draghi on Monday, the Treasury Department said. The heightened expectations about ECB intervention soon helped to push Spanish and Italian bond yields lower. “Fundamentally, there is a lot of uncertainty, and still a lot of unanswered questions as to how exactly the ECB plans to bring down sovereign borrowing costs,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington. “To some extent, the rally in the euro and more broadly equities and risk assets had gotten a little bit ahead of itself.” Expectations that the Federal Reserve will act to support the US economy also grew after data showed US gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate from April through June,
roughly in line with lowered expectations. Market expectations are high for another round of asset purchases from the Fed, which in the past have sparked rallies in stocks and commodities. Markets are also beginning to price in a move from the ECB, possibly in the form of bond purchases. Both central banks hold separate meetings next week. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 187.73 points, or 1.46 percent, to 13,075.66. The S&P 500 Index gained 25.95 points, or 1.91 percent, to 1,385.97. The Nasdaq Composite added 64.84 points, or 2.24 percent, to 2,958.09. The FTSEurofirst 300 advanced 1.3 percent to close at 1,056.51. An MSCI index of global equities added 1.8 percent to end at 1,250.02. Copper prices jumped 1.3 percent while Brent and US oil prices rose for a fourth day running, although they were both
still lower for the week after plummeting on Monday. The euro pared most of its gains after hitting a three-week high versus the US dollar. It was last up 0.3 percent at $1.2318, after hitting a session high of $1.2389. On Tuesday, the single currency slid to a two-year low of $1.2040. In his statement on Thursday, Draghi appeared to target the bond market, saying the monitoring of rising borrowing costs in bloc members was within the ECB’s mandate. Ten-year Spanish bond yields hit a low of 6.731 percent, the lowest since July 17, while the Italian benchmark bond yield dipped below 6 percent for the first time in a week. As investors turned toward relatively riskier assets, safe-haven investments fell. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury note slid 29/32, or nearly a full point in price, while the yield rose to 1.534 percent. — Reuters
China’s fiscal growth slowing at a fast pace Wen Jiabao warns of ‘huge downward pressure’
Dan Olson, an apprentice carpenter, is 1,000 hours short of the 7,000 hours of on-the-job experience he needs to complete his four-year training program. — MCT
Recession generation has adulthood on hold MINNEAPOLIS: Alyssa Kjellberg still can’t believe it. Two years beyond college, her career path has led only to jobs at a greenhouse, a hotel front desk, an aunt’s office and a seasonal landscaping company - all paying less than $12 an hour. After applying for about 100 jobs, the environmental science major even offered “one week of free labor” last summer to get a foot in the door at the landscaping company. But that job ended with the season, as will the one she’s in now. Her dream of becoming a park ranger or environmental educator is drifting away. “There are so many people looking for work, you feel lost in the shuffle,” said Kjellberg, 23. “I see my grandpa who lived through World War II and all he had to go through. Sometimes I feel like I’m living through something like that, too.” Kjellberg is caught in a generation where gaining economic independence is a longer haul than it was for their middle-class parents - who continue supporting their now-adult offspring in ways big and small. More than half of the 18to 24-year-olds surveyed in March by the Pew Research Center said they live with parents now or had recently because of the economy. Among those ages 25 to 29, 41 percent had done the same at some point. These job seekers were cranking out resumes and trying to enter the workforce just as the unemployment rate for young adults hit its highest point since 1948, when data tracking began. Sometimes called the “Lost Generation,” their slow start out of the economic blocks could affect the nature of the middle class far into the future. “They can’t get their foot on the bottom rung of their career ladder,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “Research shows their wages will be scarred for their entire lifetimes. They are less likely to get fringe benefits like health care. The jobs they get pay worse.” Job seekers under age 25 typically are the biggest losers in economic downturns and the current crop is no exception. Nationally, unemployment for them peaked at 18.4 percent in 2010. Today, it remains at nearly 13 percent in Minnesota and 16 percent nationally - almost
double the overall rate. Those who did find work saw the biggest drop in earnings of any age group in the Great Recession, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. From 2007 to 2011, earnings for older workers remained basically flat. But for full-time workers ages 18 to 24, median weekly earnings dropped 6 percent. It could take a lifetime for them to regain lost wages and opportunities, economists say. The current wave of recovery may have swept right past them, if history is a guide. Seventeen years after the recession of the early 1980s, college grads who entered the workforce during that downturn still earned an average of 10 percent less than those who got their jobs before or after that recession, according to Yale University researcher Lisa Kahn. But the long-term impact pales compared to the current stress on these children of the middle class trying to make it on their own. So far, their efforts have netted a swirl of temporary jobs, low pay and a chronic state of job searching. New job reality Kjellberg thought she did everything right. She took college classes in high school, knew her major the minute she set foot at St. Cloud State University, got good grades and had a decent internship. Then came graduation. “I’ve been applying for jobs since 2010,” said Kjellberg, an outgoing young woman who grew up in Monticello and now lives in Shoreview, Minn. “I’ve been shocked at the number of places you never hear back from.... You start to wonder, should I even apply?” Kjellberg had envisioned landing a government job at a park where she could be an educator or conservationist. Making ends meet by working in her aunt’s office and moving back to her mother’s house were not part of the plan. A decade ago, such a serious job hunter was far more likely to land a job related to their training. Some still do today, but the norm is a longer job search punctuated by multiple entry-level jobs and internships - sometimes unpaid. Her boyfriend, Dan Olson, estimates he has had 15 employers in the past four years.—MCT
BEIJING: China’s economy appears to be weakening more rapidly than official statistics would suggest, raising fears of a painful slowdown that could be felt around the globe. Second-quarter gross domestic product statistics to be released this week are expected to show growth of around 7.5 percent compared with the same period last year, according to analysts’ estimates. That would be the slowest pace since the depths of the global financial crisis. But government data are widely believed to understate the extent of China’s woes. Other indicators point to a much sharper decline, economists said. Record amounts of coal and iron ore are piling up at depots, signaling waning demand for electricity and building materials. Excavators and other heavy equipment are being idled or sold at deep discounts as housing construction has stalled. The demand for diesel, needed to power those machines, has been flat for six months. Shipyards have laid off thousands of workers, and half-built vessels have been left to rust. Premier Wen Jiabao warned of “huge downward pressure” on the world’s No. 2 economy, one of the strongest admissions yet that China’s top leaders are worried about the recent deceleration. The country’s central bank last week unexpectedly cut bank lending rates in a bid to stimulate lending. China’s trade minister said last month that the country would be “lucky” to meet its growth targets for imports and exports this year, describing the environment as “grim.” Trade numbers for June, released Tuesday, came in lower than expected, according to media reports. Industrial data point to a decline that government growth figures wouldn’t fully reflect, according to economists who are downgrading their forecasts. Local officials throughout China are suspected of padding growth estimates to meet targets set by Beijing to boost their chances for promotion. “Recent economic data, including steel production and corporate profits, have continued to weaken visibly,” said Yiping Huang, an economist for Barclays. “ There is a
renewed perception that the real economy is much weaker than is suggested by official statistics.” Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturing activity has been slowing, a sign of slackening demand from Europe and the US, China’s biggest markets for factory goods. Alan Wang, a footwear trader in the southern city of Shenzhen, said sales this year are down a third. His mostly French and Spanish customers are taking as long as four months to pay their bills. Wang said one of his local suppliers has already closed. Another is on the brink after a US buyer filed for bankruptcy and couldn’t pay for a $1.1 million order for tennis shoes.
during much of the past decade. Now analysts are projecting that the growth rate in 2012 will struggle to reach 8 percent - a symbolic target that officials are loath to miss. Developing nations including Brazil have already seen exports of oil, iron ore and other commodities to China slump. Luxury jewelers in Hong Kong are complaining about a decline in free spenders from China. Macau, long a draw for Chinese gamblers, is reporting a steep drop-off in high rollers from the mainland. “Growth expectations in Macau are going to undergo an uncomfortable adjustment phase,” said Gary Pinge, an analyst
YUEQING: Sinking freight rates have hit ship builders such as Dongfang Shipbuilding in China, where unfinished tankers sit idle. — MCT
“This year is really bad compared with last year,” said Wang, managing director of Charmy Shoes. “I think China needs another big stimulus. Factories are closing down because they can’t get paid.” Such weakness is unwelcome news for a world economy already weighed down by troubles in the eurozone. China powered through the 2008 financial crisis and has delivered blistering GDP growth
for financial services firm Macquarie. The slowdown has also crimped earnings at US corporations that had been expanding in China, including Caterpillar Inc., Nike Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc., which operates KFC and Pizza Hut. With a once-in-a-decade transition of top leadership looming in China this year, stability is paramount. Calls are growing for offi-
cials to buttress the economy through policy tinkering and government stimulus. But China’s leaders must proceed carefully. The nation is still suffering the fallout from the last round of intervention following the 2008 global crisis. To keep the economy humming, Beijing spent billions on public works and encouraged banks to lend - easy credit that fueled a housing bubble and a surge of borrowing by local governments. The real estate sector is now deflating, thanks in part to government restrictions introduced two years ago to clamp down on speculators. Home prices throughout China have plummeted and developers have been saddled with tens of thousands of unsold units. Zhu He, sales manager at an 800-unit apartment complex in central Beijing, said the building’s owner has pulled dozens of apartments off the market rather than discount them. Two years ago, a 1,000-square-foot unit would have sold for $1.15 million. Today, maybe $900,000, Zhu said. That could be optimistic. Values in some markets have declined by half. Zhu said the government would be forced to lift restrictions to jump-start a sector that accounts for about one-fifth of the nation’s economic activity. “Real estate is too important to the Chinese economy,” Zhu said. The decline has also strained the finances of cities that had depended heavily on public land sales to fund their budgets. “Local governments are in dire shape,” said Andy Xie, an independent economist in Shanghai. “Some can’t make payroll. They want to sell more land but they can’t.” Some economists think Beijing will successfully steer the country back on track, perhaps as soon as the third quarter of this year. Others aren’t so sure. “The landing of China is becoming harder rather than softer,” New York University professor and longtime bear Nouriel Roubini recently told Bloomberg. “It’s the perfect storm. You could have a collapse of the eurozone, a US double-dip, hardlanding of China, hard-landing of emerging markets and a war in the Middle East. Next year could be a global perfect storm.” — MCT
Numb European economy dampens CEOs’ outlook NEW YORK: Deteriorating financial conditions in Europe are weighing down companies’ profits. And hope of salvation from other regions - such as China, Brazil and the United States - is starting to dim as those economies weaken. That’s the message from this week’s parade of second-quarter earnings from some of the world’s largest companies. “The new reality is that this world is not in a normal growth mode,” Dow Chemical CEO Andrew N. Liveris said on a conference call Thursday. “And it does not appear that we will see this for at least 12 to 24 months.” One CEO after another told investors and Wall Street analysts that Europe was making them nervous. Royal Caribbean CEO Richard D. Fain said, “The steady drumbeat of negative news emanating out of Europe is certainly having an impact.” The chief executive of German automaker Daimler AG, Dieter Zietsche, referred to “economic clouds in the sky, which are floating especially over Europe.” Europe’s debt crisis has worsened over the past few months. Six of the 17 nations that use the euro currency are in recession. Solutions have proven elusive. Because the global economy is so integrated, what happens in Europe doesn’t stay in Europe. As Europeans buy fewer cars, for instance, profits of American automakers fall. Ford Motor Co. expects to lose more than $1 billion in Europe this year. Europe’s slowdown also hurts factories in China. In turn, those Chinese factories buy less iron ore from Brazil. So, after three years of trying to crawl out from the Great Recession, companies are once again faced with “uncertainty,” “headwinds,” the prospect of “slow growth” and any other corporate buzzword you can think of. For many, their prospects aren’t looking good. But not every company is so glum. Heavy construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar reported blockbuster earnings Wednesday, driven in part by companies making long-term investments to upgrade their aging machines. Here is a look at five of the world’s bellwether companies and what their earnings say about the economy: Volkswagen AG WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Volkswagen is Europe’s largest carmaker - selling nearly a quarter of all cars there - and is a key player in
North America, China, Russia and India. WHAT THE NUMBERS SAID: Volkswagen’s second-quarter profit jumped 18 percent to $6.84 billion, or $14.61 per share. That’s up from $5.86 billion net income, or $12.18 per share, a year ago. WHAT THE EARNINGS SAID ABOUT THE ECONOMY: It’s tough to sell cars when the economy is in the tank, which is the case in southern Europe. The overall European car market shrank 6.8 percent. Volkswagen held up better, with its European sales declining just 1.5 percent. In other parts of the globe, people still want to buy cars. Demand for cars increased in the second quarter in the US, China, Russia and India. Volkswagen said that should continue in the second half of the year, although at a slower pace. The German automaker warned the car market in western Europe would continue to shrink. WHAT THE EXPERTS SAID: Analysts told clients not to worry about a slowdown in China for Volkswagen after seeing the results. They said the overall earnings numbers were solid, even though the Volkswagen brand had its worst European volume performance in a long time. THE QUOTE: “Our strong position on world markets will help us to exceed the development of the overall market despite the challenging environment,” CEO Martin Winterkorn said in a statement. United Parcel Service Inc. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: UPS moves millions of packages between consumers and businesses every day - everything from flowers to car parts and computer chips. WHAT THE NUMBERS SAID: Second-quarter net income rose just 2 percent to $1.12 billion, while revenue improved by little more than 1 percent. International revenue fell, while Internet shoppers kept UPS trucks busy in the US UPS sees the global economy getting worse before it gets better. That’s why it cut its full-year earnings forecast to $4.50 to $4.70 per share from $4.75 to $5 per share previously. WHAT THE EARNINGS SAID ABOUT THE ECONOMY: The
world’s largest package delivery company has thrived domestically, but now it’s more pessimistic about U.S. growth than many economists. UPS expects the US economy, by far the world’s largest, will grow just 1 percent this year. The company cited slower growth at US service companies, lower retail sales and still-high unemployment as signs that the US isn’t holding up as well as UPS anticipated just three months ago. And shipments out of Asia, which grew by double-digits two years ago, have shrunk as Europe’s economy founders. WHAT THE EXPERTS SAID: Several analysts reduced their outlooks for the company, saying the quarterly results were somewhat disappointing. Even so, they think UPS should be able to grow in a weaker global economy as it saves money through reduced service out of Asia. THE QUOTE: “Economies around the world are showing signs of weakening and our customers are increasingly nervous,” Chairman and CEO Scott Davis said in a conference call with analysts. He added: “I wouldn’t say we’re pessimistic about the future. We’re just a lot more uncertain about how much the economy will grow.” ArcelorMittal WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest producer of steel, a product used in everything from skyscrapers and bridges to appliances and cars. WHAT THE NUMBERS SAID: The company announced Wednesday net income of $959 million for its second quarter, down nearly 38 percent from the $1.535 billion a year earlier. However, the company’s profit was up sharply from the $11 million posted in the first quarter of this year. WHAT THE EARNINGS SAID ABOUT THE ECONOMY: The company said the global economy “remains fragile” and that it expects the second half of 2012 to look pretty much like the first six months. The situation in Europe and its potential impact on other markets remains the biggest concern. The company saw hopeful signs in the US housing market, but says a real recovery in the construction market won’t happen quickly. Arcelor says
its outlook for Brazil, where it has a large presence, is “bullish,” but cautions the economy there is experiencing “growing pains.” WHAT THE EXPERTS SAID: Analyst Jeff Largey of Macquarie Capital said the steel market “remains challenged,” but investors may be underestimating the strength in Arcelor’s mining operations. THE QUOTE: “Market conditions have been very challenging, indeed more challenging than we had expected due to a combination of factors, not least the still unresolved crisis in the eurozone,” CEO Lakshmi Mittal said in a statement. Caterpillar Inc. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Caterpillar is the world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment. WHAT THE NUMBERS SAID: Caterpillar’s second-quarter profit soared 67 percent to $1.7 billion, or $2.54 per share. That’s up from $1.02 billion net income, or $1.52 per share, a year ago. North America was a bright spot. Sales in Europe decelerated from month to month. WHAT THE EARNINGS SAID ABOUT THE ECONOMY: Caterpillar’s results suggest the economy may be doing better than most people realize. Sales were up in every region of the world. The biggest improvement came in North America, where construction firms were upgrading their aging equipment. Caterpillar executives predict the global economy is bound to grow in 2013 because interest-rate actions by several countries will take effect and questions about US fiscal policy will be resolved by the election. WHAT THE EXPERTS SAID: Analysts praised Caterpillar’s solid second-quarter results, but they said the company faces some economic headwinds through the rest of 2012 because of slower growth in China, Europe’s debt problems and uncertainty about the US economy. THE QUOTE: Speaking about the economy, Chief Financial Officer Ed Rapp said: “It’s better than what you read in the newspapers.” — AP
26
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
BUSINESS
KUWAIT: Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive officials are pictured.
KUWAIT: The new Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II is pictured being unveiled.
Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II arrives in Kuwait Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive welcomes new generation KUWAIT: The new Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II has officially arrived in Kuwait after having been revealed for the first time in the countr y at Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, the sole dealer for Rolls-Royce cars in Kuwait. The famous words of Sir Henr y Royce: “Strive for per fection in ever ything you do” have once more echoed through the hallways of the home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, with the production of the Phantom Series II family, which projects a more informal presence with a greater emphasis on driving. The new car has been thoughtfully updated through introducing cutting-edge technologies and enhancements to an already peerless drive train. As a consequence, the new Rolls-Royce Phantom family Series II is
a modern interpretation of the classic timeless Phantom design. The cars take the core values of Rolls-Royce and create a contemporary effortless luxury; achieving a new dynamism while remaining true to the brand heritage. Geoff Briscoe, Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and Latin America at RollsRoyce Motor Cars, said “The Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II embodies the 21st-century Rolls-Royce. More than 100 years of engineering and design excellence expressed in a modern enhanced style. The Phantom Series II design broadens the appeal of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, attracting individuals who appreciate its fusion of ultimate refinement, and cutting-edge technology.”
Yousef Al-Qatami, General Manager of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, said “We are delighted and honoured to premiere the highly anticipated Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II in Kuwait. This pinnacle of automotive excellence is attracting great interest and will without a doubt contribute to the continued success of Rolls-Royce in the country. As one of the best performing Rolls-Royce dealers in the Middle East, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive continually delivers excellence - from our unsurpassed vehicles, to the quality of service we provide our uncompromising clientele.” New LED lighting The Phantom’s striking new front-end, with re-styled bumpers and rectangular
light apertures, perhaps best encapsulates the essence of the significant changes that lie beneath. Rolls-Royce is the first to include full LED headlamps as standard on a production car. As well as delivering a characteristic whiter light, augmenting safety and preventing driver tiredness, these allow for the introduction of new technologies that better control lighting. Effortless as standard The Phantom Series II features new driver assistance technologies and a modern user interface with a re-designed multimedia controller, an 8.8 inch control centre display and a front, rear and top-view camera system that further augment ease of manoeuvring.
Burgan Bank receives JP Morgan Quality Recognition Award 2012 KUWAIT: Burgan Bank yesterday announced that it has been awarded the JP Morgan Quality Recognition Award for the 11th consecutive year. The award is in acknowledgement of the consistent, high quality performance and standards that Burgan Bank’s complete range of funds transfer operations management and staff has maintained during the year. J.P. Morgan confirmed that Burgan Bank achieved the Elite level of the award and was amongst few banks across the MENA region to receive this recognition for both its treasury and commercial activities. Adrian Gostuski, Burgan Bank Group’s Chief operating Officer said: “This is not the first time that Burgan Bank’s operations excellence has been recognized by JP Morgan, a step that further illustrates the bank’s leading presence in the global financial ser vices market. “Over the course of the year 2011 and throughout this year the financial industry faced a number of chal-
KUWAIT: Adrian Gostuski is pictured along with Burgan Bank’s team, receiving the award from JP Morgan’s representatives. lenges, and we are extremely proud that despite this, Burgan Bank has continued to maintain high quality performance and standards for funds transfer oper-
ADIB is first UAE bank to launch Gulf operations KUWAIT: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), a top-tier Islamic financial institution, announced the expansion of its regional footprint by opening its first branch in Iraq. It becomes the first UAE-based financial institution to receive a full operations banking license from the Iraqi Central Bank and to start operations from Iraq. The first fully-fledged ADIB branch is located at Baghdad and is led by Jawdat Mahmoud Jawdat. ADIB is now poised to support and guide UAE and GCC investments in Iraq and its surrounding areas, it will also develop the Islamic finance industry in Iraq by bringing best in class Islamic banking products. During the initial months of operations, ADIB’s market entry strategy will see it serve corporate and private banking customers. It will offer corporate finance, investment banking and treasury products to the Iraq market. In addition, ADIB will offer traditional commercial banking services such as international trade finance solutions. Unveiling the bank’s Iraq expansion plans, Tirad Al-Mahmoud, CEO of ADIB said: “Iraq has been on our agenda for some time now and we believe that this is the opportune time to launch our presence there. The country is on a comeback trail, business conditions have improved considerably and it’s the right time to get in. Its vast oil reserves, a great rebuilding and infrastructure development effort and a growing population present great opportunities for growth. We aim to play a pivotal role in the development of its economy.” ADIB was also granted approval from Central Bank of Iraq to confirm Iraq oil export letters of credit issued by multinational oil corporations, multinational commodities and oil traders and financial institutions that issue letters of credit on behalf of their clients. Tirad added “Our challenges are clear. We aim to increase the private sector banks’ share of the Iraqi market from the current level of less than 20 percent and to develop the Islamic banking industry there.”
ations” added Gostuski. Since 1997, J.P. Morgan has presented awards to select dollar clearing clients that achieved a best inclass level of operational excel-
lence. These awards are given to clients who achieve outstanding straight-through results by properly formatting their SWIFT payments.
Gulf Bank announces Al-Danah Draw winners KUWAIT: Gulf Bank held its 29th AlDanah weekly draw on July 22, 2012, announcing a total number of 10 AlDanah weekly prize draw winners, each awarded with prizes of KD 1,000. The 29th Al-Danah Weekly Winners are: Bader Khaled Hamed Al-Hadlq; Shaimaa Rashed Abdulnabi Sherazi; Fadel Husein Abbas Husein; Medhi Maqtof Daqa Al-Fadly; Haitham Abdulkareem Yaqoub Aboghith; Lalwa Hamad Saleh Al-Swaidan; Ahmad Hussain Solly; Ahmed Faisal Al-Thuwaini; Dawoud Sulaiman Hussain Dashti; and Ahmed Eid Saleh Al-Hodhoud. Gulf Bank encourages everyone in Kuwait to open an Al-Danah account and/or increase their deposits to maximize their chances of becoming a winner in the upcoming weekly (KD1,000 each for 10 winners). Gulf Bank’s Al-Danah allows customers to win cash prizes and encourages them to save money.
Chances increase the more money is deposited and the longer it is kept in the account. Al-Danah also offers a number of unique services including the Al-Danah Deposit Only ATM card which helps account holders deposit their money at their convenience; as well as the AlDanah calculator to help customers calculate their chances of becoming an AlDanah winner. To be part of the Al-Danah draws, customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s 56 branches, transfer on line, or call the Customer Contact Center on 1805805 for assistance and guidance. Customers can also log on to www.e-gulfbank.com, Gulf Bank’s website, to find all the information regarding Al-Danah or any of the bank’s products and services or log on www.egulfbank.com/aldanahwinners, to find out more about Al-Danah and who the winners are.
KIB Visa Cardholders get discounts KUWAIT: Kuwait International Bank (KIB) has recently launched an offer to all KIB International cardholders, in collaboration with Visa International. The offer entitles all Visa cardholders to pay their bills over the Internet and around the world, while both KIB Visa Gold and Platinum cardholders will be eligible to a 20 percent discount at Avis car rental branches across the world. Commenting on the offer, Marketing Manager at KIB Tarek Al-Ajlan said: “Collaborating with Visa International
has now given the privilege to KIB Visa cardholders to enjoy a 20 percent discount at all Avis car rental international branches available at many airports around the world.” Al-Ajlan added “This is not the first time KIB launches such offers, but comes in line with many special offers that have been released to KIB Visa cardholders in the past. KIB customers may now benefit from the discounts and advantages offered by simply visiting one of KIB’s branches around Kuwait.
Waftability and sublime ride The word waftability has long been part of the Rolls-Royce lexicon, with models past and present being renowned for their magnificent ride experience. Phantom Series II reinforces the company’s reputation for both. The new 8-speed automatic gearbox and rear differential enhance the already exemplary driving dynamics perfectly complementing the V12 direct injection engine. Fuel consumption improves by 10 per cent on the combined cycle and CO2 emissions fall from 388 to 347 g/km as a consequence. The Phantom Series II is a modern execution of timeless Rolls-Royce elegance, which widens its appeal beyond the purely traditional but retains the core values that make the Rolls-Royce marque unique.
How to find a job you love Confucius said “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Jobs for life may be a luxury of yesteryear but with new opportunities opening up in brand new sectors and more employers increasingly seeking out, or at least accepting professionals with unconventional and rather unrelated CVs, the environment is rife for individuals to explore the topic of career satisfaction in a Lama serious, creative and original manner. But how do you find that ideal job or analyze if your current job is in fact the right job for you? How do you determine for sure what it really is you want to do for the rest of your life? Below is a general framework for just that, provided by the career experts at Bayt.com, the Middle East’s leading job site: 1. Be realistic about job satisfaction: Every job has its ups and downs, its good days and days you wish you stayed in bed; so don’t expect perpetual euphoria; but if you are in your element you will know it. When you love your job it will feel like an extension of your identity, not a grueling chore or ordeal you are committed to from 9 to 5. The good news is that yes, work satisfaction does exist and it takes all sorts of forms and shapes and guises, lots of people love their jobs and love their careers. 2. Explore your values: Determining what really matters to you early on, will save you a lot of headache and heartache later on. There are plenty of psychometric tests and scorecards available that delve deep here but you can start by asking yourself what really and truly matters to you. This ‘list of items’ can be as varied as a home in the country, a beach house, a short commute, time with family, an approachable boss, a great team, job security etc. The lists may be very long or very short and will be very unique for each person but it is important you draw it out clearly so that you are clear about what matters to you most. 3. Explore your interests: You can also ask yourself what it is you normally really like to do? What do you do when you can do anything at all? What do you really look forward to? Do you doodle all day wonderful caricatures in the margins while the other accountants are crunching numbers? Perhaps you are a budding artist. Whatever it is you love to do, don’t consider it unimportant; and if you don’t think you do it too well because you haven’t studied it, remember most people excel most at those things they love to do, and it’s never too late to learn. Don’t be afraid to dream big and to think outside the box as you map your interests and aspirations to possible careers. 4. Identify your skills and strengths: In today’s career market it’s all about transferable skills rather than exact fit pedigrees. You will probably have some highly developed skills and some you consider yourself low on, but come to terms with all of them. It’s not just those hardearned technical skills you acquired in college that will serve you well but also soft skills and your ability to lead and inspire and motivate and engage with people. 5. Be ready to retrain: Retraining need not take you away from the workplace for any extended period of time unless
you want it to; you can pursue a learning program while you work. Whatever gaps you identified between your skill-sets and interests can be filled with a very diligent program of study, be it selflearning or a course or an all-out new degree. In today’s workplace learning is very much adopted a lifelong commitment so be prepared to be in it for the long term. 6. Research. Research. Research: This can involve a lot of reading about industries and companies you are targeting as well as actual job roles and career paths but it needn’t stop there. Talk to people who work in your field of interest and get a feel for what a day in their life looks like and how the role resonates with your skills and interests and values. Ask for an informational interview to visit the company you are eyeing and get a feel for it and after the interview ask for a tour of the office. Find out what people like most and least about the job role, the career and the company as you plan your own shift. Make sure that the job sits well with your life goals and interests and does not disagree with any of your core values. But what if you are in a job already that you don’t really hate and don’t want to leave but feel rather lukewarm and stressed out about? Well that’s very common and there are ways to take your role from good to great on the satisfaction barometer. Begin in the same way as above by being very realistic about your expectations and then understanding what it is you really value and want in a job. Then start analyzing what it is specifically that is impeding or hampering your wellness, motivation and productivity in your workplace. Where are the gaps between your own individual bespoke prototype of a job that is aligned with your needs and interests, and the job you are currently engaged in? You need to be very honest with yourself here so you can find the right cure. In a 2011 Bayt.com poll where professionals were asked what their number one loyalty motivation was, 27.9 percent of respondents said salary, 18.7 percent said available growth opportunities, 16.5 percent said relationships with their boss/management/colleagues, 14.2 percent said the nature of the job. Moreover, when asked how motivated they were at their current job 21.1 percent respondents said they were not very motivated and 20.3 percent said not at all motivated, compared to 33.3 percent of respondents who feel very motivated and 25.3 percent who are motivated to a certain extent. Once you have addressed where it is your job is failing to meet your professional and/or personal needs and expectations, take to the drawing board and formulate a plan to address these head on. For some people just neatly compartmentalizing all the realizations that come with this selfexploration exercise is enough of a mental release and they will actively and happily choose to change their attitudes towards the job rather than any major thing about the job itself. Others may find that they need to do something to try to realign the job with their wellness, be it asking for an extra hour off to go home and feed the kids, or a sabbatical or extra training or more regular performance appraisals or improved communication channels with the boss etc. Whatever your self-analysis shows you, you are fully empowered to take the steps you need to try to bridge the gaps.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
TECHNOLOGY
Google to offer KC ultra-fast Internet KANSAS CITY: Google Inc. revealed Thursday what it will charge for its long-awaited, ultra-fast Internet service in Kansas City: $70 per month. The service is intended as a showcase for what’s technically possible and as a testbed for the development of new ways to use the Internet. Bypassing the local cable and phone companies, Google has spent months and an unknown amount of money pulling its own optical fiber through the two-state Kansas City region. After vetting many contenders, Google announced last year that the Kansas City metro area would be the first to get its “Fiber for Communities” broadband service. Some cities had used gimmicks to get the company’s attention. Topeka informally renamed itself “Google, Kansas.” A group in Baltimore launched a website that used Google’s mapping service to plot the location of more than 1,000 residents and give their reasons for wanting the service. Hundreds of groups on Facebook implored Google to come to their cities. The $70 monthly fee will pay for “gigabit” Internet service, about 100 times faster than a basic cable modem. For another $50 per month, Google
will provide cable-TV-like service over the fiber, too, and a tablet computer that works as a remote. The channel line-up includes Nickelodeon, Discovery, Bravo, Starz and Showtime (which may require additional fees) but is missing AMC, HBO, CNN, Fox News and ESPN. Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres wouldn’t say why the channels were missing, but said the line-up would expand. Google said it will only start hooking up households in neighborhoods where a sufficient number of people want service. Kansas City residents have six weeks to pre-register for service, after which Google will decide which areas have enough interest. Google will also offer a slower Internet option, at a DSL-like 5 megabits per second, with no monthly fee to households that pay a $300 installation fee. The free service is guaranteed for at least seven years, but is available only in neighborhoods where enough people have pre-registered. The $70 fee is more than what cable or phone companies charge for basic Internet service, but the service is also much faster. “Gigabit” speeds, or 1,000 megabits per second, are generally unavailable from other companies. One exception is the city-owned
electric utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., which has pulled its own fiber and sells gigabit service for $350 per month. Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James, who attended the news conference Google held in a converted yoga studio in midtown Kansas City, was clearly pleased with the announcement. “We now have an opportunity to take a giant step and if we don’t it’s all on us,” James said. “It’s going to be a great educational tool ... that’s going to create innovators and entrepreneurs, and that’s exactly what we want.” There are few ways for consumers to take advantage of gigabit speeds. For everyday activities such as Web surfing, email and video-watching, there will likely be no substantial difference. The higher speeds will help with video sharing and online backups. Google is hoping that the network could help the development of other advanced applications that can take advantage of the high speeds. It’s also hoping to spur phone and cable companies into upgrading their own networks. “Access speeds have simply not kept pace with the phenomenal increases in computing power and
storage capacity that’s spurred innovation over the last decade,” Milo Medin, Google’s vice president of Access Services, said in a blog post. However, it’s expensive to pull optical fiber compared with using existing phone and cable lines to provide Internet service. Verizon Communications Inc. is the only major US telecommunications company to have connected homes directly to fiber. Wall Street analysts say that project, which has cost $23 billion, is not paying off. Verizon has stopped adding new communities to its network, dubbed FiOS. It charges $70 per month for download speeds of 15 megabits per second, less than 2 percent the speed of Google’s gigabit. Justin Venech, spokesman for Time Warner Cable, which provides service in Kansas City, said Thursday that he watched Google’s announcement online and said he didn’t see “too many things that jumped out at me beyond the speed.” “Kansas City has been competitive for video and broadband services for a long time,” Venech said. “We offer advanced products and services today and we have experienced local employees delivering local services.” — AP
Samsung extends lead over Apple in smartphones Galaxy S3 phones get good reviews
LONDON: Performers use mobiles phones and cameras upon their arrival at the Olympic Stadium before participating in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London on Friday. — AFP
Olympics put mobile communications technology to the test LONDON: Telecoms firms say their networks will cope with the strain of the hundreds of thousands of spectators, workers and athletes using mobile devices across London’s Olympic Park in East London. Thirty mobile phone masts have been fitted across the 500 acre (2,000,000 square metre) site, 14 of them for inside stadiums and other buildings. In addition, BT says it has created the UK’s largest single wi-fi installation. Content providers have also taken steps to limit data usage. The nine venues on site can hold more than 160,000 spectators at any one time. Twenty thousand members of the media are expected, and the Olympic village houses about 17,500 athletes and officials. They will be joined by thousands more workers and security staff. The chair of the the body representing UK mobile operators and content providers described providing coverage to the Olympic Games as being similar to dealing with four simultaneous FA Cup Finals over a 17-day period. “At peak time when one set of spectators leaves and another arrives you will have between 200,000 to 300,000 people on site,” Stuart Newstead told the BBC. “It’s as well prepared as it can be. The key to the planning has been co-operation between the operators to maximise the laws of physics, allowing a far denser configuration of masts and antennas than normal to ensure as much capacity as possible.” Organisers say that means that everyone should be able to make calls, send texts, browse the internet and upload material to social networks even at the busiest times. To relieve strain on 3G data services BT has installed about 1,000 wi-fi hotspots. Subscribers to BT broadband, O2 mobile and Tesco Mobile will be offered free access. Vodafone, Three, Everything Everywhere and other subscribers will have to buy vouchers ranging in price from £5.99 for 90 minutes to £39 for 4,000 minutes. Overseas visitors are offered a rate of 500 minutes for £28. BT says it expects to be able to handle peak traffic of 1.7 gigabits per second: the equivalent of 13,200 webpage downloads every minute.
