22 Oct

Kuwait Times

October 22, 2010

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NO: 14887

INSIDE

Local YouTube star tells all PAGE 6

NATO or Iran?

Turkey in an awkward position PAGE 10

MANAMA: Unidentified women wave flags of Bahrain and the Shiite opposition Al-Wefaq Party during a rally on Wednesday night, Oct 20, 2010, in Manama. Tens of thousands of Bahrainis participated in the rally. — AP

Bahrain social media squeezed Security crackdown ahead of crucial poll Clashes, protests rock French cities PAGE 17

Top seed Jankovic crashes out of Kremlin Cup PAGE 64

MANAMA: When the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain launched a crackdown on its Shiite Muslim opposition last month, social media sites found themselves in the firing line too. Twenty-three men were charged with plotting to overthrow the political system-where the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa dynasty rules over a restive Shiite majority-partly through organizing a campaign of street protests and media activism.

In the crackdown before elections due tomorrow, the board of one human rights group was also suspended, and the popular forum BahrainOnline was closed down and the blogger who founded it, Ali Abdulemam, arrested. It was a backhanded compliment to an online community of activists whose dynamism and resourcefulness has been an example for the rest of the Gulf region. “Bahraini activists are using the technology very well.

“The government fires back, but there are always back doors that the technology provides,” said Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent blogger in the United Arab Emirates. “Bahrainis are definitely more advanced than the rest of the Gulf countries in knowing, and demanding, their political rights,” Mansoor added. BahrainOnline started in 1999 with lively debates on domestic politics and discrimination against

Shiites. Through Abdulemam’s efforts, it reached over 100,000 daily hits and had thousands of members, despite being officially blocked by Bahraini authorities most of the time.

Now they are migrating elsewhere, said Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).

“When the government shut down these websites, people moved to an international platform, which is Facebook,” he said. The number of friends on his Facebook page jumped from around 1,000 to 2,300 in the weeks following the crackdown.

“Bloggers are technically very aware and circumventing censorship has become second nature to them,” said popular Bahraini blogger Mahmood AlYousif.

Bahrain, a regional banking hub whose hosting of the US Fifth Fleet makes its stability important to Washington, has one of the more politically and socially open societies in the conservative Arabian Peninsula region.

Bahrain is also seen by fellow Sunnirun states such as Saudi Arabia as a bulwark against the growing influence of Shiite power Iran, whose nuclear program has unnerved Gulf Arab states-one reason why demands for more political reform annoy the ruling elite.

Shiites complain of widespread discrimination in housing and government jobs and say the government is settling foreign Sunni Muslims to offset Shiite demographic strength. The government denies all these charges.

An island state of some 1.3 million people, Bahrain tries to attract foreign investment and entice international firms to set up offices by presenting itself as a liberal environment for business and pleasure.

The Internet telephony firm Skype opened its regional representative office in Manama this year. In August, Bahrain took out an advertisement in international media showing a Blackberry device that read: “Fact: Bahrain has the most liberal telecoms market in the Gulf”-an apparent swipe at Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which threatened to cut Blackberry services this year.

However, last April Bahrain had suspended a Blackberry news group run by a local journalist. Last month it banned the group for violating media laws.

“Being outspoken has a price tag, not everybody is willing to do it,” said Amira Al Hussaini, the Middle East and Africa editor of globalvoicesonline.org, an international community of bloggers. “People have given up,

there is a sense of failure, it is a depressed mood amongst bloggers.”

The BCHR says it fears that Abdulemam, who is married with three children, may have been abused in detention. He was detained for a month in 2005 along with two others because of messages posted on BahrainOnline that were critical of the ruling regime.

Meanwhile, the leader of Bahrain’s mainstream Shiite opposition has called for an end to the stranglehold on power of the Gulf state’s Sunni royal family, just days before a tense parliamentary election. “It is unacceptable that power be monopolized by a single family, even one to which we owe respect and consideration,” the head of the Islamic National Accord Association, Sheikh Ali Salman, said late on Wednesday.

Despite reforms that came into force in 2002 aimed at ending deadly unrest among the island’s Shiite majority, the ruling Khalifa family has held onto the premiership and other key levers of power ever since independence from Britain in 1971. “We look forward to the day where any child of the people, be they Sunni or Shiite can become prime minister,” Salman told a mass rally in a suburb of the capital Manama. — Agencies

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Friday, October 22, 2010

FRIdAy SpOTlIghT

I don’t want to be a ‘mudeer’

By Mu na A l- Fu zai udeer’ is a local word w h i c h means a ‘manager’ or director. So, if you address someone as being a ‘mudeer,’ he or she may acknowledge it as a sign of courtesy and respect, and even smile and

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thank you for it. However, Bangladeshi salesmen use it in a slightly different context.

A friend sent me an email the other day that was both funny and contained a warning against the use of a commonly used word in the Arabic language. It has a rather unpleasant meaning in the Bangla language - a donkey. So,’ mudeer’ in Bangla refers to a donkey!

I do not think that the donkey is a ‘lesser’ animal when compared to the other species. It has traditionally been known as

a ‘beast of burden’ that was used to carry and transport heavy objects. It received little respect and attention from people, mostly owing to its unattractive appearance and unpleasant cry. Throughout history, the donkey has been viewed as a trusted animal. Cultural differences and languages has created barriers.

In Arabic, if someone is referred to as a ‘shaitan,’ it could mean that he or she could be a ‘meticulous professional’ in their field of work, or that the person is evil. It is used as an insult too depending on the con-

text.

Languages are amazing. This is because while ‘mudeer’ in Arabic means a person who holds a good job post, in another language, it is a word of insult. If someone knew the meaning of the word, they would take it too personally.

I would advise anyone who hears a foreign-sounding word should immediately clarify the word’s meaning. So if you still want to be a ‘mudeer,’ use this term to someone who knows its meaning. m una @kuw aitt imes .n et

CRIMES

Scope TV owners sued KUWAIT: In a follow up to the incident where a number of ruling family members carried out an assault against the headquarters of Scope satellite television channel citing insult, fifty family members have appointed lawyer Fouzia Al-Sabah to file a lawsuit against the channel owner Fajr Al-Saeed and manager, her brother Talal. The channel owners are accused of insulting family members in a program that was presented last Saturday. In her brief, Al-Sabah argued that Al-Saeed’s lies and claims against the ruling family was not, under any circumstance, is an exercise of freedom of expression. “It was threats , truth-twisting and false accusations leveled against Al-Sabah family,’ she stressed. She pointed out that such allegations would create and enhance sectarian feelings.

Overjoyed divorcee A newly divorced wife was overjoyed when her ‘passive’ former husband terminated their relationship before the officer in charge at Rumaithiya police station. The woman began making celebratory noises and cries (locally known as Yebbab). The officer burst into hysteric laughter and a mixture of relief and fear was visible on the husband’s side. Case papers indicate that the couple came to the station with separate complaints. The officer easily noticed that the man less domineering. The man said that the woman was irrepressible and had the upper hand in deciding household matters. To end his suffering, the man divorced the wife before the officer.

Awry domestic dispute In another case of domestic dispute, two Arab expatriates were recently arrested in Salmiya in connection with sexually harassing a woman. The men had reportedly tried to put an end to a public quarrel between the woman and her husband. Case papers indicate that the two Arabs saw the couple fighting with each other tooth and nail, including hurling shoes at each other. They interfered and managed to put an end to the fight. Instead of expressing gratitude, the woman called a passing by policeman and complained against the men of sexual abuse. A case was filed against the couple for quarreling in the street and a sexual abuse case was filed against the two ‘gallant’ men.

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Friday, October 22, 2010 conSpiracy tHeorieS

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

What’s in it for the Ministry of Health?

By Badr ya Dar wish ere is the latest update from the Ministry of Health.

After long debates and deliberations, the Ministry of Health took a drastic and courageous decision to endorse treatments for those who need physiotherapy in private hospitals. If a patient is transferred to the private hospital, the government will pay the tab. May I know, in the first place, why the Ministry of Health cannot upgrade its physiotherapy departments? First, do they have any such departments? I know they have one or two places.

What big budget does physiotherapy need? It is one of the cheapest sections in any hospital as it does not need sophisticated machineries, such as MRIs, scanners, or operating rooms with highly-sophisticated equipment which cost hundreds of thousands and

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sometimes millions. It is simple mathematics. The main issue is that there is a demand for good and well-trained physiotherapists who can be recruited from anywhere around the world. Just like the same way the ministry recruits doctors and nurses from abroad, if they do not have locally. What is needed is simple equipment and massagers.

What is the sudden passion towards patients from the Ministry of Health that they are willing to bear the bill for treatment in private hospitals? How is this going to work out and which hospitals are patients going to be referred to? Who is going to coordinate the referents from one hospital to another?

Will there be a quota for every private hospital so it will be fair and square so that that everybody benefits from the Ministry of Health, and it is not only my friend, my cousin or someone from my tribe or somebody I am in partnership with? Could it be more than one and for which patients? Would it apply to all kinds of therapy?

I smell something is wrong in this proposal. Or is it a new way of making

money because, for sure, there is money involved in this subject. Who has decided the amount and how much? Is this what the Ministry of Health could come up with to enhance its health services to the society? After all these years of people shouting and criticizing the appalling situation in hospitals, the ministry is only coming up with this trivial matter - physiotherapists to be transferred to the private sector? Why don’t they refurbish the whole health sector? Don’t we have enough money for this in Kuwait?

Why doesn’t the ministry open a tender and allow private companies to come in and open their own physiotherapy section in every hospital. Like this, it will be more competitive and transparent.

I have a better suggestion for you. If you are failing as a ministry to provide physiotherapy treatment and you are referring it to the private sector, you might as well refer the entire ministry to the private sector. It might do better. www.badryadar wish.com

SATIRE WIRE

What is recycling?

By Sawsan Kazak few years ago, I remember coming to Kuwait and being absolutely appalled at the lack of recycling and the amount of wasting that took place. Coming from Canada, where recycling is somewhat of a religion, Kuwait was a culture shock when it came to this aspect. We were always taught in school of the importance of saving mother Earth with our reusing powers. We would wash out sticky cans, separate our plastics and always use white papers front and back. If you did not perform these tasks, and many more, you would

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get judged and bad-mouthed by your peers.

My first year in here, I tried to hold on to my recycling ‘ethics.’ I would save my water bottles in a brown paper bag, stack up my newspapers and save any empty cardboard boxes. I quickly realized that I could recycle all I wanted at home, but there was nowhere to take my used goods. All I was left with was many useless bottles, old papers and dust-collecting boxes which ended up polluting my living space.

Slowly but surely, my deep-seated recycling principles began to fade over the years. I stopped trying to help mother Earth and began to kill her with my wastage and my carelessness towards the environment. But a few days ago, I did the unthinkable, I grabbed a fresh white paper from the printer and scrib-

bled something on it and then discarded it soon after. This might seem like a normal occurrence to most of you but if you grew learning about deforestation and global warming, you would know that I had committed a sin. I who used to look down upon those who blatantly and deliberately wasted, was now just as bad.

I believe that I am not the only one who is sometimes guilt-ridden about the wasting that is taking place. The problem is that not many people, including myself, know where to start. I do not know where to take my piles of papers or my cans, or where to buy recycled stuff. I do believe, however, that every little bit helps. Until Kuwait becomes tree-hugging hippies like the Canadians, I will do my part to minimize the damage I cause. sawsank@kuwaittimes.net

God bless Kuwait he attack on Scope TV channel dominated the headlines this week. When the news first broke it did not shock me as I had predicted that something like that was bound to happen, the way things are going on in Kuwait. No, I did not predict such an incident because I am Nostradamus and I cannot see the future. However, judging by the way some media organizations and some public figures have been behaving, you do not need a psychic to predict that some sort of violence will eventually take place. The media and political scene in Kuwait is gradually getting overshadowed by foul language and unprecedented public slander that does not serve the country any good.

On this occasion, the Ministry of Information followed the rulebook and sent Scope TV owner to the Public Prosecution Department to face charges.

Whatever the charges may be, it is standard procedure for the Ministry of Information to press charges against a media organization if it feels that the press law has been broken. Then, it is up to the court to study the evidence, hear both sides of the story and pass judgment. We have all been through it as media organizations. But the brother of Scope TV owner felt that he should take matters in his own hand and slander Al-Malik Al-Sabah branch of the royal family just because the Deputy Minister of Information is a member of that branch, and that led to the violence.

On the other side, we have a channel called AlSoor that continuously slanders tribal Kuwaitis and questions their loyalty, stating that they only recently received nationalities and that they are all dual nationals who are loyal to other countries other than Kuwait. It is irresponsible, racist media propaganda.

What is more shameful is that some tribal MPs have decided to react in an unacceptable manner by using foul language in rallies against the owner of the station. These are MPs representing the nation and they use terms such as “that dog, low life w***e” or “we will trample his head and the heads of whoever is behind him one by one.” Is that the sort of people we want to represent us? Is this the diplomacy that our politicians use to run the country?

As a journalist, I am a vivid supporter of the freedom of press but that freedom comes with great responsibility. I fear that some media organizations do not understand such responsibility because some of our TV channels are dominated by talk shows that serve as a stage for public slander, discrimination, negativity and personal vendettas. It is so easy for people to criticize for the sake of doing so, and not come up with a constructive solution or even a valid argument. Being loud and vulgar seems to be the order of the day and that is a sad state of affairs.

I fear that the opening of the National Assembly later this month will be like a fiasco from the Jerry Springer Show. That will only lead to another dissolution of Parliament, but this time only to save Kuwait from international embarrassment.

God bless Kuwait and God bless us all. Have a nice weekend.

T

Let me know what you think: email me at myopinion@kuwaittimes.net

Abd Al-Rahman Alyan Editor-in-Chief

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Friday, october 22, 2010

Have you heard of the Kajukenbo?

“Anyone can learn to kick and punch, but to teach them how to survive in a violent street situation, you have to develop their animal instinct”.

By Nawara Fattahova t is a kind of martial art sport that combines Judo, Karate, IJujitsu, Kenpo, and (Chinese Boxing) also known as Kung-Fu. In brief, it is Kajukenbo.

The relatively unknown sport has come to Kuwait as early as 1993. Currently, there are 15 beginners and five senior belts students who have enrolled in Kajukenbo courses. However, earlier this sport has attracted a greater number of followers.

Back in 1993 one American trainer imported the sport by hosting courses in Kajukenbo.

He later handed the training over to captain Ahmad Zakariya Hussein, who was then giving the training from 1998 till 2010 when he died, and here this game stopped for few months.

One of captain’s Zakariya best students is Captain Abdullatif Al-Rujaib, who revived the game in Kuwait. As a step towards the development of the Kuwaiti national sports, Captain Abdullatif Al-Rujaib has been awarded the black belt second degree rank in Kajukenbo by Grand master Bob Maschmeier, a ninth degree black belt earlier this month.

This promotion was authorized by eleven of the world top grand masters and professors in Kajukenbo. Such promotion is considered the one and only of its magnitude awarded in Kuwait and the Middle East. “I would like to present this award to my trainer late captain Ahmad Zakariya

Abdullatif Al-Rujaib (right) receives a plaque from Grand Master Bob Maschmeier during his black belt awarding ceremony. — Photo courtesy of Abdullatif Al-Rujaib

Hussein. Also, I would like to thank the Kuwait Judo and Taekwondo Union, the Public Authority for Youth and Sports, and all those who supported me from the Kajukenbo players and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad. I’m really glad for this award,” AlRujaib told the Friday Times.

The interest in Kajukenbo has been increasing especially after Al-Rujaib’s award. He explained that currently there are courses for men above 18 years of age from all

nationalities. These classes are held three times a week, each for an hour and a half. “We are planning to have classes for females and for kids as well in the future, when we have greater demand,” added AlRujaib.

It takes three to four years to reach the black belt. “There are 10 belts in Kajukenbo, from which the black is the last.

Participants are tested for each belt before acquiring it. Usually it takes between three to six

months between a belt and another. We are now training the Kuwaiti Kajukenbo team to participate in any upcoming championship. We were already invited by the Grand Master in the United States,” concluded Al-Rujaib.

“Anyone can learn to kick and punch, but to teach them how to survive in a violent street situation, you have to develop their animal instinct,” says GrandMaster Bob Maschmeier. A direct student of the late Senior

What is Kajukenbo? ajukenbo was created between 1947 and 1949 at Palama Settlement on Oahu, Hawaii.

K It developed into group that has called themselves the ‘Black Belt Society,’ which consisted of black belts from various martial arts backgrounds who met to train and learn with each other. This was the beginning of an evolutionary, adaptive style designed to combine the most useful aspects of the arts.

Kenpo emerged as the core around which this new art was built. Although unaccredited by name, other influences included American Boxing and Escrima.

In the late 1940’s, Palama Settlement was a community center in a violent area of Oahu where fist-fights or stabbings were commonplace. From this environment, the founders of Kajukenbo wanted to develop an art that would be readily useful on the street.

As they trained and fought in and around Palama Settlement, the founders of Kajukenbo quickly gained reputations as formidable street-fighters. In 1950, Adriano Emperado, along with brother Joe Emperado, began teaching the new art in an open class. They called the school Kajukenbo Self Defense

Institute (KSDI).

The emphasis during training was on realism - so much so that students routinely broke bones, fainted from exhaustion, or were knocked unconscious. Nevertheless, the reputation of this tough new art drew more students and Emperado opened a second school at the nearby Kaimuki YMCA. Soon Emperado had 12 Kajukenbo schools in Hawaii, making it the second largest string of schools at the time.

John Leoning, who earned a black belt from Emperado, brought Kajukenbo to the mainland in 1958. Since that time, Kajukenbo has continued to flourish and grow.

From its beginnings, Kajukenbo was an eclectic and adaptive art. As time has passed, Kajukenbo continued to change and evolve.

Currently, there are a few distinct, ‘recognized’ branches of Kajukenbo: Kenpo (‘Emperado Method’ or ‘Traditional Hard Style’) Tum Pai, Chu’an Fa, Wun Hop Kuen Do, and Gaylord Method. In addition, there are numerous ‘unrecognized’ branches, including CHA-3 and Kenkabo. Students are not required to mimic the teacher, but are encouraged to develop their own ‘expression’ of the art.

Grandmaster Joe Halbuna, he teaches Kajukenbo with a two part philosophy: teach students to survive and Street fight, and encourage them to explore other martial arts, looking for techniques which will make them better fighters. The emphasis on survival is primary in Kajukenbo and in Maschmeier’s Coast Karate Studios.

Bob Maschmeier, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, born on December 8, 1942, has more than 40 years of training experience, where his first introduction to Kodenkan Judo was in the US military by fellow service buddies. Bob signed up for classes and began his journey on a path that would eventually lead him to his current ranking of Grandmaster-9th degree.

Upon opening the doors to the first Coast Karate Studio in Pacifica, California, Bob introduced the Maschmeier Method of Kajukenbo. With over 40 years of experience and influence in martial arts, Grandmaster Maschmeier has been recognized for his achievements, from many organizations one of which is the Action Martial Arts Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2006. The Kajukenbo courses are being offered at the Kuwait Judo and Taekwondo Union (KJTU) at Sabah Al-Salem.

People can contact Al-Rujaib and get more information on available courses on the Facebook Group: Kuwait Kajukenbo Brothers.

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Friday, October 22, 2010

LOCAL

‘

’ A screenshot of Shitsawi’s channel on YouTube

By Abdullah Al-Qattan

W

hen YouTube was launched, thousands of talents exploded on the world wide web. The website allowed ordinary people to showcase their talents to an international audience. While a number of these talents made it to the pop scene, others stayed in the YouTube limelight, becoming stars in that field. Shitsawi, a young Kuwaiti man who prefers to keep his identity anonymous, is an example of the latter. Although he started his video channel on YouTube recently and only has a handful of videos to date, he managed to gather a substantial number of fans from around the world.

Funny and quirky in his approach, Shitsawi (which is an Arabic word that translates into: What are you up to?”) tackles random subjects, blending social commentary, media propaganda and hilarious jokes.

His first video humorously tackles the issue or the negative portrayal of Arabs in Western media. Criticizing a video by rap artist Busta Rhymes of a song entitled ‘Arab Money,’ Shitsawi offers his own rendition of an Arab dance to the beats of a recent hit song. Shitsawi spoke to the Kuwait Times about his videos, what inspires him to make them, and what he plans to do next.

KT: Tell us about yourself Shitsawi: Well, I’m from Kuwait. I’m currently studying in Miami, seeking a degree in Entrepreneur Ability. At first, I actually intended to study engineering - you know how most parents want their kids to be engineers and doctors. But it just was not who I am. I can say that I am a people’s person; I like to socialize, communicate and get feedback from people. I feel more involved in people’s day-to-day lives. So I decided that business would be a better choice for me to study.

KT: Tell us more about your family.

Shitsawi: I come from a very big family. We are not your typical Kuwaiti family for sure; we are very crazy and sometimes loud. No matter what, when it comes to our culture and ideals, we respect it. If people do not know us they tend to be like ‘Wow, what’s wrong with these guys!’ But we are fun company.

KT: What made you start this project?

Shitsawi: My dad passed away a couple months ago, and my sister a couple years before that. I feel as though my family is disappearing slowly. The question we always ask is ‘why us?’ I wish I had an answer to that, but by now you just go with what life gives you and thank God for it. I worked for four months straight during the summer, and I must say they were by far the worst days of my life. No freedom, no more fun, just work, work, work. Whatever I could do to help my family, had to be done.

I know for a fact that what is left of my family in Kuwait is not much, and every time I talk to them it depresses me. So, at first I made the YouTube channel wanting to

KT: Why did you chose YouTube to start your channel?

Shitsawi: What other way is there, really? The freedom to say anything you want, uploaded in a matter of minutes and have it reach to unlimited number of people. By far, this is the smartest route to take, I believe.

KT: How did people respond to you after making your first video?

Shitsawi: Good question. I have received positive feedback. Some people passed comments like “Wow! Awesome video, we want more!” And I would get the occasional negative comment saying, “Who is this joke? Get a life!” Which is perfectly fine.

When I went into this, I made sure to tell myself that I’ll be getting all sorts of comments from people. It is just how the world works.

Shitsawii with his younger brother show them the countless family videos I had filmed that they had never seen. I thought, maybe I could just post videos of myself doing stupid things, create some sort of connection with my little brother back home. He really misses me, as well as my mom and little sister. This way I would be doing something I love, and know that they had their daily dose of me!

KT: Who are you trying to target with your videos?

Shitsawi: My goal is to not have a specific crowd, even though we are taught in business to focus on one target and own it. I decided that the internet is a vast and lethal weapon in my arsenal. Whoever wants to watch is

welcome.

KT: Do you wish to impact the opinion people have of Kuwaitis?

Shitsawi: I hope I can succeed in doing that positively. I think many people live in a selfmade bubble of prejudice and opinions about others that are handed down to them by the media and the decision makers. It is a shame, there is so much to learn in the world if we would just open up and try to see for ourselves. However, I also do have unpleasant comments about Kuwait and the way things take place there sometimes, but I’ll keep quiet for now. Perhaps I will address it in due time when people are actually interested in my opinion.

KT: Do you think people should be able to represent their countries?

Shitsawi: Of course, everyone should have the opportunity to say what they want. The world is a giant sponge of facts, views, and opinions. No matter how smart you think you are, or how well-rounded you are, you are bound to learn something new and interesting. It is just a matter of opening your mind to it, and listening instead of blocking everything out.

KT: What do you use as inspiration to make a video?

Shitsawi: Random things, very random things. I get ideas when I’m tying my shoe laces, listening to a song, watching TV, or even from dreams! I know it’s weird, but it works for me.

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Friday, october 22, 2010

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Animal rescue efforts suspended temporarily

Bigger and better place for PAWS in Kuwait

By Ben Garcia

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rotecting Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), a shelter for animals, the only one in Kuwait, was reportedly set to pull down its shutters owing to a lack of funding and support received from the Kuwaiti government. According to Margaret McLuskey, the shelter will not shut down, instead it is set to move to a bigger and better place. PAWS is located on government-owned land. Over the recent years, authorities here asked them to vacate the land, for its usage. “We have managed to extend our permit, but now it is final, we should move out from the old shelter,” she said. McLuskey told the Friday Times. The unfortunate fire that gutted one of the shelters caused an increase in the amount of animals PAWS had to care for in one place and this required extra fundraising.

The following is Friday Times online correspondence with McLuskey.

KT: Can you tell us in brief about the history of PAWS? McLuskey: PAWS was started around seven years ago by a group of people who all shared the same compassion for animals and realized that there was a huge need in Kuwait to help the ones that had been abandoned and abused. At that time, there was no help at all available here. We realized immediately that we had a difficult task ahead of us but we eventually managed to establish PAWS as an animal rescue group and have grown from there.

KT: Since establishment, how many pets have you rescued?

McLuskey: I can say thousands. We get an average of 10 calls and 50 emails every day and 90 percent are about unwanted animals. We have over the years also rescued horses, donkeys, rabbits and other small creatures.

KT: How many pets do you have at the shelter?

McLuskey: At present we have around 120 dogs and cats.

In the summer months we have up to 150. If we rescue horses or donkeys, we only temporarily house them until they can be moved to the sanctuary on Failaka Island.

KT: How do you care for them? What is the regular regimen to keep them alive and help them live normally?

McLuskey: We keep them fed, watered, clean and safe until they are adopted. The dogs are walked on a regular basis to give them adequate exercise. We also have large runs where they socialize in small numbers. The cats have their own cages with a large communal space within the room for them to socialize.

All our animals are ‘re-

houseable’ and desperately need their own family. Most come from homes - abusive ones or otherwise.

KT: How do you control their population?

McLuskey: All of our cats and dogs are spayed or neutered at a veterinary centre. We simply cannot have our animals having litters. Apart from the fact that this would cause a huge problem at the shelter, there are already too many homeless cats and dogs in Kuwait and breeding just compounds this fact.

KT: I know you have been announcing animal adoption programs - is there a growing trend of keeping pets at home in Kuwait?

McLuskey: We get a good adoption rate and there are people who would love to adopt but many people, particularly expats often do not know how long they will be here and where they may be going next and of course a pet is a responsibility for life. The other problem is that pets are often not allowed in apartments or villas that are rented. Local people have in recent years taken more of an interest in taking on a pet. With the local children learning more about this subject in school, it helps. Education is the key and we often visit schools to talk to the children about animal welfare and we hope to do more of this.

KT: What are the requirements for adoption?

McLuskey: Adoption is fairly straight-forward. There is an adoption form available on our website that is required to be filled in and then we call the perspective adopters to make arrangements to visit the shelter to visit the animals in our care. The form does ask quite a few questions, and the reason for this is that we need to assess the applicants and to get an idea of what type of pet they are looking for.

KT: How do you monitor their welfare if pets are considered for adoption?

McLuskey: We always get a good idea of suitability from the application and then from meeting applicants and we often get criticized for not allowing applicants to adopt but if we are not sure, then it is a no because we have to consider the animals first to ensure that they are going to a safe and loving home.

Adopters can feel free to contact PAWS at any time for support in the first few weeks of having their new pet. We have received hundreds of mails and pictures over the years of PAWS dogs and cats in great homes all over the world.

KT: Since PAWS is a nonprofit organization, who are the people that support it financially?

McLuskey: We do not receive any government funding and rely on donations from people who support our cause. We also have fundraising events throughout the year that keeps the shelter going. Occasionally, we receive donations of food from the Sultan Centre and from Pedigree foods, but on the whole we have to purchase everything we use at the

shelter. In addition to food costs, we have all the running costs, veterinary bills, and equipment to purchase.

KT: Are you in favor of government’s method impounding cats/dogs found homeless and wandering and then eventually killing them via chemicals?

McLuskey: No we are not, but the government’s hands are

tied in a sense that the stray animal problem is much, much bigger than people imagine and they appear not to have the resources to deal with the problem any other way. The way forward is to control the selling of dogs and cats at the Friday Market, in pet shops and to stop puppy farms here from breeding and selling too many dogs.

These animals are often sick and rarely vaccinated.

PAWS is in dire financial straits at the moment and have to relocate in November.

The NGO urgently needs funds and the public to help if possible. If anyone wishes to make a donation, they should visit the website www.paws-kuwait.org for more details or contact pawsq8@yahoo.com

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Friday, October 22, 2010

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah speaking at the cabinet meeting held yesterday at Bayan Palace. — KUNA

Amir regrets local incidents

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah expressed deep regret and dismay at the recent domestic incidents, namely some ‘irrational practices, rejected by the society and penalized by the law.’ In an extraordinary Cabinet session held yesterday, he affirmed that all citizens must abide by laws for the sake of maintaining homeland security and stability.

He also urged the Cabinet and the Parliament to speed up enacting “certain legislations that ensure dignity and reputation of individuals, as well as public respect for the limits of freedoms that should be depicted with a sense of responsibility in the media profession regarding various issues, in a manner that ensures the interests of the homeland and the citizens as well as the basics of the national unity.” Moreover, Kuwait’s ambassador to Jordan Faisal Al-Homoud Al-Malek Al-Sabah was removed from his post as ambassador

Cabinet removes Al-Malek from post after the meeting. This was due to his involvement in the recent attack on Scope TV. During the session the Amir briefed the executives about the results of the extraordinary Arab summit, held in Sirte, Libya, according to a statement read by the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Roudhan Abdul Aziz AlRoudhan, following a special meeting.

His Highness the Amir, Al-Roudhan elaborated, called during the Sirte summit for activating mechanism to develop common Arab action, urged the international powers to exert pressure on Israel to stop settlement activities and accept relevant resolutions of the international legitimacy in a manner that would safeguard the establishment of a sustainable, just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, according to the Arab Peace

Initiative. Shedding further light on HH the Amir’s stances at the top-level meeting, Al-Roudhan noted that Sheikh Sabah urged Arab states to exert concerted efforts to establish a tangible economic partnership and seek to set up social and economic merger among the Arab countries. He also re-affirmed Kuwait’s support for the efforts aimed to ensure proliferation of nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction in the region.

Moreover in his statement to the executives yesterday, His Highness shed light on various topics that were debated and examined by the top Arab leaders, namely the support for peace and unity of Sudan, backing Somalia and the neighborliness policies among the Arab states.

Furthermore, HH the Amir explained to the ministers the

British Telecom studying mobile charges in Kuwait Report on interior minister rectified

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The Communications Ministry has asked British Telecom to conduct a comparative study about the mobile phone tariff rates in Kuwait and the rest of the Gulf states as a prelude to taking appropriate decisions, MP Faisal AlMislem said yesterday.

Speaking after a crucial meeting held between the National Assembly public utilities committee and the Communications Ministry, Mislem said that the study is scheduled to be completed within two weeks and on the basis of which the ministry will take decisions on charges related to mobile services.

The purpose of the meeting was to complete studying the telecommunications draft bill which has been in the assembly for several months. Mislem said that the committee and the ministry are in total agreement that the telecom law is crucial, strategic and very important and must be comprehensive to cover all telecom activities including the establishment of a telecom commission.

He said that the two sides also

agreed that the ministry should own telecom towers and then provide the required frequencies to each telecom company, adding that the discussion also touched the issue of establishing a fourth telecom company.

Regarding transfer of mobile numbers, Mislem said the ministry will set up a company that allows subscribers to transfer their numbers between providers without change and at a very nominal charge of KD 1 or 2. The ministry has also promised to control the charges of SMS text messages and those sent to TV stations, Mislem said. The lawmaker said that the committee informed the ministry that it will no longer continue to accept allowing telecom companies to exploit the people by imposing charges at their will.

The ministry informed the committee that the minister issued a decision on Wednesday to form a committee from the ministry headed by Undersecretary Abdulmohsen Al-Mazeedi to supervise telecom companies.

In another development, Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi yesterday resolved a

misunderstanding between members and head of the interior and defense committee over a probe report that held the interior minister responsible for releasing two Iranian drug traffickers.

The members had alleged that MP Askar Al-Enezi, Head of the panel that opposes the outcome, had altered the contents of the report and demanded a meeting to rectify any changes.

Al-Khorafi however told reporters yesterday that he ordered the assembly bureau employees to listen to the tapes of the meeting and included both views in the report.

Also, former MP Mohammad AlSaqer and members of a committee formed last week to support the chamber of commerce and industry, yesterday met with Khorafi and explained to him the objectives of the committee. Al-Saqer said that those who say that the chamber’s law is unconstitutional should go to the constitutional court. MP Hassan Jouhar, who has been a strong critic of the Chamber, said that a substitute draft law has already been submitted and the final word will be that of the Assembly.

outcomes of the Second Arab-African Summit, that was also hosted by Libya, immediately after the Arab meeting, namely the agreement on establishing a fund for supporting the African nation at times of catastrophes, and Kuwait’s hosting of the third summit at this level, due in 2013.

Delving further into his recent busy schedule, Sheikh Sabah spoke about the results of his tour to a number of brotherly Arab states, namely Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco, where HH informed the members of the Cabinet about topics of the fruitful talks he had held with the leaders of these states, dealing with bilateral ties and means of enhancing mutual cooperation in various spheres.

Touching briefly on some various international and Arab issues namely the current efforts for peace in the

Middle East, HH the Amir noted in his address the agreements that were signed during the tour, concerning cooperation in the media, economic, technical, commercial and investment fields, within the framework designed to accomplish economic integration and enhance joint Arab action.

HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah expressed deep gratitude to His Highness the Amir for the diplomatic efforts exerted on the external front, noting that the mission “constituted a record accomplishment for His Highness that would bear fruits in the near future for the service of the common interests of Kuwait and the brotherly states.” They also expressed admiration at the guidelines and advices of HH, affirming that they would “lead all on the right track.” — KUNA

in the news Oil minister to visit Russia MOSCOW: Kuwait’s Oil Minister and Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah will visit Russia next Sunday. Kuwait’s Ambassador to Russia Nasser AlMuzayen said here yesterday that the visit comes at the invitation extended by Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko. Kuwait is keen on taking follow up actions on developments related to international markets and their efforts to maintain their stability and group, he stressed. The visit aims to stress coordination mechanisms between Kuwait and Russia in the energy field, he pointed out. During the visit, the minister will give a speech at the inauguration of the fifth world energy conference, which will begin here next Monday, KUNA reported. Al-Sabah will present Kuwait’s vision to ensure the stability of international oil markets and will underline the importance of following up scientific and technological advancement Ahmadi governor, Sara jevo mayor sign tw inship agreement SARAJEVO: Ahmadi Governor Sheikh, Dr Ibrahim Al-Duaij AlSabah and Sarajevo Mayor Ali Behmen signed here yesterday on twinship agreement to stress relations in all fields between the two governorates.

Behmen

welcomed Al-Sabah and expressed appreciation to him for accepting his invitation to visit Sarajevo mayor’s office. He praised Kuwait’s support for Bosnia and Herzegovina, stressing that the state’s Amir, government, and people were at the heart of Bosnians, especially here, KUNA reported. On his part, Al-Sabah said there were different available opportunities for cooperation between Ahmadi and Sarajevo. He stressed that Kuwait, and Bosnia and Herzegovina share strong relations.

Kuw ait, Czech Republic sign agreement on air transport KUWAIT: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced yesterday the signing a protocol between Kuwait and the Czech Republic on organizing air transport services. Nabeel AlZamil, Head of Kuwait’s delegation, the directorate’s deputy director for the safety of aviation and air transport affairs, said that the agreement comes as part of the directorate’s policy to strengthen aviation relations with other countries, ease the operation of commercial aviation companies, and encourage trade exchange between the two countries, KUNA reported. He pointed out that it was agreed that aviation companies from Kuwait and Czech Republic will cooperate with each other.

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NATO or Iran? Ankara in awkward position Turkey hesitates on missile defense WASHINGTON: Turkey finds itself once again in an awkward position between fellow NATO members and Iran as it mulls a proposal to place a major component of a US missile defense system on its soil.

Depending on how it is resolved, the issue could exasperate or quell worries in Washington that Turkey is drifting away from the West.

The United States would like Turkey to host a radar for its European missile shield and to support a proposal to make missile defense a core mission for NATO. After initial enthusiasm about the radar, Turkey has hesitated. Its main consideration is that it does not want the missile defense system to explicitly target Iran.

Turkey also does not want NATO to go on record at its Nov. 19-21 summit in Lisbon, Portugal, identifying Iran publicly as a ballistic missile threat.

US and NATO officials have clearly identified Iran as the most immediate threat, even pegging the timing of building missile defense to projected advances in Iran’s missile capabilities. Turkey offers an advantage over other US allies for the placement of the system’s radar: it is next door to Iran. Turkey has an interest in not alienating Tehran. It is increasingly dependent on Iranian energy resources and eager to expand trade. Its relatively close relationship with Iran, however, has been an irritant in relations with Washington. A last minute

Friday, October 22, 2010

UAE opens naval base to bypass Strait of Hormuz DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates has opened a naval base on its east coast that would allow it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz if Iran were ever to close the strategic waterway, local media reported yesterday. Almost all oil exports from OPEC’s fourth-largest producer now go through Gulf waters and pass the narrow strait, which separates the emirates from Iran, before reaching the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The new base is located in the emirate of Fujairah, and gives direct access to the Arabian Sea. “The base will also provide a quick response to natural and man-made disasters that may occur at sea, in addition to ... ensuring safe and quick passage for its oil exports,” the official WAM news agency said.

The opening ceremony was held on Wednesday and attended by Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammad Al-Sharqi, ruler of Fujairah. The emirate of Abu Dhabi, which holds more than 90 percent of UAE crude reserves, is building at the site a huge oil-export facility and an oil pipeline to it at a cost of several billion dollars. It is also building an oilstorage terminal there, as well as power and water treatment plants and a facility to store imported grain. Iran has repeatedly threatened to block navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 60 percent of the world’s oil supply passes, if it is ever attacked by the United States. —AFP

US-Saudi arms deal sends ripples to Iran and Israel WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks at the AmericanTurkish Council’s 29th annual conference on US-Turkey relations in this file photo. —AP nuclear-fuel swap deal with Tehran brokered by Turkey and Brazil ahead of a United Nations Security Council vote on sanctions in June was swiftly rejected, and US officials reacted with anger when Turkey voted against the sanctions.

The disagreement has bolstered doubt about Turkey’s commitment to Western institutions at a time that its bid for membership in the European Union has stalled.

With a booming economy and growing regional clout, Turkey has been cultivating its ties to neighboring countries and powers outside the West.

Turkey says the concerns reflect a misunderstanding. It says its relations with Europe and the United States will not suffer as it expands its influence in other directions, and it has sought to position itself as a broker between the West and the Middle East.

Turkish officials argue that its ties with Tehran provide unique influence that the West should make use of.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said this week at a conference on US-Turkish relations that the United States is not pressuring Turkey on the missile defense issues, but a Turkish refusal of

the radar or problems negotiating the NATO statement could spike tensions. Both sides say they are looking for a solution. “We do want to reach a deal,” Selim Yenel, Deputy Undersecretary in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, said in an interview.