Up to 300,000 people are expected to be on site at the Olympic Park at any one time “The technology we have put in place is built specifically for events with a high density of spectators,” said a BT spokeswoman. “We have done a huge amount of capacity planning work, including reviewing and learning from events like the World Cup, Royal Wedding and the Super Bowl,” Spectators are forbidden from bringing in Mifi devices or using their tablets and phones to create personal wi-fi hotspots to connect other devices. Content providers whose material is likely to be popular with attendees have been asked to strike a balance between the kind of material they want to offer and its impact on data usage. “The BBC’s iPlayer will adjust throughput speeds [affecting video quality] depending on the capacity available because the broadcaster is working with operators to control that,” said Mr Newstead.x “We have also encouraged developers including the creators of Locog’s [London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games] official app to gather as much pre-loaded information as possible before the user arrives at the site.” Mobile phone and computer users are not the only ones using the wireless spectrum. The Join In app is designed to download data before the user arrives. Communications regulator Ofcom has licensed about 20,000 frequencies to allow: • Broadcasters to use wireless cameras, microphones and talkback systems • Olympic organisers to use wireless timing and scoring equipment • Olympic officials, team members, support staff and emergency services to have reliable communication systems. To secure capacity it borrowed spectrum from the Ministry of Defence and has used frequencies freed up by the switch-off of analogue TV signals. It says it will also have between 30 and 40 staff on site at any one time to check users do not suffer interference from either each others’ equipment or deliberate jamming by malicious parties. It also has spare frequencies that it can hand out to mitigate any problems. —Reuters
NEW YORK: Samsung has extended its lead over Apple in smartphones, in part because its new Galaxy phones came out before Apple updated its iPhone, research group IDC said Friday. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 phones got good reviews when it was released late in the second quarter. In the US, the phones work with the faster fourth-generation, or 4G, cellular networks that major wireless companies have been building. The Galaxy’s screen is larger than the iPhone’s, while the Samsung phone is lighter and thinner. An iPhone with 4G capabilities isn’t expected until this fall. The current model, the iPhone 4S, came out in October, and sales typically drop several months after each release. According to IDC, Samsung Electronics Co. shipped 50.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter and had a market share of 33 percent, up from 17 percent a year ago. Apple Inc.’s fell slightly to 17 percent, from 19 percent a year ago. It sold 26 million iPhones in the AprilJune quarter.
Besides having the Galaxy S3 out months before a new iPhone, Samsung also benefited from its strategy of developing several devices for a range of consumers. By contrast, Apple targets only the high-end market with its iPhone. IDC’s report came out the same day Samsung reported another record-high quarterly profit, thanks to Galaxy sales. Robust sales of smartphones helped offset a slowdown in other consumer electronics businesses such as televisions and personal computers. IDC said the big question is how well Samsung’s phones will sell once the new iPhone comes out. Analysts believe Samsung will achieve a record-high profit again in the third quarter when Galaxy S3 sales are expected to reach a peak, but sales are likely to drop or slow in the holiday quarter once Apple’s new iPhone comes out. Overall, phone manufacturers shipped 154 million smartphones in the second quarter, a 42 percent increase from 108 million a year earlier. That was slightly below IDC’s forecast of 43 per-
BARC offers technology to turn sewage into fertiliser BANGALORE: India’s premier nuclear research organisation, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), is planning to deploy its technology in treatment of sewage through radiation, and its conversion into bio-fertiliser. The BARC wishes to share its technology with state governments and various municipal bodies, its director Sekhar Basu said. “We are certainly interested in approaching the state governments and other organisations to spread the societal use of nuclear technologies,” Basu said, speaking to reporters here Friday. Through irradiation - the process of exposing an object to nuclear radiation - the harmful bacteria and other pathogens will be eliminated and the waste sludge when dried will be used as a bio-fertiliser, he said, elaborating on the process. This system is being used in a sewage water treatment plant in Gujarat. The BARC will now start approaching the municipal organisations for radiation treatment of sewage, he said. Basu said the agency will also start talking to agricultural universities in the country to propagate its seed varieties and techniques for preservation of farm produce. The atomic research agency has also developed around 15 varieties of confectionary grade high yielding groundnut and black gram seeds. The agency has developed micro-propagation protocols, a technique for large-scale rapid plant multiplication for banana, sugarcane, pineapple, potato, turmeric and ginger. While the banana tissue culture production has been transferred to a couple of agencies, BARC is now working on sugarcane, pineapple and other farm produces. On the disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear reactors, Basu said BARC will commission a new facility in Tarapur in Maharashtra next year and that would facilitate burning of waste elements. He said the longer and shorter life radioactive materials will be separated during the reprocessing of fuel. “The isotopes with shorter life will be stored in underground facility and the longer life ones would be burned in fast breeder reactor like the one that is coming up in Kalpakkam (500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor),” Basu said. — AFP
Blockbuster US patent trial SAN FRANCISCO: Apple and Samsung are set to square off in a California court Monday in what is seen as the biggest patent US trial in recent memory. Apple is seeking more than $2.5 billion in a case accusing the South Korean firm of copying designs and other patents from the iPhone and iPad maker in the trial in San Jose, California, federal court. Samsung however alleges that Apple infringed on some of its patents for mobile phones, and the case will sort out the competing claims. It is one of several cases in courts around the world involving the two big electronics giants in the
cent and was the slowest growth since the fourth quarter of 2009. At that rate, IDC said it would be tougher for Samsung and Apple to expand their market shares further. IDC said economic turmoil in Europe could put growth prospects at risk. Including basic cellphones, vendors shipped 406 million units, up from 402 million a year earlier. Samsung and Apple combined claimed nearly half of the smartphone market. Nokia Corp. was No. 3 with a 6.6 percent market share, down from more than 15 percent a year ago. Nokia has had some success with its Lumia line, based on Microsoft’s Windows system. The company is hoping for a boost once Microsoft releases a major upgrade to Windows in October, one designed with touch screens in mind. HTC Corp. was fourth with 5.7 percent of the market, down from nearly 11 percent. Chinese phone maker ZTE Corp. claimed the No. 5 spot for the first time, with a 5.2 percent market share, up from 1.8 percent a year earlier. Its lower-cost, entry-level smartphones have been popular in China and Latin America. — AP
hottest part of the tech sector, tablet computers and smartphones. While the results so far have been mixed in courts in Europe and Australia, Samsung is clearly on the defensive in the US case. US District Judge Lucy Koh, who will preside in the jury trial barring any last-minute settlement, has issued temporary injunctions against US sales of Samsungís 10-inch Galaxy tablet and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone developed with Google. To make matters worse, a magistrate in the case ruled Monday that Samsung failed to retain key evi-
dence in the case by allowing emails to be destroyed after learning of the lawsuit. That will mean Judge Koh can issue an ìadverse inferenceî instruction to the jury. ìItís never good when the judge decides youíve withheld or destroyed evidence,î said R. Polk Wagner, a professor of patent law at the University of Pennsylvania. Florian Mueller, a consultant who blogs on patent issues in the tech sector said the decision ìmust be a nightmareî for Samsung as it seeks to establish credibility with the jury.—AFP
TOKYO: A child walks past a life-size model of Blue Whale displayed at National Science Museum in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP
Opening gun safes is child’s play at DefCon LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Lock cracking experts have shown hackers that opening small gun safes widely sold in the United States is child’s play. The demonstration by Security Labs came Friday as the country grappled anew with the hot-button issue of gun ownership in the aftermath of a deadly shooting rampage in a Colorado movie theater. “This country has reached a level of violence that America ought to do something about it,” Marc Tobias of Security Labs said as he demonstrated his findings for AFP at the infamous Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas. “Do kids have a second amendment right to have weapons?” he asked rhetorically, referring to a part of the US Constitution assuring citizens the right to bear arms. “It’s not a gun control problem; it is a people control problem.” Tobias said that Security Labs turned its attention to gun safes after the three-year-old son of a nowformer sheriff’s department detective in Canada was shot to death by a sibling with a pistol that had been locked away at home. Researchers toyed with the Stack-On safe at issue and discovered it could be opened by simply tipping it a bit and then dropping it, with the jar of the impact causing it to unlock. Intrigued, the pair scrutinized another half-dozen or so models of gun safes from the Illinois-based company. “They could be opened with wires, a drinking straw, bouncing...,” Tobias said, rattling off unsophisticated techniques used to crack gun safes. “They are putting everyone who buys these at risk.” A high-end gun safe with a fingerprint scan activated lock can be opened using a pair of paper clips thanks to a hole under the scan pad that allows access to the latching mechanism inside, Security Labs Toby Bluzmanis showed. The demonstration at Def Con included video of a three-year-old
child opening a gun safe by lifting it part way and letting go. Tobias also uploaded video of gun safe cracking to YouTube. Bluzmanis told of his young son noticing him trying to crack gun safes and offered to help, then curiously tapping key pads and poking things in cracks or key holes. He asked his son to move the 30-pound safe. The boy lifted it part way and pushed before dropping it, with the door unlocking, the father said. “This is a game for them,” he said of a typical reaction by children to the challenge of a locked gun safe. “At three years old they can’t pick it up, but they grab it and try to move it around then drop it and, bingo, it opens.” The researchers focused most intensely on Stack-On safes, but also checked out models from GunVault, BullDog and AMSEC. The safes tested are widely available at sporting goods shops as well as retail giant Wal-Mart and online shop Amazon.com, according to Security Labs. “I’ve only found one gun lock in the country that I think is worth a damn, and it is made by a guy in California,” Tobias said, identifying the maker as Omega Safety Systems. Omega locks consist of expandable rods that slide into gun barrels and can only be removed with special keys, according to its website. Sharing ways to crack gun safes with the thousands of hackers at Def Con was intended to call attention to the situation, according to the researchers. “This is about insecurity engineering of real products that protect real people,” Tobias said. “It isn’t about how to open the gun safes; it is about how easily they can be opened.” The results of a Gallup poll released late last year indicated that there were guns in 47 percent of US homes or somewhere within easy reach on the property. — AFP
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health & science
Monkey behavior controlled with light LOS ANGELES: For the first time, scientists have changed a monkey’s behavior with a simple flash of blue light. Well, that and a fancy cellular technique called “optogenetics.” The new research clears an important hurdle on the path toward using the light-based approach to treat human neurological and psychiatric diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and depression. Optogenetics takes advantage of a class of proteins called channelrhodopsins. The proteins naturally reside in the outer walls of some algae, and have a peculiar property: They are activated by light. The field’s breakthrough came in 2005 when a group of scientists at Stanford demonstrated that they could get the protein into mammalian brain cells, allowing the researchers to make the cells fire when they turned on lights they had implanted in the animal’s brain. What’s more, they could get the protein into whatever specific types of brain cells they wanted, allowing them to focus on particular areas or functions. The discovery paved the way for a small revolution in neuroscience: For the first time, scientists could activate specific cell types with astounding specificity. They could even ac tivate some cells while deactivating others by using versions of the protein that respond differently to various wavelengths of light. In theory, the technique allows scientists to carefully modulate any brain system in almost any way they like, an ability that was not previously available to scientists: While blue light might make a group of cells fire, for example, yellow light could be used to turn a different group of cells off. This has led to important discoveries in lab rats and has been used to study topics as wide-ranging as how therapeutic deep brain stimulation works to treat Parkinson’s to which brain systems are important for arousing a creature from sleep (in those studies, the researchers demonstrated that they could wake a mouse up just by activating a few cells with light in an area called the locus coeruleus). Scientists have also shown that symptoms of depression can be reduced by stimulating particular brain systems, and that animals that don’t like to socialize suddenly become friendly when the scientists stimulate other areas. The power and specificity of the technique has led many to propose that optogenetics might eventually be a good way to treat brain disorders. But because almost all optogenetic research has been conducted in rodents, it has remained unclear whether the technique would work as well in humans, since we have larger, more complex brains. While researchers had previously shown they could successfully perform optogenetic experiments in monkeys, they had yet to show that the technique worked well enough to change a monkey’s behavior. I n the new study, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, researchers at Harvard and MIT attempted a modest experiment: To change the dynamics of a monkey’s eye movements by inserting and activating the light-sensitive protein in cells in a part of the brain known to be involved with eye movements. During the experiments, monkeys were required to make quick eye movements, called “saccades,” to a target that appeared on a computer screen. The researchers found that when the blue light was turned on, thus activating the neurons that had channelrhodopsin added, the monkey’s eyes moved to the target significantly faster than when the light was not turned on. The researchers also wanted to know how much of the brain they were activating. By using functional brain imaging while stimulating the cells with blue light, they were able to show that it wasn’t just the areas being flashed with light that were activated: The areas they are connected to also became active, suggesting that even in the large brains of primates, optogenetics can activate whole networks in the brain. This first simple demonstration that optogenetics can work in nonhuman primates is likely to lead to more optogenetics studies in monkeys as researchers begin the long path to transition the technology from research to therapy. — MCT
H E A LT H & S C I E NC E
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
New Mars rover has a human approach LOS ANGELES: In a matter of days, a geologist unlike any on Earth will venture into alien territory. It has six legs and one arm. Instead of feet, it rides around on metal wheels as thin as cardboard. Its brain is in its belly, where it also digests and analyzes the remains of Martian rocks. It eats plutonium for breakfast. Despite its resemblance to a one-armed, 1-ton praying mantis, Curiosity is the most advanced machine ever sent to another planet. If all goes according to plan, the rover will touch down on Mars on Aug. 5 and begin rolling along the surface a few days later. Curiosity will be the eyes and ears for an international team of about 350 earthbound scientists. The rover’s goal is to climb a 3-mile-tall mountain and gather evidence that could resolve a long-standing mystery: Was there life on Mars in its warmer, wetter past - and could it sustain life today? The rover’s suite of 10 primary instruments was designed with these questions in mind. It can shoot lasers at rocks to see what they’re made of. It can record hours of high-quality color video of the Martian landscape and relay the footage back to Earth. It can even drill into stone to
look for specific organic compounds thought to be necessary for life to begin. “It is a mind-blowing machine,” said Michael Watkins, a mission project engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, where Curiosity was designed and built. “We’re really talking about, effectively, a field geologist/astrobiologist remotely operating on Mars,” said Jeff Simmonds, the science payload manager for the mission. Mars Science Laboratory, as this machine is officially known, is the product of more than seven years of work by hundreds of scientists and engineers. At first glance, Curiosity - so named by a sixth-grade girl from Kansas who won an essay contest - doesn’t appear to be made in the image of a geologist. But closer inspection reveals that it has its own versions of the basic human senses and the tools a geologist would take into the field, including a rock hammer, a hand lens and several sets of “eyes.” There are also a few fancy gadgets that, on Earth, would be confined to a lab. Curiosity bears only the slightest resemblance to its ancestor Sojourner, the 23-pound rover that was the first to scoot around the dusty planet in 1997. Where Sojourner traveled just 325 feet or so and never ventured more than 40 feet away from its base station, Curiosity may travel more than 12 miles as it makes its way into the middle of Gale Crater and climbs Mount Sharp, sampling many layers of rock over the course of a Martian year (687 Earth days). Size matters. The nearly 2,000-pound Curiosity also dwarfs the roughly 400-pound Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004. Although the twin rovers theoretically could surpass Curiosity’s top speed of about 150 yards per hour, the new machine will be able to take on much rougher terrain. “We’re so much bigger that a really dangerous obstacle for MER is pretty much something that we can just drive right over,” Simmonds said. Spirit and Opportunity were simpler because their mission was more straightforward: Find evidence of water on Mars. Now that they’ve done so, the next set of questions is more complicated - and so is the rover. Curiosity is an impressive machine. It stands about 7 feet tall, 9 feet wide and 10 feet long. Its body is bedecked with cameras, and thick wires snake around its metal shell. Its long arm grips a fistful of tools: a scooper to collect soil samples, a drill to bore into stone, a specialized lens to peer at microscopic structures and a “tongue” of sorts that can press against rock to taste the chemicals within. Because Curiosity will be using high-powered instruments - and often more than one simultaneously
- it cannot get by on solar power, as its rover predecessors did. Instead, it will feed on nuclear energy, using heat generated by the decay of radioactive plutonium to keep 110 watts constantly flowing to its battery. In spite of its size, everything on board the rover has been pared down to its most minimalist version, to make it as light as possible. As with a human geologist, the rover makes good use of its eyes. A pair of color cameras mounted on the
detect carbonate and other mineral sediments whose presence would hint that water may have flowed in the area. Where a human geologist would pull out a rock hammer to break off a sample for analysis, Curiosity will use a drill. But because it can’t bring its samples to a laboratory on Earth, Curiosity also contains a lab inside its body. “We take as much of our lab with us in the rover as we possibly can,” Simmonds said. After the rover’s arm drills into a rock, it will drop
PASADENA, California: Members of the media gather around a model of the Mars rover “Curiosity” as it rolls along at the JPL’s “Mars Yard”, an area constructed to simulate the terrain of Mars, on July 25, 2012. – MCT mast - the head and neck of Curiosity’s bug-like body will record three-dimensional color images and video of the Martian terrain, to be transmitted back to Earth. One camera system will scan far-off terrain while the other will focus on closer ground, observing the landscape, rocks, soils and perhaps signs of frost. And just as a geologist might use a trusty hand lens to get a closer look at a bit of rock or soil, so will Curiosity. The rover’s 1.5-inch-wide hand-lens imager sits on the end of its long arm, able to snap photos of features in rocks that are only 12.5 microns big. This camera will also shine ultraviolet light on rocks to
the collected powder into its belly, where two instruments will digest the samples and analyze their composition. One device combines three tools: a mass spectrometer that uses magnetic fields to separate ionized elements according to their mass; a gas chromatograph to sort chemicals based on how quickly they vaporize when heated; and a laser spectrometer to determine which chemicals are present by shooting jets of light at the pulverized rock and examining the fingerprint of the light that shines back. Scientists hope to find carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen elements thought to be essential for life. —MCT
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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
WHAT’S ON Greetings
appy birthday to poet and writer Atul I. Gomes who celebrated his 55th birthday yesterday. We wish you good health and happiness throughout your life. May God bless you. Best wishes coming from poet and writer Abdur Rahim, poet and writer Rafiqul Islam Bholo, poet H.M. Humaun Kabir, poet Faridujzaman, poet AlImran Sikder, Provatpereira, Sumon Rafiqul Alam, A.K.M. Azad, Editor-in-Chief Probash Bangla Magazine and all friends and relatives in Bangladesh and Kuwait.
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Announcements Indian Embassy passport and visa Passports and Visa applications can be deposited at the two outsourced centers of M/S BLS Ltd at Sharq and Fahaheel. Details are available at www.blsinternational.com and www.indembkwt.org . Consular Open House Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizens on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the Consular Officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall at the Embassy. For any unaddressed issues, Second Secretary (Consular) can be contacted. Furthermore, the head of the Consular Wing is also available to redress grievances. Indian workers helpline/helpdesk Indian workers helpline is accessible by toll free telephone number 25674163 from all over Kuwait. It provides information and advice to Indian workers as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. The help desk at the Embassy (Open from 9AM to 1PM and 2PM to 4:30PM, Sunday to Thursday) provides guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal and other issues. It also provides workers assistance in filling up labour complaint forms. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned attachÈ in the Labour section and the head of the Labour Wing can be contacted.
‘Dar Awatef’ gallery inaugurated watef Al-Dulaimi inaugurated her ‘Dar Awatef’ gallery in Al-Salaam recently and this event was attended by Sheikha Nawal Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah. The exhibition, held for the second consecutive year, features accessories, perfumes and abayas manufactured by young designers.
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Legal Advice Clinic Free legal advice is provided on matters pertaining to labour disputes, terms of contracts with employers, death/accident compensation, withholding of dues by employers, etc. by lawyers on our panel, to Indian nationals on all working days between 1500hrs to 1600hrs. Ambassador’s Open House The Open House for Indian citizens by the Ambassador is being held on all Wednesdays at the Embassy for redressal of grievances. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day.
Register and Win promotion at Q8India.com ity Centre, Kuwait’s premier mega-market, in association with Q8India.com, a leading online Indian community portal, is holding a monthlong ‘Register and Win’ promotion campaign. Any resident in Kuwait can participate in the promotion by visiting www.Q8India.com and registering their name, email and phone number. A winner will be picked each day (except Friday), from the list of names registered on the previous day, and receive a free shopping voucher worth KD10 from City Centre.
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Student Visa Day at US Embassy held o support Kuwaiti students currently studying or planning to study in the United States, the US Embassy’s Consular Section, in cooperation with the National Union of Kuwaiti Students (NUKS) - US Branch, held a Student Visa Day on July 18. The Consular Section allotted 200 appointments for student visa applicants, coordinating closely with NUKS-US Branch representatives to ensure that a successful event be held. Encouraging Kuwaiti students to pursue higher educational opportunities in the US is one of the top priorities of this US Mission. For instructions on how to apply for a student visa to the US, please see our website for more information: http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/student3.html. To avoid delays during periods of high demand, students are encouraged to apply for their visa as early as possible.
Free Arabic course in IPC PC (Islam Presentation Committee) and all its branches is opening free Arabic Language Course for nonArab ladies accessible in beginners and advance levels. Class will commence from September 14, 2012.
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Islamic and Quran courses are also presented in different languages. Registration is on! Call the nearest IPC branch: Rawdah: Offers 2 alternatives for Level 1 - Call: 22512257. Once a week class (4-month course) and
twice a week class (2-month course). Salmiya: 25733263/97533263; Kheitan: 24730137/99285459; Mangaf: 23723002 ext. 124/123; Jahra: 24558830/97533948.
this tournament is open to all and will fall under three categories this year. The first category is for amateurs from ages 17 and above, second category is for professional players from ages 20 and above and the third category is for ladies 17 and above. Following its last three years of grand success, the 4th annual Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament is being organized during Ramadan for squash lovers who will have an opportunity to practice the sport while being encouraged to develop their skills in a healthy, competitive and social environment. Al-Awadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee, commented, “In our last tournaments, we have received very positive feedback and have witnessed a huge number of interested participants thus giving us immense encouragement to hold an exciting tournament this year. The 2012 squash tournament offers a great opportunity to all squash players to accept another challenge and build on their sports skills in midst of a friendly atmosphere. I highly encourage all interested players to maintain their level of activity during Ramadan while balancing fitness and fasting and to register before the deadline ends”. All details pertaining to the tournament and means to participate can be found on the tournaments facebook page under ‘Ramadan Stars Squash Tourney’ or follow the official twitter page @RamadanStars for updates. The registration is taking place at GO SPORT store located at The Avenues Mall.
Alawadi also pointed out the great interest the ‘Ramadan Stars Squash tournament’ received from the private sector, where companies took the initiative in sponsoring the tournament. Alawadi expressed his gratitude and thanks to Kazma Sporting Clun, Go Sport, Comtel, Vio, Unite Colors and Alawadi Photography guaranteeing unique prizes for all winners.
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‘Leniency of Islam’ An unprecedented initiative of KTV2 (English channel) is the new program by the name ‘Leniency of Islam’ presented by Shaikh Musaad Alsane and directed by Hamid Al-Turkait. The program is mainly meant to address the expatriates living in Kuwait. Religious questions are received through the program email qislam@tv.gov.kw and sms can be sent to- 97822021 and answered by the lecturer and Imam in Awqaf Ministry Shaikh Musaad Alsane - a Master Degree holder in Sharia and fiqih from Kuwait University. So don’t forget to watch the program every Friday at 1:00 pm.
Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20
Registration for Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament begins Once again this year, the stage is set for the fourth annual ‘Ramadan STARS Squash Tournament’ to be held from August 3 to 9 at the Kazma Sporting Club, Adailiya. Abdulrahim AlAwadi, the Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee has announced that doors are now open for registration to all those who are interested in participating, stating that the deadline for registration will be August 1. The participation in
Your health & Ramadan You are invited to “Your Health & Ramadan Dasman Diabetes Institute” from 9 am till 2 pm, today 15th July.* Blood Glucose Monitoring. * BMI Calculation * Blood Pressure Monitoring. For any inquiries, please contact us on: www.facebook.com/dasmaninstitute Burgan Bank Ramadan timing Burgan Bank announced its new branch timings which will be applicable all throughout the holy month of Ramadan. All Burgan Bank branches will commence work in one shift from 10 am to 1:30 pm. Additionally, the Airport branch will be open seven days a week in the mornings from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm and in the evenings from 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm. On this occasion, Burgan Bank extends its best wishes to everyone during the holy month of Ramadan.
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SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
WHAT’S ON
Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian ConsulateGeneral 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 ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF ARGENTINE
The Embassy of Argentina requests all Argentinean citizens in Kuwait to proceed to our official email ekuwa@mrecic.gov.ar in order to register or update contact information. The embassy encourages all citizens to do so, including the ones who have already registered in person at the embassy. The registration process helps the Argentinean Government to contact and assist Argentineans living abroad in case of any emergency. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF BANGLADESH
MP holds Ramadan diwan MP Adnan Abdul Samad held a reception for Ramadan well-wishers at his diwan. Several MPs and high-ranking dignitaries visited his diwan on this occasion. —Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh
The Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Kuwait will follow the following office hours during the holy month of Ramadan. Sunday to Thursday: 9 am - 3:30 pm. Friday and Saturday: Weekly holidays. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF BRITAIN Consular section at the British Embassy will be starting an online appointment booking system for our consular customers from Sunday, 01 July 2012. All information including how to make an appointment is now available on the embassy website. In addition, there is also a “Consular Appointment System” option under Quick links on the right hand side on the homepage, which should take you to the “Consular online booking appointment system” main page. Please be aware that from 01 July 2012, we will no longer accept walk-in customers for legalisation, notarial services and certificates (birth, death and marriages). If you have problems accessing the system or need to make an appointment for non-notarial consular issues or have a consular emergency, please call 2259 4355/7/8 or email us on consularenquirieskuwait@fco.gov.uk. If you require consular assistance out of office hours (working hours: 0730-l430 hrs), please contact the Embassy on 2259 4320. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF INDIA During the holy month of Ramadan, the office timings of the Indian Passport and Visa Service Centres of BLS International Visa Services Co, Kuwait, situated at (i) Emad Commercial Centre, Basement Floor, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Sharq, Kuwait, and (ii) Mujamma Unood, 4th floor, Office No. 25-26 Makka Street, Fahaheel, Kuwait, will be from 8.00 am - 3.00 pm from Saturday to Thursday (i.e. six days a week). Tokens for submission of applications will NOT be issued after 2.00 pm. Delivery of passports and visas will be from 11.00 am onwards. Embassy of India, Kuwait, will maintain its usual working hours. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform Kenyan residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that with effect from June 1, 2012 the Embassy has moved from its current location to a new location in Surra Block 1, Street 8, Villa 303. Please note that the new telephone and fax numbers will be communicated as soon as possible. For enquiries you can contact Consular Section on mobile 90935162 or 97527306. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF MEXICO The Embassy of Mexico is pleased to inform that it is located in CLIFFS Complex, Villa 6, Salmiya, block 9, Baghdad street, Jadda Lane 7. The working hours for consular issues are from 9:00 to 12:00 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 14:00 to 15:00 hours for lunch break. The Embassy of Mexico kindly requests all Mexicans citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the e-mail: embkuwait@sre.gob.mx in order to register or update contact information. Other consultations or/and appointments could be done by telephone or fax: (+965) 2573 1952 ■■■■■■■
Ramadan Football Championship he second phase of Ramadan 2nd Championship for Medical Emergency for Football took off in the presence of the organizing committee of the championship and the members of the participating teams. They all met as one family.
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EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, AlSalaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, e-mail:myankuwait11@gmai1.com ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF THAILAND The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait, wishes to invite the Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14. ■■■■■■■
EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” - (+ 965) 972-79-206.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
TV PROGRAMS
00:45 01:40 02:35 03:30 03:55 04:25 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 09:10 09:35 10:05 11:00 11:55 12:50 13:45 14:40 15:05 15:35 16:00 16:30 17:25 18:20 Baker 19:15 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50
Sharkman Animal Cops Specials 2009 Cats 101 Great Animal Escapes Great Animal Escapes Wildest Africa Great Ocean Adventures Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Karina: Wild On Safari Meerkat Manor Bondi Vet Corwin’s Quest Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Breed All About It Crocodile Hunter Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip Wild France Wild France Rescue Vet Rescue Vet Safari Vet School Safari Vet School Must Love Cats Bad Dog Weird Creatures With Nick Into The Pride Great Ocean Adventures Wildest Africa Speed Of Life Monster Bug Wars Untamed & Uncut
00:00 Robin Hood 00:45 Monarch Of The Glen 01:35 BBC Electric Proms: Paul McCartney 02:25 My Family 02:55 Last Of The Summer Wine 03:25 One Foot In The Grave 04:00 Fimbles 04:20 Tellytales 04:30 Bobinogs 04:45 Nina And The Neurons 05:00 Teletubbies 05:25 The Roly Mo Show 05:40 Charlie And Lola 05:50 Fimbles 06:10 Tellytales 06:20 Bobinogs 06:30 Nina And The Neurons 06:45 Teletubbies 07:10 The Roly Mo Show 07:25 Charlie And Lola 07:35 Robin Hood 08:20 Keeping Up Appearances 08:50 Supernova 09:20 The Old Guys 09:50 Elephant Diaries 10:40 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 11:30 London Hospital 12:30 Keeping Up Appearances 13:00 The Impressions Show 13:30 Allo ‘allo! 14:00 Doctors 14:30 Doctors 15:00 Doctors 15:30 Doctors 16:00 Doctors 16:30 Elephant Diaries 17:25 Doctor Who 18:10 London Hospital 19:00 Blackadder The Third 19:30 Twenty Twelve 20:00 Life On Mars 20:50 Spooks 21:40 New Tricks 22:30 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 23:20 BBC Electric Proms: Paul McCartney
00:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 01:20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 02:00 Come Dine With Me 02:50 Cash In The Attic 03:35 Cash In The Attic 04:15 Bargain Hunt
05:05 Bargain Hunt 05:50 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 07:10 MasterChef Australia 13:35 MasterChef Australia 14:25 10 Years Younger 15:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 16:35 Holmes On Homes 17:20 Holmes On Homes 18:10 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 19:30 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 20:10 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 21:00 Masterchef: The Professionals 21:55 Masterchef: The Professionals 22:20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 23:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
00:00 00:30 01:00 01:15 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:15 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:30 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:15 23:30
00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:00 06:15 06:35 07:00 07:25
BBC World News London Live Mixed Britannia BBC World News London Live Sport Today Working Lives BBC World News London Live Middle East Business Report BBC World News London Live Talking Movies BBC World News London Live Dateline London BBC World News London Live Mixed Britannia BBC World News London Live Click BBC World News London Live Newsnight BBC World News London Live India Business Report BBC World News London Live Fast Track BBC World News London Live Sport Today Talking Movies BBC World News London Live Dateline London BBC World News London Live Worlds Of English BBC World News London Live Working Lives BBC World News London Live Newsnight BBC World News London Live Collaboration Culture BBC World News London Live Sport Today Click BBC World News London Live Mishal Husain Meets BBC World News London Live Mixed Britannia BBC World News London Live India Business Report BBC World News London Live Our World BBC World News London Live Sport Today Collaboration Culture BBC World News London Live Talking Movies BBC World News London Live Sport Today Mishal Husain Meets
Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm
07:50 Baby Looney Tunes 08:15 Gerald McBoing Boing 08:40 Ha Ha Hairies 08:55 Pink Panther And Pals 09:15 The Garfield Show 09:40 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 10:05 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 10:30 Droopy: Master Detective 10:55 The Looney Tunes Show 11:20 Dexter’s Laboratory 11:30 Scooby Doo And The Reluctant... 13:10 Dastardly And Muttley 13:35 The Scooby Doo Show 14:00 Dexters Laboratory 14:15 Dexter’s Laboratory 14:40 The Garfield Show 15:30 Looney Tunes 16:00 Tom & Jerry 16:01 Looney Tunes 16:06 Tom & Jerry 16:08 Looney Tunes 16:20 Tom & Jerry 17:00 Pink Panther And Pals 17:25 Pink Panther And Pals 17:50 Johnny Bravo 18:05 Johnny Bravo 18:30 The Jetsons 18:55 The Flintstones 19:20 Dastardly And Muttley 19:45 Popeye 20:00 Dexter’s Laboratory 20:10 The Looney Tunes Show 20:35 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 21:00 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 21:25 The Garfield Show 21:50 The Flintstones 22:15 Droopy & Dripple 22:40 Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDoo 23:05 Popeye 23:20 The Jetsons 23:45 Duck Dodgers
00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls 02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Powerpuff Girls 07:15 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi 07:40 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 08:05 The Amazing World Of Gumball 08:30 Adventure Time 08:55 Regular Show 09:20 Batman Brave And The Bold 09:45 Young Justice 10:05 Thundercats 10:35 Hero 108 11:00 Batman: Subzero 12:15 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 19:45 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 20:10 Batman: Mystery Of The Batwoman 21:25 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 21:50 Grim Adventures Of... 22:00 Codename: Kids Next Door 22:50 Ben 10 23:15 Ben 10 23:40 Chowder
00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:15 03:30
OUTCAST ON OSN ACTION HD
Open Court World Sport World Report Talk Asia World Report Amanpour CNN Marketplace Europe CNN Marketplace Africa The Brief
04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:15 08:30 09:00 09:15 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 14:30 14:45 15:00 16:00 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:15 18:30 18:45 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00 23:30
00:40 01:35 02:30 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:20 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:05 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:45 09:40 10:30 11:25 12:20 14:10 16:25 16:55 18:45 19:10 20:05 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:20 23:45