“We don’t want any problems at the NATO summit. It should be finalized by then.” A solution could involve downplaying mention of Iran as the motivation for building missile defense. But with anger at Iran running high in the United States, the Obama administration may find that an uncomfortable compromise. —AP

Radical Al-Qaeda cleric ‘lunched’ at Pentagon WASHINGTON: Anwar Al-Awlaqi, an Al-Qaeda leader labeled a dangerous threat by the United States, was invited to a luncheon at the Pentagon in the months after the 9/11 attacks, the US military said Wednesday. Awlaqi, a Yemeni-American cleric, was brought to the Pentagon as part of an effort by the office of the secretary of defense (OSD) to reach out to the Muslim community after the September 11, 2001 attacks, military spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said. “Our understanding thus far is that this was an informal outreach conducted by part of the OSD staff in the aftermath of 9/11 in an effort to gain a better understanding of Islam,” Lapan said.

The account of the lunch with military officers and defense officials was first reported by Fox News, which cited FBI documents and sources.

President Barack Obama’s administration has authorized the targeted killing of Awlaqi, an American citizen who US officials believe is linked to three plots against the United States, including a shooting rampage at Fort Hood last year, a failed bid to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day and an attempt to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square.

A current employee of the Defense Department told the FBI last year that she had helped arrange the invitation after hearing Awlaqi speak in Alexandria, Virginia. The employee “recalls being impressed by this imam.

He condemned Al-Qaeda and the terrorist attacks,” according to an FBI document posted online by Fox News.

At that time, the then-secretary of the US Army was interested in having a “moderate Muslim” speak to a

Pentagon audience, said the FBI document. Awlaqi came under FBI scrutiny after the 9/11 attacks because of his ties to some of the hijackers.

But Pentagon officials who approved the lunch invitation were apparently unaware of the FBI’s interest in Awlaqi. The Pentagon employee was interviewed by the FBI as part of the investigation into the Fort Hood shooting, which left 13 people dead. Now based in Yemen, Awlaqi rose to prominence last year after it emerged he had communicated extensively by email with Major Nidal Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on colleagues at Fort Hood. Awlaqi has praised the Fort Hood rampage and said Muslims like Hasan should only serve in the US military if they planned to carry out similar attacks. —AFP

DUBAI: As American and Saudi officials spent months quietly hammering out a wish list for a mammoth sale of American warplanes and other weapons to the oil-rich kingdom, leaders in Iran were busy publicly displaying their advances in missiles, naval craft and air power. In one memorable bit of political theater, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood under a cascade of glitter in August to unveil a drone bomber - dubbed the “ambassador of death” - that he claimed would keep foes in the region “paralyzed” on their bases. The response by Washington and its cornerstone Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, moved a step ahead Wednesday.

The Obama administration notified Congress of plans to sell as many as 84 new F-15 fighter jets, helicopters and other gear with an estimated $60 billion price tag. The proposed deal one of the biggest single US arms sales - is clearly aimed at countering Iran’s rising military might and efforts to expand its influence. But it ties together other significant narratives in the region, including an apparent retooling of Israeli policies to tacitly support a stronger, American-armed Saudi Arabia because of common worries about Iran. It also reinforces the Gulf as the Pentagon’s front-line military network against Iran even as the US sandwiches the Islamic republic with troops and bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In this way, Saudi Arabia does become some sort of buffer between Israel and Iran,” said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank that tracks arms sales. Israel has made no diplomatic rumblings over the proposed Saudi deal - a marked contrast to almost automatic objections decades ago to Pentagon pacts with Arab

nations. It’s widely seen as an acknowledgment that Israel’s worries over Iran and its nuclear program far outweigh any small shifts in the Israel-Arab balance of power.

Israel is moving toward a policy of “pick your fights,” said Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv. “After all,” he added, “Saudi Arabia is not such a big threat to us.” And Israel does not come out of the current American arms bazaar empty handed. Earlier this month, it signed a deal to purchase 20 F-35 stealth fighters that could possibly reach Iran undetected by radar. Israel has an option for 75 more.

“This equipment is primarily to give (Israel) a better feeling facing the Iranian threat. It is not related to Israeli-Arab relations,” said Inbar. “Ironically, in the current situation, Saudi Arabia is in the same strategic boat as Israel is in facing the Iranian threat.” Besides the new fighters for Saudi Arabia, the US plans to upgrade an additional 70 of the kingdom’s existing F-15s.

State Department and Pentagon officials told lawmakers the sales also will include 190 helicopters, including Apaches and Black Hawks, as well as an array of missiles, bombs, delivery systems and accessories such as night-vision goggles and radar warning systems.

Congress has 30 days to block the deal, which was first revealed in September but has been in negotiations for months.

US officials say they aren’t expecting significant opposition.

Iran, meanwhile, has concentrated on its missile arsenal overseen by the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

Its solid-fuel Sajjil missile has a reported range of more than 1,250 miles - within range of Israel and all main US bases in the region. —AP

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Friday, October 22, 2010

KASHMIR: An Indian Army soldier takes cover after firing at suspected militants during a gunbattle on the outskirts of Srinagar yesterday. — AP

Indian troops battle rebels in Kashmir SRINAGAR: Troops evacuated hundreds of people after a gunbattle erupted between Indian forces and three suspected Muslim rebels in a village in Indian-controlled Kashmir yesterday, police said. Army soldiers and police cordoned off a portion of Maloora, a village on the outskirts of the region’s main city, Srinagar, following intelligence that suspected rebels were hiding in a home there, said Lt Col JS Brar, an army spokesman. One suspected militant later fled to another home.

Troops escorted hundreds of civilians out of

Maloora as the suspected rebels fired automatic weapons at government forces, Brar said. The confrontation in Indian-administered Kashmir was continuing after hours of heavy gunfire, Brar said. Police reinforcements sealed off the area.

“The operation is taking long because the village is a maze of small alleys with concrete houses.

We anticipate it’s going to be a tough battle,” Brar said. No rebel group claimed involvement.

Suspected rebels also fired toward a military helicopter flying low in the area without causing any damage, a police officer said on condition of

anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the disputed Muslim-majority region, where rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989. While rebellions by insurgent groups have largely been suppressed by Indian forces, the resistance is now principally through street demonstrations.

Yesterday, shops and businesses were shut and public transport was halted in most parts of the region after separatists called for a

Al-Qaeda in Pakistan hit hard in US attacks Obama to bypass Pakistan on Asia trip WASHINGTON: The CIA’s expa nding operations in Pa kistan have taken “a serious toll” on the Al-Qa eda netw ork, the spy agency director, Leon Pa netta, ha s told US media. But he sa id it remained unclea r w hether the effort had prevented a possible terror plot a gainst Europea n cities, the Los Angeles Times quoted him a s saying Tuesda y. Pa netta did not specify bombing raids by unmanned a ircraft in Pakista n as US officials do not publicly discuss the campaign.

But the CIA missile strikes are an open secret, and US officials privately describe the program as a vital tool in the fight against AlQaeda and allied Islamist militants based in northwest Pakistan. Referring to stepped up operations, Panetta said the effort is “taking a serious toll” on Al-Qaeda’s capabilities, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The basis for that increased pace is intelligence, weather and also just the threat streams we’re getting on potential attacks in Europe,” Panetta said.

The CIA also is pursuing the Haqqani network, an Afghan militant outfit that targets US-led forces in Afghanistan, he said. US officials have been frustrated over Pakistan’s apparent reluctance to go after the Haqqani group. The Central Intelligence Agency has been able to ramp up the pace of operations because of “additional capabilities,” Panetta said, referring to “more hardware. The president’s been very supportive, obviously, of this operation.” He added that Pakistan’s intelligence service “has been very cooperative.” The US covert drone war in Pakistan has dramatically increased this year, with at least 88 strikes as of October 15, according to the New America Foundation, which keeps a tally based media reports.

In 2009, there were reportedly 53 drone strikes. The strikes tend to target militants in North Waziristan, a hotbed for militants including Al-Qaeda. Panetta’s comments marked a rare public reference to CIA operations in Pakistan. Last year, he came close to acknowledging the drone strikes, calling US efforts “very effective.” “It is very precise, it’s very limited in terms of collateral damage and very frankly, it’s the only game in town in terms

of confronting and trying to disrupt the Al-Qaeda leadership,” Panetta said at a conference in California in May. The strikes are unpopular among the Pakistani public, who see military action on Pakistani soil as a breach of national sovereignty.

Meanwhile, President Obama will bypass Pakistan when he visits India and east Asia next month, in the latest twist in America’s tempestuous relationship with its vital ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda. But the White House said the president had committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011 and added that he looked forward to welcoming Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington, though no dates were specified.

Obama smoothly scotched speculation he would make a surprise visit to Islamabad on his trip, which begins in just over two weeks, in a meeting with a Pakistani delegation taking part in a strategic dialogue with US officials.

“The president explained that he would not be stopping in Pakistan during his trip to Asia next month, and committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011,” a White House statement said. Any trip to Pakistan by Obama would have been fraught with political sensitivity and security concerns, and may have been seen as a distraction from the symbolism of his three-day visit to Pakistan’s arch-nuclear rival India.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was part of the Pakistani delegation, said Obama’s statement was evidence of the high level of US-Pakistani ties.

“The fact that he has agreed to visit Pakistan next year, the fact that he has decided to invite the president of Pakistan to the United States of America, that is the level of engagement that is

taking place,” Qureshi said. The United States and Pakistan have been going through another rocky patch in their tense, nine-year marriage of convenience, which emerged from the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. In a recent report to Congress, the White House said bluntly that though Pakistan had made sacrifices in the US anti-terror campaign, it could do more to crack down on extremist safehavens in lawless tribal areas.

In the meeting with Pakistani delegates to the three-day US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, Obama said it was important to move the mutual relationship to a “true partnership based on mutual respect and common interests.” “The president and the Pakistani delegation agreed on the need for regional stability, and specifically on the importance of cooperating toward a peaceful and stable outcome in Afghanistan,” the statement said. Earlier, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates held a 30-minute meeting with powerful Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, about the aftermath of a cross-border NATO raid that severely strained relations.

Cooperation between military commanders had improved, “but this incident clearly indicates that there’s more work to be done,” said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, referring to the helicopter raid that left two Pakistani soldiers dead. Obama also touched on the situation in Pakistan during his latest regular monthly meeting with his Afghanistan war cabinet. The 90-minute session included a briefing on talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and what a New York Times report said Wednesday were Taleban leaders at the “highest levels.”— Agencies

strike against Indian rule. Since June, the region has been rocked by violent anti-India protests and subsequent crackdowns by government forces that have killed at least 111 people, mostly teenage boys and young men in their 20s. Authorities have imposed off-and-on curfews in an attempt to stop the protests.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars for control of the region. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the militant uprising and the subsequent Indian crackdown. — AP

in the news Saudi Kingdom to build tallest tow er DUBAI: Saudi-based Kingdom Holding Co plans to build the world’s tallest tower as part of a project worth 75 billion riyals in the city of Jeddah, a newspaper report said yesterday.

Alsharq Al-Awsat newspaper, citing Kingdom’s Chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said the company will officially announce the project at a press conference in three weeks. The skyscraper will be at the centre of the mixeduse project, which will stretch over 3.5 million square meters of land, the newspaper added. It also said Kingdom Holding plans another development in the capital city of Riyadh with an estimated investment value of 25 billion riyals. It will include a park, a hotel and other entertainment elements, as well as 10,000 residential units. Kingdom Holding, the investment firm of the Saudi billionaire prince, posted a 52.6 percent rise in third-quarter earnings on Monday, driven by higher investment returns.

Mubarak seeks another term CAIRO: A top official from Egypt’s ruling party has given a new indication that President Hosni Mubarak will seek a sixth term in office in next year’s elections. Alieddin Hilal has told the US-funded Al-Hurra television that the 82year-old Mubarak will run. His comments do not constitute the final word on the question, but he is the latest of several senior party figures to indicate Mubarak intends to stay in the office he has held for nearly 30 years.

Mubarak has stayed publicly silent on his intentions. He is widely thought to be grooming his son, Gamal, to eventually succeed him.

NATO soldier, four Afgha n police killed KABUL: A NATO soldier and four Afghan police were killed in attacks in Afghanistan yesterday, officials said. The soldier died following “an insurgent attack”, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement, without further detail. The death brings to 598 the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org website. The total for 2009, the second deadliest year, was 521. In western Herat province, four Afghan police officers were killed and another injured when a Taleban-style bomb struck their vehicle, the interior ministry said. The ministry condemned the attack as an act of “un-Islamic and inhumane” insurgents.

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Friday, October 22, 2010

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Even Queen Elizabeth takes spending hit LONDON: As the axe fell on government spending even Queen Elizabeth felt the pain.

Outlining some of the biggest government budget cuts in a generation, Chancellor George Osborne said the queen had agreed to do her bit. She had “graciously” given the nod to a freeze in the palace’s cash allowance, known as the Civil List and funded by the taxpayer, for a year. The bulk of the grant goes towards paying staff, with the rest spent on items like stationery, laundry and garden parties.

“Going forward, she has also agreed that total Royal Household spending will fall by 14 percent in 2012-2013 while grants to the household will be frozen in cash terms,” Osborne told parliament.

Buckingham Palace estimates the annual cost of the royals to the taxpayer is about 38 million pounds, but that doesn’t include significant security costs.

After that date a new funding scheme will give the palace a portion of the cash generated from the multi-billion pound Crown Estate property portfolio, royal in name only and owned by the government. “The Household obviously has some challenging times ahead, like many areas of government,” a palace spokesman said.

But he said the queen welcomed the new funding mechanism, known as the Sovereign Support Grant, “as a modern, transparent and simpler way of funding the Head of State.” The monarch, under pressure to reduce costs had already agreed to the 7.9 million pound ($12.42 million) cost of the Civil List being frozen for 20 years from 1990. That arrangement expired this year. In October, Buckingham Palace announced it had scrapped its planned Christmas party after it was deemed inappropriate to celebrate as millions of ordinary Britons feel the pinch from tough economic times. British media reported that the Christmas shindig, planned for Dec 13, would have cost 50,000 pounds and was to have been enjoyed by 1,200 guests. —Reuters

Gays in limbo as court reinstates military ban The latest judicial twist on US ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

BELFAST: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, and her husband Prince Philip arrive at the UTV (Ulster Television) studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland yesterday. The Queen yesterday launched UTV’s new High Definition television channel, during her tour of the studios. —AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: An appeals court has let the US government temporarily reinstate a ban on gays serving openly in the military, frustrating the hopes of those left in limbo by the judicial tugof-war. But campaigners for the rights of gays and lesbians said they were confident the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy would soon be over for good. In the latest judicial twist, a three-judge appeals court panel in San Francisco Wednesday sided with the Obama administration and lifted a lower court’s injunction issued last week that had barred the US military from continuing its 17-year-old ban while a lengthier stay of the rule is considered.

Lawyers for the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group behind the legal action seeking to lift the controversial ban, voiced dismay at the latest ruling but said they were confident of success in the end. “We view the decision as nothing more than a minor setback,” said Dan Woods, the group’s lead attorney in the case.

Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese decried what he called a “sad day for all Americans who want the best and brightest service members defending our country.” The court decision came a day after US District Judge Virginia Phillips of California refused to lift her own injunction ordering US commanders worldwide to stop enforcing the policy that requires gay troops to keep quiet about their sexuality or face expulsion.

What should have been a landmark victory for gays serving in the armed forces has instead turned into a legal and political quagmire. “We are disappointed that the appeals court has allowed this unconstitutional and discriminatory policy to continue for even one more day, despite the district court’s order to stop enforcement,” said James Esseks, who heads a gay rights project for the American Civil Liberties Union. He urged the Justice Department to drop its efforts to appeal the court order banning the policy.

President Barack Obama and his government are fierce advocates of scrapping the ban, but would prefer to see a decision made by Congress, not the courts, and after a Pentagon review of the implications due on December 1. Obama “could allow DADT to die simply by dropping the appeal,” San Francisco State

University professor Aaron Belkin said, noting the president would probably let the law remain on the books for years if he fails to win support from Congress.

“The country wants repeal. But there are conflicting interests here...

There is a legal argument to be made that the DoJ (Department of Justice) needs to defend the constitutionality of the statues vigorously.” The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it was accepting openly gay recruits for the first time in US history, but also urged gay troops to tread cautiously amid the legal uncertainties.

Consequently, gays are not exactly flocking to enlist. But some activists have taken the plunge, including Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, an Iraq veteran who came out on a cable television program in March 2009 and is considered a poster child for the ban’s repeal.

The 29-year-old graduate of the prestigious West Point military academy, who was discharged earlier this year for being gay, tried to enlist at a US Marines recruiting station in New York on Tuesday. After being told he was too old, he filled out papers to re-enlist in the US Army.

“We’re still in a war, and soldiers are needed,” Choi said. “I have a newfound faith in our government that at least one branch is on the side of the Constitution, is on the side of the people.” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said those expelled under the law would have to obtain a special waiver to re-enlist.

Opponents of the ban say it violates the rights of gay service members and has harmed national security by forcing out some 14,000 qualified troops.

Advocates, including the outgoing head of the US Marine Corps, say it ensures “unit cohesion” and that changing the law during wartime could prove disruptive. If the ban is lifted for good, the US military would follow other allies, including Britain and Israel, which have reported no serious problems since allowing gays to serve openly in uniform. Polls have shown a majority of Americans support ending the ban, but Republican lawmakers, including former presidential candidate John McCain, opposed the most recent attempt to change the rule. —AFP

Obama courts women voters on West Coast SEATTLE: President Barack Obama will aim his economic message at women voters as he campaigns on the West Coast for two female candidates crucial to Democrats’ chances of keeping their fragile majority in the US Senate. Obama will try to bolster incumbent Senators Patty Murray of Washington and Barbara Boxer of California with rallies and fundraisers over the next two days.

Polls have shown an erosion in the slight leads held by the two Democratic candidates to razor-thin

margins, with less than two weeks left before the Nov 2 congressional elections. Obama is seeking to rev up core Democratic voters and targeting women, who vote Democratic in higher percentages than male voters, is part of that strategy. “Our mission in the last two weeks is to get people energized and understanding that there are real stakes in this election and that it’s important to participate,” said senior White House adviser David Axelrod.

“There is a Democratic president

and there is a Democratic Congress now and it’s easy .... to be complacent,” Axelrod said, adding that it is hard for supporters to “imagine the potential scenarios if the vote goes the other way.”

Obama will hold a backyard discussion on women and the economy in Seattle that will coincide with the release of a White House report analyzing the effects of the president’s policies on women. “Women and girls have been a focus of this administration from the very start. Economic

issues are women’s issues.

Healthcare is a woman’s issue,” senior White House aide Valerie Jarrett told reporters.

The report from the White House National Economic Council showed women are a growing share of the US workforce, making up nearly 50 percent of workers and were increasingly breadwinners for their families. It said because of that, the recession has affected women more severely than other downturns but it also asserted that Obama’s policies, like healthcare

reform, were helping women. “The best thing for the Democrats to do is probably focus on the economy and jobs and the class issue,” said Lara Brown, professor of political science at Villanova University in Philadelphia. “They’re probably better off attracting pretty much everyone in this electorate by focusing on how they are helping with jobs and the economy.”

Wins by Republicans in the Washington state and California Senate races could spell disaster for Obama’s Democrats. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

Page 14

Friday, October 22, 2010

Chinese woman forced to abort 8-month-old fetus BEIJING: A pregnant woman in south China was detained, beaten and forced to have an abortion just a month before her due date because the baby would have violated the country’s one-child limit, her husband said yesterday.

Construction worker Luo Yanquan said his wife was taken kicking and screaming from their home by more than a dozen people on Oct 10 and detained in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken to a hospital and injected with a drug that killed her baby.

Family planning officials told the couple they weren’t allowed to have the child because they already have a 9year-old daughter, Luo said. For the last 30 years, China has limited most urban couples to just one child in a bid to curb

population growth and conserve its limited resources. China has the world’s largest population, with more than 1.3 billion people. Couples that flout the rules face hefty fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs.

The case is an extreme example of the coercive measures Chinese officials sometimes use to comply with the strict family planning regulations. Though illegal, police and judicial authorities often look the other way when forced abortion cases are reported and the heavily censored state media shy away from such news. But in recent years, victims have begun to speak out about their ordeals with the help of the Internet and text messaging. Aiding them are social campaigners and lawyers who have documented cases of

forced late-term abortions. Similar abuses have been reported in Hebei and Shandong provinces and in the Guangxi region.

An official with the Siming district family planning commission, which oversees Luo’s neighborhood, confirmed there was a record of Luo’s wife, Xiao Aiying, undergoing an abortion recently but said the procedure was voluntary and that she was about six months instead of eight months pregnant at the time. Like many Chinese bureaucrats, he refused to give his name. China bans forced abortions, but doesn’t prohibit or clearly define late-term abortion. The Siming official said Xiao’s husband had approved the abortion, a claim Luo denied. “I never signed anything. No one in our family

did,” he said by telephone from Xiamen.

“I called the police but they said family planning issues weren’t their responsibility. I want to sue, but lawyers I’ve asked here say they can’t help me and the media won’t report on our case.”

Luo set up a blog last week to let people know what had happened to his wife, and satellite broadcaster AlJazeera posted a report about the couple’s case on its website Wednesday.

Photos on the blog show a painedlooking, and clearly pregnant, Xiao sitting on a hospital bed after the injection but before the baby was stillborn 40 hours later. Other images show a large purple bruise on her arm and scratches on her leg, which Luo said were caused when family planning officials hit and kicked her as she

Blast kills 10 in Philippines

Manila seeks talks with communist guerrillas

Bomb rips through passenger bus MANILA: A bomb ripped through a passenger bus yesterday in the southern Philippines, killing at least 10 people and wounding nine in an attack authorities say may have been carried out by an extortion gang with links to Muslim militants. The bus was traveling with more than 50 passengers when the powerful blast shook the rear of the vehicle from the overhead compartment, police Chief Superintendent Gil Meneses said. The force of the explosion was so strong it decapitated two of the victims, he said. Ten people, including the bus conductor, died in the blast in Matalam township in North Cotabato province, said police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Joyce Birrey. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

The southern Philippines is home to kidnappers, extortion gangs and a decades-old Muslim insurgency. President Benigno Aquino III condemned the bombing and ordered police to step up security at possible terrorist targets. Police and army units interviewed survivors and examined the twisted metal and other debris to determine the type of explosive, Meneses said. An ordnance team said it appeared to be an 81mm mortar round that was remotely detonated using cellular phones.

The driver told police three

men who boarded the bus along the highway got off minutes before the blast. Their sketches were being prepared from witnesses’ descriptions, Birrey said.

Military spokesman Lt Col Randolph Cabangbang said authorities suspect the Al-Khobar extortion gang in the attack, saying the bus company involved in the bombing had been targeted for extortion in the past.

Al-Khobar is the most notorious of the region’s extortion gangs, and authorities say it is made up of criminals and former Muslim rebels who have been blamed for attacking businesses that refuse to pay their ransom demands. The group is on a US list of terrorist organizations. In April last year, two homemade bombs exploded hours apart on one bus, wounding the conductor and five passengers. A bomb exploded at a Cotabato city bus terminal in February the same year, wounding two people.

Troops last year captured a suspected Al-Khobar leader, Mokasid Dilna, who allegedly trained with militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1990s. Military officials said he provided refuge to foreign militants and acted as a link with two local Muslim groups - the violent Abu Sayyaf and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been engaged in peace talks with the government. —AP

MAKATI: Security guards seal off the building housing the Philippine Stock Exchange following a bomb threat yesterday at Manila’s financial district of Makati, Philippines. — AP

Megi closes in on China HONG KONG: At least 160,000 people were evacuated from southern China yesterday as Typhoon Megi, one of the most powerful storms to hit the region in years, bore down, bringing with it the threat of devastation. More than 150,000 people were evacuated in Fujian province in China’s southeast and tens of thousands of fishing boats were called back to port, the official Xinhua news agency quoted flood control authorities as saying. At least another 10,000 were evacuated in neighboring Guangdong province, authorities there said, with forecasters predicting the storm would hit somewhere along China’s southern

struggled to get away.

Ordinary Chinese reacted with anger and disgust to Luo’s online account, posting comments that called the family planning officials cruel and inhuman.

Xiao delivered the dead baby on Oct. 14 but remains hospitalized and may require emergency surgery to remove pieces of placenta still in her uterus, Luo said. The couple, both 36, were not informed of the sex of the aborted baby, Luo said. A man who answered the phone at the obstetrics ward of the Siming No 1 Hospital confirmed that Xiao was still a patient there. He refused to provide more details or give his name.

Telephone calls to the press office of the National Population and Family Planning Commission in Beijing rang unanswered yesterday. — AP

coastline late today or early tomorrow.

The State Oceanic Administration issued a yellow storm surge warning, saying that Megi could cause a “50year storm surge” if it landed as a severe typhoon. “The storm surge could be so devastating that buildings, docks, villages and cities could be destroyed by it,” said Bai Yiping, director of South China Sea Forecasting Centre of the State Oceanic Administration. Hong Kong shuttered oil terminals as the monster storm bore down. Megi, which has already killed at least 27 people in the Philippines, was showing “signs of intensification”, the Hong Kong

Thousands evacuated

Observatory said yesterday.

“At present we estimate its intensity at around 175 kilometers per hour,” said forecaster Lee Tsz-cheung.

“We still cannot rule out the possibility of Megi intensifying further.” Chinese authorities have issued a red alert, the highest of a four-step warning system, saying the typhoon could cause huge waves that could devastate coastal sea areas, including Guangdong, Fujian and the Taiwan Strait. Xinhua, citing the State Oceanic Administration, said that Guangdong could see storm-triggered waves of up to seven metres (21 feet).

The red alert gives local

authorities six hours to evacuate residents at risk and implement storm precautions, order schools, shops and airports to close and all vessels to return to port.

Torrential rains sparked by the typhoon killed three people on one of Japan’s southern islands, officials said.

As of 3 pm yesterday, Megi was estimated to be 430 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong as it moved slowly across the South China Sea. Five oil terminals on Tsing Yi Island off Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula were shut down, forcing tankers to anchor offshore and suspending marine fuel deliveries. —AFP

MANILA: The Philippine government announced a new team of negotiators yesterday for peace talks with communist guerrillas, saying that ending one of Asia’s longest and bloodiest Marxist insurgencies will be tough but possible. Norway has agreed to continue brokering the talks between the Philippines and the Maoist rebels.

Government negotiators will try to break a six-year impasse and seek informal meetings with the rebels this year, said Alex Padilla, a prominent human rights lawyer who was appointed chief government negotiator.

Presidential peace process adviser Teresita Deles said the creation of the five-member negotiating panel headed by Padilla was a major step in government efforts to tame the 41year rebellion. She added that “the journey to peace will not be easy.”

More than 120,000 combatants and civilians have died in the rural-based rebellion that has afflicted nearly all of the Philippines’ 81 provinces.

It is considered to be the impoverished Southeast Asian nation’s most serious security threat and a major obstacle to economic development. The Philippines also has been grappling with Muslim rebels and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in its volatile south. Peace talks brokered by Norway have been suspended since 2004 after the rebels accused the Manila government of instigating their inclusion on US and European terrorist lists. The rebels also are demanding the release of several left-wing activists and guerrillas.

Padilla said the government will study how to deal with the rebel inclusion in US and EU terrorist blacklists, but added that this was a sovereign decision of those countries.

Padilla, currently a Health Department undersecretary, said he was in favor of freeing from custody some detainees, including 43 people the military captured in February outside Manila on suspicion of membership in the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines. The detainees, who have been charged with illegal possession of weapons and explosives, have denied the allegations. Newly elected President Benigno Aquino III has sought a review of their criminal cases to determine whether they can be freed. —AP

The End

Drive Now. Talk Later.

Mobile COMP FRI new.indd 2

10/17/10 4:39 PM

INTERNATIONAL

Page 16

Friday, October 22, 2010

Young mom becomes Mexican police chief 20-year-old Valles takes over drug-plagued region PRAXEDIS GUADALUPE GUERRERO: Marisol Valles is just 20 yea rs old, mother of a baby son and still a student, but she is a lso the new est chief of police in a drug-pla gued region of northern Mexico. “She w as the only person to a ccept the position,” said the mayor’s office in Praxedis Gua dalupe Guerrero, amid the daily threat of violence here w hich has claimed the lives of police officers and a former mayor. But Valles, w ho is enrolled in university in nearby Ciuda d J uarez-Mexico’s most violent city-said she w as determined not to be intimidated.

PRAXEDIS G GUERRERO: Twenty-year-old Marisol Valles Garcia sits at her desk after her swearing-in ceremony as the new police chief of the border town of Praxedis G Guerrero, near Ciudad Juarez. — AP

N Korea ‘preparing’ for third nuke test SEOUL: North Korea appears to be preparing for a third nuclear test, a South Korean newspaper reported, just days after Pyongyang declared it was ready to return to nuclear talks.

But South Korean government officials said there was no concrete evidence that the communist state was readying such a test, saying Seoul and its allies are closely watching developments related to the North’s nuclear facilities. According to South Korea’s biggest-selling newspaper Chosun Ilbo, US satellites detected movements of personnel and vehicles at the site where the North carried out its first two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

“Hectic movements of personnel and vehicles have recently been detected in Punggye-ri,” Chosun quoted an unidentified government source as saying. The North also appears to be restoring tunnels demolished during the first two tests, according to the source. “However, it is unlikely (the North will) carry it out soon. It is expected to take another three months (to complete preparations for a third test),” the source said. But a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said there was no evidence of any such preparations. “We have no concrete evidence to support the news report,” he told reporters.

“We’re watching closely any

development concerning the North’s nuclear facilities and sharing information with countries concerned.”

A South Korean defense ministry official also said on condition of anonymity that such movements were being constantly detected, possibly for the daily maintenance of key strategic facilities at the site.

North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006 and a second in May 2009 in Punggye-ri in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, the month after it walked out of six-party nuclear disarmament talks. The Chosun report came as Seoul is preparing to host a Group of 20 summit next month, welcoming world leaders including US President Barack Obama.

North Korea said it was willing to resume the six-nation disarmament talks but would not be “hasty” because the United States and some other parties were “not ready”. The United States says the North must mend relations with the South and show sincerity about nuclear disarmament before any resumption of the negotiations. A senior South Korean foreign ministry official said Wednesday the North should allow inspectors back to its nuclear facilities and declare a moratorium on its nuclear activities before the six-party talks can resume. —AFP

“We’re all afraid in Mexico now,” Valles said, wearing glasses and holding an exercise book after her swearing in on Wednesday. “We can’t let fear beat us.” But it has deterred many. The unassuming criminology student took up the post of police chief in a municipality of some 10,000 near the US border because no one else wanted it.

Chihuahua state has borne the brunt of Mexico’s spiraling drugrelated violence that has left more than 28,000 dead in the last four years.

Last week there were at least eight murders in Praxedis. The former mayor was killed in June.

And police officers have also been targeted. Valles officially took on her new post in front of the 19 police officers, including nine recently recruited women, who will be her team. “I took the risk because I want my son to live in a different community to the one we have today. I want people to be able to go out without fear, as it was before,” Valles said. More than 2,500 people have been killed this year in the Juarez valley region, where the town lies, and the area is deemed a high-traffic transit point for illegal drugs, as well as migrants, into the US state of Texas.

With scant resources, Valles said her job will not be to fight drug trafficking because that responsibility falls on soldiers and federal police. Instead, she will focus on rehabilitating public spaces and improving relationships between neighbors in order to improve general security. “Praxedis was different in the time of its oldest residents-people walked the streets at night, they knew each other, they talked and met up,” she said. On her first day at work, Valles was out on the beat visiting schools and residents. “I’ve been well received and I know people will help me to work on solutions for security problems,” she said.

Thousands of towns and villages across Mexico are policed by small, underpaid and under-armed forces, who are notoriously corrupt and often work with drug traffickers.

President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on the country’s powerful drug gangs, involving some 50,000 troops, when he took office in 2007. He has also sought to clean up the police with a series of purges and stricter training, and is seeking to bring some 2,500 municipalities under the control of state governments, which are considered to be less corrupt. Valles said she took a month to decide whether to accept her new post, after consulting with her family. “Young people need to engage with their communities,” she said. “I don’t have experience, but experience builds up on the job.” — AFP

YANGON: A member of the Guard of Honor toots as a new State Flag of Myanmar is hoisted outside the town hall yesterday. — AP

Myanmar unveils new national flag YANGON: Military-ruled Myanmar unveiled a new national flag yesterday, just two weeks before an election that the government calls a major step in a transition to democracy but critics say is a sham.

Government offices replaced the old standard with the new one at exactly 3 pm.

At a fire station in central Yangon, blueuniformed officers lined up at attention during the replacement ceremony.

The new flag has horizontal stripes of yellow, green and red with a big white star in the middle. The announcement of the new flag was made on state television just prior to the ceremonies, which were supposed to take place simultaneously all over the country. “We received the instruction to bring down the old flag and to fly the new flag at 3 p.m.,” said an education officer in Pathein township in Irrawaddy Division, who added that shortly before the ceremony his office still had not received its replacement.

The 2008 constitution pushed through by the military called for fresh national symbols, including a new flag whose colors of yellow,

green and red would stand for solidarity, peace and tranquility, and courage and decisiveness. Still, the abrupt release of the new flag came as surprise. The Nov 7 election is the first since 1990, when the National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory but was not allowed to take power. Critics of the junta charge that the new constitution and new election laws are written to ensure that the military continues to be the country’s dominant political force.

A yellow, green and red flag was used during the Japanese occupation in 19431945, though the emblem in the center then was a dancing peacock. A fighting peacock is a symbol used by the country’s democratic opposition, including Suu Kyi’s nowdisbanded party. The flag being replaced introduced by the socialist government of late strongman Ne Win in 1974 _ has a red field with a blue rectangle in the left corner bearing a cog wheel and a rice plant encircled by 14 stars representing the country’s seven regions and seven states. — AP

Israel building 600 new settler homes JERUSALEM: Jewish settlers have started building at least 600 homes since the end of a building ban on September 26, a pace four times faster than before the freeze began last year, Peace Now said yesterday. “In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze,” Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran said, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are facing imminent collapse in a bitter row over settlement building on occupied West Bank land, which resumed after the end of the 10-month ban. Israel has refused to reimpose the moratorium, while the Palestinians say they will not talk when settlers are building on occupied Palestinian land, prompting a flurry of US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock. Ofran said the

surge in construction was to meet immediate demand for some 2,000 housing units, as part of a longer-term plan to build some 13,000 new homes, all of which had already been approved.

After the moratorium expired just over three weeks ago, Jewish settlers across the West Bank began building in earnest, although they were advised by the Israeli leadership to keep a low profile so as not to inflame international condemnation. As bulldozers lumbered into action, the Palestinian leadership held back on a threat to abandon talks, with president Mahmud Abbas and Arab diplomats agreeing to give Washington a few extra weeks grace period to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Although the freeze did not cover building in Arab east Jerusalem, Ofran said there had been a “certain slowdown” in construction there since a visit in March by US Vice President Joe Biden. —AFP

Business

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 17

French students clash with police ahead of new protest

PARIS: Rioting youths attacked police in Lyon, protesters blockaded Marseille’s airport, and Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris ahead of a tense Senate vote yesterday on raising the retirement age. A quarter of the nation’s gas stations were out of fuel despite President Nicolas Sarkozy’s orders to force open depots barricaded by striking workers.

Gasoline shortages and violence on the margins of student protests have heightened the standoff between the government and labor unions who see retirement at 60 as a hard-earned right.

New violence broke out in Lyon last morning, where police chased rampaging youths who overturned a car, and tried to subdue the violence with tear gas. President Nicolas Sarkozy stuck firm to the pension reform yesterday, insisting it’s “an affair of national interest.” “It is not in

risks being hot,” Najar said. The French government - like many heavily indebted governments around Europe - says raising the retirement age and overhauling the money-losing pension system is vital to ensuring that future generations receive any pensions at all.

French unions say the working class is unfairly punished by the pension reform and that the government should find money for the pension system elsewhere. They fear this reform will herald the end of an entire network of welfare benefits that make France an enviable place to work and live. “We cannot stop now,” JeanClaude Mailly, head of the Workers’ Force union, said yesterday of the protest movement.

Unions have held several rounds of one-day strikes in recent months, but scattered actions have turned

Fuel shortage as port, refinery strikes drag on blocking, preventing people from going to work that we make things easier,” he said. “I am not doing this for ideological reasons. I am doing this because it is my duty.” Students barricaded a Paris high school and planned protests nationwide later yesterday, as the Senate wraps up protracted debate on a reform that Sarkozy calls crucial to his presidency.

Student protests have forced the government to its knees in the past, and in recent days some have degenerated into violence. In Nanterre, the scene of running street battles between masked and hooded youth and riot police in recent days, the scene last morning was calm, said Mehdi Najar, one of a few dozen redjacketed mediators organized by the city hall to try to keep the peace.

“But there’s a big protest planned at noon in front of the prefecture, it

increasingly radical as the bill heads for near-certain approval in the Senate.

Leading labor unions are meeting yesterday to decide what to do next. In Marseille, hundreds of workers blocked all access to the main airport for about three hours early yesterday.

Passengers tugged suitcases along blocked roads as they hiked to the terminal, before police came in and the protesters dispersed.

Leshmi Taguelmint of the CGT trade union, remained determined.

“We will continue our action, for the time being we have the whole population behind us and we will continue,” he told AP Television News. Wildcat protests blocked train lines around Paris yesterday.

Protesters in cars and trucks blocked several highways around the country, from near Calais in the north to the Pyrenees in the south, according to the

MARSEILLE: A high school student shouts slogans during a demonstration yesterday. — AP

national road traffic center.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux lashed out at “certain people who take pieces of our territory for battlefields.”

Speaking on Europe-1 radio yesterday, Hortefeux said 1,901 people have been detained since early last week.

Hortefeux insisted that the country has several weeks of gasoline reserves and that “the trend is toward improvement” in supplies. Still, he said a quarter of France’s gas stations lack fuel. Kamal Guerfa works - or at least shows up for work - at a gas station in Lyon. But yesterday, there was nothing to pump.

“We are here, ready to work, there’s no problem with that. The problem is that people come to get gas and there is none. That’s the problem,” he said. Laurette Meyer’s heart sank when she saw the empty pumps. “It is penalizing. We work in the building construction business. We have employees who drive all day long in order to build the houses for our customers and it’s starting to be very difficult,” she said.

Families around the country are on edge over the gasoline shortages because school vacations start toay.

Authorities, however, are hoping that the vacations cool off student tempers.

On Wednesday, hooded youths smashed store windows in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and the city of Lyon, as riot police sprayed tear gas in response. Last morning, students shut down the Turgot High School near the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris after a student union vote. Teens sat in the middle of the street, barring vehicle traffic. Some sang songs and chanted labor slogans while police guarded the area.