CNN Presents CNN Newsroom The CNN Freedom Project Inside Africa World Sport Road To Rio World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East Talk Asia World Report CNN Marketplace Europe I Report For CNN World Sport Aiming For Gold African Voices The Brief World Report News Special CNN Presents World Report Leading Women Future Cities Fareed Zakaria Gps State Of The Union International Desk Inside Africa Global Exchange CNN Marketplace Africa Global Exchange CNN Marketplace Middle East World Sport Open Court International Desk African Voices International Desk Road To Rio Fareed Zakaria Gps World Report News Special
Inside Death Row Surviving Disaster How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How Sports Are Made How Sports Are Made Man Made Marvels China Extreme Engineering Hillbilly Handfishin’ Extreme Fishing How It’s Made How It’s Made Auction Kings Border Security Border Security Mythbusters Mythbusters Stan Lee’s Superhumans Curiosity How Sports Are Made How Sports Are Made How Sports Are Made
00:35 Junk Men 01:00 Junk Men 01:25 Investigation X 02:15 Game Changers 02:45 Sport Science 03:35 Smash Lab 04:25 Smash Lab 05:15 Smash Lab 06:05 Smash Lab 07:00 Science Of Storm Chasing 07:50 Mighty Ships 08:40 Head Rush 08:43 Stunt Junkies 09:10 Stunt Junkies 09:40 Nextworld 10:30 Game Changers 10:55 Game Changers 11:20 Mega World 12:10 Junk Men 12:35 Junk Men 13:00 Prank Science 13:25 Prank Science 13:50 Scrapheap Challenge 14:45 Weird Or What? 15:35 Building The Future 16:30 The Tech Show 16:55 The Tech Show 17:20 Meteorite Men 18:10 Game Changers 18:40 Mighty Ships 19:30 Engineering Ground Zero 20:20 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 21:10 Junk Men 21:35 Junk Men 22:00 Engineering Ground Zero 22:50 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 23:40 Investigation X
00:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 00:55 Style Star 01:25 THS 03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Then And Now 05:30 Then And Now 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Extreme Close-Up 09:45 Extreme Close-Up 10:15 THS 11:10 Ice Loves Coco 11:35 Ice Loves Coco 12:05 E! News 13:05 Style Star 13:35 Style Star 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 16:55 Behind The Scenes 17:25 Behind The Scenes 17:55 E! News 18:55 Khloe And Lamar 19:25 Giuliana & Bill 20:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 21:25 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 22:25 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 22:55 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians
00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:40 14:30 14:55 15:20 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:05 19:55 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40
A Haunting The Haunted Ghost Lab A Haunting A Haunting On The Case With Paula Zahn Mystery ER Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Who On Earth Did I Marry? On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Australian Families Of Crime American Greed Scorned: Crimes Of Passion
00:00 Geo Sessions 00:30 Making Tracks 01:00 Delinquent Gourmet 01:30 Delinquent Gourmet 02:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 02:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 03:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 04:00 Bondi Rescue 04:30 Bondi Rescue 05:00 Food School 05:30 Food School 06:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 06:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 08:00 Bondi Rescue 08:30 Bondi Rescue 09:00 City Chase Marrakech 10:00 On The Camino De Santiago 10:30 On The Camino De Santiago 11:00 Travel Madness 11:30 Travel Madness 12:00 Gone to save the planet 12:30 Gone to save the planet 13:00 Food School 13:30 Food School 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 15:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 16:00 Bondi Rescue 16:30 Bondi Rescue 17:00 Somewhere In China 18:00 Making Tracks 18:30 Making Tracks 19:00 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 19:30 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 20:00 Departures 21:00 Banged Up Abroad 22:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:00 Gone to save the planet 23:30 Gone to save the planet
00:00 Ultimate Disaster 01:00 Convoy: War For The Atlantic 02:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 03:00 Crash Science 04:00 Shark Nicole 05:00 Banged Up Abroad 06:00 Sea Patrol 07:00 Salvage Code Red 08:00 Ultimate Disaster 09:00 Convoy: War For The Atlantic 10:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 11:00 Crash Science 12:00 Alaskan Killer Shark 13:00 Alaska State Troopers 14:00 Sea Patrol 15:00 Salvage Code Red 16:00 Ultimate Disaster 17:00 Convoy: War For The Atlantic 18:00 Mega Bridges 19:00 Big, Bigger, Biggest 20:00 Helicopter Wars 21:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 22:00 Sea Patrol 23:00 Air Crash Investigation Special Report
00:00 Wild Chronicles 00:30 Wild Chronicles 01:00 Giant Panda 01:55 Cameramen Who Dare 02:50 Swamp Men 03:45 Outback Wrangler 04:40 How Big Can It Get 05:35 Wild Nights 06:30 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 07:25 The Invaders 08:20 Street Monkeys 09:15 Live Like An Animal 10:10 Built For The Kill 11:05 Wild Mississippi 12:00 Sharks In The City 13:00 Camera Trap 13:30 Camera Trap 14:00 Moray Eels: Alien Empire 15:00 Hidden Worlds 15:30 Extinction Sucks 16:00 American Eagle 17:00 Python Hunters 18:00 Hunt for the Giant Squid 19:00 Hidden Worlds 19:30 Extinction Sucks 20:00 American Eagle 21:00 Python Hunters 22:00 Hunt for the Giant Squid 23:00 Sharks In The City
00:00 Outcast-R 02:00 Quarantine 2: Terminal-18 04:00 Hackers-PG15
CARS 2 ON OSN CINEMA 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00
Game Of Death-PG15 Fantastic Four-PG15 The Recruit-PG15 Kull The Conqueror-PG15 Fantastic Four-PG15 Ladder 49-PG15 Kull The Conqueror-PG15 Street Kings 2: Motor City-18 Child’s Play 2-18
01:00 Bangkok Adrenaline-PG15 03:00 The Art Of Getting By-PG15 05:00 Goodbye Solo-PG15 07:00 Sounds Like Teen Spirit-PG15 09:00 Bright Star-PG15 11:00 The Conspirator-PG15 13:00 Justice For Natalee HollowayPG15 15:00 Oceans-PG15 17:00 Cars 2-FAM 19:00 Attack The Block-PG15 21:00 Vampires Suck-PG15 23:00 Marley & Me: The Puppy Years-PG15
00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:30 Saturday Night Live 02:30 Two And A Half Men 03:00 Best Friends Forever 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 06:00 Seinfeld 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:30 Best Friends Forever 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:30 Seinfeld 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 2 Broke Girls 18:30 Last Man Standing 19:00 Two And A Half Men 19:30 Happy Endings 20:30 Allen Gregory 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
01:00 02:00 04:00 07:00 08:30 10:00 15:00 16:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 23:00
C.S.I. New York Law & Order: Criminal Intent Warehouse 13 Century City Coronation Street The Martha Stewart Show Live Good Morning America Century City Covert Affairs Bones Burn Notice Warehouse 13
00:00 01:00 02:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 12:00 13:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00
Cold Case Law & Order: Criminal Intent Revenge Revenge Cold Case Emmerdale Coronation Street Emmerdale The Ellen DeGeneres Show Cold Case Emmerdale The Ellen DeGeneres Show Necessary Roughness Covert Affairs Bones Burn Notice Top Gear (US) Revenge
01:00 03:00 05:00 PG15 07:00 09:00 11:00 PG15 13:00 PG15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00
Tupac: Resurrection-18 Hackers-PG15 The Haunting In ConnecticutAttack On Leningrad-PG15 Fatal Secrets-PG15 The Haunting In ConnecticutTrue Justice: BrotherhoodFatal Secrets-PG15 Friday Night Lights-PG15 Gridlock’d-18 Law Abiding Citizen-18 Storm Warning-18
00:00 Held Up-18 02:00 Whatever Works-PG15 04:00 Kung Fu Dunk-PG15 06:00 Elevator Girl-PG15 08:00 Fat Albert-PG 10:00 French Kiss-PG15 12:00 Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale-PG15 14:00 The Open Road-PG15 16:00 French Kiss-PG15 18:00 Lottery Ticket-PG15 20:00 Made In Dagenham-PG15 22:00 The Answer Man-PG15
01:30 Please Give-18 03:00 Square Grouper-18 05:00 Elizabethtown-PG15 07:15 The 19th Wife-PG15 09:00 Love The Beast-PG 11:00 Swansong: Story Of Occi Byrne-PG15 13:00 On Strike For Christmas-PG15 15:00 Love The Beast-PG 17:00 Get Low-PG15 19:00 Divorces!-PG15 21:00 The Kid-18 23:00 Manolete-18
00:00 Another Year-PG15 02:30 Little Fockers-PG15 04:30 Letters To Juliet-PG15 06:30 Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides-PG15 09:00 Gulliver’s Travels-PG 11:00 13 Going On 30-PG15 13:00 How To Train Your Dragon-PG 15:00 A Family Thanksgiving-PG15 17:00 Gulliver’s Travels-PG 19:00 Hanna-PG15 21:00 The King’s Speech-PG15 23:00 Marley & Me: The Puppy
00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 21:45 23:45
Mia And The Migoo-PG The Prince Of Dinosaurs-PG Good Boy!-PG Big Fat Liar-PG Garfield’s Pet Force-FAM The Spy Next Door-PG Good Boy!-PG Micropolis-FAM Garfield’s Pet Force-FAM The Spy Next Door-PG Young Fisherman-PG Garfield’s Pet Force-FAM Micropolis-FAM
00:00 Hemingway & Gellhorn-PG15 02:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 04:00 Senna-PG15 06:00 Oranges And Sunshine-PG15 08:00 A Soldier’s Love Story-PG15 10:00 Hop-PG 12:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 14:00 Senna-PG15 16:00 A Soldier’s Love Story-PG15 18:00 The Marc Pease ExperiencePG15 20:00 Transformers: Dark Of The Moon-PG15 22:30 Tetro-18
01:30 07:00 09:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 21:15
Olympics Repeat Live NRL Premiership Olympics Live Olympics - Swimming Olympics - Basketball Olympics - Hockey Olympics - Sailing Live Olympics - Swimming
01:30 07:00 08:00 10:00 11:00 14:45 16:30 19:30 21:45
Olympics Olympics Live NRL Premiership Olympics Live Olympics - Judo Olympics - Badminton Live Olympics - Judo Live Olympics - Football Live Olympics - Football
01:30 03:30 06:00 07:00 10:00 11:15 14:45 16:30 20:00 21:45
Super Rugby AFL Premiership Trans World Sport Live AFL Premiership Trans World Sport Live Olympics - Gymnastics Olympics - Volleyball Live Olympics - Gymnastics Live Olympics - Water Polo Live Olympics - Gymnastics
02:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:55 13:10 15:05 16:55 20:45 22:25
WWE SmackDown UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Experience WWE This Week Live Olympics - Archery Live Olympics - Water Polo Live Olympics - Fencing Live Olympics - Archery Olympics Beach Vollyball Live Olympics - Boxing
00:00 01:00 01:55 02:50 03:20 04:15 05:10 06:05 07:00 08:00 09:55 10:50 11:50 12:50 13:45 14:45 16:35 17:30 18:25 20:20 21:15 22:10 23:05
Wicked Fit Glam Fairy Videofashion Daily Videofashion News How Do I Look? Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? Married Away Clean House Videofashion News Videofashion Daily Designer Marathon Videofashion News Fashion Classics Videofashion Daily Open House The Amandas Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane How Do I Look? How Do I Look? Style Specials Big Rich Texas Jerseylicious
00:00 Ice Road Truckers 01:00 Storage Wars 01:30 Storage Wars 02:00 Pawn Stars 02:30 American Restoration 03:00 No County For Old Men 04:00 IRT: Deadliest Roads – The Andes 05:00 Ice Road Truckers 06:00 Ice Road Truckers 07:00 Investigating History 10:00 Lost Worlds 11:00 Lost Worlds 12:00 Top Shot 13:00 IRT: Deadliest Roads – The Andes 14:00 Ice Road Truckers 15:00 Ice Road Truckers 16:00 Storage Wars 16:30 Storage Wars 17:00 Pawn Stars 17:30 American Restoration 18:00 No County For Old Men 19:00 The Universe 20:00 Ancient Aliens 21:00 Decoded 22:00 Beyond The Big Bang
01:25 Lili-FAM 02:45 Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid 04:40 The Sea Of Grass-PG 07:00 An American In Paris-FAM 08:55 King Solomon’s Mines-FAM 10:40 Three Little Words-FAM 12:25 The Yearling-FAM 14:35 Seven Brides For Seven Brothers-FAM 16:20 The Liquidator-PG 18:05 Father’s Little Dividend-FAM 19:30 Love Me Or Leave Me-PG 22:00 Point Blank 23:30 Victor/Victoria
Classifieds SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION
Airlines QTR JZR ETH RJA GFA UAE ETD FDB MSR RBG QTR THY CLX DHX JZR KAC BAW KAC KAC JZR IRA KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD GFA IRC MEA MSR MSC JZR JZR KAC MSR SYR KAC KNE KAC QTR SVA RJA KAC QTR AFR ETD UAE UAL GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY KAC KAC KAC MSR MSC KAC KAC KAC JAI KAC AXB FDB OMA MEA QTR GFA KAC ALK KLM UAE ETD KAC QTR LMU AIC FDB GFA UAL JZR DLH MSR JZR THY JAI PIA
Arrival Flights on Sunday 29/7/2012 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 620 ADDIS ABABA 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 3553 ALEXANDRIA 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 792 LUXEMBOURG 170 BAHRAIN 503 LUXOR 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 555 ALEXANDRIA 615 SHAHRE KORD 284 DHAKA 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 352 COCHIN 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 603 SHIRAZ 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 6801 AHWAZ 404 BEIRUT 618 ALEXANDRIA 401 ALEXANDRIA 561 SOHAG 775 JEDDAH 742 DAMMAM 610 CAIRO 341 DAMASCUS 774 RIYADH 472 JEDDAH 538 SOHAG 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 788 JEDDAH 134 DOHA 6708 PARIS 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 542 CAIRO 786 JEDDAH 166 PARIS 624 SOHAG 405 SOHAG 618 DOHA 674 DUBAI 102 NEW YORK 572 MUMBAI 562 AMMAN 389 KOZHIKODE 61 DUBAI 647 MUSCAT 402 BEIRUT 146 DOHA 221 BAHRAIN 514 TEHRAN 229 COLOMBO 417 AMSTERDAM 859 DUBAI 307 ABU DHABI 172 FRANKFURT 136 DOHA 1109 ALEXANDRIA 981 CHENNAI 59 DUBAI 217 BAHRAIN 981 BAHRAIN 239 AMMAN 636 FRANKFURT 614 CAIRO 539 CAIRO 772 ISTANBUL 574 MUMBAI 205 LAHORE
Time 0:20 0:50 1:45 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 3:10 3:20 3:20 3:25 4:35 4:55 5:00 6:05 6:15 6:30 7:15 7:30 7:35 7:35 7:45 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:25 9:30 10:00 10:15 10:55 11:25 12:00 12:25 13:00 13:25 13:30 13:35 13:45 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:55 15:00 15:15 15:35 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 18:15 18:40 18:40 18:55 19:00 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:35 20:55 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:20 21:25 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:50 23:55
Airlines TimeAIC FDB UAL DLH JZR MSR DHX JAI THY ETH UAE FDB RBG ETD MSR QTR QTR JZR RJA GFA THY JZR KAC CLX BAW IRA KAC KAC ABY KAC UAE QTR FDB ETD IRA KAC KAC GFA IRC KAC JZR MEA MSR KAC MSC KAC JZR MSR SYR KAC KAC KNE SVA KAC RJA QTR KAC JZR KAC ETD AFR JZR QTR UAE GFA ABY UAL SVA JZR MSR MSC KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC GFA DHX ALK KLM ETD UAE KAC QTR KAC KAC LMU QTR AXB FDB GFA KAC KAC JZR
Depature Flights on Sunday 29/7/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 52 DUBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 554 ALEXANDRIA 615 CAIRO 373 BAHRAIN 573 MUMBAI 773 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 3554 ALEXANDRIA 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 774 JEDDAH 537 SOHAG 792 GIALAM 156 LONDON 614 SHAHRE 171 FRANKFURT 117 NEW YORK 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 602 SHIRAZ 773 RIYADH 741 DAMMAM 214 BAHRAIN 6802 AHWAZ 541 CAIRO 776 JEDDAH 405 BEIRUT 623 SOHAG 103 LONDON 406 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 342 ALEPPO 561 AMMAN 673 DUBAI 473 JEDDAH 503 MADINAH 617 DOHA 641 AMMAN 135 DOHA 513 IMAM KHOMEINI 538 CAIRO 1755 JEDDAH 304 ABU DHABI 6708 DUBAI 238 AMMAN 141 DOHA 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 982 BAHRAIN 511 RIYADH 266 BEIRUT 621 ALEXANDRIA 402 ALEXANDRIA 361 COLOMBO 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 283 DHAKA 351 KOCHI 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 543 CAIRO 222 BAHRAIN 171 BAHRAIN 230 COLOMBO 417 DAMMAM 308 ABU DHABI 860 DUBAI 343 CHENNAI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 1110 ALEXANDRIA 147 DOHA 390 MANGALORE 60 DUBAI 218 BAHRAIN 411 BANGKOK 415 KUALA LUMPUR 528 ASSIUT
0:05 0:10 0:25 0:30 0:30 0:35 0:40 0:50 2:15 2:45 3:45 3:50 4:00 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 6:00 6:50 7:05 7:10 7:35 8:05 8:15 8:25 8:35 8:55 9:05 9:05 9:35 9:40 10:00 10:05 10:15 10:25 10:25 10:25 10:45 11:15 11:30 11:50 11:55 12:25 12:30 13:00 13:10 13:20 14:30 14:35 14:40 15:05 15:15 15:45 15:45 15:50 16:15 16:25 16:50 17:05 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:45 18:05 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:50 19:55 20:00 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:45 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:50 21:55 22:05 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:05 23:10 23:10 23:15 23:30 23:40 23:50 23:50
Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)
FOR SALE
THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988
Nissan Pathfinder model 2006, silver color, mileage 104000 km, new tyres and battery, non-accident, price KD 3,600/-. Contact: 99949612. (C 4091) 29-7-2012 For sale, Mitsubishi L300 delivery van, model 2004, color white, 2,21,000 km mileage, Al-Mulla maintained, price KD 2,700. Contact: 99852361/ 22418353† A 2008 model, 58 passenger, air conditioned Asher Bus in very good condition, price KD 9,400/-. Contact: 99089981. (C 4087)
SITUAITON WANTED Looking for job, having 20 years of experience in cooking. Contact: 55052382. (C 4088) 26-7-2012
112
Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw Prayer timings Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:
03:36 11:54 15:30 18:42 20:09
GOVERNMENT WEB SITES Kuwait Parliament www.majlesalommah.net
The Public Institution for Social Security www.pifss.gov.kw
Ministry of Interior www.moi.gov.kw
Public Authority of Industry www.pai.gov.kw
Public Authority for Civil Information www.paci.gov.kw
Prisoners of War Committee www.pows.org.kw
Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw
Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw
Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affair www.islam.gov.kw
Kuwait Municipality www.municipality.gov.kw
Ministry of Energy (Oil) www.moo.gov.kw
Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw
Ministry of Energy (Electricity and Water) www.energy.govt.kw
Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.kw
Public Authority for Housing Welfare www.housing.gov.kw
Ministry of Commerce and Industry www.moci.gov.kw
Ministry of Justice www.moj.gov.kw
Ministry of Education www.moe.edu.kw
Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw
Ministry of Information www.moinfo.gov.kw
Supreme Council for Planning and Development www.scpd.gov.kw
Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org
34
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
stars CROSSWORD 751
STAR TRACK
CALVIN & HOBBES
Aries (March 21-April 19) You draw emotional sustenance and a sense of security from ideals, friends and a social involvement. You may be helping friends most of the afternoon. Perhaps your friends are moving this weekend or you will lend a helping hand in some project they want to begin. There is a chance to understand those around you and to have an extraordinary time with someone you love. Good feelings and a sense of support makes this a contented time. You could be most persuasive with others—the day just seems to present a natural time for self-expression—lending itself to your particular ideas and thoughts. Expect a sense of support and good will from those around you. A good conversation with those you love is possible this evening.