The US Embassy in Paris warned Americans “to avoid demonstrations currently taking place in France.” The warning said peaceful demonstrations can escalate into violence, and urges visitors to check with their airlines in case of airport disruptions, and check with rental car agencies about the availability of gasoline. —AP

IMF lowers oil Kuwait adds 12 billion forecast for Iraq barrels to oil reserves WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said it has lowered Iraq’s oil production forecast, after a disappointing 2010. In its first review report of its February 3.7 billion dollar standby loan to Iraq, the IMF said it expected Iraqi oil production to reach 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2011, against the 2.9 million it forecast in February. Dated September 20 but published on Wednesday, the IMF report also lowered Iraq’s projected 2012 oil production to 2.6 million bpd, from 3.1 million bpd in February.

Iraq’s oil output in 2010 was already well below Baghdad’s expectations, with only 2.6 million bpd forecast by the end of the year. “Production and export volumes have been disappointing,” the IMF said, adding that average exports of 1.88 million bpd in the first half of the year

were “significantly lower than the target of 2.10 million bpd for the year.” “Bad weather delayed tanker loadings at the main export terminals near Basra, while a bomb attack in April temporarily interrupted exports through the northern pipeline to Turkey,” the report said.

“Also, internal political difficulties caused delays in the expected increase in exports from the northern fields,” the IMF added. In June, Iraq’s oil minister said the country’s oil production would grow to 10-12 million bpd in 2017.

Exempted from quotas established by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraq boasts of the world’s third largest oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The IMF in February awarded Iraq a two-year, 3.7 billion dollar loan, of which 1.2 billion has already been disbursed. — AFP

KUWAIT: Kuwait has added at least 12 billion barrels of crude oil to its reserves, which are estimated at over 100 billion barrels, following a comprehensive study, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Citing well-informed oil sources, Al-Jarida daily said the new oil was found in Greater Burgan, the world’s second largest oilfield after Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, with reserves estimated at close to 70 billion barrels. The sources told the paper that more reserves have been discovered at a number of other reservoirs following a comprehensive study, which will boost the Gulf state’s reserves - the credibility of which has been questioned in the past.

In April, Kuwait’s deputy premier for economic affairs Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah told a symposium that Burgan reserves were in fact higher than published figures. Sheikh Ahmad, a former energy minister, also said that new reserve figures would be announced covering all Kuwaiti reservoirs. According to OPEC data, Kuwait holds the world’s fifth largest crude reserves at 101.5 billion barrels after Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and Iraq.

Industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) however said in January 2006 that Kuwait’s oil reserves stood at 48 billion barrels only, based on internal records seen by the

newsletter.

The PIW report also claimed that Kuwait’s fully proven reserves amounted to only 24.2 billion barrels. At the time, Kuwaiti oil officials said the report was inaccurate and that it failed to take into account undeveloped reservoirs. On October 4, neighboring Iraq announced a sharp rise of its crude reserves from 115 billion barrels to 143.1 billion barrels, overtaking Iran, OPEC’s third largest member, in terms of reserves. But a week later, Tehran also boosted its crude reserves, citing new discoveries, to 150.3 billion barrels from 138 billion barrels, reclaiming third place. — AFP

BUSINESS

Page 18

Friday, October 22, 2010

KSE price index ends action in red KUWAIT: Investors in the KSE continued their selling spree, causing the index to go down for the 3rd day in a row.

Eighty equities went down in the bourse versus only 20 rising. On a weekly basis Global’s General Index shed 1.39 percent.

Market indices Global General Index (GGI) closed 1.75 points down (0.80 percent), at 216.78 point as the market capitalization decreased reaching KD35.07 million. On the other side, Kuwait Stock Exchange Price Index closed in the red zone losing 53.20 points (0.76 percent) from its value and closed at 6,944.50 point.

Ma rket breadth During the session, 118 companies were traded.

Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 80 equities retreated versus 20 that advanced.

Daily tra ding activity Trading activities ended on a positive note as traders were selling their stocks. Volume of shares traded on the exchange increased by 5.70 percent to reach 256.21 million shares, the value of shares traded increased also by 20.71 percent to stand at KD52.70 million. The real estate sector was the volume leader, accounting for 29.58 percent of total shares traded, while the Banking Sector was the value leader, with 58.62 percent of total traded value.

Company-wise, Burgan Bank was the volume leader, with a total traded volume of 43.01 million shares changing

GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT hands. Burgan Bank was also the value leader, with a total traded value of KD20.88 million, that is because Bahrain’s United Gulf Bank (UGB) a unit of Kuwait Projects Co Holding (KIPCO) received the approval from The Central Bank of Kuwait to extend the period granted to acquire up to 20 percent of Kuwait’s Burgan Bank another unit of Kipco.

Top ga iners and biggest decliners In terms of top gainers, AlAhlia Insurance Co was the biggest gainer for the day, adding 9.09 percent and closed at KD0.540. On the other side, Privatization Holding Co. came in as the biggest decliner, dropping by 6.45 percent and closed at KD0.058.

Sectors wise During the session, Global indices were almost all negative, as six out of eight indices ended the day with losses led by Global Food Sector, which fell 3.08 percent pulled back by Kuwait Foodstuff Company’s (Americana) share price that decreased by 3.66 percent to close at KD1.580.

Global Industrial Index followed shedding 1.46 percent. National Industries Group (Holding) and Boubyan Petrochemical Co both lost 2.63 percent and 1.85 percent, respectively, of their share prices, dragging the Indice down with them. On the advancers’ side, Global

Syria reformer plunges down SINGAPORE: Syria is expected to export 165,000180,000 tons of naphtha a month until year-end following an outage at its gasoline reformer since August, traders said yesterday. The reason for the outage at the reformer, which processes naphtha into gasoline, was not immediately known. Syria, not a regular exporter of naphtha to Asia, has been shipping out some volumes since the outage. The exports are timely for Asia, which will be facing lower spot exports from the Middle East and India next month because of refinery maintenance works.

“But demand in Asia is strong as crackers are running at high rates to cash in on the strong petrochemical margins,” said a trader. Cracks, the premiums/losses obtained from refining Brent crude hit $149.00 a ton premium yesterday, highest since May 14 at $151.63 a toe.

Naphtha’s November/ December prompt

timespread firmed yesterday to its highest in at least three months.

Trafigura is set lift 60,000 tonnes of the Syrian highsulphur naphtha grade around Oct. 24 on the tanker Qi Lin Zou. The vessel is put on provisional booking to either land in the West or Asia, with traders expecting it to anchor in the East despite a technically shut arbitrage window and an ongoing crisis in fuel supplies in France due to a strike.

“The reason why it will come East is because the Banias naphtha has high sulphur which European naphtha crackers shun,” said a North Asian trader. Shell was originally eyeing the cargo, but Trafigura won the tender, traders added. The oil major had already bought a Banias cargo recently, scheduled to arrive in Asia this month. Vitol had lifted at least 55,000 tons of naphtha from Banias which landed in Asia around late September or early October after more than a six-month hiatus.

—Reuters

Insurance Index and Global Real Estate Index were the only gainers increasing by 0.29 percent and 0.05 percent, respectively.

Oil news The 12-crude basket of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

was down by 54 cents to settle at $78.71 per barrel on Wednesday, compared to $79.25 per barrel the day before. The annual average for the basket price last year amounted to $76.11 per barrel.

Corporate news National Bank of Kuwait

(NBK) announced that it has signed an agreement with AlShaab National Real Estate Company, a closed joint stock company, to buy the latter’s unlisted shares, amounting to 500 million for KD52 million in addition to its building in Sharq district, which will be used as the bank’s new headquarters.

Global Investment House (Global) made yesterday a further $72.5 million principal repayment to the lending banks, bringing the total repaid amount since it signed the debt rescheduling agreement on December 10, 2009 to $151.40 million, representing 8.8 percent of the total debts to the banks and financial institutions, in addition to $70.90 million paid to bondholders on December 23, 2009.

Business

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 19

Renewables to add to Saudi power mix

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia expects renewable sources to contribute to its energy mix as its need for power triples over the next two decades, but the exact percentage will hinge on oil prices, a government official said on Wednesday. The top oil exporter has said it hopes to draw 10 percent of its power output from mostly solar energy and other renewable sources by 2020.

“I think any number can be achieved, provided there is enough support for it from studies, analysis,” Abdullah AlShehri, governor of the Saudi Electricity and Co-Generation

Regulatory Authority (ECRA) told the Reuters Middle East Summit in Riyadh.

Among many factors, he said, “If prices of oil continue going up, it will give more support and incentives. If they go down, it is going to slow things.” So far, Saudi Electricity Co’s installed power capacity stands at 50,000 megawatts, of which 45 percent is fired by gas, 13 percent from heavy fuel oil, 22 percent from diesel and 20 percent from crude, according to 2008 figures. Oil rose above $80 a barrel on Wednesday, supported by signs that U.S. fuel stockpiles are falling and as

some investors took the view that an interest rate increase by China would do little to dampen its oil use.

Demand peaking Demand for electricity in the desert country is rising at an annual rate of 8 percent, Shehri said, with its peak load at around 44,000 MW. Shehri reiterated that power demand was expected to triple to 121,000 MW by 2032, adding that fuel consumption would also triple by then, but he expected the energy mix to change. “Do we have more gas, less gas; do we have nuclear; do we have renewables?” Shehri said. Shehri

was asked about nuclear plans, which experts say are a distant prospect despite some preparatory moves.

“As far as ECRA is concerned, any power plant that is going to be producing will be welcome, because the demand growth is high and it’s not only the peak load (that) is increasing but also the base load,” Shehri said. He said ECRA is awaiting approval from authorities after submitting a proposal for renewable regulation, which could be put in place in 2011. Saudi Arabia is pumping around 8.1 million barrels per day of oil, its oil minister said on

Monday. About a tenth of the country’s production in barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) goes to power generation, Shehri said, without providing an exact figure. Around 30 percent of Saudi Arabia’s power and water production comes from co-generation, Shehri said.

Cogeneration lowers carbon dioxide emissions and raises energy efficiency.

SEC is believed to be paying around $0.25 per kilowatt hour to provide power in remote areas in the kingdom during peak summer demand, said Vahid Fotuhi, director, Middle East, of BP Solar, a division of BP. —Reuters

French strike lifts gasoline, naphtha premiums: Report More Middle Eastern cargo heads West DUBAI: Gasoline and naphtha premiums in the Middle East climbed this week after cargoes were diverted to Europe, where a widespread refinery and port strike in France has dried up supplies in the region, traders said. “The strike came along the same time when most European refineries are shut for maintenance,” said one gasoline trader. “Cracks are coming up big time.” Nationwide strikes over pension reforms have spread to France’s 12 oil refineries, adding to the impact of a multi-week strike at the country’s largest oil port, FosLavera.

Another trader pegged gasoline at around Middle East benchmark naphtha quotes plus $70-80. That compares with last week’s $60 to mid-high $80s. [ The first trader said some prompt demand from Oman and the expectation Saudi Aramco would enter the market in November had offered further support. “We’re still expecting the Saudis to come up...with 2-3 cargoes of demand in November,” he said.

Gasoline’s relative strength also reflected rising premiums in the naphtha market, which recovered this week as more Middle Eastern cargoes headed West following the French port and refinery strike. “Naphtha is very strong now,” a third trader said, adding that excess supplies have been wiped out by refinery maintenance shutdowns. Saudi Aramco sold 50,000 tons of A180 naphtha for early-November loading from Ras Tanura at $16.00-$17.00 a toe above Middle East quotes, free-onboard (FOB) basis, pointing to a strong recovery on the export market to high premiums, traders said on Monday.

Two other Saudi cargoes were shipped to Europe last week by Vitol, traders said. Moves from the Middle East or Asia to Europe are rare because these regions are short of the petrochemical feedstock naphtha. India’s November naphtha exports are expected to fall to around 700,000-750,000 tons because of refinery maintenance, versus about 820,000 tons this month, traders said on Wednesday.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) had sold some 74,000 tons of November naphtha last week but traders said it might limit spot sales next month after it successfully termed up most of

its 1.1 million tons for December 2010-November 2011. Traders continued to monitor Iran, once a major gasoline buyer whose regular suppliers have been deterred by international sanctions.

“We’re not seeing any product imports from them,” the third gasoline trader said. “No diesel or gasoline-but they must be buying, particularly from the Chinese. I think they’re doing a very good job keeping it under the radar,” he said.

Gas oil Plentiful supplies have weighed on gas oil premiums and the outlook was bearish for the near-term, traders said. “There’s no extra demand from the usual buyers like Qatar or Saudi, while there’s a lot of supply,” one distillates trader said. “But some refinery hiccoughs in Kuwait are putting some pressure on the nearby market,” he added.

He said a hydrocracker failure at Mina Al-Ahmedi refinery at Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) caused a delay in shipments as it was running at very low capacity. KPC was not available for comment. The trader said regional premiums for 0.2 percent gas oil were pegged around $0.40-0.50 a barrel, 0.5 percent at $0.30-40 a barrel. That compares with 0.2 percent gas oil at about $0.70-$0.80 a barrel and 0.5 percent gas oil at $0.30-60 a barrel last week.

Fuel oil Exports from Saudi Arabia have risen since the kingdom has emerged from its peak summer demand period, adding to bearish sentiment in Asia and in the Middle East. In this week’s tender Saudi Aramco sold 90,000 tons of November-loading A961 low-density fuel oil at a fourmonth high price due to a recovery in demand from postflood Pakistan, traders said on Thursday. However, traders said the upside is limited by fuel oil exports from the kingdom, which hit four-month high volumes of at least 600,000-650,000 tons for October. “The market’s still flooded by fuel oil,” one trader said.

“There’s not enough demand and too much excess material.

The bunker market is almost nonexistent.” He declined to give an exact range for Fujairah bunker prices for 180 centistoke (cst) but he said they were way below the $4 to $7 a ton above Middle East spot quotes, pegged two weeks ago. — Reuters

Business

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Friday, October 22, 2010

Geithner suggests major currencies ‘in alignment’ GYEONGJU: India, Russia and Germany yesterday rejected a US proposal for numerical targets for “sustainable” trade surpluses and deficits as a way to help rebalance the global economy. The swift rebuff underscored the difficulties facing Group of 20 finance ministers as they gather in South Korea to try to find ways to defuse tensions in currency markets springing from the fallout of the global financial crisis. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, US.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for an agreement on “norms” on exchange rate policy.

“Right now, there is no established sense of what’s fair,” he told the paper.

“We would like countries to move toward a set of norms on exchange rate policy.” Officials have yet to draft

LONDON: Britain’s poor and powerful argued yesterday over who’ll lose out most under harsh austerity measures which will slash benefits, jobs and government services in order to reduce the country’s crippling debts. Treasury chief George Osborne has announced 81 billion pounds ($128 billion) in spending cuts through 2015 - which will ax welfare payments, savage government services and see as many as half a million public sector jobs lost.

Government departments will, on average, see their budgets cut by around 19 percent, leaving them with difficult choices regarding whether to lay off staff and or limit the scope of their work.

It means Britain will reduce police forces, pay less to those without jobs and send fewer criminals to prison.

Prestigious embassies will be

US wants G20 to agree to ‘norms’ on exchange rate policy the final communique, but media reports said the G20 would probably restate previous commitments to avoiding competitive undervaluations in favor of more market-driven exchange rates that minimize disorderly swings in currencies.

“Most likely, there will be some general words, along the lines of ‘let’s all live in peace’. I do not expect much success in this sphere,” Russian deputy finance minister Dimitry Pankin told reporters. Washington is floating the idea of specific targets for current account balances. This would build on a G20 pledge a year ago to tilt growth away from exports in fastgrowing surplus countries, such as

shuttered, as will courts and military bases. Ordinary Britons will lose billions in benefit payments, must retire later, and pay more for day-to-day items like train tickets. Even the Royal Mint faces cutbacks: It will use cheaper metals in British coins in an attempt to deliver savings.

Osborne insists that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden,” claiming Britain’s highest-earners would be worst affected. But economists and the public disagree, fearing that the measures will instead cause most hardship for lower paid government workers, or Britons reliant on welfare checks.

China, and to boost savings in rich deficit economies, including the United States.

“We are exploring whether we can agree to commit to keep the external imbalances to levels that are more sustainable, making allowances for different kinds of countries, such as commodity producers,” Geithner said.

Diplomats said Washington was proposing that countries should aim to limit their surplus or deficit on the current account- the broadest measure of trade in goods and services-to 4 percent of gross domestic product. But German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said he was opposed to numerical

Some legislators have expressed worries that women will lose out more than men, as about 65 percent of the public sector work force is female. Pension plans for women are changing more quickly than those of men, standardizing the retirement age at 66 for both genders by 2020. “The benefit cuts ... on average will impact those in the bottom half of the income distribution more than the top half of the income distribution,” said Carl Emmerson, the acting director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an economic think tank. Cuts to services will have a similar impact, he said.

Britain’s opposition Labor Party - in office for 13 years until May, and responsible for handling the fallout as the financial crisis began claimed the Conservativeled coalition government is

goals. “Macroeconomic fine-tuning and quantitative targets are not the right approach in our view,” Bruederle told Reuters in Berlin before leaving for the G20 talks.

“Let’s all live in peace” Russia’s Pankin was skeptical about the initiative. “The United States will try to put the question of exchange rates and current account balances at the top of the agenda, to try to press China to make some commitments on this issue. In my view it is unlikely that they will succeed,” he said. An Indian finance ministry official also gave short shrift to Geithner’s idea of numerical goals.

“I do believe that this has to be

exploiting the economic gloom to reduce the size of government - a long held Conservative ideal.

“When you look at it, it is the state retreating. It is a blueprint for a smaller, meaner and nastier society and we think the government has got it wrong,” Labor lawmaker Angela Eagle told the BBC. Osborne said Wednesday that the cuts were an unavoidable remedy after Britain piled up debts during the global financial crisis.

The Labor government spent billions of taxpayer money to bail out two major banks - the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group - and took full ownership of mortgage lender Northern Rock. “I hope people feel this morning that here is the plan we’ve got a plan now, we know where we are going, we are going to deal with our debts,” Osborne told ITV. The Treasury yesterday

looked at more fundamentally. By artificially linking current account deficit levels to the GDP you are merely skimming the surface. I am not sure that this will be supported by very many emerging economies,” the official told Reuters.

Blam e game Pankin criticized the United States for piling pressure on emerging markets to lead rebalancing when it was loose US policy settings that were sending capital pouring into developing economies, generating pressure for their exchange rates to rise. “We think that such policies will not come to any good,” he said. Things would not turn out well unless the United States cut its budget deficit and tightened monetary policy, he added. —Reuters

confirmed there will be a permanent levy on the balance sheets of banks - expected to raise about 2.5 billion pounds ($4 billion) a year by 2014 - and further consideration of measures to curb bonuses paid to bank employees.

Following Osborne’s lengthy statement to Parliament on Wednesday, hundreds of Britons demonstrated against the cuts outside London’s Downing Street the official residence of Prime Minister David Cameron. Police said three people were arrested after breaking into the premises of the government’s business ministry. Jack Clark, a selfemployed 55-year-old, said Wednesday that the cuts would likely provoke a strong public reaction. “They need to make less emotive cuts. They’re really playing with people’s emotions,” he said. — AP

LONDON: In this photo, a distant view of London’s Canary Wharf financial district is seen. — AP

Apple parades iPad inspired Mac laptop CUPERTINO: Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the thinnest, lightest Mac laptop yet, fusing features from its popular iPhone and iPad with its traditional line of personal computers. Apple, whose computers have taken market share from PCs based on Microsoft Corp’s Windows, will bring a version of its mobile applications store to the Mac, aiming to replicate its success and spur development of new programs.

Loading up Macs with iPad features may help Apple stave off investors’ fears that sales will begin bleeding over to the tablet, which has stirred up astonishing demand.

The new MacBook Airintroduced on Wednesday with Jobs’ signature “one last thing” set-up-is designed to reproduce the versatility of popular devices such as the iPhone and iPad, and will incorporate FaceTime video chats, which Apple is bringing to all its Macs. Utilizing flash storage like the iPad rather than hard drives like conventional computers, it can power up almost instantly from standby mode and store data twice as quickly as a standard hard drive. But it sacrifices processing power compared with Apple’s other laptops.

“We asked ourselves what would

CUPERTINO: Two new MacBook Air models are displayed during an Apple special event at the company’s headquarters on October 20, 2010. — AFP

happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up? Well, this is the result,” Jobs said at a media event in Cupertino, California, calling the Air the “future of notebooks.” It starts at $999 for an 11.6-inch model, weighs as little as 2.3 pounds (1 kg), and measures 0.11 inches (0.3 cm) at its thinnest to 0.68 inches (1.7 cm) at the rear. “They’re basically merging the product lines; they’re simplifying it,” said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu. “They’re taking the strengths out of what they’ve learned on the iPhone and iPad and bringing that technology over to the Mac side. It makes a lot of sense.” —Reuters

business

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 21

Michelle Villalobos (left) and Jessica Kizorek, have different strategies for getting more done while working and being more productive versus just appearing to be busy. —MCT

Where does the time go? It’s up to you J

essica Kizorek used to start her day by reading e-mail and responding until she noticed she wasn’t getting to the priorities on her to-do list. “Half the day had gone by and e-mail had sucked the juice out of me.” To break the habit, Kizorek, founder of BadassBusinessWoman.org, challenged herself to be more productive, cutting back to only four work hours a day.

The rest she allocated to leisure. Instead of planning business meetings at Starbucks, she had phone conversations. “It’s amazing when you see what you can cut out, what doesn’t go directly into making you money. You only see that when you force yourself to work smarter, not longer,” she says.

How often are you asking yourself if you are spending your work day being productive or just being busy?

Most likely, the answer is not often enough. Even as the average work week expands, worker productivity in the United States is on a slide, a new Labor Department study shows. In the most recent quarter, the measure of employee output per hour fell at a 0.9 percent annual rate, while hours worked climbed at a 3.6 percent rate.

During our work days,

How often are you asking yourself if you are spending your day being productive or just being busy? we’re answering e-mails, we’re responding to text messages, we’re chatting with co-workers, we’re blogging and twittering. We’re spending more than 3 billion minutes on Facebook each day. We’re putting in longer hours but we’re not necessarily landing more business or moving closer to our goals. “We’re focusing on the urgent at the expense of the important,” says Dan Markovitz, president of TimeBack Management.

“People feel overwhelmed.

Some is real, some is psychological. They never feel like they are caught up because they aren’t getting to the important stuff.” Most of us could learn a lot from the hyper-efficient entrepreneur or business executive. They make lists, they set goals, they delegate, they work in blocks of time. They don’t start their day in their Inbox.

When Carol Greenberg Brook, arrives at the office, she’s already read her e-mails, flagged the priorities and sent them to her assistant to print out and create a to-do list. As

co-founder and president of Continental Real Estate Companies, she walks in to her Coral Gables office focused on what needs to get done. That usually includes delegating and guiding staff on how to spend their time wisely. “I’m a good communicator. I pull myself back from minutia and give direction.”

Experts says the biggest mistake most workers make is starting the day out reading email. Instead, do the important to-dos in the first hour of work. “Ask yourself, if that’s the only thing I accomplish, will I be satisfied with my day?” says Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek. He says what’s most important, typically, is the task you’re most uncomfortable doing - having a conversation with your boss or a challenging customer. “We need to reprogram ourselves from ‘more is better’ to making better decisions about how we spend our time.”

Ricky Arriola, CEO of Intel Direct in Miami, is

among the highly productive.

He runs a 700-person company and chairs Miami’s Adrian Arsht Performing Arts Center. He says being in good shape and exercising gives him energy to stay productive. Weekly, he writes down his goals and includes deadlines and an action plan.

He knows what he must do himself, and what to delegate.

“The goal is to not get caught up in things that consume my time, but don’t get me whole lot of productivity. I want to focus on the big things.”

Arriola carefully scrutinizes who he gives face time. “When things come up and people want my attention, I have to measure what they want, with whether it will further my goal. If not, then I think before I get involved.”

He says this takes instilling discipline in his staff, teaching them to only request a meeting when it’s something only he uniquely can handle.

“Otherwise I push back.”

Experts believe the secret to being productive is to track how you spend your

day. One woman I know tracked her hours for a week to figure out why she was busy, but not making money.

She discovered she was spending 10 hours a week driving to see clients. She hadn’t been billing them for drive time. “It doesn’t have to be a monumental analysis,” Markovitz says. “It doesn’t even have to be consecutive days. You just need five or six days of data.”

The next step is asking why you are spending time on each task and getting rid of what isn’t working.

RescueTime is software that can track how you spend your time. One executive who used it realized that even though he was reading and responding to e-mail only a couple of minutes at a time, it was adding up to a couple of hours a day.

When Stever Robbins, author of “Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More,” scrutinized his time use, he found he was attending networking events for a group, but had never

picked up a single client.

Robbins says he faced up to recognizing the events as social and decided he would rather spend time hosting a dinner party.

After assessing how you spend your time, you should decide how you should be allocating it, what is essential to your success or organization’s success. This often requires a talk with the boss for guidance. Once it is clear, you will want to make those tasks visible - as a PostIt on your computer screen. Clearly, the biggest challenge is avoiding distractions and staying focused. Ferriss says when people get overwhelmed, they often turn to reading email as a default, instead of being proactive. He suggests sticking to set times to read e-mail. Ferriss insists the key to productivity is asking why? “Do you want more income, more time with the kids? If you are doing something and you are having fun, you’re not wasting time.” —MCT

Page 22

CAREER

Friday, October 22, 2010

T

he most common question I’m asked is this one: “I don’t know what I want to do. Is there a test or something that can tell me what career is right for me?” The answer is no.

You can’t take a test that will, as if by magic, tell you what to do with the rest of your life.

You can however use a combination of self assessment tools that will aid you in your decision. This article will demystify the self assessment phase of the career planning process. First I will tell you what self assessment is and then I will give you an overview of the various tools used to help you learn about yourself.

Self assessment is the first step of the career planning process. During a self assessment you gather information about yourself in order to make an informed career decision. A self assessment should include a look at the following: values, interests, personality, and skills.

• Values: the things that are important to you, like achievement, status, and autonomy • Interests: what you enjoy doing, i.e. playing golf, taking long walks, hanging out with friends • Personality: a person’s individual traits, motivational drives, needs, and attitudes • Skills: the activities you are good at, such as writing, computer programming, teaching Many people choose to hire a career counselor who will administer a variety of self assessment inventories. What follows is a discussion of the different types of tools you may encounter, as well as some other things to consider when pursuing a career change.

Value Inventories Your values are possibly the most important thing to consider when you’re choosing an occupation. If you don’t take your values into account when planning your career, there’s a good chance you’ll dislike your work and therefore not succeed in it. For example, someone who needs to have autonomy in his work would not be happy in a job where every action is decided by someone else.

There are two types of values: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic values are related to the work itself and what it contributes to society.

Extrinsic values include external features, such as physical setting and earning potential.

Value inventories will ask you to answer questions like the following: • Is a high salary important to you?

• Is it important for your work to involve interacting with people?

• Is it important for your work to make a contribution to society?

• Is having a prestigious job important for you?

During a self assessment, a career counselor may administer one of the following value inventories: Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ), Survey of Interpersonal Values (SIV), or Temperament and Values Inventory (TVI). If you want to get a feel for what you’ll be asked, take a look at the WorkRelated Values Assessment, which is a printable list of work related values, with a definition of each one.

Interest Inventories Interest inventories are also frequently used in career planning. When you complete an interest inventory you are asked to answer a series of questions regarding your (surprise) interests. E.K. Strong, Jr pioneered the development of interest inventories. He found, through data he gathered about people’s likes and dislikes of a variety of activities, objects, and types of persons, that people in the same career (and satisfied in that career) had similar interests. Dr John Holland and others provided a system of matching interests with one or more of six types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.

He then matched these types with occupations. The results of your interest inventory are compared against the results of this study to see where you fit in - are your interests similar to those of a police officer or to those of an accountant?

A very popular interest inventory is the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), formerly

known as the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. The SII is administered by a career development professional, who also scores it, and interprets the results.

Personality Inventories Many personality inventories used in career planning are based on a theory by psychologist Carl Jung. Jung divided people into eight personality types - extroverts, introverts, thinking, feeling, sensing, intuitive, judging, and perceptive. Career counselors often use results from tests based on Jungian Personality Theory to help clients choose careers. Career counselors contend that those of a particular personality type are better suited to certain careers. An obvious example would be that an introvert would not do well in a career that requires public speaking. However, a personality inventory alone shouldn’t be used to predict whether you would succeed in a particular career. It should be used in conjunction with other inventories, such as those that look at interests and values.

Career development practitioners frequently administer the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for the assessment of personality. It measures differences in traits between individuals. It looks at how one energizes (Extroversion vs Introversion), perceives information (Sensing vs Intuition), makes decisions (Thinking vs Feeling), and

demonstrates his or her lifestyle (Judging vs Perceiving). When the test is scored, the individual is given a four letter code, i.e. ENFJ (Extroversion Intuitive Feeling Judging), indicating his or her preferences. Each preference is also assigned a number to show how strong that preference is.

may be interested in. There’s a component that allows users to gather information about these careers. Computer-Assisted Career Guidance programs are often found in career centers at high schools or colleges. Some job and career centers at public libraries also make these programs available.

Skills Assessment When deciding what field to enter, you need to determine what skills you have. You should look at what you’re good at, as well as what you enjoy doing. You may be very adept at a particular skill, but despise every second you spend using it. Generally speaking, though, you usually enjoy what you do well. While you’re assessing your skills, you should also consider the time you are willing to spend on acquiring more advanced or new skills. A question you could ask yourself is this - if a career holds all the qualities I find appealing but it takes X years to prepare for it, would I be willing and able to make this time commitment?

Additional Considerations When going through the self assessment process it’s important to take into account other considerations that will influence your career choice. For example, you should consider your family responsibilities and your ability to pay for education or training. You also have to remember that self assessment is the first step in the career planning process, not the last. After completing this phase, you have to go on to the next one, which entails exploring the options you have before you.

With your self assessment results in mind, you will have to next evaluate a variety of occupations to see if there’s a match. Just because your self assessment indicates that a particular occupation is suitable for someone with your interests, skills, and values, it doesn’t mean it is best for you. Similarly, just because your self assessment doesn’t indicate that a particular occupation is appropriate for you, it doesn’t mean you should discount it entirely. You just need to do some research to learn more about it.

— www.careerplanning.about.com

Computer-Assisted Career Guidance Assessments There are several computer programs that can help you with self assessment. Programs like SIGI 3 (System of Interactive Guidance and Information) and Discover require users to answer a variety of questions about interests, skills, and values. Based on those answers, the software comes up with a list of career the user

TECHNOLOGY

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 23

Social networking tools you need for business D

on’t be afraid that if you sign up for Facebook, you’ll run into people you no longer want to see - or that your personal Facebook page will turn up embarrassing information about you in the search engines. Have the Facebooks and Twitters of the world passed you by? Are e-mail and telephone the primary ways you can be reached or that you reach out? If so, you’re probably wondering at this point whether it even matters be keep up with the latest social networking sites and tools. The short answer: It does - at least if your business success is tied in some part to your ability to remain accessible. That’s not to say, though, that all of the social networks are perfect for everyone. But if you’ve been too busy to look into them up to now, it’s probably time to see what they can do for you. The good news is that a basic understanding what these tools and sites are good for - and what they’re not - is easy to acquire. Read on to find out.

Facebook Facebook has over 500 million users for a reason: it’s the single best way to get in touch - and stay in touch - with people you may have lost track of over the years - and that includes former colleagues or business associates who might be in a great position to help you when you need it.

The key to Facebook’s success and yours - is the site’s sheer number of users combined with its ability to hook you up with others you probably know based upon what you’ve done, where you’ve studied, where you’ve worked, and who you’ve known. Plenty of people turn to Facebook to hunt up old romantic flames or to chat with current friends and family. But there are plenty of essential business uses for Facebook as well. Keeping abreast of past co-workers and bosses, for example, could tie you in to future employment. Starting a Facebook page not only for yourself but for your business or interests can likewise reap benefits through increased exposure.

Don’t be afraid that if you sign up for Facebook, you’ll run into people you no longer want to see - or that your personal Facebook page will turn up embarrassing information about you in the search engines.

There are easy ways around both of those concerns. The first is by simply ignoring or rejecting “friend” requests that come your way from those you don’t want to contact. The second is by establishing privacy settings that will keep your Facebook page your own.

Twitter Despite the media’s fascination with Twitter, many business people may not need what it has to offer.

There are, though, exceptions - and important ones at that. Twitter can be genuinely useful for those who want to trade ideas, comments, and updates around specific gatherings, interests, or intellectual pursuits. In such cases, Twitter can be a great way of keeping abreast of what’s happening in your area of interest or your field. Because the essence of Twitter is the 140-character “tweets” that members send to one another, the tool can be an efficient way of communicating small bits of information quickly. And the many apps that let you tie in Twitter to your smartphone mean that you can get Twitter updates wherever you are. Key to the productive use of Twitter, however, is keeping your circle of Twitter friends well defined. Start following the wrong people on Twitter, and your account will quickly begin to seem like a 24hour spam inbox, constantly beckoning your attention with peremptory, annoying “tweets” in

which you have no interest.

LinkedIn LinkedIn was created solely for the purpose of allowing people to establish a social network among business associates, and its success is now without question. Like Facebook, once you provide the site with some details about what you’ve done and where you’ve worked, LinkedIn suggests colleagues or associates you may have forgotten about - and who could recommend you and your work to others.

Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is all business, which is both good and bad. It’s good because you won’t have to wade through myriad updates about your connections’ latest family pictures or the YouTube video they found fantastic.

It’s bad because sometimes those personal connections to people - the ones that do not come through purely business relations - are what really matter when you are looking

for work. So look at LinkedIn and Facebook as complementary, and get an account with both.

Instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) grew up in the 90s, and it’s far from dead. In fact, it’s a vital communications medium that serves a purpose that no other internet-based mode of communication can: real time conversations that are more efficiently conducted online than by either e-mail or telephone. So to stay fully connected today, you need at least one instant messaging account, and if your activities require that you be easy to reach, you should have an IM account with all of the major providers: MS Live, Yahoo!, Google, and perhaps even AOL. Don’t worry, either, about having to keep track of all of your accounts by having multiple chat clients open. An IM aggregator such as Digsby (http://www.digsby.com) can pull them all together neatly and allow you

to chat with anyone using one familiar interface.

Skype Skype isn’t just for internet telephone conversations, although it handles that job exceedingly well.

Businesses are increasingly using the tool as a way to conduct interviews both voice-only and video based with potential job candidates.

Whether the candidates are far away or close by, a preliminary Skypebased interview makes a lot of sense from both a time and cost perspective.

Signing up for any or all of the services mentioned here takes only minutes, and those will be minutes well spent. If you’re worried about getting a lot of spam as a result, use a free e-mail address that you create for the purpose of handling your social networking accounts. Set up these services right, though, and you won’t be dealing with spam. Instead, you’ll be expanding your opportunities. — dpa

BeaUTY

Page 24

Friday, October 22, 2010

Tips Skin for a quick care for and polished men look!

How to avoid shaving bump Y

ou’ve got a big day at the office, or maybe a big date. Who wants to go with a face full of shaving bumps? Shaving bumps can be a vicious cycle that luckily can be avoided by using proper tools and technique. Taking the time to learn the proper way to shave will give you the freedom of being shaving bump free.

If you’re like many men, you’ve been led to believe that in order to get the best shave, you need a monster of a razor with as many blades as you can get.

You also need to shave against the grain and push awfully hard to get a smooth shave, right? Forget everything you’ve been taught, and let’s start from the beginning.

Picking a razor When you’re standing in the razor isle, you can’t help but notice that there’s a bit of a competition within razor companies - Who can create the razor with the most blades and the highest price?

Along with extra blades comes of course, extra price. But did you know that you don’t need, nor should you want all of those extra blades. Razors with too many blades can actually be the cause of your shaving bumps.

When you’re picking a razor, look for a high quality double or triple blade razor. Ones with disposable heads are typically higher quality than disposable razors. (Never shave your face with a single blade disposable razor.)

You might think about getting an old-fashioned straight blade like your

grandpa probably had. Corey Greenberg from MSNBC tells us it’s the best way to get a close shave.

Sure, it’s a different technique, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better razor for your face.

Shaving cream? Shaving oil? Just hot water?

In order to get a close shave, you need water, and lots of it. Many men stand in front of the mirror and splash their face with a bit of water

before adding on shaving cream.

Ouch. If you want a close, comfortable shave, get a fog resistant mirror and put it in your shower. By giving your face time to soak in hot water and steam, your razor will glide, not drag, across your face. If you can’t shave in the shower, shave after your shower for best results.

Try using a shaving oil, like Pacific Shaving Oil for a smooth shave. (buy direct). A few drops is all you’ll need for your whole face. You can use an oil alone, or apply it under your shave cream for more protection against bumps. Avoid the cheap-o creams that you find at the drugstore which can dehydrate your skin, making it more prone to nicks and cuts. Try a moisturizing shaving cream like Zirh’s Shave Cream, which contains aloe vera to soothe your face. (buy direct) Get a brush When you use a shaving brush to apply your shaving oil or shaving cream, you’re literally lifting the hairs on your face, preparing them for the shave. Simply rubbing cream on your face doesn’t give each hair ample attention. The Body Shop has a fantastically soft men’s shaving brush that is cruelty-free and extremely budget friendly. (buy direct).

Don’t forget to exfoliate Exfoliating might not be in your skin care regimen, but if you get shaving bumps, you’re going to want to add it. Simply use a facial exfoliator 2-3 times a week to buff

away the dead skin cells that your hair grows back into. By removing the layer of dead skin on a regular basis, you’ll see a vast improvement in your shaving bump situation.

After you wash your face, simply massage in a grainy facial exfoliator for a minute or two with gentle circular motions. Ole Henriksen’s Walnut Complexion Scrub gets fantastic reviews for men with all skin types. (buy direct).

Another option is to use a moisturizer each morning with AHA’s in it. Because AHA’s will naturally exfoliate your skin, this will eliminate the need for the extra exfoliating step. My favorite men’s face moisturizer with AHA’s is Anthony Logistics for Men: Facial Moisturizer SPF 15. (buy direct) It will moisturize, naturally exfoliate and protect your face against the sun.

Final thoughts There are products made just for shaving bumps. Tend Skin is the most popular and well-known, (buy direct) but many men’s skin care lines carry a product that is similar to Tend Skin.

Know that these are extremely effective, but if you use them, you should skip the AHA exfoliator, as this also has AHA’s in them. While on the pricey side, you only need to use a tiny bit on a cotton ball over your entire face. A couple users reported that the bottle has lasted an entire year. You would use this product after you shave to reduce or many times eliminate your shaving bumps altogether. —About.com

BeaUTY

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 25

Make a homemade green tea face mask Ingredients needed: One fresh egg Fresh honey Lemon juice Green Tea Pow der Gather your ingredients ou probably already have the egg, lemon juice, and fresh honey in your refrigerator. Green Tea powder is a form of powdered green tea ground from the highest quality Japanese green tea leaves and is the form of green tea used in the Japanese green tea ceremony.

You can also use green tea powder to create a variety of other green tea recipes including green tea ice cream, smoothies, and other green tea skin care products.

Y

Mix the ingredients Break your fresh egg and place it into a glass container.

Add three teaspoons matcha powdered green tea to the bowl along with three drops of lemon juice. Stir the ingredients well with a spoon. Slowly add honey to the mixture to form a thick paste.

Stora ge Scoop the green tea face cream out of the blender into your glass storage jars. Place the jars in your refrigerator until you’re ready to use them.

How to use your homemade green tea mask Cleanse your skin lightly

with a mild soap or cream based cleanser before using.

Apply the green tea mask to your face using your fingers. Cover all areas of your face with the exception of the area right underneath your eyelids.

Leave it on for fifteen minutes before rinsing the mask off with cold water.

Apply a light moisturizing cream after rinsing.

The oils in your homemade green tea face cream make this cream very moisturizing. If you have oily skin, avoid using this cream in oilier areas, particularly if

you’re prone to breakouts.

Most people who use this cream have no worsening of their breakouts even if they’re prone to acne.

Apply it to your face once or twice a day, concentrating on the dry areas around your eyes and cheeks. After a week, your skin should feel softer and you should notice fine lines looking less pronounced. Even though green tea creams are thought to offer some sun protection, be sure to wear your sunscreen anyway.

— (www.beauty-and-thebath.com)

Benefits of various ingredients in your kitchen Avocado: moisturizes and is a good source of vitamin E and natural oils.

Milk: contains lactic acid which nourishes without stripping the skin of essential oils; refines pores; soothes all skin types; cools sunburn.

Aloe gel: an ageless remedy for burns.

Honey: a natural, gently astringent yet extremely moisturizing; refines pores; tightens skin; retards wrinkles; anti-blemish.

Oranges, Lemons, Pineapple: brightens and exfoliates the skin and purifies the pores.

Provides a dose of pure vitamin C. Pineapple is the strongest- It is a potent source of enzymes that soften the skin and is a natural astringent.

Yogurt: softens, hydrates, and has many enzymes that exfoliate the skin; cleanser; bleach.

Coconut Milk: the lactic acid smoothes out the skin.

Rose Water: gently balances and tones.

Olive oil: known for its great effects on the skin. The best for dry skin.

Chamomile: tones all types of complexions.

Oatmeal: soothes; heals; relieves itching.

Cucumber: reduces under-eye puffiness; reduces wrinkles.

Egg: conditions; whites best for normal and oily skin; yolks for dry to normal skin Nuts: used in scrubs to refine pores and combat wrinkles, blackheads and dryness.

Tomato: unclogs pores.

Vinegar: refines pores; cleans; softens; aids blemishes, itchy skin, and sunburn.

Witch Hazel: reduces eye puffiness; deodorant.

When should I throw my old cosmetics out?

C

osmetics - both skin care and makeup aren’t meant to grow old with you. “Products are developed to last a year or two,” says Peter Pugliese, MD, a skin physiologist in Reading, Pennsylvania.

However, contamination can occur at any time, since makeup is always in contact with germ-prone areas like your eyes, mouth and fingers. In general, always toss anything that has changed color or consistency or has a bad odor. Otherwise, use these guidelines to assess the shelf life of common beauty

products.

• Most powders, concealers and lip balms are anhydrous (they don’t contain water), so they can last for a couple of years, says Dr Pugliese.

• Cleansers and moisturizers often contain fatty acids, which can turn rancid quickly. Toss after six months.

• Multiuse products such as 3-in-1 sticks and creams can spread germs from lips to eyes and cheeks. Wipe the surface before switching areas, and discard or replace after six months.

• Pencils can last several years unless you wet the tip with saliva or water. To be safe, sharpen before each use.

• Mascara should be tossed after three months without fail. The tube is a breeding ground for bacteria,” says Dr Pugliese.

• Foundations can last up to a year if you keep your fingers away from the bottle. Instead, use a sponge to apply.

• Store cosmetics in a cool, dry place outside the bathroom to extend their shelf life.

—www.fitnessmagazine.com

health

Page 26

Friday, October 22, 2010

Making healthy choices when eating out H

ere are some tips to eat healthy in restaurants:

1. Get it your way. Not only are you paying for the meal, you have to wear the excess calories.

So ask for it your way: • Order grilled chicken instead of fried on the salad; bean soup rather than refried beans.

• Ask the kitchen not to brush your fajitas, steak, chicken or fish with butter.

• Ask for your pizza to be prepared ‘light’ on the cheese.

• Since every tablespoon of mayonnaise, dressing, butter, and oil contains 100 calories, ask for them ‘on the side’ so you can ‘dip and stab’.

• Do your heart and belly a favor by asking for half the meat and double the vegetables — even in your stir-fry.

• Special order a healthier (low fat/calorie, vegetarian or fruit plate) airline meal and give more than 24-

Many people eat all of their meals in restaurants. But large meals and fatty foods don’t have to spell nutritional disaster. hour notice.

• Ask for a luncheon or appetizer portion. Many restaurants can accommodate — even if it’s not on the menu.

Want eggplant parmigiana? Get the appetizer portion.

2. Make Miss Manners mad.

Perhaps ‘Miss Manners’ would object, but she doesn’t have to fit into your jeans, so: • Trim off the visible fat on the meat • Pull off the chicken skin.

• Scrape off the breading or excess sauce and drain off the excess butter or oil.

• Pat the pizza with a paper napkin to remove some of the grease.

3. Control your portions. Since it’s hard not to eat everything

that’s served, try these ideas: • Order a la carte or just tell them what you want (i.e. two enchiladas instead of three).

• Take a slice of bread and then give the basket back to the server.

• Get the doggie bag with dinner and immediately put away half your meal. Then leave the box behind.

• Use chopsticks. They make you eat slower, so you eat less.

• To eliminate the temptation to keep nibbling when you’ve had enough, salt the rest of your dinner heavily or pour on the hot sauce.

4. Check the ‘price’ tag. Think of calories as the ‘price’ you’ll have to pay (on your waist). Did you know that: • A large cinnamon roll has over 800 calories and more than a half a stick of butter?

• One ‘loaded’ nacho has more than 100 calories?

• Your morning mocha coffee contains more than 300 calories?

• A large fountain drink has 300 calories?

5. Make leaner substitutions.

• Since juice has the same number of calories as soda, order fresh fruit instead.

• Ask for egg substitutes; they’re just one-third the calories of eggs.

• Order Canadian bacon or ham instead of bacon or sausage.

• In addition to skinless chicken and fish, choose from leaner cuts of beef (sirloin, filet, London broil, New York) or pork tenderloin.

• Request pasta with tomato sauce instead of cream. If you really want cream sauce, ask them to use

half the usual amount for a lighter, still flavorful pasta.

• Instead of a full meal, order salad and a healthy appetizer such as: shrimp cocktail; Thai summer rolls; chicken satays; sushi; steamed vegetable dumplings; and pizza (‘light on the cheese’).

6. Beware of the Extras.

Many meals can be made healthier just by cutting out some of the ‘extras’. For example: For an extra 100 calories, choose from: 1 tablespoon mayonnaise or salad dressing, 1 cheese slice; 2 strips bacon; sauteed mushrooms; sliced avocado, 1 large onion ring; 7 potato puffs; 10 regular fries or 20 skinny French fries. Take your pick!

While the calories in sugar and cream aren’t much per teaspoon, it all adds up! If you eat just 10 calories more than your body needs, you’ll put on a pound of fat each year. (www.roadandtravel.com)

health

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 27

Why you should not try to isolate muscle groups when weight training orking as a fitness professional, there is one type of question I get all the time that shows that many people are missing the big picture regarding the benefits of strength training. This popular question usually goes something like this: “What exercise can I do to isolate my _______ (insert your muscle of choice - abs, quads, biceps, triceps, etc)?”

It doesn’t matter which muscle someone is asking about, they always seem to be asking how to ‘isolate’ it. My first response to this question is always - Why in the world would you want to isolate it?

The first thing I try to teach my clients is that the body does not work well in muscle isolation.

Rather, it works better in movements along a kinetic chain; that is, large portions of the body assist other portions of the body in completing a complex movement.

In fact, there really is no such thing as true muscle isolation. There is almost always a nearby muscle group that will assist in some way with whatever movement you are doing. However, this article compares attempting to ‘isolate’ body parts via single-joint exercises to the much more effective strategy of performing multi-joint complex movements.

When you attempt to ‘isolate’ muscles by performing single-joint exercises, you are actually creating a body that is non-functional and will be more prone to injury.

Essentially, you are creating a body that is a compilation of body parts, instead of a powerful, functional unit that works together.

Now if you really want to end up hobbling around in a body bandaged up with joint problems, tendonitis, and excess body fat, then by all means, continue trying to ‘isolate’ body parts. On the other hand, if you would rather have a lean, muscular, injury-free, functional body that works as a complete powerful unit to perform complex movements (in athletics or even everyday tasks), then you need to shift your focus away from muscle isolation. Believe me, focusing on how well your body functions will give you the side effect of a body that looks even better than it would have if you focused on muscle isolation. For example, take a look at the physiques of any NFL running backs, wide receivers, or even world class sprinters. Trust me when I say that these guys pretty much NEVER train for muscle isolation (their strength coaches wouldn’t be crazy enough to let them), yet they are absolutely ripped to shreds! Just look at guys like Maurice Green or Terrell Owens and tell me who wouldn’t want a physique like those guys.

Another benefit to moving away from the ‘muscle isolation’ mindset to a more ‘complex movement’ mindset is that you will find it much easier to lose body fat. The reason is that by focusing more on multi-joint complex movements as opposed to

W

single-joint muscle isolation, you not only burn a lot more calories during each workout, but you also increase your metabolic rate, and stimulate production of more fat burning and muscle building hormones like growth hormone

and testosterone.

Let’s look at an example. The machine leg extension is a single joint exercise that works mainly the quadriceps, can potentially cause knee joint instability in the long run, and doesn’t even burn

that many calories. On the other hand, exercises like squats, lunges, step-ups, and deadlifts are all multi-joint complex movements that work hundreds of muscles in the body (including the quadriceps) as a functional unit,

create more stable and strong joints in the long run (when done properly), and also burn massive quantities of calories compared to the single-joint exercises. (www.truthaboutabs.com)

The body does not work well in muscle isolation.

Rather, it works better in movements along a kinetic chain; that is, large portions of the body assist other portions of the body in completing a complex movement.

pets

page 28

Friday, October 22, 2010

A place like home

Shelters stand guard for abandoned pets S

he was all ribs, except for a bloated stomach filled with babies. In her back yard, she and her two playmates waited. The September days stretched into a week. They were hungry, thirsty and fleabitten. The dogs kept waiting. But their owner wasn’t coming back. A neighbor noticed. For several days, he fed and watered the Rottweilers. Then he called a friend, who had a contact at Operation Kindness, a no-kill animal shelter in Carrollton.

Melody Boulay, the shelter’s public relations manager, drove out to the house in Wise County and found a heartbreaking scene. Three emaciated dogs navigating through a yard full of trash, one of them pregnant. “It was a horrible sight to see her,” says Boulay, recalling the pregnant dog. “You could see in her eyes, she was just tired. She (and the others) had been abandoned in the yard; the house had been foreclosed.”

Adoption The mother-to-be had a tag on her collar. Her name was Gabby. And her story wasn’t over yet. As the economic crisis deepens and foreclosures increase around the country, there are more horror stories about abandoned pets like Gabby - dogs being left in homes, yards, on highways or at least being surrendered to shelters and veterinary clinics. Regardless of the scope, the anecdotal evidence is here. Animal professionals have seen the economic crisis up close, in the eyes of two ailing boxers, of two starving Rottweilers and their pregnant companion, Gabby.

After Gabby was discovered in the Wise County, Texas, yard, Operation Kindness found her a foster family that saw her through the rest of her pregnancy and labor.

Since then, Gabby and her 11 puppies have been adopted. (The other two dogs abandoned in the yard with Gabby christened Mocha and Latte - also were found homes through Operation Kindness.)

“Gabby is spoiled rotten,” says Stephanie Edgington of Grapevine, Texas, who adopted her in early December. “She has her own room. We have a million and one toys, and she has two little boys to play with in the back yard. She’s the most amazing dog I’ve ever owned.” Gabby is an impressive 98 pounds now - a far cry from her days of abandonment, when she didn’t quite weigh 50 pounds. “Nobody should have to endure what she did,” says Boulay of Operation Kindness. “Her spirit is still there. Thank God, nobody broke that.”

Edgington, who has two young sons, remembers first meeting Gabby at Operation Kindness. “She was real scared, real terrified. I’m sorry she had such a horrible life before, but I think we’re making up for it tenfold now.”

Hard times Veterinary clinics are also seeing other signs of hard times. Tami Connell, head technician at Fort Worth’s Southside Veterinary Clinic, says the clinic is getting a higher volume of “estimate” requests.

That’s when people call or check to find out how much their pet’s care will cost whether it’s basic treatment or something more involved, such as X-rays.

“We probably do 20 estimates a week now,” Connell says. “It used to be five or six a week.” At Southside, they’re also seeing a decline in dogs’ getting rabies shots, and fecal and heartworm checks.

“We have to figure out ways we can still treat the animal and still get them well for less money,” she says. But Connell knows all too well that some struggling pet owners have to make painful decisions.

In March, a man came into Southside with two boxers, a male and a female. Both were so overdue on their vaccinations that they had hookworms, and the female had

heartworms. The man couldn’t afford to feed or treat them anymore. “He had just lost his job, and his wife was going to have another baby,” Connell recalled. “He said his focus had to be on his family.” She told the man that she would find them new homes. Connell fostered them herself for about two months until they looked well enough to be adopted. By then, spots had opened up at Legacy Boxer Rescue, and both were eventually adopted.

The male, Jaden, is now being coddled

by Jason Young of Arlington, Texas. “It was months before he would take a treat from me, because he didn’t know what they were,” Young says. “But he would try to get them if they were in the trash. And he still has no idea what toys are.” And the female boxer? Just ask Dana Allen’s 4-yearold daughter, Alyssa. The little girl wraps her arms around the neck of the 50-pound bundle of love that sits on her mom’s lap.

“That’s our Harleigh Jeane,” Alyssa chirps.

The dogs in this story are the happy endings. But that doesn’t mean the problem won’t become more dire. “I think right now, we’re in a ‘brace ourselves, wait and see’ mode, depending on what the economy does,” says Keane Menefee, Animal Care and Control manager for the city of Fort Worth. “Sooner or later, it’s going to reach our area.” But as far as the city’s impound, Menefee says, “we haven’t seen it here like I’ve heard on the East and West coast(s).

People are not coming in and identifying that as a reason.”

No guarantees The primary reasons for pets being taken in by the Humane Society of North Texas are people moving or having financial problems, says operations director Tammy Hawley. But the stats there seem to support Menefee’s assertions. Their January intake numbers were actually lower than those for January 2008. Hawley theorizes that one reason might be more low-cost spay and neuter programs, which cut down on unwanted litters. Still, she can’t be sure. “My fear is that maybe nobody knows we’re here, and there are people out there that are being affected in the same way that you’re hearing about in other areas,” Hawley says. “Maybe they don’t even know that there is some place to take their animals. And I hope that’s not the case.”

If you cannot care for your pet, take it to a shelter, a rescue, the Humane Society, or even to a vet’s office. Many places will try to find a home for the pet. “It is far better to bring the animal to us than it would be to leave it in a yard somewhere,” Hawley says. “We are an open-door shelter, which means we can’t guarantee adoption for everybody, but it also means that we don’t require appointments, we don’t require a set fee. For those who absolutely can’t afford it, we are here.

“When the economy gets bad, you don’t just start giving up your children, and that’s how a lot of people look at their pets,” Hawley says. “And we’re very appreciative of those people. It’s easier to give up a couple of cable channels from your 200cable setup than it is to give up Fluffy.” Just don’t abandon your pet, Hawley says. They might not be as lucky as Gabby. Less than a month after she was taken in by Edgington and her two young sons, Gabby proved that the word “rescue” is a two-way street.

One January evening, an armed intruder tried to break into their home through the dining room window. Gabby heard the noise and started attacking the window, alerting Edgington, who called 911. She can’t say much more about the incident, since the case is still open. But Gabby foiled the burglary and saved the day. “She’s our angel,” Edgington says, her eyes welling up. “She completes our family. It’s weird to say that about a dog, but she did.” —MCT

In this frame grab, Dana Allen (right) gets a kiss from Harleigh Jeane, the female boxer they adopted from a rescue society, as she and her daughter Alyssa pose outside their apartment with the pup. —MCT

Keeping pet costs down If you are a struggling pet owner, the experts offer these tips: Search for low-cost vaccination clinics and low-cost spay and neuter programs Buy food in bulk When buying pet products, such as dog houses, beds and toys, consider looking for them online, through sites like Craig’s List Try to invest in preventive heartworm and flea medication. It is pennies compared with the average cost of heartworm treatment, which can be $750 to $1,100 Price pet insurance. It will probably cost $300 to $400 annually, but it can save you much more if your pet needs surgery or has a life-threatening illness Fostering or adopting Before you adopt or foster a pet, consider these things: The health and happiness of your own pets at

home. Some pets will tolerate friends coming and going, and some pets won’t. Also, make sure they’re vaccinated. In many fostering cases, pets will have illnesses such as upper-respiratory infections or kennel cough. You won’t want to expose them to other pets Your other family members Your lifestyle: If your typical days are busy and fastpaced, it might not be for you. It can be done, but it’s best to think it through Giving up a foster pet: Once they’re in your heart, it’s tough to give them up Your city’s pet limits: If you’re getting into heavyduty fostering, make sure to check with your city code to make sure your animal menagerie isn’t a problem When applying to foster an animal, you can be picky. You can tell the agency you can’t handle a pet with a medical issue, or whether you prefer dogs to cats. —MCT

relationships

Friday, october 22, 2010

page 29

Sam Vega (left) rides the escalator with his sisters Sara Taha (center) and Reema Faraj, on their way to church in Chicago, Illinois. — MCT

How an angry young man turned his life around F

or better and worse, Sam Vega couldn’t stop looking back. Let down by a mother with destructive habits, a father he never knew, and the grandmother who moved him to Chicago, Vega struck out on his own at age 18.

But bitter memories of neglect combined with concern for his four siblings kept him from moving on.

His failure to forgive undercut his will to succeed, as did a fear he was echoing the mistakes of his elders by walking away. “A lot has happened in my life,” he said.

“The point is because we can’t let the past go, it forms our future.”

His life took a turn one Sunday three years ago when he sought guidance in a balcony pew of The Moody Church, a grand and historic sanctuary in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. There, Vega, 23, found a second family and a second chance. With help from parishioners, he has learned letting go of the anger to rebuild his life doesn’t have to mean letting go of family.

This year, in an attempt to reunite his family and put his siblings on the right path, Vega took in his three sisters - two of them teenagers - and his younger brother. To make ends meet, he works two jobs - one at a gourmet grocer, the other at Moody.

Cheerleading contests, honor roll ceremonies and report card pickups are routine on his itinerary.

Now, during the holiday season, when everyone wants family within reach, Vega and his siblings must decide whether letting their mother back into their lives would put their tender union in jeopardy.

For Vega and his four siblings, the situation of growing up outside

Detroit was grim. A relative rescued Vega’s older sister Nina Sanchez from the hospital where she was born after her mother walked away. Sanchez remembers digging through garbage to find food. The five siblings also fought for attention from adults. Sanchez and Vega barely got along. When the children were 20, 18, 16, 14, and 12, their grandmother moved them to Chicago for a change of scenery. But the scene didn’t change much. One by one, they left home.

Ro ck bo tto m Sanchez earned her diploma and enrolled in cosmetology school. Vega earned his GED. He and his brother Fadi Yassini, 22, got jobs. When Vega shattered his ankle at the warehouse where he worked, depression took hold. He picked up a Bible his grandmother had given him years before and opened it to the Gospel of Matthew, which implored him: “Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

“Most people find God in their life when they reach rock bottom,” he said. “Matthew is a very encouraging book to me. My life is a storm.” A radio ad led the 23year-old to walk into Moody and eventually attend the evening service for young adults. His sister Reema Faraj, now 18, joined him just to spend time with her brother. His younger sister Sara Taha, 16, joined them at the start of the new year.

Curiosity led Vega into the church kitchen one night where he found Lori Broadbent preparing refreshments. Broadbent, a single woman in her 40s, has since

become a second mother. “God has put them in my life for this time in their lives,” said Broadbent who takes the girls shopping and bakes with them on occasion. “Because I had such a great mom, I want them to understand what a great mom should look like.” Broadbent said everyone at Moody knows Vega for his extraordinary zeal and dedication to his siblings.

“He has no business having to raise teenagers, but he does an amazing job,” Broadbent said. “I call him an 83-year-old man in a 23-year-old body. He’s got this really old soul and wisdom beyond his years.” Aimee Lilly helps her husband, Scott, run Moody’s Fusion ministry. She said Vega and his siblings are the “kids we would have loved to have if we had children.” “We’re continually amazed at their resilience and what they’ve endured,” she said.

“He’s 23 years old and the patriarch.”

Vit al d iffe renc e That is why earlier this year, an anonymous donor helped send Vega to South America, where he and other missionaries built homes for Brazil’s street children - a project sponsored by an agency called Hope Unlimited. The trip transformed Vega’s perspective on his own circumstances. But it also inspired the Brazilian orphans to know someone in America could relate to their experience.

“I remember being a kid and wanting someone there,” Vega said. “How foolish are we once we see this stuff? These kids have nothing. ... That to me was the sobering effect. It made me so thankful. One of the biggest things

about being a Christian is you have to realize the whole world is suffering. You never know what’s coming out of a certain situation. It was formed for me.” “These kids are taken in and transformed with love and kindness,” he added.

“Sometimes I was that same kid not being loved. God has placed some amazing people in my life.”

Lee and Regina Bloch, Moody missionaries who met Vega in Brazil, said his testimony made a vital difference. “It was important for people in Brazil to see there are needs,” Lee Bloch said.

“Meeting Sam, they were in shock to hear this could happen in America. It was an important cultural connection to experience.”

“God has touched Sam in a unique way,” Bloch added. “He has a large future of encouraging people and showing people the Lord Jesus’ presence in his life has made a difference in his own family. That’s where it begins.”

Vega concedes that letting Moody members into his family’s life has taken a leap of faith on his part. There have been too many crushing disappointments. Just last month he heard from the woman he calls his “real mother” for the first time in 11 years. “I forgave her years ago. But it’s been 11 years. Why did it take her this long?” he said. “That’s 11 birthdays, 11 Christmases, 11 Thanksgivings, 11 Easters. But there are five of us. Do the math.

That’s 55 Christmases.”

S ibling rev elr y For the time being, he doesn’t want to let her shake the stability he has worked hard to maintain.

“I’m not going to open up my

heart to have it happen again,” Vega said. “Right now, I wish the best for her and pray that one day we will see her.” Her sudden emergence already has stirred emotions in the home. An argument caused Vega’s brother to leave before Thanksgiving. He since checked into a program at Pacific Garden Mission to get back on his feet.

“We’re hoping he takes time to realize he’s in the best possible situation,” Sanchez said. “We want him to know (our love) is real. It’s never been real to him.” His sister Reema Faraj supports Vega’s cautionary approach. She said she doesn’t need her mother as long as she has her brother and the support network he has assembled. She admires his efforts to give the girls what he never had and create a better life for himself as well. As Vega scraped together money to fill Christmas wish lists, he also made an executive decision to buy a puppy. “I’ve always wanted a dog named Max,” he said of the hyper Siberian husky that scampers around their Roscoe Village apartment. “It seems like a step toward being normal.”

The siblings also pulled together and bought him a laptop so he could work from home and most importantly fill out his college applications. He and Faraj plan to apply to Northeastern Illinois University this spring.

Faraj devoted her college application essays to her brother.

Both hope to study criminal justice.

“God hasn’t let me down yet,” Vega said. “It may take a while but it happens. If you go through more than others, you have a better story to tell.” — MCT

FOOD

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Friday, October 22, 2010

Everyday cooking

By Sawsan Kazak

W

e are all used to having chic little legume kpeas in hum can be used in many mor mus, but this purred into a e way pa ste. The garb known, pack anzo bean, as s than just sa it is also Whether in a bite and a lot of nutritio n into its littl sa e a creamy flavo lad, side dish or main di sh, the chickp package. r on its own. ea will add What do you think? sawsank@ kuwaittimes .net

C

hickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, belong to the legume family along with lentils and peas. They provide a good source of protein and is available year round as dried or canned. Garbanzo beans comes in different colors including black, green, red and brown beans. Garbanzo beans is an excellent source of molybdenum and manganese. Also they provide a good source of folate, fiber, iron, phosphorus and copper. Chickpeas can be used in salads, stews and curries.

Below you will find some of the nutritional benefits of chickpeas.

Interesting facts about chickpeas:

1 cup garbanzo beans 1/3 cup canned jalapeno pepper slices, juice reserved 3 tablespoons tahini 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon curry powder crushed red pepper to taste

I

n a blender or food processor, mix the garbanzo beans, jalapeno peppers and reserved juice, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice.

Season with cumin, curry powder, and crushed red pepper. Blend until smooth.

1.

Chickpeas was first found in Turkey.

2.

Biggest chickpea producers are India, Pakistan, Turkey and the Mediterranean.

3.

Ground garbanzo beans used to create chick peas flour called gram flour or besan flour. Ground chichpeas is used in falafels and hummus.

4.

Chickpea plant grows to 20 and 50 cm high and has small feathery leaves on either side of the stem.

Nutrition and health benefits of chickpeas: 1.

Protein: Chickpeas is a good source of folic acid, manganese, iron, copper, magnesium and molybendum.

Also they provide fat free and high quality protein.

2.

Lower your risk of heart disease: Regular consumption of chickpeas or garbanzo beans can lower bad cholesterol and total cholesterol levels. Studies also shown that chickpeas can lower the risk of heart disease.

3.

For Women: Garbanzo contain phytochemicals called saponins, which can act as antioxidants. It could lower the risk of breast cancer, and protect against osteoporosis. It also minimizes hot flushes in post menopausal women.

4.

Iron for energy: Chickpeas can boost your energy because of their iron content. If you’re pregnant or lactating, your needs for iron increase. Children and adolescents also have increased needs for iron.

5.

Weight Loss: Due to high fiber content, chickpeas are good for weight loss diets. Salad with chickpeas are tasty and also keep you full longer which helps to contol the appetite. Iron is an integral component of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs to all body cells. —(www.hubpages.com)

FOOD

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 31

1 lemon, quartered 2-3tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2 x 410g cans chickpeas, drained 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 tsp ground cumin 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained 1/2 onion, chopped 1/2 cucumber, sliced 1 small tomato, chopped 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 onions, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons fresh ginger root, finely chopped 6 whole cloves 2 (2 inch) sticks cinnamon, crushed 1 teaspoon ground cumin

I

n a medium bowl combine chickpeas, onion, cucumber, tomato, and balsamic vinegar.

Mix well and serve.

1 teaspoon ground coriander salt 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 2 (15 ounce) cans garbanzo beans 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads 1 quart plus 2 tablespoons water 1 large onion, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons ground cumin One 3-inch cinnamon stick 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper 1/2 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut

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lace the chickpeas in a food processor with the reserved lemon juice, the garlic, cumin, some seasoning and the remaining olive oil. Process for a few seconds so the mash still has some texture. Heat the mash in the microwave on full power for 1-2 minutes. Spoon on to warmed plates.

eat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, and fry onions until tender. Stir in garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, salt, cayenne, and turmeric. Cook for 1 minute over medium heat, stirring constantly. Mix in garbanzo beans and their liquid. Continue to cook and stir until all ingredients are well blended and heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro just before serving, reserving 1 tablespoon for garnish.

n a saucepan, cover the chickpeas with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until tender, 45 minutes.

Drain.

In a bowl, crumble the saffron in the 2 tablespoons of water; steep for 10 minutes.

In a deep skillet, cook the onion and garlic in the butter and oil over moderate heat until golden, 8 minutes. Add the cumin, cinnamon stick and crushed red pepper and

into 1-inch dice 2 medium red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice One 14.5 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped Salt 2 small zucchini, diced 1 tablespoon minced preserved lemon rind Freshly ground black pepper 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves Yogurt and harissa, for serving

cook for 2 minutes. Add the saffron water, chickpeas, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, the quart of water and a large pinch of salt; bring to a boil, then simmer until the squash and potatoes are tender, 30 minutes.

Add the zucchini and the preserved lemon; simmer until the zucchini is tender, 5 minutes. Discard the cinnamon stick. Season the tagine with salt and pepper and stir in the cilantro. Serve in bowls with yogurt and harissa.

THEY ARE THE 99!

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend. One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change - the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : The December solstice: shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. In

www.the99.org

Namibia, Africa, a 99 team races to build a much-needed windmill; and in Churchill,

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2010, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Manitoba, another team attempts to lure a group of polar bears out of town...

TRAVEL

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B

angkok began as a small trading centre and port community on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River some 200 years ago. Today, while the city is up to speed with modern times, the grandeur and glory of its illustrious past still prevails. Be it dazzling temples, spectacular palaces, a world-famous floating market or colourful Chinatown, each of these famous places has an intriguing story to tell. Take a look at our Top Ten Most Popular Attractions in Bangkok.

1 Grand Palace & Wat Prakeaw Old City A dazzling site from afar, the Grand Palace and Wat Prakaew command respect from all who have walked in their sacred grounds. Built in 1782, and for 150 years the home of the Thai King, the Royal court and the administrative seat of government, the Grand Palace continues to have visitors in awe with its beautiful architecture and intricate detail. Wat Pra Kaeo enshrines Phra Kaew Morakot (the Emerald Buddha), the highly revered Buddha image meticulously carved from a single block of emerald, dating from the 15th century AD.

2 Chinatown (Yaowarat) Chinatown Chinatown is a colourful, exotic and pleasingly chaotic area, packed with market stalls and probably the highest concentration of gold shops in the city. The Chinese communities, relocated here from southern China in the 1700s, still continue their own traditions and religious practices. During major festivities like Chinese New Year and the Vegetarian Festival, the dynamism and spirit of celebration spreads across town like wildfire, and if you happen to be around, don’t miss an opportunity to witness Bangkok Chinatown at its best.

3 Floating Market Damnoen Saduak The pioneer of all floating markets, Damnoen Saduak continues to offer an authentic experience despite its increasingly touristy atmosphere. Imagine hundreds of wooden row boats floating by, each laden to the brim with farm-fresh fruits, vegetables or flowers. Food vendors fill their vessels with cauldrons and charcoal grills, ready to whip up a bowl of ‘boat

noodle’ or seafood skewers upon request. Floating markets are like living museums where you can immerse in the local culture and way of life as it once was before the arrival of global consumerism.

4 Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) Riverside The impressive silhouette of Wat Arun’s towering spires has probably become one of the most recognised temple landmarks of Southeast Asia. Constructed during the first half of the 19th century by King Rama II, in the ancient Khmer style, the stupa (or ‘Prang’ in Thai), showcasing ornate floral pattern decked out in glazed porcelain, is even more stunning up close. Apart from its beauty, Wat Arun symbolises the birth of the Rattanakosin Period and the founding of the new capital after Ayutthaya fell.

Contrary to what its name suggests, the temple appears most beautiful at sunset, rather than sunrise.

5 Wat Pho Old City There’s more to Wat Pho than the gigantic reclining Buddha and traditional Thai massage. Once a centre for public education during the reign of King Rama III, Wat Pho (or Wat Chetuphon) harbours a fascinating collection of murals, inscriptions and sculptures that delve into various subjects, from warfare to literature, astronomy to archaeology. Apart from the main pavilion, the vast temple complex contains a landscaped garden with stone sculptures, stupas adorned with glazed porcelain, a souvenir shop and the College of Traditional Medicine.

6 Chao Phraya River & Waterways Riverside Bangkok owes much of its fascinating history to the communities that flourish along the Chao Phraya riverbanks. The areas from Wat Arun to Phra Sumeru Fortress are home to some of the oldest settlements in Bangkok, particularly Bangkok Noi, where you can still revel in the charming ambience of stilt houses and markets flanking the complex waterways. One of the most scenic areas, the riverside reflects a constantly changing scene day and night: water-taxis ferrying commuters and heavily laden rice barges chugging upstream, set against a backdrop of glittering temples, historical landmarks and luxury, five-star

Friday, October 22, 2010

hotels.

7 Jim Thompson’s House Siam The name Jim Thompson is synonymous with Thailand’s silk industry. Thanks to this ex-American serviceman, Thai silk received worldwide acclaim for its lustrous beauty and fine quality. Thompson’s three decades of dedication to the revival of Thai silk, then a dying art, changed the faith of the industry forever. After he mysteriously disappeared into the jungles of Malaysia, he left a legacy behind, which is reflected through his vast collections of Thai art and antiques now on display at the Jim Thompson’s House and Museum, itself a lovely complex of six Thai-style teak houses preserved to their original glory.

8 Vimanmek Mansion Old City Through the well-manicured grounds of Dusit Garden, Vimanmek Mansion emerges like an imaginative castle from a fantasy novel. Once the royal residence of King Rama V, and like its name suggests (Vimanmek means castle in the clouds), Vimanmek Mansion is an architectural marvel - the entire structure is fashioned entirely from gold teakwood without using a single nail. The interiors resemble a living museum, where you can walk through (under strict guidance) some of the rooms and marvel at a treasure trove of rare arts and furniture pieces from early Rattanakosin Period - all belonging to the late king.

9 Siam Ocean World Siam The deep ocean is underneath your feet. That is, if you are somewhere inside Siam Paragon. Occupying a colossal basement area of the glitzy downtown mall, Siam Ocean World brings a slice of the natural aquatic wonderland within your reach. This underground aquarium houses more than 30,000 species in its seven exhibition zones, where you can walk amongst the ocean’s fiercest predators, feed the marine creatures, and even dive with the sharks and rays. Not in for the thrill? Simply enjoy a stroll beneath the underwater tunnel - Thailand’s longest - or hop aboard a glass-bottom boat and sneak a peek at the unfolding scene below.

—www.bangkok.com

Friday, October 22, 2010

I

f you’re an infrequent visitor to London and plan to hit the tourist trail then the last thing you’ll want is to be pointed in the direction of the underwhelming, the uninspiring or the instantly forgettable. There’s enough of that where you live, which is why you’re visiting London!

Our guide features London’s best galleries, museums, landmarks, historical sites, shopping areas and entertainment zones, all guaranteed to provide the ultimate London tourist experience. The attractions we’ve highlighted are unashamedly well known, but do you really want to be returning home to tell your friends about the fantastic thimble shop in Pimlico you visited- Or would you rather rave about the phenomenal view of one of the world’s great cities from the top of The Eye, or that you’ve actually seen the beauty of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers with your own eyesLondon has a multitude of varied and exciting attractions but these are the ones without which, your trip just wouldn’t be the same!

Oxford Street Britain’s busiest high street and London’s best known shopping area is chock-a-block full of the largest branches of the nation’s most popular shops,over 300 in fact. Many of the biggest high street names have their flagship stores here and the street also boasts the oldest record shop in the world (HMV at number 363). It’s not all hardcore shopping though - light entertainment is often provided in the form of chanting Hari Krishnas skipping along the pavement. If you can’t find what you want to buy in Oxford Street, you haven’t got much of a hope elsewhere.

Camden Market If you’re after a more bohemian approach to shopping than the Oxford Street experience, then get yourself up to Camden. One of London’s coolest areas has a seemingly endless array of shops and stalls selling such items as clothing (new, second hand and retro),

TRAVEL

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London has a multitude of varied and exciting attractions but these are the ones without which, your trip just wouldn’t be the same customised Doc Martins and trainers, jewellery, bootleg CDs and DVDs and craft ware. Open daily; it’s a multi cultural experience with some great little food outlets dotted all over.

Nearest Tube: Camden Town Tower of London Built by Billy The Conqueror nearly a thousand years ago, this is one of the best preserved and most famous historic landmarks in the world. Full of the history of executions and imprisonments and offering the spectacle of the Beefeaters, the ravens and the crown jewels as well as the majesty of the building itself, this remains THE essential place of historic interest to visit when in London.

St Paul’s Cathedral Britain’s best known place of worship and certainly one of its most recognisable buildings, having so often been the centrepiece of state occasions.

The cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built 300 years ago following the destruction of the previous building by the Great Fire Of London. An awe inspiring feat of architecture, steeped in history and featuring works of art, monuments, mosaics and the Whispering Gallery, the Cathedral is also still a busy working church. So booking your wedding here during the summer months might just be a bit tricky.

National Gallery The National Gallery is home to one of the greatest collections of European

art in the world. Featuring works painted between 1250 and 1900, the collection includes such well known pieces as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Botticelli’s Venus And Mars and Constable’s Hay Wain. Sadly, the work of the great Rolf Harris is too recent and too Australian to be included. see the Tate Modern.

British Museum Founded over 250 years ago, it could be said that the British Museum is one of London’s oldest and most prized exhibits, the museum building itself is one of Britain’s greatest architectural landmarks. Housed inside is a collection of art and antiquities from ancient and living cultures the world over spanning two million years featuring the Rosetta Stone, the Easter Island statue and the earliest known image of Christ.

London Eye Undoubtedly the quickest way to take in all of London’s major attractions is by jumping on the Eye. There’s not much of the city that can’t be seen from the top of what has become one of the London skyline’s most dominating features. To further enhance your flight on this modern day feat of engineering, you can even order champagne to be served in your capsule (not recommended for the easily nauseas).

Tate Modern If random blobs of paint on canvas and piles of rusty old engine parts is your idea of art, then get yourself down to the Tate Modern. Created in a

disused power station on the banks of the Thames, the gallery has become one of London’s most fascinating attractions since opening in 2000. The collection features works by Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Pollock and Warhol and represents all the major movements since 1900. Sadly, the work of the great Rolf Harris is too art like to be included see the National Gallery.

Covent Garden Formerly a fruit and vegetable market, “The Garden” is now a constant and varied hive of activity. It has a hugely diverse selection of shops, eateries, bars, a market selling art, crafts, antiques and souvenirs, historic buildings, theatres, the Royal Opera House and fantastic free entertainment provided by street entertainers and musicians. If you can’t find something to capture your interest at Covent Garden then you must be harder to please than Simon Cowell on a bad day.

Trafalgar Square Undoubtedly one of the most famous sights of London without visiting which, a trip to the capital would be incomplete. Not only are tourists drawn to see Nelsons Column, the fountains, the lions, the annual gift of a huge Christmas tree from Norway and the pigeons (dirty little so and sos), but it is where the masses flock to in times of national celebration or when there is cause to demonstrate. Trafalgar Square truly is the meeting place of the nation.

Nearest Tube: Charing Cross.