Taurus (April 20-May 20) You will enjoy just about anything you decide to do today, whether it is work or play. This is just that kind of day. Most things will come easily. Your mindset is in planting seeds that will develop and survive far into the future—that is what it is all about for you. This is also a time when you may spend an excessive amount of worry about your monetary position—frequently you are thrifty. An older person in your life may be able to give you some good advice regarding budgeting techniques. This evening a gathering of friends can be enjoyed. Have a party and just be you. You could find yourself enchanting others with your imagination and stories of how life could be. Go to that special someone and express your love to them.
POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC). 5. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells. 9. Block consisting of a thick piece of something. 13. Being or befitting or characteristic of an infant. 14. The clock time given by a clock carried on board a spacecraft. 15. (obstetrics) The number of live-born children a woman has delivered. 16. Any small compartment. 17. Hard strong durable yellowish-brown wood of teak trees. 18. United States physiologist (born in Germany) who did research on parthenogenesis (1859-1924). 19. Slanderous defamation. 21. Tall feather palm of northern Brazil with hard-shelled nuts yielding valuable oil and a kind of vegetable ivory. 23. English writer and a central member of the Fabian Society (1858-1943). 25. A highly unstable radioactive element (the heaviest of the halogen series). 26. Considerate and solicitous care. 29. Harsh or corrosive in tone. 34. Receiver consisting of a pair of headphones. 38. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984). 39. A man who is a stupid fool. 41. A Hindu prince or king in India. 43. English monk and scholar (672-735). 44. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables. 47. Small branch or division of a branch. 48. Marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience. 50. A subsidiary proposition that is assumed to be true in order to prove another proposition. 54. Gone by. 58. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine. 59. A doctor who practices veterinary medicine. 60. Plants closely allied to the genera Satureja and Calamintha. 61. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods. 62. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event. 63. The basic unit of money in Gambia. 64. (informal) `johnny' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War. DOWN 1. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural). 2. A complex red organic pigment containing iron and other atoms to which oxygen binds. 3. (usually followed by `to') Having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something. 4. A rule made by a local authority to regulate its own affairs. 5. Standard time in the 8th time zone west of Greenwich, reckoned at the 120th meridian west. 6. (informal) Of the highest quality. 7. Divulge information or secrets. 8. A town and port in northwestern Israel in the eastern Mediterranean. 9. A single splash. 10. A mountainous landlocked communist state in southeastern Asia. 11. (Greek mythology) Greek god of war. 12. Used as a Hindi courtesy title. 20. A rare heavy polyvalent metallic element that resembles manganese chemically and is used in some alloys. 22. Having undesirable or negative qualities. 24. Nocturnal mouselike mammal with forelimbs modified to form membranous wings and anatomical adaptations for echolocation by which they navigate. 27. Flower arrangement consisting of a circular band of foliage or flowers for ornamental purposes. 28. 4-wheeled motor vehicle. 30. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank. 31. On or toward the lee. 32. No longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life. 33. An informal term for a father. 35. A unit of elastance equal to the reciprocal of a farad. 36. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike. 37. Virus parasitic in bacteria. 40. The capital and largest city of Georgia on the Kura river. 41. A single splash. 42. Attack someone physically or emotionally. 43. A workplace for the conduct of scientific research. 45. Having or showing keen interest or intense desire or impatient expectancy. 46. All the plant and animal life of a particular region. 47. Legal document setting forth rules governing a particular kind of activity. 49. Any of various minerals consisting of hydrous silicates of aluminum or potassium etc. that crystallize in forms that allow perfect cleavage into very thin leaves. 51. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion. 52. Long coarse hair growing from the crest of the animal's neck. 53. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa. 55. Someone who is morally reprehensible. 56. A nucleic acid that transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm. 57. An operating system that is on a disk.
Yesterday’s Solution
Gemini (May 21-June 20) Continue to work on realistic thinking. You may benefit from self-help books or recorded books—results are successful and fun. Close relationships take on more depth that is emotional and significant just now. Learning what makes people tick is a pastime you seem to enjoy, not necessarily to pry, but for lessons and a feeling of universality. Your instinctive orientation at this time is toward getting down to brass tacks: making your ideas work. Having and appreciating things of beauty and value play a big role in your life now. Provided you do not spend it all on the fancy things that catch your eye, this can be a financially favorable period. Things to make your existence safe and efficient will begin to show up in your life now.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) A nice feeling that all is right with the world is very strong today. Music is likely to play an important role for you and a period of material acquisition can satisfy a deep yearning to be free from want. A common interest in spiritual and mystical values among family members may occur at this time, too. You could be most persuasive with others and eloquent in speech and communication. The situation is a natural for self-expression and lends itself to your particular ideas and thoughts. You have a natural ability to use emotions productively. Each day, each hour and every instant, you are choosing what you want to look upon as well as the sounds you want to hear and the witnesses to what you want to be the truth for you. Teach what you live.
NON SEQUITUR
Leo (July 23-August 22) You are nourished in great measure by the atmosphere and conditions you are able to create. Remember, you are in control of what surrounds you. You will enjoy being on the go today—perhaps running errands or helping to put together the makings of a fun party. An eternal optimist, you are open, friendly and lucky today as well. You may be a bit restless this afternoon and decide to pop in on a friend you have not seen in a while. There is also an excellent chance that you may hear from a long-lost chum during this time. Romance becomes an end in itself as a new cycle begins for you this evening. Now marks a time when love, creativity and self-expression satisfy a deep yearning to be appreciated and admired.
ZITS
Virgo (August 23-September 22) A new electronic invention that you may or may not have invented provides a great deal of fun today—perhaps even some part-time income. Today you will notice a past emotional problem is beginning to subside. The avenues of support that have previously been lacking are now available. You can demonstrate great understanding and sensitivity to the needs of others and you are in a good position to communicate important messages and lessons. You may find yourself guiding someone younger than you in matters of importance. Helping others, helps you to perceive how to proceed with your own plans and decisions regarding life situations. You are happy to receive support and good will from those around you. This is a satisfying time.
Libra (September 23-October 22)
MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM
Your mind is wide open and insisting to be fed! This is a great day to study and learn new things, as well as to assess your own position. Others point of view will be clear, as yours will be to them. This is also a good day to take a short family excursion. Perhaps there are some museums or historical sites around or in your city that you have never seen—now is the time. Tensions at work lately may have made it difficult to enjoy family members. Now is the time to call or write those members of your family that you have not heard from or spoken to in a long time. Your home and surroundings tend to be very traditional and you could find yourself changing, repairing or picking out pictures to frame or put in an album this evening.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Today’s emphasis falls on power and authority. The spotlight is on public relations and taking care of chatty customers. When it comes to accepting other people’s advice, or in helping others, listening is always good. There are people all around you today that you do not know—you might consider an attitude of observance for a short while. You can demonstrate a great deal of sensitivity to the needs of others just now and you are in a good position to communicate concerning groups of people or political agendas. Important domestic changes involving your home or financial status could also come to your attention. You become more aware of how you want to appear in public and may decide that a shopping expedition is soon in order.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Although you have a hard time parting with your collections, you will be determined in becoming more organized. You aim to have a place for everything and everything in its place. You may decide to have a garage sale this afternoon as well as for tomorrow. You will also find ways in which to express your creative side. Ideas about some science fiction story or at least the beginning of an outline for a story are possible. Words and thoughts just shoot out of your mind—illuminating whatever subject is at hand. You really do have very different ideas and ways of expressing them. This daydreaming of stories may also take place in your sleep. You might enjoy keeping a dream diary. You will enjoy the company of your friends tonight.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Most of your Saturday may consist in helping others. Friends and family may find you more talkative and easygoing than otherwise. An informative dialogue with an older person may take place this morning. Learning what makes people tick turns on your healing skills. Your instinctive orientation at this time is toward getting down to the basic facts and starting over from scratch. This could mean pitching out ideas or even the closet clutter. Healing anything comes from destroying the roots of a disturbance and this could be clutter or an item that is so out of style it is past refurbishment. You enjoy working with your mind and can usually find a solution to the worst problems. You will find yourself guiding others this afternoon and evening. To
Yesterday’s Solution Yester
Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Your ability to socialize with others is highlighted. You are particularly aware of how your social persona defines you in the eyes of others—allowing you to affirm your own identity. Use this opportunity of insight into how others view you as a cure for self-examination. You could receive unexpected help or support from those around you for whatever activity you decide to involve yourself in today. This is; however, a great time to sit back and enjoy what you have. Your many responsibilities and obligations may keep you away from those who would offer you much-needed support. Could it be time to reassess or take a vacation? Finances are in your favor for whatever plans you make. Make it a point to tell or listen to a joke today—lighten your load.
Pisces (February 19-March 20)
Word Sleuth Solution
You are at your mental best with sharp ideas and clear thoughts. This is an excellent time to make decisions and take care of mental work. Any personal paperwork you have put aside these last few weeks can now be completed. You may appreciate this day to catch up with some of your affairs. Casual cooking, a movie with the family and any number of other things to create good relationships and good memories can be enjoyed this afternoon. This evening may bring about some opportunities to stop and reflect and understand your own situation: just how you feel about your station in life at this time. Romance is possible this evening. This can be an expansive, creative and even romantic phase: a time to look back upon with pride and fondness.
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital
24812000
Amiri Hospital
22450005
Maternity Hospital
24843100
Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital
25312700
Chest Hospital
24849400
Farwaniya Hospital
24892010
Adan Hospital
23940620
Ibn Sina Hospital
24840300
Al-Razi Hospital
24846000
Physiotherapy Hospital
24874330/9
Kaizen center
25716707
Roudha
22517733
Adhaliya
22517144
Khaldiya
24848075
Keifan
24849807
Shamiya
24848913
Shuwaikh
24814507
Abdullah Salim
22549134
Al-Nuzha
22526804
Industrial Shuwaikh
24814764
Al-Khadissiya
22515088
Dasmah
22532265
Bneid Al-Ghar
22531908
Al-Shaab
22518752
Al-Kibla
22459381
Ayoun Al-Kibla
PHARMACY
ADDRESS
Ahmadi
Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan
Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd
23915883 23715414 23726558
Jahra
Modern Jahra Madina Munawara
Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92
24575518 24566622
Capital
Ahlam Khaldiya Coop
Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop
22436184 24833967
Farwaniya
New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan
Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11
24734000 24881201 24726638
Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop
Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop
25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241
Hawally
ST TAT TE OF K KUW WAIT A
Tel.: e 161
DIRECTORA AT TE GENE GENERAL OF CIVIL AVIA V AT TION METEOROLOGICAL DEP PA ARTMENT
Veery hot h with light to moderate north westerly changing to south easterly wind, with speed of 08 - 30 km/h
BY Y NIGHT:
Relatively hot with light to moderate south easterly changing to south westerly wind, with speed of 08 - 30 km/h No Current Warnings arnin a
WA ARNING
36 °C
22451082
KUW WA AIT AIRPOR RT
47 °C
31 °C
Al-Mirqab
22456536
NUW WA AISEEB
44 °C
32 °C
Sharq
22465401
WAFRA A
49 °C
31 °C
Salmiya
25746401
SALMI
49 °C
33 °C
ABDAL LY
49 °C
31 °C
Jabriya
25316254
JAL ALIY YA AH
48 °C
32 °C
Maidan Hawally
25623444
FAILAKA A
42 °C
33 °C
Bayan
25388462
AHMADI POR RT
47 °C
35 °C
Mishref
25381200
UMM AL-MARADEM
39 °C
34 °C
W.Hawally
22630786
WARBA A A - BUBY YA AN
42 °C
31 °C
Sabah
24810221
Jahra
24770319
ST TATION T
DA AT TE
WEA AT THER
Sunday
29/07
West Jahra
24772608
Monday
South Jahra
24775066
Tuesday
North Jahra
24775992
Weednesday
North Jleeb
24311795
MAX.
MIN.
Wind Direction
Wind Speed
hot
46 °C
30 °C
NW-NE
12 - 35 km/h
30/07
hot + scattered clouds
45 °C
30 °C
NW-NE
08 - 30 km/h
31/07
very hot
48 °C
33 °C
NW-N
12 - 35 km/h
01/08
very hot
48 °C
33 °C
NE-SE
12 - 35 km/h
PRA RA AYER Y TIMES 03:35
MAX. Temp.
46 °C
Sunrise
05:05
MIN. Temp.
31 °C
Zuhr
11:54
MAX. RH
28 %
Asr
15:30
MIN. RH
Sunset
18:43
MAX. Wind i
Isha
20:10
TOT TA AL L RAIINF FA ALL L IN 24 HR.
24892674
23900322
RECORDED YESTERDA AY AT KUW WA AIT AIRPORT
Fajr
24884079
Fintas
28/07/2012 0000 UTC
Temperatures DA AY
24575755
24710044
SFC. CHART
4 DA AY YS FORECAST
New Jahra
N.Kheitan
06 % SE 32 km/h 00 mm
All times are local time unless otherwise stated.
PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists
Paediatricians
Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf
22547272
Dr. Khaled Hamadi
Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari
22617700
Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed
Dr. Abdel Quttainah
25625030/60
Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar
23729596/23729581
Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari
22635047
Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan
22613623/0
Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe
23729596/23729581
Dr. Verginia s.Marin
2572-6666 ext 8321
Endocrinologist
25665898 25340300
Dr. Zahra Qabazard
25710444
Dr. Sohail Qamar
22621099
Dr. Snaa Maaroof
25713514
Dr. Pradip Gujare
23713100
Dr. Zacharias Mathew
24334282
(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)
25655535
Dentists
Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan
22655539
Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami
25343406
Dr. Shamah Al-Matar
22641071/2
Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly
25739272
Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed
22562226
22618787
Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer
22561444
Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan
22619557
Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash
22525888
Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan
25653755
Dr. Bader Al-Ansari
25620111
Dr. Salem soso General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer
22610044
Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher
25327148
Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan
22666300 25728004
Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra
25355515
Dr. Mobarak Aldoub
24726446
Dr Nasser Behbehani
25654300/3
info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com
3729596/3729581
Neurologists
22639939
Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman
Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri
25633324
Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan
25345875
Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman
22636464
Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly
25322030
Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali
22633135
Kaizen center 25716707
25339330
Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab
25722291
Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees
22666288
Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi
Dr Anil Thomas
Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688
Al-Shuwaikh
24810598
Al-Nuzha
22545171
Sabhan
24742838
Al-Helaly
22434853
Al-Fayhaa
22545051
Al-Farwaniya
24711433
Al-Sulaibikhat
24316983
Al-Fahaheel
23927002
Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh
24316983
Ahmadi
23980088
Al-Mangaf
23711183
Al-Shuaiba
23262845
Al-Jahra
25610011
Al-Salmiya
25616368
INTERNATIONAL CALLS
BY Y DA AY:
46 °C
24719048
22545171
Expected Weeather for the Next 24 Hours
KUW WA AIT CITY
Al-Omariya
Al-Shohada’a
Ext.: 262 2627 - 2630
WWW.MET.GOV V.KW .
MIN. REC.
Firdous
22418714
Fax: 24348714
MAX. EXP P.
Al-Ardhiya
PHONE
Al-Madena
25330060
Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah
25722290
Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad
24555050 Ext 210
Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123
2611555-2622555
William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677
Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands) 0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062
Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677
36
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
LIFESTYLE G o s s i p
Beckhams trying
for fifth and final baby ormer Spice Girls performer Victoria and her 37-year-old husband are hoping to conceive while the London 2012 games are on. A friend of the soccer player told the Daily Star newspaper: “Both Victoria and David are very patriotic and would love it if she got pregnant while they are in London for the Olympics, especially as it is also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year. “Their other children were conceived overseas, so the duo are hoping that their final child will have a Made In Britain tag. They continued: “Brooklyn was famously named after where he was conceived in New York. “And Victoria has joked that if she gets pregnant with a boy during the Olympics they are going to call him Stratford.” Apparently the couple - who already have Brooklyn, 13, Romeo, nine, Cruz, seven, and Harper, one - want five children because of the number’s symbolism. Insiders revealed: “They have always wanted five children to give them a family of seven - which is their lucky number. “It’s also the number that David wore on his England and Manchester United football shirts. The source added: “Victoria is really into symbolism, and she can’t help but notice there are five rings in the Olympic logo and, of course, there were five members of the Spice Girls.”
F
Katy Perry comforts Robert Pattinson he ‘Twilight Saga’ star is getting support from the pop star following an apology from Kristen, who cheated with ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ director Rupert Sanders. The 26-year-old actor - who has moved out of the Los Angeles home he shared with his co-star and girlfriend - supported Katy when she went through her own split with comedian Russell Brand, 37, last year. A source close to Robert told the Daily Star newspaper: “Katy has been a rock for Rob. “She has reassured him she is very much there for him just as he was for her when she split from Russell. She has urged him to take a break with her.” Robert, who had been with Kristen for three years, has reportedly told
T
her he needs at least two months to decide whether to take her back. The source said: “He’s angry, hurt and upset and is sick of people taking sides already. “He’s hoping to get two months to himself without Kristen around just to think things through. She has sent him messages asking him to hook up in New York for crisis talks next week but he wants to be alone.” The insider added: “His best friend has asked her to move her stuff out of his LA home. She only moved in two months ago.”
Gwen Stefani struggling to find time for children
he 42-year-old singer raises sons Kingston, six, and Zuma, four, with her husband Gavin Rossdale and she admits it was hard to balance the needs of her kids and the band’s reunion in 2008 but she kept at it because she wanted it to work so badly. She said: “We were only able to get together three days a week and, because I had the kids, there was only a limited amount of time. “I was exhausted by the time I got there, so it was a struggle trying to weigh and balance everything out with the kids. But it was that fight that made the record so great.” Handling her duties as a pop star and parent is nothing new to Gwen. The ‘Settle Down’ singer admits she found it hard work when she took Kingston on a solo tour with her when he was a
T
baby. In an interview with the Daily Record newspaper, she revealed: “I went round the world with Kingston on my own and that was really hard. I was nursing him for 14 months so I would nurse, go on stage and wake up through the night and on the bus, and it was just like, ‘What am I doing?’ It was so hard.” No Doubt release their new album ‘Push and Shove’ on September 25 - their first new studio record since 2001’s ‘Rock Steady’.
Sir Paul McCartney
Camila Alves hoped her baby bump wouldn’t ruin her career he model - who is married to actor Matthew McConaughey - signed on as the face of department store Macy’s I.N.C International Concepts’ campaign in April, and discovered shortly thereafter that she was pregnant with her third child. She told People.com: “A week before we were supposed to have a photo shoot, I found out I was pregnant! “I was over the moon, but my first reaction was that it was going to be a deal-breaker for the campaign - that they wouldn’t want a pregnant mum - but we worked it out.” Her 42-year-old husband will portray an AIDS patient in his upcoming film ‘The Dallas Buyer’s Club’, which begins shooting in September, and the pounds he’s lost for the part have become noticeable, according to 29-year-old Camila. She explained: “He’s losing weight for his new movie and he still has to lose more. But I’m very supportive. I’m usually the one right there saying, ‘You can’t eat this, you can’t eat that,’ but he’s very disciplined. He’s really great at it.”
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Danny Boyle described Ceremony as a ‘warmup’ act for the Games he Oscar winning film director is the man responsible for the incredible transformation of the stadium in Stratford, London where the athletics will take place. He said: “Tonight’s a warm-up act for the Games. That’s one of the things you have to keep remembering. ‘You big it up for different reasons, and you hear it bigged up or slammed or whatever it is and you’ve got to keep remembering we’re the warm-up act.’ The ceremony started with classical music from Edward Elgar, the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Danny Boy’. However the song soon shifted to the rock genre. Danny - who brought in the electronic duo Underworld as musical directors - included The Sex Pistols’ song ‘Pretty Vacant’ and their infamous version of the country’s national anthem ‘God Save The Queen’. Other artists included in the musical score included the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Queen. A section featuring 75 bikes representing the traditional doves which were released at Games from ancient times to signal peace, was accompanied by the music of the Arctic Monkeys, including their track ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. Emeli Sande sang the hymn ‘Abide With Me’ and admitted she felt privileged to be included in the line-up. She said: “I am extremely proud and humbled to be part of the amazing ceremony which will allow the world to see some of the best up-and-coming and established talent the UK has produced.”
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closes Opening Ceremony with sing along fter the British band Arctic Monkeys covered ‘Come Together’ by his famous band the Beatles, the singer ended the show with the aptly titled ‘The End’ and ‘Hey Jude’. Sitting at grand piano, his performance was watched by his daughter Stella McCartney who has played a key part in designing Team GB’s costumes. Other high points during the event included Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reading from Peter Pan and David Beckham bringing the Olympic flame along the River Thames in a speedboat. The show’s artistic director Danny Boyle also drafted in Rowan “Mr Bean” Atkinson for a comic act on the keyboards where he played the theme to British movie ‘Chariots of Fire’. England’s Queen Elizabeth II declared the Games officially open and boxer Muhammad Ali took a role in the Olympic flag-bearing ceremony. David and rower Sir Steve Regrave, who won gold medals in five consecutive Games, carried the Olympic flame on the final leg of the 12,800-mile relay. A group of young athletes were chosen to light the cauldron. Broadcast to a global television audience estimated at one billion, Universal Music said an album of the ceremony soundtrack would be on sale “within moments” of the ceremony ending. UK Grime MC Dizzee Rascal had earlier taken to the stage to perform in his local area, the East End of London. He said: “It is exciting to be part of the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony. It is a good time for the UK and I am glad they asked me to perform one of my greatest tracks to represent the country.”
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Green Day don’t have a clue what the future holds he group are preparing to release three albums, ‘?Uno!’, ‘?Dos!’ and ‘?Tre!’ and they think the move could either be the “greatest” or “dumbest” thing they have ever done. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said: “This could possibly be the greatest idea we’ve ever had or it could possibly be the dumbest idea we’ve ever had. And that’s really exciting to think about. “We don’t have a clue what we’re doing as far as the future is concerned. And it’s kind of exciting to think of it that way.” The ‘Basket Case’ band admit it is now impossible to make their career follow a “normal” trajectory because of their decision to release an album trilogy. Drummer Tre Cool told NME magazine: “Normality is not a possibility at this point because we have three records, so, immediately, all the old rules go out of the door - we just make new ones up as we go.” However, the group - whose last album, ‘21st Century Breakdown’ come out in 2009 - think they are going to have a good time promoting the albums. Billie Joe said: “I think it’s gonna be a fun ride and the point of us making these records was just to have more fun. Things got a little stressful towards the end of ‘21st Century Breakdown’ and we were feeling the pressure. “It was time to switch gears to a new territory. And when we did, it ended up being three records. We didn’t know it was gonna be like that. The philosophy is to expect the unexpected.”
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LIFESTYLE
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
lifestyle
‘Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry’ director hopes movie will be pirated
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lison Klayman knows she’s a true rarity in the movie business: a director who can’t wait for her film to be bootlegged and illegally downloaded. In the case of Klayman’s first feature, the documentary “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” the reason for her enthusiasm is that she simply wants her chronicle of the Chinese artist and dissident to be seen inside China - and if that means using piracy to get it into a country whose government will not allow it to be distributed legally, she’s fine with that. Outside of China, meanwhile, her entertaining and moving documentary of the playful but outspoken artist opens on Friday in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. A week later, a 10-city expansion will include Los Angeles - including, crucially, the AMC Monterey Park multiplex. Although it is located in the center of the Chinese community in Los Angeles, the theater typically sticks to major-studio fare and rarely books docs or foreign films, even Chinese ones. Growing out of an unpaid assignment to make a video of Ai Weiwei for a New York art gallery, Klayman’s documentary follows the Chinese artist’s life since 2008, when he began speaking out against the government after helping design the famous “bird’s nest” stadium for that year’s Beijing Olympics. Since then, Ai has had his active social-media profile shut down within China and his studio demolished; he was beaten by the police in Chengdu. In April, 2011, while Klayman was editing her film. Ai was detained by Chinese authorities, who held him for 81 days without releasing any information about his whereabouts or the reasons for his detention. Last week, a Chinese court refused to overturn a $2.4 million fine levied on Ai for what the government contends is unpaid taxes; he has already paid half the fine through donations made by fans and supporters. The day after that decision was announced, TheWrap spoke to Klayman. Q: The court ruling obviously didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. A: “No, it was nothing we didn’t expect. The court ruled that they were not willing to overturn the fine, Weiwei was again not permitted to go to the courthouse, and again they shooed away the journalists and other people who were trying to wait outside. “But Weiwei said he’s going to continue to file lawsuits. He takes that as the responsible thing for the citizen to do. That might not resonate in the US , the idea that lawsuits are your civic duty. But it shows you that in a different context, things have different meanings.” Q: What was your reaction when, during the editing process, Ai Weiwei was taken into custody? It had the potential to seriously impact your film - though obviously that was less crucial than the way it impacted his life. A: “Exactly. The overriding concern was how scary it looked in those 81 days. There was no knowing when he’d be out, what was really going on, where he was and what the charges were going to be. “But for the film, my initial reaction, very honestly, was ‘China, you just went and simplified the story to an incredible degree.’” Q: In what way? A: “Here we have this guy who is revealing fundamental, scary truths about this society, the violence that does exist, the lack of transparency and the way individual voices are crushed. He’s talking about it all the time - but he’s traveling the world as a very successful international artist, he’s giving interviews left and right, he’s blogging and he’s tweeting, and nobody is knocking on his door. “Yes, he’s meeting resistance, he’s put under surveillance, there is the police assault and his blog is shut down. But ultimately, look at how much he’s accomplishing. And I thought that would be kind of surprising for an American audience. “I felt like that was a really interesting tension, and we were working hard in the edit to convey that there was a really big risk. And then the government went and really simplified the story by doing exactly what everybody thought was going to happen to him.”