— (www.thescene.com)

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BOOKS

Friday, October 22, 2010

Ten books on time travel you mustn’t miss

T

ime travel is a theme that is always fascinating. Weaving a good story and employing the theme of time travel convincingly, however, is a rather difficult task. It has been attempted by several authors, but only a few have made it to the top and managed to get cult attention. The following titles offer an array of novels, some classics and some recent, which employ the theme of time-travel.

If you have suggestions or comments, don’t hesitate to write an email to hussain@kuwaittimes.net

By H G Wells

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ublished in 1895, The Time Machine was the first novel to suggest the theme of time travel by machine, and along with other books by Wells, it was a forerunner of the contemporary science fiction genre, then known as scientific romances.

Wells wrote mainly speculative fiction concerned with the contemporary problems of human society and its possible futures.

While his works express a hope in human technology and progress, this is tempered by a realization of the possible extinction of humanity through the very same technology and the predilections of human nature.

There is a strong ethical component to his work and this relates to the ambivalence that he often expressed about the potentialities of human nature. One of the central issues that concerned him was the disparity between the elite and the masses. The Time Machine explores these concerns in a setting 800,000 years into the future.

By Michael Crichton

T

he novel opens on the threshold of the 21st century.

It is a world of exploding advances on the frontiers of technology. Information moves instantly between two points, without wires or networks.

Computers are built from single molecules. Any moment of the past can be actualized-and a group of historians can enter, literally, life in 14th century feudal France.

Imagine the risks of such a journey.

Not since Jurassic Park has Michael Crichton given us such a magnificent adventure. Here, he combines a science of the future — the emerging field of quantum technology — with the complex realities of the medieval past. In a heart-stopping narrative, Timeline carries us into a realm of unexpected suspense and danger, overturning our most basic ideas of what is possible.

By Virginia Woolf

By Audrey Niffenegger

A

dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger’s cinematic storytelling that makes the novel’s unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler’s Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

V

irginia Woolf is one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century and Orlando is one of her most unique and fantastic works. The protagonist, Orlando, begins the novel as a young sixteenth century aristocrat and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. She gives him an estate and orders him never to grow old. We then follow Orlando through the centuries, as he crisscrosses the world, falls in love, and becomes a woman. Profound and comic, Orlando is Woolf’s deepest investigation of gender roles.

BOOKS

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 37

By Diana Gabaldon

By Dean Koontz

A

storm struck on the night Laura Shane was born, and there was a strangeness about the weather that people would remember for years. But even more mysterious was the blondhaired stranger who appeared out of nowhere the man who saved Laura from a fatal delivery. Years later another bolt of lightning and the stranger returned, again to save Laura from tragedy. Was he the guardian angel he seemed? The devil in disguise? Or the master of a haunting destiny beyond time and space?

By Kurt Vonnegut

U

nstuck in time, Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut’s shattered survivor of the Dresden bombing, relives his life over and over again under the gaze of aliens; he comes at last to some understanding of the human comedy. The basis of George Roy’s great 1972 film and perhaps the signature student’s novel in the 1960’s embracing protest and the absurdity of war.

C

laire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles.

Suddenly she is a Sassenach an “outlander” in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire’s destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

By Daphne du Maurier

I

By Jack Finney

F

irst published in 1970, this highly original cult classic tells the story of Simon Morley, a young Manhattan illustrator who is selected by a secret government agency—presumably to test Einstein’s theory that the past actually coexists with the present—and finds himself suddenly transported back to the New York of the 1880s. Written with style and elegance, this bold, visionary novel provides “Mind-boggling, imagination-stretching, exciting, romantic entertainment

n this haunting tale, Daphne du Maurier takes a fresh approach to time travel. A secret experimental concoction, once imbibed, allows you to return to the fourteenth century. There is only one catch: if you happen to touch anyone while traveling in the past you will be thrust instantaneously to the present.

Magnus Lane, a University of London chemical researcher, asks his friend Richard Young and Young’s family to stay at Kilmarth, an ancient house set in the wilds near the Cornish coast. Here, Richard drinks a potion created by Magnus and finds himself at the same spot where he was moments earlier—though it is now the fourteenth century. The effects of the drink wear off after several hours, but it is wildly addictive, and Richard cannot resist traveling back and forth in time. Gradually growing more involved in the lives of the early Cornish manor lords and their ladies, he finds the presence of his wife and stepsons a hindrance to his new-found experience. Richard eventually finds emotional refuge with a beautiful woman of the past trapped in a loveless marriage, but when he attempts to intervene on her behalf the results are brutally terrifying for the present.

Echoing the great fantastic stories of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, The House on the Strand is a masterful yarn of history, romance, horror, and suspense that will grip the reader until the last surprising twist.

By Connie Willis

F

or Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin - barely of age herself - finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.

Five years in the writing by one of science fiction’s most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.

EDUCATION

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ALPHA-CROSS The first letter of each answer appears next to its clue in alphabetical order. All the first letters have been entered into the grid. Can you complete the puzzle?

A. Fruit of the oak tree (5) B. Something to read (4) B. Insect (3) C. Taxi (3) C. Desert animal (5) D. Sand hills (5) E. The night before (3) G. Type of antelope (7) G. Precious stones (4) I. Ice hut (5) I. Writing fluid (3) J. Type of music (4) J. Fruit drink (5) K. Tap on a door (5) L. Jump (4) S. Unhappy (3) S. Brief periods of rain (7) S. Snow runner (3)

Connet the dots

SEARCH Can you find the hidden words? Each word begins with the letter J. The words may be horizontal or vertical.

JACKAL, JACKET, JANUARY, JAZZ, JELLY, JESTER, JETTY, JEWEL, JOIN, JOKE, JUDGE, JUDO, JUGGLE, JUICE, JULY JUMP, JUNE, JUNGLE, JUNIOR, JURY.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Tortoise and the Hare

T

he hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. “I have never yet been beaten,” said he, “when I put forth my full speed. I challenge anyone here to race with me.”

The tortoise said quietly, “I accept your challenge.”

“That is a good joke,” said the hare. “I could dance around you all the way.”

“Keep your boasting until you’ve beaten,” answered the tortoise. “Shall we race?”

So a course was fixed and a start was made. The hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his contempt for the tortoise, lay down to have a nap.

The tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the hare awoke from his nap, he saw the tortoise nearing the finish line, and he could not catch up in time to save the race.

Plodding wins the race. http://ivyjoy.com/fables/tortoise.html

CHILDREN

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OPINION

Friday, October 22, 2010

NATO’s lack of a strategic concept

By Marko Papic

T

wenty-eight heads of state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will meet in Lisbon on Nov 20 to approve a new “Strategic Concept”, the alliance’s mission statement for the next decade. This will be NATO’s third Strategic Concept since the Cold War ended. The last two came in 1991 - as the Soviet Union was collapsing - and 1999 - as NATO intervened in Yugoslavia, undertaking its first serious military engagement.

During the Cold War, the presence of 50 Soviet and Warsaw Pact armored divisions and nearly 2 million troops west of the Urals spoke far louder than mission statements. While Strategic Concepts were put out in 1949, 1952, 1957 and 1968, they merely served to reinforce NATO’s mission, namely, to keep the Soviets at bay. Today, the debate surrounding NATO’s Strategic Concept itself highlights the alliance’s existential crisis.

The Evolution of NATO’s Threat Environment The Cold War was a dangerous but simple era. The gravity of the Soviet threat and the devastation of continental Europe after World War II left the European NATO allies beholden to the United States for defense. Any hope of deterring an ambitious USSR resided in Washington and its nuclear arsenal. This was not a matter of affinity or selection on the basis of cultural values and shared histories. For Western Europeans, there was little choice as they faced a potential Soviet invasion. That lack of choice engendered a strong bond between the alliance’s European and North American allies and a coherent mission statement.

NATO provided added benefits of security with little financial commitment, allowing Europeans to concentrate on improving domestic living standards, giving Europe time and resources to craft the European Union and expansive welfare states. For the Americans, this was a small price to pay to contain the Soviets. A Soviet-dominated Europe would have combined

E u r o p e ’ s technology and industrial capacity with Soviet natural resources, manpower and ideology, creating a continent-sized competitor able to threaten North America.

The threat of a Soviet invasion of Europe was the only mission statement NATO needed. The alliance had few conventional counters to this threat. While the anti-tank technology that began to come online toward the end of the Cold War began to shift the military balance between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, much of it remained unproven until Operation Desert Storm in 1991, well after the Soviet threat had passed. This technological and qualitative innovation came at an immense expense and was the direct result of the alliance’s quantitative disadvantage.

The Warsaw Pact held a 2-to-1 advantage in terms of main battle tanks in 1988. There was a reason the Warsaw Pact called its battle plan against NATO the Seven Days to the Rhine, a fairly realistic description of the outcome of the planned attack (assuming the Soviets could fuel the armored onslaught, which was becoming a more serious question by the 1980s). In fact, the Soviets were confident enough throughout the Cold War to

maintain a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons in the belief that their conventional advantage in armor would yield quick results.

NATO simply did not have that luxury.

It should be noted that Western Europe and the United States disagreed on interests and strategies during the Cold War as well.

At many junctures, the Western Europeans sought to distance themselves from the United States, including after the Vietnam War, which the United States fought largely to illustrate its commitment to them.

In this context, the 1969 policy of Ostpolitik by then-West German Chancellor Willy Brandt toward the Soviets might not appear very different from the contemporary Berlin-Moscow relationship - but during the Cold War, the Soviet tank divisions arrayed on the border of West and East Germany was a constant reality check that ultimately determined NATO member priorities. Contradictory interests and momentary

disagreements within the alliance thus remained ancillary to the armored formations conducting exercises simulating a massive push toward the Rhine.

The Cold War threat environment was therefore clear and severe, creating conditions that made NATO not only necessary and viable but also strong in the face of potential disagreements among its members. This environment, however, did not last.

Ultimately, NATO held back the Soviet threat, but in its success, the alliance sowed the seeds for its present lack of focus. The Warsaw Pact threat disappeared when the pact folded in mid-1991 and the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991. Moscow unilaterally withdrew its sphere of influence from the Elbe River at the old West-East German border to behind the Dnieper River some 1,000 km farther east.

Throughout the 1990s, the danger from Russia lay in nuclear proliferation resulting from its collapse, prompting the United States and its NATO allies to begin to prop up the chaotic government of Boris Yeltsin. Meanwhile, the momentary preponderance of American power allowed the West to dabble in expeditionary adventures of questionable strategic value - albeit in the former border regions between NATO and the West - and the alliance searched for a mission statement in humanitarian

interventions in the Balkans.

Disparate Threats and Interests With each passing year of the post-Cold War era, the threat environment changed. With no clear threat in the east, NATO enlargement into Central Europe became a goal in and of itself.

And with each new NATO member state came a new national interest in defining that threat environment, and the unifying nature of a consensus threat environment further weakened.

Three major developments changed how different alliance members formulate their threat perception.

First, 9/11 brought home the reality of the threat represented by militant Islamists. The attack was the first instance in its history that NATO invoked Article 5, which provides for collective self-defense. This paved the way for NATO involvement in Afghanistan, well outside NATO’s traditional theater of operations in Europe. Subsequent jihadist attacks in Spain and the United Kingdom reaffirmed the global nature of the threat, but global terrorism is not 50 armored divisions. The lukewarm interest of many NATO allies regarding the Afghan mission in particular and profound differences over the appropriate means to address the threat of transnational terrorism in general attest to the insufficiency of militant Islam as a unifying threat for the alliance.

For most European nations, the threat of jihadism is not one to be countered in the Middle East and South Asia with expeditionary warfare, but rather at home using domestic law enforcement amid their own restive Muslim populations - or at the very most, handled abroad with clandestine operations conducted by intelligence services. Europeans would therefore like to shift the focus of the struggle to policing and intelligence gathering, not to mention cost cutting in the current environment of fiscal austerity across the Continent.

Washington, however, still has both a motivation to bring the senior leadership of al Qaeda to justice and a strategic interest in leaving Afghanistan with a government capable of preventing the country from devolving into a terrorist safe haven. As Stratfor has argued, both interests are real but are overcommitting the United States to combating the tactic of terrorism and the threat of transnational jihad at the cost of emerging (and re-emerging) threats elsewhere. To use poker parlance, Washington has committed itself to the pot with a major bet and is hesitant to withdraw despite its poor hand. With so many of its chips - eg, resources and political capital - already invested, the United States is hesitant to fold. Europeans, however, have essentially already folded.

Second, NATO’s enlargement to the Baltic states combined with the pro-Western Georgian and Ukrainian color revolutions all occurring in a one-year period between the end of 2003 and end of 2004 - jarred Moscow into a resurgence that has altered the threat environment for Central Europe. Russia saw the NATO expansion to the Baltic states as revealing the alliance’s designs on Ukraine and Georgia, and it found this unacceptable.

Considering Ukraine’s geographic importance to Russia - it is the underbelly of Russia, affording Moscow’s enemies an excellent position from which to cut off Moscow’s access to the Caucasus - it represents a red line for any Russian entity. The Kremlin has countered the threat of losing Ukraine from its sphere of influence by resurging into the old Soviet sphere, locking down Central Asia, Belarus, the Caucasus and Ukraine via open warfare (in the case of Georgia), political machinations (in the case of Ukraine and soon Moldova) and color revolutions modeled on the West’s efforts (in the case of Kyrgyzstan).

For Western Europe and especially Germany, sensitive to its dependencies on, and looking to profit from its energy and

OPINION

Friday, October 22, 2010 economic exchange with, Russia, Moscow’s resurgence is a secondary issue. Core European powers do not want a second Cold War confrontation with Russia. While it is of more importance for the United States, current operations have left US ground combat forces overcommitted and without a strategic reserve. It is a threat Washington is reawakening to, but that remains a lower priority than ongoing efforts in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

When the United States does fully reawaken to the Russian resurgence, it will find that only a portion of NATO shares a similar view of Russia. That portion is in the Central European countries that form NATO’s new borderlands with Russia, for whom a resurgent Moscow is the supreme national threat. By contrast, France and Germany - Europe’s heavyweights - do not want another Cold War splitting the Continent.

Third, Europe’s severe economic crisis has made Germany’s emergence as the political leader of Europe plain to all. This development was the logical result of the Cold War’s end and of German reunification, though it took 20 years for Berlin to digest East Germany and be presented with the opportunity to exert its power. That opportunity presented itself in the first half of 2010.

Europe’s fate in May 2010 amid the Greek sovereign debt crisis hinged not on what the EU bureaucracy would do, or even on what the leaders of most powerful EU countries would collectively agree on, but rather what direction came from Berlin. This has now sunk in for the rest of Europe.

Berlin wants to use the current crisis to reshape the European Union in its own image. Meanwhile, Paris wants to manage Berlin’s rise and preserve a key role for France in the leadership of the European Union. Western Europe therefore wants to have the luxury it had during the Cold War of being able to put its house in order and wants no part of global expeditionary warfare against militant Islamists or of countering Russian resurgence.

Central Europeans are nervously watching as Paris and Berlin draw closer to Moscow while committed Atlanticists - Western European countries traditionally suspicious of a powerful Germany - such as Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom want to reaffirm their trans-Atlantic security links with the United States in light of a new, more assertive, Germany. The core of Western European NATO members is thus at war with itself over policy and does not perceive a resurgent Russia as a threat to be managed with military force.

The Beginning of the End Amid this changed threat environment and expanded membership, NATO looks to draft a new mission statement. To do so, a “Group of Experts” led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has drafted a number of recommendations for how the alliance will tackle the next 10 years before they are formulated into a draft Strategic Concept that the secretarygeneral will present to heads of state at the aforementioned November Lisbon summit.

Though some recommendations do target issues that plague the alliance, they fail to address the unaddressable, namely, the lack of a unified perception of threats and how those threats should be prioritized and responded to. Ultimately, the credibility and deterrent value of an alliance is rooted in potential adversaries’ perception of the alliance’s resolve. During the Cold War, that resolve, while never unquestioned - the Europeans were always skeptical of US willingness to risk New York and Washington in a standoff with Russia over European turf - was strong and repeatedly demonstrated. The United States launched proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam largely to demonstrate

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy (center), German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are seen at the Hotel Royal in the seaside Channel resort of Deauville before a tripartite summit, two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War and a month before the NATO allies meet to agree their new security vision. – AP unequivocally to European governments - and the Kremlin - that the United States was willing to bleed in far corners of the planet for its allies.

US troops stationed in West Germany, some of whom were in immediate danger of being cut off in West Berlin, served to demonstrate US resolve against Soviet armor poised on the North European Plain and just to the east of the Fulda Gap in Hesse.

Recent years have not seen a reaffirmation of such resolve, but rather the opposite when the United States - and NATO - failed to respond to the Russian military intervention in Georgia, a committed NATO aspirant though not a member. This was due not only to a lack of US forces but also to Germany’s and France’s refusal to risk their relationships with Russia over Georgia.

Thus, at the heart of NATO today lies a lack of resolve bred in the divergent interests and threat perceptions of its constituent states. The disparate threat environment is grafted on to a membership pool that can be broadly split into three categories: the United States, Canada and committed European Atlanticists (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark); Core European powers (led by Germany and France, with southern Mediterranean countries dependant on Berlin’s economic support in tow); and new Central European member states, the so-called Intermarum countries that stretch from the Baltic to the Black seas that are traditionally wary of Russian power and of relying on an alliance with Western Europe to counter such power.

With no one clear threat to the alliance and with so many divergent interests among its membership, the Group of Experts recommendations were largely incompatible. A look at the recommendations is enough to infer which group of countries wants what interests preserved and therefore reveal the built-in incompatibility of alliance interests going forward from 2010.

•

Atlanticists: Led by the United States, Atlanticists want the alliance oriented toward non-European theaters of operation (eg, Afghanistan) and non-traditional security threats (think cybersecurity, terrorism, etc); an increase of commitments from Core Europeans in terms of defense spending; and a reformed decision-making system that eliminates a singlemember veto in some situations while allowing the NATO secretary-general to have predetermined powers to act without authorization in others. The latter is in the interests of the United States, because it is Washington that will always have the most sway over the secretary-general, who traditionally hails from an Atlanticist country.

•

Core Europe: Led by Germany and France, Core Europe wants more controls and parameters predetermined for nonEuropean deployments (so that it can limit such deployments); a leaner and more efficient alliance (in other words, the freedom to cut defense spending when few are actually spending at the two percent gross domestic product mandated by the alliance); and more cooperation and balance with Russia and more consultations with international organizations like the United Nations (to limit the ability of the United States to go it alone without multilateral

approval). Core Europe also wants military exercises to be “nonthreatening,” in direct opposition to Intermarum demands that the alliance reaffirm its defense commitments through clear demonstrations of resolve.

Intermarum: The Central Europeans ultimately want NATO to reaffirm Article 5 both rhetorically and via military exercises (if not the stationing of troops); commitment to the European theater and conventional threats specifically (in opposition to the Atlanticists’ non-European focus); and mention of Russia in the new Strategic Concept as a power whose motives cannot be trusted (in opposition of Core European proRussian attitudes). Some Central Europeans also want a continued open-door membership policy (think Ukraine and Georgia) so that the NATO border with Russia is expanded farther east, which neither the United States nor Core Europe (nor even some fellow Intermarum states) have the appetite for at present.

The problem with NATO today, and for NATO in the next decade, is that different member states view different threats through different prisms of national interest. Russian tanks concern only roughly a third of member states - the Intermarum states - while the rest of the alliance is split between Atlanticists looking to strengthen the alliance for new threats and nonEuropean theaters of operations and the so-called “Old Europe” that looks to commit as few soldiers and resources as possible toward either set of goals in the next 10 years.

It is unclear how the new Strategic Concept will encapsulate anything but the strategic divergence in NATO member interests.

NATO is not going away, but it lacks the unified and overwhelming threat that has historically made enduring alliances among nationstates possible - much less lasting. Without that looming threat, other matters - other differences - begin to fracture the alliance.

NATO continues to exist today not because of its unity of purpose but because of the lack of a jarringly divisive issue that could drive it apart. Thus, the oft-repeated question of “relevance” - namely, how does NATO reshape itself to be relevant in the 21st century - must be turned on its head by asking what it is that unifies NATO in the 21st century.

During the Cold War, NATO was a military alliance with a clear adversary and purpose. Today, it is becoming a group of friendly countries with interoperability standards that will facilitate the creation of “coalitions of the willing” on an ad-hoc basis and of a discussion forum. This will give its member states a convenient structure from which to launch multilateral policing actions, such as combating piracy in Somalia or providing law enforcement in places like Kosovo.

Given the inherently divergent core interests of its member states, the question is what underlying threat will unify NATO in the decade ahead to galvanize the alliance into making the sort of investments and reforms that the Strategic Concept stipulates.

The answer to that question is far from clear. In fact, it is clouded by its member states’ incompatible perceptions of global threats, which makes us wonder whether the November Summit in Lisbon is in fact the beginning of the end for NATO. — Stratfor •

SPOTLIGHT

Page 42

Q&A When were you happiest?

This morning, when I had both my sons in bed with me.

What is your greatest fear?

My sons growing up not being able to go in the ocean. We spend a lot of time in Florida and the oceans down there right now are a mess.

What is your earliest memory?

In my crib hearing my mom and my aunt in the kitchen laughing.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?

My mother, because now I have two sons and I have help around me - including my family - I can’t imagine having four little ones under the age of nine, as she did.

with

Friday, October 22, 2010

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow, 48, grew up in Missouri. She worked as a music teacher and was a backing singer for Michael Jackson. In 1993, she released her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, which won three Grammys. Since then, she has sold more than 35 million records worldwide. Her latest album is 100 Miles From Memphis. Next month she releases her new single, Sign Your Name, and performs in the UK. She lives near Nashville with her two adopted sons.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

My inability to cook.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Cynicism.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

Forgetting my lyrics on national TV. What is your most treasured possession?

Photographs of my parents when they were young.

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Sarah Jessica Parker.

What is your most unappealing habit?

I bite my cuticles.

What is your favorite smell?

Tuberose.

What is your favorite word?

“Joy.” What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?

The pregnant nun.

What is the worst thing anyone’s ever said to you?

That I am a terrible singer.

Cat or dog?

Dog - I have three.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Grey’s Anatomy, and Lay’s potato chips.

What do you owe your parents?

My sense of compassion.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My sons, Wyatt and Levi.

Which living person do you most despise?

Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.

What is the worst job you’ve ever done?

Waiting tables was the hardest work.

If you could go back in time,

where would you go?

The 60s. Some of my favorite music came out of that period.

When did you last cry, and why?

Two weeks ago. A good friend told me her husband’s cancer

came back.

How do you relax?

I am a big mediator.

What is the closest you’ve ever come to death?

My cancer was caught at such

an early stage, I never felt I was going to die, but it certainly gave me a new perspective on my life.

What keeps you awake at night?

What we’re doing to the planet.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

That at 48 I feel as peaceful and serene as I ever have in my life.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Not to sweat the small stuff.

—Guardian

ARTS

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 43

It’s a room in a Canadian police college that was used to role-play domestic situations. They used paintball guns

T

his is one of the craziest, most overthe-top pictures I ever made. It’s a classroom in a police college in Canada, but it looks like an installation in a contemporary art gallery. I think it was used for roleplaying in domestic situations, using paintball guns. You could put a cordon round it and tell everyone: “Stand back.”

Nothing has been rearranged, not even the way the mannequins are posed.

It’s not that I’m religious about not visually cleaning a space up - but with this place, I felt that if I moved something, it would fall apart.

Look at the tape holding the woman’s legs together on the right. I wasn’t going to mess with her. I even thought the balloons might burst if I touched them.

I love it when you can see how a place has been put together. Everything here looks the wrong size: either too big or too little. The linoleum floor is just amazing, too, especially the reflection of the pink balloon.

I love how formal and arranged the mess looks: the mannequin with green trousers, the stain on the floor that goes up the wall, the way the spots on the curtain seem to have a symbiotic relationship with the paintball splatter on the mannequin’s jacket. It’s like the spots have escaped and attacked it.

There’s a funny connection between all the elements in the room, and that’s something you can only catch with a largeformat camera. That’s why I use an 8x10 - for the details, not nostalgia.

I always wanted to make art that was connected to the world: socially, politically, aesthetically. I like a photograph to be deadpan, so that my presence is alluded to as little as possible; my pictures should feel like they’ve just mysteriously appeared. That’s why I took this from the most neutral angle I could find. A lot of artists look for drama, but there’s enough drama in the world.

CV Born: Wisconsin, US, 1944.

Moved to Canada in 1973.

Studied: “My formative year was at the Slade in London, 1964-65. The best people were thrown out.”

Inspiration: “Chekhov. I’m fascinated by the ‘everyday’.”

High point: “Doing my three books.”

Top tip: “Follow your passion. It’s so easy for the art world to discourage you.”

—Guardian

Breathing the Air Between Two Storms by Hernan Bas. —Guardian

H

ernan Bas’s paintings are as intense as a first kiss. He pains elfin boys in landscapes bright with pleasure, employing ornate tangles of expressive brushwork. Whether kitted out in Converse trainers or raffish historical garb - if they’re dressed at all these youths have a disquieting mix of nonchalance and awkwardness, as given to wistful musing as mischief.

Realised in the style of children’s book illustrations, they seem lost somewhere between the Hardy Boys stories and the threshold of sexuality.

Dandyish decadence, poetry, fashion and horror film references mingle in Bas’s wild woods, looming lonely houses and Arcadian idylls. There are fields of Technicolor flowers, dense thickets and dark pools. But Bas isn’t simply in thrall to the earnestness of teenage life. From a painting of a youth gliding in a giant shell pulled by swans to

Literature-loving painter who references fashion and film in his frenziedly colorful depictions of boys nearing sexual maturity another depicting a boy in overdone 18th-century attire, there is as much humor here as pathos.

Born in Miami in 1978, Bas is often compared to American painters like Elizabeth Peyton and Karen Kilimnik. Yet while this older generation has depicted pop culture’s beautiful people, Bas’s first love is literature.

Describing his works as partly an attempt to distil the feeling generated by a book into one image, each series of paintings is inspired by a different set of authors including Rimbaud, Huysmans, Wilde, Dickinson and Melville. Although his first solo show featured book illustration-size works, the past decade has seen Bas’s canvases become larger and more complex, taking inspiration from artists as diverse as Van Gogh and

Charles Burchfield. The Great Barrier Wreath (2006) measures over 3.5m and depicts an intricate, hermetic world recalling Hieronymus Bosch or Henry Darger, where boys ride flamingos or cavort in harlequin catsuits.

Increasingly Bas has proved himself a master of

ambiguity, from the timelessness of his historical and present-day references to the strange dramas his boys seem caught up in. It’s never clear if they’re turning towards or away from each other, and the artist never lets us see what’s lurking in the shadows. Everything

is held in a state of suspense.

Why we like him: Saint Sebastian (Arrows for Martyrs) from 2007 whips the homoerotic undertow to this religious icon - a study for the male nude from the medieval period onwards into something approaching frenzy. Pinned against a tree, Bas’s martyr shields his face against what seem to be a thousand arrows, raining down from a maelstrom of purple and black clouds.

Close encounters: Bas’s interest in the supernatural goes back to his earliest days, spent in a forest in upstate Florida where UFO sightings, he says, were a part of daily life.

Where can I see him?

His solo exhibition, The Hallucinations of Poets, is at Victoria Miro gallery until 13 November 2010.

—Guardian

Page 44

C R O S S W O R D

1 1 7

Friday, October 22, 2010

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

ACROSS 1. East Indian tree bearing a profusion of intense vermilion velvet-textured blooms and yielding a yellow dye.

4. Situated at an apex.

10. Angular distance above the horizon (especially of a celestial object).

13. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

14. A state in the western United States.

15. Any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species.

16. A light touch or stroke.

17. Covered with or as if with clothes or a wrap or cloak.

18. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

19. Of or relating to abasia (inability to walk).

21. A member of the Wakashan people living on Vancouver Island and in the Cape Flattery region of northwestern Washington.

23. United States writer of poems and plays about racial conflict (born in 1934).

26. A rare silvery (usually trivalent) metallic element.

27. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

29. The syllable naming the fourth (subdominant) note of the diatonic scale in solmization.

30. A Russian river.

31. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

35. (trademark) A liquid that temporarily disables a person.

39. Goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld.

40. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

41. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

42. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

44. A graphical recording of the cardiac cycle produced by an electrocardiograph.

45. A bag used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women).

48. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

50. A basketball shot made with one hand from a position under or beside the basket (and usually banked off the backboard).

52. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 100 liters.

53. Celebes megapode that lays eggs in holes in sandy beaches.

56. Feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious.

61. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

62. (Norse mythology) God of light and peace and noted for his beauty and sweet nature.

65. Containing an unusual amount of grease or oil.

66. Psychoactive substance present in marijuana.

67. A port city in southwestern Iran.

69. A statement that deviates from or perverts the truth.

70. Grass mowed and cured for use as fodder.

71. A member of an agricultural people of southern India.

72. A slight amount or degree of difference.

DOWN 1. An informal term for a father.

2. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

3. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

4. Small genus of evergreen trees of tropical America and western Africa.

5. Type genus of the Percidae.

6. Any of various coarse shrubby plants of the genus Iva with small greenish flowers.

7. A tight-fitting headdress.

8. Chief port of Yemen.

9. A lake in northwestern Russia north of St. Petersburg.

10. Assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing.

11. An accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape.

12. A three-tone Chadic language.

20. Free from risk or danger.

22. Profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger.

24. A member of an aboriginal people living in the hills in southeastern India.

25. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

28. Offering fun and gaiety.

32. Paying particular notice (as to children or helpless people).

33. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

34. East Indian cereal grass whose seed yield a somewhat bitter flour, a staple in the Orient.

36. Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc..

37. A carriage consisting of two wheels and calash top.

38. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

43. A Loloish language.

46. A chronic skin disease occurring primarily in women between the ages of 20 and 40.

47. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

49. In addition.

51. A genus of Ploceidae.

52. Half the width of an em.

54. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

55. Made of or resembling lace.

57. (informal) Exceptionally good.

58. The handle of a sword or dagger.

59. English essayist (1775-1834).

60. Colored or impregnated with dye.

63. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

64. A boy or man.

68. A silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group.

Yesterday’s Solution

Page 45

Friday, October 22, 2010

COUNTRY CODES

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY Aries (March 21-April 19) "There's one ultimate goal during sex," says Cosmopolitan magazine, a renowned source of erotic guidance for women. That is "to be as sensually stimulated as possible." I don't quite agree with that assessment. Having emotionally pleasing fun should also be an important consideration, as well as creating a playful ambiance and invoking spiritual grace. But sensual stimulation is good, too. So what, in the view of Cosmopolitan, is the key to cultivating maximum bliss? "Having lots of steamy info at your disposal." That's definitely sound advice for you right now, Aries. You're in a favorable phase for finding out more about everything that will enhance your access to delight, including the sexual kind.

Libra (September 23-October 22) In the weeks ahead, Libra, you're going to be tested on your follow-through. People will want you to work harder on what has previously come fairly easily. You will be pressured to make good on your promises; you'll be asked to refine the details that are central to the success of the good new ideas that are floating around. As much as you might be tempted to slip away and fly off in pursuit of things that are more fun, I encourage you to stick with the program. You can't imagine how important it is for you to learn how to be a more committed builder.

Ta ur us ( A pr i l 2 0- Ma y 20 ) When the tide is coming in, the creek I live next to flows vigorously toward the south. When the tide's going out, the water reverses its course and heads swiftly north.

Every day, there's an in-between time when the creek seems confused. Some currents creep south and others slink north, while here and there eddies whirl in circles. According to my understanding of the astrological omens, Taurus, you are temporarily in a phase that resembles my creek's time of contrary flows. It's a perfectly natural place to be.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) "If you're strong enough there are no precedents," said novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. I think that describes you in the immediate future, Scorpio. I bet you won't have to answer to ghosts or pay homage to the way things have always been done. You'll be free to ignore icons that the conventional wisdom idolizes, and there'll be no need for you to give undeserved respect to experts who have stopped being relevant. By my astrological reckoning, you will be so smart and plucky and energetic that you can work wonders simply by emptying your mind, starting from scratch, and making things up as you go along.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) In fifth grade I was in love with Calley, who was the by far prettiest girl in the school. Sadly, she didn't return my affection, so I had to be content with adoring her from afar.

Eventually I moved away and lost touch. Since then I've wondered if she suffered the fate that befalls too many gorgeous women: relying so entirely on her looks to make her way in the world that she never developed many skills. But recently I tracked Calley down via Google and discovered that she had beaten the curse: She has carved out a career as an activist bringing firstrate education to poor children. My question to you is this, Gemini: Are there any qualities you regarded as assets earlier in your life but that eventually turned into liabilities? Any strengths that became weaknesses? And what are you doing to adjust? It's a good time to address these themes.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Think back to the last half of 1998. What was going on in your life back then?

According to my astrological projections, you were probably carrying out experiments in a wild frontier . . . or getting your mind rearranged by rousing teachings and provocative revelations . . . or breaking through artificial limits that had been quashing your freedom . . . or all of the above. Now you've come around again to a similar phase of your grand cycle. Are you ready for action? If you'd like to gather up all the grace flowing in your vicinity, start having fun with escapes, experiments, and expansions.

Sagittarius (November 22December 21) Scientists have discovered an exotic animal that feeds on the bones of dead whales lying on the ocean floor.

Known informally as the bone-eating snot-flower worm, it looks like a frilly pink plume growing up out of sheer bone. Believe it or not, Sagittarius, you could take a cue from this creature in the coming weeks. It will be a favorable time for you to draw sustenance from the skeletal remains of big things that were once vital.

Capricorn (December 22January 19) What is the wild and instinctual nature? Radiance magazine posed that question to storyteller Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Here's her reply: "to establish territory, to find one's pack, to be in one's body with certainty and pride regardless of the body's gifts and limitations, to speak and act in one's behalf, to be aware, alert, to draw on the innate feminine powers of intuition and sensing, to come into one's cycles, to find what one belongs to." I would love to see you specialize in these wild and instinctual arts in the coming weeks, Capricorn. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you are ready to tap into the deeper reserves of your animal intelligence. Your body is primed to make you very smart about what you need and how to get what you need.

Leo (July 23-August 22) "I wish I treated my feet with the same tender loving care as I do my face," wrote Catherine Saint Louis in The New York Times. "But I don't." She quotes a study that says more than half of all women are embarrassed about their feet, and notes that Facebook has many "I Hate Feet" groups. You Leos can't afford to be under this spell right now. Even more than usual, it's crucial for you to be well-grounded. So I suggest you maneuver yourself into a state of mind where earthiness is beautiful and appealing to you. Find ways to celebrate your body and improve your relationship with it. How to start? Love your feet better.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) At this phase of my life, I'm not canvassing door-to-door asking people to donate money to save old growth forests. I'm not a member of groups fighting for an end to the war in Afghanistan or agitating in behalf of animal rights. My struggle for social and environmental justice is waged primarily through the power of my writing. I subscribe to the attitude of author Ingrid Bengis, who said, "Words are a form of action, capable of influencing change." In the coming weeks, I suggest you increase your awareness of how you could transform your world with the power of your language. Is it possible to increase your clout through the way you communicate?

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) When I think of the extraordinary feats of strength you will be capable of in the coming weeks, my mind turns to a Chinese martial artist named Dong Changsheng. Last May, he attached one end of a rope to his eyelids and the other end to a small airplane, then pulled the thousandpound load 15 feet in a minute. I don't think your demonstration of power will be as literal as his, and I suspect it will be more useful and meaningful. But in certain respects it could be just as amazing.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) Scottish scientists decided to see if they could find evidence for the existence of the Loch Ness monster. They took a research submarine down into the murky depths, scanning with sonar. The prehistoric creature was nowhere in sight, but a surprising discovery emerged: Thousands of golf balls litter the bottom of the loch, presumably because the place has been used as an unofficial driving range for years. I predict that you will soon experience a reverse version of this sequence, Pisces: You will go in search of your personal equivalent of lost golf balls -- some trivial treasure -- but on the way you will have a brush with a living myth.

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Holland (Netherlands) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Ibiza (Spain) Iceland India Indian Ocean Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345 00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689 00241 00220 00995 0049 00233 00350 0030 00299 001473 00590 001671 00502 00224 00592 00509 0031 00504 00852 0036 0034 00354 0091 00873 0062 0098 00964 00353 0039 00225 001876 0081 00962 007 00254 00686 00965

Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Majorca Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nepal Netherlands (Holland) Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Nigar Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Ireland (UK) North Korea Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts Saint Lucia Saint Pierre Saint Vincent Samoa US Samoa West San Marino Sao Tone Saudi Arabia Scotland (UK) Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Toga Tonga Tokelau Trinidad Tunisia Turkey Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay

00996 00856 00371 00961 00231 00218 00370 00352 00853 00389 00261 0034 00265 0060 00960 00223 00356 00692 00596 00222 00230 00269 0052 00691 00373 00377 00976 001664 00212 00258 0095 00264 00977 0031 00599 00687 0064 00505 00227 00234 00683 00672 0044 00850 0047 00968 0092 00680 00507 00675 00595 0051 0063 0048 00351 001787 00974 0040 007 00250 00290 001869 001758 00508 001784 00684 00685 00378 00239 00966 0044 00221 00284 00232 0065 00421 00386 00677 00252 0027 0082 0034 0094 00249 00597 00268 0046 0041 00963 00886 00255 0066 00228 00676 00690 001868 00216 0090 00688 00256 00380 00976 0044 00598

what's on

Page 46

Friday, october 22, 2010

ICSK’s ‘Great Leaders of India’

tots of Prep in the Indian Community School - Amman Branch had an activity to be dressed up as great leaders of India. The children were filled with excitement Tandiny to be dressed up and to perform on the stage. They also spoke as the characters they were dressed up in. The costume worn by the children were very attractive colourful. The children watching the participants perform gave an enthusiastic applause. The Principal, Sridevi Pradeep praised the children for showing their great talent. It was a memorable day to see the tiny tots become the character they portrayed.

Mariotsavam 2010, today

t Daniel Camboni Catholic Parish, Abbasiya is organizing 8th Mariotsavam, the annual Marian SRetreat in Malayalam, today at Integrated Indian School Abbasiya. Through the previous years the event has become an important day in the calendar of the Catholic Church in Kuwait. The Key note speaker for this yearís retreat, Rev Fr Sabu Adimakkil, is the assistant director of Faridabad Divine Retreat Center. Marian Talk will start at 3:30 pm. The retreat will conclude at 9:30 pm with adoration. Bishop Camillo Ballin

(The Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait), Msg Rev Fr John Kallarackal (First Secretary - Apostolic Nunciature in Kuwait), Rev Fr Mathews Kunnel Purayidom OCD (Vicar General of Kuwait) and Rev Fr Albert S Raj OCD (Vicar of Abbasiya Parish) will address the gathering. Rev Fr Joseph Palatty and Rev Fr George Kottappuram are the coordinators and Stephen Perera is the General convener of the organizing committee, which welcomes all the Catholics in Kuwait to share blessings of the day’s talks.

IMWA Quran competitions 2010 tomorrow - Kuwait (Indian Muslim Welfare pm. Boys and girls from Grade 1 to Grade 12 IMWA Association) is conducting its annual IMWA are eligible to participate. The rules and the QURAN COMPETITIONS 2010 for the school children in Kuwait tomorrow at Indian Public School, Salmiya, in the following segments: Inaugural Session & Registration 8:30 am Quran Recitation (Memorized) 9:00 am to 11:00 am Islamic Quiz 11:00 am to 11:30 am Break for Zohr prayer until 12:00 noon Elocution Competition 12:00 noon to 01:00

syllabus of the Competitions are made available online at IMWA website, imwakuwait.org. All the participants and parents are requested to note the timings and cooperate with organizers. Competition results will be announced on IMWA website.

For further info please call competition hotlines: 99740083/66520620/55630073. The registration is now open online. Please log on to www.imwakuwait.org

Birthday celebrations hilomena Arikasamy celebrated her 75th Birthday on October 14, 2010 at Royal Terasse Restaurant, Salmiya. All family members, relatives and friends attended the birthday P party. Grand-daughter Shaalini and great-grand daughters Shreya and Aliza joined in and Rev Father Albert blessed Philomena to live till 100 years.

what's on

Friday, october 22, 2010

Page 47

Second volume of Melbandhan released in Kuwait he first volume of Melbandhan, a collection of compositions Tcontributed by the Bengalis of India and Bangladesh residing in Kuwait was published September last year. The team working behind the publication of the second volume Melbandhan Dwitiya on September this year. This volume has been ornamented by the unique compositions from the authors and pets of both countries.

Melbandhan reflects the creativity, culture and heritage of both countries.

Thousands of miles away from their homelands, the Bengalis of both countries proved once more that distance and environment never stands as a barrier against their love towards their homeland and vernacular. The word

Melbandhan means a tie of love and trust between two entities.

Therefore, Melbandhan is not just a book, it is certainly a unique and pioneering effort to strengthen the tie of love, harmony and trust between the two countries. On the eve of Happy Eid and Sharodostav the release of Melbandhan will certainly help the Bengalis of both countries to satisfy their passion towards Bangala Bhasa.

Like the previous years, the honorable ambassadors of both the countries have enriched the book by sending their message of encouragement for this book. The chief editor of Melbandhan Dwitya Dr Ashok Deb, the co-editor poet Salim Reza and the composers had to toil hard to make the publication attractive and palatable for the

Bengali readers. Melbandham Dwitiya is a collection of stories, poems, comics, retrospective articles, pictures and sketches.

A modest team of editors and authors of Melbandhan Dwitiya, like Dr Naser Ahmed, Tarun Kumar Mukherjee, M I Alam, Aloke Kumar Deb, visited the honorable ambassador of Inida Mr Ajay Malhotra and the honorable ambassador of Bangladesh Janab Sayed Shahed Reza for the representation of the book. The editors expressed their gratitude to all those who extended hands of cooperation behind the publication and release of the book and they have a very positive view towards the publication of more accomplished volumes of Melbandhan in the years to come.

JIS celebrates World Teachers’ Day orld teachers’ Day was marked with great W enthusiasm at Jabriya Indian School as the students of Class XI and XII through various activities and programs showed how much they cherished their teachers. It was indeed a day with a difference for the teachers and the students as they experienced a change of role and a detour from the usual routine.

The day began with a special assembly presented by the School Student Council. Head Girl Dima Kamal and the Head Boy Yunus Mehri in their welcome speeches expressed their appreciation and gratitude

towards all their teachers and ended with a befitting quote that says: “A good teacher is like a candle, it consume itself to light the way of others.” This was followed by a song entitled ‘Do We Make You Proud?’ dedicated to the teachers. A scintillating dance was put up o add gusto to the whole program. The highlight of the day was the special program put up by the Student Council for their teachers, filled with entertainment and games. The Student Council presented every teacher with a souvenir and a card especially designed for the occasion.

Page 48

Friday, October 22, 2010

FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION 161

FLIGHT SCHEDULE

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT TRAVELLING, YOUR PROPER CANCELLATION OF BOOKINGS WILL HELP OTHER PASSENGERS TO USE SEATS. Arrival Flights on Friday 22/10/2010 Airlines Flt Route Wataniya Airways 188 Bahrain Tunis Air 327 Tunis/Dubai Wataniya Airways 306 Cairo Kuwait 544 Cairo Wataniya Airways 434 Damascus Gulf Air 211 Bahrain Turkish 772 Istanbul Pakistan 215 Karachi Jazeera 241 Amman Egypt Air 614 Cairo Jazeera 267 Beirut DHL 370 Bahrain Emirates 853 Dubai Jazeera 513 Sharm El Sheikh Etihad 305 Abu Dhabi Qatari 138 Doha Ethiopian 622 Addis Ababa/Bahrain Air Arabia Egypt 553 Alexandria Air France 6770 Paris Jazeera 503 Luxor Jazeera 527 Alexandria British 157 London Kuwait 416 Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur Kuwait 206 Islamabad Kuwait 302 Mumbai Fly Dubai 053 Dubai Kuwait 676 Dubai Kuwait 286 Chittagong Kuwait 352 Cochin Kuwait 284 Dhaka Kuwait 362 Colombo Emirates 855 Dubai Arabia 121 Sharjah Qatari 132 Doha Etihad 301 Abu Dhabi Iran Air 619 Lar Gulf Air 213 Bahrain Middle East 404 Beirut Yemenia 825 Sanaa Jazeera 171 Dubai Egypt Air 610 Cairo Kuwait 672 Dubai Iran Aseman 6807 Shiraz United 982 Washington DC Dulles Jordanian 800 Amman Wataniya 332 Alexandria Fly Dubai 057 Dubai Jazeera 257 Beirut Wataniya Airways 422 Amman Kuwait 552 Damascus Kuwait 744 Dammam Jazeera 481 Sabiha Qatari 134 Doha Kuwait 546 Alexandria Wataniya 104 Dubai Mihin 403 Colombo/Dubai Etihad 303 Abu Dhabi Emirates 857 Dubai Gulf Air 215 Bahrain Saudia 510 Riyadh Wataniya Airways 202 Jeddah Arabia 125 Sharjah Jazeera 239 Amman Wataniya Airways 432 Damascus Jazeera 367 Deirezzor SriLankan 227 Colombo/Dubai Wataniya Airways 304 Cairo Kuwait 166 Paris/Rome Wataniya Airways 106 Dubai Kuwait 542 Cairo Kuwait 502 Beirut

Time 00:30 00:35 00:50 00:50 00:55 01:05 01:15 01:15 01:45 02:05 02:10 02:15 02:25 02:30 02:55 03:20 03:30 03:40 04:50 05:50 06:20 06:30 06:35 07:15 07:50 07:55 08:00 08:05 08:05 08:10 08:20 08:25 08:40 09:00 09:25 10:40 10:45 10:50 12:00 12:40 12:55 13:15 13:20 13:35 13:35 13:35 13:50 14:05 14:10 14:35 14:40 14:40 15:05 15:30 16:30 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:35 17:40 17:40 17:50 17:55 18:00 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 18:50

Kuwait Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Indian Kuwait Fly Dubai Wataniya Airways Oman Air Middle East Jet A/L Rovos Saudia Wataniya Airways Wataniya Airways DHL Gulf Air Jazeera Qatari United Emirates Lufthansa Jazeera Egypt Air Shaheen Air KLM Egypt Air Wataniya Airways

618 497 177 614 674 102 774 575 562 061 186 647 402 572 081 506 642 404 372 217 459 136 981 859 636 429 612 441 0447 606 108

Doha Riyadh Dubai Bahrain Dubai New Yokr/London Riyadh Chennai/Goa Amman Dubai Bahrain Muscat Beirut Mumbai Baghdad Jeddah Vienna Beirut Bahrain Bahrain Damascus Doha Bahrain Dubai Frankfurt Bahrain Cairo Lahore/Karachi Amsterdam/Bahrain Luxor Dubai

Departure Flights on Friday 22/10/2010 Airlines Flt Route Egypt Air 607 Luxor Bangladesh 044 Dhaka Lufthansa 637 Frankfurt Indian 982 Ahmedabad/Chennai Pakistan 206 Lahore Tunis Air 328 Tunis Turkish 773 Istanbul Pakistan 216 Karachi Ethiopian 620 Bahrain/Addis Ababa Air Arabia Egypt 552 Alexandria Egypt Air 615 Cairo DHL 371 Bahrain Emirates 854 Dubai Etihad 306 Abu Dhabi Qatari 139 Doha Wataniya Airways 101 Dubai Jazeera 480 Sabiha Air France 6770 Dubai/Hong Kong Jazeera 164 Dubai Jazeera 456 Damascus Gulf Air 212 Bahrain Wataniya Airways 181 Bahrain Jazeera 256 Beirut Wataniya Airways 431 Damascus British 156 London Jazzera 170 Dubai Kuwait 545 Alexandria Fly Dubai 054 Dubai Kuwait 177 Frankfurt/Geneva Kuwait 671 Dubai Kuwait 117 New York Wataniya Airways 421 Amman Kuwait 551 Damascus Arabia 122 Sharjah Wataniya Airways 631 Rome Emirates 856 Dubai Wataniya Airways 641 Vienna Qatari 133 Doha Etihad 302 Abu Dhabi

19:00 19:00 19:05 19:20 19:20 19:25 19:25 19:30 19:40 20:05 20:15 20:15 20:10 20:30 20:30 20:35 20:45 20:50 21:00 21:05 21:15 21:35 21:55 22:00 22:30 22:45 22:55 23:00 23:10 23:15 23:55

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

Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Iran Air Middle East Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Jazeera India Express Kuwait Kuwait Yemenia Gulf Air Jazeera Egypt Air Kuwait Wataniya Airways Jordanian Kuwait Fly Dubai United Jazeera Kuwait Wataniya Airways Kuwait Kuwait Jazeera Jazeera Kuwait Qatari Kuwait Rovos Etihad Mihin Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Emirates Arabia Jazeera Saudia SriLankan Wataniya Airways Wataniya Airways Jazeera Kuwait Jazeera Kuwait Fly Dubai Nas Air Kuwait Kuwait Oman Air Middle East Jet A/W Wataniya Airways Gulf Air Saudia DHL Kuwait Jazeera Qatari Kuwait Kuwait Emirates Jazeera Jazeera United Jazeera Kuwait Egypt Air

401 214 618 405 303 743 541 238 366 816 103 501 825 220 426 611 1501 105 801 561 058 982 176 673 403 785 617 496 458 773 135 613 082 304 404 305 216 858 126 184 511 228 407 107 428 283 266 361 062 704 343 331 648 403 571 187 218 507 373 675 612 137 203 301 860 526 636 981 502 411 613

Beirut Bahrain Lar Beirut Cairo Dammam Cairo Amman Deirezzor Bahrain/Mangalore London Beirut Doha/Sanaa Bahrain Bahrain Cairo Beirut Dubai Amman Amman Dubai Bahrain Dubai Dubai Beirut Jeddah Doha Riyadh Damascus Riyadh Doha Bahrain Baghdad Abu Dhabi Dubai/Colombo Cairo Bahrain Dubai Sharjah Dubai Riyadh Dubai/Colombo Beirut Dubai Bahrain Dhaka Beirut Colombo Dubai Riyadh Chennai Trivandrum Muscat Beirut Mumbai Bahrain Bahrain Jeddah Bahrain Dubai Lahore Doha Lahore Mumbai Dubai Alexandria Aleppo Washington DC Dulles Luxor Bangkok/Manila Cairo

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

11:35 11:35 11:40 11:50 11:50 11:55 12:00 12:10 12:15 12:25 12:30 13:00 13:00 13:55 13:55 13:55 14:25 14:30 14:30 14:35 14:35 14:50 14:55 15:10 15:10 15:20 15:35 15:35 15:50 16:05 16:20 16:20 17:00 17:35 17:40 18:05 18:05 18:05 18:20 18:30 18:35 19:10 19:25 19:40 19:50 20:15 20:10 20:20 20:50 20:55 21:00 21:00 21:15 21:20 21:30 21:35 21:55 21:55 22:00 22:10 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:10 23:20 23:35 23:40 23:40 23:40 23:55

CLASSIFIEDS

Friday, October 22, 2010

Page 49

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available for a decent bachelor, beside Hawally, Sultan Centre. Close to Road no.30.

Please call 97804854 after 5 pm.

(C 2784) Sharing accommodation available for decent bachelors (Keralite) or small family near Hi-Dine Supermarket in Abbassiya from 01-11-2010. Contact: 24312462.

(C 2785) Sharing accommodation available for married couples in a double bedroom spacious flat with a Keralite family at Abbassiya from November 1st onwards.

Contact: 97938401.

(C 2786) 21-10-2010 Sharing accommodation available for a couple / working lady near Lovely Store, Abbassiya. Contact: 66940037. (C 2782) One room for rent at Farwaniya opp.

Big Jamayya for working ladies or small family with small Indian family from 1st Nov. Contact: 97823565.

(C 2781) Sharing accommodation available for couple / small family in a 2 BHK flat, near Hi Dine Supermarket, Abbassiya.

Contact: 99396714 after 5 pm.

(C2783) 20-10-2010 Sharing accommodation available from November, for family or working woman with a Muslim family residing near United

Indian School, Abbassiya.

Contact: 97612248.

(C 2780) 19-10-2010

FOR SALE 2008 Mitsubishi OUTLANDER Full options Kuwait agency - Excellent condition 27000 KM. Sunroof - 6 CD MP3 cruise control - Regular services Original Paint - Under warranty 66603401 Sale of households, furniture, sofa, TV, fridge, oil heater, study tables etc with or without, apt of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, Salmiya.

Contact Ali: 97543176 / 25657327.

(C 2778) 18-10-2010

MATRIMONIAL Suitable alliances are invited for 26 yrs old girl working in Kuwait MoH nurse, inter-caste marriage parents, from Emakulam Dt., from boys working in Kuwait preferred. Please contact E-mail: sunshine0091@gmail.com (C 2776) 18-10-2010

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists: Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 5622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 5752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 5321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 5739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 5757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 5732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 5732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT): Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz

4555050 Ext 510 5644660 5646478 5311996 5731988 2620166 5651426

General Practitioners: Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi Dr. Yousef Al-Omar Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem Dr. Kathem Maarafi Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae

4555050 Ext 123 4719312 3926920 5730465 5655528 4577781 5333501

Urologists: Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 2641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 2639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 2616660

Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 5313120 Plastic Surgeons: Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari Dr. Abdel Quttainah

2547272 2617700 5625030/60

Family Doctor: Dr Divya Damodar

3729596/3729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

2635047 2613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians: Dr Adrian Harbe Dr. Verginia s.Marin Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly Dr. Salem soso

3729596/3729581 572-6666 ext 8321 2655539 5343406 5739272 2618787

General Surgeons: Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer 2610044 Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher 5327148

Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra Dr. Mobarak Aldoub Dr Nasser Behbehani

5728004 5355515 4726446 5654300/3

Paediatricians: Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed Dr. Zahra Qabazard Dr. Sohail Qamar Dr. Snaa Maaroof Dr. Pradip Gujare Dr. Zacharias Mathew

5340300 5710444 2621099 5713514 3713100 4334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada) 5655535 Dentists: Dr Anil Thomas Dr. Shamah Al-Matar Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

3729596/3729581 2641071/2 2562226 2561444 2619557 2525888 5653755 5620111

Internists, Chest & Heart: Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Mousa Khadada

2639939 2666300

Neurologists: Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri 5633324 Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan 5345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman 2636464 Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly 5322030 Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali 2633135 Endocrinologist: Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman 5339330 Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 5658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 5329924 Physiotherapists & VD: Dr. Deyaa Shehab Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

5722291 2666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi 5330060 Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah 5722290 Internist, Chest & Heart: DR.Mohammes Akkad 4555050 Ext 210 Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Tel: 5339667 Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Consultant Cardiologist Tel: 2611555-2622555

Page 50

Friday, October 22, 2010

TV Listings Orbit /Showtime Channels

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

Without a Trace Defying Gravity Desperate Housewives GMA Live RPT One Tree Hill Survivor The Ellen de Generes Show Desperate Housewives Defying Gravity Without a Trace Good Morning America Live One Tree Hill Survivor Glee The Deep End Breaking Bad The Closer The Pacific The Ellen de Generes Show GMA Live RPT

00:30 Animal Cops South Africa 01:25 Fur Seals: The Dark Side 02:20 Untamed And Uncut 03:10 Wildlife SOS 03:35 Rspca: Have You Got What It Takes?

04:00 New Breed Vets With Steve Irwin 04:50 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 05:40 Breed All About It 06:05 Breed All About It 06:35 Planet Wild 07:00 Cell Dogs 07:55 Gorilla School 08:20 Rspca: Have You Got What It Takes?

08:50 Miami Animal Police 09:45 Vet On The Loose 10:10 Pet Rescue 10:40 Animal Cops Miami 11:35 Wildlife SOS 12:00 Rspca: Have You Got What It Takes?

12:30 Dogs 101 13:25 Groomer Has It 14:20 The Planet’s Funniest Animals 15:15 Great Ocean Adventures 16:10 Return Of The Prime Predators 17:10 Dogs 101 18:05 Whale Wars 19:00 Stranger Among Bears 19:25 Stranger Among Bears 19:55 Animal Cops Miami 20:50 Return Of The Prime Predators 21:45 Untamed And Uncut 22:40 Whale Wars

00:15 00:45 01:20 01:45 02:05 02:25 02:45 03:10 03:30 03:50 04:10 04:35 04:55 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:20 06:40 07:10 07:45 08:30 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:20 11:50 12:20 13:20 14:10 14:40 15:10 16:00 17:00 17:45 18:15 19:00 19:50 20:35 21:45 22:30

Lab Rats Green Green Grass Teletubbies Me Too Balamory Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Balamory Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Balamory Tweenies Teletubbies Me Too Balamory Lab Rats Green Green Grass The Weakest Link Sunshine Doctors Eastenders Casualty Green Green Grass Green Green Grass Sunshine The Weakest Link Doctors Eastenders Casualty Sunshine The Weakest Link Doctors Robin Hood The Jonathan Ross Show Jack Dee Strictly Come Dancing Strictly Come Dancing The Weakest Link

00:30 Come Dine With Me 01:20 Daily Cooks Challenge 01:50 Daily Cooks Challenge 02:20 10 Years Younger 02:45 10 Years Younger 03:20 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 04:30 Antiques Roadshow 05:20 What Not To Wear 06:05 Bargain Hunt 06:50 Hidden Potential 07:10 Cash In The Attic USA 07:35 Indian Food Made Easy 08:00 Ching’s Kitchen 08:25 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 09:15 Cash In The Attic 10:00 Come Dine With Me 10:45 What Not To Wear 11:35 Put Your Money Where Your

Mouth Is 12:25 Indian Food Made Easy 12:50 Ching’s Kitchen 13:15 Cash In The Attic USA 13:35 Antiques Roadshow 14:25 MasterChef: The Professionals 14:50 Daily Cooks Challenge 15:20 Daily Cooks Challenge 15:50 Come Dine With Me 16:40 MasterChef: The Professionals 17:10 Twiggy’s Frock Exchange 18:00 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 18:50 Cash In The Attic 19:35 Come Dine With Me 20:25 MasterChef: The Professionals 20:55 MasterChef: The Professionals 21:20 What Not To Wear 22:10 Twiggy’s Frock Exchange 23:00 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 23:50 Cash In The Attic

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

Talk To Me-PG15 Tribute-PG15 Frozen River-PG15 The Babe-PG15 Save The Last Dance-PG Lovely Still-PG The Last Mimzy-PG Broken Lines-PG15 L’ivresse Du Pouvoir-PG15 Burn After Reading-PG15 The Innocent-R Female Agents-18

00:25 01:20 02:15 02:40 03:05 04:00 04:25 05:15 06:10 07:05 08:00 08:55 09:25 09:50 10:20 11:15 12:10 13:05 14:00 14:55 15:50 16:15 16:40 17:05 17:35

Extreme Engineering Mythbusters How It’s Made How Do They Do It? Dirty Jobs Fifth Gear Extreme Engineering Chop Shop Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Overhaulin’ Border Security How It’s Made How Do They Do It? Mythbusters Miami Ink Ultimate Survival Dirty Jobs Overhaulin’ Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security The Gadget Show How Do They Do It? How It’s Made

Orphan on Show Movies

18:00 Heart Of The Machine 18:55 X-Machines 19:50 Battle Machine Bros 20:45 La Ink 21:40 Police Women Of Broward County 22:35 Dirty Jobs 23:30 Heart Of The Machine

00:25 How Stuff’s Made 00:50 How The Universe Works 01:45 Robotica 02:40 Weird Connections 03:10 Perfect Disaster 04:00 Thunder Races 05:00 Cosmic Collisions 06:00 Catch It Keep It 06:55 Stunt Junkies 07:20 The Gadget Show 07:50 Perfect Disaster 08:45 How Stuff’s Made 09:15 Scrapheap Challenge 10:10 Weird Connections 10:35 Catch It Keep It 11:30 Science Of The Movies 12:25 The Gadget Show 12:55 How The Universe Works 13:50 Mega World 14:45 Brainiac 15:40 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 16:30 Mission Critical: Hubble 17:20 How It’s Made 17:45 The Gadget Show 18:10 Sci-Trek 19:00 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 19:50 Mission Critical: Hubble 20:40 Sci-Trek 21:30 The Gadget Show 21:55 World’s Biggest Airliner 22:45 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 23:35 Mission Critical: Hubble

00:15 Extreme Hollywood 01:10 Sexiest 02:05 Battle of the Hollywood Hotties 02:30 Streets of Hollywood 03:00 25 Most Memorable Swimsuit Moments 04:45 Behind the Scenes 05:10 Behind the Scenes 05:35 E! News 06:00 The Daily 10 06:25 Denise Richards: It’s Complicated

06:50 Kourtney & Khlo√© Take Miami 07:15 20 Hottest Women of the Web 09:00 E! News 09:25 The Daily 10 09:50 Behind the Scenes 10:15 Pretty Wild 10:40 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 11:05 Kendra 11:30 THS 12:25 E! Investigates 13:15 Behind the Scenes 13:40 Behind the Scenes 14:10 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 14:35 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 15:00 E! News 15:25 The Daily 10 15:50 Keeping Up with the Kardashians 16:40 THS 17:30 Kendra 17:55 Chelsea Lately 18:20 Holly’s World 18:45 Holly’s World 19:10 E! News 19:35 The Daily 10 20:00 Chelsea Lately 20:25 Kendra 20:50 Kourtney & Khlo√© Take Miami 21:15 Pretty Wild 21:40 Dr 90210 22:30 Wildest TV Show Moments

00:20 Mantracker 01:10 Fantasy Factory 02:00 Jump The Brazilian Gap 02:50 Dr Danger 03:40 Eds Up 04:30 I-Ex 06:00 Summer Dew Tour 2009 08:30 Rebel Tv 17 08:55 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships 20 10:35 Fim World Motorcross 11:25 Ride Guide Snow 2009 12:15 Lg Action Sports World Championships 2008 13:55 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships 20 14:45 Summer Dew Tour 2009 17:15 Rebel Tv 17 17:40 Fim World Motorcross 18:30 Lucas Oil Ama Motocross Championships 20 20:10 Fim World Motorcross

00:00 Barefoot Contessa 00:30 Unwrapped 01:00 Iron Chef America 02:00 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 02:30 Guy’s Big Bite 03:00 Chopped 04:00 Paula’s Best Dishes 04:25 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 04:50 Guy’s Big Bite 05:15 Barefoot Contessa 05:40 Everyday Italian 06:05 30 Minute Meals 06:30 Tyler’s Ultimate 07:00 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 07:30 Barefoot Contessa 08:00 Unwrapped 08:30 Paula’s Party 09:30 Guy’s Big Bite 10:00 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 10:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 11:00 Barefoot Contessa 11:30 Everyday Italian 12:00 30 Minute Meals 12:30 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 13:00 Iron Chef America 14:00 Barefoot Contessa 14:30 Unwrapped 15:00 Paula’s Best Dishes 15:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 16:00 Throwdown With Bobby Flay

16:30 Good Deal With Dave Lieberman 17:00 Unwrapped 18:00 Barefoot Contessa 18:30 Everyday Italian 19:00 Chopped 20:00 Throwdown With Bobby Flay 20:30 Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives 21:00 Food Network Challenge 22:00 30 Minute Meals 22:30 Tyler’s Ultimate 23:00 Unwrapped

00:05 01:00 01:55 02:20 03:10 03:35 04:00 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:30 07:20 08:10 09:00 09:50 10:40 11:30 11:55 12:20 13:10 14:00 14:50 15:40 16:30 16:55 17:20 18:10 19:00 19:50 20:40 21:30 22:20 23:10

Dr G: Medical Examiner Forensic Detectives Ghosthunters Dr G: Medical Examiner Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls Forensic Detectives Impossible Heists On the Case with Paula Zahn FBI Files The Haunted Accident Investigator Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On the Case with Paula Zahn Forensic Detectives Impossible Heists FBI Files Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls The Haunted Accident Investigator Extreme Forensics Deadly Women Dr G: Medical Examiner The Haunted A Haunting Extreme Forensics

01:25 03:15 04:45 06:10 07:35 09:20 10:40 12:15 13:50 15:30 17:10 19:00 21:00 22:45

Youngblood Cool Blue Walk Like A Man Johnny Be Good Gaily, Gaily Napoleon Italian Movie Rich Kids The Mechanic A Shot In The Dark Where Angels Fear To Tread The Music Lovers Wuthering Heights The Ambulance

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Crocs Bugs!

Life...In The Desert Sharks 101 Hunter Hunted Monster Fish Crocs Bugs!

Crocs Animal Time Machine Hunter Hunted Monster Fish Wild Showcase Bugs!

Crocs Animal Time Machine Hunter Hunted Monster Fish Wild Showcase Bugs!

Crocs Animal Time Machine Hunter Hunted Monster Fish

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30

Hung Holly wood residential Life & times of Tim Tonight Show with Jay Leno

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Friday, October 22, 2010 02:30 Yes Dear 03:00 Frasier 03:30 The Drew Carey Show 04:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 05:00 Two and half men 05:30 Yes Dear 06:00 Frasier 06:30 The Drew Carey Show 07:00 Will & Grace 07:30 Parks & Recreation 08:00 Everybody Loves Raymond 08:30 Frasier 09:00 Tonight Show with Jay Leno 10:00 Two and half men 10:30 Yes Dear 11:00 Frasier 11:30 Til Death 12:00 Parks & Recreation 12:30 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 13:00 The Colbert Report 13:30 The Drew Carey Show 14:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon 15:00 Brothers 15:30 My Name is Earl 16:00 Sons of Tucson 16:30 New adventures of Old Christine 17:00 Tonight Show with Jay Leno 18:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 18:30 The Colbert Report 19:00 Funny or Die 19:30 Holly wood residential 20:00 American Dad 20:30 Sons of Tucson 21:00 New adventures of Old Christine 21:30 Brothers 22:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 22:30 The Colbert Report 23:00 Late night with Jimmy Fallon

00:00 Night At The Museum : Battle Of The Smithsonian-PG15 02:00 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-PG15 04:00 Madagascar 2-PG 06:00 X-Men Origins: WolverinePG15 08:00 Journey To The Center Of The Earth-PG 10:00 Calendar Girls-PG15 12:00 X-Men Origins: WolverinePG15 14:00 Journey To The Center Of The Earth-PG 16:00 Transporter 3-18 18:00 Orphan-18 20:00 Watchmen-18 22:45 Along Came A Spider-PG15

Pooh 07:15 07:40 08:05 08:30 08:55 09:20 09:45 10:10 10:35 11:00 11:25 11:45 12:05 12:30 12:55 13:20 13:45 14:10 Pooh 14:35 14:45 15:10 15:35 16:00 Pooh 16:25 16:40 16:50

Little Einsteins Special Agent Oso Imagination Movers Lazytown My Friends Tigger and Pooh Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Little Einsteins JO JO’S CIRCUS Higglytown Heroes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Special Agent Oso My Friends Tigger and Pooh Imagination Movers Little Einsteins Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse New Adventures of Winnie the

00:00 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

01:00 Model TV 01:30 The Designers 02:00 Style Her Famous 02:30 Area 03:00 How Do I Look?

04:00 Millennium Fashion: The Year In Fashion 05:00 My Celebrity Home 06:00 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

07:00 Married Away 08:00 Jerseylicious 09:00 Ruby 09:30 Ruby 10:00 Clean House 11:00 Clean House Comes Clean 11:30 Style Her Famous 12:00 Jerseylicious 13:00 Ruby 14:00 Married Away 15:00 I Propose 15:30 I Propose 16:00 Jerseylicious 17:00 Homes With Style 17:30 Homes With Style 18:00 How Do I Look?

19:00 Tacky House 19:30 Tacky House 20:00 Dress My Nest 20:30 Dress My Nest 21:00 Jerseylicious 22:00 Model TV 22:30 Style Her Famous 23:00 How Do I Look?

Special Agent Oso Imagination Movers Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse New Adventures of Winnie the Handy Manny Special Agent Oso Jungle Junction

01:00 Under The Mountain-PG 03:00 Smart People-PG15 05:00 Temple Grandin-PG15 07:00 Bottle Shock-PG15 08:45 The Princess And The Frog10:30 Star Trek-PG 12:45 Temple Grandin-PG15 14:30 Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen-PG15 17:00 Orphan-18 19:00 I Love You, Man-18 21:00 Snakes On A Plane-18 23:00 It Might Get Loud-PG15

00:00 The Tattooist-18 02:00 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life-PG15 04:00 Ghost Image-PG15 06:00 The Least Of These-PG15 08:00 Twins Effect 2-PG15 10:00 Shifty-PG15 12:00 The Least Of These-PG15 13:50 A Knight’s Tale-PG15 16:00 Xxx-PG15 18:10 The General’s Daughter-18 20:10 Autopsy-18 22:00 Buried Alive-18

Duplicit on Super Movies 00:00 Ellen DeGeneres 01:00 How I Met Your Mother 01:30 The Office 02:00 Emmerdale 02:30 New Adventures of Old Christine 03:00 Ellen DeGeneres 04:00 Bones 05:00 Lost 06:00 Survivor 21 07:00 Ellen DeGeneres 08:00 How I Met Your Mother 08:30 The Office 09:00 Emmerdale 09:30 New Adventures of Old Christine 10:00 Bones 11:00 Lost 12:00 Survivor 21 13:00 30 Rock 13:30 New Adventures of Old Christine 14:00 Ellen DeGeneres 15:00 Two and a Half Men 15:30 Two and a Half Men 16:00 Friday Night Lights 17:00 Lost 18:00 Breaking Bad 19:00 The Pacific 20:00 Two and a Half Men 20:30 Two and a Half Men 21:00 Bones 22:00 Lost 23:00 The Pacific

04:00 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:40 05:50 06:00 06:25 06:50

Lazytown Imagination Movers Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny Jungle Junction Special Agent Oso Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Handy Manny New Adventures of Winnie the

01:00 Mr. Troop Mom-PG 03:00 The Cable Guy-PG15 05:00 Bustin’ Loose-PG15 07:00 Paper Heart-PG15 09:00 Touch And Go-PG 11:00 City Slickers-PG15 13:00 Loins Of Punjab Presents-PG15 15:00 Fever Pitch-PG15 17:00 Trainwreck: My Life As An Idiot-18 19:00 Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo-18 21:00 Mystic Pizza-PG15 23:00 Fever Pitch-PG15

01:00 Scooby-Doo! And The Samurai Sword-FAM 03:00 The Missing Lynx-PG 05:00 Legend Of Sleeping Beauty-PG 07:00 Scooby-Doo! And The Samurai Sword-FAM 09:00 The Thief Of Baghdad-PG 11:00 The Tale Of Despereaux-PG 13:00 Dark Crystal-PG 15:00 Velveteen Rabbit-FAM 17:00 Winx : Secret Of The Lost Kingdom-PG15 19:00 The Thief Of Baghdad-PG 21:00 Legend Of Sleeping Beauty-PG 23:00 Velveteen Rabbit-FAM

00:00 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 09:00

Heroes Look alike Look alike Emmerdale Turn Back Your Body Clock Lie To Me Martha Stewart Look alike Look alike Lie To Me The View Heroes

14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:00

00:00 03:30 04:00 07:00 07:30 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 14:00 15:00 15:30 19:00 20:00 22:00

The View Hawthorne Bones Bones Lie To Me The View Look alike Look alike Heroes

Premier League Snooker Total Rugby Masters Football Total Rugby Live Rugby Union ITM CUP ICC Cricket World Brazil League Highlights Futbol Mundial World Sport Total Rugby Rugby Union ITM CUP Live The All Sports Show ICC Cricket World Premier League Snooker The All Sports Show Rugby Union ITM CUP Aviva Premiership

01:00 Scottish Premier League 03:00 World Sport 03:30 Futbol Mundial 04:00 PGA European Tour 07:30 Triathlon 08:30 Premier League Snooker 12:00 Brazil League Highlights 12:30 Futbol Mundial 13:00 Live PGA European Tour 16:00 Scottish Premier League Highlights 16:30 Futbol Mundial 17:00 The All Sports Show 18:00 Total Rugby

18:45 Live Aviva Premiership 20:45 PGA European Tour

01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:30 08:30 09:00 10:30 11:30 14:30 16:00 17:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 23:00

UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE NXT UFC Countdown WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection Red Bull X-Fighters UFC Countdown Le Mans Series Magazine FIA GT1 World Championship WWE NXT UFC 120 UFC All Access UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line

00:00 Inconceivable-PG15 02:00 Five Minutes Of Heaven-PG15 04:00 Sticks And Stones-PG 06:00 Suburban Girl-PG15 08:00 Michael Jackson’s This Is It-PG 10:00 Marley And Me-PG15 12:00 Meet Dave-PG 14:00 Suburban Girl-PG15 16:00 Quantum Of Solace-PG15 18:00 Duplicity-18 20:00 Precious-18 22:00 Havoc 2: Normal Adolescent Behavior-R

01:00 Passion Fish 03:15 The Screening Room 04:00 Elvis: That’s The Way It Is

05:40 07:25 07:55 09:40 12:05 12:30 14:30 14:55 16:40 17:05 19:00 21:00 22:55

The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad The Screening Room 3 Godfathers Ice Station Zebra The Screening Room The V.I.P.S The Screening Room Two Weeks In Another Town The Screening Room Mogambo School Daze Coma Mandela

00:00 Ancient Discoveries 00:55 Mummy Forensics 01:50 Monster Quest 02:40 Ice Road Truckers, 3 03:30 Modern Marvels 04:20 Mega Disasters 05:10 Life After People 06:00 Ancient Discoveries 06:55 Mummy Forensics 07:50 Monster Quest 08:40 Ice Road Truckers, 3 09:30 Modern Marvels 10:20 Mega Disasters 11:10 Life After People 12:00 Ancient Discoveries 12:55 Mummy Forensics 13:50 Monster Quest 14:40 Ice Road Truckers, 3 15:30 Modern Marvels 16:20 Mega Disasters 17:10 Life After People 18:00 Investigating History 18:55 Rome: Rise And Fall Of An Empire 19:50 Ancient Discoveries 3 20:40 Dinosaur Secrets 21:30 Tunnellers 22:20 Ax Men 2 23:10 Mega Disasters

00:15 00:17 04:15 04:17 05:00 05:45 06:15 06:17 10:00 10:45 12:15 12:17 13:00 13:45 14:15 14:17 15:00 15:45 16:00 17:00 17:30 19:15 19:17 20:00 20:40 21:15 21:17 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:45

Top Fashion Playlist Top Gossip Playlist French Only Playlist Top Money Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Monthly Top Playlist Africa 10 Playlist Top Sexy Playlist Urban Hit Playlist Trace Video Mix New Playlist Top Mobile Playlist Club 10 Playlist Top New Playlist New Playlist Urban Hit Playlist

00:00 World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides 01:00 Planet Sports 02:00 Globe Trekker 03:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 04:00 Chef Abroad 04:30 Flavours Of Peru 05:00 Globe Trekker 06:00 Travel Oz 06:30 Top Travel 07:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 08:00 Chef Abroad 08:30 Floyd Uncorked 09:00 The Big Fish 09:30 Skier’s World 10:00 Globe Trekker 11:00 Planet Food 12:00 Flavours Of Peru 12:30 First Class Italy 13:00 Inside Luxury Travel-Varun Sharma 14:00 Globe Trekker 15:00 Travel Oz 15:30 Chef Abroad 16:00 Flavours Of Peru 16:30 Floyd Uncorked 17:00 Globe Trekker 18:00 Globe Trekker 19:00 Culture Shock 19:30 Travel Today 20:00 The Thrillseekers Guide 20:30 Surfari 21:00 Globe Trekker 22:00 Planet Sports 23:00 Globe Trekker

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Friday, October 22, 2010

N

icolas Cage has been ordered to pay over $2 million to the Nevada State Bank. The 46-year-old actor reportedly owes $2,511,605.74 because of a loan he defaulted on, as well as unpaid taxes, legal costs and lawyer’s fees after his home was repossessed last year, according to RadarOnline.com. Cage’s Las Vegas home was foreclosed - where it is repossessed and sold on to recuperate monies lost in a defaulted loan - late last year, and resold in January at a loss of $3.5million. Documents filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday state Cage will be forced to hand the majority of the money back to the bank he originally borrowed from. He owes $2,300,145.24 for a loan he defaulted on, $106,811.49 for unpaid taxes, property foreclosure costs totally $35,213.90, lawyer’s fees at $24,722.72 and legal costs at $9,915.22. Nicolas will also face a 5.5 per cent interest charge on top of this until he pays it in full. The actor’s financial problems first came to light late last year, when it was revealed he had been forced to put several of his properties on the market after failing to pay millions of dollars of tax. He filed a lawsuit against his former manager Samuel Levin, claiming he led him “down a path of financial ruin”. The legal case was eventually dropped last month, amid claims Nicolas agreed to settle out of court to prevent more embarrassing tales of his huge spending sprees being made public.

K

G

wyneth Paltrow will sing live at the Country Music Association Awards (CMAs) next month.

The actress - who is married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin - will be joined on stage by Vince Gill to sing the title track from her new film ‘Country Strong’. Oscar winner Gwyneth plays a fallen country singer,

who tries to resurrect her career through touring in the film, and director Shana Feste insists the actress put a huge amount of effort into her vocal performance in the movie. Shana told People.com: “She worked very hard on the music. She had guitar lessons and vocal lessons and she took it very, very seriously. “I just knew that she had the chops to do it and I thought that it was a surprising choice. “She’s not who you’d think of when you think country singer. Your mind doesn’t immediately go to Gwyneth Paltrow, but I knew that she had the acting ability to pull it off.” The actress has previously revealed how she researched her role by looking at the history behind some of country music’s legendary figures.

She said: “I sort of started at the beginning with Hank Williams Sr. and Johnny Cash and really studied Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. “I had never really known very much about country music, and I now am very into it. I know a lot more about it than I did.”