Q: Did you continue to work on the film during his incarceration? A: “We were working on it, but it was a mess. I would describe it as working under duress. We didn’t know what was happening, and I felt too tense all the time. And we didn’t really know how to end the movie. But I thought maybe the movie could have a helpful effect if it was out there. So we kept plugging along, working toward the deadline for Toronto Film Festival. And then the day before we were going to turn it in, he got released. And I immediately was screening the footage of him coming back.” Q: It speaks volumes to see a man who had been outspoken apologize to the press and say, “I can’t talk about it,” because he was under such restrictions. A: “It was so powerful to see him like that, and I felt pretty confident that that was the ending. You always run the risk of dating yourself with a documentary, but I thought that whatever happened in a year or 10 years, that is what he looked like on that day. That is the evidence. It shows you what he’s up against and that he’s not superhuman. “It’s not like they have changed what’s important to him, and if anything, this whole experience has made him believe even more that he is right about his critiques. Because he himself has had the experience of being totally crushed, and he’s bouncing back slowly.” Q: What are the chances of the film being seen inside China? A: “There’s no possibility for any kind of official distribution. I think there’s very, very strong interest in seeing the film. Every day on Twitter, there are people asking in Chinese, ‘When can I see it? Where’s the download link?’ “And essentially, that’s how people are going to see it. It’s going to be distributed the same way Weiwei’s films are - either DVDs passed around, or more likely BitTorrent and other kinds of downloads. I may be the most excited filmmaker to see my film bootlegged in China. And we are working on a simplified character version of it. “But also, we’re really excited that we’re going to have a distributor in Taiwan. Joint Entertainment is going to release the film in two theaters in Taipei, and we’re going to be in the Taiwan Independent Documentary Festival festival in October.” Q: Do you wonder about the impact the film could have on his situation? Maybe it will raise his visibility and increase international pressure and that will help, or maybe international pressure will cause the Chinese authorities to crack down even more? A: “Yeah. That was my thinking during his detention, very strongly. I wasn’t sure if international pressure would make them double down on mistreating him. But I feel less ambivalent about that since Weiwei has been released. I really think that his release shows that the international pressure in his case does matter. “So I feel pretty confident that the movie, making more people aware of him, will not be hurtful to him. The really interesting question is what kind of impact the film will have on China. Even though we don’t have an official distribution method, it will be seen - and I kind of feel like it’s worth not thinking small about that. “My hope is that people see it who aren’t fans of Ai Weiwei in China will get to see it. And there are so many students and graduate students from China in the US , and in Australia and Canada and the UKAll the kids of the leaders at Kennedy School [of Government] at Harvard, maybe they’ll get to see it. These are the future leaders of the country, and nobody’s going to stop them from going to see a movie or downloading it from iTunes or sharing a DVD. It’s really important to reach thoseaudiences, and I feel like there’s no reason to think small—(TheWrap.com)
A cosplay fan poses for a picture during the 14th Ani-Com and Games exhibition in Hong Kong yesterday. One of Asia’s biggest animation and comic fairs opened on July 27 in Hong Kong, attracting thousands of fans and bringing some fun back into super heroes after the Batman movie shootings in Colorado. —AFP
‘Killer Joe’ boasts starry cast, NC-17 rating M
atthew McConaughey is the latest A-lister to go NC-17. He plays the title role in “Killer Joe,” which carries the Motion Picture Association of America’s maximum restriction because of “graphic disturbing content.” Directed by Oscar winner William Friedkin, “Killer Joe” is only the second NC-17 theatrical film to be released in the U.S. this year, because no one under 18 can be admitted no matter who accompanies them and limited audiences mean limited revenues. Still, more and more of Hollywood’s top talent like McConaughey, Friedkin, and co-stars Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church are embracing edgy projects that require the stiff rating. Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche starred in the NC-17-rated French film “Elles,” released earlier this year. “X-Men: First Class” and “Inglourious Basterds” star Michael Fassbender won raves for his turn as a sex addict in last year’s only theatrically released NC-17rated film, “Shame.” “ The NC-17 rating is about to go mainstream,” said box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com. “If Matthew McConaughey and Michael Fassbender are giving their stamp of approval to the creative freedom that NC-17 allows, people might go for it. While it may affect the ability to market a film, it brings a whole new cache of subversive marketing, and mainstream actors who give it legitimacy, credibility and raise it to a whole new level.” “Let’s wear it as a badge and keep it shined!” McConaughey said of the NC-17 rating for “Killer Joe.” The MPAA says on its website that an NC-17-rated film “is one that, in the view of the Rating Board,
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This Jyly 18, 2012 photo shows actor Matthew McConaughey, left, and director William Friedkin, from the upcoming film “Killer Joe” in Beverly Hills, Calif. McConaughey plays the title role in the NC-17 rated film, which also stars Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church. —AP most parents would consider patently too adult for their children 17 and under.” That’s certainly true of “Killer Joe,” which opens in New York on Friday and other major cities next week. The MPAA says it contains “graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality.” Adapted from the stage by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts, it’s a story about a small-time drug dealer (Hirsch) who hires a cop moonlighting as a hit-man (McConaughey) to kill his mother for her life-insurance benefits, and offers his virgin sister as collateral. It’s adult material. Still, Friedkin was prepared to edit the film to potentially qualify for an R-rating, “but they wanted to go so far” with the cuts. “I often say what (the MPAA) wanted to do is what the generals
said we had to do in Vietnam, which was destroy the country in order to save it,” said the director, who won an Oscar for 1971’s “The French Connection” and an Oscar nomination for 1973’s “ The Exorcist.” “We’re not targeting a teenage audience, so it’s the correct rating,” Friedkin continued. “But there are other films that I think are far more graphic in every way language, sex and violence - that are playing with an R, because you won’t see an NC-17 - which is an ‘X’ really - on a major studio film.” McConaughey, who has been breaking out of his broad romcom appeal with edgier roles, described “Killer Joe” as “a wild, raunchy, cheerfully amoral piece.” “It was a character I hadn’t played before,” he said of gentlemanly cop/con-
tract killer Joe Cooper. “It was a character I didn’t know how to do right away.” The disturbing and darkly funny story with themes of loyalty and vengeance didn’t appeal to him right away, either. “When I first read the thing, I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was funny. I was disgusted by it,” the actor said. “But then I clicked into my funny-bone side of it and I was like, ‘I get it. I get that this is absurd and funny, and it’s OK.’” Friedkin says the appeal of the story lies in the desperation of its characters. “I found it fascinating because at the heart of it, at the crux of it, is small time criminality - the desperate ends that people will go to who find themselves trapped in their own skin and by their own dreams,” he said. “All these people have big dreams and they don’t know how to accomplish them, and they think that murder is the answer.” He drew comparisons to the real-life cases of O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake and Casey Anthony. A dark tale like “Killer Joe” will find an audience, Friedkin said, no matter its rating. “Somebody’s going to see these films, and they’re gonna like them or hate them. Sometimes they’ll be memorable. Often they’ll be challenging. And I enjoy doing that,” he said. “I don’t have any respect for someone who sets out to do a blockbuster. I just really don’t. I think that’s just a crass, commercial approach.” Films rated NC-17 are rarely commercial. Pedro Almodovar’s 2004 film “Bad Education” has the highest box-office tally of any NC-17 film with just over $5 million. “An NC-17 movie is never going to be about box office,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s always going to be about creative freedom. That’s the best thing about the NC-17.” — AP
Stars of ‘Modern Family’ reach contract deal
he stars of “Modern Family” have reached new contracts to keep working on the Emmy-winning comedy, ending a dispute that had threatened to spill over into a courtroom. A 20th Century Fox spokesman confirmed Friday evening that the deals had been reached and that shooting on the ABC series’ fourth season will begin Monday. The deals cover stars Sofia Vergara, Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Five of the actors sued Fox on Tuesday, asking a judge to rule their contracts on the hit show are illegal and should be invalidated. O’Neill joined the case later in the week. Executive producer Christopher Lloyd said the lawsuit wouldn’t have interfered with production but it is “great to have that not hanging over our head.” He said there would be no ill will on the set because the situation was resolved quickly and the show has a “charmed setup.” “Modern Family,” a popular comedy that airs on ABC, has won Emmy Awards for outstanding Comedy Series the past two years. Several of the stars, including Burrell, Bowen and Stonestreet have won individual Emmys for their work on the show. The show was recently nominated for 14 Emmy Awards, the most of any sitcom. The lawsuit, which claimed the actors’ contracts were illegal because they bound them to the show for more than seven years, will be dropped. Exact terms of the deal were not released. “The particular grounds for the lawsuit are debatable,” Lloyd said. “It was a tactic in negotiations. I don’t think it was ever taken that seriously. “It was a step along the way. I think personally our actors got some bad advice,” he said, quickly adding: “I have nothing negative to say about our actors.” Asked if the standoff could have been avoided, he replied: “It could have been avoided if Fox and ABC wanted to overpay. It could have been avoided if the actors asked for less than they probably deserve.” But neither side wanted to back down. “I don’t know the terms of (the deal), probably both sides feel it didn’t end up where they wanted it to end up and that’s usually the sign it was a well-executed negotiation,” he said.— AP
SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
lifestyle
TRNC marks 38th anniversary of Turkish Peace Operation If there was no 20th July Peace Operation we would not have our state today: President Eroglu By Sawsan Kazak
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ot heat nor humidity could stop the celebrations in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) commemorating the Turkish peace operation that took place 38 years ago on July 20th. The festivities began at noon with a 21-gun salute which was then followed by a speech from Northern Cyprus President Dervis Eroglu. “If there was no 20th July Peace Operation we would not have our state today. Pre-1974 means dark days however after 1974 means bright and forever independent days for us,” said President Eroglu in his national address. The president also spoke of the struggles waged by the Turkish Cypriots and mentioned the significant bond the Cyprus Turkish people and with ‘Motherland Turkey’. The 20th July, 1974 was the day the Turkish army entered Cyprus in response to a Greek military junta backed coup in Cyprus. This intervention was undertaken in accordance with the 1960 Treaty rights and Obligations and is seen as the savior for Turkish Cypriots. The president was looking forward and optimistic in his address saying, “the future belongs to Turkish Cypriot People. I have good hopes for the future because I believe in the Turkish Cypriot people. I trust our people and motherland Turkey.” The president also commented on the ongoing embargoes imposed against Northern Cyprus and its people. “ We are very hard working and thanks to the aid from Motherland Turkey the Cyprus Turkish people have prospered,” said President Eroglu. In his speech the president also called on the Greek Cypriot administration to ‘give up on their dream of returning to pre-1974 conditions’. He asked that the Greek Cypriots use common sense and work towards finding a solution to ongoing problems. The president and the spectators were then entertained with a military show both in the air and on the ground that lasted for over an hour.
Northern Cyprus: 10 reasons to go now
sand dunes, the island’s longest and widest beach boasts the creamiest and finest grains on the island. You can rent cabins on the headland above the beach, yet it remains deserted for much of the year. 6. To walk with shepherds At B¸y¸kkonuk, Northern Cyprus’ first eco-village, you can experience a traditional working hamlet. Stay in restored stone houses, walk with shepherds, do donkey treks, pick wild herbs, enjoy picnics in the olive groves and bake local bread with the village baker. Visit Ecotourism Cyprus for more information. 7. To scramble about soaring castles Northern Cyprus can lay claim to some of the country’s highest castles. Perched precariously on craggy mountaintops with spectacular coastal views, the crumbling ruins of the 12th-century Lusignan castles of St Hilarion, Buffavento and Kantara see few visitors.
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omparatively underdeveloped, with pristine countryside, long sandy beaches and crystal clear water, the Northern Cypriots boast that their part of the island is like the South 30 years ago. Why go now? Once the country is unified, there’s no telling how Northern Cyprus will change. Will development run riot, resulting in the cookie-cutter sprawl of the south? Will the pristine beaches and countryside be spoilt? Don’t risk waiting. Here are 10 more reasons to go now:
1. To walk the line The Green Line is Cyprus’ Berlin Wall. The UNpatrolled buffer zone between northern and southern Cyprus has barbed wire, guard boxes and barricades. In the capital Nicosia it’s possible to walk its length (no photos allowed), but when the borders open this will be the first thing to go. 2. To explore Old Nicosia The Northern Cypriot side of Nicosia’s Old Town has a lowkey charm and ramshackle feel, with dilapidated old buildings, washing hanging from windows and kids playing in the narrow atmospheric streets. And with its restored old
han (caravanserai or travellers quarters) and Turkish baths, it also enjoys an exotic Turkishness you can’t find in the southern part of the city. 3. To kick back in Kyrenia One of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful harbours, Kyrenia boasts a tranquil bay bobbing with boats, a traffic-free waterfront promenade lined with old stone buildings, cafes and restaurants, a striking little lighthouse, colossal castle and a stone breakwater that is the place for sunset strolls. 4. To ramble the remote Karpaz The remote, protected Karpaz peninsula in the north-east, known as the Panhandle, is a wonderful spot for walking, birdwatching, swimming and simply enjoying nature. Expect to see wild donkeys grazing in the idyllic countryside, pretty fishing coves with turquoise water and crumbling Byzantine churches with beautiful mosaic floors and fading frescoes. 5. To savour Cyprus’ best beach Stroll, swim and sunbathe at Cyprus’ most beautiful beach on the Karpaz Peninsula, aptly named Golden Sands. Backed by windswept
8. To wander among ancient ruins The atmospheric ruins of ancient Salamis, Vouni and Soloi are some of the island’s most stunning piles of rubble, boasting a litany of attractions: sprawling palaces, theatres, baths, gymnasiums, basilicas, arcades of columns, impressive mosaics and breathtaking views, yet most days you’ll be exploring alone. 9. To marvel at Famagusta’s Walled City You can wander around this near-perfectly preserved walled city for hours, visiting the Gothic cathedrals that the Ottoman-Turks turned into mosques, exploring the towers turned into museums and walking the ramparts that Shakespeare turned into settings for Othello. 10.Fill up on a ‘full kebab’ Nothing defines Northern Cypriot cuisine more than the full kebab experience - a series of generous courses of grilled meat, chops, meatballs, kebabs and kofta (minced kebab meat) served as they’re cooked fresh off the grill and accompanied by dips and salads. Who needs fast food? When to go Shoulder seasons (September-October, AprilMay) or winter (December-February), when the sky is cerulean and there’s a gorgeous clarity of light. Summer (June-August) is sweltering. (www.travel.ninemsn.com.au)
A higher level of education
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stablished in 1979, Eastern Mediterranean University offers programs fully recognized by Council of Higher Education in Turkey. Having completed its physical infrastructure, the campus spreads over an area of 2200 acres. The University owns unprecedented campus facilities, and creates a multicultural environment with students coming from 68 countries and highly qualified faculty members from 35 different nations. There is a perfect harmony and dialog between the students and the faculty. Thanks to the modern understanding of education shared by all, students are trained as individuals thoroughly learned and endowed with excellent research skills, who can generate new knowledge, who are aware of and meticulous about environmental issues, who are creative, confident and ready to compete with the world youth. In addition to the in-door and out-door sport complexes, the variant of student clubs and the fullyequipped offices they own where all club activities are planned, and the oncampus dormitory facilities reflect the student oriented educational philosophy of Eastern Mediterranean University. Eastern Mediterranean University took its well-deserved place within the best 1500 universities in 2011 Webometrics Rank ings of World Universities. EMU, which was previously placed as the 1704th university in Webometrics Rankings, has made a considerable progress as it has been ranked as the 1421th university based on the Webometrics evaluations which included 20,000 universities and took 16 universal criterion as their basis. According to rank ings by Webometrics, which is centered in Spain, among 160 universities in Turkey, Eastern Mediterranean University has been ranked as the 18th university among the ones with Faculty of Medicine, the 8th among those without Faculty of Medicine and the 4th among
private universities (foundation universities) in Turkey. Based on 2011 rankings, EMU continues to carry the title of ‘the top ranking university’ in Northern Cyprus as other TRNC universities have been ranked as the 3793th and 9088th by Webometrics. It is also worth mentioning that one of the leading institutions of higher education, Middle East Technical University, ranked Eastern Mediterranean University as the 1695th university in METU University Rankings by Academic Per formance (URAP),
which also included a considerable number of state and foundation universities both in Turkey and throughout the world. The mission of this university is to offer contemporary, sustainable and quality education at international standards, conduct research, contribute to the needs of the society, meet the needs of all stakeholders and graduate students in a multicultural environment having international knowledge and competences. The vision of Eastern Mediterranean University is to become a preferred, participating, autonomous university open to change and development, producing science and technology and serving as a model with its multicultural diversity. (www.emu.edu.tr)
‘Killer Joe’ boasts starry cast, NC-17 rating
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Fireworks explode over the stadium at the end of the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games at the Olympic Stadium in London —AP
Fashion Olympics
Big designers behind games kits W
ho said sportswear can’t be chic? The athletes’ parade during Friday’s opening ceremony might as well have been a catwalk show, with some of fashion’s biggest names - Armani, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney - designing the team uniforms. Many in the fashion industry are already calling this the most stylist Olympics ever. The Italians must be some of the bestdressed athletes, scoring points with an understated monochrome kit in navy and white by Giorgio Armani, as well as waterproof blue designs for their sailing team by Prada. Stella McCartney has worked with Adidas to design the sporting gear and “Village wear” (read loungewear) for Britain’s home team, though the outfits weren’t on show Friday as athletes covered up in white and gold tracksuits. McCartney’s gear takes inspiration from
the iconic Union flag, but she said she deconstructed it to make it “more delicate and feminine.” Look out for them on the track and at the pool: Red is sparingly used to highlight a palette that mostly features white and shades of blue - turquoise, navy, cobalt. Meanwhile, the American team may have gotten a barrage of bad press for its made in China Ralph Lauren uniforms, but the preppy designs were still some of the most stylish in the arena: clean-cut navy blazers, crisp white trousers, skirts, and shoes, accessorized with navy berets and blue, red and white striped scarves. The Jamaican team is in the spotlight because of sprinter Usain Bolt, so it’s fitting that it also got a boost in the fashion stakes this year. Their kit, which feature the national colors as well as lightning-like prints, were designed by Cedella Marley, daughter of leg-
Members of the French delegation parade during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in London. —AFP
endary singer Bob Marley, for Puma. The styles were modeled by a flamboyantly dancing Bolt at a London catwalk recently. “Cedella Marley brings island color to team Jamaica - a sea of tropical yellow, green and black,” said Avril Graham, Harper’s Bazaar executive fashion and beauty editor, on Friday. Other designers behind the Olympics this year include luxury label Hermes, which has designed riding jackets for the French equestrian team, and Salvatore Ferragamo, which designed the official uniform for the tiny European republic of San Marino. Some designers didn’t get involved in the official Olympics gear, but used the games as an opportunity to cash in and promote their brands anyway. Karl Lagerfeld, for example,
launched an Olympic-themed womenswear collection called Team Karl at London department store Selfridge’s - though he reportedly said he wouldn’t tune in to watch the games. Meanwhile, high-street chain store H&M said it was launching two pop-up stores dedicated to selling sportswear in London. Friday’s athletes parade also showcased some surprising and less popular designs. The German team was notable for not using their national colors at all - instead, the kit was all hot pink for the women’s jackets, and cornflower blue for the men; both were paired with white trousers. The Czechs, meanwhile, wore bright blue wellington rain boots paired with white shorts. Spectators also made their own judgments about the much-maligned uni-
forms for the Spaniards and Russians, both made by Russian sportswear company Bosco. Some Spanish athletes have posted tweets grumbling about their garish red and gold outfits, and there are even Spanish Facebook groups set up to campaign against the gear. Official kit aside, there were strong fashion showings in the spectator stand, too. Michelle Obama chose a white dress by J. Mendel, while the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly known as Kate Middleton, dazzled with a pastel blue satin and belted coat dress reportedly by wunderkind Christopher Kane. British Prime Minister David Cameron’s wife, Samantha, demonstrated her fashion credentials with a bold red and black outfit by London-based designer Roksanda Illincic.— AP
Jackson’s mother, nephew to share custody of children
M
ichael Jackson’s mother will share custody of his children with his nephew, lawyers said Friday after a hectic week for the musical family. Katherine Jackson, 82, met with her grandson TJ Jackson, 34, Thursday and agreed that joint custody is in the best interest of the children, the Jackson family matriarch’s lawyer Perry Sanders said in a statement. “Mrs Jackson is extremely pleased with the prospect of enjoying the pleasure of raising Michael’s children without the day-to-day tedium of items such as
managing the large staff that goes with such a high-profile family and focus her attention on being a grandmother and raising Michael’s children,” Sanders said. The Jackson family will formalize the new custody arrangement early next week, Sanders said, ending the family’s dispute over the custody of 15-year-old Prince, Paris,14, and Blanket,10. Under the arrangement, T.J. Jackson would oversee the children’s schooling as well as the household staff and security, while Katherine Jackson would keep control of the children’s financial allowance
from the singer’s estate, according to the statement. “She is eager to simply enjoy her great relationship with these children, while deeding over some of the stressors that go hand in hand with being a guardian,” Sanders pointed out. Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff has also ordered probate court investigator Cary Ornelas to prepare an investigation concerning the status of the three children and the elder Jackson. “The court orders that Ms Ornelas have direct access to the children and authorizes Ms Ornelas to interview
the children at their school on an unannounced basis,” Beckloff said in his ruling. On Wednesday, the Superior Court in Los Angeles granted TJ temporary custody of the children, because of Katherine Jackson’s mysterious disappearance for 10 days. She had previously been the children’s guardian. The fractious Jackson family has been embroiled in legal and financial disputes since the pop star’s sudden death in June 2009 from an overdose of propofol, a powerful anesthetic. Entertainment media portrayed the 82-year-old
Jackson’s absence as an abduction by Michael’s siblings, who are allegedly furious they did not inherit any of the singer’s assets. Katherine Jackson controls the $70,000 per month that Michael Jackson left his family in his will. The document grants TJ custody of the children, if Katherine Jackson dies while they are still minors. Together with his brothers Taj and Taryll, TJ is part of an R&B band they started in the 1990s, 3T, which performed a tribute to Michael Jackson in October 2011 in Britain. —AFP