Gwyneth, 38, showcased her vocals in 2000 film ‘Duets’, and has also recently signed up to guest star in TV show ‘Glee’ in which she is set to perform three or four solo songs. The Country Music Awards will take place in Nashville on November 10, while ‘Country Strong’ is released in the US on 22 December and elsewhere on 7 January.

aty Perry hid herself under her coat as she arrived in India for her wedding ceremony. The ‘Teenage Dream’ singer and her husband-to-be, comedy actor Russell Brand, tried to avoid photographers at Mumbai airport Wednesday, with Katy seemingly determined to keep her ‘Nath’ - a traditional piece of Indian jewellery extending from her right ear to her nostril - under wraps. The couple then flew to the city of Jaipur before taking a three hour drive to the luxury Aman-I-Khas resort, on the edge of a tiger reserve, where they are believed to be tying the knot tomorrow. Katy’s parents, Keith and Mary Hudson, had earlier arrived at the resort - where guests pay £600 a night to sleep in ‘eco-chic’ luxury tents. Other guests including pop star Rihanna, UK TV personalities Jonathan Ross, David Walliams and their wives and

comedian David Baddiel were also expected to arrive yesterday. Russell, 35, and Katy, 25, are believed to have booked the resort for a week, and hired wedding planner Mindy Weiss to arrange the ceremony. They are rumored to have four days of activities planned for guests in the run up to the ceremony including a tiger safari and feast. A source told the Daily Star newspaper: “Katy and Russell kicked things off by holding a Lagna, or engagement, ceremony.” Katy is also expected to be decorated in traditional henna designs on her hands ahead of the marriage ceremony, while it is rumored Russell will arrive on a white horse. Katy has called for privacy to allow her and Russell to enjoy their big day in peace. She wrote on twitter: “The greatest gift u can give us is respect and love during this private time. (sic)”

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Friday, October 22, 2010

B

eyonce Knowles’ mother has denied her daughter is pregnant. The ‘Halo’ hitmaker was reported to be expecting her first child with her hip-hop superstar husband Jay-Z, but her mother Tina Knowles has rubbished the rumours and joked she is having a baby at the age of 56. Tina said: “The truth is that’s it’s not Beyonce that’s pregnant. It’s me. “I’m kidding y’all. I’m 56. No, no the reports are not true. Not right now ... With all the rumours, by now I should have 5 or 6 grandchildren.” However, Tina’s claims do not appear to have reached friends of the couple - who married in 2008 -

J

ustin Timberlake’s mother is the biggest influence in his life. The ‘SexyBack’ singer - who has been dating actress Jessica Biel for nearly three years - insists his mother Lynn helps him to stay grounded and encourages him to work hard. He said: “My mother Lynn has been a very steadying influence on me. She taught me to work hard to develop my talent and also to respect myself and the people around me. She also encouraged me to be creative and follow my instincts when it came to my music.

“She kept repeating to me, ‘If you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything!’ That’s been my mantra. I think everyone needs to trust in themselves enough not to be afraid to pursue dreams, and to go out and make things happen.” The 29-year-old singerand-actor - whose mother Lynn and father Randall Timberlake, who divorced in 1985 when he was just four years old - also explained he chooses to surround himself with people he has known for a long time who aren’t bothered by his celebrity status. Justin added: “It’s important to have close friends who mean something to you rather than putting importance on what everyone else thinks of you. I’ve always

P

surrounded myself with friends whom I’ve known for a long time and who don’t care about my celebrity status. “These are the people who count in my life, and you have to stay away from those who just want to be part of the ride.”

ink says her favorite hobby is reading. The singer is taking a break from her music career after completing her ‘Funhouse Summer Carnival Tour’ of Europe in July and she admits she is enjoying getting stuck into some books while relaxing with her husband Carey Hart. She wrote on her twitter page: “Spent the entire day finishing my book, soaking in the sunshine. alone time is precious and rare and i am grateful. (sic)” Although she has been enjoying some much deserved

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and they have been rushing to express their delight saying they will make wonderful parents. Record executive Kevin Liles - a close friend of Jay-Z - said: “Jay has been all about family since I met him, and he’s always going to be.

I wish them the best.” Beyonce’s sister Solange added: “She’s got the most beautiful heart. She’ll be a great mom.” Earlier this year, Beyonce, 29, insisted she would start a family when she is ready. She said: “My ambition is to continue to learn about the world and to eventually have a family. There are no dates, no times - it will happen when I am ready.”

K

anye West has replaced his bottom teeth with diamonds. The ‘Golddigger’ rapper - who is known for his extravagant spending habits - removed his entire bottom row of teeth and had a row of precious gems implanted in their place because he thought it was what “rock stars are supposed to do”. In an interview with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, he explained: “It’s really my real teeth. It’s replaced my bottom row of teeth. “I just thought the diamonds were cooler. There’s just certain stuff that rock stars are supposed to do.” It seems the hip-hop star has been considering the sparkling dental work for some time. In July, he posted a picture of himself with what are believed to have been temporary diamond teeth before taking the plunge and in August he wrote: “Diamond teeth ... another reason to smile : ) (sic)” During his chat with Ellen, Kanye also poked fun at the incident from last year’s MTV Video Music Awards - when he stormed on stage during Taylor Swift’s Best Female Video acceptance speech and ranted about how Beyonce Knowles should have won - by interrupting the TV star during a segment. He admitted the controversy had been good for him because it forced him to take a break from music, during which he branched out and worked as a fashion intern. He explained: “It was good just to be around other spaces because the creativity in other fields inspired what I did in music.

When I finally decided to go back to music, I realised the power I had in that space, and the responsibility I had to keep on pushing the genre forward.”

time off, Pink is also gearing up to release a best of album - ‘Greatest Hits ... So Far!!!’. The LP is out in November and contains all of her most successful singles, including ‘Get the Party Started’, ‘Trouble’ and ‘Stupid Girls’, as well as new song ‘Raise Your Glass’. The 31-year-old pop star spent almost two years on the road after undertaking a mammoth world tour in 2009 in support of her fifth studio album ‘Funhouse’ before embarking on her 2010 dates.

B

ruce Willis told his teenage daughter to shave her head to stop her having bad hair days. The ‘RED’ actor - who has three daughters, Rumer, 22, Scout, 19, and 16-yearold Tallulah, with ex-wife Demi Moore - says his youngest was moaning about the state of her tresses so Bruce advised her to take inspiration from him by shaving them all off. He said: “My 16-year-old daughter Tallulah was complaining recently about how much work it is to wash and blow dry her long hair. If you had my hair style you’d be done in five

minutes. You’d save a lot of time! Men like me have more important things to do than worry about a haircut.” Bruce, 55, enjoys every moment of being a father to his daughters and recently said he hadn’t ruled out having more children with new wife Emma Heming. He said: “I wouldn’t be surprised. Anything is possible. I can’t predict the future but anything is possible. Being married to Emma feels great. I’m so happy with her and we try to spend every free minute together.” — Bang Showbiz

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Friday, October 22, 2010

Penthouse magazine founder

Bob Guccione dies at 79 B

ob Guccione tried the seminary and spent years trying to make it as an artist before he found the niche that Hugh Hefner left for him in the late 1960s.

Where Hefner’s Playboy magazine strove to surround its pinups with an upscale image, Guccione aimed for something a little more direct with Penthouse.

More explicit nudes.

Sensational stories. Even more sensational letters that began, “Dear Penthouse, I never thought I’d be writing you...” It worked for decades for Guccione, who died Wednesday in Texas at the age of 79. He estimated that Penthouse earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher. He was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people with a net worth of about $400 million in 1982.

In 1984 it was the magazine that took down Miss America, publishing nude pictures of

lung cancer for several years.

Guccione started Penthouse in 1965 in England to subsidize his art career and was the magazine’s first photographer. He introduced the magazine to the American public in 1969 at the height of the feminist movement and the sexual revolution.

Penthouse quickly posed a challenge to Playboy by offering a mix of tabloid journalism with provocative photos of nude women. The centerfolds were dubbed Penthouse Pets. “We followed the philosophy of voyeurism,” Guccione told The Independent newspaper in London in 2004. He added that he attained a stylized eroticism in his photography by posing his models looking away from the camera.

“To see her as if she doesn’t know she’s being seen,” he said. “That was the sexy part. That was the part that none of our competition understood.” Guccione built a

his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures.

Probably his best-known business failure was a $17.5 million investment in the 1979 production of the X-rated film “Caligula.”

Malcolm McDowell was cast as the decadent emperor of the title, and

Media’s most popular DVD. Guccione also lost millions on a proposed Atlantic City casino. He never received a gambling license and construction of the casino stalled. Legal fees further eroded his fortune. Among those who sued were televangelist Jerry

In this May 12, 2002 file photo, Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione leaves federal court in New York. Guccione died Wednesday.

He was 79. —AP

In this June 4, 1986 file photo, “Penthouse” publisher and founder Bob Guccione holds up his magazine Penthouse and Playboy magazine at a news conference announcing his anti-censorship campaign at Penthouse magazine offices in New York. — AP Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to hold the title. Williams, who went on to fame as a singer and actress, was forced to relinquish her crown after the release of the issue, which sold nearly 6 million copies and reportedly made $14 million. But Guccione’s empire fell apart thanks to several bad investments and changes in the pornography industry, which became flooded with competition as it migrated from print to video and the Internet. His company, his worldclass art collection, his huge Manhattan mansion — all of it, sold off.

Guccione’s family said in a statement that he died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano. His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, had said he had battled

corporate empire under the General Media Inc. umbrella that included book publishing and merchandising divisions and Viva, a magazine featuring male nudes aimed at a female audience. He also created Penthouse Forum, the pocket-size magazine that played off the success of the racy letters to the editor.

Guccione and longtime business collaborator Kathy Keeton, who later became his third wife, also published more mainstream fare, such as Omni magazine, which focused on science and science fiction, and Longevity, a health advice magazine. Keeton died of cancer in 1997 following surgery, but Guccione continued to list her on the Penthouse masthead as president. Guccione lost much of

In this May 14, 1982 file photo, Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione poses in his New York mansion with an over-sized gavel his daughter gave him after he was victorious in a California court battle. the supporting cast included Helen Mirren, John Gielgud and Peter O’Toole. Distributors shunned the film, with its graphic scenes of lesbianism and incest. However, it eventually became General

Falwell, a California resort, a former Miss Wyoming and a Penthouse Pet who accused Guccione of forcing her to perform sexual favors for business colleagues. In 1985, Guccione had to pay $45 million in delinquent taxes. The next year, US Attorney General Edwin Meese’s Commission on Pornography issued a report attacking the adult entertainment industry. Guccione called the report “disgraceful” and doubted it would have any impact, but newsstands and convenience stores responded by pulling Penthouse from their magazine racks. Sales dropped after the Meese commission report and years later took another hit with the proliferation of X-rated videos and Web sites. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Penthouse’s circulation dipped below 1 million in the late 1990s and fell to about 463,000 in 2003, the year General Media Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Over the first six months of 2010, Penthouse reported circulation of barely 178,000.

“The future has definitely migrated to electronic media,” Guccione acknowledged in a 2002 New York Times interview. In 2004, a private-equity investor from Florida acquired Penthouse in a bankruptcy sale. Penthouse and related properties are now owned

by FriendFinder Networks Inc., a

Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that offers social networking and online adult entertainment, including some with the Penthouse brand. FriendFinder made a bid this year for Playboy, which now outsells Penthouse roughly 10 to one, but Hefner has rejected it.

Guccione was born in Brooklyn and attended prep school in New Jersey. He spent several months in a Catholic seminary before dropping out to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. He wandered Europe as a painter for several years. April Guccione said her husband was working as a cartoonist and a manager of selfservice laundries in London when he got the idea of starting a magazine more explicit and aimed more squarely at “regular guys” than Playboy, which cultivated an upscale image. Guccione’s staff, which included family members, often described the publisher as mercurial. “He was a mass of contradictions, engendering fierce loyalty and equally fierce contempt,” wrote Patricia Bosworth in a 2005 Vanity Fair article about Guccione, for whom she had worked as executive editor of Viva. “He hired and fired people — then rehired them. He could be warm and funny one minute and cold and detached the next.” Guccione’s management style even sparked a rift with his own son, Bob Guccione Jr. In 1985, the publisher helped his son launch the music magazine Spin, with Bob Jr. serving as editor and publisher. After just two years, the two clashed over the direction of the magazine and the elder Guccione decided to shut it down, forcing his son to secure outside funding.

Success as a publisher allowed Guccione to amass an impressive art collection, which included paintings by El Greco, Modigliani, Dali, Degas, Matisse and Picasso.

The works adorned his 30-room, 22,000-square-foot mansion in New York City. Guccione’s financial problems forced him to sell his art collection in 2002 at auction. The collection had been appraised by Christie’s at $59 million two years earlier. Four years later, he was forced to sell his Manhattan mansion.

Guccione eventually went back to painting, and his works were shown at venues including the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio and the Nassau County Museum of Art in New York, said April Guccione, who married him in 2006. The couple moved from New Jersey to Texas in 2009.

Married four times, Guccione had a daughter, Tonina, from his first marriage and three sons, Bob Jr., Tony, and Nick, and a daughter, Nina, from his second marriage.

April Guccione said services for her husband will be private. — AP

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Friday, October 22, 2010

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German inmates bring Mozart opera to life C

riminals sitting out long-term sentences were given a rare opportunity to break down the figurative walls between prison life and freedom by joining local students in staging an opera near Frankfurt. All five shows in the production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” took place inside prisons in the region, but the organizers hope to take the show out to the public next year.

This year’s last performance was at a prison in the town of Butzbach, north of Frankfurt, on Wednesday evening.

Some 80 local inmates clad in uniforms of dark trousers and red shirts, as well as outside guests, attended the show in the towering 116-year-old brickfaced facility’s gymnasium, under the watchful eyes of uniformed guards.

Visitors had to follow the prison’s security procedures, handing over photo identification at the gate, being checked with hand-held metal detectors and walked across the gravelled yard by a prison guard in cold October rain. Frankfurt actress and comedian Maja Wolff started the

project three years ago with musician Ulrike Pfeifer, and this is the third production the duo has put on so far.

This year’s project brings together male and female inmates for the first time, which has posed considerable challenges. The male and female inmates were not allowed to rehearse together, so they learned their lines and steps separately and met for the first time at dress rehearsal on opening night.

“The project is really great for the prisoners because they can work on

something with the students. And for the students, it’s a social project,” Wolff said. The performance of The Magic Flute mixed familiar elements of Mozart’s opera with modern features, such as a rap song by the character of Papagena-the woman chosen for lonely bird catcher Papageno-and narration by surly television reporter Klara Fall who interviews the Queen of the Night on stage. Puns and allusions to prison life evoked laughter and applause from the audience, most of whom are serving

long prison sentences in Butzbach.

The audience was left wondering who among the performers on the stage was a student and who was an inmate.

Familiar recorded tracks were intermingled with live chorus songs and percussion techniques familiar from groups such as Stomp and Blue Man Group. They evoked hearty applause, whistles and a standing ovation for the amateur actors from the prisoners in the audience before the inmates were shepherded back to their cell blocks. —Reuters

Russian Yulianna Avdeeva tops Chopin competition

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ussian Yulianna Avdeeva won the prestigious XVI International Chopin Piano Competition, marking the bicentennial of the composer’s birth, in Warsaw late Wednesday. Avdeeva, 25, is the sixth Russian to win the competition which takes place once every five years and is dedicated to the 19th century Franco-Polish composer and pianist who was born in Zelazowa Wola, near the Polish capital.

“I’m very surprised. But it’s a very nice surprise. I want to thank all the Warsaw audience, which was really great,” Avdeeva told reporters in Poland’s National Philharmonic in Warsaw, minutes after her victory was announced. She takes home a gold medal with a cheque for 30,000 euros (42,000 dollars) and will also have the honour of playing at the New York Philharmonic and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra.

Born July 3, 1985 in Moscow, Avdeeva earned her degree at the Zurich’s Hochschule der Kunste and the Italy’s Lago di Como International Academy. She won second prize in the 2006 edition of the Geneva International Music Competition.

Lukas Geniusus, 20, representing Russia and Lithuania, and Austrian Ingolf Wunder, 25, were both awarded second place at the grand finale. The third spot went to Russia’s Daniil Trifonov.

“This was a very interesting competition. There were various styles with some competitors playing Chopin in a very lyrical, melancholy fashion,” jury president Professor Andrzej Jansinski told AFP. A total of 81 young pianists from 23 countries qualified for the event which opened September 30.

Known for its difficulty, the competition demands perfection in the execution of all Chopin’s music: nocturnes and mazurkas, the Polish, sonatas and two concertos.

This year the pressure on the candidates was even greater than usual as the world celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Chopin. This year’s event also placed more emphasis on emotion, passion and great personalities ahead of the academic spirit of previous editions.

Past winners include such renowned pianists as Bella Davidovich and Halina Czerny-Stefanska (1950), Maurizio Pollini (1960), Martha Argerich (1965), Garrick Ohlsson (1970), Krystian Zimerman (1975), Dang Thai Son (1980), Stanislav Bunin (1985), Alexei Sultanov and Philippe Giusiano (1995), Yundi Li (2000) and Rafal Blechacz (2005). After spending the first 20 years of his life in Poland, Chopin left his native country in November 1830, just before a major Polish uprising against Tsarist Russia.

He lived in Vienna and then settled in Paris, where he died on October 17, 1849 at the age of 39 of what is believed to have been tuberculosis. —AFP

Russia’s Yulianna Avdeeva, center, reacts as she is named the winner of the 16th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday.

—AP

Nelly Furtado prepping new hits, studio album A

s Nelly Furtado prepares to survey the first decade of her recording career with the Nov. 15 release of a hits package, the Canadian singer said she’s “just over sort of halfway done” with her next studio album.

Tentatively titled “Lifestyle,” the new album will be due out in 2011.

“I’m a little bit picky, so I’m kind of going through all kinds of material,” Furtado told Billboard.com. “There’s new material I’m writing and old material that’s... very good and hasn’t been re-approached.”

Furtado predicted the set will be “eclectic” and influenced by the wide-ranging approach of her double-platinum 2000 debut, “Whoa, Nelly!,” as well as the vocal work she did on her 2009 Spanish album “Mi Plan.” “I think that from singing the Spanish album I’ve learned a new confidence as a vocalist,” Furtado explained. “And I think there’s a little bit more of an alternative influence on this new album, kind

of how my first album was definitely inspired and partially influenced by ‘alternative’ music.”

Furtado has been recording primarily with Salaam Remi, who co-produced “Night is Young,” the first single and one of three new tracks on forthcoming, “The Best of Nelly Furtado.” She also “experimented” with reggae with Stupid Genius and has worked with Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos.

The new album will also be Furtado’s first to feature only English songs, she said. The album is on hold right now, however, as Furtado focuses on “The Best of...” The disc will be released in a single-disc standard edition as well as a deluxe package that includes two CDs and a DVD; in addition to “Night is Young.” It also includes the unreleased songs “Stars” and “Girlfriend in the City,” all of which were originally slated for the next album.

“I think it’s a fun thing to celebrate,” said Furtado, who will

appear on the Latin Grammy Awards on Nov 11 in Las Vegas “I’m proud of the fact that (‘Whoa, Nelly!’) came out a full 10 years ago and you can still put it on and it sounds like something that’s on the radio now. “At the time we were just kind of making music we felt like listening to, which is what I’ve always done since.”

—Reuters

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Friday, October 22, 2010

‘Paranormal 2’ sequel set to rattle box office

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ox-office expectations have levitated for the second installment in the lowbudget “Paranormal Activity” franchise. Production costs on “Paranormal Activity 2” also rose from the $15,000 in pocket change and candy wrappers spent to produce its predecessor, which ended up grossing $108 million at the North American box office last year. Paramount shelled out a whopping $1 million-plus to produce the follow-up, which opens today and is actually a prequel.

“Paranormal 2” looks likely to conjure $18 million-$22 million through Sunday. That should be plenty to justify marketing costs of $25 million or so, with foreign grosses and ancillary revenue also likely to be substantial. Like the original, the prequel is expected to play mostly to younger crowds and skew a bit female. Unlike the first picture, “Paranormal 2” is expected to do most of its business during its opening weekend, which will be padded by screenings at midnight yesterday in most locations.

“Paranormal Activity” creeped into the marketplace with just $77,873 from 12 theaters during its low-profile launch last September.

Within three weeks of that Internet-hyped limited bow, the micro-budgeted franchise-starter had widened to 760 theaters and $33 million in cumulative sales amid broadening buzz among more mainstream moviegoers.

The first “Paranormal” also copped $85.4 million in foreign lucre. “Paranormal 2” bows this week in 21 international territories. As for whether it can open at No 1, its main competition is a holdover from ... Paramount. In fact, perhaps this weekend’s most intriguing question among boxoffice watchers is whether the second-session decline for Paramount’s “Jackass 3D” will prove as remarkably hefty as its surprising $50.4 million bow.

Such youthful and fan-driven movies often drop 65%-70% from their first-frame tallies, and there is little reason to believe the “Jackass” threequel will escape a similar fate.

Paramount’s scheduling of the “Paranormal 2” opening for this weekend suggests that its executives expect a quick burnout by the dangerous-pranks pic; a 70% drop would yield a $15 million frame and prevent “Jackass 3D” from repeating at No 1.

Also this weekend, Warner Bros. widens Clint Eastwood’s Matt Damon starrer “Hereafter” to 2,181 locations after one session of limited play. The fantasy-tinged drama rang up $220,322 from six theaters, or an auspicious $36,720 per venue. As usual for Eastwood pics, “Hereafter” attracted mostly older audiences during its first frame. So in keeping with its established strategy, Warners will attempt to run a successful marathon built on a smattering of critical faves included among mixed-to-positive reviews of the film. — Reuters

A woman visits the Fiac international contemporary art fair, on October 20, 2010 at the Grand Palais in Paris. —AFP

NZ may lose Hobbit filming over actor dispute N

ew Zealand may lose the filming of “The Hobbit” movies because of an actors’ pay dispute, with financial backers Warner Bros. making arrangements to shift the production elsewhere, director Peter Jackson warned yesterday.

The “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy based on the J R R Tolkien novels relied heavily on the rugged landscape of New Zealand, which in turn received a tourism boost after becoming associated with Tolkien’s Middle Earth fantasy world inhabited by hairy-footed little people and host of other colorful beings. But the $500 million, twomovie prequel, “The Hobbit,” may end up shooting somewhere else, Jackson’s Wingnut Films said.

The New Zealand union, Actors Equity, insisted the dispute was being resolved and that it had lifted its work bans on the project, while foreign counterparts, including the powerful U.S. Screen Actors Guild that had backed the boycott, said its members were now free to work on the films.

But senior producers in Jackson’s company said it may be too late to save the production in New Zealand.

Fran Walsh, Jackson’s partner and co-producer, said Warner Bros. already had an executive in England scoping locations and assessing the studio used for shooting the Harry Potter series to relocate “The Hobbit” movies. Why would Warner Bros. “go to a place where they’re almost guaranteed industrial action during

In this photo taken June 28, 2010, a sculpture of Gollum, the villainous “Lord of the Rings” hobbit, stands in front of a welcome sign, in Hobbiton Town, Matamata, New Zealand.—AP the shoot?” Walsh told New Zealand’s National Radio yesterday.

“They are saying they need stability and certainty and that’s no longer here, they can protect their investment better elsewhere.”

Jackson’s company, Wingnut Films, said in a statement that Warner Bros. representatives were coming to New Zealand next week “to make arrangements to move the production offshore” because “they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their investment.” The industrial dispute began in late September when Actors Equity arranged an international boycott of the movies when Jackson refused to hold talks on a union-negotiated collective

agreement on wages and conditions for local actors, saying they should get a deal that matched those of their international colleagues.

Jackson and the films’ backers, Warner Bros., MGM and New Line Cinema, said a collective agreement would expose Wingnut to unfair liabilities and sanctions under New Zealand law. They said the actors would be employed as independent contractors, with pay and conditions based on the local industry’s standard working conditions. The Screen Actors Guild and British actors joined the work blacklist of “The Hobbit,” which is expected to include Sir Ian McKellen reprising the role of the wizard Galdalf from the Rings movies.

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said yesterday the industrial issues were on the way to being resolved and the blacklist was lifted on Sunday.

“New Zealand performers want the movie made here as much as anyone,” she said. In a statement posted Wednesday on its website, the Screen Actors Guild advised members it had lifted its blacklist on “The Hobbit” after advice from the New Zealand union and that members were free to work on the film. Jackson said in his statement the dispute had already done serious damage by undermining Warner Bros. confidence in the New Zealand industry.

“Unfortunately lifting the blacklist does nothing to help the situation,” the statement said.

Warner Bros. did not immediately comment on the situation. Jackson denied being anti-union on TV One’s “Close Up” program yesterday.

“I’m in four unions,” he said, adding that “people have the right to have the best terms and conditions they possibly can.” The union boycott was “the actions of a few actors ... who don’t honestly understand the repercussions of the situation.” It was “absolute rubbish” to suggest the films were being deliberately moved away from New Zealand by the studios for financial reasons, he said in his first interview on the issue, noting it was being done “on sets ... that are being built to shoot on. This is Gollum’s Cave, for God’s sake.” —AP

Shyamalan developing film for Jaden Smith

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Night Shyamalan is in Hollywood this week putting together his next directorial effort which will see him working with Will Smith. But it won’t be the secret untitled project he shopped around in June. That script, which came with Bruce Willis, Bradley Cooper and Gwyneth Paltrow loosely attached, never found a buyer and was quietly

shelved. That’s not to say Shyamalan has lost his love for secrecy sources are saying Shyamalan is developing an ultra clandestine sci-fi project titled “One Thousand A. E.” at Smith’s Overbrook production company.

It would star Smith’s son, Jaden, who headlined the hit remake of “Karate Kid.” There is a key role for a male adult, although sources

said Will Smith is not taking it on. As was also the case with recent film “The Last Airbender,” Shyamalan did not write “A E”. That honor goes to Gary Whitta, who wrote “The Book of Eli” and a Kurt Russell project in development called “Undying.” “A E” has no studio home yet although Overbrook has a first-look deal with Sony, which will likely be its home.—Reuters

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Friday, October 22, 2010

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Bollywood looks for Diwali success B

ollywood is gearing up for a slew of new releases over the Hindu festival of Diwali, with expectations high that they will provide some cheer after a lacklustre year at the box office. At least 10 big films are due to hit the screens in the coming weeks, with hopes of success pinned on the comedy “Golmaal 3” and the time-travel romance “Action Replayy” (eds: correct) that will be released on Diwali itself on November 5.

Like the Christmas period for Hollywood, Diwali has traditionally been seen as a money-spinner for India’s Hindi-language film industry, as studios look to attract the holiday crowd with well-trailed movies featuring big name stars. Industry watchers estimate that Bollywood could make four billion rupees (90 million dollars) by the end of the year.

“The year has not been so good,” said leading analyst Amod Mehra. “The success ratio has been very low. The worst period for the industry was in May and June when two films, ‘Kites’ and ‘Raavan’ bombed badly. “The losses from these two films was two billion rupees and it was a huge blow. “A ray of hope has been provided by two films, ‘Dabaang’ (Fearless) and ‘Robot’. Things are looking very promising this festive season.” “Dabaang”, starring Salman Khan, grossed 10.8 million dollars during its opening weekend last month, surpassing the record of Aamir Khan’s hit “3 Idiots”, which took nine million dollars earlier this year. The sci-fi fantasy

Bollywood film actors and cast members Hrithik Roshan (L) and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (2L), Amitabh Bachchan (R), producer Ronnie Screwwala (C) attend a musical evening featuring the soundtrack of upcoming Hindi film ‘Guzaarish’ directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2R) in Mumbai Wednesday. —AFP adventure “Robot”, made in three languages and starring the South Indian film legend Rajinikanth, opened two weeks ago and took more than double that, according to industry figures.

Trailers for “Golmaal 3” have been well

Mysterious French street artist JR wins coveted TED Prize

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mysterious French artist that uses bleak streets in cities around the world as frames for his photos has won a TED Prize of 100,000 dollars and help in changing the world for the better. Organizers of TED, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to cultivating ideas and innovation through its prestigious conferences, described the man known only as “JR” as a “true humanitarian” whose art inspires people to look at the world differently and want to work to make it better.

“JR’s mind-blowing creations have inspired people to see art where they wouldn’t expect it and create it when they didn’t know they could,” said TED Prize director Amy Novogratz. “He’s putting a human face on some of the most critical social issues while redefining how we view, make and display art.” The artist doesn’t reveal his full face, name, or the intended meaning of his poster-sized images.

He has mounted his enormous black-and-white photos on buildings in slums around Paris; on walls in the Middle East; on dilapidated bridges in Africa, and on homes in Brazilian shanty towns. JR put images of a rabbi, an imam, and a priest on walls in Israel and Palestine. His “Women Are Heroes” display turned a Kenyan town into a “stunning gallery of local faces,” according to TED. “JR has moved all of us at the TED Prize,” Novogratz said. “There is no doubt that his talent, paired with the resources of this amazing community, will lead to a wish that changes the world.” Each year, TED grants prizes to people with track records of doing good and visions of changing the world for the better. Prize winners each get 100,000 dollars each and a wish at which “Tedsters” can aim resources, influence and abilities.

TED is known for its mix of brilliant, accomplished people and annual conferences that attract members ranging from celebrities and politicians to Nobel Prize winners and founders of Internet titans such as Google and Amazon. JR will get a chance to reveal his wish at a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference in the Southern California city of Long Beach from February 28 to March 4 next year. — AFP

received, amid hopes it can repeat the success of previous editions of the comic capers of a group of young friends.

“Expectations are huge from ‘Golmaal 3’,” said critic Komal Nahta. “It’s a sure shot winner. It’s the same with ‘Action

Replayy’.” “Golmaal 3” stars Ajay Devgn and Kareena Kapoor with a return to the screens for veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty, “the Indian James Bond”, whose spy films from the 1980s have become cult hits.

“Action Replayy” sees Akshay Kumar go back in time to the 1970s to try to save his parents’ ailing marriage.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan-fresh from her success alongside Rajinikanth in “Robot”-also stars, with a supporting cast of huge flares, wing collars and platform shoes.

A successful Diwali would raise spirits in Bollywood, which was hit last year by a producers’ boycott of multiplex cinemas, swine flu fears and a string of big budget failures. The economic downturn also affected overseas takings.

Overall revenues fell 14 percent to 89.3 billion rupees in 2009, consultancy KPMG said in a report for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The chief executive of the Star India group, Uday Shankar, told Businessworld magazine this month that only 14 of the 235 films released in the 12 months to August this year made a net profit. Concerns have been expressed about the fees demanded by some leading actors and the need for studios to diversify revenue streams through cable and satellite television rights, the DVD home rental market and music downloads. Salman Khan also echoed another long-standing worry in an interview with Businessworld.

“Perhaps not enough attention is paid to the script or sometimes viewers just don’t like the film,” he was quoted as saying. “There are many entertainment options these days. It is a difficult phase for the industry but the show must go on.” —AFP

Folk artists from the Indian state of Rajasthan perform during the inauguration of the two day Rajasthan festival held as part of tourism promotion in Jammu, India, Wednesday.

—AP

Racy “Glee” photos in GQ kick up a storm

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racy photo shoot for men’s magazine GQ featuring three “Glee” cast members raised eyebrows on Wednesday, provoking terms like “creepy” and “pedophilia” and questions over whether the popular TV musical show is becoming over-exposed.

Short skirts, high heels, scanty panties and provocative poses featuring lollipops dominate the November issue photoshoot featuring Lea Michele (Rachel), Dianna Agron (Quinn) and Corey Monteith (Finn) that plays with the high school setting of the Emmy-award winning television show. All three actors are in their 20s. The Parents Television Council watchdog group said the photos “border on pedophilia,” given the adult male readership of

GQ. “This is just the latest example of the overt sexualization of young girls in entertainment,” the PTC added.

“Glee”, a sometimes dark, subversive comedy featuring a high school choir, has taken U.S. pop culture by storm since its 2009 debut. Superstars like Madonna, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga readily agreed to license their songs to the show.

The program has produced three best-selling albums, won two Emmys and deals boldly with issues like sex, disability, and gay bullying. It is regularly watched by some 13.4 million U.S. viewers and has a strong youth following. Broadcaster Fox on Wednesday declined to comment on the PTC statement. But GQ editor in chief Jim Nelson said

that the watchdog group “should learn to divide reality from fantasy.” “As often happens in Hollywood, these ‘kids’ are in their twenties. Cory Monteith’s almost 30. I think they’re old enough to do what they want,” Nelson said Bob Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, brushed off the PTC comments, noting that “Glee” had never been a “kiddie show” despite attracting teens.

“From the very beginning, ‘Glee’ has dealt with pot, teen pregnancy and gay sexuality.

“This is a show that has definitely got adult themes. The GQ shoot demonstrates it isn’t just a show for teeny boppers,” Thompson told Reuters. But Salon.com writer Mary Elizabeth Williams said GQ’s playing up of the sexy

teen angle was “just creepy”.

Los Angeles Times TV writer Mary McNamara, noting that Monteith remains fully clothed, expressed dismay that young women still feel the need to pose so provocatively. Michele, she wrote “seems to be auditioning for a live action version of Japanese anime porn.” The Washington Post’s Celebritology blog said the GQ shoot was “the latest evidence that the ‘Glee’ hype machine might be starting to spiral out of control”.

Thompson said he had long felt that “Glee” is over-rated by the media. But he noted that one of its consistent themes was tolerance and “that’s a pretty good message for a kid, even though it gets there with a lot of dicey content.” — Reuters

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SPORTS

Friday, October 22, 2010

LOS ANGELES: Jack Johnson No. 3 of the Los Angeles Kings and Jeff Skinner No. 53 of the Carolina Hurricanes battle for the puck during the third period at Staples Center.—AFP

Blackhawks beat Canucks in shootout

CHICAGO: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane scored in the first three rounds of a shootout to give Chicago a 2-1 victory over Vancouver on Wednesday night, extending the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks’ winning streak to four games.

Kane scored on a backhander in the third round, sending the puck between Patrick Luongo’s legs.

Vancouver’s Mikael Samuelsson then sent a backhand attempt wide.

Samuelsson was the only shooter to miss. Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler converted for Vancouver in the first two rounds. Sedin and Chicago’s Viktor Stalberg scored in regulation.

Kings 4, Hurricanes 3 At Los Angeles, Andrei Loktionov scored his first NHL goal from behind the Carolina net early in the third period as Los Angeles completed a perfect three-game homestand.

Anze Kopitar scored his first goal of the season for the Kings, who lost star defenseman Drew Doughty to an upper-body injury while earning their fourth win in five games.

Ryan Smyth and Michal Handzus scored firstperiod goals for Los Angeles, but Carolina rookie Jeff Skinner’s first NHL goal evened it heading to the third. Chad LaRose and Eric Staal also scored for Carolina.

Blue Jackets 3, Ducks 1 At Columbus, Rick Nash scored two goals and Steve Mason stopped 31 shots to lead Columbus over Anaheim before 9,802 fans — the smallest home crowd in Blue Jackets history. Derek MacKenzie also scored for the Blue Jackets, who had been pushed around in a 5-2 loss to Stanley Cup champion Chicago last week in their home opener.

Teemu Selanne scored his 609th career goal for Anaheim. The previous low attendance for the Blue Jackets, in their 10th season, was 10,494, also against Anaheim on Oct. 27, 2008.

Sabres 4, Thrashers 1 At Atlanta, Tyler Myers and Cody McCormick scored early in the second period, and Ryan Miller

made 17 saves to help Buffalo end a five-game winless streak. Tyler Ennis and Thomas Vanek also scored for Buffalo. The Sabres, the defending Northeast Division champions, were 0-4-1 since winning their opener at Ottawa. Tobias Enstrom scored for Atlanta.

Meanwhile, reigning world champions Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi of Japan will highlight this

weekend’s NHK Trophy, the first event of the International Skating Union’s 2010/2011 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series.

Asada, who won the silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics and is a two-time world champion, will be competing in her first event under new coach Nobuo Sato. In the pairs event, Olympic silver medalists and world champions Pang Qing and

Japan’s world champions favorites at GP opener NAGOYA: Japan’s world champions Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi have warned that they are ready to spark up the new figure skating season as the Grand Prix series opens this week in a post-Olympic lull.

Both Olympic women’s and men’s gold medallists Kim Yu-Na of South Korea and Evan Lysacek of the United States will not be competing in the high-profile six-event calendar starting with the NHK Trophy on Friday in Nagoya.

Four of the Olympic men’s top six are Grand Prix no-shows, including Russia’s silver medal winner Yevgeny Plushenko. But Asada and Takahashi promised to add fresh excitement to the start of a new four-year cycle leading up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

“In this interim season, I want to put my jumps back in shape,” said Asada, who became the first woman at February’s Vancouver Olympics to land three triple axels in the same competition.

She finished runner-up to her longtime rival Kim in Vancouver as the Korean excelled in triple jumps including triple-triple combinations to win the gold with a world record score. But Asada beat Kim in March to win her second world title.

Asada and Kim, both of whom turned 20 in September and changed their main coaches for the new season, are on course to clash at next year’s world championshipsto be held in Tokyo.

“I need to act as a grown-up woman in my short programme. But in my free programme I’d rather skate the way I feel like skating,” she said.

“This is the first season in my 20s and it is very important.”

Asada’s short programme is based on Tango

by Alfred Schnittke while Liebestraum by Franz Liszt is the music for her free skate.

She has chosen Japanese Nobuo Sato as her new main coach to replace Russian Tatiana Tarasova, whose choice of sombre themes was partly blamed for Asada’s struggle. Tarasova remains as the choreographer for her short programme.

Sato, 68, has trained top Japanese skaters including his daughter Yuka, the 1994 world champion, and Miki Ando, the 2007 world champion.

Italy’s three-time European champion Carolina Kostner, the 2008 world silver medallist, may pose some challenge to Asada along with a trio of young Americans - Rachael Flatt, Ashley Wagner and Caroline Zhang. —AFP

Tong Jian of China are also competing, meaning three of the four world senior champions are taking part in the season-opening event.

Jeremy Abbott, the two-time defending national champion, will be among 13 skaters representing the United States. Others include national champion Rachael Flatt and reigning ice dancing silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

The 20-year-old Asada parted ways with Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova after the world championships in March and announced the appointment of Sato last month. Asada’s main rival, Olympic gold medalist Kim Yu-na of South Korea, is not competing at the NHK event. Kim recently changed coaches and has not yet finalized her competition schedule.

There are signs Asada has some work to do as the season begins. She under-rotated her triple axel and finished fifth out of six skaters at the Japan Open team event earlier this month.

“I’m still far away from where I want to be,” Asada said. “But now that I’ve skated my new program I’m sure I can improve by doing what I do in training.”

Asada’s main competition here is expected to come from 2008 world silver medalist Carolina Kostner of Italy, world junior champion Kanako Murakami of Japan and Caroline Zhang of the United States.

Asada is coming off a disappointing performance in the 2009 Grand Prix series, where she failed to make the final for the first time in her career.

Takahashi, winner of the bronze medal in Vancouver, will showcase a new program at the NHK. In addition to Abbott, his main competition is expected to come from world junior champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, two-time European bronze medalist Kevin van der Perren of Belgium and France’s Florent Amodio.

Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek is absent, as are Olympic pairs champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China. The Grand Prix series consists of six international events in a cumulative, pointscoring format. The top six scoring skaters in each discipline move onto the Grand Prix Final scheduled for Dec. 9-12, in Beijing. Competition begins Friday with the short dance and the women’s and pairs short programs. — AP

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YEONGAM: (Left-right) McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain, Red Bull-Renault driver Mark Webber of Australia, McLaren-Mercedes driver Jenson Button of Britain and Red Bull-Renault driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany pose for photographers before a press conference at the Korean International Circuit. — AFP

F1 title contenders agree anything can happen YEONGAM: Formula One’s five title contenders lined up together at South Korea’s new circuit yesterday and agreed that the championship was still wide open.

Australian Mark Webber leads Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his own Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel by 14 points with three races remaining, including Sunday’s inaugural Grand Prix at the new Yeongam circuit.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is a further 14 points back, with team mate and reigning champion Jenson Button fifth and three more adrift.

“No one in this room knows what’s going to happen in the next three races, nobody,” Webber told a news conference with the other four after they had all

posed for a group photograph on the pit wall.

That image harked back to a similar one, now a classic in Formula One lore, of the four championship contenders from 1986 — Brazilians Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, Frenchman Alain Prost and Britain’s Nigel Mansell.

“We can talk here for hours about what we’re going to do, what’s going to happen, this and that, upside down, inside out. No one knows, so we’re going to go out there, do our stuff,” Webber added.

“Clearly Seb and I have had a good season. We’re both in with a chance of doing quite well in the championship and also the team is doing well in the constructors’, because both of us obviously are getting

quite a few points.” Red Bull are 45 points clear of McLaren in the team standings.

Sunday’s race could be Button’s last chance but the Briton refused to give up hope. “Every time we go to a race it seems this is the critical race,” he declared. “It is obviously a lot more difficult for us to win the world championship this year but we have seen in past seasons that anything is possible.”

The example of Kimi Raikkonen, who won the 2007 title for Ferrari after coming from 17 points down with two races remaining, is a reminder of that. Vettel, for one, was not counting on lightning striking twice.

“Of course he showed it’s possible but he also did his maximum and he won those races but it also

required the others not to finish in the points or not to finish high up,” he said.

“So I don’t think you can really compare. I think it will be different this year. “I think all of us could be very strong potentially here, so we need to see how it goes,” Vettel added.

Hamilton, who lost that lead to Raikkonen and now finds himself hoping to perform a similarly remarkable comeback, felt anything was possible.

“I don’t think the gap is that big, so it’s not impossible,” he said. “We’ve outqualified them (Red Bull)... what was it, one race maybe? So they’ve had more than a few pole positions but no, I think we can close the gap, hopefully.” — Reuters

Alonso hails season as his best ever YEONGAM: Double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso put his past success with Renault in perspective yesterday by hailing the current season with Ferrari as his best ever.

Winner of four races with the Italian team, which he joined from Renault at the end of last year after one season with McLaren in 2007, the Spaniard lies second overall in the championship.

Despite being 14 points behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber with three races remaining, including Sunday’s inaugural South Korean Grand Prix, Alonso said his campaign had been a great experience on many levels.

“For me personally it has been a great 2010 championship, driving for a new team,” he told a news conference at the Korea International Circuit.

“Great integration with Ferrari from day one, I felt very comfortable. It has been probably the best year of my career so far,” declared the man who won his titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006.

“A great experience, very happy. So, now, in the last three races we will try and arrive in a position to fight for the championship in Abu Dhabi.”

Alonso had a close relationship with team boss Flavio Briatore at Renault

until the Italian left under a cloud when a race-fixing scandal broke last year.

The flamboyant Briatore, who remains banned from any active role inside the Formula One paddock until 2013, is still Alonso’s manager.

Questioned further about his season, Alonso said that even if it was not yet finished it was still the best “in terms of happiness, motivation, driving and the team itself.

“Obviously it would be nice to become champion this year,” added the Spaniard, who stayed out in Asia after the Japanese Grand Prix. “But even if we cannot do it, I will have great, great memories of 2010.”

Five drivers are fighting for the title, with Alonso level on points with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 champion, and reigning champion Jenson Button are 28 and 31 points behind Webber respectively.

Alonso had some engine problems earlier in the season but he said the risk of having to use more than his allocation and picking up a penalty was no longer a concern.

“So far the situation has been under control and we should have no concerns for the remaining races and everything is okay for us,” he said. — Reuters

YEONGAM: Ferrari Formula One driver Fernando Alonso (right) of Spain rides a bike with teammates around the Korean International Circuit as he prepares for the Korean Grand Prix. — AP

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Friday, October 22, 2010

Teams to fight it out in new World Series MILAN: Amateur boxing has gone glamorous in a bid to steal the limelight from the struggling professional version of the sport with a new World Series team event which supporters hope will propel the best performers to the top.

Clemente Russo, Italy’s 2008 Olympic heavyweight silver medallist, is the biggest name in the Milano Thunder franchise which will battle it out with teams such as the Beijing Dragons and the Miami Gallos.

The worldwide tournament, which starts on Nov. 19 and runs until the finals in Macau in May next year, blurs the lines between amateur and professional boxing.

Fighters will be paid and headguards have been dropped.

With professional boxing struggling for media exposure given the dominance of the Klitschko

brothers, Vitali and Vladimir, and lack of drama, Russo believes the World Series could be the next big thing.

“So many good boxers in Italy and abroad don’t become professional, there’s not so much money around these days. This could be a good launchpad towards professionalism,” Russo told Reuters at Milano Thunder’s glitzy gym. “Who knows, maybe within two years all the teams will have become professional.”

Russo will use the World Series of Boxing as qualification and preparation for the London 2012 Olympics. After that, the option of turning properly professional and maybe taking on a Klitschko remains.

“After London we’ll see, it could even be the time to stop at 30 years old. But I always have my ears open to every proposal,” added the 2007

world amateur champion, donning a silky, dark blue Milano Thunder dressing-gown.

The idea of a World Series franchise team event, packed with razzmatazz and fun team names in imitation of North America’s National Football League (NFL), was born two years ago and now 12 city teams are lined up in three continental conferences.

“We have realised a dream,” Italian boxing federation president and amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) executive committee member Franco Falcinelli told Reuters.

Teams in each conference play each other twice at home and twice away during the regular season with points awarded for bouts won.

Istanbulls, Paris United and Kremlin Bears join Milano Thunder in the European conference while

Astana Arlans, Delhi and Baku Fires compete with the Beijing Dragons in Asia.

The Miami Gallos are set to face so far unnamed teams from Mexico City, Memphis and Los Angeles in the Americas with the top team from each conference plus the best second-placed franchise making the finals where individual awards also await.

To make the tournament even more global, teams must field between three and six fighters who are not from their home nation or any other franchise country in their squads of 10-20 boxers.

Milano, who will box in an 8,000capacity arena, boast Ukrainians, Croatians, a Montenegrin, a Latvian, the enormous Benjey Zimmerman from the Dutch Antilles and Mongolian lightweight Enkhzorig Zorigbaatar.

Finding interested broadcasters has been one challenge while Italy’s super heavyweight Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle is not involved.

Teething problems do not worry Russo, a policeman by trade. “The doubts come from the fact that it’s a totally new project,” he said. “People don’t know if it will succeed or not but I am convinced it will and I’m positive.”

One bonus for Milano Thunder is fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana deciding to sponsor the team having increased their interest in sport generally over recent years.

“The public love sporting personalities, the true icons of today who are therefore models of aesthetic and behavioral reference on and off the sports ground,” Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said in an email. —Reuters

Klitschko vows to make Chisora pay LONDON: Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko vowed Thursday to make Derek Chisora “eat your words” for making light of his boxing skills when they meet in a world title fight in Germany later this year.

Chisora, the British and Commonwealth champion who is undefeated in 14 fights, is widely expected to be out of his depth when he takes on Klitschko — who holds the IBF, IBO and WBO titles — in Mannheim, Germany on Dec. 11.

But the 26-year-old Chisora seems full of confidence, winding up Klitschko at a news conference in London by insisting he will “take him out of his comfort zone” and saying that the best thing about the Ukrainian is his ring entrance.

The experienced Klitschko, who is unbeaten in six years and has ruled the heavyweight division for the past decade along with his older brother Vitali, was undeterred. “You say I have no boxing skills, you say it’s going to be rough and tough. Maybe you consider me a bum in boxing,” Klitschko said.

“Well, good luck. I will make you eat your words. I love to do paintwork on your face.”

Chisora was handed an unexpected opportunity to take on Klitschko after talks between the 34year-old three-belt champion and England’s David Haye, who holds the WBA title, broke down over money.

A three-fight deal was reached earlier this month after just four or five days’ talks, according to Chisora’s promoter Frank Warren. Under the deal, Chisora will fight Vitali next if he wins in December.

Haye, meanwhile, will fight fellow Londonborn boxer Audley Harrison in Manchester next month in a bout which is expected to be as onesided as Klitschko-Chisora. Klitschko, however, praised Chisora for doing what he claims Haye is failing to do.

“I respect Derek that he took the chance without considering it too long. He heard about and got it,” said Klitschko, who has won 55 of his 58 fights _ 49 by knockout. “I know another man who is fighting next month in the ‘London championship fight’ with his London buddy. He was talking a lot, doing a lot but never coming into the ring.

“Derek is young, he’s only had 14 fights but that doesn’t say a lot. His confidence says a lot, his will says a lot. Remember, Leon Spinks had only eight fights before he beat Muhammad Ali.” Chisora, who will prepare for the fight by training in the Scottish Highlands next month, earned what will be the biggest payday of his career after unifying the British and Commonwealth titles with a ninth-round stoppage of Sam Sexton in Birmingham last month. —AP

GERMANY: Boxing heavy weight world champion Wladimir Klitschko sits behind his world championship belts during a press conference in Mannheim. Klitschko and challenger Dereck Chisora from Great Britain will meet in a heavy weight world champion fight on Dec. 11. —AP

Thomas comes to terms with pioneer tag LONDON: Consumed by disgust and black despair, Gareth Thomas would sit with his legs dangling in a swimming pool clutching half a bottle of vodka and seriously contemplating death by drowning.

In an identical abyss of suicidal depression he would walk by cliffs near his home praying that a sudden gust of wind would take the decision out of his hands and plunge him into oblivion.

Neither fate befell the man who apparently embodied all the brutal macho stereotypes of Welsh rugby union. Instead he announced, first to family, friends and team mates, and then to the world at large in December last year, that he was homosexual.

“Where is our pioneer?” responded the distinguished United States magazine Sports Illustrated. “Why hasn’t one gay male athlete in a major

professional team sport in our country-one who’s still playing, not one retired-ever come out?”

Thomas, 36, was initially uncomfortable with the tag of pioneer. Now he acknowledges that, in similar fashion to the black baseball genius Jackie Robinson who broke his sport’s unspoken apartheid barriers, he is a trail blazer. “As time has gone on I have come more to terms with the fact that I have lit the torch and I’ve trod the path and I hope people can follow it,” Thomas told Reuters in an interview.

“You could say I’m the pioneer in the way I have changed some people’s perception of not only sports people but of gay men in general.

“It’s also important that people also realise that as much as a pioneer I’m also just a normal person. I’m normal but I’ve done

something that’s pretty powerful as well.”

Hollywood tough guy Mickey Rourke, who quit acting temporarily to pursue his original trade of boxing, has expressed interest in playing Thomas in a film of his life. Rourke’s sabbatical is useful training if he is to portray a man 20 years his junior.

Thomas fits to perfection the typical image of a Welsh rugby man with his sparse ginger hair, a mouth missing most of his front teeth, a nose broken several times in the course of duty, tattooed biceps and muscles which bulge rather than ripple.

These physical attributes and an unrelenting work ethic resulted in a utility back of uncompromising commitment who became the first Welshman to win 100 caps. He captained the national team in 2005 to their first grand slam for

27 years and led the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand in the same year.

The intensity and the honesty are palpable. The necessity to compromise the latter as he concealed his secret life from his family and his former wife Jemma led to the lacerating self-loathing which drove Thomas to the brink of suicide.

“When you lie you live in fear as well. I think when you live with those two demons on your shoulder it’s not a normal existence,” he said. “I felt I was cheating somebody else out of the air that I was breathing because I was taking up the space on earth that could be used by somebody truthful who could enjoy their life.

“As much as my life was great, I felt I was cheating other people, my wife and my family. I’d been lying and living in fear.” —Reuters

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Heat’s Big Three will try to stop Kobe NEW YORK: Kobe Bryant had just finished with a Big Three when LeBron James and friends got to work building another.

Dwyane Wade soon announced he was staying in Miami, flanked by Chris Bosh, who said he was coming. The next night, James appeared on his much-publicized, heavily criticized TV special to declare his intentions of heading to South Beach.

Two days, three All-Stars. Just like that, the Heat were the clear winners in July. For now, Bryant and the two-time defending champion Lakers still own June.

“I think until someone beats the Lakers, the Lakers is the team to beat.

I don’t care how stacked the team is,” Hall of Famer Michael Jordan said.

“That’s the thing about being champions. Until you get knocked off of that hill, you’re still the champions.”

The new Heat make their debut in

the NBA season opener on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics, who brought back their trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, then added even more age when they signed Shaquille O’Neal. And O’Neal has a message for his former fans in Miami: Older is definitely better.

“Everyone wants to talk about the young team, but in the last 10 years, I think I’ve been there four times. I haven’t seen a young team there yet,” O’Neal told reporters after a preseason game in Hartford, Connecticut.

“You guys, every time you see young people get together, you automatically give it to them. But studies show, it’s documented the last 10 years, no young team has either won it or even been there.” Miami could be the team to change that. James is the two-time reigning MVP, Wade is a former scoring champion who was MVP of the 2006 NBA finals, and Bosh is one

of the best big men in the league.

They were friends who came into the league together as top-five picks in the 2003 draft and teammates on the US Olympic that won gold in 2008. They went on the market together to head the most hyped free agency class in history, and Miami landed all three of them.

“That’s the only reason for coming here, me and C-Bosh and D-Wade, united to win a championship,” James said during Miami’s media day. “We’re going to bring our ‘A’ game every night and play as hard as we can to try to bring a championship to South Florida.”

Bryant won’t give it up easily, even as he battles nagging injuries and offseason knee surgery. Asked his reaction to the Heat’s coup, the finals MVP provided only a ho-hum, “Wow, how did Pat Riley pull that (expletive) off? Impressive.”

Riley did it because his three stars

all accepted less than allowed, leaving the Heat with enough money to re-sign Udonis Haslem and ink Mike Miller, equipping them with a top bench, as well.

Los Angeles also got stronger with the signings of Steve Blake and Matt Barnes. Phil Jackson returned to try for a fourth three-peat, which would allow Bryant to tie Jordan with six titles.

There are other contenders. The Celtics were minutes away from an 18th title last season before Los Angeles rallied for an 83-79 victory in Game 7.

Orlando has won 59 games each of the last two seasons, and the West is deep in potential threats to the Lakers’ reign.

Fresh off winning MVP honors after leading the US to the gold medal at the world championship, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant was voted by general managers as their pick to win the NBA’s award this season.

The Rookie of the Year race could

come down to the last two No. 1 draft picks: the Clippers’ Blake Griffin, who missed last season with an injury, and Washington’s lightning-quick point guard, John Wall.

“The guy’s really good, probably one of the fastest, most physically gifted players that we’ll have in the league,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said of Wall. “I hope he never learns to shoot real well, because then he’ll be unguardable.”

D’Antoni’s team missed out on James but landed Amare Stoudemire, who seems poised to put up big numbers under his former coach in Phoenix. Carlos Boozer left Utah to give the Chicago Bulls the inside scoring presence they’ve lacked, and other clubs were bolstered by smaller moves during the summer shopping season. It sets up the potential for a thrilling season, but trouble lurks beyond that. —AP

Yankees avoid elimination Giants triumph over Phillies NEW YORK: Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano hit consecutive homers and CC Sabathia made the lead stand up as the Yankees avoided elimination with a 7-2 win over the Rangers on Wednesday to close within 3-2 in the American League championship series.

In the National League championship series, Juan Uribe hit a game-ending sacrifice fly off reliever Roy Oswalt with one out in the ninth inning that lifted the San Francisco Giants over the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 for a 3-1 lead. At New York, a latearriving crowd for the lateafternoon game wondered whether this would be it for the defending World Series champs after Texas outscored them 25-5 while winning three in a row.

But Sabathia bounced back from an erratic opener, staying away from too much trouble against Josh Hamilton and Texas’ big bats. Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz made an early exit with hamstring trouble, a day after Yankees star Mark Teixeira was lost for the postseason with a hamstring injury.

Curtis Granderson added an eighth-inning homer for New York, his second RBI of the game.

“There was a determination,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We have not played extremely well in this series, to say the least.”

Now the teams will go to Texas to decide the pennant in the best-of-seven series.

When they resume today night in Arlington for Game 6, Phil Hughes starts for the Yankees against Colby Lewis in a rematch of Game 2, won by the Rangers 7-2.

“It’s not disappointing,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said.

“It’s a seven-game series.”

In the 50th anniversary of a club that has never reached the World Series, Texas remains one win away. To get past the Rangers, the Yankees will eventually have to solve

postseason star Cliff Lee, who would start a Game 7 against Andy Pettitte.

“Crazier things have happened,” Swisher said. New York is trying to overcome its first 3-1 postseason deficit 1958.

Since the LCS went to a best-ofseven format, 24 of the 30 previous teams to take 3-1 series leads have won pennants.

No matter what, the season is over for Teixeira. The All-Star first baseman was removed from the postseason roster and replaced by Eduardo Nunez, and Teixeira would not be eligible for the World Series.

Lance Berkman took over at first base and had a scare when he slipped chasing Ian Kinsler’s foul pop, causing his head and back to snap back. Berkman stayed in the game and later caught a foul popup for the final out. At San Francisco, Uribe, a champion with the White Sox in 2005, made a great play with his glove then one swing that put the San Francisco Giants within one win of the World Series.

Aubrey Huff singled with one out in the ninth and took third when Buster Posey singled for his fourth hit of the game. Uribe hit a medium-deep fly, leaving left fielder Ben Francisco with no chance to get the sliding Huff.

“I got butterflies,” winning pitcher Brian Wilson said. “I got anxiety. I got a miniulcer developing, but it’s all worth it. We never lost focus.”

Boosted by yet another big hit from Cody Ross and a timely double from Pablo Sandoval, the Giants pushed the two-time defending NL champion Phillies to the brink of elimination.

Philadelphia will send Roy Halladay against Tim Lincecum in Game 5 late yesterday — it’s a rematch of aces that Lincecum won in the opener. “We know what is at stake, but the game is the same. We have an opportunity to win a game tomorrow,” Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. —AP

NEW YORK: Curtis Granderson No. 14 of the New York Yankees hits a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning against Alexi Ogando No. 64 of the Texas Rangers in Game Five of the ALCS during the 2010 MLB Playoffs. —AFP

US duo to battle Mustafina ROTTERDAM: Rebecca Bross and Alexandra Raisman will be gunning to restore US pride and scupper Russian star Aliya Mustafina’s bid for a gymnastics double in the women’s allaround final at the world gymnastics championships here on Friday.

Mustafina, 16, helped Russia to their first ever women’s team gold by a narrow margin ahead of the United States at the Ahoy Arena on Wednesday night, and is now favourite for all-around gold after leading qualifiers.

World silver medallist Bross is carrying US hopes as reigning champion Bridget Sloan is not competing in the allaround as she was hampered by injury and will only compete in the uneven bars final.

The 17-year-old Bross claimed her first national title this year and looks set

to be Mustafina’s leading challenger for gold. Raisman, 16, is hoping for an upset as she competes in her first worlds.

US teammate Alica Sacramone admitted it would be hard to beat the Russian, who is strong on all four apparatus-vault, beam, uneven bars and floor- and sealed her team’s gold medal success on the final rotation.

“She looks great,” said 22-year-old Sacramone, who is not competing in the all-around final but will challenge Mustafina for gold on the vault at the weekend. “I haven’t seen her compete before coming here and was very impressed. I’m looking forward to seeing her compete in the all-around finals.” A mistake in the final second of last year’s worlds cost Bross the title, but she is hoping to put that behind her this year. Chinese duo Jiang Yuyan and

Huang Qiushuang, winners of the team bronze, are also looking to win the title after placing fourth and fifth respectively in qualifying just ahead of Romanian Ana Porgras.

Olympic team champion Jiang, 19, has however been less than solid in Rotterdam, tumbling off the uneven bars during the team final, while this is the first major championships for 18-yearold Huang.

Porgras, meanwhile, is hoping to make up for her team disappointment after they finished just off the podium in fourth. Australia’s Lauren Mitchell is also a challenger after finishing fourth in last year’s all-around in London where she claimed two silvers on the beam and floor. The 19-year-old Commonwealth Games champion qualified seventh best. —AFP

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Friday, October 22, 2010

OLD TRAFFORD: Manchester Unitedís Nani (left) is congratulated by team mate Federico Macheda after scoring a goal against Bursaspor in this file photo. — AP

United must turn focus back to poor league start LONDON: Wayne Rooney’s future is on the mind of every Manchester United fan but it is the club’s current Premier League form that should concern them more as they visit Stoke City on Sunday on a run of four straight away league draws.

Chelsea host Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow and will expect to chalk up their fifth successive home league win, which would put them eight points ahead of United.

It emerged this week that the manager had known as early as August about Rooney’s intention to leave and that distraction, combined with the poor form of the England striker-who is out this week with an ankle injury-can hardly have helped his team-building plans.

Ferguson was meeting chief

executive David Gill later on Thursday in an attempt to find a way of drawing a line under the Rooney issue.

“We don’t want this to carry on.

We don’t want it to become a saga,” Ferguson said. “We’ve got the team to consider and an important game on Sunday.

“If we carry on talking about one individual, dominating all of the headlines and all of our thoughts, then we’re not doing our job.”

Ferguson rested Dimitar Berbatov and brought Javier Hernandez off the bench for the last 12 minutes of Wednesday’s 1-0 Champions League win over Bursaspor but Federico Macheda did not exactly grasp his opportunity as he failed to spark in a lone striker’s role.

With Ryan Giggs joining Rooney in the treatment room Ferguson has some juggling to do for what will be a real test of his side’s mettle.

Since Stoke returned to the Premier League in 2008 United have won all four games against them but Stoke have started well this year and are ninth in the standings. United, after drawing at Fulham, Everton, Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland this season, as well as being held at home by West Bromwich Albion last week, will travel nervously while combative Stoke will relish a chance to add to Ferguson’s woes.

Chelsea were short of players and short of inspiration in their goalless draw at Aston Villa last week and they will hope that Didier Drogba, at least, is fit to return

Everton. They have won only one game all season, key striker Fernando Torres still looks hopelessly off the pace and new signing Joe Cole has been anonymous as he struggles with what he describes as the worst run of form of his career.

Liverpool will have limited rest having travelled back from playing Napoli in the Europa League on Thursday, though Torres and Steven Gerrard have been left out of the squad for that trip to enable them to go into Sunday’s game fresh.

“For me, it was quite simply a question of priority,” manager Roy Hodgson said. “After recent events and our very poor start to the season I totally agree we need a win (at Napoli) but I think we more badly need the win on Sunday.”—Reuters

Mourinho starting to feel at home in Madrid

Lazio fly high like their eagle mascot MILAN: Lazio, whose introduction of a flying eagle before kickoff has coincided with them soaring to the top of Serie A, have the perfect chance to maintain their advantage with a home game against Cagliari on Sunday.

While the Romans do battle with the stuttering Sardinians, secondplaced AC Milan face a difficult trip to Napoli in fourth in a new Monday night game for the Italian top flight (1845).

Lazio, last champions in 2000 and relegation candidates last season, will hope that their rivals cancel each other out at the San Paolo and that thirdplaced Inter Milan come a cropper at home to unpredictable Sampdoria on Sunday.

However, 16 points from seven games and a two-point lead at the top is already beyond Lazio’s wildest dreams and their collection of journeymen and shrewd signings are keeping their feet firmly on the ground-unlike the club eagle. “Too few games have been played to say where

against Wolves. Hard on Chelsea’s heels are Manchester City, who play third-placed Arsenal in an intriguing clash at Eastlands on Sunday.

City, with Carlos Tevez in great touch, are gradually settling into a recognisable team and though they often seem to make hard work of dismissing lesser opponents, in contrast to many occasions last season, they are finding a way to do so. By the time Liverpool host Blackburn Rovers on Sunday they could well be bottom of the league.

They are above West Ham United only on goal difference and the Londoners can add to their six-point tally at home to Newcastle United on Saturday. Liverpool failed miserably to rise to the occasion of last weekend’s Merseyside derby and were well beaten 2-0 by

we can go and we know full well that teams like Inter, Milan and Juventus are at a higher level and are used to fighting for certain objectives,” defender Giuseppe Biava told reporters.

“We are trying to get as many points as possible and if in the spring we are still up there, we will try to play our part. But right now after every game, maybe for good luck, we count the points we need to avoid relegation.”

Biava is a good example of how wily coach Edy Reja has turned a defender who failed to make much of an impact at Palermo and Genoa into a rock. The eagle, the club symbol who flies around the Stadio Olimpico like Benfica’s famous bird, is not the only new addition this season with Brazilian Hernanes expertly pulling the strings in midfield after arriving from Sao Paulo.

Fiorentina, a club with similar status to Lazio, are having a very different season to their peers. —Reuters

Jose Mourinho

MADRID: After a difficult start to his tenure marked by a dearth of goals, Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho is starting to feel at home in the Spanish capital in an ominous sign for the club’s La Liga title rivals.

In their last two matches, Real knocked six past Deportivo Coruna and climbed to the top of the standings with a 4-1 drubbing of Malaga last weekend.

They host struggling Racing Santander on Saturday (1800 GMT) with former World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo in splendid form.

With seven matches played, they lead Barcelona by a point and have made an impressive start to their bid to end their arch rivals’ two-year run as Spanish champions and justify the hundreds of millions of euros spent on players and staff.

Tuesday’s Champions League victory over AC Milan also put them within reach of a place in the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition and Mourinho said his four-year plan to bring silverware to Madrid was beginning to bear fruit.

“My empathy here with the players and the club is growing,” Portuguese Mourinho, who joined Real after leading Inter Milan to an unprecedented treble of Champions League and Italian league and Cup last season, said this week.

“We are all on the same wavelength,” the former Chelsea and Porto coach added. “The fans have a positive feeling and we are building something important.”

Mourinho’s compatriot Ronaldo, the world’s most expensive player, endured whistling from some of Real’s demanding fans earlier in the season but has silenced the doubters with four goals in his last two La Liga outings.

At the other end of the pitch, Portugal team mates Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho have been rock solid in central defence in front of Spain’s World Cupwinning captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas and Real have conceded just three goals to 16 scored. Barca have let in twice as many and are level on 16 points with Valencia and Villarreal ahead of their trip to Real Zaragoza earlier on Saturday (1600). —Reuters

Friday, October 22, 2010

SPORTS

Page 63

Uncertainty hangs over World Cup hosting ZURICH: The contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, due to be decided by soccer’s governing body FIFA has been discredited and thrown into uncertainty by allegations of voteselling. Two members of FIFA’s executive committee-Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti-were provisionally suspended on Wednesday for 30 days by the ethics committee.

It is alleged they offered to sell their votes when approached by Sunday Times reporters posing as lobbyists for an American consortium.

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said on Wednesday he expected the vote to go ahead on Dec. 2, but soccer’s governing body will have to act quickly and decisively to ensure it does.

England and Russia are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup along with joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands while Japan, South Korea, Qatar, United States and Australia are candidates for 2022.

Voting rights are restricted to the 24 members of the FIFA executive committee. This compares to more than 100 voting members when the International Olympic Committee chooses venues for the Summer and Winter Olympics.

If Adamu and Temarii are expelled, it is unclear whether they would immediately be replaced-FIFA statutes dictate that regional confederations choose the executive committee members-or whether the vote would be reduced

to 22. Bidding nations may protest if the size of the already small electoral college is reduced still further. FIFA officials on Wednesday did not want to discuss either scenario, saying it was premature.

“I’m not a prophet,” head of the ethics committee Claudio Sulser said. “It’s hard for me to answer, it depends on the evidence that is brought forward.”

FIFA’s ethics committee is relatively new, having been created in 2006. Its first chairman was former British athlete Sebastian Coe while Sulser is a lawyer and former Swiss soccer international. One of its main briefs is to keep watch over the bid process for 2018 and 2022.

The committee said it would produce a final

verdict on Temarii and Adamu by midNovember. “I think we can take a decision before Dec. 2, ... probably between Nov. 15 and 17,” Sulser said.

Two unnamed candidate nations will also be investigated for breaching rules on collusion.

FIFA has rules ban bidding nations from making agreements with each other, but collusion was something critics said could become a possibility when it was decided to choose two World Cup hosts at the same time.

The ultimate penalty could be disqualification of the offending bids, but FIFA on Wednesday were reluctant to discuss this possibility, saying there were numerous stages to pass before such a drastic measure might be taken. — Reuters

Petric sets sights on vulnerable Bayern

GERMANY: Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez reacts during the Group E Champions League Soccer match between Bayern Munich and CFR Cluj in this file photo. — AP

BERLIN: Hamburg striker Mladen Petric has shaken off a thigh injury and cannot wait to face Bayern Munich in today’s North-South derby, as the Croatian looks to build on a solid recent scoring record against the champions.

“I am ready to play,” said the 29-year-old international, who returned to training this week having been sidelined since late September and will be hopeful of adding to the goals he scored in Hamburg’s last two home matches against Bayern. “I have very good memories from the past games.”

Hamburg have recovered from a poor start to the season to sit in fifth place on 14 points after victories in their last two league games, including a 1-0 win at Mainz 05, moved the side to within seven points off leaders Borussia Dortmund.

However, Petric refused to consider his team as favourites against an under-performing Bayern side languishing in 10th place on 11 points from eight matches.

“We do have very good chances to win that game but neither of us is a clear favourite,” Petric told reporters during training this week.

“But Bayern, despite their current form remain the favourites for the Bundesliga title and this will stay like that for decades to come.

It is them you will have to beat if you want to achieve something.”

Despite Petric’s cautious assessment, injuryplagued Bayern do appear to be a shadow of the team that won the domestic double and reached the Champions League final last season.

“If we lose against Hamburg we could find ourselves 13 points off the top and that would be very hard to recover,” Bayern president Uli Hoeness admitted.

They will be hoping striker Mario Gomez, who has scored four goals in their last two matches, continues to find the target as injured forwards Ivica Olic and Miroslav Klose remain doubtful.

Leaders Borussia Dortmund will be looking to extend their seven-match winning streak when they host fourth-placed Hoffenheim on Saturday, while Schalke 04 will be hoping to launch a climb up the table against an in-form Eintracht Frankfurt.

Schalke, struggling in the relegation zone on five points from eight games, would like some of their Champions League form to rub off in the Bundesliga after they beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-1 on Wednesday.

Schalke are second in the European competition’s Group B with two wins from three fixtures but have only managed one victory in the Bundesliga so far. “Such a successful result (against Hapoel) does wonders for the team’s confidence and I hope we can finally take that momentum into the league,” defender Benedikt Hoewedes said. — Reuters

FRANCE: Lyon’s Michel Bastos of Brazil reacts during their Champions League soccer match against Benfica in this file photo. — AP

Rennes need new striker, says coach

PARIS: Ligue 1 leaders Stade Rennes need to sign a goal-getter in the New Year to maintain their high-flying status, according to coach Frederic Antonetti.

Rennes let three strikers leave earlier this year and, with Victor Hugo Montano out injured for a month, must rely on 22-year-old Jires Kembo-Ekoko up front when they entertain Montpellier on Saturday.

“If we recruit a good striker (in January’s transfer window) and we do not have too many players injured we can target a top-five finish,” Antonetti told the club’s website (www.staderennais.fr).

Rennes sold France’s Jimmy Briand to Olympique Lyon in June before off-loading Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan to Sunderland and Guinea’s Ismael Bangoura to Al-Nasr.

“In September Asamoah left for England and then an offer came from Qatar for Bangoura,” said the coach. “(General manager) Pierre Dreossi asked me, ‘what do we do?’. If I had wanted to play it safe I would have said let’s keep Bangoura but I said I’m convinced Kembo can do as well as Bangoura.

“He now must mature into a reliable striker,” added Antonetti whose team have

19 points from nine games and lead secondplaced St Etienne by two points.

On Sunday, champions Olympique Marseille travel to Lille. Marseille are fourth, two places higher than Lille who suffered their first league defeat of the season at Lyon last weekend.

Coach Didier Deschamps has reshuffled Marseille’s defence after Brazilian centre back Vitorino Hilton picked up a groin injury last week.

Gabriel Heinze moved from full back to central defence for Tuesday’s 1-0 Champions League win over Zilina, meaning Stephane Mbia was shifted to midfield. “It’s been a year since I last played in this position but I play where I’m asked to play,” said Mbia.

St Etienne will be without striker Gonzalo Bergessio, who was sent off in the 2-1 defeat at Nice last week, when they host mid-table Caen on Saturday.

Third-placed Paris St Germain could be without Mateja Kezman, who has stomach problems, at home to AJ Auxerre on Sunday.

Lyon, who have won their last two games following a miserable start to the season, also visit bottom club Arles-Avignon on Sunday. — Reuters

www.kuwaittimes.net

Ljubicic powers into q-finals STOCKHOLM: Ivan Ljubicic pounded 12 aces to begin his debut campaign at the Stockholm Open with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Frenchman Arnaud Clement here yesterday.

The fourth-seeded Croatian was never troubled on the slow indoor surface at the Kungligahallen by Clement, who he has now beaten ten times in succession.

In his last eight wins including Thursday, Ljubicic has lost just one set. Clement, his ranking down to 60th at age 32, won their first two meetings in 2003 and a 2004 Davis Cup tie but has never had a look-in since.

Ljubicic never faced a break point while breaking Clement on four of six chances in the victory lasting 77 minutes.

“It was a good start for me,” said the Croatian, 31, who warmed up his good friend Roger Federer this week on the showcase court with 4,000 fans watching. “I was playing well from the start.”

Two-time champion James Blake continued his charmed run at the event as he defeated German qualifier Matthias Bachinger 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2) to run his Stockholm record to 15 wins and a single loss, which came in a 2007 semi-final to Thomas Johansson, now the Stockholm tournament director.

“I wish I could take this court with me everywhere,” said the American ranked 135 after a year of struggles — now ended — with a knee injury.

Blake won the title in 2005 and 2006. He will play in the quarterfinals Friday against Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, whom he defeated in the 2006 final and a quarter-final at the next edition.

Stockholm is one of three cities (New Haven, Sydney) where he has lifted two titles. Federer was beginning later with a secondround match against American Taylor Dent as the world number two aims to make the most of his final four events of the 2010 season after losing last weekend’s Shanghai final to Andy Murray.

Swedish second seed Robin Soderling can move closer to securing his place in the eight-man season-ending championships next month in London with a win later in the second round against German Benjamin Becker.

The two-time home runner-up needs to reach the semi-finals to be assured of a spot in the elite field, which has four spots still unclaimed. Already qualified are Rafael Nadal, Federer, Novak Djokovic and Murray, who went through last week.—AFP

SWEDEN: Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic returns the ball with a forehand shot to France’s Arnaud Clement during the ATP Stockholm Open tennis tournament. — AFP

Qualifier upset Jelena at Kremlin Cup MOSCOW: Kazakh qualifier Zarina Diyas beat top-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 6-2 yesterday in the second round of the Kremlin Cup. The 268th-ranked Diyas, who celebrated her 17th birthday on Monday, led 5-0 in the first set when Jankovic, 2008 champion here, called for a doctor and had her blood pressure checked.

Jankovic, who has qualified for next week’s WTA championships, managed to break back early in the second set but Diyas then broke the

focus on my tennis as I had a hard time breathing.”

No. 7-ranked Jankovic hopes to recover in time for the end-of-season championships starting Tuesday.

“Doha is a different type of tournament,” she said.

“You can lose a match and still win the whole tournament. So anything can happen, but for me the biggest concern is being healthy. I will see the doctors, take some blood tests and take some more medicine.

We will see what happens and

title this season, broke Bondarenko three times in each set.

“Several first games were tough but I won them and turned the match my way,” said Kirilenko. “I gave her no chance in the second set.” Vera Dushevina advanced to the quarterfinals with 6-4, 6-2 win over her fellow Russian Elena Vesnina.

In the men’s second round, Horacio Zebalos of Argentina beat Romanian qualifier Victor Crivoi 7-5, 7-6 (1), while Alexandr Dolgopolov upset his fellow Ukrainian, seventh-

Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan rallied to beat former champion Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Mathieu, who won the tournament in 2002, replaced defending champion Mikhail Youzhny, who pulled out on Wednesday with a viral infection.

Meanwhile, Spanish tennis great Manuel Santana believes Rafael Nadal is not just the best athlete to come out of Spain but is on his way to being the greatest sportsman of his generation.

Santana was quoted by Spanish

Zebalos defeats Crivoi in men’s second round Serb two times. “I had nothing to lose,” Diyas said.

“I just relaxed and played my best tennis.” Jankovic said she had been feeling unwell since coming from a tournament in China.

“I got an infection and have been on antibiotics for a week or so,” she said. “Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to play at my level. I was suffering on the court but I really wanted to be out there and didn’t want to retire. I finished as well as I could, but obviously it was tough for me to

hopefully I can be ready in time.”

Diyas, whose parents moved from Kazakhstan to Prague, Czech Republic, 12 years ago, said that watching Martina Hingis’ matches on TV had inspired her to play tennis. Diyas also reached the quarterfinals of a WTA event in Prague last year.

In Moscow, she will face sixthseeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia, who routed Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-0, 6-0. The 24th-ranked Kirilenko, who is looking for her first

seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-2, 7-6 (4). Later, Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn upset sixth-seeded Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-5. Serving at 65 down, the 34th-ranked Golubev saved two match points but sent a shot wide on a third.

“I expected a tough match from Andrey,” Kunitsyn said. “He is enjoying his best season and when he played his tennis today I had only to watch. The win in the first set boosted my confidence and I fought for every point in the second one.”

media saying that Nadal is “without a doubt the best Spanish athlete but being so young he’ll finish by being the best world athlete.”

The 24-year-old Nadal became the seventh player to complete a career Grand Slam in September with his US Open victory. That came after French Open and Wimbledon triumphs earlier in the summer.

Santana was previously Spain’s most successful player with four Grand Slam titles. Nadal has won nine. —AP